| |
| September 30 FROM
CUBA
Cuban man arrested; his Italian friend
warned to keep his distance
"Verdome
protested when they took me to the patrol car.
I told them that we are friends and why we were
at the airport. But they charged me and warned
me to keep away from foreigners or I would end
up in prison."
HAVANA
|
FROM
CUBA
My neighbor's grief
Film
stars and intellectuals including Catherine Deneuve,
Sophie Marceau, Pedro Almodovar and Jorge Semprun
attended a soiree here supporting the Cuban people
and hitting out at repression by leader Fidel
Castro.
HAVANA
|
Stars and intellectuals hit out at
Castro in Paris event
Brazilian
President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, who inherited
numerous problems, has done a fine job managing
tough domestic issues while satisfying international
creditors. But he fumbled badly on his visit to
Cuba last weekend.
Yahoo!
|
The
Miami Herald
•
Exiles' entry rule is lifted
• Albright defends Clark, lauds Payá
• Anger of new Cuban exiles is in music
• Cheap Cuban medicines fill Miami cabinets |
Yahoo!
News
•
Cuba Says Cubans in U.S. Can Visit
• Editor Quits After Castro Column Killed
• Cuban Frogs Pushy
• Cubans on Floating Truck Denied Visas
• Old friends Lula, Castro work on improving business
ties
• Isolated Castro gets a diplomatic boost from
Lula visit
|
Lula's missed chance
Brazilian
President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, who inherited
numerous problems, has done a fine job managing
tough domestic issues while satisfying international
creditors. But he fumbled badly on his visit to
Cuba last weekend.
The
Miami Herald |
External
links
|
Most
Cubans on floating truck turned down for U.S.
visas
The Cubans who converted a pickup truck into a
boat in an illegal attempt to reach Florida said
Monday their attempts to emigrate legally had
failed as well. So far, 10 of the 12 people in
the group that made the unusual and well-publicized
attempt to reach American soil have been turned
down for U.S. immigration visas, the passengers
on the floating boat said, showing copies of their
rejection letters.
Sun-Sentinel,
FL .
|
LETTERS
FROM CUBA : From chalk to Powerpoint
Will Jordan, a 20-year-old University of Arkansas
student and a Fayetteville native, is attending
the University of Havana in Cuba this semester
as part of a Sturgis Study Abroad Grant. He is
the first UA student to study in Cuba through
the grant program. During his time there, Jordan
will write occasional diary entries for the benefit
of Northwest Arkansas Times readers.
Will
Jordan / Northwest Arkansas Times.
|
Small Biz
Barges into Cuba
A small South Carolina company has done something
no American business has in over 40 years--sailed
a U.S.-registered barge into Havana. Previously,
the few American companies that shipped goods
to Cuba chartered foreign vessels.
Inc.com.
|
September
29
FROM
CUBA
Exploding ordnance kills four in Cuba
The
trash pickers were trying to separate the projectile
from its shell to sell the metal to a raw materials
recycling facility nearby. The explosion was heard
for several miles around, witnesses said.
HAVANA
|
FROM
CUBA
Police question Varela activist for
third consecutive week
For
the third week in a row, Varela project activist
Lidiel Martínez was called in for questioning
at the Fourth police unit in El Cerro.
HAVANA
|
FROM
CUBA
Cuban Prison Bans the Bible
Prison
authorities in Camaguey, Cuba, have banned the
Bible from inmates' cells, according to Aid to
the Church in Need.
Zenit,
Italy
|
The
Miami Herald
•
Nations' leaders sign business agreements
|
Yahoo!
News
•
Old friends Lula, Castro work on improving business
ties
• Albright Says Bush Should Do More To Bring Democracy
To Cuba
|
CPJ to present annual international
press freedom awards
Abdul
Samay Hamed (Afghanistan), Aboubakr Jamai (Morocco),
Musa Muradov (Russia), and Manuel Vázquez Portal
(Cuba) have suffered serious reprisals for daring
to report with independence and authority in countries
where dissent is not easily tolerated. .
Committee
to Protect Journalists |
Socialite whose love affair with Castro
produced a daughter prefers not to linger on her
past .
Unlike
most Cubans, too, Naty is stylishly dressed, heavily
bejeweled. The blonde hair is gone, the green eyes
faded, but she remains gracefully beautiful, striking.
She uses a gold cigarette holder and holds her coffee
cup with her thumb and index finger.
The
Miami Herald. |
External
links
|
Cuban
jumps ship
A Cuban national seeking asylum was rescued from
the Delaware Bay after he jumped ship late Friday
afternoon. According to local authorities, electrician
Felix Urbano Zulueta Linares jumped at least 40
feet from an identified ship in his attempt to
reach American soil. A private vessel picked Lineres
out of the water after he had been treading water
for at least 1 1/2 hours without a life vest.
Bridgeton
News, NJ.
|
Brazil
and Cuba: Hugs, Deals and Tears
Most of the Brazilian press seems convinced that
at closed doors the theme of human rights would
inevitably be discussed between the two leaders.
For some, Lula is the only world leader to whom
Castro would listen at this moment.
Brazzil.com,
Brazil.
|
Brazilian
president evades human rights issue on visit to
Cuba
Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva
praised closer trade ties with his longtime friend
and leftist supporter Fidel Castro while predictably
sidestepping Cuba's human rights record during
a short visit to Havana. On Saturday morning the
two leaders presided over a signing ceremony for
commercial agreements worth $200 million, an "exceptional
step for Cuba and Brazil," Lula said.
Sun-Sentinel,
FL.
|
Food
sales soar in face of political strains
So far this year, Cuba has bought $124 million
in U.S. foods, mostly corn, soybeans, rice and
poultry. In May, the month after the dissidents'
one-day trials and the executions of three men
who attempted to hijack a ferry to South Florida,
sales totaled $21 million, about 260 percent higher
than last May. American executives who continue
cultivating relationships with Cuban officials
despite the political chill repeat the same refrain
they did last year at the food fair: Business
is business and politics is politics.
Sun-Sentinel,
FL.
|
Some
Cuban-Americans softening stance on US embargo
The Florida National Summit on Cuba, organized
by the World Policy Institute's Cuba Project and
Cuban-Americans who oppose the U.S. embargo, will
feature former Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev,
whom analysts think will suggest a different approach
to relations with Cuba.
Sun-Sentinel,
FL.
|
Cuba:
Now Or Never?
The major hotels offer satellite TV, but the only
news show for ordinary Cubans airs for a half-hour
or so on Sunday night and is repeated all week.
It makes you feel a little guilty to be enjoying
the lack of homogenization. Cuba, unlike so much
of the world, does not seem bland and familiar.
Its isolation, bad for the locals, makes it fresh
and fascinating for tourists. The police stir
similar mixed emotions: Cubans must find them
oppressive. For tourists, they mean that you can
safely walk even the poorest streets of Havana
anytime, day or night, without fear.
The
Washington Post.
|
Cuba
in the Blood, Author explores life in exile
Like many descendants of Cubans who left their
Caribbean island, Andrea O'Reilly Herrera longs
for a homeland she never knew.
The
Salt Lake Tribune .
|
Artist
paints for change
The ultimate destination here is Cuba, but the
first stop is Robert Porcher's house in Rochester.
The
Detroit News.
|
September
26
FROM
CUBA
Police shut down independent library
in Cuba
The
Cuban political police searched the home of dissident
Lorenzo García in Holguín Tuesday, confiscating
more than 250 books from an independent lending
library García operated there.
HAVANA
|
FROM
CUBA
Prison inmates in Cuba decry conditions
"Only
the absence of fire keeps us from thinking we
are in Hell," reads a message from a prisoner
at the Valle Grande prison in Havana.
HAVANA
|
FROM
CUBA
Young man threatened for refusing
to collaborate with Cuban police
Joany
Hernández, 25, was threatened by police after
he refused to cooperate in a police investigation
of a presumed attempt to leave the island illegally.
HAVANA
|
FROM
CUBA
17-year-old student takes her life
in Guantánamo
A
17-year-old student of the "José Maceo Grajales"
vocational school in Guantánamo hung herself with
a sheet at the school.
HAVANA
|
The
Miami Herald
•
Brazilian president seeks to keep today's visit
low-key
• Aznar's views on Cuba hailed
• Cuban banker and longtime community leader,
Luis J. Botifoll, dies at age 95
|
Yahoo!
News
•
Brazilian President to Meet Castro in Cuba
|
College Speaker Challenged on Cuba
Judith
Krug and the ALA's credentials as defenders of intellectual
freedom are being publicly questioned by the Friends
of Cuban Libraries.
The
Friends of Cuban Libraries |
In jail or free, dissidents determined
to stay
A
little more than a year ago, poet and journalist
Raúl Rivero wrote that he refused to let America's
embargo against Cuba define the international debate
over the fate of the island's 11 million people.
Lydia
Chavez. The Miami Herald. |
Analyst Rejects Notion of Major Changes
Anytime Soon in Cuba
A
leading United States expert on Cuba Tuesday unveiled
a new book examining prospects for U.S.-Cuban relations
in the years ahead. Scholar and policy analyst Mark
Falcoff rejects the notion that after Fidel Castro
Cuba will become a free market democracy.
VOA
News. |
An exemplary Miamian
South
Florida has lost an activist who crossed ethnic
divides to give back to his adopted community. For
decades Luis J. Botifoll stood out as a uniter of
Hispanics and non-Hispanics. A passionate advocate
for a free Cuba to the end, he died Wednesday night
at age 95. Only hours earlier he had attended an
exile meeting with Spanish Prime Minister José María
Aznar.
VOA
News. |
September
24
FROM
CUBA
Consumers unhappy about egg price
rise in Cuba
A
new government measure set the price of eggs imported
from the U. S. at two pesos each throughout the
island, provoking grumbling in the provinces,
where eggs usually sold for less than in Havana.
HAVANA
|
FROM
CUBA
Equal? Not even dead
Just
past noon August 16, the jeep arrived at the polyclinic
of the former Orozco sugar mill in Pinar del Río
province, carrying the first secretary of the
local Communist Party apparently suffering from
a heart attack.
HAVANA
|
The
Miami Herald
•
Aznar, exiles to meet
|
Yahoo!
News
•
U.S. Tourists Not 'Fine' With The Cost Of Visiting
Cuba
|
No need to fear, says Cuban official
A
CUBAN official is suggesting that Barbados and other
Caribbean countries need not be adversely affected
in the event of the removal of the American blockade
against Cuba. However, Cuba's Ambassador to Barbados
said that for this to happen a system of multi destinations
where visitors will spend two or three days in Cuba
before moving on to another regional destination
will have to be worked out.
Barbados
Advocate |
Cuba's prisons: A Devil's Island
Intolerably
hot and cramped cells. Contaminated water and food.
Rats, bugs and medical neglect. Is this the notorious
1850s French penal colony on Devil's Island? No,
it is what some 100,000 prisoners in Cuba live every
day.
The
Miami Herald. |
External
links
|
Wave
of repression fuels rumours that Fidel Castro
is losing his mind
To Cuba's propagandists, the current wave of repression
is like the final part of an heroic four-act drama:
in which Mr. Castro's internal enemies are led
off in chains, and his secret moles within the
opposition step forwards to take their bows. Cubans
know differently. They are living in a tragedy,
with a fifth act to come, in which the tyrant
dies, leaving unknown chaos in his wake. "This
place is in semi-paralysis," said one diplomat.
"[Government] is his very personal vision now,
and very few of his officials know where this
is going.
Telegraph.co.uk,
UK.
|
Coleman:
Human rights trumps trade in Cuba
(reg. reqd.)
The Minnesota Republican had planned to meet with
Cuban President Fidel Castro, but the meeting
was canceled after Coleman announced that he doesn't
support ending the Cuban trade embargo or lifting
travel restrictions now.
Minneapolis
Star Tribune, MN.
|
From
ropa vieja to riches
When Josefa Gonzalez-Hastings and her parents
fled Castro's Cuba in the mid 1960s, they left
nearly everything behind except the clothes they
could carry in flimsy cardboard suitcases.
St.
Petersburg Times, FL .
|
Contreras'
effort gives Bombers a start
Jose Contreras made his best start as a Yankee
last night, pitching a season-high eight innings
and striking out a career-best nine in the Yanks'
division-clinching victory over the White Sox.
New
York Daily News, NY.
|
Visiting
the Devil
It is a step characterized in the presidential
entourage as "controversial" and politically risky,
as revealed by the well informed columnist Dora
Kramer, of the newspaper Jornal do Brasil. She
adds that one of the purposes of the trip, according
to its defenders - Lula, the chancellor Amorim
and the minister José Dirceu, a former guerrilla
who lived several years in Cuba - would be that
of "preserving bonds of affection with the past".
Armando
F. Valladares / FrontPage Magazine.
|
An
exile's revolutionary move
Eloy Gutierrez-Menoyo helped topple a dictatorship
and then took up arms against his former comrade,
Fidel Castro. He endured more than two decades
in Cuban prisons and 17 more years in exile. Then,
at the end of a family vacation here last month,
the 68-year-old Gutierrez-Menoyo shocked Cuban
dissidents and exiles alike by declaring that
he was staying in Cuba to work peacefully toward
establishing a democracy.
Gary
Marx / Chicago Tribune.
|
'Anna
in the Tropics' seduces with poetic dreaminess
The Nilo Cruz play "Anna in the Tropics" is a
charming ode to infidelity, great literature and
a good smoke. Set in 1929, in Ybor City outside
Tampa, Cruz's drama has wafted its way onto the
stage of the Victory Gardens Theater. Earlier
this year it won the Pulitzer Prize for drama,
which sets up all sorts of false expectations
of Meaning and Stature most plays have no interest
in meeting, let alone exceeding. In that regard
"Anna in the Tropics" is like most plays. It's
modest and apolitical, especially by the standards
of Cruz's earlier work.
Chicago
Tribune.
|
Letter
to a Friend's Daughter
If media here in Florida accused Israel of genocide,
we could express our outrage through letters and
phone calls, organize protests, etc. Cuban Jews
can't do that. As the Cuban Jew Tony Fune has
courageously said, "I understand that we have
no freedom of speech, no freedom of the press,
no freedom to travel, no freedom to choose how
we will educate our children. And I understand
that's not right." (Cuba doesn't even have a rabbi.).
Myles
Kantor, NewsMax.com.
|
September
23
FROM
CUBA
Mother of Cuban political prisoner
threatened
The
mother of political prisoner Arturo Sanchez says
the State Security Ministry threatened to transfer
her son to a remote prison if she continued her
human rights activities.
HAVANA
|
FROM
CUBA
Wife of Cuban political prisoners
visits relatives of other jailed dissidents
At
the request of her husband, jailed activist Librado
Linares Garcia, Magalys Broche de la Cruz has
been visiting the relatives of some of the 75
political prisoners imprisoned in April.
HAVANA
|
The
Miami Herald
•
Spanish prime minister schedules two-day Florida
visit
|
Yahoo!
News
•
US says Cuba not meeting migration accord commitments
• Almiqui found in Cuba
|
Open letter from Reporters Without
Borders to Lula
In
an open letter, Reporters Without Borders calls
on president "Lula" to meet with the families of
the imprisoned journalists.
RSF,
France |
'Democracy Delayed' - Post-totalitarianism
and Sultanism
When
Juan José López, PhD, a political scientist, proudly
dedicated "Democracy Delayed - The Case of Castro's
Cuba" (The Johns Hopkins University Press, 2002)
- his first book - to his wife Myrna and son Juan
Carlos, he could not have anticipated that he would
indeed need every bit of their moral and physical
support.
Miguel
A. Faria Jr., M.D. NewsMax.com |
External
links
|
Cats president
finally going to Cuba Minor
Cats president Marty Scott was nearly the first
manager to take an American professional baseball
team to Cuba since Fidel Castro came to power.
Instead, Scott will have to settle for being second
when he manages Team USA in the World Cup next
month in Cuba, 4 1/2 years after his first trip
to the island country was scheduled.
Star-Telegram.
TX.
|
15
Ghanaian students to study in Cuba
Fifteen Ghanaian students were on Tuesday awarded
scholarships to study engineering, humanities
and para-medicals for four to five years in Cuba.
The scholarship comes under an educational exchange
programme between Ghana and Cuba.
