Yahoo! May 17, 2000
Cuba Signals Pressure on Opposition
By Anita Snow, Associated Press Writer.
HAVANA (AP) - One day after freeing a leading political opponent, Cuba's communist government on Tuesday accused two former allies of nurturing unrest and erased any sign it was easing up on dissidents.
``Counterrevolutionary adventure by the government of Poland in Cuba,'' declared the headline on the top story in the Communist Party daily Granma, which detailed a recent visit by a Polish senator who heads a human rights commission in his country.
The article accused Zbigniew Romaszewski of meeting with ``ringleaders of the counterrevolution'' and also explained his role in the Solidarity movement, which was key to the collapse of socialism in Poland.
Repeated calls placed to the Polish Embassy in Havana seeking comment were not returned. Pert Kavan, first secretary of the Czech Republic's embassy, said his mission would have no comment.
The lengthy article made it clear that Fidel Castro's government remains infuriated with last month's U.N. commission vote censuring Cuba for human rights violations, which had the active support of Poland and the Czech Republic. It also showed that despite the release of two top dissidents in
recent days, the government remains tough on its opponents.
``There is no new flexibility by the Cuban government,'' said Hector Palacios, one of the opponents who met with the Polish senator and was named in the article. ``Cuba is currently in a fight with all of Europe.''
Palacios, director of the Solidarity Democratic Party in Cuba, said that as dissident Marta Beatriz Roque was being released on Monday, he and about 20 others were put under house arrest on the eve of a conference he was to hold in his Havana home on ``Culture and Globalization.''
Roque told The Associated Press on Tuesday that she would resume her life as a political opponent now that she has been freed, despite the time spent behind bars.
``The whole world knows that we are going to continue in the opposition,'' she said. If the releases were not granted as a sign of government tolerance, Roque said it is likely that ``they will have to jail us again.''
Cuba was heavily criticized last year for sentencing Roque and Felix Bonne and two other colleagues to prison sentences ranging from 31/2 years to 5 years for written and spoken statements judged to be ``incitement to sedition.''
The two 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 arrested 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 U.N. Human Rights Commission in Geneva last month 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.
Cuban officials were especially angered because the motion was introduced by Poland and the Czech Republic, former socialist allies which are negotiating the join the EU.
US Praises Cuba Prisoner Release
WASHINGTON (AP)- The State Department welcomed on Tuesday the release of two prominent political prisoners in Cuba and urged the Cuban government to free two of their colleagues who remain in prison.
On Monday, Cuba released Maria Beatriz Roque, one of four members of the Dissident Working Group, all of whom were arrested in July 1997. She was set free eight months before her 31/2-year term was due to end. On Friday, Felix Bonne Carcasses was released, having served less than three years of
a four-year term.
State Department spokesman Richard Boucher also urged Cuba to free all other political prisoners.
He said Cuba should heed nations around the world that have urged the country to abolish laws which are used to punish free expression.
Cuba Seeks Elian MD Return to US
HAVANA, 16 (AP) - The Cuban government said Tuesday it had requested that Elian Gonzalez's pediatrician be allowed to return to the United States and pressed its earlier request for visas for the 6-year-old's four grandparents.
During a regular evening program on state television designed to provide updates on the international custody case, panelists said that Dr. Caridad Ponce de Leon had returned to Havana from Washington.
Ponce de Leon on Monday left the United States, where she had been staying with Elian and his family, because her visa had expired.
While the doctor had said American officials had refused to extend her visa, the U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service said there had been a lack of communications and Ponce de Leon wouldn't have had to depart after all.
Word reached Ponce de Leon in Houston, Texas - where she was changing planes - that she had been granted 15 more days, Cuban officials said. But with the trip already started, the doctor decided it was too late to turn back.
Ponce de Leon, Elian's pediatrician since his infancy, had spent almost three weeks caring for the child at a rural retreat on Maryland's eastern shore. Elian and his immediate family are awaiting a court decision on whether they can return to Cuba, as his father wishes.
Cuban officials said that authorities earlier Tuesday had issued a new request to the U.S. Interests Section in Havana that Ponce de Leon be allowed to return to the United States to care for Elian.
Cuba is also pressing its request for U.S. visas for Elian's paternal grandparents, Mariela Quintana and Juan Gonzalez, and his maternal grandparents, Raquel Rodriguez and Rolando Betancourt, so they can visit with the boy.
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