washingtontimes.com Ernesto Betancourt

     During the week the war in Iraq ended, Fidel Castro sentenced 75 dissidents to a total of 1,454 years in prison for owning faxes and computers, writing unapproved reports, meeting with American diplomats and surfing the Internet.

     He finished the week executing three men for hijacking a motorboat in Havana harbor. It was no accident, or sheer coincidence. It was the culmination of a deliberately planned operation aimed at setting the stage for Mr. Castro's grand finale, his Goetterdaemmerung: a conflict with the U.S.

     Sen. Christopher Dodd, Connecticut Democrat, is disappointed once again by Mr. Castro's antics. In 1996, Sen. Dodd had bottled up a House-Senate conference final approval of the Helms-Burton Law. On Feb. 24 that year, Mr. Castro downed two American civilian planes of the organization Brothers to the Rescue, killing the four crewmen. Three of them were American citizens and Vietnam veterans. Mr. Dodd gave up his blocking of the legislation and the law was enacted. President Clinton signed it.

     Why did Mr. Castro ensure approval of Helms-Burton? For two reasons:      (1) That same day, the Cuban dissidents, under the banner of Concilio Cubano, had convoked an assembly of more than 300 organizations.      (2) And he needed to prolong the role of the U.S. as the enemy of his regime, so he could wrap himself in nationalism before Cubans, and anti-Americanism internationally.

     Afterward, the Elian Gonzalez crisis offered Mr. Castro a golden opportunity to isolate the Cuban-American community from mainstream America and reawaken the revolutionary appeal of his regime to younger Cubans. This while modest economic reforms, in particular legalization of dollar circulation, and development of tourism, attenuated the economic hardships resulting from the collapse of the Soviet Union. But this also required a softening of repression, and the dissidence continued to grow, challenging his monopoly of power.

     Mr. Castro's high-ranking spy at the Pentagon, Ana Belen Montes, the top Cuban analyst at the Defense Information Agency, had managed to sell to the Southern Command and the CIA the idea of a succession by his younger brother Raul. This was advanced, and accepted under President Clinton, as the formula most likely to satisfy basic U.S. security needs in a post-Castro Cuba: no mass migration, no civil war requiring a U.S. intervention, and cooperation in drug interdiction. The fact that it ignored completely the interests and possible behavior of the Cuban people, seemed irrelevant to its advocates.

     Mr. Castro's wildest dreams of prolonging his regime beyond his departure from Earth all of a sudden became feasible with the cooperation of Gens. John Sheehan, Charles Wilhelm, Edward Atkeson and Barry McCaffrey. Pentagon policy institutes started promoting the rationale for such a solution, and all these retired generals started visiting Cuba and a Cuban military policy institute was even established to organize and facilitate such cooperative efforts. Mr. Castro's charisma overtook American generals as if they were Hollywood stars.

     But, three events changed the situation: George W. Bush was elected president, al Qaeda launched the September 11, 2001, attack and the United States shed the passive policy against the third-rate powers and terrorist organizations that emerged during the Cold War. Under the banner of fighting the axis of evil, the U.S. dismantled Taliban rule in Afghanistan, rejected Yasser Arafat and the Palestine Liberation Organization and now has crushed Saddam Hussein and Ba'ath Party rule in Iraq.

     Ana Belen Montes was arrested and sentenced to 25 years in prison without parole. Russia withdrew its electronic monitoring base in Lourdes after a meeting between Mr. Bush and Russian President Vladimir Putin.

     Economically, tourism has lost its momentum, low sugar prices continue to make Cuba lose money with that crop, forcing the closing of half of the sugar mills and displacing more than 100,000 workers. Mr. Castro made a bold gamble of diverting $250 million from paying old debts to buy U.S. agricultural products for cash. The goal was to wet the appetite of farm states' congressional delegations to approve amendments allowing private financing of such purchases and allow American tourists to visit Cuba to earn several hundred million dollars. These amendments were blocked by President Bush's threat to veto the appropriations bill where they were inserted.

