U.S. should speak up for democracy in the region

Democracy is not a fragile flower, as Ronald Reagan told the British Parliament 30 years ago, but it does require tending. What was true in Eastern Europe in the 1980’s and also the Middle East in the aftermath of the Arab Spring is equally true in the Americas, where democracy has been the norm for a generation.

Despite this, leaders of countries including Venezuela, Ecuador, Bolivia, and Nicaragua are working to have Cuba’s Raúl Castro invited to the next Summit of the Americas in Colombia. If he is not, they are threatening to boycott the summit.

Now is when the steady voice of the United States in conjunction with other like-minded hemispheric nations is critically needed to tend the democratic garden in the Americas. Washington should embrace this manufactured crisis in order to stand for the fundamental point — enshrined by the Inter-American Democratic Charter signed by all hemispheric governments attending the 2001 summit — that representative democracy is an expectation for full participation in hemispheric affairs and that true democracy requires more than an election from time to time; it also includes respect for fundamental freedoms.

Aspects of regional democracy have arguably deteriorated in the 10 years that the democracy charter has been in force. The charter was conceived to respond to earlier threats to democracy in the region, primarily military coups. But now the principal threat comes from leaders who seek to concentrate power in their own hands by weakening democratic institutions.

In some nations, press freedoms are under attack. Electoral manipulation is re-emerging as a problem and independent, impartial election monitors are the targets of abuse and obfuscation. Corruption continues to challenge state institutions. Rule of law is uncertain. Even the inter-American human rights apparatus is under assault.

The United States has largely muted the concerns it has had about threats to regional democracy for some time, fearing not without reason that overtly raising these issues serves only to isolate Washington in the hemisphere. Without the United States taking the lead, however, other nations are disinclined to raise their own voices, to the extent they even view these issues in the same way.

Mimi Alford certainly has cause to regret her handling by President Kennedy. But while fornicating with the U.S. President in the White House and while publicly fellating the U.S. President’s friends in the White House swimming pool, this teen-ager was never deceived by the President who remains the most popular in modern U.S. history.

And Mrs Alford admits as much. “It’s hard to say that it felt really good to be considered special--- but it did,†she tells an interviewer. “I was 19 years old. He was just magnetic.â€

Many widows living in south Florida feel differently about Kennedy’s magnetism. You'll often find these ladies, with itchy noses and red-rimmed eyes, ambling amidst the long rows of white crosses at the Cuban Memorial in Miami. It's a mini-Arlington, in honor of Castro's murder victims and those who fell trying to free Cuba from the Stalinism he imposed with his Soviet overlords while the “Leader of the Free World†seemed oddly distracted.

Ammo finally ran out. "Russian tanks overrunning my position," reported San Roman on his radio... "destroying my equipment.†Finally the radio went dead.

"Tears filled my eyes," writes CIA man Grayston Lynch, a multi-decorated WWII and Korea vet who trained and befriended the Cuban freedom-fighters—and took their final message. "I broke down completely,†writes the Silver Star-winner who carried scars from Omaha Beach, Bastogne and Korea’s Heartbreak Ridge. “For the first time in my 37 years I was ashamed of my country.â€

If instead of the above, it requires Mimi Alford’s tabloid-gossip for some to finally feel ashamed of their nation’s “leader†of the time…well, better (half-a-century) late than never.

"#CUBA The inventor of the CDRs* is complaining about satellites and how they will "destroy the privacy of the people." http://t.co/faAZdIfe"

Who Benefits From "People-to-People" Travel?

Ecuador’s Correa wins fresh victory against press

BOGOTA -- When it comes to suing journalists, Ecuador President Rafael Correa is on a roll. Just 10 days after winning a $2 million judgment against two reporters, the courts upheld a $42 million criminal libel suit Correa filed against members of El Universo newspaper.

