|
Posted on Tue, Jun. 04, 2002 in
The Miami Herald.
Bases of two Cuban groups attacked
By Luisa Yanez. Lyanez@Herald.Com
Arsonists tossed Molotov cocktails outside the headquarters of two prominent
Cuban exile groups early Monday, causing little damage to either.
Firebombed were Alpha 66, one of the exile community's oldest paramilitary
groups, and the Cuban American National Foundation, the powerful lobby group
once headed by Jorge Mas Canosa.
The culprits hurled Molotov cocktails, made out of Miller beer bottles
filled with gasoline and stuffed with burning rags.
No one was injured and property damage was minimal. Alpha 66's headquarters
are located at 1714 W. Flagler St., and CANF's headquarters are at 1312 SW 27th
Ave.
No arrests have been made, but leaders from both groups said ''the hand of
Castro'' was behind the attacks, carried out by infiltrated Cuban spies. The
Miami police bomb squad is leading the investigation with the help of the Bureau
of Alcohol Tobacco and Firearms.
While some questioned whether the firebombings were a sign that the exile
groups are warring, leaders vehemently denied it.
''This is a misdirection from Cuba,'' said Joe Garcia, spokesman for CANF. "The
exile community today, more than ever, is speaking with one voice.''
A witness to the Alpha 66 attack described an ear-piecing bang and a
six-foot-high fireball.
Miami police bomb squad Lt. Mike Hervis, who canvassed both crime scenes
Monday morning, described the Molotov cocktails as homemade and "run of the
mill.''
GRIM REMINDER
''This reminds me of Miami back in the days in 1982 when some businesses
sending packages to Cuba were being firebombed all the time,'' Hervis said.
Back then, militant groups like Omega 7 were accused of engineering the
attacks.
But things had been quiet for a long time, Hervis said.
Monday's attacks began at about 3:30 a.m. at Alpha 66's storefront office.
Gerardo Rosales, who had been sleeping inside the building when the weapon
exploded, said he was thrown from his cot as a result of the blast. He and two
other men ran out the back door to the front of the building, which faces West
Flagler Street.
''We saw a huge fireball against the front door,'' Rosales said.
"The fire burned for awhile and then went out.''
He said he first contacted Alpha 66's leader, then called Miami police.
Rosales said a bottle had hit a plastic windowpane and bounced onto the
sidewalk.
SAVED BY PLASTIC
''I think that plastic is what saved the office,'' said Alpha 66 leader Andrés
Nazario Sargén. "If that had hit glass, the cocktail would have
broken and a fire would have started inside the office.''
Rosales said the suspects left a second Molotov cocktail simmering on the
sidewalk, along with a container of gas.
About a half-hour later and twenty-three blocks away, the culprits struck
again, this time at the UIB building, where the Cuban American National
Foundation is located on the third floor.
According to Miami Lt. Hector Martinez, the culprits climbed over a concrete
fence and walked to the rear of the building, throwing the flaming beer bottle
at the back door.
FOUL SMELL
Security guard Francisco Alvarez arrived at work at about 7 a.m. to find the
alarm ringing and a foul odor. He called the police.
''At first I couldn't tell where the smell was coming from,'' Alvarez said. "Then
I opened the back door and saw it was covered with soot and the floor was
scorched.''
''The explosion had a small impact, but great significance to us,'' Nazario
Sargén said. "It's a message.''
Cubans confused during first day of higher prices at dollar stores
By Vivian Sequera. Associated Press Writer.
HAVANA - (AP) -- Some added up the new costs, others looked relieved, but
most Cubans seemed just plain confused on Monday when a new pricing system took
effect at the island's dollar stores.
''They could have published the list of prices,'' Luis Montero said as he
walked down the aisles of a Havana supermarket. "People on the streets are
confused.''
Most consumer products available in Cuba -- from packaged brand-name foods
to electronic equipment -- are sold at the dollar stores, set up in 1993 after
the communist government made it legal for Cubans to use American currency.
In announcing the changes on Friday, the government said prices had been
maintained ''without important changes'' since then.
The government did not publish any price lists or specific price changes --
either up or down -- in last week's announcement in the Communist Party daily
Granma. Several different price lists circulated among state enterprises, adding
to the confusion.
Unsure of what products would be affected and by how much, Montero, a
60-year-old retiree, was among scores of people who visited dollar stores on
Monday to check prices.
They found the cost of cooking oil, rum, beer and Cuban cigarettes
unchanged, the cost of a bar of soap and a carton of milk dropped 5 cents, and
mayonnaise, olives, crackers and hair dye up between 5 and 10 cents.
Cubans' greatest worry, an expected increase in the price of gasoline,
disappeared -- at least for now -- after they found last week's prices still
posted at service stations: $2.85 a gallon for regular grade, and $3.42 a gallon
for premium.
''You have to bathe, you have to wash clothes, you have to cook with oil,
and if the towels wear out, or the sheets, or the shoes: what do I do with
pesos?'' asked Eneida Torres of the national currency, not accepted at dollar
stores.
''I don't have dollars and to buy tennis shoes it costs me $3 or $4'' at the
current exchange rate of 27 pesos to the dollar, said Torres, a 59-year-old
homemaker.
''It's a sacrifice to get them,'' Torres said of American dollars. Unlike
those who receive dollars from relatives living abroad, or others earning at
least part of their salaries in U.S. currency, the income of many Cubans is
exclusively in pesos.
Cuba, which imports about $600 million annually in foodstuffs, says its
economy has been battered in recent months by rising world prices for imported
petroleum products.
At the same time, international prices for sugar and nickel -- two of the
island's primary exports -- are down. So is tourism, which in recent years has
replaced sugar as the island's No. 1 source of hard currency, earning as much as
$2 billion annually. The Tourism Ministry recently reported a 14 percent drop in
tourism during the first quarter. | 
