The Miami Herald
Is Cuba hinting at spy deal?
Plan would focus on 5 jailed in U.S.
By Elaine De Valle And Luisa Yanez. edevalle@herald.com.
Published Monday, July 9, 2001
Cuba's continued condemnation of last month's conviction in Miami of five
Cuban spies -- coupled with a televised parade of Cuban-born South Florida
residents arrested and jailed on the island -- has sparked speculation that
communist leaders are laying the groundwork for some sort of prisoner exchange.
Both the Cuban intelligence agents held in isolation at a federal prison in
Miami and the migrant smugglers and commando raiders held in Cuban jails have
been the focus recently on Mesa Redonda, a nightly political "round table''
show on Cuba's state-run television.
"Fidel is up to something,'' said Jaime Suchlicki, director of the
University of Miami's Institute for Cuba and Cuban American Studies.
Last week, the show was used to announce that Sabino Serrano López
and Luis Enrique Santiago Rodríguez, both of South Florida, were
sentenced to life in prison and 20 years respectively for trying to smuggle
eight migrants to Florida.
Officials did not say when the two men were tried, but both were arrested in
October 1999. Panelists on the Thursday show noted that between April 1998 and
April 2000, 87 Cubans living in the United States were arrested for attempted
smuggling.
Another three men arrested April 26 after they landed on the northern coast
of Villa Clara province with four AK-47 assault rifles, an M-3 rifle with a
silencer and three Makarov pistols were featured on the June 20 televised
program, even though Cuba typically does not publicize that type of arrests. The
men, identified as Ihosvani Surís de la Torre, Santiago Padrón
Quintero and Máximo Padrera Valdés, also known as Máximo
Robaina, are accused of trying to start an insurrection on the island.
TIMING ISSUE
Why would the government release the information two months later? Many say
the timing suggests Havana is putting together a swap proposal.
"That's what Cuba is playing for,'' said Joe García, executive
director of the Cuban American National Foundation. "It would give them
tremendous credibility, because [Fidel] Castro would be at the same level again
as he was with Elián: having the americanos negotiating with him.''
Jack Blumenfeld, attorney for convicted spy Antonio Guerrero, said he has
heard "speculations and rumors'' about a trade.
"Such an exchange would be the appropriate thing to do,'' Blumenfeld
said. "That's what other countries do when they capture each others' spies
-- they send them home.''
NOT U.S. SPIES
But the men in Cuban jails are not U.S. spies, García noted, and the
United States has "no political interest'' in their release.
"Unless they throw something else into the deal.''
Like, perhaps, U.S. fugitives?
That's a scenario envisioned by UM's Suchlicki.
"Cuba has people like [wanted financier Robert] Vesco and some Black
Panthers that the FBI might want back,'' Suchlicki said.
The FBI lists more than 75 federal fugitives hiding out in Cuba, including
convicted murderer Joanne Chesimard -- known to supporters as Assata Shakur.
"[The U.S.] might want to trade for people like that,'' Suchlicki said.
The tone of the Mesa Redonda programs indicate Castro will go to great
length to liberate the convicted spies, he said.
"He owes it to these men and has an obligation to his intelligence
community to try to get them out. In the past, the U.S. and other countries have
exchanged spies. Why not in this case?''
CUBA'S MOTIVATION
There is motivation to get the spies out, he added.
"Castro might also be concerned about what the spies will say, even
though by now, I would think the spies have said everything they're going to
say,'' Suchlicki said.
Luis Fernández, spokesman for the Cuban Interests Section in
Washington, D.C., could not be reached for comment.
Charles Shapiro, Cuba desk chief at the State Department, said there was no
talk of a trade at the last migration talks between U.S. and Cuban officials in
New York two weeks ago. "They didn't say anything about it.''
But is it a possibility?
"I can't answer that question,'' Shapiro said. "We've traded spies
in the past with the Soviet Union. I'm not aware that we've ever traded spies
for folks who are not spies.''
Carlos Cajaraville, a former Cuban counter-intelligence agent now living in
Miami, said the difference was significant.
"Prisoner exchanges are agent for agent. These people in Cuba are not
CIA agents,'' Cajaraville said. "They are people who went for their own
motives, not sent by the U.S. government. They did not go on orders of the
United States.''
He said the campaign to free the five spies is the Cuban government's way of
sending a message to other Cuban spies abroad, including 50 "operatives''
-- which could be one man or association -- which the FBI suspects are at work
in the United States.
"[The Cuban government] could be worried about other spies and this is
a campaign to show them that they are not alone.''
One person who hopes a swap of prisoners will be arranged is Lesbia Surís,
who sits in her Little Havana home every night wondering how her husband is
doing in Havana's Villa Marista prison -- and when she'll see him again.
"His family says not to worry. That they are treating him well. That
the cases like him are treated well,'' she said. "But I don't know. Maybe
they just want to calm me.''
