Chilean businessman, ex-minister get long-term sentences

Max Marambio (l) and Castro in the "friendship" times.

Ending a one-year trial, a provincial court in Havana sentenced a former food industry minister and a Chilean investor to long prison terms.

A report in Granma said ex Food Industry Minister Alejandro Francisco Roca Iglesias must serve 15 years, after the court convicted him in March of “repeated bribery” and “acts to harm economic activity,” while Max Marambio, who was sentenced in absence, must serve 20 years on convictions of bribery, fraud and falsification.

In both cases, the court followed the guidance of prosecutors.

Marambio, via his Twitter account from Chile, denounced the sentencing as “pure political persecution” and challenged the Cuban government to ask a Chilean court for his extradition. “They never sent anything,” he wrote.

He was represented by a court-appointed defender. The political insider-turned-businessman and long-time resident of Cuba has not returned to the island since fall 2009. He filed legal proceedings against Cuba before the court of arbitration of the Paris-based International Chamber of Commerce (ICC) in October 2010.

The Havana court’s ruling can be appealed before the Superior Court within 10 days.

Neither did the Granma article provide any details of the allegations, nor has there been any other official information as to what the pair’s alleged crimes actually consisted of.

“The charges of the prosecution were duly proven, and [the court] took into account that the crimes committed are of particular seriousness, requiring an energetic response for punishment that corresponds to the many damages to the national economy caused by the accused, to the detriment of the ethical behavior of various officials and subordinated workers,” Granma said, without explaining details.

Marambio claims part of the accusations stem from his paying generous benefits to Cuban employees. According to Chilean press reports, Roca is accused of making considerable bank deposits abroad from illicit commissions. A son of Roca’s works for Marambio in Chile.

The sentencing puts an end to a two-year investigation and trial that prompted broad media coverage in Chile. It comes on the heels of several cases of destitution and investigation against state company executives, most recently the imprisonment of a long-term executive at cigar company Habanos S.A. on corruption charges.

Roca Iglesias.

Roca Iglesias, 75, was minister of food industries from 1976 to March 2009. He lost his minister job the same time as Foreign Minister Felipe Pérez Roque and Vice President Carlos Lage.

Marambio, 63, made it into Cuba’s inner circles of power under Fidel Castro. The former student leader in Chile and body guard of President Salvador Allende fled to Cuba after the 1973 coup, where he became a member of Cuba’s special forces, and founding chief executive of the CIMEX holding — today Cuba’s largest business conglomerate. In the 1990s, he used his close relationship with the Cuban government to build a thriving business, the Havana-based Alimentos Río Zaza joint venture. Early last year, the government shut down Río Zaza, which produced and sold processed food products in Cuba to the tune of $100 million a year, and took back Marambio’s house in Havana.

As of October, two Río Zaza executives were imprisoned in relation to the investigation, according to Marambio; the government hasn’t released any information about related cases.

Source: Cuba Standard

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Cuban dictatorship: Fidel Castro Is Not Augusto Pinochet

Castro with Pinochet in Chile, 1971

My essay "Fidel Castro is not Augusto Pinochet" is the traditional story of the Third World’s apathy towards the Cuban Dictatorship...For many reasons, I think that Castro is much worse dictator than Augusto Pinochet...

INTRODUCTION:
Since 1960 Fidel and Raul Castro have send a sinister example to Third World nations. The number of countries which democratically governed and respect human rights is decreasing since 2004. Today there are many dictatorships: Thailand [2006], Venezuela, Zimbabwe…


OPPOSITION BY ANTI-PINOCHET GROUPS
Miss Chile, Jenny Purtho Arap, was eliminated in the first round at the Miss Universe Pageant on July 26, 1982, in Lima, Peru’s capital city. Certainly, she, a girl with charming personality and beautiful eyes, was the big favorite by the international journalism. I think that Chile should have been crowned Miss Universe in my country. I believe that she was robbed of title for political reasons.

