May 30
FROM CUBA / Non-violent
government opponents driven from recreation area
Independent journalist Ana Leonor Díaz received the "visit" May
21. At about 6 p. m. an agent of the Department of State Security (DSE)
showed up at her home in the Vedado sector of Havana and warned her that her
journalism could land her in jail.
FROM CUBA / Political police
pressure activist to shut down independent library Two
agents of the Department of State Security (DSE) pressured an activist of the
Cuban civil society movement to shut down an independent library he operated
from his home in Old Havana.
Cuban Cardinal: Church Can't
Take Sides / Yahoo! Cuba's Roman Catholic cardinal defended
the church's role on the communist-run island, rejecting criticism that it
was not doing enough to support the political opposition.
External
links
Editorial:
Cry for Argentina / Press Journal Applauding heartily were invited
guests Fidel Castro of Cuba and Hugo Chavez of Venezuela, neither an exemplar
of growth and prosperity. One would think South America had had enough of
zany leftist experiments.
Football
players set sights on Cuba / La Jolla Light Parents hope to expose
their children to a foreign culture, and others view the trip as a last
chance to see Cuba under the waning rule of Fidel Castro, who took power in
1959, which was not coincidentally the last year an American-style football
game was played in the country.
Memo to the
Anti-War Protesters: Strip Down for Cuba / Mark Milke / FrontPageMagazine.com
Given that the hard left was so vociferous and occasionally creative
in its opposition to the war in Iraq, it would be a tragedy if their creative
energy now went to waste. Thus, I have a suggestion for a new cause that will
allow them to paint their faces, have the occasional march, and for which
Sean Penn can buy space in the Washington Post to write op-ed advice to the
Defence Secretary: the liberation of Cuba.
Analysis: Cuba
part of Venezuela crisis / Brian Ellsworth / UPI In an upscale
neighborhood of eastern Caracas, demonstrators this week continued to
congregate in Altamira Plaza to protest against President Hugo Chavez. A
hotbed of Venezuela's political opposition during the opposition petroleum
strike, the desolate plaza now looks a lot like an abandoned circus. But
opposition leaders are just as agitated as they were at the height of the
strike.
Ag
trade between Texas and Cuba promoted / Monette Taylor / Country World News,
TX Aspects of "Doing Business with Cuba" were detailed
during a recent Texas-Cuba Trade Alliance (TCTA) meeting in Austin. Attendees
heard from rice and grain producers, shipping companies, port facility
executives, researchers, a former ambassador to Cuba, and even a lawyer.
Baucus
ties nominee to Cuba trade, travel / Ted Monoso / Gazette Washington Bureau
In an effort to get action on legislation to permit Americans to travel
to Cuba, Sen. Max Baucus, D-Mont., plans to stall Senate confirmation of
President Bush's nominee for senior U.S. diplomat in Latin America.
Influx of
Iraqi officials reported in Cuba / WorldNetDaily.com Large numbers
of former officials from Saddam Hussein's government have been given safe
haven in Cuba, Cuban exile sources say. The former officials and their
families arrived in Havana in the days following the fall of Baghdad April 9.
U.S. military intelligence believes France provided passports.
May 29
FROM CUBA / Two more
independent journalists threatened Independent journalist
Ana Leonor Díaz received the "visit" May 21. At about 6 p.
m. an agent of the Department of State Security (DSE) showed up at her home
in the Vedado sector of Havana and warned her that her journalism could land
her in jail.
Rafters wash up on SoBe, then
belly up to the bar / The Miami Herald ''They asked the
night manager for asylum,'' said Ryan Hammons, a supervisor. Instead, they
got beers, T-shirts and a round of applause. ''Half the bar, three-quarters
of the bar got up to see the guys,'' said Luis Olivera, 30, a front desk clerk
who was on duty that night.
Castro reported ill in Buenos
Aires / Insight Magazine Aging Cuban strongman Fidel
Castro, 76, suffered another fainting spell May 25 as he exited an
inauguration event in Buenos Aires for the new Argentine president, Nestor
Kirchner, say eyewitnesses at the event. A National Security Council source
confirms having seen the report.
Two hijacked Cuban planes to be
auctioned in Florida / Yahoo! Two Cuban airliners that were
hijacked to the United States will be auctioned on Monday with proceeds going
toward damages Havana had been ordered to pay a woman who unknowingly married
a Cuban spy.
May 28
FROM CUBA / Dismantling of
idled sugar mill labeled chaotic and wasteful "What
they are doing is absurd," said one mill worker, "they are burning
sugar cane that at the very least could be used as cattle feed. The shoots
produced by burned cane when it rains, are so bitter and hard the cattle
won't eat them."
FROM CUBA / Friendship with
independent journalist costly for Guayana students Four
students from Guiana who are attending medical school in Cuba are being
harassed because they befriended a Cuban independent journalist.
The Friends of Fidel Castro /
The Miami Herald While the recent repressive crackdown has
awakened many people, including leftists, to the true nature of Cuba's police
state, sheer ignorance and the myth of the socialist paradise stubbornly
persist.
Cuba News / The Miami Herald
-Senator blocks diplomat nominee to force Cuba move -Five Cuban
migrants come ashore at Clevelander Hotel
Hemingway House in Cuba Open
for Visitors / Yahoo! The house where Ernest Hemingway once
lived opened its doors for a short time to show off some of his rarely seen
possessions, including the certificate for his 1954 Nobel Prize for
literature.
Cuba invites Petrobras to
explore for oil in the Gulf of Mexico / Oil & Gas Journal
The Cuban ambassador to Brazil, Jorge Lezcano Pérez, said that the
Spanish giant Repsol-YPF SA had already carried out prospective work in the
area, which indicated that there could be substantial oil reserves there.
Leftists Struggle to Find Fault
With Fidel / Woody West / Insight Magazine No one should
expect astute, even sensible, opinions from the majority of those whose
celebrity is based on a make-believe vocation centered in the artificiality
of Hollywood. Too many stars of stage, screen and radio are exulting over the
Cuban dictator, now more than 40 years into his bloody rule. They are classic
examples of what the cynical Vladimir Lenin called "useful idiots."
External
links
Impiden
la asistencia de disidentes a seminario de la izquierda italiana / Encuentro
en La Red El gobierno cubano impidió el viaje a Turín
de todos los líderes disidentes invitados a un seminario sobre la
situación de la oposición democrática en la Isla,
realizado el lunes por el partido italiano Demócratas de Izquierda (DS).
Los invitados, Elizardo Sánchez, Vladimiro Roca, Manuel Cuesta Morúa
y Oswaldo Payá, son de los pocos representantes de la disidencia que
quedan en libertad tras la campaña represiva de marzo y abril.
First
Start Is Set for Yankees' Contreras / Tyler Kepner / The New York Times
Each Yankee starter for this weekend's series in Detroit will carry very
different subplots to the mound. On Friday, José Contreras will try to
impress the team's principal owner, George Steinbrenner, in his first major
league start. On Saturday, Jeff Weaver will be pitching, perhaps futilely, to
save his spot in the rotation. And on Sunday, Roger Clemens will have a
second chance to win his 300th game.
Country to Explore Areas
of Cooperation With Cuba / AllAfrica.com President John Agyekum
Kufuor says Ghana and Cuba should explore other areas of cooperation in
addition to the health sector. "Cuba had been very supportive of the
health sector of Ghana and other sectors that could be explored were sugar
production, education and sports," President Kufuor expressed these views
when Mr. Damodur Pena Penton, Cuban Minister of Health, paid a courtesy call
on him at the Castle, Osu.
Fourth
Business Forum of the Greater Caribbean set for Cuba / The Barbados Advocate
AS trade liberalisation and globalisation continue to take root in the
international economy, there will be another opportunity for Barbados and
other regional states to discuss ways of forging a common approach to get the
most from these paradigms which will shape the future economic relations.
Pahad Departs for the
Middle East And Cuba / AllAfrica.com Foreign Affairs Deputy
Minister Aziz Pahad will tomorrow depart for a regional tour of the Middle
East until June 1, to discuss the consequences of a post-Saddam (Hussein)
Iraq for the region.
Officials:
Stolen phones were probably headed out of country / Wilmington Morning Star,
NC Nearly $1 million worth of cell phones stolen from a Colorado
warehouse were probably headed to Cuba, Central America or South America when
they were discovered in Suwannee County, authorities said.
Cuban
economy expected to grow modest 1.5 percent in 2003 / Puerto Rico Wow, Puerto
Rico HAVANA - Cuba's economy should grow a modest 1.5 percent this
year as the communist government struggles with the effects of a world crisis
on its crucial tourism industry and the price of petroleum, economists here
say.
Tyler
Treadway: Cuban art, not artists, coming to 'Latin Fiesta' / Stuart News, FL
Paintings by a group of artists from eastern Cuba will take their place at the
upcoming Latin Fiesta at the Blake Library in Stuart. Too bad the artists
won't be there.
