Cuban News November 30 2006

Interim President Raul Castro made his first public appearance in weeks late Wednesday, as his brother Fidel remained absent from public celebrations marking his 80th birthday.

Fidel Castro, who has led Cuba since 1959, has not been seen in public since undergoing intestinal surgery on July 27. He handed the government over temporarily to Raul, the defense minister, on July 31 as he recovers.

Neither of the Castros was at the public events honoring Fidel's 80th birthday on Tuesday and Wednesday.

However Raul Castro, 75, appeared at an open-air event in central Havana celebrating revolutionary crooner Silvio Rodriguez's 60th birthday. A group of schoolchildren at the event asked him to forward their greetings to his brother Fidel.

"He's fine, today I'm going to see him," Raul Castro told the children, according to state television.

Raul's last public appearance was on November 2, when he reviewed military equipment to be on display at a Saturday parade that marks both the 50th anniversary of a key event in the Cuban revolution and the culmination of five days of Fidel birthday celebrations.

Fidel Castro turned 80 on August 13, but public celebrations were postponed in hopes he would have recovered from surgery.

Meanwhile drills for Saturday's first military showcase parade in a decade were in high gear.

"I am hoping (Fidel Castro) will be present; I hope he can be with us even if it is for five minutes," said Jorge Santana, 42, a communications technician marching as eight MiG fighter jets zoomed over Revolution Square above a sea of red, white and blue Cuban flags.

Workers trudged past anti-aircraft missiles and armored cars, and the booming clop-clop-clop of troop transport choppers echoed over the crowd.

Schoolchildren gathered on balconies and street corners to eye the war machinery, including some missiles painted to look like pencils. "Missiles, Comandante, to shoot down imperialism!" was one group's shrill scream.

About 150 workers summoned to a street rally in Old Havana listened as Communist Party loyalists urged them to turn out for the parade. They argued the weapons Cuba was displaying would help defend the current system.

The parade commemorates both the 1956 anniversary of the landing of the ship Granma carrying 81 fighters that helped spark the revolution -- including the Castro brothers and Argentine Ernesto 'Che' Guevara -- as well as the culmination of Fidel's birthday events.

Authorities have disclosed few details on Fidel's health.

The Cuban leader last appeared in a video on October 28 to refute rumors he was seriously ill or even dead, and warned that his recovery would be long and "not without risks."

A letter attributed to the ailing Castro was read late Tuesday to some 5,000 guests at Havana's Karl Marx Theatre at the gala opening of the birthday celebrations.

"I was not yet well enough, according to my physicians, to take part in such a challenging event, so I decided to speak with you in this way," said the letter, read by a state television news presenter.

Wednesday, Castro also failed to appear for a colloquium entitled "Memory and the Future: Cuba and Fidel."

"Fidel has been a part of my whole life. I am so moved to be here. This is a huge political event, reaffirming here the ideals that have been part of my whole life," said Fernando "Pino" Solanas, the Argentine film director.

Washington meanwhile showed no sign of accepting Raul Castro's leadership.

"The creation of some sort of Castro dynasty simply by transferring power to Raul Castro and having him continue to operate the same undemocratic, repressive policies as his brother is certainly not a solution that we think is viable," said US State Department spokesman Tom Casey. mdl/ch/mb

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Raul Castro called 'guardian' of Cuban revolution

HAVANA, Nov 30 (Reuters) - Acting president Raul Castro is the "guardian" of Cuba's communist government in the absence of his brother Fidel Castro and in the face of U.S. threats, a hard-line member of the Cuban leadership said on Thursday.

"We recognize Raul as the steadfast guardian of the Cuban Revolution," Information Minister Ramiro Valdes, a former security chief, said in a speech to 200,000 people at a military-civilian rally in the eastern city of Santiago.

His words added to the growing perception among Cubans that their ailing leader Fidel Castro, last seen in pictures on Oct. 28 looking gaunt and frail, may be too ill to resume governing.

Castro, 80, has not appeared in public since emergency intestinal surgery forced him to hand over power temporarily to Raul, his designated successor and long-serving defense minister in late July.

The once-fiery revolutionary failed to show up at his belated 80th birthday celebrations this week, but officials have not ruled out a brief appearance at a military parade on Saturday in Havana's main square.

Valdes, a veteran revolutionary who fought alongside the Castro brothers in their guerrilla force that seized power in 1959, said the future of Cuba depends on the unity of its people with the ruling Communist Party.

In the four months since Fidel Castro stepped aside, "all our people, the Party, the Revolutionary Armed Forces, the Interior Ministry, the revolutionary cadre, have grown stronger, should-to-shoulder with Raul," Valdes said.

Cuban institutions have continued to function efficiently despite the "blockade" of U.S. sanctions, Valdes said.

"Never have we been so strong, so united, so alert," said Valdes, who was reappointed minister in August.

"Yankee imperialists" are dreaming of political change that will not happen, he said, in reference to increased pressures by the Bush administration to undermine a Castro succession.

