September 30

FROM CUBA
Cuban man arrested; his Italian friend warned to keep his distance
"Verdome protested when they took me to the patrol car. I told them that we are friends and why we were at the airport. But they charged me and warned me to keep away from foreigners or I would end up in prison."
HAVANA

FROM CUBA
My neighbor's grief
Film stars and intellectuals including Catherine Deneuve, Sophie Marceau, Pedro Almodovar and Jorge Semprun attended a soiree here supporting the Cuban people and hitting out at repression by leader Fidel Castro.
HAVANA

Stars and intellectuals hit out at Castro in Paris event
Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, who inherited numerous problems, has done a fine job managing tough domestic issues while satisfying international creditors. But he fumbled badly on his visit to Cuba last weekend.
Yahoo!

Yahoo! News
• Cuba Says Cubans in U.S. Can Visit
• Editor Quits After Castro Column Killed
• Cuban Frogs Pushy
• Cubans on Floating Truck Denied Visas
• Old friends Lula, Castro work on improving business ties
• Isolated Castro gets a diplomatic boost from Lula visit

External links

Most Cubans on floating truck turned down for U.S. visas
The Cubans who converted a pickup truck into a boat in an illegal attempt to reach Florida said Monday their attempts to emigrate legally had failed as well. So far, 10 of the 12 people in the group that made the unusual and well-publicized attempt to reach American soil have been turned down for U.S. immigration visas, the passengers on the floating boat said, showing copies of their rejection letters.
Sun-Sentinel, FL .

LETTERS FROM CUBA : From chalk to Powerpoint
Will Jordan, a 20-year-old University of Arkansas student and a Fayetteville native, is attending the University of Havana in Cuba this semester as part of a Sturgis Study Abroad Grant. He is the first UA student to study in Cuba through the grant program. During his time there, Jordan will write occasional diary entries for the benefit of Northwest Arkansas Times readers.
Will Jordan / Northwest Arkansas Times.

Small Biz Barges into Cuba
A small South Carolina company has done something no American business has in over 40 years--sailed a U.S.-registered barge into Havana. Previously, the few American companies that shipped goods to Cuba chartered foreign vessels.
Inc.com.

September 29

FROM CUBA
Exploding ordnance kills four in Cuba
The trash pickers were trying to separate the projectile from its shell to sell the metal to a raw materials recycling facility nearby. The explosion was heard for several miles around, witnesses said.
HAVANA

FROM CUBA
Police question Varela activist for third consecutive week
For the third week in a row, Varela project activist Lidiel Martínez was called in for questioning at the Fourth police unit in El Cerro.
HAVANA

FROM CUBA
Cuban Prison Bans the Bible
Prison authorities in Camaguey, Cuba, have banned the Bible from inmates' cells, according to Aid to the Church in Need.
Zenit, Italy

The Miami Herald
• Nations' leaders sign business agreements

Yahoo! News
• Old friends Lula, Castro work on improving business ties
• Albright Says Bush Should Do More To Bring Democracy To Cuba

External links

Cuban jumps ship
A Cuban national seeking asylum was rescued from the Delaware Bay after he jumped ship late Friday afternoon. According to local authorities, electrician Felix Urbano Zulueta Linares jumped at least 40 feet from an identified ship in his attempt to reach American soil. A private vessel picked Lineres out of the water after he had been treading water for at least 1 1/2 hours without a life vest.
Bridgeton News, NJ.

Brazil and Cuba: Hugs, Deals and Tears
Most of the Brazilian press seems convinced that at closed doors the theme of human rights would inevitably be discussed between the two leaders. For some, Lula is the only world leader to whom Castro would listen at this moment.
Brazzil.com, Brazil.

Brazilian president evades human rights issue on visit to Cuba
Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva praised closer trade ties with his longtime friend and leftist supporter Fidel Castro while predictably sidestepping Cuba's human rights record during a short visit to Havana. On Saturday morning the two leaders presided over a signing ceremony for commercial agreements worth $200 million, an "exceptional step for Cuba and Brazil," Lula said.
Sun-Sentinel, FL.

