CUBA
NEWS
The
Miami Herald
Cuba a bioweapons 'threat,' U.S. says
A high-ranking Bush administration
official again accuses Cuba of dabbling
in a bioweapons research and development
program.
By Nancy San Martin, nsanmartin@herald.com.
ARMS RESEARCH
The Bush administration continues to believe
there's a ''strong'' case that Cuba has
a limited biological weapons effort, although
some of the intelligence is ''questionable,''
according to testimony on Capitol Hill on
Tuesday.
''The case for the existence of a developmental
Cuba BW R&D [biological weapons research
and development] effort is strong,'' John
Bolton, undersecretary of state for arms
control, told the House International Relations
Committee.
''The administration believes that Cuba
remains a terrorist and BW threat to the
United States,'' he added.
REITERATED CLAIMS
Bolton's testimony, part of his statement
during a hearing on nuclear nonproliferation,
reiterated many of the same allegations
he raised in 2002, when he alleged Havana
had a ''limited developmental offensive
biological warfare research and development
effort'' and was exporting its technology
to ''rogue'' nations.
Cuban President Fidel Castro has flatly
denied the allegations and challenged the
United States to present proof.
On Tuesday, Bolton repeated that Cuba has
long "provided safe haven for terrorists,
and has collaborated in biotechnology --
including extensive dual use technologies
with BW applications -- with state sponsors
of terror.''
But Bolton acknowledged that "existing
intelligence reporting is problematic, and
the Intelligence Community's ability to
determine the scope, nature, and effectiveness
of any Cuban BW program has been hampered
by reporting from sources of questionable
access, reliability, and motivation.''
Several defectors from Cuba's biotechnology
industry and intelligence services have
made similar allegations since the early
1990s but produced no hard evidence.
Miami Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, a Republican
who chaired part of the committee meeting,
said Bolton made it clear that Cuba is not
to be overlooked as a security threat.
''He says they have the capabilities to
be a real player in this evil racket if
they choose to go this way,'' Ros-Lehtinen
said in a telephone interview from Washington.
The communist-ruled island is among the
State Department's list of nations that
''sponsor'' terrorism. The country is accused
of ''harboring terrorists'' from Colombia
and Spain and providing refuge to more than
70 fugitives wanted by the FBI.
Bolton said Castro "continues to view
terror as a legitimate tactic to further
revolutionary objectives.''
CRITICAL TIME
Ros-Lehtinen noted that Bolton's testimony
came at a critical time because the U.N.
Commission on Human Rights in Geneva is
expected to vote on a resolution condemning
Cuba's record in the coming days, a year
after it sentenced 75 dissidents to jail,
with some getting 28-year sentences.
The arrests drew worldwide condemnation
and fractured Havana's diplomatic relations
with the European Union.
In a statement earlier this month, Secretary
of State Colin Powell urged U.N. commission
member nations to again condemn Cuba, as
they have done repeatedly since the mid-1990s.
''We who cherish liberty must seize this
opportunity to send a powerful message of
solidarity to the courageous men and women
in Cuba who champion democracy's cause,''
Powell stated.
Herald staff writer Oscar Corral contributed
to this report.
Jose Maria Mijares
Noted Cuban painter
By Renato Perez. rperez@herald.com
José María Mijares left Cuba
but Cuba never left Mijares.
''In my subconscious there is an inner
landscape that is Cuba,'' the painter said
in an interview in 2001. "Since I was
exiled at an older age, that landscape cannot
be erased.''
Indeed, images of his native country blossomed
frequently on his canvases.
Mijares, world renowned for his mastery
of oil painting, his pioneer exploration
of geometric abstraction in Cuban art of
the 1950s and his neobaroque compositions
of the exile period, died Tuesday of lung
and heart problems at Doctors Hospital in
Coral Gables. He was 82.
''Mijares was an exceptional human being
and a tireless worker with the permanent
state of mind of a youth,'' said his wife
of eight years, María Antonia Cabrera.
"At the hospital, he asked for watercolors
so he could go on painting.''
Mijares was born June 23, 1921, in the
Havana neighborhood of Santos Suárez.
He took up drawing as an adolescent and,
at the age of 16, he entered the San Alejandro
School of Fine Arts in Havana on a scholarship.
''It amounted to 19 pesos and 70 cents
a month, which seemed like a fortune at
the time,'' he recalled later. "I was
lucky to befriend [modernist painter] Fidelio
Ponce, because he taught me how to restore
old photographs, and with the money I earned
I supplemented the scholarship.
"Ponce was my first influence. He,
Carlos Enríquez, René Portocarrero,
Cundo Bermúdez and others from the
generation that preceded mine became known
as the Havana School.''
