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Beacon Council - Miami 9/30/91 [OA 8329] [2]
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Beacon Council - Miami 9/30/91 [OA 8329] [2]
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Records of the White House Office of Speechwriting (George H. W. Bush Administration)
Speech Backup Chronological Files
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This is not a textual record. This is used as an
administrative marker by the George Bush Presidential
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Record Group/Collection:
George H.W. Bush Presidential Records
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Speechwriting, White House Office of
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Speech File Backup Files
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Chron File, 1989-1993
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13773
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13773-001
Folder Title:
Beacon Council - Miami 9/30/91 [OA 8329] [2]
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3RD STORY of Level 2 printed in FULL format.
Playboy Copyright (c) 1983 Information Access Company; Playboy Enterprises Inc.
1983
September, 1983
SECTION: Vol. 30 ; Pg. 57
LENGTH: 11672 words
HEADLINE: The Sandinistas; Playboy interview
BYLINE: Dreifus, Claudia
BODY:
In April of this year, the President of the United States called an
extraordinary Joint session of Congress to get support for his Central American
economic-and-military-aid program, to talk about progress toward democracy that
the government of El Salvador and been making--and to denounce the left-wing
Sandinista government of Nicaragua. Among President Reagan's charges against
the Nicaraguans: They were Marxists; they were becoming a Cuban and/or a Soviet
military base; they were encouraging revolution throughout Central America;
they were undemocratic; they hadn't held elections yet; they had been rude to
the Pope. In light of all that, Regan announced, "We should not--and we will
not--protect the Nicaraguan government from the anger of its own people."
What he was saying openly was that the United States of America would be
quite happy if the Sandinistas were overthrown. For at least two years, the
U.S. has been financing counterrevolutionary activities against the Nicaraguan
government. In addition to many open measures designed to destabilize the
Nicaraguan economy, the Reagan Administration has been financing a not-so-secret
"secret war" aimed at toppling the Sandinistas: Anastasio Somoza's former
National Guardsmen and other anti-Sandinistas are trained, armed and supported
in base camps in Honduras and Costa Rica; those Contras have been making
military incursions into Nicaragua.
That 50 much of America's attention should be focused on Nicaragua's leaders
made it appropriate for PLAYBOY to seek out the Sandinista junta and find out
something more about those people who so obsess the Reagan Administration. For
people supposedly establishing a regime abhorrent to U.S. interests, they are a
group whose views, aims and personalities are remarkably unreported. Journalist
Claudia Dreifus, whose most recent credit was the "Playboy Interview" with
Latin-American writer and Nobel Prize winner Gabriel Garcia Marquez in February,
was a natural choice for the complex assignment. After months of negotiations,
Nicaragua's head of state and a panel of three of the most influential
Sandinista leaders finally agreed to sit down with Dreifus to speak about their
feelings toward the United States.
Speaking with PLAYBOY were Sergio Ramirez Mercado, 40, one of three members
of Nicaragua's ruling junta; Father Ernesto Cardenal, 58, a Roman Catholic
priest who is minister of culture; and Comandante Tomas Borge Martinez, 52,
outspoken minister of the interior. In an interview PLAYBOY agreed to run
separately, Daniel Ortega Saavedra, 37, the Nicaraguan head of state, also
spoke at length about his life, poetry and politics. Comandante Ortega is an
extremely elusive figure who, until the "Playboy Interview," had not sat for an
indepth interview with a North American journalist.
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But first, a quick history lesson.
Nicaragua is a small Central American republic of nearly 3,000,000 people; it
is also a country that has a unique historical relationship with the United
States. In 1855, a North American adventurer named William Walker was invited
to Nicaragua by the Liberals to aid them in the civil war against the
Conservatives. Once there, he declared himself president and reinstuted
slavery. Walker was eventually routed from Nicaragua, but after him came three
invasions by the U.S. Marines--in 1909, 1912 and 1926. The invasions took
place during the era of U.S. big-stick diplomacy, and each of them was designed
to protect U.S. economic and political interests in Central America.
In 1927, after the Marines had landed in Nicaragua, a peasant leader named
Augusto Cesar Sandino decided to wage a nationalist war against the invaders.
Sandino's peasant band, armed with sticks, machetes and guns, succeeded in
keeping the Marines pinned down for a full six years. It was jungle
warfare--fought on the guerrillas' turf; the Marines, despite superior armaments
and training, were never able to defeat Sandino's guerrilla fighters. After six
years of stalemate, they turned their power over to a new Nicaraguan National
Guard they had trained. At the head of that National Guard was an obscure but
rising politician named Anastasio Somoza Garcia. Somoza had gotten his job
because he spoke English and because he had high-placed friends at the U.S.
Embassy. In 1934, Somoza invited Sandino to Managua for a series of "peace
talks." After one of those conversations, Sandino was assassinated.
The death of Sandino marked the end of his radical nationalist movement; it
also marked the rise of the Somoza dynasty. For 42 years, three successive
Somozas would rule Nicaragua as if it were a private estate. They were the last
of the old-time Latin-American dictators, and for them, the National Guard was
nothing more than a family army, the country itself just a private preserve;
indeed, the Somozas used their power to corner many of the country's basic
industries: At one point, the Somoza family owned 30 percent of Nicaragua's
arable land.
Besides greed, the other keynote of Somoza rule was its pro-Americanism: It
was the first Somoza about whom Franklin Delano Roosevelt said, "He's a son of a
bitch, but he's ours." And in one of the most ingratiating gestures ever made by
a sovereign country, Anastasio Somoza Debayle, the last of the dynasty, put a
U.S. Ambassador's picture on the 20-cordoba note.
In the kind of Nicaragua that the Somozas created, to talk of Sandino was to
invite arrest. Over the years, Sandino and his peasant warriors were erased
from the history books. But Nicaraguan history was changed on a day in 1961
when the anti-Somoza radicals Carlos Fonseca Amador, Toms Borge Martinez and
Silvio Mayorga met in Honduras and formed what would become the Frente
Sandinista de Liberacion Nacional--the F.S.L.N. According to its founders, the
Frente was to be a new nationalist guerrilla army of peasants, students and
workers that would avenge Sandino. Its immediate goal: the destruction of the
Somoza regime. Its long-term goal: a social revolution that would end the
interminable backwardness of Nicaragua.
The destruction of Somoza took the F.S.L.N. almost 20 years to
achieve--through jungle battles, general strikes, kidnapings, exiles,
assassinations and a civil war that cost more than 50,000 lives. When it was
over, Fonseca, Mayorga and dozens of other top F.S.L.N. leaders were dead. Of
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the three founders of the Frente, only Borge survived to see July 19, 1979, the
day the Sandinistas marched triumphantly into Managua. By then, Anastasio
Somoza Debayle had already fled the country for Miami. with him had gone his
wife, his children, is mistress and most of the assets of the national bank.
Thousands cheered Borge and the F.S.L.N. as they entered Managua. "Sandino has
been reborn!" Borge declared.
Latin-American revolutions have a history of ending up with one strong
man's grabbing the spoils. To avoid that fate, the Sandinistas opted for a
collective leadership. Although a directory of those who hold power in Managua
today is confusing, PLAYBOY's interview subjects are a cross section of the top
leadership. Dreifus negotiated the interview with various intermediaries, when
spent several weeks in Managua last spring. Her report:
"This is undoubtedly the first 'Playboy Interview' ever brought formally
before a national cabinet for a vote. The verdict was positive, but getting to
that point after months of negotiations was a logistical nightmare. 'You know,
we're fighting a war right now, one Nicaraguan official told me, even after the
vote was taken. 'The leaders you want to interview never have 15 minutes
together in one place.'
"As nothing came through in the way of firm appointments, I decided to take a
bold step: I would fly to Managua and try to pin people down from there. So I
left for Nicaragua with my colleague Marcelo Montecino, a talented O.A.S.
translator and photographer who would be handling the simultaneous-translation
chores.
"The first things you see at Managua's Augusto sandino Airport are those
three famous Soviet helicopters that Reagan is always showing in aerial
photographs on television. The next thing you notice is a huge sign that says,
WELCOME TO NICARAGUA--A DINERS CLUB COUNTRY.
"Revolutionary Managua is a chaotic and exciting place. There are posters
and slogans everywhere--even in the women's rooms. Managua, in fact, is the
only city I've ever been towhere there is political graffiti on public-bathroom
walls. In one women's room, hand-scrawled notes said things like, LUIS MANUEL
SABALLOS--HIPOCRITA. To be in Managua was like being in a time machine: Here
was a place seemingly run by the kind of people who were Sixties radicals.
Wherever one went, people were young, singing political folk songs and chanting,
'Power to the People.' One night, there was even a Pete Seeger concert in town!
"As for me, my first few days in Nicaragua involved a lot of chasing after
high-ranking Sandinista officials. None of my efforts came to very much until
the third day, when an appointment with Father Cardenal was finally arranged.
Then, suddenly, everything fell into line: Ramirez, then Borge. We even got to
see elusive Ortega for four hours. Once the breakthrough was made, the
Nicaraguan leaders gave us unlimited time; they seemed eager for the opportunity
and aware that PLAYBOY takes its 'Interviews' seriously. Soon, the 'Interview'
became a piece of local gossip. News was breaking fast in Nicaragua--fighting
at the border, Reagan's big speech--but none of the press corps staying at the
Inter-Continental Hotel could get to any of the top leaders for reactions; could
PLAYBOY be having better luck? We had promised the Sandinistas that we'd keep
our interviews secret; they didn't want to be deluged with other requests. One
morning, a network reporter approached me over breakfast at the
Inter-Continental.
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" What is PLAYBOY doing here, anyhow?'
"'I'm scouting a story--"The Girls of Managua," I answered quickly. For a
while, anyway, he believed me.
"After the interviews were under way, some of the Nicaraguan leaders began
inviting Marcelo and me to, well, hang out with them. Things we did in Managua:
go with Borge to a prison farm for Mosquito Indian counter-revolutionaries;
watch Father Cardenal put on an all-day Latin-American-song festival in
Revolutionary Square; take seven uninvited people to dinner at Ramirez' house.
"Ever since I've returned from Nicaragua, people have been asking me about
the atmosphere down there: 'Is there much anti-American feeling?' I must say
that, all things considered, there was surprisingly little. American rock 'n'
roll blared every day from Radio Sandino. Not once did I encounter any rudeness
or hostility--and Marcelo and I wandered off quite a bit to do unofficial
reporting. The day after Reagan gave his Congressional address, 250,000
Nicaraguans marched in protest in Revolutionary Square. It was an armed
demonstration--250,000 people with guns. Yet Marcelo and I walked out into the
crowd and went freely among them. No one threatened us.
"But the Nicaraguans with whom one talked on the street did have mixed
feelings toward the U.S. They liked our rock 'n' roll, our blue jeans, our
friendly, open ways; what they didn't like was what they called 'Yankee
arrogance.' The moment that summed it all up happened one night when a group of
us went to a restaurant with Borge. Some American tourists came over to him and
said how surprised they were to see the Comandante in an ordinary restaurant.
Borge joked with the tourists, welcomed them to Managua and then said, with a
grin, 'All North Americans are welcome here, any time--just don't bring the
Marines!'"
BORGE: First of all, ours is neither a Marxist nor a Christian revolution.
This is a revolution in which Marxism and Christianity are integrated with all
other ideologies. We believe in pluralism and practice it. We do not have
people in the government who want to destroy our revolution, but we do have
members who are not in the F.S.I.N. One of the members of the junta, Cordova
Rivas, is a member of the Conservative Party, for instance.
RAMIREZ: You could say that we're a people who, four years after the triumph
over Somoza, still feel the fever of the revolution --looking for answers in
very many ways. I'm hoping that will still be true in ten years. We don't want
our revolution become gray, orthodox. The basic thing we have to deal with is
the extreme poverty of Nicaragua. It's not easy. In July 1979, the first time
we entered this Government House, we thought we could do everything in a day. A
year later, we thought we could do everything in five years. Now we think that
we can do everything but that it will be the work of several generations.
It should also be said that we don't see our revolution as a copy of any
other. When Ronald Reagan or Jeane Kirkpatrick says that we're another Cuba,
that is just a North American invention. We don't believe that the problems of
Nicaragua can be solved by merely copying other models. That means we have not
reproduced the sociopolitical mechanisms of the United States or the Soviet
Union. We're not following any form. What we are doing is seeking a profound
solution. To what? To the poverty of this country.
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PLAYBOY: So to you, the revolution is continuing.
RAMIREZ: Yes. The struggle is the same. Against whom were we struggling?
Somoza's National Guard. Who supported, armed, financed the old National Guard?
The United States! Against whom are we struggling now? The National Guard.
Who arms and supports the National Guard today? The U.S. Government! The only
difference I see is this: Before, we did it from underground, from the
mountains. Now we do it from the Government House--now we do it from power!
PLAYBOY: That brings to mind a famous photograph of Zapata taken just after
he'd gotten power in Mexico, sitting uncomfortably in a thronelike chair. Or
may be you remember the movie with Marlon Brando, Viva Zapata!
RAMIREZ: Great movie!
PLAYBOY: Zapata, as played by Brando, arrives in Mexico City go govern but
after a while asks himself, "What are we doing here? Let's go back where we
belong." Does any of that strike a chord?
BORGE: Of course. It's the kind of thing we've asked ourselves 200 times.
To make war is relatively simple. But to carry on after victory, to make war
against poverty and backwardness and egotism and bureaucracy is something else.
Especially now that we're fighting North American imperialism, which is
infinitely more powerful than the poor historical memory that was Anastasio
Somoza.
PLAYBOY: What did you find when you took over the country from Somoza in
1979?
BORGE: Ruins. Somoza left us ruins. Thousands dead. Backwardness.
Illiteracy. Incredible poverty. He left us old factories that could not
compete in the market. He left us no money in the national treasury. What did
we find in the bank in July 1979? Five cordobas! The money--everything but the
debts, billions in debts--went abroad. Beyond all that, beyond many deaths, the
torture, the poverty, Somoza left us bad taste--mal gusto.
PLAYBOY: Bad taste?
RAMIREZ: There was no official culture under Somoza-which may be a kind of
blessing. When it came to culture, he was like one of those black holes in
space. Here in Nicaragua, we speak of something we call Somocista quiche, which
refers to the way Somocistas slavishly imitated the habits and the tastes of the
North Americans--the worst tastes of North Americans, at that. What the
Somocistas really wanted was to turn Nicaragua into a kind of Miami--which is
not the best cultural tradition of North America. Somoza's what we got mostly
from Enders and Haig when we met with them was extreme arrogance. With Haig,
there wasn't even a dialog, because he always barked at us. With Enders, it was
more a litany of the things we were supposed to do--and then threats if we
didn't obey. That was his style. We have been spoken to in one of those two
ways for more than 50 years.
After George Shultz replaced Haig, we had hopes to start afresh. Our foreign
minister, Father Miguel D'Escoto, requested a meeting with him while he was in
New York for a UN session. Our request was ignored. Not a single word back.
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PLAYBOY: When did that happen?
RAMIREZ: Last September. Father D'Escoto had our instructions to continue
trying to talk with Secretary of State Shultz was giving a reception for the UN
missions, and Father D'Escoto was on the diplomatic list. Nothing special about
that. At the head of the receiving line, there was Shultz, shaking everybody's
hand. Father D'Escoto was announced, he put out his hand--and Shultz refused to
shake it. Father D'Escoto plunged on, asking him if the two governments
couldn't simply meet to discuss things. Shultz refused to say a single word.
That incident shows us the mental and ideological problems the Reagan people
have. They despise us. As a people. As a revolution. From their viewpoint,
we deserve only annihiliation. Why should they waste their time speaking with
such a small, weak country?
PLAYBOY: Despite all that, do you still want your position to be better
understood by the U.S. public?
RAMIREZ: You know, we have never forbidden any representative from the U.S.
to enter the country. We've received innumerable delegations of U.S.
Congressmen. I've spoken with at least 20 delegations during the past four
years, and we've always given the same explanations, because they always ask us
the same things. With patience, with cordiality we've responded. We've never
said, "What are you people doing here? Why don't you solve your problem of
racial discimination? Why don't you solve the problem of chicanos in the U.S.?"
That would be stupid on our part, to give that sort of answer. Here, the U.S.
Ambassador is treated with every courtesy and respect-which perhaps shouldn't
be due to the representative of a country that is financing and directing an
invasion against Nicaragua. Nevertheless, this is one of the few countries in
the world where a U.S. Ambassador can go to a barbershop to have his hair cut
and be completely unconcerned for his safety. He can even act in amateur
theatrical productions. I don't know whether Ambassador Anthony Quainton is a
good or a bad actor, but he takes part in community theater here.
BORGE: He must be a better actor than Reagan.
FATHER CARDENAL: We would be very happy here to receive Reagan's son, who is
a ballet dancer.
RAMIREZ: Besides, he's unemployed.
BORGE: Why don't you invite him, Ernesto?
FATHER CARDENAL: I don't know how to get in touch with him.
RAMIREZ: Perhaps through PLAYBOY.
BORGE: It would be interesting if President Reagan could come.
PLAYBOY: Why?
BORGE: So that he could see, even with his atrophied vision, the reality we
are living.
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RAMIREZ: No, Thomas-it wouldn't do any good. It would probably be like the
Pope's visit, when he didn't see anything. You can attribute that statement to
Father Cardenal. Just a joke: Only cardenales can speak about Popes.
PLAYBOY: When Reagan went before a joint session of Congress to give his
address on Central America, he began by saying, "El Salvador is nearer to Texas
than Texas is to Massachusetts. Nicaragua is just as close to Miami, San
Antonio, San Diego and Tucson as those cities are to Washington." What was your
reaction to that?
RAMIREZ: Those are the same ideas that were behind President Monroe's
doctrime. That theory of influence due to geographical proximity was what
impelled a wife, Hope, the leader of this cultural movement, did not think of
the United States in terms of New England or the Midwest but, rather, Miami.
Low camp. Quiche.
BORGE: It was incredible what they considered art, poetry. They used to
publish poems in homage to Somoza--I give this song to you, Somoza, along with
my heart. Ernesto [Cardenall's poetry, by contrast, was unacceptable,
because it didn't rhyme.
PLAYBOY: Former U.S. Assistant Secretary of State Thomas Enders charged that
you were consolidating a monopoly force with Cuban assistance and building the
largest military establishment in Central America. Is his charge true?
RAMIREZ: In a sense, yes. But with an important difference that Enders would
never be able to understand. Yes, we do have a large armed force. At this
moment, thousands of cities have guns, and they are not professional
soldiers--they're workers, students, peasants. And if the aggression increases,
we will double that number. So, in that sense, Enders is correct.
He is not correct when he says that this is an aggressive force that
threatens the stability of the rest of Central America. Sometimes I think that
there is a huge gap of understanding in some North Americans when it comes to
what we're doing here. Even from people who do not think as Enders does. For
instance, there were a group of Congressmen from the United States who came
through here the other day and they said some extraordinary things to us.
PLAYBOY: Such as?
RAMIREZ: One of them actually said, "If you had good relations with the
United States, none of this would be happening." Meaning the covert supportt of
our enemies, the murders, the terrorist attacks
PLAYBOY: How did you answer that?
RAMIREZ: We said we've tried to have good relations. But if we assume that
relations are bad, does that authorize us to put a bomb in the White House? If
you took that argument to its logical end, bad relations would give us the right
to try to kill Reagan as our enemies have tried to kill us. Oh, but we have
long experience with meeting with U.S. Congressmen. They come to Nicaragua and
act as though they were in Arkansas or Nevada. For them, there is no
international border. We are the back yard. For them, there is no such thing
as our independent sovereignty--what exists, instead, are the so-called
strategic interests of the United States.
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PLAYBOY: Reagan's people accuse you of not really wanting to negotiate with
U.S. officials. You've met with Enders and with then-Secretary of State
Alexander Haig. What do you claim happended?
RAMIREZ: Comandante Ortega will be telling you more about that, but I can
tell you a little bit about those meetings. Briefly, North American named
William Walker in 1855 to come to Nicaragua and to try to conquer Central
America. According to Walker and his Southern soldiers, Central America was a
natural part of the United States, along with Mexico.
The important thing about that speech was that Reagan seemed to be personally
declaring war on us. In a very solemn moment, he invited his wife to listen to
this declaration of war--giving a sentimental touch to the matter. Both houses
of Congress were there. The speech was broadcast throughout the nation. It was
a declaration of war stated from the most august halls of the United States--a
war against a small and weak country. I think that Washington and Jefferson
would have blushed, because it wasn't for this that the founders of North
America fought their revolution. What I think was behind the speech really
had a lot to do with the military situation in E1 Salvador. Reagan wanted to
tell Congress and the North American people that he was doing everything
possible: He warned them that if El Salvador falls--as it probably will-he can
wash his hands of the matter.
PLAYBOY: Do you think the leftist insuragents were winning in E1 Salvador?
RAMIREZ: Absolutely. I don't see how the U.S. can prevent their taking
power-unless the U.S. inroduces an invading force into E1 Salvador.
PLAYBOY: After a speech like Reagan's, do you gentlemen ever ask yourselves,
"What is going through the mind of the President of the United States?"
FATHER CARDENAL: I don't think he thinks. Close friends of his say that no
one has ever seen him reading a book. Besides, I believe he's mad. What he
says about us is worthy of a madman, and he may end up in an insane asylum. It
all sounds like some wild-West movie he's acting out. He's playing the cowboy
who kills all the "bad guys" in Nicaragua.
RAMIREZ: I think of Reagan as a sort of Frankenstein's monster. Not in the
perorative sense, but when you think of the Frankenstein legend, the monster was
made up of the bodies and brains of different people, with horrible results.
