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Posted on Fri, Nov. 01, 2002 in
The Miami
Herald.
Cuban jailed for flag protest is released after 3 years
By Juan O. Tamayo. Jtamayo@Herald.Com
A Cuban dissident whose audacious protests once prompted President Fidel
Castro to call him a ''crazy man'' was freed Thursday after serving three years
in prison for displaying Cuban flags upside down as a sign of distress.
Oscar Elías Biscet, 41, a physician who heads the Lawton Foundation
for Human Rights, was released from the Cuba Sí prison in eastern Holguín
province and headed to his Havana home late Thursday.
Biscet was arrested Nov. 3, 1999, after displaying the three upside down
flags, an international sign of distress, at a news conference just as 20
foreign leaders gathered in Havana for an Ibero-American summit.
Charged with insulting a national symbol, creating a public disturbance and
''instigation to crime,'' he was convicted in a four-hour trial open to
journalists and diplomats but closed to other dissidents.
Biscet had been briefly picked up by police some 20 times in the previous
year for his small but headline-grabbing protests, unprecedented actions in a
country where opposition to the communist system is illegal.
In 1999 he led a dozen dissidents on a 40-day liquid-only fast -- one day
for each of Castro's 40 years in power at the time -- and led seminars on the
tactics of civil disobedience.
The demonstrations he organized to mark an anniversary of the Universal
Declaration of Human Rights and protest the death penalty in Cuba were the only
scheduled street protests known to have taken place in Havana.
Biscet even awarded an ''honorary membership'' in the Lawton Foundation to
Diego Tintorero, the Cuban exile who ran onto the field in Baltimore during a
1999 game between the Baltimore Orioles and Cuba's national baseball team.
Castro called Biscet a ''little crazy man'' in October 1999, shortly after
police took the dissident to a psychiatric hospital for testing, which he
refused.
Biscet was considered one of Cuba's top political prisoners, though the
Castro government claims it jails only common criminals and
''counter-revolutionaries'' it describes as paid U.S. agents.
Candidate walks tightrope over Cuba
By Oscar Corral. Ocorral@Herald.Com
Hard-line Cuban exiles have called her a traitor on Spanish-language radio,
portrayed her in cartoons as sitting on the lap of Cuban dictator Fidel Castro,
and sometimes snubbed her when she visits nursing homes.
That's because state Rep. Annie Betancourt, who is running for the U.S.
House in the newly drawn District 25, is calling for an overhaul of U.S.-Cuba
policy, a position experts say is unprecedented for a Cuban-American
congressional candidate from a major party.
But because Betancourt hasn't directly called for an end to the embargo
against the island, she has also failed to win the support of anti-embargo
business groups that might have donated heavily to her campaign against state
Rep. Mario Díaz-Balart.
Betancourt explains that the words ''lift the embargo'' are just too
sensitive for her to utter.
''I will not say those words,'' said Betancourt, a Democrat. "The word
[embargo] in and of itself has so much emotion. It has been emotional for me.''
Had Betancourt said the words ''lift the embargo'' at a news conference, as
her advisors pushed her to do last weekend, money from the anti-embargo lobby
would probably have poured into her campaign. That would have given her the
means to stage a last-minute ad blitz through mass mailings and Spanish-language
radio.
''The reason she can't bring herself to say those words is because her
husband was a Bay of Pigs veteran who died,'' said one Betancourt campaign
source. "We're talking six figures, big money if she would have done it.
"Annie has never been one to let special interests dictate her
campaigns.''
OUTLINES CHANGES
Ironically, this week Betancourt outlined specific changes to U.S.-Cuba
policy that she would propose to Congress, if elected, that all but equate to
lifting the embargo.
''It's a failed policy, let's stop fooling ourselves,'' Betancourt said. "People
are thinking it but no one dares say it. Fidel Castro won't be there forever. We
need to begin a healing process with the people of Cuba.''
If elected, Betancourt said she would work to promote open travel to Cuba;
extend U.S. credit to the country to purchase only food and medicine; remove the
cap on the amount of remittances to the island; encourage more cultural, social,
religious, and educational exchanges between the nations; and increase aid to
dissident groups.
Díaz-Balart, a Republican, has said he supports tightening the
embargo, but he declined to comment on Betancourt's proposed changes.
''I'm going to continue to focus the election on the issues,'' Díaz-Balart
said. "She has focused all her energies and her efforts on one issue alone,
how to send cash to a terrorist nation.''
Several weeks ago Betancourt issued a written criticism of current policy
toward Cuba, but she did not suggest concrete alternatives. The proposed changes
more clearly define a position that placed her on a slippery tightrope between
hard-line embargo supporters and those who would like to normalize relations
with Cuba.
U.S. Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, a stalwart supporter of the embargo, took a
shot at Betancourt for taking so long to come up with an alternative to current
policy.
''It's great for a congressional candidate to finally get her head straight
about what U.S.-Cuba policy should be,'' Ros-Lehtinen said. "Let's hope it
doesn't take her this long to decide on a vote in Congress.''
While Betancourt has been vilified by some on conservative Spanish-language
radio and small publications, she has also won support from key players in the
Cuban-American political scene, such as Hialeah Mayor Raul Martinez.
MAYOR'S SUPPORT
Martinez endorsed his fellow Democrat at a news conference at Hialeah City
Hall on Thursday, saying that he could not stand idly by while people criticized
her.
''Annie Betancourt was a damn good legislator,'' Martinez said. "This
community has become very hypocritical, especially Spanish radio that is totally
one-sided. If you don't agree with them 100 percent, you are the enemy.''
Martinez also criticized U.S. policy on Cuba, and agrees with Betancourt on
all her proposed alternatives, except extending credit to the island.
''We all want the freedom of Cuba,'' Martinez said. "Annie offers
voters an alternative. Let the people of Cuba realize that we are not the enemy.
The enemy is their system.'' | 
