CUBA NEWS
The Miami Herald

Is Santeria used as ploy to skirt travel rules to Cuba?

A Santeria group with a religious license to travel unimpeded to Cuba reports a boom in the size of its congregation, drawing criticism and scrutiny.

By Oscar Corral, ocorral@herald.com. Posted on Sun, Feb. 27, 2005.

Despite the Bush administration's crackdown on exiles' trips back to Cuba, there are still ways to travel to the island without restriction.

One seems to be increasingly popular: Go as a Santero.

Religious groups can get licenses with little trouble. And the head of at least one group that says it practices the Afro-Cuban religion Santeria acknowledged that his congregation has exploded in size since the new travel restrictions kicked in.

Jose Montoya, head of the Sacerdocio Lucumi Shango Eyeife in Miami, said that between 1996 and July 2004, he took about 60 people to Cuba under his religious travel license. Since the restrictions took effect in July, he has taken about 2,500, he said.

''Before, people didn't have a necessity, and Afro Cubans who practice our religions could travel to Cuba without a license, but now they need a license,'' Montoya said. "This is a ticking time bomb. They will give a religious license to anyone.''

Exiles who support the restrictions -- which cut exile trips to Cuba from once a year to once every three years -- say the Santeria groups are abusing their religious privilege.

The U.S. Treasury Department allows unimpeded travel to Cuba for legitimate religious reasons. The department has issued more than 200 licenses to religious groups for travel to Cuba, according to the office of U.S. Rep. Lincoln Díaz-Balart, R-Miami.

Díaz-Balart, a supporter of the new limits, has called for an investigation, which he said is being conducted by the Treasury Department.

''There is abuse and it needs to stop,'' he said. "It is wrong for someone to say that they are seeking a license for religious travel and then to use that license commercially to promote tourism, and I think it's happening.''

Treasury Department spokeswoman Molly Millerwise and other department officials could not be reached for comment.

Tom Cooper, CEO and chairman of Gulf Stream International Airlines, one of the biggest companies still operating flights to Cuba, said he has also noticed a recent increase in the number of people coming to his airline with religious licenses.

RESOURCEFULNESS

''I have my own questions about it,'' Cooper said. "I think the Cuban people are very industrious and ingenious, and I think that they really will find a way to visit their relatives in Cuba.''

During a recent interview in his office at 4315 NW Seventh St., Montoya told The Herald that he has an established track record in Miami's Santeria community and is not abusing his travel license.

Montoya acknowledges that he has no church or temple, and his office is plainly decorated, with no evidence of Santeria. His church, the Sacerdocio Lucumi Shango Eyeife, is listed in Florida corporate records as a for-profit company. He brands himself ''Maximo Sacerdote General,'' or Maximum High Priest.

Montoya said the Treasury Department's religious license places no restrictions on the number of people allowed to travel to Cuba under that license, or the frequency of visits. He provided The Herald a copy of his license.

He also provided The Herald a copy of an application people must fill out if they want to travel to Cuba under his religious license. Applicants must swear that they are part of his religion and get the letter notarized. The application named Heidy Gonzalez as an applicant and showed a telephone number. When The Herald called the number, a man named Braulio Rodriguez said Heidy Gonzalez was a 1-year-old baby and that he was her grandfather.

Rodriguez said he had no idea how her name came to be on an application for travel to Cuba and that as far as he knew, she would not be traveling to Cuba as the application stated.

When quizzed about potential abuses, Montoya pointed to another supposed Santeria group that has a religious travel license, Santa Yemaya Ministries. Montoya said his own research shows that many of the people traveling to Cuba under religious licenses today travel through Santa Yemaya.

Florida corporate records show that Santa Yemaya Ministries was established in October 2003 by Fabio Galoppi. The principal place of business address, according to corporate records, is 9741 NW 31 St., a house in a gated community in Doral. It is listed as a nonprofit company.

The official explanation given by Fabio Galoppi to incorporate Santa Yemaya, according to corporate records, is ''to spread the word of God across the world.'' Santa Yemaya Ministries' website boasts a 15-day travel itinerary in Cuba filled with Santeria tourist stops at places such as Casa Templo and The Yoruba Center.

