Miami Herald
Dad goes to Cuba to seek son
By Luisa Yanez. lyanez@herald.com. Published Monday,
December 18, 2000, in the Miami Herald
A Homestead father's mission to bring his son back from Cuba begins in
earnest today with his arrival on the island.
Jon Colombini, 31, boarded a flight to Havana on Sunday night from Miami
International Airport.
He was accompanied by attorney Michael Berry, of Clearwater, who specializes
in international custody cases.
During the trip, the two will travel to the countryside on the western tip
of Cuba and try to persuade Arletis Blanco, 29, formerly of Key Largo, to allow
Colombini to bring Miami-born Jonathon back to the United States.
In early November, Jonathon was spirited away to Cuba by his mother --
without his father's permission.
Divorced in 1998, the couple have joint custody of the boy, records show.
Blanco left under a cloud of suspicion; she is accused of embezzling about
$150,000 from her former employer, McKenzie Petroleum, in the Florida Keys.
The Cuba-born Blanco fled to the island on a boat with her son, her
boyfriend and their toddler daughter.
She has been living in the Pinar del Rio home of her boyfriend's relatives
and has told authorities she wants to remain there.
Travelers flock to Cuba despite hassles at airport
Check-in routine takes five hours
By Sandra Marquez Garcia. smarquez@herald.com. Published
Sunday, December 17, 2000, in the Miami Herald
Evelia Frometa, 70, mirrored the determination of her fellow Havana-bound
passengers on Falcon Air Flight 3717 this week. She was not deterred by the
complications of traveling to the communist island.
Wearing pumps with knee-highs curled around her ankles, Frometa dangled a
cake decoration for her granddaughter's 15th birthday, a Barbie doll set and a
bouquet of plastic flowers while pushing a trolley loaded with duffle bags.
"Of course, mi vida, I am going to see my children,'' Frometa said of
her cheery mood. "All of my family is there.''
Standing next to her in the winding check-in lane, Maria Luz Suñet,
60, of New York, sounded less hopeful as she gazed at the spry grandmother.
"She's carrying three times her weight, and it's still not enough for
the misery in that country,'' she said.
It didn't take long to detect the source of her discontent.
"My father died last night in Cuba, and I cannot travel because I don't
have the visa yet,'' said Suñet, who was helping her sister Adela board
the flight.
"Why can't we be like the Mexicans and other Latin Americans who get on
a plane as soon as they have a family emergency?''
Some 15,000 passengers will travel to Cuba on direct flights from the United
States this month -- most of them leaving from Miami. For travelers, it's a
chance to spend the holidays with loved ones, visit a sick family member or see
one of the last outposts of the Cold War firsthand.
Often, the experience is bittersweet. For nearly everyone, the trip involves
some hassle. Although the flight to Havana lasts only 35 minutes, strict U.S.
government regulations require a five-hour check-in process that can kindle
passions and revive memories.
Congregated in the lower level of the B concourse at Miami International
Airport, the more than 100 Havana-bound passengers traveling on the charter
flight to Havana on Wednesday began forming a single-file line at 11 a.m.
Departure time was scheduled for 4 p.m. The improvised check-in area -- tucked
between luggage carousels -- houses a sophisticated X-ray machine used to detect
plastic explosives.
NERVOUS OVER RETURN
Ramón García, a Miami TV producer on his way for a one-week
solo trip to visit his parents in Havana, said the thought of returning to the
homeland he left nine years ago made him nervous.
"Even if this is done in an orderly way, I feel like I am running a
risk,'' he said. "It's like you escape a prison and you are going back.''
His wife, Ana Yero, a website content editor, waited patiently in line with
her husband. But Yero, who arrived in Miami seven years ago, said she doesn't
plan to return to Cuba -- ever.
"I've never been back, and I hope not to,'' Yero said. "For me,
Cuba is not an agreeable place. I miss the people. I miss my neighborhood. But
if I could I would erase it off the map.''
Tristram Lozaw, a Boston music critic traveling to the Havana Jazz Festival,
was on his way to see Cuba with fresh eyes. Lozaw, who grew up in Miami, said he
realized after moving that he had been "disconnected'' from Cuban culture.
