Yahoo! May 16, 2000
Cuba Releases Second Dissident
By Vivian Sequera, Associated Press Writer.
HAVANA, 16 (AP) - Cuba freed the second of four well-known opponents in a surprise move likely to ease some international pressure on the communist island, which is still stinging from last month's United Nations censure for human rights abuses.
But while admitting that her time in prison was hard, Marta Beatriz Roque insisted shortly after her release Monday that her time behind bars did not change her political beliefs.
``I am a member of the opposition and will be until we have a democratic country,'' she said, recalling what she told the president of the tribunal when she was sentenced last year to 31/2 years.
She was surprised when they released her after she'd served all but eight months. ``I didn't believe it when they told me,'' said Roque, who turns 55 today. ``Imagine the birthday present!''
Cuba continues to receive heavy criticism a year after sentencing Roque and her colleagues to prison sentences ranging from 31/2 years to 5 years for written and spoken statements that were judged to be ``incitement to sedition.''
Last month, the U.N. Human Rights Commission in Geneva censured Cuba for the second consecutive year, voting 21 to 18 to criticize it for ``the continued violation of human rights and fundamental freedoms.'' Fourteen members abstained.
Several days later, the European Union confirmed that Cuba had canceled a planned visit by a senior EU delegation after European nations voted in favor of the censure.
The delegation was scheduled to visit Cuba in late April, headed by senior diplomats from Portugal, which currently holds the EU presidency. Talks had been expected to focus on plans to develop trade ties between Cuba and the 15-nation bloc.
Cuban human rights advocate Elizardo Sanchez said he believed that the Cuban leadership decided to free at least two of the prisoners because relations with other countries were being overshadowed by the case.
``The government of Cuba wanted to take the theme of the four off the agenda,'' said Sanchez, of the Cuban Commission of Human Rights and National Reconciliation. ``It was coming up in all of Cuba's international contacts.
``It would have been difficult to explain to the international community that with more than half of their sentences completed and with good conduct that they had not been freed.''
The first of the four, engineer Felix Bonne Carcasses, was released Friday. He had been sentenced to four years, walking free after serving a little less than three years. The government and the state-controlled media has not commented on either release.
The other two opponents still jailed are lawyer Rene Gomez Manzano, sentenced to four years, and Vladimiro Roca, a former military fighter pilot and son of a revered Communist Party leader. Roca was sentenced to five years.
Although jailed in July 1997, the four were not sentenced until last spring.
They were charged with criticizing a Communist Party document that they said did not present solutions to Cuba's severe economic problems, and for holding several rare news conferences with the foreign media to publicize their complaints.
The government accused the four dissidents of promoting aggressive U.S. policies toward the communist nation and trying to harm the economy by discouraging foreign investment.
The charges also included encouraging Cubans not to vote, urging foreign businessmen not to invest in Cuba and asking Cuban exiles to encourage relatives on the island to undertake acts of civil disobedience.
The Vatican, the European Community, Canada, the United States and others protested the sentences as excessive and called for the opponents' release.
Cuban officials have repeatedly referred to the opponents as "counterrevolutionaries,'' rejecting the characterization of the four as prisoners of conscience.
Let Americans Travel Freely To Cuba, Says CruiseReports
Company Press Release. Tuesday May 16, 5:20 am Eastern Time.
MORRISTOWN, N.J., May 16 /PRNewswire/ -- CruiseReports has called for an end to the U.S. government's restrictions on travel -- including cruises -- to Cuba. ``This anachronism from the Cold War era proved itself ineffectual decades ago; now it has become simply stupid and hypocritical,'' wrote
Editor-in-Chief Michael Brown in the newsletter's May issue.
``The situation has now been given a twist of absurdity with the launch of a Canadian venture that has found a legal loophole to allow it to sell Americans cruises to Cuba,'' he added. Details of the new Nassau, Bahamas, to Havana, Cuba, cruises are also reported in the current issue of
CruiseReports.
``The U.S. doubles over backwards to accommodate the communist, and demonstrably oppressive, government of China,'' Brown added. ``Government officials advocate trade and travel as ways to 'open up' China to the forces of change. In this case, they argue that closer ties between nations benefits
everyone.
``That seems sensible enough,'' he concluded. ``What doesn't make sense is the failure to apply the same wise approach to dealing with our next-door neighbor in the Caribbean.''
Most major cruise lines would be quick to add Cuba to Caribbean itineraries and offer short cruises between Havana and American ports, if the law allowed them to do it, according to Brown.
The complete CruiseReports stand on opening Cuba to Americans is available in the ``Editor's Log'' section of the newsletter's web site at http://www.cruise-report.com, or by calling (973) 605-2442.
CruiseReports has set a new industry standard with its uniquely objective cruise ship ratings based on the judgments of paying cruise passengers who rate ships on which they have recently sailed. The newsletter publishes the averaged numerical ratings received along with quotes from the
reviewers' comments.
