| CUBA
NEWS
The
Miami Herald Cuban migrants end trip at toll booth Eleven
Cubans reached Miami, but the Coast Guard sent 48 back to the island and another
group that might include two doctors was sent to Guantánamo. By
Erika Beras. Posted on Tue, Mar. 06, 2007reprint or license print email Soaked
and disoriented, two groups of Cuban migrants walked up to the Rickenbacker Causeway
toll booth Monday morning, where they got coffee and blankets from strangers and
waited for the Border Patrol. But another group of migrants wasn't so lucky
-- 48 Cubans the Coast Guard caught at sea recently were sent back to Bahía
de Cabañas, Cuba, on Saturday. And the fate of two Cuban doctors believed
to be among boatloads that the Coast Guard intercepted the past few days remains
an open question. The doctors might be among another group sent to the U.S.
naval base in Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, where they will have to make their
case to U.S. officials that they should be allowed into the United States or repatriated
to a third country. Coast Guard officials would not say how many were in the group
sent to Guantánamo. Coral Gables immigration attorney Mario S. Cano
said Monday that among those detained on a Coast Guard cutter last week were Sunilda
Herrera-Casas and Misleidy Rodriguez-Machado, both doctors. Cano said Herrera-Casas
and Rodriguez-Machado had U.S. visas, and they were detained trying to reach Florida
on separate boats. Under the ''wet-foot/dry-foot'' policy Cubans who reach
U.S. shores generally can stay but those caught at sea are usually sent back to
the communist island -- unless they can show they would be persecuted if returned
to Cuba. Licett Sotolongo, 35, was allowed to stay last week -- even though
she was in a boat that never reached land -- because she needed medical care. ''It
is a blessing and a curse,'' Julio Pujol, a Miami relative said, referring to
Sotolongo's frail health, which made it possible for her to stay. "She belongs
here with us, even if it is like this.'' Sotolongo remains at Kendall Regional
Medical Center, receiving dialysis for kidney problems. U.S. Coast Guard
spokesman Luis Diaz said the groups of migrants intercepted the past two weeks
ranged from as few as two to as many as 32 in one boat. Smugglers are suspected
of bringing the 11 migrants who arrived in two groups Monday within minutes of
each other. In August, the Department of Homeland Security announced it
would allow Cuban medical personnel working in foreign countries to seek U.S.
asylum from those countries. But for Cuban medical personnel trying to reach
the U.S. by boat, there are no guarantees. At least two other Cuban doctors who
tried to sneak into Florida on a boat -- but were intercepted by the Coast Guard
-- were sent to Guantánamo in September. Relatives say one eventually made
it to Florida and the other remains in Guantánamo. Miami Herald staff
photographer Tim Chapman contributed to this report. Battle over Cuba
policy heats up Supporters of U.S. sanctions against
Cuba are mounting a congressional counteroffensive to keep the U.S. policy in
place. By Pablo Bachelet. Posted on Mon, Mar. 05,
2007. WASHINGTON --WASHINGTON - Rep. Albio Sires gets personal when
he asks fellow lawmakers to reject efforts to ease economic sanctions against
his native Cuba. ''I just tell them about my story,'' says the New Jersey Democrat. Sires,
who spent the first 11 years of his life in the town of Bejucal near Havana, tells
them how, after Fidel Castro took over, English-language books were burned and
he was forced to march in parades toting a Czech-made submachine gun. Sires'
pitch is growing all the more important as opponents of U.S. sanctions on Cuba
are stepping up their efforts to ease them, hoping that with Fidel Castro ailing
and Democrats running Congress, their chances of victory will improve. Keep
the sanctions in place until the Castro government makes significant political
and human-rights reforms, Sires tells his fellow Congress members. The 56-year-old
lawmaker says he has made this pitch to most of the 55-member freshman legislative
class, underscoring the kind of determined lobbying by Cuban-American legislators
and allies that have made them confident they can beat back critics of U.S. policy
toward Cuba. Sires is the new kid on the block, a first-time lawmaker joining
more seasoned veterans of Cuba-policy battles -- Miami Republican Reps. Ileana