Within Reagan's mind, I don't think there's any one person but, rather, a
mixture of any number of extremists who have dwelt in academic and corporate
catacombs, who have waited all these years to put their policies into effect.
Reagan is a character of this period in North America the same way Colonel
Sanders was a chracter representing Kentucky Fried Chicken--just an image with a
whole apparatus behind it.
So the apparatus is there, no matter what happens to the image. If Reagan
resigned, the system would be left behind, though perhaps George Bush's policies
would be somewhat different.
BORGE: What Sergio is saying is absolutely right. Reagan, or his image, is
entirely determined by economic interests. Such is the degree of power of
advertising in the United States that the people could just as easily elect
Coca-Cola as President. And that's what we believe Americans did--swallowed
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Reagan as if he were Coke.
RAMIREZ: There can be differences, obviously. Carter was a different sort of
President from the usual. He did not invade Iran with 500, 000 troops to rescue
the hostages as a demonstration of his machismo. That's how Reagan won, by
telling the United States it needed a strong man to direct its destiny.
BORGE: It's very difficult to try to get inside the head of Reagan. It
suppose he's always onstage, in front of a movie director. We realize that his
speeches are prepared and that he probably doesn't think about what he says too
much. But Reagan has become an obsession for us--and we've become an obsession
for him. His obsession with us is visceral.
FATHER CARDENAL: By the way, do you know anything about those monkey movies
of Reagan's?
PLAYBOY: Monkey movies? Do you mean his film Bedtime for Bonzo?
RAMIREZ: Yes. I think that's it. It's an old movie in which Reagan plays a
person who controls a monkey. It's very difficult to get hold of prints of what
movie. It seems as if someone has bought all of them 50 placed them in
resettlement camps farther inland. Your rationale thus far has been to remove
the Indians from the influence of your Contra enemies across the border; but to
North Americans, your actions are reminiscent of "strategic hamlets" in Vietnam
or th relocation of Japanese-Americans during world War Two. How do you explain
what Amnesty International and even your strongest supporters say is a deep
stain in your record.?
RAMIREZ: It's an extremely complicated situation and one that was forced on
us. I'll try to summarize: Yes, when the Contras began invading from Honduras,
we had to move entire populations of Mosquito Indians fartehr into our
territory. It wasn't gratuitous. It wasn't something we thought was good. But
it was necessary.
PLAYBOY: You're implying it was necessary for their own good. If that were
true, you wouldn't have Mosquito Indians still eagerly joining up with the
Contras. They obviously oppose you strongly. Didn't your forcible relocation
of them have a lot to do with that?
BORGE: The Mosquitos were moved, first of all, because there was constant
fighting in the region. But, yes, it's true that they joint the
counterrevolutionaries quite easily. The Mosquitos--about 70,000 people-were
incorrectly treated by the revolution right after the triump. But let me give
you a little history: The region along the Atlantic Coast in which they lived is
so isolated that Somoza largely ignored it. What he did do was give them
propaganda throught the years about the dangers of Communists, but for them, he
wasn't a repressive force the way he was for the rest of the country. So they
didn't have the same anger, the same need for change that the rest of us had.
After the triumph, we sent a group of companeros into the region who didn't
understand things the way they should have-they knew more about astronomy, some
of them, than about anthropology. They made terrible, alienating mistakes in
dealing with the Mosquitos. At the same time, the main leader of the Mosquitos,
a former agent of Somoza's security police, began making some vicious broadcasts
in the Mosquito language. It was claimed, among other things, that our
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government had a policy of exterminating all Mosquitos over the age of 30-things
such as that. Not surprisingly, with the coinciding of our blunt policies and
that propaganda, many Mosquitos became confused. It remains a very painful
situation.
PLAYBOY: Another blot against your government was the way Pope John Paul II
was treated during his visit here in March, when he was shouted down in front of
TV cameras. This is the official Vatican version of his visit: "During the holy
Mass, Sandinista activists shouted slogans of a political character without
interruption, disturbing the Mass
Furthermore, the great crowd of
faithful were not only kept at a distance but did not have megaphones or access
to microphones. They were not able to make their own voices heard or to express
their support for the presence of the pontiff and his religious message."
RAMIREZ: The whole business of the Pope's visit is very complicated. The
Pope did not understand this country. He got off the plane thinking as a Pole.
He came here with a preconceived notion. He thought that here was a
totalitarian regime that appressed the Catholic people and that these Catholics
would take advantage of his presence to start a rebellion. He thought this was
the opportunity they were waiting for to "liberate themselves" got off the plane
as an ideological conquistador.
FATHER CARDENAL: Many, many untrue things were said about the Pope's visit
here. One of the lies that were said first by Archbishop Miguel Obando Bravo
[who opposes the Sandinista regime] and then later repeated three times by the
Pope was that the people were prevented from attending the Mass. During his
Mass, he actually said he was addressing his remarks to those who wre not
allowed to come. But in plaza, there were 700, 000 people! At the Mass, the
Pope did many political acts: He started by permitting Archbishop Obando y Bravo
to speak. That was not on the program, had not been negotiated in advance. And
Obando y Bravo's speech was political. Everything he says is to annoy the
revolution. The Scripture texts that were chosen for the Mass insinuated
attacks on the revolution.
PLAYBOY: For instance?
FATHER CARDENAL: For instance, he used the text on the construction of the
Tower of Babel--which is something that has no relationship to the current
situation in Central america. By using that text here, he was insinuating that
ours was a very proud and arrogant government that wanted to substitute itself
for God. In the text, those who built the Tower of Babel were lifting
themselves as high as God, and then God destroyed everyone. That was the
message. There was also a prayer for the people in jail.
PLAYBOY: You mean for the Somoza Guardsmen you imprisoned?
FATHER CARDENAL: For the prisoners. But there was no prayer offered for
people who had died during the insurrection against Somoza and now at your
border. No prayers for those who died at the hands of those Guardsmen now in
prison-those Guards who are criminals! The day before the Pope's visit, 17
young men had been killed by the Contras. There was no prayer for those dead!
What was most interesting was that in every Mass the Pope hs said everywhere in
the world--no matter how bad the government-- there has always been a prayer for
those who govern. But not when the Pope came to Nicaragua!
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PLAYBOY: Are you certain? Did he says such a prayer for the government in E1
Salvador?
FATHER CARDENAL: It is in the text of every Mass. And here it was
suppressed. It is not a prayer that asks rulers to continue in power--just that
God should enlighten them so that they can rule well. But this was suppressed.
PLAYBOY: If you had to do it over-the Pope's visit--would you do anything
differently?
FATHER CARDENAL: I think what happened was very good.
PLAYBOY: Good?
FATHER CARDENAL: Yes. Because what the Pope found here was a very mature
people, a very Catholic people, but also a revolutionary people. Our people
said that they were Catholic but they would not be living with false myths-with
fetishism. Now the image of the Pope has changed since he came to Nicaragua.
In Italy, recently, they yelled at him, too.
PLAYBOY: It is true that the Pope objects to your participation and that of
four other priests, including your brother, Father Fernando Cardenal, and Father
Miguel D'Escoto, in this government?
FATHER CARDENAL: As far as I know, the Pope doesn't want a priest to have a
government job. But we've not had any official communication. My brother
Fernando, a Jesuit, who heads ur literacy program, recently met a Jesuit from
Colombia who was with the ministry of education there for a long time--and he
had no problem. I suspect we're having problems because the Pope doesn't want
Christians to be revolutionaries-- wants Christians to separate themselves
from revolution.
PLAYBOY: If he were to demand that you choose between the government and the
priesthood, what would you do?
FATHER CARDENAL: As for now, it doesn't seem to be a problem. The way things
work is that each priest is under a bishop. I reort to the bishop of the
Solentiname region, not to Archbishop Obando y Bravo, who opposes us. But all
the bishops, including Obando y Bravo, have permitted us to continue in our
positions on the condition that we do not exercise our priestly duties while in
public office. We've agreed.
you must understand that not all the bishops in Nicaragua oppose the
revolution. Some are for it, others are indecisive. Archbishop Obando y
Bravo is against it--clearly, strongly against it. When I spoke with Cardinal
Casaroli, the Vatican's secretary of state, I told him that in Nicaragua, there
were questions about revolutions that needed answering--that if bishops in the
Catholic hierarchy reacted automatically against revolutions, there would be
great divisions among Christians, not merely in Nicaragua but throughout Latin
America, throughout the world. These divisions could someday have effects as
far-reaching as those of the Protestant Reformation.
RAMIREZ: When we've said that this revolution can be an example to Latin
America, we haven't said it boastfully. But there are important elements in
this revolution that help define the future of change throughout the
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continent. For instance, our revolution did not consider religion a backward
element, something we had to leave behind. We never felt that atheism had to be
an essential characteristic of the country so that things could improve. Here,
the humble people exercise religion as a part of their lives in a fundamental
way that isn't ture of the upper classes. Now the upper classes use religion as
political instrument and have sought refuge in the Church because their power
has weakened. The rich never went to Mass before. They believed in the golden
calf, and the churches were superfluous. Now they go and fill the churches.
PLAYBOY: Why is Archbishop Obando y Bravo so opposed to you?
RAMIREZ: Because he's a man who's afraid of change. He has vey orthodox
ideas of communism and anticommunism, and that has clouded his understanding of
the revolution --and put him in a position of complete enmity to the
revolution.
PLAYBOY: The archbishop is hardly your only adversary. There is an exile
opposition of several thousand former Somoza National Guardsmen who operate out
of Honduras; Alfonso robelo Callejas, who was once a member of the junta, has
formed anothe exile guerilla organization; and in Costa Rica, Eden Pastora, the
former Sandinista "Comandante Cero," leads a guerrilla group of perhaps 500 men.
They're getting a lot of publicity on American television. How do you explain
the defections of such people as Robelo and Pastora?
BORGE: Robelo is easy to understand. It is very difficult to be a
revolutionary when you have 200,000,000 cordobas.
PLAYBOY: And Pastora? Right after the triumph over Somoza, he was one of the
great Sandinista heroes. It was he who led the raid that resulted in your
liberation from prison, Comandante Borge.
BORGE: He wasn't the only companero at the Nationale Palace. My personal
opinion about him is that he should be treated in a psychiatric hospital.
PLAYBOY: Wait a second, Comandante. Dismissing a political opponent as crazy
and talking about psychiatric hospitals has ugly overtones. Don't you have a
better argument than that?
BORGE: Well, you know, a lot of us companeros have sat around and tried to
analyze him--and we have all come to the same conclusion. I could even tell you
some anecdotes that everyone here knows that would help you understand the
personality of this poor man. He used to claim, for instance, that his mother
had such incredible power that she'd look at a piece of glass and the glass
would actually shatter. He used to claim that when he and his brother were in
marksmanship competitions, they were so good their bullets always went into the
same hole. The curious thing is not that he told those stories but, rather,
that he told them with complete seriousness. Hehd tell us those things, and
we'd laugh, because he was a man who always lived on a stage, always trying to
call attention to himself.
PLAYBOY: Are you trying to tell us that his defection from you wasn't
ideoloicall but a matter of ego?
BORGE: Exactly. Pastora became internationally famous during the National
Palace action, when all the companeros were instructed to keep their
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identities secret. Everyone obeyed that command--except Pastora. At the time,
he did not have a long history with the F.S.L.N., but the National Palace action
was 50 spectacular that he immediately acquired world-wide fame, like a movie
star. After the triumph, he wanted a position commensurate with the hoopla
around his name. Well, many people had questions about his personal
limitations. We made a decision early on that we didn't want to create any
cults around any personalities. Pastora didn't get the position he wanted. At
that point, he began to have conflicts with the revolutionary process. One
thing led to another, and he eventually said he wanted to go to Guatemala to
join the revolutionary struggle there. We said, "Fine." The next thing we knew,
Pastora had decided on treason.
FATHER CARDENAL: Pastora's vanity is no small matter. I knew him well.
Once, right after the National Palace affair, he asked me if a man could be more
vain than a woman--and I think he asked me that because he was beginning to feel
that vanity.
RAMIREZ: It's really difficult to explain a man who one year speaks against
the rich and against imperialism and then, suddenly, goes to the other side of
the street. Do you know what he recently did? He made a public statement that
he was giving a deadline to all the Cubans working in this country to get out of
Nicaragua in 15 days or all of them would be killed. All Cubans! Doctors,
teachers! He is making some very odd alliances these days, too. When Alfonso
robelo resigned from the junta on April 22, 1980, it was Eden who made the
speech in the plaza condemning him. Now Pastora is in the final stages of an
agreement with Robelo. His next alliance will probably be with Somoza's
National Guard.
PLAYBOY: In a Newsweek article on the covert war against you, it was stated
that Pastora wouldn't take a penny from the CIA. Would you grant him that?
BORGE: It's true. He hasn't taken a penny. He's taken dollars.
FATHER CARDENAL: Pastora spends a lot of money abroad. So it has to be from
the CIA. Where else could it come from?
PLAYBOY: That brings us to the subject of U.S.-financed covert actions
against your government. When Reagan went before Congress last April, he said
that the United States had every right to support covert activities against you,
because you were permitting nicaragua to become a military outpost for the
Russians and the Cubans-not to mentin the Libyans and the P.L.O. In effect, he
warned that you were going to become a Soviet base.
RAMIREZ: that's not true. That's a cheap argument. What does building a
Soviet base mean? We're not members of the Warsaw Pact--we have absolutely no
military agreements with the Soviet Union. The heart of the matter, Reagan's
real problem, is that we're not a north American military base--and until July
of 1979, that's exactly what we were. The Bay of Pigs invasion of Cuba was
launched from here--as was the U.S.-sponsored coup against the Arbenz government
of Guatemala in 1954.
Some of the Reagan's propaganda against us is really quite fantastic. For
instance, the charge that Nicaragua is going to permit the Soviet Union to build
a canal through our country. What's the proof? On our Pacific coast, we're
permitting the Soviet Union to build a floating dry dock from which it can
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repair its fishing fleet in the Pacific--
BORGE: By the way, there is something very similar in Peru that doesn't
bother the U.S.
RAMIREZ: What military advantages do we get from that arrangement? The
country will receive some payment for the service. Twenty people have
employment at the dry dock. But the distance between that and a new canal is
the same as the distance between Reagan and Orson Welles as movie actors
It's exactly like the missile thing: Reagan says we plan to let the Soviet Union
install nuclear missiles here--an incredible fiction!
PLAYBOY: Can you say categorically that if the Soviet Union offered you
missiles placed on Nicaraguan soil, you'd turn them down?
RAMIREZ: Yes, I could say 50 categorically. But to me it's a useless
discussion, trying to answer the Reagan Administration while it accuses us. For
us to answer that it's not true about the missiles is to put ourselves on the
defensive, because the Administration makes us justify something that we're not
doing. And we know that this is interminable. Because even if we deny it, no
matter how much we deny it, within a week, Shultz, Kirkpatrick, any of them will
repeat that Nicaragua is willing to install nuclear missiles, and we will have
to say once again that it's not true. And it becomes a useless game.
PLAYBOY: If we accept what you claim--that you're not now in the Soviet
camp--let's play out a different scenario: What if U.S. covert activities
against you continue? What if U.S. economic pressures on you increase? Could
you be driven, as some feel Fidel Castro was driven in 1960, to make an alliance
with the Soviets?
RAMIREZ: We are facing the same kind of divided world that Fidel confronted
in the early Sixties. But for us, the world is not divided as strictly into
East and West. The truth is that the United States Government has declared war
on us--but that doesn't mean that we're at war with the NATO countries. We have
excellent relations with Holland, Belgium, Spain, Greece. [The embassy of the
Netherlands in Washington disagrees with Ramirez' description of
Dutch-Nicaraguan relations as "excellent." The foreign minister recently said,
"I am concerned thta Nicaragua may evolve into a dictatorship of the left." The
other embassies referred to relations as normal. At the moment, we have the
support not just of the socialist countries but of Western countries, of Arab
and African countries, of Latin-American countries as well, despite their
ideology. We have the support of Brazil, Peru, Venezuela, Mexico. If all of
that diversified support disappeared, hypothetically, we might be left with the
support of only the Eastern European countries. But we don't think that moment
will come.
PLAYBOY: Let's get down to specifics. Reagan talks of thousands of Cuban
advisors working for you in Nicaragua. Are they here?
BORGE: Yes.
PLAYBOY: Doing what?
BORGE: The Reagan Administration would have everyone believe that they are
all spies and military men who pretend to be doctors and teachers. We would
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like to ask the President to check with the people the Cubans are teaching and
ask them whether or nt they're real teachers and doctors. And, yes, we have
dozens of Soviet experts who help us with maritime and mineral exploration. It
would be absurd if Nicaragua were offered thousands of North American doctors
and teachers and we refused them. We inherited a country where we have no
doctors or teachers, and the Cuban government has generously sent some. We will
keep them in Nicaragua, even though it may irritate some leaders of the world.
PLAYBOY: Since you claim that your support from Cuba consists mainly of
economic help and advice, what sort of advice has Castro personally given you?
FATHER CARDENAL: It may seem surprising, but Fidel has basically recommended
moderation. He said that we should go more slowly on the nationalization of
industries than he did, for example. Although he didn't say it to me
personally, he warned was against committing some of the errors Cuba did.
PLAYBOY: Such as?
FATHER CARDENAL: He didn't specify which ones while I was around.
RAMIREZ: There are several important differences between our revolution and
the Cubans'. First, Cubas was much closer to the U.S., and its economy was
completely dominated by North American interests--all the way from sugar
production to the gambling casinos. To break that grip, Castro had to be more
radical. That isn't the case in Nicaragua. We inherited limited North American
interests, and we still have excellent relations with business investors four
years after the revolution.
BORGE: The fact thta Cuba is an island is another big difference. Although
it is closer to the U.S., it could be pressured by the U.S. only from the sea.
The Bay of Pigs, despite the power of the North American Navy, could be launched
in only a limited way. But with our borders, we have a constant Bay of Pigs, in
slow motion.
PLAYBOY: What about your other foreign supporters? How do you explain aid
from Libya when Muammar el-Qaddafi is thought of as a fanatic dictator?
BORGE: Ours is a country that is being attacked. We require military
help--we have an absolutem right to that. Libya has offered to help. In no way
do the Libyans determine the polices of the Nicaraguan revolution. Reagan, on
the other hand, certainly does determine policy for E1 Salvador and Honduras in
return for U.S. aid. In any case, France helps us militarily, too. Reagan
never mentions that.
RAMIREZ: We don't choose our friends according to the pattern of the United
States. That would be very difficult. We would have to accept other types of
allegiances We wouldn't like. The United States has its own interests, world
interests, and according to those world interests, it chooses the villains and
the heroes of the movie it is directing. Those characters--those
countries--don't necessarily coincide with our own heroes and villains.
For instance, by North American standards, Qaddafi is a more odious villain
than Chile's military strong man, Augusto Pinochet Ugarte. For us, Pinochet is
far more adious! But he does not threaten the strategic interests of the United
States, while Qaddafi government supposedly threatens U.S. strategic interests
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in the Mediterranean. It's all a matter of perspective. For instance,
Ferdinand Marcos of the Phillippines elects himself every four years, but not
one ever worries about him in the United States, because he represents the
strategic military interests of the United States in the Pacific.
PLAYBOY: What about the P.L.O.?
RAMIREZ: We think the Palestinians have a right to exist as a nation, and
they struggle for that right. And we respect that.
PLAYBOY: And are the reports true that there are as many as 50 P.L.O. pilots
flying jet fighters in Nicaragua?
RAMIREZ: Untrue. It's a lie--not because we have anything against the
Palestinians but because we don't have 50 planes. And if we did have them, we'd
have Nicaraguan pilots fly them!
PLAYBOY: What is your explanation of the incident in Apwil when some cargo
planes from Libya, supposedly loaded with medical supplies for Nicaragua, were
found by Brazilian authorities to contain arms and military supplies? If you're
so open about taking your friends where you find them, why the deception?
RAMIREZ: We didn't know that that was a secret operation. We received an
offer of support by Libya, and we accepted it--as we are willing to accept
support in this difficult moment from any country that wants to offer it to us.
We don't feel any sort of shame. We feel proud that a country such as Libya
would support us in a moment like this. It should serve to demonstrate that
we're no tied to Soviet military support, because Libya is not a country aligned
with the Soviet Union.
PLAYBOY: Let's talk about some of your neighbors. What do you think of Jose
Efrain Rios-Montt, the president of Guatemala?
BORGE: There's a movie called The Good, the Bad and the Ugly. Let's just say
that Rios-Montt falls into one of those three categories.
PLAYBOY: And the new military leader, Alvaro Magana Borga, in E1 Salvador?
BORGE: He's definitely a bad guy. Perhaps the guy who's not good, bad or
ugly is Dr. Roberto Suazo Cordoba, from Honduras.
PLAYBOY: What is he, then?
FATHER CARDENAL: Nothing. He has no role in this film.
PLAYBOY: The fact is, you of the Sandinista government are perceived by many
North Americans as the bad guys. Aside from your Marxist beliefs, why do you
think you've managed to get such poor press in the U.S.?
RAMIREZ: First of all, I think it has to do with the impossibility in the
midst of a revolution of a small and poor country's penetrating the
consciousness of a very large, complex country. You know, we once tried to hire
a public-relations firm in the United States. Representatives from the agency
came here, and we even paid them to do a poll on the most sensitive points of
North American opinion about Nicaragua. But we would have had to spend $
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1,000,000 a year to barely make a scratch in the skin of an elephant.
So we feel that it's due to our lack of material resources, our lack of
experience and sometimes our lack of intelligence. We've never developed a
strategy on American public opinion.
Your television networks in the United States will show a film in which you
see the Somocista guards in their camps in Honduras and how they go bravely into
Nicaragua. We couldn't finance or get that type of favorable propaganda,
because we're not going to convince the North American public overnight that
we're the type of democracy that is acceptable to the normal American.
