Secret Missions to Cuba: Fidel Castro, Bernardo Benes, and Cuban Miami

344 Pages·2001·6.79 MB·English

by  Robert M. Levine (auth.)

T
HIS STORY HAS NEVER BEEN TOLD. It starts in pre-1959 Miami
and ends with the 2000 Gore/Bush presidential election. A story
of intrigue carried out in Havana and Washington, as well as in
Panama, Nassau, Kingston, Cuernavaca, Mexico City, New York, and Atlanta,
Secret Missions to Cuba is a powerful exposé of the intimidating influence
that militant Cuban exiles have had, and its enormous consequences for
Cuban Americans.
The key to exploring exile politics in Florida is Bernardo Benes, a
Cuban American lawyer who made dozens of trips to Cuba to meet with
Fidel Castro during the Carter and Reagan administrations. Benes’s first
mission in 1978 led to the release of 3,600 political prisoners and enabled
exiled Cubans to visit their relatives. He operated in an atmosphere of
intimidation so strong that those not adhering to exile community pressures
were branded Castro agents, or worse. The personal consequences for
Benes were severe: He became—and remains to this day—an outcast in
Miami’s Cuban community for having dealt personally with Castro.
“As a reporter who covered Miami during the time these events took
place, I wish I knew then what this book reveals now. Truth is truly stranger
than fiction,” notes best-selling writer Edna Buchanan, who won the
Pulitzer Prize for crime reporting while at the Miami Herald.
In 2000, anti-Castro rancor in Miami fueled an intense dispute between
Cuban Americans and their neighbors over Elián González. The anti-
government backlash meant that even more Cuban Americans than usual
voted for the Republican Party in the remarkably narrow presidential
election.
This groundbreaking book by Latin American specialist Robert M.
Levine is about the shaping of American foreign policy, Cuban–American
relations, and the United States’s hidden history with Cuba. For the first
time ever, read the full story—and witness the tensions, volatility, and
paradoxes inherent to Cuban Miami.
Secret Missions to Cuba

Secret Missions to Cuba
F i d e l C a s t r o ,
B e r n a r d o B e n e s ,
a n d C u b a n M i a m i
Robert M. Levine
SECRETMISSIONSTOCUBA
Copyright © Robert M. Levine, 2001. All rights reserved. No part of this
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book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without
written permission except in the case of brief quotations embodied in
critical articles or reviews.
First published 2001 by
PALGRAVE™
175 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY 10010 and
Houndmills, Basingstoke, Hampshire, England RG21 6XS.
Companies and representatives throughout the world.
Palgrave is the new global publishing imprint of St Martin’s Press LLC
Scholarly and Reference Division and Palgrave Publishers Ltd (formerly
Macmillan Press Ltd).
ISBN 978-1-4039-6046-7 ISBN 978-1-137-04360-3 (eBook)
DOI 10.1007/978-1-137-04360-3
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Levine, Robert M.
Secret missions to Cuba : Fidel Castro, Bernardo Benes, and Cuban
Miami / by Robert M. Levine.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references (p.) and index.
1. United States—Relations—Cuba. 2. Cuba—Relations—United
States. 3. Benes, Bernardo. 4. Businessmen—Florida—Miami—
Biography. 5. Cuban Americans—Florida—Miami—Biography. 6.
Exiles—Florida—Miami—Political activity—Case studies. 7. Castro,
Fidel, 1927 - 8. Espionage, American—Cuba. 9. Cuban Americans—
Florida—Miami—Social conditions. 10. Miami (Fla.)—Social
conditions—20th century.
E183.8.C9 L46 2001
303.48’27307291—dc21 2001
021890
Design by Letra Libre, Inc.
First Edition: September 2001
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
To the grandchildren of
Ricky and Bernardo Benes:
Allan, Eliana, Garrett, Seth,
Brett, Stephen, Nataly and Cydney

C o n t e n t s
List of Photographs ix
Preface xiii
Acknowledgments xix
Statement on Corroboration xxi
Chapter One Beginnings 1
Chapter Two Cuban Miami 39
Chapter Three Mission to Havana: The Carter Years 85
Chapter Four The Reagan Years and Beyond 149
Chapter Five The Making of a Pariah 175
Chapter Six Only in Miami 217
Chapter Seven Elián Elects a President 249
Notes 287
Index 313