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Yahoo! June
25, 2003.
Miami couple jailed in Cuba, accused of spying: relatives
Wed Jun 25, 1:36 PM ET
MIAMI (AFP) - A Miami couple who went to visit relatives in Cuba have been
held in jail on the island for more than two months, accused of spying for the
United States, relatives said, denying the charges.
Arcel and Maria Cardoso, both Cuban nationals who live in the United States,
were arrested on April 8, but relatives did not reveal the incident until this
week.
The two were arrested at Havana airport following a family vacation with
their daughters Lizandra, 15, and Ashley, 7, who were eventually allowed to
return to Miami.
Cuban authorities claim a letter found in their possession showed the couple
were spies for the US government, and also arrested a brother of Maria Cardoso
who lives in Cuba.
"I don't understand, they were not involved in anything," said
Enrique Angulo, another, Miami-based, brother of Maria Cardoso.
"I called the Cuban government, Cuban security and the foreign
ministry, but I got no answer," Angulo told AFP.
He said that since the incident he had received several death treats over
the telephone from callers who were evidently Cuban.
"I just want them to come back ... I want to be happy again,"
daughter Ashley told Miami's WSVN 7 television.
"They took my parents to jail ... we saw it ... we were there,"
said Lizandra.
Che Guevara's daughter defends Cuba
Tue Jun 24, 8:58 PM ET
BUENOS AIRES (AFP) - The daughter of Latin America's most-recognized
revolutionary, Che Guevara, said that revolution still isn't easy.
"We don't say others should do what Cuba has done," said Aleida
Guevara, celebrating the 75th anniversary of Guevara's birth in his native
country, Argentina.
"Every people has to choose its path and decide if it wants to change
its society or not," she in an interview with AFP.
Her father, Ernesto Guevara, was born in Argentina on June 14, 1928. He
joined Fidel Castro (news - web sites)'s bearded revolutionaries in Mexico and
they invaded Havana from the hills, taking power on January 1, 1959.
Guevera, nicknamed "Che," became the minister of industry. But the
romantic got restless, resigned and opted to spread the revolution around the
world. He was killed doing just that in Bolivia in 1976.
Aleida Guevara is the oldest of her father's six children. She is a
pediatrician and a Communist Party member.
She came to Argentina to attend commemorative ceremonies, such as her father
being named an honored citizen by the Rosario city council, where he lived until
he was a year old.
"A society that is different can help achieve important things for a
people like ours," she said.
"A lot of people don't like Cuban society. Young people have decided to
leave and we can't blame them. It's not easy. I tell you sincerely, it's not
easy."
Cuban Communist Party Replaces Ideologist
By Anita Snow, Associated Press Writer
HAVANA - Esteban Lazo, the head of the Communist Party in Cuba's capital,
has replaced one of the party's founders in a key national post overseeing
ideology, the Granma newspaper reported.
Lazo, 59, replaces Jose Ramon Balaguer, 71, a fellow member of the party's
governing politburo, as head of the department dedicated to preserving and
promoting communist principles.
It was not immediately clear what the move meant, but it follows by days the
replacement last week of two cabinet members — the ministers of finance and
transportation — with younger people.
Granma, the voice of the Communist Party of Cuba, said the changes were made
during a meeting overseen by President Fidel Castro, who heads the party as
first secretary.
Both Lazo and Balaguer are seen as orthodox party leaders intensely loyal to
Castro. A former Cuban ambassador to the Soviet Union, Balaguer in particular
has long wielded much influence inside the party, which is technically separate
from the government but populated by the same players.
Balaguer and Lazo also both serve inside Cuba's government on the nation's
supreme governing body, the Council of State, which Castro heads as president.
Lazo is also a first vice president on that council.
As the party's first secretary for Havana for nearly a decade, Lazo has been
heavily involved in the government's "battle of ideas," an ongoing
ideological campaign launched during the international custody battle over the
boy Elian Gonzalez, who returned to his family in Cuba in June 2000.
The campaign seeks to engage Cubans, particularly younger ones, in national
politics and generate support for Castro and his policies.
Balaguer served in the rebel army that fought in the revolution that brought
Castro to power in January 1959. He represents an older generation of leaders
known as "historicos" for their role in Cuba's revolutionary history.
He will continue to oversee the party's department of international
relations. A medical doctor and former deputy health minister, Balaguer will
also now oversee the party's public health department.
Lazo joined the party as a young man four years after Castro formed his
revolutionary government. One of the most visible black leaders in Cuba's power
structure, Lazo has spent most of his adult years as a labor leader and as a
regional party leader.
Cuban Book Aims to Discredit Dissidents
By Andrea Rodriguez, Associated Press Writer. Tue Jun 24,
9:58 PM ET
HAVANA - Cuba said Tuesday a new book about government moles who infiltrated
Cuba's dissident community shows the entire idea of an opposition to Fidel
Castro (news - web sites)'s communist rule is a U.S. fabrication.
In speedy one-day trials in April, the government sentenced 75 independent
journalists, opposition party leaders, human rights activists to prison terms
ranging from six to 28 years.
The dissidents were accused of being mercenaries who had worked with the
U.S. government to undermine Castro's socialist system — charges the
defendants and American officials have denied.
The new book, entitled "The Dissidents," clarifies "how the
so-called dissidents came to be," Foreign Minister Felipe Perez Roque said,
unveiling the volume put out by a Communist Party publisher.
"They did not emerge as a natural process within Cuban society,"
Perez Roque said.
The dissidents deny they were paid or organized by American officials, and
they say the opposition emerged naturally as a grass roots movement working to
encourage democracy.
The book recounts "another episode in the battle of David against
Goliath," Perez Roque said, referring to Cuba's decades-long conflict with
the United States.
The authors of the book, Rosa Miriam Elizalde and Luis Baez, both write for
government media.
The book includes interviews the writers conducted with 12 state security
agents who posed as dissidents to gather information about the opposition and
then publicly testified against the dissidents. | 
