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December 26, 2001.
HAVANA, 24 (AP) - With readings about Jesus' birth and strains of Handel's "Messiah,''
Cuba's Catholic Church began holiday observances Monday, five years after
Christmas was named an official holiday.
Christmas was never banned outright, but it did lose its official holiday
status in the early years of Fidel Castro's regime. Religious observances were
not encouraged. And Cuba became officially atheist, a status that was rescinded
until the early 1990s.
Castro declared Christmas a holiday in December 1997 in honor of Pope John
Paul II's historic visit to the island the following month.
Diplomats and government officials were among hundreds of people who
attended a Christmas concert late Sunday night in Havana's 18th century
cathedral. Presiding was Cardinal Jaime Ortega, the island's highest ranking
Catholic churchman.
"Things are now taking their course,'' Orlando Marquez, spokesman for
the Cuban Conference of Bishops, said of the slow recovery of Christmas
traditions.
"Many people are looking to the church for the things they cannot
find,'' said Marquez. "It is now stabilizing.''
With Christmas traditions now again taking hold, the church keeps pressing
for a larger opening, including more access to state-controlled media and the
right to establish religious schools.
WASHINGTON -- When Cuba's former top diplomat in Washington, Fernando Remírez,
went to address the World Affairs Forum of Stamford, Conn., earlier this year,
he delivered a simple, straightforward message.
"He talked in general terms about how much better the situation would
be in Cuba if the [U.S. trade] embargo were lifted,'' recalled Eileen Heaphy,
executive director of the group.
The message, repeated endlessly by Cuban diplomats around the United States,
is part of a growing effort by the government of Fidel Castro to influence U.S.
public opinion. To judge from the impression of some listeners, the message may
be having an impact.
"He was one of our most successful speakers,'' said Arthur Hull,
executive director of the Cincinnati World Affairs Council, where Remírez
also spoke. "People were really moved. . . . He opened up people's minds.''
"The Cubans over the past three years have made enormous strides in
figuring out how to make meaningful contact around the United States,'' said
Sally Grooms Cowal, president of the Cuba Policy Foundation, which seeks the
lifting of the U.S. embargo of Cuba.
The flurry of Cuban diplomatic activity in the U.S. heartland is one of the
latest twists in the strained relations between two nations that generally treat
one another's diplomats as hostile and widely suspect them of nefarious
activities like spying.
The two nations have no diplomatic relations, yet maintain large diplomatic
missions -- known as interests sections -- in each other's capitals.
The seven-story U.S. Interests Section on the Havana waterfront is a city
landmark and, with its 51 accredited U.S. diplomats and 280 Cuban employees, is
larger than any current embassy in Havana.
TRAVEL LIMITED
Cuba's mission in Washington, which has up to 26 diplomats, is small yet
successful at maneuvering within the circumscribed limits that the two nations
place on diplomats.
In Cuba's case, U.S. officials further tightened those limits in
mid-October, responding to the Sept. 21 arrest of a Defense Intelligence Agency
analyst as a Cuban spy. Cuban diplomats are now confined to a 273-square-mile
area around Washington unless they notify the State Department 72 hours in
advance. The area roughly equals the region around Havana where U.S. diplomats
can go without prior notice.
When Cuban diplomats notify the U.S. government within the requisite 72
hours of their travel plans, they generally are never turned down, authorities
said.
Despite the apparent symmetry, critics say the treatment of Cuban and U.S.
diplomats is unequal. Cuban diplomats, capitalizing on the open U.S. society and
revived interest in things Cuban, travel all over the country to speak about
U.S.-Cuban relations, appealing directly to the people. Cuban-American activists
demand a new arrangement that guarantees U.S. diplomats a reciprocal level of
access in Cuba.
"We in the United States cannot allow unfettered access to Castro
officials without requiring equal access to U.S. officials in Cuba,'' said Rep.
Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, R-Miami. "Reciprocity is a two-way street.''
"The Cubans go everywhere,'' complained Dennis K. Hays of the Cuban
American National Foundation. "They wander around Congress all the time.''
A staffer for another lawmaker, who asked not to be identified, said the
Castro government has never allowed U.S. diplomats to roam through the National
Assembly or speak at the University of Havana.
"There's a qualitative difference between a Cuban diplomat going to
Boston University and giving an anti-embargo speech and a U.S. diplomat sneaking
over to the home of a dissident, then coming out to find his tires slashed,''
the staffer said.
But even as activists push for a crackdown on Cuban diplomatic activities,
the senior U.S. diplomat in Havana said a crackdown would only rebound against
U.S. interests.
'BETTER ACCESS'
"I think it's working pretty well right now,'' Vicki Huddleston said by
telephone from Havana. "We have much, much, much better access than we did
three or four years ago. When I came down here 2 1/2 years ago, we could seldom
see provincial party and government officials. And now it's pretty much
normal.''
