CUBA NEWS
La Tienda de Cubanet

DECEMBER 2003

December 31

The Miami Herald
• Is it Castro or Hitler? Photo stirs speculation
• Cuba purchase of US cattle delayed over mad cow concerns

Yahoo! News
• Statue Unveiled in Cuba of Late Musician

A victim of Castro's tyranny tells his story
On the first day of January 1959, eight-year-old Carlos Eire awoke to a tropical sun peering through the wooden shutters of his Havana bedroom. There were "galaxies of swirling dust specks" in the soft light and he "stared at the dust, as always, rapt."Z
Mary Anastasia O'grady. WSJ The Americas

External links

Scorpion concoctions
Jaguey Grande, Cuba · For most of his patients, José Felipe Monzón's tidy home on the edge of an overgrown sugarcane field is the last stop on a long road of failed conventional medical treatments.
Sun-Sentinel, FL.

Castro's New Year revolution still stands 45 years later
It was New Year's Day 1959, that the victorious revolutionary forces of Fidel Castro swept into power in Cuba. That was 45 years ago and today makes Mr. Castro, who was then 31 years old, the world's longest-serving dictator.
The Christian Science Monitor.

Red-faces after Castro photo doctored
Some say that those seated in the background of the photograph, which was published on December 4, have had their glasses darkened, to make them look like mafiosi, or that they have had white lines superimposed on their lips, suggesting that they dare not speak out against Dr Castro's wishes.
The Age, Australia.

And now a word from Cuba
The master of his own island gulag, Castro detains thousands of Cuban citizens as political prisoners - many of them journalists, writers, and librarians - executes others at will, but takes issue with holding 660 prisoners, whose fate will soon be before the U.S. Supreme Court. Would Castro afford his prisoners such an appeal?.
Boston Herald editorial.

Castro won't be attending leaders' summit in Mexico
Cuban leader Fidel Castro will not join a January summit of Western Hemisphere leaders, preventing any repeat of the anger touched off at a similar gathering in 2002 after Mexican President Vicente Fox asked Castro to leave before President Bush arrived.
San Antonio Express-News.


December 29

FROM CUBA
The aging of the Cuban population: Elderly to exceed children by 2010

Cuba's elderly will account for 18% of the total of less than 12 million by 2010, said a study from the Demographic Studies Center at the University of Havana, exceeding children for the first time in history. The present level of elderly is 14%, surpassed, in Latin America, only by Uruguay with 16%.
HAVANA

The Miami Herald
• Castro warned Hussein about 'mistakes'
• Pilot gets 7 years for dropping anticommunist leaflets in Vietnam

Yahoo! News
• Cuba Attacks Guantanamo Use for Prisoners

Criminalizing Librarians: Is Victor Arroyo a 'Traitor to Cuba'?
But in Cuba, 51-year-old Victor Rolando Arroyo-who directed an independent, private library before being sentenced to 26 years in prison after Castro's crackdown on dissenters, is now also in solitary confinement after protesting the treatment of another prisoner. .
Nat Hentoff, The Village Voice .

Librarians abandoned by the American Library Association
In this country, the 10 independent librarians have been abandoned by, of all people, America's public librarians-that is, by the democratically elected American Library Association Council that sets policy for the ALA's 64,000 members, the largest organization of librarians in the world.
Nat Hentoff, The Village Voice.

External links

Judicial Hearings on Travel to Cuba Finally Begin
Vacationing in Mexico in 1999, Frederick Burks could not resist hopping a cheap flight to Cuba for a spur-of-the-moment visit, an excursion that led to accusations by U.S. authorities that he had illegally traveled to the country. Now, after years of waiting, Burks faces a judicial hearing, although he does not know exactly when.
The Washington Post.

Providing food for music lovers' souls
Shipments carrying tons of American food have slipped into Havana's port this year as trade between the feuding nations grows. But this month another kind of U.S. cargo arrived -- not food for the body, but for the music lover's soul.
Sun-Sentinel, FL.

Star of the Cuban Archives
American popular music in the 1950's had Frank Sinatra's duality - a late-night morbid depression record followed by a bright swinging one. At around the same time, Benny Moré, El Barbáro del Ritmo, the most popular singer in Cuba, was in the practice of releasing two-sided 78-r.p.m. singles with a dance number on one side (a son montuno or a guaracha) and a bolero on the other.
The New York Times.

Academic ruins
Cuba's unfinished National Art Schools received a revival four years ago when Castro ordered the project be completed. Before construction was halted in the '60s, the complex was one of the utopian vi.
Chicago Tribune.

Cuba: Tale of survival and struggle in 2003
"How long do we have to wait until Fidel's gone?" asked one exasperated woman, frustrated over the high prices at a Havana shop. "Nothing will change until then." Such vocal complaints about Mr. Castro and his government were rare a few years ago. Now they're slowly creeping into everyday conversations.
Tracey Eaton / The Dallas Morning News.