GhanaWeb,
Ghana.
|
The
ideological librarians
A June meeting of the ALA provided an important
clue of the organization's real priorities. It
declined to pass a resolution -- even a tepid
one -- supporting 14 jailed independent librarians
in Cuba. These true martyrs to the free circulation
of reading material held little interest for the
ALA, since they are anti-Castro instead of anti-Ashcroft.
Townhall.com.
|
September
22
FROM
CUBA
Cuban health authorities try to contain
conjunctivitis outbreak
Cuban
health authorities have taken several measures
in an attempt to contain an outbreak of conjunctivitis
throughout the island, including some cases of
the hemorrhagic variety. Authorities have asked
those suffering from the disease to stay off the
streets or be fined.
HAVANA
|
FROM
CUBA
Cuban government announces a new registry
of deeds
The
government called for all home owners to start
registering their homes in a new registry of deeds,
according to an announcement in the official dailies.
HAVANA
|
FROM
CUBA
Claim against power company unresolved
after five years
A
man who filed a claim with the local power company
in Villa Clara province for damages sustained
by some domestic appliances has still not been
totally paid after five years.
HAVANA
|
The
Miami Herald
•
Cuba's many prisons may hold 100,000
• Cuban hijacker sentenced
• Salvat: A quiet, bookish guy with a militant
history
• Hard line by U.S. halts some aid trips to Cuba
|
Yahoo!
News
•
Sen. Coleman Pays Cuba Human Rights Call
• Cuba Neighbors Rally During Eviction
• Sen. Coleman Meets With Cuban Activists
• Victor Manuelle Sings at Cruz Tribute
|
The Revolution and Racism
When
the conversation turns to race, however, the black
electrical technician stops laughing. "We are
not free, he says. "Listen to me when I tell you
that.
The
Miami Herald.
|
The Pedro Pan Generation
They
share a childhood trauma... and tremendous professional
success.
The
Miami Herald. |
IJCHR criticises handling of Cuban
asylum seekers
According
to Nancy Anderson, IJCHR legal advisor, the Cubans,
who were deported the day after their request for
asylum was denied, had been robbed of a chance to
appeal the ruling. This was a clear violation of
the UN Convention and Jamaica's international obligations.
Observer
Reporter. Jamaica. |
I'm proud says doctor who spied for
secret police
A
couple recruited to work as double agents during
Fidel Castro's campaign to hunt out dissidents meet
David Rennie in Havana.
David
Rennie, The London Telegraph. |
Due process for Cuba's dissidents
Following
are excerpts from a letter that Alfred P. Carlton
Jr., American Bar Association president, sent last
month to Fidel Castro.
The
Miami Herald. |
External
links
|
Cuban
exile leader won't fight return
Cuban exile activist Ramon Saul Sanchez said Thursday
that he will not resist efforts by immigration
officials to deport him to his native Cuba but
will challenge any attempt to imprison him indefinitely
in the United States should Cuba not accept him.
Sun-Sentinel,
FL.
|
Getting
personal with Cuba
Isolating Cuba has done nothing to break Fidel
Castro's grip on power. Talking -- and trading
-- might.
Herald
Tribune, FL.
|
Editorial:
Montana sets a better Cuba course
After 40 years of sanctions, we know what hasn't
worked to foster democracy. Trade holds more promise.
Missoulian
Opinion .
|
September
18
FROM
CUBA
Outbreak of conjunctivitis in Havana
Although
authorities did not release the number of those
already infected, it is believed to be in the
hundreds. Several live-in students have been sent
home for treatment and to contain the infection.
HAVANA
|
The
Miami Herald
•
Lawyers lobby for dissidents
• 3 European leaders urge fund for opposition
• Dissident honored in Spain
• Trade mission to Cuba sought
• Cuban man sentenced in plane hijacking
• Cuban hijacker gets minimum 20 years for air
piracy
|
New Cuban Technicians to Work in the
Country
A
total of 291 Doctors and Nurses and 15 Professors
to train trainers will work in the country, according
to a protocol signed by the Governments of Angola
and Cuba during a meeting on Thursday.
HAVANA |
Editorial: Cuban trip opens market
to Montanans
Baucus
discussed human rights concerns with the Cuban dictator.
Molt area rancher David Kelsey discussed the excellent
quality of Montana cattle genetics and the potential
for semen sales to Cuba. Those two topics, part
of a 10 p.m. till 2:30 a.m. meeting in Castro's
Havana offices illustrate the promise and the challenge
of this amazing trade trip.
HAVANA |
External
links
|
President
Lula's Cuba Test
Lula arrives Sunday in New York to address the
United Nations as it opens its 58th session. He'll
then tour Mexico, and his schedule calls for him
to go next to Havana. How will left-leaning Lula
position himself there vis-à-vis Communist dictator
Fidel Castro? Lula must show the world just how
different, in substance and style, he is from
the hemispheric dinosaur.
LA
Times.
|
Angola/Cuba:
Bilateral Commission Signs Agreement On Plants
Protection
The 11th session of Angola/Cuba bilateral commission
closes Thursday, in Luanda, with the signing of
an agreement on plants protection and other related
to the conditions of arrival of Cuban technicians
to the country. There is also the possibility
of getting signed an action plan in the sector
of civil engineering and roads repairing.
AllAfrica.com.
|
Port
Manatee eager to establish Cuba ties
David McDonald wants to lead a trade mission to
Cuba later this year. The executive director of
Port Manatee would like to take people from four
or five area businesses with him, tour ports in
Havana and Mariel, and get to know Cuban trade
representatives.
Sarasota
Herald-Tribune, FL.
|
Trade
panel focuses on Cuba, cars
State officials continue to beat the drum to get
Alabama companies interested in exporting overseas.
Their latest efforts include a two-day conference
in October at what arguably is the state's most
elaborate resort. The Alabama International Trade
Conference, at Marriott's Grand Hotel in Point
Clear on Mobile Bay, will feature seminars on
doing business with Cuba, the automotive industry
and the emerging impact of the cruise ship industry
in Mobile.
Birmingham
Business Journal, AL.
|
Pair
hope to air Cuban programs from Naples-based TV
network
A new Naples-based Cuban television network wants
to herd the scattered flock of Cuban documentaries
and dish them up to a satellite that transmits
around the world. "We have a ton of programming,
but no venue," said Kevin Adell, who hopes to
launch the Cubana One Network with Pedro Prado,
a Cuban exile.
Naples
Daily News, FL .
|
From
La Jolla to Havana ... and back again
The La Jolla High School varsity football team
will not soon forget the opening game of the 2003
season. It was played in Havana, Cuba, against
Bonita Vista high school from Chula Vista and
was the first American rules football game played
in Cuba since 1958.
La
Jolla Light, CA.
|
GOP
fund paid for Dolan's trip from Cuba
Dolan's travel expenses - which included chartering
a private jet - came to almost $8,200 and were
handled by aides to state Senate President Pro
Tem Peter Kinder, R-Cape Girardeau. The total
bill was paid by the Senate Majority Fund, a campaign
committee set up to handle various expenses for
the Legislature's Republican leaders.
St.
Louis Post Dispatch, MO.
|
September
17
FROM
CUBA
Wife fears for journalist husband
on hunger strike in Cuba
"If
they turned me into a hero, now they are going
to have to turn me into a martyr," said imprisoned
independent journalist Normando Hernández to his
wife.
HAVANA
|
FROM
CUBA
Cuban authorities confiscate several
fishing boats in Holguín province
Several
fishermen around Moa, in Holguín province, were
issued fines of between 1,500 and 5,000 pesos
and had their boats confiscated at the end of
August after being charged with fishing without
a license by fisheries inspectors.
HOLGUÍN
|
FROM
CUBA
Police assign two neighbors to watch
Havana dissident
Political
police have assigned two neighbors to watch dissident
and ex-political prisoner Javier García, warning
him that "one more misstep" will land him in jail.
HAVANA
|
FROM
CUBA
Cuban ingenuity applied to fuel conservation
Cuban
ingenuity is equally at home improvising devices
that render every day chores easier if not just
plain possible in the face of asphyxiating scarcity,
as it is to coming up with names for the said
devices. Take the No-no, for instance.
HAVANA
|
The
Miami Herald
•
U.S. says it has filled annual quota for visas
• Break With Castro: Argentine singer says 'no
más'
• Strong words for tough stance on Cuba
• Groups unveil rights proposal
• Support vanishing for Cuba's art showcase
|
IRI Launches New Website and Report
on Cuba's Democratic Resistance
Six
months after the Cuban government seized and imprisoned
dozens of political dissidents, the International
Republican Institute (IRI) unveiled new online
and print resources on the progress and predicament
of the pro-democracy movement in Cuba.
HAVANA
|
Don't weaken sanctions on Cuba
The
aim is to promote a peaceful transition toward democracy
and free enterprise. One way to do so is to support
Cuba's persecuted internal opposition. Another is
to reduce the fear of change among ordinary Cubans
and reformers within the regime.
The
Miami Herald. |
External
links
|
Building
a Free Cuba
Exactly half a year ago, Fidel Castro's regime
imprisoned 75 representatives of the Cuban opposition.
More than 40 coordinators of the Varela Project
and more than 20 journalists and other representatives
of various pro-democracy movements landed in jail.
All of them were sentenced in mock trials to prison
terms ranging from six to 28 years -- merely for
daring to express an opinion other than the official
one.
The
Washington Post.
|
East
Europe grandees blast Castro
In a letter sent to several leading newspapers
internationally, Vaclav Havel of the Czech Republic,
Lech Walesa of Poland and Arpad Goencz of Hungary
said European countries should set up a fund to
help opposition groups within Cuba.
BBC,
UK .
|
Trio
rips Castro's regime in letter
In particular, they said Europe's "constructive
engagement" with the regime was failing to change
Mr. Castro's behavior. "Europe ought to make it
unambiguously clear that Fidel Castro is a dictator,
and that for democratic countries a dictatorship
cannot become a partner until it commences a process
of political liberalization," they said.
The
Washington Times.
|
Coleman to visit
Cuba this weekend
Coleman is chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations
Committee's Western Hemisphere subcommittee. He
said today that he plans to meet with both high-ranking
Cuban government officials and political reform
advocates. Coleman's office declined to say whether
the senator will meet with Cuban President Fidel
Castro.
KAAL,
MN.
|
Cuba
screams for American ice cream
What started as an idea to bring dinner to Cuba
ended up being dessert. Havana, Cuba, is now receiving
240 tons of a soy-based ice cream mix from Savannah-based
Y&Y Agriculture Corp. of Georgia.
Hartwell
Sun, GA.
|
For
sale: Condos with foreign intrigue
Built in 1912 and located across the street from
the art deco mansion that belonged to former prime
minister Pierre Trudeau, the former consulate
is now a bustling renovation site. The Cubans
sold the building in June to a Montreal developer
who is converting it into upscale condos and townhouses.
The consulate has relocated into more modest digs
overlooking the Décarie Expressway.
Montreal
Gazette, Canada.
|
Editorial:
Cuba trade? Have a cigar
It's not a done deal yet, but the groundwork done
by Sen. Max Baucus and Rep. Dennis Rehberg in
Cuba eventually could lead to big things for Montana.
Baucus and Rehberg just announced from Cuba that
they have a "memo of understanding" that should
lead to Cuba buying $10 million worth of Montana
grains, live cattle and dry beans.
Montana
Forum, Montana.
|
Author
lectures on Cuban identity
There exists only 90 miles between Cuba and the
United States - a short distance that outlines
the proximity that has and will forever link the
two nations, a professor of Latin American history
said to a capacity crowd yesterday evening in
Memorial Hall.
The
Massachusets Daily Collegian.
|
Journalism
students produce documentary after visiting Cuba
In a place not far from America there is a society
filled with tension, poverty and, in some cases,
turmoil. It is Cuba, a nation only 92 miles from
the coast of Florida but a world away in terms
of culture.
Daily
Nebraskan.
|
Senators
work for trade with Cuba
Montana and Wyoming legislators are moving forward
with their quixotic efforts to open up trade between
the United States and Cuba. Senators Max Baucus,
D-Mont., and Mike Enzi, R-Wyo., have received
a promise that legislation permitting U.S. citizens
to travel to Cuba will be debated soon, and Baucus
and Rep. Denny Rehberg, R-Mont., will be leading
a trade delegation to Cuba on Friday.
The
Casper Star Tribune, WY.
|
Foreign Correspondents
Face Special Challenges in Cuba
Breaking the wall of silence that surrounds certain
issues and events and finding a source who is
willing to confirm news that everyone already
knows about through the grapevine may be the biggest
challenges facing foreign correspondents in Cuba.
IPSnews.net,
Uruguay .
|
September
16
FROM
CUBA
Prisoners made to work 12 hours a
day in Cuba
Thirty-two
inmates at the El Anoncillo minimum-security prison
camp have been put to work more than 12 hours
a day cleaning fields and planting them, under
the orders of Omar Mora. The only incentive is
the authorization of periodic visits by family
members.
HAVANA
|
FROM
CUBA
Pizza-parlor attendant fired
Tamayo
had been fined 55 pesos by a quality-control inspector
for selling underweight, poor quality pizzas.
She said the cheese provided for making pizza
by the government itself, is of very poor quality.
HAVANA
|
FROM
CUBA
Notes on a crisis
From a young age, young people are sent to the
schools in the countryside, thanks to the policy
of the state. The eye of the relative becomes
cloudy by the distance. The tutelage is left adrift.
The children are growing up without the example
of home.
PINAR
DEL RIO
|
FROM
CUBA
Wild children
The
policeman was running after the child, shouting
warnings. It involved a child of school age. Another
policeman tried to explain to the tourists what
had happened. He talked to them of new prohibitions
against minors in the street. "They're too much
now."
PINAR
DEL RIO
|
FROM
CUBA
Bar flies
Bars
are like museums of daily life. In a bar you can
see from the habitual drunkard (the type who has
decided to die in the bottom of a bottle) to the
type also who had the most hatred in his life
for alcohol..
PINAR
DEL RIO
|
The
Miami Herald
•
Caught-on-tape dissident admits falling into 'trap'
|
September
15
FROM
CUBA
Eggs in short supply in Cuba
Although
the ration book entitles everyone to buy five
eggs a month, they've become scarce in some parts
of Cuba.
HAVANA
|
FROM
CUBA
Lobster catch is low
More
than half way through the lobster season, fishermen
say the catch is already US$6 million less than
anticipated.
HAVANA
|
The
Miami Herald
•
Visiting U.S. senator calls for an end to Cuba
sanctions
• Websites ship world of goods home to Cuba
• Discrediting dissidents, enemies is common in
Cuba
• From Cuba, with her treasured strings attached
• Cuban film director breathes much easier after
defection
|
Yahoo!
News
•
US lawmakers sign 10-million-dollar food deal
in Cuba
• U.S. Lawmakers Express Concerns Over Cuba
• US lawmakers visit Cuban dissident Oswaldo Paya
|
External
links
|
Cuba
remains large trading partner with North Dakota
The Cuban dictator's harsh crackdown on pro-democracy
dissidents has chilled the already frosty relations
between the United States and its communist neighbor.
But Castro's regime keeps filling its pantries
with food from U.S. suppliers. The country spent
$116.6 million in agricultural goods last year,
ranking it as the 50th export market.
Bismarck
Tribune, ND.
|
Cuba
has a delicate balance between church and state
"For the first time I feel the church has made
a strong impact," Pollan said. "At other times
it has been very lukewarm. Now it talks about
the dissidents. Whether or not [the bishops] think
like them, they support them.
Sun-Sentinel,
FL.
|
A nation
of contradictions
In this wide-open square you talk of truth quietly.
But in the narrow streets of Havana the talk is
growing louder and more diverse. There, amid the
salsa and stickball, between the tourists and
the beggars, among the laughter, rum and rumba,
that's where you attempt to piece together what
the dead poet claimed to find so easily. A 32-year-old
artist shakes his head. Good luck. You are standing
at ground zero in his city that's the backbone
of his country that's so very different from your
own.
Matthew
Hansen / Lincoln Journal Star, NE.
|
One
student's experience shows racism alive in Cuba
On another day, I was verbally assaulted and even
grabbed by security officials while in a club.
That evening, I wrote: "I feel like a marked man,
a criminal, and I have committed no crime other
than being black and male." Later on Roberto de
Armas explained, implying that people who looked
like me were often known to be male prostitutes,
drug traffickers and thieves in Cuban society,
which is why I was being stopped repeatedly. "Black
people are not being stopped in this country just
for being black," he later said. "It is something
that is simply nonexistent."
