Cuban News December 19 2006

MR. SNOW: To tell you the truth, I have not paid a whole lot of attention to it, other than the most important thing for us is that the Cuban people deserve freedom and democracy. And we hope they get it.

http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2006/12/20061218-3.html

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U.S. sees strategic advantage in Ottawa's Cuban ties

JEFF SALLOT

The Globe and Mail; Reuter News Agency

19 December 2006

The Globe and Mail

OTTAWA -- Canada's ties with Cuba can help nudge that country toward democracy after an ailing Fidel Castro is gone, according to a senior U.S. State Department official.

“Canadians have been able to maintain relationships both with the [Castro] regime, and Cuban civil society and Cuban dissidents,” assistant secretary of state Thomas Shannon said in an interview yesterday. “That's no small feat. Only a few countries have been able to do that.”

Kind words for Ottawa's Cuba policy are a rarity coming from U.S. government officials. For more than four decades, Washington has been trying to enforce a trade embargo against Havana using various measures, including laws that threaten criminal prosecution of Canadian executives of subsidiaries of U.S. companies that trade with Cuba.

Canada, in turn, has a law on the books that can be used to prosecute subsidiaries that refuse to deal with Cuba for political reasons.

Mr. Shannon, who is in charge of the State Department's bureau of Western hemispheric affairs, said Canada, Mexico, and other countries in the region share with the United States the desire to see Cubans transform their country into a democracy.

The fact that Canada and others trade with Cuba while the United States maintains an economic embargo is simply a matter of different tactics, Mr. Shannon said.

“The tactical differences can actually work to the advantage of our larger objective,” he said.

Mr. Castro, 80, is in poor health. After intestinal surgery in July, he transferred power to his brother Raul on an interim basis.

The U.S. attempt to isolate Cuba is a policy that can sometimes provoke controversy, he acknowledged. Many other countries see it as a government-to-government issue, but Washington sees its primary relationship to be not with the regime but with the Cuban people, who he said deserve freedom from tyranny.

“We are coming to the end of the Castro era. We all need to look ahead,” Mr. Shannon said.

U.S. security officials have said they are preparing for the possibility that Mr. Castro's eventual death could spark a massive wave of migration.

Before dawn yesterday, 25 Cuban refugees came ashore near Sarasota, Fla., and were taken into custody by U.S. immigration officials, police said. The men and women were discovered about 5 a.m. on Longboat Key on Florida's Gulf Coast.

According to police, the Cubans said they left their homeland by boat Friday and had not eaten since Thursday evening. They were given food and dry clothing and taken to Tampa for processing.

U.S. policy allows Cubans to remain in the United States if they reach U.S. shores. If they are detained while still at sea, they are normally returned to Cuba.

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Canada to be helpful for Cuba-U.S. relations when Castro dies: U.S. official

BY JENNIFER DITCHBURN

18 December 2006

17:58

OTTAWA (CP) _ As the United States watches regime change in Cuba from the sidelines, Canada's long-standing relationship with the Communist country will prove ``useful,'' says a top Washington official.

Tom Shannon, assistant secretary for Western Hemisphere affairs, was almost complimentary Monday when referring to Canada's open lines of communication with Cuba.

He said with President Fidel Castro reportedly near death, Cuba has been his top item of discussion as he travels internationally.

``I do believe that this government (in Canada) really is committed to promoting a democratic future for Cuba, and Canadians have been able to maintain relationships both with the regime and with members of Cuban society and Cuban dissidents, and that's no small feat,'' Shannon said during a briefing for Canadian reporters.

``There's only a few countries that have been able to do that.''

Washington has kept up an economic and social embargo of Cuba since 1962. It went even further last decade with the implementation of the Helms-Burton Act, introducing fines and penalties for foreign businesses that set up shop in Cuba.

While those fines and penalties have been regularly suspended by presidents Bill Clinton and George W. Bush, there have been repercussions for Canadians. For example, executives from Canadian mining company Sherritt International have been barred from travelling in the United States because of their operations in Cuba.

But the hard line Washington has taken puts it in an awkward position now that it wants to be involved in promoting democracy once Castro dies.

The U.S. government has only bare diplomatic relations with Cuba. It has an ``interests office'' that operates under the aegis of the Swiss embassy in Havana, and the movements of American diplomats are restricted to that city.

