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Cuban activists briefed on human rights
By Will Weissert, Associated
Press Writer, March 7, 2007.
HAVANA - U.S. authorities presented independent
Cuban activists and independent journalists
with the State Department's annual human
rights report Wednesday, saying the situation
has not changed since Fidel Castro stepped
aside seven months ago.
Jonathan D. Farrar, the State Department's
principal deputy assistant secretary for
democracy, human rights and labor, spoke
via video conference from Washington, answering
questions from a small group of activists.
"They changed one for the other,"
Farrar said of the 80-year-old Castro's
decision in late July to temporarily cede
power to his 75-year-old brother Raul while
he recovered from intestinal surgery.
"But we really have not seen a change
in the human rights situation," Farrar
added in Spanish to the group gathered inside
the U.S. Interests Section, the American
mission here.
The survey of human rights worldwide was
released Tuesday in Washington and was available
on the Internet. But many attending the
video conference did not see it until they
were handed copies in English before the
event began.
The report said that at the end of 2006,
Cuba held at least 283 political prisoners.
It found that the government did not commit
any politically motivated killings, and
there were apparently no forcible disappearances
on the island.
It also stated that physical torture was
rare, though government agents sometimes
beat, harassed and made death threats against
dissidents and independent journalists -
including those behind bars.
Cuba's communist government regularly rejects
charges of rights abuses, especially those
concerning physical abuse. Typically characterizing
any jailed dissidents as U.S. mercenaries,
the government maintains it respects human
rights more than most nations by providing
free health care and other social services.
The State Department's report comes as
Cuba and international organizations question
Washington's own commitment to human rights
following allegations of abuse of terror
suspects at the U.S. prison at Guantanamo
Bay in easternmost Cuba.
Activists at the video conference were
particularly interested in a section of
the report that dealt with the island's
Internet restrictions.
The State Department said Cuba blocks access
to Web sites it considers objectionable
and usually only provides Internet access
through government approved institutions.
"We do not have the right to buy a
computer, even with money in our pockets,
unless it is through the black market,"
economist and independent journalist Oscar
Espinosa Chepe said. "There are situations
that are far more grave than the manipulation
of access."
Cuba says it has to restrict access to
the World Wide Web because of severe bandwidth
limitations it blames on the U.S. trade
embargo.
The communist government controls the island's
news media and all print, broadcast and
electronic outlets are state property. Still,
a small number of independent journalists
such as Espinosa Chepe continue to work,
usually publishing their reports in newspapers
or on Web pages outside the country.
The U.S. report released Tuesday also said
abuses in Brazil included beatings, abuse
and torture of detainees and inmates by
police and prison security forces; poor
prison conditions; and discrimination against
indigenous people and minorities.
The report said human rights violators
enjoyed impunity in most cases.
Brazil's foreign ministry on Wednesday
rejected the report, saying that its government
"does not recognize the legitimacy
of reports elaborated unilaterally by countries
that use domestic criteria that many times
are politically motivated."
Migration exercise meets reality in
Fla.
By Laura Wides-Munoz, Associated
Press Writer, March 8, 2007.
OFF THE SOUTH FLORIDA COAST - A law-enforcement
exercise to prepare for a possible mass
migration as that could occur following
a Cuban leadership change coincided Thursday
with the arrival of real migrants.
The 41 immigrants arrived at Miami Beach
and Haulover Beach in Miami-Dade County
and were taken into custody by authorities
not involved in the simulation, officials
said. It was not clear if the migrants were
Cuban.
Such arrivals occur frequently in South
Florida, and the simulation of intercepting
thousands of migrants at sea went on with
more than 85 federal and local law enforcement
agencies participating on the second day
of the two-day exercise.
Officials have revealed few details, citing
security concerns. But they said the training
would test how well the agencies can coordinate
responses.
The Coast Guard let reporters ride along
early Thursday during a staged interdiction
of a mock smuggling boat. Other exercises
would simply simulate the use of boats and
other vehicles.
The morning exercise began with a mock
911 call to the Broward County Sheriff's
Office that said boaters were headed south
to Cuba to pick up migrants, Coast Guard
Capt. Joe Matheu said. Sheriff's officials
were to alert federal, state and other local
officials who could respond.
"We're exercising the plan just like
you exercise your muscles, so you don't
get weak and flabby," Customs and Border
Protection spokesman Zachary Mann said Wednesday.
The simulation covered more than 2,000
immigrants headed to the U.S., though only
about a dozen actors posing as migrants
or smugglers were actually expected to participate
in the training.
It was the largest such exercise since
a 2003 presidential directive created the
Homeland Security Task Force Southeast to
better police the nation's southeastern
borders.
"The exercise will show our unity,
and it demonstrates our federal government's
resolve to protect our borders," said
the task force director, Coast Guard Rear
Adm. David W. Kunkel.
Kunkel said the goal of the exercise was
to stop 95 percent of the simulated migrants
at sea.
Cuba experts have voiced concern that Fidel
Castro's death or other significant change
in the island's leadership could spark migrations
similar to the Mariel boat crisis in 1980,
when Castro temporarily opened the island's
borders. More than 125,000 Cubans fled the
country then, surprising U.S. officials,
and many who reached the U.S. were held
for months in makeshift camps.
Mets drop Cuban hurler after rough outing
NEW YORK, 13 (AFP) - Alay Soler, a right-handed
pitcher who defected from Cuba and achieved
his dream of hurling in Major League Baseball,
was released by the New York Mets here Tuesday.
Soler surrendered two runs and three hits,
including a home run, in only 1 2/3 innings
on Monday in a 9-6 pre-season loss to Washington.
After pitching for the Cuban national team,
the 27-year-old defected in November of
2003 and pitched in the Dominican Republic
in 2004 before signing a three-year contract
worth 2.8 million dollars with the Mets.
Soler was a disappointment for the National
League club last season, appearing in only
eight games and going 2-3 with a 6.00 earned-run
average, allowing 50 hits in 45 innings.
In addition to playing alongside stars
of the Cuban league, Soler is a former teammate
of Dominican star David Ortiz.
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