Published Wednesday, May 17, 2000, in the Miami Herald
Three years in jail don't deter Cuban dissident
By Ana Acle. aacle@herald.com
Marta Beatriz Roque, one of Cuba's best-known opponents of the Communist regime, spent her 55th birthday Tuesday -- her first full day out of prison in nearly three years -- chatting with loved ones, listening to music, and relaxing at home in Havana.
``Prison is very hard, you have to live it to understand,'' Roque said in a telephone interview, her voice choking, as Celine Dion's Because You Loved Me played in the background. She was released Monday.
But the time behind bars did not alter Roque's stance; she has publicly dissented against the government for 11 years. She vowed to continue to struggle for democracy.
Her conditional release went unmentioned in Cuban government newspapers, but made headlines around the world and sparked speculation that colleague Rene Gomez Manzano may also be released soon. Her release, which followed Friday's release of engineer Felix Bonne, also hinted that Cuba is trying
to ease international pressure stemming from human rights violations.
The United Nations condemned the government for that record a month ago, and Cuba has criticized the censure ever since. On Tuesday, the Cuban government singled out former allies Poland and the Czech Republic for their unfavorable votes.
U.S. State Department spokesman Richard Boucher said Cuba should heed nations around the world that have called for the abolition of laws that punish free expression.
``We welcome the two releases,'' Boucher said. ``But we urge the Cuban authorities to free the remaining two members of the Dissident Working Group as well as all the other prisoners who are being held for political reasons.''
Cuban human rights advocate Elizardo Sanchez estimated the number of political prisoners at 350, one-third of whom are considered prisoners of conscience. ``In my opinion, they should not have ever been jailed,'' Sanchez said by telephone from Havana. ``Their only crime was to express a
political opinion.''
Their release, Sanchez said, does not indicate the government will ease up on the dissident movement. He predicted it will worsen. ``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,'' Sanchez said.
Roque and Bonne, along with lawyer Manzano and former military fighter pilot Vladimiro Roca, were jailed in July 1997 and sentenced in March 1999 for writing a pro-democracy leaflet, The Homeland Belongs to All. The four were charged with criticizing the Communist Party's monopoly on power.
Roque was sentenced to 3 1/2 years, Bonne and Gomez to four years and Roca to five. Roca remains in solitary confinement, the harshest of all the punishments, because he is the son of the late Communist leader Blas Roca and was the best known.
``From a personal point of view, I feel good being free,'' Roque said. ``But . . . two others remain in prison. We will not be happy until they are released.''
Roca is president of the Social Democratic Party, Roque is director of the Cuban Institute of Independent Economists, Bonne leads the Cuban Civic Mainstream, and Gomez presides over an independent lawyers group, Agramontist Mainstream.
Miami human rights advocate Ruth ``Chuny'' Montaner said Roque and Bonne were let out of jail for health reasons.
Roque, who had a 52-day hunger strike, suffers from liver problems and low hemoglobin, and Bonne had been hospitalized for 15 days before his release, Montaner said.
``Until they are all released, we won't know if the Cuban government wanted to avoid a major scandal and released the sick or wanted to move forward,'' Montaner said. ``So until we really see the next steps . . . it's too early to say the reason for this release.''
Elian pictures anger exiles
Boy seen wearing communist symbol
By Marika Lynch And Frances Robles . mlynch@herald.com
The latest pictures of Elian Gonzalez showed the boy studying at the Wye Plantation and playing an instrument typical in Caribbean bands. But what angered Cuban Americans on Tuesday was the neckerchief the boy wore -- the uniform for the Pioneers, the youth communist league.
Modeled after groups in the former Soviet Union, the Pioneers instill communist ideals through songs, schedule weekend trips to help with harvests in the countryside, and instruct children to repeat the group allegiance ``Pioneers for communism, we will be like Che [Guevara].''
Membership is expected for Cuban children, who join in the first grade and wear the Pioneers uniform to school. Parents of students who refuse to enroll are ostracized, labeled counterrevolutionaries and denied promotions at work, said Jaime Suchlicki, director of the University of Miami's
Institute for Cuban and Cuban-American Studies. Pioneer members also are instructed to tell on their parents if they make statements against the revolution.
The pictures, released in the Cuban daily Granma, confirmed the worst fears of many Cuban exiles, who believed the boy will be brainwashed by the Cuban government as long as he is with his father.
