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Os três principais autores do sequestro em Cuba de uma embarcação com cerca de 40 passageiros na semana passada foram submetidos a um procedimento "sumário" e condenados por "graves delitos de terrorismo", acabando executados, segundo o governo. Dado o "carácter extremamente perigoso" dos factos e a "conduta dos acusados", os três principais dos 11 autores do sequestro - "os mais activos e os mais brutais", segundo o governo - foram condenados à pena capital e executados. Quatro dos seus cúmplices foram condenados a prisão perpétua, outro a 30 anos de prisão, enquanto as mulheres foram condenadas respectivamente a cinco, três e dois anos de detenção. A embarcação, que assegurava a ligação entre diversos pontos de Havana, foi sequestrada a 05 de Abril por um grupo de homens armados de facas e pistolas, que exigiam combustível para viajarem para os Estados Unidos.

<a href=news.ft.com>Financial Times By Henry Hamman in Miami Published: April 8 2003 22:34 | Last Updated: April 8 2003 22:34

The US administration may further tighten its policy towards Cuba in response to a crackdown on dissidents, according to Washington's top diplomat in Havana.

James Cason, principal officer at the US interests section in Havana, told the Financial Times that a high-level Washington policy review would take place this month, as soon as senior policymakers found time to turn their attention from the war in Iraq.

Last week, Fidel Castro's government started a series of closed-door trials of 78 dissidents, many of them associated with the Varela Project, a grassroots petition drive seeking more democracy in Cuba.

On Monday, 36 of them were convicted of "working with a foreign power to undermine the government" and given prison sentences ranging from 12 to 27 years.

Among those imprisoned were Hector Palacios, a campaigner for democratic reform, Paul Rivero, a dissident journalist, and Marta Beatriz Roque, an economist and political activist, who were handed sentences of 20 years or more.

Since his arrival in Havana last September, Mr Cason has adopted a more confrontational approach to US-Cuban relations, allowing independent journalists to use a diplomatic residence for a training session and making public appearances with dissidents.

Mr Cason became the US's point man in its fractious relationship with Mr Castro following a policy position in the State Department's Bureau of Western Hemisphere Affairs.

A Latin American specialist, he served in embassies in Uruguay, Honduras and Venezuela, and was political adviser to the commanders of the US Atlantic Command and the Nato Atlantic commander.

Although Mr Castro has singled out Mr Cason for criticism, Mr Cason said he did not believe his activities had triggered the crackdown. "Castro had this planned anyway," he said, because the dissidents "were getting too uppity".

Mr Cason said that among those who testified against the dissidents were undercover state security agents who had infiltrated the movement over several years.

Mr Cason rejected suggestions that Washington might bear some moral responsibility for encouraging the dissidents. "I don't think we crossed any line. I think many of [the arrested dissidents] thought this was inevitable."

He also discounted the idea that the crackdown was an example of "collateral damage" from world focus on the war in Iraq.

He noted that despite diplomatic tension between the US and Europe over the war, European governments had also been angered by Mr Castro's actions, though concerns about Cuban debt repayment and commercial ties might make some European governments less vocal than the US.

He said Canada, Germany, Sweden, Britain, the Czech Republic and Spain had sought unsuccessfully to send observers to the dissidents' trials.

European governments were particularly angered by arrests of activists supporting the Varela Project, which had drawn wide support in Europe.

"They are very, very upset about this and feel that they were slapped across the face."

A series of hijackings in recent weeks has also increased US-Cuba tensions, with Mr Castro complaining that the US is too easy on hijackers and Washington complaining that Cuba has failed to take airport security seriously.

Mr Cason last week went to Havana's José Mart International Airport in a vain attempt to dissuade one hijacker who was holding up a Cuban domestic commuter aircraft.

Later, he made a rare appearance on Cuban television to warn that hijackers would face long US prison terms.

For the US, the fear of a wave of uncontrolled Cuban migration to south Florida is a serious security threat, and US officials say bilateral compliance with the migration accord with Cuba - an agreement that establishes a procedure for legal immigration to the US - is a key policy objective.

Mr Cason's strong words on Cuba represent firmly held views in the Bush administration but White House political advisers also see domestic political benefits from a hard line against Mr Castro.

Political analysts say Republican strategists have their eyes on Florida's votes in next year's presidential race.

Florida's votes put Mr Bush in office in 2000 by the narrowest of margins.

A stern stance on Cuba has proved popular among Florida's Cuban-American voters.

