CUBA
NEWS
The
Miami Herald
2 groups differ on Cuba but not on
use of power
Posted on Mon, Mar. 29,
2004.
Two groups of wealthy Cuban exile businessmen
differ in their views but adopt the same
approach on influencing U.S. policy toward
the island.
By Oscar Corral, ocorral@herald.com.
In a Cuban exile community that has often
relied on mass protests and radio broadcasts
during the past four decades, two competing
organizations backed by wealthy businessmen
are taking a different approach.
One is the Cuba Study Group, an alliance
born of frustration after some of the richest
Cuban exiles in the world found themselves
powerless in the aftermath of the Elián
González custody controversy. They
are seen as moderates.
The other is Cuba Democracy Advocates,
a smaller, newer group formed last year
by businessmen Leopoldo Fernandez-Pujals
and Gus Machado to lobby Congress to get
tougher on Cuba.
While the organizations differ in ideology,
their approaches are similar. Both entered
the Cuba debate after conducting polls to
back up their contentions. Both are funded
by wealthy men relatively new to public
activism.
And both are skirting the traditional approach
of taking their anti-Castro message directly
to the people through Spanish radio and
television. Instead, they are directing
their efforts at people in positions of
power who can influence relations between
the United States and Cuba.
''It's a very interesting period where
we're having a different kind of dialogue,''
said Mauricio Claver-Clarone, the lawyer
lobbying Congress full time for Cuba Democracy
Advocates. "It's more directed at the
future of Cuba and the Cuban community.''
Cuba Democracy Advocates entered the public
arena earlier this month when it released
a poll showing that Cuban Americans retain
hard-line attitudes toward Fidel Castro.
The poll, which was criticized by some as
having unbalanced questions, also found
there was little support for the Varela
Project, an effort to gather thousands of
signatures on the island to petition the
Cuban government to allow basic civil liberties.
CHANGING PERCEPTION
The Cuba Study Group formed three years
ago, in the aftermath of Cuban exiles sparring
with the federal government over rafter
child Elián and being portrayed in
much of the national and international media
as closed-minded, irrational, monolithic.
Its members set out to change that perception.
And in its brief life, the private, all-male
group has emerged as one of the most influential
and controversial Cuban exile organizations
in Miami.
Led by banker Carlos Saladrigas, its dozen-plus
members include Eagle Brands Chairman Carlos
de la Cruz and lawyer Cesar Alvarez, CEO
and president of the Greenberg Traurig law
firm in Miami. It is best known for releasing
a poll last year that showed Cuban exiles
were more moderate in their views -- a conclusion
other exile groups rejected.
Like Cuba Democracy Advocates, the group
is trying to win a debate through persuasion
using a businessman's approach -- numbers,
facts, figures, analyses.
NEW TREND
''The pattern is new, from [the Cuban American
National Foundation] to the study group
to this advocacy group,'' said Florida International
University Professor Damian Fernandez. "Cuban
businessmen have traditionally been outside
of politics. This might be a sign that Cuban-American
business elites want to be very much political
players.''
The Cuba Study Group has met with a long
list of VIPs in its effort to broaden the
scope of dialogue among exiles and to portray
Cuban Americans as open-minded and progressive.
Among them: former President Jimmy Carter;
former Czech Republic President Vaclav Havel;
Cuban dissident Oswaldo Payá, leader
of the Varela Project; and former Mexican
Foreign Minister Jorge Castañeda.
FROM WITHIN
Although group members differ on specifics,
they are held together by the beliefs that
Cuba must change its current system, and
that the process should occur peacefully
and from within the island. They support
the ideals of the Varela Project.
''Exiles can't appear like barbarians at
the gate waiting to attack,'' Saladrigas
said. "We have always concentrated
on urgency but forgotten that there are
two other sides of change: a message of
reconciliation, and increasing the rewards
of change.''
Members can join only if they are invited,
and must pay a minimum of $18,000 in dues
every year, although some invest much more.
Three of the group's current members, de
la Cruz, Alvarez and Jorge Perez, the chairman
of The Related Group, were recently included
in a Herald list of the 12 most powerful
businessmen in Miami-Dade County.
