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December 18, 2002.
Cuba's Paya Awarded Human Rights Prize
By Constant Brand, Associated Press Writer.
BRUSSELS, Belgium - The European Union awarded Cuban dissident Oswaldo Paya
its top human rights prize Tuesday and pledged to support his efforts to bring
democracy to his home country.
The 2002 Sakharov Award honored his human rights activism, which dates back
to the 1960s when he was condemned to forced labor by the regime of President
Fidel Castro.
Paya said he had endangered both himself and his family by traveling to
Strasbourg, France to receive the award at the headquarters of the European
Parliament over the Cuban government's objections.
"The day before I left, they broke down my door, they have threatened
me and my family with death," he said. "I was afraid, but you don't
get paralyzed by fear, you go on."
As recently as last weekend, it was not clear whether Cuban authorities in
Havana would allow Paya to travel to France to receive the award. A last-minute
appeal by European Parliament President Pat Cox and Spanish Prime Minister Jose
Maria Aznar to Castro secured his first trip outside Cuba.
Paya thanked the 15-nation European Union for supporting the cause of human
rights in Cuba.
"This prize is for all Cubans because I believe that, in awarding it,
Europe wishes to say to them, you too are entitled to rights," he told the
packed 626-seat legislature.
"There are thousands of men and women who are fighting in the teeth of
persecution for the rights of all Cubans. Hundreds of them have been imprisoned
solely for having proclaimed and stood up for those rights."
The $15,000 annual prize is named after the late Soviet physicist, dissident
and Nobel peace laureate Andrei Sakharov.
"You represent for many Cubans today what Andrei Sakharov represented
in the 1980s for many Soviet citizens. You represent hope," European
Parliament President Pat Cox told Paya. "We recognize your personal courage
... to use peace and not terror as the pathway to democracy in Cuba. We walk
with you on your journey."
Paya, 50, founded Cuba's Christian Liberation Movement in 1987. The
nonviolent opposition movement calls for deep political and economic changes in
Cuba's communist system.
He said he would use the prize money to fund the Varela Project, which
gathers signatures petitioning for a referendum on basic human rights for all
Cubans, including political prisoners.
Led by Paya, Varela project organizers turned in a petition of 11,020
signatures in May asking the Cuban parliament for a voters' initiative on human
rights.
There has been no response to date. The Cuban constitution requires 10,000
signatures to put a referendum on the ballot.
The 2002 prize was the 15th Sakharov award handed out by the EU. Last year
it was shared by two peace activists — an Israeli and a Palestinian —
and an Angolan priest.
Previous winners have included former South African president Nelson
Mandela, East Timorese independence leader Xanana Gusmao and Ibrahim Rugova, the
Kosovo leader.
Americans Visit Cuba to See Musicians
By JOHN RICE, Associated Press Writer Tue Dec 17, 2:16 AM
ET
HAVANA - The line of drummers thundered through the theater, out the door
and into the midnight streets of the Cuban capital, leaving behind a crowd on
its feet, clapping for more.
The explosion of comparsa drumming at the Havana Jazz Festival last week was
performed before about 800 Americans who had flown in just to see artists such
as Grammy winner Jesus "Chucho" Valdes, Roberto Carcassas and Gonzalo
Rubalcaba.
In recent months, it has been impossible for Americans to see them closer to
home.
While U.S. government policy officially encourages cultural exchanges with
Cuba, the new security measures of a post-Sept. 11 world have greatly
complicated them.
Valdes, Rubalcaba and the famed Cuban band Los Van Van are among the Cuban
artists who have had to cancel concert tours in the United States because of
new, more complicated checks on virtually all Cuban visas.
"What was historically an eight-week timeline has now grown to nearly
20-22 weeks" for visa approval, said Scott Southard, a booking agent from
International Music Network of Gloucester, Mass., who represents many Cuban
musicians.
Valdes was among 22 Cuban artists who were unable to get visas in time to
attend the Latin Grammys (news - web sites) in September. He had to cancel a
concert tour of the United States, though Southard said he expects Valdes will
have a visa for a trip early next year.
Pianist Valdes was the centerpiece of the Havana festival, intermingling
classical lines with abstract improvisation, blues, ballads, straightahead jazz,
salsa and rumba — making it all seem a natural fit — as he played
alongside trumpeter Roy Hargrove, guitarist Larry Coryell and Taj Mahal and
vibraphonist David Samuels, among others.
"To say he's a cross between Oscar Peterson and Dave Brubeck with McCoy
Tyner, dipped in salsa, is not complete," Coryell said.
The festival was a chance for the American artists — who were not paid —
to get a brief immersion in Cuban music, which has exchanged influences with
American jazz or its roots for more than a century.
"The Afro-Cuban effect on jazz has been very deep," noted
vibraphonist David Samuels, who led workshops for young Cuban musicians in
between performances.
"Coming down and playing with Roberto (Carcassas), the feel — not
what's being played but how it's being played — it is different than
anything else I've experienced," he said.
"It's like trying a new piece of food you've never had, and wow!"
Asked if he'd been influenced by Cuban musicians in the past, Coryell said, "Not
as much as I could be. But starting last night, I want to be a lot more
influenced. the rhythm section approach in Cuban music that we heard last night
has great possibilities to improve my rhythm section philosophy in my own music."
The U.S. embargo against Cuba's socialist government has long complicated
exchanges between artists — and made them almost impossible for most
Americans, who must tell Uncle Sam their business in Cuba and get formal
permission to spend a dollar on the island.
The Enhanced Border Security law enacted after the 2001 terrorist attacks
makes things even more difficult. The attack on America by religious extremists
from the Middle East has led to especially enhanced scrutiny of rum-drinking
jazzmen from Cuba.
"It says that any person who is from one of the countries on the
official list of state sponsors of terrorism cannot be issued a visa until the
secretary of state has consulted with all appropriate agencies," said
Stuart Patt, consular affairs spokesman for the U.S. State Department. That
means checks with intelligence and law enforcement agencies for every visa.
"They have to check and tell us if they have any objection," Patt
said. "As a result, visas will be delayed until all of the appropriate
agencies have a chance to weigh in." That process, he said, "commonly
takes up to three months."
Cuba has long been one of the seven countries on the U.S. government
terrorism list, though U.S. officials have not accused it of significant
terrorist activity in more than a decade.
Patt said there is little the State Department can do.
"When we're talking about this group of countries, since we've got a
statutory mandate as simple and direct as this, there really is not any way to
speed it up."
Southard said that means tours have to be booked six to eight months in
advance, "which for artists of the stature of Ibrahim Ferrer or Chucho
Valdes is not a great difficulty. For developing artists, it's an enormous
impediment.... It's difficult for them to book that far in advance."
"The impact is that the American cultural audience with an interest in
culturally diverse music is being prevented from sharing in an exchange with a
vast variety of Cuban musical expression," he said. | 
