CUBA
NEWS
The
Miami Herald
Poll: Hard line on Cuba endures
A new Cuban exile group
enters the debate on Cuba's future with
a poll showing that Cuban Americans retain
hard-line attitudes on Fidel Castro.
By Oscar Corral, ocorral@herald.com.
Posted on Thu, Mar. 11, 2004.
As controversy over U.S. policy toward
Cuba intensifies, two wealthy, conservative
Cuban exiles have formed a new group and
conducted a poll to help influence the debate.
Miami car dealer Gus Machado and Leopoldo
Fernandez Pujals, a Cuban exile who built
a pizza empire in Spain, have enlisted the
aid of Washington lawyer Mauricio Claver-Carone
to represent their group, Cuba Democracy
Advocates.
Its first major action: hiring Miami-based
Campaign Data Inc. to survey 600 Cuban-American
registered voters in Miami-Dade and Broward
counties.
Their poll, conducted from Feb. 16-24 and
released Wednesday, shows that Cuban Americans
maintain hard-line attitudes toward Fidel
Castro and want to continue the U.S. embargo.
It also found that there is little support
for Cuban dissident Oswaldo Payá's
Varela Project, and that many younger Cuban
Americans -- nearly 46 percent of the respondents
between 18 and 39 years old -- say the United
States should take military action against
Castro.
The margin of error was plus or minus three
to five percentage points.
The poll's conclusions are at odds with
those of similar polls conducted during
the last two years that show Cuban Americans
moving away from hard-line positions.
The survey's questions have drawn criticism.
One independent polling expert said they
were asked in an unbalanced way likely to
draw a predetermined response.
DIFFERENT DIALOGUE
The group's leaders defend its methodology,
saying they were only providing accurate
information to participants.
''What's happening in the community is
quite fascinating,'' said Claver-Carone,
who is lobbying Congress full time for the
group. "It's a very interesting period
where we are having a different kind of
dialogue more directed at the future of
Cuba.
"The Varela Project is part of the
Miami debate, and part of a debate on a
future transition in Cuba.''
The Varela Project, led by Payá,
has focused on gathering tens of thousands
of signatures on the island during the past
two years to petition the Cuban government
to respect human rights and allow basic
civil liberties. It has been flatly rejected
and condemned by the Cuban government.
Payá seeks change by targeting a
loophole in the communist constitution that
says the Cuban people can petition for change.
QUESTION ON VARELA
Pollsters asked respondents this question
about Varela: "The Varela Project accepts
the continuation of the current Cuban constitution
and the Communist Party as the only political
party in Cuba. Knowing this, do you support
the Varela Project?''
Most people, about 66 percent, said they
do not support Varela, while only 16 percent
said they support it. Nearly 18 percent
said they had no opinion.
A separate poll conducted late last year
for the Cuba Study Group showed very different
results. In that poll, conducted by Sergio
Bendixen, Cuban-American voters were asked
simply, "What is your opinion of the
Varela Project?''
A majority of those respondents, about
59 percent, thought it was good, while 25
percent said it was bad.
The Cuba Study Group, which is also made
up of prominent Cuban exiles, is a strong
supporter of Payá and the Varela
Project.
The independent expert asked by The Herald
to review several of Cuba Democracy Advocates'
questions said they were unbalanced.
''The very one-sided way in which the questions
are asked really leads the respondent to
an answer,'' said Mark Schulman, past president
of the American Association for Public Opinion
Research. "I can say that this particular
survey is useless in determining attitudes
toward Cuban policy.''
But Claver-Carone said the survey merely
provided accurate information about Castro's
Cuba that other polls did not.
Professor Dario Moreno of Florida International
University, who wrote the poll questions
with input from members of Cuba Democracy
Advocates, said the Varela Project question
''is probably leading,'' but defended the
questions and the results of the poll.
He said the group disclosed the wording
of the questions so people can make up their
own minds about its validity.
''To argue that there has been a change
in attitudes in the Cuban-American community
is really making a huge leap of faith,''
he said.
At a time when plans are being drawn up
in both Washington and Miami for a post-Castro
transition in Cuba, the Varela Project has
become one of the most intensely debated
efforts among exiles to bring about change
in Cuba.
''My own sense is that there is enormous
support for the Varela Project,'' said Carlos
Saladrigas, chairman of the Cuba Study Group.
"I'm not questioning the validity of
the numbers, but I don't think [the new
poll] undermines the support that exists
in the community for Varela.''
Herald database editor Tim Henderson
contributed to this report.
Cuban spies' trial flawed, lawyers say
Federal prosecutors tell
an appellate panel that five convicted Cuban
agents received a fair trial; defense attorneys
say that wasn't possible in Miami.
By Larry Lebowitz. llebowitz@herald.com.
Posted on Thu, Mar. 11, 2004
Lawyers for five Cuban spies argued Wednesday
that they were unfairly convicted in a flawed
2001 trial that never should have been held
in an anti-Castro hotbed like Miami.
Federal prosecutors countered the trial
was fair, the judge gave the defense plenty
of chances to seek a new venue and the life
sentences handed down to three of the spies
were justified.
At the center of the debate was the Feb.
