From: nicanet@nyxfer.UUCP
Newsgroups: soc.culture.caribbean
Date: 28 Dec 92 14:21 PST
Subject: Cuba Update 12/27/92
Nf-ID: #N:TsFiwB14w165w@nyxfer.uucp:1479923529:000:5347
Nf-From: nyxfer.uucp!nicanet    Dec 28 14:21:00 1992


Subject: Cuba Update 12/27/92
From: nyxfer!nicanet (NicaNet NY)


Via The NY Transfer News Service * All the News that Doesn't Fit

from...
         Nicaragua Solidarity Network of Greater New York
       339 Lafayette St., New York, NY 10012 (212) 674-9499

            Weekly News Update #152, December 27, 1992


CUBA BEGINS NEW ELECTORAL PROCESS

On Dec. 20, over 97.2% of Cuba's registered voters (75% of the
seven million Cubans eligible to vote) went to the polls to elect
13,865 delegates to sit on 169 municipal assemblies.  Of the
delegates elected, tentative results indicate that 1,811 are
women and 2,199 are under 30 years old; 8,200 incumbents were
returned to office. President Fidel Castro said this demonstrated
the people's confidence in the government and that Cuba will
survive the worst economic difficulties the island has
experienced in over thirty years. 
 
This was the first election under the new electoral law passed in
October, and it sets the stage for the elections for state and
national assemblies scheduled for February 1993. According to
local sources, the decision to call general elections is a
response to external pressure. Although Cubans have chosen
representatives on the local level since 1975 when the "popular
power" system was inaugurated, this is the first time in Cuban
history that people will elect their state and national
representatives directly by secret ballot. Direct elections have
been a long-standing demand among members of the international
community and opponents of Castro's government.
 
While the nomination of candidates for the state and national
elections will remain indirect and subject to control by the
Communist Party, the secret ballot will present the possibility
of Cubans expressing displeasure with the current government by
simply casting a blank ballot or by voting for newer lesser known
figures instead of party stalwarts. In the municipal elections,
figures on the number of blank or mutilated ballots were not
expected to be available until March. In one voting station
visited by journalists, it was estimated that 15% to 20% of the
ballots were blank or mutilated. According to the President of
the Election Commission, Carlos Amat, this figure cannot be taken
as indicative since it is only a small unscientific sample.   
 
The municipal elections were the first nationwide elections since
the breakup of the former Soviet bloc, combined with the
pressures of the increased US embargo, plunged Cuba into economic
crisis. Juan Escalona, President of Cuba's National Assembly,
said the government was aware that frustration over social and
economic problems would be reflected at the polls, but he was
confident the government would recieve majority support. "This is
a very great expression of the courage of the revolution and of
confidence in the people," said Castro. "These are the worst
conditions for an election." [ED-LP 12/21/92 from Notimex & EFE,
12/22/92 from AP; NYT 12/21/92; NY Newsday 12/21/92; IPS 11/3/92]
 

CHARGES AGAINST PASTORS FOR PEACE ACTIVISTS REDUCED

Charges against three of the four Pastors for Peace caravan
participants arrested during a confrontation with US officials at
the US/Mexico border on Nov. 20 are expected to be dropped. The
Pastors for Peace caravan brought shipments of medicine, bibles
and other supplies from the US to Cuba via Mexico in violation of
the US embargo against Cuba. The charges against Ajumoke Tokunbo,
an African-American woman from Oakland, California are being
reduced to two counts of misdemeanor assault on a federal
officer. Federal prosecutors had threatened to charge her with
felonious assault and violating the Trading with the Enemy Act.
The Friendshipment's legal team is also working to win the
release of medicines federal officials had seized during the
November caravan. [Workers World Service posted on NY Transfer
12/24/92] 
 

PILOT FLIES TO CUBA TO BRING FAMILY TO US

Former Cuban Air Force commander Orestes Lorenzo Perez, who fled
Cuba on Mar. 20, 1991 in a Mig-23 fighter jet, returned secretly
to Cuba on Dec. 19 on a successful mission to bring his wife and
children to his home in Virginia. His family had been granted US
visas but were not allowed to leave by the Cuban government;
Lorenzo tried diplomatic means and even a hunger strike before
resorting to the daredevil stunt. The pilot avoided Cuban radar
by flying some 10 feet above the water on the 90-mile journey
from Florida in a Cessna 310 lent to him by the Valladares
Foundation, a Cuban exile group. After their arrival, US
President Bush received Lorenzo and his wife and older son in the
White House to hear their story. [ED-LP 12/21/92 from AFP, EFE;
12/22/92; 12/23/92 from AP, EFE; WP 12/21/92]
 

                               -30-

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