Los Angeles Times.
Friday, January 26, 2001
Two prominent Czech activists became targets of Fidel Castro's wrath
this month after they visited Cuban journalist Antonio Femenias and human rights
activist Roberto Valdivia. That contact could cost them up to 20 years in
prison. So much for the hand of international friendship when politics are
involved.
Ivan Pilip, a Czech parliament member and former finance minister, and
Jan Bubenik, a onetime student leader, have been charged with "counterrevolutionary
plotting on behalf of United States interests." The men were arrested in
central Cuba, where they had met with the two Cuban dissidents.
When foreigners meet with dissidents in Cuba, the standard government
reaction is expulsion. Two Swedish journalists recently were bounced, but the
Czechs presented a greater problem for Cuban diplomacy. Pilip and Bubenik have
gotten squeezed between Czech President Vaclav Havel, who led his country away
from communism, and Castro, a hero of the movement. What once was a warm
relationship between Prague and Havana cooled with the demise of communism and
last year turned icy when the Czechs co-sponsored a joint U.N. resolution
accusing Cuba of human rights violations.
An angry Prague has asked the European Union to press Havana on the
arrests, Germany has demanded that the pair be freed and Washington has issued a
strong condemnation. Wider diplomatic pressure should be applied. European
countries that maintain good relations with Cuba should appeal to Castro to free
the Czechs.
The Cuban caudillo will gain nothing by these arrests and stands to
lose ground with countries that have so far been patient with his dictatorial
policies. | 