CURIOUS ABOUT MUSIC
As a critic and sound engineer, Lozaw said he has followed the international
success of the Buena Vista Social Club, a group of weathered music veterans
rediscovered by American guitarist Ry Cooder, but he wonders if their mix of
classic boleros and danzón tracts reflect the current music tastes of
Cubans.
"We only get such a small sampling of what is going on in the island,''
he said. "I've often felt cut off from the real Cuban music.''
Whatever the reality, Lozaw said he packed a CD recorder to tape
improvisational performances at cafes. He is also on a fact-finding mission of
his own, triggered by recent news reports that the Cuban government unveiled a
statue of John Lennon to commemorate the 20th anniversary of his assassination.
"I'd like to know how a capitalist pig rock-and-roller got a statue
dedicated to him in Havana,'' he said with a grin.
Although the 40-year-old U.S. trade embargo against Cuba prohibits tourist
travel to the island, American journalists, academic researchers and those on
cultural or religious exchange programs can obtain authorization from the
Treasury Department's Office of Foreign Control.
KNOWS THE PROCEDURE
In Lozaw's case, he booked his trip through a travel agency that handled the
paperwork.
"I found a group that has a cultural exchange license,'' he said.
Cuban Americans -- or U.S. citizens with relatives in Cuba -- are entitled
to travel to Cuba provided they sign an affidavit stating that they plan to
visit family and have not visited more than once in a 12-month period.
Additionally, Cuban law requires those born on the island to obtain a
special entry permit. The document takes about two weeks to process, and fewer
than 1 percent of requests are denied, according to charter company officials.
Those statistics didn't comfort Suñet, who said she spent nearly a
week faxing documents to the Cuban Interests Section in Washington, D.C., in
hopes of visiting her ailing father in Las Tunas in eastern Cuba. By mid-week,
she worried if she would make it in time for his funeral.
PACKED AND WAITING
"All my bags are packed and waiting,'' Suñet said, her face
crumpled in tears. "It is an injustice.''
Her sister, who lives in West Palm Beach, received her visa first. The
sisters took turns pushing the cart bearing the gifts they had carefully
selected for their father while he was still alive -- a fedora, a duffel bag
loaded with powdered milk, chicken broth, protein powder, medication and
syringes, as well as clothing and a "special pot'' suited for cooking on a
butane-gas stove.
"Everything that he might have possibly needed,'' Suñet said.
Although the lengthy check-in process was conducted in an orderly manner, at
times there was grumbling from passengers who complained they weren't informed
of the actual departure time and didn't know on what airline they would travel.
Armando Garcia, vice president of Marazul Charters -- a Miami consolidator
that buys space on the five charter companies that operate direct flights to
Cuba -- said travel restrictions imposed by the U.S. government are the source
of the long delays.
Technical glitch at Radio Mambí gives some a rude awakening
Fans tuning in get Cuba station instead
By Paul Brinkley-Rogers. pbrinkley-rogers@herald.com.
Published Sunday, December 17, 2000, in the Miami Herald
Radio Mambí -- the robust voice of Miami Cuban radio -- was knocked
off the air by an apparent technical problem Saturday, opening up the gap on the
AM radio dial to a strong signal from its archenemy, Radio Rebelde in Havana.
"I made coffee, and I turned on the radio this morning, and oh my God!
Mambí was gone, and I was listening to Fidel Castro!'' said Luz Maria
Fajardo, a cashier at a Coral Way gas station.
Rebelde, which means rebel in Spanish, beams its signal on the same
frequency as Mambí.
In the 10 hours Mambí was off the air, thousands of listeners
telephoned the station to ask for an explanation, according to a brief apology
read over the radio when service was restored at about 3 p.m.
Staffers at the station's plush offices on Calle Ocho were circumspect. A
technician would only say "we have had a very serious problem.'' He
declined to elaborate further, but at midday, the Mambí studios were full
of engineers and staffers trying to revive the signal. Armando Pérez
Roura, the station's director, was also at the station but would not comment.
A spokesman for the Federal Communications Commission in Washington said he
was not aware of the problem. Mambí, whose call letters are WAQI,
broadcasts at 710 on the dial.
