Published Friday, March 10, 2000, in the Miami Herald
Assets seizure step closer for Brothers family
By Ana Radelat. Special to The Herald
WASHINGTON -- The family of downed Brothers to the Rescue pilots came a step closer to collecting a $187.6 million judgment against the Cuban government Thursday when a Senate panel approved a bill that would allow the seizure of foreign assets.
The Justice for Victims of Terrorism Act, sponsored by Sens. Connie Mack, R-Fla., and Frank Lautenberg, D-N.J., would strip the president of his authority to protect foreign assets in the United States.
The Senate Judiciary Committee's unanimous approval of the bill breathed new life into an effort to help the families of three Brothers to the Rescue pilots who were shot down by the Cuban air force Feb. 24, 1996. A Florida court awarded the families $187.6 million in damages. A fourth pilot
killed in the incident was not eligible to share in the award because he was not a U.S. citizen.
The Brothers to the Rescue families, and other victims of terrorism who have won lawsuits against the government of Iran, have not been able to collect on their judgments because President Clinton blocked efforts to attach Iranian and Cuban assets in the United States.
Writers open Cuba contact
HAVANA -- (AP) -- U.S. writers led by playwright Arthur Miller and novelist William Styron visited the southern colonial city of Trinidad on Thursday during a trip aimed at increasing contacts between U.S. and Cuban intellectuals.
The group arrived in Cuba on Wednesday as guests of the Culture Ministry, official news agency Prensa Latina said.
The group was scheduled to meet later in Havana with Foreign Minister Felipe Perez Roque and Ricardo Alarcon, president of Cuba's National Assembly, Prensa Latina said. The Americans will also talk with Cuban writers, playwrights and actors.
FIU scholar reception is back on
By Don Finefrock And Jack Wheat . dfinefrock@herald.com
A possible confrontation over Miami-Dade's controversial anti-Cuba policy was averted late Thursday when county officials said they would allow a group of Latin American scholars, including some from Cuba, to hold a reception next week at a county cultural complex.
On Monday, Florida International University officials -- who are hosting more than 5,000 members of the prestigious Latin American Studies Association -- were told they could not hold the opening gala Wednesday night at the Miami-Dade Cultural Plaza and the Historical Museum of Southern Florida
in downtown Miami.
Why? Because the presence of 112 Cuban scholars who are members of the association would violate a 1996 Miami-Dade policy prohibiting use of county resources in dealings with Cuba or Cuban citizens.
But that stance changed on Thursday, when county officials told the Miami-Dade Commission that the policy was overlooked when FIU signed a contract to rent the facility for $3,840.
``We have a signed contract, which means we have to honor the contract,'' Assistant County Attorney Robert Cuevas said in an interview.
The county usually requires organizations seeking to do business with it to sign an affidavit agreeing to comply with the anti-Cuba policy.
``This one slipped through without the affidavit,'' Cuevas said. ``But they signed [the contract], they paid their money, so they can have their event.''
That news was welcome relief to FIU officials, who had been scrambling to find another venue for the big party.
``I am thrilled that Miami through its state university, FIU, will be able to extend its traditionally warm hospitality to scholars from 48 countries,'' said President Modesto Maidique, who lobbied county officials heavily to get clearance for the event.
NO VIOLATION
Maidique insisted all along that the reception would not violate the anti-Cuba policy, which has driven off the Latin Grammy Awards show and sank the county's bid to host the 2007 Pan American Games.
``I do not believe a local university's plan to host a group of visiting academicians is in any way in violation of the Miami-Dade County Cuba resolution,'' he said. ``Our folks raised some money from private sources for the purpose of welcoming a prestigious group to the city. We asked an
appropriate venue, the museum, to be made available. There will be no presentations, no shows, no films, no exhibitions. This is basically some folks who will be invited so they can feel welcome as they first enter the Miami environment.''
The Latin American Studies Association, founded in 1966, is the world's largest organization of scholars studying Latin American and Caribbean history, politics, culture, sociology and scientific issues. The association's major meetings, including the one in Miami, occur every 18 months at sites
around the world.
Planning for the Miami meeting -- which runs through next Saturday at five downtown hotels -- began two years ago, said Eduardo Gamarra, director of FIU's highly regarded Latin American and Caribbean Center. This is the second time FIU has hosted the LASA conference -- a feather in the cap of
the young public university seeking to build an international reputation.
