CUBA NEWS
The Miami Herald

Take down holiday decorations, U.S. told

A sign among holiday decorations outside the U.S. Interest Section in Havana referring to imprisoned dissidents has irritated the Cuban government, which wants the decorations removed.

By Vanessa Arrington, Associated Press. Posted on Wed, Dec. 15, 2004.

HAVANA - The Cuban government has warned the U.S. diplomatic mission in Havana to immediately take down Christmas decorations outside its offices or face unspecified consequences, the top American diplomat on the island said Tuesday.

The trimmings of Santa Claus, candy canes and white lights wrapped in palm trees on the mission's seaside lawn apparently aren't the problem.

What was likely irking the Cuban authorities, U.S. Interest Section Chief James Cason said, is a lighted sign about three feet in diameter among the decorations that reads ''75'' -- a reference to 75 Cuban dissidents jailed last year.

The sign was among the decorations closest to the street, which is on Havana's coastal Malecon highway.

''Our intent, in the spirit of Christmas, was to call attention to the plight of these 75,'' Cason told reporters. "We're prepared to pay whatever price for the things we believe in.''

Cuban Foreign Ministry officials insisted in meetings Saturday and Tuesday that the decorations be taken down, Cason said. The U.S. Interest Section refused, and was told it would face unspecified consequences.

''They could expel us; they could continue to hinder our activities,'' Cason said. "We don't know what they're going to do.''

The United States and Cuba have not had diplomatic relations since shortly after Fidel Castro became president of Cuba.

In lieu of embassies, interest sections provide consular services and limited official contact.

Cason said the Cuban government was annoyed by an event at the mission for relatives of political prisoners and a Christmas party held for their children.

Softening of EU stance toward Cuba suggested

Hoping to break a diplomatic deadlock with Cuba, European Union officials have suggested a resumption in high-level official visits.

By Nancy San Martin, nsanmartin@herald.com. Posted on Wed, Dec. 15, 2004.

European Union experts on Cuba Tuesday recommended excluding dissidents from cocktail functions at EU embassies in Havana and resuming high-level visits to the island as a way to restore dialogue with the communist government.

However, the group also recommended not inviting high Cuban government officials to the same cocktails through June, pressing Cuba to release all political prisoners and increasing contacts with dissidents in other ways.

The recommendations appear to weaken the tough stance that the 25-member EU took on Cuba after its government jailed 75 dissidents in 2003 and sentenced them to up to 28 years in prison.

But a spokesman for the Dutch government, which holds the rotating presidency of the EU, denied there was any change.

''What we're trying to do is find creative ways to break the deadlock. The pressure is maintained on Cuban authorities,'' the spokesman told The Herald in a phone interview.

The recommendations drew sharp criticism from Elizardo Sánchez, a human rights activist in Havana, who complained that the repression of dissidents that caused the EU to take its tough stance has not diminished.

''The circumstances that gave rise to the measures adopted by the EU continue to be the same,'' Sánchez told the EFE news agency in Havana. The EU "would be distancing itself from the Cuban people, which has spent more than four decades passing through a horrible nightmare.''

CONSIDERED IN JANUARY

The recommendations by the EU Council for Latin America, made up of officials who handle the member nations' relations with Latin America, will be considered for adoption in January, when EU foreign ministers are scheduled to meet.

In response to Cuba's crackdown on dissidents last year, the EU suspended bilateral high-level official visits and had its embassies in Havana invite dissidents to social functions. Cuba responded by breaking off all contacts with EU diplomats.

The European Parliament has demanded that the European bloc make no concessions toward easing relations with Cuba until all political prisoners are released.

The review of the EU measures came after Spain's new Socialist-led government recently restored formal contacts with Havana and began aggressively advocating for dialogue.

Fourteen of the 75 dissidents were released on parole in recent weeks, beginning just days after Cuban Foreign Minister Felipe Pérez Roque met with Spain's ambassador to Cuba.

REVIEWS IN JUNE

If the proposals are adopted in January, they will remain in effect until June, when another review process will take place. Also scheduled for review at that time is the EU's ''common position'' on Cuba, a policy adopted in 1996 that made improved diplomatic ties conditional on political changes.

3 Cuban dissidents find 'bugs' on home phones

By Nancy San Martin, nsanmartin@herald.com. Posted on Tue, Dec. 14, 2004.

Three Cuban dissidents say they have found tiny listening devices in their homes in the past week, underlining and to some degree embarrassing the communist government's efforts to monitor the affairs of its critics.

On Monday, prominent activist Oswaldo Payá showed foreign reporters in Havana two small microphones he said he found inside the telephone junction boxes in the walls of his bedroom and dining room.

