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Smuggled photos reveal
Cuban reality
By Bruce I. Konviser, The
Washington Times. Published on World
Peace Herald, March 1, 2006.
PRAGUE -- A set of photos showing the suffering
of Cuban AIDS victims and the squalid conditions
in a Havana shantytown went on display here
last week after having been smuggled out
of Cuba by a Czech fashion model.
Helena Houdova, whose face has graced the
covers of numerous magazines, and her friend
Mariana Kroftova, who is identified in news
reports as a psychologist and sometimes
model, complained they were held for 11
hours and denied access to Czech consular
officials after being arrested for taking
the pictures while visiting the island.
The Czech women were detained while photographing
a slum outside of Havana on Jan. 23. Authorities
confiscated a roll of 35 mm film from Miss
Kroftova's camera, but Miss Houdova managed
to save her photos by slipping the memory
chip from her digital camera into her bra.
A diplomatic ruckus over the arrests simply
increased interest in the photo exhibit,
which opened officially on Saturday in a
gallery just off Prague's Wenceslas Square.
Miss Houdova hopes soon to bring the two
dozen or so photos for an exhibit in the
United States.
The model, a former Miss Czech Republic
who runs a charity in New York that supports
disadvantaged children in nine countries,
said at the opening that the Cuban people
are repressed and Fidel Castro's government
is in denial.
"People can't do what they love. People
can't speak what they want," she said
in an interview. "That's what's happening.
The fact that the [government] says there
is no poverty" only makes a bad situation
worse, she said.
Among those who turned out to applaud Miss
Houdova's derring-do, and to remind people
of the grim realities of communism, was
the Czech Republic's most famous former
dissident, Vaclav Havel.
Mr. Havel, who was Czech president until
2003, said it would be easy enough for Miss
Houdova to focus on her modeling career
while ignoring those less-fortunate.
"I very [much] admire this work,"
he told The Washington Times. "She
is engaged in human rights in different
spheres, and she was also in Cuba and made
these photos. I think it is very respectable."
Miss Houdova said her biggest fear during
her detention was not for her own well-being
but for that of her Cuban guide, the wife
of a leading dissident, who could have been
jailed indefinitely. So far that has not
happened.
Miss Houdova said the guide urged her to
"please talk about it everywhere you
can, and let the world know what is happening
here." The photo exhibition, which
she hopes to bring to several U.S. cities
in addition to Washington, is Miss Houdova's
way of fulfilling that request.
The Czech People in Need Foundation backed
the models' trip, and the funds raised from
the sale of photos in Prague will go into
its SOS Cuba program, which aids the country's
dissidents.
While Miss Houdova expressed relief that
her Cuban friend is not in jail, the foundation's
Nikola Horejs was more cautious.
He said life has gotten more difficult for
Cuba's dissidents and their families since
a sweep in 2003 landed 75 journalists, doctors
and other regime opponents in jail.
The Cuban government is increasingly sensitive
to negative publicity, he said. "They
know very well how to do this thing. They
wait a bit, and then slowly, step by step,
harass these people and try to make them
leave the country."
Both Mr. Havel and Mr. Horejs said the European
Union should put more pressure on the Cuban
government. Mr. Havel said the former communist
countries that are now EU members -- the
Czech Republic, Poland, Hungary, Slovakia,
Slovenia and the three Baltic states of
Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia -- are the
ones who should push the union toward a
tougher stand.
"Europe could do more," Mr. Havel
said. "And I think that our countries,
with our experience, have to press the whole
European Union."
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