Posted on 02/24/2005 10:09:17 AM PST by The Bronze Titan
AN Australian and his family were arrested in Cuba, thrown in an underground cell and interrogated, without food or water, for 12 hours after being accused of stealing visas.
Russell Grimmer, his wife Silvia and eight-year-old daughter Lia, were detained at the immigration counter at Havana's airport on Saturday as the family was about to leave on a flight to Mexico City after a six-day holiday on the communist-ruled Caribbean island.
The family was refused consular access and officials from the Cuban Interior Ministry took them by van to an undisclosed location.
There, they were jailed in an underground room without light and were forced to wait several hours before being interrogated.
Mr Grimmer, Motorola Australia's communications and public affairs manager, said he was told visa numbers had been stolen from Cuba's consulate in Sydney.
Now recovering in Cusco, Peru, the family told The Australian they blamed the poor treatment on Cuba's prickly relationship with the US, a key Australian ally.
"I kept telling them our visas were fine," Mr Grimmer said.
"Some Canadians were also held at the airport, apparently, so we had the feeling that it was political and these people on duty had some beef against Australia.
"While our treatment was so poor ... we weren't scared for our lives or anything, but we still don't know why (we were arrested)."
Mr Grimmer said he believed the incarceration was politically motivated and his family was freed only after officials learned he had managed to alert his employer in Melbourne from a telephone box at Havana airport.
He had been taken from his cell after his interrogation, driven in a secure car to a shop to buy biscuits for his sick daughter and then to the airport to sort out missed flights.
Mr Grimmer's Peruvian-born wife, Silvia, believed Cuban authorities suspected them of spying because Australians "are a friend of the US", regularly denounced by Cuba's dictator of more than 40 years, Fidel Castro.
"The reason (we were jailed) is they wanted to bother people who are not friends of Cuba," she said.
She said Lia remained severely traumatised. She was sick at the time of the arrest and a Cuban doctor called in to treat her gave her nothing but a glass of water.
The incident has sparked a diplomatic rebuke from Australia, with a Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade spokesman confirming Cuba's consul-general in Sydney had been contacted and concerns expressed over the family's detention.
The Cuban consulate yesterday refused to comment about the alleged visa thefts, the family's ordeal and whether authorities in Australia were investigating any security breaches.
The DFAT spokesman said that refusing consular access breached international conventions, to which Cuba was a signatory.
They would have gotten better treatment if they went to gitmo instead.
Nice Australian. He visits a communist country, his family is detained and imprisioned for 12 hours and he blames the United States. We couldn't be any less-involved with cuba if we tried.
Ah, Cuba's medical system is the envy of world.
Excellent analysis. Just another example of someone not wanting to take responsibility for their decisions.
Bush's fault.
The US is to blame for all the worlds ailments.
I didn't read this as the Aussie blaming the U.S. I interpreted it as him accusing Cuba of political retaliation. In other words, my sense is that his anger is directed at Cuba NOT the U.S.
I'm sure he'll go back there for his next vacation. Everyone was so friendly.
Damned Cubians, don't even know how to torture people. I bet those prisoners wished the US had them instead of Cuba. We provide busty women wearing thongs to sit on your lap.
Well, I guess they should have went somewhere else for their vacation.... ;)
He needs his head examined for going in the first place.
Ping
Crikey... CUBA!.?. of all places with his daughter and wife.. LoL..
Even Steve Irwin is not that dumb...
Anyone is STUPID who would ever vacation in that Commie Hell Hole. Vacationing in this hell hole only supports Castros island prison.
EXACTLY! That's why they figured he had to be a spy. Even Cubans realize there is no reason for any person from a developed country to visit their shithole of an island.
Yes. Good old Red China.
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