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By Oscar Corral, Elaine de Valle and Alfonso Chard. Posted
on Thu, Jun. 26, 2003 in The
Miami Herald. ocorral@herald.com
A family torn apart by Cuba's cryptic accusations of espionage is appealing
to the media and the American government for help in freeing their imprisoned
relatives on the island.
Three months ago, Maria Cardoso and her husband Arcel took their two
daughters, Lizandra Fernandez, 15, and Ashley Cardoso, 7, on a two-week trip to
Camagüey to visit relatives. By the end of their vacation, Maria and Arcel
were in Cuban custody and their daughters were under house arrest in Camagüey.
The two girls were eventually sent back to Miami, where they are living with
an uncle in Southwest Miami-Dade.
Cuba has accused their parents and an uncle of espionage, a charge linked to
an anti-Castro letter that security agents found in Maria's bra as she tried to
board her flight back to Miami in April.
''We just want them home,'' Lizandra told The Herald on Wednesday. "Ashley
is having a very hard time. She is very emotional.''
Miami relatives say the accusations are a complete fabrication. They say
Cuba's government has refused to let them send a lawyer or get any information
on the charges.
Until now, the U.S. government has not given the family much hope. A State
Department official who asked not to be identified said the United States could
not get involved directly in the case because the couple, although U.S.
residents, are not U.S. citizens.
''We can't demand and receive U.S. consular access [to them] if they are not
Americans,'' the official said.
But at least one congressional representative, Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, said she
would continue to press the U.S. government and appeal to international human
rights agencies to help the couple.
''If these people went to Cuba using formal legal procedures, I think it
would be the moral thing for the U.S. government to help out,'' said
Ros-Lehtinen, R-Miami.
Relatives said the Cardoso family flew to Camagüey on March 27. They
were set to fly back home on April 8.
That day, the couple drove their rental car to the Camagüey airport
with their two daughters, Maria's brother, Omelio Angulo, and Arcel Cardoso's
mother.
At the security checkpoint, an agent asked Maria for her passport, briefly
examined it, then asked her to accompany him to another room, Lizandra said. A
few minutes later, security agents paged Arcel, and he and the girls went to the
security office.
SECURITY OFFICE
After several hours, Cuban agents drove the parents and the uncle to the
Camagüey State Security office, and placed the girls under house arrest at
the home of their aunt, Maricel Angulo, where they remained for two weeks.
About a week after their parents were taken into custody, the girls were
permitted to see their mother.
''It was really emotional,'' Lizandra said. "We only had like 15
minutes to talk to her. She just told me it was all a misunderstanding and to
take care of my sister.''
According to family members in Cuba who have been in touch with the
prisoners, Cuba has charged Maria, her brother, Omelio, and her husband, Arcel,
with espionage.
The letter found by security agents in Maria's bra was given to Maria by
Omelio and was apparently intended for Enrique Angulo, Maria's brother in Miami,
who is now taking care of the girls, Angulo said.
''They are not spies,'' Enrique Angulo said. "We have never been
involved with any political organization or any dissidents.''
Lizandra said her mother was carrying about 10 letters to deliver to people
in Miami because Cuba's postal service is notoriously slow.
Omelio Angulo's wife, Mirta González Cordoví, reached by phone
at home in Camagüey, said the government has never told her precisely what
her husband is accused of.
"They haven't told me what he's done, just that he had information
about the FAR [Cuba's armed forces] . . . that he was sending. . . . But some
was true and some was false.''
She said the Cuban government gave her husband an attorney, "but they
have never let him see him.''
She said her husband worked in the transportation industry, until health
problems prompted him to take early retirement a few years ago.
''He suffers from hypertension and has heart problems. Now they are saying
he is having difficulty urinating,'' his wife said.
She says that she and her sons miss him terribly.
Maria's and Omelio's sister, Marlene Angulo, who lives in Cuba, said the
government was not giving her any information. Reached by phone in Cuba, Marlene
felt afraid to talk freely.
''This phone is tapped,'' she said.
Family members said Maria has dropped 40 pounds and fainted seven times due
to diabetes while in prison.
Enrique Angulo said he has been contacted several times in the last few days
by people he believes are Cuban agents. 'They said 'El Comandante is old, but
very strong. Open your eyes and watch yourself,' '' Enrique Angulo said.
This isn't the first time U.S. residents have been detained in Cuba on murky
charges. Antonio Jorge, a professor of economics and international relations at
Florida International University, said those arrested in Cuba have few rights,
even if they are U.S. citizens.
''If you are born in Cuba, Cuba claims sovereign citizenship rights over you
even if you naturalize elsewhere,'' Jorge said.
Jorge said dozens of Cuban exiles have been detained in Cuba over the years.
Many were freed soon after they were arrested, others may still be in jail. At
least one was executed after being charged as a terrorist in the early 1990s.
ARRESTS STARTED
Arrests of Cuban exiles began almost as soon as Cuba agreed in 1978 to
permit exiles to visit relatives under agreements with the United States.
In 1992, Miami resident Eduardo Díaz Betancourt was executed by
firing squad in Cuba. He had joined two other Dade County men in a failed raid
on the island in 1991.
''It may scare Cuban Americans from going to Cuba,'' said Jaime Suchlicki,
director of the Institute for Cuban and Cuban American studies at the University
of Miami.
Herald staff riter David Ovalle contributed to this report. | 
