Miami's Cuban Connection

Cigar Aficionado On Cuba

Cigar Aficionado Magazine dedicates its June issue to Cuba, "the forbidden fruit of travel."

"Although the political debate rages on over relations between Cuba and United States and getting there seems to be more difficult than ever, there is promise in recent happenings and the hope for a better tomorrow."

"In the June issue, Cigar Aficionado magazine delves into the island nation from all angles. We sit down with top U.S. politicans, both Democrat and Republican, as well as government insiders, from Cuba and the United States, to examine the policy divide that splits Washington along party lines and two nations separated by a 90-mile stretch of sea."

Cuban Star Shoots North

Five months ago, singer Issac Delgado, one of Cuba's biggest salsa stars, walked across the U.S.-Mexico border into Laredo, Texas, bringing with him only his family, his talent and his reputation.

Papi: Scram, Kid!

A teenager who ran away from his father's West Miami-Dade home seven months ago and flew to Cuba, where his mother lives, returned to Miami on Sunday.

But the boy received a less-than-warm welcome from his still-seething father, who turned him away at the front door as a news crew from WLTV-Univisión 23 captured the confrontation.

Posada Back in Miami

Barely a ghost of the warrior of lore who once plotted against Cuban leader Fidel Castro, a rumpled and jail-worn Luis Posada Carriles shuffled off a private jet at Miami International Airport Thursday and for the first time savored life outside the shadows of his militant past.

Well, almost. Under 24-hour house arrest and soon to be fitted with an ankle bracelet for monitoring, Posada must remain at his wife's West Kendall apartment until his trial in May.

It's a place where he has never lived -- a cookie-cutter development on a man-made lake far removed from exotic locales across the Americas he used as bases to plot against Cuba's communist government: Panama; Guatemala; Honduras; Venezuela; Aruba. The former CIA operative, 79, is now living with a wife separated from him for more than 30 years in a city that hasn't been home since the Nixon years.

Props for Pulitzer

Congratulations to friend and colleague Debbie Cenziper for winning a Pulitzer prize for her investigative reporting of corruption in Miami-Dade's housing agency. Her House of Lies series has led to major changes at the agency and criminal charges against several developers. Congrats!

USAID Cuba Democracy Chief To Talk at UM

Adolfo Franco, who recently announced his resignation from the United States Agency for International Development, is coming to Miami to speak at the University of Miami's Institute for Cuban and Cuban American Studies. During Franco's tenure at USAID, UM's ICCAS was one of the biggest recipients of government funding from USAID to promote democracy in Cuba.

Franco announced his resignation as assistant administrator for Latin America and the Caribbean earlier this year, just a couple of months after a critical audit of the Cuba program by the congressional Government Accountability Audit; a Miami Herald series also outlined problems with the program's oversight and effectiveness.

David Mutchler, the man who ran the Cuba program since 1998, also announced his resignation lately, saying he will leave the post this summer.

To replace Franco, the White House has nominated Paul J. Bonicelli, the current deputy administrator for the bureau of Democracy, Conflict and Humanitarian Assistance at USAID.

Franco will speak Monday, April 9 at 7 p.m.

Here's how ICCAS describes Franco:

"The Honorable Adolfo Franco, before joining USAID in 2002, served as counsel to the majority on the House International Relations Committee.  From 1999 to 2000, he was president of the Inter-American Foundation (IAF), an independent government agency dedicated to the promotion of grassroots development throughout the Western Hemisphere.  In the early 1980s, he was an associate in the law firms of Cole & Corette in Washington, D.C., and Shughart, Thompson and Kilroy in Kansas City, Mo. Born in Cardenas, Cuba, Franco has a bachelor’s and a master’s degree in history from the University of Northern Iowa and a law degree from Creighton University School of Law, where he was on the Creighton Law Review and graduated cum laude."

Moroccans Told Their Story of Torture by Cubans

Former Saharan refugees, who were exported to Cuba to be indoctrinated into communism, Saadani Ma Oulainie, 28, center, and Ghalli Bentaleb, right, talk to the media during a press conference held at at El Viajente 2nd Restaurant, located in Collins Ave. To the left is Hossein Taleb, 55, father of Ghalli Bentaleb. The former refugees are now living in Laayoune, in Western Sahara and are here in Miami to inform the Cuban comunity and Miami of the plight of tens of thousands of refugees forced to live in camps in Tindouf, Algeria, run by sepatarist leaders known as the Polisario Front.

"Taleb's daughter, Bentaleb, 27, spent 13 years in Cuba, from 1988 to 2001. When Taleb went to Cuba to try to get her back in 1999, he was turned around at the airport and immediately deported. Bentaleb eventually made it back to her family. But Taleb's son was shipped to Cuba's Isle of Youth in 2001, and has had no communication with his father since, Taleb said in 2005."

Moroccans Ripped Cuban Government

A former Saharan refugee who was exported to Cuba to be indoctrinated into communism at age 11, Saadani Ma Oulainie, 28, gets emotional while talking about her father's death. The former refugee is now living in Laayoune, in Western Sahara and is here in Miami to inform the Cuban comunity and Miami of the plight of tens of thousands of refugees forced to live in camps in Tindouf, Algeria, run by sepatarist leaders known as the Polisario Front. She was part of a public relations trip sponsored by the Moroccan government, which is at odds with the Polisario over control of Western Sahara.

Special Report Coming

Ever heard of the Polisario Front? Did you know that Cuba has circulated thousands of soldiers and advisors through an obscure region of North Africa for decades?

I had no idea about this until 2005, when a group of Moroccans traveled to Miami to shed light on it. I covered the event for the Herald, and plan to roll out a few previously unpublished photos and tidbits on this blog. Now that UM is trying to link Cuba with Al Qaeda through their Polisario connection, I thought it would be a good time to revisit the story of some of the victims.

Little Havana Sizzles During Debate Over Travel Sanctions

The U.S. travel ban to Cuba incites passions at both ends of South Florida's political spectrum. But having U.S. Rep. Jeff Flake, who hard-line exiles consider an adversary, sitting on a stage in the heart of Little Havana Saturday marked a first.

Flake, a libertarian Republican from Arizona who has traveled to Cuba four times and has pushed Congress for years to end the travel ban, took part in a debate over the travel ban Saturday at the Tower Theater. He sought to make a case that banning travel to the communist island is counterproductive and against America's democratic ideals.

Florida International University professor and Cuba scholar Lisandro Pérez echoed the argument, asking what had four decades of a trade embargo accomplished.

Two prominent Cuban Americans -- radio host and University of Miami professor Paul Crespo and Hialeah City Council President Esteban Bovo -- countered that opening Cuba to American tourists and allowing Cuban Americans to visit family on the island more often than once every three years would only strengthen Fidel Castro and his brother Raúl's control.

http://www.miamiherald.com/581/story/59796.html