CUBA
NEWS The
Miami Herald
Cuba won't let ex-political prisoner
leave for United States
Vanessa Arrington, Associated
Press. Posted on Mon, Apr. 11, 2005.
HAVANA - Dissident Jorge Olivera has wanted
to leave communist-run Cuba for years.
The independent journalist managed to get
a visa to the United States in 2002, and
was preparing to head north when he was
picked up in a government crackdown of 75
political activists in March 2003.
After serving 21 months, Olivera was released
from prison for colon problems in December.
U.S. visa and political refugee papers in
hand, he has been ready to leave since,
but still finds himself in Havana after
months waiting for an exit permit from the
Cuban government.
"It's like I'm still jailed,"
Olivera told journalists Monday. "Here
I am still, deprived of my rights."
Olivera's wife and two sons are also ready
to leave the island, and started the necessary
paperwork last fall to get permission from
the Cuban government.
But Olivera said they couldn't get the
permission all Cuban citizens need from
their government to leave their homeland
because he was still imprisoned.
So after his release, Olivera met personally
with immigration officials. He said they
told him on Jan. 6 the exit permits would
be ready in one month, or a maximum of 45
days.
The maximum period passed more than seven
weeks ago.
The 43-year-old said he has since met several
times with immigration officials, who told
him his papers are still being processed.
"I don't see a single reason that
justifies this type of delay," he said.
"I see this as an additional punishment,
and it's affecting my health."
Olivera, who said he suffers severe stomach
pains due to colon problems, says he suspects
the government is stalling because he is
a dissident.
But a Cuban official, speaking on customary
condition of anonymity, said it is not unusual
for immigration procedures to take longer
than expected. Because Olivera's request
for an exit permit has not been flatly denied,
the case should eventually be resolved,
the official said.
Actually, Cuba's government has often encouraged
dissidents to leave the country, especially
if they stay away for good.
Olivera was among 14 dissidents of the
original 75 released on medical parole last
year. The opponents were sentenced to long
prison terms in April 2003 on charges of
working with the U.S. government to undermine
Cuban President Fidel Castro's government
- something they and Washington deny.
Cuba recently allowed Raul Rivero, a well-known
poet and journalist who was also jailed
in the 2003 crackdown, to travel to Spain,
where he arrived April 1 with his wife,
daughter and mother.
Several other dissidents released on medical
parole are also trying to leave, Olivera
said.
While Olivera waits, he worries about being
arrested before his papers come through.
"I don't want the same thing to happen
to me again, where I pay (for dissident
activities) by going to prison," said
Olivera, who was serving an 18-year prison
sentence when he was paroled.
A former television producer with Cuba's
state-run media, Olivera later spent a dozen
years working as an independent journalist.
And after his spell behind bars, he's ready
to go.
"I've given everything I can here,"
Olivera said.
Prisoner burned in Cuban uprising dies
HAVANA, Cuba, 12 (AP) -- An inmate who
suffered severe burns in an uprising at
a Cuban prison has died, officials said.
Inmates at the Combinado del Este Prison
set mattresses and materials ablaze in violence
that left several prisoners seriously injured
on April 5, said Elizardo Sanchez, head
of the Havana-based Cuban Commission on
Human Rights and Reconciliation.
Sanchez said the inmate who died Monday,
identified as 33-year-old Fredy Ibanez Blanco,
was serving a sentence on drug-related charges.
An official at a mortuary in west Havana
confirmed Ibanez's body was expected to
arrive there late Monday.
Sanchez said many of the injured inmates
had refused to participate in the uprising,
angering some of the rioters.
The disturbance, later controlled by Cuban
authorities, was the second in less than
20 days at the Combinado del Este Prison,
which houses thousands of inmates.
Sanchez was trying to verify reports that
other injured prisoners may also have died.
Cuba's communist government issued no official
report of the uprising, but has confirmed
an earlier disturbance at the same prison
March 19, in which there were no deaths
or serious injuries.
