Cuba News / The Miami Herald - CubaNet News - Noticias de Cuba / Cuba News

CUBA NEWS

April 1, 2005

Elusive Castro foe may be here

A veteran Cuban exile militant linked to a string of violent acts against Fidel Castro and his government is reportedly in South Florida seeking safe haven.

By Elaine De Valle and Alfonso Chardy, achardy@herald.com. Posted on Thu, Mar. 31, 2005.

Luis Posada Carriles, the legendary Cuban exile operative accused of blowing up a Cuban airliner in 1976 and trying to kill Fidel Castro in 2000, is believed to have secretly slipped into South Florida after years of hiding abroad, a federal source said Wednesday.

The source said he understands that Posada, 77, has been in the area for about a week and has made contact with government authorities.

The source said he may be trying to retain a local attorney, but didn't explain why. One possibility might be to help ensure Posada wouldn't be extradited to Venezuela, where he escaped from prison in 1985 while facing charges related to the airliner bombing.

The Cuban-born militant, however, does not face any charges in the United States.

Santiago Alvarez, a Miami developer who is a close friend and financial backer of Posada, said he talked to three attorneys on Wednesday in case his friend decides to come forward and seek asylum. Alvarez, however, said he would neither confirm nor deny Posada is in the area.

''I cannot tell you if I have seen him or have not seen him, if he is here or is not here,'' Alvarez said. "What I can tell you is that I am signing a contract with a lawyer to represent him in case it is true that he is here and that he will present himself to immigration.''

Were Posada to emerge publicly in Miami, his presence could pose an embarrassing foreign-relations dilemma for the Bush administration. Amid the U.S. war on global terrorism, Posada's alleged involvement in hotel bombings and assassination plots could leave the nation open to criticism, especially by Cuba and Venezuela, whose governments are antagonistic toward American policies.

AGREEMENT CITED

In Washington, Venezuelan Ambassador Bernardo Alvarez Herrera stopped short of saying his country would seek the extradition of Posada.

''If the presence of this person on U.S. soil is confirmed, the Venezuelan government has a cooperation agreement [with the United States] regarding judicial matters and there is also an extradition treaty,'' Alvarez said.

''We have already asked for extradition of this person [from Panama in 2001],'' he added. ''He is a person who has a judicial proceeding pending in Venezuela,'' where Posada and others allegedly hatched the plot to bomb a Cubana airliner off the coast of Barbados.

Though virtually any Cuban who reaches U.S. soil would be entitled to stay under current immigration policy, Posada is no ordinary Cuban refugee.

He is a highly controversial figure who was a Bay of Pigs veteran with ties to the CIA dating back to the 1960s. An icon to some in the exile community, Posada has been linked to assassination and sabotage operations against Castro and his government, including a string of bombings against Havana tourist spots in 1997.

A federal official said Posada's name has been on an immigration watch list for years in case he should try to enter the country through an airport, seaport or border crossing.

But Santiago Alvarez, the longtime friend and benefactor, said that if Posada were here he would likely have sneaked across the border.

''He has family -- a son, a daughter and a wife -- here [in Miami],'' Alvarez said. "If he wants to come to immigration, we are ready to represent his case. Whenever he decides what he wants to do, we'll help him.''

Alvarez said Posada, who once was a permanent resident in the United States, gave up that status years ago when he moved to Latin America to pursue anti-Castro operations.

He worked for the Venezuelan secret police for several years. Then, in 1976, he and Miami pediatrician Orlando Bosch were arrested following the midair bombing of a Cubana airliner that killed all 73 people aboard.

Both were acquitted twice at trial, but were not immediately released pending an appeal by prosecutors. Bosch served 11 years behind bars and was released.

ESCAPE FROM PRISON

But in 1985, Posada escaped from prison. He turned up a year later in El Salvador, where he worked for an unauthorized Nicaraguan contra resupply network overseen by then-National Security Council staffer Oliver North.

In 1997, he first admitted and then denied masterminding the bombing attacks on several Havana hotels and restaurants that catered to foreign tourists, who provided needed currency to cash-strapped Cuba.

