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November 27, 2002.
Fidel Castro oversees opening of Cuban alternative to Central American
games
By Anne-Marie Garcia, Associated Press Writer
HAVANA - Declaring that Cuba's athletes would not have been safe at the
Central American and Caribbean Games, Fidel Castro late Tuesday opened his
island's own national games, created as an alternative to the regional event.
"For reasons beyond our control we were obligated to suspend
participation in an event that our country has never failed to attend,"
Castro said during the opening ceremony Tuesday night.
Castro said El Salvador, where the regional games are being held, failed to "offer
the least guarantee of the physical and moral integrity of our athletes."
Cuban authorities earlier this month complained that Salvadoran authorities
had failed to respond to their concerns about the safety of their athletes
during the event in that Central American country.
Among other things, they said Cuban state security officials had discovered
plans to assassinate Vice President Jose Ramon Fernandez, who is the head of
Cuba's Olympic Committee, during his planned visit to El Salvador.
Nobel laureates Gabriel Garcia Marquez, of Colombia, for literature, and
Adolfo Perez Esquivel, of Argentina, for the peace prize, listened to Castro's
speech from front row seats.
The Tuesday night ceremony featured a colorful parade of hundreds of
athletes from across the island. About 30,000 spectators looked on.
Osleidys Menendez, world champion and record-holder in the women's javelin,
lit the torch for the Cuban games. The flame will burn throughout the
island-wide competition, ending Dec. 8.
Cuba's state-run television broadcast the inaugural ceremony live and is
planning broad live coverage of the event — about 180 hours, more than that
given to the 2000 Olympic games in Sydney.
Greco Tangled In Cuban Spy Story
By Keith Epstein And William March, The Tampa Tribune. Wed
Nov 27, 3:20 AM ET
TAMPA - To hear Tampa lawyer Ralph Fernandez describe it, Mayor Dick Greco's
trip to Cuba in July could have come out of an international spy thriller,
replete with agents, intercepted voice mail from a top Castro official, and an
informant's report about the mayor to the FBI.
Fernandez, an avid anti- Castro activist, said he warned Greco in 2000 that
a Cuban official, Oscar Redondo, "was engaged in espionage activities,''
but Greco told Fernandez he "didn't want to even hear about espionage.''
Redondo eventually helped arrange the trip for Greco and other Tampa civic
leaders. And last month, Redondo, chief of Cuba's mission to the United States,
was kicked out of the country amid allegations of espionage.
Full story at Tampa Bay Online
Cuba Boy, 5 Others Found at Sea Off Fla.
By Adrian Sainz, Associated Press Writer.
MIAMI (AP) - Six Cubans, including a 13-year-old boy, were detained by
immigration authorities after their disabled boat was found at sea, and two men
were arrested for allegedly smuggling them to the United States.
The Coast Guard came to the group's aid after their 21-foot,
Florida-registered boat ran out of fuel off Key West on Monday, Coast Guard
spokesman Luis Diaz said. The boat was towed to shore after the Coast Guard
decided the 5-foot seas made a boarding unsafe.
"It was a search and rescue case that turned into a law enforcement
case," Diaz said. "The main concern was saving lives at sea."
The boy and the five other Cubans, including his father, were in the custody
of the Immigration and Naturalization Service on Tuesday. Under a 1966 U.S. law,
Cubans who reach U.S. shores are usually allowed to stay, but those intercepted
at sea are generally returned to Cuba.
The boy had spent Monday night on a Coast Guard cutter pending a decision on
whether he would be returned to Cuba or brought to the United States.
Since he is a material witness, the boy will remain in this country to
provide information in the smuggling case, said Jackie Becerra, spokeswoman for
the U.S. Attorney's Office in Miami.
Officials did not have any immediate information on the boy's mother.
The two men charged Tuesday with alien smuggling were identified as Martin
Mendez-Diaz and Elizardo Ruiz-Alvarez, both residents of Florida. It was not
immediately known if the men were represented by lawyers. The smuggling charge
carries a five-year prison sentence.
The case was announced on the third anniversary of the arrival of Elian
Gonzalez and evoked comparisons because of questions surrounding the
13-year-old's custody.
Elian, then 5, survived a boat sinking, but his mother died in the attempt
to reach the United States. He was brought to Miami to stay with relatives and
became ensnared in a bitter custody dispute after Cuban President Fidel Castro
(news - web sites) demanded the boy be returned to his father, who wanted to
stay in Cuba.
Elian was eventually returned to his father's custody after a raid of the
Miami relatives' home in April 2000.
Number of AIDS deaths in Cuba down following creation of new treatments
- government
Tue Nov 26, 5:05 PM ET
HAVANA, 26 (AP) - The number of AIDS-related deaths in Cuba has dropped
significantly over the past 1 1/2 years following the development of several
local treatments, a leading local expert said in an interview published this
week.
"It was a political decision by Cuba to start the generic production of
these medicines to save the lives of human beings," Dr. Jorge Perez,
director of the island's lead AIDS treatment center, told the weekly newspaper
Trabajadores for its Monday edition.
Cuba began producing a series of generic antiviral drugs for treating the
AIDS virus starting in May 2001, said Perez, who directs the Pedro Kouri
Institute in Havana.
During the first 10 months of 2002, 66 people in Cuba died from AIDS-related
causes, lower than was expected, said Perez. He said authorities anticipated a
death rate of 25 percent for people with AIDS this year, but so far have seen a
death rate of only 7 percent.
Perez credited the locally produced treatments, which help people with AIDS
improve their autoimmune defenses and slow the virus' progress. They are not,
however, a cure.
The doctor said 743 Cubans with AIDS are currently receiving the locally
produced treatments.
The first person carrying HIV, the virus that causes AIDS, was detected here
in 1986. Since then, 4,390 people have been diagnosed HIV positive and about
1,000 of them have died.
Mexico's new ambassador to Cuba arrives in Havana
MEXICO CITY, 26 (AP) - Mexico's new ambassador to Cuba arrived in Havana on
Tuesday, where she will try to improve Cuban-Mexican relations that are chillier
than they have been in decades.
In a statement, the Mexican Foreign Ministry said longtime diplomat Roberta
Lajous' arrival on the island would immediately "intensify close contact
between Mexico and Cuba."
Lajous met privately with President Vicente Fox (news - web sites) at Mexico
City's presidential residence before leaving to head the country's Cuban
mission, the statement said. Fox has said that Lajous will faithfully represent
Mexico and Mexican interests, comments that appeared to take a swipe at Lajous'
predecessor, Ricardo Pascoe.
Pascoe was asked to step down by Fox officials after he sparred with Foreign
Secretary Jorge Castaneda over Mexico's Cuban policy.
The former ambassador largely supported Havana's communist government, while
Castaneda has squabbled with Cuban officials, including President Fidel Castro.
Lajous began her diplomatic career in 1980 and has served as Mexico's
ambassador to Austria as well as the country's alternate representative before
the United Nations (news - web sites).
Opposition lawmakers have criticized Fox's policy toward Cuba, a longtime
ally of Mexico. Many were angered that Fox prodded Castro to leave a major
summit in northern Mexico on March 21 — a day before U.S. President George
W. Bush was to arrive. | 
