Chronicle on Cuba - January 2006

Exile Community

January 8: For 15 refugees who completed the treacherous crossing from Cuba to the Florida Keys, the difference between freedom and being returned to their homeland may come down to having landed on the wrong bridge piling. The group remained aboard a US Coast Guard cutter awaiting word on whether they will be admitted to the United States under the government's increasingly controversial ''wet foot/dry foot'' policy. By a curious twist of fate, the 15 migrants reached the bridge -- which is part of the United States -- but the section of the bridge they touched is no longer connected to land. As a result, US authorities have for now concluded that the migrants may not be covered by the policy's dry-foot component. ''We are asking the government not to [repatriate the migrants] because the bridge is a part of the United States,'' said Ramón Saúl Sánchez, leader of the Democracy Movement, an organization which advocates the interests of Cuban migrants. "If the bridge is not part of the United States, then the Statue of Liberty isn't, either.'' The migrants, which included four women and two children, left Matanzas Province in Cuba late on January 2 or early next day aboard a homemade raft, said Miguel Angel Guerrero of Hialeah. His cousin, Elizabeth Hernández, 23, her husband and 2 ½-year-old son Michael are among the migrants, Guerrero said. Local advocates are fighting for the group on a number of fronts. Sánchez has started a one-man hunger strike, directed not at the Coast Guard, but at policymakers in Washington in a bid to persuade them to reconsider the ''wet foot/dry foot'' policy. The hunger strike ''will not end until they are released or I am dead,'' Sánchez said. Under the policy, Cubans who reach US soil generally get to stay, while those intercepted at sea are generally repatriated. (The Miami Herald, 8/1/06)

January 8: Cuban film maker, artist and illustrator Constante "Rapi" Diego passed away in Mexico City at the age of 56, following a protracted battle with skin cancer. His only son, 28-year-old Ismael, was allowed to travel from Havana to be with him in the final hours. Born in Havana from a family with a long intellectual pedigree, "Rapi" began studying Art History and Industrial Design which he later gave up to pursue his artistic passion for drawing and the illustration of children’s books. His father was the renowned poet Eliseo Diego (1920-1994), who also died in Mexico. (El Nuevo Herald, 9/1/06)

January 9: Ofelia Fox, once known as the first lady of the Tropicana nightclub in Havana, where Hollywood stars mingled and performers like Nat King Cole ruled the stage, died in Burbank. She was 82. The cause was cancer and complications of diabetes, said Rosa Sanchez, her companion of more than 40 years. In her memoir, "Tropicana Nights: The Life and Times of the Legendary Cuban Nightclub," written with Rosa Lowinger and published last fall, Ms. Fox recounted life at the casino and dance club owned by Martin Fox, whom she married in 1952. After Fidel Castro took possession of the club, Ms. Fox and her husband fled to Miami. Ms. Fox's husband, Martin, suffered a stroke and died in the mid-1960's. Born Ofelia Suarez in Havana, the youngest of four, she published several books of poetry while she lived in Cuba. In Los Angeles, several of her bilingual plays were staged by the Cuban Cultural Club in Monterey Park. (The New York Times, 11/1/06)

January 9: Cuban-American community activists and politicians lambasted the US government's decision to repatriate 15 Cubans picked up from the base of an abandoned bridge in the Florida Keys. An attorney for the families of the migrants said he planned to file a suit asking a federal judge to allow the group to return. The migrants were sent back to Cuba after US officials concluded that the section of the partially collapsed bridge where they landed did not count as dry land under the government's policy because it was no longer connected to any of the Keys. US Senator Mel Martinez, Republican-Florida, called the government's decision an example of ''the complete and utter failure'' of the wet-foot, dry-foot policy. ''Because they reached an old bridge and not a new bridge, is there a judgment they didn't reach American soil? The semantics used to return these men and women -- who have risked so much to reach freedom and are now returned to an uncertain future -- are an embarrassment,'' Martinez said in a statement. US Representative Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, Republican-Miami, called the decision absurd. ''If any crime would have been committed on that bridge, the perpetrators would have been arrested and charged with violating US laws,'' she said in a statement. (The New York Times, 10/1/06)

January 10: When 15 Cubans fleeing their homeland landed on an abandoned bridge in the Florida Keys, they inadvertently found themselves in an uncomfortable legal spotlight. The plight of the immigrants has reopened the bitter debate over the government's immigration policy and angered South Florida's heavily Republican Cuban exile community. "This will have an effect of reducing the numbers of Cuban-American voters that would blindly follow a Republican candidate," Cuban American National Foundation President Pepe Hernandez said. Cuban-American activists said they hoped the latest incident will spark a review of the wet-foot, dry-foot rule, which was established in 1995 as a way to stem a massive wave of Haitians and Cuban immigrants, while still offering a safe harbor for Cubans who reached US shores. Ramon Saul Sanchez, head of the Democracy Movement, a Cuban-American group, said he began a hunger strike that would not end until George Bush agreed to hear Cuban exiles' views on the wet foot/dry foot policy. US Representative Lincoln Diaz-Balart said he is launching a lobbying campaign to convince the Bush administration to change the ''wet-foot, dry-foot'' rule that is the cornerstone of US-Cuba immigration policy. (AP, The Miami Herald, The Guardian, 11/1/06)

January 10: Attorneys for the relatives of Cubans who were repatriated after they reached an abandoned bridge in the Florida Keys filed suit against federal officials. They are asking a judge to clarify what constitutes US soil and to force the Department of Homeland Security to allow the 15 Cubans into the United States. "It's clearly against their own rules," said attorney Wilfredo Allen. "By their own definition, piers, bridges and rocks are US soil. They were wrong and we hope to prove that in court." The federal suit filed in Miami, which names the Department of Homeland Security and other agencies as plaintiffs, was brought by family members of the repatriated Cubans and the Cuban exile group Democracy Movement. (Sun Sentinel, 11/1/06)

