CUBA NEWS
La Tienda de Cubanet

NOVEMBER 2003

November 27

FROM CUBA
Pedicab leader detained for transporting Italian tourists in Cuba
Milton Meléndez Reinaldo, secretary general of the Union of Pedicab Drivers, was held for 48 hours last week after being arrested while transporting two Italian tourists.
HAVANA

FROM CUBA
Cuban tobacco company won't pay bonuses to workers
Workers at the Feliú Leyva tobacco factory in Holguín, makers of Monte Cristo, Romeo y Julieta and Cohiba cigars, say the company is four months behind in paying agreed upon work bonuses.
HAVANA

FROM CUBA
Apparent split between Cuban government and Italian investors
Italian investors in the Cuban telephone monopoly are reportedly increasingly unhappy with their partners in the Cuban government and might even pull out of the joint venture.
CIEGO DE ÁVILA

FROM CUBA
U. S. tourists in Cuban resort
A group of 30 tourists from the United States stayed last week at the Sol Club Cayo Coco, a hotel operated by the Spanish company Sol Meliá, according to several workers at the facility.
CIEGO DE ÁVILA

FROM CUBA
Anti-government slogans in "school in the countryside"
An unlikely slogan, Down with Fidel, showed up overnight painted on a wall of the Eulogio Fernández "school in the countryside" a few kilometers outside the city of Morón, in Ciego de Ávila province.
HAVANA

'Informaticos' in Cuba route around tyranny via Web
The government controls all four of Cuba's Internet Service Providers (ISP). These ISPs block any sites that are viewed as remotely anti-Castro, anti-communist or pro-democracy. In fact, anything considered even possibly subversive is banned.
HAVANA

Yahoo! News
• Four Journalists Receive Freedom Awards
• Cuban scientists say they have cheaper vaccine

Accused Cuban hijackers lose try at trial delay
The trial of six men accused of hijacking a Cuban Douglas DC-3 plane in March, which landed at the Key West International Airport, is scheduled to start Monday, despite defense attorneys' attempts Wednesday to get it delayed or dismissed.
Key West Citizen, FL..

A trumpeter's trumpeter
Recently, a CD came out that might totally confound trumpet players taking part in the test: though the styles and music on the 19 tracks might cause someone to think that they are listening to a historical archive of the great players from the last century, in reality there is but one trumpeter blowing his horn.
Paul Andersen, Redlands Daily Facts.

External links

Kansans want U.S. policy changes for more trade with Cuba
Having visited Cuba recently, Kansas Agriculture Secretary Adrian Polansky said Wednesday he would like to return to the island nation to pursue trade agreements covering grain and other products.
Dodge City Daily Globe, KS.

Economist: Opening Trade With Cuba Would Benefit U.S. Ag
Kansas State University ag economist Barry Flinchbaugh says opening trade and tourism with Cuba would benefit.
AgWeb.

Letting off steam at train races
An itinerant festival celebrating vintage steam locomotives on furlough or permanently retired from their jobs hauling sugar cane is delighting Cubans around the island. Crowds cheered at the rare opportunity to watch six of these vintage locomotives race in Cardenas, about 240 miles east of Havana.
South Florida Sun-Sentinel, FL.


November 25

FROM CUBA
Four drown on school visit in Cuba
A five-year-old girl and three adults drowned November 16 in a mountainous region of Holguín province when the boat in which they were crossing Cuba's largest reservoir overturned as they returned from a visit to other children picking coffee in a "school in the countryside" in a remote location.
HAVANA

FROM CUBA
Cuban police confiscate pedicab
Police confiscated a pedicab driven by the vehicle's owner's son alleging that only a pedicab's rightful owner may drive it, and have so far refused to return the vehicle.
HAVANA

Defense attorneys accuse Castro of manipulating hijacking trial witnesses
Lawyers involved in the case learned Nov. 14 that Cuba would permit some prosecution witnesses to travel to Key West for the trial. But other witnesses who could help exonerate the accused hijackers will stay behind, according to defense attorney Ana Jhones, who filed the papers in federal court in Miami.
Sun-Sentinel, Florida.

Cuba's Cardinal Analyzes Impact of John Paul II's Pontificate
Cardinal Jaime Ortega Alamino, archbishop of Havana, assessed the 25 years of John Paul II's pontificate by describing it as "a colossal effort to take history out of its present inertia."
ZENIT

Kennedy & Castro' spins preposterous and inaccurate yarn
''Kennedy is a cretin,'' he told an American reporter. ''If U.S. leaders are aiding terrorist plans to eliminate Cuban leaders, they themselves will not be safe. Let Kennedy and his brother Robert take care of themselves since they, too, can be the victims of an attempt which will cause their death.''
Glenn Garvin, The Miami Herald.

JFK backed secret meeting with Castro 17 days before his assassination
The tape shows the ill-fated Kennedy's approval of the meeting, if official US involvement could be plausibly denied.
Yahoo! News.

External links

In Journalism, Only the Good Die Poor
Manuel Vázquez Portal, a Cuban journalist, was arrested this year and given an 18-year prison sentence. His crime was to have written courageously about his country's political and economic failings under Fidel Castro.
Clyde Haberman / The New York Times.