Food sales soar in face of political strains
So far this year, Cuba has bought $124 million in U.S. foods, mostly corn, soybeans, rice and poultry. In May, the month after the dissidents' one-day trials and the executions of three men who attempted to hijack a ferry to South Florida, sales totaled $21 million, about 260 percent higher than last May. American executives who continue cultivating relationships with Cuban officials despite the political chill repeat the same refrain they did last year at the food fair: Business is business and politics is politics.
Sun-Sentinel, FL.

Some Cuban-Americans softening stance on US embargo
The Florida National Summit on Cuba, organized by the World Policy Institute's Cuba Project and Cuban-Americans who oppose the U.S. embargo, will feature former Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev, whom analysts think will suggest a different approach to relations with Cuba.
Sun-Sentinel, FL.

Cuba: Now Or Never?
The major hotels offer satellite TV, but the only news show for ordinary Cubans airs for a half-hour or so on Sunday night and is repeated all week. It makes you feel a little guilty to be enjoying the lack of homogenization. Cuba, unlike so much of the world, does not seem bland and familiar. Its isolation, bad for the locals, makes it fresh and fascinating for tourists. The police stir similar mixed emotions: Cubans must find them oppressive. For tourists, they mean that you can safely walk even the poorest streets of Havana anytime, day or night, without fear.
The Washington Post.

Cuba in the Blood, Author explores life in exile
Like many descendants of Cubans who left their Caribbean island, Andrea O'Reilly Herrera longs for a homeland she never knew.
The Salt Lake Tribune .

Artist paints for change
The ultimate destination here is Cuba, but the first stop is Robert Porcher's house in Rochester.
The Detroit News.

September 26

FROM CUBA
Police shut down independent library in Cuba
The Cuban political police searched the home of dissident Lorenzo García in Holguín Tuesday, confiscating more than 250 books from an independent lending library García operated there.
HAVANA

FROM CUBA
Prison inmates in Cuba decry conditions
"Only the absence of fire keeps us from thinking we are in Hell," reads a message from a prisoner at the Valle Grande prison in Havana.
HAVANA

FROM CUBA
Young man threatened for refusing to collaborate with Cuban police
Joany Hernández, 25, was threatened by police after he refused to cooperate in a police investigation of a presumed attempt to leave the island illegally.
HAVANA

FROM CUBA
17-year-old student takes her life in Guantánamo
A 17-year-old student of the "José Maceo Grajales" vocational school in Guantánamo hung herself with a sheet at the school.
HAVANA

The Miami Herald
• Brazilian president seeks to keep today's visit low-key
• Aznar's views on Cuba hailed
• Cuban banker and longtime community leader, Luis J. Botifoll, dies at age 95

Yahoo! News
• Brazilian President to Meet Castro in Cuba

September 24

FROM CUBA
Consumers unhappy about egg price rise in Cuba
A new government measure set the price of eggs imported from the U. S. at two pesos each throughout the island, provoking grumbling in the provinces, where eggs usually sold for less than in Havana.
HAVANA

FROM CUBA
Equal? Not even dead
Just past noon August 16, the jeep arrived at the polyclinic of the former Orozco sugar mill in Pinar del Río province, carrying the first secretary of the local Communist Party apparently suffering from a heart attack.
HAVANA

The Miami Herald
• Aznar, exiles to meet

Yahoo! News
• U.S. Tourists Not 'Fine' With The Cost Of Visiting Cuba

External links

Wave of repression fuels rumours that Fidel Castro is losing his mind
To Cuba's propagandists, the current wave of repression is like the final part of an heroic four-act drama: in which Mr. Castro's internal enemies are led off in chains, and his secret moles within the opposition step forwards to take their bows. Cubans know differently. They are living in a tragedy, with a fifth act to come, in which the tyrant dies, leaving unknown chaos in his wake. "This place is in semi-paralysis," said one diplomat. "[Government] is his very personal vision now, and very few of his officials know where this is going.
Telegraph.co.uk, UK.

