CUBA NEWS
The Miami Herald

Cubans' return 'just not right,' Gov. Bush says

Rebuke of brother's administration adds to tension over U.S. policy

By Peter Wallsten. Pwallsten@herald.com

With political tension building over the U.S. government's decision to ship 12 boat hijacking suspects back to face prison in Cuba, Gov. Jeb Bush took the unusual step Thursday of criticizing his own brother's administration for the negotiations that led to the repatriation.

The governor's rebuke, delivered during an interview with The Herald, comes as President Bush and the Republican Party face a rising tide of anger among Cuban-American exile leaders, who say last week's repatriation of the boaters is the latest offense by a GOP president who has failed to fulfill campaign promises to toughen policies targeting Fidel Castro's government.

''Despite the good intentions of the administration to negotiate the safety of these folks, that is an oppressive regime, and given the environment in Cuba, it's just not right'' to have sent the Cubans back, Gov. Bush said in an interview aboard his plane from Tampa to Miami.

''There's an expectation that I'm going to be in lock step with the administration, and that tends to happen,'' the governor added. "But from time to time I have to disagree, and this is one of them.''

While such a public critique of his brother's administration is striking, the governor was also quick to defend the president's overall record on Cuba -- an indication his remarks are intended to diminish any political fallout that could hurt the president's reelection bid and other Republicans next year.

The governor said that he has asked several high-level officials in the administration to review what happened and why, although he said he has not spoken directly to his brother. He said that neither he nor his brother knew of the decision to send the 12 back to Cuba until it was too late.

''Early on, I was under the impression they would be sent to a third country,'' the governor said.

CHANGE IN POLICY

The governor hinted at a major announcement of some kind by his brother's administration in the coming months related to Cuba policy. ''I think this can be rectified,'' he said.

The issue could prove politically damaging to the president, who relied, in part, on hundreds of thousands of typically loyal Republican Cuban Americans in 2000 to narrowly win Florida and, as a result, the White House.

The president's advisors believe Florida could be pivotal for his reelection next year. Democratic challengers are already angling to exploit the flap, with Connecticut Sen. Joseph Lieberman calling a South Florida news conference earlier this week to declare the repatriation an ''abandonment of American values,'' and then showing up at the Versailles Restaurant in Little Havana to mingle.

But the statements by the president's younger brother -- a Miami resident and fluent Spanish speaker with credibility among exile activists -- could serve to help repair the damage by reminding Cuban Americans of the brothers' close ties to them.

The governor acknowledged in the interview that losing Cuban-American support could be devastating to the GOP, noting that President Bill Clinton's success in wooing even a mere third of their vote helped him win Florida in 1996.

A key critic on Thursday welcomed the potential for changes in policy but attributed the governor's assurances to politics.

''I think they're going to have to do something, because they can't win Florida without the Cuban-American community's overwhelming support,'' said Joe Garcia, executive director of the influential Cuban American National Foundation, whose top leadership has been especially critical of the Bushes in recent days. "Unfortunately, it took the foundation and others demanding action over things that were promised three years ago.''

In the interview, Gov. Bush called Lieberman's move a ''repugnant'' political play, saying that he registered his disagreement with the White House "with respect, not rancor.''

Acknowledging a failure by the White House to articulate a ''coherent policy'' on Cuba, the governor added that the president would announce major changes in policy sometime before the 2004 election.

He declined to offer specifics, offering only that "there's been work over the last six months to develop a coherent policy.''

Officials at the White House and the State Department did not return calls for comment.

The decision to send back the 12 hijack suspects was particularly stinging to exile leaders in the wake of months of crackdowns by Castro's government against political dissidents.

The U.S. government negotiated with Cuba to return the would-be migrants. The agreement: Their lives would be spared, but the Cubans, suspected of hijacking a boat and three of 15 passengers, could each be sentenced to serve up to 10 years in prison.

The deal unleashed a storm of discontent from foundation leaders, who bashed President Bush along with the three Republican Cuban Americans who represent Miami in Congress.

Exile leaders are upset that, despite Bush's assurances, financial aid to dissidents in Cuba has not been increased and turmoil remains at Radio and TV Martí.

Critics also complain that Bush has maintained the Clinton administration policy of preventing lawsuits by U.S. citizens over land seized by the Cuban government after the 1959 revolution.

DEMOCRATIC SWAY

At the same time, Democrats are trying to make a case that Cuban-American voters should not remain singularly loyal to the GOP. Many leading Republicans in Congress and the business groups that fund their campaigns are pushing to end the trade embargo with Cuba -- a reality that Democrats hope gives them a chance to woo Cuban Americans on other issues such as education and healthcare.

Besides Lieberman, Florida Sen. Bob Graham, another Democratic contender for president, is a popular figure among exile leaders for his support of the embargo.

