Expelled Spy Likely To Led Migration, Normalization Talks With US

cubaconfidential

Josefina Vidal thrown out of the US in May 2003 for espionage

By Chris Simmons

The next round of US-Cuban discussions will be held on January 21 and 22 in Havana. Deputy Assistant Secretary Alex Lee is expected to lead the U.S. delegation at the migration talks on the 21st, while Assistant Secretary of State for Western Hemisphere Affairs Roberta Jacobson will lead at the normalization talks on Jan. 22nd.

The Cuban delegation is expected to be led by Josefina Vidal, director of the North American Affairs Division within Cuba's Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Vidal led the previous round of migration talks last July in Washington, D.C. A member of the Communist Party of Cuba’s Central Committee, Vidal was thrown out of the US in May 2003 as part of a mass expulsion of Havana’s spy-diplomats. For five years, her office also played a central role in the negotiations regarding the return of USAID contractor Alan Gross

Despite Detente, Search for Art Looted in Cuba Could Take Years

voanews

Recovered paintings are pictured during a news conference at FBI Headquarters in Los Angeles, California, Dec. 19, 2014.

MIAMI—When Gil Marmol and his family fled Cuba in 1961 the revolutionary government seized 17 paintings that they left behind, including two watercolors by Mexico's Diego Rivera.

Years later, he discovered that one of the works was smuggled abroad and then sold at auction in New York in 1995 to an unknown buyer. That was the only real trace of the Marmols' collection, just some of the artwork confiscated in the early years of the revolution that will prove difficult to recover even as the island normalizes relations with the United States.

Cuban Americans like Marmol could be fighting for decades more to win back paintings and other artwork lost in Cuba due to protracted legal struggles and because many of the items have disappeared.

“I encourage people to seek their property ... but finding movable items like paintings or jewelry is particularly difficult,” said Tania Mastrapa, a consultant on property rights in former Communist countries.

For example, descendants of White Russians who lost property in the Russian Revolution a century ago are still trying to recover paintings to this day, she said.

In the early 1960s, specialized Cuban government teams sealed the homes of wealthy exiles and took away paintings, antiques and jewelry. Some of the goods, such as one of the world's largest collections of Napoleonic memorabilia that was amassed by sugar baron Julio Lobo, were housed in Cuban museums where they remain. The Cuban government says it now owns works like that because they were abandoned.

Other confiscated pieces were auctioned off to the public or smuggled overseas, mostly to Europe, either by corrupt Cuban officials or by the government itself when it needed hard currency, art experts say.

While political change in Cuba will take years despite improved relations with the United States, Cuban Americans hope that Havana will eventually return confiscated homes, businesses and artwork or compensate them.

The art seized ranges from family portraits of little financial value to Cuban and European paintings from the 19th and early 20th centuries, Mastrapa said. One wealthy family, the Fanjuls, lost an art collection valued at up to $60 million. It included more than a dozen works by Spanish impressionist Joaquin Sorolla and a Michelangelo pencil drawing.

Hundreds of claims

There could be hundreds of claims for works of art as Cuba and the United States restore relations, said Mari-Claudia Jimenez, a New York lawyer who specializes in trying to recover confiscated art from Cuba.

But the government and courts in the United States are limited in what they can do to win reimbursement for artwork, businesses and property owned by individual Cuban Americans as most of them were not U.S. citizens when they fled Cuba.

Cuban exiles might have to wait until Cuba opens up and then go to court there to seek restitution.

“We get calls once every few months from someone who is looking to recover their artwork and certainly I think there has been an increase in those calls lately,” said Jimenez, of law firm Herrick, Feinstein LLP. “People are starting to ready themselves to try to think of 'How am I going to deal with going back to Cuba? Am I going to get anything back?”'

She says she tells potential clients that it is too early to know how Cuban politics will play out but that now is a good time to start assembling documents proving ownership.

In a few cases over the years, auctioneers have mediated between the original owners of valuable items seized in Cuba and later buyers of the confiscated works to resolve claims.

No one has a definitive dollar figure for the artwork, antiques and other valuable assets seized in Cuba.

Fruitless search

Before making any claims, Cuban Americans first have to find their art.

Exile Marmol, 61, tried to track down his family's paintings after his father died in 2009 but it was a frustrating search.

The Dallas-based businessman located only one piece: the painting “Hombre Cargando Alcatraces” by Rivera. He discovered through searching the Internet and speaking to a friend in the auction world that the painting had been sold by Sotheby's in New York for $145,500 in 1995.

He said Sotheby's refused to tell him who bought the painting because of client confidentiality but they wrote to the buyer to point out his claim of ownership.

“The purchaser responded that he did not recognize the painting, that he had no record of purchasing it and he maintained this position,” said Marmol.

