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CUBA
NEWS
The
Miami Herald
U.S. identifies 10 companies controlled
by Cuban governments
By Nancy San Martin, nsanmartin@herald.com.
Posted on Mon, Feb. 09, 2004
In an unprecedented move to further tighten
U.S. sanctions against Cuba, the Treasury
Department on Monday identified 10 companies
controlled by the Cuban government that
allegedly help Americans break the law by
offering travel packages and selling products
via the Internet that are forwarded to residents
on the the island for a fee.
Officials said bank accounts, wire transfers
and other assets that fall under U.S. jurisdiction
would be frozen as a way to keep earnings
from the illegal transactions out of the
hands of Fidel Castro's government.
The department's action, involving nine
Cuba-affiliated entities with offices overseas
that specialize in travel to Cuba and another
company that deals with gift purchases,
is part of heightened enforcement emerging
from President George W. Bush's call for
more stringent action for violations prohibited
under U.S. law.
''We're cracking down. We mean business,''
Treasury Secretary John Snow said during
a visit to Miami. ''We're cutting off American
dollars headed to Fidel Castro, period.''
The companies targeted include: Havanatur
S.A., a leading tour operator in Cuba with
offices in Argentina, the Bahamas and Chile;
Cubanacan Group, a Cuban tourist group with
offices in Cuba, the Netherlands and England;
Cimex, which is owned by the Cuban government
and also owns 2904977 Canada Inc., which
is based in Montreal.
The crackdown also extends to La Compania
Tiendas Universo S.A., an Internet company
owned by Cubancán Group that sells
items such as food, appliances and cosmetics
that can be shipped to the island.
3 car-boat Cubans given reprieve
Three of 11 Cubans who
tried to reach the United States in a boat
fashioned from a 1959 Buick automobile have
been granted a reprieve from repatriation.
By Tere Figueras and Charles
Rabin. tfigueras@herald.com. Posted on Sat,
Feb. 07, 2004.
A Cuban mother, father and their child
-- part of a group whose failed attempt
to cross the Florida Straits in a floating
Buick car landed them in Coast Guard custody
-- cannot be returned to the island before
Monday, a federal judge ruled Friday.
Lawyers for the Democracy Movement, a Cuban
exile group, argued for the emergency injunction
before U.S. District Judge Federico A. Moreno,
saying that all 11 Cubans on the car-boat
should be allowed entry to the United States.
Moreno, however, granted a temporary stay
only for the three people specifically named
in the Democracy Movement motion: Luis Grass
Rodríguez, wife Isora Hernández
and their 4-year-old son, Angel Luis.
Grass, who gained fame as one of the masterminds
behind a floating 1951 Chevy truck that
also failed to make it to U.S. soil last
year, was eligible for a U.S. visa along
with his child, lawyers said. But, they
said, persecution in their Havana neighborhood
forced them to flee.
Moreno postponed a decision on the family's
future because of uncertainty over their
immigration status and conflicting arguments
about the court's jurisdiction.
The fate of the other eight aboard the
floating '59 Buick, which set off from Havana
Monday, was not addressed by Moreno.
Neither the State Department nor the U.S.
Coast Guard would comment on the case.
The eight not covered by Moreno's order
still face repatriation -- but there is
still a glimmer of hope, according to exile
leaders, who say they were told the group
may be sent to the U.S. Naval base in Guantánamo
Bay, Cuba.
''We are thrilled that they are considering
this case of the 11 Cubans,'' said Joe Garcia,
executive director of the Cuban American
National Foundation, who declined to elaborate
on his source of information.
He said he has heard the group may be sent
to Guantánamo. Cubans intercepted
at sea are generally repatriated, but those
who show a ''credible fear'' of persecution
can be taken to the naval base, where their
asylum claims undergo further evaluation.
Garcia, who this week blasted the Bush
administration for what the foundation labeled
a failure to make good on promises to Cuban-American
constituents, said the plight of the Buick's
11 occupants was yet another symbol of the
shortcomings of current U.S.-Cuba policies.
''This administration is scrambling to
regain the confidence of the Cuban-American
community, which it is losing through indifference
and neglect,'' he said.
U.S. Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen said the
possibility of entry to Guantánamo
fell short of the migrants' goal.
''Their obvious, direct choice is the United
States, and liberty and freedom,'' said
the Republican congresswoman, who said her
office would work to help the Cubans find
entry to a third-party country should they
be sent to the naval base.
In federal court, federal prosecutor Dexter
Lee denied any of the Cubans had passes
to the United States and argued Moreno had
no jurisdiction over migrants at sea.
Moreno, who acknowledged the migrants faced
a ''high hurdle,'' said he preferred to
postpone his final decision after briefly
listening to both sides.
