Last fall, the U.S. Coast Guard awarded one of its travel agencies,
Lorraine Travel of Miami, a commendation for "outstanding support
to the Seventh Coast Guard Tactical Law Enforcement Team."
Lt. Commander Peter Brown of the Coast Guard said the travel
agency had contributed to many important Coast Guard operations,
resulting in seizures of drugs on the high seas and other acts of
benefit to the country. Lorraine's owner, Jack Guiteras, described
the award as one of his proudest moments.
But Guiteras, whose agency handles a number of U.S. government
accounts, isn't feeling as good this week about the U.S.
government. Like many Cuban-Americans in Miami, he's upset by the
government's handling of the Elian Gonzalez case.
Guiteras, who acquired Lorraine Travel in Havana in 1948, was
running a successful agency there in January 1959 when Fidel Castro
came to power. Within weeks, Guiteras was traveling to Miami in
search of a place to open a U.S. branch.
It took him more than a year before the owner of the Urmey Hotel
in downtown Miami agreed to rent space to him. In the fall of 1960,
he opened his first office as a branch of the Cuban agency but less
than six months later, Castro's government confiscated the Havana
office.
With his wife and children, Guiteras built the Miami business to
its status today as a $20 million business, based in Coral Gables,
with a range of corporate accounts and a substantial leisure
business.
But Guiteras says the nighttime raid on the house where Elian
Gonzalez was staying was not something he ever expected to see in
the U.S.
"I have always looked up to this country as a place where people
could seek freedom," he says, "but right now I feel horrible.
"If the government had gotten a court order and two or three
civilians had presented themselves with the order at that house, I
guarantee you that the child would have been turned over without a
problem," he says.
Yesterday, along with many Cuban-American business owners in
Miami, Guiteras all but shut down his operation in protest of the
government action. The agency had a skeleton crew on hand to handle
emergency requests. He holds out little hope that the little boy
will be allowed to stay in the U.S.
"I'm sure the father already has assurances from Castro that he
will achieve a status in Cuba that few Cubans can achieve."