Miami
An editorial cartoonist brandishing a hunting knife and a toy gun held several staff members of The Miami Herald hostage for three and a half hours last week, before surrendering peacefully to police. Jose Varela, 50, faces three counts of aggravated assault after commandeering the paper's boardroom and announcing, "I am in control here, I am in charge of El Nuevo Herald"—the Spanish-language paper published by The Miami Herald. Varela, a former staff cartoonist for both papers, said he wanted to expose unspecified "conflicts of interest" at the publications. Insiders speculated that the incident could be related to a controversy over a September Herald article that revealed that three Herald reporters had accepted payments from the U.S.-funded Radio Marti, which beams anti-Castro broadcasts into Cuba. Local Cuban activists complained that Herald managers had approved of the arrangement, yet initially fired the reporters. They were later offered their jobs back.
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