''We are indignant that such a low method was used against a family's home,'' Payá, leader of a signature drive for a referendum on democratic reforms, told the reporters.

Laura Pollán, wife of jailed independent journalist Héctor Maseda, said Friday that she had found a listening device hidden in the telephone box in her dining room -- a frequent gathering spot for visitors.

'SOMEWHAT STUNNED'

''It's a tiny rectangular chip,'' Pollán told The Herald Monday in a telephone interview from Havana. "It's not a complete surprise because I've always suspected they listened to my conversations. But when I actually found [the device], I was somewhat stunned. All I could do was laugh.''

Pollán said dissidents started checking their telephone boxes after the wife of another jailed dissident accidentally discovered a similar device in her telephone box last week. A lit candle had burned too close to her telephone box, melting a gooey substance in the back and revealing the device.

Pollán is active with a group of wives and mothers known as the ''Women in White,'' who have been calling attention to the plight of their imprisoned loved ones. The group gathers at her home.

The first person to discover the small microphone has not publicly denounced the finding for fear of reprisals against her jailed husband, Pollán said.

Efforts to reach officials at the Cuban Interests Section in Washington for comment were not successful.

'HARASS AND REPRESS'

Payá and Pollán said they suspect the bugging devices were installed by ETECSA, the telephone company jointly owned by the Cuban government and an Italian firm.

''For many years, the totalitarian state in Cuba has let loose . . . all its technical resources and a literal army of agents to spy on, harass and repress my family,'' Payá said.

''What the government needs to do is really listen to us -- not with devices but with their ears,'' Pollán said. "They need to honor our pleas for human rights and give freedom to our husbands who were unjustly jailed.''

EU unlikely to ease Cuba sanctions

Cuba is not likely to get an economic reprieve from the European Union, despite the recent release of some dissidents, analysts said.

By Nancy San Martin, nsanmartin@herald.com. Posted on Tue, Dec. 14, 2004.

Havana's release of seven jailed dissidents this month may have scored public relations points with the European Union, but EU officials are unlikely to ease their sanctions on Cuba when they meet in Brussels today, analysts say.

''The common position will not be changed,'' said Joaquín Roy, director of the University of Miami's European Union Center, although the Brussels meeting may try to relax the tenor of Cuba-EU relations. "They will go from closing the doors to opening the doors a little, and then wait and see.''

Cuba broke off contacts with EU diplomats last year soon after the 25-nation bloc condemned the jailing of 75 dissidents, curtailed high-level bilateral visits and began inviting dissidents to European embassy functions in Havana.

But EU officials in charge of relations with Cuba are scheduled to meet today in the bloc's headquarters in the Belgian capital to explore ways of broadening the dialogue with Fidel Castro's government recently renewed by Spain.

Spain's new Socialist prime minister, José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero, has advocated resuming a dialogue with Cuba, in contrast to former Prime Minister José María Aznar's hard line against the Castro government and in support of dissidents.

SEEKS IMPROVED TIES

Cuba began releasing dissidents four days after its foreign minister met in Havana with Spanish Ambassador Carlos Alonso Zaldivar, in what was widely seen as a Havana efforts to improve its relations with the European bloc. Seven government critics have been freed so far, including internationally known author Raúl Rivero.

Although the EU has welcomed the dissidents' release, its top officials have indicated that was just a ''first step'' toward satisfying demands that the Cuban government respect human rights and move toward political changes.

''We have to see whether Cuba continues with this line or whether it will just be a temporary release of a few prisoners to make a gesture of goodwill and then stop. That is not enough for the EU,'' Dutch Foreign Minister Ben Bot, whose country holds the EU's rotating presidency, told reporters after Rivero's release.

14 RELEASED

Cuban authorities so far have released 14 of the 75 dissidents arrested in April 2003 and sentenced to up to 28 years in prison after mostly one-day trials. All the freed prisoners suffered from poor health and were sent home under ''extrapenal licenses,'' meaning that their convictions remain in effect and that they could be returned to prison at any time.

The dissidents were accused of working with U.S. diplomats in Havana to undermine the socialist system. The dissidents and U.S. officials have denied the accusations.

AT STAKE: TRADE, AID

For Cuba, restoring full relations with the EU would help it shed the criticism it received abroad after the 2003 crackdown, and perhaps allow it to resubmit its application to join an EU agreement that would provide the island with beneficial trade terms and development aid.

Following last year's crackdown, the EU postponed action on Cuba's application to join the Cotonou Agreement, which offers trade and aid benefits to former European colonies. Cuba then withdrew its application, citing "unacceptable conditions.''

