Miami Herald .Friday,
April 20, 2001
Ship carrying humanitarian aid leaves Jacksonville for Cuba
JACKSONVILLE, Fla. -- (AP) -- A vessel carrying humanitarian donations left
for Havana, making it the first cargo ship to head to Cuba from the United
States since the U.S. trade embargo against the island nation began four decades
ago.
Officials for Crowley Liner Services, which operates the ship, said no
commercial food or medical supplies were aboard. The vessel, which left
Thursday, is expected to arrive in Havana on Saturday.
Mark Miller, a Crowley spokesman, declined to give details of the cargo. His
company was the first shipping line to get permission from the U.S. government
to send humanitarian donations, commercial food and medical supplies to Cuba
after the Trade Sanctions Reform and Export Enhancement Act was passed by
Congress last year.
Under the law, medical aid and commercial food can be sent to Cuba. However,
U.S. Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, who is against U.S. trade with the communist
country, said Thursday's shipment was "much ado about nothing'' because
legislators opposed to easing the embargo were able to prohibit any trade
financing from U.S. sources.
Cuba has refused to buy U.S. products, a stance some congessional leaders
are trying to change. U.S. Rep. Jo Ann Emerson, who was part of a group of rice
growers and legislators who visited the island last week, said she hopes Cuba
will buy American rice in the future.
"I don't think any of us expected that we would be successful in
selling rice while we were there,'' she said. "These things take time.''
Castro lauds Bay of Pigs veterans
By Anita Snow. Associated Press
PLAYA GIRON, Cuba -- With a tank, a mortar and anti-aircraft artillery as a
backdrop, President Fidel Castro on Thursday saluted the veterans and victims of
Cuba's Cold War triumph in the 1961 Bay of Pigs invasion.
At a ceremony on the coastline where his forces claimed victory over a
CIA-trained exile army 40 years ago, Castro spoke of "remembering the
fallen, remembering the humble sons of the nation who pushed forward into the
crushing blow of the pride and arrogance of the empire.''
"Today is a day of glory that nothing and no one can erase from
history,'' the 74-year-old Castro said, looking out at thousands of Bay of Pigs
veterans, mostly elderly men.
He used the occasion to recast a U.N. vote to condemn his country's human
rights record as a "moral defeat'' for the United States.
He said the U.N. censure -- approved in a 22-20 vote Wednesday by the U.N.
Human Rights Commission -- was not a blow to communist Cuba.
Before Castro rose to address the crowd of men, many with rows of military
medals pinned to commemorative T-shirts, veteran Ernesto Robaina told his former
comrades-in-arms that "there is no powerful enemy for a people who know
what they are fighting for.''
Robaina also dismissed the U.N. condemnation, saying: "Liars! What
human rights are they talking about . . . Our country has been blockaded for
more than 40 years,'' a reference to the U.S. trade embargo on Cuba.
Trained by the CIA in Guatemala at the height of the Cold War, an invasion
force known as the 2506 Brigade was comprised of about 1,500 exiles determined
to overthrow Castro's government, which had brought the Soviet bloc closer than
ever to the continental United States by seizing power in Cuba 28 months before.
The three-day invasion failed. Without U.S. air support and running short of
ammunition, more than 1,000 invaders were captured. Another 100 invaders and 151
defenders died.
Among guests at the ceremony were relatives of former castaway Elián
González, including his father. Elian did not attend.
A year later, Cuban exiles mourn memories of Elián
By Paul Brinkley-Rogers, Elaine De Valle And Eunice Ponce.
pbrinkley-rogers@herald.com. Published Friday, April 20, 2001.
One year after federal agents stormed into a small home in Little Havana to
take Elián González, the image of the fearful child and the cop
with the gun continues to sear the memory of Cuban Americans in Miami.
Pain and anger continue. Feelings of betrayal and resentment linger.
Some have tried to find a positive in the Elián affair.
But healing has not been easy.