January 11: Two of the Bush administration's top Cuba policy makers went to Coral Gables for a friendly lunch with South Florida's top exile community leaders -- and wound up on the receiving end of an outpouring of frustration. The visit by the US State Department's Stephen McFarland, director of the Office of Cuban Affairs, and Cuba Transition Coordinator Caleb McCarry came amid an uproar over the repatriation of 15 Cuban migrants this week. The pair used the luncheon organized by Florida International University to promote Bush administration policy -- a tough line against Cuba until the day there are democratic elections there. But exile participants, among them moderates as well as traditional hardliners, used the opportunity for primarily one purpose: to vent. ''The Cubans have a dictator, and we have to get rid of him,'' said Luis De Varona, a board member of the Cuban American National Foundation. ``When are you going to wake up to the reality? (…) We need to get rid of Castro. That is the root of all our problems.'' (The Miami Herald, 12/1/06)

January 15: Fallout from the Florida International University spy scandal is spreading throughout segments of Miami's Cuban-American community, sparking concerns that the affair is fostering a climate of fear among exiles who favor dialogue with communist Cuba. Already, several of those people have refused to comment publicly about their concerns, and others have expressed alarm that the arrest of FIU employees Carlos Alvarez and his wife, Elsa Prieto Alvarez, could prompt pro-dialogue exiles to be less willing to voice views. ''This opens the door to a witch hunt,'' said Bernardo Benes, who helped bring about an era of rapprochement in the late 1970s when the Fidel Castro regime allowed exiles to return for family visits. ''Only those who are doing something illegal should be worried about the U.S. government's actions,'' said Jaime Suchlicki, director of the Institute for Cuban and Cuban-American Studies at the University of Miami, which gets federal grants and has no contact with Cuban government institutions. Ninoska Pérez-Castellón, president of the Cuban Liberty Council and a popular Spanish-language personality on conservative Radio Mambí, said there was no witch hunt, just a deep concern among the anti-Castro right that others in Miami might also be spying for Cuba. ''The last five years, there have been 21 Cuban spies convicted,'' she said. She added that among them was Ana Belén Montes, of Puerto Rican descent, who worked at the Pentagon and was convicted of spying for Cuba. ''These two were at a well-known public university, [allegedly] serving as agents for Castro,'' Pérez Castellón said, referring to the Alvarezes. ``Where is the witch hunt?'' (The Miami Herald, 15/1/06)

January 16: Ramon Saul Sanchez, head of the Democracy Movement, a Cuban-American group, said he would not end his hunger strike until George Bush agreed to hear Cuban exiles' views on the wet foot/dry foot policy. In a statement to the press, Sánchez prohibited that “any person, entity or government institution including the paramedics” remove him from the Monument of the Martyrs of the 2506 Brigade, in Miami, or force him to end the strike. “I humbly ask that my will be respected in this prohibition and determination”, the statement reads. “This prohibition will be instantly lifted in the event in which the President of the United States, or whom he designates, proves in writing or gives public Testimony that the United States government is willing to meet with the Commission that represents the Cuban Community”. Sanchez has been on hunger strike for over five days. The protest has prompted behind-the-scenes talks between Cuban exile leaders and Governor Jeb Bush's office aimed at finding a way to persuade Sanchez to end his hunger strike. A deal could be announced soon (NetforCuba, The Miami Herald, 16/1/06)

January 17: White House spokesman Blair Jones told the press that the Bush administration has agreed to meet with exile leaders to discuss the ''wet-foot, dry-foot'' policy -- the most controversial aspect of US immigration policy toward Cuba. ''The administration has reached out to representatives of the Cuban-American community to express our interest in hearing and understanding their concerns about US migration policy toward Cuba,'' Jones said. "We have agreed to meet with appropriate representatives of the community, and we are discussing the date for such a meeting and are committed to holding it as soon as possible.'' Told of the White House declaration, hunger striker Ramón Saúl Sánchez said he would start eating if the promise becomes official. ''I think it's a great step and I am very happy to hear that, and as soon as I see that formalized by their side in a statement or in writing, I will stop the hunger strike,'' he said. (The Miami Herald, 17/1/06)

January 18: Cuban exile activist Ramón Saúl Sánchez gave up his 12-day hunger strike -- a day after the White House promised talks with exile leaders long upset by the US ''wet-foot, dry-foot'' policy. Sánchez said that the White House statement given to The Miami Herald -- coupled with a call from a lawyer involved in the case of 15 repatriated migrants -- was enough to compel him to end the strike. The lawyer, William ''Willy'' Sánchez, told him the White House would make good on its promise, and said his own sources had confirmed the planning of a meeting. ''I feel very happy. I feel that a principle right of citizens to ask the government to be heard has been granted, and the first victory is the government's for having listened to us,'' Ramón Saúl Sánchez said. A date has not yet been set for the meeting, however. (The Miami Herald, 19/1/06)

January 22: Rival groups who either loath or support Cuban exiled militant Luis Posada Carriles conducted small, although rather boisterous, demonstrations in front of a federal building in the North-East end of Miami. Approximately 30 activists urged the government of the United States to deport Posada Carriles, accused of terrorism by the governments of Cuba and Venezuela. Some 20 yards away, a smaller but noisier crowd of Cuban exiles was conducting another protest, hurling insults at the other demonstrators. (El Nuevo Herald, 23/1/06)