Three years later, Posada and three Miami exiles were arrested in Panama after Castro, visiting for a heads-of-state summit, alleged at a news conference that they were plotting to kill him. The four claimed they were trying to help a Cuban general defect.

They were cleared of the assassination and explosives charges, but were convicted of endangering the public safety and given sentences of up to eight years in prison.

Last year, then-Panamanian President Mireya Moscoso issued a controversial pardon to the four, prompting Cuba to break off diplomatic relations with Panama. The three Miamians returned home, but Posada remained in Central America.

He was last seen publicly in August in Honduras. The Cuban government formally requested his capture and extradition -- to face a firing squad. But Posada managed to disappear again.

The first hint Posada might be in the Miami area came Tuesday night, when Spanish-language television station Channel 41 quoted three unidentified sources as saying he was here and planning "to present himself to North American authorities.''

On Wednesday, El Nuevo Herald, also citing unidentified sources, reported Posada was in Miami ''to negotiate his surrender'' to U.S. authorities.

FBI STATEMENT

Judy Orihuela, spokeswoman for the FBI, said Posada has not contacted the agency. Carlos B. Castillo, spokesman for the U.S. Attorney's Office in Miami, said prosecutors also have not heard from Posada.

A Department of Homeland Security official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, said only that the agency is "working closely with our law enforcement partners and we're looking into the matter.''

Herald staff writers Nancy San Martin and Jack Dolan contributed to this report.

Activist emerged from shadows

A half a dozen terror bombings in Havana returned longtime anti-Castro activist Luís Posada Carriles to the limelight in 1997.

By Nancy San Martin, nsanmartin@herald.com. Posted on Thu, Mar. 31, 2005.

Luís Posada Carriles was just a name on a list of aged anti-Castro militants until a Salvadoran man confessed in 1997 to the first terror bombings inside Cuba in decades.

Posada, then about 69, made front pages around the world when he admitted to masterminding the blasts and hinted the plot had been financed by Jorge Mas Canosa, the late founder of the Miami-based Cuban American National Foundation.

He later denied the Mas Canosa connection -- claiming he had lied to throw the blame to a dead person -- and any role in the bombings of Havana tourist spots that killed an Italian-Canadian tourist and wounded a dozen other persons.

The blasts -- the first since the mid 1960s that Cubans could remember -- were apparently designed to hurt Cuba's tourism industry, but sparked widespread rumors that they were the work of an anti-Castro faction within the communist island's security services.

Raúl Ernesto Cruz León, the then 27-year-old who set off many of the bombs, was captured in 1997, tried in 1999 and sentenced to death by firing squad, although the government has now held off his execution for more than six years.

Another Salvadoran tied to the bombings, Otto René Rodríguez Llerena, also was condemned to death, and three Guatemalans arrested in a separate bombing plot received lengthy prison sentences.

Posada, nicknamed Bambi despite his fearsome history as a Bay of Pigs veteran, CIA explosives expert and Venezuelan political police commissioner, had been hiding in El Salvador since his escape from a Venezuelan prison while awaiting a retrial for the 1976 midair bombing of a Cuban jetliner that killed 73.

In his trial in 1999, Cruz Leon confessed to a half-dozen bombings but portrayed himself as a foolish youth who was deeply in debt when a Salvadoran friend, Francisco Chávez Abarca, offered him $14,400 to travel to Havana and carry out the string of bombings.

''I am not innocent, but I am sorry,'' he said.

Cruz testified that he had never met Posada. But Police Capt. Francisco Estrada testified that a Salvadoran travel agent had identified the man who picked up Cruz's airplane tickets to Cuba as a tall, older white male who mumbled when he spoke -- a description that perfectly fit Posada, whose jaw was shattered in an assassination attempt years earlier.

The Miami Herald first reported the Havana bombings -- the government there tried to keep the blasts under wraps -- and first linked them to Posada, reporting that the money had come from a small group of unidentified U.S.-based Cuban exiles.

Underlining the importance of the case, Cuba's Foreign Ministry invited all foreign diplomats in Havana to attend Cruz Leon's trial and issued visas to scores of U.S., Salvadoran and Guatemalan journalists to report on the unusually detailed and public proceedings that included presentations by forensic experts using computers, videos and laser pointers.

