More Cuban migrants interdicted and repatriated

    Ever since Fidel Castro took ill in July 2006 the number of Cuban migrants leaving the island has steadily increased.
   Growing numbers of Cubans without papers have been interdicted at sea, have landed on South Florida shores or shown up at entry points along the Mexican-U.S. border.
   As of last Tuesday, at least 784 Cuban migrants had been intercepted at sea in the Florida Straits by the U.S. Coast Guard -- just in the first months of the year.
   If this pace continues, the number of interdicted Cuban migrants by year's end could match the 3,197 migrants stopped at sea in 2007. Last year's figure was the largest number of Cuban migrants stopped in a single year in the Florida Straits since the 1994 rafter exodus when 37,191 were spotted in the area.
   Under the wet-foot/dry-foot policy, Cuban migrants who make it ashore are allowed to stay and those stopped at sea are generally sent back home.
   On Saturday, the U.S. Coast Guard announced the repatriation of 79 Cuban migrants intercepted in several incidents in the last few days.
   According to a Coast Guard statement, one of the main incidents unfolded when a Customs and Border Protection aircraft located two go-fast vessels traveling together about 40 miles southeast of Miami Wednesday.
   Customs and Border Protection Air and Marine agents patrolling the area intercepted the vessels "using disabling fire'' after the suspected smugglers refused to stop, some 12 miles east of Miami. Fifty eight migrants were transferred to the Coast Guard cutter Pea Island and four suspected smugglers were turned over to the Border Patrol, the Coast Guard statement said.
-- Alfonso Chardy
   

Olympic boxers' tour suddenly canceled

The 10-man Cuban Olympic boxing squad, which was to arrive Wednesday in Bugeat, France, for a week of training and friendly matches with other Olympic teams, has canceled the trip. Fear of defections appears to be the reason. "We are very disappointed, but this forfeiture was ordered at ministerial level in Havana," French trainer Dominique Nato told the French Boxing Federation." However, "because workouts against the Cubans have always been profitable for us, we have arranged to train with them in Cuba, June 14-28. We'll fight some test matches and perhaps an official fight." The Cuban boxers were to join French, English, German, Irish, Filipino and Thai Olympic boxers for a week of practice, followed by a mini-tournament, May 14-16. Later, they were scheduled to travel to England, Turkey and Thailand. Five defections last year -- three in Venezuela, two in Brazil -- apparently prompted Cuban boxing officials to cancel this preparatory tour. To read Le Monde's account (in French only), click here.
---Renato Pérez Pizarro.

Raúl's daughter: Relax travel restrictions

The Cuban people should be allowed to leave their country without "absurd" restrictions, Raúl Castro's daughter Mariela told the Spanish newspaper La Vanguardia this week, in a wide-ranging interview. Excerpts: "At present, people can leave, but with great difficulty. [The authorities] would have to reduce the absurd obstacles, which to me seem awful. [...] All countries have restrictions and rules for everything, but they don't have foreign laws that make the designing of their national policies even more difficult. There is the U.S. Cuban Adjustment Act, which rewards those who leave illegally, yet [the Americans] do not grant the visas agreed upon to travel to the U.S. in a legal manner. And this is a very serious matter that should be resolved with the support of governments that claim to love democracy. [...] We cannot impose limitations in addition to the ones imposed by the enemies of the Cuban nation. Let everything be analyzed in depth, so the best solutions may be found. Let us not deprive the people of their right to leave. As far as I'm concerned, give permission to anyone who wishes to leave, so long as they have no debts with justice." To read the entire interview (in Spanish) click here.
---Renato Pérez Pizarro.

Cuba mum on agenda for Lima parley

The Cuban government is not saying whether it will hold rapprochement talks with the European Union May 16-17, when EU representatives meet with Latin American leaders at a summit in Lima, Peru. It's not even saying who will head the Cuban delegation. "This is a summit where there will be contacts between the European Union and Latin America, but we're not talking about individual countries. This is not a Cuba-EU summit," said Deputy Foreign Minister Abelardo Moreno (in photo) when asked if such a bilateral meeting will take place. He did not rule it out, however. Cuban Ambassador Luis Delfín said in Lima that Cuba will be represented by a delegation "of the highest order" but did not say if Raúl Castro would lead it. The EU froze its relations with Cuba in 2003 after the arrest of 75 dissidents, but suspended its sanctions in 2005. A definitive end to the sanctions is expected to be a topic at the summit.
---Renato Pérez Pizarro.

One more Cuban independence day event in Miami

  Another event has been added to the list of activities planned in connection with the 106^th anniversary of Cuban independence.

   Miami-Dade County Hall will host Cuban dance performances and exhibits of Cuban culture such as cigar rolling on Monday May 19 starting at 10 a.m. in the lobby of the Stephen P. Clark Center in downtown Miami at 111 Northwest 1^st Street.

   A statement from Miami-Dade County Commissioner Natacha Seijas says the event is free and open to the public.

   An aide to Seijas said the event is being held on Monday instead of Tuesday May 20, the actual independence anniversary, because commissioners meet Tuesday for their regular county commission session.

   The dance performances will take place Monday May 19 but the exhibits will be on display throughout May, according to the statement.

