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Amid uncertainty over Castro Cuba dusts off military show

By Michael Langan

HAVANA, 28 (AFP) - Fighter jets soared over anti-aircraft missiles as Cuba rehearsed for its first military parade in a decade to mark Fidel Castro's 80th birthday, amid expectation that he may appear in the flesh.

Four months have passed since Castro underwent intestinal surgery and then relinquished power temporarily to his brother and defense minister, Raul Castro. Cuba postponed Fidel's birthday celebrations from August 13 to December 2, hoping his recovery might be well along.

But Cuban authorities, who do not comment in detail on Castro's health, have stopped saying Fidel will be back on the job full-time.

The celebrations have something of a farewell tone for many Cubans.

"I think he looks like he has the will to live, and he has been leading the country from his bed but at the same time preparing people for when he is no longer with us," said marcher Silvia Loperon, 53.

Since Fidel Castro's July 26 operation, he has only been seen on television and in still photographs.

Monday, activity was at a fever pitch and the volume was on high at Revolution Square. Military cadets turned out in formation, MiG fighters zoomed beneath the clouds and Soviet-era troop transport helicopters clattered by.

Young workers from several state industries were out marching with their co-workers, waving huge red, white and blue Cuban flags in the cool breeze.

The military parade Saturday at which Fidel Castro is widely expected -- though his attendance is not officially confirmed -- is the climax of almost a week of festivities.

Some 300,000 people are expected to march, and 2,000 guests from 80 countries, including presidents, ex-presidents and Nobel laureates are due on hand. Allies President Evo Morales of Bolivia and president-elect Daniel Ortega of Nicaragua are to attend, as is Haitian President Rene Preval.

Venezuela's President Hugo Chavez, a staunch critic of the United States and Castro's key ally in keeping his regime alive economically, has not confirmed and is up for reelection this Sunday. But organizers in Havana said they would not rule out a quick visit by Castro's close friend.

All eyes will be on the podium to see if the grey-bearded leader is present and, if he is, hazard a guess at whether he might be strong enough ever to retake the helm of Latin America's only one-party communist regime.

For dissident Elizardo Sanchez, the birthday extravaganza "is something unprecedented; it is a pharaonic celebration that seems more like a good-bye."

Supporters were hopeful and nostalgic.

"We expect to see our commander in his military uniform. On Saturday we are going to show that the Revolution is still on its feet and more solid than ever," said Laura Cuadra, 52, a worker at an epidemiology center out marching.

Within a month of the operation, Castro said he had lost 18.6 kilograms (41 pounds). His usual proud frame of a statesman faded in pictures to a gaunt, elderly hospital patient.

Whether or not he returns to work full time, over the past four months Cuba has grown used to the idea of life without Fidel, the only leader most Cubans have known. He took power in January 1959.

For years, Castro's visage was not seen on billboards bearing government slogans, as if to give it more weight elsewhere. Now, Fidel's face, no longer everyday currency in state media, is on billboards reassuring "Vamos bien" -- things are going well.

And with the baton passed to Raul Castro, 75, the public profiles of other communist leaders, such as Vice President Carlos Lage, 55, have been raised on state television. Raul Castro has kept a low profile.

Loly, a 63-year-old nurse in Havana, said privately that Fidel Castro was unlikely to return to power. "Fidel is not coming back. When he is no longer alive, the political line is going to be the same, but let's hope the economy improves.

"The people are not 'comunista,' they are Fidelista," she said.

Venezuela's Chavez: Castro to begin 'second mandate' in Cuba

CARACAS, 26 (AFP) - Cuban President Fidel Castro is not on his death bed, but is ready to launch a "second mandate," Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez said brandishing a letter from his ailing friend.

"I got this letter and I want to show it to the world because some people say Fidel is dying and that he is in a vegetative state," the fiercely anti-US Chavez told followers in Zulia, 500 kilometers (310 miles) west of the capital.

"Definitely not so," he added. "Here is his signature, in case of doubts, and the date ... he signs as he always does: 'Thanks, Fidel.'"

Chavez, who goes up for re-election on December 3, said that far from dying, Castro was ready to take the helm once again.

