CUBA
NEWS
The
Miami Herald
Castro assassination plot trial postponed
By Frances Robles. frobles@herald.com.
Posted on Wed, Jan. 21, 2004
PANAMA - The Panama trial of four Cuban
exiles accused of a plot to assassinate
Fidel Castro has been postponed indefinitely,
a defense attorney said. It had been set
to start today.
Luis Posada Carriles, considered Cuba's
most wanted terrorist, was arrested in Panama
City in late 2000 along with three Miami-Dade
County men -- Gaspar Jiménez, Guillermo
Novo and Pedro C. Remón -- accused
of plotting to kill Castro with a bomb while
he attended a presidential summit in Panama.
Thirty-eight months later, the four have
yet to stand trial for possession of explosives,
threatening public safety and illicit association.
Novo and Posada also are charged with carrying
false passports.
The Cuban government released a statement
Tuesday expressing ''worry and indignation''
over the ''maneuvers'' by defense attorney
Rogelio Cruz to delay the trial.
Cruz acknowledged that the latest delay
was caused by a change in judges that defense
attorneys requested. Judge Enrique Paniza
was replaced last month by Judge José
Ho Juistiniani after Cruz raised questions
about Paniza's impartiality. Ho postponed
the trial after saying he had not had time
to rule on important evidence.
But Cruz said he did not want the delay.
Posada, 75, was acquitted in the 1976 bombing
of a Cuban jetliner that killed 73 people
but escaped from a Venezuelan prison in
1985 while awaiting a prosecution appeal.
The former CIA operative acknowledged and
later denied bankrolling a string of 1997
Havana hotel bombings that killed a tourist.
The other defendants all have links to
various attacks on Cuban government targets
over the past four decades.
If convicted on the Panamanian charges,
they could face seven years in prison.
Chávez's brother gets post in
Cuba
CARACAS - (AP) -- Venezuelan President
Hugo Chávez has appointed his brother
as ambassador to Cuba, an ally that has
joined Venezuela in standing up to Washington,
Venezuela's foreign minister said Tuesday.
Roy Chaderton said that Adán Chávez,
the president's older brother and close
confidant, would replace Julio Montes at
the Venezuelan Embassy in Havana. Montes
has been ambassador to Cuba since November
2000.
The older Chávez, a left-leaning
university professor, previously had served
as the president's secretary and held important
positions within the ruling party.
Hugo Chávez has irked officials
in Washington by forging strong ties with
Cuba and forming a close personal relationship
with Cuban President Fidel Castro.
Venezuela, one of the world's largest oil
producers and a major supplier to United
States, has signed numerous bilateral pacts
with Cuba.
Venezuela sells 53,000 barrels of oil a
day to Cuba at discount rates. In return,
Cuba sends medicine and materials for a
nationwide literacy program to Venezuela.
Thousands of Cuban doctors and sports trainers
are working in this poor South American
country and thousands of Venezuelans receive
free medical treatment in Cuba.
Foes accuse Chávez of steering Venezuela
toward a Cuba-style dictatorship and insist
he must be stopped before he can seek another
six-year term in 2006.
Opponents are pushing for a recall on Chávez's
rule this year.
Cuba enters wireless world
Despite high costs and
strict ownership rules, more Cubans are
obtaining cellphones, the island's new status
symbol.
By Tracey Eaton, Dallas
Morning News. Posted on Tue, Jan. 20, 2004.
HAVANA - Cubans wear them like fine jewelry,
but they don't glitter. They ring. They
chime. They even vibrate.
Cellphones, old news in most of the Americas,
are the latest rage. They're a symbol of
status and power, a way to slip into the
wireless world, if only for a moment.
But they're hard to get in a place where
the telecommunications industry is so tightly
regulated. And they're expensive to operate,
as much as $5.85 per minute. Still, many
Cubans are dying to be connected.
''I got a cellphone to be in fashion,''
said Yoel, 21, a Havana market worker. "I
want to be in on the party.''
But it's not always easy to reach out and
touch someone.
Technically, Cuba's state-run cellphone
companies can offer service only to foreigners
or to Cubans who are authorized to go wireless.
Thousands now have service. But some ordinary
Cubans find ways around the rules, usually
by persuading a visitor or tourist to help
them.
