CUBA NEWS
The Miami Herald

Smugglers make quick guilty pleas

Two men cut plea deals in a migrant-smuggling case involving the drowning of a Cuban boy.

By Jay Weaver. jweaver@herald.com. Posted on Thu, Nov. 03, 2005 in The Miami Herald.

Two Miami men pleaded guilty Wednesday in federal court to smuggling 29 Cubans in a speedboat that overturned and claimed the life of a young boy who got trapped beneath the capsized vessel.

Rather than face trial, Alexander Gil Rodriguez and Luis Manuel Taboada-Cabrera cut quick plea deals with federal prosecutors, who didn't have enough evidence to charge them with the Oct. 13 death of 6-year-old Julian Villasuso.

The men, Cuban immigrants who arrived in South Florida during the past year, could face up to six years in prison at a Jan. 24 sentencing hearing before U.S. District Judge K. Michael Moore. The boy's death could be a factor in the sentencing of Rodriguez, 25, and Taboada-Cabrera, 28.

''I feel what my clients are getting is fair,'' attorney Steven Amster said. "It could have been a lot worse.''

At sentencing, Amster said his clients plan to express their remorse for the boy's death, which they viewed as a tragic accident.

Acting U.S. Attorney R. Alexander Acosta condemned the crime and similar illicit smuggling operations.

''These smuggling ventures recklessly create a substantial risk of death,'' he said. "In this case, an innocent 6-year-old boy died. This must stop.''

Smuggling operations have contributed to the sharp rise in Cuban migrations across the Florida Straits, U.S. authorities said. The number of Cubans intercepted at sea has reached nearly 2,400 this year, nearly double the total for 2004.

The smuggling-conspiracy prosecution stems from an incident that occurred during the early morning of Oct. 13, when Coast Guard officials tracked down a Florida-registered speedboat, carrying the 29 Cuban migrants, about 52 miles south of Key West. After fleeing the Coast Guard, the boat flipped over in the Florida Straits.

Authorities discovered the boy beneath the 33-foot boat after rescuers pulled to safety the other passengers, including the boy's parents and the smugglers.

Coast Guard officials said they launched an inflatable boat after the crew aboard the speedboat disregarded all signals to stop and attempted to elude authorities at a high rate of speed.

When the vessel came to a stop, numerous passengers stood up, shifting the weight of the boat and causing it to capsize, according to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials, who investigated the case jointly with the Coast Guard.

The day after the incident, the boy's parents, Julian Villasuso and Maizy Hurtado, were brought to Key West.

Their son, Julian, was buried in Miami-Dade County after a funeral Mass in Little Havana.

One other passenger on the go-fast boat was also brought to the Keys after showing signs of appendicitis.

The 25 other Cuban migrants who survived remain aboard a Coast Guard cutter in international waters off Florida's coast. ''They're all doing fine,'' Coast Guard spokesman Luis R. Diaz said.

Their fate -- to be repatriated to Cuba or brought to the United States -- could be resolved by Friday, Diaz said.

If the past serves as precedent, the migrants are likely to be returned to their homeland because of the U.S. wet-foot/dry-foot immigration policy. Under the policy, Cubans who reach the United States, even illegally, are allowed to remain, while those stopped at sea are usually returned.

Cuba-U.S. dispute scraps trip over storm

In the latest hurricane diplomacy news, a Wilma assessment team from the United States won't be heading to Havana after all.

By Frances Robles. frobles@herald.com. Posted on Thu, Nov. 03, 2005

Plans to send an American post-hurricane assessment team to Cuba have been scrapped after the two sides couldn't agree on what the visitors would do upon arrival in Havana.

After agreeing to a visit by three disaster experts, Cuba wanted the Americans to partake in discussions about regional disaster recovery. The Americans wanted to review Cuba's needs after Hurricane Wilma flooded Havana and the western province, Pinar del Río.

Cuba, the U.S. State Department said, wanted the experts to sit and watch presentations.

Given the impasse, the United States instead will donate $100,000 to independent nongovernmental organizations operating in Cuba. The State Department declined to name them.

''The assessment team offer remains on the table, but we are unwilling to turn a humanitarian mission into a political dialogue on issues not related to providing relief to the Cuban victims of Hurricane Wilma,'' U.S. State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said in a statement.