Sotheby's in New York confirmed Marmol's version of events but declined to comment further.

Crucero de Royal Caribbean encuentran balseros cubanos en alta mar

AmericaTeVeCanal41

EEUU preocupado por aumento de balseros

Café Fuerte

Por Wilfredo Cancio Isla

En un intento por desalentar el preocupante incremento de viajes ilegales desde Cuba, las autoridades estadounidenses reiteraron este lunes que la política de inmigración y las operaciones de los guardacostas se mantienen sin cambios en el Estrecho de la Florida, e insistieron que solo el Congreso puede alterar las leyes vigentes respecto a los refugiados cubanos.

La advertencia gubernamental trascendió en un comunicado emitido por el Servicio Guardacostas, luego de producirse un inusitado crecimiento en el flujo de operacionjes ilegales desde Cuba durante la segunda mitad de diciembre y los primeros días de enero, coincidiendo con el anuncio del presidente Barack Obama para normalizar las relaciones con La Habana.

Un total de 890 cubanos han sido interceptados en el Estrecho de la Florida y en la zona del Caribe,  o han logrado llegar a las costas estadounidenses desde que comenzó el año fiscal 2015, el pasado 1 de octubre. De ellos, 577 lo han hecho durante diciembre y los primeros días de enero en una escalada que ha disparados las alarmas en Washington y la comunidad de Miami.

Oleaje después del 17 de diciembre

Después del anuncio de Obama, los cubanos capturados en el mar suman 421.

“El anuncio reciente de la Administración respecto a Cuba [el 17 de diciembre] no afecta las políticas de inmigración, que incluyen la orden de pies secos /pie secos mojados y la Ley de Ajuste Cubano [CAA], que solo puede cambiar el Congreso de Estados Unidos”, dijo el comunicado obtenido por CaféFuerte.

La exhortación alertó que las operaciones del Servicio Guardacostas en el Estrecho de la Florida y el Golfo de México siguen en efecto, y alertó que sus efectivos mantienen una agresiva presencia  en la región paradesalentar las travesías peligrosas y mortales desde la isla.

“Las personas deben tener un visado u otro permiso para viajar a Estados  Unidos y cualquiera que sea localizado en el mar será devuelto a Cuba, de acuerdo con las leyes de inmigración”, agregó el comunicado.

Es la segunda nota de alerta que envía el Servicio Guardacostas desde que el presidente Obama anunció el cambio de política a la isla, lo cual generó expectativas y rumores dentro de la isla sobre el fin de los beneficios migratorios que gozan los ciudadanos cubanos mediante la CAA, establecida de 1966.

Advertencia repetida

El pasado 18 de diciembre, apenas 24 horas después del discurso de Obama, el Servicio Guardacostas se vio obligado a emitir un primer comunicado aclarando que sus operaciones se mantenían sin cambios y desalentando fuertemente los intentos de inmigrantes cubanos para llegar a territorio estadoundense por vía martítima.

El incremento de la inmigración ilegal desde Cuba parece impulsado por versiones infundadas de que la entrada en funciones del nuevo Congreso de Estados Unidos, con mayoría republicana en ambas cámaras a partir de este 5 de enero, echaría abajo la CAA y otros decretos administrativos que favorecen a los refugiados cubanos.

Las cifras de diciembre resultan altamente significativas: 481 cubanos se han lanzado al mar en 37 operaciones marítimas desde la isla, un alza del 117 por ciento con respecto al mismo período del 2013. Y en solo cinco días de enero, 96 cubanos han sido ya interceptados en el Estrecho de la Florida.

La estampida marítima de cubanos ya vivió la primera tragedia en la arrancada del nuevo año. Un cubano llamado Manuel Marino, de 50 años, se ahogó este sábado cuando la embarcación donde viajaba se volcó, con otros tres inmigrantes, frente a las costas de Islas Cayman.

Sobrevivientes de la tragedia

Los sobrevivientes fuero identificados como Dailer Pérez Arresoitia, de 27 años, Diosul Alarcón Barrero, de 37, y Lety Sánchez Fonseca, de 33, todos de Santa Cruz del Sur, Camagüey. Lograron salvar la vida aferrados a dos tubos internos, con la ayuda de surfistas locales.

Los tres cubanos quedaron arrestados por las autoridadesde Islas Cayman y pudieran ser devueltos a Cuba.

Durante el 2014, la cifra de capturados en el Estrecho de la Florida  se elevó a 2,059, la mayor desde el 2008. En el recién concluido período fiscal las aventuras marítimas en embarcaciones rústicas y operaciones de contrabando involucraron a 3,722 cubanos en intentos de llegar a las costas de la Florida, incluyendo a aquellos vinculados en operaciones marítimas hacia Bahamas, Islas Cayman, Islas Vírgenes y otros destinos en  el mar Caribe y el Océano Atlántico.