EXILE POLITICS
But at the start of this week, the planners ran headlong into Cuban exile politics and the county's stance against dealing in any way with Fidel Castro's Cuba.
On Monday, El Nuevo Herald, the Spanish-language sister publication of The Herald, ran a story about the conference and published the names of the 112 Cuban scholars who had signed up to attend.
Gamarra said he began receiving scores of angry calls, including a death threat. FIU officials asked for additional security to safeguard the Cuban scholars during their visit.
``Certainly this is the most unusual meeting we've ever had in 34 years,'' said LASA President Franklin W. Knight, a Johns Hopkins University historian.
Knight said he was concerned by the possibility that anti-Castro sentiments might distort an academic conference at which 2,772 papers on Latin America will be presented.
``We're an international organization,'' Knight said. ``We've got representatives from 48 countries coming. I'm committed that it's not going to be converted to a Cuba event. It's going to retain its international perspective, and we're going to reflect our international constituency.''
COMMISSION NOTIFIED
When county officials realized Cuban nationals would be at the reception, they alerted FIU that use of county property would be off limits.
But late Thursday, an aide to County Manager Merrett Stierheim addressed the issue at the tail end of a long County Commission meeting. Only a handful of commissioners were present, and the item sparked little discussion.
Stierheim left the meeting before the issue came up.
``I feel under the commission's policy I have an obligation to put it on the table,'' he said earlier in the day. ``I am just putting it on the table. I want them to be aware.''
Miami-Dade Commissioner Javier Souto, a strong supporter of the policy, also had left the meeting before the issue was raised.
Earlier, though, Souto -- a Cuban American whose district in west Miami-Dade is heavily Hispanic -- defended the policy, saying it reflects the sentiments of many of the people the commission represents.
``Some people have their agenda, to bring all these people from Cuba, but we have these regulations, and why do we have these regulations? We happen to be unique, different,'' Souto said. ``We are trying to project here the feelings of the people that we represent. The policy is the policy.''
The positions
Elian Gonzalez's Miami relatives seek an asylum hearing for the boy. U.S. District Judge K. Michael Moore will decide whether to order the Immigration and Naturalization Service to hear the claim. The family also has a case in state court before Judge Jennifer Bailey; it's on hold while the
federal suit is resolved.
The family's argument: Elian has a constitutional right to an asylum hearing. He should receive asylum because he would face political persecution in Cuba. And his father's insistence that the boy be returned to Cuba should be discounted because the Cuban government is pressuring him to make
those statements.
The U.S. Justice Department's argument: Only Elian's father can speak for him, and he has withdrawn the asylum petition submitted by the Miami relatives. The relatives have no legal standing to make the request, and the federal court has no jurisdiction over an immigrant still in INS custody.
U.S. position on Elian case is questioned
Judge says he has jurisdiction to rule on boy's relatives' asylum-hearing suit
By Jay Weaver. jweaver@herald.com
The federal judge in the Elian Gonzalez case on Thursday expressed skepticism about the U.S. Justice Department's stand that it doesn't have to give the boy an asylum hearing, saying he sees inconsistencies in the government's argument.
The comments by U.S. District Judge K. Michael Moore offered some hope to Elian's Miami's relatives that they might be allowed to make a claim that he should stay in the United States.
Moore said he thinks he has jurisdiction to rule on the relatives demand for an asylum hearing -- contrary to the government's position -- and that he's legally required to appoint an independent guardian for Elian.
Moore's pointed questions in the critical court hearing surprised some legal experts who have said there is a clear legal standard requiring the 6-year-old to be returned to his father in Cuba.
The judge must now decide whether to order the Immigration and Naturalization Service to give the boy an asylum hearing in a lawsuit brought by his Miami relatives, or throw out their complaint because the federal agency claims only Elian's father can request the interview on the boy's behalf.
Moore, presiding over a three-hour hearing in a courtroom packed with lawyers, Elian's relatives and media, did not indicate when he will rule on the highly publicized dispute.
During the hearing, the judge asked Deputy Solicitor General Edwin Kneedler how immigration officials could maintain they reviewed Elian's asylum application when it appeared to him that was not the case. The boy's Miami relatives filed his request on Dec. 10, but the INS rejected it on Jan. 5
-- without giving Elian an asylum interview in the meantime.
