CUBA NEWS
The Miami Herald

Castro pitched in for lawmaker's visit

A U.S. critic of the embargo against Cuba traveled there with his wife and son, and the island nation paid part of the bill.

By Lesley Clark. lclark@MiamiHerald.com. Posted on Thu, Jun. 08, 2006.

WASHINGTON - Rep. Charles Rangel, a frequent critic of the U.S. embargo against Cuba, met with Fidel Castro on a trip to the island in 2002, but only acknowledged that the Cuban government picked up part of the tab when a watchdog group began making recent inquiries.

The New York Democrat changed his travel disclosure form for the April 2002 trip and reimbursed the Cuban government and a New York grocery store owner $1,922 for his son's expenses after the Center for Public Integrity, a nonpartisan group that focuses on open records, raised questions about the trip. House ethics rules permit private sponsors of lawmakers' trips to cover the cost of the member of Congress and one relative -- in Rangel's case, his wife Alma, who also went on the trip.

The government watchdog group, which Monday released an extensive review of congressional travel, noted that congressional travel disclosure forms "are supposed to make the sponsor and purpose of privately funded trips transparent to the public.''

But according to the group, Rangel initially listed a group that was conducting a bird study in Cuba at the time, the Minneapolis-based Sian Ka'an Conservation Foundation, as the sponsor of the trip. On an amended form -- filed in April -- Rangel added the Cuban government and grocery owner John Catsimatidis as sponsors.

Rangel's chief of staff, George Dalley, told the center that Rangel and his staff did not know the Cuban government had paid for part of the trip until they were contacted by the group.

MISTAKE CORRECTED

''The most important thing is that Rangel corrected the mistake he made,'' Dalley told the group. Calls to the congressman's office were not returned.

The report also suggests that Rangel may have violated another House ethics rule. His office did not say whether it had filed a required report that a foreign government paid for some of his trip.

Congressional trips to Cuba are fairly routine -- but most are paid for by private groups looking to establish trade ties with the island. The same report showed that another critic of the embargo, Massachusetts Democrat Rep. William Delahunt, went to Havana twice, courtesy of the Lexington Institute, a Washington area think tank that has organized trips to the island in the past.

Some Cuba observers, however, said they have wondered whether the Cuban government has paid some expenses in an effort to foster relationships with members of Congress, which in recent years has batted down efforts to relax the embargo that prevents most U.S. companies from doing business with Cuba.

''I have long suspected that the Cuban regime illegally finances and arranges travel and other activities for members of Congress,'' said Rep. Lincoln Díaz-Balart, a Miami Republican who is a staunch defender of keeping economic sanctions against Castro in place.

A review of about 23,000 privately paid congressional trips from Jan. 1, 2000, through June 30, 2005, found no other reference to the Cuban government, according to the analysis of congressional travel reports compiled by the center, Medill News Service and American Public Media.

Philip Peters, who runs the Lexington Institute's Cuba program, said he was entirely unfamiliar with the Cuban government financing trips. He said the institute raises its own money to travel.

'NO DISCOUNT'

''I've never heard that the Cuban government offered to pay,'' Peters said. "When you are there, you pay the going rate, there's no discount.''

Rangel, who met with Castro as far back as 1988 as part of a congressional trip, reported the 2002 trip was for "education and fact finding.''

According to the center, the group attended talks about bird conservation, dined at the U.S. Special Interests Section (the American diplomatic mission in Cuba) and met with Castro. The center noted that Catsimatidis was interested in traveling to Havana "to familiarize himself with preparations for the consecration of a Greek Orthodox Cathedral of St. Nicholas in Old Havana.''

Rep. Marcy Kaptur, an Ohio Democrat who was also on the trip, said at the time that she and Rangel met with Castro and discussed the case of an American who fought in the Cuban Revolution but was later executed.

Kaptur said at the time that top Cuban officials assured her they would consider returning ''Yanqui Comandante'' William Morgan's remains.

His body has not been returned.

School Board to hear final appeal on Cuba book

By Matthew I. Pinzur, mpinzur@MiamiHerald.com. Posted on Thu, Jun. 08, 2006.

A Miami-Dade father formally filed his final appeal today to have a controversial children's book on Cuba removed from his child's school library, setting up a long-anticipated showdown at next week's School Board meeting.

