CUBA NEWS
The Miami Herald

Castro foes outline reform vision

Cuban dissidents who participated in a historic two-day gathering in Havana adopted a resolution on democratic reforms and vowed to continue a peaceful struggle for change.

By Nancy San Martin, nsanmartin@herald.com. Posted on Mon, May. 23, 2005.

A resolution adopted by Cuban dissidents who participated in an unprecedented and undisturbed two-day gathering in Havana labeled Fidel Castro's government ''Stalinist'' and called for the return of ''democratic traditions'' in the communist-ruled island.

The 10-point resolution, according to a transcript released Sunday, covered a wide spectrum of issues -- from calls for the release of political prisoners to unity within the island's dissident movement, which has been divided over how best to pursue the goal of a future democratic society.

The Cuban government Sunday did not respond to the resolution.

Some Cuban exiles in South Florida were pleased.

Ninoska Pérez Castellón, a radio personality and founder of the group Cuba Liberty Council, said adopting the resolution shows dissidents are in line with Miami's exile community.

''It's a wonderful thing they grabbed onto a piece of democracy, the fact that so many things they advocated for in the document are things the exiles have been asking for for a long time,'' she said. "It is a demonstration that the exiles in Miami are no different than the dissidents in Cuba -- and they're a reflection of the Cuban people.''

Former Réplica magazine editor Max Lesnick, who now works for Radio Miami, said the Cuban government may have no choice but to recognize the dissidents' work, assuming the resolution is seen by the nation's general assembly.

''It's a great way to install some kind of legal procedure,'' he said. "This is a good start. Even if they just pretend to legalize the opposition, at least they're opening up a legal channel.''

In a secret ballot, delegates also chose a 36-member board headed by the assembly's three primary organizers and prominent dissidents, economist Martha Beatriz Roque, lawyer René Gómez Manzano and engineer Félix Bonne.

The resolution, read out loud by Roque, was met with cheers of ''Bravo'' and chants of ''Cuba libre'' and ''For Cuba, the time has come,'' according to a live broadcast aired by the U.S.-funded Radio Martí Saturday night and made available Sunday through the assembly's Support and Information Center in Miami.

'A NEW DAY'

''Everybody is very enthusiastic; there is an extraordinary feeling of accomplishment,'' said Sylvia Iriondo, one of the Miami exiles supporting the Havana assembly. "This marks a new day in the struggle for a free and democratic Cuba.''

The assembly attended by about 200 people was carried out -- for the first time under Castro's 46-year grip -- without incident or obvious police presence. However, about a dozen foreign observers, primarily European legislators and journalists, who had planned to attend the event were either refused entry or expelled from the country. President Bush sent a taped message to the group stating that the United States would stand by their ''struggle for the freedom'' of their country.

The resolution called for the immediate and unconditional release of all political prisoners still behind bars, estimated at more than 300, and frowned on the arrest of any new citizens simply for the "mere fact of peacefully expressing their discrepancies with the ruling system.''

A 'STALINIST' SYSTEM

Participants also called for the openness in the one-party system, the abolition of the death penalty and economic reforms. In a strongly worded statement, the resolution proclaimed Cuba's government as a ''Stalinist'' model that constitutes a "totalitarian and essentially anti-democratic regime.''

The resolution further demanded the return to the ''democratic traditions'' of the country, ''pluralism for political parties, programs, political ideologies and candidates'' and called for the recognition of exiles "as members of the Cuban nation.''

On the death penalty, the resolution denounced all applications of the death penalty from the ''summary executions'' that began on Jan. 1, 1959 (when Castro took power) to those carried out in March 2003 against three Cuban men who tried to hijack a boat to flee the island.

The resolution also blamed the country's economic woes on policies adopted by a government for which ''politics are more important than the economy.'' The resolution stated that increased foreign investment was crucial to sustain development, increase purchasing power and move exports. It also said that government's recent policy of distributing rice and cookware to Cubans rendered the population dependent and impoverished and enabled the government to "manipulate the masses.''

The document also called on the government to show it is serious about cooperating on the global war on terror by expelling members of ETA, a Basque guerrilla group, ''and any other foreign terrorists who have found refuge'' in Cuba, including U.S. fugitives.

