Cuban News December 22 2006

HAVANA (AP) - Questions surrounding Fidel Castro's health are focusing more attention than normal on the first meeting of Cuba's parliament since the 80-year-old leader fell ill almost five months ago.

The year-end session of the National Assembly of Popular Power traditionally features dry speeches peppered with economic figures. But Friday's meeting is being held against the backdrop of Castro's lengthy convalescence from July 31 intestinal surgery, and what it bodes for the future of the island's leadership.

Castro, who temporarily ceded his powers to his brother Raul after the surgery, was not expected to make an appearance.

But a written message or telephone call to the assembly from the man who ruled the island for nearly a half century was still considered a possibility.

Although National Assembly President Ricardo Alarcon presides over the sessions, Fidel Castro typically attends the meetings, asking questions of speakers giving their annual economic reports and sometimes giving speeches of his own.

Castro loyalists were disappointed earlier this month when the leader did not show up for a military parade marking the 50th anniversary of Cuba's Revolutionary Armed Forces and belated celebrations of his Aug. 13 birthday.

Castro has not been seen in public since July 26 -- five days before he stepped aside -- and his medical condition has since been kept a state secret. He has been seen occasionally in official photographs and videos since, and appeared thin and frail in the last one released in late October.

Cuban officials have insisted that Castro will recover and return to public life, but many acknowledge privately that it seems increasingly unlikely he will resume his once powerful role.

They have repeatedly denied that Castro suffers from cancer or some other terminal ailment, as U.S. intelligence officials and others have speculated.

Some U.S. doctors have said that Castro might have diverticular disease, which can cause bleeding in the lower intestine, especially in people over age 60. In severe cases, emergency surgery may be required.

Raul Castro, 75, has been signaling a more collaborative leadership style since assuming provisional power, delegating more responsibilities and calling for more public debate.

The nearly 500 members of Cuba's National Assembly, or parliament, are directly elected every five years in district balloting island wide. Although Communist Party membership is not required to run, no other political parties are recognized in Cuba, and deputies often run unopposed.

Also every five years, the National Assembly elects Cuba's governing body, the Council of State, including its president.

Castro was elected by National Assembly deputies to his sixth presidential term in March 2003. At the same time, they re-elected Raul Castro as the council's first vice president, ratifying his role as his brother's constitutionally designated successor.

Following that vote, the elder Castro made what was then a rare reference to his mortality.

"I promise that I will be with you, if you so wish, for as long as I feel that I can be useful -- and if it is not decided by nature before," he said. "Not a minute less and not a second more."

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Cuba's national assembly meeting could pass the torch

HAVANA, Dec 21, 2006 (AFP) -

Interim Cuba leader Raul Castro could signal a passing of the torch to a newer generation of Communist leaders when Cuba's national legislature opens its annual meeting here Friday.

Raul's role as top leader since he took over from his ailing older brother Fidel Castro on July 31 will likely be made clearer at the meeting.

But the probable absence of Fidel, unseen in public since he underwent surgery in July, will spotlight the big question about the future of Cuba and who will lead it, beyond the Castro brothers.

Raul, 75, strongly suggested during a 35-minute speech late Wednesday to the University Students' Federation (FEU) that the time had come for a changing of the guard.

"Whether we like it or not, we're already coming to the end of our duties," he said. "We have to yield to the new generations ... or continue to lead the way for the new generations, gradually of course."

Raul spoke from a table where three generations of Cuban leaders were sitting, including Jose Ramon Machado Ventura, 76, chief of the Organization Department of the Communist Party Central Committee; Vice President Carlos Lage, 55; and his 25-year-old son and FEU chairman Carlos Lage Codorniu.

After the students said in a final statement that they would "defend the martial, Marxist-Leninist, socialist and antiimperialist revolution," Raul replied that he was proud Cuba would be led "by the new generations you represent."

On what style of government they should follow, Raul, also Cuba's defense minister, recommended the leadership should always include exhaustive debate.

He offered a little insight in his own way of doing things: "I confer with a group of 12 generals of one or more stars. They all give their opinions, they all discuss, and in the end, if I don't see a true majority consensus, no conclusion is reached, unless it's an emergency."

With 609 members, the National Assembly of People's Power (ANPP) gives some hints at the future leadership. It is presided over by one of the leading figures of the regime, Ricardo Alarcon, 69, Cuba's former representative to the United Nations.

The legislature comprises now three generations of Cuban leaders, all bound together by "Fidelism" -- from the old guard who rose up behind Fidel Castro in the 1959 revolution, to the newest generation of 30-40 year-olds.

In between are rising figures like Lage; Felipe Perez Roque, 41, Cuba's top diplomat; and Francisco Soberon, 61, president of the central bank.

All were named by Fidel Castro to back his brother in the interim.

Since its creation in December 1976, the ANPP has always been Fidel Castro's venue for laying out in detail the country's direction. His long speeches dominated debates and usually led to unanimous votes backing his views.

It will be only the second time in its 30-year history that Fidel will miss a session of the ANPP.

With a more conservative, quieter style, Raul Castro will preside over the second of the two annual ANPP sessions. In December 2002, his absence was attributed to complications from a mosquito bite.

In the days ahead of the meeting, there has been no indication that he will break from the normal routine. The deputies will review, for instance, the state housing construction program and the "revolutionary" program to protect the environment, themes already discussed Monday and Tuesday by ANPP committees.

Even so, all attention will be focused on any signal about Fidel's health and Raul's future. The meeting takes place with Fidel unseen in public for more than four months and questions about the country's future looming.

"We cannot exclude the possibility that Fidel will choose this moment to make important announcements through his brother, such as laying down the formal process for a transition," said a diplomat from a friendly Latin American country.

The diplomat said Fidel Castro's "political wisdom" could inspire an announcement.

However, he cautioned, "His temperament as a fierce fighter doesn't suggest that he would announce his withdrawal from politics prematurely."

