The Washington Post
April 9, 2000
 
 
'Affidavit' Against Cuba Challenged
 
Lawsuit Questions Miami-Dade Policy

                  By Sue Anne Pressley
                  Washington Post Staff Writer
                  Sunday, April 9, 2000; Page A03

                  MIAMI—It is called "the Cuba Affidavit," and every year, the arts groups
                  that receive $6 million worth of grants from Miami-Dade County must sign
                  it--or else.

                  What it says is that all groups that receive county funds, book county venues
                  or have a county contract must sign a statement saying they and everyone
                  they do business with are free of ties to Cuba. The affidavit's very existence
                  distinguishes Miami-Dade as the only county in the United States with its
                  own cultural embargo against the communist country, one that supersedes
                  even the U.S. economic embargo.

                  Now, the affidavit has been taken to court. In a class-action lawsuit filed
                  Wednesday in U.S. District Court by three nonprofit arts groups, two
                  concert promoters and the American Civil Liberties Union of Florida, the
                  constitutionality of the policy is being challenged. The suit alleges that the
                  affidavit not only infringes on First Amendment rights but also violates the
                  federal government's exclusive authority over foreign affairs and commerce.

                  It charges that Miami-Dade--home, along with adjoining Broward County, to
                  800,000 Cuban Americans--is operating its own foreign policy toward Cuba.
                  That is a particularly sticky point at a time when some local officials have
                  appeared ready to defy federal authorities in the Elian Gonzalez custody
                  case.

                  The plaintiffs say the Cuba Affidavit illustrates the powerful hold that the
                  most vocal Cuban exiles have on the area. They also say the policy amounts
                  to artistic censorship and has cost Miami-Dade several key cultural and
                  artistic events because Cuban nationals might have been involved.

                  "I love the Cuban community in Miami, and I think this is the most exciting
                  city in the United States," said plaintiff Joseph Adler, artistic director at
                  GableStage, a nonprofit theater in Coral Gables. "But when I was in civil
                  rights demonstrations in the '60s or demonstrations against the Vietnam War,
                  a demonstration meant both sides of an issue. In Miami, a demonstration
                  means one side. That's why these people are so emboldened, so brazen:
                  There's never anyone speaking up with a different viewpoint."

                  Miami-Dade Mayor Alex Penelas, who has been criticized for announcing
                  that local police will not assist federal immigration officials in taking
                  6-year-old Elian from his Miami relatives' home to his Cuban father, has
                  publicly stated that he supports the affidavit.

                  Deborah Margol, a spokeswoman for the county's department of cultural
                  affairs, declined to comment on the ongoing litigation. County officials have
                  argued that the policy does not prevent Cuban performers from appearing in
                  Miami, only the use of county funds or facilities for that purpose. And
                  County Attorney Robert Ginsburg told the Miami Herald last week that
                  "there is no federal statute--no federal executive order or federal
                  treaty--which mandates the state or locality fund any cultural activities."

                  The suit is asking that the policy be declared unconstitutional and that the
                  county be enjoined from requiring the signatures and from denying the use of
                  funds and facilities.

                  The Cuba Affidavit was approved in 1996, but opponents, always queasy
                  about the document, became vocal only after the county commission voted
                  unanimously in February to make signing it a precondition of applying for
                  county grants. In the past, a more casual method was followed, with
                  recipients signing as they collected the money.

                  Two recent events highlighted the problems. The first was a controversial
                  appearance here in October by the Cuban dance band Los Van Van, in
                  which several thousand protesters spat at concert-goers and hurled eggs and
                  bottles at them. Earlier, the concert promoter, Debra Ohanian, a plaintiff in
                  the suit, had a dispute with the county over the venue.

                  The second episode involved the Miami Film Festival, at Florida International
                  University, which recently screened "Life Is to Whistle," a Cuban film
                  critical of life under President Fidel Castro. Ohanian complained that if she
                  had been in violation of the Cuba Affidavit, the festival must have been as
                  well. The county agreed, revoking the $50,000 it had contributed to the
                  event.

                  According to the ACLU's Howard Simon, the Cuba Affidavit has had a
                  "chilling effect" on the area's cultural and artistic offerings. In September,
                  Miami lost the Latin Grammy Awards to Los Angeles after county officials
                  refused to allow the use of a county-owned arena because the ceremony
                  would involve Cuban nationals.

                  A group bidding last year to hold the 2007 Pan Am Games in Miami-Dade
                  reconsidered, and organizers of an international music industry fair held in
                  Miami each year also have pulled out because Cuban artists are not
                  welcome. In July, the Junior Pan-American Games moved from Miami to
                  Tampa after the county refused financial support because of the Cuban
                  participants.

                  Other controversies here reflect the long memories and deep emotions that
                  accompany any issue involving Cuba. In 1996, for example, some county
                  commissioners stalked out of a meeting in protest as former United Nations
                  ambassador Andrew Young was receiving an honor. They reportedly were
                  still smarting over a statement Young had made 18 years earlier about
                  Cuban troops being a stabilizing factor in the civil war in Angola.

                  Elizabeth Boone of the Miami Light Project, a nonprofit group that presents
                  and develops contemporary theater and dance, is aware of the risk she is
                  taking by refusing to sign what she calls "a loyalty oath." Over the past 11
                  years, about 8 percent of her annual budget, anywhere from $45,000 to
                  $58,000, has come from Miami-Dade County.

                  "There are all kinds of extraordinary music companies, dance companies and
                  films coming out of Cuba," said Boone, a plaintiff in the suit. "I would like to
                  have the same rights my colleagues in arts around the country have."

                  Researcher Lynn Davis in Washington contributed to this report.

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