By Jim Burns. CNSNews.com Senior Staff Writer. August 01,
2001.CNS News
(CNSNews.com) - A delegation of Afro-Cubans, four from the Miami area and
two from the Washington, D.C. area, spent Tuesday on Capitol Hill meeting with
members of the Congressional Black Caucus, hoping to convince them that Fidel
Castro is bad for Cuba and should improve his human rights record there.
Omar Lopez Montenegro of the Cuban Civic National Union was among the
delegation. He was told by the Castro government to leave Cuba several years ago
and has lived in the United States ever since.
"We want to explain to the American people what the real situation is
in Cuba," Montenegro said at a Capitol Hill news conference.
"Blacks in Cuba are unhappy with the system of government. A majority
of blacks living in Cuba are dissidents. Many blacks cannot get government
positions in the arts or politics because of the Castro government. The only
field where blacks have excelled in Cuba is in sports," he said.
Other members of the delegation did not speak English and their remarks were
translated by interpreters from the Cuban-American National Foundation, an
anti-Castro group that was escorting the delegation around Capitol Hill as they
called on members of the Congressional Black Caucus.
The delegation was scheduled to meet with Rep. Eddie Bernice Johnson
(D-Texas), chairperson of the caucus. Reps. Jesse Jackson, Jr. (D-Ill.), Carrie
Meek (D-Fla.), Gregory Meeks (D-N.Y.), Sanford Bishop (D-Ga.), Cynthia McKinney
(D-Ga.), Earl Hilliard (D-Ala.), and Charles Rangel (D-N.Y.).
Selby McCash, a spokesman for Bishop, said the delegation met with the
Georgia congressman but Bishop had no comment on the meeting. Spokespeople for
other CBC members wouldn't confirm or deny that their bosses had met with the
delegation.
The group also lunched with Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (R-Fla.), a Cuban exile
and one of Castro's most vociferous critics in the House.
The delegation carried a letter to caucus members from Bertha Antunez, the
founder of a Cuban dissident group calling itself the "Mothers for General
Amnesty."
In the letter, Antunez said, "The Cuban government tries to fool the
world with siren songs depicting racial equality in our country. But it is all a
farce, as I and my family can attest, having suffered from the systematic racism
directed at us by Castro's followers."
Her brother, Jorge, according to the letter has "suffered the scourge
of racial discrimination in every prison he has been condemned to. The beatings
are always accompanied by racial epithets. They set dogs on him. They deny him
medical attention. They kept him from attending his mother's funeral."
In many of its broadcasts, Radio Havana, the official voice of the Castro
government has denounced the United States and its racial policies. However,
Antunez thinks the Castro government shouldn't be pointing the finger at the
U.S., because Castro hasn't treated blacks very well in Cuba.
"Fidel Castro has often denounced racial discrimination in U.S.
penitentiaries and has decried the high percentage of blacks in the U.S. prison
population. Yet in Cuba, the percentage of blacks in the prison population
hovers between 80 and 89 percent, conservatively estimated," he said.
Antunez also believes the Castro government practices "racial
profiling."
"The racist mentality is so ingrained among Cuba's agents of repression
that when mixed race groups are stopped on the street, only the blacks are asked
for their identification papers," he said.
"I've been told by the political police, 'because you're black you have
to be grateful to revolution for making you equal to whites.' To which I've
answered, before God we are all equal, but among men the only thing that
differentiates us is our conduct, not the color of our skin," Antunez
added.
"The only think I have to thank the (Cuban) revolution for is for
restoring the yoke of slavery that my ancestors lived under," he concluded.
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