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Yahoo! March 31, 2003.
Cuba's fledgling democracy movement will triumph in the end
By Cynthia Tucker. Sat Mar 29,10:13 pm et
Clearly, Fidel Castro believes timing is on his side. While Cuban dissidents
who want Castro to accept democracy have annoyed him for several months, he has
done little to suppress them -- until now. With President Bush distracted by his
democracy-building project in Iraq, Castro has seized the opportunity to try to
stamp out the fledgling democracy-building movement in Cuba.
Cuban authorities have detained 80 or so dissidents during the past several
days, including well-known activists in the Varela Project, which won
international recognition when Jimmy Carter endorsed it during a visit to Cuba
last year. The Varela Project calls for a referendum on democratic reforms.
Castro's ugly crackdown will only delay any thaw in relations between the
United States and Cuba. While Congress has grown increasingly frustrated by the
antiquated U.S. embargo against Cuba, few would dare advocate loosening
restrictions against trade and travel now -- with Castro locking up independent
journalists and raiding libraries that feature such "subversive"
titles as the works of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
But Castro's sudden move to squelch the growing push for democracy is a sign
of the threat it represents to his iron-fisted rule. The Varela Project -- which
rounded up 11,000 signatures from citizens who surely knew they would be subject
to reprisals -- is the most visible indigenous challenge to Castro's tyranny in
40 years.
The best thing the Bush administration can do to help is ... nothing. Leave
it alone. Resist the impulse to respond.
The Varela Project owns the moral high ground largely because its organizers
have refused financial support from the U.S. government or Miami's hard-line
anti-Castroites. As a consequence, Castro has a harder time dismissing it as the
work of outside agitators.
Of course, he still tries. In the latest crackdown, Juan Hernandez-Acen,
spokesman for the Cuban Interests Section in Washington (the functional
equivalent of an embassy), has denounced pro-democracy activists as "people
who are working at the service of the United States."
Castro has gone so far as to threaten to shut down the U.S. Interests
Section in Havana, largely because its chief, James C. Cason, has organized
several high-profile activities with dissidents and championed their cause. (I
was among a group of 40 American newspaper editors who met well-known Cuban
dissidents Martha Beatriz Roque, Vladimiro Roca and Oswaldo Paya at Cason's home
in Havana last October.)
Paya, the organizer of the Varela Project, has not been arrested, but his
house is under surveillance, he told The New York Times last week.
"In no way will the project be stopped," he vowed. "There has
been a flowering in Cuba of a peaceful movement for rights and reconciliation,
to defeat this culture of fear. Cuba's spring is the Varela Project, which has
been sustained by thousands and which will grow."
This is important. As the Bush administration will learn soon enough in
Iraq, it is difficult for one country to export democracy to another, no matter
how noble the idea or well-intentioned the effort.
But Cuba, happily, has a homegrown, authentic democracy movement, an effort
that will win out eventually. As Paya noted in October, "Cuba is changing,
not on the part of its government, but on the part of its people."
Unlike Iraq, which will prove difficult to hold together after Saddam, Cuba
has no feuding tribes or religious fanatics to threaten a peaceful
transformation to democracy. And Castro, now 76, cannot live forever. If the
United States can resist heavy-handed interference, Cuba could join its
democratic neighbors in the next decade or so.
Time is on its side.
Cynthia Tucker is editorial page editor for the Atlanta Constitution. She
can be reached by e-mail: cynthia@ajc.com.
Belarus calls for end to U.S. embargo on Cuba
MINSK, Belarus 31 (AP) - Belarus, which has courted foes of the United
States amid deteriorating relations with the West, called Monday for an end to
the U.S. embargo on Cuba during a visit by the island nation's foreign minister.
Belarus "favors the unconditional removal of the U.S. economic blockade
against Cuba," Foreign Minister Sergei Martynov said during a meeting with
his Cuban counterpart, Felipe Perez Roque.
Perez Roque, in the first visit to Belarus by a Cuban foreign minister in
eight years, said the country "can count of the Cuban leadership" and
praised the former Soviet republic for its "steadfastness and persistence."
He invited Martynov to visit Cuba.
Wrapping up a three-day visit, Perez Roque also met with President Alexander
Lukashenko, whose authoritarian rule has made him a pariah in the West.
Lukashenko said Cuba and Belarus have similar views on world affairs and
expressed hope that Perez Roque's visit will intensify bilateral ties.
Communist Cuba's economy relied heavily on support from the Soviet Union
before its collapse in 1991. The volume of trade between Cuba and Belarus last
year was US$32 million, officials said.
