Published Friday, April 27, 2001
Powell's Castro comment upsets exiles
Words of praise came amid rebuke
By Carol Rosenberg. crosenberg@herald.com
Secretary of State Colin Powell stirred up a ruckus Thursday by telling a
congressional committee that Fidel Castro has "done good things for his
people.''
"He's no longer the threat he once was,'' Powell added.
The former Army general mostly heaped contempt on Castro's regime during his
testimony before a subcommittee of the House Appropriations Committee, which is
responsible for the State Department's budget.
But those two sentences struck alarm bells among members of the
Cuban-American community determined to continue isolating Havana. José Cárdenas,
Washington director of the influential lobby the Cuban American National
Foundation, called the comment "profoundly regrettable.''
"The death and misery that Fidel Castro has caused trumps a thousand
times over any good he has done for the Cuban people,'' Cárdenas said.
Foundation leaders, who have met with National Security Advisor Condoleezza
Rice but not Powell since he became secretary of state, will "seek
clarification of his remarks with the Bush administration,'' Cárdenas
said.
It was the new Bush administration's second foreign policy brouhaha this
week. President Bush caused an uproar Wednesday by suggesting that the United
States would use military force to defend Taiwan against China, a deviation from
a more measured and perhaps ambiguous policy.
Powell made his comments in an overall condemnation of the Cuban regime,
describing Castro as "a leader who's trapped in a time warp'' after Rep.
José Serrano, D-N.Y., said U.S. policy to isolate Cuba is senseless and
inconsistent with policy toward Vietnam and China.
Thursday night, the White House rushed to soften the message by distributing
the full text of the exchange between Powell and Serrano.
Serrano, who was born in Puerto Rico, appealed to Powell, a fellow New
Yorker, to rethink Cuba policy.
COMMON ROOTS
Saying "you and I come from the same neighborhood,'' Serrano noted that
members of Congress' Black and Hispanic caucuses had "gotten into
educational business with Cuba'' by sending people from the South Bronx to study
medicine free of cost in Cuba.
"I suspect the medicine they'll study in Cuba will not make them come
back to our country and infect anybody with any disease, because Cuba, as you
know, exports doctors throughout the world,'' Serrano said in an impassioned
soliloquy. "And so I ask you, why China and not Cuba?''
Powell soon responded, saying of Castro: "He's done good things for his
people. You touch on some of them.''
But then he launched into a lengthy condemnation of Castro's 42-year rule,
saying in part:
"For most of those 42 years and the part of my career when I was in the
military, he was fomenting revolution, he was fomenting insurgencies, he was
trying to impose a system that was not a system of freedom, a system that would
have been disastrous for many of the nations in the region.
"And we had to meet him, we had to respond to that. We did. He's no
longer the threat he was. But 12 years ago, he was a real threat trying to
destabilize the region.''
Powell also described Castro as "an aging starlet'' and said on several
occasions he supports the U.S. embargo on Cuba.
A PRECEDENT
It's not the first time that a secretary of state's off-the-cuff expression
caused Cuban Americans in South Florida to sit up and pay attention.
In 1996, former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright, a Democrat and
staunch anti-Communist, caused a stir by waving a U.S. intelligence intercept of
Cuban MiG pilots crowing after they shot down two civilian planes belonging to
the Brothers to the Rescue.
"I was struck by the joy of these pilots in committing cold-blooded
murder. Frankly, this is not cojones. This is cowardice,'' Albright said of the
shoot-down over the Straits of Florida, employing an off-color Spanish
expression that might politely be translated to mean testosterone.
In contrast to Powell's comments, that remark was received with jubilation
in the Cuban exile community.
Callers to Cuba incensed over sky-high phone bills
A "call-around number'' charges callers $7.04 for the first minute
and $3.15 thereafter.
By Elaine De Valle. edevalle@herald.com. Published Friday,
April 27, 2001
More than 2,000 customers have complained to BellSouth about whopping phone
bills -- at least one totaling more than $3,400 -- caused by their attempts to
find a cheap and reliable way to call Cuba.
