CUBA NEWS
The Miami Herald

Preparing for life after Castro's death

A new South Florida plan to prepare for the day Cuban leader Fidel Castro dies is the most comprehensive yet, according to officials.

By Oscar Corral, ocorral@MiamiHerald.com. Posted on Fri, Jun. 02, 2006

Sometime in the future, word will hit the streets in Miami: Cuban leader Fidel Castro is dead.

Yes, parties will erupt spontaneously in many neighborhoods. Yes, tears will flow and rum bottles stashed in cupboards for that ''special occasion'' will be opened.

But, as is typical in an area accustomed to preparing for emergencies such as hurricanes and mass migrations from Cuba or Haiti, plans are being drawn at the highest levels of business and government in Miami-Dade County to deal with the potential mayhem that may erupt the day Castro dies, as well as the weeks and months that will follow.

The University of Miami -- in coordination with the American Red Cross of Greater Miami and the Keys and a slew of nonprofit groups and local, state and federal agencies -- has completed what officials say is the most comprehensive plan ever put together in Miami to prepare for the critical days following the death of Cuba's communist leader, who will turn 80 this year.

The greatest fear among the planning organizations is another mass migration along the lines of the Mariel boatlift in 1980 or the 1994 balsero crisis. Much of the report is dedicated to planning for such an event, such as assigning a county official as the point person and assigning specific tasks to deal with migrants.

The plan proposes a central website for everything everyone needs to know about a post-Castro era.

SECRET PLANS

This is by no means the first or only plan drafted by an agency or organization to deal with a post-Castro Cuba. Several government agencies have secret plans already drafted, said Eric Driggs, a researcher for UM's Cuba Transition Project, which is the federally funded branch of its Institute for Cuban and Cuban-American Studies.

Driggs said he did not have access to federal plans classified as secret for national security purposes when drafting this report.

However, representatives of federal agencies alerted the group to certain details, he said.

Miami-Dade, at least in the short term, would likely become engulfed in the emotions of an event almost five decades in the making, the report states.

At that point, as jubilation, chaos, demonstrations or a mixture of all three spread across the county, someone would need to take charge.

''There is no doubt that when Fidel Castro dies, a series of events will start in Cuba that will be super important for Miami-Dade County,'' said Teo Babun, who chaired the subcommittee for coordinating relief aid to Cuba in the event of Castro's death.

The Cuba Transition Project drafted the report after two years of meetings among agencies such as the U.S. Agency for International Development, the Department of Homeland Security, the Red Cross, Miami-Dade's Office of Emergency Management and Miami-Dade Public Schools.

Miami-Dade Mayor Carlos Alvarez said Castro's death will have unpredictable consequences, but the county is preparing diligently nonetheless.

''No one can predict exactly what will happen following the death of Fidel Castro,'' Alvarez said in a written statement. "However, I can assure the residents of Miami-Dade County that detailed plans are in place which take into account every possible scenario.''

WHAT TO EXPECT

So what can people expect in Miami-Dade upon news of Castro's death?

o The county's Office of Emergency Management, which coordinates governmental services during disasters such as hurricanes, would immediately mobilize. Its top priority would be to monitor celebrations, vigils and demonstrations.

o The county would dedicate its 311 line to community information on Cuba.

o An alliance of private groups and public agencies -- which have already been identified -- would come together to prepare for the transportation, storage and tracking of donated aid to Cuba.

''The only reason for this is to help the community to be ready for it,'' said Marielena Villamil, a Red Cross board member who spearheaded the plan. "I think [the government] just doesn't want it to be a free-for-all. They don't want it to get out of hand.''

The government is prepared for the worst, said Carlos Castillo, assistant fire chief for Miami-Dade County who chaired the subcommittee to coordinate local response. If officials believe news of Castro's death could trigger a mass migration of exiles to Cuba, they could shut down the main points of entry and exit.

''The Coast Guard will take whatever action is necessary to protect the coast,'' he said. "As far as the airport and port of Miami, the county and federal governments will take whatever steps necessary to ensure the safety of the people in South Florida. If necessary, the federal government has the ability to close the airports and seaports.''

During the Mariel boatlift in 1980, when about 120,000 Cuban migrants arrived in Miami over a six-month period, Cuban exiles triggered the mass migration by taking to the Florida Straits to bring over relatives and friends.

HUMANITARIAN AID

Babun, director of the AmericasRelief Team and Echo Cuba, two nonprofit groups that focus on humanitarian aid, said that both federal law and Cuba's government place many limits on humanitarian aid to the island.