The one year anniversary -- marked in Miami this weekend by a series of
gatherings -- will be emotionally bruising, Cuban Americans say.
Carlos Saladrigas, one of several community leaders who tried to negotiate
an end to the impasse with federal authorities the morning of the raid, says
reliving that day "will not be easy for me.
"I am still very disappointed by the actions of the government and the
attorney general,'' he said. "I still have the feeling we were used as a
decoy. It was not ethical and if we had known that armed intervention was
planned we could have made the decision to not be there.''
Attorney Pedro Freyre, who tried to help reach an understanding, says he too
feels used.
"The rug was pulled out,'' he said. "It took me several weeks to
recover. It was horribly traumatic.''
Freyre, who backed the idea that Elián's Miami relatives should have
their day in family court, said he was especially disturbed by the passions "that
tore this city I love apart. I never felt so self-conscious about being a Cuban
American.''
Since then, however, he has expanded his circle of friends. "One of the
few good things to come out of this is that caring people have come together''
to start healing, he said. But he cautioned "The peace is fragile . . .
These wounds run deep. We will live it all over again if there's another lost
child.''
His wife, Elena Freyre, was on the opposite side during the months of
controversy. She said Elián belonged with his dad and believes former
Attorney General Janet Reno had no choice but to order the raid. Splits within
families were common, she said.
"I have tried very hard to put it all behind me,'' she said. "It's
probably harder for those who fought to keep the child here. For our community
this anniversary is going to be rough.''
Others mourn the fact that Elián is in Cuba. They are convinced that
Fidel Castro is using Elián.
Armando Gutierrez -- who handled publicity for Elián's Miami
relatives -- complains that "Elián is being used as a propaganda
tool by the government of Cuba. . . . It makes it very hard for us who were
doubled-crossed by the U.S. government.''
Gutierrez said vigils at the Little Havana house will continue through the
years. "We'll do it again if necessary if it happens again,'' he said. "Maybe
one day Elián will be here again, and we will be here to help him.''
Ninoska Pérez Castellón of the Cuban American National
Foundation said she is still bothered by the fact that "one year ago we had
to hear from so many bigots and racists who used the incident to paint a bad
image of our community.''
But like Gutierrez, she said even more bothersome have been the news reports
out of Cuba that show Elián with Castro.
Marta Flores, who hosts a nightly talk-radio show, La Noche y Usted, says
Elián played a role that should not be overlooked.
"He reunited many people who before were segregated,'' she said. "Every
night you would see different groups working together in front of that house.
That has left a seed planted. One year later, we still remember Elián as
a boy who came with a very special mission.''
She said losing Elián was a different disaster for Cuban Americans
than the failed Bay of Pigs invasion.
"Bay of Pigs was the only serious opportunity the exile community had
to recover its freedom, and we know what happened with that,'' she said. "What
everybody saw in Elián was an act of violence by the large and powerful
against the small and helpless.''
Those who were at the house during the raid, like community leader Ramón
Saúl Sánchez, say they continue to feel traumatized.
Sometimes when he meditates, Sánchez said, he thinks about that
moment, and the boy.
"I try to focus on the tragedy of my country but I can't help wondering
how is he. What is he feeling? Is he where he wanted to be?''
Laritza Ulloa, a 33-year-old nurse who spent many hours waving signs in
front of the González house, said she was at home in Hialeah when her
sister, Mérida, called her. It was still early in the morning, before
sunrise.
"She was crying, 'He's gone, he's gone,' '' she said. "At that
moment a feeling of great sorrow came over me and I lay in the dark, my whole
body shaking, wanting somebody to hold me and comfort me. . . . I remember how
terrible I felt every time I hear the boy's name.''
The Rev. Manuel Salabarría, an evangelist who spent many hours at the
house counseling the González family, said his memories of the raid "are
still fresh. I still see the authorities erupting into the home during holy week
when I expected there would be a peaceful resolution.''
