From Elian's Saga. Published Wednesday, April 19, 2000, in the Miami Herald
Radio figure blasted
Carollo links him to envoy
By Frances Robles. frobles@herald.com
WASHINGTON, D.C. -- Mayor Joe Carollo called a Miami Spanish-language radio talk show host a Cuban ''operative'' Tuesday, after the broadcaster's telephone numbers were found in a Cuban diplomat's billfold.
Carollo made the comments at a Washington, D.C., press conference held to blast Friday's alleged attack by Cuban diplomats on exile protesters.
About a dozen protesters, several of them law students from Miami-Dade County, have been conducting small rallies outside the Cuban Interests Section to speak out against Elian Gonzalez's possible return to the island.
Up to 20 Cuban Interests Section employees are accused of waiting until the coast was clear of TV cameras Friday to open their gates, roll up their sleeves and charge at the heckling protesters. Men and women alike said they were punched and thrown to the ground.
''Then they went back inside to cover themselves under the guise of diplomatic immunity,'' said Mauricio Claver Carone, a Catholic University student.
In the scuffle, a piece of evidence was dropped on the sidewalk: a billfold containing the business cards of Armando Collazo, first secretary of consular affairs. In it were a variety of telephone messages and notes, including the card of a Philadelphia-based U.S. Marshal.
RADIO SHOW HOST
Carollo said it also contained ''notes of conversations'' with Alvaro Sanchez-Cifuentes, host of the daily WOCN-Union Radio (1450 AM) talk show, En Alta Voz. The show, ''Speaking Out Loud,'' is known for pushing to lift the economic embargo against Cuba.
Sponsored by a travel agency that arranges flights to Havana, the controversial show has at times been taken off the air. The Cienfuegos-born Cifuentes calls himself a former revolutionary who is neither a communist nor socialist -- just a Cuban who loves his motherland.
''They don't understand that freedom of expression is democracy,'' he once said.
Sanchez-Cifuentes' home answering machine was full and not accepting more messages Tuesday. He did not return calls to his pager, and his cellular phone was not turned on.
Cuban Interests Section spokesman Luis Fernandez said simply, ''What else is Carollo going to say?''
He called Carollo's other accusations, such as those accusing Cuban diplomat Fernando Remirez of engaging in chemical warfare in Angola, ''ridiculous.'' He wouldn't get into details about what happened Friday night.
''These have been very difficult days, with the presence of these people outside,'' Fernandez said.
''They have been performing provocative actions against the integrity and dignity of our diplomatic mission, disrupting its normal functions. For example, they were offending our women, our wives, our children.''
Carollo said the broadcaster was among the radio personalities stirring trouble in Miami and then placing the blame on exiles.
''So many lies,'' Carollo said. ''Accusing us of being violent people, when we are not violent, saying there will be violence when there will be no violence.''
Protester Jorge Rodriguez has spent the past three days calling every government agency he can think of to lodge a complaint against the Interest Section diplomats he says attacked him Friday evening.
PROBE VOWED
Secret Service Lt. R.J. Dillon on Friday called the incident ''minor pushing and shoving.'' Other agencies, including the Washington police, have vowed to investigate the assault.
''If the reports we have heard are true, such behavior is intolerable,'' said one State Department official who spoke on the condition of anonymity. ''We are insisting that the Cuban Interests Section explain this incident. We have talked to them trying to find out exactly what happened. It's
astounding.''
A Justice Department spokeswoman said the department would first see if it has jurisdiction in the matter.
The State Department official would not speculate on what could come of the investigation, given that some of the Cuban employees cannot be criminally charged because they have diplomatic immunity.
In 1995, two Cuban diplomats were tossed out of the country eight months after the Cuban government refused to waive their immunity so the pair could be prosecuted for attacking a New York police officer. The two were among seven people arrested when anti-Castro demonstrators chained themselves
to the front door of the Cuban mission to the United Nations.
''Are these the people we want to turn Elian Gonzalez over to during the appeals process?'' Carollo said. ''It's not right. It's not fair.''
Herald translator Renato Perez contributed to this report.
Protesters from abroad flock to home
Paul Brinkley-Rogers. pbrinkley-rogers@herald.com
The chain-link fence in front of Elian's house has suddenly become international, with the banners of many nations fluttering in the stiff afternoon breeze alongside the huge Cuban and U.S. flags that have been there since Day One.
The lineup of flags from Brazil, Colombia, Costa Rica, the Dominican Republic, Honduras, Hungary, Israel, Mexico, Nicaragua, Panama, Peru, Uruguay and Venezuela -- plus the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico -- reflects the growing presence in the crowd of Elian partisans of citizens from these
countries.
More and more non-Hispanic whites are also turning up, carrying the Stars and Stripes and signs sharply critical of President Bill Clinton and U.S. Attorney General Janet Reno.
Their motivation is often anti-government. Richard Baird, a 45-year-old refrigeration specialist from Tampa said, for example, he was in the crowd on Tuesday to ''get Washington out of a simple child custody issue.'' Steve Iaocobucci, 46, from Fort Lauderdale, whose sign said Reno should be
jailed, said ''None of our so-called leaders have any backbone.''
The reasons other non-Cubans are being drawn in recent days to what has been perceived as a purely Cuban-American issue are often religious.
CAME FROM NICARAGUA
''I want Elian's family to know they are not alone,'' said Abel Lopez Garcia of León, Nicaragua, waving his country's blue and white flag over the sea of Cuban flags carried by protesters lined up at the police barricade on NW 2nd Street. ''All over Central America people are praying for
the boy.
