Caribbean & Central America - 16 November 2004

CUBA: Political opposition makes its presence felt

Caribbean 17 November 2004 Modified: 17 November 2004 327 views

Prominent dissident leader, Elizardo Sánchez, who heads the Comisión Cubana de Derechos Humanos y Reconciliación Nacional, released a document on 2 November claiming that between 5,000 and 6,000 Cubans had been shot since Fidel Castro launched the Cuban revolution in 1959. The report attributed most of these executions to 'crimes against the state'.

Cuba's dissident movement is struggling to keep itself in the headlines: the release of such reports serve as a constant reminder to the international community that it is still there. Sánchez has spent the best part of the last year rehabilitating his tarnished image. In September 2003, he was first accused of spying for the state by two government journalists in a book called El Camaján ('The Rogue'). At the time, Sánchez confessed that he had regularly met government agents over the years in a bid to secure the release of political prisoners. He denied the charges, made by journalists Arleen Rodríguez and Lázaro Barredo, that he was a government spy operating under the code names Juana and Eduardo, who informed on dissidents and foreign journalists, and exposed CIA agents.

Meanwhile, the leader of Cuba's main opposition movement, Movimiento Cristiano Liberación (MCL), Oswaldo Payá, condemned, this month, the treatment of 75 political dissidents who were imprisoned in March 2003 by the authorities. Payá said that 'the 75', many of whom belonged to the MCL, had been subjected to 'massive torture'.

ECONOMIC OVERVIEW: CUBA

The president of the central bank, Francisco Soberón, claimed the government's decision to make the dollar illegal from 8 November would not lead to a fall in remittance revenues. These amount to anything between US$800m and US$1bn a year, and are the country's biggest source of hard currency. Although Soberón claimed that only a few Cubans receive remittances, the general assumption is that at least a third of Cuban households benefit from remittances. Under the new rules, Cubans earning or receiving dollars have to convert them into convertible pesos (at the 1:1 rate) and pay 10% for the privilege. The dollar had been legal tender since 1993. Other foreign currencies such as Euros, Yen, Canadian dollars, Swiss francs and sterling remain legal tender. Soberón said that the Cuban people deserved a currency of their own, adding that the convertible peso conferred freedom and respect on Cubans. He said that the government was not thinking of extending the use of the euro beyond Cuba's tourist zones. The government took the decision to drop the dollar on 25 October in the wake of Washington's efforts to tighten restrictions on Cuba depositing dollars in foreign banks and to limit the flow of remittances.

Outlook

The government has delayed the start of the 2004/05 sugar harvest until January. Traditionally the sugar harvest begins in December. The sugar harvest used to end in April, but as the amount of sugar produced has dwindled over the past 10 years the harvest has been extended into May and now even June. In the 2003/04 harvest, the country produced just 2.5m t of sugar. In the early 1990s it was regularly producing over 8m t. The postponement of the start of the harvest suggests that the shortages of electricity and the poor weather will make this harvest another poor one. Sugar is the country's biggest export earner.