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Doctor fined $70,000 for buying Cuban dolphins

An American physician is facing a $70,000 fine after buying dolphins from Cuba for exhibition in aquatic parks in the Caribbean.

By Charles D. Sherman, Special to the Herald. Posted on Sat, Aug. 28, 2004.

An American physician who bought wild dolphins from Cuba for aquatic parks in the Caribbean is facing a $70,000 fine by the U.S. Treasury Department for violating the trade embargo against the communist nation.

''I've itted the thing to the government and am paying a settlement.'' Dr. Graham Simpson, now living in Reno, Nev., said this week. He said he was ''negotiating a fine of up to $70,000'' but declined to comment further.

The Herald first reported in February 2002 that Simpson, a naturalized U.S. citizen from South Africa, was under federal investigation for buying six Cuban dolphins for water parks he owned in the Caribbean islands of Anguilla and Antigua.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

In an interview at the time, Simpson said he paid a broker in the Dominican Republic for the animals but acknowledged they had come from Cuba and that he had visited officials at Havana's national aquarium.

He said he traveled to Cuba on a British port and paid $45,000 each for the dolphins.

The Treasury's Office of Foreign Asset Control, which enforces the embargo, refused comment on the case, citing privacy concerns.

Simpson, 53, has long been the target of a campaign by animal rights activists in the United States and Canada. Cuba is the world's largest exporter of wild dolphins, according to the United Nations, and the animal rights activists have grasped the U.S. embargo as a tool to crimp the trade.

The dolphins that Simpson bought were put to work in high-end resort destinations in the Leeward islands east of Puerto Rico.

Two years ago, when asked about having possibly violated the trade embargo, Simpson said: "I thought of myself as a British citizen living for the last three years in Anguilla, which has no law against buying from Cuba. It really didn't occur to me this might be a problem.''

Dolphin defenders have focused on the Simpson case to highlight the dangers they see in the exploitation of the marine mammals. One of the leaders in the effort to bring Simpson to is Gwen McKenna, a 50-year-old Toronto housewife.

''This substantial fine handed down to Simpson brings to an end years of hard work, gathering information and providing it to the Office of Foreign Assets Control, and pressuring them directly and through the media to prosecute Americans purchasing Cuban dolphins,'' McKenna said.

"But Simpson is just the tip of the iceberg. There are a number of other Americans hiding behind foreign corporate veils who have purchased large numbers of Cuban dolphins.''

'FINE IS A GOOD THING'

Ric O'Barry of Miami, a former Miami Seaquarium Flipper trainer who several years ago began trying to find ways to return dolphins to the wild, is now a consultant for One Voice, an animal protection society based in .

He, McKenna and several activists on Anguilla and Antigua have worked closely together in the campaign against Simpson. ''The fine is a good thing,'' O'Barry said.

''The real value is that it will send a message to the other U.S. citizens that are doing business with Cuba,'' he said.

A number of aspects of the dolphin business anger animal rights activists. They say dolphin hunters chase the creatures to the point of exhaustion before using nets in violent captures that can severely injure or even drown the animal.

Beyond what they see as the immorality in the removal of individual dolphins from their pods, or families, the activists say the animals face food deprivation during their training and confinement sometimes in tanks not much larger than a public swimming pool.

Simpson and other aquatic park owners counter these arguments by saying they provide a valuable service for customers who want to play with the animals and learn more about them.

At many dolphin encounter parks, including Miami's Seaquarium, customers can pay upwards of $150 for a half hour in a pool with dolphins. Park owners say they include educational information about dolphins as part of the experience.

Cuba and Russia, according to U.N. studies, are the world's leading exporters of dolphins.

The countries are immune to publicity campaigns against the trade, and a healthy, young dolphin can fetch between $40,000 and $70,000 on the international market.

MAJOR SUPPLIER

In the past decade, Cuba has supplied more than 100 dolphins to burgeoning swim parks in the Caribbean, Mexico and Latin America, according to U.N. figures.

