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Posted on Wed, Mar. 19, 2003 in
The Miami
Herald.
Francisco Chaviano González's ''crime'' was to document rafters who
disappeared or died trying to flee Cuba. Convicted of ''revealing State Security
secrets'' in a kangaroo-court trial, he was handed a 15-year prison term. Having
served nearly eight years of his sentence, he is eligible for parole and should
be released.
Amnesty International, which considers Mr. Chaviano a prisoner of
conscience, is lobbying on his behalf. So, too, are six U.S. senators, among
them Bill Nelson, D-Fla., and George Allen, R-Va. They have good reason.
A math teacher, Mr. Chaviano did nothing more than push for human rights and
peaceful change in Cuba. Though he suffers from an ulcer, high blood pressure
and respiratory ailments that could be heart related, he has been consistently
denied medical treatment while in prison. Guards, meanwhile, have harassed and
beaten him and suspended his family visits.
Mr. Chaviano and fellow political prisoners Oscar Elías Biscet and
Bernardo Arévalo Padrón bear witness to the inhuman abuse that is
the regime's norm.
The international community, including the U.N. Human Rights Commission and
the Vatican, should press the Cuban government to release all such victims.
Havana's actions are just the latest in an increasingly ugly exchanges
between the two governments, which have had no regular diplomatic relations for
more than four decades.
The U.S. Interests Section here opened on Sept. 1, 1977 during the Carter
administration to provide a minimum of communications between Washington and
Havana. A similar Cuban Interests Section operates in Washington.
Havana in recent weeks has become increasingly incensed with Cason, who last
month made a high-profile visit to a meeting of dissidents and spoke with
international journalists gathered there. Cuban authorities have accused him of
undiplomatic behavior.
Since arriving here about six months ago, Cason has met with opposition
members around the island and last week allowed a group of dissident journalists
to use his official residence for a meeting.
Cason has said he is merely trying to promote democracy and human rights in
the Caribbean nation.
"The Cuban government is afraid — afraid of freedom of conscience,
afraid of freedom of expression, afraid of human rights," Cason told
journalists during last month's meeting with the opposition.
President Fidel Castro responded shortly thereafter by criticizing Cason's
public comments and suggested — as he has done several times in the past —
that he could close the American mission. "Anyone can see that this is a
shameless and a defiant provocation," Castro said of Cason.
The State Department protested Castro's criticisms of Cason as "derogatory."
Cuban officials have also become increasingly upset about a new solitary
confinement lockdown on five convicted Cuban spies serving time in American
prisons.
The five were convicted in Miami of trying to infiltrate U.S. military bases
and Cuban exile groups in Florida. Their sentences range from 15 years to life.
Cuban authorities have lionized the men as patriotic heroes and say they
were merely working to prevent Cuban exile groups from launching terrorist acts
against their homeland.
A look at the U.S. Interests Section in Cuba
By The Associated Press. Wed Mar 19, 6:18 AM ET
HAVANA - The U.S. Interests Section in Cuba, overseen by chief officer James
Cason, opened Sept. 1, 1977 during the administration of then-U.S. President
Jimmy Carter to provide a minimum of communications between Washington and
Havana.
Full diplomatic relations between the two countries were severed in January
1961, two years after Fidel Castro came to power with the triumph of the Cuban
revolution. Over the subsequent 16 years, Washington was represented in Cuba by
the Swiss Embassy.
Cuba also has an Interests Section in Washington. Although the Cuban
Interests Section initially was represented by what was then the Czechoslovak
Embassy, both missions now currently operate under the Swiss embassies in the
two capitals.
The seven-story American mission on the Malecon, the city's coastal
boulevard, handles U.S. visa requests for Cubans and provides passport and other
services to the estimated 2,700 Americans living here, as well as emergency
services for visiting U.S. citizens.
The U.S. Interests Section is concerned primarily with carrying out American
migration policies on the island and has processed more than 125,000 visa and
refugee status applications since 1994 under U.S.-Cuba migration accords.
American diplomats working in Cuba are limited to 51 under a reciprocal
agreement setting personnel ceilings. U.S. officials and family members here
number fewer than 100.
Although the chief officer post is ambassador level, presidential
nominations to that position do not require the same kind of congressional
confirmation
Cason, formerly of the State Department's Bureau of Western Hemisphere
Affairs, assumed leadership of the section in September. He replaced Vicky
Huddleston, who served here three years before nominated U.S. ambassador to
Mali.
Seven Cubans detained in Honduras on way to the United States
Mon Mar 17, 1:11 PM ET
TEGUCIGALPA, Honduras - Seven Cubans were found on Honduras' Caribbean coast
searching for food and water on their way to the United States, officials said
Monday.
The small boat carrying the six men and one woman landed on Honduras' coast
late Sunday in Puerto Cortes, 150 miles (250 kms) north of Tegucigalpa. The
Cubans were being questioned by migration officials.
In the last five years, at least 50 Cubans have traveled through Honduras on
their way to the United States.
Also Monday, the Honduran government was searching for 11 other Cubans who
received temporary permission to live in Honduras. On March 7, they broke out a
window of a migration office where they were being held and escaped.
Honduras renewed diplomatic ties with Cuba in 2002, after 41 years of
silence between the two countries. | 
