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Czech supermodel held in Cuba over photographs
PRAGUE, 27 (AFP) - Czech supermodel Helena
Houdova was detained by police in Cuba after
she was caught taking photographs in a poor
suburb of Havana.
"They held us for 11 hours, it was
not nice at all," the blonde former
Miss Czech Republic told the daily Dnes
by telephone from the Cuban capital. "They
did not allow us to contact our embassy."
Houdova, now living in the United States,
said she went to Havana on a humanitarian
project for poor and handicapped children.
The police "even shouted that we were
terrorists," she said. "We are
now under house arrest and we cannot go
out of Havana before we leave Cuba."
Relations between Prague and Havana are
rocky as the Czech Republic is one of the
leading proponents for a tougher international
stance against Fidel Castro's regime.
Castro Visits Construction Site at Night
AP, January 26, 2006.
Fidel Castro visited a mysterious new construction
site outside the U.S. Interests Section
on Wednesday night, but kept mum over what
was being built in front of the mission
_ a growing flashpoint for U.S.-Cuba relations.
Dressed in his olive green uniform and
surrounded by security men, Castro made
the nighttime visit one day after directing
a massive march past the building to protest
recent U.S. actions aimed at Cuba, including
a new electronic sign streaming news and
human rights messages.
"If I tell you, it will ruin the surprise,"
Castro told reporters who asked what workers
were building. The Cuban president said
he was there primarily "to greet the
workers."
Castro indicated he had no intention of
breaking already limited relations between
the two countries. "It is (the Americans)
who will decide what happens to this Interests
Section," he said.
The American mission irked Castro last
week when it installed the electronic sign
on the facade of its main building with
streaming text of sayings about freedom
and excerpts from the Universal Declaration
of Human Rights, to which Cuba is a signatory.
The American mission said in a statement
that it was informed by the Cuban government
after the march Tuesday that the parking
lot in front of the building could no longer
be used until further notice.
"The regime appears to be building
a permanent structure that, we believe,
seeks to obstruct Cubans' view of the uncensored
messages and information posted on our streaming
billboard," the U.S. statement said.
"The regime's reaction is not surprising:
building walls to isolate Cubans from the
rest of the world is what the regime knows
best.
"Why cannot the regime allow Cubans
to make up their own minds as to what they
want to think, read and say publicly?"
The plaza includes a stage used for music
concerts and political events attended by
Castro and other Communist Party leaders.
Castro characterized the new U.S. messages
as "provocations" and said they
appeared to be aimed at breaking off the
limited contact between the two governments,
which have been without diplomatic relations
for 45 years.
The U.S. has an interests section under
the Swiss Embassy in Havana to handle consular
affairs such as visa processing. Cuba has
a similar office in Washington.
Castro Directs Anti-U.S. March in Havana
By Vanessa Arrington, Associated
Press Writer, Jan 24, 2005.
HAVANA - Fidel Castro directed a vast protest
march past the U.S. mission here Tuesday,
accusing the United States of preparing
to free one of the hemisphere's worst terrorists
as thousands of Cubans carried signs equating
President Bush with Hitler.
The government-sponsored march coincides
with a U.S. court deadline for evidence
to be filed in the case of Luis Posada Carriles,
a former CIA operative and anti-Castro militant
held on immigration charges at a detention
center in El Paso, Texas. His lawyers are
seeking his freedom as U.S. immigration
authorities seek his deportation.
The Cuban president called Posada a "repugnant
character" as well as a terrorist as
he spoke to a sea of cheering Cubans along
the coastal Malecon highway.
Cuba and Venezuela accuse the Cuban-born
Posada of masterminding the 1976 bombing
of a Cuban airliner and staging bombings
in Havana in 1997 and 1998. Together the
attacks killed 74 people. Castro also has
accused Posada and his colleagues of plotting
to assassinate him at a summit in Panama
in November 2000.
