Fidel Castro

Venezuela's Gathering Marxist Storm - Who Is Protecting Hugo Chavez? ***Last year a popular but disorganized opposition movement in Venezuela threatened the government of Hugo Chavez, the self-styled populist who has taken that nation's battered political economy on a strange journey into social chaos after gaining power in 1999. In March of last year, Insight predicted the ouster of Chavez and he was forced out of office. But a bizarre combination of factors returned this protégé of Cuban dictator Fidel Castro to power.

More than a year later, experts on Latin America tell this magazine that Washington's soft line on Chavez in Venezuela adversely is affecting U.S. security and the stability of the entire region. This hands-off policy toward Chavez seems to originate from the highest levels of the Bush administration, these foreign-policy specialists say, and has evolved to the point of negligence of a crisis that already constitutes the greatest threat to regional stability since Castro took power in Cuba in 1959. Indeed, even as Congress has been intent upon removing travel restrictions to Castro's island prison, say these regional specialists, the Cuban leader is working with Chavez to destabilize governments in the region.

A senior U.S. official who worked in Venezuela during the rise of Chavez speaks with grudging admiration of the Venezuelan leader's classic Marxist-Leninist approach to expanding power: two steps forward, one step back. "Chavez is constantly underestimated by people who do not understand his patient, methodical approach to recruiting and strategy," says this retired Army officer. "Chavez never provokes the U.S. or other nations, but instead works obliquely to erode the position of his enemies."

As an example of Chavez's successful approach, the official cites U.S. Ambassador to the Organization of American States (OAS) John Maisto, a former ambassador to Venezuela and Nicaragua. He reports that Maisto was the chief exponent of what the source calls the absurd argument that Chavez is a democrat at heart and that the United States should not "push" Chavez into the arms of Castro. "Maisto did the same thing in Nicaragua," says the official, "until Washington lit a fire under him." In fact, this observer says, Chavez has been a radical all his life, influenced by Marxist and authoritarian political theorists, and has been expanding his influence in the region using his links to Cuba and terrorist groups in the Middle East [see "Fidel May Be Part of Terror Campaign," Dec. 3, 2001, and "Fidel's Successor in Latin America," April 30, 2001]. ***

Cuban independant journalist freed after six years in prison [full text] HAVANA, (AFP) - Cuban independant journalist Bernardo Arevalo Padron has been freed from a prison in eastern Cuba after having served six years on conviction of committing an "outrage" against the Communist government of President Fidel Castro, his friends said

"Effective yesterday (Thursday), Bernardo was released and is with his wife in Camaguey," 500 km (310 miles) east of Havana, Laura Pollan, wife of imprisoned dissident Hector Maseda, told AFP.

Maseda is serving a 20-year sentence imposed last March after his arrest with 74 other opponents of the Castro regime.

Arevalo Padron, founder of the former independant press agency Linea Sur Press, which operated illegally in Cuba, was convicted on November 28 1997 and sentenced to six years in prison for anti-revolutionary activities.

Pollan said he told her by telephone that he was "in good health, even though he felt a bit nervous after such a long confinement," and that he would return to the capital in the coming days. [End]

Cuban journalist tells CPJ of physical and psychological torture***New York, November 18, 2003-Imprisoned Cuban journalist Bernardo Rogelio Arévalo Padrón was released last week after serving his six-year sentence on "disrespect" charges. In a phone interview with the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ), he described physical and psychological torture at the hands of prison authorities.

"The allegations of torture are extremely troubling and warrant an immediate investigation," said CPJ Executive Director Ann Cooper, "and increases our concern for the other 28 journalists in jail in Cuba who have alleged mistreatment."

Arévalo Padrón was released from the Ariza maximum-security prison, in the central province of Cienfuegos, on November 13. The journalist said he had been physically and psychologically tortured while in jail. In April 1998, he said that two prison officers severely beat him in the face and back after he refused to chant pro-government slogans. Arévalo Padrón was then punished and placed in a small cell where he did not receive immediate medical attention. "There I stayed for one year and two months," the journalist said. As a result of the beating, his nasal septum was broken, and he can breathe only through his left nostril, he said.