Contacts with academic, human rights and cultural figures are modest,
however, and the government often discourages public figures from attending
functions at her residence.
"They are often told not to go,'' Huddleston said. "It's stupid
and petty.''
A partial review of official travel records shows the extent of Cuban
diplomatic travel, more than 70 trips since early 2000. Speaking engagements
were listed for Loyola Law School, the University of South Florida, Brown
University, Morehouse School of Medicine, Louisiana Tech, the University of
Illinois, the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, the University of
California at Santa Barbara and St. Thomas University in St. Paul, Minn.
Cuban diplomats also spoke to the National Council of Churches, the Kansas
and Missouri Farm Bureaus, the National Lawyers Guild convention, the California
Hispanic Chamber of Commerce, and the International Agricultural Trade Summit in
Houston. They traveled for meetings with Mayor Michael C. Dow of Mobile, Ala.,
Mayor Larry Delgado of Santa Fe, N.M., and Gov. George H. Ryan of Illinois.
Sightseeing or private meetings took Cuban diplomats repeatedly to New York
City, Chicago, Minneapolis and Dallas.
A spokesman for the Cuban Interests Section, Luis Fernández, said
Cuban diplomats are flooded with invitations to speak.
"We spend our lives traveling,'' Fernández said. "There are
a variety of invitations from universities, academics and solidarity groups with
Cuba.''
The new chief of Cuba's mission, Dagoberto Rodríguez, has traveled
less, partly because U.S. attention has been captive of the war against
terrorism. But Cuban diplomats still voice interest in going anywhere.
"I have the general impression from the Cuban Interests Section here
that they are ready, willing and able to go out and speak,'' said Jerry W.
Leech, president of the World Affairs Councils of America.
Earlier this year, when U.S. diplomats asked to address groups in Cuba
equivalent to U.S. groups receiving Cuban diplomats, they were told no.
"The Cubans said, 'No patriotic Cuban wants to speak to you,' '' one
U.S. official in Washington recalled.
Because of the vast differences in the two societies, diplomats say it is
difficult to balance treatment. In official contacts, U.S. diplomats in Havana
may have an edge.
"I have access on an occasional basis to [Ricardo] Alarcón, who
you could say is the No. 3 in the government,'' said Huddleston, the U.S. envoy
in Havana, "and occasional access to José Arbesú, the head of
the Americas department of the Communist Party.''
In the U.S. executive branch, Cuban diplomats are limited to seeing a deputy
assistant secretary of State, and no one in the Pentagon or other departments,
although they can freely visit Congress.
Complicating the issue is the constant threat of espionage.
"The FBI tells us that over half the people in their mission are
intelligence officers. . . . They are very active,'' said the legislative
staffer.
A former U.S. diplomat in Havana, Jay Taylor, said spying is one area where
parity may exist: "It is clearly something both sides do.''
Man suspected in attempted smuggling of 30 Cubans is held at Krome
By Charles Rabin. crabin@herald.com . Published Wednesday,
December 26, 2001.
A man suspected of trying to smuggle 30 Cubans to the United States last
week was taken to the Krome Detention Center on Saturday, the same day the
entire boatload of refugees was repatriated to the island nation.
Authorities would not release the man's name or confirm what, if any,
charges were filed against the alleged smuggler.
They did say that after spending a day being questioned aboard the Coast
Guard cutter Venturous, the Cuban group of 30 was transferred to the 110-foot
Sapelo, which took them for the more than 90-mile ride to Guantanamo Bay.
All were said to be in good condition.
"One suspected smuggler was transferred to the Immigration and
Naturalization Service Saturday,'' Coast Guard spokeswoman Anastasia Burns said.
"We can confirm at least that,'' said Rodney Germain, INS spokesman in
Miami.
"We had one arrest for smuggling. He's at Krome,'' said Joe Mellia,
assistant chief patrol agent for the Border Patrol.
Mellia said authorities would not provide any other information on the
alleged smuggler until criminal charges are officially filed with the court.
That had not happened by Tuesday, he said.
Four days after authorities became aware of the group's attempt to make it
to U.S. shores, details of the event remain sketchy.
What is known is that Friday morning, a fisherman spotted a 31-foot
speedboat about 17 miles east of Cape Florida after someone on the craft had
sent up a flare. Within two hours, the Coast Guard was on the scene and had
determined the boat ran out of gas.
The rough seas that day forced the Coast Guard to tow the speedboat to
calmer waters. At one point after the group was transferred to the Venturous, it
got within six miles of shore, floating north in the Florida Straits.
U.S. policy since 1995 has been to repatriate Cubans who do not make it to
shore, after they are interviewed. Apparently, no one's claims of political
persecution were enough to persuade immigration officials to let them gain
entry.
The arrest of the alleged smuggler could be a coup for U.S. authorities,
which usually have a tough time prosecuting because many migrants are reluctant
to cooperate with officials.
Copyright 2001 Miami Herald |