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May 7, 2002.
Freed Cuban Dissident Blasts System
Mon May 6, 9:10 Pm Et . By Vivian Sequera, Associated Press
Writer .
HAVANA (AP) - Free after nearly five years imprisonment, Cuba's best known
dissident, Vladimiro Roca, said Monday that his time behind bars confirmed his
conviction that the island's political system does not work and must be changed.
And change, he insisted, is possible through peaceful means — and with
President Fidel Castro in power.
"I have never been virulent in my opposition," Roca told The
Associated Press a day after being released, two months short of a five-year
sentence on charges of inciting sedition and endangering the nation's economy.
"I have reaffirmed the conviction that the system has to be changed
because it does not work," he said, sitting on a bench outside the doorway
of his Havana home.
Roca's release came exactly a week before former President Carter arrives in
the communist country for five-day visit. Some saw the move as a goodwill
gesture to Carter, but Roca said he thought his release was unrelated.
The international group Human Rights Watch on Monday applauded Roca's
release, but called on the Cuban government to release more prisoners. Activists
say they currently have more than 240 documented cases of political prisoners in
Cuba.
Roca is well known here because his late father, Blas Roca, was a founding
member of the Communist Party of Cuba and remains a revered figure. Vladimiro
Roca also has roots in the communist government: he was a military pilot who
broke with the system in the early 1990s.
Expelled from his state job working with foreign investment, Roca hooked up
with three other Cuban professionals who favored change, engineer Felix Bonne
Carcasses, attorney Rene Gomez Manzano and economist Marta Beatriz Roque.
They formed the "Group of Four" and in 1997 published the document
that landed them in jail, "The Homeland is for All."
Their statement criticized a draft document issued by the Communist Party
before its national congress that year, saying it focused on the glories of the
revolution but offered no pragmatic proposals to the nation's economic ills.
The four were convicted behind closed doors in 1999. Bonne, Gomez and Roque
received sentences ranging from 3 to four years, and were freed in early 2000.
Roca remained in prison, despite petitions from the Canadian and Mexican
governments and the Vatican .
Roca spent most of Monday, his first full day of freedom, fielding telephone
calls from friends and journalists.
But he had to cut them short to attend to official business: applying for
new national identity documents required by Cuban law. His previous documents
were lost, he said, at the time of his July 1997 arrest.
"The thing I missed most was my bed, my own little space," said
Roca, who was freed early Sunday from Ariza Prison in the central city of
Cienfuegos. Nevertheless, he slept little his first night back home because of "an
excess of nervous energy." He said he thinks when he finally relaxes, he'll
probably sleep three days running.
For the first 2 years of his imprisonment, Roca was kept in a cramped
5-by-6-foot cell, with a small sink; food was passed in on a tray.
"I went in at 72 kilograms, and left at 78 kilograms," he said,
chuckling.
During the last part of his imprisonment, Roca shared a larger cell with
anywhere from three to six other inmates. Filled with the smell of humidity and
filth, Ariza Prison was built for 1,500 men but often holds up to 2,500.
Roca entered prison an atheist, but was baptized Roman Catholic on Sept. 24,
1999 and attributed his new faith with helping him endure imprisonment.
While behind bars, he decided existing laws could be used to bring reform to
his homeland.
Roca said that's why he supports the Varela Project, a signature-gathering
campaign to force a referendum calling for change.
Project supporters say they have more than the 10,000 signatures needed to
force a referendum and plan to present them to the National Assembly later this
year.
If placed on the ballot — something officials indicate is doubtful —
the referendum would ask voters about an amnesty for political prisoners and
individual guarantees, such as freedom of expression and association.
True change, Roca said, will come only through peaceful and legal methods. "I
don't seek confrontation, I seek reconciliation," he said.
US: Cuba Trying to Make Bioweapons
Mon May 6, 4:57 Pm Et . By George Gedda, Associated Press
Writer .
WASHINGTON (AP) - The Bush administration believes Cuba is trying to develop
biological weapons and transferring its technical expertise to countries hostile
to the United States.
Undersecretary of State John Bolton's accusation Monday marked the first
time the United States raised the possibility of Cuban involvement in weapons of
mass destruction. He said transfers to what he described as "rogue states"
involve biotechnology that can have legitimate uses as well.
