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Last Updated:5/22/03
Castro's Two Daughters Living in Miami

By RACHEL LA CORTE
.c The Associated Press


MIAMI (AP) - Two of Fidel Castro's daughters are living in Miami, one
arriving just this week from Spain. The other has lived here for two years
since winning a U.S. visa lottery with her husband.

The latest arrival is Alina Fernandez, one of her father's fiercest critics,
who said Wednesday she and her teen-age daughter had relocated from Spain
just one day earlier. They previously lived in New York and Atlanta.

Fernandez left the island in 1993 with a wig and a phony Spanish passport.
At
the time, she called the Cuban leader a torturer, drug smuggler and
terrorist
and later wrote a book, ``Castro's Daughter - An Exile's Memoir of Cuba.''

Fernandez said she has not yet met her Miami half sister, Francisca Pupo,
who
according to Fidel Castro's sister, Juanita Castro, works at a day care
center in the metropolitan area.

Juanita Castro, a Miami pharmacy owner who left Cuba in 1964, said she gives
Pupo some money each month.

Pupo's telephone number is unlisted and Juanita Castro said the younger
woman
wants to maintain her privacy.

``She's a very discreet person, very private,'' she said.

Fernandez said she hopes to meet her sister soon. ``Castro may have kids
that
none of us know about,'' she said.

Other relatives of Castro also live in the Miami area, said Joe Garcia,
executive director of the anti-Castro Cuban American National Foundation.

Garcia said the relatives include a Castro granddaughter and a former
daughter-in-law, plus a son of Castro's brother, Raul. Garcia would not
identify them but said that he has met some of them.

``In Cuba these people had it all. Obviously you are favored because of who
you are but are also disfavored because of who you are,'' he said. ``It's a
surreal world that they all live in, which is exceedingly uncomfortable.''

Lazaro Asencio, a 75-year-old former associate of Castro now living in
Miami,
told Talk magazine in its August issue that Castro once told him he had more
than 15 children.

Asencio told the magazine that Francisca Pupo's mother had a brief
relationship with Castro in November 1952. Seven years later, he said,
Castro
introduced the mother and child to him and confirmed the girl was his
daughter.

There was no additional comment on Wednesday from Asencio, who did not
immediately return a call from The Associated Press.

Juanita Castro said Pupo came to Miami two years ago after she and her
husband won U.S. visas through a lottery.

``She's not bitter,'' Juanita Castro told the magazine. ``She doesn't want
to
say anything bad about Fidel.''

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