Earlier this year, Simpson and his wife sold their business on Anguilla to Dolphin Discovery of Cancun, a company run by several Americans with six bases of operation across the Caribbean.

According to the latest U.N. figures, Cuba has supplied 33 of the animals to Dolphin Discovery. Animal rights activists have raised the case with the Treasury.

Exile foe of Castro being sought in Honduras

Luis Posada Carriles, freed from a Panama prison and accused by the Cuban government of being a terrorist, has sneaked into Honduras, officials there said.

By Juan O. Tamayo. [emailprotected]. Posted on Sun, Aug. 29, 2004.

Fugitive Cuban exile Luis Posada Carriles, accused by Havana of multiple terror attacks, sneaked into Honduras using an altered U.S. port after he was freed from a Panama prison, Honduran officials said Saturday.

A Honduran immigration worker at the airport in the northern city of San Pedro Sula confirmed that a known photograph of Posada matched a man who landed there Thursday, the officials said.

''Based on that identification, we believe Posada did enter Honduras, and we have many teams out looking for him,'' said a top government official who asked for anonymity because of the sensitivity of his job.

Posada, 76, is a virtual icon to some exiles committed to toppling Cuban President Fidel Castro by force and is linked to a lengthy string of plots to kill Castro or bomb Cuban targets, including an airliner and Havana tourist spots. He was once branded by Castro as "the worst terrorist in the hemisphere.''

His presence in any country almost always sparks complaints from Havana of sheltering a terrorist -- and Cuban allegations that Washington lobbied those countries to protect him.

Honduran officials said that if he is arrested, Posada will be deported immediately but acknowledged that would be difficult because he is believed to have only Cuban citizenship. ''At no time are we going to allow our country to be home nor sanctuary for terrorists of any type, whether they attempt against Cuba . . . or any other country,'' Interior Minister Oscar Alvarez said Friday.

Posada went into hiding after Panamanian President Mireya Moscoso pardoned him and three Miami Cuban exiles arrested there in 2000 in connection with an alleged plot to kill Castro during a visit. A Panamanian court dropped initial charges of conspiracy to murder and possession of explosives, but convicted them in April of endangering public safety and sentenced them to up to eight years.

3 BACK IN DADE

The three Miami men -- Gaspar Jimnez, Pedro Remn and Guillermo Novo, all longtime anti-Castro militants -- flew home Thursday aboard a Learjet chartered by Santiago Alvarez, a Miami developer and friend who helped raise some $400,000 for their legal defense.

But Posada, an explosives expert trained by the CIA in the 1960s and alleged mastermind of the Panama assassination plot -- which all four have denied -- boarded a different chartered aircraft in Panama and has not been seen in public since.

Santiago Alvarez told The Herald Saturday he would not comment on Posada's whereabouts. He has said that he fears a Cuban attempt against Posada.

Honduran government officials said he landed in San Pedro Sula aboard a U.S. ed Learjet 31A that arrived from Panama and filed a flight manifest saying it was carrying four engers -- but left with only three.

Honduran officials provided The Herald with the jet's registration number. Federal Aviation istration records show the jet is ed to a Miami aviation company, but efforts to the firm and its manager failed Saturday.

PORT

The port used by the man who stayed in Honduras is in the name of Melvin Cleyde Thompson, the Honduran officials added. They said a check with U.S. authorities showed that the port, No. 076050572, had been legally issued to an unidentified woman.

Honduran officials also said that at the time of Posada's arrival, witnesses spotted a wealthy Cuban-American-Honduran businessman waiting outside the Ramn Villeda Morales Airport terminal in San Pedro Sula, 130 miles northwest of the capital city of Tegucigalpa.

Police investigators have been unable to locate the businessman for questioning since Thursday, the Honduran officials added.

Posada lived in hiding in El Salvador and often visited Honduras for extended stays in the late 1980s and throughout the 1990s, after his escape from a Venezuelan prison where he was awaiting a retrial in connection with the 1976 midair bombing of a Cuban jetliner in which 73 people were killed. The first trial found him not guilty.

