15th April 2006
Ramón Saúl Sánchez: el Gandhi del exilio cubano
April 13, 2006
Sonia Osorio
Miami, 13 abr — Con escasos recursos financieros, enarbolando el
principio de la no violencia y utilizando los ayunos como herramienta
para su activismo, Ramón Saúl Sánchez se ha convertido en el rostro más
visible del exilio cubano en EEUU.
En su larga trayectoria, Sánchez, presidente del “Movimiento
Democracia”
ha realizado cuatro huelgas de hambre, varias campañas de desobediencia
civil, flotillas frente a las costas cubanas y ha estado preso unas
siete veces por su activismo.
Estrategias que le han permitido defender los derechos de algunos de
sus
compatriotas cuando el fantasma de la repatriación ronda sus travesías
por el peligroso Estrecho de Florida.
El activista, nacido en Colón (Matanzas, Cuba), se incorporó a la
lucha
anticastrista a los 15 años, después de que su madre lo enviara al
destierro en los “Vuelos de la libertad” a través de los cuales unos
300.000 cubanos arribaron a EEUU entre 1965 y 1973.
“Tristemente mi patria vive la terrible soledad de la opresión, el
desgarramiento de las familias y la violación de su soberanía. Desde que
tuve uso de razón me di cuenta que no se puede vivir conociendo esa
realidad cruzado de brazos”, dijo en una entrevista con EFE.
Sánchez comenzó en un grupo paramilitar de Miami que en la década de
los
años 60 y 70 estaba a favor de derrocar al presidente cubano Fidel
Castro con métodos violentos.
Tras pasar cuatro años y medio en una prisión federal por “negarme a
testificar ante un gran jurado federal que investigaba un presunto
atentado a Castro en Nueva York, en 1980″, decidió que la violencia no
era el camino adecuado.
“Concluí que cuando saliera de la cárcel convencería a los cubanos de
luchar utilizando la no violencia”, dijo quien se ha divorciado cinco
veces por la pasión que le dedica a su activismo.
El cubano, que acumula sus días de vacaciones para los ayunos y otras
actividades de su lucha, se inspira en Mahatma Gandhi, el icono mundial
de la no violencia; en Martin Luther King, el líder negro de los
derechos civiles; y en José Martí, prócer de la independencia de Cuba.
Al principio le costó convencer a una comunidad que tenía muchas
heridas, pero luego algunos se incorporaron y actualmente la
organización cuenta con una cuadrilla de aviones y una flotilla.
Su primer acto de desobediencia civil lo realizó en 1994 en contra de
la
política migratoria hacia Cuba, con monedas de 50 centavos e igual
número de personas en una autopista de Miami.
“Nos colocamos simultáneamente en las casillas del peaje, lanzamos
las
monedas y apagamos los motores. Esto lo hicimos tres meses hasta que nos
apresaron”, recordó en su destartalada oficina, empapelada con fotos de
presos políticos cubanos.
Sánchez fue uno de los artífices del boleto a la libertad de los
cubanos
conocidos internacionalmente como los “Camionautas” y los “Balseros del
Puente”.
Los “Camionautas” fueron interceptados por guardacostas en el 2003
cuando trataban de alcanzar las costas de Florida en un camión Chevrolet
de 1951, adaptado como embarcación.
El caso se resolvió enviando a tres de los cubanos, que habían
tramitado
sus visas de EEUU sin éxito, a la base de Guantánamo y luego los acogió
un tercer país.
Una acción similar emprendió con los “Balseros del Puente”, que
llegaron
a un antiguo puente de los Cayos de Florida en enero pasado y los
repatriaron con el argumento de que la estructura no estaba conectada a
tierra firme.
La decisión impedía a los “balseros” beneficiarse del decreto
presidencial “pies secos, pies mojados”, que permite quedarse en el país
a los cubanos que tocan tierra y repatriar a los interceptados en el
mar.
Sánchez elevó el caso ante un tribunal y realizó una huelga de hambre
de
12 días exigiendo la revisión del decreto que considera “injusto e
inhumano”.
Se anotó otro triunfo: un juez dictaminó que se cometió un error al
repatriarlo, se les otorgó visa a catorce de ellos y Washington accedió
a una reunión sobre el decreto.
