CUBA NEWS
Yahoo!
Cuba releases dissident journalist
HAVANA, 6 (AFP) - Cuba released journalist
Jorge Olivera, the seventh dissident freed
since November 29 from a group of 75 opponents
jailed last year in a Communist government
crackdown.
Olivera, sentenced to 18 years, attributed
his release to EU diplomacy and the mobilization
of the prisoners' relatives.
"Several elements contributed to the
liberation of seven dissidents these last
few days," Olivera, 43, told AFP a
few hours after his release. "There
is the firm and determined position of the
EU and the courageous attitude of our mothers
and wives."
Fourteen of the "Group of 75"
dissidents arrested in March 2003 have been
released since April 2004, including seven
in the last eight days who were freed due
to health problems. The dissidents had been
sentenced to between seven and 28 years.
"Olivera was released because his
health is very delicate," said Elizardo
Sanchez Santa Cruz, a prominent dissident
who heads the Cuban Committee for Human
Rights and National Reconciliation.
"The government freed them because
it does not want anyone to die in prison,"
Sanchez said. He added that other dissidents
may be released in the next hours or days,
but he did not expect a mass release of
prisoners.
The committee says Cuba holds more than
300 political prisoners.
Cuban officials cited health problems as
the reason for releasing the dissidents,
who are still considered convicts and whose
sentences have not been commuted.
At the time of his arrest, Olivera, a former
producer for Cuban television, headed an
independent news service called Havana Press.
He served 21 months of his sentence.
Olivera said he felt good about being back
home, but that he had been diagnosed with
chronic digestive problems, stress-related
high blood pressure and hiatal hernia.
President Fidel Castro's government began
releasing the seven dissidents four days
after Spain's ambassador to Cuba, Carlos
Alonso Zaldivar, met with Cuban Foreign
Minister Felipe Perez Roque in the first
contact between an EU state and a senior
Cuban official since the European Union
imposed sanctions on the island last year.
The European Union set the sanctions to
protest the crackdown against dissidents
and the executions of three Cubans convicted
of trying to hijack a ferry to the United
States.
Cuba has found itself increasingly isolated
as it seeks foreign investment to overcome
an economic crisis triggered by the collapse
of the Soviet bloc.
The release of dissidents has been viewed
as an attempt at rapprochement with Spain
and Europe by an increasingly isolated Castro.
"I was in prison and didn't have much
information, but I think that the releases
are clear signals from the Cuban government"
toward Europe, Olivera said.
He added that the releases were also due
to international media attention and the
courage of the "Ladies in White,"
a group of relatives of imprisoned dissidents
holding peaceful protests to demand the
release of their husbands, fathers, sons
and brothers.
"There is not a lone factor to explain
our liberation," he said.
Olivera said he will seek permission to
leave Cuba and may head to the United States.
A US official said last week that Cuba
released dissidents after international
pressure, not because of Spanish diplomacy.
After his release, poet Raul Rivero, 59,
expressed his "eternal gratitude"
to the Spanish government for its lobbying
on his behalf. He also urged diplomatic
engagement of Castro's regime.
SCH fined by US govt for transferring
funds from Bahamas to Cuba
MADRID, 7 (AFX) - Banco Santander Central
Hispano SA has been fined by the US government
for transferring funds from its branch in
the Bahamas to Cuba, Expansion reported,
citing 'official documents' relating to
the matter.
The newspaper cited unnamed sources as
saying that SCH paid the fine in the last
few days, adding that it could have been
as much as 'tens of thousands of dollars.'
Expansion noted that in June, Iberia ,
Lineas Aereas de Espana SA was fined 8.2
bln eur by the US authorities for its activities
in Cuba.
The newspaper highlighted the deterioration
in relations between Spain and the US since
the Socialist party came to power in March.
Events in Cuba point to island nation's
desperate state
By Georgie Anne Geyer. Tue
Dec 7, 7:59 PM ET Op/Ed. http://www.uexpress.com
WASHINGTON -- Strange things are happening
in Cuba. Events in the island nation more
and more resemble the surrealism that has
infused all of Latin American literature
with mysticism and, often, mayhem.
First, Chinese President Hu Jintao came
through Havana on his recent triumphal trip
to Latin America, deliberately designed
to usurp American influence in that region.