The trial was held in La Cabaña, a notorious 18th-century fortress overlooking the Havana harbor.

5 nations are cited as human rights abusers

By Pablo Bachelet, pbachelet@herald.com. Posted on Tue, Mar. 29, 2005.

WASHINGTON - Many countries in Latin America are struggling to consolidate democratic reforms and respect for human rights, a State Department report said Monday, reserving some of the strongest language for abuses in Cuba, Venezuela, Haiti, the Dominican Republic and Colombia.

The congressionally mandated report -- Supporting Human Rights and Democracy: The U.S. Record 2004-2005 -- details U.S. actions worldwide to promote democracy and respect for human rights. In Latin America, democracy continued to prevail but countries suffered from inefficient and corrupt judicial systems to police excesses against the opposition and media.

In Venezuela, there was ''some pretty severe backsliding in areas like press freedom, judicial independence, and so on,'' said Michael Kozak, acting assistant secretary of state for democracy, human rights and labor. The report listed U.S. programs to support nongovernmental organizations. In Cuba, the United States has had to resort to ''creative ways'' to get around state censorship by using images such as the creation of a prison cell replica on the grounds of the U.S. mission in Havana. Over 300,000 media items and thousands of free radios were distributed to Cubans. In Haiti, where the report cited ''extrajudicial killings'' by Haitian police, the United States has provided technical assistance for elections and has sent 62 Haitian civil society leaders to attend seminars on human rights.

In Colombia the State Department noted reports of long detention before trial as well as abuses committed by some of the security forces. The United States has helped Colombia reform its judiciary and train its police. In criticizing the Dominican Republic's record, the report noted the use of torture by security forces. The United States has provided technical assistance to implement a new criminal code.

Cuban refugee freed by ruling dies

Five months after his release from indefinite detention, the Mariel refugee whose case was won in the Supreme Court has died of a heart attack.

By David Ovalle, dovalle@herald.com. Posted on Tue, Mar. 29, 2005.

Daniel Benitez, the Mariel refugee whose plight led to a U.S. Supreme Court ruling barring the indefinite detention of certain foreign nationals, was found dead Monday in Hialeah of an apparent heart attack. He was 49.

He had been free for five months after spending more than a decade behind bars.

''I had an absolute certainty that this country was violating the 5th and 14th amendments of the Constitution,'' Benitez said in an interview with The Herald last week. "And I know you can't mess with the Constitution in this country.''

Benitez completed his sentence in prison for armed robbery in 2001. Because he could not be deported to his native Cuba, immigration officials ordered him detained indefinitely.

But through sheer persistence -- he started his battle by writing his own legal briefs -- his case landed on the docket of the Supreme Court and eventually helped win the release of himself and almost 1,000 other foreign nationals deemed inadmissible because they technically never entered the United States legally.

''It just showed his intelligence and his foresight,'' said John Mills, his attorney in the Supreme Court case. "He just never gave up.''

His death comes as the Cuban exile community prepares to mark the 25-year anniversary of the landmark Mariel boatlift that altered the face of South Florida.

Benitez was one of the many prisoners released by the Castro government in 1980 through the port of Mariel. He said he had been jailed for stealing two chickens and a half-sack of rice.

Because he had been a prisoner in Cuba, he was deemed ''excludable'' by U.S. officials, which meant he was never legally admitted into the country, though he was allowed to stay.

Upon his arrival in Miami, Benitez said, he was paroled and lived with an older uncle and worked as an assistant to an electrician. He married a Venezuelan woman in 1983, but eventually divorced her.

That same year, he was convicted of grand theft and sentenced to three years' probation. A decade later, he was convicted of armed robbery, aggravated battery and unlawful possession of a firearm.

After serving eight years, Benitez was about to be freed in 2001. But citing a 1996 law that tightened restrictions on criminal aliens, U.S. immigration officials ordered Benitez detained indefinitely.

That same year, the U.S. Supreme Court had ruled that foreign nationals could not be detained indefinitely.

So Benitez began writing briefs to federal courts asking for his release.

Some courts agreed, other did not. Eventually, the Supreme Court chose to review his case and that of another Mariel detainee.

Before the court ruled in his favor, he was released in October.