Jailed for showing "disrespect" to Castro Arévalo Padrón, founder of the Línea Sur Press news agency, was sentenced in October 1997 to six years in prison for showing "disrespect" to President Fidel Castro Ruz and Cuban State Council member Carlos Lage. The charges stemmed from a series of interviews Arévalo Padrón gave in 1997 to Miami-based radio stations in which he alleged that while Cuban farmers starved, helicopters were taking fresh meat from the countryside to the dinner tables of President Castro, Lage, and other Communist Party officials. ***

Armando Valladares: Human Rights Hero***Armando Valladares' crime was this: Castro had been appointing communists to his new government even though he had sworn that his revolution would bring freedom to Cuba. Many people in Cuba who supported the revolution were concerned. Some were saying that Castro was a communist himself. To combat these fears, Castro had his agents print up a slogan. He had them put it on decals, bumper stickers, tin plaques, wall posters, and in the daily press. The slogan was this: "If Fidel is a communist, then put me on the list. He's got the right idea."

The communists of the Ministry of Communications came to the Postal Savings Bank and to the desk of Armando Valladares. They handed him a card bearing the slogan and told him to put it on his worktable. The 23-year-old Valladares refused. Taken aback, the communists asked him if he had anything against Castro. Valladares answered that if Castro was a communist, he did.

For this crime, Armando Valladares was sentenced to 30 years in prison. Like all of Castro's political prisoners, he was tortured and humiliated. He was made to eat other men's excrement and forced to watch his friends die. One of Valladares' prison friends was a youngster named Roberto Lopez Chavez. He was just a kid, and he went on a hunger strike to protest the abuses. The guards denied him water until he became delirious, twisting on the floor of his cell and begging for a drink. The guards urinated in his mouth and on his face, and he died the following day.

The political prisoners in Castro's jails were given a choice. You could be rehabilitated and save yourself from these torments if you renounced who you were. All you had to say was, "I have been wrong. All my life has been a mistake. God does not exist. I want you to give me this opportunity to join a communist society." Of Cuba's 80,000 political prisoners, 70,000 took this path of rehabilitation. Armando Valladares was not one of them. "For me," he said, "that would've meant spiritual suicide. All the time I was in jail, I never gave up my freedom. My freedom is not the space where you can walk around. There are lots of people in Cuba who have space to walk, and they are not free."

Describing his incarceration, Valladares said, "For me, it meant 8,000 days of hunger, of systematic beatings, of hard labor, of solitary confinement and solitude, 8,000 days of struggling to prove that I was a human being, 8,000 days of proving that my spirit could triumph over exhaustion and pain, 8,000 days of testing my religious convictions, my faith, of fighting the hate my atheist jailers were trying to instil in me with each bayonet thrust, fighting so that hate would not flourish in my heart, 8,000 days of struggling so that I would not become like them."

Another prisoner named Fernando Lopez del Toro came to Valladares and said in despair that what hurt him most about the torment, the beatings, the hunger was to think that all their suffering was useless. Fernando Lopez del Toro was not broken by the pain, Valladares recalled, but by the futility of the pain. Fernando eventually took his own life. "Remember him," Valladares said, "the only thing that keeps us firm is to know that somewhere else there is another soul that loves us, that respects us, and that is fighting for the return of the dignity that has been taken from us."

Twenty-two years after his arrest, after an appeal from French President Francois Mitterand, Armando Valladares was able to return home a free man. He did not forget Fernando Lopez del Toro. He went on a world campaign to bring to light the terrible fate of Castro's political prisoners. He published an account of his experiences, a book, to which he gave the title, Against All Hope. In 1987, President Reagan named him the United States Representative to the United Nations' Human Rights Commission with the rank of Ambassador. Ambassador Valladares persuaded the UN to conduct an investigation of the terrible conditions in Castro's jails. He exposed to the whole world the inhumanity he had witnessed. To the UN Commission he said, "We must enter the cell of every Fernando Lopez del Toro in the world, embrace him in solidarity, and tell them to their faces, 'Do not take your life. There are men of goodwill who are standing by you. Your dignity as a human being will prevail.'"

This is a good man and a great man, and I am honored to present him with this award. ***

The Dangers of Liberation Theology***

Where Did Liberation Theology Come From?

