Station airs photos of ex-Cuban officials partying
The Associated Press
HAVANA -- A Miami journalist has released photos showing three fired
Cuban officials holding up cans of beer and partying at a ranch
apparently belonging to the deposed Cuban representative of business
interests in Spain's Basque region.
The pictures appear to be related to talk in Cuba that the officials -
ex-Vice President Carlos Lage, former Foreign Minister Felipe Perez
Roque and Fernando Remirez de Estenoz, the former head of international
relations for the Communist Party - were dismissed as part of a
government purge in March for making insulting remarks about Fidel
Castro while guests on the property of Conrado Hernandez, the Cuban
business representative in the Basque region.
Cuba's government has given little official explanation for the firings,
which included top Cabinet officials. But some Cubans say they have seen
a video with recordings by state security agents that shows, among other
things, the remarks on Fidel being made at Hernandez's ranch.
In the photographs, Hernandez appears with the fired officials, toasting
with beers and playing dominos.
Maria Elvira Salazar, host of Maria Elvira Live on Miami's MegaTV, said
about 30 pictures were delivered anonymously to her station last week,
and she showed a bit more than half of them Monday and Tuesday during
her show.
Reached by phone Thursday night, Salazar said "we cannot really know"
what the pictures mean.
"We only know what the Cuban government is saying ... that they were
fired for talking badly about the brothers," she said, referring to
82-year-old Fidel Castro and his younger brother Raul, who succeeded him
as president in February 2008.
She said the pictures show that the officials were "partying hard together."
The video - which is being shown to members of the Communist Party and
island youth leaders - is said to contain audio and video recordings and
other evidence that Lage, Perez Roque and others made off-color remarks
about Fidel Castro.
Cubans who have seen the video are not permitted to take notes or record
what they are viewing, or even bring anything to write with. Foreign
journalists have not been allowed to view it.
According to published reports in Spain, Hernandez has been arrested,
though Cuban authorities have not confirmed that.
Asked why someone might choose her to hand over the pictures, Salazar
said "they know that I denounce the (Cuban) government every day and
know ... that I'm the only Cuban-American with a show in prime time."
Maria Elvira Live is seen in Miami, but also aired on DirecTV for
subscribers in other parts of the United States.
Station airs photos of ex-Cuban officials partying - World AP -
MiamiHerald.com (24 July 2009)
http://www.miamiherald.com/news/world/AP/story/1155328.html
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