From enemy to possible pope
Giving a voice to a church
that had long been silenced, Cuban Cardinal
Jaime Lucas Ortega y Alamino is among a
long list of contenders to become the next
pope.
By Nancy San Martin, nsanmartin@herald.com.
Posted on Wed, Apr. 13, 2005.
This is one of a series of profiles of
the papabili, the pope-ready men in the
College of Cardinals.
Once confined in a Cuban hard-labor camp
with dissidents, petty criminals, homosexuals
and other ''enemies of the Cuban revolution,''
Roman Catholic Cardinal Jaime Lucas Ortega
y Alamino has emerged as a voice in a church
that was all but totally silenced after
Fidel Castro seized power in 1959.
Ortega has earned some respect for his
relatively independent stand on Castro's
communist regime, and worked diligently
to rebuild a church decimated by government
restraints and teach a largely baptized
but vastly untutored population.
Nearly half of Cuba's 11.2 million people
consider themselves Catholics, but few are
devoted practitioners in a nation where
the government was officially atheist for
more than two decades and often promoted
other religions as a counterweight.
Seen as a deft conciliator between the
notoriously divided Cuban exile community
and those who stayed behind, Ortega, 68,
is among several cardinals considered to
be possible successors to Pope John Paul
II.
COMMUNICATOR
Ortega is called an effective communicator
who can bolster the enthusiasm for the Catholic
faith, especially among youth.
He began to emerge as a vocal leader in
1986 when an unprecedented weeklong conference
of Cuban Catholics took place in Havana.
Ortega told delegates that Cuba's is a ''church
whose history has shown that the light always
shines after dark times.'' As president
the Cuban Bishops' Conference, Ortega has
issued several pastoral letters urging a
political opening.
In many ways, Ortega's career mirrors the
experience of the Cuban church.
Born in 1936 in the north-central town
of Jaguey Grande, in the province of Matanzas,
he studied at a seminary in Quebec, Canada,
and was ordained a priest in the Matanzas
Cathedral in 1964.
But under Castro the church-state relations
soured. Many priests were forced to flee
Cuba and religious schools were closed.
Believers were persecuted and religious
expression outside the church was prohibited.
In 1966, Ortega was forced to a labor camp
where he spent about a year alongside others
deemed anti-revolutionary.
For many years, the Cuban church remained
timid in challenging the regime. But it
began to blossom in the mid-1980s when Cuba's
Communist Party began a more tolerant attitude
toward religion.
CHURCH REBIRTH
Ortega was appointed archbishop in 1981
and under his leadership, there was a rebirth
within the church. Mass attendance shot
up and thousands took part in street processions
in honor of Cuba's patron saint, Our Lady
of Charity.
He was tapped by John Paul II in 1994,
becoming Cuba's first cardinal in 30 years.
On most church questions, he hews very
closely to the Vatican line. Ortega has
urged his nation not to construct a post-communist
future on the basis of hyper-capitalist
principles. He also has said the death penalty,
abortion, human rights abuses and the U.S.
embargo against Cuba impoverish the people.
Ortega has been careful not to preach politics,
choosing instead to focus on spiritual concerns
and Christian values. But when he does speak
out, his words are powerful.
He expressed disagreement with the death
penalty in 1989, when Gen. Arnaldo Ochoa
and three other military officials were
executed. He also exhorted the government
to investigate the sinking of a tugboat
in July 1994 that led to the death of more
than 40 people. And in a declaration in
1995, he asked that both the U.S. and Cuban
governments cease to treat Cubans -- both
on the island and in exile -- as political
pawns.
But his biggest moment came in 1998, when
John Paul II made a historic trip to Cuba.
Following the pope's visit, the church
experienced another resurgence and grew
more bold and began distributing publications
that contained candid messages. Still, Cuba
remains the only Latin American nation that
bans parochial schools.
In 2003, Ortega called on the government
to soften its traditionally heavy hand.