The group's agenda and moderate stance
have made its members a target for some
conservative anti-Castro activists.
For example, lawyer Juan O'Naghten, who
is Miami Mayor Manny Diaz's law partner,
questions the effectiveness of the U.S.
embargo of Cuba, although he says it shouldn't
be lifted unilaterally.
''I believe that had the embargo been lifted
somewhere between 1989 and 1991, there's
a good probability that the regime would
not have been there today,'' O'Naghten said
in a recent interview.
Cuba Study Group co-founder de la Cruz
feels that travel to Cuba could help bring
about change and should not be further restricted.
But Saladrigas says he is a supporter of
the embargo and of the ban on travel because
those policies can be used as bargaining
chips for change. But he also says that
''purposeful'' travel should be expanded.
Stalwarts of the conservative anti-Castro
fight say the group lacks credibility.
''I have never before seen the name of
Carlos Saladrigas during all these years
of La Lucha [the fight for Cuba's freedom],''
said Julio Cabarga, president of Cuban Municipalities
in Exile. "What tends to be understood
clearly is that Carlos Saladrigas has taken
a line of appeasement to Fidel Castro's
regime.''
Saladrigas rejects any accusation of appeasement.
A post-Castro transition in Cuba will likely
occur in one of four ways, Saladrigas said:
through a pact in which Cuban government
elites negotiate with opposition groups
on the island; through internal reform triggered
by such efforts as the Varela Project; through
revolution; or through the imposition of
rule by internal or external forces.
The options of revolution and imposition
would likely have high levels of violence
and low levels of openness, an option he
considers out of the question. Reform and
a pact, however, would likely be peaceful.
SIMILAR TO CANF
The Cuba Study Group is ideologically similar
to the Cuban American National Foundation,
said CANF Executive Director Joe Garcia.
''They certainly don't win popularity contests,''
Garcia said of the study group. "These
are very influential people. They put their
pocketbook where their mouth is. None of
them are trying to get elected to anything.
But they've spent a lot of money trying
to position themselves.''
De la Cruz explains that because group
members are all successful businessmen,
they bring a different perspective to the
debate. He said neither he nor the group
have business interests on the island.
Cuba Democracy Advocates also consists
of wealthy exile businessmen with different
views, but a similar approach to lobbying.
Co-founder Fernandez-Pujals -- who built
a pizza empire in Spain and sold it for
about $500 million a few years ago after
taking it public -- said he was approached
by Saladrigas but refused to join him.
''All the changes they want are cosmetic,''
he said.
Saladrigas said he never invited Fernandez-Pujals
to join his group.
FIRM ON EMBARGO
Fernandez-Pujals recently formed Cuba Democracy
Advocates with car dealer Machado, another
wealthy exile. They have partnered with
a young lawyer in Washington, D.C., Claver-Clarone,
who is lobbying Congress full time to stand
firm on the embargo.
Asked why he entered the Cuba debate at
such a late stage in his life, Machado compared
it to a spiritual conversion.
''It's like a religion,'' he said. "People
bug you so much about trying to free Cuba
that you end up being converted.''
Machado and Fernandez-Pujals met on an
airplane during a flight from Madrid several
years ago. They met Claver-Clarone at a
social event last year and decided he would
be their man in Washington.
Cuba Democracy Advocates is trying to make
sure that trade and travel sanctions on
Cuba remain in place.
''The Washington debate is centered on
trade, tourism restrictions and commercial
sanctions,'' Claver-Clarone said. "I
want to make sure I have the feel of the
community on those issues when I approach
Congress.''
One independent observer, FIU Professor
Lisandro Perez, who until recently headed
the Cuba Research Institute, said he thought
the Cuba Study Group had a strong start
but has faded.
''I'm glad they've been able to promote
discussion, but so far, I don't think they've
been able to set a significant agenda here,''
Perez said.
U.S. Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, R-Miami,
said both groups are effective but specifically
mentioned Cuba Democracy Advocates as influential.