She doesn't want the U.S. government to think of her husband as a "terrorist''
-- as Cuba has labeled him.
"He is a good man. And a father. He is a great father.''
Herald translator Renato Pérez contributed to this report.
Leaders dust off a post-Castro plan for South Florida
Blockade may be imposed to stem immigration
By Marika Lynch And Luisa Yanez. mlynch@herald.com.
Published Monday, July 9, 2001
All it took was one fainting spell to hit 74-year-old Cuban leader Fidel
Castro during a speech on a hot summer day to put South Florida on high alert.
Miami-Dade Mayor Alex Penelas huddled with his advisors. Phone lines
crackled to the island. And government officials, trained to focus on natural
disasters, prepared for what most in South Florida see as a blessing: change in
Cuba.
Contingency plans -- crafted after so many rumors of Castro's "impending
death'' and the hopes that were buoyed by the fall of European communism --
again have been dusted off in South Florida after Castro's near collapse on a
Havana stage last month.
A glimpse: The Coast Guard intends to dispatch cutters to stop would-be
immigrants from reaching the United States -- and South Floridians from trying
to pick them up. The U.S. Navy has contemplated a blockade, according to one
congresswoman from South Florida. Tourism boosters in the Florida Keys have even
considered how to handle an influx of 1950s vintage automobiles they expect to
come to Key West by ferry.
Despite all the plans, only one thing is certain: uncertainty. Preparations
aside, no one knows what will happen when Castro falls.
"I think the best laid plans would be astray, because it would be such
pandemonium and joy in the streets. It's hard to contain that human emotion,''
U.S. Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen said. "We . . . have the feeling that it's a
good plan on paper, and heaven knows what would happen when that day of
liberation comes.''
SECRET PLANS
Some of the plans are secret. The White House has declined to comment about
any plans after Castro's death, though Ros-Lehtinen, who has attended
intelligence briefings on the matter, said a naval blockade of the island is a
possibility, and the federal government will certainly boost transmissions of
Radio Martí to encourage the military to lay down weapons.
Miami-Dade's 50-plus page "Change of a Cuban Government Plan,''
developed five years ago, also is kept secret -- unavailable despite Florida's
public records laws because it has sensitive information about public safety,
said Juan Mendieta, county spokesman.
The county plan deals with everything from ways to confront terrorism
threats from Castro infiltrators, to how to manage street celebrations by
supporting rallies at stadiums like the Orange Bowl, said Chuck Lanza,
Miami-Dade's emergency management director.
"We want to give people a venue to vent and celebrate, if they want. We
need to do this in the event there are prolonged celebrations, but that depends
on how the change of power takes place,'' Lanza said. "If it's just a
transition of power, we might not miss a heartbeat. But if it's an end to the
Castro regime and let's say it happens on a Friday, we expect the partying to go
on for awhile.''
Apart from celebrations, officials fear a traffic jam in the Florida Straits
as Cubans flee the island for the United States, and anxious relatives try to
pick them up.
The Coast Guard, enforcing current immigration law, will try to stop boats
going in both directions and will call in cutters from around the country if
needed, said Luis Diaz, a Coast Guard spokesman.
During the Mariel boatlift of 1980, hundreds of boats flooded the Florida
Keys trying to make the journey. Many of them were unseaworthy.
"In my own neighborhood there were tons of boats, little boats that
couldn't possibly have crossed the Florida Straits,'' recalled Key West City
Commissioner Merili McCoy. "I know some of the people tried, and I know
they didn't make it.''
MASS EXODUS
After the Cuban rafter crisis of 1994, the state and the Immigration and
Naturalization Service crafted a plan to confront the next mass exodus.
INS and Border Patrol will be able to move agents into Florida at a moment's
notice without having to wait for approval from Washington, and state police
will be able to enforce federal immigration law, according to the plan signed by
then-Gov. Lawton Chiles and INS Commissioner Doris Meissner.
Florida would be reimbursed for the costs it incurs. And if any long-term
detention sites are needed to house immigrants, they won't be built in Florida.
Though no one is predicting an immediate lifting of the U.S. economic
embargo of Cuba if Castro dies, the state's economic development agency, at the
behest of the Legislature, has studied business opportunities on the island.
Studies commissioned by Enterprise Florida have looked at Cuba's
infrastructure, from services at the island's ports to the way the telephone
system operates. The agency would help with marketing and investment
opportunities, said Tony Villamil, a Coral Gables economist and chairman of the
Governor's Council of Economic Advisors.
"Traditionally, Cuba has always been impacted by the state of Florida,
back to the Spanish-American War and the well-established Cuban community in Key
West and Tampa,'' Villamil said. "Cuba has been either an important trading
partner or a source of instability.
"The nature of the transition is going to be critical.''
Copyright 2001 Miami Herald | 
