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Cuban dissident to complete fourth month on hunger strike

Isabel Sanchez, May 30, 2006.

HAVANA (AFP) - Frail and fed through an intravenous tube, hunger-striking Cuban dissident journalist Guillermo Farinas finishes a fourth month defying communist authorities and demanding Internet access even to his death, relatives and dissidents say.

Fidel Castro's rule is in hospital in the central province of Villa Clara where he is rejecting solids and liquids, sustained only by an IV solution, they said.

Over four months his weight has plunged from 78 to almost 50 kilos (172 to 110 pounds), they added.

Fellow dissidents have pleaded urgently with him, in a letter signed by 100 of them, not to keep endangering his life.

But he vowed in a letter he released five days ago, that: "My hunger strike will continue until my death unless Cuban authorities give me the right" to get on the internet and obtain information freely.

Farinas, also a psychologist by training, launched his bold protest against the Americas' only one-party communist regime on January 31.

The government, which controls all local media, has ordered him not to operate his Cubanacan news agency, based in Santa Clara, which it deems illegal.

Farinas has said he wants to use the Internet to report on the 300 or so political prisoners in Cuba, as well as government repression of dissidents.

"We are going to have bad news at any time; he is in critical condition. This man could die. The government is being rigid, and it has his life in its hands," Elizardo Sanchez, president of the outlawed Cuban Committee for Human Rights and National Reconciliation, told AFP.

Relatives and dissident sources say Farinas' digestive system has sustained serious damage and that he has had blood in his thorax and around his lungs.

"He really started the hunger strike over his own case, but now he wants free access to the Internet for all Cubans, not just for him," said Sanchez. "It is a price too dear for this government which is not going to give in, because it sees the Web as a danger and a threat."

Economist Oscar Espinoza, one of the more than 70 dissidents rounded up in a 2004 crackdown, and later released due to his health problems, said the Internet was a "formidable enemy of the government.

"I doubt it is going to give into (Farinas') demand," Espinoza said.

In the letter from Farinas, released by dissidents on Thursday, Farinas pleaded with the new United Nations human rights council to sanction Cuba for denying Cubans the right to communicate and seek information freely.

"I demand that the Castro government instal Internet in my home to set a precedent, as all Cubans want to communicate freely with the civilized and democratic world," wrote Farinas. Dissident sources say this strike was his 20th protest hunger strike.

The government maintains that limited Internet access is a result of the US economic embargo on the island that prohibits the use of underwater telecoms cables just off the coast. It also cites the high cost of Internet service hookups. Havana describes Cuban dissidents as US-funded mercenaries.

Castro's death could spark refugee crisis

MIAMI, 2 (AFP) - As Cuban President Fidel Castro nears his 80th birthday, US authorities are reportedly planning for the fallout in Florida from his eventual death fear a dangerous mass migration of Cubans.

Florida is home to the some 800,000 Cubans and Cuban-Americans, most of whom have been eagerly awaiting the end to Castro's communist rule for decades.

The University of Miami, with the American Red Cross, nonprofit groups and local, state and federal agencies, have completed a comprehensive plan for the days after Castro's death, The Miami Herald said.

"The greatest fear among the planning organizations is another mass migration along the lines of the Mariel boatlift in 1980 or the 1994 Balsero crisis. Much of the report is dedicated to planning for such an event, such as assigning a county official as the point person and assigning specific tasks to deal with migrants," it said.

The University of Miami's Cuba Transition Project drafted the report after two years of meetings among agencies including the US Agency for International Development, the Department of Homeland Security, the Red Cross, Miami-Dade's Office of Emergency Management and Miami-Dade Public Schools.

The government is prepared for the worst, Carlos Castillo, assistant Miami-Dade fire chief who chaired the subcommittee to coordinate local response, told the paper.

"The Coast Guard will take whatever action is necessary to protect the coast," he said. "As far as the airport and port of Miami, the county and federal governments will take whatever steps necessary to ensure the safety of the people in South Florida. If necessary, the federal government has the ability to close the airports and seaports."

During the 1980 Mariel boatlift, about 120,000 Cuban migrants arrived in Miami over a six-month period.

Cuban exiles triggered the mass migration by taking to the Florida Straits to bring over relatives and friends.

Cuba blames the US policy of granting immediate asylum to Cubans who reach US shores for encouraging many Cubans' risky illegal crossings of the shark-infested Florida Straits.

The United States sends home Cubans picked up at sea, but continues to grant asylum to any Cuban who touches US soil.

Castro, in power since 1959, is due to turn 80 in August.

Peru's Humala accused of being manipulated by Cuban and Venezuelan governments

By Monte Hayes, Associated Press Writer Wed May 31, 2006.

