CUBA NEWS
The Miami Herald

Dissident seeks movement 'free of foreign influence'

Exile leader Eloy Gutiérrez-Menoyo said he stayed in Havana during a visit last summer to seek legal status for an internal opposition movement.

By Nancy San Martin, nsanmartin@herald.com. Posted on Thu, Jul. 15, 2004.

Former Fidel Castro supporter, later political prisoner, still later Miami exile and now Havana resident Eloy Gutiérrez-Menoyo says he spends most of his days talking with other Cubans who, like him, believe democracy is inevitable in the communist-ruled nation.

He also travels to the provinces to establish ties with dissidents, stays in contact with an unidentified Foreign Ministry diplomat who serves as his liaison to the government and grants interviews to foreign journalists in Havana.

And when the friends who allow him to stay in their homes become nervous from the publicity, he moves to another house.

''I stay as long as I can, then I move on to another home,'' Gutiérrez-Menoyo, 69, told The Herald Wednesday during a short stop in Miami on the way back to Havana from a trip to his native Spain -- the latest stage in his surprising political evolution.

BEGINS TO PARTICIPATE

The founder of Cambio Cubano, a Miami organization that seeks democratic change through dialogue, announced during a visit to the island last summer that he would remain to launch an opposition movement that he hoped the government would recognize.

Nearly a year after the daring move, Gutiérrez-Menoyo has been allowed to stay in Cuba, the government has invited him to various gatherings and allowed him last month to visit Spain, with assurances that he could return.

But he has had little success in launching his opposition movement, and has not been embraced by some of the other prominent dissidents in Cuba.

Still, he says he has made some headway. In May, he was invited to participate in a migration conference in which the Cuban government invited several hundred Cubans living abroad.

''I was able to . . . publicly make demands on issues like the need to create an opening in Cuba, and other needs in a nation with many needs,'' Gutiérrez-Menoyo said, adding that after the gathering Foreign Minister Felipe Pérez Roque told international journalists that the government regarded him as someone pursuing change through peaceful means.

''That all represents advances,'' said the Madrid-born Gutiérrez-Menoyo, who has Cuban citizenship. He fought alongside Castro's guerrillas in the late 1950s, then spent more than 20 years in prison after criticizing the Castro government. He later moved to Miami, where he lived for 17 years.

Looking relaxed and confident during the Herald interview, Gutiérrez-Menoyo said he is taking his time forming partnerships with other dissidents on the island to sidestep government charges that Washington is behind them.

''I'm being very careful to identify dissidents who are completely independent from any foreign influence.'' he said. "I'm getting to know them and they me and we are finding common ground so we can work together. Transition in Cuba depends on Cubans, not a foreign force.''

His unexpected announcement at Havana's José Martí International Airport last August came as a shock to his friends and family, which remained in Miami, particularly because it came five months after a crackdown that sent 75 dissidents to jail.

But he was confident that he would not be thrown in prison also.

'TOTALLY INDEPENDENT'

''For a long time, the repression in Cuba was targeted against all those dissidents who are known or had traveled to other nations,'' he said. "My case is different. I have no links to any government or entity. I represent a totally independent movement, and in Cuba there would be no justification for arrest.''

While some exiles in Miami have alleged that he's part of a Castro government effort to establish a ''tame'' opposition, some dissidents on the island appear to have accepted him.

''I see him like another government opponent,'' dissident leader Vladimiro Roca said by phone from Havana. "Some people may see him with suspicion, but to me he is another Cuban. I wish him luck with his effort. Whatever can be done to open spaces here is always positive.''

Asked why he has not joined forces with some of the prominent dissidents on the island, Gutiérrez-Menoyo said: "I've met with most of them. There can be disagreement within the various groups and that is OK. It shows diversity.''

He also applauded the petition drive known as the Varela Project, which seeks a referendum on democratic reforms. But, he added, "it served its function, played a positive role in terms of publicity . . . and died at birth.''

Gutiérrez-Menoyo said he will remain in Cuba as long as necessary to continue to push for democratic change, which he said is possible even with Castro in power.