Cuban
to make first Major League start in Detroit / New York Yankees News
Contreras will make his first Major League start on Friday in Detroit, taking
on the Tigers in place of David Wells, who will miss a turn with a bruised left
calf. Wells was struck by a ball in the second inning of his last start, but
the team does not expect him to be placed on the DL.
"Three
Little Blacks" / FrontPage Magazine The names of these
expendable "little blacks" are Barbaro Sevilla Garcia, 21, Lorenzo
Copello Castillo, 31, and Jorge Luis Martinez Isaac, 43. The Association of
Black Cubans in Miami held a protest on May 10 at the Bayfront Park in Miami
to protest the arbitrary executions. Cubans of many ethnic roots attended.
UC
honors Cuban independence; Stack has harsh words for Castro regime / Union
City Reporter, NJ Union City Mayor Brian Stack and members of his
board of commissioners marked Cuban Independence Day, categorically
denouncing Fidel Castro and his iron-fisted rule.
Fight Castro with free
speech / Mary Gooding, Daily Journal, IL As someone who often
agrees with actor-activist Danny Glover but who also wishes that Fidel Castro
would go into long-overdue retirement, I was disappointed to see the star of
"Lethal Weapon" sign a recent letter in support of the Bearded One.
But I am not joining the Internet-driven movement of Castro critics who want
to punish Glover in his pocketbook.
Castro strikes a chord /
Radio Netherlands, Netherlands In recent weeks, the Cuban
authorities ordered the executions of three hijackers of a ferry and
sentenced 79 dissidents to lengthy prison terms. But with Latin-American
countries currently facing serious social and economic woes, interest in Cuba's
human rights situation seems to have faded, even in a country like Argentina,
which has had its own history of dictatorship and repression.
Say It
Ain't So, Abraham Foxman / Myles B. Kantor / NewsMax.com Say you're
not indifferent to the barrage of venom Cuban Jews endure. Say you're not
indifferent to the Castro regime's incitement of anti-Semitism. Our captive
brethren in Cuba need solidarity. Where is yours?
May 27
Argentines Cheer Fidel Castro's
Speech / Yahoo! To the cheers of thousands of screaming
Argentines, Cuban leader Fidel Castro criticized U.S. foreign policy in the
Middle East and Latin America in a speech Monday.
Argentines swoon over visiting
Castro / The Miami Herald Thousands of Argentines, desperate
to catch a glimpse of Cuban dictator Fidel Castro, broke through security
Monday evening at the University of Buenos Aires law school, forcing
organizers to postpone Castro's speech by two hours and finally move it to
the steps of the law school steps.
Reporters Without Borders
threatened with year-long ban / RSF The call by the UN
Committee on Non-Governmental Organizations for the suspension of Reporters
Without Borders' consultative status with the United Nations is one more sign
of the fading reputation of UN bodies, the world press freedom organisation
said today.
External
links
Fidel
Castro mobbed by fans in Argentina / Independent Online, SA
Members of left-wing organisations in Argentina foiled strict security
surrounding Cuban leader Fidel Castro on Monday in Buenos Aires, and in the
crush, several people ended up on the ground and a journalist was punched in
the face. Admirers chanted slogans against Washington.
Castro
turns on the old Cold War chill / Tracey Eaton / Dallas Morning News
Just when you thought Cuban affairs were warmer. Just last fall, a smiling
Fidel Castro mingled with American farmers and cuddled up to Minnesota calves
at a Havana trade show. How times have changed.
Cuban-American
community divided over US Havana policy / Henry Hamman / Financial Times
The US response to last month's crackdown on dissent in Cuba that resulted in
the imprisonment of 70 opposition activists has highlighted deep divisions
inside the powerful Cuban-American community.
We
shouldn't be told not to visit Cuba / The Record, NY There's
another, more important point: The U.S. government should not be in the
business of telling Americans where and why they can travel. The freedom to
travel is not explicitly enshrined in the Constitution, perhaps because the
Founders never envisioned a government trying to restrict it.
May 26
FROM CUBA / Wife of imprisoned
dissident pressured by police The wife of imprisoned
dissident Roberto de Miranda said she was told by police to stop
demonstrating every Sunday at a local church or her husband would be
transferred to a distant prison.
Cuba News / Yahoo!
-Latin leaders steer away from US in policy on Colombia's civil war, Cuba
-Cuba: U.S. Boostings Broadcasts Into Cuba -Hip-Hop Exchange Features
Cuban Groups
Cuba News / The Miami Herald
-Latin leaders will invite Castro to '04 summit -Visa rules could keep
Cubans from Latin Grammys in Miami -Cachao, king of Cuban swing, is still
kicking up the temp
IAPA asks government leaders to
intercede with Castro to free jailed independent journalists in Cuba
The Inter American Press Association (IAPA) today asked Western Hemisphere
governments to intercede with Cuban President Fidel Castro to obtain the
release of jailed journalists and dissidents in his country and to put an end
to a wave of threats against other independent journalists who continue
working there.
Brazil's Lula to Seek Seat for
Cuba at Next Rio Group Summit / Bloomberg Brazilian
President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva said he will ask members of the Rio Group
of 19 Latin American nations to allow Cuba's presence at the organization's
annual summit next year in Brazil.
External
links
Another
Cuban political prisoner declares himself "plantado" / PRIMA News
Political prisoner Angel Moya Acosta, who is serving his term in the central
prison in Holguin province in Cuba, has been placed into solitary confinement.
That was done to punish him for declaring himself a "plantado", a
political prisoner who refuses to comply with prison discipline and to wear a
common prisoners' uniform.
Cuban
political prisoner remains in solitary confinement / PRIMA News
Authorities at the Pinar del Rio provincial prison called Kilo Cinco y Medico
(5.5 km) refused to allow the wife of prominent Cuban dissident Dr. Oscar Elias
Biscet Gonzalez to visit him in prison. The reason for denying him visitation
rights was Dr. Biscet's refusal to acknowledge himself a criminal.
Agricultural
Chemicals looks beyond Cuba / Jamaica Gleaner The move has been
partly informed by its relative success in Cuba, to which it exports
herbicides mainly to be used in sugarcane production, as well as vast
improvements in its export business overall, which last year increased by 500
per cent to $31.5 million from $6.3 million in 2001.
Don't want to
meet with Castro? Just send your wife / azcentral.com In plotting to
snub a Cuban leader, can an Arizona congressman really rub it in by sending
his wife to visit the leader, instead? Apparently, Rep. Jeff Flake, R-Ariz.,
and his wife, Cheryl Flake, agree that he can.
U.S.
Propaganda Sputters in Anti-Castro Crusade / Marcela Sanchez / The Washington
Post With funding destined to continue, it's time to reinvigorate
Radio and TV Marti as a foreign-policy tool. Bush has said as much in
previous Cuba policy speeches promising to modernize the Cuba broadcast
operations and take them in a new direction. To do so in a meaningful and
purposeful way, at least three things must happen.
The
Next Step Is Tricky / The Washington Post In artistic terms, the
company is also in a strong position. Certainly its tour to Cuba in 2000 was
an immense achievement. It marked a personal triumph for Webre, whose mother
was Cuban and was forced to leave the island after Fidel Castro's revolution.
But it was a professional victory as well, putting an international spotlight
on the troupe, which became the first American ballet company in 40 years
invited to Havana's International Ballet Festival.
Prof
says Cuba embargo bad for business / MSNBC News In Roy Allen's
opinion, business as usual between the United States and Cuba isn't good
business.
New
Mexico Amigos travel to Cuba / Framington Daily Times, NM Their
motto is goodwill toward men and every year they travel throughout the United
States, Canada and Mexico expounding New Mexico's goodwill toward others.
This year, the New Mexico Amigos, a nonprofit organization composed of business
leaders from throughout the state, organized a trip to Cuba.
Legal Travel
to Cuba Ends This Year / Hispanic Business In marking Cuban
Independence Day on May 20, President Bush announced no new sanctions,
surprising those who expected stiff measures following Castro's crackdown on
dissidents. Nonetheless, the Bush administration remains determined to eliminate
even educational people-to-people travel to Cuba.
Only
tourists can free Cuba / Lewisville Leader My mother always said
you catch more flies with honey than with vinegar. I believe the way to catch
the Cuban people and to make them our friends and long for our way of life is
to have them experience our personal sweetness, not be embittered by our
angry antagonistic attitude towards one man that negatively impacts a country
of 8 million.
May 23
FROM CUBA / HIV cases on the
increase The Directorate of Epidemiology of Sexually
Transmitted Diseases acknowledged in its latest report an increase in the
number of persons infected by the HIV. Since 1986, the year in which the
first case was detected, 4,699 Cubans have tested positive to the disease.
