Published Friday, February 25, 2000, in the Miami Herald
Ban on business with Cuba tightened County wants affidavits
By Don Finefrock. [email protected]
The Miami-Dade County Commission voted unanimously Thursday to tighten the county's ban on doing business with Cuba, the controversial policy that cost the county its chance to host the Latin Grammys and the Pan American Games.
Under the new policy, companies that want to bid on county jobs will be required to submit affidavits saying they do not do business with Cuba.
The county has required successful bidders to comply with the policy in the past, but the affidavits could be submitted at the tail end of the process.
A senior aide to County Manager Merrett Stierheim said the new policy could discourage some companies from bidding, particularly when the county begins to solicit bids over the Internet, a development aimed at boosting competition.
But Commissioner Javier Souto rejected that reasoning.
``Democracy sometimes is not efficient,'' he said. ``This is a political situation. We are political people and yes, we are Cubans. We are going to die defending this principle, which is: Dealing with the enemy is bad business.''
The policy was tightened at the suggestion of Commissioner Pedro Reboredo, in response to another change proposed by Stierheim.
Stierheim had wanted to eliminate the affidavit and require companies instead to comply with the policy as a condition of their contract. Stierheim said the change would help to streamline county purchasing procedures.
Reboredo said the tighter policy was warranted. ``People are trying to circumvent the Cuban affidavit in more ways than one,'' he said, without offering specifics. ``What I am trying to do is put an end to that.''
The clerk's office recorded the vote as 10-0, with Commissioners Katy Sorenson, Betty Ferguson and Natacha Millan absent, but Commission Chairwoman Gwen Margolis later told The Herald she missed the vote, too.
Organizers of the Latin Grammys had wanted to stage their first awards ceremony in Miami, but the county refused to make the new AmericanAirlines Arena available for the event or offer any other .
The event would have violated the county ban if a Cuban artist had been nominated for an award. The event will be held in Los Angeles instead.
The county also was forced last year to cancel its bid for the Pan Am Games in 2007 after spending $222,000 because Cuban athletes might participate.
Miami-Dade threatens to cancel film fest grant
Cuban movie collides with county law
By Jordan Levin. [email protected]
In another collision between an arts event and Miami-Dade County's Cuba ordinance, county officials said Thursday they would withdraw nearly $50,000 in funding promised to the FIU Miami Film Festival if it goes ahead with plans to show a Cuban-made film Saturday.
Festival officials said the screening of the sold-out show at the 1,700-seat Gusman Center for the Performing Arts would proceed.
The standoff comes just one month after the ordinance caused South Florida to lose the first Latin Grammy Awards to Los Angeles.
Directed by Fernando Perez, La Vida Es Silbar (Life is to Whistle) is the first film made under the auspices of the Cuban government film agency to show in the festival's regular lineup. It has been widely interpreted to be subtly critical of Cuban society and government.
``It's very special that a film made in the island can be critical of reality,'' festival director Nat Chediak said in an interview previously published in The Herald. But, he added Thursday, ``every film was selected solely on the basis of artistic merit.''
Florida International University officials did not return phone calls. In an e-mail response to The Herald, FIU President Modesto Maidique wrote, ``The university s the choices made by the director of the FIU Miami Film Festival, just as it s the academic freedom of any member of
its 1,400-strong faculty.''
The film festival, which was an independent, nonprofit organization for 16 years, was acquired by FIU in November. Its current budget is $1.2 million.
The screening violates a broadly written county ordinance that prohibits any group that receives county grants from presenting Cuban artists or their works, according to Assistant County Attorney Bob Cuevas. The festival had been approved for two grants this year, one for $36,218 from the
Cultural Affairs Council, the other for $13,500 from the Tourist Development Council.
``The content [of the film] is irrelevant to the ordinance,'' Cuevas said. ``It doesn't mean that they can't show the film. It does mean that we can't participate.''
