Posted on Thursday, 11.01.12
Sharp surge in Cuban migrants seeking to reach US
The number of Cuban migrants to arrive in the U.S. or attempt to leave
the island for the just-ended fiscal year was 13,000, the largest since
2008.
By Al Chardy
achardy@elnuevoherald.com
Roberto Treto Rodríguez had been thinking about leaving Cuba for years.
But it wasn't until late September that he finally fled aboard a boat
with 18 other Cuban migrants that reached the Florida Keys.
Thus Treto joined the ranks of more than 13,000 undocumented Cuban
migrants who reached the United States, or were intercepted en route,
during fiscal year 2012, which ended Sept. 30.
The figure reflects a sharp surge in the number of undocumented Cuban
migrants arriving, or seeking to arrive in the United States. The figure
is the largest in the last three fiscal years.
Between 2009 and 2011, the average annual number of Cuban migrants
arriving or trying to arrive hovered at 7,500. Not since 2008 had the
number of undocumented migrants leaving the island for the United States
exceeded 10,000.
In 2008, the number of Cuban migrants who reached U.S. soil or were
intercepted en route stood at 16,260.
These Cuban migrants leave without U.S. visas. Annually, the U.S.
Interests Section in Havana issues 20,000 visas to Cuban nationals, who
are counted separately.
The figures on undocumented Cubans came from the U.S. Coast Guard, the
Border Patrol and U.S. Customs and Border Protection.
Experts on Cuba generally attributed the drop in arrivals and
interceptions after 2008 to the economic crisis in the United States and
improved Coast Guard interdiction methods.
There is little agreement among experts in the United States about why
more Cuban migrants are arriving, but the majority seem to agree that
migrant relatives in the United States may have more money to pay
smugglers to get their loved ones out of the island and also that Cubans
there may have grown disillusioned with the slow pace of expected
economic reforms under Raúl Castro.
Three recently arrived Cuban migrants, who spoke at an office in Doral
of the Church World Service resettlement service, said more Cubans want
to leave the island because conditions there never improve.
Treto, 40, and Juan Alberto Rosales, 45, arrived by boat directly from
Cuba, while Miguel Alfonso, 35, walked into the United States from
Canada over the border near Vancouver.
Of the three men, Treto was the first to arrive aboard a boat carrying
19 people that left from Baracoa beach west of Havana on Sept. 27 and
reached the Florida Keys two days later. U.S. officials picked up Treto
and the other 18 men and delivered them to the Border Patrol.
Treto, from San Antonio de los Baños southwest of Havana, said he fled
Cuba because of worsening economic conditions and pervasive police
harassment.
"I decided to leave Cuba because I couldn't take it anymore there," said
Treto. "I no longer found myself in that country. The economic
situation, the situation of everything else, I couldn't take. The police
was always harassing me because to them everything you do is illegal."
Treto, who was a construction worker and bicycle mechanic, had wished to
leave Cuba for decades but feared taking to the sea. Ultimately, he left
by boat because he couldn't find a way to board a plane to go abroad
legally. He left his wife and four children behind, and hopes to reunite
with them once he gets his green card.
Under the current wet foot/dry foot policy, Cubans intercepted at sea by
the U.S. Coast Guard are generally returned to the island. Those who
reached U.S. soil are allowed to stay.
At least 1,275 Cubans were stopped at sea between Oct. 1, 2011 and Sept.
30, 2012. From Oct. 1, 2011 to Aug. 31, 2012, at least 354 arrived in
South Florida by boat and 11,398 arrived through various ports of entry,
including the Mexican border. The majority, 10,315, came in via the
Mexican border.
The next one to arrive was Alfonso, who showed up at a U.S. border
crossing point near Blaine, Wash., two weeks ago. Alfonso described
himself as a member of the Cuban government elite whose parents were
prominent members of the Cuban regime. He declined to provide details,
but said he was the only one in his family to be opposed to the Cuban
regime.
Alfonso said he left Cuba for Europe 15 years ago, but finally made his
way to Canada and then the United States over the last two weeks. He
left Cuba because he broke with his pro-Castro family.
"My family was integrated into the regime and I was the only one who
thought differently," he said. "My parents had their life there and I
did not fit into it. My father was an official in a hospital and my
mother was a secretary in the Communist Party."
Fifteen years ago, Alfonso finally managed to leave Cuba and went to
study in Europe. He first went to Italy and then resettled in Spain
where he became a citizen last year.
Alfonso flew from Madrid to Canada two weeks ago, then walked from
Vancouver to Blaine, Wash. Last week, he arrived in Miami.
The last to arrive was Rosales, who turned up before sunrise Saturday at
Marquesas Keys. He was fed up with an economy that never improves.
"I left Cuba because the problem is that every day the situation there
becomes more and more difficult for Cubans," said Rosales. "There, even
if you work very hard, the money you make is never enough for basic
necessities. I mean, if you buy food to eat, you cannot buy clothes to
wear. And if you buy clothes to wear, you cannot buy food to eat."
Rosales was self-employed, fixing flat tires and old cars.
A few weeks ago, he and several friends built a makeshift boat, then
disassembled it, carried it in pieces in a car to a remote beach near
Havana, reassembled it and launched it into the ocean east of Havana.
http://www.miamiherald.com/2012/11/01/v-fullstory/3078386/sharp-surge-in-cuban-migrants.html
Friday, November 2, 2012
Ex-Cuban prison official, now in Miami, says allegations of abuse are lies
Posted on Friday, 11.02.12
Ex-Cuban prison official, now in Miami, says allegations of abuse are lies
A former top prison official in Cuba, now living in Miami, said he
treated everyone fairly and allegations of prison abuse are lies.
By Juan Carlos Chavez And Juan Tamayo
jcchavez@ElNuevoHerald.com
After two years of living anonymously in Miami, the former chief of the
Department of Prisons in Villa Clara, Cuba, broke his silence Thursday
and acknowledged that he had been a high-ranking official of that
country's Ministry of the Interior.
"I was the director of [the ministry's] Judiciary Department until
February 1996, and my job was to supervise and monitor the judicial
performance of chiefs and officials of the penal system in the province
of Villa Clara," said former Col. Crescencio Marino Rivero in an email
to El Nuevo Herald.
