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Cuba Says Cubans in U.S. Can Visit

By JOHN PAIN, Associated Press Writer

MIAMI, 29 - Cuban natives living in the United States soon will no longer need permission from the Castro government to travel to the communist island if they hold a Cuban passport, a Cuban official said Tuesday.

Lazaro Herrera, a spokesman with the Cuban Interests Section in Washington, said the change will take effect early next year. Cuban exiles now wishing to visit their homeland must obtain special permission before making the trip.

The proposed change was announced by Cuban Foreign Minister Felipe Perez Roque at a meeting with about 300 Cuban-Americans in New York on Saturday, Herrera said. The Cuban government is changing its policy to try to improve relations with Cuban exiles, Herrera said.

"For many years, we've been making steps with the Cuban community abroad that haven't been able to advance more because" of the opposition of Miami's Cuban-Americans, he said. "Now there has really been a generational change in Florida, where there is a majority of Cubans who support normal relations with the island."

Herrera said details of the change were still being decided in Havana. Officials there were likely to make an announcement, but he did not know when. He declined further comment.

The U.S. State Department had no immediate comment. U.S. policy allows Cuban-Americans to visit relatives on the island once a year without permission, but additional trips must be approved by the Treasury Department's Office of Foreign Assets Control.

The Cuban American National Foundation supports the announced visa policy, executive director Joe Garcia said.

"It's pretty ridiculous that nationals of the country needed a visa to enter their own country," Garcia said. "If this means that entry and exit will be easy in Cuba, we certainly will try to take advantage of it to try to get assistance and aid to dissidents on the island."

Garcia said it was Fidel Castro government's human rights abuses, not Miami opposition, that prevented better relations with exiles.

Editor Quits After Castro Column Killed

By TIMOTHY WILLIAMS, Associated Press Writer

NEW YORK, 30 - The editor of El Diario-La Prensa, New York City's oldest Spanish-language daily newspaper, resigned after the paper's owners told him to not to publish an opinion column written by Cuban leader Fidel Castro.

Gerson Borrero, 52, who announced his resignation Monday, will return to his job as a full-time columnist for the paper.

Castro's column, which was scheduled to appear in the paper's opinion pages on Monday, focused on Cuba's public education system. It had been promoted by the paper last Thursday and Friday.

The column also said the embargo of the island by the United States and some European nations would not affect the spirit of the Cuban people, a source told The Associated Press on condition of anonymity.

Borrero said Tuesday the Castro column was the tipping point in his decision to resign. But he acknowledged that dissension among the staff, his boredom with administrative duties, and his desire to return full-time to writing weighed in his decision.

"I made a decision based on numerous factors - the (Castro) column being one of them," Borrero said. "It is their right to call the shots."

Rossana Rosado, the paper's publisher, and representatives for its primary owner, Knight Paton Media Corp., did not return calls seeking comment. Knight Paton is part of a consortium that bought the paper in July for about $20 million.

The 90-year-old paper named David Hume as its interim editor Tuesday, according to several staffers, who provided details of the Castro disagreement in interviews with the AP.

On Tuesday, Rep. Jose Serrano, a frequent target of Borrero's attacks, nonetheless defended Borrero's right to publish a column by Castro. Serrano expressed fear that Cuban expatriates may have contributed to the decision not to run Castro's column.

Borrero was a well-known and sometimes controversial figure. Rosado, who hired Borrero as editor, told salon.com two years ago that Borrero "has brought a lot of visibility to the paper."

But several employees said staffers had recently submitted a petition to the newspaper's owners that was critical of Borrero's management style. Borrero declined Tuesday to respond to complaints from staffers.

During Borrero's tenure at El Diario, the paper's main Spanish-language competitor, Hoy, widened its circulation lead. Hoy has a circulation of about 91,000, El Diario about 56,000. Hoy is owned by the Tribune Company.

Cuban Frogs Pushy

By KATHY STEELE , ksteele@tampatrib.com. Tue Sep 30, 5:05 AM ET

TAMPA - Cuban tree frogs are the Brazilian pepper trees of the amphibian world, an invasive species pushing aside native tree frogs.