Coleman: Human rights trumps trade in Cuba (reg. reqd.)
The Minnesota Republican had planned to meet with Cuban President Fidel Castro, but the meeting was canceled after Coleman announced that he doesn't support ending the Cuban trade embargo or lifting travel restrictions now.
Minneapolis Star Tribune, MN.

From ropa vieja to riches
When Josefa Gonzalez-Hastings and her parents fled Castro's Cuba in the mid 1960s, they left nearly everything behind except the clothes they could carry in flimsy cardboard suitcases.
St. Petersburg Times, FL .

Contreras' effort gives Bombers a start
Jose Contreras made his best start as a Yankee last night, pitching a season-high eight innings and striking out a career-best nine in the Yanks' division-clinching victory over the White Sox.
New York Daily News, NY.

Visiting the Devil
It is a step characterized in the presidential entourage as "controversial" and politically risky, as revealed by the well informed columnist Dora Kramer, of the newspaper Jornal do Brasil. She adds that one of the purposes of the trip, according to its defenders - Lula, the chancellor Amorim and the minister José Dirceu, a former guerrilla who lived several years in Cuba - would be that of "preserving bonds of affection with the past".
Armando F. Valladares / FrontPage Magazine.

An exile's revolutionary move
Eloy Gutierrez-Menoyo helped topple a dictatorship and then took up arms against his former comrade, Fidel Castro. He endured more than two decades in Cuban prisons and 17 more years in exile. Then, at the end of a family vacation here last month, the 68-year-old Gutierrez-Menoyo shocked Cuban dissidents and exiles alike by declaring that he was staying in Cuba to work peacefully toward establishing a democracy.
Gary Marx / Chicago Tribune.

'Anna in the Tropics' seduces with poetic dreaminess
The Nilo Cruz play "Anna in the Tropics" is a charming ode to infidelity, great literature and a good smoke. Set in 1929, in Ybor City outside Tampa, Cruz's drama has wafted its way onto the stage of the Victory Gardens Theater. Earlier this year it won the Pulitzer Prize for drama, which sets up all sorts of false expectations of Meaning and Stature most plays have no interest in meeting, let alone exceeding. In that regard "Anna in the Tropics" is like most plays. It's modest and apolitical, especially by the standards of Cruz's earlier work.
Chicago Tribune.

Letter to a Friend's Daughter
If media here in Florida accused Israel of genocide, we could express our outrage through letters and phone calls, organize protests, etc. Cuban Jews can't do that. As the Cuban Jew Tony Fune has courageously said, "I understand that we have no freedom of speech, no freedom of the press, no freedom to travel, no freedom to choose how we will educate our children. And I understand that's not right." (Cuba doesn't even have a rabbi.).
Myles Kantor, NewsMax.com.

September 23

FROM CUBA
Mother of Cuban political prisoner threatened
The mother of political prisoner Arturo Sanchez says the State Security Ministry threatened to transfer her son to a remote prison if she continued her human rights activities.
HAVANA

FROM CUBA
Wife of Cuban political prisoners visits relatives of other jailed dissidents
At the request of her husband, jailed activist Librado Linares Garcia, Magalys Broche de la Cruz has been visiting the relatives of some of the 75 political prisoners imprisoned in April.
HAVANA

The Miami Herald
• Spanish prime minister schedules two-day Florida visit

Yahoo! News
• US says Cuba not meeting migration accord commitments
• Almiqui found in Cuba

External links

Cats president finally going to Cuba Minor
Cats president Marty Scott was nearly the first manager to take an American professional baseball team to Cuba since Fidel Castro came to power. Instead, Scott will have to settle for being second when he manages Team USA in the World Cup next month in Cuba, 4 1/2 years after his first trip to the island country was scheduled.
Star-Telegram. TX.

15 Ghanaian students to study in Cuba
Fifteen Ghanaian students were on Tuesday awarded scholarships to study engineering, humanities and para-medicals for four to five years in Cuba. The scholarship comes under an educational exchange programme between Ghana and Cuba.
GhanaWeb, Ghana.

