Yahoo! September 20, 2000
Cuba Media Ignored Plane Crash
By Anita Snow, Associated Press Writer.
HAVANA, 20 (AP) - As the world awaited news on the nine survivors aboard a small plane that was pirated out of Cuba, the communist island's government for hours mentioned nary a word about the audacious act.
It was as if it never occurred.
All day Tuesday, there was nothing about that morning's incident on state television or radio - the only authorized broadcasts available to the general public. There were no official statements from the Foreign Ministry, no bulletins from the Institute of Civil Aeronautics.
But Wednesday morning, Cuba acknowledged that, indeed, the pilot of a single-engine plane stopped off at an airport to pick up a group of people before heading out toward the United States.
In its first statement on the flight, the government said the pilot reported to the control tower that he was being hijacked and that the plane was headed to Florida.
The note in the Communist Party daily Granma indicated the government had received most of its information about the incident from foreign media, listing the The Associated Press and CNN, among others.
But on Tuesday, Cubans tuning in to the 6 p.m. daily public affairs program, which had President Fidel Castro in the television studio audience, would have learned only about black American congressmen who support the lifting of the U.S. trade embargo.
On the 8 p.m. nightly news, they heard about what happened on the earlier program and watched footage of Juan Miguel Gonzalez returning to work after the seven-month battle to bring his 6-year-old boy Elian home from the United States in late June.
Cuba's media often remains silent for hours, even days at a time, waiting to formulate responses to international events affecting the island before making them public. In a developing incident such as Tuesday's apparent act of aviation piracy, Cuban authorities sometimes wait for things to play
out first.
The note in Granma reflected the continuing confusion over the exact nature of the act - a hijacking in which people were taken from Cuba against their will or a collaborative theft of a plane by a group of people who all wanted to go to the United States.
"At the close of this edition of Granma, Cuban authorities do not know the exact number of people on the hijacked plane, nor the identity of the 10 rescued by the merchant ship, as it has not received any additional information,'' said the statement, dated at 1 a.m. Wednesday.
Despite the lack of official information Tuesday, word still seeped out, via telephone calls from relatives in the United States, glimpses at foreign news reports on television sets in tourist areas, and the word-of-mouth grapevine known as "Radio Bemba,'' which roughly means "Big
Mouth Radio.''
"Did they pick them all up? Did they all die?'' a waiter who gave his name only as Jose asked as he served cappuccinos from a restaurant in Old Havana. He was surprised, and relieved, to learn only one of the 10 perished in the daring attempt.
The incident came at a prickly time, just before scheduled migration talks Thursday between Cuban and U.S. officials in New York.
Havana maintains that under the 1966 Cuban Adjustment Act, Washington practically invites Cubans to climb aboard rickety rafts and make the dangerous journey across the Florida Straits by promising them the right to stay if they reach American soil.
Washington, meanwhile, accuses Havana of provoking the risky journeys by preventing Cubans who have U.S. visas from legally leaving the island. Cuban officials deny the charge.
USA only unbeaten as Cuba finally falls
By Joe Ka. Ap Sports Writer. September 20, 2000
SYDNEY, Australia, 20 (AP) -- Doug Mientkiewicz pointed his right index finger skyward as he touched 'em all on the biggest hit of his career, a game-turning grand slam.
That one finger said it all. For the first time, the United States -- not Cuba -- was No. 1 in Olympic baseball.
Mientkiewicz's eighth-inning grand slam sent the Americans to a 4-0 victory Wednesday over South Korea and left them with the only perfect record in the eight-team field.
The Cubans were left trying to catch up after the Netherlands ended their Olympic baseball winning streak at 21 games earlier in the day.
"These first four games have been unbelievable,'' said outfielder Ernie Young, who scored on the slam. "This is what baseball's all about.''
Until Wednesday, Olympic baseball had been about Cuba winning. The Dutch changed all that with the help of some former Yanks, beating the Cubans 4-2 to end their remarkable run.