''I am going to be cautious so I do not
err,'' he said, setting a hearing for Feb.
16.
Another man on the boat, Grass' childhood
friend Marcial Basanta López, also
attempted an escape aboard the Buick and
the Chevy truck, leaving his South Florida
family baffled over why his status is different
from that of Grass'.
''He and Luis are always together, like
brothers. They were both the leaders in
both trips,'' said Basanta's cousin, Kiriat
López. "How can they say one
is persecuted and the other not?''
After the aborted trip aboard the customized
Chevy ''truck-boat,'' Basanta and Grass
had to scrounge once again for meager income,
their relatives say. When they decided to
try another automotive escape aboard a friend's
old Buick, Basanta sold what little he had
to buy supplies on the black market.
''The only thing left in his house is the
freezer,'' López said.
"Anyone who thinks they are coming
here because they want to eat ham-and-cheese
sandwiches and drink Coca-Cola is crazy.
They want to be free.''
Scam artist promised money from Castro,
indictment says
A convicted scam artist
has allegedly concocted a new scheme mixing
spies, the CIA and Fidel Castro, according
to an indictment.
By Larry Lebowitz. llebowitz@herald.com.
Posted on Sat, Feb. 07, 2004
The convicted scam artist devised the quintessential
Miami story to rope in his potential victims:
Cuban exiles with plenty of anti-Castro
passion and money to burn.
Roberto Martin told them he was a former
Cuban intelligence officer who had defected
after helping steal millions dollars of
the dictator's money. Martin and a pal posing
as a Secret Service agent said they were
working, as part of a secret CIA operation,
to bring the money stateside, according
to an indictment unsealed Thursday.
Anyone willing to finance some of the front-end
costs would be rewarded with untold millions
-- riches made all the sweeter because they
were coming from the pockets of El Barbudo,
Fidel Castro himself.
Martin, 36, of Miami Lakes, was charged
Thursday with conspiracy and impersonating
a federal agent, among other crimes. It
wouldn't be his first time posing as a spy,
records showed.
In April 1996, Martin strolled into the
offices of the Cuban American National Foundation
and announced that he had been sent to kill
radio host Ninoska Perez Castellon, the
late CANF chairman Jorge Mas Canosa and
President Francisco ''Pepe'' Hernandez.
Martin, who arrived by raft in 1994, claimed
he was supposed to blow up the foundation
headquarters with a van filled with explosives.
The news of Martin's latest arrest brought
back memories for exile leaders.
''He's a scam artist,'' Perez said.
At the time, Martin had many details about
safe houses and beeper numbers of key Cuban
personnel, seeming to indicate he had bona
fide intelligence contacts on the island.
Donald Warshaw, who was Miami police chief
at the time, told reporters he believed
Martin was a spy.
But after Martin started weaving his tale
of espionage and intrigue, dozens of residents
swarmed the CANF offices, accusing Martin
of running small-scale gold bullion scams.
'NOT STABLE'
''This guy was not stable. He's not a dummy.
He's very intelligent,'' Perez said. "But
he kept trying to draw attention to himself
-- and that's when he would be found out.''
Martin pleaded guilty in August 1997 to
one count of organized fraud, 17 counts
of grand theft and three counts of petty
theft and was sentenced to 10 years of probation,
including regular hospitalization. Records
show his probation was terminated early,
in November 2002 -- around the time the
new scheme started.
In the new indictment, Martin was charged
with conspiracy, mail fraud, being a felon
in possession of a weapon and impersonating
a federal agent -- in this case, a CIA operative.
Another defendant, Christopher A. Johnson,
26, of Hialeah, is charged with conspiracy
and impersonating a real Secret Service
agent whose business cards he was carrying.
Many questions remain unanswered. And federal
prosecutors, FBI and Secret Service agents
aren't talking beyond the nine-page indictment.
It was unclear how much money the four
participants, identified only by their initials,
gave to the defendants.
Prosecutor Curtis Miner repeatedly described
the four as ''participants'' -- not victims
-- in the scheme.
When the participants asked Martin to return
their money, he would write checks that
bounced from two business accounts.
APPEARED TO BE RICH
What is clear: Martin went to great lengths
to make it appear that he had access to
great wealth. Even though he was a convicted
felon, he carried a gun to most of the meetings,
as well as a law-enforcement style badge
case.
At the start of the scam, in October 2002,
Martin signed letters allegedly promising
''gifts'' ranging from $300,000 to $50 million.
In April, Martin and Johnson, who posed
as Secret Service agent Chris McClenic,
signed a document that claimed $3 million
had been transferred from a Salomon Smith
Barney brokerage account to one of the participant's
personal bank accounts.