U.S. officials and Western diplomats in Havana suspect Castro has terminal cancer. Cuban officials refuse to comment, saying his medical condition is a state secret.

Cuba watchers say the transfer of power to Raul Castro is already a done deal whether or not the elder Castro survives.

Raul Castro, a low-key leader compared to his charismatic brother, did not attend the military ceremony in Santiago marking the 50th anniversary of an armed revolt.

On Wednesday, Raul appeared in public for the first time in weeks to present popular folk singer Silvio Rodriguez with a birthday gift, a model of the yacht Granma on which the Castros and 80 rebels came ashore in 1956 to start their revolution.

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In Cuba, army chief Raul Castro misses a military milestone

HAVANA, Nov 30, 2006 (AFP) -

Cuba's interim leader and defense chief Raul Castro was a no-show Thursday as some 200,000 people rallied in Santiago to mark the Revolutionary Armed Forces' 50th anniversary, amid uncertainty about his ailing brother Fidel Castro's health.

"We recognize Raul as the firm guardian of the Cuban Revolution," Ramiro Valdes, a regime old-timer and current Communications Minister, told the crowd of workers and students in a sea of red, white and blue Cuban flags.

Raul Castro often presides over military events in Santiago, about 900 kilometers (600 miles) southeast of Havana, and many Cubans expected he would take part there Thursday.

But Raul, deputised to stand in as Cuba's leader for Fidel, who underwent intestinal surgery on July 27, did make his first public appearance in weeks Wednesday when he joined an open-air event in Havana celebrating revolutionary folk singer Silvio Rodriguez's 60th birthday.

There a group of schoolchildren asked him to forward greetings to Fidel.

"He's fine, today I'm going to see him," Raul, 75, told the children, according to state television.

How fine was less than clear. Cuba's strongman since 1959, Fidel remained absent from the belated public celebrations marking his 80th birthday, which was August 13. Birthday events were delayed in the hope his recovery would be well along by now.

But he has not been seen in public since then. He handed the government over temporarily to Raul, the defense minister, on July 31, and since then few details have emerged on Fidel's health, which is considered a state secret.

Though almost 2,000 foreign guests traveled to Cuba for the special birthday events, neither of the Castros showed up at the public events on Tuesday and Wednesday. Among the events bypassed was a colloquium entitled "Memory and the Future: Cuba and Fidel."

Fidel last appeared in a video on October 28 to refute rumors he was seriously ill or even dead, but warned that his recovery would be long and "not without risks."

A letter attributed to the ailing Castro was read late Tuesday to some 5,000 guests at Havana's Karl Marx Theatre at the gala opening of the birthday celebrations.

Before Wednesday's appearance at the Rodriguez birthday celebration, Raul's last public appearance had been November 2, when he reviewed military equipment to be on display at Saturday's first military showcase parade in a decade.

Drilling for the parade was in high gear on Wednesday.

"I am hoping (Fidel Castro) will be present; I hope he can be with us even if it is for five minutes," said communications technician Jorge Santana, 42, marching as eight MiG fighter jets zoomed over above a mass of flags in Revolution Square.

Workers trudged past anti-aircraft missiles and armored cars, and the booming clop-clop-clop of troop transport choppers echoed over the crowd.

Schoolchildren on balconies and street corners eyed the war machinery, including some missiles painted to look like pencils. "Missiles, Comandante, to shoot down imperialism!" was one group's shrill scream.

The parade will commemorate both the 50th anniversary of the 1956 landing of the ship Granma carrying 81 fighters that helped spark the Cuban revolution -- including the Castro brothers and Argentine Ernesto 'Che' Guevara -- as well as the culmination of Fidel's birthday events.

Washington meanwhile showed no sign of accepting Raul Castro's leadership.

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Castro's no-show increases doubt about future

By Jeff Franks

HAVANA, Nov 29 (Reuters) - Fidel Castro's absence from his belated 80th birthday celebration has reinforced suspicions he is too gravely ill to return to power he ceded provisionally to brother Raul last summer.

The once-fiery revolutionary said in a message read on Tuesday night at a kickoff to the five-day event he could not attend because "according to the doctors, I was not yet ready for such a challenging engagement."

Castro concluded the message by saying, "It is with great sorrow that I bid you farewell for not being able to personally thank you and embrace every one of you," he said.

Left open was the question of whether he may show up on Saturday at a military parade in Havana's main square. He also missed Wednesday's start of a three-day colloquium entitled "Memory and Future: Cuba and Fidel."

Questions about his health and fitness to govern have dominated the run-up to the week's events, which many have said felt more like a farewell to the bearded comandante than a celebration.

Castro announced on July 31 he had surgery for intestinal bleeding and temporarily put Raul Castro in charge of the country he had run since seizing power in a 1959 revolution.

He has not been seen since except in a handful of photos and videos.