CruiseReports is located at 25 Washington Street, Morristown, NJ 07960; telephone, (973) 605-2442, and fax, (973) 605-2722. The publication is also available on the World Wide Web at http://www.cruise-report.com. Address e-mail correspondence to cruises@gti.net. Mail subscriptions are $69.95 per
year (12 issues) in the U.S., and US$77.95 in Canada. International subscriptions are available for US$134 per year. The newsletter is also available by e-mail worldwide for $49.95 per year.
SOURCE: CruiseReports
INS-Cuban Spy Case Set To Begin
By RACHEL LA CORTE, Associated Press Writer
MIAMI, 16 (AP) - Mariano Faget admits he made errors in judgment, but the veteran Immigration and Naturalization Service official denies that he ever spied for Cuba.
Federal investigators have charged Faget with violating the Espionage Act, saying he revealed classified information to a friend during a sting and lied about his contacts with Cuban officials.
Faget, a Cuban-born U.S. citizen who started working for the INS as a clerk in 1970 and rose to become acting district deputy director in Miami, goes on trial this week. Jury selection, which was to begin today, may prove to be a challenge in a county populated by 800,000 Cuban-Americans, many
of whom have strong opinions against any involvement with Cuba while Fidel Castro is in power.
If convicted, Faget faces a 10-year prison term.
Faget, 55, has been held without bond since his arrest Feb. 17. Prosecutors say he was shown secret documents during a Feb. 11 sting and told that a Cuban official was about to defect. He allegedly called New York businessman Pedro Font 12 minutes later and passed on the information. Font, a
Cuban-American, is a childhood friend of Faget's.
Six days later, INS investigator James Goldman drove Faget to a meeting with FBI Special Agent James Patrick Laflin and other FBI agents. Faget was arrested during the meeting, after six hours of questioning.
Laflin said Faget was arrested because they believed he was not being truthful with them.
``There would be no purpose to arrest him if he was going to cooperate with the FBI,'' Laflin told the judge hearing the case. ``He made it plain to us ... that he was not trustworthy.''
The FBI said Faget also repeatedly lied to agents about how many times he met with a top Cuban diplomat, Jose Imperatori, insisting it was only once.
Faget has said he met with Imperatori to talk about potential business opportunities in a post-embargo Cuba, not to relay U.S. secrets. The case led to Imperatori's expulsion from the United States.
Faget is charged with making false statements about his contact with Cuban intelligence agents and diplomats and his involvement in a company with foreign business connections. Prosecutors dropped a third charge of making false statements Monday, saying it was not essential to the case.
Elian's Doctor Returns to Cuba
By George Gedda, Associated Press Writer.
WASHINGTON, 16 (AP) - Elian Gonzalez's pediatrician headed back to Cuba on Monday believing her U.S. visa was about to expire. But U.S. officials said she could stay another two weeks.
Caridad de Las Mercedes Ponce de Leon Narvaez boarded a late morning Continental Airlines flight at Reagan National Airport and flew to Houston on the first leg of her return trip.
Her departure surprised the Immigration and Naturalization Service. INS agents caught up with Ponce in Houston and told her she could fly back to Washington, agency spokeswoman Maria Cardona said.
But Ponce told the agents her plans had already been set, Cardona said. She planned to arrive in Cuba by way of Cancun, Mexico.
While declining to immediately return to Washington, Ponce she said she hoped to rejoin Elian soon, Cardona said.
Ponce arrived on U.S. soil on April 27 on a two-week visa. Customs agents confiscated medications she was carrying on grounds that she was not licensed to treat patients in the United States.
Her visa expired last Thursday. At the request of Elian's father, Juan Miguel Gonzalez, her visa was extended until Monday.
Cardona said Ponce was told late last week the INS was inclined to allow her to remain until the end of the month.
The INS was prepared to contact Ponce on Monday about her visa status but learned belatedly that she had booked a seat on the flight to Houston.
``Nobody told her she had to go,'' Cardona said.
At the airport Monday morning, Ponce said she was distressed about the prospective separation from the boy.
``I came here confident that I would be allowed to stay for as long as I was needed,'' she said. ``I have every confidence that this will be resolved and that I will be permitted to return.''
Cardona said the INS was willing to allow Ponce to remain because the elder Gonzalez made a strong case on her behalf.
According to Cardona, Gonzalez said Ponce played a ``very significant role in creating a stable environment for Elian.'' He also described her as a friend of the family.
Elian has been at the Maryland retreat with his family for all but the first few days after he was seized by INS agents from relatives in Miami on April 22.
Ponce said that Elian has had no contact with the relatives since then, and has declined to talk about his months in Miami.
``It's very difficult to make him talk about that,'' she said through a translator. ``We told him he could talk about whatever he wants....We told him that those people in Miami had some good qualities. They took care of him during those months.''
Elian has been joined in Maryland by four classmates, who have helped him achieve a sense of normalcy after almost five months in Miami, Ponce said.
Morning classes at the retreat are helping him catch on the schooling he missed while he was in Miami, Ponce said.
Elian and his father are awaiting a court decision on whether the boy will be allowed to return to Cuba, as his father wishes.
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