Cuba's leading cellphone company is government-run
Cubacel. Its local rates range from 30 to
70 cents per minute. Callers are also charged
30 to 66 cents for incoming calls.
Long distance is pricier, from $2.45 to
$5.85 per minute -- serious money in a place
where most people earn just $10 or $12 per
month.
SLOW GROWTH
The high rates and strict regulations have
prevented Cuba's cellphone industry from
growing more rapidly, some telecommunications
experts say.
Mobile phones remain scarce on the island,
despite their allure.
Only 22 countries, including Liberia and
the Central African Republic, have fewer
wireless phones per capita than Cuba, according
to NationMaster.com, a website listing thousands
of statistics.
Many Cubans don't have home phones, either.
Citizens' commissions decide who gets land
phones, taking into account an applicant's
work history, revolutionary loyalty and
activity in neighborhood block committees
formed to detect traitors and other undesirables.
They also give priority to special cases
-- disabled and sick people, including those
with cancer or AIDS.
Castro loyalists say they're working to
narrow the so-called digital divide between
their nation and its richer neighbors.
The country had just 352,451 fixed lines
in 1995, but that has since doubled, Ignacio
González, Cuba's communications minister,
told state-run media in March 2003.
China is helping out, giving Cuba $200
million in financing to buy Chinese telecommunications
equipment. And Cuba is installing thousands
of new public phones.
Still, the country has only half the phone
lines per capita as the average Latin American
nation, World Bank figures show.
Cuba's wireless industry could also take
off, reaching as many as 3.5 million users
in just three years, said Manuel Cereijo,
a Florida International University professor
and communications specialist. But that
won't happen, he contends, unless the country
adopts "a democratic and free market
economy.''
Cuban officials say they have no interest
in capitalism, nor do they want wild, uncontrolled
growth in technology.
Instead, they say, they're trying to provide
phone lines, Internet service and other
forms of electronic communication to people
in a fair and equitable way.
U.S.-Cuban politics and the longtime American
ban on trade with the island often get in
the way, said Luis Manuel Diaz, Cubacel's
general manager.
Still, revenues at Cubacel grew from $5.5
million in 1987 to $13.1 million last year.
Profits would have been higher if not for
the trade embargo, Diaz said.
NO AGREEMENTS
The sanctions and other restrictions have
made it impossible for Cuba to establish
roaming agreements with the United States,
for instance. So the 200,000 Cuban Americans
and Americans who journey to the island
every year must activate their phones in
Cuba before using them, unlike visitors
from Mexico, Canada and other nations. That
discourages many clients and cuts into potential
profits, Diaz said.
Cubacel had 17,851 customers at last year's
end, up from 2,900 in 1997. Most of the
clients are Cubans who work for state-run
enterprises, ranging from hotels and travel
agencies to government ministries. Other
customers include foreign business managers,
diplomats and journalists.
Neither Cubacel nor C-Com, Cuba's only
other state-run wireless phone company,
were able to offer statistics on how many
ordinary Cubans have managed to evade the
rules and get phones.
But more cellphones are turning up on the
streets, in the hands of prostitutes and
pimps, vendors and cabbies.
Jorge, a taxi driver who has gone mobile,
said he tries to use his phone for business
only. Just then, it rang. He answered, fired
off a few sentences, then hung up.
It went clang-clang again, a few seconds
of talk followed and he hung up.
This went on for several minutes.
''My wife called,'' he said.
"We try to keep our calls to less
than seven seconds each. That's when the
phone company starts charging you.''
Phones in Cuba
Posted on Tue, Jan. 20,
2004.
o Only 22 countries worldwide have fewer
wireless phones per capita than Cuba, according
to NationMaster.com. That ranking is improving
as Cuba expands service, but the country
is still about as wired as such far-flung
spots as Algeria, Pakistan and the Republic
of the Congo, statistics show.
o Cuba has only half the phone lines per
capita as the average Latin American nation,
World Bank figures show.
o Cubacel, Cuba's largest cellphone company,
reported having 17,851 customers at last
year's end.
o As for the cellphone industry elsewhere
in Latin America, business is thriving.
The number of users jumped from 3.6 million
in 1995 to 60.6 million in 2000. And by
2005, it's expected to hit 138 million,
experts say.
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