THIS IS CUBA

APARTHEID IN CUBA

MISERY IN CUBA REVISITED

DISSIDENTS REVISTED

A TRIBUTE TO ARCHBISHOP MEURICE OF SANTIAGO CUBA

PROTESTOR IN CUBA DURING POPE'S VISIT

MIGUEL RUIZ POO

This video is from Youtube.com and some one posted the following comments in reference to the film clip:

elaone (7 months ago)

es la primera vez que veo este video,tengo 28 años,mi nombre es Gisela Ruiz González,el hombre del video es Miguel Ruiz Poo,mi padre.Tal vez su mayor error fué y sigue siendo amar a FIdel y al a revolucion cubana mas que a nada.Somos diferentes pero stoy orgullosa de él!

which translates into "it is the first time I see this video, I am 28 years of age, my name is Gisela Ruiz Gonzalez and the man in the video is Miguel Ruiz Poo, my father. Maybe his greatest error was and continues to be loving Fidel and the Cuban Revolution more than anything. We are different but I am proud of him!"

She has a page on youtube.com: http://youtube.com/user/elaone which links over to http://www.elaruiz.es/ The veracity of the above comments (in its original Spanish translated here into English) has not been confirmed.
This is an interesting video showing the fear an individual (even one loyal to his master) has of the tyrant.

MICHAEL MOORE, JOHN STOSSEL AND CUBAN HEALTHCARE

RECENT ATTACKS ON SUPPORTERS OF HUMAN RIGHTS

HOLY FATHER PRAY FOR OUR OPPRESSORS

CUBAN HUNGER STRIKE IN GUANTANAMO NAVAL BASE (video in Spanish)

CUBAN HUNGER STRIKE IN MEXICAN JAIL (video in Spanish)

THE ORIGINAL STORY: CUBAN STUDENTS ARRESTED IN CUBA ON NOVEMBER 30 2007

Friday, November 30, 2007
Cuban students arrested

CubaWatcher, my collegaue over at Babalú, has some disturbing news about the Cuban tyranny acting, well, like tyrants:

From the Directorio Democrático Cubano comes word that four youths, among them three members of the Cuban Movement of Youths for Democracy (MCJD) were arrested by state political police last night, November 29th. The activists were taken to the National Revolutionary Police Station "Sanja y Dragones" after having joined a sit-in demonstration that had been going on for more than a week outside the "Aguilera" National Revolutionary Police Station in central Havana. Protesters had gathered there to press for the release of jailed dissident Juan Bermudez Toranzo.

Those arrested had earlier taken part in a press conference where 5,000 signatures supporting the "University Students Without Borders" project had been submitted before the public. The project advocates university autonomy through free expression and freedom of association at Cuban universities.

Folks, we need to get the word out regarding these arrests. The more press these arrests get, the better - as international attention may prevent these young dissidents from being subjected to harsh beatings at the hands of the Cuban state security apparatus. Please forward this information to as many contacts as possible.

With these arrests, the Cuban dictatorship, despite the best efforts of its apologists here and around the world, shows what it is really made of. They just can't help themselves.

Please remember these brave students in your thoughts and prayers.

CUBA JAILS ITS STUDENTS

Tuesday, December 04, 2007
Three student leaders remain in jail

Three Cuban student leaders arrested last week, after they presented a petition requesting autonomy for Cuban universities and participated in a vigil demanding the release of a detained dissident, remain in jail, according to Raices de Esperanza. They are:

1. Eliecer Consuegra Rivas 2. Rolando Rodriguez Lobaina 3. Gerardo Sanchez Ortega

Raices de Esperanza has information on how you can help them.

Just as these and other Cubans stood up for when Juan Bermudez Toranzo, now other Cubans are standing up for them. Independent journalist Idania Yanes Contrera reports that members of the Eastern Democratic Alliance have begun a series of fasts to show support for Consuegra, the president of the group.

Also, Martí Noticias reports that in all, seven dissidents remain jailed after a recent wave of arrests. Besides the three students and Bermudez, they are Manuel Pérez Soria, Vladimir Alejo Miranda and Antún Clemente Hernández.

DUAL CURRENCY CREATES INEQUALITY

Cubans gather support for monetary reform
47 minutes ago

HAVANA (Reuters) - A group of dissident women handed in a petition signed by 10,738 people on Wednesday demanding an end to Cuba's dual currency system which they said caused poverty and inequality.

Seven women took the petition to the National Assembly, which is obliged by Cuba's constitution to consider any legislative proposals requested by more than 10,000 citizens.
In Cuba's socialist society, people get paid in Cuban pesos but need a harder currency called the convertible peso --worth 24 times more-- to buy most consumer goods.
"We demand for all the nation that the Cuban peso be an acceptable means of payment in every establishment without exception," the petition said.
The signatures were gathered by members of the Latin American Federation of Rural Women, a group that receives support from Cuban exile organizations in Miami.
"We expect a positive reply from the government because this is a demand that all Cubans are making," said Maria Antonia Hidalgo, from the eastern province of Holguin.
Cuba introduced the convertible currency in 1994 when Cubans started receiving remittances from their relatives in Florida to help them weather a deep economic crisis triggered by the break-up of Havana's benefactor, the Soviet Union.
Cuban leader Fidel Castro said the measure was temporary and the government's goal is to eventually unify the two currencies when economic expansion permits.
The campaign for monetary reform recalls a signature drive called the Varela Project led in 2002 by prominent dissident Oswaldo Paya, who gathered 25,000 signatures to petition for a referendum on civil liberties in Cuba.
The Assembly rejected Paya's request and Castro mobilized for a referendum to preserve Cuba's socialist state.
The Cuban government does not acknowledge the existence of dissidents and labels all opponents as "mercenaries" on the payroll of the United States, its ideological nemesis.
Some telephone calls made by the organizers of Wednesday's petition to the National Assembly came from the U.S.-funded Office of Cuba Broadcasting in Miami, which oversees anti-Castro radio and television broadcasts to Cuba.
(Editing by Alan Elsner)
see also http://western-united.blogspot.com/2007/11/feds-attack-freedom-to-barter-freedom.html

THREE CUBANS

Below is a video entitled "Three Cubans" by Robert Carl Cohen which is an interesting look at Cuba 4 to 5 years into the Communist regime:
'In 1963-64 Robert Carl Cohen became the first American authorized by the US State Dept. & Cuban Foreign Ministry to film in Cuba. Three Cubans documents the effects of Castro's Revolution on an upper, middle, & lower economic class Cuban.'