In an interview he later gave to the Channel 41 television program
América Tevé, he admitted that he had not informed U.S. authorities of
his position with the Cuban government.
"The paperwork was done by someone who dealt with this type of
documentation in the city of Santa Clara. At that moment I had been out
of [the ministry] for 14 years and working as an adjunct professor at
the university," Rivero said. "Here, nobody asked me. The documents that
I had to present to obtain residency were processed by an agency that
specialized in this type of paperwork."
Rivero denied that he abused and mistreated prisoners, and called three
former political prisoners and dissidents who made the accusations "liars."
"There are hundreds of honest and truthful people in this country who
served time in some of the prisons in Villa Clara. If they know me, they
would be aware of my ethical and moral behavior as chief of the
Department of Prisons. I helped hundreds of them to move on to better
prison conditions," Rivero told El Nuevo Herald.
Dissidents in Cuba such as Guillermo Fariñas, who won the 2010 Sakharov
Award of the European Parliament, and former political prisoners Rafael
Pérez and Benito Ortega accused Rivero of denying medical treatment to a
prisoner of conscience, making death threats and ordering the beating,
among other humiliating acts, of a pregnant woman.
The Rivero case emerged recently when two immigration attorneys in
Miami, Santiago Alpízar and Wilfredo Allen, contacted the U.S.
Department of Justice to find out how Rivero and his wife, Juana Ferrer,
a former immigration official in Cuba, could have entered the United
States in light of their backgrounds and the allegations of their accusers.
Rivero and Ferrer are legal U.S. residents and apparently receive
benefits paid by taxpayer money, the attorneys said.
Rivero accused Allen and Alpízar of seeking media exposure to gain
"fame" among Cuban immigrants in the United States for the purpose of
gaining new clients.
Rivero's wife was a lieutenant colonel at the Ministry of Interior.
Several dissidents say that she, with her husband, made threats and
worked against the peaceful opposition movement in Cuba.
Earlier this week, Rivero refused to respond to an El Nuevo Herald
reporter who knocked on the door of his modest apartment in southwest
Miami. A woman who identified herself as Rivero's daughter opened the
door and briefly said that her father would not make public statements
or have any contact with the news media.
Dissidents remember Rivero as an unpleasant man. Sources told El Nuevo
Herald that Rivero worked for Cuban State Security in the 1960s and
1970s. He was later promoted to director of reeducation in juvenile
prisons in the province of Villa Clara. By 1994, Rivero was in charge of
all prisons in the province, according to dissidents.
Rivero wrote in his email that his job was to uphold the law. "Not
applying personal criteria but only what the documents governing the
system [required], not establishing privileges or hardening the applied
sanctions to any detainee," he said.
He said he was a lawyer and an adjunct professor at the Central
University of Las Villas' Law School.
"I will not make any more statements; the chapter is closed," Rivero
added at the end of the email. "I will also state what is pertinent to
the federal district attorney or the courts if they were to ask me
regarding the legal manner in which I entered this country and live in it."
In Miami, Wilfredo Allen, the immigration attorney, rejected Rivero's
arguments and said his motive was not to boost his law practice.
"I have never received one single penny from anyone for representing and
helping people abused and persecuted in Cuba," Allen said.
Fariñas said that Rivero must accept his past of repression and face the
consequences of his acts.
"Rivero demonstrates in that email that he is an excellent disciple of
Fidel Castro," Fariñas, the Cuban dissident, told El Nuevo Herald from
his home in Santa Clara. "He is a great demagogue and liar."
http://www.miamiherald.com/2012/11/02/3078966/ex-cuban-prison-official-now-in.html
Ex-Cuban prison official, now in Miami, says allegations of abuse are lies
A former top prison official in Cuba, now living in Miami, said he
treated everyone fairly and allegations of prison abuse are lies.
By Juan Carlos Chavez And Juan Tamayo
jcchavez@ElNuevoHerald.com
After two years of living anonymously in Miami, the former chief of the
Department of Prisons in Villa Clara, Cuba, broke his silence Thursday
and acknowledged that he had been a high-ranking official of that
country's Ministry of the Interior.
"I was the director of [the ministry's] Judiciary Department until
February 1996, and my job was to supervise and monitor the judicial
performance of chiefs and officials of the penal system in the province
of Villa Clara," said former Col. Crescencio Marino Rivero in an email
to El Nuevo Herald.
In an interview he later gave to the Channel 41 television program
América Tevé, he admitted that he had not informed U.S. authorities of
his position with the Cuban government.
"The paperwork was done by someone who dealt with this type of
documentation in the city of Santa Clara. At that moment I had been out
of [the ministry] for 14 years and working as an adjunct professor at
the university," Rivero said. "Here, nobody asked me. The documents that
I had to present to obtain residency were processed by an agency that
specialized in this type of paperwork."
Rivero denied that he abused and mistreated prisoners, and called three
former political prisoners and dissidents who made the accusations "liars."
"There are hundreds of honest and truthful people in this country who
served time in some of the prisons in Villa Clara. If they know me, they
would be aware of my ethical and moral behavior as chief of the
Department of Prisons. I helped hundreds of them to move on to better
prison conditions," Rivero told El Nuevo Herald.
Dissidents in Cuba such as Guillermo Fariñas, who won the 2010 Sakharov
Award of the European Parliament, and former political prisoners Rafael
Pérez and Benito Ortega accused Rivero of denying medical treatment to a
prisoner of conscience, making death threats and ordering the beating,
among other humiliating acts, of a pregnant woman.
The Rivero case emerged recently when two immigration attorneys in
Miami, Santiago Alpízar and Wilfredo Allen, contacted the U.S.
Department of Justice to find out how Rivero and his wife, Juana Ferrer,
a former immigration official in Cuba, could have entered the United
States in light of their backgrounds and the allegations of their accusers.
Rivero and Ferrer are legal U.S. residents and apparently receive
benefits paid by taxpayer money, the attorneys said.
Rivero accused Allen and Alpízar of seeking media exposure to gain
"fame" among Cuban immigrants in the United States for the purpose of
gaining new clients.
