Ricardo Alarcon on Democracy Now This Morning . . .

He was interviewed for about 20-25 minutes. He talked about the Cuban 5,the OAS, Guantanamo, and the Meyers spy case. The show will be up for viewing again between 9:30 and 10:00 am (edt)this morning.

Cuban National Assembly President Ricardo Alarcon Condemns US Supreme
Court's Refusal to Hear Appeal of Cuban Five

Democracy Now!
June 17, 2009

http://www.democracynow.org/2009/6/17/cuban_national_assembly_president_rica
rdo_alarcon

The Supreme Court declined Monday to review the case of the five jailed
Cuban nationals known as the Cuban Five. The men were convicted by a Miami
jury in 2001 for being unregistered foreign agents spying on the US military
and Cuban exiles in southern Florida. All five are serving time in federal
prisons across the country. Attorneys for the men say they weren't spying on
the US, but trying to monitor violent right-wing Cuban exile groups that
have organized attacks on Cuba. The Miami judge in the case refused to move
the trial to an area less dominated by Cuban exiles. Lawyers for the five
say the jury pool in Miami was biased. The Cuban Five trial was the only
judicial proceeding in US history condemned by the UN Human Rights
Commission.

Guest: Ricardo Alarcon, President of the Cuban National Assembly. He joins
us on the telephone from Havana.

JUAN GONZALEZ: Well, another court, the Supreme Court, declined Monday to
review the case of the five jailed Cuban nationals known as the Cuban Five.
The men were convicted by a Miami jury in 2001 for being unregistered
foreign agents spying on the US military and Cuban exiles in southern
Florida. All five are serving time in federal prisons across the country.
Attorneys for the men say they weren't spying on the US, but trying to
monitor violent right-wing Cuban exile groups that have organized attacks on
Cuba.
The Miami judge in the case refused to move the trial to an area less
dominated by Cuban exiles. Lawyers for the five say the jury pool in Miami
was biased. The Cuban Five trial was the only judicial proceeding in US
history condemned by the UN Human Rights Commission.

AMY GOODMAN: We go now to Havana, where we're joined on the telephone by
Ricardo Alarcon, the president of the Cuban National Assembly. We welcome
you to Democracy Now! Please start off by responding to the US Supreme
Court's decision.

RICARDO ALARCON: Well, good morning, Amy and Juan and everybody listening
there.

I would say that it is a very sad decision that was taken, if you remember
that, at the request of the US administration, that in May, well after the
new administration had assumed office, it urged the Supreme Court to deny
review.

I would like to also to clarify one point. It is said that they were accused
or found guilty of spying, seeking information on military installations and
all that. But let's remember that what we were appealing or trying to review
at the Supreme Court was the decision that had been affirmed by the Court of
Appeals of the 11th Circuit in Atlanta, September 2008. That was a negative
decision, unfair, because it didn't end the whole process.

But it also had some positive facts. In that determination, the Court of
Appeals said five times that nothing involving the national security of the
US was involved in this case, that they didn't gather or transmit secret
information affecting US national security. That is why the Court of Appeals
decided to vacate the sentences of three of them and order a resentencing
process, which is now probably the next step in this slow, long case. But
that means that after ten years of discussions and appealings and so on,
that unanimously a lower court, the Atlanta court, determined, recognized
what we had been saying all along, that they were not doing anything against
the US, that their only role was to penetrate terrorist groups that had been
operating for many years from Miami against Cuba.

And there are many, many, many evidences to that. I don't need to go through
all the facts that you know very well. Mr. Luis Posada Carriles is still
moving freely, at large, in the US territory. He has not been extradited to
Venezuela, where he was-had been tried for the destruction-the first case in
history of the destruction of a civil airplane in mid-air. And he has not
been prosecuted for that, for that crime in the US. Just here's an example.
The persons who tried to learn about Mr. Posada Carriles and others like
him, their plans against Cuba, they are in prison. And Mr. Posada, Mr. Bosch
and many others are enjoying the good life in America.

That was a very sad conclusion in the legal sphere that sent a very negative
message to the Cuban people and to many peoples around the world. The US
continues-

AMY GOODMAN: Ricardo Alarcon, we have to break, but we're going to come back
to this discussion, president of the Cuban National Assembly, on the line
with us from Havana. We'll be back in a minute.

AMY GOODMAN: Our guest is the president of the Cuban National Assembly.
We're joined by Ricardo Alarcon. I wanted to ask you more broadly about
US-Cuba relations under President Obama. Speaking at the Summit of the
Americas in Trinidad and Tobago April, Obama called for a, quote, "new
beginning with Cuba" and raised hopes for a thaw in US-Cuba relations.

(Actuality)
PRESIDENT BARACK OBAMA: There's been several remarks directed at the issue
of the relationship between the United States and Cuba, so let me address
this. The United States seeks a new beginning with Cuba. I know that there
is a longer-I know there's a longer journey that must be traveled to
overcome decades of mistrust, but there are critical steps we can take
toward a new day. I've already changed a Cuba policy that I believe has
failed to advance liberty or opportunity for the Cuban people. We will now
allow Cuban Americans to visit the islands whenever they choose and provide
resources to their families, the same way that so many people in my country
send money back to their families in your countries to pay for everyday
needs.
Over the past two years, I've indicated, and I repeat today, that I'm
prepared to have my administration engage with the Cuban government on a
wide range of issues, from drugs, migration and economic issues, to human
rights, free speech and democratic reform. Now, let me be clear, I'm not
interested in talking just for the sake of talking. But I do believe that we
can move US-Cuban relations in a new direction.
(End actuality)

AMY GOODMAN: That was President Obama at the Summit of the Americas. Ricardo
Alarcon, you're president of the Cuban National Assembly. Your response?