"I think that soon we'll see Fidel Castro's second mandate. The first one lasted 40 years, and very soon the second one will begin," said Chavez, who has been in power since 1998.

Cuba is preparing for a celebration of Castro's 80th birthday, which was postponed because of his health, but has neither confirmed nor denied that the ailing leader will take part in the celebrations.

Castro's 80th birthday celebration was postponed from August 13, his actual birthday, to December 2, the 50th anniversary of the start of the revolution he led to topple US-backed dictator Fulgencio Batista in 1959.

Castro's underwent intestinal surgery in July and temporarily ceded power to his brother Raul Castro, the defense chief.

Speculation has grown about Castro's health, amid persistent rumors in US media that he is suffering from cancer. Cuban authorities have been short on details as his health is considered a state secret with security significance.

Report cites flaws in Cuba aid program

By Jim Abrams, Associated Press Writer Wed Nov 15, 2006.

WASHINGTON - A Democratic critic of the Bush administration's Cuba policy on Wednesday promised hearings next year on a report citing weaknesses in the U.S. program promoting democracy in Cuba.

"The conclusions are disturbing to say the least," Rep. William Delahunt (news, bio, voting record), D-Mass. The report by congressional investigators said the U.S. Agency for International Development did not always properly oversee Cuban aid grants and that coordination with the State Department was sometimes ineffective. Cashmere sweaters and chocolate were among the items bought with agency money, the study found.

Delahunt requested the study with Rep. Jeff Flake (news, bio, voting record), R-Ariz., another strong advocate of ending the four-decade-old policy of opposing the Castro government through economic penalties and restrictions on travel and personal contacts.

"To continue the current level of funding given the results and given the disarray this program seems to be in would be a tremendous waste of taxpayer dollars," Flake said.

When Democrats gain the majority in the next Congress, Delahunt will be chairman of the House International Relations oversight and investigation subcommittee, putting him in a position to convene hearings on Cuba.

The report by the Government Accountability Office found that in the past decade, USAID awarded 40 grants or cooperative agreements totaling $65 million and the State Department four grants worth $8 million to support democratic progress in Cuba. USAID provided 385,000 pounds of medicine, food and clothing, more than 23,000 shortwave radios and millions of books, newsletters and other informational material.

It said dissidents interviewed by the GAO in Cuba said they appreciated the assistance.

But investigators also found that 95 percent of USAID's total awards were made in response to unsolicited proposals; that reviews of grantees were not always finished before awards were granted; and that the agency did not adequately follow up on grants to ensure accountability.

Some USAID money, the report said, paid for a gas chain saw, computer gaming equipment, a mountain bike, leather coats, cashmere sweaters, crab meat and Godiva chocolates.

"Under the Bush administration's Cuba policy, it is illegal for Cuban-Americans to fly to Havana for a family funeral, but legal for the State Department to pay smugglers to bring chocolates and cashmere sweaters onto the island," said Sara Stephens, executive director for the Center for Democracy in the Americas.

Flake and Delahunt, while acknowledging the difficulty of delivering material to dissidents in Cuba, cited one finding in the report that it takes anywhere from $4 to $20 to get humanitarian or material assistance to the island.

"It may be closer to four cents a pound," if the administration lifted its restrictions on family visits and travel to Cuba, Delahunt said. "This really cries for a more thorough review of policy as opposed to just simply focusing on the findings and looking at it as an auditing problem."

USAID chief financial officer Lisa Fiely, in a letter to the GAO, said her agency has acted to comply with the recommendations. The agency took issue with some findings, she said, but pledged to better manager, monitor and evaluate the U.S. assistance.

On the Net: Government Accountability Office: http://gao.gov/

Cuba won't abandon socialism just yet

By Paolo Spadoni. Christian Science Monitor, November 13, 2006.

WINTER PARK, FLA. - Has Cuba finally realized that its socialist economic system suffers from serious flaws, and even more important, that substantial market- oriented reforms are needed to overcome such flaws?

Last month, Cuba's Communist Youth newspaper, Juventud Rebelde, ran a three-part story on illegalities in the Cuban society that disclosed the results of an investigation by its undercover reporters into state businesses in the capital, Havana. The overall picture was one of rampant theft, widespread fraudulent practices, and extreme inefficiency in most retail stores and services of the Cuban capital.