The last, shown on Oct. 28, was meant to quell rumors that he died. The appearance of the gaunt, shuffling Castro trying to look robust only added to a growing sense he was too old and too gravely ill to ever govern again.

POST-CASTRO

Most analysts have basically written Castro off, saying even if he survives, he likely will be only a figurehead while his brother runs the government.

They said there were already signs that Raul Castro, who has been defense minister for 47 years, was firmly in charge and putting his stamp on the government.

Castro's no-show has only reinforced that view, said Frank Mora, professor of national security strategy at the National War College in Washington.

"One can only conclude that his condition is very serious," Mora told Reuters. "We have definitely entered a post-Fidel phase where early next year we are likely to see some acceleration of changes."

Julia Sweig, Latin American expert at the Council of Foreign Relations in Washington said in a Tuesday conference call that whether or not Castro appears is now "sort of beside the point."

"But certainly if he doesn't appear, the signal will be very strong not only that he is not well physically, but this really is a done deal in terms of the transfer of power," she said.

Cuban officials have not disclosed Castro's illness, but have said repeatedly he is getting better and will run the government again.

As his birthday celebration neared, they began to downplay expectations that he would attend.

At Wednesday's colloquium, one high-ranking Cuban official simply walked away when asked if Castro might still show up.

But Rafael Daussa, former Deputy Foreign Relations Minister and current Cuban ambassador to Bolivia, said Castro's absence so far does not mean that much.

"You have to interpret it that he's not going to be here at this moment, but that does not say he's not going to be at other activities," he told Reuters.

"The commander in chief is recovering satisfactorily and I am sure that we will have (him) for a while," he said.

Castro turned 80 on Aug. 13, but postponed the celebration until Dec. 2 to coincide with the 50th anniversary of the start of the revolution.

(Additional reporting by Anthony Boadle, Marc Frank and Esteban Israel in Havana)

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Rumours rife as Castro misses celebrations and celebrities

Rory Carroll Latin America correspondent

30 November 2006

The Guardian

Fidel Castro has failed to appear at the start of his delayed week-long birthday celebrations, igniting fresh speculation about his health and disappointing an A-list of Latin American celebrities and politicians invited to Cuba.

A message from the Cuban leader read to 5,000 guests at a Havana theatre on Tuesday said he had not recovered from the illness which in July forced him to withdraw from the public eye and transfer power to his brother, Raul.

"I direct myself to you, intellectuals and prestigious personalities of the world, with a dilemma," said the note. "I could not meet with you in a small locale, only in the Karl Marx Theatre where all the visitors would fit, and I was not yet in condition, according to the doctors, to face such a colossal encounter."

It concluded: "My very close friends, who have done me the honour of visiting our country, I sign off with the great pain of not having been able to personally give thanks and hugs to each and every one of you."

The note did not elaborate on the nature of the illness nor say whether the 80-year-old host will attend the climax of celebrations on Saturday when a military parade in the capital will honour his birthday as well as the 50th anniversary of the start of his communist revolution.

The theatre guests responded with a standing ovation, and luminaries such as the Argentinian footballer Maradona, the Colombian Nobel laureate, Gabriel Garcia Marquez, and President Evo Morales of Bolivia, were still expected to arrive over the next few days.

Mr Castro turned 80 on August 13 but delayed celebrations until this week, the anniversary of his 1956 landing, to have time to recover from surgery for intestinal bleeding. Officials say he is getting better but refuse to identify the illness, which along with his location is a state secret.

His non-appearance on Tuesday will bolster rumours that the survivor of countless US assassination plots has terminal cancer and will succumb by 2007. Video footage released last month showed Mr Castro looking frail and pale, though still with his beard, suggesting no chemotherapy.

Acting president Raul Castro, 75, a long-time defence minister, has kept a low profile and ruled with a cabal of senior colleagues, a skilfully handled transition which has kept the US guessing and allowed Cubans to grow accustomed to the possibility that Fidel Castro may never return to power.

Although the economy has recovered from its 1990s crash, poverty, corruption and dissent will leave the regime vulnerable without its charismatic communist leader.

Mr Castro disembarked from a yacht on December 2 1956 and led ashore 82 guerrillas, including Che Guevara, who against all the odds toppled the dictator Fulgencio Batista three years later.

Art exhibitions marking the event will give way on Saturday to a military parade involving missile launchers, fighter jets and columns of troops. guardian.co.uk/cuba >

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WITNESS-Stepping back in time on a trip to Cuba

By Jeff Franks

HAVANA, Nov 30 (Reuters) - As a child of the Cold War, I grew up in the United States on a steady diet of rhetoric portraying Cuba as the communist menace just 90 miles off our shores.

Only once did the threat seem real - when the Russians put nuclear missiles on the island in 1962, prompting a showdown now known as the Cuban missile crisis.

I was 10 at the time and not worried about much of anything until one night my grandmother called to urge my father to bring us from our home in Houston to hers in Austin, Texas, out of harm's way.

Why she thought Russian missiles would come raining down on the Texas coast instead of Florida I don't know, but her fear got my attention.