“El elemento fundamental en todo esto no he sido yo, sino el pueblo
tratando de que no se violen los derechos humanos y abriendo horizontes
para la gente que viene buscando libertad en este país”, manifestó con
humildad. EFE
so/svo
http://www.sun-sentinel.com/elsentinel/hoy-9455109apr13,0,2977691.story?coll=hoy-hispanos-ap
7th April 2006
U.S. Looks Into Cuban Coast Guard Shooting
By ANITA SNOW, Associated Press WriterThu Apr 6, 7:28 PM ET
The Cuban coast guard shot at three suspected migrant smugglers from
the
United States who refused orders to halt their boat as it neared the
island, killing one, official media reported Thursday.
The Communist Party daily Granma said the confrontation occurred
Wednesday near Cuba’s southern coast in the western province of Pinar
del Rio.
The coast guard official in charge ordered officers to open fire
after
the three-man crew aboard the 40-foot boat failed to stop and instead
launched “violent sudden attacks” on the coast guard vessel, damaging
the craft, the report said.
It said that two men aboard the U.S.-based boat were wounded by
gunfire
and taken to a hospital, where one died, the report said.
Cuban authorities said the identity of the dead man was not
immediately
known because he did not have any documents and the other two men were
not cooperating.
The two other men carried U.S. passports identifying them as Rafael
Mesa
Farinas and Rosendo Salgado Castro. It was unclear which of those two
was wounded or how seriously.
Drew Blakeney, spokesman for the U.S. Interests Section in Havana,
said
American authorities had confirmed the names of the two surviving men
and that they were U.S. citizens. He said they were seeking consular
access to them in custody. But Blakeney said they had not confirmed the
identity nor the citizenship of the dead man.
State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said in Washington that it
would be “deeply disturbing” if the dead man turned out to be an
American.
The shooting death of a suspected migrant smuggler by Cuban
authorities
was unusual. Most violence during migration attempts has occurred in
confrontations between Cuban authorities and would-be migrants who
hijacked boats or planes.
Cuban authorities blamed the confrontation on U.S. migration policies
that they say encourage its citizens to undertake risky journeys to get
to the United States.
Ninoska Perez Castellon, spokeswoman for the Miami-based Cuban
Liberty
Council, blamed the communist government, accusing it of tolerating
illegal migrant smuggling.
“The Cuban government has the authority to let them go in and out,”
she
said. “For anybody to believe that all those people are coming in and
out without the government getting a cut is ridiculous.”
But she also blamed the smugglers, saying they often bring 30 or 40
people on a boat made for six, charging them around $10,000 each.
“That’s why you see these terrible accidents,” she said. “In the
exile
community, people are desperate to bring in their family here.”
Ramon Saul Sanchez, head of the Miami-Based Democracy Movement, said
“a
human trafficking mafia” is making money off Cubans’ pain.
Sanchez, who went on a hunger strike earlier this year to protest the
treatment of Cuban migrants picked up by the U.S. Coast Guard, has also
called for stronger laws against human traffickers and investigations
into the role of Cuban officials in the trade.
“I’m not saying the Cuban government is officially involved but that
some people in the government may be involved,” he said.
Sanchez added that the U.S. immigration policy is not what is causing
the human trafficking but what he termed “the dictatorial regime in
Cuba.”
The passports of two suspected smugglers involved in Wednesday’s
confrontation showed they recently visited the Mexican southeastern
state of Quintana Roo, where Cuban authorities believe they had planned
to take a boatload of illegal migrants, who would then cross to the U.S.
by land.
Cuban authorities later temporarily took into custody 39 people they
believe had been scheduled to leave the island on the speedboat: 20 men,
12 women and seven children.
After giving statements to authorities, most were later sent home.
Several, however, remained in custody.
The speedboat was registered to an American man of Cuban origin named
John Roberto, who is nicknamed “Tiburon Azul,” or “Blue Shark,” the
report said. The boat has traveled to Cuba numerous times on migrant
smuggling trips in the past, many of them through Mexico, the report
said.
“The events … confirm the irresponsible, criminal and aggressive
character of United States policy toward Cuba, especially the deliberate
use of the theme of migration against the revolution,” Granma said in
the front page report.
It went on to criticize as “cynical” the Cuban Adjustment Act, a 1966
law that grants U.S. residency to most Cubans one year after reaching
American soil. That privilege does not apply to apply to immigrants from
most other nations.
Under current American policy, most would-be Cuban migrants the U.S.
Coast Guard picks up at sea are returned to the island, but most who
reach American soil are allowed to stay.