Stripped of their swagger and their perfect record, the Cubans packed their equipment bags, slung them over their shoulders and headed for the bus. Any tears were saved for the ride home.
After sweeping to gold medals in Barcelona and Atlanta, the Cubans (3-1) finally learned what it's like to lose. The gold is still possible, but the island nation that loves its "beisbol'' has lost a little bit of its luster.
"It's not embarrassing,'' outfielder Luis Ulacia said in a matter-of-fact tone. "That's why they send so many teams to the Olympics. They don't just bring Cuba.''
The Americans knew that the Cubans had lost when they took the field for their later game. They didn't have much time to think about it -- South Korea (1-3) took a scoreless tie into the eighth.
That's when Mientkiewicz, who played for the Minnesota Twins last year before being sent back to the minors, came through with his big hit, perfectly timing a full-count fastball.
"This is the best feeling in the world,'' he said. "This is the best feeling I've ever had in baseball.''
For the first time, the Cubans had to deal with defeat.
In Barcelona, the Cubans easily rolled to the gold. With defections starting to take a toll, the Cubans had to survive a few close calls en route to another gold medal in Atlanta four years ago.
Amateur baseball's dynasty finally cracked Wednesday, failing to come through like it had every other time in the past.
Former New York Yankees outfielder Hensley "Bam Bam'' Meulens doubled with the bases loaded and former San Francisco Giants pitcher Ken Brauckmiller pitched eight strong innings as the Netherlands (2-2) closed in on the upset.
When former Mets infielder Ralph Milliard cradled the ball at second for a game-ending forceout, the Netherlands had the win that had eluded the rest of the world.
"This is for all the Dutch people around the world!'' exclaimed Meulens, who broke into the majors with the Yankees in 1989.
By switching from aluminum bats to wood and allowing professionals -- mostly minor leaguers and former major leaguers -- into the Olympic tournament this year, organizers left Cuba vulnerable.
"You can't win 'em all,'' Brauckmiller, a former San Francisco Giants pitcher who handled the Olympics' best-hitting lineup for eight innings. "You win 20 in a row and sooner or later maybe things catch up to you.''
The upset was within grasp after Meulens' bases-loaded double in the third off Maels Rodriguez, who throws a 99 mph fastball but opted for the slider.
"It was probably the biggest hit of my career,'' Meulens said. "Getting to the major leagues is one of the greatest things anyone can have. Being part of the Yankees and getting to play my first game at Yankee Stadium was great. This ranks right up there.''
By the ninth, the crowd of 12,450 was on its feet, waiting to see if the Cubans could forestall history. They couldn't, leaving an opening for the United States to jump ahead of them for the first time.
The Americans took it.
"You were surprised that they lost,'' manager Tom Lasorda said of the Cubans. "But it's like anything: You never know. No one can predict what's going to happen.''
Cuban Pilot's Family Stunned
By Will Stebbins, Associated Press Writer.
PINAR DEL RIO, Cuba 20 (AP) - The departure of a single-engine plane from Cuba stunned a family in a western agricultural province, who said the pilot was trying to flee the country with his wife and sons before crashing at sea Tuesday.
Although U.S. and Cuban authorities have not identified the nine survivors rescued by a Panamanian-registered freighter off Cuba's coast, a family in Pinar Del Rio said they were sure their relatives were aboard the craft. The flight appeared to have been a well-planned and well-kept secret,
they said.
Mercedes Martinez, 34, "never talked about doing this, not even in jest,'' said her brother, Jorge Martinez. Relatives said the pilot was her husband, Lenin Iglesia Hernandez, 35.
Although Iglesia was a licensed civilian pilot, there was no independent confirmation that he was flying the plane. His in-laws said he was not a military pilot. Air traffic control in Havana said the plane reported a possible hijacking before the crash.
Iglesia left the home he shared with his extended family in the town of Los Palacios early Tuesday for his job as an agricultural pilot, said his sister-in-law, Ileana Martinez.
