CUBA
NEWS
Yahoo!
Miami Prosecutor Wants Cuban Case Reheard
AP, September 29, 2005.
Federal prosecutors asked the full 11th
U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals to reconsider
the case of five suspected Cuban spies whose
convictions and sentences were tossed out
last month.
U.S. Attorney R. Alexander Acosta said
in a statement Wednesday that the dismissals
by a three-judge panel of the court ran
counter to Supreme Court decisions in similar
cases. He did not elaborate.
The panel ruled Aug. 9 that the convictions
and sentences of the Cubans were invalid
because of extensive pretrial publicity,
community prejudice in Miami and inflammatory
remarks by prosecutors. The judges ordered
that a new trial be held outside Miami.
The five, part of the Miami-based Wasp
Network, were convicted in 2001 of illegally
serving as agents of a foreign government.
The ringleader, Gerardo Hernandez, and two
others also were convicted of espionage
conspiracy, and Hernandez was convicted
of murder conspiracy for his role in the
deaths of four Cuban exiles shot down by
Cuban MiGs in 1996.
All the men remain in federal prison, pending
the outcome of further litigation. Three
received life sentences, one got 19 years
and one got 15 years.
Paul McKenna, Hernandez's trial attorney,
predicted the government would have trouble
winning its latest appeal.
"It was so heavily fact-laden that
it is going to be very difficult or impossible
to get a full court to reverse the decision,"
McKenna said.
The five acknowledged being Cuban agents
but said they were spying on exile groups
opposed to Cuban President Fidel Castro,
not the United States.
Castro sends message to Hu Jintao to
mark 45 years of Cuban-Chinese ties
HAVANA, 29 (AFP) - Cuban President Fidel
Castro has sent his "warmest fraternal
salute" to the people and authorities
of China, marking 45 years of bilateral
ties.
In a letter to President Hu Jintao published
in the Cuban Communist Party newspaper Granma,
Castro said "we deeply value that,
over these four and a half decades, our
relations have been marked by warm feelings
of solidarity, and commitment to socialism
and mutual support."
China is Cuba's key number two trade partner
after Venezuela. Beijing also is a key source
of financing and investment in Cuba, the
Americas' only communist-run nation, though
Havana has not opened up similarly to market
economics.
Less U.S. Travel Prompts Cuba to Lash
Out
By Vanessa Arrington, Associated
Press Writer
Cuba Lashes Out at Decades-Old
U.S. Embargo After Numbers Show Fewer Americans
Traveling There
HAVANA, 28 (AP) -- The number of Americans
traveling to Cuba has fallen dramatically
since 2003, and those who do visit the island
without their government's permission are
more likely to be fined, Cuba said as it
lashed out against a decades-old U.S. embargo.
Vice Foreign Minister Bruno Rodriguez
Parrilla lamented the effects of the embargo,
which has been steadily strengthened under
President Bush and prohibits virtually all
trade between the two countries except for
the sale of some U.S. food and medicine
to the communist-run island.
"We are talking about an economic
war against our country," Rodriguez
said Tuesday. "It is unfounded, unfair,
and, moreover, deeply illegal."
U.S. officials defend the embargo, saying
unfettered trade and travel to the island
would prop up Fidel Castro's government.
The imprisonment of dissidents and restrictions
on economic and political freedoms justify
the policy, aimed at forcing a change in
Cuba's leadership, they say.
A Cuban report released ahead of an upcoming
vote on the embargo at the United Nations
said 57,145 Cuban-Americans visited their
native country last year, compared with
115,050 in 2003 -- a 50 percent drop.
For other Americans, the number of visits
fell from 85,809 in 2003 to 51,027 last
year, the report said. The numbers continued
to decrease in 2005, it said.
At the same time, those who defy U.S. travel
restrictions are more likely to be fined
under Bush's government, according to the
report.
In the first quarter of 2005, the U.S.
Treasury Department's Office of Foreign
Assets Control fined 307 Americans for unauthorized
travel to Cuba -- almost as many as the
316 people fined all of last year, the report
said.
The typical fine for first-time offenders
who travel to Cuba is $7,500 each, the Treasury
Department office said.
President John F. Kennedy imposed economic
sanctions against Cuba in 1963 during the
Cold War with the aim of isolating the Cuban
government economically and depriving it
of U.S. dollars. Forty years later, President
Bush has sought more stringent enforcement
of provisions forbidding most travel here.
Critics of the embargo say it is outdated
and has not worked because Castro remains
in power and the nation is still communist.
They also say the United States trades with
other communist countries, such as China
and Vietnam, and the policy hurts average
Cubans more than Castro.
Democrats and free-trade Republicans in
the U.S. Congress for years have pushed
for easing the sanctions, but they have
yet to make headway against an administration
determined to keep up the pressure.
The U.N. General Assembly has condemned
the embargo for 13 straight years and urged
the United States to end it. Last year's
U.N. resolution was approved by a 179-4
vote, with only the United States, Israel,
Marshall Islands and Palau opposed.
