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Yahoo! News,
March 13, 2003.
Government opponents ask European Union not to include Cuba in agreement
HAVANA, 12 (AP) - The island's leading opposition groups asked the European
Union not to include Cuba in an agreement offering trade advantages and help to
developing nations until the Caribbean nation improves its civil rights record.
The government opponents made their request Wednesday in a declaration
delivered to visiting EU Development Commissioner Poul Nielson, who traveled
here this week to open a new EU mission in Havana.
There was no immediate response from Nielson or the Cuban government to the
dissidents' request.
Their letter refers to an earlier declaration made by the 15 members of the
European Union exhorting Havana to improve its human rights situation.
"In the opinion of those signing this declaration, it is evident that
the current Cuban government has not satisfied a minimum of the proposals,"
said the document.
Those who signed it included veteran human rights activist Elizardo Sanchez;
Vladimiro Roca, a former military pilot-turned-dissident and son of a late
revered Communist Party leader; and Marta Beatriz Roque, a dissident economist
who heads an umbrella group of opposition organizations.
Nielson said at the EU mission inauguration in Havana this week that he
would back Cuba's application to join the union's agreement, which offers trade
advantages and economic help to a 78-nation grouping of African, Caribbean and
Pacific island nations.
EU officials have said it is unclear if the governments would approve the
deal. Britain, Sweden and others are expected to press Cuba on human rights
before approving its membership.
The dissidents said that joining the agreement would be "a great help"
to Cuba's struggling economy, but "this is not the moment due to a lack of
receptivity" by the island's government.
Cuban bishops complain about exclusion from convent inauguration
By Anita Snow, Associated Press Writer. Tue Mar 11, 6:39 PM
ET
HAVANA - Cuba's Roman Catholic bishops complained Tuesday they were left out
of the inauguration of a new convent of nuns here — festivities that ended
with the religious order's worldwide leader planting kisses and a medal on
President Fidel Castro.
The inauguration Saturday of the convent of the Order of the Most Holy
Saviour of St. Brigid in Cuba was overseen by the order's general abbess, Mother
Telka Famiglietti, and a group of Mexican Catholics.
"The Catholic Church in Cuba had no participating role in these events,
neither in the planning nor in the coordination," the Catholic Bishops
Conference said in the statement distributed to international news media.
http://www.cubanet.org/ref/dis/03110301.htm
At the afternoon blessing ceremony, "neither Cardinal Jaime Ortega nor
any Cuban bishop was present, nor was an ecclesiastical leader designated to
officially represent the Archdiocese of Havana or the Cuban Church," it
added.
Although Ortega participated that same morning at a Mass celebrating the
installation of the new religious order, his absence at the afternoon ceremony
was considered highly unusual, especially since two other cardinals — one
from the Vatican and one from Mexico — were there.
No official explanation for the absence of Cuba's top Roman Catholic
churchman from the proceedings was given.
However, relations between Cuba's church and state have been chilly since
the release of a pastoral letter less than two weeks ago urging the government
to ease up on its harsh treatment of citizens.
"The hour has come to pass from being a legalistic state that demands
sacrifices and settles accounts to a merciful state willing to offer a
compassionate hand before imposing controls and punishing infractions,"
Ortega wrote in that letter.
While Cuba's ecclesiastical leadership was excluded from the convent
inauguration, Castro was given a starring role.
Dressed in a dark suit and tie, Castro, spoke glowing of the new religious
order in Cuba, as well as Pope John Paul II's efforts for peace in the Middle
East.
During the inauguration of the convent — which was renovated and
donated by the communist government — Mother Telka showered thanks and
kisses on Castro. "This is your house, too," she told him.
In a separate ceremony that evening, she bestowed on Castro one of her
religious order's honor, the Ecumenical Cross with the Star of the Commander of
St. Brigid. Castro gave the abbess general the medal of the Order of Felix
Varela, one of Cuba's top honors for civilians.
The Cuban bishops' statement noted "the excessive words and gestures
that we have witnessed in these acts by some Church personalities."
Despite the great fanfare the local media gave the opening of the convent,
there are more than 15 other religious orders that have been seeking Cuban
government approval to work here for some time, the local bishops said.
There also are "various priests, as well as numerous members of
religious orders already present in our country, who are awaiting entry
approvals that have not been granted," the statement added.
"It is the desire of the Holy Father John Paul II that those requests
also receive a positive answer, as he has expressed in his messages to the
Church, the government and the people of Cuba," it concluded.
Related information
Cuban Cardinal
Ortega Defends Autonomy of Church / Zenit.org
Fidel
Castro makes unusual appearance at blessing of religious convent / Yahoo!
Nota
aclaratoria de la Conferencia de Obispos Católicos de Cuba
No
hay patria sin virtud / Cardenal Jaime Ortega Alamino (Carta pastoral)
'There
is no homeland without virtue' / Cardinal Jaime Ortega Alamino (Excerpts)
Family of American executed in Cuba seeks $600 million in damages
MIAMI, 12 (AP) - The family of an American businessman executed by a Cuban
firing squad at the time of the Bay of Pigs invasion has asked a judge for
almost $600 million in damages from Cuba for his death.
"It's not the damages that matter to us," Bonnie Anderson,
daughter of the slain businessman Howard Anderson, said after a trial in Miami
Wednesday.
"We don't know whether we'll ever be able to collect anything. It's to
have a judge say that Howard Anderson was murdered and that he is getting
justice in an American court," said Bonnie Anderson, who was 5 when her
father was killed in 1961.
The Anderson family filed a lawsuit two years ago against Cuba based on a
1996 act that lets Americans sue foreign countries or individuals responsible
for terrorism.
Cuban President Fidel Castro and his government are ignoring the suit, as
they have done in similar cases.
The family won a default judgment in February and the damages trial ended
Wednesday. Judge Ellen Leesfield's ruling was not expected for several weeks.
Anderson, 41, had lived and worked in Cuba for years when he was charged
with conspiracy during the failed Bay of Pigs invasion in 1961. He was sentenced
to death April 18. An appeal was quickly rejected and he and eight others
defendants were shot at dawn the following day.
Leesfield said Anderson's family deserves damages because he was not given a
proper trial. "His execution was tantamount to a killing outside the realm
of any civilized law," she said.
Scott Leeds, a lawyer for the Anderson family, asked Leesfield for an award
totaling $593.5 million.
Anderson's widow, Dorothy Anderson McCarthy, and their four children had
moved to Miami in late 1960 fearing reprisals from the Castro government. He
remained in Havana to take care of the family's businesses.
Cuban Man Gets 10 Years for Hijacking
NEW ORLEANS, 12 (AP) - A Cuban man was given a 10-year prison term Wednesday
after pleading guilty to the 1980 hijacking of a Delta Air Lines flight to
Havana.
Miguel Aguiar Rodriguez had faced a maximum sentence of life in prison after
pleading guilty to federal air piracy and kidnapping. He was arrested in August
when he appeared under an alias for an appointment with the Immigration and
Naturalization Service in Miami.
Aguiar and his brother, Roberto, boarded a Delta flight in New Orleans,
bound for Atlanta, and threatened to set fire to bottles containing a flammable
liquid, U.S. Attorney Jim Letten said. The pilot flew to Havana, the hijackers
were removed from the plane and the flight, with 81 passengers, continued to
Atlanta.
Cuba sentenced Aguiar to four years in prison for the hijacking.
Aguiar re-entered the United States with fake ID in 2000, Letten has said.
The FBI has said he lived with his daughter in Miami.
Letten said a death certificate shows that Aguiar's brother died last
October. | 
