Yahoo! March 12, 2001.
Caribbean Leaders Oppose Isolation
By Eric Nurse, Associated Press Writer.
BRIDGETOWN, Barbados 10 (AP) - Caribbean leaders are voicing their
opposition to U.S. and Canadian plans to hold talks for a hemispheric free-trade
zone without the participation of Cuba, saying isolating the communist island is
counterproductive.
The criticism came as diplomats and trade officials met in Bridgetown for
four days of talks focusing on preparations for the Summit of the Americas
beginning April 20 in Quebec City, Canada. The meetings ended Friday.
"Our relationship with Cuba in the context of the Caribbean is one that
permits us to see the realities of Cuba and suggest that in a post-cold war era
the technique of isolation and exclusion is not the best way to go,'' said
Barbadian Foreign Minister Teresa Marshall.
Other Caribbean leaders - including Jamaican Prime Minister P.J. Patterson -
expressed similar concerns at a recent meeting between Canadian Prime Minister
Jean Chretien and the 14-member Caribbean Community trade bloc. Cuba has
observer status in the group.
But at the Bridgetown talks, U.S. diplomats said Cuba had disqualified
itself from participation because the country does not have a democratically
elected government, violating a clause in accords creating the diplomatic
framework for the summits.
"This is not an issue of exclusion, this is an issue of inclusion based
on shared values and if today it is Cuba, tomorrow it could be somewhere else,''
said Luis Lauredo, U.S. Ambassador to the Organization of American States.
Canada's representative at the talks in Barbados, Marc Lortie, also said
that the democracy clause was the key test for admission to the Summit of the
Americas.
Alleged Spy's Wife Awarded $7.1M
MIAMI, 10 (AP) - A woman who sued Cuba after she unwittingly married an
alleged Cuban spy has been awarded $7.1 million in compensatory damages.
Ana Margarita Martinez said she married Juan Pablo Roque in 1995 without
realizing the relationship was a cover for his work.
Circuit Judge Alan Postman ruled Friday that the award will come from frozen
Cuban assets held by the U.S. government, but he denied her request for punitive
damages saying they couldn't be sought from the Cuban government.
"I wish the award could have been higher, not so much for my sake, but
that the Cuban government would feel more pain.'' said a tearful Martinez.
The couple's 11-month marriage has been annulled.
In 1992, Roque swam to the U.S. Navy base at Guantanamo Bay and requested
political asylum, saying he was a disenchanted Cuban officer. He volunteered to
work with Brothers to the Rescue, which patrols the waters off Cuba in search of
people trying to flee the island.
On Feb. 23, 1996, Roque vanished from the home he shared with Martinez and
her two children. The next day, Cuban jets shot down two planes flown by the
exile group, killing four.
Roque was indicted in absentia as part of an alleged 14-member Cuban spy
ring.
The families of three of the passengers of the downed planes have been
awarded $96.7 million in frozen Cuban assets.
Yankees Sign Cuban Defector Morales
TAMPA, Fla. 11 (AP) - The New York Yankees formally announced the signing of
Cuban third baseman Andy Morales to a $4.5 million, four-year contract Sunday.
Morales was added to the Yankees' 40-man roster. To make room, pitcher Allen
Watson (shoulder) was placed on the 60-day disabled list.
"I feel very happy and glad to be with the Yankees, the world
champions,'' Morales said through an interpreter. "It's been a dream of
mine always to play with the Yankees. Now that I'm here, I see all the
tradition''
The agreement was reached last month, but the announcement was delayed until
Morales' work visa paperwork was processed.
Morales is expected to start the regular season in the minors. Morales is
considered a potential replacement for current third baseman Scott Brosius, who
is in the final year of his contract. But Yankees general manager Brian Cashman
did not rule out Morales also playing in the outfield.
"It might be a number of different things,'' Cashman said. "Our
scouts saw him as a third baseman, but he also played the outfield with the
Cuban National Team.''
Morales, 26, is not expected to see any game action for at least the next
few days.
"When is he going to play? I don't know,'' Cashman said. "We're
going to start force feeding him and get an idea from the coaching staff how far
along he is. We're going to take it step-by-step here.''
Morales joined the Yankees on Sunday and was warmly greeted by fellow Cuban
defectors, pitchers Orlando Hernandez and Adrian Hernandez. He took part in
pregame drills before New York played the Montreal Expos.
"You can only imagine how proud I was to walk in and feel myself part
of the Yankees,'' Morales said. "It's a dream of every Cuban player to play
here in the major leagues because it's the best baseball in the world.''
Morales, who has been working on his own in the Tampa area for the past
month, is best known for hitting a three-run homer in Camden Yards when the
Cuban National Team beat the Baltimore Orioles 12-6 in a 1999 exhibition game.
Morales defected from Cuba on his second attempt in July 2000. He was
granted resident status in Peru last November.
Surprising Testimony In Cuban Spy Trial
WPLG Click10.com. Friday March 09 09:56 PM EST
A former pointman for the Clinton administration gave some surprising
testimony in court Friday, saying that the White House knew that Cuba planned to
shoot down the Brothers to the Rescue planes before the attack happened.
