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CUBA
NEWS
The
Miami Herald
U.S. says it has filled annual quota for
visas
Havana and Washington have accused each other
of delaying legal immigration in order to provoke
a migration crisis.
By Anita Snow, Associated Press.
Posted on Thu, Sep. 18, 2003
HAVANA - The American mission here announced
Wednesday it had overcome a severe backlog in
U.S. immigrant visa requests and fulfilled its
annual quota of 20,000 such visas for Cubans.
The visa backlog in the U.S. Interests Section
had been a point of contention with the Cuban
government, which earlier this year accused American
officials of intentionally slowing down the approval
process to spark a migration crisis.
''As of Sept. 16, 2003, the U.S. Interests Section,
Havana, Cuba, has issued travel documents to 20,000
Cuban citizens, as required by the 1994 U.S.-Cuba
Migration Accord,'' the mission said in a brief
news release.
''Under the accord, the United States agreed
to document for migration 20,000 Cubans per year
in order to ensure the safe, legal and orderly
migration from Cuba to the U.S,'' the news release
continued. "We urge the Cuban government
to grant exit permits to all those Cubans who
have received the U.S. travel documents. The United
States is committed to and will continue to honor
its obligations under the Migration Accords.''
It was unclear how American officials were able
to catch up so quickly. In April, Cuban officials
reported that only about 700 of the 20,000 immigrant
visas required annually had been granted for the
U.S. government's fiscal year, which ends Sept.
30.
American officials had said the backlog was caused
by stricter screening under regulations adopted
after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks .
Mandatory interviews, extensive background checks
and sometimes fingerprinting are now required
for people from countries on the U.S. State Department's
terrorism watch list -- which includes Cuba --
seeking a visa to visit or emigrate to the United
States.
Before the new regulations took effect, a Cuban
seeking to emigrate to the United States generally
could get final documentation allowing travel
within a week after qualification by U.S. consular
officials. That process now takes several weeks.
During a string of hijacking attempts earlier
this year, Cuban and American officials accused
each other of trying to set off a crisis that
would result in hordes of Cubans taking to the
sea to reach the United States. Both countries
denied the accusations.
In one such hijacking attempt, Cuba executed
by firing squad three men who unsuccessfully tried
to commandeer a ferry full of passengers to the
United States.
The hijackings came during a Cuban crackdown
on government opponents. Seventy-five dissidents
were sentenced to prison terms of up to 28 years
on charges of working with American diplomats
to undermine the government.
Break With Castro / Argentine singer says
'no más'
Posted on Thu, Sep. 18, 2003
BUENOS AIRES - (AP) -- Argentine folksinger Mercedes
Sosa, an icon of Latin American music and longtime
leftist, has broken with Cuban President Fidel
Castro over the firing-squad executions of three
youths who tried to hijack a boat to Florida this
spring.
''My love stops here,'' said Sosa, who is scheduled
to perform Sept. 25 at the Jackie Gleason Theater
in Miami Beach.
"I believe one must assume noble positions
in the face of things that are not right.''
Sosa, one of Latin America's best known folksingers,
a former communist party member and long-time
activist in a broad range of liberal causes, made
the statements Tuesday night during a news conference
to display the Latin Grammy she recently won for
her album Acústico.
''I believe I have fought much for Fidel, in
Cuba, in Miami and in other parts of the world,
and I believe that now it is time that we don't
have to accept everything, because then we'll
lapse into dictators,'' she said.
''So my love stops here, with the business of
the killing -- the murdering -- of those kids
who tried to escape,'' Sosa told reporters.
Strong words for tough stance on Cuba
National security advisor Condoleezza Rice
emphasizes to Cuban-American lawmakers that President
Bush won't back down on his views.
By Oscar Corral, ocorral@herald.com.
Posted on Wed, Sep. 17, 2003
National security advisor Condoleezza Rice has
written South Florida Republican legislators to
stress that President Bush is committed to the
economic embargo against Cuba and bringing democracy
to the island.
