Castro: Cuba Should Have Closer Ties With North Korea
By Jim Burns, CNSNews.com
Senior Staff Writer. February 08, 2002
(CNSNews.com) - Cuban Leader Fidel Castro Thursday called for stronger
relations between Cuba and North Korea, a little more than a week after
President Bush listed North Korea along with Iran and Iraq as an "axis of
evil."
Castro made the comment during birthday greetings for North Korean dictator
Kim Jong, who will turn 60 years old on February 16. His birthday is being
marked as a major holiday in North Korea.
Castro wished Kim "great success and good health and happiness,"
according to an announcement from North Korea's Central News Agency.
"Your devoted efforts exerted to lead the struggle of the Korean people
to foil the hostile acts of the imperialist powers and build socialism and the
country, earn our admiration and respect," said Castro.
"Availing myself of this significant occasion, I would like to
reiterate our strong will to steadily expand and strengthen fraternal ties and
cooperation between the peoples, parties and governments of the two countries,"
Castro concluded.
Although the former Soviet Union collapsed, North Korea and Cuba remain
communist. Both countries are on the State Department's list of states that
sponsor of terrorism.
During his recent State of the Union address, Bush said, "North Korea
is a regime arming with missiles and weapons of mass destruction while starving
its citizens. Iran aggressively pursues these weapons and exports terror, while
an unelected few repress the Iranian people's hope for freedom. Iraq continues
to flaunt its hostility toward America and to support terror."
"States like these, and their terrorist allies, constitute an axis of
evil, arming to threaten the peace of the world. By seeking weapons of mass
destruction, these regimes pose a grave and growing danger. They could provide
these arms to terrorists, giving them the means to match their hatred. They
could attack our allies or attempt to blackmail the United States. In any of
these cases, the price of indifference would be catastrophic," the
president said.
"We will work closely with our coalition to deny terrorists and their
state sponsors the materials, technology and expertise to make and deliver
weapons of mass destruction," the president continued.
"We will develop and deploy effective missile defenses to protect
America and our allies from sudden attack. And all nations should know: America
will do what is necessary to ensure our nation's security," according to
the president.
US Official: No Thaw In US-Cuba Relations Anticipated
By Jim Burns, CNSNews.com
Senior Staff Writer. February 08, 2002
(CNSNews.com) - Despite recent U.S. food shipments and a growing number of
U.S. politicians visiting Cuba, the head of the U.S. Interests Section in Havana
said any report of a thaw in relations between the two countries are
exaggerated.
BBC radio quoted Vicki Huddleston as saying that the Bush administration has
made it clear - there will be no change in American policy toward the Castro
government until Fidel Castro improves civil liberties on the communist-run
island.
Huddleston said Cuba has launched what she called a "charm offensive"
against the American people. It's aimed at convincing the United States Congress
to loosen the 40-year-old trade embargo against the Castro government, she said.
Huddleston thinks the current restrictions should be maintained.
"What happens if you give a lot of money to the Cuban government and it
doesn't change? Then you find out you are just supporting Fidelismo," she
said.
"Is there a better relationship? No," Huddleston said. "The
relationship is not improving because we are still concerned about human rights,
democracy and the free flow of information."
Last weekend, the Castro government announced that Cuba would not import any
more U.S. agricultural products until the U.S. further eases its embargo.
Cuban Trade Minister Raul de la Nuez said the December purchase of more than
$30 million of U.S. meat and grains, the first such shipment in almost 40 years,
demonstrated that commerce between the two nations benefits U.S. agricultural
producers as much as it benefits Cuba.
He said Cuba wanted to develop more trade with the United States but would
not make new import orders unless the terms of the embargo are eased.
President Bush has said on numerous occasions that the U.S. economic embargo
will remain in effect until the Cuban government frees its political prisoners
and allows free and fair elections.
Florida Lawmaker Blasts Cuba for Jailing Another Dissident
By Jim Burns/ CNSNews.com
Senior Staff Writer. February 07, 2002
(CNSNews.com) - Rep. Lincoln Diaz-Balart (R-Fla.) is blasting the Castro
government for jailing an anti-Castro dissident after she and several other
Cuban dissidents met with Mexican President Vincente Fox on Monday.
"On the night after her meeting with President Fox and (Mexican)
Foreign Minister (Jorge) Castaneda, Marta Beatriz Roque was visited at her house
by a typical array of goons, thugs and hoodlums sent by the Cuban dictator, who
told her that she had to accompany them to a detention center for questioning
while her house was 'fumigated'," said Diaz-Balart during a speech on the
House floor on Wednesday.
"She was then taken to a detention center by these thugs, physically
assaulted, strip-searched and insulted repeatedly for hours on end. While this
was happening, the so-called 'fumigation' was taking place in her house. The
furniture and windows were destroyed and Marta Beatriz's few belongings were
ransacked," Diaz-Balart said.
Roque, an economist, is the director the Cuban Institute of Independent
Economists as well as a critic of the Castro regime.
The only crime Roque committed, according to Diaz-Balart, was that she "bravely"
spoke her mind in support of democracy for Cuba.
Diaz-Balart called on Fox and the Mexican foreign minister to do something
about Roque's harassment.
"Will you do as Castro's foreign minister says and fail even to
acknowledge the gross and constant violations of human rights in Cuban when the
United Nations Human Rights Commission discusses this issue in Geneva?,"
Diaz-Balart said.
The Castro government issued no official reaction on the Roque case.
Wire service reports from Havana quoted Roque supporters as saying that
Cuban police did detain and strip search Roque while other Castro government
officials sprayed her home against the Dengue mosquito.
The Cuban Institute of Independent Economists, according to the reports,
said police took Roque to her neighborhood office of the anti-Dengue campaign,
took her house key and "then proceeded to strip her because she could be
hiding something else."
A squad of campaign workers then used the key to enter her house and spray,
the institute said in a communique. Roque had twice earlier refused to allow the
fumigators into her home, saying she feared the insecticide would be harmful to
her health.
Before meeting with the dissidents, Fox told reporters in Havana that Mexico
would not challenge Cuba's human rights record when the U.N. votes on the annual
resolution in Geneva.
'Stop dining with a dictator'
Diaz-Balart also criticized a U.S. congressional delegation for giving
Castro a New York Fire Department cap during a recent visit to Havana. "It
is time to stop dining and joking with the dictator. The time has come to side
with the oppressed people of Cuba. They will soon be free, but they deserve
solidarity in their time of darkness."
On his flight back to Mexico, Fox told reporters that he informed Castro
that he would meet with the dissidents while in Cuba.
He also said that he handed Castro a list of political prisoners and
expressed hope their cases would be reviewed. He said he "emphasized that
Cuba is not an exception and that Mexico will seek to encourage the full
observance of human rights the world over."
Fox also expressed the hope that "Cuba would come closer to the
standards of human rights and of democracy that day-by-day help make things more
secure not only in Latin America but in the rest of the world." | 