Dakarai
Aarons / Lincoln Journal Star, NE.
|
Excerpt:
'Anna in the Tropics'
Juan Julian, who is the central character in Nilo
Cruz's Pulitzer Prize-winning play, "Anna in the
Tropics," has just arrived in Tampa, Fla., from
his home in Cuba. He has been hired by the workers
in a cigar factory to be their lector - to read
to them while they roll cigars and, in so doing,
to brighten their daily routine.
The
New York Times.
|
Nilo
Cruz's 'Anna Karenina' Lights the Cubans' Cigars
As Nilo Cruz's "Anna in the Tropics" begins, a
mother and her daughters are waiting - with heightened
anticipation - for the arrival of a ship from
Cuba. On board is a lector, someone who will read
to them and their co-workers at a cigar-rolling
factory in Tampa, Fla. It is 1929, and lectors
have long been a Cuban tradition, a way to enhance
manual labor with a bit of culture.
The
New York Times
|
Khrushchev
Unplugged From the Middle East to Cuba
From 1954 to 1965, a faceless bureaucrat named
Vladimir Malin was the official note-taker at
meetings of the leadership of the Soviet Union.
His handwritten minutes, kept in a ledger like
that used by Western accountants, were the holy
grail of the Central Intelligence Agency's unsuccessful
efforts to penetrate the Kremlin. They remained
closed until last week, when they were released
by archivists at the Russian State Archives of
Contemporary History in Moscow.
The
New York Times, NY.
|
Documentaries
With a Cuban Beat
Ask the documentary filmmaker Rogelio Paris about
the role of music in his native Cuba, and he'll
happily tell you how people walk down the streets
of Havana with a musical rhythm, how they wake
up with music and go to sleep with music, how
it's present in the way they make jokes, in the
way they make love. He'll talk about various Cuban
musical traditions: son, rumba, mambo, conga,
charanga.
The
New York Times
|
Canadians
help Cuba grow food
"It's just an amazing opportunity to be able to
learn from them and how they look at food security
and how they look at urban farming and how it
fits into their culture and then bring that back
here," Huizinga said. (Related)
.
Times
Colonist, Canada.
|
Rays
of reason in Cuba policy
For decades, relations between Cuba and the United
States have been as bitter and senseless as a
family brawl. Dishes and frying pans keep flying
back and forth across the Florida Straits with
no other apparent strategic purpose than for Cubans
in Havana and Miami to vent their loathing for
one another.
Chicago
Tribune (reg req).
|
Pulitzer
catapults Cuban playwright into limelight
Like most unpublished plays, the manuscript version
of "Anna in the Tropics" by Nilo Cruz has the
unmistakable stamp of the personal home computer:
typographical errors, the playwright's home address
and telephone number, and a hurriedly scrawled
"latest version" annotation on its front cover.
Chicago
Tribune (reg req).
|
September
12
FROM
CUBA
Officials threaten to take infant
daughter of jailed Cuban opposition prisoner
The
wife of a jailed opposition member says two state
security officials threatened to remove her three
months old daughter, born while her husband, Luis
Enrique Ferrer Garcia, was in prison.
HAVANA
|
FROM
CUBA
Religious march broken up in Cuba
A
march by 17 dissidents to the shrine of the patron
saint of Cuba, the Virgin of Charity, was broken
up several miles from the religious site at El
Cobre, according to one of the participants.
HAVANA
|
FROM
CUBA
Cuban produce markets in short supply
after government measure
Since
September 1, many privately-operated produce markets
either have been closed or have very little to
sell. Apparently, the private vendors are reacting
to a government measure enacted that day that
lowers the price of most produce .
HAVANA
|
Cuban physician is transferred to
a prison 6 hours away from his home with his hands
and feet tied
Dr.Garcia
Paneque, 38 years of age, is isolated in a punishment
cell that measures 2.5 feet by 5 feet, suffering
inhumane prison conditions. Undernourished, he
has lost 30 pounds due to the decomposed food
he is given and is suffering from asthma, allergies
and skin fungus.
Coalition
of Cuban-American Women
|
The
Miami Herald
•
New threat of sanctions against Cuba is called
symbolic
• Videotape aims to discredit rights advocate
• Cuban Americans decry casino's Castro billboards
|
Yahoo!
News
•
U.S. takes new swipe at North Korea, Myanmar,
Cuba
|
External
links
|
Solidarity
with Cuba in Brighton
Whether it was the fact delegates had backed a
motion renewing TUC opposition to economic sanctions
or the excellent free rum being handed out at
the beginning of the meeting, there was a tangible
sense of optimism among the gathered faithful.
BBC,
UK.
|
No
cigar: Casino agrees to alter Castro billboards
A casino that offended Cuban-Americans by using
Fidel Castro's likeness on promotional billboards
has agreed to alter them. Tropicana Casino and
Resort will add a red circle with a slash through
Castro's image and change the wording on the signs,
spokeswoman Maureen Siman said Friday.
Newsday.com.
|
Man
who flew to Cuba wants case moved to Miami
A Nevada man convicted of stealing a plane, which
he crash-landed in Cuba on his first solo flight,
wants a hearing on an alleged probation violation
to be heard in Miami, his attorney said Wednesday.
Herald
Tribune, FL .
|
24
Cuban migrants make it to U.S. soil
Twenty-four Cubans, including an athlete who defected
during the Pan American Games in the Dominican
Republic, were taken into custody Monday after
their boat landed on an uninhabited Puerto Rican
island.
Orlando
Sentinel, Fl.
|
Two
teens steal Islamorada powerboat for trip to Cuba
Two teen-age runaways from Miami were arrested
in Islamorada on Thursday after they allegedly
stole a 24-foot powerboat so they could travel
to Cuba.
Sun-Sentinel,
FL.
|
September
10
FROM
CUBA
Abuse by undercover cops in Cuba
Three
undercover police arrested a 70-year-old man with
such force on Thursday morning, August 21, that
a riled-up crowd got involved until uniformed
officers intervened, apparently arresting one
of the undercover cops.
HAVANA
|
The
Miami Herald
•
Cuba bishops speak out about jailed dissidents
• Excerpts from letter released Tuesday by the
Cuban Bishops Conference
• House attacks Cuba embargo by voting to lift
travel ban
|
Yahoo!
News
•
House votes to lift US ban on Cuba travel
• Presidential Determination Regarding the Trafficking
Victims Protection Act for 2003
|
Sapoa unhappy with Cuban imports
Sapoa
has added its voice to the growing discontent
over the housing department bringing 38 Cuban
architects and engineers to SA. Kirchmann said
young people were leaving university but could
not find work because companies were finding there
was not enough work to go around. "On what basis
does the department deem these Cubans to be qualified?
And what are their qualifications? ".
Business
Day. SA
|
Pressure may smother dialogue
Of
course, no Cuban performer was within 100 miles
of the AmericanAirlines Arena last Wednesday night,
thanks to the Castro regime's applying late for
U.S. visas (and for only three nominees) and the
State Department's taking its own sweet time processing
them.
Michael
Putney, The Miami Herald.
|
External
links
|
Senate
turns attention to Cuba
Amid veto threats from the Bush administration,
the House on Tuesday again passed Arizona Rep.
Jeff Flake's amendment to lift the 43-year-old
ban on Americans traveling to Cuba.
Arizona
Republic, AZ.
|
Amendment
to preserve Cuba exchanges passes House
On Tuesday night, the U.S. House of Representatives
passed by a vote of 246-173 an amendment to ensure
the continuation of people-to-people educational
exchanges between the United States and Cuba.
The amendment, offered during debate on the Transportation
Treasury and Independent Agencies Appropriations
Act, prohibits federal funds from being used to
implement the Department of Treasury's plan to
cease offering licenses for these exchanges.
The
Business Journal, FL.
|
Cuba's
bishops criticize jailings
In their strongest criticism yet of the Castro
government's imprisonment of 75 peaceful dissidents,
Cuba's Roman Catholic bishops on Tuesday called
the crackdown a throwback to "methods used during
the early years of the revolution" while reiterating
the church's independence from the opposition
movement.
Sun-Sentinel,
FL.
|
Send
in the Tourists: House votes to lift Cuba travel
ban
The House of Representatives on Tuesday approved
an amendment that would allow American tourists
to travel to Cuba. Supporters say lifting the
current travel ban will advance freedom in the
communist nation, but opponents - including the
Bush administration - say it will bolster the
dictatorship of Fidel Castro.
CNSNews.com
.
|
September
9
FROM
CUBA
Cuban independent journalist sentenced
Independent
journalist José Manuel Caraballo was sentenced
to three years of "correctional labor," a Cuban
sanction similar to serving time in a half-way
house in the U. S. criminal system. Caraballo
was sentenced by the Ciego de Ávila provincial
tribunal for supposedly falsifying school records.
HAVANA
|
FROM
CUBA
Schools for tourism industry provide
escape hatch
Some
of the choicest jobs in the Cuban economy are
those related to tourism, so entry into the Formatur
schools, which train industry workers, is highly
sought after. Students are not only after the
perks and benefits of working in the dollar economy,
but sometimes look upon the job as a springboard
out of the island.
HAVANA
|
The
Miami Herald
•
Official: Bush veto sure on Cuba visits
• 24 Cubans found on U.S. island
|
Delay: Cuban travel will subsidize
oppression; Castro, thugocracy only beneficiaries
of amendment
House
Majority Leader Tom DeLay (R-Texas) today opposed
an amendment to the Treasury and Transportation
Departments appropriations bill that would lift
the current prohibition of American tourism in
Cuba.
Newswire
|
External
links
|
Cuban
refugees increasingly use Puerto Rico as a way
to reach U.S.
Twenty-four Cubans, including an athlete who defected
during the Pan American Games in the Dominican
Republic, were taken into custody Monday after
their boat landed on an uninhabited island off
the west coast of Puerto Rico.
The
Orlando Sentinel, FL.
|
Cuba's
Catholic bishops call for clemency for jailed
dissidents
Cuba's Roman Catholic bishops called Tuesday for
the liberation of 75 dissidents serving long prison
terms, and expressed concerns about a hardening
ideological line within communist ranks.
The
Ledger, Florida .
|
Candidate
looks south for campaign funds
In her effort to become the first Latina in the
U.S. Senate, Miriam Masullo of New Canaan is reaching
out to fellow Cuban-Americans in south Florida
to raise campaign funds. In next year's election,
Masullo hopes to unseat U.S. Sen. Christopher
Dodd, D-Conn., a vocal opponent of the nation's
isolationist policy toward Cuba.
The
Advocate.
|
September
8
FROM
CUBA
Hunger strikers in Cuba scattered
to separate prisons
Five
political prisoners who declared a hunger strike
August 31 were separated and reassigned to different
prisons from the Boniato prison in Santiago de
Cuba.
HAVANA
|
FROM
CUBA
Wave of evictions in Eastern Cuba
The
government is carrying out a wave of evictions
in eastern Holguín province, a growing tourist
destination. Those evicted are typically relocated
by the authorities to Soviet-style apartment blocks.
HAVANA
|
FROM
CUBA
Camagüey eviction appears violent
and unjustified
Police
launched a Rambo-style assault on a private home,
climbing walls and dropping down from the roof,
just to evict its occupants August 26. The owner
of the home, Alexis Pérez, was not home at the
time of the assault; only his son and mother-in-law
were in when police broke the access door to the
patio.
HAVANA
|
FROM
CUBA
7th and 8th graders no longer to work
in agriculture during the school day
Students
in the 7th and 8th grades will no longer do agricultural
work as part of their schooling, as they have
for several decades, but 9th graders will continue
to do so. All three grades will face a long school
day when classes resume Monday, September 8, said
Education Minister Luis Ignacio Gómez.
HAVANA
|
The
Miami Herald
•
Exiles to be tried on lesser charges
• Maintain sanctions on Cuba, Bush warns
• Europeans denounce Cuba's rights record
• Left-out Cubans hold own concert
|
Yahoo!
News
•
U.S. Football Coach Visits Old Cuban Home
• Rayo to publish posthumous autobiography of
legendary salsa queen
• CANF praises presidential veto threat on Cuba
anti-embargo amendments
|
On sanctions and sunbathing in Cuba
The
20-year policy of engagement with Cuba -trading
and people-to-people contact-practiced by dozens
of countries in Europe and Latin America has failed
to transform repression into tolerant diversity,
exploitation into fair labor practice, or tyranny
into democracy. So, it begs the question: why will
U.S. engagement and "gringo-to-asere" contact bring
about any kind of improvement?
Ileana
Fuentes / La Nueva Cuba |
Cuba Shuns Frankfurt Book Fair
German
businesses and private individuals may still travel
to Cuba, but they will not be supported by the Foreign
Ministry, so it's unlikely that many German authors
or publishers will attend the Cuban fair in January.
Deutsche
Welle |
External
links
|
Thirty
Years On, a Chilean Laments 'We All Killed Allende'
Castro played a decisive role in wearing Allende
down: first, by organizing and financing the Movement
of the Revolutionary Left, a guerrilla group that
aggressively pursued socialism through a campaign
of bombings, assassinations and bank robberies
during the Allende years, and, second, through
the military training of ultra-left members of
Allende's own Socialist Party and other small
leftist parties.
The
Washington Post.
|
Flake
continues push to lift Cuban travel ban
Congress is back in session and East Valley Congressman
Jeff Flake is renewing his efforts to get Cuban
trade and travel bans lifted. The Republican is
offering an amendment to a federal spending bill
that would lift the ban on Americans traveling
to Cuba.
The
Business Journal, AZ.
|
Fool's
gold, Cuban style
Since 2001, Cuba has purchased American grain,
food and medicine on a cash-and-carry basis, but
Fidel Castro is broke and would like the U.S.
taxpayers to replace his lost Soviet subsidies.
Under proposals being advanced in Washington,
when Castro defaults on his purchases, American
taxpayers will have to pick up the tab.
Frank
Calzon / San Francisco Chronicle, CA.
|
Trojans
to face Cuban national team
Southern California has been selected by the Cuban
Baseball Federation to play in Cuba this January.
The Trojans will travel with other USC students
and faculty as part of an educational exchange
and play three games against Cuba's No. 1 national
all-star team - the first time the Cuban national
team has faced a U.S. college team.
USA
Today.
|
Castro's
Cuba
He had fought alongside Che in these very mountains.
We had hired Diego three days earlier to drive
us from Havana to Santiago on the opposite side
of Cuba, paying him by buying food and bed.
Times
Picayune, LA.
|
Sherritt
International sells stake in Cubacel
Sherritt International Corp. has sold its 40-per-cent
indirect interest in Telefonos Celulares de Cuba
SA, or Cubacel, to Telefonica Antillana SA, a
Cuban government agency. Toronto-based Sherritt
said it will receive 80 per cent of the $43-million
(U.S.) selling price for its Cubacel interest,
with the remaining 20 per cent going to the private
holder of the minority interest in the Cubacel
investment.
The
Globe and Mail, Canada.
|
Senate
Panel at Loggerheads Over Cuba Trade
Senators were divided along partisan lines Thursday
over the issue of trade with Cuba. Democrats argued
for easing the U.S. trade and travel embargos
against communist dictator Fidel Castro's Cuba
while Republicans, backed up by Bush administration
officials, remained committed to the restrictions.
CNSNews.com.
|
Montanans
to visit Cuba over trade
Members of Montana's congressional delegation
are leading a small group of agricultural leaders
to Cuba next week for meetings to learn about
the potential for future trade and business dealings
in that country, officials said Thursday.
Billings
Gazette, MT.
|
Books
take aim at Cuban dissidents' lifestyles
It's Cuban authorities' latest attempt to discredit
and ultimately destroy the political opposition,
analysts say. The idea is simple: Paint dissidents
as shameless materialists who care more about
money than ideas.
Tracey
Eaton / The Dallas Morning News.
|
The
Afro-Cuban story told on film
In one of Gloria Rolando's latest films, her hero
has a tough time convincing others her story is
worth telling. Imbued with nostalgia and a need
to know her family's past, the character tackles
misunderstanding and ignorance to unearth a long
forgotten chapter in Cuban history.
