Chronicle on Cuba - August 2004

Exile Community

August 1: Hundreds of Cuban Americans have been returning to the US, as tough new curbs on travel to Cuba imposed by Washington come into effect. Cuban Americans will only be allowed to go back to the island once every three years instead of once a year. The Havana airport departure lounge was packed with tearful Cuban families getting together for a long, emotional farewell. (BBC, 2/8/04)

August 2: Hundreds of Cuban Americans took to the streets of Miami to protest US President George Bush's latest attempts to cut their family ties with Cuba, the daily Granma reported. Granma said more than 500 demonstrators picketed the offices of anti-Cuban Congresswoman Ileana Ross Lehtinen. (Radio Habana Cuba, 2/8/04)

August 5: Michael Moore's “Fahrenheit 9/11” is generating a new wave of attention -- this time from Cuban Americans. In Miami and elsewhere, Cuban Americans who support Bush are vilifying Moore on Spanish-language radio, the Internet and in e-mails. Their objection, beyond the new film: inflammatory pieces Moore wrote about Cuban exiles in 1997 and 2000 in which he called them ''Batista supporters'' and ''wimps'' who were wrong not to immediately send home child-boater Elián González. The controversy has put Cuban-American Democrats in a sensitive spot: Moore's writings about Miami exiles are sure to offend some of them, but the filmmaker's anti-Bush message resonates strongly with Democrats eager to reclaim the White House. Miami Cuban-American Gus Garcia, a delegate to the Democratic National Convention in Boston, said he skipped the Florida delegation's July 28 breakfast with Moore because a relative called and read him an e-mail quoting Moore's writings. (The Miami Herald, 6/8/04)

August 5: The University of Havana has announced several summer courses in September for Cubans and their children overseas, indicated the local press. The announcements coincide with statements made during the Third Conference “the Nation and the Emigration,” which gathered 200 Cuban émigrés from 40 different countries for a dialogue with Cuban authorities in Havana. (EFE, 5/8/04)

August 7: The influential Cuban American National Foundation (CANF) has rejected the “racist and intolerant” comments from U.S filmmaker Michael Moore, director of “Fahrenheit 9/11”, against the Cuban-American community. “The Cuban American National Foundation completely rejects Mr. Moore’s bigoted comments against the Cuban-American community and this organization in particular,” said that organization in a note released in Miami. [CANF Reacts to Michael Moore’s Comments] (El Nuevo Herald, 8/8/04)

August 16: The Democracy Movement, a Miami-based organization of Cuban exiles, requested President George W. Bush to temporarily lift the sanctions against Cuba to facilitate the delivery of humanitarian assistance to the island in the wake of the damages caused by Hurricane Charley. The organization asked the White House for an “emergency exception” of the sanctions for 30 to 60 days. (El Nuevo Herald, 17/8/04)

August 20: Two local Cuban solidarity organizations want to remind South Floridians that Cuba also suffered in the path of Hurricane Charley. In a news conference, the Christian Women Association in Defense of Cuban Families and Jewish Solidarity asked the community to contribute food and supplies for areas of Cuba hit hard in last week's hurricane. ''We have not divorced ourselves from families and friends on the island,'' said Jewish Solidarity chairman Eddie Levy. ''We show solidarity to friends in need.'' (The Miami Herald, 20/8/04)

August 24: Cuban exile groups praised the US government for using a C-130 military cargo airplane to circumvent Cuban electronic jamming and broadcast US-funded Radio and TV Marti into communist-run island. One of the leading Cuban exile groups in Florida, the Cuban American National Foundation (CANF), issued a statement praising the Bush administration for the operation. The TV station "is irrefutably one of the most critical tools at the disposition of US policy to help precipitate a democratic transition on he island," said CANF head Joe Garcia. Feliciano Foyo of another exile group, the Cuban Liberty Council, also hailed the move. "These transmissions will allow Cubans to learn about a world which Fidel Castro has hidden from them, and to learn about the possibilities every human being has in a world where he lives in liberty," Foyo said. (Chanel News Asia, 24/8/04)

August 24: In Miami, Santiago Alvarez, a developer and friend of several of the men convicted in Panama for plotting to assassinate Fidel Castro, said he was ''elated'' with Mireya Moscosos’s decision to consider a pardon. Alvarez also denied any knowledge of Miami exile efforts to lobby the Panamanian president before heightened tensions between the two countries. If there has been pressure on the part of the Cuban community, it has not been from me or from any of the families of the jailed men, he said. Cuban exiles did write letters to Moscoso urging clemency for the four and met with Panama's vice consul in Miami last year -- before the four were convicted -- to appeal on their behalf, Alvarez said. Alvarez, who spearheaded the campaign to raise funds for the men's defense along with fellow Miami exile Ignacio Castro, said about $400,000 had been raised. [For more on this, see Foreign Affairs and Terrorism] (The Miami Herald, 24/8/04)

August 26: About 50 relatives and supporters -- including Miami Commissioner Angel González and the Cuban Liberty Council's Alberto Hernández -- waited several hours as at Opa-locka Airport for the three men released from prison by Panamanian president Mireya Moscoso. The news did not make everyone happy, however. Some question the hero's welcome for men who have been linked to anti-Castro violence. ''It just brings up some dreadful memories for my mother,'' said Al Milian, whose father, radio commentator Emilio Milian, lost his legs in a car bombing in which Jiménez was indicted, although the indictment was later dropped. Milian declined to comment further, saying his father had forgiven his attackers and had asked his sons -- on his deathbed -- to do the same. [For more on this, see Foreign Affairs and Terrorism] (The Miami Herald, 27/8/04)

August 26: Brothers to the Rescue, an organization of Cuban exiles, issued a statement supporting a public letter by the Cuban American National Foundation addressed to President George W. Bush, and his opponent in the coming elections. According to the statement, “most relevant” in CANF’s letter is “the intention of CANF to condition its vote (…) to the specific measures to be taken against Castro”. “ The present administration still has time to take these measures without further eroding their credibility in our community”, the statement adds. [Letter to the Presidential Candidates] (Netfor Cuba, 26/8/04)

August 31: President Bush's former housing secretary, Mel Martinez, took a surprise lead in a ballot in Florida to pick the Republican party's candidate for a keenly sought US Senate seat. With 54 percent of votes counted in a primary election seen as a test of Florida's ability to put the vote-counting fiasco of 2000 behind it, Martinez led fellow Republican Bill McCollum, a former congressman, by 42 percent to 33 percent, the Florida Department of State said. On the other side of the electoral divide, voters registered with the Democratic party overwhelmingly picked former Florida education commissioner Betty Castor to be their candidate for the Senate seat being vacated by retiring Democratic Senator Bob Graham in November. Martinez’ candidacy had been expected to shore up Bush's support among Cuban-Americans, a pivotal constituency in a state Bush won by just 537 votes in 2000, and which is again seen as a key battleground in the November 2 general election. (Reuters, 31/8/04)