A woman who described herself as Fabio Galoppi's wife when phoned by The Herald declined to comment. She referred questions to a Pierre Galoppi.

Pierre Galoppi, who owns Estrella de Cuba Travel in West Miami-Dade and PWG Trading Corp., confirmed that Santa Yemaya has a religious travel license. He declined to describe his relationship to Fabio Galoppi.

''I can assure you that our agency and our ministry are in full compliance with all regulations,'' Pierre Galoppi said.

'SENSITIVE INDUSTRY'

When asked how many people travel to Cuba under Santa Yemaya's license, or whether Fabio Galoppi is a Santero, Galoppi declined to comment.

''It's a very sensitive industry,'' he said. "I have no idea how many people we're talking about.''

Pedro Gonzalez-Munne, owner of Cuba Promotions, an agency that promotes travel to Cuba, said he has done business with Pierre Galoppi and is familiar with his enterprise.

''Since the new restrictions kicked in in July to now, PWG Trading has 33 to 34 percent of the total market of people that travel to Cuba,'' Gonzalez-Munne said. "Is this a situation of freedom of religions, or are they using their religion for travel and profit?''

The Santeria travel wars have spilled over into local media. Montoya said community leaders and radio commentators have singled him out for criticism on Miami's Spanish-language radio stations. That has prompted Montoya to buy four full-page ads in El Nuevo Herald since November, defending his travel practices.

''We continue to deny the disinformation campaign that some radio stations have established that intend, for politics, to violate our religious rights,'' said an open letter from Shango Eyeife published in El Nuevo Herald on Jan. 24. "Our institution has nothing to do with other people who possess licenses for our religious practices issued by Treasury.''

RELIGION AS PLOY

Ernesto Pichardo, Miami-Dade's best known Santero, who once took a case about animal sacrifices to the U.S. Supreme Court, said the groups "are not authorized, legitimate religious organizations in Cuba or here.''

''We've started doing homework,'' Pichardo said. "I've gotten people from New York, D.C., all over. They have bought into this little deal of buying into [Montoya's] membership . . . to fly to Cuba on a religious visa.''

Cooper, the Gulf Stream CEO, said air travel to Cuba plunged after the restrictions kicked in. For example, his company used to fly five planes a week with 600 seats to the island. Now he flies only about 123 seats a week. However, in the past month, he said, business has picked up again, partly because of religious-license travel.

Pichardo said a signal that Shango Eyeife and Santa Yemaya may not be legitimate religious groups is that neither has a church or temple in Miami.

He said that he doubts they have churches in Cuba, because the Cuban government has never authorized Santeria.

Gonzalez-Munne said the trend shows that people will do whatever it takes to get to Cuba, and business people are thinking creatively to make it happen.

''People are not traveling because they are Babalaos, let's speak clearly,'' Gonzalez-Munne said, using a term meaning priest. "They are traveling because they have no other way to get to Cuba.''

Freed detainee seeks a home

The first case of a newly released Mariel detainee in South Florida surfaced in Miami.

By Alfonso Chardy, achardy@herald.com. Posted on Mon, Feb. 28, 2005.

Carlos Bueno Rodríguez, recently released Mariel detainee, arrived home in Miami over the weekend after a 24-hour bus trip from New Orleans -- but he didn't really have a place to call home.

Under a persistent drizzle, Bueno Rodríguez made his way to east Little Havana near downtown Miami's gleaming skyscrapers Saturday evening, looking for a friend he remembered who lived in the area. But he wasn't sure he would be able to find him.

His backup plan: go to a homeless shelter if he didn't find his friend.

Bueno Rodríguez, 54, is the first released Mariel detainee to surface publicly in Miami since the U.S. Supreme Court on Jan. 12 expanded prohibitions on the indefinite detention of convicted foreign nationals who cannot be deported and could not legally be admitted into the United States.

Immigration officials said there are 94 detainees in Florida covered by the Supreme Court ruling, including about 20 in Miami.

