Chronicle on Cuba - July 2008

Exile Community

July 6: Several Cuban exile organizations are launching a campaign to persuade President Bush to pardon convicted Cuban exile militant Eduardo Arocena, the reputed mastermind of Omega 7. Arocena, 65, was sentenced in 1983 to life in prison for gunning down a Cuban diplomat and for several bombings in the New York City area. A federal jury in Miami also convicted Arocena of planting nine bombs over a four-year period in the Miami area. Arocena's wife, Miriam, is spearheading the pardon campaign through a website, in which she asks for signatures for a petition to be sent to President Bush for a pardon before he leaves office. "After 25 years in prison in the United States, I have again taken up the cause seeking a presidential pardon for my husband, Eduardo Arocena,'' Miriam Arocena wrote in an open letter featured on the website. "My husband was sentenced severely, perhaps to more time than his actions warranted, for having violated some laws of the United States” (The Miami Herald, 6/7/08).

July 7: US officials arranged for a live video-conference for Cuban-American singer and anti-communist stalwart Willy Chirino to present his latest release from Miami to a group of political dissidents, musicians and other guests invited to the home of a US diplomat in Havana. About two dozen guests attended to speak with award-winning Chirino and hear a few tracks of "Pa'lante" or "Onward." Many thanked the singer for keeping Cuban culture alive outside the island and fighting for democracy. Miriam Leiva, a founder of the "Women in White" group seeking the release of relatives jailed on political grounds, called the video-encounter "very emotional." Though Chirino's music is "prohibited" on Cuban state radio and TV, the songs circulate widely among residents, often in pirated copies, and "is well loved," she said. The new album includes a song, "Que se vaya ya," or "Get Out, Already," urging an end to Cuba's Castro regime (Sun Sentinel, 8/7/08).

July 9: A Southern Florida cultural promoter will hold a musical gala on July 20 in benefit of well-known Cuban dissident Oscar Elías Biscet and the families of other prisoners of conscience in the island. The announcement was made by representatives of Yankiland United Movement of America (Y.U.M.A), promoter of the event. Biscet, a doctor sentenced to 25 years’ imprisonment in 2003, is one of the emblematic personalities of the Cuban non-violent political opposition (El Nuevo Herald, 10/7/08).

July 10: Eight Cuban American exile groups are demanding that presidential hopeful Barack Obama remove two campaign advisors who were involved in the Elian Gonzalez case. Representatives of the organizations wrote a letter to Senator Bill Nelson (Democrat-Florida), Robert Menendez (Democrat-New Jersey) and Miami Mayor Manny Diaz with a call for Obama to get rid of senior foreign policy advisor Greg Craig and vice presidential vetter Eric Holder. The groups said the men's role in the campaign is a "great offence" to the Cuban American community. "As you well know, both these men played prominent roles in what we consider a very dark page in the history of the Cuban exile community–the forced return of Elian Gonzalez to the communist island to live in tyranny," the letter states. Craig represented Elian's father in a battle over custody of the child. Holder was deputy US attorney general when Elian was ordered to return to Cuba (Baltimore Sun, 10/7/08).

July 17:Alberto Justo Rodríguez, Fernando Alonso Hernández and Luis Alberto Casanova Toledo–who now live in the Tampa Bay area–sued the Curacao Dry Dock Company, saying it forced them to work against their will while Cuban agents kept an eye on their every move. Court documents show that the dock's production manager was Manuel de Jesus Bequer Soto Del Valle, the nephew of Fidel Castro's wife, Dalia Soto Del Valle. Each Cuban worker got two pairs of overalls, a set of sturdy boots, a helmet and food commensurate with how hard he worked. Their labour fixing up American cruise ships at a Curacao dry dock was valued at $6.90 an hour. But the 108 Cuban shipyard hands who worked double shifts in a joint venture between the Cuban government and the Curacao Dry Dock Company did not get to spend their wages. Their earnings were applied to the Cuban government's debt with the company, court records show. Documents reviewed by the press in an ongoing 2006 lawsuit filed in Miami by the workers offer a rare glimpse at employment terms normally kept secret between the Cuban government and the firms with which it does business. The documents appear to offer proof that the government's joint ventures abroad sometimes involve unpaid labour. Instead of a salary, the men got money for food and 400 Cuban pesos a month–about $18 at the current exchange rate. The suit was filed under the Alien Tort Statute, which allows foreigners to file civil suits in US federal courts when a serious international law has been violated (The Miami Herald, 17/7/08).

