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Sen. Coleman Pays Cuba Human Rights Call
By Anita Snow, Associated Press
Writer , Sun Sep 21,11:31 PM ET
HAVANA, 21 - Sen. Norm Coleman, visiting Cuba
on Sunday, backed away from earlier calls to end
sanctions on the communist country, saying that
lifting the restrictions now would send the wrong
message.
Coleman cited the Cuban government's crackdown
on the opposition in March, when 75 dissidents
were rounded up and sentenced to prison terms
of between six and 28 years.
"I think about the folks in prison and what
message that gives them," the Minnesota Republican
said.
American moves to eliminate the 40-year-old trade
and travel sanctions have "been building
for some time, but it's not there yet," Coleman
told a small group of American reporters in Havana.
"And the March actions create a problem."
Coleman, however, said releasing some or all
of the 75 dissidents "would be a good gesture,"
and would "increase the prospects" for
American support to end the trade embargo and
travel restrictions.
Coleman arrived here Friday for a four-day visit
to study human rights and trade issues.
Coleman is chairman of the Western Hemisphere
Subcommittee of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee
and a member of the Senate Agriculture Committee.
He is especially interested in future business
for Minnesota farmers.
Coleman met with parliament speaker Ricardo Alarcon
and other communist officials and could meet President
Fidel Castro before leaving Monday.
Coleman in the past has said he believes that
eliminating the trade and travel restrictions
could help nurture democracy and human rights
in the Caribbean nation.
But after meeting Saturday with dissidents and
the relatives of jailed opponents, he said the
timing is wrong.
Minnesota farmers have sold about $70 million
in agricultural products to Cuba since communist
officials began taking advantage of a 2000 law
that created an exception to the sanctions.
Cuba Neighbors Rally During
Eviction
By Andrea Rodriguez, Associated
Press Writer, Fri Sep 19,10:06 PM ET.
HAVANA - Scores of residents staged a rare protest
Friday in a Havana neighborhood when police arrived
to evict a family that had built a home on a vacant
lot without the government's permission.
"Down with the eviction!" the neighbors
shouted during the protest in western Havana.
The eviction, coming amid a crackdown on illegally
constructed or modified dwellings, was another
reminder of the severe housing crisis in this
capital of more than 2 million people.
"My son who lives in Russia sent us money
to build this four-room house," said Hilda
Machado, who was evicted by uniformed officers
along with her four grown children and other relatives.
"There was a trash dump here before,"
Machado said, standing in front of the humble,
but neatly kept house of concrete blocks and bricks.
Machado said authorities had earlier fined her
about $40 for starting to build the house without
government authorization, but had not intervened
in the subsequent construction process.
Housing authorities on Friday carried the family's
furniture and other belongings to the single room
they had shared before - legally.
"Why did they wait until it was done, finished?"
Machado asked.
"I'm not going to make any declarations,"
a housing official at the scene told a reporter.
Such evictions are common throughout Latin America,
but are much more unusual in Cuba, where the early
leaders of the 1959 revolution promised an end
to the practice.
Such spontaneous protests are also rare on this
Caribbean island, where most public gatherings
are organized by the communist government.
While much of Havana's older housing stock has
grown dilapidated and uninhabitable, new housing
construction has slowed to trickle, sometimes
forcing Cubans to build their own homes or enlarge
existing ones.
Sen. Coleman Meets With Cuban Activists
By Anita Snow, Associated Press
Writer , Sat Sep 20,10:59 PM ET.
HAVANA - U.S. Sen. Norm Coleman met with leading
Cuban dissidents Saturday, the second day of a
visit to learn more about human rights and possibilities
for more American trade with the communist-run
island.
The Minnesota Republican met in the morning with
democracy activist Oswaldo Paya, lead organizer
of the Varela Project. The project is a signature-gathering
effort aimed at guaranteeing basic civil rights
for Cubans, such as freedom of speech and assembly.
Coleman later had lunch at a private family restaurant
called El Gringo Viejo, or Old Gringo, with leading
dissidents Vladimiro Roca and Elizardo Sanchez.
Sanchez is still stinging from a government smear
campaign that revealed he had met regularly with
state security agents and even received a distinguished
service medal from secret police.
Sanchez has admitted to the meetings - and receiving
the medal - but has denied he ever collaborated
with the government agents.
"I have been in the resistance for 35 years
fighting against the totalitarian government,"
Sanchez told reporters.
Sanchez directs the Cuban Commission on Human
Rights and National Reconciliation, which tracks
the cases of the island's political prisoners
and releases reports every six month.
A dissident for more than three decades, Sanchez
spent four years in Cuban prisons in the 1980s.
The commission was founded in 1987.
Saturday was the first time Sanchez met with
a high-profile foreign delegation since the government
launched its campaign against him last month.
Coleman's visit comes a week after Democratic
Sen. Max Baucus and Republican Rep. Dennis Rehberg,
both from Montana, visited Cuba.
Baucus was the highest ranking American official
to visit Cuba since a March crackdown that put
75 dissidents behind bars.
During his four-day visit here, Coleman also
met with high-ranking Cuban officials, foreign
diplomats, church leaders and ordinary Cubans.
It was not immediately clear if he would meet
with President Fidel Castro.
Coleman is chairman of the Western Hemisphere
Subcommittee of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee
and a member of the Senate Agriculture Committee.
He is especially interested in future business
for Minnesota farmers.
Under a 2000 law that created an exception to
40-year U.S. trade sanctions on Cuba, American
agricultural firms can sell their goods to the
communist-run island on a cash basis.
Coleman has said he believes that eliminating
the U.S. trade and travel restrictions on Cuba
could help nurture democracy and human rights
in the Caribbean nation.
Victor Manuelle Sings at Cruz Tribute
MIAMI, 22 - Latin Grammy nominee Victor Manuelle
sang while hundreds danced in a tribute to "Queen
of Salsa" Celia Cruz during halftime of an
NFL game between Miami and Buffalo.
Cruz's husband, Pedro Knight, also received a
Dolphins jersey during Sunday night's ceremony.
Cruz, 77, died of a brain tumor on July 16. The
Cuban exile was immensely popular in Miami, so
much so that Calle Ocho - the main street running
through the city's Cuban community - has the honorary
name of Celia Cruz Way.
The tribute was part of a Latin-themed night
at Pro Player Stadium in honor of Hispanic Heritage
Month. Marty Cintron, lead singer of the Latin
pop group No Mercy performed "The Star-Spangled
Banner" before the game on acoustic guitar.
Cruz came to the United States in 1960, a year
after the Cuban revolution. She recorded more
than 70 albums, earned a star on the Hollywood
Walk of Fame and was honored with a National Endowment
of the Arts medal by President Clinton in 1994.
On the Net:
http://www.celiacruzonline.com/
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