CUBA NEWS
The Miami Herald

Venezuela pushing OAS on Posada extradition

Venezuela, seeking the extradition of anti-Castro militant Luis Posada Carriles, is pushing the OAS to approve a resolution on extradition.

By Pablo Bachelet, pbachelet@herald.com. Posted on Fri, Jun. 03, 2005.

WASHINGTON - Venezuela, which wants Washington to hand over anti-Castro activist Luis Posada Carriles, is asking the Organization of American States to adopt a resolution on extradition at its meeting in Fort Lauderdale next week.

The resolution broadly urges nations to deny terrorists a haven and comply with their extradition obligations, according to a draft circulated Thursday. But the text shows that much of the Venezuelan language is being disputed, with Colombia and other OAS member nations proposing potentially controversial changes.

Venezuela has made the Posada case a national cause, with President Hugo Chávez threatening to review relations with Washington if it refuses to hand over Posada, accused of masterminding in Caracas a 1976 bombing of a Cuban airliner that killed 73.

Venezuela is expected to file a 700-page formal extradition request soon. The State Department has said the Posada case was strictly a legal issue. Posada, who turned up in Miami in March, is being held on charges of entering the United States illegally.

The Venezuelan draft does not mention Posada by name or propose any new mechanisms on extraditions, merely urging nations to follow current requirements.

But Colombia, whose government has complained that Venezuela may be providing a haven to leftist Colombian guerrillas, has asked to insert text that urges OAS member states "to prevent anyone participating in the planning, preparation, financing, or commission of terrorist acts from finding safe haven in their territories.''

In December, bounty hunters in Caracas captured a leader of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, known as FARC, who had been living in Venezuela for years. Rodrigo Granda was then turned over to authorities in Colombia, sparking a diplomatic row between the two nations.

Castro: U.S. protecting old friend

Cuban leader Fidel Castro, speaking at an antiterrorism meeting, said the United States is protecting militant Luis Posada Carriles.

By Anita Snow, Associated Press. Posted on Fri, Jun. 03, 2005.

HAVANA - Fidel Castro accused the United States Thursday of protecting his old archenemy, Cuban militant Luis Posada Carriles, implying that the former CIA operative might have secrets American officials may not want revealed.

''This empire is letting itself be blackmailed by its accomplices,'' Castro said of Posada and other Cuban exiles who were active in efforts to topple the island's communist government during the Cold War.

Although he wasn't on the agenda, Castro spoke several times during the first day of an antiterrorism meeting that drew about 400 participants from abroad, mostly from Latin America.

Organized by the Cuban government, the event was aimed at drumming up media attention and international support for Posada's extradition to Venezuela, where prosecutors want to retry him in the bombing of a Cuban airliner three decades ago.

The U.S. government last month rejected Venezuela's request for the provisional arrest of Posada -- a first step that could lead to his extradition -- on grounds of insufficient information. The South American nation is preparing a more detailed request.

Venezuelan author Alicia Herrera, who published a book about the 1976 bombing that killed 73 people, called on the United States to extradite Posada to her country.

''We ask for justice,'' Herrera told the gathering, insisting that Venezuela had an ''unalienable right'' to extradite Posada, a naturalized Venezuelan citizen who escaped from prison while prosecutors sought a new trial.

Posada, 77, slipped into the United States early this year.

He was detained by U.S. immigration officials last month and faces a hearing on June 13.

The longtime Castro foe has denied involvement in the airliner bombing.

Castro has called Posada "the most famous and cruel terrorist of the Western Hemisphere.''

He accuses him in numerous violent attacks against the island, including 1997 bombings of tourist locales -- one of which killed an Italian tourist.

Participants at the event included many who have traditionally supported Castro's government.

Former Salvadoran guerrilla leader Shafick Handal, Venezuelan Vice President Jose Vicente Rangel and former Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega were to address the gathering today.

Court fight will hold Posada's fate

Some Cuban exile militants living in the Miami area may be called to testify in deportation or asylum hearings for bombing suspect Luis Posada Carriles.

By Oscar Corral and Alfonso Chardy, ocorral@herald.com. Posted on Sun, May. 29, 2005.

Some of the darkest moments in Miami and Cuban exile history, rife with bombings and political intrigue, may emerge in upcoming asylum and deportation hearings for Cuban exile militant Luis Posada Carriles.