With a personal appearance generally ruled out, the country must hold its breath in wait for a surprise move. mis/fgf/pmh

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Restraint, Not Force, Will Bring Change To Cuba (Vivanco, FT)
Friday, December 22, 2006
Financial Times
By José Miguel Vivanco
I met Fidel Castro in Havana in 1995 as part of a human rights delegation and, after six gruelling hours of negotiation, gained his commitment to release six political prisoners. We were hardly the first or last visitors to do so. Jesse Jackson convinced Mr Castro to release 26 political prisoners in 1984, Bill Richardson secured the release of three in 1996 and Jimmy Carter's 2002 visit prompted the release of one. The most successful, of course, was Pope John Paul II, who obtained the release of more than 70 jailed dissidents in 1998.
While the prisoners' release was worth celebrating, none of these visits altered the underlying reality of Castro's Cuba. There invariably would be more political prisoners to release when the next visitor showed up . Repression continued and many observers concluded that real improvements would come only after Mr Castro left the scene.
But Mr Castro's final days are near and there are good reasons to fear that change will not come even after he has gone. One is the exaggerated expectations – fanned by Mr Castro's most militant foes – of how Cubans on the island will react to his death, pouring triumphantly into the streets as people did in eastern Europe after the fall of the Berlin Wall. Observers may instead be surprised when they face the more likely scenario: the streets remain empty, or fill with Castro supporters mourning his death. The international community may be reluctant to press for changes that Cuba's population itself does not seem to be seeking.
This reluctance would be understandable but misguided. Most Cubans do want change. If they do not call for it after Mr Castro's death, it will be largely for the same reason they did not during his lifetime: the country's repressive machinery, which ruined countless lives, remains intact today.
If the international community misreads this silence, it will miss a historic opportunity. Immediately after Mr Castro's death, the Cuban government will be more vulnerable to pressure for change than ever before. Raúl Castro, who has already taken over the reigns of power, may wield the same old instruments of repression. But he will not enjoy his brother's revolutionary stature, which at times has been as vital as the repression for perpetuating the regime. This window of opportunity is unlikely to last. Raul Castro may never match his brother's unique combination of personal charisma and political cunning; yet, he could easily acquire the other trait that Fidel exploited so effectively: the heroic image of the Latin American David confronting the US Goliath.
Whether Raúl Castro can claim the "David" role will depend largely on Washington. He will be virtually guaranteed the part if the Bush administration stays the 40-year course of unilateral embargo and unconditional ultimatum. It is hard to think of a policy that has a longer track record of failure. Cuba is no more open now than when the embargo was first imposed four decades ago. If anything, the policy consolidated Mr Castro's hold by giving his government an excuse for its problems and a pretext for its abuses. Moreover, because the policy was imposed in such heavy-handed fashion, it enabled Mr Castro to garner sympathy abroad, neutralising international pressure rather than increasing it. While other governments may have been concerned about political repression in Cuba, they were unwilling to be seen as siding with a bully.
To its credit, the Bush administration responded to news of Mr Castro's decline in August with surprising restraint, with President George W. Bush saying Cuba's citizens should determine their future. But if Washington hopes for influence in Cuba, it must do much more. First, it will need to lift the embargo. Nothing short of this will work, not even the "calibrated response" espoused by the Clinton administration, in which the US would ease the embargo in response to Cuban reforms. Why would the Cuban government make concessions when the embargo helps keep it in power?
Yet, it would be naïve to think the embargo's end would prompt the Cuban government to change its ways. Instead, a more measured and multilateral approach is needed, in which other governments in the region take the lead in pressing Cuba to respect political freedoms. Finding allies willing to assume this role will not be easy. But it may be the only hope for real change. By making the effort, the US could begin to reverse the dynamic that helped keep Mr Castro in power. Only when the US stops acting like Goliath will Cuba stop looking like David.
The writer is the Americas director of Human Rights Watch

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Cuba gets hint of different style; Interim leader talks of delegating authority

By Gary Marx, Tribune foreign correspondent.

22 December 2006

Chicago Tribune

PHOTO (color): "Fidel is irreplaceable," interim Cuban leader Raul Castro (left) said Wednesday in a nationally televised address to a student conference in Havana. "I know it because I've known him forever." Getty/AFP photo by Marcelino Vazquez Hernandez.

HAVANA

It was a side of Raul Castro that Cubans rarely see.

Saddled with an image as a dour, distant and austere general, Cuba's interim leader spoke from the heart Wednesday evening to hundreds of university students about his youth, his leadership style and his older brother, the ailing Fidel Castro, whom he described as "irreplaceable."

After remaining mostly in the shadows since Fidel Castro ceded power to him in late July after undergoing surgery, Raul Castro explained almost apologetically in the nationally televised speech that, unlike his older brother, he is a man of few words.

Further distinguishing himself from his brother's rule, Castro said that he is delegating authority to civilian leaders and has encouraged debate even among his top generals.

"The best decisions will always come from these discrepancies," said Castro, seated with other top Cuban leaders at the closing session of the University Student Federation annual conference.

"They all give opinions. They all discuss, and in the end, if I see that there is not a true majority consensus, we don't reach any conclusions as long as there aren't any pressing emergencies," said Castro.

The appearance was one of the first times Castro has spoken publicly about his role as Cuba's interim leader, and it appeared to lay the groundwork for moving the nation forward into the post-Fidel era while remaining loyal to Cuba's communist system.

Personal stories of his youth

But the personal stories Castro told about his youth--from school pranks to quarrelling with his brother--also appear aimed at softening his image among Cubans, who recall that Raul Castro executed many opponents.

"He's trying hard to present a much more compassionate image to the Cuban people," said Brian Latell, a former CIA analyst and author of the book "After Fidel," which details the relationship between Raul and Fidel Castro.

"He doesn't have anything resembling Fidel's legitimacy, charisma and popular support," Latell said. "He's further along in consolidating his position with the Cuban leadership. He now has to reach out to the people."

Waving a pen as he spoke, often pausing for effect and speaking in a raspy voice without notes, the 75-year-old Castro appeared at ease Wednesday.

At one point, Castro drew laughter as he recounted trying as a boy to ride a horse bareback after watching someone else accomplish the feat.

