CUBA NEWS
The Miami Herald

Cuba, U.S. rules hurt families, group says

A new study by a human rights group blasts both Havana and Washington for travel policies that force families apart.

By Frances Robles. frobles@herald.com. Posted on Thu, Oct. 20, 2005.

Washington and Havana rip apart Cuban families with travel policies that violate civil rights, Human Rights Watch said Wednesday in a report that marks the first time the group investigates two countries in the same study.

Cuban-American families can't care for dying relatives because travel restrictions tightened last year by the Bush administration limit trips to the island to once every three years. And Cuba takes revenge on defectors by holding their kids ''hostage,'' the study said.

Families separated by distance and law shoulder the burden of decades of diplomatic tensions, Human Rights Watch said.

''What I see is a lot more people in pain,'' said Marisela Romero, whose case was one of those mentioned in the report.

Romero turned to the U.S. Treasury Department for an emergency waiver last year when she wanted to see her 87-year-old father, who had Alzheimer's and was getting progressively worse. But Romero, who left Cuba in 1992 and visited regularly, had already traveled to Cuba in May.

''According to them, I had to wait three years. I told them: My father does not have three years,'' Romero said. "What kind of mind does it take to come up with a law that prohibits bringing someone Pampers?''

Romero's father died a year ago today. Afraid to break the law by going through a third country, she missed the funeral.

'ILL-CONCEIVED POLICY'

''We don't understand why Cuban families have to pay the price for an ill-conceived policy,'' said José Miguel Vivanco, executive director of Human Rights Watch's Americas division.

Vivanco and senior researcher Daniel Wilkinson released the 69-page report, ''Families Torn Apart: The High Cost of U.S. and Cuban Travel Restrictions'' at a news conference Wednesday in Coral Gables.

Based on interviews with dozens of affected families in Cuba and the United States, the study says travel policies in both nations violate the internationally recognized right to freedom of movement.

Tougher U.S. travel restrictions were enacted in June 2004 as part of a Bush administration effort to deny the Castro government part of the cash that travelers take to Cuba every year.

A Treasury Department spokeswoman said restrictions are important to keep currency from an oppressive dictatorship.

U.S. Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, R-Miami, issued a statement slamming the report, saying: "There is no moral equivalence in comparing our policies with that of the Castro regime's. Our goal is simple and honorable: freedom and democracy for the 11 million Cubans who live at the whim of a madman.''

Taking aim at Cuba, the report says its government regularly denies exit visas to medical professionals, to the children of defectors, and to relatives of Cubans living abroad legally.

'HOSTAGES TO REGIME'

Cuba uses the exit visas as a tool for revenge against the disloyal and as blackmail to force the return of Cubans who have government permissions to live abroad temporarily, the report said.

''My children are hostages to the Castro regime,'' said José Cohen, a former Cuban state security agent who lives in Miami Beach. 'They want to give a lesson to people like me that grew up under the regime: 'Do what José Cohen did, and you'll be separated from your family.' ''

After Cohen, 40, left Cuba in 1994, a court there sentenced him to death for being a traitor. His wife and three children were issued U.S. visas in 1996, but the Cuban government has not issued them exit permits.

Human Rights Watch made a series of admittedly ''long shot'' recommendations, including insisting the Cuban government allow its citizens to travel freely. The group urges the Bush administration to lift travel restrictions to Cuba, or at least offer emergency humanitarian exceptions.

Cuba hails condemnation by summit of 'blockade'

The Cuban government called last weekend's Iberoamerican Summit, with its call to lift the U.S. 'blockade' of the island nation a success.

By Frances Robles. frobles@herald.com. Posted on Wed, Oct. 19, 2005.

Cuba is claiming a victory at the Iberoamerican Summit in Spain, with the government-run media boasting that 17 heads of state used the controversial word ''blockade'' to condemn the U.S. embargo against the communist island.

The summit in Salamanca ended Saturday with a vote to urge Washington to lift the embargo against Cuba, but the declaration used ''blockade,'' the word Cuba prefers and Washington shuns.

''The Salamanca summit has been a reaffirmation of Cuba in the Latin American context,'' the Communist Party newspaper Granma said Monday. "To understand it, Latin America won.''

The U.S. State Department was quick to minimize the importance of the summit declaration, stressing that many nations in Europe have repeatedly condemned Cuba's human rights record.

'FALSE POLEMIC'

But even leftist Spanish Prime Minister José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero distanced himself from what he called the ''false polemic,'' telling a Spanish radio station the declaration opposing the U.S. sanctions was practically a "ritual.''

