CUBA NEWS
March 23, 2004

CUBA NEWS
The Miami Herald

Cuban growers hope tobacco production normalizes

By Lisa J. Adams, The Associated Press. Posted on Mon, Mar. 22, 2004.

PINAR DEL RIO, Cuba -- Adela Pita Oliva's hands move so fast they are almost invisible as she deftly weaves a long needle attached to twine through tobacco leave stems, stringing lush green bunches along wooden poles to be later hoisted to the rafters overhead.

From dawn to dusk each day, Pita, 44, works in a curing shed of the Río Feo tobacco plantation in Pinar del Río, among thousands of workers laboring to harvest leaves for the world's finest cigars.

Under a punishing tropical sun in the fields outside, men and women in rubber boots, bandannas and straw hats pluck broad, flat leaves from neat rows and pile them carefully into aluminum-sided carts to be hauled to the shed by slow-moving oxen.

The late-winter/early -spring harvest in Cuba's western tobacco-growing region of Pinar del Río is an important annual event.

Tobacco is the communist-run island's third-largest export -- producing an average of 150 million hand-rolled cigars worth about $240 million a year -- and is recognized worldwide for its quality. Cuba is to cigars as Russia is to caviar, Japan is to sushi, France is to champagne.

But this year's harvest is especially important.

GOOD YEAR

Fed by good seeds, rich soil and growth-favoring humidity, there is a fertile optimism that production levels will normalize after extensive storm damage lowered tobacco yields a year ago.

Hurricanes Isidore and Lili damaged or destroyed 10,000 of more than 14,500 curing houses for drying tobacco in the fall of 2002. Habanos S.A., the company that markets Cuban cigars abroad, said most buildings housing the harvested tobacco were unaffected.

But the Communist Party newspaper Granma reported in February 2003 that the hurricanes "destroyed the industry's infrastructure and wiped out the seed nurseries, which forced everyone to start again from zero.''

Cuba's tobacco crop averages about 40,370 tons annually.

At the Río Feo plantation, 2003 production was three tons less than the year before, said Adela Pita's cousin, plantation supervisor Juana Pita.

Down the road in San Luis, 84-year-old Alejandro Robaina -- Cuba's unofficial tobacco ambassador to the world -- smokes happily on a fat cigar as he rocks on his front porch next to alreadyharvested tobacco fields.

EXUDING CONFIDENCE

Robaina has an optimism about tobacco growing that is as robust as the stogie balanced confidently between his middle and index fingers. The key to any harvest is not just weather or good growing conditions, but ''love of tobacco and patience,'' he says.

Tobacco must be planted during a certain phase of the moon, tended to by hand, not machines, and handled delicately so precious leaves are not bent or torn, Robaina and Pita explain.

''You can't wear gloves or have long fingernails, because they will damage the leaves,'' Pita said.

Robaina's word is respected in Cuba, where for decades he has been king of the island's tobacco growers, traveling around the globe to promote the important cash crop.

There is even a cigar brand that was created in Robaina's honor -- Vegas Robaina -- and last year he was guest of honor at Havana's annual international cigar festival.

This year's sixth annual Habano Festival was held Feb. 23, attracting hundreds of people from nearly 50 countries who came to visit plantations, taste new products and buy the famous smokes.

Tobacco workers hold their own party after the last leaves are finally hung to dry in the wood and zinc curing houses dotting Pinar del Río's green landscape.

Until then, though, much work must be done.

At the Río Feo plantation, the Pita cousins and nine other workers labor eight to 10 hours, six to seven days a week to reach quotas.

''We have to make a strong effort, work with all our strength for good results,'' said Pita Oliva. "That's what we're fighting for.''

Kerry says Bush is soft on Chávez

By Peter Wallsten, pwallsten@herald.com. Posted on Tue, Mar. 23, 2004.

Presumed Democratic presidential nominee John Kerry is accusing the White House of failing to promote democratic reforms in Venezuela, focusing attention on an issue that Democrats believe could hamper President Bush's quest for Hispanic votes in Florida.