Castro blasted Washington last week, saying Cuba had been clear from the start about what the team would do but that Washington twisted it.

''Immediately, there were cables announcing that Cuba had accepted the aid,'' he said.

The dispute was the latest salvo in a clash over hurricane-related humanitarian aid.

In July, Cuba refused Washington's offer of $50,000 after Hurricane Dennis killed 16 people. Then Washington rebuffed Cuba's proposal to send 1,600 doctors to Louisiana after Katrina hit it.

'We were offering them aid at a time when retired citizens were receiving no assistance and dying in homes, or in hospitals, where chaos prevailed and the cry of 'everyone for himself!' reverberated through halls,'' Castro said. "We wanted to help them.''

Verdict to stand for five Cuban spies

Miami's Cuban spy case has taken another turn in the U.S. Court of Appeals, with a ruling reinstating the original convictions. A final ruling may take months.

By Jay Weaver. jweaver@herald.com. Posted on Wed, Nov. 02, 2005.

A federal appeals court jolted Miami with another electrifying ruling in the case of five Cuban men accused of spying for Fidel Castro -- reinstating their original convictions in the 2001 trial.

The 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals late Monday threw out a ruling in August by a three-judge appellate panel that had overturned those convictions.

The decision pleased relatives of four Miami exile pilots who were fatally shot down over international waters in 1996 by the Cuban Air Force in an alleged plot linked to the espionage case.

Now the appeals process starts all over again. The Atlanta appellate court must decide whether the five Cuban defendants -- convicted of infiltrating Miami's exile community and trying to pass U.S. military secrets to Havana -- received a fair trial in a community that despises Castro.

This time, a majority of the 12-member appellate court has agreed to rehear the so-called Cuban Five's appeal, which leaves the case in limbo for several more months.

Maggie Alejandre Khuly, whose brother, Armando Alejandre Jr., was one of four Brothers to the Rescue pilots killed on Feb. 24, 1996, hopes the court upholds the convictions.

''We said throughout the trial we believed in the U.S. justice system,'' she said. "We certainly hope this court agrees this was a just verdict.''

The other Brothers to the Rescue victims were Carlos Costa, Mario de la Peña and Pablo Morales. The exile organization conducted humanitarian missions over the Florida Straits and leafleted Cuba.

Prosecutors in the U.S. Attorney's Office said they were ''gratified'' with the full court's decision to rehear the appeal, which came in a brief response to their challenge in September.

PRETRIAL PUBLICITY

In August, the 11th Circuit's three-judge panel found that pretrial publicity -- from the community's anti-Castro views and the heavy media coverage to the hangover from the Elián González custody battle -- made it impossible for the defendants to receive a fair jury trial in Miami. Its 93-page decision meant the retrial would have to be conducted in a city outside of Miami.

But in a petition, Acting U.S. Attorney R. Alexander Acosta asked all 12 members of the appellate court to review the ruling.

Such requests are rarely granted, according to legal experts. They said the appellate panel cited so much overwhelming evidence -- including a court-approved, pretrial survey showing widespread community prejudice toward the five Cuban defendants -- that there was nothing factually for prosecutors to challenge.

But Acosta disagreed, saying the panel's ruling ran contrary to legal precedents in that court and the Supreme Court.

Former U.S. Attorney Guy Lewis, whose office prosecuted the spy case during his tenure, said the panel's opinion was flawed because not a single Cuban American was picked as a juror.

''Any suggestion that a jury can't sit in [Miami], especially under the extraordinary oversight that occurred with Judge Lenard, is wrong,'' Lewis said.

Lewis said the 11th Circuit's decision to rehear the appeal as a full court bodes well for the prosecution.

''Why would the court inject itself into something so volatile if there wasn't going to be a change at the end of the day?'' he asked. "My experience is, courts of appeals are very, very reluctant to throw out jury verdicts absent extraordinary circumstances.''

In July 2000, U.S. District Judge Joan Lenard, who presided over the trial, denied the motion by the five defendants to move their espionage trial outside Miami. The judge said she believed that an impartial, 12-person jury could be selected from the community.

Her ruling followed the federal government's decision to send 6-year-old rafter Elián González back to Cuba to live with his father, raising a furor in Miami's Cuban-American community.