Access to the Cotonou funds hinges on criteria that include improvements in human rights and corruption. Havana has repeatedly stated that it would only join if there were no strings attached.

'DOWN A NOTCH'

Analysts said that based on Cuba's headstrong stance on human rights, they do not expect the EU officials to take significant steps to improve bilateral relations when they meet in Brussels.

''They are going to slow down the pressure a notch,'' said Jaime Suchlicki, director of UM's Institute for Cuban and Cuban-American Studies, "But they will not normalize relations.''

Cuba plans drill as a show of force

Cuba's armed forces will participate in 'gigantic' exercises this week intended to prepare against possible U.S. aggression.

By Nancy San Martin, nsanmartin@herald.com. Posted on Sun, Dec. 12, 2004.

Photos of Cuban soldiers, armed and camouflaged, run in the island's newspapers. The defense minister talks of a ''war of the entire population.'' And radio and TV announcers warn of a possible attack from a sworn enemy: the United States.

Once again, Havana is sounding alarm bells about a potential U.S. attack, publicly arguing that a U.S. president who went after Afghanistan and Iraq in his first term might find it tempting to go after Cuba in his second term.

U.S. officials scoff at the idea. But that has not stopped Cuban leader Fidel Castro from promoting the sense of vulnerability -- perhaps to strengthen his armed forces, perhaps to strengthen his brother and designated successor, Defense Minister Raúl Castro.

From Monday through Dec. 19, more than 100,000 members of all branches of Cuba's armed forces will participate in ''Bastión 2004,'' described by Cuban officials as the most massive such drill in more than a decade. Ever since a U.S.-led coalition invaded Iraq last year, Havana has been telling its population that the communist government might be next on a U.S. hit list.

But analysts say the war games are more likely intended to mobilize a population struggling with economic hardships, showcase the might of the armed forces and instill the perception of continuity for a 45-year-old revolution led by Castro, now 78 and getting around on a wheelchair after a fall in which he shattered a kneecap and broke an arm.

''This is an attempt to strengthen and reinforce the role of the military,'' said Jaime Suchlicki, director of the University of Miami's Institute for Cuban and Cuban-American Studies. "Sixty-five percent of the economy is run by the military. They will be responsible for guaranteeing stability in Cuba once Castro dies.''

At a recent gathering of young communists in Havana, Raúl Castro said the exercises would begin with soldiers but grow to include participation from the entire population. ''The important thing is that everyone know, at least the essentials, to fight against the enemy,'' Raúl Castro said. "Ultimately, all this we are planning is to guarantee the future for you and your children.''

Inside Cuba, the widely publicized drills are being seen by many as a nuisance at a time when life has increasingly become a daily struggle. Food and basic staples have dwindled. Prices have soared. And the flow of U.S. dollars that used to provide some relief has been restricted under new Bush administration policies.

''People are preoccupied with how to survive,'' a former university professor told The Herald in a telephone interview from Havana. "They view these military exercises with disillusion, as a mechanism for control.''

''Many also see this as a way to raise Raúl's profile,'' he added."It's a promotion of his [Raúl Castro's] public image, an attempt to create a perception of succession.''

Alcibiades Hidalgo, a former Cuban ambassador to the United Nations and personal secretary to Raúl Castro, said the main objective of the exercises is to maintain the population under the threat of force. ''This is a burden for the people,'' said Hidalgo, who defected in 2002. "A significant sector of the population doesn't accept the government's claim of a U.S. attack.

''What's sad is that it's always the same message: to wait for an invasion that for 45 years has yet to materialize,'' he added.

U.S. officials agree.

''The Cuban regime is the real threat to the Cuban people, not an imaginary U.S. invasion,'' a U.S. official who monitors activities on the island said on condition of anonymity. "Castro's playing the victim isn't convincing anyone.''

''What the regime is really afraid of is the free flow of ideas, open political discourse and the Cuban people's wanting a better life and the right to select their own leaders,'' the official said. "Doesn't the Cuban regime have anything better to do than to scare its citizens?''

U.S. stops detaining lawful Cubans at Krome

By Alfonso Chardy And Jennifer Babson, achardy@herald.com. Posted on Sun, Dec. 12, 2004.

For the first time in more than 20 years, U.S. immigration authorities have decided to stop putting noncriminal Cuban immigrants who arrive by sea at the Krome detention center for temporary detention and processing.

In the future, U.S. officials said Friday, the Cubans will be initially processed at Border Patrol stations in the area, then briefly checked at a clinic at Krome and released -- all within hours.

