The Cuban museum’s chairman denies breaking in — but it’s unclear who’s calling the shots

The chairman of Miami’s taxpayer-funded Cuban museum, which has been roiled by a nasty leadership split, on Tuesday strenuously denied allegations by a rival board member that he had broken into the institution’s building on Coral Way over the weekend.

Marcell Felipe, an attorney and chairman of the board of trustees of the American Museum of the Cuban Diaspora, or The Cuban for short, said in an interview that he had instead changed locks and computer passwords to secure the building on Friday and prevent re-entry of two museum administrators he was firing that same day.

The two administrators, museum director Ileana Fuentes and her daughter, Carisa Perez-Fuentes, who served as communications and design director for The Cuban, were not in the building when the locks and passwords were changed, Felipe said.

He said he brought private security officers and notified Miami police of his intentions because he believed the two administrators would have resisted had they been present.

“I took that decision to avoid a confrontation,” Felipe said. “This is the proper protocol to follow when you are going to fire an administrator who is not going to cooperate.”

Felipe said his actions, which he said came in response to mounting administrative problems at The Cuban, were ratified by a majority of the museum’s board during a meeting Saturday at the Coral Way building.

Felipe gave his version of the weekend’s unusual events in response to an email sent to Miami-Dade County, which funds the museum, by former museum board chairman Rafael Robayna.

In the email to Miami-Dade cultural affairs director Michael Spring, Robayna claimed Felipe had acted without board authorization in firing Fuentes and her daughter. In a subsequent conversation, Spring has said, Robayna also claimed Felipe had broken into the museum building, damaging locks.

Robayna has not responded to repeated requests for an interview from the Miami Herald and El Nuevo Herald over two days.

One issue at The Cuban appears to be that there’s no agreement on who sits on the nine-member board that’s supposed to run the private nonprofit, and there may effectively be two rival versions of the museum’s governing body, prompting significant confusion over who’s in charge.

In the email to Spring, Robayna represented himself as still sitting on the museum board and speaking for a majority of members. Robayna also claimed that Felipe’s slate of supporters constitute “a minority” and includes two members who were “suspended” from the board.

Felipe contends, however, that Robayna no longer sits on the board because of term limits.

Robayna said in his email to Spring that he hired a lawyer to contest Felipe’s actions and called a board meeting at his office on Monday to discuss a response. It’s unknown what decision, if any, was reached, or who attended.

Fuentes has declined comment, citing attorneys’ advice. On Tuesday, after the Herald published a story on the tribulations at the museum, she said in a text that the Herald “would be hearing from our lawyers.”

On Tuesday, Spring said he had no fresh information on the situation at the museum, which gets $550,000 from the county to fund operations and programming. County taxpayers also funded the museum’s two-year-old, $10 million building on Coral Way.

“It may take a while for this to sort itself out,” Spring said. “I’m just waiting to hear.”

The spat comes as the county attempts to conduct an audit of the museum’s operations amid allegations that it has stiffed contractors, including a marketing agency that claims The Cuban owes it $120,000. Spring also asked auditors to look into the propriety of Fuentes’ hiring and supervising her daughter. Spring said the museum has not responded to requests for information since October.

The county is also holding back this year’s $550,000 grant until the museum responds to a request for documentation on spending of the last portion of last year’s subsidy.

The sparsely attended museum, almost fully funded with public money and meant to spotlight Cuban exile art and culture, has struggled to mount exhibitions, raise donations and attract attention since opening in January 2017.

This story was originally published January 29, 2019 at 7:36 PM.