Ros-Lehtinen and Mario and Lincoln Díaz-Balart and Democratic Rep. Debbie
Wasserman Schultz of Pembroke Pines -- in leading a campaign in the House to stay
the course on Havana. Mel Martinez, R-Fla., and Bob Menendez, D-N.J., are
carrying the load in the Senate. Sires holds the House seat once held by Menendez. Sires
and Wasserman Schultz, together with other pro-sanctions legislators, have drawn
up lists of lawmakers and their positions on Cuba. Those who are new to the issue
or undecided get a full briefing, with Sires focusing on the freshmen. Others
who have voted against easing sanctions in the past are pulled aside for a brief
chat to make sure their position hasn't changed. Sires and Wasserman Schultz
belong to the Cuba Democracy Caucus, created in 2004, which brings together 18
House members and seven senators, with more expected to join in the coming weeks,
Wasserman Schultz says. Caucus members say the group is more active than
ever, sending out letters to colleagues, explaining their positions on Cuba. Wasserman
Schultz and other caucus members believe that they can win the legislative battles
this year, but they recognize that the fight will not be easy. The office
of Rep. Lincoln Díaz-Balart counts six Cuba-related bills filed since January,
including proposals that would lift restrictions on Cuban-American travel to the
island and facilitate agricultural exports. One initiative that would lift a ban
on U.S. tourist visits to Cuba got more than 70 co-sponsors. Mavis Anderson,
with the Latin America Working Group, an advocacy organization that pushes for
more engagement with Cuba, says supporters of a tough position on Cuba have lobbied
aggressively, but she believes that the tide is shifting. ''I don't think
they can roll over the majority, which really sees the ineffectiveness and incorrectness
of this policy,'' she said. Supporters and opponents of U.S. policy on Cuba
say that repealing restrictions on Cuban-American travel, widely criticized as
separating families, stands the best chance of succeeding. ''Opponents are
doing their best to pull the heartstrings of members,'' said Wasserman Schultz.
While sharing those concerns, she said, "we try to explain the complexity
of the issue. . . . For most of my colleagues, it requires an education.'' Supporters
of sanctions say a policy change now would let Fidel's brother Raúl Castro
consolidate his hold on the government and remove any incentive to make changes. Mauricio
Claver-Carone, the Washington director of the U.S.-Cuba Democracy Political Action
Committee, which lobbies to keep the sanctions, compares the moment with the final
stretch of a marathon. ''Potentially, we have 50 yards left,'' he said of
Fidel Castro's ailment. "If you're going to change your shoes in those last
50 yards, you have to feel 150 percent sure that those shoes are not going to
cramp you up.'' The pro-sanctions group is also adjusting its message to
the reality of a Democratic majority in Congress, focusing on human-rights and
labor abuses by the communist government. ''I think we win once we tie it
to the abuse of human rights, once we tie it to the freedom to express yourself,
once we call for election, for the release of political prisoners on the island,''
Sires told The Miami Herald. Democrats have been holding up several free-trade
agreements on the grounds that they don't do enough to protect the rights of foreign
workers. Yet many of those Democrats also want more trade with Cuba -- an apparent
contradiction alleged by Commerce Secretary Carlos Gutierrez in a recent speech. Sires
says some members of Congress are receptive to his pitch. Others from districts
that have gained from trading more with Cuba express some doubts. ''Like
anything else,'' Sires said, "you just have to work it.'' Members
of the Cuba Democracy Caucus Senate Mel Martinez (R-Fla.)
Bill
Nelson (D-Fla.)
Bob Menendez (D-N.J.)
Joseph Lieberman (Ind-Conn.)
Jim
Bunning (R-Ky.)
John Ensign (R-Nev.)
David Vitter (R-La.) House Lincoln
Díaz-Balart (R-Fla.)
Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (R-Fla.)
Mario Díaz-Balart
(R-Fla.)
Christopher Smith (R-N.J.)
Dan Burton (R-Ind.)
Albio Sires (D-N.J.)
Eliot
Engel (D-N.Y.)
Frank Pallone (D-N.J.)
Robert Andrews (D-N.J.)
Allen Boyd
(D-Fla.)
Mike Pence (R-Ind.)
Tom Feeney (R-Fla.)
Steve King (R-Iowa)
Kendrick
Meek (D-Fla.)
Connie Mack (R-Fla.)
Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-Fla.)
Patrick
McHenry (R-N.C.)