July 25: Cuban exiles volunteered as members of the Miami Medical Team on one of their first missions to treat wounded contras, the US-backed rebels fighting Cuba-backed Sandinistas in Nicaragua. In the 25 years since, the Miami Medical Team has evolved into a ''rapid response'' international medical assistance group capable of deploying quickly to disaster zones, a sort of Cuban exile version of Doctors Without Borders. Now the group is preparing for what may be its biggest mission ever. Under a plan still being drafted, hundreds of team members would deploy in Cuba carrying tons of medical supplies as soon as a US-recognized post-Castro transition government is in place in Havana. ''We'll be ready to go as soon as there's a real change in government,'' said the group's founder, orthopedist Manuel Alzugaray. As the contra war wound down, Alzugaray's team broadened activities beyond Latin America, patching up wounded anti-Communist guerrillas in other countries, from Africa to Asia. The team first went to Angola to assist the US- and South Africa-backed rebel army UNITA, whose soldiers fought Angolan and Cuban forces. Then team members traveled to Afghanistan to help CIA-backed Afghan insurgents fighting Soviet occupation troops. With the Soviet collapse in 1991, the team turned to disaster relief in Latin America–and to drafting the post-Castro Cuba deployment plan. ''In the early 1990s, the wars of liberation from communism ended and the Cold War ended,'' Alzugaray said.  “It was the training we needed for the reconstruction of Cuba, our goal now” (The Miami Herald, 25/7/08).

July 29: Several Cuban exile organizations have launched a campaign to persuade President Bush to pardon convicted Cuban exile militant Eduardo Arocena, reputed mastermind of Omega 7, whose group was blamed for numerous bombings in Miami and New York. Arocena, now 65, was sentenced to life plus 35 years in prison for gunning down a Cuban diplomat and for several bombings in the New York City area. Also, a federal jury in Miami convicted Arocena of planting nine bombs over a four-year period in the Miami area. After each bombing, Omega 7 would leave notes taking responsibility. They were often signed by ''Omar,'' who was later identified as Arocena. Arocena's wife, Miriam, is leading the campaign for his release through a website, in which she asks for signatures for a petition to be sent to President Bush for a pardon before he leaves office. ''After 25 years in prison in the United States, I have again taken up the cause seeking a presidential pardon for my husband, Eduardo Arocena,'' Miriam Arocena wrote in an open letter featured on the website. Arocena, also known as Omar, was Omega 7's leader. In September 1984, a jury found the 43-year-old former dockworker guilty of murder, attempted murder and of numerous bombings. He was sentenced to life plus 35 years and is now serving time in a federal prison in California (The Miami Herald, 29/7/08).

July 29: Authorities say a former official with a Cuban-American group that was once the foremost voice representing the exile cause in Washington was shot dead in a Puerto Rican suburb. Police say 64-year-old Emiliano Infante Segrera was killed in the afternoon of July 28, outside a suburban San Juan hardware store, by a gunman inside a car. He was a long-time trustee of the Miami-based Cuban American National Foundation. Police Lt. Luis Diaz told the newspaper El Nuevo Dia that Infante appeared to be shot by an expert marksman. The killing is under investigation and no arrests have been made. Francisco Hernandez, the Foundation's president and co-founder, said that Infante devoted his life to promote democracy in the communist nation (AP, 29/7/08).

July 31: The pending merger of American beer giant Anheuser-Busch and Belgian company InBev that brews and sells beer in Cuba is thrusting John McCain into the middle of thorny Cuba-US relations. McCain's wife, Cindy, owns the third largest Anheuser-Busch distributor in the country, which means she would stand to profit by partnering with a company that is in business with the Cuban government. A Cuban exile family with a long tradition of brewing beer in pre-Castro Cuba claims that InBev has illegally been using the trademark beer name Cristal, which the family created in Cuba before its company was seized by Fidel Castro's government in 1960. "There are legal fig leaves that can be applied here, but the crux of the situation is that intellectual property rights are being trampled on," said Nicolas Gutierrez, an attorney for Key Biscayne's Blanco Herrera family. McCain's campaign did not respond to questions about whether Cindy McCain's distributorship in Arizona, Hensley and Co., would continue to market InBev products after the merger goes through (The Miami Herald, 31/7/08).