24, 1996, shooting down of two Brothers
to the Rescue planes by Cuban Air Force
MiGs. Exiles say the incident occurred over
international waters, while Cuban officials
contend the exile group's planes crossed
into Cuban airspace.
The three-judge panel of the 11th U.S.
Circuit Court of Appeals asked pointed questions
about the government's evidence underlying
the murder conspiracy conviction of spy
ringleader Gerardo Hernández. Defense
attorneys contend no evidence directly links
Hernández, a career agent with the
Cuban Directorate of Intelligence, to the
shoot-down.
Appeals Judge Stanley Birch asked what
was the proof Hernández "was
going to know that it would be a murderous
shoot-down as opposed to one justified by
[Cuban] sovereignty.''
WARNINGS
Federal prosecutor Caroline Heck Miller
responded that the Cuban government had
told Hernández in coded radio messages
that a ''confrontation'' was imminent and
to make sure his operatives stayed off the
Brothers' planes in the days before the
fatal attack.
But Hernández ''had no control over
what they told him,'' Birch shot back.
Judge Phyllis Kravitch noted that the conviction
required a plot to down planes in international
airspace -- not over the communist island.
Her point: The Castro government had been
warning the United States and the rest of
the international community that the Brothers
group, which mainly searched for Cuban rafters,
had made 25 incursions into Cuban airspace
in the 20 months before the shoot-down.
The case has few legal precedents and it
may be a while before the appeals court
issues a ruling.
If the defense succeeds in vacating the
murder conspiracy conviction against Hernández,
it could have an effect on the life sentences
handed down against codefendants Antonio
Guerrero and Ramón Labañino.
All three were convicted of espionage conspiracy
and their life sentences were based, in
large part, on the murder evidence.
Federal public defender Richard Klugh argued
there was no evidence the espionage created
an ''exceptionally grave danger'' to U.S.
national security interests. ''It was nothing
more than a flea on a pimple of the United
States,'' he said.
Heck Miller acknowledged that the spies
never obtained classified documents -- but
it wasn't for a lack of effort.
Ring members, some using fake identities,
tried to spy on U.S. military installations
and Cuban exile groups to feed military
and political information back to Havana
and discredit the exile community.
CHANCE OF RETURN
If the appeals court overturns the murder
conspiracy count, Hernández, Guerrero
and Labañino could face considerably
less prison time at a resentencing hearing
-- and perhaps a chance of returning to
Cuba one day, said Hernández trial
attorney Paul McKenna.
''There's no way [the U.S] is even going
to consider a trade as long as murder is
hanging over this proceeding,'' McKenna
said after the hearing. "But if we
can get rid of that stigma, we might be
able to trade them someday.''
The change-of-venue issue was raised by
attorneys for all five spies. Attorney Leonard
Weinglass said the trial should never have
been permitted in a community with more
than 500,000 residents who left their homeland
because of the Castro regime.
Heck Miller countered that U.S. District
Judge Joan A. Lenard, who presided over
the trial, gave defense attorneys ample
chances to argue their change of venue motions
and gave them extra chances that effectively
removed all Cuban Americans from the jury.
The defense attorneys repeatedly praised
the jury during the trial, she said.
''That happiness persisted until the convictions
took place,'' Heck Miller said.
The spies have been turned into national
heroes in Cuba, their faces splashed on
billboards, and are the subject of a government-sponsored
international campaign to sway support against
the U.S.
Kin of terrorism acts in Cuba go to
Panama for exile plot trial
Andrea Rodriguez, Associated
Press
HAVANA - Family members of victims killed
in terrorist attacks against Cuba over four
decades planned to travel to Panama to watch
the man they blame for the loss of their
loved ones go on trial for plotting to kill
President Fidel Castro.
Luis Posada Carriles and three other Cuban
exiles go on trial Monday on charges of
conspiring to kill Castro during an international
summit in 2000 in Panama.
"If God exists, if justice exists,
I ask (that they be condemned)," Justino
di Celmo told a news conference Thursday.
Di Celmo is the father of a 32-year-old
Italian businessman killed in a 1997 bomb
explosion in a Havana hotel.
In an interview with The New York Times
in 1998, Posada admitted he was behind that
and several other bombings on the island
and expressed no remorse for the young Italian's
death.
Violent attacks against the island, often
launched by Cuban exiles, began soon after
the 1959 revolution that brought Castro
to power. Some of the four men going on
trial in Panama for the alleged plot against
Castro have allegedly been linked to some
of the earlier attacks.
Posada was arrested in Panama in November
2000 along with fellow Cuban exiles Gaspar
Jimenez Escobedo, Guillermo Novo Sampol
and Pedro Remon Rodriguez after Castro publicly
announced that someone was plotting to kill
him.
The defendants have denied any involvement
in a plot to kill Castro, and Panamanian
courts ruled there wasn't enough evidence
to try the Cubans for attempted murder.
But a Panama judge ordered the men to stand
trial on charges of conspiracy, possessing
explosives and endangering public safety.
Panamanian authorities found explosives
hidden outside Panama City and say they
have evidence linking the explosives to
Posada and the others.
