Miami's Cuban Connection

Play Ball, Not Politics

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.

Anti-Embargo Meeting in Washington Today

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.

Bahamian Removed From Jail Security after Journalist Beating

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."

Bahamas Releases Cuban Dentists

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.

The First Lady of The Biltmore

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.

Mel's Cuba Point Person in Miami

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.

Prof: Cuban Voters Losing Clout

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.