Revolution often a theme for Cuba's annual moniker
Cubans howl in laughter when asked to suggest a name for 2004. "How about we call it, 'Year of I'm Getting Out of Here and Moving to Miami?' " joked Ángel, a 24-year-old cigar vendor who declined to provide his last name.
Tracey Eaton / The Dallas Morning News.

Sioux City native studies evolution, ecology of lizards in Cuba
Cuba, the Pearl of the Antilles, has had a travel ban for United States citizens for more than four decades. Except for Sioux City native Jason Kolbe, who spent the summer of 2002, studying the evolution, ecology and population of the lizard in the West Indies island country, located about 90 miles south of Florida.
Sioux City Journal, IA.

Mad cow might affect Cuba deal
Rancher Bud Adams said Friday it is too early to tell how the outbreak of mad cow disease in Washington will affect shipment of 249 Florida beef cattle, which are scheduled to leave Tampa's Port Manatee for Cuba's Port Mariel in March..
Fort Pierce Tribune, FL.

The Art of Isolation: Cuba's Very Late Modernists
The artworks Clyde Hensley adores can't be bought in the famous art galleries of New York, Los Angeles or London. Instead, he has had to travel to tiny, far-flung towns in eastern Cuba. These days, though, that's a problem.
The Washington Post.

Trade ideas sparked by trip to Cuba
U.S. Rep. Lincoln Davis, D-Pall Mall, went to Cuba on a trade mission for a specific Tennessee agricultural company and says he came back with ideas that may help other state businesses.
Knoxville News Sentinel, TN.


December 23

FROM CUBA
Funeral services leave a lot to be desired in town outside Havana

Residents of the town of Cabañas, on the outskirts of Havana, say funeral services provided by the government in the area leave a lot to be desired.
HAVANA

FROM CUBA
Residents complain about neighborhood pollution in Cuba

A number of residents of the Playa municipality of Havana marched on the local government's headquarters last Wednesday to complain about the poor state of repair of sanitary drains in the area.
HAVANA

FROM CUBA
Cuban police beat handicapped street vendors

A police raid directed against street vendors during which officers beat a number of blind and maimed vendors provoked popular protests in Guanabacoa, across the bay from Havana.
HAVANA

Political prisoners "Plantados" in prison
Plantados are the most stubborn political prisoners, the ones who have endured the harshest punishment. They have lived for years in small, filthy cells and been beaten with hoses, sticks and bayonets.
nformation Bridge Cuba Miami.

Yahoo! News
Castro: I Warned Saddam to Leave Kuwait
Mexico, Cuba to patch old ties after 2002 tiff
Chavez, Castro meet on Venezuela's La Orchila island: TV
Castro in Venezuela for Informal Talks


December 22

FROM CUBA
Cuban police return typewriter seized as evidence seven years ago

Seven years after seizing a typewriter as evidence, police called in dissident Javier García and told him to take his machine back. No explanation given. "I still don't understand why they returned it; it's very unusual," said García
HAVANA

FROM CUBA
Policeman in mufti beats street vendor in Havana

Just before noon on Saturday, December 6, on a busy street corner in Old Havana, a man in civilian clothes alighted from an official Special Brigades car and beat up a crippled street vendor, scattering his merchandise.
HAVANA

Concern about Reporters Without Borders correspondent on hunger strike in prison.
Reporters Without Borders today voiced concern about its correspondent in Cuba, Ricardo González Alfonso, who began a hunger strike in prison on 8 December to press his demand not to be held in a cell with non-political detainees.
Reporters Without Borders.

Cuban flight steward defects to U.S. after hijacking trial
Mario S. Cano, the lawyer for one of the six convicted men, said Hernandez's defection will bolster his client's chances for an appeal. ''It solidifies our position with respect to a motion for a new trial,'' Cano said. "The government's position all along was that none of the crew members wanted to stay.''
The Miami Herald.

The Miami Herald
Castro, Chávez to discuss health, education aid
Castro, man of fewer words
Castro looks to cash in with foreign franchises
Port agrees to enhance shipping ties with Cuba

Yahoo! News
Station Halts Show After Castro Meeting
Cuba Inc.'s capital investment overseas more welcome than Das Kapital

Nilo Cruz steals all the limelight
Nilo Cruz, a Cuban-born, Miami-raised poet of the stage, became the first Hispanic-American playwright to win the Pulitzer Prize for drama. His Anna in the Tropics, written on commission for the 104-seat New Theatre in Coral Gables, won drama's top prize without anyone on the drama jury or Pulitzer board having seen it.
The Miami Herald.

McClash takes flak for Cuba trade agreement
Several Manatee County Port Authority board members are upset that Chairman Joe McClash signed an agreement with a Cuban government agency last month without consulting them.
Herald-Tribune.

Cuba: Another imprisoned journalist on hunger strike
Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) is deeply concerned about the health of imprisoned Cuban journalist Ricardo González Alfonso, who has been on a hunger strike for the last 12 days.
CPJ

External links

Flight attendant who testified at Key West hijacking trial remains in U.S.
Mario S. Cano, attorney for one of the hijackers, said a defection would help the six defendants in their appeals for a new trial. A key point by the defense was that crew members participated in the plan to fly the plane north to Florida.
Sun-Sentinel, FL.

