Miami's Cuban Connection

Blog Technical Difficulties

The system I use for this blog, Typepad, had problems and lost data in the last couple of days. Some comments may have been erased as a result.

Here is typepad's explanation: "TypePad downtime information. Due to the recent problems on TypePad you may have lost some data if you posted an entry between 12:30am and 10:30am PST on Wednesday. July 12th."

I think the problem is fixed now. Carry on!

Posada's Friend Refuses to Talk; Goes to Jail

A friend of Cuban exile militant Luis Posada Carriles was jailed after refusing to testify in a Texas federal grand jury investigation into Posada's arrival in the U.S. last year. U.S.-born Ernesto Abreu, 43, is being held in New Mexico on contempt charges. Two other Miami exiles may face the same fate if they follow his lead. Photo: Posada.

http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/15025554.htm

Families: We Never Paid For Smuggling

The Coast Guard says their family members were smuggled out of Cuba in a trip that turned deadly.

But these family members say they did not pay anyone to bring their relatives from Cuba this weekend. Amay Machado Gonzalez, 24, was apparently killed by being battered around on the boat when the Coast Guard gave chase to the suspected smuggling vessel.

I interviewed some of the family members Monday afternoon. Here's what they said:

   Rebeca Croes, the twin sister of one of the passengers, Morelia Croes, said her sister and several friends made a makeshift boat and tried to leave Cuba on it. But it started sinking outside Cuban waters. She said the men who are accused of smuggling happened to see the sinking boat and rescued them.

  "They did the work of the Coast Guard," Croes said of the accused smugglers. She said her family did not pay for her sister to get smuggled

out. "I don't even have furniture in my living room," Croes said in Spanish. "I sleep in the same bed as my daughter. It's not as like if I had enough money to pay someone."

  Croes' half sister, Laura Hernandez, also said no money exchanged hands. "No one was paid," she said.

   For Arturo Conde, news of the smuggling operation was terrifying at first. He said his daughter, Odalys Conde, was on the boat. When news broke of the smuggling, he heard an unidentified woman had been killed, but had to wait until much later in the day to learn the woman's name from news reports. It was not his daughter.

   "She's been wanting to leave Cuba for a long time," he said of his daughter, Odalys, 40, who he said was with her own two daughters on the boat. "If they send them back to Cuba, Fidel Castro will take her daughters away from her."

  Other relatives said the people who were aboard the smuggling boat were all friends and family and had been trying to leave Cuba for a long time.

   Laura Hernandez said she visited her sister, Morelia, in Cuba two months ago, and said she was desperate to get out. "When I came from Cuba, she said that they couldn't stand it any more," she said.

   Photograph by Herald Photographer Carl Juste. From left to right, Ovilio Conde, America Lau, Migdalia Ramos Conde, Alex Conde, Elsa Conde, Arturo Conde, Alfredo Conde, Rebeca Croes, Laura Hernandez

Video of Newly Arrived Cubans in Hialeah

Check out the video of new arrivals that ran online with my story:

http://www.miami.com/multimedia/miami/news/archive/video/single-players/nubans.html

White House Takes Aim at Castro...Again

The report from the Commission for Assistance to a Free Cuba is a long, tedious document. But the White House fact sheet that presented it highlighted what Washington considers the main points. More than an outline, the fact sheet offers insight into what the Bush administration believes needs to happen for Castro to fall.

• "Empower Cubans to prepare for change...Over the next two fiscal years, $80 million will be provided to support these activities." The question here is how much of that will go to radio and tv Marti, and how much will go to "strengthening democratic  movements on the island", a U.S. government initiative that critics say precipitated the Cuban government's 2003 crackdown on dissidents, when 75 independent librarians, journalists and activists pushing for constitutional changes through the Varela project were imprisoned. Cuba contends the dissidents are working for the U.S. government.
• "Build support for transition to a legitimate, democratic government."  This means increasing diplomacy against Castro and for democracy in Cuba. There's been a big independent push in the past few years, by groups such as Raices de Esperanza and the Cuba Study Group to lobby other governments to lean harder on Cuba's communist government.
• "Undermine regime finances and survival strategies." Could Washington be planning to sniff out Castro's alleged booty of stolen Cuban funds?
• "Planning support for a transition government." Sounds like Bush wants to dangle a big carrot before those in positions of authority in Cuba who want reform.