Among Protestants, Liberation Theology was born within a group of theologians associated with the "Church and Society in Latin America" movement (ISAL in Spanish). Begun in 1962, ISAL determined to implement the social implications of the gospel for Latin America. Soon they began to believe that political revolution was the only answer to the ills; only a short step remained to the persuasion that revolution is the best way to express Christian love toward suffering neighbors. Later, believing that Marxism provided the only effective strategy for mass revolution, they concluded that God is using radical Marxist revolutionary movements to establish His kingdom of peace, justice, equality, and prosperity for Latin America. That belief is the essence of Liberation Theology in Latin America.

At the same time, a similar process of ferment and discussion took place among the area's Roman Catholic theologians at the Episcopal Conference of Latin America in 1968. They produced a document that analyzed many glaring problems in terms of Marxist philosophy and then proclaimed some of the basic beliefs of Liberation Theology. Although the Catholic church has exerted considerable pressure since that time to suppress the liberationist movement, it is still strong and growing. The Pope's attempts (*) at Puebla, Mexico, and later in Brazil to squelch the movement among priests and theologians have so far proved ineffective. Though Protestant theologians probably came up with the first primitive attempts at creating a theology of liberation, the Roman Catholics have now "taken the ball and run with it." It is now propagated in most major Protestant and Roman Catholic seminaries of Latin America.

What Does the Theology of Liberation Teach?

It is difficult to give a general picture that is really fair to the system's proponents. It is a new movement, and its advocates are still formulating their positions. One must look at each liberationist individually to understand his role. Three of the most important are Gustovo Gutierrez, Emilio Castro, and Jose Miguez Bonino.

Gutierrez is probably the most famous. His book, A Theology of Liberation, published in Spanish in 1971, remains the classic expression available in English. A Catholic priest and theology professor in the Catholic University of Lima, Peru, Gutierrez was influenced by Camilo Torres, the Colombian priest who left the Church to join Communist guerrillas warring against the Colombian government. The Colombian army killed Torres in a mountain shoot-out, but his belief lives on in the writings of men like Gutierrez. He taught that the only path for concrete expression of Christian love for Latin America's oppressed lies in joining the Marxist revolution.

In his books Gutierrez argues for Marxism's superiority over all other philosophies and systems, universal salvation (the belief that everyone will be saved), God's presence in the modern revolutionary movement, and the need for the church to work toward securing justice and social well-being for the oppressed.

Uruguayan Emilio Castro directs the Commission of World Mission and Evangelization of the World Council of Churches. More strategist than theologian, Dr. Castro stresses the need for participation in what he regards as the inevitable revolution in Latin America. As a universalist, he sees recruitment of people for involvement in bettering social conditions to be the primary task of the church, not evangelism as traditional evangelists teach. God works through Marxist revolution to bring all men together in Jesus Christ, he claims.

Jose Miguez Bonino is one of the most widely published liberation theologians in the world today, especially in English. He has written more than twelve books and sixty articles on the subject. From Argentina, he began his ministry as a Methodist pastor and was elected to the Central Committee of the World Council of Churches in 1975. Miguez believes that Marxism is the only scientific method to understand poverty and oppression. He also believes that Marxism offers the best way to express Christian love in modern society. He advocates violence for toppling repressive Latin American governments.***

Thanks so much for the picture and post!!

Not even Castro defends Chávez***Revolutions are ugly affairs. You have to make them in the dark and by dint of the whip. What a shame that, in more than three years of government, only a few dozen covert murders were committed and 95 percent of the media remains in the hands of a bourgeoisie that kowtows to the United States. That's no way to do it.

In Cuba almost half a century ago, a few months before the nation's leaders joined the glorious socialist camp, they cranked up the firing squads, confiscated the media and jailed or exiled a good number of journalists. After that, life was a piece of cake.

Chávez defends himself as best he can from these charges of revolutionary incompetence, or ''pussyfooting,'' as Cuban Col. Lázaro Barredo -- a policeman who pretends to be a journalist -- likes to say.

Of course, Chávez would love to shoot at dawn 400 Venezuelan enemies of the people. How could anyone question his Leninist instincts? Didn't he leave some 500 lifeless bodies on the streets during his raid on Miraflores Palace in 1992? The problem is that he's impotent. He has no strength. His enemies do not fear him.

