Published Tuesday, July 25, 2000, in the Miami Herald .
Pilots' families reject U.S. deal
Punitive damages sought in '96 Cuba shoot-down
By Jay Weaver. jweaver@herald.com
The Clinton administration has proposed a compromise settlement that would allow the families of the Brothers to the Rescue pilots, shot down in 1996 by Fidel Castro's military, to collect about $50 million in compensatory damages from frozen Cuban government assets in the United States.
But the victims' Miami families, who have been battling the U.S. government in federal court to collect $187.6 million in both compensatory and punitive damages from a 1997 civil judgment, said the deal is unacceptable without financial punishment of the Cuban government.
"Compensation is important up to a certain point, but beyond that, where is the punishment, where is the deterrent?'' said Maggie Khuly, the sister of Armando Alejandre, one of the four Brothers to the Rescue fliers killed in the February 1996 shoot-down.
"When Cuba was declared guilty [of this act], Cuba didn't care. It's just when we started to go after the money that Cuba began to care,'' she said. "They don't care if you call them terrorists, they don't care if you call them murderers, but they do care if you take their money.''
She said the families will continue to negotiate, however, if the Clinton administration includes punitive damages.
The White House's settlement offer, delivered to the pilots' families on Friday, was offered as an alternative to two bills in Congress that would make it easier for them and others to collect civil court judgments from designated terrorist states, including Cuba and Iran.
Action on those bills, which would remove the president's authority to block collection in the interest of national security, could come as early as this week.
RELATIVES SUED
The relatives of three of the downed Brothers to the Rescue pilots -- Alejandre, Carlos Costa and Mario de la Peña -- sued the Cuban government under the Anti-Terrorism Act of 1996 after the fliers were shot down over international waters. Relatives of the fourth victim, Pablo Morales,
could not sue because he was not a U.S. citizen.
The pilots' two planes were flying over the Florida Straits on a mission that the group routinely conducts to search for migrants. The following year, U.S. District Judge James Lawrence King awarded the relatives $49.9 million in compensatory damages and $137.7 million in punitive damages. Ever
since, they have tried unsuccessfully to collect those awards by tapping into frozen Cuban bank accounts.
Those accounts, frozen because of the trade embargo against Cuba, contain hundreds of millions of dollars in aid from AT&T Corp. and other U.S. corporate giants to Cuban-owned companies since the 1960s -- part of an agreement to provide long-distance services to the island.
ACCESS BLOCKED
But the U.S. government, along with AT&T Corp., have blocked the families' bid to collect money from those accounts.
The Clinton administration, after first expressing sympathy for the victims' families and giving them $1.2 million in frozen Cuban assets after the shoot-down, has opposed the transfer of any more money because it wants to keep it to conduct foreign policy with a post-Castro government in Cuba.
According to the proposed settlement, the U.S. government would use those assets in "any negotiating process concerning the normalization of relations between the foreign state designated as a state sponsor of terrorism and the United States.''
The administration declined to comment on the proposed settlement, drafted by Deputy Secretary of the Treasury Stuart Eizenstat.
"It's not appropriate for us to be comment on any proposals or settlement discussions,'' Justice Department spokeswoman Chris Watney said.
NO SUPPORT
Ron Kleinman, one of several attorneys representing the victims' families, said the Clinton administration came up with the proposal at the last minute because of imminent action in Congress that could embarrass the White House.
"They confront intense bipartisan opposition to their policy,'' said Kleinman, a partner with Greenberg Traurig's office in Washington, D.C.
"Democrats and Republicans in both the Senate and House cannot find any basis to support the administration's position, particularly in light of the president's personal statements saying he supports the families' pursuit of justice.''
Sen. Connie Mack, R-Fla., and Sen. Frank Lautenberg, D-N.J., have pushed for passage of the bill that would limit the president's broad national security waiver, which allows the White House to continue keeping the frozen assets off limits to terrorism victims and their families.
"We've been trying to negotiate in good faith with the administration, but we also know this has been going on for a long time,'' said Nancy Segerdahl, a spokeswoman for Mack's office.
"We're prepared to move forward with this bill.''
LEGAL FRONT
Meanwhile, on the legal front, the U.S. Justice Department and AT&T Corp. have appealed a recent ruling by King allowing the victims' relatives to go after the Cuban assets held in U.S. bank accounts to satisfy part of his judgment.
"We put that money in the account for access charges to call Cuba,'' said Gus Alfonso, a spokesman for AT&T in Miami. "The reason we appealed this is not that we're opposed to the actions of the families.
"But, at the end of the day, we may be deemed liable for the monies owed to the Cuban government. If the monies are collected from these accounts, we might still have to pay back the Cuban government.''
Monroe officials anticipate influx if Cuba ban is defeated
As The Big Day appears possible, scrambling begins
By Jennifer Babson. jbabson@herald.com
KEY WEST -- You would think they were talking about a hurricane, a tornado or an avalanche.
When considering the potential easing of American travel restrictions to Cuba or even the possibility of an outright lifting of the 40-year-old U.S. embargo, Monroe County municipal officials throw around phrases such as ``emergency planning.''
``We are looking at two basic things that we do every time we have a large influx of people, and that's to keep traffic moving and maintain order,'' said Sgt. Adam Bittinger, administrative supervisor for the Key West Police Department.