I thought of that moment recently on my first trip to Cuba when I stood on a gun placement on the Havana waterfront, hurriedly constructed during the crisis to fend off a "yanqui" invasion.

Just as Cuba had been our nearby menace, we had been theirs.

"This thing was pointed right at Texas. I think you owe me an apology," I joked with my elderly guide who had begun our walk by declaring herself a "Fidelista," a follower of Fidel Castro.

"I lived underground in a bunker for two months. You're the one who should apologize," she replied.

The Cold War came to a close, but friction between the two governments goes on 44 years after the end of the missile crisis, fed by the conflicting dreams of an aging generation on both sides of the Florida Straits.

In the United States, you've got to go to Miami or the White House to find much evidence of the lingering animosity, but in Cuba the fight persists, fed by the government-controlled airwaves and in the streets where anti-American signs are commonplace.

"3:10 TO YUMA"

The propaganda is more interesting than threatening, with a dated quality like so much of Cuban life.

Whether by design or, as Castro says, because of the long-standing U.S. trade embargo, or both, Cuba has the sense of a place where time stopped in 1959 when Fidel and his rebels triumphantly marched into the capital.

The 1950s American cars that rumble through the streets are well-known, of course, and now a big tourist attraction. "I feel like I'm in the movie 'Grease,'" one fellow Yank told me.

Fittingly, perhaps, the term Cubans use for the United States - "La Yuma" - is said to come from the title of a 1957 movie, "3:10 to Yuma", a western starring Glenn Ford and Van Heflin that was popular on the island.

And the most modern building in the Havana business district is what was once known as the Havana Hilton.

A few months after it opened in 1958, Castro and his bearded band marched in from the hills and took up residence, giving the hotel its current name - the Havana Libre.

On its walls are photos of gun-toting revolutionaries lounging around the lobby like they owned the place. Eventually, it turned out they did.

WHERE'S THE UNDERWEAR?

There is, too, an absence of commercialism, reminiscent of an age before global marketing. No Golden Arches, no Nike Swooshes, no Sony jumbotrons, no Marlboro men riding the range with a cigarette dangling from their mouths.

Foreigners living in Cuba complain about poor services, limited food choices and a lack of consumer goods.

Having arrived in Havana without underwear (don't ask why) I can vouch for the latter. After three days of searching, I bought the only thing I could find: a couple of pair of, shall we say, much briefer briefs than I'm accustomed to.

The difficulties notwithstanding, expatriates say Cuba is a great place to raise children because of the absence of many of the corrupting influences of modern life, such as drugs, and a lack of serious crime.

Cubans appreciate these same things but most yearn for more - more money, more abundance, more modernity.

Whether they will get it anytime soon is the question of the moment. Castro has been one of the world's most devout keepers of the communist flame and does not care for capitalist-style consumerism.

Age and illness have caught up with him, but only time, such as it is in Cuba, will tell whether his vision for society will go with him when his moment comes.

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Acts of civil protest on the rise in Cuba, report says; A new report by the Cuban Democratic Directorate shows the number of acts of civil disobedience on the island is on the rise, revealing growing discontent with the quality of life in Cuba. CUBAN DISSIDENTS

BY FRANCES ROBLES

frobles@MiamiHerald.com

30 November 2006

The Miami Herald

From candlelight vigils to hunger strikes and even a mountain hike, Fidel Castro opponents logged more than 3,300 acts of civil disobedience in Cuba last year, nearly twice the number of the year before, according to a report to be released today.

As Castro's government continues a campaign of reprisals against dissidents that began with a wave of arrests three years ago, members of the opposition movement say more people are speaking up and joining up.

''Repression generates rebellion,'' said Janisset Rivero, executive director of the Cuban Democratic Directorate, an exile organization that published Steps to Freedom, to be released tonight at the University of Miami.

The report's numbers underscore growing discontent with the quality of life in Cuba, and the government's inability to satisfy basic needs. And while the government's 2003 crackdown decapitated much of the dissident movement, each year the number of acts of civil resistance climbs, the report said. Among the group's findings:

The central province of Villa Clara appears to be a hotbed of political opposition, logging far more protests than any other province. Even though nearly all of the island's internationally known dissident activists live in Havana, only 11 percent of last year's civil disobedience took place there.

25 hunger strikes were held by prisoners.

The Ladies in White, the group of female relatives of the 75 political prisoners picked up in the 2003 sweep, held 182 different protests.

The 3,322 acts logged in 2005 -- including 2,613 vigils -- represent an 85 percent increase over the 1,805 acts of civil disobedience in 2004.

`LOSING THEIR FEAR'

''What we're seeing is a direct relation between the incapacity of the regime's administration -- economically, politically, the errors they commit every day -- and the discontent of the people,'' Rivero said. ``People see no hope, but they are losing their fear.''