Immigrant rights activists say there have been releases of Mariel detainees in South Florida, but the ex-detainees have not made themselves available to the media. Bueno Rodríguez is the first.

Thousands of Cuban refugees who arrived during the 1980 Mariel boatlift, including Bueno Rodríguez, were classified as excludable under immigration law -- thus deemed undeserving of due process if in immigration detention.

More than 200 of the 747 Mariel detainees covered by the Supreme Court decision have been released since the ruling, including Bueno Rodríguez.

He was released Feb. 11 from a detention facility in western Louisiana, where he was in immigration custody under deportation orders that could not be carried out because Cuba refuses to take back Cubans ordered expelled from the United States.

All of the Mariel detainees being released were convicted at some point but have served their sentences. After finishing their terms, they remained in immigration detention pending expulsion from the country.

Bueno Rodríguez, for example, was convicted twice of burglaries in Dade County -- the first time in 1987 and the second in 2001.

In the first case, the sentence was shorter than the time in immigration detention: one year versus 12.

In the second instance, Bueno Rodríguez was sentenced to two years in 2001 and would have been released in 2003 -- had immigration not taken him into custody again. He was freed by the Supreme Court order.

Early on Feb. 11, Bueno Rodríguez recalled, guards hauled him and two other Mariel detainees to a van full of non-Cuban migrants.

''They didn't tell us anything, or where they were taking us,'' Bueno Rodríguez said in an interview after arriving from New Orleans.

'FREE, FREE'

They drove to New Orleans and when the van stopped in front of a Salvation Army homeless shelter, a guard told Bueno Rodríguez and the other Cubans to get out.

'He then filled out papers for each one of us and said, 'free, free.' He got back in the van and drove off.''

They walked into the homeless shelter and stayed there for three nights for free -- but had to leave because after the third night they had to start paying $7 a day.

They turned up at the office of Sue Weishar, director of immigration and refugee services for Catholic Charities Archdiocese of New Orleans.

She found them a free homeless shelter and food.

When the media found out that newly released Mariel detainees were turning up homeless in New Orleans, stories appeared in The Times-Picayune of New Orleans, The Herald and other newspapers across the country.

Immigrant rights advocates criticized immigration authorities for releasing detainees without a transition plan or work permits.

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials responded that they were simply complying with the court ruling and that the groups that championed the detainees' release should step forward and help them. They also pointed out that homeless cases were only being reported in one city.

Meanwhile, immigration authorities began expediting work permits for the released detainees and explaining more fully the system.

Manny Van Pelt, a Homeland Security spokesman in Washington, said field directors received guidelines enabling them to spend up to $250 on each released detainee. He said this didn't mean each released detainee would get $250. It meant that if the detainee needs a bus ticket to get home and the ticket costs $200, the service will spend $200 on the ticket and then give the detainee the balance in cash for food along the way. But if the ticket costs $100, then the detainee would get only about $40 for food, he said.

Ana Santiago, a Miami spokeswoman for U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, said work permits for detainees would be issued the same day and that the $175 fee would be waived on a case-by-case basis.

MIAMI IS HOME

Of six ex-detainees who turned up homeless in New Orleans, only Bueno Rodríguez chose to travel to Miami right away on a ticket bought through the emergency service Travelers Aid.

''I consider Miami home,'' Bueno Rodríguez told The Herald minutes after getting off the bus. "This is where I arrived after I left Mariel in a boat in June 1980. This is where I lived after leaving Cuba. I know how to get around Miami with my eyes closed.''

Bueno Rodríguez planned to start looking for a job this week. He already has a work permit, which he received in New Orleans.

''I have no relatives, no close friends,'' Bueno Rodríguez said. "I'm alone.''

Herald research editor Monika Leal contributed to this report.

Cigar aficionados light up Cuba

By Vanessa Arrington, The Associated Press. Posted on Sun, Feb. 27, 2005.

HAVANA, Cuba - Hundreds of cigar lovers, including British actor Jeremy Irons, wrapped up an international cigar festival late Friday with an extravagant gala dinner featuring flamenco dancing and sleek acrobatic performances.