Cuba: US Broadcasts a
'Provocation' in Already-Tense Relations / Yahoo! While
U.S. President George W. Bush avoided announcing new sanctions against Cuba
in a recent message to the Cuban exile community, a special airplane sent by
the Pentagon flew within range of the island to broadcast Radio and TV Martí
signals -- which apparently had limited reception.
CPJ launches web resource on
crackdown in Cuba / CPJ With 28 journalists behind bars in
Cuba serving lengthy prison sentences for alleged counterrevolutionary
crimes, the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) launched a new press
freedom information resource on its Web site today titled "Crackdown on
the Independent Press in Cuba".
Crackdown? Exports to Cuba go
on / The Miami Herald As Cuba's state security officers
picked up scores of dissidents and threw them in jail in March, U.S. food and
agricultural sales to the island continued at a brisk pace.
Hollywood silent on crackdown
in Cuba / David Finnigan / The Miami Herald Compared with
celebrity outcries over hunted whales, abused dogs, freedom for Tibet and the
Iraq war, this spring's crackdown in Cuba generally is being ignored by
Hollywood. After years of being charmed by Fidel Castro, prominent actors and
directors have chosen to be quiet.
Cuban stowaway allowed to stay
/ The Globe and Mail A Cuban stowaway who endured -40
temperatures in the wheel well of an airliner has been allowed to stay in
Canada. Victor Alverez Molina was detained after the jet landed in Montreal
in December, 2002. He was later freed pending the immigration hearing.
Sherritt seeks to sell coal as
source for electricity / The Globe and Mail Sherritt-owned
mines in Cuba currently produce 33,000 tonnes of nickel annually and he said
he would like to see the output increase to 80,000 tonnes. Cuban nickel is
mined from so-called laterite deposits, which are close to the Earth's
surface and relatively inexpensive to mine.
May 22
FROM CUBA / Prisoners' kin
attend Mass despite threats bout 20 wives and mothers of
recently imprisoned government opponents staged a silent protest at a local
church on Sunday despite repeated efforts by the political police to
discourage them.
FROM CUBA / Law professor fired
A young professor at the School of Law of the University of Pinar del Río
was fired May 5 because he was not a member of the Committees for the Defense
of the Revolution (CDR), the Cuban government's block-level grass roots
organization.
FROM CUBA / Counterfeit Cuban
currency said to be in circulation Customers at the TRD
Caribe dollar stores in Cuba must present identification when paying with 10
peso convertible notes because counterfeit bills of that denomination have
been passed, said someone in a management capacity with the company.
FROM CUBA / Extraordinary
security measures implemented for Havana bay crossing Now,
before boarding, all passengers must go through a metal detector. Newly
psoted signs warn passengers they can't carry furniture or birthday cakes.
Cuba News / The Miami Herald
-Cuba customs uniform, ID add mystery to rafters' trip -Plane beams
broadcasts to Cuba -President greets freed Cubans -Nevada
lawmaker: Keep the embargo -Cuba honors naval leader
Cuban doctors' political
policing / The Natal Witness Group Cuban doctors in South
Africa said they have been "forced" to sign a petition by the Cuban
government to support the principles of the revolution in the light of an "imminent
invasion and attack from the United States on Cuba".
The unbearable sadness of Cuba
/ The Miami Herald Water bottles shaped like tears -- or are
they rain drops, really? -- come down from the ceiling to the floor, their
shadows on a white wall casting another layer of poetic deluge.
U.S. Officials Commemorate
Cuba's Struggle for Freedom / Washington File The Bush
Administration will continue to do all it can to bring about respect for
human rights and to foster a transition to democracy in Cuba, says Secretary
of Housing and Urban Development Mel Martinez.
External
links
Ex-revolutionary's
20-year sentence vexes even Cuba loyalists / Gary Marx / Chicago Tribune
While the jailing of scores of dissidents here last month sparked
international condemnation, it barely caused a ripple in Cuba, where the
state-run media either ignores the dissidents or portrays them as corrupt
puppets of U.S. imperialism.
Nevada's
senators offer Cuba plans / Las Vegas Sun Sens. John Ensign,
R-Nev., and Harry Reid, D-Nev., Tuesday unveiled separate efforts aimed at
establishing democracy in Cuba. Reid introduced a resolution calling on the
State Department and the Organization of American States to gather a tribunal
that would have jurisdiction to try Fidel Castro and other Cuban leaders who
have committed "crimes against humanity," Reid said.
Cuba sanctions fail to materialize
/ Mary C. Murray / MSNBC Many had expected the White House to
announce new restrictions Tuesday, timed to coincide with the anniversary of
Cuba's independence from Spain. Instead, President Bush recorded a 40-second
radio greeting that expressed little more than sympathy for the plight of
ordinary Cubans:
New bond for
'widows' of Cuba crackdown / Christian Science Monitor Some wives
of recently jailed dissidents rally for their husbands' release - despite
fear of arrest.
Iowa Leaders
Forge New Deal With Cuba / The Iowa Channel A delegation of Iowa
business and agricultural leaders said Wednesday their trade mission to Cuba
was a success. The group met with Cuban leaders about future trade
opportunities between Iowa and the small Caribbean country.
Spain's Pescanova donates
shrimp boat to Cuba and secures Lobster Marketing Agreement / Seafodd.com
Pescanova, a Spanish producer of frozen fish, has donated a state-of-the-art
shrimp boat to the Cuban Fishing Ministry, officials said. Pescanova donated
the Rio Saiñas, which cost $3 million to upgrade and has a capacity to
hold and process five tons of catch, during a ceremony in the city of
Cienfuegos, the official daily Granma reported Tuesday.
President
Criticized Over Past Pledges About Cuba / The Washington Post
President Bush met yesterday with a group of former Cuban political prisoners
and relatives of newly imprisoned dissidents to mark the anniversary of Cuban
independence from Spain and renew his pledge to work toward the end of Cuba's
communist dictatorship.
Cuban
rappers part of Miami Beach hip-hop fest over party weekend / Sun-Sentinel,
FL The concerts of Doble Filo (Double Edge) and Obsesion (Obsession)
scheduled for Saturday have gone largely unnoticed so far in Miami's
Cuban-American community, which often protests local performances by
Cuba-based artists. And, organizers say, the groups' appearance in Miami
Beach is significant in light of strained relations between Cuba and the
United States.
Cuba
Reseated on UN Human Rights Commission / The New American On April
29th, little more than two weeks after unleashing a brutal wave of repression
across Cuba, Fidel Castro's Communist regime was re-elected without
opposition to a seat on the United Nations Human Rights Commission. The UN move,
according to Reuters, prompted "a fierce response by Washington."
May 20
FROM CUBA / Two more
journalists "warned" by State Security Two
officers of the Department of State Security (DSE) called on independent
journalists Ernesto Roque and Anna Rosa Veitía May 14 to warn them they
would be charged under the terms of Law 88, the "gag" law, if they
continue working as journalists.
FROM CUBA / Government rest
house irks neighbors with profligacy Neighbors of a rest
house reserved for high officials of the Food Industry Ministry express
resentment at the ostentatious consumption of food, drink, and even
electricity within the compound, said Mayelin Cedeño, of the independent
Confederation of Cuban Workers.
Cuba News / The Miami Herald
-Cuba withdraws from European pact -For now, U.S. off hot seat with
recent expulsions
Cuba News / Yahoo!
-Bush to Meet Cuban Dissident, Ex-Captives -Iowa congressman calls for
end to US restrictions on Cuba -Bush Responds To Alarcon's Cuba Overthrow
Comments -27 Immigrants Are Returned to Cuba
OAS Split Over Cuba / VOA News
On Monday, Canada, Chile and Uruguay introduced a U.S.-backed statement
condemning rights violations on the communist-run island. But, the measure
was withdrawn after several member nations, including Brazil and Venezuela,
failed to endorse it.
Invasion of Cuba is dangerous
delusion / Max Castro / The Miami Herald That the Iraq war
has revived a certain strand of Cuban exile thinking that seemed long buried
was brought home in a conversation I had with a critic a week ago. He had
already finished telling me why my columns are no good and why the idea that
dialogue is the best approach when it comes to Cuba is dead wrong. I kept
pressing him for his alternative, but he ignored me.
External
links
Dissident
Accuses Cuba of Manipulating Fear of U.S. Invasion / David Gonzalez / The new
york Times Mr. Payá, emphasizing that any resolution to
Cuba's political situation must be peaceful and home-grown, said that Cuban
officials had seized upon President Bush's decision to invade Iraq to alarm
the Cuban public over a possible American invasion, even though Bush
administration officials had rejected that possibility.
Hasta
la Vista, Baby! / Lloyd Grove / The Washington Post The chief of
the Cuban Interests Section in the downtown Swiss Embassy put on a happy face
during a raucous fiesta Saturday. "We have invited you here today for a
party, for a celebration," Rodriguez announced to a crowd largely composed
of American sympathizers. "For any of us here at the interests section to
return to our beautiful island is a moment of joy, of happiness,"
Rodriguez said. The crowd burst into a rousing chant of "Cuba, sí!