The government also should publicly apologize to families of those killed during the sinking of the 13 de Marzo tugboat in 1994 and the Brothers to the Rescue pilots shot down by Cuban MiGs in 1996, the resolution stated.

Assembly participants pledged to continue fostering an inclusive coalition and respecting dissenting views. They also vowed to pursue goals under the belief that ''The Homeland Belongs to All,'' a reference to a seething critique released by dissidents in 1997, and a newly added principle: "We will open the door.''

Herald staff writer Charles Rabin contributed to this report.

Dissidents' Havana organizing proceeds, undisturbed

Cuban groups agitating for democracy entered the second and final day of an assembly in Havana, with many people surprised that the government didn't break up the meeting.

By Andrea Rodriguez, Associated Press. Posted on Sun, May 22, 2005.

HAVANA - Diverse dissident groups debated prodemocracy projects Saturday, the second and last day of a rare mass opposition meeting marked by the conspicuous absence of several key opponents and the government's expulsion of European observers from the country.

''We are satisfied that each and every one of us has fulfilled our duty to our nation,'' said Martha Beatriz Roque, a former political prisoner and lead organizer of the Assembly for the Promotion of Civil Society.

About 200 people were present -- a little more than half of them delegates -- when the general assembly opened Friday in the backyard of another lead organizer and veteran dissident, Felix Bonne. With diplomats and other guests absent Saturday, the crowd was closer to about 100.

Many were surprised that the communist government of Fidel Castro did not break up the meeting. Authorities here refer to the dissidents as ''mercenaries'' and counterrevolutionaries.''

Castro himself in recent days hinted that the government would have an ''energetic'' response for assembly members.

Broken down into commissions on Saturday, the dissidents approved bylaws, were selecting officers and examining projects dealing with subjects such as freedom of expression.

At least a dozen Europeans who hoped to be observers were expelled by Cuban authorities before the event began. Those expelled were a Czech senator, a German lawmaker, six Poles, three Spanish politicians and an Italian journalist. In addition, two Polish lawmakers and a representative of a Miami-based Cuban exile group were refused entry into the country.

In the aftermath of the expulsions, lawmakers from Spain, Italy and Germany on Saturday called on their governments to adopt a tougher line on Cuba.

Meanwhile, several key dissident leaders -- including Oswaldo Payá, organizer of the internationally known Varela Project signature effort -- stayed away from the gathering, which they maintain does not represent the majority of the opposition.

Roque and Payá in particular have been at odds for years.

Among those at Friday's session was James Cason, the U.S. Interests Section's chief.

'A triumph' in Cuba as dissidents gather

Cuban dissidents held a remarkable gathering in Havana with little disruption from the communist government.

By Nancy San Martin, nsanmartin@herald.com. Posted on Sat, May. 21, 2005.

In what organizers are describing as the largest and most public gathering of Cuban dissidents since Fidel Castro seized power in 1959, a much anticipated reunion was not disrupted by the communist government Friday.

About 200 government opponents and other invited guests had an all-day gathering in Havana even as several Europeans who planned to attend, including diplomats and journalists, were swiftly detained and kicked off the island.

The unprecedented reunion of the Assembly to Promote Civil Society was deemed a success by organizers and supporters, including a personal message sent by President Bush. The two-day conference, which ends today, was organized to join government opponents on and off the island and sketch out ideas for a future democratic society.

''There will be a before and after for May 20 in Cuba,'' Martha Beatriz Roque, one of the main organizers, told reporters in Havana. ''This is a triumph for all the opposition.'' May 20 is Cuba's independence day.

Miami exiles monitoring events in Havana also were pleased with the large turnout.

''This is extraordinary,'' said human rights activist Sylvia Iriondo. "This gathering is no longer a dream, it is a reality. It represents the will of the Cuban people.''

But even as Castro opponents declared victory, the event faced some obstacles.

By the time the assembly got started Friday morning, authorities had refused entry to two Polish lawmakers, deported two other lawmakers, detained half a dozen foreign visitors and harassed several would-be participants. Various delegates from Cuba's interior were summoned to police stations for unspecified interviews, precluding them from attending the conference. Others on the Isle of Youth were told they could not travel to Havana. Cuban officials did not issue a public statement on Friday about the meeting, but Castro has accused organizers of being U.S. mercenaries and warned of repercussions.