Posada -- who has been accused but never convicted of blowing up a Cuban jetliner and masterminding a series of hotel bombings in Havana -- now sits in a Texas detention center after federal agents detained him in Miami on May 17.

The 77-year-old had sneaked into the United States recently after years of hiding abroad.

Posada's lawyers plan to request asylum, claiming that he faces death or torture because Cuban agents are gunning for him.

A petition for asylum opens the door to possibly long hearings on whether Posada deserves asylum or removal from the country in light of allegations against him.

Attorneys for Posada and the government could then call witnesses, including other anti-Castro militants who have received pardons, residency, even U.S. citizenship after years of brazen attacks against Cuban interests -- a move that could backfire if government lawyers use the same witnesses to drill deep into Posada's past.

''We're going to do everything we can to defend our client,'' said Renee Soto, who represents Posada along with Eduardo Soto. "If it's necessary to call witnesses in order to rebut what the government brings, then that's what we are going to do.''

A hearing is scheduled for June 13, when government lawyers are expected to ask for deportation and when Posada's attorneys plan to renew his asylum request.

The Posada hearings promise to be dramatic in their own right. He's a self-published author, dapper-dressed warrior, former CIA contractor and explosives expert.

His anti-Castro cohorts are just as colorful, and they include old-guard militants like Orlando Bosch, a pediatrician, bazooka gunner and painter.

Posada's lawyers could call them to explain that the militant's goal has always been to free Cuba from tyranny and that his deportation basically amounts to a death sentence.

If it came to that, it's not clear where Posada would be deported to. U.S. officials have already indicated they would not deport him to Venezuela, an ally of Cuba. On Friday, the U.S. Department of Justice denied a request from Venezuela, where Posada had lived for several years, to detain Posada on charges related to the 1976 Cuban jetliner bombing.

Venezuelan officials said they intend to renew that request later -- and Venezuelan Vice President Jose Vicente Rangel on Saturday blasted U.S. officials as "hypocritical.''

''They condemn terrorism on the one hand, and on the other they protect terrorists,'' Rangel said in a veiled reference to Posada as he led a protest demanding Posada's extradition.

Likewise, in Guyana, which lost 11 of its citizens in the jetliner attack, officials have expressed concern about how U.S. officials handle Posada's case. Defense Secretary Roger Luncheon said Saturday that the case affects "more than the interest of Guyana.''

''It has more to do with the way in which the international community stands collectively on the repudiation of international terrorism,'' he said.

'ALL MEANS AVAILABLE'

''A terrorist is a person who kills indiscriminately,'' said Pedro Remón, who was incarcerated with Posada in Panama in a plot to kill Cuban President Fidel Castro. "That has never been what Cuban militants did.

"When a freedom fighter fights for this purpose, he must use all means available to him, without endangering the civil rights of others. If you plant a bomb and someone walks by, you could endanger them. That must stop.''

To be certain, the government has a low bar to seek denial of asylum. All it has to do is convince an immigration judge that Posada committed ''serious nonpolitical crimes'' or engaged in terrorism before arriving in the United States. But the government has indicated that it would not deport him to Venezuela or Cuba, countries where Posada is wanted.

Venezuelan courts twice acquitted Posada in the jetliner bombing, but he escaped from prison disguised as a priest while the government appealed the acquittal.

At least six former fighters like Posada live in South Florida. They may know of his alleged role in several anti-Castro attacks, including the 1976 Cubana de Aviación bombing that killed 73 people -- and assistant chief counsels for the Department of Homeland Security could put them under oath to boost their deportation case.

Some of the potential witnesses have their own dubious pasts, including links to the Washington car-bomb assassination of a Chilean diplomat and his American aide and the unsolved car bombing in Miami that maimed a popular exile journalist.

Among the exiles who may be called:

Remón, 60, who spent four years in a Panamanian jail with Posada after they were caught with explosives, allegedly intending to blow up Castro. A Panamanian court convicted them, but the country's president pardoned them.

''I will wait until I get subpoenaed or I am asked to testify before I talk about it,'' said Remón, jailed with Posada from 2000 to 2004. "I spent four years in a jail cell with Luis, and of course, we talked about many things,''

He declined to elaborate.

