CUBA NEWS
La Tienda de Cubanet

AUGUST 2003

August 29

FROM CUBA
Imprisoned Cuban journalist describes conditions
"I'm in Pinar del Río in a cell with little ventilation from which I only go out for one hour a day Mondays through Thursdays," wrote imprisoned journalist José Ubaldo Izquierdo, 38, in a letter to a colleague, Dorka Céspedes.
HAVANA

FROM CUBA
Deficient medical care for imprisoned Cuban journalist
It took Bárbara Rojas and her five-year-old son six days' travel time to visit her husband, imprisoned journalist Omar Ruiz, at the Combinado de Guantánamo prison, about 400 miles from her home in Villa Clara.
SANTA CLARA

FROM CUBA
Prosecutors demand 20-year sentence for peaceful opponent in Cuba
At various times in the past, Pérez had staged non-violent demonstrations against government authorities who had denied him a ration card for more than a year and who had harassed his family, tried to evict them and to demolish their house.
SANTA CLARA

The Miami Herald
• Carter endorses Payá's nomination for prestigious Spanish prize
• Native American group honors Castro with its highest award
• Pro-Castro activists to join the fray at Latin Grammys
• Severo Alberto 'Lino' Borges, interpreter of Cuban bolero music

PEN USA Honors Raúl Rivero Castañeda
PEN USA, part of the 82-year old worldwide association of writers which promotes literacy and defends freedom of expression - will award the 2003 Freedom to Write prize to Raúl Rivero Castañeda. We honor him for his courage against overwhelming odds and his commitment to .
PEN USA
Yahoo! News
• Cuban Rolls World's Biggest Cigar
WSJ: Don't Forget the Victims In Castro's Gulag
It's a good time to remind Washington that, pros and cons of Wyoming beef sales to Fidel aside, the innocents rotting -- and getting beat up -- in Cuban jails must not be forgotten.
Net for Cuba International.
School Trade With Plantation Cuba?
The matter of Cuba's benighted revolution continues to grip the interest of Americans-or so one might conclude from the fact that a recent panel discussion on the U.S. embargo against Cuba drew a lunchtime crowd of some 400 persons to the Commonwealth Club of San Francisco.
David Landau. Accuracy In Media.

August 28

FROM CUBA
New antennas an effort to jam U.S.-based Radio Martí?
The Cuban government has installed four large parabolic antennas in Palma Soriano, in easternmost Cuba, which experts have said could be intended to jam transmissions of U. S. -based Radio Martí. It is widely known that at San Felipe, in southern Havana province, there are several such antennas, as well as in several other places on the island.
HAVANA

FROM CUBA
Free without permission
Today, the Cuban secret police lets us know that we may not practice journalism. For that reason, many of my colleagues, friends and brothers are serving long sentences in sub human prison cells.
HAVANA

The Miami Herald
• Jose Delarra, sculptor of Guevara monument, dies
• Banking family patriarch was seen as a pioneer of Cuban-American Bar
• Exiled Cuban painter to visit Miami

Yahoo! News
• Powell's double joy over Pedroso failure

Cuban Doctors Feel Insecure Commissioner Soma Jobe Warns
The Commissioner of the North Bank Division was recently quoted as expressing disquiet over the knowledge that the Cuban doctors posted in his division no longer feel secured after a spate of thefts that left them deprived of their valuables and fearing for their lives.
AllAfrica.com

Cuban doctor visits DeVos Children's Hospital
"It would be like walking into a hospital in the 50's in the United States," says Marc Bohland, Vice President of First-Hand Aid. He says one of the group's main goals is getting medicine to hospitals and clinics in Cuba. Medicines like aspirin and cough syrup, which are easy for us to get, are difficult to obtain there.
WOOD-TV, MI.
Cuban railroad to freedom?
Cuban Americans see their migration to the United States as African-American former slaves saw the Underground Railroad to the North -- the only way to freedom. But it is almost impossible for other, well-intentioned Americans to see it the same way because the Cuban migration issue has been left in the hands of interest groups for too long.
Soren Triff, The Miami Herald.

External links

An Assist From Left Field
Garrett learned that Jose Piloto, a Cuban left-hander once nicknamed "Pototo" after a character from a Cuban television show, played professional baseball in about 10 countries and three continents during the 1940s and '50s. He pitched for the Memphis Red Sox in the Negro American League from 1948-1950, coming up one year short of qualifying for Major League Baseball's pension plan.
Dan Steinberg / The Washington Post.

No call yet on Castro
The European Union trading bloc has been upset with Cuba ever since a Cuban crackdown on democratic protesters during the spring. Greece, which hosts next year's Summer Olympics, is a member of that union. Fidel Castro, Cuba's president, reportedly wants to attend those Olympics. He last attended the Games in Barcelona in 1992.
Philadelphia Daily News.


August 27

FROM CUBA
Police confiscate 20 piglets from Cuban rural residents
Police confiscated 20 piglets belonging to four men, charging that they had bought them illegally. The four, José Luis Álvarez, William Mederos, and Edel García, residents of Cabaiguán, and Reinier Castellón, a resident of Yaguajay, said they bought the piglets for 8,287 pesos. They were transporting them home in a tractor when the chief of police for the Mayajigua sector arrested them.
CABAIGUAN, Villa Clara

FROM CUBA
Cuban dissident called a "threat to national security"
Padrón said that during their conversation, the officer told him: "You are a threat to national security; because of you and others like you the country could be bombed. What would you do if one of those bombs fell on the school your niece attends? If you continue with your activities, we will try you under Law 88."
HAVANA

FROM CUBA
Celebration rubs Havana residents the wrong way
The government threw a street party in Palma Soriano, celebrating the successful production of books and school supplies destined for Cuba's cooperative effort with Venezuela and irked local residents pointed out that the same supplies are not available for Cuban children.
HAVANA

Yahoo! News
• Relatives: Cuban Dissidents Sick in Jail
• Cuban exiles get a place, but no more reason to protest Latin Grammy
• Four-time champion Pedroso out of long jump

The Travel Industry's Push to Unlock Cuba
Politicians who favor a change in U.S. policy toward Cuba are getting new ammunition from the travel industry. Still struggling to recover from the effects of September 11 and the economy's downturn, the travel trade is mounting an aggressive lobbying campaign to get restrictions on travel to Cuba lifted when Congress returns in the fall.
Yahoo!

33 Cuban Migrants Repatriated
The migrants were from two groups intercepted by the Coast Guard; one Saturday, another Sunday. Saturday evening, about 21 miles off Elbow Cay, Bahamas, the Coast Guard intercepted an overloaded 25-foot go-fast boat carrying 31 migrants and three suspected smugglers
Click10.com

No cars for Cubans
"For some time, the Cuban government has imposed a series of impediments, obstructions, denials of service, and unjustifiable costs upon the functioning of the U.S. Interests Section and living conditions of the Interests Section's employees and dependents," the department said.
The Washington Times


August 26

FROM CUBA
Cuban independent journalist denied exit visa
The refusal was due to “orders,” officials told González, without specifying from whom. González said he had gone to the migration office after receiving a summons from a major Enrique, who told him “for now, you can’t travel; your trip is canceled. When you can travel, we’ll call you on the phone.”
HAVANA

FROM CUBA
Cuban authorities accede to meet with pedicab drivers union
The Cuban Office of Taxation agreed to meet with members of the pedicab drivers union after repeated appeals by the union to the Ministry of Transportation, and the Central Committee of the Communist Party. The meeting has been set for September 20 at the auditorium of the Hermanos Aimejeiras hospital in Havana.
HAVANA

Three jailed journalists on hunger strike
Mario Enrique Mayo, Adolfo Fernández Sainz and Ivan Hernández Carillo - who have been on hunger-strike for the past 10 days in the town of Holguin. They are demanding proper food and medicine for prisoners who have serious illnesses.
Reporters Without Borders

The Miami Herald
• Democratic contender Dean alters Cuba stand
• Memories of Cuba thrive in South Florida shops and beyond

