The Miami Herald.
Published Friday, November 30, 2001
US rejects Cuban demand for concessions before paying for seized
American property
WASHINGTON -- (AP) -- The U.S. government has turned down a Cuban offer to
compensate Americans whose properties were confiscated 40 years ago if the
United States agreed to lift its embargo and make other concessions, a State
Department official said.
Cuban Foreign Minister Felipe Perez Roque reaffirmed the long-standing Cuban
proposal while at the United Nations this week, saying the embargo prevented
U.S. citizens from receiving proper compensation.
"Cuba recognizes their rights, and would be willing to reach an
agreement that also takes into account the extremely heavy economic and human
damages and losses inflicted on our country by the blockade,'' he said.
State Department spokesman Richard Boucher restated American support for the
embargo.
"The president said he would oppose any effort to weaken sanctions
against the Cuban government until it respects Cubans' basic human rights and
civil rights, frees political prisoners and holds free and democratic elections
with international observers,'' Boucher said.
Two years ago, a Cuban court demanded payment of dlrs 181 billion in
compensation for the damages.
The United States maintains that the principle of compensation for
expropriated properties is embedded in international law.
It rejects any linkage between the compensation issue and the embargo. The
U.S. government has certified 5,911 property claims by U.S. citizens against the
Cuban government. It does not accept Cuba's demand for damages resulting from
the embargo.
On an unrelated subject, Cuba announced Thursday that the next round of
migration talks with the United States will be held Monday in Havana.
The Cuban delegation is likely to renew complaints about an American law
that it says claimed the lives of Cuban would-be immigrants who apparently
drowned recently while en route the United States.
The 1966 law allows undocumented Cubans who reach American soil to avoid
repatriation and eventually apply for legal residency.
President Fidel Castro said 30 Cubans drowned in the recent incident. U.S.
officials said the number is not known because there is no passenger list.
The U.S. delegation will be headed by James Carragher, the State Department
coordinator for Cuban affairs. He is expected to register complaints about what
the administration sees as unwarranted delays by Cuba in approving exit visas
for Cubans eligible to immigrate to the United States.
Two indicted in deadly case of smuggling
Dade men linked to human-cargo trade; Cuban migrant died on Bahamas isle
By Jennifer Babson . Jbabson@Herald.Com
KEY WEST -- An investigation that led U.S. agents from the Bahamas to Cuba
in pursuit of a key player in Miami's flourishing migrant smuggling trade has
culminated in the indictment of two Miami-Dade men in the death of a Cuban woman
10 months ago during a smuggling attempt.
Prosecutors say the 187-count indictment unsealed Thursday is significant
because they believe one of those charged, Jorge "Bombino'' Aleman, is the
leader of a group that profited over a period of years from illegal and
dangerous runs between the Florida Keys and Cuba.
Aleman and Gaspar Coll Gonzalez of Homestead were indicted by a Key West
grand jury in the death of Cira Rodriguez, who was picked up from Cuba's Villa
Clara province in a speedboat on Jan. 14, and is believed to have died after
being dropped off along with 14 other migrants on Anguilla Cay in the Bahamas.
Aleman and Coll could face the death penalty if convicted.
As many as 40 Cuban migrants -- including about 30 believed to have perished
earlier this month after the smuggling boat in which they were riding capsized
45 miles from Key West -- are believed to have died this year after boarding
U.S-bound smuggling boats.
Five other men who were involved in five different smuggling runs with
Aleman were also charged in the indictment with helping him illegally transport,
for a fee, 99 Cuban migrants from Cuba to the Keys between October 1999 and
September 2001.
Facing charges in a case the feds have dubbed "Operation Barrier
Reef:'' Yoel Gonzalez-Acosta, Noel Ruiz-Perez, Juan Raul Garcia, Angel
Arguelles, and Arturo Noa-Marrero. All five are believed to be South Florida
residents but had not yet been arrested. Aleman and Garcia were arrested
Thursday by the Border Patrol.
COMPLEX PROBE
The extraordinary probe into Rodriguez's disappearance took federal
investigators from a desolate cay in the Bahamas -- where they searched in vain
for her body -- to Havana, where two Border Patrol investigators and three U.S.
prosecutors met with Cuban border authorities and witnesses who saw Rodriguez on
the boat.
Investigators and prosecutors said this week's indictment is the culmination
of months of effort.
"We did work very, very hard, which is a clear indicator that we are
not going to let up on investigating these crimes,'' said Steven M. Quinones,
supervisory special agent for the U.S. Border Patrol's anti-smuggling unit.
The Border Patrol, the U.S. Coast Guard, and the Monroe County Sheriff's
Office investigated the case, which is being prosecuted by Asst. U.S. Attorney
Curtis Miner.
From the very start, the clandestine run that claimed Rodriguez's life was
fraught with difficulty, according to the indictment.
On Jan. 14, Aleman and Coll picked up 22 Cubans, including Rodriguez, from a
remote stretch of Villa Clara province. Passengers were forced to trek for hours
through sugar cane fields and thick mangroves to reach an isolated spot where
they met the boat. When Cuban authorities began to chase the duo's 26-foot
Powerline boat not far from shore, Aleman forced seven passengers overboard to
slow his pursuers, the indictment says.
The remaining 15 passengers -- including Rodriguez -- were taken to Anguilla
Cay, where they were dropped off to wait for final transport to the United
States, sources say.
HEAD INJURY
Rodriguez, who is believed to have suffered serious head trauma on the
passage, perhaps from getting bounced around on choppy seas, was unconscious but
still alive when Aleman and Coll dropped her off on the island, prosecutors say.
There she died. Meanwhile, other migrants stranded on the remote cay took to
eating cactus and killing snails to survive when their food ran out, a source
familiar with the investigation said.
Aleman allegedly charged about $8,000 per person for the trip.
About five days later, "unidentified co-conspirators'' of Aleman and
Coll transported 14 migrants from Anguilla Cay to Key Largo -- leaving
Rodriguez's body buried on Anguilla Cay, the indictment says.
ANONYMOUS CALL
A short time later, Rodriguez's husband in Miami told The Herald that he
received an anonymous phone call from a man who reported that his wife had
injured herself on the passage, died, and was buried in the Bahamas.
"It's all too often that these cases have resulted in tragedies on the
high seas,'' said Marvelle McIntyre-Hall, special counsel to the U.S. Attorney
for the Southern District of Florida.
"This office remains committed to stop those who profit from the
trafficking in human cargo and certainly for those who endanger innocent lives
for financial gain.''
Copyright 2001 Miami Herald | 