YOUNG FIGHTER FOR FREEDOM

IN MEMORY OF ERNESTO CHE GUEVARA

MURDEROUS ESCAPE FROM ALCATRAZ, CUBA

Iskander Maleras and Luis Valverde By Cuba Archive Staff | Published 04/9/2006 | Case Profiles | Rating:
Maleras and Valverde: 1994 exit attempt

Iskander Maleras Pedraza

ISKANDER MALERAS PEDRAZA, Age 26, AND LUIS ANGEL VALVERDE LINFERNAL, Exact age unknown (in his 30s).

Assassinated January 19, 1994 while trying to gain asylum by entering the U.S. Naval Base at Guantánamo, Cuba.

Maleras was a resident of Guantánamo, Cuba. He had been repeatedly harassed and threatened by police, State Security, and neighborhood Communist Party watchdogs, for openly declaring his opposition to the Castro regime. Detained on numerous occasions, in one instance he had endured three months of prison on a fabricated charge of stealing horses. The case had been thrown out on trial only when another plaintiff testified the parties did not know Maleras and had been instructed to lie about his involvement.

On January 19, 1994, Maleras and Valverde with two other young men, Luis Gustavo Matos, and Eduardo Serante Gonzalez, attempted to flee Cuba trying to reach the Guantanamo Naval Base by raft. Maleras, not knowing how to swim, was on top of the very small raft, while the others pulled it as they swam towards the base.

When they were about 50 meters from the shore of the U.S. Naval Base, two Cuba border guards (José Barceló Escalona and Iván Fuentes Ramírez), opened fire with AKMs, killing Maleras and Valverde. The other two pled for clemency and took cover under water. Matos was injured on one foot and left to bleed to death, but was able to swim away at nightfall, making it to the U.S. base. Serante was captured, tried, and sentenced to house arrest instead of prison due to the public commotion the assassinations had caused. He later went into exile and lives in Florida.

The government refused to return the bodies of Maleras and Valverde to their families for a funeral and burial. Instead, they were buried naked in unmarked graves at the St. Raphael Cemetary of Guantanamo, designated by the government for victims of border guards or mine fields by the U.S. Naval Base.

The crime caused great commotion in the city of Guantamano, as the parents were very well known and respected professionals. Government authorities did not allow visits to the family home or the cemetery and posted patrols on the streets. The border guards were given awards for their deed, while prominent government figures went on local radio and TV to denounce the young men as "traitors, counter-revolutionaries and anti-social elements.”

Soon after the killings, the family was told by neighbors that a local school had on display the photos of the bodies ravaged by bullets, to impress upon the children the high cost of attempting to escape the country.

Iskander's sister was fired from her job as a music teacher at the university and was unable to find employment due to the stigma that befell the family. They endured so much harassment from the government that they had to go into exile after obtaining political asylum in the United States.

Iskander's mother writes that Iskander was born on September 15, 1967 and was the youngest of three siblings. He was very generous, had many friends, and was an avid cyclist. Her loss is incalculable and she will not rest until justice for her son is done.

Sources: Written and telephone testimony of Eulalia Nilda Pedraza, Iskander’s mother, Resident of Florida, February and April of 2006; Personal testimony by mother of August 2006; Testimony to La Nueva Cuba of Eulalia Pedraza of January 12, 2006, http://www.lanuevacuba.com/nuevacuba/notic-06-01-1370.htm.

Published by

Cuba Archive

(www.CubaArchive.org)

an initiative of the

Free Society Project, Inc.

SEPTEMBER 2007: POLITICAL PRISONERS CONTINUE TO SUFFER

According to recently released political prisoner Jorge Luis García Pérez “Antúnez”, they were taken to the Technical Department of Investigations known as “Cien y Aldabó” in the City of Havana. There, they were incarcerated in cells with inhumane conditions while being physically abused by authorities. The group included various female activists.

“Yesmi Elena, who was with me, was beaten and strip searched by three female guards at the '10 de Octubre' Police Station. She has a wound above her right lung, and has scratches and beatings on her head. When they finished with her, they proceeded to beat me, I have beatings on my head, scratches, also on my hand, and they ripped by pants trying to take them off to strip search me,” informed Idania Yánes Contreras from Santa Clara.

After being repeatedly mistreated for several hours, the activists were released under threat of being arrested again. Among those arrested were 26 activists from Villa Clara.

“What has just taken place demonstrates that the peaceful opposition in Cuba is united. No organization prevailed over any other during this activity. No specific names were mentioned. We were all there as members of the opposition. Our only goal was to support and express our solidarity with our imprisoned brothers,” Antúnez told the Cuban Democratic Directorate from Placetas, in the province of Villa Clara shortly after being arrested.

CHE GUEVARA

Che Remembered 40 Years After Death
Published: 10/5/07, 6:05 PM EDT
By ALVARO ZUAZO
SANTA CRUZ, Bolivia (AP) - Fidel Castro insists Ernesto "Che" Guevara could never have been taken prisoner 40 years ago if his gun hadn't malfunctioned. But the retired Bolivian general who led the mission to capture him says the Argentine revolutionary was hardly a heroic figure in his final moments.

The man that Gen. Gary Prado remembers - sad, sick, hungry, dressed in rags and alone in the jungle - simply dropped his gun and surrendered, saying, "Don't shoot, I'm Che."

"He wasn't the figure of the heroic guerrilla," Prado recalled in an interview with The Associated Press Thursday night.

Decades after he gave up a comfortable middle class life in Argentina to foment armed rebellion, Guevara still inspires and infuriates people around the world.

He is an icon for fans who have made his death scene a tourist trap. His face is instantly recognizable, a one-dimensional image on posters and T-shirts that either celebrate or mock his revolutionary ideals.

Prado is bitter that Guevara still gets so much global attention four decades later. He's angry that Bolivia's leftist President Evo Morales plans to honor Guevara but not the 55 soldiers who died putting down his attempted revolution in Bolivia.

Che "wasn't someone to inspire terror or anything, but simply to be pitied," he said.

Castro has put a noble spin on the death of his fellow revolutionary and close friend, calling Guevara "not a man who could have been taken prisoner" with a working gun.

"Wounded and without a weapon they were able to hold him and take him to a small town nearby, La Higuera," Castro told Spanish writer Ignacio Ramonet for the book "100 Hours with Fidel."

"The following day, October 9, 1967, at noon, they executed him in cold blood," Castro said.

Prado said the order to kill Guevara, then 39, came not from the CIA operatives who joined his soldiers, but from Bolivia's president, who wanted to avoid a trial that would give Guevara a global platform to spread his views. Prado said he wasn't present when Guevara was shot.