The culprit: a seven-digit "call-around number'' that charges callers
$7.04 for the first minute and $3.15 for every minute thereafter.
Callers thought they had found a way to call for 80 cents a minute, and
BellSouth is negotiating with Sprint to offer a one-time adjustment at that rate
to stung customers, said Spero Canton, the company's spokesman -- "even
though this is not a BellSouth issue.''
Customers with questions should call the business office at 305-780-2355, he
said.
Cubans in South Florida -- frustrated after Cuban President Fidel Castro cut
most direct phone links with the United States on Dec. 15 -- rushed to use the
10-10-333 call-around number. The number is owned by Sprint, but gained
widespread attention with an offer from phone-service reseller Cyndi's Discount
Long Distance.
Cyndi's offers an 80-cent rate to Cuba via its website:
http://comfon.hypermart.net/ The site has no phone number.
"We understand that three days after completing an online application .
. . customers were eligible to receive a discounted rate for calls to Cuba,''
Canton said.
But many customers heard about the offer by word of mouth and did not access
the website -- and didn't receive the discount, Canton said.
Sprint spokeswoman Angie Makkyla said the 10-10-333 number is "strictly
a Sprint caller identification code. No reseller is authorized to use that
number.''
She said the company was investigating.
Plenty of callers would be interested in the result.
One is Catalina Muñiz, who almost fainted when she got her bill last
week -- for $3,443 and change.
"This is horrible, horrible,'' she said. "It is inconceivable.''
She called her sister in Santiago de las Vegas more than usual because she
thought -- like many others -- that the calls were free or inexpensive. Word on
the street was that the 10-10-333 number routed the call through the Internet
and would not cost a dime.
"It's even caused problems in my marriage,'' Muñiz said.
Ysabel García believed a different rampant rumor: that if you punch
*67 to disable Caller ID, the calls would not be charged.
"Let's be honest: I tried to take advantage of the situation,'' said
García, a medical assistant who called her sister in Havana several times
a week for a month using three dial-around numbers, including 10-10-333. "But
the rates are still exorbitant.''
Her phone bill neared $1,000. "It's like a mortgage payment,'' she
said.
"It's an abuse,'' said Hanoi Tejera, 34, of Hialeah, who got two bills
totaling $470.66. "Do you know what it is to get a phone bill for $500 for
two hours to Cuba? That's a salary.''
Rates to Cuba on similar 10-10 numbers range from 65 to 77 cents per minute,
according to Internet site http://www.10-10phonerates.com/
BellSouth isn't the only one to get complaints. The Florida Public Service
Commission has fielded dozens of calls, said Ignacio Ortiz, assistant to
Commissioner Braulio Baez.
"It's a big deal,'' said Ortiz, who explained that the PSC has no
jurisdiction on calls made to out of state. "It just so happens that we're
both Cuban Americans and we're both from South Florida, so the calls have been
coming to us.''
His office contacted the U.S. Treasury Department's Office of Foreign Asset
Control, "and they said they have opened an investigation,'' Ortiz said. "From
having spoken to people at OFAC, I think what happened is that Castro is upset
and he's trying to pad [the phone bills].
"If in fact there is any money going from this to Cuba, that would be a
violation.''
Treasury Department spokeswoman Tasia Scolinos said she could not confirm or
deny any inquiry. "OFAC does not comment on matters that may be subject to
an investigation.''
Sprint spokeswoman Makkyla said her company's calls to Cuba go through a
third country. That's one reason why calls to Cuba are more expensive. Another
is the lack of infrastructure within the country.
On the company's Global Family Plan, calls from Miami to Japan cost 16
cents. Calls to South Africa cost 68 cents a minute, and the Dominican Republic
rate is 39 cents a minute. Base rates to Cuba on the same plan cost $1.53 a
minute.
Casual caller rates -- for people not signed up with the phone company, and
who use the dial-around numbers -- are higher, Makkyla said. That rate for
calling Cuba is $2.84 a minute, after a one-time surcharge of $3.50 a minute.