Mexico is among several routes migrant smugglers use to get Cuban
migrants into the United States, and Quintana Roo, home to the Caribbean
resorts of Cancun, Cozumel and Isla Mujeres, has become an increasingly
popular transshipment point.
From there, the migrants travel to the U.S. border with Mexico, where
they identify themselves as Cubans to American officials and are often
allowed to stay.
Associated Press reporter Laura Wides-Munoz in Miami contributed to
this
report.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060406/ap_on_re_la_am_ca/cuba_smugglers_shot_4
17th March 2006
Posted on Thu, Mar. 16, 2006
Prosecutors agree to allow in 14 repatriated Cubans
BY VANESSA BLUM
South Florida Sun-Sentinel
FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. - Stung by a federal judge’s decision that 15
Cubans who landed on the Old Seven Mile Bridge in the Florida Keys
should have been allowed into the United States, federal prosecutors
have agreed to allow in most of the Cubans.
But government lawyers first want U.S. District Judge Federico Moreno
to
retract his Feb. 28 decision that the bridge qualifies as U.S. soil.
Moreno’s ruling, which was celebrated by many in the Cuban exile
community, ordered the government to use its best efforts to bring the
15 Cubans to the United States.
Government attorneys said they will consent to Moreno’s demands, but
only if the judge first withdraws his 11-page ruling, which called the
Coast Guard’s decision to repatriate the Cubans “unreasonable.”
Lawyers for the Cubans signed off on the plan because it would allow
them to avoid further litigation and speed up efforts to bring their
clients to the United States.
“These are human beings with lives and families desperately seeking
their freedom,” said Joseph Geller, one of the Cubans’ attorneys. “All
of our actions have been taken with keen awareness these people’s lives
are in our hands.”
Moreno could respond as early as Friday.
If the judge approves the deal, the Department of Homeland Security
will
issue the entry papers within 10 days of his decision, prosecutors said
in court documents. The Cubans would still face uncertainty, however,
because they cannot leave Cuba without permission from President Fidel
Castro’s government.
The deal applies to 14 of the Cubans who did not have a criminal
background, medical issue or other problem, their lawyers said. U.S.
officials do not want to issue documents to Lazaro Jesus Martinez
Jimenez.
Cuban activist Ramon Saul Sanchez said government lawyers made it
clear
in negotiations that they were prepared to appeal Moreno’s ruling.
Under the terms of the settlement agreement, the government agrees
not
to appeal the judge’s order, which would be wiped from the books.
“Our concern is that if the government were to appeal this decision,
it
would take months, maybe years,” said Sanchez, whose organization
Democracy Movement filed the suit on behalf of the Cubans. “I think
everybody was working together to see how effective we could be in
bringing people here and reuniting them with their families.”
The Bush administration also may have wanted to end the matter
quickly
and quietly, said University of Miami law professor David Abraham. He
said the case put the administration at odds with political allies in
the Cuban exile community.
“The government doesn’t really want to win this case because the
government wants to curry favor with the Cuban community,” Abraham said.
The Coast Guard took the 15 Cubans into custody at the Old Seven Mile
Bridge on Jan. 4. Federal officials repatriated them after Coast Guard
lawyers determined that the bridge did not qualify as U.S. territory
under the government’s controversial “wet foot, dry foot” immigration
policy.
Cubans who touch U.S. soil, bridges, piers or rocks are allowed into
the
United States, while those intercepted at sea usually are returned to
Cuba.
Moreno slammed the Coast Guard’s decision, calling it “implausible”
and
“unpersuasive.” However, he said his ruling dealt only with the specific
case and had no implications for the “wet foot, dry foot” policy.
http://www.myrtlebeachonline.com/mld/myrtlebeachonline/news/nation/14117362.htm
9th March 2006
Posted on Thu, Mar. 09, 2006
IMMIGRATION
Calls of bias mar meeting
Cuban-American leaders met with federal officials seeking to change the
wet-foot, dry-foot policy, but some called the meeting partisan.
BY OSCAR CORRAL AND LESLEY CLARK
ocorral@MiamiHerald.com
In a day that underscored tension between some Cuban exiles in Miami
and
the Bush administration, Cuban-American leaders met with federal
officials in Washington to ask for a new U.S.-Cuba migration policy,
while others called the meeting partisan.