He also does not enjoy the trust of his own army. His political party, the Fifth Republic Movement, is a sack filled with scrawny cats. His legislators lack experience. Three quarters of the power structure devote themselves to plundering the public treasury.

Chávez would have loved to cancel the ''re-signing,'' but how could he do it with such a weak government? Nobody would have joined him in that adventure, not César Gaviria (head of the Organization of American States) or former President Jimmy Carter. In fact, not even President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva of Brazil, who has indicated that the legalities must be observed. ***

Chávez thanks Castro for doctors, teachers [Full text] CARACAS- (AP)- Chatting with Fidel Castro during his weekly television show Sunday, President Hugo Chávez thanked the Cuban leader for sending more than 10,000 doctors to work in poor communities across Venezuela.

Chávez and Castro bantered for about 10 minutes on Venezuelan television and radio after Chávez aides telephoned the Cuban president in Havana. Chávez spoke to Castro on a speakerphone live on air.

Chávez announced the expansion of the Inside the Slum program, which began in April with several hundred Cuban doctors in Caracas slums. There are now 10,169 Cuban physicians nationwide, Chávez said.

''Well, Fidel . . . your support and the support of these true heroes of Cuban medicine has been fundamental and essential,'' Chávez said.

Castro, who sounded hesitant and complained about the phone connection, said Chávez had established himself as a leader of the Third World.

''You are leaving an example not only for Latin America but for all of the Third World,'' Castro said. ``I must express the admiration of all our people for you.''

The two leaders have developed a strong friendship rooted in their shared disdain for U.S. economic and political dominance and their conviction that free-market policies have failed to lift millions of Latin Americans from grinding poverty.

Chávez invited Castro to visit Venezuela and tour communities benefiting from Inside the Slum. Castro said a visit ''wasn't immediately possible,'' citing a heavy work load. It would be Castro's fourth visit to Venezuela since Chávez took office in 1999.

Chávez's government has sent more than 4,000 needy Venezuelans to Cuba for free medical treatment. Cuban teachers are training 100,000 Venezuelan volunteers for a national literacy campaign.

Venezuela, meanwhile, provides Cuba with crude oil under preferential financial terms. Critics say Chávez's ties with Castro have antagonized the United States, Venezuela's largest oil customer.

Opposition leaders insist the presence of Cuban doctors and teachers is part of a plan to steer Venezuela toward Cuba-style socialism and authoritarianism. Chávez denies such intentions, insisting he is forging his own balance between socialism and capitalism.

Chávez's government has ignored a court order to suspend the ''Inside the Slum'' initiative until the Cuban doctors take equivalency exams required for foreign physicians to practice in Venezuela. The government says suspending the program would leave thousands of citizens without adequate healthcare. [End]

Castro to visit Venezuela ally Chavez [Full text] CARACAS: Cuban President Fidel Castro will fly to Venezuela tomorrow (NZT) to talk co-operation with his biggest regional ally Hugo Chavez at a time when the Venezuelan president is facing a campaign by foes to vote him out of office.

Left-winger Chavez, who is resisting opposition efforts to trigger a referendum on his rule next year, today announced the surprise visit by his close friend and political ally during his weekly Hello President television and radio show.

"We'll have lunch and talk for a few hours," Chavez said, adding the 77-year-old Cuban leader would return to Havana the same day.

If Chavez, a 49-year-old populist former paratrooper, was voted out in a referendum, this would deprive Castro of a major source of political and material support in the region.

The Venezuelan leader said they would discuss tomorrow growing bilateral co-operation between the world's No5 oil exporter and the communist-ruled Caribbean island.

This co-operation in energy and social programmes has irritated Washington and provided a vital oil lifeline to cash-strapped Cuba.

Under a three-year-old energy accord, Venezuela sends Cuba up to 53,000 barrels per day of oil – about one third of the island's consumption.

The two leaders, who consult frequently, share "revolutionary" ideologies and are outspoken critics of US policy, even though Venezuela is one of the top suppliers of oil to the United States.

They are sure to discuss the political situation in Venezuela, where foes of Chavez filed with electoral authorities Saturday more than three million signatures requesting a referendum on his rule next year. [End]

Castro, Chavez Bolster Alliance in Venezuela Talks*** "We talked about everything," Chavez told reporters after returning from the talks on Orchila island, a military base and presidential retreat 110 miles north of Caracas.

