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The Miami Herald.
March 11, 2002.
Cuba to let family go home
By Tere Figueras. [email protected]. Posted on Sat, Mar.
09, 2002.
A family of exiles detained after a trip to Cuba has been given the
all-clear by Cuban officials and will be arriving in Miami today, relatives
said.
For two weeks, Maikel Lopez had been waiting to hear what was to happen to
his parents, grandmother and 6-year-old sister.
The foursome, visiting their native town of Jicotea in the province of Villa
Clara, had their ports and visas taken from them, family said. They
suspected retribution from the Cuban government for the recent defection of
other family from the communist island.
''I didn't know what was going on, or how serious it was,'' said Lopez, a
Miami-Dade Community College student living in North Miami Beach. "But my
father managed to get to a phone around 5 p.m. and call me. He had his port
in his hand.''
Luis Lopez, 46, and the owner of a grocery chain in East Orange, N.J., flew
with wife Mireya, 43, on Feb. 23 for what was intended to be a one-week visit.
Traveling with the couple: their U.S.-born daughter, Vanessa, 6, and Luis'
69-year-old mother, Aida.
Luis Lopez, who emigrated to the United States 14 years ago, planned on
visiting his brother Rolando on his ranch in Jicotea. But when they arrived,
Rolando and his family weren't there.
The Lopezes called home and discovered that Rolando -- along with his wife
and 3-year-old daughter -- had flown to Miami using fake papers. Immigration and
Naturalization officials released them after two days.
Maikel Lopez said he suspects the Cuban government seized his family's
ports as payback for possibly assisting Rolando and his family to flee.
However, Maikel Lopez said his family was not aware their relatives were
planning to defect.
The case prompted two New Jersey Democrats in Congress -- Sen. Robert
Torricelli and Rep. Robert Menendez of Union City -- to U.S. diplomats
in Cuba in hopes of learning the fate of the New Jersey Lopezes.
The Cuban government has not made any statements regarding the Cliffside
Park family. Officials could not be reached for comment Friday.
CANF, ambassador from Mexico confer
By Elaine De Valle. [email protected]. Posted on Sat,
Mar. 09, 2002
Leaders of the Cuban American National Foundation returned to Miami Friday
night after a two-day trip to Washington, D.C., where they met with key
policymakers on Cuba as well as Mexico's ambassador to the United States.
The talk Friday afternoon with Ambassador Juan José Bremer included a
discussion on the events at the Mexican embassy in Havana earlier this month
when a group of 18 men and three teenagers crashed a bus through the gate.
Thirty hours later, they were evicted by Cuban police at the request of Mexican
officials.
''We asked them to allow [the Cuban gate crashers] to present their cases if
they're real cases,'' said Joe Garcia, CANF's executive director. "They
promised to work on this with us, to protect their physical integrity.''
Bremer used the opportunity, said CANF chairman Jorge Mas Santos, to express
that he wanted to continue a relationship with the foundation and the Cuban
exile community.
After meetings at the White House, the State Department and with key
legislators, leaders of the lobby -- whose influence has been questioned since
the death of founder Jorge Mas Canosa -- came home happy.
Mas said he met with White House political advisor Karl Rove; the National
Security Council's Emilio Martinez, Western Hemisphere director for the
Caribbean and Central America; Assistant Secretary of State Otto Reich; the
State Department's coordinator for Cuban Affairs, James Carragher; and U.S. Rep.
Tom Delay (R-Texas) who has often decried efforts to weaken pressure on Castro.
Discussions touched on TV Martí, the U.S. role in the United
Nations Human Rights Commission in Geneva and President Bush's visit to Latin
America later this month, Mas said.
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