Benitez lived briefly in a halfway house where his brother, Roberto Benitez, would bring him Cuban steak sandwiches and french fries.

Once out, he wanted to visit New York City. He called Mills, one of his attorneys, to ask for permission.

''I told him, 'You're a free man,'' ' Mills told him.

In jail, he rediscovered his faith: His family belongs to Jehovah's Witnesses. After being freed, he began attending a Kingdom Hall in Hialeah and preaching.

''Our family has always been very religious people and he was always on a different path,'' Roberto Benitez said. "But when we saw his change, we felt very happy.''

Benitez got a job as an electrician with his brother at a construction site on Brickell Avenue. He moved into his own apartment and began writing a book based on his experiences.

His death shocked the attorneys and immigrant rights advocates who fought alongside him for his release.

''He was very healthy. He exercised. He didn't smoke. He didn't drink,'' said Emilio De La Cal, his South Florida attorney who is married to Benitez's cousin.

"He really changed his life from a hardened criminal to one who believed in God and preached the word of God.''

Viewing will be 6 p.m. to midnight Wednesday at Funeraria La Cubana, 198 Hialeah Dr. Benitez's body will be cremated, and his ashes spread over the ocean.

Herald staff writer Oscar Corral contributed to this report.

Prisoners' wives rally unchallenged in Havana

Unlike a week earlier, pro-Castro demonstrators did not show up Sunday to challenge a protest by women seeking the release of their dissident husbands from prison.

By Anita Snow, Associated Press. Posted on Mon, Mar. 28, 2005.

HAVANA - One week after being confronted by a group of pro-government counterprotesters, the wives of jailed dissidents marched peacefully Sunday after Easter services to demand the release of their husbands.

The counterprotesters from the Federation of Cuban Women had indicated last week they would return again on Sunday, but they did not.

''I think that this time they didn't want to make the same big error, especially with the vote in Geneva coming,'' said marcher Gisela Delgado, referring to the expected vote on Cuba's human rights record in mid-April by the United Nations Human Rights Commission.

Delgado is the wife of prisoner Héctor Palacios, one of 75 dissidents rounded up two years ago in a crackdown on independent writers and journalists.

Although 14 of the original 75 have been freed on medical parole, the other 61 remain behind bars serving sentences ranging from six to 28 years on charges of working with U.S. officials to undermine Fidel Castro's government -- something the dissidents and Washington deny.

Delgado said her husband has been in the prison hospital for several months with arterial problems.

She is calling on the government to release him and other political prisoners.

Sunday's peaceful half-hour march by about 30 women dressed in white, each carrying a single orange gladiolus after services at Santa Rita Catholic Church contrasted with that of the previous week, when more than 100 women government supporters held a noisy counterprotest with shouts of "Viva Fidel!''

While the wives demanded the release of their husbands, the protesters from the Federation of Cuban Woman called for the release of the ''Five Heroes'' -- five Cuban intelligence agents serving long terms in U.S. federal prisons.

Dissidents' wives urge Castro to respect protest

Wives of political prisoners demanded their right to march in peace during their weekly protest as pro-government groups planned a counterprotest.

By Vanessa Arrington, Associated Press. Posted on Sat, Mar. 26, 2005.

HAVANA - Wives of imprisoned dissidents urged President Fidel Castro on Friday to respect their right to peaceful protest, calling a government-sponsored interruption of their weekly march "an act of provocation.''

The women have spent every Sunday since a massive government crackdown imprisoned their husbands two years ago attending church services and then conducting a silent march down a central thoroughfare of Havana.

The protest had taken place without incident up until last Sunday, the second anniversary of the crackdown, when some 150 female government supporters from the Federation of Cuban Women held a counterprotest, waving small paper Cuban flags and shouting ''Viva Fidel'' -- "Long live Fidel.''

No one was injured.

POSSIBLE FACE-OFF

The women, known as the ''Ladies in White,'' have said they plan to continue their weekly march this Sunday. Organizers of the competing protest said last week they will not permit the women to ''take our streets,'' implying they will also likely return.

In a letter delivered to Castro's offices, the ''Ladies in White'' said they will hold top members of the government responsible for any harm done to them in future standoffs.

