Miami's Cuban Connection

Top Dissidents: Lift U.S. Aid and Travel Restrictions

From the Herald's Frances Robles:

Four of Cuba's most prominent dissident groups are calling on the Bush administration to lift at least some restrictions on travel to the island and direct U.S. aid to pro-democracy groups there, saying the restrictions ''in no way help'' their struggle.

The dissidents' statement was intended to support the Miami organizations that handle some of the U.S. aid but wound up causing a stir, particularly among hard-line exile groups that support the travel restrictions. It also raised a question of whether the administration would still push its plan for an extra $80 million to aid an opposition that disagrees with its principal policies.

http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/news/front/16111512.htm

El Nuevo Cartoonist Released

The El Nuevo Herald cartoonist who barricaded himself inside the newsroom Friday with a toy gun was released from jail late Monday after posting $7,500 -- the standard 10 percent of his $75,000 bond.

http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/16114499.htm

Washington Post on Varela

By Peter Whoriskey

Washington Post Staff Writer
Saturday, November 25, 2006; Page A03

MIAMI, Nov. 24 -- Dressed in camouflage and brandishing what looked like a submachine gun, the cartoonist for this city's leading Spanish-language newspaper strode into the office of the top editor Friday morning and told startled staff, "I am the new executive editor, and that is my new office."

It was not a joke.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/11/24/AR2006112400557.html

New York Times on Varela

By ANDY NEWMAN

Published: November 25, 2006

MIAMI, Nov. 24 — A political cartoonist for the Spanish-language counterpart of The Miami Herald stormed the newspaper building on Friday morning dressed in an F.B.I. shirt and armed with a fake semiautomatic weapon, issued threats against the paper’s editor and others and held officers at bay for three hours before surrendering, the police said.

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/11/25/us/25herald.html

Los Angeles Times on Varela

By Carol J. Williams, Times Staff Writer
November 25, 2006

MIAMI — A Cuban American editorial cartoonist wearing camouflage and armed with what turned out to be a toy gun stormed into the Miami Herald building Friday to confront an editor he said was destroying a Spanish-language sister paper and allowing Cuban exiles to be humiliated.

http://www.latimes.com/news/politics/la-na-herald25nov25,1,3259695.story

Cartoonist Had Personal Issues

From the Herald's Carol Marbin Miller and Elinor Brecher:

Friday morning, El Nuevo Herald freelance cartoonist José Varela called his brother-in-law and said: ``Take care of my kids. Don't let them watch TV today.''

Varela -- dressed in a black FBI polo shirt and concealing what turned out to be a toy machine gun -- spoke to a Miami Herald Media Co. security guard, then headed up to El Nuevo Herald's sixth-floor newsroom, where he barricaded himself for 3 ½ hours in the office of El Nuevo Herald Executive Editor Humberto Castelló before surrendering to police.

http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/news/local/16093774.htm

For more:

http://www.poynter.org/column.asp?id=45

El Nuevo Herald Blog: Pablo Alfonso Resigns

From El Nuevo Staffer Rui Ferreira:

El amigo Pablo Alfonso acaba de renunciar al periódico. Y eso me entristece. No hacia falta llegar a este punto. Según tengo entendido, porque no he podido hablar con él, Pablo se siente dolido con el contenido del articulo de ayer de Clark Hoyt, el cual en su opinión no presentó una necesaria disculpa al impacto que el reportaje sobre Radio y TV Martí, tuvo en su carrera profesional.

http://ruiontheherald.blogspot.com/

TV Marti Exec Indicted on Conflict of Interest Payments

A federal grand jury indicted a senior TV Martí executive, accusing him of taking more than $100,000 in kickbacks from a company that was doing business with the Office of Cuba Broadcasting, which oversees the Martí operation, prosecutors said Friday.

Jose M. Miranda, nicknamed ''Chema,'' received the money from Perfect Image Film and Video Productions, a vendor that was doing business with TV Martí, according to a federal statement.

http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/16042986.htm

USAID's University Program Falls Short

PROMOTING DEMOCRACY IN CUBA | SECOND OF TWO PARTS

The United States has spent $7 million to teach Cubans journalism and English and to educate children of dissidents. But the efforts have fallen short.

By OSCAR CORRAL

ocorral@MiamiHerald.com

• Congressmen want inquiry into U.S. aid
• Blog | Miami's Cuban Connection
• USAID Cuba Program (.pdf)
• On the web | USAID: Cuba
• On the web | FIU's Free Cuba Foundation
• On the web | UM's International Education

John Virtue crammed everything a reporter needed to know into a clandestine workshop for independent journalists in Havana four years ago. But he just couldn't squeeze in the ethics lessons.

Manuel David Orrio, a student with a limp, eagerly volunteered to teach the ethics class for Virtue, director of Florida International University's International Media Center.

http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/16023360.htm

Pros and Cons of Sending Cash to Dissidents

There's disagreement in Miami and Washington on whether to send cash directly to Cuban dissidents.

Juan Carlos Acosta, director of Accion Democratica Cubana, which has received about $1.5 million from USAID since 2000, said Cuban dissidents need dollars.

''The opposition there has to eat, live and move around, and buy things. The stores that sell things for dollars in Cuba have things that I send from here,'' said Acosta, whose group ships computers, medicine and other items.

http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/16014374.htm