| CUBA
NEWS
The
Miami Herald
Play ball? It's not so easy in Cuba,
dissidents say
Calling it part of a
pattern of harassment by the government,
a Cuban dissident family was upset over
the canceling of a youth group baseball
game against players from the U.S. mission
in Havana.
By Vanessa Arrington, Associated
Press. Posted on Wed, Jun. 22, 2005.
HAVANA - It was supposed to be a friendly
baseball game. But hours before a neighborhood
youth group was to play a team from the
U.S. mission in Havana, Cuban security agents
allegedly charged into the home of activist
Marcos de Miranda and confiscated his baseballs,
bats and mitts.
The action, de Miranda says, is the latest
and among the most bizarre in a long history
of harassment targeting his family, made
up of dissidents clamoring for change in
communist Cuba.
''It was to be a sports and cultural event
-- nothing at all political,'' de Miranda,
28, said in his family's apartment. "We're
denied even the right to play our national
sport.''
De Miranda's 59-year-old father, Roberto,
is a librarian among 75 government opponents
rounded up two years ago, though he was
released for health reasons last year.
His 54-year-old mother, Soledad Rivas,
is a member of the increasingly audacious
''Ladies in White'' who have protested for
the release of imprisoned dissidents.
They say their existence in Cuba is difficult.
Speaking out against President Fidel Castro
and his government has brought a slew of
punishments, ranging from lost jobs and
social ostracism to prison time and death
threats.
Of stout build and fiery eyes, Marcos de
Miranda is a youth activist ready to take
on the system and willing to go to jail
fighting for a Cuba where citizens can say
what they please and have freedom.
As a teen, he was expelled from a military
cadet school for refusing to participate
in a verbal attack on dissidents including
his father. He says he has lost five jobs
at Havana restaurants and a store on government
orders.
''Keep in mind that we are peaceful opponents,''
de Miranda said. "We are fighting with
our ideas, not weapons.''
His 26-year-old brother, Mikael, lost a
job hand-rolling cigars, apparently also
because of the family's politics.
De Miranda founded a youth group in March.
While core members include government foes,
the group also organizes nonpolitical activities
-- like the June 12 baseball game.
It was to include many non-dissidents from
de Miranda's neighborhood, a poor one. The
game, against a team mainly of U.S. Marines
attached to the U.S. Interests Section,
had been advertised in diplomatic offices.
With U.S. policy toward Cuba increasingly
rigid, ties between the government and the
Interests Section are tense.
The day of the proposed game, the Marines
and others decided to play baseball anyhow.
The field they went to, usually empty Sunday
morning, was occupied by members of Cuba's
Communist Youth group playing soccer, a
U.S. Interests Section official said on
condition of anonymity.
The Americans were turned away from two
more fields and told by a field director
that they must pay a fee and get advance
government permission to play.
Posada proceedings won't be in Florida
A Texas judge refused
to move Cuban dissenter and former CIA operative
Luis Posada Carriles' immigration hearings
to Florida.
By Alicia A. Caldwell, Associated
Press. Posted on Tue, Jun. 21, 2005.
EL PASO - Immigration proceedings for a
Cuban exile accused of planning the deadly
bombing of an airliner in 1976 will remain
in El Paso, a judge ruled.
Lawyers for Luis Posada Carriles asked
that the case be moved to Florida, where
Posada was staying before his arrest and
where his lawyer lives. Posada is charged
with entering the country illegally in a
case that has sparked an international battle.
Several Latin American and Caribbean governments
are demanding his deportation and retrial
as a terrorist in Venezuela.
U.S. Immigration Judge William L. Abbott
issued a written ruling to lawyers in the
case Thursday, but details weren't released
as of Monday, said Greg Gagne, a spokesman
for the Executive Office for Immigration
Review in Washington.
FACING DEPORTATION
A staunch foe of Fidel Castro, the 77-year-old
Posada is not charged with a crime in the
United States, but could be deported --
especially with the Bush administration
holding other governments to strict account
for harboring terrorists.
Posada was acquitted by a Venezuelan military
court of charges related to the bombing
that killed 73 people when a Cuban airliner
crashed off the coast of Barbados. An appeals
court later nullified that case, ruling
that he should have been tried in a civilian
court. Posada escaped from a Venezuelan
prison in 1985 before a final ruling was
made in that trial.
