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U.S. Noncommittal on Panama Pardons

By George Gedda, Associated Press Writer. August 1, 2004.

WASHINGTON - The most obvious tip-off that the four men had lethal intent was the 33 pounds of explosives police found in their possession. Eventually they were convicted of plotting to assassinate a head of state.

To some, it looked like a clear case of international terrorism. To others, the four were freedom fighters trying to liberate their homeland.

The scene of the attempt was Panama in November 2000. The perpetrators were four Cuban exiles. Their target, prosecutors said, was Cuban President Fidel Castro (news - web sites), who was due in Panama to attend a summit conference.

Debate over the case has resurfaced with the decision of Panamanian President Mireya Moscoso last week to pardon the four.

Among some Cuban-Americans in Miami there was jubilation. The Cuban government was furious. The State Department declined to criticize Moscoso's action.

"This was a decision made by the government of Panama," State Department deputy spokesman Adam Ereli said. "We never lobbied the Panamanian government to pardon anyone involved in this case, and I'd leave it to the government of Panama to discuss the action."

Rep. William Delahunt, D-Mass., said he was stunned to learn of the pardon, adding that the State Department loses credibility in refusing to voice outrage over the release of people he says are "assassins, ... terrorists."

Moscoso announced the pardon six days before the end of her term as president. President-elect Martin Torrijos was taking the oath of office Wednesday in the presence of Secretary of State Colin Powell and other foreign dignitaries.

The State Department response may have been influenced by election-year politics, particularly the istration's interest in keeping the Cuban-American vote in President Bush's column this November, much as it was in 2000.

Cuba has long complained about what it sees as a U.S. double standard on terrorism. It insists the United States harbors countless criminals from the pre-Castro military regime. It also alleges the United States has done nothing to stop Florida-based anti-Castro groups from launching armed attacks on the island.

In response, the United States maintains that Cuba s groups on the U.S. list of foreign terrorist organizations and provides a haven for numerous fugitives from U.S. justice. Cuba is one of seven countries on the U.S. list of state sponsors of terrorism.

Moscoso said she decided on the pardon for humanitarian reasons, claiming she was fearful her successor would extradite the men to Cuba, where they would await a firing squad.

The circumstances of the pardon suggest close cooperation between the Panamanian government and wealthy Cuban-Americans in South Florida, one of whom chartered two small planes that picked up three of the exiles shortly after their release.

The fourth was Luis Posada Cariles, whom Castro has described as "the worst terrorist in the hemisphere." He is believed to be in Honduras.

Posada left Cuba after the 1959 revolution and has spent much of his life seeking Castro's ouster. He trained for the CIA-organized Bay of Pigs invasion in 1961, though his group did not reach shore.

He is wanted by Venezuelan authorities for the 1976 bombing of a Cuban civilian jetliner that had taken off from Caracas. All 73 aboard were killed.

Posada and his colleagues say they were in Panama to help a Cuban official defect. They say they were framed by Cuban agents.

Many in South Florida see the four as heroes. Shortly after the convictions last April, more than 400 people turned up at a $100-a-plate fund-raiser in Miami to help cover the costs of an appeal. Their sentences ranged from seven to eight years.

With the pardon, no appeal was needed, and there were hugs and handshakes last Thursday as a welcoming crowd greeted the three exiles at Opa-locka Airport in Miami.

One, Guillermo Novo, was quoted by the Miami Herald as saying: "I dreamt of this day, but I did not have the confidence that it would come. This is a triumph. ... It was the Cuban exile community that did this."

EDITOR'S NOTE: George Gedda has covered foreign affairs for The Associated Press since 1968.

New Panama President to Take Office

By ELOY O. AGUILAR, Associated Press Writer. August 1, 2004.

PANAMA CITY, Panama - President-elect Martin Torrijos will face what he has called his country's "decision of the century" when he takes office: a possible $8 billion expansion of the Panama Canal to update the waterway to handle a new, bigger generation of ships.

Torrijos hasn't made any decision, and plans to study the issue after taking office in a ceremony that will be attended by Secretary of State Colin Powell (news - web sites) and several world leaders.

