Fidel Castro - Cuba

various LINKS to articles | April 14, 2002

[Cincinatus' Wife]

This is a LINK to articles since April 21, 2001 about Cuba and the communist threat - CHILDREN'S CODE At this LINK is a LINK to many Elian articles. Below I will post similar articles since the FR format changed and locked posts to this LINK. Please add what you wish to this thread.

Eyes Wide Open--[Excerpts] The Los Angeles kids, chosen for their photographic skills and their ability to work with others, represented the Venice Arts Mecca, a nonprofit organization that brings volunteer artists together with youngsters from low-income families to nurture their creativity in areas ranging from literary arts to photography. They looked. They listened. They photographed. And they took notes for their journals.

…….Before embarking on their adventure, the kids--who were joined by two young people from Washington, D.C., and accompanied by adult mentors--studied the sociopolitical history of South Africa, including apartheid. All were Latino or African American or a mix of the two, and were encouraged to think about their own identity, their own experiences with racism.

……..Before embarking on their adventure, the kids--who were joined by two young people from Washington, D.C., and accompanied by adult mentors--studied the sociopolitical history of South Africa, including apartheid. All were Latino or African American or a mix of the two, and were encouraged to think about their own identity, their own experiences with racism.

…..At the conference exhibit hall, the L.A. kids mounted a photo exhibition showing the underbelly of America. There were bleak images of life on an Indian reservation, of the homeless in Los Angeles. It was an eye-opener to some South Africans, who thought everyone in America was rich. "They were absolutely shocked," said Lynn Warshafsky, executive director of Venice Arts Mecca.

In turn, the L.A. group was surprised at the degree of anti-American sentiment, something they had to process. "They had to ask themselves questions they'd never asked before" about how others see them, Warshafsky said.

……..For Eamon, the highlight was hearing Fidel Castro speak. "I had thought of him as seriously evil. I realized he's not evil, he's doing what he thinks is best. He has this sort of demeanor about him. Whether you like him or not, you respect him. It opened my eyes." [End Excerpts]

[Cincinatus' Wife]

Cuba Trips, Cigars Sink Bar Applicant*** A self-described liberal idealist who says his three visits to Cuba in violation of federal law were acts of civil disobedience has been denied admission to the New Jersey Bar by the state Supreme Court. Zachary Sanders, who passed the New Jersey bar exam in July 2001, first was given a thumbs down by the Committee on Character, which rejected his argument that he had a right to disobey what he called the "immoral and unjust" embargo on trade and travel to Cuba.

A three-lawyer committee said, "it was crystal clear ... that Mr. Sanders believes himself to be absolutely morally justified in breaking the law." The panel said it viewed him as one who "detaches himself from responsibility to obey the law by endeavoring to distinguish the morality of the law from its legality."***

[Cincinatus' Wife]

Bush Slaps New Sanctions on N.Korea, Myanmar, Cuba ***WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Bush imposed sanctions on North Korea, Myanmar and Cuba on Wednesday for failing to do enough to stop the trafficking of people forced into servitude or the sex trade. The war-ravaged countries of Liberia and Sudan also failed to meet U.S. standards and are subject to sanctions. But the White House said providing them with some aid was "in the national interest of the United States." ***

[Cincinatus' Wife]

Cuban church challenges Castro***After a decade of virtual silence on Cuba's human-rights record, the island's Roman Catholic bishops Tuesday criticized the government's return to hard-line revolutionary ideology and urged compassion for the 75 dissidents sentenced to lengthy prison terms five months ago.

''Ever since the pope's visit [in 1998], Cuba has increasingly experienced a return to the language and methods typical of the early years of the revolution,'' said an 11-page document issued by the 13-member Cuban Bishops Conference in Havana.

''We again ask the country's authorities for a gesture of clemency toward these people who are in jail, above all considering -- from a humanitarian standpoint -- the conditions of their age, state of health and sex that require special attention,'' the statement added.