"I ended up with all my bones on the ground," Castro said. "There was this little old farmer that helped me stand up and told me, `You see, he who imitates fails.'"

Castro's message was clear: He would not copy the leadership style of his brother, who has run this nation unchallenged for 47 years yet is now gravely ill and likely never to return to power.

"Fidel is irreplaceable," Castro said. "I know it because I've known him forever."

Minutes earlier, Castro told a story illustrating both his vulnerability and stubbornness when he recalled traveling with his mother to visit Fidel and Ramon, his eldest brother, at their Catholic boarding school.

Castro said he was having such a good time playing ball with his brothers--"it was like paradise," he said--that he told his mother he was not going home. He was only 4 at the time.

He somehow persuaded his mother and the school administrators to let him stay even though he was too young to attend school. "There was no classroom for me. I did whatever I wanted," said Castro, as the audience erupted in applause.

But on the first night away from home, he threw a tantrum without his bottle.

"I had one every night to go to bed," Castro said. "One of the teachers had to go to the pharmacy and buy me my bottle."

Important signal

Philip Peters, a Cuba expert at the Lexington Institute think tank, said that no one can verify whether Raul Castro's stories are true.

"But if he said that falling off a horse taught him to be true to himself and not follow blindly the path of one who went before him--in this case his brother--then that's an important signal."

Cubans said they were surprised by Castro's candor and pleased by his leadership style that appears to encourage debate and inclusion.

"I really liked it, especially what he said about promoting a younger generation," said one 28-year-old Havana resident who asked not to be identified.

Gerardo Aguila, a 69-year-old army veteran and barber, said Castro's speech accurately reflects the defense minister's warm nature.

"He's strict and disciplined, but he's a human being," Aguila, a government supporter, said. "Outside the limelight, he loves talking with people."

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gmarx@tribune.com

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Raúl Castro Urges Students to Debate 'Fearlessly'

Manuel Roig-Franzia

Washington Post Foreign Service

22 December 2006

The Washington Post

Raul Castro has set a surprising new tone for Cuban politics, telling university students in Havana that they should debate "fearlessly" and bring their concerns directly to him.

Castro's remarks, published Thursday by the Communist Party newspaper, Granma, are the clearest indication yet of how he might reshape Cuba after the death of his ailing brother, Fidel Castro. Raul Castro told the students that his brother is "irreplaceable."

"Fidel cannot be replaced unless all of us replace him together, each in his or her own place, carrying out his or her concrete task," Raul Castro was quoted as saying. "Only the Communist Party of Cuba can replace Fidel."

Raul Castro, who is Cuba's defense minister, tempered his remarks by telling the students that a "unified command" is a key military principle, but "that doesn't mean that discussions can't happen."

The notion of freewheeling political debate is almost unheard-of in Cuba, where many residents fear repercussions if they criticize the government. But it is not without precedent. At one time, Raul Castro encouraged open debate, including criticism of the government, at Cuba's military college. Such debate has been reined in over recent years, but some experts say they think Raul Castro could one day introduce a similar system of free speech in Cuban society.

"It's true that Raul Castro has tried over the years to open spaces for conversation," Jorge Dominguez, a Mexican political analyst who has written extensively about Cuba, said in an interview from Harvard University, where he is teaching this winter.

Granma articles are often used as propaganda vehicles by the Cuban government. Analysts said the article featuring Raul Castro's remarks appeared to address the perception that he is cold and uncharismatic, noting that he delivered his remarks with "customary joviality" and "shared anecdotes" about his childhood.

"That's important," Dominguez said. "He doesn't speak well, and he doesn't look good on television, but Raul Castro is a very likable person in small groups."

Raul Castro, who has been Cuba's acting president since his brother's July 31 intestinal surgery, also seemed to be defining himself and, more important, distinguishing himself from his brother. Granma reported that he told the students he would not follow his brother's example and deliver an extensive speech at a convention of the University Student Federation.

Although Fidel Castro appointed his brother interim president, Raul Castro still seems reluctant to seize the official mantle of power while his brother is alive. The Granma article refers to him as the leader of Cuba's military, the second secretary of the Communist Party and the first vice president of the state council. But it never calls him president.

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With Castro absent, life goes on Cuba eyes future without 'El Jefe'

J. Jioni Palmer

22 December 2006

Newsday

NASSAU AND SUFFOLK

HAVANA - By day, commuters line the sidewalks waiting for a bus - often trailers hitched to a tractor - or a 1950s Ford or Chevy working as a taxi not already crammed beyond capacity. Trucks of all sizes and cars, some Soviet-era Ladas, others new French Peugeots, whiz down potholed roads spewing noxious charcoal fumes, while pedestrians precariously dart through traffic.

At night, and well into the early morning hours, people lazily meander along the seafront boardwalk called El Malecón, enjoy a cabaret, or party at a disco fueled by the national libation - rum - and any number of the pulsating rhythms to emerge from this island's African and Latin heritage.

This balmy Caribbean capitol never seems to rest, even at times like this when the country's longtime leader is ill and no longer holding the reins of power.

"There is no difference, you can see what is happening, people are tranquil in the streets, life is normal," said Nicolas Alayo, 51, a painter who is prone to quote Homer and Walt Whitman as he waxes philosophically about all matters of humanity from his studio in Old Havana. "Fidel has already had his transition, he is gone and it is as he deemed it - Raul is in power now. ... Fidel is sick in bed."

An army veteran, who served as a tank commander in Ethiopia and Angola, Alayo is mournful about the condition of the elder Castro but says he's a realist who understands the revolutionary leader's rule would not be eternal.

With reports of Castro's health varying widely - Cuban officials insist he's recuperating from an illness that is not terminal, while U.S. intelligence reports say he's near death - many of this island's residents express sorrow for "El Jefe" and some hope that they will not experience major upheaval. Fidel Castro ceded power to his brother Raul in late July after undergoing surgery.

