The Miami Herald
Exile organizations are planning hurricane relief effort for Cuba
By Draeger Martinez. drmartinez@herald.com. Published
Sunday, November 11, 2001
Two Cuban-American exile groups announced a plan Saturday that they hope
will achieve two goals: to help thousands of Cubans devastated by Hurricane
Michelle and strengthen the island's growing dissident movement.
"We feel that because of Hurricane Michelle, the opposition can play a
significant role in aiding the Cuban people,'' said Tomás Rodríguez,
a spokesman for Agenda Cuba, one of the groups involved. The other group,
Municipios de Cuba en el Exilio, hosted the groups' joint news conference at its
office, 4610 NW Seventh St.
Hurricane Michelle, a Category 4 storm with winds topping 134 mph, struck
Cuba Nov. 4, killing five people and disrupting water, power and telephone
service for hundreds of thousands of residents. Agenda Cuba leaders said the
downed phone lines limited their ability to reach contacts on much of the
island.
"Because of the urgent need, we urge exiles and the public to give to
these charities and contacts,'' said Mickey Garrote, who heads the Agenda Cuba's
branch that is active on the island. The groups released a list of 16 dissident
group leaders, with their phone numbers and, in most cases, their addresses in
Cuba. Agenda Cuba leaders asked that donors contact them at 305-262-2727, and
they can either pass on the aid or provide the list of dissident leaders to
donors.
"We made a big effort to not divulge their locations. But the
dissidents wanted to get their names out in public,'' Garrote said.
Saturday's announcement followed the lead of the Cuban American National
Foundation, or CANF, which on Thursday announced its own relief effort that will
also use dissidents for distribution.
"The aid should be people to people and will be [funneled] through the
cooperation of human rights activists, independent journalists and other
contacts inside the island,'' said Jorge Mas Santos, CANF chairman.
"The Red Cross and other international organizations do not have the
infrastructure inside Cuba to realize an autonomous distribution,'' Santos said.
"But [Cuban leader Fidel] Castro also will not let these organizations
distribute the aid.''
He said CANF received a donation of three tons of rice and three tons of
beans that it is packaging to send to affected families on the island, and
donations from board members and private contributors that will help create a
special fund.
On Wednesday, the U.S. State Department formally offered relief aid to Cuba
to help hurricane victims. Two days later, Cuba declined the aid but called for
the United States to loosen its 40-year embargo on Cuba.
If the embargo was eased, Cuban officials said, food and medicine could flow
more readily to the island. State Department officials said Friday that the
United States would not honor that request.
El Nuevo Herald staff writer Wilfredo Cancio Isla contributed to this
report.
Cuban relief thorny issue
Some fear aid will help Castro
By Elaine De Valle. edevalle@herald.com. Published Monday,
November 12, 2001
Cuban Americans in South Florida are struggling with the ifs and hows of
sending humanitarian aid to victims of Hurricane Michelle in Cuba.
"This is going to be controversial,'' said Ramón Saúl Sánchez,
leader of the Democracia Movement, alluding to exile fears that aid might land
in government hands and benefit Fidel Castro's regime instead of helping
victims.
"But there are times you have to put politics aside to take care of
human beings,'' he said.
The debate has intensified as Castro's government turned down U.S. disaster
relief and offered to pay hard currency to buy American goods.
Many exile activists and Spanish-language radio commentators say aid should
go directly to dissidents or genuine non-governmental organizations for
distribution -- not the government.
But several anti-embargo or pro-Castro groups object to that approach and
plan to have a press conference this morning to outline their own plans to send
aid to Cuba.
Alianza Martiana, the Alliance of Cuban Workers, the Antonio Maceo Brigade,
the Cuban Committee for Democracy, the Cuban American Defense League, Jewish
Solidarity, Rescate Cultural Afrocubano, the Cuban American Alliance and the
Miami Coalition Against the U.S. Embargo will announce the formation of a Cuba
Hurricane Relief Committee to collect and transport medicine, food and other
relief items.