The ideological librarians
A June meeting of the ALA provided an important clue of the organization's real priorities. It declined to pass a resolution -- even a tepid one -- supporting 14 jailed independent librarians in Cuba. These true martyrs to the free circulation of reading material held little interest for the ALA, since they are anti-Castro instead of anti-Ashcroft.
Townhall.com.

September 22

FROM CUBA
Cuban health authorities try to contain conjunctivitis outbreak
Cuban health authorities have taken several measures in an attempt to contain an outbreak of conjunctivitis throughout the island, including some cases of the hemorrhagic variety. Authorities have asked those suffering from the disease to stay off the streets or be fined.
HAVANA

FROM CUBA
Cuban government announces a new registry of deeds
The government called for all home owners to start registering their homes in a new registry of deeds, according to an announcement in the official dailies.
HAVANA

FROM CUBA
Claim against power company unresolved after five years
A man who filed a claim with the local power company in Villa Clara province for damages sustained by some domestic appliances has still not been totally paid after five years.
HAVANA

The Miami Herald
• Cuba's many prisons may hold 100,000
• Cuban hijacker sentenced
• Salvat: A quiet, bookish guy with a militant history
• Hard line by U.S. halts some aid trips to Cuba

Yahoo! News
• Sen. Coleman Pays Cuba Human Rights Call
• Cuba Neighbors Rally During Eviction
• Sen. Coleman Meets With Cuban Activists
• Victor Manuelle Sings at Cruz Tribute

The Revolution and Racism
When the conversation turns to race, however, the black electrical technician stops laughing. "We are not free, he says. "Listen to me when I tell you that.
The Miami Herald.

External links

Cuban exile leader won't fight return
Cuban exile activist Ramon Saul Sanchez said Thursday that he will not resist efforts by immigration officials to deport him to his native Cuba but will challenge any attempt to imprison him indefinitely in the United States should Cuba not accept him.
Sun-Sentinel, FL.

Getting personal with Cuba
Isolating Cuba has done nothing to break Fidel Castro's grip on power. Talking -- and trading -- might.
Herald Tribune, FL.

Editorial: Montana sets a better Cuba course
After 40 years of sanctions, we know what hasn't worked to foster democracy. Trade holds more promise.
Missoulian Opinion .

September 18

FROM CUBA
Outbreak of conjunctivitis in Havana
Although authorities did not release the number of those already infected, it is believed to be in the hundreds. Several live-in students have been sent home for treatment and to contain the infection.
HAVANA

The Miami Herald
• Lawyers lobby for dissidents
• 3 European leaders urge fund for opposition
• Dissident honored in Spain
• Trade mission to Cuba sought
• Cuban man sentenced in plane hijacking
• Cuban hijacker gets minimum 20 years for air piracy

External links

President Lula's Cuba Test
Lula arrives Sunday in New York to address the United Nations as it opens its 58th session. He'll then tour Mexico, and his schedule calls for him to go next to Havana. How will left-leaning Lula position himself there vis-à-vis Communist dictator Fidel Castro? Lula must show the world just how different, in substance and style, he is from the hemispheric dinosaur.
LA Times.

Angola/Cuba: Bilateral Commission Signs Agreement On Plants Protection
The 11th session of Angola/Cuba bilateral commission closes Thursday, in Luanda, with the signing of an agreement on plants protection and other related to the conditions of arrival of Cuban technicians to the country. There is also the possibility of getting signed an action plan in the sector of civil engineering and roads repairing.
AllAfrica.com.

Port Manatee eager to establish Cuba ties
David McDonald wants to lead a trade mission to Cuba later this year. The executive director of Port Manatee would like to take people from four or five area businesses with him, tour ports in Havana and Mariel, and get to know Cuban trade representatives.
Sarasota Herald-Tribune, FL.