Rivero's wife was a lieutenant colonel at the Ministry of Interior.
Several dissidents say that she, with her husband, made threats and
worked against the peaceful opposition movement in Cuba.
Earlier this week, Rivero refused to respond to an El Nuevo Herald
reporter who knocked on the door of his modest apartment in southwest
Miami. A woman who identified herself as Rivero's daughter opened the
door and briefly said that her father would not make public statements
or have any contact with the news media.
Dissidents remember Rivero as an unpleasant man. Sources told El Nuevo
Herald that Rivero worked for Cuban State Security in the 1960s and
1970s. He was later promoted to director of reeducation in juvenile
prisons in the province of Villa Clara. By 1994, Rivero was in charge of
all prisons in the province, according to dissidents.
Rivero wrote in his email that his job was to uphold the law. "Not
applying personal criteria but only what the documents governing the
system [required], not establishing privileges or hardening the applied
sanctions to any detainee," he said.
He said he was a lawyer and an adjunct professor at the Central
University of Las Villas' Law School.
"I will not make any more statements; the chapter is closed," Rivero
added at the end of the email. "I will also state what is pertinent to
the federal district attorney or the courts if they were to ask me
regarding the legal manner in which I entered this country and live in it."
In Miami, Wilfredo Allen, the immigration attorney, rejected Rivero's
arguments and said his motive was not to boost his law practice.
"I have never received one single penny from anyone for representing and
helping people abused and persecuted in Cuba," Allen said.
Fariñas said that Rivero must accept his past of repression and face the
consequences of his acts.
"Rivero demonstrates in that email that he is an excellent disciple of
Fidel Castro," Fariñas, the Cuban dissident, told El Nuevo Herald from
his home in Santa Clara. "He is a great demagogue and liar."
http://www.miamiherald.com/2012/11/02/3078966/ex-cuban-prison-official-now-in.html
Thursday, November 1, 2012
Cubans Need Help Recovering From Hurricane Sandy
Cubans Need Help Recovering From Hurricane Sandy / Yoani Sanchez
Translator: Unstated, Yoani Sanchez
How You Can Help
Hurricane Sandy has devastated the city of Santiago de Cuba and caused severe damage in several towns in the east of the country. The images of destruction speak for themselves, but the cameras barely manage to capture a share of the drams. The great tragedy runs on a plane difficult to photograph, or to describe with words. It's impossible to narrate the worst of it. It is a mixture of feelings that shift from sadness to impotence, pain to desperation, dismay to fear. Thousands of people who have seen the wind take a good part of their lives, who woke up one morning in destroyed towns of collapsed streets and missing roofs, and who know that recovering from something like that could take the rest of their existence.
Sandy took five hours to cross eastern Cuba , but destroyed homes, infrastructure and objects that will take decades to reestablish. The loss of human lives has been the most tragic outcome, but nature has also suffered a lot. The intense gusts of wind hit housing stock with decades of accumulated deterioration, the force of the hurricane fell on a population without food reserves to face the days of collapse that have followed. As if the havoc had been small, the floods caused in the center of the country have intensified the agricultural disaster, worsening the nation's ability to recover. Cuba today is in a calamitous situation, although the triumphalism of media officials wants to substitute slogans for laments, and illusions for objective evaluation.
If we recognize the seriousness of the situation, we can find real solutions. The government has the ultimate responsibility to manage this emergency situation with transparency and humility. This is a time to put pride aside and to ask for help from international agencies trained in these types of tragedies. We Cubans hope that our authorities will facilitate the entry of the international Red Cross and other humanitarian organizations to evaluate the infected zones and contribute resources and solidarity to those who lost almost everything. The threats of an outbreak of cholera and of the possible propagation of dengue fever are elements that contribute to the urgency of these decisions. It can wait any longer.
Nor is it advisable to continue with the centralized and political structures for the distribution of aid. The examples above show that when the state wants to take care of everything, including distribution of nails or the delivery of a little sugar, these mechanisms are quickly permeated by the lack of control, corruption, and the diversion of resources that affect every sphere in the country. There is already evidence that the government is blocking activists and independent journalist from going to the affected zones, because the government does not want reports with all the details about the seriousness of what happened, nor do they want parallel paths established for the flow of aid. We must remind them that no party can have a monopoly on solidarity and that the misery of so many is not a time for politics or proselytizing.
In recent days various initiatives have arisen from the citizenry, the exile, the church, other civil society groups, to help alleviate the tragedy caused by Hurricane Sandy in the east of the country. Steeped in solidarity, several citizens have established collection points for basic supplies in the capital and other regions of the country. None of these places is under the auspices of a political party or a specific group, but are based on a humanistic sense and the horizontality of aid. At the end of this week the resources collected will be transported to Santiago de Cuba and distributed through Father Jose Conrado — priest of Santa Teresita Church in Santiago de Cuba — and civil society activists. Priority will be given to the most affected and to the areas most devastated. Below are contact details for those living within or outside the country.
Goods that are being collected:
Canned foods, dried foods and powdered milk.
Personal hygiene items (soap, detergent, deodorant).
Candles and batteries. Bed linen, towels, personal clothing.
Medications (analgesics, cold medicine, rehydration salts, vitamins, anti-diarrhea pills, muscle pain creams, etc.).
Pills or drops to chlorinate the water.
Disposable diapers and sanitary pads.
The addresses where they can be taken:
Municipio Habana del Este: Barriada de Alamar: Edificio B-17 apto. 21 Zona 5. Alina Guzmán or Nilo Julián, tel: +5353862111
Municipio Plaza: Factor no. 821, apto 14B entre Conill y Santa Ana. Yoani Sánchez and Reinaldo Escobar Tel: +5352708611 y +5352896812
Municipio La Víbora: Saco no. 457 apto 6 entre Carmen y Patrocinio. Esperanza Rodríguez and Wilfredo Vallín, tel: +5353149664
Centro Habana: Headquarters of the Ladies in White, Calle Neptuno no. 963 entre Aramburu y Soledad. Berta Soler Tel: +5352906820
Municipio Playa: Avenida 1ra no. 4606 entre 46 y 60, Miramar. Ailer González +5353233726
For those who do not reside in the country and want to get help, we suggest buying food online at the following websites:
http://supermarket.treew.com
http://www.carlostercero.ca
http://envioalimentosacuba.com
http://www.lapuntilla.ca/
We recommend buying foods that do not require refrigeration and that can be eaten without cooking. Shipping may be to any of the people listed above at the addresses listed, or to any friend or acquaintance you might have on the island. Many thanks in advance!