The newspaper also revealed that a local team of academic specialists would begin studying the issue of "socialist property" in Cuba in search of ways to improve the current economic model.

The latest debate within Cuba about the problems of socialism has sparked optimism among some US experts. They now expect major changes on the island that would result in the adoption of market reforms, rather than the usual calls by the Castro regime for more discipline and control.

This view is mainly justified by the fact that the Cuban debate is fueling criticism of the entire economic system. This criticism has been almost certainly approved at the highest levels of government. Interestingly, while Juventud Rebelde stopped short of advocating privatization, a Reuters dispatch noted that "some Cuban intellectuals say it would be the best way, even in the form of collective private property, to improve the retail sector."

However, there are reasons to believe that the aforementioned optimism remains largely unfounded under the current conditions.

Here's why.

Since Fidel Castro introduced the socialist system into Cuba almost 50 years ago, the economic policies pursued by his government have exhibited several shifts away from and toward the market.

A reduced emphasis on the role of the state and pragmatic acceptance of market reforms generally occurred in the wake of economic crises or sluggish growth, when the government temporarily put aside its commitment to state control, equality, and moral incentives in favor of liberalizing measures aimed to boost the economy.

But today, the island's economy is in better shape than it has been in years. So why would Cuba support market reforms that would mean a loss of control for the government, and generate social effects such as growing income inequality deemed unacceptable by its leadership?

In effect, Cuba has been moving exactly in the opposite direction in recent years. Havana's authorities have rolled back some of the timid capitalist-style reforms that they had implemented between 1993 and 1994 to ensure the survival of a system that was then on the verge of collapse.

They have also stepped up state control over all enterprises, including the tiny group of licensed private entrepreneurs running businesses, such as room rentals, home-based restaurants and cafeterias, appliance repair shops, and beauty salons.

The number of private workers, which peaked at 209,000 in 1996, has now dropped below 140,000, indicating the government's uneasiness at leaving even minor services to individual initiative.

Finally, problems of theft, waste, and petty corruption in Cuba are nothing new, as the title of the Juventud Rebelde story, "The Old Big Swindle," clearly suggested. What has really changed is the scope and intensity of Havana's response to such practices in the context of robust economic growth, greater availability of financial means for state investment, and increased search for efficiency.

The drive against economic crime, one of the elements of the "battle of ideas" launched by Mr. Castro in 2000, has gathered pace since late 2005 when Castro himself recognized the urgent need to tackle the threat to Cuba's socialism from vice and the pilfering of state resources by adopting the necessary countermeasures.

What are these countermeasures? As usual, they involve more discipline and state control.

During the past year, Cuban officials have recruited and trained thousands of inspectors to detect "irregularities" in both the public and private sectors. And on Oct. 25, only three days after the last part of the Juventud Rebelde story was published, the Communist Party newspaper, Granma, announced that new rules for all state enterprises "aimed to strengthen order, educate the workers, and deal with lack of discipline and illegalities in the performance of labor" will take effect in January 2007.

Cuban academic specialists have yet to complete their study of what is wrong with the island's socialist system. The Castro government, however, has already decided what to do about it.

* Paolo Spadoni is a visiting professor of political science at Rollins College in Winter Park, Fla.

American government officials say Castro believed to have terminal cancer

By Katherine Shrader

WASHINGTON, 12 (AP) - The U.S. government believes Fidel Castro's health is deteriorating and that the Cuban leader is unlikely to live through 2007.

That dire view was reinforced last week when Cuba's foreign minister backed away from his prediction that the ailing Castro would return to power by early December. "It's a subject on which I don't want to speculate," Felipe Perez Roque told The Associated Press in Havana.

U.S. government officials say there is still some mystery about Castro's diagnosis, his treatment and how he is responding. But these officials believe that the 80-year-old has terminal cancer of the stomach, colon or pancreas.

He was seen weakened and thinner in official state photos released late last month, and it is considered unlikely that he will return to power or survive through the end of next year, said the U.S. government and defence officials. They spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak publicly about the politically sensitive topic.

