Opposition leaders call works a futile attempt to discredit them

By TRACEY EATON / The Dallas Morning News

HAVANA – Cuba's dissident leaders enjoy a life of luxury, spending romantic afternoons at the beach, sipping cocktails with diplomats and jetting off to Europe,
two new books charge.

It's Cuban authorities' latest attempt to discredit and ultimately destroy the political opposition, analysts say. The idea is simple: Paint dissidents as shameless
materialists who care more about money than ideas.

Dissident leaders and their supporters call it a smear campaign and predict it won't work. But the message hits home for some party supporters, who have been
taught for years that having more than your neighbor is evil.

One book, El Camaján, targets Elizardo Sánchez, a well-known Cuban dissident. It alleges that Mr. Sánchez – in addition to enjoying privileges that are out of
reach for most Cubans – was a government spy for many years and informed on diplomats, foreign journalists, visiting American lawmakers and other dissidents.

He seemingly had no real convictions but only wanted to keep the money – and the privileges – coming in, the book charged.

Mr. Sánchez, 59, denies being an informant but said he has met regularly with Cuban secret agents in the interest of boosting dialogue.

"I'll even talk to Satan to bring positive changes to my country. The problem is, Satan hasn't been willing to talk to any of us."

He also said he has traveled abroad and dined with visiting dignitaries but doesn't live in luxury.

The book is "a mix of truths, half-truths and falsifications by the political police," said Mr. Sánchez, president of the dissident Cuban Commission on Human Rights
and National Reconciliation.

Arleen Rodríguez and Lázaro Barredo, two journalists who work for the Cuban government, unveiled the book in August. Its title, El Camaján, is Cuban slang
meaning, roughly, "opportunistic freeloader." And that's what they allege Mr. Sánchez is.

The dissident leader, the authors charge, lived off pro-democracy funds from the United States and Europe while cooperating with Cuban spy services.

Cuban authorities obliged, the book charges, saying they wanted to string along Mr. Sánchez to find out what he knew. And, according to the authors, he told them
plenty.

He reportedly unmasked suspected CIA agents who had traveled to the island, the authors say. For that, they say, Cuba's Interior Ministry gave him a distinguished
service medal in October 1998.

A photograph in the book claiming to show an official pinning the medal to Mr. Sánchez's shirt is inconclusive; no medal can be seen.

Mr. Sánchez denies getting a medal and said he can't remember the photo. He said he thinks agents may have given him a pen and says he knew he was being
watched.

"If you look at the photos, you'll notice that at no time I'm sticking my finger in my nose," he said. "I'm posing for the cameras."

U.S. officials say they continue to support Mr. Sánchez. And the dissident, a former professor of Marxist philosophy, vows to carry on.

The book also alleges that the Cuban government treated Mr. Sánchez and a female guest to trips to resorts and other tourist spots. And it shows photos of Mr.
Sánchez and female companions eating, riding on a boat and sunning on the beach.

"Sequence of pleasures," the photographs are entitled.

"The government is trying to provoke people's envy to turn people against dissidents," said Vladimiro Roca, a former political prisoner and an opposition leader.

Envy is a powerful emotion in Cuba, where privileges are scarce and the government encourages people to sacrifice for the revolution's sake.

Mr. Sánchez said that the government is desperate to discredit him and he's not surprised.

A government that taps the phone calls of thousands of people, including its own ministers, is capable of anything, he said.

"The real power in totalitarian regimes, the backbone of it all, is the secret political police," he said. But information about the private lives of people in Cuba "does
nothing to solve the country's problems."

Others agree.

"Let's assume Elizardo is a spy," said Joe García, director of the anti-Castro Cuban American National Foundation in Miami. "He was serving the revolution – and
they sold him out like a dog. A legitimate government would not use those tactics."

According to El Camaján, the Cuban government decided to blow the dissident's cover because he suddenly became less than forthcoming after authorities cracked
down on the opposition in March.

More than 100 dissidents, journalists and others were arrested, and 75 received prison terms of up to 28 years.

After the crackdown, a second book, The Dissidents, was released, accusing opposition members of receiving tens of thousands of dollars from the U.S.
government.

Authorities may have clamped down – and then published the anti-dissident books – because the opposition movement "was slipping out of its control," said Eloy
Gutiérrez Menoyo, a leader of Miami's Cuban exile community.

Nelson Valdés, a Cuba expert at the University of Mexico, said he isn't so sure, noting that figuring out the Cuban government's strategy isn't a simple matter.

"Things are complex and nuanced," he said. "There are multiple and crisscrossing constituencies and interests. Fidel [Castro] and his team have the job of listening
and balancing the costs and benefits while ascertaining what the coalitions within the regime favor."

The government also polls ordinary Cubans to find out what they think, said Mr. Valdés, who spent two months on the island earlier this year and met twice with
President Castro.

In any case, Cuban officials hint that another anti-materialist book is under way, perhaps targeting Oswaldo Payá, an award-winning dissident who has been praised
by former President Jimmy Carter and others. And while there's no official confirmation, its title will reportedly be, Who is Payá?