Yahoo! March 23, 2001
Cold War Adversaries Gather in Cuba
By Anita Snow, Associated Press Writer
HAVANA, 22 (AP) - President Fidel Castro (news - web sites) sat alongside
ex-CIA (news - web sites) operatives, advisers to President Kennedy and members
of the exile team that attacked his country four decades ago as former
adversaries met Thursday to examine the disastrous Bay of Pigs landing.
Dressed in his traditional olive green uniform, Castro read with amusement
from old U.S. documents surrounding the 1961 invasion of Cuba by CIA-trained
exiles, which helped shaped four decades of U.S.-Cuba politics. Some of the
documents were analyses of a young, charismatic Castro.
Castro arrived in the morning as protagonists sat down to start a three-day
conference on the invasion. Participants at the meeting - which was closed the
media - said he was still there in the evening.
The Cuban president personally greeted former Kennedy aide and American
historian Arthur Schlesinger, but made no public statement.
Participants later said that at one point, Castro read aloud from a once
secret memorandum to Kennedy about his own visit to the United States as Cuba's
new leader in 1959.
'``It would be a serious mistake to underestimate this man,''' Castro read
with a smile, said Thomas Blanton of the National Security Archive at George
Washington University.
'``With all his appearance of naivete, unsophistication and ignorance on
many matters, he is clearly a strong personality and a born leader of great
personal courage and conviction,''' Castro read, according to Blanton. '``While
we certainly know him better than before Castro remains an enigma.'''
Blanton said Castro told the group he believed the actual aim of the
invasion was not to provoke an uprising against his government but to set the
stage for a U.S. intervention in Cuba. Blanton said a member of the former exile
team, Alfredo Duran, agreed.
Among the newly declassified documents about the April 17-19, 1961, event
was the first known written statement by the Central Intelligence Agency (news -
web sites) calling for the assassination of Castro.
In one document released Thursday in connection with the conference, Soviet
leader Nikita Khrushchev warned Kennedy in a letter sent the day after the
invasion began that the ``little war'' in Cuba ``could touch off a chain
reaction in all parts of the globe.''
Khrushchev issued an ``urgent call'' to Kennedy to end ``the aggression''
against Cuba and said his country was prepared to provide Cuba with ``all
necessary help'' to repel the attack.
Trained by the CIA in Guatemala, the 2506 Brigade was comprised of about
1,500 exiles determined to overthrow Castro's government, which had seized power
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.
Blanton called the conference ``a victory over a bitter history.''
Other key American figures attending were Robert Reynolds, the CIA station
chief in Miami during the invasion; Wayne Smith, then a U.S. diplomat stationed
in Havana; and Richard Goodwin, another Kennedy assistant, who with Schlesinger
considered the invasion ill-advised.
On the Cuban government's side were Vice President Jose Ramon Fernandez, a
retired general who led defending troops on the beach known here as Playa Giron,
and many other retired military men.
The group will visit the Bay of Pigs on the island's south-central coast
Saturday.
Cuban, American Veterans Remember Bay of Pigs
By Jeffrey Kofman ABCNEWS.com. Thursday March 22 08:39 PM
EST.
American and Cuban veterans of the Bay of Pigs invasion have come together
at a conference in Cuba marking the 40th anniversary of the attack, which was a
humiliating defeat for the American-backed Cuban exiles.
This time there was no invasion, just an invitation.
Forty years after the Bay of Pigs invasion, the former adversaries, American
and Cuban, have come together for a conference in Havana, the Cuban capital.
Old soldiers, spies and politicians gathered to relive the historic battle,
which was a fiasco for the American-backed Cuban emigres who were hoping to
overthrow Fidel Castro.
As the American delegates arrived by plane, they were greeted by their
former foes.
"Very glad having you here," said Jose Ramon Fernandez to Arthur
Schlesinger Jr. Fernandez was the field commander of Castro's troops, who
successfully repelled the 1961 attack. Schlesinger was an adviser to U.S.
President John F. Kennedy, who had ordered the attack. (Schlesinger himself had
been one of the few in the White House to oppose the invasion.)
