U.S.-Cuba air services on hook for Cuba judgment
Posted on Monday, 03.01.10U.S.-Cuba air services on hook for Cuba judgmentThe Associated Press
MIAMI — Eight companies that provide air service between the U.S. andCuba are being asked to help pay a $27 million judgment won by a womanwho sued the Cuban government over a spy-turned-husband.
The woman, Ana Margarita Martinez, won the judgment in 2007. She claimedshe was lured into marriage with a spy, Juan Pablo Roque, as a cover sohe could infiltrate Miami's Cuban exile community.
Martinez now wants the eight air charter companies to pay her any debtsthey owe to companies in Cuba related to their business. The charterfirms say they shouldn't be required to pay because their business isseparate from the Cuban government.
The charter companies on Monday asked a federal judge to intervene andhalt any payments to Martinez.
U.S.-Cuba air services on hook for Cuba judgment – Florida AP -MiamiHerald.com (1 March 2010)http://www.miamiherald.com/2010/03/01/1507061/us-cuba-air-services-on-hook-for.html
Cuba Loses Horsepower: Mule Shortage Spooks Commies
Cuba Loses Horsepower: Mule Shortage Spooks CommiesBy Erik Maza in Flotsam, La HabanaMon., Mar. 1 2010 @ 9:00AM
Last week, Cuba's daily newspaper breathlessly announced that thecountry faced a mule deficit.
The dip in the mule community — their words — has triggered acountrywide census of the animals that begins today. The tally by Cuba's"census burro" will ascertain the "veracity" of the shortage, Granmawrote. The "National Mule Census" starts today and will last ten days.The directive from above is clear: even if census takers have to forge ariver, or climb a mountain, every long-eared, braying equine must becounted.
Already, Marco Rubio was overheard saying only fully naturalized mulesshould be included.
The paper reports the country may be some 8,000 burros in the red. Thepack animals are prized there for their "versatility" in transportingnot only coffee, but also cocoa and agricultural staples to its mostmountainous regions.
But the Cuban government is a glass-half-full kind of cartel. This isn'ta shortage, they say, it's "a decline."And, "Our goal is to over thelong run accelerate mule production with the direct collaboration of theprivate sector and the state." Emphasis on "long."
Upon hearing the news of the census, those kidders at the AssociatedPress and the Los Angeles Times mocked the Cuban government for theirantediluvian dilemma. But actually guys, we count our mules too. Andhorses, and llamas and pigs. Every five years the Department ofAgriculture conducts its own census that itemizes the number of farmanimals in the country by state, by numbers sold and killed. Sometimes,as with hogs and pigs, there are even quarterly reports. The nextcomprehensive census is in 2012.
As for our mules, turns out Florida had 6,200 mules in 2007, and thecountry nearly 300,000. So much for bragging rights. According toGranma, Cuba's second largest province, not even a tenth of the size ofFlorida, owned 3,700 mules last year.
What causes a shortage anyway? Too many pony boys? If horse slaughteringis as big an epidemic in Cuba as it is here, those mares better scram.For those, and other related questions, we turned to Ben Tennison,editor in chief of Western Mule magazine — phone number: 417-859-MULE.
"It's always been since the settlement of the West that there was adeficit of mules because the mule couldn't reproduce himself," he said."He's shooting blanks." He explains: mules are sterile; they're actuallybred from a male donkey and a female horse. If the mares are used tobreed more horses than mules, then you'll inevitably get a shortage. Andy'all thought only Wikipedia could dispense random trivia.
Anyway, for as long as he's been in the mule business, Tennison saideven in the United States there's always been more demand than supplyfor the animals. "They're a highly sought-after commodity because oftheir health and power," he added. "Back in the 1800s, a mule was worthmore than a horse." That's Cuba for you — still bartering like a 19thcentury republic.
*Sorry, there are no famous mules. Francis the Talking Mule is still asmuch of a cult figure as the Egg Lady in "Pink Flamingos."
Cuba Loses Horsepower: Mule Shortage Spooks Commies – Miami News -Riptide 2.0 (1 March 2010)http://blogs.miaminewtimes.com/riptide/2010/03/cuba_loses_horsepower_mule_sho.php
Political Prisoners Still Languish In Cuba
Political Prisoners Still Languish In Cuba
The death of a human rights activist jailed in Cuba highlights theplight of political prisoners.
"There are more than 200 similar prisoners of conscience jailed in Cuba."
The death of a human rights activist jailed in Cuba for opposinggovernment policies highlights yet again the plight of hundreds ofpolitical prisoners being held in the island nation. The United Statesdecries his imprisonment, and that of all prisoners of conscience, andextends heartfelt sympathies to his family for their loss.