"This is a person they love, who is in a really bad position, but there is no unrest," said Joel Suarez Rodes, a Baptist minister and general coordinator of Havana's Dr. Martin Luther King Memorial Cente. "People are really concerned about the reaction of the American government and the Miami mafia and the danger of an invasion."

Like many Cubans, Suarez Rodes is quick to acknowledge shortcomings with his country - poor transportation infrastructure and food rations top nearly everyone's list of complaints - and he would like to see changes. But these should emerge organically from within, he said.

"We might have our pants torn, but our heads are high. But it does not mean we live in a perfect society. Cuba is not heaven. There are changes that need to be made, but I wish it will continue to be within this socialist project."

During the 1980s, strips like Obispo Boulevard - a touristy stretch of shops - bustled with commercial activity. Virtually every building housed a store of some sort: a book vendor, a pizza parlor or ice creamery. But then the Soviet Union and the Eastern bloc of communist countries, Cuba's largest trading partners, collapsed, and so did the island's economy.

The decade that followed, which Cubans call the "special period," was an era of gasoline shortages, rolling blackouts and barren store shelves. For much of that time, the city's commercial center was desolate. Only recently, residents say, has it begun to show signs of recovery, although it is not nearly as vibrant as it once was.

Alfonso Ingraham returned to Cuba in 1991 after studying mechanical engineering in the former Soviet Union, to find his homeland deep in an economic crisis so severe many people had to resort to getting around on bicycles because fuel was in short supply.

"Of course, things have gotten better and there still needs to be more change, but I haven't seen a perfect country," said Ingraham, who quit engineering because he could make more money as a vendor at a flea market. "Maybe a lot of people do not understand the current situation, but life will prove it in the future."

In many ways Cubans live two existences, with two forms of currencies that give them entrée into two very different worlds.

They are quick to denounce the material excesses of the United States and extol the virtues of the 1959 socialist uprising that brought universal education, health care, housing and food to this Caribbean nation.

"Before the revolution my family was very poor," said Victor Hernandez, a painter who grew up in the eastern province of Santiago de Cuba. "Since then, no one has died of hunger." But in the streets of Old Havana, it's the chic restaurants and boutiques choked full of imported products that are packed with patrons - mostly foreigners and the handful of wealthier Cubans with disposable cash - while the masses are left to gawk through the windowpanes.

These bright and airy stores with visually appealing displays accept only the Cuban Convertible Currency that comes from exchanging foreign notes. In contrast, state-run enterprises are often dimly lit, with half-empty shelves of locally manufactured goods.

On Obispo Boulevard, a private vendor hawking hamburgers and hotdogs stuffed with two links lathered in ketchup and mustard for 10 pesos apiece (roughly equivalent to eight U.S. cents) could barely keep up with demand. Meanwhile a government-operated Italian restaurant directly across the street, with prices more than seven times as high, hardly had any customers.

"Regretfully, right now the wages are not a direct reflection of what you contribute to society," said Suarez Rodes. "Your wages are not enough to make ends meet, so you have to look for other ways to make money."

As a result, many are forced to turn to the underground economy to subsist.

"I have to be careful of the police," said Javier, 30, a gypsy cab driver who spends his days picking up passengers along a route between the Verado neighborhood and Old Havana and who declined to give his last name. He charges 10 pesos a ride, but risks a 1,500 peso fine if he's stopped by the police because he doesn't have a taxi license. Three violations and he'll lose his driving privileges. Either penalty would cripple him financially but Javier said he's forced to take the risk to cope financially, even giving a cop a small payoff to avoid trouble.

While most Cubans would be considered poor by western and even some developing country standards, crime and homelessness are not pressing concerns on the streets. Locals and tourists stroll about at day and night in all quarters of the city with little fear of being molested by hustlers or beggars.

"Human beings have a way of being a bit selfish, wanting material things," said Hernandez, the painter. "But there are more important things that we realize - like children dying from hunger and disease. We don't have that here."

1) AP Photo - Raul Castro 2) AFP / Getty Images Photo - Children paint a mural dedicated to President Fidel Castro in Havana on

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Che, Cuba and Christmas

By Mary Anastasia O'grady

22 December 2006

The Wall Street Journal

Until yesterday Christmas shoppers at Target department stores could purchase a 24-CD carrying case decorated with the image of Che Guevara. When I heard about it, I wondered why the retailer would want to promote the memory of a mass murderer. What's next, I asked, when I spoke with a representative of the company on Wednesday, Pol Pot pajamas?

Late Wednesday evening Target sent me this statement: "It is never our intent to offend any of our guests through the merchandise we carry. We have made the decision to remove this item from our shelves and we sincerely apologize for any discomfort this situation may have caused our guests."

The fact that it took only a day for Target to make that admirable decision suggests that at least someone at the company knows who Guevara was and what Cuba is today thanks in part to him. The misstep, though, probably occurred because others at the company allowed Target to become a target itself of the Che myth.

Guevara is not just a dead white guy from a well-to-do family who terrorized a racially mixed nation and executed hundreds of innocents in the late 1950s and 1960s. He is also a symbol of the totalitarian regime that persists in Cuba, which still practices his ideology of intolerance, hatred and repression. It is not the torture and killing alone that make the tragedy. That only describes the methodology. Guevara's wider goal -- to forcibly strip a population of its soul and spirit -- is what is truly frightening and deplorable. Christians, who celebrate the birth of their Savior on Monday, have particularly suffered under Guevara's dream of revolution, which has lasted since 1959.

The fear under which Cubans have lived for 48 years was fathered by the merciless Che Guevara. The unhappy Argentine Marxist met Fidel Castro in Mexico in 1955 and later became a rebel commander. "The Black Book of Communism," published in 1999 by Harvard University Press, notes that early in his career Guevara earned a "reputation for ruthlessness; a child in his guerrilla unit who had stolen a little food was immediately shot without trial." In his will, the book says, "this graduate of the school of terror praised the 'extremely useful hatred that turns men into effective, violent, merciless and cold killing machines.'"