He eventually turned up in El Salvador, working for the U.S.-backed supply operation for contra rebels fighting the Marxist Sandinista government in Nicaragua.

Cuban who arrived in crate released

A Cuban national who survived a perilous trip in a tiny crate shipped to the United States begins the next journey of her life.

By Nikki Waller, [emailprotected]. Posted on Sat, Aug. 28, 2004.

Her slender arms dotted with circular bandages covering new inoculations, the Cuban woman who shipped herself to Miami in a plywood crate was released from federal custody Friday evening.

Lifting a nearly child-sized hand to obscure her face, the petite woman would only say her first name is Sandra and that she doesn't have family here.

This latest leg of Sandra's amazing journey into the United States began about 3 p.m. Friday in a crammed Calle Ocho mini-mall, where she underwent a medical exam and received immunization shots at the Miami-Dade County Health Department's Refugee Health Assessment Program.

Outside the clinic, a horde of television cameras and reporters waited for a glimpse of the new Cuban arrival.

Also in the crowd: Roberto Martinez, who lingered at the health clinic after his own immunizations.

''It's a unique case of crossing, unique in the history of immigration,'' Martinez said.

When the dark-skinned 21-year-old with frizzy black hair emerged after 4 p.m., a maelstrom of media converged upon her, the teeming cameramen and reporters dwarfing her tiny frame.

Then Sandra, wearing clean blue jeans and a light blue shirt made of puckered fabric, was escorted by an employee of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops Migration and Refugee Services into a maroon Honda minivan waiting at the curb.

She was taken to the group's intake center in Doral. Frightened by the media swarm, Sandra asked workers at the intake center to keep her appearance there a secret.

Sandra was quickly given a voucher for a hotel room and smuggled out a back door. She took with her the mystery of her crossing: How long she spent in the crate that was about the size of a small filing cabinet; how she was able to breathe in the unpressurized cabin of the plane during the Nassau-to-Miami flight; how she originally got to Nassau; how much it cost to have herself shipped via DHL.

She will live in the unidentified hotel until her intake interview, likely to be scheduled for early next week, said assistant director Raul Hernandez.

That interview will determine the next phase of her new life -- if someone comes forward claiming her as a friend or family member, she'll be permitted to stay in the area. If not, she will be sent to one of nine other refugee programs in the country.

''She has been through a lot,'' Hernandez said. "She's scared.''

FBI speaks to pardoned Cuban exiles

The FBI interrogated three of four Cuban exiles pardoned in Panama after being convicted of plotting to kill Fidel Castro. The fourth man's whereabouts remain a mystery.

By Elaine De Valle And Jay Weaver, [emailprotected]. Posted on Sat, Aug. 28, 2004.

FBI agents questioned three Cuban exiles shortly after they arrived at Opa-locka Airport following their pardon by Panama's president in an alleged plot to kill Fidel Castro.

The information could be used for an investigation into whether the three -- all naturalized U.S. citizens -- violated federal law. The U.S. Neutrality Act bars Americans from trying to overthrow foreign governments not at war with this country.

On Thursday, FBI agents interrogated the three to find out more about the Castro claim that they planned to kill him during a 2000 visit to Panama, according to law enforcement sources. Immigration officials also questioned them.

Meanwhile, the mystery of the whereabouts of a fourth exile and alleged plot mastermind, Luis Posada Carriles, continued Friday with reports that he was in El Salvador or Honduras.

A Miami developer helped arrange for Posada's flight to an undisclosed country and for the charter Lear jet that brought the three men home to Miami. Santiago Alvrez confirmed Friday that the three were interviewed by the FBI at the airport.

''Everybody who comes into this country has conversations with federal officials as they come in,'' he said. "The FBI interrogated them also.''

FBI spokeswoman Judy Orihuela and U.S. attorney's spokesman Carlos B. Castillo declined to comment.

