CUBA NEWS
Yahoo!

Cuba imprisons more dissidents, activist says

AP, July 6, 2005.

Cuba's communist government has jailed 13 more political opponents this year, most on charges of "dangerousness," a veteran rights activist reported Tuesday.

The report released Tuesday by the Havana-based Cuban Commission on Human Rights and Reconciliation said the total number of political prisoners as of June 30 was 306.

The charges against those jailed highlight the government's practice of making ambiguous accusations against its opponents, said Elizardo Sanchez, the activist who runs the non-governmental commission, which releases reports every six months.

The list includes most of the 75 dissidents arrested in a roundup on the opposition in March 2003, even though 14 of those were freed on parole last year.

Of those 14, two of them were taken off the list because they left Cuba after their release. Sanchez said the other 12 remained on the list because they could be returned to custody if they violate parole.

The 75 activists were arrested in March 2003 on charges of being mercenaries working with the U.S. government to undermine Cuban President Fidel Castro's government, something the dissidents and American officials deny. Sentences ranged from six to 28 years.

Cuba says it holds no prisoners of conscience, only common criminals.

Among those on the commission's list are two Central American men who were found guilty of terrorism for placing explosive devices in public places. The men received the death penalty but the sentences have not been carried out.

Year's first Atlantic hurricane threatens Jamaica, Haiti, Cuba 20 minutes ago

MIAMI, 6 (AFP) - Tropical storm Dennis strengthened into this year's first Atlantic hurricane as it neared Haiti, Jamaica and Cuba, with a longer term track taking it over offshore oil platforms in the Gulf of Mexico.

Information gathered by the crew of a US hurricane hunter aircraft showed that Dennis packed maximum sustained winds of 130 kilometers (80 miles) per hour with higher gusts late Wednesday.

At 2200 GMT the storm was located 505 kilometers (315 miles) east-southeast of Kingston, Jamaica, and 540 kilometers (335) south-southeast of Guantanamo Cuba, according to the Miami-based National Hurricane Center.

Dennis was likely to be centered near Jamaica early Thursday, according to the NHC, which warned that the hurricane could also pummel parts of Haiti, Cuba and the Cayman Islands, and said the storm would likely strengthen.

By the weekend, Dennis could be entering the Gulf of Mexico, where several oil platforms already had been evacuated ahead of Tropical Storm Cindy.

Cindy was downgraded to a tropical depression after making landfall early Wednesday, flooding streets, causing minor damage and cutting power to about a quarter of a million people, many of them in New Orleans.

The severe weather systems caused concern on oil markets, with the price of crude surging almost 1.70 dollars to 61.28 dollars a barrel in New York at close of business Wednesday.

Cason: U.S. to Maintain Position on Cuba

Associated Press, July 7, 2005.

America's top diplomat in Cuba said Wednesday that the United States' hard-line stance against the communist country will remain in place long after he leaves in the fall.

James C. Cason, called divisive and provocative during his nearly three years as head of the American mission in Havana, said his successor will be equally unwavering in carrying out U.S. policy that opposes Fidel Castro's government and encourages Cuban activists fighting for change.

"There is no reason to believe there will be any loosening of anything we do," Cason told The Associated Press at his home in a Havana suburb. "Fidel said there couldn't be anyone worse than me _ he may be sorry."

His successor has not been announced, but Cason said the candidate served in Afghanistan and has worked on human rights issues.

Cason, who leaves Sept. 10 at the end of the office's standard three-year stint, has been the Cuban president's No. 1 nemesis on the island since arriving to Havana in the fall of 2002. The two have battled through words and symbols, with tensions reaching a peak in December when the U.S. Interests Section displayed a prominent sign among its Christmas decorations reading "75" _ a reference to 75 activists imprisoned in a 2003 crackdown.

Cuba erected a billboard facing the seaside mission, emblazoned with photographs of U.S. soldiers abusing Iraqi prisoners, the word "fascists" and images of swastikas.

"We just threw a rock in to the bush, and out came the true nature of the beast that had been trying to hide, because he overreacts," Cason said of Castro.

What Cuban officials call provocative and divisive, the 60-year-old Cason calls creative and thought-provoking. He proudly recalls his idea to build a replica of a political prisoner's jail cell in his backyard.

The 75 dissidents were accused of receiving U.S. aid to overthrow Castro's government. Cason, who denies the claim, pushed to keep their plight publicized.

Cason said his staff has suffered because of the mission's activities, with state security agents repeatedly entering their homes and doing everything from urinating in their mouthwash to erasing the family members' faces from photographs saved on computers.

