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Dissidents' plan would end Cuban crisis
HAVANA, 10 (AFP) - Cuban dissidents presented
a plan they said is needed to keep the Communist
society from coming apart at the seams.
"Mounting discontent could trigger
a social explosion," Todos Unidos coordinator
Vladimiro Roca said at the presentation
held at his home.
The banned coalition of dissident groups
released its 15-page plan, "Proposal
to Resolve Cuban Society's Grave Problems,"
based on interviews with 30,000 Cubans between
December 2002 and August 2003.
"This program is not meant to cause
a transition but urgent, necessary changes,"
such as adequate food and housing, Roco
said.
"Cuba's top salaries are not enough
to live on."
Roca is a former combat pilot and political
prisoner. He accused President Fidel Castro
(news - web sites)'s government of, "with
its implacable attitude, preventing the
Cuban people from bettering their living
standard."
Roca asked Cubans to join the effort to
bring change to the Caribbean island's Communist
government.
The plan touches on the economy, education,
human rights and seeks the release of 300
jailed dissidents of the Cuban Commission
for Human Rights and Reconciliation.
"We would like all Cubans, within
and without Cuba and even government officials,
including Fidel Castro himself to participate
in this discussion," he said.
"We do not want anyone left out."
The plan seeks higher wages, lower prices,
depoliticization of teaching and free access
to communication media owned by the state.
Roca is son of Cuban Communist Party founder
Blas Roca and is attached to social democrats
on the island.
"We will pass this material around,
trying to reach the largest number of people
possible so that they present it to their
regional representatives," of the National
Assembly, he said.
Cuban Committee for Human Rights and Reconciliation
President Elizardo Sanchez Santa Cruz, human
rights lawyer Rene Gomez Manzano and Assembly
for the Promition of Civil Society member
Felix Bonne also attended.
Roca said Castro used a possible US invasion
to justify "the current state of repression
of the people and dissidents."
In March, the government jailed 75 activists
in what the group called "deplorable
conditions."
Cuban Dissidents Request Civil Rights
By ANDREA RODRIGUEZ, Associated
Press Writer
HAVANA, 10 - A leading dissident group
on Tuesday unveiled a list of proposals
to achieve peaceful change in Cuba, calling
for free speech, private business ownership
and the formation of labor unions.
The 36 demands were announced by Vladimiro
Roca, a former military pilot who broke
with the socialist government more than
a decade ago and began calling for a Western-style
democracy.
Roca, spokesman for the opposition United
For All Movement, said he plans to submit
the proposals to the local district representative,
the lowest level of government, in hopes
they will reach the National Assembly.
"The intention is to mobilize people
using the (government) mechanisms that they
have available to them," Roca said.
Roca said the proposals are a step toward
the goal of achieving peaceful change on
the communist island.
The proposals ask that Cubans be allowed
to come and go from the island without restrictions,
buy and sell cars and houses, run their
own businesses, form unions, subscribe to
the Internet and buy cable television.
Last month, a government law went into
effect restricting most Internet access
over the low-cost government phone service
Cubans have at home.
Amnesty International criticized the measure
as "yet another attempt to cut off
Cubans' access to alternative views and
a space for discussing them."
There was no immediate comment Tuesday
from the government, but Cuban authorities
have criticized dissidents in the past for
appealing to the international media.
Cuba's best-known opposition drive has
been the Varela Project, a signature-gathering
initiative that seeks deep changes in the
island's socialist system. The Cuban government
has rejected the project's proposals, saying
they are unconstitutional.
Cuban authorities Tuesday defended their
human rights record, saying much of the
criticism has come from groups whose only
aim is to bring down the government.
There is no torture or forced killing in
Cuba, civil rights exist, and all citizens
are guaranteed free health care and monthly
food allocations, said deputy Foreign Minister
Abelardo Moreno.
Various nations that long supported Cuba
have begun to criticize the communist island
for its human rights record.
The international censure intensified last
March when Cuba punished 75 Cuban dissidents
with long prison sentences based on charges
that they working with U.S. diplomats to
undermine Cuba's socialist system. American
officials and the activists denied the accusations.
Moreno said the United States uses criticism
of Cuba's human rights record to maintain
economic sanctions against the island.
Cubans on Floating Buick Returned Home
MIAMI, 10 (AP) - Eight Cubans who tried
to reach the United States in a 1959 Buick
converted into a boat were sent back to
their homeland Tuesday by the Coast Guard.
A judge has not decided what to do with
three others who were in the car.
The Cuban family of three remained on a
Coast Guard cutter at sea while a federal
judge in Miami decided whether they have
any right to enter the United States.
The group of 11 was intercepted at sea
after being spotted aboard the tailfinned
boat by a U.S. patrol plane off the Florida
Keys.
Luis Grass Rodriguez, his wife and 4-year-old
son are being treated differently because
U.S. diplomats had interviewed him in Havana
on a visa request after a previous attempt
to reach the United States over the summer
in a Chevy pickup truck converted into a
boat.
With few exceptions, U.S. policy allows
Cubans who reach U.S. soil to stay but turns
back anyone intercepted at sea.
Ninety Cubans intercepted on three suspected
smuggling missions in recent days have been
returned to Cuba, authorities said.
Castro Signs Baseballs, Talks U.S. Ties
By LISA J. ADAMS, Associated
Press Writer
HAVANA, 9 - President Fidel Castro signed
baseballs, handed out cigars and flower
bouquets and discussed increased ties with
the United States in a meeting Monday with
two Republican legislators who want to lift
a ban on U.S. travel to Cuba.
Sen. Larry Craig and U.S. Rep. Butch Otter,
both of Idaho, "are pushing very hard
to lift the travel restrictions," said
Craig spokesman Mike Tracy, who attended
the encounter with Castro at the Palace
of the Revolution. The 22 other members
of the trade and cultural delegation were
also present, Tracy said.
Their meeting with Castro took place as
the Bush administration announced it would
freeze the bank accounts of companies controlled
by the Cuban government or Cuban nationals
that sell Americans illegal travel packages
to the communist island.
Craig told reporters Saturday he thought
the travel ban would be lifted by next year.
He spoke after Idaho delegation members
signed trade and cultural agreements with
the Cuban government in front of Ernest
Hemingway's former estate outside Havana.
Castro "didn't touch on the most difficult
of the issues - the strained relationship
with the U.S. - but he did talk about wanting
to work closer with the U.S. and to have
more trade with the U.S.," Tracy said
in a telephone interview with The Associated
Press.
The president and the congressmen talked
about "everything from bread, to electricity
production, to salmon recovery in the Pacific
Northwest," Tracy said.
Otter and Craig were on their way out of
the country Monday afternoon and were unavailable
for comment.
Castro accepted three bottles of red, white,
and blush wines and a color photo book on
Idaho from the delegation, whose meeting
with the president capped a four-day visit
to the island.
In exchange, the communist leader gave
his guests boxes of Cuba's famous cigars
and flower bouquets, and signed baseballs
and photographs of himself taken with delegation
members.
Idaho officials plan to return to the island
to take part in a trade exhibition in April
and said they hoped to invite Cuban officials
to the state to participate in educational
and cultural exchanges.
On Saturday, Cuba's food import company,
Alimport, signed an agreement to buy $10
million worth of Idaho agricultural products,
while the curators of Hemingway's respective
houses in Idaho and Cuba inked an accord
to exchange information on the late writer's
life and work.
Cuba has signed more than $700 million
in food-purchase agreements with U.S. firms
since the U.S. government authorized the
sale of food and medicine to Cuba in 2000.
Cuba began such purchases in 2001.
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