LIMA, Peru - Jumping into Peru's election fray, jailed former spy chief Vladimiro Montesinos has alleged in a booklet apparently written in prison that presidential candidate Ollanta Humala is a pawn of Cuban and Venezuelan intelligence.

The timing of the book's publication, five days before the election runoff, raised suspicions that it's part of the dirty campaigning by Humala and his opponent, former President Alan Garcia, who have traded stinging insults in recent days.

But several intelligence experts say Montesinos, the spymaster in former President Alberto Fujimori's autocratic 1990-2000 regime who was captured in Venezuela in 2001 and is being tried on dozens of criminal charges, may simply want to become a political player again.

The 37-page booklet, entitled "Chess Pawn," alleges that Cuba's President Fidel Castro and Venezuela's President Hugo Chavez want to use Humala, a left-leaning nationalist, as part of a strategy to reduce U.S. influence in Latin America.

"Therefore, it is necessary to warn that when Ollanta Humala surges onto the Peruvian political scene with a radical and violent anti-system message, he does it as a spokesman for the Cuban-Venezuela strategy, which constitutes a serious threat to democracy in Peru and a danger for regional security," Montesinos wrote.

His attorney, Estela Valdivia, confirmed that Montesinos was the author, but did not elaborate.

Fernando Rospigliosi, a former interior minister and head of intelligence in the current government of President Alejandro Toledo, said Montesinos was simply repeating what Humala's foes have claimed for some time.

"He wants to be a player in Peruvian politics. That much is clear," Rospigliosi said. "He has been relegated all this time and now he wants to show his head and say something. And to a certain point he has managed to get publicity in the media."

Rospigliosi said the booklet might also be a ploy to permit Humala to play the victim of dirty tricks by Garcia's camp. That was the tack he took in response to another recent Montesinos allegation: that Humala helped Montesinos escape from Peru six years ago by staging a fake military rebellion as a diversion.

Humala, a retired army lieutenant colonel strongly supported by Chavez, launched his political career by leading the short-lived military uprising in October 2000 against Fujimori, whose government collapsed a month later amid corruption scandals centered around Montesinos.

Humala angrily accused Montesinos on Tuesday of working with Garcia's center-left Aprista party to undermine his candidacy.

"I think it's a sign of desperation by Garcia to use Montesinos," Humala said. "A strategic alliance between Alan Garcia and Vladimiro Montesinos is taking shape."

On a campaign swing a day earlier in Piura, on Peru's northern coast, Humala accused Garcia of promising amnesty to Fujimori, who is in Chile battling extradition to Peru, in return for Fujimori's support in the runoff. In a radio interview, he called Garcia "a scoundrel, a demagogue, a populist and irresponsible."

Garcia responded by calling him a "bully" and "a dog that barks but doesn't bite" - dismissing growing concerns that Humala might launch violent street protests if he loses the election. Humala has charged that Garcia is planning a fraudulent victory.

On Tuesday, Garcia said Peruvians had to choose between "Hugo Chavez or Peru" in the election. He warned that if Humala wins, Chavez would run Peru from Venezuela.

Chavez on Sunday called Garcia "a real thief, a demagogue, a liar" and urged Peruvians to elect Humala.

Peru's Foreign Ministry on Tuesday issued a formal complaint - its second in four weeks - about Chavez's interference in Peru's internal affairs to the Organization of American States.

In his campaign, Humala, 43, has tapped into a powerful vein of discontent among Peru's poor majority. He promises heavy state intervention in Peru's free-market economy, which most Peruvians view as benefiting only the rich.

Garcia, 57, a masterful orator whose disastrous 1985-90 administration left Peru in economic ruin, paints himself as a more moderate leftist. He says he has learned from his mistakes and will generally maintain free-market policies that have generated economic growth averaging 5.5 percent the past four years.

Cuba cracks down on cigar smuggling

HAVANA, 31 (AP) - Cuban customs officials seized nearly 25,000 boxes of contraband cigars last year in efforts to decrease smuggling of the world-famous stogies, the island's domestic news agency AIN reported yesterday.

Travelers can leave the island with 23 cigars without receipts, but for any amount above that, they must have proof of purchase from cigar stores approved by Habanos S.A., Cuba's cigar marketing firm.

Cigars are one of the island's most-important exports, worth about $340 million annually. But the prestige of Cuban cigars and a rise in tourism in recent years have combined to increase the black market for the product, prompting customs agents to tighten their controls.