     Mr. Castro's ally Hugo Chavez in Venezuela, who is shipping oil to Cuba without payment, is now in serious trouble and may have his mandate revoked by the end of this year. The European Commission's moves to admit Cuba into the Cotonu Agreement, giving Cuba access to a $13.5 billion pool of financial assistance and preferred markets for certain exports, required an unattainable unanimity.

     Meanwhile the Varela Project, proposing a referendum on opening Cuban society, was sneaked into the Cuban legislature and obtained worldwide recognition by the Europeans granting to its promoter, Oswaldo Paya, the Sahjarov Prize. An assembly to promote civil society, gathering several hundred dissident organizations, was started by dissident economist Martha Beatriz Roque. More than 200 independent libraries distributed all classes of unapproved materials.

     In addition, the U.S. announced a policy of expanding support for the Cuban dissidents, which is implemented aggressively by the new head of the U.S. Interest Section. And, the firm and determined attitude of President Bush in ignoring the United Nations in the case of Iraq persuaded Mr. Castro that he faces a serious challenge to his political control inside Cuba, including evident disaffection within his repressive apparatus.

     The desertion of four members of the Coastal Patrol, who took their boat into Key West last month, must have infuriated Mr. Castro and scared him witless, since it revealed serious cracks in his repressive apparatus.

     The repression of the dissidents and the resort to firing squads indicates the desperation of Mr. Castro's predicament. It is the culmination of a response that started last year when, after Jimmy Carter's public appeal for support of the Varela Project, Mr. Castro convoked mass demonstrations in support of his one-party rule and forced through the legislature a constitutional reform making Marxism irrevocable.

     He decided to make a last stand. Economic success requires concessions that undermine his political control. No more reforms, no more concessions. Rule by fear and repression.

     The pathetic collapse of his friend Saddam Hussein may have convinced Mr. Castro his regime is also unlikely to survive this crisis. He realizes that many around him are willing to accept reforms such as the Varela Project. That is why he purged the legislature, with 60 percent of its 609 members not nominated for re-election.

     The possibility of provoking the U.S. to attack him by creating another immigration crisis — which he can claim is out of his hands to prevent — is an idea surfing within his head and occasionally leaking through his mouth. In an article in the Mexican daily Reforma, even a writer sympathetic to him, like Carlos Fuentes, expressed the suspicion that Mr. Castro may be preparing to go down in flames, causing the death of millions of Cubans.

     After all, in June 1958, he wrote to his secretary, Celia Sanchez, that "he felt his destiny was to end in a war against the United States." The time may have come.            •Ernesto Betancourt represented Fidel Castro in Washington during the insurrection against Fulgencio Batista, was the first director of Radio Marti and is the author of "Revolutionary Strategy: A Handbook for Practitioners."

By Sharon Behn THE WASHINGTON TIMES

     President Bush's pick for assistant secretary of state for Western Hemisphere affairs, Roger Noriega, yesterday called for greater international pressure on Cuba's communist government and help for the wounded dissident movement battling President Fidel Castro.

     "We must redouble our bilateral and multilateral efforts to hasten the inevitable democratic transition on the island," Mr. Noriega told the Senate Foreign Relations Committee during his confirmation hearing.

     Mr. Noriega said Mr. Castro's recent crackdown on dissidents and journalists proved that his regime feels threatened by internal opposition groups and "their expanding network of international support."

     "The inter-American community should do more than wish for Cuba's freedom, we should work together like never before to make it a reality," he said in his testimony, in which he called for "more countries around the world to interact with dissidents — those who are not in jail."

     Mr. Noriega also emphasized the need for regionwide and multilateral solutions to the civil and political unrest in Venezuela, the instability in Haiti, guerrilla war in Colombia, trade in Central America and the fight against the illegal drug trade.