The statement, couched in strong but respectful language, was the first time in a decade that the Cuban bishops have criticized the human-rights record of President Fidel Castro's government in such a formal and public manner.***

[Cincinatus' Wife]

Cuba Charges Bush Administration Tightening Embargo*** HAVANA (Reuters) - Cuba on Tuesday charged that the Bush administration was tightening a U.S. embargo on the island despite growing domestic and international opposition, as it launched an annual drive to have the United Nations condemn the policy.

"The economic, financial and commercial blockade the United States has maintained against Cuba for more than four decades has not only been scrupulously applied, but strengthened over the last two years," Cuban Foreign Minister Felipe Perez Roque said at a Havana news conference.

In Washington, U.S. National Security Council spokesman Sean McCormack did not dispute that view. "President Bush has made very clear that he not only supports the embargo, he supports the strengthened enforcement of the embargo and he has taken stopes to do that under his presidency," he said. ***

[Cincinatus' Wife]

Trio rips Castro's regime in letter***LONDON - The heroes of Eastern Europe's anti-communist movement denounced Fidel Castro's "Stalinist" regime in Cuba yesterday and demanded action from the West to encourage its peaceful overthrow.

Former Polish President Lech Walesa, former Czech President Vaclav Havel and former Hungarian President Arpad Goncz made their call in a letter to the Daily Telegraph and several other leading European newspapers.

The letter from men who were themselves victims of communist oppression is likely to bring a furious response from the Cuban regime, which is acutely sensitive to attacks from countries which were once its closest allies.

Writing six months to the day after the regime sentenced 75 opposition figures to lengthy terms of imprisonment, the three men described the Castro regime as weak and desperate, but condemned current European Union and American policy as a failure.***

[Cincinatus' Wife]

Sen. Coleman Pays Cuba Human Rights Call [Full Text] HAVANA - Sen. Norm Coleman, visiting Cuba on Sunday, backed away from earlier calls to end sanctions on the communist country, saying that lifting the restrictions now would send the wrong message.

Coleman cited the Cuban government's crackdown on the opposition in March, when 75 dissidents were rounded up and sentenced to prison terms of between six and 28 years.

"I think about the folks in prison and what message that gives them," the Minnesota Republican said.

American moves to eliminate the 40-year-old trade and travel sanctions have "been building for some time, but it's not there yet," Coleman told a small group of American reporters in Havana. "And the March actions create a problem."

Coleman, however, said releasing some or all of the 75 dissidents "would be a good gesture," and would "increase the prospects" for American support to end the trade embargo and travel restrictions.

Coleman arrived here Friday for a four-day visit to study human rights and trade issues.

Coleman is chairman of the Western Hemisphere Subcommittee of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee and a member of the Senate Agriculture Committee. He is especially interested in future business for Minnesota farmers.

Coleman met with parliament speaker Ricardo Alarcon and other communist officials and could meet President Fidel Castro before leaving Monday.

Coleman in the past has said he believes that eliminating the trade and travel restrictions could help nurture democracy and human rights in the Caribbean nation.

But after meeting Saturday with dissidents and the relatives of jailed opponents, he said the timing is wrong.

Minnesota farmers have sold about $70 million in agricultural products to Cuba since communist officials began taking advantage of a 2000 law that created an exception to the sanctions. [End]

[Cincinatus' Wife]

Visiting the Devil***"If President Lula wants to deny with facts, and not with words, that he has turned himself into the greatest international supporter of the Cuban Communist regime - with all the serious responsibilities that it implies before the Cuban people and the generous, cordial and intuitive Brazilian people, but, above all, before God - let him adopt categorical diplomatic measures to contribute to the liberation of hundreds and perhaps thousands of Cuban political prisoners. Let him do something effective to save the lives of the political prisoners Martha Beatriz Roque and Oscar Biscet, who agonize in the Cuban jails, responding thus to the public call that has just been made by the Cuban organization Cuban Unity, of Miami. Let him not cross his arms before the drama of the Cuban physicist Dr. López Linares, currently residing in Brazil, who fruitlessly wrote the Brazilian president requesting his intervention to be able to travel to Cuba to meet his little son Juan Paolo, four years of age. Let him not try to whitewash the Castroite crimes by alleging the external 'blockade' or the alleged 'advances in the social sphere,' as health and education, that in reality are two implacable instruments of ideological, mental, political and police control of the unfortunate Cubans. Let him, in short, contribute, without euphemisms, toward the urgent liberation of Cuba."***