The Keys' equivalent of a natural disaster? A 130-mile traffic jam that starts north of Key Largo as a gush of excited tourists, Cuban exiles, and curiosity seekers heading for Havana-bound ferries reduces an essentially one-lane road into an angry parking lot.
PLANNING SCHEME
As Congress considers a measure -- approved last week by the House -- that would effectively relax rules barring most Americans from spending money in Cuba, an ongoing regional planning scheme for The Big Day has assumed greater urgency.
From the sheriff's office to the county's Tourist Development Council, policymakers are scrambling to conceive of every possible angle.
``Would a whole bunch of Cubans be coming to hit the Office Depot or the Home Depot in Marathon?'' wondered Merili McCoy, a Key West city commissioner and member of an intergovernmental task force reviewing such scenarios.
``We need to be prepared for whatever comes our way; there may be some things we haven't even thought about,'' she added.
It was a discourse that's all about anticipation.
FERRY TERMINAL
For more than two years, Buquebus -- a company with Argentinian investors -- has been gradually building a ferry terminal near Key West Bight. The ferry is slated to begin service this year to Fort Myers, but its owners are betting that it will one day be used to transport cars and visitors
across the Straits.
Meanwhile, Key West city officials are debating whether to contract out the construction of another marina, this one across from the Outer Mole, that would service Cuba-transiting vessels.
All this, as county commissioners voted last month to begin a lengthy application process for federal permission to offer commercial airline and boat service to and from Cuba.
The explosion in private sea excursions between Key West and Cuba's Marina Hemingway, already underway, would increase were restrictions to be eased or removed altogether, predicted John Young, director of Conchord Cayo Hueso, a Key West-based humanitarian group whose members typically travel by
boat.
``It will be like the harbor in Hong Kong, with boats going back and forth,'' Young said. ``There's no way they can prevent it. Everyone wants to go over there, especially the fishermen.''
TOURIST INDUSTRY
But those in the tourist industry have a particular worry: Would the exotic appeal of Havana Club rum and Partagas cigars overshadow the decidedly more vanilla offerings of Duval Street?
``The concerns here are the packages that Cuba is offering right now, especially cheaper hotel rooms,'' said Robert Padron, chairman of Monroe County's Tourist Development Council, which is coordinating the task force. ``Are we going to have to drop the average daily rates down to be
competitive?''
Jack Smith, executive director of the Key West Hotel and Motel Association, did not think so. ``It depends on how we handle it ourselves. If we offer packaged deals, `Stay here for a day, fly to Cuba, fly back here,' we don't think it would harm us that much.''
A number of businesses -- especially those connected with watersports or fishing -- are poised for the day the door officially swings open.
AMERICAN DIVERS
Many American divers have been sneaking peeks at Cuban coral reefs, said Linda Kruszka, manager of Paradise Divers on Ohio Key.
``They've been going there for a while, but it's always been under a cloud and under the shroud of the U.S. government finding out you've been in Cuban waters,'' she said.
Kruszka, who thought it would be ``only a matter of time'' before the ban is gone, has begun scouting for an overnight boat to ship clients out to ``undiscovered'' Cuban coral formations. And she wouldn't say where these reefs are located, fearing other companies might steal her idea.
The cultural heritage of the Keys, especially Key West, has always been intertwined with that of its island neighbor. Many Conchs are descended from Cuban immigrants who rolled tobacco leaves in local cigar companies.
``Cuba has always been like the next state,'' said McCoy, whose husband Sonny -- a former Key West mayor -- gained notoriety in 1978 when he made the 90-mile voyage on a water ski. ``In the old days, it was easier for people to go to Havana than it was Miami. Many people had their doctors in
Havana.''
Licensed MDs to check test for foreign doctors
Suit threatened over state exam
The test had been scheduled to be administered in September, but the state Department of Health decided to hold off and wait to see how the licensed panel scores.
By Lesley Clark. lclark@herald.com
TALLAHASSEE -- The fourth round of a controversial medical licensing exam for a group of medical graduates from Cuba and Nicaragua is being postponed so a panel of already-licensed doctors can take the test to gauge whether the exam should be made easier to pass.
The test had been scheduled to be administered in September, but the state Department of Health decided to hold off and wait to see how the licensed panel scores, department spokesman Bill Parizek said.
``We've delayed it to give us time for assessment of the results,'' Parizek said. No new date has been set, he said.
On three occasions, more than 90 percent of the test-takers have failed the Florida Medical Licensing Exam -- created in 1996 by state lawmakers for a group of foreign-trained doctors, most of them Cuban and Nicaragua.
LAWSUIT THREATENED
The dismal rates have prompted the group to threaten to sue the state unless it makes changes to the exam.
Lawmakers set aside $90,000 in the state budget to pay several licensed doctors to sit for the test to compare their scores with those of the foreign-trained doctors.
The department is recruiting up to 100 doctors and medical school residents, who will be paid $600 to take both tests.
COULD BE ABOLISHED
Depending on how the licensed doctors score, the minimum passing score -- now set at 70 -- could be adjusted, department officials said.
The Florida Medical Association, along with its national and Miami-Dade County counterparts, wants to abolish the test.
Every other state requires doctors to pass the English-only United States Medical Licensing Exam, which includes a hospital residency.
The Florida exam, which is available in Spanish, does not include a residency.
Copyright 2000 Miami Herald |