30 October 2012
http://translatingcuba.com/cubans-need-help-recovering-from-hurricane-sandy-yoani-sanchez/
Translator: Unstated, Yoani Sanchez
How You Can Help
Hurricane Sandy has devastated the city of Santiago de Cuba and caused severe damage in several towns in the east of the country. The images of destruction speak for themselves, but the cameras barely manage to capture a share of the drams. The great tragedy runs on a plane difficult to photograph, or to describe with words. It's impossible to narrate the worst of it. It is a mixture of feelings that shift from sadness to impotence, pain to desperation, dismay to fear. Thousands of people who have seen the wind take a good part of their lives, who woke up one morning in destroyed towns of collapsed streets and missing roofs, and who know that recovering from something like that could take the rest of their existence.
Sandy took five hours to cross eastern Cuba , but destroyed homes, infrastructure and objects that will take decades to reestablish. The loss of human lives has been the most tragic outcome, but nature has also suffered a lot. The intense gusts of wind hit housing stock with decades of accumulated deterioration, the force of the hurricane fell on a population without food reserves to face the days of collapse that have followed. As if the havoc had been small, the floods caused in the center of the country have intensified the agricultural disaster, worsening the nation's ability to recover. Cuba today is in a calamitous situation, although the triumphalism of media officials wants to substitute slogans for laments, and illusions for objective evaluation.
If we recognize the seriousness of the situation, we can find real solutions. The government has the ultimate responsibility to manage this emergency situation with transparency and humility. This is a time to put pride aside and to ask for help from international agencies trained in these types of tragedies. We Cubans hope that our authorities will facilitate the entry of the international Red Cross and other humanitarian organizations to evaluate the infected zones and contribute resources and solidarity to those who lost almost everything. The threats of an outbreak of cholera and of the possible propagation of dengue fever are elements that contribute to the urgency of these decisions. It can wait any longer.
Nor is it advisable to continue with the centralized and political structures for the distribution of aid. The examples above show that when the state wants to take care of everything, including distribution of nails or the delivery of a little sugar, these mechanisms are quickly permeated by the lack of control, corruption, and the diversion of resources that affect every sphere in the country. There is already evidence that the government is blocking activists and independent journalist from going to the affected zones, because the government does not want reports with all the details about the seriousness of what happened, nor do they want parallel paths established for the flow of aid. We must remind them that no party can have a monopoly on solidarity and that the misery of so many is not a time for politics or proselytizing.
In recent days various initiatives have arisen from the citizenry, the exile, the church, other civil society groups, to help alleviate the tragedy caused by Hurricane Sandy in the east of the country. Steeped in solidarity, several citizens have established collection points for basic supplies in the capital and other regions of the country. None of these places is under the auspices of a political party or a specific group, but are based on a humanistic sense and the horizontality of aid. At the end of this week the resources collected will be transported to Santiago de Cuba and distributed through Father Jose Conrado — priest of Santa Teresita Church in Santiago de Cuba — and civil society activists. Priority will be given to the most affected and to the areas most devastated. Below are contact details for those living within or outside the country.
Goods that are being collected:
Canned foods, dried foods and powdered milk.
Personal hygiene items (soap, detergent, deodorant).
Candles and batteries. Bed linen, towels, personal clothing.
Medications (analgesics, cold medicine, rehydration salts, vitamins, anti-diarrhea pills, muscle pain creams, etc.).
Pills or drops to chlorinate the water.
Disposable diapers and sanitary pads.
The addresses where they can be taken:
Municipio Habana del Este: Barriada de Alamar: Edificio B-17 apto. 21 Zona 5. Alina Guzmán or Nilo Julián, tel: +5353862111
Municipio Plaza: Factor no. 821, apto 14B entre Conill y Santa Ana. Yoani Sánchez and Reinaldo Escobar Tel: +5352708611 y +5352896812
Municipio La Víbora: Saco no. 457 apto 6 entre Carmen y Patrocinio. Esperanza Rodríguez and Wilfredo Vallín, tel: +5353149664
Centro Habana: Headquarters of the Ladies in White, Calle Neptuno no. 963 entre Aramburu y Soledad. Berta Soler Tel: +5352906820
Municipio Playa: Avenida 1ra no. 4606 entre 46 y 60, Miramar. Ailer González +5353233726
For those who do not reside in the country and want to get help, we suggest buying food online at the following websites:
http://supermarket.treew.com
http://www.carlostercero.ca
http://envioalimentosacuba.com
http://www.lapuntilla.ca/
We recommend buying foods that do not require refrigeration and that can be eaten without cooking. Shipping may be to any of the people listed above at the addresses listed, or to any friend or acquaintance you might have on the island. Many thanks in advance!
30 October 2012
http://translatingcuba.com/cubans-need-help-recovering-from-hurricane-sandy-yoani-sanchez/
HRC: Cuban migrants can apply for asylum
HRC: Cuban migrants can apply for asylum
By: Brent Fuller | brent@cfp.ky
31 October, 2012
The Cayman Islands Human Rights Commission will ask government to consider re-drafting a 1999 agreement between the British Overseas Territory and Cuba that dictates how migrants from that country are to be dealt with when they illegally land on local shores.*
Grand Cayman, about 150 miles south of Cuba, and the smaller islands of Cayman Brac and Little Cayman receive dozens of boat migrants from Cuba each year.
Cayman generally does not consider most of the Cubans who inadvertently land here as refugees, as the term is defined under international conventions. The travellers, mostly men, are usually looking to get into Honduras and then head up through Central America to the United States to find work.
The memorandum of understanding, signed on 15 April, 1999, between the Cayman Islands and Cuba sets out how the Cayman Islands handle repatriation of Cuban citizens.
