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MIAMI, Jan 20
(Reuters) - Cuban exile leaders and priests on Tuesday sought to dramatize human
rights abuses in Cuba, saying they hoped Pope John Paul's visit to the
Communist-ruled island would focus world attention on political repression
there.
Unveiling a human rights exhibition in Miami on the eve of the Pontiff's
arrival in Havana, Cuban American National Foundation (CANF) president Francisco
Hernandez said: "This is the Cuba we want the world to see because this is
the Cuba the Holy Father is going to visit. This is the Cuba he is praying for.
We all have to do something so that it stops.''
Hernandez denied the exile community opposed the pope's trip although he
said President Fidel Castro's "criminal regime'' would try to manipulate it
to boost its own image.
"We will pray with our brothers and sisters in Cuba that the visit of
the Holy Father will bring a measure of hope that has been absent for many
years,'' he said.
The Pope's visit to Cuba is being watched with intense interest in Miami,
home to tens of thousands of Cuban Americans who have fled the island just 55
miles (90 km) south of the Florida Keys since Castro's 1959 revolutionary
victory.
Their hopes that the Pontiff might be able to spur political change have
been countered by fears that his presence in Havana will offer greater
legitimacy for Castro's government.
The CANF, the most powerful of a host of Miami-based groups dedicated to
overthrowing Castro, is a staunch proponent of the U.S. economic embargo on
Cuba, while the Pope has spoken out against it.
Hernandez said the Pope's trip should raise the expectations of the Cuban
people. "So few have hope their life is going to change,'' he said.
But he expected no dramatic change in civil liberties in Cuba soon. "Castro
and his brother (Raul) are not going to release any power to the Cuban people.''
The exhibition featured pictures of political prisoners, photographs of
revolutionary firing squads dispatching their victims, and a vast quilt hundreds
of yards long bearing the names of 10,000 Cubans the CANF said had died in
prison, were killed by security forces, or perished in the Florida Straits
trying to flee Cuba.
A poster issued to coincide with the Pope's visit shows a photograph of the
body of a four-year-old girl partly buried among rocks on the small island where
she starved to death last May when her family's bid to flee Cuba went wrong.
The exhibition is staged at the Freedom Tower, a Miami landmark where Cuban
refugees were once temporarily housed. In the lobby, former Cuban political
prisoner Abel Acosta was lying on a cot on the sixth day of a hunger strike to
draw attention to political prisoners. Outside hung a banner saying: "Your
Holiness Castro must be held accountable for his crimes against the Cuban
people.''
Hernandez delivered his message flanked by prominent people in the exile
political community. Two exile priests read blessings.
One of them, Bishop Agustin Roman, was expelled from Cuba in 1961. He
declined to return to Cuba on a pilgrimage to Havana organized by the Roman
Catholic Archdiocese of Miami, saying he will not go back until Castro has gone.
He told reporters he hoped the Pope's words would inspire the Cuban people
to push for change. "These people who are sleeping will wake up. If they
have freedom in their hearts, they have the possibility of freedom outside.
"I think it is a good time for us. It is a blessing for us and for a
church that has suffered for four decades,'' Roman said. REUTERS
20:05 01-20-98 |