Yahoo! December 6, 2000
Cuba Spy Trial Opens in Miami
By Catherine Wilson, Associated Press Writer
MIAMI, 6 (AP) - Five people accused of spying for Cuba were the Havana
government's eyes and ears in South Florida, a prosecutor said Wednesday as
their trial opened in federal court.
The defendants - three Cuban intelligence officers and two U.S. nationals -
used coded computer disks, high-frequency radio transmissions and electronic
phone messages to infiltrate U.S. military bases and Cuban exile groups,
Assistant U.S. Attorney David Buckner said.
"All of these things paint a portrait of a sophisticated and highly
motivated espionage cell operating in the midst of our community,'' Buckner told
jurors.
The defense was to make its opening statements later in the day.
Priorities for the spy ring included getting access to the U.S. Southern
Command Headquarters after it moved to Miami from Panama in 1996 and
discrediting the Cuban-exile group Brothers to the Rescue before a Cuban MiG
shot down two of the group's planes in 1996, killing four, prosecutors said.
The five were arrested in 1998 on an indictment charging a 14-member ring.
Five others have plea bargains requiring them to cooperate, and four are
fugitives believed to be in Cuba.
The five defendants acknowledge acting on orders from the Cuban government
but say they were feeding information about militant Cuban exiles in Miami to
the FBI during an outbreak of bombings at Cuban tourist centers in 1997.
Three of the five face life in prison if convicted of the most serious
espionage conspiracy charge. The other two would face 10-year terms if convicted
as unregistered foreign agents.
One, Gerardo Hernandez, also is charged with murder conspiracy for the
Brothers to the Rescue shootings.
On the Net:
Brothers to the Rescue:
http://www.hermanos.org
Cuban Spy Trial Jury Selected
By Catherine Wilson, Associated Press Writer
MIAMI, 5 (AP) - A jury that includes no Cuban-Americans was seated Tuesday
in the trial of five men accused of spying for Cuba.
Five Hispanics were chosen. But at the insistence of the defense, no one
with strong family or social ties to Cuba was picked. The jury also includes
three non-Hispanic whites, three blacks and an Asian.
The five on trial are Miami-area residents arrested in 1998. Opening
statements are scheduled for Wednesday.
In all, 14 people were accused of plotting to infiltrate Miami exile groups
and gather intelligence from U.S. military installations in Florida. Five
pleaded guilty and received sentences of up to seven years behind bars. Four are
fugitives believed to be in Cuba.
The makeup and political leanings of the jury have been crucial to the
defendants because they acknowledge acting on orders from the Cuban government
but say they were feeding information about militant Cuban exiles in Miami to
the FBI (news - web sites) during an outbreak of bombings at Cuban tourist
centers in 1997.
The prosecution objected to the defense's barring of all candidates of Cuban
background, and the defense contested the prosecution's removal of five blacks.
But U.S. District Judge Joan Lenard ruled there were racially neutral reasons
for dropping those challenged by both sides.
"There are no Cubans on this jury, and I'm very pleased about that,''
said Paul McKenna, attorney for Gerardo Hernandez.
Hernandez is charged with murder conspiracy for allegedly giving Cuban
authorities the flight plan of two planes flown by Brothers to the Rescue, an
exile group that patrols the sea between Florida and Cuba looking for refugees.
The planes were shot down by Cuban warplanes in 1996, and four men died.
Hernandez faces life in prison if convicted.
Luis Medina and Antonio Guerrero also face life sentences. Ruben Campa and
Rene Gonzalez could get 10-year terms if convicted as unregistered foreign
agents.
On the Net:
Brothers to the Rescue:
http://www.hermanos.org
Cuban TV Shows Castro With Elian
By Anita Snow, Associated Press Writer
HAVANA, 6 (AP) - Fidel Castro (news - web sites) played benevolent
grandfather to a timid 6-year-old Elian Gonzalez as state television on Tuesday
broadcast for the first time images of the leader with the little castaway whose
fate divided Cubans on both sides of the Florida Straits.
The surprise airing of the images recorded in July, just weeks after Elian
was repatriated following a seven-month custody battle, came on the eve of the
child's 7th birthday - expected to include a celebration attended by Castro
himself.
It was unclear why the government decided to broadcast the images after
months of making a conscious effort to keep the boy out of the public eye.
Castro had promised that Cuba would avoid a media circus upon Elian's return to
Cuba and was conspicuously absent at the boy's airport homecoming on June 28.
Castro's detractors had predicted that after Elian returned, the Cuban
leader would parade the child around like a poster boy for his political
ideology.
Elian survived a boat sinking that killed his mother and 10 other would-be
emigrants and was rescued by the U.S. Coast Guard (news - web sites) in November
1999. He became the subject of an international custody dispute between his
father in Cuba and their relatives in the United States, who fought
unsuccessfully to keep him.
In the images shown on Cuban television Tuesday evening, Castro took Elian's
hand to congratulate him for completing his first-grade studies. Castro gave
Elian "The Golden Age,'' a children's book by the late independence hero
Jose Marti.
Castro leaned down and talked to Elian softly, telling him he was a friend
of his father and his grandparents. At one point, he kissed him on the head.
Elian, meanwhile, looked up speechless at the bearded man in the olive green
uniform as his father and other relatives looked on and smiled.
"For when you are in the fourth or fifth grade and can enjoy one of the
most tender works of Marti,'' the Cuban leader said, reading his dedication to
Elian. It was signed, "Affectionately, Fidel Castro.''