Early Thursday, Ecuador’s high court found that three executives and one columnist for El Universo crossed the line when they wrote and printed a column suggesting that Correa had ordered troops to open fire on a hospital in 2010 where he was briefly held hostage. The ruling, which is not subject to appeal, also ratified three-year prison sentences for the men.

The El Universo case has drawn the ire of human rights and journalism groups that say Ecuador has been systematically targeting the opposition press.

“This shortsighted ruling will only keep Ecuadoran journalists from investigating powerful politicians,†Carlos Lauría of the Committee to Protect Journalists said in a statement. “It represents a serious setback for democracy in Ecuador.â€

Correa, a charismatic populist who has enjoyed high approval ratings, has painted the media as the propaganda arm of oligarchs who attack his government under the guise of free speech.

On Thursday, he called the verdict a triumph of justice over power and predicted the ruling would unleash as wave of similar lawsuits in Ecuador and the region.

“It will be a great step for the liberation of America, and freedom from one of the greatest powers that has operated with impunity – the corrupt press,†he said in a statement.

In a conference, he said his lawsuit had set a precedent by holding the media outlet — and not just the columnist – accountable.

“We have proved that you can sue the clowns but also the owners of the circus,†Correa said.

[...]

El Universo claims the case against it was plagued with legal problems. The lawyers said the government shopped for compliant judges and that an exam of the original lower-court verdict found that it was written by Correa’s lawyers and not the presiding judge. Correa and others have ridiculed that claim, but it’s not the first time such charges have been leveled. Lawyers for Chevron, which is facing an $18 billion judgment for polluting the Ecuadoran Amazon, say they have evidence that someone other than the judge wrote the verdict.

The El Universo lawsuit also violates international treaties. Using criminal law to prosecute expression about public officials is illegal under the American Convention on Human Rights, which Ecuador signed in 1969, the Inter-American Human Rights Commission said.

“Dr. Biscet, Prisoner of Conscience Testifies at U.S. Congressional Hearing from Havanaâ€

Good afternoon, and welcome to this joint hearing of the Subcommittee on Africa, Global Health and Human Rights and the Subcommittee on the Western Hemisphere to focus on just one aspect – though a deeply troubling one – of the overall abysmal human rights record of the dictatorship in Cuba.

Today’s hearing will examine the ongoing violations of the human rights of Cuban political prisoners – from the arrest, prosecution, and persecution of political opponents of the Castro regime to the deplorable conditions of their imprisonment – to the terms under which they are released.

The announcement of the release of some prisoners in late December, in conjunction with the release over the past two years of more than three dozen political prisoners, has been described as a public relations move designed to portray a loosening of Cuba's political repression of opponents. Those of us who have had the privilege of knowing and working with Cuba’s human rights champions for decades, and have heard first-hand of the brutality of the Castro government, are not so easily persuaded or deceived.

Cuba has been a totalitarian state with the Cuban Communist Party as the sole legal political party for more than half a century. Upon his seizure of power in Cuba in 1959, Fidel Castro promised a return to constitutional rule and democratic elections with social reforms. However, Castro’s control over the military and government structures allowed his regime to crush dissent, marginalize resistance leaders and imprison or execute thousands of opponents. Between 1959 and 1962 alone, it is estimated that the Castro regime executed 3,200 people. Hundreds of thousands of Cubans fled an increasingly radical government. Those who remained in Cuba faced a repressive regime that denied basic human rights.

More than fifty years after Castro’s assumption of power in Cuba, the U.S. Department of State human rights report on Cuba describes a government that still denies its citizens the right to change their government; threatens, harasses and beats its opponents through state security forces and government-organized mobs; sentences opponents to harsh and life-threatening prison conditions; arbitrarily detains human rights advocates and members of independent organizations, and selectively prosecutes perceived opponents and then denies them a fair trial.

Cuba’s political prisoners are held, together with the rest of the prison population, in substandard and unhealthy conditions, where they face physical and sexual abuse. Most prisoners suffer from malnutrition and reside in overcrowded cells without appropriate medical attention. In fact, political prisoners face selective denial of medical care. Cuban prisons fail to segregate those held in pre-trial detention from long-term violent inmates, and minors are often mixed in with adults. Such are the conditions opponents of the Castro regime have faced over the years – some of them for decades.