"The donations will be given -- without conditions -- to the proper
Cuban institutions responsible for their distribution to the needy population,''
said a statement from the groups.
"We absolutely reject any attempt to condition in any manner donations
offered to the Cuban people as the result of this natural disaster.
"Only the enemies of the Cuban people could act in such a manner.''
Joe Garcia, executive director of the Cuban American National Foundation,
countered that Castro was the Cuban people's biggest enemy and could not be
trusted to properly distribute donations.
Like other anti-Castro activists, Garcia fears the government could exploit
aid politically -- giving it as a reward to loyal revolutionaries and
withholding it from dissenters.
"What we have to do is see how we can help the people without propping
up the regime,'' Garcia said.
The foundation is taking cash donations through its Foundation for Human
Rights in Cuba account. It plans to buy goods and send them directly to victims
on the island, using dissidents, human rights activists and other avenues,
Garcia said.
"We've talked to several different countries which are going to help
with distribution,'' Garcia said.
Other groups are also funneling relief aid to dissidents across the island
who can distribute it to the needy, they say.
On her program on WQBA, Ninoska Pérez Castellón has urged
people to send aid directly to people they know.
"Or use Western Union to send to dissidents or the families of
political prisoners,'' she said.
"Anything that passes through Castro's hands will end up in the
hospitals for tourists or the stores for diplomats.''
Elián, Reno fallout at core of race
Campaign reveals Miami still divided
By Tyler Bridges And Oscar Corral. tbridges@herald.com.
Published Monday, November 12, 2001
Mayoral hopefuls Maurice Ferré and Manny Diaz crisscrossed Miami
Sunday to make late-campaign appeals to voters, but they could not shake Janet
Reno and Elián González -- a Democratic candidate for governor and
a 7-year-old boy living in Cuba who have unexpectedly dominated the runoff
campaign.
Two days before the election, Ferré visited five black churches --
getting the minister's endorsement at each stop -- did interviews on local
Haitian and Dominican Republic radio stations, visited an outdoor party for
Cubans of Spanish descent and attended a party of mostly non-Hispanic whites at
Brickell Park.
Diaz also visited black churches, stopped at a Cuban-American senior
citizens center -- and briefly danced the mambo with an old woman -- visited his
humble boyhood homes in Little Havana and had coffee with domino players at
Maximo Gomez Park on Southwest Eighth Street.
The two crossed paths once Sunday when they debated each other for 30
minutes on WTVJ-NBC 6, an event that was taped and will air tonight at 7.
In the television debate, and at each campaign stop, the candidates
emphasized the importance of Tuesday's election and said Miami needs a mayor who
represents each of its disparate communities.
"I promise to be the mayor of all the people of Miami,'' Ferré
said in the debate.
"One person doesn't have all the answers,'' Diaz said at Jordan Grove
Baptist Church in Liberty City. "Collectively, we can turn this city
around.''
Nonetheless, an issue that divides Miami -- the strong support of Cuban
Americans last year for little Elián to remain in Miami and then-Attorney
General Reno's decision to have federal agents seize him -- continued to loom
over the campaign.
The issue erupted on Cuban radio Thursday and Friday with erroneous claims
by callers that Ferré was supporting Reno's campaign for governor. The
issue seemed to have disappeared Saturday but returned Sunday.
Someone stuck glossy pamphlets on the car windshields of black churchgoers
that featured a doctored photograph of Diaz with Elián and asked, "Did
he Use and Betray ELIAN to advance his own political career?''
IN ELIAN CASE
Diaz was one of the attorneys who represented Elián's Little Havana
relatives.
The pamphlet -- which is illegal because it did not identify its author --
called on voters to endorse Ferré.
Ferré said he had nothing to do with the pamphlet, adding that it
could only hurt him by becoming fodder for Diaz supporters on Cuban-American
talk shows. They were quiet over the weekend but return to the air today.