Florida Straits: Sea of surprises - and miracles
Only hours before climbing into a flimsy, homemade rowboat, Barbaro Antonio Vela let his wife and daughter in on his clandestine plan to build a new life across the Florida Straits and assured them he'd make a safe passage despite the choppy seas and whipping winds.
Sun-Sentinel, FL.

Paulson Premium Seed look to Cuba for international opportunities
As the U.S. and Cuba mark the two-year anniversary of food and agricultural shipments being traded, Larry White, staff animal scientist at Paulson Premium Seed and Conditioning in Bowman, N.D., took part in this historical event traveling to Havana, Cuba, Dec. 14-18 to further discuss trading opportunities with the country.
The Black Hills Pioneer.

Man faces music over trip to Cuba
Fred Burks was hardly the first American tourist to visit Cuba when he spent 10 days there four years ago. The documentary "Buena Vista Social Club," which reignited the faded popularity of Cuban music, had helped make the island a trendy vacation spot..
Tri-Valley Herald, CA.

Ag commissioner calls for an end to Cuba trade embargo
North Dakota Agriculture Commissioner Roger Johnson has joined other American farm leaders in calling for an end to the U.S. trade embargo with Cuba. Johnson said U.S. agriculture suppliers are "negotiating with one hand tied behind our back" in trying to sell food to the communist country.
Bismarck Tribune, ND.

Embargo ruling leaves engineer club in a tizzy
The list reads like a Who's Who of American business, from Amazon.com (fined for an online auction of Cuban cigars) to Wal-Mart (pajamas allegedly made in Cuba). Playboy Enterprises paid a $27,500 fine for a Cuban foray; the New York Yankees ponied up $75,000, presumably for raiding Fidel Castro's pitching rotation..
Newark Star Ledger, NJ.

KU makes Cuban debut
A group of 12 KU film students and four faculty members has returned from a six-day trip for the 25th annual International Festival of Latin American Film. It was the first trip a KU contingent has made to the communist island nation since securing a travel license from the U.S. Treasury Department this summer.
Lawrence Journal World, KS .
Curbing Cuban Hijackings
The tough stance taken by prosecutors in this case, of course, reflects post-9/11 traumas and realities. But it also should provide one more impetus to fix the muddled U.S. policies toward an antagonistic island neighbor. For more than 40 years, 10 U.S. presidents have tried to tame Cuban dictator Fidel Castro; none has succeeded.
Los Angeles Times (subscription), CA.
The Havana Biennial
Several European funders of the Havana Biennial, including the Hague-based Prince Claus Fund, withdrew support of the show, and another Dutch organisation, the International Humanist Institute for Co-operation, suspended sponsorship when it learned that the exhibition organisers were censoring artists' proposals.
Art Newspaper, UK.

December 18

FROM CUBA
75 to top dissidents' Christmas trees

Many dissidents and government opponents here are topping their Christmas trees with the number 75, in remembrance of the 75 political prisoners sentenced by the government in April this year.
HAVANA

FROM CUBA
One to go; the politics of free expression in Cuba

Cubans sometimes find very imaginative ways to circumvent their government's restrictions on freedom of expression. Take for instance the fans' cheers at last Sunday's baseball game.
HAVANA

FROM CUBA
Cuba retail sales down this season over last

Christmas sales this year in Havana's dollar stores are reportedly below last year's levels, reflecting problems in several areas of the Cuban economy.
HAVANA

FROM CUBA
Sign celebrating Saddam capture disrupts law school classes in Havana

A home-made sign celebrating the capture of Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein resulted in the disruption of classes at the University of Havana Law School December 15.
HAVANA

FROM CUBA
One dead, two injured in building collapse in Cuba

The partial collapse of a building left one three-year-old girl dead and her eight-year-old brother and father in serious condition at a local hospital.
HAVANA

FROM CUBA
Potato crop doesn't meet quota standard

Instead of the six pounds of potatoes a month Havana residents are entitled to buy under the government's rationing system, they were only able to buy five and four pounds in October and November, respectively.
HAVANA
FROM CUBA
Fire damages seamen's hiring hall in Havana

In fire of unknown origin caused extensive damage December 12 at the building housing the offices of Agemarca, the Cuban government's hiring office for merchant seamen.
HAVANA
Yahoo! News
U.S. artist killed in Cuba
Castro, U.S. Farm Officials Discuss Trade
Festival warms to 'Havana' amid chill of U.S.-Cuba relations
U.S. Farmers Call for End to Cuba Embargo
National Foreign Trade Council Lauds Senate Introduction of the U.S.-Cuba Trademark Protection Act

The Miami Herald
Castro, U.S. Farm Officials Discuss Trade
Cuban violinist proof that dreams can come true

