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The Herald's Frances Robles reports on a new trend in Cuban migration: a treacherous passage between Dominican Republic and Puerto Rico has a US-owned island that qualifies as dry-foot.
http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/news/world/cuba/14127767.htm
On Sunday, March 19, a mass will be held at Our Lady of Charity shrine in Coconut Grove to ask for the release of dissidents and independent journalists jailed in a crackdown against opposition groups in Cuba in 2003. Organizers want people who attend the 8 p.m. mass to dress in white to show solidarity with the Cuban civil rights group Damas en Blanco (Ladies in White.)
Herald Washington Correspondent Pablo Bachelet reports "[Lincoln] Díaz-Balart says he favors paring the conditions for lifting the embargo to three: Cuba must free all political prisoners and allow exiles to return, opposition political parties must be legalized, and the government must declare it will hold democratic elections `in six months, one year, two years, three years.' And what about the rest of Helms-Burton, including the clause that bars Fidel or Raúl Castro from heading a transition government? Díaz-Balart makes it clear that if Raúl met the three conditions, he would deal with Raúl. 'That's what I call static,' Díaz-Balart said. `I don't care what the name is. The [real] name is legitimacy.'''
http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/news/nation/14127797.htm
Cuban-born Pianist Santiago Alvarez, an Avery Fisher Prize Winner, will be performing a concert Saturday, April 22 at 7:30 p.m. at the St. Martha Church, 9301 Biscayne Blvd. in Miami Shores. The performance is part of the St. Martha - Yamaha 2005-2006 Concert Series, Rodriguez, Rachmaninoff & More. Meet the artists at the after-concert reception in the atrium, included with the ticket. $10 general admission, $20 blue circle. For tickets, visit tix.com or call 800-595-4849. TotalBank and its Chairman Adrienne Arsht are sponsors.
The Miami Herald's Lydia Martin reports: "Pedro Knight, husband of the late Celia Cruz, was in critical condition Friday at the Little Company of Mary Hospital in Torrance, Calif. near Los Angeles after suffering a series of strokes, said family friend Luis Falcon."
The Miami Herald's art critic, Elisa Turner reviews Clyde Butcher's photo exhibit on nature in Cuba: "Orchestrating shades that range from velvet black to silvery pewter to egret-feather white, Florida photographer Clyde Butcher bucks the bias for color photography by shooting grand views in black and white."
http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/news/world/cuba/14101997.htm
Five Cuban migrants may have died in the past two weeks trying to make it to U.S. shores, and the Coast Guard said today it repatriated to Cuba 44 migrants picked up at sea in the last few days. Here's the link to the full story in the Miami Herald:
Andres Gomez, the leader of the pro-Castro group Antonio Maceo Brigade who lives in Miami, writes in a Cuban government publication that anti-revolutionary activity is undergoing a renaissance of sorts in the United States. He singles out for ridicule Bibliotecas Independientes, or
Independent Libraries, a group that promotes literacy and the development of civil society in Cuba.
Writing in cubadebate.cu, a Cuban government web site, Gomez uses the race of Ramon Colas, the group's leader, as part of his criticism. "This organization, whose only visible member includes a little Negro who travels a lot, whose style and mannerisms remind me of maids in Cuba before 1959, always dressed in their white uniforms -- seems to ignore, just like his masters, that in Cuba, for example, during the last 15 years, they celebrate annually a national book fair."
Colas said it's the only time he has felt any "racism'' since he came to Miami about 5 years ago from Cuba. "He is using a series of offensive and racists words against me that you would never get away with using against African Americans," Colas said of Gomez.
Colas' group recently launched a children's magazine, Limon Partido, that his group is trying to distribute through independent libraries, mostly run out of homes on the island. Gomez said in an interview that he is not racist and his column should not be considered such.
"It's not racist, really, it's an estimation of mine of what he is," Gomez said Wednesday. "It's not racist in the least. He is like that. And I maintain what I said. In any case, he'd be a shame to his race."
Dr. Brian Latell, a well-know former Cuba analyst for the CIA and author on the subject, now working as a Senior Research Associate at UM's Institute for Cuban And Cuban American Studies, published his first electronic report this week. Here are some excerpts:
"Youthful unrest is already so endemic that the regime’s half-hearted and disorganized mobilizations are unlikely to have much lasting effect. They may well turn out to be counterproductive. Few of the youths inducted will be converted into fidelista revolutionaries and most are likely instead to grow more cynical and estranged from the system. Aware of the dictator’s failing health, younger Cubans in overwhelming numbers are likely to continue hoping that a sweeping dismantling of the fidelista system will occur within the next few years...
"Thus, even if Raul does follow his brother in power as planned, many of the policies Fidel Castro so tenaciously holds today are almost certain to be abandoned or diluted. He cannot have many illusions about this, knowing that a raulista succession is the most likely short term future after his death but also that a raulista regime would not faithfully duplicate the fidelista one.
"In the mid 1990’s Raul dispatched senior military officers abroad to study modern business and management techniques. In that era he more than once spoke on the record of the virtues of supply and demand, a concept that remains anathema to his brother. Considerable evidence indicates that Raul favors limited market-oriented economic reforms, though not a political opening. He has put out feelers to the American military, given active and retired senior officers the green light to run a wide range of capitalist enterprises, while allowing the impression that he would generally be more flexible.