Elaborate humidors signed by President Fidel Castro were auctioned off for $700,000 at the event, where cigar merchants and aficionados from Europe, Asia, the Middle East and North America puffed away for hours on the island's famed stogies before returning home.

The annual festival brought together nearly 1,000 cigar connoisseurs from more than 50 countries this year. Participants visited tobacco plantations and factories and attended cocktail parties.

Irons, an Oscar winner known for roles in movies such as Lolita, and The French Lieutenant's Woman, was on his first trip to Cuba.

In remarks made on a nightclub stage, Irons paid tribute to cigars, prompting hearty laughter when he cited a conversation he had earlier in the day with a lunch companion.

"She said smoking cigarettes is like having sex," he said. "But smoking a cigar is like making love."

The event culminated with the auction of six humidors, each handmade by Cuban artists and signed by Castro.

The hot item was the Cohiba Humidor, crafted in gold, silver, bronze, mahogany, cedar and Carrara marble by sculptor Raul Valladares. It fetched $330,000.

Cigars are one of Cuba's most important exports, worth about $300 million annually.

All auction proceeds were to be donated to Cuba's public health system.

This year's festival, the seventh, came as the island's communist government cracked down on smoking in closed public places. Acknowledging tobacco's health risks, authorities banned smoking in theaters, schools and other public places this month.

Despite the new law, permission to smoke was obtained for all festival venues.

Elián González's grandmother dies

By Monica Hatcher, mhatcher@herald.com. Posted on Mon, Feb. 28, 2005.

Elián González's maternal grandmother -- who visited Miami, New York and Washington, D.C., five years ago in an attempt to have the boy returned to Cuba -- died Friday after an illness, according to The Associated Press.

The death of Raquel Rodríguez sparked mixed but passionate reaction among Miami residents involved in the tug of war for the boy between his Miami relatives and his father in Cuba.

Rodríguez came for a nine-day visit in January 2000, sparking intense feelings from many in Miami's exile community. Even today, bitter sentiments remain.

''I don't feel this woman deserves any sadness,'' said Armando Gutiérrez, a friend and spokesman for Elián's Miami relatives during the five-month legal standoff. "Some people live to do good, and some people live to do bad, and she was here to do bad.''

In the middle of the heated international custody battle, Rodríguez came to the United States with Elián's paternal grandmother, Mariela Quintana, to lobby for the boy's return to Cuba and his father, Juan Miguel González. Rodríguez set off a firestorm when she suggested that her daughter -- Elián's mother, Elizabet Brotons -- had been forced to flee the island by her boyfriend, Lazaro Munero. His family denied her claim.

Brotons and Munero were among the 10 Cuban migrants who died after their boat broke apart in the Florida Straits. Elián and two other adults survived.

Two fishermen found the boy, then 5, clinging to an inner tube off Fort Lauderdale on Thanksgiving Day 1999.

''I, who was her mother and knew her better than anyone, am convinced that after this tragedy, her last wish would have been been that the boy be by the side of his father and his grandparents,'' Rodríguez told the Cuban press at the time.

Such statements convinced some that las abuelitas, as the grandmothers were called, were sent by Cuban leader Fidel Castro to soften public opinion about the boy's return.

Barry University President Sister Jeanne O'Laughlin, who hosted a meeting between the grandmothers and Elián at her Miami Beach home, said the women were good people who loved their grandson.

''They really wanted to do what was right, but like many involved in that whole event, they were trapped politically,'' O'Laughlin, now retired from Barry, said in a phone interview Sunday.

Rodríguez was largely seen by the Cuban exiles as the less radical or less revolutionary, of the two grandmothers. Some thought she was forced to demand her grandson's return to Cuba.

Their first attempt to see their grandson was unsuccessful. They stayed at the Tamiami-Kendall Executive Airport for hours but left without seeing the boy after the Miami relatives refused to agree to the reunion away from their Little Havana home.

The grandmothers said they feared exiles who were gathered at the house.

Later, after they flew to Washington and met with then-U.S. Attorney General Janet Reno and dozens of legislators, immigration officials ordered the meeting to take place at O'Laughlin's home.

