Officials pondering alternative to short-wave transmissions to dissidents

 BY ELAINE DE VALLE

 Two months after Ninoska Pérez Castellón left the Cuban American National Foundation over the fate of her shortwave radio transmissions, leaders at the influential lobby have pulled the plug on La Voz de la Fundación.

 ``They came to the office to say it was being closed, that it was the last day we would be transmitting to Cuba,'' said Ileana Curra, who has worked there since 1998, recording interviews with dissidents and independent journalists for later broadcast.

 ``I can get another job. What worries me is those who oppose the government in Cuba,'' said Curra. ``They are more repressed than ever today and now they have no voice. Nobody will hear them.''

 But CANF Executive Director Joe Garcia said the group had not turned its back on island dissidents and that the Voice of the Foundation would still exist -- just not on shortwave. He declined to give details about other venues.

 ``There are other alternatives to reaching Cuba, and we're going to try to exploit all those alternatives,'' Garcia said.

 Other sources said the foundation may try to buy airtime on AM radio stations that reach Cuba and will transmit a daily news program with the same The Voice of the Foundation name.

 The shutdown of the shortwave arm of the foundation, which began broadcasting in 1989, comes as the foundation struggles to redefine its role in Miami's exile community after the public departure of at least 20 board members. They resigned last month saying they disagreed with the organization's direction after Jorge Mas Santos took over the reins when his father, founder Jorge Mas Canosa, died from cancer in 1997.

 The split was over issues like Mas' support of the Latin Grammys move to Miami -- subsequently switched back to Las Angeles and scratched after the terrorist attacks on the nation -- his ``dictatorial'' style and control over the organization's funds. Members said the group has deviated from its principles, and its mission.

 Although Pérez Castellón had cited the decision to stop or decrease transmissions as the main reason for her resignation July 19 -- a decision Garcia and other leaders denied at the time -- she did not feel vindicated.

 ``This is not the kind of situation where you can feel good about being right,'' Perez said.

 ``It hurts so much, and it's worse that they did it on the day of Jorge Mas Canosa's birthday,'' she said. ``This project meant so much to him. They have destroyed the labor of Jorge Mas Canosa and so many other men and women who dedicated their lives to the foundation.''

 Garcia said the decision was made after much consideration.

 ``It's something we had a committee working on for quite a while. It was simply not effective for such a huge use of resources, and we decided we had to move to another format.''

 The shortwave radio branch cost the organization between $500,000 and $600,000 a year, Garcia said, including salaries, office space, equipment, long distance
 telephone calls to Cuba and the transmissions themselves.

 ``We shouldn't be pouring good money after bad,'' Garcia said, explaining that the transmissions were not getting through to much of Cuba and not at all to Havana. ``It's being jammed. It has a very small audience in the last two years. And therefore we need to engage our resources in things that are effective.''

 The election of President Bush helped leaders reach the decision, he added.

 ``We feel very confident about the leadership at TV and Radio Marti and the fact that this administration is very committed to getting information into Cuba, and that affects how we use the Voice and its resources,'' Garcia said. ``We need to make sure that when we're doing things, it shouldn't be duplicative or repetitive and it should be effective.

 Garcia said the foundation needs to dedicate resources to projects that are having an effect in Cuba: legislative work, lobbying work and publications.

 The Voice of the Foundation was once ``a very effective tool,'' Garcia said, before the Cuban government began interrupting transmissions.

 ``In the last two years, we have dedicated a number of resources and we increased staff. We made more phone calls to Cuba than ever before. But it was not being as effective as it should be for that kind of expenditure. It's a major, major expense.

 Pérez said it was untrue that the transmissions had stopped reaching an audience.

 ``That is a lie. He doesn't know how to measure the audience nor has he ever tried. We were reaching people and, more important, we gave the Cuban people a voice,'' Perez said, adding that it was not wise to count on future transmissions by Radio Marti.

 Curra said she believed the decision was financially motivated because her last two paychecks from the Jorge Mas Canosa Freedom Foundation had bounced. The
 $16,000-a-year employee said the foundation then paid her in cash for the first check and she expected the same for the second. The last check will come next Friday for her and the other employees, who were paid on the 15th and 30th of the month.

 Garcia said that of seven employees, only Omar Lopez Montenegro, who was the voice on the Voice since the day Pérez Castellón left, would stay on.

 ``Omar works also on human rights and other issues related to the foundation,'' Garcia said.

© 2001