Following a lengthy review of the issue, the Human Rights Commission recommended that the deputy governor and attorney general rework the existing memorandum of understanding with Cuba signed between Cayman Islands and Cuban governments.
"The commission is most concerned that the [memorandum] does not indicate that repatriation is not actually the default position of the Cayman Islands government," according to a summary of issues included on the HRC's website.
"[It] does not portray that refugees are given the opportunity to apply for and engage in a process to seek asylum." The commission also recommended that law enforcement officials embark on a public education campaign to inform people about the intent of Section 109 of the Immigration Law – which pertains to human smuggling.
The section makes it an offence "whether for financial or material benefit or not" for a person to assist or facilitate the transportation, harbouring or movement into or out of the Cayman Islands. Sentences of up to seven years in prison can be given upon conviction under the section.
The Human Rights Commission also seeks to discuss with local police how marine officers determine whether a Cuban migrant's craft should be brought ashore when it is found in territorial waters.
Right now, Cuban boat migrants are generally allowed to continue on their journey unless they ask for help or come ashore illegally.
Cabinet members passed regulations in January 2005 setting out guidelines on how migrants should be received.
Those guidelines state: "Cuban migrants must be advised by immigration officers that no assistance will be rendered, and that permission to land will not be granted for the purpose of repairing their vessels or receiving other assistance." The rules also state Cubans should generally be repatriated within 21 days of their illegal landing in the Cayman Islands.
Deputy Chief Immigration Officer Garfield "Gary" Wong has said the Cayman Islands government would not send migrants from any country back to a situation where they would face torture, as it would be against international human rights conventions. He said there is no evidence this is occurring with the Cuban boat migrants.
The commission's review of the matter noted that it wished to make any future contacts with refugees "as procedurally fair as possible".
http://www.compasscayman.com/caycompass/2012/10/31/HRC--Cuban-migrants-can-apply-for-asylum/
By: Brent Fuller | brent@cfp.ky
31 October, 2012
The Cayman Islands Human Rights Commission will ask government to consider re-drafting a 1999 agreement between the British Overseas Territory and Cuba that dictates how migrants from that country are to be dealt with when they illegally land on local shores.*
Grand Cayman, about 150 miles south of Cuba, and the smaller islands of Cayman Brac and Little Cayman receive dozens of boat migrants from Cuba each year.
Cayman generally does not consider most of the Cubans who inadvertently land here as refugees, as the term is defined under international conventions. The travellers, mostly men, are usually looking to get into Honduras and then head up through Central America to the United States to find work.
The memorandum of understanding, signed on 15 April, 1999, between the Cayman Islands and Cuba sets out how the Cayman Islands handle repatriation of Cuban citizens.
Following a lengthy review of the issue, the Human Rights Commission recommended that the deputy governor and attorney general rework the existing memorandum of understanding with Cuba signed between Cayman Islands and Cuban governments.
"The commission is most concerned that the [memorandum] does not indicate that repatriation is not actually the default position of the Cayman Islands government," according to a summary of issues included on the HRC's website.
"[It] does not portray that refugees are given the opportunity to apply for and engage in a process to seek asylum." The commission also recommended that law enforcement officials embark on a public education campaign to inform people about the intent of Section 109 of the Immigration Law – which pertains to human smuggling.
The section makes it an offence "whether for financial or material benefit or not" for a person to assist or facilitate the transportation, harbouring or movement into or out of the Cayman Islands. Sentences of up to seven years in prison can be given upon conviction under the section.
The Human Rights Commission also seeks to discuss with local police how marine officers determine whether a Cuban migrant's craft should be brought ashore when it is found in territorial waters.
Right now, Cuban boat migrants are generally allowed to continue on their journey unless they ask for help or come ashore illegally.
Cabinet members passed regulations in January 2005 setting out guidelines on how migrants should be received.
Those guidelines state: "Cuban migrants must be advised by immigration officers that no assistance will be rendered, and that permission to land will not be granted for the purpose of repairing their vessels or receiving other assistance." The rules also state Cubans should generally be repatriated within 21 days of their illegal landing in the Cayman Islands.
Deputy Chief Immigration Officer Garfield "Gary" Wong has said the Cayman Islands government would not send migrants from any country back to a situation where they would face torture, as it would be against international human rights conventions. He said there is no evidence this is occurring with the Cuban boat migrants.
The commission's review of the matter noted that it wished to make any future contacts with refugees "as procedurally fair as possible".
http://www.compasscayman.com/caycompass/2012/10/31/HRC--Cuban-migrants-can-apply-for-asylum/
Cuba Deal Exposed
Cuba Deal Exposed
Published on November 1, 2012
President John Mahama has sparked a serious controversy on the actual cost being borne by government in training 250 Ghanaian medical students in Cuba in a deal he brokered last year.
According to the president, the cost of training of each of the Ghanaians in Cuba is $5,000 (GH¢10million) instead of the GH¢50,000 per year being quoted by various sources including government documents.
Government has quoted GH¢50,000, with cabinet memos putting the entire deal to GH¢60million.
The president's submission has drawn extreme discomfort from the Ghana Medical Association (GMA).
Dr. Kwabena Opoku Adusei, President of GMA, told DAILY GUIDE in a telephone conversation on yesterday evening, "The figures don't tally, somebody is not telling the truth.
"There were figures before the debate and you look at those figures and you look at what His Excellency said, then it means there is something wrong somewhere."
The discrepancy emerged at the widely publicized Institute of Economic Affairs (IEA) Presidential Debate held in Tamale on Tuesday.
President Mahama was compelled to come clean with the actual figures involved in the Ghana-Cuban medical training deal.
Mid May this year, the Alliance for Accountable Governance (AFAG), a pro NPP pressure group, blew the lid on the healthcare deal when government sources were cited as concluding plans to commit approximately GH¢50, 000 per annum to train each of the 250 medical students.
President Mahama, who was caught in a back and forth banter with the NPP candidate during the healthcare session of the debate, explained that the cost for training the medical personnel in Cuba was $5,000 (approximately GH¢10, 000), instead of the GH¢50, 000 a year that had been widely quoted.
"The cost of training one child under the Cuban arrangement is $5,000, far lower than the cost of training in our medical school here and so we had to take that opportunity," President Mahama explained.
