CUBA
NEWS
Yahoo!
Cuban Gov't. Supporters Decry Dissidents
Mon
HAVANA, 10 (AP) - Several hundred mostly
elderly Cuban government supporters surrounded
a home where dissidents were scheduled to
meet on Monday, derailing the gathering
as they shouted in favor of Fidel Castro's
government and against political opponents.
It was the first known public disruption
of any meeting by the moderate group known
as the Arco Progresista, or Progressive
Rainbow.
"I think this is a message that here
they are not even going to accept democratic
socialism," said Eugenio Leal, who
lives in the apartment where the dissidents
had planned to meet to discuss their magazine,
"Consenso," or "Consensus."
"This is a policy of zero tolerance,"
said Manuel Cuesta Morua, a well-known moderate
dissident and spokesman for Progressive
Rainbow.
Leal said a group of retirees who belong
to Cuba's Communist Party had warned that
they would not allow the regularly scheduled
meeting to take place Monday.
Such pro-government disruptions generally
target more hardline dissident groups or
relatives of political prisoners.
Freed Cuban Journo Makes Emotional Homecoming
To IAPA
Editor & Publisher,
Oct 11, 2005.
INDIANAPOLIS After a decade of membership
in the Inter American Press Association--enduring
abuse from Cuba's Communist government that
included a 20-year jail sentence imposed
in 2003--independent journalist Raull Rivero
spoke Monday night for the first time to
the free-press group in this unlikely location
in America's heartland.
"For the first time, my reports (to
IAPA) have the bitter taste of distance
from Cuba", Rivero said in a dinner
speech to delegates of IAPA's 61st General
Assembly.
Rivero said IAPA's support was critical
to sustaining the morale of him and the
26 other journalists rounded up in March
2003 and sentenced to long prison terms
just for doing their jobs with faith and
with professionalism.
Keep supporting the work and keep the solidarity
with the jailed journalists, Rivero, speaking
Spanish, told the IAPA audience.
Rivero said he, like other prisoners, was
sustained by the mere mention of my name
in the numerous alerts and protest letters
IAPA sent on his behalf.
The great tragedy of the prisoner is not
the number of years you have in jail, but
to be forgotten, he said.
Rivero, who has health problems, was freed
last Nov. 30, and in April was permitted
with his family to travel abroad. He now
lives in Spain. Rivero was scheduled to
speak to IAPA on Sunday night, but was held
up by U.S. Immigration as he entered the
country.
In 1995, Rivero founded the news agency
Cuba Press with about a dozen other journalists.
It grew to more than 100 journalists, he
said. He joined IAPA 10 years ago, and has
served as its vice president for Cuba on
the organization's freedom of press committee
since 1998. He has been a member of its
board of directors since 2002.
This was the first time he was able to
attend an IAPA convention, San Antonio (Texas)
Express-News Executive Editor Robert Rivard
noted in his introduction to Rivero.
He was either in jail, or in the other
jail that is the island, said Rivard in
Spanish, describing Rivero as a living symbol
of liberty.
Rivero was once a favored journalist with
the state media, even serving as Moscow
correspondent. He resigned from the state
agency in 1991, and in 1993 was a signatory
to the famous Letter of Ten Intellectuals,
a petition asking President Fidel Castro
to release political dissidents from prison.
Of the ten, Rivero was the only one who
stayed on the island, Rivard noted.
In his speech, Rivero specifically thanked
Roberto Trotti, IAPA's director of press
freedom, and Alberto Ibarguen, the former
publisher of The Miami Herald.
In a light moment, Rivero noted that he
had been sentenced to 20 years, more than
this regime is likely to survive.
-- Mark Fitzgerald (mfitzgerald@editorandpublisher.com)
is E&P's editor-at-large.
| 