His wife left later with their sons, Erik, 13, and Danny, 7, saying they were going to Havana for the day, relatives said. They carried no suitcases and there was no other indication they were going on a longer trip.
Details were sketchy, but the Martinez family said they understood that Iglesia took off from a small airstrip in Los Palacios, about 60 miles west of Havana, then landed at Pinar del Rio's Herradura Airport, where he picked up his wife, sons and six others.
Jose Zavala, a supervisor at Cuba's Institute of Civil Aeronautics in Havana, said by telephone the plane was used for agricultural work. He declined to provide any other details.
After the plane crashed, one man was dead and nine others were found clinging to debris, U.S. Coast Guard (news - web sites) officials said.
Three men, three women and three children were rescued from rough seas about 50 miles west of Cuba, about five hours after the plane took off, the U.S. Coast Guard said.
A Coast Guard cutter planned to meet the freighter Tuesday night and pick up the survivors. The most seriously injured were to be flown to Florida for treatment.
A U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Services official was aboard the cutter and planned to interview the survivors, said INS spokeswoman Maria Cardona, in Washington.
Cubans wishing to return to the island would be permitted to do so. Those who expressed a credible fear of persecution would be sent temporarily to the U.S. naval base at Guantanamo, on Cuba's eastern tip, for further processing, Cardona said.
She raised the possibility that the diversion of the plane was a collaborative effort among those aboard. If so, the incident could not be described as a hijacking, she added.
The 1966 U.S. Cuban Adjustment Act allows Cubans who reach U.S. soil to apply for U.S. residency. The government in Cuba says the law violates 1994 and 1995 migration accords with the United States aimed at encouraging orderly, legal immigration.
FBI Interviews Cuba Crash Survivor
By Adrian Sainz, Associated Press Writer.
KEY WEST, Fla. 20(AP) - The FBI (news - web sites) interviewed one survivor of a Cuban plane that crashed in the Gulf of Mexico and the Coast Guard will attempt to transfer the eight others to a guard cutter, authorities said Wednesday.
Authorities were attempting to figure out whether Tuesday's crash, which killed one of the 10 Cubans aboard, came at the end of a hijacking or whether the 10 had left Cuba voluntarily aboard a stolen plane.
Petty Officer Danielle DeMarino said the seas were too rough to transfer the survivors to the Coast Guard cutter Courageous on Wednesday morning, so the transfer would be attempted Wednesday evening. There is an FBI agent onboard the cutter to investigate, she said.
"Due to heavy weather right now, we're trying to find calmer seas,'' DeMarino said.
Seas in the area were at 4 to 8 feet because of tropical weather disturbances in the Gulf of Mexico.
Wednesday morning, all but one of the survivors remained aboard the Panamanian freighter Chios Dream, whose captain rescued them Tuesday. The most seriously injured, Rodolfo Fuentes, 36, was flown to a Key West hospital Tuesday night.
FBI agent Al Alonso said Wednesday that the agency was talking with Fuentes. He would not give details.
Doctors said Wednesday his prognosis is good.
"He has a concussion, a big cut on the back of his head and a sore neck,'' said Dr. David Bannon. "He's really doing quite well considering the drama he suffered.''
U.S. law lets Cubans apply for residency if they reach U.S. soil. Ordinarily, those who are captured at sea are returned to Cuba, but authorities said it was too early to say what would be done with the survivors.
The Cuban government said that the pilot reported to the control tower that he was being hijacked and that the plane, a government plane used in agriculture, was headed to Florida with a group of adults and children.
The Cuban government's statement, published Wednesday in the Communist Party daily Granma, said that pilot Lenin Iglesias Hernandez first took off in the plane at 7:35 a.m. Tuesday from a small airstrip in western Pinar del Rio province with flight technician Juan Jose Galeano Cabrera for what
initially appeared to be a routine crop-dusting flight.