The move is aimed at opening up bed space at Krome for other, more pressing cases such as foreign nationals detained for deportation because of criminal convictions, according to officials at the Department of Homeland Security, which oversees the detention center in West Miami-Dade.

Officials said arriving Cuban migrants with criminal backgrounds will still be locked up at Krome.

COLD WAR RELIC

Krome, an abandoned Cold War missile base, was reopened in 1980 to process Cuban and Haitian refugees during the Mariel mass migrations. Since then, most arriving Cuban migrants have been taken there for processing.

After Mariel, Krome stayed open as a detention facility for foreign nationals under the control of the U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service, which Homeland Security absorbed last year.

Krome's population fluctuates between 400 and more than 500 inmates, all male, on any given day. Its capacity is 580 inmates.

The decision to stop detaining noncriminal Cuban migrants at Krome recognizes the reality that their status is different from that of other migrants who arrive without valid travel documents.

Under the Cuban Adjustment Act, Cubans who reach U.S. soil are not put in deportation proceedings. Instead, the U.S. government helps resettle them and allows them to apply for permanent residence after more than a year in the country.

BORDER PATROL MATTER

Manny Van Pelt, a Homeland Security spokesman, said arriving Cuban migrants will still be taken to Krome and detained if authorities find a criminal background or for some other reason need to hold them for longer periods. But in the majority of cases, he said, arriving Cuban immigrants will be processed at Border Patrol stations and released.

He said the same processing that occurred at Krome will now be done by the Border Patrol. Van Pelt said this procedure was tried when 10 Cuban rafters washed up on Fort Lauderdale beach Nov. 30 after spending 10 days at sea.

Border Patrol agents picked up the rafters and transported them to their station at Pembroke Pines. They were released shortly afterward.

UNFAIR TREATMENT

The shift of most Cubans away from Krome upset some immigrant rights activists, who viewed it as yet another demonstration of official preference for Cuban migrants.

''I'm glad the government is humanely treating Cuban migrants,'' said Ira Kurzban, a Miami immigration attorney who for years has fought for increased rights for Haitian migrants. "But it reflects a patently discriminatory policy against Haitians who are incarcerated for months, and sometimes years, and who have claims for political asylum.''

Van Pelt declined to respond to critics. He said Homeland Security was merely trying to make more efficient the processing of arriving Cuban migrants.

''There is a specific act that is directed toward Cubans,'' he said. "We are doing our part to ensure that it is implemented.''

Van Pelt said the new procedure reflects a more-effective way to use Krome, making more room for criminal migrants awaiting deportation.

Election galvanizes Cuba embargo backers

For the first time in years, congressional supporters of the economic embargo against Cuba are prepared to go on the offensive.

By Pablo Bachelet, pbachelet@herald.com. Posted on Sat, Dec. 11, 2004.

WASHINGTON - After years of fighting defensive maneuvers to keep U.S. sanctions on Cuba intact, changes in Congress and the White House have emboldened pro-embargo legislators to consider more aggressive policies against the island.

The addition of Florida's Mel Martinez to the Senate, the strengthening of the Republican majority in Congress and Condoleezza Rice's nomination as secretary of state have shifted the balance of power in favor of the pro-embargo camp, analysts and congressional officials say.

''We're going to get together and form a coalition with other members of like mind to have a proactive stance . . .'' said Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, a Miami Republican.

Ros-Lehtinen, Martínez and Reps. Lincoln and Mario Díaz-Balart, brothers and Miami Republicans, have created a congressional bloc, tentatively named the Cuba Democracy Group, to counter the bipartisan Cuba Working Group, which favors more trade with the island.

Much of the Cuba Democracy Group's efforts will target freshmen legislators who might be unfamiliar with Cuban issues. In February it will launch an ''adopt-a-prisoner'' campaign that will invite lawmakers to wear buttons with pictures of political prisoners, their names and prison sentences.

Ros-Lehtinen said the group also will look to curtail U.S. agriculture exports to Cuba and keep U.S. banks from doing business with Fidel Castro's government. U.S. food and agricultural exports to Cuba totaled $714.5 million from December 2001 to October 2004.

A POSSIBLE TARGET

The group may even nudge the Bush administration to enforce the most controversial provisions of the 1996 Helms-Burton Act -- which punishes foreigners for investing in properties confiscated by the communist government. The Clinton and Bush administration each year signed waivers on those provisions because of fierce opposition from Canada and Europe, whose businessmen have invested in some of those properties.

