San Carlos threatened to be sold

The epicenter for Cuban culture in Key West, the San Carlos Institute, is at the center of a legal battle about ownership and is threatened to be sold to pay part of a $63 million legal judgement against the Republic of Cuba.

The legal battle stems from a lawsuit filed in the death of a Cuban soldier who was detained, tortured and killed by a group of Cuban revolutionaries in the Sierra Maestra mountains during the Cuban Revolution.

Attorneys for the daughter of Cuban soldier Jose Velasquez Fernandez were successful in state court in Florida 2012 in securing a default judgement for $63.6 million plus 4.75% annual interest against the Republic of Cuba, after the country did not represent itself in court at that time.

The attorneys for Fernandez’s daughter, Marilyn Wiederspan, have not been successful in obtaining any of the $63 million so far but have set their sights on the San Carlos Institute at 516 Duval St., arguably one of the most famous landmarks in Key West and the heart of Cuban culture in the Southernmost City.

Wiederspan’s attorneys unsuccessfully attempted to intervene and claim the $63 million judgement in a federal case in New York in 2015 against a French bank that forfeited $8.8 billion and paid a fine of $140 million for violating U.S. sanctions against Sudan, Iran and Cuba.

Lawyers William Sanchez and Milton Fuentes have begun legal action to have the San Carlos Institute, which is valued at roughly $4 million, sold, with Wiederspan receiving the proceeds of the sale, according to legal paperwork filed in the past year in state court in Miami-Dade County. Niether Sanchez nor Fuentes returned telephone and email messages by The Keys Citizen seeking comment.

Weiderspan’s attorneys initially filed a lawsuit in 2010 alleging that Fidel Castro, his brother Raúl, Ernesto “Che” Guevara and the Republic of Cuba were responsible for the death of Wiederspan’s father, who was a lieutenant in the army of military dictator Fulgencio Batista. He was detained, tortured and killed by revolutionaries in the Sierra Maestra mountains in February 1959, the lawsuit stated.

The Republic of Cuba is listed as the owner of the San Carlos, according to the Monroe County Property Appraiser’s Office. However, the non-profit group Instituto Patriótico y Docente San Carlos Inc. has long overseen operations and maintenance of the historic concert hall and museum and are the legitimate owners of the historic building, according to the San Carlos board’s president Rafael A. Peñalver Jr.

Instituto Patriótico y Docente San Carlos Inc. is not the only party that has challenged Wiederspan’s claim to the San Carlos. The U.S. government has filed requests to be a party to the lawsuit, claiming her claim is not valid by federal law and the state court does not have jurisdiction in the matter, Assistant United States Attorney Maureen Donlan wrote.

“The Court’s order appears to implicate issues of foreign sovereign immunity and the validity of a prior federal court decision, which declined to recognize a prior judgment entered in this matter on the basis that this Court,” she wrote.

Instituto Patriótico y Docente San Carlos Inc. and the government both have pending requests to intervene in the case, according to court records.

Four attorneys for the U.S. government wrote a legal brief that contended the Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act (FSIA) prevents Wiederspan from laying claim to the San Carlos or any other piece of Cuban-owned property.

“The United States does not view any exception under the FSIA to apply in this case that would overcome Cuba’s sovereign immunity with respect to the judgment issued in this matter or the subsequent execution of that judgment,” the attorneys wrote. “Accordingly, the United States asks this Court to vacate the final judgment in this case and to deny any motion seeking to attach Cuban property in the United States pursuant to that judgment.”

In addition, the lawyers also contended Wiederspan’s claim does not qualify for financial compensation for Cuba being designated as a State Sponsor of Terror (SST), which allows government contractors and others a right for financial compensation. Cuba was not put on the SST list until 1982 and it was not based on “extrajudicial killings conducted domestically in the 1950s and 1960s,” but rather supporting military uprisings in other Caribbean and Latina American countries in the 1970s and early 1980s, the attorneys for the U.S. government wrote.

“The acts forming the basis of this litigation, the detention and killing of Velasquez, occurred in 1959, over two decades prior to Cuba’s designation as an SST. Findings of Fact Accordingly, ‘to justify invoking those pre-1982 acts and the state-sponsored terrorism exception to sovereign immunity,’ the Court must find that Cuba was designated “as a result” of its actions against Velasquez (Fernandez),” the attorneys wrote.

Wiederspan’s attorneys argued in a legal brief that her father was a U.S. government contractor because the U.S. military provided training, weapons and financial aid to Batista’s army. The attorneys for the U.S. government argued Fernandez was not a government contractor.

Wiederspan’s attorneys have requested the judge block the U.S. government and the Instituto Patriótico y Docente San Carlos Inc. from intervening in the case.

The San Carlos has long been one of the most important Cuban heritage sites outside of country of Cuba and one of the most culturally important centers in Key West. In addition to countless Cuban heritage events, the San Carlos hosted singer-songwriter Jimmy Buffet for a concert in 2015, the Key West Literary Seminar, Key West Songwriters Festival, Key West Film Festival and other cultural and art festivals.

Two recent Cuban-American Congressmen, Carlos Gimenez and Carlos Curbelo, were both ceremonially sworn into office on the stage at the San Carlos.