''The time has come to go from the avenging
State that demands sacrifices and settles
accounts to the merciful State that is ready
to lend a compassionate hand before it imposes
controls and punishes infractions,'' said
a pastoral letter signed by Ortega.
Anti-Castro fugitive to seek political
asylum
A Cuban exile wanted
by two countries as a terrorism suspect
will claim that he worked for the CIA in
a petition for asylum in the United States.
Associated Press. Posted
on Tue, Apr. 12, 2005.
A Cuban militant accused of plotting to
assassinate Fidel Castro and blowing up
a Cuban airliner in 1976 when he lived in
Venezuela will file a petition for political
asylum by mail today in Miami, his attorney
said.
Luis Posada Carriles, 77, will seek asylum
based, in part, on his claim that he worked
''directly and indirectly'' for the CIA
for years, attorney Eduardo Soto said.
The CIA would not discuss whether Posada
ever worked for the agency, saying the CIA
does not usually comment on such matters.
Foreigners who seek asylum generally get
to stay in the United States while their
cases are decided and could remain permanently
if they can prove persecution or that they
fear for their lives.
Soto plans to hold a news conference Wednesday
afternoon to address questions about Posada's
case. Soto told The Herald that Posada would
not be at the news conference.
Soto declined to say precisely where Posada
is located, or exactly when and where he
entered the United States. But Posada has
a number of financial backers and other
supporters in the Cuban-American community.
Posada is a longtime foe of Castro who
was imprisoned in Panama -- and then pardoned
-- for his role in an alleged plot to kill
Castro while the Cuban president attended
a summit in Panama in 2000. He is a veteran
of the CIA-backed Bay of Pigs invasion in
1961 and was linked to a series of 1997
bombings of prominent Cuban tourist spots.
Although the United States would be unlikely
to hand Posada over to Cuba, Venezuela is
another matter because it has an extradition
treaty. Posada is wanted for escaping from
a Venezuelan prison in 1985 while awaiting
the outcome of a prosecutor's appeal of
his acquittal in the airline bombing case.
Soto said Posada will argue that he unjustly
spent years in the Venezuelan prison even
though he was acquitted twice in the bombing,
which killed 73 people.
Cuba, Venezuela call for exile now in
U.S.
From Herald Wire Services.
Posted on Wed, Apr. 13, 2005.
Cuban leader Fidel Castro and the vice
president of Venezuela are demanding that
an anti-Castro militant accused of blowing
up a Cuban airliner in 1976 not be granted
asylum in Miami.
Miami attorney Eduardo Soto, representing
Luis Posada Carriles, has said the 77-year-old
man is now in the United States and plans
to petition for political asylum this week,
saying he deserves the protection because
he worked ''directly and indirectly'' for
the CIA.
Soto plans to hold a news conference today
to address questions about Posada's case.
In Havana, Castro called Posada a terrorist,
said the U.S. government was harboring him
and complained that the European Union is
saying nothing about that even as it supports
a U.S. campaign to win a condemnation of
Cuba's human rights record at a Geneva meeting
of the U.N.'s human rights branch.
''I'd like to know what the European governments
think of the fact that such monstrous murderers
are welcomed in the United States,'' Castro
said Monday in a nationally broadcast speech.
"That monster has been living there
for 19 days.''
Posada and three other Cuban exiles were
arrested in Panama in 2000 on allegations
of plotting to assassinate Castro, but were
convicted only of endangering public safety.
They were pardoned last year by Panamanian
President Mireya Moscoso.
Venezuelan Vice President Jose Vicente
Rangel said his nation's extradition request
for Posada ''is still pending'' and added
that President Bush should hand over the
longtime Castro foe.
Posada was never convicted in the 1976
bombing of the Cuban airliner, which had
taken off from Caracas, but escaped from
jail in 1985.
He later acknowledged, and then denied,
masterminding a string of terror bombings
in Havana tourist spots that left one dead
and more than a dozen wounded.
|