Cuba Says It Might Skip Pan Am Games

Manuel Guerra, president of Cuba’s Olympic Committee, said Thursday his country will not participate in the X Pan American Games this summer at Indianapolis unless it resolves diplomatic and financial difficulties involved in transporting its team to the United States.

Guerra said Cuba has requested permission to send the 629-member delegation, including 455 athletes, to the United States for the Games Aug. 7-23 on Air Cubano charter flights from Havana.

But because the United States does not have formal diplomatic relations with Cuba, the request must be approved by the U.S. State Department.

Mark Miles, president of the Pan American Games organizing committee (PAX-I), said Thursday negotiations are in progress between PAX-I and State Department officials. Thirteen members of the organizing committee are in Havana this week to discuss the Cuban involvement in the Games.

“We’ve reported on the status of our pursuit of hopefully finding a favorable response from U.S. officials for that request,” Miles said.

“PAX-I understands the seriousness of the request and its enormous logistical and financial implications. We have renewed our pledge to try and secure the necessary approval from our federal officials to accommodate these direct flights. We hope to get a decision as soon as possible.”

In Washington, State Department spokesman Greg Lagana said the request from the Cuban government was not received until Thursday.

The issue is particularly important to PAX-I because of the language in its $4-million television contract with CBS.

According to informed sources, PAX-I will forfeit $2 million of the contract if either Cuba or Canada does not participate in the Games.

PAX-I officials revealed recently that they need another $5.6 million in revenues from ticket sales, sponsorships and contracts with foreign radio and television broadcasters to avoid a deficit.

The Cubans also stand to suffer if they withdraw. The Pan American sports organization has awarded the 1991 Pan American Games to Cuba on the condition it participates in the 1987 Pan Am Games at Indianapolis and the 1988 Olympic Games at Seoul, South Korea.

Guerra said the only other alternative besides withdrawing from the Games if the charter flights are not approved would be for PAX-I to pay for the Cubans’ transportation to Indianapolis.

The cost for that has been conservatively estimated at $190,000. That would enable the Cubans to fly Air Cubano to either Mexico or Canada, countries that have diplomatic relations with Cuba, and transfer to commercial flights to Indianapolis.

“It would not be productive to address that because it’s a hypothetical question,” Miles said, adding that the Cubans have not suggested that alternative to PAX-I.

Miles also said that Guerra has not threatened in discussions with PAX-I to withdraw from the Games.

“We didn’t get to that point in the conversation because we expressed an opinion that, given time, we will be able to work this out,” Miles said.

Guerra made his comments to reporters in the courtyard of the Cuban Olympic Committee offices before meeting with PAX-I officials Thursday.

“If we don’t go by charter, we can’t go,” Guerra said. “We don’t have the money to pay for it. We would have to fly on U.S. planes. We don’t want to do that.”

Guerra said that even if the Cubans are allowed to charter flights to the United States, he is concerned about the possibility of having to land in Florida for customs inspections. He said there might be security problems because of the large number of anti-Castro Cuban immigrants there.

The Federal Aviation Administration requires that any flight from Havana be processed through either Miami or Ft. Lauderdale, Fla., where customs officials are bilingual and familiar with such traffic.

“If we go to Miami, there will be problems for the immigration officials there,” Guerra said.

But he said Cuban officials will not consider that a reason for withdrawing from the Games.

Asked if there is a reason the U.S. State Department might reject the Cubans’ request, Guerra said, “You all know that, politically.”

But later Thursday, after meeting with PAX-I officials, Guerra said he believed that a solution will be found.

“I also share the optimism of Mr. Miles,” Guerra said. “He’s a good worker and has good connections. I do think the issue will be resolved for the better.”

Cuba’s participation in the Games has been increasingly controversial in recent weeks, particularly concerning a possible appearance by President Fidel Castro in Indianapolis. Castro may greet PAX-I officials at a reception tonight.

Indianapolis Mayor William Hudnut suggested earlier this year that his staff play Castro’s in a baseball game.

But while Cuban officials said in January that Castro would attend the Games, PAX-I officials have been noncommittal, insisting it is a State Department matter.

After a nationally syndicated column by Evans and Novak last week suggested that PAX-I was involved in a “strange courtship of Castro,” aides to Indiana’s two Republican senators, Richard Lugar and Dan Quayle, said PAX-I should not attempt to lure Castro to the Games.

Quayle’s aide, Peter Lincoln, said the organizers said, “Take great care that they are not used by an apparently most personable and charismatic man who stands for nothing that Americans and Hoosiers hold near and dear.”

Lugar’s aide, Andy Fisher, said the senator believes Castro’s appearance in Indianapolis would be a “public relations disaster, where the focus is on his participation rather than the real purpose of the Games.”

When the comments were relayed Thursday to Guerra, he said: “Those were said by two senators, but they are not making the decision. There are 280 million individuals in the country. Perhaps the government will decide the two senators are excludable.”

Asked if Castro wants to attend the Games, Guerra said: “Fidel Castro is the president of this country just as Ronald Reagan is the President of the United States. If Mr. Reagan wants to come to Cuba, he should be invited by Fidel Castro. If Fidel Castro wants to go to the United States, he should be invited by Ronald Reagan.”

Miles said that PAX-I has made no effort to lure Castro to Indianapolis and has not asked the State Department to invite him.

“There’s no way they’re going to invite him,” Miles said.

Relations between the two countries have been strained even more than usual in recent months. Cuban government officials say 800,000 people attended weeklong demonstrations last December outside the U.S. Interest Section office here because they believe a U.S. reconnaissance plane entered Cuban air space.

The officials have also complained about the broadcasting of anti-Castro programs into Cuba from Radio Marti in Miami.

On a local level in Indiana, state American Legion officials have protested the planned use of the American Legion Mall for the Games’ closing ceremony because of Cuba’s role as the next host.

American Legion leaders said it would be improper for a Communist country’s flag and anthem to be central to a ceremony at a memorial to U.S. military men who died in combat.