"Why did they think that by killing him, he would cease to exist as a fighter?" Castro asked in 1997, when Guevara's remains were finally laid to rest in Cuba amid thundering cannons. "Today he is in every place, wherever there is a just cause to defend."

Those who knew him personally remember a complex character - sardonic and demanding of himself as well as others.

"He always did what he said he was going to do," said Alberto Granados, who traveled with Che across South America on a broken-down motorcycle in 1952, a trip portrayed in the hit 2004 movie "The Motorcycle Diaries."

"That's why he is still timely," added Granados, who is now in his 80s and lives in Havana.

Guevara's Cuban enemies, now living in exile, remember a man who did not flinch after Castro and his rebels came to power. It was Guevara who oversaw the military tribunals and subsequent firing squad executions of hundreds of people - military, police and other officials of the dictatorship of Fulgencio Batista.

Cuba will honor him Monday with a ceremony at the tomb where his remains are kept, beneath a gigantic bronze statue built in his image in Santa Clara, where Guevara oversaw a decisive victory for the Cuban rebels. Cuba also planned a gathering of 1,500 people playing chess - Guevara's favorite game.

In Bolivia, Che fans were gathering in the jungle where he was captured and in La Higuera, where he was killed. A new Che statue is being built in his native Argentina, Venezuela is holding an art and music festival in his honor, and students were painting huge Che portraits in Mexico City's subway.

Guevara's image is ubiquitous in Cuba, where a giant stylized rendering of his face oversees Havana's Plaza of the Revolution. Cuban schoolchildren start their daily classes by pledging: "Pioneers for communism. We will be like Che!"

Those who knew him personally would consider that difficult. They recall him being a taskmaster insistent on austerity.

"He was demanding of everyone and practiced being a personal example," wrote Tirso Saenz, an adviser when Guevara served as Cuba's Industry Minister. Once, Guevara and other ministry officials were served fat, juicy steaks during a severe food shortage. Steaks are a treasured meal for Argentines, but Guevara became incensed and ordered it all removed.

"What is this?" Saenz quoted Guevara as saying in his biography. "No one is touching this meat. Take it away."

Leftists still cherish the image of the dogmatic Marxist wearing a beret, a determined gaze and an unkempt beard. But anti-communists hate what he stood for.

One such man is Cuban exile and former CIA operative Gustavo Villoldo, now living in Florida, who hopes to profit from a lock of hair snipped from the slain rebel's head in Bolivia. Now 71, Villoldo said he kept the hair and other items in a scrapbook since participating in that mission. Heritage Auction Galleries of Dallas is auctioning them off on Oct. 25-26.

The auction has generated much discussion among Cuban exiles. Some fear a Che fan will buy them and put them on reverent display.

Prado said that after Guevara surrendered in the jungle to his squad of 70 Bolivian soldiers, he asked what they planned to do with him, and that they initially told him he would be put on trial.

"I'm worth more to you alive than dead," Prado remembers him responding.

Guevara was shot the next day. He would have been 79 this year.

MICHAEL MOORE CHALLENGED ON HEALTH CARE IN CUBA

"All the world health organizations or whatever [sic] have confirmed that if there's one thing they do right in Cuba, it's health care. And there's very little debate about that."
-- Michael Moore

Reporter John Stossel of 20/20 has the following interesting observations about Michael Moore's claims concerning the state of Cuban healthcare in his "documentary" Sicko:

1. As we previously reported, Moore did not visit representative hospitals, but only elite institutions.

2. The United Nations report that Moore relies upon to support his claims of medical nirvana in Cuba did not gather any data. It simply repeated data given to it by the Cuban government itself, a government that is a crazed dictatorship with no checks on its power or accuracy.

3. Cuba's fetal mortality rates are grossly understated because of the national practice of aborting sick fetuses before they are born and of classifying a fetus which perishes within a few hours of being born as never having been born at all.

4. Moore stated: "All the independent health organizations in the world, and even our own CIA, believes that the Cubans have a pretty good health system. And they do, in fact, live longer than we do." Stossel asked the CIA, and it stated that it never made such a conclusion about Cuban health care; it stated that its data shows Americans live significantly longer on average than Cubans.

5. When challenged with these facts by Stossel, Moore tried to change the subject: "Let's stick to Canada and Britain and this stuff, I think you should challenge me on these things, and I'll give you my answer."

The prosecution rests.

FOREIGNERS SUFFERING IN CUBA

Russian women stranded in Cuba since USSR fall

By Anthony Boadle Wed Sep 5, 8:50 AM ET

HAVANA (Reuters) - They came from Russia with love to a tropical socialist utopia when the going was good.

They were young women romantically drawn to Fidel Castro's revolution, a breath of fresh air on a distant Caribbean island for those who were disillusioned with Soviet communism.

But when the Soviet Union fell apart in 1991, hundreds of Russian women who married Cubans and moved to Cuba were cut off from home and stranded in poverty as the Cuban economy plunged into deep crisis.

For those who had lived through the hardships of World War II in Russia as children, the long blackouts and the lack of food, medicine and fuel for transport were a cruel flashback.

"We were young and Cuba was beautiful when we got here," said film historian Zoia Barash, who arrived in 1963. Cuban leaders were so young compared to the Soviet gerontocracy and abstract art was not seen as incompatible with communism.

Her hopes of finding "true socialism" were dashed, though, as Cuba copied the Soviet model, with sweltering heat added.

"Today our situation is difficult, as it is for the whole country," said Barash, 72, who cannot make ends meet on her 260 peso ($10) monthly pension after 30 years working for the Cuban film industry.

About 1,300 women from Russia and former Soviet republics Ukraine, Belarus and Kazakhstan still live in Cuba, scraping a living as best they can.

In an old mansion belonging to the Russian Embassy, two women run a store selling anything from vodka and pickled gherkins to imported toothpaste, Pringles and Viagra pills.

The harshest aspect is not being able to travel home. Cuba used to grant them subsidized tickets every five years, paid for in pesos. But Cuba's airline stopped flying to Moscow and tickets must now be paid for in hard cash few can afford.

"My father died in 1994 and I could not go to his funeral," said Zita Kelderari, a Ukrainian gypsy, in tears.

The Flamenco singer fell for a Cuban helicopter pilot in Kiev in 1985 and sailed to Cuba on a Soviet freighter loaded with Yugoslavian butter. When he defected to the United States a few years ago, she was left penniless in Cuba.

Only the women lucky enough to receive money from their relatives get to travel these days. On a Cuban pension alone, it would take 10 years to gather the cost of a flight home.

For most it is too late to go back and start a new life. Many are grandmothers with families to look after.

The blackouts are gone and food supplies have improved since the dark days of Cuba's post-Soviet crisis. But housing remains dilapidated and overcrowded, few have cars and access to the Internet is expensive.