Un éxodo masivo y silencioso de cubanos acontece paralelamente a través de los puntos fronterizos de México y Canadá. Solo por la frontera mexicana llegaron a territorio estadounidense 16,247 cubanos durante el 2014.

Balseros cubanos llegan a cayos Marquesas [Video]

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WaPo: As a Cuban exile, I Feel Betrayed by President Obama

capitolhillcubans

By professor Carlos Eire in The Washington Post:

Talking with Castro

As a Cuban exile, I feel betrayed by President Obama

I am furious, in pain, and deeply offended by those who laud this betrayal of the Cuban people as a great moment in history.

My family and native land were destroyed by the brutal Castro regime. In 1959, as an 8-year-old, I listened to mobs shout “paredon!” (to the firing squad!). I watched televised executions, and was terrified by the incessant pressure to agree with a bearded dictator’s ideals.

As the months passed, relatives, friends, and neighbors began to disappear. Some of them emerged from prison with detailed accounts of the tortures they endured, but many never reappeared, their lives cut short by firing squads.

I also witnessed the government’s seizure of all private property – down to the ring on one’s finger – and the collapse of my country’s economy. I began to feel as if some monstrous force was trying to steal my mind and soul through incessant indoctrination.

By the age of 10, I was desperate to leave.

The next year, my parents sent me to the United States.  I am one of the lucky 14,000 unaccompanied children rescued by Operation Pedro Pan. Our plan to reunite within a few months was derailed by the policies of  the Castro regime, which intentionally prevented people like my parents from leaving Cuba. Although my mother did manage to escape three years later, my father remained stuck for the rest of his life. When he died, 14 years after my departure, the Castro regime prevented me from attending his funeral.

I am now a professor of history and religion at Yale University.

And I long for justice. Instead of seeing Raúl Castro shaking President Obama’s hand, I would like to see him, his brother, and all their henchmen in a court room, being tried for crimes against humanity. I also long for genuine freedom in Cuba. Instead of seeing his corrupt and abusive regime rewarded with favors from the United States, I long for the day when that regime is replaced by a genuine democracy with a free market economy.

The fact that I am a historian makes me see things differently, too. I earn my living by analyzing texts and documents, sifting evidence, and separating facts from lies and myths. I have been trained to read between the lines, and to discern the hidden meaning in all rhetoric.

While much attention has been paid to President Obama’s Cuba policy speech, hardly any has been paid to dictator Raúl Castro’s shorter speech, broadcast in Cuba at exactly the same time.

In his spiteful address, the unelected ruler of Cuba said that he would accept President Obama’s gesture of good will “without renouncing a single one of our principles.”

What, exactly, are those principles?

Like his brother Fidel, whose name he invoked, and like King Louis XIV of France, whose name he dared not mention, Raúl speaks of himself as the embodiment of the state he rules, as evidenced by his mention of “our principles,” which assumes that all Cubans share his mindset. Raúl claims that he is defending his nation’s “self-determination,” “sovereignty,” and “independence,” and also dares to boast that his total control of the Cuban economy should be admired as “social justice.”

In reality, he is defending is his role as absolute monarch.

Cubans have no freedom of speech or assembly. The press is tightly controlled, and there is no freedom to establish political parties or labor unions. Travel is strictly controlled, as is access to the Internet. There is no economic freedom and no elections. According to the Associated Press, at least 8,410 dissidents were detained in 2014.

These are the principles that Raúl Castro is unwilling to renounce, which have driven nearly 20 percent of Cuba’s population into exile.

Unfortunately, these are also the very principles that President Obama ratified as acceptable, which will govern Cuba for years to come.

Although President Obama did acknowledge the lack of “freedom and openness” in Cuba, and also hinted that Raúl Castro should  loosen his grip on the Cuban people, his rhetoric was as hollow as Raúl’s. He didn’t make any demands for immediate, genuine reforms in Cuba. Equally hollow was his reference to Cuba’s “civil society.” He made no mention of the constant abuse heaped on Cuba’s non-violent dissidents, or of the fact that the vast majority of them have pleaded with him to tighten rather than ease existing sanctions on the Castro regime.

But it was not just what was left unsaid that made his rhetoric hollow. Some of the “facts” cited in support of his policy changes were deliberate distortions of history that lay most of the blame for Cuba’s problems on the United States.

Among the most glaring of these falsehoods was the claim that “our sanctions on Cuba have denied Cubans access to technology that has empowered individuals around the globe.” The real culprit is not the embargo, but the Castro regime itself, which actively prevents Cubans from accessing the Internet. Cuba has been purchasing all sorts of cutting-edge technology from other countries for use by its government, its military, its spies, and its tourist industry.