A Mambí listener who identified herself only as Justa said the
station's signal went down at 5:37 a.m. "It never came back on,'' she said.
"Instead, I got another radio station and as soon as I heard it, I turned
it off. It was Cuba.''
Justa said her whole day was spoiled by having to miss the early-morning
show done by Martha Casañas, which features Cuban oldies. "That's
what I do every day,'' she said. "I turn on the radio to wake up and then
at 6 [a.m.], I get up and make my aunt breakfast.'' She said she called Mambí
several times but was unable to get through.''
Truck driver Javier Melo said he was stunned when he tried to tune into Mambí
at 1 p.m. for news and got it -- only the news was coming from Havana.
"I should have turned it off,'' he said, "but there was a woman
from my hometown of Cienfuegos crying and screaming about her son being killed
by Miami terrorists.''
Melo said the Havana station was referring to the shoot-down of a Cuban
plane in 1976 in Venezuela by anti-Castro forces. Seventy-three people were
killed in the incident. Several people, including some Miami-area residents who
Fidel Castro says were involved, were arrested in Panama. Havana is trying to
persuade Panama to extradite them to Cuba for trial.
Luis Corrales, shopping at a Calle Ocho bookstore, said, "I thought I
was having a nightmare, because I have a clock radio and when the alarm went off
they were playing Papi, bailar conmigo ("Daddy, dance with me''). That's a
hit tune in Cuba. For one strange moment I thought I was in Havana, and then my
wife called out to me and I knew I was OK.''
Fajardo said many customers at her gas station asked her if she knew what
was wrong at Mambí.
"They were really worried,'' she said. "Radio Mambí is so
anti-Castro. It was the station [that] broadcast all the Elían [González]
news. They weren't answering their phone at the station, and people were
concerned that it had been sabotaged or something.''
Mambí has gone off the air before, however.
In 1996, the 50-kilowatt station closed down briefly to make repairs after a
storm damaged its transmitter.
Radio Rebelde, with 100 kilowatts of power, easily filled the void.
Dad bound for Cuba in fight for son
By Luisa Yanez. lyanez@herald.com. Published Sunday,
December 17, 2000, in the Miami Herald
Barring any last-minute hitch, the Homestead father seeking to bring his
5-year-old son back to Florida from Cuba will leave on a flight to the island
tonight.
The go-ahead came from the U.S. State Department and the Cuban government.
"Ive been told to be ready to go Sunday and to pack for several days,
said Jon Colombini on Saturday, as he stood outside Wal-Mart in Florida City,
collecting funds to help finance his monthlong battle. He says he already has a
$10,000 debt.
His problems began in early November when his ex-wife, Arletis Blanco, 29,
the target of an embezzling investigation, left Key Largo for Cuba. She took
their Miami-born son, Jonathon, without his permission.
Accompanying Colombini on Sundays trip will be his attorney, Michael Berry,
of Clearwater, a specialist in international custody cases.
During his visit to Cuba, Colombini, 31, is hoping to persuade Blanco to
allow him to bring back their son. He wants to raise the boy here with his new
wife, Marcy.
"I dont want to sound cheesy, but its Christmastime and I believe in
miracles, said a nervous Colombini, who has never been to Cuba and speaks no
Spanish.
Up to now, the father and son chatted frequently on the telephone, but that
may change since Cuba on Friday cut direct telephone service to the island.
After arriving in Havana, Colombini, Berry and Cuban officials will make
their way to Pinar del Rio, where Blanco has settled with her boyfriends family.
Colombini said Blanco, who came to the United States at age 8 during the
Mariel boatlift and still has relatives in the Florida Keys, knows hes on his
way and appears willing to talk. Divorced in 1998 in Monroe County, the two
share custody of Jonathon, records show.
For Colombini, the trip is the culmination of weeks of talks with officials
of the U.S. State Department and Cuban Interests Section in Washington, D.C.
Native-born American citizens are not allowed to visit Cuba or spend money
there, according to the conditions of the U.S. embargo on the island.
The case has attracted international attention because of its similarity to
the plight of Elián González.
