Miami Herald. Wednesday March 22
Havana turns up pressure on journalists
Reporters detained, forced to leave Cuba in crackdown
By Juan O. Tamayo . jtamayo@herald.com
The Cuban government ratcheted up pressure on local and foreign journalists last year, detaining about 40 Cubans and forcing at least 10 others and one foreigner to leave the island, two major reports allege.
Foreign correspondents in Havana complained separately Tuesday of government attacks on them this month and a delay in official accreditation that they perceive as a possible threat to restrict their work.
``There has been a fundamental intensification of controls on reporters, Raul Rivero, Cuba's best known independent journalist, said in a telephone interview from Havana. ``It is a dark period.
The crackdown appears to be part of a broader government campaign to muffle criticism that Cuban human rights activists have called the worst in a decade, with more than 300 dissidents detained, harassed or threatened. Details of the pressures on reporters were contained in a report issued today
by the New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists and the U.S. State Department's annual human rights report issued Feb. 25. Both sum up incidents that occurred in 1999.
``President Fidel Castro's government did its best to stamp out independent journalism in Cuba this year, the journalists committee said in its report on attacks on freedom of the press around the world.
About 40 of Cuba's 100 independent journalists were detained for brief periods in 1999 by plainclothes security agents who identified themselves only by their first names, the committee reported.
Many were threatened with prosecution under a 1999 law that established prison terms of up to 20 years for those who send reports abroad that support U.S. sanctions on Cuba, the report noted.
CPJ's report said security agents also seized tape recorders and cameras from independent journalists -- most of them donated by foreign supporters -- and monitored and interfered with their telephone conversations.
The ``constant harassment forced 10 Cuban journalists into exile during the year, the CPJ report said, although Rivero gave higher numbers. He said his CubaPress news agency alone is down to 10 journalists, from 34 in early 1999.
Rivero also said four independent journalists are in prison, convicted of vague charges such as showing ``disrespect toward Castro and for ``dangerousness -- conduct ``in manifest contradiction with the norms of socialist morality.
The State Department report said foreign journalists in Cuba also came under increased pressure in 1999, ``including official and informal complaints about articles, threatening phone calls and lack of access to officials.
Although Havana does not impose prior censorship on reports by about 25 foreign correspondents in Cuba, it uses the threat of visa and accreditation withdrawals to try to temper their work.
Castro criticized several correspondents by name in televised speeches, the State Department report said, a clear threat in a country where the ``maximum leader's judgment is seldom challenged.
Two correspondents left Havana in 1999 ``under difficult circumstances, the report added, and Cuban officials ``persuaded a major international news agency to replace its bureau chief in Havana by promising increased access to government officials if it did so. The State Department did not name
the bureau chief, but correspondents in Havana identified him as Denis Rousseau of Agence France-Presse, singled out by Castro in several of his televised scoldings.
Cuba cautions against 'false optimism'
By Juan O. Tamayo. jtamayo@herald.com
The Cuban government cautioned its citizens against ``false optimism Tuesday in the wake of a U.S. judge's refusal to block the return of Elian Gonzalez, saying the dispute is far from over.
``It is necessary to analyze the apparently positive news with serenity and cold blood, without underestimating the obstacles . . . that must still be overcome to win the return . . . of the kidnapped child, a communique said.
The brief statement appeared to recognize that the battle over the 6-year-old child will take time to wind its way through the U.S. legal system, and that his return to Cuba is not imminent.
Elian's father, Juan Miguel Gonzalez, made no immediate comments on the ruling by Judge K. Michael Moore rejecting a request by the child's Miami relatives that he order to INS to grant him an asylum hearing.
The government communique said the news from Miami ``should not allow us to fall into false optimism or excessive illusions. . . . Perhaps this battle that our country is waging today will still require great efforts.
In an update of its Internet edition on Tuesday, the Communist Party newspaper Granma topped its front page with a wire dispatch from Miami on Moore's decision and provided a link to the English-language text of the ruling, but did not comment on it.
