Published Wednesday, August 2, 2000, in the Miami Herald
Flight from Japan arrives in Cuba to test island as tourist destination
HAVANA -- (AP) -- Dozens of travel agents, journalists and tourists arrived in Cuba Tuesday evening on the first of four Japanese flights aimed at discovering whether this Caribbean island could become a major tourism destination for Asian travelers.
At the same time, the flights will help expose the Cuban people to people and customs from another part of the world, said Kenya Uno, chief political and economic officer for the Japanese Embassy in Havana.
Each of the four charter flights of Boeing 747 jets owned by Japan Airlines will carry up to 350 passengers. The first flight carried 286 travelers.
The visits are the result of an agreement between the airline and the state-operated Cuban tourism company Cubanacan. For the visits to continue after the initial flights, there will have to be enough Japanese interested to make the trips worth the cost, Uno said.
The four trial trips call for five days on the island, with visits to the beach resort of Varadero and the colonial city of Trinidad, as well as the capital Havana.
Traveling on the first flight were members of the board of directors of Japan Airlines, as well as Masatake Kusamichi, member of the board of directors of the Nissho-Iwai corporation, which is among the 10 largest commercial firms in Japan. Nissho-Iwai is also the principal commercial creditor
of Cuba.
About 4,000 Japanese visited Cuba last year, and that number could surpass 5,000 this year, according to Japanese Embassy estimates. Japanese officials add that much will depend on the kind of attention received by the Japanese visitors, who are accustomed to first-class service.
So far the service in Cuba, Uno said, "does not reach that level.''
To prepare for the first wave of Japanese visitors, the chef from the Japanese ambassador's residence in Havana gave a three-day course in sushi preparation to the chefs at one of the capital's best hotels, the Melia Cohiba.
As for the Cubans chefs' first efforts at sushi, said Uno, "We tasted it ... and frankly, it turned out very well.''
Health care of disabled Cuban boy in dispute
Sonji Jacobs And Ana Acle. sajacobs@herald.com
Christian Prieto Sideris, unable to walk, talk or see, left Cuba with his mother for Chicago and the promise of better medical treatment for free.
After a month, the boy's mother, Ileana Sideris, 37, sought political asylum in the United States and moved to Miami.
But that decision led Christian's family to a rude awakening: In the United States, health care usually isn't free. The offer of a Chicago hospital to take care of the boy's medical bills wasn't transferable.
Now the family is living in a Hialeah apartment while relatives, friends and hundreds of Miami-Dade County supporters rally to raise money for the 3-year-old's medical treatment at the University of Miami/Jackson Children's Hospital. The cost: $130,000. They've raised $31,000 so far.
Sideris said she is hopeful her son "will receive the necessary operations and that God continues to put His hand on him so he can continue his rehabilitation.''
Christian's ordeal started just over a year ago.
The boy suffered a severe brain injury in June 1999 after falling two stories, apparently after climbing on top of a sack of malangas. He lost some brain tissue, and doctors in Cuba removed large portions of his skull to accommodate brain swelling. His mother says the child underwent seven
operations there.
In the process, they stored part of Christian's skull in his abdomen -- in case they needed to replace it later.
"We felt the care he received in Cuba was heroic,'' said Dr. Lisa Thornton, part of an entourage accompanying Illinois Gov. George Ryan on a trip to Cuba in October. "If they hadn't done what they did, he certainly would have died.''
Ryan's trip marked the first visit to Cuba by a U.S. governor since Fidel Castro came to power in 1959.
Doctors from La Rabida Children's Hospital in Chicago were among the visitors. Thornton, the hospital's medical director of pediatric and adolescent rehabilitation, became involved in Christian's case at the request of Rep. Lincoln Díaz-Balart.
Thornton said she and other doctors from La Rabida examined the child and said although he received good medical care in Cuba, better technology and resources were available in the United States.
As a result, Christian traveled to the United States three months later. What happened after his arrival is in dispute.
COMPLICATIONS
Sideris said that when her son arrived in Chicago in January and was diagnosed by several surgeons, they realized the operation would be more complicated and expensive than originally thought.
"They determined that they would operate on the boy if I returned to Cuba,'' Sideris said. "If I didn't return to Cuba, they said they would operate after I received asylum. We decided not to return to Cuba.''
The Chicago doctors suggested that the U.S. government would pay for the operation if they received asylum, Sideris said.
But the Chicago medical team said they always intended to fulfill their promise of medical care -- as long as the boy stayed in that city.
Christian received free treatment, a wheelchair and several assessments at La Rabida. Further treatment for Christian depended on where his parents decided to move and weren't affected by the asylum claim, Thornton said.
"We did not want to do the surgeries if he was moving about,'' she said. Once the family chose to go to Miami, Thornton said she told the parents it would be better for him to get long-term care there.
"At that point, we're no longer responsible,'' she said.
Thornton said she explained that medical treatment elsewhere would not be free.
When the family decided to leave, the doctors said they did everything they could for him -- even giving medical referrals in Miami. Doctors at Jackson Children's Hospital -- where the boy receives outpatient treatment -- are now trying to help.
