Posted Friday, March 16, 2001 in the
Miami Herald
Government opponents at odds over referendum project
HAVANA -- (AP) -- While they all agree on a peaceful change for Cuba's
government, the island's best known dissidents are at odds over a proposed
referendum aimed at guaranteeing political rights and civil liberties.
The flap began earlier this month when three leading opposition members sent
a letter to international journalists based here, announcing that they were
collecting signatures for the long-discussed referendum.
Attached were the first 106 signatures gathered, all belonging to opposition
members. The Cuban Constitution requires 10,000 signatures to place a referendum
on the ballot.
The referendum movement is being coordinated by Oswaldo Paya Sardinas, of
Cuba's Christian Liberation Movement; Elizardo Sanchez, of the Cuban Commission
of Human Rights and Reconciliation; and Hector Palacios Ruiz, of the Democratic
Solidarity Party.
But in another letter this week, another group of well-known opposition
members said they were not in full agreement with the referendum and said they
would wait a month to consider signing it so they could discuss their concerns
with project organizers.
Although "some discrepancies have been expressed,'' the doubts by some
over the referendum do not signify a rupture between leading dissident groups,
attorney Rene Gomez, member of the so-called Group of Four, told The Associated
Press.
Gomez and other group members say the referendum should take into
consideration Cubans living in exile and that the project should call for a new
constitution changing Cuba's political model.
The other members of the group are engineer Felix Bonne, economist Marta
Beatriz Roque and former military pilot Vladimiro Roca. The four were jailed in
1997 for criticizing a major document of the Communist Party of Cuba. Only Roca
still remains behind bars.
"Unity no is unanimity and you can have unity within pluralism,'' said
referendum project supporter Paya. "We knew that there was going to be
debate and this is what we are defending: free expression.''
Basulto: I saw MiG, kept flying
By Gail Epstein Nieves and Alfonso Chardy .
achardy@herald.com .Published Thursday, March 15, 2001.
On his third day on the stand in the Cuban spy trial, Brothers to the Rescue
leader José Basulto acknowledged Wednesday he failed to abort a flight
near the Cuban coast when a MiG appeared nearby and shot down two Brothers
planes.
But Basulto rejected defense attorney Paul McKenna's contention that he was "gleeful''
in daring the MiG into a confrontation and therefore responsible for the deaths
of the four people in the downed aircraft.
"No sir,'' Basulto shot back. "I was in denial at that time,''
adding at another point that he didn't believe the Cuban government "would
be stupid enough to shoot us down in international airspace.''
The tense testimony about events that fateful day Feb. 24, 1996, marked the
third day in a row that Basulto and McKenna squared off in U.S. District Judge
Joan Lenard's courtroom.
On Tuesday, Basulto insinuated McKenna was a Communist for vigorously
defending lead defendant Gerardo Hernández, who is charged with
conspiracy to commit murder in connection with the shootdown. McKenna
acknowledges that his client worked for the Cuban government, but denies he knew
Havana's intent.
Hernández's defense, articulated by McKenna in opening statements, is
that Basulto -- not Cuba -- is to blame for the shootdown because he recklessly
disregarded Cuban government warnings to stop intruding into Cuban airspace or
conducting "provocative flights'' near the Cuban coast.
The drama in Wednesday's Basulto testimony came during the playing of an
audio tape and part of a video made inside Basulto's plane as it flew with the
other two Brothers aircraft just north of Cuba's northern coast. Besides
Basulto, the pilot, the passengers were Arnaldo Iglesias, Sylvia Iriondo and her
husband Andrés.
The people in the downed planes included pilots Mario de la Peña and
Cárlos Costa and their respective rafter spotters Armando Alejandre and
Pablo Morales.
After Basulto and his passengers spotted a MiG swooping downward across
their Cessna's windshield, Basulto is heard saying "They are going to
shoot'' and "We have the MiG around -- hee, hee, hee!''
McKenna ordered the tape stopped.
"You were gleeful at that point, were you not, Mr. Basulto?'' he asked,
referring to the high-pitched laughter at the end of the sentence.
"No sir,'' Basulto replied. "I was nervous.''
McKenna persisted.
"You were happy because you were once again in a confrontation with
Cuba.''
Basulto, a veteran anti-Castro crusader, disagreed.
"You are expressing my feelings, Mr. McKenna. At the time, I was
nervous.''
McKenna pressed on.
"While you were laughing, you were sending two young men to their
deaths.''
Before Basulto could answer, Assistant U.S. Attorney John Kastrenakes
objected to McKenna's line of questioning calling it "argumentative.''
Judge Lenard concurred and sustained the objection.
McKenna then asked Basulto why, after the MiG appeared, he did not call off
the mission and order an immediate return to the Brothers' base at Opa-locka
airport
"And you didn't direct the other pilots to retreat?'' McKenna asked.
"Sir, I was in denial at that time,'' Basulto insisted, noting that it
never crossed his mind the MiG would attack.
A courageous voice falls silent
Published Friday, March 16, 2001, in the Miami Herald
Emilio Milián, the Spanish-language radio commentator who refused to
let terrorists silence him, who defended free speech when that was potentially
fatal, died yesterday at 69. But the example of his courage will live on.
Certainly the car bomb that ripped his legs off in 1976 took a toll on his
life and on freedom of expression in Miami. At the time Mr. Milián was
news director at WQBA-AM, La Cubanísima. His programs aired diverse views
-- including those at odds with the virulently anti-Castro line.
Though passionately anti-communist and pro-democracy, he fiercely criticized
terrorism committed in the name of a free Cuba. His courageous editorials
condemned the political violence that rocked this community during the middle
and late 1970s. They also drew death threats.
Miraculously Mr. Milián survived the blast. But his would-be
murderers were never arrested. His radio station later shut him out. And during
his exile from radio for 13 years, intolerance remained an ugly fixture of the
local landscape.
Ultimately he returned to the radio to continue his crusade for free speech
and to become an inspiration for others who might become targets of intimidation
or terrorism. Though gone now from the airwaves, Mr. Milián's voice will
echo in Miami's history.
Copyright 2001 Miami Herald | 