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Yahoo! News.
March 24, 2003.
Cuba's Crackdown on Gov't. Critics Slows
Sun Mar 23, 6:13 Pm Et . By Anita Snow, Associated Press
Writer
HAVANA - Cuba's crackdown on government critics eased up over the weekend
following the arrests of scores of independent journalists and pro-democracy
activists.
The island's leading human rights group reported three arrests —
compared to 72 last week.
"We have seen an appreciable drop in detentions in these last two days,"
Marcelo Lopez, spokesman for the Cuban Commission on Human Rights and
Reconciliation, said Sunday.
The dissidents are accused of conspiring with American diplomats in Cuba to
drum up opposition to the communist government.
U.S. officials here have stepped up contacts with Cuban dissidents, inviting
them to receptions, offering them free Internet access and giving them radios,
pamphlets and other material Fidel Castro's government considers subversive.
The top American diplomat in Cuba, James Cason, has met publicly with the
opposition and criticized Castro's government.
The detainees, picked up over five days, included more than a dozen
independent journalists, owners of private lending libraries, leaders of
opposition political parties and pro-democracy activists who gathered signatures
for a reform effort known as the Varela Project.
The Cuban Commission on Human Rights hoped to have a final list of all those
detained by Monday, Lopez said.
Lopez said he was familiar with other lists with slightly higher numbers
being distributed by Cuban exile groups in Miami, but said some tallies included
people who were not detained after having their homes searched or who were
questioned and released.
Run by veteran human rights activist Elizardo Sanchez, the non-governmental
organization has sought to be legally registered by the Cuban government —
without success — since 1987, the year after it was founded.
Sanchez himself remained free on Sunday, among the few vocal members of the
organized opposition spared in the government's roundup.
Press freedom group stresses threats to media in Venezuela, Haiti, Cuba,
and around the world
By Eloy O. Aguilar, Associated Press Writer. Sun Mar 23,
2:57 PM ET
SAN SALVADOR, El Salvador - The InterAmerican Press Association, the IAPA,
said Sunday that attacks on the press continue around the globe and in the
Americas, and singled out Venezuela, Cuba and Haiti for criticism Sunday.
IAPA president Andres Garcia said "attacks against the press continue
around the globe and locally."
Garcia called the Venezuelan government "abusive" and accused it
of threatening the media daily. Journalists in Venezuela have been threatened
and shot at while covering clashes between pro- and anti-government protesters
in the last year.
Garcia called attempts by the government of Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez
to impose a media content law as "nothing short of censorship of the press,
while it continues to tighten restrictions on the major television networks."
He announced that the IAPA will send a fact-finding mission to Venezuela
soon.
Garcia also criticized the Cuban government for the recent arrest of a group
of journalists, and expressed concern over Haiti, "where violence against
the press continues especially to silence the few voices of dissident radio
stations."
Garcia cited new types of threats to the press, especially the electronic
media. He referred to the upcoming World Summit on the Information Society,
which he compared to UNESCO-sponsored New World Information and Communication
Order in the 1970s.
"This time they are indirectly trying to control the media, especially
Internet and electronic media, under the precept that the world is experiencing
a transition from the industrial society of the 20th century to information
society of the 21st century," he said.
Earlier, Rafael Molina, the head of the IAPA's press freedom commission,
said national security is being used as a pretext to clamp down on the media in
the United States.
Molina said that after the Sept. 11 terror attacks "restrictions were
imposed on the press and there were official suggestions to the media about what
to publish and what not to publish, using national security as a pretext."
Molina said among the most extreme cases was last month's expulsion of an
Iraqi journalist from the United States who was dubbed "harmful" to
the security of the country. Iraq in return expelled four U.S. journalists from
Baghdad.
Addressing the second day of the media group's meeting in this Central
American country, Salvadoran President Francisco Flores said Sunday press
freedom and independent media are the foundation of democracy.
"There is a close relationship between the health of a democratic
system and the existence of independent media. More freedom of information and
criticism implies more strength for democracy," Flores told the midyear
meeting of newspaper editors from throughout the hemisphere.
