Chronicle on Cuba - November 2004

Exile Community

November 2: Mel Martínez became the first Cuban American in the US Senate. Martínez defeated Democrat Betty Castor to win the Senate seat being vacated by retiring Senator Bob Graham. He is the first Cuban-American ever elected to the US Senate. He was also the first Cuban-American to serve in a presidential cabinet. (AP, 3/11/04)

November 4: Newly elected senator Mel Martinez brought his victory tour to Miami, thanking supporters and pledging to be a US senator who represents everyone, ``no matter who they voted for.'' ''Florida gets to have only two senators and I'm one of them, and I'm going to represent all Floridians,'' Martinez, a Republican from Orlando, told an adoring crowd crushed into his Miami-Dade campaign headquarters on Coral Way. Speaking in Spanish and English, Martinez, who left Cuba in the Pedro Pan exodus when he was 15, also thanked those who helped him ''achieve this historic landmark'' -- a reference to his becoming the first Cuban-American US senator. ''It's a very special moment in history, and it's a blessing,'' said Elly Chovel, founder of the Operation Pedro Pan Group, an alumni association for the 14,000 unaccompanied children sent to the United States during the early years of Cuba's revolution. (The Miami Herald, 5/11/04)

November 4: Cuban clarinetist and saxophonist Paquito D‘Rivera is one of seven recipients of the prestigious National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) Jazz Masters Fellowships for 2005. This is the highest award a jazz player can receive in the United States. (AP, 5/11/04)

November 15: A young aide to outgoing Miami-Dade Mayor Alex Penelas was named executive director of the Cuban American National Foundation, a prominent advocacy group that is at the center of seismic changes in the country's exile politics. Alfredo Mesa, 29, a senior advisor who began working for Penelas 12 years ago as a high school intern, will head the foundation, which was formed in 1981 by the late Jorge Mas Canosa to push for US policies aimed at undermining Fidel Castro's rule in Cuba. Mesa replaces Joe Garcia, a controversial figure in the traditionally Republican-leaning community, who had accused President Bush of failing Cuba and left the post in August to campaign against the Republican president. (The Miami Herald, 15/11/04)

November 17: A Miami Hispanic radio station had its fine reduced, but still must pay for a 2003 prank call to Cuban leader Fidel Castro. The Federal Communications Commission agreed to lower the fine of $4,000 to $3,500 against Spanish Broadcasting System 's WXDJ for the stunt on June 17, 2003. That day, morning hosts Enrique Santos and Joe Ferrero placed and recorded a telephone call to Fidel Castro and impersonated Venezuela President Hugo Chavez and another Venezuelan government official and insisted they needed to speak to Castro, who eventually took the call. (UPI, 25/11/04)

November 29: The Cuban American National Foundation (CANF), the most influential Cuban exiles’ organization, described as a "political scheme" the unexpected release on health grounds of political prisoners in Cuba. “It is the Cuban government’s old tactic of recycling political prisoners to manipulate public opinion” said Omar López Montenegro, Executive Director of the Foundation for Human Rights in Cuba. The Madrid-based Spanish association Cuba in Transition, expressed joy for the release of independent journalist and poet Raúl Rivero although it warned that the legal mechanism Fidel Castro’s regime resorted to – the so-called “extrapenal license” – allows for a swift “return to prison” of any of the released dissidents. (Notimex, Europa Press, 30/1/04)