CUBA NEWS
The Miami Herald

Cuba has harsh words for Reagan

Posted on Tue, Jun. 08, 2004.

HAVANA - (AP) -- The Cuban government harshly criticized former President Ronald Reagan and his policies on Monday, saying he should ''never have been born'' as it issued its first public reaction to Reagan's death.

''With as forgetful and irresponsible as he was, he forgot to take his worst works to the grave,'' the government's Radio Reloj station said of Reagan in an editorial broadcast across the Caribbean island.

The statement -- the first reaction from Fidel Castro's government to the former American leader's death on Saturday -- did not mention Cuba's icy relationship with the United States under Reagan, a staunch foe of communism.

Bush, Kerry spark renewed Cuba debate

By Lesley Clark And Elaine De Valle. lclark@herald.com. Posted on Mon, Jun. 07, 2004.

The last politician in Miami to criticize U.S. policy against Fidel Castro and call for a new way was defeated in a landslide.

Now Democrat John Kerry has assailed President Bush's recent crackdown on travel and gifts to people on the island, saying it's too punitive on Cuban Americans and their relatives across the Florida Straits. Last week Kerry said he would encourage what he called ''principled travel'' to the island and lift the cap on gifts. He also said he would push for greater international cooperation and condemnation of Castro.

Democrats warned Sunday against drawing comparisons to former state Rep. Annie Betancourt's failed bid for an open congressional seat in November 2002.

Kerry isn't calling for an end to the U.S. trade embargo, as Betancourt had suggested. And U.S. Rep. Mario Díaz-Balart, who defeated Betancourt, had a hand as a state House member in ensuring that the newly created congressional district he won was reliably Republican.

But the Betancourt-Díaz-Balart race was notable for sparking what observers said was an unprecedented public debate in Miami over U.S.-Cuba policy and how best to oust Castro.

DIVERGENT VIEWS

The dialogue centered on two polarized approaches: exiles who believe the only way to force Castro out is to tighten an economic stranglehold, and moderates who generally back the U.S. trade embargo but want to be able to visit and help relatives financially.

Bush -- pressured by hard-line exile groups that had expected more action from the Republican who came into office with promises of strong sanctions -- has sided with those on the right, though he hasn't given them everything they wanted.

Some support ending remittances entirely and restricting travel even further.

Bush last month announced a boost in aid to dissidents on the island and a renewed effort to broadcast Cuban government-jammed Radio and TV Martí -- along with cutting back travel to once every three years and clamping down on those who can receive cash assistance from U.S. relatives.

NEW OPENING

Some Democrats suggest that by playing to the conservative base, Bush has carved out an opening among more moderate Cuban Americans who want to travel back to the island and help family.

''There's a change in this community, and I think those Republicans are going to begin to experience it,'' said Hialeah Mayor Raul Martinez, a Cuban-American Democrat who has been repeatedly reelected to office and who is appearing in TV ads to tout the Democratic Party. "Hurting the Cuban families only alienates us from the Cuban people.''

At stake is a massive voting bloc that traditionally votes Republican. But Democrats note that, in a state that delivered Bush the presidency by fewer than 600 votes, every vote counts, and a sliver of discontented Cuban Americans could benefit Kerry. Bush in 2000 got 80 percent of the Cuban-American vote.

''He is completely out of touch with the reality of the Cuban-American community and U.S. policy,'' said state Rep. David Rivera, a Miami Republican who authored a letter to Bush last summer that warned him he needed to get tougher on Castro or risk losing Cuban-American support at the polls.

"Maybe they've made a play for a semblance of moderation, but I don't perceive it exists, and if it does, it's not very politically active.''

VOTERS SPEAK

In interviews with The Herald on Sunday, the debate over the right approach raged, but it was unclear whether either election-year strategy will make much of a difference among a voting populace that is weary of political promises.

''One thing is what they say now to get the vote and another is what they do,'' said Angel Sánchez, 45, a BellSouth employee sipping a cafecito at La Carreta in Westchester. "It's all a game.''

Sánchez is leaning toward the incumbent -- ''better the devil you know than the devil you don't'' -- mostly because the president has a job to finish, he said: "He needs to resolve what he started in Iraq.''

But Sánchez, who left Cuba in 1992, still has family on the island, and he disagrees with the administration's get-tough tactics on Cuba.

He said he may vote against Bush if the changes are carried out, "to send a message.''

