CUBA NEWS
The Miami Herald

Castro backers confront silent demonstrators

Tension ran high in Havana as pro-government female workers confronted 'The Ladies in White,' dissidents' wives who have been staging a silent protest since 2003.

Posted on Mon, Mar. 21, 2005

HAVANA - (AP) -- With shouts of ''Viva Fidel,'' female government supporters interrupted a weekly silent protest by wives of political prisoners held after Sunday church services.

The noisy standoff after Palm Sunday Mass at a Havana church appeared to be peaceful, but tensions ran high, prompting curious neighbors to leave their homes and cars to slow down for a better look.

It was the first such confrontation since the wives began the weekly protest shortly after the government crackdown in the spring of 2003 that put 75 activists behind bars. Cuba accused the dissidents of working with the United States to undermine Fidel Castro's government -- a charge the activists and Washington denied.

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

Some credit their pressure with leading to last year's release of 14 of the 75 prisoners, but supporters of Castro's government say the dissidents deserve to be behind bars and they feel little sympathy for the wives.

''We cannot let them damage the revolution,'' said 70-year-old Aida Diaz, who said the counterprotest by about 150 women was organized by the Federation of Cuban Women.

She said the march outside the church by about 30 prisoners' wives dressed in white and holding flowers "goes against the country.''

The Cuban government launched the weeklong crackdown on March 18, 2003, rounding up the dissidents and later sentencing them to long prison terms.

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.

Cuban immigrants find themselves stuck after being denied benefits

By Oscar Corral, ocorral@herald.com. Posted on Mon, Mar. 21, 2005.

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 that are 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.

OK'D, THEN REJECTED

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.

COUNTY PAYS

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. And U.S. Rep. Lincoln Díaz-Balart would only say he is looking into it.

NEEDS 'CLEAR IDEA'

''I will do whatever I can, but I need to get a clear idea,'' Díaz-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 Sedano's for groceries.

Diaz is lucky in some respects. She lives in a studio apartment behind her son and his wife in Hialeah. 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.''

COUPLE STRUGGLES

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 Little Havana apartment, it was discovered she had been evicted, her possessions tossed into the street.

Cuban exiles, the CIA and a secret war: A new book focuses on a post-Bay of Pigs program to get rid of Castro

By Don Bohning. Posted on Sun, Mar. 20, 2005.

This is taken from ''The Castro Obsession: U.S. Covert Operations Against Cuba, 1959-1965'' (Potomac Books, 2005). The chapter entitled ''Miami: Perpetual Intrigue'' is excerpted here.

For South Florida, first Mongoose [codename for the post Bay of Pigs U. S. covert anti-Castro program] and then the Cuban Missile Crisis only intensified a frenzied decade that began in the mid-1950s, when Castro's 82-member guerrilla band landed in southeastern Cuba. Mongoose contributed to an already-substantial population of CIA agents, Cuban exiles, wannabe soldiers-of-fortune and assorted other adventurers either involved -- or wanted to be -- in the secret war against Castro. Then the missile crisis came to make Miami the hottest spot in the Cold War -- apart from the three capitals involved -- and further fuel the perpetual intrigue simmering beneath the city surface.

An alphabet soup of Cuban exile groups numbering in the hundreds had sprung up, each trying to outdo the other in anti-Castro militancy. More than one such organization had no more members than the leader who announced its existence. To fuel fund-raising, they called press conferences and issued war communiqués proclaiming actions against Cuba that most often never occurred. Stirring an already boiling pot was JMWAVE, codename for the secluded headquarters of the CIA's frontline command post in Washington's ''back alley'' war against Castro.

For JMWAVE, its activities were to reach a peak in late 1962 and early 1963 leading up to, and during, the missile crisis and its immediate aftermath. Functioning under the cover of Zenith Technical Enterprises, JMWAVE operated from Building 25 at the University of Miami's secluded South Campus, a former U.S. Navy installation. Ted Shackley, a rising CIA star, was in charge as station chief from early 1962 through mid-1965. Some 300-to-400 agents toiled under Shackley's leadership, making JMWAVE the largest CIA station in the world after the headquarters in Langley, Va.

With its estimated $50 million a year budget in 1960s dollars, the CIA station's economic impact on South Florida was tremendous. CIA front companies numbered ''maybe 300 or 400 at one time or another . . . we had three or four people working on real estate to manage those companies designed to hold properties,'' said Shackley. ''We could only use properties for short periods of time. We couldn't stay in any one place very long.'' The properties included marinas, hunting camps, merchant shipping, airlines, a motel, leasing and transportation firms, exile-operated publishing outfits, ''safe houses'' strung throughout the area and, of course, Zenith Technical Enterprises. The station itself had more than a hundred cars under lease. It ran the third largest navy in the Caribbean, after the United States and Cuba. Shackley estimated there were up to 15,000 Cubans "connected to us in one way or another.''