Luis Fortuo (R-P.R.) Drug-trafficking at 11-year-low,
Cuba says The Cuban government said its antinarcotics
effort, dubbed 'Operation Hatchet III,' has slowed drug traffic. By
Frances Robles. Posted on Sat, Mar. 03, 2007. Seizures of illegal
drugs in Cuba dropped to 1.7 tons last year, the lowest amount in 11 years and
proof, the Cuban government says, that its tough stance on narco-traffickers has
largely kept them off the island. Last year's drug seizures were almost
four times lower than 2003, when 6.5 tons of cocaine and marijuana were seized
and an interagency antinarcotics effort dubbed ''Operation Hatchet III'' was launched,
the Granma newspaper reported Friday. Last year, Cuban authorities spotted
24 boats and nine flights carrying drugs, the paper said, adding that 564 kilos
of marijuana and 102 kilos of cocaine were found in 97 different cases. Eleven
flights have been spotted so far this year. The figures were published just
a day after the U.S. State Department released its 2007 International Narcotics
Control Strategy Report, which acknowledged that Cuban law enforcement tipped
U.S. antidrug patrols off to more than 30 drug shipments last year. While recognizing
the island's efforts in preventive measures and tough penalties, the report portrayed
the cooperation as inconsistent. ''Certainly in the last 10 years, the Cubans
saw drugs as a threat to their own kids and a corrupting influence on their government,''
former White House drug czar Barry McCaffrey said. "There is every indication
that they cooperate in general, tipping us off to intelligence and taking our
intelligence and acting on it.'' But McCaffrey cautioned against giving
too much credence to Cuban government statistics, which experts say are often
manipulated. Cuban officials have long been accused of permitting and at
times actively participating in drug trafficking. In 1982, a federal grand jury
in Miami charged that four Cuban officials were involved in smuggling drugs from
Colombia to Florida. In 1993, prosecutors drafted an indictment against now interim
president Raúl Castro, but it never went to the grand jury. ''What
Cuba does, or has done in the past, is they will let you in, let you use airspace,
use facilities, but you have to pay. If you are not in with them, they turn you
in,'' said Cuba expert Maria Werlau. "It doesn't surprise me at all that
there are people being turned in.'' 33 Cubans intercepted; one taken to
Key West By Alfonso Chardy. Posted on Fri, Mar. 02, 2007 The U.S.
Coast Guard intercepted 33 Cuban migrants in the Florida Straits this week on
a boat headed for South Florida. Officials are holding the group aboard
a cutter, including a doctor with a U.S. visa, while the Bush administration decides
what to do. After the boat was stopped Tuesday, the Coast Guard brought
one of the migrants to Key West because she needed emergency medical treatment
related to a kidney illness. The other 32, including the doctor, remained
aboard the cutter. The case was the latest involving Cuban migrants interdicted
at sea under the controversial wet-foot/dry-foot policy. Under the policy,
Cuban migrants stopped at sea are generally repatriated while those who make it
to U.S. soil are allowed to stay. Sometimes, certain intercepted Cuban migrants
are taken to the U.S. naval base in Guantánamo. They are then sent
to other countries. Mario S. Cano, a Coral Gables immigration attorney,
said the woman taken ashore -- Licett Sotolongo, 35 -- called relatives of the
other migrants. Among those she called was Yordani Morejón-González,
32, husband of Misleidy Rodríguez-Machado, 28, the doctor. Morejón
said she received a U.S. visa four years ago but had not obtained the required
Cuban government exit permit. Cuba oil boom may complicate U.S. embargo As
Cuba's oil potential grows, a Canadian company has disclosed plans to export the
island's petroleum and set up a possible clash with the U.S. trade embargo. By
Jane Bussey. Posted on Fri, Mar. 02, 2007 The discovery of oil in
the Florida Straits and near the Cuban shoreline -- potentially billions of barrels
of reserves -- has boosted Cuba's energy prospects and drawn the attention of
the U.S. oil industry. Now, a small Canadian energy company, Sherritt International,
says it plans to export Cuban oil for the first time -- a move that could put
the crude on a collision course with the U.S. trade embargo against Cuba. Details
are few, but questions about the move go to the heart of the embargo: Where will
the oil be refined? And how could Sherritt International or subsequent handlers
keep the Cuban crude out of fuel being exported to the United States? The
issues rise as the oil and gas industry turns its gaze to the prospect of oil
drilling off Cuba -- currently forbidden fruit for U.S. companies. Sherritt
International, in a report about its record 2006 earnings, said that in 2007 it
"plans to export a portion of its Cuban production as a consequence of anticipated
production growth and limited demand for domestic heavy oil.'' Sherritt,
which had revenue of about $1 billion U.S. in 2006, produces an estimated 68,000
barrels of crude oil in Cuba. Michael Minnes, company spokesman, said plans for
exporting the oil are still under discussion. ''We respect U.S. law,'' Minnes
said from Sherritt's Toronto headquarters. "We have no intention of selling
it into a situation that would affect the embargo.'' Minnes said demand
