U.S. government’s Radio and TV Marti call Cuban Cardinal Jaime Ortega a lackey

U.S. government's Radio and TV Marti call Cuban Cardinal Jaime Ortega a
lackey
By William Booth, Sunday, May 6, 4:01 AM

MEXICO CITY — Criticism of the leader of the Catholic Church in Cuba,
who has been negotiating with the communist government to expand
religious and political freedom, intensified last week when the head of
Radio and TV Marti called the archbishop of Havana a lackey who is
colluding with an oppressive regime.

The stinging editorial against Cardinal Jaime Ortega — signed by Radio
and TV Marti's director, Carlos Garcia-Perez — is significant because
Marti is a U.S. government agency, with its board of directors appointed
by the White House and its policies coordinated with the State
Department to direct messages to Cubans.

Some analysts said the editorial could undermine Ortega's position in
Cuba and they wondered whether it signaled a lack of support for the
Church's delicate position on the communist-run island.

Marti broadcasts, according to spokeswoman Lynne Weil, "are editorially
independent, although supported by U.S. taxpayer dollars. Their
editorials, unless otherwise stated, represent the views of the
broadcasters only and not necessarily those of the U.S. government."

Weil said she did not know when the State Department saw the editorial
or whether there was any discussion of its content.

"I would suggest that this is equivalent to a U.S. government statement
and that people may conclude, rightly or wrongly, that this is a U.S.
government position," said Phil Peters, a Cuba analyst at the Lexington
Institute.

The cardinal has been hailed by some for his role in the freeing of
political prisoners and for creating a small but relatively safe space
for citizens to complain about the Cuban government, including its tight
immigration and economic policies. Cuba's Catholic magazines contain
some of the most lively, as well as pointed, criticism of the government.

But Ortega has been hammered in the Cuban exile community and by members
of the South Florida congressional delegation, who say he is an appeaser
who enables the Castro brothers and prolongs their rule.

Many activists voiced disappointment that Ortega did not publicly push
for human rights or defend dissidents during the recent visit to Cuba by
Pope Benedict XVI.

Ortega also came under fire for statements he made at an April 24
Harvard University panel, where he described the 13 dissidents who
sought to occupy a Havana church a few days before the pope arrived as
"criminals" and "people of low culture."

The dissidents, who included a mentally ill person, had said they hoped
to push the church to engage the pope on human rights issues. Ortega had
state security officers remove them.

Guillermo I. Martinez, a columnist with the Sun Sentinel in Fort
Lauderdale, recently called Ortega a bootlicker. The popular Cuban
American blog Babalu called Ortega "a truly despicable man."

Ortega has said that he gets attacked from all sides.

"Perhaps this takes time and is a sort of martyrdom all Christians,
including myself as pastor, must undergo," the cardinal said at Harvard.
"That is what it means to give your life for the sheep."

In his editorial, aired on Radio and TV Marti and published on the
broadcaster's Web site, Garcia-Perez, a Cuban-American lawyer from
Puerto Rico, accused Ortega of speaking with "scorn and arrogance" of
the 13 dissidents.

"This attitude of Ortega just goes to show his political collusion with
the government and his willingness to follow the official line," he
wrote. "This lackey attitude demonstrates a profound lack of
understanding and compassion toward the human reality of these children
of God."

El Nuevo Herald in Miami contacted several of the 13 dissidents, who
denied they had criminal records.

"I can only say that the 13 are a perfect reflection of Cuban society,
in which there is everything," Havana human rights activist Elizardo
Sanchez told the newspaper.

Jorge Dominguez, the Harvard professor who invited the archbishop to
speak, said: "Cardinal Ortega is a good man. Calling him a lackey is
beyond belief."

Dominguez added, "It is amazing that this comes from a U.S. government
broadcaster."

The professor noted that as a young priest, Ortega was sent to a
reeducation camp and forced to do manual labor, as the church struggled
in a state that had declared itself officially atheist.

"Who freed the political prisoners in Cuba? Not the European Union. Not
the U.S. government. And not Radio and TV Marti. It was Ortega who
convinced Raul Castro to let them out," Dominguez said.

He added, however, that Ortega's condemnation of the dissidents was
unfair. "A lot of people have criminal records in Cuba, but you have no
way of knowing if they have records simply because the state has
targeted them for their political activities," he said.

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