A "secret" cabinet memo from former Health Minister Joseph Yieleh Chireh, dated August 18, 2011, which was approved by Chief of Staff John Henry Martey Newman, gave evidence of government officials justifying an amount of Cuc30, 750.00, or an equivalent of GH¢50, 660.12 to train Ghanaian High School graduates as medical students in Cuba.
Dr. Kwabena Opoku Adusei and Joseph Yieleh Chireh
In the arrangement elaborated by the former Minister of Health, it would cost the nation GH¢10, 132, 024.00 to train 200 students to study medicine in Cuba each year and approximately GH¢60.80 million for the next six years (the total duration of the study).
Also in the arrangement, an amount of GH¢48,189 would be spent on another 50 students per annum to receive specialist training in that country. In total, the government of Ghana is expected to spend approximately GH¢74.35million on the project.
Information gathered by DAILY GUIDE indicates that for the first year, 2012, Ghana is expected to spend about GH¢14.50million as the first tranche of payment.
Widespread Condemnation
Nana Akufo-Addo said, "The initiative [is] far from accelerating the delivery of medical care for our people, we would have used that money much better in empowering the medical institutions in our country to deliver and produce more doctors."
The GMA said the total cost of training could be used to bolster medical infrastructure in the country to train far more medical students locally.
Dr Adusei-Poku, in May, advised government to review its policy on the Cuban deal.
"The government is taking a huge sum of money into this Cuba medical training when it could have been channeled into improving our local medical schools like Korle-Bu Teaching hospital or the Ghana Medical School," he told Accra-based Citi FM.
"The maternity rooms in Komfo Anokye have been there for the last 40 years and they still have only-one-and-a-half theatre tables. Are we not throwing the money away?"
The Deal
It is unclear why President Mahama, then the Vice President, brokered the deal.
The medical exchange which, begun under the PNDC dictatorship in 1983, had no cost implication to the Ghanaian taxpayer, then.
President Mahama, under a Revised Cuban Agreement, during his April 2011 trip to Havana, brokered this multi-million-dollar deal on behalf of Ghana, contrary to what was reported on the official website of the Cuban Embassy in Ghana.
Contrary to all the financial implications being trumpeted by the Ghanaian government, the Cuban government gives an impression that the deal is actually a gratuity. On its official website, it stated, "Under the agreements, the Cuban government will provide scholarships for all the 250 students who were selected from deprived communities throughout the country and would be ready to come back to serve their communities…"
DAILY GUIDE gathered that the Presidency, Ministers and the Scholarship Secretariat, were made to submit a 'protocol' list of 138 individuals, whilst the Office of the then Vice President and that of the National Security Coordinator, Lt. Col. Larry Gbevlo-Lartey (rtd), increased the number with a supplementary list of 41 names to benefit from the scheme.
By: Raphael Ofori-Adeniran
http://www.dailyguideghana.com/?p=65639
Published on November 1, 2012
President John Mahama has sparked a serious controversy on the actual cost being borne by government in training 250 Ghanaian medical students in Cuba in a deal he brokered last year.
According to the president, the cost of training of each of the Ghanaians in Cuba is $5,000 (GH¢10million) instead of the GH¢50,000 per year being quoted by various sources including government documents.
Government has quoted GH¢50,000, with cabinet memos putting the entire deal to GH¢60million.
The president's submission has drawn extreme discomfort from the Ghana Medical Association (GMA).
Dr. Kwabena Opoku Adusei, President of GMA, told DAILY GUIDE in a telephone conversation on yesterday evening, "The figures don't tally, somebody is not telling the truth.
"There were figures before the debate and you look at those figures and you look at what His Excellency said, then it means there is something wrong somewhere."
The discrepancy emerged at the widely publicized Institute of Economic Affairs (IEA) Presidential Debate held in Tamale on Tuesday.
President Mahama was compelled to come clean with the actual figures involved in the Ghana-Cuban medical training deal.
Mid May this year, the Alliance for Accountable Governance (AFAG), a pro NPP pressure group, blew the lid on the healthcare deal when government sources were cited as concluding plans to commit approximately GH¢50, 000 per annum to train each of the 250 medical students.
President Mahama, who was caught in a back and forth banter with the NPP candidate during the healthcare session of the debate, explained that the cost for training the medical personnel in Cuba was $5,000 (approximately GH¢10, 000), instead of the GH¢50, 000 a year that had been widely quoted.
"The cost of training one child under the Cuban arrangement is $5,000, far lower than the cost of training in our medical school here and so we had to take that opportunity," President Mahama explained.
A "secret" cabinet memo from former Health Minister Joseph Yieleh Chireh, dated August 18, 2011, which was approved by Chief of Staff John Henry Martey Newman, gave evidence of government officials justifying an amount of Cuc30, 750.00, or an equivalent of GH¢50, 660.12 to train Ghanaian High School graduates as medical students in Cuba.
Dr. Kwabena Opoku Adusei and Joseph Yieleh Chireh
In the arrangement elaborated by the former Minister of Health, it would cost the nation GH¢10, 132, 024.00 to train 200 students to study medicine in Cuba each year and approximately GH¢60.80 million for the next six years (the total duration of the study).
Also in the arrangement, an amount of GH¢48,189 would be spent on another 50 students per annum to receive specialist training in that country. In total, the government of Ghana is expected to spend approximately GH¢74.35million on the project.
Information gathered by DAILY GUIDE indicates that for the first year, 2012, Ghana is expected to spend about GH¢14.50million as the first tranche of payment.
Widespread Condemnation
Nana Akufo-Addo said, "The initiative [is] far from accelerating the delivery of medical care for our people, we would have used that money much better in empowering the medical institutions in our country to deliver and produce more doctors."
The GMA said the total cost of training could be used to bolster medical infrastructure in the country to train far more medical students locally.
Dr Adusei-Poku, in May, advised government to review its policy on the Cuban deal.
"The government is taking a huge sum of money into this Cuba medical training when it could have been channeled into improving our local medical schools like Korle-Bu Teaching hospital or the Ghana Medical School," he told Accra-based Citi FM.