If studied carefully, what President Obama’s artful speech reveals is a fixation on the failures of American foreign policy, and on his role as a righteous reformer. Moreover, the speech is riddled with false assumptions and wishful thinking.

Does President Obama really believe that somehow, magically, an influx of American diplomats, tourists, and dollars is going to force Raúl Castro and his military junta to give up their beloved repressive “principles”?

Dream on. President Obama knows all too well that the Castro regime has had diplomatic and economic relations with the rest of the world and hosted millions of tourists from democratic nations for many years. Such engagement has brought no freedom or prosperity to the Cuban people. He also knows that tourism has only served to create an apartheid state in which foreigners enjoy privileges that are denied to the natives.

President Obama’s disingenuous formulation of a new Cuba policy has been praised by many around the world, but will be challenged by the legislative branch of the government of these United States.

Thank God and the Constitution for that.

The American people and the Cuban people deserve a much better future and a much better interpretation of history than those offered to them in President Obama’s shameful speech.

Cuban Boxing Star Mike Perez On He Got Out Of Cuba Getting Caught

ESNEWS

Intervencion de la poetisa Maria Elena Cruz Varela en el Panel «El intercambio cultural y el papel del creador exiliado»

Wenceslao Cruz

Exodo tragico: Las multiples rutas de los que escapan de Cuba

Martí Noticias

1er Resultado de los Acuerdos Obama-Castro: Guardacostas cubano hunde embarcacion de balseros

es solo el primero. el gobierno norteamericano no se ha pronunciado al respecto y posiblemente sea una de las clausulas secretas que cuba impida la emigracion ilegal por cualquier medio incluyendo el de la fuerza bruta. duras jornadas aguardan a los disidentes y opositores de la isla, pues la represion del regimen cuenta con carta blanca.

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AmericaTeVeCanal41

Cuban Coast Guard rammed vessel of Cubans tried to flee the island - A Man Missing

there is a new issue that we have to look at.

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CBS Miami

Lauren Pastrana

MIAMI (CBSMiami) – On the eve of the landmark announcement signaling a policy shift between the U.S. and Cuba, a group of Cubans tried to flee the communist island.

That group never made it to America.

In fact, one man may be lost at sea.

“Still nothing,” a relative of Diosbel Diaz Beoto says on the phone from Cuba. She says she hasn’t heard anything about whether the 32-year-old man is dead or alive.

According to Ramon Saul Sanchez with the Democracy Movement, Diaz Beoto was among more than two dozen people on the speedboat Tuesday when it started sinking.

“The vessel was broken into two and (Diosbel) disappeared,” Sanchez said at a press conference Friday. “They don’t know where he is. They don’t know if he drowned or if he’s floating in the ocean.

Sanchez claims the Cuban government may have played a role in the sinking.

“Cuban Coast Guard rammed the vessel from the back,” Sanchez said.

The U.S. Coast Guard told CBS4 News “There is no evidence to support the claim that is being made by the Democracy Movement and Mr. Sanchez.”

The agency says it received a request to assist at the scene of a sinking boat in Cuban territorial waters, but was then told Cuban authorities responded.

Sanchez said whether the boat was in Cuban waters remains unclear.

A spokesperson for the Coast Guard said the agency “was told that all reported people on the vessel were safely recovered by the Cuban Boarder Guard… (and) that the master of the vessel was being held in Cuba on accusations that he was trying to smuggle people from Cuba to the U.S.”

“At a moment like this, one wonders what really has changed in Cuba,” Sanchez said.

In his final press conference of the year, President Obama emphasized change would not happen overnight.

“I share the concern of dissidents there and human rights activists. This is still a regime that represses its people,” Mr. Obama said. “But what I know deep in my bones is that if you’ve done the same thing for 50 years and nothing’s changed, you should try something different.

President Obama also touched on the embargo, saying he cannot “unilaterally” end it.

He says he hopes Congress will re-examine it and make changes.

Comienzan a desmoronarse beneficios a cubanos que intentan llegar a Estados Unidos

Maria Elvira Salazar

Uno de los hombres que sacó a Puig de Cuba se declaró culpable

agencias

Acusado Gilberto Suarez/
cafefuerte.com

Un empresario del sur de Florida se declararó culpable por las acusaciones de ayudar a financiar el contrabando del estelar pelotero de los Dodgers de Los Ángeles, Yasiel Puig, fuera de Cuba.

El juez de distrito de Estados Unidos, Robert Scola, fijó el martes una audiencia de declaración de culpabilidad para Gilberto Suárez, de 40 años, quien previamente se había declarado inocente del cargo de contrabando y conspiración. La pena máxima para este delito conlleva una sentencia a 10 años en prisión.

