Miami Herald. April
13, 2001.
Cuba actively assisting lawyers in spy case
The accused agents' defense has had unprecedented access on the island.
By Gail Epstein Nieves. gepstein@herald.com.
Just five weeks after federal agents busted a suspected Cuban spy ring in
South Florida, Fidel Castro admitted he sent spies to the United States to
gather information about "terrorist activities'' by anti-Castro exile
groups.
"We aren't interested in strategic matters, nor are we interested in
information about military bases,'' Castro told CNN in October 1998, adding that
his top interest was "sabotage plans'' against his country.
That same theme is being put forth now, this time during the trial of five
accused Cuban spies in U.S. District Court in Miami. The five court-appointed
defense lawyers in the case have become surrogates of sorts for the Cuban
government, which has granted them access and cooperation unprecedented in the
strained 41-year history of U.S.-Cuba relations.
The reasons are obvious, lawyers and other observers say: Cuba has higher
stakes in the outcome of this case than in any recent U.S. prosecution.
The attorneys -- Paul McKenna, Joaquín Méndez, William Norris,
Jack Blumenfeld and Philip Horowitz -- are representing acknowledged agents of
Cuba's Directorate of Intelligence, Castro's main foreign espionage agency.
But beyond that, either by choice or by necessity, the lawyers' defense
strategies are so intertwined with Cuba's controversial political positions that
on some days, depending on the testimony, it's difficult to tell whether the
trial is taking place in Havana or Miami.
Codefendants Gerardo Hernández, Antonio Guerrero and Ramón
Labañino face a maximum sentence of life in prison if convicted of
espionage conspiracy. Fernando González and René González
(no relation) face 10-year prison terms if convicted as unregistered foreign
agents. Hernández alone faces the most serious charge: conspiring with
Cuba to murder four Brothers to the Rescue fliers.
EXILES UNDER ATTACK
But in the seventh-floor courtroom of Judge Joan Lenard, Brothers and other
Miami exile organizations also are under attack. The defense, with much of its
ammunition coming from Cuba, has tried to portray them as "counterrevolutionary''
terrorists.
"Of course Cuba is going to do everything it can to defend this case,''
said Tampa lawyer Rafael Fernández, who has long represented anti-Castro
clients and stopped by the Miami courtroom two weeks ago. "This is the
Republic of Cuba on trial. It's got nothing to do with Gerardo Hernández.''
Just how much did Cuba help craft the defense? Consider:
All of the defense lawyers traveled to Cuba, some six or seven times and as
recently as Thursday, where they interviewed witnesses and government officials,
consulted with attorneys and managed to fit in baseball games or side trips to
Varadero beach. On some trips, Cuba provided drivers, interpreters and housing.
STARK CONTRAST
By contrast, defense lawyers for 9-year-old Jimmy Ryce's killer, onetime
rafter Juan Carlos Chavez, weren't allowed inside Cuba even once.
"We were representing someone who left Cuba on a raft, as opposed to
[government] agents who are part of the Cuban elite,'' Miami-Dade assistant
public defender Patrick Nally said. "These guys were sent to mess with
America, so I assume the Cuban government has an interest in allowing them to be
defended.''
In a first, the Cuban military gave defense lawyer McKenna and his hired
expert a private air show with a MiG fighter jet to help demonstrate Cuba's
version of events regarding the Brothers shoot-down, in which two Cessnas were
shot from the sky in February 1996.
In another first, Cuba allowed the defense and prosecution teams to travel
there for a joint week of videotaped testimony from eight Cuban government
officials -- including high-ranking military and anti-terrorism agents -- whom
Cuba refused to allow to travel to the United States for the trial.
The group included some 18 lawyers, investigators, FBI agents, a court
reporter, interpreters and a monitor of classified information.
They took the depositions at the Swiss ambassador's house and stayed at the
famed Nacional hotel.
Cuba sent to Miami a state security officer, Lt. Col. Roberto Hernández
Caballero, who testified for the defense about his investigation into hotel bomb
attacks in Havana, which Cuba blames on exile extremists.
