Cuban Dissidents freed
Seven opponents of the government of President Fidel Castro who were being held prisoner were freed starting on Nov. 29 for health reasons.

The dissidents are part of a group of 75 people condemned to prison in April last year, accused of conspiring to subvert the internal order.

Those freed were Osvaldo Alfonso, Óscar Espinoza, Marcelo López, Margarito Broche, Jorge Olivera Castillo, Edel García Díaz and poet Raúl Rivero. With their release, a total of 21 dissidents have been freed over the course of the year.

Rivero, 59, declared on leaving prison on Nov. 30 that his release was a gesture by Cuban authorities to "reestablish" relations with the European Community, which imposed a series of sanctions against Castro’s government due to the trial and imprisonment of 75 opponents.

Although Rivero — who had been sentenced to 20 years in jail — described the first year as especially difficult but he said he not been mistreated.

"I am leaving jail without anger," Rivero said. "On the contrary, this is a constructive opposition. I harbor no hate, at least nothing major."

Colombia Presidential re-election
The House of Representatives on Dec. 1 approved the constitutional reform that allows immediate presidential re-election in Colombia.

The text of the initiative must be conciliated with that of the Senate because a paragraph has been modified. Presidential re-election had been barred in 1991. Until that year, re-election in non-consecutive terms was possible.

Nevertheless, the amendment — promoted by the executive branch — must be reviewed by the Constitutional Court which is expected to issue its ruling next year.

One of the most controversial points of the reform has been the prohibition of mayors and governors to stand for the presidency in 2006. With it, the mayor of Bogota Luis Eduardo Garzón and the governor of Cauca Valley department Angelino Garzón — both of whom belong to the leftist Independent Democratic Pole (PDI) — would be out of the running.

Gustavo Petro, PDI representative in Congress, said he would present a complaint against the reform before the Constitutional Court and invoke the Democratic Charter of the Organization of American States, because the amendment "violates the right to equal participation in the 2006 election."

 

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Rights courts confirms sentence On Dec. 2, the Inter-American Human Rights Court (CIDH) confirmed a 20-year sentence imposed by a civilian court in 2001 against US citizen Lori Berenson, accused of collaborating with guerrillas of the Tupac Amaru Revolutionary Movement (MRTA). Berenson was arrested in 1995 and a year later was sentenced to life in prison by a military court on treason charges. In 1999, the government of former President Alberto Fujimori (1990-2000) removed Peru from the jurisdiction of the CIDH after refusing to recognize a ruling that ordered a new trial for four Chilean citizens who are also serving life terms on treason charges for being members of the MRTA. In September 2000, shortly before the fall of Fujimori’s government, Berenson’s sentence was annulled and the case was passed to a civilian court. In June 2001, a civilian court reduced the jail term to 20 years but her lawyers, in a complaint filed against the Peruvian state in the CIDH, argued that she did not get a fair trial in either process. Berenson has always claimed she is innocent and has rejected the possibility of serving her sentence in a US jail. During the 1980s and 1990s, the MRTA took up arms and carried out a number of attacks against military and civilian targets. In December 1996, the group led the capture of the Japanese ambassador’s residence in Lima, holding dozens of hostages for four months. The hostages were released in an April 1997 military operation in which 14 rebels, two military officers and one hostage died.