The boy, who was also 5 when he arrived on Thanksgiving 1999, was brought to
the United States by his mother, who did not survive the raft trip from Cuba.
Eliáns father, Juan Miguel González, said he did not give
permission. After a seven-month custody battle with Miami relatives, Elián
returned home with his father in June.
Malfunction quiets Radio Mambí
By Paul Brinkley-Rogers. pbrinkley-rogers@herald.com.
Published Sunday, December 17, 2000, in the Miami Herald
Radio Mambí -- the robust voice of Miami Cuban radio -- was knocked
off the air by an apparent technical problem Saturday, opening up the gap on the
AM radio dial to a strong signal from its archenemy, Radio Rebelde in Havana.
"I made coffee, and I turned on the radio this morning, and oh my God!
Mambí was gone, and I was listening to Fidel Castro!'' said Luz Maria
Fajardo, a cashier at a Coral Way gas station.
Rebelde, which means rebel in Spanish, beams its signal on the same
frequency as Mambí.
In the 10 hours Mambí was off the air, thousands of listeners
telephoned the station to ask for an explanation, according to a brief apology
read over the radio when service was restored at about 3 p.m.
Staffers at the station's plush offices on Calle Ocho were circumspect. A
technician would only say "we have had a very serious problem.'' He
declined to elaborate further, but at midday, the Mambí studios were full
of engineers and staffers trying to revive the signal. Armando Pérez
Roura, the station's director, was also at the station but would not comment.
A spokesman for the Federal Communications Commission in Washington said he
was not aware of the problem. Mambí, whose call letters are WAQI,
broadcasts at 710 on the dial.
A Mambí listener who identified herself only as Justa said the
station's signal went down at 5:37 a.m. "It never came back on,'' she said.
"Instead, I got another radio station and as soon as I heard it, I turned
it off. It was Cuba.''
Justa said her whole day was spoiled by having to miss the early-morning
show done by Martha Casañas, which features Cuban oldies. "That's
what I do every day,'' she said. "I turn on the radio to wake up and then
at 6 [a.m.], I get up and make my aunt breakfast.'' She said she called Mambí
several times but was unable to get through. Truck driver Javier Melo said he
was stunned when he tried to tune into Mambí at 1 p.m. for news and got
it -- only the news was coming from Havana.
"I should have turned it off,'' he said, "but there was a woman
from my hometown of Cienfuegos crying and screaming about her son being killed
by Miami terrorists.''
Melo said the Havana station was referring to the shoot-down of a Cuban
plane in 1976 in Venezuela by anti-Castro forces. Seventy-three people were
killed in the incident. Several people, including some Miami-area residents who
Fidel Castro says were involved, were arrested in Panama. Havana is trying to
persuade Panama to extradite them to Cuba for trial.
Luis Corrales, shopping at a Calle Ocho bookstore, said, "I thought I
was having a nightmare, because I have a clock radio and when the alarm went off
they were playing Papi, bailar conmigo ("Daddy, dance with me''). That's a
hit tune in Cuba. For one strange moment I thought I was in Havana, and then my
wife called out to me and I knew I was OK.''
Fajardo said many customers at her gas station asked her if she knew what
was wrong at Mambí.
"They were really worried,'' she said. "Radio Mambí is so
anti-Castro. It was the station [that] broadcast all the Elían [González]
news. They weren't answering their phone at the station, and people were
concerned that it had been sabotaged or something.''
Mambí has gone off the air before, however. In 1996, the 50-kilowatt
station closed down briefly to make repairs after a storm damaged its
transmitter.
Havana bookings at record levels
By Carol Rosenberg. crosenberg@herald.com. Published
Sunday, December 17, 2000, in the Miami Herald
Airline charter agencies are booking many more Miami-to-Havana Christmas
flights this season than ever before -- an average of six flights a day in the
coming week.
State Department officials say there are 45 charter flights from Miami, two
from Los Angeles and two more from New York City next week. During the same week
last year, 30 flights left Miami for Cuba.
On Saturday alone, 11 flights will leave Miami for Havana.
"It's an amazing number of flights, that's phenomenal,'' said Charles
Shapiro, director of the State Department's Cuba Desk.