The tenor of the times and the threat next door contributed to a tolerant and even cooperative atmosphere by South Florida residents toward JMWAVE activities. ''There was, first and foremost, a great deal of patriotism in South Florida,'' recalled Shackley. "When we needed things, we were dealing with people who had a memory of the Korean War and World War II. There was a strong anti-Castro feeling among Americans. And the influx of Cubans in late 1961 and early 1962 were the cream. What's important to understand is that it made it easy to work in that environment, a pro-government environment. I can't remember going to a businessman and asking him for cooperation who was not pleased to cooperate with the government and help.''

When authors David Wise and Thomas B. Ross blew the Zenith cover and identified it as a CIA front in the June 16, 1964, edition of Look magazine, the agency promptly changed the station's cover name to Melmar Corporation and went about business as usual from the same location.

'GOOD TENANT'

Gene Cohen, University of Miami vice president and treasurer at the time, denied knowing that Zenith was a CIA cover. ''As far as we're concerned, the university is leasing space to an organization we consider a good tenant which pays rent promptly,'' said Cohen. ''There's nothing to indicate a connection with the CIA.'' As the still nave young reporter who spoke with Cohen and wrote the story appearing in The Miami Herald, the author's typed notes show that Cohen added ''off the record'' that it probably wouldn't have made any difference if the university did know Zenith was a CIA operation since ''we're all on the same side,'' reflecting a near universal South Florida attitude at the time.

Maybe Cohen didn't know, but University President Henry King Stanford certainly did, said Shackley. "He knew who we were and what we were doing. I would meet him occasionally but only when we had a problem. I didn't see him often.''

While JMWAVE was by far the biggest, it was neither the first nor the only CIA presence in Miami. That distinction belonged to Justin F. ''Jay'' Gleichauf, who arrived shortly after Cuban dictator Fulgencio Batista fled into exile on New Year's Day of 1959. Gleichauf told his story more than 40 years later in an unclassified CIA publication. ''I had no inkling [when Batista fell] that within two weeks I would be in Miami as head -- and sole staffer -- of a newly authorized office of the Domestic Contacts Division in the Directorate of Intelligence,'' he wrote.

Gleichauf opened an overt CIA office at 299 Alhambra Circle in Coral Gables. Its basic function was to be a Cuba ''listening post.'' To aid his effort, Gleichauf listed a CIA number -- but no address -- in the phone book and passed out business cards with his home number, resulting in calls from ''a motley collection of weirdos'' as well as some irate Castro supporters.

There was ''something like 700 exile groups,'' recalled Gleichauf. "One guy was head of something called AAA, and claimed they had 5,000 men under arms. They were ready to go as soon as they got the green light, . . . [they] made a lot of promises. It turned out to be completely ineffectual. It was all bull. The green light was money. It was a racket, one guy and his brother-in-law, and existed only on paper.''

From his arrival in January 1959, Gleichauf did double duty for the CIA on the overt and covert side until the spring of 1960, when President Eisenhower authorized the operation that evolved into the Bay of Pigs. Shortly after the authorization, a CIA colleague from the Clandestine Service joined him in Miami to open the Western Hemisphere Division's new Forward Operating Base (FOB). His duties were to coordinate ''all support, training and preparatory activities for operations against Cuba,'' according to a heavily censored and undated CIA review of the Miami Station declassified in 1995.

Bob Reynolds arrived to head the covert office in September 1960 and left a year later. The office, too, was initially in Coral Gables with ''very thin cover,'' although Reynolds said he did not recall the address nor did he think it was then named JMWAVE.

COVERT OFFICE MOVED

By the time Reynolds departed Miami in the fall of 1961, the Bay of Pigs had failed, with planning for a new covert campaign against Castro already underway. Before his departure, Reynolds said he arranged to relocate the covert office from Coral Gables to the old Richmond Naval Air Station, the University of Miami's secluded South Campus.

Shackley left Miami in June 1965, after beginning the scale-down of what had been the frontline command post for the secret war. A further substantial cutback and reorganization of JMWAVE was underway by late 1966. ''Many covert entities were terminated and personnel reassigned,'' according to the Miami Station review.

By early 1968, "it became apparent that as a result of sustained operational activity in the Miami area over a period of years the cover of the Miami Station had eroded to a point that the security of our operations was increasingly jeopardized.''