During the 90-minute visit, Rodríguez and Quintana hugged and kissed the boy and gave him an album filled with photos showing relatives, schoolmates, their homes, a dog, a parrot and an empty school desk "waiting for him to return.''

After the meeting, O'Laughlin seemingly changed her neutral stance and told journalists that she felt Elián should be allowed to stay in the United States.

The Dominican nun said she thought Elián's maternal grandmother wanted to defect, that the little boy's father knew his ex-wife was taking his son to Miami and that the father was abusive to Elián's mother.

But it was Quintana, the paternal grandmother, who created a stir when she said she had pulled Elián's pants down ''to see how much he has grown'' and bit the boy on the tongue to get him to talk.

Rodríguez didn't escape controversy. She was accused of trying to arrange a clandestine conversation between the boy and his father after she was found to have taken a cellphone into the meeting in her purse -- something O'Laughlin had said they agreed not to do.

''It was pretty much a disaster,'' O'Laughlin said.

Three months after the grandmothers visited Elián, the boy suddenly was taken from his relatives' Little Havana home by U.S. marshals and later returned to Cuba, where he remains.

Rodríguez was buried on Saturday in Cárdenas, Cuba, where she was extolled as a national hero, much as she had been when she returned to Cuba after her U.S. visit. National Assembly President Ricardo Alarcon gave the eulogy for Rodríguez on Saturday, the AP reported.

''Raquel is a hero of our people,'' Alarcon declared.

O'Laughlin added:"It's my prayer that she will watch over Elián to make a him a strong man and a good man.''

Herald staff writer Elaine de Valle contributed to this report.

Cuban defectors arrested

By Kevin Baxter, kbaxter@herald.com. Posted on Sat, Feb. 26, 2005

Six Cuban baseball players and at least three men who might have been trying to smuggle them into the country were jailed in the Dominican Republic under charges they tried to enter the country illegally, immigration director Carlos Amarante Baret said this week.

Amarante Baret said the arrests would go a long way toward dismantling a network he said was bringing ballplayers from Cuba to the Dominican, where they would seek residency and then offer themselves to major-league teams as free agents.

In the past 16 months, 38 Cuban baseball players have fled the island, with many passing through the Dominican, including pitcher Alay Soler and infielder Kendry Morales, who signed multimillion contracts while in Santo Domingo.

The arrests come at a delicate time in relations between Cuba and the Dominican Republic, who Wednesday signed an agreement under which Cuba will send 44 coaches and trainers to the Dominican Republic as part of a sports-exchange program.

The most talented player among the six arrested this week is outfielder Juan Miguel Miranda of Piñar del Rio, who played two years with the island's powerful national team. But he was suspended from Cuban baseball last fall after government authorities accused him of planning to defect.

Of the others, only two were widely known outside Cuba, and neither is considered a big-league prospect.

They are outfielder Ayalen Ortiz, who had a good rookie season in 2001 -- batting .312 with five homers and 26 RBI in Cuban league play -- but hasn't matched those stats since, and outfielder Donell Linares, who played sparingly for Havana's Industriales last year and did not make the team this fall.

AROUND THE MAJORS

o Yankees: Randy Johnson's scheduled batting practice session was pushed back one day to today to line him up for his first spring training start next week.

o Cubs: Right-hander Kerry Wood will make his third straight opening day start for the Cubs, manager Dusty Baker said. Wood, 27, will be on the mound in Arizona against the Diamondbacks on April 4.

o Indians: Left-hander C.C. Sabathia will start on opening day -- April 4 at Chicago, manager Eric Wedge said.

o Red Sox: Right-hander Curt Schilling felt fine one day after throwing off a mound at Fort Myers for the first time since his November ankle surgery.

o Giants: Barry Bonds had no pain or swelling in his surgically repaired right knee after playing catch on the field at the team's training complex in Scottsdale, Ariz.

This report was supplemented with material from Herald Wire Services.

Video pokes fun at Cuban security

A 15-minute clandestine video has Cubans on the island chuckling over jabs at state security agents. But they also wonder how long it will take for the government to crack down on the well-known actors.

