Ex-CANF member explains resignation
BY ELAINE DE VALLE and CAROL ROSENBERG
Popular radio host Ninoska Pérez Castellón's feud with the
Cuban American National Foundation burst onto the
Spanish-language airwaves Monday, where the
ex-spokeswoman accused the influential lobby of crushing
internal dissent while the lobby's leadership used the same
station to defend the group as democratic.
Chairman Jorge Mas Santos explained that
foundation strategies and policies -- such as efforts
to indict Fidel Castro -- are decided by a majority vote
of its board of directors, who would never accept a
dictatorial leader.
``Every decision we make is voted upon by our
membership,'' said Mas, son of the late founder
Jorge Mas Canosa. ``We believe strongly in
democratic principles, in the strength of democracy.''
Mas said he has the support of a majority of the
foundation's 160-plus members. Besides Pérez
Castellón and her husband, former political prisoner
Roberto Martín Pérez, no one else has announced plans
to leave the organization.
Pérez Castellón, meanwhile, outlined what she said were a
series of contradictions and conflicts that betrayed the
memory of Mas Canosa and caused her to resign Thursday.
``It has stopped being the institution that so many of us
helped create and the object of Jorge Mas Canosa's
dreams,'' Pérez Castellón said.
Mas and CANF President Francisco ``Pepe'' Hernandez --
as well as a half-dozen other directors -- spoke first on a
morning broadcast on WQBA, 1140 AM, defending the
organization following its weekend congress in Puerto Rico.
Pérez Castellón had announced plans to explain on Monday
her ``painful decision'' to leave on her regular afternoon
program, Ninoska a la Una.
There, with reporters and photographers cramming the small
studio, she wiped away tears as she explained the reasons
she decided to quit the group after 15 years.
It wasn't Mas' support of the Latin Grammys, she said. It
wasn't the meeting between CANF members and then-vice
presidential nominee Joseph Lieberman after the foundation
had agreed not to endorse a candidate.
It wasn't even what she called plans to pull the plug on her
shortwave La Voz de la Fundación, or Voice of the
Foundation, broadcasts to Cuba.
It was that those decisions were made ``behind closed
doors,'' said Pérez Castellón, flanked by her husband, sister
and niece.
Pérez Castellón said she had tried for a year to help redirect
what she called misguided policies and decisions.
``When they decided to make changes and bring in new
people, they did it with total disregard for those who had
been there so long. If you criticized anything they did, you
became the enemy and they marginalized you, they
excluded you,'' she told The Herald, referring to a meeting
several directors had with Mas and Hernández after they
came out in favor of the Latin Grammys' move to Miami.
``And instead of taking the criticism as something
constructive, these people were seen as enemies. Some
were taken out of the executive committee.''
Mas said the makeup of the executive committee changes
constantly.
``It has changed in the last five years more than 10 times.
. . . The executive committee is evolving.''
Executive Director Joe Garcia said Pérez Castellón should
have stuck around if she wanted to change the direction of
the foundation.
``She left. The one who does not believe in democracy is
Ninoska,'' Garcia said. ``There was a board meeting this
weekend, she could've gone to it and expressed her opinions
and feelings, and we would've debated it.''
Fans of her radio show overwhelmingly supported Pérez
Castellón's decision. Many told her to start a splinter group.
Only two in dozens of callers questioned the wisdom of
exposing a divided foundation to the world.
Her announcement to resign came days after Hernández,
the president, went to her last week and said CANF would
cut its radio broadcasts to Cuba -- La Voz de la Fundación --
because it was too costly, she said.
``I thought it was extremely unjust to spend half a million
dollars on a party at the Freedom Tower, another $750,000
to a public relations company, and to pay exorbitant salaries
to incompetent people who know nothing about Cuba while
eliminating a project that meant so much to Jorge Mas
Canosa and gave a voice to the opposition inside Cuba.
``If the program has been so effective, why cut it when there
is money for so many other things?''
But Mas said there was never any intention to cut the
program.
``I have said publicly over the course of the last week that we
were going to change our programming and find the best
vehicle to get our message to Cuba, and that was not in
shortwave,'' he told The Herald on Monday night, adding that
the foundation had appointed a committee of five members
who are charged with finding the best alternative.
Pérez Castellón said the about-face was not a surprise.
``I'm not willing to continue to lie to the press about things
that don't exist, and I don't want to be part of an organization
whose people -- in my opinion -- are not going to do good for
Cuba,'' she said.