''It's a question of timing,'' he said. "They dollarized the economy and allowed foreign investment when they didn't want it. Eventually, they will have to accept transition even if they don't want it.''

Victims of tugboat's sinking by Cuban vessels honored

On the 10th anniversary of the sinking of a tugboat in Havana Harbor, several ceremonies in Miami-Dade memorialized the 37 people who drowned fleeing Cuba.

By Elaine De Valle, edevalle@herald.com. Posted on Wed, Jul. 14, 2004.

Gustavo Martinez doesn't really need the memorials.

He still has nightmares about the day -- July 13, 1994 -- that his wife and 5-month-old daughter drowned in Havana Harbor. They were two of at least 37 people killed after Cuban government vessels rammed a tugboat carrying 68 people fleeing the island, then used high-pressure water cannons to flood the compartment, wash people overboard and tear children from their mothers' arms.

It took three minutes to sink the boat, eight miles from land.

Martinez can still hear the screams, the passengers below banging on the ceiling for help -- and his wife's pleas.

"Gustavo! My God! Gustavo! Help me!''

He couldn't help her. Or his baby girl, Hellen. He could only save himself and his 9-year-old son.

Martinez, who came to South Florida recently with his son, doesn't need any help to recall those moments.

But on Tuesday, the 10th anniversary of the deaths, he was joined by thousands of people who paid respects to the victims of the tugboat sinking at several memorial ceremonies.

'A MASSACRE'

''This was a massacre,'' said Neri Martínez, 22, coordinator of the Free Cuba Foundation, a student group that organized a vigil at Florida International University. The group marked 10 minutes of silence, one for each year that has passed.

''It's a silent call for justice,'' Martínez said. "Not only are we remembering the victims, but we are also condemning the crimes committed by the Cuban government on its own people.''

The incident was documented by the Organization of American States Inter-American Commission for Human Rights, which requested an explanation from the Cuban government in 1996. Cuba still has not responded.

Amnesty International also issued a report condemning the act, as well as the harassment of survivors and families of those who died. Relatives were prohibited from having memorial ceremonies on the island.

CLINGING TO MOTHER

''We were told to stay quiet, not to tell anyone what had happened. But we did,'' said Mayda Tacoronte, who lost her sister, two nieces and a nephew but was able to hang on to a piece of the boat's wood for an hour -- with her 3-year-old daughter clinging to her neck.

Mylena Labrada, now 13, still sees a psychologist. ''The doctor says to let her talk about it when she's ready, not to press her,'' Tacoronte said, as she tossed sunflowers and daisies into the bay behind the national shrine to Our Lady of Charity, Cuba's patron saint. Tacoronte and her daughter were among dozens of participants at a memorial organized by the Democracia Movement, which preceded a Mass, officiated by Bishop Agustín Román.

''This is not just a crime against children, women and men,'' said Ramón Saúl Sánchez, founder of the Democracia Movement. "It's a crime against humanity.''

Behind him, 37 makeshift grave markers -- white, wooden crosses on inner tubes with laminated photos of each known victim -- were lined up on the seawall. While there are some who say there were 41 victims, only 37 have been identified.

CONSTANT REMINDER

The memorials, Sánchez said, are important as a constant reminder to the world.

''It's important to make sure we don't have in the future a government that is capable of committing this crime and still sitting in international forums as if it was a democratic country,'' he said.

Among the victims: 14 from Jorge García's family. The 59-year-old, who has lived in Miami since 1999, said he could have been one of them.

''I gave up my space so that the younger people could go,'' García said Tuesday. "I thought it was the right thing to do, to get them out of that darkness. They were young. They had their whole lives ahead of them. There was no future in Cuba.

"I was a grandfather already.''

His brother-in-law, chief of operations for the Havana Port Authority, organized the trip and arranged for 17 family members to be on board.

Among those lost: García's son, Joel García Suarez, 20; his grandson, Juan Gutiérrez García, 10; and 12 others, including the brother-in-law who planned the escape.

Only García's daughter -- who was too distraught to attend any ceremonies Tuesday -- and two nephews were spared.