Well, eating them is more like what they do. The cannibalistic exotics hopped aboard a banana boat or two in the 1930s and jumped ship in the Keys.

Since then, they've stretched their legs north into Central Florida and beyond, all the while dining on insects, lizards, snakes, mice, baby birds and mouthfuls of mostly smaller native tree frogs.

They've been in the Tampa Bay area for at least six or seven years.

"I know they are as far north as Brooksville," said Henry Mushinsky, herpetologist for the University of South Florida.

Full story at Tampa Bay Online

Cubans on Floating Truck Denied Visas

By ANDREA RODRIGUEZ, Associated Press Writer. Mon Sep 29, 8:54 PM ET

HAVANA - The Cubans who converted a 1951 Chevy pickup truck into a boat and tried to sail to Florida said Monday their attempts to emigrate legally to the United States also failed.

So far, 10 of the 12 people in the group that made the unusual and well-publicized attempt to reach American soil have received letters rejecting their requests for U.S. visas.

"We are really disappointed," said Eduardo Perez, a truck-boat passenger.

Isadora Hernandez, wife of Luis Grass, owner of the floating green pickup, told The Associated Press, that the letters began arriving last week.

Hernandez said her husband and another man in the group, Ariel Diego, were the only two of the dozen who had not received letters by Monday.

The U.S. Interest Section was closed Monday evening and no one could be reached for comment.

But the message in the official letters was clear.

"Unfortunately you do not meet the necessary requirements to be processed under the current regulations," said the Spanish-language form letter from the mission's Refugees Program.

The U.S. Coast Guard sent the group back to Cuba in July after a U.S. Customs plane spotted their unusual, bright green truck-boat floating south of Key West in the Florida Straits. The craft came within 40 miles of the U.S. coast.

The truck-boat was kept afloat by empty 55-gallon drums attached to the bottom as pontoons. A propeller attached to the drive shaft pushed the vehicle along at about 8 mph.

The craft contained nine men, two women and one small child. The truck was sunk as a hazard to ocean navigation.

Under U.S. immigration policies, Cubans who reach U.S. shores are allowed to stay while those caught at sea usually are returned.

"What's left for us now?" asked Antonio Lau, who also was in the group. "We went illegally and they sent us back and now we cannot go legally, either."

The letter suggested the applicants try their luck in the occasional U.S. visa lottery for Cubans, which chooses immigration candidates by chance, or find a U.S. relative to sponsor them so they can immigrate legally.

Migrants have been found on rafts or small boats made from refrigerators, bathtubs, surfboards and inner tubes, but U.S. Coast Guard officials said the truck appeared to be a first.

Old friends Lula, Castro work on improving business ties

HAVANA (AFP) - Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva departed Cuba, after visiting with his old pal Fidel Castro and working to increase business ties between their two countries.

Lula, Latin America's most influential democratically elected leftist leader, arrived in Havana for a 30-hour visit on Friday. The trip also helps break Castro's increasing diplomatic isolation.

The Brazilian leader is arguably the most important head of state to visit Cuba since Mexico's President Vicente Fox in February 2002.

"Everything went very well. It was the best visit that we've ever had," gushed Castro as he bade farewell to Lula at the Havana airport.

Castro and Lula's friendship goes back 20 years, when Lula was a labor union activist during Brazil's hard-line military dictatorship.

Lula had no remarks on departure, but earlier thanked Castro for the support he offered so many years ago.

Castro described the Brazilian leader as "our brother Lula" as he inaugurated a binational meeting of business leaders in Havana, while Lula urged private investors to "not fear becoming multinational enterprises."

Even thouth Lula is a pro-democracy champion in Brazil, he declined to accept requests to meet Cuban dissidents and the families of political prisoners during his two-day stay.

"I have plenty of problems in Brazil, and neither I nor any respectable head of state can come to a country to dictate rules on internal politics," Lula said in Mexico before flying to Cuba.

