Americas

By Orlando Luis Pardo Lazo

Yoani Sanchez is the only citizen in Cuba who has managed to interview a sitting U.S. president: Barack Obama. On November 2009, with seven questions and answers posted in her award-winning blog, Generation Y, she accomplished what the government and official press has failed to do for half a century: to dialogue one-on-one with the "leader of the free world," the president of the country the Cuban regime considers its No. 1 enemy.

The national media on the Island ignored this historic virtual meeting. Though they have yet to publish unflattering caricatures of Barack ObamaBarack Obama (a common practice toward previous American leaders), the Cuban press has begun to target him. Most notably, former President Fidel Castro Ruz frequently attacks Obama in his newspaper column "Reflections," a constantly updated treatise on his world view.

The current president of Cuba, General Raul Castro Ruz, has also ignored the interview, so far failing to respond to a companion set of seven questions Sanchez posed to him.

Sanchez, whom Time Magazine named one of the "100 Most Influential People in the World" in 2008, lives with her husband and son on the 14th floor of an Eastern European style apartment block overlooking the Plaza of the Revolution. Previously, they made a living as independent Spanish teachers for foreigners, but currently Sanchez writes for many important international journals and magazines. In their home they have established a Cuban Blog Contest, a library, as well as the Island's only Blogger Academy -not officially recognized by the authorities- to train new independent bloggers and to grow the Cuban blogosphere.

From her balcony, marked with a neon-green Y visible from the nearby monolith that marks the focal point of the Cuban state, this frail-looking 34-year-old, with her nearly transparent skin and cascades of dark hair falling to her waist, shares her perspectives for 2010. According to many political prognosticators, this year could be definitive for Cuba, possibly redefining its hemispheric context and fundamentally altering its everlasting differences with the United States.

Since 2008 Sanchez' blog Generation Y, translated to various languages and with millions of hits per month, is blocked for readers inside Cuba. However, everyday she is getting more recognized in Havana streets by persons that receive underground cable TV cable channels. As a citizen committed to expand freedom of expression within the Island, Sanchez has remained independent of all Cuban dissent organizations and opposition parties. So, even while state security agents stalk her throughout the city, and Cuban official journalists attack her in an offensive manner, so far she remains free of any judicial charges.

To accomplish this interview, Sanchez sent her questions to the White House
through a friend, and the replies were hand delivered to her in Havana. After
she posted the interview, questions were raised about whether the answers
actually came from President Obama and a White House spokesperson confirmed that
they did.

Related articles by Zemanta

• Reinaldo Escobar, Spouse Of Top Cuban Blogger Yoani Sanchez, Attacked By Pro-Castro Mob (huffingtonpost.com)
• Top Cuban official says Obama lied in Copenhagen (seattletimes.nwsource.com)
• Obama engages with Cuba blogger (news.bbc.co.uk)
• Blogger Yoani Sanchez is threat to Cuba (telegraph.co.uk)

When Axelle Liautaud, an art dealer, heard that demolition crews were already lined up to clear the site of Holy Trinity Cathedral, she blanched and scrambled to stop the work in hopes that bricks and shards of concrete containing portions of the murals could be pieced together again.

The murals featuring Haitian renderings of biblical scenes on its interior walls now resembled a jigsaw puzzle. The organ, which Haitians proudly say was one of the largest in the Caribbean, was flattened.

"We had so much despite the fact that we're so poor," Ms. Liautaud told the New York Times' Mark Lacey. "Nothing that's new can replace what's old. Gone in a day. It's all gone."

Many of Haitiu's symbols of its proud history lie in ruins. The National Palace, the National Cathedral, the Supreme Court -- all are in various states of collapse. Also devastated is the Episcopal Church's Holy Trinity Cathedral, known for its murals of Bible stories with all black figures.

Photo: Wikimedia Commons

A search and rescue operation following the earthquake in Sichuan, China, in 2008

NAIROBI (IRIN) - When an earthquake strikes a town, or a building is levelled by an explosion, news footage invariably shows search and rescue teams trawling through the rubble looking for survivors. But what does it take to rescue people trapped under tons of concrete?