Peruvian-born Alvaro Vargas Llosa penned his own book this year titled "The Che Guevara Myth." Mr. Vargas Llosa documents a twisted life, such as when Che shot a comrade and made the following entry in his diary: "I ended the problem with a .32 caliber pistol, in the right side of his brain. . . . His belongings were now mine." After that, Mr. Vargas Llosa says, Guevara shot "a peasant who expressed the desire to leave whenever the rebels moved on." Guevara also liked to simulate executions, as a form of torture. "At every stage of his adult life, his megalomania manifested itself in the predatory urge to take over other people's lives and property, and to abolish their free will."

Guevara was an architect of Cuba's forced labor camps, which by 1965 were transformed into concentration camps for dissidents, homosexuals, people with AIDS, Catholics, Jehovah's Witnesses, and Cubans of other religious sects.

All independent thought that refused to worship the communist state was an affront to Guevara. Christians were an especially difficult lot. From the earliest days after Castro took power, Che sent hundreds of men to face firing squads at the Havana prison known as La Cabana. His victims could be heard at dawn loudly crying "Long live Christ the King, down with communism," just before the rifle shots rang out.

Thousands of Cubans have perished in daring attempts to get off the island because they preferred the risks of flight to a life in which Christianity has been forbidden, children are the property of the state, thought is policed and spying on your neighbor is one of the few ways to earn a living. During the Mariel boat lift in 1980, witnesses told of families arriving at the pier together only to be separated by Cuban guards who enjoyed watching their misery. Weeping mothers faced the point of a gun while their distraught sons and daughters were forced to board ships. This Christmas thousands of Cuban-Americans will remember their loved ones who didn't make it out or died trying.

Defenders of Guevara can't even claim that his cruelty brought about equality. Today state policy makes it a crime for the raggedly dressed, malnourished and mostly black Cuban people to visit the beaches, museums and amply stocked stores of their own country, while well-fed tourists in fashionable cruise-wear go where they like. This amounts to de facto apartheid.

Amazingly, hope is still alive in Cuba. One reason is because although Guevara was able to kill a lot of Christians, neither he nor his successors succeeded in wiping out Christianity. The struggling Christian community, which takes seriously the religious teaching to reject fear in the face of evil, is playing a key role in the island's dissident movement.

An icon of the Christian resistance is Oscar Elias Biscet, a black physician who is serving a 25-year sentence for his peaceful activism against the regime. He has been arrested more than 26 times since he began to express his dissent; he has been beaten, tortured and locked in tiny windowless cells for days on end. Hundreds of other prisoners of conscience are in jail, under atrocious conditions; many are also devout Christians.

The Christian faith has survived Che and Fidel and decades of brainwashing. It is battered but has not been defeated. Raul Castro fears it -- which is why he takes Bibles away from his unbreakable prisoners. The moral of the story seems to be that even the all-powerful regime cannot stop Christmas from coming to Cuba.

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CUBA

U.S. embargo a coherent response to Castro's atrocities

BY VICENTE ECHERRI

echass259@aol.com

Miami Herald

For many years, charges have been brought against the Cuban regime before the U.N. human-rights body in Geneva, and practically each time Cuba has been condemned as a violator. Those ineffectual and rather symbolic condemnations have been possible thanks to the vote of some nations, most of which, for almost the same period, voted at the U.N. General Assembly in New York against the unilateral embargo the United States imposed on Cuba for egregious violations of human rights, including the right to property.

Thus, we are in the presence of two opposite policies toward the same dictatorship that, for almost half a century, has denied its citizens most of their rights and fundamental freedoms. The error perhaps is the failure of the international community in seeing and appraising Castro's rule in a holistic or comprehensive way. It is easier, I can understand, to judge the commission of particular crimes, the violations of the human rights of specific individuals, than to address the entire nature of a perverse system and, consequently, to find a consensus to deal with it or the instruments for its punishment or dismissal.

The former -- that is, tracking, documenting, denouncing, etc., of concrete violations against some citizens of a country (actual people with names and surnames, victims of political persecution or repression) -- perfectly fits in the arena of international law; it is part and parcel of the diplomatic debate. The latter, however -- that is, the complete condemnation of a regime for what it is, for its nature, for its own raison d'etre -- rather belongs to the field of philosophy or even religion.

This distinction explains the obvious contradiction of many countries with regard to Cuba, with the worthy and outstanding exception of the United States.

I could note many failed American measures against Castro's regime since the very beginning, back in 1959, when the destruction of the so called ''Cuban Revolution'' was, or at least must have been, a top priority in the political agenda of this country.

Despite those failures, the United States approached the Cuban phenomenon as a kind of illegal entity that, by deceit and force, had submitted a whole nation, trampling on the rights and freedoms of its people. The demonization of Castroism was and has been in my opinion -- and in that of most of my fellow Cuban exiles -- the right response of the American government to that challenge; and the embargo, extended for more than four decades, its coherent implementation.

In other words, the U.S. embargo -- imposed at the onset as a simple punishment for the expropriation of American properties -- acquired along the years the character of a total and comprehensive moral sanction against a totalitarian regime that violated the human rights of all its citizens, and whose mere existence was a crime. That kind of global response, unique in the world with regard to Cuba (it doesn't matter how ineffectual it has been in producing significant changes in that country) has been useful to articulate in its essence a fundamental principle: the lack of legitimacy of Castro's regime, duly proportional to the lack of human rights and freedoms of the Cuban people.

I have always been a little reluctant to denounce the particular human-rights violations committed by the Cuban regime -- for example, the arbitrary arrest of independent journalists, the harassment of peaceful dissidents, the dissolution of meetings through aggressive and organized mobs -- because I have feared that paying attention to those particular cases could obscure or blur the whole picture of a society in which the human rights of everybody have been violated 24 hours a day, year 'round for almost 48 years.

Illegitimate regime

Confronting a gross violator of human rights, as the Cuban dictatorship, with timid diplomatic approaches is a doomed enterprise. A more proper response -- as has been in my opinion the U.S. embargo, despite its gaps -- is one that underscores the illegitimacy of that regime.

