By John Lantigua
Palm Beach Post Staff Writer
Tuesday, January 02, 2007
MIAMI — At Sentir Cubano, a Cuban nostalgia shop in Little Havana, you
can buy a kit to celebrate Fidel Castro's death.
It includes a bottle of cider inscribed "Open only when Fidel dies," a
T-shirt that pictures Castro as a dog with rabies and a roll of toilet
paper with his face on every sheet. Maria Vazquez, owner of the shop,
says the toilet paper can be used to decorate party venues - or otherwise.
The articles in the kit also can be bought separately, and Vazquez said
recently she had sold roughly 500 bottles of cider in about two weeks.
"Cubans, we like to celebrate," Vazquez says. "But this celebration will
be like nothing that has ever been seen before."
Castro is reported to be seriously ill, and many South Florida citizens
are eagerly anticipating his last breath sometime this year. But those
awaiting his death extend beyond the 850,000 Cuban-Americans in the region.
Thousands of law enforcement, military and government personnel, the
majority of whom don't have a drop of Cuban blood, also are attuned to
reports about the health of the Cuban dictator of the past 48 years.
"We don't know what will happen when he dies," says James Brooks,
spokesman for the Naval Air Station in Key West. "When you plan, you
anticipate the worst-case scenario. Will something go on that makes
thousands of people leave the island and take to the seas? Will others
try to sail from Florida to help them? Will we have a very dangerous
situation in the Florida Straits? Or will nothing happen?"
In South Florida, Castro's death will be an experience involving both
celebration and trepidation.
At Versailles Restaurant, a Cuban exile landmark in Miami's Little
Havana, Ernesto Garcia, the day manager, anticipates madness.
On July 31, the Cuban government announced that Castro, 80, had
undergone serious abdominal surgery and was handing the baton of power
to his brother, Raul, 76. The street outside the restaurant filled with
revelers.
"When he actually dies, it will be absolutely crazy around here," Garcia
says.
But Cuban exiles have been waiting for the moment so long that possibly
they don't believe it will truly arrive. Garcia says no one has asked
the restaurant to cater a "Fidel is dead" party.
"But once it happens, yes, I assume they will come to us," he says.
While Garcia is waiting for the business to roll in, South Florida
officialdom isn't just waiting to see what happens.
On Dec. 12 and 13, more than 500 representatives of dozens of local,
state and federal agencies, including the military, met at the Broward
County Convention Center in Fort Lauderdale. They conducted a "tabletop"
exercise in anticipation of a "mass migration event," or MME.
According to participants, the conclave was planned before Castro's
surgery. But the most likely MME in the Caribbean region any time soon
involves Cuba, with Castro's death as the catalyst.
"Everybody knows what happened at the time of Mariel," Brooks says,
referring to the 1980 boatlift that brought 125,000 Cubans to South
Florida, most in a matter of a few weeks.
Hundreds of pleasure craft and fishing boats scrambled from Florida
marinas to snatch Cubans off the island after Castro opened the north
coast port of Mariel and the jails. The Straits became a 90-mile
alleyway out of U.S. government control.
And a smaller, less prosperous South Florida suddenly was forced to
accommodate the new refugees, putting a strain on government systems.
"We want to learn from history and not repeat it," Brooks says.
To that end, South Florida authorities - under the direction of the
Department of Homeland Security - are preparing, even though the first
five months of transition from Fidel to Raul have gone peacefully.
"Operation Vigilant Sentry" is Homeland Security's game plan to react to
any large movement of migrants towards U.S. shores from the south. The
plan is about 1,000 pages long and was the text for the recent exercise.
Palm Beach County officials participated in that exercise, including law
enforcement, fire rescue and health department officials.
"We have standing commitments to coordinate and cooperate with other
departments in the Homeland Security Task Force," says Paul Miller,
spokesman for the Palm Beach County Sheriff's Office.
He said one task for which the sheriff's office might be mobilized is
search and rescue.
"We have vessels that patrol not just the Intracoastal Waterway but also
on the ocean waters in case migrants head this way," Miller says. "We
also have helicopters and fixed-wing aircraft. Any of our elements can
be called in to help."
Plans are being made to house and process refugees who make it ashore.
Locales are being chosen all the way from Monroe County north to Palm
Beach, with the area around Homestead Air Reserve Base in Miami-Dade
seen as a major holding area.
If necessary, refugees might even be sent to other parts of the country.
But federal authorities hope that those refugees never leave Cuba in the
first place and that the feds can get them to turn around if they do.
The Coast Guard is the lead agency in interdicting craft heading both
north from Cuba and south from the U.S., but it will have plenty of help.
Among the federal agencies that could become involved are the Department
of Defense, including Southern Command headquarters in Miami-Dade; the
FBI; Customs and Border Protection; and immigration authorities.
Lt. Cmdr. Chris O'Neil says the Coast Guard can put a varied array of
craft in the air to track and disrupt unlawful sea travel. They include
HH-60 Jayhawk and HH-65 Dolphin helicopters, which are often used for
search and rescue; HU 25 Falcon jets that are employed to detect
smuggling operations; and C-130 Hercules transport planes.
Reinforcements can be called in from other Coast Guard sectors if necessary.
"At the time of Katrina, the Coast Guard assembled craft from all around
the country in the Gulf Coast area," O'Neil says. "We can do it again if
need be."
Other federal agencies also can provide aircraft.
"U.S. Customs and Border Protection has the largest police air force in
the world," says Zachary Mann, local spokesman for those agencies.
The Coast Guard can launch a flotilla, including four different sizes of
cutters, ranging from 87 to 378 feet.
"We also have use of the 33-foot SPC-LE," O'Neil says. "The LE stands
for law enforcement. It's quick and nimble and can go up against the 'go
fasts' used by drug smugglers and people smugglers."
One job for those federal vessels would be to interdict boat owners from
South Florida trying to stage another Mariel.
But a faster way would be to stop them before they take to the water.
The Coast Guard commander in each sector is also the captain of the port
and has the power to close ports and marinas. He probably would act in
coordination with the governor, who has the power to issue an emergency
order restricting movement in the region.
That could cause a whole different set of problems. Ramon Saul Sanchez,
leader of the anti-Castro Democracia Movement, has said he might want to
send boats to Cuba in the event of civil unrest there.
But he has been threatened with arrest if he does.
"If they try to stop us, then we may have to resort to acts of civil
disobedience here in Miami," he says. Such acts in the past have
resulted in mass traffic tie-ups and numerous arrests.
Local police are hoping their involvement after Castro dies isn't as
confrontational. In places with large Cuban populations, such as
Miami-Dade and the city of Key West, authorities expect large-scale
celebrating in the street - with many celebrants drinking something
stronger than Maria Vazquez's cider.
"Those police departments may just have to decide what streets to close
to traffic" to accommodate the celebrants, says Amos Rojas Jr., FDLE
special agent in charge. "Let's hope that's all that happens."
http://www.palmbeachpost.com/state/content/state/epaper/2007/01/02/m1a_MiamiCuba_0102.html
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