MESSAGE FROM BUSH

In a videotaped message played at the Havana conference, Bush said:

''I have a message to those assembling today to protest oppression in Cuba: As you struggle for the freedom of your country, the American people stand with you,'' Bush said, according to a transcript released by the White House. "The tide of freedom is spreading across the globe -- and one day soon, it will reach Cuban shores.''

''No tyrant can stand forever against the power of liberty because the hope of freedom is found in every heart,'' Bush said. "We are confident that Cuba será libre pronto.''

The message was greeted with cheers and some shouts of "Viva Bush!''

In Washington, Bush also met with several Cuban-American leaders and former Cuban political prisoners to discuss pro-democracy efforts in Cuba.

HAVEL VISIT REJECTED

Among the foreign visitors targeted by Cuban authorities were: German lawmaker Arnold Vaatz and Czech Senator Karel Schwarzenberg, a chancellor under former Czech President Vaclav Havel, who also was invited to attend but did not receive permission from the Cuban government for entry. Three Polish journalists, a human rights worker and two academics also were booted out of the country, Poland's Foreign Ministry said.

Polish European Parliament members Boguslav Sonik and Jacek Protasiewicz were denied entry upon arrival at the airport, as was a representative from the Miami-based Cuban American National Foundation.

CANF executive director Alfredo Mesa said their New Jersey member, Teresa Cruz, was detained upon arrival at the Havana airport Thursday and interrogated for five hours before authorities put her back on a U.S.-bound plane.

The government's actions provoked outcries from Poland, Germany and a European Union representative. Italy also protested the reported detention of an Italian journalist.

Further emboldening their defiance, assembly participants opened the event with the Cuban national anthem and chants of ''¡Libertad!'' ("Freedom!'').

The event was held on a plot of land in a Havana suburb that belongs to fellow organizer Félix Bonne. The outdoor site was decorated with Cuban flags and several banners with strong words: ''The fatherland belongs to everyone,'' stated one banner, according to Agence France-Presse. No uniformed Cuban police presence was reported.

''Let's open the door,'' read another. A third stated, "It's about time for Cuba.''

About half of the participants were delegates from opposition groups from across the island. The rest were composed of international journalists, foreign diplomats stationed in Havana and other guests. Cuba's state-run media did not acknowledge the event or report on the expulsions.

Among the dignitaries were representatives of the Czech Republic, the Netherlands and James Cason, chief of the U.S. Interests Section, whom Castro has accused of financing the dissidents and instigating anti-revolutionary acts.

''This is an exercise in grass-roots democracy,'' Cason said in Havana. "This is about Cubans discussing, in their own country, their own future.''

Coll pleads guilty to lying

Alberto R. Coll pleaded guilty to claiming he was visiting a sick aunt in Cuba, when he really was visiting a 'girlfriend.'

By Nancy San Martin, nsanmartin@herald.com. Posted on Wed, May. 25, 2005.

WASHINGTON - A former top Defense Department official born in Cuba has pleaded guilty to lying about his visit to the island last year, having told U.S. officials that he was visiting a sick aunt when he really went to see a woman his lawyer described as a "girlfriend.''

Alberto R. Coll, a longtime specialist on U.S.-Cuba relations, had his security clearance temporarily suspended at the Naval War College in Newport, R.I., where he serves as chairman of the strategic research department.

''His security clearance is not revoked but his access to classified information has been suspended for the time being,'' Susan Haeg, a spokeswoman at the college told The Herald on Tuesday. "This is a matter between him and the district attorney. We're not going to make any decisions until this matter takes its course.''

Coll is charged with making ''false statements to representatives of the U.S. Department of State and the U.S. Department of Defense concerning the purpose of a proposed visit to the nation of Cuba,'' according to court documents.

He faces a maximum penalty of five years in prison and a fine of $250,000. Sentencing is scheduled for June 7.

Reached at his office Tuesday, Coll said: "I'm sorry that I broke the law. It was a lapse of judgment on my part.''

In paperwork submitted before his January 2004 trip to Cuba, Coll stated that he was visiting an aunt. But during a meeting at the Navy War College after his return, he told officials that he had gone to Cuba to see a woman, said his attorney, Francis Flanagan.