The decision was made to deactivate JMWAVE and replace it with a smaller operation ''which would be better able to respond to current needs.'' By then, CIA personnel at the station -- still operating under commercial cover -- had been reduced from a peak of some 400 to 150.

The new station began operation, this time under official cover with about 50 persons, in August 1968 at a U.S. Coast Guard facility in what then was described as a ''run-down'' part of Miami Beach.

Q&A with Don Bohning

Herald: The book focuses on Operation Mongoose. What was that?

Don Bohning: It was a post-Bay of Pigs covert program to get rid of Castro, officially approved by President Kennedy Nov. 3, 1961. It was not an exclusive CIA operation, and included the Departments of Defense, Justice and Treasury and the U.S. Information Agency. Its nominal chief was Gen. Edward Lansdale, but Bobby Kennedy was the real director. Mongoose effectively ended a year later with the Cuban missile crisis.

Herald: Why was that an important period?

DB: First, the atmospherics that accompanied Mongoose contributed to the Soviet decision to install missiles in Cuba, fearing another U.S. invasion. And second, because in order to resolve the missile crisis, Kennedy gave Moscow a no-invasion-of-Cuba pledge.

Herald: What impact did it have on Miami?

DB: Several, among them a considerable economic impact. The CIA station at the UM South Campus at the time grew to be the largest in the world, outside the agency's Langley headquarters.

Herald: What impact did it have on Cuba?

DB: There is no doubt that, first, the Bay of Pigs, and then Mongoose, helped consolidate Castro's control of Cuba.

Herald: What lessons from that period could the U.S. government apply to the current situation with Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez?

DB: I would say don't jump to conclusions, although in the case of Castro there was probably more reason to be worried about Fidel because by late 1959 he was clearly allied with the Soviet Bloc. Today there is no Soviet Bloc or Cold War, so Chávez is more of a nuisance than a threat.

Herald: After Mongoose the CIA was perceived as a rogue agency, out there trying to kill Castro with Mafia hit men and exploding cigars. Do you think that in 10-20 years we'll see the CIA accused of rogue actions in the war on terror?

DB: This question reflects a widely held but, I think, erroneous view of the CIA's actions at the time. Anybody who has read the documents and interviewed many of the people involved will see that the CIA was carrying out the general policies of Eisenhower and Kennedy to get rid of Castro.

The possible exceptions are the various assassination plots against Fidel, which span more than the Mongoose period. While there is no evidence that either Eisenhower or the Kennedy brothers had knowledge of the plots, most CIA people I spoke with were convinced that Bobby, at least, knew about and encouraged them while maintaining "plausible deniability.''

As for the CIA being accused down the road of running rogue operations in the fight against terrorists, I would doubt it since it's already quite evident that the CIA is and has been doing what the administration ''neo-cons'' want done.

Spanish government speaks to Cuban exiles

Oscar Corral, March 21, 2005.

Former Spanish Prime Minister José María Aznar made headlines last week when he criticized Spain's government for cozying up to Cuba's Fidel Castro and Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez.

But in a quiet blitz, representatives of Spanish Prime Minister José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero also fanned out across Miami to explain their Cuba views to exile organizations, said Alfredo Mesa, executive director of the Cuban American National Foundation.

On Wednesday, shortly after Aznar met with CANF Chairman Jorge Mas Santos, CANF met with officials of Zapatero's socialist government.

''Aznar has a strong track record of advocacy and action in favor of the dissidents and in favor of the freedom of Cuba,'' Mesa said. "We need to wait and see what comes out of the Zapatero government.''

Castro gives upbeat portrayal of future

Cuban leader Fidel Castro warned compatriots against the black market and said better times are ahead.

By Nancy San Martin, nsanmartin@herald.com. Posted on Fri, Mar. 18, 2005.

In a highly anticipated speech, Cuban leader Fidel Castro on Thursday again spoke against corruption, reminding citizens the socialist state was reining in control and promising it would respond to basic needs of the population.

Reflecting continuing reports of an economic strengthening and the weakening of the U.S. dollar on the island, Castro said the Cuban peso would strengthen today from 27 to 25 to the dollar. The increase -- a 7 percent gain by the peso -- is the first since 2001.

''With this measure, we move in the strategic direction of strengthening the national currency and continue to boost the extraordinary confidence of our population,'' Castro told a large audience of Communist Party leaders, military and Interior Ministry officials and members of the federation of Cuban women.

''The currency of a Third-World country, a blockaded country, begins its upward journey and will go, in a consistent manner, as far as it's necessary,'' said Castro, 78. ". . . The fate of the empire's currency is to devalue; the fate of the currency of Cuba, the blockaded country, the currency of the revolution, is to gain in value.''