Increased suppression of cultural expression in Cuba leads the Prince Claus Fund to withhold support
As a result of the arrest of 75 Cuban cultural and social activists in recent months and their being sentenced to harsh terms of imprisonment of up to 28 years, the Prince Claus Fund has decided not to provide financial support to the 8th Havana Biennial, which will be held in November 2003. All those sentenced were engaged in the critical Cuban cultural and social arenas.
Prince Claus Fund

External links

Scoops for the revolution
With a signed contract worth about $775,000, Young's Y & Y Agriculture is sending 420 tons of a soy-based dry ice cream mix to the island nation of 11.2 million residents. Though a vocal opposition to normalizing relations with the Republic of Cuba remains active in the United States, trade restrictions with the island have loosened to the point that small businessmen are now getting into the market.
Savannah Morning News, GA

Alabama products headed to Cuba soon
Alabama wood products worth $2.5 million will soon be shipped from Mobile to Cuba as the state takes advantage of a narrow opening in the trade embargo with the communist nation.
Atlanta Journal Constitution, GA

Havana
What a difference five years makes. Back then, there was a solitary boutique hotel in La Habana Vieja — Hostal Valencia — and virtually nowhere to get a decent meal. Today, there are almost 20 small hotels and scores of new restaurants. Old Havana is being gentrified — and without any loss of innocence or authenticity. The fabric of the place survives.
Times Online, UK


August 25

FROM CUBA
Motorcycle thefts on the increase in Cuba
Private owners who lose their motorcycles often do not report the theft to authorities. This peculiarity arises because if the stolen motorcycle is never found, the authorities annul the vehicle's registration. But to the owner, the registration papers, even without the underlying vehicle, have value. They could validate the existence of a subsequent machine, put together from spare parts and patience.
HAVANA

FROM CUBA
Police infiltrate young rock fans
Ever since the government initiated a broad campaign against civil society in January under the pretext of combatting drugs, the Ministry of the Interior has fielded more than 200 undercover agents to infiltrate groups of hippies of "freakies," as they are called in Havana.
HAVANA

Yahoo! News
• Angry US makes life more difficult for Cuban diplomats in Washington
• Yankees' Contreras Dominates in Return
• 3rd Cuban Defects at World Championships

A smear campaign
Cuba's smear campaign against Elizardo Sánchez reveals more about its own desperation than about the longtime human-rights activist. The regime wasn't satisfied with locking up 75 dissidents on prison terms totaling 1,454 years. Now, it is angling to finish the job by attempting to discredit the few critics it didn't jail -- most likely because, like Mr. Sánchez, they are internationally prominent. Who is next? Vladimiro Roca and Oswaldo Payá?.
The Miami Herald

Northern Cape Students to Study Medicine in Cuba
Ten students from previously disadvantaged areas in the Northern Cape have been chosen to study medicine in Cuba. The students left for Cuba last night, after the provincial health department held a function to see them off.
AllAfrica.com

External links

Dance keeps its foothold in Cuba
Dancing brings joy and camaraderie to Cubans in what otherwise might be somber situations. Salsa and son – even classical ballet – are alive and well in Havana, practiced in nightclubs, on street corners and in old, weathered ballet studios.
The Dallas Morning News y

For Contreras, a Victory; for the Yanks, Vindication
The knee buckled, the pitch knuckled and, in the stands at Yankee Stadium, Billy Connors might have chuckled. When José Contreras struck out the Orioles' Jay Gibbons on a forkball in the seventh inning yesterday, it delighted Connors, the Yankees' organizational pitching sage. This is what the Yankees had been waiting for.
New York Times

Doctors Rouse Suspicion in Venezuela
The Venezuelan Medical Federation, a trade group with 45,000 members, contends that it is Chavez who has undermined the public health system. Douglas Leon Natera, the federation's president, said the national health budget has declined 30 percent under Chavez, leaving many neighborhood clinics without adequate funding. Roughly 9,000 doctors are underemployed or without work.
The Washington Post


August 22

FROM CUBA
Imprisoned Cuban journalist in punishment cell
Imprisoned Cuban journalist Fabio Prieto has been confined to a punishment cell at Guanajay prison, presumably for insulting a Department of State Security officer known as Omar. Prieto, 41, is serving a 20-year sentence at the prison. Recently he had been transferred to a cell block holding hardened criminals serving 30-year and life sentences.
HAVANA

FROM CUBA
Cuban political police threaten government opponent
Political police in the Isle of Youth threatened to prevent government opponent and human rights activist Huber Rodríguez from leaving the island to be with his young son when he has surgery in the U. S.
HAVANA

The Miami Herald
• Venezuelan court bars Cuban doctors
• Some criticize indictments as politics
• Indictment largely symbolic without a U.S.-Cuba treaty on extradition
• For fliers' relatives, indictments offer some relief

An outrage not forgotten
Seven and a half years after a cowardly ambush in the Straits of Florida, a federal grand jury finally has indicted a Cuban general and two fighter pilots responsible for the deaths of four Brothers to the Rescue fliers who occupied the unarmed planes that were shot down. For the families of the victims, the indictment provides a symbolic measure of solace and validates the outrage that has been felt in this community for years.
The Miami Herald

Another victim of the Castro regime
The subconscious betrays them. When all the lies and slander fail, when all the means of communication -- newspapers, radio, television, movies, books even -- are not enough to confuse the Cuban people, then come the desperate acts.
Oswaldo Paya / The Miami Herald


August 21

FROM CUBA
Cuban political prisoners denied regular visit
Relatives of two political prisoners were turned back at the gates of the Valle Grande prison August 13 and told the inmates they wanted to visit were in punishment cells.
HAVANA

FROM CUBA
In Cuba not all quota goods are available all the time
The Cuban government's rationing system is supposed to at least guarantee consumers a minimum quantity of scarce domestic cleaning products and other goods. Lately, however, a number of products which consumers are entitled to buy under the system have not been available in distribution outlets.
HAVANA

The Miami Herald
• Three Cuban airmen indicted for shooting down civilian planes
• Brothers to the Rescue founder says he'll invest money from shootdown court award in Cuba -- whenever he gets it
• TV Martí may soon switch to satellite
• Cubans' truck was sunk to prevent copycats
• U.S. seeks to improve transmission of TV Martí

Yahoo! News
• Cuban general, two pilots indicted in 1996 downing of two civilian planes
• CANF praises indictment of Cuban pilots, airforce commander

External links

Paradox regained: a conversation with an old comandante in Cuba
Since Cubans are not allowed to travel or even to question the state of the regime, it is hardly surprising the regime looks askance at the possibility of tourists bringing unwanted, provocative influence. So it started out as enclave tourism, with parts of the island given over to touristic ventures. That soon collapsed, but there are times when anyone who brings a Cuban into a hotel may be asked to leave their guest outside, on the possible grounds that they may be pimps extending their network of clients.
Bella Thomas, Open Democracy

FMLN candidate says would restore El Salvador ties with Cuba
Presidential candidate Shafick Handal told reporters on Thursday that he would restore El Salvador's diplomatic relations with Cuba and China if elected next year.
San Francisco Chronicle, CA


August 20

FROM CUBA
Cuban imprisoned journalist expecting disciplinary action
Imprisoned Cuban journalist Normando Hernández is expecting to be disciplined by prison authorities after a late-night argument days ago, said his wife Yaraí Reyes. Hernández is serving a 25-year sentence in Boniato prison, in Santiago de Cuba province.
HAVANA

Yahoo! News
• New NYC School Named for Legend Celia Cruz

Cuban Dissident Ramon Colas to Speak on Future of Human Rights in Cuba
The founder of Independent Libraries of Cuba, Ramon Colas, will discuss the future of human rights in Cuba in the new international context at the National Press Club.
U.S. Newswire

External links

For Cubans on birthright, a tie is formed to their ancestors' land
Cuba began allowing its Jews to emigrate in 1994 for a fee, paid by the Jewish state. By 2000, some 500 Cuban Jews had reached Israel under the behind-the-scenes arrangement, known as Operation Cigar. For most of those who remained in Cuba, however, a trip to Israel was out of the question - until birthright came along.
Jewish Telegraphic Agency

