Police repress independent librarian
Police repress independent librarian
PINAR DEL RIO, Cuba – April 25 (Rafael Ferro, Abdala Press / www.cubanet.org) – Abigail Ortega Beltrán was detained by forces of the Cuban political police on the main street of this city and was taken to the provincial police’s station for interrogation.
Ortega, who runs the Polo Montañez library, said after he was freed two hours later: “They interrogated me for two hours and threatened me for my status as an independent librarian. They told me that if I went back and meet with people who oppose the government, they would put me on trial and I could go to prison. I told them I wasn’t committing any crime by meeting with whomever I wanted to inside my home. They paid no attention to my protest and drew up a warning certificate as well. It’s a document they create against people to threaten them.”
Previously, Ortega’s home had been surrounded by members of the “rapid response brigades.” “I was meeting with a group of librarians in my house, that’s where I have my library,” Beltrán, the independent library director, indicated. “We heard people shouting in my doorstep and decided to go out to see what was going on. They were verbally assaulting us, they called us ‘worms’ and ‘counterrevolutionaries.’ They had no right to say those things to us, we’re peaceful and don’t bother anyone. The Independent Libraries Project is healthy.”
In the same way, Ortega Beltrán’s house was visited by two police officers who identified themselves as Lázaro and Beune. The house was searched and books and documents belonging to the independent librarian were seized.
“They told me as a justification for the search that the books I had were subversive propaganda and they were going to close the library. That means that without any kind of order or law they threatened to throw me out of my house, since the library is my own house, it’s something absurd,” Ortega declared.
The Independent Libraries Project is considered illegal in Cuba and its members are threatened and persecuted by the authorities on the island.
http://www.cubanet.org/CNews/y06/apr06/28e2.htm
Dr Oscar Elias Biscets health is deteriorating
Dr. Oscar Elías Biscet’s health is deteriorating
YAGUAJAY, Cuba, April 19 (José Luis Vivanco Solano / Villa Blanca Press / www.cubanet.org) – Dr. Oscar Elías Biscet González, incarcerated in Combinado del Este Prison in Havana, is showing a very noticeable deterioration in his health, according to a telephone conversation from his wife, Elsa Morejón, to Villa Blanca Press. Biscet suffers from various chronic illnesses.
“Oscar,” Mrs. Morejón reports, “is kept in a humid cell without light. He does not receive adequate food either.” There is also concern for the lack of attention to the administration of his medicines as well as for the consequences he suffers from refusing to wear the uniform of a common prisoner.
Biscet has been confined in maximum security for several years. Before his imprisonment, he was president of the Lawton Foundation of Human Rights. In the spring of 2003, he was sentenced to 25 years in jail.
This information was transmitted by telephone since the Cuban government controls access to the Internet.
Translation: Coalition of Cuban-American Women-Human Rights Committee/
Tanya Wilder / tswilder@charter.net
http://www.cubanet.org/CNews/y06/apr06/28e3.htm
Customs inspectors shake down Cuban visitors
Customs inspectors shake down Cuban visitors
LA HABANA, Cuba – April 24 (Hugo Araña / www.cubanet.org) – Cubans who live abroad arriving at Havana’s international airport are the preferred target of customs inspectors who solicit bribes to smooth their way.
The scam usually takes one of two forms. In the first, the inspector will search the visitor’s luggage until he or she finds some item whose legality is doubtful, and then in a melodious voice will ask: You wouldn’t have a present for us, would you? The going rate is said to be no less than 40 dollars.
The second is more subtle; the inspector winks at an unsuspecting visitor who’s getting ready to leave the terminal, approaches him or her and asks for a payment of 200 dollars to overlook certain irregularities in, say, the excess weight of the passenger’s belongings.
Should the visitor not prove cooperative, the inspector may call in a policeman to search again for suspected illegal articles being brought into the country.
