Fidel Castro

Castro Regime Says Jailed Dissidents Were Mercenaries of the U.S. Empire *** The toughest sentences were for independent journalists -- 28 were arrested -- and organizers of the Varela Project, a petition for democratic reforms that gathered more than 11,000 signatures last year. The initiative's leader, Oswaldo Paya, who won the European Union's top human rights award, the Sakharov Prize, in December, was not arrested, but his organization, the first nationwide opposition network, was dismembered in the roundup.

Luis Enrique Ferrer, a local coordinator in the city of LasTunas for the Varela Project, was sentenced to 28 years in prison, the stiffest sentence, the Cuban Human Rights Commission said.

Cuba's best-known dissident poet, writer and journalist, Raul Rivero, 57, and economist Martha Beatriz Roque -- the only woman put on trial -- got 20 year sentences.

International rights groups said the draconian sentences given after one-day trials by improvised courts, where undercover agents that infiltrated the dissident groups were produced as witnesses, was a throwback to Stalinism. Amnesty International called the jailings appalling and "a giant step backwards for human rights" in Cuba.

The Castro government was undeterred by an outpouring of criticism from foreign governments and rights groups and insisted that the dissidents were a tool of its longtime ideological foe, the United States. The wives of jailed dissidents said they had three days to appeal, but were not hopeful the sentences could be changed. "These terms were dictated by President Castro. In Cuba there is only one voice." said Rivero's wife, Blanca Reyes said after hearing his sentence on Monday. "This is like a Roman circus."***

Jeff Jacoby: A wave of repression in Cuba *** Every few years Castro unleashes a brutal crackdown, sweeping scores of innocent victims -- dissidents and democrats guilty of nothing more than thinking for themselves -- into his dungeons. It isn't something he does because he has been insufficiently exposed to commerce and tourism, or because he resents the US embargo, or because Jimmy Carter and other credulous liberals haven't lavished him with his usual quota of flattery. He does it because he is a ruthless tyrant who craves power more than anything else. For 44 years he has let nothing weaken his stranglehold on Cuba, and neither concessions nor sanctions nor international condemnation will change his behavior now. The only one way to reform a totalitarian despot like Castro is to topple his regime. Peacefully if possible, by force if necessary.***

Yoko Ono Flying In For Castro's Gulag Fiesta- VIP's Welcome*** La Fiesta de la Gulag: Why are a group of high-powered "New York-based VIPs" -- as reported in A.L. Bardach's Newsweek International "Global Buzz" column -- joining Yoko Ono in traveling to Cuba to meet with Fidel Castro in the middle of Castro's repressive campaign to throw scores of dissidents in prison? ... It's one thing to go to visit Cuba. It's another to go now, when Castro will use the publicity as cover for his anti-democracy drive. It's especially ironic that press and publishing executives are paying an apparent premium to meet with a man who is busy jailing journalists and writers for being journalists and writers. (The trip's cost, -- a reported $6,500 per person -- is inexplicable, unless you consider that Ono's presence guarantees an audience with Fidel.)***

MUM'S THE WORD: Hollywood celebs may not quite be pro-Saddam, but there's one tyrant they love.***Talk about "shock and awe"! It is indeed shocking to note the ease with which the Castro Faithful shy away from protesting his actions or correcting their sycophantic statements--or, in Mr. Spahn's case, put forward a blame-the-victim theory. Shocking too are the products of fawning tribute that continue to materialize, such as Estela Bravo's adoring documentary "Fidel" and the documentary "Comandante," directed by Oliver Stone and Fidel Castro himself, who was given the power to stop filming at will.

The Stone film, set to be broadcast on HBO in May, will supposedly show the human side of Castro, a man who is "one of the Earth's wisest people," as Mr. Stone said at a press conference in February. In "Comandante," we are told, Castro finally reveals his true views about shaving, his love of recent films such as "Titanic" and "Gladiator" (just don't ask how he got a hold of copies of the films under the U.S. economic embargo), and his great appreciation for Brigitte Bardot and Sophia Loren. Shocking indeed. Given the harshness of the recent dissident crackdown, the release date of the film seems awkward at best. If it wasn't so sad, it would be funny.