But Iglesias then flew to nearby Herradura airport in the capital of Pinar del Rio, where he asked Galeano Cabrera to get out and wait for him because he had to deal with "an administrative matter.''
There, Iglesias picked up a group of people waiting for him at the extreme end of one of the runways and took off at 8:35 a.m., the statement added.
"They came voluntarily,'' said Aina Cepero, a family member of two brothers she said had been aboard the plane. She said the brothers' father lives in Miami.
The Coast Guard cutter arrived at the freighter Tuesday night. An FBI agent was sent to the cutter after hijacking allegations surfaced. Among the questions the agents hoped to answer was whether the plane ran out of gas.
Konstantinos Kalaitgis, captain of the Panamanian freighter, said the plane circled his ship several times and dropped a box into the sea. The plane crashed nearby and the survivors - three men, three women and three children - scrambled out.
A doctor from the nearby Carnival Cruise ship Tropicale initially treated the survivors. In addition to the injured suffered by Fuentes, a women had a broken collarbone and another had a severe leg cut. The others had no serious injuries, Carnival spokesman Andy Newman said.
The plane crashed about 50 miles west of Cuba or about 150 miles east of Mexico's Yucatan peninsula. It was 285 miles from Key West. The Coast Guard said the craft was heading west - away from both Florida and Cuba - when it went down.
Mercedes Martinez - believed to be the pilot's wife - "never talked about doing this, not even in jest,'' said her brother, Jorge Martinez, in Pinar del Rio. Relatives said the pilot, Iglesias, iss 35, and identified their sons as Erik, 13, and Danny, 7.
Air traffic control in Havana notified the air traffic control center in Miami at 8:45 a.m. Tuesday that the aircraft reported a possible hijacking, said Kathleen Bergen, a Federal Aviation Administration (news - web sites) spokeswoman in Atlanta.
Contact was lost 15 minutes later. The FAA had no voice or radar contact with the aircraft, Bergen said. The Pentagon (news - web sites) also said it had no radar contact with the plane.
U.S. treatment of would-be exiles has been in the spotlight since the tug-of-war over Elian Gonzalez, the Cuban boy rescued at sea in November. His mother died during the attempt to reach America, and the boy was eventually returned to his Cuban father despite protests by Cuban-Americans who
wanted him to stay.
Armando Gutierrez, who once served as the family spokesman for the Miami family who wanted to keep Elian, and attorney Manny Diaz traveled from Miami to a Key West hospital to visit Fuentes.
"We're here to show support and help another Cuban and his family,'' Gutierrez said Wednesday.
President Clinton (news - web sites) said the health and safety of the survivors should be America's first concern.
"I can imagine that there will be a lot of questions about what should be done about the people that are found alive,'' Clinton said. "I think the most important thing now is just to worry about their care.''
On the Net:
FAA: http://www.faa.gov
Coast Guard: http://www.uscg.mil
Committee Hears Cuba Embargo Debate
By Ken Guggenheim, Associated Press Writer.
WASHINGTON, 19 (AP) - Once Cuba was a main consumer of American rice. And it could be again - if only the 38-year embargo on the communist island were lifted, a rice industry official told a federal panel Tuesday.
"The only real winners from these sanctions are the suppliers of lower quality rice elsewhere in the world,'' said Richard E. Bell of the USA Rice Federation. "The big losers are the U.S. rice industry and the Cuban consumer.''
What would happen to the U.S. and Cuban economies if the sanctions ended was the focus of a hearing before the U.S. International Trade Commission, an independent, nonpartisan federal agency. The hearing was part of a study the agency is preparing at the request of the House Ways and Means
Committee on the sanctions.
With 36 witnesses over two days, the hearing is one of the biggest public forums held in Washington on the sanctions. It comes as momentum grows in Congress for easing the sanctions.