   Cubans take May 20 as the start of their homeland’s life as an independent nation because it was on that day in 1902 when the U.S. military governor of Cuba, Army Gen. Leonard Wood, turned over control of the island to Cuba’s first president, Tomas Estrada Palma. U.S. forces helped end Spanish colonial rule in 1898

   -- Alfonso Chardy

Soccer defectors chasing their goal

Yordani Álvarez, Yenier Bermúdez and José Manuel Miranda are looking for work, The New York Times reported Friday in an article titled "Cuban defectors adjust to a new life." The work they're looking for is in professional soccer. They are three of seven Cuban players who defected from the national team in mid-March, while it played qualifying games in Tampa for the Beijing Olympics. The three men recently tried out for the Los Angeles Galaxy and the Chivas USA soccer teams. Neither team accepted them, but they remain hopeful. "For now, they are relying on the largess of [Cubans] in Miami, New York and Los Angeles," The Times reported. "They have received food, clothing, transportation, a cellphone and lodging. They [...] stay in shape by playing several semiprofessional games each week. They earn $40 to $50 each per game." To read the entire story, click here.
---Renato Pérez Pizarro.

Cuban judo team stirs exile protests

    Once again Miami was the scene of protests by Cuban exiles.

   Members of the group Vigilia Mambisa organized a snap demonstration Thursday in downtown Miami to protest the presence of the Cuban judo team whose members are taking part in an Olympic elimination round in the city.

   Miguel Saavedra, head of Vigilia Mambisa, told The Miami Herald before the rally that the demonstration was aimed at denouncing the presence of the team members in the heart of the Cuban exile capital, Miami. (Photo above shows Saavedra at an earlier demonstration).

   Cuban judo team members arrived in Miami from the island earlier this week to take part in the Pan American Judo Championships at the James L. Knight Center in downtown Miami, which began Thursday.

   Saavedra said Vigilia Mambisa mobilized members because it seemed an affront to the exile community that a team from the communist island was being allowed to participate in a tournament in Miami. An e-mail message from another exile group praised Vigilia Mambisa for organizing the protest against “Castroite athletes.’’

   Vigilia Mambisa, Mambisa Vigil in English, takes its name from Mambi, the term reserved for Cuban independence rebel fighters.

   The group has been in the forefront of organizing frequent anti-Castro demonstrations in Miami. They reserve their fiercest denunciations against anyone or anything that tends to erode what they perceive to be a hard-line against Cuba.

-- Alfonso Chardy

Interesting play, flawed performance

"All Eyes and Ears," a play by Marielito Rogelio Martínez, opened Monday in New York City. The plot, set in Cuba in 1961, is promising: A family of working-class Cubans moves into a mansion vacated by a rich family who fled to Florida, and all are dazzled by the lavishness of their new home. The husband is a bus driver, the wife a CDR informer, the daughter a teenage Pioneer. According to Backstage weekly, the playwright "includes many intimate details of daily life [post-Revolution] but, unfortunately, the narrative quickly becomes muddled with too many competing viewpoints, subplots and biases to create a coherent story." Variety magazine faults the performers. Director Eduardo Machado "has not settled on a firm interpretive platform for his cast, and they are as much at sea as we are," its review says. The New York Times calls the play "interesting but overstuffed." [At the Lion Theater, 410 West 42nd St., through May 22.]
---Renato Pérez Pizarro.

Investors see a future in golf

Apropos the International Tourism Fair being held in Havana, the Reuters news agency reminds us that golf is an attraction for foreign tourists anywhere. Investors from Canada and Europe hope that Raúl Castro will allow them to build courses near the beach resorts across the island, Reuters says, quoting former Canadian Ambassador Mark Entwistle (click here). "Old-school objections to golf on ideological grounds have fallen away," Entwistle told Reuters. Golf can develop for Cuba "a more sophisticated and repeat tourism beyond sun and sand," he added.
According to Entwistle, there are today at least 10 golf resort projects in the pipeline at various stages in the approval process. "Cuba has no choice but to build new golf courses if it wants to compete with other resorts in Mexico, Jamaica or the Dominican Republic, a smaller country that [...] has 22 golf courses," Reuters notes. [Photo above, showing Ernesto Che Guevara and Fidel Castro, was made in 1961 at the Colinas de Villarreal course as a publicity stunt.]
---Renato Pérez Pizarro.

Alabama panel wants travel ban lifted

The Alabama House Committee on Tourism and Travel on Wednesday approved a resolution urging the Bush administration to open up travel to Cuba -- specifically, travel from Alabama. The committee's chairman, Rep. Johnny Mack Morrow, said such an opening would mean millions in tourism dollars for the state. Agriculture Secretary Ron Sparks (in photo),  a longtime advocate of improved relations, said much of the benefit would come from cruise ships shuttling between Havana and Mobile, 600 nautical miles apart. The recommendation comes as Havana this week hosts its 28th International Tourism Fair. Alabama already trades with the island, selling Cuba cotton, soybeans, poultry, meat, and lumber, to the tune of $150 million a year. About one-third of U.S. exports to Cuba are from Alabama, according to an Auburn University study. In fact, the newspaper Granma is printed on newsprint made at three Alabama paper mills, Sparks says.
---Renato Pérez Pizarro.