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By Tere Figueras. tfigueras@herald.com. Posted on Wed, Nov.
20, 2002 in The Miami Herald
They played a blistering set of their trademark mix of funked-up salsa
tinged with dance-hall beats at a South Beach club. Then they gave their
communist handlers the slip.
Four men traveling with the popular Cuban band Carlos Manuel y Su Clan will
file for political asylum in the United States today -- four days after they
walked off following their raucous performance at Club Cristal early Saturday,
according to the Cuban American National Foundation.
''I had been thinking about this forever. This is the first time I have been
in the United States,'' said sound technician Ernesto Alvarez Perez, 30, during
a CANF news conference in Miami.
Also defecting following the performance: trombonist Byron Ramos, trumpeter
Renoir Rodriguez Versagi and a second sound technician, Joel Figueroa Gonzalez.
Both Ramos and Alvarez said they counted on Miami relatives to help them
elude their Cuban escorts.
''They had the chaperones, and there was another man that no one knew who he
was,'' said Omar Lopez Montenegro, a spokesman for the CANF. "He wasn't a
musician and he wasn't a technician. But he was with the band the whole time,
watching.''
Frontman Carlos Manuel -- known for his hit Malo Cantidad, or Bad Enough --
has toured Europe with his band in addition to the recent U.S. tour.
But some of the men, who called CANF members Tuesday with requests for help
in applying for asylum, had grown weary of life under communist rule, Lopez
said.
Alvarez was one of the signers for the Varela Project, a landmark petition
gathered by dissident groups on the island calling for a broad democratic
overhaul, Lopez said.
''And Joel had gotten a fine just for playing dominoes with dissidents,'' he
added.
Alvarez and Figueroa, who left their wives in Cuba, counted on Alvarez's
cousin in Miami to spirit them from the South Beach club to a home in Southwest
Miami-Dade County.
Ramos, the trombonist, said he and his band mate gave up a comfortable $100
weekly salary -- and cut ties with the well-known group -- for a life in the
United States.
It was a decision, Ramos said, that he made "a long time ago.''
He said he met his brother when he arrived in Miami, handing over his Cuban
passport. The reason: Even if he was caught trying to defect, he might be able
to avoid being sent back because he lacked identifying documents.
The four men will be accompanied by CANF members to Catholic Charities this
morning to fill out paperwork, Lopez said.
Club Cristal's general manager said he didn't notice anything unusual before
or after the band's performance -- which began at 11 p.m. Friday and lasted well
past 3 a.m. Saturday -- drawing hundreds to the Fifth Street nightclub.
''They were relaxed,'' said Michael Dolan, the club's manager. ''They came
and went through the doors for rehearsal, and I didn't notice any handlers or
anything like that.'' But Dolan added, the news that four of the men had
defected "is great.''
The club has become a welcome venue for Cuban acts -- diva Rosita Fornes
performed there in 1999 after a bomb threat forced a move from another location.
And the club has hosted recent defectors, including Cuban salsa star Manolín,
who played there days after he announced he was seeking political asylum.
Herald staff translator Renato Pérez contributed to this report,
which was supplemented with information from The Associated Press. | 