Group plans demonstration on behalf of Cuban artists at Miami Grammys
Alianza Martiana, which supports an end to the U.S. embargo of Cuba and dialogue between the United States and Cuba, also applied for a permit -- to demonstrate in support of the right of musicians from Cuba and all over the world to express themselves.
Sun-Sentinel

Knight Foundation Grant Supports Independent Journalism in Cuba
In the wake of Cuba's latest crackdown on free expression, the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation has awarded a grant to a nonprofit, nonpartisan Cuban-American organization that promotes independent journalism on the island.
PNN, VA

Second Group of Medical Students From Cuba Returns to Eastern Cape
The second group of students sent from Eastern Cape to study medicine in Cuba have returned to the province. Eastern Cape has since 1998 sent 30 students to study medicine in Cuba as part of bilateral agreement signed in 1995 between the South African and Cuban governments.
AllAfrica.com


August 19

FROM CUBA
Audits reveal multiple irregularities in Cuba's public sector
Nineteen recent audits of public-sector enterprises by the Ministry of Auditing and Control in Holguín province have uncovered multiple irregularities, prompting government officials to call for better controls.
HAVANA

FROM CUBA
Cuban health care worker fired for political reasons
Administrators of the Hygiene and Epidemiology Center in Niquero, Granma province, fired a worker, accusing him of fostering an unfavorable climate among his fellow workers and of expressing negative opinions about the government.
HAVANA

3 Cuban athletes defect at Pan Am Games
Three Cuban athletes have defected to the Dominican Republic, where they were competing in the Pan American Games, an official said Tuesday. The defections occurred during the international competition, which started Aug. 1 and ended Sunday, said Gen. Fernando Cruz, director of the Dominican intelligence agency.
Yahoo! News

The Miami Herald
• Cuban dissident disputes book's claim
• Antonio Navarro, 80, led resistance in Cuba
• Where to see Cuban artists

Yahoo! News
• Another Cuban Gymnast Defects in Calif.
• Cuba says Iran was jamming US satellite broadcasts: State Department
• U.S. Rejects Cuba's Claim About Activist

External links

Cuba dissident accused of spying
Whatever the basis of the allegations, they do confirm the Cuban Government's determination to sow suspicion amongst its opponents. The Cuban authorities will no doubt be hoping that a dissident movement where no one can trust anyone becomes impotent.
BBC

Teammates reunite in Los Angeles
Charles Leon Tamayo joined teammate Michel Brito Ferrer, whose uncle Ramon Ferrer brought Brito Ferrer to his Los Angeles home Sunday. Attorney Luis Carrillo was at Ramon Ferrer's home Monday and said the athletes are "very exhausted. They're very tired. These are difficult times for them. "They're here because of the political repression, the political persecution for them in Cuba,'' he said.
ESPN


August 18

FROM CUBA
Cuban political prisoner forcibly given psychoactive drugs
Imprisoned Cuban political prisoner Oscar Espinosa Chepe complained to family members during a recent visit that he's been given psychoactive drugs that make it hard for him to concentrate at the military hospital in which he is interned.
HAVANA

FROM CUBA
Cuban government undertakes island-wide computer census
The Cuban government undertook an island-wide computer census last week. The measure, code-named "Operation Windows," seeks to inventory all computers, including those in government offices as well as the ones in private hands, and to confiscate any that are deemed of "dubious origin."
HAVANA

The Miami Herald
• Cuban police visit men who made floating truck
• Local Republicans write Bush urging new Cuba policy
• Exiles In Culture
• Anniversary of Mariel produces cultural jewel

Yahoo! News
• Cuban gymnast defects after team competition
• Castro Draws a Crowd in Paraguay

For coherent Cuba policy
The boisterous debate over the policies of the Bush administration toward Cuba should come as no surprise. The Cuban exile community is diverse, mature and increasingly sophisticated. It speaks with -- and has room for -- a variety of distinct voices. As long as no single group or person can claim the right to speak for all, robust debate is to be expected -- and encouraged.
The Miami Herald

Surer footing on Cuba
The wet-foot/dry-foot Cuba policy has created an equally crazy corollary that can be termed the Wet Tarp Rule. Five Cubans caught trying to land in Palm Beach County were stuck on a Coast Guard vessel's deck, huddled under a tarp to escape Wednesday night's storms. They couldn't come ashore -- where dry feet would mean sanctuary -- and security concerns kept them from going below.
Palm Beach Post

External links

Latin Grammy Party Draws Protesters
The Latin Grammys are still a month away, but the protests have already begun. Cuban exiles lined the streets of southwest Miami-Dade County Sunday. They are angry about Cuban artists set to perform at the show.
Click10.com, FL

Filmmaker and advocate seeks 'to be who I am'
The film deftly demonstrates the deficiencies in Cuba's policy with footage of a health minister vowing better assistance that cuts to scenes from a factory, where visually impaired people are sent to assemble razors -- Cuba's notion of independent living and "job placement."
Contra Costa Times, CA

Threat to Cuba's Aids success
In the mid-1980s, when little was known about the virus, Cuba compulsorily tested thousands of its citizens for HIV. Those who tested positive were taken to Los Cocos. They were not allowed to leave. The policy, perhaps only possible in a highly controlled communist society, was condemned by human rights groups across the world.
BBC News


August 15

FROM CUBA
Civic-minded protesters labeled "dissidents" in Cuba
A group of 37 intellectuals in the small port city of Batabanó, south of Havana, who signed a letter to the local government seeking to address certain municipal problems were labeled "dissidents" by a Communist party official.
HAVANA

FROM CUBA
Cubans banned from fishing
Police recently searched travelers going from the fishing port of Batabanó, in the south coast of Havana province, and the capital, and found several of them carried fish, shrimp, and about a dozen lobsters. The travelers and their seafood were taken to the police station.
HAVANA

The Miami Herald
• Pleas made for dissidents' care
• Rancher ships 148 cattle to Cuba

Yahoo! News
• Cuban-Americans Hit Bush Policies
• DeLay: Happy Birthday to Who? Castro Celebrates as Cuba Suffers; Dictator Should Hold Free Elections
• Cubana One Network: Bright House Networks of Tampa Insensitive to Cuban American Heritage

Cuban doctors' fate unknown
Polokwane - The future of seven Cuban doctors who want to withdraw from the bilateral Cuba/South Africa agreement has yet to be decided by the medicine professions watchdog after it failed to take a decision early this month.
News24.com, SA

External links

SA medical students return from Cuba
The second group of 17 South African medical students has returned from Cuba. Welcoming them back today, Manto Tshabalala-Msimang, the Health Minister, said they would help contribute to provincial efforts to redress problems of scarcity and mal-administration in the medical field.
SABCnews.com, SA

Engagement with Cuba? Why not?
Some will ask, why should we engage with Cuba? It is not a democracy, after all; on the contrary, its government can be quite repressive. Yes, all the more reason to engage. The idea is not to reward Cuba, but to bring about change.
San Fransisco Chronicle

Away from theme park Havana
When we visited, it sometimes seemed as if the restored sections were an enclave or a theme park reserved for the Italians, French, Canadian and other foreign tourists. Near the San Francisco church, I made a phone call and Ariel drifted off on his own to visit a curious small garden dedicated to the memory of Princess Diana. But he was quickly warded off by a security guard. I could understand why so many Cubans quietly and despairingly grumble about "tourist apartheid".
Financial Times

Cuba in control en route to sweep
Cuba swept the United States in the Pan American Games semifinals of women's volleyball, using a powerful attack the Americans could not match. Cuba seldom trailed, en route to a 25-19, 25-19, 25-21 win on Thursday night.
ESPN


August 14

FROM CUBA
Cuban independent journalist held in solitary confinement
Independent journalist Omar Ruiz Hernández is being held in solitary confinement at the Guantánamo provincial prison in the eastern end of the island. Ruiz was sentenced to 18 years in April along with 74 other journalists and dissidents. He used to work with Grupo Decoro, one of several independent news agencies.
HAVANA