``Countries like Canada have a very useful role to play because of the relationships they've built over time and the influence they've built over time, and also their access on the island,'' Shannon said.

He emphasized that although the United States has a different ``tactic'' in dealing with Cuba from that of Canada, the European Union and Mexico in particular, all the players are pushing for the same goal.

``The international community can play an important role expressing some expectations about what a successful and peaceful transition to democracy might look like and communicate both to the Cuban regime and to the Cuban people, the importance of successful transition to democracy,'' he said.

Former Liberal foreign affairs minister Lloyd Axworthy, who initiated active discussions with Castro in the mid-1990s, said he's not surprised by the comments because the United States has long seen Canada as a conduit to Cuba.

But he said that Canada has not been on the same page with the United States when it comes to what happens once Castro passes away.

``Castro is increasingly seen as an icon in the Americas, and any attempt to try and take advantage of it would backfire, not only in Cuba itself,'' said Axworthy, now president of the University of Winnipeg.

``All along the idea was to create the conditions in which eventually a Cuban style democracy could flourish, but not to impose it, not to have a cotton-candy kind of arrangement that we've seen fail so badly in Iraq when we come in with self-defined ideas of what it should be.''

Current Foreign Affairs Minister Peter MacKay said last summer that his government remains committed to an open relationship with Cuba.

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Cuban dissidents ask for normalization of U.S. aid

Havana, Dec 18 (EFE).- Groups of Cuba's internal opposition asked for the "urgent" normalization of humanitarian aid from the United States in view of its being stopped after an official report found irregularities in its administration.

The request was made in a communique issued Monday and signed by four leaders of dissident organizations and addressed to U.S. congressmen William Delahunt (D-Mass) and Jeff Flake (R-Ariz.), who led a congressional delegation that visited Cuba last weekend for meetings with officials of the Communist government.

"Do everything you can to normalize urgently the sending of humanitarian aid in the form of medicines, food and other vital subsistence items, and we acknowledge the positive role of those in charge of getting that aid to us," the communique said.

A November report by the General Accountability Office, the investigative arm of the U.S. Congress, confirmed irregularities in the use of part of nearly $74 million in donations sent by Washington to Cuban opposition groups between 1996 and 2005.

"There is no plea for an increase of anything, we only ask for greater control and wish to express our concern about the stoppage of aid," the president of the outlawed Cuban Commission for Human Rights and National Reconciliation, Elizardo Sanchez, told Efe.

Sanchez is one of the signatories of the document, together with Marta Beatriz Roque of the Assembly to Promote Civil Society; Vladimiro Roca of the Cuban Social Democratic Party, and Gisela Delgado, spokesperson for the Independent Libraries Project and the wife of recently freed political prisoner Hector Palacios.

In the letter they indicate that the investigation the GAO was asked to carry out by Congress' Cuba Working Group - co-chaired by Delahunt and Flake - had a "negative impact as far as the sending of medicines and other subsistence items is concerned."

According to the signatories, who repeated the need to "achieve greater efficiency" in using the funds, the need for that aid is "urgent and vital" for political prisoners and their dependent families and for members of the human-rights movement.

The bipartisan Cuba Working Group was created to push for an end to the now-44-year-old U.S. economic embargo against the island.

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U.S.-backed anti-Castro TV Marti starts broadcasting in Miami; first airing in U.S.

By LAURA WIDES-MUNOZ

Associated Press Writer

19 December 2006

MIAMI (AP) - A South Florida Spanish-language TV station has begun broadcasting programs produced by TV Marti, the federally owned station that beams anti-Castro programming into Cuba, U.S. officials said.

The first show, a half-hour news broadcast, came as Miami-based TV Marti faced a new round of criticism for spending $10 million annually to produce programs rarely seen by the network's intended audience.

Radio and TV Marti have always had the option of using U.S. frequencies in case the stations were jammed in Cuba, said Joseph O'Connell, a spokesman for the Broadcasting Board of Governors, which oversees the Cuban broadcasting stations.

TV Marti has long been jammed on the communist island nation, but Monday appeared to mark the first time the programming was broadcast on U.S. airwaves.

In recent years, the Marti podcasts have been available in the U.S. over the Internet.

The show aired Monday night on WPMF-TV, a local affiliate of the Hispanic Aztec Americas network.

"We provide news for our community, and these (programs) are important for the community," said Enrique Landin, the station's general manager.

Some Cubans might see the broadcasts via satellite.

