Academic aid in Cuba faces obstacles

Posted on Wed, Nov. 15, 2006

Academic aid in Cuba faces obstacles
By OSCAR CORRAL
corral@MiamiHerald.com

John Virtue crammed everything a reporter needed to know into a
clandestine workshop for independent journalists in Havana four years
ago. But he just couldn't squeeze in the ethics lessons.

Manuel David Orrio, a student with a noticeable limp, eagerly
volunteered to teach the ethics class for Virtue, director of Florida
International University's International Media Center.

On March 14, 2003, Orrio taught the course at the Havana home of
then-U.S. Interests Section chief James Cason. Four days later, the
Cuban government launched its biggest crackdown on dissidents and
independent journalists in years. Seventy-five were imprisoned --
including 26 independent journalists.

Among the communist regime's star witnesses: Orrio, who was really a
Cuban agent.

''He'd been undercover, an independent journalist for 12 years,'' Virtue
said.

FIU is among a handful of American universities that have received more
than $7 million in the past decade from the U.S. Agency for
International Development (USAID) to train Cuban journalists, teach
Cubans English, study property rights issues and educate the children of
dissidents at U.S. colleges.

But USAID's academic effort has fallen short of its mark, according to
federal records, university reports and interviews with dozens of
academic and U.S. experts. For example:

• FIU has received $1.6 million from USAID since 1999 to train
journalists. As many as 214 students have taken a 2 ½-hour workshop or
correspondence course or video conferencing. As of August, only four
Cubans have completed all the required reporting and editing courses.

• Georgetown University has received $400,000 in scholarship grants to
teach at least 25 Cuban students. USAID promised $400,000 more for other
scholarships. In three years, Cuba has only allowed one student to leave
for Georgetown.

• Loyola University in Chicago received a $425,000 grant from USAID in
2004 to teach English to Cubans on the island. It has yet to teach
anyone under that program. Loyola suspended the program after its Cuban
partners objected to the USAID connection.

• Creighton University in Nebraska received a $750,000 grant from USAID
last year to study Cuba's confiscation of properties and create a model
tribunal for property claims after Fidel Castro dies. Some Cuba experts
say it's a waste of money -- because Creighton had no experience in
Cuba-related property rights research.

''I just want an opportunity for Cubans to come here, back and forth,''
said Adolfo Franco, the director of USAID's program for Latin America
and the Caribbean. ``But you know what? The standard should be applied
across the board in a fair way and not dictated by the Cuban government.''

Although its academic successes are few so far, USAID stands to garner
up to $10 million more, thanks to the Commission for Assistance to a
Free Cuba II, a group convened by President Bush and headed by Secretary
of State Condoleezza Rice and Commerce Secretary Carlos Gutierrez.

The commission has recommended spending $80 million more in the next two
years for humanitarian aid, education, exchanges and scholarships for
Cubans studying in the states.

Peter Orr, the first director of USAID's Cuba program, said USAID
funding to universities is a waste: ``If you really don't want to
achieve anything with the money, you throw money at a university who
says we're going to have an exchange program, and they go ahead and give
the grant, even though anybody who knows anything about Cuba knows it
won't work.''

BLOCKED TRIPS

Throughout the seven years that FIU has tried to train journalists, the
Cuba government has routinely blocked educators from visiting the
island. Virtue, who held classes in Havana just once, tried to train
Cuban students in third countries -- only to have the Cuban government
withhold exit visas.

FIU resorted to training by mail, and now also video-conferencing from
the U.S. Interests Section in Havana, where independent journalists
attend a live session.

''I think we have shown good results for it,'' Virtue said.

Among the successful graduates is Claudia Márquez, who left Cuba two
years ago for Puerto Rico and runs her own website and publishes stories
on other Internet sites.

Said Márquez -- one of the four independent journalists who completed
the program after studying journalism, ethics and investigative
reporting: ``It was a huge opportunity and I appreciate it very much.''

But some of the would-be Cuban journalists say the program can be
frustrating.

''I know many colleagues from the independent press in Cuba who
registered [for the FIU course], sent in their work and nothing ever
happened,'' said Juan Gonzalez Feble, an independent journalist in
Havana, in a recent telephone interview. ``We never heard from them again.

Virtue said many of the students may have sent in assignments and
paperwork to be evaluated, but Cuban agents probably confiscated their work.

Because FIU's International Media Center is funded by USAID, it is not
allowed to pay journalists in Cuba with government funding for their
work, a policy that frustrates the program's directors. The Center also
edits work produced by independent reporters on the island and looks for
publications outside Cuba to publish those reports.

''Many of the people dealing with Cuba, including many in the
government, find it very frustrating not to be able to pay the
journalists,'' Virtue said.

''It's great that the U.S. is helping the people of Cuba to achieve
democracy,'' Feble said. ``They have to remember that the theater of
operations is the island of Cuba. It's not Miami.''

HIGHEST AMOUNT

The University of Miami's Institute for Cuban and Cuban American Studies
has received more money than any other academic institution to promote
democracy in Cuba, about $2.5 million.

The program has produced several forums and about 35 research papers on
what a post-Castro Cuba might encounter.

Roger Noriega, former undersecretary of State for the Western
Hemisphere, said the USAID program should focus on groups that are
helping people inside instead of academic studies.

''Frankly, I'm less interested in studies,'' Noriega said. ``My
experience has been that these stacks of materials end up on people's
book shelves.''

The Cuba Transition Project, as the UM grant is named, is headed by UM
professor Jaime Suchlicki. He has been a key player in the USAID
strategy to try to democratize Cuba, managing more U.S. pro-democracy
money than any other person as of 2005 -- more than $7 million since 1999.