''They both want a free and independent
Cuba, but they go at it in different ways,''
Ros-Lehtinen said. "[Cuba Democracy
Advocates] are influencing public policy.
Influencing policymakers is far more important
than public relations.''
Havana Club moves up the rum ranks
By Larry Luxner, Special
to The Herald. Posted on Mon, Mar. 29, 2004
HAVANA -- ''I'm just a humble rum merchant,''
says Alexandre Sirech as he sits in an office
decorated with posters of 1950s Havana and
shelves lined with liquor bottles of every
size, shape and brand imaginable.
But in reality, the 37-year-old Frenchman
from Bordeaux is director-general of Havana
Club International S.A. and presides over
one of the most successful joint ventures
ever launched between foreign investors
and Cuba's communist government.
In 2003, the company -- a partnership between
French drinks giant Pernod Ricard and Cuba's
Ministry of Food Industry -- shipped 1.92
million nine-liter cases of Havana Club
rum. That's up from 1.73 million cases in
2002, when the brand ranked No. 53 on Impact
magazine's list of the world's top 100 premium
distilled spirits.
''Demand has been exploding in Europe,''
he said, noting that Havana Club is now
50th on the Impact list. "If we keep
up with this momentum, we should rank in
the top 40 very soon.''
Havana Club has been able to score these
gains even though the U.S. embargo bars
sale of Cuban rum in the United States where
42 percent of the world's rum is consumed.
Earlier this month, the venture celebrated
its 10th anniversary in a three-day extravaganza
attended by Patrick Ricard, Pernod Ricard's
president.
U.S. GOAL
Although it is embroiled in a long-running
trademark dispute with rival rum giant Bacardi
over the Havana Club name, Ricard was encouraged
by a recent decision by the U.S. Patent
and Trademark Office and would like to get
into the U.S. market as soon as legally
possible.
''If the U.S. lifts the embargo tomorrow
morning, we'll be ready to begin selling
rum to the United States,'' Ricard told
reporters at a Havana press conference.
He added: ''We've won the battle but not
the war'' -- a reference to a Jan. 29 decision
by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office
to reject motions by Bacardi to cancel the
U.S. registration of the Havana Club trademark.
In its ruling, the Patent Office's Trademark
Trial and Appeal Board upheld the validity
of the U.S. registration and its most recent
renewal by Havana Club International.
At issue was a petition requesting the
cancellation of the registration on the
grounds that the trademark was registered
in the United States under allegedly fraudulent
circumstances.
The Trademark Trial and Appeal Board also
ruled that Havana Club Holdings had filed
a proper renewal application in 1996 on
behalf of Cubaexport and the Patent Office
had acted appropriately in accepting the
renewal and registration in Havana Club
Holdings' name.
BACARDI DYNASTY
For Bacardi, the issue of who has the right
to the Havana Club trademark is far from
over.
''Contrary to that (the appeal board decision),
Bacardi has the right to use the Havana
Club brand in the United States,'' Patricia
Neal, a spokeswoman for the rum giant, said
last week. "The Pernod Ricard joint
venture with Cuba has lost in every U.S.
court.
''Under U.S. trademark law, trademark registration
and usage rights are two distinct things,''
she said. ''Bacardi has the rights to use
the brand having purchased them from the
legitimate owner.'' Bacardi also established
use in the United States, said Neal, when
it sold rum under the Havana Club name in
this country in 1995 and 1996.
Before the 1959 Cuban revolution, Bacardi
was the leader in the Cuban market, but
its facilities were nationalized by the
Castro government.
Starting in 1934, the Arechabala family
produced an aged rum in Cuba that was called
Havana Club. But after the revolution, the
Castro government took over the Arechabalas
plant, the family went into exile in Spain
and the government formally expropriated
the assets of José Arechabala in
October 1960.
The Bacardi and Arechabala families had
known each other in Cuba. Through the years,
Bacardi had made several attempts to acquire
the brand before the Arechabala family finally
agreed to sell it in 1995 and the sale was
completed in 1997, Bacardi has said. But
Sirech said the trademark wasn't theirs
to sell: "Legally, the Arechabala family
more or less abandoned the brand before
the revolution. That's why a Cuban entity,
Cubaexport, could register it. Anyone could
have done that, because the brand had been
abandoned and was free to be registered.''