Armando Valladares, who unfortunately couldn’t join us here today but will appear at a future hearing, was a Cuban Postal Bank employee who was arrested for refusing to display a sign on his desk that promoted communism. Mr. Valladares was imprisoned in 1960 at age 23, and spent 22 years in prison. Like many freed political prisoners, Mr. Valladares moved to the United States.

In 1988, President Ronald Reagan appointed him to serve as the United States Ambassador to the United Nations Commission on Human Rights, a position in which he served for two years. I was with Ambassador Valladares in Geneva when he succeeded in bringing Cuba before the commission for human rights violations and authorizing a UN fact-finding trip to Cuba to investigate prison conditions.

I have read Mr. Valladares’ memoir – Against All Hope – a book that chronicles his experiences and that of others in Cuba’s gulags. Mr. Valladares systematically describes the torture, cruelty, and degrading treatment by Cuban prison guards. Yet, like so many other heroic Cuban dissidents, he persisted and overcame.

Our surprise witness today is the brilliant, humanitarian Dr. Óscar Elías Biscet. A medical doctor and courageous human rights advocate, Dr. Biscet was one of more than two dozen dissidents who were arrested and detained by Cuban police in August 1999 for organizing meetings in Havana and Matanzas. He was released after five days but was rearrested three more times. The second time he was arrested, later in 1999, he spent three years in prison. His third arrest in December 2002 resulted in a beating, but not imprisonment. Upon his fourth arrest in March 2003, he was sentenced to 25 years in prison. Along with more than 50 other dissidents, Dr. Biscet was released in March 2011 with the help of the Catholic Church. He has courageously remained in Cuba, where he continues to advocate for human rights. For his extraordinary bravery and commitment to freedom for the Cuban people, many of us have twice recommended Dr. Biscet for the Nobel Peace Prize.

Other political prisoners have not had the ability to choose where they live following their release. Normando Hernández González, an independent writer and journalist, was arrested in March 2003 along with 74 other dissidents in Camaguey and was sentenced to 25 years in prison. As a result of his serious abuse in prison, Mr. Hernández eventually was diagnosed with several diseases of the digestive system and later tuberculosis. Due to his deteriorating medical condition, Mr. Hernández was released from prison in July 2010 and taken to the Havana Airport, where he was briefly reunited with his wife and daughter before being forced to board an overnight flight to Spain. He later emigrated to Miami, where he currently resides.

I extend the gratitude of the subcommittee to our distinguished witnesses for joining us today. My good friend and colleague Dan Burton, Chairman of the Subcommittee on Europe and Eurasia, will testify about U.S. policy toward Cuba. In particular, we are deeply appreciative that Dr. Biscet is taking the serious risk that he will suffer retaliation for speaking with us publicly. The Castro regime should know that there will be a price to pay if that should happen. It is our sincere hope that it does not, and that this hearing and the spotlight that it will shine on Cuban political prisoners will contribute to authentic freedom and respect for the human rights of all the people of Cuba.

Cuban dissident tells Congress Pope must intervene in Cuba

Cuban dissident would like to see the pontiff address political oppression during his visit to the communist island nation next month.

WASHINGTON -- Speaking by telephone direct from Cuba, one of the country’s best-known political dissidents on Tuesday told Congress that Pope Benedict XVI should use his power and visibility as a world leader to shine a light on human rights abuses and political oppression under the Castro regime during his upcoming visit to the communist island nation.

If he has an opportunity to meet with the pope, he will ask him to be an advocate for the oppressed, Dr. Oscar Elias Biscet told the House Foreign Affairs subcommittee. He spoke through a translator in testimony delivered over the telephone from Cuba.

"I would say to him, that I would love for him to lobby for our freedom of speech and for a multi-party system, so that everyone can participate and be represented," Biscet said. "We hope that his coming will bring great change to our country."

