Published Tuesday, June 13, 2000, in the Miami Herald
2 Cubans still held in Zimbabwe
By Chris Gaither And Sandra Marquez Garcia. smarquez@herald.com
Zimbabwe's government on Monday sought to distance itself from Cuban President Fidel Castro's message barring two dissident Cuban doctors from traveling to the United States, saying that the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees was responsible for arranging the doctors' transfer to a
third country.
Leonel Córdova Rodríguez, 31, and Noris Peña Martínez, 25, remained jailed for the ninth day at the Goromonzi Remand Center. Diplomats warned that stalled negotiations over the doctors' ``final destination'' could keep them in the country for another two weeks.
``President Mugabe clearly has the power to do anything in this country,'' said a Western diplomat in the Zimbabwe capital of Harare. ``Predicting his actions is a losing proposition.''
George Charamba, a spokesman for President Robert Mugabe, said Castro's weekend communiqué -- stipulating that his government would issue the pair documents valid for travel to any country except the United States -- ``was not meant for us. That communication only bears on the UNHCR, not
the Zimbabwe government,'' Charamba said.
He said it was up to the U.N. refugee agency to decide what country the Cubans would go to and when. Zimbabwe's government has met its obligations in the case, Charamba said. Only ``very small details'' still needed to be worked out, he said.
Dominik Bartsch, a spokesman for the U.N. refugee agency in Lusaka, Zambia, which oversees Zimbabwe, said he was not aware of a breakthrough in the case. ``According to the information that we have, there was no agreement and it was still being referred to what we were told are the higher
authorities,'' he said.
On Monday, staffers from the UNHCR office in Harare brought the two Cuban doctors a fresh supply of food and toiletries. ``But so far, there is no solution,'' Bartsch said.
Thomas Alexander Aleinikoff, a former Immigration and Naturalization Service general counsel who teaches law at Georgetown University, said Zimbabwe would violate international refugee law if it returned the doctors to Havana.
Zimbabwe will more likely try to send the doctors to a ``country friendly with Cuba'' to spare Castro the embarrassment of having them taken in by the United States, he said.
Peña and Córdova were to have been transferred last Friday from the Goromonzi prison, 18 miles outside Harare, to a halfway house in the city. But the United Nations and Zimbabwe officials failed to agree on a place.
Cuba / Crude Oil Production Rises In Central Region
Published Monday, June 12, 2000, in the Miami Herald
More than 700,000 metric tons of crude oil was extracted in central Cuba during the first five months of this year, representing a 21.5 percent increase in production in that region over the same period last year, state industry sources said. Cuba's Prensa Latina news agency cited officials with
the state enterprise that handles petroleum extraction as saying that production was up especially at drilling sites in the area around Varadero, east of Havana, which produces about 4,000 metric tons of crude daily. National petroleum figures were not given.
State exam for Cuban-trained doctors under scrutiny
Associated Press. Published Tuesday, June 13, 2000, in the Miami Herald
The American Medical Association could vote this week to support a resolution seeking to abolish Florida's medical licensing exam for Cuban-born physicians.
The state exam, an alternative to the national test, is available to only about 450 people, mostly Cuban Americans who arrived in South Florida in the mid-1980s.
All of Florida's U.S.-trained doctors are required to pass the United States Medical Licensing Examination in order to practice medicine.
However, Cuban-trained doctors taking the state exam are unable to produce sufficient documents to obtain licenses in Florida or pass the exam.
Critics say the state exam sets a dangerous precedent by licensing the Cuban-born doctors under a different standard. Critics include the Federation of State Medical Boards and the Florida Medical Association.
A state investigator testified before the Florida Board of Medicine in April that the last five plastic surgeons arrested for unlicenses activity were Cuban-born doctors who said they had been trained in a Havana hospital's burn unit.
``Their certificates are questionable and suspect at best,'' said investigator Enrique Torres.
But Frank Cuneo, an attorney representing doctors who have taken the state exam, said, ``It is wholly unfair to label any group simply because a few bad apples have been discovered.''
The Florida Medical Association has passed a resolution asking Florida lawmakers to abolish the exam, replacing it with hospital residency requirements.
An AMA committee meeting passed a similar resolution last weekend in Chicago. That resolution has been forwarded to the AMA's House of Delegates for a vote this week.
``The standard of care in Florida is unsafe if we let politicians gamble with licensure,'' said Dr. Bernd Wollschlaeger, a member of the state association's international medical graduates section.
In 1996, the Florida Legislature authorized the creation of the state exam for doctors trained in Cuba who had passed a two-semester medical refresher course. Those who pass the test also must practice medicine under a supervising physician for two years.
The failure rate for the first two tests given in May and November 1999 was above 90 percent.
Results from last week's test were not available.
Foreign-trained doctors account for about a third of Florida's 37,500 practicing physicians
Dade letting some companies sign a less stringent 'Cuba affidavit'
By Jordan Levin. jlevin@herald.com. Published Monday, June 12, 2000, in the Miami Herald
While arts groups have had to strictly comply with a Miami-Dade County policy prohibiting companies contracting with the county from having any relationship with Cuba, a number of commercial businesses, including the two largest cruise lines at the seaport, have been able to work with the county
under less restrictive conditions.