In spite of continuing campaigns by the government to erradicate corruption and the number of inspectors fired, extortion of visiting Cubans goes on over their frequent complaints.
http://www.cubanet.org/CNews/y06/apr06/28e4.htm
Two policemen tried for soliciting and accepting bribes
Two policemen tried for soliciting and accepting bribes
MATANZAS, Cuba – April 19 (Hugo Araña, Agencia Línea Sur Press / www.cubanet.org) – Two patrol officers were tried and found guilty of corruption after the police internal affairs department learned they had accepted bribes from someone transporting onions to Havana.
Ivan Romero Roque and Pedro Elián could face sentences of between eight and 20 years.
The two officers, patrolling in car No. 320, stopped a truck carrying onions to Havana whose driver did not have the required permits in the municipality of Aguada de Pasajeros, Cienfuegos province.
The two officers then presumably accepted a bribe to let the truck pass unimpeded.
It was not immediately known how internal affairs found out about the incident, but it ordered the officers’ immediate arrest. They were tried April 17.
Officer Romero pleaded not guilty, but officer Elián allowed the accusation against them was true.
http://www.cubanet.org/CNews/y06/apr06/28e5.htm
Womens organization denounces violence against women
FROM CUBAWomen’s organization denounces violence against women
SANTIAGO DE CUBA, Cuba – April 26 (Virgilio Delat, APLO / www.cubanet.org) – Sixteen women were murdered and 20 others were left wounded in 2005 alone in the municipality of Palma Soriano, a not-particularly-populous municipality in eastern Cuba, according to a recent report by the Latin American Federation of Rural Women (FLAMUR).
The report condemns the murders, which are not exclusive to any one area, but are widespread through the island and have been on the increase these last few years.
The report focuses on a case it calls typical, that of 21-year-old Lisbet Matos, who was murdered September 10, 2005 by Yorlandis Torres. Torres stabbed Matos 27 times, according to the forensic report, and wounded her son Ronald and her grandmother Isabel Hernández in the fracas. On April 7, Torres was sentenced to 27 years in prison, and would be eligible for release after serving half his sentence.
http://www.cubanet.org/CNews/y06/apr06/28e1.htm
Detenido Opositor
Detenido Opositor2006-04-29
Por ser acusado de poner un cartel de grandes proporciones, donde se leía las frases de “Abajo Fidel” y “Libertad para los 75 y los otros presos”, se encuentra detenido Ricardo Filgueira Fajardo, desde la tarde de ayer jueves.
Dicho cartel apareció puesto en una de las paredes de la Casa de Cultura de Aguada de Pasajeros, escrito en crayola de color rojo, que a pesar de pretenderse ser borrado, todavía puede leerse. Este centro cultural está situado en frente del hogar del mencionado.
Podemos agregar que, en el instante de su detención por miembros de la Policía y la Seguridad del Estado, Filgueira fajardo se expresó a viva voz contra el gobernante cubano Fidel Castro, por lo cual, se estableció una reyerta, que conllevó a que lo inmovilizaran y exposaran para conducido así hasta la estación de la policía de ese territorio, donde desde entonces, se encuentra incomunicado.
Filgueira Fajardo, es el delg. prov. en la prov. de Cienfüegos, del Mandato a la Nación Cubana. Información remitida por Juan Alberto de la Nuez Ramírez, miembro en Aguada de Pasajeros del Partido por los Derechos Humanos en Cuba.
http://www.miscelaneasdecuba.net/web/article.asp?artID=5308
Comunicado de Prensa de Oswaldo Paya Sardinas lider del Movimiento Cristiano Liberacion
Comunicado de Prensa de Oswaldo Payá Sardiñas, Líder del Movimiento Cristiano Liberación (También en inglés)2006-04-29
Señoras y Señores,
A continuación encontrarán un comunicado de prensa de Oswaldo Payá Sardiñas, líder del Movimiento Cristiano Liberación (MCL) y del Proyecto Varela y Diálogo Nacional en Cuba. En este documento, el Sr. Payá agradece a la Universidad de Columbia el reconocimiento que éste le acaba de conceder a él el Doctor Honoris Causa.
Favor de contactarnos si quieren hablar con el representante internacional del Sr. Payá acerca de este comunicado, o si quisieran más detalles.
Muchísimas gracias.
