By Elaine De Valle. edevalle@herald.com. Posted on Sun,
Mar. 31, 2002 in The Miami Herald
When veteran broadcaster Salvador Lew was tapped to take over the Office of
Cuba Broadcasting, he pledged to revitalize Radio and TV Martí with more
relevant programming for Cubans on the island.
More than seven months after his appointment, Lew has dramatically increased
the amount of news broadcast, using more than 20 freelancers to write, edit,
broadcast and produce a slew of new programs, including a call-in show for
dissidents, a program on the Santería religion and a show hosted by
former Cuban military officers.
But staffers and observers say Lew has gone beyond a mere housecleaning
typical of a new administration. They claim he has hired friends and associates
to well-paid posts, including several with a hard-line view, and manipulated
news coverage.
''He acts like a mayor in Cuba,'' said Enrique Patterson, who has cohosted a
political satire program for five years. "Anyone who is his friend has a
job.''
Four women have sued for sex discrimination, claiming a hostile work
environment for women. The annual personnel budget has been nearly depleted to
pay for the freelancers. A federally mandated nine-member advisory committee
does not exist.
Most recently, the station was accused of editing a sound bite to make it
appear the Mexican government had opened its doors to Cubans wanting to leave
the island. The broadcast was blamed for a gate-crashing incident at the Mexican
Embassy in Havana by 21 Cubans.
The 73-year-old Lew, a longtime figure on Cuban Miami radio famed for
breaking the story in 1962 that Soviet troops had arrived in Cuba, stands by the
broadcast and dismisses the manipulation claims as typical Castro rhetoric.
''I would never permit that,'' he said, adding that he would not jeopardize
his credibility.
He defends the choices he has made since taking over the $25-million-a-year
operation. He recognizes that the changes, which he said have improved the
station's programming mix, have ruffled some feathers.
''There are some very professional journalists here . . . but we also have
some people who are resistant to change,'' said Lew, who makes $132,000 a year.
"I'm not here to be popular.''
NUMEROUS INQUIRIES
Controversy is not new to Radio Martí, which first aired on May 20,
1985, to provide an alternate source of news and information to the state-run
media in Cuba. There have been more than two dozen investigations, audits,
inquiries or policy reviews at the Office of Cuba Broadcasting in the past 15
years.
But 10 staffers who spoke to The Herald, all but two on the condition that
their names not be published, said things are different this time.
''Every time there is a new administration, there are problems, but this is
a total revolution,'' said one employee who has worked under three directors.
Most complaints center on the hiring of the freelancers, many of them Lew's
friends and former associates.
Zaida ''Sashi'' Alfaro hosts Aché, the Santería show. For more
than 10 years, she and Lew cohosted La Peña Azul on La Cadena Azul, then
later on La Poderosa.
Olga Connor, a columnist at El Nuevo Herald who hosts an arts program on
Radio Martí, is a friend.
Nancy Pérez Crespo, a director at La Nueva Cuba Press -- a website
that publishes dissident Cuban journalists -- has known Lew for 15 years.
'LOT OF HIS PEOPLE'
Crespo, who also has a weekly program on Radio Mambí, hosts a
half-hour call-in show for dissidents on Radio Martí.
''He has brought in a lot of his people under contract to do the work of the
employees,'' said one of the employees who claims to have been demoted for
complaining.
Patterson said his salary was cut by $15 from $100 a show to $85, while some
of the new freelancers are making more than four times as much.
''I don't care about $15,'' said Patterson, a Spanish teacher at Miami
Northwestern High School. "I don't make my living off this. But it's the
principle.''
He and others said most of the new programs were rejected by the in-house
advisory committee because they duplicated existing shows or were inappropriate
for the station.
''Then he abolished the evaluation committee and did what he wanted
anyway,'' Patterson said. "This is a government office, not a private
company.''
DIRECTOR WAS MOVED
Lew said the advisory committee fell apart after he transferred the program
director, who chaired the committee, to another department. The director, Martha
Yedra, would not comment because she is one of the four women suing for sexual
discrimination.
Lew also admits having a personal relationship with many of the new hires
but said there are others he still has not met.
All of them, he insists, were tapped for their professional experience.
''It's only logical that I know some of them. It's logical that one
contracts people you know that are good,'' Lew said. "That's something all
bosses do -- surround themselves with people you can trust to do the job.''
He said the personnel budget is ''practically exhausted'' but insists he had
to bring in more people to increase news from one to five hours a day and to add
shows that speak to previously ignored sectors of the Cuban population -- the
military, youths, blacks, women.
NO LOVE FOR CUBA
''There are problems here with a lot of people who do not put their hearts
into this office and the situation in Cuba,'' Lew said. "They do their job
as journalists, but there is no love for homeland.''
Lew said the complaints come from employees upset about having to work
weekends or disgruntled radio hosts whose programs were canceled to make room
for more news.
''Our principal mission is to inform, not entertain,'' he said.
But Roberto Bermudez, who hosts a cultural show called El Gato Tuerto, said
the issue is more about fairness than bruised egos. His show on Cuban
literature, art and films was cut back from five to three times a week.