``Is Elian in Cuba?'' a confused Gladys Chong asked, when her husband, Ramon, burst through the door of their Southwest Miami-Dade home with the news of the images.
``No,'' Ramon Chong, a security guard who came to the United States four years ago, told her. ``It seems communism has penetrated the United States.''
Gladys Chong, who wore the neckerchief in her youth, was shocked.
``They didn't even wait until he got to Cuba to start conditioning him!'' said Gladys, a 44-year-old dental lab assistant.
The images also troubled Dr. Marta Molina, a psychologist who in her 20-year career in Cuba said she treated 500 children with problems she said stemmed from communist indoctrination.
``The oppression has already started,'' Molina said.
The Pioneer uniform is part of a strategy to ensure the boy's return, she said, by convincing Elian that he wants to return to Cuba so he will tell the courts as much.
The boy's Miami relatives were so concerned that they will write a letter to the Immigration and Naturalization Service to complain, said Kendall Coffey, one of the family's attorneys. He said the INS has shrugged off its responsibility for the boy since he was handed to his father.
``We're very troubled,'' Coffey said. ``He's being paraded as a trophy in the garb of the Communist Party. It's happening even more rapidly than our worst expectations.''
The pictures, five in all, did not have captions explaining when they were taken. One showed an indoor classroom scene, with Elian sitting in the front row, wearing the blue Pioneer scarf and a white T-shirt with a picture of Cuban patriot Jose Marti. Wearing the same outfit, he was seen reading
at a desk and being supervised by a woman, who presumably was his teacher, Agueda Fleitas. In another close-up, Elian was apparently in a music class playing claves, hardwood sticks that provide a beat for Caribbean music.
The government agencies involved in Elian's case did not raise an eyebrow over his new clothes. What Elian dons each day is up to his dad, not the government, they said.
``It's not INS's business what Elian wears on a daily basis,'' INS spokeswoman Maria Cardona said. ``Those are issues up to his father.''
Carole Florman, spokeswoman for the U.S. Department of Justice, said the same.
``I think it's his school uniform,'' Florman said. ``The other kids are dressed that way, too. That's not something we're involved in. I don't think it's an area under our control.''
Cuban diplomats said the gripe was just one of many coming from Miami exiles.
``It's part of our system of children going to school,'' said Luis Fernandez, spokesman for the Cuban Interests Section in Washington. ``It's normal. Children go to school in a uniform -- just the way they do at private schools in the United States. I don't see what the problem is.''
While Elian was in South Florida, Havana had complained that the boy's Miami relatives had brainwashed him by sending him to Disney World and keeping him in the company of exile activists.
In other developments, attorneys for Elian's Miami relatives said Tuesday that the boy's father would be powerless to stop the communist regime from sending the 6-year-old to work camps.
``Irrespective of [his father's] wishes, Elian will be doing agricultural work such as cutting sugar cane in the fields, to further indoctrinate him and separate him . . . for extended periods to break down the bond between parent and child and cement the bond between child and state,'' the
attorneys wrote in court papers filed Tuesday.
In their 24-page filing, the attorneys asked the three federal appeals judges presiding over Elian's case to reject an attempt by his Cuban father to replace his Miami great-uncle as the adult who speaks for Elian.
The filing was in response to a motion by Juan Miguel Gonzalez, who is seeking to replace Lazaro Gonzalez as his son's representative.
In a separate 21-page filing, the U.S. Department of Justice urged the appeals court judges in Atlanta to substitute Elian's father for his great-uncle Lazaro Gonzalez, who filed the lawsuit aiming to force the government to give the child a political asylum hearing.
If the court grants the motion, the father will be free to drop the suit and return with Elian to Cuba.
And in Washington, 16 members of Congress led by Rep. Lincoln Diaz-Balart, R-Miami, asked U.S. Inspector General Robert Ashbaugh to investigate the April 22 raid during which the boy was taken from the home of his Miami relatives. Herald translator Renato Perez and staff writer Jay Weaver
contributed to this report.
Judge halts Dade ban on Cuba arts link
By Jay Weaver, Jordan Levin And Don Finefrock. jweaver@herald.com
Saying Miami-Dade County has exceeded the scope of the U.S. trade embargo on Cuba, a federal judge on Tuesday temporarily banned the county from requiring local arts groups that apply for county dollars to pledge they will not do business with Cuban artists or other interests.