One of the major problems which Chilean dictatorship had to face was the international boycott campaign. From 1973 to 1989 Chile suffered international sanctions. Different from Cuba, many countries did not have diplomatic relations with Augusto Ramon Pinochet Ugarte, who ruled from 1973 to 1990. Many Chileans did not get VISA, an example was Claudio Arrau, one of the best pianists in the history. The same history of Israel, Taiwan, Rhodesia (currently Zimbabwe) and South Africa (Apartheid).

Ironically, The People’s Republic of China and Romania recognized the Chilean dictatorship. Under the leadership of Mao Tse-tung and Jiang Qing, First Lady of the Chinese Revolution, China and Chile had maintained good diplomatic relations. However, Pinochet Ugarte was harshly attacked by the USSR, Cuba, East Germany, Mexico, Sweden, Italy and Norway.

In 1980 Ferdinand Marcos, dictator of Philippines, invited Augusto Pinochet to come to his country. On March, 1980, he left Santiago de Chile for Philippines and made transit stops in Fidji, an ex British colony, and Tahiti. When Augusto Pinochet arrived Suva, the capital city of Fiji, a small country in the South Pacific, some human rights activists were waiting for him. There were protests against Chilean dictator’s visit. His tour had already begun when the tour was cancelled abruptly at the last moment by the dictatorship Ferdinand and Imelda Marcos.

1976: In the Davis Cup final match, the Chileans lost to Italy, but the team from Chile had a particularly difficult tournament. In Rome, a group of people blocked the entrance to stadium before the match between Chile and Italy, chanting: "Pinochet is a dictator"…"He is a genocide"…Pinochet is Hitler"…and "Pinochet is the worst dictator in the history". Certainly, Chile’s participation again became an issue.

Many famous people went to Festival Internacional de la Canción Viña del Mar, but they were criticized by human rights activists and journalists. Camilo Sesto, Spanish singer, was called "Camilochet". In July 1978, the Mexican government objected to the presence of Miss Chile, Marianne Muller, in the Miss Universe Pageant beauty in Acapulco, Mexico. Another example: Jorge Luis Borges was considered one of the best writers in the 20th Century. He was nominated several times for the Nobel Prize for Literature, but Borges was never awarded the Noble Prize by Swedish Academy. Why? In 1976 Argentinean writer Jorge Luis Borges visited Chile. Cuba would have wanted to have a writer like him…

The Chilean dictator Augusto Jose Ramon Pinochet never was accepted by the Latin America Community and Third World countries. Pinochet became notorious for human rights abuses and corruption. From 1973 to 1989, more than 3,000 Chileans were killed by Pinochet’s Secret Police Force. His autocratic and anti-communism style of rule earned him many enemies.

THE STUDENT SURPASS THE TEACHER
In comparison to Augusto Pinochet and Rafael Leonidas Trujillo Molina, Fidel Alejandro Castro Ruz, whose father was a Spanish immigrant, is not famous like dictator… He is called "Third World spokesman" Why? Unfortunately people that don’t know Cuba very much think that Castro is a "good man". Honestly, he never has been compared to Francois "Papa Doc" Duvalier, former dictator of Haiti, and Charles Taylord. "The student always surpass the teacher" is my favorite slogan. In my opinion, I think that Castro´s Communist dictatorship is worse than the former Chilean. Dictatorship.

Cuba is one of the few nations in the world in which a family controls the government. From 1960 to 2006 Fidel Castro was President of the Council of State and Council of Ministers, First Secretary of the Communist Party of Cuba…Currently, Raul Castro Ruz, Fidel’s brother, is the Head of State. They claim that Cuba has the most highest human development rate in the Third world and that Cubans live better in the Island than in South Korea, Singapore, Taiwan and India. During Cold War, Cuba received more money per capita than the Socialist Republic of Ethiopia, one of the most poorest nations on Earth.

