CUBA
NEWS
The
Miami Herald
Cubans' return 'just not right,' Gov. Bush
says
Rebuke of brother's administration adds to
tension over U.S. policy
By Peter Wallsten. Pwallsten@herald.com
With political tension building over the U.S.
government's decision to ship 12 boat hijacking
suspects back to face prison in Cuba, Gov. Jeb
Bush took the unusual step Thursday of criticizing
his own brother's administration for the negotiations
that led to the repatriation.
The governor's rebuke, delivered during an interview
with The Herald, comes as President Bush and the
Republican Party face a rising tide of anger among
Cuban-American exile leaders, who say last week's
repatriation of the boaters is the latest offense
by a GOP president who has failed to fulfill campaign
promises to toughen policies targeting Fidel Castro's
government.
''Despite the good intentions of the administration
to negotiate the safety of these folks, that is
an oppressive regime, and given the environment
in Cuba, it's just not right'' to have sent the
Cubans back, Gov. Bush said in an interview aboard
his plane from Tampa to Miami.
''There's an expectation that I'm going to be
in lock step with the administration, and that
tends to happen,'' the governor added. "But
from time to time I have to disagree, and this
is one of them.''
While such a public critique of his brother's
administration is striking, the governor was also
quick to defend the president's overall record
on Cuba -- an indication his remarks are intended
to diminish any political fallout that could hurt
the president's reelection bid and other Republicans
next year.
The governor said that he has asked several high-level
officials in the administration to review what
happened and why, although he said he has not
spoken directly to his brother. He said that neither
he nor his brother knew of the decision to send
the 12 back to Cuba until it was too late.
''Early on, I was under the impression they would
be sent to a third country,'' the governor said.
CHANGE IN POLICY
The governor hinted at a major announcement of
some kind by his brother's administration in the
coming months related to Cuba policy. ''I think
this can be rectified,'' he said.
The issue could prove politically damaging to
the president, who relied, in part, on hundreds
of thousands of typically loyal Republican Cuban
Americans in 2000 to narrowly win Florida and,
as a result, the White House.
The president's advisors believe Florida could
be pivotal for his reelection next year. Democratic
challengers are already angling to exploit the
flap, with Connecticut Sen. Joseph Lieberman calling
a South Florida news conference earlier this week
to declare the repatriation an ''abandonment of
American values,'' and then showing up at the
Versailles Restaurant in Little Havana to mingle.
But the statements by the president's younger
brother -- a Miami resident and fluent Spanish
speaker with credibility among exile activists
-- could serve to help repair the damage by reminding
Cuban Americans of the brothers' close ties to
them.
The governor acknowledged in the interview that
losing Cuban-American support could be devastating
to the GOP, noting that President Bill Clinton's
success in wooing even a mere third of their vote
helped him win Florida in 1996.
A key critic on Thursday welcomed the potential
for changes in policy but attributed the governor's
assurances to politics.
''I think they're going to have to do something,
because they can't win Florida without the Cuban-American
community's overwhelming support,'' said Joe Garcia,
executive director of the influential Cuban American
National Foundation, whose top leadership has
been especially critical of the Bushes in recent
days. "Unfortunately, it took the foundation
and others demanding action over things that were
promised three years ago.''
In the interview, Gov. Bush called Lieberman's
move a ''repugnant'' political play, saying that
he registered his disagreement with the White
House "with respect, not rancor.''
Acknowledging a failure by the White House to
articulate a ''coherent policy'' on Cuba, the
governor added that the president would announce
major changes in policy sometime before the 2004
election.
He declined to offer specifics, offering only
that "there's been work over the last six
months to develop a coherent policy.''
Officials at the White House and the State Department
did not return calls for comment.
The decision to send back the 12 hijack suspects
was particularly stinging to exile leaders in
the wake of months of crackdowns by Castro's government
against political dissidents.
The U.S. government negotiated with Cuba to return
the would-be migrants. The agreement: Their lives
would be spared, but the Cubans, suspected of
hijacking a boat and three of 15 passengers, could
each be sentenced to serve up to 10 years in prison.
The deal unleashed a storm of discontent from
foundation leaders, who bashed President Bush
along with the three Republican Cuban Americans
who represent Miami in Congress.
Exile leaders are upset that, despite Bush's
assurances, financial aid to dissidents in Cuba
has not been increased and turmoil remains at
Radio and TV Martí.
Critics also complain that Bush has maintained
the Clinton administration policy of preventing
lawsuits by U.S. citizens over land seized by
the Cuban government after the 1959 revolution.
DEMOCRATIC SWAY
At the same time, Democrats are trying to make
a case that Cuban-American voters should not remain
singularly loyal to the GOP. Many leading Republicans
in Congress and the business groups that fund
their campaigns are pushing to end the trade embargo
with Cuba -- a reality that Democrats hope gives
them a chance to woo Cuban Americans on other
issues such as education and healthcare.
Besides Lieberman, Florida Sen. Bob Graham, another
Democratic contender for president, is a popular
figure among exile leaders for his support of
the embargo.
