Published Monday, August 14, 2000, in the Miami Herald
Castro marks his 74th birthday
By Anita Snow. Associated Press
HAVANA -- A politically recharged President Fidel Castro marked his 74th birthday Sunday, addressing a graduating class of health care workers and making a veiled reference to the recent defection to the United States of two medical workers who had been assigned to Zimbabwe.
"These Cuban health care workers will leave an indelible imprint as they travel around the world, providing their services and sowing medical schools in other lands,'' Castro said at the ceremony.
"Today, it gives us immense satisfaction to take part in the graduation of 4,000 new members of the glorious contingent of professionals who bring such honor to the homeland.''
The two Cuban medical workers who defected, Leonel Córdova Rodríguez, 31, and Noris Peña Martínez, 25 -- were granted U.S. refugee status and flew to Miami last week.
In the process of seeking asylum, they said, they were kidnapped by Zimbabwean security officers, who helped Cuban diplomats force them onto a flight to Havana. Air France refused to let them board during a stopover in South Africa after the doctors slipped a note to a crew member saying they
were kidnap victims.
At the time, Cuba denied any involvement in the alleged kidnapping.
Without referring specifically to that case on Sunday, Castro criticized "imperialist'' nations that "offer money and make all kinds of promises to our doctors, hoping to bribe them into defection and treason, heedless of the lives that would be lost as a result.''
Other than greetings delivered to Castro by several speakers at the graduation, there was no public birthday celebration Sunday.
Party platforms on Cuba
The following are the two major parties' platform planks on Cuba:
REPUBLICAN
"In Cuba, Fidel Castro continues to impose communist economic controls and absolute political repression of 11 million Cubans. His regime harasses and jails dissidents, restricts economic activity, and forces Cubans into the sea in a desperate bid for freedom. He gives refuge to fugitives
from American justice, hosts a sophisticated Russian espionage facility that intercepts U.S. government and private communications, and has ordered his air force to shoot down two unarmed U.S. civilian airplanes thereby killing American citizens.
"U.S. policy toward Cuba should be based upon sound, clear principles. Our economic and political relations will change when the Cuban regime frees all prisoners of conscience, legalizes peaceful protest, allows opposition political activity, permits free expression and commits to
democratic elections. This policy will be strengthened by active American support for Cuban dissidents. Under no circumstances should Republicans support any subsidy of Castro's Cuba or any other terrorist state.
"Republicans also support a continued effort to promote freedom and democracy by communicating objective and uncensored news and information to the Cuban people via U.S. broadcasts to the captive island. Finally, Republicans believe that the United States should adhere to the principles
established by the 1966 Cuban Adjustment Act . . .''
DEMOCRATIC
"We aim to rededicate ourselves to the defense of democracy in the Americas at a moment when it is being brought into question in Peru and absent on the island of Cuba. . . . We will continue to press for human rights, the rule of law and political freedom.
"To accomplish this, we need the right tools. Al Gore and the Democratic Party support continued funding for the National Endowment for Democracy, Radio Liberty, Radio Europe, Radio Free Asia, Radio Marti, and other efforts to promote democracy and the free flow of ideas.''
After 34 years, couple aims to reignite love
Man leaving Cuba to rejoin Miami family
By Carolyn Salazar. csalazar@herald.com
Haydée Perez, 57, lugged a briefcase down the corridors of Havana's airport last year, scanning the room for her first love, the man she had last seen 34 years ago, the man she left in Cuba when she fled to Miami, the man who still made her heart flutter when she heard his voice on the
telephone.
But Perez was no longer the young girl she was when she married him in 1963 and divorced him in 1968. "What would he think?'' she wondered. "What should I say? What should I do?'' She didn't know whether she would scream or cry.
"My entire life just flashed before me. Imagine, after so many years.''
About 3:30 p.m. Tuesday, almost a year after her visit to Havana, Haydée Perez will again see the man she loves. This time it'll be in another airport, Miami International.
Perez first met Delfín González (no relation to Elían's great uncle) in 1961. She was 17, and a clothing design student. He was 17, and worked in a factory. Strolling beneath a bridge one day, they crashed into each other. She tumbled and fell. He said, "I'm sorry,''
but she didn't exactly mind.
"We liked each other from that very first instant,'' she said. "I'm not kidding you, it was love at first sight.''
