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CNN Live Saturday
Interview With Joseph Contreras
Aired June 07, 2003 - 14:44 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
FREDRICKA WHITFIELD, CNN ANCHOR: This week, Cuba's supreme court is hearing the appeals of 75 dissents recently sentenced to prison terms ranging from six to 28 years. Family members say those prisoners are being held under inhumane and cruel conditions in Cuban prisons. Now the Cuban government has been feeling the weight of some international pressure.
CNN's Lucia Newman reports.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
LUCIA NEWMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): The wives of several recently imprisoned dissidents have no illusions as they arrive at Cuba's supreme court to appeal their husbands' harsh sentences.
"I hope I'm wrong, but I honestly don't expect any change, says Miriam Leiva, whose husband, Oscar Espinosa Chepe (ph), is serving a 20-year sentence for opposing the government.
Ignoring widespread international calls for clemency, Cuban supreme court has so far upheld every sentence appealed by the 75 dissidents recently condemned to up to 28 years in prison.
Thursday, the European Union retaliated against what it called "continuing flagrant violations of human rights," announcing sanctions that include limited bilateral high level government visits, reducing participation in cultural events, and a re-evaluation of the EU's position on Cuba, measures considered by observers as somewhere in between a slap on the hand and a slap on the face.
The EU is Cuba's leading trading partner and foreign investor. The Europeans also joined Washington in expressing concern for the physical well-being of the prisoners. Yolanda Wellga (ph) shows a letter written by her dissident journalist husband, Manuel Vasquez Portal (ph), and smuggled out of his cell in (UNINTELLIGIBLE). It speaks of a 1.5 by three meter or 5 by 10 foot cell infested by rats, inedible food and a tiny guard window that lets in rays of sun, the rain and mosquitoes.
Miriam Leiva's husband is also serving time on the other end of the island, in conditions said to be just as bad.
MIRIAM LEIVA, WIFE OF DISSIDENT JOURNALIST: There is no running water. Maybe they receive water once a day, except it's polluted, contaminated water. That's the same water they have to drink. They only have a hole on the floor, and that's supposed to be the toilet.
NEWMAN: Leiva insists her husband's life is at risk and demands he be brought to a Havana hospital to receive treatment for a severe liver ailment.
(on camera): According to their families, most of the dissident prisoners are being kept under a isolation, under a so-called regime of maximum severity, an additional punishment for those described by the government not as political prisoners, but as subversive counterrevolutionaries.
Lucia Newman, CNN, Havana.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
WHITFIELD: So will the European nations' action inspire any changes in what observers consider Cuba's pattern of human rights abuses? Joseph Contreras is a Miami bureau chief for "Newsweek" magazine. He joins us now to talk about that. Good to see you, Joseph.
JOSEPH CONTRERAS, MIAMI BUREAU CHIEF, "NEWSWEEK": Thank you for having me.
WHITFIELD: Well, do you expect that this applied pressure will really do anything?
CONTRERAS: Not at all. First of all, the sanctions adopted by the European Union are symbolic for the most part, involving such things as reducing the number of high-level visits from European countries to Cuba, and vice versa, cutting back on cultural ties and events. And also, if there's one thing that Fidel Castro has shown time and time again, there's simply no stick big enough that will force him into carrying out political reform on the island and opening up space for the opposition and dissidents who oppose his regime.
WHITFIELD: Well, if there is really no force that's big enough to pressure the Castro regime, then why even bother? Why should the EU even get involved?
CONTRERAS: Well, I think there is a matter of conscience here. I think that a lot of Europeans who follow what there is in Cuba felt that it was high time that the European Union take some sort of action against Castro to express those countries' displeasure and disagreement with the crackdown that we saw in March and the execution of three would-be boat hijackers in April. I remember in March when I heard the news about the crackdown, I thought to myself at the time that sooner or later you would be hearing some kind of reaction or reprisal from the Europeans, and here you are. I think it's mostly, again, political and symbolic to show they care about Cuba and the state of human rights.
WHITFIELD: So if as a body the EU is infective, then how about individual countries, such as Germany or even Spain, which are known to have quite a few investments, even helped rejuvenate, or the building of buildings there, the tourism industry is very strong there involving Germans and Spaniards?
CONTRERAS: Certainly those two countries, and also Italy are in a position to go beyond these fairly token sanctions adopted by the European Union as a group, but I don't see Spain, for example, applying pressure on the Melia (ph) Hotel chain to start closing down some of its leisure resorts, and I don't imagine the Germans or Italians adopting some sort of restrictions on tourism visas, again in part because there seems to be no punishment that is going to make Castro change his ways and also...
WHITFIELD: So essentially you don't see any change promoted from this latest measure?
CONTRERAS: No, I don't, not for the foreseeable future anyway.
WHITFIELD: All right, Joseph Contreras, of "Newsweek" magazine, thanks very much for joining us. Appreciate it.