Sun-Sentinel,
FL.
|
Tobago
to get 11 Cuban doctors
No Cuban doctors have yet been assigned to Tobago
despite deployment to several health facilities
throughout Trinidad. However, Secretary for Health
and Social Services in the Tobago House of Assembly,
Cynthia Alfred, said that within "a month's time,"
Tobago should get the 11 doctors that were requested
to fill the various vacant positions. .
Newsday,
Trinidad.
|
UM
exhibit adds flag to collection of Celia Cruz
items
A collection of salsa queen Celia Cruz's albums,
photos and even a pair of her favorite shoes are
on display at the University of Miami.
Sun-Sentinel,
FL.
|
Stofile University
Officially Welcomes Cuban Professionals
Eastern Cape Premier Makhenkesi Stofile officially
welcomed ten Cuban engineers and architects to
the province on Wednesday night, saying they would
"enhance" the government's housing delivery programme.
AllAfrica.com.
|
September
4
FROM
CUBA
Hunger strikers transferred to an
unkown place in Cuba
Monday
morning, before sunup, prison guards transferred
four political prisoners who were staging a hunger
strike in Boniato prison, Santiago de Cuba, to
a place or places unknown. The four, independent
journalists Manuel Vázquez Portal and Normando
Hernández, and government opponents Nelson Aguiar
and Próspero Gaínza, had started a hunger strike
the day before to protest prison conditions .
HAVANA
|
FROM
CUBA
Modernized money transfer service
still deficient
Users
complain that the recently modernized service
for domestic money transfers still doesn't work
as advertised. Previously, say users, either the
transfers would get lost, or the receiving post
office would not have any cash on hand to pay
it. Disputes, they say, would usually be resolved
in the government's favor.
HAVANA
|
FROM
CUBA
Cuban customs officials confiscate
Celia Cruz hats
Travelers
visiting Cuba from the United States are reporting
that Cuban customs officials are systematically
confiscating hats sporting the likeness of recently-deceased
Cuban salsa star Celia Cruz.
HAVANA
|
FROM
CUBA
Matches disappearing from Cuban markets
Matches
have not been available in Havana quota stores
in the last four months and the prices in the
black market are going up. "There are no matches
in the dollar markets, either," said an employee
of a grocery store in the Havana municipality
of 10 de Octubre.
HAVANA
|
FROM
CUBA
Strong rains cause flooding in Havana
suburb
More
than 20 houses had a foot and a half of water in
the living areas, and residents reported seeing
mattresses, refrigerators and even domestic animals
being carried by the current.
HAVANA |
CPJ concerned about journalists on
hunger strike
According
to family members, two imprisoned journalists, Manuel
Vázquez Portal and Normando Hernández González,
joined other jailed dissidents at Boniato Prison
in a hunger strike that began on Sunday, August
31. The prison is in the eastern province of Santiago
de Cuba, where the journalists have been jailed
since late April.
Committee
to Protect Journalists |
The
Miami Herald
•
Castro foe looks back on life, denies part in
plot
• Miamian afraid to go to hearing
• Controversial dealer closes his art gallery
• Grammy performer goes from rags to verge of
riches
|
Yahoo!
News
•
EU Condemns Human Rights Record in Cuba
• Air Canada to Expand Flights to Cuba
• 4 Linked to Castro Death Plot in Court
|
Hunger strike by Cuban political
prisoners over 'cruelty'
Cuban
dissident Oswaldo Paya on Wednesday publicly denounced
a "system of cruelty" against political prisoners
on the island while family members announced that
six detainees had begun a hunger strike.
Herald
Tribune |
$10M Cuba deal made
The
World Trade Center Association Los Angeles-Long
Beach along with a partner, Global Strategies Trading
LLC, has concluded a week-long business trade mission
to Havana. The mission resulted in an agreement
with Alimport, the Cuban import company, to secure
$10 million in business over the coming year.
Long
Beach Press-Telegram |
Air Canada says "Hola!" to Havana
New
Cuba services include more flights, new routes and
convenience of scheduled flights providing new air-only
option.
CNW,
Canada |
External
links
|
House Panel
To Vote On Cuba Travel Ban
Despite a presidential veto threat, U.S. House
members will try today to weaken the ban on travel
to Cuba. Some lawmakers say now is the time to
invade Cuba with ordinary Americans who can bring
new ideas to the country. But opponents say the
amendment will have a tougher road this year,
thanks mainly to Fidel Castro's recent crackdown
on dissidents.
Click10.com.
|
Latin
Grammys Go On Minus Cubans
Juanes, a Colombian rocker whose songs merge romantic
yearnings with hopes for better times in his homeland,
was triumphant at the fourth annual Latin Grammy
awards held here tonight and broadcast on CBS.
.
New
York Times.
|
Cuban
Americans More Liberal Than Other Hispanics on
Abortion
Cuban-American voters are only slightly more conservative
than other Hispanics on a range of domestic issues,
and are more liberal on the contentious question
of abortion, according to a massive survey of
voters released Tuesday. The survey of 79,000
Americans, including 4,676 Hispanics, was conducted
in 2000 by the Annenberg Public Policy Center
and is one of the largest examinations of voter
attitudes.
HispanicBusiness.com
.
|
Chileans
take new look at Allende
Allende's daughter Isabel, who presides over Chile's
lower house of Congress, confirmed last month
what historians long contended: that her father
committed suicide as Pinochet's forces approached
the palace, using a rifle that his friend President
Fidel Castro of Cuba had given him.
The
Charlotte Observer, NC.
|
U.S.
begins to isolate Venezuela
Imagine if Fidel Castro discovered enough oil
in Cuba to permit his nation to become part of
the powerful cartel known as the Organization
of Petroleum Exporting Countries. Some in U.S.
intelligence and even the State Department believe
something as bad or worse has indeed happened
with the rise to power in Venezuela of President
Hugo Chavez.
WorldNetDaily.
|
Cuban
Grammy nominees plan Havana concert tonight over
delayed, denied visas
Annoyed they couldn't attend the Latin Grammy
awards in Miami, several nominated Cuban musicians
planned a concert Thursday night in Havana that
officials said would be available worldwide via
satellite.
Sun-Sentinel,
FL .
|
September
3
FROM
CUBA
Police round up impaired street peddlers
in Cuba
Police
have been rounding up more than 20 peddlers this
week around the Camagüey bus station, most of
whom are old, blind or retarded. The peddlers,
who sell home-made candy, peanuts, and newspapers,
were arrested and fined 1,500 pesos.
HAVANA
|
FROM
CUBA
Warehouse manager accused of embezzling
16,000 dollars in Cuba
Ramón
Carro, the warehouse manager of the TRD Caribe
dollar store in the Havana municipality of San
Miguel del Padrón, was apprehended by border guards
as he attempted to leave the island with his wife
and children.
HAVANA
|
Three political prisoners on a hunger
strike moved to unknown location
Sources
at Combinado de Santiago, contacted Ileana Danger
Hardy, wife of the political prisoner Juan Carlos
Herrera Acosta and told her over the telephone
that at 4 o'clock in the morning, three of the
seven prisoners that had sent in recent days a
letter of demand to the Officer in Charge at the
"Boniatico" prison had been taken away and that
their whereabouts were unknown.
Informartion
Bridge Cuba Miami
|
Three more journalists on hunger-strike
Reporters
Without Borders expressed great concern today
about a hunger-strike begun by three independent
Cuban journalists - Manuel Vázquez Portal, Juan
Carlos Herrera Acosta and Normando Hernández González
- in Boniatico prison, in the eastern city of
Santiago de Cuba, to protest against their conditions
of detention. Since they started the protest on
31 August, they have been transferred to another
prison in an unknown location.
Reporters
Without Borders, France
|
The
Miami Herald
•
Facts on those imprisoned in Cuba on Web
• Cuba releases Miami couple held in unusual espionage
probe
• Cuba releases Miami couple held in unusual espionage
probe
• Cubans wait for visas for Latin Grammys |
Yahoo!
News
•
Libraries Founder Fights Castro From Afar |
EU, Frattini, the Cuban human rights
situation has worsened
The
Cuban situation has further deteriorated, both at
the level of political freedom and human rights
as well as regarding the minimal openings of the
economic sector towards private initiative. This
was the evaluation expressed this morning also in
the name of the EU presidency, by Italian Foreign
Minister, Franco Frattini in the European Parliament
chamber during a debate on EU-Cuba relations .
Italy
On Line |
External
links
|
Soviet
native tries to expose repressed Cuba
Born in the Soviet Union, Katia Tchourioukanova
was raised on romantic ideas of communism and
the Cuban Revolution. Now, at 30, she is helping
to tell the story of 75 political dissidents who
were arrested, convicted and imprisoned by the
Cuban governmentin the spring as Fidel Castro
launched one of his toughest crackdowns on critics.
Orlando
Sentinel, FL
|
Latin
Grammy Show Puts Miami to the Test
The Latin Grammy Awards will be broadcast from
downtown Miami on Wednesday night in an internationally
televised ceremony, more than three years after
Latin music producers and civic leaders here first
tried to transcend local politics over Cuba to
lure the event from Los Angeles. .
NY
Times.
|
UN
conference on desertification closes in Cuba without
agreements
The sixth UN conference on desertification closed
here Tuesday with poor countries complaining about
apathy among the richer ones in tackling a scourge
that affects a third of the world's surface..
Terra
Daily.
|
September
2
FROM
CUBA
Cuban political prisoners at Boniato
threaten hunger strike
Six
political prisoners interned at Boniato prison
in Santiago de Cuba threatened to go on a hunger
strike unless prison administrators address their
demand for redress of certain wrongs, and specifically,
set aside a punishment that they call unjustified.
HAVANA
|
FROM
CUBA
Residents in Cuba threatened for visiting
independent library
Several
residents of Herradura, a small community in Pinar
del Río province, were threatened with long prison
terms August 24 by the chief of State Security
in the area. The three men involved in this case,
Francisco Betancourt, Ramiro Gómez, and Frank
Hernández, have no previous known affiliation
with any political or dissident organizations.
HAVANA
|
FROM
CUBA
Building inspector fines Cuban ex-political
prisoner
An
ex-political prisoner fined August 22 for building
violations says he finds it odd that the fine
comes on the heels of a workshop on civil disobedience
he organized for a dissidents' group that meets
in the city's Central Park.
HAVANA
|
The
Miami Herald
•
Officials: Cuban documents show dissidents received
no justice
• Grammy protesters get their space
• 'Dollarization' keeping Cuba afloat
• Keep Cuba sanctions, Democratic presidential
candidate Kerry says
• Ex-champ Gomez starts over in the U.S.
• White House urged charges in 1996 Cuba shoot-down
• Celia tribute is opener
• The Latin Grammys' long, winding road to Miami
|
Yahoo!
News
•
Castro Closes Ranks With Friendly Leaders
• Scholar traces Milton Hershey's Cuban ties
|
In Cuba, agribusiness as usual
A
year ago this month, Fidel Castro was mugging for
the cameras with a bull named "Minnesota Red," and
a cigar-chomping Jesse Ventura was dancing at the
Club Habana in Cuba .
Star
Tribune |
Miami couple held in Cuba since spring
allowed to return to Florida
A
Miami couple held in custody in Cuba on cryptic
accusations of espionage for almost half a year
arrived at Miami International Airport Tuesday morning
after being freed by Cuban authorities.
HAVANA |
External
links
|
Grammy
invitations in mail - somewhere
From his doorstep, famed rumba performer Diosdado
Ramos can see the shimmering waters of Matanzas
Bay a few blocks down his narrow street. It's
a straight shot to Miami. But it seems this bay
view is as close as the Latin Grammy nominee is
going to get to the Magic City's gala ceremony
on Wednesday.
Sun-Sentinel,
FL
|
Local
businessman ships cattle to Cuba
A Naples business is leading the way in the drive
to ship more food to communist Cuba. It's something
the US wouldn't even allow until three years ago.
Earlier this month J.P. Wright and company shipped
150 head of cattle to Havana. The company says
it will aid poor Cubans and help Florida's economy,
but critics say it will keep an evil dictator
in power.
NBC2
News Online
|
Cuban-Americans
aren't solidly in Bush camp for 2004
Stoked in part by Cuban-Americans angry with President
Bush for not doing enough to end the four-decade
rule of Fidel Castro, Democrats see an opportunity
to cause trouble for the White House with a key
constituency in a key state.
Rafael
Lorente / Orlando Sentinel, FL.
|
Daring
to dream in Cuba
In this kind of poverty, without the recourse
of protest over government policies, an unceasing
number of Cubans continue to slog through the
frustrating bureaucratic steps to obtain "el bombo"
- permission to emigrate to the United States.
In whispers, they ask visitors, "Please, help
us to get out of here." They also hash out their
dissatisfaction out of earshot of the neighborhood
brigades charged by the government with reporting
dissent.
Denver
Post, CO
|
The Havana
Stat Kings
It was better late than never for the Yankees
last week when José Contreras made his first start
in the Bronx after sitting out much of the season
with a strained shoulder. The Yankees beat Baltimore
7-0, and Contreras struck out five with an old-fashioned
forkball. But it was also a victory for Contreras's
fellow Cubans back home.
The
Village Voice, NY
|
Cuba-US row over Grammy visas
Nominees
including Latin jazz stars Chucho Valdes and Los
Van Van are unlikely to attend Wednesday's ceremony
because they have not been given visas. But US
diplomats say visa requests were delayed by the
Cuban government.
BBC
|
Feds
expand charges against 6 admitted Cuban hijackers
Prosecutors have expanded charges in a politically
sensitive case against six admitted Cuban hijackers
by adding two counts carrying a possible life
prison sentence. he six Cuban men already had
been facing possible life sentences on air piracy
and conspiracy charges. They now also are charged
with interfering with a flight crew and a related
conspiracy count.
Sun-Sentinel,
FL
|
August
29
FROM
CUBA
Imprisoned Cuban journalist describes
conditions
"I'm
in Pinar del Río in a cell with little ventilation
from which I only go out for one hour a day Mondays
through Thursdays," wrote imprisoned journalist
José Ubaldo Izquierdo, 38, in a letter to a colleague,
Dorka Céspedes.
HAVANA
|
FROM
CUBA
Deficient medical care for imprisoned
Cuban journalist
It
took Bárbara Rojas and her five-year-old son six
days' travel time to visit her husband, imprisoned
journalist Omar Ruiz, at the Combinado de Guantánamo
prison, about 400 miles from her home in Villa
Clara.
SANTA
CLARA
|
FROM
CUBA
Prosecutors demand 20-year sentence
for peaceful opponent in Cuba
At
various times in the past, Pérez had staged non-violent
demonstrations against government authorities
who had denied him a ration card for more than
a year and who had harassed his family, tried
to evict them and to demolish their house.
SANTA
CLARA
|
The
Miami Herald
•
Carter endorses Payá's nomination for prestigious
Spanish prize
• Native American group honors Castro with its
highest award
• Pro-Castro activists to join the fray at Latin
Grammys
• Severo Alberto 'Lino' Borges, interpreter of
Cuban bolero music
|
PEN USA Honors Raúl Rivero Castañeda
PEN
USA, part of the 82-year old worldwide association
of writers which promotes literacy and defends freedom
of expression - will award the 2003 Freedom to Write
prize to Raúl Rivero Castañeda. We honor him for
his courage against overwhelming odds and his commitment
to .
PEN
USA |
Yahoo!
News
•
Cuban Rolls World's Biggest Cigar |
WSJ: Don't Forget the Victims In Castro's
Gulag
It's
a good time to remind Washington that, pros and
cons of Wyoming beef sales to Fidel aside, the innocents
rotting -- and getting beat up -- in Cuban jails
must not be forgotten.
Net
for Cuba International. |
School Trade With Plantation Cuba?
The
matter of Cuba's benighted revolution continues
to grip the interest of Americans-or so one might
conclude from the fact that a recent panel discussion
on the U.S. embargo against Cuba drew a lunchtime
crowd of some 400 persons to the Commonwealth Club
of San Francisco.
David
Landau. Accuracy In Media. |
August
28
FROM
CUBA
New antennas an effort to jam U.S.-based
Radio Martí?
The
Cuban government has installed four large parabolic
antennas in Palma Soriano, in easternmost Cuba,
which experts have said could be intended to jam
transmissions of U. S. -based Radio Martí. It
is widely known that at San Felipe, in southern
Havana province, there are several such antennas,
as well as in several other places on the island.
