CUBA
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Cuban woman dissident, 60, beaten en
route to meet US diplomat
HAVANA, 26 (AFP) - Cuba's most prominent
female dissident, ailing economist Marta
Beatriz Roque, said she was brutally beaten
at her home by a pro-government mob of people
who knew she was heading to a meeting at
the home of the top US diplomat in Havana.
"I see it as a (government) message
to the opposition," Roque, 60, told
AFP at her home, where she showed injuries
to her eye, knee and elbow which she said
were from the assault a day earlier.
Roque, who opposes the Americas' only one-party
communist government, leads the Assembly
for Promoting Civil Society.
She was released from prison in July 2004
due to her failing health after she had
been convicted and sentenced to 20 years
behind bars along with 74 other dissidents
following the government's 2003 crackdown,
which was the largest in years.
She said she recognized some of the people
who beginning at 2130 GMT Tuesday shouted
insults at her and beat her outside and
later inside her home in the Havana neighborhood
of Santos Suarez.
"They were not neighbors, because
they knew that I had been invited to a meeting
at the home of (Michael) Parmly," chief
of the US Interests Section here, who has
had high-profile clashes in the media with
President Fidel Castro's government.
The crowd gathered for an organized "act
of repudiation" as Roque left for the
engagement, she said, and began insulting
her and then jostled her to block her from
leaving her home.
"They threw me on the ground and they
beat me," said Roque, who says she
suffers from diabetes and circulatory ailments.
When she shouted "Down with Fidel!"
she was further beaten by a large man who
burst into her home and slugged her squarely
in the eye, she said.
The crowd continued its "repudiation"
until the early hours of Wednesday, Roque
said. Pro-government activists threw clippings
from the official media through the windows
of her home, as well as a sign calling US
President George W Bush a fascist.
On the back of the sign a message was scrawled,
warning that a dissident meeting planned
for October "is not going to be held,"
she said.
"It left me very scarred" mentally,
Roque added. "I feel very poorly, from
the physical point of view, I have a great
deal of pain, but also from the psychological
point of view, I am just devastated."
Elizardo Sanchez, who leads the outlawed
Cuban Committee for Human Rights and National
Reconciliation, added that the attackers
remained at Roque's home for some time,
blocking her from seeking immediate medical
attention for her injuries.
"This is particularly alarming, given
precisely the brutal nature of the attack
and the fact that those para-police elements
who took part committed a whole range of
crimes, with complete impunity and under
the approving gaze of the government of
Cuba," said Sanchez.
Sanchez said the government was fundamentally
at fault "in these acts of repression
for political reasons."
In March, the United States denounced the
human rights records of Cuba and its ally
Venezuela in an annual report.
The US State Department's human rights
report charged that the record of Castro's
regime "remained poor, and the government
continued to commit numerous, serious abuses,"
the report said. "At least 333 Cuban
political prisoners and detainees were held
at year's end."
The United States and Cuba do not maintain
full diplomatic relations, but have interests
sections in the other's capital.
New York director hopes to warm U.S.-Cuba
relations with musical in Havana
HAVANA, 28 (AP) - A theatre director from
New York opened a show in Cuba that makes
a point some might find as old-fashioned
as the Cold War: that young people in love
can overcome all obstacles, even if one
is American and the other Cuban.
Habana Carnaval, or Havana Carnival, which
opened Thursday night, is a dramatic musical
telling the story of a young American woman,
a young Cuban man, and a budding love threatened
by circumstances created by the rocky relationship
between their two countries.
Musical director Tony Giordano selected
both American and Cuban performers for the
show, which will run on the Communist-run
island just for a week before Giordano hopes
to have it travel internationally.
"Can you imagine what would happen
if we were back and forth more often?"
Giordano said of U.S. travel restrictions
that keep most Americans from visiting Cuba.
He spoke during a break in rehearsals for
opening night.
"I'd give anything to show this show
to all the people in America and I'd give
anything for more talented people in America
to come and do this," he added.
Giordano said American diplomats from the
U.S. Interests Section in Havana were invited
to attend the show's opening at Havana's
Teatro Nacional, a rare production of a
stage show or a musical in Cuba directed
by an American.
Although the two countries have not had
diplomatic relations for more than four
decades, both keep "interests sections"
in each other's capitals, under the mantle
of the Swiss Embassy, to handle visas and
other consular affairs.
The United States also maintains a trade
and financial embargo against the island
in an effort to force a change in Fidel
Castro's government. Restrictions have been
tightened under the administration of U.S.
President George W. Bush.
"I'm not interested in politics, I'm
basically a philosopher," Giordano
said.
Individual people, he said, are so much
more important.
"I came to give Cuba a gift,"
said Giordano, adding that the Cubans he
has met have given him so much more. "These
people," he said, "have such heart!"
Young Cuban girls embrace their Spanish
heritage with flamenco dance
HAVANA, 26 (AP) - Little Cuban girls fantasize
about being flamenco dancers - strong, beautiful
women in ruffled skirts and upswept hairdos,
who evoke thunderous magic by stomping their
black strapped shoes.