CONTRERAS: Thank you.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
Aired June 7, 2003 - 14:44 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
FREDRICKA WHITFIELD, CNN ANCHOR: This week, Cuba's supreme court is hearing the appeals of 75 dissents recently sentenced to prison terms ranging from six to 28 years. Family members say those prisoners are being held under inhumane and cruel conditions in Cuban prisons. Now the Cuban government has been feeling the weight of some international pressure.
CNN's Lucia Newman reports.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
LUCIA NEWMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): The wives of several recently imprisoned dissidents have no illusions as they arrive at Cuba's supreme court to appeal their husbands' harsh sentences.
"I hope I'm wrong, but I honestly don't expect any change, says Miriam Leiva, whose husband, Oscar Espinosa Chepe (ph), is serving a 20-year sentence for opposing the government.
Ignoring widespread international calls for clemency, Cuban supreme court has so far upheld every sentence appealed by the 75 dissidents recently condemned to up to 28 years in prison.
Thursday, the European Union retaliated against what it called "continuing flagrant violations of human rights," announcing sanctions that include limited bilateral high level government visits, reducing participation in cultural events, and a re-evaluation of the EU's position on Cuba, measures considered by observers as somewhere in between a slap on the hand and a slap on the face.
The EU is Cuba's leading trading partner and foreign investor. The Europeans also joined Washington in expressing concern for the physical well-being of the prisoners. Yolanda Wellga (ph) shows a letter written by her dissident journalist husband, Manuel Vasquez Portal (ph), and smuggled out of his cell in (UNINTELLIGIBLE). It speaks of a 1.5 by three meter or 5 by 10 foot cell infested by rats, inedible food and a tiny guard window that lets in rays of sun, the rain and mosquitoes.
Miriam Leiva's husband is also serving time on the other end of the island, in conditions said to be just as bad.
MIRIAM LEIVA, WIFE OF DISSIDENT JOURNALIST: There is no running water. Maybe they receive water once a day, except it's polluted, contaminated water. That's the same water they have to drink. They only have a hole on the floor, and that's supposed to be the toilet.
NEWMAN: Leiva insists her husband's life is at risk and demands he be brought to a Havana hospital to receive treatment for a severe liver ailment.
(on camera): According to their families, most of the dissident prisoners are being kept under a isolation, under a so-called regime of maximum severity, an additional punishment for those described by the government not as political prisoners, but as subversive counterrevolutionaries.
Lucia Newman, CNN, Havana.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
WHITFIELD: So will the European nations' action inspire any changes in what observers consider Cuba's pattern of human rights abuses? Joseph Contreras is a Miami bureau chief for "Newsweek" magazine. He joins us now to talk about that. Good to see you, Joseph.
JOSEPH CONTRERAS, MIAMI BUREAU CHIEF, "NEWSWEEK": Thank you for having me.
WHITFIELD: Well, do you expect that this applied pressure will really do anything?
CONTRERAS: Not at all. First of all, the sanctions adopted by the European Union are symbolic for the most part, involving such things as reducing the number of high-level visits from European countries to Cuba, and vice versa, cutting back on cultural ties and events. And also, if there's one thing that Fidel Castro has shown time and time again, there's simply no stick big enough that will force him into carrying out political reform on the island and opening up space for the opposition and dissidents who oppose his regime.
WHITFIELD: Well, if there is really no force that's big enough to pressure the Castro regime, then why even bother? Why should the EU even get involved?
CONTRERAS: Well, I think there is a matter of conscience here. I think that a lot of Europeans who follow what there is in Cuba felt that it was high time that the European Union take some sort of action against Castro to express those countries' displeasure and disagreement with the crackdown that we saw in March and the execution of three would-be boat hijackers in April. I remember in March when I heard the news about the crackdown, I thought to myself at the time that sooner or later you would be hearing some kind of reaction or reprisal from the Europeans, and here you are. I think it's mostly, again, political and symbolic to show they care about Cuba and the state of human rights.
WHITFIELD: So if as a body the EU is infective, then how about individual countries, such as Germany or even Spain, which are known to have quite a few investments, even helped rejuvenate, or the building of buildings there, the tourism industry is very strong there involving Germans and Spaniards?
CONTRERAS: Certainly those two countries, and also Italy are in a position to go beyond these fairly token sanctions adopted by the European Union as a group, but I don't see Spain, for example, applying pressure on the Melia (ph) Hotel chain to start closing down some of its leisure resorts, and I don't imagine the Germans or Italians adopting some sort of restrictions on tourism visas, again in part because there seems to be no punishment that is going to make Castro change his ways and also...
WHITFIELD: So essentially you don't see any change promoted from this latest measure?
CONTRERAS: No, I don't, not for the foreseeable future anyway.
WHITFIELD: All right, Joseph Contreras, of "Newsweek" magazine, thanks very much for joining us. Appreciate it.
CONTRERAS: Thank you.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
