CUBA NEWS
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Investigators rule out sabotage in Cuban
power-plant breakdown
Havana, Sep 29 (EFE).- Investigators examining
problems at Cuba's largest thermoelectric
power plant have ruled out sabotage as the
source of the breakdown.
The Antonio Guiteras plant, in the western
province of Matanzas, sustained damage to
a rotor due to a sudden temperature drop
apparently caused by oversights on the part
of three computer operators in charge of
monitoring temperature levels.
During a broadcast on state-owned television
dedicated to Cuba's electricity problems,
Interior Ministry representative Lt. Col.
Nestor Borrero said authorities opened
an investigation of the breakdown.
Experts concluded that the workers implicated
in the problem, who were not identified,
had merely committed an "operational
error," Borrero said.
"We have been able to show that by
no means do we have an intentional act on
our hands, we have not witnessed a counterrevolutionary
act," he said.
The operators were "not consistent
in the monitoring of important parameters
pertaining to the temperature drop in the
plant," the official said, adding that
the workers had acknowledged their error
and cooperated with investigators.
President Fidel Castro, meanwhile, said
"we've got to be half-wits to forget
that there's an enemy that never ceases
in his efforts to sabotage anything that
can be sabotaged." The power plant
experienced the breakdown when it was preparing
to shut down for scheduled maintenance in
May.
Cubans have endured repeated and lengthy
blackouts in recent months due, in large
part, to problems at Guiteras, considered
the "heart" of the island's electric
grid.
Martinez Blames Staff For Campaign 'Insult'
WILLIAM MARCH, wmarch@tampatrib.com.
Tampa Bay Online, Wed Sep 29.
TAMPA -For the second time, Republican
Mel Martinez is dissociating himself from
actions of his own U.S. Senate campaign,
in this case a reference to law officers
involved in the seizure of Elian Gonzalez
as "armed thugs.''
The term was in a Martinez statement sent
to Cuban- American radio stations Friday
as rival Democrat Betty Castor campaigned
with former U.S. Attorney General Janet
Reno. Many Cubans blame Reno for returning
young refugee Elian to Cuba in 2000.
In an interview with Judy Woodruff on CNN's
"Inside Politics'' on Tuesday, Martinez
said he wasn't responsible for the "inappropriate''
comment.
Full
story at Tampa Bay Online
'Motorcycle' could be hitching a ride
to the Oscars
By Susan Wloszczyna, USA
TODAY. Wed Sep 29.
What do you get when a top Brazilian filmmaker
directs a hot Mexican actor as an Argentine
doctor who would one day be reborn as the
Marxist-rebel pinup for the Cuban revolution?
Answer: The Motorcycle Diaries, an inspiring
coming-of-age tale and buddy-bonding road
trip full of wondrous vistas, earthy humor
and universal emotions whose last stop may
be the Oscars. It goes wider this Friday.
Diaries, which has received acclaim at
the Sundance and Toronto film festivals,
is based on an actual 1952 journey through
South America. Along for the ride until
their ancient motorcycle's last wheezy gasp
forces them to travel by foot are chubby
Alberto, 29, a carousing con of a biochemist,
and asthmatic Ernesto, 23, a dreamy-eyed
medical student who later would earn infamy
as Che Guevara.
"What attracted us was the extraordinary
humanity of these two characters,"
says director Walter Salles, 48, whose Central
Station in 1998 earned two Academy Award
nominations. "It allowed us to look
at the story that preceded history with
a capital 'H.' "
These days, "El Che" is a shadowy
figure to many in the USA, a macho pop icon
on a T-shirt. But before his execution in
1967, the inventor of guerrilla tactics
was feared and revered for his commitment
to communism.
But politics are mostly out of the picture
in Diaries. Instead, the focus is on the
people. Salles, who retraces the original
route through Chile, Peru and the Amazon,
presents the future Che as a romantic wanderer
who develops a social conscience after heartbreaking
encounters with sharecroppers, migrant workers
and lepers.
Bringing Ernesto to vivid life is Gael
Garcia Bernal, 25, whose sensitivity here
is in glaring contrast to his Brando-style
smolder in 2001's erotic Y Tu Mamá
También.
Bernal already played an older version
of Che in the 2002 Showtime miniseries Fidel.
"The TV movie helped me do two things,"
he says. "Pay the rent, for one. Also,
to do justice to the character. In a way,
I am the person I am because of the Cuban
revolution. It was an event that changed
the world."
When asked why he picked Bernal as his
star, Salles says, "I wanted an actor
with the density and soulfulness that Guevara
had at 23, and his degree of maturity. I
had seen him in Amores Perros (Bernal's
2000 breakthrough), and I was struck by
how powerful his performance was, yet so
economical."
Both Salles and Bernal are front-line ambassadors
for the burgeoning new wave of Latin American
cinema, which includes such directors as
Alfonse Cuarón (Harry Potter (news
- web sites) and the Prisoner of Azkaban)
and Alejandro González Iñárritu
(21 Grams, Amores Perros).
And they don't mind that the media tend
to lump Latin filmmakers together. "Our
borders are just administrative borders,
they don't translate to real life,"
Bernal says, before adding, "unless
football - soccer - is being played."
Another Che bio is in the works, an English-language
account of his less-compassionate later
years starring Benicio Del Toro and directed
by Steven Soderbergh.
As for why the sudden surge of interest
in the revolutionary, Bernal suggests that
"the fact that he was always truthful
to himself is why he has remained such a
contemporary figure."
Salles is taking a Hollywood detour these
days, doing post-production on Disney's
Dark Water, a remake of a Japanese ghost
story about a single mother (Jennifer Connelly)
and daughter who move into a haunted apartment.
He compares it to Roman Polanski's spine-tingler
Repulsion.
But he heads back home to Brazil next year
for a small film about four brothers. "I
don't have much interest in what you would
call a career," he says. "I'm
interested in doing films that are interesting
at a specific moment in time, and then immediately
return to my roots."
As for Bernal, who dated Natalie Portman
of Star Wars prequel fame, he bristles at
suggestions that he might "go Hollywood."
But he will come to the States. He just
shot the independently financed The King
in Texas for British documentarian James
Marsh, about a Navy veteran who tries to
reunite with his estranged preacher father
(William Hurt).
His other hit on the festival circuit,
Spanish auteur Pedro Almodovar's homosexual
noir Bad Education, due Nov. 19, offers
the mercurial Bernal in three very different
roles, including a mysterious junkie transvestite
called Zahara.
The actor brightens a bit when told that,
in blond wig and clingy attire, he looks
like Julia Roberts. "For me it's a
good thing," he says. "I don't
know about Julia Roberts."
Salles asks if he would prefer to be compared
to Penelope Cruz.
Responds a diplomatic Bernal, "Why
choose? It depends on the angle. From the
left, it's Julia Roberts. From the right,
Penelope Cruz." He smiles. "And
from the underside, Shrek."
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