Leading up to this year's U.N. vote in
the fall, Rodriguez presented an extensive
document Tuesday outlining the damages Cuba
says the embargo has caused to the country's
economy, foreign trade, and health, education
and cultural sectors.
Cuban Foreign Minister Felipe Perez Roque
was scheduled to launch Tuesday's campaign
himself but had to attend to other business,
officials said.
Hyundai Heavy Clinches Order Worth US$330
MLN From Cuba
SEOUL, Sept 28 Asia Pulse - Hyundai Heavy
Industries Co., the world's largest shipbuilder,
said Wednesday it has won a US$330 million
order for electric power generators from
Cuba.
"Hyundai Heavy is to deliver 244 packaged
power generators with a combined capacity
of 510 megawatts to Cuban authorities in
charge of electricity by the end of 2007,"
a Hyundai official said.
The small-size generators are suitable
for remote areas like islands, he said.
The deal more than doubled South Korea's
annual exports to Cuba.
Hyundai's other deals won in Latin America
so far this year included power generators
with a combined capacity of 42 megawatts
from Mexico, 14 megawatts from El Salvador
and 7 megawatts from Dominica.
(Yonhap)
India's OVL To Invest About US$150 MLN
In 7 Blocks In Cuba
NEW DELHI, Sept 26 Asia Pulse - ONGC Videsh
Ltd, the overseas arm of state-owned Oil
and Natural Gas Corp (ONGC), will invest
close to US$150 million in the seven oil
and gas blocks it recently acquired in Cuba.
The blocks hold more than 4 billion barrels
of oil reserves.
"The blocks have huge potential and
investments could be of the order of US
$150 million," ONGC Chairman and Managing
Director Subir Raha told reporters here.
OVL has entered into an agreement on September
15 with Repsol-YPF of Spain to acquire 30
per cent participating interest in the deepwater
exploration Blocks 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 36
and part of Block 35 in Cuba.
Spain's Repsol-YPF is the operator of the
blocks with 40 per cent stake and the remaining
is with Norway's Norsk Hydro.
The acquisition, which marks OVL's foray
into the Cuban oil and gas industry, will
be completed after formalisation of the
contract by the Cuban Government, he said.
"An exploratory well drilled in one
of these blocks indicated presence hydrocarbons,"
Raha said.
These blocks are in the third exploration
period. Work program during this period
includes acquisition 3000 sq km 3-D seismic
data. Drilling wells on selected prospects
will be decided in the next exploration
phase.
"With proven presence of petroleum
system in Exclusive Economic Zone, Cuba,
the area has drawn attention of many international
oil companies. The Blocks have a good potential
and is especially significant for OVL as
it would open door for other opportunities
in the Latin American Hydrocarbon sector.
With this acquisition, OVL is now present
in 13 countries," he said.
(PTI)
San Diegans fly to Cuba to build playgrounds
San Diego Daily Transcript.
September 25, 2005.
Hardly anyone receives permission to travel
here for any purpose, but on Sep. 24, two
30-passenger aircraft will leave Miami International
Airport in Florida with over 50 volunteers
to travel to the island of Cuba to participate
in a project whose goal is to build four
playgrounds in one week for the children
of Havana.
These American volunteers will join local
Cuban families to assemble and erect new
swing sets, climbing structures, crawling
tubes, triple twists, turbo towers, infant
playhouses and many more pieces of the latest
playground equipment.
This project was the idea of a San Diego
County entrepreneur and real estate investor
Bill Hauf, who six years ago formed a nonprofit
foundation, It's Just The Kids, Inc., to
"fulfill the unrealized dreams of children,"
the organization said in a press release.
Hauf's organization will construct four
new playgrounds in Cuba.
In May 2003, It's Just the Kids helped
build three similar playgrounds going through
the bureaucratic process for four years.
Hauf received the approvals necessary from
both governments to build these playgrounds,
which took a quarter million dollars and
100 Americans working with Cuban family
members to assemble and erect the equipment.
Hoping to build on what they did two years
ago, 50 American volunteers will arrive
in Cuba on Saturday morning, September 24.
They will immediately head for their hotel
to check-in, eat lunch and then be sped
across Havana Harbor to the neighborhood
of Cotterro to start unpacking shipping
containers, sorting parts, pouring concrete,
assembling structures and erecting playground
structures for the first of the four playground
sites.
At night the group will spend time with
the Cuban families, listen to Cuban music,
eat Cuban food, see a ballet or baseball
game and learn about Cuban culture and life
in modern day Havana.
The week will conclude with ribbon cutting
ceremonies and a farewell celebration dinner
on Friday night.
It's Just the Kids, Inc. is a San Diego-based
nonprofit corporation dedicated to the needs
of children at home and around the world.
Its goal is to help children by providing
that which is necessary to promote their
physical and mental health and development.
| 