About $5 million of those funds went to Cuba OnLine, a venture that
published Sin Censura magazine -- Without Censure -- and specialized in
mailing anti-Castro material to the island.

Part of Suchlicki's salary at UM is reimbursed with federal funds from
the Cuba Transition Project; he also received a $2,000 monthly salary
from USAID-funded Cuba OnLine, a program he said expired in September.
And he hosts a show called Opiniones on Radio Marti, for which he is
paid $100 a show, earning about $18,000 the past three years, federal
records show. Suchlicki said he began the program after he was paid
between $1,000 and $2,000 as a subcontractor for a consultant, Herbert
Levin, hired by the Office of Cuba Broadcasting to analyze proposed
programming changes.

''Nobody is going to buy me for $100 or $1,000. I'm an independent
thinker,'' Suchlicki said.

In Washington, D.C., Georgetown University had picked 20 Cuban students
out of almost 400 applicants for scholarships, but only one has attended
-- because the Cuban government won't let anyone else leave the island
to study.

Georgetown spokesman Erik M. Smulson said in an e-mail that the 20
students were chosen ``on the basis of their leadership potential and
academic aptitude.''

Georgetown has spent about $112,000 of the $400,000 for the one
student's expenses, plus administrative costs of the program. A typical
Georgetown student spends $48,000 a year to attend. The rest of the
grant is still active, Smulson said.

USAID and Georgetown refused to provide copies of the grant application
or to name the student.

Adolfo Franco, the director of USAID's program for Latin America and the
Caribbean, said the agency should not cease trying to give scholarships
to Cuban students because the communist government doesn't let students out.

''The [proof] of the pudding in here is that the government of Cuba is
scared to death to give an opportunity to the Cuban people to come to
the United States and return to Cuba,'' Franco said.

EXCHANGE PROGRAM

At Loyola University in Chicago, government and university officials in
2004 hailed the signing of a two-year, $425,000 USAID grant, for an
exchange program for Cuban students called the ``Henry Hyde Program of
People-to-People Development.''

Attending the ceremony: U.S. Rep. Henry Hyde, R-Ill., a Loyola alumnus
and chairman of the House International Relations Committee, and Franco.

The goal: teach English as a second language to people in Havana.

Loyola's Cuban partners refused to participate because Loyola was
getting U.S. government money -- even though the Chicago school pledged
that its program was apolitical. By April 2005 Loyola dropped the
program, but kept the grant in hopes of reviving the program.

When there was no U.S. government money involved, students at the Jesuit
university taught English for two-week intervals at Centro LaSalle, a
Catholic center in Havana.

Loyola and USAID refused to provide copies of the grant application.
Hyde didn't return phone calls and e-mails seeking comment.

PROPERTY STUDY

At Creighton, USAID gave the law school in Nebraska a $750,000 grant
last year to study the issue of property restitution for Cubans who lost
land to Castro's revolution. USAID's Franco graduated from Creighton Law
School.

USAID spokeswoman Jessica Garcia said Franco did not influence the
award. She also said the agency seeks grant applications, and a
government interagency committee reviews, ranks and recommends applicants.

''Creighton won the award through the competitive [bidding] process,''
said Garcia in an e-mail. USAID would not specify what other
institutions bid for the grant.

A Government Accountability Office audit released Wednesday said, ''the
USAID Assistant Administrator for Latin America and the Caribbean
authorized the negotiation of awards for both unsolicited and solicited
proposals.'' The audit also said USAID's Cuba program office, which is
overseen by Franco, ``recommends USAID democracy assistance awards.''

Creighton Law School Dean Pat Borchers acknowledged the university had
no experience in Cuba property research, but said the school is
qualified to produce the report. Two of Creighton's seven grant
researchers speak fluent Spanish, said Borchers. He said he wrote a law
school case book that included ''materials'' on the 1996 Helms Burton
law, which governs U.S. policy toward Cuba. And some in the research
team also have experience in conflict resolution law, Borchers added.

Creighton researchers have traveled to Miami to consult experts,
Borchers said. One of them is Nick Gutierrez, a local lawyer who has
established a niche practice representing people who want their property
back or compensation for their loss.

''I think they need some guidance,'' said Gutierrez, who said he met
with Creighton representatives at a Cuban American Bar Association
conference in June. ``I am surprised that they [Creighton] got it [the
grant]. I'm not so surprised when I see that Adolfo Franco from USAID is
an alumnus.''

Franco said through a spokeswoman that he ''played no role whatsoever''
in the award.

Gutierrez said Creighton's distance from the exile community can help it
come up with a credible report. If such a report came from a South
Florida institution, Gutierrez said, ``maybe people would feel it's not
completely independent because it might be a mouthpiece for the Cuban
exile community.''

Another U.S.-funded organization that helps promote democracy in Cuba --
The National Endowment for Democracy -- won't fund universities because
administrative and overhead costs run as high as 65 percent at
universities, said NED Vice President Barbara Haig.

''Is there a shortage of research on Cuba? I don't think there really
is. It's just very painful to pay that kind of indirect cost rate,''
said Haig, adding that other programs keep administrative expenses at
one-third those rates.

Georgetown declined to specify those costs, and Loyola did not respond
to an e-mail request. Creighton officials said their program's indirect
costs were 42 percent, and FIU's international media program's indirect
costs were 24 percent.

Julio Aliaga Pesant, an independent journalist and former University of
Havana professor expelled two years ago for his political beliefs, said
the U.S. should spend the money inside Cuba.

''I think that with one-tenth of what the U.S. government gives to
exterior projects, they'd subvert the government in Cuba if they got it
to the right groups and people here,'' Aliaga Pesant said.

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