Government officials had earlier refused to disclose the site of the meeting. This had shrouded in secrecy the brief visit by the 77-year-old Castro to Venezuela, Communist Cuba's biggest political ally and trade partner in Latin America.

Chavez said he and Castro had discussed growing medical and energy cooperation between their nations. They also reviewed the political situation in Venezuela, where the Populist president is resisting a determined opposition bid to trigger a referendum next year on whether he should stay in power.

State television showed the two leaders embracing. It also broadcast a long, rambling interview with Castro in which he praised Chavez as an influential leader spearheading the fight in Latin America against U.S.-style global capitalism.

"I challenge the world to produce a more generous man," the Cuban leader, who spoke slowly and haltingly, said. ***

Castro: I Warned Saddam to Leave Kuwait*** CARACAS, Venezuela (AP) -- Cuban leader Fidel Castro said he repeatedly warned Saddam Hussein to leave Kuwait after the 1990 invasion but that the former Iraqi dictator's "mistakes" did not justify the U.S.-led war.

Castro, who was in Venezuela for one day to meet with leftist President Hugo Chavez, said he tried on numerous occasions to persuade Saddam to withdraw from Kuwait, warning the Iraqi leader that, not just Western countries, but also Arab nations, would turn against him.

Castro called Saddam's invasion of Iran "absolutely unjust," during an interview late Monday with Venezuela's state-run television station, Venezolana de Television.

"The other big mistake that never should have been made was the occupation of Kuwait," he added, wearing his olive-green fatigues for the interview on Venezuela's La Orchila island.

"We made great efforts (to persuade Saddam) to rectify," he said.

Castro said he sent two letters to Saddam to try to "persuade him that it was a mistake and he should withdraw" from Kuwait "or there would be a war with a coalition (of) Arabs, NATO, Muslims, everyone because Kuwait was a country recognized by the United Nations." In the 1980s, Saddam waged an eight-year war against Iran that killed hundreds of soldiers on both sides. He invaded Kuwait in 1990 but a U.S-led coalition drove his army out. ***

Castro's New Year revolution still stands 45 years later*** Castro came to power resolved to transform Cuba and with mixed feelings toward the US. The transformation was based on a series of social reforms and welfare programs. These were startlingly successful and are a major cause of Castro's enduring popularity. They emphasized public health, education, and housing, and were carried out despite difficulties resulting from the US embargo. Public health dramatically improved. Literacy rates soared. Slums disappeared as new apartments sprang up. Huge estates were seized and divided in a land-reform program.

When Americans think about Cuban independence, they think of themselves as liberators through the 1898 war with Spain.

Cubans, on the other hand, think that that war was a way for Americans to steal the Cuban struggle for independence led by their national hero, Jose Marti. They think they would have won their independence without American help. They see their defiance of the US as an assertion of their independence.

In its early days, the Revolution had a puritanical streak. It closed the casinos, which had been a magnet for American tourists but which also brought mafia interests to the island. It suppressed prostitution. In the surviving nightclubs, it put showgirls in more modest costumes. The revolution saw these steps as necessary to end what it saw as morally corrupting influences from the US. ***

Castro and Chavez: U.S. Wary of Cuba's Support for LeftistsWASHINGTON - The Bush administration is becoming increasingly concerned about what it sees as a joint effort by Cuba and Venezuela to nurture anti-American sentiment in Latin America with money, political indoctrination and training.

As U.S. officials see it, the alliance combines Cuban President Fidel Castro's political savvy with surplus cash that Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez obtains from oil exports.

Venezuelan resources may have been decisive in the ouster of Bolivia's elected, pro-American president, Gonzalo Sanchez de Lozada, said the officials, speaking on condition of anonymity.

A key recipient of Venezuelan help has been Evo Morales, a charismatic Bolivian legislator who has broad support among his country's indigenous population. He is an avowed opponent of the capitalist system.

Before Sanchez de Lozada was deposed, one official said, Venezuela's military attache in Bolivia was expelled for giving money to Morales, and Morales received money from Venezuelan officials in a visit to Caracas.

There also has been evidence of Venezuelan money and manpower in Ecuador and Uruguay being used in support of anti-government groups, the officials said. Despite Venezuelan denials, they said, Chavez has supported Colombia's FARC and ELN rebels, allowing use of territory in western Venezuela as a springboard for attacks inside Colombia.