BOMBING MEETING

Gustavo Castillo of Hialeah is the only person placed at a meeting where blowing up the jetliner was discussed, according to CIA and FBI documents.

''Some plans regarding the bombing of a Cubana Airlines airplane were discussed at the bar in the Anauco Hilton Hotel in Caracas, Venezuela, at which meeting Frank Castro, Gustavo Castillo, Luis Posada Carriles and [Ricardo "Monkey''] Morales Navarrete were present,'' the November 1976 FBI document said. "This meeting took place sometime before the bombing of the Cubana Airlines DC-8.''

Castillo told The Herald that the document is wrong.

''I have not been in any meetings with those people. I don't know Posada,'' said Castillo, once jailed in the United States and Mexico for trying to kidnap a Cuban consul in Merida, Mexico, in 1976. The attempt left the consul's bodyguard dead.

Castillo said he supports Posada because "he served this country.''

A federal grand jury indicted Castillo and Gaspar Jiménez in connection with the 1976 car-bomb attack on Emilio Milian, an anti-Castro commentator who opposed the use of violence by exiles to overthrow Castro. Milian lost his legs in the bombing.

A new U.S. attorney eventually dropped the indictment.

''I had absolutely nothing to do with it,'' Castillo said.

Bosch recently told The Herald that Posada spent at least one night with him and other exiles in the town of Bonao in the Dominican Republic, where U.S. authorities believe plans to blow up an airliner were discussed.

Bosch was arrested and eventually acquitted in Venezuela of the attack, and he returned to the United States.

Before federal agents detained him, Posada told The Herald that he was never at Bonao. And if he attended any meetings at the Anauco Hilton, "there was no talk of conspiracy.''

Others who may have knowledge of Posada's anti-Castro history are Guillermo Novo and Jiménez, who were imprisoned in Panama with Posada from 2000 to 2004.

U.S. investigators believe that Novo attended the Bonao meeting. Novo denies it: "I've never been in Bonao. And from what I know, Posada was not in Bonao.''

Novo told The Herald that Posada deserves asylum because he has been a loyal anti-Castro fighter who worked for the United States to battle communism.

ON TRIAL TWICE

Novo was convicted in the 1976 bombing murder of Chilean diplomat Orlando Letelier and his aide. An appellate court overturned the conviction. He was acquitted in a second trial. Police once arrested Novo after a 1964 bazooka attack on the United Nations during a speech by Ernesto ''Che'' Guevara. The charges were later dropped.

Jiménez, like Castillo, served time for the attempted kidnapping and murder of Cuban diplomats in Mexico, and was also indicted -- although the charges were dropped -- in the Milian case.

Jiménez did not respond to a written request for an interview.

A former U.S. prosecutor who tried the Letelier case, Eugene Propper, wrote in a 1982 book that Posada and Novo were at Bonao and discussed specific targets. The book's source was Rafael Rivas Vasquez, a top commander in DISIP, Venezuela's secret police.

Remón -- who supports asylum for Posada -- summed up the case this way:

"We are not perfect. Errors have been committed. But you must separate terrorism from the inalienable right of people to fight for liberty.''

Herald researcher Monika Leal and the Associated Press contributed to this report.

Deco devotees torn over conference in Cuba

By Casey Woods, cwoods@herald.com. Posted on Sat, May. 28, 2005.

An international network of Art Deco design enthusiasts that has roots in Miami is grappling with another South Florida obsession: the bitter, seemingly endless battle over how to deal with Cuba.

Members of the International Coalition of Art Deco Societies, or ICADS, a loose association of groups dedicated to preserving the streamlined architectural style, are locked in a battle over whether to hold the group's 2007 World Congress on Art Deco in the island nation.

Those who support the notion say that politics shouldn't thwart efforts to save the Cuba's imperiled architecture. Others say it would be morally wrong to go and, for members from the United States, almost certainly illegal.

In recent weeks, the conflict has exploded into volleys of hostile e-mails -- one of which alleged that an ICADS member was accepting handouts from the Cuban government in exchange for striving to ''deliver'' the convocation. The accused member has threatened legal action in response.

The rancor has astonished members on both sides of the divide. Many wonder if their once-genteel organization, which has hundreds of members in countries as far away as New Zealand and Australia, has been forever changed.