NO BOOKS, NO NEWS

Havana's Russian bookstore closed when "perestroika" reforms took hold in Moscow under Mikhail Gorbachev. Newspaper and magazine subscriptions were stopped, cutting off information from Russia.

Despite the problems, some women have pressed ahead.

"I don't know what nostalgia is. There is no point sitting around crying," said Natalia Balashova, who set about uniting the women in a cultural club for Russian speakers.

Balashova's father was a Bolshevik and she was drawn to Cuba in 1969 as much by love of the Cuban military officer she met in Moscow as by Castro's "bold" transformation of Cuba.

"I knew what to expect. Cuba was building socialism and had its difficulties. We came willingly, out of love," she said. Still, she felt "shipwrecked" when her country disappeared.

Balashova said she tapped her inner reserves and wartime improvisations she learned from her mother to cope with the crisis, such as using crushed egg-shells for cleaning powder.

After a 14-year hiatus, she returned to Moscow last year, invited to attend a world conference of Russians living abroad, and got to meet President Vladimir Putin at the Kremlin.

DEPORTED FROM CUBA

Elena Verselova, who was struggling to get ahead after two Cuban divorces, took her activism in a different direction. She became a dissident on Cuba's depressed Isle of Youth.

Verselova was deported by the Cuban government on July 26, according to her daughter Diana Aguilar, who arrived from Russia when she was a nine-month baby in her mother's arms.

Verselova was harassed and threatened by Cuban police, and eventually arrested, her daughter said. The family had to sell hard-won electrical appliances to pay for her ticket to Moscow, where she arrived with $170 in her pocket to start a new life.

"They didn't let us say good-bye to her," said Aguilar, 22, a University of Havana student. She said the Russian consulate in Cuba refused to help her mother even locate family members in Vladimir, 115 miles east of Moscow.

"I hope to leave Cuba to join my mother. I want to return to my roots in Europe," said the blond student.

A Cuban documentary "Todas iban a ser reinas" (They were all going to be queens) made last year captured the isolation of women from seven former Soviet republics living in Cuba.

"It was a migration of love, a part of our shattered utopia," said director Gustavo Cruz. "They worked in our country for many years. It would be ungrateful to forget them."

Women from other former Soviet bloc countries were also stranded in Cuba and forgotten by post-communist governments.

Stasia Strach, 65, is one of 49 native Poles living in Cuba -- only three of whom are men. The view from her small apartment overlooking Havana's Malecon, or sea-wall, is spectacular. But the elevator packed up years ago and the 130 steps are a daily effort. Going home is out of the question.

"What would I do in Poland, beg at the door of a church?" she said. "I have no pension and nowhere to go."

RISKING LIFE TO LIVE LIFE AGAIN AND AGAIN

Cuban woman tells tales of human smuggling

Ray Sanchez | Cuba notebook. Sun-Sentinel, September 16, 2007.

Word about potential smuggling voyages comes to her almost weekly, a 24-year-old woman named Adiany says.

Just last week, a friend informed her that two go-fast boats from South Florida would pick up 52 Cuban migrants along the northern coast. "This time it's a sure thing," the friend insisted.

Though anxious to be reunited with her husband in Miami, Adiany declined. The uncertainty and peril surrounding two of her previous trips worried her mother. "I don't think she can handle the stress," said Adiany, who asked that her full name not be used for fear of reprisals by Cuban police.

Adiany claims to have tried to leave the island 25 times. Cuban police have arrested her "numerous" times on her way to meet smugglers, and held her overnight, she said. Other times the boats failed to show up. Twice she has made it on board smuggling vessels, only to be intercepted by the U.S. Coast Guard and returned to Cuba.

"You try and you fail," said Adiany, who now contemplates flying to a Latin American country and entering the United States through Mexico. "Then you keep trying and trying until finally you make it."

The number of Cubans trying to leave the island appears to be rising, according to analysts and coast guard officials, who cite an increase in interdictions at sea this year. With slightly more than three months to year's end - as of Thursday - the Coast Guard has intercepted 2,467 Cuban migrants at sea, compared with a total of 2,293 in 2006. The current rate threatens to eclipse the 2,952 migrants intercepted in 2005, the largest one-year total since 1994, when 37,191 Cubans were picked up at sea during the rafter crisis.

Adiany attributed the surge to growing desperation among Cubans frustrated with economic disparities as well as U.S. and Cuban government polices that force the separation of families. Because she has been arrested for trying to leave Cuba, Adiany can no longer find work.

Her husband, Franscisco, left Cuba on a go-fast boat a year and a half ago. He lives in Miami, where he installs Direct TV equipment, work that helped him raise part of the $10,000 fee the smugglers will collect when they bring Adiany to Florida. He sends money to Adiany and her mother, but U.S. government limits the amount he can send to $100 per month.

Her mother has done her part to raise the smuggler's fee as well, illegally selling her home in Cuba and moving into a smaller house.

"Getting to Florida becomes an obsession," Adiany said. "The desperation is so great."

Adiany calmly described the disturbing first moments of the perilous journeys. As many as two dozen people wait in water up to their necks or deeper for the boat to arrive. When it does, "People climb over you," she said. "I was pushed underwater. People stepped on me. It's a human stampede. No one cares. There is no control."

A friend of Adiany provided similar accounts. Emilia, a 21-year-old Cuban who twice crossed the Florida Straits with Adiany, said smugglers attempt to maintain order by requesting that women and children board first, but to no avail.

"The men are the first to climb up," Emilia said in a phone interview. "Only then do they try to help others. Everyone fears that the Cuban coast guard will show up and they'll be left behind. It's survival of the fittest."

Adiany and Emilia most recently boarded a boat July 23. Adiany said a migrant traveling near her repeatedly struck his head on the floor of the vessel as it pulled into the open sea. She remembered his head swelling and his body convulsing and twitching as the go-fast boat equipped with three 250-horsepower engines lurched along the Florida Straits in the predawn.

"I remember him saying at the start of our journey that he was determined to reach the United States even in death," Adiany said. "He nearly died."

After the smuggling vessel was intercepted 65 miles south of Dry Tortugas, the man Adiany called Carlos was flown by helicopter to Miami's Jackson Memorial Hospital. Because he had reached dry land, he was allowed to remain in the United States.

The two suspected smugglers were turned over to the customs and border protection authorities in Key West as part of a criminal investigation, according to the U.S. Coast Guard.

Of the 24 migrants, nine - including a child and Emilia - were turned over to American officials in Key West to assist in the criminal investigation. The testimony of the other migrants, including Adiany, was not needed and they were returned to Cuba on Aug. 2.

