Distributed by CubaNet-Org.
HAVANA, January 7, 1997 (BPIC).- The president of Oriente Press, Rafaela Lasalle, was detained at her home at around 3 in the afternoon by State Security captain Quintin Perez Rivero, and was kept at the provincial department of said repressive organization, located in the neighborhood of Versailles in the city of Santiago de Cuba, this according to the information issued to BPIC Nicolas Rosario Rozabal, of the Independent Press Agency in Cuba (APIC).
Rozabal states that this inprisonment is part of the repressive operative unleashed in this eastern locality last December 9th which has led to many arrests of members of the peaceful opposition groups and members of the independent press.
Rafael Lasalle, who worked for many years in national radio stations, where he earned numerous awards for his professionalism, founded in October, 1996, the Oriente Press agency. Reported by Lazaro Lazo.
2. Two military officers are accused of corruption.
HAVANA, January 7, 1997 (BPIC).- A state tribunal at the site of tourism transportation in Trinidad, one of the most important sites for this purpose in the island, concluded with the expulsion of two military officers of the Communist Party in Cuba, accused of corruption and illicit enrichment.
The director of the center, Jorge Mun~oz Macavi, and his wife, Laura Terreiro Linar, periodically subjected the taxi drivers at the Transtur S.A. job site, to labor evaluations and processes with the premeditated objective of firing them and later sell their vacant slots in the black market, at high rates, in dollars.
Mun~oz and Terreiro, collaborators at the Interior Ministry, had all of their previous distinctions and appointments removed, some of which they held since 1980, and shortly will be tried for corruption in the courts.
During 1996, similar cases were identified in enterprises such as Cubanacan and Panataxis, according to opposition sources from Havana. Reported by Olance Nogueras Rofes.
3. Spanish-Cuban joint venture for television station is scrapped.
HAVANA, January 7, 1997 (BPIC).- A Spanish corporation for audiovisual technologies, Multimedia S.A. scrapped plans for a joint venture with Cuban corporation RTV Comercial, a project which sought to install in Cuba a commercial satellite web, which would target hispanics from the southern portion of the United States all the way to Argentina.
According to a source at the Cuban Institute of Radio and Television, the backdown on the part of the Spaniards was due to governmental obstacles and to their fear of making a bad investment. The fact that 95 percent of the employees would be Cuban, without experience in market policies, and that the upper management would be controlled by ex-functionaries of state-controlled Cuban television, endangered the viability of such a business deal, said the source.
The project, called Canal del Sol Internacional, was led by Antonio Somoza, an experienced Spanish journalist who, since his arrival in the island, turned down the inclusion of political material in the series which was broadcasted from Havana.
Multimedia S.A. held the exclusive rights to the conservation and commercialization of the film and news library of the official Cuban Institute of Radio and Television, and was undertaking public relations duties. Directors from RTV Comercial refused to comment on the breakup. Reported by Olance Nogueras Rofes.
4. General Universo Sanchez accused of murder.
Havana, January 7th, 1997. (BPIC).- Brigade General Universo Sanchez, one of the original members of the assault on the Moncada Barracks (1953) who also took part in the Granma landing, murdered about four years ago, in Havana, an Interior Ministry captain by the name of Emiliano Avila, this according to a source close to the victim's family.
Avila, originally from Cumanayagua, to the East of Cienfuegos, received two shots, one on the forehead and another one on his chest, during a meeting which gathered the member of the territorial nucleus of the Communist Party of Cuba in this capital city.
The captain, who was active in the commission of services and also worked as the commerce and gourmet sector director for this region, denounced improprieties committed by the brigade general who was in the habit of taking two liters of milk from the dairy warehouse for this region without permission, thereby daily undercutting the quota allotted for children under 7 years of age.
Overpowering and vindictive, Universo Sanchez could not stand criticism and took out his pistol and, pointing it directly to Avila's head, did not shy away from taking his life with the first shot. Seconds later, he walked towads the body and shot him again a second time. Sanchez placed the weapon on the table and, looking at the astonished journalists, said: "Go ahead, call the police. I'm going to get a brush, paste, soap and towel".
The commandant from the Sierra Maestra was sentenced to six months house arrest by a Havana tribunal. The victim's family has been coerced by the State Security mechanisms not to talk about the case. Reported by Olance Nogueras Rofes.
5. Anti-government graffiti in San Miguel del Padron.
HAVANA, January 7, 1997 (BPIC).- Anti-governmental graffiti opens the year 1997 in different locations in the San Martin neighborhood, San Miguel del Padron municipality, in the capital, this according to the information given to the Independent Press Bureau in Cuba by a resident of the area who preferred to remain anonymous.
In the addresses between Second Street between Central and Guarina, as well as, Central between First and Second streets, popular discontent has been manifested, asserted the source, as someone painted the walls, columns, and porches with slogans such as: "Down with Fidel'", "Freedom for political prisoners", "We want democracy and free elections".
The most significant part of this was that this expression from the citizenry, written against the regime, spread over a distance of 250 meters, underlined the source. Reported by Luis Lopez Prendes.
6. Crime which took place in Guantanamo on August 1996 is still unsolved.
HAVANA, January 7, 1997 (BPIC). A crime which took place in Guantanamo province on August 30, 1996 remains without punishment, in spite of the efforts by Mrs. Nereida Sanchez Hernandez, mother and grandmother of the victims.
