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Cuban Baseball Player Defects to U.S.

Wed Jun 9, 7:23 PM ET

HAVANA - First baseman and outfielder Kendry Morales, considered by some to be Cuba's top young player, has defected to the United States.

U.S. immigration officials in Miami confirmed Wednesday that Morales had arrived in the United States and was allowed to stay.

"Kendry called home on Tuesday, he said he was well, that he arrived in the United States, and that we should not worry," said his stepfather, Henry Nunez. "He didn't say exactly where he was, only that he was calm and now what he wants to do more than anything is play baseball."

Morales, a switch-hitter, is said to be 20. Nunez said it was his stepson's eighth attempt to leave Cuba.

"The circumstances made him do it," the stepfather said. "The only thing he wants is to be allowed to play baseball."

The Spanish-language newspaper El Nuevo Herald of Miami reported Wednesday that Morales and 18 others left Cuba over the weekend aboard a boat bound for South Florida.

Morales was taken into custody Monday at Miami's Krome Detention Center and freed in the United States a few hours later, Bureau of Immigration and Customs Enforcement spokeswoman Nina Pruneda said Wednesday.

Under the 1966 Cuban Adjustment Act, most Cuban citizens who arrive in the United States can stay in the country and can apply for legal U.S. residency after one year. However, most baseball players establish residency outside the United States in order to become free agents rather than be subject to the amateur draft.

Cuba's National Baseball Commission cut Morales from the national team early this year for "lack of discipline" following reports that he had tried to leave the island several times.

During Olympic qualifying last November in Panama, Morales returned to Cuba for what was officially described as "personal reasons."

Playing with Havana's popular Industriales team, Morales hit .324 last year with 21 homers.

Mexico's foreign relations secretary to travel to Cuba to help smooth over relations

MEXICO CITY, 10 (AP) -- Mexico's foreign relations secretary will travel to Cuba in July, part of an ongoing effort to smooth over relations between the two nations.

Luis Ernesto Derbez said Thursday he will travel to Cuba on July 18 to meet with his counterpart, Cuban Foreign Minister Felipe Perez Roque. The meeting is an effort to overcome differences that resulted in both countries withdrawing their respective ambassadors.

Both Derbez and Perez Roque spoke two weeks ago, on the sidelines of a summit of European Union, Latin America and Caribbean leaders. They had agreed to meet again soon in Cuba.

Derbez told reporters Thursday he was optimistic the meeting in Cuba would result in the return of the ambassadors because he believed he and Perez Roque were making progress.

"We both believe we can normalize the situation," he said.

Mexico was angered by Cuban allegations that a Mexican official arrested in Havana on fraud charges was part of a larger political conspiracy within Mexico.

Officials also said members of Cuba's Communist Party were holding unauthorized political meetings in Mexico, and took offense at comments by Cuban leader Fidel Castro that Mexican President Vicente Fox was a lackey of the United States.

On May 2, Mexico announced it was withdrawing its ambassador from Havana, and Cuba responded by doing the same with its ambassador in Mexico City.

Historically, Mexico has been Cuba's strongest ally in the region. But relations have become strained under Fox, whose administration has criticized Cuba's human rights record.

Cuban Bartenders Vie for Cocktail Title

By VANESSA ARRINGTON, Associated Press Writer. Thu Jun 10.

HAVANA - Ever since the Prohibition Era, when Americans flocked to Cuba for alcohol, the island's bartenders have been turning cocktails into an art form. On Wednesday, ten of the island's top bartenders vied for first place in the cocktail competition of the International Rum Festival in Havana, creating electric blue and fiery orange concoctions with an elegance that has come to define the island's drink-making style.

The current World Cocktail Champion, Sergio Serrano, is Cuban, and the island's Ihosvany Machado is the reigning titleholder of the Americas. Machado's "Sweet Morning Star" drink came in close second place Wednesday to Yardo Gonzalez's "Ecstasy."

"From the first time I saw it, I knew I was facing a winner," tasting judge Reinaldo Lopez said of Ecstasy, a blend of Red Bull energy drink, Drambouie liquor and Varadero rum.

Lopez was impressed by Gonzalez's creative garnish of a passion fruit rind filled with other tropical fruits, as well as the drink's unique aroma produced by the Red Bull. Not to mention the taste.

"It was so delicious, and just invited you to keep drinking," he said.

The new cocktail is expected to appear on drink menus in Havana's top bars and restaurants soon.

The ten finalists were chosen from 24 participants, including one Peruvian, who competed on Tuesday. The panel of judges consisted primarily of distinguished bartenders who have worked in Cuban establishments for decades.

"The Cubans are at a very high level right now," said 35-year-old Roberto Melendez, the Peruvian who participated in the first leg. "They are very agile, and creative. I came here to compete with the best."

Unlike the bottle-throwing brand of bartending made famous by Tom Cruise in the 1988 movie "Cocktail," Cuba's classic style is based more on poise and presentation.