NOT ALWAYS ENFORCED
But some organizations that receive county funds have been able to present Cuban works and artists. The Cultural Affairs Council awarded grants to Miami Book Fair International in 1997 when it presented Cuban author Jose Antonio Ponte. The council also has given grants to FIU's Caribbean and
Latin American Studies Center, which hosts Cuban scholars at its Cuban Studies Center.
No money will go to Cuba for the film -- the festival receives it for free from its U.S. distributor, New Yorker Films, which in turn pays WANDA, a Spanish company that provided funding and coproduced the film in Cuba.
But Cuevas said, ``The words of the policy preclude all transactions. It's not limited to financial transactions.''
The ordinance, enacted in 1996, goes further than U.S. law, which specifically exempts cultural exchanges from the embargo against Cuba.
Despite the fact that the film was widely d and written about, the office of Mayor Alex Penelas apparently was unaware that its screening might contradict the ordinance. The county's actions came in response to a Herald inquiry Tuesday.
Free speech advocates said the county's move was a violation of the First Amendment.
``If the government withdraws funds which have already been promised, what they are effectively doing is trying to censor the Film Festival,'' said John De Leon, president of the Miami chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union.
Bruce Rogow, a Nova Southeastern University professor and attorney who specializes in First Amendment cases, compared the film festival situation to the Brooklyn Museum controversy of last fall. In that case, the city of New York tried to pull back funding for the museum over an exhibit deemed
offensive by Mayor Rudolph Giuliani. A federal judge ruled against the city on First Amendment grounds.
``Once you've made a decision to it,'' said Rogow, ``you can't condition your on the content of what will be displayed. The county is on a collision course with the Constitution in this area. ''
Life is to Whistle has already played at the Sundance Film Festival and in New York theaters. It is scheduled for commercial release in South Florida on March 17.
Miami-Dade Commissioner Miguel Diaz de la Portilla said Thursday he stood by the policy, despite the possible impact on the festival. ``If it violates the policy, it violates the policy,'' he said. ``Obviously, the film festival would have the option of showing the film without county funding.''
Commissioner Bruno Barreiro sounded a more conciliatory note.
``Pure cultural exchanges should be permitted between the two communities, but not the governments,'' he said. ``As long as it doesn't promote Cuba or the current regime, and as long as it doesn't generate revenue for them -- that's what we are trying to accomplish.'
Commissioner Katy Sorenson went further. ``I think the time has come for a cultural exemption to the Cuba ordinance.''
It was Penelas' refusal, under the ordinance, to make the county-owned AmericanAirlines Arena available to the Latin Grammys that sent the internationally broadcast event to Los Angeles last month. The reason, county officials said, was that Cuban musicians might perform.
Life is to Whistle tells the story of three characters who, in their search for love and happiness, find themselves at odds with the hypocrisies and restrictions of Cuban society.
In a phone interview from Havana, director Perez said, ``In the search for happiness, you need to confront prejudices of all kinds -- psychological, social, political, sexual. This search also becomes a search for truth.''
Said Alejandro Rios, a critic who runs a Cuban film series at Miami-Dade Community College, ``This is a film that should be seen in Miami.''
Herald staff writer Don Finefrock contributed to this report.
Spy suspect defends calling Cuban friend
By David Kidwell. [email protected]
Mariano Faget, the INS section chief jailed on a charge of spying for the Cuban government, took the stand Thursday at his bond hearing and itted he had disclosed government secrets -- but only to save a friend, not to spy for Cuba.
``My whole life has been pro-American and living the American dream and bringing up my family,'' Faget said in a jammed federal courtroom in Miami. ``I want to clear my name.''
With his wife, three grown sons and their families in the courtroom, the 54-year-old supervisor at the Immigration and Naturalization Service repeatedly fought back tears as he discussed his family, his politics, and his loyalty to the U.S.
His attempts to minimize his illegal disclosure as an ``error in judgment'' didn't convince U.S. Magistrate Barry Garber, who ordered Faget held without bond while he awaits trial on what Garber called ``perhaps the most serious offense in the statutes of this country.''