KEEPING LOW PROFILES

Alvrez said he did not know what the conversations between the FBI and the exiles were about. Asked whether the men had legal counsel at the time, he said: "Why do they need lawyers if they haven't committed any crimes in this country?''

He also said the three decided not to make any public appearances or press interviews for the next few days: "They have retired to the bosom of their homes to spend time with their families.''

Gaspar Jimnez, Pedro Remn and Guillermo Novo flew home to Miami aboard the jet chartered by Alvrez, who spearheaded a campaign that raised about $400,000 for their legal defense in Panama.

The four men were arrested in Panama in 2000 when Castro went there for an Ibero-American Summit. Castro claimed that the group was there to attempt to kill him.

The four said they were in Panama to assist a Cuban army general who planned to defect during the Castro visit.

Panama's courts ruled there was insufficient evidence to charge them with attempted murder or possession of explosives. But in April they were sentenced to up to eight years in prison after being convicted of endangering public safety.

Panamanian President Mireya Moscoso Moscoso pardoned the men Wednesday, less than a week before she is to leave office. She told The Herald she did so for ''humanitarian reasons'' and because she feared that her successor would extradite the men to Cuba, where they could face a firing squad.

SEPARATE DEPARTURE

Since the release of the four, there has been no confirmation on the whereabouts of Posada, a CIA-trained explosives expert with a long history of anti-Castro violence, including a dozen terror bombings of Havana tourist spots in 1997.

Unlike the other three men, Posada is not a U.S. citizen and is believed not to have lived in this country since the early 1960s.

One top Panamanian government official hinted to The Herald that Posada left Panama for the Dominican Republic aboard a separate plane. A Panamanian pilot said the plane, which he described as Panama-ed, filed a flight plan to El Salvador.

But Ramn Romero, director of Honduras' immigration agency, was quoted by the Spanish news agency EFE Friday as saying that Posada was aboard the same airplane as the other three when it made a stopover Thursday in the northern city of San Pedro Zula.

Honduran authorities are investigating whether Posada remained in the country when the jet took off for Miami with the other three exiles, Romero told EFE.

Alvrez confirmed to The Herald that he chartered two planes, one for Posada and another the other three men.

The confusion over Posada clearly pleased Alvrez, who said in a phone interview Friday that Posada's current location is being kept secret because of fears of assassination attempts by Cuban agents.

''Yesterday, they were certain that he was in El Salvador. I heard that he was in the Dominican Republic, too. The more places they say the better, because the more confused they are going to be,'' Alvrez said.

He declined comment on whether the jet that brought home the three Miami Cubans had made a stopover in Honduras. The Coral Gables company that owns the chartered jet could not be reached for comment.

Several leftist groups in Panama and around Latin America charged Friday that the U.S. government had pushed Moscoso to approve the pardon -- a charge heatedly denied by a a half-dozen U.S. and Panamanian officials.

''The United States had absolutely nothing to do with this at any moment,'' Panamanian Foreign Minister Harmodio Arias told The Herald.

Said State Department spokesman Adam Ereli: "We never lobbied the Panamanian government to pardon anyone involved in this case.''

Herald staff writer Juan O. Tamayo and Nancy San Martin contributed to this report.

President visits Miami, promises to push for democracy in Cuba

By Lesley Clark. [emailprotected]. Posted on Fri, Aug. 27, 2004.

President Bush promised today to push for democracy in Cuba to a Miami crowd champing at the bit for a mention of the island.

As Bush listed how his istration was working to create a "free and peaceful" Iraq and Afghanistan, a central theme of his re-election campaign,-- the crowd at the Miami Arena grew visibly -- and audibly -- restless.

''Cuba!'' one man shouted from the stands.

''One moment,'' Bush replied, sticking to his standard campaign speech.

When he did turn to Cuba, he earned his biggest applause.

''We will not rest until the Cuban people enjoy the same freedom in Havana that they enjoy here,'' he said to thunderous applause.

The visit this afternoon, part of Bush's pre-convention campaign swing across eight battleground states, was the first to Miami since Bush sought to bolster his Cuban American base by stiffening the U.S. line against the government of Fidel Castro with restrictions on travel and cash assistance.