Eighty percent of the cigar contraband is discovered at Havana's Jose Marti International airport, and it's often found on people traveling to Panama or Mexico, customs official Col. Pedro Pupo told AIN. Officials seize the rest at airports in Santiago de Cuba, Varadero and Holguin, he said.

Customs also seized 740 pounds of false cigar seals and stamps last year, AIN reported. The labels are used by those who pass off low-quality cigars as the real thing.

The news agency did not specify how many cigars were in the 24,690 boxes seized last year.

Havana's China immigrants keep traditions

By Vanessa Arrington, Associated Press Writer Tue May 30, 2006.

HAVANA - They came as young men and women, and never left.

Elderly Chinese immigrants still walk the streets of Havana's "Barrio Chino," or Chinatown, where they play mahjong and eat lunch together, practice tai chi and read magazines from their homeland.

There are just 143 natives of China currently registered in Havana - most of them men, according to Cristina Nip, a descendant who runs Chinatown's social work program. After decades on the Caribbean island, they say they feel just as Cuban as Chinese.

"Equal parts both," said 70-year-old Julio Li, whose name itself reflects the blend. "I speak Spanish, and I speak Chinese. I drink Cuban rum, and Chinese tea."

The retired Li read a Chinese-language Newsweek as he puffed away on a cigar, relaxing in a high-ceilinged room of the Min Chih Tang association. He planned to play mahjong later to prepare for a competition that is part of a festival celebrating Cuba's Chinese heritage.

Li came to Cuba with his parents when he was just 14 years old. His father sold vegetables in a Havana market - as would Li.

Many Chinese immigrants arrived on the island after fleeing communism and economic difficulties in China in the late 1940s and 1950s, building a bustling merchant and agricultural class before their chosen refuge also became communist under Fidel Castro.

Some decided to move again, heading to other large Chinese migrant communities in the United States and Latin America after Castro's 1959 revolution. Those who stayed turned their shops and businesses over to the government and got new state jobs.

"Things have really changed here - I just go with the flow," said Li, who said he stayed in Cuba because he lacked the means and the desire to leave. "I don't get involved in politics. Not Cuban politics, not Chinese politics - none of it."

Li is on the younger end of China natives in Havana, most of whom are in their 80s and 90s. Three centenarians from the community passed away last year, according to Nip, who makes house visits across Havana to keep track of those remaining. Several elderly Chinese also live in other cities on the island, though the largest concentration is in the capital.

The Chinese presence in Cuba dates to 1847, when a group of 200 immigrants from Guangdong province arrived on a Spanish ship to work on Cuba's sugarcane plantations. Tens of thousands of Chinese followed from the mid- to late-1800s as contract laborers, many working for years in virtual slavery.

After slavery was abolished in the late 19th century, the Chinese began forming an ascending class of restaurateurs, laundry shopowners and vegetable merchants. Many of them brought their entire families over from China to live with them.

Of the latest flood of immigrants who came to Cuba more than 50 years ago, many have never gone back to visit China, others just once or twice. In 2003, the Cuban and Chinese governments hosted a trip home for five of the immigrants, and plans are in the works to organize visits for about a dozen more, Nip said.

Some of those left in Cuba still pay some attention to political and economic developments in China but seem more interested in the personal news they get in letters from their relatives.

"I'm always thinking about my family over there," said Ofelia Lau Si, 85, who moved to Cuba with her husband in 1949 and is one of just 30 female natives left. "I went back to visit them once, and I was so happy."

But she also has a large family here now, complete with Cuban in-laws and grandchildren who hardly speak Chinese. "They're a bit far from the traditions," she said.

Next to Lau Si sat another China native, 80-year-old Rosa Wong, as they waited for their tai chi class to begin in an open-air Chinatown community center.

Wong's children married other Chinese, and her 20-year-old granddaughter Meyling Wong has become one of the top athletes in Havana's Wushu sport association, winning medals at competitions around the world. "My grandmother often brought me to Chinatown when I was a little girl," Meyling Wong said. "I was always fascinated by the culture here."

Angel Chiong, 81, has gone back to China several times, and still feels a strong link to his homeland. He is administrator of Kwong Wah Po, Havana's only Chinese newspaper, which is published every 15 days.

"I was born there, and that stays with you forever," he said. "But when you're as old as I am, here or there - what's the difference?"

El Duque beats Marlins in 1st Mets start

MIAMI, 28 (AP) - Orlando Hernandez got a little helpful advice from his new teammates en route to winning his first start with the New York Mets.

Hernandez pitched five innings and Carlos Beltran homered in the Mets' 7-3 victory over the Florida Marlins on Sunday.

Hernandez (3-4), who was acquired from the Arizona Diamondbacks on Wednesday, allowed three runs and five hits in five innings. He struck out seven and walked three.

