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The Miami Herald.
Canada protests embargo-case verdict
By Nancy San Martin. nsanmartin@herald.com. Posted on Fri,
Apr. 05, 2002 in
A guilty verdict by a Philadelphia jury against a Canadian businessman
charged with violating the Cuban trade embargo could lead to an international
dispute between the United States and Canada over trade relations with the
communist-ruled nation, according to foreign trade experts.
The Canadian government has lodged protests with the State Department about
the case, according to Canadian press reports, and officials said Thursday they
were carefully reviewing the conviction.
''Exports from Canada to Cuba are permitted under Canadian law,'' said
Rodney Moore, a spokesman for the Canadian Embassy in Washington. "We have
a policy of engagement and Canada believes that policy -- politically and
economically -- has more potential to encourage greater respect for human
rights, democracy, development and economic reform in Cuba than a policy of
isolation.''
James Sabzali, a 42-year-old Canadian citizen, was convicted Wednesday of
violating the Trading with the Enemy Act by selling water purification supplies
to Cuba. Two American owners of the Pennsylvania-based corporation he worked for
also were found guilty.
But Sabzali is believed to be the first foreign national to be convicted in
a U.S. court of trading with Cuba, opening the door to international criticism
for the prosecution of acts that are legal in Canada.
The case is regarded by some as a challenge to Canadian sovereignty,
particularly because of a law known as the Canadian Foreign Extraterritorial
Measures Act, which prohibits Canadian business people from complying with the
U.S. trade ban. Several of the charges involve activities that occurred in
Canada.
''The whole issue of this thing has to do with the extraterritoriality of
this [U.S.] law,'' said Eduardo Gamarra, a political science professor at
Florida International University. "The repercussions will be interesting to
see. It could become an international legal battle if Canada takes the case
before the World Trade Organization and files an accusation against the United
States for being an obstacle to free trade.''
Cuba is Canada's largest trading partner in the Caribbean, with imports and
exports between both countries estimated at more than $435 million a year.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Joseph Poluka said the ''document-intensive case''
involving some 25,000 pieces of paperwork has nothing to do with Canada's
commerce with Cuba.
''There is no dispute that the man is a Canadian citizen,'' Poluka said. "The
indictment doesn't allege that they did anything wrong by going to Cuba. The
problem is they had to come here for the products. This case is about commerce
between the United States and Cuba. These men not only broke the law, but they
conspired to break it.''
The verdict comes as an increasing number of American corporations have been
promoting sales to Cuba, and lobbying efforts to lift the 42-year-old embargo
have grown louder on Capitol Hill. Under U.S. law, only the sale of food and
medicine is allowed.
Sabzali, a salesman now living in suburban Philadelphia, was working for a
Canadian subsidiary of Bro-Tech Corp. when the transactions totaling $2.1
million began with Cuba. The product sold to Cuban involves a chemical resin
used to purify and soften water. The supplies made their way to Cuban hospitals
and factories from plants owned, directly or indirectly, by Bro-Tech, the
indictment states.
Almost half of the charges in the case relate to activities conducted
between 1992 and 1996 while Sabzali was living in Ontario. He joined the
company's Philadelphia-area headquarters in 1996, according to the indictment.
Sabzali and business owner Donald Brodie, 54, of Bryn Mawr, Pa., were
convicted on numerous counts of illegal trade. Brodie's brother Stefan Brodie,
58, of Philadelphia, was convicted of conspiring to violate the embargo.
Roberts asks U.S. to issue visas to Cubans
Posted on Thu, Apr. 04, 2002
WASHINGTON - Sen. Pat Roberts, R-Kan., asked the Bush administration on
Thursday to reverse itself and grant visas to Cuban officials interested in
negotiating new deals for U.S. food.
The United States last week rejected visas for at least three officials
representing Cuba's food import agency. Officials said food sales have been
carried out recently between the two countries without the need for such visits.
Noting that Cuba has signed contracts to purchase nearly $73 million worth
of American food, Roberts said the rejection jeopardizes future sales.
"While I have no illusion about the Cuban government's poor human
rights record and its failed economic policies, the grain we export to Cuba
feeds Cuban citizens," Roberts wrote in a a letter to Secretary of State
Colin Powell.
Roberts added that nearly one of every three dollars earned by Kansas
farmers comes from foreign trade. He also said U.S. producers have suffered
recently under retaliation for the Bush administration's decision to impose
tariffs on steel imports, from a Russian ban on U.S. poultry to additional
tariffs on a range of U.S. farm commodities by the European union.
Roberts has advocated sales of U.S. food and medicine to Cuba and traveled
there in 2000.
On the Net: Congress: http://thomas.loc.gov
Convicted drug dealer pleads guilty in Cuban alien-smuggling case
By The Associated Press. Posted on Thu, Apr. 04, 2002
MIAMI - A convicted drug dealer who escaped from federal prison pleaded
guilty Thursday in plots to smuggle 10 Cubans to Florida and hold one of them
for ransom.
Eight Cubans who left by boat last July were close relatives of three Cuban
nationals who organized the trip, but the other two agreed to pay for their
passage after arriving, prosecutors said.
Eliecer Lara Salado admitted two conspiracy counts. But the plea agreement
nearly fell apart when he disputed holding Rogelio Garcia against his will even
though Garcia's relatives told police that they had been ordered to pay $8,000
for his release.
''Garcia will never say that he was detained,'' defense attorney Ana Jhones
said. "At no time was Mr. Garcia deprived of contact with family members.''
After a recess to decide whether Lara would follow through with the guilty
plea, Jhones acknowledged Lara "was aware that these negotiations were
going on for the exchange of money.''
Lara, 38, is the last of the three men involved in the smuggling trip to
settle his case with a plea agreement. Ramon Rodriguez, who was sentenced with
Lara in the same 1997 cocaine case, and Alexis Gonzalez Hernandez pleaded guilty
earlier.
Gonzalez and Rodriguez sailed to Cuba but dropped the Cuban group on the
Bahamian island of Anguilla Cay when their boat developed mechanical trouble,
prosecutor Jerold McMillen said in describing the evidence for the judge.
The Coast Guard later intercepted the disabled boat as it headed for
Florida, towed it to Islamorada in the Florida Keys and noticed that the boat's
global positioning system indicated travel to Cuba.
Gonzalez was freed when he showed papers proving he was a permanent U.S.
resident. Rodriguez, who also had escaped while serving his drug sentence, was
detained after giving an alias.
Gonzalez returned to Anguilla Cay and took all 10 Cubans to the Florida Keys
last July 14. Garcia was taken with the other Cuban man who promised payment to
a house in south Miami-Dade County.
Gonzalez contacted Garcia's brothers in Clewiston and told them that he
would be held until payment was made or he would be returned to Cuba, McMillen
said.
The relatives went to Clewiston police instead of paying. A special FBI
kidnapping team organized a task force to find Garcia, who was free 19 hours
after the first call to police.
Lara drove Garcia to a meeting in Homestead with an undercover immigration
agent posing as an affluent relative and was arrested along with Gonzalez on
July 16.
The eight Cuban relations staged a landing on Duck Key the next day to make
it look as if they were just arriving, McMillen said.
Lara already has been sentenced to a year in prison for escaping from the
federal prison in Jesup, Ga., while serving his drug sentence of nearly seven
years.
He could face a possible life sentence under the hostage-taking conspiracy
count, but the government doesn't plan to seek it.
U.S. District Judge K. Michael Moore must decide at sentencing June 21
whether Lara's sentence in the alien-smuggling case adds to his existing
sentences. | 