HAVANA
|
FROM
CUBA
Free without permission
Today,
the Cuban secret police lets us know that we may
not practice journalism. For that reason, many
of my colleagues, friends and brothers are serving
long sentences in sub human prison cells.
HAVANA
|
The
Miami Herald
•
Jose Delarra, sculptor of Guevara monument, dies
• Banking family patriarch was seen as a pioneer
of Cuban-American Bar
• Exiled Cuban painter to visit Miami
|
Yahoo!
News
•
Powell's double joy over Pedroso failure
|
Cuban Doctors Feel Insecure Commissioner
Soma Jobe Warns
The
Commissioner of the North Bank Division was recently
quoted as expressing disquiet over the knowledge
that the Cuban doctors posted in his division
no longer feel secured after a spate of thefts
that left them deprived of their valuables and
fearing for their lives.
AllAfrica.com
|
Cuban doctor visits DeVos Children's
Hospital
"It
would be like walking into a hospital in the 50's
in the United States," says Marc Bohland, Vice President
of First-Hand Aid. He says one of the group's main
goals is getting medicine to hospitals and clinics
in Cuba. Medicines like aspirin and cough syrup,
which are easy for us to get, are difficult to obtain
there.
WOOD-TV,
MI. |
Cuban railroad to freedom?
Cuban
Americans see their migration to the United States
as African-American former slaves saw the Underground
Railroad to the North -- the only way to freedom.
But it is almost impossible for other, well-intentioned
Americans to see it the same way because the Cuban
migration issue has been left in the hands of interest
groups for too long.
Soren
Triff, The Miami Herald. |
External
links
|
An
Assist From Left Field
Garrett learned that Jose Piloto, a Cuban left-hander
once nicknamed "Pototo" after a character from
a Cuban television show, played professional baseball
in about 10 countries and three continents during
the 1940s and '50s. He pitched for the Memphis
Red Sox in the Negro American League from 1948-1950,
coming up one year short of qualifying for Major
League Baseball's pension plan.
Dan
Steinberg / The Washington Post.
|
No call
yet on Castro
The European Union trading bloc has been upset
with Cuba ever since a Cuban crackdown on democratic
protesters during the spring. Greece, which hosts
next year's Summer Olympics, is a member of that
union. Fidel Castro, Cuba's president, reportedly
wants to attend those Olympics. He last attended
the Games in Barcelona in 1992.
Philadelphia
Daily News.
|
August
27
FROM
CUBA
Police confiscate 20 piglets from
Cuban rural residents
Police
confiscated 20 piglets belonging to four men,
charging that they had bought them illegally.
The four, José Luis Álvarez, William Mederos,
and Edel García, residents of Cabaiguán, and Reinier
Castellón, a resident of Yaguajay, said they bought
the piglets for 8,287 pesos. They were transporting
them home in a tractor when the chief of police
for the Mayajigua sector arrested them.
CABAIGUAN,
Villa Clara
|
FROM
CUBA
Cuban dissident called a "threat to
national security"
Padrón
said that during their conversation, the officer
told him: "You are a threat to national security;
because of you and others like you the country
could be bombed. What would you do if one of those
bombs fell on the school your niece attends? If
you continue with your activities, we will try
you under Law 88."
HAVANA
|
FROM
CUBA
Celebration rubs Havana residents
the wrong way
The
government threw a street party in Palma Soriano,
celebrating the successful production of books
and school supplies destined for Cuba's cooperative
effort with Venezuela and irked local residents
pointed out that the same supplies are not available
for Cuban children.
HAVANA
|
Yahoo!
News
•
Relatives: Cuban Dissidents Sick in Jail
• Cuban exiles get a place, but no more reason
to protest Latin Grammy
• Four-time champion Pedroso out of long jump
|
The Travel Industry's Push to Unlock
Cuba
Politicians
who favor a change in U.S. policy toward Cuba
are getting new ammunition from the travel industry.
Still struggling to recover from the effects of
September 11 and the economy's downturn, the travel
trade is mounting an aggressive lobbying campaign
to get restrictions on travel to Cuba lifted when
Congress returns in the fall.
Yahoo!
|
33 Cuban Migrants Repatriated
The
migrants were from two groups intercepted by the
Coast Guard; one Saturday, another Sunday. Saturday
evening, about 21 miles off Elbow Cay, Bahamas,
the Coast Guard intercepted an overloaded 25-foot
go-fast boat carrying 31 migrants and three suspected
smugglers
Click10.com
|
No cars for Cubans
"For some time, the Cuban government has imposed
a series of impediments, obstructions, denials
of service, and unjustifiable costs upon the functioning
of the U.S. Interests Section and living conditions
of the Interests Section's employees and dependents,"
the department said.
The
Washington Times
|
August
26
FROM
CUBA
Cuban independent journalist denied
exit visa
The
refusal was due to “orders,” officials told González,
without specifying from whom. González said he
had gone to the migration office after receiving
a summons from a major Enrique, who told him “for
now, you can’t travel; your trip is canceled.
When you can travel, we’ll call you on the phone.”
HAVANA
|
FROM
CUBA
Cuban authorities accede to meet with
pedicab drivers union
The
Cuban Office of Taxation agreed to meet with members
of the pedicab drivers union after repeated appeals
by the union to the Ministry of Transportation,
and the Central Committee of the Communist Party.
The meeting has been set for September 20 at the
auditorium of the Hermanos Aimejeiras hospital
in Havana.
HAVANA
|
Three
jailed journalists on hunger strike
Mario
Enrique Mayo, Adolfo Fernández Sainz and Ivan
Hernández Carillo - who have been on hunger-strike
for the past 10 days in the town of Holguin. They
are demanding proper food and medicine for prisoners
who have serious illnesses.
Reporters
Without Borders
|
The
Miami Herald
•
Democratic contender Dean alters Cuba stand
• Memories of Cuba thrive in South Florida shops
and beyond
|
Increased
suppression of cultural expression in Cuba leads
the Prince Claus Fund to withhold support
As
a result of the arrest of 75 Cuban cultural and
social activists in recent months and their being
sentenced to harsh terms of imprisonment of up
to 28 years, the Prince Claus Fund has decided
not to provide financial support to the 8th Havana
Biennial, which will be held in November 2003.
All those sentenced were engaged in the critical
Cuban cultural and social arenas.
Prince
Claus Fund
|
External
links
|
Scoops
for the revolution
With a signed contract worth about $775,000, Young's
Y & Y Agriculture is sending 420 tons of a soy-based
dry ice cream mix to the island nation of 11.2
million residents. Though a vocal opposition to
normalizing relations with the Republic of Cuba
remains active in the United States, trade restrictions
with the island have loosened to the point that
small businessmen are now getting into the market.
Savannah
Morning News, GA
|
Alabama
products headed to Cuba soon
Alabama
wood products worth $2.5 million will soon be
shipped from Mobile to Cuba as the state takes
advantage of a narrow opening in the trade embargo
with the communist nation.
Atlanta
Journal Constitution, GA
|
Havana
What
a difference five years makes. Back then, there
was a solitary boutique hotel in La Habana Vieja
— Hostal Valencia — and virtually nowhere to get
a decent meal. Today, there are almost 20 small
hotels and scores of new restaurants. Old Havana
is being gentrified — and without any loss of
innocence or authenticity. The fabric of the place
survives.
Times
Online, UK
|
August
25
FROM
CUBA
Motorcycle thefts on the increase
in Cuba
Private
owners who lose their motorcycles often do not
report the theft to authorities. This peculiarity
arises because if the stolen motorcycle is never
found, the authorities annul the vehicle's registration.
But to the owner, the registration papers, even
without the underlying vehicle, have value. They
could validate the existence of a subsequent machine,
put together from spare parts and patience.
HAVANA
|
FROM
CUBA
Police infiltrate young rock fans
Ever
since the government initiated a broad campaign
against civil society in January under the pretext
of combatting drugs, the Ministry of the Interior
has fielded more than 200 undercover agents to
infiltrate groups of hippies of "freakies," as
they are called in Havana.
HAVANA
|
Yahoo!
News
•
Angry US makes life more difficult for Cuban diplomats
in Washington
• Yankees' Contreras Dominates in Return
• 3rd Cuban Defects at World Championships
|
A
smear campaign
Cuba's
smear campaign against Elizardo Sánchez reveals
more about its own desperation than about the
longtime human-rights activist. The regime wasn't
satisfied with locking up 75 dissidents on prison
terms totaling 1,454 years. Now, it is angling
to finish the job by attempting to discredit the
few critics it didn't jail -- most likely because,
like Mr. Sánchez, they are internationally prominent.
Who is next? Vladimiro Roca and Oswaldo Payá?.
The
Miami Herald
|
Northern
Cape Students to Study Medicine in Cuba
Ten
students from previously disadvantaged areas in
the Northern Cape have been chosen to study medicine
in Cuba. The students left for Cuba last night,
after the provincial health department held a
function to see them off.
AllAfrica.com
|
External
links
|
Dance
keeps its foothold in Cuba
Dancing
brings joy and camaraderie to Cubans in what otherwise
might be somber situations. Salsa and son – even
classical ballet – are alive and well in Havana,
practiced in nightclubs, on street corners and
in old, weathered ballet studios.
The
Dallas Morning News y
|
For
Contreras, a Victory; for the Yanks, Vindication
The knee buckled, the pitch knuckled and, in the
stands at Yankee Stadium, Billy Connors might
have chuckled. When José Contreras struck out
the Orioles' Jay Gibbons on a forkball in the
seventh inning yesterday, it delighted Connors,
the Yankees' organizational pitching sage. This
is what the Yankees had been waiting for.
New
York Times
|
Doctors
Rouse Suspicion in Venezuela
The
Venezuelan Medical Federation, a trade group with
45,000 members, contends that it is Chavez who
has undermined the public health system. Douglas
Leon Natera, the federation's president, said
the national health budget has declined 30 percent
under Chavez, leaving many neighborhood clinics
without adequate funding. Roughly 9,000 doctors
are underemployed or without work.
The
Washington Post
|
August
22
FROM
CUBA
Imprisoned Cuban journalist in punishment
cell
Imprisoned
Cuban journalist Fabio Prieto has been confined
to a punishment cell at Guanajay prison, presumably
for insulting a Department of State Security officer
known as Omar. Prieto, 41, is serving a 20-year
sentence at the prison. Recently he had been transferred
to a cell block holding hardened criminals serving
30-year and life sentences.
HAVANA
|
FROM
CUBA
Cuban political police threaten government
opponent
Political
police in the Isle of Youth threatened to prevent
government opponent and human rights activist
Huber Rodríguez from leaving the island to be
with his young son when he has surgery in the
U. S.
HAVANA
|
The
Miami Herald
•
Venezuelan court bars Cuban doctors
• Some criticize indictments as politics
• Indictment largely symbolic without a U.S.-Cuba
treaty on extradition
• For fliers' relatives, indictments offer some
relief
|
An
outrage not forgotten
Seven
and a half years after a cowardly ambush in the
Straits of Florida, a federal grand jury finally
has indicted a Cuban general and two fighter pilots
responsible for the deaths of four Brothers to
the Rescue fliers who occupied the unarmed planes
that were shot down. For the families of the victims,
the indictment provides a symbolic measure of
solace and validates the outrage that has been
felt in this community for years.
The
Miami Herald
|
Another
victim of the Castro regime
The
subconscious betrays them. When all the lies and
slander fail, when all the means of communication
-- newspapers, radio, television, movies, books
even -- are not enough to confuse the Cuban people,
then come the desperate acts.
Oswaldo
Paya / The Miami Herald
|
August
21
FROM
CUBA
Cuban political prisoners denied regular
visit
Relatives
of two political prisoners were turned back at
the gates of the Valle Grande prison August 13
and told the inmates they wanted to visit were
in punishment cells.
HAVANA
|
FROM
CUBA
In Cuba not all quota goods are available
all the time
The
Cuban government's rationing system is supposed
to at least guarantee consumers a minimum quantity
of scarce domestic cleaning products and other
goods. Lately, however, a number of products which
consumers are entitled to buy under the system
have not been available in distribution outlets.
HAVANA
|
The
Miami Herald
•
Three Cuban airmen indicted for shooting down
civilian planes
• Brothers to the Rescue founder says he'll invest
money from shootdown court award in Cuba -- whenever
he gets it
• TV Martí may soon switch to satellite
• Cubans' truck was sunk to prevent copycats
• U.S. seeks to improve transmission of TV Martí
|
Yahoo! News
•
Cuban general, two pilots indicted in 1996 downing
of two civilian planes
• CANF praises indictment of Cuban pilots, airforce
commander
|
External
links
|
Paradox
regained: a conversation with an old comandante
in Cuba
Since
Cubans are not allowed to travel or even to question
the state of the regime, it is hardly surprising
the regime looks askance at the possibility of
tourists bringing unwanted, provocative influence.
So it started out as enclave tourism, with parts
of the island given over to touristic ventures.
That soon collapsed, but there are times when
anyone who brings a Cuban into a hotel may be
asked to leave their guest outside, on the possible
grounds that they may be pimps extending their
network of clients.
Bella
Thomas, Open Democracy
|
FMLN
candidate says would restore El Salvador ties
with Cuba
Presidential
candidate Shafick Handal told reporters on Thursday
that he would restore El Salvador's diplomatic
relations with Cuba and China if elected next
year.
San
Francisco Chronicle, CA
|
August
20
FROM
CUBA
Cuban imprisoned journalist expecting
disciplinary action
Imprisoned
Cuban journalist Normando Hernández is expecting
to be disciplined by prison authorities after
a late-night argument days ago, said his wife
Yaraí Reyes. Hernández is serving a 25-year sentence
in Boniato prison, in Santiago de Cuba province.
HAVANA
|
Yahoo!
News
•
New NYC School Named for Legend Celia Cruz
|
Cuban
Dissident Ramon Colas to Speak on Future of Human
Rights in Cuba
The
founder of Independent Libraries of Cuba, Ramon
Colas, will discuss the future of human rights
in Cuba in the new international context at the
National Press Club.
U.S.
Newswire
|
External
links
|
For
Cubans on birthright, a tie is formed to their
ancestors' land
Cuba
began allowing its Jews to emigrate in 1994 for
a fee, paid by the Jewish state. By 2000, some
500 Cuban Jews had reached Israel under the behind-the-scenes
arrangement, known as Operation Cigar. For most
of those who remained in Cuba, however, a trip
to Israel was out of the question - until birthright
came along.
Jewish
Telegraphic Agency
|
Group
plans demonstration on behalf of Cuban artists
at Miami Grammys
Alianza
Martiana, which supports an end to the U.S. embargo
of Cuba and dialogue between the United States
and Cuba, also applied for a permit -- to demonstrate
in support of the right of musicians from Cuba
and all over the world to express themselves.
Sun-Sentinel
|
Knight
Foundation Grant Supports Independent Journalism
in Cuba
In
the wake of Cuba's latest crackdown on free expression,
the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation has
awarded a grant to a nonprofit, nonpartisan Cuban-American
organization that promotes independent journalism
on the island.
PNN,
VA
|
Second Group
of Medical Students From Cuba Returns to Eastern
Cape
The
second group of students sent from Eastern Cape
to study medicine in Cuba have returned to the
province. Eastern Cape has since 1998 sent 30
students to study medicine in Cuba as part of
bilateral agreement signed in 1995 between the
South African and Cuban governments.
AllAfrica.com
|
August
19
FROM
CUBA
Audits reveal multiple irregularities
in Cuba's public sector
Nineteen
recent audits of public-sector enterprises by
the Ministry of Auditing and Control in Holguín
province have uncovered multiple irregularities,
prompting government officials to call for better
controls.
HAVANA
|
FROM
CUBA
Cuban health care worker fired for
political reasons
Administrators
of the Hygiene and Epidemiology Center in Niquero,
Granma province, fired a worker, accusing him
of fostering an unfavorable climate among his
fellow workers and of expressing negative opinions
about the government.
HAVANA
|
3
Cuban athletes defect at Pan Am Games
Three
Cuban athletes have defected to the Dominican
Republic, where they were competing in the Pan
American Games, an official said Tuesday. The
defections occurred during the international competition,
which started Aug. 1 and ended Sunday, said Gen.
Fernando Cruz, director of the Dominican intelligence
agency.
Yahoo!