However, the Diaz campaign asserted that Ferré was responsible for
the flier.
At one point, while her daughter Natalie was taking the pamphlet off car
windshields outside black churches, Diaz's wife, Robin, pulled up in a sports
utility vehicle on an Overtown street as Ferré was crossing the street
100 feet away.
She began shouting at the ex-mayor and pulled out a long-lens camera to snap
photos of him as he entered Temple Baptist Church. Ferré was too far away
to recognize or hear Robin Diaz.
Inside the church, Ferré was pleased to get the endorsement of the
Rev. Richard Barry but was distressed when Barry added, "Elián makes
the difference in this election. I heard it on the radio. A vote for Ferré
is a vote for Janet Reno. I think Janet Reno is a good woman.'' The congregation
burst into applause.
"We got to go,'' a distressed-looking Ferré told a reporter. In
the church lobby outside, he added, "As soon as this is reported, I'll gain
100 votes here and lose 1,000 votes in the Cuban community.''
Behind Ferré's thinking is the electoral math of Miami's election.
Cuban-American voters will cast at least 50 percent of the votes Tuesday,
meaning that Ferré cannot win if Cuban Americans bloc-vote for Diaz.
As of Thursday night, a poll for WLTV-Univision 23 showed, Miami was divided
along the same ethnic and racial lines that split the community during the Elián
affair, to the detriment of Ferré.
Diaz led among Cuban-American voters, while Ferré led among black and
non-Hispanic whites. Because Diaz's advantage among Cuban Americans was greater,
he led in the poll, 45-36 percent.
'A LOT HOTTER'
"This Janet Reno thing is a lot hotter than people realize,'' Ferré
said at one point Sunday as he was being driven to his next campaign stop. "This
community is very divided. It's sad to see, and right now it's not working in my
favor.''
When Diaz visited Maximo Gomez Park, also known as Domino Park, on Southwest
Eighth Street, several domino players said they would vote for Diaz because they
had heard that Ferré supported Reno. Ferré was not there to tell
them this wasn't true.
Meanwhile, Ferré was complaining about an anonymous -- and illegal --
piece that some black voters received in the mail Saturday. The piece denounced
Ferré for casting the deciding vote in 1984 to fire Howard Gary, Miami's
first black city manager.
Ferré has said Gary's later legal troubles -- he turned informant in
an unrelated case after getting caught in a bribery scandal in the 1990s -- have
vindicated his decision.
Cuba declines U.S. aid, wants to pay for relief
By Tim Johnson . Tjohnson@krwashington.com. Published
Saturday, November 10, 2001
WASHINGTON -- Reeling from its worst hurricane in nearly half a century,
Cuba has politely turned down a U.S. offer of disaster relief, challenging the
United States instead to ease what it says is red tape on the export of U.S.
food and medicine to the island.
Cash-strapped Cuba said it would pay hard currency for the U.S. goods. It
proposed that Cuban vessels be allowed to enter U.S. seaports to pick up the
goods.
The State Department said Washington would not accept the Cuban request.
The unusual diplomatic exchange marked the latest jockeying between the two
capitals in a week that also saw U.S. legislators give new indications that they
want to relax a 4-decade-old U.S. embargo of Cuba.
Hurricane Michelle, a Category Four storm with winds of 135 mph that
barreled across central Cuba on Sunday, flattened sugar cane and citrus fields,
destroyed thousands of homes, and knocked out water, power and telephone service
to large swaths of the island. Rapid evacuation of 700,000 people kept the death
toll to five.
While other hurricanes have been more deadly, "none has provoked
economic damage of [this] magnitude,'' Vice President Carlos Lage said Thursday
night.
Lage said that nearly six million of Cuba's 11 million people were affected
by the hurricane, which damaged 1,500 schools and knocked down 125 electric
pylons.
The initial U.S. offer of aid and the Cuban response were couched in polite
language that appeared designed for political effect as well as genuine concern.
