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CUBA
NEWS
The
Miami Herald
Hijackers' attorneys seeking a delay
Posted on Tue, Mar. 09,
2004.
Attorneys for six Cuban hijackers are seeking
a brief delay in sentencing scheduled for
March 31 so they can try to interview a
government witness who decided to defect
rather than return to Cuba.
Flight steward Abilio Hernandez Garcia
reportedly moved to an undisclosed location
in the western states.
Attorneys for the six hijackers, who were
convicted in December, asked to interview
Hernandez to see whether he would change
his testimony now that he isn't facing a
return to the Castro regime.
U.S. District Judge James Lawrence King,
in an order released Monday, ordered prosecutors
to ask Hernandez if he wishes to change
his testimony or submit to new interviews.
King did not rule on the request to reschedule
the March 31 sentencing.
The hijackers are facing minimum-mandatory
sentences of 20 years in prison.
Cuban opposition members launch anti-death
penalty campaign
Andrea Rodriguez, Associated
Press. Posted on Tue, Mar. 09, 2004
HAVANA - Opposition groups on Tuesday launched
an anti-death penalty campaign in Cuba,
where three men were sent to the firing
squad last year for trying to hijack a ferry
to the United States.
"Historically in Cuba there has been
strong opposition to capital punishment,"
opposition member Manuel Cuesta Morua told
a news conference.
Cuesta Morua's organization, the Moderate
Opposition's Reflection Group, is among
several backing the national campaign against
capital punishment.
When Cuba's communist leadership upheld
a court ruling that sent the three would-be
hijackers to the firing squad last April,
capital punishment had not been applied
on the island for three years. The defendants
were accused of using weapons to threaten
some of the dozens of passengers aboard
even though no one was harmed.
There have been no more reports of capital
punishment being applied on the island in
almost a year since.
Last year's executions came amid a growing
wave of attempted and successful plane and
boat hijackings, alarming officials both
here and in the United States about a possible
migration crisis. They also came amid a
massive crackdown on some of the island's
most vocal dissidents.
The communist government justified the
executions as a painful but necessary measure
to halt an exodus of Cubans.
Leonardo Calvo, coordinator of the anti-death
penalty campaign, told reporters that the
groups hoped to encourage a national debate
about capital punishment, and survey citizens
about the issue.
I still speak my mind, Cuban artist
contends
By Juan Carlos Perez Rodriguez,
juanchi@bellsouth.net. Posted on Mon, Mar.
08, 2004.
Carlos Varela, whose March 10 Miami concert
was canceled when his U.S. visa was denied,
jolted Cuba's music scene from the late
1980s to the mid-1990s. His songs criticized
the island's government and brilliantly
articulated his generation's grievances
and disillusionment.
Varela, 40, considerably toned down the
stridency and combativeness of his social
commentary in his last two albums, 2000's
Nubes and last year's Siete, both of which
are more intimate than his earlier work.
Last December, he turned some heads when
he performed with Cuban superstar Silvio
Rodríguez in Venezuela in support
of President Hugo Chávez.
The prospects of a concert hadn't generated
the controversies that often erupt when
a Cuba-based artist performs here. However,
Eloy Cepero, who is on the board of directors
and executive committee of the Cuban American
National Foundation stated, ''Our position
is that this gentleman hasn't defined himself
yet, as his trip to Venezuela with Silvio
Rodríguez to support President Chávez
shows.'' Cepero added that as a high-profile
artist, he should be much more vocal in
demanding the release of the jailed dissidents
in Cuba or else come out and say he supports
the actions of the Castro government.
Through his Havana-based manager, Varela
declined to be interviewed by phone, but
agreed to an e-mail dialogue, although he
abstained from responding to direct political
questions, including any about his Venezuela
trip. ''I don't like to talk about politics
nor politicians,'' he wrote.
He did give an endorsement of sorts for
the Varela Project, writing: ''I know about
the Project, but I don't know them. I don't
consider the art of dissent to be bad in
any society.'' He didn't sign on to the
project because he never appends his signature
to others' letters and projects, preferring
instead to let his songs speak for himself,
he wrote.
DISSENTION SONGS
Dissent overflows from the stinging songs
he recorded between 1989 and 1995, such
as Guillermo Tell (William Tell), Soy un
Gnomo (I'm a Gnome), Tropicollage and El
leñador sin bosque (The Woodless
Logger). Those songs earned him idol status
in Cuba, while followers abroad marveled
at the talent and audacity of the young
musician.
Asked if he continues to feel in 2004 the
same urgency to complain about things he
views are wrong with cuban society, he wrote:
'I'm still a sharp observer of my surroundings'
reality, both inside and outside of Cuba
-- maybe in the late 1980s, more than an
observer. I was a sort of photographer of
my surroundings. Someone once said it's
possible to tell a significant portion of
my country's history through my songs.''
Valera claims that through the years, he
learned to examine what he experiences and
thinks. . "Now I'm digging deeper,
searching more and questioning more, to
get to the essence of the stories I want
to sing about.''
The new album, Siete, is consistent with
his previous ones but shows him as a more
mature songwriter, he claims. "Regarding
the issue of addressing more personal, and
thus more universal, themes, it's not a
change, but a consequence brought on by
the passing years. I also have a heart and
there are albums that come out more personal
than others.''
And he is realistic about the limits of
what his writing can accomplish: "I
know that a song can't prevent the world
from being in the state it is. A song can't
prevent entire families from living separated
in the two shores by flags, borders, religions,
governments, illusions and disillusion.
But at least I believe that a good song
can shelter the soul.''
REBELLIOUS SPIRIT
Varela retains his rebellious spirit, says
Edmundo García, 38, a Miami-based
TV and radio journalist who hosted a cultural
affairs TV program in Cuba between 1985
and 1999 and knew Varela well.
''Carlos Varela continues to be the type
of irreverent, self-marginalizing, dissatisfied
and rebellious artist he has always been,''
García says. "At a personal
level, Carlos continues to be the same enchanting
nutcase, completely iconoclastic, and maybe
because of those qualities he does inexplicable
things, such as traveling to Venezuela with
Silvio Rodríguez to sing for Hugo
Chávez.''
As many suspect, Varela has endured severe
censorship in Cuba, García said.
"The government has always looked at
him with distrust, because he's not a cheerleader
for the Revolution. He's not servile and
he certainly doesn't belong to the government's
star system.''
Varela maintains he doesn't censor himself
when he writes songs and that he has remained
the same: ''I have been consistent in my
work from the beginning, and however polemic
or controversial my songs have been, reality
is always more critical than any song.''
Some of his early songs that were never
played on radio are now being broadcast
in Cuba. ''He who perseveres, triumphs,''
he wrote.
But have his songs caused him problems
with the government? ''Problems, no. Lack
of understanding, maybe, but not so much
because of the songs, but because of the
concerts,'' he wrote. His concerts are multitudinous
affairs and they elicit big security deployments.
"A concert of ours can be like a soccer
game.''
He disputes the notion that all Cuba-based
artists are envoys of the government: ''I'd
say that is as silly as thinking that all
North American musicians are envoys of their
government.'' About the possibility that
the concert would have drawn protesters,
he wrote: "I love freedom of expression
and if they decide to protest, the only
thing I can tell them is that they have
every right to do so.''
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