Radio and TV Marti are among a number of federally funded TV and radio stations whose programming is aired outside the U.S., including Voice of America, Radio Free Europe and Radio Free Asia.

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On the Net:

Broadcasting Board of Governors: http://www.bbg.gov

Azteca America Television Network: http://www.aztecaamerica.com

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Lawmakers promote agriculture trade on Cuba trip

By SAM HANANEL

Associated Press Writer

18 December 2006

WASHINGTON (AP) - Reps. Jerry Moran and Jo Ann Emerson, back from a weekend visit to Cuba, said Monday the U.S. government should ease travel restrictions and expand agricultural trade with the communist nation.

"It's become clear to me that personal freedom follows economic opportunity," said Moran, R-Kan. "The larger trading relationship we have, the higher standard of living that Cuban people have, the more demands they will make upon their government for change."

Moran and Emerson, R-Mo., were part of a 10-member bipartisan congressional delegation that visited Cuba, the largest group of lawmakers to travel there since the U.S. trade embargo began more than 40 years ago.

The lawmakers are trying to gain a better understanding of the political situation in Cuba because of the uncertainly surrounding Fidel Castro's health. They are also looking for ways to boost U.S. agricultural exports to the communist nation, which would benefit Midwestern farmers.

"Every single person with whom we met said they want to have negotiations to start building dialogue and communication between them and Washington, which is a different tone than they've taken in the past," Emerson said.

The Bush administration has said it will not open talks with Cuba until it becomes a democracy. While Moran said he is not a defender of Castro's regime, he asserts U.S. policy is misguided.

"There's a growing recognition that what we're doing is not working," Moran said.

Castro's medical condition has been kept under wraps since he underwent surgery for intestinal bleeding in July and temporarily ceded power to his younger brother Raul Castro. He has not been seen publicly since July 26.

Cuban officials tried to convince the lawmakers that Castro will return to power, but Moran said he suspects that is not true.

"My guess is sooner rather than later that Fidel Castro is no longer going to be the leader of Cuba," Moran said. "That gives us an opportunity to try to increase our relationship and develop an influence over the future Cuban government."

The delegation was not allowed to meet with Raul Castro. Emerson speculated the Cuban government did not want to signal that Fidel is no longer in power.

The group arrived in Havana on Friday and met with Foreign Minister Felipe Perez Roque, Parliament Speaker Ricardo Alarcon and Basic Industries Minister Yadira Garcia.

Moran and Emerson have long supported easing the trade embargo on Cuba. Moran backed a law passed by Congress in 2000 that allowed for the export of agricultural products, food and medicine to Cuba for the first time since the embargo began. Cuba purchased about $1.4 billion worth of agricultural commodities from U.S farmers from 2001 to 2005.

But the Bush administration last year imposed new restrictions that require Cuba to pay for goods before they leave U.S. ports. That change frustrated Cubans and caused trade to drop again. Moran and Emerson have tried unsuccessfully to stop the U.S. Treasury Department from enforcing the new rule.

Emerson said she is confident U.S. farmers will continue to be able to sell their products to Cuba, but she wants to end the new Treasury Department regulations, "so we can be on a level playing field price-wise for our products."

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Raft still exit option for Cuban after 18 tries

By Esteban Israel

HAVANA, Dec 18 (Reuters Life!) - A Cuban rafter who was sent back to communist Cuba by the United States 11 months ago said on Monday he would take to the sea again in a 19th bid to get to Florida if Cuban authorities do not allow him to emigrate legally.

"I want to go legally. I have earned the right," said Emiliano Batista, a 32-year-old unemployed waiter.

"I do not want to push off into the sea again, but if I have to I will," said Batista whose has been intercepted by Cuban and U.S. Coast Guards or frustrated by engine failure on previous attempts to leave Cuba.

Batista managed to make it across 90 miles (145 kms) of perilous Florida Straits waters in January in a makeshift motor boat crowded with would-be emigres dreaming of a better life in the United States.

The 15 migrants, including three small children, were found clinging to an old, disconnected bridge in the Florida Keys on Jan. 5 and repatriated to Cuba by the U.S. Coast Guard.

Under the United States' "wet foot, dry foot" immigration policy toward Cuba, boat people intercepted at sea are usually returned to the Caribbean island, while those who reach U.S. soil are generally allowed to stay.