Six Cuban journalists, a psychologist and a legal experts who took part in a televised analysis of the ruling later Tuesday pronounced themselves satisfied but urged Washington to act ``rapidly and energetically'' to return the child to Cuba. Cuban President Fidel Castro was at the TV studio
during the discussion, but did not take part.
The chief of the Cuban diplomatic mission in Washington, Fernando Remirez de Estenoz, participated by telephone, saying that reaction throughout the United States -- except Miami -- had been positive and that his office has received ``numerous calls of support'' from U.S. Congress members.
``Elian's case has opened the eyes of many Americans as to the exact meaning of the [U.S.] policy against Cuba and the negative influence wielded by counter-revolutionary groups in Miami,'' Remirez de Estenoz told the eight analysts.
S. Florida calm after decision
Exile leaders await appeal of ruling
By Elaine De Valle. edevalle@herald.com
Calm was the order of the day Tuesday for South Florida's Cuban exiles, even though they were disappointed about the federal court ruling on Elian Gonzalez, the community's latest rallying point.
No streets were blocked, no intersections closed, no protests on strategic corners. There were no masses waving flags or anti-Castro signs.
By late afternoon, about two dozen people had gathered outside the small Little Havana house where Elian Gonzalez has lived since he was plucked from the sea four months ago this Friday. The boy was found clinging to an inner tube after a tragic voyage from Cuba that left his mother and 10
others dead.
As the boy's great-uncle Lazaro Gonzalez, drove up just after 2 p.m., they chanted, ``Let him stay. Let him stay.''
Exile leaders made no calls to action, many stating that they wanted to allow the judicial process to continue.
``We are going to wait to see what happens with the appeal,'' said Ninoska Perez-Castellon, a spokeswoman for the Cuban-American National Foundation.
``We were expecting this. We knew there were going to be appeals, and this is a process that needs to take its course,'' she said. ``But we are confident that this boy will have his day in court and that his welfare is considered.''
Democracy Movement leader Ramon Saul Sanchez urged the community to keep cool.
``We are going to keep monitoring the situation,'' Sanchez said. ``These moments are critical because the government could consider that they have some latitude to take the boy, but I imagine that they won't do that already knowing about the intent to appeal.''
He added that, most likely, leaders would only organize protests if the INS did not allow the appeals process to move forward.
``We will only participate in demonstrations if the government intends to pass over the other recourses the boy has -- the court of appeals and the Supreme Court.''
Miguel Saavedra, president of Vigilia Mambisa, was also in a wait-and-see stance.
``We decided that when and if the alert was given, we would commence protests. But we have to be careful in these things. We will look ridiculous in front of the government of Cuba and the world if we act too quickly,'' Saavedra said.
``If and when the time comes, we will do things by the law.''
Representatives of different exile groups will meet today to decide what action to take.
``We are trying to find out what the legal implications and recourses are and what are the desires of the family, which is very important,'' said Jose Basulto, Brothers to the Rescue leader. ``We will support them however we can.''
He is worried that the INS would take immediate steps to return Elian to his father in Cuba by having U.S. marshals forcibly remove the boy.
But Perez, of the foundation, said she didn't think the government would act hastily.
``They could have done it from Day One,'' she said. ``I don't know if they are willing to pay the political price that that would carry -- especially in an election year.''
The anti-embargo Cuban Committee for Democracy issued a news release late Tuesday saying the ``rule of law has prevailed in this case, and now we must respect that decision and begin to heal the damage caused by this conflict.''
But Executive Director Elena Freyre took a cautious stance similar to that of the Cuban government.
``Even though the ruling has been issued, I don't think that it's imminent that Elian is going to be returned,'' Freyre said. ``[Attorney General] Janet Reno has always said that what she is not willing to do is to take the National Guard and grab that kid from his house.''
Freyre hoped that a more human approach could be taken.
``What needs to happen now is for the father to come. He has to come to the United States and say, `I want my kid. Give me my kid.' He's said it: Once he knows that he can get his child, he'll come.