With chemotherapy, Castro may live up to 18 months, said the defence official. Without it, expected survival would drop to three months to eight months.

American officials will not talk publicly about how they glean clues to Castro's health. But U.S. spy agencies include physicians who study pictures, video, public statements and other information coming out of Cuba.

The CIA's Office of Medical Services, for example, studies hair and other biological samples for hints about world leaders' health and how that could affect their official duties.

Images and video of a weakened Castro released in late October showed his now-slight frame and shaky movements. They contradicted the athletic image he sought to portray in his red, white and blue Cuban Olympic team warm-up suit, emblazoned with "F. Castro" on the chest.

A dark lesion on his neck could be seen in some images and a baggy nylon jacket could be hiding a colostomy bag. But the photos also made clear that he has not lost his hair or beard to chemotherapy.

Cuba has only known one leader in 47 years. Castro temporarily ceded power to his brother, Raul, at the end of July just before the government announced that the president was having intestinal surgery.

A planned celebration of Castro's 80th birthday next month is expected to draw international attention. The Cuban leader had planned to attend the public event, which already had been postponed once from his Aug. 13 birthday.

Perez Roque, the foreign minister, said last week that Castro was recovering steadily from his intestinal surgery. "We are optimistic," he said.

But the minister also said there was no guarantee Castro would be well enough to attend the birthday celebration.

Brian Latell, a former Latin American specialist with the CIA who has written a book examining the leadership of Fidel and Raul Castro, said he has been convinced for three months that Castro is gravely ill with inoperable cancer.

Questions abound about what comes after Castro.

In the immediate future, the Cuban government could decide to hold a large state funeral and welcome an international contingent to Havana. But Latell thinks that probably will not happen. "They will be concerned about maintaining security," he said.

Because of the current transition to Raul Castro, unrest among the Cuban population is considered unlikely. "I have not seen one credible report about riots or demonstrations ... not one credible challenge to the succession," Latell said.

Nevertheless, the U.S. government is preparing for a range of scenarios. For instance, the Miami-based U.S. Southern Command is working with the Coast Guard and Homeland Security Department on training and planning to minimize the impact of any mass migration out of Cuba.

"We are not expecting a mass migration, but are ready for that possibility," said Jose Ruiz, a Southern Command spokesman.

The United States has long wanted to see an end of Communist rule in Cuba.

During an interview on Fox News last week, U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said the goal is to have Cuba hold democratic elections.

"When there is a transition, whenever that comes, it has to be the goal of the United States and the goal of the international community to insist that the Cuban people get to make a choice," she said.

Cuba has one of the lowest unemployment rates in the world, but also a faltering economy. The CIA reports that the average Cuban's standard of living remains lower than before an economic downturn of the 1990s, caused by the loss of US$4 billion to $6 billion each year in Soviet aid and domestic inefficiencies.

Cuba relies heavily on foreign support, including some $2 billion per year from Venezuela.

That predicament has some observers hoping that Raul Castro will usher in economic changes that could open up the country, even if he is not ready to embrace a democratic overhaul. Like communist China, Cuba could decide to become increasingly open to trade.

In the interview, Perez Roque would not explicitly reject the possibility of some opening of the island's economy and acknowledged Cuban "errors" and "insufficiencies."

"Does our economy require that we make decisions to change some things, to fix what is wrong? Yes," he said. "And it can be done, in the right moment."

Young Cubans yearn for more material comforts, less propaganda

By Vanessa Arrington

HAVANA, 12 (AP) - Cuba says Fidel Castro's revolution will last forever.

But the aging cadre of leaders who devoted their lives to building a communist utopia on this Caribbean island must eventually turn things over to new generations - and Cuba's young people don't seem to share their revolutionary zeal.

There is a profound disconnect between the world of this younger generation and the ideology they see in state media. After 47 years of rule by Fidel, many youths say that they are tired of politics, and that the official rhetoric doesn't match their reality.

They dream of less propaganda and more material comforts.

"We really hope things get better - it can't be like this forever," Israel Cuesta, 24, said of the country's economic situation.

Whether the handful of leaders filling in for the ailing 80-year-old Castro can surmount this apathy is among many questions facing Cuba.