When you North Americans see the new uniforms of the Contras while our
soldiers wear old boots and torn clothes, you'd swear the Contras were the
regular government army. Our young boys are still fighting for a cause, not for
money. So when we can convince the North American public that the Contras'
cause is unjust, in that sense we win a battle. But it's an uphill battle.
Because if the Reagan Administration manages to convince the North American
public that is position toward Nicaragua is just and legitimate--if someday the
polls change and one says that 60 percent of the Americans agree with Reagan
instead of the other way around-the situation will become more difficult for
us.
PLAYBOY: To change the subject, does anyone here know who killed Somoza? On
September 17, 1980, Anastasio Somoza's Mercedes-Benz was blown to bits in
Paraguay, where he lived in exile. Who did it?
RAMIREZ: We'd have to answer that question like Lope de Vega in his play
Fuente Ovejuna, act three: "Who killed the commander?" The villagers answer,
"All the people!" If the people of Nicaragua could have killed Somoza, they
would have done it. Whoever did it had the support of the Nicaraguan people.
There's an Argentine organization that took responsibility for the execution,
and one of the members of that commando team who fell, Captain Santiago, now has
a street named after him in Managua. That wasn't our idea--it was the people's
initiative.
PLAYBOY: So nobody was sorry.
RAMIREZ: On the contrary; there was a great fiesta here the day Somoza was
executed.
BORGE: I happened to meet one of the men involved in that action sometime
afterward. In an odd way, it made me sad. What saddened me was a situation in
which the death of any man could make so many people 50 happy.
RAMIREZ: I dissent from you on that, Comandante. I think it was legitimate
joy. I do not feel sadd about the joy that we all felt.
PLAYBOY: Father Cardenal, the Ministry of Culture, where you work, is located
in the mansion that Hope and Anastasio Somoza called home. When we were in your
office the other day, you told us a strange story about a tree in the back
garden. It's a huge tree with enormous, gnarled roots. You claimed that a few
days after Somoza's assassination, the tree sickened and part of it died.
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FATHER CARDENAL: Well, I don't believe in magic, but I remember you were
struck by my mentioning it, even though I only thought it ironic. But since
then, I've reflected on it. You know, North American scientists have done
studies showing that there can be relationships between human beings and
plants--perhaps some sort of communication. Perhaps plants react to the people
around them. Perhaps that tree had a true affection for Somoza. So although he
was an evil criminal, perhaps he loved that tree--and it was one of the few
living things that would react to his departure with sadness.
PLAYBOY: On a more prosaic note, let's discuss some of the charges made
against you by the U.S. Government. To quote Jeane Kirkpatrick: "Within weeks
after the fall of Somoza in July 1979, the Sandinistas began to cooperate in
support of the Salvadoran insurgents by establishing training camps and the
beginning of arms-supply networks. This clandestine assitance initially
involved local black markets and relatively limited resources. In 1980, after
meetings in Havana had unified Salvadoran Marxists into a single
military-command structure, the Sandinista leadership agreed to serve as a
conduit for an arms-trafficking system of unprecedented proportions, originating
outside the hemisphere. That structure remains in force today." How do you
respond?
BORGE: We are very courteous with women. We prefer not to respond.
PLAYBOY: That is hardly the point, Kirkpatrick is a representative of the
U.S. Government.
BORGE: Yes, of course. I'm just saying that I've already answered the
specific charges, as far as I'm concerned.
PLAYBOY: Then will you respond to the general thrust of her remarks--that
Nicaragua is the first domino in Latin America? That since the revolution
triumphed here, it will be exported to E1 Salvador, then Guatemala, then
Honduras, then Mexico?
BORGE: That is one historical prophecy of Ronald Reagan's that is absolutely
true!
PLAYBOY: Why?
BORGE: These revolutions are a necessary and an inevitable step in the
historical process in countries such as ours, where injustices are immense,
where everything has yet to be done, where it is a crime to be young, where
there has been a permanent denial of the higher values of man. It is logical
that there will be profound and serious changes in other countries, each with
its own characteristics. Don't think that the Nicaraguan revolution is the
result of happenstance. Those same conditions are accumulating in the rest of
Central America, and their inevitable result is revolution.
So Reagan is correct when he points out that today Nicaragua, tomorrow E1
Salvador. We would like to invite Ronald Reagan to build with us! If Nicaragua
triumphed, El Salvador will also triumph!
PLAYBOY: Reagan is hardly likely to join in building revolution with you.
In fact, though somewhat restrained by the U.S. Congress, he hasn't made much
of a secret of the fact that covert support has been given to your enemies.
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Do you think North Americans know what you would like them to know about covert
actions?
RAMIREZ: The important thing is not what the North Americans don't know about
covert action but, rather, what might happen here. In the minds of the
extremists of the Reagan Administration, there are several ideas that, when put
into practice, have been really dangerous to the history of humanity.
PLAYBOY: As we said, Reagan obviously feels that you people are the
extremists.
RAMIREZ: Yes. I know. But we're not the extremists. We're not the ones who
are as extreme as Hitler or Pol Pot.
PLAYBOY: Meaning what? Are you comparing what Reagan is doing in Central
America with what Hitler did in Europe--or Pol Pot in Cambodia?
RAMIREZ: Yes--insofar as Nicaragua is concerned. Now, Reagan is not Hitler
insofar as the United States is concerned. North American society continues to
be an open society with guarantees of rights for its citizens. But those same
rights don't exist for Nicaraguans, thanks to U.S.-sponsored covert actions.
The rights you have don't exist for the children who have been mutilated by
mortar fire, the peasants who have been kidnaped, the technicians who have been
murdered, the health workers and the rural teachers who have been killed. All
of those Nicaraguans are victims of a genocidal and criminal policy.
I say this as an enemy of rhetoric--I am not just being rhetorical. Murders
have been committed, crimes against unarmed Nicaraguans. An all of those crimes
have depended on the political will of Ronald Reagan. Somoza's Guards wouldn't
have committed their crimes if they hadn't been given the weapons, the logistics
and the confidence by Reagan. And there are many other things the Reagan
extremists have in mind besides supporting thousands of Guards from Honduras:
They've got a slew of operations that have not yet been put into effect. Some
of those plans involve introducing terrorist commandos to murder the leaders of
this revolution. There are very concrete plans for this.
PLAYBOY: How do you know? Do you have any proof?
RAMIREZ: We know. We know. We have the means to know. There exist
organized groups of murderers who are infiltrated into a country to kill its
leaders.
[In early June, after the return of PLAYBOY'S interviewer from Managua, the
Sandinista government announced that three U.S. diplomats were being expelled
for, among other charges, conspiring to kill foreign minister D'Escoto. A day
later, President Reagan announced that all of Nicaragua's consulates in the
United States were being closed, and Nicaragua's consuls were given 24 hours to
leave the U.S. The following portion of the interview took place after those
events.]
PLAYBOY: You had predicted that there were plans to kill your leaders, and
apparently you acted on that premise by expelling three U.S. diplomats. But
your proof that at least one of them was conspiring to poison foreign minister
)'Escoto seems unconvincing thus far.
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24
Playboy (c) 1983 IAC
RAMIREZ: I don't know what you've seen in U.S. reports, but we have all the
proof that any reasonable person would require. As we speak, our government is
issuing a full report on the incident. Briefly, one of the U.S. diplomats,
Ermila Rodriguez, had induced a contact in our foreign ministry to deliver a
bottle of Benedictine brandy to foreign minister D'Excoto. We determined by
chemical analysis that it contained thallium, a poison. There will be more
details available by the time your interview goes to press, but for now, let me
ask you: Wouldn't it have been absurd of us to concact such a wild story if all
we wanted to do was expel three CIA agents?
PLAYBOY: Not if you intended it as a gesture: It can be very popular in some
parts of the world to spit in Uncle Sam's eye, and the pretext doesn't always
matter.
RAMIREZ: Look, we had no recourse. For instance, we know that there are at
least 15 other CIA agents in Nicaragua right now in the guise of diplomatic
functionaries--we didn't expel them, though we know them to be agents. It was
simply that the evidence against these three was 50 overwhelming that we had no
alternative but to expel them.
PLAYBOY: Reagan's new Ambassador at Large for Central American Affairs,
Richard Stone, was met at the airport just after the expulsion by a middle-level
official. Did you intend that as a snub?
RAMIREZ: He was met by an official appropriate to his rank as Ambassador. I
am giving you a formal response based on protocol.
PLAYBOY: And a less formal answer?
RAMIREZ: Of course, it's true that the poor relations between Managua and
Washington were reflected in our formal reception of Stone. He had, after all,
made some extremely hard-line statements about our government even before
arriving.
PLAYBOY: How did his meetings with you go?
RAMIREZ: Comandante Ortega tells me that Stone was somewhat more cordial and
conciliatory in private than he was in public. But let me tell you a personal
story: Back in 1979, Comandante Ortega and I were in Washington on an official
visit to President Carter two months after our victory over Somoza. Senator
[Edward] Zorinsky invited us to lunch up on Capitol Hill. It was a social
occasion attended by other Senators, and Stone was introduced. In the middle of
this friendly lunch, he leaned over and began to grill Comandante Ortega--our
head of state--as if he were in a police line-up: "Is it or isn't it true that
you are a terrorist indoctrinated in Cuba?" Stone then left the luncheon and
gave waiting reporters a statement he had prepared beforehand condemning our
government--just two months after we'd taken over. So with a precedent like
that, it's difficult to be optimistic about a man with such prejudices.
PLAYBOY: Then you're becoming more pessimistic overall?
RAMIREZ: Yes; recent events seem to confirm what I've been telling you--which
is that, little by little, the extremists in the Reagan White House are taking
over. For instance, there is now all-out support by Washington for General
Gustavo Alvarex Martinex, Honduras' military leader. For the first time,
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Playboy (c) 1983 IAC
Honduran military units have joined the Contras in attacking our troops along
the northern border, and they are also providing artillery support. This could
rapidly escalate into full-scale war.
PLAYBOY: Do you think war with Honduras is inevitable?
RAMIREZ: If General Alvarez keeps getting the kind of support he is getting
in Washington, yes.
PLAYBOY: Do you think Reagan reacted to your expulsion of the diplomats the
way he did because of this new hard line?
RAMIREZ: Reagan reacted the way someone who is powerful reacts when he feels
offended by someone weaker. He had to react more strongly than we did: He
couldn't just expel three of our diplomats; he had to shut down every one of our
consulates. It was simply another roar of the MGM lion--and we've heard that
roar through the years.
PLAYBOY: What if, despite the restraints, the war against you escalates?
What if it becomes a war as long as grueling as Vietnam?
FATHER CARDENAL: We would be scared; but we are willing to do anything. And
no matter what, the struggle would continue. The war would become
internationalized. We will not pretend that we would stay within our own
borders. If we're defeated here, we can go someplace else and continue the
struggle. So, in that sense, there is a parallel to Vietnam: The struggle would
be for 20 years, until a new triumph, until we won.
PLAYBOY: You admit that you're scared as political leaders; are you scared
personally?
RAMIREZ: What we feel this minute is as good an example as any. Here we are,
sitting relatively tranquilly--but there are 2000 armed Guardsmen pouring over
our borders; a hostile government in Honduras; an even more hostile Government
in Washington; the knowledge that every day, we are being discussed in the
National Security Council, that the CIA has contingency plans to destory us, to
murder us
How do I feel?
I feel as if anyone could be waiting to murder me the mimute I leave the
Government House. My children go to school without protection--they could be
kidnapped at any time. These are everyday possibilities, but we've become
accustomed to living like this. All we can do is not to lose our morale.
Otherwise, we'd lose control--not only of our nerves but of the country.
PLAYBOY: What specific actions are you planning if the counterinsurgency
widens?
RAMIREZ: It's hard to say. All kinds of things could happen. It's even
possible that, as a last resort, there could be an invasion of North American
soldiers in Nicaragua and a long-term war. We wouldn't lose. We have
experience with such wars. We were invaded by the North American Marines in
1909, 1912 and 1926. What the United States would have to do is send a squadron
of 300 airplanes to destroy the most important centers of the country. They
could, perhaps, conquer Managua--but that means nothing in the long run. As I
said, we're only a small piece of Latin America.
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PLAYBOY: Do you really believe the U.S. would invade?
BORGE: The North American Government has many kinds of contingency plans that
would lead to further logical steps. First, there's the plan we see being acted
out now: the invasion of our country by counterrevolutionary forces from
Honduras to create the false idea that there's a civil war in Nicaragua. The
next step would be to try to assimilate it into the real civil war in El
Salvador--which would be pure fiction. At the same time, that plan would keep
as a reserve the Honduran army as a sort of military checkmate at the right
moment. And if that plan were to fail from a North American point of view, then
perhaps, as a last resort, there might be an invasion by North American forces.
FATHER CARDENAL: But this war may never happen--and can be prevented if there
is sufficient pressure from the people, the press and the Congress of the United
States on Reagan.
PLAYBOY: Are you optimistic that the American people will understand your
viewpoint?
RAMIREZ: There is no other road but to understand. There must be a mutual
understanding that Latin America has to change and that there may be different
ways for that change to occur. The worst thing would be for the United States
to always, repeatedly, be against any of those changes. The CIA would have to
repeat its covert operations ten, 15 times in Latin America. And that would be
a terrible historical lesson for the United States to always bet on the losing
side. It shouldn't, it musn't be on the side of the villains in this movie.
BORGE: Let me add something--and I'm happy that this conversation has been a
collective effort, because that makes it part of the revolutionary process.
Although it's rather late, let me stress how much the North Americans are loved
and appreciated by the Nicaraguan people. Americans who visit here are
constantly surprised at how affectionately they are received. So if it fits
within this Interview, we want to express that affection and respect to a people
who knew their great historical responsibility during the war in Vietnam. We
know they will become aware of what it means to wage aggression against a poor
and small country and that they are with us and against the imperialist designs
of their present Government.
RAMIREZ: Perhaps this isn't the moment to say it, but we are aware of the
bountifulness of North American civilization. We think we still have a lot to
learn from the technology an the spirit of progress that have characterized
North American society. But we believe that this trying to dominate a weaker
people is a tumor in the body of the North American society. Because of the
present situation, there is great ignorance on both sides. What is stressed
most to the North American people is that we have a revolution tied to the
Soviet Union, and the danger is that, little by little, that view will become
accepted by the U.S. public. Conversely, Nicaraguans may begin to think of the
United States as synonymous with aggression, invasion, dictatorships, threats.
Both images are equally superficial.
PLAYBOY: So to return to your frequent metaphor, what you would like is for
North Americans not to see you as the bad guys in the movie.
RAMIREZ: Yes. We're the heroes. We're not Greek heroes who get saved at the
last minute by a deus ex machina and are without fault. We are human heroes,
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PAGE 27
Playboy (c) 1983 IAC
full of frailties, defects, error-prone--but on the side of justice! That much
we're sure of; we're not on the side of a bad cause! What we want is to be able
to prove it.
GRAPHIC: ;Portrait
SUBJECT:
Sandinista National Liberation Front, officials and employees ; Nicaragua,
politics and government
NAME:
Martinez, Tomas Borge, interviews ; Ramirez Mercado, Sergio, interviews ;
Cardenal, Ernesto, interviews
GEOGRAPHIC:
Nicaragua
02899919
LOAD-DATE-MDC: September 19, 1991
LEXIS NEXIS'LEXIS'NEXIS
Miami has a high-growth economy and relatively low
to run their own firms.
taxes. New York and Massachusetts have no-growth
What brought Deschapelles to Mi-
ami? Climate. A more relaxed pace.
economies and high taxes. There's a lesson here,
The relatively low cost of living. New
but the politicians won't heed it.
York, Philadelphia and Los Angeles
can be more expensive. On Long
Island, for example, the cost of living
A turbulent
is 50% above the national average; in
Philadelphia, 28%. Miami's is just
12%. Says Thomas Purvis, a vice presi-
dent at NCNB, the North Carolina-
based bank, who was transferred to
teenager
Miami four years ago: "I was sur-
prised. Miami has the cost of living of
a small town."
Bad luck for developers and banks
is good luck for residents and new-
By Tatiana Pouschine
comers. Thanks to the overbuilding
in the Seventies, good housing and
office space are relatively cheap. In
Brickell, one of Miami's most exclu-
Smith by
sive residential neighborhoods, rents
for a two-bedroom apartment with a
view of Biscayne Bay and minutes
from downtown average about
$1,000 a month. Comparable apart-
ments in New York are at least double
that-and no bay.
Miami is a supply-side sort of place.
Because it is prosperous, it has a high
tax base. And it has low tax rates. The
low taxes in turn feed the prosperity.
New York City residents pay up to
8.4% in state income taxes and 3.4% in
city taxes. In Philadelphia, residents
pay 2.1% in state taxes and a 5% local
wage tax. Miami has neither state nor
city income taxes. Only three states
have lower taxes than Florida.
1/2
The South Beach scene
So business flourishes. Without the
Like Saint-Tropez in the Seventies.
population influx, there would be a
shortage of workers: Though the
number of available workers grew
MIAMI. The art deco buildings redone
sionals, refugees from New York,
16.5% over the last decade, to over
in vivid colors, the gardens in the
Washington and Chicago.
950,000, employment grew even
residential areas lush and well kept.
Some, but by no means all, of the
faster, at over 18%. The number of
South Beach, one of the new hang-
young professionals have a Latin con-
new businesses grew 25%, to nearly
outs, is reminiscent of the Saint-Tro-
nection. Take Edward Deschapelles,
57,000, last year. In the last ten years
pez of the early Seventies: relaxed, but
31, who moved to Miami two years
wholesale and retail trade has grown
exciting. Even on a Tuesday night,
ago from New York. Of Cuban de-
nearly 25%, employing 240,000 peo-
the stretch of restaurants and cafes
scent, he grew up in Paris and Madrid.
ple, or nearly one-third of Miami's
overlooking the Atlantic bustles. All
A Harvard M.B.A., he was a loan
work force.
evening people stroll by: tourists, lo-
officer for Chase Manhattan, later a
Counted in the wholesale trade sta-
cal yuppies, miniskirted blondes.
trader for Phibro-Salomon.
tistics are importer-exporters, em-
For the past decade Miami's popu-
Deschapelles now runs a consultan-
ploying 2 to 100 people, that help
lation, including Dade County mu-
cy advising clients-mostly local agri-
Latin Americans buy or sell in the
nicipalities, has been growing 2% a
cultural operations-how to enter
U.S. One such company is Marco
year on average, twice the rate of
and finance expansion into Latin
Technology Corp., which imports
other U.S. cities. No, that's not be-
America. He shares an office with two
rice-milling equipment from Taiwan,
cause of the graying of America. Many
former bankers he knew in New York
Japan and Mexico and exports it to
of the newcomers are young profes-
who have also come to Miami recently
Venezuela, Ecuador and Panama.
58
Forbes
June 10, 1991
"We've never been bigger," says
every bank has money launderers,"
countries more prosperous and hence
Claudio Martinez Sr., who has run
sighs one banker, "though we follow
better customers for Florida. Says
the business in Miami for 20 years.
all the regulations." But much of the
Mayor Suarez: "As soon as you get
Last year he added 14 people to a staff
money is earned in legitimate busi-
Haitians and Dominicans working in
now totaling 36.
nesses in Latin America. Though they
textiles or shoes, they themselves be-
Finance follows trade. Take a walk
could send their money to New York
come a market, where they formerly
down Brickell Avenue. Lined with
or European capital havens like Gene-
lived almost in abject poverty."
palm trees, Miami's Wall Street is
va or London, Latin Americans like
A few manufacturing companies in
packed with shiny skyscrapers display-
doing business in Miami. Many Latin
Miami are thriving, some of them
ing banking names from around the
Americans send their children to
high-tech. Coulter Corp., a privately
world. Between 1988 and 1990, ten
school in Florida and have vacation
held maker of medical diagnostic
additional foreign banks were li-
homes near Miami. Miami Mayor Xa-
equipment with over 2,000 employ-
censed to do business in Florida,
vier Suarez recounts how he break-
ees in Miami, has been manufacturing
bringing the total to 66. As a foreign-
fasted with one father, the vice presi-
in the city since 1960. The company
banking center, Miami is now second
dent of the Dominican Republic,
recently worked with the city govern-
only to New York.
whose two daughters are in Miami
ment to create a development group
There is good money to be made
schools. Good relations increase
to help other biomedical technology
dealing with Latin American finance.
trade, he says.
companies in the area.
Manuel Fernandez is head of trade
finance at Barnett Bank of South Flor-
ida, part of the state's largest bank
holding company. Fernandez pulls
out paperwork on a banker's accep-
tance Barnett had just issued. The
bank earned about 200 basis points
guaranteeing the credit of a local ex-
porter-importer that typically bor-
rows at Barnett's prime rate. It would
have earned no more than 50 basis
points had it been guaranteeing the
credit of a brand-name corporation.
Money center banks such as Chase
and Citibank aren't as actively in the
game. One banker says he was sur-
prised at how little competition came
from big U.S. banks. His explanation:
"They turned up their noses because
these aren't the large import-export
firms they are used to dealing with in
New York."
