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U.S. Denies Cubans Visas for Conference
By Anita Snow, Associated
Press Writer
HAVANA, 29 - Cuban scholars charged Wednesday
that the U.S. government denied visas to
more than 60 Cubans seeking to attend conference
on Latin America in the United States.
Milagro Martinez, a political scientist
who was to attend the Latin American Studies
Association congress in Las Vegas next month,
said the American mission in Havana announced
this week that she and more than 60 other
Cuban academics were denied U.S. visas.
The reason for the denial was not immediately
clear. Officials at the U.S. Interests Section
in Havana declined to comment Wednesday
afternoon and referred calls to the U.S.
State Department in Washington, which did
not immediately issue a statement on the
matter.
Marysa Navarro, president of the Latin
American Studies Association and a professor
at Dartmouth College, confirmed Wednesday
that the Cuban scholars' visas were denied.
She expressed deep personal disappointment,
but declined to comment further until the
association had time to formulate an official
response.
The Latin American Studies Association,
known as LASA, is the world's largest professional
association bringing together people and
institutions studying the region from all
disciplines.
The group's international congress, held
every 18 months, is the world's leading
forum for academic discussion on Latin America
and the Caribbean.
Cuba Blames U.S. Trade Embargo for Banes
By Vanessa Arrington, Associated
Press Writer. Sep 30.
HAVANA - In communist Cuba, milk rations
for children stop at age 7, blackouts stop
the fans in sweltering homes, and it's anyone's
guess whether there'll be cooking gas this
month.
Such banes of daily life are the product
of the U.S. trade embargo and could be removed
in a year of sanctions being lifted, Cuba's
foreign minister said Thursday as he launched
the island's annual international campaign
against the embargo.
Cuba has lost an average of $1.8 billion
a year in trade since the first sanctions
were imposed in 1960, a year after the Cuban
revolution thrust Fidel Castro (news - web
sites) into power, Felipe Perez Roque told
a news conference.
Steadily strengthened in subsequent years,
the embargo now prohibits virtually all
trade between the two countries, except
for the sale to Cuba of some U.S. food and
medicine.
Cuba is free to trade with the rest of
the world, and it's not always clear which
hardships are due to sanctions, and which
to a centrally controlled economy criticized
by detractors as inefficient. But Perez
Roque blamed it all on the sanctions, calling
them "an act of genocide."
"Seven of every 10 Cubans have been
born under and lived during the blockade,"
Perez Roque said. "They have had to
suffer the adversity and limitations of
this brutal policy."
If the island could recover income from
trading with the United States, within a
year Cuba could build 100,000 new houses,
supply cooking gas to 2.4 million homes
that currently go without and provide a
quart of milk a day to all youth aged 7
to 15 in this country of 11.2 million people,
the minister said.
It could also double the monthly chicken
rations and eliminate power cuts imposed
to conserve energy, Perez Roque said.
During frequent summer blackouts, some
Cubans were heard hollering obscenities
on their porches, so angry were they to
come home from work and find their scanty
rations rotting in their refrigerators.
Lacking spare parts, owners of the vintage
Chevrolets and Buicks that still cruise
Havana's streets keep them running with
gadgets begged and borrowed from friends
or bought on the black market.
Cubans earning average government salaries
of less than $20 a month make fans out of
salvaged metal and motors from old Soviet
refrigerators. Little boys build skateboards
out of discarded wheels and scrap wood.
But some things cannot be "invented"
- the word Cubans use to describe making
or obtaining something necessary for everyday
life.
Cubans in recent weeks have reported difficulty
in finding antibiotics for children with
throat infections.
At Thursday's news conference, a blind
child said that because of sanctions, his
school must buy Braille machines and paper
from other countries, not the United States.
That pushes up the cost by more than 40
percent, Perez Roque said.
Castro's opponents blame him and say sanctions
are necessary to squeeze the island's economy
and push Castro out of power.
But others question the effectiveness of
economic isolation.
For years, Democrats and free-trade Republicans
in the U.S. Congress have pushed for easing
the sanctions. But a recent vote to that
effect by the U.S. House of Representatives
is expected to make little headway against
an administration determined to keep up
the pressure.
During a campaign swing in August through
Miami, home to the largest concentration
of Cuban exiles in the United States, President
Bush (news - web sites) reiterated his strong
support of the sanctions.