Many young Cubans certainly embrace the current system, actively participating in the Communist Youth Union and responding to efforts by the government to nurture a new generation of leaders.

But others resist the formula. Free speech limits are among their sore points. Internet access generally is only available through government centres and universities, and Cubans risk fines and confiscation of equipment if they wire up satellite dishes to watch MTV or CNN.

"I feel blind, and manipulated," said a 30-year-old who would identify himself only as Luis for fear of losing his job at a state-run art institute.

Cuba's focus on social equality and autonomy from the U.S. remains popular among youths. They appreciate the safety net that prevents most Cubans from going hungry or becoming homeless, as well as a sociable environment where strangers constantly interact and help each other. And they've inherited their parents' and grandparents' deep pride in being Cuban.

But social values aside, many want to see changes.

"I want more technology, to be somewhere that feels more advanced," said Tony, a 20-year-old music producer who wouldn't reveal his last name, fearing retribution for speaking candidly. "I want to open my mind," he said.

While the elderly generation equates Castro's revolution with opportunity, younger people feel they lack options - and can't see how they will be able to make enough money to live well.

Younger Cubans can go to college for free, get full health care coverage and listen to world-class music concerts at tiny cost. But they also have little chance of renting or buying their own apartments, getting a car, or making more than US$15 a month.

Cuesta, a dishwasher at a fancy Havana tourist hotel, vividly remembers the dramatic poverty of the island's "special period" in the 1990s, when the collapse of the Soviet Union and end to its subsidies plunged Cuba into economic crisis.

Bicycles replaced cars and Cubans became increasingly skinny as gasoline and food started to disappear. Salaries lost their value overnight. Power blackouts up to 16 hours a day were common.

"There was nothing," Cuesta said. "A lot of people just started falling apart financially. They were no longer the same."

The period translated into a "frustration of expectations" for Cuba's young people, said Damian Fernandez, a Cuban-American who heads the Cuban Research Institute at Miami's Florida International University. "The economic shortage, and that closure of opportunity, have clearly scarred this generation."

Cuesta said things are improving, but many of his friends have left Cuba anyway. "They want to acquire more things that are hard to come by here: like a colour television, a DVD," he said.

Those fleeing reflect Cuba's generational split - 28 per cent of the 2,150 Cubans repatriated in 2005 after being intercepted at sea were under 25 and the majority were aged 25-45, according to the U.S. Interests Section in Havana. Just six per cent were older than 45.

"We all want to go to La Yuma," said 15-year-old Eduardo, using Cuban slang for the United States. "It's better there," he said, citing everything from higher pay to more amusement parks.

Younger Cubans have been increasingly exposed to the world's material cultures and alternative lifestyles since Cuba begrudgingly opened its doors to foreign tourists to pull the island out of its 1990s slump. Economic divisions also deepened on the island of 11 million people as tourism replaced sugar as Cuba's primary source of foreign income.

Now, while poorer youths play guitar near the Malecon seawall and dance reggaeton for hours in parks, others wear brand-name clothes and go to trendy music parties costing a third of the average monthly salary. These "Mickies" - a play on Mickey Mouse and superficiality - may be part of Cuba's small privileged class, or get money from foreigners or Cuban-American relatives.

More "alternative" groups gather on city streets or in nightclubs that charge $1. Their style includes mohawks, tattoos and body piercing, though plenty of expensive American sneakers and even a sleeveless David Beckham soccer jersey were seen recently at a basement techno music spot.

"Here you can really disconnect from all the pressure outside," said Luis, who has eyebrow piercings and bleached blond hair swooped up in a spike. "There's a lot of tolerance here in this basement."

Luis said he frequently gets harassed by police, but he also acknowledged that his rebellious peers can gather openly - a real change from decades past when long hair brought public rebukes and Cubans were sent to labour camps for being gay.

Still, Cuba has a long way to go, he said.

"We want freedom of expression, freedom to do what we want," he said. "And we want dollars."

Those dollars often come illegally, through working under the table and "jineterismo" - a Cuban term that translates as jockeying but can mean everything from getting a foreigner to buy you lunch to sleeping with one for money or gifts.