Flanagan described the woman as someone Coll has known since his childhood, though he acknowledged that the relationship became romantic after she provided Coll with ''a shoulder to cry on.'' The lawyer called her a "girlfriend.''

Flanagan said Coll's trip to his homeland came six months after his teenage daughter was killed in a car accident: ''He was bereaved. He was not thinking properly when he filled out the paperwork,'' the lawyer said.

The Coll case, first reported by El Nuevo Herald, raised speculation among some in Miami's exile community that Coll was somehow connected to espionage -- an assertion that both Coll and his attorney denied.

''I am deeply upset and disappointed by slanderous insinuations that this is more than a travel violation,'' said Coll, who has made other trips to Havana over the years.

Coll was sent to the United States by his family in 1968 when he was 12. He is now 49. His father is a former political prisoner who spent nine years in Cuban prisons.

In 1990, President George H.W. Bush appointed him to serve as deputy assistant secretary of defense for special operations and low-intensity conflicts, under then-Defense Secretary Dick Cheney. He left in 1993 for the war college.

Haeg, the spokeswoman, declined to discuss Coll's future at the

war college. As part of his guilty plea, Coll agreed not to ''seek, apply for or obtain any employment position within the . . . government in which he has access to classified information,'' according to court documents.

Group urges Raúl Castro charges

A Cuban exile group is offering to donate $1 million to an effort to indict Cuban Defense Minister Raúl Castro.

By Luisa Yanez. lyanez@herald.com. Posted on Wed, May. 25, 2005.

A Cuban exile group wants the U.S. government to indict Raúl Castro -- Cuban defense minister and Fidel Castro's brother and designated successor. But José Basulto, head of Brothers to the Rescue, is going a step further: He says he'll donate a fortune to see it happen.

On Tuesday, Basulto pledged $1 million for legal costs and information leading to the indictment of the younger Castro for the 1996 shooting down by Cuban MiGs of two Brothers planes in which four fliers died.

''The time for this action has arrived,'' Basulto said during an afternoon news conference at Opa-locka Airport, the place from which his rescue planes once flew to search for rafters.

Basulto's purpose is twofold: He wants justice for the murder of the fliers. The group believes the Castro brothers gave the deadly orders to the MiG pilots.

And he wants to help end a dynasty. Fidel Castro, who is 78, has said his brother will take over when he dies. Raúl is five years younger. By discrediting Raúl Castro, the Castro brothers' reign on Cuba will be endangered, Basulto hopes.

''This would make it impossible for the U.S. to recognize Raúl Castro as a legitimate future head of state, worthy of recognition or any kind of U.S. financial support,'' Basulto said.

PREVIOUS PROPOSAL

It's not the first time Raúl Castro's name has been linked to a possible U.S. legal action.

In April 1993, The Herald reported that federal prosecutors in Miami had drafted a proposed indictment charging the Cuban government as a racketeering enterprise and Raúl Castro as the chief of a 10-year conspiracy to send tons of Colombian cartel cocaine through Cuba to the United States.

Nothing came of the indictment. Flash forward a dozen years.

''We are here today to promote the indictment of Raúl Castro simply because it can be done,'' Basulto said, implying the White House could make it happen. "This is based entirely on a political decision whose time has come.''

To generate leads and interest, Basulto said the United States would have to release part of the money awarded to him from millions in frozen Cuban assets held in U.S. banks.

In January, Basulto won a $1.75 million federal judgment against the Cuban government for the MiG attack, which occurred in international airspace over the Florida Straits.

Once he gets the money, he said, it will be used to offer rewards for information and to pay for a team of attorneys.

''Getting the cash will be easier than getting the indictment,'' he said.

Basulto said the recent announcement by U.S. Attorney Marcos Jiménez that he will be stepping down in June did not play a role in his call for an indictment.

''It's just a coincidence that we're doing this now,'' he said.

Alicia Valle, special counsel to the U.S. attorney's office, had no comment on Basulto's statements.

Basulto said he's calling on other exile groups to join him in the ambitious plan. ''I'm asking them to join me; let's see what happens,'' he said.

LAWYER'S HELP

Former U.S. Attorney Guy Lewis, who practices law in Miami, said he is helping Basulto and the relatives of the other fliers in their effort bring those responsible to justice.