“The San Carlos is part of eternal Cuba,” said Peñalver Jr., a Miami attorney. “It is part of the patrimony of Cuba. My hope it that the San Carlos will serve as a place where the people of Cuba can reconcile. This is the place where Jose Martí united the people of Cuba for independence. It’s part of our heritage. It also a critical part of the heritage of the City of Key West.”

Peñalver understands Wiederspan’s loss as many Cubans were killed during the revolution, but he believes this effort is misdirected and only hurts the people of Cuba and people of Cuban descent, he said.

Cradle of historyThe San Carlos Institute is a Cuban heritage center that was founded in 1871 by Cuban exiles who came to Key West to plan the campaign for Cuba’s independence from Spain. José Dolores Poyo and Juan María Reyes, two leaders of Key West’s Cuban community, proposed the establishment of an organization dedicated to promoting Cuban cultural values and patriotic ideals. The San Carlos was principally supported by the contributions of the Cuban tobacco workers of Key West who donated a substantial portion of their modest wages to the institute, according to the San Carlos history page on its website.

The San Carlos Institute was inaugurated on Nov. 11, 1871, in a small wooden building located on Anne Street near Key West’s old City Hall. It was named after Cuba’s Seminario San Carlos, a place of higher learning renowned for its academic excellence. Father Félix Varela, an accomplished educator, philosopher and humanitarian, taught at the Seminario San Carlos and planted in his students the seed of Cuba’s independence and the need for the state to promote humanistic values, the webpage states.

The San Carlos moved to larger quarters on Fleming Street in 1884. Two years later, the building burned to the ground in the fire of 1886 that destroyed much of Key West. Civic leader Martin Herrera led the effort that rebuilt the San Carlos on a spacious lot, at its present location, fronting Duval Street in the heart of Key West in 1890.

Many legendary figures of Cuba’s independence movement addressed the exile community at the San Carlos Institute. First among them was José Martí, Cuba’s legendary patriot and poet, who so loved the San Carlos that he called it “La Casa Cuba,” the website states.

A very important chapter in Cuba’s history took place at the San Carlos Institute. When Martí first arrived in Key West, his first mission was to try to unite the various factions of the exile community. He met with each leader individually and on Jan. 3, 1892 he addressed a massive gathering at the San Carlos and announced that a united front would be established to lead the effort for Cuba’s independence. This lead to the establishment of the Partido Revolucionario Cubano that encompassed the ideals and aspirations of a united exile community. The PRC planned and organized the War of Independence that eventually succeeded in defeating Spanish colonial rule in Cuba. Jubilant exiles gathered at the San Carlos on May 20, 1902 to celebrate Cuba’s independence.

The San Carlos was damaged beyond repair by a hurricane that devastated Key West in 1919. Efforts immediately began to rebuild the San Carlos.

San Carlos president José M. Renedo led a delegation to Havana that secured $80,000 from the Republic of Cuba for the reconstruction of the San Carlos. Francisco Centurión, one of Cuba’s most prominent architects, designed the present two-story building that incorporates many elements of Cuba’s architecture: spacious rooms, high ceilings, graceful curves and arches, marble stairways, louvered windows, hand-crafted mosaics and floors of checkered Cuban tile. The building opened on Oct. 10, 1924. It was a magnificent edifice and referred to by many as “The jewel of Key West,” the San Carlos website states.

Everything changed when a communist dictatorship seized power in Cuba in 1959. The financial assistance provided by the Cuban government ceased, and despite valiant efforts by some civic leaders in Key West, the local community alone was not able to sustain the aging building. Threatened with structural and financial collapse, the school closed its doors in 1973 after the building was condemned for structural deficiencies. The building remained closed for almost two decades. During this period, many of the San Carlos’ books and records were lost to the elements or to vagrants who sought shelter in the vacant building, the website states.

When a portion of the San Carlos’ facade collapsed in 1981, injuring a passing tourist, some called for the building’s demolition. Other sought to restore the building as a commercial theater. Some Cuban residents of Key West and Miami sought to stop the plans for commercial development of the property, but the courts ruled against them. In 1985, in a last-ditch effort to save the San Carlos as a Cuban historical landmark, they appealed to Florida’s Hispanic Commission.

Peñalver led a statewide effort that succeeded in rescinding the plans for the commercial development of the property and saved the San Carlos as a Cuban heritage center. In the years that followed, Peñalver directed the San Carlos’ restoration and was primarily responsible for raising more than $3 million in state and private funds for the project. In addition, in-kind services in excess of $1 million supported the effort.

In an effort to highlight the building’s historic importance, statues and portraits of prominent Cuban historical figures were placed in the building’s lobby as part of the renovation. Prominent sculptor Manuel Carbonell chiseled the statue of Martí from a block of Carrara marble in Italy. Another noted Cuban artist, Gay García, sculptured the bronze statute of Father Félix Varela in his Miami studio.

A restored San Carlos Institute opened on Jan. 4, 1992, exactly 100 years from the day when Martí delivered his first address at the institute. More than 5,000 persons attended the three-day reopening celebration. Bob Graham, then a senator, delivered the keynote address from the balcony of the San Carlos.