Kerry, a Massachusetts senator, issued the statement on his campaign website, charging that Bush's passive approach to backing opponents of Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez reflects a larger record of "sending mixed signals by supporting undemocratic processes in our own hemisphere.''

The message from Kerry was an attack on Bush's image on Latin America policy, but strategists said Monday it was primarily intended to further erode the president's standing among Cuban-American voters in Florida, who view Chávez as an ally of Fidel Castro and support stronger U.S. action to assist a recall vote against him.

Kerry has been under fire in recent days for his shifting stands on Cuba -- including his assertion in Florida recently that he backed a 1996 law to stiffen sanctions on the communist island even though he actually voted against it on final passage.

In his new statement, Kerry lumped Castro and Chávez together, accusing the Venezuelan leader of punishing political opponents and aiding drug traffickers.

''His close relationship with Fidel Castro has raised serious questions about his commitment to leading a truly democratic government,'' the statement said.

Kerry aides said Monday the statement was timed to coincide with the deliberations at Venezuela's high court over whether to accept petitions signed by thousands calling for a recall vote.

But Rand Beers, a former White House counterterrorism official who quit the White House and now works as Kerry's chief foreign policy advisor, acknowledged in an interview that linking Kerry's stern language on Chávez to the political benefits among Florida's key Cuban-American voters was a "fair point.''

''The Bush administration has a somewhat tainted record on Venezuela,'' Beers said. "They've been unprepared to do everything necessary to speak out on the issues of democracy.''

Still, the unusual decision to quietly drop a new policy pronouncement in an obscure website posting -- leading to headlines in Venezuela over the weekend -- indicates the Kerry campaign is still testing the effectiveness of the issue and the candidate himself is not yet comfortable making an aggressive pitch.

The Bush campaign, which has itself been on the defensive on Cuba policy in recent months -- even sending chief White House political strategist Karl Rove to Miami last week to vouch for Bush's sincerity on fighting Castro -- waved off Kerry's new attack as political gamesmanship.

''Tough talk just in time for a presidential election does not make up for 19 years of being soft on Castro,'' said Bush spokesman Reed Dickens.

Still, Democrats believe the Venezuela matter points to some glaring vulnerabilities for a president who sells himself as a wartime leader focused on the Middle East and international terrorism but has been attacked for spending little time closer to home as problems persist in countries such as Venezuela, Cuba, Haiti and Bolivia.

On Cuba, Bush has been criticized for months by some exile leaders for what they say is a record of failing to deliver on his campaign promises to get tougher on Castro.

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 some recent polls suggest the president's approval ratings are slipping in that key bloc.

The latest survey, conducted by Florida International University for the Sun-Sentinel, showed that only about 60 percent of Cuban-American voters in Miami-Dade and Broward counties said they planned to back Bush, according to a report in that newspaper Sunday.

Those numbers give Democrats hope that they can peel at least a portion of traditionally GOP voters away from the president as part of a newly aggressive push by Kerry and a coalition of political committees raising money to target Hispanic voters in the state.

The Venezuela statement appears to fit into that strategy, said Joe Garcia, executive director of the Cuban American National Foundation and one of the administration's harshest critics.

''Not only has the president failed to formulate a policy on Cuba,'' Garcia said, "he's failed all of Latin America.''

For the full text of Kerry's statement, please go to www.herald.com/news and click on Politics.

Advisor affirms Bush's Cuba policy

Karl Rove, President Bush's key political strategist, wins a standing ovation when he promises a Miami audience tougher sanctions on Castro.

By Peter Wallsten And Lesley Clark, pwallsten@herald.com. Posted on Sat, Mar. 20, 2004

With Democrats vowing to exploit a rift between the White House and some Cuban-American leaders, President Bushs top political strategist assured Miami GOP activists Friday night that the administration is committed to economically strangling Fidel Castros government.