Two other candidates, Sens. John Kerry of Massachusetts
and John Edwards of North Carolina, have met with
exile leaders in recent months as well.
The governor was careful during Thursday's interview
to defend his brother's overall record on Cuba
policy.
He blamed the lack of action on the national
security team's focus on terrorism and war.
''One incident is not what will be remembered
about the record of my brother's administration,''
the governor said.
Some Cuban dissidents are heading to U.S.
base
By Tere Figueras, Alfonso Chardy And Nancy
San Martin. Tfigueras@herald.com
Sergio Pérez Hierro, picked to lead a
Cuban dissident group after its leader was imprisoned,
had until today to pay a fine for protesting publicly
in Havana -- or face jail time.
He and 19 others slipped away in a rickety boat
Monday hoping to make the hazardous voyage to
American soil -- only to be picked up by the U.S.
Coast Guard hours later.
Following lobbying from Cuban-American lawmakers
and heavy protest from exile groups, at least
some of the Cubans will be sent to the U.S. Naval
Base at Guantánamo Bay, according to an
official familiar with the case.
The group, which set off from a beach in Santa
Fe near Havana, was intercepted about 44 miles
north of Cuba. At least 13 of the Cubans claimed
they were members of opposition groups. The majority
said they belonged to the Feb. 24 Movement, formed
to protest the deaths of four South Florida men
killed when Cuban jets shot down planes from the
Cuban exile group Brothers to the Rescue in 1996.
POSSIBLE ASYLUM
A few of the Cubans had been determined to have
''fear of persecution'' claims -- meaning they
could be eligible for asylum -- and were en route
to the Guantánamo base, according to the
official. The rest may be sent back to Cuba.
Steve Vermillion, chief of staff for U.S. Rep.
Lincoln Díaz-Balart, said Thursday evening
that high-level officials told the lawmaker's
office that three adults and two dependents would
be going to Guantánamo, where their asylum
claims will be considered.
''The other 14 are being reviewed . . . at the
highest levels,'' Vermillion said.
Díaz-Balart recently came under fire from
the Cuban American National Foundation, which
claimed he did not do enough to stop the recent
repatriation of 12 Cubans suspected of hijacking
a boat before being intercepted by the Coast Guard.
They were returned after Cuban officials assured
the U.S. government that the suspects would receive
prison sentences of no longer than 10 years.
Díaz-Balart issued a joint appeal Thursday
to U.S. officials along with fellow Cuban-American
GOP lawmakers: U.S. Reps. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen
and Mario Díaz-Balart, his brother.
The letter, addressed to Secretary of State Colin
Powell and Homeland Security Director Tom Ridge,
says that if they are returned, "the 19 face
retaliation and imprisonment by the Cuban dictatorship.''
Ros-Lehtinen also wrote a separate letter to
President Bush and the Coast Guard. CANF, as well
as the Cuban Liberty Council, has also appealed
to the Bush administration on behalf of the group.
The possibility of prison if the Cubans are sent
back -- especially for Pérez -- ''is a
conservative statement,'' said Maria del Carmen
Carro, an independent journalist in Cuba who has
been in contact with Pérez's wife, Maria
Eugenia.
''This is a man who is very much persecuted here,''
Carro said in a telephone interview.
JOINED OPPOSITION
Pérez joined the opposition movement almost
by happenstance, she said. He eked out a living
shuttling people aboard his tractor, not an uncommon
occurrence in a country were modes of transportation
are sometimes scarce.
''He started taking the families of dissidents
to the jails, so they could bring care packages
and bags of food,'' Carro said. "That really
bothered the government, and they took away his
tractor.''
Pérez took over the Feb. 24 Movement after
the arrest and imprisonment of leader Leonardo
Bruzón Avila in 2002.
Since then, Pérez has led the group on
marches and information campaigns ''informing
the people of their rights as humans,'' Carro
said.
Pérez, required to sign in every Thursday
at his local police station as part of the government's
monitoring, faced between 15 and 20 years in prison
if he failed to pay the fine of 1,500 Cuban pesos
-- or $60 U.S, Carro said.
"That might sound like nothing, but for
those who have nothing, it is an impossibility.''
Dozens of migrants land in Keys
By Jennifer Babson And Tere Figueras. Jbabson@herald.com
Helen Salzer and her husband, Bob, caretakers
of a well-appointed Key Largo home, were settling
down to watch TV when she heard a ruckus from
the beach-front yard down below.
''I heard this hollering, and we went outside,''
said Helen Salzer.
What the couple found was eight Cuban migrants
-- five men and three women, all of them wet --
who arrived with about 40 others Thursday.
The group of about 50 Cubans, one of the largest
to arrive on Florida soil, came to shore about
4:30 p.m. on a strip of beach near mile marker
106, behind the Ocean Reef Club.
The U.S. Border Patrol, which took the Cubans
into custody, suspects the migrants may have been
spirited to the United States by smugglers, said
agency spokesman Cameron Hintzen.