Since the Cubans landed on a part of the old Seven Mile Bridge, built in the 1930s and now used as a fishing pier, that is no longer connected to land, Coast Guard officials decided they were not on U.S. soil and returned them to Cuba.

The decision sparked controversy among south Florida's Cuban exiles, who sued on the migrants' behalf. A U.S. judge ruled in February that the group had been sent back illegally and the United States agreed to give them visas to emigrate.

But the government of ailing Cuban leader Fidel Castro has denied them exit permits.

Seven of the group lost patience and set off again last week in a flimsy vessel. This time they made it across and landed on Friday near Bahia Honda State Park in the lower Florida Keys.

Those who stayed behind in Cuba were told by U.S. diplomats on Monday to avoid risking their lives and wait for Cuban permission to leave.

"They say we have to wait and wait. We have been waiting all this time," Noel Reyes, an unemployed restaurant worker, said outside the U.S. Interests Section in Havana.

Cuban authorities issued the group passports, but has withheld final permit to leave the country, and it is just a question of time before frustration will lead Batista to build a new boat and attempt the crossing again.

U.S. security officials have said they are preparing for the possibility that Castro's death could spark a massive wave of migration from the island nation.

Twenty-five Cuban men and women came ashore near Longboat Key near Sarasota on Florida's Gulf Coast before dawn on Monday, police said. They had left Cuba on Friday and had not eaten since Thursday evening.

Cuba blames Washington for encouraging illegal voyages by offering Cubans who make it across automatic residency. The U.S. government says it has tried to foster safe and orderly migration by granting at least 20,000 visas a year under an agreement signed after the 1994 rafter crisis, when more than 35,000 Cubans pushed off in rafts and rubber tires.

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Cubans left behind on 2nd sea voyage say they'll wait out process

By VANESSA ARRINGTON

Associated Press Writer

18 December 2006

HAVANA (AP) - Cuban migrants sent back to the island this year after reaching an abandoned bridge in the Florida Keys said Monday they would not risk their lives again like the other half of their group, which took a second sea voyage to the United States last week.

Noel Reyes, one of the eight remaining "bridge" migrants in Cuba, said he was thrilled the others arrived safely but would wait to leave the island legally.

"I already risked my life once, why should I go and commit madness again?" he asked.

The group has been waiting several months for permission to leave by the Cuban government. They received U.S. visas to emigrate after a federal judge ruled against the original Department of Homeland Security decision that sent the group back to Cuba.

Under the U.S. government's wet-foot, dry-foot policy, Cuban immigrants picked up at sea are sent back to the island, while those who reach land are generally allowed to stay. The Department of Homeland Security declared the bridge was not U.S. soil.

On Monday, Reyes, three other men in their 30s and a couple with their 3-year-old boy traveled from the province of Matanzas to the capital to meet with U.S. officials. They said they also planned to check in at the Cuban immigration offices.

They all said they knew the rest of the group was leaving last week, but decided against it for safety reasons. Emiliano Batista, 32, said it also made no sense given that they now have U.S. visas.

"Now that I have this possibility, to leave legally, why give that up?" said Batista. He said that if he goes with government permission, he will be able to return to Cuba to visit his family.

Batista's partner, Rasselyn Casanova, has also applied for a visa. She has never tried to leave Cuba by boat -- in fact, Batista's 18 attempted departures from the island have caused the couple to split up on several occasions.

The original group of 15 migrants was sent back to Cuba in January after arriving at the bridge in a makeshift boat. The repatriation created an uproar in South Florida's Cuban exile community.

The Cuban government has never publicly commented on the details of the case, but frequently criticizes the U.S. government's migration policy for Cubans, saying it encourages them to undertake risky sea voyages with the hope of obtaining American residency.

"This has been so difficult, but we have to be patient," Batista said. "I just hope the government doesn't punish us for what the other group did."

The migrants who arrived in Florida told reporters Saturday that the Cuban government recently told them it could take up to four years to be granted permission to leave because their case was so "high-profile." Those in Havana did not mention such a conversation.

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Alabama ag commissioner cooks in trade mission to Cuba

18 December 2006

MONTGOMERY, Ala. (AP) - Ron Sparks went from state agriculture commissioner to cooking instructor during his latest multimillion-dollar trade mission to Cuba.

Sparks returned Sunday from a four-day trip to follow up on trade commitments made to Alabama companies during the Havana Trade Expo in November.