"The maternity rooms in Komfo Anokye have been there for the last 40 years and they still have only-one-and-a-half theatre tables. Are we not throwing the money away?"
The Deal
It is unclear why President Mahama, then the Vice President, brokered the deal.
The medical exchange which, begun under the PNDC dictatorship in 1983, had no cost implication to the Ghanaian taxpayer, then.
President Mahama, under a Revised Cuban Agreement, during his April 2011 trip to Havana, brokered this multi-million-dollar deal on behalf of Ghana, contrary to what was reported on the official website of the Cuban Embassy in Ghana.
Contrary to all the financial implications being trumpeted by the Ghanaian government, the Cuban government gives an impression that the deal is actually a gratuity. On its official website, it stated, "Under the agreements, the Cuban government will provide scholarships for all the 250 students who were selected from deprived communities throughout the country and would be ready to come back to serve their communities…"
DAILY GUIDE gathered that the Presidency, Ministers and the Scholarship Secretariat, were made to submit a 'protocol' list of 138 individuals, whilst the Office of the then Vice President and that of the National Security Coordinator, Lt. Col. Larry Gbevlo-Lartey (rtd), increased the number with a supplementary list of 41 names to benefit from the scheme.
By: Raphael Ofori-Adeniran
http://www.dailyguideghana.com/?p=65639
Cuba crops ravaged by Sandy, UN warns
Cuba crops ravaged by Sandy, UN warns
by Agence France-Presse
HAVANA, Cuba - Hurricane Sandy, which killed 11 people and damaged more than 188,000 homes when it tore across eastern Cuba, also ravaged almost 100,000 hectares (245,000 acres) of crops, a UN report warned Wednesday, October 31.
Sandy devastated Cuba's second-largest city, Santiago de Cuba, as well as nearby rural areas critical to farming in the cash-strapped Communist country of 11.2 million, which pays to import most of its food.
"The toll on the farm sector will have major repercussions around the country due to the importance of areas where key crops for the whole island have been affected," said a UN technical team report, to which AFP had access.
"About 96,980 hectares of a variety of crops were affected" by Sandy, the report added. "Sugar cane was the single hardest hit followed by plantain and bananas, vegetables and other basic crops" such as beans, it said.
Though Cuban officials rarely speak publicly about food security issues, Vice President Jose Ramon Machado, on a visit to the ravaged area, said "one of the biggest problems is going to be guaranteeing food for the people in coming months," a report in the Communist Party newspaper Granma said Wednesday.
President Raul Castro, who took over from his brother Fidel during the revolutionary icon's 2006 health crisis, has said the farm sector is key to Cuba getting out of the economic crisis that followed the collapse of the Soviet Union more than two decades ago.
Havana has handed out fallow state land to thousands of would-be new farmers but has not made much progress in increasing domestic food production.
The Caribbean country, roughly the size of Portugal or the US state of Virginia, has vast fertile acreage but does not produce enough to feed itself and still spends billions importing food. - Agence France-Presse
http://www.rappler.com/world/15279-cuba-crops-ravaged-by-sandy,-un-warns
by Agence France-Presse
HAVANA, Cuba - Hurricane Sandy, which killed 11 people and damaged more than 188,000 homes when it tore across eastern Cuba, also ravaged almost 100,000 hectares (245,000 acres) of crops, a UN report warned Wednesday, October 31.
Sandy devastated Cuba's second-largest city, Santiago de Cuba, as well as nearby rural areas critical to farming in the cash-strapped Communist country of 11.2 million, which pays to import most of its food.
"The toll on the farm sector will have major repercussions around the country due to the importance of areas where key crops for the whole island have been affected," said a UN technical team report, to which AFP had access.
"About 96,980 hectares of a variety of crops were affected" by Sandy, the report added. "Sugar cane was the single hardest hit followed by plantain and bananas, vegetables and other basic crops" such as beans, it said.
Though Cuban officials rarely speak publicly about food security issues, Vice President Jose Ramon Machado, on a visit to the ravaged area, said "one of the biggest problems is going to be guaranteeing food for the people in coming months," a report in the Communist Party newspaper Granma said Wednesday.
President Raul Castro, who took over from his brother Fidel during the revolutionary icon's 2006 health crisis, has said the farm sector is key to Cuba getting out of the economic crisis that followed the collapse of the Soviet Union more than two decades ago.
Havana has handed out fallow state land to thousands of would-be new farmers but has not made much progress in increasing domestic food production.
The Caribbean country, roughly the size of Portugal or the US state of Virginia, has vast fertile acreage but does not produce enough to feed itself and still spends billions importing food. - Agence France-Presse
http://www.rappler.com/world/15279-cuba-crops-ravaged-by-sandy,-un-warns
Ex-boss of Cuban prisons living in South Florida accused of ordering attack on dissident’s daughter
Posted on Thursday, 11.01.12
Ex-boss of Cuban prisons living in South Florida accused of ordering attack on dissident's daughter
By Juan Carlos Chavez and Juan Tamayo
jcchavez@ElNuevoHerald.com
Crescencio Marino Rivero, a feared former officer in charge of Cuban prisons who recently moved to South Florida with his wife, a former immigration officer, appears to have ordered, only two years ago, an attack against the daughter of a peaceful dissident in the central Cuban city of Santa Clara, sources have told El Nuevo Herald.
In Miami, however, he keeps a low profile that has allowed him to go unnoticed.
Cuban activists and former political prisoners have described Rivero, 71, as particularly aggressive. The allegations also characterize him as someone who took advantage of his high-ranking position in the Ministry of the Interior to impose cruel and inhumane treatment on dissidents.
"On two or three occasions he came to our house to threaten us," recalled Magda Monteagudo Barrio, wife of opposition member Rafael Pérez González. "That is why we think it was Rivero who ordered the attack my daughter suffered when she was pregnant."
The attack took place in June 2010. In September of that year, Rivero and his wife traveled to the United States, Monteagudo said.
Rivero retired approximately seven years ago as colonel of the Ministry of the Interior. After his retirement, he and his wife, Juana Ferrer, 65, made three trips from Cuba to visit a daughter who lives in Southwest Miami-Dade County. During their fourth visit, the couple decided to stay indefinitely, and filed the paperwork to obtain legal status. The former colonel is now a legal resident in the United States.