Behind him, José González shook his head.

''They should cancel all the flights to Cuba,'' said González, a registered Republican and construction worker who left Cuba in 1967 and is voting for Bush, again, "because of his policy in Cuba. That's number one.''

OTHER FACTORS

Other Cuban-American voters said their opinions were shaped as much -- or more -- by the war in Iraq and the U.S. economy.

''Every four years it's the same thing. All the candidates want to talk about Cuba,'' said José Vento, the owner of Joe Barbershop in Hialeah. "I vote for whoever is best for the country, and I think Bush has been very good so far.''

Those who said they supported Kerry said they, too, did so for other reasons.

''The president we have now is for rich people,'' said Cristina Dominguez, who works for the Florida Department of Adult Services.

"I'm more American as far as politics is concerned. This is my country. This is what I worry about most.''

Expand travel to Cuba, Kerry says

Sen. John Kerry, disputing President Bush's actions on Cuba, told The Herald that he would open Cuba to 'principled travel' and lift a restriction on sending money to people on the island.

By Lesley Clark. lclark@herald.com. Posted on Sun, Jun. 06, 2004.

Denouncing President Bush's crackdown on Fidel Castro as election-year politicking that ''punishes and isolates the Cuban people,'' John Kerry told The Herald that he would encourage ''principled travel'' to the island and lift the cap on gifts to its people.

In his first detailed remarks on Cuba policy since clinching the Democratic presidential nomination, the Massachusetts senator sought to carve out a middle ground in what has been a dicey subject for him. He embraced the U.S. trade embargo against Cuba and support for dissidents, but criticized Bush's restriction of travel and cash gifts to Cubans on the island as a "cynical and misguided ploy for a few Florida votes.''

Kerry said in the telephone interview Friday that Bush's new hard-line policy restricting travelers to a single visit every three years "punishes and isolates the Cuban people and harms the Cuban Americans with relatives on the island while leaving Castro unharmed.''

''Selective engagement, not isolation, is the best way for the American people to send real, not just rhetorical, hope for a better future to the Cuban people,'' he said.

Kerry, who has a long voting record generally sympathetic to increasing contact with the island and has faced Republican criticism for shifting stances on the trade embargo, sought to fine-tune his position.

'THE HEMINGWAY BAR'

A decade ago, Kerry, an influential force behind the decision to lift the trade embargo against Vietnam, pushed to ease travel restrictions in Cuba. He said Friday, though, that he would lift only the ban on Cuba travel that is not ''pure tourism,'' suggesting that democracy efforts in Poland, Russia and China were aided by similar "political travel.''

''It's travel that is engaged between families, travel engaged for culture and advancement,'' he said. "I think you want to begin a process that engages on a principled, measurable goal rather than just going to the Hemingway bar somewhere and spending some money.''

Kerry said he would also lift the restriction on remittances to allow gifts to ''households and humanitarian institutions.'' Bush has restricted gifts to only ''immediate family members,'' but Kerry said the money can be a ''powerful tool'' to help Cubans on the island start small businesses "and thereby gain a measure of autonomy.''

OTHER COUNTRIES

And he accused the Bush administration of failing to better engage the international community to oppose Castro, a position that mirrors his criticism of the president's strategy on the war in Iraq, which Kerry has said has damaged U.S. credibility.

''If we were more effective,'' he said, "we would have a little more goodwill in the bank to be able to effectively move the international community with respect to Cuba.''

Kerry's stab at a more nuanced Cuba policy comes as some suggest that by playing to those exiles who urged him to get tough on Castro, Bush may have alienated more moderate Cuban Americans, particularly newer arrivals with relatives still on the island. Nearly 200,000 people traveled to Cuba from the United States last year, and some Cuban-American groups have pledged to launch voter registration drives to target Bush.

PRESIDENT'S ACTIONS

Bush's new restrictions came after pleading from hard-line exiles who said the Republican president sorely needed to shore up his conservative base after failing to deliver the aggressive anti-Castro strategy that he had promised the Cuban community during the election and a 2002 visit to Miami.

At least eight in 10 of Florida's nearly half-million Cuban-American voters backed Bush in 2000, when he won the state by just 537 votes, but polls conducted before he announced the new restrictions last month suggested that his approval ratings were slipping.

The new restrictions, which include reducing the number of visits to the island and limiting spending during family visits, met with acclaim from some of his Republican critics.