But he says morale remains high, and comic relief came with the Cuban government's creation of the television cartoon character "Cachan," which depicts Cason as a wand-wielding fairy trying to impose a new order on Cubans who chase him off before he turns into a rat.

"I love it," said Cason, who had a fairy costume made to make light of the character. "I think (Castro's) idea backfired. I've become like an icon."

On the grand piano in the home's entryway sits a picture of Cason dressed in the pink costume, next to a poem he wrote, in Spanish, called "The Magic Wand."

"Totally dedicated is this fairy to exposing the stupidity and lies of this dictatorship, which is so tiresome, retrograde and failed," the poem says.

Cason calls Castro a "power-hungry egomaniac" who cares little about his own people. He said he believes most Cubans are counting the days until the 78-year-old leader's death.

Cason, who will later serve as ambassador to an unnamed Latin American country, defends the long-standing U.S. embargo against Cuba with the same zeal used to criticize Castro's government.

"Right now, (lifting the embargo) would be like throwing a lifeline to a drowning regime," he said.

Americans Pushing for More Cuba Trade

AP, July 6, 2005.

American liberals have long criticized the U.S. government for maintaining a Cold War-era embargo against communist Cuba. But these days, conservative American farmers, businessmen and some Republican lawmakers are just as likely to oppose the U.S. policy limiting trade with the island.

As Congress voted down amendments to the policy last week, those pushing for more interaction with Cuba questioned how the embargo can endure.

"Will someone please explain this policy to me?" Dwight A. Roberts, the Texan president of the U.S. Rice Producers Association, asked a recent news conference in Havana after describing financial losses to thousands of rice growers when U.S. restrictions were tightened.

U.S. food and agricultural products can be sold to Cuba on a cash-only basis under an exception to the embargo created in 2000. But a new U.S. rule adopted this year makes Cuba pay for goods in full before the cargo leaves U.S. ports, forcing the island to seek other markets and harming American business, Roberts said.

This year, he said, the association will sell less than a third of the rice it exported to Cuba in 2004.

"The policy just doesn't make sense," said Roberts, who visited Cuba in late June with the U.S.-Cuba Trade Association seeking normalized trade relations between the two countries.

Critics say the embargo, aimed at forcing a change in Cuba's leadership, is outdated and hasn't worked. President Fidel Castro remains in power and the nation is still communist.

Kirby Jones, the trade association's president, likened the embargo, dating to the early 1960s, to a weighty, out-of-commission ship on a field.

"It's like a tanker that has been sitting there for 40 years," Jones said. "And you've got farmers pushing it, but it won't budge. It's entrenched."

U.S. officials defend the policy, saying unfettered trade and travel to the island would prop up Castro's government. The imprisonment of dissidents and restrictions on economic and political freedoms are also used to justify the embargo.

But critics note the United States trades with other communist countries, such as China and Vietnam, and say the policy hurts average Cubans more than Castro.

They also maintain the restrictions thrive largely because of support from powerful Cuban-American lobbyists and lawmakers in South Florida.

Many lost property when they fled Cuba and hold Castro responsible. Several Cuban-American organizations focus on overthrowing his government, and four U.S. Congress members are Cuban-Americans who fiercely oppose the island's communist system.

"How can we think about easing restrictions against this monster when he continues to plunder and terrorize 11 million of our brothers and sisters?" U.S. Representative Ileana Ros-Lehtinen asked in a statement applauding last week's House vote. "The Congress should not be making life easier for the brutal Castro regime."

Two House members are even linked to Castro through family _ the aunt of U.S. Representatives Lincoln and Mario Diaz-Balart was the Cuban leader's first wife.

"This is a family feud that's been taken to a very personal level," said Pamela Ann Martin, a Pennsylvania-based trade consultant specializing in Cuba.

Some U.S. policy critics say the Cuban-Americans in Congress pressure lawmakers who support easing the embargo _ an idea Ros-Lehtinen rejects.

"We humbly and gently ask our congressional colleagues to vote with us and for freedom for the Cuban people," she said in a statement e-mailed to The Associated Press.

A list of legislators receiving money from Cuban-American groups was released by the advocacy group Washington Office on Latin America last week in a statement deploring the vote.

"Members of Congress voted according to the desires of a few Cuban-American hard-liners at the expense of their constituents," the statement said.

The group says opinion polls show most U.S. citizens support a change in Cuba policy.