A SOCIAL HAZARD, A TRUE REVOLUTIONARY

This photo was sent on Thursday, September 20, by Dr. Darsi Ferrer, Director of the Juan Bruno Zayas Center for Health and Human Rights.

The young man in the photo is Yuri Martinez Sanchez, 34 years old, who is suffering from AIDS.

Martinez Sanchez has been arrested three times for what is known in Cuba as "peligrosidad social," (social hazard) that allows the Cuban regime to send innocent people to jail just because it considers that they may be "inclined" to commit a crime in the future.

On August 21, his birthday, Martinez Sanchez was walking on the street of what is known as 'Habana Vieja' (Old Havana) around 2 AM, when a Lada automobile, normally used by Cuba's state security, stopped next to him.

Four people came out of, grabbed him and forcibly threw him inside the car. The kidnappers covered his eyes and tied his hands.

After driving around for a while, he was taken inside a house and left alone in a room for approximately 10 hours.

Later, when his kidnapers returned, they tried to remove a tattoo that he had by placing a hot iron on is forehead while being held down by two of the men. The reason? Martinez Sanchez tattooed the letters 'USA' on his forehead about a year ago to protest for his several arrests.

Afterward, the kidnapers placed Martinez Sanchez back in the car and after a 40 minute drive left him on a highway, far from the city. Before leaving, they untied his hands, but he was told not to remove his blindfold. He was warned that if he continued protesting against the regime, next time they would kill him.

