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Cuban official won't reveal plans for
migrants
HAVANA, 5 (AP) - A top Cuban official lamented
that a group of migrants who reached an
abandoned bridge in the Florida Keys only
to be sent back to their homeland had to
risk their lives at sea.
Commenting to journalists yesterday, Parliament
Speaker Ricardo Alarcon criticized the U.S.
"wet-foot, dry-foot" policy, saying
it encourages illegal and dangerous immigration.
Under the policy, Cubans who reach U.Ss
soil are generally allowed to stay, while
those stopped at sea are sent back.
Fifteen men, women and children who reached
an old bridge in the Florida Keys in January
were sent back to Cuba after the federal
government said the bridge didn't count
as dry land because chunks of it are missing
and it no longer connects to U.S. soil.
A judge on Tuesday, however, ordered U.S.
officials to help the Cubans return to the
United States, writing that they were removed
to Cuba illegally.
Cuban Players Eager to Prove Themselves
By Anne-Marie Garcia, Associated
Press Writer Mon Mar 6, 2006.
HAVANA - Cuba has waited decades to test
its amateur talent against major league
stars. Now, the defending Olympic champions
have their chance.
The World Baseball Classic is more than
just a challenge for Cuba, it's a pivotal
moment.
"Everyone's waiting to see what Cuba's
going to do, to see if it really knows how
to play," said pitcher Adiel Palma,
the star of Cuba's win over Australia in
the 2004 Olympic final in Athens.
Palma was among 30 players leaving the
communist island early Monday for Puerto
Rico, where Cuba plays its first WBC game
Wednesday against Panama. But some wonder
if all those players will return with the
team, or whether a few might try to defect
and land a lucrative contract in the United
States the way big leaguers Jose Contreras,
Livan Hernandez and Orlando "El Duque"
Hernandez did several years ago.
Cuba is grouped with Panama, the Netherlands
and Puerto Rico in the first round of the
Classic, which began last week in Japan.
Cuba has defeated Panama seven times, the
Netherlands four times and Puerto Rico three
times in international and regional competitions.
The difference now, however, is that Cuba
will face major league stars on a world
stage in games that count for the first
time since 1961, when professional baseball
ended on the island.
The Puerto Rican roster features All-Stars
such as Carlos Delgado, Carlos Beltran,
Ivan Rodriguez, Bernie Williams and Javier
Vazquez.
Cuban center fielder Carlos Tabares said
that didn't faze him.
"The difference is only in the numbers
of the salaries," he said. "They
are professionals, and we also have professionalism."
President Fidel Castro saw the team off,
meeting with them for two hours Sunday and
calling the tournament the team's most difficult
yet.
"We trust in your high quality, your
honor, your strength," he said in comments
published Monday on the front page of the
Communist Party daily Granma.
Castro had a front-row seat in Havana when
the Cuban national team lost a close exhibition
game to the Baltimore Orioles in 1999. Cuba
came back to beat the Orioles at Camden
Yards that spring.
Coach Higinio Velez has said pitching will
be the key for his team in this tournament.
He sent young and veteran pitchers, led
by Pedro Luis Lazo, for many years teammates
with Contreras, who now pitches for the
Chicago White Sox.
Among the 14 pitchers, five are left-handed.
Another one to watch is Yadier Pedroso,
just 19.
The 32-year-old Lazo, who has a 92-93 mph
fastball, was selected the best pitcher
at last year's world championships in the
Netherlands.
"The Lazo you'll see in the Classic
will be a bit more aggressive, and also
smarter," he said.
Offense is Cuba's strength, with power
hitters such as 21-year-old slugging third
baseman Yulieski Gourriel, third baseman
Michel Enriquez, who hit .448 in the island's
national series, and outfielder Omani Urrutia,
who batted .447.
"We hope to be able to fulfill the
Cuban people's expectations, as our teams
have always done," Jose Ramon Fernandez,
president of Cuba's Olympic Committee and
a vice president in Castro's cabinet, said
Friday.
For Enriquez, 27, the priority is "getting
past the first round and giving the people
of Puerto Rico a great show."
The team's infield is ready to go, he said.
"We can play together with our eyes
closed," Enriquez said. "We are
going to confront pitchers who have more
resources and power, but we are going to
fight. We are in competitive form."
Cuban Official Blames U.S. in Keys Case
AP, March 5, 2006.
A top Cuban official blamed the United
States for the predicament of a group of
migrants sent back home after reaching an
abandoned bridge in the Florida Keys.
The U.S. government said the bridge did
not count as dry land because chunks of
it are missing and it no longer connects
to U.S. soil _ and it sent back the 15 men,
women and children in January.
Parliament Speaker Ricardo Alarcon criticized
the U.S. "wet-foot, dry-foot"
policy. Under the policy, Cubans who reach
U.S. soil are generally allowed to stay,
while those stopped at sea are returned.
It encourages illegal and dangerous immigration,
Alarcon told journalists Friday.
"Ask them if one has to risk their
life, going to strange places like the bridge,
to make a judge order (the U.S. government)
to grant a visa?" he said.
The fate of the 15 who reached the bridge
was not clear.
A federal judge on Tuesday ordered U.S.
officials to "use their best efforts"
to help the Cubans return to the United
States, writing that "those Cuban refugees
who reached American soil in early January
2006 were removed to Cuba illegally."
The migrants were completing applications
for Cuban passports, and had a meeting scheduled
for Monday at the U.S. Interests Section
in Havana.
Alarcon declined to say whether the island's
communist government would allow them to
leave.
"I have no idea whether they will
go or not, but I know they are people who
did not have visas (previously)," he
said.