In Caracas on Monday, Tarek William Saab, the pro-Chavez head of Venezuela's congressional foreign relations commission, denied that Venezuela was supporting FARC rebels or was meddling in Bolivia's internal affairs. Saab accused the U.S. government of "using slander and defamation to weaken a constitutional government like ours."

"It's false and irresponsible and cowardly," Saab said.

U.S. officials said Castro has been providing training, advice and logistical support to leftist groups in the region, a sign of re-engagement after relative inactivity in the 1990s.

Roger Noriega, Secretary of State Colin Powell (news - web sites)'s top aide for Latin America, said Friday that the 77-year-old Castro, in his "final days," appears to be "nostalgic for destabilizing elected governments. From the point of view of his democratic neighbors, Castro's actions are increasingly provocative."***

Cuba:U.S. Scuttling Migration Accords - US:Castro/Chavez promote/finance anti-gov groups*** The migration accords of 1994 and 1995 are aimed at avoiding a repeat mass exodus from Communist-run Cuba to the United States by Cuban rafters. Migration meetings every six months are the only area where the two long-time ideological foes have regular conversations.

But Washington has put off the latest round of talks until Havana agrees to discuss issues on the U.S. agenda, the Cuban Foreign Ministry said in a statement issued on Tuesday night. Cuba had wanted to hold the talks on Thursday, it said. "The government of the United States is entirely responsible for the cancellation of this round of migration talks," the statement said. "These are merely new pretexts to aggravate tensions between the two countries," the foreign ministry said.

……………. Assistant Secretary of State for Western Hemisphere Affairs Roger Noriega told reporters in New York the Cuban leader was lending increasing support to anti-government groups in Latin America. On Monday, a State Department spokesman expressed concern over reports that Castro and Venezuela's leftist President Hugo Chavez were working together to promote and finance anti-government groups in the region. ***

In Cuba's Gulag - "He was as if blinded"***''Oscar has lost nearly 40 pounds, he is extremely pale and lacking in appetite . . . I didn't recognize my husband after not having seen him in four months,'' Elsa Morejón told El Nuevo Herald writer Wilfredo Cancio by phone this week. ``He hadn't seen light since Dec. 8; he was as if blinded.''

Ms. Morejón saw her husband on Dec. 30, but only after arguing with officials at Kilo 8 prison in Pinar del Rio. She threatened to stay in front of the prison and was allowed to see him -- for 15 minutes. Ms. Morejón had been allowed to see him only once before since his sham trial in April.

This isn't his first prison stint. A physician and long-time critic of the regime, Dr. Biscet served a three-year term for ''disrespecting'' authority, after staging a peaceful hunger strike in his home. Released in October 2002, he was out barely a month when, on his way to meet other human-rights activists, he was jailed again.

Now he's confined in a tiny, underground punishment cell. He is denied regular family visits, correspondence and packages of food, medicines, toiletries or clothing. All this for refusing to wear the uniform of a common prisoner and bow before cruelty.***

Castro's Venezuelan Piracy*** THE FLIGHTS FROM HAVANA GO TO RAMP NUMBER 4 at Maiquetia Airport 25 miles from downtown Caracas, a ramp re-designated for military use by Venezuela's Marxist President Hugo Chavez and exempt from the usual customs controls or inspections.

On September 29 alone, six flights brought 950 Cubans, mostly males in their 30s and 40s. These "Cubans travel without caring about their belongings, which are loaded directly from the planes to the trucks of the mayor's offices," reported the journal El Universal on November 18. "The load is guarded by National Guard officers."

In this nation that once had a free press, the tightening grip of the Chavez dictatorship has forbidden the photographing of this airport influx of operatives from his friend Fidel Castro's Communist police state.

"The use of TV cameras as well as the presence of journalists from any mass media is prohibited," reported El Universal. "Nevertheless, a few photojournalists have managed to catch images from landings, defeating security controls."