In a diplomatic note given to Cuban officials in Havana and Washington on
ednesday, the State Department offered to send a three-person team from the
Office of Foreign Disaster Assistance to assess the damage. Officials also
offered humanitarian aid, as long as the assistance was not channeled through
the Fidel Castro government.
'LEGITIMATE CONCERNS'
"We have legitimate concerns for the Cuban people here. We are not
trying to game this thing,'' said a State Department official, speaking on
condition of anonymity. "Our focus as we proceed is to ensure that any U.S.
efforts to help the Cuban people are not misused by the regime to benefit the
Cuban government.''
On Thursday night, the Cuban Foreign Ministry issued a carefully worded
statement politely declining the "respectful and friendly'' U.S. offer.
Instead, it cited "innumerable laws and specific regulations'' on U.S.
sales of food and medicines to Cuba and asked that the bureaucracy be eased to
permit the Castro government "to acquire on an expedited basis a certain
quantity of food, medicines and raw materials for producing them.''
A veteran observer of bilateral relations, John Kavulich, president of the
U.S.-Cuba Trade and Economic Council, said the Cuban counteroffer contained "a
shrewd political strategy'' that carries risks. If Cuban officials provide a
specific list of goods they want, and set reasonable prices for the goods, U.S.
agricultural interests will clamor for Washington to accept, he said.
"It will put the Bush administration in an immensely uncomfortable
position in respect to saying 'No,' '' Kavulich said, noting the "substantial
national constituency wanting to do business with Cuba.''
However, if Havana doesn't specify the desired goods and prices, frustration
may mount among U.S. companies that Cuba isn't serious about buying U.S. goods.
EMBARGO EASED IN 2000
Congress loosened the U.S. embargo last year to allow U.S. food and
agricultural sales to Cuba, as long as purchases satisfy certain licensing
requirements and are not financed by the U.S. government or U.S. financial
institutions. In July, the Commerce Department set the licensing regulations.
Since then, no sales of any size have occurred. Cuban officials portray the
bureaucratic requirements as onerous.
Last Wednesday, the Senate Agriculture Committee agreed to allow private
U.S. financing of food sales to Cuba -- a new sign that some lawmakers see Cuba
as a potential market.
Cuban-American legislators from South Florida assail such softening toward
Castro. Rep. Lincoln Diaz-Balart, a Miami Republican, blasted the Cuban
counter-offer to buy U.S. food and medicine.
"Castro does not care about aid for the people,'' he said. "He
only wishes to increase pressure for ending the embargo in order to obtain
financing and tourism dollars.''
Cuba's offer to pay cash for imports is unusual given the one-two whammy
caused by a recent global economic slowdown and by devastation from the
hurricane. Tourism receipts are down, and dozens of hotels have been shuttered.
Remittances back to the island from emigrants have also fallen.
Some 20 percent of the citrus crop reportedly was destroyed by the storm,
which also flattened one million acres of sugar cane. Prices for nickel, a key
Cuban commodity, are less than half of what they were in May 2000.
Last month, Russian President Vladimir Putin announced that he would close a
major electronic listening post at Lourdes in Cuba in January, ending a revenue
flow of some $200 million for the island.
Voters split along 'Elián lines'
Poll: Diaz has edge for Miami mayor
BY TYLER BRIDGES. tbridges@herald.com. Published Saturday,
November 10, 2001
Heading into Tuesday's runoff election, Miami voters are divided along the
same racial and ethnic lines as they were during the Elián González
controversy, which is giving newcomer Manny Diaz an edge in the mayor's race,
according to a WLTV-Univision 23 poll.
Diaz, a Cuban-American attorney who represented the little boy's Miami
relatives, is leading among Cuban-American voters, while former Mayor Maurice
Ferré, a Puerto Rican, is ahead among white non-Hispanic and black
voters, the poll shows.
Overall, Diaz enjoyed a 45 percent to 36 percent advantage over Ferré,
with 19 percent undecided.