Her letter underscores the importance in the
next presidential election of the Cuban-American
electorate, a voting block considered necessary
by the GOP to win in Florida, which is expected
to be a key state.
Rice, writing to State Rep. David Rivera, R-Miami,
was responding to a letter that GOP state legislators
had sent Bush in August asking him to get tougher
on Cuba or risk losing the political support of
Cuban Americans.
''As long as Fidel Castro denies the political
and economic rights of the Cuban people, there
is work to be done,'' Rice wrote in a letter dated
Sept. 3. "Our efforts are manifest in our
accomplishments.''
Political observers say the letter -- which highlighted
nine steps the Bush administration has already
taken to help bring about a free Cuba -- is a
clear signal that Bush needs Florida, particularly
the exile vote, in the 2004 election.
However, exile leaders and some legislators who
helped author the August letter to Bush say the
administration's response does not go far enough
to appease a frustrated Cuban-American constituency
in Miami-Dade.
''More needs to be done on the issue,'' Rivera
said in an interview Tuesday. "What is important
now as we approach the election is the need to
be able to distinguish President Bush's record
from past and future Democratic presidential nominees.''
State Rep. Manny Prieguez, R-Miami, said he expects
more action on Cuba from the White House, like
revisiting the migration policy that now mandates
the return to Cuba of migrants stopped at sea
by the U.S. Coast Guard while fleeing the island.
'Grain of salt'
''I take her letter with a grain of salt,'' Prieguez
said. "There is an implicit understanding
that we are expecting a heck of a lot more than
what's in that letter.''
In August, Republican state legislators asked
Bush to revise U.S.-Cuba immigration policy; indict
Fidel Castro for murder; beef up TV Martí,
and increase aid to dissidents on the island.
Since then, the U.S. government has announced
the indictments of three principal players in
the Brothers to the Rescue shoot-down. Cuban President
Fidel Castro was not indicted.
''These indictments send a clear message to the
Cuban military and other elements of the repressive
regime that there are consequences for murdering
innocent civilians,'' Rice wrote.
Last month, the Bush administration also announced
plans to broadcast TV Martí by satellite
to make the U.S.-funded broadcasts more accessible
to Cuban viewers and less susceptible to Cuban
government jamming.
Rice said this was done with the intention of
"breaking down the information blockade on
the Cuban people.''
Other measures that Rice said the administration
has taken to get tough on Cuba are:
o Funneling assistance to the families of Cuban
political prisoners to help insulate them from
retaliation by the regime;
o Encouraging the formation of a multilateral
coalition for change and against repression in
Cuba;
o Shutting down spy rings in the United States;
''The arrest and imprisonment of members of the
opposition and civil society earned the condemnation
of the international community,'' Rice wrote.
White House Spokesman Taylor Gross said the president
remains "firmly dedicated to a pro-active
Cuba policy.''
Washington-based pollster Rob Schroth said it's
not unusual for the ''highest levels'' of the
White House to respond when a key constituency
is threatened.
Florida's key role
Miami political observer and pollster Sergio
Bendixen, who works closely with the Democratic
party, said Bush is making sure he keeps Cuban
American voters on his side in 2004.
''It would be close to impossible for President
Bush to carry Florida if he does not get the 80
or 85 percent level of support he received in
2000 from Cuban American voters,'' Bendixen said.
Joe Garcia, executive director of the Cuban American
National Foundation, said the letter offers him
little to cheer about.
''There's nothing there. There's more rhetoric,''
Garcia said. "It's propaganda and positioning
more than action and initiatives.''
Groups unveil rights proposal
HAVANA - (AP) -- A coalition of dissident groups
Tuesday unveiled a proposal seeking broad human
and economic freedoms -- including the right to
expression, association and movement -- after
consulting with more than 35,000 Cubans across
the island.
The seven-page ''Letter of Fundamental Rights
and Responsibilities of Cubans'' was presented
at a news conference organized by one of the leading
organizations involved, the Moderate Opposition's
Reflection Group.
Among the other rights spelled out in the letter
are the freedom to leave the country without government
permission, to hold private or corporate property,
to own one's own business and work for whomever
one chooses.