Posada was arrested in Miami last month
and has been held in a federal detention
center in El Paso since then. He has claimed
that he sneaked into the country from Mexico
in mid-March.
MOVE TRIAL TO MIAMI?
Posada's attorney said he wanted the trial
moved because holding it in El Paso would
cause Posada hardships. He also said his
client wants to be closer to family in Miami.
Prosecutors said holding Posada in South
Florida would be a security risk.
A one-time CIA operative and former Venezuelan
security official, Posada has been accused
of planning the attack of the Cuban jetliner;
the plot allegedly was hatched in Venezuela.
He has repeatedly denied involvement.
Last week, Venezuela formally requested
Posada's extradition. Bernardo Alvarez,
Venezuela's ambassador to the United States,
said Wednesday on a state-run television
station that Venezuela's extradition request
should take precedence over immigration-related
allegations.
On Friday, Posada's lawyers will ask for
his release during an El Paso bond hearing.
'Taxi boat' family starts new life in
South Florida
'Taxi boat' captain Rafael
Diaz Rey and his family flew into Fort Lauderdale,
and will be allowed to stay in the United
States. They had arranged visas before leaving
Cuba.
By David Ovalle, dovalle@herald.com.
Posted on Tue, Jun. 21, 2005.
A plane on Monday finally did what a blue
1948 Mercury taxi converted into a boat
could not for Rafael Diaz Rey, his wife
and two sons.
It brought them to South Florida.
Family members met the Cuban refugees at
Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International
Airport, where they landed just after 10:30
a.m. from the U.S. Naval Base at Guantánamo
Bay, Cuba.
''Finally, I escaped,'' Diaz, 40, told
El Nuevo Herald at the airport as he hugged
his father and uncle.
The family was allowed to stay in the United
States because they had secured U.S. visas
before they were picked up by the Coast
Guard on June 7.
Under U.S. policy, Cubans who make it to
U.S. soil are generally allowed to stay,
while those nabbed at sea are usually sent
back.
Ten others aboard the taxi boat were returned
to Cuba. They sought asylum, but officials
deemed they had no reason to fear persecution
in their homeland.
The Diaz family was sent to Guantánamo
Bay while officials verified their identities
and visas in Cuba.
'A FREE PERSON'
On Monday night, the family gathered under
the drizzle at La Ermita de la Caridad Catholic
Church in Coconut Grove, exhausted from
the interviews.
''I am a free person,'' said Pablo Alonso
Valdez, 15, practicing his first sentences
of English in the United States.
Because Pablo was nearing the age to serve
in the Cuban military, the Castro government
did not allow him to leave. His mother,
Dr. Nivia Valdez, was not allowed to leave
because the Cuban government requires five
years of service for medical personnel.
''We're very grateful to the U.S. government.
It kept all its commitments made with our
attorneys,'' said Ramón Saúl
Sánchez, the leader of the Democracy
Movement, an exile group that lobbied for
the family's release.
THIRD TIME A CHARM
It was the family's third time trying to
escape in a rigged car boat. Diaz and his
wife tried in 1994 -- while she was pregnant
with David, now 10 -- but electrical problems
forced them to turn back.
The first publicized group of ''truckonauts''
made headlines when they attempted to flee
Cuba in July 2003 in a 1951 Chevy truck.
Diaz and his family tried again last year
in a converted 1959 Buick sedan.
CHIEF ARCHITECT
Afterward, the U.S. government allowed
that boat's chief architect, Luis Grass,
to resettle in Costa Rica.
Grass and his family eventually crossed
Mexico by land to make it to the United
States.
Diaz told El Nuevo Herald that he bought
the 1948 Mercury taxi for 35,000 Cuban pesos
-- about the equivalent of $1,340.
It took him four months to convert the
boat while avoiding scrutiny by the Cuban
government.
On Monday, Jesus Zamora, a cousin of Diaz's,
paced as he waited for his family to wrap
up interviews with a national news network.
Also a mechanic, Zamora and his cousin
have already joked about tweaking cars in
the United States.
''Don't be surprised if you see a car flying,''
Zamora said.
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