U.S. District Judge Federico Moreno granted a temporary order allowing arts organizations to apply for county cultural grants without having to sign most of the so-called Cuba Affidavit, a sworn statement that requires applicants to say they have never done business directly or indirectly with
Cuba.
In his 17-page ruling, Moreno said ''there is a substantial likelihood that the 'Cuba Affidavit' will be found unconstitutional'' primarily because it conflicts with U.S. foreign policy and law.
''The federal government's embargo includes exceptions for cultural exchange, humanitarian assistance and the sale of medicine,'' Moreno wrote. ''The Cuba Affidavit's blanket provisions recognize none of these exceptions.''
But Moreno stressed that his decision does not require the county ''to fund Cuban artists or sponsor Cuban cultural programs.''
The judge's ruling, issued in response to a lawsuit by five local arts groups and producers, was hailed in cultural circles as a victory against artistic censorship. In the Cuban exile community, however, it was seen as a loss in the battle against Cuban President Fidel Castro.
Moreno's order came down just in time for Tuesday's deadline to file for county grants and comes one month before the U.S. Supreme Court is expected to rule on a Massachusetts case involving similar constitutional questions. That high-court decision could dramatically change the county's overall
policy or Moreno's ruling.
The nonprofit arts groups and their lawyers applauded the judge's ruling.
'ACT OF CENSORSHIP'
''Prohibiting arts organizations from putting on performances with Cuban artists is as much an act of censorship as anything else the county can do,'' said American Civil Liberties Union Executive Director Howard Simon, who represented the arts groups. ''The mayor must have skipped that day of
law school when they talked about the First Amendment and censorship.''
Miami-Dade Mayor Alex Penelas downplayed the significance of the decision and disagreed with the ACLU's characterization.
''It would appear to be a setback, although it is only temporary in nature,'' Penelas said. ''The judge said we have to accept these applications. We can't require the affidavit. That's what it said and we are going to comply with the law.
''I don't believe it is censorship, Penelas added. ''All this says is we will not fund or do business with entities that do business with a country that violates human rights.
RULING'S IMPACT
The impact of the ruling could be much greater if county attorneys decide that the decision also applies to county contracts. Right now, the county requires companies that bid on public contracts to also submit a signed Cuba affidavit with their bid.
''We are looking at that. I don't know that we have gotten that far in our analysis, Assistant County Attorney Bob Cuevas said. ''It's a big issue.
In his ruling, Moreno did not answer the First Amendment challenges in the class-action lawsuit filed by the Miami Light Project, Gable Stage, the Cuban Cultural Group, Hugo Cancio and Debra Ohanian. But he did say the court was ''troubled by the implications the Cuba Affidavit may have on the
First Amendment.''
FILED LAST MONTH
Filed by the ACLU last month, the nonprofit groups' suit argued that the county's policy violated their rights to free speech and free association as well as the federal government's sole right to set foreign policy.
Directors of arts groups said they were gratified by what they saw as growing support against the county's Cuba policy.
''We are very proud to be part of this lawsuit and we are pleased to sign the affidavit with all the offensive sections crossed out,'' said Beth Boone, director of the Miami Light Project.
''Before, not only the public but many arts groups did not understand the affidavit,'' she said. ''We gain support as the community becomes better educated about the facts about this affidavit. I think people are outraged that censorship is alive in Dade County. It's cultural McCarthyism, and I
don't believe we should be restricting cultural exchange.''
Joseph Adler, artistic director of Gable Stage, said that local arts groups involved in the suit should not be cast as Castro sympathizers.
''This is not a vote of confidence for Fidel Castro and the Cuban government,'' Adler said. ''It's a vote of confidence for the First Amendment.''
MANY CONTROVERSIES
In recent years, Miami-Dade's policy has led to a stream of controversies and cost the county millions of dollars because of lost events. In 1998, for example, the county canceled an opening night party and withdrew funding for the Midem international music market because organizers were
presenting Cuban musicians.
Last year, a local group bidding to hold the Pan Am games in Miami-Dade in 2007 pulled out after realizing the county would not support the event if Cuban athletes participated. And groups putting on the Junior Pan American games moved the event to Tampa for the same reason.
In January, organizers of the first Latin Grammy Awards announced they would hold the internationally televised show in Los Angeles, because of the county's refusal to make the American Airlines Arena available -- again because Cuban musicians might participate.
GRANTS RESCINDED
In February, the county rescinded almost $50,000 in grants from the FIU Miami Film Festival because it showed a Cuban film, and in March the county came close to canceling the opening night party of an international conference of Latin American scholars, again because Cubans would attend.