''Based on evidence in the public record, I think there is enough to prove that both Fidel Castro and Raúl Castro were involved in these conspiracies,'' Lewis said later, referring to both the Brothers shoot-down and the narcotics trafficking.

Basulto was also joined by a newly formed board of trustees, who will manage the ''Truth and Justice'' fund. They include local attorneys, a former federal prosecutor and the daughter of an American flier slain during the 1961 Bay of Pigs invasion.

Dissidents not at meeting still pleased it was allowed

Some Cuban dissidents who did not attend a rare mass opposition gathering applauded the event and were glad the government did not shut it down.

Posted on Tue, May. 24, 2005.

HAVANA - (AP) -- Several Cuban dissidents who did not participate in last week's rare mass opposition meeting said Monday they were nonetheless pleased the island's communist government allowed the event to take place.

'WITHOUT MISHAP'

Manuel Cuesta Morúa, a government opponent who did not attend the meeting because of ideological differences with organizers, sent a statement congratulating them for putting on a successful event "without mishap.''

About 200 people attended the Assembly for the Promotion of Civil Society on Friday when it opened in the back yard of veteran dissident Felix Bonne. The crowd was closer to 100 Saturday, when the event ended.

Many were surprised that Fidel Castro's government did not break up the meeting. Authorities here refer to the dissidents as ''mercenaries'' and counterrevolutionaries.''

''To not impede the celebration of this assembly is a step toward rationality, which should be encouraged among all those committed to Cuba,'' said Cuesta Morúa, spokesman for the dissident group Arco Progresista.

EXPULSIONS CRITICIZED

Eloy Gutiérrez-Menoyo, a moderate dissident who was not invited to the meeting, also applauded the event but said it was unfortunate that many international observers were not allowed to attend.

''The point of conflict was the expulsions,'' said Gutiérrez-Menoyo, a former exile now living in Cuba.

At least a dozen Europeans who hoped to be observers at the event were deported from Cuba before the assembly took place.

Event participants approved a declaration demanding the liberation of political prisoners in Cuba and calling for political and economic change.

Allegations against Posada grow

More information links detained Cuban exile militant Luis Posada Carriles to a 1976 meeting where a former U.S. prosecutor says a group of exiles discussed acts of terrorism.

By Oscar Corral And Alfonso Chardy, achardy@herald.com. Posted on Sun, May. 22, 2005.

A former U.S. prosecutor says he has information that Luis Posada Carriles was at a meeting in the Dominican Republic where Cuban exile militants discussed plans to bomb a Cuban plane.

The disclosure by former assistant U.S. attorney E. Lawrence Barcella Jr. could be used by Department of Homeland Security prosecutors to persuade an immigration judge to deny Posada asylum in the United States. Posada has been accused by Venezuelan authorities of blowing up a Cuban jetliner in 1976, killing 73 people.

It's one of many allegations that federal government prosecutors are gathering to advance their attempt to see Posada, who sneaked into the United States in March, expelled from the country.

Posada, now in U.S. custody, awaits an immigration hearing next month, where he is expected to renew his quest for asylum. Posada says Cuban agents are persecuting him for the purpose of abducting or killing him.

Barcella, who was lead prosecutor in the federal investigation of the assassination of former Chilean Foreign Minister Orlando Letelier, told The Herald on Friday that his probe had placed Posada at the June 1976 meeting in Bonao, a resort in the Dominican Republic. There, plans for anti-Castro terrorism -- including those to bomb a Cuban airliner and to target a leftist Chilean dissident were discussed by exile miitants, he said.

''Posada was an active participant'' in the gathering, where discussions focused on a number of potential acts aimed at hurting Cuban President Fidel Castro, Barcella said.

''Blowing up a plane was one of the activities,'' Barcella said. Posada has been tried twice -- and acquitted both times -- on charges that he masterminded the Oct. 6, 1976, bombing of a Cuban jetliner shortly after takeoff that killed 73 people.

Another item on the Bonao agenda, Barcella said, was providing exile militant help to Chilean military authorities in taking ''operational action'' against Letelier -- who was killed along with his American assistant, Ronni Moffitt, in a September 1976 car-bomb attack on Embassy Row in Washington. Letelier, viewed by Chilean military leaders as a Castro ally, had been foreign minister under President Salvador Allende who was overthrown by the military.