Powerless as we are right now to directly promote real changes in our beloved homeland, we Cuban exiles discover that our relevant duty is to help preserve in the international arena, particularly on the American stage, the precarious status quo of Castro's regime (or his brother's) -- its instability derived from its lack of legitimacy -- as a foundation upon which to build its permanent removal. For those of us who have been waiting decades for that end, nothing else is advisable and acceptable. We just want our country back.

Vicente Echerri is a columnist for El Nuevo Herald.

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Lawyer: 5 Tapped in N.J. Posada Probe

NEWARK, N.J. (AP) - Five Cuban-Americans were called to testify in a federal grand jury probe exploring allegations they helped send more than $30,000 to an anti-Castro militant suspected of directing attacks on Cuba, their lawyer said Thursday.

All five deny wrongdoing, attorney Gilberto M. Garcia said. He told The Record of Bergen County that four of his clients claim someone used their names to send transfers to Luis Posada Carriles, an anti-Castro militant wanted in Cuba and Venezuela.

He said a fifth, Oscar Rojas, acknowledges handling transfers but says he did so only at the request of a former millionaire businessman that he worked for and did not know what the funds would be used for, according to The Record.

Garcia said one of his clients testified and that two gave written statements, although he wouldn't specify which. He said two others were excused from testifying after saying they intended to invoke their Fifth Amendment rights against self-incrimination.

Posada, 79, has spent the past 18 months in federal custody in El Paso, Texas, on immigration charges. A judge ruled Posada, who was born in Cuba and naturalized in Venezuela, can not be deported to either country. He is wanted in both for his alleged involvement in a 1976 bombing of a Cuban jet in Venezuela that killed 73 people and a 1997 bombing campaign on Havana hotels, restaurants and clubs.

Besides Rojas, Garcia said his other subpoenaed clients were Abel Hernandez, Angel Alfonso Aleman, Ruben Gonzalo and his son, Jose Gonzalo.

Justice Department spokesman Bryan Sierra would neither confirm nor deny an investigation into the money transfers was ongoing.

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EEUU concedió más de 21.000 visados a cubanos en 2006

La Habana, 21 dic (EFE).- La Sección de Intereses de Estados Unidos en La Habana (SINA) entregó más de 21.000 documentos de emigración a ciudadanos cubanos en el año fiscal 2006, según datos oficiales a los que tuvo acceso Efe.

En el último año fiscal, del 31 de septiembre de 2005 al 1 de octubre de 2006, la Sección de Intereses entregó 21.195 visas de emigrante a ciudadanos cubanos y otras 7.823 visas de visita temporal, de acuerdo con las cifras oficiales.

Aunque Cuba y EEUU rompieron relaciones diplomáticas hace más de cuatro décadas, entre 1994 y 1995 firmaron unos acuerdos migratorios, los únicos existentes entre ambos países, que comprometen a Washington a otorgar un mínimo de 20.000 visados al año y enviar de regreso a los inmigrantes ilegales cubanos interceptados en el mar.

El volumen de visados entregados en el año fiscal 2006 cumple con el compromiso adquirido por EEUU y supera a los 20.075 concedidos en el anterior ejercicio.

Además, en el mismo periodo, las interceptaciones de emigrantes cubanos que pretendían llegar ilegalmente a las costas estadounidenses batieron un nuevo récord.

El año fiscal 2006 concluyó con 2.810 balseros cubanos interceptados por guardacostas estadounidenses, cifra sólo superada por los 37.191 detectados en el éxodo de 1994, según datos del Servicio de Guardacostas de EEUU.

El aumento de concesión de visados y de interceptaciones de emigrantes ilegales en alta mar se produce en un año marcado en la isla por la retirada provisional del poder de Fidel Castro, que el pasado 31 de julio delegó sus funciones en su hermano Raúl por una enfermedad cuya naturaleza se mantiene como "secreto de Estado".

Además, la escasa actividad ciclónica de la última temporada en el Caribe ha sido un factor decisivo en el aumento de las salidas ilegales, según expertos, aunque en el ejercicio fiscal de 2005, pese a la intensidad de los ciclones, los guardacostas estadounidenses interceptaron a 2.712 balseros cubanos.

Cuba ha acusado con insistencia a Washington de incumplir sus compromisos migratorios y fomentar la emigración ilegal mediante la llamada "Ley de ajuste cubano" y su política de "pies secos/pies mojados", que establece que los cubanos que alcanzan el territorio de EEUU pueden solicitar su residencia permanente un año después.

El pasado abril, La Habana acusó a las autoridades de EEUU y México de ser responsables del contrabando de personas a través de las costas mexicanas del Caribe.

El caso más sonado de emigración ilegal este año lo protagonizaron los llamados "balseros del puente", un grupo de quince cubanos que llegaron a un puente de las costas de Florida en enero y fueron enviados de vuelta a la isla.

Tras una agria disputa judicial, a mediados de marzo un juez estadounidense les dio la razón y finalmente consiguieron visados de EEUU para viajar al país, aunque Cuba no les dio la "carta blanca" que necesitan para abandonar la isla.

Cansados de esperar, siete de ellos decidieron probar suerte de nuevo en balsa y abandonaron Cuba la pasada semana, mientras sus ocho compañeros siguen esperando el permiso de las autoridades cubanas para salir del país legalmente.

Según medios locales, las redes de contrabando de personas cobran entre 8.000 y 12.000 dólares por cada emigrante que pretende abandonar la isla en lancha.

En 2005, se contabilizaron 42 muertos en salidas ilegales, las autoridades cubanas detuvieron a 67 personas -en su mayoría originarios de la isla y de México- y se incautaron de 26 embarcaciones. EFE

mar/hma

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Raúl Castro afirma que el único relevo de Fidel será el Partido Comunista cubano

MAURICIO VICENT

22 December 2006

El País - Nacional

El presidente en funciones asegura que "hay que dar paso a nuevas generaciones"

La era Raúl se afianza, y su nuevo estilo y mandamientos acaban de ser definidos por su protagonista: el Partido Comunista, bajo una dirección colectiva, es el encargado del relevo de Fidel Castro; el líder enfermo es "insustituible" y nadie lo imitará, ahora o después de su muerte, porque fracasaría; se favorecerá la participación y se repartirán funciones como método de gobierno; los dirigentes históricos ejercerán de bisagra, cediendo el poder "paulatinamente" a las nuevas generaciones. Todo esto dijo entre bromas Raúl Castro al clausurar el miércoles un encuentro estudiantil en La Habana.