COMPANY SECRETS
For Bacardi the issue is the legitimate
ownership of the Havana Club brand -- something
that the the Patent Office appeal board
didn't address, saying "it has little
or no experience in determing violations
of statutes or regulations that do not directly
concern registration of trademarks.''
Such matters as fraud, said the appeal
board, should be determined in court or
by a "government agency having competent
jurisdiction.''
''We have until [this week] to make a determination
whether we will take this to court,'' said
Neal.
Sirech, meanwhile, is wary of Bacardi.
He refuses to say exactly how many distilleries
Havana Club operates, how big they are or
even where they're located, outside of the
large bottling plant in Santa Cruz del Norte,
along Cuba's northern coast east of Havana.
''You have to be paranoid,'' he said. "We
need to be extremely cautious, because we
know we are being listened to.''
Sirech also wouldn't discuss revenue, though
Impact puts Havana Club's annual sales at
$250 million.
Last year the Pernod Ricard conglomerate
reported revenues of 4.836 billion euros,
or around $5.3 billion. According to Forbes
magazine, the Castro government earns $23
million a year in hard currency from the
venture.
When the Havana Club joint venture started,
it wasn't a sure bet. Havana Club produced
only 300,000 cases of rum in its first year,
Sirech said, and most of that was exported
to Russia under a barter agreement.
''There were many doubts about the Havana
Club brand. It's funny to remember, because
now it's the fastest-growing spirit brand
on the market,'' said Sirech.
Even so, Havana Club's total worldwide
sales are less than a tenth of Bacardi's.
As in previous years, Bacardi is still the
world's most popular spirits brand, with
19.7 million cases of rum sold in 2003,
a 1.5 percent gain over the 2002 figure
of 19.4 million cases, according to Impact
Databank, a leading source on the worldwide
drinks industry.
PATIENT ATTITUDE
''We're suffering a lot at the moment from
our absence in the American market,'' Sirech
said. "But we're patient. We'll wait
to see what evolves before embarking on
anything.''
Sirech was interviewed for two hours at
Havana Club's headquarters in the Vedado
district of Havana. ''Outside of production,
everything's done here in this little building
-- strategy, pricing, advertising and promotions,''
he said.
Sirech was sent to Cuba four years ago
to head the Havana Club venture. He oversees
203 employees, of which 136 work in the
local division; the rest are in exports,
marketing and finance. That doesn't include
another 800 distillery workers, with whom
Sirech has little or no contact.
He said ''fewer than five'' Havana Club
employees know the brand's proprietary formula.
''Because of our legal battles with Bacardi,
we keep our production process extremely
secret,'' he said.
At present, Havana Club ranks as Pernod
Ricard's sixth-biggest spirit brand in volume
after Ricard, Seagram's Gin, Chivas Regal,
Pasils 51 and Larios.
The company says the successful launch
of two new products, Añejo Blanco
and Añejo Oro, has contributed to
Havana Club's strong performance. The Añejo
Blanco, a pale straw-colored rum, is the
base for most popular Cuban cocktails including
the mojito. The second, which acquires its
golden hue through aging in oak barrels,
is particularly popular in Spain, where
it's mixed with Coca-Cola to make a Cuba
libre.
CUBAN MARKET
Since May 2003, the company has distributed
its own products in Cuba. Currently the
brand controls about 30 percent of the local
market by volume and around 75 percent by
value. Prices inside Cuba range from $3.90
to $10.90 per bottle, making the product
expensive for Cubans.
''For some Cubans, a bottle of Havana Club
would be a once-in-a-lifetime occasion,''
said Sirech. "Other Cubans have access
to dollars through their families in the
States, and these people have the means
to buy Havana Club on a more regular basis.''
The brand's main local rivals are Ron Varadero
and Ron Santiago de Cuba.