She couldn't explain how South Florida customers were charged higher rates for
calling 10-10-333.
"We're trying to find out exactly what's going on here and correct it
immediately,'' Makkyla said.
Officials: Rollins professor hit by van in Cuba, hospitalized
WINTER PARK, Fla. -- (AP) -- A Rollins College professor on a business
research trip with several students in Cuba was knocked unconscious by a van
owned by the Cuban Interior Ministry, school officials said.
Dr. Claudio Milman, 39, suffered head injuries, a broken leg and other
fractures when the government van plowed into him Wednesday as he crossed a
street in Havana, said Craig McAllaster, the dean of the suburban Orlando
college's graduate business school.
He said Milman was taken to the city's Hermanos Ameijeiras hospital, a
clinic for foreigners, where he underwent at least four hours of surgery and was
breathing through a respirator.
A student crossing the street with Milman said the van, which was later
identified as a Cuban Interior Ministry vehicle, was speeding and made no
attempt to stop, McAllaster said.
"He (Milman) was crossing the street near the harbor,'' McAllaster
said. "The student, seeing the traffic, turned around but before she could
reach the curb, Milman had been struck.''
Milman, who is a citizen of Argentina and the United States, went to Cuba on
Saturday with seven students and a former Coca Cola executive as part of a
weeklong, hands-on marketing research workshop, McAllaster said. The trip,
Milman's second to Cuba in two months, was approved by the State Department and
Cuban government.
McAllaster said he has asked members of Congress and the U.S. Special
Interests to help the professor. He also said Milman's brother and sister from
California flew to Havana and that the students were arranging to return home
soon.
Cuban government officials were not immediately available for comment.
Spy defense: Brothers in Cuban space
By Gail Epstein Nieves. gepstein@herald.com
A torn video-camera bag and two aviation charts shown to jurors in the Cuban
spy trial Wednesday were recovered from the sea 9.3 miles north of Havana the
day after the 1996 Brothers to the Rescue shoot-down, a Cuban Border Patrol
agent testified.
Defense lawyer Paul McKenna has said he will use the spot where the items
reportedly were found as evidence that the two Brothers planes attacked by Cuban
MiG fighters had strayed into Cuban airspace -- a conclusion disputed by U.S.
and U.N. investigators but maintained by Cuba.
The items are the only purported physical evidence from the shoot-down to
have been shown during the five-month trial.
After their display, Mirta Costa, the mother of one of four Brothers fliers
killed in the attack, exited the courtroom muttering ``Mentiras!'' (``Lies!'')
toward the defense table.
Ramón Hernández Herrera, a first lieutenant with the Cuban
Border Patrol, testified that his boat was dispatched to search ``for any
possible survivors or debris'' Feb. 25, 1996 -- the day after the shoot-down.
He said another crewman retrieved the black bag from the waters some nine
miles north of Havana's El Morro fort, a historical landmark.
Found inside were a battery charger and the English-language aviation
charts, which depicted Miami, Cuba and portions of California, Mexico and the
Pacific Ocean.
The discovery spot was marked with satellite and marine radar readings, he
said.
Hernández acknowledged he did not know where the items came from.
He gave a sworn statement about the findings in 1996 to the International
Civic Aviation Organization, a branch of the United Nations.
The commander also testified that his boat was on patrol at the time of the
attack in the area where Cuba claims it occurred.
But he said he did not see anything happen.
An officer on a cruise ship testified earlier in the trial that he saw smoke
in the sky after the attack and estimated the planes were downed 20 and 23 miles
off the Cuban coast, well beyond its 12-mile territorial limit.
Hernández's testimony was videotaped last week because, like all but
one other Cuban witness, he was not allowed to leave the island to appear live
at the trial.
Jurors also heard briefly from an oceanology engineer who testified that he
has studied marine currents around Cuba since 1991.
He said his studies have looked at the paths taken by debris.
Copyright 2001 Miami Herald | 