[Cincinatus' Wife]

In jail or free, dissidents determined to stay*** For Rivero and journalists who smuggled their missives abroad, it was their insistence on writing what they saw and felt that put them in jail. That fidelity to the truth could now kill them. Rivero and journalist Oscar Espinosa Chepe, 62, are both ill, their families tell visitors. Rivero, who has lost much weight, has circulatory problems, and Espinosa suffers from a liver disease.

Castro must realize that even if he relents and sets Rivero and others free, they are likely to stay in Cuba. Rivero has long understood that Castro may be the Father of the Cuban Revolution, but that the revolution's children are increasingly restive. Castro can deny their simple truths like a Cuban King Lear, but Rivero and others persist. They witness. They write.

Over the years, the authorities picked up Rivero, questioned him, harassed him, and tried to nudge him off the island. But Rivero stayed. Others did, too.***

[Cincinatus' Wife]

Brazilian President to Meet Castro in Cuba***Silva will also be testing his country's delicate relationship with the United States, which has had no diplomatic relations with Cuba for more than four decades. The United States is both the largest exporter to Brazil and the largest recipient of Brazilian products. "If the visit turns out to be nothing more than a gesture to please leftist forces in Brazil and in the rest of world, it will be an empty and meaningless gesture," Marconini said in a telephone interview. "But if it becomes part of a broader approach to the Hemisphere it could turn into a constructive exercise that should please even the United States," Marconini said.

Cuban dissidents and their supporters have asked Silva to intervene on behalf of 75 activists sentenced to long prison terms after a crackdown this year. Silva should demand the release of the country's political prisoners, Cuban democracy activist Oswaldo Paya said in an interview published Sunday in the Folha de Sao Paulo newspaper. "Brazil should defend an opening in Cuba and a dialogue between the government and the opposition," Paya said.

The Paris-based advocacy group Reporters Without Borders has asked the Brazilian president to press for the release of the 26 independent journalists among the 75 jailed dissidents. While recognizing Silva's political affinities with Castro, the press group wrote this week that "no democrat of the left or right would understand if these affinities were to take precedence over respect for human rights." In 2002 Brazil exported $95 million worth of products to Cuba and imported less than $10 million.

Brazilian diplomats have said the president has no plans to meet with dissidents on the island. Economic issues will also be on the table during Silva's visit. Brazil's national Development Bank is negotiating a credit line of up to $400 million to finance Cuban imports of Brazilian machinery, farm equipment and food.***

[Cincinatus' Wife]

Brazilian president seeks to keep today's Cuban visit low-key*** Da Silva is scheduled to meet twice with Castro during the 24-hour visit. They are to discuss possible cooperation in oil exploration and production as well as joint efforts in the sugar industry.

Analysts said that if Brazil extends a credit line worth $400 million to finance Brazilian exports to Cuba, it would give the South American nation a foothold in the region. But Brazil, apparently concerned about a perception of thumbing its nose at the United States, has discreetly asked Cuba not to spew anti-American rhetoric while da Silva is on Cuban soil, according to Brazilian media reports. A flamboyant welcome with a million Cubans on the streets also was reportedly declined.***

[Cincinatus' Wife]

The Latin American Bloc: The Ignored Danger to Freedom***Other regular attendees are terrorist allies include: representatives of Nicaragua's Sandinistas; El Salvador's FMLN; Irish Republican Army; Basque ETA; and PFLP-GC.[xix]

The Latin American bloc is growing closer and closer together, while expanding allies outwards. The Bloc collectively is allied to Saddam Hussein (or was), Iran, Libya, China, Russia, India and South Africa. And perhaps even worse, the Bloc is tightening into a single community, almost like the Latin American version of the European Union.