The congressional committee did not announce Biscet's name before the hearing, out of concern that Cuban authorities would detain him before he was able to testify from the U.S. Interests Section in Havana. During the hearing, Biscet's photo was projected on two separate video screens. His image was on several posters propped up along the wall in the hearing room.

President George W. Bush awarded Biscet the Medal of Freedom in 2007 while he was still serving a 25-year sentence for his opposition to Fidel Castro's regime. Biscet accused the Cuban government in the mid-1990s of allowing and covering up botched abortions, and was imprisoned from 1999 to late 2002. He had been free for 37 days when he was arrested again.

Biscet, 50, was freed last March as part of the Cuban government’s decision to release more than 125 political prisoners — a move that came after pressure by the Catholic Church. Some congressional leaders, including Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, R-Miami, have nominated him for a Nobel Prize.

His testimony Thursday came at considerable personal risk and could lead to his re-arrest, he acknowledged. "Everything is possible," Biscet said. "We're under constant supervision."

Judge Adalberto Jordan, UM JD ’87, Confirmed to 11th Circuit

That the Senate has bestirred itself from its gridlock and lethargy long enough to confirm Judge Jordan is really great news. Judge Jordan was not only an uncontroversial pick, he is an excellent pick and a great judge. It is not inconceivable he will be on lists of potential Supreme Court Justices some day.

Obama should take the offensive on Cuba

The U.S. State Department wasn’t terribly smart when it rejected a demand by Latin American populist leaders that Cuba be invited to an April 14 summit of President Barack Obama with 33 hemispheric leaders in Colombia. It should have accepted the petition, and used it to grill Cuba’s military dictatorship in front of a world audience.

The diplomatic ruckus started at a meeting of leftist presidents in Venezuela earlier this month, when Ecuadorean President Rafael Correa proposed that members of the Venezuelan-led ALBA bloc boycott the 5th Summit of the Americas to be held in Cartagena, Colombia, unless Cuba — the only country in the hemisphere excluded from the meeting — was allowed to participate. Venezuela and other countries immediately approved the motion.

U.S. officials responded — sticking to their policy guidelines — that Cuba cannot be invited because under the summit’s rules only democratically elected leaders who are committed to the 34-country Organization of American States’ rules can attend.

Colombia — the host country, which is trying to avoid defections that would mar the summit — sent Foreign Minister Maria Angela Holguin to Havana to try to solve the problem, but she came back empty-handed. She told reporters after the visit that Cuba indeed wants to attend the summit.

The diplomatic impasse is making big headlines in the region. During a visit here, almost everybody I talked to referred to the issue. Not surprisingly, the prevailing narrative in the Colombian press is that the United States is once again punishing a small and proud Caribbean island for its independent foreign policy — the old David vs. Goliath tale, which Cuba has played so often over the years.

So what should Washington do? Instead of rejecting Cuba’s presence, the State Department should have put out a statement saying that Cuban ruler Gen. Raúl Castro is more than welcome to attend the summit as an outside guest to answer several questions, starting with for how long Cuba plans to remain the last military dictatorship in the Western Hemisphere.

More specifically, and given diplomats’ penchant for legal formalities, Gen. Castro should be asked:

Why is Cuba not complying with former President Fidel Castro Ruz’s commitment at the 1996 Sixth Ibero-American Summit in Viña del Mar, Chile, to respect “political pluralism,†“human rights,†and “political freedoms?†At that Summit, Castro signed the Vina del Mar Declaration, which specifically calls for “the freedoms of expression, association and assembly.â€

Needless to say, Cuba still has hundreds of political prisoners — two of whom have recently died from hunger strikes — and allows no opposition parties.

Why is Cuba still violating Article 13 of the United Nations Declaration of Human Rights, which states that “Everyone has the right to leave any country, including his own, and to return to his country� To this day, Cubans need a government permit to be able to leave the island.