THE SADNESS THAT IS CUBA THROUGH THE EYES OF A TOURIST

El Ultimo

by Katie Mustard

I went to Cuba because I was curious; because Id read so much about it; because it is forbidden; because so many people have championed it while so many others have abandoned it; because Cubans make great music and aromatic cigars; because Ive never been to a Communist country; because I wanted to learn the salsa; and because of its alluring mystique.
Beside the fact that it is vaguely illegal, going to Cuba as an American for a short stretch poses no problem. My travel companion, Amy, and I were whisked quickly through immigration and warmly greeted to a gauntlet of jineteros: Cambio? Taxi? Casa Particular? Being the savvy backpackers that we are, Amy and I ignored the hoots and hollers and even snapped the occasional cambio tu fucking madre at the overly persistent hustler. Nonetheless, we fell to the mercy of being the trapped tourist 15 miles outside the city and ended up paying a hefty $20 fee to Habana Central.
Oh HAVANA: the magnificent, vibrant, beautiful and crumbling capital of Cuba. My feelings for the city can best be compared to those of a mistress for her lover: happiness and sadness, admiration and frustration, passion and paranoia, sensitivity and revulsion. What's more, I do not believe there is a foreigner who could walk the streets of Havana without feeling afraid, without sensing something special, without feeling the music which forms the backbone of the society, and without realizing he or she is in a country clutched between the past and the future. After spending only a few hours in Havana, I become conscious of an unfortunate truth: it is the very ills of the society which draw the flocks of tourists; and thus my combating feelings commenced.
While Miami is closer to Havana than it is to Orlando, Cuba can feel as exotic as China. It is a place out of time, the least "Westernized" country in the hemisphere, and its allures are countless: classic American antique cars that somehow still rumble along the cobblestone roads; colonial style mansions with colorful shutters, faded pillars and torn up yards complete with playing kids and mangy dogs, grand 20s style cabaret halls packed with eager-to-please dancing women; horse and buggies that out number the bicycle taxis and old Soviet war-time motorcycles with side carts; and the most captivating attraction, is the sight of the hundreds of Cubans who pass the day in the street - displaying their profession of manicurist, hair cutter, tire-repair-man, lighter-fluid-filler, and cucumber-seller for all the gawking tourists to photograph More specifically, my initial observations sounded like those such as: Look, Amy, its a homemade cargo trailer that holds the entire family, how clever or Look at the toilet paper and the coat hanger displayed in the window, isnt that odd and Holy shit, did you just see that old lady get booted off the overflowing bus of people. And of course, the recurring, I just cant believe it, 200 people waiting in line for ice cream, and they only have vanilla?? Needless to say, the more I noticed all the lucky leftovers of a colonial past, the more the novelty images became sad symbols of a Communist present in serious need of repair, repainting, replastering, replumbing and rebuilding. Yet, despite all the economic hardships, Havana proudly wears its Caribbean colors; a tropical rainbow reflected in smiles, flowers and (when its available) ice cream.
More remarkably, the city continually fabricates a boundary-free backdrop between the home and the street, and all doors are left wide open for on-lookers and out-lookers alike to converse. I easily adapted to the warmth and openness there. In Cuba I could be passive, tentative, and still be taken in, brought close to people and situations, for it is a place that is about people and intimacy. I suppose it is because they have nothing to lose, because they know what cannot be taken away. They have been through and are going through something together, as a people, one nation under Fidel. So it is of no surprise that, effortlessly, Amy and I found ourselves in several Cuban homes for several home made dinners with several new friends.
However, it was not until the day we attempted to depart Havana on the government run bus system that our real Cuban experience began. What do you mean there is no bus to Batabano?!? We were here just yesterday and reserved seats? These types of questions would soon prove to be silly as we learned the reality of public transportation And so, illegal taxi rides became our most frequent mode of travel, and oh how one cannot deny the exhilaration of racing down 200 kilometers of potholes at 95 miles per hour while the doors rattle off and the hole in the floor widens. Luckily, Amy and I arrived in Batabano just in time to wait 5 hours for a 4-hour ferry ride and a 30-minute walk to our final destination on the Isle de la Juventud or The Island of Youth.
Not necessarily by choice, Amy and I spent 3 days on the attractive island. The change of pace was extremely refreshing - the unhurried way of life gave us the opportunity to truly enjoy the Cuban people and their habitats. Mangroves lined the bustling center road through town. Hundreds of small, beautiful, and completely dilapidated houses stacked along side each other down narrow seafront streets. Prime real estate in any other universe, the houses displayed paint 40 years weathered, worn to breathtaking pastels of blue, violet, pink and grey. Although, the Isle de la Juventud is the least populated region of Cuba, the streets constantly jangle with bicycles and horseshoes hitting the pavement. Blackouts are regular, and the dirt roads at night are so dark that when a car appears, its headlights are blinding and leave you stumbling to see the wrinkled concrete sidewalk. Yet, the streets still whir with brave riders through the blacked-out nights. Couples sharing a ride, families of three perched comfortably on a solid Cuban clunker, giggling home in the silence of a country blessed with a lack of gasoline. Ironically, one of the most impressive sights on the island was the man made Presidio Modelo, the prison in which Castro was housed for several years. Three five-story circular blockades make up the penal colony, all set against towering marble hills, which look absolutely exquisite at sunset. I guess Castro did not appreciate the view.
As in Havana, the people on the island were very approachable (to say the least). They always want to talk, not only to find out about you (continually asking which country you are from and how you like Cuba) but also to tell you about their life, their cousin in Miami, their brother in Ohio and their daughter-in-law in Charlotte. Amy and I were happy to accept an invitation for dinner from a charming couple we shared some wine with at a peso-only bar. Soon, we were introduced to all the children, grandchildren, parents and grandparents who would also be joining us for dinner. While we waited for the meal to be prepared, the couple entertained us with wine, beer, music and dancing. Amy and I graciously tried our hand at the salsa while the children laughed and tried to teach us the correct rhythm. As I watched the couple dance together, I couldnt help but notice that Cubans dance with their whole bodies not just their feet, and as I was later informed, one must feel the passion in order to do it properly. Without fault, all the Cubans I met could dance the salsa, meringue, casino and other complex partner-dances. I dont know if it's genetic or environmental, but it's there, in the blood and in the air.
Not to worry, our excursion to the island was not all giggles and rainbows. There were, of course, many life-threatening situations, including a 2-hour scuba dive with a non-English-speaking freelance instructor on a dark and windy day. And last but not least, Amy and I (tired of waiting for the overbooked ferry) took a Cubana flight on an old Russian jet, military style, the color of metal inside and out. While passengers passed around open bottles of rum, I noticed a man lighting a cigar in the third row, who had just come out of the cockpit leaving the door swinging behind him. Maybe I am just a squeamish First-Worlder or a bit compulsive with my traditional ideas of safety, but this made me feel a little unstable. Thankfully, the rum went down smooth.
Upon arriving back in Havana, Amy and I made the acquaintance of a lovely British couple (the first foreigners we had actually met on the trip) and together, we spontaneously decided to hire a driver to take us to the Pinar del Rio Province, 200 kilometers Southwest of Havana. Along the way, I become aware of the proper etiquette for hitchhiking, a form of basic transportation for all Cubans. People patiently line the roads at all major intersections, waiting for rides as all shapes and sizes of cars and motorbikes speed past. Any truck going anywhere will fill up its bed with companeros, as many extra riders as can fit standing, with perhaps a bicycle or two holding on for the bumpy ride. More so, there are all manner of jerry-rigged vehicles from which to choose. Tractor-trailer cabs pulling steel containers, their small cutout windows covered by bars of steel, and jammed like third-world prisons with suburban passengers, often painted on the side, "Transporte Popular"-- indeed. As we traveled further into the country roads of Pinar del Rio, I observed the most curious form of location: a sled involving two oxen connected by a yoke from which two ropes extended back to the hands of a man standing on two twenty foot long logs, as if they were skis. The logs were, in turn, chained to one of the oxens hind legs, the man stood causally with the cords taut, while the oxen pulled him and the logs along. Suddenly, the tin box frame with four wheels and a stereo in which I snugly sat, steadily chugging down the open road, did not seem so bad.
We arrived into the Valle de Vinales at sunset. The beauty of the limestone mountains and the rich vegetation of the rolling plains was still unmistakably visible. We stopped at a house with a room for rent sign dangling outside the door, and while the owner did not have space for all of us, his neighbor and brother, did. Manuel and his wife cooked us a tremendous meal of black beans, rice, fish, chicken, fried yuccas, fruit, coffee, and bread. Amy and I got along quite well with the lively Londoners, and the four of us stayed up late into the evening hours, sipping rum on the back porch, comparing travel tales, and enjoying the cool night air.
We rose early the following day, eager to experience in full light the glimpse of beauty we had marveled over the previous night. By bike, we set off to find a community called Los Aquaticos; a group of families who live in the hills and believe in the healing power of water, supposedly bathing three times a day and allowing themselves to be dried by the wind. As we began our ascent into the awe-inspiring mountains, I was struck by the provinces limestone bedrock, riddled with fantastic shaped caves and rivers that dive underground, creating impressive rounded tunnels that gush into sulfurous springs and sinuous waterfalls. The scenic land is densely populated with colorful jungle green and brown tobacco growing fields, and sprawling plains that overflow with sugarcane, rice paddies, stalks of yucca, clusters of coconut trees and furrows of parched earth awaiting seeds of corn. Beef cattle ranches rest snugly in the luscious foothills, bordered by spectacular arrays of tropical fruits and vegetables. The tranquility of the soft and inviting land gracefully overwhelmed me. Vinales is without a doubt, not only a photographers paradise, but the loveliest place Ive ever been in my whole life.
The valleys natural riches are equaled by the charms of its people. With a slight breeze, I was stopped in my tracks at the sight of a striking young farmer who seemed to emerge with the wind. The attractive boy sat patiently under a straw hat with curled side brims, gently smoking a cigar. Not to the liking of our solo male travel companion, the three of us, stood entranced by the natural beauty and simplicity of the Cuban country boy. He hardly spoke a word, and yet we faithfully followed him as he led us up to his humble home in the mountains. His grandfather, the only family member who appeared to be living with the boy, had the face of a thousand emotions. His organic, toothless smile and wide-eyed stare made me want to reach out and hug him.
After a glass of freshly squeezed grapefruit juice, the boy continued to lead us, by foot, up the mountain, under the sturdy trees, and through the darkened caves. Completely fascinated by the innocence and authenticity that radiated from his presence, I studied the boys every move. With bare hands, sweat and skill he rolled a fine cigar. Later, I nearly missed it when, the boy quietly unlatched the knife from his belt and disappeared into a field of sugarcane, only to return moments later with the sweetest sugar stalks one could find. It was here, following the footsteps of a Cuban Crocodile Dundee through a misty Caribbean outback, that my journey provoked that rare sentiment of a pure, uncomplicated pleasure for life.
Sitting in the dismal and empty Jose Marti International airport, I, once again, considered the reasons behind my mixed emotions for the country I was leaving.
Its beaches are the best in the Caribbean, its culture is exceptionally unique in Latin America, and its history is fascinating. Yet the contradictions in Cuba are abound. Coated by a thick edge of poverty, they express themselves quite visibly in Cubas lines. I suppose, line culture is essential to every communist bureaucracy and post-communist poverty. In Cuba, a line-joiner asks simply for "el ultimo or the last" and takes his place. Lines lounge, wait respectfully for hours across the street from the cafe that is full and the store that is yet to open. Yet the longest line in which Cubans wait is the one behind the foreigners who have now taken the front row seats in Castros orchestra.
Tourists have all the advantages and almost all the rights in Cuba, as everyone is in need of dollars and tourists have them. The power of the dollar flowing from the pockets of tourists is rapidly devaluing the Cuban peso, and at the same time, encouraging the people to hustle as many dollars from the tourists as possible for a better life. Sure travelers get hassled in most countries, but it's sad in Cuba where increased exposure to an outside world is driving them to it. It's a country where bartenders earn more than doctors, television and cinema are strictly censured, no one can leave freely or make any money independently. But then again, Socialism is all about living in a land that is not ones own. And so, the country waits. They wait not only for ice cream, but also for something to happen, for someone to press play on their history. It is my assumption that Cuba is a country on the verge of inevitable and incalculable change.
In the end, despite all of Cuba's festering sores, I embraced the country like no other before. It is the warmth of the people and the beauty of the country which still stand out as my strongest memories. It was an odd feeling when it actually came time to go: I knew I could never live in the country, but yet, I was sincerely heartbroken to say goodbye.