Bush, no!" And there were plenty of mint-laced mojitos.
May 19
FROM CUBA / Cuban police search
home for evidence of "rafter-ware" Cuban police
searched the home of Rafael Quintero in Batabanó May 11, looking for
navigational artifacts that he would presumably use in an attempt to leave
the country illegally.
FROM CUBA / Cuban workers feel
themselves ill-used by Chinese joint venture Three years
after the founding of a mixed capital Chinese-Cuban horticultural enterprise
in Managua, on the outskirts of Havana, its Cuban workers complain they have
to work under what they call extremely poor conditions and don't receive the
hard-currency incentives many here have come to depend on.
Cuba's Alarcon Talks About
Hijacking Executions, U.S. Relations / Yahoo! As President
George W. Bushprepares to make a speech about Cuba, Ricardo Alarcon,
president of the Cuban parliament defended his countries policy on ABC's "This
Week" with host George Stephanopoulos. That defense included the
execution of three Cuban nationals who recently hijacked a ferry boat.
The Castro News Network / The
New York Post A reporter based in a totalitarian society is
under tremendous pressure not to make mistakes that could lead to the loss of
an expensive bureau. Getting kicked out of Havana or Baghdad may make you a
First Amendment hero for a few days, but it will also mark you, within a
media company, as a troublemaker. The pressure to satisfy several masters
inevitably results in a mealy-mouthed journalism that looks tyranny in the
face - and flinches.
Cuba News / The Miami Herald
-For Cuban migrants' father, a birthday wish made easy -Cuba says Gov.
Bush is urging an attack -Rafter was a U.S. resident -The rap on
Cuba coming to town to play Hip Hop Exchange/Miami -Cuban migrants taste
freedom
What to do about Cuba? / Philip
Peters / The Miami Herald The Bush administration is in a
bind over Cuba. President Bush is preparing to announce a policy response
tomorrow, which is Cuban Independence Day. But with 75 dissidents recently
jailed in Cuba, Bush's goal of a ''rapid and peaceful transition'' is more
distant than ever. None of the measures now in place promises to achieve it,
and none of the policies proposed by the administration would, either.
External
links
County
officials silent on Cuba / Press Telegram, LA Gloria Molina
refuses to talk about what she learned on her trip to Cuba paid for by a
Latino think tank. Zev Yaroslavsky, who spent $2,000 left over from his
$1.5million in campaign funds to go to Cuba, has stopped talking altogether
about his experience.
UK-Cuba trade mission
goes ahead / BBC, UK A major British trade mission has been in
Cuba this week. It is the first such visit since Cuba drew international
condemnation for imprisoning 75 political dissidents, and executing three
hijackers. And it comes just days before President Bush is expected to
announce a tightening of the four-decade old trade embargo against Cuba.
Dissidents'
letters share grim prison lives / Sun-Sentinel, FL From the
solitary confinement cells of far-flung Cuban prisons come slices of life
behind bars -- letters home from dissidents convicted in the recent government
crackdown on the island's fledgling opposition groups.
Cuban
migrant caught in Keys sent to Guantanamo Bay camp / Sun-Sentinel, FL
An illegal Cuban migrant who was detained off the Florida Keys earlier this
month has been sent to the U.S. Navy station in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. The
migrant, identified in court documents as Ramon Aguilar Hernandez, was
brought there Sunday by U.S. Coast Guard officials, Petty Officer Carleen
Drummond said Monday.
Pro,
Anti-Castro Activists Demonstrate in New York / VOA News In New
York Saturday, pro and anti-Fidel Castro activists demonstrated across from
the Cuban Mission to the United Nations. At the same time, a coalition of
Cuban-American artists and writers condemned Cuba's latest crackdown on
dissidents.
The
Poet and the Despot / The Washington Post Those brave words and
others like them now offer slim comfort to Mr. Rivero's family and other
advocates of democracy in Cuba. Last month Mr. Rivero was among 75 opposition
activists, including 28 journalists, who were suddenly arrested, subjected to
secret trials and given long prison sentences.
MPs
clash over Cuba connection / The Royal Gazette Shadow Health
Minister Michael Dunkley has slammed Government's fondness for communist
Cuba. He said Government risked angering America whose Government shunned
dealings with the Caribbean island, run by Fidel Castro, where dissidents are
executed and long jail terms are given for reading banned books.
PLP's
Cuban romance will end in tears, says Sir John / The Royal Gazette
Government's flirtation with the Communist dictatorship of Fidel Castro in Cuba
could rebound on Bermuda both diplomatically and economically, former Premier
Sir John Swan has warned.
'Mocking
Castro Is Sick' / Daily Nation, Barbados Prime Minister Owen
Arthur described a flyer showing him dressed in Cuba's Fidel Castro trademark
army fatigue and cap as wicked. "To raise an image of Fidel Castro in
this campaign, to mock the image of Fidel Castro for partisan purposes in
this campaign is sick, sick, sick," Arthur told a gathering at Free Hill,
Black Rock, St Michael, on Saturday night.
United
States should deal with Cuba through third parties / Myriam Marquez /
Tallahasee Democrat, FL Cuba's crackdown on dissent merits more
than world condemnation, more than protests against the communist regime in
Spain or France or New York and Washington. The Europeans and Latin Americans
wield the big stick of trade, if they care to use it. If not now, then when?
Wronged woman gets Cuban
assets / Fergal Parkinson / BBC The risk is that Cuba could seize
an American plane - and then we are not talking about some old Antonov, but a
Boeing worth $100m." But Ms Martinez is unmoved and is looking forward
to the sale. The fear for others is that one woman's grievance could place in
jeopardy a decades-old international agreement.
'Monkey
Hunting': Memorializing Barrio Chino / The New Yor Times the
Barrio Chino is one of the odder corners in the gorgeous museum of ruin that
modern-day Havana has become. Strung out along Calle Zanja, the barrio was
once the biggest Chinatown in Latin America, home to tens of thousands of
inhabitants descended from Chinese who had fled poverty and war in China and
persecution in California. But most left after Castro's revolution of 1959,
which abolished private property and brought an end to a streetscape enlivened
with laundries and vegetable stalls, banks and herbalists.
Enzi
supports Cuba travel / Casper Star Tribune, WY "It's like
life," Baucus said. "It's good to talk with your friends. It is good
to talk with your enemies. I am not saying that Cuba is our enemy. I am saying
that we should talk with them." Baucus and Enzi joined a bipartisan group
of House members who have introduced a bill to lift the travel restriction.
Shirt known as
guayabera enjoys revival in Cuba / Houston Chronicle 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 while a manager shouts out orders and
keeps watch as they sew and stitch a tropical shirt that is a symbol of Cuban
pride.
U.S.
Cuba Policy on Live TV / NewsMax.xom The U.S. Coast Guard
intercepted a boat carrying Cubans to the United States Thursday, and
television footage showed the desperate effort of one man who jumped into the
water, trying to dodge the ropes the Coast Guard tossed in after him.
May 16
Testimony of wife of
oppositionist in Manzanillo sentenced To 20 years in prison / Information
Bridge Cruz Delia Aguilar Mora, wife of the 52 years old
oppositionist Julio Antonio Valdés Guevara, arrested last March 18th,
later sentenced to 20 years in prison as a result of the last wave of
repression implemented in the Island, indicated that her husband's health is
deteriorating and to this day, they still have him in a cell in deplorable
conditions at the Instruction Center in Bayamo.
FBI memo behind Cubans'
expulsion, U.S. officials say / The Miami Herald The Bush
administration's decision this week to expel 14 Cuban diplomats had its
genesis in an FBI memorandum sent to the State Department last October citing
concern about Cuban intelligence activities, officials asserted Thursday.
Cuban writers silent on
regime's crackdown on dissidents / The Miami Herald At an
extraordinary meeting of the National Union of Writers and Artists of Cuba,
attended by ''special guest'' Fidel Castro, the attendees were coerced into
signing a statement against U.S. ''fascism'' and the war on Iraq.
New York City rally for human
rights in Cuba for worldwide week of solidarity In
solidarity with Cuba's dissident movement and prisoners of conscience, the
Coalition for Cuban Freedom (a group of young Cuban Americans), along with
numerous human rights organizations, Cuban-American and Cuban exile groups,
journalists, and civil liberties groups, will protest the Castro regime's
most recent human rights abuses.
External
links
Proposal may send
'flood' of tourists / The Washington Times A bipartisan group of
lawmakers yesterday introduced legislation on Capitol Hill to lift the travel
ban on Cuba and permit Americans to "flood" the communist regime of
Fidel Castro. The "Export Freedom to Cuba Act," is designed to punish
the Cuban regime for 40 years of brutality toward its own people and the
recent crackdown on political dissent.