Anglican Journal JANE DAVIDSON STAFF WRITER

The Anglican church in Cuba has voted against rejoining the Episcopal Church of the United States (ECUSA), despite an initial synod vote last year strongly in favour of the move. The decision was reached at the regular annual synod of Cuba in Matanzas in February.       In the final vote, which was taken by orders, 11 clergy voted against the move, and eight voted in favour. Among the laity, 31 voted in favour of rejoining ECUSA and 17 voted against the move. In order to pass, the vote needed a majority in both houses. Bishop Julio Cesar Holguin Khoury (left), pictured with Canadian primate Archbishop Michael Peers, presided over the Cuban synod. [photo by PHILIP WADHAM]

      Once a missionary diocese of ECUSA, the Cuban church has been "extra-provincial" since 1967 because of political tensions between Cuba and the U.S. The Cuban church mostly ran its own affairs with special oversight from a Metropolitan Council, a group of senior bishops which is chaired by the Canadian primate, Archbishop Michael Peers.       Following a bitter extraordinary synod last December in Havana, where eight clergy staged a walk out to demonstrate their opposition to rejoining ECUSA, the outcome of the February vote was not entirely a surprise, said Canon Philip Wadham, co-ordinator of Latin America/       Caribbean and mission education.       In January, the bishop of Cuba, Jorge Perera Hurtado, announced his retirement; observers said stress from the December walkout was a factor in his departure.       Until a new bishop can be elected, the acting bishop will be Bishop Julio Cesar Holguin Khoury, bishop of the Dominican Republic. Bishop Holguin, who is a member of the Metropolitan Council, presided over February's synod and put a strict time cap on debate. He was applauded by observers for leading the sessions with strength and wit.       When the Cubans first announced they were considering rejoining ECUSA a year ago, there was a favourable response from the U.S. church.       Last April, Rev. Patrick Mauney, director of Anglican and global relations for ECUSA, said he was delighted at the prospect of having the Cuban church return. The ECUSA standing commission on world mission then chose to hold one of its regular meetings in Havana from Oct. 4-11 to discuss the incorporation of the Episcopal Church of Puerto Rico, the Episcopal Church of Cuba and the Anglican Church of Venezuela into ECUSA.       In an interview last month, Mr. Mauney said he was not surprised about the vote "after what went on in December. I hate to see a divided church."       A year previously, when the idea of rejoining ECUSA was introduced at the February synod, there was only one dissenting vote, Mr. Mauney noted.       "Suddenly in December there was the walkout," he said. "I would like to have seen a really strong majority in favour of moving ahead."       A year ago, he added, "I was frankly flabbergasted to hear that they wanted back in and then was worried about it being driven solely by the pensions issue," he said.       Cuban clergy presently have no retirement fund and were said to be hoping for access to the ECUSA pension fund, which has $6 billion US in assets.       Mr. Wadham, who attended the Matanzas synod along with Archbishop Peers, said the vote "gives them more time to talk." What is important, he said, is there was a great spirit of reconciliation and of unity.       Archbishop Peers preached at the closing eucharist.

BY JEAN-GUY ALLARD —Special for Granma International—

• In Miami, where the judge who sentenced the Five refused to recognize the reign of terrorism, the CANF is openly offering assistance to the hijackers of a Cuban airplane and known terrorists are heading a march against those advocating dialogue with the island

WHILE El Nuevo Herald announced (on March 26, 2003) that U.S. authorities could revoke the citizenship of people connected to terrorism, in Miami — the Kingdom of Impunity — the worst protagonists of anti-Cuban political violence continue living in a world apart.

The mask of decency which the Cuban-American National Foundation (CANF) has tried to construct since it disposed of most of its elements identified with terror has been suddenly shattered by Joe García of Colombia, the group’s spokesman, openly announcing that it was following the case of DC-3’s six hijackers in order to determine "whether they might need assistance," according to an AP dispatch.

After pushing known terrorists like Roberto Martín Pérez out of the rank and file — suspiciously some days after September 11 — as well as his rowdy wife Ninoska Lucrecia Pérez Castellon and other advocators of violence, the CANF had given itself a moderate image, a new marketing appearance more in line with recent surveys that clearly indicate Cuban-Americans’ support for the normalization of relations between the United States and Cuba.

However, on March 19, when the DC-3 Aerotaxi belonging to the Cuban National Air Services Company was hijacked by terrorists who held its pilots at knife point and demanded that they redirect the aircraft to Florida, the CANF suddenly forgot its new image.

A few hours after federal prosecutors announced they were detaining the six dangerous armed criminals, Joe García made a statement to the press that the foundation planned to speak with the air pirates to discover what type of assistance they could offer, as was confirmed by Knight-Ridder in Miami.

García’s statement, which will surely not help promote the mafia organization, was made several days after Miami’s most infamous terrorist hit-man Orlando Bosch declared war on Florida dialoguers, a term designating, as he explained, Cuban-Americans who favor normal relations between the island and its northern neighbor.

BOSCH, LEADER OF DIGNITY?