Bolton, the State Department's top official dealing with proliferation of
mass-destruction weapons, spoke to a gathering at the Heritage Foundation, a
conservative research group.
The allegations appeared to add to the administration's rationale for
keeping Cuba on State's list of countries accused of engaging in international
terrorism.
Bolton said the administration believes a definite link exists between
terrorism and weapons of mass destruction.
Rep. Lincoln Diaz-Balart (news, bio, voting record), R-Fla., a leading
congressional opponent of the President Fidel Castro 's government in Cuba,
praised Bolton for the speech. "It's about time that those who continue to
defend Castro realize that they are defending a terrorist," he said.
An administration official said U.S. intelligence officials have known for
some time about Cuba's secret program but withheld the information to protect
its sources. Bolton believed the information was too important not to be made
public, said the official, speaking on condition of anonymity.
Bolton did not identify countries with which he alleged Cuba has been
sharing biotechnology but noted that last year that Castro visited Iran, Syria
and Libya, all members, with Cuba, of the State Department's list of terrorism
sponsors. A CIA report released in January said Iran has a biological weapons
program and that Libya and Syria are believed to have them as well.
For four decades Cuba has maintained a well-developed and sophisticated
biomedical industry, Bolton said. Analysts and Cuban defectors long have cast
suspicion on activities conducted in the facilities.
Cuba's ability to threaten U.S. security has received less attention in
recent years as Castro halted his efforts to promote Cuban-style revolutions
elsewhere.
The administration acknowledged last year without elaboration that it was
examining whether Cuba could engage in computer network attacks that could
disrupt American military movements.
Bolton noted that a 1998 Pentagon report concluded that Cuba did not
represent a significant military threat to the United States or the region. In
the preface, however, Secretary of Defense William Cohen said he worried about
Cuba's potential to develop biological weapons, given its ambitious
biotechnology program.
Bolton said a major reason the report may have understated the threat
potential was that a contributor to the study was Ana Belen Montes, a Defense
Intelligence Agency analyst who was arrested last fall on charges of spying for
Cuba. She pleaded guilty in March.
Bolton said: "The United States believes that Cuba has at least a
limited offensive biological warfare research and development effort.
"Cuba has provided dual-use biotechnology to other rogue states. We are
concerned that such technology could support BW programs in those states.
"We call on Cuba to cease all BW-applicable cooperation with rogue
states and to fully comply with all of its obligations under the Biological
Weapons Convention."
There was no immediate reaction to Bolton's speech from the Cuban
government. A man who answered the telephone at the Foreign Ministry spokesman's
office in Havana said he was unfamiliar with Bolton's declaration and no
response had been issued.
Castro's government in the past has accused the United States of using
biological means to destroy crops and livestock on the island.
On the Net: State Department's Cuba page:
http://www.state.gov/p/wha/ci/c2461.htm
U.S. warns 3 more nations: Weapons efforts 'must stop'
Tue May 7,10:14 Am Et . Bill Nichols Usa Today .
WASHINGTON -- The Bush administration on Monday accused three more nations
-- Cuba, Libya and Syria -- of trying to acquire weapons of mass destruction.
Undersecretary of State John Bolton used a speech at the Heritage
Foundation, a conservative think tank, to warn those nations that the United
States will do whatever is necessary to keep them from passing on nuclear,
chemical or biological weapons to terrorist networks.
''We call on Libya, Cuba and Syria to live up to the (arms control)
agreements they have signed,'' said Bolton, the administration's leading
authority on arms control. ''We will watch closely their actions, not simply
listen to their words.''
Administration officials said Bolton's speech was meant to broaden the
doctrine President Bush set out in his State of the Union message in January.
In that address, Bush categorized Iran, Iraq and North Korea as an ''axis of
evil'' because of their weapons programs.
Bolton did not use the term ''axis of evil'' to describe Cuba, Libya and
Syria, but he referred to them as ''three other state sponsors of terrorism that
are pursuing or have the potential to pursue weapons of mass destruction.''