Analysis:
Cuban migration saga continues / UPI The Cuban migration that
started with President Fidel Castro's rise to power in 1959 has become a saga
without end. The adventure is full of twists and turns starting with the
Pedro Pan flights of Cuban children to Miami in the early 1960s, the Mariel
boatlift of 1980 and most definitely the Cuban Adjustment Act of 1966 and its
wet-foot, dry-foot adjustment in 1996.
A glimpse of
Castro's Cuba / Gazette Net Trips like the one described here will
no longer be possible for Americans until the ban is lifted.
Gulf
widens between Cuba's haves and have-nots / SunSpot.net, MD The
gaunt bicycle taxi driver in ragged clothes who wheeled a travel companion
and me over Havana's pocked side streets said he earned $7 a month plus tips
and could not afford shoes for his daughter.
New
domino cards feature Miami Cuban exiles' 'most wanted' / sun- Sentinel, FL
The deck of cards, created by an unemployed University of Miami graduate, have
a photo and title on one side and a domino tile on the reverse. They are
selling for $10 a deck and are similar to those issued by the U.S. military
showing former members of Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein's regime it wants to
capture.
A hard line
in Havana / The Sydney Morning Herald Old age and a crumbling
economy have not cooled Fidel Castro's hatred of the US - or those who lean
its way. Caroline Overington in Cuba investigates the ageing dictator's
fierce recent crackdown on dissidents.
TV
is weapon of choice in US siege of Cuba / Financial Times
Forty-two years ago, José Basulto took up arms to join the unsuccessful
Bay of Pigs invasion to topple Cuba's communist government. Today he argues
that broomsticks, coat hanger wire and kitchen plungers serve better than
bullets. Household materials like these would allow Cubans to receive
television from the US.
Baucus
wants to allow Americans to travel to Cuba / Billings Gazette. MT
A day after 14 Cuban envoys were expelled from the United States for "inappropriate
and unacceptable activities," a euphemism for spying, Sens. Max Baucus,
D-Mont., and Mike Enzi, R-Wyo., renewed calls to lift travel restrictions to
the communist nation.
Cuba
Policy Debate Intensifies Following Castro's Crackdown / CNSNews.com
Leading foreign policy experts Wednesday debated how best to conduct U.S.
trade and travel policy in the aftermath of dictator Fidel Castro's crackdown
on dissidents in Cuba.
Carter
Silent On Castro's Crackdown / NewsMax.com Jimmy Carter is the
self-appointed globetrotter on behalf of human rights. But when Carter friend
Fidel Castro unleashed a brutal wave of repression recently, that included
extradjudicial executions, Carter's reaction was silence, followed by muted
criticism, and finalized with a stinging criticism of . . . the United
States.
May 15
FROM CUBA / Miriam Leiva sends
open letter to President Bush I believe that a reinforcement
of the measures already imposed by the United States would be
counterproductive.
FROM CUBA / State Security
warns journalist Two officers of the Department of State
Security (DSE) warned an independent journalist to stop working and to stop
visiting the U. S. Interests Section in Havana. "They came early in the
morning," said Ricardo Roselló. Two agents, one who identified
himself as "Manuel" and another who didn't give his name, showed up
at his home in Old Havana.
FROM CUBA / Solidarity with
dissidents earns him police threats Sergio Landazuri
offered his home in solidarity to the relatives of recently-jailed
dissidents. For his troubles, the police have warned him he could be tried for
"disobedience and cooperation with the enemy."
FROM CUBA / Fuel scarcity
damaging to small farmers Farmers who belong to the
government's National Association of Small Farmers (ANAP) hesitate to plant
their assigned land because the government has not guaranteed them a supply
of fuel, said one worker who asked to remain anonymous.
Cuba News / The Miami Herald
-Lawmakers seek eased Cuba travel rules -U.S. seeks to create a crisis,
Cuba says -Coast Guard trying to rescue migrants in Florida Keys
Expulsions were necessary / The
Miami Herald The U.S. expulsion of 12 Cuban diplomats is an
appropriate response to clandestine activities. The message is clear: The
United States won't tolerate spies disguised as diplomats. Nor should we.
Study tours latest casualty of
US crackdown against Cuba / Yahoo! Organizers of educational
study groups that travel to Cuba are expressing dismay over newly-tightened
US restrictions that will soon make it even harder for Americans to travel to
the island.
May 14
FROM CUBA / Costly murals for
May Day parade were bought in Spain The mural-sized posters
that adorned Havana's Plaza de la Revolución for the annual May Day
parade were printed in Spain at a cost of 41,000 U. S. dollars, said an
official who participated in the organization of the event.
Cuba News / The Miami Herald
-U.S. expels 14 diplomats from Cuba / The Miami Herald -Expulsions of
Cuban diplomats, past and present
Cuba Calls U.S. Expulsions
'Aggressive' / Yahoo! "The Foreign Ministry rejects
this new aggressive step by the United States government against our country
and our diplomatic representatives in Washington and New York," read a
ministry statement published Wednesday in the Communist Party daily Granma.
No need to promise a free Cuba
-- again / Soren Triff / The Miami Herald Instead, the White
House should recognize the Cuban Americans who have fought alongside American
soldiers and celebrate the achievements of Cuban Americans during this
four-decade forced migration to the United States.
External
links
TOM
MILLER: U.S.-Cuba policy potholes / The News Observer, NC None of
what happened that week has elicited a helpful response from the Bush
administration. Instead, licenses authorizing legitimate U.S. groups organizing
visits to Cuba will be sharply curtailed.
Blankenship
rails against Cuba / The Nassau Guardian United States Ambassador
J. Richard Blankenship said Tuesday that the political system of Cuba is
bankrupt and its leadership has lost all credibility in the eyes of the
international community.
Castro's
secret war on the writers of Cuba / Boyd Tonkin / Independent, UK
It seemed that a new, more tolerant era was dawning. Then, last month, Fidel
Castro locked up these leading writers and activists, along with 70 others.
So what went wrong?
May 13
FROM CUBA / Two more
journalists threatened with jail terms Two independent
journalists received visits from officers of the Department of State Security
(DSE) who warned them to either stop working as journalists or face the
strictures of Law 88, the "Gag" law under which 27 journalists were
sentenced to up to 27 years in prison in April.
Cuba News / Yahoo!
-U.S. Orders 14 Cuban Diplomats Expelled -U.S. Restricts Rights of
Cuban Envoys -US expels 14 Cuban diplomats as tensions mount
-Miami Lawyer Wants More Suits Against Castro
Fidel stole my students /
Lafitte Fernández / El Diario de Hoy Lafitte Fernández,
editor of El Diario de Hoy, in San Salvador, El Salvador, was getting ready
to travel to Cuba to conduct a workshop for approximately 20 independent
journalists, after having been asked to do so by an international
journalists' organization. Shortly before he was to leave, he received an e-mail
that read: "Fidel jailed all your students."
Democracy and dissident / The
Miami Herald Every morning in Coral Gables, workers gather
on the top floor of a three-story building to do their part to fight Fidel
Castro -- filling white plastic bags with shampoo, toothpaste, medicines,
vitamins, canned food, underwear and sandals.
U.S. denies setting stiffer
rules for Cuban diplomats / The Miami Herald The Bush
administration denied a report Monday that tougher measures have been
implemented against Cuban diplomats in Washington.
CUBA: Worldwide protests/ Net
for Cuba International
May 12
FROM CUBA / Remodeling for
security in Isle of Youth airport The security measures
include remodeling of the public waiting areas, as well as changes to the
administrative offices and other areas to which the public doesn't have
access. The measures also include fitting out an area to accommodate
wait-listed passengers two miles from the airport.
FROM CUBA / Young man with USA
shirt barred from club Abel Rojas and his girlfriend could
not get into a popular nightspot in Guanabo beach, east of Havana, one night
this week. The reason: Rojas was wearing an athletic shirt with the letters
USA on its back.
Cuba News / The Miami Herald
-Women pray for release of dissidents in Cuba -Bitter honeymoon
-Palmeiro's gift to Mom: Becomes first born in Cuba to join the clubBitter
honeymoon
Cuba News / Yahoo!
-Two Cubans swim ashore overnight; one escapes -Miami Won't Back Cubans
at Latin Grammys
Engagement has failed in Cuba /
Paul Crespo / The Miami Herald As the Cuban economy entered
a tailspin in 1992-1994, Castro experienced his then-worse crisis -- with
riots reported in Havana. Only then did the Cuban despot initiate some
economic liberalization that allowed limited private economic activity on the
island. This increased political dissent. Had the economic pressure
continued, these nascent reforms might have led to more reforms and dissent
and provoked an unraveling of the system. Instead, Europeans and others came
to Castro's rescue, beginning a decade of Western engagement with his decrepit
regime.
