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CUBA
NEWS
The
Miami Herald
Cuban stars Dueñas, Rodriguez
defect
By Kevin Baxter, kbaxter@herald.com.
Cuban baseball stars Maels Rodriguez and
Yobal Dueñas confirmed in a radio
interview Thursday that they have defected
with the goal of playing professional baseball
in the United States.
The pair, reported missing by Cuban authorities
Saturday, surfaced on Miami Spanish-language
radio station WQBA (1140). The players,
along with Miami-based agent Henry Vilar,
were interviewed by telephone from an undisclosed
location, believed to be El Salvador.
Rodriguez, a 24-year-old right-handed pitcher,
would easily be the best major-league prospect
to defect from Cuba if not for recent rumors
of an arm injury. Rodriguez, whose fastball
regularly tops 100 mph, set the single-season
strikeout record in Cuba with 263 in 178
1/3 innings three years ago. In the 2001-02
season, he struck out 219 in 148 1/3 innings,
going 14-3 with a 2.13 ERA.
But in this spring's Cuban playoffs, Rodriguez
pitched in 10 of 14 games for the Sancti
Spíritus team and threw complete
games in two exhibitions. Cuban officials
then left him off the Pan American Games
and Olympic qualifying teams, blaming arm
and back injuries for the loss of 15 mph
off his fastball.
''I'll demonstrate [I'm healthy],'' Rodriguez
said. "I'm going to demonstrate that
I can still throw 100. These are things
that they invent to cut a little off the
careers of some athletes.''
Even if the injury reports prove true,
Rodriguez could miss a season or two to
surgery and rehabitation and still be the
third-youngest Cuban national team star
to defect, behind major-leaguers Livan Hernandez
and Danys Baez. And Rodriguez has more international
experience than either at a comparable age.
''I want to play the best baseball, and
that's in the United States,'' Rodriguez
said. "It's a difficult step because
you know how things are in Cuba. So when
Yobal and I made this decision, it was the
most important one in our careers.''
Dueñas, a 6-2, 187-pound second
baseman from Pinar del Rio, is a five-tool
player and former Cuban stolen base champ
who, at 31, is on the down side of a career
that saw him debut in the Cuban national
league at 17.
Dueñas confirmed he was suspended
by Cuban officials for his relationship
with the family of recent defector and former
teammate Jose Ariel Contreras. Contreras
left the Cuban national team in October
2002; Rodriguez reportedly had plans to
leave at that time as well but changed his
mind at the last instant.
''I never stopped seeing Ariel's family,''
said Dueñas, who precipitated a bench-clearing
incident in the 2000 Olympics when he slid
spikes-high into USA catcher Pat Borders.
"He always treated me like a brother,
and when he made the decision that I'm making
now, I never turned my back on his family.''
Vilar said he arranged the players' escape
by boat. If the players seek political asylum
or residency outside the United States,
they likely will be declared free agents
by Major League Baseball and be able to
sign with any team.
Vilar did not address his next step during
the interview, and he did not return calls
to his cellphone seeking comment.
Cuba travel battle looms
Under the threat of a presidential veto,
a House-Senate conference committee is considering
a measure that would effectively end the
ban on travel to Cuba.
By Frank Davies. fdavies@herald.com.
Posted on Fri, Oct. 31, 2003.
WASHINGTON - Strong majorities in the House
and Senate have approved similarly worded
measures to end the ban on Americans traveling
to Cuba. Normally, that would ensure final
passage.
But there's nothing normal about Cuba policy
on Capitol Hill.
President Bush has pledged to veto any
bill with such a provision, and House Republican
leaders have said they will work to remove
it when a conference committee of House
and Senate members approves a final version
of the Treasury-Transportation appropriations
bill.
In a few weeks, Republican leaders say,
it's likely that several spending measures
will be wrapped up into one omnibus bill
to fund most of the federal government for
the next year. With bigger issues getting
attention during the hectic end of a congressional
session, that would make it even easier
to drop the Cuba provision behind closed
doors.
That's what has happened before.
''The people who do appropriations are
a practical type not likely to play chicken
with the president,'' said Roger Noriega,
assistant secretary of state for the Western
Hemisphere and a longtime Senate staff member.
ON RECORD
But this time the Senate is firmly on record,
by a 59-36 vote last week, to end the travel
ban by denying the Treasury Department any
funds to enforce it.
''Last year it was easy for the House leaders
to delete their own amendment. This year
the Senate has passed it, so it will take
more effort to strip it,'' said Philip Peters,
vice president of the conservative Lexington
Institute and an opponent of the ban.