Killer pediatrician Bosch, responsible for the mid-air explosion of a Cubana Aviation passenger plane and countless terrorist attacks while heading up the bloody group CORU, recently revealed himself as the main promoter — along with the extremist Unidad Cubana group — of a march along Miami’s 8th Street opposing any dialogue between the Cuban-American community and Cuba.

Jesús Permuy, president of Unidad Cubana, a movement made up of various groups responsible for terrorist attacks against the island, explained in El Nuevo Herald, the benevolent diffuser of terror, that the idea of protesting came from "exile groups concerned at the declared intention of some Miami groups to negotiate with the Castro regime, likewise promoted internationally."

In Miami, being ridiculous doesn’t kill. This is how Permuy himself, who appeared before the UN Human Rights Commission in Geneva at one point as a "defender" of human rights in Cuba, maintains his close ties with notorious terrorist organizations.

These ties are so strong that he doesn’t hesitate to associate himself with Bosch and his dirty criminal past, with Luis Posada Carriles and his accomplices imprisoned in Panama, as well as with Raymond Molina, the latter’s right-hand man, or Eugenio Llamera, the now famous inventor of the terrorists’ commission on Visa and Master Card.

José Ramón "Raymond" Molina was born in Cuba in 1934 and had strong connections with Fulgencio Batista’s dictatorship.

He participated in the failed Bay of Pigs invasion and was a CIA operative for 30 years.

As a known supporter of Richard Nixon, he even unsuccessfully ran for Congress and later, equally unsuccessfully, for mayor of Miami.

Molina had connections with Nicaragua’s Somoza regime and later with the anti-Sandinista counterrevolution, and is known among drug trafficking circles.

He has been living for years in Panama, home of the national anti-Cuban mafia. With the complicity of Panama City’s former mayor Mayín Correa, he is currently using all available means to promote the release of Luis Posada and his hitmen.

Molina is also in charge of organizing the defense and possible bribed escape of Posada Carriles with the collaboration of a terrorist detachment made up of personalities such as René Cruz Cruz, Eusebio Peñalver Mazorra, Jorge Borrego, Nelsy Ignacio Castro Matos and Santiago Álvarez Fernández-Magriña.

It’s worth recalling that the majority of these individuals, connected with Unidad Cubana and the CANF, were among those on the list of known terrorists handed over to the Panamanian authorities in November 2000, the day before the 10th Ibero-American Summit was to take place in that country.

All of them regularly "go down" from Miami with large sums of money to pay the narco-attorney Rogelio Cruz, meet with Posada Carriles in El Renacer prison or participate in disinformation campaigns.

PEREZ ROURA AND RADIO TERROR

This money appears in the hidden funds of the anti-Cuban mafia and collection campaigns that Jesús Permuy and his good friend Pérez Roura, director of Radio Mambí, regularly engage in to support the four terrorists in prison in Panama.

Octogenarian Pérez Roura, a former member of the Alpha-66 paramilitary organization and correspondent for the United Revolutionary Organizations Coordination Committee (CORU) terrorist group, continues to be active with Unidad Cubana.

During his morning program, Pérez Roura promoted the march in response to those in favor of dialogue with the same energy he has used to incite violent acts against Cuba with impunity.

Special guest Orlando Bosch, on the "En Caliente" program, introduced as the "president of the People’s Protagonist Party," emphatically announced the march against dialogue has to be the biggest in history, despite the fact that there are many inclined to pull the rug out from under the exile force."

Then, in reference to recent polls revealing majority exile community support for dialogue with the island, claimed that "here, the polls have been greased with money so as to confuse the émigrés."

Inevitably, the unmistakable Ninoska Lucrecia Pérez Castellón is participating in the extremist chorus, with frenzied calls to participate in the march and fanning the flames against the normalization of relations with Cuba. She has been a member of the terrorist Council for the Freedom of Cuba’s executive junta since she was purged from the CANF.

TERRORISM IN ACTION

Recently, various leaders of organizations in favor of normalizing relations with Cuba were thrown out of the Holiday Inn Hotel, located on 2051 LeJeune Road, just before a press conference. Minutes before the conference was to get underway, Coral Gables police ordered participants to abandon the premises despite the fact that they had already paid for the room.

Finally, the press conference took place in the parking lot of the aforementioned hotel. Nobody is quite sure what kinds of threats were made against the Holiday Inn group to provoke such high anxiety levels, but it is no secret that the South Florida mafia has honed the act of threatening and sewing fear into an art form.

Yet again, Miami showed its true colors as a sanctuary of terror where conspiring against Cuba, solidarity with hijackers and support for terrorism are all authorized activities.

Meanwhile, the five Cuban patriots imprisoned in the United States continue to be the victims of mistreatment after having been sentenced in a fraudulent trial for having contributed to the fight against terrorism.