By Nancy San Martin, nsanmartin@herald.com. Posted on Wed, Feb. 23, 2005.

A video that pokes satirical fun at Cuba's feared state security agency and hints at corruption within is making the underground rounds of the communist-ruled island, prompting shock over its boldness and chuckles over its jabs.

The few Cubans who have seen the 15-minute tape say its comical references to listening bugs and other usually sensitive issues have them wondering how long it will take for the government to crack down on the well-known actors.

''People find it hilarious,'' a government critic in Havana who has seen the flick told The Herald in a telephone interview. "It's professionally done, with credits and all.''

''But it's watched discreetly, just among friends and family,'' the critic added. "It's considered a clandestine production, shockingly critical.''

While it makes fun of State Security -- the Interior Ministry agency that focuses on repressing the domestic opposition to Cuban leader Fidel Castro -- the video does not carry an openly anti-Castro message.

Few Cubans have seen it because it is being passed around in a DVD, and access to DVD players or personal computers capable of playing DVDs is not widespread there. The video is not known to be available outside Cuba so far.

The Havana government critic said the video features three well-known Cuban artists who use their own names in the credits -- Eduardo del Llano, Luis Alberto García and Néstor Jiménez. They offer no explanation of why the tape was made.

The video, first reported by the BBC, opens with a visit by two state security agents to the Havana home of a character named Nicanor O'Donell.

''Good morning. My name is Rodríguez, this here is comrade Segura, and we are here to install some microphones,'' one of the agents says. Segura is a Spanish version of "secure.''

A stumped O'Donell struggles to make sense of this unusual admission to eavesdropping, a state security tactic that Cubans rarely talk about openly.

THE INSTALLERS

''Our mission is to install these microphones in your house so we can clearly hear your antigovernment comments,'' one of the agents says.

When O'Donell tells his visitors, ''You don't even bother to hide it anymore,'' one agent snaps back, "I don't get these clients. Before, they would complain that we don't show our faces!''

Caving in to threatening looks, O'Donell finally lets the agents into his home, offers them a shot of Cuban coffee and helps them find the best locations for installing the listening devices.

''Where do you speak bad of the government, in what part of the house?'' one of the agents asks.

''Anywhere,'' O'Donell responds. "Here. In the bedroom. In the kitchen.''

The dialogue is interspersed with a string of references to other facets of Cuban life seldom mentioned so publicly, including O'Donell's routine theft of hard-to-find gasoline from his state job and a whispered offer by one of the agents to sell him an illegal satellite TV dish.

The agents tell O'Donell that he was selected because his criticisms of the system -- which are never heard -- are particularly "sagacious.''

Besides, they say, his house is relatively close to their office and they do not have a car. Foreigners living in Havana have reported a significant drop in the number of state security agents who trail them since 1990 because of the government's shortage of gasoline, vehicles and spare parts.

GETS TWO MICROPHONES

The security agents also tell O'Donell that he should be pleased because even though he lives alone, the government assigned two microphones to him, while other households with up to 10 people haven't had a single microphone installed.

Then comes time to test the device for sound.

''Say something subversive,'' one of the agents says. O'Donell shouts into the listening device: "I'd love to have a parabolic antenna!''

Toward the end of the video, one of the agents offers to sell O'Donell the forbidden antenna, used to capture foreign satellite TV broadcasts.

''Let's keep this between you and me,'' the agent says.

The video has struck a familiar cord, especially among dissidents because tiny microphones were discovered in the homes of at least three government opponents in Havana in December.

''I haven't seen the film yet, but I've heard about it,'' said Laura Pollán, who found a bug hidden in a telephone box in a dining room wall. She is the wife of jailed dissident Héctor Maseda.

''From what I hear, the film does a good job of capturing reality here,'' Pollán said in a telephone interview from Havana.

''I really want to see that film,'' she said. "But, you know, behind the laughter there is a very strong message: anyone, anywhere can be tapped.''