External
links
How to Hurt Castro
/ Jeff Flake / The New York Times To be sure, lifting the ban is
not without its risks. Some American travelers will go to Cuba and buy the
Cuban government canard about the three "successes" of the Cuban
revolution education, health care and science. But far more Americans will
notice the Cuban revolution's three most obvious failures breakfast, lunch
and dinner. A genuine get-tough policy with Cuba would export something
Americans know a little about: freedom. Let's get rid of travel license
applications altogether.
Fidel Castro's bizarre
enablers / The Washington Times The Left's infatuation with
communist dictatorships dies hard. Why else would intellectuals and
Hollywood's finest still be supporting Cuba's brutal tyrant, Fidel Castro? A
group of more than 160, including singer Harry Belafonte and actor Danny
Glover issued a declaration critical of the United States and supportive of
the Castro regime titled, "To the Conscience of the World."
Martin's
Foreign Policy / Peter Mckenna / The Globe and Mail, Canada Even
in the case of Canada's relations with revolutionary Cuba, a more conservative
ideological strain and deference to Washington influenced the secretary of
state's viewpoint. Paul Martin Sr. made it clear he was no fan of the Cuban
government and didn't believe in playing the so-called "Cuba card"
to demonstrate Canadian independence in foreign policymaking.
Revolution
by e-mail? Tyrants aren't quivering / The Globe and Mail, Canada
Has the Internet, as many people predicted, become a force of democratic
revolution? That is a big question this week, as Iraq begins to be wired with
public Internet technology for the first time in its history (Saddam Hussein
limited access to a handful of closely monitored government officials).
Electronic Berlin Walls now surround only a handful of countries: North
Korea, Cuba (whose government has Internet equipment but largely forbids it
to the people), Myanmar, some central Asian states and large regions of
Africa, whose economic deprivation prevents any more than rudimentary
telephone or Internet lines.
A
Passion for Cuba / Kate Bolick / Newsday.com Originally, Cristina
Garcia's new novel, "Monkey Hunting" (Knopf, $23), was the 700-page
story of an Afro-Cuban-Chinese- American named Domingo Chen. But during the
revision process, curious things began to happen. Characters fell away.
Landscapes shifted. After deleting 449 pages, Garcia had something altogether
different from what she'd started out with.
Travel
policy to halt alumni study in Cuba / Erica O'Young / The Standford Daily
Stanford and Cuba won't be exchanging students and faculty anymore, after the
University's government-issued license to send travelers expires on May 31.
May 9
FROM CUBA / State Security
officers warn independent journalist to stop working Ferro,
a resident of Pinar del Río, said a DSE officer who identified himself
as Mario, accompanied by the chief of the bureau of prisons in the province,
visited him at noon, May 7 at his home and confiscated his computer and fax
machine. "Do away with all the subversive books. We are not taking any
further measures against you because you don't have access to Internet."
Cuba News / The Miami Herald
-Castro's assertions about U.S. attack are starting to worry some Cubans
-Lieberman's radio message resonates with Cubans -Cubans who swam ashore
could face federal charges -Move blocks funds, but police presence
guaranteed
Support Cuban dissidents / The
Miami Herald This time Castro has gone too far. The tide of
world opinion has turned against him, and the heat is on to change his brutal
ways. Provoking a crisis with the United States won't work, either. The Bush
administration shows little tolerance for Castro's gamesmanship. The
international community also has figured out that the real embargo is
Castro's iron grip on his own people.
Final chapter of Cuba's tragedy
/ Andres Reynaldo / The Miami Herald They say that Xerxes I
ordered his men to give the sea 300 lashes after waves destroyed a huge boat
bridge that he devised to invade Greece. I wonder how many of the Persian
generals around him thought, with bitter embarrassment, that they were led by
an imbecile. Eventually, after bloody repressions and failed conquests, the
despot was assassinated.
Spielberg to NewsMax: Cuba Lied
About What I Said / NewsMax.com Hollywood is finally
learning what everyone else knew all along: Bloodthirsty Cuban dictator Fidel
Castro can't be trusted. Tinseltown's top movie director, Steven Spielberg,
wants NewsMax and our readers to know that Castro's regime is exploiting him
with a lie.
Cuban Government Stymies Church
Mission, But Not The Message / The Day Two weeks ago, Rev.
Mark Robinson and several of his parishioners from Calvary Church in the
borough loaded 19 boxes of supplies onto a 94-foot sailboat in Key West,
Fla., and made their way across the Florida Straits to Cuba. When they
reached Havana, Cuban authorities immediately impounded their boxes of
over-the-counter antibiotics, Band-aids, fax paper and cartridges, 400 T-shirts,
colored markers, Christian education supplies and other items even though
Robinson's group was cleared to bring them into the country.
External
links
Gulf
coast trade council eyeing Cuba to peddle products / Times Daily, AL
The Mississippi Coast Trade Council is focusing on Cuba as a place to export
state products. The council, established to represent Mississippi companies
interested in selling products to foreign countries, has obtained a travel
license to visit Cuba. The license was granted by the U.S. Treasury
Department's Office of Foreign Assets Controls.
Cuban
picked up off Key Largo pursues asylum in U.S. / Sun-Sentinel, FL
Relatives of a Cuban man who was placed in federal custody aboard a Coast Guard
cutter after being picked up at sea said Thursday they hope he'll be granted
political asylum in the United States.
Kirkpatrick
Was Right / Richard Cohen, The Washington Post The article goes on
to blame this judicial murder and unconscionable jailing of human rights
activists on the United States. "Why the crackdown?" Smith writes. "In
part it was in reaction to growing provocations on the part of the Bush
administration." And what were those provocations? Foremost among them were
the activities of the chief U.S. diplomat in Cuba, James Cason, who opened
his home to meetings with the dissidents.
Local ties to
Cuba cut off by Bush / Madison.com New and potentially explosive
tensions between the United States and Cuba are threatening Madison's
cultural and humanitarian travel missions to Cuban sister city Camaguey.
Castro's
cheerleaders / Jeff Jacoby / The Boston Globe Why do people like
this come to Castro's defense? He is a thug, a lifelong enemy of freedom,
democracy, and tolerance. Doesn't that matter to them? Over the years he has
murdered or imprisoned thousands of Cubans whose only crime was to disapprove
of his Stalinist misrule. Thousands more have lost their lives while
attempting to flee the misery and persecution of life under Castro. Doesn't
that matter to them?
Vaccines
cut health risks / Canada.com A few days later, when tests
confirmed it, instead of sending thank-you cards, both husband and wife were
on the phone to quickly alert their guests of a potential health risk. On a
recent trip to Cuba, the wife got more than a tan. She was infected with
hepatitis A.
Castro's All-Stars / Gary
Schneider / American Daily Castro's contemptible and well
documented history of human rights violations in the name of the revolution
should no longer be tolerated, appeased or, as his enablers would have it
actively supported. The time has come for both the old and new teammates of
Castro's All-Stars to realize that, in the name of human decency, their
irrational and blind buttressing of the failed systems of Socialism and
Communism is futile in fact, it is immoral.
Castro Chic /
Myles Kantor / Frontpage Magazine Lindbergh wasn't the only American
entranced by Der Fuhrer. The poet Ezra Pound said in 1945, "Adolf Hitler
was a Jeanne d'Arc, a saint. He was a martyr." It's no longer chic to
praise Hitler, but that doesn't mean all tyrants are out of style. Just look
at the sadist who has enslaved Cuba since 1959.
May 8
FROM CUBA / Authorities
threaten independent journalist Two officers of the
Department of State Security (DSE) warned independent journalist Lázaro
Raúl González that continuing his work as a journalist could
subject him to application of Law 88, the same law used to send 27
independent journalists to prison in April.
FROM CUBA / Independent
journalist arrested Independent journalist Carlos Serpa
Maceira was arrested by officers of the National Police in Nueva Gerona, Isle
of Youth. Serpa said the officers asked for his identification and searched
through his papers, where they found articles published in CubaNet. They
subsequently took him to the police station.
FROM CUBA / Hurricane watch
posted for journalists in Havana Black thunderheads and
wind gusts are already in evidence as those journalists still at large are
called in by officers of the Department of State Security and reminded of the
provisions of Law 88, also called the Gag Law. Although we have been taking
the appropriate measures to weather the looming storm, no independent
journalist can consider himself safe
Cuba News / Yahoo!
-Cuba rejects inclusion on U.S. terror list -Cuban immigrants raise new
criticism -Novelist Isabel Allende accuses Cuba and US of violating
human rights
Activists criticize Cuba
measures / The Miami Herald Human rights activists in
Havana bitterly criticized the Cuban government Wednesday for allegedly
placing at least 65 of the 75 dissidents in solitary confinement and sending
them in remote prisons, making family reunions difficult.
May 7
FROM CUBA / Dissident charges
home searches meant to harass plant What police were
looking for was either in the fridge or on the lam, but in either case, not
at the home of Aurora Pita Fernández in Batabanó, and now she
says police searched her home to harass her because she is a peaceful opponent
of the government.