Every day afterward he waited for her in a cafeteria across from the school. They chatted, they fell in love. But there was one big problem: She wanted desperately to flee Fidel Castro's repressive regime. He could not leave Cuba because he was forced to join the military.
They decided to marry anyway. It was a small wedding, little fanfare, only family. On Aug. 20, 1965, she gave birth to a daughter, Milagros. Only 72 days later, mother and daughter got the chance to leave Havana for Key West during the Camarioca boatlift. They took it. In a two-month exodus that
autumn of 1965, 5,000 exiles came to Miami.
"That's when the battle began to try to bring Delfín here,'' Perez said. "We tried everything we could to get him out. We were never successful.''
They didn't worry at first. He would join them soon, they thought. Days stretched into months, the months into years. But still, González didn't find a way. Separate countries they lived in, just miles away, two different worlds.
"He couldn't understand why I wanted to work, why I bought a car. He didn't understand because life in Cuba is so different.'' By letter and telephone, they argued. Perez eventually lost hope, and after five years, she filed for divorce.
"We were young, we needed to move on. It hurt him a lot when I told him. It was my decision and it was probably wrong on my part, but I couldn't wait forever. And I thought, if our love was really meant to be, then we would eventually be together again.''
Perez remarried in 1972 and ran a clothing business in Hialeah with her husband, Rolando Perez. He died in 1990. González remarried in Havana in 1980, and they had a son. They were divorced in 1993.
They knew about each other's lives through their daughter, Mily. Although she has never met her father, she talked to him on the telephone. One day in 1992 Perez happened to pick up the phone in Hialeah. It was González. Her heart raced. "He said, `Hi, Mily.' I said, no, it's not
Mily, it's Haydée. He said, `I can't believe it, it's really you after so many years?' ''
Like love-struck teenagers, they talked and talked, unsure of what to say, what the other was thinking.
It wasn't until the day at the Havana airport that they knew. "When we saw each other, it was love at first sight again, just like the first time,'' Perez said. "It was as if 34 years hadn't passed, and we were still that young married couple in love.
"I always thought the relationship would rekindle,'' she said. "He says I was the woman of his life, and he was the man of my life. We were just separated for a little while.''
If everything goes as planned, Haydée Perez and Delfín González will be together again on Tuesday when his flight arrives from Havana. He's coming in to take up permanent residence in the United States.
The daughter he has never met obtained his immigration visa approval. "I'm finally meeting my father for the first time,'' she said. "To me, it's very emotional.''
This year there will be a second marriage. Exactly when is uncertain. "I'll marry him Thursday if I have to,'' Perez said.
"I know we are almost at the end of the road,'' she said. "We're not young anymore. But at least we end the road together. Which is how it was meant to be.''
Exiles' support for Gore is low
By Mark Silva. msilva@herald.com
LOS ANGELES -- As the Democratic Party readies for the official nomination of Al Gore later this week, its standing among Cuban Americans has hit a new low-point -- a perilous factor in a critical fight for Florida's electoral vote.
Cuban Americans account for 8 percent, or 400,000 of the anticipated five million Floridians voting this year.
The Democratic National Convention this week isn't likely to help attract that segment of voters, many say. Democrats today are expected to adopt a platform that has little detail about Cuba.
By contrast, the Republican Party's platform position is perhaps its toughest on Cuba and Fidel Castro ever.
But it's not only the party's stance on Cuba that is undercutting its support among Cuban Americans.
The saga of young shipwreck survivor Elián González, seized from the home of Miami relatives by armed Border Patrol agents in April, casts a lingering shadow.
"I don't think there is much the Democrats can do in this particular election to gain back a significant number of Cuban-American voters,'' pollster Sergio Bendixen said. "Emotional feelings after the Elián González case are just too strong to turn around or change over a
two-month period.''
Support for Gore among Cuban-American voters has fallen to 7 percent, according to a national poll to be released today by Bendixen's Hispanic Trends. Republican nominee George W. Bush is favored by 75 percent.
In July, Hispanic Trends found: Bush 75, Gore 12. The possible margin of error in these surveys was seven percentage points.