Bottles are swirled instead of tossed, and impeccably dressed bartenders use large tongs to place straws and garnishes in the drinks.

During the competition, elevator-music versions of The Beatles' "Yesterday" and Stevie Wonder's "I Just Called To Say I Love You" played as the 10 finalists prepared their drinks.

"This is an art," said Machado, who twirled his martini glasses and held out his pinky while pouring Kiwi Schnapps. "You must give a touch of eroticism, and develop your fluidity."

Machado, 31, used to play baseball for Cuba. The competition's winner, 34-year-old Gonzalez, is also a former athlete who competed in judo.

"One day I realized that life was more than getting hit," Gonzalez said of his decision to trade in judo for drink making.

Dressed in a shiny black suit and bow tie, he flashed dimpled smiles to the audience as he shook his drink.

"I have a gift for this," Gonzalez said. "People say it's like I'm performing magic. I'm called the gentleman of Havana."

Gonzalez works at Don Giovanni, an Italian restaurant in Old Havana. He plans to travel to Spain in a few weeks to promote Varadero run, a Cuban brand that is reaching out to world markets, excluding the United States due to a decades-old trade embargo.

Making drinks is his calling, Gonzalez said.

"If I am ever reincarnated, I know I would become a bartender again," he said.

Garcia to Make Cuban Film in Dominican

By RAMON ALMANZAR, Associated Press Writer. Tue Jun 8.

SANTO DOMINGO, Dominican Republic - Andy Garcia is starting work on a new film set in Cuba in the 1950s and has chosen the Dominican Republic as the filming location.

The actor/director was traveling to the Dominican Republic Tuesday to begin filming this week, his publicist Stan Rosenfield said by telephone from Los Angeles.

In addition to directing his independent film "The Lost City," Garcia also will be one of its stars, Rosenfield said. Other cast members include Bill Murray and - in a cameo role - Dustin Hoffman, he said.

Garcia chose the Caribbean country for filming because "there are cultural similarities, architectural thematic similarities and budgetary concerns," Rosenfield said.

He said the screenplay was written by Guillermo Cabrera Infante, a prominent Cuban writer who opposes Cuban leader Fidel Castro.

Garcia, 48, was born in Havana and left Cuba with his family when he was 5 for Miami Beach, Fla. Garcia said through his publicist that he is making the film "for the love of my country."

Rosenfield said the film centers on a "story of love and betrayal" in Havana in the 1950s, during the transition from the rule of dictator Fulgencio Batista to Castro's revolution.

In the film, scheduled for release in 2005, the main character is eventually forced to go into exile, Rosenfield said.

Garcia's other acting credits include "The Untouchables" and "The Godfather: Part III."

His film is one of three major international productions planned this year in the Dominican Republic.

A film based on the novel "The Feast of the Goat" by Peruvian writer Mario Vargas Llosa also is set to start filming in September, director Luis Llosa - a cousin of the novelist - said last week.

Llosa said the cast includes Isabella Rosellini and Edward James Olmos (news). The story centers on accounts of life under dictator Rafael Trujillo, whose rule in the Dominican Republic stretched from 1930 until his assassination in 1961.

Production is to start in July on a third film, the Spanish-language comedy "Negocios Son Negocios" - "Business Is Business" - directed by Argentine Guadalupe Subiela.

Man Sentenced for Smuggling Cuban Cigars

By HERBERT G. McCANN, Associated Press Writer. Wed Jun 9.

CHICAGO - A lawyer was sentenced Wednesday to more than three years in federal prison for smuggling thousands of fine Cuban cigars into this country and selling them for a fat profit.

Richard "Mick" Connors, 54, was also fined $60,000 and placed on three years' probation.

U.S. District Judge Ronald A. Guzman ordered Connors taken into custody immediately, despite a request that he be allowed to attend his daughter's wedding later this month. The judge said the former public defender is too familiar with ways to flee the country.

Connors was convicted in 2002 of smuggling, trading with the enemy, conspiracy and lying to a passport officer.

Cuba has been under a U.S. trade embargo since the early 1960s.

Witnesses testified that in the early 1990s, as the cigar fad was building in the United States, Connors traveled to the communist island by way of Canada and Mexico almost monthly, bought cigars at $25 to $60 a box and sold them in the United States for up to $400 a box. He was arrested at the Canadian border in 1996 with 1,150 cigars.

U.S. citizens must have permission to visit Cuba. Authorized visitors may bring back $100 worth of goods including cigars for their own use but may not resell them in this country.

Connors plans to appeal, said his attorney, Jack Cutrone.

Cuba is famous for its fine cigars. Before signing the 1962 embargo, President Kennedy is said to have sent press secretary Pierre Salinger out to scour Washington for as many of his favorite Cuban cigars as he could find.

Many Cuban cigars are brought into the United States every year in small quantities by individuals who are not part of any smuggling rings.

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