BY GABRIEL MOLINA

MORE than 500 journalists have added their names to an open letter sent by Peter Wallsten of the Los Angeles Times and Charlie Savage of the Boston Globe in defense of Jim DeFede, a Miami Herald columnist who was unjustly fired, according to his colleagues.

DeFede told the newspaper’s management that he had recorded a conversation with former Miami commissioner Arthur E. Teele, Jr. without the consent of the well-known African-American politician, who dramatically committed suicide shortly afterwards.

The newspaper fired DeFede on July 27, alleging a violation of ethics. In their open letter, his colleagues refer to the columnist’s fine journalism and describe the firing as a disproportionate sanction for the gravity of the error. They attribute the firing as being more likely due to his “willingness in the past to offend powerful figures in Miami...” Many note that after recently returning from Havana, DeFede wrote articles in which he criticized the complacency of the group that monopolizes political power and supports Luis Posada Carriles, the self-confessed mastermind of acts of terrorism.

In his article titled “Terror is terror, whether it’s in London or Cuba,” DeFede criticized comments by Cuban-born Congresswoman Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, about what she called the “barbaric” terrorist attack in London. DeFede wrote: “Strong words. What But where was the congresswoman's outrage when she came to the defense of Luis Posada Carriles, a man who bragged about masterminding a series of hotel bombings in Havana that killed an Italian tourist? A man suspected of blowing up a Cuban airliner?

“Where was her desire to ''neutralize terrorism'' when she pleaded two years ago with the president of Panama to release Pedro Remón, Guillermo Novo and Gaspar Jiménez? Those men, along with Posada, were convicted in Panama of endangering public safety, a charge stemming from an alleged plot to blow up a university center where Fidel Castro was scheduled to visit.

Herald executives Jesús Díaz Jr. and Tom Fielder, executive editor, stated that they fired the popular columnist because it is illegal in the state of Florida to tape record someone without that person’s consent.

According to Díaz, DeFede told them that during his conversation with Teele, he turned on the tape recorder because the politician was telling him about accusations of corruption directed at him, his financial problems and other sensitive subjects. Díaz said that DeFede knew that the conversation was “off the record.”

DeFede, who had worked for the Herald since June of 2002, and previously for the Miami New Times, stated that he committed a mistake during a tense situation. The paper’s management found out what he had done from DeFede himself: “I told them I was willing to accept a suspension and apologize both to the newsroom and to our readers. Unfortunately, the Herald decided on the death penalty instead.”

Perhaps Teele had been caught up in corruption. Perhaps not. Because it is quite strange that under a federal administration that is characterized by corruption, the media should attack Teele so ferociously. It could be that he was a scapegoat or that it’s a way of weakening the Black electorate.

Regardless, Miami does not believe in freedom of the press. The Miami mafia’s roots in the Batista dictatorship are the underlying factor in the intolerance that reigns in Florida. They cannot forgive DeFede for the opinion he expressed in the Miami Herald regarding that group’s favorite son: “Is Posada the creation of an American foreign policy that for decades was built on muscle and arrogance, an America where the ends justify the means? Posada may well be that bastard child. But he is not a hero. He does not represent what is good and strong and admirable about this country, but rather what can go wrong with it. He is...an aberration. And a reminder of the evil that lurks within each of us and must be suppressed with vigilance.”