FROM CUBA / Work place accident
in Havana electricity generating plant A young man was
severely injured when he fell onto a high voltage power line May 8 at the
Havana electricity generating plant in Tallapiedra.
Cubans taste freedom upon
reaching shore / The Miami Herald Nearly three hours after
throwing themselves from their rickety boat to stave off the Coast Guard,
three Cuban migrants slogged through thigh-high water and into the mangroves
off Key Largo on Tuesday. The men had been pepper-sprayed after reportedly
brandishing oars and weapons -- including a machete -- at approaching Coast
Guard officers about two miles offshore.
U.S. Holds Cubans Who Swam
Ashore in Fla. / Yahoo! Three Cubans who jumped from their
rickety wooden boat and swam to shore after refusing to board a U.S. Coast
Guard cutter were in custody Wednesday, along with a fourth man who was
captured at sea.
Kidnapping / Campaign
We are determined to start a campaign to publicize the abduction of children
by Castro's Cuba. Castro, as a matter of course, holds children against the
will of their parents for the purpose of molding them into "communist
personalities" as stated in his Cuban "Constitution". This
technique is used to maintain his hold on power, his number one priority
since his takeover in 1959. His masquerade as a communist is to hide his
daily life as a criminal.
Six refugees repatriated /
Keynoter.com Six of nine Cuban refugees, who were rescued by
anglers in the Key Largo Dolphin Tournament April 27, have been repatriated,
according to Petty Officer Anastasia Burns with the Coast Guard in Miami.
Support the Varela Project /
Vicki Huddleston / The Miami Herald Following the Cuban
government's recent crackdown on peaceful dissent, many of that island's
leading human-rights activists will be imprisoned for as long as Fidel Castro
remains in power. Their voices and activities had been setting a legitimate,
homegrown course toward democracy.
May 6
FROM CUBA / Ballpark fans
protest candy vendor's arrest Fans attending a baseball
game in Havana's stadium jeered when police arrested a woman and her son who
were selling candy. The crowd watching the second game of the play-offs for
the national championship, between Industriales, the Havana team, and Villa
Clara, called the police "abusive" and yelled "Let people live."
FROM CUBA / Potato harvest will
not meet goals The latest potato harvest will not meet
projected production goals, said an agricultural specialist who asked not to
be identified. Among the causes for the shortfall, the specialist cited late
planting, inadequate cultivation and the loss of some seed.
French journalist's videotapes
seized / RSF eporters Without Borders protested today
against the confiscation of videotapes from French freelance journalist
Bernard Briançon while he was in Cuba reporting on the recent
crackdown on 78 dissidents who were given heavy prison sentences last month.
A tape of an interview with the wife of one of 26 journalists jailed was
among the items seized.
Lawsuit claims Cuban art is
forgery / The Miami Herald When an Ecuadorean businessman
bought a $150,000 painting by the late Cuban master Mario Carreño from
a prominent Coral Gables art gallery, he made sure the owner also gave him a
certificate of authenticity. But a lawsuit charges that Elite Fine Art's
owner, José Martínez-Cañas, forged the document, using
the name of a curator at the National Museum of Cuba, the foremost expert on
Carreño's work.
Stars of literature battle it
out over Castro / Yahoo! Acclaimed South American novelists
Mario Vargas Llosa and Gabriel Garcia Marquez are at daggers drawn over a
crackdown on dissidents by Cuban President Fidel Castro.
Rally in New York for Cuba /
NetforCuba International In solidarity with the Cuban
dissident movement and the international outcry against the latest human
rights violations in Cuba, the Coalition for Cuban Freedom (a group of young
Cuban Americans), along with numerous human rights organizations, the
Cuban-American exile community, journalists, peace organizations and civil
liberties groups, will hold a demonstration against the most recent barbaric
acts of the Castro regime.
Cuba Identified as World's
Second-Worst Place to Practice Journalism / The Washington File
Cuba is the world's second-worst place to practice journalism after Iraq, says
the New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists.
External
links
Cuban
dissident undergoes "reeducation-through-solitary confinement" /
PRIMA News, Russia Authorities at the Pinar del Rio provincial prison
called Kilo Cinco y Medico (5.5 km) placed prominent Cuban dissident Dr.
Oscar Elias Biscet into solitary confinement. That was done to punish Dr.
Biscet for declaring himself a "plantado", a political prisoner who
refuses to comply with prison discipline and to wear a common prisoners'
uniform.
The stench of
Castro's utopia / Suzanne Fields / The Washington Times What's
most amazing is that left-wing intellectuals can continue to be surprised at
the repetitive pattern of any communist dictator's evil. Every time they may
feel compelled to take off their blinkers, as some of them have recently
done, it's only a matter of time before the backsliding begins.
Wives
invoke patron of desperate causes / Sun-Sentinel Dressed in white
with black sashes around their necks, about 20 women have started coming to
the church of St. Rita, the patron saint of desperate, seemingly impossible
causes, even though in some cases state security agents have told them not to.
But the wives say they have little to lose.
Cuba interested in
Iran anti-narcotics experience, ambassador / IRNA News Cuban
Ambassador to Iran Jose Ramon Rodriguez in a meeting with Secretary General
of Iran's Anti-Narcotics Headquarters (IANH) Ali Hashemi called for sharing
Iran's experience in combating drug trafficking and drug abuse by the youth.
(Related:
Anyone
arrested in Iran with more than five kilograms of opium or more than 30 grams
of heroin faces the death penalty).
First
International Sail-Cuba.com Regatta Postponed / Cruising World The
1st International Sail-Cuba.com Regatta, originally scheduled for May 3-9,
2003, has been postponed. Talks are being held with the U.S. Treasury
Department's Office of Foreign Asset Control to clarify misinformation
supplied by a disgruntled race official, who last month was dismissed from
Regatta Administration. (Related: http://www.sail-cuba.com)
May 5
FROM CUBA / Oscar Espinosa
Chepe confined 900 kms. away from Havana He arrived in
Guantánamo on April 24th., after a very long bus trip, transferred
from the Military Hospital of Havana, where he had been for four days, because
of the insistence of Dr. Ileana Prieto Espinosa. Nevertheless, at the Hospital
NO CHECKUP was performed. According to the military physician there, would be
no time to do so, since he was going to the penitentiary very soon. Before
being taken so far away, I, his wife, was not allowed to provide him with
essential personal personal items.
Public awareness campaign about
censorship and imprisonment of journalists in Cuba / Reporters Without
Borders Reporters Without Borders today launched a campaign to
bring the imprisonment of 30 journalists in Cuba to the attention of the
public in France and the rest of the world. Twenty-six of these journalists
were arrested at the end of March and sentenced to prison terms ranging from
14 to 27 years.
Cuba News / The Miami Herald
-U.S. action after Cuba crackdown debated -TV Martí's chief eyes
better signal -Cuban hijackers face long road to release -Vargas
Llosa vs. García Márquez over Castro ties
3 may 2003 : 13th World Press
Freedom Day / Reporters Without Borders Reporters Without
Borders publishes its Annual
Report on press freedom violations during 2002 in 156 countries and
issues a new list of 42
predators of press freedom.
Reform Rights Commission / The
Miami Herald The reelection of Cuba to the United Nations
Commission on Human Rights should be the final straw. The United Nations
should reform the commission by adding performance requirements that make
membership meaningful or dissolve the commission altogether.
Why didn't CNN report on
Hussein's brutality? / Edward Wasserman / The Miami Herald
Some argued that the partial truths that they relate are preferable to the
informational void that otherwise we'd have. Others wondered just how much
CNN was prepared to swallow to keep the Baghdad bureau open. It was a jewel
in the network's crown since 1991, when CNN alone among Western networks kept
reporting from the ravaged capital.
a Brain Regarding Cuba / Myriam
Marquez / The Salt Lake Tribune With the war in Iraq over
and the road map to peace in the Middle East delivered, there's plenty of
opportunity for America to gloat. It shouldn't. Not when our own hemisphere
is in such turmoil. Where's the road map for the Americas?
Cuba crackdown may not decrease
U.S. farm trade / Yahoo! U.S. companies sold food worth
$138.6 million to Cuba in 2002 and are on track for a 19 percent increase in
sales this year despite Fidel Castro's recent crackdown on dissidents.
External
links
Agricultural
trade continues with Cubafor now / Agriculture Online In
spite of growing tensions between the US and Cuban governments, agricultural
trade continues. But the political environment has also added what one observer
calls a new sense of sobriety about the potential for US agricultural
interests to find profits on an island off Florida's coast that remains
forbidden to most Americans.
U.S. policy shift limits travel
to Cuba / International Herald Tribune Dismayed by the news,
Beardsley and his group brought up their complaints in a meeting at the
United States Interests Section in Havana, the equivalent of an embassy. "We
were told the educational license was being eliminated because it was being
used primarily for salsa and the beach," he said. "Study is an
important part of everything we do. It is very frustrating."