During much of the nearly three-hour address, aired live on Cuban television and radio, Castro stressed a need to rid the country of the black market, saying illegal sales compromised a system meant to benefit all Cubans.

''We must do away with the scheming,'' Castro warned. "We have the most just cause, the best [political] system and we are squandering it. . . . The state has to guard and educate.''

Castro also said an energy shortage that has triggered lengthy and frequent blackouts would be remedied by early next year. ''There will be no shortage of electricity,'' Castro told a crowd estimated at about 2,000. "By the first quarter of next year, you can all sleep peacefully.''

But even as he promised better times, Castro said patience was needed.

''Let's not create illusions. Let things mature,'' he said. "Trust, trust the country; it has a serious perspective.''

Herald translator Renato Pérez contributed to this report.

Aznar condemns Spain's foreign ties

A former Spanish prime minister says his nation is too close with Cuba and Venezuela -- countries he says are exporting trouble in Latin America.

By Oscar Corral, ocorral@herald.com. Posted on Thu, Mar. 17, 2005.

Former Spanish Prime Minister José María Aznar said Wednesday that his country's government was practicing ''irresponsible'' foreign policy, citing the coziness Spain is fostering with Cuba and Venezuela.

Aznar said that under his administration, Spain stood proudly with the two strongest democracies in the world, the United States and Great Britain. And now, he said, Spain stands with Cuba and Venezuela, countries he called bedfellows in exporting trouble throughout Latin America.

Aznar made his statements in a meeting with The Herald's editorial board Wednesday morning.

'I was in Mexico last week, and I told them, 'you and I have a right to be free; why deny that right to Cubans?' '' Aznar said.

"I'll keep saying it all the time. I don't care if Castro insults me every day.''

He said he finds the close alliance between Castro and Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez troubling because they seem to be causing problems in Latin American countries such as Colombia and Bolivia. He mentioned Chavez's use of oil money to cause the problems, but did not elaborate on that statement.

He said Spain and the European Union should not forge closer ties to Cuba because only Cuba will benefit, and nothing will change while Castro is in power.

Aznar distanced Spain diplomatically from Cuba after Castro's government jailed 75 dissidents in 2003.

He said he supported Cuban dissidents who are planning an assembly to promote civil society in Cuba May 20, but joked that he wasn't planning on attending because he didn't think the Cuban government would be very welcoming.

In other remarks, Aznar said the new Spanish government, which beat his party last year just days after the March 11 railroad bombing, has not been able to answer key questions about the bombing. He said Spain remains vulnerable to terrorism.

''We still don't know who ordered the bombing, who mounted the bombs on the trains, who bought the explosives,'' Aznar said. "There are countries that owe information to Spain.''

Aznar did not give details, but said Spain needed to continue to investigate the bombing.

Twin drives put focus on dissidents

Members of Congress and a group of famous Latin American writers are trying to raise awareness of the struggles for Cuban dissidents.

By Ambar Hernandez And Pablo Bachelet, pbachelet@herald.com. Posted on Thu, Mar. 17, 2005.

WASHINGTON - Highlighting the plight of Cuban dissidents, members of Congress launched an ''Adopt a Cuban Political Prisoner'' campaign Wednesday while famous Latin American writers urged Cuban President Fidel Castro to free 28 jailed journalists.

Both moves came as the U.S. and Cuban governments prepare for their annual clash over Havana's human rights record at the spring meeting in Geneva of the U.N. Human Rights Commission.

They also marked the two-year anniversary of a massive crackdown on Cuban dissidents that sent 75 of them to prison for up to 28 years after one- or two-day trials.

A letter from Latin American authors and journalists called Cuba ''one of the world's leading jailers of journalists'' and urged Castro to release the 23 journalists still in prison -- six jailed in 2003 were later freed for medical reasons -- and "respect international law by allowing journalists to work freely, without fear of reprisal.''

Among the 108 signers from 18 Latin American countries were Mexican author Carlos Fuentes, Venezuelan newspaper editor and former leftist guerrilla Teodoro Petkoff and Argentine writer Tomás Eloy Martínez.

The letter, organized by the New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists, said a reading of trial documents showed the journalists had worked "within the parameters of the legitimate exercise of free expression established under international human rights standards.''

At the same time, Cuban-American and other members of Congress, together with the Washington-based Center for a Free Cuba, launched a campaign to focus public opinion on jailed Castro opponents by ''adopting,'' one of them.

