Published Friday, October 19, 2001 in
The Miami Herald
Cuba assails Russian move on spy station
Objects to Putin's 'gift' to Bush
Paul Brinkley-Rogers. pbrinkley-rogers@herald.com.
Cuba's government reacted angrily Thursday to Russia's decision to pull out
of its huge spying installation near Havana, declaring that Moscow made the
decision without getting approval from its former ally.
Cuban authorities were, in fact, desperately trying to persuade Russian
military representatives to stay at the base at the same time on Wednesday that
President Vladimir Putin was telling a Moscow press conference he was pulling
out, said a statement carried by the official Communist Party daily Granma.
And because Havana has not agreed to the Russian pullout, the statement
maintained, "the accord over the Radio-Electronic Center at Lourdes has not
been canceled'' and "so it will become necessary for Russia to continue
negotiating with the Cuban government.''
Russia has about 750 technicians and from 1,000 to 2,000 troops at Lourdes.
Perhaps the time difference between Havana and Moscow got in the way of
Putin hearing Cuba's "well-founded arguments,'' the communique said in this
unusual airing of differences, as if to give the Russian President an
opportunity to change his mind.
Cuba maintains "great affection and great respect'' for Putin and "the
great state of Russia,'' the statement said.
But, it went on, Putin apparently seemed more interested in giving an
abandoned Lourdes as "a gift'' to President Bush than he was in monitoring
U.S. compliance with disarmament accords and in providing Cuba a measure of
security by furnishing intercepted radio traffic about American military plans.
The Russians had, in effect, become unprincipled and stingy since the Soviet
Union collapsed in 1992, the statement said, reneging on treaty and defense
accords even though the collapse devastated Cuba's economy.
In recent months, it claimed, the Russians had been making "unjustifiable
and exaggerated demands for a reduction in the payment'' of the annual $200
million rent for Lourdes, even though Moscow was now charging "a three-fold
increase in the price of fuel'' exported to Cuba.
The rent, it said, "was not an extraordinary figure if one considers
that it barely amounted to 3 percent of the damage caused to our country's
economy by the disintegration of the Socialist Bloc and the USSR and the
unilateral annulment of all the agreements.''
This "strange change in Russian policy'' came even though Putin had
uttered "not the slightest word'' about getting out of Lourdes when he
visited it with Cuban President Fidel Castro "for hours'' in December 2000,
the statement said.
Herald translator Renato Pérez contributed to this report
Cuba blames United States for pressuring Russia to close spy base on
island
HAVANA -- (AP) -- Fidel Castro's government called the closure of a Russian
spy base a "grave threat'' to Cuban security and blamed the United States
for pressuring Russia to close the facility, which has monitored U.S. military
moves and communications for decades.
The statements were made through the Cuba's Communist Party newspaper,
Granma, on Thursday.
The announcement to close the facility comes amid increased Russian
cooperation with the United States and cooler relations with Cuba.
Created in 1964 after the Cuban Missile Crisis, the radar facility in
Lourdes, about 13 miles south of Havana, has remained an active example of
Cuban-Soviet Cold War cooperation.
Moscow says most of its Russian personnel will the leave the base by January
but a closure date has not been announced. It also remains unclear what will
happen to the base's intelligence equipment.
Last year, the U.S. Congress voted to restrict aid to Russia unless it
closed the Lourdes facility.
The world of Elián set for display as museum
By Luisa Yanez. lyanez@herald.com
The motorized red and yellow car he happily rode in the front yard as
photographers snapped away is there. So is the Batman costume he wore at
Halloween, and the sleek race-car-style bed in which he slept.
On a more somber note, there is also a giant poster capturing the moment
federal agents knocked down a bedroom door at this 1950s Little Havana home
where then-6-year-old Elián González lived for five months before
being reunited with his father and returned to Cuba.
The banged-up door that held back agents is there, too, but back on its
hinges.
Now the public can see where Elián González played and slept
while staying with his Miami relatives, as they battled with his father for
custody.
On Sunday, the former residence of the González family will make its
debut as a museum to Elián, who became a symbol to Miami's Cuban exile
community.
Empty of furniture, the home is lined with glass display cases housing Elián's
toys, and poems dedicated to him. There are hundreds of photograph collages of
the boy.
Inside the display cases are his favorite toys. A bright red fire-rescue
truck. A replica of the USS Kitty Hawk fighter jet given to him by U.S. Rep.
Ileana Ros-Lehtinen. In his bedroom is his bed -- broken by the agents during
the April raid but now repaired -- and a school book bag. In the closet hangs
his karate outfit and camouflage soldier jacket.
"We just want to preserve his memory,'' said one of the boy's
great-uncles, Delfín González, who on Thursday gave a tour of the
home he bought after the boy's return to Cuba. Plans for turning the home into a
museum have been in the works for months.
"With all this terrorist stuff going on, we thought this would be a
good time to open and give people a distraction, a relief, comfort,'' said Delfín
González, who spent thousands of dollars to open the site dedicated to
the boy. The nonprofit attraction will be known as: Unidos en Casa Elián
-- United in Elián House.
Now the curious will be able to do more than drive by the home where Lázaro
González, his wife Angela, and daughter Marisleysis lived with the boy.
Elián was found floating on an inner tube off Fort Lauderdale on
Thanksgiving Day 1999. His mother was among those killed in the ill-fated
crossing. His Miami relatives led a seven-month legal battle to keep him.
All the boy's relatives, along with one-time family spokesman Armando Gutiérrez,
have helped create the displays that now line the home at 2319 NW Second St.,
abandoned by the family after the raid.
The site is open 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. each Sunday. Entry is free, but donations
are welcome.
Copyright 2001 Miami Herald | 