With Venezuela and Brazil leading the efforts to oppose and counter the US-proposed Free Trade of the Americas agreement, the Latin American countries are calling for "full Latin American integration" to counter US economic dominance. Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay, Uruguay, Venezuela and Chile all are participating in these talks. Brazil and Argentina are leading the effort to form a joint parliament, common currency and common policy towards international venues and organizations, to be reached by 2006, although a final agreement has not been reached. They hope for the Mercosur customs union to merge with the Andean Community, which would effectively swallow the current pro-American countries of Ecuador, Bolivia, Peru and Colombia into the bloc. Venezuela, a member of the Andean Community, is expected to lead the efforts on the Andean side.***

[Cincinatus' Wife]

Cuba Official Appeals for End to Embargo (introduced by Harry Belafonte)*** NEW YORK - Cuba's foreign minister made an impassioned appeal for the lifting of the trade embargo against his country, saying the blockade has cost the Caribbean nation $72 billion in the last 42 years. In a 75-minute speech at a Harlem church, Foreign Minister Felipe Perez Roque said the Cuban people do not hold any hatred against the American people. He stressed that Cuba was against terrorism and has been combating drug trafficking, but despite overtures the Americans have refused to lift the embargo. "The blockade is a major obstacle to our development. (It) prevents and curtails our development," Perez Roque told a sympathetic audience of more than 800 people, many of whom repeatedly interrupted with chants of "Viva Cuba." ***

[Cincinatus' Wife]

Terror Close to Home In Venezuela, a volatile leader befriends Mideast, Colombia and Cuba *** The oil-rich but politically unstable nation of Venezuela is emerging as a potential hub of terrorism in the Western Hemisphere, providing assistance to Islamic radicals from the Middle East and other terrorists, say senior U.S. military and intelligence officials. Bush administration aides see this as an unpredictably dangerous mix and are gathering more information about the intentions of a country that sits 1,000 miles south of Florida.

One thing that's clear is that Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez is fast becoming America's newest nemesis, U.S. officials say. He has forged close ties with Cuba's Fidel Castro and has befriended some of America's other notorious enemies, traveling to Saddam's Iraq and Qadhafi's Libya. Now, after surviving an attempted coup and a nationwide petition demanding his recall, Chavez is flirting with terrorism, and Washington is watching with increasing alarm.

"We are not disinterested spectators," says Roger Noriega, the new assistant secretary of state for Latin America. "Any actions that undermine democratic order or threaten the security and well-being of the region are of legitimate concern to all of Venezuela's neighbors." U.S. officials are monitoring three sets of developments:

Middle Eastern terrorist groups are operating support cells in Venezuela and other locations in the Andean region. A two-month review by U.S. News, including interviews with dozens of U.S. and Latin American sources, confirms the terrorist activity. In particular, the magazine has learned that thousands of Venezuelan identity documents are being distributed to foreigners from Middle Eastern nations, including Syria, Pakistan, Egypt, and Lebanon.

Venezuela is supporting armed opposition groups from neighboring Colombia; these groups are on the official U.S. list of terrorist organizations and are also tied to drug trafficking. Maps obtained by U.S. News, as well as eyewitness accounts, pinpoint the location of training camps used by Colombian rebels, a top rebel leader, and Venezuelan armed groups.

Cubans are working inside Venezuela's paramilitary and intelligence apparatus. The coordination between Cuba and Venezuela is the latest sign that Venezuelan President Chavez is modeling his government on Castro's Cuba.

The Venezuelan government denies supporting Middle Eastern terrorist groups and says that no Cubans are operating inside its intelligence agencies. Venezuela has long denied providing aid to the Colombian guerrilla groups.

