Published Tuesday, November 27, 2001 in
The Miami Herald
Cuban government calls gathering to mourn loss of migrants, protest U.S.
policies
HAVANA -- (AP) -- The government called out 300,000 citizens to gather late
Tuesday afternoon to mourn the loss of 30 migrants off the Florida coast, and to
protest U.S. policies it blames for their deaths.
The gathering at 5 p.m. EDT will "manifest condemnation of the
murderous Cuban Adjustment Act, which has taken a high toll in human lives,''
the Communist Party daily Granma said Tuesday in an editorial announcing the
gathering.
Havana says the 1966 U.S. law encourages it citizens to undertake dangerous
sea journeys by allowing Cubans who reach American soil to avoid repatriation
and apply for U.S. residency.
The afternoon gathering "will also be an expression of mourning for the
innocent children, whose brief and happy lives were cut short ... as a
consequence of the criminal policies long pursued against our country,'' Granma
said.
The government on Monday night accused its enemies in exile of creating
false hope among relatives of 30 migrants missing at sea for more than a week by
spreading unconfirmed reports that the group was rescued by a Panamanian
freighter.
The reports, rejected by the Panamanian government, surfaced over the
weekend when callers in the United States allegedly telephoned relatives of the
missing migrants in Cuba to tell them about the supposed rescue.
Tuesday's editorial said called the reports "a cynical and deliberately
fabricated lie'' and said that the "cruel and gross maneuver aimed at
deception and misinformation was arranged by Miami.''
In Panama, Jose Isaza, director of the National Maritime Service, said
Monday that "we have nothing concrete'' about the reports. Ilka de Bares,
director of Panama's Immigration Service, also denied knowing anything about
such a rescue.
On the Cuban government's "Round Table'' television program Monday
evening, moderator Randy Alonso accused Cuban exiles "of trying to use the
deaths of Cuban citizens ... for their cruel political games.''
Havana first publicly mentioned the reports on Sunday evening, warning the
missing migrants' relatives not to have false hopes about their loved ones'
fate.
Relatives in Cuba who received calls about the supposed rescue, "should
have many reservations,'' Havana said Sunday.
U.S. Coast Guard crews on Wednesday stopped searching the Florida Straits
for the 30 Cubans, whose boat capsized in rough seas last weekend. No survivors
have been found.
Family members of the migrants reported the group left Cuba in a speedboat
on Nov. 16 and was expected in Florida by Nov. 17.
American authorities last week found a capsized white, 30-foot twin-engine
craft that believe was carrying the Cubans, including a dozen or more children,
on a clandestine trip to the United States.
Panama denies reports of sea rescue
By Frances Robles. frobles@herald.com
Panamanian authorities Monday denied reports that 30 Cubans missing 10 days
at sea had been rescued by a Panama-registered vessel.
The 30 Cubans set off from the Cuban coast, near Bahía Honda, on Nov.
17, with Florida as their destination. But the migrants, the Miami man who
allegedly smuggled them, and the dozen children they brought along never
arrived. A capsized 30-foot boat with no registration numbers was found three
days later 40 miles south of Key West.
But hope rose Friday when Hialeah's Carlos Baldriche, whose younger brother
Yoel is among the missing, said his father in Cuba heard that one of the missing
had phoned from Panama. The voyagers, the rumor mill had it, were plucked from
the waters by a passing ship.
In an interview Monday morning with KW-Continente Radio in Panama City,
Panama's immigration services spokesman, David Gutiérrez, said the group
had been rescued, and gave reassurance that they were all in good shape. He
later said he had no information about the missing Cubans, and denied ever
confirming the rescue.
"They are not in Panama,'' Gutiérrez told The Herald. "That
I know.''
But worried relatives in Miami are convinced the voyagers are in Panama, and
that somebody there is covering up.
"How is it possible that an immigration official said at 11 in the
morning that they are there, safe and alive, and at noon says something else?''
asked David Castro, who is waiting for word about his daughter, Yaquelín
Castro, and granddaughter, Claudia Montané Castro, 8. "There is
something dirty going on here.''
He pleaded for American investigators to get to the bottom of it.
The U.S. Embassy in Panama City said it had no information on the case, and
the State Department said it was unable to confirm the report. A spokesperson
for the Border Patrol did not respond to telephone messages.
Officials at the Cuban Embassy said they too heard Gutiérrez's
morning radio interview and puzzling retraction.
"I have not heard from any authority with real information that
includes who, what, where, when, why or any of the five w's,'' said Cuban
Embassy spokesman Alexis Frutos.