Standing Guard in the Kitchen as the Castro Revolution Arrives
"The Cook," at the Intar 53 Theater, is about the melancholy heroism of the title character, a woman named Gladys (Zabryna Guevara, in a lovely and assured performance) who maintains her personal loyalties to life before Communism at high cost and little reward.
The New York Times.


November 24

FROM CUBA
Fasting poet Manuel Vázquez Portal's wife fears for his health
The wife of dissident poet Manuel Vázquez Portal says she fears for the health of her husband, who's on a hunger strike in support of prisoners of conscience in Holguín province.
HAVANA

FROM CUBA
Freed Cuban independent journalists says he plans to write again
Bernardo Arévalo Padrón, freed after serving a six-year prison sentence for insulting Fidel Castro, says he's going to go back being an independent journalist.
HAVANA

FROM CUBA
Cuban dissident to be tried in December
Leyva was arrested in March when police raided his home and seized copies of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, CubaNet bulletins and literature on civil disobedience from Martin Luther King's movement.
HAVANA

Tourism in Cuba: Who benefits?
Walking with an American on a busy boulevard was enough reason for a young actor to be stopped by police and threatened with jail. The officer, wearing a gray and blue uniform, studied the identification card in his hand and asked what the man was saying about Cuba.
Sarasota Herald-Tribune, FL

Honored reporter locked up in Cuba
Cuban journalist Manuel Vazquez Portal will not be available to receive the 2003 International Press Freedom Award that the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) will present to him and other reporters on Tuesday.
The Washington Times.

The Miami Herald
• Evangelical church thrives
• Cuban exiles reunite to help dedicate historic county park
• Playwright feels the joy and tears at end of a long artistic journey
• Revival as touching as funny

PRIMA's correspondent freed from isolation cell
Adolfo Fernandes, PRIMA's correspondent in Havana, who was sentenced to 15 years in prison for "anti-state activities", has been transferred from an isolation cell to a communal cell in the Olgin prison.
HAVANA
The saga of Rolando Cubela
After President Lyndon B. Johnson reviewed the report, he told a reporter, in confidence at the time: "Kennedy was trying to kill Castro. Castro got him first."
Mark Howell. keysnews.com, FL.

External links

Hitching: Sometimes the only way to travel
With dark storm clouds gathering above and twilight fast approaching, hordes of hitchhikers waiting for a ride home know their time is running out. If no cars or trucks come by soon, they'll be spending the night on concrete benches in an open, palm-thatched rest stop and using their bags and bundles as makeshift pillows.
Sun-Sentinel, FL.

Recapturing a Childhood in a Prerevolutionary Eden
For most of his adult life Carlos Eire had tried to run away from Cuba. The island was his only briefly, for 11 years, before the Cuban revolution ushered in a world of heartache in which he was separated from his parents and spent years of hardship in the United States.
The New York Times.

Visions of Dollars Dance Before Cuban Artists' Eyes
The theme of the 2003 biennial, "El Arte con la Vida" or "Art With Life," foreshadowed the event itself, as the Prince Claus Foundation, a Dutch cultural fund that supported the biennial in the past, withheld its $100,000 pledge in protest against the imprisonment, in April, of 75 dissidents - primarily librarians, journalists and organizers of a referendum calling for democratic reforms like freedom of association and expression - sentenced to up to 28 years in jail by the Cuban government..
The New York Times.

Cuban prostitutes go off the street to online
Cuba is no longer one of the world's top destinations for sex tourism after five years of relentless police crackdowns, travel experts say. But another trend has emerged: More travelers are using the Internet to find prostitutes in Cuba. And rights advocates say that computer-assisted sex tourism is troubling because it makes it easier for men to sexually exploit Cuban women and teenagers.
Tracey Eaton / The Dallas Morning News.

Return to Cuba an eye-opener for refugee who made good
It's been 40 years since Maria Gelabert was a 7-year-old girl forced to work in the fields of rural Cuba, but tears still come easily when she talks about the lunch she and the other children were fed: sugar, water and two crackers.
NewHavenRegister.com.


November 21

FROM CUBA
Cuban authorities persecute private fishermen
Regional authorities are actively persecuting private parties fishing on their own behalf off the waters of the Isle of Youth, south of Cuba.
HAVANA

FROM CUBA
Patient dies after laparoscopy at Havana's premier hospital
Magalys Mena Méndez, 66, had a routine laparoscopy November 2 at Havana's showcase hospital, the Hermanos Ameijeiras. A week later, she was dead.
HAVANA

FROM CUBA
Frustated by inefficiency Cuban doctor gets fired and his license suspended
Hospital administrators fired a doctor and suspended his medical license for nine months after he loudly expressed his frustration with widespread inefficiency in Fidel Castro's government.
HAVANA

The Miami Herald
• Jailed Cuban writer receives press award
• He's delivering 'a new concept' in Cuban music
• Brass reunion

Cuba can't hide truth
Last April, Cuban journalist Adolfo Fernandez Sainz was sentenced to 15 years in Holquin Prison, Cuba, for doing his job of speaking freely and exercising his professional right to inform the public. He languishes along with hundreds like him in jails around the world, but they are not forgotten
The Miami Herald.

External links

Commentary: Paradise before Disneyfication
After only a couple of hours, you realize why wealthy Americans once flocked to its gorgeous beaches and expansive nightlife before Fidel Castro took over and the U.S. economic embargo began. Cuba is the literary concept of an island paradise incarnate. That's if you can get past the abject poverty and totalitarian government.
The Washington Times.