The Schroth & Associates poll -- which surveyed 400 likely voters
Wednesday and Thursday -- had a margin of error of plus or minus five percentage
points, which means that Diaz likely enjoys a healthy lead.
Pollster Rob Schroth said that Ferré will have a tough time
overtaking Diaz and cannot do so unless blacks and white non-Hispanics go to the
polls in large numbers for the former mayor.
In an interview, Ferré said he didn't fare well in the poll because
of "the Janet Reno hoopla. Hopefully, we've shown that I didn't say I had
supported her.''
Diaz's supporters have linked Ferré to former U.S. Attorney General
Janet Reno's bid for governor, with callers to Cuban radio stations saying
erroneously Thursday that Ferré supports her candidacy. At every
opportunity Friday, Ferré restated that he would not back Reno.
Asked about the poll Friday, Diaz said, "We'll keep working. We did OK
on the 6th [Tuesday's vote]. I hope to do well on the 13th.''
After sailing along for months without controversy, the mayor's race has
been dominated this week by debate over ethnic politics, to Diaz's benefit.
Besides the Reno flap, some Diaz supporters have said on the radio that
Cuban Americans need to elect one of their own.
The polarization over the mayor's race is exposing the same fault lines that
split Miami in the aftermath of last year's federal raid that snatched Elián
from his Little Havana home.
Cuban Americans who wanted the boy to remain in Miami denounced the federal
government and Reno, who ordered the raid. Most black residents and white
non-Hispanics lined up together in support of Reno's decision and criticized the
Cubans' vehemence on the issue.
The poll shows similar divisions, with Cuban Americans favoring Diaz by 61
percent to 24 percent; black people supporting Ferré 45 percent to 20
percent; and white non-Hispanic voters favoring the former mayor 51 percent to
32 percent. Non-Cuban Hispanic voters favored Ferré 51 percent to 33
percent.
Reflecting the city's demographics, 50 percent of those polled were Cuban
American, 20 percent were white non-Hispanic, 16 percent were black and 11
percent were non-Cuban Hispanic.
The poll numbers indicate that for Ferré to win, he will have to draw
a good chunk of Cuban-American votes; his own estimate is at least 35 percent to
40 percent.
On Thursday, Ferré did receive the endorsement of three
Cuban-American mayoral candidates who didn't make the runoff: City Commissioner
Wifredo "Willy'' Gort, former Mayor Xavier Suarez and former City Manager
José García-Pedrosa. Whether that will help Ferré with
Cuban-American voters is unclear.
In Tuesday's 10-candidate field, Ferré led with 32 percent, followed
by Diaz with 24 percent and Mayor Joe Carollo with 23 percent.
Among the 10, Ferré had a 25 percent to 22 percent advantage over
Diaz in predominantly Hispanic precincts sampled by the Elections Department,
with Carollo capturing 35 percent. Ferré had two other advantages over
Diaz, 46 percent to 31 percent among white non-Hispanics and 46 percent to 14
percent among black voters.
Comparing the primary results with the new poll numbers, it is clear that
Diaz owes his lead to Cuban-American voters switching their allegiance from
Carollo.
"Cuban Americans felt very strongly about Joe Carollo,'' Schroth said. "Now
they feel very strongly about Manny Diaz.''
Schroth said that a Carollo endorsement of Ferré might pull some of
the outgoing mayor's supporters away from Diaz and into Ferré's column.
Ferré is seeking the support of Carollo, who has yet to state a
preference.
Ferré was Miami's last non-Cuban mayor, serving from 1973-85 when the
city was evolving from a majority electorate of black residents and white
non-Hispanics to a Cuban-majority electorate.
The poll also found that the city's proposal for a $255 million bond issue
for infrastructure and security improvements will likely be defeated, although
many voters are undecided.
Voters opposed the proposal 40 percent to 36 percent. Twenty-four percent
hadn't made up their minds. The bond issue lost among Hispanics and white
non-Hispanics, but won among black voters.
Copyright 2001 Miami Herald | 