Bahia de Cochinos
The invasion was an unmitigated disaster for the attackers. On April 17,
1961, 1,500 Cuban exiles landed at the Bay of Pigs (Bahia de Cochinos in
Spanish).
The exiles had been secretly trained for the invasion by the CIA, but the
mission went wrong from the start. Supplies were lost at sea, the wrong
ammunition was dropped from the air, and the battle itself was a tragedy, with
almost 300 dead and more than 1,000 taken prisoner.
The Cubans had known the attack was coming. "It was not a surprise,"
Fernandez said. "It was very badly done."
Schlesinger agreed: "The whole thing was ludicrous. It was badly
conceived and badly carried out."
What happened at the Bay of Pigs explains a lot about the deadlock in
Cuban-American relations to this day. The battle was much more than a
humiliating American defeat. It was also the foundation of 40 years of distrust.
Sharing Secrets
As the conference got under way today, thousands of pages of classified
documents were released from both sides. This was an idea so new in Cuba that
Cubans had to specially make a stamp that reads desclasificado (declassified).
Alfredo Duran came to put his role on the record. A Cuban in exile, he was
22 when he signed up for the invasion. He saw himself as a freedom fighter.
"We landed on the beach on the evening or the night of April 17, full
of hope," he recalled. "We believed that we were going to win or die.
We never believed that we were going to lose and live.
"We should stop and look at it and see what happened and try to avoid
in the future any other thing that causes Cubans to kill Cubans," he added.
Hearing Set for Punitive Damages in Rape Case Against Cuba, Announces
Leeds, Colby and Paris
Thursday March 22, 2:53 pm Eastern Time. Press Release.
SOURCE: Leeds, Colby & Paris
Motion to Amend Final Judgment Scheduled for March 23, 2001
MIAMI, March 22 /PRNewswire/ -- The Honorable Alan Postman has scheduled a
hearing on March 23, 2001, in Miami-Dade Circuit Court on the subject of
punitive damages in the case of Ana Margarita Martinez against the Republic of
Cuba (case number 99-18208 CA-20). The hearing has been scheduled at 10:30 am
before Judge Postman in courtroom 6-1 located at 73 West Flagler Street in
Miami.
In a scathing 22-page ruling issued on Friday, March 9, 2001, Judge Postman
awarded $7,175,000 in compensatory damages to Ana Margarita Martinez -- the
former wife of Cuban spy Juan Pablo Roque -- against the Republic of Cuba.
During that hearing, Judge Postman reserved jurisdiction to consider the
possibility of assessing sanctions against Cuba if allowed under law. Last week,
Martinez's attorneys, Fernando Zulueta and Scott Leeds, filed a motion
requesting that the final judgment be amended to add punitive damages. Judge
Postman agreed to consider the Plaintiff's request and scheduled a hearing.
The case first brought forward in 1999 by Martinez against the government of
Cuba made headlines around the world with the unprecedented charge of rape
against that country. Attorneys for Martinez claimed that Roque married her as a
front to infiltrate the Cuban exile community, including the organization of
Brothers to the Rescue.
``Ana Margarita Martinez has endured severe mental pain and suffering
because of the way Roque used her to establish his cover in our community while
spying for Cuba,'' said Fernando Zulueta, one of the attorneys representing
Martinez.
The Miami U.S. Attorney's office has indicted Roque for espionage in
connection with the murder of three U.S. Citizens and one U.S. Permanent
Resident aboard two Brothers to the Rescue airplanes that were shot down by the
Cuban Air Force on February 24, 1996. Roque is currently in Cuba, and is
considered a fugitive by the U.S. government.