Flores noted El Salvador was mainly a source of bad news during its
1980-1992 civil war, but stressed the country is now a functional democracy with
individual freedoms.
"Only in freedom can a person develop," Flores said, stressing the
need for El Salvador to take on new challenges such as a free trade agreement
with the United States.
After his speech, Flores told journalists that El Salvador "has not
declared war on Iraq. El Salvador is not part of a military coalition. What we
have done is express our support for the United States.El Salvador is ready to
help in humanitarian actions when the war is over."
The U.S. government has listed El Salvador as one of more then 40 countries
in the U.S.-led coalition against Iraq.
Flores said in the past that El Salvador would send military officers to
help in non-military activities.
Cuba satisfied with US decision to prosecute men for hijacking
HAVANA - Fidel Castro's government expressed satisfaction with the U.S.
decision to prosecute six men accused of highjacking a Cuban airliner to the
United States.
"The decision to submit them to justice on piracy charges ...
constitutes, without doubt, a modest step forward," the government said in
an official statement late Friday.
The communique also said Washington had complied with Havana's request to
provide it with information about the Wednesday night hijacking.
A total of 37 people were aboard the DC-3, which was on a regular domestic
Cuban flight when it was diverted to Key West by a group of knife-wielding men.
The plane landed safely under U.S. military escort.
The six suspects are being held in Florida without bond on federal charges
of conspiracy to seize an aircraft by force and violence. They face up to a
minimum of 20 years in prison.
The 31 crew and passengers were taken to Krome Detention Center southwest of
Miami, where 30 of them were still being held Friday. The only non-Cuban aboard,
an Italian passenger, was released, officials said.
The Cuban government statement said Washington informed Havana that an
unspecified number of people who were aboard the plane and wanted to be
repatriated would be returned to Cuba on Saturday.
The American government initially told Havana that 22 people would be
returned to Cuba, but that number later changed, said the statement, without
providing the new total.
It also said one of the pilots and a second person will be required to
remain in the United States for now to serve as potential witnesses during the
six suspects' trial.
Under U.S. law, Cubans who arrive on U.S. soil are generally allowed to stay
if they desire.
Meanwhile, U.S. authorities on Friday seized the plane itself for a future
auction to benefit the former wife of a Cuban spy so she could collect part of a
US$27.1 million court award she won against Cuba under a U.S. anti-terrorism
law.
Sheriff's deputies served a court order at Key West International Airport
and secured the plane for a future auction to benefit Ana Margarita Martinez,
said sheriff's spokeswoman Becky Herrin.
Martinez won the punitive damages in 2001, when a judge ruled she was used
as a political pawn by her ex-husband, Cuban spy Juan Pablo Roque, and the Cuban
government. Posing as a defector, Roque had infiltrated Miami groups opposed to
the communist rule in Cuba. He returned to Cuba before he was indicted in
absentia of being part of a Cuban spy ring.
Martinez's attorney, Fernando Zulueta, said Friday that he didn't
immediately know the value of the twin-engine Douglas DC-3, a plane not made
since the late 1940s.
Cuba's Castro Sends Signal With Crackdown
By Anita Snow, Associated Press Writer. Sat Mar 22, 1:52 AM
ET
HAVANA - Ending several years of relative tolerance for Cuba's critical
voices, Fidel Castro (news - web sites) is showing American diplomats and the
dissidents they courted that he can only stand so much.
Increasingly irritated by the top American diplomat's contact with
government opponents, Castro chose the eve of the Iraq (news - web sites) war to
launch an offensive of his own. By Friday night, Cuban state agents had rounded
up and jailed at least 72 dissidents.
The crackdown marked an end to the comparative lenience Cuban officials
showed in recent years as independent journalists filed dispatches to Miami
without government intervention, dissidents held news conferences and activists
collected thousands of signatures for a petition calling for democratic reforms.
But on Monday, the government here accused dissidents of conspiring with
U.S. Interests Section Chief James Cason and other American diplomats. On
Tuesday, it announced it was going after "traitors" it accused of
being on Cason's payroll — something the dissidents deny.
The detainees included more than a dozen independent journalists, owners of
private lending libraries, leaders of opposition political parties and
pro-democracy activists who gathered signatures for a reform effort known as the
Varela Project.