Salabarría, an organizer of a mid-afternoon vigil in front of the
home on Saturday, said he got a phone call informing him about the raid. "I
was paralyzed, completely shocked, that something like that -- an invasion --
could happen in the U.S.,'' he said. "I still feel that way.''
But he said he decided not to let those memories intrude on his spiritual
well-being. "Today, I pray for the agents who betrayed us at that moment,
to help them deal with it,'' he said.
"I am not forgiving them,'' Salabarría said. "I am not
allowing hate to disturb my peace. . . . Elián has been a blessing and a
miracle of the Lord.''
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WEEKEND OBSERVANCES
Several events are planned on the first anniversary of
the federal raid that removed Elián González from the Little
Havana home of his relatives:
5 p.m. Saturday: A prayer vigil organized by a clergy
group called Spiritual Guides will be in front of the Little Havana house,
2319 NW Second St., Miami.
11:30 p.m. Saturday to 5 p.m. Sunday: Casa Elián, a
new exile group that seeks to help Cuban children worldwide, will hold
a vigil at the Little Havana home. At 5:15 a.m., time of the raid, they
will have a minute of silence. At 3 p.m., they'll sing American and
Cuban anthems.
Noon, Sunday: Cuba Policy Foundation, which favors lifting
the U.S. embargo, will have a press conference to reiterate its support
of the reunification of Elián with his father. Sally Grooms
Cowal, president of the foundation, will speak about the boy's saga and
the embargo. Only credentialed journalists will be admitted.
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Spy-trial lawyers set trip to Cuba
By Gail Epstein Nieves. gepstein@herald.com. Published
Thursday, April 19, 2001
A defense attorney in the Cuban spy trial said Wednesday that Cuba recovered
a black video-camera bag 9.3 miles off the Havana coast about 18 hours after the
Brothers to the Rescue shoot-down, and he will try to show that the bag came
from the Cessna airplane of downed Brothers pilot Mario de la Peña.
Lawyer Paul McKenna said he will use the spot where the bag reportedly was
found as evidence that the two Brothers planes attacked by Cuban MiG fighters on
Feb. 24, 1996, had strayed into Cuban airspace -- a major point of contention
between the defense and the government.
To make his case, McKenna will head back to Cuba, accompanied by government
lawyers.
U.S. District Judge Joan Lenard granted McKenna's request to take videotaped
testimony later this week from three Cuban government employees who did work
related to the shoot-down.
Over prosecutors' objections, the judge said "the interests of justice
and due process'' required the trip, the second joint government-defense
excursion in the case. Discussion of the bag and the trip took place outside the
jury's presence.
Traveling to Cuba is necessary because the witnesses say they are afraid and
unwilling to come to Miami to testify. Jurors have seen at least four Cuban
witnesses testify via videotape; only one Cuban has been allowed to testify in
person.
McKenna said the latest witnesses and evidence were only recently made
available to him, because "despite public perceptions'' otherwise, getting
cooperation from the Cuban government has been a long and often fruitless task.
But the chief prosecutor in the case, Assistant U.S. Attorney Caroline Heck
Miller, accused the Cuban government of trying to manipulate the lengthy trial.
McKenna's client, Gerardo Hernández, is charged with conspiring with
Cuba to murder the four Miami men who died in the Brothers attack. He is among
five men accused of spying for Cuba.
The black bag found at sea contained a video-camera charger and two
English-language aviation charts.
In addition to the Border Patrol agent who found the video bag, McKenna
plans to take testimony from the radar operator who tracked the Brothers
airplanes and plotted their courses from his post in Matanzas, Cuba.
A third witness, an oceanographer, studied currents in the waters north of
Havana and concluded that the video bag drifted from the southwest, which
McKenna said coincides with the location of de la Peña's aircraft.
The videotaped testimony probably would conclude the defense presentation in
the five-month trial.
Copyright 2001 Miami Herald | 