In two lengthly private meetings, the two leaders focused on economic and commercial issues.

The United States and the European Union have stepped up criticism of Havana's human rights record, especially an April crackdown which saw 75 dissidents jailed for up to 28 years.

In return for European criticism, the Cuban authorities this week refused a visa for the German government's human rights envoy, Claudia Roth. The German government called the decision "very disappointing". Cuba also has refused to allow the top UN human rights official to visit.

The Brazilian business delegation, numbering some 50 executives, is interested in several sectors of Cuba's economy including sugar, fishing, generic medicines and vaccines, tourism and deep water oil exploration.

Representatives of Brazil's national oil company, Petrobras, are examining the restructuring of Cuban oil refineries including the Cienfuegos plant in central Cuba, as well as the modernisation of outdated equipment.

Brazilian oil men are also interested in recovering unproductive offshore oil deposits, according to a Brazilian source who was optimistic agreements could be brokered.

Current trade between the two countries is relatively modest; it totalled some 88 million dollars in 2002.

Brazil sold some 74 million dollars worth of exports to Cuba last year compared with some 14 million dollars in Cuban sales in the other direction.

Isolated Castro gets a diplomatic boost from Lula visit

HAVANA, 26 (AFP) - Brazil's President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva arrived in Havana to break the increasing diplomatic isolation of Cuban leader Fidel Castro, firmly at the helm of the Americas' only communist state.

Lula, Latin America's most influential democratically elected leftist leader, is also arguably the most important foreign leader to visit Cuba since Mexico's President Vicente Fox in February 2002.

Lula is pro-democracy champion in Brazil but, according to Brazilian diplomats, appeared unlikely to accept requests to meet Cuban dissidents and the families of political prisoners during his two-day stay. Brazilian diplomats have insisted that this visit is about business.

Castro and Lula have been friends for 20 years and the veteran head of the Cuban revolution was at Havana's Jose Marti airport to give the Brazilian former union leader a fraternal bear hug on arrival.

The two leaders and the 100-strong Brazilian delegation sped off to the imposing coral-stone Palace of the Revolution in the capital for an official welcome.

Lula wants to "push forward Latin American integration and is convinced of the importance of not excluding Cuba from the concert of nations," according to a Brazilian diplomatic source, especially at a time of pressure "not only from the United States but also from the European Union."

The United States and the European Union have stepped up criticism of Havana's human rights record, especially an April crackdown which saw 75 dissidents jailed for up to 28 years.

In return for European criticism, the Cuban authorities this week refused a visa for the German government's human rights envoy, Claudia Roth. The German government called the decision "very disappointing". Cuba also has refused to allow the top UN human rights official to visit.

Brazil's ministers of health, sport, housing, industry and fishing swelled the ranks of Lula's entourage. Several government and commercial agreements are expected to be signed.

Lula is also due to give a speech Saturday at a meeting of the Cuba-Brazil business forum which is being held in a Havana hotel.

The Brazilian business delegation, numbering some 50 executives, is interested in several sectors of Cuba's economy including sugar, fishing, generic medicines and vaccines, tourism and deep water oil exploration.

Representatives of Brazil's national oil company, Petrobras, are examining the restructuring of Cuban oil refineries including the Cienfuegos plant in central Cuba, as well as the modernisation of outdated equipment.

Brazilian oil men are also interested in recovering unproductive offshore oil deposits, according to a Brazilian source who voiced optimism that agreements could be brokered.

Lula's is also expected to seek a solution from Castro to restructure Cuba's debts to Brazil, which are estimated at about 40 million dollars, according to Brazil's ambassador to Havana, Tilden Santiago.

Current trade between the two countries is relatively modest; it totalled some 88 million dollars in 2002.

Brazil sold some 74 million dollars worth of exports to Cuba last year compared with some 14 million dollars in Cuban sales in the other direction.

Lula is also due to meet some 600-odd Brazilian students in Cuba before he leaves Saturday afternoon.

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