Mario J. Viera González, Cuba Voz
HAVANA, February - The Elián González affair has been a godsend for the regime in power in Havana. On the one hand, Castro gets the propaganda benefits of presenting his government as the usual victim, and as a bonus he gets to sling mud on his archenemy, the Cuban-American
National Foundation, which he portrays as a mafia organization. On the other, the conflict leaves his room to attack the organized dissidence inside Cuba.
Distracting domestic and international public opinion with the legal situation of the rafter boy, there isn't much attention paid to the great national drama existing in Cuba. The jails keep filling with prisoners of conscience, condemned under laws that violate the spirit of International Law.
One of these laws has to do with the crime of disorderly conduct under a very peculiar interpretation.
While the Cuban government praises strongly confrontational events, such as those in Seattle; Vieques, Puerto Rico; and more recently the events that toppled the constitutionally elected president in Quito, it attacks peaceful opponents in Cuba under charges of disorderly conduct for expressing
criticism of the government.
In the latest round, the government is preparing to try to peaceful opponents, Oscar Elías Biscet and Migdalia Rosado Hernández for disorderly conduct. They are facing three and two years in jail and fines of 5,000 and 1,500 pesos respectively.
They are accused of "disturbing the domestic tranquillity" because on February 22, 1999, they marched in front of a Havana hospital with hand-lettered signs with such slogans as "No to Abortion" and "No to the Death Penalty."
In what other civilized country can this kind of public demonstration constitute "disturbing the domestic tranquillity?"
Cuban dissidents are worried that they might be forgotten, that their voices will be drowned out by the noise surrounding the Elián controversy. Can injustice be hiding behind the propaganda barrage?
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