Hernandez credited Mets veterans Pedro Martinez and Julio Franco for helping him through his 101-pitch performance.

"From the dugout, they told me I was opening up too much on my pitches," Hernandez said. "That's what I like - to be told right away what you're doing wrong."

The Mets never trailed after scoring four runs off Marlins starter Ricky Nolasco in the first. Florida cut it to 5-3 but Beltran hit a two-run homer in the fourth, his 14th of the season.

Jose Reyes also finished with three hits as the Mets won their third straight series. New York finished 4-2 on its six-game road trip at Florida and Philadelphia.

Beltran also had a key bunt single to load the bases in New York's big first inning. Cliff Floyd and David Wright had RBI singles, Carlos Delgado drove in a run with a groundout and Jose Valentin added a sacrifice fly in the first.

"That's the way I like to play the game," Beltran said of his first-inning hit. "I just feel sometimes you need to sacrifice for the team and the first inning was a good position to sacrifice the guys over."

New York manager Willie Randolph supported his hitter's decision to bunt from the third slot in the lineup.

"That's part of his game," Randolph said. "I don't mind it because he does it when he has to do it. He's a team player."

Valentin singled in Delgado to give the Mets a 5-3 lead in the third.

Nolasco (3-2) allowed seven runs and 10 hits in four innings. He made his second start of the season after 11 appearances as a reliever.

"I just wanted to stay aggressive in the zone and keep making pitches," Nolasco said. "Maybe some things didn't happen here and there but that's baseball. Everybody is still giving it their all."

An offseason Miami resident, Hernandez admitted to added tension pitching before friends and hometown fans. Sunday's attendance of 17,488 was the highest in the three-game series.

"I appreciated the Marlins fans because even though they wanted the Marlins to win they wanted me to pitch well," the Cuban pitcher said. "That's why I love Miami so much."

Hernandez started Sunday to give Steve Traschel an extra day's rest because of back spasms.

"He's the kind of pitcher that knows how to manage a game and knows how to make pitches when he has to," Randolph said.

Jeremy Hermida hit a three-run homer off Hernandez in the second inning to pull Florida within one. Hermida hit Hernandez's 1-1 pitch over the right-field wall for his first home run of the season.

"I don't believe in moral victories but I also want them to understand that they gave the effort out there," Marlins manager Joe Girardi said. "You can see the improvement and with a young ballclub you have to look at the positives and build from there."

Notes:@ Mets C Paul Lo Duca extended his hitting streak to 12 with a single in the fourth. ... The Mets are 11-4-2 in series this season. ... The Marlins have hit home runs in six consecutive games. ... Miguel Cabrera's streak of two hits in each of his last four games ended Sunday. Cabrera went hitless in three at-bats.

Unbeaten Contreras takes on Jays

CBC via Yahoo! Canada News, May 27, 2006,

One day after pounding one of the hottest pitchers in baseball, the Toronto Blue Jays get a shot Saturday to topple another of the game's top hurlers.

Chicago White Sox starter Jose Contreras puts his unbeaten record on the line when his club visits the Jays at Rogers Centre in Toronto this afternoon.

Contreras has a perfect 5-0 record this season and boasts a major-league leading 1.90 earned-run average.

The Cuban right-hander has been one of the best pitchers since last year's all-star break, posting a 16-2 record in that span, including a stretch of 13 straight winning decisions. His last regular season defeat came back on Aug. 15 of last year.

Contreras has also been effective against the Jays during his career, boasting a 2-0 record, 3.00 ERA and 23 strikeouts over 21 innings.

The 34-year-old Contreras takes to the mound one day after his teammate Freddy Garcia had his seven-game winning streak snapped by the Jays in an 8-2 Toronto triumph on Friday night.

Garcia, who entered the contest as one of baseball's hottest hurlers, surrendered five runs and a season-worst 12 hits over 5 1/3 innings.

Alex Rios, Vernon Wells, Troy Glaus and Reed Johnson all homered for the Jays in the opener of the three-game weekend series.

Paul Konerko clubbed two homers for the White Sox in a losing effort.

The Blue Jays counter Saturday afternoon with starter Casey Janssen. The rookie pitcher enters the game fresh off two straight victories. His most recent win came in a 6-4 victory over the Tampa Bay Devil Rays on Monday.

Janssen allowed four earned runs and six hits over 6 2/3 innings versus the Rays.

The 24-year-old Janssen has never faced the White Sox in his brief big-league career.

The Blue Jays and White Sox wrap up their three-game set Sunday afternoon when Toronto rookie Ty Taubenheim challenges all-star Chicago starter Jon Garland.

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