Cuba sells its medical expertise
Cuba's position in the developing world has always been something of a paradox. Its low material living standards and crisis-ridden economy leads to a low per capita income, but President Fidel Castro's Caribbean blend of socialism has developed a public health system that places Cuba in another league altogether on human development indexes.
BBC.

Cuban-Born Priest Named Auxiliary of Miami
John Paul II has appointed Father Felipe de Jesus Estevez, a native of Cuba, as auxiliary bishop of Miami. The Vatican press office made the announcement today. Born in 1946 in the town of Pedro Betancourt, Father Estevez has been director of spiritual formation at the St. Vincent de Paul Regional Seminary in Boynton Beach, Florida.
Zenit, Rome.

Panel discusses Cuban science fiction
As part of Cuba Week at the Univeristy of Alabama, a panel was held at Bryant Conference Center to various influences on, and the effects of, Cuban science fiction.
Dateline Alabama, AL.

PEN Hails Releases of Tunisian E-Zine Writer And Cuban Journalist
PEN American Center hailed the release this week of Zouhair Yahyaoui, an Internet activist whose popular electronic magazine earned him a 2-year prison term in Tunisia. Yahyaoui was one of two recipients of PEN's 2003 PEN/Barbara Goldsmith Freedom to Write Awards; his release came just a few days after the release of co-recipient Bernardo Arévalo Padrón, an independent journalist who served a 6-year prison term for calling attention to rights violations in Cuba.
AllAfrica.com, Africa.

Cuban artists thrive on popularity abroad
As the fame of young island masters spreads, collectors flock to the communist-run country to capitalize on an 'extremely inventive' phenomenon.
Chicago Tribune (subscription), IL.

Port Manatee open for more Cuban imports
Port Manatee and Cuban importer Alimport announced Wednesday that they entered into a memorandum of understanding that paves the way for increased shipments of legal commodities from the Tampa Bay seaport.
Tampa Bay Business Journal, FL.

Historic voyage for herd
A shipment of nine bulls and 241 head of cattle is scheduled to leave for Cuba from Port Manatee during the first quarter of 2004. It will be the port's third shipment to Cuba and its first cattle shipment. The other two shipments carried dicalcium phosphate, a cattle feed supplement.
Sarasota Herald-Tribune.


November 19

FROM CUBA
Employee in Cuba fired for discussing Human Rights Declaration
Administrators of a nickel refining plant in Niquero, in eastern Cuba, accused an employee of distributing subversive materials for talking to other workers about human rights, and fired him.
HAVANA

FROM CUBA
Cuban family of three on the streets after eviction
A mother and her two children lived on the streets for 12 days after being evicted from their home October 9 in the mining community of Moa, in Holguín province.
HAVANA

FROM CUBA
Crackdown on pedicabs in eastern Cuba province
The National Revolutionary Police recently arrested and fined 25 pedicab owners, most of whom did not have licenses to operate.
HAVANA

Cuban journalist tells CPJ of physical and psychological torture
Imprisoned Cuban journalist Bernardo Rogelio Arévalo Padrón was released last week after serving his six-year sentence on "disrespect" charges. In a phone interview with the Committee to Protect Journalists, he described physical and psychological torture at the hands of prison authorities.
Committee to Protect Journalists.
Cuba's defiance upsets defense
Cuba's defiance upsets defense Lawyers decry Cuba's defiance of a federal magistrate's order to let defense witnesses fly to the United States to testify in a plane hijacking trial.
HAVANA

The First Orthodox Church opens in Cuba on January 25, 2004
The first Orthodox Christian church dedicated to Saint Nikolaos, will open in Havana, Cuba on January 25, 2004, 44 years after the Cuban revolution in the presence of Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew and Fidel Castro.
HAVANA

External links

Rumbera Heaven
In a Miami version of the Cinderella story, the candlelit restaurant 190 undergoes a magic transformation every Saturday night at 11. At the first tuck-tuck-tuck of the drum, that hollow but warm sound of human palm against taut mule hide, plates are pushed back, tables are removed and the restaurant becomes a patio of a Cuban solar - a common space where Havana dwellers with a weakness for rumba gather to dance to the drums.
The New York Times.

Cuban defectors having big effect
Orlando (El Duque) Hernandez pitched for the Yankees after fleeing Cuba. The Yankees are wooing Andy Pettitte, have had trade talks about Curt Schilling, Javier Vazquez and Odalis Perez, and will court Bartolo Colon as part of their offseason plan to reconstruct their starting rotation.
New York Daily News.

Kucinich to Bush: Lift Cuban Embargo
Presidential candidate Dennis Kucinich and President George W. Bush have taken diametrically opposite positions concerning Cuba. Kucinich has now called for an end to the embargo against that Communist nation.
Men's News Daily, CA.

Judge - Conditions in Cuba irrelevant to hijack case
Defense attorneys representing six Cuban men charged in the March hijacking a Cuban Douglas DC-3 that landed at Key West International Airport will not be allowed to tell jurors about difficult economic and political conditions in Cuba.
Key West Citizen, FL.


