BOLIVIA
Bolivia deporting Cuban for anti-Morales remarks
Bolivia arrested and planned to expel a Cuban dissident who has been
critical of Evo Morales' relations with Cuba.
BY CARLOS VALDEZ
Associated Press
LA PAZ, Bolivia - The Bolivian government has announced plans to deport
a prominent Cuban dissident who publicly criticized President Evo
Morales' close ties to Havana.
Cuban doctor Amauris Samartino, who holds permanent residence status in
Bolivia, will be expelled under a 1996 law forbidding immigrants to
''intervene in any form in internal politics or incite by any means the
alteration of the social and political order,'' according to a
government statement on Sunday.
Samartino was arrested Saturday in the eastern city of Santa Cruz, a
center of anti-Morales opposition, and later transferred to the Bolivian
capital of La Paz.
BACK TO CUBA
He will be flown home to Cuba once his case has been processed, the
statement said.
Opposition leaders on Santa Cruz have decried Samartino's arrest and say
they plan to ask Bolivia's public defender's office to block the expulsion.
Samartino was one of a group of Cuban dissidents who fled to Bolivia in
2000, but the Bolivian government announced on Sunday that Samartino
does not hold refugee status.
Samartino has been a vocal critic of Cuba's government and has publicly
decried the influence of Cuban leader Fidel Castro in Morales'
administration.
`WISE UNCLE'
Morales is a close ally of Castro, calling the fellow leftist a ``wise
uncle.''
Since Morales took office a year ago as Bolivia's first Indian
president, Castro has sent more than 1,500 Cuban doctors to provide
much-needed medical services in South America's poorest country.
Samartino has helped some of those doctors flee to Brazil or the United
States.
http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/news/world/americas/16317789.htm
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