But he believes the federal government could take immediate steps in the event of Castro's death to make it easier to ship humanitarian aid. He said Cuba makes it difficult for the U.S. government to allow aid to flow in because the Cuban government controls almost all distribution of foreign aid.

''Because Florida is the largest Cuban-American diaspora community in the United States, the outpouring of offers to assist may be overwhelming,'' the report states.

The report notes it's important to coordinate the agencies in charge of aid now because "ad hoc citizen response to a crisis in Cuba has historically proven itself to be a severe complication, as well as one that potentially endangers lives.''

The report ends on a positive note.

''Cuban Americans may play a major role in Cuba's rebuilding efforts because of their commitment to their native country,'' it states. "Educating Cuban-American and Floridian volunteers to become an essential component in this process will help foster unity.''

Read Oscar Corral's blog, Miami's Cuban Connection, in the blogs section of MiamiHerald.com or at http://blogs.herald.comcuban_connection/.

Analyst's new job: visualizing Cuba after Castro dies

From top CIA Cuba analyst in Washington to academia in Miami, Brian Latell is making his mark talking about what to expect on the day Castro dies, and not all exiles like what he has to say.

By Oscar Corral, ocorral@MiamiHerald.com. Posted on Fri, Jun. 02, 2006

The secrets landed on Brian Latell's CIA desk from just about everywhere: spy satellite photos, reports from infiltrators in the Cuban government, communications intercepts, U.S. spies debriefing Cuban intelligence officers begging for asylum.

The analyst would weigh each, assign levels of urgency, then pass the scoops up the U.S. chain of command, where top officials from the secretary of state to the president used them for decades to formulate Cuba policy and to try to understand Cuban leader Fidel Castro.

Today, eight years into his retirement from his post as a top intelligence official in charge of Latin America and Cuba, Latell is using his analyst skills to decipher another complex place: Miami.

Now, instead of keeping mum in public about what he knows about Cuba, he's helping shape public opinion about the communist island's future. Instead of poring through reams of secret reports, he's lecturing as an academic for the University of Miami's Institute for Cuban and Cuban American Studies.

Just five months into his new job, Latell has already had an impact in this town and its long history of CIA plots run amok, advising local, state and national officials on what to expect the day Castro dies.

RUFFLED FEATHERS

He recently signed with NBC to be the on-air expert on a post-Castro Cuba. And earlier this month, he met with representatives of SouthCom, the U.S. Southern Command for the armed forces in Miami, which is preparing for the so-called ''biological solution'' that the soon-to-be octogenarian Castro will inevitably face someday.

''I think the moment the news is spread that Fidel is dead, [South Florida] is going to erupt in celebration, and I will be among the celebrants,'' Latell said. 'Then many will wake up the next morning and say, 'OK, what's going on down there now?' ''

Latell ruffled feathers in Miami and Washington last year with the publication of his book, After Fidel: The Inside Story of Castro's Regime and Cuba's Next Leader. In it, he concludes that Raúl Castro will succeed Fidel Castro and that Raúl may be more open to reforming the Cuban system than his older brother.

Latell based his prediction on his years as a top Cuba analyst for the CIA, where he spent more than two decades, and on extensive interviews he conducted with Castro family members, friends and upper-level defectors.

He irritated some hard-line Cuban exiles again in February when he, the UM institute's director Jaime Suchlicki and others simulated what the hours following Fidel Castro's death would be like. Latell played Raúl Castro.

U.S. Rep. Lincoln Díaz-Balart criticized the university's Cuba program, which has received millions of dollars in federal grants, for focusing on Fidel Castro's successor instead of ways to pressure the current government to change.

'Exercises such as this one . . . are 'academic justifications' for a lack of pressure for a democratic transition . . . after the dictator's death,'' Díaz-Balart said.

'DEFICIENCIES'

Latell is almost certain that Raúl Castro and a group of generals will lead the government when Fidel Castro dies because power has been consolidated in the military. He believes nonmilitary government leaders, such as Cuba's Parliament Speaker Ricardo Alarcón and Vice President Carlos Lage -- either individually or allied with one another -- would be unable to challenge a united military backing their leader, Raúl. Still, Latell said he doesn't want to guess how long Raúl Castro's succession might last.

''He's got serious leadership deficiencies, like a serious drinking problem since he was a teenager,'' Latell said. "But I do have a feeling that Raúl will be more flexible. He's less intransigent, less dogmatic than Fidel. I think there is also a good chance that he will want better relations with the U.S.''

In his book, Latell writes that Raúl Castro is not motivated by an ''ego-charged quest for fame and glory'' like his brother.

''He worries more about the economic hardships the Cuban people endure and has been the most influential advocate in the regime for liberalizing economic reforms. He is likely to be more flexible and compassionate in power,'' Latell wrote.