''We do not discard the possibility that our blood will shed on the streets as we peacefully fight for the freedom of our men,'' said the letter, signed by six members of the group.

SUPPORTERS' RIGHTS

Foreign Minister Felipe Pérez Roque has said government supporters have every right to hold their own demonstrations as long as they remained "within ethics and limits.''

He also characterized dissidents as ''mercenaries'' of the U.S. government, and said an immense majority of Cubans are in favor of the revolution that put Castro in power.

In the crackdown of spring 2003, the Cuban government arrested 75 political activists and sentenced them to prison terms of up to 28 years.

They were accused of working with the United States to undermine Castro's government -- a charge the activists and Washington denied.

In the last year, the dissidents' wives have become increasingly bold, staging candlelight vigils and public protests -- practically unheard of in communist Cuba.

EU delegation pressures Havana over rights record

A European delegation visited Cuba in a bid to further dialogue and to press for the release of political prisoners.

By Vanessa Arrington, Associated Press. Posted on Sat, Mar. 26, 2005.

HAVANA - European Union Commissioner Louis Michel tackled the topic of Cuba's political prisoners in meetings with some of the island's top officials Friday, but no agreements were made yet about the activists' fate, he said.

The talks come at a hopeful yet cautious time as the EU and Cuba warm relations amid existing tensions over the prisoners and an upcoming United Nations vote on the island's human rights record.

''I think there is an acceptance on the Cuban side to discuss these very sensitive issues,'' Michel said after meeting with parliament speaker Ricardo Alarcón.

The EU has asked that Cuba release all political prisoners, and in particular 61 dissidents who remain behind bars after a roundup of 75 government opponents two years ago. The other 14 activists were later released on medical parole.

The EU commissioner, who arrived to Havana late Thursday, expressed optimism that the current talks and future discussions could help ensure that EU sanctions against Cuba lifted earlier this year would not be reimposed when the policy is reviewed this summer.

''The door is ajar, but it is necessary that we enter each other's home to look for a way to understand one another,'' Michel told Alarcón as the meeting started. "If we can do that, we can arrive rapidly at the normalization of our relations.''

Michel and six other members of an EU delegation started the day with official talks with Cuban Foreign Minister Felipe Pérez Roque.

''My presence here is testimony to the will of the European Union to deepen its relations with Cuba and relaunch political dialogue,'' Michel told Pérez Roque in initial remarks open to the news media.

He added that he would do everything in his power "so that our relations can develop in the best way, without dwelling in the past, without ulterior motives, and with the most serious mutual respect.''

Pérez Roque told Michel he hoped the visit would represent "a new opportunity to give continuity to our discussion.''

The human rights issue has strained Cuba-EU relations for several years. Two years ago, the EU imposed sanctions against the island, banning high-level visits by European officials and drastically reducing cultural events in Cuba after the crackdown that saw the 75 activists sentenced to long prison terms.

But a new chapter was opened earlier this year when European nations lifted the sanctions, partly in response to Cuba's release last year of some of the prisoners.

While the new policy moves the EU closer to the Cuban government, it also calls for increased ties and conversations with dissidents, with European nations urging Cuba to embrace civil rights such as the freedom of expression and association.

Michel is expected to meet with dissidents today. It is unclear whether he will meet with President Fidel Castro.

Cuban immigrants stuck after being denied benefits

By Oscar Corral, Miami Herald. Posted on Tue, Mar. 29, 2005.

MIAMI - A little-noticed change in federal benefit rules has kept scores of older Cuban immigrants from collecting disability checks that are considered one of America's last-ditch social safety nets, according to a pair of public service lawyers.

People like Barbara Diaz, who arrived from Cuba five years ago, are left with little or no income, say the lawyers who are trying to address the situation.

"I don't regret coming to this country because it's the best in the world," said Diaz, 71. "But I thought I would have this help, and I don't."

Diaz was counting on receiving Supplemental Security Income, or SSI - monthly benefits of up to $570 paid to disabled or older people whose incomes are low enough to qualify for the checks.

But she and others have been denied the help because of an obscure change in policy made in 2001 by the Social Security Administration, which oversees SSI.