Why is this thug still the darling of the media elite? Why is it so unwilling to protest his dictatorial moves? As Marxist ideologue Groucho would say, a child of five would understand this; send someone to fetch a child of five. Perhaps Castro represents a wish-fulfillment fantasy. A romantic, intellectual revolutionary achieves iconic status, absolute power, great wealth and a 40-year-plus reign--quite an appealing vision to ambitious people in industries with high career mortality rates. But who knows? The Faithful aren't talking.***

Castro (not CNN) sends unequivocal message with execution of hijackers, crackdown *** HAVANA (AFP) - Amid an international outcry over its crackdown on dissidents, Cuba sent a clear message to anyone who would destabilize the regime from within, summarily executing three men who tried to hijack a ferry to get to the United States. An official statement said the men were tried "with full respect for their ... basic rights," convicted Tuesday and shot dead at dawn Friday.

Another four of the men involved in the hijacking of the ferry with some 40 people aboard were sentenced to life in jail, and one man to 30 years in prison. The three women who took part were sentenced to five, three and two years respectively. A swift appeal was nixed by the Council of State, which is led by President Fidel Castro, the statement added. ***

Castro's crackdown © St. Petersburg Times published April 12, 2003 [Full Text] Fidel Castro apparently thought the world's attention on the war in Iraq would leave him free to carry out another crackdown on political dissidents without anyone noticing. Dozens of peaceful Cuban activists, writers and other opponents of Castro's regime have been subjected to closed trials and sentenced to jail terms averaging 20 years. Most were arrested on trumped-up charges of conspiring with U.S. diplomats to undermine the government.

Among the 80 people arrested over the past month are some of Cuba's most respected voices: political activists Hector Palacios and Osvaldo Alfonso Valdes; economist Marta Beatriz Roque; physician Oscar Elias Biscet; human rights activist Elizardo Sanchez; journalist Ricardo Gonzalez. From all evidence, they and the other defendants are guilty of nothing more than espousing political ideas that the Castro dictatorship considers dangerous.

On Friday, Castro's crackdown continued. Three men charged with terrorism for hijacking a passenger ferry earlier this month were executed after short trials. At least they were accused of real crimes, but their trial violated all standards of due process and their death sentences were notably harsh.

After more than 40 years of oppressive rule, Castro isn't likely to change his stripes, but the timing of this crackdown is especially unfortunate. The Cuban people have suffered the brunt of cultural and economic sanctions that have failed to weaken Castro's grip on power. Recently, U.S. and Cuban officials have made tentative progress toward new ties that would allow for increased American aid to Cubans in need and increased contact among families divided between the two countries. Cuban-American communities in South Florida and elsewhere in the country have been increasingly supportive of those efforts.

But Castro doesn't appear to be capable of moving past the perverse agenda that has defined his teetering revolution. Instead of taking steps to encourage a political thaw that would improve the lot of his own people, he has reverted to old habits, punishing those who have the courage to speak the truth about Cuba's tyranny. In his vain effort to bottle up the pressure for reform, he has increased the odds that the overdue end of his regime will come with a bang, not a whimper. [End]

Communist Spies For Castro - Cuba Unmasks Spies Among Dissidents *** HAVANA - For years they were familiar faces in Cuba's opposition movement: the elderly man with a black beret, the reporter who used a cane, the efficient secretary. But last week, after the government locked up 75 of its most vocal critics, their real identities became known: government spies. "The True Faces of the Nation" is what the Communist Party daily Granma called them: as many as a dozen men and women who faked opposition to Fidel Castro's government to gather facts and figures about the dissidents.