Moreno's decision will affect two of the county's 14 competitive grant programs and about $280,000 in funding, said Michael Spring, the county's director of cultural affairs. The programs are the International Cultural Exchange and Tourist Development Council grants.
The ruling provoked a strong reaction among several members of the Miami-Dade Commission. The commission has voted twice this year to strengthen the controversial Cuba policy.
'VERY DISTURBING'
''This is very disturbing, said Miami-Dade Commissioner Miriam Alonso, one of seven Cuban Americans on the commission.
''Now they [the applicants] will be considered even though they don't have the affidavit, she said.
Commissioner Javier Souto, a veteran of the Bay of Pigs, said he would look for other ways to enforce the county's policy on Cuba, if the affidavit is struck down.
''We will need to be creative in finding ways not to make things easy for Mr. Castro, not to do business with his government, which in my view prolongs the tyrannical regime in Cuba, Souto said.
Souto said he would not support an exemption for cultural exchanges under the existing policy, because those exchanges provide moral and financial support for the Cuban government and its supporters.
TIMING NOTED
Souto noted that the ruling comes at a time when exiles in Miami are fighting efforts in Washington aimed at easing the Cuban embargo. That effort is being spearheaded by American corporations.
''Unfortunately, we live in a world that is ruled by money. For some, but not for me, money goes ahead of principles, Souto said. ''Cuba is the ripe fruit ready to be picked by someone . . . We are going to see a lot of people trying to make money and we are going to have to deal with that.
But immediately on the horizon is the U.S. Supreme Court's decision in a similar case that could nullify Miami-Dade's policy permanently.
At issue is whether the justices will restore a 1996 Massachusetts law that banned that state from buying products and services from firms that do business with Burma, a military dictatorship. The court agreed to hear arguments in March after lower federal courts struck down the state
legislature's law as unconstitutional.
No more censorship on arts, cultural events
There are limits on the power that even a large majority can wield
By Howard L Simon.
Is it possible that, at long last, we might have an open discussion of Miami-Dade County's Cuba policies?
Not too long ago, local politicians simply retaliated against those who failed to tow the line. Recall the firing of Peggy McKinley from the Media Advisory Board for questioning the economic impact of the county's cultural embargo -- an action still being challenged in court by the American
Civil Liberties Union?
Of course county commissioners have acted irresponsibly by using the Cuba ordinance to drive business elsewhere -- an estimated $40 million from the lost Latin Grammy Awards and another $130 million by rejecting the 2007 Pan-American Games, all because Cuban nationals might participate. But this
issue is more about censorship than about damage to the local economy.
Censorship is not merely the crude seizure of magazines from airport newsstands; it also is being imposed locally by the power of the purse.
Yesterday a federal judge rightly ordered Miami-Dade County to accept applications for arts and cultural grants without requiring applicants to sign an affidavit swearing that they do not engage and have not engaged in business with a Cuban national, the government of Cuba or persons engaged in
business with Cuba. The judge referred to provisions of the affidavit as ``offensive.''
At issue in the lawsuit filed by the ACLU are not just grants but the right to use publicly owned county facilities for artistic and cultural events. Currently arts groups aren't even permitted to use private funds to stage an event that involves a Cuban national.
County commissioners illegally impose such requirements despite federal law that exempts artistic, scientific and cultural exchanges from the embargo on trade with Cuba. The U.S. District Court's initial ruling came yesterday because that was the deadline for submitting the affidavits and grant
applications.
Florida International University now faces economic retaliation from county commissioners for showing Life Is To Whistle at the recent FIU/Miami Film festival, apparently in violation of the Cuba ordinance. The film nonetheless added to the public's understanding of the difficulties of life
under Castro -- just as the plays of the South African playwright Athol Fugard gave us a better understanding of life under apartheid.
The commission majority -- and possibly a majority of county residents -- may favor censoring arts organizations by prohibiting the spending of county dollars on what is politically incorrect in Miami-Dade County. But, and here's the rub, there are limits on the power that even a large majority
can wield.
Government ``may not prohibit the expression of an idea because society finds the idea itself offensive or disagreeable.'' That, the U.S. Supreme Court has said, is the bedrock principle underlying the First Amendment. It is also hypocritical to impose censorship in Miami under the guise of
fighting repression in Cuba.
Howard L. Simon is executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union of Florida.
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