''It's been a mean two years, and I've never experienced anything like this in my 50 years doing volunteer work,'' said Rex Ball, the president of the Tulsa Art Deco Society, who has held the ICADS leadership post since 2003. "Before, the organization was such a pleasant, social-comrades kind of thing, and I certainly hope this won't split it for good.''

FOUR YEARS AGO

By most accounts, the current conflict took root more than four years ago, after several ICADS members went on a tour of Havana and became impassioned about the need to save the country's crumbling Art Deco buildings. At the group's last world congress in South Africa two years ago, a bid was lodged to hold the 2007 gathering on the island nation.

But a selection committee later threw out the Cuban bid after deciding that the island's Art Deco group couldn't accommodate a full-scale ICADS conference. The nod went, instead, to Melbourne, Australia.

Pro-Cuba ICADS members launched a vehement protest, and the issue is slated to be resolved this week during the group's 2005 world congress in New York.

The event is in full swing, with at least 250 delegates from 12 countries set to tour an Art Deco amusement park, eat soul food at Harlem's Lenox Lounge and toast the Chrysler Building's 75th birthday.

Today, representatives of many of the 26 voting member societies will take up the Cuba matter.

Those on the pro-Cuba side say the arguments against holding the 2007 congress there are ideological and have no place in ICADS, a nonpolitical organization.

Of greater concern to the organization, they argue, is the need to save Cuba's crumbling Art Deco architecture. As in Miami Beach, Cuba's hard times had kept the buildings intact, but now they are decaying with such speed that they could soon be unsalvageable.

They need, some group members say, the attention that an international conference would bring.

'If you told me that Fidel loves Art Deco and wants to save it, I'd say, 'Welcome, pal,' '' said Mitzi Mogul, president of the Art Deco Society of Los Angeles who said she spoke only for herself. "I don't have to like you, but when it comes to this organization, if you're saving Art Deco, that's all I need to know.''

Opponents cite the potential legal barriers for U.S. members -- and at least one has raised unflattering questions about the pro-Cuba side's motives.

''I believe the pro-Cuba group's primary motivation is to save Art Deco architecture -- that I don't dispute,'' said Tony Fusco, president of the Art Deco Society of Boston, and one of ICADS' most involved leaders. "But I question what their motives are in pushing so hard specifically for this congress.''

On May 13, Fusco fired the first salvo in a scorching exchange of open letters in advance of Saturday's showdown.

ARGUMENTS AGAINST

In his eight-page missive, Fusco detailed the legal obstacles to the congress and asserted that because the representative of the Cuban Art Deco Group, Alina Pérez, was an employee of the Cuban Ministry of Culture, she was by definition an agent of Castro. He also implied that Mogul, the most ardent supporter of a Cuban congress, was receiving ''entitlements'' from Castro's government in exchange for her work to ''deliver'' the event.

Pro-Cuba members fired off heated e-mails in response.

Mogul told The Herald that she is considering a slander suit against Fusco.

''I have an international reputation to defend and I will, because I have done as much or more for Art Deco than Tony has,'' she said.

Key among the arguments against a convention in Cuba is U.S. policy that would most likely prevent U.S. citizens from attending.

Over the past two years, the Bush administration has dramatically reduced the number of licenses it grants for travel to Cuba, with the goal of staunching the flow of foreign money into the country, according to an expert.

U.S. TRAVEL POLICY

''In this case, it is quite likely the administration would say, while the people's interest in the architecture is sincere, that interest is outweighed by the financial and propaganda benefits to Cuba,'' said John Kavulich, a senior policy advisor at the New York-based U.S.-Cuba Trade and Economic Council. "Individuals subject to U.S. law would likely not be able to attend.''

No matter the outcome this weekend, the Cuba debate is not likely to go away. Some delegates are already talking about a Cuba bid for the 2009 world congress.

But some wonder whether the Art Deco group as it is today can survive that long.

''This organization is all about a mutual network of people drawn together in a common bond, and this issue is the most divisive it has ever faced,'' Fusco said. "I don't want this to destroy it.''

U.N. wants storm aid increased

Posted on Thu, Jun. 02, 2005.