Barcella said he concluded that Posada had nothing to do with the Letelier assassination.

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement detained Posada on Tuesday as he prepared to flee the country after holding a news conference. The agency has indicated that it intends to deport the exile militant, although it has suggested that it would not send him to Cuba or Venezuela -- countries he has called home that now want to see him prosecuted.

Posada intends to seek political asylum in the United States -- opening the door for prosecutors from the Department of Homeland Security to try to block the request by offering evidence that he has a criminal past.

BOMBINGS IN CUBA

For example, Homeland Security prosecutors are already trying to develop evidence about a string of bombings at Cuban tourist spots in 1997. One of the bombings killed an Italian national. The government this month filed a subpoena seeking tapes from The New York Times of a 1998 interview in which Posada admitted a role in the bombings. The newspaper is seeking to quash the subpoena.

Barbara Gonzalez, an immigration agency spokeswoman in Miami, declined to comment on possible Homeland Security legal actions, and Barcella told The Herald that federal officials have not contacted him about Posada.

Nonetheless, as lawyers for the U.S. government and for Posada prepare their arguments, both sides expect the shadowy events of nearly 30 years ago -- including the Bonao meeting -- to come into sharper focus.

CONTRADICTIONS

Sorting out the picture won't be easy -- some accounts of the events of 1976 contradict one another.

For example, even though Posada told The Herald in a May 11 interview that he was not at the Bonao meeting, a fellow exile militant who was there -- Orlando Bosch -- has said Posada did attend one night.

However, Bosch has said the Bonao meeting had nothing to do with terrorism planning. And another exile militant interviewed by The Herald on Friday, Guillermo Novo, also denied that attacks were planned at Bonao. Both Bosch and Novo insist that the meeting was an attempt to unite exile groups in the anti-Castro cause.

''In Bonao, there were no agreements reached,'' Novo said. "There were no attacks planned.''

For his part, Posada told The Herald that he had never met Bosch until Bosch arrived in Venezuela in early September 1976.

Also, although he denied being at Bonao, Posada acknowledged to The Herald that he had heard in advance about an exile plan to attack a plane. But he noted that such a plan involved targeting a plane on the ground, not in midair with people aboard.

''Maybe they said they'd attack Cuban planes, but I never heard an exile group talk of blowing up a plane in the air,'' Posada said. "There was sabotage everywhere. One of the objectives of the groups was to bomb planes.''

That matches an account cited in a newly declassified FBI document from Oct. 9, 1976: ''The operation had not gone as planned because it was intended that the bomb should explode before the aircraft took off from Barbados,'' according to the document, which cites a confidential source. "The source stated that apparently the timing mechanism on the bomb had not been properly set.''

Another informant-based FBI document from November 1976 says: "The plane was to have been sabotaged on the ground, and not in the air.''

According to a secret State Department intelligence memo published Wednesday along with other documents by the private research group National Security Archive, an unnamed source quotes Posada as saying he had advance knowledge that an attack on a Cuban plane was imminent:

'Posada allegedly said, 'We are going to hit a Cuban airliner.' ''

THREE ATTACKS

After the Bonao meeting, at least three significant attacks occurred: the attempted kidnapping of the Cuban consul in Mexico's Yucatán Peninsula; the Cuban jetliner bombing; and the Letelier assassination.

Many of those accused of conspiring in those attacks have ties to Bonao or Posada. They now live in South Florida, and they also may be called to testify for or against Posada, according to U.S. government officials and Posada's lawyer, Eduardo Soto.

Bosch and Novo dispute the assertion that attacks were plotted at Bonao, and they say that the purpose of the meeting was to create an umbrella organization of anti-Castro groups known as CORU, a Spanish-language acronym for the United Revolutionary Command.

A once secret FBI document from 1977, also posted recently by the National Security Archive, described CORU as "composed of five anti-Castro terrorist organizations.''

Posada denied to The Herald that he ever joined CORU or any other militant group. He said he was too busy at his prosperous private investigative agency in Caracas, making up to $30,000 a month.

''The groups visited me in my business,'' Posada said. "But I've never been a member of any groups.''

Regardless, his ties to exile militants run deep.