In the Senate, 19 Republicans voted to
end the ban. Several admitted it was awkward
to oppose Bush so openly but said that the
White House was taking a hard-line position
to appease Cuban-American voters in Florida.
''The administration inherited this embargo,
and it hasn't worked for many years,'' said
Sen. Larry Craig, R-Idaho. "It's time
for the administration to make necessary
changes and demonstrate flexibility.''
Sen. Mike Enzi, R-Wyo., said the tide had
turned on Cuba policy, with most Americans
supporting an end to the sanctions. That's
why he thinks some change might get through
this year.
''And when the House and Senate agree on
language, normally it's done,'' Enzi said.
"It can't be taken out.''
But House Majority Leader Tom DeLay, R-Tex.,
has been an implacable foe of any easing
of the sanctions. On Wednesday he named
the 17 House conferees who will negotiate
with the Senate over the bill and, not surprisingly,
the group is tilted 10-7 in favor of those
who want to keep the travel ban.
One House staff member who has followed
the Cuba issue for years predicted this
showdown: "Tom DeLay will fight tooth
and nail to get this Cuba change out of
there. The big question is whether senators
will push back or just give in.''
The 17 Senate conferees are dominated by
14 opponents of the ban, including seven
Republicans. But the supporters of the ban
include the Appropriations chairman, Ted
Stevens, R-Alaska; and Richard Shelby, R-Ala.,
the subcommittee chairman who handled the
bill.
''It's vital to our interests that we maintain
a resolute policy toward Cuba,'' Shelby
said.
FARM STATES
Many groups that want to increase business
in Cuba will try to keep pressure on farm-state
senators not to forget Cuba at the end of
the session.
''We're phoning, visiting the Hill, shoring
up support, and the lineup of Senate conferees
looks good,'' said Jody Frisch, director
of USA Engage, a coalition of 600 companies
and trade groups.
About 160,000 Americans traveled legally
to Cuba in 2001, about half of them Cuban
Americans, according to the Treasury Department.
The ban restricts non-Cuban Americans to
educational and humanitarian travel, but
thousands enter Cuba illegally as simple
tourists.
Herald staff writer Juan O. Tamayo contributed
to this report.
Local monsignor, influential poet
Cuban exile Monsignor Angel Gaztelu
Gorriti published works of poetry and helped
build churches in his native country.
By Armando Alvarez Bravo,
El Nuevo Herald.
Monsignor Angel Gaztelu Gorriti, a Cuban
prelate and poet who was influential in
the literature of the island, died Wednesday
at Mercy Hospital of natural causes. He
was 89 and had recently suffered a minor
stroke.
''First of all, he was a priest of God
devoted to saving souls,'' said Monsignor
Emilio Vallina, a lifelong friend and fellow
priest at the Church of Saint John Bosco
in Miami. "Also, he was a famous intellectual
who did much for Cuban culture. He wrote
Gradual of Praises, an anthology of poems
that is now in its fifth printing.''
Gaztelu was born in Puente de la Reina,
Spain. In 1927, when he was 13, his family
migrated to Cuba. There, he attended seminary
and was ordained in 1938. As a youth, Gaztelu
befriended poet José Lezama Lima
and became active in the world of poetry
and culture. He contributed to literary
magazines such as Verbum and was a member
of the influential literary group Origins.
In addition to Gradual of Praises (1955),
he wrote Poems (1940) and Collection of
Poems (1994). ''He was like a brother and
a spiritual advisor,'' said Eloísa
Lezama Lima, the poet's sister and a professor
of literature. "He had a profound relationship
of friendship with my brother, full of constant
admiration.''
Gaztelu brought to his ministry a love
for beauty and art. He championed the restoration
of the church of Bauta with the assistance
of friends such as sculptor Alfredo Lozano
and painter René Portocarrero.
He also encouraged architect Eugenio Batista
to build the Church of Our Lady of Charity
in Baracoa and asked Lozano to restore the
Church of the Holy Spirit in Old Havana.
Gaztelu moved to Miami in the 1980s and
became a priest at Saint John Bosco.
''We have lost an important figure in our
poetry, someone whose very presence gave
cultural prestige to our exile community,''
said poet Angel Cuadra, president of Cuban
Writers in Exile.
Gaztelu is survived by his sister, Soledad
Gaztelu. A funeral Mass will be held at
10 a.m. today at the Church of Saint John
Bosco, 1301 W. Flagler St. Burial will follow
at Our Lady of Mercy cemetery.
Herald translator Renato Perez contributed
to this report.
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