The Cuban-American group wants the administration to change the
controversial wet-foot, dry-foot policy in which Cubans caught at sea
are generally returned to the island while those who reach U.S. soil are
allowed to stay.
At the White House meeting, Republican U.S. Reps. Ileana
Ros-Lehtinen,
Lincoln and Mario Diaz-Balart and several spiritual leaders from Miami’s
Cuban exile community asked federal officials from the departments of
State and Homeland Security to make the policy more humanitarian for
Cubans.
NO POLICY CHANGE
The response from Washington: We’ll see. ‘’The meeting was designed
to
allow for a serious dialogue, and does not signal any change in policy
as it relates to Cuba or any other country’s migrants,'’ said White
House spokeswoman Maria Tamburri.
The meeting came almost two months after the Coast Guard repatriated
15
Cubans found on the old Seven Mile bridge in the Florida Keys — a move
that set off controversy and a 12-day hunger strike by the Democracy
Movement’s Ramon Saul Sanchez.
Upset that the group’s lawyers were not invited, Sanchez flew to
Washington, anyway, and met behind closed doors with Democratic Sens.
Bill Nelson and Bob Menendez.
‘’We had hoped that this could be bipartisan, and that it kept in
mind
not politics, but the rights of balseros,'’ Sanchez said.
Nelson said he and his Republican counterpart, Sen. Mel Martinez,
were
asking for a meeting Thursday with Bush administration officials. He
said it was ‘’impossible legislatively'’ for him to attend Wednesday’s
meeting, though he had been invited. Martinez also was unable to attend.
Lincoln Diaz-Balart said the White House meeting was “frank and
fruitful.'’
MAIN REQUESTS
Diaz-Balart’s office said the group asked, among other things, that
migrants receive some sort of legal representation when picked up by the
Coast Guard; that a portion of the 20,000 visas allowed for Cuban
migration every year be set aside for Cubans picked up at sea and in
third countries; and that the administration review the process by which
the Coast Guard determines if migrants have a credible fear of
persecution.
The administration designated Cuban American Emilio Gonzalez, head of
U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, as a liaison between Cuban
American members of Congress representatives and the administration.
Nelson said he already had asked Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice
to
review the wet-foot, dry-foot policy to prevent a repeat of the bridge
fiasco he called the “height of ridiculousness.'’
Martinez said in a written statement he has met with the State
Department and several other federal agencies on the matter. ‘’Serious
options need to be brought to the table in order to make this
unsustainable policy humane and transparent,'’ Martinez said.
New Democrat Network consultant Joe Garcia said the difficulty in
getting a meeting with the White House shows how the Bush administration
brushes off the Cuba issue.
‘’What’s sad is that Ramon Saul Sanchez had to go on a hunger strike
to
get a meeting with policy makers about immigration in a community . . .
[that] votes overwhelmingly Republican,'’ Garcia said.
http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/news/14052860.htm
3rd March 2006
Repatriated Cubans bet on American dream coming true
Thu Mar 2, 2006 1:29 PM ET
By Esteban Israel
SAN FRANCISCO DE PAULA, Cuba (Reuters) - Cubans who made the
dangerous
crossing to Florida only to land on an abandoned bridge and be sent home
in a controversial decision, are now dreaming of America, a new car and
the freedom they say awaits them in Miami.
“My mind is already over there in those skyscrapers. I just want to
work, have a house and a brand new car,” said Emiliano Batista, a
22-year-old waiter who has tried crossing the Florida Straits 18 times.
In his last attempt at the 90-mile (120-km) crossing, Batista crowded
into a makeshift motorboat with 14 other men, women and children in late
January. The group thought they had made it when they were picked up by
the U.S. Coast Guard on an abandoned bridge in the Florida Keys.
But the Coast Guard decided the century-old Seven Mile Bridge did not
count as dry land because sections were missing and it was no longer
attached to U.S. soil.
The group was returned to Communist Cuba under the U.S. government’s
controversial “wet-foot, dry-foot” policy which allows Cubans who reach
land to stay while those intercepted at sea get repatriated.
A U.S. judge ruled on Tuesday in Miami that the U.S. Coast Guard
erred
in returning the group and ordered federal authorities to make their
best effort to help them return to the United States.
It is not clear if President Fidel Castro’s government, which
restricts
the freedom of Cubans to leave the island, will permit their legal
migration to the United States.
But in their dusty farm town 70 miles east of Havana, confidence is
running high among the hopeful migrants.
