Published Wednesday, April 19, 2000, in the Miami Herald 

Radio figure blasted

Carollo links him to envoy

BY FRANCES ROBLES

WASHINGTON, D.C. -- Mayor Joe Carollo called a Miami Spanish-language radio talk show host a Cuban ``operative'' Tuesday, after the broadcaster's telephone numbers were found in a Cuban diplomat's billfold.

Carollo made the comments at a Washington, D.C., press conference held to blast Friday's alleged attack by Cuban diplomats on exile protesters.

About a dozen protesters, several of them law students from Miami-Dade County, have been conducting small rallies outside the Cuban Interests Section to speak out against Elian Gonzalez's possible return to the island.

Up to 20 Cuban Interests Section employees are accused of waiting until the coast was clear of TV cameras Friday to open their gates, roll up their sleeves and charge at the heckling protesters. Men and women alike said they were punched and thrown to the ground.

``Then they went back inside to cover themselves under the guise of diplomatic immunity,'' said Mauricio Claver Carone, a Catholic University student.

In the scuffle, a piece of evidence was dropped on the sidewalk: a billfold containing the business cards of Armando Collazo, first secretary of consular affairs. In it were a variety of telephone messages and notes, including the card of a Philadelphia-based U.S. Marshal.

RADIO SHOW HOST

Carollo said it also contained ``notes of conversations'' with Alvaro Sanchez-Cifuentes, host of the daily WOCN-Union Radio (1450 AM) talk show, En Alta Voz. The show, ``Speaking Out Loud,'' is known for pushing to lift the economic embargo against Cuba.

Sponsored by a travel agency that arranges flights to Havana, the controversial show has at times been taken off the air. The Cienfuegos-born Cifuentes calls himself a former revolutionary who is neither a communist nor socialist -- just a Cuban who loves his motherland.

``They don't understand that freedom of expression is democracy,'' he once said.

Sanchez-Cifuentes' home answering machine was full and not accepting more messages Tuesday. He did not return calls to his pager, and his cellular phone was not turned on.

Cuban Interests Section spokesman Luis Fernandez said simply, ``What else is Carollo going to say?''

He called Carollo's other accusations, such as those accusing Cuban diplomat Fernando Remirez of engaging in chemical warfare in Angola, ``ridiculous.'' He wouldn't get into details about what happened Friday night.

``These have been very difficult days, with the presence of these people outside,'' Fernandez said.

``They have been performing provocative actions against the integrity and dignity of our diplomatic mission, disrupting its normal functions. For example, they were offending our women, our wives, our children.''

Carollo said the broadcaster was among the radio personalities stirring trouble in Miami and then placing the blame on exiles.

``So many lies,'' Carollo said. ``Accusing us of being violent people, when we are not violent, saying there will be violence when there will be no violence.''

Protester Jorge Rodriguez has spent the past three days calling every government agency he can think of to lodge a complaint against the Interest Section diplomats he says attacked him Friday evening.

PROBE VOWED

Secret Service Lt. R.J. Dillon on Friday called the incident ``minor pushing and shoving.'' Other agencies, including the Washington police, have vowed to investigate the assault.

``If the reports we have heard are true, such behavior is intolerable,'' said one State Department official who spoke on the condition of anonymity. ``We are insisting that the Cuban Interests Section explain this incident. We have talked to them trying to find out exactly what happened. It's astounding.''

A Justice Department spokeswoman said the department would first see if it has jurisdiction in the matter.

The State Department official would not speculate on what could come of the investigation, given that some of the Cuban employees cannot be criminally charged because they have diplomatic immunity.

In 1995, two Cuban diplomats were tossed out of the country eight months after the Cuban government refused to waive their immunity so the pair could be prosecuted for attacking a New York police officer. The two were among seven people arrested when anti-Castro demonstrators chained themselves to the front door of the Cuban mission to the United Nations.

``Are these the people we want to turn Elian Gonzalez over to during the appeals process?'' Carollo said. ``It's not right. It's not fair.''

Herald translator Renato Perez contributed to this report.

Copyright 2000 the Miami Herald.
Republished here with the permission of the Miami Herald. No further republication or redistribution is permitted without the written approval of The Miami Herald.