Step one - coordination

The first thing is to activate search and rescue teams, often highly trained volunteers.

"Most of our members are doctors, ambulance operators, engineers or fire fighters," said John Holland, operations director of Rapid UK, a charitable search and rescue group.

They go through a rigorous two-year training process before they are allowed to assist in disasters.

"We try to deploy within 24 hours because the earlier we are on the ground, the better the chances of rescuing survivors," Holland said. "During the Pakistan earthquake [in 2005], we were able to deploy in 21 hours."

The International Search and Rescue Advisory Group (INSARAG) - a global network of more than 80 countries and disaster response organizations under the UN umbrella - has standardized guidelines for rescue missions.

"Once a government has made that call for international assistance, we alert our members, who begin mobilizing to travel to the area," said INSARAG's Winston Chang, a Singapore Civil Defence Force veteran who coordinated the search and rescue efforts following the recent earthquake in Padang, Indonesia. "We run a portal where once a disaster occurs, we pool information and our various teams can input data on their movements - whether they are on standby, mobilizing or have reached the ground."

INSARAG will usually set up an "on site operations coordination centre" where all search and rescue teams get instructions - depending on their area of specialty - on where to go and how to operate; the desk holds regular meetings to update itself and the teams on the progress being made on the ground.

"These operations can be quite large; just now in Padang, there were a total of 21 teams with 668 personnel and 67 search dogs," Chang said. "They need bases of operation where they will fuel their heavy equipment, coordinate their internal logistics and sleep."

"We also ensure that they follow specific standards of operation and remain culturally sensitive, especially since the teams are from such diverse backgrounds," he added.

Rescue workers after the earthquake in Sumatra, Indonesia

Watch larger version in YouTube

Step two - analysis

Once in the disaster area, the first step is to analyze the task at hand, said Julie Ryan, a volunteer with the British NGO, the International Rescue Corps.

In a collapsed building, "you need to analyze the building, assess its history and try to establish where in the building people are most likely to be", she told IRIN. "You also need to determine how badly a building has been damaged and whether it is likely to collapse any further, causing damage to [survivors] and rescue teams."

The assessment also involves checking for hazards such as downed power lines, gas leaks, flooding and hazardous materials. Protective gear includes special suits, gloves, masks, and oxygen and carbon monitoring systems for air quality.

Step three - search mode

At its most basic, this involves trying to spot limbs in the rubble, and calling out to survivors to identify their locations.

Rescuers look for "voids", or pockets where people may be trapped when walls collapse or where survivors may have hidden, such as under desks, in bath tubs or stairwells.

"We feed a camera on the end of a flexible pole into the collapsed building - this shows where people are and how much of the building's structure is left," Ryan said.

"Rescuers also use sound location devices connected to a microphone system; the device bangs on the rubble three times and if people tap back or call out for help, they can be tracked and assisted," she added.

Listening is a crucial part of the operation, and search teams will often stop for several minutes to try to hear any calls, scratches or taps.

Other search tools include a thermal image camera system, which shows areas of body heat, and trained sniffer dogs. "We also use a carbon dioxide analyzer, which helps us detect people who might be unconscious but still breathing," Ryan said.

Buildings that have been searched are marked with INSARAG-recognized signs to avoid duplication of searches.

As survivors are found, rescuers try to get them to keep talking to determine their exact location, and dig towards them - the least dangerous way to do this is by hand.

Photo: Jefri Aries/IRIN

A survivor in her home, which was razed to the ground by the recent earthquake in western Sumatra, Indonesia

Step four - the rescue operation

If survivors are trapped under rubble, it may need to be stabilized first; a process called cribbing - the construction of a rectangular wooden framework, a box crib, underneath the debris - may be used.

Survivors who are not able to move usually need to be lifted, dragged or carried out of the rubble using special equipment.