Miami's Brickell Avenue
The money centers are eager, how-
The bankers are moving in.
ever, to compete with the others in
private banking, managing the money
coming in from such countries as
The dark spot in the Miami econo-
With all this growth and change
Colombia, Venezuela, Guatemala
my is manufacturing. Employment in
comes a certain amount of turmoil. A
and El Salvador.
manufacturing fell 11% over the last
polyglot city, Miami is the scene of
That money is pouring in. Analyst
decade. The sector employed about
frequent confrontations between the
Moshe Orenbuch at New York's San-
89,000 in 1990, down from 100,000
Latin population and the local blacks.
ford C. Bernstein & Co. estimates
in 1980. The problem is the apparel
Miami has more murders per 100,000
that between 1980 and 1989 deposits
industry, which is losing jobs to coun-
than New York or Los Angeles. Non-
in Florida nearly tripled to over $100
tries in and across the Caribbean. The
violent crimes, too, are rampant. Just
billion from $37 billion, representing
apparel industry remains a major em-
a few months ago, Mayor Suarez's car
a compounded annual growth rate of
ployer but is shrinking. As of last year,
was broken into while the police were
12%. Deposits for all U.S. commercial
almost one-third of the 166 manufac-
reportedly guarding it. Assistant City
banks grew at only 6.5%, or barely
turers in the city that employ over 100
Manager Sergio Rodriguez puts the
more than half the rate. Orenbuch
people were apparel or textile firms.
situation in perspective: "Miami is
expects Florida's deposit growth in
But now they are laying people off or
like a teenager. First this part grows,
the early Nineties to slow to the high
disappearing altogether.
then that part." Like an energetic
single digits but to remain more than
The bright side of this, of course, is
adolescent, Miami doesn't always act
that in other parts of the U.S.
that the move of the garment trade to
like a grownup, but it's never dull and
Drug money? Some of it. "I'm sure
lower-wage countries makes those
certainly not stagnant.
Forbes
June 10, 1991
59
THE WHITE HOUSE
Office of the Press Secretary
For Immediate Release
September 27, 1991
The President today announced his intention to nominate Susan
Meredith Phillips, of Iowa, to be a Member of the Board of
Governors of the Federal Reserve System for the unexpired term of
fourteen years from February 1, 1984. She would succeed Martha
R. Seger. Currently, Dr. Phillips serves as Vice President for
Finance and University Services; and Professor of Finance,
College of Business Administration at the University of Iowa in
Iowa City, Iowa.
# # #
The Praxis of Intervention
The Sandinista National Liberation
the FSLN the opportunity to develop
Front (FSLN) was founded in Teguci-
The foreign policy of the
alliances with moderate and democratic
galpa. Honduras. in July 1961, at a
meeting among Tomas Borge, Carlos
Sandinista People's Revolution
groups and individuals who previously
would have shunned the FSLN because
Fonseca, and Silvio Mayorga. All had
is based on the full exercise of
of its Cuban ties and penchant for
been student activists in Nicaragua; all
national sovereignty and
violence. In January 1978, Pedro Joa-
had participated in preliminary meetings
independence and on the prin.
quin Chamorro, the editor of La Prensa,
in Cuba; all identified with the Cuban
ciple of revolutionary
Nicaragua's leading newspaper, was
revolution and with armed conflict. The
internationalism.
murdered by assailants widely believed
first armed FSLN guerrilla units
to be associated with Somoza. Chamorro
entered Nicaragua from Honduras in
FSLN "72-hour Document,"
was Somoza's leading critic and a strong
1962 carrying Cuban-supplied weapons.¹
September 19794
democrat. His death set off the national
By the time the FSLN was founded,
revulsion that eventually destroyed
internationalism and guerrilla warfare
This revolution goes beyond our
Somoza.
had already been united in Sandinista
borders. Our revolution was
Throughout 1978, while Nicaraguan
praxis in the form of the "Rigoberto
business, religious, and civie leaders
Lopez Perez" Column. This guerrilla
always internationalist from the
were moving irrevocably into opposition
group had been organized in mid-1959
moment Sandino fought [his first
to Somoza, Armando Ulises Estrada, &
with advice from Ernesto Che Guevara
battle].
high-ranking member of the America
and supplied by Cuba. The 55 Nicara-
Department of the Communist Party of
Tomas Borge
guans, Cubans, and other interna-
July 19, 1981'
Cuba, made numerous secret trips
tionalists who belonged to it were
seeking to unify the three major factions
dispersed by the Honduran Army before
of the FSLN. In March 1979, the three
they could enter Nicaragua.²
We cannot cease being inter-
Sandinista factions entered into a for-
The FSLN suffered repeated defeats
nationalists unless we cease
malized alliance with Fidel Castro's sup-
in its armed opposition to the Somoza
being revolutionaries.
port.' Once unity was achieved, Cuba
dynasty. which ufter 1967 was headed
increased covert support operations,
by Anastasio Somoza Debayle. Fifteen
Bayardo Arce
providing weapons, training. and ad-
years after their opening attacks,
May 6, 1984
visory personnel to the FSLN. Estrada
Fonseca and Mayorga were dead and
and Julian Lopez Diaz, later Cuba's first
FSLN forces had no more than 300
ambassador to Sandinista Nicaragua,
guerrillas belonging to three feuding
concentrated on building a supply net-
especially with non-Marxist states and
factions.³
work for channeling arms and supplies
A new strategy to gain alliances
organizations, gradually developed in
to Sandinista guerrilla forces. By May
the wake of a failed October 1977 cam-
beyond the borders of Nicaragua,
paign against Somoza. Events soon gave
'Claribel Alegria and D.J.F. Falkoll,
"Analisis de la Coyuntura V Tareas de
Cuba today has an extensive intelligence
Nicarugua: la revolucion sandinista (Serie
la Revolucion Popular Sandinista (Tesis
and training apparatus, modern military
Popular Era) Mexico, 1982, quote Borge on
Politicas y Militares Presentadas por la
forces, and a large and sophisticated
the establishment of the FSLN and its 1962
Direccion Nacional del Frente Sandinista de
propaganda network. Making Che Guevara's
operation on pp. 166-168. The organization
Liberacion Nacional en la Asamblea de
attempts look amateurish, the Castro govern-
established in Honduras in July 1961 was
Cuadros "RIGOBERTO LOPEZ PEREZ"
ment is now able to utilize agents and con-
originally to be named simply the National
celebrada ol 21, 22 y 23 de Septiembre de
tacts nurtured over 20-25 years. Most of the
Liberation Front. "Sandinists" was added
1979). Managua, October 1979, p. 24 (often
covert operations in Nicarague were planned
because of Fonseca's belief in the need for a
referred to as the "72-Hour Document").
and courdinated by the America Department
historic Nicaraguan symbol. In this way,
SAt a military ceremony broadcast on
of the Cuban Communist Party. Headed by
Augusto Sandino, as nationalist, became the
Managua domestic service, as reported by
Manuel Pineiro Losada, the America Depart-
symbol of an internationalist movement.
FBIS on July 21, 1981.
ment emerged in 1974 to centralize opera-
The defeat brought a wounded Fonseca
"Comandante Bayardo Arce's Secret
tional control of Cubs's covert activities in
to Havana where he made personal contacts
Speech before the Nicaraguan Socialist
the Western Hemisphere. The department
with the Cuban leader that contributed to
Party (PSN), Department of State Publica-
brings together the expertise of the Cuban
the founding of the FSLN. In 1960, Borge
tion 9422, Inter-American Series 118
military and the General Directorate of
also met with Che Guevara in Havana.
(Washington, D.C., March 1985), p. 4,
Intelligence into & fartlung operation that
"Leaders of the three factions were:
Lne
LOKE
puolished
in
La
includes secret training camps in Cuba, net
Tomas Borge, "Prolonged Popular War,"
Vanguardia, Barcelona, August 23, 1984.
works for covert movement of personnel and
Humberto and Daniel Ortega, "Third Force"
"Cuban radio announced as early as
materiel between Cuba and abroad, and
or "Insurrectionist," and Jaime Wheelock,
December 1978 that the three factions had
sophisticated propaganda support. (See
"Proletarian." The factions are described in
agreed to merge. Also see Richard L. Millett,
Cuba's Renewed Support for Violence in
George Black, Triumph of the People: The
"Historical Setting," in Nicaragua: A
Latin America, Department of State Special
Sandinista Revolution in Nicaragua
Country Study (Washington, 1982), p. 51.
Report No. 90, December 14, 1981.)
(London, Zed, 1981), pp. 91-97.
Black (op. cit.), pp. 142-148, discusses unifica-
tion without mentioning Cuba.
:# 2
Xerox Telecopier 7020 ; 9-23-91 ; 3:01PM ;
CCITT G3-+
Special Report No. 1324
United States Department or State
September 1985
"Revolution Beyond
Our Borders"
Sandinista Intervention
Central America
greater
miami
chamber of
commerce
GREATER MIAMI CHAMBER OF COMMERCE
NEW OPPORTUNITIES COMMITTEE
Report Of The Committee's Task Force On
"THE TRADE IMPACT OF A FREE CUBA"
Raul Martinez, Co-Chairman
Ocean Bank
Bruce Jay Colan, Co-Chairman
Fine Jacobson Schwartz Nash Block & England
Jose R. Cuervo, Legal Counsel
Dow Chemical, Latin America/Caribbean
Pedro A. Freyre, Consultant
Dow Chemical, Latin America/Caribbean
Sandra Gonzalez-Levy, Vice President
Greater Miami Chamber of Commerce, International Department
April 1991
Table of Contents
**
Introduction
2
Cuba Today:
Economy
3
Infrastructure
4
Breakdown of Economic Relations
with USSR & Eastern Europe
5
The U.S. Economic Embargo
6
What Is A "Free Cuba?
7
Timing
10
Impact On Dade County:
General-
An Overview
11
Short Term Effects
12
Financing Considerations
13
Current Western Trading Partners
13
Key Areas of Opportunity-
Tourism
14
Water & Sewer
15
Telecommunications
16
Transportation (Vehicles & Parts)
16
Housing & Real Estate
16
Appliances
17
The Sugar Industry
17
Other Agriculture
18
Machinery, Equipment & Tools
18
Biotechnology & Related Industry
19
Nickel
19
Pollution Control
19
Medical Services
20
Medicines
20
Conclusion
21
Footnotes
23
* INTRODUCTION *
Located 90 miles from Key West and some 220 miles from Greater Miami, Cuba,
with a population of 10.7 million living within the island's 40,508 square miles
(about the size of Pennsylvania), has remained economically alienated from the
U.S., formerly its main trading partner (1), for over 30 years. During this period,
along with the ethnic and cultural influences of three decades of migration from
Cuba, Nicaragua and other Central and South American countries, Dade County
has evolved into an international trade, commerce and banking center which is
uniquely positioned to benefit from trading with a "free" Cuba. This report sets
forth the potential trade impact for Dade County when (rather than if) that
opportunity arises.
#
#
#
#
2
* CUBA TODAY * (2)
Economy
Before Castro took power in 1959, Cuba ranked third in per capita income among
Latin American nations, behind only Argentina and Venezuela. Today, after more than
30 years of socialism and more than $45 billion in Soviet economic aid, Cuba's per capita
income of less than $1,500 ranks in the bottom half of nations in Latin America (3).
Cuba's principal trading partners have been the Soviet Union and the Eastern bloc
countries. In 1988, Cuba's exports, consisting primarily of sugar, petroleum (the resale
of imports from the Soviet Union), nickel, shellfish and tobacco, totalled $5.5 billion, of
which 67% were to the Soviet Union. In 1987, 72% of its exports were to the Soviet
Union and 15% were to Eastern Europe.
In 1988, Cuba's imports, consisting primarily of petroleum, machinery,
manufactured goods, foodstuffs and chemicals, totalled $7.6 billion, of which 71% were
from the Soviet Union In 1987, 72% of its imports were from the Soviet Union and 14%
were from Eastern Europe.
Cuba has little industrial base. Its agricultural production is principally limited
to sugar, tobacco and citrus. Cuba's economy is currently more reliant on sugar
production than at any time in this century. Sugar production accounted for 80% of
Cuba's exports between 1920 and 1959. By 1986, sugar represented 82% of total Cuban
exports. Sugar exports are Cuba's primary source of hard currency earnings and its
principal means for servicing its $6.8 billion debt to Western lenders, such as Japan and
Sweden. Cuba's sugar plantations are inefficient and relatively unproductive. Its sugar
harvest of 1960, Castro's first full year in power, was 5.95 million metric tons. By 1987
it had reached 7.2 million tons, an average annual growth rate of less than 1%. By
contrast, Brazil's annual sugar harvest grew from 2.8 million metric tons in 1958 to more
than 8.5 million metric tons in 1987 (4).
Tourism is again becoming an important part of Cuba's economy, as Cuba has
dropped what its officials called "social tourism", in which ideologically sympathetic
Westerners and Communists from around the world were invited to visit and offered tours
of model communes, sugar plantations, and other workplaces where the achievements of
Castro's socialism were put on display. Over 320,000 tourists visited Cuba in 1989-
exceeding all pre-Castro years-and the annual growth rate over the past six years has
been close to 10% (5) However, for the most part these tourists take low-priced package
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tours and are not making repeat visits.
As of 1990, Cuba had the highest per capita debt of any nation in Latin America.
Cuba's $6.8 billion debt to Western lenders was 150 times greater than its 1959 debt total
of $45.5 million. Although it is difficult to pin down Cuba's actual debt to the Soviet
Union, the Soviet government journal Izvestia reported on March 1, 1990 that Cuba's debt
to the USSR had reached $24 billion. Cuba's foreign debt total was thus $30.8 billion.
Its per capita foreign debt of nearly $3,000 was about three times that of Mexico.
Havana's refusal to honor its debt obligations to Western government lenders since
July 1986 has severely restricted loans to Cuba. The National Bank of Cuba in 1988
reported "an overall absence of credits, particularly medium-term credits" (6).
Infrastructure
Cuba's infrastructure is a curious mixture of 30-year old American machinery and
vehicles kept in operation through considerable mechanical improvisation skills, inefficient
East bloc products such as the fuel-guzzling, medium-duty Soviet trucks built with 1950's
technology which are a crucial part of the distribution system, and modern Western
equipment such as German, Japanese and Swiss medical and analytical equipment found
in some medical facilities and research centers. To this potpourri of equipment should
be added a sprinkling of modern American items such as personal computers and
appliances which have entered the country in spite of the embargo.
Cuba's industrial plant presents the same quilt of dissimilar equipment and
vintages. In the sugar industry, some mills sport American Babcock & Wilcox equipment
installed in the 1920's, while others built since 1959 have far more modern Eastern
European and Soviet machinery.
The oil refining industry is another illustration of this phenomenon. Cuba's
refining capacity is concentrated in Havana and Santiago where former ESSO, Shell and
Texaco refineries built in the 1950's supply most of the island's requirements for refined
petroleum products. A massive government effort to complete a new refinery in
Cienfuegos, on the island's Southern coast, has yet to bear fruit. That installation, built
with Soviet assistance and technology, is behind schedule and has not yet gone on stream.
Cuba is in the midst of negotiations with Mexico to obtain feedstocks for this refinery.
Perhaps Cuba's most unique infrastructure project is the nuclear power plant
under construction, also in Cienfuegos. This project, utilizing Soviet technology, was
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reportedly delayed by the Chernobyl accident which resulted in a substantial redesign of
the facility. Currently under the personal supervision of Fidel Castro, Jr., the project is
running years behind schedule and the latest estimated completion date is late in 1992.
Breakdown of Economic Relations with the USSR and Eastern Europe
Soviet aid to Cuba increasingly has become a casualty of Moscow's internal
economic crisis, as confirmed by Castro in recent speeches. For this and other reasons,
the Soviet Union is cutting its subsidies and economic assistance programs to Cubar
Among other things, Soviet sugar subsidies, which were roughly four times the market
price for sugar since 1986, are being reduced to levels closer to the current world price.
As this happens, Cuba's earnings from its only significant cash crop is plummeting and
Cuba is being forced to cut purchases of critical imports, such as food, machinery and
spare parts. Further, Moscow's cash shortage and economic restructuring programs have
reduced the Soviet Union's interest in subsidized trade with Cuba. As a result, in late
1989 the Soviet Union signed its first long term sugar import contract with a non-Cuban
supplier. In addition, the Soviet Union failed to deliver promised wheat and grain
shipments to Cuba in the first two months of 1990. Now that independent Soviet
enterprises are beginning to have the right to trade directly on foreign markets and need
profits to survive, they are more likely to seek cash trade and reject barter arrangements
preferred by cash-poor Havana (7).
Soviet oil shipments to Cuba also are declining in volume and increasing in
cost. Cuba's hard currency earnings from the resale of oil imported from the Soviet
Union dropped from $621 million (or roughly 40% of Cuba's total hard currency earnings)
in 1985 to zero in 1989. According to data published in 1989 by the Central Bank of
Cuba, Moscow cut its shipment of subsidized oil to Cuba by $200 million in 1989. Given
that Soviet oil production fell by 350,000 barrels per day in 1989 and was expected to
drop another 500,000 per day in 1990, Cuba is likely to experience even more painful
reductions in subsidized Soviet oil shipments.
Economic liberalization in Eastern Europe is also damaging the Cuban
economy. New reform-minded governments in Eastern Europe need hard currency to
purchase consumer goods, pay interest on foreign debt and finance their transition toward
free market economies. Accordingly, they need cash payments for their exports, not the
barter trade deals with cash-starved Cuba. The new Soviet and East Europe emphasis
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on cash trade is undercutting Cuba's export market and causing shortages of food and
industrial goods in Cuba.
Moscow had required East bloc nations to help prop up the Cuban economy
by purchasing Cuban sugar at prices roughly three times the market rate. Emerging
democracies in Eastern Europe can save substantial sums by purchasing sugar from
cheaper, more reliable producers in Barbados, the Dominican Republic and Jamaica.
Reform-minded East European enterprises are changing the way they do
business with Cuba. For example, Hungary's leading bus manufacturer, Ikarus, boosted
prices for bus spare parts by 20% in September 1989, making them unaffordable for Cuba.
As a result, parts shortages disabled most of Havana's mass transit system. Further,
Poland and East Germany failed to honor agreements with Moscow in 1990 to transport
Cuban citrus to the Soviet Union. These countries are pressing Moscow to pay in scarce
hard currency for the use of their freight vessels. Moreover, as the countries in Eastern
Europe allow their currencies to fall to their market value to make their exports more
competitive, Cuba refuses to do so. Cuba's over-valued peso thus makes Cuban exports
more expensive and less attractive to Eastern European and Western consumers.
The United States Economic Embargo
Under the Trading with the Enemy Act, the United States government
enacted the Cuban Assets Control Regulations on July 8, 1963 in response to certain
hostile acts of the Cuban government." This legislation affects all U.S. citizens and
permanent residents physically in the U.S., as well as any branches and subsidiaries of
U.S. organizations throughout the world. This legislation, which is governed by the Office
of Foreign Assets Control within the U.S. Department of the Treasury, includes a number
of far reaching restrictions that can result in severe penalties if violated. Maximum
penalties include up to 12 years in prison and $250,000 in fines. Some basic restrictions
preclude the importation or exportation of any goods or services to or from Cuba, whether
directly or indirectly through a third country. Also prohibited is the spending of any U.S.
dollars that are ultimately destined to impact the Cuban economy. directly or through
indirect investment.
All bank accounts, goods and other monetary interests of the Cuban public
and private sectors will be confiscated by the U.S. government under existing legislation.
While all financial interests continue under Cuban ownership, the embargo applies a total
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prohibition on all transactions and transfers of any kind.
Since this embargo is not the result of an executive order, but an act of Congress, repeal
legislation will presumably be required before the embargo can be lifted Such action is
not anticipated, absent a material political change in Cuba, making it "free".
These are only a few of the many unique and complicated aspects of the
U.S. embargo against Cuba. For more details concerning specific portions of the
legislation, you can contact the Office of Foreign Assets Control in Washington DC at
202/376-0392.
WHAT IS A "FREE" CUBA?
A "free" Cuba is both a political and an economic issue. A "free" Cuba from
a political standpoint is beyond the scope of this report, but would entail, among other
things, substantive changes toward democratization, freedom of expression and association,
and substantial improvement in the area of human rights abuses.
From a purely economic standpoint, and ignoring political and emotional
issues, at least insofar as impacting on trade and investment, from an objective
standpoint, a "free" Cuba will occur when the United States embargo is lifted in
Washington, a decision which will undoubtedly be made with the substantive input of all
affected constituencies. It is extremely unlikely that this decision would be made without
substantial political freedom in Cuba. It must also be understood that the issue of trade
with Cuba has the potential for a substantial political impact in Dade County due to the
very large active Cuban-American constituency As a result, the perceived degree of
democratization and other political reforms in Cuba will have a significant impact on the
extent to which the Dade County business community will participate in increased
opportunities for trade with and investment in Cuba.
In order to understand the conditions under which trading with and/or
investing in Cuba would be worthwhile for American businesses once the embargo is
lifted, some basic considerations which American businesses have traditionally looked for
in foreign jurisdictions, and which do not presently exist in Cuba, must be examined.
These include, at a minimum, the following:
a. Predictability and consistency in the country's attitude towards foreign
investment.
b. Departure from central planning toward an open market economy.
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c. Widespread recognition of an acceptable legal
environment for commercial activities (including
compliance with basic International Chamber of
Commerce customs and procedures in foreign trade
documentation and arbitration; recognition of
intellectual property rights, patents; etc.).
d. Predominance of the rule of law providing basic
individual rights (private ownership of property,
freedom to travel regardless of nationality, political
affiliation, etc.) and a credible judicial system.
e. A convertible currency.
A cursory review of recent attitudes by the Castro regime confirms that,
despite allegations to the contrary, present conditions do not favor private investment.