"We don't want revenge, we just want
justice," said Lucia Roja, a retired
educator. Although she is 67 and diabetic,
Roja said, "It's important to be here
- I've never missed a march."
State-run television estimated 1.4 million
people at the march. Those who attend government-sponsored
marches are given the day off from work.
Organized by school, work and military
groups, marchers waved little red, white
and blue Cuban flags and chanted "Bush:
fascist! Condemn the terrorist!" The
79-year-old Cuban leader watched the nearly
seven-hour event, then marched himself at
the end.
Another focus of Castro's ire is a new
electronic sign installed outside the U.S.
Interests Section in Havana, which handles
consular affairs in the absence of full
diplomatic relations. The sign was activated
as Castro began speaking Tuesday, relaying
global news and quotes including Abraham
Lincoln's: "No man is good enough to
govern another man without that other's
consent."
"They already turned on the little
sign - the cockroaches are brave,"
Castro said before starting his speech.
The mission launched the sign a week ago
with streaming text of sayings from Martin
Luther King Jr. and excerpts from the Universal
Declaration of Human Rights, to which Cuba
is a signatory.
"It's nonsense!" said Carla Smith,
a 61-year-old lawyer among the marchers.
"Within a few days, we'll have forgotten
all about them."
In Washington, State Department spokesman
Sean McCormack said he did not see why messages
containing quotes about freedom "should
be such a source of concern for the Cuban
government."
Posada was arrested in Miami in May on
charges he entered the United States illegally.
His Miami lawyer, Eduardo Soto, filed documents
with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement
officials on Monday seeking his release
from custody.
The ICE said today that while a judge had
forbidden Posada's deportation to Venezuela
or Cuba, for fear that he would be tortured
there, the agency was still seeking to expel
him to a third country.
Associated Press Writers Curt Anderson
in Miami and George Gedda in Washington
contributed to this report.
"Should Americans Be Allowed to
Travel to Communist Cuba?'' A Lively Point-Counterpoint
by Two Top Cuban Analysts in the Newly-Launched
"Cuban Affairs Journal''
CORAL GABLES, Fla.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Jan.
26, 2006--A spirited discussion on whether
the U.S. ban on travel to Cuba should be
lifted is one of the highlights of the newly-launched
"Cuban Affairs Journal," published
by the University of Miami's Institute for
Cuban and Cuban-American Studies (ICCAS).
The discussion is between the former Chief
of Mission of the U.S. Interests Section
in Havana, James Cason and William M. LeoGrande,
Dean of the School of Public Affairs at
American University.
In the point-counterpoint article on travel
to Cuba, Cason writes that lifting the ban
on Cuban travel at this time would send
the wrong message.
"Unilaterally lifting the travel ban
at this historical juncture, at the end
of a failed experiment, in exchange for
nothing would be a major waste of U.S. leverage,"
Cason wrote.
LeoGrande, on the other hand, believes
that the U.S. imposed ban on travel is "punishment
for punishment sake" and does nothing
to help promote democracy in Cuba.
"Cuban Affairs," makes its debut
on-line this month to academics and Cuba
watchers who subscribed to it.
Besides the pro-con debate on travel to
Cuba, the English-language electronic journal's
first edition carries articles on the Cuba/Venezuela
connection, Cuba/China connection, Cuba's
economic policy, and analysis of Cuba after
Castro by Brian Latell, former CIA Director
for Latin America and now a Senior Research
Associate at ICCAS.
"Cuban Affairs" will also publish
book reviews and an updated chronology of
events on the island for 2005. The electronic
journal provides immediate delivery, more
up-to-date articles and a fast way to archive
it. The journal will be easy to download
to keep as a hard copy.
The cost of the journal is $25 for a year's
subscription to individuals. Institutional
subscriptions are $95. To subscribe, log
on to http://www.cubanaffairsjournal.org
or call 305-284-CUBA (2822).
Contact:
University of Miami, Coral Gables
Barbara Gutierrez, 305-284-5500
bgutierrez@miami.edu
Source: University of Miami
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