News
|
The
Miami Herald
•
Cuban dissident disputes book's claim
• Antonio Navarro, 80, led resistance in Cuba
• Where to see Cuban artists
|
Yahoo!
News
•
Another Cuban Gymnast Defects in Calif.
• Cuba says Iran was jamming US satellite broadcasts:
State Department
• U.S. Rejects Cuba's Claim About Activist
|
External
links
|
Cuba
dissident accused of spying
Whatever
the basis of the allegations, they do confirm
the Cuban Government's determination to sow suspicion
amongst its opponents. The Cuban authorities will
no doubt be hoping that a dissident movement where
no one can trust anyone becomes impotent.
BBC
|
Teammates
reunite in Los Angeles
Charles
Leon Tamayo joined teammate Michel Brito Ferrer,
whose uncle Ramon Ferrer brought Brito Ferrer
to his Los Angeles home Sunday. Attorney Luis
Carrillo was at Ramon Ferrer's home Monday and
said the athletes are "very exhausted. They're
very tired. These are difficult times for them.
"They're here because of the political repression,
the political persecution for them in Cuba,''
he said.
ESPN
|
August
18
FROM
CUBA
Cuban political prisoner forcibly
given psychoactive drugs
Imprisoned
Cuban political prisoner Oscar Espinosa Chepe
complained to family members during a recent visit
that he's been given psychoactive drugs that make
it hard for him to concentrate at the military
hospital in which he is interned.
HAVANA
|
FROM
CUBA
Cuban government undertakes island-wide
computer census
The
Cuban government undertook an island-wide computer
census last week. The measure, code-named "Operation
Windows," seeks to inventory all computers, including
those in government offices as well as the ones
in private hands, and to confiscate any that are
deemed of "dubious origin."
HAVANA
|
The
Miami Herald
•
Cuban police visit men who made floating truck
• Local Republicans write Bush urging new Cuba
policy
• Exiles In Culture
• Anniversary of Mariel produces cultural jewel
|
Yahoo!
News
•
Cuban gymnast defects after team competition
• Castro Draws a Crowd in Paraguay
|
For
coherent Cuba policy
The
boisterous debate over the policies of the Bush
administration toward Cuba should come as no surprise.
The Cuban exile community is diverse, mature and
increasingly sophisticated. It speaks with --
and has room for -- a variety of distinct voices.
As long as no single group or person can claim
the right to speak for all, robust debate is to
be expected -- and encouraged.
The
Miami Herald
|
Surer
footing on Cuba
The
wet-foot/dry-foot Cuba policy has created an equally
crazy corollary that can be termed the Wet Tarp
Rule. Five Cubans caught trying to land in Palm
Beach County were stuck on a Coast Guard vessel's
deck, huddled under a tarp to escape Wednesday
night's storms. They couldn't come ashore -- where
dry feet would mean sanctuary -- and security
concerns kept them from going below.
Palm
Beach Post
|
External
links
|
Latin Grammy
Party Draws Protesters
The
Latin Grammys are still a month away, but the
protests have already begun. Cuban exiles lined
the streets of southwest Miami-Dade County Sunday.
They are angry about Cuban artists set to perform
at the show.
Click10.com,
FL
|
Filmmaker
and advocate seeks 'to be who I am'
The
film deftly demonstrates the deficiencies in Cuba's
policy with footage of a health minister vowing
better assistance that cuts to scenes from a factory,
where visually impaired people are sent to assemble
razors -- Cuba's notion of independent living
and "job placement."
Contra
Costa Times, CA
|
Threat
to Cuba's Aids success
In
the mid-1980s, when little was known about the
virus, Cuba compulsorily tested thousands of its
citizens for HIV. Those who tested positive were
taken to Los Cocos. They were not allowed to leave.
The policy, perhaps only possible in a highly
controlled communist society, was condemned by
human rights groups across the world.
BBC
News
|
August
15
FROM
CUBA
Civic-minded protesters labeled "dissidents"
in Cuba
A
group of 37 intellectuals in the small port city
of Batabanó, south of Havana, who signed a letter
to the local government seeking to address certain
municipal problems were labeled "dissidents" by
a Communist party official.
HAVANA
|
FROM
CUBA
Cubans banned from fishing
Police
recently searched travelers going from the fishing
port of Batabanó, in the south coast of Havana
province, and the capital, and found several of
them carried fish, shrimp, and about a dozen lobsters.
The travelers and their seafood were taken to
the police station.
HAVANA
|
The
Miami Herald
•
Pleas made for dissidents' care
• Rancher ships 148 cattle to Cuba
|
Yahoo!
News
•
Cuban-Americans Hit Bush Policies
• DeLay: Happy Birthday to Who? Castro Celebrates
as Cuba Suffers; Dictator Should Hold Free Elections
• Cubana One Network: Bright House Networks of
Tampa Insensitive to Cuban American Heritage
|
Cuban
doctors' fate unknown
Polokwane
- The future of seven Cuban doctors who want to
withdraw from the bilateral Cuba/South Africa
agreement has yet to be decided by the medicine
professions watchdog after it failed to take a
decision early this month.
News24.com,
SA
|
External
links
|
SA
medical students return from Cuba
The
second group of 17 South African medical students
has returned from Cuba. Welcoming them back today,
Manto Tshabalala-Msimang, the Health Minister,
said they would help contribute to provincial
efforts to redress problems of scarcity and mal-administration
in the medical field.
SABCnews.com,
SA
|
Engagement
with Cuba? Why not?
Some
will ask, why should we engage with Cuba? It is
not a democracy, after all; on the contrary, its
government can be quite repressive. Yes, all the
more reason to engage. The idea is not to reward
Cuba, but to bring about change.
San
Fransisco Chronicle
|
Away
from theme park Havana
When
we visited, it sometimes seemed as if the restored
sections were an enclave or a theme park reserved
for the Italians, French, Canadian and other foreign
tourists. Near the San Francisco church, I made
a phone call and Ariel drifted off on his own
to visit a curious small garden dedicated to the
memory of Princess Diana. But he was quickly warded
off by a security guard. I could understand why
so many Cubans quietly and despairingly grumble
about "tourist apartheid".
Financial
Times
|
Cuba
in control en route to sweep
Cuba
swept the United States in the Pan American Games
semifinals of women's volleyball, using a powerful
attack the Americans could not match. Cuba seldom
trailed, en route to a 25-19, 25-19, 25-21 win
on Thursday night.
ESPN
|
August
14
FROM
CUBA
Cuban independent journalist held
in solitary confinement
Independent
journalist Omar Ruiz Hernández is being held in
solitary confinement at the Guantánamo provincial
prison in the eastern end of the island. Ruiz
was sentenced to 18 years in April along with
74 other journalists and dissidents. He used to
work with Grupo Decoro, one of several independent
news agencies.
HAVANA
|
The
Miami Herald
•
Venezuelans cheer and protest presence of doctors
from Cuba
• Meet the narcos and 'capos' of the Cuban drug
trade
|
Yahoo!
News
•
Cuba Sentences Hijackers to 7-10 Years
|
Grammys
-- and Dissent
Miami
and Cuban-exile groups have settled on a location
where protesters can express themselves. They
will stand about 260 feet from American Airlines
Arena, and on the same side of the street. A coalition
of exile organizations approved the agreement
Tuesday night. This is heartening news.
The
Miami Herald
|
Happy
Birthday, Fidel
My
cousin Pedro's birthday also comes this month.
But the last one he celebrated was his 18th. That
was in 1961, the year he fell into the custody
of Fidel "Helluva Guy" Castro's secret police,
for "questioning." Pedro was a frail, mild-mannered
boy and member of the youth group Catholic Action.
Humberto
Fontova / NewsMax.com
|
External
links
|
Bury
me in Cuba, Celia said
Her
beloved Cuba may yet be the final resting place
for Celia Cruz. The salsa legend's husband, Pedro
Knight, told the Daily News yesterday that he
dreams of someday taking his wife's remains from
the Bronx to the island she fled when Fidel Castro
seized power in 1960.
New
York Daily News, NY
|
5
Cubans wait aboard Coast Guard cutter
Amid
stormy conditions that could create 12-foot swells
overnight, five Cuban migrants continued to bob
about the ocean on the deck of a U.S. Coast Guard
cutter Wednesday, awaiting word on their futures.
Palm
Beach Post, FL
|
Florida
cattlemen keen to keep doing business with Cuba
A
group of Florida cattlemen said Thursday they
remained dedicated to doing business with Cuba
despite increasingly tough rhetoric from some
of their state's politicians toward the island.
Herald
Tribune
|
August
13
FROM
CUBA
Cuban political prisoner offered freedom
in exchange for collaboration with the government
Department
of State Security officials told jailed dissident
Leonardo Bruzón that he could be freed if he retracted
his previous activities against the government
in front of a camera. The officials had also requested
Bruzón should speak on tape about how well he
had been treated in prison, and about the medical
care he had received.
HAVANA
|
FROM
CUBA
Cuban workers unhappy with schedule
change
"We
have received complaints from the workers, who
are unhappy with the measure, since it wasn't
discussed with the workers," said Héctor Pacha,
of the independent Workers' Federation. He said
the workers also complain about their pay, 148
pesos a month.
NUEVA
GERONA
|
The
Miami Herald
•
Report: Cuban requested asylum
• Venezuelans cheer and protest presence of doctors
from Cuba
• Paraguay abuzz over Castro's arrival
• Collectors of Cuban art get costly education
in forgeries
• One man's crusade against fakery
|
Yahoo!
News
•
Security Heightened at U.S.-Cuba Game• Fidel Castro
Marks 77th Birthday Today
• Cuba Wins Pan Am Games Baseball Gold Medal
|
Gorbachev coming to Miami summit on
Cuba
The
National Summit on Cuba announced that former
Soviet leader President Mikhail Gorbachev is coming
to Miami to discuss historic perspectives on U.S.
policy toward the island at the upcoming Florida
National Summit on Cuba Oct. 4 at the Biltmore
Hotel in Coral Gables.
Tampa
Bay Business Journal, FL
|
Trouble
in Florida
Mr.
Reich's mission went awry when, in an interview
on WSCV-Telemundo 51, he explained that Cubans
need to be screened like other immigrants to avoid
opening the United States to criminals and terrorists.
"What would Dade County do with a million more
Cubans who don't speak English, who haven't been
well-educated, that have lived under a totalitarian
government where values don't exist, moral or
economic ... ?" Mr. Reich asked.
The
Washington Times
|
Changes
among Cuban Americans
What
are we to make of Eloy Gutiérrez-Menoyo's decision
to remain in Cuba? To answer that, we first have
to figure out what it was: A reverse defection?
A re-defection? A courageous anti-Castro act?
The act of a secret Castro collaborator?
Michael
Putney / The Miami Herald
|
External
links
|
Cubans
who took boat get quick convictions
A
panel of Cuban judges delivered a swift verdicts
on Tuesday, finding six men guilty of stealing
a government-owned vessel and sentencing them
to jail -- less than 24 hours after their trial
began. Four of the six defendants received jail
sentences, ranging from seven to 10 years, requested
by prosecutors at Monday's trial.
Sun-Sentinel,
FL
|
G.O.P.
Legislators in Florida Criticize Bush on Cuba
A
song enjoying frequent airtime on a Spanish-language
radio station here crystallizes the deepening
discontent of Cuban-Americans with the White House.
It ends, "All together, let's sing: Bush is betraying
us."
The
New york Times
|
August
12
FROM
CUBA
A Cuban prisoner convicted of drug
trafficking bears witness
Under
the cover of waging war on drugs, the Cuban government
has embarked on a campaign against any person
who has managed to survive and perhaps even obtain
minimal wealth as a self-employed worker.
BONIATO
PRISON, CUBA / José Eduardo Girón Cabrera
|
FROM
CUBA
Some
drug lords!
On
March 19, I was taken to Villa Marista, the State
Security headquarters, where I was held in cell
47 until April 24. It was there I lost my name;
they called me 239682. It was also there I saw
my first Cuban drug lords: Mumúa, Cachirulo, and
Hectico the butcher. My cellmates. The four of
us were stuffed into the minuscule cell; we had
to be careful when turning over in bed so as not
to poke each other.
BONIATO
PRISON, CUBA / Manuel Vázquez Portal
|
FROM
CUBA
Operation Popular Shield in Cuba:
sewing machines confiscated
Under
the umbrella of Operation Popular Shield, last
week State Security officials searched the homes
of seven seamstresses in Güines, a small city
south of Havana, and confiscated their sewing
machines.
HAVANA
|
The
Miami Herald
•
Legislators say Cuba letter may get results
|
Yahoo!
News
•
Candles burning at both ends, Castro to mark 77th
birthday amid crises
• U.S., Cuba Compete for Pan Am Dominance
|
CPJ alarmed by deteriorating health
of Cuban journalist
CPJ
is alarmed by the deteriorating health of imprisoned
journalist Oscar Espinosa Chepe, who was transferred
last week to a military hospital in the capital,
Havana.
Committee
to Protect Journalists
|
A
letter to the president
This
is a letter sent Monday to President Bush by several
state Republican representatives from South Florida
regarding U.S. policy on Cuba.
The
Miami Herald, MIAMI
|
External
links
|
Swiss
open doors for Cuban film-makers
The
Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC)
has stumped up SFr550,000 ($405,000) to assist
film-makers from poorer countries. The three-year
"Open Doors" programme will allow Cuban directors
to show their finished work at the Locarno International
Film Festival and bring them face-to-face with
European producers to pitch new projects.
swissinfo,
Switzerland
|
Cuban
film-makers pitch projects to Euro financiers
Daniel
Diaz Torres, Humberto Solas and Humberto Padron
were among ten Cuban filmmakers invited to launch
the three-year project "Open Doors - World Producers
Meet The World Cinema" which is to be devoted
to promoting film industries which are going through
a period of crisis.
Screendaily.com,
UK
|
Health
Concerns Raised Regarding Cuban Political Prisoners
The
United States voiced "deep concern" Monday over
the "ill health and poor treatment" of Cuba's
political prisoners. The U.S. expressed particular
worry.
GOPUSA,
TX
|
Cuban
criminal justice: Don't punish me with brutality
Journalist
Héctor Maseda defied the Cuban government and
got a 20-year prison sentence for his troubles.
A half century earlier, young Fidel Castro led
the July 26, 1953, rebel attack that killed 19
police and soldiers, and he spent less than two
years in prison. "I wish Fidel Castro would show
some mercy," said Mr. Maseda's wife, Laura Pollán.
"I wish he would remember how he was treated 50
years ago."
Tracey
Eaton / The Dallas Morning News
|
Envoy
Called 'Scum' Skips Talks
In
June, an intelligence analyst, Christian Westermann
of the State Department's Bureau of Intelligence
and Research, told the Senate Intelligence Committee
that he had felt pressure from Bolton after the
two disagreed over whether Cuba had a biological
weapons program. Bolton said last year that the
U.S. believed Cuba had such a program.
CBS
News
|
Cubans
capture hoops title
Santo
Domingo, Dominican Republic- After surviving a
protest by Brazil, the U.S. women couldn't handle
their nemesis on the basketball court as Cuba
won the gold medal at the Pan American Games.
Cleveland
Plain Dealer, OH
|
For
Cuban-Americans, more empty promises
It
was nice and cozy while it lasted, but the Bush
administration's honeymoon with Cuban-American
exiles was never likely to endure. Cuban exiles
are steaming over the White House's failure to
deliver on its promises of a beefed-up policy
toward Cuba. In particular, they are angry over
the recent repatriation of Cuban asylum seekers
picked up at sea by the U.S. Coast Guard.
St.
Petersburg Times, FL
|
Roberto
Forte's mother sent him to Duluth from Cuba in
1961 as part of Operation Peter Pan
The
separation was supposed to last three months,
but it would take four years for Manuela Forte
to reunite with her son, Roberto. Roberto has
not been back to Cuba since 1961, when, at 11
years old, he was one of 10 Cuban children sent
to Duluth to begin a life in exile.
Duluth
News Tribune, IA
|
Terror
link to West Nile?
There
is increasing suspicion that one of his labs is
not in Iraq at all - but less than 50 miles from
the Florida coast. Cuban defectors say that Fidel
Castro's Biological Front studied ways of using
migratory birds to spread infectious diseases
to the U.S. Saddam Hussein was also known to have
close ties to Castro.
