Yahoo! Mayo 31, 2000
U.S. Chamber Leader Arrives in Cuba
By Vivian Sequera, Associated Press Writer.
HAVANA, 30 (AP) - The vice president of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce arrived in Havana on Tuesday for talks on increasing business with Cuba - one of several visits this week by U.S. officials interested in developing ties with the communist island.
A Congressional Black Caucus delegation also was expected, joining a third delegation of Arkansas lawmakers and farmers, who arrived Sunday hoping to develop agricultural contacts.
The visit by Craig Johnstone, vice president of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, follows last year's visit by Chamber President Thomas Donohue - the first made by a U.S. Chamber official to Cuba since the 1959 revolution brought Fidel Castro to power.
The chamber has been especially interested in Cuba's small, nascent private sector. After the 1991 collapse of the Soviet Union, Cuba's communist government instituted modest economic reforms to ease severe financial crisis by allowing a small group of Cubans to open small businesses.
The Arkansas lawmakers, meanwhile, were more focused on possible changes back in the states, as the House of Representatives considers easing a four-decade embargo.
Sen. Blanche Lincoln and Rep. Marion Berry, both Democrats, said they hoped the House voted next week to eliminate restrictions on American sales of food and medicine to Cuba.
The Black Caucus members were planning to meet with Cuban lawmakers, educators, physicians and clergy during their visit, which is aimed simply at helping them understand the country better.
``If there is ever to be improved relations between Cuba and the United States, there must be dialogue and exchange,'' Rev. Lucius Walker said in a bulletin announcing the group's visit.
INS Official Convicted of Espionage
By Catherine Wilson, Associated Press Writer.
MIAMI, 30 (AP) - A U.S. immigration official was found guilty of espionage Tuesday for revealing secrets to a friend with ties to Cuba.
Mariano Faget, 54, a naturalized U.S. citizen who came from Cuba as a teen-ager, took the stand in his own defense last week to say that he had ``made a mistake'' when he passed classified information to his lifelong friend, a businessman.
The federal court jury also convicted him of converting government property, in this case secret information, to his own use, lying on a national security form by saying he had no foreign business ties and lying about his contacts with a Cuban official.
The 12 jurors began deliberating Thursday on the charges, which carry up to 10 years in prison. They were off Friday through Monday, and returned their verdict after about three additional hours of work Tuesday.
Faget, 54, was an acting deputy director of the U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service in Miami when he was caught in an FBI sting calling friend and business partner Pedro Font with the name of a Cuban who was allegedly about to defect.
He had been warned the classified information was secret; in fact, it was a phony story made up as part of the sting operation.
Prosecutors relied on surveillance tapes to prove their case, while the defense challenged the assertion - required for a conviction - that Faget intended to hurt the United States or help Cuba.
``Mariano Faget was a government employee willing to betray the trust of people he was sworn to serve,'' Assistant U.S. Attorney Curtis Miner told jurors last week. ``He disclosed classified information for no better purpose than his own personal reasons, his own personal gain.''
Defense attorney Edward O'Donnell called Faget ``an honest government servant who made a mistake.''
Faget was close to retirement after 34 years with the INS. He and Font formed America Cuba Inc. to pursue business in Cuba if the U.S. trade embargo against the communist-led country is ever lifted.
Faget testified that he tipped off his friend because Font was meeting with a Cuban diplomat that day. Faget said he feared Font would be harmed if Cuban officials thought he was involved with the defection.
But the prosecutor ridiculed Faget's assertion that he didn't think telling Font about the defection would hurt national security.
``He took it out of the realm of control of the United States government and gave it to someone else, to use however they wanted,'' Miner told the jury in his closing.
Cuban Sculptor Rita Longa Dies
HAVANA, 30 (AP) - Cuban sculptor Rita Longa, whose bronze and marble creations grace the capital's Bellas Artes Palace and the Tropicana nightclub, died Monday of a heart attack, state media reported Tuesday. She was 87.
Longa began her sculpting career in the 1930s, and won Cuba's National Salon Award for Painting and Sculpture in 1938. She received international recognition at the 1951 Gold Medal Exhibition in New York.
In Cuba, she directed the Center for Monumental and Environmental Sculpture, and received the National Award for Visual Arts in 1995.
Her death was reported by the Communist Party daily Granma and the official Prensa Latina news service. A funeral service was to be held Wednesday in the Cuban capital.
Longa, a widow, is survived by a son and a granddaughter.
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