To raise the brand's profile, there is
a Havana Club Rum Museum, located along
the waterfront in Old Havana's restored
historic district. The museum features a
scale model of a 1930s sugar mill, complete
with a working train. Housed in a colonial
mansion dating from 1875, the museum was
visited by 110,000 tourists last year.
Last summer, Havana Club launched a product
called Loco. The ready-to-drink beverage
is made with Havana Club rum and fruit juices.
It's available in two flavors -- lemon and
passion fruit -- and sells in hard-currency
shops for $1 per 275-ml bottle.
At the other end of the price spectrum
is Máximo, which took four years
to develop and ''is a mix of very old things
and very young things.'' Sirech wouldn't
say much more about Máximo, except
that it will be distilled in Cuba, and that
total production will be just 400 cases
every year.
Locally, it will sell for an astounding
$200 a bottle -- more than the annual salary
of the average Cuban worker.
Virgin Atlantic adds flights
Posted on Mon, Mar. 29,
2004
Virgin Atlantic said that it plans to launch
nonstop flights from London Gatwick to Cuba
and the Bahamas in July 2005.
The new flights will operate twice a week
from London to Havana, starting July 21,
2005, and once a week from London to Nassau,
starting July 18, 2005.
Virgin Atlantic will operate the flights
with Boeing 747-400s.
Overall, the airline is increasing its
capacity to the Caribbean by 20 percent,
including adding additional frequencies
to Grenada and Trinidad and Tobago.
''I am delighted Virgin Atlantic is launching
two new routes from London to the Caribbean
and I'm sure that both Cuba and the Bahamas
will be extremely popular with our passengers,''
said Richard Branson, chairman of Virgin
Atlantic. "Our presence on these routes
will bring increased competition and better
value for money which is ultimately good
news for the traveling public.''
Virgin Atlantic said it also plans to increase
service to the United States in October
2005, adding a fifth weekly flight from
Gatwick to Las Vegas, and another daily
flight from Gatwick to Orlando.
-Ina Paiva Cordle
Hundreds rally against 'tyrants' Castro
and Chávez
By SUSANNAH A. NESMITH,
snesmith@herald.com. Posted on Sun, Mar.
28, 2004
Wrapped in a Venezuelan flag, with a Cuban
flag clipped to her baseball cap, Olivia
Alvarez, 72, insisted Saturday that the
two countries are living under equally evil
dictators.
In fact, she puts Cuban President Fidel
Castro and Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez
in the same category as ousted Iraqi leader
Saddam Hussein.
''They're terrorists and the rest of the
world needs to do something about them,''
Alvarez, from Venezuela, said at a rally
in Little Havana to protest against the
two Latin American presidents. "Now
that we got Saddam, it's time for Cuba and
Venezuela to be freed.''
The protest drew a few hundred people to
Calle Ocho and Eighth Avenue for speeches
by Venezuelan opposition leaders and Cuban
exiles.
The Venezuelan opposition is calling for
the left-leaning Chávez to step down.
He was briefly ousted in April 2002 but
regained power and has fought efforts to
hold a recall vote. The opposition claims
he has used the police to stifle protest
and has jailed opposition leaders on bogus
charges.
''The terrorists are closer to the United
States than is believed,'' said Carlos Fernandez,
former head of Venezuela's most powerful
business union and an opposition leader.
He went on to repeat allegations that Chávez
had aided al Qaeda. Chávez denies
those charges.
Fernandez, charged with treason in Venezuela
for leading national strikes against the
government, lives in Weston.
''We tried democratic methods,'' he said.
"The tyrant, the antidemocrat Chávez
closed the door on us. In Venezuela, there
is no democracy. In Venezuela there is a
dictatorship disguised as democracy. The
international community must act before
the situation becomes uncontrollable.''
State looks at tightening rules on travel
to Cuba
Lawmakers are considering
adding extra fees to charter flights to
Cuba and requiring detailed itineraries
for student trips.
By Michael Vasquez, mrvasquez@herald.com.