At the trial that took place on February 20 and 21, 2001, attorneys Leeds
and Zulueta asked that their client be awarded damages arising from her
ex-husband's activities on behalf of the Cuban government. Witnesses at that
trial included U.S. Congressman Peter Deutsch, noted psychologist Eli Levy, as
well as former Cuban government official, Carlos Cajaraville, who testified on
the methods and procedures used by the Cuban government in its espionage
activities. During that trial, a tearful Martinez testified that she suffered
debilitating emotional and physical trauma as a result of Roque's actions,
stating that she would never have married him if she had known he was a Cuban
spy. Attorneys for Martinez claim that as an agent of the Cuban government,
Roque committed sexual battery (rape) on an unwitting Martinez causing her to
require ongoing medical and psychiatric care.
At the March 9 hearing, Judge Postman agreed, calling Martinez the victim of
a terrorist act. Postman ordered the Cuban government to pay Martinez $7,175,000
as compensation for pain and suffering.
``We are encouraged by the fact that she lives in a free country that
upholds the rights of individuals,'' affirmed Scott Leeds.
For further information, contact Scott Leeds or Fernando Zulueta at (305)
567-1200 at the law firm of Leeds, Colby & Paris, 2950 SW 27th Avenue, Suite
300, Miami, Florida 33133. Mr. Leeds can be reached by cell phone at (305)
962-1236 and Mr. Zulueta can be reached by cell phone at (305) 796-5709, or
visit their Web site at www.LeedsandColby.com.
Next Round of Bacardi May Be on Castro
By Leela Jacinto ABCNEWS.com. Friday March 23 09:13 AM EST
A new round of rum wars between Fidel Castro and a company owned by a Cuban
family in exile is brewing. In a new trademark duel with Bacardi and Co., Castro
has warned that the next round of the famous Bacardi brew will be on him.
There's a war of the spirits brewing between Fidel Castro and a world-famous
rum manufacturing company owned by a Cuban family in exile.
In what is being seen as yet another shot at a long-standing trademark
dispute between the Cuban president and the Bermuda-based Bacardi and Co.,
Castro warned that his island nation would soon be toasting its very own Bacardi
rum.
"We have given instructions for our industry to start producing
Bacardi, because it is ours and is better than what they produce," Castro
said in a speech broadcast on Cuban television earlier this week.
A spokesman for Bacardi and Co. was unavailable for comment and did not
return several calls.
This is not the first time Castro and the Bacardi family have locked horns
over a round of rum.
Like most tussles between Castro's Administration and Cuban exiles, Bacardi
and Co.'s rum wars go back in history.
A Glorious, Colonial Past
Founded in the 1862 by Don Facundo Bacardi Masso, a Spanish Catalonian
immigrant in the colonial city of Santiago de Cuba, the company specialized in
distilling some of the world's first exquisitely light rums earning Don
Facundo's family enterprise the title of "los maestros del ron" or "the
masters of rum."
During the 1920s and the 1930s, the business kept apace with the wealth and
flamboyance of Bacardi family members as Don Facundo's heirs turned themselves
into the toast of Santiago society.
Bacardi family parties boasted guests from all over the world and the
family's philanthropic projects included Cuba's first museum.
But the good ol' Cuban days ended in 1960 when the Cuban government seized
the family distilleries following the revolution and Castro's ouster of General
Fulgencio Batista.
Battles From a Distance
Since their exile, the Bacardi family has based its operations in Bermuda,
but that has not been the end of their disputes with Castro's regime.
In 1994, Castro took the first shot when Cuba began manufacturing and
exporting Havana Club rum.
Bacardi and Co. retaliated the next year when they bought the rights to
Havana Club from the Arechabala family, the original Cuban owner that
manufactured Havana Club rum until the Cuban government seized the family their
distillery in 1960.
Although the Cuban trade embargo protects Bacardi and Co.'s operations in
the U.S., the company has been unable to stop the Cuban government from turning
Havana Club into its top rum export brand.
Since 1994, the Cuban government has exported 38 million bottles of the rum
worldwide mainly to Europe, Canada, and Mexico.
Although the embargo prohibits Cuba from selling its rum in the U.S., the
real goal of the trademark dispute is protecting future distribution rights if
and when the embargo is lifted.
In the past, the Cuba government has threatened to stop protecting the
trademarks of several U.S. companies, from Coca-Cola to McDonald's, but it
hasn't done so. | 