Orlando Zapata Tamayo died February 23 after an 80-day hunger strike todemand better jail conditions for himself and other dissidents. AnAfro-Cuban who supported his family as a bricklayer, he was also apolitical activist when arrested in a police crackdown in 2003 and heldfor months without charge. Eventually he was accused of disorderlyconduct and "contempt for authority" in his native Holguin province. Hewas convicted and sentenced to 3 years in jail. Later he was given a25-year sentence for activism behind bars.
In October, to protest jail conditions and the treatment of prisoners,he stripped off his prison uniform and refused to eat solid food. He wastransferred to a prison in Havana when his health deteriorated andfinally transferred to a public hospital the day before he died. He wasthe first such dissident to die in custody in recent memory.
There are more than 200 similar prisoners of conscience jailed in Cuba,many in failing health like Zapata Tamayo. This violates internationalhuman rights law, which as a member of the United Nations, Cuba isobligated to respect. The United States again urges the Cuban governmentto allow the International Commission of the Red Cross and the UNSpecial Rapporteur on Torture and Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatmentof Prisoners to visit Cuban jails. We also urge Cuba to release all ofits prisoners of conscience immediately and unconditionally.
Political Prisoners Still Languish In Cuba | Home | Editorial (1 March 2010)http://www1.voanews.com/policy/editorials/Political-Prisoners-Still-Languish-In-Cuba-85840482.html
What Do These Signs Indicate?
What Do These Signs Indicate?By Reinaldo Escobar
In the last days of February 2010, there have been very clear signs thatthere is not the slightest intention on the part of the government torelease its stranglehold on political control of the nation. They seemlike isolated events but it would be hard not to see the thread thatconnects them.
The most notorious was the death of the prisoner Orlando Zapata Tamayo,which occurred on the eve of the second anniversary of General RaulCastro's assumption of the presidency. To leave someone to die, to allowthem to die, not to do something to prevent the death of a person who isthe exclusive responsibility of a penal establishment is, anywhere inthe world, a very serious thing. As serious, I would say, as lettingpatients in a psychiatric hospital die of cold and hunger.
Then when, in a peaceful and civilized way, some people tried to signthe book of condolences, they were brutally repressed and detained inpolice stations. At about the same time the Cuban delegation to theSpanish Language Academy's Fifth Congress announced they would notattend because unsuitable people had been invited (by whom they meantthe writers Jorge Edwards and Mario Vargas Llosa and the Cuban bloggerYoani Sanchez). In the same the newspaper Granma where the note from theacademics appeared, it was announced that Cuba would not participate inthe Central American Games to be held in Puerto Rico, because they hadnot complied with all of the demands made by the Cubans.
In the meantime State Security–how do they get anyone to actually workfor this institution?!–visited dozens of citizens to intimidate thoseof us who had signed an initiative called "Candidates for Change" whosepurpose is to nominate people who would be inclined to introduceeconomic, political and social changes demanded by the opposition andeven by some government sectors.
Finally, February was not yet over and at a motion picture event knownas the Exhibition of Young Filmmakers, they prevented a group of youngpeople who are filmmakers, but not government addicts, from attending.
Right now other opponents, some in prison and some free, have startednew hunger strikes. In the provinces in the interior of the country theyhave not ceased the arbitrary detentions: the Council of Stateombudsman's office cannot cope with all the citizen complaints. Thediscontent, the repression, those inseparable brothers at each others'throats threaten to raise their visibility.
Are all the events mentioned here isolated incidents? Are theyunequivocal signs that the revolution is stronger than ever and that theconstruction of socialism is advancing smoothly? Or perhaps they areindications that the days when no one listened, no one saw, no oneunderstood what was happening, are coming to an end?
Reinaldo Escobar, an independent journalist since 1989, writes from Cubawhere he was born and continues to live with his wife, Yoani Sanchez,and their son. He received his degree in Journalism from the Universityof Havana in 1971 and subsequently worked for different Cubanpublications. His articles can be found in various Europeanpublications, and in the digital magazines "Cuba Encuentro" and "Contodos."