The Coast Guard picked up a speedboat found floating
about a quarter mile from the landing, apparently
abandoned.
Some of the Cubans told Border Patrol agents
and reporters that the group had set off from
the Villa Clarence province on the island's north
coast. A few came to shore wearing swimsuits,
most of the men were shirtless, and one child
was seen clutching a white Teddy bear. They all
appeared healthy and did not require medical attention.
The group was bused to the mainland, and the migrants
were expected to be taken to the Krome detention
center in West Miami-Dade.
According to U.S. immigration policy, Cubans
who make it to American soil are generally allowed
to stay, while those intercepted at sea face immediate
repatriation.
One of the Cubans who landed Thursday asked Helen
Salzer, in English, if they could use her phone.
''I said no and called the authorities,'' said
Salzer, whose 911 call helped summon the U.S.
Border Patrol and Coast Guard.
''I didn't want their relatives to be able to
pick them up. I believe they should go through
[immigration],'' said Salzer. She did offer the
group water, crackers and ice. She feared that
feeding them anything heartier would have made
them sick after their days at sea, she said.
''I emptied my ice-maker and gave them lots of
Saltines,'' she said. "One guy said they
hadn't eaten in a couple of days and there were
babies with them.''
Herald staff writer Jennifer
Mooney contributed to this report.
Cuban defector reaches Miami destination
Canada-to-Buffalo route slows process for
hopeful immigrants
BY ELAINE DE VALLE, edevalle@herald.com
It took longer than he expected, but Juan Antonio
Martínez -- a nuclear engineer from Cuba
who defected while in Canada for an engineering
course in March -- this week reached his final
destination: Miami.
His sister, who lives in Kendall, picked him
up at the airport Wednesday and took him to his
first Miami lunch at an all-you-can-eat Chinese
buffet.
Martínez, 39, was granted asylum and officially
allowed to enter the country Monday by a U.S.
immigration judge. He had been held in federal
detention near Buffalo, N.Y., for more than four
months after he had crossed the border from Canada
into New York.
If he had entered the United States in South
Florida, like so many Cuban migrants do, he would
have been paroled into the community within days
while he waited for asylum.
That's not the practice in the Buffalo area,
where until recently Cuban refugees have been
almost as rare as warm tropical breezes. In December,
a number of young Cubans attending a Catholic
youth conference in Canada crossed into Buffalo
to defect and were detained for weeks.
After Martínez crossed the Wilbur Bridge
in a taxi on March 23, he was the only Cuban at
the detention center at first.
''I never felt more Latino,'' he said this week,
sitting in his sister's living room. "There
were no Cubans, but I found friends in the Nicaraguans,
Argentinians, Uruguayans, Mexicans and Panamanians.''
Within a month, he was joined by Jesús
Lázaro Rivero Enamorado, a welder from
Cuba. Later came Raul López Mayedo, a mechanical
engineer, and José Eduardo León
Porras, a computer technician. Then, on June 26,
Abel Francis Acea -- an internationally known
artist holding an exhibit in Toronto -- turned
himself in at the Canada-New York line.
NINE IN DETENTION
With five more Cubans crossing the border into
Buffalo last week, there are nine Cuban detainees
at the Batavia immigration holding facility, Martínez
said.
Their supporters say they should be freed on
parole while their asylum claims -- which are
almost always approved -- are settled.
''It gives them the freedom of being able to
obtain evidence in support of their asylum claims,''
said Stephen Tills, an Orchard Park, N.Y., attorney
who represents many of the Cuban migrants in Buffalo.
"The process goes much faster if they are
on the outside.''
Though Cubans generally are released within 48
hours in South Florida, Tills says they are treated
like any other immigrant in Buffalo.
But he said Thursday that it seemed possible
the others may be released soon because of the
ruling in Martínez's case.
''Given the fact that Martínez received
asylum and was released, it would follow that
they would decide to parole others similarly situated
who also have probably good asylum cases,'' Tills
said.
Martínez had to wear blue uniforms and
eat and sleep when he was told. But the facility
was clean and air conditioned, and he had relative
freedom to bathe when he wanted and go outside
several times a day. ''I cannot say anything bad
about the treatment or the conditions,'' Martínez
said.
NO COMPLAINTS
He also won't complain about the four months
he was detained -- not when he thinks of friends
who spent more than a year at the U.S. Naval Base
at Guantánamo Bay in their bid to leave
Cuba.
When Martínez crossed the Wilbur Bridge
-- the engineer at the aging Juragua nuclear plant
in Cienfuegos had been sent to Calgary, Alberta,
for an advanced electrician's course -- he thought
he was home free. Instead, he was in jail for
the first time in his life.
"The idea of being closed in -- that is
what is difficult. You can't do anything for yourself.
And you know you haven't done anything wrong.''
He has no regrets, however -- although he already
misses his wife, his 3-year-old daughter and adult
son. He plans to find a job and send his family
money and supplies until he can bring them to
the States.
''I don't want to stay here without them,'' Martínez
said. "Or else, why did I do this for?''
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