US raps China, North Korea, Cuba on religion, warns of anti-Semitism in Europe
United States accused governments in five Asian states, including China and North Korea, as well as Cuba of pursuing a totalitarian drive to brand religious groups "enemies of the state."
Yahoo! News.
A Glimpse of Cuba
While in Cuba, I would come to fall in love with the graciousness and humor of its people, the beauty of its land and climate and the charm of its architecture. But I would leave grieving over the poverty in the country, the grinding oppression, the lack of any semblance of human and civil rights, and the pervasive fear by Cubans of their own government.
Digital Freedom

December 16

FROM CUBA
Dissident sees pattern of increased harassment

A government opponent in Holguín says he perceives a pattern of increased harassment directed against dissidents lately.
HAVANA

FROM CUBA
Nurse fired for signing Varela project petition

A nurse at the Carlos Finlay military hospital in Havana was fired for signing the Varela project petition, asking for political change under provisions of the Cuban Constitution.
HOLGUIN

FROM CUBA
Cuban independent journalist harassed

An agent of the political police who only gave his name as Manuel temporarily detained independent journalist Ana Leonor Díaz December 10 as she tried to board a bus to cover a dissidents' ceremony in commemoration of International Human Rights Day.
PINAR DEL RÍO

The Miami Herald
Dissidents gambled -- and probably lost

Yahoo! News
U.S. Food Producers to Work With Cuba
Hearings Begin in Cuba Travel Ban Case
Canada loses to Cuba in opening game of women's volleyball qualifier

Cabinet approves military cooperation protocol with Cuba
A technical and military cooperation protocol between the Defence Minstries of Angola and Cuba, signed in Havana, in the year 2002, has been approved by the Cabinet Council, as stated in a recent edition of the State's Gazette.
Allfrica.com..

All Female Hip-Hop Concert To Rock Cuba
In the fall of 2002, Fidel Castro's government sanctioned the Cuban Rap Agency, a state sponsored agency that ear maked money for the Cuban Rap Festival and the production of a hip-hop magazine "Movimiento."
AllHipHop.com.

Members of the Christian Liberation Movement abused at the prison Combinado del Este
The prisoner of conscience Jesus Miguel Mustafá Felipe, member of the Christian Liberation Movement and sanctioned to 25 years in prison in the repressive wave that began in March, was able to smuggle a note out of prison.
Information Bridge Cuba Miami.

December 15

FROM CUBA
"This regime will be over when Cubans wish it": Manuel Vázquez Portal

"As long as we continue believing the regime's barrage of propaganda, we will continue, like mesmerized toads, living in the muck," wrote imprisoned poet and journalist Manuel Vázquez Portal, serving an 18-year sentence, to his wife.
AGUADORES PRISON

FROM CUBA
Cuban engineer fired for having signed Varela Project petition

An engineer at the Polar beer bottling plant in Havana was fired December 5 for having signed his name to the Varela Project petition circulated by opponents of the present government.
HAVANA

FROM CUBA
Cuban masons donate layette to needy mother

A group of Havana Masonic lodges donated a layette to a needy mother on the 144th anniversary of the founding of the Great Lodge of Cuba, December 5th.
HAVANA

FROM CUBA
Women's rap concert in Cuba a first.

A concert featuring women rap performers will be the first of its kind in Cuba. It will be held December 17 at the Covarrubias Hall of the National Theatre, under the title Proven Presence.
HAVANA
FROM CUBA
Communist Party militant protests lack of governmental response to his wife's death

A Communist Party militant held a brief hunger strike this week to protest what he called lack of response from Fidel Castro on down to demands for clarification of his wife's death.
HOLGUIN
FROM CUBA
Swiss tourists robbed in downtown Havana

Two Swiss tourists were robbed in broad daylight this week after coming out of a session of the Latin American Film Festival. Guillaume Pelletier and Catheline Dubois, both professors at the University of Berne, had come to Cuba to meet with wives of imprisoned dissidents.
HAVANA
FROM CUBA
Interview with Attorney René Gómez Manzano

"The change must be based on the democratic principles of the Constitution of 1940," Attorney René Gómez Manzano asserted.
HAVANA

The Miami Herald
Dissident offers new democracy proposal
Cuban dissidents feared lost at sea
Hijack verdict a personal one for courtroom
6 Cubans guilty of hijacking
Fates of dictators follow no pattern

Yahoo! News
U.S. Farm Producers Travel to Cuba
Cuban Film Tops at Latin America Festival

Cuban physician condemned to 25 years in prison for defending human rights, is punished once more in a "dungeon"
His wife urgently requests international solidarity, alleging the objective of Cuban authorities is to destroy him physically and psychologically.
Net for Cuba..

Actress' anti-Castro message rings strong in South Florida
Living in New York, actress Carmen Peláez overdoses on Che Chic. They're everywhere, the hip-hoppers and hippies and post-grungers who go around with Che on their T-shirts like he's Biggie or John or Kurt or somebody cool like that.
The Miami Herald.

Veteran Cuban American playwright Eduardo Machado gives the exile community tough love
Like so many Cubans whose lives were forever altered by Fidel Castro's revolution, Eduardo Machado has spent years contemplating his fractured homeland.
The Miami Herald.