"A raulista succession may not endure long and could unintentionally pave the way for a genuine democratic transition. But during whatever period of time Raul and the raulistas might be able to govern Cuba on their own, Fidel knows that many of his most cherished policies will likely be discarded. Fearing and guarding against betrayal nearly all of his life, he now worries about the worst of all possibilities: that his successors will posthumously betray him. If so, tensions between the regime’s most hard-line zealots and more moderate military and civilian officials may now be reaching a higher crescendo than at any time before in the revolution’s history."
Newsweek has a piece online this week on Fidel Castro. Titled "Castro's Comeback" the article, by Joseph Contreras, says "Fidel has more fans in the region than he's had in years. But is the hype, like the resurgence of Latin America's left, more style than substance?" He concludes: "As an icon for the left, Fidel Castro is enjoying a rare moment in the sun. The same can hardly be said about the society he created, or the appeal it retains beyond the shores of his native land."
To make the Cuban baseball team feel welcome in Puerto Rico, Cuban American National Foundation Chairman Jorge Mas Santos and president Francisco “Pepe” Hernandez draped a banner across the stadium before a game where the Cuban team was playing that said “bienvenidos patriotas, la fundacion nacional cubanoamericana.” (Welcome Patriots, the Cuban American National Foundation). The goodwill gesture was to set aside politics, and just focus on playing ball, said CANF Executive Director Alfredo Mesa. Cuban American Congressional Representatives lambasted the U.S. government for allowing the Cubans to play in the World Baseball Classic.
Members of Congress opposed to the U.S. embargo of Cuba are meeting with administration officials in Washington today to discuss what they perceive to be new restrictions on religious travel to Cuba, said Matthew Specht, a spokesman for Congressman Jeff Flake. Members of the Cuba Working Group are planning to meet with representatives from the departments of state and treasury. More than 100 members of congress and more than a dozen senators have sent letters to Treasury Secretary John Snow over the past two weeks complaining about tightened restrictions on religious travel and asking for explanations.
The Miami Herald's Washington Correspondent Lesley Clark sends this exclusive report:
Joshua Sears, the Bahamas ambassador to the United Statesmet late Tuesday with U.S. Reps. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen and Lincoln Diaz-Balart to brief them on the situation. The meeting had been scheduled weeks ago, Sears said, calling the timing, "a matter of fate." Sears said the island took its time with the case because officials are worried that releasing detainees could spur more emigrants to flee to the Bahamas. "That is one of the factors that caused us to consider this case in a very deliberate fashion," Sears said. "That is a constant fear." He noted that after the election in Haiti, nearly 1,000 Haitians fled to the Bahamas. He said the island is constrained by treaties that require the government to repatriate anyone who does not qualify for international protection. But, he said, the government found that the two dentists qualified under humanitarian grounds. Ros-Lehtinen pressed Sears on the investigation into the beating last month of a Spanish language TV journalist from Miami who was reporting from the Immigration Detention Center on Carmichael Road in Nassau. Sears said the case is still under investigation, but that one employee was immediately removed from security detail. She also pressed him on improving conditions for detainees. Sears said the island is building a reception center for families to meet with their relatives, is beefing up medical conditions and improving food at the detention center. But he noted that overcrowding at the center is "unavoidable at times."
Two Cuban dentists who have been held in the Bahamian prison for almost a year were released into U.S. custody today, according to a statement released by U.S. Rep. Connie Mack. David Gonzalez-Mejias and Marialis Darias Mesa are expected to arrive in Miami today, Mack's office said. For the past few months, Mack and other congressional representatives had been pushing the Bahamian government to release them. "The sun rises for everybody. Today it rose for my wife and I," said Ihovany Hernandez, Marialis's husband, who lives in Florida.
Former Diplomat Ana Navarro, 34, feels the Cuba issue closely and is becoming a quiet, behind the scenes player. As a former ambassador from Nicaragua to the United Nations Human Rights Commission, Navarro said she saw first hand how Cuban diplomats bullied the commission into leniency in Switzerland. She called them “thugs.” Her boyfriend, Biltmore Hotel owner Gene Prescott, and her have made the Biltmore the home headquarters of Cuba talk recently. At least five Cuba-related events have been held there in the last few weeks. Navarro is a member of the deep-pocketed US Cuba Democracy PAC. She says she also corners officials and diplomats from outside Miami who stay at the Biltmore. “There is not one that doesn’t come here that doesn’t get a dose of Western Hemisphere and Cuba issues.” Prescott is a Democrat and Navarro is a Republican, so they play both sides of the coin.
Nilda Pedrosa, who heads U.S. Sen. Mel Martinez’ Miami office, accompanied Martinez Friday to a meeting on immigration at the Biltmore Hotel. Pedrosa, a Miami native and a graduate of Lourdes Academy High School, is one of the Senator’s point people on Cuba. Her experience includes a stint at the State Department in Washington. Pedrosa is photographed here with the Senator.
Columbia University Professor Rudy de la Garza didn’t mince words Thursday at Miami’s City Club when talking about Miami’s Cuban community. He said the Cuban community would become “less important” in the national political scene because of their deep Republican bent. He explained that Cubans rose in importance as Democrats and Republicans slugged it out for their support. “As Republicans dominate the state, Cubans are much less important. It’s very easy to carry forward the myth of that power.” He said Miami Cubans are having trouble sharing control of Miami with other ethnic groups. “Cubans are very powerful,” said the Mexican-American adademic. “Why would you give up what you fought to build?…There’s got to be some compromise.” Lisa Garcia Bedolla, 36, (pictured here) a professor at University of California Irvine who just released a poll about Miami's Cuban community with another researcher (not de la Garza), says studies still need to be done to see if all these theories about Cuban Americans hold water.