in Cuba for the oil has dropped because the island is increasingly using diesel
generators for electricity production instead of burning crude. Sherritt
doesn't currently have offshore wells; instead, its onshore equipment drills horizontally
into petroleum reservoirs located under the water. The Sherritt International
plans drew fire from Cuban-American U.S. Rep. Lincoln Díaz-Balart, R-Miami. 'Sherritt
is on the 'short list' of companies that will have very serious civil as well
as criminal legal problems in Cuba when the Cuban people recover their sovereignty
and have a government that fights for their rights,'' Díaz-Balart said. ''Their
oil investments will involve but a small part of their legal problems once the
rule of law returns to Cuba,'' the lawmaker said in a statement e-mailed to The
Miami Herald. There was no immediate response to an e-mail and a phone call
to the Cuban Interests Section in Washington. STICKY PROBLEM Oil expert
Jorge R. Piñon said Sherritt or any other oil company would face the challenge
of how to commercialize crude oil outside of Cuba without breaking the U.S. embargo,
in place since the early 1960s. ''Inevitably wherever this crude oil is
processed in the Caribbean region, there is a high probability that its byproducts
will find their way into the U.S. markets,'' said Piñon, a former oil executive
who is now a senior researcher at the Institute for Cuban and Cuban-American Affairs
at the University of Miami. Sherritt International, in a joint venture with
the Cuban government, has been drilling for oil in Cuba for more than a decade,
gradually increasing production to the point that domestic production provides
almost half Cuba's petroleum needs. Venezuelan refined products make up the rest. But
what has tantalized the oil industry was a report that Spanish energy company
Repsol-YPF struck offshore oil in 2005 -- even though it wasn't a commercially
viable well. In 2005, a U.S. Geological Survey report estimated Cuba's potential
petroleum reserves could run some 4.6 billion barrels and natural gas reserves
could total trillions of cubic feet. EXPLORATORY DRILLING ''This would
make Cuba a major oil player in the region,'' Piñon said. With European,
Asian and South American firms gearing up for more exploratory drilling around
Cuba, U.S. oil companies and equipment and service suppliers are looking longingly
at the potential bonanza. U.S. OIL FIRMS OUT The U.S. trade embargo
bans American companies from doing business in Cuba, with exceptions for food
and medicine, and the Bush administration has been increasingly aggressive about
enforcing it. ''U.S. policy toward Cuba is to encourage a democratic, market-oriented
transition,'' said Eric Watnik, State Department spokesman. The Treasury Department's
Office of Foreign Assets Control has oversight over enforcing the embargo. Last
year, Sen. Larry Craig, R-Idaho, and Rep. Jeff Flake, an Arizona Republican, both
critics of the embargo, introduced legislation to broaden the exemptions to allow
the oil and gas industry to bid on Cuban contracts. But that effort went nowhere. Legislators
are currently discussing what form the bill should take to be reintroduced in
the new Democratic-controlled Congress. Five Cuban dissidents sentenced
to two years Five Cuban dissidents held without trial
for 19 months received their sentences for disturbing the peace. By
Frances Robles. Posted on Thu, Mar. 01, 2007 Five Cuban dissidents
arrested 19 months ago and held without trial ever since finally got their day
in court -- and two-year prison sentences. Emilio Leyva Pérez, Manuel
Pérez Soria, Lázaro Alonso Román and René Montes de
Oca Martija were sentenced to two years in prison. Independent journalist Roberto
de Jesús Guerra Pérez, a correspondent of the Miami-based Payo Libre
and Nueva Prensa Cubana news agencies, was sentenced to 22 months. Their
sentences were announced Monday. They were arrested July 13, 2005, after
attending a protest to commemorate the 1994 deaths of 41 people who drowned when
the Cuban Coast Guard rammed the tugboat in which they were trying to flee the
island. The ceremony was disrupted by up to 5,000 counter-protesters. In
the melee that followed, up to a dozen people were arrested and several were injured. ''They
got very long sentences, considering they are innocent,'' said Elizardo Sánchez,
head of the Cuban Commission for Human Rights and National Reconciliation. "The
victims wound up the accused.'' Nine days after the 2005 protest, another
30 people who planned a demonstration at the French embassy also were jailed.
The last of those detainees were freed just three weeks ago. They were never formally
charged. The cases drew widespread condemnation from Amnesty International
and other human rights organizations, including Reporters Without Borders. Sánchez
said Monday's sentences were unusual in that Cuban courts have not, of late, been
handing down long sentences. Rather, state security has increased its harassment
of dissidents in what he called a new ''widespread but low intensity'' strategy. In
an unrelated case, Amauris Samartino -- a former Cuban dissident expelled from
Bolivia for criticizing President Evo Morales and Fidel Castro -- has been granted
asylum in Norway. ''Although my home is Bolivia,'' Samartino, who was initially
expelled to Colombia, said in a statement, "I am overjoyed that Norway is
willing to be a safe harbor for those with the temerity to express themselves
freely.'' | 
