Published Thursday, July 27, 2000, in the Miami Herald .
Cuban march urges end to embargo
It's an effort to sway opinion at crucial time
By Anita Snow. Associated Press
HAVANA -- With Fidel Castro leading the way in sneakers, Cubans marched Wednesday to protest the U.S. trade embargo. Authorities here estimated the crowd at more than one million.
The mass demonstration came amid the most significant efforts by the U.S. Congress in 38 years to ease sanctions first imposed against the communist-ruled island by President John Kennedy.
"Down with the blockade! Long live the homeland!'' the marchers chanted as they started the 3 1/2-mile trek, many waving small Cuban flags.
As temperatures rose, many marchers replaced their flags with umbrellas to protect themselves from the unrelenting tropical sun. Military marches gave way to the pounding and clanging of traditional conga bands.
The Cuban president, who turns 74 next month, completed the march to the U.S. Interests Section, where he boarded his black Mercedes Benz. The chief of the American mission, Vicky Huddleston, was briefly seen on a balcony with binoculars.
The event coincided with the 47th anniversary of the July 26, 1953, attack by Castro and his followers on an army barracks. That launched the Cuban Revolution against the dictatorship of then-President Fulgencio Batista. Although the attackers were all either killed or jailed, the movement
eventually triumphed on New Year's Day 1959 after Batista fled the country.
Cubans celebrate July 26 as a national holiday every year, but this time the celebration comes amid growing moves in the U.S. Congress to chip away at the trade sanctions against Cuba.
The House of Representatives last week voted to stop enforcing provisions that ban U.S. food exports and limit sales of American medicine to Cuba and four other countries -- Iran, Libya, North Korea and Sudan. The Senate passed a bill the same day to permit food and medical sales to the five
countries.
Cuba welcomed the moves, but said they do not go far enough. The Cubans have said they believe that massive marches, such as the scores of gatherings held during the seven-month battle to return 6-year-old Elián González to Cuba, are necessary to help turn U.S. public opinion
against the embargo while it is the focus of congressional debate.
Capitol talks seek way to collect damages for terrorism
By Frank Davies. fdavies@herald.com
WASHINGTON -- Pressured by accelerating action on Capitol Hill to help families victimized by terrorism, the Clinton administration Wednesday was negotiating vigorously with key senators on ways to allow Brothers to the Rescue relatives, former hostage Terry Anderson and others to collect
damages from Cuba and Iran.
Senate leaders said they were prepared to vote this week on a measure, approved late Tuesday in the House, to make it easier for families to collect compensatory and punitive damages that federal judges awarded in several high-profile cases against those two nations.
White House officials, worried that the legislation could tie their hands in dealings with Iran, are trying to settle the issue before a bill reaches President Clinton.
"We are in serious negotiation with the sponsors of this bill, seeking a way to resolve this while preserving the president's flexibility to conduct foreign policy,'' said Jake Siewert, a White House spokesman.
The Miami relatives of three of four Brothers to Rescue pilots, shot down and killed by Cuban jets over international waters in 1996, had rejected one administration proposal to allow them to collect about $50 million in compensatory damages from Cuban assets frozen in the United States.
The families, who had won a $187.6 million judgment in a 1997 civil case, still seek punitive damages they hope would deter future attacks.
A New Jersey family was awarded $247 million in damages against Iran for sponsoring a bus bombing in Gaza that killed a U.S. student, Alisa Flatow. And Anderson, a journalist held hostage for seven years in Lebanon, won a $341 million judgment against Iran this year.
The administration has blocked payment of those awards from frozen assets, arguing that U.S. officials needed flexibility in working out complex, longstanding claims against governments such as Iran.
But Congress is moving toward approval this week of a bill sponsored by Sens. Connie Mack, R-Fla., and Frank Lautenberg, D-N.J., to give the families a new tool to go back to court and pursue the damages. It would restrict presidential power to prevent the release of frozen assets.
The House approved the bill by voice vote with broad bipartisan support. The measure has the backing of several key Senate Democrats, including Dianne Feinstein of California and Joe Biden of Delaware. Florida Democrat Bob Graham is a co-sponsor.
The bill comes with a hard-to-resist title, the Justice for Victims of Terrorism Act, and constant Republican reminders that Clinton encouraged legal action against "rogue states'' immediately after the Brothers to the Rescue shoot-down.
The legislation has prodded the administration into a new effort to resolve the issue, said several sources familiar with the dispute, and the White House acknowledged some urgency over a potential political embarrassment.
"We believe the families deserve just compensation,'' Siewert said. "We also have some concerns about how it's done.''
A lawyer for the Brothers to the Rescue families saw progress. "Representatives of the families believe the efforts by the House and Senate to move the legislation are leading, at long last, to the prospect of a fair and just resolution,'' said Ron Kleinman of Greenberg Traurig's Washington
office.
According to one participant in the talks, one proposal being considered is for the administration to "unfreeze'' some Cuban and Iranian assets for compensatory damages and preserve the right of the families to pursue punitive damages from other assets in future negotiations.
Mack, Lautenberg and three House Republicans from Florida -- Lincoln Díaz-Balart and Ileana Ros-Lehtinen of Miami and Bill McCollum of the Orlando area -- kept up pressure on the administration Wednesday.
"We have moved one step closer to giving these victims and their families the justice they deserve,'' McCollum said.
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