September 25, 2001 in the The
Miami Herald
Cubans flee to Costa Rica aboard fishing boat
SAN JOSE, Costa Rica -- (AP) -- Twenty-five people from central Cuba were
seeking asylum in Costa Rica on Tuesday after a 12-day journey aboard a fishing
boat.
The captain of the boat, Ernesto Villavivencio, told a local television
station Monday night that he had been planning the trip for four years and
decided to take advantage of attention focused on the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks
in the United States to slip away.
The 15 men, four women and six children arrived Monday at the Caribbean port
of Limon, about 110 kilometers (65 miles) east of the capital, after a 12-day
journey from Santa Cruz in the central Cuban province of Camaguey.
Villavivencio said they had made a stop on Grand Cayman Island en route to
pick up fuel and a radio.
He said the Cubans were asking for asylum, such as that granted to 21 other
Cubans who arrived aboard another fishing boat in January.
Venezuela, Cuba drop oil-for-goods-and-services pact
CARACAS, Venezuela -- (AP) -- Venezuela and Cuba are dropping a pact that
allowed Cuba to pay for some of its Venezuelan oil imports with goods and
services, a Cuban diplomat said.
Venezuela will now pay in cash for Cuban agricultural goods and for services
in sports and tourism, Cuban ambassador German Sanchez said in an interview
published in Monday's El Universal newspaper.
Under a pact signed last year, Venezuela had been allowed to pay for such
services with an unspecified amount of oil. Sanchez said the system was
abandoned because it was "too complicated.''
He said the decision was made when Cuban President Fidel Castro visited
Venezuela last month. Cuban embassy officials were not immediately available for
additional comment.
Another deal, which still stands, requires Venezuela to sell 53,000 barrels
a day of oil to Cuba under preferential financial conditions. Cuba has 15 years
to pay with a 2 percent interest rate. Venezuela has signed similar pacts with
other Central American and Caribbean nations.
Sanchez said Venezuela owes Cuba between dlrs 10 and 12 million for goods
and services. Cuba has exported sugar and sent dozens of sports trainers to
Venezuela.
3 in court for protest in waters off Cuba
By Jennifer Babson. jbabson@herald.com
KEY WEST -- Democracy Movement leader Ramón Saúl Sánchez
pleaded not guilty Monday to federal charges stemming from a July excursion into
Cuban territorial waters.
The indictment marks the first time anyone has been criminally charged with
venturing outside the federal security zone without prior approval from the U.S.
Coast Guard.
Two other Cuban exiles who face federal charges along with Sánchez --
Miami-Dade residents Alberto Pérez, 58, and Pablo Rodríguez, 48 --
also pleaded not guilty.
No trial date has been set.
If convicted, the three defendants could each face up to 10 years in prison
and up to $20,000 each in fines for allegedly ignoring a Coast Guard warning to
return to international waters during a flotilla protest on July 14 that
included a foray into Cuban territorial waters.
At the time, the men were honoring 41 Cubans who drowned on July 13, 1994,
after their tugboat was rammed and flooded by Cuban gunboats as those aboard
fled the island.
Prosecutors say the three men ventured into Cuban territorial waters in a
23-foot speedboat, My Right To Return, that broke off from the flotilla.
Democracy Movement lawyers have insisted that federal authorities
selectively enforced the security-zone law by not allowing Democracy Movement
members to leave the security zone and granting permission to thousands of
fishermen and other boaters to enter Cuban waters over the past 5 1/2 years.
Prior to departing for Cuba, boaters must request Coast Guard authorization
to leave the security zone.
After turning themselves in to federal authorities Monday afternoon, Sánchez,
Pérez and Rodríguez were each released on a $15,000 personal
surety bond, with the condition that they won't travel outside South Florida
while awaiting trial.
"It's about a narrow issue of discriminatory application that we
believe is about suppressing free speech,'' Sánchez's lawyer, Kendall
Coffey, said after the arraignment.
"What happened is that a certain type of regulation is being applied to
certain types of individuals.''
Decades ago, Congress gave the president emergency powers to pass laws for
national security reasons.
Former President Clinton cited those powers in signing a presidential
proclamation in March 1996 declaring an emergency security zone around Florida
to prevent a possible confrontation after a Cuban MiG jet shot down two Brothers
to the Rescue planes, killing four men. President George W. Bush upheld the
proclamation earlier this year.
Nearly two dozen Cuban exiles -- among them Brothers to the Rescue leader
José Basulto -- drove to Key West on Monday to show their support.
"It's very sad to see that a person exercising his First Amendment
right, which is to express himself freely, is treated like a criminal and
handcuffed,'' Basulto said. "I think it's his right as a Cuban to enter
those waters as often as he pleases.''
Copyright 2001 Miami Herald | 