Prostitution and the exodus of young people concern the revolution's aging "true believers."

"They want whatever they feel they can't get here - if they have five, they want 10," said Reinalda Diaz Rojas, 83. "Old people, well we're more content with what we have. And we feel we have our country to thank."

Those who remember life under dictator Fulgencio Batista have more vivid fears about a return to capitalism. Diaz Rojas, a woman from a coastal village, credits Castro for opening doors that were closed before the 1959 revolution, allowing her to study in the capital and become a schoolteacher.

Many middle-age Cubans also hold faith in the current government model, partly because they experienced how good life could be in the 1980s when wages were more than sufficient under the rich support of the Soviet Union.

With Castro sidelined by illness, the possibility of change is in the air. Young Cubans say they hope the current collective leadership led by Castro's brother Raul will bring fewer rules and a more vibrant economy.

Those who want to stay on the island say they would be happy with even minor improvements.

"We just want to be more free," said Yoansy Herbaz, 21.

"And," he added with a smile, "for prices for the discotheques to go down."

Former Black Panther dies in Cuba at 75

By Anita Snow, Associated Press Writer Fri Nov 17, 2006.

HAVANA - William Lee Brent, a Black Panther who hijacked a passenger jet to communist Cuba in 1969 and spent 37 years in exile, has died on the island, his sister said. He was 75.

Brent died Nov. 4 from bronchial pneumonia, Elouise Rawlins said in a telephone interview from her home in Oakland, Calif.

Rawlins said she learned of her brother's death through telephone calls and messages from friends and acquaintances, but has not received official word from the U.S. or Cuban governments.

Rawlins said she had not seen her brother since he used a handgun to hijack TWA Flight 154 from San Francisco to Havana on June 17, 1969, but said they stayed in contact through e-mails and telephone calls.

"We didn't even know he was ill," Rawlins said. "I don't know about the burial or anything - just that he passed away."

The telephone rang unanswered Friday at Brent's Havana home, which he shared with his wife, travel writer Jane McManus, until her death last year. They had met and married in Cuba.

Brent lived a relatively isolated life during his nearly four decades in Cuba, spending much of his time in his later years listening to his beloved jazz music collection in his apartment.

In a 1996 interview with The Associated Press, he said he missed the United States and the American black community. But he was unwilling to return home to face certain life imprisonment for aircraft piracy and kidnapping, and had resigned himself to never seeing his country again.

"I miss my people, the struggle, the body language," Brent told the AP. "The black community in Cuba is very different."

Still, he said he had no regrets about hijacking the plane. "I was a soldier in the war for black liberation," he said.

A decade ago, Times Books published his memoirs, "Long Time Gone," which told of his coming of age on Oakland's streets and of joining the Black Panthers when he was 37, rising to become a bodyguard for leader Eldridge Cleaver.

The Black Panther Party for Self-Defense was founded in October 1966 in Oakland, by Bobby Seale and Huey P. Newton. They called for an end to police brutality in the black community, and carried guns as they patrolled the city documenting police behavior.

In his book, Brent chronicled a July 1968 police shootout in which two police officers were critically wounded. Cleaver ordered him kicked out of the revolutionary group.

To avoid trial the following year, Brent used a .38-caliber handgun to hijack the plane to Cuba, where he believed he would be treated sympathetically as a militant black leftist. None of the 76 people aboard the Boeing 707 was harmed.

He also told of stepping off the plane in Cuba to be immediately hustled away by Cuban police.

Although never formally convicted, he spent 22 months in an immigration jail while Cuban authorities tried to figure out what to do with him. Eventually they let him stay to live out his exile.

Brent earned a Spanish literature degree from the University of Havana and taught English at junior and senior high schools, but he never became a Cuban citizen.

"I am an American, an African-American, a black man," he said in the 1996 interview with the AP. "And my fight was always in the United States."

'Buena Vista' copyright battle ends with Cuban victory

ABC, Friday November 17, 2006.

A six-year legal battle over vintage Latin music made famous by the Buena Vista Social Club album has ended in London with victory for Cuba over the United States.

US publishing company Peer International Corporation had sought a declaration from the High Court in London that it owned the copyright to 13 songs dating back to the 1930s and made famous by the 1994 album and film.

