Castro Seeks Life Sentences for Dissidents - Trial Today - Where's Jimmy Carter?

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/ap/20030403/ap_on_re_la_am_ca/cuba_crackdown_4 ^ | April 3, 2003 | Anita Snow, AP

[Cincinatus' Wife]

HAVANA - Cuba pressed forward with its harshest crackdown on dissent in years, scheduling trials for dissidents rounded up across the island and reportedly seeking life sentences for at least 10 of them.

At least 78 dissidents have been arrested since March 18, accused of working with U.S. diplomats to subvert Fidel Castro's government and of being mercenaries in the pay of Washington.

Rising tensions with the United States have coincided with a string of hijackings by Cubans trying to leave the communist island. On Wednesday, gunmen forced a Cuban ferry to head toward Florida; the boat remained adrift Thursday morning. Two airliners were recently hijacked to Key West, Fla., one on March 19 and a second on Tuesday.

As international criticism of the crackdown increased, the wives of several dissidents complained Wednesday that their husbands had been unable to consult with attorneys and had not even seen the prosecution's written case against them.

"I feel so defenseless!" said Elsa Pollan, whose husband, Hector Fernando Maseda was going on trial Thursday. "Where can I find someone to defend my husband?"

Prosecutors are seeking life sentences for 10, including opposition political leaders Osvaldo Alfonso Valdes and Hector Palacios, who were being tried together with Maseda and three others, said veteran activist Elizardo Sanchez.

A three-page list compiled by Sanchez's Cuban Commission on Human Rights and National Reconciliation lists 78 confirmed defendants and the sentences sought for each. Several Cuban exile groups have distributed slightly longer lists.

All agree, however, that prosecutors are seeking life behind bars for dissident economist Marta Beatriz Roque, who was being tried Thursday with several others at a different Havana courthouse.

Roque was one of four leaders of a now defunct opposition umbrella group known as Concilio Cubano. They were sentenced to 3 1/2 to 5 years following a closed-door trial in 1999 that was widely condemned abroad.

The four were convicted of incitement to sedition for written documents distributed to the international media that criticized a major Communist Party document and called on foreign companies not to invest in the Caribbean island. The last of the group, Vladimiro Roca, was released last May. Roque served about two years.

Trials were also beginning on Thursday for dissidents from other parts of the country, ranging from the westernmost province of Pinar del Rio to Santiago in the far east.

Cuban dissidents, from left, Hector Palacios, Oswaldo Paya and Pedro Pablo Alvarez talk to the press in this Nov.14, 2001 file photo in Havana, Cuba. Palacios and Alvarez were arrested in a recent crackdown and will go on trial Thursday April 3, 2003 in Havana, Cuba with dozens of other opposition members. Communist officials accuse the arrested dissidents of working with American diplomats in Cuba to subvert Cuban President Fidel Castro's government. Paya, center, leader of the Varela project, was not arrested. (AP Photo/Jose Goitia, File)

Trial was scheduled Friday in Havana for independent journalist Ricardo Gonzalez, who recently launched the first general interest magazine of its kind, and Raul Rivero, the nation's best-known journalist working outside Cuba's state-controlled media and a delegate to the Inter-American Press Association.

According to Sanchez's lists, prosecutors are seeking a life sentence for Gonzalez and 20 years for Rivero.

The Cuban government has provided no information about the trials and it was unknown if international journalists would be granted access.

Authorities here have accused those arrested of being traitors and mercenaries for the U.S. government.

Cuban Parliament speaker Ricardo Alarcon said Monday that authorities had sufficient evidence to try the dissidents, adding that most nations had laws "to defend their sovereignty."

The crackdown began when Cuban officials criticized the head of the American mission in Havana, James Cason, for his active support of the island's opposition.

Accusations that the detainees engaged in treason and are mercenaries "only show the repressive nature of the Castro regime and its fear of any sign of opposition to its ironclad rule," Roberto Zimmerman, spokesman for the U.S. State Department's Latin America bureau, said in Washington on Wednesday.

The Cubans "are being tried for exercising their rights of freedom of expression and association," said Zimmerman.

The roundup followed several years of relative government tolerance for dissidents. During that time, the opposition grew stronger, more organized and more daring.

Those arrested included independent journalists, directors of non-governmental libraries, members of opposition political parties and volunteers for the Varela Project, a pro-democracy petition drive.

[Cincinatus' Wife]

Fidel Castro - Cuba

[friendly]

This is Hillary and Bill Clinton's (and the rest of the democrat party rodent population) orgasmic dream come true. Prison for all your political opponents.

Oh and thanks for your usual betrayal, Jimmah Carter (the worst American President of the entire last century).

[Cincinatus]

Where's Jimmy Carter?"

In the back room, fondling his Nobel Peace Prize.

[Cincinatus' Wife]

What a monster Carter is. He steps into "help" but the help is always for the oppressor.

[Cincinatus' Wife]

Maybe he'll let Castro stroke it.

[guitfiddlist]

Where's Jimmy Carter?"

In the back room, fondling his Nobel Peace Prize...

...while wandering around in his bathrobe...going "La-La-La-La-La....Can't HEAR Youuuuu!"

[friendly]

The toothy-grinned appearance of Carter on the doorstep of any democracy loving freedom fighter is Death: you are soon to be jailed and/or murdered.

[Cincinatus' Wife]

Bump!

[friendly]

Jimmy Carter in the back room, fondling his Nobel Peace Prize... wandering around in his bathrobe...going "La-La-La-La-La....Can't HEAR Youuuuu!"

an image too funny for words.

[Moby Grape]

YES, where is Jimmy? And where is Dan Rather?

[Free the USA]

http://www.freerepublic.com/perl/bump-list

[Cincinatus' Wife]

Bump!

[Cincinatus' Wife]

Secret trial----------

An unidentified Cuban dissident is brought to court in a police car Thursday, April 3, 2003, in Havana, Cuba. Cuba pressed forward with its harshest crackdown on dissent in years, holding the first trials Thursday for dissidents rounded up across the island. At least 78 dissidents have been arrested since March 18, accused of working with U.S. diplomats to subvert Fidel Castro's government and of being mercenaries in the pay of Washington. (AP Photo/Jose Goitia)

A Cuban security officer uses a chain to prevent dissident suppporters, including Claudia Marquez, center, opposition member Osvaldo Alfonso's wife, from entering the court building in Havana, Cuba, Thursday, April 3, 2003. (AP Photo/Jose Goitia)