APCS dissident meeting in Havana: winners and losers.

Organizers of the Assembly to Promote Civil Society (APCS)--Marta Beatriz Roque, Felix Bonne Carcass and Ren Gomez Manzano--view their May 21 event in Havana as a major success.

According to them, the fact that the gathering was held at all, in the face of official Cuban hostility, was thanks to international support and thousands of local followers. other words, Cuban authorities were impotent to stop the preparations.

For most of the Miami-based exile organizations, it was a victorious achievement, showing how weak the Cuban system is present. These organizations actively funded the event and helped generate considerable media coverage, though Roque's sister and others in Havana grumbled about their inability raise the hoped-for $130,000. In the end, they claimed to have received only $50,000.

After calling the Cuban government a "Stalinist regime" and repeatedly chanting slogans calling for freedom and the downfall Fidel Castro, participants listened to a short address by President Bush from Washington.

All in all, the APCS represented 360 very small opposition groups--some 140 people showed up the first day and around 80 the next day.

The group adopted a well-publicized 10-point resolution that called for the release for all political prisoners, democratization of Cuban society, human rights, the abolition of the death penalty, an end to the socialist political system, economic openness and guidance to the Cuban people in its peaceful struggle for democracy.

Two days later, Bonne Carcass--in a radio interview with journalists from Miami--said the APCS's most important organizational task now is to start the creation of comites de accion civica (civic action committees) resulting in a nationwide network.

SOME DISSIDENTS BOYCOTT GATHERING

Some European embassies attended the meeting by sending second-rank diplomatic officials; the U.S. Interests Section was represented by its top two diplomats in Havana, James Cason and Daniel Sainz.

All foreign correspondents based in Havana attended the meeting, though Cuban authorities prevented a few EU journalists, two former EU members of parliament and three current MPs from attending the event.

Despite statements by several Miami-based organizations saying that Poland's Lech Walesa, the Czech Republic's Vaclav Havel and Russia's Mikhail Gorbachev would attend, none of the three former leaders showed up.

Interestingly, more than 30 opposition groups refused to take part in the meeting, and some others that were initially involved decided to withdraw their support.

For example, Cambio Cubano's Eloy Gutierrez Menoyo said that to support U.S. policies against Havana is to be "an annexionist movement." Espinosa Chepe, just recently out of prison, said "President Bush made a mistake [to support APCS]. It does not contribute to reconciliation."

Oswaldo Paya, whose Christian Liberation Movement enjoys considerable support among EU nations, said he wouldn't attend the meeting because it was nothing but "a big fraud against the opposition."

In addition, Ladies in White--a group of wives of political prisoners--also refused to participate, saying such a confrontational event would be counterproductive to their goal of winning freedom for all political prisoners in Cuba.

SECOND-GUESSING CASTRO'S MOTIVES

Meanwhile, Reuters correspondent Anthony Boadle characterized the APCS as "a U.S.-backed umbrella organization that joins dozens of small dissident groups across Cuba."

The Miami Herald columnist on Cuban affairs, Pablo Alfonso, told a popular TV political talk-show that he disagreed with the notion that the Cuban government had been forced to accept the meeting.

Other correspondents expressed similar views and all coincided in one crucial question: Why did the Cuban government allow this meeting?

Perhaps Castro's strategy is to divide his foes while keeping the current focus on accused terrorist Luis Posada Carriles and U.S. responsibility for his actions.

According to The Economist, "Doubtless, he [Castro] senses a propaganda victory over the issue--one well worth a shrewd tactical concession to the dissidents."

For Castro, even more important than dividing his foes is attempting to prove how close the APCS project is to U.S. policies and actions, and highlight the "annexationist" nature of their political discourse.

The fact is that three days before the meeting, Fidel Castro was able to mobilize 1.2 million people to march in front of the U.S. Interests Section in Havana, on the issue of Posada Carriles and his U.S. protectors.