"If people cannot be manually dug out, then we can cut them out - there are specialized tools that can cut through concrete, metal and wood to reach survivors," Ryan said. "There is also a process known as 'slabbing', where heavy slabs of concrete are removed in order to free survivors - this is always a very difficult judgment call, because it risks further collapse, which could injure or kill more people."

Concrete saws, jackhammers, chainsaws, bolt cutters, cranes and bulldozers are all part of the tool kit; chains, cables, anchors and rope-hauling systems are used to remove large pieces of masonry. Other equipment may include flat bags that are inserted under heavy objects and inflated with an air pump, and "shoring" equipment, which ensures passageways are stable and safe.

As survivors are removed, their medical condition is determined; patients are prioritized according to triage - based on the severity of their condition.

Search and rescue teams usually start the most urgent medical procedures on site; the most experienced teams may have defibrillators and endo-tracheal equipment to shock people back to life or perform emergency tracheotomies.

Step five - closure

Deciding when to end a rescue operation is always difficult.

"Obviously, the more time passes the less likely you are to find people alive," said Ryan. "But sometimes - especially if they have water available - people can remain alive for many days. In Pakistan, our team rescued two boys five days after the earthquake; they had survived on trickles of rainwater through the rubble."

According to Ryan, finding bodies - cadaver rescue - after the search for survivors is over is a very important part of any operation.

"Even when people haven't survived the collapse of a building, families find that having a body to bury is an important part of getting closure," she said.

According to INSARAG's Chang, the high octane operations can take their toll on rescuers, especially when they have to pull hundreds of dead people out of buildings.

"Most of them are used to dealing with blood and death in their daily professions, but from time to time it can become very difficult," he said. "Many teams are equipped to deal with trauma - the Swiss government's team, for instance, has a psychologist on hand, while doctors in the Singapore team have been trained to search for signs of trauma in team members."

Once the host government officially calls off the search, INSARAG starts the process of withdrawing the teams. A few remain and become part of the humanitarian relief effort, rebuilding hospitals and schools or shelter for families, but most will head back to their day jobs and await the next call to action

IRIN is the United Nations Humanitarian and Relief News Service

Ballad of a Prison Blogger

LIFE, without warning, is full of surprises and involves stories that we can almost not even imagine. But we as human beings take advantage of the blessings that God gave us, a trait that puts us at the top of the animal kingdom. But if we look harder at life, it's easy to on our guard.

The following is a true story and one I am reasonable sure does not differ all that much from the stories of my brothers from the Group of 75. It's a story about that one day when everything changes, about being happy and free and not thinking about even the possibility of being jailed for such crimes that in other civilized worlds do not exist.

Hundreds of miles from our homes, in jail cells, reduced to a state one could barely call human. In these long 6 years and 3 months I have seen almost everything. From the first dawn of the day I entered this dark dank cell at Agüica, in Matanzas, the so-called Athens of Cuba, I promised myself I would tell as much as I could about the lives of prisoners, stories unknown even to our own people.

Due to ferocious censorship imposed but the hard-line Communist Party, the story I tell is sad and harsh, one that cold easily have come straight out of the Hollywood silver screen, filled with violence, coarse language and definitely rated R.

Yosvany Ceballo Oliva was born in the province of Ciego de Ávila. By his own admission knowing of course what he knows now of his life, he would rather have died in the moment the dr delivered him. Ceballito, as he was later called, came into the world on the 21^st of April, 1980, the same year as the mass exodus from the port of Mariel, in Havana.

He soon found himself in the clutches of the real world. At only 7 years of age, his mother's flame was extinguished and his father, having never looked after him, was a stranger. He remained therefore an orphan, one abandoned to the mercy of juvenile delinquency. There was little or nothing his grandmother could do.

When he was 10, he joined a school of conduct in Ciego de Ávila known for its violent ways. Int his case, it is true what they say about the cure being worse than the disease itself. This is where he joined the ranks of true crime. One cold evening in February, eager to smoke and drink rum, he decided to rob a provisions warehouse in his neighborhood.