Federal prosecutors -- surprised that Faget would subject himself to cross-examination so early in the case -- confronted him with what they depicted as a ``pattern of deceit,'' undisclosed business ties and ``overwhelming'' proof that Faget used his position of public trust to betray his
country.
Other details of the complex case emerged Thursday, including how federal authorities first identified Faget as a suspect more than a year ago. They produced transcripts of recorded conversations in which Faget disclosed the name of a high-ranking Cuban official as ``one of the ones working with
the Americans.''
Faget, a 34-year INS veteran who oversaw some of the agency's most sensitive duties -- including the immigration paroles of foreign citizens being used as government informants -- was caught in an FBI sting on Feb. 11.
In the sting, FBI Special Agent in Charge Hector Pesquera and INS second-in-command James Goldman met with Faget at his Miami office to ask him to process parole paperwork for Luis Molina, a high-ranking Cuban official who they said intended to defect.
Throughout the meeting earlier this month, Pesquera and Goldman repeatedly stressed the need for secrecy about Molina's defection, which was actually a sham. Faget told Pesquera he knew Molina.
``Let me tell you something,'' Faget told them, according to the transcripts released Thursday. ``I need, I don't know if this is going to make a difference. I've met this guy before . . . He was at the Interest Section in Cuba, in Washington, D.C., and I went to a dinner here one day and he
happened to be there.''
``That's it?'' Pesquera asked. ``That's your only with him?''
``That's the only .''
Pesquera and Goldman then left Faget.
Within 12 minutes, according to authorities, Faget used his personal cellular telephone to call New York businessman and lifelong friend Pedro Jesus Vidaurreta Font. Font, 57, is listed along with Faget as an officer in the firm America-Cuba. The firm's stated goal is to prepare to do business
in Cuba once the U.S. embargo is lifted.
"Seems certain things are happening in Cuba,'' Faget told Font. ``Certain negotiations, and a person we both know, that was in Washington before and now is in Cuba.''
'SOMETHING BIG'
"Yes?'' Font said.
``Seems he's one of the ones working with the Americans,'' Faget said. ``Seems something pretty big is happening, so that you know, in case these people ask you two or three questions and catch you off base. Don't say anything . . . .''
Faget told Font he would call him back when he wasn't in the office. Both men knew that Font had a meeting scheduled later in the day with officials at the Cuban Interest Section in Washington.
Faget called Font later and provided more details.
``They've given political asylum to five of the Cuban government, among them is our friend,'' Faget said. ``But the big thing is this, that Mr. [Luis Molina] has, has been working with the FBI for the past two years, giving them information. And the time has come when they need to take
him out of Cuba.''
Font laughs. Faget continues:
``Then, of course, I start thinking . . . well, s---, maybe it's better if I tell these people that I've met this guy, at a dinner where they, a dinner for business people that are thinking of doing business with, with Cuba . . . if this man has been working for the FBI for the past two years.
``But then I started thinking,'' Faget said, that ``Pedro has a meeting with Fernando [an official of the Cuban Interest Section] today; let me call in case they ask Pedro something or he asks something about this.''
PROTECTING FRIEND
Faget acknowledged Thursday that he made the telephone calls, but said he was only trying to protect his friend Pedro Font by giving him a heads-up.
``I absolutely was concerned for the well-being of Mr. Font,'' Faget said in court Thursday. ``That they would have gotten him involved in this so-called defection. I was concerned for his safety. They may have invited him to Cuba, and once you in Cuba all rules are over.''
Faget said neither he nor Font is a communist or sympathetic to Cuba. He explained that their business -- America-Cuba -- has a letter of intent from Proctor-Gamble, which intends to use America-Cuba to represent it in Cuba after the embargo is lifted.
He said his company stood to profit only after the Castro regime falls.
"This makes no sense whatsoever,'' Faget said.
Copyright 2000 Miami Herald |