The hard-line approach has endeared the president to exile groups that had all but threatened to sit out his re-election, but triggered a backlash from some moderate Cuban Americans, who the U.S. trade embargo but want to be able to travel and relatives in Cuba.

Democrats have sought to exploit the emerging division in the once reliably Republican voting bloc, but Bush sought to quash those hopes today, portraying opponent John Kerry as a waffler on Cuba who voted to weaken the travel ban.

Outside the arena, about 150 protesters carried pro-Kerry signs, prompting a brief shouting match between the two groups as Bush ers filed out of the arena.

Bush: Kerry soft on Cuba

By Lesley Clark. [emailprotected]. Posted on Sat, Aug. 28, 2004

Seeking to dispel any concerns that Cuban-American voters will stray from his side, President Bush pledged to push for democracy in Cuba on Friday before a Miami crowd champing at the bit for a mention of the island.

As Bush listed how his istration was working to create a ''free and peaceful'' Iraq and Afghanistan, a central theme of his reelection campaign, the crowd at Miami Arena grew visibly -- and audibly -- restless.

''Cuba!'' one man shouted from the stands.

''Un momento,'' the president replied, as he turned back to his prepared campaign speech.

But when he did turn to Cuba, Bush earned his biggest applause as he opened a new line of attack on Democratic presidential nominee John Kerry, accusing the Massachusetts senator of being soft on Fidel Castro.

''The people of Cuba should be free from the tyrant. And I believe that enforcing the embargo is a necessary part of that strategy,'' Bush said. "My opponent has a different approach.''

The visit Friday, part of Bush's pre-convention campaign swing across eight up-for-grabs states, was his first to Miami since he sought to bolster his Cuban-American base by stiffening the U.S. line against Castro with restrictions on travel and cash assistance amid complaints from some exiles that he had failed to live up to his campaign promises.

It was Bush's second visit to Florida in two weeks, indicating how close the race is likely to be in the state.

The president's toughened approach on Cuba has endeared the president to hard-line exiles who had all but threatened to sit out his re-election, but it has triggered a backlash from more moderate Cuban Americans who want to be able to travel and relatives in Cuba.

Democrats have sought to exploit the emerging division in the reliably Republican voting bloc, but Bush sought to quash those hopes, portraying Kerry as a waffler on Cuba who once derided the trade embargo as a function of the "politics of Florida.''

He also chided Kerry for criticizing a dissident movement on the island and said the Democrat flipflopped on the Helms-Burton legislation that in 1996 tightened sanctions against Castro.

Mocking Kerry in Spanish, Bush said, "He voted yes, then he voted no.''

KERRY'S RESPONSE

Kerry's campaign has said he ed Helms-Burton in its early stages, but voted against it because he disagreed with some of the final technical aspects.

And a campaign spokesman suggested Friday that Bush is lashing out because he's nervous about eroding within a key voting bloc in the state that delivered him the presidency by just 537 votes in 2000.

''For 3 years, he did nothing on Cuba, waiting until an election year to enact a policy that will do nothing to bring down the Castro regime but will hurt the Cuban people,'' said Kerry spokesman Phil Singer. "His policy has backfired, his among Cuban Americans has dropped, so now he's launching negative attacks.''

Democrats cite a July poll as proof that Bush's among Cuban Americans has softened. The poll showed Bush's dropping to 66 percent, from his generally stratospheric that hovers in the 80s.

But Republicans note the poll was sponsored by travel operators who have been hit by the restrictions. They countered with a WLTV-Channel 23 poll conducted Aug. 20-22 that shows eight in 10 Cuban American voters in Miami-Dade backing Bush.

The crowd at Friday's rally was adulatory, but nearly half of the arena was empty, even after the Bush campaign went on Spanish radio to push the free tickets.

A spokesman for the campaign pegged attendance at 8,000 and said officials were not expecting a full house, given the Friday night timing of the event and its proximity to the MTV Video Music Awards.