SURGICAL PROCEDURES
Dr. John Ragheb, chief of pediatric neurosurgery at Jackson, is now handling Christian's case. Ragheb says doctors will need to stretch the boy's scalp so they can insert a prosthetic plate to replace his missing skull. Doctors also plan to perform plastic surgery to help Christian's appearance.
They can't find the leftover piece of his skull, Ragheb said. Doctors think Christian's body may have reabsorbed it.
The operation would improve the boy's quality of life -- but it is doubtful it would improve his neurological capabilities, Ragheb said. The procedure would entail at least three or four surgeries and include about a monthlong hospital stay.
HELPFUL DONATIONS
Many in Miami are reaching into their pocketbooks to help Christian -- inspired by Spanish-language radio and television. On Monday and Tuesday, more than 500 checks totaling about $20,000 poured into the fund set up for the boy at Jackson.
Family members have also chipped in to pay for the family's Hialeah apartment while Christian's mother awaits a decision on her request for political asylum. Her husband, Carlos Prieto, 38, does not have a work visa and is not employed.
In Cuba, Sideris worked as a speech therapist for children, and her husband was a baggage handler at the Hotel Nacional.
Sideris said she has several reasons for choosing to stay in the United States. Among them: better nutrition for her sick son.
"In Cuba, I was getting watered milk, not like here,'' Sideris said. "Nutrition is invaluable in these cases.''
Nine charged in smuggling of Cubans
By Jack Wheat. jwheat@herald.com
Nine South Florida men have been charged with running a three-boat operation to illegally spirit Cubans into Miami, federal prosecutors said Tuesday in announcing one of the biggest alien-smuggling busts this year.
The arrests "underscore our commitment to attacking the organizational structure of persons who traffic in human cargo,'' said Barry Sabin, first assistant U.S. attorney for the Southern District of Florida. He said he could not provide any more specific details about the case until it is
resolved.
Most alien-smuggling arrests usually net an individual boat captain or one or two planners, but in this case, the federal grand jury indictment that led to Tuesday's arrests outlined movements of 11 alleged smugglers between Feb. 15 and March 29 and their method of organizing.
One of the suspects said he was promised $60,000 to drive one of the boats to Cuba to pick up illegal passengers, according to court papers.
Eight of the men arrested Tuesday are resident aliens, said Rosa C. Rodriguez Mera, spokeswoman for the U.S. attorney's office. They are: Fidel Soler, Juan Wilfredo Morales, Roberto Nieves, Adalberto Navarro, Osvaldo Juan Rodriguez, Yenny Rodriguez, Jose C. Gonzalez and Jorge Luis Fleitas.
A ninth, Bernardo Nieves, has been admitted into the United States on parole by the Immigration and Naturalization Service, but has not been granted resident status, Rodriguez Mera said.
Roberto Nieves, who said he was offered $60,000 by Soler for making the trip, has also been charged in another smuggling operation, according to court documents. Nieves, 39, of 1320 SW 76th Ave., was released Tuesday on $50,000 bond.
"This is under investigation,'' he said. "I am not guilty of anything. I've been in this country seven years. I've never had a problem with the law. I work as a truck driver for a large company. This will all be cleared up soon.''
The other eight remained at the federal detention center Tuesday night.
Another of the alleged conspirators, Pedro A. Rodriguez, remains a fugitive. The 11th, Jorge Luis Perez-Ramos, is in a Cuban prison after being arrested there in a later smuggling case.
The grand jury indictment was handed down last week and unsealed Tuesday. The nine were charged with two felony counts: conspiring to transport illegal aliens into this country, and attempting to do so.
If convicted, they face up to five years in prison on the conspiracy charge and 15 years on the attempted smuggling charge. They could also be fined.
Prosecutors say law enforcement agencies broke up the March 29 smuggling operation before the principal boat could leave U.S. waters on its trip to Cuba.
That day, the suspects launched three boats from Dinner Key Marina at different times, the indictment said. The boats rendezvoused after dark near Fowey Rocks in Biscayne Bay, and extra fuel tanks from two of the boats were transferred onto a 1984 Chris Craft registered to Morales, the document
said.
The Chris Craft, with only Roberto Nieves and Morales aboard, then headed for Cuba carrying 20 life jackets, a fuel transfer pump, binoculars and a dozen extra 15-gallon fuel tanks.
The Chris Craft was intercepted after being spotted by a U.S. Customs plane about 3 1/2 miles southeast of Cape Florida. The boat was escorted back to Dinner Key, and agents seized the other two boats and two pickup trucks and detained the 11 suspects.
The actual arrests Tuesday ended an investigation that began in May 1999, when the U.S. Border Patrol began surveillance of Soler's residence at 7130 SW 17th Ter., court documents showed.
Agents thought they would catch Soler in June 1999, after the Border Patrol received a tip that he had arranged a jaunt to smuggle illegal aliens and exotic birds. But when Soler's boat reached Cuban waters, there was a collision of some sort and the operation was aborted, the documents said.
Herald writer Mireidy Fernandez contributed to this report.
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