Published: 01/02/93
Section: FRONT

Page: 1A

DARING ACT OF LOVE FOCUSES PUBLIC'S EYE ON CUBA

When Orestes Lorenzo Perez landed his 1961 Cessna on a Cuban highway and lifted his family to freedom, easy as pie, he did what years of daring raft voyages, indignant presidential speeches and grim human rights reports could not do.

He made middle America really think about Cuba.

Suddenly, one of Miami's most important local stories is big news everywhere. The former Cuban air force pilot has bashed Fidel Castro on CNN, praised the United States on Larry King Live! and bantered with Jay Leno on The Tonight Show (the comedian gave him and his wife, Vicky, a plate of lukewarm Cuban food). Papers in Akron, St. Paul, Wichita, San Jose and Charlotte have played Lorenzo's story on page one.

On Friday, Lorenzo, 36, served as grand marshal of Disney World's daily parade, riding with his wife and children in a fire truck trailed by Mickey and Goofy. Only in America.

The man has become a symbol. For many, he represents all the desperate foreigners who have come seeking freedom -- the 48 Cubans whose commuter plane diverted to Miami on Tuesday, the
2,000 thirsty, sunbaked Cuban rafters who crossed Florida Straits in 1992, and the more than 12,000 Haitians who sailed over in rickety boats, to a much chillier welcome.

"This one has hit the heart of America," said Bernardo Benes, a Miami banker and longtime activist. "The important thing is, it was not a political act. It was a very personal decision by a father to reunite with his children and his wife."

In the 1970s, Benes worked through U.S. government channels -- FBI, CIA, State -- to secure the release of 3,600 Cuban political prisoners. "That action didn't have as much impact as the single flight of Mr. Lorenzo," he said.

The arc of the story is familiar now: Lorenzo, a 35-year- old combat pilot, flew his Soviet-built MiG into the Florida Keys 21 months ago, undetected by U.S. radar. The defector immediately began working to reunite his family -- wife Vicky and sons Reyniel, 11, and Alejandro, 6.

Lorenzo addressed the United Nations Human Rights
Commission in Geneva, staged a weeklong hunger strike in Madrid during Fidel Castro's visit to Spain and created an organization called Parents for Freedom to work for the release of "Castro's hostages."

On Dec. 19, he landed the Cessna next to El Mamey beach, hustled his family aboard and high-tailed it out of there.

CNN, the instant history factory, carried his Washington, D.C., news conference live three days later. The cable network then booked him for that night's installment of Larry King Live!

"It was the significant news story of the day, and that's what Larry King always tries to do," CNN spokeswoman Eileen Murphy said. The flight "was a bold move. It was different. That makes it a news story, also."

During the show, a caller asked what Lorenzo would like to say to Castro. The pilot looked into the camera. "Fidel, you have betrayed your people," he said.

According to CNN, Lorenzo's image glowed in 941,000 homes. He did better in the ratings than New York Post columnist Glenn Plaskin, who was on the show the next night, but not as well as Kathie Lee Gifford and Marla Maples, who had appeared the day before. Tough act to follow.

The Virginia-based Valladares Foundation, a human-rights organization that has supported Lorenzo from the beginning, was swamped by the response. Executive director Kristina Arriaga said she got 347 phone calls (she logged them by computer), including a dozen from movie producers and book agents. So far, no deals.

The foundation also got several hundred letters. A Los Angeles resident named Agustin Prado sent a poem called Vicky, I Will Come Back For You. Sample lines: "A brave heart, that of Orestes Lorenzo . . . We all applaud him . . . He was the example of Cuban valor."

Leno and the plate of Cuban food came next; there will be more. People, Time, Newsweek and Vanity Fair all have interviewed Lorenzo. He's also scheduled to appear on Good Morning, America on Jan. 17.

Frank Calzon of Freedom House, a New York-based human rights organization, said he is trying to capitalize on Lorenzo's notoriety by talking about others who are still held captive in Cuba. When reporters call, Calzon always mentions Mario Chanes de Armas, who, after spending 30 years in prison, got a visa to enter the United States, only to be denied permission to leave Cuba.

Calzon agrees that Lorenzo's story has had tremendous reach. But he fears the buzz won't last.

"I'm a little skeptical as to how long the national audience can remain interested in a given issue, whether it's Somalia or Yugoslavia or Haiti or whatever. I would assume that a few weeks down the road people will vaguely remember this," he said.

For others, Lorenzo's story raises troublesome questions. Sandra Levinson, of the Center for Cuban Studies in New York, which advocates normalization of relations with Cuba, says the U.S. government has set a dangerous precedent by welcoming someone who admittedly violated Cuban airspace.

"It's all being treated as a joke and a great adventure, but I don't think it should be hailed as a heroic act. If everybody in Cuba did this, we'd have an air Mariel," she said.

And Mary Jane Camejo, a research associate for Americas Watch in New York, said the story "highlights the contrast between how Cuban refugees are treated and the way Haitian refugees are. That's sort of the ugly side of the story, really. You wish Haitians would get the same welcome."

Camejo said she is pleased that Americans have focused on Lorenzo and his story. "But in the meantime, people are still getting beaten up and arrested in Cuba, and that doesn't get the kind of attention that I wish it would."