Perhaps foremost among considerations for Western businessmen is predictability. In a
negative way, Cuba has in fact been consistent and predictable in its attitude toward
foreign investment. Until approximately 1980, foreign investment was considered
undesirable. At the beginning of the 1980's, and following the lead of other socialist
countries such as Vietnam, Cuba made a limited move toward wooing foreign investors
under very tight strictures. It went so far as to enact a foreign investment law under
which foreign investors could participate in joint ventures with the Cuban government
with an equity participation of up to 50%. A limited number of foreign investors have
taken advantage of that legislation, including a Spanish group (the Gaviota Group) which
built the Hotel Las Palmeras in Varadero with an investment of $40 million. An
interesting twist to this investment is the ability of the Spanish management group to
hire and fire Cuban workers who are unproductive, a radical concept for the paternalistic
Cuban labor environment. While that law provided some predictability for investment and
there are additional hotel joint venture projects underway, it didn't go nearly far enough
in today's rapidly evolving and free wheeling competitive climate for foreign investment.
Currently, terms being offered to foreign investors include the possibility of
owning over 50% of a project, as well as tax and tariff concessions. Sectors currently
purportedly open to foreign investment include tourism, light industry, medical equipment,
medicine production, construction and agro-industry (8). Whether the new terms being
offered will be more successful is problematic. Cuba also appears to be toying with the
idea of more radical changes, but Castro has consistently snuffed out credible moves
toward an open market economy. Perhaps the most dramatic example of this was the
switch in 1985 to Castro's program of rectification of errors, an ultra-socialist campaign
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to get away from Cuba's brief but successful flirtation with limited open market policies,
particularly in the agricultural sector.
A second element which would be necessary to encourage foreign investment,
and which appears to be substantially lacking in Cuba, is a positive attitude toward free
enterprise, or at the very least for a mixed economic model. Of the countries that have
flirted with the socialist economic model, Cuba has gone as far as, if not further than,
most. Under the Cuban constitution of 1976 virtually all means of production are the
property of the state, with certain minor exceptions for small farmers and cooperatives.
Trade appears to be a completely different issue, with the Cuban government making
serious concerted efforts to diversify its reliance on trade with the Soviet Union and the
Eastern bloc. In the course of the last two years Cuba has engaged in a concerted effort
to develop new trading partners such as the countries of Latin America and Africa. Most
particularly, it has pursued a significant expansion of its trade with China, the most
recent evidence of which was an apparent agreement for the purchase of 200,000 bicycles
to assist Cuba in its campaign to reduce oil consumption. These efforts have essentially
been undertaken on a "government-to-government" level (or, at best, with various producer
and trade associations and groups) and Cuba is still a long way from adjusting to the
usual trade financing patterns and customs inherent in commercial activities with
privately-owned foreign suppliers and/or customers.
Of lesser importance, but nevertheless a significant factor in any
consideration of trade with, and investment in, Cuba, is the absence of a legal
environment which affords credible protection of intellectual property. This has been an
on-going theme of friction between major industrialized countries such as Japan, the
United States and Germany and less-developed countries. Only now, are major players
like Mexico and Brazil beginning to react to the changes in the world market place which
require their recognition of patent and trademark rights. If Cuba desires to develop the
full potential of some of its more promising industries such as biotechnology, it is going
to have to come to grips with the need to afford serious protection to intellectual property.
Next, is the apparent absence in Cuba of a rule of law. Cuba continues to
be perceived in the international community as a state which engages in widespread
violations of civil rights and which has stubbornly refused to allow any significant dissent
or political opening in its governmental structures. Undoubtedly, this inflexibility has
caused and will continue to cause Cuba to miss the opportunity to join in the new wide
open world marketplace.
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Last, is Cuba's present lack of a convertible currency. As with many
Eastern bloc countries, Cuba relied heavily on the barter of goods with its socialist
trading partners and is now having difficulties in adjusting to a trade pattern based on
hard currency.
However, notwithstanding the negative atmosphere for foreign trade and
investment, the emotional impetus to such trade and investment by Cuban-Americans once
the embargo is lifted, and the infectous impetus of this can give to others, cannot be
overlooked.
TIMING
In light of the Cuban economic deterioration and, even more importantly,
the recent dramatic changes in Eastern Europe and the Soviet Union, it is inevitable that
the days of the current Cuban political and economic system are growing short. The
model that will be followed in making this change is not yet defined. Increasing food and
other shortages could trigger a Rumanian scenario, where an angry populace protesting
its misery takes to the streets and is mowed down by elements of the army or security
forces, setting off violence. Alternatively, the Hungarian model, where elements within
the Communist Party itself took an active part in a peaceful dismantling of the old order,
could prevail. By whichever method, or any of countless alternatives, a reform Cuban
government will eventually set political prisoners free, allow the free expression of thought
and worship, permit different political views and invite foreign trade and investment. The
only uncertainty is timing.
Any credible predictions made as recently as two to three years ago as to
the timing for a free Eastern Europe would certainly have contemplated a far longer time
period than has occurred. Based upon the current Cuban economic and political situation,
Cuba will most likely be economically "free" by the end of the next presidential term, if
not within the current presidential term.
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IMPACTS ON DADE COUNTY
General
An Overview
Before January 1, 1959, contacts between Havana and Miami were
numerous. The old Spanish tiles that grace the rooftops of Coral Gables homes were once
imported from the island. Daily flights and a car ferry service linked the two cities.
During the hot summer months, many Miami Beach hotels catered to Cubans, who
thrived in the 90-degree weather. The connections extended to banking and trading
relationships. The flow of American investment capital to Cuba was compensated, albeit
on a smaller scale, by Cuban investment in Miami real estate and Cuban technical
contributions to Florida's sugar industry. Cuban cultural influence in Miami, from music
to academic visits between the University of Miami and the University of Havana, was
widespread.
It's not difficult to see future opportunities of mutual benefit. All of South
Florida could benefit from increased contacts. In the short-term, there may well be
adverse effects mixed-in with a euphoria equalling or surpassing that which took place
in Berlin as the Wall came down. In the medium to long-term Florida (and Dade County
in particular) could enter an era of unprecedented prosperity as the center of trade (9).
Miami is in an ideal position to be the beneficiary of renewed commercial
links with Havana, should the following scenario unfold: First, the U.S. trade embargo
is lifted in response to substantive changes by the Cuban government in the areas of
human rights and political freedom. Second, Cuba looks to the U.S. market as a rational
alternative to its uncertain trade relationships with the Soviet Union and Eastern
European countries.
Numerous Dade County (as well as other U.S.) businesses have formulated
business plans to enable them to take advantage of the opportunities for increased trade
and investment that are certain to arise when Cuba is "free".
The Port of Miami and Miami International Airport are the logical points
through which Cuba will export sugar, nickel, fish, tobacco, citrus and other commodities.
Similarly, flowing to the island will be consumer products, machinery, computers, medical
equipment, pharmaceutical and construction equipment needed to rebuild Cuba's
infrastructure. Dade County is the natural entry point for Cuban trade. The principal
apparent constraint will be the availability of financing.
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A normalization of relationships with a reformed Cuba will have a dramatic
impact on the exile community, which is one source of financing for increased trade.
Doubtless, some exiles will return to participate fully in the political process that would
evolve. Others, probably the greater number, will continue to reside in Miami but will
travel to Cuba for vacations and family visits, or out of sheer curiosity. Initially, we will
likely see a remarkable air- and sea-lift of emergency and medical supplies to alleviate
shortages on the island. Later, the Miami exile community can be expected to ship TVs,
microwaves, VCRs, fax machines and appliances to Cuba. As the situation stabilizes and
the shape of new Cuban policies become clearer, some Cuban-Americans may consider
retiring on the island.
It would not be surprising in the long run to see a relationship analogous
to that of the American Jewish community with Israel, where a strong cultural tie will
continue to bind third- and fourth-generation Cuban-Americans to the island. A reformed
Cuban government will be well advised to nurture its bonds with the Cuban-American
community, utilizing its substantial economic, political, technological and human resources.
Of particular importance will be expansion and improvement of the Cuban health-care and
educational systems, purportedly the two linchpins of the Cuban Revolution.
Short-Term Effects
In the short term, especially if the change in Cuba is sudden, the most
crucial impact on South Florida is likely to be rapid, potentially chaotic, large scale
movements of people leaving Cuba and seeking to enter the United States, leaving the
United States and seeking to enter Cuba or seeking to travel in both directions. There
would be rapid and major increases in the demand for travel and shipping services
between Cuba and the United States. Florida, and particularly South Florida, would be
the center for most of this traffic. At the inception, the Metro-Dade Police Department
anticipates there would be an immediate, spontaneous and massive outpouring of emotion
expressed by the need to assemble in large groups (perhaps in the hundreds of thousands)
to make speeches and otherwise express political and personal opinions, to demonstrate
in support of changes and to move throughout the Hispanic community in parades or
motor vehicle caravans. These activities are anticipated to last at least two to three days
and could well disrupt other segments of the community not participating in the
demonstrations, including, but not limited to, resulting in massive employee absences from
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Miami businesses. It is also anticipated that there could be significant Cuban-American
migration to the South Florida area from other states, a shortage in housing facilities,
overcrowded airport and seaport, overcrowded public schools, lack of short-term
employment and overcrowded health facilities which, together with migration from Cuba
could place a severe strain upon Dade County facilities similar to, and potentially greater
than, that which occurred following the Mariel boat lift (10).
Financing Considerations
Cuba's hard currency reserves, $60 million in June of 1989 (11), are
insufficient to support the level of trade which the pent-up demand of its citizens and
needs of its economy require. Accordingly, the extent to which this pent-up demand and
Cuba's needs will be met as the result of increased trade is contingent upon the degree
to which financing is made available.
It is assumed that governmental agencies will make a significant amount
of financing available under various programs, but the extent to which such financing will
in fact be available is problematic. As noted by the Governor's Commission on a Free
Cuba, there is substantial interest in the Florida business community in the prospect of
investing in Cuba following political change; and members of the task force have been
made aware that there are apparently groups of investors already poised to make material
investments in a "free" Cuba. Further, one or more of the large national franchisers have
already awarded franchises for Cuba and it is anticipated that the franchise holders are
prepared to make investments at the appropriate times. It is also anticipated that U.S.
companies which had properties or operations in pre-Castro Cuba and/or which previously
did significant business with Cuba, will be poised to take advantage of the re-opening of
that market. Such investment will provide badly needed currency to finance trade.
The level of trade with a "free" Cuba would also be boosted if, after
democratization has progressed, Washington designates Cuba as a beneficiary of the U.S.
Caribbean Basin Initiative.
Current Western Trade Partners
In 1987, Cuba's imports from non-Communist countries totalled $938 million,
with Spain ($163 million), Argentina ($124 million), Japan ($108 million), the United
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Kingdom ($70 million), West Germany ($53 million), France ($47 million), Italy ($46
million) and Canada ($33 million) accounting for nearly 70% (12). Because of the
proximity and inherent lower transportation costs, the U.S., via Miami, should have an
opportunity to capture much of this trade.
Key Areas of Opportunity
Tourism
By virtue of its geography and climate, Cuba possesses major potential as
a tourist market and tourism has significant potential for a rapid increase in hard
currency earnings. The Cuban government has expended massive efforts in this field.
Cuban government figures show $145 million of earnings from the tourist trade in 1989.
Cuban hotels can be divided into two groups: the old and the new. At the
older hotels, such as the Havana Libre, a vast high-rise that was the Hilton, telephone
lines crackle, water drips rather than flows from faucets, elevators creak and dowdiness
is the watchword. On the other hand, it is hard to distinguish the new accommodations
from medium-sized resort hotels elsewhere in the Caribbean.
The Cuban government has pledged to more than quadruple the number of
hotel rooms devoted to Western style tourism by 1992. Cubanacan, a state tourism
agency, states it has already formed six joint ventures with hotel companies in Spain,
Italy, Austria, France and Finland (13).
Recently, Time magazine published reports of visits by leading American
hotel industry executives to the island to discuss future possibilities for investments. In
short, it is evident that the opening of the U.S. market would afford Cuba access to the
most lucrative tourist consumer market in the world, and many tourism experts believe
that Cuba's expansion plans for tourism cannot succeed without a sizable increase in the
number of American tourists. The exploitation of this market in the future, however, will
require a substantial amount of foreign investment to bring existing Cuban tourist
facilities up to competitive levels with those available in the rest of the Caribbean region.
Of particular concern is the need for considerable improvement in the service
offered by the Cuban labor force. An attempt to remedy this can be seen in the
arrangement made with the Spanish Gaviota Group. It is not difficult to envision the
boost to both Cuba's and Miami's economies that would ensue from the opening of Cuba
as a port of call to cruise ships. The simple fact is that due to Cuba's political isolation
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for 30 years, Cuba is today the single largest most attractive unexploited destination in
the Western hemisphere for U.S. tourists. But the full potential of this market will
remain unexploited until the American consumer market is opened to Cuba. American
hotel chains could once again set up joint ventures with the Cuban government or private
investors to operate hotels and casinos throughout Cuba, helping to strengthen the
country's economy.
Once the Cuban market is opened, it is likely that an air shuttle service will
be established between Miami International Airport and Havana's Jose Marti
International Airport, with Miami once again becoming the primary U.S. gateway to Cuba.
As per the May 1959 schedules published in the Official Airlines Guide, in that month,
using non-jet equipment ranging from 41 to 65 passenger seats, there were 102 scheduled
flights per week between Miami and Havana, which was almost double the 53 flights per
week on a combined basis between Havana and New York, Key West, New Orleans,
Tampa, West Palm Beach and Houston.
These flight schedules pre-dated Miami's Cuban-American population which
is currently the second largest urban Cuban population in the world, after Havana. As
the Committee's task force has been advised by a representative of Miami International
Airport, Miami's Cuban population alone would generate enough traffic for several daily
flights to Havana, at least one daily flight to Camaguey and Santiago and a very sizable
number of connecting passengers to domestic Cuban destinations. While other U.S cities
(New York, Chicago, and Los Angeles) have Cuban-American populations, none is as large
or as affluent as Miami's. Also, given the shortness of travel time and its resultant lower
cost, Miami's Cuban-American population will travel to Cuba more frequently on a per
capita basis. No other U.S. city will have this built-in market advantage. The impact
of this air service on Miami businesses servicing the airline industry will be significant.
Water and Sewer
Rebuilding Havana's deteriorating water and sewer systems appears to
require massive investment. Both are showing ominous signs of complete breakdown.
Reports coming out of Cuba in 1990 indicate that Havana's aqueduct loses approximately
50% of the water from the time it enters the system until it is delivered to consumers.
The water and sewer systems have suffered from a lack of required maintenance and are
currently in need of massive rebuilding.
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Telecommunications
Cuba's telecommunication equipment is, as in the case of other infrastructure
items, a mixture of obsolete American equipment and Soviet and Eastern bloc equipment.
Havana's telephone system is reportedly beginning to fail in massive ways. For example,
certain telephone exchanges can no longer dial out and can only receive calls. The
government has recently started an effort to crack down on black market telephone cable
splicers who reconnect malfunctioning phones to operating lines for a fee, thus further
deteriorating the system.
Transportation Vehicles and Parts
Cuba's motor pool is in dire need of modernization. Apart from the
American clunkers of 1950's vintage, in the course of the 30 years of the current
government, Cuba has received sporadic supplies of Argentine built Ford products (1970's),
Italian Alfa Romeos (late 1970's and 1980's) and Soviet built Lada automobiles, basically
a knockoff of the 20-year old Fiat 124 design. Cuba's heavy transportation equipment is
in no better shape. Fidel Castro himself ranted and raved in a televised speech in the
summer of 1990 against the poor quality of Czechoslovakian and Hungarian buses which
had been bought by Cuba and which are alleged to be notoriously inefficient and prone
to repeated breakdowns. The situation is so bleak, that recently, at the behest of Cuba's
consul general in Toronto, Cuba is in the process of obtaining as a gift from the Toronto
Transit Commission 90 buses which are 18 years old or more and had been slated for
demolition (14). In light of Cuba's lack of domestic oil production, it is evident that the
need exists to modernize Cuba's transportation fleet with updated fuel efficient vehicles,
from buses to trucks, to automobiles and motor scooters.
Housing and Real Estate
Cuba has a housing shortage of significant proportions. Attempts to solve
the problem by constructing prefabricated apartment blocks, utilizing volunteer labor, have
not solved the problem. A vast number of housing starts are reported each year which
are not completed. The growing Cuban population will continue to create additional
demand for new housing units.
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With a more open economy, the Cuban government could encourage
substantial private U.S. investment in real estate by designating locations where housing
projects, vacation condominiums and retirement communities could be built by private
developers. Providing utility services could be one of the preconditions to the granting
of building permits.
A recent visitor. to Havana was quoted as saying that the City appears to
need 10 million gallons of paint. Although parts of Havana have been declared world
historic landmarks and have received funds for restoration from UN agencies, most of the
City is in dire need of structural and cosmetic work. The recent movie "Havana" made
by a Czechoslovakian film maker shows dramatic examples of collapsing floors and roofs
in the older sections of the City.
Appliances
During the brief opening of freer travel between Cuba and the United States
in the late 70's and early 80's, the Cuban populace demonstrated a substantial pent up
demand for small electronic devices such as Sony Walkman and radio cassettes, and more
utilitarian domestic devices such as rice makers, microwave ovens and TV sets. There
appears to be an across-the-board pent up demand for kitchen appliances such as
refrigerators, stoves, ovens, radios, and VCR's.
The Sugar Industry
Cuba is the largest single exporter of sugar in the world and, depending on
the size of its 1990 crop, currently estimated at 7.9 million tons, it could wind up being
the 3rd or 4th largest producer in the world. The worth of this commodity to Cuba
cannot be underestimated. The world price of sugar is currently estimated at
approximately $0.1025 per pound and the Cuban government has, after a brief flirtation
with diversification, concentrated a substantial amount of resources on the production of
sugar. As of 1985, approximately 55% of the arable land planted in Cuba was dedicated
to sugar. The island possesses 159 sugar mills, and until recently had made a concerted
effort to mechanize its sugar production producing KTP1 and KTP2 mechanical harvesters
of local manufacturers using Soviet technology, in the province of Santiago, to streamline
the production of sugar. Sadly, 1990 witnessed a reversion to 19th century animal driven
17
and labor intensive methods of harvest which experts believe could have a negative impact
on sugar yields for actual and future crops. After a period of intense competition from
fructose, sugar appears to be rebounding and prospects seem to be good for a continued
expansion of the world market, currently estimated at 110.337 million metric tons.
A problem that has nagged Cuba in its quest to maximize the yield of its
sugar bonanza, is the inherent inefficiency of state run mills and volunteer labor. As an
example, in Santo Domingo, privately owned operators can produce sugar at a cost of
between 10-15 cents per pound while the state owned Compania Estatal de Azucar has
production costs of between 18-20 cents per pound. By sheer volume alone, it is fair to
say that sugar will continue to play a leading role in Cuba's ability to trade with the
outside world, and the sugar industry will continue to be the primary magnet for Cuba's
future capital needs. It would not be an overstatement to say that a shift in policy of
the Cuban government to allow private ownership of sugar assets would provide a wide
open field to private investors, since this field has been monopolized by the government
for more than 25 years.
Only 60% of Cuba's sugar output is mechanically harvested, and nearly 30%
of its land available for harvest remained idle in 1990 (15). Cuba is in substantial need
of new farm machinery, fertilizers, herbicides and sugar refining equipment.
Other Agriculture
Cuba's overwhelming dependence on sugar has not boded well for the
development of other agricultural production. Nevertheless, Cuba produced 238,000 tons
of garden vegetables, 37,000 tons of tobacco, 885,000 tons of citrus products, and 105,000
tons of other fruits in 1988, and is currently the largest exporter of citrus products to the
Soviet Union. Its climate, the fertility of its soil, and the proximity to the American
market, make Cuba a potential candidate for future export of fruits and seasonal
vegetables to the huge North American market.
Machinery, Equipment and Tools
As set forth above, Cuba's inventory of machinery is a mixed bag consisting
of old American equipment, newer Soviet and Eastern bloc equipment which is often times
of inferior quality, and some top quality late model Western equipment. Opportunities
18
abound in light industry, machines, tools, generating equipment, farming equipment and
construction industry equipment to resupply Cuba.
Biotechnology and Other Industry
An industry in which the Cuban government has invested a substantial
amount of resources to develop, is biotechnology. The Center for Biotechnology and
Genetic Engineering is a favored project of the current Cuban government and its efforts
have resulted in substantial export earnings for Cuba in the sale of meningitis B vaccine,
interferon, and the heart attack medicine streptokinas. Additionally, Cuba has made a
major effort to promote and sell its SUM 321 HIV detection device in third-world
countries. While possessing fine research and manufacturing facilities for biotechnical
products, once again Cuba's developmental efforts have been hindered by rigid state
ownership and planning mechanisms and a singular lack of access and understanding of
capitalist techniques and marketing skills.
Cuba could adapt its existing foreign investment legislation to encourage the
basing in Cuba of high-tech assembly operations. Cuba could expand productivity of its
existing industries in biotechnology and animal-health products by licensing technology
from U.S. firms. Cuba could also enter into a number of trade relationships with the
United States, Mexico and the Caribbean Basin countries to promote assembly operations.
A free-trade area could eventually evolve in the Caribbean, with Miami and Havana as
its principal centers.
Nickel
Together with sugar and tourism, nickel ranks at the top of Cuba's hard
cash earning industries. Massive investments have been made to expand the existing
facilities at Moa, the major nickel producing region in the province of Oriente, with a
target of 100,000 MT of production for the end of the decade. Production, as of 1989 was
at the 44,000 MT level, and the actual production for 1990 is an open question since the
government announced in September that it was shutting down some of the nickel
production facilities due to lack of fuel. There are reports that the newer plants
developed with Soviet aid and technology are fuel inefficient and expensive to operate.
19
Pollution Control
As in other socialist economies, pollution control has been of secondary
importance to the centralized government planners. As a result, Cuba's infant green
movement reports that Havana Harbor is one of the most polluted bodies of water in the
Caribbean, with raw sewage being dumped within its boundaries. Additionally, the
sugarcane refining industry is a notorious source of pollution which requires massive
investment and re-equipment to comply with modern pollution control requirements.