Historic decisions run in his family. His father, late strongman Gen. Omar Torrijos, signed a deal with then-President Jimmy Carter for handover of the canal from U.S. to Panamanian authority.

Like his father, Torrijos also faces a key negotiation with the United States, this time on a free trade agreement.

After his election in May, Torrijos said "much prudence and caution were required" on the issue because of the economic power of the United States.

Fernando Manfredo, former assistant of the canal and an adviser to the former dictator, says that Panama's agricultural technology is no match for that of the of the United States.

Negotiations for a free-trade agreement started earlier this year under outgoing President Mireya Moscoso.

Moscoso has also left Torrijos with a new diplomatic battle with Cuba and Venezuela, high expectations and government coffers low on cash.

Cuba broke relations with Panama and Venezuela recalled its ambassador last week, after Moscoso pardoned Luis Posada and three other Cuban exiles who the Cuban government said had plotted to kill Cuban President Fidel Castro (news - web sites) at the Ibero-American Summit here in 2000.

Panamanian courts found insufficient evidence to that accusation, but sentenced the men to seven- and eight-year on lesser charges.

Moscoso, who leaves office on Wednesday, said she pardoned them to prevent the new government from extraditing them to Cuba or Venezuela, where she said they would be killed.

Posada faces Venezuelan charges in the terrorist bombing of a Cuban commercial plane in 1976 in which 73 people died. Venezuela recalled its ambassador over Moscoso's action.

Torrijos criticized the pardon and is expected to renew relations with Cuba after he takes office. His father was a friend of Castro's.

While Panama has seen its economy grow by 7 percent in the last 18 months, government income has not kept up, limiting development of social programs.

Unemployment is at 14 percent, the government has trouble meeting payrolls and its generous social security and pension system is headed for bankruptcy. An estimated 40 percent of Panamanians live below the poverty level.

Recognizing disillusionment with Moscoso, Torrijos, a Texas A&M graduate with a degree in economics, has promised to fight corruption and generate more jobs.

Many Panamanians see in him the traits of his father, whom some here considered a benevolent dictator.

Cuban Held for Investigation in Texas

CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas, 31 (AP) - One of six Cubans who apparently spent two months lost at sea was sent to a detention facility after officials learned another person may have been aboard the Mexico-bound boat that wound up on the Texas coast, officials said.

Magali Atilenia Araujo Cruz, 58, was hospitalized until Friday and planned to stay with a Cuban-American family in the Corpus Christi area until relatives from Miami could her or pay her way there, the Corpus Christi Caller-Times reported Monday.

Border Patrol spokesman Eddie Flores said, however, she was sent to the Port Isabel Service Processing Center pending an investigation.

"She is somebody that is speaking about this," he said referring to a possible seventh person who began the journey that ended on Mustang Island. "It's better to keep her with us now so that whatever agencies are investigating can piece this together."

He said the investigation had been referred to the Department of Immigration and Customs Enforcement, the Coast Guard and FBI (news - web sites).

Flores said the others, who were released on their own recognizance, would likely stay free until detention hearings. He did not have a date. "The others were released prior to this knowledge," he said.

The group left Manzanillo, Cuba, on a raft June 25, the Border Patrol has said. They apparently bought a 30-foot boat, water and fuel in the Cayman Islands five days later.

The group had planned to travel through Mexico to the border and then sneak across the Rio Grande, the Border Patrol said. Hurricane Charley and Tropical Storm Bonnie probably blew their boat off course.

Two of five men found with Araujo Cruz were sent to Dallas to stay with relatives. The rest were sent to stay with relatives in Miami.

Under the so-called wet-foot, dry-foot policy, Cubans who reach U.S. soil are usually allowed to stay, while most picked up at sea are sent home.

Art Moreno, an Immigration and Customs Enforcement spokesman, said the matter was still under Border Patrol jurisdiction. Rosalie Savage, spokeswoman for the FBI in McAllen, did not immediately return a call for comment, nor did a spokesman for the Coast Guard in Houston.

Six Cuban Migrants Come Ashore in Key Biscayne

KEY BISCAYNE, Fla. 31 (AP) - Monday after leaving their homeland four days ago in a smallmotorboat.

