The Washington Post. Wednesday, March 8, 2000; Page A30
THE SAD Elian Gonzalez case has, sadly, diverted attention from a more important story involving Cuba: the slow but steady growth of organized democratic opposition within the island--and the attendant harsh crackdown by Fidel Castro's government. On Feb. 25, while the American media were busy
with the Elian story and an espionage scandal involving alleged Cuban penetration of the Immigration and Naturalization Service, a 38-year-old Afro-Cuban physician named Oscar Elias Biscet was sentenced in Havana to three years in prison for organizing civil disobedience against the Castro
dictatorship. Among the charges against Dr. Biscet was "dishonoring patriotic symbols"--that is, he hung some Cuban flags upside down as a sign of protest. The fairness of Dr. Biscet's one-day trial should be evaluated in the context of the fact that Fidel Castro had publicly attacked him
in a speech last November.
Elizardo Sanchez, president of the nongovernmental Cuban Commission of Human Rights and Reconciliation, released a report March 2 showing that, in the preceding four months, "there was the largest number of acts of political repression in the last ten years." Some 592 activists were
arrested or otherwise had their freedom of movement restricted by authorities during that period, Mr. Sanchez reported. Twenty-one of these people remain in detention. Also behind bars is Marta Beatriz Roque, who is ill and has been imprisoned since July 1997 along with three other leaders of the
Working Group for Internal Dissidence; Fidel Castro has rebuffed all past pleas for the release of these peaceful democrats, including appeals from Pope John Paul II.
Given the historical weakness of Cuba's internal civic opposition, it is actually good news that nearly 600 people are outspoken enough to evoke such a repressive response. And the recognition the dissidents received from foreign heads of state visiting Havana for the Ibero-American Summit last
November was a blow to the regime's legitimacy. Indeed, the crackdown may be Fidel Castro's answer to that international rebuke. Elian is an emotionally and legally charged drama; but, in terms of the island's political fate, a sideshow, which is probably why Fidel Castro milks it for every ounce of
propaganda effect he can.
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