The six-month spy trial ended with the five defendants' convictions in June 2001. Gerardo Hernández, Ramón Labañino and Antonio Guerrero all received life sentences from Lenard. Hernández was convicted of conspiracy to commit murder for his alleged role in the 1996 shooting by Cuban fighters of two Brothers to the Rescue planes.

René González, a pilot accused of faking his defection to insinuate himself into Brothers to the Rescue, was sentenced to 15 years in prison. Fernando González, no relation, was sentenced to 19 years for trying to infiltrate the offices of Cuban-American politicians and shadowing prominent exiles.

'DISAPPOINTMENT'

Attorney Paul McKenna, who represented Hernández, said the latest court opinion was a ''disappointment,'' but not an indication of how the entire court might rule on the Cuban Five's appeal.

''The issue is not were these jurors on this [Miami] panel fair,'' he said. "The issue is whether this jury was tainted because of the community's sentiment toward Castro and the Cuban government.''

José Basulto, founder of Brothers to the Rescue, praised the 11th Circuit's decision to rehear the appeal, saying exile politics did not poison Miami jurors.

''The Cuban-American population is open-minded enough not to exert any type of pressure on jurors,'' he said.

Nebraska to sell products to Cuba

Nebraska Gov. Dave Heineman finalized deals to sell wheat, beans and soy products worth some $27 million to Cuba.

By Vanessa Arrington, Associated Press. Posted on Wed, Nov. 02, 2005.

HAVANA - A trade delegation led by Nebraska Gov. Dave Heineman finalized deals Tuesday to sell wheat, beans and soy products worth some $27 million to Cuba, fulfilling most of a trade agreement signed this summer.

On his first trip to Cuba in August, Heineman agreed to export $30 million of Nebraska agricultural goods to the communist-run island's food import company, Alimport.

Less than three months later, on Tuesday he signed off on several individual deals including 25,000 tons of high-protein soymeal, 75,000 tons of wheat and 7,000 tons of beans.

''The pace has exceeded our expectations,'' Heineman said after the signing, adding that he plans at least one return trip to the island next year. "I'm going to do all I can for my farmers and ranchers. This is a new export opportunity, and they expect me to take advantage of that.''

Cuba has been under an American trade embargo for more than four decades, but a law passed by Congress in 2000 allows American food to be sold directly to the island on a cash basis.

For the past four years, Cuba has contracted to buy more than $1.4 billion in American farm goods, including shipping and hefty bank fees to send payments through third nations, according to Alimport's top official, Pedro Alvarez.

At Tuesday's signing, Alvarez called the Nebraska governor "a friend of ours.''

''I hope to continue and enhance that working relationship,'' Heineman told reporters afterward. "We want this relationship to be a long-term one.''

Of Nebraska's original $30 million trade agreement, just $2.5 million in great northern bean sales had been completed before this week's fair. The beans are to be sent to Cuba this month, marking the first U.S. shipment of great northern beans to the island since Fidel Castro came to power in 1959.

Alimport also announced a pledge to purchase another $35 million next year in U.S. agricultural products, including $5 million worth of beef from Omaha's Nebraska Beef.

The other $30 million would be spent on 150,000 tons of U.S. soybean products, said Greg Anderson, chairman of the United Soybean Board. Anderson, a farmer based in Nebraska, said the beans will come from several states.

Anderson was on his first trip to Cuba, but plans to return in April. He applauded the Nebraska governor for taking the lead in developing trade ties with Cuba.

Tuesday's signing took place during Cuba's annual trade fair in the outskirts of Havana. Trade delegations from Georgia and Alabama were also hoping to ink deals with Cuba.

11 Cuban singers defect

Cuba's National Choir is 11 members short: they defected last week in Canada.

By Frances Robles. frobles@herald.com. Posted on Wed, Nov. 02, 2005.

The Cuban National Choir is missing a couple of baritones and is particularly light on bass singers after 11 of its 40 members defected last week in Toronto midway through a Canadian tour.

The desertions decimated the island's flagship choir, but -- as they say in that business -- the show did go on. Somewhat altered concerts continued last week to standing ovations.

''I got a call last Monday at 8:15, saying 11 singers were not at the airport. They had developed a reputation for not showing up for buses on time, so I thought they just missed the bus,'' said Robert Missen, the Canadian agent who organized the tour. 'The tour manager said, 'No, Bob. They're not here. They defected.' ''

The defections took place after a concert in Toronto on Oct. 24, the night before the rest of the group flew to British Columbia for more shows. The first few had clearly planned the defections in advance. Others jumped ship when they saw their colleagues walking out of the hotel, bags in hand.