Business and agricultural interests will eventually make their discontent felt, said Jones, whose group includes agribusiness giants Archer Daniels Midland of Illinois and Cargill, Inc. of Minnesota.

Some Republican lawmakers, including Sen. Larry Craig of Idaho and U.S. Rep. Jeff Flake of Arizona, also support lifting restrictions.

"At some point (the Bush administration) will have to look at the political price of going against several Republican agricultural states," Jones said.

Cuban defectors having tough time adjusting

By Tom Weir, USA TODAY, Wed Jul 6, 2005.

The Fourth of July marked the anniversary of a different Independence Day for Cuban baseball players, but it wasn't necessarily cause for fireworks.

Fourteen years ago Monday, pitcher Rene Arocha's defection began a steady wave of escapes by Cuban players from Fidel Castro's communist island. But while 20 defectors have reached the major leagues since then, their big league presence is at its lowest point since 1999.(Related items: Cuban records, then and now | Cuban ballplayers remember Garbey)

Only five Cuban defectors are on Major League Baseball rosters: Washington's Livan Hernandez, Tampa Bay's Danys Baez, San Francisco's Alex Sanchez and Orlando "El Duque" Hernandez, and Jose Contreras of the Chicago White Sox. A sixth, Brayan Pena, was called up for nine games by Atlanta, then sent back to the minors.

In 2001, a high of 14 Cuban defectors saw major league action, and last season there were 10.

The decline coincides with scouts and executives reining in their optimism about players who have left the Cuban national team that has dominated amateur baseball internationally.

"Even though you like some of their talent and what they do, they really haven't faced the tough competition," Toronto Blue Jays general manager J.P. Ricciardi says. "They're almost like the Harlem Globetrotters; they win so much."

That international amateur dominance includes a 152-game Cuban winning streak in the 1990s and claiming three of the four gold medals since the Olympics added baseball in 1992.

"They've been overestimated because they play amateur baseball, the same level, for so long," says Cuban-born Los Angeles Dodgers scout Camilo Pascual, who led the American League in strikeouts from 1961-63. "They're competing against college players. They're good, but the college players will catch up."

Today's defectors have failed to match the performances of Pascual's countrymen in the '50s, '60s and '70s, when they had league leaders in every significant statistical category except home runs and RBI. Cuban-born players also accounted for 51 All-Star Game selections from 1959-77.

The only defector to be a league leader has been Livan Hernandez, twice for complete games. Hernandez, with 12 victories, is second in the National League. He and Baez are on the 2005 All-Star rosters, bringing the defectors' total to four.

This era also has produced only one position player of note - shortstop Rey Ordonez, who won three Gold Gloves from 1997-99 but is an unsigned free agent.

"One day, when it opens, you'll see a lot more baseball players from Cuba here," Livan Hernandez says. "The situation in Cuba with Fidel, it's hard. I've been here 10 years, and I never go back to Cuba to see my family again. That's one reason why a lot of people don't come to the United States and play here."

Downward spiral

Reversing the decline will require more games like the one defector Kendry Morales played June 28 for the Class AA Arkansas Travelers, hitting three home runs.

Morales, 22, a switch-hitting first baseman who led Cuba to a world amateur championship in 2003, is the latest big-name defector. He signed last year with the Angels. He is one of 32 Cuban-born players who were on minor league rosters on opening day. But even with his three-homer day, he's hitting .250 after getting off to a 0-for-12 start in Class AA ball.

"The baseball here is the same," Morales says. "It's just a little bit harder. And it's smarter."

Arkansas coach Keith Comstock says the crack of Morales' bat reminds him of pitching to Mark McGwire in the majors. "He's got thunder," Comstock says. "You can hear it."

Arkansas manager Tom Gamboa says: "He's going to hit anybody's fastball. You're not going to get a fastball by this guy."

But no matter how enthusiastic the praise is for upcoming Cubans, it's tempered by the disappointing trend the defectors set early on. Four of the first big-name pitchers from Cuba - Arocha, Rolando Arrojo, Ariel Prieto and Osvaldo Fernandez- had a combined 92-109 record. Only Arocha, at 18-17, had a winning record, and none lasted more than six seasons.

"We definitely made a mistake by taking Prieto," says Toronto's Ricciardi, who was part of the Oakland front office that made Prieto a first-round draft choice in 1995. "We thought we were getting a guy who was further along."

Ricciardi says the barriers between Cuba and the USA make him hesitant to sign future defectors.