It was only the third time since 1997 that Cuba has allowed one of its
officials to travel to a Florida court; the prior trips were to help U.S.
prosecutors press charges of cocaine trafficking and skyjacking -- two crimes
that Cuba has publicly discouraged in recent years.
Two defense liaisons with Cuba are attending the trial. The brother of
defendant René González, Roberto González, a criminal
lawyer in Havana, has helped the defense team in Cuba and Miami. So has Puerto
Rican criminal lawyer Rafael Anglada-López, a socialist and independence
activist whose ties to Castro's regime got him hired as a court-paid defense
investigator. Anglada-López recently sat through nine days of trial.
Lawyers in the case are under orders from the judge not to talk. But the
red-carpet treatment from Cuba in this case is a far cry from what other
attorneys have experienced.
A NEW WILLINGNESS
Allan Sullivan, a former federal prosecutor who visited Cuba twice in 1997
in the cocaine-trafficking case, said Cuba's cooperation was "given
grudgingly and with some trepidation,'' particularly when it came to producing
witnesses whom the U.S. government needed to make its case at trial.
"It seems pretty clear there's a strong interest in the present
circumstance to assist their former agents, whereas in my case, while it was not
an insignificant case, it was simply another narcotics case,'' Sullivan said. "And
while they cooperated . . . there was clearly not the foreign interests that are
at stake in the current prosecution.''
Luis Fernández, spokesman for the Cuban Interests Section in
Washington, D.C., said he had "no details'' of his country's cooperation in
the spy case. He downplayed any notion that the trial was providing Cuba with a
new public forum.
"For a long time, thousands of terroristic actions have been committed
in our country, some with the cooperation of the Cuban American National
Foundation, and we have denounced them each time,'' he said. "That's been
clear to everybody.''
The foundation has denied the allegations.
GREATEST IRONY
The greatest irony, lawyer Rafael Fernández said, is that U.S.
taxpayers are paying to defend the accused spies for alleged crimes against the
United States -- and that the same due process would never be afforded the men
in their own country.
"These guys must be sitting there thinking, 'Only in America!' '' said
Fernández, who complimented all of the defense attorneys in the case: "They're
doing a great job -- and I hope they lose.''
Miami wants to give event the boot
By Michelle Kaufman . Mkaufman@herald.com. April 13, 2001.
Miami city officials, fearful of local reaction to a possible appearance by
the Cuban national soccer team at the Orange Bowl, are trying to persuade the
promoter of an international tournament to move the event out of the city.
Cuba is one of eight remaining teams competing in the Copa Caribe, and the
city-owned Orange Bowl has been reserved for the semifinals and finals May 25
and 27, though no formal contract has been signed.
The semifinalists won't be determined until as late as May 21, but Miami
officials don't want to wait to see if Cuba advances.
Stefano Turconi, chief executive officer of tournament promoter InterForever
Sports, said Thursday a decision on whether to move the event will be made next
week.
"From a legal perspective, there is not much we can do, but we have
conveyed to the promoter that it could be a very contentious issue in this
community if he brings the Cuban national team to the Orange Bowl, and it is
something he should be concerned about,'' Miami city manager Carlos Gimenez
said.
"He wants a positive event, and Miami is not the best place in the
world to have the Cuban national team. It's probably the worst place. We
suggested it would be in his best interest to move to a neutral site.''
Mayor Joe Carollo added: "I do not see Cuba playing at the Orange Bowl
at all until you have a democracy in Cuba.''
Turconi said if the games are moved, it would be for financial, not
political, reasons. He said Miami-based InterForever Sports and the tournament's
governing body, the Caribbean Football Association, are considering moving the
dates to May 23 and 25 (Wednesday and Friday), and the absence of a weekend game
makes the Orange Bowl a less attractive venue financially.
Turconi said the games might instead be played in Trinidad and Tobago, where
the quarterfinals are being held May 16-21.
