|
Posted on Tue, Jun. 10, 2003 in
The Miami Herald.
Powell to OAS: Help Cubans
By Warren P. Strobel. Knight Ridder News Service.
SANTIAGO, Chile - Secretary of State Colin Powell called on Western
Hemisphere nations Monday to help ''hasten the inevitable democratic transition
in Cuba'' and protest a recent wave of arrests and executions by President Fidel
Castro's government.
Powell, raising the Cuba issue in a forum long reluctant to debate it, told
the 34-nation Organization of American States: "The people of Cuba
increasingly look to the OAS for help in defending their fundamental freedoms
against the depredations of our hemisphere's only dictatorship.''
Powell reminded the gathering of its past commitments to democracy,
including the 2001 Inter-American Democratic Charter.
That document 'declares that 'the people of the Americas have a right to
democracy.' It does not say that the peoples of the Americas, except Cubans,
have a right to democracy,'' he said.
Many nations of the OAS, which suspended Cuba's membership in 1962, are
opposed to discussing Castro's human rights record without also debating the
four-decades-old U.S. embargo of the island.
Only half the group's membership has signed on to a U.S.-backed declaration
criticizing Castro's crackdown on dissidents. Caribbean countries lead the
opposition to the declaration.
But worldwide sentiment appears to be shifting slightly after the Cuban
regime earlier this spring imprisoned 75 dissidents and executed three men for
hijacking a ferry they were to take to the United States.
''I think Castro made a very big mistake,'' said a senior OAS official,
speaking on the condition of anonymity.
While Castro still garners support in some nations in the region, if the
Bush administration abandons past practice and makes a major push for action by
the OAS, ''I think they may get something,'' the senior official said.
The European Union, which has advocated engagement with Havana, announced
last week that it would cut back on high-level visits to Cuba and invite
dissidents to EU functions.
Citing that move, Powell said Sunday while on his way to Chile: "I
think the rest of the world is now starting to take note of Castro's
increasingly poor human rights behavior.''
Foreign Minister Bill Graham of Canada, which generally opposes U.S. policy
toward Cuba, said that while the OAS might not be the right forum to discuss
Castro's regime, ''we do need to find ways'' to deal with the crackdown.
Powell and his colleagues met at the OAS General Assembly in Chile to
discuss the future of democratic and free-market economic reforms. Both are
under siege in many countries from citizens whose lives have only gotten harder
a decade after reforms took root.
On the subject of Haiti, Powell said democracy and economic growth are being
undermined by the government's failure to create conditions for an electoral
solution to a political impasse that has lasted for three years, according to
The Associated Press.
Powell praised OAS efforts to resolve the impasse but warned that its role
should be reevaluated if Haiti "has not created "the climate essential
to the formation of a credible, neutral and independent provisional electoral
council.''
To help the process, Powell said the United States was contributing an
additional $1 million to the OAS to help improve the security climate in advance
of elections, according to the AP. He also noted that the United States has
increased humanitarian assistance to $70 million in the fiscal year.
The United States, which has pushed democracy, free trade and economic
liberalization in Latin America, is the target of much of the criticism.
President Bush has been criticized for abandoning early promises of partnership
with the region to focus on the Mideast and terrorism.
Brothers pilot seeking $76 million from Cuba
By Rachel La Corte. Associated Press. Posted on Tue, Jun.
10, 2003.
A survivor of the 1996 shoot-down of two planes by Cuban fighter jets has
asked a U.S. court to award him nearly $76 million in damages from the Castro
government.
José Basulto, founder of the Cuban exile group Brothers to the
Rescue, filed documents last week asking for the amount, saying he deserved
$5,000 a day for the rest of his life for the mental pain and suffering the
shoot-down has caused him. He based his request on U.S. government actuarial
tables that predict he'll live until 2037.
FAVORABLE RULING
Basulto received a judgment against the Cuban government and its air force
in January when they failed to show up in court and defend themselves against
his suit. It was filed under a 1996 federal law that helps victims of terrorism
sue foreign governments that support such violence.
Basulto said Monday that he doesn't expect that he'll ever collect the $75.9
million, but that his case is still a strike against Cuban President Fidel
Castro.
''It's another reminder to the people of the United States that justice has
not been done,'' Basulto said. "The indictment of Fidel Castro should be on
criminal grounds, not civil grounds.''
The Brothers to the Rescue planes were shot down by two Cuban MiGs in
February 1996 over international waters as three aircraft flew toward Cuban
waters. All four men on the two planes died. The third plane, carrying Basulto
and two observers, was not hit. On several flights before that day, members of
the group had violated Cuba's airspace and dropped leaflets over the island
encouraging a popular uprising.
The group halted its flying operations earlier this year, citing costs.
The families of three of the slain fliers, Armando Alejandre Jr., Carlos
Costa and Mario de la Peña, sued under the federal law and won $188
million in damages in 1997.
In April 2000, a judge awarded them $38 million from frozen U.S. bank
accounts belonging to Cuban telephone companies. The family of the fourth man,
Pablo Morales, could not sue because he was not a U.S. citizen.
'IT'S NOT MY MONEY'
Basulto has said he will donate all money he receives to Cuban dissident
groups.
''It's not my money, it's the money of the Cuban people,'' he said.
A call placed Monday to the Cuban Interests Section in Washington was not
returned. | 
