Most of $80 million in aid for democracy in Cuba will stay in U.S. (2006)

In the month since Fidel Castro's unprecedented transfer of power, the Bush administration has urged Cubans on the island to work for democracy and reject what it calls a dynastic succession to "baby brother" Raúl Castro.

But little has changed there, and only a fraction of the $80 million Washington has allocated to spur political transition will ever get to Cuba.

The largest chunk of that money is meant to support independent civil organizations on the island over the next two years. Under current regulations, however, most of it will be used to help organizations in the United States, to pay for expenses such as phone calls, staff salaries, publishing reports, and computers and fax machines for opposition groups.

Last year, of $11.2 million distributed for Cuba-related projects by the U.S. Agency for International Development and the National Endowment for Democracy, only $214,274 was sent as cash to the island, according to the agencies.

That's because USAID, the agency that distributes most federal funding for Cuba grants, prohibits recipients from sending money to individuals or organizations in Cuba. As a private organization, NED has no such restrictions.

Budgets for Cuba-related projects for USAID and NED have ballooned over the past decade. USAID's Cuba program, which started with $500,000 in 1996, now has $7.3 million. NED's funding has almost doubled, from $602,658 in 1996 to $1.1 million this year.

Cuban-American leaders, those who administer the grants and Cuban dissidents are divided over the effectiveness of the funding. Some argue funneling cash and supplies to Cuba's opposition stigmatizes and endangers the movement. Others are concerned that sending cash directly to independent civic groups would ultimately end up in Castro's coffers and say U.S. organizations can help in other ways.

Juan Carlos Acosta, who heads the USAID-funded, nonprofit Acción Democrática Cubana in Miami, said news of Castro's intestinal surgery, announced July 31, galvanized his decade-old mission to help dissidents on the island. But he thinks USAID regulations stymie those efforts.

In 2004, for example, he spent $120,000 to pay professional smugglers and shipping agencies to send humanitarian aid to Cuba. The aid itself, including clothing, medication, food, books and electronic equipment, totaled only $88,000.

"Money is very important in the hands of the dissident, because the first consequence of being a dissident is losing one's job," Acosta said. "The Cuban government has always accused the dissidents of being salaried [employees] of the United States since 1959; that doesn't justify not sending the money."

Critics, including some Cuban dissidents, argue that federal funds make the opposition movement vulnerable to Castro's charges that they are conspiring with the United States to overthrow the Cuban government -- a crime in Cuba for which 60 dissidents have been imprisoned since 2003.

Former government economist Oscar Espinosa Chepe knows firsthand the benefits and potential pitfalls of U.S. funding. In 2003 he was imprisoned for 19 months on charges that he conspired with the U.S. government after receiving a stipend, made possible by federal funding, for his reports on the Coral Gables-based Web site, CubaNet.

"We think this concrete step is counterproductive because it serves as an instrument for the [Cuban] government to cultivate nationalism and make us look like ... mercenaries," Espinosa Chepe said from Havana.

He continues to receive about $60 a month as payment for articles that appear on the Web site. But he said money to support the opposition movement should come from the Cuban-American community, not the U.S. government.

Some of the new funding, a 63 percent increase over the $49 million designated by the Bush administration in 2004, will augment broadcasts of Radio and TV Martí, improve Internet access on the island and offer scholarships for Cuban students.

"There are Cubans in Cuba who are talking about a democratic transition, and the purpose of our assistance is to support the efforts of Cubans to successfully define the path that leads to free and fair elections and a future of prosperity for the country," said Caleb McCarry, Washington's Cuba transition coordinator.

The Cuban American National Foundation has lobbied since 1998 to allow cash to be sent directly to dissident groups in Cuba and thinks this is a critical moment to make the changes.

"We know there are factions in the upper echelons of power [in Cuba], and this provides an opportunity for direct aid to have an even greater effect than it would have had in the past," said Camila Ruiz-Gallardo, director of government relations at the foundation.