Posada and Guillermo Novo spent four years together in a Panamanian jail as a result of allegations that they intended to assassinate Castro at a summit meeting there in 2000. They were freed by then-President Mireya Moscoso when she granted a pardon last year.

SEPARATE PATHS

After that, Novo returned to Miami and Posada went underground in Central America -- until he surfaced here in March.

Novo was prosecuted by Barcella in the 1976 Letelier assassination, but his conviction was overturned on appeal. He was retried and acquitted.

Novo, for one, said he supports Posada.

''I think he deserves asylum,'' Novo said. "He's been a patriot who has battled for the cause of a free Cuba. The ones classified by the State Department as terrorists is the Cuban government.''

But Barcella doesn't see it that way. Posada ''certainly fits my definition of a terrorist,'' he said. "We shouldn't be more or less sympathetic to whatever political agenda they might have.''

Lawyers discuss property issues in post-Castro era

Cuban-American lawyers are grappling with the contentious issue of how to deal with property the Cuban government confiscated from the families of exiles.

By Oscar Corral, ocorral@herald.com. Posted on Sun, May. 22, 2005.

KEY WEST - Just a day after dissidents in Cuba opened a historic meeting, Cuban Americans here discussed what could become one of the most controversial issues between exiles and Cubans on the island: confiscated property.

The Cuban American Bar Association held its annual meeting this weekend to show solidarity with dissidents and to discuss ways of bringing freedom to Cuba. But the property rights issue, with its complex ethical and moral implications, became one of the hottest topics.

Miami corporate lawyer Nicolas Gutierrez and Johns Hopkins University Economics Professor Ernesto Hernandez-Cata ignited the session by presenting different potential scenarios for the future of confiscated property in a post-Castro Cuba.

''Cuba is going to need a lot more new homes,'' Gutierrez said, only half-jokingly, when riffing on Cuban-Americans who will go to Cuba seeking to reclaim property where other families may now be living.

''Some mix of a restitution and compensation model will be necessary,'' he said. "What the Cuban nation decides on property will affect all Cubans.''

TRANSITION CHALLENGE

Hernandez said a transitional government in Cuba will have to deal with property rights because foreign nationals and companies ''will not invest one cent in Cuba'' unless the property rights issues are dealt with.

Gutierrez said he already has several Cuban-American clients who either want their confiscated Cuban properties returned or want to be properly compensated for them.

Restitution could take many shapes.

Gutierrez highlighted the Czech Republic, where people who wanted their properties returned after the fall of the Berlin Wall had to become Czech residents.

Another idea: the Cuban government can let Cubans continue living in homes that are being claimed by Cuban Americans, but force them to pay a stabilized rent to the claimants for a certain period of time.

For years, the Cuban government has tried to instill fear in its people by telling them that if Cuban Americans had their way, they would return to Cuba immediately for their properties and start kicking people out of their homes.

CABA members made it clear that any future dealings with confiscated properties would take into utmost consideration current tenants.

Class-action lawsuits against former Nazi collaborators in Europe may provide international precedent for the return or compensation for property in Cuba in the future, Gutierrez said.

Of course, all of this depends on the eventual formation of a new government in Cuba that would be willing to negotiate with Cuban Americans and other former property owners on this issue.

EMOTIONAL SUBJECT

Miami Lawyer Luis Suarez, a member of CABA and an international law litigator, said the issue of confiscated property presents ''very conflicting emotions'' for Cubans here and on the island.

''If you're a Cuban who is living in a home in Cuba, you're obviously very scared,'' he said. "If you're us, you're looking at it as a moral and ethical issue.''

The CABA conference, which was held at the San Carlos Institute on Duval Street, drew young up-and-comers as well as big names in Cuban-American issues. Among them: El Nuevo Herald Publisher Humberto Castelló, who was keynote speaker, and former Cuban American National Foundation director Joe Garcia.

''The principal message from this conference should be one of freedom through laws,'' Miami lawyer Rafael Peñalver said. "It's about bringing freedom to Cuba, not getting property back.''

Victims of distant conflict form ties with Cuban exiles

Six Moroccans -- former prisoners of a leftist insurgency backed by Fidel Castro -- visited Miami this week to meet with Cuban exiles and share experiences of struggle.