CONTRARY OPINION

That's poison in some Miami circles. Many Cuban exiles feel that the United States should never negotiate with Raúl Castro because they say as second in command in Cuba, he is just as guilty of human-rights abuses as his brother.

Ninoska Pérez-Castellón, an influential commentator on Radio Mambi (WAQI-AM 710) and a board member of the hard-line Cuban Liberty Council, thinks Latell's analysis is flawed and misguided.

''All these qualities that he attributes to Raúl, I dispute completely,'' she said. "I don't know how he proposes to sell this thesis that after 47 years of sanctions against Fidel Castro, that we can contemplate negotiating with his brother. The moment Fidel dies is the moment power is up for grabs in Cuba.''

Latell knows that some of his theories don't sit well with segments of the exile community. But he is no Castro sympathizer. He talks of the ''dirtiness'' of Fidel Castro's soul and atrocities he has committed against the Cuban people.

He said Fidel and Raúl are having ''very powerful'' disagreements today.

''I think Raúl is really dissatisfied with the state of the revolution and Fidel's intransigence. He would want to give the people more bread and less circus,'' Latell said. "I think Raúl is influenced strongly by the China model.''

VIEWS ON CIA

Still, Latell recognizes that Cuban intelligence agencies are among the best in the world and believes that Cuban agents are deeply infiltrated in Washington and Miami. While he was at the CIA, Latell knew Ana Belen Montes, a Cuban spy in the Pentagon who reached a higher position in the U.S. government than any other known Cuban spy, Latell said. After Latell retired in 1998, she was convicted of espionage in 2002 and sentenced to 25 years.

''I never trusted her as a Cuba analyst,'' Latell said. But, he concedes, "I never suspected she worked for Castro.''

But he also says things that may not sit well with U.S. officials. For example, he says he feels that the CIA used to give Cuba a higher priority than it does today.

''Since 9/11, the priority of the intelligence community and the CIA has been much more tightly focused on international terrorism, and important issues like Cuba have not retained the same priority,'' he said.

PREVIOUS TEACHING

A dapper 65-year-old with a New England style of slacks and top-siders, Latell stays in shape by exercising and walking. On most days, he takes the Metrorail to work, walking several blocks to his University of Miami office. His work at UM builds on his 25 years teaching at Georgetown University, where he crossed paths with many Cuban-American students from Miami.

Suchlicki, who has known Latell for 25 years, invited Latell to join UM's institute last year but doesn't always agree with him. For example, Suchlicki agrees that Raúl will probably succeed Fidel in power, but he doesn't necessarily think Raúl will be more flexible.

UM's institute has received more than $3 million in federal funds from the U.S. Agency for International Development since 2002, Suchlicki said. But Latell is not paid from those funds. Suchlicki says people joke to him about being in charge of the "CIA office in Miami.''

He explains why Latell is so valuable.

''I think it's important that the Cuban exile community and the people in Cuba don't think that when Fidel dies, they are going to get democracy and freedom the next day,'' Suchlicki said. "I think it's our responsibility as academics to explain to this community to plan for the more difficult scenario of a fast succession, and a slow transition.''

Bond weighed for alleged FIU spy couple

Posted on Thu, Jun. 01, 2006

The detention of accused Cuban agent Elsa Alvarez was discussed in federal court Wednesday, about five months after she was jailed for allegedly sending information to the Cuban government.

Alvarez, a counselor at Florida International University, and her husband, FIU psychology Professor Carlos Alvarez, were arrested in January. The couple is accused of being unregistered agents for Cuba.

Jane Moscowitz, a lawyer for Elsa Alvarez, said that a federal judge would decide in the next couple of weeks if Alvarez will be released on bond.

Moscowitz said that the court gave a strong indication that it was leaning toward granting Alvarez a bond, subject to certain conditions as she awaits trial.

The court did not indicate the amount of the bond, Moscowitz said.

''Elsa and her family are looking forward to being reunited,'' Moscowitz said.

Dwindling presence of Chinese immigrants in Cuba

Only 143 who fled their communist homeland's economic hardship in the '40s and '50s, remain in their ironic end destination

By Vanessa Arrington, Associated Press. Posted on Wed, May. 31, 2006

HAVANA - They came first on Spanish boats to work in Cuba's sugar plantations. Later, they arrived fleeing communism, setting up restaurants and vegetable shops. But time and emigration has reduced Cuba's once vibrant community of China natives to only a handful of senior citizens, living their traditions while also embracing their adopted home.