"Over the last several months, there have been many rumors as to the future of Cuba because of President Castro's health," Sparks said Monday. "We felt that it was important for us to make this trip because we want to ensure that no matter what happens with Cuba, that Alabama will be able to continue our trade relationship."

While in Cuba, Sparks and his staff used Alabama products to prepare a traditional Southern meal for Cuban officials. It included fried catfish from Southern Pride Catfish, cornbread, butter beans, green bean casserole, coleslaw, pecan pie with ice cream, and Red Diamond sweet tea.

During the lunch, Alimport Chairman Pedro Alvarez, who determines which products Cuba purchases from North American countries, received a cooking lesson from Sparks.

The agriculture commissioner said the November and December trips yielded more than $30 million in commitments for purchases from Alabama companies or from companies representing Alabama firms.

In 2005, Cuba purchased $140 million in products from Alabama, which represented nearly one-third of the island's entire purchases in the United States, Sparks said in a news release.

Products slated for sale from Alabama to Cuba include peanut butter, poultry, grains, utility poles, lumber and newsprint, Sparks said.

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Cuba Pipeline Reaches North

By Karen Branch-Brioso and Anthony Mccartney, Tampa Tribune, Fla.

McClatchy-Tribune Business News

19 December 2006

Tampa Tribune (MCT)

Distributed by McClatchy - Tribune Information Services

Dec. 19--TAMPA -- After three days jammed together in a 30-foot boat with no food or water, dodging storms and Coast Guard cutters, 26 Cuban refugees landed off Longboat Key in Monday's predawn darkness.

More than 15 hours later, the refugees began emerging from Tampa's Border Patrol office after a full day of processing and interviews probing what officials say is the northernmost landing in memory of refugees on Florida's west coast.

Yaniel Esteves Concepcion, the first refugee released, left with high praise for his treatment by U.S. officials and a few choice words for the regime he left behind:

"Everything Castro says is a lie."

The 24-year-old also was thrilled to trade the cramped boat for a more luxurious mode of transportation. Esteves' childhood friend Leo Dan of Orlando hugged him, kissed him and whisked him away.

Jose Hernandez of Tampa arrived in a Ford Expedition, offering to fill it with as many refugees as would fit -- and care for them until their families could arrive.

"I know that it's very difficult," said Hernandez, who arrived in a boat from Cuba in 1997 and came to the Border Patrol station Monday at the urging of a childhood friend, Jorge Luis Gonzalez Morejon, one of the refugees.

No one other than his friend took him up on the offer. Instead, many of the refugees shuffled barefoot -- or in soggy socks -- into the parking lot to wait several more hours for relatives to arrive from Miami.

Police and federal officials said the refugees' arrival marked the northernmost "dry-foot" landing on Florida's west coast that anyone could recall.

"I don't know of any other landings further north," said Steve McDonald, agent in charge of the Border Patrol station in Tampa. In the mid-1990s, "there was a landing of a group in Venice."

Smugglers with human cargo from Cuba have been edging their way up the west coast of late. Avoiding the more direct routes to the Florida Keys, they have started dropping passengers in Southwest Florida venues such as Marco and Sanibel islands. In August, 20 Cubans landed on Marco Island. Last month, 17 Cuban refugees landed in Sanibel and 28 landed in Naples.

Similar activity prompted the Border Patrol to establish a special unit of agents in Fort Myers at the beginning of this year, McDonald said. That came on the heels of a stepped-up effort by federal prosecutors to crack down on smuggling to the area.

Landing May Have Been Unplanned

"We're trying to shut this down as a route," said Douglas Molloy, chief assistant U.S. attorney for the Middle District's Fort Myers office, who today will prosecute a case against alleged smugglers from Collier County. "I certainly hope they're not going further north."

McDonald suspects the arrival site may have been unplanned and a consequence of circumstances: bad storms and a larger presence of Coast Guard vessels farther south.

The refugees, 19 men and seven women ages 19 through 59, were shocked to hear how far they landed from Miami, where many have relatives.

"They knew that they were somewhere close to Miami, they thought, but I told them, 'No, you are one hour to Tampa and four hours to Miami,' and they said, 'Oh, my God!'" said Luis Ortiz, a Longboat Key landscaper whom local police called to interpret for the group.

