Cubans Target Consulate

9th February
Cubans Target Consulate
By Quincy Parker

The Miami police were called in yesterday when a group of
Cuban-Americans picketed the Bahamas Consulate in downtown Miami to
protest the alleged brutality and abuse of Cuban detainees at the
Carmichael Road Detention Centre.

The demonstrations follow reports that detainees have been beaten, have
had their meals restricted to one a day, and have had wounds go untended
for days on end.

Consul General Alma Adams told The Bahama Journal that she had been told
by Vice President Norman del Valle of Movimiento Democracia, the
Cuban-American group said to have organized the picket, that there "is a
likelihood that these demonstrations will continue at least for the next
few days."

Ms. Adams said that only about five people were involved in the protest,
but television pictures later in the day showed dozens of protestors in
front of the consulate.

News also broke yesterday of Mario Vallejo, a Miami journalist, who
reportedly needed seven stitches after allegedly having his head slammed
against a car by a Royal Bahamas Defence Force officer at the detention
centre.

Mr. Vallejo was part of a news team from Miami-based WLTV-Univisión 23,
dispatched to New Providence to investigate reports by family members of
the detainees that they were being abused.

Other witnesses to the incident between Mr. Vallejo and the unidentified
officer reportedly include Mr. Vallejo’s cameraman, Osvaldo Duarte, and
Alberto Tavares and Lazaro Obreu of Telemundo affiliate Channel 51.

Mr. Vallejo is alleging that he was on a public phone when the officer
attacked him.

Miami resident Manny Lopez was present at a press conference given be
Mr. Vallejo in Florida yesterday, and told the Bahama Journal that Miami
news stations had been running the story all day.

Mr. Lopez asked, "If they are mistreating the press, what is happening
to the detainees?"

Pedro Batitsta Méndez, a Cuban political agitator who claims to have
been held at the detention centre for 17 months awaiting a visa, on
Tuesday reportedly phoned in an eye-witness report to a US-based Cuban
news forum of the incident between Mr. Vallejo and the officer.

Mr. Méndez reportedly used a cellular phone his family bought him to
call a report into Information Bridge Cuba Miami, alleging that some
detainees were being "beaten" and otherwise "physically abused" by
drunken "officials" of the Royal Bahamas Defence Force.

Mr. Méndez told Information Bridge that he and his six cohorts "fear for
(their) lives" because the Defence Force officers at the centre "are
blaming the seven political prisoners detained in the camp for the
incident with the press."

"The abuse and retaliations from this day forward at the Carmichael Road
Detention Centre in Nassau, Bahamas will increase dramatically," he
reportedly predicted. "Please support us for we are helpless."

Mr. Méndez and six other detainees at the centre are the only members of
The Democratic Party November 30 "Frank Pais," which has been described
as an "illegal opposition party" in Cuba.

Mr. Méndez also alleges that seven Cuban rafters discovered on Elbow Cay
last Thursday, six of whom he said "lost relatives in their attempt to
get to lands of freedom," were brought to the detention centre [on
Sunday] and are also victims of "the wrath of the officers of the
Defence Force here at the camp."

Minister of Labour and Immigration Vincent Peet told the Journal
yesterday that he had ordered a full investigation into all the charges,
and would make the findings of the investigation public once it is complete.

http://www.jonesbahamas.com/?c=45&a=7463