Yahoo! June 11, 2001.
Cubans Have Choice of Cuba or Haiti
CAP-HAITIEN, Haiti 8 (AP) - A group of Cubans whose boat sank this week
before reaching Florida confronted a difficult decision Friday - return to the
communist island or stay in Haiti, the poorest nation in the hemisphere.
Some refugees say it's enough to be free of Cuban leader Fidel Castro (news
- web sites). Others, with relatives in Miami, hope the United States will bend
the rules and give them asylum.
"We would all prefer to die, rather than sent back to Cuba,''
33-year-old physician Julio Cesar said in an interview in Cap-Haitien, 95 miles
north of Port-au-Prince.
But the dozen refugees speak little of the Creole and French that are
Haiti's national languages, they have no money, and they're unaware that Haiti's
economy is near collapse and the country has been locked in a political impasse
for more than a year.
The Cubans, all from northern Camaguey province and between 27 and 45 years
old, left May 18 aboard a 17-foot raft.
Among them are five medical technicians, an economist, a factory quality
control worker, a small farmer and a fisherman.
For seven days, they waited in the mangroves for a chance to slip by
patrols.
No sooner had they set off than a Cuban helicopter swooped down, circling
lower and lower until the chopper blades were barely 2 feet above their heads.
The aircraft didn't pursue them but the wind from its blades sucked their
food out of the boat and pushed it onto a coral reef, damaging the motor.
Some 20 miles out to sea, they met another Cuban vessel that gave them some
spare parts and supplies. On May 27, they reached tiny Cay Lobos island, still
some 250 miles from Florida. The next day the motor broke down, they ran out of
water and the boat began to drift.
On May 31, about 145 miles southeast of Miami, the weather worsened and
their boat began going down.
"The boat would have sunk in three hours,'' said John Fenty, captain of
the Haitian freighter Faith, who saved the Cubans.
Fenty continued his voyage to Haiti and on Wednesday, the Cubans came ashore
and requested political asylum.
They all spoke of the deprivations of daily life in Cuba and political
persecution. If repatriated, the Cubans face fines of $500) each or three years
in prison.
Haiti's government has yet to decide on their asylum request.
Cesar said that if forced to choose between Cuba and Haiti, all of the
refugees would choose Haiti.
Haitians frequently take to the sea in flimsy boats in hopes of reaching the
United States. But their requests for asylum frequently are turned down. Cubans
who reach U.S. soil usually get asylum.
This month, the U.S. Coast Guard (news - web sites) said it repatriated 46
intercepted Cubans, while 77 made it to shore. Since October 1999, the Coast
Guard has intercepted more than 1,000 Cubans and some 1,800 Haitians.
Cuba: No U.S. Trade Unless Change
By Anita Snow, Associated Press Writer
HAVANA, 8 (AP) - Unless there are substantial changes to current U.S.
sanctions against Cuba, there will be no trade between the two countries, a
senior Cuban official told Americans at a business conference Friday.
Under current U.S. laws and regulations, "there will be no trade with
our country,'' said Ricardo Alarcon, president of Cuba's National Assembly, or
parliament. "I wish that every American could understand that.''
"It will not require a total ending of the blockade for trade to
occur,'' Alarcon told several dozen Americans in town for the 5th annual
U.S.-Cuba Business Summit. "But it would require some fundamental
changes.''
Alarcon and other Cuban officials remain irritated by the perception among
some Americans that legislation passed last year opened the door for the first
U.S. food sales to Cuba in 40 years.
Not only do financing restrictions make such sales impossible, the
legislation has not taken effect because regulations for the law have not been
written, Alarcon said.
More importantly, he said, a clause in the legislation specifies that it
cannot override earlier sanctions laid out in laws that strengthened the U.S.
trade embargo during the 1990s.
For American business to sell anything to Cuba "you will have to modify
the entire embargo policy,'' Alarcon added.
That said, Alarcon did express hope that future legislation would allow for
some trade "in a not-too-distant future.''
"I really believe in the importance of dialogue and persistence,''
Alarcon said. "I know that what you are doing now will someday be the
rule,'' he added, referring to their visit to Cuba to explore future business
opportunities.
Among the U.S. companies that sent representatives were agribusiness giant
Archer Daniels Midland, of Decatur, Ill.; Patton Boggs law firm, a major
Washington lobby consultant, and the Wm. Wrigley Jr. Co., the Chicago-based
chewing gum leader. Organizers did not provide a list of participants, but most
of the rest appeared to represent small business and some nonprofit companies.
Because of U.S. Treasury Department (news - web sites) regulations that
restrict Americans from spending money in Cuba, the gathering was sponsored by
an Italian firm, Cristobal.
Cuba was plunged into economic crisis with the collapse of the Soviet Union,
and the loss of former socialist trade partners a decade ago.
After several desperate years, the economy has been slowly recovering with
the help of foreign investment and the development of tourism as Cuba's new
primary source of hard currency.
Despite some modest reforms in the first half of the 1990s, the socialist
nation retains a heavily centralized economy.
Coast Guard Repatriates 46 Cubans
MIAMI, 8 (AP) - The Coast Guard Friday repatriated 46 Cubans who were
intercepted trying to illegally reach the United States.
The Cubans were caught in four attempts to reach U.S. shores since the
beginning of the month.
A group of seven aboard a 16-foot boat was intercepted last Friday in waters
off the Florida Keys. The next day, a Coast Guard cutter spotted 33 migrants
about 15 miles south of Anguilla Cay, the Bahamas, aboard a U.S.-registered
25-foot boat. Two men aboard the vessel were arrested on suspicion of migrant
smuggling.
On Monday, another cutter found a raft with six men aboard, and three people
were spotted Tuesday off the Keys.
The migrants received immigration interviews. Most were dropped off in Bahia
de Cabanas, Cuba. Three were to be transferred to the U.S. Naval Station in
Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, for further interviews, Coast Guard officials said.
Judge: Elian's Relatives May Sue
MIAMI, 8 (AP) - A federal judge has ruled that Elian Gonzalez's Miami
relatives can sue the U.S. government for alleged use of excessive force by
federal agents during the raid to seize the Cuban boy.
U.S. District Judge Shelby Highsmith rejected a request from the government
to throw out the lawsuit, saying that the family has "alleged sufficient
facts to support such a claim.''
No trial date has been set.
Lazaro Gonzalez, his wife, Angela Gonzalez, and daughter Marisleysis
Gonzalez contend that government officials violated their constitutional rights
when they ordered the April 22, 2000, raid to seize the boy, then 6.
The Gonzalezes are seeking unspecified damages.
Elian and his father returned to Cuba last June after the Gonzalezes
exhausted all legal efforts to keep the boy in the United States.
The judge cited a Chicago appellate ruling in a case in which a city police
officer with a search warrant allegedly broke down the front door of a suspect's
home without warning and pointed a gun at his head.
U.S. Justice Department (news - web sites) spokesman Charles Miller said the
government has not decided whether to appeal Highsmith's ruling.
In the ruling, filed Tuesday, the judge said then-Attorney General Janet
Reno (news - web sites) and immigration chief Doris Meissner did not conspire to
violate the Gonzalezes' constitutional rights by ordering the raid.
The judge also found that the government's arrest and search warrants used
to enter the Gonzalez family's Little Havana home were legal.
However, "that is not a license for the government to exercise
excessive force in executing that warrant,'' the family's attorney, Frank
Quintero, said Thursday. "I think it's a very good ruling for us.'' | 