The Miami Herald
• Venezuelans cheer and protest presence of doctors from Cuba
• Meet the narcos and 'capos' of the Cuban drug trade

Yahoo! News
• Cuba Sentences Hijackers to 7-10 Years

Grammys -- and Dissent
Miami and Cuban-exile groups have settled on a location where protesters can express themselves. They will stand about 260 feet from American Airlines Arena, and on the same side of the street. A coalition of exile organizations approved the agreement Tuesday night. This is heartening news.
The Miami Herald

Happy Birthday, Fidel
My cousin Pedro's birthday also comes this month. But the last one he celebrated was his 18th. That was in 1961, the year he fell into the custody of Fidel "Helluva Guy" Castro's secret police, for "questioning." Pedro was a frail, mild-mannered boy and member of the youth group Catholic Action.
Humberto Fontova / NewsMax.com

External links

Bury me in Cuba, Celia said
Her beloved Cuba may yet be the final resting place for Celia Cruz. The salsa legend's husband, Pedro Knight, told the Daily News yesterday that he dreams of someday taking his wife's remains from the Bronx to the island she fled when Fidel Castro seized power in 1960.
New York Daily News, NY

5 Cubans wait aboard Coast Guard cutter
Amid stormy conditions that could create 12-foot swells overnight, five Cuban migrants continued to bob about the ocean on the deck of a U.S. Coast Guard cutter Wednesday, awaiting word on their futures.
Palm Beach Post, FL

Florida cattlemen keen to keep doing business with Cuba
A group of Florida cattlemen said Thursday they remained dedicated to doing business with Cuba despite increasingly tough rhetoric from some of their state's politicians toward the island.
Herald Tribune


August 13

FROM CUBA
Cuban political prisoner offered freedom in exchange for collaboration with the government
Department of State Security officials told jailed dissident Leonardo Bruzón that he could be freed if he retracted his previous activities against the government in front of a camera. The officials had also requested Bruzón should speak on tape about how well he had been treated in prison, and about the medical care he had received.
HAVANA

FROM CUBA
Cuban workers unhappy with schedule change
"We have received complaints from the workers, who are unhappy with the measure, since it wasn't discussed with the workers," said Héctor Pacha, of the independent Workers' Federation. He said the workers also complain about their pay, 148 pesos a month.
NUEVA GERONA

The Miami Herald
• Report: Cuban requested asylum
• Venezuelans cheer and protest presence of doctors from Cuba
• Paraguay abuzz over Castro's arrival
• Collectors of Cuban art get costly education in forgeries
• One man's crusade against fakery

Yahoo! News
• Security Heightened at U.S.-Cuba Game• Fidel Castro Marks 77th Birthday Today
• Cuba Wins Pan Am Games Baseball Gold Medal

Gorbachev coming to Miami summit on Cuba
The National Summit on Cuba announced that former Soviet leader President Mikhail Gorbachev is coming to Miami to discuss historic perspectives on U.S. policy toward the island at the upcoming Florida National Summit on Cuba Oct. 4 at the Biltmore Hotel in Coral Gables.
Tampa Bay Business Journal, FL

Trouble in Florida
Mr. Reich's mission went awry when, in an interview on WSCV-Telemundo 51, he explained that Cubans need to be screened like other immigrants to avoid opening the United States to criminals and terrorists. "What would Dade County do with a million more Cubans who don't speak English, who haven't been well-educated, that have lived under a totalitarian government where values don't exist, moral or economic ... ?" Mr. Reich asked.
The Washington Times

Changes among Cuban Americans
What are we to make of Eloy Gutiérrez-Menoyo's decision to remain in Cuba? To answer that, we first have to figure out what it was: A reverse defection? A re-defection? A courageous anti-Castro act? The act of a secret Castro collaborator?
Michael Putney / The Miami Herald

External links

Cubans who took boat get quick convictions
A panel of Cuban judges delivered a swift verdicts on Tuesday, finding six men guilty of stealing a government-owned vessel and sentencing them to jail -- less than 24 hours after their trial began. Four of the six defendants received jail sentences, ranging from seven to 10 years, requested by prosecutors at Monday's trial.
Sun-Sentinel, FL

G.O.P. Legislators in Florida Criticize Bush on Cuba
A song enjoying frequent airtime on a Spanish-language radio station here crystallizes the deepening discontent of Cuban-Americans with the White House. It ends, "All together, let's sing: Bush is betraying us."
The New york Times



August 12

FROM CUBA
A Cuban prisoner convicted of drug trafficking bears witness
Under the cover of waging war on drugs, the Cuban government has embarked on a campaign against any person who has managed to survive and perhaps even obtain minimal wealth as a self-employed worker.
BONIATO PRISON, CUBA / José Eduardo Girón Cabrera

FROM CUBA
Some drug lords!
On March 19, I was taken to Villa Marista, the State Security headquarters, where I was held in cell 47 until April 24. It was there I lost my name; they called me 239682. It was also there I saw my first Cuban drug lords: Mumúa, Cachirulo, and Hectico the butcher. My cellmates. The four of us were stuffed into the minuscule cell; we had to be careful when turning over in bed so as not to poke each other.
BONIATO PRISON, CUBA / Manuel Vázquez Portal

FROM CUBA
Operation Popular Shield in Cuba: sewing machines confiscated
Under the umbrella of Operation Popular Shield, last week State Security officials searched the homes of seven seamstresses in Güines, a small city south of Havana, and confiscated their sewing machines.
HAVANA

The Miami Herald
• Legislators say Cuba letter may get results

Yahoo! News
• Candles burning at both ends, Castro to mark 77th birthday amid crises
• U.S., Cuba Compete for Pan Am Dominance

CPJ alarmed by deteriorating health of Cuban journalist
CPJ is alarmed by the deteriorating health of imprisoned journalist Oscar Espinosa Chepe, who was transferred last week to a military hospital in the capital, Havana.
Committee to Protect Journalists

A letter to the president
This is a letter sent Monday to President Bush by several state Republican representatives from South Florida regarding U.S. policy on Cuba.
The Miami Herald, MIAMI

External links

Swiss open doors for Cuban film-makers
The Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC) has stumped up SFr550,000 ($405,000) to assist film-makers from poorer countries. The three-year "Open Doors" programme will allow Cuban directors to show their finished work at the Locarno International Film Festival and bring them face-to-face with European producers to pitch new projects.
swissinfo, Switzerland

Cuban film-makers pitch projects to Euro financiers
Daniel Diaz Torres, Humberto Solas and Humberto Padron were among ten Cuban filmmakers invited to launch the three-year project "Open Doors - World Producers Meet The World Cinema" which is to be devoted to promoting film industries which are going through a period of crisis.
Screendaily.com, UK

Health Concerns Raised Regarding Cuban Political Prisoners
The United States voiced "deep concern" Monday over the "ill health and poor treatment" of Cuba's political prisoners. The U.S. expressed particular worry.
GOPUSA, TX

Cuban criminal justice: Don't punish me with brutality
Journalist Héctor Maseda defied the Cuban government and got a 20-year prison sentence for his troubles. A half century earlier, young Fidel Castro led the July 26, 1953, rebel attack that killed 19 police and soldiers, and he spent less than two years in prison. "I wish Fidel Castro would show some mercy," said Mr. Maseda's wife, Laura Pollán. "I wish he would remember how he was treated 50 years ago."
Tracey Eaton / The Dallas Morning News

Envoy Called 'Scum' Skips Talks
In June, an intelligence analyst, Christian Westermann of the State Department's Bureau of Intelligence and Research, told the Senate Intelligence Committee that he had felt pressure from Bolton after the two disagreed over whether Cuba had a biological weapons program. Bolton said last year that the U.S. believed Cuba had such a program.
CBS News

Cubans capture hoops title
Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic- After surviving a protest by Brazil, the U.S. women couldn't handle their nemesis on the basketball court as Cuba won the gold medal at the Pan American Games.
Cleveland Plain Dealer, OH