Elderly Chinese immigrants still walk the streets of Havana's ''Barrio Chino,'' where they play mah-jongg and eat lunch together, practice tai chi and read magazines from their homeland inside associations with names like Min Chih Tang and Lung Kong.

'EQUAL PARTS BOTH'

There are just 143 China natives currently registered in Havana -- 113 of them men, according to Cristina Nip, a descendant who runs Chinatown's social work program. After decades on the Caribbean island, they say they feel just as Cuban as Chinese.

''Equal parts both,'' said 70-year-old Julio Li, whose name itself reflects the blend. "I speak Spanish, and I speak Chinese. I drink Cuban rum and Chinese tea.''

The retired Li read a Chinese-language Newsweek as he puffed away on a cigar, relaxing in a high-ceilinged room of the Min Chih Tang association. He planned to play mah-jongg later, to prepare for a competition that is part of a festival celebrating Cuba's Chinese community this weekend.

Li came to Cuba with his parents when he was 14 years old. His father sold vegetables in a Havana market -- as would Li.

Chinese immigrants to Cuba built a bustling merchant and agricultural community on the island after leaving communism and economic hardship behind in China in the late 1940s and 1950s. They had to confront a great irony when their chosen refuge also became communist under Fidel Castro.

Many top merchants decided to move their lives, again, heading to other large Chinese migrant communities in the United States and Latin America after Castro's 1959 revolution. Those who stayed turned their shops and businesses over to the government and got new state jobs.

''Things have really changed here -- I just go with the flow,'' said Li, who said he stayed in Cuba because he lacked both the means and the desire to leave. "I don't get involved in politics. Not Cuban politics, not Chinese politics -- none of it.''

Li is on the younger end of China natives in Havana, most of whom are in their 80s and 90s. Three centenarians from the community passed away last year, according to Nip, who makes house visits in Chinatown and across Havana to keep track of those remaining.

Several elderly Chinese also live in other cities on the island, though the largest concentration is in the capital, she said.

A LONG HISTORY

The Chinese presence in Cuba dates to 1847, when a group of 200 immigrants from Canton province arrived on a Spanish ship to work on Cuba's sugar cane plantations.

Tens of thousands of Chinese eventually arrived during the mid- to late-1800s as contract laborers, many working for years in virtual slavery for a few pesos a month.

After slavery was abolished in the late 19th century, the Chinese began forming an ascending class of restaurateurs, laundry-shop owners and vegetable merchants. Many of them brought their entire families over from China, primarily Canton, to live with them.

Many of those who were part of the latest wave of immigrants more than 50 years ago have never gone back to visit China, others just once or twice. In 2003, the Cuban and Chinese governments hosted a trip home for five of the China natives, and plans are in the works to repeat the project for about a dozen elders, Nip said.

Those left in Cuba still pay some attention to political and economic developments in China but seem more interested in the personal news they get in letters.

''I'm always thinking about my family over there,'' said Ofelia Lau Si, 85, who moved to Cuba with her husband in 1949 and is one of just 30 female natives left. "I went back to visit them once, and I was so happy.''

But she also has a large family here now, complete with Cuban in-laws and grandchildren who hardly speak Chinese. ''They're a bit far from the traditions,'' she said.

Alleged tormentor's gone, but not anguish of exiles

Some Cuban dissidents claim the head of Havana's psychiatric hospital, who died Sunday, tortured them using electroshock.

By Frances Robles. frobles@MiamiHerald.com. Posted on Sat, May. 27, 2006

Cuba's daily newspaper Granma observed the passing of Dr. Eduardo Bernabé Ordaz last week, chronicling his climb from shoeshine boy to guerrilla fighter and then head of the Psychiatric Hospital of Havana for some 40 years.

The obituary, however, omitted mention of allegations that political dissidents were given electroshocks as a form of torture at Ordaz's hospital, better known as Mazorra.

''He was a tool in the bloody machine to destroy people's minds,'' said former political prisoner Jorge Alejandro Ferrer, 60, of Southwest Dade. "I was tortured in this place where they were supposed to cure people. My life was destroyed in that place.''

Ordaz's public persona was of a cheerful doctor, known affectionately as ''El Loco Ordaz,'' who sported a cowboy hat and was known for providing odd jobs for mental patients. He was said to have even helped some people who had fallen out of favor with the government and could not find jobs.

Patients had their own chorus, baseball team and garden, and could take ballet lessons.

According to Granma, the 84-year-old native of Bauta and 1951 graduate of the University of Havana Medical School became a captain in Fidel Castro's forces. He was a founding member of the Cuban Communist Party and a National Assembly representative from 1976 to 2003.

Ordaz drew the ire of South Florida's Cuban community when his name appeared on the list of those seeking visas to watch the Cuban baseball team play the Baltimore Orioles in 1999.