Yoani Sanchez: Does Zapata's Death Mark a Turning Point for Cuba? (1March 2010)http://www.huffingtonpost.com/yoani-sanchez/does-zapatas-death-mark-a_b_481048.html
Cuba’s deadly justice
Cuba's deadly justiceOrlando Zapata Tamayo died in prison, one of scores of politicalprisoners who are routinely mistreated in the country's jails.March 1, 2010
Bricklayer Orlando Zapata Tamayo didn't commit murder. He didn't plot anassassination or the violent overthrow of the government. He wasarrested on March 20, 2003, in Cuba, while taking part in a hungerstrike to demand the release of political prisoners, and was sentencedto three years in prison on charges of showing contempt for Fidel Castroas well as public disorder and disobedience, according to AmnestyInternational. Over the next six years, he is believed to have had eightmore hearings and was convicted at least three more times, bringing histotal sentence to about 36 years — a figure his friends say may beinexact because the proceedings were secret. Now Zapata is dead afteranother hunger strike, this time for 85 days, to protest beatings andother prison conditions.
President Raul Castro should be ashamed. Instead, he is dismissive,asserting that Zapata's death was the fault, somehow, of the UnitedStates — because in the Cuban government's view, all critics areproxies for U.S. subversion. Zapata was neither tortured nor executed,Castro reportedly said. "That happens at the Guantanamo base."
That's right, Mr. President, serious human rights abuses were committedagainst terrorism suspects held by the United States at the GuantanamoBay detention center in Cuba, and they were vociferously denounced bypeople in this country who felt betrayed and dishonored by ourgovernment. But who in Cuba will be allowed to protest Zapata's death?Who will be permitted to examine Cuban jails or challenge your assertionthat torture does not take place there?
Amnesty International had counted 55 "prisoners of conscience" in Cubanjails — make that 54 now. A Human Rights Watch report on Cubanprisoners last year documented how those who criticize the government orreport violations are subjected to extended periods of solitaryconfinement and beatings and denied medical treatment, family visits andtelephone calls. Human Rights Watch documented dozens of cases in whichprison officials physically abused and humiliated political prisoners.Prison authorities routinely subjected them to solitary confinement incells described as cramped, squalid, without bedding — some in totaldarkness, others with permanent bright lights — and provided rotting,inadequate food at irregular intervals.
That sounds like torture to us. And although Zapata may not have facedan executioner, he is dead for dissenting.
Cuba's deadly justice – latimes.com (1 March 2010)http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/editorials/la-ed-cuba1-2010mar01,0,1293571.story
Advancing The Dialogue With Cuba
Advancing The Dialogue With Cuba
High-level talks promote safe, legal and orderly migration from the island nation to the United States.
"It is hoped that the Havana government will respond to these good-faith gestures."
U.S. and Cuban diplomats met in Havana recently for more high-level talks to promote safe, legal and orderly migration from the island nation to the United States.
Sixteen years ago, in an effort to persuade those hoping to leave Cuba not to risk the dangerous sea passage to South Florida, the 2 countries signed an accord calling for 20,000 travel documents to be issued to Cubans each year. Discussions on implementing the program broke down in political disputes, but last year were revived by President Barack Obama. Craig Kelley, Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Western Hemisphere Affairs, led the U.S. delegation in the recent meetings, the most senior U.S. diplomat to visit Cuba in many years.
The discussions centered on ensuring that U.S. representatives working in Cuba are able to do their jobs effectively; that they can meet with and monitor the welfare of migrants who return to Cuba after attempting to illegally migrate to the United States; and that Cuban officials accept Cuban nationals back who have been ordered out of the U.S. because of crimes they committed before emigrating. Initial statements by Cuban officials were positive, seeming to encourage further talks, not only on migration but on other bilateral issues as well. The arrest of Alan Gross, a U.S. development worker detained by the Cuban government in December, is a significant impediment to further advancing our bilateral relations, however. The U.S. delegation raised his case with the Cuban government and pressed strongly for his immediate release on humanitarian grounds, because of failing health.
Engaging in such discussions underscores the U.S. interest in pursuing a constructive dialogue on issues of mutual concern. The U.S. has taken several concrete steps for better communication and understanding between our two nations. These include reestablishing direct mail service, easing travel restrictions on Americans wishing to visit Cuba, and allowing U.S. telecommunications companies to do business there. It is hoped that the Havana government will respond to these good-faith gestures with steps of its own to ensure the most basic human rights and improve the lives of its people.
Advancing The Dialogue With Cuba | Home | Editorial (1 March 2010)http://www1.voanews.com/policy/editorials/Advancing-The-Dialogue-With-Cuba-85559252.html
Cárcel y difamación
Cárcel y difamaciónBy ALEJANDRO ARMENGOL
La muerte de Orlando Zapata Tamayo es un llamado para que se reconozcan internacionalmente las difíciles condiciones en que se encuentran los prisioneros de conciencia cubanos. Debe servir de alerta también, ante una de las tácticas preferidas por el régimen de La Habana: degradar siempre a sus opositores.
