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The Miami Herald
Tue, Jul. 09, 2002
From Herald Wire Services.
Man accused of immigrant smuggling arrested in Cuba
HAVANA - Cuban authorities have arrested a second man suspected of immigrant
smuggling after he arrived from Florida on a motorboat, the government said
Monday.
José Gabriel Cruz Rodríguez was arrested Friday in Camajuaní,
about 170 miles east of Havana, according to an official statement.
Cuban officials said Cruz arrived in Cuba on July 3 in a speedboat
registered in Florida, along with César Rufino Díaz Aparicio, who
was arrested that same day by Cuban border patrols.
Cruz reportedly lived at 2107 ½ SW Seventh St. in Little Havana. No one
was at the apartment Monday.
''He is a strong and quiet man,'' said Joaquín López, a
neighbor, who said Cruz arrived from Cuba not long ago. "I last saw him
here five or six days ago.''
Last week, the Cuban government warned that any vessel that entered the
island's territorial waters illegally would be "intercepted and
confiscated, and its crew prosecuted as immigrant smugglers to the full extent
of the law.''
Cuba's Criminal Code prescribes severe sentences for anyone found guilty of
the crime of "trafficking in human beings.''
Those laws stipulate sentences of seven to 10 years in jail for those who
organize illegal departures, 10 to 20 years for those entering national waters
with the intent to smuggle, or 20 years to life if minors are involved or if any
armed violence takes place.
According to official Cuban figures, more than 131 immigrant smugglers have
been arrested since 1998 and are serving sentences on the island.
The Cuban government blames the U.S. Cuban Adjustment Act of 1966 for
prompting illegal exits from the island as well as illegal smuggling of
immigrants into the United States. That law grants Cubans, no matter how they
entered the United States, the right to apply for permanent residency.
Wilfredo Cancio Isla of El Nuevo Herald contributed to this report.
Girl flown from Cuba for transplant dies at 17
By Elaine de Valle. Edevalle@herald.com. Posted on Tue,
Jul. 09, 2002
Greta Blanco Caride, who was flown from Cuba when she was 8 years old to get
a kidney transplant at Jackson Memorial Hospital, died of renal failure Monday
morning, almost five years after her high-profile operation.
She was 17 and her family was at her bedside.
Greta died at 10 a.m. in the same hospital she came to in 1994 after getting
a visa for medical treatment with the help of then-Attorney General Janet Reno.
Three years later, Greta's father, Alberto Blanco, was allowed to come from
Cuba after her mother was ruled out as a donor. On Sept. 17, 1997, one of his
kidneys was transplanted into her small body.
By then, Greta -- who stopped growing at three feet and had the mental
capacity of a toddler -- was blind. She later became deaf and lost her ability
to walk.
But within her limitations, Greta enjoyed life, say her relatives and nurses
who cared for her in her Hialeah home.
Her favorite place was the beach, where she enjoyed the buoyancy of the
water and the wind in her face. She loved ice cream, especially with Coca-Cola.
And she loved her dollhouse.
''She played every day with lots of dolls that skate, that dance, that move
their heads,'' said Rosana Avila, one of four nurses who took turns making daily
visits. "She would have a good time playing.''
Another nurse said Greta recognized her after just a few days by feeling her
arm.
''What she has is a tremendous sense of perception,'' said Ada Millán
Pernas.
Greta had been in and out of hospitals at least four times since last
September, when doctors think her body started to reject the transplant.
The doctors said they tried to save her kidney. But last month they had to
stop her anti-rejection medication to begin dialysis -- and buy her more time.
Then last week the catheter needed for dialysis began to leak.
Doctors said there was nothing more they could do.
Her family, who had seen Greta rebound many times before, held out hope she
would again and urged the doctors to do everything possible. But doctors told
the family to prepare for the worst and said further medical treatment would be
futile.
They were always ready, said Greta's mother, Margarita Caride.
''With Greta, you have to live each day prepared,'' she said Sunday. "I've
been struggling with Greta since she was born. I'm at peace. I don't know why,
but I'm at peace.''
Dr. Patricia Cantwell, one of the pediatric critical-care physicians, said
on Sunday: "It would take an utter miracle out of the hands of medical care
to allow Greta to live.''
The miracle never came.
Funeral services are not yet arranged. | 
