US-sponsored broadcast denounces 'lackey' Cuban cardinal
May 07, 2012
An editorial broadcast to Cuba by Radio Marti has denounced Cardinal Jaime Ortega Alamino of Havana for cooperating with the Castro regime.
Radio Marti, which is sponsored and subsidized by the US State Department, broadcasts directly to Cuba. An editorial by the station’s director, Carlos Garcia-Perez, charged that Cardinal Ortega showed “scorn and arrogance” for political dissidents who had sought to meet with Pope Benedict XVI during the Pontiff’s visit to Cuba. The editorial said that the cardinal’s “political collusion with the government” demonstrated a “lackey attitude.”
Harvard professor Jorge Dominguez came quickly to the cardinal’s defense. While conceding that Cardinal Ortega had been unduly harsh in criticizing Cuban dissidents, he pointed to the prelate’s success in winning human-rights concessions from the Cuban regime: “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.”
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