Juan Amador's appeal was received at 1:01 p.m., and board members were notified during a committee meeting about an hour later.

Opponents believe Vamos A Cuba and its English-language version, A Visit to Cuba, are plagued by inaccuracies and omissions that paint an unreasonably sunny portrait of life under Fidel Castro's regime.

Previous appeals have failed, culminating in a contentious meeting Monday of a 17-member review committee. That panel almost unanimously recommended keeping the book, and Superintendent Rudy Crew formally agreed earlier this week.

But one member of the panel, state Rep. David Rivera, said Crew had undermined the appeals process by stating his opposition to censoring books and seeking compromises -- all while acknowledging the book's shortcomings.

The book has inflamed passions on both sides, especially in South Florida's Cuban-exile community. District observers expect a fiery debate when the board meets Wednesday, and the nine members are considered closely divided.

Those passions were highlighted Monday in comments from School Board member Frank Bolaños, one of the book's most outspoken opponents, discussing the decision his colleagues will face.

''They will have a choice to either define themselves on the side of truth and with the Cuban community or on the side of lies and against the Cuban community,'' he said.

Posada lawyer may call Kerry, North

As Venezuela seeks to block U.S. citizenship for Cuban exile militant Luis Posada Carriles, his lawyer may look to Sen. John Kerry and Oliver North to testify about Posada's former ties to the U.S. government.

By Oscar Corral And Pablo Bachelet, ocorral@MiamiHerald.com. Posted on Wed, Jun. 07, 2006.

In an effort to free Cuban exile militant Luis Posada Carriles from federal detention and help him qualify for U.S. citizenship, his attorney may call on U.S. Sen. John Kerry and Oliver North of Iran-contra fame to testify about Posada's ties to the U.S. government.

Posada's lawyer, Eduardo Soto, said Tuesday that he is considering subpoenaing Kerry and North because their testimony may assure U.S. immigration officials that Posada was working for the U.S. government during the contra war against the Sandinistas in Nicaragua in the mid-1980s.

Soto said Posada, who was once a legal U.S. resident, should receive U.S. citizenship because he served as an active-duty soldier for the U.S. Army in Vietnam, and later as a paid U.S. agent in Nicaragua.

''He was the lead prosecutor in Iran-contra,'' Soto said of Kerry, the Massachusetts Democrat who unsuccessfully challenged President Bush for the White House in 2004. "He is a man who has personal knowledge of investigations, reports, testimony, everything that Iran-contra entails.''

Kerry spokeswoman April Boyd said she did not have ''immediate information'' on the senator's knowledge about the contra war.

RAISING THE STAKES

Tuesday, Venezuela raised the stakes in the high-profile diplomatic row between that South American nation and the United States by submitting an antiterrorist resolution at an Organization of American States meeting in the Dominican Republic. The resolution was intended to thwart any U.S. intentions to grant citizenship to Posada, a diplomat said.

Venezuela's resolution, introduced at the 34-country OAS General Assembly that ended Tuesday, would deny safe haven to terrorists. The text does not specifically name Posada, who is accused by Venezuela of masterminding a 1976 bombing that killed 73 people on a Cuban airplane. Posada was acquitted of the bombing when tried by a military tribunal in Venezuela in the 1970s and escaped while awaiting a second trial in the early 1980s. He insists he is innocent.

The resolution urges OAS members to adopt "relevant administrative measures to prevent anyone who has participated in the planning, preparation, financing or commission of terrorist acts from obtaining safe haven, protection or naturalization in their territories for the purpose of preventing extradition.''

A Venezuelan diplomat, who spoke on condition of anonymity because she was not authorized to speak to reporters on the issue, said the text is opposed by both the United States and Colombia. No U.S. officials were immediately available for comment.

Venezuela has repeatedly complained that the United States practices a double standard in its war on terrorism, demanding full collaboration from nations but refusing to hand over fugitives to countries that have strained relations with Washington.

Jose Pertierra, a Cuban-American lawyer representing the Venezuelan government in the Posada case, said Posada shouldn't qualify for citizenship because he was convicted of a felony in Panama -- possession of explosives. However, that issue is complicated because Panama's then-President Mireya Moscoso gave Posada a full pardon in 2004 before she left office.

