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Cuba says U.S. government undertaking desperate campaign to line up
votes against island at U.N. human rights meeting
Yahoo! March 8, 2002.
HAVANA - The U.S. government has launched a desperate campaign to line up
votes against Cuba during this month's annual United Nations meeting on human
rights, the government here said Friday.
President George W. Bush (news - web sites) is certain to ask leaders in El
Salvador and Peru during his visit to those countries later this month to "try
to bind them in voting against Cuba," the Foreign Ministry said.
"The methods of influence exerted by the United States in order to
achieve this objective are exactly the same as in the post: pressure, blackmail
and political and economic conditions," said the statement.
The Foreign Ministry also said that Washington had discreetly circulated
among Latin American leaders a proposed text calling for the U.N. Human Rights
Commission in Geneva to condemn Cuba for its human rights record. The document "gives
a clear idea of the desperation that is beginning to be perceived in the halls
of the State Department," Cuba's Foreign Ministry said.
"However," it added, "the State Department has achieved few
results so far."
The statement pointed out that Mexico, which now holds a seat on the human
rights commission, has pledged not to sponsor any measure against Cuba during
meetings beginning March 18. And it expressed confidence that Chile, Brazil,
Venezuela and Ecuador also would not back any proposal to condemn Cuba.
Both Washington and Havana engage in active campaigning among countries that
could influence the vote shortly before the human rights meeting each year. The
difference this year is that the United States for the first time no longer sits
on the commission.
Last year's resolution condemning Cuba passed by 22-20 with 10 abstentions.
Censure by the U.N. body brings no penalties but draws international attention
to a country's human rights record.
Source says Castro under terrorism microscope
Fidel Castro may soon be facing an indictment.
Miami Herald | WPLG Click10.com. Friday March 08 08:56
AM EST
According to a senior official, President George W. Bush has begun reviewing
Cuba's involvement in international terrorism.
That source also said the administration might seek an indictment against
Castro the 1996 shoot-down of two Brothers to the Rescue planes.
Cuba is on the State Department terrorist country list based primarily on
its ties with other countries on that list, including Iraq. | 