A bloody record

Hostility by Miami fanatics towards any dialogue on the normalization of relations between Cuban and the United States has been demonstrated on a number of occasions. Nevertheless, two infamous cases illustrate beyond any reasonable doubt the total fanaticism of South Florida’s terrorist circles.

While Orlando Bosch personally directed waves of assassinations in both the United States and various Latin America countries from his prison cell in Venezuela, another group, Omega-7, savagely executed two Cuban émigrés who held positions of rapprochement to the island.

On April 28, 1979, Carlos Muñiz Varela, a Cuban tour operator based in Puerto Rico, was shot down and died the following day. In January of the same year, Omega-7 had claimed responsibility for a car bomb at Muñiz’s tour agency in San Juan. Evidence suggests that the killer could very well have been Pedro Remón, the individual currently jailed along with the gang’s chief, Luis Posada Carriles.

On November 25 of that same year, Eulalio José Negrín, a member of the Committee of 75 and a participant in the December dialogue with Cuba the previous year, was murdered in front of his 12-year-old son at his home in Union City, New Jersey. On November 9, 1984, Pedro Remón was identified as Negrín’s assassin by Omega-7 chief Eduardo Arocena.

On April 10, 1986, Judge Robert L. Ward sentenced Remón to 10 years’ imprisonment for a long series of murders and attempts. The killer didn’t even complete half of his sentence.

Pronouncing his reduced sentence, the judge openly expressed his "sympathy" for the terrorist’s "cause."

Granma International

AN international event dedicated to the release of the five Cubans fulfilling unjust sentences in U.S. prisons began Sunday, March 30 with the simultaneous participation of organizations from 25 countries, among them Germany, Sweden, Brazil, Venezuela, Argentina and Belgium.

During the week, convened by the Argentine committee for the release of the five Cubans, diverse activities are taking place until April 7 originally intended to back the appeal to be filed on that day before the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals in Atlanta.

In Brussels, the campaign began with a two-hour protest on the steps of the Stock Exchange, given that police refused permission to protest outside the U.S. embassy.

Some 100 protesters met at the central building with a large Cuban flag and placards demanding the liberation of the Five, rejecting the U.S. policy of terrorism and war and exhorting Latin American resistance to imperialism.

As part of the protest, committee members also collected signatures and handed out leaflets to passersby informing them on the irregularities in the trial of Gerardo Hernández, Ramón Labañino, René González, Antonio Guerrero and Fernando González.

The activities are also publicizing the case in order to fight the campaign of silence by the major media, setting up discussion groups and meetings, etc.

The committees to free the Five are also organizing an exhibition of photos and posters related to the lives of these young men, detained in 1998 and sentenced in December 2001 after a rigged trial in Miami, to severe prison terms ranging from 15 years to two life sentences.

Participants are sending letters to the UN Human Rights Commission denouncing the conditions of solitary confinement to which these men are currently being subjected.

They plan to show videos of the case and of violations committed by the U.S. authorities during the legal proceedings. Likewise, press conferences, radio and television programs are planned as a way to circulate information related to their case.

The two books written by Gerardo Hernández and Antonio Guerrero are to be launched and a web page with updated information on the Five.

SOLIDARITY FROM THE U.S. PEOPLE

Gloria La Riva announced in San Francisco that thousands of U.S. citizens, as well as those of other nationalities, are to mobilize in the city of Atlanta in early April to express their solidarity with these Cubans unjustly imprisoned in the United States for fighting against Miami mafia terrorism.

She highlighted that in the days previous to April 7, thousands of people will congregate in the state capital of Georgia in reaffirmation of the demand that they be released.

La Riva explained that in the United States, one of April’s most important tasks in support of the Five is to initiate the campaign to circulate information -via e-mail- in the southeast of the country where a considerable number of Cubans live.

She also noted that the U.S. press has remained silent about the case, without even revealing that due to a high-level order from the Bush administration they have been locked up in solitary confinement in each of the prisons where they are currently held; hellish places of physical and psychological torture.

She added that they have absolutely no contact with their families or letters, nor can they listen to the radio, watch television or read the newspapers. Their cell space has been reduced to the minimum with “the purpose of humiliating, demoralizing and forcing them to give in.”

“They are in sub-human conditions,” she added, “and national and international standards of prison treatment are being violated.

Dr. Corey Winstein, a doctor by profession and co-founder of the California Prison Focus, a non-profit organization working with over 2,700 persons held in solitary confinement in that state, told a Radio Havana Cuba journalist that the treatment of the Five is routine in U.S. prisons.

That practice, which violates prisoners’ rights, Weinstein stated, has a number of psychological effects on its victims. They can fall into a deep depression or even into a state of temporary insanity.

In the case of the five Cubans, he clarified, their profound awareness of who they are and what their mission is, will help them to understand why they are there and thus overcome the situation with the passing of time. (FCA)

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