Chronicle on Cuba - March 2005

Exile Community

March 2: In Miami, representatives of Cuban exile groups said there exist “democratic disagreements”, not campaigns against the leader of the Christian Liberation Movement (MCL) Oswaldo Payá. The activists rejected the accusations made from Cuba the day before by Payá that an organization from the internal dissident movement and some “minority” groups in Miami have tried to discredit and pressure him. “There is no campaign against Payá from the exile community. Instead, what there has been are open and democratic disagreements, as it should be, regarding his strategies”, said Ninoska Pérez Castellón, director of the Cuban Liberty Council . (EFE, 2/3/05)

March 3: An international coalition called Cuba Democracy Now comprised of Cuban exiles announced congress plans at an event in Madrid, where it displayed a copy of the letter that the Asamblea para Promover la Sociedad Civil in Cuba sent to Fidel Castro informing him of their meeting in Havana on May 20. Speaking at the headquarters of the Fundacion Hispano Cubana (Spanish-Cuban Foundation) in Madrid, coalition president Rigoberto Carceller said such personalities as Mikhail Gorbachev, former Czech President Vaclav Havel and Poland's Lech Walesa would be in attendance. In Spain, the group has invited Socialist Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero and his conservative predecessor, Jose María Aznar. (EFE, 3/3/05)

March 2: Members of the Cuban Democratic Directorate and the Cuban-American Bar Association testified before the Inter-American Human Rights Commission of the Organization of American States (OAS) to condemn the situation on the island. The presentation at the Commission follows a series of previous denunciations on the imprisonment, in 2003, of 75 Cuban dissidents sentenced to up to 28 years in jail. Blanca González, mother of independent journalist, Normando Hernández, who is serving a 25 year sentence, appeared before the Commission. (AFP, 2/3/05)

March 4: Saying that Governor Kathleen Blanco will give legitimacy to a "dying monster," a group of Cuban Americans called on Louisiana's chief executive to cancel a planned trade trip to Cuba. George Fowler, the New Orleans head of the Cuban American National Foundation, said there is very little real trade to be had with the impoverished island nation and Blanco stands only to give Fidel Castro a propaganda coup that can be used against US interests - and the Bush administration, which has adopted a harder line against Cuba. "Castro is a dying monster and if the governor goes over there, she will tie Louisiana to this dying monster forever," Fowler said. Blanco is leading a state delegation to Cuba for four days. (Dateline Alabama, 4/3/05)

March 8: Despite the Bush administration's crackdown on exiles' trips back to Cuba, there are still ways to travel to the island without restriction. Religious groups can get licenses with little trouble. And the head of at least one group that says it practices the Afro-Cuban religion Santeria acknowledged that his congregation has exploded in size since the new travel restrictions kicked in. Jose Montoya, head of the Sacerdocio Lucumi Shango Eyeife in Miami, said between 1996 and July 2004, he took about 60 people to Cuba under his religious travel license. Since the restrictions took effect in July, he has taken about 2,500, he said. Exiles who support the restrictions - which cut exile trips to Cuba from once a year to once every three years - say the Santeria groups are abusing their religious privilege. (The Miami Herald, 8/3/05)

March 11: For the first time, the Cuban American National Foundation is encouraging its directors to travel to Cuba -- to participate in a meeting of dissidents, diplomats and journalists in Havana in May. CANF is urging other Cuban exile organizations to do the same in a show of solidarity with Cuba's budding dissident movement. But its request was immediately rejected by CANF's archrival, the more conservative Cuban Liberty Council. CANF's declaration came in response to an invitation from dissidents planning the Assembly to Promote Civil Society on May 20. (The Miami Herald, 11/3/05)

March 11: Brothers to the Rescue founder José Basulto, a longtime opponent of Fidel Castro, said that he had complained to the FBI about what he said was a death threat from the Cuban government. The alleged threat came last month on the Cuban television program Mesa Redonda Informativa. On the program, which was aired on the anniversary of the 1996 shootdown of Brothers to the Rescue planes, a panelist said: "Impunity won't be eternal, José Basulto León. Even though the White House accepts you as a son, be careful, like a hunter of terror, that your own arrow doesn't kill you.'' Basulto takes the comments seriously. ''It is well known that there are many Castro operatives working under the direct control of the Cuban Intelligence in the US,'' he said. FBI spokeswoman Judy Orihuela said the Miami FBI office was aware of the comments on Cuban TV. ''There's nothing actionable,'' Orihuela told the press. "We're aware of it, but we don't have any information, based on our sources, of an actual threat.'' (The Miami Herald, 14/3/05)

March 11: The Cuban American National Foundation has announced its members are free to travel to Cuba for a historic gathering of dissidents on the island. The announcement breaks a longstanding foundation policy that required members to resign if they traveled to Cuba and responds to an invitation sent last month by Cuban dissidents. Prominent Cuban dissidents including Martha Beatriz Roque are organizing the first general meeting of the Assembly to Promote Civil Society scheduled for May 20, Cuban Independence Day. Foundation executive director Alfredo Mesa said he did not know who from the foundation might go, but said the group's announcement could force the Cuban government to recognize the dissidents' reunion. (Sun Sentinel, 12/3/05)

March 19: The funeral of two Cuban rafters who perished in Mexican waters was held in Mexico City. Lourdes Plasencia, 41, and Eddier Tamayo, 30, died in their boat in an attempted crossing from Cuba across the Gulf of Mexico to Florida. The Mexican Navy recovered their bodies on February 27 but the government only handed them over to the families on March 18. The bodies of Juan Manuel Alcala Pavón, Novadhit García Betancourt and Carlos Lopez Ávila, who made the trip together with Plasencia and Tamayo, are still missing. Cuban authorities did not respond to reports made by Mexican authorities informing of the finding of the corpses. Cuban exile and president of the Washington-based Cuban Movement of Democratic Unity, spoke during the funeral at the Panteon Cemetery in Mexico City. (Netfor Cuba, Reuters, 20/3/05)

March 22: Cuban dissidents told Miami congressional representatives that the government of Fidel Castro "has never been as weak as it is now.'' The chat via speakerphone energized the crowd of Bay of Pigs veterans meeting in Little Havana at Brigade 2506 headquarters to express support for a planned meeting of dissidents in Cuba on May 20. US Representatives Ileana Ros-Lehtinen and Mario Díaz-Balart crowded around the phone emitting the voice of a man who identified himself as Felix Antonio Bonne Carcasses, one of the Cuban dissidents organizing the Assembly to Promote Civil Society. ''If it weren't for the 53,000 barrels of oil that Hugo Chávez sends every day to Cuba, it would be over,'' Bonne Carcasses said. "You can be sure that we won't betray the confidence which Cubans have placed in us. ''The Bay of Pigs Veterans, also known as Brigade 2506, declared their support for Carcasses and the May 20 meeting. They are the latest exile organization to say that they plan to support the dissidents in Cuba that day. (The Miami Herald, 23/3/05)