In a country that gained its independence
from Spain a little more than a century
ago, the Spanish dance remains highly popular
among young Cuban girls, in the same way
tango enthralls girls in Argentina, and
ballet entrances girls in countries which
revere ballet.
Still-thriving cultural societies formed
by Spanish immigrants to Cuba represent
regions such as Asturias and Andaluz and
offer flamenco dance and other programs.
But the leading school is run by the government's
Ballet Espanol de Cuba, operating under
the auspices of the grande dame of ballet,
Alicia Alonso, and the leadership of classically
trained dancer Eduardo Veitia, the company's
general and artistic director. Reynaldo
Ibanez, technical director of the school
for 12 years, says the best of the best
have the chance of joining the dance company
as they mature.
On a recent weekday afternoon, 20 girls
on the cusp of adolescence danced to the
staccato claps of their teachers' hands
in a small practice room in Havana's Gran
Teatro, a majestic performing arts palace
in clear need of renovation, with chipped
and cracked columns, peeling paint on the
towering walls and marble-floored hallways
dulled by decades of grime.
They gather their black ruffled skirts
in their small hands, clutch the fabric
to their hips and stomp assertively on the
rough wooden floor, sounding like a stampede
of wild horses.
"Bamp bamp bamp bamp BAMP! Bamp bamp
bamp bamp BAMP!" thunders through the
small room as the soft light of late afternoon
pours through the tall, narrow open windows
looking out over the green gardens and towering
palms of Havana's Parque Central.
The girls, each with her hair swept into
a bun and fastened with a bright yellow
tie, imitate the "profesora,"
gyrating their hands like a flock of fluttering
birds.
A similar scene unfolds in other small
rooms throughout the huge complex. In some,
girls as young as five in pale pink tights
and leotards learn basic classical ballet
moves to prepare for the transition to flamenco
dance when they are older.
Their mothers wait on park benches outside.
"Just imagine," says Aleida Gomez
Rodriguez, smiling proudly as she talks
about her 11-year-old daughter, Leidy Rosa.
"She's been coming to classes since
she was five."
Cuba Militant Applies for U.S. Citizenship
By Alicia A. Caldwell, Associated
Press Writer. April 26, 2006.
EL PASO, Texas - A Cuban militant accused
of masterminding the 1976 bombing of a Cuban
airliner has applied to become a U.S. citizen,
his lawyer said Tuesday.
Luis Posada Carriles, who has been jailed
in El Paso on immigration charges since
May, is scheduled to be interviewed Wednesday
as part of his application.
Felipe D.J. Millan, an immigration lawyer
hired by Posada's Miami lawyers, said he
will accompany Posada during the interview
but declined to provide details of the application.
Posada, a former CIA operative and a fervent
foe of Cuban President Fidel Castro, is
accused by Cuba and Venezuela of plotting
the 1976 bombing while living in Venezuela.
He has denied involvement in the bombing,
which killed 73 people.
Posada escaped from a Venezuelan prison
in 1985 while awaiting retrial on the airline
bombing charges, and Venezuela has formally
sought his extradition.
He was jailed last year on immigration
charges after being accused of sneaking
into Texas from Mexico in March 2005. He
was arrested in May after speaking to reporters
in Miami.
In September, an immigration judge ruled
that Posada should be deported, but said
that the aging militant could not be sent
to Cuba, where he was born, or Venezuela,
where he is a naturalized citizen, because
of the potential that he would be tortured.
He has remained jailed since that decision.
Earlier this month, his Miami lawyers asked
that a federal judge decide if the government
can keep him jailed indefinitely while they
look for a country where they can deport
him.
Jamaica to Get Cement Shipment From
Cuba
By Howard Campbell, Associated
Press Writer
KINGSTON, Jamaica, 25 (AP) -- Jamaica will
receive a shipment of cement from Cuba to
help ease a shortage that is slowing down
renovations to a stadium hosting matches
for the 2007 cricket World Cup, an official
said Tuesday.
The 20,000 metric tons (22,046 tons) of
cement will arrive this weekend from Havana,
said Colin Campbell, the information minister.
It's not clear how much Jamaica is paying
for it.
Jamaica began negotiating with Cuba to
supply cement after the main local producer,
Caribbean Cement Company Limited, temporarily
suspended production in March following
claims of substandard product. An internal
inquiry later revealed that the company
had distributed 500,000 metric tons (551,155
tons) of faulty cement since November, said
Trinidad Cement Limited, the company's major
shareholder.
The Masterbuilders Association of Jamaica
says the shortage has affected work on several
major projects, including the US$29 million
(euro23.4 million) renovation of Sabina
Park, one of two local stadiums that will
matches for the cricket World Cup.
Work on the stadium was three months behind
due to contractor delays and the cement
shortage, Robert Bryan, of the local World
Cup committee, said earlier this month.
Cement shortages have recently held up
construction or renovations to cricket stadiums
in some Caribbean countries as they prepare
for the tournament, which is being held
for the first time in the region.
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