La Habana, Cuba, 28 de Abril 2006- El 20 de diciembre de 2005 la Universidad de Columbia me envió una comunicación anunciándome la decisión de concederme el título de Doctor of Laws, honoris causa (Doctor Honoris Causa en Leyes). La comunicación que a nombre de la prestigiosa institución firmaba el Señor Lee C. Bollinger, la recibí en el mes de enero de este año. Agradezco a la Universidad de Columbia la decisión de otorgarme este Título que tanto me honra a mí y también a todo el movimiento cívico cubano.
El reconocimiento para la causa de la defensa del Derecho y de los Derechos Humanos que constituye este título honorífico, lo ofrezco a Dios, compartiéndolo con todos los prisioneros políticos pacíficos, con todos mis hermanos del Movimiento Cristiano Liberación y toda la oposición democrática pacífica, con todos los ciudadanos que han firmado el Proyecto Varela y los que participan en el Diálogo Nacional, con mi familia y con todos los cubanos que viven dentro y fuera de Cuba.
He comunicado a la Universidad de Columbia mi aceptación de este título y mi disposición de viajar para recibirlo y participar en las ceremonias que están programadas para comenzar el 16 de mayo de este año y que se efectuarán en la propia sede universitaria, en la ciudad de New York.
Pido a Dios que la decisión de otorgarme este título sea un factor más que contribuya a que entre todos los cubanos, logremos los cambios que Cuba necesita, por la vía pacífica, del diálogo y de la transformación de las leyes para hacerlas más justas y que garanticen los derechos de todos.
La Habana, 28 de abril de 2006Oswaldo José Payá Sardiñas
Contacto:Francisco De ArmasRepresentante Internacional, Movimiento Cristiano Liberación(305) 285-7970www.mclpaya.orgPara más información o para obtener una copia del comunicado, favor de contactar a: Francisco De Armas, Representante Internacional, Movimiento Cristiano Liberación, (305) 285-7970.
Dear Media and Press Agencies
Below please find a press release by Oswaldo Payá Sardiñas, who leads the Christian Liberation Movement and the Varela Project and National Dialogue inside of Cuba. Below you will find the original document in Spanish as well as an English translation to assist your efforts in distributing this important news. In this document, Mr. Payá is giving thanks for the Doctor of Law honoris causa title granted to him by Columbia University in New York. Please contact us if you would like to speak to Mr. Payá’s international representative regarding this information, or if you would like further details.
Thank you very much.
Havana, Cuba, April 28, 2006 – On December 20, 2005, Columbia University sent me a message announcing their decision to award me the title of Doctor of Law, honoris causa. I received the letter from the prestigious institution, signed by Mr. Lee C. Bollinger in January of this year. I would like to take this opportunity to express my gratitude to Columbia University for their decision to grant me this title, which is as much an honor for me as for the entire Cuban civic movement.
This honorary title constitutes recognition of the cause of the defense of the law and of human rights. This recognition I offer to God, sharing it with all political prisoners of conscience, with all of my brothers of the Christian Liberation Movement, with all the peaceful, democratic opposition who have signed the Varela Project and who have participated in the National Dialogue, with my family, and with all Cubans who live in Cuba and abroad.
I have informed Columbia University of my willingness to accept this title and my desire to travel to receive the award and participate in the ceremonies that are scheduled to take place on May 16th of this year at the campus of this university in New York City.
I ask God that this decision to honor me with this title is a factor that can further contribute, such that among all Cubans, we can achieve the changes that Cuba needs, through a peaceful path, for dialogue, and for the legal transformations to make them more just and which guarantees rights for all.
Havana, April 28, 2006
Oswaldo José Payá Sardiñas
Contact:Francisco De ArmasInternational Representative, Christian Liberation Movement(305) 285-7970www.mclpaya.orgFor more information or to obtain a copy of this communication, please contact: Francisco De Armas, International Representative, Christian Liberation Movement, (305) 285-7970.
http://www.miscelaneasdecuba.net/web/article.asp?artID=5304
Bolivia Cuba Venezuela in trade talks
Saturday, April 29, 2006 · Last updated 3:34 a.m. PT
Bolivia, Cuba, Venezuela in trade talksBy ANITA SNOWASSOCIATED PRESS WRITER
HAVANA — Bolivian President Evo Morales joined Fidel Castro of Cuba and Hugo Chavez of Venezuela in Havana for Saturday’s endorsement of a socialist trade initiative aimed at providing an alternative to U.S.-backed free trade efforts in Latin America.