El presidente de Cuba en funciones -desde que Fidel Castro delegó todos sus poderes el 31 de julio- no dudó en calificar el actual momento de la revolución de histórico: "Nosotros estamos concluyendo el cumplimiento de nuestro deber", dijo, "hay que darle paso a nuevas generaciones".

Sus palabras a los estudiantes estuvieron desprovistas de solemnidades y no pretendieron ser un discurso trascendente, aunque sin duda lo fueron, pues expuso Raúl claves de la etapa que comienza y de su forma de dirigir, diferentes de las de su hermano mayor. "Fidel es insustituible, salvo que le sustituyamos todos juntos, cada uno en el lugar que le corresponde", afirmó, tras reiterar que "el único capaz de heredar" su liderazgo y de relevarle es el Partido Comunista de Cuba (PCC), "hoy, mañana y siempre".

Raúl dejó claro que el estilo de su hermano es irrepetible, y aseguró que ni él ni otros dirigentes tratarían de imitarle porque fracasarían. "Fidel es insustituible, yo lo sé, que lo conozco desde que tengo uso de razón, y no siempre con las mejores relaciones, porque como él dice yo soy como soy", soltó entre chanzas y anécdotas que arrancaron en el auditorio estudiantil carcajadas, y ya se sabe, en el Caribe las cosas más profundas se dicen de guasa.

A favor de la discrepancia

El ministro de las Fuerzas Armadas Revolucionarias aseguró que en estos meses ha trabajado con el mismo estilo colectivo que ha empleado en los últimos 47 años en el Ejército, escuchando a un grupo de colaboradores y fomentando la discusión y la discrepancia. "A veces hay quien le teme al término discrepar, pero yo soy de los que digo que mientras más se discuta, mientras más se discrepe (...) de esas discrepancias siempre saldrán las mejores decisiones".

Si la era Raúl es definitiva y Fidel Castro no regresa, como piensa buena parte de la población, tras las palabras de Raúl ha quedado definido que en Cuba se acabó la época de una sola voz. "Desde el primer momento establecí que yo no tenía que estar haciendo todos los resúmenes ni hablar en todos los actos", explicó, señalando que otros miembros del Gobierno y de la dirección del Partido Comunista han tomado la palabra en diferentes actos, tanto en Cuba como en el extranjero. En la nueva línea, actos políticos, los justos, y nada de discursos largos -el suyo duró apenas 35 minutos-.

Raúl Castro habló de una nueva forma de trabajo y de Gobierno, no de nuevas políticas ni de cambios estratégicos, más allá del cambio en la "continuidad". Pero las expectativas depositadas en él y en una "continuidad" administrada por su equipo de Gobierno, son grandes; casi tan grandes como el enigma que le rodea desde hace 47 años. Para algunas cancillerías occidentales, Raúl, durante todo este tiempo a la sombra de Fidel, es un hombre práctico y dispuesto a reformas económicas tipo chino; otras hablan de su fidelismo de línea dura.

Ante los estudiantes, el miércoles pasado, Raúl demostró ser perfectamente consciente del "momento histórico" que vive su país y de la necesidad de que la generación histórica que él representa "abra las puertas" a las nuevas, ya que el futuro de Cuba depende de ellas.

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Cuba y Honduras fortalecen sus alianzas

Por ANDREA RODRIGUEZ

21 December 2006

LA HABANA (AP) - Cuba y Honduras acordaron elevar el nivel de sus relaciones, tensas durante décadas, con la llegada de un embajador del país centroamericano a la nación caribeña.

En las próximas semanas Tegucigalpa pedirá un placet para un representante en la isla, pues hasta ahora sus asuntos están en manos de un encargado de negocios, indicó el canciller cubano Felipe Pérez Roque.

Pérez Roque fue el anfitrión de su colega Milton Jiménez, de visita aquí desde el miércoles. El canciller cubano viajará a Honduras a comienzos del 2007.

Se produjeron "algunos altibajos" en las relaciones que se superarán a partir de ahora, comentó Jiménez tras una firma de convenios de fortalecimiento de las relaciones en la sede de la Cancillería.

Honduras rompió con Cuba en la década de los 60 bajo las presiones de Washington empeñada en aislar a la nación caribeña para lograr cambios en su sistema comunista.

Los vínculos diplomáticos se retomaron en 2002, pero con un perfil muy bajo. Ahora "es un excelente momento", comentó Jiménez.

Para Pérez Roque la gira de su colega es "expresión de la recuperación del nivel de diálogo".

"Consideramos su visita como un signo de los nuevos tiempos en América Latina", señaló.

Pese a los escasos vínculos intergubernamentales, Cuba lanzó un programa de ayuda a las naciones centroamericanas en 1998 cuando el paso del huracán Mitch devastó la región.

En ese marco se desplazaron unos 300 médicos cubanos que dieron 11 millones de consulta especialmente en las zonas rurales, pobres y de difícil acceso y realizaron 270.000 operaciones en Honduras.

Además, 1.000 jóvenes hondureños estudian aquí, unos 800 de ellos se preparan como médicos para volver a sus comunidades humildes.

Paralelamente, Cuba intervino quirúrgicamente a 2.000 pacientes de la vecina nación en el marco de la Operación Milagro, un programa de varios países de la región para curar de problemas de la vista a latinoamericanos de escasos recursos.

Según Pérez Roque, en la reunión con Jiménez se comenzó a trabajar también en un acuerdo de delimitación de fronteras marítimas entre ambos países.

No se especificó sin embargo si en el encuentro se había hablado de temas migratorios, pues en los últimos meses se incrementaron las salidas ilegales de cubanos hacia Honduras desde donde viajan a Estados Unidos, que les ofrece prebendas legales.