But the rift between Bush and some in the traditionally loyal GOP voting bloc energized Democrats who hope to peel at least a sliver of votes away from the president as part of an aggressive push to target Hispanic voters in the state. Democratic strategists note that if they can take away even a portion of the Cuban-American electorate, their nominee can win Florida -- and the White House -- just as President Clinton did in 1996, when he won an estimated 40 percent of the Cuban vote.

Democrats have been divided on whether to court Cuban Americans on Cuba or on issues such as healthcare and education. But Kerry's campaign said it believes that Bush has given the Democratic candidate an opening by pursuing a hard-line strategy.

A spokesman for the Bush campaign suggested that Kerry's remarks were pandering "from a candidate who, every time he had the opportunity, voted against restrictions on Castro.''

''Sen. Kerry's talk is always tough, but his votes always go easy on Castro,'' said the spokesman, Reed Dickens. "His policy proposals for the people of Cuba are policies that are already in existence. They show a lack of understanding of the existing policy and a total disconnect with his entire voting career.''

Republicans have already sought to label Kerry as soft on Castro, pointing to a 2000 interview in which Kerry told The Boston Globe that the only reason the United States treated Cuba differently from China and Russia was the "politics of Florida.''

KERRY'S VOTE

Kerry voted against the final version of 1996 legislation designed to strengthen trade sanctions against Cuba, but told a Miami television reporter during a visit to South Florida that he backed the measure.

He said Friday that he supported the embargo, but voted against the final version because it included a controversial provision to allow Cuban Americans to sue foreign ventures using property confiscated by Cuba.

The Bush administration has maintained the Clinton policy of preventing such lawsuits, but Kerry said Friday that the administration is looking at enforcing the provision, which the European Union has denounced.

''This will further strain relations with Canada and our European allies when, frankly, we most need them,'' Kerry said. "Instead, I will work to craft a policy toward Cuba that our allies can join and support.''

Cuban Americans split on Kerry

By Lesley Clark. lclark@herald.com. Posted on Tue, Jun. 08, 2004.

Democrat John Kerry enjoys a commanding lead over President Bush among Cuban Americans born in the United States and a decided edge among Cubans who arrived in the country after 1980, according to a new poll of Miami-Dade Hispanics that reveals deep divisions within a community traditionally viewed as staunchly Republican.

The poll, commissioned by a Democratic group that is targeting Hispanic voters, shows Kerry with a 58-32 percent advantage among Cubans born in the United States, suggesting that the Massachusetts senator has an opportunity to siphon potentially critical support from Bush.

But the poll, to be released today, shows Bush crushing Kerry among the largest -- and perhaps most politically active and vocal -- group of Cuban-American voters: those who arrived before the 1980 Mariel boatlift. Those voters -- who make up about two-thirds of all Cuban-American registered voters in Miami-Dade, according to the survey -- back the Republican incumbent overwhelmingly, 89 to 8 percent, with just 3 percent undecided.

Among all Cuban-American voters, Bush leads Kerry 69 to 21 percent, with 10 percent undecided -- a massive lead, but a decline from 2000 when more than eight of 10 Cuban Americans helped Bush narrowly defeat Al Gore in Florida and win the White House.

Kerry leads Bush 40 to 29 percent among Cubans who arrived in the United States after 1980, with 31 percent undecided.

Among all Hispanic voters in Miami-Dade, Bush leads Kerry 60 to 29 percent, with 11 percent undecided.

The New Democrat Network, which today will launch a Hispanic voter project in Miami -- billing it as the party's first aggressive outreach effort in Republican-rich Hispanic South Florida in 30 years -- suggested the poll points to vulnerability for a president who won the state in 2000 by just 537 votes.

''This isn't enough in any way to lead one to imagine we'll win the Hispanic vote, but there's definitely an opportunity to put a dent in the Republican column,'' said Democratic pollster Sergio Bendixen, who is consulting for the Washington, D.C.-based group and conducted the survey. "For the first time in a generation, people are actually talking about which way they may go.''

The poll of 800 likely Hispanic voters was conducted June 1-5 for the group by Bendixen's polling firm, which has long surveyed Hispanics in South Florida. Conducted primarily in Spanish, the poll has a margin of error of three percentage points, though smaller subgroups have a greater margin of error, ranging from five percentage points among the subgroup of all Cubans to nine percentage points among Cubans born in the United States.