Trade panel focuses on Cuba, cars
State officials continue to beat the drum to get Alabama companies interested in exporting overseas. Their latest efforts include a two-day conference in October at what arguably is the state's most elaborate resort. The Alabama International Trade Conference, at Marriott's Grand Hotel in Point Clear on Mobile Bay, will feature seminars on doing business with Cuba, the automotive industry and the emerging impact of the cruise ship industry in Mobile.
Birmingham Business Journal, AL.

Pair hope to air Cuban programs from Naples-based TV network
A new Naples-based Cuban television network wants to herd the scattered flock of Cuban documentaries and dish them up to a satellite that transmits around the world. "We have a ton of programming, but no venue," said Kevin Adell, who hopes to launch the Cubana One Network with Pedro Prado, a Cuban exile.
Naples Daily News, FL .

From La Jolla to Havana ... and back again
The La Jolla High School varsity football team will not soon forget the opening game of the 2003 season. It was played in Havana, Cuba, against Bonita Vista high school from Chula Vista and was the first American rules football game played in Cuba since 1958.
La Jolla Light, CA.

GOP fund paid for Dolan's trip from Cuba
Dolan's travel expenses - which included chartering a private jet - came to almost $8,200 and were handled by aides to state Senate President Pro Tem Peter Kinder, R-Cape Girardeau. The total bill was paid by the Senate Majority Fund, a campaign committee set up to handle various expenses for the Legislature's Republican leaders.
St. Louis Post Dispatch, MO.

September 17

FROM CUBA
Wife fears for journalist husband on hunger strike in Cuba
"If they turned me into a hero, now they are going to have to turn me into a martyr," said imprisoned independent journalist Normando Hernández to his wife.
HAVANA

FROM CUBA
Cuban authorities confiscate several fishing boats in Holguín province
Several fishermen around Moa, in Holguín province, were issued fines of between 1,500 and 5,000 pesos and had their boats confiscated at the end of August after being charged with fishing without a license by fisheries inspectors.
HOLGUÍN

FROM CUBA
Police assign two neighbors to watch Havana dissident
Political police have assigned two neighbors to watch dissident and ex-political prisoner Javier García, warning him that "one more misstep" will land him in jail.
HAVANA

FROM CUBA
Cuban ingenuity applied to fuel conservation
Cuban ingenuity is equally at home improvising devices that render every day chores easier if not just plain possible in the face of asphyxiating scarcity, as it is to coming up with names for the said devices. Take the No-no, for instance.
HAVANA

The Miami Herald
• U.S. says it has filled annual quota for visas
• Break With Castro: Argentine singer says 'no más'
• Strong words for tough stance on Cuba
• Groups unveil rights proposal
• Support vanishing for Cuba's art showcase

IRI Launches New Website and Report on Cuba's Democratic Resistance
Six months after the Cuban government seized and imprisoned dozens of political dissidents, the International Republican Institute (IRI) unveiled new online and print resources on the progress and predicament of the pro-democracy movement in Cuba.
HAVANA

External links

Building a Free Cuba
Exactly half a year ago, Fidel Castro's regime imprisoned 75 representatives of the Cuban opposition. More than 40 coordinators of the Varela Project and more than 20 journalists and other representatives of various pro-democracy movements landed in jail. All of them were sentenced in mock trials to prison terms ranging from six to 28 years -- merely for daring to express an opinion other than the official one.
The Washington Post.

East Europe grandees blast Castro
In a letter sent to several leading newspapers internationally, Vaclav Havel of the Czech Republic, Lech Walesa of Poland and Arpad Goencz of Hungary said European countries should set up a fund to help opposition groups within Cuba.
BBC, UK .

Trio rips Castro's regime in letter
In particular, they said Europe's "constructive engagement" with the regime was failing to change Mr. Castro's behavior. "Europe ought to make it unambiguously clear that Fidel Castro is a dictator, and that for democratic countries a dictatorship cannot become a partner until it commences a process of political liberalization," they said.
The Washington Times.

Coleman to visit Cuba this weekend
Coleman is chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee's Western Hemisphere subcommittee. He said today that he plans to meet with both high-ranking Cuban government officials and political reform advocates. Coleman's office declined to say whether the senator will meet with Cuban President Fidel Castro.
KAAL, MN.