Medical Services
Cuba's current government has made a concerted effort to develop the
rendering of specialized medical treatment as a cash-generating industry. Using Cuba's
substantial health network, the government has promoted package tours which combine
specialized surgery, such as cosmetic surgery, with vacation stays on the island. This
approach may be the basis for future marketing of specialized medical services in the U.S.
market.
Medicines
Cuba's much vaunted public health care system is currently suffering from
a shortage of medicines. Although some medicines are produced locally, there would
appear to be a market for sophisticated Western style medicines.
20
CONCLUSION
There can be no dispute that with the arrival of a "free" Cuba there will be
a massive increase in U.S.-Cuban trade which will be centered in and/or flow through
Dade County. Cuba's size, population, location and geographic characteristics offer
tantalizing opportunities for investment in agriculture, tourism, light industry,
biotechnology and other areas. Its population has the highest literacy rate in the
Caribbean, at over 90%. There is a substantial pent-up demand for top quality goods and
services originating out of the United States, and conversely, Cuba is in dire need of
accessing American markets in order to develop its full potential.
Cuba has one additional substantial asset if it should ever elect to adopt the
necessary reforms and changes to enable it to join the community of nations in adopting
democratic and free market reforms. That asset is the approximately 1 million Cuban
born men and women who have emigrated to the United States and other Western
countries. This group of people, the plurality of whom and the most affluent of which
reside in Dade County, possess a pool of talent and resources unmatched by any other
Caribbean and possibly Latin American country. Counting among its members top
business executives with multinational companies, bankers, lawyers, doctors, scholars,
investors and hard-working men and women who have in the course of 30 years of living
and surviving outside of their home country developed outstanding capitalistic skills.
The very skills that Cuba most desperately needs in order to break out of its Caudillo
imposed austere socialism.
Dade County both geographically and due to its Cuban-American population
will receive more benefits from this increased trade than any other area within the
United States. The extent to which this trade occurs will be heavily dependent upon the
availability of financing.
This report has been based upon available published resources and selected
private interviews. In order to prepare a more definitive report, the task force endorses
the proposal made by the Business and Commerce Committee of the Governor's
Commission on a Free Cuba that a census of (Dade County) businessmen, merchants,
21
investors and entrepreneurs who would like to explore specific enterprises in Cuba at the
very beginning of a "free" Cuba be undertaken. This census, which would require
significant time commitments, could then result in the preparation of a reasonably
definitive forecast of the impact of a "free" Cuba on Dade County trade.
#
#
#
#
22
** Footnotes
1-
Before the 1959 revolution, the U.S. provided 70% of Cuban imports and purchased
67% of its exports. Opportunities for U.S.-Cuban Trade, Johns Hopkins School of
Advanced International Studies, Baltimore, June 1988, pg 14.
2-
This section of the report has been extensively taken from The Heritage
Foundation, Backgrounder, "Preparing for a Post Castro Cuba", May 14, 1990.
3-
Robert A Packenham, "Capitalist VS. Socialist Dependency: The Case of Cuba",
Journal of Interamerican Studies and World Affairs, Spring 1986, page 76. See
also Wharton Econometric Forecasting Associates, "Cuban Economy Project, Volume
I: Construction of Cuban Economic Activity and Trade Indexes", Philadelphia,
November 1983, pg 1.
4-
U.S. Intelligence Agency, The Cuban Economy: A Statistical Review, ALA 89-
10009 (April 1989), pg 7-9; U.S. Department of Commerce, "U.S. Relations with
Cuba: A Statistical Survey", HF 3075. U49 (August 1975).
5-
New York Times, Travel Section, March 31, 1991, pg 8.
6-
Economist: Foreign Report, op.cit, page 2; Joint Economic Committee Report, "East-
West Trade: The Prospects to 1985", 97th Congress, 2nd Session, 1982, pg 107 110.
7-
John Attfield, "Will It Harm Cuba?", Cuba Business (London), Dec 1989, pg 5-7.
8-
Caribbean Update, April 1991, pg 7.
9-
Report of the Commission an a Free Cuba, June 1990, ("RCFC"), pg 3.
10-
ibid, pg 7 and Appendix C & G
11-
The Caribbean Handbook, 1990 Edition, pg 103.
23
12-
U.S. Intelligence Agency, The Cuban Economy: A Statistical Review, ALA 89-
10009 (April 1989), pg 29.
13-
New York Times, Travel Section, March 31, 1991, pg 8.
14-
The Miami Herald, April 2, 1991, pg 7A.
15-
The Heritage Foundation, Backgrounder, "Preparing for a Post Castro Cuba", May
14, 1990, pg 17.
24
* NOTES *
For further information, or additional
copies of this report, please contact:
Sandra Gonzalez-Levy
Vice President of International Economic Development
Greater Miami Chamber of Commerce
1601 Biscayne Boulevard
Miami, FL 33132
Phone 305/350-7700
Fax 305/579-8605
An
Illustrated
HISTORY
OF
CAPE FLORIDA
LIGHTHOUSE
By Neil E. Hurley
The Author
Neil Hurley first heard about Cape Florida
An
Light from an obscure Coast Guard Publication
Illustrated
called "Historically Famous Lighthouses".
HISTORY
Inspired by that short account, he wanted to
find out more, but no matter how hard he
OF
looked, no accurate detailed history of the
CAPE FLORIDA
lighthouse existed. He was astonished to
discover how ill-informed most Miamians were
LIGHTHOUSE
about the history of their lighthouse.
By Neil E. Hurley
Taking matters into his own hands, Neil
scoured records from the Coast Guard, the
National Archives, and Florida historical
organizations to locate firsthand information
about the lighthouse. Ideally suited to research
this subject, his background includes six years
as an Officer in the U.S. Coast Guard
(specializing in Aids to Navigation) and a
long-time interest in nautical history.
CAPE CANAVERAI
The author of several articles for the
lighthouse magazine "The Keeper's Log", Neil
Distoric Lighthouse Publishers
is also putting the finishing touches on a book
Camino, California
documenting the history of all of Florida's
lighthouses.
National Archives, "Letters Received by the Superintendent of Lighthouses", "Lighthouse Clip
Files", Record Group 26
National Archives Volunteers, "The U.S. Lighthouse Personnel 1821-1902" (Washington DC,
National Archives 1984)
Roberts, Robert B., "Encyclopedia of Historic Forts", (Macmillian Publishing Company, 1988)
Romans, Bernard, "A Consise Natural History of East and West Florida" (facsimile of 1775
edition, Gainsville, University of Florida Press, 1962)
Shepard, Birze, "Lore of the Wreckers" (Boston, Beacon Press, 1961)
Swanton, John R., "The Indians of the Southeastern United States", (reprint of 1946 edition,
Washington, D.C., The Smithsonian Institution Press, 1987)
Works Progress Administration, "Spanish Land Grants in Florida", (Tallahassee, FL, State
Library Board, 1941)
U.S. Census 1830, 1840, 1850
An Illustrated History of Cape Florida Lighthouse
U.S. Coast Guard (or prior organizations) "Light List" (GPO, 1844, 1848, 1865, 1979)
By Neil E. Hurley
Copyright 1989 By Neil E. Hurley
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be copied
without the author's written permission.
PHOTO CREDITS
Printed in the United States of America
Cover--by author, based on the engraving "Moonrise on the Coast of Florida"by J.D. Woodward,
By Historic Lighthouse Publishers
circa 1890. Frontpiece--1987 photo by author. Page 6--from De Brahm's 1780 report. Page
7--from collection of Historical Association of South Florida (HASF). Page 9--early lighthouse
lanterns from drawing by David Battle, courtesy F. Ross Holland and U.S. Lighthouse Society.
Page 17--1976 painting by Ken Hughs in collection of HASF. Page 19--Seminole Chiefs Osceola
and Tukosee Mathla, by author based on prints by unknown painter and Charles King in 1826.
Additional copies of this book may be ordered from the publisher by
Page 21--by author. Page 22--A Seminole home, by author based on an 1887 print by Clay
writing:
MacCauley. Page 23--1839 drawing of Fort Bankhead by C. Vinton in collection of HASF. Page
25--2nd order classical lens, by author based on U.S. Coast Guard plans. Page 29--by author
based on plan in De Brahm's 1790 report. Page 30--U.S. Lighthouse Board plan from National
Historic Lighthouse Publishers
Archives. Page 31-1901 photo from Florida State Archives. Page 32--Circa 1920's from
P.O. Box 262
Florida State Archives. Page 34-1987 official U.S. Coast Guard photo. Page 35--official U.S.
Camino, CA 95667
Coast Guard photo.
37
BIBLIOGRAPHY
CIS US Serial Set (Records of Congress)
Serial 116, Document 66
Serial 131, Document 19
Serial 322, Document 27
Contents:
Serial 357, Document 130
Brookfield, Charles M., "Cape Florida Lighthouse" (Miami, FL, Tequesta Magazine, 1949)
Introduction
3
Buker, George E., "The Mosquito Fleet's Guides and the Second Seminole Indian War" (Florida
Early Key Biscayne
5
Historical Quarterly, January 1979)
Buker, George E., "Swamp Sailors, Riverine Warfare in the Everglades 1835-1842" (Gainsville,
Building the Lighthouse
7
University Presses of Florida, 1975)
The First Keeper
9
Carlson, A.E., Captain (USCG Retired), "Lighthouses of Florida", (unpublished speech made to
the Historical Association of Southern Florida, about 1965)
A Hard Life
13
Carr, Robert S., "An Archaeological Survey and Investigations at Bill Baggs State Park, Key
Biscayne", (Miami, FL, Metro-Dade Historic Preservation Div., Office of Community and
The Indians Threaten
15
Economic Development and State of Florida Dept. of Parks and Recreation, March 1987)
Carter, Clarence E. (editor), "The Territorial Papers of the United States" (Washington, DC,
Indian Attack
17
GPO, 1965)
Rebuilding the Light
23
Charleston Courier (Newspaper) January 22, 1836; August 10, 1836
De Vorsey, Louis (editor), "De Brahm's Report of the Surveyor General in the Southern District
Civil War Years
25
of North America" (Columbia, University of South Carolina Press, 1971)
100 Years of Darkness
31
Dodd, Dorthy, (editor) "Volunteers Report Destruction of Lighthouses" (Miami, FL, Teqesta
Magazine, 1954)
The Lighthouse Today
33
Federal Writers Project "Florida, a Guide to the Southernmost State" (New York, Oxford
University Press, 1947)
Bibliography
36
Greve, Frank, "The Lighthouse that Put Miami on the Map" (Tropic Magazine, The Miami
Herald, August 2, 1976)
Howland, S.A., "Steamboat Disasters and Railroad Accidents in the United States to Which Are
Appended Accounts of Recent Shipwrecks, Fires at Sea, Thrilling Incidents, Etc.", (Worcester,
MA, Warren Lazell Publisher, 1846)
36
The Keepers of Cape Florida Light
Head Keepers
John Dubose
1825-1836 dismissed after lighthouse destroyed
Reason Duke
1846-1853
Temple Pent
1853-1855
Robert Fletcher 1855-1859 reappointed asst. keeper at Key West
light in 1859
John R. Paynor
1857- ?
Simon Frow
1859-1866 includes Civil War period
Temple Pent
1866-1868 died 1869
Simon Frow
1868-1878 transfered to Fowey Rocks Light
Assistant Keepers
John Christian
?
present in 1850
John Zraman
? -1857 resigned
Robert Lowe
1857- ?
Charles W. Trumbull
1866-1867 resigned
Charles F. Sallas
1866- ?
Joseph Copley
1866- ?
Samuel Jenkins
1867-1868
John Frow
1867-1868 promoted
Charles Frow
1868-1869 resigned
Joseph Frow
1869-1878 resigned
Temporary Keepers during the Seminole Indian War
William Cooley
(volunteered after family killed by
Indians)
John W.B. Thompson (wounded in Indian attack)
Aaron Carter
(killed in attack on lighthouse)
2
the ground. The window entrance was used to enter the tower when the
entrance door was bricked over to vandal-proof the structure.
Guided tours are provided by State Park Rangers. The tour includes a
climb up the iron spiral staircase leading to the top of the tower. At the top,
Gulf of
Atlantic
you can see the drum lens which focuses light from an electric bulb into a
narrow beam for ships at sea. The lens uses the same princples discovered
Mexico
Miami
Ocean
by the famous French physicist Augustin Fresnel in 1822, but it is not a
"classical" lens of the quality installed in 1848.
Because of its historical significance, Cape Florida Light is listed on the
National Register of Historic Places. Its significance was underscored by an
archaeological survey made in late 1983. Test excavations located the
INTRODUCTION
foundation of a building believed to be the remains of the dwelling
destroyed in 1836. While no additional excavations are planned at this time,
Cape Florida remains an important archaelogical site, retaining a great deal
T
HE city of Miami, Florida is well known as a tourist destination. Hotels
of the history of Florida's past.
line the beaches, the harbor is crowded with cruise ships, night life abounds
and the city's "Miami Vice" reputation have all but paved over the area's
early history. Yet in one Miami suburb, part of Florida's early American
history has been memorialized by a tall brick lighthouse. Cape Florida
Light (its proper name) stands on the site of an earlier lighthouse made
famous by an Indian attack in 1836.
First explored by Florida's discoverer Juan Ponce de Leon in 1513, the
island of Key Biscayne and its southern tip (Cape Florida) were largely
ignored for the next 300 years. Although it was known as a good watering
spot, few permanent settlements were made on the island until a lighthouse
was built by the American government in 1825.
In 1836, the lighthouse was attacked and destroyed by Seminole Indians.
Rebuilt ten years later, the height of the tower was increased to 95 feet in
1855. Extinguished again in 1861 by Confederate sympathizers, the light
stayed dark until 1867. When a new lighthouse was built offshore at Fowey
Rocks in 1878, Cape Florida Light was abandoned. After 100 years of
darkness, the lighthouse was restored by the Florida State Park Service and
the light re-established by the U.S. Coast Guard.
34
3
Today, Key Biscayne and Cape Florida Light are connected to the
mainland by a four-lane bridge and causeway. The restored lighthouse
THE LIGHTHOUSE TODAY
stands in a beautiful State Park only about 10 minutes from the bustle of
downtown Miami and only 15 minutes from the famous city of Miami
ODAY, the island of Key Biscayne is a bustling suburb of Miami. It's
Beach.
old connection to the mainland (a drawbridge) was replaced in 1987 by a
high level bridge, ending the monstrous holiday traffic jams of the past.
Despite the hotels, condos and traffic lights, the island maintains its natural
appearance with its large parks and golf courses.
1
Bill Baggs Cape Florida State Park occupies the southern end of Key
with
95
Biscayne. For a small fee, one can enter the park by car or on foot. The
RIVER
ocean (eastern) side of the park is the most crowded (the park had over
organ
720,000 visitors in 1988). It contains parking lots, picnic areas and
swimming beaches, while the southern and eastern shores are less devloped
MIAMI
and bordered by a concrete seawall. The interior area of the park is filled
with Australian pine trees and "wild" enough to make short-cuts difficult if
not impossible.
VIRGINIA KEY
The park is also accessible by boat at "No Name Harbor", a small
anchorage on the bay side of the island. No docks exist, but shallow draft
Dixie
KEY BISCAYNE
boats can moor along the seawall within reasonable walking distance of the
lighthouse.
N
S--Z
Cape
Florida
A fenced-in area protects the lighthouse site from vandals. In addition to
Light
the lighthouse tower, the State built replicas of the 1848 keeper's dwelling,
kitchen, outhouse, well and cistern. Plans for the dwelling were based on
S
BISCAYNE
photographs made before the building washed away.
BAY
The lighthouse itself has several interesting exterior features. Most
obvious is the 1855 addition to the height of the tower. The newer bricks are
Fowey
o SOLDIER KEY
Rocks
Light
slightly darker and the slope of the wall is steeper. Waves and weather
badly deteriorated the brickwork on the seaward face of the tower. This has
been restored, but the shoreward side still shows its original, well-weathered
face. A short metal ladder extending down from a west-facing window is
all that remains of the ladder which once extended to about 10 feet above
4
33
The government leased the lighthouse property to the Biscayne Yacht
EARLY KEY BISCAYNE
Club in 1888 for five years. After several unsuccessful attempts by the
now-General William Harney to claim ownership (he felt the tower was on
JN
May 1513, only a month after he discovered Florida, Ponce de Leon
land he purchased from the Davis family) the land was finally sold to Walter
arrived at what is today called Key Biscayne. He named the island Santa
S. Davis in 1903 for $400. Davis sold the land to James Deering in 1915.
Marta. The name Key Biscayne (Cayo Biscayno on early Spanish maps)
During the 1920's, shoreline erosion gradually washed the keeper's dwelling
probably comes from the shipwrecked Spaniard Don Pedro Vizcaino, who
away. The tower probably would have also washed away, but its massive
was held by the Indians for several years until rescued in 1567.
weight, and the construction of rock jetties and a concrete slab saved it from
destruction.
Soon after, a Spanish mission and post were established along the Miami
River at the Indian village of Tequesta. The Missionary stationed there
The future of the lighthouse was put in doubt when the area was slated
reported that the Indians moved to Key Biscayne each winter to collect
for development in the late 1960's. Fortunately, far-sighted persons pushed
coconuts and palm grapes. Only a few months later, the Indians killed four
for the establishment of a State Park. Named for the newspaper editor who
of the Spaniards, forcing the survivors to flee. The Spainish abandonded
spearheaded its creation, Bill Baggs Cape Florida State Park was opened in
hopes of a permanent settlement in the Miami area.
1966. The State of Florida restored the lighthouse and built a duplicate of
the old (1846) keeper's dwelling in 1969. After 100 years of darkness, the
British surveyors explored and mapped the area around Key Biscayne in
Coast Guard re-established the light on July 4, 1978, using a 1930's vintage
1765 and 1770. They reported a channel (they named it Dartmouth Sound)
drum lens to provide the light.
11 feet deep leading to the bay side of the island. On the southern end of the
island fresh water wells could be dug and there was a good place to beach
Cape Florida in the late 1920's.
ships for maintenance and repair.
One report commented on the quantity of fish and game at Key
Biscayne: "At this place there is a vast abundance and variety of fish, both
in creeks and outside at sea, particularly groupers are in great plenty,
king-fish, Spanish mackerel and Barrows are also often caught towing: and
if you have one or two good hunters aboard, you may also be provided with
plenty of venison, turkies and bear meat, which are all excellent
refreshment. There are for the most part deer on the key, and sometimes
bear: but by sending to the main, you may depend on finding every kind. In
winter, duck and teal abound in the creeks; turtle is very plenty "
The British, and the Spanish before them, realized Key Biscayne was an
island and gave the name "Cape Florida" to what is now Virginia Key (but
was then attached to the mainland via Miami Beach). One British survey
established that Key Largo was attached to the mainland, making it the true
Cape of Florida, but the swampy characteristics of the area made the point
32
5
academic. The name stayed loosely associated with the Key Biscayne area
until the construction of the lighthouse tied the name to the southern end of
Key Biscayne.
In 1790, Pedro Fornells was granted 175 acres of land on the southern
end of Key Biscayne. Fornells and his father moved onto the land in 1803
and grew Guinea corn and coffee. Fornells' grant was validated by the new
American government soon after 1821. In 1824, Mary Ann Davis
purchased the land from Fornells' son.
Accounts written in 1803 and 1821 mention the use of the island as a
Cape Florida Light in 1901.
rendezvous for Bahamian wreckers (men who salvaged shipwrecks), Indians
and escaped slaves from Northern Florida and Georgia. The Indians and
100 Years of Darkness
slaves were fleeing to the British-owned Bahamas where they could expect
just treatment and freedom--something they didn't get in the United States.
WITH the new improvements, Cape Florida provided an excellent light,
visible for 18 miles. But the light still had one drawback--the lighthouse
was located 3 miles from the edge of the reefs, and over 6 miles from a
dangerous reef named Fowey Rocks.
The construction of Carysfort Reef (about 25 miles to the south) in 1848
proved that iron-pile lighthouses could be built on the exposed reef edge.
Three more "reef lights" were constructed at critical reef locations before
Neveb
work began on a lighthouse at Fowey Rocks in 1875.
SANDWICH Gui.r
This Water
CAPE
FLORIDA
Using the old lighthouse reservation on Soldier Key as a supply depot
and barracks, the lighthouse was completed and first lit on June 15, 1878 at
Dartmouth Inlet
This Voter
GROPPER
a cost of $163,015. On the same day, Cape Florida Light was extinguished
and the property abandoned.
Cape Florida didn't remain uninhabited for long. In 1880, much of Key
Biscayne (excluding the lighthouse property) was planted in a coconut
Grey
grove. Members of the Davis family (the same family which sold the
Cape Florida from a
lighthouse property to the government) built a large house and several
British map of 1770.
outbuildings to the south of the tower, on the extreme southern end of the
Sound
island.
31
6
№10.
View of Cape Florida,
due East.
BUILDING THE LIGHTHOUSE
ECOGNIZED as an important navigational point because it marked the
northernmost point of the Florida reefs, money for a lighthouse on Cape
Florida was first appropriated by Congress in May 1822. The $8,000
appropriated was supplemented by an additional appropriation of $16,000
on April 2, 1824. On July 31, 1824, the contract was awarded to Samuel
B. Lincoln of Boston. Lincoln's winning bid was for $29,847 but it
included two other lighthouses which were built on Key West and in the Dry
Tortugas.