''We sent a car over to the hotel to pick them up,'' said poet Ismael Sambra, president of the Cuban-Canadian Foundation. "Then we realized that wasn't enough. We had to send another car, a bigger one.''

Sambra said in fact there had been ''up to 20 defections'' but that some singers who went back to the hotel for luggage were detained by Cuban security -- an allegation Missen flatly denies.

''Whether it was 11, 15 or 20, it was a massive desertion,'' Sambra said. "It was a blow to the dictator.''

Sambra said the singers sought refuge at the homes of various Cuban exiles in Toronto. The Globe and Mail newspaper said six are already in the United States with relatives.

Immigration officials in Miami said they had not heard of the case, and Cuban-American National Foundation director Alfredo Mesa said he hasn't heard from the defectors. A Canadian immigration service spokeswoman said she could not comment.

After a publicity blitz in Canada, the singers stopped talking publicly for fear of reprisals to their families, Sambra said. ''It is hard to choose between your freedom and your family,'' baritone Ernesto Cendoya-Sotomayor told the Globe and Mail. "But this was my one opportunity to escape.''

He said he had a wife and 4-year-old daughter in Cuba.

''Cuban police will probably tell my family I am a traitor to the revolution,'' he told another Canadian paper.

It was Canada's largest defection of Cubans since 2002, when 24 who visited Toronto for World Youth Day sought asylum.

Founded by Argentine-born guerrilla Ernesto ''Che'' Guevara, the Cuban National Choir started in 1959 as an army choir.

Two more concerts are scheduled this week before the group goes home . It took Missen a year of red tape to organize the tour. After two trips to Havana, he suspected some of the singers might stay behind. But he had his hopes. 'I thought, 'Please let them wait until the end of the tour.' '' Missen said.

Chávez threatens to send F-16s to Cuba, China

Posted on Wed, Nov. 02, 2005.

CARACAS - (AP) -- President Hugo Chávez warned Tuesday he might share Venezuela's U.S.-made F-16 fighters with Cuba and China, accusing the United States of making it difficult for his country to obtain spare parts for the aircraft.

Chávez claimed the U.S. broke a contract to supply parts for Venezuela's fleet of 21 F-16s and pressured other countries not to help maintain them.

'DO WHAT WE WANT'

''We can do whatever we want with the planes. Maybe we'll send 10 to Cuba, or maybe to China so that they can see the technology,'' said Chávez, a close ally of Cuban leader Fidel Castro.

Venezuela originally purchased its fleet of F-16s in 1983. Until Chile acquired a fleet in 2003, Venezuela was the only Latin American country to possess the warplanes made by Lockheed Martin.

U.S. officials did not address Chávez's comments specifically. The Pentagon said in a statement that it has not had any conversations with Venezuela about the sale of F-16s to any third country, and that regulations governing the transfer of U.S. military equipment are quite strict.

Chávez's comments -- made during a ceremony announcing Venezuela's plan to launch a telecommunications satellite with the help of China -- are the latest in a yearslong series of charges and countercharges that have strained relations with Washington. Chávez regularly claims the United States is trying to overthrow his government, an accusation the United States has dismissed.

UPCOMING SUMMIT

In his comments, Chávez pledged to challenge U.S. ''imperialism'' at an upcoming Summit of the Americas, beginning Friday in Argentina and drawing leaders from 34 Western Hemisphere nations, including both Bush and Chávez.

More Cubans leaving for U.S.

The latest figures from the U.S. Coast Guard and the Border Patrol show a sharp increase in the number of Cubans leaving their country.

By Alfonso Chardy, achardy@herald.com. Posted on Tue, Nov. 01, 2005.

The number of Cubans leaving their homeland by sea in illegal attempts to reach the United States has increased sharply.

According to the most recent figures from the Coast Guard and the Border Patrol, the number of Cuban migrants stopped at sea so far this year is nearly double the number intercepted last year.

The number of Cubans who made it to shore in the last 12 months is almost triple the number who reached U.S. soil during the prior 12-month period.

