| | |  Americas & Beyond | July 2008 
Cuba Cracks Down, Rounds Up Dissidents Before Freeing Most
 Agence France-Presse
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| | A worker passes in front of a poster of former Cuban Presidente Fidel Castro. | | |
Havana — Cuba last week rounded up and detained more than 30 dissidents after accusing the United States of "instigating" opposition to the Communist regime, a top rights activist told AFP Saturday.
As many as 35 people were arrested and around 70 targeted in all, but most have now been freed, economist Martha Beatriz Roque of the rights group Agenda for the Transition said.
The regime's roundup was aimed at halting a meeting of pro-democracy advocates and clamping down on the dissidents' plan to mark the US Independence Day holiday on July 4th, she said.
"Almost all the people arrested have now been freed," she said.
Those who were not detained received warnings from the government, were placed under house arrest or barred from traveling to the capital, Havana, she said.
"The objective of the operation was to prevent a meeting of the Agenda group scheduled for Thursday, and to bar them from participating in the celebration of the United States' Fourth of July holiday," Roque said.
The Agenda meeting was cancelled and the July 4th party went ahead without incident at the home of Michael Parmly, the US diplomat and chief of mission at the US Interests Section (USIS) in Havana, Roque said.
Cuba's communist government has accused the USIS of serving as a "headquarters" for opposition groups, which are banned in Cuba, and says the US funnels money, communications and other forms of support to regime opponents via the Interests Section.
Wednesday, the government of President Raul Castro issued a statement saying acts of dissidence in the streets would not be tolerated and denounced "an escalation" of what it called "warped" opposition that was "instigated" by the US Interests Section.
The brief arrests came just days after the European Union decided to formally lift sanctions against Cuba imposed following a 2003 dissident crackdown in the Americas' only one-party communist state.
Raul Castro has made no nod to political pluralism, and his economic reforms have been quite limited.
Since officially becoming president in February to succeed his ailing brother Fidel, Raul Castro has allowed Cubans to buy computers, own mobile telephones, rent cars and spend nights in hotels previously only accessible to foreigners -- if they can afford such luxuries.
In his latest reform move, he announced last month that the government was scrapping salary caps long meant to underscore egalitarianism but which his administration says hurt productivity.
He also has implemented reforms that give farmers better pay and more flexibility to buy farming equipment, a move designed to lessen the impact of the world food crisis.
The younger Castro brother, 77, also has commuted 30 death sentences, released some political prisoners, and signed human rights accords.
In addition, television has fewer taboos and Granma, the venerable Communist Party mouthpiece, even has taken to publishing grievances from residents.
A change on decades-old travel restrictions would be the most momentous to date by his government.
The Spanish daily El Pais cited an unnamed government official in a report in April as saying Raul Castro would give a green light soon to migration reform, simplifying exit and entry permits and ending the requirement for people to get permission to leave the country.
In an economically stressed country of more than 11 million people, such a policy change would test Cuba's stability, as the nearby United States grants automatic residency and working rights to all Cubans who reach US soil after fleeing their homeland.
Mandatory permits and a passport add hundreds of dollars in travel costs in a country where most workers make about 17 dollars a month. Many critics see the regulations as just short of an effective travel ban for Cuban nationals.
Late last month ailing longtime leader Fidel Castro, 81, strongly denied rumors that he is the leader of a faction of hardline Communists disgruntled about reforms introduced in Cuba since his brother Raul succeeded him.
Cuba Cancels Gay Pride Parade
Sue Katz - AlterNet
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Cuba's very first gay pride march was planned for June 25th, the Guardian, a British daily, reported, but the organizers were wary. It's true that just a month ago Raul Castro's daughter, Mariela (pictured below) spoke against homophobia at a public rally in her role as head of Cuba's National Centre for Sex Education. Even though this seemed to signal a desirable attitude change at the national level, it's certainly not queer heaven. Havana-based Aliomar Janjaque, a gay activist, pointed out that continuing discrimination towards LGBT people ranges from workplace bias to some folks still being jailed for same-sex passion.
The march was to be a collaborative project between Cuban gays in Cuba and in Florida. One key Florida supporter, Arturo Alvarez, was prescient in his concerns: "We'll see with this parade if openness has really been achieved."
Unfortunately, the Guardian reported in a follow-up story the next day, the event was canceled "moments before it was to begin." Aliomar Janjaque, the president of the Foundation LGTB Reinaldo Arenas in Memoriam, and his fellow activist, the president of the Cuban League Against AIDS, were intending to deliver a set of demands to the Justice Department when they were arrested. They were asking for a governmental apology "for its past repression and, in some cases, incarceration of openly gay citizens, and the inhumane treatment of prisoners with AIDS."
The Cuban Catholic Church, the AP reported, had just a couple of days earlier complained about the government "promoting" homosexuality, in response to Mariela Castro's speech against homophobia and the announcement of "government-paid sex changes for 28 people who have undergone extensive study after requesting the surgery."
Instead of the canceled gay pride gathering, Arturo Alvarez held a solidarity rally at his Latin dance and drag club in Miami. Ironically enough, the aborted march had been set to begin at Havana's aptly named Don Quixote Park. |
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