     "At a time when our nation is concerned with homeland defense, it is imperative that we pay attention to stability and security close to home," he said.

     That objective, according to Mr. Noriega, would best be served by helping the region achieve sustained economic growth through trade, investment and sound fiscal reforms.

     "I see my role as less diplomat, but more as a managerial role," he said.

     Emphasizing the importance of the region as a trade bloc embracing 800 million consumers, Mr. Noriega said he would defend the free-trade agreement recently concluded with Chile, despite Chile's opposition to the war in Iraq, and would focus on similar bilateral pacts if the Free Trade Area of the Americas plan fell apart.

     "The issue to decide in upcoming months is whether it is better to continue a hemispheric approach or go at it in a subregional way," he told the committee.

      Mr. Noriega, the grandson of Mexicans who immigrated 80 years ago to the United States, said he would also try to chip away at the difficult immigration issues between Mexico and the United States.

     "We have to find ways to make small steps, perhaps, in this agenda," he told the panel.

     Sen. Sam Brownback, Kansas Republican, praised Mr. Noriega for his "indestructible Americanism," but Sen. Christopher J. Dodd questioned his ability to handle the job.

     "It's going to take leadership here," said Mr. Dodd, Connecticut Democrat. "There's not a whole lot in your background that indicates you've managed people or a budget like this."

jamaicaobserver.comRickey Singh Friday, May 02, 2003

GEORGETOWN, Guyana -- Guyana and Venezuela have decided to forge a friendship bond to mark a strengthening of relations between the two South American neighbours that are yet to resolve an age-old territorial dispute.

The foreign ministers of the two states, which share 800 miles of border, announced a joint 21-point communiqué following a two-day visit to the Guyanese capital of a delegation from Caracas, headed by Foreign Minister Roy Chaderton.

Guyana's foreign minister, Rudy Insanally, said his meeting with his Venezuelan counterpart was a most productive event and augurs well for the strengthening of relations.

One of the more immediate issues discussed was arrangements for a coming reciprocal state visit to Guyana by President Hugo Chavez, in response to that made last year by the Guyanese head of state, Bharrat Jagdeo.

The sale of fuel to Guyana on concessionary terms under the Caracas Energy Co-operation Agreement that the Chavez government has with a number of Caricom states, including Barbados and Jamaica, was among matters reflected in the communiqué at the end of the Insanally-Chaderton meeting Wednesday.

Broad areas of agreement on commercial, economic and technical co-operation, as well as efforts by Guyana and Venezuela to deepen the process of regional integration within the framework of the 25-nation Association of Caribbean States (ACS), are included in the communiqué.

Chaderton paid courtesy calls on President Jagdeo, speaker of the Parliament, Ralph Ramkarran, and secretary-general of the Caribbean Community, Edwin Carrington while in Georgetown.

channelnewsasia.com First created : 02 May 2003 0736 hrs (SST) 2336 hrs (GMT) Last modified : 02 May 2003 0748 hrs (SST) 2348 hrs (GMT)

Many around the world have used the traditional May Day rallies to protest over labour and political issues.

While most marches have been fairly peaceful, one person was killed in Venezuela when gunfire disrupted a massive demonstration against the government.Advertisement Violence also marred May Day events in parts of Europe.

One million protestors marched throughout Germany, double last year's estimates.

Some of the rallies turned violent in Berlin, leading to police to use water cannon and tear gas to disperse the crowd.

Over 100 people were arrested from various marches.

In London, May Day marches by anti-capitalist demonstrators went ahead largely without incident despite anarchists preparing a hit-list of more than 50 "companies of mass destruction".

Scuffles broke out for a while, but it was nothing the 4,000 police officers mobilised in the British capital could not handle.

There were some clashes too in Turkey where marchers demonstrated against the US, the International Monetary Fund and the US-led war against Iraq.

But there was no violence in France where tens of thousands of workers took to the streets to press home their opposition to the government's reform of the pension system.