''It's certainly a diplomatic victory for Cuba. There's no other way to slice it,'' said Philip Peters, a Cuba expert with the Lexington Institute think tank in Washington. "To me, the more interesting and important aspect is that this is a demonstration that our allies don't share our approach toward Cuba and are not bashful about saying so and not bashful about using loaded language.''

Cuban leader Fidel Castro did not attend the annual summit this year. Cuban media flaunted press coverage around the Spanish-speaking world -- from Mexico to Chile -- that it says shows the Latin American nations side with Cuba on the U.S. sanctions.

''I think that, if you look back over the history of such statements from these kinds of summits, this is a common statement . . . a common position that they have held,'' State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said. "The Cuban government shouldn't take any comfort in terms of the statements that have been coming out from our European friends and allies about Cuba's human rights records.''

The Cuban government engages in a constant campaign to denounce the U.S. embargo. At international summits, U.N. meetings and any other international forum to which it is invited, Cuba attacks the embargo as the single greatest cause of the island's misery.

LOST TRADE

A recent report by the Cuban government said the island lost $82 billion in trade since sanctions prohibiting commerce with Cuba were first imposed in 1960. Cuba claims it could create 100,000 new jobs and generate $6 billion a year if the embargo was lifted.

Cuban exile likely to direct bureau

By Frank Davies. fdavies@herald.com. Posted on Wed, Oct. 19, 2005.

WASHINGTON - Senators Tuesday had few questions for a Cuban exile from Miami who was a top Latin America policy advisor in the Bush administration and is now on the verge of becoming director of the U.S. Bureau of Citizenship and Immigration Services.

Emilio González, introduced to the Senate Judiciary Committee by two Florida Republicans, Sen. Mel Martinez and Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, said he would ''bring an understanding of national security and my own personal immigration experience to bear'' on the new job.

Only three senators attended the confirmation hearing for González and two other nominees: Julie Myers to head Immigration and Customs Enforcement, and James O'Gara to be deputy director of the Office of National Drug Control Policy.

González, whose family fled Cuba when he was 4, was an advisor on the National Security Council and served 26 years in the U.S. Army. He said he would concentrate on ''good customer service'' in the naturalization process and handling asylum cases, "but we don't want to sacrifice national security to expedite things.''

Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., and the ranking member of the committee, briefly questioned González's immigration expertise and Myers' limited management experience, but also said in a prepared statement that Bush is ''owed some deference'' on his nominees.

Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, and chairman of the immigration subcommittee, said he expected swift confirmation of the three nominees.

Cuban boy killed on voyage to U.S. buried in Miami

A 6-year-old Cuban boy who died last week when the alleged smuggler boat in which he was riding capsized in the Florida Straits was mourned in Miami.

By Oscar Corral, ocorral@herald.com. Posted on Tue, Oct. 18, 2005.

Propped up next to his small coffin, the photograph of 6-year-old Julian Villasuso captured him in a proud moment, smiling widely as he wore a black bow tie.

It was how his family wanted him remembered: a dapper, happy boy who loved to play with a blue toy dog the size of a mouse.

Julian drowned early Thursday when a Florida-registered speedboat allegedly smuggling his family and others from Cuba flipped over in the Florida Straits while fleeing the U.S. Coast Guard. His mother and father, Maizy Hurtado, 32, and Julian Villasuso, 49, survived and were released over the weekend into the custody of South Florida relatives.

On Monday, they wept over their only son's coffin as Father Sergio Carrillo put his arms around them and tried to comfort them and several dozen others during a funeral Mass at St. John Bosco Church in Little Havana.

''This is a high price to pay for people wanting freedom,'' said former Miami Commissioner Wifredo ''Willy'' Gort, whose son is married to the boy's aunt. "The family is taking it very hard. It's especially hard to see a child die. It's a loss that can never be replaced.''

Julian was buried at Woodlawn Park South Cemetery in West Miami-Dade County, Gort said.

TWO SUSPECTS

Two men suspected of captaining the boat were brought into Key West Sunday night from a Coast Guard cutter off the Keys, Coast Guard spokesman Chris O'Neil said late Monday. The men were among at least six alleged smugglers caught on several boats at sea late last week.

It's not clear in whose custody the men remained Monday. Also uncertain: the fate of the other 25 Cuban migrants rescued from the capsized boat. They were believed to still be aboard the Coast Guard cutter on Monday.

Another passenger was brought into the Keys on Friday after showing signs of appendicitis.

Federal prosecutors have not disclosed whether they intend to charge the alleged smugglers.

It is also unclear whether the survivors on the cutter, who could be material witnesses, will be sent back to Cuba or brought to Florida.

One Cuban exile activist called for the Coast Guard to release the entire video of the chase.

''We would like for the Coast Guard to release the whole video, not just the last 30 seconds [released to the media], to see what really happened,'' said exile activist Armando Gutierrez.

