Miami's Cuban Connection

Chavez: Fidel's in Charge Again

"Fidel is in charge. Fidel is in charge,'' Chávez said, revealing that he received a ''philosophical letter'' from Castro the day before and that it ran nearly 10 pages.

Speaking during a meeting of leftist leaders, Chávez laughed as he said that Bolivian President Evo Morales ``is determined that Fidel will come out on May 1.''

LA Times: Castro's Back; What Reforms?

Nine months after falling victim to an illness that many U.S. analysts assumed would prove fatal, Fidel Castro appears to have come back from death's door to resume some leadership responsibilities and rein in Cuba's would-be reformers.

Cuba Hands Over U.S. Fugitive

   MIAMI -- (AP) -- A man who fled to Cuba after he was convicted of mail fraud more than 40 years ago was expelled from the island Wednesday and sent to Miami where U.S. Marshals arrested him. Joseph Adjmi, 70, was sentenced in 1963 to 10 years in prison but disappeared before serving his sentence, according to a statement released by the U.S. State Department.

Former U.S. Interests Section Chief: Engage Cuba

Vicki Huddleston, whose served as the U.S. Interests Section chief in Havana from 1999 to 2002, wrote an op-ed piece on U.S.-Cuba policy going against the grain of the presidential administrations she served.

Huddlestons writes:

"...Perhaps it is time for American oil companies to lead the way in opening up Cuba? After all, the expropriation of these companies led President Eisenhower to impose the first comprehensive sanctions.

It will take courage and vision to change course, but the alternative is that neither the United States nor Cuban Americans will play a part in Cuba's future..."

photo: Ileana Ros Lehtinen, Jaime Suchlicki, Huddleston, 2002

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.

U.S. Intel: Castro's Better

Castro's Adidas track suit signals serious illness, U.S. Intel says.

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.

What Embargo?

From the New York Post:

April 16, 2007 -- A group of Manhattan public high-school students and a history teacher with a soft spot for Cuba flouted federal travel restrictions by taking a spring-break field trip to the communist nation - and now face up to $65,000 apiece in fines, The Post has learned.

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!