Cuba screams for American ice cream
What started as an idea to bring dinner to Cuba ended up being dessert. Havana, Cuba, is now receiving 240 tons of a soy-based ice cream mix from Savannah-based Y&Y Agriculture Corp. of Georgia.
Hartwell Sun, GA.

For sale: Condos with foreign intrigue
Built in 1912 and located across the street from the art deco mansion that belonged to former prime minister Pierre Trudeau, the former consulate is now a bustling renovation site. The Cubans sold the building in June to a Montreal developer who is converting it into upscale condos and townhouses. The consulate has relocated into more modest digs overlooking the Décarie Expressway.
Montreal Gazette, Canada.

Editorial: Cuba trade? Have a cigar
It's not a done deal yet, but the groundwork done by Sen. Max Baucus and Rep. Dennis Rehberg in Cuba eventually could lead to big things for Montana. Baucus and Rehberg just announced from Cuba that they have a "memo of understanding" that should lead to Cuba buying $10 million worth of Montana grains, live cattle and dry beans.
Montana Forum, Montana.

Author lectures on Cuban identity
There exists only 90 miles between Cuba and the United States - a short distance that outlines the proximity that has and will forever link the two nations, a professor of Latin American history said to a capacity crowd yesterday evening in Memorial Hall.
The Massachusets Daily Collegian.

Journalism students produce documentary after visiting Cuba
In a place not far from America there is a society filled with tension, poverty and, in some cases, turmoil. It is Cuba, a nation only 92 miles from the coast of Florida but a world away in terms of culture.
Daily Nebraskan.

Senators work for trade with Cuba
Montana and Wyoming legislators are moving forward with their quixotic efforts to open up trade between the United States and Cuba. Senators Max Baucus, D-Mont., and Mike Enzi, R-Wyo., have received a promise that legislation permitting U.S. citizens to travel to Cuba will be debated soon, and Baucus and Rep. Denny Rehberg, R-Mont., will be leading a trade delegation to Cuba on Friday.
The Casper Star Tribune, WY.

Foreign Correspondents Face Special Challenges in Cuba
Breaking the wall of silence that surrounds certain issues and events and finding a source who is willing to confirm news that everyone already knows about through the grapevine may be the biggest challenges facing foreign correspondents in Cuba.
IPSnews.net, Uruguay .

September 16

FROM CUBA
Prisoners made to work 12 hours a day in Cuba
Thirty-two inmates at the El Anoncillo minimum-security prison camp have been put to work more than 12 hours a day cleaning fields and planting them, under the orders of Omar Mora. The only incentive is the authorization of periodic visits by family members.
HAVANA

FROM CUBA
Pizza-parlor attendant fired
Tamayo had been fined 55 pesos by a quality-control inspector for selling underweight, poor quality pizzas. She said the cheese provided for making pizza by the government itself, is of very poor quality.
HAVANA

FROM CUBA
Notes on a crisis
From a young age, young people are sent to the schools in the countryside, thanks to the policy of the state. The eye of the relative becomes cloudy by the distance. The tutelage is left adrift. The children are growing up without the example of home.
PINAR DEL RIO

FROM CUBA
Wild children
The policeman was running after the child, shouting warnings. It involved a child of school age. Another policeman tried to explain to the tourists what had happened. He talked to them of new prohibitions against minors in the street. "They're too much now."
PINAR DEL RIO

FROM CUBA
Bar flies
Bars are like museums of daily life. In a bar you can see from the habitual drunkard (the type who has decided to die in the bottom of a bottle) to the type also who had the most hatred in his life for alcohol..
PINAR DEL RIO

The Miami Herald
• Caught-on-tape dissident admits falling into 'trap'

September 15

FROM CUBA
Eggs in short supply in Cuba
Although the ration book entitles everyone to buy five eggs a month, they've become scarce in some parts of Cuba.
HAVANA

FROM CUBA