La sentencia se dará a conocer el próximo 6 de marzo.

Los investigadores dicen que Suárez fue uno de los contrabandistas, ubicados en Miami, que en 2012 ayudaron a Puig a salir en una embarcación desde Cuba hacia México. Los contrabandistas iban a recibir una porción del contrato que firmaría más tarde Puig con los Dodgers por siete campañas y $42 millones.

Se trata de la primera vez que la Fiscalía menciona directamente el nombre del pelotero cubano en la demanda junto al de Aledmys Díaz Serrano, campocorto de los Cardinales de St. Louis, quien jugó para las Naranjas de Villa Clara entre 2007 y 2012.

En la audencia se conoció que Suárez recibió $2.5 millones como pago por la operación.

Los fiscales quieren confiscar cualquier dinero que Puig haya pagado a Suárez por la firma de su contrato, además de una casa, un apartamento, un Porsche y un Mercedes Benz.

Cubanos se quejan del pesimo servicio de paqueteria internacional

AmericaTeVeCanal41

Cuban woman's message in a bottle washes up in U.S.

wusa9

Chris Bonanno

Photo: Chris Bonanno / FLORIDA TODAY)

MELBOURNE, Fla. — Melbourne Beach's Shannon Johnson was walking on the beach on the morning of Dec. 3 when she noticed something that stood out.

"It was right before low tide, perfect timing, about 9:30, 10 and just looked down. I was picking up some trash and looked down and there it was."

"It" was a small medicine bottle that contained some rocks and other small particles … and a letter.

"I was afraid to open it at first like some crazy pirate put something toxic in it."

But eventually Johnson did open it and when she did she found a note in several pieces from a woman in Cuba inside of it. The letter, written in Spanish, detailed the woman's desire to come to America and better her and her family's life.

Johnson felt as though this was a story that needed to be shared, so to spread the message, Johnson shared the photo of the bottle and letter with her close friend Brittany Blanc of Melbourne. Blanc posted it to her Facebook profile, which drew interest from her friends.

One of those friends, Jason Schreiber, sent a message over Facebook to "three or four" of the woman's friends along with the woman herself.

"I dug deeper than anybody else," Schreiber said.

Eventually he made contact with the woman who sent the bottle.

"I sent her a picture of her bottle and I sent her a picture of her letter and I said, 'Is this you?' and she said, 'Oh my god, yes, yes that's me.'"

Shannon Johnson of Melbourne Beach found this bottle with a letter inside from a Cuban woman.(Photo: Chris Bonanno)

Schreiber discovered that she sent the bottle more than two months ago. He also found that she was a well-educated woman who wasn't poor, but simply wanted a better opportunity for herself and her family and seemed frustrated that she couldn't come to the United States.

The woman also wished not to be identified in any published story.

"I actually thought it was just a beautiful letter, and I don't think she even meant for anyone to find it," said Blanc, after reading the translated version of the letter.

The distance the bottle traveled differs depending upon how you calculate the distance from the northern coast of Cuba to the Space Coast, but the bottle traveled at least 300 miles before it washed ashore.

Schreiber shared the sentiment that Johnson and Blanc had of wanting to meet the woman in the United States, but he was unsure of what he could realistically do.

"I mean if there's any way I can get her over here to better her life or anything that'd be awesome."

The woman's frustration is likely due to the steep odds she faces in coming to this country.

According to David Stoller, certified immigration attorney, a Cuban citizen's path to coming to the United States rests with either having family here or winning one of two lotteries: the United States' Diversity Visa Lottery, or a second lottery offered in Cuba, only to Cubans. He said a Cuban national cannot be deported if they step foot in the U.S., which leads to some coming over in rafts and through other means.

"That's the way it works for everyone around the world. Your chances are slim and none unless you fit into some category in our system of either family, employment base, or a special program for people of certain countries like we have for the diversity visa process or a special set-up for Cubans," said Stoller.

Alex Morales - Escaping Cuba On A Windsurfer

Boards Windsurfing

Amy Carter

Alex Morales journeyed from Cuba to America… by windsurfer. This is the story of his brave journey across the ocean and to becoming a respected board shaper. 

Images and words by Timothy Venn.

 

Like many of Miami’s population, Alex Morales’s life started in the Communist dictatorship of Cuba – but his journey since has been unlike any other. Fascinated by his first sight of a windsurfer as an eight year-old boy, he knew he was bitten by the windsurfing bug that was sweeping the world. However, with no windsurfing opportunities for kids, he had to make do with sailing dinghies and begging the local windsurfers for a try on their boards.