RECENT PRISON TALES

This from babalublog.com:

Cuban journalist released from prison

Cuban independent journalist Armando Betancourt Reina was released from prison on Monday, after completing a 15-month sentence for being a "public disorder." (He was arrested in May 2006 while covering the eviction of some poor residents from their housing.
More than ever, the journalist now is better suited to tell the real stories of the real Cuba, especially the castro brothers' gulag, telling Cuban Democratic Directorate:
“This 15-month imprisonment has been an important experience. Although it might not have caused me psychological damage because it was a short time, it was a time where I was able to experience firsthand the situation and living conditions of Cuba’s prisoners."
For instance, Betancourt says he saw this:
“Guards continue beating prisoners, and they do it in such a way that other prisoners do not see it, so that it will not become known around the world. They take them out of the cell block and take them to a separate location. They beat them, take them to isolation cells and return them to the cell blocks when their bruises are gone. I was there and lived it. I can confirm that human rights are being violated in Cuban prisons now as they always have been.”
With Betancourt's release, there are now 29 independent journalists in Cuban jails.

BIG BROTHER CUBA

'Hot Corner' Tests Free Speech in Cuba
Yahoo! News.By Will Weissert, Associated Press. July 15, 2007.
Miguel is in mid-sentence when his face darkens and his eyes dart to the ground. His mouth is still open, but no words come out.
He has been talking about what it must be like to live in a country where the government doesn't control all radio and television. What he says is hardly incendiary, but when a policeman saunters by, he freezes.
"That's Cuba," he says after the officer has moved away. "They are always listening."
Saying the wrong thing too loudly in this country can cost you your job. Insulting Fidel Castro or other leaders in public can mean jail.
Still, freedom of speech in Cuba is more nuanced than may appear. The government tolerates criticism in a few accepted spaces, and many people do express themselves in public, sometimes even loudly and bitterly _ and more so, some say, since Castro fell ill last year and his brother Raul took over.
One such relatively free space is the enclave of benches and shade trees of Havana's Central Park where Miguel was sounding off. It's called the Esquina Caliente, or "Hot Corner," from baseball lingo for third base. Here Cuban men both young and old, black and white, some with gold chains and sneakers, others in threadbare tank tops and dusty sandals _ argue sports all day, every day.
But debate sometimes spills into other areas: women, ration cards, clothes and cars. Illegal TV hookups, water shortages, booze and last night's neighborhood Communist Party meeting.
Cuba has no free press, Internet access is restricted and phones are assumed bugged. State security agents follow government critics and foreigners, while nearly every block has its "Revolutionary Defense Committee" keeping tabs on the neighbors.
So at the Hot Corner, those who deviate from sports tend to do so quietly. Miguel asked that his last name not appear in print for fear of government repercussions.
Dissident Miriam Leiva is well known enough not to mind her surname being published. She says people are encouraged to blow off steam by complaining at communist meetings _ but then officials ignore what they say.
"For people to feel they are free to talk and complain, it relieves stress and allows an outlet for people to relax a bit," said Leiva, an independent journalist whose work is published on Web sites and in magazines outside Cuba. "But they express themselves because they have to, because they are suffering. Then nothing changes."
A more public forum for complaining is Juventud Rebelde, the Communist Party youth newspaper.
Saily Cordero, a 23-year-old housewife, wrote saying she was being denied her entitlement to free powdered milk as a woman five months pregnant. Within hours, the neighborhood councilwoman and a host of top communists appeared at her door.
"People I had never seen around here were everywhere," Cordero said.
They checked her story and determined she was not owed free milk until her sixth month of pregnancy. But Cordero said the fast response left her feeling empowered.
"I just want what's mine," she said. "If I don't get it, I will complain and complain. Whoever gets in trouble, I don't care."
In 1961, Castro famously defined free speech for Cubans: "Within the Revolution, everything; outside the Revolution, nothing."
"There was no other choice. It was, 'you're with us or you're against us' and you can imagine what happens if you're against us," Leiva said. "That's the way things are still."
Leiva's husband, Oscar Espinosa Chepe, is a state-trained economist who became an anti-communist. He was one of 75 dissidents arrested in a roundup of government critics in March 2003.
Though he was released for health reasons, Leiva and other women dress in white and march silently down Havana's busy Fifth Avenue every Sunday after Mass, wearing buttons with photos of relatives still in jail.
Their every move is watched by security officials and sometimes they are openly harassed by government supporters, but the march by the "Women in White" is largely tolerated.
"We are very peaceful, we are defenseless," Leiva said. "We are in their hands. They can do to us anything they want."
Sometimes their ranks swell to dozens, but on a recent Sunday only Leiva and four others marched, holding white umbrellas against the scorching noonday sun.
Joggers padded past on the sidewalk. A few cars honked and flashed their headlights in support.
At the end of the march, the women locked arms, prayed silently and cried "Libertad!" _ Freedom.
"We're not afraid," said Berta de Los Angeles Soler, 43, whose activist husband, Angel Moya, is serving 20 years in prison. "How can we be afraid they will put us in prison if our husbands and relatives are already there?"
Soler added that "the people see us in the street and they accept us and support us," but not all. As she spoke, a passer-by muttered obscenities while avoiding eye contact.
"It's hard," Soler said. "But if you don't work and go get something, you have nothing. Especially in Cuba."
Leiva said ordinary Cubans have been less afraid to speak openly in public since 80-year-old Castro had emergency intestinal surgery and ceded power last July 31. The "Maximum Leader" has not been seen in public since, though he writes several essays a week that appear in state media.
"I think most people are losing fear," Leiva said. "There has been a change after Fidel Castro's illness. He's not there. He used to be everywhere. It was like you breathed, and you were breathing him in, almost."
Back at the Hot Corner, lots of Cubans complain _ and some even admit to breaking the law for small freedoms _ even though the place is said to be full of plainclothes government agents.
More obvious are the uniformed policemen. Once, while a reporter was visiting, an officer listened to the conversation and checked the IDs of all Cubans participating. Another time, a policeman with a German shepherd watched in silence.
One Friday, a man named Lorenzo said he watches TV using a hidden antenna that illegally captures signals from Florida. That started an argument about how to best stash antennas during government raids.
The talk then went from what caused a power outage in Central Havana to who would be the U.S. Democratic nominee for president.
Lorenzo, a Hot Corner regular in his 70s who is old enough to remember Cuba and its heavy American presence before Castro's 1959 revolution, said he is keeping up with the U.S. presidential race.
"I'm a Republican," he said. "But for me, Bill Clinton was the best president in U.S. history. The economy was strong. They threw Monica Lewinsky at him, and he just kept going. That will help his wife."