Diplomats get gift-giving warning
In Havana, they're decking the halls with tinsel and garlands. Mini-Christmas trees and twinkling ornaments are flying off the shelves at government run stores.
The Sun Sentinel.

External links

Internet in Cuba: access barred
On the eve of the World Summit on the Information Society, which ended Friday in Geneva, the director-general of Unesco declared on these pages that "freedom of expression, as expressed in Article 19 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights … applies to the Internet as much as it does the older forms of press and radio." Here in Cuba the government jails its citizens for distributing this same Declaration and we do not enjoy freedom of expression in any media whatsoever, not even in private conversations.
Claudia Márquez Linares.

Last Call for Cuba?
We jumped at the opportunity to join a 10-day tour of Cuba last February. My husband, Mike, and I went legally as part of a study group flying by charter from New York. Shortly afterward, the American government announced that it would not approve any more such "people to people'' educational visits, and soon it will be impossible for most American tour groups to go to Cuba.
The New York Times.

U.S. farm producers travel back to Cuba to do more business
The door to American trade with Cuba was nudged open a bit more this weekend as more than 250 U.S. agribusiness representatives traveled here for sales talks, marking the second anniversary of the first U.S. commercial food shipments to the communist island.
Sun-Sentinel, FL.

Dissident issues Cuba manifesto
Osvaldo Paya, Cuba's most prominent dissident and author of the Varela Project petition drive for government reforms, initiated a new campaign aimed at planning for a peaceful transition to democracy.
Sun-Sentinel, FL.

UNC study abroad program expands to Cuba
The University of North Carolina has teamed up with the University of Havana to allow students to study abroad in Cuba. UNC-Chapel Hill will send eight students there next month to study Cuban history, culture and international relations, along with Spanish grammar and language.
Bradenton Herald, FL.

Preparing for a Mass Exodus - into Cuba
John says he doesn't feel guilty about being at Havana's sensual Tropicana stage show, especially since he's there with his wife. All the same, he would rather not give his last name. A former State Department analyst from Virginia, John, 57, often leads U.S. tourists on licensed exchange visits to communist Cuba.
TIME.

Travels in a Complicated Cuba
Between its battered economy, sympathetic social goals, lack of basic freedoms, proliferating prostitutes and cultural richness, the country turned out to be as complex as a logarithm.
AlterNet.


December 11

FROM CUBA
Cuban dissident leader hit by military jeep while riding his bicycle

Lázaro Lemus González, president of the dissident Cuban Union of Young Democrats, says that while riding his bicycle December 4 he was hit by a Soviet-made military jeep that fled the scene.
HAVANA

FROM CUBA
Three youths arrested in Cuba for setting off home-made firecrackers

Three young men were released pending trial after being arrested for setting off home-made firecrackers in various places in the mining town of Moa in the province of Holguin.
HOLGUIN

FROM CUBA
The sentence

You could be miserable for one day, maybe two. What's unbearable is being miserable every day. Misery can be put up with, it's something that concerns human kind. Perhaps this business of misery that concerns us may seem rather gloomy. But that's the way it is.
PINAR DEL RÍO

The Miami Herald
Violations up among travelers to Cuba
Six Cubans convicted in plane hijacking
Wives of dissidents fast to mark U.N. rights day

Yahoo! News
"Good Bye Lenin", from Germany, a hit in Havana
Fans Mourn Cuban Pianist Ruben Gonzalez
Cuban pianist Ruben Gonzalez, of Buena Vista Social Club fame, is buried in Havana

Elian's relatives sue federal agents.
Relatives of Elian Gonzalez sued six members of the Immigration and Naturalization Service Tuesday for storming into their house and seizing the boy.
The Washington Times.

To the Cuban people on Human Rights Day
Fifty-five years ago, on Dec. 10, 1948, the General Assembly of the United Nations adopted the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. It stated in its preamble..
The Miami Herald.

U.S. notes anniversary of Cuban dissident's arrest
The United States is noting the one-year anniversary of the arrest of Cuban dissident Dr. Oscar Elias Biscet, says State Department deputy spokesman Adam Ereli.
Washington File.

December 8

FROM CUBA
Sixteen arrested in Cuba for stealing boats and equipment

Police arrested eight watchmen and nine accomplices, accused of stealing fishing boats and navigational equipment from a warehouse in the port of Batabano.
HAVANA

FROM CUBA
Two works of Cuban painters reported stolen

Two important Cuban paintings have been reported missing from the Antonia Eiriz art gallery in the San Miguel del Patron district of the capital.
HAVANA

The Miami Herald
Health rumors amuse Raúl Castro
Cuba travel ban opposed

Cuban tourism officials confirm firing of company president
Cuba's Tourism Ministry confirmed Monday that the head of the largest state-run tourism firm and several other company managers were removed from their jobs because of "grave errors'' in leadership.
South Florida Sun-Sentinel.
Students submitted to abhorrent indoctrination
When my son's kindergarten teacher asked him to bring a plastic gun to school, I was surprised. I asked Cristian, then 5, why the teacher wanted this toy, but he didn't know. I went to the classroom to ask and found the teacher distributing plastic weapons and shouting, ''Go! Shoot! Boom, boom! We are killing imperialism!'.
Claudia Marquez Linares, The Miami Herald.
Not even Castro defends Chávez
It appears that this time Venezuelans are going to put Hugo Chávez out on the street. The work of the Democratic Coordinating Committee has been magnificent. The opposition democrats needed 2.4 million signatures to request a referendum to revoke the president's mandate; they collected 3.6 million.
Carlos Alberto Montaner, The Miami Herald.

