Wilfredo Cancio knew nothing about the charges against him until the day he was fired. He saw Corral and the Miami Herald editors enter Castellós office and close the door. "This was not usual," he comments. [7] At about 4 p.m., HR VP Vanaver summoned Cancio to her office. Castelló was there as well. Vanaver told Cancio that he had been terminated. "I was very furious with this meeting. But I'm trying to be a decent person. And I was also surprised, of course," says Cancio. Castelló was, recalls Cancio, "very emotional… He told me at that time ‘you are the best reporter that I work with in years, and you are a very dedicated person.' He cried."

Listen to Cancio on his termination.

Since December 1998, Cancio had been a full-time staff member at ENH, where he reported on Cuban exile affairs and politics. He had defected to the US in 1994 while in the country on a MacArthur Foundation fellowship from Havana University, where he worked for 12 years as a professor of communications. As Cancio explained to Castelló, he had first worked for Radio Martí in 2000 as part of a discussion panel. In 2001, the broadcaster engaged Cancio for 20 minutes a week to discuss films on a new program, Commentarios . Cancio went to then-ENH Editor Castañeda for approval, which was granted. "I didn't receive official written authorization," says Cancio, "but I assumed that it was absolutely legal" because a number of journalists at Nuevo Herald had worked at Radio/TV Martí since the station's founding in 1985. "The collaboration didn't change my thoughts," says Cancio. "What I thought about Cuba didn't change because I did some work at Radio Martí."

While Cancio was clearing out his desk to leave, Miami Herald reporter Alfonso Chardy walked up looking for a reaction to Corral's story. "No comment," Cancio responded. Castelló announced the dismissals to the Nuevo Herald newsroom at about 7 p.m. "Nobody wanted to believe that," says Cancio. "Some people were very upset with this at that time." Over the next several weeks, Cancio continued to make no public statement, although he did talk to Castelló from time to time about the evolving situation.