November 17

FROM CUBA
Jailed Cuban dissident asks wife to fire his lawyer
Dissident Juan Carlos Gonzalez Leiva, jailed director of the Cuban Human Rights Foundation who has been held for 18 months pending trial, has asked his wife to dismiss his lawyer as a sign of protest.
HAVANA

FROM CUBA
Sugar shortage causes soft drink plant to cut production in Cuba
Latinoamericana, one of the largest soft drink companies in Cuba, has been forced to cut production because of a shortage of sugar, according to employees.
HAVANA

FROM CUBA
Cuban independent journalist freed after seven years of imprisonment
Independent journalist Bernardo Rogelio Arévalo Padrón was released from prison this week after serving a seven-year sentence for being disrespectful to President Fidel Castro. .
HAVANA

FROM CUBA
Ferry link to Isle of Youth in Cuba interrupted
Maritime transportation between the Isle of Youth and the mainland has been interrupted because the three catamarans which carry passengers are out of service.
HAVANA

Cuban independent journalist and her husband brutally beaten and detained
The Independent Journalist María Josefa Díaz Fernández and her husband Lázaro González Ávila, a member of the Christian Liberation Movement in Camaguey, were brutally beaten, then arrested.
Information Birdge Cuba Miami

Wife of political prisoner continues to be harassed and threatened
Mrs. Yolanda Triana Estupiñán, wife of political prisoner Orlando Fundora Álvarez, detained and sanctioned to 18 years in jail in the wave of repression which began last March, continues to be a victim of harassments and threats on the part of the State Security.
HAVANA

The Miami Herald
• Chicken sale to Cuba a beginning
• Veto threat halts effort to ease Cuba sanctions
• Teacher facing trip penalty lobbies against Cuba ban
• Carlos Manuel Arteaga / Aide to '50s Cuban vice president
• 'Anna in the Tropics' shines on Broadway
Yahoo! News
• Cuban researchers develop synthetic vaccine against pneumonia, meningitis
• Cuban independant journalist freed after six years in prison

External links

UA to host week-long seminar on Cuba
From baseball to mambo to chicken exports, the University of Alabama will be exploring the past, present and future of Cuba and its relationship to the United States in a week-long Alabama-Cuba Conference beginning tonight.
AL.com, AL.

Cuba's new oil industry
Cuba's fast-improving energy sector - with domestic oil production now at 4.1m tons a year and accounting for 80% of the country's electricity needs - is expected to eventually ease the country's current economic woes.
BBC.

Carnival runs in troupe director's blood
It's carnival week in Havana, and for Santos Ramirez Garcia that means no time for fun and games. "I'm drained; I can't wait until this is over," he says as fireworks explode over his head and the sounds of blaring trumpets, thundering drums and brash salsa music envelope Havana's seaside avenue.
Sun-Sentinel, FL.

Fidel's Triumph on Capitol Hill
In the debate over how to export American values to Cuba, Congressional leaders have managed to import some of Fidel Castro's values. That old tyrant in Havana is the prime beneficiary of the decision this week to drop a measure that would have effectively lifted the ban on travel to Cuba. He can now go on railing against Yankee imperialism, trying to pin the blame for all of his regime's shortcomings and brutality on American sanctions.
The New York Times.

Visiting Cuba: The Law
The government grants two kinds of licenses to travelers who want to visit Cuba legally. General licenses are for some journalists and other researchers and Americans with close relatives in Cuba. Such travel does not require prior approval, though travelers may be asked to prove that they qualify for it. The other type of permission.
Visiting Cuba: The Law / The New York Times.

Cuba: You Can't Get There From Here . . .
For a 52-year-old Manhattan lawyer, there is a lot about Cuba that is alluring, from the beaches to the architecture to the music straight out of "Buena Vista Social Club." But the real draw of traveling to Cuba: it is illegal.
The New York Times.

An Old Band, by No Means Faded Away
This is part of the surprise in coming across Septeto Habanero as current performers rather than as a name on very old records. Coming out of Havana in 1920, when the rural son style was ready to be urbanized and commercialized, the band has long played a repertory that forms part of the island's collective memory.
The New York Times.

In Havana, an Air of Possibility
Most of the time, art's meanings shift only subtly when it gets shown in a new context. But Havana is such a strange, fascinating, bewildering place that almost any art shown here seems to come unmoored. The city's stunning contradictions -- fervent creativity coupled with heavy-handed politics; grand historic buildings housing sewage-scented poverty -- force their way into your consciousness as you try to contemplate this exhibition's art.
The Washington Post.

Advocates of Travel to Cuba Angry at Congress
Opponents of a travel ban to Cuba reacted furiously yesterday to a decision by lawmakers to dump provisions that would have allowed Americans to travel freely to the island for the first time in decades.
The Washington Post.

Editorial: Cuba travel victim of unilateralism
Arguments about travel to Cuba had been about whether it would hurt or help Castro, but the salient fact was that President Bush, careful to appease Florida's large Cuban voting bloc, had wanted the provision gone. So it went. (There's not much new there - the Clinton administration was equally anxious to avoid antagonizing the fiercely anti-Castro Cuban expatriates).
The Helena Independent Record.

Editorial: Cuba off limits
Bush may have been bluffing on the veto threat (he has yet to veto a bill) but the lawmakers would have risked delaying a bill that funded highway construction, Amtrak - and Congress' own pay raise.
Vero Beach Press-Journal, FL.