Posted on Sun, Mar. 28, 2004
TALLAHASSEE - With the support of several
Hispanic lawmakers from Miami-Dade County,
the Florida Legislature is considering tightening
rules on travel to Cuba -- slapping extra
fees on charter airlines that fly to the
island and requiring state universities
organizing educational Cuba trips to submit
detailed itineraries well in advance.
Rep. David Rivera, a Miami Republican and
chief sponsor of the measures, said the
proposed fees on charter flights would help
pay for improved security at Florida airports
and seaports, while the school reporting
requirements would crack down on tourist
excursions masquerading as academic trips.
Such tourist trips have been criticized
by exile groups as helping prop up the regime
of Fidel Castro.
''The public will know who's going on these
trips and where they're going. Are they
going to the Copacabana [nightclub]? Are
they going to party?'' Rivera said. "I
just want to know that the trip is genuine.''
The fees on charter planes make sense,
Rivera said, because the money is coming
from travel to a nation listed by the federal
government as a sponsor of terrorism. Those
traveling to such places should help finance
security efforts back home, he said.
GUIDELINES
Rivera's legislation is titled Charter
Travel to Terrorist States and avoids singling
out Cuba by saying its guidelines apply
to travel between Florida and any of the
seven nations the U.S. State Department
labels as supporting terrorism. Besides
Cuba, the countries are Iran, Iraq, North
Korea, Lybia, Syria and Sudan.
Because direct charter flights from Florida
to any of the other nations are basically
nonexistent, the bill ultimately applies
to only one.
Rivera admitted as much to a House committee
last week, saying, "You're basically
looking at Cuba.''
The bill has six cosponsors in the House
and won unanimous approval at its first
committee stop last week. The Senate version,
sponsored by Miami Republican Alex Diaz
de la Portilla, gets its first committee
stop Monday.
An official at one charter airline that
would be saddled with the bill's extra fees
-- which vary based on a plane's weight,
but amount to thousands of dollars per flight
-- accused Rivera and other state politicians
backing the measure of playing election-year
games to prove their toughness on Cuba.
'EVERYDAY PEOPLE'
''Obviously, this is something that would
add to the fare,'' said Armando Garcia,
vice president of Marazul Charters, who
said the fees, if approved, would ultimately
be paid, at least partly, by passengers.
"The people who are going to be affected
are the everyday people from the street
who are going to visit their relatives.''
Florida International University Provost
Mark Rosenberg wondered if Rivera's disclosure
requirements could run afoul of federal
guidelines on student privacy.
The school has a week-long trip to Havana
planned this summer as part of a three-credit
class, Humanities in Cuba.
FIU ''could have some issues'' with submitting
the names and addresses of students going
on such trips, Rosenberg said.
Rivera's bill calls for not only that,
but also asks schools to provide at least
50 days in advance, a list of planned hotel
and restaurant accommodations, scheduled
meetings with governmental officials or
average Cuban citizens and an accounting
of how everyone's money will be spent.
NOTHING TO HIDE
Rosenberg said his school welcomed transparency,
and had nothing to hide, but he did worry
about scrutiny going too far.
''It could also lead to issues of what
are you going to teach, and what are the
actual materials used in the course,'' he
said.
"I can't deny I have some concerns
about the specificity of the information.''
The U.S. Treasury Department, which issues
travel licenses for colleges and universities
to visit Cuba, declined to comment on Rivera's
proposal.
Spokeswoman Molly Millerwise did say the
department had problems in the past with
pseudo-educational trips that were really
tourism in disguise.
In response, the federal government last
year suspended the more informal, person-to-person
education trips, limiting cultural exchanges
to formal school-organized excursions.
''Any travel-related dollars that are going
into Cuba, the majority go to Castro and
his regime,'' Millerwise said. "Which
can be used to further oppress his people.''
Dissidents' kin lament TV encounter
Cuban authorities release
taped interviews with some of the relatives
of jailed dissidents.
By Nancy San Martin And
Nayiva Blanco, , nsanmartin@herald.com.
Posted on Fri, Mar. 26, 2004
Cuba on Thursday released videotaped interviews
with several relatives of 75 jailed dissidents,
confirming the families' fears that their
comments to Cuban TV would be manipulated
to discredit allegations of prison abuses.