On Thursday, relatives of the victims of
the earlier terrorist attacks signed a declaration
titled "Open Letter to the People of
Panama," demanding a fair and impartial
trial.
"We're not being driven by a spirit
of revenge, we're just demanding that justice
be imparted," said Carlos Cremata,
whose father was among 73 people killed
in 1976 bombing of a Cubana airliner.
Posada was twice acquitted of that action,
but spent nine years in a Venezuelan prison
before escaping in 1985.
The king is dead; long live memories
of the Cuba frita
By Enrique Fernandez, efernandez@herald.com.
The king of the Cuban hamburger died a
couple of years ago, leaving the throne
to the self-proclaimed El Rey de las Fritas,
an eatery on Little Havana's Calle Ocho.
The late king was Octavio Soler, a bohemian
and, as his oldest friend called him at
his funeral service, a bon vivant. The kind
of guy -- if there is such a kind, for I
suspect he was an original -- who was sleeping
in his Volvo because he'd run out of cash
to pay the rent and who owned a wine collection
he didn't drink because he was a health
nut. The notion of selling the wine to pay
the rent never crossed his mind.
His calling was film and video (countless
clips for major Latin talent like Rubén
Blades and Celia Cruz), at which he was
both brilliant and unable to make a real
living. But to me he was the one and only
Rey de las Fritas. He brought to the making
of these savory, diminutive cousins of the
American hamburger a quality that is essential
for true gourmandise: obsession.
And not just to fritas. When we both lived
in New York, he would travel to a Cuban
coffee shop at the very top of Manhattan
for a Cuban sandwich because the meats there
were sliced paper-thin by hand, the only
way to do it, he insisted. He was right.
PAPER CHASE
For his fritas, which he made at home for
friends, he would go to Union City, N.J.,
the Little Havana of the Northeast, to get
the right buns and, very importantly, the
right kind of paper to wrap them in.
Octavio was duplicating, down to the finest
detail, the fritas he remembered, with his
prodigious memory for minutiae, from his
Havana childhood. I, too, suffer from the
sickness of obsession and from a memory
that fails me at retrieving life-support
data but accesses the most useless arcana.
And I can vouch that his fritas (which he
kept making when he, like I, moved to Miami)
were the real thing.
Fritas are -- were, for all Cuban street
food has passed on the island or has been
transformed in exile -- small ground beef
patties, heavily seasoned, turned red with
a generous dose of paprika, fried on a hot
griddle, served on a suitably small bun
that has been smeared with . . . in my childhood
I thought it was ketchup but Octavio showed
me it was tomato paste . . . and filled,
right on top of the patty, with fried shoestring
potatoes no thicker than angel hair. On
Havana streets, they were sold from carts
equipped with small, propane-fueled stoves.
They were delicious. And, like so much
funky street food, they could be deadly
-- the last stomach ache of my Havana childhood
came from a wonderfully greasy frita.
''The secret of a great frita,'' Octavio
would reveal to anyone who asked, "is
to use the cheapest, greasiest ground beef.''
(All cooks have secrets they do not reveal,
or more plainly, all cooks tell lies. Octavio's
was his insistence that his shoestring potatoes
were home fried, that he had a special appliance
for making them, when, in fact, they were
out of a store-bought can, like those at
any Cuban coffee shop.)
Until I met Octavio in the New York of
the '80s, I had not tasted fritas since
that last, unkind, Havana encounter. I ate
burgers.
Fast-food was just starting up when I arrived
in the land of no-fritas, and I had my share
of their version, including a peculiar one
sold at a chain from my Gulf Coast teens
called Beef or Biff Burger that dipped the
cooked patty in barbecue sauce. Weird.
At drive-in joints, I feasted on ''hamburger
all the way,'' which did not mean unnatural
acts with ground beef but a burger with
all the possible sauces and trimmings. I
eventually rejected these industrial products
and prided myself in degustations of upscale
burgers, the thick, grill-marked, medium-rare
kind one got at better restaurants.
And so it went, until I met Octavio in
New York and my childhood rushed back to
me, Proust-like, with the taste of his obsessively
authentic fritas.
CLOSE ENOUGH
But he's gone. So it's El Rey de las Fritas
for me. I don't dare eat them anywhere else
for, knowing how far Miami Cuban food has
strayed from my memory of the real thing,
I fear the deep depression that accompanies
gastronomic disappointment. El Rey is close
enough.
Until the day it all comes back to my hometown,
the day when . . . you know. Then I will
go back too, if only to tell my island compatriots
the tale of the man who kept the flame,
the virtual propane flame, alive in exile.
Not the king; I take that back. Let the
crown rest on the Calle Ocho shop. Not the
king but the hero. El héroe de las
fritas.
PLACE: El Rey de las Fritas.
PRICE: Fritas $2.25-$2.50.
CALLE OCHO: 1177 SW Eighth St., Miami; 305-858-4223;
8 a.m.-10:30 p.m. daily.
BIRD ROAD: 9343 SW 40th St.; 305-223-9944;
7 a.m.-11 p.m. daily.
HIALEAH: 421 W. 29th. St.; 305-863-0880;
7 a.m.-11 p.m. daily.
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