For Cuban-Americans, more empty promises
It was nice and cozy while it lasted, but the Bush administration's honeymoon with Cuban-American exiles was never likely to endure. Cuban exiles are steaming over the White House's failure to deliver on its promises of a beefed-up policy toward Cuba. In particular, they are angry over the recent repatriation of Cuban asylum seekers picked up at sea by the U.S. Coast Guard.
St. Petersburg Times, FL

Roberto Forte's mother sent him to Duluth from Cuba in 1961 as part of Operation Peter Pan
The separation was supposed to last three months, but it would take four years for Manuela Forte to reunite with her son, Roberto. Roberto has not been back to Cuba since 1961, when, at 11 years old, he was one of 10 Cuban children sent to Duluth to begin a life in exile.
Duluth News Tribune, IA

Terror link to West Nile?
There is increasing suspicion that one of his labs is not in Iraq at all - but less than 50 miles from the Florida coast. Cuban defectors say that Fidel Castro's Biological Front studied ways of using migratory birds to spread infectious diseases to the U.S. Saddam Hussein was also known to have close ties to Castro.
WorldNet Daily

Analysis: Fla. Republican Unity Cracks
Florida's Republican politics is going to need some healing in the next year going into President Bush's bid for re-election in 2004. Florida was the most important state in his election in 2000 and that could well happen again. A united party could be essential next year, and right now, that's not the case.
NewsMax.com

Cuba Libre
Why is the Bush administration clinging to a Clinton policy that's a matter of presidential discretion, not federal law? Five words: fear of another Mariel boatlift. In 1980, Castro cleaned out his jails and insane asylums and sent a flotilla of some 125,000 refugees to Florida. The sudden influx created some havoc in Miami and even in Arkansas, where violence and rioting by Cubans held at Fort Chafee contributed to Bill Clinton's defeat for reelection as governor.
Fred Barnes / The Weekley Standard

Editorial: End the embargo
Plainly put, it's materialism that draws Cubans across the Straits, the belief that a land of plenty lies just over the horizon. More Americans are shoppers than voters, and the same impulse is evident in Cuba.
Concord New Hampshire News

In Cuba's Tropical Gulag
Our plight is very small indeed compared to what Cubans face every day. The latest crackdown on political dissidents and independent journalists and the execution on April 11 of three young men who had tried to hijack a ferry in order to reach the coast of Florida set off a wave of condemnation and even got the European Union to rethink its cooperation with Cuba. It was high time. It remains for those who regularly visit the Cuban beach resort of Varadero to ask what is going on out of view in the backyard of Latin America's last dictatorship.
Free Republic


August 12

FROM CUBA
A Cuban prisoner convicted of drug trafficking bears witness
Under the cover of waging war on drugs, the Cuban government has embarked on a campaign against any person who has managed to survive and perhaps even obtain minimal wealth as a self-employed worker.
BONIATO PRISON, CUBA / José Eduardo Girón Cabrera

FROM CUBA
Some drug lords!
On March 19, I was taken to Villa Marista, the State Security headquarters, where I was held in cell 47 until April 24. It was there I lost my name; they called me 239682. It was also there I saw my first Cuban drug lords: Mumúa, Cachirulo, and Hectico the butcher. My cellmates. The four of us were stuffed into the minuscule cell; we had to be careful when turning over in bed so as not to poke each other.
BONIATO PRISON, CUBA / Manuel Vázquez Portal

FROM CUBA
Operation Popular Shield in Cuba: sewing machines confiscated
Under the umbrella of Operation Popular Shield, last week State Security officials searched the homes of seven seamstresses in Güines, a small city south of Havana, and confiscated their sewing machines.
HAVANA

The Miami Herald
• Legislators say Cuba letter may get results

Yahoo! News
• Candles burning at both ends, Castro to mark 77th birthday amid crises
• U.S., Cuba Compete for Pan Am Dominance

CPJ alarmed by deteriorating health of Cuban journalist
CPJ is alarmed by the deteriorating health of imprisoned journalist Oscar Espinosa Chepe, who was transferred last week to a military hospital in the capital, Havana.
Committee to Protect Journalists

A letter to the president
This is a letter sent Monday to President Bush by several state Republican representatives from South Florida regarding U.S. policy on Cuba.
The Miami Herald, MIAMI

External links

Swiss open doors for Cuban film-makers
The Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC) has stumped up SFr550,000 ($405,000) to assist film-makers from poorer countries. The three-year "Open Doors" programme will allow Cuban directors to show their finished work at the Locarno International Film Festival and bring them face-to-face with European producers to pitch new projects.
swissinfo, Switzerland

Cuban film-makers pitch projects to Euro financiers
Daniel Diaz Torres, Humberto Solas and Humberto Padron were among ten Cuban filmmakers invited to launch the three-year project "Open Doors - World Producers Meet The World Cinema" which is to be devoted to promoting film industries which are going through a period of crisis.
Screendaily.com, UK

Health Concerns Raised Regarding Cuban Political Prisoners
The United States voiced "deep concern" Monday over the "ill health and poor treatment" of Cuba's political prisoners. The U.S. expressed particular worry.
GOPUSA, TX

Cuban criminal justice: Don't punish me with brutality
Journalist Héctor Maseda defied the Cuban government and got a 20-year prison sentence for his troubles. A half century earlier, young Fidel Castro led the July 26, 1953, rebel attack that killed 19 police and soldiers, and he spent less than two years in prison. "I wish Fidel Castro would show some mercy," said Mr. Maseda's wife, Laura Pollán. "I wish he would remember how he was treated 50 years ago."
Tracey Eaton / The Dallas Morning News

Envoy Called 'Scum' Skips Talks
In June, an intelligence analyst, Christian Westermann of the State Department's Bureau of Intelligence and Research, told the Senate Intelligence Committee that he had felt pressure from Bolton after the two disagreed over whether Cuba had a biological weapons program. Bolton said last year that the U.S. believed Cuba had such a program.
CBS News

Cubans capture hoops title
Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic- After surviving a protest by Brazil, the U.S. women couldn't handle their nemesis on the basketball court as Cuba won the gold medal at the Pan American Games.
Cleveland Plain Dealer, OH

For Cuban-Americans, more empty promises
It was nice and cozy while it lasted, but the Bush administration's honeymoon with Cuban-American exiles was never likely to endure. Cuban exiles are steaming over the White House's failure to deliver on its promises of a beefed-up policy toward Cuba. In particular, they are angry over the recent repatriation of Cuban asylum seekers picked up at sea by the U.S. Coast Guard.
St. Petersburg Times, FL

Roberto Forte's mother sent him to Duluth from Cuba in 1961 as part of Operation Peter Pan
The separation was supposed to last three months, but it would take four years for Manuela Forte to reunite with her son, Roberto. Roberto has not been back to Cuba since 1961, when, at 11 years old, he was one of 10 Cuban children sent to Duluth to begin a life in exile.
Duluth News Tribune, IA

Terror link to West Nile?
There is increasing suspicion that one of his labs is not in Iraq at all - but less than 50 miles from the Florida coast. Cuban defectors say that Fidel Castro's Biological Front studied ways of using migratory birds to spread infectious diseases to the U.S. Saddam Hussein was also known to have close ties to Castro.
WorldNet Daily

Analysis: Fla. Republican Unity Cracks
Florida's Republican politics is going to need some healing in the next year going into President Bush's bid for re-election in 2004. Florida was the most important state in his election in 2000 and that could well happen again. A united party could be essential next year, and right now, that's not the case.
NewsMax.com

Cuba Libre
Why is the Bush administration clinging to a Clinton policy that's a matter of presidential discretion, not federal law? Five words: fear of another Mariel boatlift. In 1980, Castro cleaned out his jails and insane asylums and sent a flotilla of some 125,000 refugees to Florida. The sudden influx created some havoc in Miami and even in Arkansas, where violence and rioting by Cubans held at Fort Chafee contributed to Bill Clinton's defeat for reelection as governor.
Fred Barnes / The Weekley Standard