"We told the city a month ago that there was a 50-50 chance of Cuba
participating, and it didn't become an issue until this week,'' Turconi said. "To
be honest, I didn't consider the participation of Cuba as problematic when I
talked to the Orange Bowl about these games. Miami is a great venue for
Caribbean soccer, especially with the local Haitian and Jamaican communities,
and I didn't think about Cuba as a problem. Maybe I should have.''
The Orange Bowl's standard rent for a soccer game is $5,000 and $1 for every
ticket sold. The city would also lose revenue from parking and concessions.
Both the city and Miami-Dade County have a long history of concern over
Cuban entertainers and Cuban participation in sports events.
Until June, the county had a resolution that prohibited it from doing
business with anyone who had ties to Cuba. It lost a bid for the Latin Grammys
last year because of that policy. The organizer of South Florida's campaign to
host the 2007 Pan American Games withdrew that bid in 1999 after concluding that
opposition from the county would have killed its chances.
But a Supreme Court ruling that struck down a similar law in Massachusetts
forced the county to drop its policy. Civic leaders, including Miami-Dade Mayor
Alex Penelas, successfully courted this year's Latin Grammys for the
AmericanAirlines Arena, even though there is a chance Cuban entertainers might
be included in the event.
In 1999, the management company that runs the city-owned Knight Center
canceled a concert by the Cuban band Los Van Van following complaints by Miami
officials. Los Van Van subsequently played at the Miami Arena, where thousands
protested against them.
The possibility of Cuba playing soccer at the Orange Bowl created a similar
stir at city hall.
"It's a matter of public safety,'' said Miami commissioner Tomas
Regalado. "We don't need another Elian. The problem is if they come here
and win and say, 'We dedicate this to our leader, Fidel Castro,' then what
happens?''
Herald staff writer Charles Rabin contributed to this
report.
U.S. seeks new torture evidence against former orderly in Cuba
By Alfonso Chardy. achardy@herald.com. Published Thursday,
April 12, 2001
Federal investigators have reopened the case of Eriberto Mederos and are
looking for witnesses or documents to verify allegations that the former orderly
at Havana's psychiatric hospital tortured political prisoners with electroshock
treatment, according to U.S. Justice Department sources familiar with the case.
The sources said investigators are looking for new evidence as a first step
toward convincing senior immigration officials to reopen the Mederos file and,
possibly, strip him of his U.S. citizenship.
Lack of corroborating witnesses and documentation, the sources said, was
among the factors when the U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service in 1993
granted U.S. citizenship to Mederos despite being aware that several former
prisoners held at the hospital alleged he had given them electroshock as
punishment or in connection with interrogation sessions.
Those allegations first surfaced in a book published in 1991. They were
repeated in front-page newspaper stories nationwide in 1992.
Despite that, the INS in May 1993 naturalized Mederos when investigators
concluded they could not challenge his contention that electroshock treatment
was a medical procedure -- not torture, the sources said.
Patricia Mancha, an INS spokeswoman in Miami, declined comment on the case,
citing "privacy issues.''
HUMAN RIGHTS GROUP
The Mederos case is once again in the headlines as a result of pressure from
a human rights organization in Boynton Beach that wants the U.S. government to
detain and deport foreign nationals accused of having tortured or killed
political foes.
The group, International Educational Missions, has specifically asked the
INS to begin proceedings to strip Mederos of his U.S. citizenship.
But INS officials, not referring specifically to Mederos, said that before
they can strip a naturalized American of citizenship, the agency needs witnesses
who can prove that the person lied to obtain citizenship.
"If any individual has information relevant to someone acquiring
naturalization through fraudulent means, we welcome them to come forward and
supply this information to us,'' an INS official said. "There is a burden
of proof which the government must adhere to, and we take every allegation
seriously and investigate it.''
Mederos, who lives in the Allapattah neighborhood of Miami, north of
downtown, declined two requests for an interview. But in the past, Mederos has
insisted that the electroshock treatment he delivered was ordered by doctors.
Richard Krieger, head of International Educational Missions, said he was
writing a letter to U.S. Attorney General John Ashcroft requesting that the INS
reopen the Mederos file with a view to stripping him of citizenship.