''The United States should not do anything crazy -- like bust in here and try to take him [Elian],'' said Lopez, 38, a Miami religious worker. ''This could look really bad for America if the President does not have the guts to do what is right.''
Roberto Sanchez waved the Israel's Star of David banner, tied to a broomstick.
Why Israel's flag, if he is Cuban?
''Elian is the Moses of the year 2000,'' said Sanchez, 65, of Miami. ''The Bible says Moses was found in the water [as a baby among the bullrushes].
''This is a sacred child,'' said Sanchez, who said his family is Jewish. ''So the flag of the Holy Land is appropriate here, because this street is holy land.''
Bill Zuckerman, 50, from Sacramento, Ca., had taken an early Revolutionary War flag -- a coiled snake on a yellow background with the motto ''Don't Tread on Me'' -- to the street.
''That flag represents my sentiments,'' said the aerospace worker, who took vacation time to fly out to Florida to join the protesters. ''I didn't bring the U.S. flag because that is a damned symbol of corruption. That's Clinton's flag.''
MANY FLAGS
Roberto Rodriguez, 71, sells 30 to 40 of these flags a day -- small cotton ones are $5 -- from his Ford Aerostar van parked at NW 3rd Street and 24th Avenue just around the block from Elian's house.
The most popular, he said, is the flag of Cuba, followed in order of popularity by Puerto Rico, the U.S., Colombia, Venezuela, Nicaragua and Honduras.
''I came here,'' he said, ''after I heard on the radio that people from these countries were coming here to give their support. I put out the flags and those people were very happy to have the chance to buy one.
''They are proud to be here with Elian and wave their colors.''
Ruben Salazar, 42, from the Dominican Republic, held his country's red and blue flag with a white cross and stood in a crowd of Cuban-American men and women praying with their rosaries for divine intervention in Elian's fate.
''We are all brothers and sisters,'' said Salazar, a Miami restaurant worker.
''Here we are saying a simple prayer for help. God will not turn his face from this little boy. I am not from Cuba, but most of the people I work with are from there. How could I not come here to be with them after seeing the look on their faces when they talk about Elian?''
Claim about doctor in Elian case false
Andres Viglucci And Manny Garcia. aviglucci@herald.com
Two representatives of Elian Gonzalez's Miami relatives on Tuesday asked reporters to investigate a damaging allegation about a prominent doctor who wants the boy removed from the family's home -- a claim that records and medical colleagues indicate is false.
Attorney Jose Garcia-Pedrosa and family spokesman Armando Gutierrez contacted The Herald separately to say they had received a tip from a ''source'' about Dr. Irwin Redlener, a pediatrician who has advised Immigration and Naturalization Service Commissioner Doris Meissner on the four-month
custody battle.
They said the source, whom they would not identify, alleged Redlener had been forced to leave Jackson Memorial Hospital in the 1970s for drug use. ''You should look into it,'' said Garcia-Pedrosa, a former city manager for Miami and Miami Beach. He provided the name and phone number of a local
doctor, Dr. James Alleyn, who might confirm the claim.
The physician and his wife, Dr. Cielo Rita Alleyn , who trained at Jackson with Redlener, had relayed rumors to a friend connected to the Cuban American National Foundation, but had no first-hand knowledge of them. They say they did not authorize their names to be used and are uncertain how the
allegations reached Garcia-Pedrosa, whom they know.
The hospital said Redlener, who was chief of pediatrics at Jackson and helped found its child-abuse program, was not forced out and left in 1978 ''in good standing.''
Two colleagues who worked with him in Miami, including Dr. Barry Crown, head of neuropsychology and the forensic services group at Miami Children's Hospital, described him as a consummate professional, teacher and crusader for children.
Redlener has since gone on to a career as a well-known fund-raiser for programs to provide medical care to poor and homeless children across the country, and is now spearheading construction of a new $100 million nonprofit children's hospital at Montefiori Medical Center in New York City. His
campaigns on behalf of children have drawn support from Vice President Al Gore.
Gutierrez's and Garcia Pedrosa's phone calls came a day after Redlener released a strongly worded letter in which he called the Miami relatives' household psychologically ''abusive'' of Elian and urged U.S. Attorney General Janet Reno to remove the boy immediately. The letter received wide media
attention, and led to Redlener's appearance on several national TV news shows.
''We are not trying to discredit the doctor,'' Gutierrez, a political consultant known for digging up dirt on opponents, said after learning The Herald was publishing an article. ''We get a lot of tips and we were passing on an unsubstantiated tip.''
Redlener called the allegations against him ''patently ridiculous.
''There has never been a shadow of a cloud on my career,'' Redlener said in an interview. ''The whole thing is a diversion from a critical issue regarding this child. We should all get back to the question of what is in this child's best interest.''
Redlener, a Brooklyn native, graduated from the University of Miami medical school in 1969, then returned to Jackson in 1973 as chief resident, running the pediatric intensive care unit and staying on the faculty until resigning in 1978. He also worked as a VISTA volunteer in Arkansas, and was
recently inducted into the UM medical school's hall of fame.
With singer Paul Simon, he founded the Children's Health Fund, which has funded rolling medical clinics that provide care to poor kids in places such as New York City, Florida and the Appalachian mountains in West Virginia -- where the program is run by Dr. Isabel Pino, a Cuban-born physician
from the same town as Elian.
Crown, the Miami Children's hospital psychologist, said Redlener has long been friends with singers Paul Simon, Joan Baez and Bob Dylan, who have helped him raise money for children's issues. Crown recalled that Redlener persuaded Baez to perform two benefit concerts in Miami for abused
children.
Herald staff writers Jay Weaver and Karen Rafinski also contributed to this story.
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