Published Friday, June 22, 2001 in the
Miami Herald
Cuban father says son can go to stepfather in Miami
HAVANA -- (AP) -- Yusniel Hernandez, just 11, appears calm despite all that
is happening: his mother died last weekend, he has moved in with his birth
father, and the stepfather he lived with for nearly a decade wants him to live
with him in the United States.
Yusniel's birth father, Lazaro Hernandez, told The Associated Press that he
had given his ex-wife, Rosalba Gonzalez, legal authorization to take the boy to
live with her in the United States before she died in a motorcycle accident on
Sunday.
Divorced 9 years, Yusniel had lived with her and her second husband, Dr.
Leonel Cordova, who made a dramatic defection to the United States last year
after abandoning a Cuban medical mission in Zimbabwe.
After the accident, Yusniel went to live with his birth father, who said
Thursday that he would allow his boy to live with Cordova in the United States
if the Cuban government grants the child the permission needed to leave the
country.
The elder Hernandez said the boy had lived almost all his life with Cordova,
and would surely miss his half sister, 4-year-old Giselle, the child of Cordova
and Gonzalez.
Cordova, who now lives in Miami, has said that he began working to get
American visas for his wife, Giselle, and Yusniel soon after his defection.
"The authorization of the Cuban government is still lacking,'' said
Hernandez, a 33-year-old gardener.
The communist government has not commented on the case since Gonzalez's
death and there has been no indication whether authorities will grant the
authorization needed for Giselle and Yusniel to leave Cuba.
Yusniel's father said he, too, would also like to leave Cuba in search of
new economic opportunities.
But if Havana denies an exit visa to Yusniel, both he and his son will stay
in Cuba. Although Yusniel knows his mother died, he is excited by the
possibility of living with his stepfather in Miami, Hernandez said.
Giselle, meanwhile, is living with her aunt in a community west of Havana.
Although the girl does not understand that her mother his dead, she continues to
speak with her father in Miami several times a week, said Tania Cordova, who is
Cordova's sister.
Relatives of both children say the Giselle's chances for an exit visa seem
better than those of her stepbrother. While Yusniel still has his birth father
in Cuba, Giselle's only surviving parent is in Miami.
Cuba again links Dade man to plot
By Elaine De Valle. edevalle@herald.com.
The Miami developer Cuba says financed a "terrorist'' mission to the
island in April was implicated by the Cuban government last year in an alleged
plot to assassinate Fidel Castro in Panama.
Santiago Alvarez, 60, was accused in November by Cuban Foreign Minister
Felipe Pérez-Roque of organizing a plot that landed four Cuban exiles in
a Panama jail. On Wednesday, Cuban television blamed Alvarez for the April
attack -- and offered a taped telephone conversation with one of three captured
Cuban exiles as proof.
While Alvarez has denied any involvement in the alleged assassination
attempt during the Ibero-American Summit, he would neither confirm nor deny a
role Thursday in the botched April assignment on the island.
"I cannot comment on that right now. If I do say something, it will be
on a more opportune moment,'' said Alvarez, a developer of strip shopping
centers and apartment buildings. "When I can analyze everything, I will
have something to say.''
He does admit to raising money for a defense fund for the jailed men in
Panama he considers his friends.
Three are from Miami-Dade County. The fourth, alleged ringleader Luis Posada
Carriles, has claimed responsibility for a string of bombings at Havana tourist
locations in 1997. He and Alvarez fought together in the Bay of Pigs invasion.
Alvarez has bought some of Posada's paintings to help him make a living, he said
last year.
Alvarez plans a Radio Mambí marathon today for the four men's defense
fund. He said he had raised $150,000 so far.
He would not say Thursday if it was he who spoke to 27-year-old Ihosvani Surís
de la Torre on the telephone in the taped conversation May 3.
Surís was one of three Miami-Dade men caught April 26 in Cuba after
they tried to land on the island with four AK-47 assault rifles, one M-3 rifle
with a silencer and three Makarov pistols. The other two men have been
identified as Santiago Padrón Quintero and Máximo Padrera Valdés,
also known as Máximo Robaina.
The mission was made public on Cuba's national TV show, Mesa Redonda, on
Wednesday. The program aired the alleged telephone call by Surís from the
Villa Marista prison to Alvarez, who was identified as a member of the Cuban
American National Foundation.
In the call, Surís -- apparently coached by State Security -- says he
is well and asks for instructions from Alvarez. He seems to ask if the famous
Tropicana nightclub, a popular tourist destination in Havana, should be among
the targets for destruction.
"The other day, when you told me about the Tropicana, do you want me to
do something there?'' Surís asked.
The man identified as Alvarez responds: "If you want to do that, so
much the better. Makes no difference to me.''
The transcript of the phone conversation was published Thursday in Granma,
the Cuban Communist Party's daily, and distributed by Cuba's National
Information Agency.
There was no explanation why Cuba waited until Wednesday, almost two months
after the arrests, to make the details public. Diplomats at the Cuban Interests
Section in Washington, D.C., did not return calls.
In Wednesday's program, Mesa Redonda hailed five spies convicted this month
in Miami as patriots and heroes for trying to stop "terrorist'' plans by
Miami exiles. The April mission was cited as an example.
According to Cuban State Security agent Manuel Heyvia, who reported the
arrests on the program, the three Miami-Dade men planned to attack the Tropicana
as well as recruit farmers in the Escambray mountain range in central Cuba to
form an insurgency.
Heyvia said they disembarked on the northern coast of Villa Clara province
and were intercepted by Cuban border guards. Judging from the recorded telephone
conversation, they landed near the city of Sagua la Grande.
After an exchange of gunfire, the "infiltrators'' fled to nearby Jutia
Key, where they were arrested April 26.
In addition to the weapons, the three men -- linked to the anti-Castro
groups Comandos F4 and Alpha 66 -- were carrying night goggles, communication
equipment, $3,028 in U.S. currency and 970 Cuban pesos, the Cuban agent said.
Alpha 66 leader Andrés Nazario Sargén recognized that all
three men had been members at one point and that two -- Surís and
Robaina, 57 -- were active members. But he said they acted independently of the
group when they went to Cuba nearly two months ago.
"They did not go with our authorization,'' said Nazario, who
nonetheless praises their "patriotic'' efforts and vows to support them.
Joe Garcia, executive director of the Cuban American National Foundation,
said he did not know if Alvarez was a member. "We have thousands of
members,'' Garcia said, adding that Alvarez is not a high-ranking member or
director. "I don't know him.''
He also cast doubt on Cuba's version of events, saying the men may have gone
to Cuba to visit relatives or dissidents and that the taped conversation has no
real acknowledgement of terrorist activities. Regardless, he said, the
foundation had nothing to do with it.
"Fidel Castro blames us on a regular basis for the lack of rain, for
too much rain, for crop diseases, for the failed economy -- everything bad that
happens in Cuba.''
Herald translator Renato Perez contributed to this report, which was
supplemented by wire services.
Copyright 2001 Miami Herald |