Cubas Alarcon Denies 24 Imprisonments

Cuba's Alarcon Denies 24 Imprisonments
By LAURA WIDES-MUNOZ
Associated Press Writer

7:38 PM PDT, June 14, 2006

FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. — The head of Cuba's parliament denied his country
had imprisoned more than two dozen journalists because they spoke out
against his government in a rare interview that was broadcast Wednesday
at a Hispanic media convention.

"Those reports are fairly exaggerated," said Speaker Ricardo Alarcon,
saying those who were imprisoned were not independent journalists but
were agents of the United States.

He also blamed the U.S. embargo for the lack of Internet access in his
communist country and denied reports that President Fidel Castro, 80,
suffered from a disease such as Alzheimer's or Parkinson's.

"I would say that Fidel Castro is very, very strong and healthy. More
than you would imagine," Alarcon said. "He doesn't have any of those
diseases that are from time to time attributed to him."

About 2,000 people listened to him by satellite broadcast at the 24th
annual National Association of Hispanic Journalist Convention.

Alarcon waved a photocopy of what he said were declassified U.S.
Department of State documents showing the CIA had paid journalists to
promote anti-Cuban government propaganda for nearly five decades.

Outside the convention, more than a dozen women dressed in black
protested Alarcon's interview with Colombia University journalism
professor and New York Times contributor Mirta Ojito, herself a Cuban exile.

Blanca Rosales, 57, held a poster of 24 journalists imprisoned in Cuba,
including her son, Normando Hernandez. He has served three years of a
25-year sentence for writing articles critical of the Cuban government,
she said.

"I want to know why (Alarcon) was given an opportunity to speak instead
of independent journalists who can give the point of view of those who
are suffering," she said. "What crime have they committed except to
speak the truth, except to practice their profession as journalists?"

The choice of interviewing Alarcon, a former United Nations ambassador
who has been by Castro's side for more than 40 years, received criticism
in South Florida, home to the largest community of Cuban exiles in the U.S.

Ojito, who was a teenager when she was part of the 1980 Mariel boatlift
that brought thousands of Cubans to the United States, quickly dispensed
with the small-talk with Alarcon during the convention's keynote event.

Alarcon took issue with Ojito's statement that more Cubans than ever
were fleeing the island for the U.S., including many of Cuba's most
talented natives.

Talented people also move from Mexico, he said, adding that many others
would like to come to the U.S. but are unable to get visas.

"The U.S. doesn't offer the same policy to millions of Latin Americans
who would like to do the same," he said.

While the speaker defended the Cuban government he was less sure of what
would happen if the U.S. lifted its 46-year embargo.

"I cannot imagine how the situation would be," he said.

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/wire/sns-ap-cuba-journalists,1,5087086.story?coll=sns-ap-nation-headlines