WorldNet
Daily
|
Analysis:
Fla. Republican Unity Cracks
Florida's
Republican politics is going to need some healing
in the next year going into President Bush's bid
for re-election in 2004. Florida was the most
important state in his election in 2000 and that
could well happen again. A united party could
be essential next year, and right now, that's
not the case.
NewsMax.com
|
Cuba
Libre
Why
is the Bush administration clinging to a Clinton
policy that's a matter of presidential discretion,
not federal law? Five words: fear of another Mariel
boatlift. In 1980, Castro cleaned out his jails
and insane asylums and sent a flotilla of some
125,000 refugees to Florida. The sudden influx
created some havoc in Miami and even in Arkansas,
where violence and rioting by Cubans held at Fort
Chafee contributed to Bill Clinton's defeat for
reelection as governor.
Fred
Barnes / The Weekley Standard
|
Editorial:
End the embargo
Plainly
put, it's materialism that draws Cubans across
the Straits, the belief that a land of plenty
lies just over the horizon. More Americans are
shoppers than voters, and the same impulse is
evident in Cuba.
Concord
New Hampshire News
|
In
Cuba's Tropical Gulag
Our
plight is very small indeed compared to what Cubans
face every day. The latest crackdown on political
dissidents and independent journalists and the
execution on April 11 of three young men who had
tried to hijack a ferry in order to reach the
coast of Florida set off a wave of condemnation
and even got the European Union to rethink its
cooperation with Cuba. It was high time. It remains
for those who regularly visit the Cuban beach
resort of Varadero to ask what is going on out
of view in the backyard of Latin America's last
dictatorship.
Free
Republic
|
August
12
FROM
CUBA
A Cuban prisoner convicted of drug
trafficking bears witness
Under
the cover of waging war on drugs, the Cuban government
has embarked on a campaign against any person
who has managed to survive and perhaps even obtain
minimal wealth as a self-employed worker.
BONIATO
PRISON, CUBA / José Eduardo Girón Cabrera
|
FROM
CUBA
Some
drug lords!
On
March 19, I was taken to Villa Marista, the State
Security headquarters, where I was held in cell
47 until April 24. It was there I lost my name;
they called me 239682. It was also there I saw
my first Cuban drug lords: Mumúa, Cachirulo, and
Hectico the butcher. My cellmates. The four of
us were stuffed into the minuscule cell; we had
to be careful when turning over in bed so as not
to poke each other.
BONIATO
PRISON, CUBA / Manuel Vázquez Portal
|
FROM
CUBA
Operation Popular Shield in Cuba:
sewing machines confiscated
Under
the umbrella of Operation Popular Shield, last
week State Security officials searched the homes
of seven seamstresses in Güines, a small city
south of Havana, and confiscated their sewing
machines.
HAVANA
|
The
Miami Herald
•
Legislators say Cuba letter may get results
|
Yahoo!
News
•
Candles burning at both ends, Castro to mark 77th
birthday amid crises
• U.S., Cuba Compete for Pan Am Dominance
|
CPJ alarmed by deteriorating health
of Cuban journalist
CPJ
is alarmed by the deteriorating health of imprisoned
journalist Oscar Espinosa Chepe, who was transferred
last week to a military hospital in the capital,
Havana.
Committee
to Protect Journalists
|
A
letter to the president
This
is a letter sent Monday to President Bush by several
state Republican representatives from South Florida
regarding U.S. policy on Cuba.
The
Miami Herald, MIAMI
|
External
links
|
Swiss
open doors for Cuban film-makers
The
Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC)
has stumped up SFr550,000 ($405,000) to assist
film-makers from poorer countries. The three-year
"Open Doors" programme will allow Cuban directors
to show their finished work at the Locarno International
Film Festival and bring them face-to-face with
European producers to pitch new projects.
swissinfo,
Switzerland
|
Cuban
film-makers pitch projects to Euro financiers
Daniel
Diaz Torres, Humberto Solas and Humberto Padron
were among ten Cuban filmmakers invited to launch
the three-year project "Open Doors - World Producers
Meet The World Cinema" which is to be devoted
to promoting film industries which are going through
a period of crisis.
Screendaily.com,
UK
|
Health
Concerns Raised Regarding Cuban Political Prisoners
The
United States voiced "deep concern" Monday over
the "ill health and poor treatment" of Cuba's
political prisoners. The U.S. expressed particular
worry.
GOPUSA,
TX
|
Cuban
criminal justice: Don't punish me with brutality
Journalist
Héctor Maseda defied the Cuban government and
got a 20-year prison sentence for his troubles.
A half century earlier, young Fidel Castro led
the July 26, 1953, rebel attack that killed 19
police and soldiers, and he spent less than two
years in prison. "I wish Fidel Castro would show
some mercy," said Mr. Maseda's wife, Laura Pollán.
"I wish he would remember how he was treated 50
years ago."
Tracey
Eaton / The Dallas Morning News
|
Envoy
Called 'Scum' Skips Talks
In
June, an intelligence analyst, Christian Westermann
of the State Department's Bureau of Intelligence
and Research, told the Senate Intelligence Committee
that he had felt pressure from Bolton after the
two disagreed over whether Cuba had a biological
weapons program. Bolton said last year that the
U.S. believed Cuba had such a program.
CBS
News
|
Cubans
capture hoops title
Santo
Domingo, Dominican Republic- After surviving a
protest by Brazil, the U.S. women couldn't handle
their nemesis on the basketball court as Cuba
won the gold medal at the Pan American Games.
Cleveland
Plain Dealer, OH
|
For
Cuban-Americans, more empty promises
It
was nice and cozy while it lasted, but the Bush
administration's honeymoon with Cuban-American
exiles was never likely to endure. Cuban exiles
are steaming over the White House's failure to
deliver on its promises of a beefed-up policy
toward Cuba. In particular, they are angry over
the recent repatriation of Cuban asylum seekers
picked up at sea by the U.S. Coast Guard.
St.
Petersburg Times, FL
|
Roberto
Forte's mother sent him to Duluth from Cuba in
1961 as part of Operation Peter Pan
The
separation was supposed to last three months,
but it would take four years for Manuela Forte
to reunite with her son, Roberto. Roberto has
not been back to Cuba since 1961, when, at 11
years old, he was one of 10 Cuban children sent
to Duluth to begin a life in exile.
Duluth
News Tribune, IA
|
Terror
link to West Nile?
There
is increasing suspicion that one of his labs is
not in Iraq at all - but less than 50 miles from
the Florida coast. Cuban defectors say that Fidel
Castro's Biological Front studied ways of using
migratory birds to spread infectious diseases
to the U.S. Saddam Hussein was also known to have
close ties to Castro.
WorldNet
Daily
|
Analysis:
Fla. Republican Unity Cracks
Florida's
Republican politics is going to need some healing
in the next year going into President Bush's bid
for re-election in 2004. Florida was the most
important state in his election in 2000 and that
could well happen again. A united party could
be essential next year, and right now, that's
not the case.
NewsMax.com
|
Cuba
Libre
Why
is the Bush administration clinging to a Clinton
policy that's a matter of presidential discretion,
not federal law? Five words: fear of another Mariel
boatlift. In 1980, Castro cleaned out his jails
and insane asylums and sent a flotilla of some
125,000 refugees to Florida. The sudden influx
created some havoc in Miami and even in Arkansas,
where violence and rioting by Cubans held at Fort
Chafee contributed to Bill Clinton's defeat for
reelection as governor.
Fred
Barnes / The Weekley Standard
|
Editorial:
End the embargo
Plainly
put, it's materialism that draws Cubans across
the Straits, the belief that a land of plenty
lies just over the horizon. More Americans are
shoppers than voters, and the same impulse is
evident in Cuba.
Concord
New Hampshire News
|
In
Cuba's Tropical Gulag
Our
plight is very small indeed compared to what Cubans
face every day. The latest crackdown on political
dissidents and independent journalists and the
execution on April 11 of three young men who had
tried to hijack a ferry in order to reach the
coast of Florida set off a wave of condemnation
and even got the European Union to rethink its
cooperation with Cuba. It was high time. It remains
for those who regularly visit the Cuban beach
resort of Varadero to ask what is going on out
of view in the backyard of Latin America's last
dictatorship.
Free
Republic
|
August
12
FROM
CUBA
A Cuban prisoner convicted of drug
trafficking bears witness
Under
the cover of waging war on drugs, the Cuban government
has embarked on a campaign against any person
who has managed to survive and perhaps even obtain
minimal wealth as a self-employed worker.
BONIATO
PRISON, CUBA / José Eduardo Girón Cabrera
|
FROM
CUBA
Some
drug lords!
On
March 19, I was taken to Villa Marista, the State
Security headquarters, where I was held in cell
47 until April 24. It was there I lost my name;
they called me 239682. It was also there I saw
my first Cuban drug lords: Mumúa, Cachirulo, and
Hectico the butcher. My cellmates. The four of
us were stuffed into the minuscule cell; we had
to be careful when turning over in bed so as not
to poke each other.
BONIATO
PRISON, CUBA / Manuel Vázquez Portal
|
FROM
CUBA
Operation Popular Shield in Cuba:
sewing machines confiscated
Under
the umbrella of Operation Popular Shield, last
week State Security officials searched the homes
of seven seamstresses in Güines, a small city
south of Havana, and confiscated their sewing
machines.
HAVANA
|
The
Miami Herald
•
Legislators say Cuba letter may get results
|
Yahoo!
News
•
Candles burning at both ends, Castro to mark 77th
birthday amid crises
• U.S., Cuba Compete for Pan Am Dominance
|
CPJ alarmed by deteriorating health
of Cuban journalist
CPJ
is alarmed by the deteriorating health of imprisoned
journalist Oscar Espinosa Chepe, who was transferred
last week to a military hospital in the capital,
Havana.
Committee
to Protect Journalists
|
A
letter to the president
This
is a letter sent Monday to President Bush by several
state Republican representatives from South Florida
regarding U.S. policy on Cuba.
The
Miami Herald, MIAMI
|
External
links
|
Swiss
open doors for Cuban film-makers
The
Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC)
has stumped up SFr550,000 ($405,000) to assist
film-makers from poorer countries. The three-year
"Open Doors" programme will allow Cuban directors
to show their finished work at the Locarno International
Film Festival and bring them face-to-face with
European producers to pitch new projects.
swissinfo,
Switzerland
|
Cuban
film-makers pitch projects to Euro financiers
Daniel
Diaz Torres, Humberto Solas and Humberto Padron
were among ten Cuban filmmakers invited to launch
the three-year project "Open Doors - World Producers
Meet The World Cinema" which is to be devoted
to promoting film industries which are going through
a period of crisis.
Screendaily.com,
UK
|
Health
Concerns Raised Regarding Cuban Political Prisoners
The
United States voiced "deep concern" Monday over
the "ill health and poor treatment" of Cuba's
political prisoners. The U.S. expressed particular
worry.
GOPUSA,
TX
|
Cuban
criminal justice: Don't punish me with brutality
Journalist
Héctor Maseda defied the Cuban government and
got a 20-year prison sentence for his troubles.
A half century earlier, young Fidel Castro led
the July 26, 1953, rebel attack that killed 19
police and soldiers, and he spent less than two
years in prison. "I wish Fidel Castro would show
some mercy," said Mr. Maseda's wife, Laura Pollán.
"I wish he would remember how he was treated 50
years ago."
Tracey
Eaton / The Dallas Morning News
|
Envoy
Called 'Scum' Skips Talks
In
June, an intelligence analyst, Christian Westermann
of the State Department's Bureau of Intelligence
and Research, told the Senate Intelligence Committee
that he had felt pressure from Bolton after the
two disagreed over whether Cuba had a biological
weapons program. Bolton said last year that the
U.S. believed Cuba had such a program.
CBS
News
|
Cubans
capture hoops title
Santo
Domingo, Dominican Republic- After surviving a
protest by Brazil, the U.S. women couldn't handle
their nemesis on the basketball court as Cuba
won the gold medal at the Pan American Games.
Cleveland
Plain Dealer, OH
|
For
Cuban-Americans, more empty promises
It
was nice and cozy while it lasted, but the Bush
administration's honeymoon with Cuban-American
exiles was never likely to endure. Cuban exiles
are steaming over the White House's failure to
deliver on its promises of a beefed-up policy
toward Cuba. In particular, they are angry over
the recent repatriation of Cuban asylum seekers
picked up at sea by the U.S. Coast Guard.
St.
Petersburg Times, FL
|
Roberto
Forte's mother sent him to Duluth from Cuba in
1961 as part of Operation Peter Pan
The
separation was supposed to last three months,
but it would take four years for Manuela Forte
to reunite with her son, Roberto. Roberto has
not been back to Cuba since 1961, when, at 11
years old, he was one of 10 Cuban children sent
to Duluth to begin a life in exile.
Duluth
News Tribune, IA
|
Terror
link to West Nile?
There
is increasing suspicion that one of his labs is
not in Iraq at all - but less than 50 miles from
the Florida coast. Cuban defectors say that Fidel
Castro's Biological Front studied ways of using
migratory birds to spread infectious diseases
to the U.S. Saddam Hussein was also known to have
close ties to Castro.
WorldNet
Daily
|
Analysis:
Fla. Republican Unity Cracks
Florida's
Republican politics is going to need some healing
in the next year going into President Bush's bid
for re-election in 2004. Florida was the most
important state in his election in 2000 and that
could well happen again. A united party could
be essential next year, and right now, that's
not the case.
NewsMax.com
|
Cuba
Libre
Why
is the Bush administration clinging to a Clinton
policy that's a matter of presidential discretion,
not federal law? Five words: fear of another Mariel
boatlift. In 1980, Castro cleaned out his jails
and insane asylums and sent a flotilla of some
125,000 refugees to Florida. The sudden influx
created some havoc in Miami and even in Arkansas,
where violence and rioting by Cubans held at Fort
Chafee contributed to Bill Clinton's defeat for
reelection as governor.
Fred
Barnes / The Weekley Standard
|
Editorial:
End the embargo
Plainly
put, it's materialism that draws Cubans across
the Straits, the belief that a land of plenty
lies just over the horizon. More Americans are
shoppers than voters, and the same impulse is
evident in Cuba.
Concord
New Hampshire News
|
In
Cuba's Tropical Gulag
Our
plight is very small indeed compared to what Cubans
face every day. The latest crackdown on political
dissidents and independent journalists and the
execution on April 11 of three young men who had
tried to hijack a ferry in order to reach the
coast of Florida set off a wave of condemnation
and even got the European Union to rethink its
cooperation with Cuba. It was high time. It remains
for those who regularly visit the Cuban beach
resort of Varadero to ask what is going on out
of view in the backyard of Latin America's last
dictatorship.
Free
Republic
|
August
11
FROM
CUBA
Corruption in Cuban jails extends
to medical personnel
From
Ariza prison, in Cienfuegos province, prisoner
of conscience Jorge Luis García denounced rampant
corruption among medical personnel assigned to
the facility.
VILLA
CLARA
|
FROM
CUBA
Prisoner dies without medical attention
In
a letter from Boniato prison, Santiago de Cuba,
independent journalist and prisoner of conscience
Juan Carlos Herrera revealed that an inmate who
died last month was refused medical attention
for his condition.
HAVANA
|
Yahoo!
•
US wants international supervision of Cuban prisoners
•
Cuba Starts Trial for 6 Repatriated Ment
•
US firm on Cuba sanctions, on returning Cubans
found at sea: diplomat
• U.S. Seeks Ideas for Cuban Democracy
|
The
Miami Herald
•
State GOP legislators urge action on Cuba
• Cuban officials contact exile who has come home
to live
• Opposition leader planned Cuba move for months
|
One
more dissident in Havana
In
a letter from Boniato prison, Santiago de Cuba,
independent journalist and prisoner of conscience
Juan Carlos Herrera revealed that an inmate who
died last month was refused medical attention
for his condition.
The
Miami Herald
|
Cuba:
No Social Club for Journalists
In
raids March 18, Cuban secret police arrested 28
journalists who practiced their craft in defiance
of the draconian "Law 88" and other anti-press
statutes. Castro may have calculated that world
public opinion would be too distracted by the
impending Iraq war to care. Instead, furious protests
only increased after the journalists were tried
in secret and sentenced to prison terms ranging
from 14 to 27 years.