The Directorate helps pro-democracy organizations on the island. It receives a portion of its funding, some $1 million, from the U.S. Agency for International Development. The USAID money goes to a project, separate from the civil disobedience report, that focuses on outreach.

The Directorate's federal funding has made it a frequent object of criticism from the Cuban government. The report has come out annually since 1997, documenting each reported act of disobedience by date and address and citing the source. When it began a decade ago, the listing was of a scant 44 events. That more than doubled to 100 events in 1998, eventually jumping to 1,328 in 2003.

''The opposition has taken a lower profile since July 2005, when Fidel Castro incited violence against us in a speech he gave,'' said Eliécer Consuegra Rivas, of the Eastern Democratic Alliance in Holguín. 'But as that happens, horizons broaden. The police will loot an independent library, and people on the street come forward and say, `How are they going to take the books?' ''

Cuban dissident leaders say they lost momentum when the 75 were jailed, but have since overcome the leadership loss.

''The 2003 wave was a big blow to the opposition,'' said Juan Carlos González Leiva, a Ciego de Avila activist who was jailed for two years for heading the Cuban Human Rights Foundation. ``It decapitated the movement, so that now we have opposition members leaving the country and being jailed. But there are two sides to that: we lose people to jail and exile, but those people have friends and family who join the ranks.''

LACK OF FUNDING

He said the opposition movement is stymied by a lack of funding and materials. The issue has been a sticking point for the Bush administration, which last year pledged to provide dissidents an additional $80 million.

But U.S. law prohibits AID from sending cash, and Cuban law prohibits dissidents from receiving it.

González cut the conversation short when he said the pro-government mob throwing rocks at the home of another dissident where González was using the phone had set the roof on fire. Reached later, he said a few pails of water put out the fire.

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Cuban boom said fueled by jump in foreign exchange

By Marc Frank

HAVANA, Nov 29 (Reuters) - Cuba's foreign-exchange earnings swelled by some $3 billion this year due mainly to a jump in service exports, a government source with access to trade data said on Wednesday.

The communist-run country's balance of payments will be in the black for the third year running as a result, he said, without saying by how much.

"Increased nickel prices and pharmaceutical exports resulted in more than a $500 million increase over last year's $2 billion in exports, and service revenues jumped by over $2.5 billion to around $7.5 billion," he told Reuters, asking his name not be used.

Cuba apparently has spent most of the increased revenue on infrastructure and machinery. This includes $1 billion on an energy grid and hundreds of millions of dollars on waterworks and transportation.

It also has boosted imports of food and some consumer goods.

Economy and Planning Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez recently said imports were up by more than 27 percent this year over $7.5 billion in 2005.

Rodriguez said this week growth would be 12.5 percent this year, up from 11.8 percent in 2005, based on a locally devised formula that estimates the market value of free social services and subsidized goods and services and massive medical and other services exported mainly to Venezuela.

Cuba includes tourism and related activities, some communications, the export of medical and other professional services and the training of some foreigners in Cuba, such as Chinese Spanish-language students, as service revenues.

Tourism has stagnated this year, so increased service revenues would be from other sources.

Since the United States began more strictly enforcing its decades-old trade embargo on the country in 2004, always scarce economic information has become even harder to come by. Data, when provided, often differs from official to official and report to report.

However, the trend is clear since Cuba signed an agreement with Venezuela in late 2004 bartering and selling services for oil and also began receiving more credit from China.

Cuba reported imports of $5.5 billion in 2004 and nontourism service income of around $1.5 billion, compared with imports approaching $10 billion and nontourism service revenues of more than $5 billion this year, Reuters estimates.

Cuba's GDP fell 35 percent when the Soviet Union collapsed in 1991, depriving it of massive subsidies and resulting in shortages of food, energy, transportation and capital.

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The Latell Report

November-December 2006

Welcome to The Latell Report. The Report, analyzing Cuba's contemporary domestic and foreign policy, is published monthly except August and December and distributed by the electronic information service of the Cuba Transition Project (CTP) at the University of Miami's Institute for Cuban and Cuban-American Studies (ICCAS).

The Latell Report is a publication of ICCAS and no government funding has been used in its publication. The opinions expressed herein are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of ICCAS and/or the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID).

Fidel Castro's Last Words

He could still surprise all of us who have concluded he is suffering from terminal cancer. However, as unlikely as it seems now, Fidel Castro could yet emerge in public and deliver another speech before a live Cuban audience. That might even occur on December 2 when his belated 80th birthday observances were rescheduled to take place. If he were to rally sufficiently he could talk briefly via a video link from his convalescent quarters or be televised propped up in a studio or auditorium sharing homilies with Cuban audiences. There is perhaps nothing he would like to do more.

But what would the man who has spoken more words on the public record than any human in history want to say? Recent rumors emanating from the island that he is experiencing a deathbed religious catharsis, possibly even repenting and recanting, seem wildly improbable. He has never during nearly forty-eight years of public life openly confessed to morally indefensible behavior or admitted to regrets about his treatment of others. All his life he has been incapable of introspection of any type in the presence of witnesses. So if he were in fact to rally and deliver another oration it would most likely resemble his two most recent ones, both of which were void of any personal or emotional content or policy initiatives.

