Posted on 04/27/2003 8:15:08 AM PDT by Luis Gonzalez
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Posted on Sun, Apr. 27, 2003 | |
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Pope decries Cuba's hard line Castro links increase in dissent to assignment of U.S. diplomat nsanmartin@herald.com The wave of international protests over Cuba's recent crackdown on dissent continued Saturday with a disclosure by the Vatican that Pope John Paul II had expressed his sorrow over recent actions by the Cuban government and pleaded for leniency for 75 dissidents sentenced to long terms in prison. The disclosure came just a few hours after Cuban President Fidel Castro finished delivering a nationwide television address of more than three hours defending Cuba's behavior and blaming the U.S. government and Cuban exiles for Cuba's actions. In Madrid, meanwhile, hundreds of protesters, many of them Cuban exiles, rallied to protest the wave of repression, brandishing signs that called Castro a ''murderous dictator.'' Spanish politicians and intellectuals joined the crowd for the protest in the famous downtown plaza known as Puerta del Sol. In an unusual display of agreement on foreign policy, leaders of both the governing Popular Party of Prime Minister José María Aznar and the opposition Socialist Party condemned the executions and the repression. A letter read by Fernando Savater, a leading Spanish intellectual, asked ''democratic governments'' worldwide to reduce their diplomatic representation in Havana and to expel Cuba from international organizations. In his speech Friday night -- his first on this topic since the controversy erupted with a wave of detentions in late March -- Castro said Cuba's leadership cannot be held responsible either for the repression or for the executions of three men who tried to hijack a passenger ferry to Florida earlier this month. He blamed the Bush administration and the ''terrorist mafia'' -- his customary term of reference for Cuban exiles -- for allegedly conspiring with internal dissidents to destabilize Cuba in an effort to weaken its sovereignty. But just hours after Castro had finished speaking in Havana, the Vatican disclosed on Saturday that, in a letter written to Castro on April 13, Pope John Paul II denounced the execution of the three men as well as the harsh sentences handed down to the island's 75 dissidents for alleged treason. The letter, written in Spanish at the Pope's behest by Vatican secretary of state, Cardinal Angelo Sodano, expressed the pontiff's ''profound pain'' over the executions and ''deep sorrow'' at the long prison terms meted out to dissidents. ''The Holy Father has felt deeply pained when he learned of the harsh sentences recently imposed on numerous Cuban citizens, and, even, for some of them, the death penalty,'' Sodano wrote. POPE URGES CLEMENCY ``In the face of these facts, His Holiness charged me with asking Your Excellency to give full consideration to a significant gesture of clemency toward those convicted, with the assurance of knowing that such an act will contribute to create a climate of greater detente to the benefit of the real Cuban people.'' In an introduction to the letter released by the Holy See, the hijackers were described as dissidents, not criminals. In his speech on Friday night, Castro said his administration was aware of the political consequences it would face but had no choice in adopting ''the measures,'' referring to the arrests and executions. The three-hour speech explained the government's action by detailing alleged provocations incited by the top U.S. diplomat in Havana, and U.S. support for a democratic reform initiative known as the Varela Project and another dissident movement known as the Assembly to Promote Civil Society in Cuba. Citing the war in Iraq as an example of U.S. aggression, Castro warned that Cuba could not be conquered with soldiers, military tanks or aircraft. He said that ''principal leaders'' in the country would never surrender and that even if they were killed, thousands of other ``combatants would occupy their posts . . . and generation after generation would fight for Cuba and against occupying troops.'' ''When our country is occupied,'' Castro said, ``The war will not end; rather, it will just begin.'' Castro said that the Bush administration ``is seeking an inevitable mass exodus [out of the island] . . . to serve as a pretext for military aggression against Cuba.'' Cuba always has blamed U.S. immigration policy for spurring illegal departures because U.S. law allows most Cubans who reach U.S. soil to qualify for permanent residence. But in his speech, Castro suggested that a string of hijackings over the last year is part of a U.S. plot that began to unfold nearly eight months ago with the arrival of James Cason, chief of the U.S. Interests section in Havana. Castro's accounting of alleged subversive actions included many social gatherings and meeting organized or attended by Cason and government opponents labeled as ``counterrevolutionaries.'' Castro named some of the most prominent dissidents including Varela Project leader Oswaldo Payá Sardiñas, human rights activist Elizardo Sánchez, opposition party leaders Vladimiro Roca and Oscar Elías Biscet as well as Martha Beatriz Roque, head of the Assembly to Promote Civil Society in Cuba, an umbrella organization binding hundreds of dissidents across the island. Payá, Sánchez and Roca, although identified as traitors, are among the few who remain free. Biscet and Roque were picked up as part of the islandwide dragnet and are now serving long prison terms. POLICY MAY CHANGE U.S. officials have repeatedly denied that Cuba is a military target even as they acknowledge that current policy is under review and may be toughened in response to the crackdown against government opponents. Cason is likely to face continued public admonishments as Cuba prepares for its annual May Day celebration. The government already has announced that about seven million people will take to the streets on Thursday to protest what it called U.S. aggression. The government is calling this year's annual observance a ''veritable plebiscite'' in which the population will ``repudiate threats of aggression and the media campaign against the Cuban Revolution.'' |
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"In an unusual display of agreement on foreign policy, leaders of both the governing Popular Party of Prime Minister José María Aznar and the opposition Socialist Party condemned the executions and the repression.""A letter read by Fernando Savater, a leading Spanish intellectual, asked ''democratic governments'' worldwide to reduce their diplomatic representation in Havana and to expel Cuba from international organizations."
Everything is falling apart for El Comandante.
Indeed. Moreover, have you noticed that our Sunday talkshows don't want to give Senator Harkin's visit to Cuba *ANY* publicity?!
Heaven forbid that the U.S. actually talk openly about the traitor.
Having American goods and money flood Cuba would doom him and he knows it.
Having the embargo is his scapegoat for a failed regime.
Well, he's still there.. And I believe we agreed not to invade as part and parcel of resolving the Cuban Missle Crisis.
Of course, that's a deal we made with the Soviet Union.. which is now defunct.
Heh heh. That would be scary.
"We live in fictious times when a fictious president of Cuba has a ficticious government. The POPE is against your socialist dicatatorship, Mr. Castro! The Pope!!! Shame on you! Once you've got the Pope against you, you know you're through."
Bueno.
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