Castro's daughter is far from a replica of Papa
She's turned into an unrelenting critic of his 44-year-old regime, first as a dissident daughter in Havana in the early 1990s, then as an outspoken defector in 1993 and recently as a talk show host at one of Miami's Cuban exile radio stations.
Steven Chase. The Globe and Mail, Canada.

Fact Sheet: Commission for Assistance to a Free Cuba
On December 5, 2003, the President's Commission for Assistance to a Free Cuba held its inaugural meeting at the White House. The meeting was co-chaired by Secretary of State Colin Powell and Secretary of Housing and Urban Development Mel Martinez
The White House.

US Demands Cuba Release Dissident
The United States is demanding that Cuba immediately release a dissident who was arrested last year for trying to organize an event marking Human Rights Day.Z
VOA News.

His 15 minutes of fame long gone, Elian celebrates another birthday
Over three years later, not one reporter has been permitted to observe his condition unmolested by communist agents. Elian Gonzalez is fully enslaved and unseen, except when he is used by Cuba's dictatorship as a pawn for propaganda.
Scott Holleran, Seattle Post-Intelligencer.

External links

Cuba study trips face crackdown
Juliet Munoz left for Cuba on Friday, along with 26 other students and faculty from DePaul University, hoping to learn during the next three weeks about life and culture on the island nation under the regime of Fidel Castro.
Chicago Tribune.

Movie holds a mirror to gritty Havana life
As Fernando Pérez pans over Havana's intimate, decayed interiors and sweeping, once splendid cityscapes, his camera quietly lingers over a graffiti-scrawled wall someone has christened "the corner of patience."
Sun-Sentinel, FL.

Castro, celebrating Elian's birthday, says socialism will survive
Cuban President Fidel Castro insisted Friday his socialist system will survive him, characterizing as "idiots" those who believe otherwise as he feted Elian Gonzalez on his 10th birthday.
Sun-Sentinel, FL.

Mendive: Cuban national, Yoruban soul
Always dressed in full white with white flowing locks and a wooden cane, world-renowned Cuban artist, Professor Manuel Mendive, could easily be mistaken for an African spiritual advisor.
Jamaica Observer, Jamaica.


December 5

FROM CUBA
Young Cuban baseball players must supply their own equipment

The manager of the Central Havana baseball teams says that in the 18 months he's been on the job school age and juvenile players have had to supply their own equipment, which is only available at dollar stores at very high prices.
HAVANA

FROM CUBA
Medical students praise imprisoned doctor on Medicine Day in Cuba

Five students at the Institute of Medical Science in the capital sent a message to jailed dissident doctor Oscar Elías Biscet on Medicine Day celebrated this week in Cuba.
HAVANA

Witness calls Cuban hijack a sham
The accused ringleader of six Cuban men being tried on hijacking charges testified Thursday that the flight's copilot and an airport guard sought him out a year ago to help divert a Cuban airplane to the United States and make it look like a hijacking.
The Miami Herald.

The Miami Herald
Cuban tourism boss fired over corruption
Coast Guard: Ten Cuban migrants may have drowned
Cuban defectors hoping to cash in

Yahoo! News
US further tightens restrictions on business, travel in Cuba
Ten Cubans feared dead in bid to flee homeland: US
Cuban defectors hoping to cash in

Rubalcaba the new face of Latin jazz.
Cuban jazz pianist Gonzalo Rubalcaba has a new home, a new country and a new way of doing things. "For many years, there's been a prototype and a form to do Latin music. Personally, I am tired of the way to make that music," he says by phone from his home in Coral Springs, Fla.
author.

External links

Fleeing Cuba, Hoping to Soar on New Stage
Before dawn on Oct. 12, Cervilio Amador and Gema Díaz, Cuban ballet dancers on tour, grabbed their backpacks and walked briskly through the lobby of their Daytona Beach hotel. Between them, they carried 16 pairs of ballet shoes, several videos of their work and $1,000. A few blocks from the hotel they hailed a cab, which drove them to West Palm Beach. There they flagged down another taxi.
The New York Times.

An island full of mobile intentions
Cubans wear them like fine jewelry, but they don't glitter. They ring. They chime. They even vibrate. Cellphones, old news in most of the Americas, are the latest rage in this socialist nation. They're a symbol of status and power, a way to slip into the wireless world, if only for a moment.
Tracey Eaton / The Dallas Morning News .

U.S. steps up searches of Cuba travelers
President Bush's October call for more rigorous enforcement of sanctions against Cuba has led to an increase in searches of people traveling to and from the island, Secretary of Housing and Urban Development Mel Martinez said Friday.
Biloxi Sun Herald, MS.