Off-season demand is at best 10 flights a week, more typically six or fewer.
"There's always an increase in December, near the holidays, because
people are going to visit relatives,'' said John S. Kavulich II of the New York
U.S.-Cuba Trade and Economic Council.
NOT SINCE REVOLUTION
But he called 45 in one week "a record, at least since 1959.'' Before
the revolution, "there were a heck of a lot of DC-3s going all over the
place,'' mostly from Miami to Key West to Havana.
Maria Aral, general manager of Little Havana's ABC Charters, said for
example that she added six extra flights that week, mostly to accommodate whole
families traveling south to see relatives during the holidays.
Normally, she said, she operates two flights a week, mostly with 130-seat
aircraft.
Because the charter operators lease different-size aircraft from different
major carriers to run their flights, U.S. diplomats were unable to say how many
people would travel on the 45 flights so far.
But Marazul Charters vice president Armando García said the Cuban
tourism authority Havanatur, which processes travel permits, has estimated that
15,000 to 16,000 Cuban Americans will visit Havana this Christmas. The only
comparable period of intense travel, he said, was in 1979, when family
reunification visits were first permitted.
FAMILY REUNION TRIPS
Because of U.S. regulations on who might legally visit Cuba, the vast
majority of those travelers are Cuban-born or Cuban-American children and
grandchildren on family reunion trips.
Each seat costs $299 round trip plus $50 in airport fees, Kavulich said,
fixed by the consortium of travel brokers that arrange the charters with
licenses from the Treasury Department's Office of Foreign Assets Control.
Some trace the trend to the diminishing taboo in the Cuban exile community
on visiting the land of their births, especially after Pope John Paul II's 1998
pilgrimage there.
Marazul had four flights scheduled to leave New York's John F. Kennedy
Airport for Havana's José Martí International between last Friday
and Christmas.
Charter companies would add more flights, some business people said, but
it's difficult to locate additional aircraft during the heavy travel season.
POLITICAL HOSTILITY
Juan Carlos Espinosa, director of St. Thomas University's Felix Varela
Center for Cuban Studies, called the phenomenon "quite amazing,''
especially because "political repression is on the increase and the Cuban
government's tone is more acidic toward the exiles in general.''
Some Cuban Americans have opposed return travel to deny dollars to Cuba's
communist economy, which is hugely dependent on exile remittances, he said. But
"that zero-sum way of looking at things is less and less a widely held
opinion,'' Espinosa said.
The trade council's Kavulich credited the phenomenon to other factors as
well:
The Clinton administration, encouraging so-called people-to-people contacts,
has simplified the licensing process for travel while "more people of Cuban
descent are availing themselves to their once-a-year visit to Cuba that does not
require a specific license.''
SENSE OF URGENCY
Kavulich said there may also be a greater sense of urgency for Christmas
travel to Cuba this year because many Miami exiles have elderly grandparents and
aunts and uncles living there -- and American-born children who have never met
them.
An example: Elena García Wagner, 45, of Virginia Beach, Va., came to
this country in 1962 at age 7 in the Catholic Church-sponsored Pedro Pan
movement that helped Cuban parents send their children away from fear of
communist reeducation.
Now she is planning a February pilgrimage to her birthplace, Pinar del Rio,
with two sisters, Ana and Maria -- their first trip back.
For years, she said, such a trip was unthinkable because "the family
was separated and we had this horrible feeling that we would be spitting in the
face of their sacrifices.'' More recently, though, since the Elián González
case aroused emotions, she said, she decided to go: "When you're older,
you're more afraid of never seeing it again than hurting your parents.''
So she "gently'' told her mother of her sisters' travel plans "and
she was wonderful. . . . She wasn't too thrilled, but she said she understood.''
Few calls to Cuba are getting through
By Yves Colon. ycolon@herald.com. Published Saturday,
December 16, 2000, in the Miami Herald
Making a telephone call from Miami to Cuba became difficult, if not
impossible, Friday after President Fidel Castro's government followed through on
its threat to cut off direct phone links with the United States.