The crackdown alarmed international rights and press advocates, including
former President Jimmy Carter, who called on Cuban authorities to respect human
rights and "refrain from detaining or harassing citizens who are expressing
their views peacefully."
Paris-based Reporters Without Borders accused the government of taking
advantage of the world's preoccupation with the U.S.-led war in Iraq to carry
out the roundup.
"Human rights in Cuba can therefore be viewed as one of the first cases
of collateral damage in the second Gulf war," said Robert Menard, the
group's secretary general.
On Friday the non-governmental Cuban Commission on Human Rights and
Reconciliation reported 72 people had been detained. It was still trying to
confirm reports of additional detentions around the country.
"The only crime committed by these prisoners is the promotion of ideas
that are forbidden in Cuba," said Jose Miguel Vivanco, executive director
of the Americas division of Human Rights Watch.
The leadership of the Inter-American Press Association, currently meeting in
San Salvador, El Salvador, expressed concerns about the arrest of contributors
to De Cuba, a new monthly magazine with articles by independent reporters.
The American Society of Newspaper Editors sent a letter to Cuban Foreign
Minister Felipe Perez Roque urging the release of those detained.
Meanwhile, some of the island's best-known critics remained free, including
veteran rights activist Elizardo Sanchez; Oswaldo Paya, organizer of the Varela
Project reform movement; and Vladimiro Roca, son of the late Cuban Communist
Party founder Blas Roca.
Paya and other Varela Project activists collected more than 11,000
signatures of Cubans asking Fidel Castro's government for a referendum on new
laws guaranteeing civil rights such as free expression and private business
ownership.
The Varela Project initiative was later shelved by the nation's rubber-stamp
parliament.
Independent journalists had also grown bolder in recent months, launching a
new general interest magazine in a nation where virtually all media are
state-controlled.
American diplomats also grew more active, offering Internet access to
journalists at the U.S. Interests Section here, inviting dissidents to
receptions, and giving them radios, pamphlets and other material the government
considered subversive.
Cason, the mission's new chief, began meeting publicly with the opposition
and criticizing Castro's government in comments to international journalists
here.
Such assistance often does Cuban opponents more harm than good by giving the
communist government an excuse to accuse them of collaborating with the enemy,
said Manuel Cuesta Morrua of the Socialist Democratic Current, an opposition
party.
"What could happen is that this could be used to close all the
political spaces that the opposition has opened" in recent years, Cuesta
said.
16 Cubans on Hijacked Jet to Return Home
By Julienne Gage, Associated Press Writer. Sat Mar 22,11:46
PM ET
MIAMI - Sixteen Cubans who were traveling aboard a Cuban airliner that was
hijacked and diverted to Florida returned home Saturday.
Cuban President Fidel Castro greeted the passengers — including a baby
and a small boy — at the Havana airport. Cuban television showed Castro,
dressed in his customary olive green uniform, standing on the tarmac and hugging
the passengers.
Barbara Gonzalez, a spokeswoman with the U.S. Bureau of Customs and Border
Protection, could not confirm the departures late Saturday. Six Cuban crew
members and 24 passengers had been held by U.S. authorities since Wednesday's
hijacking of the Douglas DC-3 airliner.
A small, undisclosed number of Cubans decided to stay in the United States,
Gonzalez said earlier Saturday. Cubans who reach U.S. soil are generally allowed
to remain.
In an apparent attempt to seek asylum, six men wielding knives diverted the
DC-3 from its domestic flight plan Wednesday night and landed in Key West under
an escort of fighter jets and a U.S. Customs helicopter.
They are jailed on federal air-piracy charges punishable by a minimum of 20
years in prison.
The Cuban government initially asked U.S. authorities to return the plane,
its passengers, crew and the alleged hijackers, but expressed satisfaction
Friday with the prosecution of the six.
Prosecutors were also trying to determine if any passengers could be held as
material witnesses for the men's trial.
The Cuban-American National Foundation was monitoring the case to determine
whether the alleged hijackers needed help, foundation spokesman Joe Garcia said.