"At least that would not be so traumatic for the child.''
Citizenship action remains on hold
Lawmakers await legal ending
By Frank Davies And Karen Branch. fdavies@herald.com
WASHINGTON -- Mindful of political reality, members of Congress who proposed legislation to help keep Elian Gonzalez in Miami reacted cautiously Tuesday to a federal judge's ruling that makes the boy's return more likely.
Sponsors of bills to grant citizenship or residency to the 6-year-old said they were disappointed in the ruling but will not press their campaign on Capitol Hill until other legal efforts in the case have been exhausted.
``Im still trying to assess what we should do, and my instinct is were not going to move on the legislative front until the judicial options have played out,'' said Sen. Connie Mack, Florida Republican and principal backer of the citizenship measure in the Senate.
Rep. Bob Menendez, a Cuban-American Democrat from New Jersey and a sponsor of a House bill to grant permanent residency to Elian, acknowledged that there is still not enough support for his bill.
Mack also noted that there is resistance to the bills among some Republicans. GOP leaders in both houses shelved the bills in late January, after many Republicans said they didn't want to get involved in the international controversy.
Sen. Bob Graham, the Florida Democrat who backed Mack's efforts, sounded a similar theme: ``While we are a nation of laws and must respect today's decision, the judicial process with regard to this case is not yet complete. It is my strong hope that Elian will have an opportunity to make his
case before a judge with experience in applying the best-interest-of-the-child standard.''
The Cuban American National Foundation, the exile communitys major lobbying organization, has pushed for the legislation as a way of taking the case away from federal authorities and securing a ``day in court'' in Florida family court.
OTHER OPTIONS
``There are still other legal options, and were not hitting the panic button -- this is a marathon,'' said Jose Cardenas, CANF's Washington director, who confirmed that the group would hold off -- for now -- on pushing hard for any legislation.
Rep. Dan Burton, the Indiana Republican who issued a congressional subpoena for the boy aimed at keeping him in the country, also took a go-slow approach.
``This is just Round One,'' said Mark Corallo, a spokesman for Burton. ``We've got a long way to go. Mr. Burton always said he wanted to see this decided in a court of law. It's still in a court of law.''
One House co-sponsor of an ``Elian bill,'' Republican Bill McCollum of Orlando, said the judge's ruling would eventually make legislative action necessary.
``I am greatly disappointed,'' said McCollum, a candidate for Macks Senate seat. ``Todays ruling leaves no recourse except for Congress to take the matter out of the hands of the INS and allow the child's case to be decided by a custody hearing, which can only happen now if Elian is granted U.S.
citizenship.''
RULING CRITICIZED
The Houses Cuban-American members criticized Judge Moores ruling and stressed a similar urgency over the boy's fate.
Lincoln Diaz-Balart and Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, two Miami Republicans, released a joint statement that critiqued Moore's 50-page ruling. The two House members noted that Moore found Elian, through his great uncle, had legal standing to sue the federal government -- but was prevented from advancing
an asylum claim.
``Despite the fact that Elian was not permitted any such administrative due process, Judge Moore shockingly and incongruously proceeded to rule that Elian had no rights,'' the two members said.
One legislative recourse under review, said Menendez, was for a congressional committee or chairman to request INS to stay any order to return the boy while Congress reviews the case.
Menendez suspects events since the filing of his House bill seeking permanent residency may have won some more votes.
``A lot has transpired: Sister [Jeanne] O'Laughlin, the things we have seen with the grandmothers,'' Menendez said. ``There's a lot of information here that goes to the very nature of the opinion as to whether or not Elian should have his chance.''
O'Laughlin, president of Barry University, hosted a meeting between Elian and his grandmothers from Cuba, then later said Elian should stay in the United States.
McCollum and the two Miami Republicans went beyond the ruling to criticize the Clinton administration for its efforts to return to the boy to his father in Cuba.
``We must never lose sight of who is responsible for returning the boy to totalitarian oppression -- Bill Clinton,'' said Diaz-Balart and Ros-Lehtinen.
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