Published Friday, August 31, 2001 in
The Miami Herald
Elián could visit New York for U.N. summit
By Stewart Stogel, Tim Johnson and Elaine De Valle.
tjohnson@krwashington.com.
UNITED NATIONS -- Elián González, the young Cuban castaway who
triggered a seven-month, wrenching international tug of war over his custody,
might set foot again on U.S. soil.
Cuban diplomats say the Foreign Ministry in Havana is considering whether to
include Elián as one of several youths the nation will send to next
month's U.N. children's summit, which will draw at least 74 heads of state and
government from around the world.
No decision has been made, and it was not immediately clear whether Cuban
officials had even broached the subject with Elián's father, Juan Miguel
González, who has permitted his 7-year-old son to appear with Cuban
President Fidel Castro during several recent rallies.
During the emotional battle over Elián's custody last year, Castro's
government said the boy would not serve as a political trophy were he returned
to Cuba.
"Mr. Castro promised that he would not utilize Elián González
for political purposes. Maybe he forgot,'' said Frank Calzón, executive
director of the Center for a Free Cuba, in Washington, D.C.
In Miami, Elián's great uncle said his family was shocked by the news
that the boy they sheltered for seven months may again come to the United
States.
"It is an enormous surprise,'' said Lázaro González,
standing before a cluster of microphones, once again in front of the house where
the boy stayed in Little Havana.
González said that just the announced desire to bring the boy --
whether he actually accompanies the Cuban delegation to New York or not -- shows
the true intentions Castro had when he fought for Elián's return.
"It proves to the world that we knew what we were saying -- that the
boy was not going back to his father, he was going back to Castro, to a
political game,'' González said. "He is being used as a political
trophy. We know that if Elián is brought here, it is for a political
reason. It is not for nothing. It is not for vacation.''
The Miami relatives have not had contact with the boy since he was whisked
from the home in a pre-dawn federal raid in April of last year.
"I think this proves the theory that the Cuban-American community
always argued. We always said that Fidel Castro was going to use this boy for
his political gain,'' said Joe Garcia, executive director of the Cuban American
National Foundation.
Castro is not scheduled to attend the Sept. 19-21 U.N. children's summit in
New York, but diplomats said he may change his mind if he receives an appeal
from former South African President Nelson Mandela this week at the World
Conference Against Racism in Durban, South Africa.
"Castro will meet Mandela in Durban,'' a Cuban diplomat said. "If
Mandela asks Castro to come to New York, [Castro] most likely will reconsider.''
Legally, Elián could come to New York City unrestricted.
As part of the Cuban delegation, he would have diplomatic immunity and
remain out of the reach of his Miami relatives. While the U.S. government might
try to block his visa, even that would be on shaky grounds, since Washington by
treaty can't control visits to U.N. functions by member countries.
2 more arrests in spy case expected
By Alfonso Chardy. achardy@herald.com
Federal agents are expected to arrest today two more alleged members of a
now-dismantled Cuban spy ring that saw five of its operatives convicted in Miami
federal court in June, two Justice Department officials told The Herald on
Thursday.
The Justice officials, who requested anonymity, declined to name the
suspects or say what they will be charged with.
U.S. Attorney Guy Lewis and Hector Pesquera, the FBI's top agent in Miami,
have scheduled a 10:30 a.m. news conference for today.
Aloyma Sanchez, a spokeswoman for the U.S. attorney's office in Miami, said
a news conference will take place at FBI headquarters and the subject will be
related to Cuba. But Sanchez would not comment further.
FBI spokeswoman Judy Orihuela declined comment Thursday evening.
The arrests come almost two months after Pesquera, the special agent in
charge, told The Herald that more spy suspects eventually would be arrested.
"There are going to be other people picked up on this matter here,''
Pesquera said in early July. "We haven't finished our investigation, and I
am very confident that additional people will be charged in this intelligence
network operation.''
In June, a federal jury convicted five men -- Gerardo Hernández, Ramón
Labañino, Fernando González, René González (no
relation to Fernando) and Antonio Guerrero -- of espionage conspiracy. Evidence
showed the spies monitored U.S. military installations and Cuban exile groups
for the purpose of relaying secrets to Fidel Castro's government in Havana.
The lead defendant, Hernández, was convicted of conspiring to commit
murder in connection with the shoot-down by a Cuban MiG fighter of two Brothers
to the Rescue planes on Feb. 24, 1996. Four Miami men died in the incident.
It's unclear whether the new suspects are high-level "illegal''
intelligence officers who reported to Havana command and control centers, such
as Hernández, Labañino and Fernando González, or
lower-level agents who reported to the "illegal officers,'' such as René
González and Guerrero.
In July, Pesquera said there was a third category of spy suspect that he
labeled "collaborators.''
The five men convicted in June were arrested in 1998 along with five others
who later pleaded guilty. They were members of the so-called La Red Avispa, or
the Wasp Network.
At the time of the arrests, federal investigators said between 200 and 300
Cuban spies were believed to have operated in the Miami area for decades.
At least four suspects eluded federal agents and returned to Cuba before the
arrests.
One of them was Juan Pablo Roque, a pilot who had infiltrated Brothers to
the Rescue. He secretly returned to Cuba on the eve of the deadly Brothers
shoot-down in 1996.
Roque reappeared in Havana shortly after the shoot-down disclosing that he
had infiltrated Brothers.
Relatives of the four Brothers fliers killed in the shoot-down and Brothers
leader José Basulto, who survived the episode, have pushed for the
indictments of Castro and at least eight other people suspected of having had
direct participation in the incident.
Lewis, the interim U.S. attorney, and Pesquera have not said whether they
plan to indict Castro or any of his aides in the case, but they say Hernández's
conviction took them a step closer to that possibility because it demonstrated
that the Cuban government "hatched'' the murder conspiracy.
Herald staff writers Gail Epstein and David Green contributed to this
report.
Copyright 2001 Miami Herald | 