El 16 de diciembre un grupo de estos emigrantes llegó a costas hondureñas y el tema volvió a la luz pública.

Según cifras oficiales de la nación centroamericana el año pasado ingresaron 171 cubanos a Honduras, mientras que 347 lo hicieron entre enero y julio del 2006.

Las autoridades hondureñas dijeron entonces que bandas de traficantes de personas estarían llevando isleños y chinos a Centroamérica para enviarlos a Estados Unidos.

Jiménez tiene previsto depositar una ofrenda floral en el monumento al héroe independentista cubano José Martí y reunirse con funcionarios de los sectores de Inversión Extranjera y Salud Pública.

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Legitimidad y derechos humanos

VICENTE ECHERRI

22 December 2006

El Nuevo Herald

E n repetidas ocasiones, el régimen cubano ha sido acusado ante la recién desaparecida Comisión de Derechos Humanos en Ginebra, y casi siempre ha sido condenado por sus violaciones. Esas condenas, más bien simbólicas, han sido posibles gracias a los votos de algunas naciones que, a lo largo de los mismos años, han votado en la Asamblea General de la ONU, en Nueva York, contra el embargo unilateral que impusiera Estados Unidos a Cuba por escandalosas violaciones a los derechos humanos, incluido el sagrado derecho a la propiedad.

Estamos en presencia, pues, de dos posiciones políticas hacia la misma dictadura que, por casi medio siglo, le ha negado a su pueblo la mayoría de sus derechos y libertades fundamentales. El error tal vez es la imposibilidad de la comunidad internacional de tener una visión abarcadora y total del régimen de Castro. Es más fácil juzgar las violaciones de los derechos humanos de individuos específicos que abordar la naturaleza perversa de todo un sistema y, en consecuencia, encontrar un consenso para enfrentarse a él o los instrumentos para sancionarlo o derrocarlo.

Lo primero --rastrear, documentar, denunciar, etc., las concretas violaciones de los derechos humanos de algunos individuos: personas específicas con nombres y apellidos, víctimas de la represión o la persecución política-- se ajusta perfectamente al derecho internacional, es parte del debate diplomático. Sin embargo, lo segundo --es decir, la completa condena de un régimen por lo que es, por su naturaleza intrínseca, por su propia razón de ser-- cae más bien en el terreno de la filosofía o incluso de la religión. Esta diferencia explica la evidente contradicción de la política de muchos países respecto a Cuba, con la meritoria y notable excepción de Estados Unidos.

Podría apuntar, ciertamente, muchas medidas erróneas o fallidas de parte de Estados Unidos hacia el régimen de Castro desde su llegada al poder en 1959, cuando la destrucción de la llamada ''revolución cubana'' era, o al menos debió haber sido, una prioridad en la agenda política de este país. Después de todo, Cuba parecía haber caído bajo el hechizo de una suerte de brujo malévolo para dejar de ser el vecino amistoso y convertirse en un territorio ajeno y enemigo, así como en una fuente de subversión contra la política norteamericana en todas partes, especialmente en América Latina. Al mismo tiempo, la isla misma se volvía una gigantesca prisión.

Pese a los muchos errores de la política norteamericana hacia el castrismo, Estados Unidos ha enfrentado el fenómeno cubano como una especie de entidad ilegal que, por engaño y por fuerza, ha sometido a toda una nación y pisoteado los derechos y libertades de todos sus ciudadanos. La satanización del castrismo fue y ha sido la respuesta adecuada del gobierno norteamericano a la aberración que significó ese régimen y al desafío que le planteó a Estados Unidos; y el embargo económico, que se ha extendido por más de cuatro décadas, una coherente ejecución de esa política.

En otras palabras, el embargo --impuesto al principio como un simple castigo por la confiscación de propiedades norteamericanas-- adquirió a lo largo de los años el carácter de sanción moral contra un régimen totalitario que violaba los derechos humanos de todos sus ciudadanos, y cuya mera existencia era un crimen. Ese género de respuesta global, única en el mundo en lo que a Cuba respecta (no importa cuán ineficaz haya sido en producir cambios significativos en el país), ha sido útil para articular un principio fundamental: la falta de legitimidad del régimen de Castro, proporcional a la falta de derechos humanos y libertades del pueblo cubano.

Confieso que siempre he sido un poco renuente a denunciar violaciones particulares de derechos humanos cometidos por el régimen castrista --por ejemplo, el arresto arbitrario de periodistas independientes, el acoso de pacíficos disidentes, la disolución de reuniones por turbas organizadas-- por el temor de que prestarle atención a esos casos particulares podría oscurecer --en la mente y la conciencia de los demás, tanto gobiernos como pueblos-- el cuadro total de una sociedad en la cual los derechos humanos de todos han sido violados las veinticuatro horas del día, el año entero, por casi 48 años.

C reo sinceramente que enfrentarse a un violador de los derechos humanos de la magnitud de la tiranía castrista con tímidas medidas diplomáticas es una empresa condenada al fracaso. Una respuesta más adecuada --como ha sido el embargo norteamericano a pesar de sus defectos-- es aquella que resalte, como un factor fundamental de inestabilidad, el carácter ilegítimo de ese régimen, mientras esperamos por una conmoción interna o una acción exterior, o ambas cosas, que le ponga fin a esa larga pesadilla de una vez y por todas.

Impotentes como estamos ahora mismo para promover auténticos cambios en nuestra patria, los cubanos exiliados --muchos de nosotros-- descubrimos que nuestro principal deber es ayudar a mantener, en la arena internacional, y particularmente en el escenario político norteamericano, el precario status quo del régimen de Castro (o de su hermano) --la inestabilidad que se deriva de su falta de legitimidad-- como el fundamento a partir del cual procurar su remoción definitiva. Para aquellos de nosotros que hemos estado esperando durante décadas por ese fin, ninguna otra cosa es aconsejable ni aceptable. Sólo aspiramos a recobrar nuestro país.

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CINE-CUBA: UNA CHICA ALMODÓVAR

Por Dalia Acosta