Morales on Saturday planned to officially include his Andean nation in the Bolivarian Alternative for the Americas – a pact that leftists Castro and Chavez signed a year ago.
So far, only Venezuela and Cuba are signatories to the pact known by its Spanish acronym as ALBA, which also translates to mean “dawn.” It also been referred to as the “people’s trade agreement.”
The pact calls for shared trade and cooperation agreements among Latin American nations in lieu of Washington’s unsuccessful Free Trade Area of the Americas, or FTAA, which Chavez and Castro said was a U.S. attempt to “annex” the region.
Saturday’s ceremony will mark a deepening political and economic alliance among communist Cuba and left-leaning Venezuela and Bolivia as the three countries work toward their own idea for regional integration without U.S. influence.
Castro warmly greeted Morales in the afternoon, then both met Chavez in the evening.
By late Friday evening, Cuban authorities had released no details about Saturday’s signing ceremony, including when and where it would be held.
The trade pact is named for the 19th century South American revolutionary Simon Bolivar, who led independence wars in the present day nations of Venezuela, Colombia, Panama, Bolivia, Peru and Ecuador.
The agreement will allow Bolivia, Cuba and Venezuela to trade some products with zero tariffs and strengthen already close ties among the three nations, whose leaders are known for their strong opposition to U.S. policy.
“We don’t want to be rich, but we do want to live well, with dignity, as brothers, so there is no misery, so there is no poverty, so people are not excluded – that is among our fundamental objectives,” Chavez said of the trade pact in Caracas on Friday, before leaving for Havana.
Chavez and Morales have warned in recent days that their countries could withdraw from the Andean Community if fellow trade-bloc members Colombia, Peru and Ecuador go through with free-trade pacts with the United States.
Chavez said in his Caracas speech Friday that Venezuela and Cuba would happily buy all the soybeans that Bolivia produces. Colombia – previously a key soybean market for Bolivia – recently signed a free trade pact with the United States and can now get soybeans at much lower prices, the Venezuelan president said.
Since a U.S.-backed FTAA fell apart last year, Washington has signed nine free trade agreements with Latin American countries. Ecuador is currently in negotiations.
“Listen, as long as the free trade pact (with the United States) threatens the small and medium-sized soy producers in Bolivia, ALBA will save them,” Chavez said. “We’ll take them by the hand and say, ‘Come with us, we’ll buy your soy beans, look at the difference.’ “
Before leaving La Paz for Havana on Friday, Bolivian Foreign Minister David Choquehuanca said his government hoped that new commerce with Cuba and Venezuela would make up for any lost trade with the United States and the Andean Community.
ALBA isn’t just about trade. Heavily political in nature, it also calls for cooperation programs among nations, such as the Operation Miracle program Cuba and Venezuela devised to offer free eye surgery to needy people from other Latin American nations.
Associated Press writer Chris Toothaker in Caracas contributed to this report.
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/business/1310AP_Cuba_Latin_American_Alternative.html
Cubas Communist Party Expels Member
April 28, 2006, 7:45PM
Cuba’s Communist Party Expels MemberBy ANITA SNOW Associated Press Writer© 2006 The Associated Press
HAVANA — Cuba’s Communist Party leadership said Friday it has expelled one of its younger Politburo members for repeatedly failing to overcome “errors” such as abuse of authority and arrogance.
Cuban officials had once pointed with pride to Juan Carlos Robinson as an example of the island’s young black leadership. Robinson, now 49, is from the eastern city of Santiago _ Cuba’s second largest city after Havana _ and had been the party’s first secretary for the Santiago Province since 1994.
But the Communist Party’s daily newspaper Granma said Friday that Robinson had become “a lamentable and unusual case of the inability of a political cadre to overcome his errors.”