''They said they had to cut everyone's programs to save money,'' he said.
Eliminating two of his three freelancers, who made $50 a show, saved $100 a
week.
Then Radio Martí hired Connor of El Nuevo Herald to host a similar
program twice a week -- at $440 a show.
''So they cut $100 from me to give $880 to someone else to do the very same
thing. That is an injustice,'' Bermudez said.
Connor said her program replaced canned music aired on the weekends.
''I was asked to do this program because of my wide experience,'' she said, "and
also because I am in contact not only with the Cuban culture outside the island
but also in the island.''
HARD-LINER EXILES
Another issue causing controversy is that many of the new freelancers come
from the ranks of the hard-line Cuban exile community.
Lew has hired Santiago Aranegui, a longtime commentator on Radio Mambí,
considered the voice of the diehard conservative Cuban community.
In addition, Radio Martí also broadcasts the Tomen Nota editorial by
Armando Perez Roura, news director of WAQI-AM (710), every Monday.
Perez Roura is the dean of conservative Cuban radio. And Lew said La Peña
Mambisa, another Mambí show, is also rebroadcast to Cuba.
The concern is magnified because other hard-liners are also becoming
regulars.
Luis Zuñiga and Horacio García Sr., two former Cuban American
National Foundation members who are now directors of the breakaway Cuban Liberty
Council, host a weekly show titled The Voice of Truth.
Said Lew: "They cannot talk about any organization that they belong to
or had belonged to. They only talk about human rights in general, and Luis Zuñiga
knows a lot about human rights because he has been to the commission in Geneva
for years and years.''
Last week, Fernando Rojas -- another former CANF member now on the Cuban
Liberty Council board -- was hired as an advisor and assistant to Lew.
''I have given him some projects to develop,'' Lew said.
BOARD POSSIBILITIES
Lew said another CANF defector, Feliciano Foyo, may get tapped by President
Bush for a new advisory board. The other name mentioned from Miami's Cuban
community is Amancio Suarez, former owner of Radio Mambí.
''This operation has been taken over by the ultra-right, hard-line exile
community,'' said one woman who has worked at Radio Martí for more than
10 years. "We can't broadcast any news that presents a good image of Cuba
or that hints at anything good that can happen there.''
Some in Washington, where the proposed $26 million budget for next fiscal
year will soon be discussed, are concerned.
''More news is good, until you ask what kind of news it is,'' said U.S. Rep.
Jeff Flake, who visited the Office of Cuba Broadcasting last week with Rep.
William Delahunt, D-Mass. Both men were in South Florida for an anti-embargo
conference at the Biltmore Hotel. "Is it objective? Is it balanced?''
SUPPORTS CONCEPT
Flake, one of 34 lawmakers who recently formed a task force to chip away at
the U.S. embargo and travel restrictions, said he supports the concept of Radio
Martí. But he and Delahunt are suspicious of changes that would give the
hard-line exile community more airtime.
''If Radio Martí is working well, I just want to improve it,'' Flake
said.
''Unfortunately, what we've been hearing from the people I talked to in Cuba
is that it's not about news anymore. It's all Fidel-bashing, and they're not
interested in that,'' he said.
Lew said Radio and TV Martí will always have enemies in Congress but
the operation also has its staunch supporters.
They say internal flaps are expected when a new administration takes over.
''There have always been attacks,'' said U.S. Rep. Lincoln Díaz-Balart,
a champion of Radio and TV Martí funding who pushed for the appointment
of Lew in July. "Those who like to see a policy of appeasement with the
Cuban dictator are constantly attacking Radio Martí.''
Díaz-Balart said Lew should be commended for the changes he has made.
"Everything I've seen points to a dramatic improvement under his
stewardship.''
NEWS WELCOMED
Ambassador Vicki Huddleston, principal officer at the U.S. Interests Section
in Havana, said human rights activists, opposition leaders and dissident
journalists on the island -- who call Radio Martí ''our station'' -- are
pleased with the increase in international news.
What they want is more news from inside Cuba, such as Cuba's $35 million
grain purchase from U.S. suppliers last year.
''Recently, they have asked for more information on the food sales because
they don't see the food benefiting people in need in Cuba,'' Huddleston said.
EXILE NOSTALGIA
But dissidents are also ''quite adamant,'' she said, that Radio Martí
not become a station run by the exile community.
''They really don't like programs that reflect prerevolutionary events. They
say that this is just nostalgia,'' Huddleston said. "It must be different
in tone and substance from Radio Mambí and La Poderosa.''
Cubans contacted by The Herald agree. A woman on a visit to Miami last week
from Santa Clara said her family listens often in the early morning and late
evening because the government's interference is heavier in the middle of the
day.
''It is not just a source of news, it is the only source of news. The
state-run media tell you nothing,'' she said, citing the December slaying of a
family of five, including a couple from Hialeah Gardens.
Lew says he knows people are counting his days, but he isn't moving until he
is told by Bush himself.
''The president named me, and the president, if he thinks I'm not doing the
job, can name someone else,'' he said. "There have been people who have
tried to get me thrown out. But here I am.'' |