Havana Cigar Fest Draws True Aficionados
By Vanessa Arrington, Associated
Press Writer Sat Mar 4, 2006.
HAVANA - Passion comes in many forms. For
hundreds of visitors to Cuba this month,
it's brown, rolled and good with brandy.
Cigar fanatics, deterred by neither money
nor distance, travel across the world and
pay thousands of dollars to experience the
supreme stogie at its source. Those making
the pilgrimage to Cuba for the annual Havana
cigar festival say the smokes bring them
pleasure, peace and, often, big bucks.
"This is my life," said Jimmy
Ng, a Malaysian who left the travel business
to become a cigar merchant some 10 years
ago.
Ng, 46, spends most waking moments devoted
to his new trade. He owns hundreds of books
on cigars, and smokes from five to seven
stogies a day.
At his La Casa Cubana in Singapore, he
only sells Cuban cigars - "I'm a purist,"
he says - to a clientele that is 75 percent
foreign.
Ng started smoking cigars when he was in
his 20s, for "status" and to attract
women. "But after five or six years,
you get the right crowd, and you learn to
really appreciate cigars from the brothers,
the other aficionados," he said.
Ng, now married and a father, meets with
a group of 30 friends every month in Singapore
for a cigar dinner.
Frenchman Guillaume Boudin says cigars
helped him quit smoking cigarettes. He considers
it a form of meditation.
"I know if I'm going to smoke a cigar,
I have to take time to do it properly,"
he said. "It really clears my mind,
and lets me come up with ideas and answers
to problems."
The aficionados in Havana scoff at those
who pay large sums of money for cigars but
don't know how to smoke them.
"It should not be smoked like a cigarette,
and it should not be smoked in a disco,"
said Alvin Leung, a chef in Hong Kong. "It's
just like at a fine restaurant: You shouldn't
eat something as if it were a hamburger,
or drink a fine glass of wine as if it were
Coke."
Leung, who sports long hair and a T-shirt
of the Latin American revolutionary icon
Ernesto "Che" Guevara, said real
connoisseurs need to come to Cuba to learn
about the history of cigars.
"You really want to appreciate the
effort that goes into making it," he
said.
Participants get to visit cigar factories
and plantations and meet distributors at
trade fairs and seminars. Multimillionaire
businessmen and mysterious figures who decline
to reveal their full names mingle with publishers,
musicians and engineers.
The Cuban ballet and British actor Joseph
Fiennes opened the festival on Monday, and
some 850 people attended Friday night's
closing dinner, including Cuban Parliament
Speaker Ricardo Alarcon, Vice President
Carlos Lage and several of President Fidel
Castro's sons.
Cigar aficionados from around the world
paid more than $720,000 early Saturday for
five handmade Cuban humidors signed by Castro
at the gala closing of the cigar festival.
The auction's hot item was the Cohiba Humidor
by sculptor Raul Valladares, fetching $300,000.
Next came the Montecristo Humidor, bought
for $230,000. Proceeds from the auction
were to go to Cuba's state-run health care
system.
The annual festival draws hundreds of cigar
lovers from around the world. This year's
event marked the 40th anniversary of the
Cohiba brand, which launched the new, exclusive
"Cohiba Behike" cigar to be sold
in cases of 40 for $18,000.
Cigars are one of Cuba's most important
exports, worth about $340 million annually.
Spain is Cuba's top customer. Europe in
general buys up 66 percent of the island's
cigar exports, followed by countries in
the Americas - not including the United
States - and the Middle East, according
to Habanos SA, Cuba's cigar marketing firm.
Trade restrictions against communist Cuba
prevent the island's cigars from legally
entering the U.S. market.
U.S. Military Aids Injured Cuban Medics
AP, March 2, 2006.
TEGUCIGALPA, Honduras - The U.S. military
rushed to aid several Cuban medics who were
injured in a Honduras car crash, airlifting
them to a hospital, officials said Thursday.
The Cubans - four doctors and their driver
- crashed Wednesday on a highway near an
air base, 40 miles north of the capital,
where a 400-member U.S. military contingent
is located.
"Their car accidentally crashed through
a Soto Cano Air Base perimeter fence,"
near the city of Comayagua, the U.S. Southern
Command said in a statement.
The victims are among 300 Cuban medical
personnel on assignment in Honduras - a
largely poor nation with a health care shortage.
The Command said the Cubans were taken
to an emergency room jointly run by U.S.
and Hondurans forces.
"One of injured men was later sent
to a local hospital in Comayagua, and it
was determined that the four remaining men
needed to be air-evacuated to a Tegucigalpa
hospital," the Command said.
"They are recovering gradually,"
said hospital director Mario Noe Villafranca.
He said one of the doctors, the most seriously
injured, had suffered damage to his spinal
column.
Fiennes Helps Launch Cuban Cigar
AP, Wed Mar 1, 2006.
HAVANA - Joseph Fiennes, who co-starred
with Gwyneth Paltrow in the 1998 film "Shakespeare
in Love," has helped launch a new Cuban
cigar, tossing off a few lines from "Romeo
and Juliet" in honor of the cigar's
maker.
Fiennes was the featured visitor as Cuba
began its annual cigar festival Monday night,
presenting a cigar size called the "Short
Churchill" by Cuba's state-owned Romeo
and Juliet brand at Havana's Gran Teatro.
"I've really gained a newfound respect
for the kind of level of attention, detail,
complexity and energy that goes into making
a cigar," the 35-year-old British actor
told reporters.
According to legend, World War II British
Prime Minister Winston Churchill smoked
more than 200,000 Cuban cigars during trips
to the island, Fiennes said.
"I cannot compete with Winston Churchill
because sadly, I am only here for three
enchanting days," he told the crowd.
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