"The victims", stated Sanchez, "who were named Caridad Sanchez Hernandez and Magda Iris Palma Sanchez, 32 and 4 years old respectively, were found dead, the woman was found floating on the water and the child was found 50 meters away at the Guanta damn, Niceto Perez municipality".
"I was not able to attend the burial of my loved ones", stated a griefstricken Mrs. Sanchez, "because I was told six days after the mishap. My grand-daughter's body was eaten by wild dogs, and they only found the skull and three ribs", she stated.
Preliminary investigations were undertaken by Ulises, an expert for the National Police in La Yaya, according to the source, and the case was later transferred to the Penal Instructions sector for the province, under instructor Pedro Beltran.
"Since they wanted to close the case", according to the original document submitted by Sanchez to the General Prosecutor for the Republic dated September 16, 1996, "since there's an alleged criminal in prison, and another one still on the lose, the first one having being found in possession of my daughter's identification card and some other belongings, and the other one for probable cause, details of which I would have to tell you in person, in addition to some rumors which deserve additional investigation, such as the rumor that my daughter's neck was torn, and there's also a letter, which I have, which might shed some light (on the crime)".
"The prosecutor has not replied to me", said Mrs. Sanchez. "I also contacted the Party at the provincial capital level, they said that last December 10, in reference to PS1311-96 case, by Mrs. Georgina Gonzalez Uranga, head of the office for Taking Care of the Population, they suggested that I take the case to the General Directorship of the National Police".
"Without stating the date or details", stated Mrs. Sanchez, "I contacted the Provincial Party offices. My daughter and my grand-daughter are dead, and I have great sorrow in my soul, but still no one has given me an answer as to their murder", concluded the source. Reported by Luis Lopez Prendes.
7. Prosecutor asks for jail term for psychologist who denounced corruption.
HAVANA, January 8, 1997 (BPIC).- The prosecutor at the First Court of the Provincial Tribunal in the city of Havana requested a prison sentence of 7 years 6 months to be given to the psychologist who denounced administrative corruption at the Children's Hospital Pedro Borras in the capital city, an activist for the Democratic Bloc Jose Marti communicated to BPIC.
The accused man, licensee Guillermo Farin~as Hernandez, who was working at the medical center last year, warned his supervisor, Dr. Ana Lourdes Goyre Wilson, and also the officer in charge of the Department of Technical Investigations in charge of this job site, of funneling donated goods given to the hospital.
Upon seeing the passive reaction of the competent authorities in stopping the corruption, Farin~as Hernandez issued verbal threats to the director, which led to his trial and subsequent fine of 600 quotas in pesos, something which provoked an outburst by the accused against his supervisor. He was subsequently accused of attempted murder and taken to the prison at Valle Grande, where he remained 5 months waiting for a new trial.
Last December 19, at the summons on cause 710 for 1996, after Farin~as heard the prosecutor's request for a sentence of 7 years 6 months, he was expelled from the courtroom by the presiding judge, Lic. Elisa Aragon Fontanar, who had allowed him to speak, after he uttered these words: "I'm going to find out the full name of the prosecutor because I need Cubans like this, the kind who want to face crimes and I'm hereby inviting him to cooperate with us in forming a nongovernmental organization to combat corruption through denouncing it forcefully, an organization which will only require one to be a patriotic Cuban and to view honesty as a social virtue necessary to all. In Cuba, there are no rights", concluded the activist who was sentenced to 7 years and 6 months. The trial continued without his presence in the courtroom. Reported by Luis Lopez Prendes.
8. Peaceful political activist Hector Palacios Ruiz is jailed.
HAVANA, January 9, 1997 (BPIC).- Hector Palacios Ruiz, President of Democratic Solidarity Party, was subjected to a search of his home and later arrested at 8 o'clock today, Thursday, according to the information given to BPIC by Adolfo Fernandez Saiz, member of the Democratic Solidarity Party leadership.
Fernandez Saiz added that the search lasted three hours and the agents confiscated documents concerning party meeting's minutes, lists of political prisoners and documents involving the Cuban Council and the Feminine Front, among others. Also literature and cassettes with recorded music. The police officers who conducted the search omitted the reason for the search, according to Fernandez Saiz, who added that those persons who went to Palacios Ruiz's residence were told to leave that also prohibited from answering in-coming phone calls.
Once the search ended, the leader of the Democratic Solidarity Party was taken to the (police) unit located in Zapata and C in Vedado, by a Lieutenant who did not want to be identified, but whose police badge number was #1257. This officer said that once the preliminary investigation concluded, Palacios Ruiz would be transferred to the site of the Department of Technical Investigations, the well-known jail at 100 and Aldabo, in the municipality of Boyeros. Reported by Luis Lopez Prendes.
9. Independent journalists in Santiago de Cuba are detained and issued warnings.
Havana, January 9, 1997 (BPIC).- Journalists Rafaela Lasalle and Daisy Carcaces from the Oriente Press agency were taken on January 7 and 8, respectively, to the provincial department of State Security in the Santiago locality of Versalles, where they were held for several hours.
They were both warned, by officers of the Interior Ministry, to stop their activities in the non-official press, otherwise they would be tried by a tribunal which would possibly lead to jail sentences.
Since December 9, the authorities in charge of political repression in the city of Santiago de Cuba, have maintained an operative of arrests of members of the internal opposition movement and independent journalists. Reported by Lazaro Lazo