Both Carnival and Royal Caribbean cruise lines have been permitted to sign a more liberal version of the county's ``Cuba affidavit'' attesting that they comply with the county policy. And haphazard enforcement has meant that other companies' business ties with Cuba have gone unnoticed.
Carnival, the largest cruise company at the seaport, owns 26 percent of Airtours, a British tour company that books vacations in Cuba. And Royal Caribbean Cruise Lines announced in May that it had invested in First Choice Holidays, another British company that books holidays on the island.
The current Cuba affidavit, crafted in 1996, requires that companies attest that neither they, their affiliated companies, nor any of their sub-contractors have transactions with Cuba or Cuban nationals, that involve Cuban nationals, or involve merchandise transported through Cuba -- or do
business with another company that engages in any of these practices.
CRUISE GIANTS
But rather than signing that version of the affidavit, which other seaport tenants must sign, the two cruise giants signed an earlier, less restrictive version in 1998 and 1999 that only requires compliance with the Cuban Democracy Act of 1992, a federal law that permits minority ownership in
foreign companies doing business with Cuba.
The seaport is guaranteed a minimum of $183 million from Carnival, and $160 million from Royal Caribbean, in a 15-year term that began just over a year ago, say county and port officials.
The Herald has also identified 13 county vendors, listed by the U.S. Cuba Trade and Economic Council, a New York nonprofit group, who have had direct or indirect business ties with Cuba.
They include major companies such as Sharp Electronics, Canon and Smithkline Beecham. While the council's report only says that the transactions have taken place since 1985 -- and identifies them as legal under U.S. law -- the Cuba affidavit requires that companies attest they have never had any
transaction with communist Cuba, including some permitted by federal law.
AFFIDAVITS
County officials admit they do not police the thousands of companies required to file Cuba affidavits. And no company has ever been prevented from doing business with the county because it had ties to Cuba, county spokesman Mayco Villafana said.
Miami-Dade Mayor Alex Penelas said any possible violations would be investigated.
``Obviously, any time there are allegations of this nature, we take them seriously,'' Penelas said.
But unless someone calls attention to a possible violation, there is little chance companies will be investigated, say officials.
``Unless there's an allegation, we assume the contractor is being honest,'' said Marsha Jackman, director of the department of business development, which oversees compliance with the affidavit.
Meanwhile, Miami-Dade arts groups, some of whom have lost funding or the use of venues because they violated terms of the affidavit, are awaiting a decision in a federal class-action suit challenging the county's requirement that they sign the Cuba affidavit in order to receive county funds or
use county-owned venues.
Bruce Rogow, the attorney heading the arts groups' suit, said the affidavit's breadth makes it almost impossible to enforce and to comply with.
``If the county were to properly enforce this, it would have to require disclosures from all of these companies about their business,'' Rogow said. ``What it shows is the frightening scope of the Cuba affidavit and the potential danger of reputable companies to fall unknowingly afoul of it.''
FOREIGN POLICY
One of Rogow's central arguments in the Cuba policy suit -- that it intrudes on the federal government's exclusive right to make foreign policy -- is also the basis of a Supreme Court case in which commercial groups are challenging a Massachusetts law prohibiting companies that do business with
that state from doing business with Burma.
Recently a federal judge temporarily suspended the requirement that arts groups sign the Cuba affidavit pending the Supreme Court's decision, which is expected by the end of the month.
Rogow says the difference between the county's treatment of arts and commercial groups is troubling.
``It proves that [the Cuba affidavit] is . . . simply a political statement by the county, because enforcement is impossible. But if you can isolate a small, economically vulnerable group, it's easier to focus on them.''
Penelas said the policy is the same for everyone.
``I am not aware of any different standard between arts groups and large entities,'' Penelas said.
But port and county officials could not explain why Carnival and Royal Caribbean had received the earlier, less restrictive version of the affidavit. Cruise line representatives said they had complied with the version they were given.
``We are in full compliance with the affidavit we signed,'' said Jennifer de la Cruz, spokesperson for Carnival.
Royal Caribbean's affidavit also has the word ``principal'' added, so that it reads ``neither the firm (individual, organization, corporation, etc.) submitting this bid . . . or receiving this contract award, or any of its principal owners, subsidiaries, or affiliated or related firms, are in
violation of the Cuban Democracy Act of 1992.''
FIRST CHOICE
That would seem to allow for a deal like the one Royal Caribbean just made with First Choice.
``We believe we were in compliance with the affidavit when we signed it and that we are in compliance today, because First Choice is neither an affiliate or a subsidiary of this company,'' said Lynn Martenstein, spokesperson for Royal Caribbean. ``We have no control over [First Choice].''
Last month AT&T won a waiver of the Cuba affidavit in its $50-million bid for the contract to operate pay phones at Miami International Airport. It did so partly because AT&T attorney Miguel De Grandy argued that since AT&T supplies long-distance service to Cuba, to consistently
enforce the Cuba affidavit the county would have to stop doing business with every company that used AT&T. AT&T pays between $28 million and $31 million annually to the Cuban government for its business on the island.
John Kavulich, director of the Trade and Economic Council, said American firms increasingly have business connections with the island.
COMPETITIVE
``U.S. companies are finding that in order to remain competitive they need to align themselves with companies that [increasingly] have direct or indirect commercial dealings with Cuba,'' Kavulich said, adding that this created the increasing likelihood of conflicts with Miami-Dade's policy.
``Miami-Dade county will find less room to maneuver.''
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