The country’s resources are used to build Olympic projects devised by dictator’s megalomania. Cuba has one of the most highest suicide rates in the world and the Island has the highest number of abortions in Latin America in relation to its population. Ironically, the standard of human development is going down. Ultimately the prostitution is increasing alarmingly in the Island. The dictatorship restricts such liberties as freedom speech and freedom of the press. Under the socialism, the government has imposed sharp restrictions on artists who criticize the dictatorial system. Reports Without Borders considers Cuba one of the "15 enemies of the Internet". More than 300 artists and writers have defected since 1960: Jose Manuel Carbonell (poet), Lydia Cabrera (writer), Ernesto Caparros (photographer), Ernesto Lecuona (pianist), Guillermo Cabrera Infante (writer), Enrique Labrador (writer), Jesus Diaz (film maker) Nestor Almendros (film maker) and Jorge Esquivel (dancer).

KILLINGS FIELDS AND GAYS
Cuba’s dictatorship was one of the first states in the world that prohibited homosexuality. The general gays rights situation under Cuban Revolution was catastrophic during the 1960s, 1970s and 1980s.Many gays were jailed, tortured and exiled by Castro’s "Olympic Paradise"…Reynaldo Arenas, a gay writer, was imprisoned several times because of his longtime opposition to Cuban rule. After release, Arenas wrote his autobiography, with the title "Antes que anochezca" (Before night falls).

The Cuban Secret Police is extensively used by Fidel and Raul Castro to suppress and disrupt pro-democratics movements. However, a number of protests against human rights violation are organized by Las Damas de Blanco. Las Damas de Blanco have been compared to Las Madres de la Plaza de Mayo (Argentina), who fought against the dictator Jorge Rafael Videla.

Unfortunately, some Third World democracies support the Cuban government for economical reasons. Cuba has sent more than 6,000 doctors, coaches, technicians and teachers around the world. Furthermore there are 15,000 foreign students in the Island.

I would like to finish my essay "Fidel Castro is not Augusto Pinochet" with my favorite personal motto: "Only oppression should fear the full exercise of freedom" by Jose Marti.


By Alejandro Guevara Onofre

REFERENCES:
Alzota, Julio. "Hoy en el Perú surgirá la más bella del Universo", La Prensa, Lima, 26 de julio 1982.
-Bonilla, Juan José-Payan, Miguel-López, José-Villalba, Susana. Diccionario Mundial de Actores, Ediciones JC, Madrid, 1998
-Caputo, Robert. "Ethiopia Revolution in Ancient Empire"; National Geographic, Washington DC, may 1983
-Diccionario de Literatura Cubana (tomos I y II), Editorial Letras Cubanas, La Habana, 1980
-Diccionario Sopena de Literatura de Literatura (tomo I), Editorial Ramón Sopena, Barcelona, 1991
-Documental: El Caso Pinochet /Chile/ 2001
-Encyclopaedia Británica Book of The Year 1977, 1981, 1984, Encyclopaedia Britannica. Chicago
-Freedom in the World. The Annual Survey of Political Rights and Civil Liberties 1992-93, Freedom House, 1993
-Gasparini, Juan. Mujeres de Dictadores, Ediciones Península, Barcelona, 2002
-Grondona, Mariano. "La otra Cuba", Visión, Miami, diciembre de 1993
-Guevara Onofre, Alejandro. "Crisis de Supervivencia en Cuba", Diario El Peruano, Lima, 25 de agosto de 1992
-Guía del Mundo 1993-94, Instituto del Tercer Mundo, Montevideo, 1992
-Guzmán, Patricio. Documental: La Batalla de Chile (II)/Chile/ 1977
-Huntington, Samuel. The Third Wave. Democratization in the Latre Twentieth Century, University Oklahoma Press, Norman, 1991
-Informatodo 1970, Editorial Reader´s Digest, México, 1969
-Informe sobre Desarrollo Humano 1991-2006, PNUD, New York
-Jorge, Antonio. The Cuban Economy: Dependency and Development, University of Miami, Miami, 1989
-Lande, Carl. "The Return of People Power in The Philippines", Journal of Democracy, Washington DC, January 2001
-Miller, Nicola. Soviet Relations with Latin America 1959-1987, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 1989
-Roca, Ana. "Charlemos con Reinaldo Arenas: un escritor en el exilio", Americas, Washington DC, septiembre de 1981
-Roca, Sergio. Socialist Cuba: Past Interpretations and Future Challenges, Westview Press, London
-Rodriguez Elizondo, José. Crisis y Renovación de las Izquierdas, Editorial Andres Bello, Santiago, 1995
-Suchlicke, Jaime. The Cuban Military under Castro, University of Miami, Miami, 1989
-Taufic, Camilo. Chile en la Hoguera, Ediciones Corregidor, Buenos Aires, 1974
-The World Almanac and Book of Facts 1975-2006, The World Almanac Books, New York, New Jersey
-Vargas Llosa, Mario. "El Lenguaje de la Pasión", Peisa, Lima, 2000
-Zandrox. "Una de ellas puede ser Miss Universo", Extra, Lima, 26 de julio 1982 