Venezuela is providing support--including identity documents--that could prove useful to radical Islamic groups, say U.S. officials. U.S. News has learned that Chavez's government has issued thousands of cedulas, the equivalent of Social Security cards, to people from places such as Cuba, Colombia, and Middle Eastern nations that play host to foreign terrorist organizations. An American official with firsthand knowledge of the ID scheme has seen computer spreadsheets with names of people organized by nationality. "The list easily totaled several thousand," the official says. "Colombians were the largest group; there were more than a thousand of them. It also included many from Middle Eastern `countries of interest' like Syria, Egypt, Pakistan, Lebanon." The official adds: "It was shocking to see how extensive the list was." U.S. officials believe that the Venezuelan government is issuing the documents to people who should not be getting them and that some of these cedulas were subsequently used to obtain Venezuelan passports and even American visas, which could allow the holder to elude immigration checks and enter the United States. U.S. officials say that the cedulas are also being used by Colombian subversives and by some Venezuelan officials to travel surreptitiously.

The suspicious links between Venezuela and Islamic radicalism are multiplying. American law enforcement and intelligence officials are exploring whether there is an al Qaeda connection--specifically, they want to know if a Venezuelan of Arab descent named Hakim Mamad al Diab Fatah had ties to any of the September 11 hijackers. The United States deported Diab Fatah to Venezuela for immigration violations in March 2002. A U.S. intelligence official says that Diab Fatah is still a "person of interest" and that his family in Venezuela is "a well-known clan associated with extremist and illicit activity" in northern Venezuela. But when U.S. officials sought Diab Fatah for further questioning, they were told by Venezuelan officials that he was not in the country. Diab Fatah may also be tied to the Caracas mosque of Sheik Ibrahim bin Abdul Aziz, which has caught investigators' attention. One of the mosque's officials, also a Venezuelan of Arab descent, was recently arrested in London for carrying a grenade on a Caracas-London flight. ***

[Cincinatus' Wife]

Not In Our Name and the World Wide Terrorism Web: The "Peace" Movement's Trojan Horse.***In the run-up to this war, Not In Our Name became one of the major "peace" organizers and coalitions in the United States. Not In Our Name has spared no cost purchasing ads in newspapers around the world to publish its anti-American Statement of Conscience. Its signatories include scores of Hate America bigwigs, like Noam Chomsky, Howard Zinn, Michael Parenti, Gloria Steinem and Barbara Kingsolver. Hollywood icons (and many more has-beens) like Danny Glover, Jessica Lange, Tyne Daly, Martin Sheen and Ed Harris have also signed or endorsed the statement. NION organizes marches and other protest activities in its support.

However, Not In Our Name is deeper than the latest academic babblers and limosuine liberals. NION professes peace, yet it is involved - directly as well as indirectly - with terrorist organizations and anti-American propaganda campaigns headed by fanatical Communist and Muslim groups. NION has cemented alliances with bona fide radical organizations like the Interreligious Foundation for Community Organization, Women's International League for Peace and Freedom and the Revolutionary Communist Party.

Not In Our Name: What is IFCO?

Not In Our Name (NION) requests donations on its website, yet on this site donors are asked to make checks payable to NION/IFCO. IFCO is the acronym for the Interreligious Foundation for Community Organization. NION states that the " Interreligous Foundation for Community Organization (IFCO)… is our fiscal sponsor." Fiscal sponsorship by IFCO means Not In Our Name receives donations that are tax deductible because of IFCO's 501c(3) (charitable, federal tax-exempt) status. IFCO charges a fee for this service.***

[Cincinatus' Wife]

Senator Lugar: Embargo has not worked*** The chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee criticizes U.S. policy and signals he may support lifting a travel ban.***

[Cincinatus' Wife]

U.S. Accuses Cuba of Germ Weapons Program***WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The United States, yet to find evidence to back its charge that Iraq had weapons of mass destruction, issued a new accusation on Thursday that Cuba had a "limited" biological arms program. Cuba has previously denied the accusation, repeated on Thursday by Assistant Secretary of State for the Western Hemisphere Roger Noriega at a Senate Foreign Relations Committee hearing on Cuba. Noriega was responding to a question from Sen. Christopher Dodd, a Democrat from Connecticut, who asked why Washington continued to enforce a four-decade sanctions regime against Havana. ***

[Cincinatus' Wife]

A Man Who Won't Quit: Talking, again, with René Montes de Oca***I talked to René - as I have come to know him - again two mornings ago. He had been released from prison in July. But then, on Wednesday of last week, he had been arrested again. He was detained for just a couple of days, until shortly before we spoke together.