Editorial: End the embargo
Plainly put, it's materialism that draws Cubans across the Straits, the belief that a land of plenty lies just over the horizon. More Americans are shoppers than voters, and the same impulse is evident in Cuba.
Concord New Hampshire News

In Cuba's Tropical Gulag
Our plight is very small indeed compared to what Cubans face every day. The latest crackdown on political dissidents and independent journalists and the execution on April 11 of three young men who had tried to hijack a ferry in order to reach the coast of Florida set off a wave of condemnation and even got the European Union to rethink its cooperation with Cuba. It was high time. It remains for those who regularly visit the Cuban beach resort of Varadero to ask what is going on out of view in the backyard of Latin America's last dictatorship.
Free Republic


August 12

FROM CUBA
A Cuban prisoner convicted of drug trafficking bears witness
Under the cover of waging war on drugs, the Cuban government has embarked on a campaign against any person who has managed to survive and perhaps even obtain minimal wealth as a self-employed worker.
BONIATO PRISON, CUBA / José Eduardo Girón Cabrera

FROM CUBA
Some drug lords!
On March 19, I was taken to Villa Marista, the State Security headquarters, where I was held in cell 47 until April 24. It was there I lost my name; they called me 239682. It was also there I saw my first Cuban drug lords: Mumúa, Cachirulo, and Hectico the butcher. My cellmates. The four of us were stuffed into the minuscule cell; we had to be careful when turning over in bed so as not to poke each other.
BONIATO PRISON, CUBA / Manuel Vázquez Portal

FROM CUBA
Operation Popular Shield in Cuba: sewing machines confiscated
Under the umbrella of Operation Popular Shield, last week State Security officials searched the homes of seven seamstresses in Güines, a small city south of Havana, and confiscated their sewing machines.
HAVANA

The Miami Herald
• Legislators say Cuba letter may get results

Yahoo! News
• Candles burning at both ends, Castro to mark 77th birthday amid crises
• U.S., Cuba Compete for Pan Am Dominance

CPJ alarmed by deteriorating health of Cuban journalist
CPJ is alarmed by the deteriorating health of imprisoned journalist Oscar Espinosa Chepe, who was transferred last week to a military hospital in the capital, Havana.
Committee to Protect Journalists

A letter to the president
This is a letter sent Monday to President Bush by several state Republican representatives from South Florida regarding U.S. policy on Cuba.
The Miami Herald, MIAMI

External links

Swiss open doors for Cuban film-makers
The Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC) has stumped up SFr550,000 ($405,000) to assist film-makers from poorer countries. The three-year "Open Doors" programme will allow Cuban directors to show their finished work at the Locarno International Film Festival and bring them face-to-face with European producers to pitch new projects.
swissinfo, Switzerland

Cuban film-makers pitch projects to Euro financiers
Daniel Diaz Torres, Humberto Solas and Humberto Padron were among ten Cuban filmmakers invited to launch the three-year project "Open Doors - World Producers Meet The World Cinema" which is to be devoted to promoting film industries which are going through a period of crisis.
Screendaily.com, UK

Health Concerns Raised Regarding Cuban Political Prisoners
The United States voiced "deep concern" Monday over the "ill health and poor treatment" of Cuba's political prisoners. The U.S. expressed particular worry.
GOPUSA, TX

Cuban criminal justice: Don't punish me with brutality
Journalist Héctor Maseda defied the Cuban government and got a 20-year prison sentence for his troubles. A half century earlier, young Fidel Castro led the July 26, 1953, rebel attack that killed 19 police and soldiers, and he spent less than two years in prison. "I wish Fidel Castro would show some mercy," said Mr. Maseda's wife, Laura Pollán. "I wish he would remember how he was treated 50 years ago."
Tracey Eaton / The Dallas Morning News

Envoy Called 'Scum' Skips Talks
In June, an intelligence analyst, Christian Westermann of the State Department's Bureau of Intelligence and Research, told the Senate Intelligence Committee that he had felt pressure from Bolton after the two disagreed over whether Cuba had a biological weapons program. Bolton said last year that the U.S. believed Cuba had such a program.
CBS News

Cubans capture hoops title
Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic- After surviving a protest by Brazil, the U.S. women couldn't handle their nemesis on the basketball court as Cuba won the gold medal at the Pan American Games.
Cleveland Plain Dealer, OH

For Cuban-Americans, more empty promises
It was nice and cozy while it lasted, but the Bush administration's honeymoon with Cuban-American exiles was never likely to endure. Cuban exiles are steaming over the White House's failure to deliver on its promises of a beefed-up policy toward Cuba. In particular, they are angry over the recent repatriation of Cuban asylum seekers picked up at sea by the U.S. Coast Guard.
St. Petersburg Times, FL

Roberto Forte's mother sent him to Duluth from Cuba in 1961 as part of Operation Peter Pan
The separation was supposed to last three months, but it would take four years for Manuela Forte to reunite with her son, Roberto. Roberto has not been back to Cuba since 1961, when, at 11 years old, he was one of 10 Cuban children sent to Duluth to begin a life in exile.
Duluth News Tribune, IA

Terror link to West Nile?
There is increasing suspicion that one of his labs is not in Iraq at all - but less than 50 miles from the Florida coast. Cuban defectors say that Fidel Castro's Biological Front studied ways of using migratory birds to spread infectious diseases to the U.S. Saddam Hussein was also known to have close ties to Castro.
WorldNet Daily

Analysis: Fla. Republican Unity Cracks
Florida's Republican politics is going to need some healing in the next year going into President Bush's bid for re-election in 2004. Florida was the most important state in his election in 2000 and that could well happen again. A united party could be essential next year, and right now, that's not the case.
NewsMax.com

Cuba Libre
Why is the Bush administration clinging to a Clinton policy that's a matter of presidential discretion, not federal law? Five words: fear of another Mariel boatlift. In 1980, Castro cleaned out his jails and insane asylums and sent a flotilla of some 125,000 refugees to Florida. The sudden influx created some havoc in Miami and even in Arkansas, where violence and rioting by Cubans held at Fort Chafee contributed to Bill Clinton's defeat for reelection as governor.
Fred Barnes / The Weekley Standard

Editorial: End the embargo
Plainly put, it's materialism that draws Cubans across the Straits, the belief that a land of plenty lies just over the horizon. More Americans are shoppers than voters, and the same impulse is evident in Cuba.
Concord New Hampshire News

In Cuba's Tropical Gulag
Our plight is very small indeed compared to what Cubans face every day. The latest crackdown on political dissidents and independent journalists and the execution on April 11 of three young men who had tried to hijack a ferry in order to reach the coast of Florida set off a wave of condemnation and even got the European Union to rethink its cooperation with Cuba. It was high time. It remains for those who regularly visit the Cuban beach resort of Varadero to ask what is going on out of view in the backyard of Latin America's last dictatorship.
Free Republic


August 11

FROM CUBA
Corruption in Cuban jails extends to medical personnel
From Ariza prison, in Cienfuegos province, prisoner of conscience Jorge Luis García denounced rampant corruption among medical personnel assigned to the facility.
VILLA CLARA

FROM CUBA
Prisoner dies without medical attention
In a letter from Boniato prison, Santiago de Cuba, independent journalist and prisoner of conscience Juan Carlos Herrera revealed that an inmate who died last month was refused medical attention for his condition.
HAVANA

Yahoo!
• US wants international supervision of Cuban prisoners
• Cuba Starts Trial for 6 Repatriated Ment
• US firm on Cuba sanctions, on returning Cubans found at sea: diplomat
• U.S. Seeks Ideas for Cuban Democracy

The Miami Herald
• State GOP legislators urge action on Cuba
• Cuban officials contact exile who has come home to live
• Opposition leader planned Cuba move for months

One more dissident in Havana
In a letter from Boniato prison, Santiago de Cuba, independent journalist and prisoner of conscience Juan Carlos Herrera revealed that an inmate who died last month was refused medical attention for his condition.
The Miami Herald

