Published Wednesday, June 14, 2000, in the Miami Herald
Elián relatives' lawyers demand explanations for 'irregularities'
Lawyers for Elián González's Miami relatives, citing newly obtained internal government documents, on Tuesday sent U.S. Attorney General Janet Reno a letter demanding explanations for what they say are "irregularities'' in federal officials' handling of the case.
According to the four-page letter, copies of which were released to the media by the family's representatives, the documents suggest that the Cuban and U.S. governments coordinated press information, and that immigration officials were concerned about the political implications of the case for
the White House and in regard to relations with Cuba.
The letter, signed by attorneys Kendall Coffey and Manny Diaz, also contends the documents indicate that the Immigration and Naturalization Service made up its policy in the case as it went along, with an eye toward potential litigation.
The INS released the documents under judicial order in a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit filed by Judicial Watch, a conservative Washington group that has sued the Clinton administration numerous times.
The INS said it would respond formally, but contended that the letter twisted the meaning of the documents by taking elements out of context.
"I've seen many of the documents they're referring to and there is nothing in them, except that it proves our deliberate and careful procedures,'' INS spokeswoman Maria Cardona said. ``They are maliciously misinterpreting these documents.''
Cardona called the suggestion of coordination with Cuba ``ludicrous,'' and she said the White House was ``not consulted'' in agency decisions.
Coffey argued that the documents undercut the decision of the federal appeals court that upheld Reno's authority to deny Elián an asylum hearing.
Cuba travel grows fast since rules were eased
Thousands visit their families
From Herald Staff and Wire Reports
WASHINGTON -- The number of people who flew directly from the United States to Cuba soared by almost 50 percent last year, as a wave of new Cuban travelers flocked to the island for family visits and American tourists took advantage of eased restrictions.
In South Florida, tour operators reported a large volume of business from Cubans who had arrived from the Guantanamo Naval Base in the mid-1990s. Cuba would not grant visas for those refugees until five years had passed.
The Clinton administration streamlined procedures last year for students, athletes, artists, and other groups and individuals to visit Cuba. It also allowed a greater variety of direct flights, which previously operated only between Miami and Havana.
The measures were aimed at encouraging contacts between Cubans and Americans, helping Cubans in their first attempts to ``form a civil society in Cuba that is genuine -- nongovernmental organizations that are nongovernmental organizations,'' said Charles Shapiro, head of the State Department's
Cuban Affairs Office.
The number of people flying directly from the United States to Cuba increased by around 47 percent last year. Approximately 82,000 people flew in 1999, compared with 55,900 in 1998, according to the Treasury Department's Office of Foreign Assets Control. The office enforces the economic embargo
that prohibits most Americans from spending money in Cuba -- effectively barring them from visiting.
LOCAL INCREASE
In South Florida, the number of businesses handling trips to the island has noticeably increased -- as has their advertising on Spanish-language radio. Many ticket service agencies attribute the rise to a huge new market: the more than 37,000 Cuban rafters who arrived in South Florida through
the Naval Base at Guantanamo in the mid-1990s.
``They were allowed to go back beginning in August of last year, but that's when they started asking for their Cuban passports,'' said Maritza González, an employee at Hialeah's Havana Express, where a round-trip ticket sells for $299. She said Cubans who left the island after 1970 still
need Cuban passports to travel, even if they are U.S. citizens, and it can take up to a year to get one.
ESTIMATES DIFFER
The overall number of people who fly from the United States to Cuba is unknown and different reports have conflicted. Many visitors take flights, legally or illegally, through third countries, such as Canada or Mexico. Cuban officials have said that 160,000 U.S. citizens visited their country
last year, almost double the number who took direct flights.
No one doubts that the number of Americans visiting Cuba is rising. Charter companies have added flights to meet the demand and are flying under the new rules from New York and Los Angeles, as well as from Miami.
VISITING FAMILY
The biggest group of travelers -- about 92 percent -- are people visiting relatives in Cuba, U.S. officials say. They can visit once a year without a Treasury Department license.
The number of nonrelatives who visit Cuba is growing rapidly, however. For Marazul Tours, which arranges travel to Cuba, the business has increased fourfold, said Bob Guild, program director for the Weehawken, N.J.-based travel agency.
``There's certainly always been an interest,'' Guild said. Red tape used to discourage travelers, he said. Researchers needed to apply for licenses, and university groups needed a license for each member.
Under the new rules, many researchers no longer need to request licenses, and universities need only one license for a group -- regardless of how many people travel.
Shapiro, of the State Department, said there is no way to gauge the effectiveness of what the government calls ``people-to-people contacts.'' But he said he takes ``as an article of faith'' that if Americans travel to Cuba for purposes other than tourism, and interact with Cubans, it will have
an impact.
``Given the contest between an open society and a closed society, the open society will win,'' he said.
Activists against President Fidel Castro's government are more skeptical.
José Cárdenas, spokesman for the Cuban American National Foundation, noted that the Cuban government still determines who will enter the country and often sets travelers' itineraries. Travelers may have more contact with Communist Party officials than with ordinary Cubans, he said.
BENEFITS DOUBTED
``Rather than people-to-people contact, what we're seeing is a lot of people-to-party contact,'' he said.
Rep. Bob Menendez, D-N.J., strongly anti-Castro, said there's no indication that years of visits by Canadian, European and Latin American tourists have helped ordinary Cubans.
With travel restrictions eased, American visits to Cuba are undermining the embargo and providing the Cuban government with much-needed dollars, Menendez said.
``What Americans are unwittingly doing, is in going to the hotels and the beaches and spending their money in those places, they' re ultimately fueling the regime,'' he said.
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