Castro’s speeches on July 26, 2006, the first delivered at dawn in Bayamo, in Granma province, in eastern Cuba, and the second, more perfunctory one only a few hours later in the provincial capital of Holguin are likely to be recorded as his last. He was already gravely ill on that 53rd anniversary of the Moncada attack that launched his revolutionary odyssey. He was operated on the next day for what the official announcement described as “severe intestinal bleeding,” although the surgery was not announced for another four days.

Raul, or some third tier leader could have substituted for him on July 26th as happened some years in the past. But perhaps Fidel knew that his condition was so grave that he might not have another chance to preside on his favorite revolutionary holiday. He had personally selected Bayamo, near the Sierra Maestra where he had fought as a guerrilla, to host the observances. He wanted to be with the humble guajiros of the eastern countryside, back possibly for the last time in that remote region where he had spent his troubled youth, where he had also both pejoratively and affectionately been called "guajiro."

It was a sentimental journey for an old and sick man who had still never publicly acknowledged he had any interior life at all and whose health remained as always a state secret. But no matter how debilitated he was immediately following an exhausting journey to Argentina, the festivities in Bayamo were for him an obligatory ritual.

It was in the early morning when he walked slowly to take a seat at the front of a crowd assembled downtown. On cue, thousands of little paper Cuban flags began to flutter in greeting, waved by an otherwise subdued audience. It was only about seven A.M. Many had come a long way, from mountain hamlets and crossroads villages, bussed in by local communist party officials over rough roads in the middle of the night.

The Cuban media said that 100,000 were there in the spacious Plaza de la Patria, though other observers put the number much lower. Politburo members and top civilian and military leaders were also in attendance in a show of solidarity, but Raul was not present. He was no doubt preoccupied with organizing the military and security forces that would be deployed and ready for any eventuality once Fidel’s condition was revealed to the populace.

The sun was just beginning to rise when Castro began speaking. In earlier years it had been more common for him to conclude speeches in the early morning hours near sunrise, but he and his doctors knew he would have to avoid the summer sun that day. Reading from a prepared text, he boasted of accomplishments in reducing infant mortality, improving health and education, increasing construction projects, and generally improving the quality of life in that remote region. But his recounting of excruciating statistical details was in a passionless monotone.

He said nothing memorable or at all revealing of his state of mind in those moments of what must have been personal anguish, suspecting that the speeches that day might well be his last. Unlike many of his previous July 26 appearances, there was no reminiscing about his triumphal revolutionary feats, no boasting of victories against “imperialism.” He criticized the United States and capitalism, but vaguely and with no real feeling. He went through some bouts of coughing, sipped tea, and once became annoyed that the crowd was not waving their little flags energetically enough.

“It is good exercise,” he told them, “so keep on waving them.”

Castro talked for almost two and a half hours. That speech, and the shorter one a few hours later in Holguin, were sodden rhetorical anticlimaxes to the nearly six decades of his remarkable public performances. His audience in Bayamo was tired and sullen. There was nothing he said that rallied or inspired them or raised new hopes for a better day. They were merely going through the motions with him.

He announced no new policies or initiatives, shared no new visions or hopes, and in fact did not speak at all about the future. He gave perhaps a single hint of his deteriorating condition, the only sentence he spoke that day that was both personal and uncharacteristically reflective.

"I will fight for the rest of my life, until the last second, as long as I have the use of my reason, to do something good, something useful."

So in what may prove to have been the last of his public utterances, Fidel Castro was as unyielding and unchastened as ever in his long career.

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Dr. Brian Latell, distinguished Cuba analyst and recent author of the book, After Fidel: The Inside Story of Castro’s Regime and Cuba’s Next Leader, is a Senior Research Associate at ICCAS. He has informed American and foreign presidents, cabinet members, and legislators about Cuba and Fidel Castro in a number of capacities. He served in the early 1990s as National Intelligence Officer for Latin America at the Central Intelligence Agency and taught at Georgetown University for a quarter century. Dr. Latell has written, lectured, and consulted extensively.

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The CTP, funded by a grant from the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), can be contacted at P.O. Box 248174, Coral Gables, Florida 33124-3010, Tel: 305-284-CUBA (2822), Fax: 305-284-4875, and by email at ctp.iccas@miami.edu.

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29 noviembre 2006

Elogian críticas a Cuba por parte de defensores de libertad de prensa

(EE.UU. condena ataques a la prensa en Venezuela

Por Eric Green
Redactor del Servicio Noticioso desde Washington

Washington – El Departamento de Estado de Estados Unidos aplaudió a un grupo defensor de la prensa mundial por su denuncia de las constante violaciones a los derechos humanos por parte del régimen cubano contra los periodistas independientes en esa nación caribeña.

