Exclusiva
The Headlines From Around Latin America and the Hispanic World
David Puente is the anchor for ABC News' "Exclusiva." He regularly reports on immigration and politics in Latin America and the Hispanic community in the U.S.
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SAME OLD QUESTIONS - SAME OLD ANSWERS BUT IMPORTANT TO HEAR
June 15, 2006 12:21 PM
Although a 2005 report by the Committee to Protect Journalists named Cuba as one of the world's leading jailers of journalists, second only to China, Cuba's head of parliament Ricardo Alarcon told the National Assocation of Hispanic journalists yesterday that no independent journalists were imprisoned in Cuba. He claimed there were CIA operatives who called themselves journalists in jail but they were agents of the United States. He also blamed the U.S. embargo for the lack of Internet access on the island. So of course the question came up again - is the embargo the great evil for Fidel's government, or it's best friend?
And is Fidel Castro ill? Does he have Alzheimer's or Parkinson's. No way! "I would say that Fidel Castro is very, very strong and healthy. More than you would imagine," Alarcon said. "He doesn't have any of those diseases that are from time to time attributed to him."
So the same old answers to the same old questions we've been asking the Cuban government for decades. It was important to hear it again however. At the NAHJ convention Hispanic journalists from around the country had the chance to hear the back and forth. Many of them are not as familiar, as South Florida's journalists are, with Cuban politics. And for the Cuban-exile community a sense that their voice was heard through one of their own. The journalist selected to pose questions to Mr. Alarcon, Mirta Ojito, arrived in the US during the Marielito boat lift. Ojito, an author and Columbia University journalism professor who has worked for The New York Times was as Ralph De La Cruz says in his Miami Herald column today, the voice for millions of Cuban exiles directly challenging the Cuban government.
Outside the convention, more than a dozen women dressed in black protested Alarcon's interview. They held posters of 24 journalists imprisoned in Cuba.
Click here for to watch a discussion of Alarcon's speech.
June 15, 2006 | Permalink | User Comments (1)
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Even though Mr. Alarcon gave the same old answers to the same old questions, the back-and-forth exchange of dialogue is extremely important for those who aren't completely familiar with the situation. I'd have been much more surprised if Mr. Alarcon actually leveled with his questioners by saying that Cuba jails any independent journalist who dares question the established order and that Castro's health, and quite possibly his mental acuity, is declining. (Of course, if he had said that, he'd probably be quickly jailed with some of those independent journalists who are really "CIA operatives!")
Posted by: chuck | Jun 15, 2006 1:46:51 PM
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