Un paso de avance en este sentido es la declaración de Amnistía Internacional (AI), que el viernes nombró a Darsi Ferrer, director del Centro de Salud y Derechos Humanos “Juan Bruno Zayas'' de La Habana, prisionero de conciencia, y pidió al gobierno cubano su inmediata e incondicional liberación.
En un comunicado, la organización denunció que Ferrer está detenido desde julio de 2009 acusado de obtención ilegal de bienes, un delito que habitualmente no comporta cárcel, que está en una cárcel de máxima seguridad en La Habana, donde la mayoría de los presos han cometido actos violentos, y que no ha sido juzgado, de acuerdo a un cable de la agencia Efe. Con Ferrer, ya hay 55 prisioneros de conciencia en la isla, según la organización.
“La acusación contra Darsi Ferrer es claramente un pretexto. Pensamos que ha sido detenido como castigo por su trabajo para promover la libertad de expresión en Cuba'', manifestó en la nota Gerardo Ducos, investigador de AI sobre Cuba.
Amnistía explicó que el delito que se le imputa suele ser competencia de un juzgado local, pero que en este caso está siendo tramitado por la Fiscalía General, lo que “añade argumentos a la opinión de que este caso tiene una motivación política''.
Al igual que está tratando de hacer con el médico Ferrer, La Habana ahora presenta al albañil Zapata Tamayo como un delincuente común, que estaba preso por diversos delitos y había agredido a sus carceleros. En ambos casos, hay una motivación en difamar a los opositores: rebajarlos en su condición ciudadana, reducirlos a seres antisociales. Con frecuencia el gobierno cubano echa mano a una serie de recursos viejos pero eficaces: el insulto y la vejación como arma; la divulgación de mentiras, que en ocasiones se apoyan en elementos aislados de verdad, pero que en su totalidad presentan un panorama falso; la visión desplazada que deforma la perspectiva de conjunto y la demonización del enemigo. No hay originalidad en este empeño, empleado con éxito anteriormente por la Alemania nazi, la Unión Soviética de Stalin y la China de Mao.
En sus primeros años, la ideología castrista propuso la imagen de una sociedad mejor pero futura. El ataque político se elaboraba a partir de un discurso dirigido fundamentalmente contra una clase social, capitalista y explotadora.
La deformación del lenguaje se producía de dos formas. La abstracción servía como un medio para despersonalizar y tergiversar las palabras. Se hablaba de la “liquidación'' de la explotación, el “ajusticiamiento'' de los traidores y la “recuperación'' de las propiedades del “pueblo''. Al mismo tiempo, se deshumanizaba a los opositores: “gusanos'', “escoria'' y “parásitos'' en Cuba; “perros rabiosos del capitalismo'' en China y “vampiros'', “bastardos'' y “piojos'' en la desaparecida Unión Soviética.
Por supuesto que el recurrir a esos recursos tuvo un precio. El lenguaje ideológico del castrismo nació deforme por naturaleza, por encima de cualquier intención verdadera o bastarda de justicia social, y comenzó a deteriorarse desde su origen.
os factores contradictorios contribuyeron a ese deterioro: el fracaso en la concretización de su modelo ideal y los éxitos en la exclusión de sus enemigos tradicionales. Las exitosas campañas represivas, por momentos de verdadero terror, apuntaron hacia el exterminio o la segregación de una clase social, y lo lograron. De forma similar y diversa el comunismo y el fascismo habían empleado el mismo recurso, y con anterioridad los imperios coloniales y esclavistas, aunque con distintos argumentos. Pronto Cuba se vio libre de “explotadores capitalistas''.
Por años se prefirió ignorar a los disidentes, catalogar como “vicios del pasado'' todos los intentos de crítica e identificar con la “sociedad anterior'' a quienes se oponían al sistema. La permanencia en el poder fue erosionando esos argumentos. El golpe más formidable ocurrió con la crisis que culminó en el puente marítimo Mariel-Cayo Hueso, cuando miles que eran niños en 1959 o nacidos después de esta fecha, y trabajadores carentes de propiedades, decidieron o se vieron forzados a abandonar el país. Ello obligó al gobierno a recurrir a una difamación menos política y más vulgar. El ataque frontal a los “enemigos de clase'' se sustituyó por las vejaciones y los epítetos. Las palabras más repetidas fueron “prostitutas'', “homosexuales'' y “proxenetas'' (claro que en sus versiones más crudas).
