Two prominent Cuban exile leaders dismiss conference in Havana

[Jimmy2]

The president of the Cuban American National Foundation and a director of the Cuban Liberty Council ridiculed a three-day conference that opens Wednesday in Havana and has drawn about 450 Cuban expatriates from around the world, including several from South Florida.

``It doesn't have any importance whatsoever,'' said Francisco ``Pepe'' Hernández, president of the Cuban American National Foundation. ``The guys going down there have a right to their own opinion and good riddance.''

Added Ninoska Pérez-Castellón, a director of the Cuban Liberty Council: ``It's more of the same. The emigres are just those 450 authorized to return to Cuba and who are supporters of the Cuban government.''

The reactions were the first by leaders of traditional Cuban exile community organizations on the conference in Havana.

Those attending the event generally portray themselves as either neutral in the struggle between exiles and the Havana regime or who sympathize with Cuban government goals or seek reconciliation between exiles and the regime.

Several participants from South Florida were called for a response, but they could not be reached because they were either enroute to Havana or already there. Those travelers include Max Lesnik and Francisco Aruca, two longtime proponents of improved U.S.-Cuba relations who also advocate a rapprochement with Cuba.

Lesnik heads a radio program called Radio Miami and hosts an Internet website by the same name. On the website, Lesnik describes his radio service as an alternative to other Spanish-language media which -- in his view -- ``do not offer . . . accurate, impartial or objective information about developments in the Americas, Cuba and the world.''

Aruca is also a radio host and owner of Marazul Charters, which operates a charter airline service for trips to Cuba.

The Cuban government periodically hosts emigre conferences. The last one took place in 2004, the year then-President George W. Bush imposed travel and money remittance restrictions on exiles. The limits have since been lifted by President Barack Obama.

A Cuban government statement on the conference said the goal is to continue the ``frank and direct'' exchange of views between Cuban officials and Cuban emigres. The statement, from deputy Cuban foreign minister Dagoberto Rodríguez Barrera, also contained a passage that drew derision from Pérez-Castellón and Hernández.

It said: ``We can affirm today with absolute certainty that there are no profound problems between Cuba and the majority of its emigres.''

Hernández laughed when a reporter read the sentence to him.

``I only wish that were true,'' he said. ``Unfortunately, that is not the case. It would be true if the Cuban government would give the Cuban people the rights they deserve. But I would say that tremendous differences remain between the Cuban regime and the Cuban-American community.''

The conference opens Wednesday at the Palace of Conventions in Havana and ends Friday. It is titled ``Meeting of Cubans Residing Abroad Who Oppose the Blockade and Defend National Sovereignty.''

Blockade is the word used in Cuba to describe the U.S. trade embargo on the island.