Cubans Target Consulate

Consul General Alma Adams told The Bahama Journal that she had been told by Vice President Norman del Valle of Movimiento Democracia, the Cuban-American group said to have organized the picket, that there "is a likelihood that these demonstrations will continue at least for the next few days."

Ms. Adams said that only about five people were involved in the protest, but television pictures later in the day showed dozens of protestors in front of the consulate.

News also broke yesterday of Mario Vallejo, a Miami journalist, who reportedly needed seven stitches after allegedly having his head slammed against a car by a Royal Bahamas Defence Force officer at the detention centre.

Mr. Vallejo was part of a news team from Miami-based WLTV-Univisión 23, dispatched to New Providence to investigate reports by family members of the detainees that they were being abused.

Other witnesses to the incident between Mr. Vallejo and the unidentified officer reportedly include Mr. Vallejo’s cameraman, Osvaldo Duarte, and Alberto Tavares and Lazaro Obreu of Telemundo affiliate Channel 51.

Mr. Vallejo is alleging that he was on a public phone when the officer attacked him.

Miami resident Manny Lopez was present at a press conference given be Mr. Vallejo in Florida yesterday, and told the Bahama Journal that Miami news stations had been running the story all day.

Mr. Lopez asked, "If they are mistreating the press, what is happening to the detainees?"

Pedro Batitsta Méndez, a Cuban political agitator who claims to have been held at the detention centre for 17 months awaiting a visa, on Tuesday reportedly phoned in an eye-witness report to a US-based Cuban news forum of the incident between Mr. Vallejo and the officer.

Mr. Méndez reportedly used a cellular phone his family bought him to call a report into Information Bridge Cuba Miami, alleging that some detainees were being "beaten" and otherwise "physically abused" by drunken "officials" of the Royal Bahamas Defence Force.

Mr. Méndez told Information Bridge that he and his six cohorts "fear for (their) lives" because the Defence Force officers at the centre "are blaming the seven political prisoners detained in the camp for the incident with the press."

"The abuse and retaliations from this day forward at the Carmichael Road Detention Centre in Nassau, Bahamas will increase dramatically," he reportedly predicted. "Please support us for we are helpless."

Mr. Méndez and six other detainees at the centre are the only members of The Democratic Party November 30 "Frank Pais," which has been described as an "illegal opposition party" in Cuba.

Mr. Méndez also alleges that seven Cuban rafters discovered on Elbow Cay last Thursday, six of whom he said "lost relatives in their attempt to get to lands of freedom," were brought to the detention centre [on Sunday] and are also victims of "the wrath of the officers of the Defence Force here at the camp."

Minister of Labour and Immigration Vincent Peet told the Journal yesterday that he had ordered a full investigation into all the charges, and would make the findings of the investigation public once it is complete.