Published Friday, January 26, 2001, in the
Miami Herald
Talks on Czechs in the works
. By Yves Colon. ycolon@herald.com
With President Vaclav Havel of the Czech Republic refusing any apology to
Havana, Cuban and Czech officials nevertheless said Thursday that the two
countries would soon hold high-level talks over the detention of two prominent
Czech citizens accused of subversion in Cuba.
Miloslav Ransdorf, a member of the Czech Parliament, said Czech Foreign
Ministry officials told legislators they would move the negotiations forward.
"We have to look for a solution, and for us to do that it is important
that the two foreign ministries start communicating,'' said Ransdorf, a member
of the Czech Communist Party. "It's ridiculous when our embassy is getting
its information from our security people.''
Cuba's Foreign Ministry issued a statement Wednesday that said a meeting
between Czech and Cuban diplomats could lead to an "honorable solution''
that Havana proposed two days ago if Prague asked for the Cubans' "generosity.''
That prompted Havel's response Thursday that the Czechs had no reason to
apologize.
There have been no contacts between the two sides following the arrest on
Jan. 12 of Ivan Pilip, a member of Parliament, and Jan Bubenik, a human-rights
activist and former student leader. The Cubans have been using the Czech
communists as the sole channel for negotiations, while the Czech Foreign
Ministry has been insisting on waiting for an official explanation.
Cuban authorities arrested Pilip and Bubenik after they met with two
dissidents. They said the men were carrying electronic equipment and material
they were supposed to deliver to dissidents on behalf of Freedom House, a
Washington-based pro-democracy group.
Pilip and Bubenik, Cuban officials say, are among politicians, journalists
and community activists from Eastern Europe with experience in "democratic
transitions.'' The two have been working, the officials say, with organizations
like Freedom House to destabilize Cuba. The Cubans named specific Czech
diplomats in Havana as troublemakers who coordinate with dissidents.
In what may be a warning to others, the Cubans detailed alleged meetings
between Pilip, Bubenik and Freedom House contacts, along with meetings between
Czech diplomats and dissidents in Havana. The Cubans even reported the subjects
of those conversations.
Ransdorf blames the diplomatic impasse on his country's "distorted
foreign policy'' toward Cuba during the past decade. The Czechs have
co-sponsored U.N. resolutions condemning human rights abuses in Cuba.
"The pattern we should follow is the pattern of European countries that
have a balanced and civilized form of relationship with Cuba,'' Ransdorf said. "I'm
convinced this can create new space for establishing better relations.''
Meanwhile, Romano Prodi, the president of the European Union's executive
body, told Havel he will undertake a diplomatic offensive toward Havana, to
follow up a first appeal to the Cuban authorities.
Pilip, 37, and Bubenik, 32, are being held in "preventive detention''
for up to 60 days until their case comes up for trial.
Elián saga 'insider' plans to write a tell-all book
By Luisa Yanez, lyanez@herald.com.
He was there from the start, even before Elián González became
a cause célbre.
He was there when every deal to hand over the boy was brokered and broken by
the boy's great-uncle, Lázaro González, and his team of attorneys.
And he was inside the house when federal agents stormed the Little Havana
home to snatch the boy, who was 6 years old at the time.
If there was a true insider in the saga, it was Armando Gutiérrez,
political consultant and publicist turned official spokesman and confidant to
the González family.
Now, Gutiérrez is writing a book about the five-month ordeal.
Fittingly, Gutiérrez is calling the book The Spokesman, a term that
became part of his name.
And he promises to tell all.
"I didn't keep notes, but I'll tell as much as I can remember about
every major event in the case,'' Gutiérrez said. "I look at the
experience as being on a roller coaster.''
It was a grueling ride, he said. From late November to April 22, when the
boy was reunited with his father in Washington, D.C., Gutiérrez said it
seemed like he worked 24 hours a day, seven days a week.
Gutiérrez doesn't have a book deal and said he'll publish it himself.
He hopes the book will hit the streets by late next month.
Details withheld during the saga will be revealed now, he said.
For example, he'll tell if anyone coached Elián for his video message
to his father, where Elián referred to former U.S. Attorney General Janet
Reno an "old lady'' and defied his dad, saying that he did not want to
return to Cuba.
Other tidbits: the mood in the house before the raid. What was said at the
powwow at Sister Jeanne O'Laughlin's Miami Beach mansion. And who made the
decision to hold a news conference in Washington, D.C., the day after the boy
was taken.
But, Gutiérrez said, he'll start at the beginning -- his beginning.
Like Elián, Gutiérrez fled Cuba as a child with his mother,
leaving behind his father, who later joined the family in Miami.
"I could identify with Elián,'' Gutiérrez said.
He got involved in the case after visiting the González home with
local politicians. He realized the family needed his help dealing with the
onslaught of media and he jumped in. He put everything aside and worked without
pay.
Gutiérrez said he never planned to write a book, but after watching
the Fox Family Channel's The Elián González Story, which aired in
September, he changed his mind.
He said that he had the Gonzálezes' blessing to tell the real story.
"I'm gonna tell it like it was,'' he said.
Copyright 2001 Miami Herald | 