The Carrot: the U.S. says it's prepared to offer humanitarian aid, help put on free and fair elections, and market-based economic opportunities to a transition government.

Then there's the compact with the Cuban people. The White House documents says: "The message to Cubans is that they will be secure in their homes and can count on friendship and concrete help from the United States."

Maybe I'm reading too deep between the lines here, but is the United States saying it won't let exiles reclaim property taken from them by Castro's revolution?  Property reclamation has been a huge point of contention between exiles and the Castro government. Many exiles don't care to reclaim old property that was confiscated by the communist government. But some exiles and North American companies want their property back, or at least to be compensated for its value. I'll be reading over the whole report in the next few days, and let you know if I see any other indication of where Washington stands on confiscated property.

Cubans Come in Quiet Flood

A new wave of exiles, larger than the one that came in Mariel, is adapting to a new life as immigrants, quietly reshaping the Miami area. There's a video that accompanies the online package.

http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/15010041.htm

NY Exile Columnist: End the Embargo

Albor Ruiz, a long-time Cuban exile columnist for the NY Daily News, ripped on the U.S. Embargo of Cuba in a column late last week as the U.S. is preparing to revamp its Cuba policy again. Cuba's Communist Party-controlled daily newspaper, Granma, published excerpts of the column. Here are a few:

"That the U.S. needs a new Cuba policy is not in question. But not one of interventions and plots to overthrow the government.

"Instead, Washington should lift the almost 50-year-old failed economic embargo, a cruel, hypocritical policy that punishes the Cuban people it purports to help. And it should usher "democracy and political freedom" by abandoning the anachronistic Cold War mindset and allowing free travel and free trade.

"Scrap the interventionist Commission for Assistance to a Free Cuba and its counterproductive report, and let Washington finally embrace a fair Cuba policy."

http://www.nydailynews.com/news/col/aruiz/story/432814p-364633c.html

Celia Movie in Works

Joe Cardona, owner of KIE (Kids in Exile) Films started a documentary on Celia Cruz 8 years ago, when she was still alive. He is wrapping it up with co-director Mario De Varona, and is excited about its release prospects. Cardona, maker of the documentaries Cafe Con Leche I & II, Jose Marti, and others, and the feature films Bro and Water, Mud and Factories, is becoming Miami's Woody Allen, capturing the city's quirks with a deep sense of understanding and irony.

El Barbaro Del Ritmo

The Spam All Stars jam every Thursday at Little Havana's Hoy Como Ayer, site of the former Cafe Nostalgia. At the back of the dark, smoky club, a light shines on a painting of Beny More, el Barbaro del Ritmo. There's something to be said about listening to one of the freshest sounds in American music in a venue that isn't afraid to honor the beasts of beat from the past. I shot this picture Thursday night. Beny was as Cuban as they come.

But Spam All Stars are an American band, made up of a mix pan-Latin immigrants and U.S. born musicians, creating music only a singular American city like Miami can produce. Here's to America on the Fourth of July. And here's to Miami, a deeply American city.

The Don of New Arrivals From Cuba

Regino Rodriguez, owner of Tropical Restaurant in Hialeah, is really the Don of new arrivals from Cuba. At least a dozen new arrivals from Cuba work at his restaurant, located on E. 9th Street. He says he feels an "obligation" to help people who have just arrived. Even if there is no job opening, he says he doesn't turn people down when they come looking for work. Two waitresses Barbarita Herrera, and her daughter, Rocio De La Torre, arrived from Cuba nine months ago and found work there almost immediately. Rodriguez's daughter also gave them a bag full of used clothes and some furniture to ease the transition. Rodriguez, a former Cuban military officer, came to Miami in 1981, and has run a succesful restaurant business since the mid 80s. He struck it rich during the real estate boom when he sold a property he owned on Washington Ave. in Miami Beach for a hefty profit last year. He's at Tropical 12 to 14 hours a day, six days a week. I met him while reporting a story on new arrivals from Cuba.