Posted on Wed, Mar. 06, 2002 in The Miami Herald.
Castro says he does not blame Mexican Foreign Secretary for occupation
of Mexican Embassy in Cuba
By Anita Snow. Associated Press Writer.
HAVANA - (AP) -- President Fidel Castro said he didn't blame Mexican Foreign
Secretary Jorge Castaneda for last week's occupation of Mexico's embassy here
after comments he made in Miami.
''We do not say ... that Castaneda was responsible for what happened,''
Castro said Tuesday in a live late-night appearance on national television. "His
words were manipulated.''
His ''manipulated'' comments sparked feverish rumors that authorities say
prompted a group of men to steal a bus and crash through the mission's gates.
During his three-hour live appearance on national television, Castro also
defended the way his government handled last week's eviction of 21 young men
occupying the Mexican Embassy.
And he warned that any more Cubans who force their way into foreign missions
here will never receive permission from the Cuban government to leave the
island. ''We guarantee the security of the embassies,'' Castro said.
Cuba has blamed U.S. government's Radio Marti of provoking the occupation by
repeatedly broadcasting a sound bite by Castaneda saying that the embassy's
doors ''are open'' to Cuban citizens.
Castaneda later said his comments, made during a visit to Florida this week,
were taken out of context by ''radicals'' in Miami.
Radio Marti officials have denied provoking the rumors, which spread across
Havana the afternoon of Feb. 27. By that evening at least 100 Cubans had showed
up asking about Mexican visas.
In the increasing chaos around the mission, a group of young men stole a
bus, ejected the driver and passengers, and then crashed the push into the
embassy gate and rushed inside. Several other young men vaulted over the embassy
walls.
Castro said the incident in no way harmed Cuba's relationship with Mexico,
nor changed his view of President Vicente Fox, with whom he spoke by telephone
during the standoff.
The Cuban leader said he considered Fox ''a man of honor'' and insisted that
he had ''no problem'' with the Mexican president's brief meeting with a group of
Cuban dissidents three weeks before during a visit here.
After repeated unsuccessful attempts to persuade the men to leave, Mexico
asked Cuba to help expel them as long as officers were unarmed and limited force
was used. Mexico said the men did not ask for political asylum.
The television program also showed the first public video footage of the
eviction early Friday.
In what Castro said was an operation that lasted exactly 4 minutes and 33
seconds, the young men could be seen being hustled out of the building by
unarmed police officers wearing combat helmets. No weapons were seen and the men
did not resist.
Additional clips showed Castro greeting the police officers later Friday,
hugging their team leader and even posing with them for a group photograph.
Mexican official fired
By Andres Oppenheimer. aoppenheimer@herald.com
A Mexican official was fired from his job for failing to stress President
Vicente Fox's commitment to human rights in Cuba in an e-mail exchange with a
Miami businessman who had written to complain about Mexico's handling of the
Feb. 27 occupation of Mexican Embassy in Havana, Mexican officials said
Wednesday.
The incident took place Tuesday, after the officials received copies of an
e-mail signed by Manuel Morán, the coordinator of Mexico's foreign
ministry's web site, in response to an e-mail sent by a Cuban-born Miami
businessman.
In his e-mail, Morán had written that Mexican President Vicente Fox
had "reaffirmed his position, based on the principle of self-determination,
that the political and democratic evolution of Cuba is the exclusive provinceof
the Cuban people.''
The e-mail echoed Mexico's defunct policy of never criticizing Cuba's record
on human rights, and failed to mention Fox's new, two-pronged policy of seeking
both better trade relations with Cuba and improving relations with Cuban
dissidents.
Miami businessman Armando ''Manny'' Suarez, an executive with The Alison
Group sales promotion company, had earlier sent an e-mail to various Mexican
government web sites complaining about Mexico's approval of the arrest by Cuban
security forces of the 21 Cubans who had stormed into the Mexican embassy in
Havana last week.
''What happened with President Fox's promises of respecting human rights?''
Suarez had asked in his March 1 e-mail.
Hours after he got his first e-mailed response from the Mexican government's
web site, Suarez got a second e-mail, this time by Arturo Sarukhan Casamitjana,
the coordinator of Mexican foreign minister Jorge Castañeda's team of
advisers.
''Dear Mr. Suarez,'' Sarukhan's e-mail said. "I'm writing to you in
response to the letter you sent to the Mexican Foreign Ministry's web site.''
"I'm hereby informing you that the foreign ministry does not stand by
the content of the letter sent by Mr. Manuel Morán, coordinator of the
foreign ministry's web site. It by no means represents the foreign policy of
Mexico's current government, nor its position on international human rights or
democracy. The official has been relieved of his duties.''