Robinson’s dismissal comes as Cuba is striving to build up its younger leadership to eventually take over for the original revolutionary leaders, many of whom are now in their 70s. President Fidel Castro will turn 80 in August and his brother and designated successor, Defense Minister Raul Castro, will turn 75 in June.
“Criticized, warned and exhorted more than once by the (party leadership) to overcome his failings, he pretended to recognize them and end them,” Granma said. “But that wasn’t what happened.”
Robinson, Granma said, “had shown attitudes that were dishonest and incompatible with the conduct of a communist, let alone a cadre of the party.”
http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/ap/world/3828278.html
Cuba sacks top government member
Cuba sacks top government memberBy Stephen GibbsBBC News, Havana
A once high-flying official has been sacked from the Cuban government, accused of arrogance, dishonesty and the abuse of power.
Juan Carlos Robinson was one of 24 members of the Politburo of the country’s ruling Communist Party.
His dismissal coincides with a structural re-organisation of the party, including the revival of an organisation from the Soviet era.
The Cuban government says the changes are designed to confront corruption.
A brisk note from Cuba’s Politburo announced the end of Juan Carlos Robinson’s career.
It added that an investigation was going on as to the legal consequences of his behaviour.
The charges laid against him, while short on detail, are severe.
He is accused of abuse of power, arrogance and dishonesty – all characteristics, the announcement declares, which are incompatible with the expected conduct of a communist.
Vigilance
Mr Robinson is a former party chief in Cuba’s eastern province of Santiago.
As a member of the Politburo, he was close to the country’s inner circle of power.
ROBINSON ACCUSED…a lamentable and unusual case of the inability of a political cadre to overcome his errorsGranma, Communist Party newspaper
His dismissal serves as a reminder to all senior Cuban officials of how dramatically their power can be stripped.
It comes as the Cuban government says increased vigilance against corruption is required as this country emerges from what was labelled its “special period” – more than 15 years of serious economic hardship following the demise of its former benefactor, the Soviet Union.
As part of that campaign, a political organisation from the Soviet era is being revived.
The Secretariat, which was disbanded in 1991, is being charged with ensuring that the party line is followed throughout the country, and indiscipline is stamped out.Story from BBC NEWS:http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/hi/americas/4956904.stm
Published: 2006/04/28 22:46:24 GMT
Senate bill would block Cuba from drilling near Florida Keys
Posted on Fri, Apr. 28, 2006
Senate bill would block Cuba from drilling near Florida KeysBY WILLIAM E. GIBSONSouth Florida Sun-Sentinel
WASHINGTON – As part of a campaign to fend off energy production near the coast of Florida, U.S. Sen. Bill Nelson is trying to block Cuban contractors from drilling in the environmentally sensitive waters just south of the Florida Keys.
The prospect of Cuban drilling alarms environmentalists who fear that an oil spill would swiftly follow the prevailing ocean current through the Florida Straits and around the southeast coast, threatening beaches all along South Florida.
“This is home to sea turtles, sperm whales, a number of charismatic species in serious jeopardy,” said Mark Ferrulo, director of Florida PIRG, an advocacy group strongly opposed to offshore drilling. “The potential impact of a spill and the speed with which it would be brought to the southeast beaches is extremely alarming.”
Cuba has contracted with companies from Canada, Spain and China to explore reserves off the island’s northwest shores. A stream of oil revenue would bolster Cuba’s fragile economy and give the Cuban government leverage in international relations.
Cuba so far has not found enough good-quality oil to justify the expense of production. But the prospect of rigs just 45 miles from the Keys has entered the debate in Washington over U.S. energy policy.
Nelson introduced a bill on Thursday that would prevent the Bush administration from renewing a 1977 agreement that allows Cuba to do business near the Keys, unless the Cuban government agrees to stop drilling in the area. The bill also would allow the U.S. secretary of state to deny travel visas to executives of foreign oil companies that are exploring the north coast of Cuba.
Citing environmental concerns, Nelson, D-Fla., and most Florida members of Congress are trying to prevent oil-and-gas drilling within 150 miles of the entire Florida coastline, including natural gas reserves in the eastern Gulf of Mexico.
