ELIAN AND THE THREE STOOGES © 2000 ABIP

Information brought out by Cuban American's visiting their relatives and news from independent journalists living inside Cuba, differs markedly from that provided by CNN, Reuters, American Press and other foreign agencies located in Havana. The professionals are either just doing a poor job or are they going along with Castro's regime in order to keep their posts.

The human rights situation in Cuba is deteriorating by the minute. But the media, distracted on the case of 6-year old Elián González, doesn't seem to notice. According to sources inside Cuba, since the IX Ibero-American Summit there has been a wave of repression where about 600 pro-democracy activists have been either jailed or put under house arrest.

On March 3, the black pro-democracy and human rights activist, Dr. Oscar Elias Biscet (a follower of Ghandi and Martin Luther King), who has been under detention since November 3, 1999, was sentenced to three years in jail. His alleged crimes were "dishonoring the national symbol" for turning the Cuban flag upside-down and "public disorder," and "inciting delinquent behavior." Dr. Biscet and four others quietly displayed signs outside a hospital saying "No to Abortion," "Abortion is Killing Children" (Cuba has one the highest abortion rate in the Americas, according to Dr. Alberto Luzarraga, 100,000 a year) and "No to the Death Sentence."

Dr. Biscet has been arbitrarily detained 26 times in 18 months for his peaceful opposition to human rights violations in Cuba. Political prisoner sources inside the jail where Dr. Biscet has been confined report that he has been "mistreated physically and psychologically, suffering beatings, threats, humiliation, blackmail, intimidating interrogation and arbitrary incarceration in cells along with insane individuals and common criminals."

But the morally corrupt Clinton Administration, with its obstinate dream of normalizing relations with Castro's tyranny before leaving the White House, is oblivious of the increasing tragedy unfolding in Cuba. And to make matters worse it continues insisting on returning Elián to a hellish existence under Castro.

Clearly stated in the 1976 Cuban Communist Constitution, parents do not have rights over their own children. Therefore, they suffer the ravages of the Castro regime from birth. All Cubans who have lived under Castro know that. If Americans ignore this fact it is due to the disservice rendered by the U.S. media.

In the western city of Palma Soriano, the dreaded Rapid Response Brigades (Castro paramilitary thugs) in conjunction with State Security police (SS) attacked 16 peaceful members of the Christian Liberation Movement outside a courthouse.

The gathering was due to the prohibition to enter the court room as is customary in Cuba, thus preventing the family and friends of the accused from witnessing the kangaroo trial, while the room is filled by the SS and members of the Rapid Response Brigades.

After the quick trial of Luis Enrique Ferrer García concluded and he was sentenced to six months of house arrest, he was released to join his family waiting outside. Castro's mobs insulted and attacked him and the others outside, including his 2-year-old niece, Martha Beatriz, who received a blow to the cheekbone. But Clinton, Reno and INS's Commissioner Meissner want to send Elián to Cuba.

According to a description of the incident published by Cuba Free Press in its February issue, "Pavel Rosabal intervened to try to take the baby [2-year old Martha Beatriz] out of the crowd. It [the mob] then concentrated its attack on Rosabal. Someone else rescued the little girl. Rosabal, apparently knocked down headfirst, became unconscious and was taken to the hospital. He remains there in serious condition [brain damage] with total amnesia."

The mob threw Ferrer's 56-year-old mother and 26-year-old sister to the ground pulling her by her hair. According to the report the mob attack lasted "40 minutes or longer."

The report emphasizes the regime's use and abuse of minors: "children from the Palmarito Elementary School have been mobilized by the government in front of the homes of two pacifists (Leonel Grave de Peralta and Reinaldo Rodríguez Urquiada) to shout in unison, 'Down with the counterrevolutionaries! Down with the worms [derogatory term used for pro-democracy supporters]!' Some of the adults in charge of the children were adding their shouts, using obscene phrases." However, Clinton and company still want Elián back in Cuba.

All Cubans know that after a child becomes 11 years old, he or she is sent far from home for between 45 and 60 days per year, to work in the fields day and night without pay. This is no summer camp like in America. Children are subjected to harsh and unsanitary living conditions. According to a recent telephone report that was cut off by the Cuban official in charge of monitoring the conversation, Cuba Free Press independent journalist, Pura Castilla, said that "each child must take his own mattress, bedding, towels and other toiletries. But food is so scarce and of such poor quality that the government often must reduce the number of days of work."

Promiscuity is rampant in the camps. Children often return with venereal diseases and pregnancies as well as lice and parasites. How would Clinton have liked to send Chelsea at age11 to work in the fields under those conditions? Apparently, it is fine with him, Reno and Meissner who are so adamant for Elián to return to that environment.

In the January issue of Cuba Free Press, independent journalist Jaime Leigournier points out that while the Cuban government publicly claims support of the paternity rights of Elian's father, the same government refuses recognition of paternity rights of the parents of Cuban children as a matter of course. "Hundreds of thousands of Cubans living on this island are unable to invoke these rights when their children are taken from them by the Cuban government to be sent to schools in the countryside or to accept 'scholarships' far away from their families and without their consent."

Contrary to Cuban constitutional law, Clinton, Reno and Meissner (a new and improved version of The Three Stooges) publicly claim that Elián's father in Cuba has all the rights over his son. Disregarded is the fact that Elián's father is not allowed by Castro to express his true feelings and come to the U.S. with his family. These devious characters want Elián back in Castro's hands over Elián's dead mother's body.

Orestes Martin Pérez, an independent journalist, reports in Cuba Free Press about another rally commanded by Castro demanding the return of his most-favorite distracting-attention child, Elián. This time on the landing strip of the airport of the eastern province of Pinar del Río. Pérez observes that the majority were students. "It was noticeable how many elementary students had to be rushed by ambulance to a nearby hospital.

"They nearly fainted from fatigue and some parents said later that the children suffered from a nutritional shortage because of the insufficient lunches they received at the cafeterias of the schools they attend." The unique aspect of these rallies is the marked "use of minors. Because of their youthful innocence, they are more easily manipulated, a practice that the public regards with absolute contempt towards those who intend to get political gains with such procedures."

Well, I guess this is all too serious for The Three Stooges.

END

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