Between September 26 and October 27, this journal reports from its sources that 11,530 Cubans arrived in Venezuela on 76 such flights. Chavez's seizure of one television station and threats against the rest of the press have reduced such critical news coverage of his regime.***

Iraq-Cuba axis - Cuba Shared US Troop Info with Iraq***A senior Defense Department official tells us one of the alarming after-action intelligence reports that reached the Pentagon is that the communist government of

Cuba shared intelligence on the United States with Saddam Hussein's regime. The reports stated that Cuban intelligence, which is known to have extensive "coverage" of U.S. military bases, supplied information to Saddam's intelligence service on the movement of troops and other military activities. The intelligence ties

are believed to be an offshoot of Cuba's covert oil-purchasing arrangement with Iraq under Saddam. Those deals have been under way since the late 1990s and involve oil tankers that were sent to Mexico. The oil then was pumped from the tankers to smaller boats for delivery to Cuba. The intelligence sharing also comes

amid reports from Cuban exiles that Cuba became a safe haven for fleeing Iraqi government officials following the U.S.-led invasion. Asked about the Cuba-Iraq intelligence-sharing, a second U.S. official said the CIA had no information about it.***

U.S. State Department: Free Cuba's unjustly convicted activists VERBATIM *** Below are comments made this week by U.S. State Department Spokesman Adam Ereli about Cuban dissidents.

Last March, the Cuban government convicted 75 independent Cuban journalists, librarians, and human-rights defenders on trumped-up charges and sentenced them to unjust prison sentences -- an average of 20 years each -- for attempting to exercise their fundamental, internationally protected rights.

Unfair detention

The United States condemns the continued unfair detention of these individuals and calls for their immediate release. As an added injustice, the Cuban government is systematically persecuting these individuals.

Christian Liberation Movement member José Daniel Ferrer García, who was sentenced to 25 years for his role in promoting the Varela Project, a grass-roots movement that supports a national referendum calling for democratic change, was sentenced to three months of solitary confinement as punishment for protesting prison guards' mistreatment of his wife.

Illness in prison

Martha Beatriz Roque, a 57-year-old independent economist, is serving a 20-year prison term for her efforts to organize nongovernmental organizations dedicated to civic freedoms and entered prison with numerous health problems.

Independent economist and journalist Oscar Espinosa Chepe, who is 62, remains in very poor health and suffers from severe liver disease and other ailments. He is serving a 20-year prison term for reporting news about the Cuban economy and social issues.

Neither Roque nor Espinosa Chepe have received adequate treatment for their illnesses, and their conditions are deteriorating.

Such deprivation and flagrant abuse of human rights have not been limited to the group of 75.

In February, human-rights activist Leonardo Bruzón Avila, who is in poor health due to repeated hunger strikes, will complete two years in prison without a trial.

No trial

In March, blind pro-democracy activist Juan Carlos González Leyva will also complete two years in prison without a trial. González was jailed for protesting the police beating of an independent journalist.

Dr. Oscar Elías Biscet, who has worked tirelessly to express his commitment to the use of nonviolence to achieve change, was arrested in December 2002 for attempting to teach others about international human-rights practices.

We also should not forget long-suffering political prisoners like Francisco Chaviano, an advocate of peaceful democratic reforms, who was sentenced in 1994 to 15 years in prison for revealing that a member of his organization was, in fact, a government agent.

Defying tyranny

We express our admiration for all Cuban political prisoners and our solidarity with their families. The United States salutes their courage in standing up to tyranny while continuing to insist that Cuba must change, democratically and peacefully.***

Iran and Castro: October surprises***In parallel with this ongoing but still mostly unrecognized Iranian covert action, there are reliable reports of numbers of Iranian-supported Hezbollah terrorists infiltrating into Iraq from their bases in Syrian-occupied Lebanon. It is quite likely they are planning massive terrorist attacks on U.S. forces for the spring, summer and fall of 2004 as well as the taking of U.S. hostages.

These hostages would likely be made available to the media with the intention of demonstrating the failure of the Bush policy and of creating public sympathy in the U.S. for an immediate withdrawal from Iraq.

In the Americas, Mr. Castro has been using a deceptive political strategy and long-established relations with radical leaders who are not formally communist to establish a new axis with governments friendly to him. These now include 231 million people ruled by Hugo Chavez in Venezuela, Lula da Silva in Brazil, Lucio Gutierrez in Ecuador and the shadow power of Evo Morales and Felipe Quispe in Bolivia, who recently removed the elected president.***

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