The contract called for "a tower sixty-five feet high with solid walls of
brick, five feet thick at the base, graduated to two feet at the top" and
included a brick dwelling for the keeper. The contract also specified a
completion date before May 1, 1825. Title for the three acre lighthouse site
was unclear, so it took until July 1827 before the land payment of $225 was
made to William G. Davis (Mary Ann's husband).
Lincoln gathered materials in Boston and set sail in August 1824, never
arriving at his destination of St. Augustine. It was presumed the ship sank
CAPE FLORIDA LIGHT HOUSE
Submitted Design for Elecating & Improving the Light.
along the way with no survivors. Mr. Lincoln's backers were allowed to
with
1855.
GEORGE G.MEADE
take over the contract and a new completion deadline was set.
-
30
7
Noah Humphreys (of the Boston suburb of Hingham, Massachusetts)
was appointed by the Boston Collector of Customs to oversee the materials
Military Posts at Key Biscayne
and work, and a second ship sent from Boston arrived safely at Key West on
December 12, 1824.
Key Biscayne was long recognized as a
The site became the Army's Fort Dallas in
strategic military location, but hostile Indians
February 1838, but in April, that name was
The Collector of Customs for St. Augustine was to oversee site selection
prevented early settlement. During the
transferred to a fort along the Miami River.
and construction, but no southbound ships were available for his trip. The
British occupation of Florida (1763-1783),
The Key Biscayne post was renamed Fort
Collector finally sent for the revenue cutter (the Revenue Service is the
the Surveyor General of Florida proposed a
Bankhead (for Lieutenant Colonel James
forerunner of the Coast Guard) stationed in Georgia and arrived at Key West
combination fort and lighthouse on Cape
Bankhead) by Army Captain L. B. Webster.
Florida. The base of the tower was to be made
The post was abandoned one month later, but it
on February 8, 1825. Work on Cape Florida Light was finally begun, but
of brick, with the upper section made of
was soon reoccupied by Lieutenant Colonel
the "general" sickness of the workers (possibly yellow fever or malaria)
wood. The fort was designed to hold 26
William S. Harney and the 2nd Dragoons. At
forced a halt to the work until the fall.
cannon and 100 men in peacetime, with room
its peak, Fort Bankhead included a large
for an additional 350 soldiers in wartime. At
parade ground and rows of tents, all enclosed
260 feet tall, the tower would have been one
by a wooden stockade. The post remained
The two-story brick dwelling was completed first in July 1825. The
of the tallest structures in the Americas. The
active until August 1842. Two Navy schooners
tower was certified as completed on December 17, 1825.
huge expense of the tower (it was to be one of
remained based there until 1844.
two twin fort/lighthouses in Florida) and the
start of the American Revolution ended the
Also located on Key Biscayne, but at an
project in its early stages.
unknown distance from the lighthouse, was
A Mangrove Swamp
Fort Russel. Active from February 28, 1839
until September 1842, this post was named for
No. 1 the Lt. House
Captain Samuel L. Russel, who had been killed
2. Dwelling
3. Kitchen
near the mouth of the Miami River.
4. Bath House
5. Negro House
In 1841, Thomas Jessup, the Quartermaster
The dotted mark represents
the road from Key Biscayne
General of the Army, made a recommendation
Bay to the Atlantic.
The British tower.
to the Secretary of War that three permanent
fortresses be built in south Florida at the Dry
The See
The Beach on
Tortugas, Key West and Key Biscayne. Jessup
Key Blecayne Bay
Beach
wrote; "The three positions might be rendered
impregnable by an expenditure not exceeding
four millions of dollars. They would be worth,
A Large Mangrove
in military effect, an expenditure of fifty
Swamp
N
millions." The massive brick forts of Jefferson
After the 1825 lighthouse was destroyed by
and Taylor (at the Dry Tortugas and Key West,
CAPE FLORIDA LIGHTHOUSE AND GROUNDS
Indians, the site was used as a base for
respectively) were later built, but no
September 11th, 1826
American soldiers. It was first used by Naval
permanent fort was ever built on Key
From a Letter by Keeper John Dubose
Lieutenant L. M. Powell in October, 1836.
Biscayne.
S
29
8
satisfied to receive pay and provisions from the U. S. Government. We
thought that he was not the proper person to be in such a responsible
position, and consequently turned him away. We brought away from the
Cape a Sail Boat, two Muskets complete two Colt Revolvers, and three
lamps and burners belonging to the Light, all of which is at Jupiter waiting
your decision--the arms captured will be much needed at Jupiter in case of
an attack.
The lamps and reflectors
used in early lighthouses.
Mr. A. Oswald Lang the Asst Keeper resigned his position when he
found the Keeper Mr. Papy was intent on Keeping the Light burning, and is
now in charge of the light and property, and will be glad to receive
instructions from your Excellency in relation to his duty in this matter.
As it is most likely that the enemy will undertake to retaliate by
THE FIRST KEEPER
destroying the Light and property we would suggest that a Guard be Sent to
protect it, or if not, instruct us to have the property removed to some safe
place.
OLITICS played an important part in the appointments of early
lighthouse keepers. Corruption was suspected in many of the selections and
We have addressed this report to your Excellency, thinking you the
it wasn't unusual for unqualified or overage persons to be selected.
proper person to give the information, and hoping our action will be
approved, as our only desire was to serve our country having performed a
Among the applicants for Cape Florida Light was Morgan Davis and
journey of about 140 miles, 90 of it on foot, being exposed to a burning sun
John Dubose. Davis applied to the Secretary of the Treasury on May 21,
1824 and the Fifth Auditor of the Treasury (the person directly responsible
and drenching rains, and with a very scant allowance of food.
for U.S. Lighthouses, Stephen Pleasonton) on June 24 of the same year.
We are very Respectully, Your Excellency's Most obt. Servants
Dubose's application was backed up by letters of recommendations from
Waters Smith of St. Augustine and by future Territorial Governor Richard
K. Call.
James Paine
A. Oswald Lang
Dubose won out and received word of his appointment as keeper on May
Francis A. Ivy
23, 1826. Southbound shipping was still hard to find, delaying Dubose's
The light at Cape Florida was considered so crucial that replacement
departure (along with his family) for the lighthouse until December. On the
lenses and lamps were sent to Key West for installation at the lighthouse as
night of December 17, Dubose lit each of the 17 lanterns at the top of the
tower for the first time. Unfortunately, regulations required mariners be
soon as the area was under Union control. No repairs were made until the
end of the war, when on April 15, 1866 the light was relit. In addition to
notified in advance before new lighthouses could be illuminated. Word
the lens, many other repairs were found necessary.
reached Dubose on January 11th, and the light was extinguished. Notice
was given and the light relit at a later, unrecorded date.
28
9
RECOMENDATION LETTERS
We had felt the importance of such a measure for some time, thinking
some authorized Agent of our Government would be sent to perform it, but
finding no effort was made by either the Government or the Keeper of the
St. Augustine Florida
Light, we resolved to assume the responsibility ourselves, and report the
18 November 1824
result to your Excellency, hoping that it may meet your approval. At Jupiter
Dear Sir:
we destroyed no property whatever, the Light being a revolving one and of
John Du Bose Esq. of this city will hand you this; I beg leave to
very costly make, we took away only enough of the machinery to make it
introduce him to you, as a Gentleman of itelligence; and abilities
unserviceable. There is a quantity of property belonging to the Light
fitting him for a more elevated situation than the one he is about
consisting of Tools, machinery, Paints, oil &c which we have secured under
to solicit. I understand from Mr. Du Bose that he is about to
lock and Key.
apply for the charges of one of the light-houses erecting on our
coast; I do not think it probable, that any other person so well
qualified will be likely to apply for the situation; It would be very
At Cape Florida the Light being within the immediate protection of Key
desirable that Mr. Du Bose should know before he leaves
West and most indispensable at this time to the enemy's fleet, as well as
Washington, if he is to receive the appointment, in order that he
knowing it to be useless for us to try and hold it, we determined to damage
may this winter make arrangements for his settlement; & for
preparing to raise provisions, you will readily see that on a coast
it so that it will be of no possible use to our enemies.
where there are few or no settlements he will have to depend upon
his own exertions for the necessities of life: I will only state, that
The Keepers at Cape Florida were armed, and instructed not to surrender
any interest you may take in favor of Mr. Du Bose will be well
the Light with their lives, the possession was gained however without any
bestowed.
resistance, owing to the complete manner in which our plans were executed,
I am Dear Sir with personal respect, Your obedient servant,
we brought away the Lamps and burners, and broke the Lens Glasses.
Washington
Waters Smith
8th March 1825
The seizure and surrender was made at midnight of the 21st August,
while the two Keepers were in the tower, and the Iron door below bolted
and locked on the inside--one of the party being acquainted with the Keeper
Sir: [ed. addressed to Stephen Pleasanton]
and knowing that he expected supplies from Key West daily, devised the
plan to get them down by telling them he had news for them from Key
Allow me to recommend the following persons for Keeping
West, which brought them both down, and as soon as the door was opened,
and command of the Light Houses and Light Vessel on the coast
of Florida. John Du Bose of St. Augustine for the Light House at
we secured them as prisoners. The party being small, and having only a
Cape Florida. John Walton of St. Augustine (an excellent
small Boat to return in, we concluded not to take them prisoners, they
Seaman) for the command of the Light Vessel at Carysfort Reef,
professing to be strongly in favor of the South, although they had repeatedly
and Michael Mabrity of Fernandina for the Light House on the
boasted that they would defend the Light to the last.
Sambo Keys. Your attention to these gentlemen will oblige your
M.O.S.
The Keeper of Jupiter Light although professing to be with the South, yet
R. K. Call
by his acts he falsified his professions--he was repeatedly urged by his
assistant Mr. Lang to put out the Light, but refused to do so, and was quite
10
27
1854, appropriated $15,000 and the work was completed in 1855. This is
As if the difficulties of frontier life weren't enough, Dubose soon ran into
the same tower which stands today.
problems with his boss, the Collector of Customs and Superintendent of
Lighthouses at Key West, William Pinkney. As each problem occurred,
With the start of the Civil War in January, 1861, lighthouses throughout
Dubose only made matters worse by going over Mr. Pinkney's head and
the South were extinguished or destroyed by Confederate forces to prevent
writing directly to Pinkney's boss, the Fifth Auditor of the Treasury.
their use by the North's blockading fleets. Only the lighthouses from Jupiter
Inlet to the Dry Tortugas remained lit by the time Fort Sumpter was fired on
In October, 1826, Pinkney reported that I am informed by several
in April 1861.
who have landed at Cape Florida, that Mr. Dubose the keeper does not live
in the dwelling that he has built a house on the main land several miles
While Key West had strong Southern sympathies, the presence there of
from the Light house, and that he has given the whole direction of the light
Fort Taylor and Fort Jefferson at the Dry Tortugas insured that the Southern
and etc. to a black woman
at the same time I may be permitted to say
Florida Keys remained under Union rule. North of Key West, the hold of
that the excessive hardship arising from sickness and the evils a most horrid
Union forces was more tentative. Coastal areas could always be reinforced
climate afford some palliation for his conduct." Dubose admitted the move,
by ship, but few efforts were made to permanently hold the area.
but wrote to Washington that the mainland had fewer mosqitos and better
farmland. Dubose promised to stay at the lighthouse six nights a week and
Finally, three Southerners (one of whom was the assistant lighthouse
keep his two eldest sons there when he was away.
keeper of Jupiter Inlet Light) took matters into their own hands. Union
reports stated that "On 22 August, a gang of pirates from St. Augustine
Additional misconduct charges soon followed. In 1828, Pinkney
visited the Light House at Jupiter and removed from it all lenses and
reported
" Mr. Dubose has refused to receive supplies in that way, and
illuminating apparatus. They then proceeded to Cape Florida Light, the
has sent to me in reply to my letters, verbal messages too insolent and filthy
lenses of which they broke and destroyed." Actually, the lens wasn't
to be repeated
I enclose a copy of the letter to the honorable Secretary of
completely destroyed, but only the crucial center prism and the reflector
the Treasury informing him that Mr. Dubose has been detected defrauding
were smashed. The Confederate view of the attack was recorded in a letter
the Revenue." Despite orders to the contrary, Dubose continued writing the
to Florida's Governor.
Fifth Auditor and even the Secretary of the Treasury.
To His Excellency M. S. Perry
A new Superintendent of Lighthouses appointed in 1830 didn't improve
Governor of Florida
relations with the crusty lightkeeper. The new Superintendent, William
Sir-
Whitehead, had to order Dubose to return to his duties at the lighthouse after
the threat of Indian attacks passed.
We the undersigned residents of Indian River, believing it a solemn duty
of every citizen, to try and serve his state and Country in whatever capacity
Despite the charges of misconduct and disobeyance of orders, Dubose
he may be most able, would in accordance to such feelings, report to your
kept his job and stayed on at the lighthouse.
Excellency, that we have taken the responsibilty of putting out the Lights at
both Jupiter Inlet and Cape Florida, believing them to be of no use or
benefit to our government, but on the contrary, of great importance to our
enemies.
26
11
JOHN DUBOSE
The first lighthouse keeper of Cape Florida
Dubose's family moved with him to the
Light was John Dubose (also recorded as Du
isolated lighthouse. In 1830, his family
Bose, DuBose and James Dubose). Dubose
consisted of his wife, seven children and four
was born in South Carolina around 1780.
slaves. The two eldest children were about 17
He took to the sea and spent several years in
years old and the slaves were two adult
the American Navy before becoming the
women with two young children.
Captain of a merchant ship.
While working at the lighthouse, Dubose
The lantern and 2nd
In 1821, he was appointed Alderman for the
continued his political career, being
order lens of Cape
City of St. Augustine in the newly formed
appointed Justice of the Peace for Monroe
Florida Light in 1855.
U.S. Territory of Florida. During the next
County in 1834. In response to a nearby
few years he held a number of political posts
Indian massacre in early 1836, he moved his
in St. Augustine and St. Johns County
family to Key West. After the lighthouse
including Clerk of the Council (1822),
burned down, Dubose (living in Key West)
Justice of the Peace (1821) and Collector of
asked unsuccessfully to retain his pay and
CIVIL WAR YEARS
Customs (1823). Also in 1823, Dubose
position as keeper of the lighthouse and
asked that a revenue cutter (the Revenue
Collector of Customs (Key Biscayne).
Service was the forerunner of today's Coast
OMPLAINTS soon filtered back that Cape Florida Light was less than
Dubose remained in Key West until 1840,
Guard) be built and himself appointed
being nominated for Notary Public and
adequate. One mariner noted "Cape Florida light is a beacon for all persons
captain to stop Bahamian wreckers from
Justice of the Peace for Monroe County.
to avoid: it is on a par with Cape Hatteras light-badly lighted, and badly
salvaging wrecks in American waters.
kept: though one of the most important on the coast."
It is unclear what happened to Dubose next.
In 1824, Dubose asked for an appointment
A man with the same name was nominated
as the Collector of Customs and Super-
Judge of the County Court of Nassau County,
The problems weren't limited to Cape Florida--all American lighthouses
intendent of Lighthouses (to include Cape
Florida, in February 1841, but this was
were criticized in an 1851 Congressional investigation. Years of
Florida Light) at Key West. When this job
probably a different person. One account,
penny-pinching resulted in a system of lighthouses which was far inferior to
was taken by William Pinkney in December
which seems very likely, states that Dubose
of the same year, Dubose applied for the job
moved to South Texs and died in his bed
European lights.
of keeper of the proposed lighthouse at Cape
there, in 1845.
Florida.
The Congressional investigation resulted in the formation of the
Lighthouse Board and the requirement that all lighthouses be equipped with
French-made Fresnel lenses. In order to improve Cape Florida light, it was
decided to use a second order (one size smaller than the largest) lens, and
increase the height of the tower to 95 feet. A Congressional Act of August
12
25
Soon after the failed attempt to rebuild the lighthouse, William
Whitehead (the Key West Superintendent of Lighthouses) suggested that the
A HARD LIFE
light be rebuilt on Soldier's Key, (the first island south of Key Biscayne)
about 5 miles to the south. "There it will afford a safer land mark, both to
L
IFE on the island quickly proved to be a challenge for the keeper and his
Vessels passing the Gulf & to those passing inside the reef. It is also
family. Their nearest neighbor was nearly 10 miles away, and only about
believed there will be greater comfort & exemption from mosquitoes." The
60 whites inhabited all of Florida from Key Largo to Cape Canaveral.
Soldier Key site was reserved for lighthouse purposes, but a lack of fresh
Dubose wasn't one to hide the fact that conditions were bad. In letters to the
water and the small size of the island kept Cape Florida as the preferred site.
Fifth Auditor of the Treasury, Dubose recorded that life on Key Biscayne
was far from the "tropical paradise" that many consider it to be today.
Another attempt was made to rebuild the light in 1841, with the military
post's commander William Harney in charge. He provided estimates of
In 1826, Dubose wrote "I am on a desolate island, inhabited and kept by
material needed, but had little faith in the unnamed man (a wreck salvager)
myself and children. It is 275 miles to the south of St. Augustine, and no
appointed by Key West authorities to superintend the construction. Harney
settlement on the Coast between it follows. I am obliged to send down to
reported "The notorious bad character of this man would have compelled me
Key West 185 miles to the south of this for every single article myself or
to have him ordered off the Island, but I am fully convinced in my own
family may want as it is the nearest place, where any supplies can be
mind, that he did not intend the (ed. light-) House be built."
purchased.
It is but seldom a vessel ever enters here, and the Wreckers
generally sail by on their way for a supply of water and it is sometimes for
Congress appropriated another $13,000 in August 1846 (making a total
weeks that I do not see a soul on the Island."
of $23,000 available) to rebuild the lighthouse. Work on the new lighthouse
was completed and the light first lit on October 24, 1846.
In 1830, the problem of supply became critical: "During the last 12
months, for want of a suitable boat, I have paid for freight of my Supplies
The new tower was 55 feet tall and contained 17 lamps with 21-inch
from Key West to this place $50. The keeper of the Light at Tortugas has a
reflectors. It was constructed of brick and had a whitewashed exterior. John
large fine boat, and requires no assistance from the Government, so has the
Dubose's interest in remaining lighthouse keeper diminished after 1839 and
Sand Key Light. This therefore is the only Light House, which requires a
in 1841, Captain Uriah Poinsett was recommended for the job. Despite a
large boat, and it is more than double the distance from Key West than any
flattering recommendation by Colonel Harney "...he is in every way
other Light." Attempts to raise vegetables at the lighthouse were
qualified for, and deserving of it: he is an honest man, and that is more than
unsuccessful:
it is impossible to raise the least thing of this kind as the
I can say of any other man in this country who would accept the
soil is nothing but sand or gravel thrown up by the Sea." The only success
appointment", another man got the job.
was with some fruit trees.
The new keeper was Reason Duke. Duke and his family had previously
Along with the isolation and poor soil, much of the island was a swamp,
farmed land about 3 miles up the Miami River and had been among the
filled with mosquitos. It is impossible that any family can reside here
refugees who had fled to the lighthouse in January 1836. The Census of
from 1 May to 1 of October on this Coast, everywhere the Mosquito are
1840 reported the presence of John Christian, an elderly Danish man who
very thick and bothersome, but now you can neither eat, drink, or sleep in
was the assistant keeper. From this time on, the lighthouse always had at
peace. This Island, although 5 miles long is now 4/5ths of it a Mangrove
least two keepers assigned.
24
13
pond, full of water, during those months. Mosquitos kill the fowls and
chickens and that they soon kill the young pigs (ed. it is impossible) to
eat a meal without having a pot of smoke under the table to keep them off."
"Swamp vapors" were considered to be the cause of disease, and of
course, Dubose was concerned about this problem also: " my house is
located in the midst of a scrub, and within 50 yards of two Ponds, such as
are so fatal to the health of Key West Requests to hire two men (at
$18.00 per month each) to drain the ponds was turned down.
The house itself generated complaints: "This house is placed 400 yards
from the beach in every direction, with a deep and wide Mangrove swamp
to the South and stretching across the Island, completely depriving us of all
Cape Florida Light in 1839.
the south and southwest Winds, which are most prevalent during the
REBUILDING THE LIGHTHOUSE
Summer Months." The dwelling was two stories high with a central chimney
and two rooms on each floor. As originally built, the upper floor had only
one small window at each end, making the upstairs too hot to use during
HE Indian attack on the lighthouse did more than injure the keepers.
summer. Finally, the government hired a carpenter to add four dormered
The dwelling and outbuildings were burned out, while the tower suffered
windows and a porch to the dwelling in 1830.
from fire and the explosion of the gunpowder. Over 200 bullet holes were
found in the tower's iron lantern (the top part of the lighthouse where the
The wind undermined a kitchen wall in 1830. The kitchen, in the
windows and vents for the light are contained).
fashion of the time, was attached to the back of the dwelling. "The oven
has fallen in and the chimney with the corner wall (will) also soon be down
Worst of all, it was discovered that the original builders had defrauded
and unless something is done soon it may destroy the House. In June it
the government by building the tower with hollow walls. It was estimated
would not have required more than $10 to have repaired it now I do not
that the hollow area equaled about half of the bricks needed for the job.
suppose $100 will repair it. A longer delay will only increase the injury."
Primarily because of the hollow walls, the tower had to be completely
rebuilt.
Like many other American lighthouses of the time, the tower also
suffered from a poor foundation. It settled and leaned to the east as early as
In unusually prompt action, Congress appropriated $10,000 in March
mid-1826. Dubose's 1830 description doesn't present a pretty picture: "This
1837 and a contract was let in July to Winslow Lewis of Boston. The
Light House at present requires to be white washed and from its settling,
contract called for the buildings and tower to be rebuilt using the 1826
numbers of the glass from the windows are broken, and none to repair them,
specifications. Having been told that the Indian Wars were over, Lewis
there are several glasses broken from the lantern." A box of replacement
arrived on Key Biscayne with workmen, materials and a reluctant former
glass received in 1827 was too large for the window frames. Because no
keeper Dubose. When Lewis found out that hostile Indians were still in the
area, he and his workers returned to Boston. Meanwhile, the lighthouse site
glass cutters were available, the glass sat unused.
was occupied by the military as a supply base for use against the Seminoles.
