He first got in trouble with the regime in 1998 when he was working at a Havana hospital and he presented to authorities the results of a clandestine study he had done on the government’s use of the chemical substance Rivanol to abort advanced pregnancies. The practice is widespread in Cuba, including its common use among girls as young as 12, who during their government-mandated school time in the countryside without their parents, often become pregnant.
Dr. Biscet has written that the study proved “the murder of infants born alive, denied of medical assistance.” According to his report “the umbilical cord was cut and they were allowed to bleed to death or they were wrapped alive in paper and asphyxiated.” His opposition to these practices made him a counter revolutionary and qualified him for the corresponding government program: He was fired, lost his home and was set upon by mobs that beat him and harassed his family.
In December 2002, Dr. Biscet’s plan to create small groups meeting in private homes to promote human rights landed him in jail again and he received a 25-year sentence. The Web site www.free-biscet.org says that since his incarceration “he has staged protests against Cuba’s violation of human rights at the prison with acts of civil disobedience, such as fasting and holding prayer services.
“Consequently, he was punished by being locked up in solitary confinement for 42 days in an unlit cell.” Cuba’s notorious “punishment” cells have no windows, a hole in the floor for a toilet and measure only about three-feet wide. Yet despite such grim circumstances, Dr. Biscet send messages like this on: “My conscience and my spirit are well.”
Of course, Dr. Biscet’s real crime is that he is an Afro-Cuban who is neither grateful nor obedient to the regime and who answers to a higher power. Perhaps his worst transgression is his courage, which makes him a dangerous inspiration to the many Cubans that are now organizing in small groups.***
For one, Telesur's director, Uruguayan journalist Aram Aharonian, seems more interested in thwarting the United States than in conveying the truth. He calls the United States "the enemy" and the Iraq War "genocidal." In a March interview with La Jornada, after giving nods to Messrs. Castro and Chavez, he promised a free editorial line -- with the exception that he'll broadcast "nothing against regional integration or the struggle against neoliberal globalization." That's Marxist for nothing favoring the United States. He praises Al Jazeera and welcomes the comparison. "Al Jazeera wants to show the Arabian point of view and Telesur wants to show the Latin American point of view," he told the New York Sun in March.
... the president of Telesur's board, Andres Izarra, is also Mr. Chavez's information minister. Incredibly, Mr. Aharonian says that won't affect Telesur's coverage. No wonder the critics are already calling it "Telechavez."
....So far no private investors have emerged. Only governments,... Mr. Castro's 19 percent stake says something, ...Mr. Chavez is using his country's oil money. Next week, Qatari Emir Hamad Bin-Khalifah Al Thani reportedly will meet with Venezuelan officials to talk shop and deepen ties with Al Jazeera…..***