Recent polls show Florida too close to call and the survey underscores what is increasingly becoming a battle of the 2004 election: the quest to peel away Cuban Americans, a key GOP voting bloc in the state that decided the 2000 race.

Sensing vulnerabilities among that base, Bush has moved in recent months to shore up support, rolling out plans to harden the economic sanctions against the Cuban government, including restricting gifts and family visits to Cuba.

The hard-line approach has endeared him to some exile groups, but has triggered a backlash from some moderate Cuban Americans, who support the U.S. trade embargo but want to be able to travel and support relatives in Cuba.

Kerry has sought to exploit that divide, telling The Herald on Friday that Bush's policy will only hurt ordinary Cubans and suggesting he would encourage more travel to Cuba, lift the gift cap and pursue greater international condemnation of Fidel Castro.

Ninoska Pérez-Castellón, a spokeswoman for the Cuban Liberty Council, which has applauded Bush's recent crackdown on remittances and travel to the island, said the poll doesn't reflect what will happen in November.

''I don't care how many polls the Kerry people do, how they dress it up,'' she said. "The bottom line is none of this is going to blind us when it comes to voting.''

Maria Cardona, director of the New Democrat Network's's Hispanic Project, said it was committed to fighting for votes among Hispanics in Miami -- whatever the poll revealed.

"If our Hispanic project was going to be true to its goals, there was no way we could ignore Miami.''

Garcia to Make Cuban Film in Dominican

Ramon Almanzar, Associated Press. Posted on Tue, Jun. 08, 2004.

SANTO DOMINGO, Dominican Republic - Andy Garcia is starting work on a new film set in Cuba in the 1950s and has chosen the Dominican Republic as the filming location.

The actor/director was traveling to the Dominican Republic Tuesday to begin filming this week, his publicist Stan Rosenfield said by telephone from Los Angeles.

In addition to directing his independent film "The Lost City," Garcia also will be one of its stars, Rosenfield said. Other cast members include Bill Murray and - in a cameo role - Dustin Hoffman, he said.

Garcia chose the Caribbean country for filming because "there are cultural similarities, architectural thematic similarities and budgetary concerns," Rosenfield said.

He said the screenplay was written by Guillermo Cabrera Infante, a prominent Cuban writer who opposes Cuban leader Fidel Castro.

Garcia, 48, was born in Havana and left Cuba with his family when he was 5 for Miami Beach, Fla. Garcia said through his publicist that he is making the film "for the love of my country."

Rosenfield said the film centers on a "story of love and betrayal" in Havana in the 1950s, during the transition from the rule of dictator Fulgencio Batista to Castro's revolution.

In the film, scheduled for release in 2005, the main character is eventually forced to go into exile, Rosenfield said.

Garcia's other acting credits include "The Untouchables" and "The Godfather: Part III."

His film is one of three major international productions planned this year in the Dominican Republic.

A film based on the novel "The Feast of the Goat" by Peruvian writer Mario Vargas Llosa also is set to start filming in September, director Luis Llosa - a cousin of the novelist - said last week.

Llosa said the cast includes Isabella Rosellini and Edward James Olmos. The story centers on accounts of life under dictator Rafael Trujillo, whose rule in the Dominican Republic stretched from 1930 until his assassination in 1961.

Production is to start in July on a third film, the Spanish-language comedy "Negocios Son Negocios" - "Business Is Business" - directed by Argentine Guadalupe Subiela.

Bush vs. Kerry On Cuba

Posted on Mon, Jun. 07, 2004

President Bush's Cuba recommendations are the result of the Commission for Assistance to a Free Cuba's six-month study. They include:

o Family reunification visits allowed once every three years rather than once a year.

o Only immediate family members can be visited, not extended-family members such as aunts, cousins or nephews, as it is now.

o Cash remittances can go only to grandparents, parents, siblings, spouses, children and grandchildren -- not extended family members -- and only those who are not members of the Communist Party. They are limited to $300 every three months per Cuban household.

In his Cuba policy statement, Sen. John Kerry says he supports:

o Encouraging 'principled travel,' as well as humanitarian trade in food and medicine.

o Lifting the cash remittance cap and allowing gifts to be sent to 'households and humanitarian institutions.'

o Enhancing communication through news bureaus, 'people-to-people contact,' support for dissidents and civil society and an 'accessible, soundly managed, fair and balanced Radio and TV Martí.'

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