This is when young Alex showed the first signs of his improvisational, ‘get-it-done’ attitude when he started to build his own kid’s windsurfer. “I started building Styrofoam boards and bamboo masts and booms. It was jury-rigged gear like a typical third-world kid – but it was the only gear I could get for my size.” Finally, a few years later, he was able graduate to real boards, and his dedication and persistence paid off when he won the 1987 Youth Event and was selected to be in the Cuban Olympic windsurfing team in 1989.

For many windsurfers and Cubans alike, this might have been a dream come true – being paid (albeit a modest stipend) to windsurf. However, the life of a state sponsored windsurfer had limited appeal to Alex, who was acutely aware of the artificial bubble he was living in – limited to state events with other communist countries. “You might be in the best shape – but if you don’t compete internationally, you can never be your best technically.” Word was flooding in from the US and Europe through windsurfing magazines, TV and radio of the exciting developments in equipment and competitions. “My biggest influence back then was the windsurfing magazines that made windsurfing look so colorful and hardcore.”

Alex Morales Windsurfing Cuban Olympic Team 1992

Alex knew what he had to do – but leaving Cuba freely was not an option, so he plotted his departure with the only option left – as a ‘Balsero’, making the 90 mile journey to Florida and freedom by raft. Even as an expert windsurfer, he realized that windsurfing to Florida would be physically exhausting and dangerous, so he tried leaving twice with home-made rafts powered by outboard engines. After both attempts failed, he finally turned to his last and least favored option – by windsurfer. “The windsurfing option was always in the back of my mind, but I knew that it would be exhausting – perhaps beyond my limits.”

In order for this highly risky enterprise to succeed he knew it would take some luck and careful planning, so over the next 18 months he studied the weather, the ocean conditions and currents to figure out the optimal time of year to make his attempt. April 25th 1994 was picked for the consistent east winds, ocean current and moderate weather. Making precise calculations of the wind speed and currents, they set their heading to hit the Florida peninsula precisely in the center of the Florida Keys – avoiding the potentially fatal mistake of going out too far east out into the Atlantic Ocean or west into the Gulf of Mexico. Failing to make landfall in South Florida would have meant that there would have been little chance of completing the journey before exhaustion and dehydration would have taken its toll. He also carefully selected his board – the relatively wide and floaty Bic Reggae with a retractable dagger-board that allowed him to also easily sail upwind in light winds. Added to that, a custom sail that he made out of a 7.0 and smaller wave sail gave him low end power – but would still be manageable in the gusts.

Alex and two fellow windsurfers sailed from Cuba, avoiding the Cuban Coast Guard – taking over eighteen hours to reach US coastal waters where they were picked up by the Governor of Florida’s boat that was coming back from a fishing trip. Exhausted but elated on successfully making the trip, Alex got a call from Eugene (Eugenio Roman, who windsurfed out of Cuba on a last minute whim) to go windsurfing with him in Miami that same day. Alex couldn’t believe it! “I said like “!@#$ you, that’s the last thing I want to do right now! We did actually go windsurfing with him a couple of days later.”

“Windsurfing in Miami was like coming home” says Alex, “Maybe because I had so many friends and family here – I felt like Cuba had become a foreign country and Miami was where I was meant to be all my life.” However, beyond getting to Florida, Alex had no specific plans. Just being free was enough for him for that moment – but that did not mean he stayed idle and he worked hard to assimilate himself into the American culture, as well as becoming a licensed electrical contractor.

Alex’s involvement for the remainder of the 1990’s was minimal. “The US windsurfing media and industry became focused on wave sailing in the late 1990’s – which was something we cannot do here in South Florida, so I was not involved in windsurfing then. It was only when Formula windsurfing became big in the 2003 onwards did I get more involved again. I saw pros like Micah Buzianis and Antoine Albeau on Formula boards – and realized that it allowed windsurfing events to happen in all conditions – giving windsurfing a new life”

 

Local competitions started up again and Alex got back into competing at event after event. “Everything came back when I realized that the events were not so wind dependent on Formula and I was fired up – this is amazing – this is what I was made to do. Then I thought, let’s make so more events and took the ball and started running with it.” Soon he had some big names like Micah Buzianis and Jimmy Diaz putting Miami on the windsurfing competition map. Getting sponsorship was tough – so Alex was forced to front most of the costs himself in the hope that the event generated enough revenue to cover them. “If I had to put the money out of my pocket and possibly lose or win, I still did it – the most important thing is that windsurfing is still alive and Miami is on the map.”