En una declaración el 27 de noviembre al Servicio Noticioso desde Washington, la Oficina de Asuntos Cubanos del Departamento de Estado elogió a la Comité Mundial Coordinador de Organizaciones para la Libertad de Prensa por su deplora ante la falta de libertades de prensa en Cuba y por lo que la oficina calificó como “el injusto encarcelamiento de periodistas” en toda la nación isleña.

En una resolución adoptada en su reunión en Río de Janeiro, Brasil el 21 de noviembre, el Comité pidió la “inmediata” e “incondicional” liberación de todos los periodistas encarcelados en Cuba y terminar la represión por parte del gobierno contra los medios de comunicación en ese país. El Comité también exigió que el gobierno cubano “acabe con su política selectiva con respecto a la emisión de visas a los reporteros extranjeros”.

Los miembros del Comité Mundial Coordinador son: la Asociación Internacional de Difusión, con base en Montevideo, Uruguay; la Asociación Mundial de Periódicos con base en París, el Comité Mundial para la Libertad de Prensa, en Reston, Virginia y la Asociación Interamericana de Prensa, con base en Miami.

La Oficina de Asuntos Cubanos del Departamento de Estado dijo en su declaración al Servicio Noticioso desde Washington que otro grupo de prensa, Reporteros Sin Fronteras, con sede en París, “considera a Cuba uno de los peores países para los reporteros y que además hay más de 330 prisioneros de conciencia que permanecen en cárceles cubanas”.

La Oficina para Cuba del Departamento de Estado dijo que el pueblo cubano “merece controlar su destino; para hacerlo necesita información que sólo una prensa libre puede otorgar”. Como el Departamento de Estado lo ha dicho antes muchas veces, la Oficina dijo que el régimen cubano debe “liberar a los prisioneros políticos, respetar los derechos humanos y llamar a elecciones multipartidarias libres y justas”.

La resolución del Comité Mundial también pidió al gobierno cubano “respetar las normas internacionales respecto a la movilidad necesaria de los periodistas y permitir a los periodistas encarcelados que ya tienen visas para emigrar por razones de salud, salir del país”. También exigió que la Internet en Cuba “sea accesible a todos los ciudadanos cubanos, sin restricción”.

Reporteros sin Fronteras, dijo que Cuba está en la lista de los 15 “enemigos de la Internet” que el grupo de prensa formuló para la Cumbre Mundial sobre la Sociedad de Información que se llevó a cabo en Túnez en noviembre del 2005. (Ver artículo relacionado)

La resolución del Comité dijo que muchos de los 26 reporteros detenidos en cárceles en Cuba padecen graves problemas de salud. Los prisioneros están siendo sometidos a condiciones “insalubres y de atestamiento” que “empeoran debido a la mala alimentación, falta de tratamiento médico, abuso por los reclusos y el compartir obligatoriamente las celdas con presos comunes extremadamente peligrosos”, dice la resolución

La represión en contra de los periodistas independientes cubanos también está documentada en el Informe Anual por Países sobre Prácticas de Derechos Humanos 2005 publicado el 8 de marzo por el Departamento de Estado de Estados Unidos. El documento dice que la Constitución de Cuba reconoce la libertad de expresión y de prensa conforme “a los objetivos de la sociedad socialista”, una cláusula que el informe dice que efectivamente prohíbe la libertad de expresión. En práctica, las críticas al gobierno cubano y sus líderes no están permitidas, dice el informe.

Además, la administración Bush creó la Comisión de Ayuda a una Cuba Libre en octubre de 2003, para explorar la manera en que Estados Unidos podría “acelerar y facilitar” una transición democrática en Cuba. La secretaria de Estado de Estados Unidos es como presidenta de la Comisión, mientras que el Coordinador de Estados Unidos para la Transición en Cuba, Caleb McCarry, supervisa las operaciones diarias de la comisión.

LAS PRÁCTICAS EN VENEZUELA LLAMAN LA ATENCIÓN

En el encuentro en Río de Janeiro el Comité Mundial emitió también emitió una resolución sobre Venezuela criticando las leyes contra la prensa en ese país. La resolución dice que el control que el presidente de Venezuela Hugo Chávez ejerce sobre las ramas ejecutivas le permite “legislar y presionar al sistema judicial y a las acciones de la Oficina de Fiscal General”, manejando un “marco legal estructurado” que castiga a los medios de comunicación “al punto de clausurarlos”.

La resolución dijo que en meses recientes, en Venezuela, la violencia contra los periodistas independientes y los medios noticiosos ha aumentado “dramáticamente, con reportes de asesinatos de periodistas, sabotaje y agresiones”.

La presión contra los medios de comunicación en ese país, dice la resolución, ha dado como resultado que ejecutivos de noticias y periodistas sean enjuiciados por “informar y expresar opiniones”. Se dice que dicha presión restringe la libertad de expresión y alienta la auto censura en Venezuela.