By David Ovalle, dovalle@herald.com. Posted on Sat, May. 21, 2005.

The 55-year-old man in the blue blazer was tearful at talk of simple pleasures: using a razor to shave his face; accepting an icy bottle of water from a stranger.

Beneath the blazer he wore a crisp white shirt. He always wears white.

''White,'' said Ali El Jaohar. "As revenge for the dirt of the past.''

A former Moroccan infantry officer, Jaohar spent 24 years as a prisoner of war held by the Marxist insurgency the Polisario -- a rebel group once backed in part by Cuba's Fidel Castro.

He and several other ex-POWS of that faraway conflict in the Western Sahara this week visited former Cuban political prisoners in South Florida, sharing experiences of suffering and struggle.

On Thursday, the former POWs sat in a circle with exile leaders and Cuban ex-prisoners at the Miami office of the Civil Society of Cuba.

The more they spoke, the more they seemed to slump under the weight of remembrance about the agonies of prison. The Cuban ex-prisoners nodded and shared their stories as well.

''They were political prisoners. We have a lot of common ground,'' said Ana Carbonell, an aide to U.S. Rep. Lincoln Díaz-Balart, R-Miami.

The dispute over the Western Sahara is little known in the United States.

It began when Morocco took over a huge swath of land known as the Western Sahara after colonial power Spain pulled out in the mid-1970s. Native nomads who lived there, the Sahawari, and their political movement, the Polisario, demanded independence and battled Morocco.

CUBA AN ALLY

Backed by Libya, Algeria and Cuba, the Polisario fought a bloody conflict that ended in a U.N.-brokered cease-fire in 1991.

The Western Sahara, where thousands are thought to have died during the conflict, remains disputed.

The Polisario still holds 408 Moroccan prisoners, according to the Moroccan American Center for Policy, a foundation started by a former U.S. diplomat in Morocco, Robert Holley. Prisoners have been released piecemeal over the years thanks to negotiations by organizations such as the Red Cross.

Morocco has released all of its prisoners of war, Holley said.

POLISARIO HAS POWs

''These men -- husbands and fathers, some soldiers, but also civilians caught in the chaos of armed conflict -- are today the longest-held prisoners of war anywhere in the world,'' Sen. John McCain, R-Arizona, wrote in a protest letter to the Polisario last week, sent at the behest of the Washington, D.C.-based center.

Amid a host of world conflicts, most recently the war on terrorism and turmoil in the Middle East, the Moroccan dispute has been overshadowed. But that is why Jaohar -- who was captured in 1981 and released only last year -- and the other freed Moroccans here have been making the international rounds in the past few months.

''I suffered for 24 years. There was no night, no day,'' former prisoner Mohammed Astati said in halting Spanish.

Astati is a slender Arab with a neat crop of salt-and-pepper hair. His piercing gray eyes reveal pain when he recalls his time in POW camps outside a place called Tindouf in Algeria. He and fellow POWS were fed watery lentils and, once in a while, clumps of rice.

''Not even fit for dogs,'' Astati said.

Healthcare was all but nonexistent. Prisoners lost teeth. Gums rotted.

Sitting at a corner table at the Civil Society of Cuba headquarters, Jaohar recounted his own captivity in excellent English and Spanish, with unfiltered emotion, his eyes tinged with red.

He nearly burst into tears when a Society worker offered him bottled water.

''Things like this,'' he said, motioning to the water. "We didn't have.''

In captivity, Jaohar wore rags and grew a matted beard. He slept on an oily blanket in a courtyard exposed to the harsh elements. His captors drew blood from his veins to use for their own medical needs. Lice burrowed in his skin.

Jaohar and other prisoners worked under the desert sun making mud bricks to build structures for the Polisario. The guards, he said, slapped him and spit in his face.

INCONCEIVABLE

''I was told I was less than a donkey,'' he said. "How could another Muslim who reads the Koran and prays to God torture you?''

He returned to Morocco after his release. Life felt different. His daughter, who was 8 months old when he last saw her, was married and had a child.

Shirts and pants felt wrong.

''I was awkward with clothes,'' he says. "I had a stiff walk.''

The Moroccan delegation will be in Miami until Sunday, then will fly to New York to meet with officials at the United Nations to press the POW cause.

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