One would have thought Cuba, with its eternal
anti-Americano bugaboo, would have been
Hu's first "hit" for investment.
But no.
Instead, the young Chinese president, who
is peacefully expanding China's influence
all over the world while America fights
desperately in Iraq, offered no investment
in oil exploration and only a pittance in
nickel. This, after offering to invest $100
billion in Latin America in the next decade.
But perhaps that should not have been so
surprising. Once again, the Cuban sugar
industry is in crisis. Castro, never a stickler
when it comes to dates or hours or the realities
of agriculture, had to postpone the sugar
crop harvest from November to January.
Second, Fidel has been in the news for
releasing some of the political prisoners
who never should have been imprisoned in
the first place. But if you look closely,
he has released them, obviously for international
reasons, under something he calls "licencia
extrapenal," which simply means that
their freedom lasts only a year. Then he
can take them back.
Third, this fall Castro suddenly put a
"tax" on dollars on the island.
Now, anyone who wants to use dollars --
the American currency has in the last few
years become the major currency in Cuba
-- has to pay a 10 percent tax. This seems
to be yet another device of the conniving
Castro to get money from others without
working for it or producing anything.
Fourth, and by far the most interesting
item of late, is the possibility that Fidel
has been money-laundering drug trafficking
funds in Swiss banks. This well-argued theory
is put forward by Ernesto Betancourt, the
Washington-based Cuban-American analyst
who was Castro's top economics adviser in
the year after the revolution. In my experience,
Betancourt has always been right, if controversial,
about Cuba.
American drug analysts have usually argued
that Castro was not involved in the endemic
and poisonous drug trafficking of the Caribbean.
But a Senate hearing found that of an estimated
$4.3 billion in laundered money worldwide,
Cuba accounted for a cash amount of $3.9
billion, discovered in the United Bank of
Switzerland. Repeat, in cash, and to be
deposited, not exchanged. There are only
a few places in the world such money, in
cash, could come from; and if from Cuba,
as reported by defectors and investigators,
it could not come from tourism, most of
which is paid for in foreign countries by
credit card.
"In my view," Betancourt told
me, "what has happened is that Fidel
saw a wonderful opportunity to make a few
bucks by taking advantage of Cuba's unique
competitive advantage for money launderers.
Cuba is not a member of the International
Monetary Fund or the Financial Action Task
Force, the two international organizations
active in fighting money laundering worldwide.
"Therefore, you can deposit your money
in Havana's Banco Nacional and your name
is kept even more confidential than in a
Swiss numbered bank account. The Cubans
then deposit your money, along with that
of others, in an account of the Cuban government
in Switzerland, London, Canada, Spain or
Mexico, and there is no way they can trace
the money back to you.
"Originally the dollar bills were
transported to Cuba by 'mulas,' that is,
people who travel with suitcases full of
dollar bills. Some went through Mexico in
private planes and yachts. Some even went
from Miami and Key West. The $3.9 billion
deposited in the Swiss bank over the last
seven years is only a portion of the total.
And, of course, all this cash in dollar
bills could not be owned by Cuba alone:
They were depositing for somebody else,
and Cuba was collecting only the fee, usually
25 percent to 28 percent.
"Remember, drug traffic generates
about $100 billion a year in dollar bills
at the retail level. The 'capos' of the
drug trade are prepared to pay for legitimation,
so we are talking big money."
If true, and it surely seems to me that
it is, then the nation that began with the
great revolution of the hemisphere in 1959,
and then passed through the "magic
realism" stage, has now, by all accounts,
become a painfully hopeless and depraved
place.
Senator threatens to block Treasury
nominees over Cuba
WASHINGTON, 8 (AFX) -- Sen. Max Baucus
of Montana, the senior Democrat on the Senate
Finance Committee, on Wednesday threatened
to block the confirmation of future Treasury
nominees unless the Bush administration
backs down on rules that could impact agricultural
trade with Cuba. 'I am prepared to hold
up the next significant Treasury Department
nominee until this gets resolved,' said
Baucus. News reports have speculated that
President Bush will move soon to replace
Treasury Secretary John Snow.
This story was supplied
by CBSMarketWatch. For further information
see www.cbsmarketwatch.com.
|