Under U.S. law, denaturalization proceedings can begin if investigators
obtain "credible and probative evidence'' to establish that a naturalized
individual concealed "a material fact'' from his or her background when
applying for citizenship.
The INS application for naturalization specifically asks: "Have you at
any time, anywhere, ever ordered, incited, assisted or otherwise participated in
the persecution of any person because of race, religion, national origin or
political opinion?''
If Mederos answered no, then law enforcement officials need to find
witnesses to verify allegations he used electroshock as torture -- not as a
medical procedure as he has insisted all along.
Mederos insists that the electroshock treatment was a legitimate procedure
given on doctors' orders.
"These are accusations from people looking for publicity,'' Mederos
told El Nuevo Herald in an interview published April 16, 1992. "It's my
word against theirs. I say that their treatments are recorded in their medical
files in Havana. They say the opposite.''
Public records list Eriberto Mederos at two different addresses -- one in
the western part of Miami-Dade County near the junction of the Homestead
Extension of Florida's Turnpike and State Road 836, and the second in Allapattah
between State Roads 836 and 112 just east of Miami International Airport.
Mederos' daughter, Vivian, told The Herald last month that her father had
moved out of the West Miami-Dade address five or six months earlier and that she
did not know his new address.
'NOVEL HAS ENDED'
The Allapattah address is at a small, one-story pink duplex apartment. One
morning late last month, a man emerged from the apartment. Asked if he was
Mederos, the man said: "Yes, that's me.''
Told that The Herald was preparing an article on him, Mederos smiled and
said: "This is a novel that has ended.''
Mederos added that he gave interviews in 1992 when his Havana work was
revealed and he planned no more.
"Thanks for your interest, though,'' Mederos said as he got into his
car and drove off.
The world first learned about Mederos in 1991 when authors Charles J. Brown
of Freedom House and Armando M. Lago of Of Human Rights published The Politics
of Psychiatry in Revolutionary Cuba.
After being discovered in 1992 working at a Hialeah convalescent home,
Mederos acknowledged delivering electroshock treatment -- but categorically
denied it was torture.
Mederos began working at the Havana hospital in 1945 when he was 22 and left
in 1980 when he was 57, according to published reports in the 1990s.
In 1984, Mederos arrived in Miami. It's unclear if he came as a refugee,
immigrant or visitor who then stayed or asked for political asylum.
In 1990, a former inmate at the Havana hospital recognized Mederos walking
on a Hialeah street one morning.
"I saw Mederos leaving a restaurant,'' said José Ros, who
alleged that Mederos tortured him with electroshock at the psychiatric hospital
in the 1970s. "As soon as I saw him, I felt like an electrical current went
through my body. I turned around and went back to try to talk to him but by then
I couldn't find him.''
Herald staff researcher Elisabeth Donovan and El Nuevo Herald staff writer
Pablo Alfonso contributed to this report.
Chinese had role in Cuba's past
By Vivian Sequera . Associated Press. Published Thursday,
April 12, 2001.
HAVANA -- The oldest members of Cuba's tiny Chinatown still remember a
splendorous past when the streets of their Havana neighborhood were bustling
with Chinese shops and restaurants.
But when Chinese President Jiang Zemin arrives here today on his Latin
American tour, he will find a Chinese community greatly diminished since its
birth more than 150 years ago.
"Now there is nothing,'' Fausto Eng, 79, said as he stood in front of a
dilapidated building that once housed a Chinese pharmacy. "Everything has
disappeared.''
Two blocks away are the offices of the community's Chinese newspaper,
founded in 1928 as a daily but now just a four-page weekly with a circulation of
a few hundred. Like the newspaper, the streets of "Barrio Chino'' in
central Havana are just a pale reminder of what once was.
Two hundred Chinese first landed in Cuba in 1847 brought over from Canton
province on a Spanish frigate to work as contract laborers on Cuba's sugar cane
plantations.