Meanwhile, at least two of Posada's associates have already appeared before a federal grand jury that convened in Texas to investigate Posada's entry into the United States, and two others are scheduled to appear later this month.

Posada and his associates have long maintained that he came into the United States by crossing the Mexican border. But Cuban leader Fidel Castro insists that Posada entered the country illegally on the Santrina, a shrimping boat owned by several of Posada's friends.

FEDERAL WITNESS

Recently, a federal witness in a separate case, Gilberto Abascal, told investigators that Posada was indeed brought to Miami on the Santrina, according to court records.

But Abascal's credibility is under fire because he has had contact with Cuban security agents, raising questions about whether he is a Cuban spy.

Posada, who is also wanted by Cuban officials for a string of hotel bombings in Havana in 1997 and 1998, was detained in Miami by federal authorities in May 2005 after sneaking into the United States. Venezuela wants Posada extradited to face charges for the jetliner tragedy. U.S. officials have yet to respond to that request, Pertierra said.

Last year, an immigration judge ruled that the U.S. government cannot hand over Posada to either Cuba or Venezuela because he could be tortured. That leaves Immigration and Customs Enforcement with the option of finding a third country that's willing to take in Posada, who once worked for the CIA.

Soto is suing the U.S. government for Posada's release, arguing that the United States has no legal grounds to hold him in detention any longer.

''We have a situation where no one is coming to the defense of my client, and he deserves to be free,'' Soto said. "On the one hand, you can't say today that he's a terrorist because of his activities in the mid-1980s . . . and be on the sidelines applauding him and paying his check for doing so.''

Cuba on 'smuggling' nations list

From Miami Herald Wire Services. Posted on Tue, Jun. 06, 2006.

WASHINGTON - An annual State Department report has again listed Cuba and Venezuela among countries that are not doing enough to crack down on human trafficking.

The report, issued Monday, also listed Saudi Arabia, Belize, Myanmar, Iran, Laos, North Korea, Sudan, Syria, Uzbekistan and Zimbabwe.

As many as 800,000 people are bought and sold across national borders annually or lured to other countries with false promises of work or other benefits, according to the report. Most are women and children.

The report says Cuba ''is a source country for women and children trafficked for the purposes of sexual exploitation and forced child labor'' and the island "is a major destination for sex tourism.''

''Women and children from Colombia, China, Peru, Ecuador and the Dominican Republic are trafficked to and through Venezuela and subjected to commercial sexual exploitation or forced labor,'' it said, adding that Venezuelans also are "trafficked internally and [abroad] . . . for commercial sexual exploitation.''

The report also warned Germany on Monday that it should do more to stop a tide of prostitutes arriving for this month's soccer World Cup, and accused 12 nations of failing to do enough to stop the modern-day slave trade in prostitutes, child sex workers and forced laborers.

''The U.S. government opposes prostitution,'' which is legal in Germany, said a State Department report on human trafficking. "These activities are inherently harmful and dehumanizing.''

Castro's standing tied to leftists' rise

The Cuban president's stature appears to be at its highest in at least 15 years, elevated by left-leaning Latin American presidents.

By Frances Robles. frobles@MiamiHerald.com. Posted on Sun, Jun. 04, 2006.

Where did new Haitian President René Préval go on his first trip abroad?

Cuba.

With whom did Bolivian President Evo Morales meet the day before he nationalized his country's natural-gas industry?

Cuban President Fidel Castro.

And which country did a high-level St. Vincent official recently describe as a ''stabilizing force'' in the region?

Cuba.

As Latin America elects more and more presidents who lean to the left and the Bush administration's standing in the region slumps, experts say Castro is enjoying his warmest relations with his hemispheric neighbors in decades.

And as long as his friend Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez is flush with cash and oil, the two-man leftist team is bound to gain legitimacy and recognition in a region where many complain that they have long been ignored by the United States, experts add.

''I think we are seeing a revival of Fidel Castro, a resurgence of his presence and persona,'' said business consultant Manuel Rocha, the former U.S. ambassador to Bolivia. "There's been a reinvigoration of the Cuban revolution, and all of it because of one person -- Hugo Chávez.''

TIDES OF POPULARITY

Cuba watchers largely agree that Castro's standing in the region has not been this good since at least the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991. Others point out that a leader in power as long as Castro -- 47 years -- is bound to experience booms and busts along the way.