U.S. tightens cash rules on food sales to Cuba

U.S. Treasury officials announced that American goods sold to Cuba cannot leave U.S. ports until Havana pays.

By Nancy San Martin, nsanmartin@herald.com. Posted on Wed, Feb. 23, 2005.

In a blow to growing U.S. agricultural sales to Cuba, the Treasury Department Tuesday ruled that American exports to the island cannot leave U.S. ports until Havana pays cash.

The ''clarification'' comes after a lengthy review of provisions in the Trade Sanctions Reform and Export Enhancement Act (TSRA) of 2000, which permits limited cash sales of food and agricultural products to Cuba. Most other exports are barred by the 42-year-old U.S. trade embargo.

VIOLATION CONCERNS

The review stemmed from concerns about possible violations of TSRA, which had led some banks to delay crediting Cuban payments to the accounts of U.S. exporters, said Treasury officials.

TSRA requires that Cuba pay cash but seemed unclear on whether payments had to be made before the U.S. goods left American ports or -- a more common international trade procedure -- after the goods arrived at Cuban ports.

The clarification ''doesn't affect the ability of U.S. exporters to send shipments to Cuba, but rather ensures that they receive payments before the goods are shipped to the island,'' said Treasury spokeswoman Molly Millerwise.

The revised policy is sure to spark heated debate on Capitol Hill among lawmakers who represent farm states.

Earlier this month, Idaho Republican Sen. Larry Craig introduced a bipartisan bill that would allow direct U.S.-Cuba bank transfers to pay for the American exports. The proposed legislation has 22 co-sponsors so far.

Since the U.S. sales to Cuba began in 2001, the island has become the United States' 25th-largest export market for food and agricultural products, with the dollar value totaling $392 million last year.

Cuba has been using transfers from banks in third countries to comply with the U.S. requirement for cash payments, a process that takes about 72 hours. Direct banking would allow for quicker transactions.

'MISINTERPRETATION'

''It's apparent that [the clarification] is a misinterpretation of the intent of the law . . . which was to sell to Cuba,'' said Dan Whiting, a spokesman for Craig. "This policy change effectively makes American farmers noncompetitive.''

The Treasury decision also raised speculation that Cuba might retaliate by ending its U.S. purchases. Sen. Max Baucus, D-Mont., a ranking member of the Finance Committee, vowed to block political appointees to the Treasury department.

Media quiet about author's death

Cuba's media were all but silent on the death of famed exile writer Guillermo Cabrera Infante.

By Ambar Hernandez, Special to The Herald. Posted on Wed, Feb. 23, 2005.

Harry Potter made the Cuban media Tuesday but not the death of Guillermo Cabrera Infante, the worldfamous exile writer whose books are banned on the island because of his criticisms of Fidel Castro.

Cuba's government-controlled dailies such as Granma, Juventud Rebelde and Trabajadores printed stories about J.K. Rowling's upcoming installment of the Harry Potter series or the Havana International Book Fair, which concluded more than a week ago.

But the newspapers, as well as government television and radio stations, ignored the death Monday in London of Cabrera Infante, who left Cuba in 1965.

A Herald Internet check of Cuba's media showed only the online version of the culture magazine La Jiribilla noted Cabrera Infante's passing -- in a four-paragraph story that said his writings were "unfortunately tainted with his stance against the Cuban revolution, which became a fanatical obsession.''

The Herald published a lengthy story Tuesday on the 1997 winner of the Miguel de Cervantes Prize, the highest award in Spanish-language literature. Newspapers in several countries, including Colombia, Spain, Mexico and the United Kingdom, also offered long pieces detailing his life.

In 2003, the death of exiled salsa singer Celia Cruz also received very little coverage in the Cuban media because of Cruz's opposition to Castro. News of Cabrera Infante's death reached some Cubans on the island through other means, including international short-wave radio broadcasts and some Miami AM radio stations that can be picked up in and around Havana.

The author of Tres Tristes Tigres and Mea Cuba originally supported Castro and served as Cuba's cultural attaché in Brussels, but Cabrera Infante parted ways with the government in 1965 because of the revolution's turn to communism and authoritarian rule.

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