Published Saturday, February 10, 2001, in the
Miami Herald
Czech envoy vows to continue pressure on Cuba
By Jane Bussey . jbussey@herald.com
Despite speculation to the contrary, the Czech Republic announced Friday
that it would once again this year sponsor a resolution condemning Cuba's human
rights record at the annual meeting of the U.N. Human Rights Commission in
April.
For the past two years, the Czech Republic, along with Poland, has sponsored
the anti-Cuba resolution at the meeting in Geneva, but diplomatic negotiations
leading to the release last week of two prominent Czech citizens jailed in Cuba
prompted reports that the Prague government had quietly agreed to alter its
anti-Cuba stance.
In a telephone interview with The Herald, the Czech ambassador to the United
States, Alexandr Vondra, said his country would continue its activist role in
pressuring Cuba to improve its human rights record.
``Of course we will. Today the spokesman for the Czech Foreign Ministry
announced that the Czech Republic will sponsor the draft of the resolution
again,'' Vondra said.
Czech legislator Ivan Pilip and former student leader Jan Bubenik were
arrested Jan. 12 in Cuba for meeting with island dissidents, but instead of
being placed on trial in a revolutionary court, they were released 10 days ago
after days of quiet negotiations that involved diplomats from several countries.
Vondra said the Cuban government yielded to international pressure to put an
end to the diplomatic row.
``What Castro definitely did not like was the reaction to the arrest abroad.
Perhaps he underestimated the public reaction and the media reaction and the
expressions of solidarity,'' Vondra said.
The Czech envoy said that at the same time that international pressure was
rising, Castro held a six-hour meeting with Czech Senate Chairman Pit Pithart
and also received a group from the Inter-Parliamentary Union, which has a
meeting planned for Cuba in April.
Vondra said there was little doubt that the arrest of a Czech member of
parliament -- and the subsequent outcry from the European Union and other
leaders in Europe -- placed that meeting in doubt.
``The fact is there were two dialogues with the Cubans,'' Vondra said.
``One was the Czech dialogue. At the same time there was the delegation of
Inter-Parliamentary Union, and they met with Castro as well. I think that they
played a role in the release.''
Looking for the real Cuba from atop a motorcycle
Mi Moto Fidel: Motorcycling Through Castro's Cuba. Christopher P. Baker.
National Geographic Adventure. 302 pages. $26.
By Kevin Baxter . kbaxter@herald.com. Published Sunday,
February 11, 2001, in the Miami Herald
The highway from Havana to San Jose de las Lajas is a wide,
pool-table-smooth strip through the middle of Cuba's most populous province. On
most days, hitchhikers far outnumber cars, and on the sunny April morning I made
the trip, many of them were clad in olive-green Cuban army fatigues.
The military presence would have unnerved most norteamericanos making their
first trip to Cuba but not my traveling companion. ``You know,'' Bill said as
our van strained to pass a troop transport weighed down with recruits, ``I'm
amazed we haven't seen any soldiers out here. I thought they'd be everywhere.''
Christopher P. Baker, like my friend, also began his recent exploration of
the island filled with preconceived notions. And it's his efforts to reconcile
those visions of the country as a socialist and sensual Shangri-La with the
reality of life that drive this energetic street-by-street examination of
contemporary Cuba.
Baker took the time to study the place as few foreigners do, on a
three-month, 7,008-mile motorcycle tour. What he found was a Cuba that, despite
his numerous previous trips to the island, he never knew existed -- yet one that
had been there all the time.
A change of heart wasn't what Baker had in mind when he and his 1000cc BMW
Paris-Dakar arrived in Havana in early 1996. He was planning to research a
travel book -- and, judging from carnal escapades that dominate the first half
of the journey, to sow some wild oats.
But his timing couldn't have been worse. U.S.-Cuba relations were at their
lowest in decades following the shootdown of two Brothers to the Rescue planes
by Cuban MiGs, and the Cuban economy, especially in the countryside, was
reeling. Everywhere Baker was met by suspicion and poverty, although unyielding
bureaucrats and empty supermarket shelves did little to lessen the hospitality
of everyday Cubans.
Many also were quick to share their displeasure with the revolution, and
that drumbeat of unhappiness, combined with the unrelenting poverty, eventually
took its toll. Six weeks into his trip, Baker began doubting his unquestioned
support of Fidel Castro's government and the knee-jerk way he blamed all the
island's troubles on the U.S. embargo.
``El bloqueo is morally repugnant. It costs Cuba dearly,'' one Cuban tells
him. ``But el sistema is to blame. We are disgusted. . . . Only el jefe can be
right.''
For Baker, it was an epiphany. Cuba wasn't an island paradise; it was more
like Alcatraz -- a police state in which simply surviving another day required
fortitude and ingenuity. Even the embargo, long the linchpin of Washington's
Cuba policy, emerged in a new light, because while it punished everyday Cubans,
it actually aided Castro, who has used it as an excuse to crack down on
dissidents, ration basic necessities and outlaw civil liberties.
Certainly Baker isn't the first person to change his mind on Cuba, but in Mi
Moto Fidel, he goes public, and since the book unfolds in chronological order --
sprinkling in large doses of Cuban history, vivid descriptions of the
breathtaking countryside along with far too many details of amorous liaisons --
it's easy to follow the conversion, which he completes with a harsh 12-page
epilogue written after another visit in 1999.
It's a depressing end to what began as a hopeful journey, and Baker's pain
in waking from a dream only to confront a nightmare is apparent. If only reality
were so easy to change as perception.
Kevin Baxter is The Herald's arts editor.
Copyright 2001 Miami Herald
Related information
Mi Moto Fidel: Motorcycling
Through Castro's Cuba / At Amazon.com
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