El albañil Zapata y el médico Ferrer son por edad “hijos de la revolución'', por el color de su piel pertenecen a esa raza que precisamente la revolución triunfante proclamó que iba a reivindicar y darle la posibilidad de una integración plena, pero también seres humanos que individualmente, y sin ponerse de acuerdo, posiblemente sin siquiera conocerse, decidieron pensar y actuar por ellos mismos. Esto último puede llegar a convertirse en un delito en Cuba. Como hasta el momento ha sido imposible cambiar la ley, lo que el régimen ha decidido es convertir en delincuentes a las víctimas.
ALEJANDRO ARMENGOL: Cárcel y difamación – Opinión – ElNuevoHerald.com (1 March 2010)http://www.elnuevoherald.com/2010/03/01/v-fullstory/665171/alejandro-armengol-carcel-y-difamacion.html
En Cuba, de nuevo el silencio
Publicado el lunes, 03.01.10En Cuba, de nuevo el silencioBy GINA MONTANER
El disidente cubano Orlando Zapata Tamayo al fin descansa en paz. Desde su encarcelamiento hace siete años su vida se había reducido a raciones de golpizas y penurias. En los últimos meses la huelga de hambre que había iniciado se agravó por la falta de atención médica. Se había cumplido el deseo de la dictadura castrista: que de una vez desapareciera tan incómodo prisionero de conciencia.
A primera vista uno pensaría que los hermanos Castro habrían preferido no pagar un coste político frente a la Unión Europea y otros gobiernos del mundo que no han tardado en condenar la más reciente violación de los derechos humanos en la isla. Pero eso obedecería a un pensamiento lógico, alejado de la sintomatología de una mente asesina. Tratándose de estos dos sujetos, la cuenta que sacan les proporciona beneficios: la indignación por el fallecimiento de Zapata se difuminará en cuestión de días. En un par de semanas pocos recordarán el desgarrador testimonio de su madre, Reina Luisa. Y, sobre todo, una vez más demostraron que pueden contener el menor estallido de insurrección popular, propagando el terror desde La Habana hasta Banes, la localidad donde fue enterrado el opositor.
¿Cuántas veces hemos intuido que podría tratarse del chispazo que provocaría la caída de ese muro invisible pero implacable que ha privado a los cubanos de libertad durante más de medio siglo? ¿Recuerdan la marejada del pueblo durante el éxodo del Mariel? ¿Tienen memoria de los días trémulos en los que María Elena Cruz Varela y otros opositores empapelaban las calles con dazibaos que clamaban por la apertura política? ¿Conservan las imágenes del gentío revuelto en la jornada del Maleconazo? ¿Acaso no fue ayer cuando el aire fresco de los jóvenes blogueros irrumpió en los portales de la aldea global? Han sido episodios intensos y esperanzadores que nos hicieron vivir el instante del espejismo. El falso oasis en medio de la nada de un desierto.
El fin de la tiranía es inevitable y sucederá más pronto que tarde, pero es improbable que ocurra como consecuencia de una manifestación multitudinaria que no puede materializarse mientras el gobierno domine los mecanismos de la represión y el miedo. Lo habitual es que el dictador de turno muera en la cama, a menos que sus propios hombres fuertes conspiren para deshacerse del jefe. De lo contrario, la sociedad, desprovista de herramientas para impulsar la resistencia cívica, simplemente intenta sobrevivir o huir del país en la menor oportunidad. Y los cubanos no tienen un componente genético distinto a tantos otros pueblos que han permanecido oprimidos durante años.
este lamentable modelo político le llegará su hora final, y seguramente los propios miembros de la nomenclatura se encargarán de desmontar el andamiaje en los estertores de la polvorienta dinastía. Entretanto, continuaremos siendo testigos de hechos tan terribles como la injusta muerte de Orlando Zapata Tamayo, cuya valerosa madre no ha dudado en calificar de “asesinato premeditado'' por parte del gobierno cubano.
Los que acompañaron a doña Reina Luisa en su duelo ya han regresado a sus hogares. Los que en la Isla tuvieron el arrojo de solidarizarse con ella se han visto obligados a retornar a sus asuntos. En su humilde vivienda sólo permanecen los crespones negros de su infinita tristeza. En Cuba de nuevo todo es silencio. Y los corazones desmayados.
www.firmas press.comGINA MONTANER: En Cuba, de nuevo el silencio – Opinión – ElNuevoHerald.com (1 March 2010)http://www.elnuevoherald.com/2010/03/01/665176/gina-montaner-en-cuba-de-nuevo.html
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