Released : Thursday, May 22, 2008 12:15 PM
Havana, May 22 (EFE).- Cuban state television has broadcast rare remarks
from dissidents this week, questioning them about links with the United
States and the supposed financing they received from a jailed
Miami-based exile with ties to an accused terrorist.
The footage aired Wednesday night on the network's flagship current
affairs program, "Mesa Redonda."
The show is focusing this week on the communist government's charges
that money the U.S. mission in Havana funneled to dissidents originated
with Santiago Alvarez, the prime benefactor of anti-Castro militant Luis
Posada Carriles, accused in the deaths of 73 people aboard a Cuban
airliner destroyed by a bomb in 1976.
Dissidents have been habitually ignored by the monolithic state-run
media and dismissed by the Cuban government as "mercenaries" at the
service of Washington.
An announcer introduced the exchanges with government opponents by
saying that "Mesa Redonda" reporters went to the residence of a U.S.
diplomat "to get the reaction of these mercenary figures to the evidence
presented" on the program, which has repeatedly accused U.S. Interests
Section chief Michael Parmly of "complicity" with Alvarez.
Martha Beatriz Roque, leader of the dissident coalition Assembly to
Promote Civil Society and the main target of accusations by Cuban
authorities, responded: "Don't ask me."
The television cameras then trained in on dissident Jorge Luis Garcia
Perez, known as "Antunez," whom the reporter questioned about a document
- apparently bearing his signature - in which he admitted having
received money from the foundation headed by Alvarez.
"No, I have no response to that," Garcia said.
Regarding his presence at the U.S. Interests Section for a May 6
videoconference with President George W. Bush, Garcia said: "Yes, for me
it was an honor, I repeat, to be able to have the president (Bush) very
close by."
"I don't regret having talked with him," he added.
Also interviewed was Laura Pollan, of the Ladies in White group
comprising relatives of the 75 regime opponents jailed in a Spring 2003
crackdown.
"At no time did we know that Santiago Alvarez was behind that," Pollan
said of the money. "Martha Beatriz (Roque) gave us something; she told
us it was from the Fundacion Rescate Juridico. Look, there's Martha, ask
Martha."
The Miami Herald has confirmed that the Miami-based foundation is linked
to Alvarez, currently serving time in a U.S. prison on charges of
illegal weapons possession.
Wednesday night's edition of "Mesa Redonda" also included a response to
Bush's speech earlier in the day marking the U.S. government's first
"Day of Solidarity with the Cuban People."
Bush said during a White House gathering that he will allow Americans to
send cellular phones to family members on the island as a means of
pressuring for greater freedom of expression.
"This morning we witnessed a new farce by President George (W.) Bush,
surrounded by top representatives of the ultra-right, the anti-Cuban
mafia and some ex-counterrevolutionary prisoners and their families,"
the head of research for Cuban State Security, Manuel Hevia, said
Wednesday night.
"In ridiculous Spanish, he once again attacked our country with the
rhetoric that he has always used ... promising to eliminate the
restrictions that they themselves have imposed (and) send cell phones to
Cuba," Hevia said.
"Coming from the president of the United States, none of this surprises
us," the Cuban official added.
Bush, who sprinkled his remarks with Spanish words and phrases,
reiterated his position that Cuba must free political prisoners and hold
democratic elections before the United States will lift the economic
embargo it imposed on the island in 1962. EFE
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Copyright 2008 EFE News Services (U.S.) Inc.
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