An El Nuevo Herald reporter tried to interview Rivero in person on Wednesday. When the reporter knocked on the door of his apartment, a woman who identified herself as Rivero's daughter came to the door and briefly said that her father would not make any public statement or have any contact with the news media.
"He is not going to talk to the media," the woman said. Then, the voice of an older man was heard from inside the apartment ordering the young woman to stop talking.
"Close that door immediately," said the man.
At least two immigration attorneys, Santiago Alpízar and Wilfredo Allen, have questioned the way in which Rivero and his wife obtained U.S. residency permits. Both Rivero and his wife held posts with the Cuban government and were members of the Communist Party.
All Cubans have the possibility to stay once they set foot on U.S. territory. However, they can be expelled if they lie or distort with the purpose of obtaining residency and citizenship.
"People like Rivero cannot live in the United States in total impunity," Alpízar said. "He is living comfortably in Miami at the expense of the taxes we pay."
Neighbors in the area said they have seen Rivero "on rare occasions." A woman who asked for anonymity said that the few times she saw Rivero, he was taking out the garbage very early in the morning. Another neighbor described him as aloof and uncommunicative.
Rivero's background is known through testimonies given by several former Cuban political prisoners and activists who advocate for individual freedom in the island nation.
Rivero worked for Cuba's State Security in the 1960s and 1970s. He was later promoted to director of re-education in juvenile prisons in Villa Clara province, a position of trust that can be reached only by career officials.
In 1994, Rivero was already the head of prisons in the province at a time when consistent abuses against political prisoners were reported.
It has been known that Rivero's wife reached the rank of lieutenant colonel with the Ministry of the Interior. Several dissidents say she and her husband took action against the peaceful opposition movement.
Guillermo Fariñas, the winner of the 2010 Sakharov Award granted by the European Parliament, said that Rivero continued to work for the Cuban government after his retirement. He added that his leadership in the Association of Combatants of the Cuban Revolution was well-known.
"Rivero was involved in acts against [Rafael] Pérez and his family," Fariñas said in a telephone conversation from his house in the city of Santa Clara. "He and a group active in political repression were involved in beatings and threats. Rivero had the highest rank in that group because he is a retired colonel of the Ministry of the Interior."
http://www.miamiherald.com/2012/11/01/3077251/ex-boss-of-cuban-prisons-living.html
Ex-boss of Cuban prisons living in South Florida accused of ordering attack on dissident's daughter
By Juan Carlos Chavez and Juan Tamayo
jcchavez@ElNuevoHerald.com
Crescencio Marino Rivero, a feared former officer in charge of Cuban prisons who recently moved to South Florida with his wife, a former immigration officer, appears to have ordered, only two years ago, an attack against the daughter of a peaceful dissident in the central Cuban city of Santa Clara, sources have told El Nuevo Herald.
In Miami, however, he keeps a low profile that has allowed him to go unnoticed.
Cuban activists and former political prisoners have described Rivero, 71, as particularly aggressive. The allegations also characterize him as someone who took advantage of his high-ranking position in the Ministry of the Interior to impose cruel and inhumane treatment on dissidents.
"On two or three occasions he came to our house to threaten us," recalled Magda Monteagudo Barrio, wife of opposition member Rafael Pérez González. "That is why we think it was Rivero who ordered the attack my daughter suffered when she was pregnant."
The attack took place in June 2010. In September of that year, Rivero and his wife traveled to the United States, Monteagudo said.
Rivero retired approximately seven years ago as colonel of the Ministry of the Interior. After his retirement, he and his wife, Juana Ferrer, 65, made three trips from Cuba to visit a daughter who lives in Southwest Miami-Dade County. During their fourth visit, the couple decided to stay indefinitely, and filed the paperwork to obtain legal status. The former colonel is now a legal resident in the United States.
An El Nuevo Herald reporter tried to interview Rivero in person on Wednesday. When the reporter knocked on the door of his apartment, a woman who identified herself as Rivero's daughter came to the door and briefly said that her father would not make any public statement or have any contact with the news media.
"He is not going to talk to the media," the woman said. Then, the voice of an older man was heard from inside the apartment ordering the young woman to stop talking.
"Close that door immediately," said the man.
At least two immigration attorneys, Santiago Alpízar and Wilfredo Allen, have questioned the way in which Rivero and his wife obtained U.S. residency permits. Both Rivero and his wife held posts with the Cuban government and were members of the Communist Party.
All Cubans have the possibility to stay once they set foot on U.S. territory. However, they can be expelled if they lie or distort with the purpose of obtaining residency and citizenship.
"People like Rivero cannot live in the United States in total impunity," Alpízar said. "He is living comfortably in Miami at the expense of the taxes we pay."
Neighbors in the area said they have seen Rivero "on rare occasions." A woman who asked for anonymity said that the few times she saw Rivero, he was taking out the garbage very early in the morning. Another neighbor described him as aloof and uncommunicative.
Rivero's background is known through testimonies given by several former Cuban political prisoners and activists who advocate for individual freedom in the island nation.
Rivero worked for Cuba's State Security in the 1960s and 1970s. He was later promoted to director of re-education in juvenile prisons in Villa Clara province, a position of trust that can be reached only by career officials.
In 1994, Rivero was already the head of prisons in the province at a time when consistent abuses against political prisoners were reported.
It has been known that Rivero's wife reached the rank of lieutenant colonel with the Ministry of the Interior. Several dissidents say she and her husband took action against the peaceful opposition movement.
Guillermo Fariñas, the winner of the 2010 Sakharov Award granted by the European Parliament, said that Rivero continued to work for the Cuban government after his retirement. He added that his leadership in the Association of Combatants of the Cuban Revolution was well-known.
"Rivero was involved in acts against [Rafael] Pérez and his family," Fariñas said in a telephone conversation from his house in the city of Santa Clara. "He and a group active in political repression were involved in beatings and threats. Rivero had the highest rank in that group because he is a retired colonel of the Ministry of the Interior."
http://www.miamiherald.com/2012/11/01/3077251/ex-boss-of-cuban-prisons-living.html
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