U.S.-Cuba Policy Overhaul Sends Shockwaves Through Miami Exile Community
By Patrick Mazzei and Jay Weaver, Miami Herald (TNS)
MIAMI — The political ground shook in South Florida on Wednesday when the Obama administration indicated it plans to restore full diplomatic relations with Communist Cuba.
Miami, the heart of the Cuban exile community, reacted with a collective shock. Hardline opponents of the Castro regime lambasted the president for what they called a betrayal.
Miami-Dade County Commissioner Esteban “Steve” Bovo, a Republican whose father was a pilot in the 1996 Brothers to the Rescue mission, called Democratic President Barack Obama a sellout.
“Today will be a sad day for all those who have dedicated their lives for a free Cuba. Our President has sold out freedom,” Bovo posted to his Twitter account, @CommBovo.
He followed up with two more posts, directed at the dissident Ladies in White and at the Brothers to the Rescue families, whose relatives were shot down by the Cuban Air Force.
“Damas de Blanco @BarackObama and his accomplices sold you out,” he wrote. Then: “Family members of murdered pilots of Brothers to the Rescue @BarackObama Sold you out.”
Maggie Khuly, the sister of Armando Alejandre Jr, one of the four Brothers to the Rescue members shot down, said the families of the failed mission’s victims were outraged.
“I was expecting this, but I can’t believe it,” Khuly said. “No one (in the federal government) had the decency of telling us anything.”
Wednesday began with the news that Cuba had freed American political prisoner Alan Gross on humanitarian ground — and that the U.S. would swap three imprisoned Cuban spies in exchange for a U.S. intelligence officer detained on the island.
“We’re giving them a lot of stuff in payment for the exchange of a hostage,” Khuly told the Miami Herald. “What about human rights? It’s just incredible. I’m extremely disappointed in the president.”
County Mayor Carlos Gimenez said in a Wednesday morning interview with the Herald that he was on his way to a phone briefing by the White House. He said he didn’t know enough to critique the White House plan, but was critical of normalizing relations.
“The Cuban government hasn’t done anything to deserve this,” said Gimenez, who was born in Cuba. “If it’s going to happen, I hope there will be positive results.”
Despite criticism of the U.S.-Cuba policy overhaul, there was widespread relief over Gross’s release after five years.
The Greater Miami Jewish Federation and Jewish Community Relations Council issued a statement welcoming Gross, a Washington resident, back to the country. Gross was arrested in December 2009 while working as a subcontractor with the United States Agency for International Development to help a small Jewish community in Cuba.
The statement thanked advocates who signed petitions and wrote letters to elected officials to keep them from forgetting about Gross’s imprisonment.
“We wish Alan Gross a full recovery from the ill health that resulted from his unjust and inhumane incarceration and we send our warmest wishes to his family who has suffered such great distress during this terrible ordeal,” the statement said.
“Last night, Jews around the world kindled the first light of Chanukah, celebrating a historical victory. Tonight, as we kindle the second Chanukah candle, we know it will burn that much brighter for us in gratitude for the release of Alan Gross and for all those who championed his cause for so long.”
Local public figures also applauded Gross’s release.
“On the first day of Hanukkah, #AlanGross is released from a Cuban prison. What a great gift for his family,” Miami-Dade State Attorney Katherine Fernandez Rundle, a Cuban-American Democrat, posted to her Twitter account.
Annette Taddeo, the former chairwoman of the Miami-Dade Democratic Party, linked to an ABC News story about the release. “Happy #Hannukkah indeed!” wrote Taddeo, who is Jewish, on her account.
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(Miami Herald staff writer Douglas Hanks contributed to this report.)
Photo: Protesters at Versailles Restaurant in Miami decry the exchange of convicted Cuban spies for Alan Gross, who has been held by the Cuban government. (Roberto Koltun/El Nuevo Herald/TNS)
