Posted : Tue, 20 May 2008 21:40:03 GMT
Author : DPA
Category : World
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Havana - Cuba's latest crackdown on its internal dissident movement -
amid allegations that it received funding from Miami-based "terrorists"
with the help of the US Interests Section (USINT) in Havana - has caused
a stir in the framework of changes undertaken by President Raul Castro.
First in a press conference Monday, and then in a television programme
set to continue Tuesday, high officials of the communist island accused
USINT officials including the highest-ranked US diplomat in Cuba,
Michael Parmly, of acting like "vulgar couriers" to transfer funds to
dissident Martha Beatriz Roque from Santiago Alvarez.
Cuban authorities describe Alvarez, an anti-Castro activist jailed in
the United States for illegal possession of firearms, as a "terrorist."
They accuse him of carrying out "pirate attacks" in the 1960s and 1970s,
and of having taken part in an attempt to murder Cuban leader Fidel
Castro during an international summit in Panama in 2000 alongside
well-known radical Luis Posada Carriles, among others.
The allegations are the climax in a campaign that has in recent months
shaken Cuban dissidents - whom the authorities in Havana call
"counterrevolutionaries" and "mercenaries" in the service of the United
States and other countries.
The ailing historic Cuban leader Fidel Castro - who formally stepped
down in February after close to half-a-century in power - was the first
to attack dissidents on the fifth anniversary of the so- called "black
spring."
In 2003, 75 dissidents including Roque were condemned to high prison
sentences based on allegations similar to the ones that have been made
now. Some 55 of these dissidents are still in prison, although Roque was
released for health reasons.
In a recent article, Fidel Castro termed dissidents on the island as
"traitors" and "ringleaders of a fifth column of imperialism on the
payroll of the United States government."
Then, the Communist Party daily Granma warned in an editorial that
"there is no room for the dreams of adversaries, of fifth columnists and
internal mercenaries" in Cuba.
In late April, just hours after a sit-in by the Ladies in White, the
wives and relatives of the 75 dissidents jailed in 2003, the government
defined the protest as a "mercenary hoax."
The allegations now happen at a time of change or at least perceptible
movements in both the United States and Europe in relation to Cuba.
Michael Parmly is set to complete his mission at USINT in the coming
months, and according to US media he is to be replaced by Jonathan
Farrar. Farrar has been until now principal deputy assistant secretary
of state in the Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights and Labor, precisely
one of the issues that Cuba is most sensitive to in its relations with
the outside world.
The alleged "evidence" of ties between US diplomats and dissidents was
further made public as Washington prepares to launch a "day of
solidarity with the Cuban people" and as the island, situated a few
kilometres off the coast of the US state of Florida has become the
subject of attacks and counterattacks in the tight race for the US
presidency.
Moreover, the campaign against Cuban dissidents comes just weeks before
the European Union (EU) is due to meet to discuss what to do about the
island. Havana demands the "complete elimination" of sanctions imposed
in 2003 following the arrest of dissidents.
Dissident Vladimiro Roca interpreted the latest crackdown from the
authorities as "an attack to defend themselves."
"They always look for the international question to justify the internal
repression and the lack of change and (to explain) why they are not
adopting opening measures. They close themselves up more and more," Roca
told Deutsche Presse-Agentur dpa.
Miriam Leiva, a member of the Ladies in White, believes the aim of the
move is to "sidetrack attention" from the "fundamental" question, which
according to her is "the release of prisoners of conscience" in
accordance with EU demands.
For Leiva, the current crackdown is "a chapter of the 2003 novel with
some new characters," but she also sees an "internal" interpretation.
"The internal situation is difficult. They are promising changes and so
far nothing has been seen of them. It is no more and no less than the
situation in 2003: the government sees that there is less fear, that
people are criticizing more and more, and it creates a situation to
instil fear, even within the government," she said.
The social democratic dissident Manuel Cuesta Morua agreed. For him, the
changes undertaken by Raul Castro after he succeeded his brother in
February "in some way legitimize the enemy (the opposition), and the
government is not prepared to do that."
"That would be an explanation for the government's forceful reaction. It
fears that people in the long run say, 'those people were right.' It is
one more effort to try and bring down the work of the opposition by
taking over its discourse," he added.
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