U.S.-CUBA TRAVEL
Selling trips to Cuba once was deadly
Cuba travel agencies appear to have put their troubled past behind --
and business is booming thanks to the new relaxation of travel
restrictions to Cuba. But it all began with a murder 30 years ago.
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BY LUISA YANEZ, DOUGLAS HANKS AND LAURA FIGUEROA
lyanez@MiamiHerald.com
There was a time when advertising Viajes a Cuba on a storefront was an
invitation to a pipe bombing.
In the politically charged Miami of the late 1970s and '80s, the FBI
investigated more than a dozen blasts at Cuba travel agencies --
considered nests of Communist agents by staunch anti-Castro exiles.
Selling tickets to Havana could even get you killed. That's what
happened to Carlos Muñiz Varela, a 26-year-old exile living in Puerto
Rico who opened the first Cuba-approved travel agency. Thirty years ago
this week, he was gunned down in San Juan.
But times have changed, and the travel agencies today worry little about
political retribution.
''They want to call me a communist -- thank you very much,'' said a
strident Francisco Aruca, the owner of Marazul Charters. Aruca, also a
Miami radio host, is one of the more outspoken of the seven agency
owners who book charters to Cuba. They all have permission from Cuba and
the U.S. Treasury Department.
The long-standing and sometimes violent clashes between exiles who
oppose anyone doing business with the island have disappeared -- welcome
news to the agencies, where business has been booming since last month,
when President Barack Obama lifted restrictions on Cuban Americans
wanting to travel or send money to relatives on the island.
Armando Garcia, president of Marazul Charters, points no further than
the windows of his Westchester storefront as indication that the climate
for trips to Cuba has changed.
More than a decade ago, he had to install bullet-proof glass following a
1996 bombing that nearly gutted the store, which is across the street
from The Falls on South Dixie Highway.
It was one of several bombing attempts against the company's three South
Florida stores. ''People were scared for their lives,'' Garcia said.
``None of the employees wanted to tell relatives where they worked for
fear of retribution. ''
OUT OF THE SHADOWS
Now customers sit in a row of chairs edged up against the window.
Perception of those who travel to Cuba has also changed; it's no longer
a dirty little secret.
''A lot of people were scared of telling their neighbors and friends --
they would lie about where they were going on vacation,'' Garcia said.
Miguel Saavedra, head of Vigilia Mambisa, a group that continues to
picket those who do business with Cuba, said the travel agencies feed
off Miami's poor exile community. ''Cuban exiles are victims of these
agencies who prey off people traveling to see relatives by charging them
exorbitant amounts of money that goes to the Cuba government,'' Saavedra
said. ``These agencies make a pact with the devil.''
Bad blood between exiles and the Cuba travel agencies erupted in earnest
in 1978 after a group of Miami Cubans, who became known as the Comité de
75, visited the island and negotiated with Fidel Castro for the release
of 3,600 Cuban political prisoners.
NEW DEAL
More significantly, they also negotiated for travel to the island on
what were called viajes de la comunidad -- for the first time, trips by
exiles to visit Cuba.
The deal created a need for agencies to open for business in Miami, New
Jersey and Puerto Rico. Cuba jumped in, creating Havanatur, a government
agency charged with overseeing the venture with the U.S. travel
agencies. But Aruca said Cuba originally had bigger plans. Cuban
officials thought large American companies would jump in to book passage
to the island -- much like they did before the 1958 Cuban revolution.
''They were ignoring the public relations aspect that many of these
bigger companies would not want to get in the middle of U.S. and Cuban
affairs,'' Aruca said. ``Once Cuba realized that no big travel outfits
were signing on to coordinate trips, they realized they should work with
the smaller Cuban-American businesses.''
The down side: The small agencies became a magnet for anti-Castro anger.
George Kiszynski, a special agent for the FBI in Miami during the late
1970s and '80s, was caught in the middle, assigned with stopping the
rash of bombings. The bombings soon spread from the travel and
packages-to-Cuba agencies to consulates of countries that did business
with Cuba, and to persons believed to support the Cuban government and
even the FBI and state attorney's offices in Miami.
''The interesting thing is that there were many bombers, not just one.
That made it more difficult,'' said Kiszynski, now director of
investigations for the Ackerman Group. It became so hectic, he created
an ad hoc task force with other local law enforcement agents. ``We were
pretty successful in arresting many of the bombers.''
Most of the bombs were set to go off in the early morning. ''If one had
gone off during the day, it could have killed someone,'' he said. In
Miami, no one was killed.
SHOOTING DEATH
In Puerto Rico, Muñiz was not as fortunate. With the blessing of Cuba,
he had wasted no time scheduling the first flight through Viajes
Varadero in December 1978.
Although he was only in his 20s, Muñiz was a dedicated political
activist who supported Puerto Rican independence. He was a member of the
leftist Antonio Maceo Brigade, said his best friend, Raúl Alzaga
Manresa, current owner of the company.
Viajes Varadero made its inaugural flight with about 90 people aboard;
Muñiz was among the passengers.
Four months later, he was shot in the head as he drove to his mother's
house in San Juan. No arrests have ever been made. ''There had been
threats, and our office had been bombed, but I guess we were too young
to take the danger seriously; it was a mistake,'' Alzaga said.
The anniversary of Muñiz's death is being marked this week by Cuban
government news sites.
''I don't like to use the word martyr, but I guess you can call Muñiz
our martyr in the Cuba travel industry. He was the first and the only
one directly killed over it,'' Aruca said.
For those agencies in business with Cuba, there are rules to follow.
Initially, the travel companies had to follow conditions set by
Havanatur -- among them, all flights had to be purchased with a
seven-day stay in one of the state-run hotels.
Eventually agency owners were able to bargain to only require one
night's stay in a hotel, and by the 1990s the hotel requirement was lifted.
Aruca said Marazul charged customers the cost of the flight and hotel
stay, but barely broke even.
In the 1990s, travel agencies diversified by seeking out organizations,
sports teams and schools that wanted to travel to Cuba for humanitarian
and educational reasons, Aruca said.
Despite the domestic political controversy, winning permission from
Washington for the flights is considered the easy part of the equation,
said John Kavulich II, president of the U.S.-Cuba Trade and Economic
Council. ''From the U.S. side, if you meet the criteria, you cannot be
denied. There isn't a quota,'' Kavulich said.
On the Cuba side, it's another story.
''The Cuban government is going to favor those operators who have stated
publicly that they oppose certain U.S. policies'' -- like Washington's
trade embargo against the island, Kavulich said.
''They'll Google you,'' he added. ``Have you written letters, have you
given testimony, have you been in the media opposing what the Cuban
government feels are policies doing [Cuba] a disservice?''
Selling trips to Cuba once was deadly - Cuba - MiamiHerald.com (4 May 2009)
http://www.miamiherald.com/news/americas/cuba/v-fullstory/story/1030958.html
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