Some images of the day marking Elian's completion of the first grade were
broadcast on state television in July, along with Castro's reading of the book's
dedication off-camera. It was clear from that broadcast 41/2 months ago that
Castro had met with Elian that day, but the two were not shown together.
Elian received his first-grade diploma in mid-July after what the Cuban
government said was a special effort by teachers to help him recover the time
lost during his tumultuous stay in the United States.
Rev. Joan Brown Campbell, the American minister who played a central role in
the fight by Elian's father for the child's repatriation, was to attend the
boy's birthday party Wednesday in his hometown of Cardenas, a two-hour drive
east of Havana.
Campbell has said she would bring Elian a new camera and film as a gift. It
will be the first time the former head of the National Council of Churches has
met with Elian, his father, Juan Miguel Gonzalez, and the boy's grandparents
since the child returned to the island on June 28.
Cuban Artists Ride Popularity Wave
By Vivian Sequera, Associated Press Writer
HAVANA, 6 (AP) - A small group of Cuban artists sat on an aging terrace,
chatting quietly in the dimness of the cool Havana night.
Beers in hand, the friends shared their experiences about an art show in
Istanbul, an exhibition in Colombia, plans to travel to New York City.
In years past, almost none of these artists had been to the United States,
and few had journeyed to Mexico or Europe, says Holly Block, who runs Art in
General in New York.
"Now, they are international travelers,'' she says. "They have
been in many expositions around the world, including the United States.''
Block, who seeks out new talent and periodically rents a house in Havana,
was entertaining her artist friends on her terrace.
"Anything Cuban is of interest these days; it is a fascinating part of
the world, where contrasts reign,'' says Manuel Gonzalez, director of Chase
Bank's art program in New York. Gonzalez collects Cuban art.
With their provocative works and surrounded by the "Cuban aura'' born
of the island's agitated political history, these young artists are among the
hottest on the market today. And they are riding especially high with the
current Havana Biennial, which runs through Jan. 5.
The show comes amid a great international interest in the Cuban arts,
starting with the collapse of the Soviet Union a decade ago to the more recent
success of Ry Cooder's documentary, "The Buena Vista Social Club,'' about a
band of elderly Cuban musicians.
"We are the beneficiaries of this trend, this fashion that exists now
with Cuba,'' says Nelson Herrera, director of the "Wilfredo Lam'' Center of
Contemporary Art in Havana, who organized the biennial.
Much of the interest in Cuba's visual arts surged with the 1994 biennial
that came during a severe economic crisis brought on by the collapse of the
Eastern bloc, and on the heels of massive migration of Cubans to the United
States earlier that year.
Among those who attended in 1994 was Block, who visited Cuba for the first
time, along with a group of American curators and gallery representatives.
Impressed by the quality of the work they found, Block and several other
Americans organized a program in 1997 to regularly bring Cuban artists to the
United States to work seven weeks at universities and cultural centers in five
different cities.
At the time, Cuba was suffering through some of the worst years of the
so-called "Special Period'' - the economic crisis caused by the loss of
Cuba's former socialist allies.
During that biennial, some artists used scraps of wood from small boats and
other simple rafts to create works focusing on the rafters - an exodus of more
than 30,000 people across the Florida Straits, with hundreds of people leaving
daily.
"We are brought up in a society that is highly politicized and every
gesture is a political act,'' says Tania Bruguera, who was in the first group of
Cuban artists to travel to the United States with Block's program. Bruguera's
drawing and sculpture installation was sponsored by The School of the Art
Institute of Chicago.
Bruguera studied art at Cuba's San Alejandro School of Visual Arts
(1980-1983) and the Higher Institute of Art (1992 ). She has taught at the
Higher institute of Art in Cuba since 1992.
Begun in 1983, the biennial was created to promote Third World and Cuban
art. After that first year in Havana, it was held in other cities, including
Johannesburg, South Africa; Istanbul, Turkey; and Lima, Peru. The biennial was
initially aimed at presenting the work just of Latin American and Caribbean
artists. It later expanded to include works from Asia, Africa and the Middle
East.
This year's show includes more than 170 artists whose works will be shown at
20 sites throughout Havana.
The biennial gives local artists incredible promotion, Bruguera says,
because there is not a huge market here for their work - average Cubans do not
have the cash necessary to buy art. But foreigners who visit Havana - curators,
gallery owners and tourists - buy the art.
Photographer Miguel Pina, who is known for his images of the famous Malecon
seawall and a series of buildings throughout the city, agrees. Among his best
known work is a black and white photograph showing the back of a boy jumping
from the Malecon's wall into Havana Bay. Like so much of Cuban art, it is an
allusion to Cuban migration.
Pina was a mechanical engineer who studied in Vladimir, Russia, in 1983. He
enjoyed photography, and, in 1997, he did a printmaking residency at Vinalhaven
Press in Maine. Pina won an Andrew Fellowship from University of British
Columbia, Vancouver, in 1996.
For now, he and the other young artists have privileges that few on the
island enjoy: They can travel abroad; they can sell their art in American
dollars. But they say they know that future fame is not a given.
This popularity "is an ephemeral thing,'' Pina acknowledges. At the
beginning of the 1990s, "there wasn't an art magazine without expositions
by three or four Russian artists. ... Now you can count on your fingers the
number that are still getting attention.
"The same is going to happen here, I am sure,'' Pina says. "Two or
three people with talent, and a bit of luck, will succeed in establishing
themselves.''
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