More details released on US Interests chief, Miami support to dissidents
Ray Sanchez | Direct from Havana
8:10 AM EDT, May 20, 2008
Havana
The director of the Security State Historical Investigation Center of Cuba,
Manuel Hevia, presents a video of Cuban opposition leader Marta Beatriz
Roque (R), who allegedly received $1,500 a month from jailed Miami anti-
Castro militant Santiago Alvarez, a close associate of accused terrorist Luis
Posada Carriles. Hevia and other Cuban officials charge the chief of the US
Interests Section, Michael Parmly, carried the money from Miami to Roque.
(AFP/Getty Images, Adalberto Roque / May 19, 2008)
State security surveillance video showed the dissident accused of taking money from the top U.S. diplomat in Havana cutting short a cell phone conversation because credit on her phone was low.
"I'm running out of money on this because I don't have money to buy another
card," dissident Martha Beatriz Roque was telling a contact at the U.S. Interests Section.
Her phone credit may have been running out but Cuban officials said Roque was receiving $1,500 a month from Fundacion Rescate Juridico, a nonprofit exile group created by Santiago Alvarez, 66, an exile militant jailed in the United States on weapons charges.
Roque did have time to tell the diplomat on the line that CNN had showed up to cover a small demonstration she was staging outside the Justice Ministry. "CNN, wow!" her contact said.
Cuban officials said outgoing Interests Section chief Michael Parmly delivered money from the Miami-based group to Roque and other dissidents. Alvarez is a benefactor and close associate of reputed terrorist Luis Posada Carriles.
More:
http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/local/cuba/sfl-0520havanadaily,0,7375944.column