GREEK FREIGHTER

He and Tacoronte and several other survivors insist they would have been dead, too, had it not been for a Greek freighter that appeared after the survivors -- some of them hanging on to debris -- treaded water for about an hour.

At that point, he and others said, the Cuban boats plucked them from the water.

''The government would have let them all drown if there had been no witnesses,'' said García, who wrote a book about the tragedy, published in 2001 and was given a human rights award by the United Nations in 1998 for his efforts to denounce the incident.

NOT SEEKING REVENGE

''There are those who think that we should be full of rancor and a thirst for vengeance,'' García said. "But I don't want revenge. I feel sorry for the people who assassinated my family.''

He does, however, want a trial.

''I can never be compensated for my loss. I will never be happy again with my family surrounding me. There will always be a tinge of sadness,'' García said.

"But I do want there to be a trial so that this situation can serve as a lesson and that these people or others like them in other parts of the world, don't do this kind of thing again. Not in Cuba. Not anywhere.''

Americans on work brigades in Cuba defying U.S. policies

Vanessa Arrington, Associated Press. Posted on Thu, Jul. 15, 2004

HAVANA - Solidarity brigades have come to Cuba for decades, building schools, pruning citrus trees and helping with the sugar harvest to show support for the country's socialist system.

But this year's visit by the Brigada Venceremos, a group of American activists in its 35th year, has added significance: It's a direct challenge to new U.S. measures effectively banning almost all travel by Americans to the island.

"The Cubans need to see that solidarity has not stopped," said brigade member Bonnie Massey, a 23-year-old high school counselor from New York City. "We're very firm on our stance. We have the moral law on our side."

Group members don't know what to expect when they cross the Canadian border into Buffalo, New York, next week. They say they are ready to defend what they believe is their constitutional right to travel.

On June 30, President Bush implemented new measures aimed at squeezing communist Cuba's foundering economy and pushing out Cuban President Fidel Castro. The rules sharply reduce Cuba-bound dollar flows from the United States and curtail visits to Cuba by cultural and academic groups as well as Cuban-Americans.

The measures are part of U.S. sanctions against Cuba now in their fourth decade. Brigada Venceremos has always defied the embargo by refusing to apply for a license to travel and arriving to Cuba via third countries such as Canada.

Breaking the rules can lead to fines of up to $7,500, and most of those caught are notified of the fine by U.S. government letters received after the trip. Brigada Venceremos volunteers have received letters in the past, but have requested civil hearings, which they have not been called to yet.

"I'm nervous, but I'm not scared," said Mei-ying Ho, 24, who works for a nonprofit organization that does grass-roots activism training in San Francisco. She added that she wasn't going to comply with "Bush's unjust policies."

The brigade began traveling to the island in 1969. Hundreds of activists involved in women's liberation and black civil rights movements in the United States arrived on boats each summer, spending up to six weeks working on the island.

Today, volunteers number in the dozens, arrive by air and stay two weeks.

"It's changed, but the concept is the same," said Massey, one of the brigade's organizers. She said the group still believes Cubans should be able to determine their own destiny without U.S. interference, and that peace, not aggression, should be the United State's attitude toward Cuba.

"We don't see Cuba as an enemy," she said. "We see it as a neighbor that we want to be friends with."

The brigade always receives a warm welcome from Cuba's government, which provides housing in the regions they visit.

This year, 77 volunteers ranging in age from 16 to 73 began their trip in the eastern city of Santiago, where they helped remodel an elementary school, visited historic sites of the Cuban Revolution and were named "guests of honor" by city officials. Most of the volunteers are students, teachers, doctors or artists.

They worked their way west, where they stayed at a state-run camp in a rural Havana province.

On Thursday, a handful of volunteers fought stomach problems and dehydration, but the rest piled into buses and trucks and headed off to work. One group dug trenches and laid pipes alongside Cuban workers building a physical therapy center.

"They are good workers," said 43-year-old Cuban builder Alejandro Peru. "It is risky for them to come here, but here they are. They're tough."

It was the first trip to Cuba for most of the volunteers.

"I had studied the history, but I wanted to see a living revolution," said Larry Hales, 27, writer, activist and coffee shop employee from Denver.

PRINTER FRIENDLY