Cuba's official newspaper, Granma, said it appeared to be a "vulgar and
cruel trick.''
A spokesman for Panama's Ministry of Government and Justice, which oversees
the immigration services, said the report was false. José Isaza, director
of Panama's Maritime Services, also said it was simply not true.
"These people have not arrived at any port in the Republic of Panama,''
Isaza said.
Maritime Services spokesman Jaime Beitia said if true, the ship's captain
would have been obligated to report it to the nearest port.
Beitia said he personally called every major port on Panama's Atlantic Coast
to no avail.
"How do I explain something that never happened?'' Beitia asked.
"Reporters asked me to go on TV and radio to give interviews about
this. I wouldn't do it. I didn't want to give false hope to Miami's Cuban
community.
"If this was true, we would have no reason to hide it.''
Herald staff writers Elaine de Valle and Tim Johnson contributed to this
report.
Start of torture trial delayed
Defense attorney going to Cuba
By Luisa Yanez, lyanez@herald.com
The attorney for Eriberto Mederos, a Miami Cuban exile accused of lying
about his role in the alleged torture of political prisoners in Fidel Castro's
Cuba, plans to travel to the island in search of defense witnesses.
On Monday, U.S. District Judge Alan Gold granted David Rothman's request to
postpone the trial until July 15, 2002, giving Rothman more time to make
arrangements to visit the island, take depositions and locate documents for
Mederos' trial. Rothman told the judge during a five-minute status hearing that
he would seek permission from the Cuban government for the trip. Rothman said he
would attempt to locate witnesses and paperwork to bolster Mederos' claim that
he was only a hospital employee following medical orders.
Luis Fernández, spokesman for the Cuban Interests Section in
Washington, D.C., which grants visas to the island, could not be reached for
comment Monday.
Mederos, 78, of Miami has been accused of giving opponents of the Castro
government electric shock in the late 1960s and early 1970s while working as an
orderly in Mazorra, a well-known psychiatric hospital near Havana. Mederos left
Cuba for the United States in the early 1980s.
When he applied for U.S. citizenship, Mederos did not reveal his work at the
hospital. He became a citizen in 1993. Mederos would have been denied
citizenship had he admitted ever persecuting anyone.
Now, the question is the crux of the Miami federal prosecutors' case against
Mederos for illegally obtaining citizenship. If convicted, Mederos could be
stripped of his citizenship and possibly be deported -- if Cuba accepts him.
He also could face a five-year prison term and a $250,000 fine.
FREE ON BOND
Indicted in September, Mederos remains free on a $500,000 bond.
Mederos is one of the first Cuban Americans to face the threat of losing his
citizenship because of allegations of torture under Castro's regime. The
criminal case could set an important precedent. If Mederos' citizenship is
revoked, others could suffer the same fate.
But Rothman said the prosecution's case against his client is weak.
"On paper, this case sounds provocative, but when the facts come out,
there won't be much there,'' Rothman said last week.
Mederos' problems began some 10 years ago when he was recognized by a fellow
Cuban American while working in a Hialeah nursing home. Eugenio de Sosa Chabau
said Mederos is the man who tortured him with electric shock treatments when de
Sosa was a political prisoner confined at the hospital near Havana.
Other former Cuban prisoners stepped forward to say that they, too, had been
tortured by Mederos.
Their stories are contained in a 1991 book, The Politics of Psychiatry in
Revolutionary Cuba, published by Freedom House, a New York-based pro-democracy
group, and in Of Human Rights, which follows rights issues in Cuba.
The tide turned against Mederos when immigration investigators began to take
depositions from his accusers.
Patricia Mancha, spokeswoman for the U.S. Immigration and Naturalization
Service in Miami, said they are assisting the U.S. Attorney's Office in Mederos'
prosecution.
PRESSURE
Pressure has also come from Washington.
Two Cuban-born Republican House members, Ileana Ros-Lehtinen and Lincoln
Diaz-Balart, have pushed for prosecution.
"U.S. citizenship is a precious privilege which should not be bestowed
lightly or unconditionally,'' Ros-Lehtinen said. "The United States will
uphold its legal and moral obligation to take a firm stand against such alleged
torturers.''
Mederos has acknowledged that while working as an orderly at the hospital,
he gave electroshock treatment to patients but denies it was torture.
Key in the case against Mederos is Richard Krieger, president of
International Educational Missions, a Boynton Beach-based organization that
attempts to exclude from this country any foreigners guilty of rights
violations.
"Torture has been an international crime for decades,'' Krieger said.
Wire reports contributed to this story.
Copyright 2001 Miami Herald | 