Alex then branched out into spreading the word by creating websites, Windsurfingtour.com and Miamiwindsurfing.com. “Facebook and social media websites have become the go-to platform now for this, replacing websites. Nowadays you have 15 seconds to catch someone’s attention and social media does that” Undeterred with his inability to get sponsorship for his events, Alex launched into a new venture – becoming a board and fin manufacturer himself. And thus, the Tillo International brand (http://tillo-international.com) was born. Alex has created a line of custom Formula, Slalom and SUP boards – hand shaped in his own workshop. Drawing customers from South Florida windsurfing community and his website, Alex’s brand is working on building a significant fan base.

 

With many industry players decrying the demise of windsurfing, Alex is not ready to give up the fight. Even when windsurfing as an Olympic event was threatened in favor of kiteboarding, Alex joined a grass-roots effort to have it re-established, resulting in a surprising 180-degree turnaround by the ISAF committee to overturn their original decision. “It’s all about participation, whether it is at the international level or by the local communities. It’s hard at the local level, as amateurs feel insecure about their ability to compete – but keeping these events going keeps the incentive for the amateur windsurfer to get involved and keep windsurfing and buying gear. Windsurfing dies when people don’t put their time and resources into it. The water sports industry’s attention has shifted to kite boarding and SUP – but that will decline in the future too, if the long-term focus is not there.”

“Miami is one of the best cities in the US for these kinds of events right now. Our Slalom event had 53 competitors, including Micah Buzanis which is amazing – considering a PWA event can only have 40+ participants.” Building on this success, Alex has organized his next Slalom Event on November 4th 2014 in Virginia Key in Miami. He is also confident about the future. “Another exciting development is the new generation of kids with the Bic Techno Class having the biggest sailing fleet ever (with more participation than any sailing class) of over 400 kids in the last World Championship. These kids will go onto RSX and Slalom and carry on the flag of windsurfing. Also, new developments with boards and gear have made the sport faster and more exciting, which can now also be captured by low cost technology such as GoPro and drones – so there is no reason why more people cannot be turned on to this incredible sport.”

Read more at http://boards.mpora.com/features/alex-morales-escaping-cuba-on-a-windsurfer.html#vvyZLIjBMcS1Ficc.99

Braves sign Cuban outfielder Dian Toscano

Yahoo Sports

By Mike Oz 

This is The Stew's running list of trades and signings that happen during baseball's Winter Meetings. We'll keep updating this post as the news happens. For more chatter and rumors, be sure to check out our Winter Meetings tracker.

MONDAY
Braves sign Cuban outfielder Dian Toscano
The Atlanta Braves added another outfielder to their roster in Dian Toscano, a 25-year-old international free agent from Cuba who could be a left field option down the road. Toscano isn't one of the big-name Cuban imports — i.e., he's not the Yasmany Tomas consolulation prize.

Ben Badler at Baseball America has more on Toscano:

Toscano, who is around 5-foot-10, 200 pounds, is a lefthanded hitter with good bat control and strike-zone awareness. He never played on the Cuban national team, so he wasn’t a player scouts saw much of before he left the island.

Playing for Villa Clara in Serie Nacional, Toscano batted .356/.400/.452 in 86 plate appearances with eight walks and eight strikeouts in 2012-13, his last season in Cuba. The year before, Toscano hit .287/.438/.380 with 35 walks and 16 strikeouts. He hit just three home runs that year and never showed much power in Cuba, though he’s in significantly better shape and has increased his strength since leaving Cuba.

BLS Take: Naturally, when you hear "Cuban outfielder" these days, excitement and intrigue are not reactions, but Toscano doesn't have nearly as much hype as the high-profile Cubans we've seen land in MLB the last few years. As Badler writes, less is known about Toscano because he didn't play on the Cuban national team, so there's a chance the Braves found a diamond in the rough. But based on what we know, you shouldn't expect Toscano to be an Opening Day starter or anything.

‘Bag man’ pleads to massive Medicare laundering scam, might turn on fugitive Cuban brother

The Miami Herald

By Jay Weaver

www.cubaenmiami.com

When Cuban immigrant Eduardo Perez de Morales arrived a decade ago in Miami, he could not have imagined the good life that awaited him.

He helped his older brother operate a lucrative remittance company, and then diversified into fine art and other business ventures himself. He and his fiancée began breeding more than a dozen Andalusian horses at his future mother-in-law’s Miami-Dade home.

But just a couple of months before he was to be married at the legendary Biltmore Hotel in Coral Gables this summer, the 27-year-old U.S. citizen was busted for being his big brother’s “bag man,” authorities say. Perez, who once tooled around in a Maserati, faces up to six years in prison at his sentencing in January after pleading guilty last month to conspiring with his now-fugitive brother.

They are accused of shifting $238 million in stolen taxpayer-funded Medicare proceeds through shell companies in Canada and then into Cuba’s secret banking system. The byzantine scheme, described as a “massive money laundering operation” by a federal prosecutor, is unprecedented because it marks the first U.S. case connecting South Florida’s Medicare rackets to Cuba’s national bank.

