American mission referred to 75 dissidents in Christmas lights

By TRACEY EATON / The Dallas Morning News

HAVANA – Just in time for the holidays, the U.S.-Cuba propaganda war heated up Friday when Cuban authorities tacked up a huge banner outside America's diplomatic post in Havana depicting the abuse of Iraqi prisoners.

U.S. officials shouldn't be criticizing human rights conditions in Cuba while allowing U.S. soldiers to humiliate and sexually abuse captured Iraqis, loyalists to Fidel Castro say.

U.S. officials deny that the Iraqi abuses have been widespread and say Cubans should worry more about their own dismal economic and human rights record than what happens on the other side of the world.

Pushing that point, James Cason, chief of the American mission in Havana, fired up a glitzy Christmas lights display a few nights ago outside his office.

The high-voltage display faces the Malecón, the famous seaside roadway in Havana. The display includes a large "75," referring to 75 Cuban dissidents and democracy activists jailed during a crackdown on the political opposition in the spring of 2003.

Incensed, Cuban diplomats told Mr. Cason the lights should be removed. Mr. Cason refused. The spat escalated, leading to the unfurling of a banner of Iraqi prisoners.

"The Cuban government's response is a telling one," said a U.S. diplomat in Havana, speaking on condition of anonymity. The "75" sign was "confronted with rabid, hyperbolic Cuban government billboards.

"There couldn't be a better contrast: the U.S. wishing Cubans happy holidays, Frosty waving at passers-by, and an effort to prompt discussion about human rights on one side, and screaming Cuban government billboards on the other," the diplomat said.

"The torture at Abu Ghraib, which President Bush called abominable, has been investigated, reported, and discussed fully and openly in the U.S., and those responsible are being prosecuted," the diplomat said. "On the other hand, the Cuban government does not allow a single word of dissent in its media, jails those who dare espouse different ideas, and has not allowed the International Committee for the Red Cross or anyone else to visit Cuban political prisoners since the late 1980s."

Meantime, some Cubans say they didn't know that 75 Cuban activists were arrested last year.

"Who are these 75 guys? What's that number?" asked Horacio Sánchez, 26, an unemployed welder from Cotorro, a Havana suburb. "I don't know them. Anyway, I support Fidel Castro, not the Americans who are trying to mess up our lives."

Said Efraín Domínguez, 58, a Havana food vendor: "I think the Cuban government wants people to know that the U.S. government isn't perfect. U.S. soldiers must have mistreated those prisoners in Iraq. At least the photos show something bad was going on."