HAVANA - (AP) -- U.N. humanitarian chief Jan Egeland said Wednesday that North America and Europe should prepare to give more disaster aid to the region, which braced for the start of a hurricane season forecasters say could be especially active.

''It is very important that through the U.N. we get a bigger investment from North America to their neighbors there in the territory, and from Europe, which has a big responsibility in the region as former colonial powers,'' Egeland told reporters during a break in a regional disaster preparedness meeting here.

''I'm afraid that 2005 could be even worse than 2004, when we lost more than 5,000 lives in Haiti alone,'' Egeland said of the string of powerful hurricanes and tropical storms that pummeled the region last year.

Egeland, a U.N. undersecretary and head of the U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, said the storms caused about $7 billion in material damage last year. Jamaica, Grenada, the Dominican Republic and the Cayman Islands were among those hardest hit.

The Atlantic hurricane season began Wednesday and runs through Nov. 30. Forecasters say the region could be in for another tough time.

Government and civil defense officials from 15 Caribbean countries were attending the regional gathering in Havana, which opened Wednesday evening and runs through Friday.

The old house they have to see

Visitors to Ernest Hemingway's former home near Havana were shocked to see it in such disrepair. Cubans and Americans are trying to restore the house.

By Vanessa Arrington, Associated Press. Posted on Wed, Jun. 01, 2005.

HAVANA - Tropical fruit trees and manicured gardens greet visitors driving through Ernest Hemingway's sprawling estate on the outskirts of Havana, but the wooden home where the famed American novelist lived more than 20 years is falling apart.

Scaffolding covers the molding house, where much of the furniture has been removed due to moisture damage and to make room for restoration work. Americans in Havana for a forum on the late writer this week were surprised at the sight.

''It's not like what you see in the photographs,'' University of Pennsylvania professor Paul Hendrickson said as he peered through the windows of Hemingway's study, where a leopard skin still stretched across a couch but several other items were covered with plastic tarps. "This is really in a more fragile state than I had guessed.''

Erosion, tropical humidity and botched repairs are threatening the house where Hemingway spent some of his happiest years and wrote the prize-winning classic The Old Man and the Sea. The hacienda that has served as a cultural bridge for Cubans and Americans has also fallen victim to politics.

AMERICANS' EFFORT

A group of American preservationists were denied a license to travel to Cuba last year. The Bush administration has steadily tightened long-standing trade and travel restrictions against the communist-run island.

But the Concord, Mass.-based Hemingway Preservation Foundation joined forces with the Washington-based National Trust for Historic Preservation to reapply, and got their license this month. They plan to send a team of architects and engineers this month to do an architectural feasibility study at the estate, known as Finca Vigía, or Lookout Farm.

''Certainly we would have liked to move forward more quickly,'' Mary-Jo Adams, the foundation's executive director, said in a telephone interview. "But we are very pleased about being able to go in.''

The foundation is urgently trying to raise $150,000 for the feasibility study, Adams said.

The license does not cover requested permission to provide materials for repairs to the home and its preservation -- an important element given Cuba's lack of material resources. Rehabilitation costs will run in the millions of dollars, Adams said.

With the Americans delayed, the Cubans launched their own renovation projects.

''We can't just stop working on this,'' said Gladys Rodríguez, a museologist and one of Cuba's leading Hemingway experts.

The house was closed during a visit this week by Hemingway enthusiasts from the United States, Europe and Latin America.

''We know how the house used to be, and it makes us sad to see it like this,'' said Oscar Blas Fernández, a 75-year-old Cuban who played baseball at Hemingway's hacienda as a child and served as a guide for the visitors.

PILAR IS THERE

Blas pointed out the poolside spot where the author had his afternoon drinks and recalled a pillow fight with Hemingway's children at a guest house on the grounds.

Further down a path from the giant, empty swimming pool are the graves of four of Hemingway's dogs, as well as the Pilar, the author's 40-foot fishing boat, now dry-docked on blocks.

Hendrickson, has spent 2 ½ years researching a book about the Pilar, and was reeling when he saw the boat for the first time.

''I feel like I have smoked a Cohiba,'' Hendrickson said, referring to a premium Cuban cigar. "This boat lasted through three wives, lasted through the Nobel Prize, lasted through all his ruin. Hemingway's gone now . . . but the boat is still there.''

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