Two other candidates, Sens. John Kerry of Massachusetts and John Edwards of North Carolina, have met with exile leaders in recent months as well.

The governor was careful during Thursday's interview to defend his brother's overall record on Cuba policy.

He blamed the lack of action on the national security team's focus on terrorism and war.

''One incident is not what will be remembered about the record of my brother's administration,'' the governor said.

Some Cuban dissidents are heading to U.S. base

By Tere Figueras, Alfonso Chardy And Nancy San Martin. Tfigueras@herald.com

Sergio Pérez Hierro, picked to lead a Cuban dissident group after its leader was imprisoned, had until today to pay a fine for protesting publicly in Havana -- or face jail time.

He and 19 others slipped away in a rickety boat Monday hoping to make the hazardous voyage to American soil -- only to be picked up by the U.S. Coast Guard hours later.

Following lobbying from Cuban-American lawmakers and heavy protest from exile groups, at least some of the Cubans will be sent to the U.S. Naval Base at Guantánamo Bay, according to an official familiar with the case.

The group, which set off from a beach in Santa Fe near Havana, was intercepted about 44 miles north of Cuba. At least 13 of the Cubans claimed they were members of opposition groups. The majority said they belonged to the Feb. 24 Movement, formed to protest the deaths of four South Florida men killed when Cuban jets shot down planes from the Cuban exile group Brothers to the Rescue in 1996.

POSSIBLE ASYLUM

A few of the Cubans had been determined to have ''fear of persecution'' claims -- meaning they could be eligible for asylum -- and were en route to the Guantánamo base, according to the official. The rest may be sent back to Cuba.

Steve Vermillion, chief of staff for U.S. Rep. Lincoln Díaz-Balart, said Thursday evening that high-level officials told the lawmaker's office that three adults and two dependents would be going to Guantánamo, where their asylum claims will be considered.

''The other 14 are being reviewed . . . at the highest levels,'' Vermillion said.

Díaz-Balart recently came under fire from the Cuban American National Foundation, which claimed he did not do enough to stop the recent repatriation of 12 Cubans suspected of hijacking a boat before being intercepted by the Coast Guard. They were returned after Cuban officials assured the U.S. government that the suspects would receive prison sentences of no longer than 10 years.

Díaz-Balart issued a joint appeal Thursday to U.S. officials along with fellow Cuban-American GOP lawmakers: U.S. Reps. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen and Mario Díaz-Balart, his brother.

The letter, addressed to Secretary of State Colin Powell and Homeland Security Director Tom Ridge, says that if they are returned, "the 19 face retaliation and imprisonment by the Cuban dictatorship.''

Ros-Lehtinen also wrote a separate letter to President Bush and the Coast Guard. CANF, as well as the Cuban Liberty Council, has also appealed to the Bush administration on behalf of the group.

The possibility of prison if the Cubans are sent back -- especially for Pérez -- ''is a conservative statement,'' said Maria del Carmen Carro, an independent journalist in Cuba who has been in contact with Pérez's wife, Maria Eugenia.

''This is a man who is very much persecuted here,'' Carro said in a telephone interview.

JOINED OPPOSITION

Pérez joined the opposition movement almost by happenstance, she said. He eked out a living shuttling people aboard his tractor, not an uncommon occurrence in a country were modes of transportation are sometimes scarce.

''He started taking the families of dissidents to the jails, so they could bring care packages and bags of food,'' Carro said. "That really bothered the government, and they took away his tractor.''

Pérez took over the Feb. 24 Movement after the arrest and imprisonment of leader Leonardo Bruzón Avila in 2002.

Since then, Pérez has led the group on marches and information campaigns ''informing the people of their rights as humans,'' Carro said.

Pérez, required to sign in every Thursday at his local police station as part of the government's monitoring, faced between 15 and 20 years in prison if he failed to pay the fine of 1,500 Cuban pesos -- or $60 U.S, Carro said.

"That might sound like nothing, but for those who have nothing, it is an impossibility.''

Dozens of migrants land in Keys

By Jennifer Babson And Tere Figueras. Jbabson@herald.com

Helen Salzer and her husband, Bob, caretakers of a well-appointed Key Largo home, were settling down to watch TV when she heard a ruckus from the beach-front yard down below.

''I heard this hollering, and we went outside,'' said Helen Salzer.

What the couple found was eight Cuban migrants -- five men and three women, all of them wet -- who arrived with about 40 others Thursday.

The group of about 50 Cubans, one of the largest to arrive on Florida soil, came to shore about 4:30 p.m. on a strip of beach near mile marker 106, behind the Ocean Reef Club.

The U.S. Border Patrol, which took the Cubans into custody, suspects the migrants may have been spirited to the United States by smugglers, said agency spokesman Cameron Hintzen.