His first major showing was in 1944, at
a national exhibition in Havana's Capitol
building. There, he won second prize with
a painting titled La Alameda, The Boulevard.
His style at the time was figurative but
in the 1950s changed to what he described
as "concrete forms.''
The arts scene in Havana in the 1950s was
grim, he recalled in an interview. ''There
were no galleries,'' he said. "They
all went broke. The only places where one
could exhibit were the Fine Arts Circle
and the Lyceum Lawn Tennis Club.''
He went back to San Alejandro, this time
as a teacher, and taught there for two years.
He resigned when Fidel Castro came to power.
He left Cuba in 1968 and came to Miami.
His geometric style changed with the change
in surroundings.
''I went back to figurative painting: people
and landscapes,'' he said.
Mijares was a prolific painter even in
his waning years, working about six hours
a day, beginning at sunrise.
Florida International University gave Mijares
an honorary doctorate in fine arts in December
2001.
Two years ago, he opened the Mijares Gallery
in Coral Gables, where his latest works
went on display.
Visitation begins at 4 p.m. today at Rivero
Funeral Home, 3344 SW Eighth St. Burial
will be Thursday at 11 a.m. at Woodlawn
Park Cemeteries, following Mass.
Mijares is survived by his wife.
El Nuevo Herald reporter Wilfredo Cancio
Isla contributed to this obituary.
Bacardi files suit to win brand battle
Bacardi wants a federal
court to give the rum company exclusive
rights to the Havana Club trademark in the
United States and resolve a long-running
struggle.
By Elaine Walker, ewalker@herald.com.
After almost a decade of fighting, Bacardi
is seeking to put an end to the long-running
trademark dispute over the rights to the
Havana Club brand.
The rum giant, whose U.S. headquarters
are based in Miami, said it was filing a
lawsuit late Monday in U.S. district court
in Washington, D.C. The suit asks the court
to grant Bacardi exclusive U.S. rights to
the premium Cuban rum trademark and cancel
the registration currently held by Cubaexport,
a Cuban government entity.
''We're asking the court to declare Bacardi
the exclusive owner of Havana Club in the
U.S. and resolve this matter once and for
all,'' according to a statement from Eduardo
Sardina, president and chief executive of
Bacardi U.S.A.
The lawsuit is an appeal of the Jan. 29
ruling by the Trademark Trial and Appeal
Board or TTAB, which rejected Bacardi's
efforts to cancel the Cubaexport registration
on the grounds that it was registered under
fraudulent circumstances. The board also
ruled that Havana Club Holdings, a joint
venture between the Cuban government and
French liquor giant Pernod Ricard, had filed
a proper renewal application in 1996 for
Cubaexport.
''We think they came to the right decision,
and we're confident that decision will be
upheld on any appeal that might result,''
said Mark Orr, vice president of North American
affairs for Pernod Ricard.
But for Bacardi, the issue is about a difference
between common-law ownership and holding
the registration for a trademark.
''We're asking for this review because
the TTAB failed to take into account a pattern
of questionable practices that led to Cubaexport
gaining the registration, and current U.S.
law which prohibits U.S. registrations of
Cuban trademarks that were confiscated with
out compensation,'' Sardina said in a statement.
The company is referring to the 1998 U.S.
law known as Section 211, whose passage
Bacardi lobbied for heavily. The law denies
legal protection to trademarks of properties
seized by the Castro government, but the
World Trade Organization has recommended
that the U.S. make changes in the law to
comply with requirements for free trade.
The TTAB acknowledged in its ruling that
some of Bacardi's issues were not addressed,
saying it "has little or no experience
in determining violations of statutes or
regulations that do not directly concern
registration of trademarks.''
Bacardi claims it has the rights to the
Havana Club name dating back to an agreement
with original owner José Arechabala
in 1995, which was finalized two years later
with a sale. Bacardi also established use
in the United States, when it sold the Havana
Club rum in this country in 1995 and 1996.
The Arechabala family had made the rum
brand from the 1930s until Dec. 31, 1959,
when Fidel Castro's government seized the
plant and the trademark.
Meanwhile, Cubaexport claims it obtained
the rights to the name in 1976 after José
Arechabala S.A. allowed the trademark to
lapse with the U.S. Patent and Trademark
Office. Cubaexport registered the trademark
in 1976, but no compensation was ever provided
to the Arechabala family.
In 1993, Cubaexport formed a joint venture
with Pernod Ricard to create Havana Club
Holdings. The partnership already markets
Havana Club in more than 80 countries, but
not in the United States because of the
embargo on Cuba. U.S. courts have consistently
ruled that Havana Club Holdings has no rights
to the trademark in the United States.
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