In mid-May, Martin signed another document,
supposedly releasing the same $3 million
from one of his business accounts to a personal
account of the same person. He signed another
document, supposedly releasing $1 million
to another participant.
Just before Memorial Day, Martin sent two
of the participants letters stating their
''personal appearance and presence'' were
required ''at the opening of the New York
Stock Exchange'' on May 30.
On May 29, Martin and Johnson met with
three of the participants at a New York
City hotel, where they discussed the anticipated
amounts the participants in the alleged
''secret operation'' would receive. Johnson
was also toting a weapon and wearing a radio-style
earpiece.
It is unclear whether any of them went
to the stock exchange.
Perez and other exiles said Martin had
recently been making the rounds of charitable
groups and socialite circles portraying
himself as an investment banker on the verge
of a vast inheritance.
''He was doing it again,'' Perez said.
"Drawing attention to himself.''
Car-boaters gain support
Cuban-American leaders
ask that 11 would-be migrants aboard a car-boat
that was stopped at sea be allowed entry
into the United States.
By Tere Figueras. tfigueras@herald.com.
Posted on Fri, Feb. 06, 2004
As families on both sides of the Florida
Straits fretted over the fate of 11 Cubans
-- who failed this week to pilot a Buick
car-boat to freedom -- exile leaders amped
up efforts to bring them to the United States.
Lawyers working with the Democracy Movement
filed an emergency motion in federal court
in Miami to try to bar the U.S. Coast Guard
from sending the Buick's passengers back
to Cuba.
A hearing on the motion -- which also asks
the judge to extend the requested injunction
to all migrants picked up at sea, including
Haitians and Dominicans -- is scheduled
for 2:15 p.m. today before U.S. District
Judge Federico A. Moreno.
''The purpose is to stop the federal government
from sending these Cubans back,'' said Democracy
Movement founder Ramón Saúl
Sánchez, who said now-famous images
of floating vintage automobiles in the straits
make the Cubans easy targets in their homeland.
``This is an embarrassment to Castro. They
can't go back.''
Adding to the urgency to stop the 11 Cubans'
return: a father and son who were aboard
the Buick already have visas to the United
States, according to U.S. Rep. Lincoln Díaz-Balart's
office.
Neither the Coast Guard nor the State Department
would address the fate of the Buick or its
occupants Thursday, citing policies of not
commenting on ongoing migrant cases.
The sea-foam-colored Buick, powered by
its original V-8 engine and makeshift propellers
welded to the drive shaft, slipped away
from the Cuban coast about 8 p.m. Monday.
The 11 Cubans -- three of whom attempted
a similar trip last year aboard a floating
1951 Chevy pickup -- were stopped Wednesday
about 10 miles from Marathon.
They are in Coast Guard custody, according
to exile leaders and lawmakers who say they
have been told repatriation is imminent
and that the Buick was sunk.
The possibility of a return trip for the
11 passengers, including five children,
drew harsh words from the Cuban American
National Foundation.
''What is sad is that this administration
got into office on the support of the Cuban-American
community,'' said CANF Executive Director
Joe Garcia, who said the White House ``should
not continue to make victims of failed U.S.
policy.''
Rep. David Rivera of Miami -- one of 13
Florida Republican state lawmakers who signed
an August letter to the president warning
that he could lose their support in a crucial
election year unless he adopted a tougher
Cuba policy -- said the Buick's plight is
significantly poignant.
''This incident once again highlights the
Bush administration's need for a comprehensive
review and reassessment'' of current immigration
policy, said Rivera, ``including issues
related to retaliation by the Cuban government
and due process by the U.S. government.''
The two Cubans with U.S. visas are Luis
Grass Rodríguez -- one of the original
masterminds behind the Chevy ''truck-boat''
-- and his 4-year-old son, Angel Luis, who
were granted visas after the Chevy was interdicted
in July.
But Grass' wife, Isora Hernandez, who joined
her family aboard the Chevy, was one of
those denied visas.
''That is why they threw themselves in
water again, the Buick,'' said her brother,
Ruben García, who emigrated legally
to Miami Springs in 1994 by virtue of his
American-born father.
Díaz-Balart has intervened on Grass'
behalf with a letter to Roger Noriega, assistant
secretary of state for Western Hemisphere
affairs.
Noted immigration attorney Ira Kurzban
said that although the motion requesting
an emergency injunction is wrapped in the
complicated context of U.S. policy, there
is still hope of success.
''It strikes me as a difficult case, but
there are theories that could allow the
judge to properly enter a temporary restraining
order,'' he said, noting that Grass' immigration
status could prove pivotal.
''He has a visa. There's nothing that says
you have to enter the U.S. by plane,'' he
said. "You can come by paddle boat,
towboat -- or a Buick for that matter.''
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