In a telephone interview, Sarukhan confirmed the authenticity of his e-mail
to the Miami executive.
''I'm more relieved now,'' Suarez told The Herald Wednesday. "I'm glad
to see that the first e-mail I got does not reflect Mexico's point of view.''
Dissidents' petition gets signatures in Cuba
By Oscar Corral. ocorral@herald.com
In an unprecedented act of nonviolent defiance within Cuba, a loose-knit
coalition of dissident groups has collected 10,000 signatures in a petition
drive to legally demand democratic reforms, the effort's organizer said Tuesday.
Cuban dissident Oswaldo Payá Sardiñas said volunteers
collecting signatures in Cuba during the past year have endured detainment,
harassment, beatings and threats, but have forged ahead. He said Cuban agents
have confiscated some signatures but have not been able to get their hands on
the vast majority because they are hidden in different locales.
The petition requests that the Cuban National Assembly consider a referendum
to ensure fundamental human rights, including freedom of expression, of
assembly, and of the press, free enterprise, electoral reform, and amnesty for
political prisoners.
The effort is intended to attempt democratic reform by exploiting a loophole
in the communist Cuban constitution.
Article 88, subsection G of the 1976 constitution states that if 10,000
citizens support an initiative, it must go before the National Assembly for
consideration. It isn't clear how the petition will be presented to the
assembly, nor how the government would attempt to verify signatures, if it does.
Payá said the coalition will take the petition to the assembly within
the next few weeks, but declined to be more specific to prevent government
interference. Supporters say everyone who has signed the petition can be
considered a dissident and could be subject to reprisals.
The Cuban Interests Section in Washington did not return calls seeking
comment.
CLAIM SUPPORTED
Both the top U.S. diplomat in Cuba and U.S. experts on Cuba said they
believe the dissidents have in fact gathered about 10,000 legitimate signatures.
The movement, which has come to be known as Proyecto Varela, marks the first
time dissident groups have been able to reach beyond their clandestine spheres
to tap into feelings of discontent in the general population.
''Typically, most of the leaders of the dissident movement have admitted
there's a few hundred people really active in it,'' said William LeoGrande, a
Cuba specialist at American University in Washington, D.C. "If they can
actually produce 10,000 signatures, that would really signal their ability to
reach into the community more broadly.''
Vicki Huddleston, the top diplomat at the U.S. Interests section in Havana,
said Proyecto Varela shows the determination of some within Cuba to push for
change, despite the personal risks they run. She said the signatures had been
verified twice by dissidents on the island, and that the government has tried to
quash the movement.
''The significance of this is pretty substantial. I couldn't imagine when I
started doing Cuba in 1989 [at the State Department's Office of Cuban Affairs]
that 10,000 people would risk putting their names on such a petition,''
Huddleston said. "This, again, represents the level of frustration in Cuba
-- that 10,000 people put their necks out on the line by putting their names on
this list.''
To show their support for Proyecto Varela, a group of religious and civic
leaders in the Cuban exile community announced Tuesday in Miami that they had
also collected 15,000 signatures of people outside of Cuba. Among them were:
civic activist Carlos Saladrigas, Bishop Agustin Roman, the Rev. Manuel
Salabarria, the Rev. Guillermo Revuelta, and Brothers to the Rescue head Jose
Basulto.
Proyecto Varela was named after the Rev. Félix Varela, a 19th Century
patriot, philosopher and educator who worked for the abolition of slavery in
Cuba.
''This is in no way a symbolic act, this is the path for change,'' Payá,
head of the Christian Liberation Movement, said in an interview from Havana. "We
are going to give the first 10,000 signatures, and we will continue the campaign
in the whole country because Cuba needs change now.
CUBAN 'FATALISM'
"The theory that we can do nothing until Fidel dies is something we
call fatalism. We can collect these signatures because many Cubans have broken
away from fear.''
Paya and Miami exile activist Ramón Saúl Sánchez said
that during the past few days, Cuban agents have arrested several Proyecto
Varela volunteers on the island in an attempt to quell the growing movement.
Huddleston said she had also heard of reprisals.
''What the government did was pull in four people who had signed and they
had cameras and they tried to convince them with a bit of intimidation to take
their names off the list and they wouldn't do it,'' Huddleston said.
Cuba experts said the fact that so many people have decided to go on the
record against the government is a sign that Cuba is ripe for change from
within.