Richard Nuccio was the special adviser on Cuba to President Bill Clinton
when the two Brothers planes were shot down in 1996. Nuccio, was called to
testify by the attorney for Gerardo Hernandez, who is charged with conspiracy to
murder for allegedly plotting to lure Jose Basulto and the Brothers to the
Rescue pilots into the shootdown.
In court Friday, Nuccio testified that the U.S. had intelligence that Cuban
jets were practicing approaches to small airplanes. This intelligence was known
the day before the Brothers were shot down, he said. But for national security
reasons, Nuccio said that he could not go into more detail about that
information.
Nuccio did tell the court that he wrote an e-mail to then-deputy national
security adviser Sandy Berger and called Berger's secretary to make sure that he
had read it that night.
Nuccio said that he never heard back from Berger until the afternoon of the
following day, when the two planes had already been hit by Cuban missiles. On
cross-examination by federal prosecutors, Nuccio was asked if U.S. officials had
ever considered the possibility that Cuba would shoot down civilian planes in
international waters, which was the case with the Brothers. Nuccio said, "No…
because then we would have been talking about a war."
Nuccio also testified that the state department was continually frustrated
with the Federal Aviation Administration for failing to stop Basulto and the
Brothers from flying over Cuba.
Meanwhile, like all the witnesses in this case, Basulto has been barred by a
judge's gag order to say anything about the trial. He is, however, expected to
testify perhaps as early as Monday.
Costa Rica Grants Asylum to Cubans
SAN JOSE, Costa Rica 10 (AP) - Costa Rican officials announced Saturday
their government has granted political asylum to 21 Cubans who arrived on a
fishing boat in January.
The decision is likely to displease the Cuban government, which had accused
the migrants of stealing the government-owned boat and asked that theft charges
be filed against them. The boat was returned to Cuba.
Security Minister Rogelio Ramos said the asylum status would allow the
Cubans to live and work in Costa Rica for a renewable two-year period.
Costa Rica broke off relations with Cuba soon after the 1959 revolution, but
recently established an interest section office in Havana.
Costa Rican immigration officials also announced that 10,600 Nicaraguans who
were living illegally in Costa Rica were deported in February.
Dems Criticize Apparent Bush Choice
By Carolyn Skorneck, Associated Press Writer
WASHINGTON, 9 (AP) - The expected nomination of Cuban-born Otto J. Reich as
the State Department's top Latin America official is drawing Democratic
criticism based on his role in the 1980s Central American wars.
Democratic Sens. John Kerry of Massachusetts and Christopher Dodd of
Connecticut are trying to squelch the nomination of the staunchly anti-Castro
businessman/lobbyist by publicly criticizing Reich before he is named.
"The issue is not his conservative politics,'' Kerry said Friday. It
was his central part in "deeply divisive'' policies and the domestic
propaganda his office allegedly generated to support the Reagan administration's
Central American policies in the 1980s.
Kerry and Dodd are influential members of the evenly divided Senate Foreign
Relations Committee, which would handle the nomination if President Bush (news -
web sites) selects Reich as assistant secretary of state for Western Hemisphere
affairs.
Marc Thiessen, spokesman for committee Chairman Jesse Helms, R-N.C.,
dismissed the criticism, saying, "This is all about Cuba'' and Reich's
adamant opposition to Castro.
If Reich gets the job, Thiessen said, "he would probably be one of the
most qualified people ever to hold the post.''
Support for the former ambassador to Venezuela is also strong among fellow
Cuban-Americans in Congress.
"Otto is a good fit with the president and is a good team player as
well as a person who has forward-thinking, innovative ideas on how to revamp
U.S.-Latin American policy,'' Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (news - bio - voting
record) said Friday in a phone interview from Miami.
The Democrats' concerns over Reich focus on his leadership of the State
Department's one-time Office of Public Diplomacy for Latin America and the
Caribbean. The office - which Reich led from its inception in June 1983 until
January 1986 - was accused of running an illegal, covert domestic propaganda
effort against Nicaragua's leftist Sandinista government and in favor of the
Contra rebels.
Reich has denied any wrongdoing. The office "was one of the most open
operations the State Department had,'' he said in 1987.
Reich did not respond Friday to calls to his office, RMA International in
suburban Alexandria, Va.
Kerry, who led early investigations in the 1980s into whether the U.S.
government was secretly arming the Contras, remains unconvinced.
"Revelations that his office was the genesis of acts of propaganda not
just prohibited in this country, but which reflect a kind of carelessness about
the truth, ought to be of concern to any lawmaker,'' Kerry said.
Eric Olson of the liberal Washington Office on Latin America said Reich's
background makes him "hugely controversial in Latin America'' and "not
a good choice'' given Bush's desire to establish closer relations there.
When Reich arrived in Caracas in 1986, he encountered official hostility
because he was thought to be a right-wing extremist. Before he left in 1989,
however, the country had given him its highest decoration.
Critics also questioned Reich's lobbying work.
He has lobbied for Bacardi-Martini, whose competitors can be sued for doing
business in Cuba under the Helms-Burton Act, which Reich played a role in
writing. And his firm has lobbied to sell Lockheed-made F-16 fighters to Chile.
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