Outside, about 150 protesters, many of them Cuban Americans, rallied against Bush.

One protester said the Bush istration has strained family ties among Cubans in Cuba -- and here in South Florida.

Julio Torres, 26, waved a ''Cubans for Kerry'' sign while his father, Daniel, was inside with the Bush ers.

''He's like a lot of older Cubans who think the only way to bring Castro down is by force. I'm into newer tactics,'' Torres said.

HURRICANE AID

Bush also sought to court another potentially massive voting bloc: those affected by Hurricane Charley. He made his first Florid stop a visit to a Miami firehouse, where, flanked by his brother, Gov. Jeb Bush, he got a briefing and pledged to seek $2 billion in federal aid for the state.

Gov. Bush didn't accompany his brother to the rally, allowing the president to boast: "He's working. He's doing what the people of Florida expect him to do, and that is to do his job.''

Herald staff writers Matthew I. Pinzur, Karl Ross and Michael Vasquez contributed to this report.

Journey to Cuba, through its music

An exhaustive study of how music is shaped by economics, politics and culture.

By Jordan Levin. Posted on Sun, Aug. 29, 2004

CUBA AND ITS MUSIC: From the First Drums to the Mambo.
Ned Sublette. Chicago Review Press. 688 pages. $36.

Cuba and its Music opens with a bold statement: ''This is a history of music from a Cuban point of view.'' That's a big claim, but it's true. Cuba and its Music: From the First Drums to the Mambo is a vital history not just of Cuban but also of Latin and American popular music. Not only does it trace Cuban music's deepest roots in Africa and Spain but also ties it together with a cultural and political history of Cuba. This is a fascinating story of how music is shaped by economics, politics and culture, and how it becomes a force of its own.

A musician, musicologist, producer, record company owner and occasional journalist with a long and ionate relationship with Cuban music, Ned Sublette is uniquely qualified to write this book. His combination of erudition and practical experience enables him to analyze everything from African rhythmic patterns to the importance of the island's first recording studio. And he's not afraid to go with his instincts. ''There are clues within music to the migrations of culture, if one knows enough music and listens deeply enough,'' he writes.

This leads to a lot of ''would haves'' in the narrative. But it also allows Sublette to make some thrilling leaps, as when he extrapolates from the musical traditions of the different African slave populations in the United States and Cuba to explain why Afro-Cuban music syncopates and African-American music swings. When he writes about Phoenician dancing girls shaking their booties down to the ground, it not only brings ancient history to juicy life, but also makes an instantly comprehensible case for funk as a force from pre-history to the present.

Cuba and its Music is actually several stories rolled together, which are as little understood as they are important to popular music. One is the story of how Cuban and U.S. music have influenced each other, from ragtime to rock. In the introduction, Sublette quotes Mario Bauza, the great Cuban bandleader/composer who was one of the architects of Latin jazz. ''We came here and changed your American music from the bottom up! And nobody knows this! Nobody writes about this!'' Actually, John Storn Roberts wrote about it in 1979's The Latin Tinge, but Sublette makes a much more compelling case. Together with the tale of how the United States influenced and bullied Cuba, from the economic takeover after Cuba's war of independence with Spain in 1898 through the sanctioning of mobster-run gambling, the story makes for a mesmerizing subtext about the complex relationship between the two countries.

The other important narrative here is that of African music as the central force in Cuban and North American music. Sublette has a profound respect for African music and culture, and an equally strong indignation over how racism suppressed the African side of Cuban music. For instance, the Cuban custom of working slaves to death and replacing them with cheaper new ones from Africa kept African culture in Cuba constantly, if cruelly, refreshed.

In balancing between general and musical history, Sublette sometimes gets into obscure terrain. Some of his musical analyses will be incomprehensible to the average reader, and he can go on for what seems like forever on who played with what band when and where. But generally Sublette manages this difficult balance well. After all, the depth of information is part of what gives Cuba and its Music its substance. Ending in 1952, on the verge of the Cuban popular music explosion of the 1950s and the Cuban Revolution is also puzzling. Sublette seems to plan a sequel, since his last line is ''to be continued.'' But the achievements of Cuba and its Music far outweigh the shortcomings.