Comprised of a preamble and 48 articles, the
document was written after a months-long process
in which more than 35,000 Cubans were asked for
their suggestions.
The document will be presented to Cuba's National
Assembly, the Communist Party's Central Committee
and other institutions, said Manuel Cuesta Morúa
of the Moderate Opposition's Reflection Group.
Cuesta Morúa denied that his coalition's
proposal was an alternative to the Varela Project
democracy effort, which Fidel Castro's government
has rejected as unconstitutional. The Varela Project
also seeks wide human and economic rights, but
it began as a signature drive to seek a voters
initiative on laws that would guarantee those
liberties.
While those signing the Varela Project were required
to list their names, addresses and government
identity numbers, participants in the new survey
were anonymous.
Support vanishing for Cuba's art showcase
Major sponsors withdraw funding.
By Elisa Turner, elisaturn@aol.com.
Posted on Tue, Sep. 16, 2003.
Troubles are mounting for the eighth Havana Biennial
as Dutch sponsors pull the plug on funding, while
visual artists in Miami and Costa Rica turn down
invitations to participate in the international
showcase opening Nov. 1.
The Cuban government's crackdowns earlier this
year on dissidents and artists' charges of censorship
fueled the decisions. ''The fact that they arrested
75 intellectuals and activists is why we decided
not to fund them,'' said Els van der Plas, director
of the Prince Claus Fund, a cultural organization
based in The Hague that supports artists in Africa,
Asia, Latin America and the Caribbean.
For the previous Havana Biennial in 2000, the
Prince Claus Fund contributed slightly more than
$100,000, making it a key sponsor. ''We supported
Asian artists and artists from the Arab world.
This year maybe we would have done the same,''
van der Plas said in a phone interview Wednesday
from The Hague, "but we made a choice. We
just said we couldn't do it.''
The Fund announced its decision Aug. 22. Five
days later, another Hague organization, the Humanist
Institute for Cooperation with Developing Countries,
also dropped its support.
Miami-based artists Roberto Behar and Rosario
Marquardt, whose work was shown this summer at
the Miami Art Museum, said in a phone interview
that they were sending a letter to Havana Biennial
organizers this week explaining their decision
not to attend.
Their letter follows the biennial's rejection
of their proposal for an outdoor installation,
said Marquardt, but also reflects concern over
Cuba's current political climate. ''We didn't
feel comfortable about participating,'' Behar
said, "because I think at this point it would
be more harmful than helpful. In general, we think
cultural exchange may help open doors, but in
this present context that may not be the case.
''Everyone punished by the government in Cuba
lately has been fighting peacefully for basic
cultural freedoms,'' he said in the phone conversation.
"It's very difficult to participate in anything
the government sponsored.''
Biennial organizers at Havana's Wifredo Lam Contemporary
Art Center did not respond to several e-mail requests
for comment.
Costa Rican artist Priscilla Monge and Venezuelan
artist Alexander Apostle have also withdrawn,
saying Biennial curators censored their proposed
projects, according to a letter from Costa Rica's
Museum of Art and Contemporary Design that's posted
on a Venezuelan website.
On that site, www.gentedelacultura.org, there's
also a letter dated Aug. 14 from Monge addressed
to Biennial curator José Noceda. Complaining
that both Cuban and foreign artists are being
''questioned and censured,'' she wrote that "I
do not have left another option than to resign
and to hope that the Biennial recovers its sanity.''
Considered a significant, if uneven, showcase
for artists from Third World countries, the Havana
Biennial drew unprecedented crowds of international
visitors, many affiliated with museums in the
United States, in its seventh edition three years
ago. Curators and collectors flocked to studios
of Cuban artists, already on the art world radar
thanks to well-received shows in Europe and the
United States.
Artists, especially from Latin America, have
generally supported the Prince Claus Fund's decision
to cut off funding, van der Plas said. But there
has also been criticism for abandoning artists
involved in the Havana event.
''It's open for debate, which I think is good,''
she said, "because I want to stress the fact
that we should not forget the people arrested.''
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