Cuba: No Social Club for Journalists
In raids March 18, Cuban secret police arrested 28 journalists who practiced their craft in defiance of the draconian "Law 88" and other anti-press statutes. Castro may have calculated that world public opinion would be too distracted by the impending Iraq war to care. Instead, furious protests only increased after the journalists were tried in secret and sentenced to prison terms ranging from 14 to 27 years.
Mark Fitzgerald / Editor & Publisher

External links

6 Cubans repatriated after hijacking attempt go on trial in Camaguey
The six men charged in last month's hijacking of a government-owned boat went on trial Monday in the central-eastern provincial capital of Camaguey, authorities here confirmed.
Sun-Sentinel, FL

Many eyes trained on Cubans' trial in boat theft
The first time Yosvel Chávez Novo tried to slip away from his rural port town, U.S. Coast Guard officials intercepted his sputtering fishing boat and repatriated him with little fanfare. Back in his hometown of Nuevitas, in central Cuba, the young bakery worker promised his sobbing mother he would not risk another illegal trip.
Sun-Sentinel, FL

Cuban music you listen to with your hips
Red hot salsa music leaks out on to Dufferin at Dundas in the dry hot afternoon. The music is made by nine Cuban girls. Some of them have long, thick, dark, wavy hair like so many quattrocento madonnas. Some of them have pigtails like so many cute camp counsellors.
Toronto Star, Canada


August 8

FROM CUBA
Cuban rafters held in Jamaica
Nine Cuban rafters, two of them government opponents, have been held by Jamaican immigration authorities since they reached the island three weeks ago.
HAVANA

FROM CUBA
Local government officials constitute "prophylactic" group against dissidents in Cuba
Three local government officials in the town of Güines, south of Havana, have constituted themselves into a group they call "Support prophylactic group against government opponents."
HAVANA

The Miami Herald
• Foe back in Cuba to oppose Castro
• Leap of fate

Yahoo!
• U.S. Seeks Ideas to Promote Cuba Change
• US says Cubans have not applied for visas to attend Latin Grammys
• Largest Shipment of U.S.-Bred Cattle Departs for Cuba; First Cattle Shipments from Florida in over 40 Years

Cuban political prisoner Martha Beatriz Roque Cabello without family visits at the Hospital since Friday
The security officer indicated that although she would not be able to see Martha Beatríz on this occasion, she would be able to bring clean clothes and food for Martha Beatriz. The niece asked about Martha Beatriz' health condition and was told by the security agent that "she was fine".
M.A.R. Por Cuba

External links

U.S. to bolster Cuba broadcasts, aid to dissidents
Washington · Otto Reich, President Bush's chief adviser on Latin America, said on Thursday that the administration will step up efforts to pressure the Fidel Castro regime, aid dissidents and hasten the political transformation of the island.
South Florida Sun-Sentinel, FL

Breaking the Cuban Spell
Last week, Roger F. Noriega became the State Department's first Latin American policy chief to be confirmed by the U.S. Senate in seven years. President Bush's previous nominee to the highest ranking diplomatic post for the region was blocked in large measure due to the same single issue that delayed Noriega's own confirmation for months: Cuba.
The Washington Post

Sandoval Summons Plenty Of Horns
Sandoval chronologically surveys a full century of trumpet playing -- mostly jazz, but some classical as well -- in the style of, and through signature tunes associated with, 19 standard-bearers. The resulting album is a sterling tribute to influences and innovators by a man many consider the most technically gifted and versatile trumpeter.
The Washington Post

August 7

FROM CUBA
Three dissident groups issue liberal manifesto in Cuba
The Liberal Democratic Party, the Cuban Change Liberal Movement and the Democratic Solidarity Party have issued a "Liberal Manifesto of Havana" in which they oppose the death penalty. The document said the three groups consider the current economic crisis to be of national origin and not caused by external factors, an allusion to the U.S. trade embargo.
HAVANA

FROM CUBA
Cuban independent librarian threatened
Two state security officers visited the Jorge Mas Canosa independent library and told librarian Librada Alvarez Leyva, a former political prisoner, that her conditional liberty will be withdrawn if she continues to accept visits by "counter-revolutionaries" in her home.
HAVANA

The Miami Herald
• Dangers in Cuba policy shift seen
• Grammy visas for Cubans unlikely
• Gladys Gutíerrez Menoyo arrives in Miami, says husband's decision to stay in Cuba was a surprise

The Miami Herald
• Cuban Hijacker Confessions Can't Be Used
• Cuban doctors sent to Venezuela living in harsh conditions
• Cuban Jews Make Historic Visit to Israel

Cuban government could reconsider economic measures
After seeing how managers and foreign companies doing business in Cuba got upset by the announce of new controls of foreign exchange in state-run enterprises, Cuban government could reconsider the measures, said Reuters in a dispatch from Marc Frank in Havana.
MIAMI

External links

Amid fear, dissidents' kin in Cuba pray
Their husbands or sons have been locked behind bars for criticizing the government. Their homes have been ransacked. They say they've been threatened with imprisonment themselves. With few places to turn, many wives and mothers of Cuban dissidents seek solace each Sunday in the Church of St. Rita, named for a patron saint of desperate causes.
Boston Globe, MA

Exile leader stays in Cuba
He opposes the U.S. embargo and has given up calls for an armed resistance in favor of working for movement toward democracy, even if Castro remains leader. Gutierrez Menoyo has criticized exiles for having a too cozy relationship with the United States and has called on them to keep a distance from U.S. leadership to have what he calls a truly homegrown opposition movement. Some exiles call him a virtual agent of Castro.
CNN

Venceremos Brigade Returns from Cuba
About 80 Americans walked across the Peace Bridge from Fort Erie this morning. The groups travelled from Cuba without a Treasury Department license to challenge the U.S government's restrictions on travel to the communist country.
WNED, NY

Cuban exile leader returns 'for peace'
He told reporters he wanted to work "for a legal space for the opposition from which we can build a future based on pluralism and cohabitation". But he said his calls for legalisation of opposition parties in Cuba should not be seen as an open challenge to Mr Castro.
BBC


August 6

FROM CUBA
Cuban prisoner of conscience in bad shape
The wife of independent union leader Nelson Molinet Espino says he has lost 40 pounds since his imprisonment four months ago. Molinet, the secretary general of the Confederation of Democratic Workers of Cuba, is serving a 20-year sentence in the Kilo 8 ½ prison in Pinar del Rio province.
HAVANA

FROM CUBA
Light bulb denied to Cuban political prisoner
When the brother of Miguel Galván Gutiérrez brought him a light bulb to illuminate his cell at the Aguica prison in Matanzas province, he was told it could not be given to him.
HAVANA

The Miami Herald
• 6 of 12 hijackers sent back by U.S. are freed in Cuba
• Rights activist imprisoned in Cuba is honored

Yahoo!
• Bush under attack from Cuban Americans who helped elect him
• Havana launches web site to "fight media terrorism"

It's time to fulfill promises on Cuba
The Cubans are finally rebelling. But it's the Cubans in Miami, not in Havana, who are up in arms. Simmering doubts in the Cuban-American community about President Bush's unexpectedly anemic Cuba policy have erupted into open discontent with the recent decision to negotiate the return of refugees to Cuba to face potential summary trials.
Paul Crespo / The Miami Herald

External links

Iran and Cuba Zap U.S. Satellites
State sponsors of terrorism not only threaten U.S. interests on land, at sea and in the air, but now they have teamed up to attack U.S. assets in space. By successfully jamming a U.S. communications satellite over the Atlantic Ocean, the regimes of Cuba and Iran challenged U.S. dominance of space and the assumptions of free access to satellite communication that makes undisputed U.S. military power possible.
Insight on the News, DC

Myriam Marquez: Devil is in details of hypocrisy in Cuba
The 12 Cubans figured that, even if they didn't reach Florida and the U.S. Coast Guard caught them at sea, their contraption was so outrageous, their creativity so amazing, that the United States would be hard-pressed to send them back. They figured wrong.
The Tallahasee Democrat, FL