Harkin
promotes sale of Iowa products in Cuba / Daily Nonpareil, IA If
the United States government would allow its citizens more freedom to travel
to Cuba, Iowa farm products would be going there more often as well, U.S. Sen.
Tom Harkin, D-Iowa, said Thursday.
Syria -Cuba
/ Agreement / Syrian Arab News Agency Minister of Housing and
Building Mr. Hussam Al- assuad/ and Cuban Ambassador to Syria Mr. Claudio
Ramous Bouregho have signed a cooperation agreement in the field of works of
housing and building.
Conference
delegates blame Cuba / The Jamaica Observer TOP media experts who
met in Jamaica yesterday, denounced Cuba's imprisonment of 28 journalists
last month, while some criticised Caribbean leaders -- including Prime
Minister P J Patterson -- for failing to condemn the communist island's
conduct
Faces Of The
Week / Davide Dukcevich / Forbes.com Is there anything worse than
a multi-millionaire Communist dictator? How about a ranting multi-millionaire
Communist dictator. Cuban strongman Fidel Castro, who
Forbes estimates
has a net worth of at least $110 million, gave a May Day speech that was
more rambling and zany than ever.
NY
film festival opens without Fidel Castro / Financial Times Fidel
Castro's latest crackdown on dissidents has cost him the spotlight at the
TriBeCa Film Festival, the New York cinema showcase opening this weekend. Mr
Castro is the subject of Commandante, a documentary directed by Oliver Stone
and made with Mr Castro's co-operation, that was to have been screened at the
festival.
On
Cuba Policy, Dodd Swims Against Tide / The Hartford Courant, CT
Dodd, D-Conn., had big hopes this year to build on last year's momentum for
his bid to engage and open up Cuba. But Fidel Castro has frustrated and frozen
that effort. "It's a setback in terms of momentum," said Philip
Peters, a Cuba expert at the Lexington Institute.
Richardson
won't travel to Cuba with goodwill group / KOBTV.com, New Mexico
Governor Richardson says he won't be traveling to Cuba on Sunday with a group
that promotes the state. He says he'll accompany the group, called New Mexico
Amigos, only as far as Miami.
Slovakia
voices support for Cuban dissidents / The Slovak Spectator Several
top Slovak representatives have charged Cuba with violating human rights,
after the Cuban government detained a number of people accused of conspiring
with the US against Fidel Castro's regime.
Castro's
hard line is no madman's blunder / San Francisco Chronicle The
current hard line was chosen deliberately for two main purposes: First, to
immobilize those who do not share his vision and might someday challenge his
leadership. Second, precisely to undercut the growing U.S. moderation toward
Cuba.
Artists, writers
defend Castro / The Washington Times Singer Harry Belafonte, who
recently called Secretary of State Colin L. Powell a "house slave,"
has joined actor Danny Glover and more than 160 artists and intellectuals to
defend Fidel Castro's government against criticism over its recent crackdown
on dissent.
Attacks on media
'soaring' / BBC, UK The number of journalists who have been
attacked or threatened rose sharply last year, an international media
watchdog said in its annual report.
Broadening
the Vision Of Cuban Music / Newsday.com In many ways, Juan de
Marcos González was the unsung hero of the Buena Vista Social Club
phenomenon. In addition to his typical percussion and tres guitar duties, he
is listed as conductor and musical transcriber on the BVSC album.
Heady
cocktail of insults and allegations as Bacardi family fights off Wall Street
/ Independent, UK Bacardi has travelled a long and colourful road
since it was founded in Havana, Cuba, 141 years ago by the patriarch Don
Facundo Bacardi y Maso. The family fled after the revolution, their assets
confiscated. But they regrouped, won a trademark battle with Fidel Castro and
prospered more mightily than ever.
Shouting
quietly in the world of diplomacy / The Slovak Spectator While
Cuba suggests Slovakia's recent protests may be all about kow-towing to the
United States in return for aid or a piece of the Iraqi reconstruction, it is
couching its opinion in very diplomatic terms. After all, Slovakia on the
inside of the EU is a friend that Cuba can ill afford to lose.
The coming
crisis in Cuba / Ernesto Betancourt / The Washington Times During
the week the war in Iraq ended, Fidel Castro sentenced 75 dissidents to a
total of 1,454 years in prison for owning faxes and computers, writing
unapproved reports, meeting with American diplomats and surfing the Internet.
Editorial:
Hypocritical U.N. commission / Orlando Sentinel Our position: It's
outrageous that the U.N. Human Rights Commission has re-elected Cuba. The
United Nations Human Rights Commission proved once again last week that it
has no credibility.
Cuba's
same old dictator still welcomes all ideas as long as they are his / Tom
Lyons / Herald Tribune, FL But I'd bet it was the 75 dissidents
who had him worried. They weren't planning to flee. They were planning to
stay and speak against some of their government's policies. Dictators hate
that. The dissenters weren't conspiring to assassinate Castro, mind you. It
wasn't a coup attempt. It was people daring to network and seek some changes.
The
Reliable Source / Lloyd grove / The Washington Post Before he was
picked to represent the father of Elian Gonzalez in the famed child custody
case of 2000, Washington lawyer Gregory Craig had to impress Fidel Castro in
a face-to-face meeting. Now, Cuba expert Ann Louise Bardach tells us, Craig
is getting ready to represent jailed dissident Raul Rivero, a poet and
journalist recently sentenced to 20 years in prison for alleged violations of
Cuba's national security laws. Craig declined to comment yesterday.
May 2
FROM CUBA / Independent
journalists harassed Manuel Antonio Brito, was detained for
more than four hours April 26 in Havana and given a choice by two State
Security officers who called themselves Jesús and Manuel: leave the
country or serve 25 years in prison.
FROM CUBA / Pedicab driver
fined for transporting tourists Police fined a pedicab
driver in Old Havana 750 pesos (the equivalent of three month's average
salary in the island, according to official statistics) for transporting two
Italian tourists.
FROM CUBA / Workers quit
protesting low salaries, poor working conditions Nearly 35
workers have quit so far this year at the Urban Agriculture Program in San
José de las Lajas, Havana, said independent labor activist William
Toledo.
Cuba News / The Miami Herald
-Exile group urges boosting Cuba broadcasts -Castro to crowd: U.S.
wants to attack -Iraq, Cuba are most perilous venues for journalists,
watchdog says
May 1
FROM CUBA / Dissident refused
job for being dissident Novo applied for a job in the
agricultural collection center once he learned they were hiring. Officials,
however, told him they would not hire him because he belongs to the 30 de
Noviembre "Frank País" party, one of many dissident
organizations in the island.
FROM CUBA / Imprisoned poetry
(For Raúl Rivero) / Rafael Ferro Salas They took him
away under arrest and we did not want to believe it. No one was able to
imagine so much poetry imprisoned. He was born to be a poet and poetry did
not come into his life to be imprisoned.
Cuba News / The Miami Herald
-Cuba's Castro Says U.S. Is Provoking War -Senators want to let
Americans visit and spend money in Cuba -Retiring cleric to fight for
human rights in Cuba
Castro's friends are deserting
him / Carlos Alberto Montaner / The Miami Herald Fidel
Castro froze when José Saramago, Nobel Prize winner for literature,
published his now famous letter saying: ''This is as far as I go.'' It was
the first blow. Tougher yet for Castro was the ''desertion'' of Eduardo
Galeano, a Uruguayan essayist with lighter literary weight who enjoyed a
close relationship with the Cuban dictatorship.
Castro's Daughter and Cuban
Victims to Demand Worldwide Sanctions Against Cuba / Judicial Watch
Judicial Watch Represents Sister of Murdered Freedom Seeker, Mother And Sister
of Jailed Dissidents, And Castro's Own Daughter, Who Denounces Him
External
links
Stop Playing Into Castro's Hands
/ Jeri Laber / The Washington Post The most important
motivation, I believe, is that Castro wants and needs to keep the United
States as his enemy -- in order to divert attention from Cuba's moribund
economy and to justify the repression that keeps him in power. Indeed, those
convicted of subversion were accused of conspiring with the head of the U.S.
Interests Section, James Cason, who in fact was merely carrying out a policy
developed in Eastern Europe of providing information and moral support to
dissident intellectuals. The U.S. government should look long and hard at the
Soviet experience and recall that contact -- an influx of people, technology
and information -- was one of the major factors leading to the end of
European communism.
No
evidence Edmonton man tried unfairly in Cuba: Foreign Affairs / Alberta News,
Canada A federal Foreign Affairs spokesman said there is no
evidence yet to show an Edmonton man jailed in Cuba got an unfair trial.
Perry King, 40, was recently sentenced to 25 years in jail for having sex
with a 15-year-old girl on the distant island
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