The release came as the U.N. Commission
on Human Rights was holding its annual meeting
in Geneva, where it has often condemned
Cuba for human rights abuses after strong
lobbying by U.S. and Western European diplomats.
In visits that began two weeks ago, reporters
from Cuba's government-run television interviewed
several relatives of the dissidents, sentenced
to lengthy prison terms after brief trials
a year ago.
The surprise interviews -- Cuba's government-controlled
media almost never report on dissidents'
activities -- immediately prompted concerns
among the relatives that their words would
be misused to discredit complaints about
poor prison conditions, bad food and water
and mistreatments.
DISMISSES COMPLAINTS
Thursday, portions of the interviews were
released during a news conference in Havana
at which Foreign Minister Felipe Pérez
Roque dismissed the complaints as a "campaign
of exaggerations and lies.''
''There is a campaign against Cuba,'' Pérez
Roque said, according to Agence France-Presse.
He described the charges of mistreatment
as "manipulated, tendentious information
. . . lies.''
Pérez Roque then showed a 19-minute
film of the wives, mothers and sisters of
seven prisoners who have been reported as
being in dire health. In the video, the
women said their loved ones are receiving
good medical care in prison hospitals.
In telephone interviews from Havana, the
wives of two of the jailed dissidents told
The Herald that they felt manipulated by
the Cuban television interviews.
''The problem is that nobody had a chance
to prepare,'' said Margarita Borges, whose
husband, Edel José García,
58, was sentenced to 15 years. "I was
so nervous that I couldn't think.''
The two women said the interviews started
on March 14. At least one interview was
conducted in Santa Clara, in central Cuba.
They lasted about 30 minutes and focused
on the medical treatment that their husbands
have received, they said.
''I felt depressed and cried a lot after
the interview when I figured out what they
could do,'' said Dulce María Amador,
whose husband Carmelo Díaz is serving
a 16-year sentence. "I said the truth.
I didn't lie, and if they manipulate it
then that's a different story.''
It was not clear whether the two women
interviewed by The Herald were among the
seven included in the government video shown
Thursday.
Amador, 42, said she became suspicious
when the reporter only wanted to know about
her husband's health and their prison wedding,
while ignoring her pleas for her husband's
freedom.
The Cuban TV interviewer ''had specific
questions and knew everything about our
situation,'' Amador said.
According to both women, the reporter also
asked about their husbands' personal hygiene,
eating schedule, reading materials, visitation
rights, and any type of torture or mistreatment.
The women said they told the interviewer
that although their husbands were not mistreated
by authorities, they did not belong in jail.
''I am not pleased. I would be pleased
if my husband was free,'' Borges said she
told the Cuban reporter.
ALERTED OTHERS
Immediately after being interviewed, Borges
and Amador called other wives and relatives
to prepare them in case the TV crew showed
up at their homes.
The crew did visit at least one other home
but was turned away.
''If they would have called me a day before,
I would have thought about it and said no,
but they surprised me,'' Amador said.
Pérez Roque said Cuba ''does not
have a vengeful attitude'' toward the dissidents,
adding that Cuba is ''fulfilling minimum
United Nations requirements on treatment
of prisoners,'' Agence France-Presse reported
from Havana.
He said prisoners are treated with ''respect
for their physical and moral well-being,''
and "receive adequate medical attention,
good food. They do not sleep on the floor
but on a bed with a mattress, and are not
in darkened cells or in isolation.''
3 Cubans survive a deadly journey
Three Cuban migrants
are helped ashore in Broward County and
report that four of their fellow rafters
died at sea.
By Jerry Berrios, Hector
Florin And Noah Bierman, nbierman@herald.com.
Posted on Fri, Mar. 26, 2004
As violent Caribbean waves pounded her
flimsy inner tube, Milena González
Martínez watched her husband and
three others drown.
For five days she would think about their
deaths, while struggling for her own survival
on a perilous, weeklong journey from Cuba
to Florida.