''The outside picture of Ordaz was of this jovial character,'' said exile activist Ninoska Pérez, one of those who ultimately blocked his trip to the United States. "This was really a place where they took people to annihilate them as potential enemies of the revolution. They'd end up losing their minds.''

In published reports over the years, Ordaz acknowledged holding dissidents but for legitimate reasons. But Armando Lago, co-author of the 1991 book, The Politics of Psychiatry in Revolutionary Cuba, said Ordaz had signed an agreement with Cuba's State Security department giving it control over ''punishment pavilions'' at Mazorra.

'Dissidents held there would get electroshock between their legs. When the families came to complain, he'd say, 'I have no control over what goes on over there,' '' Lago said. "I think he was a coward, and obviously had no moral scruples.''

Witnesses, including Ferrer, said Ordaz also used patients as household help.

Although there was no proven therapeutic value to the hospital orchestra or sports teams, life for the true mental patients was probably pleasant, Lago said. The torture, he alleged, was reserved for the 5 percent of patients who were political dissidents.

After 10 years in prison and some 20 electroshock sessions at Mazorra, Annette Escandón, 70, now lives as a virtual shut-in in her Westchester apartment.

''They would take me to see naked men tied in chains getting electroshock,'' she said. "Meanwhile, Ordaz was treated like a king because he gave mental patients jobs, took them out for walks on the street or to play ball. It's a facade, like a movie where there's one thing on the screen and there's something going on behind the scenes.''

Southcom general: Cuba policy needs fresh look

By Pablo Bachelet, pbachelet@MiamiHerald.com. Posted on Fri, May. 26, 2006.

WASHINGTON - In unusually frank criticism of U.S. policy on Cuba by a top military officer, the outgoing head of the Miami-based Southern Command said Thursday he favors a top-to-bottom review of the policies, including a long-standing ban on most contacts between the U.S. and Cuban militaries.

The comments by Army Gen. Bantz J. Craddock came just days before President Bush is to receive a major report on U.S. policies toward the island, coordinated by the State Department but with input from other agencies, including the Department of Defense.

''One of the things that we as a government probably don't do well is to review our policies and our laws routinely, based upon the conditions in the world changing,'' Craddock said in response to a question about Cuba during a briefing for a small group of reporters.

''My judgment is we need to relook laws, policies more often to ensure that they still make sense, given the changing conditions in the world,'' he said, adding, "I don't want to make a judgment on whether or not to change [the Cuba policy], but I think it needs to be re-looked.''

Craddock added that it's time to review the laws ''stem to stern'' and not just the long-standing ban on military-to-military contacts beyond the regular talks on purely local issues between U.S. and Cuban military officers along the fence surrounding the U.S. Navy base in Guantánamo.

CONTRASTING VIEWS

Proponents of the broader contacts have argued that the U.S. military should have regular contacts with Cuban officers to allow for reliable communications in case of instability on the island and because the Cuban military is seen as the only institution that can maintain order in a post-Castro Cuba.

Opponents of the military-to-military contacts say they would do more harm than good. The Cuban military would likely continue the communist system on the island, and meetings would expose U.S. officers to Cuban intelligence penetration.

''We have nothing to gain in such an encounter,'' said Roger Noriega, a former assistant secretary of state for the Western Hemisphere in the Bush administration. "Unfortunately, the record is that the U.S. military is manipulated by the Cubans. The Cubans put up their most disciplined, ideological people on that account.''

HEADED TO NATO

Craddock is expected to become NATO commander at Supreme Headquarters Allied Powers Europe this summer. Navy Vice Adm. James Stavridis, a close aide to Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, has been nominated to replace Craddock.

Other Southcom commanders have questioned the lack of contacts with the Cuban military, but only after retiring. Gen. Charles Wilhelm, a predecessor of Craddock, said in September 2002 that Cuba was a "47,000-square-mile blind spot in [our] rearview mirror.''

''Sounds like [Craddock] is stepping in the policy realm pretty heavily,'' said Glenn Baker, director of the U.S.-Cuba Cooperative Security Project at the World Security Institute, a nonprofit group that promotes research on defense issues and has arranged trips to Cuba by retired U.S. officers.

U.S.-Cuba exchanges usually take place through diplomats posted in the Interest Sections, the quasi-embassies in each other's capitals. The two sides have had no formal talks since June 2003, when they discussed migration.

Eric Watnik, a State Department spokesman, declined to comment on Craddock's remarks. Army Col. Bill Costello, Southcom's chief public affairs officer, said Craddock's comments reflected the views of the command but not necessarily those of the Defense Department.

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