"It's not having familiarity with them that is the No. 1 thing from my end," Ricciardi says. "The draft is so important to us. We can't just take a guy based on what he's done with the national team."

But getting to know Cubans before they defect remains impossible, as is determining the accuracy of their listed ages.

"They travel with a big secret service group that's bigger than the team," says San Diego Padres scout Robert Rowley of Panama. "With (American) high school guys, you get to see them hundreds of times."

MLB scouts can see Cubans play at international competitions, including those held in Cuba, but they say what's lacking is the opportunity to judge character.

"You can't get a personal relationship with them. You don't really know who they are," says Sal Agostinelli, director of international scouting for the Philadelphia Phillies. "Their coach is not going to give you any information. They don't want those guys to leave."

When Agostinelli saw Contreras pitch at the age of 24, "He had one of the top two sliders I'd ever seen. ... He had as much arm strength as anyone."

But at 33, Contreras is struggling with a 3-5 record for the Al Central-leading White Sox.

"If you had told me he'd be just an average guy, I wouldn't have believed it," Agostinelli says. "We were going to go up to $20 million on him."

Contreras initially signed with the New York Yankees for four years and $32 million after defecting in 2002. Contreras says he debated defecting for 10 years, and his example is one of several that makes MLB scouts question whether the Cuban national team overuses pitchers in tournaments.

Asked whether some Cuban pitchers left their best years back on the island, Contreras, through an interpreter, says, "No doubt. In playoff time, you have to be ready to go anytime they want," he says.

At the 1999 Pan American Games, Contreras threw 88 pitches in six innings against the Dominican Republic, then came back after just one day of rest and threw eight innings and 107 pitches while defeating the USA in the gold medal game.

Difficult transition

Even the top agent for Cubans, Gus Dominguez of Total Sports International, agrees that, "As a general rule the Cuban pitchers get a little older a little quicker. ... I think that was part of the problem with the first wave."

Cubans also have to make a rapid cultural transition from a communist system where they earn the equivalent of only $10-$20 a month. Virtually all players from the Dominican Republic and Venezuela - MLB's top two sources of foreign-born talent - attend academies in their homelands that prepare them for American life.

Dominguez, who was born in Cuba, says he represented 11 of the earliest defectors and has 14 Cuban clients. They include Maels Rodriguez, who was billed as a Caribbean Nolan Ryan after his fastball clocked 100 mph at the 2000 Olympics. Now 25, Rodriguez hasn't competed in two years since defecting. He wasn't selected in last month's amateur draft until the 22nd round, by Arizona.

Dominguez says his pitcher "has just got some mechanical problems," but scouts differ after seeing him showcased at workouts. San Diego scout Rowley says: "His arm is shot. He's around 88 (mph)."

Mike Brito, the Cuban-born Dodgers scout who signed Fernando Valenzuela, says: "I saw him three years ago, throwing 98, 99, 100. I thought this guy was worth $100 million. He's not worth a penny now."

Brito and Rowley say the top prospect on Cuba's national team is second baseman Yulieski Gourriel, a 2004 Olympian. But Rowley says he has been told Gourriel is unlikely to defect because his father holds a high position in Castro's government.

Despite the prospect of more defections when Cuba plays on foreign soil, USA Baseball general manager Eric Campbell says Cuban authorities are open to renewing exchange programs, and touring the USA.

"We haven't been able to solidify anything, but certainly the talks are alive and good," says Campbell, adding that he sees "no dip whatsoever" in Cuba's talent level.

The top defector taken in June's amateur draft was infielder Yuniel Escobar, in the second round by Atlanta. Braves director of scouting Roy Clark said a key to that selection was that Escobar was in the USA since last October and the Braves got to know him.

"When we sign a guy we should know everything about that person," Clark says. "It's almost like intelligence work."

And getting future defectors into the USA may require teams to hire diplomatic specialists.

The Miami Herald reported last month that 33 players who have left Cuba since October of 2003 are stranded outside the USA, waiting for visas. Most anticipated among them is probably pitcher Alay Soler, drafted by the Mets, who is stuck in the Dominican Republic. Since 9/11, the USA entry process has tightened, and it has been speculated the Dominican Republic no longer will be a haven for Cuban players because the new government there has strengthened ties with Castro.

Agent Dominguez says he has three Cuban clients waiting for visas there and that such obstacles are part of the reason he stopped recruiting Cubans for a few years. "It's not easy to coordinate these things," Dominguez says. "There's no doubt that they're more work than anybody else."

PRINTER FRIENDLY