''I saw everyone drown in front of me,''
said González Martínez, of
Havana, speaking softly from her hospital
bed through swollen lips as she savored
a cup of hot tea Thursday night.
González Martínez's trip
ended when a U.S. Coast Guard helicopter
scooped her up just offshore Thursday along
Lauderdale-by-the-Sea. She started out with
seven others -- in black rubber tubes strung
together with cloth -- when she left Cuba
on March 17.
Four men died, among them her husband,
and one is officially missing. The U.S.
Coast Guard called off a search for the
missing rafter around 5:45 p.m. but planned
to renew the search today.
As live footage hit TV screens Thursday,
several local families watched nervously,
looking for relatives among the newly arrived
migrants. The fate of at least three other
groups of rafters who left Cuba between
last Sunday and Wednesday still is not known,
said family members who spoke to The Herald.
They may have been intercepted by Cuban
authorities or arrested in the Bahamas,
family members speculate. Or they still
may be struggling at sea.
''Nothing is a sure thing,'' said José
Basulto, founding member of Brothers to
the Rescue. He said he was contacted by
a South Florida family whose loved ones
left last Wednesday from a Havana beach
and, apparently, were intercepted.
''The possibility of them making it out
to the open sea is also scary, suicidal
I'd say,'' Basulto said. "The weather
conditions have been horrible.''
The three who arrived Thursday were weak
and thirsty. They had run out of water Monday
and had begun drinking urine.
''Where am I? Where am I?'' one of the
rescued men, Carlos Bringiere Hernández,
asked after he struggled to shore with rescuers.
He had told his family he was leaving to
buy cigarettes when he left Cuba last week.
''You're in Pompano,'' replied Lilian Garcia,
33, a beachside hotel employee who ran out
to help. "You're in Florida. You're
going to be fine.''
TAKEN TO HOSPITAL
The survivors were taken to Fort Lauderdale's
Holy Cross Hospital.
Broward Sheriff's Office and Coast Guard
officials got the first reports of the wave-tossed
inner tubes just before noon Thursday. Within
minutes, tourists were running to the beach.
With the help of a diver, a Coast Guard
helicopter swooped above the ocean to grab
González Martínez, 37.
The two men -- Bringiere Hernández,
38, and William Villavicencio Pérez,
31 -- made it closer to the beach.
One of the men appeared exhausted, but
the other was trying to swim to shore. Garcia,
an assistant manager at Villas by the Sea
hotel, said she urged two bystanders to
help. They plunged into the sea, just north
of the fishing pier near Commercial Boulevard.
''The police didn't want us to touch them,
but I didn't care,'' Garcia said.
Bringiere Hernández appeared OK.
''He kept saying to me he wanted to eat,
he wanted water,'' Garcia said.
BSO detectives said the the survivors told
them the group of seven men and one woman
left Playa Jibacoa, east of Havana, the
night of March 17.
Northeastern winds have churned up the
waters in the past few days, with gusts
reaching 35 miles an hour, said Kim Brabander,
meteorologist with National Weather Service.
''In the past, we've had boats capsize
with six-eight foot seas,'' he said.
The inner tubes, powered with a worn wooden
oar, had little chance against the sea.
''Trying to make it to the U.S. in this
type of vessel is a recipe for disaster,''
said Coast Guard Lt. Tony Russell, who put
the seas at 10 to 12 feet.
LOOKING FOR BODIES
Late Thursday, the Coast Guard had a jet,
a helicopter, several boats from Lake Worth
and Fort Lauderdale, and an 87-foot cutter
looking for bodies, Russell said.
Both González Martínez and
Bringiere Hernández, said they left
Cuba for economic reasons.
González Martínez left her
14-year-old twin sons in Havana with her
mother.
Bringiere Hernández said he was
fired from his job as a paramedic after
his first unsuccessful attempt to leave
the island.
This was his 14th try, he said. ''I can't
be over there. How does one live without
working?'' said Bringiere Hernández.
"I lived like a poor man.''
Herald staff writers Sam Nitze and Jeannette
Rivera-Lyles and The Associated Press contributed
to this report.
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