The firm alleged its catalogue of about 600 titles had been unlawfully taken over by the Cuban Government after Fidel Castro seized power in 1959.

But Editora Musical de Cuba hit back, claiming it was trying to salvage royalties from songs that had not brought their poverty-stricken authors any financial reward.

Judge John Lindsay, who heard the case in London and Havana from May 2005, ruled although there was no evidence that the original composers had been cheated, he was unable to grant the declaration wanted by Peer.

He said its claims to ownership of the songs therefore failed.

Cuba patents new treatment for cervical cancer

HAVANA, 16 (AFP) - Cuba has patented a new treatment for cervical cancer with less harmful side effects than conventional therapies, a group of researchers said.

The treatment involves a peptide that inhibits and kills the CK2 enzime found in high concentration in malignant tumors, said Silvio Perera, who leads the Molecular Oncology project of Cuba's Biological and Genetical Engineering Center.

"The idea behind this new product is to develop it for use in related tumors of the anus and genital area and, in future, for lung cancer," Perera told 600 researchers from 40 countries gathered at the 2006 Havana Biotechnology Congress.

The official Granma newspaper said Cuba's National Toxicology Center screened the new treatment for safety during a preliminary clinical trial with 31 patients, and determined that its side effects were less harmful than conventional therapies for cervical cancer.

Cuban-American takes over Republican Party

WASHINGTON, 14 (AFP) - Cuban-born US Senator Mel Martinez will take over the Republican Party, a Senate spokesman said, a week after polls showed Hispanics overwhelmingly voted for Democrats in an election that ended the Republican majority in Congress.

"Mel Martinez will be the new head of the Republican Party," Noe Garcia, spokesman for outgoing Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, told AFP.

The Cuban-born senator for Florida, who just turned 60, will take over when Ken Mehlman, the current chairman of the Republican National Committee, completes his two-year term in January.

Martinez was co-chairman of the 2000 election campaign in Florida that gave George W. Bush the presidency after a long vote recount battle with Democratic rival Al Gore went all the way to the US Supreme Court.

Martinez's appointment as head of the RNC could play a role in the 2008 presidential elections, especially among Florida's influential Cuban-American community.

News of his appointment came after the Republicans suffered a major loss of Hispanic voter support, which analysts attributed largely to the party's anti-immigrant rhetoric.

In past elections, Bush, who was governor of the heavily Hispanic state of Texas before entering the White House, was seen as helping draw growing numbers of Hispanics to his party.

But on November 7, 73 percent of Hispanic voters cast ballots for Democratic congressional candidates, and only 26 percent voted Republican -- far below the 40 percent Hispanic support Bush received in the 2004 presidential election, according to a CNN exit poll.

Hispanics generally blamed the Republicans for Congress' failure to help legalize millions of illegal migrants living in the country, said Roberto de Posada, head of the Latino Coalition research group.

"The impact was not just what they said but how they said it," said de Posada, who said Hispanic voters read this as a message they were unwelcome among Republicans.

Republicans evidently hope Martinez will help convince the largest US minority that is not so.

Martinez, who likes to point out he is "the only immigrant in the US Senate," favors a migration reform that while sealing the borders would allow undocumented immigrants to legalize their status and work in the United States.

Bush once described him as "the embodiment of the American dream."

Karen Finney, a spokeswoman for the Democratic Party, said the Republicans ignored the call for change that voters made on November 7 by electing a Democratic congress.

"Instead of hearing that message, Republicans stayed the course by selecting a loyal Bush Republican to lead their party," said Finney.

Born in Cuba in 1946, Martinez moved to the United States at the age of 15 as part of the Roman Catholic Church's "Operation Peter Pan," which helped more than 14,000 children leave the communist-run Caribbean island nation.

He lived in foster homes for four years before his family was able to leave Cuba and join him in Florida.

He studied law and started his political career in 1998, when he was elected mayor of Florida's Orange county.

After co-chairing Bush's 2000 election campaign in Florida, Martinez was named housing secretary.

Following a tough electoral campaign, in which he was accused of mudslinging, he became the first Cuban-American member of the US Senate in 2004.

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