The Cuban leader had one of those booms in the late 1970s, when Marxist-led Sandinista guerrillas seized control of Nicaragua, the leftist New Jewel Movement ruled Grenada and Castro hosted dozens of heads of government for a summit of the then-powerful Non-Aligned Movement.

He lost some ground in the 1980s and especially in the 1990s, but as a leader who has stuck around to outlast nine U.S. presidents, Castro now has been around long enough to see a leftist resurgence.

''I wouldn't say he's enjoying more support; I'd say he's feeling better than ever, because things are going his way in Latin America when they hadn't for years,'' said Susan K. Purcell of the Center for Hemispheric Policy at the University of Miami. "His support is certainly higher than it was a decade ago. He's certainly less isolated.''

COLLAPSE OF SOVIET AID

During the Cold War, Cuba's economy and revolution were pumped with billions in aid from the Soviet Union. That aid collapsed at a time Cuba was cut off from much of Latin America, which was then generally following U.S. economic policies.

But those policies failed to enrich Latin American masses, and now voters in Venezuela, Bolivia, Argentina, Brazil and Chile have turned toward leftist leaders who are far more likely to maintain friendly relations with Castro. With three critical elections coming this year in Nicaragua, Mexico and Peru, Castro's standing in Latin America hangs in the balance.

Bolivia's Morales has joined Chávez and Castro in what they dubbed ''an axis of good.'' Fueled with Venezuelan oil profits, Chávez has embarked on Cuba-style social programs he learned from his elder mentor to benefit Bolivia's disenfranchised poor.

FOREIGN RELATIONS

Experts say that while Castro is viewed as Chávez's mentor, in some respects he has taken a back seat to his oil-rich protégé. But Chávez is quite willing to share the limelight with the grandfather of Latin American leftist politics, and Castro, experts say, is just as willing to ride the coattails.

In exchange, Castro has gained recognition in the international community, particularly during key votes in international bodies. Last month, Cuba was elected to a United Nations human rights council with 135 votes. Castro needed only 96.

'It shows he can work other countries' foreign ministries and he can get a certain limited support for whatever he wants,'' said a U.S. State Department official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because he was not cleared to speak publicly. "I wouldn't say it shows greater influence in the region.''

'INVIGORATED'

In addition to the state visit by Haiti's Préval, Panama's President Martín Torrijos visited Cuba this year and stopped by to visit Panamanians getting eye surgery in Cuba. At the Caribbean Community summit in Barbados late last year, Castro was received warmly.

''He's enjoying more support than ever before, more than he's ever enjoyed in the 47 years he's been in power,'' said Wayne Smith, a former head of the U.S. diplomatic mission in Havana and now a frequent visitor to Cuba. "This is relatively new. He has been invigorated.''

'THEY DON'T LIKE US'

But Smith added that Castro's good standing has more to do with a growing disdain for the United States. A Latinobarómetro poll last year showed that while President Bush is favored over Castro in Central America, in South America, Castro's approval rating was 4.8 out of 10, and Bush's was 4.1.

''It's not so much that they like him, but they don't like us,'' Smith said.

MODERATES CORDIAL

While Castro and Chávez are clearly forging forward in places like Bolivia, their position is less clear in places like Argentina, Chile and Brazil. Those countries all have elected leftist heads of state, but they are moderates who also have been keeping up friendly relationships with the United States.

Brazil's Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva did not become the leftist firebrand and Castro cohort as feared when first elected, experts point out. But even Colombia, which recently elected conservative Alvaro Uribe to an unprecedented second term as president, has cordial relations with Cuba. Peace talks with one of Colombia's leftist rebel groups, the National Liberation Army, are in Havana.

Caribbean countries have always maintained good relations with Cuba, relations that have grown only deeper with the brigades of Cuban doctors who work in neighboring nations and the scores of low-income Caribbean students who attend medical school in Havana.

FILLING THE U.S. VOID

That goodwill extends beyond Latin America, as Cuba befriends countries around the world with its medical missions. Cuba's foreign minister recently announced that about 60 nations would participate in the next summit of the Non-Aligned Movement, to be held in Havana in September. The president of Iran is also expected to visit.

''All this gives him legitimacy and recognition and strengthens his hand in negotiating things with the United States,'' former Ambassador Rocha said. "The United States left a void -- and it is being filled.''

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