Though landings and interceptions are up, American officials say the figures do not portend an exodus comparable to the Mariel boatlift in 1980 when 125,000 Cubans reached South Florida or the rafter crisis in 1994 when more than 37,000 Cubans made it to the United States.

''Mariel, that was an exodus, and the rafters in 1994, that was an exodus,'' said Luis Díaz, a Coast Guard spokesman based in Miami. "What is happening now is not an exodus.''

According to figures posted on the Coast Guard's Internet website, 2,368 Cuban migrants have been intercepted at sea so far this year -- compared to 1,499 in all of 2004. The number stopped at sea so far this year is the highest for a single year since the 1994 rafter crisis.

Meanwhile, the number of Cubans who reached South Florida during the 12-month period ending Sept. 30 hit 2,530 -- compared to 955 during the 12-month period ending Sept. 30, 2004.

State Department officials have accused Cuban authorities of encouraging illegal migration by not doing enough to prevent departures.

Cuban officials, in turn, have accused Washington of encouraging illegal departures through its controversial ''wet foot, dry foot'' policy.

The policy, set up after the rafter exodus, generally allows Cubans who reach U.S. soil to stay while most of those intercepted at sea are returned home.

National media attention recently focused on the policy after 6-year-old Julián Villasuso drowned Oct. 13 when a suspected migrant smuggling speedboat turned over in the Florida Straits as it fled the Coast Guard.

The child's death sparked renewed calls by Cuban-American leaders for the U.S. government to scrap the wet foot-dry foot policy.

Many of those leaders prefer the old policy, when the Coast Guard rescued Cuban migrants at sea and brought them to U.S. soil.

The Coast Guard, for its part, is urging potential Cuban migrants to stop fleeing by sea.

''What we'd like to see is people apply for visas,'' said Díaz, the Coast Guard spokesman. "It may take some time, but you arrive safe and alive.''

U.S. aid experts to see storm impact

In a rare show of cooperation with the United States, Fidel Castro agreed to let U.S. experts visit Cuba to assess the damage caused by Hurricane Wilma.

By Anita Snow, Associated Press. Posted on Sat, Oct. 29, 2005.

HAVANA - President Fidel Castro has confirmed that Cuba agreed to let three U.S. aid officials visit the island to assess damage from Hurricane Wilma's assault on the island this week.

But during a Thursday night television appearance, he made it clear that his idea in letting them visit was to discuss ways to improve disaster assistance among countries in the region.

''Cuba has not solicited international aid,'' Castro said during a regular public affairs problem, reading from the diplomatic note his country sent to the U.S. government accepting the visit.

''It shares, however, the point of view'' that countries in the region should "provide each other with mutual assistance in situations of disaster.''

The State Department had announced earlier Thursday that Cuba agreed to let three experts from the U.S. Agency for International Development visit in a rare show of cooperation.

Waist-deep water coursed through the streets of Havana earlier this week, chunks of the city's famous Malecón seawall were ripped off, and already-crumbling buildings along the coastal highway were battered by high winds and waves.

Cuba has routinely turned down U.S. offers of assistance during disasters over the years. According to the State Department's Cuba experts, this was the first time the Castro government has accepted a U.S. offer of emergency assistance, department spokesman Sean McCormack said.

The display of U.S.-Cuba cooperation was not expected to produce any easing in the friction between the two countries. U.S. policy is to seek a democratic transition in Cuba once the 79-year-old Castro is gone, rather than accept a regime-orchestrated succession. The U.S. trade embargo dates back more than 40 years, and Castro has waged a decades-long struggle against U.S. interests.

Nevertheless, the Cuban leader seemed impressed by what he considered to be the ''respectful'' tone of the letter offering assistance sent by the new chief of the U.S. Interests Section in Havana, Michael Parmly.

Castro had a particularly contentious relationship with Parmly's predecessor, James Cason, who he once characterized as a ''bully.'' After Hurricane Dennis pummeled the island in July, Castro expressed gratitude for Washington's offer of $50,000 in aid but rejected it.

Havana offered 1,600 doctors to help victims of Hurricane Katrina, which devastated the U.S. Gulf Coast in August. The State Department said the Cuban help was not needed because enough U.S. doctors had offered their services.

It was unclear when the three aid experts would arrive in Cuba. Any offers to help Cuba would be based on what that team found, and all aid would be distributed through independent groups, McCormack said.

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