Anna in the Tropics: The Poetry of Yearning, the Artistry of Seduction
That slowly rotating ceiling fan isn't the only thing stirring the air in Nilo Cruz's "Anna in the Tropics," the earnestly poetic play that won this year's Pulitzer Prize for drama and is only now making its New York debut..
The New York Times.

'Anna in the Tropics' thrilling theater
When Nilo Cruz's "Anna in the Tropics" received the 2003 prize last spring, after a brief 2002 run at the tiny New Theatre in Coral Gables, Fla., many wondered how the play would fare when it finally opened to wider audiences. With the Broadway premiere of Cruz's lush, poetic drama at the Royale Theatre last night, the mystery is solved.
Seattle Post-Intelligencer

Cuba trip brings big fine
David Heslop knew about the travel restrictions to Cuba before he made his three trips in 2000, but the island was so appealing -- the music, the architecture, the lack of commercialization and maybe even the allure of a forbidden destination.
The News & Observer.


November 13

FROM CUBA
Cuban dissident denied enrolment in computer program
Héctor Ramón Novo Suárez, a member of the November 30 Frank País Democratic Party, was denied admission to a government computer course on the grounds he was a political dissident.
HAVANA

FROM CUBA
Cuban prisoners of conscience sent open letter of complaint
Eight dissidents confined at the Kilometer 5 ½ prison in Pinar del Rio province have written an open letter denouncing their treatment.
HAVANA

FROM CUBA
Cuban dissidents and independent journalists visited by police agents
State Security agents have recently visited the homes of various dissidents and independent journalists or told them to report to police stations for interrogation.
HAVANA

CUBA: CPJ concerned about imprisoned journalists' welfare
The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) is extremely concerned about the lack of information regarding the situation of imprisoned Cuban journalists Mario Enrique Mayo Hernández, Adolfo Fernández Saínz, and Iván Hernández Carrillo, who began a hunger strike on October 18.
CPJ

Cuba expected to send more doctors Harare Herald, Zimbabwe
Cuba is expected to send more health professionals in the country next year in addition to the 187 who have already been deployed at various hospitals.
Harare Herald, Zimbabwe

Yahoo! News
• Democrats seek out Cuban-American vote
• Congress Upholds Ban on Cuba Travel

Venezuelan court shelves Cuban doctor programVenezuelan court shelves Cuban doctor program
Venezuela's Supreme Court threw out Tuesday the government's appeal of a lower court's decision to suspend a program putting hundreds of Cuban doctors to work in Caracas slums.
The Miami Herald.

External links

Mexico warms to better Cuban relations
Mexican Deputy Foreign Minister Miguel Hakim Simon said Cuban Foreign Minister Felipe Perez Roque and his Mexican counterpart Luis Ernesto Derbez would probably meet at the upcoming Ibero-American Summit in Bolivia.
Washington Times, DC .

Two spots look to Cuba for inspiration
Remember when almost every restaurant that opened was painted some shade of yellow and more than likely had a Mediterranean menu? Well, it may not be an avalanche yet, but Cuba -- definitely pre-Castro Cuba -- is on the minds of restaurateurs and designers. At opposite ends of the bay, two restaurants with the flavors of Cuba will open within the next week.
San Francisco Chronicle, CA.

Little Havana still wary about ties to Cuba
Anaivys Alvarez will never forget the night nine years ago when her father took her hand and led her aboard the homemade wooden boat that was to carry several Cuban families to a better life in the United States.
Christian Science Monitor.

Cuba's baseball team qualifies for Olympics
Cuba's baseball team is going back to the Olympics, and wishing the United States was there as well. "We regret the elimination of the U.S. team because we will not be able to test ourselves against them," Olympic Committee president Jose Ramon Fernandez said Tuesday.
The News & Observer.

Alaska's International Peace Choir to sing in Cuba
Choir members are traveling at various times to Cuba for the Nov. 17-30 events. They'll rendezvous Tuesday afternoon in Havana, to the welcome of a Cuban singing ensemble. The choir will travel and sing around the island in a musical exchange at the beginning of the trip, then stay for the concerts and workshops of the festivals.
Anchorage Daily News, AK.

Who's Afraid of "Uncle Fidel"?
When one thinks of Abraham Foxman, timid isn't a word that comes to mind. In his new book Never Again? The Threat of the New Anti-Semitism, the national director of the Anti-Defamation League condemns anti-Semitism in countries ranging from Argentina and Mexico to France and Iran. But there is a conspicuous omission: Cuba.
Myles Kantor / National Review.

Havana cooks up schemes to boost Beijing relations
A Chinese gate and wall, the largest in Latin America, now looms over the entrance to Havana's tiny Chinatown, a gift from the Asian giant. Along the one-block strip of restaurants, cooks are busy studying a new government-issued guide on how to prepare traditional fare.
Financial Times, UK .

Only a few monuments show the bond Cuba and the U.S. once hadMonday, November 10th
There are just a few monuments in Havana that connect Cuba with the United States. One monument commemorates 260 Americans sailors who perished when the battleship Maine exploded in the harbor of Havana, Cuba, then under Spanish rule.
Bay News 9, FL.

US Farmers Worried Tensions with Cuba Will Affect Exports
Since the United States cracked open the trade embargo on Cuba two years ago to allow farmers to sell agricultural and food products there, American exports to the island nation have been on the rise. Cuba is now the United States' 35th largest agricultural export market, up from 208th just two years ago. However some farmers are concerned that heightened U.S.-Cuba political tensions will affect their exports.
Voice of America.