In his only statement since the transfer of power, Raúl Castro called U.S. efforts to accelerate a transition in Cuba "boorish" and said millions of Cubans stand ready to defend their island nation "with rifles in hand."

"Up until now, the attacks during these days have not gone further than rhetorical ones, except for the substantial increase in subversive anti-Cuba broadcasts over radio and television," Raúl Castro told Granma, the Communist Party newspaper.

"All things considered, they are spending millions in U.S. taxpayers' money to achieve the same result as ever: a TV that is not seen," he said, referring to TV Martí, which is blocked by the Cuban government.

South Florida organizations that have received money from the National Endowment for Democracy in 2006 for projects related to Cuba:

To support independent journalism and promote freedom of expression in Cuba. CubaNet also has received $1.9 million in federal funds from USAID since 1999.

To promote intellectual freedom and debate inside Cuba. BIC will continue to provide material assistance to independent libraries in Cuba and promote international awareness of the library movement.

To promote access to objective information and news in communities around Cuba. Directorio offers short-wave radio programming devoted to community development and local news.

To promote women's rights in Cuba. With its contacts with women's movements throughout the world, Red Feminista will collect and send materials to Cuba for independent women activists and will hold a series of training programs for them.

The Bush administration in July approved an $80 million fund for the next two years to promote a transition to a democratic government in Cuba. Here's a breakdown of how the money will be spent:

$10 million to finance educational exchange programs and scholarships for Cuban students.

$15 million to support international outreach efforts to help hasten a transition to a democratic government.

Posted on Fri, Sep. 08, 2006

MEDIA

10 Miami journalists take U.S. pay

At least 10 local journalists accepted U.S. government pay for programs on Radio Martí or TV Martí. El Nuevo Herald fired two of them Thursday for conflict of interest.

BY OSCAR CORRAL
ocorral@MiamiHerald.com

AT LEAST 10: The list of local journalists includes El Nuevo Herald's columnist Pablo Alfonso, freelancer Olga Connor, and staff reporter Wilfredo Cancio.

AT LEAST 10: The list of local journalists includes El Nuevo Herald's columnist Pablo Alfonso, freelancer Olga Connor, and staff reporter Wilfredo Cancio.

At least 10 South Florida journalists, including three from El Nuevo Herald, received regular payments from the U.S. government for programs on Radio Martí and TV Martí, two broadcasters aimed at undermining the communist government of Fidel Castro. The payments totaled thousands of dollars over several years.

Those who were paid the most were veteran reporters and a freelance contributor for El Nuevo Herald, the Spanish-language newspaper published by the corporate parent of The Miami Herald. Pablo Alfonso, who reports on Cuba and writes an opinion column, was paid almost $175,000 since 2001 to host shows on Radio Martí and TV Martí. El Nuevo Herald freelance reporter Olga Connor, who writes about Cuban culture, received about $71,000, and staff reporter Wilfredo Cancio Isla, who covers the Cuban exile community and politics, was paid almost $15,000 in the last five years.

Alfonso and Cancio were dismissed after The Miami Herald questioned editors at El Nuevo Herald about the payments. Connor's freelance relationship with the newspaper also was severed.

Jesús Díaz Jr., president of the Miami Herald Media Co. and publisher of both newspapers, expressed disappointment, saying the payments violated a ''sacred trust'' between journalists and the public.

''Even the appearance that your objectivity or integrity might have been impaired is something we can't condone, not in our business,'' Díaz said. ``I personally don't believe that integrity and objectivity can be assured if any of our reporters receive monetary compensation from any entity that he or she may cover or have covered, but particularly if it's a government agency.''

Other journalists receiving payments from the U.S. Office of Cuba Broadcasting, which runs Radio and TV Martí, included: Diario Las Americas opinion page editor Helen Aguirre Ferre and reporter/columnist Ariel Remos; Channel 41 news director Miguel Cossio; and syndicated columnist Carlos Alberto Montaner, whose opinions appear in the pages of El Nuevo Herald and The Miami Herald.