December 4

The Miami Herald
Slip could bring Cuban hijack mistrial
Judge delays mistrial decision in hijacking case
Clark hints he would explore Cuba ties

Yahoo!
Cuban Tourism Firm Head Leaves Post
Cuba Welcomes U.S. Oil Companies

Local chiropractor adjusts schedule for Cuba
Based inthe U.K., CORe was established for the purpose of bringing chiropractic care to countries and to people where there is none. A clinic was established in Nuevo Gerona in April 1995.
MyTELUS, Canada

SA, Cuba Sign ICT Co-Operation Deal
SA has signed a co-operation agreement with Cuba that will see the countries exchange technical skills and human resources development in the ICT arena.
AllAfrica.com

A Vatican for film-makers
A staff of over 200 full-time cooks, maids, gardeners, builders, drivers, translators and security staff cater for the film student's every possible need. Internet access is three cents a minute, cable TV plays in the 24-hour cafeteria and, on Sundays, there are even bus trips to Varadero.
Chris Payne. The Guardian. UK,.

Top Cuban tourism officials held
Several senior officials in the largest state-run tourism organisation in Cuba Cubanacan have been placed under house arrest on suspicion of corruption.
BBC, UK.

External links

All options open, US warns 'rogue' countries
John Bolton, under-secretary of state for arms control and international security, singled out Iran, North Korea, Syria, Libya and Cuba as being "hostile to US interests" during a speech in Washington.
Financial Times.

Bauer wants economic development trip to Cuba
Lt. Gov. Andre Bauer says he wants to go on an economic development trip to Cuba because South Carolina's agribusiness has much to offer the island nation. "Cuba is looking to spend money," Bauer said. "We have vendors who can sell many things to Cuba. To me, that's economic development.".
The State, SC.

Castro greeted some who returned from diverted Cuban plane
The mechanic of a Cuban passenger plane that six men are accused of hijacking to the United States testified Wednesday that Fidel Castro greeted those who elected not to defect when they returned to the communist island.
Sun-Sentinel, FL.

'I want my wife and children'
My family doesn't know about my situation. My mother died in 1982 and my father in 1986. At that time my brother was a captain in the army. I wrote to him but he told me he wasn't interested in my life here, that I should respect his ideals. So I stopped writing to him. For more than 18 years, he doesn't know if I am alive or dead.
BBC, UK.

SA, Cuba Cement Ties
South Africa and Cuba have further deepened their bilateral relations with the two nations committing to joint cooperation in various cross cutting areas. The move follows the conclusion of the third bilateral commission yesterday on economic, scientific, and technical and business co-operation between Havana and Pretoria.
AllAfrica.com.

Washington warns five countries over weapons of mass destruction
''Rogue states such as Iran, North Korea, Syria, Libya and Cuba, whose pursuit of weapons of mass destruction makes them hostile to US interests, will learn that their covert programmes will not escape either detection or consequences,'' said John Bolton, US undersecretary of state for arms control and international security yesterday.
Deepika, India.

Traficant Fugitive Sentenced
The Youngstown native had fled to Cuba in 1998 while free on bond after being indicted earlier that year. He was captured in May. Information provided by Bucci's brother helped lead to the downfall of Traficant, a Democrat expelled from Congress last year. Traficant was convicted of bribery and racketeering charges and is serving an eight-year prison sentence.
WXIX, OH.


December 2

FROM CUBA
Cuban independent journalist urges Castro to undertake a worldwide amnesty program
Independent journalist Santiago du Bouchet has sent a letter to president Fidel Castro asking him to undertake a worldwide amnesty campaign for political prisoners, including those in Cuba.
HAVANA

FROM CUBA
Building collapse injuries three in Havana
The building started to collapse at 3:45 a.m. Most of the 40 residents were able to escape before it completely collapsed. The building was built in the 1940s.
HAVANA

FROM CUBA
Month-long series of prayers undertaken in Cuba for jailed independent journalist
Dissidents and independent journalists in two provinces have undertaken a month-long series on prayers for Normando Hernandez Gonzalez, director of the College of Independent Journalists of Camaguey, who is serving a 25-year prison sentence, as well as other imprisoned dissidents.
CAMAGUEY

FROM CUBA
Three members of the Cuban Orthodox Party harassed by authorities
Three members of the Orthodox Cuban Party, an outlawed civil rights organization, were recently harassed by authorities in separate in incidences.
HAVANA

The Miami Herald
Hijacking or 'freedom flight'?
More migrants being halted off U.S. coast

A Web of Indoctrination Catches Cuba's Students
When my son's kindergarten teacher asked him to bring a plastic gun to school, I was surprised. I asked Cristian, then 5, why the teacher wanted this toy, but he didn't know. I went to the classroom to ask and found the teacher distributing plastic weapons and shouting, "Go! Shoot! Boom, boom! We are killing imperialism!" All the children, including my son, were shooting in the air and shouting "Boom, boom!" against this invisible specter the teacher told them was imperialism. .
Claudia Marquez Linares, Los Angeles Times.

