The Sun-Sentinel.
Jan. 12, 2001
INS says it won't return boy, 16, to Cuba even though he arrived without
parents
By David Cázares Sun-Sentinel.
Immigration officials in Miami are cautiously handling the case of a
16-year-old boy who arrived from Cuba on Sunday without either of his parents.
Still smarting over fierce criticism from Cuban-Americans about their
handling of the Elián González episode, the Immigration and
Naturalization Service administrators have promised not to rush to judgment
while evaluating an attorney's claim that Alexander Lopez's parents want him to
remain in the United States.
"We will not return the child to Cuba," INS spokesman Rodney
Germain said Thursday. "We don't have any plans to deport the child."
The agency's quick assurances came after a local immigration attorney,
who gained notoriety from her arrest in the street protests after Elián's
removal from his Miami relatives' home, went on television to spread that word
that Lopez's parents want him to stay with a godmother in Miami.
Grisel Ybarra, who is still locked in a legal battle over her arrest five
months ago, said she and INS Director Robert Wallis had a telephone conference
with the boy's parents, Luis and Gladys Lopez, who live in Havana, on Thursday.
The call was made after INS officials first said they would need the
parents' written consent for Lopez to stay with the godmother.
Ybarra said she then played a tape of the boy's parents for INS officials
and later listened on the line as Wallis and other INS personnel called the
couple about their son.
"They said they want the child to remain in the U.S. and don't want
the child to return to Cuba," Ybarra said.
Lopez left Sunday by boat with nine others from Havana. He arrived late
in the day and was placed in INS custody in a hotel that the INS uses to house
unaccompanied minors, Germain said.
Germain said the agency's juvenile coordinator spoke with Lopez, who on
Thursday was undergoing medical screening at Krome Detention Center. The INS
will try to find a family member to place the boy with.
If they cannot find one, the agency may consider placing Lopez with the
godmother, according to his parent's wishes, Germain said.
"We're going to take everything into consideration," Germain
said. "We're making sure that we cover all the bases and follow all
procedures."
David Cázares can be reached at dcazares@sun-sentinel.com or
305-810-5012.
Woman who was spy for Cuba finds herself in dangerous position
By Jose Dante Parra Herrera Sun-Sentinel. Web-posted: 7:14
a.m. Jan. 12, 2001
MIAMI -- In the United States, she is a convicted felon. In Cuba, she is
considered a traitor.
That puts Amarilys Silverio-Santos, an admitted Cuban government agent
cooperating with the U.S. government in the trial of five alleged Cuban spies,
in a very precarious position.
The United States probably will not allow her to stay with her husband --
an American citizen who already testified as a witness for the prosecution --
because the Immigration and Naturalization Service usually deports felons who
served their sentences. And while Cuba usually does not accept deported felons,
they might be eager to take Silverio-Santos back to punish her for turning on
her alleged colleagues.
"That is considered treason," said Joseph Santos,
Silverio-Santos' husband, during his testimony this week. "No, more than
that. They don't tell you tell you clearly (the penalty), but at a national
level everyone knows what is the outcome."
Silverio-Santos and her husband were arrested in 1998 with eight other
people in what is considered the largest Cuban spy ring unveiled in decades.
They were charged with infiltrating Cuban exile groups and U.S. military
installations. The Santos' mission was to infiltrate the U.S. Southern Command,
which coordinates military operations in Latin America and the Caribbean.
Within a few weeks the couple pleaded guilty to a charge of conspiracy to
act as agents of the Cuban government and agreed to cooperate with the
prosecution. This week Santos testified against five of his alleged colleagues.
In a plea agreement Santos signed in 1998, prosecutors promised to
intercede in his wife's favor with any agency that might have a say in her
deportation proceedings. But at the end, the plea agreement states "that
such a recommendation is not binding upon the Immigration and Naturalization
Service."
Ira Kurzban, an immigration attorney, said the INS in the past has
ignored prosecution requests to stop the deportations of government
collaborators. In several cases, he said, Cuba has accepted people deported by
the United States. The only ones who could help Silverio-Santos would be the
U.S. Attorney General or her second in command.
"That (plea) agreement is worthless," Kurzban said.
And what could await Silverio-Santos in Cuba could be worse than her
federal prison sentence.
On Wednesday, without the jury present, her husband testified that as
part of their intelligence training in Cuba, they saw a video showing how Cuban
agents tracked down in the United States another agent who committed treason.
Santos said he was left to ponder the agent's fate. But the message was clear:
Cooperating with the American government would lead to grave consequences.
While the defense has argued that Joseph Santos is only trying to save
his own skin by cooperating with the government, Prosecutor David Buckner said
Santos in fact may be in more trouble for turning on his alleged associates.
"In avoiding a life sentence (by cooperating), he bought himself a
death sentence," Buckner told U.S. District Judge Joan Lenard.
If Buckner's words are true, Amarilys Silverio-Santos may have even
bigger problems. Unlike her husband, she is not an American citizen, which means
she faces deportation.
"If Cuba is willing to accept her, yes, she can go," Kurzban
said.
José Dante Parra Herrera can be reached at jparra@sun-sentinel.com
or 305-810-5005.
Historic photos by Magnum photographer go on exhibit in Havana
By Vivian Sequera, Associated Press . Web-posted:
12:51 p.m. Jan. 11, 2001
HAVANA (AP) -- He first arrived in Cuba one morning 42 years ago. He had no
money and ruined his shoes beyond repair during that historic week covering the
triumph of the Cuban revolution.
But those experiences are among the most cherished by American
photographer Burt Glinn, whose images of the first days after Fidel Castro and
his bearded guerrillas took power went on exhibit this week for the first time
in Cuba.
"On the Road to Havana With Fidel," 41 black and white images
never seen by most Cubans, begins with images of the streets of Havana on Jan.
1, 1959, when the word went out that then-President Fulgencio Batista had fled
the country. The exhibit will remain on display at Havana's Fototeca photography
center until the end of this month.
Glinn, now 75, told reporters this week that he arrived in Cuba after
hearing about Batista's flight at a New Year's Eve party in New York.
Glinn was already an accomplished photographer with the renowned
cooperative Magnum. He joined as an associate member in 1951 and was granted
full membership in 1955.
The photographer gathered money from friends at the party for his trip,
and went home to change, because "one does not cover a revolution in a
tuxedo," he said.
Then he hopped aboard a plane to Miami, then one to Havana.
"Everyone was asking where Fidel was," Glinn recalled of that
first day. "It didn't seem that anyone was in charge in Havana; everything
was disorganized."
Although Glinn spoke very little Spanish, he quickly realized that
Castro was still in eastern Cuba and hopped into a taxi to find him.
Find Castro he did and he followed him back to Havana amid hordes of
exultant citizens.
Glinn's images of that week show chaos in Havana's streets, barricades
being lifting by armed civilians, members of Batista's army being detained by
Castro's revolutionaries.
"You could see the emotion in the streets," said Glinn, who
tried to take a photo of Castro on Havana's coastal Malecon highway but lost his
shoes while being pushed and shoved by the multitudes. "I shot all of the
rest of photos barefoot."
Glinn returned twice to Cuba, most recently in 1989.
Before Glinn heads back home on Sunday, he hopes to run into Castro
once again, and perhaps get few new pictures.
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