His book comes at an interesting time. Cuban musicians are now virtually barred from visiting the States, and it has become much more difficult for Americans to travel to the island. That seems a pity. But given how closely connected the music is, one doubts the musicians will be separated for long.

Jordan Levin is a Herald arts writer.

4 VETERAN FOES OF CASTRO

Posted on Fri, Aug. 27, 2004.

Luis Posada Carriles, 76

Explosives expert, trained by the CIA in the 1960s. Accused in the 1976 mid-air bombing of a Cuban jetliner that killed 73 people. Tried in Venezuela, he was acquited and escaped from jail in 1985 while awaiting a re-trial. He has denied any involvement in the bombing. Both Cuba and Venezuela asked for his extradition while he was jailed in Panama. He turned up in El Salvador after his prison escape, working with a group linked to White House aide Col. Oliver North that sent supplies to contra rebels fighting the leftist Sandinista government in Nicaragua. He claimed and then denied responsibility for a string of terrorist bombings in Havana in 1997 that killed an Italian tourist and wounded more than a dozen others. He served in the security forces of anticommunist governments in Guatemala and Venezuela and survived a 1990 murder attempt in Guatemala City.

Gaspar Jimnez, 69

A former Miami chauffeur, served six years in a Mexican prison for the attempted kidnapping of Cuban diplomat Daniel Ferrer and the death of a man accompanying him -- described as either a bodyguard or a fishing expert -- in Mrida, Mexico in 1976. He escaped from prison and returned to the United States. He was also indicted -- though the charges were later dismissed -- for the 1976 bombing that blew off the legs of Miami radio personality Emilio Milin.

Pedro Remn, 59

A former Miami truck salesman, he was sentenced to 10 years in U.S. federal prison in 1986 after pleading guilty to the 1980 attempted murder of a former Cuban diplomat at the United Nations, Flix Garca Rodrguez, He was also linked to an attempted bombing of Cuba's U.N. Mission in 1979.

Guillermo Novo, 61

A former radio advertising salesman in New Jersey who later moved to Miami, he was convicted of perjury in the 1976 car-bombing murder of former Chilean diplomat Orlando Letelier and an American aide in Washington, D.C. The verdict was overturned on appeal, and he was acquitted in a second trial. He was arrested in a 1964 bazooka attack on the U.N. headquarters during a speech by Ernesto ''Ch'' Guevara, but the charges were later dropped.

SOURCE: Herald archives

Elin Gonzlez affair shows up in mayor race

Posted on Sat, Aug. 28, 2004.

Elin Gonzlez was sent back to Cuba four years ago, but the young castaway remains a powerful figure in Miami-Dade politics.

Former Miami-Dade Police Director Carlos Alvarez, now running for county mayor in Tuesday's election, knows that well. At least one flier from an untraceable source is attacking Alvarez for comments he made on the case last month at a Herald editorial board meeting.

In the meeting, Alvarez criticized Mayor Alex Penelas' leadership during the crisis over Elin and said he made it clear to then-County Manager Merrit Stierheim that as police chief, he would uphold the U.S. Constitution rather than challenge federal authorities. Alvarez never said how he personally felt about the policy decisions being made by others.

A Spanish-language mailing to Cuban voters -- attributed to the common name ''Jose Martinez'' -- quotes the comments and questions Alvarez's loyalty to the Cuban-American community.

Alvarez, a Cuban American, said Friday that he had a job to do as police chief, regardless of his personal opinions. He said he was widely praised for his handling of the case. But he won't say whether he believes the boy should have been sent back.

''That's just adding fuel to the fire when there's thousands of these damn fliers going around Dade County,'' Alvarez said. "Instead of having four [versions of] fliers, I'll have 16 fliers.''

NOAH BIERMAN

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