"The people of Cuba should be free
from the tyrant. And I believe that enforcing
the embargo is a necessary part of that
strategy," he said, eliciting cheers
and applause from thousands of Cuban-Americans
in the audience.
For the last 13 years, the U.N. General
Assembly has condemned the embargo. Last
year, the vote was 179-3 with only the United
States, Israel and the Marshall Islands
opposed.
Leading up to this year's U.N. vote on
Oct. 28, Perez Roque presented an extensive
document Thursday outlining the damages
Cuba says the embargo has caused to the
country's economy, foreign trade, and health,
education and cultural sectors.
"Cuba demands that our people be left
in peace so we can construct our future,"
said Perez Roque.
"The blockade gets tougher all the
time," he said. "Nonetheless,
we're still here."
Energy crisis has Cubans sweating
By Gary Marx Tribune's Havana
correspondent
It's early afternoon in this sweltering
town, but air conditioners are off, the
lights are out and stereos are silent.
Like much of Cuba, Manicaragua is suffering
through one of the lengthy blackouts that
have plagued this island nation in recent
months, setting residents on edge, fanning
discontent and forcing Cuban President Fidel
Castro (news - web sites) to take to the
airwaves to cool tempers.
"We have a crisis," Castro said
this week during a national television broadcast
to address the energy shortages.
The 78-year-old leader said there was no
quick fix for Cuba's antiquated and problem-plagued
electrical grid but pledged to significantly
boost the island's electrical output.
Power failures are nothing new in Cuba,
but they have intensified in recent months
and changed life in large ways and small.
More than 100 factories are being temporarily
closed to save electricity. The work and
school day is being shortened by 30 minutes.
Daylight savings time will be kept through
the winter months so students will not have
to study in the dark if a blackout hits
during the morning hours. Streetlights also
are being dimmed, and air conditioners are
being turned off during peak hours to conserve
energy.
In Manicaragua, a town 175 miles southeast
of Havana set amid lush rolling hills and
renowned for its world-class tobacco, one
of two local banks and its only currency
exchange shop are closed during the blackouts.
The local photography shop can't print
photographs without power. Restaurants can't
serve ice cream or offer croquetas, a popular
fried snack in Cuba.
Some residents are sleeping on rooftops
or in doorways to cope with the stifling
heat, which turns the town's cement-block
homes into ovens.
"It's unbearable at night," said
Marisa Alejo, a 43-year-old special-education
teacher who tries to keep cool by fanning
herself with a rolled-up newspaper or a
piece of cardboard.
Yasmani Torres Alejo, Marisa's 15-year-old
son, said his favorite discotheque is often
closed because of a lack of power. So too
is La Yaya, Manicaragua's only movie theater.
"People are afraid to go to the movies,"
explained Juan Carlos Aguila, La Yaya's
manager. "Two weeks ago, we were 15
or 20 minutes into a movie and the power
went out."
Diplomats and observers say the blackouts,
lasting up to 12 hours a day, represent
a sharp challenge to the leadership of Latin
America's only communist state.
The last protest against the Cuban government
occurred a decade ago when the island nation
suffered a devastating economic crisis sparked
by the collapse of the Soviet Union, then
Cuba's main trading partner and the supplier
of cheap fuel for its power plants.
Experts say they don't expect public protests
to erupt this time because many Cubans are
better off than in the early 1990s, when
the nation suffered chronic power outages
and food shortages.
Cubans also say they fear arrest or worse
if they speak out against the government.
"There is a lot of fear and political
manipulation," said Elsio Alejo, a
29-year-old Manicaragua farmer who is no
relation to Marisa. "We don't have
a way to protest what is happening."
But Castro's prime-time appearances Monday,
Tuesday and Wednesday on live television
for a total of about seven hours indicates
the government recognizes the gravity of
the energy crisis, according to diplomats
and observers.
Dressed in his familiar olive green uniform,
Castro questioned top electrical officials
during the broadcasts about the blackouts,
which were attributed to inefficient power
plants, faulty transmission lines and other
technical problems.
Castro also listened as officials explained
how workers at the nation's most important
power plant broke a key rotor during routine
maintenance. The plant, which supplies 15
percent of the nation's power, has been
shut since May.
Cuban officials used Wednesday evening's
broadcast to announce emergency conservation
measures, though Castro acknowledged that
some Cubans were probably not able to watch
because of the power failures.
Marisa Alejo was one of those who couldn't
tune in. "There was a blackout,"
she said.
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