Mark
Fitzgerald / Editor & Publisher
|
External
links
|
|
6
Cubans repatriated after hijacking attempt go
on trial in Camaguey
The
six men charged in last month's hijacking of a
government-owned boat went on trial Monday in
the central-eastern provincial capital of Camaguey,
authorities here confirmed.
Sun-Sentinel,
FL
|
Many
eyes trained on Cubans' trial in boat theft
The
first time Yosvel Chávez Novo tried to slip away
from his rural port town, U.S. Coast Guard officials
intercepted his sputtering fishing boat and repatriated
him with little fanfare. Back in his hometown
of Nuevitas, in central Cuba, the young bakery
worker promised his sobbing mother he would not
risk another illegal trip.
Sun-Sentinel,
FL
|
Cuban
music you listen to with your hips
Red
hot salsa music leaks out on to Dufferin at Dundas
in the dry hot afternoon. The music is made by
nine Cuban girls. Some of them have long, thick,
dark, wavy hair like so many quattrocento madonnas.
Some of them have pigtails like so many cute camp
counsellors.
Toronto
Star, Canada
|
August
8
FROM
CUBA
Cuban rafters held in Jamaica
Nine
Cuban rafters, two of them government opponents,
have been held by Jamaican immigration authorities
since they reached the island three weeks ago.
HAVANA
|
FROM
CUBA
Local government officials constitute
"prophylactic" group against dissidents in Cuba
Three
local government officials in the town of Güines,
south of Havana, have constituted themselves into
a group they call "Support prophylactic group
against government opponents."
HAVANA
|
The
Miami Herald
•
Foe back in Cuba to oppose Castro
• Leap of fate
|
Yahoo!
•
U.S. Seeks Ideas to Promote Cuba Change
• US says Cubans have not applied for visas to
attend Latin Grammys
• Largest Shipment of U.S.-Bred Cattle Departs
for Cuba; First Cattle Shipments from Florida
in over 40 Years
|
Cuban
political prisoner Martha Beatriz Roque Cabello
without family visits at the Hospital since Friday
The
security officer indicated that although she would
not be able to see Martha Beatríz on this occasion,
she would be able to bring clean clothes and food
for Martha Beatriz. The niece asked about Martha
Beatriz' health condition and was told by the
security agent that "she was fine".
M.A.R.
Por Cuba
|
External
links
|
U.S.
to bolster Cuba broadcasts, aid to dissidents
Washington
· Otto Reich, President Bush's chief adviser on
Latin America, said on Thursday that the administration
will step up efforts to pressure the Fidel Castro
regime, aid dissidents and hasten the political
transformation of the island.
South
Florida Sun-Sentinel, FL
|
Breaking
the Cuban Spell
Last
week, Roger F. Noriega became the State Department's
first Latin American policy chief to be confirmed
by the U.S. Senate in seven years. President Bush's
previous nominee to the highest ranking diplomatic
post for the region was blocked in large measure
due to the same single issue that delayed Noriega's
own confirmation for months: Cuba.
The
Washington Post
|
Sandoval
Summons Plenty Of Horns
Sandoval
chronologically surveys a full century of trumpet
playing -- mostly jazz, but some classical as
well -- in the style of, and through signature
tunes associated with, 19 standard-bearers. The
resulting album is a sterling tribute to influences
and innovators by a man many consider the most
technically gifted and versatile trumpeter.
The
Washington Post
|
August
7
FROM
CUBA
Three dissident groups issue liberal
manifesto in Cuba
The
Liberal Democratic Party, the Cuban Change Liberal
Movement and the Democratic Solidarity Party have
issued a "Liberal Manifesto of Havana" in which
they oppose the death penalty. The document said
the three groups consider the current economic
crisis to be of national origin and not caused
by external factors, an allusion to the U.S. trade
embargo.
HAVANA
|
FROM
CUBA
Cuban independent librarian threatened
Two state security officers visited the Jorge
Mas Canosa independent library and told librarian
Librada Alvarez Leyva, a former political prisoner,
that her conditional liberty will be withdrawn
if she continues to accept visits by "counter-revolutionaries"
in her home.
HAVANA
|
The
Miami Herald
•
Dangers in Cuba policy shift seen
• Grammy visas for Cubans unlikely
• Gladys Gutíerrez Menoyo arrives in Miami, says
husband's decision to stay in Cuba was a surprise
|
The
Miami Herald
•
Cuban Hijacker Confessions Can't Be Used
• Cuban doctors sent to Venezuela living in harsh
conditions
• Cuban Jews Make Historic Visit to Israel
|
Cuban
government could reconsider economic measures
After
seeing how managers and foreign companies doing
business in Cuba got upset by the announce of
new controls of foreign exchange in state-run
enterprises, Cuban government could reconsider
the measures, said Reuters in a dispatch from
Marc Frank in Havana.
MIAMI
|
External
links
|
Amid
fear, dissidents' kin in Cuba pray
Their
husbands or sons have been locked behind bars
for criticizing the government. Their homes have
been ransacked. They say they've been threatened
with imprisonment themselves. With few places
to turn, many wives and mothers of Cuban dissidents
seek solace each Sunday in the Church of St. Rita,
named for a patron saint of desperate causes.
Boston
Globe, MA
|
Exile
leader stays in Cuba
He
opposes the U.S. embargo and has given up calls
for an armed resistance in favor of working for
movement toward democracy, even if Castro remains
leader. Gutierrez Menoyo has criticized exiles
for having a too cozy relationship with the United
States and has called on them to keep a distance
from U.S. leadership to have what he calls a truly
homegrown opposition movement. Some exiles call
him a virtual agent of Castro.
CNN
|
Venceremos
Brigade Returns from Cuba
About
80 Americans walked across the Peace Bridge from
Fort Erie this morning. The groups travelled from
Cuba without a Treasury Department license to
challenge the U.S government's restrictions on
travel to the communist country.
WNED,
NY
|
Cuban
exile leader returns 'for peace'
He
told reporters he wanted to work "for a legal
space for the opposition from which we can build
a future based on pluralism and cohabitation".
But he said his calls for legalisation of opposition
parties in Cuba should not be seen as an open
challenge to Mr Castro.
BBC
|
August
6
FROM
CUBA
Cuban prisoner of conscience in bad
shape
The
wife of independent union leader Nelson Molinet
Espino says he has lost 40 pounds since his imprisonment
four months ago. Molinet, the secretary general
of the Confederation of Democratic Workers of
Cuba, is serving a 20-year sentence in the Kilo
8 ½ prison in Pinar del Rio province.
HAVANA
|
FROM
CUBA
Light bulb denied to Cuban political
prisoner
When
the brother of Miguel Galván Gutiérrez brought
him a light bulb to illuminate his cell at the
Aguica prison in Matanzas province, he was told
it could not be given to him.
HAVANA
|
The
Miami Herald
•
6 of 12 hijackers sent back by U.S. are freed
in Cuba
• Rights activist imprisoned in Cuba is honored
|
Yahoo!
•
Bush under attack from Cuban Americans who helped
elect him
• Havana launches web site to "fight media terrorism"
|
It's
time to fulfill promises on Cuba
The
Cubans are finally rebelling. But it's the Cubans
in Miami, not in Havana, who are up in arms. Simmering
doubts in the Cuban-American community about President
Bush's unexpectedly anemic Cuba policy have erupted
into open discontent with the recent decision
to negotiate the return of refugees to Cuba to
face potential summary trials.
Paul
Crespo / The Miami Herald
|
External
links
|
Iran and Cuba
Zap U.S. Satellites
State
sponsors of terrorism not only threaten U.S. interests
on land, at sea and in the air, but now they have
teamed up to attack U.S. assets in space. By successfully
jamming a U.S. communications satellite over the
Atlantic Ocean, the regimes of Cuba and Iran challenged
U.S. dominance of space and the assumptions of
free access to satellite communication that makes
undisputed U.S. military power possible.
Insight
on the News, DC
|
Myriam
Marquez: Devil is in details of hypocrisy in Cuba
The
12 Cubans figured that, even if they didn't reach
Florida and the U.S. Coast Guard caught them at
sea, their contraption was so outrageous, their
creativity so amazing, that the United States
would be hard-pressed to send them back. They
figured wrong.
The
Tallahasee Democrat, FL
|
Casting
West "CUBA FILM"
Claude
Brickell (dir.) is accepting submissions for Cuba
Film, a digital production set in Havana during
the Revolution. Shoot starts Sept. 15. There is
pay.
Back
Stage, NY
|
August
5
FROM
CUBA
Self-employed coachmen march to protest
abuses
Thirty-four
self-employed coachmen marched on the headquarters
of the Camagüey municipal government Wednesday
to protest perceived abuses perpetrated on them
by police and government inspectors.
HAVANA
|
FROM
CUBA
Independent labor leader held for
two days, threatened
An
independent labor leader here said he was detained
July 25 and brought under heavy pressure by Department
of State Security officials to cease his organizing
activities before being released two days later.
HAVANA
|
Wife
of jailed journalist Raúl Rivero attacks "unacceptable"
prison conditions
The
Castro regime has long targeted the United States
for intensive espionage activities. Castro himself
told CNN in an interview in 1998, "Yes, we have
sometimes dispatched Cuban citizens to the United
States to infiltrate counter-revolutionary organizations,
to inform us about activities that are of great
interest to us. I think we have a right to do
this."
Reporters
Without Borders
|
The
Miami Herald
•
7 Cubans from boat receive safe haven
• Truck lovers mourn the sinking of migrants'
floating Chevy
• Fate of 14 held by Coast Guard raises concerns
|
Cubans-American
leaders outraged by repatriation of Cubans
US
authorities said they repatriated a dozen Cubans
intercepted at sea, prompting outrage among Cuban-American
leaders who claimed the group included known dissidents
who risked severe punishment.
Yahoo!
News
|
August
4
FROM
CUBA
Cuban independent journalist's daughter
pressured
Officials
of the Department of State Security in Pinar del
Río summoned the daughter of independent journalist
Adela Soto to the department's provincial headquarters
and grilled her for more than four hours.
HAVANA
|
FROM
CUBA
Blackouts damage Cubans' appliances
Electric
service blackouts and, more frequently, fluctuations
in voltage, damage their hard-to-get and hard-to-repair
appliances, Cubans say. Refrigerators become the
biggest headache, because they are the most necessary
domestic appliance, and since they are always
plugged in, are most often damaged by variations
in the line voltage.
HAVANA
|
Cuba's
Political Prisoners
It
is contemptible that the Cuban regime imprisons
people for activities such as speaking their minds,
meeting with others or using typewriters. Yet
the regime compounds its discredited policies
with cruel inhumanity. It withholds medical treatment,
denies family visits and subjects prisoners to
subhuman conditions. The international community
must continue to insist that Cuba release these
political prisoners.
The
Miami Herald
|
Administration
officials debate Cuban repatriation
A
growing controversy about the fate of 19 Cuban
migrants aboard a Coast Guard cutter has prompted
a debate within the Bush administration about
its policy of repatriating most Cubans intercepted
at sea, according to several administration officials.
The
Miami Herald
|
Yahoo!
•
Cuba Tops U.S. in Pan Am Women's Hoops
• Cuba Wins Seven Pan Am Wrestling Golds
|
Squandering
the Cuban vote
As
the paper went to press last night, 19 Cubans
were awaiting their fate aboard a U.S. Coast Guard
ship. They had been picked up in a rag-tag boat
after escaping Cuba for Florida on Monday. Some
are relatives of a man executed for trying to
escape Cuba in April. As members of pro-democracy
opposition groups, the 19 face time in Mr. Castro's
prisons if they are sent back. This should offer
enough justification for asylum.
The
Washington Times
|
External
links
|
Repatriation
of Cubans sparks a family feud
When
the Bush administration decided last month to
repatriate a group of Cuban refugees intercepted
in a Cuban government boat, it highlighted a season
of atypical political turmoil in Florida for President
George W. Bush and his brother Jeb, Florida's
governor, and the state's dominant Republican
party.
Financial
Times, UK
|
One-time
revolutionary seeks peaceful move to democracy
in Cuba
At
one end of the Havana hotel's Internet café, Eloy
Gutiérrez Menoyo, former rebel fighter-turned-counterrevolutionary,
sips a café con leche and reflects optimistically
on possibilities for a democratic change in Cuba.
Sun-Sentinel,
Fl
|
Cuban
officials free 6 hijack suspects
Six
of the 12 accused Cuban hijackers whose repatriation
last week launched a firestorm of criticism of
the Bush administration have been released by
the Cuban government while others remain at state
security headquarters. Yosvel Chavez Novo, 22,
remains at the Villa Marista security headquarters
in Havana, apparently accused of leading the group
that stole the government-owned Gaviota 16 on
July 15, Perez Novo said. No trial date has been
announced.
The
Boston Globe
|
Cuba
libre
Since
1959, Cuban dictator Fidel Castro has outlived
eight presidential administrations. Even the loss
of billions of dollars of aid caused by the collapse
of the Soviet Union was not enough to loosen his
grip on power.
The
Washington Times
|
Politics
on Cuba Changing
Cuban
politics around the world has always been a tangle,
and now it seems to be unraveling and tangling
again. It's happening in Cuba itself, in Europe
and in the United States.
NewsMax.com
|
Azucar!
It
seemed as if his entourage, and then the whole
room, and by extension, the whole Latino universe,
was showering me with love. Everywhere I turned
I was met with smiles and unimaginable warmth
created by the expectation of Cruz's performance.
It was that kind of love that spilled out onto
the streets about two weeks ago when Cruz's faithful
wished her a final good-bye outside of St. Patrick's
Cathedral.
Ed
Moralez / Newsday
|
Cuba
embarks on an 'educational revolution'
Youth
are key to the socialist government's survival,
analysts say, yet many grew disillusioned in the
'90s. They dropped out of society. They left school.
And some turned to the black market to survive.
Tracey
Eaton / The Dallas Morning News
|
Forget
the cigar -- get a guayabera
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, stitching together a tropical shirt
that is a symbol of Cuban pride.
The
Globe and Mail, Canada
|
August
1
FROM
CUBA
Cuban government advocate censured
for turnabout
"Give
the people what belongs to the people," said Committee
for the Defense of the Revolution member Olga
Lidia Arboláez at a meeting held to censure her
for having signed on to Project Varela, an initiative
advocating change in Cuba's government through
peaceful means, such as elections.
HAVANA
|
FROM
CUBA
Cuba's Batabanó smothered in its own
waste
Batabanó,
a small fishing town about 30 miles south of Havana,
has a waste-disposal problem: garbage pickups
and septic tank cleaning services are so inadequate
that refuse is growing in the streets.
HAVANA
|
The
Miami Herald
•
Cubans' return 'just not right,' Gov. Bush says
• Some Cuban dissidents are heading to U.S. base
• Dozens of migrants land in Keys
• Cuban defector reaches Miami destination
|
Cuba:
Espionage
The
Castro regime has long targeted the United States
for intensive espionage activities. Castro himself
told CNN in an interview in 1998, "Yes, we have
sometimes dispatched Cuban citizens to the United
States to infiltrate counter-revolutionary organizations,
to inform us about activities that are of great
interest to us. I think we have a right to do
this."
U.S
Department of State
|
Independent
journalist in Guantánamo detained and whereabouts
unknown
His
wife explains that her husband was supposed to
appear at the police unit on July 24, but he didn't
go. Then the next the morning the Sector Chief
showed up at their home and took her husband away
to an undisclosed location. She has visited all
the police units and the only response she gets
is that they don't know where he is and that they
have nothing to do with that matter.
Information
Bridge Cuba Miami
|
External
links
|
Going
Loco For Mojitos
You
wouldn't know it in the moist heat of midsummer,
but Washington is a long way from Cuba. Maps don't
lie, and the quest to find an authentic mojito
in the area is a sure way to measure the distance
.
The
Washington Post
|
A
taste of Cuba
When
forced to discard a piece of his freshly baked
bread, Palomino, the new operator of the Sandwich
Market & Deli, must first show a small sign of
respect. "I never throw away a piece of bread
without giving it a little kiss," he said. It's
a tradition, he says, within his Cuban family
that was passed to him from his mother, Migdalia.
Fort
Pierce Tribune, FL
|
KU wins
U.S. approval to do research in Cuba
Now,
thanks to a travel license granted to Kansas University,
Berg will have the opportunity to see the Caribbean
island nation for himself and to research its
arts scene.
Lawrence
Journal World, KS
|
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