Chinese workers were seen as a source of cheap labor as the practice of
African slavery was falling out of favor in Europe, said Alfonso Chao, president
of Casino Chung Wah, a Chinese club.
Tens of thousands of Chinese eventually were brought over during the mid- to
late-1800s as contract laborers, many in virtual slavery.
Slavery in Cuba was abolished in 1886, and with time, the Chinese learned to
make their own living with restaurants, laundries and vegetable gardens.
During the early 1900s until the Cuban revolution, Cuba's Chinese community
numbered more than 30,000, most living in Havana.
Today, after many members have gone to the United States, the Chinese
community is estimated at 2,000 members.
Relations between Beijing and Havana have warmed considerably since Cuba
lost its chief patron, the Soviet Union. Cuba imports huge quantities of Chinese
bicycles and, more recently, one million Chinese color television sets.
Migrant victim of head injuries
Refugee among 25 Cubans discovered near Islamorada
By Jennifer Babson . jbabson@herald.com. Published
Thursday, April 12, 2001.
ISLAMORADA -- Paramedics pulled a man suffering from severe head injuries
from shallow waters off Lignumvitae Bridge early Wednesday after they found him
clinging to life near the site where 25 Cuban migrants are believed to have been
smuggled.
There have been five fatalities with head injuries, at least three
positively identified as migrants trying to flee Cuba in smugglers' boats, in
the Florida Keys this year.
The man, described as Hispanic and in his late 20s or early 30s, was
transported to Mariners Hospital in Tavernier and later airlifted to Jackson
Memorial Hospital in Miami, where he was listed in critical condition.
Personnel from Islamorada Fire Rescue found the man after responding to the
scene of a migrant landing near mile marker 77.
DOZEN ON SHORE
When they arrived, at about 4:20 a.m., a dozen Cuban migrants were on shore,
according to Brian Veale, assistant fire chief for Islamorada.
"They were all shaking, and they looked kind of scared,'' Veale said.
Most were dressed well and didn't show outward signs, such as extreme
dehydration or sunburn, of having been at sea for a long period of time.
A short time later, rescuers found 13 other people -- including the injured
man -- 150 yards from shore on a flat, according to Veale.
"They were just standing there waist-deep in water. The children had on
life jackets, they were holding up the injured guy by his armpits,'' Veale said.
Although they are suspected of having been smuggled to South Florida, the
migrants told Border Patrol agents they left Puerto Escondido on Cuba's north
coast at 6 p.m. Monday in a homemade, 25-foot wood boat with a single diesel
engine.
BORROWED BOAT
Paramedics had to borrow a boat from a nearby towing company to ferry the
injured man to shore.
The rest of the group found offshore were placed aboard a Coast Guard rescue
boat for transfer to a cutter, where they were scheduled to be interviewed by
the Immigration and Naturalization Service. They are likely to be repatriated to
Cuba.
Border Patrol officials wouldn't elaborate, but Veale said the injuries to
the man's head were extensive.
"He was totally unconscious, and he looked like he had been somewhat
traumatized by something in the head and face and torso, like he had been hit
with something,'' Veale said.
Authorities still don't know who he is.
SEEKING INFORMATION
"We don't have a name, we are trying to track that information down,''
said Mike Baron, a Border Patrol spokesman.
The circumstances surrounding the man's injuries are being investigated by a
federal task force, which includes agents from the FBI and Border Patrol,
created two months ago to target migrant smuggling fatalities.
"The FBI and our anti-smuggling unit is involved in this because of the
type of injuries that were sustained by the person,'' Baron said.
Investigators contend the Cuba-U.S. trips have become increasingly dangerous
as organized groups have scrambled to cash in on demand for the illegal passage.
Fares for the voyages can top $8,000 per person and are often paid for by
relatives in Miami.
In many instances, smugglers pack small vessels beyond capacity, stuffing
passengers into boat compartments that may bounce up and down in even slightly
choppy seas.
Making the runs under cover of darkness, they regularly drop their
passengers hundreds of yards from land in an effort to avoid detection.
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