14
23
THE INDIANS THREATEN
The Attackers
ELATIONS between Seminole Indians and American settlers had never
Not all of the Indians fighting the American
rowed ashore to tend the re-established
been good. Many Seminoles were escaped slaves or the children of escaped
government shared the same background or
vegetable garden. One crewman was killed,
slaves. Needless to say, this brought them into conflict with the
even the same language. Although they were
two wounded and only one escaped
slave-holding whites who wanted the Indians relocated to Midwest
all called "Seminoles", the term represented
unharmed. Dozens of other attacks and battles
reservations and the slaves returned to their owners.
several groups of Indians. While the
occurred in South Florida.
majority of Seminoles were decended from
Creek Indians of Georgia, many in South
The Indians attacked in groups ranging from
Clashes with Indians grew into the Second Seminole Indian War.
Florida were decended from the Calusa
a few warriors up to the estimated 250
Starting in late 1835, the war continued until 1842. About 1,500 soldiers
tribe which originally lived in the Fort
warriors who attacked Harney's camp. They
and many civilians were killed and more than $40,000,000 was lost in
Myers area of Florida. Americans called
rarely used bow and arrow, favoring muskets
the Calusa decendents "Spanish" Indians.
but sometimes using rifles. It wasn't unusual
property damage or spent fighting the Indians.
for the bodies of dead enemies to be mulated
It was Spanish Indians under Chekika who
or scalped. White women and children were
Some of the first deaths in South Florida occurred when Indians attacked
were blamed for most of the attacks in South
rarely spared, but Negros were usually
William Cooley's farm near the present-day city of Fort Lauderdale. On
Florida. These attacks included the January
captured and held by the Indians as slaves.
6, 1836 "Cooley massacre", an April 2,
Much of this same brutality was practiced on
January 11, 1836, a special edition of the Key West Inquirer reported:
1836 attack on Charlotte Harbor, an 1839
Indians caught by the Whites.
attack on the camp of Colonel Harney near
"In consequence of the Indians having been seen in considerable bodies
Fort Myers (which killed 18 of the 30
About 5,000 Seminole Indians were
in the neighborhood of New River, about 22 miles north of Cape Florida,
soldiers present) and the May 7, 1840 attack
eventually shipped off to a reservation in
which destroyed the relatively large white
some two or three weeks since, considerable alarm was felt in that vicinity
Central Oklahoma, (where they became one
settlement at Indian Key. Chekaika was
of the "Five Civilized Tribes") but many
which proved not to be without foundation. A party was observed sur-
finaly killed, deep in the Everglades, by
deaths occured enroute. Another 350 to 500
rounding the house of Mr. William Cooley, where a considerable quantity
Harney's troops on December 4, 1840.
were never captured, forming the basis of the
of the materials from a wrecked vessel was known to be stored, and they
Muskogee and Mikasuki bands still found in
No other Florida lighthouses were attacked
Florida today.
were seen to carry from the house portions of those goods. Shots were
by Indians, but the crew of the next
heard, and one man was observed lying apparently dead on the threshold of
navigation light to the south of Cape Florida
the door, who was supposed to be a man in the employ of Mr. Cooley.
was attacked. The lightship FLORIDA,
These circumstances alarmed the nearest neighbors, and the news having
stationed at Carysfort Reef (off Key Largo)
marked the most dangerous section of reefs
spread, the inhabitants of all the settlements between New River and Cape
in the state. On October 5, 1836 a group of
Florida congregated on the Light House premises at the place, in number
about 70 Indians destroyed the home and
upwards of sixty, but being without ammunition or provisions capable of
gardens of the lightship's Captain John
Walton on Key Largo. Nine months later,
sustaining them for even a very limited period, they thought it advisable to
Walton was killed when he and five others
leave before the Indians made their appearance. A boat which was then on
A Seminole house.
its way to them from Indian Key, whither it had been dispatched for
supplies, arrived within sight of the Light House shortly after the inhabitants
left there, and found on approaching the shores that the premises were
22
15
already in possession of the Indians, and consequently returned to Indian
and made fast round an iron stanchion, rove the twine through the block and
Key. The abandonment of the Light House, is much to be regretted, but we
they below, by that means, rove a two-inch rope and hoisted up two men,
have no doubt from the authentic statements we have heard, that blood
who soon landed me on terra firma. I must state here that the Indians had
would have been shed had the inhabitants remained--the greater portion of
made a ladder by lashing pieces of wood across the lightning rod, near 40
them being women and children. The massacre of the family of Mr. Cooley
feet from the ground, as if to have my scalp, nolens volens (ed. without
has been confirmed by a visit paid by the bereaved husband and father (who
violence). This happened on the fourth (editor 24th). After I got on board
happened to be absent) to his once happy mansion; as he found lying in its
the Motto every man from the captain to the cook tried to alleviate my
vicinity, the bodies of his mother, wife, two children, and the hired man
sufferings. On the seventh (editor 27th) I was received in the military
before alluded to. The house had been robbed of such articles as the Indians
hospital, through the politeness of Lieutenant Alvord of the fourth Regiment
were likely to stand most in need of but had not been set on fire as was
of the United States Infantry. He has done everything to make my situation
feared."
as comfortable as possible. I must not omit here to return my thanks to the
citizens of Key West, generally, for their sympathy and kind offers of
Mariners considered a lighthouse without a light at its top worse than no
anything I would wish that it was in their power to bestow. Before I left
lighthouse at all. Ships expected to see the light and might run aground
Key West two balls were extracted, and one remains in my right leg, but
looking for it. It was crucial that it be relit as soon as possible.
since I am under the care of Dr. Ramsey, who has paid every attention to
me, he will know best whether to extract it or not. These lines are written
Eager to try and save any of his remaining property, William Cooley
to let my friends know that I am still in the land of living, and am now in
volunteered to take charge of the lighthouse on January 14th. His offer was
Charleston, S. C., where every attention is paid me. Although a cripple, I
accepted, and along with five men hired as guards, Cooley returned to Cape
can eat my allowance and walk without the use of a cane."
Florida. They found that the Indians had been to the Cooley plantation
again and destroyed everything there, but found no evidence of Indians
visiting the lighthouse. The light was relit before Feburay 10th, with one
man staying constantly on watch against Indians. Despite seeing the
campfires from an estimated 300 Indian warriors, Cooley kept the light
going.
By the middle of March, the Indians moved inland and the threat was
gone. Against his wishes, Dubose returned to the lighthouse (his family
stayed in Key West) and took over from Cooley. Three soldiers were
posted at the lighthouse as a guard during the month of June. Meanwhile,
newspapers announced "The Cape Florida Light is still kept up, although
Thompson's account contradicts itself regarding the number of times he
there is scarcely a day passes without Indians being seen in the vicinty".
was wounded, but other contemporary accounts state that he was shot three
times in one foot and wounded in the ankle of the other. Carter was buried
Interestingly enough, a petition signed by a Jno. Dubose in Key West states
"The Light House at Cape Florida is So much exposed that the light keeper
at the lighthouse (he was shot five times). Thompson received some money
is about to abandon it."
from the government fund for sick and disabled seamen. It is reported that
he later made a living telling his story of the attack.
16
21
"The Indians, thinking me dead, left the lighthouse and set fire to the
dwelling place, the kitchen and other outhouses, and began to carry off their
plunder to the beach. They took all the empty barrels, the drawers of the
bureaus, and in fact everything that would act as a vessel to hold anything.
My provisions were in the lighthouse, except a barrel of flour, which they
took off. The next morning, they hauled out of the lighthouse, by means of
a pole, the tin that composed the oil tanks, no doubt to make grates to
manufacture the coonty root into what we call arrow root. After loading my
little sloop, about 10 or 12 went into her; the rest took to the beach to meet
at the other end of the island. This happened, as I judge, about 2:00 a.m.
My eyes, being much affected, prevented me from knowing their actual
force, but I judge there were from 40 to 50, perhaps more. I was now
almost as bad off as before; a burning fever on me, my feet shot to pieces,
INDIAN ATTACK
no clothes to cover me, nothing to eat or drink, a hot sun overhead, a dead
man by my side, no friend near or any to expect, and placed between 70 and
I
N July, Dubose hired John W. B. Thompson (a former sailor), Aaron
80 feet from the earth with no chance of getting down. My situation was
Carter (probably Thompson's slave) and one other man to act as guards and
truly horrible. About 12 o' clock I thought I could perceive a vessel not far
assistants. On July 18th, Dubose and the unnamed man set sail for Key
off. I took a piece of the old negro's trousers that had escaped the flames by
West (to visit Dubose's family and get supplies). Five days later, on July 23,
being wet with blood and made a signal. Sometime in the afternoon I saw
1836, the lighthouse was attacked and destroyed by Indians.
two boats with my sloop in tow coming to the landing. I had no doubt but
they were Indians, having seen my signal; but it proved to be the boats of
In perhaps the most famous attack on an American lighthouse,
the United States schooner Motto, Captain Armstrong, with a detachment of
Thompson was wounded by four bullets, Carter was killed and the wooden
seamen and marines under the command of Lieutenant Lloyd, of the
portion of the lighthouse and dwelling burned. Brief accounts of the attack
sloop-of-war Concord. They had retaken my sloop, after the Indians had
were printed in newspapers just after the attack, but the best account was
stripped her of her sails and rigging, and everything of consequence
written by Thompson some time later. It was recorded in the 1846 book
belonging to her."
"Steamboat Disasters and Railroad Accidents in the United States to Which
Are Appended Accounts of Recent Shipwrecks, Fires at Sea, Thrilling
"They informed me they heard my explosion 12 miles off, and ran down
Incidents, Etc. "by S. A. Howland.
to my assistance, but did not expect to find me alive. These gentlemen did
all in their power to relieve me, but night coming on, they returned on board
First Hand Account by Assistant Keeper John W. B. Thompson
the Motto, after assuring me of their assistance in the morning. Next
morning, Monday, July 25, three boats landed, among them Captain Cole,
"On the twenty-third of July, 1836, about 4 P.M., as I was going from
of the schooner Pee Dee, from New York. They made a kite during the
the kitchen to the dwelling house, I discovered a large body of Indians
night to get a line to me, but without effect, they then fired twine from their
within twenty yards of me, back of the kitchen. I ran for the Lighthouse,
muskets, made fast to a ramrod, which I received, and hauled up a tailblock
and called out to the old negro man that was with me to run, for the Indians
20
17
were near. At that moment they discharged a volley of rifle balls, which cut
down the scuttle - instantly it exploded and shook the tower from top to
my clothes and hat and perforated the door in many places. We got in, and
bottom. It had not the desired effect of blowing me into eternity, but it
as I was turning the key the savages had hold of the door. I stationed the
threw down the stairs and all the woodenwork near the top of the house; it
negro at the door, with orders to let me know if they attempted to break in.
damped the fire for a moment, but it soon blazed as fierce as ever. The
I then took my three muskets, which were loaded with ball and buckshot,
negro man said he was wounded, which was the last word he spoke. By
and went to the second window. Seeing a large body of them opposite the
this time I had received some wounds myself; and finding no chance for my
dwelling house, I discharged my muskets in succession among them, which
life, for I was roasting alive, I took the determination to jump off. I got up,
put them in some confusion; they then, for the second time, began their
went outside the iron railing, recommending my soul to God, and was on
horrid yells, and in a minute по sash of glass was left at the window, for
the point of going head foremost on the rock below when something dictated
they vented their rage at that spot. I fired at them from some of the other
to me to return and lie down again. I did so, and in two minutes the fire fell
windows, and from the top of the house; in fact, I fired whenever I could
to the bottom of the house. It is a remarkable circumstance that not one ball
get an Indian for a mark. I kept them from the house until dark. They then
struck me when I stood up outside the railing although they were flying all
poured in a heavy fire at all the windows and lantern; that was the time they
around me like hailstones. I found the old negro man dead, being shot in
set fire to the door and window even with the ground. The window was
several places, and literally roasted. A few minutes after the fire fell, a stiff
boarded up with plank and filled with stone inside; but the flames spread
breeze sprung up from the southward, which was a great blessing to me. I
fast, being fed with yellow pine wood. Their balls had perforated the tin
had to lie where I was, for I could not walk, having received six rifle balls,
tanks of oil, consisting of two hundred and twenty-five gallons. My
three in each foot."
bedding, clothing, and in fact everything I had was soaked in oil. I stopped
at the door until driven away by the flames."
"I then took a keg of gunpowder, my balls and one musket to the top of
the house, then went below and began to cut away the stairs about halfway
up the bottom. I had difficulty in getting the old negro up the space I had
already cut; but the flames now drove me from my labor, and I retreated to
the top of the house. I covered over the scuttle that leads to the lantern,
which kept the fire from me for some time. At last the awful moment
arrived; the crackling flames burst around me."
"The savages at the same time began their hellish yells. My poor negro
looked at me with tears in his eyes, but he could not speak. We went out of
the lantern and down on the edge of the platform, two feet wide. The
Seminole Chiefs
lantern was now full of flame, the lamps and glasses bursting and flying in
all directions, my clothes on fire, and to move from the place were I was
would be instant death from their rifles. My flesh was roasting, and to put
an end to my horrible suffering I got up and threw the keg of gunpowder
18
19
THE CAPE
FLORIDA
LIGHTHOUSE
FOR INFORMATION ON HOW YOU CAN
HELP SUPPORT THE RESTORATION OF THE
CAPE FLORIDA LIGHTHOUSE,
CONTACT
DADE HERITAGE TRUST
190 S.E. 12 TERRACE, MIAMI, FL 33131
ITS HISTORY & ITS FUTURE
TEL. (305) 358-9572.
8
SAVE THE LIGHTHOUSE COMMITTEE
The Cape Florida Lighthouse
Malinda Cleary, Chairman
John Ayer
Jerry Field
Esther Perez
Joan Blank
John Frosbutter
Bill Podway
Gay Bondurant
Ed Higgins
Janice Pryor
Emilio Cianfoni
Ruth Jacobs
Leroy Reid
Roberta DiPietro
Pat Kelly
Elizabeth Rice
Yesterday
Anna Ehlert
Jeanie L. McGuire
Lucy Yeakey
Phoebe Emmons
Arva Moore Parks
Pan Zelenak
T
HE CAPE Florida
Tequesta Indians back to
Lighthouse, located
the eleventh century when
at the tip of Key
the site was used for
DADE HERITAGE TRUST
Biscayne, symbolizes this
ceremonial and burial
OFFICERS
region's colorful history
mounds. The renowned
Chairman
President
more than any other
Spanish explorer Juan
Jeanie L. McGuire
Richard Groden
historic structure in the
Ponce de Leon came
1st Vice President
2nd Vice President
state. This 95-foot light-
ashore at Cape Florida in
Peter Andolina
Malinda Cleary
house tower has weath-
Treasurer
1513 after sailing down
Secretary
Oscar Cespedes
Gay Bondurant
ered the assaults of pirates,
the east coast of Florida
profiteering shipwreckers,
in search of the elusive
TRUSTEES
Indian uprisings, the Civil
"fountain of youth."
Peter Andolina
War and land developers.
Dorothy Fields
Brent Nagel
Two centuries later,
Michael Beeman
Richard Groden
June Pimm
Time has enriched the
British surveyors mapped
Gay Bondurant
Adolfo Henriques
Bill Podway
lighthouse with a legacy
out the area around
Oscar Cespedes
Sallye Jude
Janice Pryor
Sharon Clark
Dennis Kainen
Al Quentel
of priceless South
Cape Florida during the
Malinda Cleary
Bryan Knudsen
Raul Rodriguez
Florida history.
British occu-pation in
Steven Cronig
Sam LaRoue
Michael Smith
Susan Eckel
themid-1700s.
Finlay Matheson
Dora Valdes-Fauli
The barrier island's
Anna Ehlert
Betty Metcalf
Mitchell Wolfson
shore was, for centuries,
Recognizing Cape
used by early inhabit-
Florida's important
ADVISORS
ants, explorers, pirates,
navigational position,
Roger Carlton
Arva Moore Parks
slavers, and ship-
Beth Dunlop
Rafael Peñalver
Congress first appropri-
Joseph Fleming
R. Benjamine Reid
wrecked crews. Their
ated money to con-
Ralph Johnson
Ralph Renick
primitive campfires,
struct a lighthouse in
Howard Kleinberg
Norah Schaefer
Becky Roper Matkov
Jean D. Shehan
built upon the key's
May 1822. The light-
Thomas J. Matkov
Rosario Vadia
southern shore, could
house would mark the
Aristides Millas
William F. Wescott
be seen by ships
Eduardo Padron
treacherous reefs lying
cruising the gulfstream
cape этокты
beyond its southern
DHT Revolving Fund President
waters.
Design for Blemsting Improving the Light
shore and protect
Donald D. Slesnick, II
dated
1865.
by
Archæologists have
ships from the jagged
Executive Director
Assistant Director
GEORGE G.MEADE
Roberta DiPietro
dated the remains of
coral rock.
Louise Yarbrough
2
7
Specifications called for a "tower sixty-five feet high with a solid
Tomorrow
wall of brick, five-feet thick at the base, graduated to two-feet at the
top" and included a brick dwelling for the keeper. The tower was
T
HE CAPE FLORIDA
illuminated on December 17, 1825.
Lighthouse is Dade
In 1836 the lighthouse was attacked by Seminole Indians.
County's oldest
Hundreds of bullet holes pierced the lighthouse's iron lantern and
remaining historic landmark.
an explosion of gunpowder destroyed the lighthouse interior. The
The opportunity to save this
tower was completely rebuilt ten years later and relit in 1846, the
national treasure could be the
year following Florida's entrance into the Union. The new tower
last. If its condition continues
was 65 feet and contained 17 lamps with 21-inch reflectors. It was
to deteriorate unabated, one of
constructed of brick and bathed with a whitewashed exterior. In
Florida's most important
1855 its height was raised to 95 feet.
historic monuments will be lost
During the Civil War, the light apparatus was destroyed by
forever. Survival of the light-
Confederates and the entire coast blacked out. It was restored in
house is uncertain without the
1867 and remained lit until an ironpile lighthouse was constructed
support and financial commit-
on a nearby dangerous reef named Fowey Rocks. On July 15, 1878,
ment necessary to restore and
Fowey Rock was lit and that same day, the Cape Florida light was
preserve this historic site.
extinguished and the property abandoned.
In conjunction with the bicentennial of the National Lighthouse
However, Cape Florida and Key Biscayne did not remain unin-
Act, Dade Heritage Trust formed the "Save the Lighthouse Com-
habited for long. Prominent pioneer families, including the Deering
mittee." The goal of the committee is, to not only raise the neces-
and Matheson families, played important roles in the area's develop-
sary funds for the lighthouse's restoration, but to develop the
ment with the construction of roads and the cultivation of coconuts.
community's awareness of its historical significance and provide a
In 1946 Cape Florida was sold to José Alemán, a Cuban. And in the
support group for its continued maintenance.
late 1950s, real estate speculators platted the Alemán property for
Dade Heritage Trust is a non-profit Florida corporation founded
housing and began to lure buyers with advertisements.
in 1972 to promote the preservation of historic properties in Dade
In 1965 after much public outcrry to preserve the lighthouse
County. The Trust is headquartered in Miami and serves the com-
and a campaign spearheaded by Miami News editor Bill Baggs,
munity as a resource through its dedicated board of directors and
staff, continuing educational projects and community outreach
programs.
№10.
This publication was made possible by Dade Heritage Trust
through the support of the Bureau of Historic Preservation,
Division of Historical Resources, Florida Department of State,
assisted by the Historic Preservation Advisory Council.
View JCapi Herida
due East.
6
3
Florida Gov. Haydon Burns announced that the state would pur-
visitors and lighthouse keepers alike, is decayed and in danger of
chase the property belonging to Alemán's widow. The 510 acres
collapsing. The watchroom's steel components are corroded and
were the first parcel of land that would eventually become the 900-
show the ravages of time. Numerous glass window panes are missing
acre Bill Baggs State Park.
from the lantern and the steel enclosure in the lens room has dete-
In 1971 the lighthouse was listed on the National Register of
riorated.
Historic Places. The light was relit in 1978 after 100 years of dark-
The architectural and engineering work involved in restoring the
ness and today sends a flashing white beam (6 seconds on, 6 seconds
lighthouse is estimated to cost approximately $750,000, according
off) seven miles across the sea.
No LONGER LIT
to a feasibility study conducted through the Florida Department of
State and the Department of Natural Resources. The work will
Today
DUE TO DETERIORATION.
consist of carefully stabilizing and preserving the lighthouse.
T
ODAY, the Cape Florida
lighthouse is endangered.
Each year nearly one million
persons visit the Cape Florida park
and historic site, yet money to repair
and restore the lighthouse falls far
short of what is needed to sustain its
existence. The preservation of historic
landmarks, like the Cape Florida
lighthouse, is not insured by federal or
state conservation measures.
The physical condition of the
Cape Florida lighthouse is rapidly
weakening. The exterior brick surface
of the lighthouse tower is severely
deteriorated with large areas of brick
missing from the surface. Years of
neglect, vandalism and the salt water
environment have eroded the surface
and caused a 50 percent loss of the
exterior bricks. The long narrow
windows seen from a southeasterly
approach are sadly dilapidated and in
disrepair.
The lighthouse interior is no
longer open to the public. The wind-
ing interior stair, once climbed by
4
5