Calls from the United States to Cuba were routed through third countries,
but because of the large volume, most callers got a busy signal or a recording
telling them circuits were occupied. Experts predict contact may become even
more difficult in coming weeks as the networks become saturated, and as Cuba
begins to impose surcharges on the third countries.
"This is the commencement of traffic congestion,'' said Enrique López,
a communications consultant familiar with the Cuban telephone system.
Ricardo Bofill, who contacts human rights activists on the island by phone,
became painfully aware of the problems Friday when he tried to get through. He
gave up after several attempts.
"It's a cruel thing that they've done,'' said Bofill, president of the
Miami-based Cuban Committee for Human Rights. "It's not the right solution
for the Cuban people who are separated. The Cuban government has to negotiate a
solution, not just cut off the phones.''
It was easier to receive calls from Cuba, but those cost $3 a minute
compared to less than $1 if the calls originate in the United States. Collect
calls from Cuba are still possible, but are equally expensive.
This is the second time in two years Cuba has cut its phone circuits, both
times over frozen funds held in U.S. banks. In February 1999, Cuba's phone
company suspended service with U.S. companies because they withheld $19 million
due Cuba. The companies were ordered to hold the money while the families of
Brothers to the Rescue pilots shot down by Cuban MiGs tried to collect $187
million in damages.
Payments from the U.S. companies to Cuba were re-authorized by the federal
government in March, and Cuba reopened its 1,022 phone circuits to the United
States.
This time, Cuba wants to collect a 10 percent surcharge on the calls to make
up the $58 million in damages a Miami judge awarded to Brothers to the Rescue
families.
Cuba earns about $80 million a year from the phone traffic, and officials
want the additional $30 million surcharge to make up, in part, for the $58
million judgment.
When the surcharge was due at the end of October, the U.S. phone companies
were prevented from paying it. That's because they have yet to get clearance
from the Office of Foreign Assets Control, a branch of the U.S. Treasury that
enforces economic and trade sanctions against targeted countries.
Now Cuba is threatening to impose the surcharge on the third countries,
which will then demand payment from the U.S. phone companies. The companies will
then have to ask OFAC for guidance.
A State Department official said the Clinton administration is still
evaluating the situation and working on guidelines for the companies. However,
experts doubt the phone companies will get clearance to pay the surcharge
indirectly.
Pamela Falk, a law professor at City University of New York and a Cuba
expert, said the phone cutoff is a way for Cuba to strike back at the United
States, especially at a time when Cuban officials see hardening of attitudes
toward them in the United States.
"It's more of a symbolic statement of the acceptance that we're heading
for a time of increased tension,'' said Falk, who got an Italian operator to
help her place a call to Cuba. Telecom Italia has a 30 percent interest in the
government-owned Cuban phone company.
"It's a tit-for-tat move when it really doesn't serve their purposes to
cut off the phone, and it doesn't really cut off the phone.''
Residual tension over the Elián González saga and the recent
travel restrictions imposed by Congress on Americans seeking to go to the island
contributed to that position, Falk said.
"There was a sense that Clinton was going to lift the embargo, or do
something dramatic,'' she said. "People seemed to believe it. The
perception had created some expectation that doors were going to open pretty
wide. ''
Meanwhile in Havana, the Associated Press reported that student Jesús
Loureiro bought more than $40 worth of phone cards after learning that his
relatives in the United States might have trouble calling him.
"This is a total separation of family,'' Loureiro said, shaking his
head. "What's even worse, it's cheaper for them to call here than it is for
us to call there. So, really, this hurts me more than anyone else.''
Re-creating union with Cuba wasn't aim of visit, Putin says
Russian focus is on old debts
By Patrick E. Tyler. New York Times Service. Published
Saturday, December 16, 2000, in the Miami Herald
HAVANA -- After two difficult days of talks about old debts and dashed
dreams with Fidel Castro, Russian President Vladimir Putin said Friday that he
did not travel to this former bastion of the Cold War to recreate a "union''
with Cuba against the United States, but rather to clean up the economic "mess''
left over from the Soviet era.
Speaking at a press conference that was not attended by the Cuban leader,
Putin indicated in several ways that Russia's relations with the United States,
though difficult at times, are important to Moscow. Still, he said that Moscow
would not hesitate to express opposing views on arms control issues, on
questions of international security and -- a new theme of his on this trip -- on
how to narrow the gap between the "golden billion'' and the world's poorest
nations.
