Dissident paid by U.S., officials say
By ANDREA RODRIGUEZ | The Associated Press
December 18, 2007
HAVANA - Cuban officials called a veteran human rights activist a
"mercenary" for the United States on Monday, accusing him of
exaggerating the number of political prisoners held on the island to
make money and destabilize the communist system.
In a denunciation spanning 1 1/2 pages in the Communist Party daily
Granma, Editor Lazaro Barredo wrote that Elizardo Sanchez, head of the
Cuban Commission on Human Rights and National Reconciliation, "knows
perfectly who he is: A mercenary who carries out the orders of the
empire and a fat cat who enjoys putting the safety of Cubans in danger."
Communist officials typically describe the United States as an empire
that treats smaller countries as if they were its colonies.
Sanchez, in turn, called the article "a coarse and lie-filled personal
attack by Commander in Chief Fidel Castro" in a statement faxed to
international news media. "As on other occasions, I could not exercise
my right to respond since all newspapers, magazines and radio and
television stations are property of the government of Cuba."
Barredo accused Sanchez, 63, a former professor of Marxism, of receiving
money from Washington to stir up opposition. "His source of financial
wealth continues to be reports on prisoners which are based on a budget
that the more prisoners he reports, the more money he receives," Barredo
wrote.
Sanchez's organization has reported a steady decline in political
prisoners held in Cuba. Like most other opposition activists, he denies
taking U.S. government money.
In several weeks the commission is expected to release its year-end
report on political prisoners, documents used regularly by groups such
as Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International.
http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/local/cuba/sfl-flacuba1218sbdec18,0,1445458.story
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