The group will urge other lawmakers to wear buttons with photos of imprisoned dissidents and publicize their plight in their home states -- and even in Cuba -- if they or their staffers travel there.

''I'm hoping we can have many members of Congress come on the bandwagon, adopt a political prisoner,'' said Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, a Miami Republican, at an event launching the campaign.

The full text of the letter appears on page 27A

U.S. Cuba trade expert quits

A leading expert on trade with Cuba resigned out of frustration with what he called opportunists in both countries.

By Nancy San Martin And Juan O. Tamayo, nsanmartin@herald.com. Posted on Wed, Mar. 16, 2005.

WASHINGTON - A top expert on U.S.-Cuba trade announced Tuesday that he had resigned, saying he was ''tired'' of dealing with the Cuban and U.S. governments, careless journalists and "two-bit hustlers.''

''I don't care what conclusions people draw; I would just like them to use accurate information,'' said John Kavulich, head of the New York-based U.S.-Cuba Trade and Economic Council (USCTEC). "Integrity, accuracy, ethics seem to be increasingly less important.''

Kavulich and USCTEC have been regarded as the leading experts on U.S trade with Cuba and the Cuban economy since it was established in 1994. Its members are largely major U.S. companies exploring business opportunities in Cuba.

In a USCTEC report to members Tuesday, Kavulich wrote that the final reason for resigning as president was the death in August 2003 of his father in upstate New York.

But Kavulich had been hinting at a resignation long before, privately admitting his growing frustration with a Cuban government that he believed was not interested in free and fair trade but more bent on using the lure of trade to force U.S. companies to lobby for policy changes in Washington. Cuban officials repeatedly refused him visas to travel to the island, and even his last visit in 2002 for a trade show of U.S producers he helped organize was controversial.

''Since 2002, I had struggled with maintaining interest, frustrated with conflict, heartfelt toward certain individuals,'' Kavulich wrote in his resignation letter.

Cuban purchases of American agricultural products have soared since a change in U.S. law in 2001 allowed American firms to sell agricultural products to Havana, totaling $392 million last year alone.

But Kavulich's USCTEC reports regularly pointed out Havana's increasing practice of requiring its U.S. business partners to sign letters promising to lobby against the U.S. trade embargo. At the same time several new U.S. groups popped up to take what the USCTEC reports portrayed as unscrupulous advantage of the new openings for trade with Cuba -- the groups that Kavulich's letter called "two bit hustlers.''

Kavulich's reports also repeatedly complained about media reports that contained erroneous information on Cuba or misstated U.S. policies on Havana -- and challenged others that simply reported Cuban government economic figures at face value and with little questioning.

Compared to those frustrations, his reports on Clinton and Bush administration policies toward Cuba focused largely on politically driven measures and bureaucracies that made trade more difficult.

Ex-Spanish leader blasts Cuba, Venezuela ties

By Oscar Corral, ocorral@herald.com. Posted on Wed, Mar. 16, 2005.

Former Spanish leader blasts his nation's coziness with Cuba, Venezuela

Former Spanish President Jose Maria Aznar said Wednesday that his country's government was practicing ''irresponsible'' foreign policy, citing the coziness Spain is fostering with Cuba and Venezuela.

Aznar said that under his administration, Spain stood proudly with the two strongest democracies in the world, the United States and Great Britain. And now, he said, Spain stands with Cuba and Venezuela, countries he called bedfellows in exporting trouble throughout Latin America.

Aznar made his statements in a meeting with the Herald's editorial board Wednesday morning.

''I was in Mexico last week, and I told them you and I have a right to be free, why deny that right to Cubans?'' Aznar said. "I'll keep saying it all the time, I don't care if Castro insults me every day.''

He said he finds the close alliance between Castro and Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez troubling because they seem to be exporting trouble to Latin American countries such as Colombia and Bolivia.

He said Spain and the European Union should not forge closer ties to Cuba because only Cuba will benefit, and nothing will change while Castro is in power. Aznar distanced Spain diplomatically from Cuba after Castro's government jailed 75 dissidents in 2003.

He said he supported Cuban dissidents who are planning an assembly to promote civil society in Cuba May 20, but joked that he wasn't planning on attending because he didn't think the Cuban government would be very welcoming.

In other remarks, Aznar said the new Spanish government, which beat his party last year just days after the March 11 railroad bombing, has not been able to answer key questions about the bombing. He said Spain remains vulnerable to terrorism.

''We still don't know who ordered the bombing, who mounted the bombs on the trains, who bought the explosives,'' Aznar said. "There are countries that owe information to Spain.''

Aznar did not give details, but said Spain needed to continue to investigate the bombing, no matter what country it might lead to.

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