In a speech that seemed designed specifically to soothe long-simmering tensions, senior White House strategist Karl Rove devoted more time to Cuba than any other issue -- drawing a standing ovation from the heavily Hispanic crowd at a Miami-Dade Republican Party fundraiser.

''Have no doubt, we will remain committed,'' Rove told the crowd at the Radisson Mart Plaza Hotel and Convention Centre in west Miami-Dade County. Referring to the president, he added: "He knows, you know, we must not waver.''

PROMISES

Rove unleashed a litany of promises to tighten the grip on Castro, saying the administration would find ''new and creative ways'' to limit the flow of money to the island, punish companies that do business there and crack down on travel.

His strong language comes after months of debate among Miami exile leaders, many of whom have complained that Bush has failed to deliver on campaign promises to crack down on Castro.

Presumptive Democratic presidential nominee John Kerry has said he intends to campaign for Cuban-American votes, while a collection of independent Democratic political committees are planning a massive campaign to point out Bushs failings on Cuba and key domestic issues such as jobs and healthcare aimed at Hispanic voters.

Roves message was a clear indication that the administration is nervous about losing support among Cuban Americans -- especially given the importance of a key voting bloc in the state that decided the 2000 election by just 537 votes.

At the dinner Friday, Rove sat on the dais with some of Miamis most influential Cuban-American leaders: U.S. Reps. Lincoln Diaz-Balart, Mario Diaz-Balart and Ileana Ros-Lehtinen and former state Republican Party Chairman Al Cárdenas.

ENCOURAGED

Rove also sat with state Rep. David Rivera, the Cuban-American lawmaker who along with his legislative colleagues mailed Bush a letter warning that he risked losing Cuban-American votes if he didnt move fast to crack down on Castro.

Rivera said Friday he was encouraged by Roves remarks -- especially his promise that the White House would tighten travel restrictions.

"If they follow through, that would be huge,''

Speaking earlier in the day to Herald editors and reporters, Rove said he was not concerned about the presidents ability to win Cuban-American votes -- especially once they learn about Kerry.

''I think people at the end of the day will look at the record of this administration and look at the alternative, and I know where they'll strongly be,'' Rove said, contrasting a Sunday Herald report detailing Kerrys shifting stances on key Cuba policy issues to what he said was Bushs firm support for stiff sanctions on the island.

''Its an important issue, a moral issue, for this president,'' Rove said.

Rove will join the president in Orlando today for the campaigns first full-scale rally. GOP planners predict the speech will draw 12,000 activists for an event designed to showcase the ''grass-roots'' machine being built in the state.

Speaking to The Herald, Rove said that he had learned lessons from the Florida experience four years ago, when Bush nearly lost the state despite his brother serving as governor and the Republicans apparent dominance in state politics. But he declined to say what those lessons were.

''Lots of things, and I aint going to tell you,'' he said. "Were working on every one of them.''

The presidents arrival was the focus Friday of what is becoming a daily onslaught of dueling press conferences featuring campaign surrogates from both sides attacking each other.

In Miami, Floridas two Democratic senators, Bob Graham and Bill Nelson, joined U.S. Rep. Kendrick Meek, a Miami Democrat, to assail Bushs record on jobs and healthcare, accuse him of misleading the public on Iraq, and to make the case for replacing Bush.

''Florida wont ever forget what happened in the last election,'' Meek, Kerrys Florida campaign chairman, said, referring to the recount battle that finally awarded the states electoral votes to Bush.

The Democrats remarks drew scorn from Bushs surrogate of the day, Christian Coalition founder and leading GOP strategist Ralph Reed, who said that Nelson and Graham were merely looking to ''audition'' to be Kerrys vice presidential nominee.

WHAT ABOUT JEB BUSH?

During the wide-ranging discussion with The Herald in which he boasted of his intimate knowledge of esoteric matters such as western water wars and agriculture policy, Rove sought to cast aside his reputation as the White Houses all-powerful political puppet master.