“At risk are the Florida Keys and the state’s tourism economy, not to mention the $8 billion that Congress is investing to restore the Everglades,” Nelson said.
Drilling proponents in this country cite the Cuban example to call attention to what they consider the illogic of restricting access to offshore areas when supplies are low and fuel prices high.
“Cuba may drill within 50 miles of Florida, but Canada drills just as close off the coasts of several other states,” said Rep. John Peterson, R-Pa., who favors drilling for natural gas near Florida and other restricted areas.
He said Nelson’s bill appears to be an empty gesture because he cannot dictate Cuba’s energy policy.
“If we’re able to unilaterally end the Cuban offshore drilling program,” Peterson said, “we should, while we’re at it, require the formal abdication of Fidel Castro and the full and swift adoption of democracy for the island’s 11 million repressed people.”
http://www.mercurynews.com/mld/mercurynews/news/politics/14455683.htm
Cuba Venezuela not helping in war on terrorism
Posted on Sat, Apr. 29, 2006
POLITICSWashington: Cuba, Venezuela not helping in war on terrorismA State Department report blasted Cuba and Venezuela for not cooperating in the war on terrorism.BY PABLO BACHELETpbachelet@MiamiHerald.com
WASHINGTON – The State Department on Friday blasted Venezuela and Cuba for doing little in the war on terrorism and criticized Havana for refusing to hand over U.S. fugitives even as it made demands on anti-Castro activist Luis Posada Carriles and five Cuban agents held in the United States.
”Cuba remained a state sponsor of terrorism, while Venezuela virtually ceased its cooperation in the global war on terror, tolerating terrorists in its territory and seeking closer relations with Cuba and Iran,” according to the State Department’s 2005 Country Reports on Terrorism.
But the annual congressionally mandated report also said ”there is some dispute about the existence and extent of Cuba’s bioweapons program,” as the Bush administration continued to backtrack on earlier claims that Cuba possessed a limited offensive biological warfare research and development effort.
The State Department also lists several recent encounters between Iranian, North Korean and Cuban officials but falls short of linking these contacts to bioweapons technology transfers.
In an unusually detailed response to Cuba’s longtime demands that the United States hand over five of its agents convicted in 2001 of spying for Cuba, the State Department said some U.S. fugitives have been living on the island since the 1970s and that Cuba was ”nonresponsive” to U.S. demands that they be handed over.
”On the other hand, the Cuban regime publicly demanded the return of five of its agents convicted of espionage in the United States,” the report said.
Cuba says the five are heroes who defended against attacks by exile groups.
The United States made a similar point with Posada Carriles, a former CIA operative and Venezuelan citizen accused of masterminding the 1976 bombing of a Cubana Airlines plane, killing more than 70. ”Cuba did not extradite suspected terrorists during the year, but demanded that the United States surrender to Cuba Luis Posada Carriles,” the report stated.
The report, which tackles terrorism issues worldwide, uses stern language on Venezuela but falls short of listing it as a state sponsor of terrorism, as some Venezuela officials feared.
Last year, the State Department called Venezuela’s counterterrorism cooperation “inconsistent at best.”
Now cooperation is ”negligible,” and Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez collaborated more with Cuba and Iran and was “unwilling to deny safe haven to members of Colombian terrorists groups, as called for in U.N. resolutions.”
U.S. officials have complained that Chávez has been systematically cutting links with the United States, including limiting contacts between U.S. military personnel and their counterparts in Venezuela and ignoring or harassing William Brownfield, the U.S. ambassador in Caracas.
Washington said Chávez has turned increasingly authoritarian at home and promotes an aggressive form of populism abroad. The Bush administration has blocked or objected to Venezuelan arms purchases, saying they were overblown given the nation’s defense needs.
Venezuelan ambassador in Washington, Bernardo Alvarez, said the State Department report was “immoral and cynical.”
He said Washington demands collaboration on terrorism but has been silent to Venezuela’s requested extradition of Posada Carriles and two Venezuelan officers charged with bombing foreign consular buildings in Caracas.
http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/news/14458354.htm
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