Sounds like an airy tale to us

Pablo Alfonso does it again. The man who brought you Fidel Castro’s private physician now brings you Fidel Castro’s private jet plane. And, if we’re to believe El Nuevo Herald’s columnist, it’s a gift from Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez.

On Nov. 30, Alfonso wrote an item titled “A Venezuelan plane for Castro” that said Chávez had just “given a generous present to his friend, the Cuban dictator Fidel Castro: A Falcon 900 jet plane, series 2000.

“The aircraft, which was purchased by the [Venezuelan] consortium PDVSA through its gasoline company, Citgo, for $27 million will be at Fidel Castro’s exclusive disposal, although it will retain its Venezuelan registration,” Alfonso wrote. PDVSA stands for Petróleos de Venezuela, Sociedad Anónima.

Cuban pilots and crewmen were already getting acquainted with their boss’ new plane, the columnist said.

A denial from Citgo

Apparently Alfonso’s report was reproduced in Caracas, because on Dec. 17 the following item appeared in Venezuelanalysis.com, a Web site with information about the Bolivarian republic:

“Tulsa, Okla. – Citgo Petroleum Corporation rejected claims published on Wednesday Dec. 17 in a Venezuelan newspaper stating that a corporate airplane property of Citgo was transferred as a gift from President Hugo Chávez to Cuban President Fidel Castro.

“The Falcon 2000EX airplane, made in France in the year 2003, was leased by Citgo Petroleum Corporation in the month of November, to help with the transportation of company executives.

“The Falcon airplane is registered in the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration under the number N977CP, exclusively for the use of Citgo Petroleum Corporation. The plane remains at Citgo [corporate headquarters] in the city of Tulsa, Oklahoma, and is being operated only by Citgo Petroleum Corporation personnel.

“The decision to lease the new plane has to do with the fact that Citgo’s old plane does not comply with the FAA regulations that will come into place next year.”

Caracas also rejects allegation

A similar denial was issued in Venezuela by Citgo and reported Dec. 19 in the daily El Universal.

According to Citgo, the plane was leased with “strict adherence to demanding policies and procedures that leave no space for shady deals.” The company said the purpose of the leasing was “to satisfy the need for mobilization required by the management of a company with the operational complexities Citgo has.”

Citgo, to quote from its own Web site, “is a refiner, transporter and marketer of transportation fuels, lubricants, petrochemicals, refined waxes, asphalt and other industrial products. The company is owned by PDV America Inc., an indirect wholly owned subsidiary of Petróleos de Venezuela, S.A., the national oil company of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela.”

No proof, no verification

At this point we should wonder why Alfonso and El Nuevo chose to publish the allegation without checking with Citgo and the Venezuelan government and everyone else concerned, but by now we’ve given up wondering why El Nuevo and its writers operate the way they do. The rules of responsible journalism don’t seem to apply to them – rather, the paper doesn’t seem to follow the rules of responsible journalism.

But then, Alfonso is the writer who introduced us some years back to Elizabel Trujillo, the putative bedside doctor of Fidel Castro, and quoted her as saying that the Cuban president was at death’s door. He presented no proof, sought no confirmation, made no verification. The allegation turned out to be a hoax by an apparently mentally disturbed woman and an embarrassment to El Nuevo and The Miami Herald, which also published Alfonso’s “exclusive.” So far, neither the writer nor either newspaper has apologized to the readers.

As these words are written, Sunday evening, Citgo’s denial has not been reported by El Nuevo. Will this be a case of another Doctor Trujillo?

P.S. The Miami Herald chose not to translate and reproduce Alfonso’s Citgo tale. The paper seems to have learned its lesson.

HERALD SCOOPED (BY EL NUEVO)

It doesn’t happen often, but it happens. The Herald was beaten to its own story by El Nuevo.

We’re talking about Nancy San Martín’s story “Castro, man of few words,” which appeared in The Herald Dec. 20. “Even as Cuban President Fidel Castro continues to maintain a hectic schedule of public appearances, he has scaled back significantly on his speechmaking, indicating that the 77-year-old is slowing down,” her story begins.

“A review of Cuban and U.S. government databases shows that Castro’s speeches dropped to 19 so far this year, compared with 37 in all of last year.”

Hmm. Sounds familiar. Didn’t we read that in El Nuevo on Dec. 14, under the headline “Castro’s speeches lose strength and length”?

It appears El Nuevo got hold of San Martín’s story one week earlier and couldn’t wait to publish it. So The Herald found itself scooped.

Keep it grim

Not surprisingly, in its desire to show Castro in the worst possible light, El Nuevo edited the story so as to eliminate all mitigating factors. For example, this paragraph, which speculates that Castro may not be impaired but simply unwilling to make as many speeches as before, was deleted:

“Several [analysts] said the drop, coupled with an increase in the number of occasions in which he only appears in public and does not deliver a speech, seems to support theories that Castro is not as politically engaged as in previous years.”

Another observation, by a former CIA analyst who wondered whether the slowdown was caused by the natural aging process, was also omitted:

“‘The question is, is he suffering from health or is this the way most 77-year-olds act?’ [said Brian] Latell, who now oversees the Central America and Caribbean program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington.”

Good point. Former President Jimmy Carter, who is 79, no longer does construction work for Habitat for Humanity and nobody wonders or questions why. The man is simply older and chooses to conserve his energy, that’s all.

Ho hum, another rumor

Another observation by San Martín, to the effect that reports of Castro’s “ill health” are almost routine in Little Havana, also was eliminated:

“Rumors that Castro and his younger brother Raúl, Cuba’s defense minister, suffer from poor health surface regularly in Cuba and South Florida, often prompted by periodic lapses in public appearances,” she wrote.

“Word that Raúl suffered from colon cancer spread recently after a long absence from the public eye and his failure to show up at ceremonies marking Armed Forces Day on Dec. 2. A week later, he met with foreign correspondents in Cuba and joked about the rumors. [Fidel] Castro also has used humor to dispel rumors of his pending death.”

A ‘planted’ topic?

We cannot help but wonder why San Martín wrote about this particular topic at this particular time. Did she wake up one morning and decided to check on the number and length of speeches Castro has made in recent months? Did she count the words in his major speeches – as she did – of her own initiative?

We suspect the story idea was planted (“suggested” is a nicer word) in the reporter’s mind by someone in Washington who wants to keep alive the rumor that the Cuban president is ailing. In addition to Latell, San Martín quotes Mark Falcoff, “a Cuba expert and author of the book ‘Cuba, The Morning After,’” as saying of the drop in speeches: ”That is highly suggestive that something is not right.”

San Martín quotes no other Cuba experts.

For all of Castro’s 77 years, we’re willing to bet that in a debate with a much younger George W. Bush he would emerge the better thinker and the better speaker. Age slows all of us down, true, but it does not rob us of our experience.