Ortiz said the refugees told him they paid $2,000 apiece to the smuggler: "They were supposed to have landed in one day, from Friday morning to Saturday. But it took those extra days because of the weather, and, I gathered, from what they told me, to stay away from the Coast Guard, the smuggler kind of looked for an easier place to land."

They left Cuba about midnight Friday. The smuggler dropped them in the surf off Longboat Key about 4:30 a.m. Monday. They were wet, shivering and hungry.

At 5 a.m., Dennis Holder, a Brooksville man who was delivering live shrimp to customers in Longboat Key, drove around a curve at Gulf of Mexico Drive and North Shore Road.

"There was a bunch of people standing out there in the road trying to get people to stop," Holden said. "I thought there was some sort of accident with a bus or something. Then I stopped, and there wasn't any vehicle around. They flagged me down, and they wanted me to call the cops, and I said, 'OK.'"

The Longboat Key Police Department responded and flagged down a Manatee County transit bus to take the refugees to the station.

They were sunburned and showing signs of dehydration. The women were shivering and soaked, forced to relieve themselves in their clothes during the trip, Ortiz said.

One refugee, Emilia Zonaida Vazquez Sevilla, 53, of Havana, said local officials' offers of medical attention, blankets, water, clothing and "very good snacks" were overwhelming after the harrowing trip.

"We're very grateful for the way we've been treated," said Vazquez Sevilla, who said she felt "physically destroyed" when she arrived.

The Coast Guard was searching for the smuggler's vessel, a 30-foot boat with a center console and inboard motors.

The Border Patrol arrived and transported the Cubans to Tampa.

Background Checks Run

Under the Cuban Adjustment Act, the refugees qualify for asylum unless there are available criminal warrants or records or, for instance, prison tattoos. The Tampa office of the Border Patrol ran background checks and interviewed the refugees.

Had the group been interdicted at sea, it would have been returned to Cuba under the "wet-foot, dry-foot" policy. Adopted 11 years ago in reaction to the 1994 rafter crisis where tens of thousands of Cubans sailed in the most recent mass exodus from the island, the policy revised the Cuban Adjustment Act. The new rule: If refugees make it to land, they may stay and apply for legal permanent residency. If they're interdicted at sea, they're sent back to Cuba.

With longtime Cuban leader Fidel Castro ailing and his brother Raul in charge, some fear another potential mass exodus by sea from Cuba. Soon after the announcement of Castro's illness, Florida Gov. Jeb Bush urged federal officials to prepare for such a scenario.

Last week, the Coast Guard in South Florida conducted an exercise to prepare for a mass migration from any Caribbean nation. Spokesman Dana Warr insists the Coast Guard doesn't expect such a scenario anytime soon.

"We did have an exercise last week, and that was not because of anything taking place in Cuba," Warr said. "The plan that was exercised last week was for a mass migration, and we have no indication that's going to happen."

Armando Otero, 46, one of the refugees, described Cuba as a country that has not seen discernable change, even since Castro fell ill in July.

"Over there, there is not any sort of freedom," Otero said.

He was shoeless, unshaven and cold, but as he waited for his brother to arrive from Kissimmee, he said he was glad he made the trip.

Two men waiting in the parking lot lost more than their shoes. They had lost the contact information that linked them to families here. They wrestled with how to call home to Cuba to get the information from relatives.

When a stranger offered a cell phone, several of the men stood in a circle, surprised.

None of them had ever used a cell phone.

News Channel 8 reporter Mark Douglas and Centrotampa.com producer Katie Coronado contributed to this report. Reporter Karen Branch-Brioso can be reached at (813) 259-7815 or kbranch-brioso@tampatrib.com. Reporter Anthony McCartney can be reached at (813) 259-7616 or amccartney@tampatrib.com.

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EDITORIALS Kowtowing to Castro

18 December 2006

Investor's Business Daily

NATIONAL

Latin America: Fidel Castro is dying, his 47-year tyranny is fading and who heads for Havana to offer aid and succor to its continuation? Congressman Bill Delahunt. There's something wrong here.

Delahunt's trip is an outrage. Like congressional Democrats who defied a White House request to not visit Syria last week, the Massachusetts Democrat and the nine members of his delegation rolled into Cuba to undercut U.S. foreign policy, which right now is trying to encourage democracy.

Delahunt argues that he's playing a constructive role, but that claim is belied by the contrast between the gentle tribute he paid to the Cuban dictatorship and his effort to investigate President Bush's Cuban democracy transition program in a bid to shut it down. Both coincide with the aims of the Castro regime.