Once inside, with careful consideration, he took only bottle of Palmas rum and one carton of Popular cigarettes. When Ceballito began almost immediately to feel the affects of the alcohol, he decided to take a sack and fill it with a couple of bottles of liquor, several cartons of cigarettes, small containers of chicken broth, some spices and seasonings, a package of cookies and some sugar.

He returned home where he stashed his stolen goods from his grandmother. Later when he was caught, due to the thoughtlessness of this crime, the punishment was much more severe than usual. He was sentenced to 6 years in prison. He was sent to Canaleta Prison though he was only 16 years old. At the height of immaturity, he has already lost his freedom.

Being employed at a farm during his incarceration, he escaped for 8 hours to go and visit his grandmother, probably the only person on earth who loved him. For this ephemeral absence, he had a year and half added on to the end of his sentence. Ceballito, who now shakes continuously and moves spasmodically as if he suffered from Parkinson's disease and who has gone years without seeing his daughter, was scarcely a teenager himself then.

He feels weary and indebted to his grandmother. He's takes way too many drugs. He's addicted to narcotics, just like so many others here in this island prison. Also, he suffers from chronic Asthma.

He tells me that Maria, his grandmother, had filed an appeal with the court of Ciego de Ávila, but the appeal has been turned down. Though both had hope that with the transfer of power from Fidel Castro to his brother Raúl and believing that Raúl was more benevolent than his brother, their hopes were dashed.

But we can only hope that his story will have a happy ending. Ceballito continues on in his story by telling about a time when he threw a pot of wheat germ on a civil servant of the minister of the interior as a prank, but when he saw the situation escalating he decided to assault the man's car.

He needed so many blood transfusions after the mighty beating he received from the prison guards. This merciless attack is indelibly marked on him forever. As he shows the enormous scars left on his entire body to me I count more than 20.

It is a hellish drama. To the point that he was tied up all day and night to the famous chair of punishment, located in the isolation section of the prison. This 'genius' was the work of the director of the jail, Major Ricardo Díaz Perez, chief of rehabilitation in Canaleta in those days.

Ceballito longs every day for his conditional release to be able to re-enter society, a world he hasn't been a part of for more than a decade. He says he wants to be able to work, to help his grandmother and to dote upon his daughter the love she deserves.

He looks up to the sky through the cell bars, as night falls over our little piece of Earth and he even adds that he wishes he had the opportunity to go to the US to work and send even more money to his grandmother and to his daughter, whom he barely knows.

Pablo Pacheco: Canaleta Prison

Independent journalist Pablo Pacheco was picked up during the "Black Spring" roundup of 75 journalists, librarians, human rights activists and other dissidents on 18 March 2003. On his 33rd birthday -- Pacheco was convicted and sentenced to 20 years' in prison under Law 88 which provides lengthy prison terms for those found guilty of supporting US policy on Cuba aimed at "disrupting internal order, destabilising the country and destroying the Socialist State and the independence of Cuba," according to Amnesty International. Now in Canaleta Prison's, Ciego de Ávila, he dictates this blog by phone.

Colombia's leading intelligence agency has distributed a handbook to agents explaining how they should spy on, threaten, intimidate and discredit journalists, NGOs and judges who are viewed a problems by the government.

The revelation follows a six month investigation by the magazine Semana is the latest in a series of scandals implicating the Administrative Department of Security or (DAS). Its comes hard on the heels of last years phone tapping revelations and the discovery last May of the media outlets and journalists already under surveillance. In October it was discovered that bodyguards assigned to protect the threatened journalist Claudia Julieta Duque were in fact spying on her. read on

"Such methods of surveillance and intimidation are worthy of a police state," Reporters Without Borders decared. "The recent dismissal of senior DAS officials has not resolved the problem of abusive practices within the agency. We note that the president's office has so far failed to dissociate itself from these latest ones. And why hasn't the DAS handed over its files on Duque and other journalists to the Constitutional Court, as it is supposed to?"

