[progchat_action] Cuban exile groups squabble
 
Date: Sun, 18 May 2008 22:59:38 -0500 (CDT)


(The "Cuban American National Foundation" wants more US taxpayer funding of
dissidents - in Cuba - and claims money being siphoned off for other
purposes.  Rivals cry foul!!!. SR)

Exile group: Not enough money getting to Cuban dissidents

By Alfonso Chardy
Miami Herald
Thu, May. 15, 2008

In an already charged election year when U.S. policy toward Cuba remains a
key campaign issue, a prominent exile group is calling on the Bush
administration to change how it operates Cuba democracy programs so that
millions of dollars can reach dissidents on the island.

In the 21-page report to be released Thursday, the Cuban American National
Foundation says that less than 17 percent of $65 million in federal Cuba aid
funds spent during the past 10 years went to ''direct, on-island
assistance.'' The bulk of the money, the report says, went to academic
studies and expenses of exile organizations, mostly in Miami and Washington.

The report, which echoes findings by The Miami Herald in 2006 and a
congressional Government Accountability Office audit that found lax
oversight of the programs, comes as the Bush administration prepares to dole
out a record $45.7 million in Cuba democracy grants this year. That's more
than three times the amount spent last year by the U.S. Agency for
International Development on Cuba grants.

Francisco ''Pepe'' Hernandez, the foundation president, said the report was
not meant as an attack on the U.S. program. ''I have been connected to these
programs and these ideas from the very beginning,'' said Hernandez, who
wrote an opinion column published Thursday in The Herald. ``These programs
have been misused, and to see that only a small amount is reaching the
island certainly drives us to do something about it.''

At least two of the organizations that receive USAID money blasted the
report and said it would help Cuba's communist regime.

The Cuban Democratic Directorate, or Directorio, called the report a ``smear
campaign.''

''We are profoundly disappointed and dismayed that CANF has chosen this time
in history to attack and lie about a fellow Cuban pro-democracy
organization,'' said Orlando Gutierrez, the Miami group's national
secretary.

Frank Calzsn, a former foundation official who now runs the Center for a
Free Cuba in Washington, accused the foundation of harboring a communist
spy.

''First, it's simply not true,'' Calzsn said of the report.

``Secondly, I am surprised. The assessment among some key policymakers in
Washington, D.C., is that somehow the Cuban intelligence services have
infiltrated the Cuban American National Foundation.''

Hernandez countered that if U.S. officials know that the foundation has been
infiltrated, as exile groups have been in the past, then ``we certainly
expect the FBI to let us know because this is certainly a very serious
case.''

The rift between the once powerful foundation and other organizations began
after foundation chairman Jorge Mas Canosa died in 1997. Several of its more
conservative members split and founded the Cuban Liberty Council, accusing
post-Mas Canosa foundation leaders of adopting policies that ran counter to
principles embraced under Mas Canosa.

The Bush administration has looked to the council for advice on Cuba policy.

Hernandez, a close associate of of Mas Canosa, said the foundation is simply
keeping to the principles that the group's founder espoused.

''I know that what we are doing is exactly what he would have been fighting
for,'' Hernandez said.

Besides recommending payments to Cuban dissidents, the report also proposes
that support groups lessen reliance on federal aid through increased private
donations and that they be required to channel 75 percent of federal funding
to dissidents instead of to operating costs such as employee salaries.

The report also recommends that a USAID staff person be posted at the U.S.
Interests Section in Havana to monitor the federal aid.

In a statement, USAID officials noted, ``In recent months, we have
introduced a number of reforms to the [Cuba] program to better its
administration and implementation. We welcome public comments on how we can
continue this process.''

In March, administration officials disclosed plans to limit funds available
for anti-Castro groups in Miami and expand resources to international
advocacy organizations.

http://www.miamiherald.com/news/nation/story/534166.html

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