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Cuba situation dominates
airwaves in South Florida
By Hector Florin, Cox
News Service. The Pulse Journal, August
04, 2006.
MIAMI - Three days after power in Cuba
shifted temporarily from Fidel Castro to
his brother Raul, the passion, speculation
and full-force coverage of events - or lack
thereof - continued on Cuban radio and Spanish-language
television Thursday.
On her 3 p.m. radio show on WAQI 710-AM,
known as Radio Mambi, host Ninoska Perez
Castellon, the veritable queen of Cuban
talk radio, continued to blast Castro's
regime and even directed strong words at
Juanita Castro Ruz, sister of the two Cuban
leaders, for criticizing the celebrations
that continue to break out in Miami's Cuban-American
neighborhoods.
"To want to criticize this country
because they're celebrating a death . .
. (Castro) is responsible for thousands
and thousands of deaths," Perez said.
"Accept the fact that you have two
brothers that are murderers."
Juanita Castro, who runs a Miami pharmacy
and has been an occasional critic of her
brother's policies, has offered few public
words on the situation in Cuba.
Thus goes the polarizing, contentious debate
emanating from the airwaves, which for many
exiles in South Florida are a primary source
for information. News developments on the
island are dissected, but most of all debated.
Callers often report - usually based on
third- or fourth-hand information - on everything
from Castro's health to what the average
Cuban on the island really thinks.
Earlier Thursday, Radio Mambi station director
Armando Perez Roura offered midday updates
on journalists prohibited from entering
the island, and later referred to Ricardo
Alarcon, president of the Cuban National
Assembly, as "the hard-headed one"
and "the voice of tyranny."
With updates on Castro's health at a minimum,
most outlets have turned to ruminating about
the whereabouts of brother Raul, who has
been noticeably silent and absent. Speculation
about the younger Castro's own ailments
have surfaced: Did he have plastic surgery
and is he waiting for the swelling to subside?
And what if he, at age 75, also is too sick
or emotionally unstable to be in the public
eye?
As such talk continues to bubble, the consensus
seems to be that Cuba's hierarchy could
be in disarray. And that just spurs more
talk.
"The intriguing thing about this,
48 hours later, is that Raul Castro is nowhere
to be seen," Perez said Thursday.
She was especially critical of former CIA
special agent Brian Latell, who told The
Miami Herald that Raul Castro "certainly
has had a record of terrible, terrible brutality
and cruelty, but I don't think he's a sociopath."
"Then what is he?" Perez asked.
Coverage on the local Univision and Telemundo
stations has differed, although both stayed
on the air into the wee hours Tuesday after
the announcement that Fidel Castro was ceding
power to Raul.
On Thursday's 6 p.m. newscasts, Univision
led off with nearly 10 minutes devoted to
Cuban issues, with four reporters and a
CNN correspondent touching on such topics
as a canceled carnival in Havana, President
Bush's support of a democratic Cuba, the
scene at the Little Havana restaurant Versailles
and an interview with Juanita Castro.
Telemundo didn't touch the Cuba issue until
well into the newscast, after covering Tropical
Storm Chris and a Broward County bank robbery.
The 8 p.m. local cable access show Polos
Opuestos ("Polar Opposites"),
with Maria Elvira Salazar, has cut into
the Cuban state television show Mesa Redonda
most of the week, but not Thursday.
Regardless, the hourlong show didn't digress
from the topic of Cuba, with former Castro
ally Huber Matos serving as guest and adding
more fuel to the speculation that things
are amiss in Cuba.
"It's possible the situation is more
grave than what they're saying," said
Matos, who fought alongside Castro during
the 1959 revolution, then left the Communist
Party and was sentenced to 20 years in a
Cuban prison.
Hector Florin writes for The Palm Beach
Post.
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