“We were sad, overcome by uncertainty. But now we are sure that
everything will work out well,” said Batista, who already speaks about
his life in Cuba in the past tense.
The group, aged 2 to 48 years, have already filled out applications
for
Cuban passports and the U.S. Interests Section in Havana has scheduled
them for visa interviews on Monday.
Their repatriation angered Cuban exiles in Miami who believe all
Cubans
should be allowed to stay because they are fleeing persecution.
One anti-Castro activist, Ramon Saul Sanchez, went on a hunger strike
in
protest, obtaining a White House pledge to meet exile groups and
politicians to discuss the policy.
CUBANS STILL FLEEING
The repatriation of Cuban boat people started a decade ago under
agreements between Washington and Havana that were designed to avoid
another mass exodus like the one in 1994 when 35,000 people took to the
sea, many in flimsy rafts, fleeing economic distress in post-Soviet
Cuba.
The United States agreed to grant at least 20,000 visas a year to
encourage orderly emigration.
But Castro routinely accuses Washington of encouraging Cubans to
embark
on dangerous crossings in precarious crafts by allowing them to stay if
they manage to make it across.
Economic hardship continues to fuel a constant exodus. In fiscal year
2005, the U.S. Coast Guard intercepted 2,712 Cubans at sea, the most
since the 1994 crisis. At least 39 others died trying to get to the
United States.
Batista said his group sold everything they had to build an 18-foot
(6-meter) boat and buy a motor on the black market. They took 27 hours
to cross the straits.
“It was worth the cold, the hunger and the danger we went through,”
said
repatriated migrant Elizabeth Hernandez, who crossed with her husband
and two-year-old son Maikel.
“They said in the United States that we can return,” she said. “We
don’t
think the Cuban authorities will stop us. We haven’t done anything wrong
for them to hold us.”
http://today.reuters.com/news/articlenews.aspx?type=politicsNews&storyid=2006-03-02T182937Z_01_N02281466_RTRUKOC_0_US-CUBA-USA-MIGRANTS.xml
1st March 2006
Judge Rules for Cubans Who Got to Bridge
Judge Rules in Favor of Cubans Who Made It to Abandoned U.S. Bridge
Only
to Be Turned Away
By LAURA WIDES-MUNOZ Associated Press Writer
The Associated Press
MIAMI - A federal judge ruled Tuesday that the U.S. government acted
unreasonably when it sent home 15 Cubans who thought they had safely
made it to the United States when their boat reached an abandoned bridge
in the Florida Keys.
Judge Federico Moreno ordered the federal government to make its best
effort to help the immigrants return to the United States, said Kendall
Coffey, an attorney for the Cubans and their relatives.
One of the 15 migrants, Elizabeth Hernandez, 23, was celebrating the
decision from her family’s home in Matanza, Cuba.
“I am so happy,” she told The Associated Press by telephone Tuesday
evening. “I always had hope I would be able to return.”
It was not known, however, whether President Fidel Castro would allow
the Cubans to leave the communist island.
Under the federal government’s long-standing “wet-foot, dry-foot”
policy, Cubans who reach U.S. soil are generally allowed to stay, while
those stopped at sea are sent back.
In this case, the U.S. government argued that the old bridge did not
count as dry land because chunks of it were missing, and it is no longer
connected to U.S. soil.
The migrants landed on the pilings along a nearly 3-mile span of the
former bridge Jan. 4, as their small boat began to take on water. Had
they landed a 100 yards away on the new bridge, the U.S. Coast Guard
would likely have allowed them to stay.
Ramon Saul Sanchez, head of the Democracy Movement, a Cuban-American
advocacy group that also joined in the lawsuit against the government,
was pleased with the judge’s ruling.
“Really, it is a vindication for all immigrants,” said Sanchez, who
waged an 11-day hunger strike to protest the group’s return to Cuba.
But the judge made clear that his ruling was limited in scope and not
a
decision on “the wisdom or lack of wisdom” of the American government’s
policy, Moreno wrote.
A federal prosecutor had argued that the Coast Guard’s decision to
send
the migrants home was reasonable and the judge should defer to it.
Moreno stated in his ruling that besides being unreasonable, the
Coast
Guard’s decision was informal and carried less weight than a published
opinion.
It was unclear whether the government would appeal the ruling. A
message
left Tuesday for the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Miami was not immediately
returned.
Copyright 2006 The Associated Press.
http://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory?id=1672809
