Published Friday, July 14, 2000, in the Miami Herald .
Support ebbs for proposal to soften Cuba embargo
By Ana Radelat. Special to the Herald
WASHINGTON -- After taking a second look, many supporters of easing trade sanctions against Cuba have begun to back away from a House deal that would allow the first U.S. food sales to Fidel Castro's government in 38 years.
The doubts have splintered a coalition of farm and business groups and liberal Democrats seeking to ease the embargo, endangering the prospects for congressional approval.
Weighing the increasing questions about the proposal's fate, Dennis Hays, vice president of the Cuban American National Foundation, cautioned that ``this legislation has by no means cleared all hurdles.''
After the agreement was reached with great fanfare late last month, some business groups, including the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, labeled it a breakthrough in U.S. relations with Cuba. But a closer look at the deal's restrictions have led some of these same industry groups to abandon their
support.
Chamber of Commerce President Thomas Donohue this week called it a ``Christmas tree'' that's decorated with provisions that are bad for U.S. business. Others, including a national organization of small farmers, complain that it would prevent American producers from fairly competing with farmers
from other nations for Cuba's market.
The deal was reached because House GOP leaders were seeking to put an end to a battle in their ranks. Rep. George Nethercutt, R-Wash., and other Republicans seeking new markets for their farmers led the anti-sanctions campaign. But they were bitterly opposed by other GOP lawmakers, including
Reps. Lincoln Díaz-Balart, R-Miami, and Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, R-Miami, who want no opening to trade with Cuba.
After long negotiations, the so-called Nethercutt deal was reached. It would remove restrictions on the sale of food and medicine to Cuba, Iran, Libya, North Korea and Sudan -- countries on the State Department's terrorist nations list -- and prevent the president from imposing a ban on U.S.
food and medical sales in future sanctions packages.
But the agreement would also bar the use of private or U.S. government loans or credit guarantees in the sales to Cuba or Iran and prohibit U.S. insurance companies from protecting agricultural shipments to Cuba or Iran.
The food and medicine deal would also require that sales to Cuba and Iran be licensed by the Treasury Department on a case-by-case basis. This alarmed some business interests because current licensing rules for Iran sales are more relaxed.
In addition, the Nethercutt deal would strip the president of his authority to allow more Americans to travel to Cuba, a provision favored by Congressional liberals and key ingredient of the administration's existing policy toward Cuba.
Americans eligible to go Cuba now include journalists, Cuban Americans, academics, amateur athletes, government officials as well as others. Clinton's ``people-to-people'' policy resulted in a sharp increase in American travel to Cuba -- from 55,900 in 1998 to 82,000 last year.
Under the so-called Nethercutt deal, those categories would be locked into law and another one added: businessmen and farmers trying to broker contracts with the Cuban government for food and medical sales would be allowed to apply for individual travel licenses.
Diaz-Balart and Ros-Lehtinen, who both insisted on the travel provision, have said it is better than current law because it would prevent any president from allowing U.S. tourists to visit Cuba.
``What I want is to avoid the expansion of hard currency to Cuba,'' Diaz-Balart explained.
However, most of the mounting criticism of the Nethercutt provision centers on its restrictions on sales.
John Kavulich, head of the U.S.-Cuba Trade and Economic Council, said the restrictions have left some U.S. food exporters ambivalent about whether they can fairly compete against foreign suppliers of grain and other agricultural products to Cuba. Nevertheless, Kavulich called the deal an
unprecedented opening to Castro's government.
``Are there export opportunities in this legislation that don't exist now? The answer is `yes,' '' Kavulich said.
But the National Farmers Union, which represents the nation's small farmers, said the House deal ``so restricts the sale of food and medicine to U.S. producers that it will be virtually impossible for us to compete with other nations.''
In addition, Sen. Byron Dorgan, D-N.D., called the Nethercutt deal a ``legislative hoax'' and a ``giant step backward for sanctions reform.''
Joined by Sen. Chris Dodd, D-Conn., and other Democrats in the Senate, Dorgan hopes to derail the agreement in favor of a provision contained in the Senate farm spending bill that doesn't contain travel or finance restrictions.
Keys trips get more perilous for smugglers
By Andres Viglucci. aviglucci@herald.com
The usual summertime surge in Cuban-smuggling landings is under way, but this time the Border Patrol is enjoying unusual success. Thanks in part to a new deep-water boat, beefed-up patrols and a run of good luck, agents are nabbing suspected smugglers who in past years might have gotten away.
The latest example came early Thursday morning. When the Monroe County Sheriff's Office notified the Border Patrol at 2 a.m. that 33 Cubans had been rounded up on Big Pine Key, its new boat happened to be out on nightly patrol nearby.
Within minutes, the Border Patrol's 41-foot, diesel-powered catamaran had the fleeing go-fast on radar. Near Key Largo, the suspected smugglers' Monza speedboat broke down or ran out of fuel, and the two Cuban-born Miami-Dade County men on board found themselves under arrest.
Today the pair will be charged with alien smuggling, thanks to cooperation from some of the passengers and one of the alleged smugglers, who according to the Border Patrol confessed that he and his partner would have cleared $160,000 on the boatload. Under agency policy, the suspects' names will
not be released until they are formally charged.
Such a catch might not have been possible just a year ago. Until it launched its year-old Operation Red Light, the Border Patrol had no agents based in the Florida Keys, where most Cuban landings occur. Nor did it have, until two months ago, a vessel capable of chasing smuggling boats into deep
waters.