The agency ruled that it would provide SSI benefits to Cuban immigrants only if they arrived via the dry-foot policy, which basically means they fled successfully to the United States without a visa and often by rafts or go-fast boats. Cubans who, like Diaz, arrived on tourist visas but then overstayed them were denied.

Since then, dozens of people who came on visas have had their benefits initially approved but then rejected by the Social Security agency.

Lawyers Jose Fons and Lizel Gonzalez of Legal Services of Greater Miami said Cuban clients who have been denied benefits have flooded their offices the past two years. They now have almost 200 clients in the same predicament.

"Immigration law is supposed to serve this community, but the government is leaving them out to dry," Gonzalez said.

Gonzalez said the Cuban government seems to be sending its retired and disabled citizens to the United States as tourists.

For example, Nuris Morales, 68, said when she left Cuba in 2000, officials there said "it was the year of the elderly and they were giving visas to the elderly in the United States."

Lawyers for such immigrants believe their clients are entitled to the monthly SSI benefits because they were given residency under the Cuban Refugee Adjustment Act.

But while the Cubans await court rulings on their benefits, Miami-Dade County has partially picked up the tab for some of them, giving them $220 a month in welfare funds for rent assistance.

In 2000, the county distributed just $1.3 million in this last-resort aid. Last year, the number was $2.07 million, an increase of nearly 60 percent. Payments over the past five years total $8.4 million.

As of Dec. 31, Miami-Dade had registered 1,153 active clients receiving the monthly $220, an amount that has not been raised in 20 years and which Gonzalez and Fons say is ridiculously meager.

People who receive the aid must sign an agreement to repay the money once they begin receiving SSI benefits. But Gonzalez said the county never gets repaid if people lose their court cases.

The Department of Homeland Security, which oversees immigration, said it does not distinguish in status between Cuban immigrants who got residency through the "wet foot/dry foot" policy or those who overstayed tourist visas.

The immigrant lawyers hope to persuade the Social Security Administration to adopt the same view.

"We are working to resolve the issue of their immigration status, and we have to work with the Department of Homeland Security to resolve that," said Social Security spokeswoman Patti Patterson.

Bill Strassberger, a spokesman for the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Service, said it's the Department of Homeland Security's job to clarify whether Cubans who overstay tourist visas should be considered Cuban/Haitian entrants.

Cuban-American legislators have been cautious on the issue.

U.S. Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen did not return phone calls seeking comment. U.S. Rep. Lincoln Diaz-Balart would only say he is looking into it.

"I will do whatever I can, but I need to get a clear idea," Diaz-Balart said. "We're taking that very seriously."

Caught in the legal wrangle are the older Cubans who say they need the $570 to live. They generally have no income other than the county's infusion and whatever else they earn doing odd jobs.

Diaz, who prays every morning to San Lazaro and Santa Barbara, said she fell while leaving a job cleaning houses two years ago and tore hip ligaments. She said she leaves her apartment only to walk to a nearby grocery store.

Diaz is lucky in some respects. She lives in a studio apartment behind her son and his wife in Hialeah, Fla. But like many of the Cubans interviewed, she said she suffers bouts of deep depression because she never wanted to be a burden to her son, and she doesn't have any friends in her adopted country.

"I pray to San Lazaro to take care of me," she said, her hands clutched before the altar of saints she smuggled out of Cuba. "They give me at least some comfort."

Estefania Perdigon, 67, came from Cuba in 2000 and overstayed her tourist visa. She became a resident under the Cuban Adjustment Act, applied for SSI benefits and was rejected.

A couple of years ago, she married Salvador Sarzo, 82, a Cuban who is a naturalized citizen and receives benefits. Sarzo is disabled now, and she cares for him.

On a recent morning, after getting Sarzo out of bed, Perdigon talked about the challenges of living on the $569 a month her husband collects. They must cover every monthly bill with that, including $119 in subsidized rent.

She said if it weren't for the $165 in food stamps they both get monthly, they would be destitute. Their furniture is donated, and they don't own a car.

"We're barely getting by," she said. "I need those benefits."

Fons offered the case of another client, Maria Gonzalez, 74.

But when Gonzalez was sought out for an interview recently at her downtrodden Miami apartment, it was discovered she had been evicted, her possessions tossed into the street.