RICARDO ALARCON: Well, it's very important not to speak just for the sake of
speaking. The proof of the pudding is indeed in.

He didn't mention, by the way, among the list of issues that may be
addressed in this process, terrorism. And more or less at the same time he
was saying that in Trinidad and Tobago, he was urging the US Supreme Court
to not to consider, not to review, the case of the five. He can prove that
he doesn't have only words, but deeds, by exercising his authority. He can
and should drop immediately the charges brought against the five. Atlanta
already recognized that they were not entertaining any espionage activities.

And the other important charge, the one referring to an alleged murder
attempt by Gerardo Hernandez, was also recognized by the US administration
in a written-in a document, unprecedented in American history, according to
them, that they didn't have any evidence, that they couldn't demonstrate
that charge, and asked the court that said this years ago, in 2001, even to
drop that charge. And what is it? The President could use those legal
arguments, let's say, to exercise justice. He can put in jail Posada
Carriles and the terrorists and free those who opposed their actions. That
would be a very concrete, simple step to demonstrate that what is coming
from the White House are not just words.

By the way, the only concrete thing that he promised was to eliminate the
restrictions for traveling by Cuban Americans. But if you go now, Amy, to
the US official sources, you can visit in their website, you will see that
the regulations are still as they were before. Then they haven't yet taken
the necessary step. They talk about that, but still, the regulations, if you
read them as they are now, today are exactly as they were before.

JUAN GONZALEZ: Ricardo Alarcon-

RICARDO ALARCON: It is-

JUAN GONZALEZ: Yes, Ricardo Alarcon, I'd like to ask you about the summit
itself. Many people consider it a major shift, in that the countries of
Latin America for the first time rebuffed the United States and said that
Cuba should join the OAS. But then, apparently, the Cuban government has
rejected that offer. Can you talk about that?

RICARDO ALARCON: Well, they knew very well what was and is our position,
that we will not join the OAS for many reasons, as we have explained time
and again. What they did was to eliminate an absurd resolution that the OAS
passed in 1962, by which Cuba was excluded from participating in that
organization because of our links with the-what they used to call in those
days the China-Soviet bloc. And then that doesn't exist anymore. That's
good, because it is a way to correct history. But I think it's too late
to-even to think about joining an organization that is really rejected by
the peoples in the continent and that has not served any useful purpose, has
been an instrument of the worst part of US policy in the area.

We are in agreement with those in Latin America that are proposing the
creation of a Latin American and Caribbean organization, and we are
cooperating with them in many instances. We have a number of mechanism of
cooperation and integration in the area. Like the Africans have their
organization, the African Unity, in which the former colonial masters do not
belong, the Latin American, Caribbean people should have their own, only for
them, only for Latin American and Caribbean-area countries. And they
understand that position.

We appreciate, of course, the fact that everybody-with the exception of the
US and Canada, everybody in that conference repeated the same line of
thinking, that Cuba should not be excluded. As a matter of fact, Cuba has
relations with everybody else except the United States. Those are facts that
would be useful for the administration to discover, and in order to learn
that the world has changed. The US must also change.

JUAN GONZALEZ: Ricardo Alarcon, I'd like to ask you about something else.
You were mentioning the former colonial masters. Guantanamo, the Guantanamo
Naval Base in Cuba, many consider it a residue of the old colonial period.
The original lease for Guantanamo, the United States imposed on Cuba,
ninety-nine-year lease at the beginning of the twentieth century. What is
the legal basis for the United States being in Cuba and having that naval
base on your national territory?

RICARDO ALARCON: The only basis for that is imperial arrogance. It was a
treaty that was imposed upon the Cuban people before Cuba attained its
formal independence. Americans were occupying the island at that time, and
they imposed, as a condition to withdraw their troops, two things: one, that
Cuba has to recognize and even include in their constitution the right of
the US to intervene in Cuban affairs, and Cuba had to lease some pieces of
land for military bases. That was the origin of Guantanamo.

That was modified during FDR. The right to intervention was dropped, but the
bases, was Guantanamo and others at that time, were to remain until both
parties agreed to something else. And the party, as you know, has refused to
abandon that piece of Cuban land due to arrogance. It doesn't make any sense
to-and that was the origin of the scandal of transforming it into a prison
and all the stories that they are very well known around the world. But it's
an issue that remains to be solved, that remains to be addressed. It was
, by the way, in the list the President presented to the others
attending Trinidad conference.

AMY GOODMAN: Ricardo Alarcon, the question of this couple, the-Walter Myers
and his wife, Gwendolyn, the former State Department analyst and his wife,
being charged with spying for the Cuban government. They've pled not guilty
to conspiracy and being agents of a foreign government and wire fraud. Your
response?

RICARDO ALARCON: Well, I know only what has been published in the press, and
I read the indictment. It's interesting. In the indictment, they only
mention one thing: what an FBI agent said that they told him. Apart from
that, that this couple had a shortwave radio-I imagine that they are not the
only Americans that have such a thing-and that they came to Cuba on one
occasion. And also, in the media, it is mentioned, a private diary of the
lady, in which she expressed certain sentiments about Cuba that are not only
her sentiment. Many people also love Cuba and respect us.
Apart from that, the real question, to me, is why, if they had known about
those alleged activities for a number of years, they chose to publicize that
precisely on the eve of the moment that the Supreme Court was going to deny
the review of the Cuban Five case, as it was requested by the same
administration that now is accusing this couple in New York -

AMY GOODMAN: Ricardo Alarcon, we're going to have to leave it there, but we
thank you very much for being with us. Ricardo Alarcon, president of the
Cuban National Assembly, joining us on the telephone from Havana.