US youths help free Cuban peer

Posted on Wed, May. 17, 2006

CUBAN-AMERICAN COMMUNITY
U.S. youths help free Cuban peer
A dissident youth leader in Cuba is released after a group of young
Cuban Americans mounted a campaign to help him.
BY OSCAR CORRAL
ocorral@MiamiHerald.com

Young Cuban Americans gathered around a telephone at Princeton
University in April to hear Rolando Rodríguez Lobaina talk fervently
from his home in Cuba, about growing discontent among the island's
youths and their yearning for freedom.

Three days later, Cuban authorities arrested the dissident leader.

They held him until Friday. Rodríguez was released after Raices de
Esperanza, the Cuban-American youth group that he addressed at
Princeton, mounted an international campaign to denounce the Cuban
government for oppressing political discourse and to demand that he be
freed from prison.

Rodríguez, director of the Center for Alternative Studies for the Cuban
Youth Movement for Democracy, delivered an impassioned speech to Raices
in a conference call with his brother, Nestor, in late April.

''Freedom of expression, freedom of association, free access to sources
of information, the right to investigate, to doubt, that is simply
enough to motivate our struggle,'' Rodríguez told about 100 Raices members.

Raices, perhaps the largest group of 20-something, politically charged
Cuban Americans, invited the Rodríguez brothers to address the group
during its convention, which featured Gloria Estefan as keynote speaker.
The group, whose name means ''the roots of hope,'' listened intently to
the brothers.

When Raices members heard of Rolando's arrest, they launched an e-mail
and letter-writing campaign to international embassies in Cuba, and
called on members and allies to contact the prison where Rodríguez was
being held.

''The fact that he did speak to Raices, and the fact that he had just
inspired all these young students, I think really helped us to get the
momentum going,'' said Raices spokeswoman Joanna Gonzalez.

Gonzalez said Rodríguez faced inhumane treatment during the first days
of his confinement, though that could not be independently verified by
The Miami Herald. ''He was in a room that was 104 degrees, completely
enclosed with no windows, with a light bulb on 24 hours a day, full of
mosquitoes, and the food was inedible,'' Gonzalez said.

Shortly after Raices mounted its campaign, Rodríguez was moved to a
prison near Guantánamo Bay, where officials treated him better, Gonzalez
said, and where his family visited him.

Rodríguez's arrest was first noted by Directorio Democrático Cubano, a
federally funded nonprofit organization that monitors human rights
abuses in Cuba.

The Cuban government released Rodríguez on Friday, Directorio noted. He
blasted the Cuban government for his ``kidnapping.''

''Once again, I've been the victim of a political kidnapping,''
Directorio quoted Rodríguez as saying. ``The authorities in Guantánamo
with that characteristic criminal behavior and that limitless treachery,
hatched a macabre trap, first by taking me to prison and impeding my
civil rights activism, and later by trying in such a cowardly way to
discredit my image by accusing me of illegal enrichment.''

The Cuban Interests Section in Washington did not answer its phones last
week, and section spokesman Lázaro Herrera did not respond to an e-mail
for comment.

Gonzalez said she hoped that Raices' efforts and those of the
international community and supporters in Cuba contributed to his
release. ''At this point, we are celebrating the fact that he is out,
regardless of what did it,'' she said.

U.S. State Department spokesman Eric Watnik said Friday he had not heard
about Rodríguez's detention but would look into it.

Directorio said Rodríguez expressed gratitude for the people who stood
up for him.

''No greater wealth has existed for me than that of defending the civil
rights of all Cubans,'' he told Directorio.

Read Oscar Corral's blog Miami's Cuban Connection in the blogs section
of MiamiHerald.com or at http://blogs.herald.com/

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