Responding to a question on whether his visit here amounted to
reestablishing an alliance between Moscow and Havana, Putin said: "Unfortunately,
you have been looking at the wrong kind of information. We have no union with
Cuba against third countries, including the United States if you were talking
about that country.
"Yes, we have differences on some questions with the United States and
they are well known,'' he continued, but he said that these were "items of
discussion and no more than that.''
In stressing this point, Putin disclosed Friday that he had authorized his
foreign minister, Igor Ivanov, to sign an agreement with the outgoing Clinton
administration calling for advance notification of rocket launches to further
promote transparency among the extensive nuclear forces of the United States and
Russia. Putin said he "deeply'' hoped the pact would be concluded soon.
Putin's remarks Friday appeared to be an effort to put his visit to Cuba in
the unthreatening context that Moscow is merely trying to recover lost markets
and multimillion-dollar Soviet-era investments, rather than foment a new image
of rivalry.
And the subtext of his remarks, together with comments by Russian officials
traveling with Putin, also indicated that the thorny economic issues underlying
Moscow's relations with Cuba do not compare with the more weighty economic and
security agenda, which Putin intends to pursue with the new administration in
Washington.
Agent describes alleged Cuban spies' tools, methods
By Gail Epstein Nieves. gepstein@herald.com. Published
Saturday, December 16, 2000, in the Miami Herald
The notebooks, briefcase and even a wooden breakfast tray looked
unremarkable during the apartment search of an accused Cuban spy. Then a
co-defendant started cooperating and told the FBI to go back for a second look.
Voila! Built into each item was a slim "secret compartment'' used to
stash incriminating paperwork and photos, FBI Agent Jose Orihuela testified
Friday at the conclusion of the first full week of the Cuban spy trial.
If the jurors were expecting high-tech spy toys, they were disappointed.
Orihuela also testified that two defendants used eyeglasses and mustaches or
colored contact lenses to change their appearance.
Orihuela did not say whether such techniques were tried and true tools of
spying or reflections of a low-rent operation stuck in the 1950s.
But defense attorney Paul McKenna touched on the issue when, in opening
statements, he told jurors about the apartment of his client, Gerardo Hernandez:
"It wasn't what you might think, some James Bond pad. It was more like an
Austin Powers pad.''
Hernandez's apartment, at 18100 Atlantic Blvd. in North Miami Beach, was
where FBI agents found the items during a Nov. 10, 1998, search. Hernandez is
accused of conspiring to commit espionage and conspiring to murder four Brothers
to the Rescue fliers who were shot down by Cuban MiGs over the Florida Straits.
Orihuela established that Hernandez had multiple sets of identification
documents under different assumed names: Manuel Viramontez and Daniel Cabrera.
Spies typically have two identities, the agent testified. "Cover''
identities carry a biographical history that agents can use in their everyday
lives complete with relatives' names and business cards. "Escape''
identities are used only to flee and are supported with documentation that can
withstand close scrutiny.
Manuel Viramontez was the name Hernandez used in Miami. The Cabrera
documents -- including a U.S. passport, Social Security card, driver's license
and birth certificate -- were secreted inside a small notebook stashed in a
closet, the agent said.
Hidden inside two other notebooks were fake identification documents for
co-defendant Ruben Campa and another co-defendant believed to have fled to Cuba
to avoid prosecution.
Agents also found papers titled "Places of Pass'' reflecting addresses,
times and secret signals -- apparently for meetings in New York City to "pass''
information to their Cuban intelligence contacts.
Assistant U.S. Attorney John Kastrenakas also showed jurors pictures of
Hernandez and Campa posing in front of the Statue of Liberty and the
Southernmost Point buoy in Key West. The spy ring allegedly targeted Key West's
Boca Chica Naval Air Station for observation.
The five defendants were arrested Sept. 12, 1998, and charged with acting as
unregistered foreign agents. Three are accused of penetrating U.S. military
installations to try to get defense secrets to Havana.
Copyright 2000 Miami Herald | 