Asked about Democrats assertions that he is involved in every major decision from Cuba to Iraq, Rove shot back: "Im not. My title is senior advisor to the president. Most of the foreign policy things, Im not within 100 miles of. I can tell you more about financing of ag drought relief than you can ever imagine.

And what about the presidents brother, Gov. Jeb Bush? Would be be a formidable presidential candidate in 2008?

''Im focused on 2004,'' Rove said. "Dont get me in trouble with the governor of Florida.''

U.S. bans anti-dissidents

The United States will deny entry to 300 Cubans identified by the States as 'Cuban regime authorities who are involved in acts of repression.'

By Nancy San Martin, nsanmartin@herald.com. Posted on Sat, Mar. 20, 2004.

Some 300 Cubans who participated in the ''show trials'' of 75 dissidents a year ago will be barred from entry into the United States, U.S. officials said Friday. The prisoners' wives held a rare march in Havana to demand amnesty for them.

The U.S. ban is aimed at judges, lawyers, police and witnesses who helped condemn independent journalists, human rights activists and other peaceful dissidents to prison terms of up to 28 years following an island-wide crackdown last March.

It covers some 300 Cubans identified by the State Department, and close family members, if they were to apply for U.S. visas. Authorities are still reviewing Cuban court records to identify others who also would be denied visas.

''What this shows is the United States takes notice of and action against Cuban regime authorities who are involved in acts of repression,'' said a State Department official, who asked for anonymity. "These people will not come to the United States, period.''

In Havana, 15 dissidents' wives dressed all in white met at the well-known Coppelia ice cream restaurant in central Havana and shouted ''Freedom for the 75 political prisoners!'' as they marched seven blocks to Department of Prisons headquarters, The Associated Press reported.

The women submitted a letter addressed to the prison director and boarded a bus for the Miramar neighborhood, where they walked another 30 blocks down the main Quinta Avenida thoroughfare until reaching headquarters of Cuba's legislative body.

There, the women delivered another letter addressed to National Assembly President Ricardo Alarcon, asking for amnesty for the 75 prisoners. Such a gesture ''would be very well received by the Cuban people and by the international community,'' said the letter, according to the Associated Press.

In trials that lasted no more than a day, the dissidents were accused of working with U.S. diplomats in Havana to undermine Cuban President Fidel Castro's government. The arrests sparked world-wide condemnation and fractured Cuba's diplomatic relations with the European Union.

The U.S. visa denial is part of the Bush Administration's recently stepped up enforcement of sanctions on Cuba. In recent months, the administration has tightened travel restrictions, stepped up enforcement of commercial sanctions and threatened to prosecute firms that do business with Cuba.

Havana has defended the crackdown, saying it has the right to protect the nation from foreign attempts to change its socialist system.

Bush Hispanics wary over Cuba

Polling of Hispanic Republicans shows strong support for President Bush but concern over his policy toward Cuba.

By Oscar Corral, ocorral@herald.com. Posted on Fri, Mar. 19, 2004.

A large majority of Hispanic Republicans in Miami-Dade County support President Bush in his reelection bid, but almost as many feel that he needs to get tougher on Cuba or risk losing their support, according to a new poll.

The findings suggest that while the president remains popular among Cuban Americans, there is room for the Democrats to take advantage of their frustrations and siphon off some of their votes, the pollster says.

''The dissatisfaction with Bush shows that people are unhappy with his Cuba policy,'' said Florida International University Professor Dario Moreno, whose company, Campaign Data, conducted the poll for BellSouth.

But Sen. John Kerry, the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee, "has not announced a plan for the democratization of Cuba and has not released what his Cuba policy is. Until now, Cuban Americans don't have an alternative.''

The questions on Bush and Cuba were part of a larger poll that Campaign Data conducted on state legislative issues -- such as healthcare and education -- for BellSouth.

The company regularly sponsors polls on public-policy issues. ''We are a highly regulated industry and we like to keep a pulse on the issues,'' spokeswoman Marta Casas-Celaya said.