The commission's report, due Feb. 15, won't offer an opinion on whether the sanctions should continue. But most speakers at the hearing did, debating whether it hurts Fidel Castro's communist government, innocent Cubans - or U.S. businesses that miss out on opportunities for trade.
Bell said that before the sanctions were imposed in 1962, Cuba was the largest export market for U.S. rice. If the embargo were lifted and rice consumption, which has been diminishing, returned to normal levels, Cuba could import up to 600,000 tons a year, mostly from the United States.
That would be the equivalent of 20 percent of annual rice imports in recent years, he said.
But embargo supporters say U.S. business interests don't justify ending the embargo. They say the Cuban economy is so weak, it would have little money to import U.S. products. They also claim that Cuba has been unreliable in its trade with other nations.
The sanctions "promote U.S. economic security and serve to protect American business interests and the nation's economy from the illegal, corrupt, command control, failed economic practices of Cuba's communist regime,'' said Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, R-Fla.
Even if there was money to be made in Cuba, sanction supporters said that should not be the basis of easing the pressure on the Castro government.
"It is the belief of U.S. policy that it is as immoral as it is unacceptable to simply stand by and allow one of our closest neighbors to languish unendingly under a brutal dictatorship run by a psychopath and conduct business as usual,'' said Rep. Lincoln Diaz-Balart, R-Fla.
The two Republicans objected to the presence at the hearing of Fernando Remirez, head of the Cuban Interests Section.
Remirez highlighted how the Cuban economy has been recovering since the widespread shortages that followed the collapse of its ally, the Soviet Union.
The embargo, he said, was always unjustified. But with the end of the Cold War, "it has even run out of pretexts,'' he said.
"In a world where the 21st century has arrived, where integration and globalization provide the conditions to work, a policy of embargo is absolutely out of place,'' he said.
On the Net:
International Trade Commission: www.usitc.gov
Cuban Doctors, Victims of Kidnapping Attempt, to Testify Before U.S. Senate
Tuesday September 19, 11:22 am Eastern Time. Press Release. SOURCE: Cuban American National Foundation
WASHINGTON, Sept. 19 /PRNewswire/ -- Two defecting Cuban doctors who were victims of an attempted kidnapping by the Cuban government in Zimbabwe will travel to Washington to testify Wednesday before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. Their trip is being sponsored by the Cuban American
National Foundation.
Leonel Cordova Rodriguez and Noris Pena Martinez were called to appear by Committee Chairman Jesse Helms (R-NC) to provide an account of their harrowing attempt to seek political asylum; detail the current state of Cuba's health care system; describe Fidel Castro's use "medical missions''
abroad to curry political support for his regime; and explain how the Castro regime denies medicine and quality medical care to the Cuban people while creating a medical tourism sector for foreigners paying in hard currency.
Cordova Rodriguez, an internist, and Pena Martinez, a dentist, were part of a Cuban "medical mission'' in Zimbabwe this past June when they sought political asylum. Cuban officials, in concert with Zimbabwean officials, tried to force them on a plane back to Havana, but the kidnapping was
foiled when they slipped a note to an employee of Air France, whose pilot refused to take off with the two on board.
The doctors also plan to join a delegation of the Cuban American National Foundation in lobbying members of Congress against any softening of U.S. policy towards the Castro regime, as well as attend a luncheon in their honor at the Heritage Foundation.
WHAT: Senate Foreign Relations Committee Hearing
"Fidel Castro: Kidnapper, Part I"
WHEN: Wednesday, September 20, 2000
2:30 p.m.
WHERE: 419 Dirksen Senate Office Building
Dutch shock Cuba, U.S. stays unbeaten in Olympic baseball
By Sandy Zinn SportsTicker Senior Editor. September 20, 2000
SYDNEY, Australia (Ticker) -- Ken Brauckmiller's dream is Cuba's nightmare.
The American citizen with a dual passport helped record one of the biggest upsets in international baseball history this morning, pitching eight solid innings of relief as the Netherlands shocked Cuba, 4-2.