Fight for freedom logs on
In Cuba, the Internet has become the latest battleground in that country's quiet struggle for freedom. With World Wide Web access restricted to only a few government-controlled websites, increasing numbers of Cubans are hacking through President Fidel Castro's censorship.
The Miami Herald.

Jailed in Cuba International pressure can help journalists
The repression of Cuba's independent journalists is an issue that transcends the current U.S. debate over how best to promote a democratic transition in post-Castro Cuba. Advocates and opponents of continuing the four-decade U.S. trade embargo against the Castro dictatorship can agree that imprisoning journalists and crushing their movement for a free press are gross violations of human rights.
Union-Tribune Editorial.

External links

Cubans on Trial in Case That Led to Crackdown by Castro
Federal prosecutors outlined a meticulous yearlong plot by six Cubans accused as hijackers as their trial started here on Monday. The case involves the first of several such incidents that heightened tensions between the White House and Cubans in both Havana and Miami.
The New York Times.

'Scarface' and the forgotten prisoners of Mariel
Today there are 1,100 Mariel Cubans being detained indefinitely by the US government. In a scene included on the 20th anniversary DVD, Pacino delivers a rambling monologue noting that Castro won't take the refugees back, that neither country wants them - and that this can work to their advantage. "This [is the] United States. They got nothing but lawyers here... They're stuck with us, man. They got to let us go." But the US does not have to let them go - ever.
Mark Dow, nthposition.com.


December 1

Both sides hobbled in Key West hijacking trial
The defense isn't getting the witnesses it wants and prosecutors lost half of the confessions from six Cuban men charged with hijacking a plane from the communist island to Key West.
HAVANA

Cuban politicians set sights on higher office
Cuban-American politicians, long dominant in Miami-Dade County, are now trying to make their influence felt more in state and national races.
The Miami Herald.

U.S. policy, Cubans on trial
The politically charged trial of six Cuban men accused of hijacking, set to start Monday in Key West, may prove a litmus test for the Cuban government's charges that the United States is too lenient on hijackers, an accusation that prosecutors are fighting hard to refute.
The Miami Herald.

Making deals with communists
How does it feel to shill for a tyrant? Ask the Indiana Farm Bureau or Port Manatee officials on the west coast of Florida. Both have signed quid pro quo deals with the Cuban government.
The Miami Herald.

Jews resurfacing in Cuba
For Moises Rodriguez, growing up Jewish in today's Cuba means spending hours each week studying Judaism and its teachings and the Hebrew language.
PCUSA News.

External links

Hijacking trial may test Cuba's accusations of U.S. leniency
The politically charged trial of six Cuban men accused of hijacking, set to start Monday in Key West, may prove a litmus test for the Cuban government's charges that the United States is too lenient on hijackers, an accusation that prosecutors are fighting hard to refute.
Biloxi Sun Herald, MS.

Cuba's Barbarito Torres builds on the success of the hit CD
In the wake of the Buena Vista Social Club's tsunami-scale splash in 1997, a host of veteran Cuban musicians -- including composer/guitarist Compay Segundo, pianist Ruben Gonzalez, guitarist Eliades Ochoa and singers Ibrahim Ferrer and Omara Portuondo -- enjoyed high-profile revivals of their careers.
San Francisco Chronicle, CA.

Idaho, Washington continue to ship food to Castro's Cuba
Although the U.S. Senate recently slammed shut a bid to open the doors of tourism and trade with Cuba, Northwest farmers continue to wedge open a market there for wheat and legumes. Farmers in Idaho and Washington expect to sell about 10,000 metric tons of lentils, and a smaller amount of dry peas and chickpeas, to Fidel Castro´s communist nation this year. That represents more than $2 million in sales.
IdahoStatesman.com, ID.

From Castro to Hemingway
After a week-long tour of Cuba, Jeff Crist wishes he could step back in time. "I'd give anything to have been in Cuba during its heyday in the 1930s and 1940s," he said. The Finney/Scott county farmer caught images of what once was. Through glimpses, sounds and smells, which included loud Latin music and wafting cigar smoke, he imagined the past life of a waning beauty.
Garden City Telegram, KS.

Gay Cubans fight own Aids battle
Take an evening stroll down the Malecon, Havana's crumbling seafront promenade, and you will eventually come across a large crowd. Get a little closer, and you will see that it is made up of young Cubans. All men.
BBC, UK.

No Christmas splurge in Cuba
One of Havana's fanciest shopping centers is Galerías de Paseo, just off the Malecón, the city's famed seaside highway. Many products - from TVs to boomboxes - cost two and sometimes three times more than they would in the United States. One store features a garish three-piece living room set for $2,285, an astronomical price in a country where most people earn $10 per month.
Dallas Morning News.

Press honor stuns jailed Cuban
Mr. Vázquez, serving an 18-year prison term in Cuba, won't be traveling to New York City's Waldorf-Astoria to pick up his prize. But his wife, Yolanda Huerga, 44, said he knows about the award.
Dallas Morning News.



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