Lukashenko, who admires the Soviet Union and has stifled market reforms in
Belarus, has pursued close economic and diplomatic ties with communist countries
including Vietnam as well as U.S. enemies, particularly Iraq.
Thousands march to support Iraq war, isolation of Cuba
By Adrian Sainz, Associated Press Writer. Sat Mar 29, 6:26
PM ET
MIAMI - Thousands marched in Little Havana on Saturday to vocalize their
staunch support of troops fighting the war in Iraq and vehement opposition to
any opening of relations with communist Cuba.
Cuban exiles, Venezuelans, Dominicans and other Latin Americans streamed
past storefronts and restaurants along historic Southwest 8th Street, waving
American and Cuban flags, singing national anthems of various nations and waving
placards in support of the Bush administration and dissidents in Cuba.
Republican U.S. Reps. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen and Mario Diaz-Balart led the
crowd of 3,000 in chants of "Bush, Bush, Bush." The Cuban-American
lawmakers exhorted the crowd to continue to support the war in Iraq and oppose
Cuban leader Fidel Castro.
"We need to continue raising our voice against the tyranny of Fidel
Castro," Ros-Lehtinen said, accusing Castro of taking advantage of the
world's attention being fixed on the war in Iraq to order the arrest last week
of human rights activists, independent journalists and librarians in Cuba.
Several Cuban exile groups which stand behind the 40-year-old embargo and a
policy of isolation against Castro's regime also voiced their displeasure with
recent polls reflecting a shift toward opening a dialogue with the Cuban
government.
"When it comes to Cuba's freedom, negotiating with a regime that has
enslaved the Cuban people for 44 years is simply not an option," said
Sylvia Iriondo, of the group Mothers and Women Against Repression.
Marchers held signs reading slogans such as "Liberty with Dignity
without Dialogue," and "Iraq Now, Cuba Later." Children rolled in
strollers while people chanted around them "Freedom for Cuba," in
Spanish. Some handed out postcards emblazoned with the photo of Oscar Elias
Biscet, a prominent jailed dissident. Venezuelan marchers protested President
Hugo Chavez's rule.
"It's clear that this country will win the war, this country is too
great," said Sergio Salas, 65, from Mexico. "And I'm not Cuban, but I
still would like to see a free Cuba."
Organizers of the march dismissed what others say are recent indications
that Cuban exiles may support opening a dialogue with Castro, a reviled figure
among most of this city's 650,000 Cubans.
A poll conducted for The Miami Herald and released last month showed more
than half of South Florida's Cubans support recent efforts at dialogue between
exiles and Cuban government officials. Even the politically powerful Cuban
American National Foundation has offered to speak with members of Cuba's
government, save for Fidel Castro and his brother Raul.
Also, several members of Congress have called for the end of the embargo,
and U.S. companies have sold food and agricultural products to the Cuba for
cash.
Cuba earns Gold Cup finals qualification by defeating Trinidad 3-1
PORT-OF-SPAIN, Trinidad, 30 (AP) - Cuba qualified for its first ever Gold
Cup finals by defeating Trinidad and Tobago 3-1 Sunday in Group 'B' of the
CONCACAF Gold Cup qualifiers.
In the earlier consolation game, Dominique Mocka scored two second half
goals to give Guadeloupe a 2-0 over Antigua and Barbuda. Mocka scored with a
tap-in in the 67th minute and a combination in the 76th.
Cuba fell behind early 1-0 when Stern John's header from a corner kick set
up by Carlos Edwards flew past goalkeeper Alexis Reve at close range in the 17th
minute.
Jorge Ramirez, however, leveled the score at 1-1 in the 25th minute when he
intercepted a weak clearance from the back and shot it with his right foot past
goalie Selwyn George from about 40 meters (44 yards) out.
It was a near-perfect replica of the goal scored by Paul Claiguiri of the
United States in late 1989, ending Trinidad's chances of making the World Cup
finals the following year in Italy.
The score remained level until the 72nd minute, when Ramirez set up Lestor
More, who slammed the ball past George, beaten for only the second time in the
tournament.
The Cubans struck again on the counterattack, shortly after substitute Devon
Mitchell failed to place his diving header past Reve from close range.
A long punt up-field was controlled by substitute Lazaro Reyes, who ran
ahead of the tracking defenders, committed the goalkeeper, then slipped the ball
across goal to Maykel Galindo.
Galindo finished with a fierce shot, which silenced the crowd at Mannie
Ramjohn Stadium.
Trinidad and Tobago now joins Honduras and Martinique — the
second-place team from Group 'A' in Jamaica — to decide the remaining two
places for the Gold Cup finals, to be played in the United States and Mexico
starting in July. | 