O'Neil said the tape was in the hands of the U.S. attorney's office and it was up to that office to release it. But he said the tape showed the Coast Guard did nothing wrong when it intercepted the smuggler vessel about 50 miles south of Key West.

''There is nothing on the tape that shows the Coast Guard in any way endangering the lives of those on board the vessel,'' O'Neil said. "The only ones who put those people's lives in jeopardy were the people at the controls of that boat.''

Gutierrez, who became known as a spokesman for the family of Elián González more than five years ago, said he helped pay the funeral bill for Julian because the tragedy touched a nerve.

''It's another case where a person died, this time a little boy,'' said Gutierrez, who said he was not acting as a family spokesman but as a concerned exile.

"These people are dangerous people that charge money to bring people from Cuba. They have no scruples and they don't care about anybody's life. It's only to make money.''

Ricardo Alarcon, president of Cuba's National Assembly, on Monday blamed U.S. policy for the boy's death, saying the United States' ''wet foot, dry foot'' policy encouraged dangerous human smuggling. The policy generally allows Cubans who reach U.S. shores to remain here. Most of those intercepted at sea are repatriated.

'On one side, they say, 'If you arrive, we'll admit you.' But you have to arrive, elude the Coast Guard, violate American laws, risk your life,'' Alarcon said.

On Friday, U.S. Rep. Mario Díaz-Balart, R-Miami, criticized the policy and said it should be reviewed by the Bush administration.

He and other exile leaders have stepped up their criticism of the policy in recent weeks, especially after authorities detained 10 Cuban migrants following a September struggle off Haulover Beach in Northeast Miami-Dade that was broadcast live on television. At least six of the migrants were sent back to Cuba and four were sent to the U.S. Navy base at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba.

''We never threw someone back over the Berlin Wall, or sent them back to North Korea when they escaped,'' Díaz-Balart said.

Herald staff writer Jennifer Babson and Herald wire services contributed to this report.

Executed men's families testify

Relatives of three Cuban men executed in 2003 for attempting to hijack a boat offered a teary video testimony before an OAS panel.

By Pablo Bachelet, pbachelet@herald.com. Posted on Tue, Oct. 18, 2005.

WASHINGTON - The relatives of three young Cuban men who were summarily tried and executed in 2003 for attempting to hijack a small boat testified Monday before the Inter-American Commission of Human Rights through a video smuggled out of the island.

The poor-quality video was produced by a member of the Cuban opposition and was shown during a one-hour hearing at the IACHR headquarters in Washington. It showed a grandmother clutching the childhood photo of one of the executed men, and two other male relatives.

''I cry every day,'' said the grandmother, tears in her eyes as she sat outside a residence with little furniture or luxury. ''I would say that what I am suffering is the fault of the comandante,'' she said in a reference to Cuban leader Fidel Castro.

The identities of the three relatives filmed in the video were revealed during the proceedings, but organizers asked the news media not to publish the names to protect them from retaliation by the Cuban security services.

On Apr. 2 of 2003, Lorenzo Copello, Bárbaro Sevilla and Jorge Martínez tried to hijack a Havana ferry with about 50 people on board at gunpoint and force it to sail for the United States. They were caught, tried and executed by firing squad nine days later in a case condemned by the human rights community, the U.S. and other governments.

The hearing at the IACHR, a branch of the Organization of American States, also revealed new details on the trial. The family members said they were not allowed to meet with the accused men and were not informed of the trial until it was over. Officials also refused to let them see the bodies after their executions.

In the same case, the court also sentenced four other men to prison terms that ranged from 30 years to life, and sent three women to prison for three years each.

The hijackers met their court-appointed defense lawyers just 15 minutes before the beginning of the trial on Apr. 5, said representatives of the American University's Washington College of Law, which is acting on behalf of the relatives before the IACHR. The trial lasted three days.

Cuban officials said death sentences were necessary to stop possible mass migrations to the United States.

The petitioners are asking that Cuba be made to pay reparations to the victims, which in past cases have amounted to $600,000. But Cuba does not recognize the IACHR's powers because the island's OAS membership was suspended in 1962. Seats reserved for Cuban officials to defend the executions were empty Monday.

The IACHR argues that Cuban citizens still enjoy the protections of the Inter-American Declaration of Human Rights, an instrument that Cuba has ratified.

One of the men who testified said relatives of the three men harbored anger but little hope. ''You have to suffer in silence,'' he said.

At the end of the ten-minute tape, a voice is heard telling the relatives that they ''had the solidarity'' of the opposition movement in Cuba.

''The whole world needs to hear this, that is what I want,'' the grandmother responded.

PRINTER FRIENDLY