Casting West "CUBA FILM"
Claude Brickell (dir.) is accepting submissions for Cuba Film, a digital production set in Havana during the Revolution. Shoot starts Sept. 15. There is pay.
Back Stage, NY


August 5

FROM CUBA
Self-employed coachmen march to protest abuses
Thirty-four self-employed coachmen marched on the headquarters of the Camagüey municipal government Wednesday to protest perceived abuses perpetrated on them by police and government inspectors.
HAVANA

FROM CUBA
Independent labor leader held for two days, threatened
An independent labor leader here said he was detained July 25 and brought under heavy pressure by Department of State Security officials to cease his organizing activities before being released two days later.
HAVANA

Wife of jailed journalist Raúl Rivero attacks "unacceptable" prison conditions
The Castro regime has long targeted the United States for intensive espionage activities. Castro himself told CNN in an interview in 1998, "Yes, we have sometimes dispatched Cuban citizens to the United States to infiltrate counter-revolutionary organizations, to inform us about activities that are of great interest to us. I think we have a right to do this."
Reporters Without Borders

The Miami Herald
• 7 Cubans from boat receive safe haven
• Truck lovers mourn the sinking of migrants' floating Chevy
• Fate of 14 held by Coast Guard raises concerns

Cubans-American leaders outraged by repatriation of Cubans
US authorities said they repatriated a dozen Cubans intercepted at sea, prompting outrage among Cuban-American leaders who claimed the group included known dissidents who risked severe punishment.
Yahoo! News


August 4

FROM CUBA
Cuban independent journalist's daughter pressured
Officials of the Department of State Security in Pinar del Río summoned the daughter of independent journalist Adela Soto to the department's provincial headquarters and grilled her for more than four hours.
HAVANA

FROM CUBA
Blackouts damage Cubans' appliances
Electric service blackouts and, more frequently, fluctuations in voltage, damage their hard-to-get and hard-to-repair appliances, Cubans say. Refrigerators become the biggest headache, because they are the most necessary domestic appliance, and since they are always plugged in, are most often damaged by variations in the line voltage.
HAVANA

Cuba's Political Prisoners
It is contemptible that the Cuban regime imprisons people for activities such as speaking their minds, meeting with others or using typewriters. Yet the regime compounds its discredited policies with cruel inhumanity. It withholds medical treatment, denies family visits and subjects prisoners to subhuman conditions. The international community must continue to insist that Cuba release these political prisoners.
The Miami Herald

Administration officials debate Cuban repatriation
A growing controversy about the fate of 19 Cuban migrants aboard a Coast Guard cutter has prompted a debate within the Bush administration about its policy of repatriating most Cubans intercepted at sea, according to several administration officials.
The Miami Herald

Yahoo!
• Cuba Tops U.S. in Pan Am Women's Hoops
• Cuba Wins Seven Pan Am Wrestling Golds

Squandering the Cuban vote
As the paper went to press last night, 19 Cubans were awaiting their fate aboard a U.S. Coast Guard ship. They had been picked up in a rag-tag boat after escaping Cuba for Florida on Monday. Some are relatives of a man executed for trying to escape Cuba in April. As members of pro-democracy opposition groups, the 19 face time in Mr. Castro's prisons if they are sent back. This should offer enough justification for asylum.
The Washington Times

External links

Repatriation of Cubans sparks a family feud
When the Bush administration decided last month to repatriate a group of Cuban refugees intercepted in a Cuban government boat, it highlighted a season of atypical political turmoil in Florida for President George W. Bush and his brother Jeb, Florida's governor, and the state's dominant Republican party.
Financial Times, UK

One-time revolutionary seeks peaceful move to democracy in Cuba
At one end of the Havana hotel's Internet café, Eloy Gutiérrez Menoyo, former rebel fighter-turned-counterrevolutionary, sips a café con leche and reflects optimistically on possibilities for a democratic change in Cuba.
Sun-Sentinel, Fl

Cuban officials free 6 hijack suspects
Six of the 12 accused Cuban hijackers whose repatriation last week launched a firestorm of criticism of the Bush administration have been released by the Cuban government while others remain at state security headquarters. Yosvel Chavez Novo, 22, remains at the Villa Marista security headquarters in Havana, apparently accused of leading the group that stole the government-owned Gaviota 16 on July 15, Perez Novo said. No trial date has been announced.
The Boston Globe

Cuba libre
Since 1959, Cuban dictator Fidel Castro has outlived eight presidential administrations. Even the loss of billions of dollars of aid caused by the collapse of the Soviet Union was not enough to loosen his grip on power.
The Washington Times

Politics on Cuba Changing
Cuban politics around the world has always been a tangle, and now it seems to be unraveling and tangling again. It's happening in Cuba itself, in Europe and in the United States.
NewsMax.com

Azucar!
It seemed as if his entourage, and then the whole room, and by extension, the whole Latino universe, was showering me with love. Everywhere I turned I was met with smiles and unimaginable warmth created by the expectation of Cruz's performance. It was that kind of love that spilled out onto the streets about two weeks ago when Cruz's faithful wished her a final good-bye outside of St. Patrick's Cathedral.
Ed Moralez / Newsday

Cuba embarks on an 'educational revolution'
Youth are key to the socialist government's survival, analysts say, yet many grew disillusioned in the '90s. They dropped out of society. They left school. And some turned to the black market to survive.
Tracey Eaton / The Dallas Morning News

Forget the cigar -- get a guayabera
Dozens of 1960s-era sewing machines hum in the room off a cobblestone street in Old Havana, the drone mixing with strains of salsa music and the chatter of elderly women at work. Hunched over their tables, seamstresses twist and shape long strips of linen and cotton, stitching together a tropical shirt that is a symbol of Cuban pride.
The Globe and Mail, Canada


August 1

FROM CUBA
Cuban government advocate censured for turnabout
"Give the people what belongs to the people," said Committee for the Defense of the Revolution member Olga Lidia Arboláez at a meeting held to censure her for having signed on to Project Varela, an initiative advocating change in Cuba's government through peaceful means, such as elections.
HAVANA

FROM CUBA
Cuba's Batabanó smothered in its own waste
Batabanó, a small fishing town about 30 miles south of Havana, has a waste-disposal problem: garbage pickups and septic tank cleaning services are so inadequate that refuse is growing in the streets.
HAVANA

The Miami Herald
• Cubans' return 'just not right,' Gov. Bush says
• Some Cuban dissidents are heading to U.S. base
• Dozens of migrants land in Keys
• Cuban defector reaches Miami destination

Cuba: Espionage
The Castro regime has long targeted the United States for intensive espionage activities. Castro himself told CNN in an interview in 1998, "Yes, we have sometimes dispatched Cuban citizens to the United States to infiltrate counter-revolutionary organizations, to inform us about activities that are of great interest to us. I think we have a right to do this."
U.S Department of State

Independent journalist in Guantánamo detained and whereabouts unknown
His wife explains that her husband was supposed to appear at the police unit on July 24, but he didn't go. Then the next the morning the Sector Chief showed up at their home and took her husband away to an undisclosed location. She has visited all the police units and the only response she gets is that they don't know where he is and that they have nothing to do with that matter.
Information Bridge Cuba Miami

External links

Going Loco For Mojitos
You wouldn't know it in the moist heat of midsummer, but Washington is a long way from Cuba. Maps don't lie, and the quest to find an authentic mojito in the area is a sure way to measure the distance .
The Washington Post

A taste of Cuba
When forced to discard a piece of his freshly baked bread, Palomino, the new operator of the Sandwich Market & Deli, must first show a small sign of respect. "I never throw away a piece of bread without giving it a little kiss," he said. It's a tradition, he says, within his Cuban family that was passed to him from his mother, Migdalia.
Fort Pierce Tribune, FL

KU wins U.S. approval to do research in Cuba
Now, thanks to a travel license granted to Kansas University, Berg will have the opportunity to see the Caribbean island nation for himself and to research its arts scene.
Lawrence Journal World, KS


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