Radio and TV Martí are U.S. government programs created to promote democracy and freedom in Cuba. Their programming cannot be broadcast within the United States because of anti-propaganda laws. Radio and TV Martí have received $37 million this year.

The payments to journalists were discovered in documents recently obtained by The Miami Herald as a result of a federal Freedom of Information Request filed on Aug. 15.

Pedro Roig, the director of the Office of Cuba Broadcasting since 2003, said he has sought to improve the quality of news by, among other things, hiring more Cuban exile journalists as contractors. He said it's each journalist's responsibility to adhere to their own ethics and rules.

''We consider them to be good journalists, and people who were formed inside that system who got out [of Cuba] and adapted and made good,'' Roig said. ``In reality, I feel very satisfied.''

Journalism ethics experts called the payments a fundamental conflict of interest. Such violations undermine the credibility of reporters to objectively cover key issues affecting U.S. policy toward Cuba, they said.

Iván Román, executive director of the National Association of Hispanic Journalists, said the payments from TV and Radio Martí posed a clear conflict of interest.

''It's definitely a line that journalists shouldn't be crossing,'' said Román, a former El Nuevo Herald journalist. ``It's clear the medium has a particular agenda. If they cover Cuban issues, it could be seen as a conflict.''

El Nuevo Herald Executive Editor Humberto Castelló said he hadn't been aware that the three writers were being paid by the federal government.

''I lament very much that I had not been informed before by them,'' Castelló said. ``We discussed the situation with them and they were both dismissed immediately.''

The journalists involved are among the most popular in South Florida, and many were reporting on issues involving Radio or TV Martí for their news organizations.

Channel 41 reporter Juan Manuel Cao, who received $11,400 this year from TV Martí, made news in July when he confronted Castro during an appearance in Argentina by pressing the Cuban leader to explain why his government had not allowed a well-known doctor and dissident, Hilda Molina, to leave the island to visit her son in Argentina.

During the exchange, Castro openly questioned Cao if anyone was paying him to ask that question. The Cuban government has long contended that some South Florida Spanish-language journalists were on the federal payroll.

''There is nothing suspect in this,'' Cao said. ``I would do it for free. But the regulations don't allow it. I charge symbolically, below market prices.''

Ferre, the opinion page editor for Diario las Americas, was paid $4,325 from 2001 to 2005. She said the payments did not compromise her journalistic integrity. She was paid to be a guest on TV Martí shows and said her point of view was never suppressed.

''Guests are being paid for their time that they have to take in order to be able to accommodate the program,'' she said.

Ethicists say that it's common for journalists to be compensated by other media outlets but not by the government, built on principles that espouse an independent press.

''This is such an obvious textbook case,'' said University of Florida journalism professor Jon Roosenraad. 'This is exactly like a business reporter during the day going out and moonlighting as a PR [public relations] person for a local company at night and then going back to the paper the next day and writing about `his' company.''

Total payouts since 2001 range from $1,550 to Radio Mambi commentator Ninoska Perez-Castellón to $174,753 for El Nuevo Herald's Alfonso, the government payment records show. The payments -- which range from $75 to $100 per appearance -- are to host or appear on the government-produced shows.

The Miami Herald's review of dozens of articles by the El Nuevo Herald journalists -- including several about TV Martí or Radio Martí -- found no instance in which the reporters or columnists disclosed that they had received payment.

Two ethics experts compared it to the case of Armstrong Williams in 2005, when it was revealed that the Bush administration had paid the prominent pundit to promote its education policy, No Child Left Behind, on his nationally syndicated television show.

Herald staff writers Jasmine Kripalani, Luisa Yanez, Casey Woods and Alfonso Chardy contributed to this report.

MEDIA

10 Miami journalists take U.S. pay

At least 10 local journalists accepted U.S. government pay for programs on Radio Martí or TV Martí. El Nuevo Herald fired two of them Thursday for conflict of interest.

BY OSCAR CORRAL ocorral@MiamiHerald.com

BY OSCAR CORRAL
ocorral@MiamiHerald.com