CUBA NEWS

CUBANET

MAY 2003 HEADLINES

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.

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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."

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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 Cuba—for 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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