''States that sponsor terror and pursue WMD (weapons of mass destruction)
must stop,'' he said. ''States that renounce terror and abandon WMD can become
part of our effort. But those that do not can expect to become our targets.''
Details:
* Cuba. Bolton said Fidel Castro 's communist regime has ''at least a
limited offensive biological warfare'' program and may have shared its expertise
with other nations. He would not specify the countries Cuba might have helped.
* Libya. Bolton said that despite signs of lessening tensions between
Washington and Tripoli, Libya remains a major concern.
He said Libya continues to pursue a nuclear and chemical weapons program.
After United Nations sanctions on Libya were lifted in 1999, he said, Moammar
Gadhafi's government re-established ties with illicit suppliers of chemical
weapons all over the world. He said Libya has a fledgling biological weapons
program that ''may be capable of producing small quantities of biological
agent.''
* Syria. Bolton said Syria has long had a chemical weapons program and now
has a variety of aerial bombs and warheads for short-range missiles that are
''potential means of delivery of deadly agents capable of striking neighboring
countries.''
Bolton also had tough words about Iraq when asked whether any inspection
system devised by the United Nations could quell U.S. concerns about Saddam
Hussein . Iraq has refused to allow U.N. inspections for the past three years.
Bolton said the administration is committed to try to get inspectors back
into Iraq and said that policy ''implies the theoretical possibility'' that such
inspections would be productive.
But he made clear that the administration's more favored policy is to remove
Saddam. ''That provides the only real assurance that Baghdad will not pursue
weapons of mass destruction,'' Bolton said.
For Cubans, community a reminder of heritage
By Ofelia Casillas. Chicago Tribune
Whenever Elio Montenegro misses Cuba, he drives 20 minutes from his home in
Lincolnwood to Chicago's Logan Square neighborhood, where he struts into Janette
Jewelry, kisses Silvia Martinez on the cheek and calls her son muchachon, a
Spanish term of endearment. When he leaves, she says, "We love you,
Montenegro."
He finds the same warmth up the block at the Espanol Accounting Service and
Spanco Insurance Agency Inc. Not so many years ago, Montenegro, 73, president of
the Cuban Chamber of Commerce , could have wandered in and out of dozens of
Cuban-run shops in Logan Square, but now Mexican, Puerto Rican and Polish
businesses fill most of those spaces.
Montenegro and thousands of other Cubans landed in Logan Square when they
first moved to this part of the country. They saved money, gained confidence,
then moved on, settling all over the metropolitan area. But they still return
there, pulled occasionally by the need to mix with--though not live among--other
Cubans.
But nostalgia doesn't pay the bills for Cuban merchants in Logan Square.
They've learned to adapt to countless waves of new immigrants while still
serving up the cortaditos, or espressos topped with whipped cream, and the
haunting Cuban melodies sung by the Queen of Salsa, Celia Cruz.
Full story at Chicago Tribune
Capacity at Guantanamo's Camp Delta almost full as plane load of
detainees arrives
Mon May 6, 7:52 PM ET
SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico - Another 21 accused terrorists have arrived at
Guantanamo Bay Naval Base in Cuba, pushing Camp Delta to its capacity and
setting the scene for fresh interrogations, officials said Monday.
The newest detainees, which bring the total number of captives in Guantanamo
Bay to 384, arrived Sunday aboard a C-141 military plane. U.S. officials would
not say where the plane came from.
Wearing orange jumpsuits and shackles, the men were also forced to don ear
muffs and goggles to block their senses, and face masks to protect U.S.
officials against diseases such as tuberculosis.
The arrivals "went very smoothly and efficiently," Maj. James
Bell, a spokesman for the detention mission, said by telephone from the base. "All
the detainees appeared to have no significant medical issues."
The number of nationalities represented was still at 34, Bell said,
cautioning though that the number was only an estimate since many of the
detainees arrive with no passport or identification.
The arrivals leave only 24 open units at Camp Delta, the permanent detention
facility that replaced the makeshift Camp X-ray. Officials, however, say they
may keep those cells open for security reasons.
To accommodate more detainees, construction crews hoped to finish another
204 cells at Camp Delta by the end of May. Delta could eventually be expanded to
have more than 2,000 cells, and officials haven't ruled out using Camp X-ray
again.
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