ZOILA MEYER JUNE 2007 DEPORTATION BEGINS

June 21, 2007 - 6:37PM
Zoila Meyer faces deportation, fights to stay in U.S.

Zoila Meyer with her children at her Apple Valley home. Meyer has been in the United States since she was one year old, and thought she was a citizen until 2004.

Zoila Meyer holds her son Peter at her Apple Valley home Wednesday. Meyer spent Tuesday arrested and is facing deportation stemming from her 2004 election case.

Zoila Meyer with her children at her Apple Valley home. Meyer has not been involved in any other criminal action except her voting and election in Adelanto, yet she may still be deported in thirty days.

APPLE VALLEY — Zoila Meyer has been in America since the age of 1. She has been living the American dream; marrying her high school sweetheart, raising their four children, working on a college education and winning a seat for city office. Her only problem — she isn’t an American — and now faces deportation for illegally voting in the 2004 election. “I truly thought I was a citizen, all my life. I’ve been voting since I was 18. I didn’t know I was here illegally,” she said. “It was a mistake on my parents behalf. They messed up. They didn’t want to. It just happened.” Tuesday’s arrest stems from the 2004 election. Meyer ran for — and won — a seat for Adelanto City Council where she served for 10 weeks before resigning after a family member raised questions regarding her legal status. While it is not illegal for an illegal immigrant to register to vote — it is if they actually do vote. Meyer has long contended that she was unaware of her illegal citizenship status. “This whole process is not my fault. They ask, `How can you not know you’re not a citizen?’ But if you’re parents don’t tell you this, you don’t know,” she said. “It’s like kids who don’t find out until they’re adults that they were adopted. We believe what we are told.” She and her husband, Kenneth, have four children: Peter, 5; Kennedy, 6; Waylon, 12; and Meaghan, 16. When not busy at home, she can be found at one of the local college campuses. She attends both Barstow and Victor Valley colleges and hopes to graduate this year having earned four associate of arts degrees in nursing, math and science, liberal arts and criminal justice. “That way I can do anything. I can teach, be a nurse or get into law enforcement,” she said. Apart from running for public office, she was also a level II reserve with the San Bernardino County Sheriff’s Department. Before becoming certified she had to go through a background check. “Who would do that if they thought they were here illegally?” she asked. On Tuesday, her husband drove her to the San Bernardino County office of Homeland Security and Immigration and Customs Service office where she was arrested for violation of immigration laws and now faces deportation. “This is my home. This is where my family is. This is where I have built my life. How can you pick me out of a crowd and tell me you’re taking it all from me,” she asked. If she is deported it won’t be to her homeland of Cuba. She would be sent to Canada, the last point of entry in her immigration record. Attorney Tristan Pelayes, who is not involved in the case, said he believes her situation would fall under a lot of exceptions under the deportation law. “She’s more of a citizen than a lot of us,” he said. “That’s an overzealous prosecutor that doesn’t have anything else to do.” He said there’s a difference between her case and that of someone who knowingly came into the country illegally and knowingly broke the law. “She isn’t a criminal. She was brought here when she was 1. She didn’t know. This person has been contributing to this country for years,” Pelayes said. “To deport someone like this is a great disservice to our country.” Meyer said she is proud of her Cuban heritage and also proud to have been raised in America. “But I am disappointed in the system that I am so proud of,” she said. On July 18, she must surrender herself to immigration. She is unclear what will happen at that point. “If anything good comes from this, I hope it’s that parents make sure their children are naturalized,” she said. Gretchen Losi may be reached at 951-6233 or gretchen_losi@link.freedom.com.

THE UNITED STATES HOLDS CUBAN MIGRANTS HOSTAGE

This from the Associated Press:

2 Cuban migrants quit Gitmo hunger strike
Posted on Wed, Aug. 08, 2007

By MICHAEL MELIA
Associated Press
SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico -- Two Cuban migrants held the U.S. Navy base at Guantánamo Bay quit a hunger strike after being hospitalized with health problems, a Miami-based exile group said Wednesday.
Twenty other migrants were keeping up the strike that began July 29 to protest their conditions and Washington's refusal to let them settle in the United States, said Ramon Saul Sanchez, president of the Miami-based exile group Democracy Movement.
The strikers voted against the pair rejoining them because of their ''very precarious'' condition -- one had a blood clot in his lung and the other suffered a hypoglycemic seizure, said Sanchez, who said he regularly speaks with the migrants by telephone.
A medical team has been evaluating some 20 people on ''voluntary fast,'' said Navy Cmdr. Jeffrey Gordon, a Pentagon spokesman. ``They all appear to be in good health.''
Under Washington's so-called wet-foot, dry-foot policy, Cubans who make it to U.S. soil are generally allowed to stay, while those caught at sea are sent home.
The protesters are among 44 Cubans captured at sea by the U.S. Coast Guard but could not be returned to Cuba because authorities determined they had a credible fear of persecution. They have been detained at Guantánamo -- some for more than two years -- while the U.S. seeks to settle them in a third country.
Some have complained about head counts and aggressive searches for contraband.
''They're treating them as if they were criminals,'' said Lidiar Reyes, whose brother Duniel Reyes, 23, was picked up the Coast Guard in May and taken to Guantánamo. ``He left Cuba to get away from a place like that.''
U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement spokeswoman Barbara Gonzalez defended searches of the migrants, saying they have turned up contraband, including pornography, knives and scissors.
''Our priority is the safety and security of all the protected migrants that live at the Migrant Operations Center,'' she said.
The Cubans have no contact with the approximately 360 men detained in another section of Guantánamo on suspicion of terrorism or links to al Qaeda and the Taliban.