Three men, two women and a 3-year-old boy were taken into custody by U.S. Border Patrol agents for processing after they came ashore at Crandon Park. Most Cuban migrants who reach U.S. soil are

allowed to stay, while those caught at sea usually returned to their island.

The migrants said that they were from Yaguajay Santi Spiritus, a small town on the north coast of Cuba. They said they left Saturday and experienced calm seas during the entire trip.

They said they came within sight of the lights of Key Biscayne near Miami before dawn Tuesday, but they started taking on water and the motor failed. At daylight, they waved down a ing boat, which took them to shore.

Border Patrol spokesman Robert Montemayor said they all appeared to be in good health and would be sent to the Krome detention center after the processing is complete.

National Summit on Cuba to Evaluate Current U.S.-Cuba Trade

TAMPA, Fla., Aug. 30 /PRNewswire/ -- The National Summit on Cuba, an educational forum where national leaders discuss the state of current U.S.-Cuba relations, will be held on October 8, 2004. This day-long conference will take place at the University of Tampa's historic Plant Hall in Tampa, Florida's emerging political and economic bellwether region.

The National Summit on Cuba will provide a comprehensive national assessment of U.S. business' experiences with commercial relations with Cuba under the Trade Sanctions Reform Act approved by Congress in 2000. The Summit will explore how this recent commercial relationship has impacted American communities, particularly Gulf Coast communities, and Cuba itself. The Summit will present a bipartisan and balanced assessment of how U.S.-Cuba policy impacts national interest.

"Tremendous opportunities exist for Florida and Gulf Coast businesses interested in exploring trade with Cuba. The Summit provides an opportunity for these businesses to learn about current trade opportunities, to analyze the effectiveness of the trade and to seek ways to improve trade policy in the coming years," said Antonio Zamora, director of the Florida-Cuba Business Council, one of the Summit sponsors. "The commercial interest, combined with the rapid and fundamental changes occurring within the Cuban American population and the near elimination of family travel, make Cuba a key crossover issue in a battleground state."

The Summit will present 30 speakers including: U.S. Senator Larry Craig (R-Idaho); U.S. Representatives William Delahunt (D-MA), Jeff Flake (R-AZ) and Butch Otter (R-ID); (Ret) General John Sheehan, former Supreme Allied Commander of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) in charge of Guantanamo Bay during the last refugee crisis; Ambassador Pete Peterson, the first U.S. Ambassador to Vietnam and a former Florida Congressman; FC Stone, Crowley Liner Services, diplomats, chambers of commerce, and port authority representatives among other distinguished speakers. FOX National News Anchor Rita Cosby will moderate the day's program.

Speakers from the Bush/Cheney and Kerry/Edwards campaigns and the Florida U.S. Senate campaigns are also expected to discuss party distinctions on Cuba at the Summit.

The National Summit on Cuba is cosponsored by the Alliance for Responsible Cuba Policy Foundation, Americans for Humanitarian Trade with Cuba, the Florida-Cuba Business Council and the World Policy Institute at New School University. Organizers expect approximately 300 attendees from across the nation representing the private sector, and local, state, and federal governments.

"We are excited that The National Summit on Cuba has chosen Tampa for this important conference," said Arthur Savage, President of A.R. Savage & Son and chair of the Tampa Chamber of Commerce's Cuba Task Force. "Cuba presents an incredible opportunity for Tampa Bay, Florida and our nation."

For a full agenda and registration information, please visit our website at http://www.nationalsummitoncuba.org

Kerr to visit Cuba next week to work on export deal

Montpelier, VT, 31 (AP) - Vermont's agriculture secretary is working on a deal to export the state's agricultural products to Cuba.

Secretary Steve Kerr will travel to the island next week to meet with Cuban officials.

The trip follows a trade mission to Havana by Lieutenant Governor Brian Dubie in April.

Dubie returned with letters of intent signed by officials in the Cuban government to buy apples, dried milk and cows from Vermont.

Kerr says he hopes to have signed contracts for the exports when he returns.

Food, agricultural commodities and medical supplies are the only products exempt from a 40-year-old law that bans US trade with the communist nation.

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