Illegal travelers to Cuba get judicial notices
The Bush administration for the first time is beginning judicial proceedings against dozens of people accused of visiting Cuba illegally, even as Republicans and Democrats in Congress move to end enforcement of the four-decade-old U.S. travel ban to the island.
South Florida Sun-Sentinel.

Cuba may open sugar market to local firm
The future for trade relations with Cuba is looking sweet. Cuba's state-based import company announced last week that it is considering opening up its sugar market to P.S. International, a trading company based in Chapel Hill.
The Duke Chronicle, N.C.

Cubans plant trees to save soil
Cuban farmers are working to make good years of deforestation and soil loss by planting trees on sensitive hillsides.
BBC.

$1.5M in regional beans headed for Cuba
Cubans will enjoy pinto beans from Montana and Wyoming for Christmas because a Billings businessman sealed a contract this week. The deal calls for 6.6 million pounds of dry beans from the Yellowstone Bean Co. to be on a barge to Cuba by Dec. 15, said Jim Stinehagen, YBC owner.
Montana Forum, Montana.

The Cuban embargo myth
A Miami TV station recently aired home video of Cuban leader Fidel Castro dining in a fancy restaurant with a group of Italian businessmen. On the tape, Castro is seen savoring the restaurant's finest French wines before indulging in a lavish meal with his fat-cat capitalist buddies.
Alameda Times-Star, CA .

Cuba's lesson for Iraq
If Fidel Castro was miffed at not making the "Axis of Evil," he must have been apoplectic this week at being relegated by President George W. Bush to a mere "outpost of oppression," shoved in the corner of the Dictators' Waxwork Museum alongside Mr. Mugabe.
National Post, Canada.


November 11

FROM CUBA
Farmers markets shut down in eastern Cuba
Farmers markets in three neighborhoods in the eastern city of Holguín were shut down after police raids, labor activists said, making area residents travel longer distances to obtain their produce at what some complained were higher prices.
HAVANA

FROM CUBA
Cuban retiree fined for selling candy
Authorities have twice fined a retiree for selling candy in the beaches east of Havana. The last time, they threatened him with a prohibitive 1,500 peso fine for a third offense.
HAVANA

Cuba's dissidents seek international summit platform to make their case
Prominent Cuban dissident Oswaldo Paya made an impassioned appeal to organizers of an Ibero-American summit this week to speak out on human rights in communist-ruled Cuba.
Yahoo! News

The Miami Herald
• Cuba: U.S. inflated cases of visa denials
• Cuba says U.S. firms won sales race at its fair

Termination of Cuban doctors' contracts could close Cradock Hospital
Residents of Cradock in the Eastern Cape yesterday marched to the Cradock hospital demanding the Eastern Cape department of health reverse its decision to terminate the contracts of two Cuban doctors who have applied for South African citizenship.
AllAfrica.com.

External links

Journalist defends independent magazine in Cuba
Ever since her husband was arrested and sentenced to 18 years in prison, Claudia Márquez divides her life into two time lines: Before March and after March. An independent journalist, Márquez now dedicates much of her time to writing about the 75 dissidents arrested and jailed last spring in a sweeping government crackdown.
Sun-Sentinel, FL.

Cuba
For many Americans, Cuba is Fidel Castro. For his dwindling band of loyal supporters, Castro is and always will be a romantic figure, if only because of his unflinching defiance of the United States.
The Washington Post.


November 10

FROM CUBA
Cuban doctors promised housing and car incentives for Venezuelan duty
The Cuban government is offering doctors who serve for two years in the joint project with the Venezuelan government advantages upon their return to Cuba in renting housing or acquiring a car.
HAVANA

FROM CUBA
Pay phones taken away in Havana
Administrators of the Cuban telephone company announced they were taking away pay phones in an under-served area of Havana because the service was not profitable.
HAVANA

FROM CUBA
Portrait of Cuban national hero removed from dissident's cell wall
Lacking paint, jailers at the Aguadores prison scraped off a portrait of Cuban national hero José Marti that imprisoned writer Manuel Vázquez Portal had sketched on the wall of his cell.
HAVANA

Cuba: Torture of women prisoners
The Cuban Foundation for Human Rights reports the agonizing conditions of terror and torture suffered by women detained at this penitentiary, a unit of Cuban State Security in the province of Holguin, Cuba.
Juan Carlos González Leiva, State Security Prison. The Cuban Foundation for Human Rights.

The Miami Herald
• Beatle meets Bolshevism at Havana cultural show
• Judge wants Cubans sent to court
• Panel OK's Cuba travel

Yahoo! News
• Cuban sugar plantations turn into farmland; Cuba talks of buying U.S. sugar
• Cuba May Import Sugar From the U.S.

Wives of detainees on hunger strike stage overnight protest outside prison
Reporters Without Borders today called on the authorities of Holguín prison to allow six detained independent journalists and dissidents who are on hunger strike to receive visits immediately from their wives - or in one case, mother - who have reportedly been waiting outside the prison since yesterday to see them.
RSF, France.
Send right message to Cuba's regime
Rewarding Cuba's repressive dictatorship makes no sense, especially now. Only months ago, Cuba's dictatorship summarily executed three young men for an alleged hijacking and slapped 75 activists into prison for 1,454 years for peacefully promoting human rights and democratic changes.
The Miami Herald.

