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CUBA
NEWS
The
Miami Herald
Memorial honors Cuban dead
By David Ovalle, dovalle@herald.com.
Posted on Sat, Feb. 21, 2004
Juan Durque: killed Feb. 5, 1959, in Matanzas.
Eliecer Delgado: killed Jan. 15, 1962, in
Las Villas. Miguel Almeida Valle: killed
January 1985.
The names of the dead stretched across
decades, and on Friday stretched across
a sea of white foam crosses and pinpricks
of candlelight in a symbolic graveyard erected
at Tamiami Park in West Miami-Dade County.
Hundreds of people, most dressed in black,
gathered for a memorial to honor those they
say died during more than four decades of
rule under Cuban President Fidel Castro.
The event carried special meaning because
it fell just days before Feb. 24, the eighth
anniversary of the day Cuban fighter jets
shot down two planes piloted by Miami exiles,
killing four people.
South Florida's Cuban-American U.S. Congress
members -- Ileana Ros-Lehtinen and Lincoln
and Mario Díaz-Balart -- attended
Friday's solemn ceremony. So did House Majority
Leader Tom DeLay.
And so did America Castillo of Miami, whose
brother was killed by a firing squad in
Cuba in 1960. On Friday, she wore a black
blazer as she walked away from the cross
bearing her brother's name.
She keeps a black-and-white photo of her
brother next to her bed, a glass of water
always at its side. When Castillo travels,
she takes the photo with her.
''This memorial is important because people
have to remember what happened to us,''
said Castillo, who fled the island in 1969.
Conservative exile leaders unveil plan
for post-Castro Cuba
By Oscar Corral, ocorral@herald.com.
Posted on Fri, Feb. 20, 2004.
Hoping to prod the Bush administration
in the right direction, top conservative
Cuban exile leaders unveiled Friday the
most comprehensive plan to date of how to
proceed with a transition to Democracy and
free markets in a post-Castro Cuba.
The sweeping proposal is a clear indication
of the vision powerful exile leaders have
for the island that they fled from years
ago. It addresses everything from property
rights to wages to political parties.
The plan calls for the privatization of
''joint ventures'' between the government
and foreign investors, endorses the right
of urban property dwellers in Cuba to remain
in their homes, as long as old private owners
are properly compensated, and suggests that
social classes be officially reintroduced
with defined roles and rights.
The plan is also a clear rejection of dissident
Osvaldo Paya's Proyecto Varela, a referendum
singed by tens of thousands of Cubans to
effect change on the island by working within
the communist constitution.
''It's important for us to set the tone
that there will be no fundamental change
in Cuba's system if you go along with the
constitution drafted by Fidel Castro,''
said Congresswoman Ileana Ros-Lehtinen.
"This sets up a new path.''
The report, called "Socio-Economic
Reconstruction, suggestions and recommendations
for a Post Castro Cuba, was prepared by
Antonio Jorge, a political economy and international
relations professor at Florida International
University.
Exile leaders, including Congressmen Mario
and Lincoln Diaz-Balart, said they hope
the proposal will help influence the Bush
administration's own planning for a Post-Castro
Cuba.
Bush, Castro allies of a sort, prof
says
By Nancy San Martin, Miami
Herald. Posted on Fri, Feb. 20, 2004
A Cuba expert at Harvard University suggested
Thursday that there is an unspoken alliance
between the Bush administration and President
Fidel Castro, drawing criticism from Cuban
Americans in Miami and Washington.
Citing migration accords, joint antinarcotics
operations and agricultural trade as examples
of Cuba-U.S. cooperation, Jorge Domínguez,
a Harvard professor of government, said
the relationship between the two countries
has grown under Bush despite the ''high,
hostile rhetoric'' often issued by both
governments
''The trend has been toward greater cooperation
under the Bush administration,'' Domínguez
told a gathering of more than 200 at Florida
International University. He added that
the alliance resulted not because the two
nations were fond of each other but because
it suited their respective needs.
U.S. policy toward the communist-ruled
island has not changed, Domínguez
said, because "Cuba is for the most
part, not at all a salient issue outside
of this city. It doesn't register politically
outside of this city.''
The comments lit up phone lines on Spanish-language
radio in Miami and drew a sharp response
from Miami Republican Rep. Lincoln Díaz-Balart.
'Dominguez's theory' coincides totally
with Castro's campaign to discourage Cuban
Americans from voting in this year's presidential
election,'' Díaz-Balart said in a
statement.
''Dominguez's remarks are a clearly calculated
political maneuver to weaken the Cuban-American
support for President Bush,'' Díaz-Balart
said.
Contreras feels betrayed
Posted on Fri, Feb. 20,
2004
For the second straight season, New York
Yankees pitcher Jose Contreras began spring
training separated from his family.
His wife, Miriam, and two daughters --
3-year-old Naylenis and 11-year-old Naylan
-- remain in Cuba, which has denied them
permission to leave the country.
Contreras, a former star pitcher on Cuba's
national team, defected in 2002 and signed
with the Yankees. Nicaragua twice has granted
Contreras' family visas only to have the
Cuban government deny permission for the
family to leave.
While pitching in Cuba, Contreras occasionally
would eat with Cuban leader Fidel Castro,
and the pair would talk often on by telephone.
''I think he's disappointed in the decision
I made, and he's taking it out on my family,''
Contreras said Thursday through an interpreter.
"It bothers me. During eight years,
I gave all I had for the team and my country.
If they thought about that, they would think
to release my family.''
Contreras said his family was informed
18 months ago it would have to wait five
years for a white card, a document required
to leave the island nation.
Cuban dancers who defected given asylum,
hired in Cincinnati
Posted on Wed, Feb. 18,
2004
MIAMI - Three former members of the Cuban
National Ballet have been approved for political
asylum four months after defecting while
their troupe was touring the United States,
their lawyer said.
Immigration authorities accepted their
asylum applications because they consider
the Cuban ballet to be a pawn of Fidel Castro's
government, and the dancers demonstrated
they would be persecuted if they returned
to the communist island, attorney Willy
Allen said Tuesday.
Adiarys Almeida, Cervilio Amador, and Gema
Diaz spent the past four months attending
classes with local dance groups, and performing
in some performances of the ballet "The
Nutcracker."
Almeida and Amador said they were recently
hired by the Cincinnati Ballet, and Diaz
plans to audition for that troupe. The ballet
contacted the dancers after reading about
them in newspaper article.
A spokesman for the Cincinnati Ballet said
Wednesday he knew Almeida and Amador had
auditioned for the company, but did not
know they had been offered contracts.
"Thank God, everything has gone well
for us," said Almeida, 19. "We
have our papers and our contracts."
Amador, 20, and Diaz, 21, who are romantically
involved, defected while the Cuban troupe
was in Daytona Beach in October to perform
a production of "Don Quixote,"
on a tour of 20 U.S. cities. They slipped
away, hailed a taxi, and asked the driver
to take them to West Palm Beach.
A few days later, Almeida followed suit
while the company was in New York.
Two other dancers, Luis Valdes and a woman
whose name colleagues would not divulge,
later quit the troupe.
"Now we are relaxed, but a week ago
we couldn't even talk," said Amador,
20.
ON THE NET
The Cincinnati Ballet:
http://www.cincinnatiballet.com/
Cuban National Ballet:
http://www.balletcuba.cu/
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