The Gore campaign maintains that, despite their platform's comparatively weak position, Gore and running mate Joseph Lieberman personally represent the strongest commitment to issues of greatest concern to Cuban-American voters. They both support the U.S. trade embargo against Cuba, the campaign
notes, while Bush running mate Dick Cheney has spoken critically of U.S. trade sanctions in his service as chief executive of a Texas-based oil-drilling supplier.
"We have 100 percent on Cuba: Gore and Lieberman,'' says Mitchell Berger, a Fort Lauderdale attorney and friend of Gore who will host the vice president at a fundraiser in Fort Lauderdale Aug. 23.
"We have no noses under the tent,'' Berger says, "They have big noses under the tent. The man George Bush says he will rely on for foreign policy wants to lift the embargo.''
Since joining Bush's ticket, Cheney has been careful to distinguish between Cuba and Iraq in his criticism of embargoes. In any event, the GOP's backers say, it will be Bush who determines presidential policy.
Joe Garcia, executive director of the Cuban American National Foundation, says: "Although we were concerned with Dick Cheney early on because of his opposition to sanctions, since then we have been pleased with his clarification. And the truth of the matter is, it is the president who is in
control of foreign policy.''
Lieberman's long-standing friendship with Cuban-American activists in Miami -- thanks to his allegiance to issues of Cuban liberty since election to the Senate in 1988 -- could prevent CANF leaders from lining up behind one of the presidential candidates. Yet, some say, Lieberman's record isn't
likely to matter among voters who view the election as a matchup of Bush and Gore.
"Those who have been active with him know about Joe Lieberman, but that is a very small percentage of the community,'' said Domingo Moreira, a CANF board member and Bush supporter. "George W. Bush has been very upfront, and he has a great deal of support in the community.''
Support for Republican nominees has been crucial to their success in Florida, where Presidents Reagan and Bush commanded 80 percent and more of the Cuban-American vote in the 1980s. Clinton was able to make inroads, gaining 42 percent of Florida's Hispanic vote in his 1996 contest with Bob Dole
-- the first time in 20 years that a Democratic nominee had carried the state.
But polling this year by both Bendixen and Knight Ridder newspapers has found support running at a consistent 75 percent for Bush among Cuban Americans.
The GOP has enhanced its position this year with a statement decrying Fidel Castro's "repression of 11 million Cubans.''
The Republican platform insists on no change in U.S. policy until Cuba stops harassing dissidents, restricting its economy or forcing "Cubans into the sea in a desperate bid for freedom.'' It calls for toughening U.S. policy with "active American support for Cuban dissidents.''
"It is the best Cuban platform in the history of the Republican Party,'' the CANF's Garcia said. "We are thrilled with the candidate of the Republican Party. . . . We could not be more pleased with his positions on Cuba.''
The Republican platform, however, contrasts with the views of some congressional Republicans from farm states who have been pushing legislation that would allow for the sale of food and medicine to Cuba.
The Democratic platform ready for adoption in Los Angeles speaks of rededication to "the defense of democracy.'' As tools of this, it cites Radio Martí -- yet overlooks TV Martí. It makes no mention of the trade embargo.
"Don't read too much into it,'' cautions Sen. Richard Durbin, an Illinois Democrat and co-chairman of the platform committee. "The important thing is Vice President Gore and Sen. Lieberman, where they stand.''
During the Elián saga, Gore took a stance apart from Clinton by supporting a family court hearing and, later, residency for the boy.
During platform deliberations, Durbin said, there was no attempt to toughen the Cuba plank. Its wording came to him from the Democratic National Committee, he said, and one platform can't cover every political issue.
"We tried to come up with a concise statement that is a window on the soul of the party,'' Durbin said of his party's 50-page platform. "When it comes to foreign policy, you can't imagine how many areas we could have gotten into.''
Bendixen calls the party's failure to take the issue more seriously an acknowledgement of its prospects among Cuban-American voters.
The Gore campaign, maintaining it is serious about claiming Florida's 25 electoral votes, says it will appeal to the Cuban-American voter as it will to Hispanics generally -- and indeed voters at large. Its appeal is the strength of the economy, and Gore's promise for further progress.
"Our campaign in Florida is focused on the issues that affect Cuban Americans and everybody -- prescription drugs, health care, strong education and making sure our prosperity benefits everyone and not just a few. . . . And that is where the focus is going to be,'' Gore spokesman Doug
Hattaway said.
Copyright 2000 Miami Herald | 