Several of the undercover agents were so trusted by American diplomats that they had permission to use computers whenever they wished. The unmasking underscored the efficiency of the Cuban government's intelligence services and sent a strong message to diplomats and dissidents alike. "No one in Cuba is sucking their thumb," Foreign Minister Felipe Perez Roque said last week, defending the crackdown. "What we have said here is just a part of what we know." ***

Cuba Dissident Case Revives U.S. Debate *** HAVANA - Cuba's accusations about dissidents in the pay of Washington have revived a long-standing debate over whether using U.S. government funds to support the Cuban opposition does more harm than good. Some $20 million has been paid by the U.S. Agency for International Development to U.S.-based groups working to end communist rule in the island. They run Web sites, distribute pro-democracy books and pamphlets, and even provide food and medicine to the families of political prisoners. But some veteran activists say the money only gives Fidel Castro's government ammunition to persecute dissidents, like the 75 sentenced in recent days for allegedly conspiring with the United States. ***

Cuba's brutality an eye-opener for a new generation*** For many young Cuban Americans who grew up in South Florida, the oppression, the mock justice, the summary executions that their parents and grandparents recall from Fidel Castro's dictatorship had become the lore of a hellish place that they had never known. But now, for the first time in years, the Castro government is exhibiting the same type of behavior that drove their families into exile -- giving the younger generation a glimpse of modern-day oppression on the island.

It remains to be seen whether the crackdown on human-rights activists and executions of accused hijackers are enough to inspire them to carry on the anti-communist spirit of their elders. But at the very least, they say they see for themselves what the anti-Castro feeling is about. ''When you're young, the only opinions of dictatorships like Castro's are formed from what your parents and grandparents tell you,'' said Christy Fojo, 21, an English literature major at Florida International University. ``But when you see it happening now, it does open your eyes to the brutality going on there.''***

A Purge With a Purpose - "Is it so bad to be a dictator?"***Propaganda," Fidel Castro instructed a comrade in a letter written in 1954, "is the very soul of our struggle." What, then, was Mr. Castro, champion spinmeister, thinking last week when he tossed some 75 Cuban writers and dissidents into prison for up to 28 years, after a grim procession of quickie show trials worthy of Stalin? Or on Friday, when he summarily executed three men who had hijacked a passenger ferry on April 2? Certainly, it would seem, his timing could hardly have been worse: Cuba has been lobbying to keep its place on the United Nations Human Rights Commission, and that commission has been preparing its annual list of violator countries - Cuba is certain to make the grade, once again.

Fidel Castro is many things - belligerent, Machiavellian, prideful - but he is not stupid. Nor would he have thought, as some human-rights groups assume, that these recent actions would go unnoticed with the world focused on Iraq. It seems more likely that this purge was intended to make a statement, and even to win Mr. Castro some advantage. The Cuban government, of course, claims the jailings were a response to Bush administration policy. It cited meetings held with dissidents at the residence of James Cason, chief of the United States Interests Section in Havana, which it calls "subversion by a foreign power." ***

Andres Oppenheimer---Listen carefully to Latin America's response to Cuba's repression: silence***Reached in Madrid, Mexico's Foreign Minister Luis Ernesto Derbez told me through his spokesman that Mexico ''laments'' the prison sentences, and that it will take them into account in the April 16 vote on Cuba's human rights conditions at the U.N. Human Rights Commission in Geneva.

Brazilian Foreign Minister Celso Amorim, whose country had not said anything about the Cuban crackdown on peaceful dissidents, responded, ``We are always worried about the human rights situation in any country, but the most strident actions are not always the most effective ones.''

Foreign Minister Allan Wagner of Peru, whose country is cosponsoring a mild resolution at the U.N. Human Rights Commission asking that Cuba allow a human rights monitor to visit the island, told me that his country ''expresses its concern'' over the fate of the jailed dissidents, intellectuals and independent journalists in Cuba.

Argentine Foreign Minister Carlos Ruckauf told me that ''the Cuban dictatorship has committed another crime against freedom of expression.'' But his boss, President Eduardo Duhalde, was at the same time evading any strong criticism of Cuba.