The national daily "El Espectador" said the spying manual was among the files seized during searches of the DAS offices that were carried out on orders from the National Attorney General's Office. The manual, which is in the form of a PowerPoint document entitled "Political War", includes instructions on how to make anonymous telephone calls and spread false allegations.

One of the manual's most alarming aspects is its use in the case of Duque, the Radio Nizkor reporter whose bodyguards were spying on her for the DAS. The authorities appear to have been worried about Duque's investigative reporting of the 1999 murder of columnist and humorist Jaime Garzón, which may have been carried out by former DAS employees.

Duque's personal details, including her telephone numbers and e-mail addresses, appear at the head of the manual, which recommends how long anonymous calls should last, the kind of place from which they should be made and how the person making the call should travel in a bus and avoid places with surveillance cameras. These recommendations appear to have been followed to the letter in Duque's case since 2004, the year she began receiving calls threatening her and her 10-year-old daughter.

The DAS's activities have never been properly investigated. The Constitutional Court ordered the DAS to hand over all the information it had gathered on Duque, but the agency has yet to respond.

Hollman Morris, who has been covering Colombia's civil war for more than 10 years and who, like Duque, was one of the first journalists to be targeted by the DAS, has brought a complaint against the Colombian state before the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, calling for an investigation into "those responsible for the threats, harassment, tailing, defamation and political stigmatisation" of himself and his family, which forced them to flee the country.

In the 71-page complaint, prepared with the help of the José Alvear Restrepo lawyers collective, Morris said he received the first threats in 2000, when he was working for the daily "El Espectador". Since then, he has been the target of various forms of harassment, threats and smear campaigns, including by President Alvaro Uribe himself.

The following is a rush translation of Semana report:
According to one of the detectives who works in DAS and who spoke to the magazine, "here (at DAS) you look at targets who can be a threat to the safety of the State and the president. Among them you can find the guerrillas, criminal gangs and drug traffickers. But also, and that is obvious because of the functions DAS is in charge of, controlling some people and institutions in order to inform the Presidency. For example, how can we not control (Gustavo) Petro, who is a former guerrilla and a member of the opposition? Or Piedad Córdoba (liberal party senator), because of her links to Chávez and the guerrilla?" The magazine confirmed this with four other members of DAS.

Other important figures who have been tapped are members of the Supreme Court and Iván Velásquez, a judge who leads the investigations regarding the links between politicians and paramilitary leaders and who had more than 1,900 phone calls intercepted. Journalists have also suffered from this problem. A counterintelligence detective told SEMANA that one of the goals behind tapping media and journalists "is informing the government of what is being done in the media, in order to give the government some time to react when critical situations arise".

The subject of illegally tapping members of the Supreme Court and the government, journalists and opposition leaders is only the tip of the iceberg of what is happening in the intelligence agency. The disorder has not only been capitalized on by members of the government to get "political favours". Criminal organizations such as drug traffickers, paramilitaries or the guerrilla have also found there a very valuable source of information which is sold to the highest bidder.

SEMANA obtained judicial record certificates sold to paramilitaries two years ago controlled by drug trafficker Miguel Ángel Mejía Múnera. The confidential documents, which can only be requested by a small number of DAS directors, were surprisingly in the hands of Nicolás Escobar, a close friend of the paramilitary leader who demobilized and is now in prison.

The Army also found last year a computer, owned by members of the ELN guerrilla group, which contained DAS documents about the operations of that agency against the rebels.

All in all, this debate has raised again a vital question: What must be done with DAS? The agency will never be able to carry out its main goals -provide intelligence to defend Colombian democracy- if actions such as illegally tapping people are considered by some of its workers as "normal". Just as the body count policy led to the deadly false positives scandal, the idea that any detractor of the President or the government is a "legitimate target" resulted in the tapping of journalists, judges and politicians. It is definitely very dangerous for democracy in this country that DAS operates like a political police force and that some of its employees use their post to commit a crime.