November 6

FROM CUBA
Cuban parents will be asked to do guard duty at schools where equipment is being stolen
Teachers, parents and students are going to be asked at a meeting scheduled for Friday to do guard duty at Havana area schools where television and video equipment has been disappearing.
HAVANA

FROM CUBA
Police threaten 77-year-old Cuban opposition leader
Two political police officers told Humberto Guerra Perugorria, 77, president of the Libertad human rights movement, that in the future he'll be prevented from attending Mass.
HAVANA

Testimony of a dissident from a punishment cell
My life as a peaceful opponent began in 1990 and since then, I have been, imprisoned, kidnapped and tortured in more than one occasion. I will proceed to mention some relevant elements in regards to the political persecution I have suffered.
Information Bridge Cuba Miami.

Free Trade Won't Free Cuba
I can only hope that in their deliberations, Mr. Bush, Congressional lawmakers and the farmers they represent will consider the "freedom of movement" I and the other wives of Cuban political prisoners will enjoy for years to come: traveling every three months to spend just two hours with our husbands.
Claudia Márquez Linares. The New York Times.

Senate committee gives its blessing to lifting Cuba travel ban
The Senate Foreign Relations Committee, by a vote of 13-5, approved lifting a ban on travel to Cuba by US citizens, following recent similar votes in both the House of Representatives and the US Senate.
Claudia Márquez Linares. The New York Times.

External links

Cuba's prestigious cultural showcase strained by political fallout
Allegations that the works of two artists, Alexander Apóstol of Venezuela and Priscilla Monge of Costa Rica, were censored also cast a pall over this year's show. Both Apóstol and Monge, who participated in previous years, declined invitations to the Biennial after Cuban curators requested changes in the explanatory texts accompanying their work.
Sun-Sentinel.

Argentina and Uruguay face off over Cuba
Argentina will pressure Uruguay to drop its opposition to offering Cuba membership in a key regional trade bloc.Known as Mercosur, the association is a South American common market that has long excluded Cuba.
The Washington Times.

Bush calls N Korea, Cuba others as 'outposts of oppression'
U.S. President George Bush said Thursday that North Korea, Myanmar, Cuba and Zimbabwe test U.S. commitment to democracy, denouncing the four countries as "outposts of oppression.
Japan Today.

GVSU students heading to Cuba
Propaganda and a general lack of what Americans would consider basic necessities are two of the things that immediately struck Jeff Lamb when he visited Cuba last summer.
Holland Sentinel, MI.

Cuban delegation visits Botswana
A Cuban government delegation led by the Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs, Jose Armando Guerra Menchero is scheduled to arrive in Gaborone on Friday for a four-day official visit.
Mmegi, Botswana.

Cuba's last refuge
For several threatened species, as well as adventurous tourists tired of packaged vacations, the Zapata Peninsula offers one of the Caribbean's most entensive wildlife habitats.
The Globe and Mail, Canada.


November 5

FROM CUBA
Deaf-mute woman threatened with removal from her home
Housing officials have threatened to fine a deaf-mute woman if she and her eight-year-old daughter don't leave a house declared to be an illegal residence.
HAVANA

FROM CUBA
Cuban dissident couple ordered to appear in different police stations for questioning
Enri Saumell Peña, president of the dissent Republican Alternative human rights group, and his wife, Miriam, were summoned to appear on the same day and the same time for questioning -but at separate police stations in different parts of the city.
HAVANA

The Information Bridge Cuba Miami
• Luis Campos Corrales handcuffed and thrown from the second floor of the prison
• Urgent action of alert for the life of Rafael Ibarra Roque and Pedro Argüelles Morán, on a hunger strike at Combinado del Este

Argentina determined to have Cuba in Mercosur
Argentina will pressure Mercosur partner Uruguay to drop its "intransigent" opposition to the idea of offering Cuba membership in the regional trade block, according to Argentine ambassador in Havana Raul Taleb.
MercoPress. Uruguay.

Cuban political prisoners on brink of death Prima News. Russia
The well-known Cuban political prisoners Rafael Ibarra Roque, leader of the "30 November" opposition party, and Pedro Arguez Moran, editor in chief of the SARI independent news agency, are close to death in the so-called "Block 47" of Combinado del Este prison, to the east of the Cuban capital.
Prima News, Russia.

Fidel Castro plays with the truth
If these lines see the public light, it will have been because the author eluded the vigilance of the prison guards and someone else dared break Cuban laws to get them published abroad.
Adolfo Fernandez Sainz, Holguin prison, Cuba. Prima News.

External links

Cargill signs $4 million contract with Cuba
Cargill Inc. has signed a new $4 million contract to sell food products to Cuba. The Minnetonka-based company will supply wheat and soy protein to the island in the next few weeks, said spokeswoman Sara Thurin Rollin. Privately owned Cargill has been doing business with Cuba since Congress partially lifted the decades-old trade embargo against the island nation in 2000.
Twin Cities Business Journal, MN.

Lawyers assess risks of defection in Cuban hijacking trial
Federal prosecutors say in court papers that bringing defense witnesses from Cuba to testify at a hijacking trial in the United States could strain already touchy relations between the two countries.
Sun-Sentinel, FL.