Delahunt went to Castro like a colonial vassal, bearing offerings and tributes on the caudillo's own plantation.

As Castro ails, Delahunt seeks a meeting with ruling junta leader Raul Castro, and has announced he'll lift the 45-year U.S. trade embargo, strings-free, in his first proffered bauble for the Cuban leaders. This is something the Castros have been seeking for years as a means of propping up their regime.

To the Castros, trade doesn't mean democracy or capitalism; it means a cash infusion. History shows that the more free cash they have access to, the less likely they are to adopt a sustainable economic model. Because communism does not work, the Castros are essentially parasites. The Soviet Union, for example, used to subsidize them to the tune of $5 billion a year. Now Venezuela's Hugo Chavez supplies 100,000 barrels a year of free oil.

Delahunt, a member of the House International Relations Committee and co-chairman of the Cuba working group, showed up with promises of strings-free trade. This could strengthen Raul's dictatorship by making it less dependent on Chavez.

Delahunt said he'd like to let Cuban exiles visit their homeland more often and remit more cash. For the Castros, this means bigger potential for extortion. Already the regime gets a huge cut from all U.S. cash that comes in from exiles.

Delahunt also said he'll pursue Cuban trade opportunities for U.S. companies. Sounds nice, except that unlike communist China, communist Cuba has no intention of reforming its economy to create a private sector. Private companies are illegal there, and state companies are controlled by Raul's fiefdom, the military.

What the Castros want is access to U.S. taxpayer-paid trade credits via the Export-Import Bank, and to U.S.-financed trade insurance through the Overseas Private Investment Corp. Allowing normal foreign trade with Cuba will let those two cash cows become another source of income for the Castros, who have a long record of defaulting on Cuban debt. Cuba is one of the world's worst credit risks, with some $20 billion in defaulted debt on its books owed to other countries. Getting U.S.-insured trade goods produced and paid for by Uncle Sam would be a sweet deal indeed.

And what does Delahunt want in return from the Castros? Literally nothing, unless you think "dialogue" is of value. Cuba has had no free elections since 1948. The Castros continue to amass their fortune, now around $1 billion, and their aim is to shore up their crumbling regime.

Delahunt's visit, and that of other congressmen, was to give a veneer of respectability to a regime that has no intention of evolving. Raul has repeatedly said there will be no reform in Cuba. That undercuts Cubans who want democracy.

Delahunt should take Raul's intentions at face value. And the rest of us should ask Delahunt why he's acting as the Castros' useful idiot.

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People Who Mattered 2006; Raúl Castro

Getting Ready for A Cuba After Fidel

Mascareñas, Dolly

382 words

25 December 2006

Time

Volume 168; Issue 26; ISSN: 0040781X

It used to be that if you spoke about Cuba and said "Castro," you could be talking only about Fidel. What other Castro was there who mattered? It was all too easy to forget he had brothers, and even if you remembered that fact, you would shrug. Whenever Fidel walked into a room at a Havana function, all eyes turned to him; the women's hearts went aflutter; the men immediately put their egos in check. But there was often another Castro in the corner, El Jefe's younger brother Raúl. For decades he has been companion, fellow fighter, Defense Minister. Yet really, what was the point of paying attention to him?

But in the middle of 2006, when Fidel became undeniably ill (U.S. officials believe he has terminal cancer), someone had to be designated acting Jefe. And the point of Raúl became clear. The Castro no one noticed became the Castro everyone had to know.

Will he lead Cuba into a different future? It's too early to tell. Five years younger than Fidel, Raúl, 75, has not restructured the regime in the past few months. Indeed, the military seems to be more ensconced than ever in its prerogatives and powers. As Interim President, Raúl has indicated that once Fidel is gone, there will simply be continuity, not a succession of new policies (although some suspect Raúl will pursue Chinese-style economic reforms). He has noticeably let a few dissidents out of prison--even if not the most troublesome. He also smiles more often than his brother.

In December, Fidel was too ill to attend the four-months-delayed celebration of his 80th birthday. And so Raúl gave the keynote speech instead. He surprised some observers when he declared that "we are willing to resolve at the negotiating table the long-standing dispute between the United States and Cuba." However, at the close of the speech, he said, "Long live Fidel!"--emphatically.

See also cover story on page 38 of same issue.

