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Posted on Fri, May. 31, 2002 in
The Miami Herald
Cuba halts vaccinations for measles as 3 children die
HAVANA - (AP) -- Cuba announced Thursday it had suspended its measles
vaccination program after an ''uncommon accident'' with imported vaccine dosages
that left three children dead and 42 others sick.
''After the accident was known, it was decided a week ago to stop the
vaccinations under way across the country,'' the government said in a communiqué
carried in the Communist Party daily Granma. Cuba said it had formed a
commission to investigate the cause of the deaths and illnesses.
The three children died last week after receiving injections from
''apparently contaminated'' vials filled with the anti-measles vaccine
manufactured in India.
The communiqué said the vaccines had been certified by and acquired
through the World Health Organization. It provided no other details on Cuba's
acquisition of the vaccines, nor where in Cuba the children had died.
''Through the Health Ministry's monitoring systems, an uncommon accident was
detected on May 22 in several vaccinated children,'' the communiqué said.
"Immediately, pertinent measures were adopted to provide medical attention
to those affected, along with active monitoring to detect new cases.''
Cuba said during this year's anti-measles campaign more than 750,000 other
children between 4 and 9 years old have been vaccinated "without any
adverse reactions reported.''
Cuba, which takes special pride in its programs to provide health care to
children, has had an extensive vaccination program for its children since the
1970s.
Cuba produces some vaccines, such as for meningitis B and hepatitis B. But
it does not manufacture vaccines for childhood diseases such as measles, opting
to obtain them from other countries, said Dr. Pedro López Saura, clinical
trials director for Cuba's Center of Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology.
Miami man accused of spying for Cuba
By Gail Epstein Nieves and Tere Figueras.
gepstein@herald.com
Juan Emilio Aboy, a commercial diver and Miami resident for seven years,
lived with his new wife on the fringes of Westchester, where neighbors knew him
as a polite and quiet man who sometimes fixed his pickup truck in the street.
But the neighbors had quite a different opinion Thursday after a swarm of
federal agents arrested Aboy, 41, and accused him of a Cuban exile's
unforgiveable sin: spying for Fidel Castro.
''How can someone come here and see this country and still take part in this
stupidity and nonsense?'' said Carolina Alberro, 65, one of Aboy's next-door
neighbors. "They should deport him right now, send him back to Cuba and
tell him to forget this country.''
In an interesting twist, that is exactly what the U.S. government is trying
to do.
The agency pressing charges against Aboy, the Immigration and Naturalization
Service, is seeking not to send him to jail but to deport him to Cuba -- if it
will take him.
The plan for deportation sets Aboy's case apart from those of 12 Cubans who
have been criminally prosecuted in recent years by the U.S. attorney's office in
Miami.
All those Cubans were convicted or pleaded guilty to spying-related charges
for participating in the Wasp Network, a Miami-based Cuban intelligence ring
that operated in the 1990s and was dismantled by the FBI in 1998. They were all
sent to prison.
The FBI linked Aboy to the Wasp Network, too, said Bill West, chief of the
national security section of the Miami INS. Agents compiled physical evidence
and surveillance, ''as well as evidence provided by some of the other defendants
in the Wasp Network who implicated him,'' West said.
Nobody with the INS or the FBI would discuss the purported evidence in
detail.
James Goldman, INS assistant district director for investigations, said
evidence will show that like the convicted spies, Aboy was trained by the Cuban
intelligence services.
And, like several of the convicted spies, Aboy's ''primary mission'' was to
infiltrate the U.S. Southern Command headquarters in West Miami-Dade County, the
military nerve center for the Caribbean and Latin America, Goldman said.
Aboy's intelligence handlers also directed him to try to join the Navy, but
he found out he was too old, West said.
But whatever else the sum of the evidence might show, it's not enough for
prosecutors to win an espionage conviction, agents said. Aboy's case is being
handled administratively in Immigration Court.
''Immigration law requires a lesser level of evidence,'' Goldman said. 'You
need 'X' amount to prosecute somebody but less than 'X' amount to deport
somebody. A case may not be strong enough to criminally prosecute you, but it's
sufficient to have you ordered deported for espionage.''
The INS arrested Aboy at his home, 11800 SW 26th Ter., about 6:15 a.m. and
charged him with espionage for failing to register as a foreign agent with the
U.S. attorney general. He was taken to Krome detention center. Aboy had
previously been interviewed by FBI agents, West said.
Aboy ''was almost on the verge of tears,'' West said. "He said he
thought these problems he had had with the FBI were over with, and he never
expected an immigration issue.''
Aboy got a Florida driver's license in April 1995. INS records show Aboy
entered the United States in May 1996 with a visa issued to people married to
U.S. citizens, West said. He divorced in August 1996, and married Aidee E. Rios
in December 1996.
That marriage ended in divorce in October 2000. On April 5, 2001, Aboy
married Alina C. Alvarez, with whom he lived in a well-kept yellow home with a
red tile roof.
No one answered the door at the home Thursday evening. The welcome mat had
been removed from the front door and draped over a side wall.
Enrique Saumell, who is also Cuban, said Aboy was always nice. Wednesday
night Aboy asked to fix his GMC pickup on the easement in front of Saumell's
home. ''I even turned the porch light on for him,'' said Saumell, shaking his
head.
The INS said they based Aboy's arrest on a 1999 Board of Immigration Appeals
ruling that permits deportation of noncitizens who fail to register as foreign
agents but who are shown to be working for foreign intelligence -- even if they
haven't been convicted.
That ruling came in the case of Jorge Luis Rodriguez, a New York-based Cuban
intelligence operative arrested in Miami in 1996 and prosecuted in Immigration
Court.
Goldman said it's too early in Aboy's case to approach Cuba about taking him
back. Cuba has taken back deported spies before.
Herald researcher Elisabeth Donovan contributed to this
report.
Price rumors fuel Cuban buying spree
BY TRACEY EATON. Dallas Morning News
HAVANA - Cubans scrambled to stores and gas stations Thursday, days before
the prices of many products were rumored to jump by as much as 30 percent.
The increases, which could take effect as soon as Saturday, are the latest
sign that the Cuban government faces a serious cash crunch, local economists
said.
According to an internal Cuban government memo obtained by The Dallas
Morning News, the price of gasoline will rise by at least 30 percent; audio
electronics will go up 30 percent; hair products, shaving gear and sunglasses 20
percent; furniture, film, gum, purses, wallets and underwear 10 percent.
The memo gave no date for when the price hikes would take effect, but the
word on the street was Saturday.
''It's a critical situation, but not a crisis, not a state of collapse,'' a
respected Cuban economist said on condition of anonymity.
Even so, analysts agreed, the economy in recent months has been hit hard.
The country's main economic engine -- tourism -- sputtered after the Sept.
11 terrorist attacks. The number of visitors from January to April was down 15
percent from the same period last year, according to the U.S.-Cuba Trade and
Economic Council, a New York-based group that tracks the island's economic
trends.
At the same time, the prices of many of Cuba's key exports, including sugar,
nickel and tobacco, have dropped. And the price of imported oil has risen.
Cuba's official press hasn't said anything about the price increases, but
the country's bola -- its grapevine -- is wild with rumors, said Gisela
Aguilera, 35, an Old Havana shopper.
Zulema Valcarse, 39, works as floor manager for a store that sells
electronics and other products. In two hours, she said, buyers snapped up $2,831
in goods.
Josefa Donatién, 76, rushed in to buy a fan. Price: $19.75.
''It's because the prices are going up. And when the river makes noise, it's
because rocks are on the way,'' she said, saying she believes the rumors. | 
