• Submitted by: manso
• United States
• Politics and Government
• 08 / 04 / 2010

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The Democratic candidate visited the island in 2007, but accounts differ on the purpose of the trip.

Democratic Senate front-runner Jeff Greene is backtracking on his claim that he had visited Cuba as part of a Jewish humanitarian trip, and two former crew members on his boat say he is still not telling the truth.

Greene spokesman Luis Vizcaino said Tuesday that the real estate mogul's 145-foot yacht Summerwind docked for two days at Havana's Hemingway Marina in 2007 while awaiting repairs. In Sunday's debate against Democratic rival Kendrick Meek, Greene said he went to Cuba on a Jewish mission.

``During the debate Jeff misspoke,'' Vizcaino said after receiving news media inquiries about the trip. ``What he meant to say was that in 2007, he went on the boat from Honduras to the Bahamas, and en route the boat had a hydraulic problem . . .

The captain said we could wait for the part at Hemingway Marina.''

But a deckhand on that trip tells a different story. John Walenczyk said the boat traveled from Fort Lauderdale directly to Cuba and docked for about one week.

``It was their total intention to go to Cuba,'' he said Tuesday. ``We never went to Honduras, not even close. I figure it was the glamour of wanting to go to a banned country.''

Another crew member, Billy Blackwell, told WPLG-ABC 10 news that Greene and his then-girlfriend, Mei Sze, spent three or four days visiting the island.

``They came back with bags and me and the deck hand had to help them bring the bags on board,'' Blackwell told the television station. ``Jeff Greene actually had a box of Cuban cigars.''

Blackwell stopped working for Greene after being injured on the yacht and told the television station that Greene owed him
$3,500 in medical expenses.

Travel to Cuba is an explosive issue in Miami's Cuban American community.

Tuesday marked the second time that Greene tried to clarify the trip since a St. Petersburg Times story on Sunday quoted
former deckhands recounting a lot of partying aboard the yacht.

When Meek grilled Greene about the incident during Sunday's debate, televised in St. Petersburg, Greene insisted he had not personally taken the yacht to Cuba in five years.

After the debate, though, Greene acknowledged he may have gone in 2007. He said the Jewish Federation had obtained a visa for him to visit Cuba and that he and other members of the federation visited a synagogue.

``There's still a Jewish community there, I don't know if you know that,'' he said. ``There's still two synagogues. But there
was no partying going on. Who would you party with?''

Tuesday, Vizcaino said of the Jewish Federation visa, ``again, he misspoke.''

Vizcaino said the captain cleared everyone aboard the yacht through Cuban customs. Greene visited a synagogue while he was there because he had heard about a Jewish humanitarian mission.

``He didn't meet up with them,'' Vizcaino said. ``He wanted to observe . . . What he came away with was firsthand knowledge of the plight of the country.''

Under U.S. law, Americans are not allowed to freely travel to Cuba unless they receive permission from the federal authorities. Those who do receive authority are not allowed to spend money.

Last month, The Herald/Times reported that Greene's yacht had severely damaged a valuable coral reef off the coast of Belize during a trip five years ago.

Greene wasn't aboard the boat, and told The Herald/Times that the incident had never happened despite eyewitness accounts and scientific surveys.

Beth Reinhard can be reached at breinhard@ MiamiHerald.com . Adam C. Smith can be reached at [email protected].

BY BETH REINHARD AND ADAM C. SMITH
Herald/Times Staff Writers

Source: www.miamiherald.com