Catching their passengers was not difficult, since Cubans give themselves up because they are generally allowed to stay once they reach dry land. But catching the smugglers was another thing. By the time Border Patrol agents usually arrived from their base in Broward County to pick up Cubans
dropped off on a beach in the Keys, any smugglers were long gone.
Now about a dozen agents -- half of them borrowed from other states -- are based in the Keys. And the new boat, based at the Islamorada Coast Guard station, with quick access to the most popular landing spots, is out on patrol nightly.
LANDINGS CONTINUE
The operation has not curbed the frequency of summer landings. The number of Cubans apprehended on South Florida shores so far in July -- 196 through Thursday -- is on a pace to exceed last year's July total of 318.
But in three of the past four landings, the suspected smugglers have been caught and their boats seized, said Joseph Mellia, an assistant chief with the Border Patrol. If sustained, that record could put some smugglers out of business and put a dent in the traffic.
``It's all just starting to jell,'' Mellia said.
Gaining possession of the smuggling vessels has proven key in breaking the wall of silence from passengers.
``A lot of it is that we have some forensic evidence, such as fingerprints or items left on the boat that can be traced back to the aliens in the load,'' he said. ``Sometimes when you confront them with the evidence, you come across with a strong case and they may tell the truth, or part of the
truth.''
RAPID-ALERT SYSTEM
The new contingent of agents has also developed a coordinated rapid-alert system with the Monroe sheriff's office, the Florida Marine Patrol and the Coast Guard, enabling the Border Patrol to respond promptly to reports of landings -- sometimes within minutes, as occurred Thursday.
Sometimes another agency will actually get the alleged smugglers. On the afternoon of July 4, the Coast Guard notified the Border Patrol that someone had reported a speedboat unloading 29 Cubans near Islamorada. The Coast Guard issued an alert with the boat's description.
While Border Patrol agents and Coast Guard personnel ferreted out the 29 Cubans from the mangroves where they hid, the Marine Patrol stopped the speedboat in Islamorada and took two suspected smugglers into custody. The two men, identified as Abel Monteagueo, 31, and Jose Martinez, 35, both of
Miami, have been charged with alien smuggling.
2 Cubans detained following chase
Pair suspected in smuggling ring
By Jennifer Babson. jbabson@herald.com
KEY WEST -- U.S. Border Patrol agents are probing whether two Cuban-born men detained early Thursday morning for allegedly smuggling 33 Cubans to shore near Big Pine Key may be connected to a larger smuggling ring based in part out of Miami-Dade County.
The two men, identified as Abel Monteagueo, 31, and Jose Martinez, 35, both of Miami, are being held on unrelated immigration charges, and are expected to appear today in U.S. District Court in Miami on smuggling charges.
The duo was arrested after a 20-mile high-seas chase with Border Patrol agents. Agents spotted them at the helm of a 30-foot Monza fastboat near Big Pine Key, where a group of 33 migrants came ashore at 2:11 a.m. Thursday.
The boat was registered in Florida.
The Border Patrol said the duo charged between $1,000 and $7,000 a head to sneak 13 women, nine men, and 11 children from Caibarién, Cuba, to Florida. Late Thursday, the migrants -- found near Long Beach Road at mile marker 33 -- were transferred to the Krome Detention Center.
Border Patrol agents said that while they think the men are responsible for smuggling the migrants, they are believed to have departed from another location -- Sagua la Grande in Cuba's Villa Clara province. One man is a legal resident of the United States, the other is a `parolee,' meaning he
recently arrived in the U.S and is awaiting residency.
``They've pretty much said they were the smugglers,'' said Joe Mellia, assistant chief patrol agent for Border Patrol. Depending on how many engines a boat has -- and how loaded down it is with people -- it can take anywhere from about three hours to a day or more to motor 90 miles from Cuba to
Key West.
Federal agents believe the smugglers belong to one of a number of covert ``rings'' that have been pooling resources and contacts in Cuba and South Florida. ``We're talking maybe 10 or 15 guys,'' Mellia said. ``They are all associated -- some are boat drivers, some are arrangers in Cuba, some
drive them [the migrants] to a safe house or a drop house. That's their organization, they share assets, boats, houses, cars.''
The men had been previously spotted by Border Patrol agents in waters not far from migrant landings in recent months, but weren't detained because agents couldn't get any information about them from the folks they were believed to have smuggled in.
``We had their names because we've encountered them before,'' Mellia said. ``This time we have been able to get some very good evidence and witness statements against them.''
As was the case Thursday morning, no cash was found on the alleged smuggling boat. But Mellia says that's not unusual.
``A lot of times, all of these people are taken to a particular place where phone calls are made, and they say, `OK, we have your relatives, come get them, and make sure you bring $3,000 or $8,000,' or whatever the smuggling fee was.''
The relatively calm seas of summer provide perfect conditions for the human smuggling operations that in recent years have become as lucrative in some instances as drug running. Border Patrol agents have apprehended 1,271 Cuban migrants since Oct. 1, a decrease of almost one-third from the
previous year.
They attribute that decrease to ``Operation Red Light,'' a year-old initiative to step up efforts to catch smugglers in the Keys, where most drop off their passengers.
The agency has detailed officers to work directly out of U.S. Coast Guard and Monroe County law enforcement offices in the Keys.
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