Cuba signs more deals with US companies
Cuba signed contracts with nine American companies at an island trade fair Monday, saying it reflected a move to more normal ties with the United States. Cattle and soybeans, newsprint and fruit juice were among the goods listed in $30 million worth of contracts, according to Pedro Alvarez, head of the Cuban state export company, Alimport.
The Times and Democrat, SC.

Visiting lecturer speaks on Cuban culture
Cuban-American author Cristina Garcia read excerpts from her three novels Dreaming in Cuban, The Aguero Sisters, and Monkey Hunting on Tuesday, Oct. 28 in the Ekstrom Library Auditorium. Prior to each reading, Garcia introduced each novel, discussing its plot as well as the processes involved in the creation of each.
Louisville Cardinal.

With rooms named from Bible, historic Cuban hotel caters to Jews
Care for an authentic Cuban mojito at the L'chaim bar? How about Israeli salad, matzah-ball soup and cheese blintzes? They're all now on the menu at the Hotel Raquel, Cuba's first boutique hotel catering specifically to adventurous Jewish tourists. .
Jewish Telegraphic Agency.

Report to Collier cops: 2 Cuban refugees landed on Marco
Collier sheriff's deputies were told that the two approached a man at the La Sorpresa Latina Market in East Naples and told him they sailed from Cuba to Marco on a catamaran boat, sheriff's spokeswoman Sheri Mausen said.
The News-Press.

New finds, Cuban denial in boaters search
One theory family and friends had been clinging to was a rumor the Cuban government picked up the fishermen and are holding them in prison. Late Wednesday the U.S. State Department says the Cuban government denied picking up anyone.
WBBH, FL.

71 American firms ignore Cuban embargo, flock to Havana for trade fair
Selling mojito and daiquiri mixes to Cuba may seem a little like peddling refrigerators at the North Pole, but for Richard Waltzer, president of Fort Lauderdale-based Splash Tropical Drinks, it's been big business.
Sun-Sentinel.


November 3

FROM CUBA
Four Cuban physicians resign to protest on-call assignment
Four general medicine practitioners submitted their resignations from the René Vedia polyclinic in Santiago de las Vegas, a town south of Havana, to protest their permanent assignment to the on-call roster due to a scarcity of physicians.
HAVANA

FROM CUBA
Cuban teacher collecting signatures for Varela project fired
Valentín Cabrera, a physical education teacher at the Enrique Galarraga middle school, was fired after five years of service for being engaged in collecting signatures for the Varela project.
HAVANA

Independent journalist arrested in the centre of the country
Reporters Without Borders today condemned the arrest of independent journalist Abel Escobar Ramírez on 29 October near Morón (350 km east of Havana) and called for his immediate release.
RSF. France.

Editorial: Journalist in Cuba a profile in courage
When this newspaper or one of its columnists criticizes the Bush administration - or any branch of the U.S. government - the only retribution may be a round of angry letters from readers. If we lived in Cuba, as does one of our freelance contributors, Claudia Márquez Linares, our penalty for such criticism could be intimidation or imprisonment.
San Antonio Express-News

Cuban dissidents continue hunger strike
At least three of political prisoners in Holguin prison in the east of the country continue the hunger strike they began on 18 October: Adolfo Fernandez Sainz, journalists Mario Enrike Mayo and Ivan Hernandez Carillo.
Prima News. Russia
Yahoo! News
• U.S. firms selling products at Havana fair
• US, Cuba open World Cup volleyball with wins

External links

Uruguay vetoes Cuba's entry to Mercosur
Argentina and Brazil want Cuba to become an associate member of Mercosur, but have come across Uruguay's negative says the latest edition of the Brazilian magazine Epoca.
MercoPress, Uruguay.

No. 1 fan reigns as the king of baseball
Havana's Latin American Stadium, home to the city's dueling baseball teams, seats about 40,000 screaming fans. But only one boasts a permanent place in the second seat of the seventh row between third base and home: Armando Torres Torres, Cuba's most famous fan.
Sun-Sentinel, FL.

Cuban baseball stars defect
Two Cuban baseball stars have defected from the Communist-led island with the apparent intention of playing professional baseball in the United States.
BBC News, UK.

Missouri Southern to present Cuban play
Southern Theatre will present Deviations by Julio Matas at 7:30 p.m., Nov. 12-15 in the Bud Walton Theatre at Missouri Southern State University in Joplin, Mo.
Pittsburg Morning Sun, KS.

Georgia companies to attend food show in Cuba
A delegation of Georgia food companies is attending the 21st Havana International Trade Fair this week in Havana to feature a wide array of agricultural products.
Global Atlanta, GA.

Ballet Nacional de Cuba strong on technical style
Expert technical stylists are hard to find in ballet, unless you're Ballet Nacional de Cuba, where they seem to proliferate like magic. Take Laura Hormigon, whose exquisite portrayal of Odette in Act II of "Swan Lake" leads to a floating exit where her willowy, watery arms undulate with such unreal beauty that you could swear you were watching computer animation.
Chicago Tribune.

Hoosier faces fine for trip to Cuba
Joni Scott flew to Cuba to hand out Bibles four years ago. Now, the federal government wants her to pay a fine of up to $10,000 for her unlicensed trip to the communist country. "It's wrong," said Scott, 43, a mother of two children who lives in rural Clinton County.
Indianapolis Star, IN.



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