Ros-Lehtinen and the Díaz-Balarts have always worked as a tight-knit group on Cuban issues, often joined by the other Cuban-American in Congress, Rep. Robert Menendez, D-N.J. Ros-Lehtinen said Menendez also would be invited to join the new congressional bloc.

LOGJAM IS BROKEN

On the Senate side, the Cuba Democracy Group will include Sens. George Allen, R-Va., and Rick Santorum, R-Pa., in addition to Martinez.

Until November, a stalemate had prevailed on Cuban issues in Washington for several years.

Almost ritualistically, a congressional majority in the past would vote in favor of moves to ease some of the sanctions on Cuba. But the GOP leadership has blocked the moves in the past two years under threat of a White House veto.

Martinez's arrival in the Senate could change all that, said Daniel Erikson, who monitors Cuba at the Inter-American Dialogue, a Washington think tank.

''Since the retirement of Jesse Helms in 2002, the Senate has not had a really staunch pro-embargo advocate,'' he said, adding that many of the Republican freshmen senators are conservatives unlikely to back a change in Cuba policy.

The pro-embargo camp also gained ground in the House in the Nov. 2 elections, with the defeat of several anti-embargo advocates.

Bush's decision to name Carlos Gutierrez, a Cuban American, as secretary of commerce, and Rice as secretary of state also strengthened the anti-Castro camp, said John Kavulich, who runs the U.S.-Cuba Trade and Economic Council, a New York-based group that monitors commercial relations.

SUPPORT FOR RICE

Ros-Lehtinen described Powell as ''a good soldier'' on Cuban issues but said she considers Rice, an expert on the former Soviet Union, ''a true believer.'' in the anti-Castro cause.

The Bush administration already is considering tightening the system that Cuba uses to pay for U.S. food and agricultural imports -- changes that would make it much more difficult for U.S. companies to export to the island, a move resisted by business groups and many lawmakers.

For its part, the antiembargo camp is not giving up, especially on its efforts to ease U.S. restrictions on travel to Cuba.

''I think as far as travel goes we'll continue to win,'' said Rep. Jo Ann Emerson, R-Mo. "It's a ridiculous policy to have.''

Inventor fled Castro's Cuba

By Olivier Stephenson, ostephenson@herald.com. Posted on Sat, Dec. 11, 2004.

RODOLFO RODRIGUEZ BALAGUER, 86

Rodolfo Rodriguez Balaguer of Fort Lauderdale, a retired electrical engineer-inventor, died Wednesday at Manor Pines nursing home in Wilton Manors. He was 86.

Originally from Cuba, Balaguer worked at a laboratory set up especially for him at a Union Carbide plant in Matanzas, Cuba, before the Castro revolution, according to his daughter, Maria Elena Rodriguez-Hooks of Fort Lauderdale.

Under the threat of Fidel Castro's guerrillas, who did not want any scientists to leave the island, Rodriguez-Hooks said her father destroyed the lab, including all of his new inventions and prototypes and immediately flew his family to Fort Lauderdale in 1960.

Balaguer and his family stayed at the former Pier 66 hotel until he was able to acquire a residence in Fort Lauderdale's Harbor Beach neighborhood.

He later landed a job at Battery Corp., a department of the U.S. Signal Corps in Hollywood, where he remained until his retirement in the 1970s, his daughter said.

Balaguer held more than 115 U.S. patents, as well as a number of patents in other countries. One of his patents was for a lightweight carbon insulation currently used on U.S. nuclear submarines.

''He was an eccentric genius, a man way ahead of his time, a man who, once you met him, you would never forget,'' Rodriguez-Hooks said.

Balaguer was born July 10, 1918, in Union de Reyes, Matanzas, Cuba.

He married the former Victoria Candocia in Union de Reyes in 1948. They later divorced.

In 1964, Balaguer bought property and was the owner of the Riverland Shopping Center at 2758 Davie Rd. in Fort Lauderdale. The shopping center is now operated by his son, Rodolfo.

According to his daughter, Balaguer played an instrumental role in assisting many Cubans in coming to the United States, as well helping them get jobs.

''He loved this country for the freedoms that we often take for granted, for being able to pursue his career in an open society where there are no limitations and for the ability to bring his children up in a free country,'' Rodriguez-Hooks said.

In addition to his daughter, he is survived by another daughter, Maria Victoria Krajic of Melbourne, Fla.; a son, Rodolfo ''Roly'' Rodriguez of Fort Lauderdale; and two grandchildren.

A visitation will be from 10 a.m. to noon today at Fred Hunter's Fort Lauderdale Home, 718 S. Federal Hwy.

A graveside service will be at 1:45 p.m. today at Miami's Woodlawn Cemetery.

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