La resolución sobre Venezuela advirtió que “cualquier acto de intimidación, hostilidad o ataque directo o indirecto que limita el trabajo de los periodistas y de los medios independientes o que limita o controla la divulgación de ideas y opiniones se considera un ataque a la libertad de expresión que afecta la información relacionada al proceso electoral”. La declaración se refiere al hecho de que Venezuela sostendrá elecciones presidenciales el 3 de diciembre.

El Comité expresó su apoyo a los periodistas venezolanos y a los medios noticiosos y reiteró el llamado al gobierno de Venezuela para “restaure el respeto y el cumplimiento de las normas sobre las cuales se basa el derecho a las libertades de libertad y expresión del país”. La comisión dijo que mantendrá una “guardia permanente sobre la situación de los periodistas independientes y los medios noticiosos en Venezuela”.

El informe del Departamento de Estado sobre derechos humanos, dijo que la leyes de Venezuela cubren las libertades de expresión y de prensa, pero que la “combinación de nuevas leyes que gobiernan la difamación y el contenido de la difusión de los medios, acoso legal e intimidación física dio como resultado limitaciones en estas libertades y en un clima de auto censura”.

El Comité Mundial hizo denuncias similares el 4 de junio, con respecto a ataques a periodistas en el Hemisferio Occidental. (Ver artículo relacionado)

Las resoluciones de la entidad mundial se encuentran disponibles en el sitio de Internet de la Sociedad Interamericana de Prensa.

Secciones del informe del Departamento de Estado sobre derechos humanos relacionados con Cuba y Venezuela se encuentran disponibles, en inglés, en el sitio electrónico del Departamento de Estado.

Más información sobre la Comisión para la Ayuda a una Cuba Libre se encuentra disponible en el sitio electrónico de la Casa Blanca.

El Servicio Noticioso desde Washington es un producto de la Oficina de Programas de Información Internacional del Departamento de Estado de Estados Unidos. Sitio en la Web: http//usinfo.state.gov/esp)

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SE PRONUNCIA EE.UU SOBRE DERECHOS HUMANOS EN CUBA

29 de Noviembre de 2006 - OCB

Estados Unidos aplaudió a un grupo de organizaciones civilistas que criticó las violaciones de los derechos humanos de los periodistas independientes en Cuba.

El Buró de Asuntos Cubanos del Departamento de Estado elogió el trabajo del Comité de Coordinación Global para la Libertad de Prensa por su condena al injusto encarcelamiento de periodistas a lo largo de Cuba.

En una resolución adoptada en su reunión del 21 de este mes en Brasil, el Comité exigió que todos los trabajadores de la prensa encarcelados en la isla sean puestos en libertad inmediatamente y sin mediar condiciones.

La organización también exigió que el gobierno cubano termine su política selectiva en el otorgamiento de visas a periodistas extranjeros.

El gobierno de Estados Unidos reiteró que el pueblo cubano merece el derecho de controlar su propio destino, y que por eso los cubanos que residen en la isla necesitan acceso a información que sólo puede ser brindada a través de una prensa independiente.

En un comunicado divulgado por el Buró de Asuntos Cubanos del Departamento de Estado, se exhorta al régimen comunista de Fidel Castro a poner en libertad a los prisioneros de conciencia, respetar los derechos humanos, y convocar a elecciones libres.

Ese documento fue elaborado la semana pasada en Río de Janeiro por representantes de la Sociedad Interamericana de Prensa, el Comité Mundial sobre la Libertad de Prensa, la Asociación Mundial de Periódicos, y la Asociación Internacional de Transmisiones de Radio y Televisión.
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EEUU considera que continuación saga Castro no es solución viable

Washington, 29 nov (EFE).- Una sucesión del presidente cubano, Fidel Castro, por parte de su hermano Raúl, en la que siga "las mismas políticas represivas, no es una solución "viable" para Cuba, según el gobierno de EEUU.

En la rueda de prensa diaria del Departamento de Estado, el portavoz Tom Casey aseguró hoy que la "creación de una especie de dinastía de la familia Castro en la que se pase el poder a Raúl Castro y, que éste siga llevando a cabo las mismas políticas represivas como su hermano, no es una solución viable".

Casey indicó que los cubanos "necesitan que se les dé una oportunidad para que vean y experimenten cambios democráticos".

El portavoz se refirió hoy a Cuba ante una pregunta de los periodistas sobre la salud del mandatario cubano.

La isla se encuentra estos días inmersa en las celebraciones por el 80 cumpleaños de su presidente, que cedió el poder a su hermano Raúl el 31 de julio pasado, debido a una grave enfermedad.

"Para nosotros es importante que seamos capaces de ayudar a los cubanos a medida que avanzan hacia una potencial transición para que sus aspiraciones democráticas se puedan ver realizadas", dijo Casey.

El comandante en jefe cubano, que no aparece en un acto público desde el pasado 26 de julio, sigue convaleciente desde que, cinco días después, anunciara la delegación provisional de sus cargos en su hermano R