Cuba has won both golds since baseball became a medal sport in 1992 and had won 21 straight Olympic games before falling to the European champions.
"These guys are great players, great hitters," Brauckmiller said. "You can't take anything away from them. You can't win 20 games in a row, or however many they've won, without being great players. Sooner or later, something catches up with you."
Littered with great players that nobody knows about, Cuba had survived a scare againt Korea on Tuesday morning, rallying for a 6-5 victory to remaing unbeaten in preliminary action.
But the Cubans ran out of heroics tonight, succumbing to Brauckmiller, a 34-year-old righthander who was born and raised in Portland. He became a citizen of the Netherlands after marrying a Dutch woman.
"I am very fortunate to have met the woman of my dreams," said Brauckmiller, who allowed one run and seven hits in relief of Rikkert Faneyte. "I am very much a Hollander, and it is definitely part of my nationality."
Brauckmiller was not exactly a likely choice to upset the Cubans, having posted a 20.25 ERA at the 1998 World Championships and a 5.40 ERA at the 1999 International Cup.
His gem and a three-run double by former major leaguer Hensley Meulens gave the Americans a chance at being the only unbeaten team by the end of the day. They responded this morning with a nail-biting 4-0 win over Korea.
Team USA connected for its second game-deciding home run in four days -- this time off the bat of first baseman Doug Mientkiewicz, who belted an eighth-inning grand slam to snap a scoreless tie.
The Minnesota Twins farmhand sent a full-count fastball from Korean reliever Pil-Jung Jin deep over the right-field wall with two out, helping push the only unbeaten record in pool play to 4-0.
"That was the greatest thrill of my life, something you dream about," he said. "To walk up there late in the game, bases loaded, full count and hit one out of the yard, that's what me and my dad dreamt about when I was a little kid. To be able to do it for my country, it doesn't
get any better than that."
The Americans again got a strong effort from a young starting pitcher as Roy Oswalt scattered seven hits while walking two and striking out six. Team USA's starters have given up just one earned run in 27 2/3 innings.
Korean starter Tae-Hyon Chong also was impressive. He handcuffed batters with his submarine delivery, allowing just six hits while fanning five over seven innings
The winning rally started against Jin-Woo Song, who allowed a one-out single to Mike Neill and walked Ernie Young. Jin then walked Mike Kinkade with two out before Mientkiewicz's heroics.
"I was as excited about that home run as any I've ever seen, including Neill's homer a couple of days ago that beat Japan," said USA Manager Tommy Lasorda. "What a great moment in Doug's life. I'm so very proud of him.
"I don't know how much more of this I can take. I just got chills after the grand slam."
Ryan Franklin picked up his second victory in as many relief appearances after recording the final out in the top of the eighth to squelch a Korean rally.
Oswalt avoided trouble in the sixth when the Koreans loaded the bases with one out. But Jin-Man Park hit a sharp grounder to Kinkade, who was able to step on the base and throw across the diamond for a double play.
"That play was the turning point in the game and swung the momentum back to our side," Lasorda said.
The Americans next play Italy on Friday morning -- Lasorda's 73rd birthday -- at Sydney Olympic Park, then battle Cuba in a marquee matchup.
"We have Italy before Cuba," Mientkiewicz said. "We will not overlook anyone. The Netherlands showed that today."
Also this morning, Japan moved to 3-1 with a 6-1 victory over Italy as Yukio Tanaka went 3-for-5 with a home run and Norihiro Nakamura drove in two runs.
Paul Gonzalez scored three times and Ron Johnson drove in a pair of runs as Australia defeated lowly South Africa, 10-4.
updated at Wed Sep 20 07:42:45 2000 PT
Copyright © Yahoo! Inc. All Rights Reserved
Copyright © 2000 The Associated Press.
Copyright @ 2000
PRNewswire. All rights reserved
Copyright © 2000 SportsTicker Enterprises LP. All rights reserved. | 