''To have convinced 10,000 Cubans to take those risks, when the costs
attached have not changed, I think that's significant,'' said Damian Fernandez,
a professor and Cuba specialist at Florida International University. "That
shows there is a potential source for change on the island.''
Ironically, Proyecto Varela has drawn criticism from some segments of the
Cuban exile and dissident communities because it acknowledges the 1976
constitution as the legitimate rule of law in Cuba, Fernandez said.
Some exiles and dissidents believe that the constitution should not be given
this kind of importance. But the Rev. Francisco Santana, a local priest, said
that Proyecto Varela represents a true alternative to other failed attempts.
''Violence hasn't worked, the embargo hasn't worked,'' Santana said. "This
is an effort to change Cuba legally.''
Experts say that while the Cuban government has an opportunity to heed the
will of the people, Proyecto Varela will probably fall on deaf ears.
''Maybe the government has let them go ahead because it didn't think they
could get the signatures, or because they think they can dispose of the petition
easily when it comes before the National Assembly,'' LeoGrande said.
''This is quite new, this civic alternative to power,'' Fernandez said. "I
think it inaugurates a new era.''
Herald staff writer Elaine de Valle contributed to this report.
With hardliners in place, federal pressure on Cuba may increase
WASHINGTON - (AP) -- Some of Cuban President Fidel Castro's most severe
critics are becoming impatient because there has been no discernible toughening
of U.S. policy toward Cuba.
One even said President Bush's first year in office was little more than an
extension of Clinton era policies toward the island.
It turns out, however, that the Bush team is just getting warmed up. One
reason a more assertive policy may be in the offing was the installation in
January of Cuban-born Otto J. Reich as the State Department's top official for
Latin America.
He joins other Cuban-Americans in key positions who, like Reich, have viewed
Castro as a menace for years.
Shortly after Reich took office, the administration began a policy review of
Cuba with a view toward determining Cuba's potential for damaging U.S.
interests.
One issue under study, according to a senior official, is the role
Washington says Cuba plays in international terrorism. Cuba is on the State
Department terrorist country list, a designation based on ties Cuba maintains
with other countries on the list, including Iraq, and the haven Cuba provides
for foreigners linked to alleged terrorist organizations.
As a result of the policy review, the Cuba section of the next State
Department terrorism report, due next month, may add to the rationale for
keeping Cuba on the list.
A key unanswered question is what action the administration would take
against Cuba if the policy review concludes the island represents a genuine
threat to American interests.
Castro argues that Cuba has been the victim of a Miami-based terrorism
campaign that dates back 40 years and has claimed, he says, thousands of lives.
In December, Cuba offered to share intelligence with the United States on
terrorism but the proposal was never taken seriously.
As part of the policy review, officials also are considering a possible
indictment of Castro for the 1996 shootdown by MiG fighters of two Miami-based
private planes near Cuban air space. Three U.S. citizens and one resident alien
were killed.
The administration weighed the indictment option last year, and the senior
official said the matter has not been dropped. One unresolved issue is whether a
foreign head of state can be indicted.
Also on the agenda is whether Cuba is developing a potential to use the
Internet to interrupt U.S. military communications. Vice Adm. Thomas Wilson,
director of the Defense Intelligence Agency, told Congress a year ago that Cuba
has the potential to use ''information warfare or computer network attack'' to
disrupt "our access or flow of forces to the region.''
There has been no public comment on the subject since then but the senior
official, discussing the Cuba situation on condition of not being identified by
name, said the issue is still alive. Castro has ridiculed Wilson's suggestions
as "craziness.''
At a time when the administration is poised to tighten up on Cuba, many in
Congress want to back off. Farm state lawmakers want to be able to sell their
products to Cuba on credit. They believe this would lead to a significant
expansion of the of the cash-only trade that has been legal since 2000 and has
netted only about $40 million in sales thus far.
More worrisome to the administration is a proposal before Congress to lift
restrictions on travel to Cuba. This would give Castro an economic shot in the
arm at a time when his country has been reeling from the effects of Hurricane
Michelle, which struck last November.
In an apparent attempt to swell the ranks of congressional dissenters, top
Cuban officials have spoken optimistically of a ''mutually beneficial
rapprochement'' between the two countries.
But the senior official warns of a possible presidential veto if travel
restrictions are eased. Bush himself has said he will oppose 'any effort to
weaken sanctions against the Cuban government until it respects Cubans' basic
human rights and civil rights, frees political prisoners and holds free and
democratic elections.''
EDITOR'S NOTE: George Gedda has covered foreign affairs
for The Associated Press since 1968. | 
