Eric Rasmusen, Indiana University, Dept. of Business Economics and Public Policy, Kelley School of Business, Room 456, 1309 East Tenth Street, Bloomington, Indiana 47405-1701, (812)855-9219. [email protected] , Php.indiana.edu/~erasmuse.
A World magazine story raises interesting points. It suggests that the United Methodist Church and the National Council of Churches have served as a front for money from corporations wanting to do business in Cuba. (The story is, "All expenses paid: Is the legal fund for Greg Craig and his client 'humanitarian advocacy' for two liberal church agencies, or a giant company's way of doing business with Castro?" Mindy Belz, World, May 13, 2000 Volume 15 Number 19, http://www.worldmag.com/world/issue/05-13-00/international_1.asp.) Excerpts follow.
The United Methodist Board of Church and Society (UMBCS) was heavily involved.
"Direct public involvement in the Eli�n Gonzalez case began in March, when UMBCS general secretary Thom White Wolf Fassett went to Cuba with former National Council of Churches (NCC) head Joan Brown Campbell. They met with Mr. Gonzalez. Afterwards, they announced the creation of a "humanitarian advocacy fund" to pay for an attorney to represent the father in the escalating confrontation between Mr. Gonzalez and his Miami uncle over custody of 6 -year-over Eli�n. That attorney was immediately named: Mr. Craig, a member of President Clinton's legal defense team during last year's impeachment proceedings."
"As the United Methodist Church began its nationwide General Conference May 2 in Cleveland, growing dissent within its ranks forced further action. Two weeks before the General Conference began, the United Methodist Council on Finance and Administration said the fund violated denominational guidelines, and denominational leaders told Mr. Fassett to get rid of it. Administration of the fund was transferred to the NCC April 19."
"Reports began emerging in April that Dwayne Andreas, recently retired chairman of the largest U.S. grain processor, Archer Daniels Midland Co. (ADM), brought church agents together with Mr. Craig."
In an April 22 interview, "Mr. Edgar described the NCC role at that point as "supporting the United Methodists in what they are doing, procuring Greg Craig's services." He did not disclose that the Methodist fund for Mr. Craig had been turned over to his jurisdiction three days prior. He reiterated NCC and Methodist press releases, which maintain that no funds designated for the NCC or UMBCS have been moved to the lawyer's fund. And he would not elaborate on press releases from both agencies indicating that the fund has raised between $50,000 and $100,000 for Mr. Craig's legal fees. Both agencies have refused to disclose a list of donors, even though they operate under a tax-exempt status subject to IRS rules for charitable organizations."
So the big question is who is donating all that money. The NCC website says it is all spontaneous special donations, rather than from general funds or solicitations.("The fund was set up to receive voluntary contributions from donors who give specifically to help secure competent legal counsel for Juan Miguel. No NCC monies are going into this fund and the NCC is not actively soliciting funds for this purpose. Neither is any money from United Methodist budgets being used for the fund for Juan Miguel."(http://bruno.ncccusa.org/news/faq.html#qnewone)
"Mr. Andreas met Fidel Castro at a New York dinner in October 1995, during a visit to the United Nations in which Mr. Castro also met with then-head of the NCC, Ms. Campbell, and the UMBCS head, Mr. Fassett. Mr. Andreas released a statement in support of ending the U.S. trade embargo on Cuba, along with the church group leaders. He said, "Now is the time to make a friend of Castro."
That statement was followed with a meeting in Cuba with the dictator in July 1996. Mr. Andreas announced plans to build a refinery in Cuba and to use a Spanish subsidiary to circumvent the embargo. He would like to import ADM infrastructure, use Cuban grain and sugar crops (and cheap labor), and export the kind of processed food ingredients that earn ADM billions each year. ADM senior vice president Martin Andreas said in 1999 that ADM would also build vegetable oil processing facilities in Cuba if the market were opened. Talks this year between ADM and the Castro government are focusing on joint ventures like soybean production. ADM has sponsored one health exhibition in Havana and plans to host another in December."
Christopher Caldwell points to another possible answer in his May 29, 2000 Weekly Standard article, "Eli�n as Propaganda At the Wye Plantation, Clinton's interests and Castro's converge" "Eli�n has been allowed out of Wye only once, to attend a dinner at the Georgetown mansion of Democratic fund-raising powerhouse Smith Bagley. Bagley is a close associate of Al Gore's longtime fund-raiser Nathan Landow and the chairman of the Arca Foundation, a lobby dedicated to strengthening ties with Cuba. Last year, Arca bankrolled Pastors for Peace, the left-wing Latin America think-tank WOLA, and Randall Robinson's TransAfrica, whose ferocious lobbying effort spurred a U.S. invasion to install the Aristide dictatorship in Haiti. We seem to be getting closer to an answer to the question of who is bankrolling Juan Miguel's "lawyer" Gregory Craig." It is also dubious that a lawyer can be relied upon to represent the interests of Person A when he is paid entirely by Person B, who can cut off funds at any time. This is a problem even if a lawyer's code of ethics says he shouldn't pay any attention to who is paying him. Note that a lawyer does have a right to stop representing a client if nobody is paying him; this means that if the third parties who are paying Greg Craig don't like the instructions given him by Juan Gonzalez, they can stop paying and Greg Craig will stop representing him. It would also be legal for the third parties to tell Juan that they will cut off his funds if he takes a particular legal step. Juan must keep this in mind whenever he gives "his" lawyer instructions.
The Georgetown dinner may be an example of this. Clearly it was a bad idea from the point of view of either Fidel Castro, Bill Clinton, or the purported interest of Juan Gonzalez. The dinner publicly exploited Elian and gave ammunition to people like myself who denigrate Clinton's motives, while embarassing all the pro-Castro people who had complained that the Miami relatives were exploiting Elian by making a video in which he said he wanted to stay in America. The Georgetown visit was just so some rich people could gawk at Elian and tell their friends they had met him. So why did Elian's keepers, including the publicity-savvy Greg Craig, allow it? The only reason I can think of is that he who pays the piper calls the tune.
A minor point: The tax situation is confused. The Methodists originally said that contributions were tax-deductible: " Most of the large contributions to date have come from people who are involved in human rights issues, Fassett said. He added that contributions to the fund are tax deductible because they are for a humanitarian cause and are administered by the board." (http://umns.umc.org/00/april/179.htm) That is wrong (you can't donate money to help an individual and get a deduction-- you can only donate to general charities). The NCC website now says, " Contributions to the fund are not tax deductible." I hope the Methodists have written to their contributors correcting the error-- IRS, take note!
Some links:
The Lazaro team is quite diverse, and includes both big-name "Florida establishment" lawyers and less experienced ones. I have heard they are working pro bono. That is plausible. This is a high-profile case, and it would be easy to get volunteers, whether motivated by principle or publicity.
I am not getting any pay myself for setting up this website. It is odd, in fact, that Juan Gonzalez would need to pay for a lawyer rather than being able to get a Communist-sympathizing volunteer. If he had a volunteer, he would, of course, not have to worry about the funding source cutting off the money if he displeased the funding source by his instructions to the lawyer.