Insiders say Duhalde is under pressure from his hand-picked presidential candidate, Néstor Kirchner, to vote in support of Cuba at the United Nations, as part of his efforts to capitalize on Argentina's escalating anti-American sentiment in the wake of the war in Iraq.

What irony! The democratic leaders of Mexico, Brazil, Argentina, Peru and Chile were themselves peaceful opponents until recently, forced to knock on the doors of foreign governments, international human rights organizations -- and journalists -- to demand solidarity against their countries' authoritarian governments. Compared to Cuba's Rivero, they had it easy. Most of them were never imprisoned for having a typewriter, foreign newspapers, or for contacting foreign diplomats to explain their struggle for democracy. How can they remain silent in the face of such an outrage?***

Mexico Condemns Executions in Cuba***MEXICO CITY - Mexico on Monday condemned Cuba's execution of three men who tried to hijack a ferry to the United States. But Mexico kept silent on how it plans to vote on a resolution on its traditional ally's human rights record. The vote is expected in the coming days at the U.N. Human Rights Commission in Geneva.***

''This is as far as I go'' - Disgusted by executions, Castro ally cuts ties to Cuba *** In a bitter criticism of the executions carried out last week in Cuba, José Saramago, the Nobel Prize-winning Portuguese writer considered Fidel Castro's best friend among European intellectuals, broke with the regime Monday. ''This is as far as I go,'' Saramago wrote in a short but powerful essay printed in Spain's leading newspaper, El País, as the European Union, various countries and organizations around the world continued to offer public repudiations.

Killing three men by firing squad at dawn Friday for trying to spirit a ferry boat is unacceptable -- especially since the would-be hijackers didn't hurt anybody, wrote Saramago, a communist. ``Cuba has won no heroic victory by executing these three men, but it has lost my confidence, damaged my hopes, robbed me of illusions.''***

CNN: The Mother of All Cover-Ups-A dozen years fronting for Saddam's murderous regime*** As frightening as this story is, even more frightening is the thought that this network and other liberal dominated news media are covering up similar horrors elsewhere. We know that CNN, for one, has kowtowed to Fidel Castro, whose own torture chambers were recently described in terrible detail in a State Department human rights report.

The Media Research Center analysts reviewed all 212 stories about the Cuban government or Cuban life that were presented on CNN's prime time news programs from March 17, 1997, the date the Havana bureau was established, through March 17, 2002. That analysis found that instead of exposing the totalitarian regime that runs Cuba, "CNN has allowed itself to become just another component of Fidel Castro's propaganda just as it had in the case of Iraq."***

TYRANTS APLENTY - Saddam has lots of bad company across the globe and in the U.N *** It's been hinted, speculated, even suggested that the war winding down in Iraq is but the first chapter of a new Bush administration policy to more forcefully project U.S. muscle around the world in defense of democracy and in defiance of tyranny. Rhetoric concerning Syria has been steadily ratcheted up in recent days. The idea of a broader, more aggressive U.S. policy comes with its own set of potential risks and rewards. But leaving the political debate aside, there would be no shortage of candidates. Evil as it was, Saddam Hussein's regime was only one of a fraternity of tyrannical tramplers of freedoms.

The Freedom House organization released a report last week entitled "The World's Most Repressive Regimes, 2003" (www.freedomhouse.org). Dubbed the "worst of the worst" are Burma, Cuba, Iraq, Libya, North Korea, Saudi Arabia, Sudan, Syria and Turkmenistan. Ironically, Freedom House points out, five of the 16 most repressive countries -- China, Cuba, Libya, Saudi Arabia, Sudan and Syria -- are all members of the United Nations Human Rights Commission. ***

CANF Congratulates HBO on Pulling Castro Documentary from Schedule (Oliver Stone gets the boot) [Full Text] MIAMI, April 15 /U.S. Newswire/ -- Jorge Mas Santos, the chairman of the Cuban American National Foundation, congratulated HBO Productions today on the removal of an Oliver Stone documentary on Fidel Castro from HBO's May schedule. The documentary, titled "Comandante," reportedly was a showcase for the world's longest reigning tyrant in his own words -- without context or dissenting views.