``If you're going to accept it and deny it, that's OK,'' Moore told Kneedler. ``But it has to be given due-process consideration. You can't have it both ways.''
Kneedler said immigration officials first had to determine whether Elian's Cuban father, Juan Miguel Gonzalez, was fit to represent his son after he lost his mother on a boat journey from Cuba to Florida in November. When the INS found that only the father could speak for the boy because he is
so young, Gonzalez withdrew his son's asylum request so he could be returned to Cuba.
No matter how the judge rules in this suit, there will likely be appeals by the losing side that could stall Elian's fate for weeks, if not months. The boy is staying with his Miami relatives in Little Havana and attending the Lincoln-Marti School.
His great-uncle, Lazaro Gonzalez, filed the suit in January as Elian's ``next friend'' to force the INS to grant the boy his asylum hearing. The government's legal team argued the judge has no jurisdiction to order the agency to hear the boy's claim, and that his great-uncle cannot displace the
father in the dispute.
But during the hearing, Moore said: ``I think it's conceded that the federal court has jurisdiction of an asylum claim.'' He did not elaborate.
The judge also said federal law compelled him to consider appointing an independent guardian for Elian -- especially if he orders the INS to hear his Miami relatives' claim that Elian faces a well-founded fear of persecution in Cuba.
BROAD POWERS
Kneedler, the only government lawyer to speak at the hearing, argued that Attorney General Janet Reno had such broad powers to enforce immigration law that the judge did not have jurisdiction to question her decision.
Attorney Linda Osberg-Braun, representing the boy's relatives, countered that immigration law offers due-process asylum protections for refugees such as Elian. He is legally in the custody of the INS, even though the agency temporarily placed him with Lazaro Gonzalez's family.
``Any alien who is physically present in the United States, regardless of his immigration status, has a right to an asylum hearing,'' said Osberg-Braun, who is a former INS lawyer. ``The issue of whether the boy can speak for himself is subject to judicial review.''
The deputy solicitor general said that the INS interviewed Elian's father twice in Cuba and determined that he had a caring relationship with his son and that his ``true wishes'' were to see the boy returned to Cuba. Kneedler also stressed that state, federal and international law recognizes the
custody rights of a surviving parent -- if that parent is found to be fit.
``It's not just a matter of common law. It's constitutionally based law,'' he said.
FATHER'S ABSENCE
Another attorney for Elian's relatives, Kendall Coffey, seized on the conspicuous absence of the boy's father at the hearing -- even though his presence was not required in this dispute. Juan Miguel Gonzalez, who recently hired his own attorney, refused to come to Miami.
``In every case I've seen, the parent who speaks for the child shows up in court,'' said Coffey, a former U.S. attorney in Miami.
Coffey also argued that if the judge does nor order an asylum hearing for Elian, there is ``very serious evidence'' that ``he could face irretrievable harm'' back in Cuba. He did not provide details.
Some legal experts said they thought the judge would order the INS to give Elian an asylum interview.
Ira Kurzban, considered the dean of immigration lawyers in Miami, said: ``Unless the judge determines the Miami family has no standing to bring the suit or unless he determines the father's constitutional rights are paramount, he's probably going to let them file an asylum claim with INS.''
LENGTHY PROCESS
Chicago attorney Jeffery Leving, representing another great-uncle, Manuel Gonzalez, who wants Elian returned to his father, said the judge's comments and questions suggested he was going to order the asylum hearing.
``I think the judge is leaning [that way],'' said Leving, who added that he did not think Elian's father can expect to see his son soon. ``Not the way things are going.''
If the judge lets the boy have an asylum hearing, the INS must review his claim. If the agency grants it, Elian gets to stay in Miami. If INS denies it, the agency must refer the claim to the immigration court in Miami. If that court denies his claim, the boy's relatives could appeal that
decision to the Board of Immigration Appeals.
And if that proves to be a dead end, the relatives can take Elian's claim to a a federal appellate court in Atlanta.
Coffey argued that if Moore orders the INS to grant the boy's asylum hearing, it could be conducted with 60 days.
But Kneedler, the federal government's main lawyer, said: ``This could lead to an extended absence between parent and child that could lead to irreparable damage to that relationship.''
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