|
Cuba's Castro Marking
45 Years in Power
By ANITA SNOW, Associated
Press Writer. Thu Jan 1, 1:48 AM ET
HAVANA - With many of his most vocal critics
silenced by long prison terms and the island's
tourism industry on the mend, 77-year-old
President Fidel Castro has much to celebrate
on the 45th anniversary of the New Year's
Day revolution that brought him to power.
The bearded guerrilla leader is showing
his age, but he still has the stamina to
give a speech lasting eight hours, as he
did at a parliamentary session earlier this
month.
A major address by Castro was considered
likely over the next few days, although
nothing was announced by Wednesday. Numerous
concerts and other cultural gatherings were
scheduled around the island on Thursday
and Friday, both official holidays.
But while Castro's government trumpeted
its economic turnaround, political opponents
complained that they are more repressed
than ever.
"If we wanted to classify 2003 we
could say, without doubt, it has been a
year of repression," activist Claudia
Marquez, wife of imprisoned dissident Osvaldo
Alfonso, wrote for the Miami-based Web site
Cubanet. "Not only against dissidence
and the independent press, but against the
populace in general."
More than two generations have passed since
Castro and his fellow rebels marched down
from Cuba's Sierra Maestra mountains to
celebrate the hurried departure of then-President
Fulgencio Bastista from the island on Jan.
1, 1959.
Today, Castro is the world's longest ruling
head of government and president of just
four surviving socialist systems - the only
one in the Western Hemisphere. His leadership
over this over this Caribbean nation of
11.2 million remains unchallenged.
And despite the predictions a decade ago
that Cuba's socialist system would collapse
after the Soviet Union broke up and withdrew
its aid and trade, the nation in 2003 enjoyed
2.6 percent economic growth, powered by
a rebound in tourism. Economic growth for
all of Latin America and the Caribbean during
the same period was 1.5 percent.
"United, we struggle. United, we triumph,"
read the 45th anniversary posters around
town, featuring a historic photograph of
Castro and fellow bearded rebel leader Camilo
Cienfuegos back in January 1959.
But while Castro's communist government
celebrates its survival and exhorts its
people to unity, a potent dissident movement
still bubbles beneath the surface - even
after the roundup that jailed 75 independent
journalists, opposition party leaders and
other activists in March.
Many Cubans, including 73-year-old Mauro
Sampera, publicly support Castro's government.
"For the new year, my hope is for
health and that the revolutionary process
continues," said Sampera, a retired
teacher selling used books Wednesday in
Old Havana. "Without the revolution,
my four children would not have gone to
university."
But there is an increasing sense that not
everyone agrees.
"My wishes for the new year? We Cubans
have a lot of wishes for the new year. But
we cannot talk about them here in public,"
said a younger bookseller who declined to
give his name.
Oswaldo Paya, probably Cuba's best known
dissident, remains free and continues to
boldly push for deep changes in Cuba's centralized
political and economic systems.
In mid-December, Paya called for a national
dialogue, providing a detailed document
he says could be used as a guide for a democratic
transition.
The government publicly ignored that document,
just as it earlier shelved Paya's Varela
Project, an effort that delivered to the
Cuban parliament more than 25,000 voter
signatures seeking an initiative on rights
such as freedom of speech and assembly.
Many of the 75 dissidents sentenced to
prison terms of six to 28 years were Varela
Project volunteers, accused them of being
mercenaries working with U.S. diplomats
to undermine Castro's system - charges they
denied.
Leaders and human rights groups around
the globe condemned the spring crackdown,
as well as the firing-squad executions of
three men who tried to hijack a passenger
ferry to the United States.
President Bush used the crackdown as a
pretext to further tighten longstanding
restrictions on American trade with and
travel to the island.
But Cuba opened its arms to American farmers,
buying U.S. agricultural goods under an
exception to trade sanctions first imposed
in 1960 by President Dwight D. Eisenhower.
Communist officials say that over two years
they have contracted to buy more than $500
million in American farm goods. Cubans rang
in the new year with meals comprised largely
of American-produced food: chicken, beans,
rice, and apples.
|