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Professor, wife plead guilty in Miami federal court to reduced charges in Cuba spying case

By CURT ANDERSON

Associated Press Writer

19 December 2006

MIAMI (AP) - A college psychology professor and his wife pleaded guilty Tuesday to reduced federal charges in a case involving allegations that both spied for Cuba's communist government for decades.

Carlos Alvarez, 61, pleaded guilty to conspiracy to become an unregistered foreign agent. His 56-year-old wife, Elsa Alvarez, admitted knowing about her husband's illegal activities but failing to report them to authorities.

Both had been charged previously with the more serious offense of acting as illegal Cuban agents, which carries a longer possible prison sentence. Carlos Alvarez faces up to five years in prison and his wife up to three years on the reduced charges.

Carlos Alvarez, a professor at Florida International University, was accused by prosecutors of spying for decades on Cuban-American exile groups and prominent individuals in Miami, as well as reporting on U.S. political affairs. His wife, also a university employee, was implicated to a lesser degree in the alleged spying.

U.S. District Judge K. Michael Moore set sentencing for Feb. 27.

The guilty pleas came after a federal judge last month upheld as evidence a lengthy statement given by Carlos Alvarez to the FBI in 2005. Alvarez admitted in those interviews to being a "collaborator" with Cuba's intelligence service beginning in 1977, insisting he was mainly interested in opening dialogue with the communist government of President Fidel Castro.

Carlos Alvarez's attorneys unsuccessfully tried to have that confession thrown out, contending that he was coerced into submitting to the FBI interviews and that he was promised immunity from prosecution if he cooperated. FBI agents admitted during hearings this summer that their goal was to recruit Carlos Alvarez as a double agent.

The couple's arrests in January followed years of FBI surveillance, including a listening device placed in the bedroom of their Miami home and telephone wiretaps. Carlos Alvarez, known by the code name "David," used a short-wave radio and sophisticated encryption techniques to communicate with his Cuban handlers, according to the FBI.

One conversation captured on the bedroom bug has Carlos Alvarez expressing relief to his wife that he had told the FBI about his Cuban activities.

"Right now, for me, it was a relief that I was able to cooperate. It's been hell. It's been hell. I really saw it as a huge confession. It was an opportunity for me to confess what I've done wrong," he is quoted as telling his wife, according to transcripts.

Carlos Alvarez has been jailed without bail since his arrest 11 months ago. Elsa Alvarez was jailed for six months until her release on $400,000 bail in June.

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Duda EU de versiones oficiales sobre salud de Fidel Castro.

Washington, 18 Dic (Notimex).- Estados Unidos puso hoy en duda las declaraciones de funcionarios cubanos que el fin de semana dijeron a legisladores estadunidenses que visitaron la isla, que el presidente Fidel Castro se recupera de sus problemas de salud.

"No puedo darles una opinión si esas declaraciones de los funcionarios cubanos son creíbles o no", dijo el vocero del Departamento de Estado, Sean McCormack, al referirse a versiones oficiales de que Castro se recupera y que es falso de que sufra de cáncer terminal.

Dijo que el grupo de legisladores, encabezado por Jeff Flake, republicano por Arizona; y William Delahunt, demócrata por Massachussets; basaron sus conclusiones "en los que los otros individuos les dijeron".

Los miembros de la delegación de legisladores demócratas y republicanos esperaban reunirse con Raúl Castro, que en julio pasado asumió interinamente el poder mientras su hermano Fidel se recupera de una cirugía intestinal.

"Esta delegación legislativa no se reunió con Fidel Castro, no se reunió con Raúl Castro", indicó McCormack.

Por otra parte, el portavoz de la Casa Blanca, Tony Snow, también minimizó este lunes la visita de los legisladores estadunidenses.

"Para decirles la verdad, no le he prestado mucha atención, aparte de que lo más importante para nosotros es que el pueblo cubano merece libertad y democracia. Y esperamos que las obtengan", anotó Snow.

Los legisladores pidieron en una rueda de prensa al presidente estadunidense George W. Bush que acepte la propuesta del gobernante provisional Raúl Castro para discutir el diferendo bilateral en la mesa de negociaciones.

Los congresistas afirmaron que al menos media docena de funcionarios isleños con los cuales se entrevistaron, aseguraron que en Cuba "nada ha cambiado", pese a la enfermedad del líder caribeño.

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Posted on Tue, Dec. 19, 2006