The Coast Guard picked up a speedboat found floating about a quarter mile from the landing, apparently abandoned.

Some of the Cubans told Border Patrol agents and reporters that the group had set off from the Villa Clarence province on the island's north coast. A few came to shore wearing swimsuits, most of the men were shirtless, and one child was seen clutching a white Teddy bear. They all appeared healthy and did not require medical attention. The group was bused to the mainland, and the migrants were expected to be taken to the Krome detention center in West Miami-Dade.

According to U.S. immigration policy, Cubans who make it to American soil are generally allowed to stay, while those intercepted at sea face immediate repatriation.

One of the Cubans who landed Thursday asked Helen Salzer, in English, if they could use her phone.

''I said no and called the authorities,'' said Salzer, whose 911 call helped summon the U.S. Border Patrol and Coast Guard.

''I didn't want their relatives to be able to pick them up. I believe they should go through [immigration],'' said Salzer. She did offer the group water, crackers and ice. She feared that feeding them anything heartier would have made them sick after their days at sea, she said.

''I emptied my ice-maker and gave them lots of Saltines,'' she said. "One guy said they hadn't eaten in a couple of days and there were babies with them.''

Herald staff writer Jennifer Mooney contributed to this report.

Cuban defector reaches Miami destination

Canada-to-Buffalo route slows process for hopeful immigrants

BY ELAINE DE VALLE, edevalle@herald.com

It took longer than he expected, but Juan Antonio Martínez -- a nuclear engineer from Cuba who defected while in Canada for an engineering course in March -- this week reached his final destination: Miami.

His sister, who lives in Kendall, picked him up at the airport Wednesday and took him to his first Miami lunch at an all-you-can-eat Chinese buffet.

Martínez, 39, was granted asylum and officially allowed to enter the country Monday by a U.S. immigration judge. He had been held in federal detention near Buffalo, N.Y., for more than four months after he had crossed the border from Canada into New York.

If he had entered the United States in South Florida, like so many Cuban migrants do, he would have been paroled into the community within days while he waited for asylum.

That's not the practice in the Buffalo area, where until recently Cuban refugees have been almost as rare as warm tropical breezes. In December, a number of young Cubans attending a Catholic youth conference in Canada crossed into Buffalo to defect and were detained for weeks.

After Martínez crossed the Wilbur Bridge in a taxi on March 23, he was the only Cuban at the detention center at first.

''I never felt more Latino,'' he said this week, sitting in his sister's living room. "There were no Cubans, but I found friends in the Nicaraguans, Argentinians, Uruguayans, Mexicans and Panamanians.''

Within a month, he was joined by Jesús Lázaro Rivero Enamorado, a welder from Cuba. Later came Raul López Mayedo, a mechanical engineer, and José Eduardo León Porras, a computer technician. Then, on June 26, Abel Francis Acea -- an internationally known artist holding an exhibit in Toronto -- turned himself in at the Canada-New York line.

NINE IN DETENTION

With five more Cubans crossing the border into Buffalo last week, there are nine Cuban detainees at the Batavia immigration holding facility, Martínez said.

Their supporters say they should be freed on parole while their asylum claims -- which are almost always approved -- are settled.

''It gives them the freedom of being able to obtain evidence in support of their asylum claims,'' said Stephen Tills, an Orchard Park, N.Y., attorney who represents many of the Cuban migrants in Buffalo. "The process goes much faster if they are on the outside.''

Though Cubans generally are released within 48 hours in South Florida, Tills says they are treated like any other immigrant in Buffalo.

But he said Thursday that it seemed possible the others may be released soon because of the ruling in Martínez's case.

''Given the fact that Martínez received asylum and was released, it would follow that they would decide to parole others similarly situated who also have probably good asylum cases,'' Tills said.

Martínez had to wear blue uniforms and eat and sleep when he was told. But the facility was clean and air conditioned, and he had relative freedom to bathe when he wanted and go outside several times a day. ''I cannot say anything bad about the treatment or the conditions,'' Martínez said.

NO COMPLAINTS

He also won't complain about the four months he was detained -- not when he thinks of friends who spent more than a year at the U.S. Naval Base at Guantánamo Bay in their bid to leave Cuba.

When Martínez crossed the Wilbur Bridge -- the engineer at the aging Juragua nuclear plant in Cienfuegos had been sent to Calgary, Alberta, for an advanced electrician's course -- he thought he was home free. Instead, he was in jail for the first time in his life.

"The idea of being closed in -- that is what is difficult. You can't do anything for yourself. And you know you haven't done anything wrong.''

He has no regrets, however -- although he already misses his wife, his 3-year-old daughter and adult son. He plans to find a job and send his family money and supplies until he can bring them to the States.

''I don't want to stay here without them,'' Martínez said. "Or else, why did I do this for?''

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