The poll of 600 registered voters has a margin of error of three to five percentage points and was conducted from Jan. 19-22. It was released to members of the Republican Hispanic Caucus. Only Miami-Dade Hispanic Republicans -- mostly Cuban American -- were included in the results of the Bush and Cuba questions.

In response to the question, ''How likely are you to vote for the reelection of President George W. Bush?'' about 88 percent of respondents said they were likely or very likely.

Then another issue was raised: "In August 2003, Miami's 11 Hispanic legislators sent a letter to Bush urging him to take a tougher line toward the Castro regime. The letter warned the president that if he did not toughen his stance toward Cuba, he could not expect the strong support of the Cuban community in the presidential election.''

Seventy percent agreed or strongly agreed.

''My fear is that this poll is revealing a growing indifference among Cuban Americans that jeopardizes our goal of producing overwhelming voter turnout and reelecting President Bush,'' said Rep. David Rivera, R-Miami, one of the state lawmakers who helped write the cautionary letter to the White House. A White House spokesman could not be reached Thursday.

U.S. Rep. Ileana Ros Lehtinen, R-Miami, said the poll worries her.

She noted that since the letter was written to the president last year, Washington has taken several steps to get tougher on Castro, including indicting the Cuban pilots who shot down civilian pilots in 1996 and expelling alleged Cuban spies from the United States.

''I think the folks have gotten the message in the White House that we want to energize George Bush on Cuba policy,'' Ros-Lehtinen said in an interview Thursday. "We are pleased with the direction the Bush administration is taking.''

However, state Rep. Manny Prieguez, R-Miami, who chaired the state's Republican Hispanic Caucus when the group wrote Bush the letter, said Bush's actions to date aren't sufficient.

To send a clear signal that he is serious about toppling Castro, Bush needs to suspend money remittance and most travel to the island, Prieguez said.

''That would guarantee the Cuban-American vote in November,'' Prieguez said. "That would put a big steak and potatoes on the plate of Cuban-American voters. Right now, we're on Weight Watchers.''

A ''pure Havana'' Renaissance man is stoking up the Miami arts scene

By Fabiola Santiago.fsantiago@herald.com.Posted on Mon, Mar. 22, 2004

Whether he's talking up avant-garde Cuban films or the Chinese dances of Shen Wei, cultural promoter Ever Chávez is everywhere there's action in Miami-Dade.

On this Thursday night, he's standing outside the Manuel Artime Theater in Little Havana waiting for a flamenco fusion concert to begin. But the energetic Chávez is already on the next page, talking to cultural connoisseurs about Shen Wei, the Chinese choreographer coming to Miami Friday with his fusion of dance theater, Chinese opera, painting and sculpture.

''Tiene tremenda onda (It has a great groove),'' Chávez says in his typical habanero lingo.

Only three years after arriving from Cuba, Chávez is a program coordinator at Miami Dade College's high-charged cultural affairs department, which created the acclaimed Cultura de Lobo Performance Series. Fresh on the job last year, Chávez took on the role of helping organize MDC's first Cuban Alternative Film Festival, which screened more than 100 movies, documentaries, video clips and shorts from both Cuba and the diaspora.

''Like most people, I had seen him everywhere -- in the visual arts community, in the performing arts community, behind the desk at every event I thought was significant in Miami,'' says his boss, MDC cultural affairs director Michelle Heffner Hayes. "We were lucky to get someone with so much talent and energy on our team.''

When he's not working for MDC, Chávez is a freelance producer and event coordinator. Last month, he founded with friend Niurka Márquez the nonprofit FUNDarte to develop theater, film, dance, theater and art projects.

He's got hustle when it comes to promoting artists and has a keen eye for breakthrough cultural acts, but call to interview him and he confesses: "I have stage fright. Really.''

Born in Havana to a bar and restaurant administrator and his wife -- ''habanero de pura cepa,'' he gloats, meaning he's ''of pure Havana stock'' -- Chávez just turned 37 "intensely lived years.''

He left home at 13 in 1982 to study in Russia.