From: Buzzle

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Members of the Cuban medical team defect in Chile

Around 500 Cuban doctors working in the program "Barrio Adentro" already defected in Venezuela

Two Cuban doctors and an anesthesiologist, members of the Henry Reeve Cuban Emergency Medical Brigade sent to Chile to help after a Feb. 27 earthquake, have decided to stay in the South American country.

Cuban Ambassador Ileana Diaz-Arguelles has confirmed the defections to Cooperativa radio station, saying it was the trio's personal decision. She says that "there are people who value material questions more."

The leader of the Cuban dissident community in Chile, Mikail Bonito, says he has been informed of the situation but hasn't had contact with the three.

Local media reported Friday that one of the doctors and the anesthesiologist worked in a field hospital in Rancagua, while the third worked in Chillan.

The magnitude-8.8 quake killed 521 people and caused $30 billion in damage.
Henry Reeve Cuban Emergency Medical Brigade

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Cuba frees 17th journalist jailed in Black Spring

New York, October 12, 2010 -- Cuban journalist Alfredo Felipe Fuentes, left, was freed from prison on Friday and exiled to Spain as part of a July agreement between the Havana government and the Catholic Church. Seventeen journalists jailed in the 2003 Black Spring crackdown have now been freed and exiled as part of the agreement. "I feel as if I was born again, trying to get used to cell phones, personal computers and emails, all things that were barely known in Cuba before I was jailed," Fuentes told CPJ in a telephone interview.

Fuentes said that he never wanted to leave Cuba, but seven years of incarceration made it too hard to stay. "It was a difficult decision, but even more difficult was to turn down the offer and remain in jail," he explained.

Fuentes, a freelance reporter originally based in the city of Artemisa, began serving a 26-year prison term in March 2003. He arrived in Madrid shortly after noon on Friday, accompanied by ten members of his family.

In July, the Catholic Church brokered an agreement with Cuban authorities to release 52 political prisoners who were arrested seven years ago, during a massive government crackdown on political dissent and independent journalism. Spanish government officials also participated in the talks.

All 17 of the reporters released so far have been immediately flown to Spain. (One has since relocated to Chile.)

Three journalists arrested in the 2003 crackdown remain in jail, along with another journalist imprisoned at a later time, CPJ research shows. The first three--including CPJ awardee Héctor Maseda--have already expressed their desire to stay in Cuba upon release, the reporters' families told CPJ.

A story published in September by the Madrid-based daily El País quoted Spanish officials as saying that imprisoned reporters who want to stay in Cuba upon release will be freed through a parole program. The Cuban government has not confirmed the existence of such a program.

Below is a capsule report on Fuentes' case from CPJ's annual census of jailed journalists, conducted in December 2009.

Alfredo Felipe Fuentes, freelance
Imprisoned: March 19, 2003

Fuentes, an economist by training, began working for the Cuban independent press in 1991. On March 19, 2003, he was arrested after a raid on his home in the city of Artemisa. The next month, the freelance reporter was convicted of violating Article 91 of the Cuban penal code, which imposes harsh penalties for acting against "the independence or the territorial integrity of the state." A judge in western Havana province handed him a 26-year prison sentence.