As before, we spoke through a translator, a supporter of the Cuban cause here in the United States. I asked René whether he thought our conversation was being monitored by the regime. He said that it surely was, but that this was to be expected, and we should just forge on.

He recounted what he had been doing since his release from prison on July 5. He, of course, had gone right back to his opposition activities. They all do. It's an amazing thing about these Cuban dissidents: The second they get out of jail, they go right back to what they were doing before, knowing they will be rearrested and imprisoned. René has been in and out of jail all of his life.

I asked him, "What motivates you to take the risk of being imprisoned once more?" He answered, "I've lived in a prison for 40 years." (René was born in 1963.) He did not mean it glibly; his words were self-evidently sincere and honest. He cannot keep still while his country is under this brutal fist.

He had spent the two and a half months since his release shoring up the Human Rights party, and he seemed especially pleased about a committee of mothers who do what they can to aid political prisoners. He further noted that, every Wednesday night from 7:30 to 8, he and many other Cubans hold "la vela," a type of ceremony at which they light a candle and pray for the prisoners. This Wednesday-night "vela" has been going on across Cuba - and among their supporters in the United States - for about two years.

René very much irked the authorities when he denounced the visit of Brazilian president Lula da Silva to the island. "Lula," as he is known throughout the world, is a great friend and supporter of Castro. As I mentioned in a column of mine the other day, Lula said about Castro - in 2001 - "In spite of the fact that your face already is marked with wrinkles, Fidel, your soul remains clean because you never betrayed the interests of your people. . . . Thank you, Fidel, thank you because you continue to exist." Da Silva also smeared Armando Valladares - the great Cuban dissident and memoirist - as a "picareta," which is Portuguese for "liar" or "fraud."***

[Cincinatus' Wife]

Not Time for Bagging (Cubans have chosen their form of democracy, Africa must emulate their success)***There's need for us to be clear about what should be done about this. We either unite as poor countries, Third World nations and establish close co-operation, or we die.

Moreover, imperialism and the other highly developed capitalist countries have established a world system of exploitation and domination. They support one another financially when any of them has a crisis. The system has been set up to provide mutual support, but who helps out the Third World?

So, there isn't any world-wide political or economic democracy and equality.

In a world in which peace truly reigns, democracy can take more forms of expression in a fair society. In a world in which the world hegemony of the mightiest imperialist power reigns and the people's sovereignty, territorial integrity and independence are threatened, democracy won't have many different forms of expression.

And Cuba has found its form of expression of democracy, and they believe that it suits their conditions. Its effectiveness has been shown for more than 40 years, and we think that no country could have stood firm against the blockade, the threats, acts of aggression and the terrible blows of toppling of the socialist camp and the disappearance of the Soviet Union if its people weren't politically aware and united - not split into a thousand parts. Therefore, unity is the main thing here.***

[Cincinatus' Wife]

Cuba aid Iran to export to L.America***"According to a government approval, the reimbursement term of the credits concerning the consumer goods exported to Cuba will increase from six months to two years.***

[Cincinatus' Wife]

MIKHAIL GORBACHEV: A last wall remains to be torn down in Cuba*** An end to the embargo would complete the unfinished business of the Cold War in the Western Hemisphere. It is because of the Cold War that a country that saw an anti-dictatorial revolution, which had nothing to do with communist ideology, became involved in the superpower confrontation. Isolated and belonging ideologically to the "socialist camp," its choice of the path of socioeconomic development became all but inevitable. And during the missile crisis, Cuba nearly became the trigger for a nuclear war.

Yet it would be unfair to reduce Cuba's entire post-revolutionary history to that. The achievements of the Cuban people in education, health, science and the arts have been widely recognized. The Cubans withstood the consequences of the withdrawal of Soviet economic subsidies, and the country's economy has recently shown an 8 percent growth in gross domestic product. Cuba has pursued a responsible foreign policy, as I can confirm based on my own experience working with Fidel Castro to defuse regional crises in Central America and Africa. ***