"In recent weeks the world has been reminded once again of the cruelty and deceit of Fidel Castro and his henchmen," stated Mas. "The mass arrests of peaceful dissidents, the harsh prison sentences -- up to 28 years -- imposed on human rights activists, and the summary firing squad execution of three young men seeking to flee the island demonstrate that Castro remains as committed to ruling through fear and intimidation as ever. To have provided a platform for Castro to try to whitewash his sins would have been an unforgivable insult to the thousands of men and women who suffer in his tropical gulag," added Mas.

"HBO is well known for its professional integrity and allowing an aging dictator to distort the truth and go unchallenged would not have been in keeping with that tradition," noted the CANF Chairman.[End]

U.S. considers punishing Cuba for dissident crackdown*** WASHINGTON -- The Bush administration is considering a series of steps to punish the Cuban government for its recent crackdown on dissidents, officials said Wednesday. Among the more drastic are the possibility of cutting off cash payments to relatives in Cuba -- a mainstay for millions of Cubans -- or halting direct flights to the island, the officials said.

President Bush is likely to make a public statement soon about the crackdown, which has stirred grave concern among Cuba policy experts here and dampened the hopes of lawmakers and others seeking to ease the current trade sanctions. At the same time, the president is expected to issue a stern warning to the Havana government that the United States will not tolerate another exodus of rafters, the officials said. Several times during Castro's 44-year tenure, most notably in 1980 and 1994, he has relieved internal tensions by allowing mass migrations to Florida. ***

HUMAN RIGHTS: Cuba on Tenterhooks in U.N. Commission***GENEVA, Apr 16 (IPS) - The outcome of the vote on the Cuban situation by the United Nations maximum human rights body was postponed Wednesday, though it is evident that it will take place amidst high diplomatic tensions. Cuban dissidents say that regardless of the vote results, little will change on the island. The debate in the U.N. Commission on Human Rights underwent a radical shift within a matter of hours as a result of reactions from Latin American and European delegations to the recent crackdown on dissidents and the execution of three hijackers on the Caribbean island.***

Syria calls the annual condemnation of Cuba ``useless and even boring.'' - U.S. vote may end up aiding Cuba at U.N. - *** `SHAM PROCEEDINGS' The heated exchanges began after the U.S. delegate said dissidents were subjected to ''sham proceedings'' and condemned the firing-squad executions of the hijackers. ''The totalitarian regime of Cuba should be condemned by this body for its actions,'' said U.S. Ambassador Kevin Moley, who also referred to the Cuban government as a ''throwback'' and ``Cold War relic.''

Later, Costa Rica introduced an amendment to the original draft resolution, which called on the Cuban government to immediately release the 75 recently jailed pro-democracy activists. ''In the face of human-rights violations we cannot remain indifferent,'' Ambassador Manuel González said. Costa Rica was one of the four Latin America sponsors of the more mildly worded previous draft resolution, which only urged Cuba to allow an international human-rights monitor to examine conditions on the island and prepare a report.

The original resolution has more than 20 co-sponsors, including the United States, as well as some of Cuba's trading partners, such as Canada, Italy, France and the United Kingdom. It was not clear how Mexico would vote on the draft resolution and the amendment.***

The tyranny of Castro's regime - Playing Carter for a fool, once again -*** During his visit to Cuba, Mr. Carter publicized the Varela Project during his speech to the Cuban people and even met with Mr. Palacios. Mr. Castro's actions contradict Mr. Carter's assertions about Cuba. And accordingly, Mr. Carter should either retract his previous words or issue a new statement expressing his outrage over Mr. Castro's actions. Otherwise Mr. Palacios and his band of visionaries will continue to sit in jail cells for promoting freedom and ask themselves, "Mr. Carter, where is the outrage? Where is the outrage, you fool?" ***

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.