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Posted on Thu, Nov. 21, 2002 in
The Miami Herald.
Lawmaker seeks to open trade between Cuba and Puerto Rico
Associated Press
SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico - A Puerto Rican lawmaker said Thursday he wants to
establish trade links between this U.S. Caribbean territory and the communist
island.
Sen. Jose A. Ortiz Daliot of the governing Popular Democratic Party proposed
having three Senate commissions investigate what steps Puerto Rico must take to
jump-start trade ties with Cuba.
Cuba has been under a U.S. trade embargo since Fidel Castro defeated the
CIA-backed assault at the Bay of Pigs in 1961.
Creating a small opening in the trade embargo, the U.S. Congress in 2000
legalized sales of food to Cuba for the first time since 1961.
Pressure from American farmers and agricultural companies have allowed U.S.
exporters to sell products to Cuba this year for the first time in more than
four decades, officials say. In September, Castro signed a $10 million contract
to buy U.S. rice, cooking oil and soy.
As a U.S. Caribbean territory, Puerto Rico falls under federal jurisdiction
when it comes to international affairs.
"We need to determine how Puerto Rico can benefit to the maximum from
the restoration of trade links with Cuba, because our active participation in
the Cuban market would be positive for our economy," said Ortiz, president
of the Senate's Federal and International Affairs Commission.
The other two Senate commissions to investigate possible links with Cuba are
the Infrastructure, Technology and Commerce Commission and the Tourism,
Recreation and Sports Commission, Ortiz said.
Cuban-American gets life for fatal smuggling voyage
Associated Press
MIAMI - A Cuban-American was sentenced to life in prison Thursday for an
alien-smuggling operation that resulted in a woman's death on a barren Bahamian
island.
Jorge "Bombino" Aleman and Gaspar Coll Gonzalez pleaded guilty in
May to one count of attempting to smuggle an illegal alien resulting in a death
and one count of conspiring to smuggle aliens.
Aleman was sentenced to life in prison plus five years by U.S. District
Judge James Lawrence King, who cited a disregard for human life during the trip
in exceeding the sentencing guidelines of 10 to 12 1/2 years.
"If this case does not warrant that sentence, I don't know what does,"
King said.
Coll was sentenced to seven years, three months in prison by King.
The case involved from five different smuggling ventures beginning October
1999 and ending June 2001.
The deadly voyage was in January 2001, involving 22 Cubans picked up near
Villa Clara, Cuba, by a 26-foot power boat from Florida.
Aleman, a boat mechanic in Miami, was identified as the man who forced seven
people overboard to gain speed and flee pursuing Cuban border guards, who
stopped to rescue the seven.
The 15 who remained aboard were dropped on the barren Bahamian island of
Anguilla Cay and left there for five days, eating snails and cactus when their
food supplies ran out. A second boat later brought them to Key Largo.
Cira Rodriguez, who suffered fatal head injuries in the initial flight as
the boat sped across rough seas, was buried on the deserted cay before the
voyage to Florida was completed.
Aleman charged about $8,000 each for the trip, prosecutors said.
Last year's indictment also listed smuggling trips with nine Cubans brought
to Key Largo in October 1999, 19 to Indian Key in February 2000, 29 to Key Largo
in April 2000 and 28 to Tavernier in June 2001. | 