"We may offer them basic legal assistance. We haven't decided yet," he
said.
He said foundation officials had not spoken with any Cubans aboard the plane
who might be considering staying in the United States.
Cuban Agents Round Up More Dissidents
By Anita Snow, Associated Press Writer Fri Mar 21, 7:25 PM
ET
HAVANA - Cuban state agents rounded up more dissidents Friday in a campaign
to root out growing opposition on the communist island. A non-governmental human
rights group said 72 dissidents had been arrested.
The crackdown, which marked an end to several years of relative tolerance
for Cuba's critical voices, was initially spurred on by allegations of
dissidents conspiring with U.S. diplomats.
The detainees included more than a dozen independent journalists, owners of
lending libraries, leaders of opposition political parties and pro-democracy
activists who gathered signatures for a reform effort known as the Varela
Project.
The crackdown alarmed international rights and press advocates, including
former President Jimmy Carter, who called on Cuban authorities to respect human
rights and "refrain from detaining or harassing citizens who are expressing
their views peacefully."
Paris-based Reporters Without Borders accused the government of taking
advantage of the world's preoccupation with the U.S.-led war in Iraq to carry
out the roundup.
"Human rights in Cuba can therefore be viewed as one of the first cases
of collateral damage in the second Gulf war," said Robert Menard, the
group's secretary general. "Human rights in other countries could also soon
suffer the same fate."
On Friday the non-governmental Cuban Commission on Human Rights and
Reconciliation reported 72 dissidents had been detained.
"The only crime committed by these prisoners is the promotion of ideas
that are forbidden in Cuba," said Jose Miguel Vivanco, executive director
of the Americas division of the non-governmental Human Rights Watch.
The leadership of the Inter-American Press Association, currently meeting in
San Salvador (news - web sites), El Salvador, expressed concerns about the
arrest of contributors to De Cuba, a new monthly magazine with articles by
independent reporters.
The American Society of Newspaper Editors sent a letter to Cuban Foreign
Minister Felipe Perez Roque urging the release of those detained.
Meanwhile, some of the island's best-known critics remained free, including
veteran rights activist Elizardo Sanchez, Varela Project organizer Oswaldo Paya
and Vladimiro Roca, son of the late Cuban Communist Party founder Blas Roca.
But all three reported they had been under heavy surveillance by
plainclothes security agents in recent days and said they would not be surprised
if they were next.
"They are outside my house, on the corner," Sanchez said by
telephone late Thursday.
During that time, Paya and his colleagues collected more than 11,000
signatures of Cubans asking Fidel Castro's government for a referendum on new
laws guaranteeing civil rights such as free expression and private business
ownership.
The Varela Project initiative, later shelved by the nation's rubber-stamp
parliament, also requested electoral reforms and an amnesty for political
prisoners.
The independent journalists also grew bolder in recent months, launching a
new general interest magazine in a nation where virtually all media is
state-controlled.
But American diplomats also grew more active, offering Internet access to
journalists at the U.S. Interests Section here, inviting dissidents to
receptions, and giving them radios, pamphlets and other material the government
considered subversive.
Cuban authorities became increasingly incensed in recent months as the
mission's new chief, James Cason, began meeting publicly with the opposition and
criticizing Castro's government to international journalists here.
Such assistance often does Cuban opponents more harm than good by giving the
communist government an excuse to accuse them of collaborating with the enemy,
said Manuel Cuesta Morrua of the opposition party Socialist Democratic Current.
"What could happen is that this could be used to close all the
political spaces that the opposition has opened" in recent years, Cuesta
said.
Although the arrests appeared timed to coincide with the Iraq war, there
were other political factors that made it clear Cuba was willing to risk
international criticism in its effort to root out dissent.
The crackdown began during a meeting in Geneva of the United Nations Human
Rights Commission, which has repeatedly criticized Cuba. It also came weeks
before a scheduled meeting here with moderate Cuban emigres Havana hopes can
help end American restrictions on Cuban trade and travel.
At the same time, Cuba hopes to join the European Union's trade and economic
aid pact for developing nations. EU officials have expressed strong concern
about the nation's human rights record. | 