"I wasn't sure whether it was my family or the island, but I decided I had to leave. I applied for a scholarship and I got it. I studied radio communications with no vocation whatsoever for it, but I had to study something and that was the closest I found to my interests.''

'TOTALLY CONFUSED'

He returned to the island four years later ''already half Russian, half Cuban, totally confused.'' He found his calling in 1993, when he went to work as an assistant producer at the newly founded theater company El Público, under the direction of Carlos Diáz, considered a top talent in Cuban theater.

''The company produced work that was so out there, very provocative in every sense. From the esthetic to the political, it marked a different standard for the theater being done in Havana then,'' Chávez says. "We were sponsored by the Ministry of Culture, but because we were so peculiar and the economy was going through such difficult times, we looked for foreign financing wherever we could get it, from the Spanish Cultural Center to the U.S. Interests Section to friends in Miami and Spain.''

In 1998 and 1999, Chávez went on tour with the company to Spain, and from there, was able to obtain a U.S. visa to visit his brother in Miami. Here, he met Márquez and arts promoter Susan Caraballo, who was launching a project to bring arts and culture to Little Havana. Although he returned to the company's tour through Spain, Portugal, France and Mexico, he fell in love with Miami and its possibilities to grow culturally.

''The only place where I saw my compatriots prosperous was in Miami,'' Chávez says. "I saw that everyone worked hard, but there was possibility. All of it depended on you -- that's perhaps even more difficult -- but, I realized that I wanted to be a part of it.''

WORK IN MIAMI

He came to Miami in April 2000, invited by Caraballo's nonprofit Artemis Performance Network and started promoting young actors, musicians, artists, ''people who have talent but no infrastructure to help them present their work,'' he says.

He also worked for Teatro Avante, helping produce the annual Hispanic International Theatre Festival in 2001 and 2002. Then came the MDC offer.

''I'm a bit restless,'' Chávez says. "I get home at 5 p.m. and I start to think about what else I can do. There's a lot of talent spread out all over Miami, a lot of lost artists that need help channeling their work. I like to get involved in projects that say something. You want to be entertained, you go to Disney World. I like to break molds.''

He's an advocate for a Miami that can be ''more cosmopolitan'' and less ''provincially'' focused on Cuban politics.

''In a little while, I'm going to the house of a Haitian and a Colombian. To me, what is interesting is the human being, not just our Cuba problem. If you stay stuck on that, you only limit yourself,'' he says. "We have to cross borders because, after all, the most delicious places in the world -- like Cuba -- became that way because of la mezcla, the mix.''

Reputed Miami mob boss pleads innocent

Associated Press. Posted on Tue, Mar. 23, 2004.

MIAMI - The 74-year-old reputed godfather of a Miami organized crime family pleaded innocent Tuesday to racketeering charges from a wheelchair and agreed to a bond hearing that fit into his dialysis schedule.

Jose Miguel Battle Sr. broke in on comments by his attorney to say his worst ailments are kidney and liver disease, in addition to lung problems, diabetes, hypertension and high cholesterol.

Defense attorney Jack Blumenfeld said jail medical care "can be spotty at best," and Battle was "frankly threatening, if he doesn't get enough dialysis, he won't get any."

Battle and two dozen others were charged last week with operating the Cuban Mafia and decades of illegal gambling, murder, drug running and money laundering in the eastern United States.

"He hasn't been active in doing anything for 20 years," Blumenfeld said. "I'm not sure what great public need is being served by this stroll down memory lane."

Evidence from about 30 wiretaps dates back to the 1970s, he said. The indictment charges the alleged racketeering conspiracy began in 1964.

Investigators have chased Battle for 40 years, beginning several years after he came here from Cuba. Agents liken him to Al Capone, saying he's fought criminal competitors in Florida, New York and New Jersey with contract killings, firebombings and arson.

Battle's initial court appearance was delayed by hospitalization. He was ordered to return for a bond hearing Thursday on prosecution claims that he is a flight risk and danger to the community.


 

 


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