“Eduardo Perez de Morales served as the middle man,” Assistant U.S. Attorney H. Ron Davidson wrote in a factual statement signed by the defendant in his plea agreement. “He knowingly delivered large amounts of cash to [Medicare fraud offenders] whom the defendant knew were engaging in illegal activities.”

Needless to say, Eduardo Perez’s swank July wedding — paid for by his prospective mother-in-law, who made a $25,000 down payment to the Biltmore — was canceled. That’s because, after repeated requests, Perez’s defense lawyers could not persuade federal judges to let him out on bond after his arrest in May because he was viewed as a “flight risk” to his native Cuba, where his 50-year-old brother, Jorge Emilio Perez de Morales Sante, may still reside.

“We’re talking about $238 million in fraudulent transfers, which is a staggering amount of money,” Magistrate Judge Lurana Snow said at a bond hearing earlier this year. “This defendant has frequent foreign travel, strong ties to Cuba, and every incentive to flee based on the magnitude of the fraud.

“I don’t know where his brother is, but it’s certainly not beyond the realm of possibility that this defendant might have an ability to join the brother.”

Although the U.S. Attorney’s Office has said there is no evidence showing the Castro government’s involvement, Davidson has repeatedly highlighted the Cuba connection established through the scheme’s alleged mastermind, Perez’s older brother, Jorge Perez.

Jorge Perez, a half-brother, is accused of directing the money-laundering operation through his Cuba-licensed remittance company, Caribbean Transfers, from 2005 to 2011. He owns a seaside home in Havana but could be in Mexico, the Dominican Republic or Spain, according to the FBI. Davidson called Jorge Perez’s remittance company, which closed after his indictment in 2012, an offshore Western Union.

Caribbean Transfers provided clean cash — amassed from Cuban exiles sending money to relatives on the island — to corrupt healthcare operators in Florida, Michigan, Tennessee and New York, according to an indictment.

Jorge Perez’s role was uncovered after a convicted Naples check-cashing store owner, Oscar L. Sanchez, fingered him as the man who bankrolled his Florida business and other remittance agencies. The prosecutor said those stateside businesses cashed checks or wired money for Medicare-fraud offenders — then transferred their dirty dollars through Jorge Perez’s shell companies in Canada via Trinidad to Cuba.

At first, investigators estimated that Sanchez laundered more than $30 million on behalf of 70 corrupt Medicare-licensed businesses. But the estimated total grew almost eightfold, as they discovered that Caribbean Transfers financed other check-cashing and remittance businesses involved in the alleged money-laundering scheme.

The money could have been disbursed as remittances to Cuban families or to others living on the island. “The location of hundreds of millions of dollars is unknown, and a vast fortune is likely sitting in a Communist country,” Davidson wrote in court papers.

Because the FBI has been unable to locate Jorge Perez, the younger brother’s former defense attorney suggested in federal court that he was being indicted solely to lure the accused fugitive ringleader to the United States.

Eduardo Perez’s original attorney, Douglas Williams, called the case “a zealous indictment of a younger brother that may to some extent be part of a calculation ... to suggest to his older brother that ... he’s going to be creating problems for baby brother. ... That’s what this case is all about.”

Now the baby brother, with his plea agreement to cooperate with U.S. Attorney’s Office, could turn on his older brother. Eduardo Perez’s deal holds him responsible for laundering only between $1 million and $2.5 million, a range that would limit his prison time to a maximum six years. He had faced up to 20 years in prison on the single money-laundering conspiracy plea.

But as part of the deal, Eduardo Perez has agreed to testify before a grand jury or at trial, if the prosecutor asks. That means that if his older brother, Jorge Perez, is ever captured and brought to court in Miami, the younger brother could be a key witness against him.

Eduardo Perez’s current defense attorney, Gustavo Lage, said his testimony is a possibility, but noted that the deal does not specifically require his taking the witness stand against the older brother.

“The cooperation agreement is standard boilerplate language, so that may or may not come to pass depending on what happens between now and even after his sentencing [in January],” Lage said Friday. “So far, no request has been made.

Read more here: http://www.miamiherald.com/news/local/crime/article4329041.html#storylink=cpy

Liván y "El Duque": "Hermanos en el exilio" [Documental completo]

Urbano Gonzalez 

La vida de las estrellas de beisbol Liván y Orlando "El Duque" Hernández, y su proceso de adaptación en tierras norteamericanas tras emigrar de su Cuba natal durante la década de los años 90.

'Split Decision' Shows Boxers' Tough Choices About Leaving Cuba

Read at NBC >>