The 60-year-old journalist was being held at the maximum-security Guanajay Prison, his wife, Loyda Valdés González, told CPJ. Valdés González, who is allowed to visit her husband only once every 45 days, said conditions at Guanajay were better than those at other prisons where he had been held. Due to his severe back problems, the reporter did not share a cell with other prisoners. Valdés González said her husband suffered from chronic gastritis that caused him to lose significant amounts of weight.

Valdés González told CPJ that in December 2007, her husband presented an appeal to Cuba's Supreme Tribunal Court. Because Cuban authorities denied Fuentes access to a lawyer, he did so without benefit of counsel. After two years, the court had still not responded to him, Valdés González told CPJ.

From: CPJ

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Government publishes charges against Chilean businessman

In an unusual step, the Interior Ministry published in the Gaceta Oficial on Monday a citation and charges against Chilean businessman Max Marambio.

The citation gives him until July 29 to appear before a Cuban investigator; otherwise Cuba will issue an arrest warrant. Marambio, 63, lives in Santiago de Chile. He has not been to Cuba since last fall. The owner of several companies in Cuba is accused of bribery, damaging acts to economic activity or contracting, embezzlement, falsification of bank and commerce documents, and fraud.

The Cuban case against Marambio made headlines in Chile earlier this year. Amid heightened rhetoric against corruption, Cuban authorities began investigating Marambio, who had fostered intimate ties to the Cuban government. According to a terse note published by Granma April 15, Cuban prosecutors were investigating “irregularities and violations of existing laws” at Alimentos Río Zaza S.A., a company owned by Marambio.

One witness was found dead April 6 in his Havana apartment. Roberto Baudrand, 59, the top Chilean manager in Cuba for Marambio’s Alimentos Río Zaza S.A., had been under orders not to leave the island and was twice cited to report to police to testify as a witness. According to the Cuban autopsy, Baudrand’s death was caused by a mix of pharmaceuticals and alcohol. At least two Cuban employees of Marambio’s companies had been detained earlier. In December, the accountant of ING holding and the Cuban representative in the Río Zaza food and agricultural joint venture were arrested in Havana. ING is a 50-percent shareholder in Río Zaza; the Cuban state controls the other half. ING also holds a 50-percent share of the Sol y Son travel agency.

The investigation centers on the unauthorized use of government aircraft for business, reported Chile’s Radio Bío-Bío, without citing sources. On March 8, Raúl Castro replaced Gen. Rogelio Acevedo González as head of the Instituto de Aeronáutica Civil de Cuba, the government agency that regulates civil aviation and operates the country’s airports and state airlines. Acevedo had been in charge of the agency since 1989; his wife Ofelia Liptak is commercial director of Río Zaza and an ING executive. In April, Chile’s Foreign Minister Alfredo Moreno told reporters his government knew about the Cuban investigation against Marambio’s companies, but that he wasn’t aware of any specific charges.

Max Marambio, a student leader in Chile in the 1960s, was trained by Cuba to be President Salvador Allende’s personal guard. Later, from 1978 to 1983, he was an executive at Corporación CIMEX, today Cuba’s largest state company. In this position, Marambio helped Cuba circumvent the U.S. embargo with international business activities he directed. He also was on special missions abroad for Cuba’s intelligence during the 1970s.

In 1985, Marambio went into business for himself, founding ING. As recently as February 2009, Cuban authorities during a visit of former Chilean President Michelle Bachelet presented ING subsidiary Río Zaza as an exemplary joint venture. But Marambio’s relations with Cuba abruptly cooled last year. He complained to Cuban officials last fall about the freezing of $23 million in Cuban bank accounts. Cash flow problems, including a $7.5 million debt to supplier TetraPak, forced Marambio in February to temporarily halt production at two Río Zaza plants in Cuba, idling 500 employees.

From: Cuba Standard 

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