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Pope calls for lifting of US embargo on Cuba

VATICAN CITY, 8 (AFP) - Pope John Paul II implicitly called for the lifting of the US embargo on Cuba, when he received the credentials of the communist Caribbean state's new ambassador to the Vatican, Raul Roa Kouri.

"The Holy See desires strongly that the obstacles which prevent free communication and exchanges between the Cuban nation and part of the international community are overcome," he said.

This would bring about, "by means of a respectful and open dialogue with everyone, the conditions necessary for real development," he added.

The pope did not make a direct reference to the US embargo imposed in 1962 and toughened last year by President George W. Bush. He had already called for it to be lifted when he visited Cuba seven years ago.

John Paul II also called on the Cuban authorities "to continue their sustained efforts in the fields of health, education and culture," which he said were "among the pillars of the edifice of peace, which is not merely the absence of war."

Cuban migrant drowns off Honduran coast

TEGUCIGALPA, Honduras, Jan 09, 2005 (AP WorldStream via COMTEX) -- A Cuban migrant fell into the sea and drowned as a fishing vessel attempted to rescue a boat full of Cuban refugees, authorities said Sunday.

The boat carrying 15 migrants left Cuba on Dec. 25 and arrived Friday off the shores of the Caribbean island of Guanaja, according to migration officials.

Enrique Del Pino, 42, fell into the water while the migrants were being transferred to a fishing vessel, said Hector Martinez, a spokesman for the Honduran migration department.

"They looked for him for more than two hours, but couldn't find him," Martinez said.

The other 14 migrants were in good health and staying at school grounds on the Honduran island, he said.

Honduran authorities say many people take advantage of the November to January dry season to set out from Cuba on the risky journey in small vessels.

Honduras' government usually grants Cuban refugees permits to stay for 15 days and they are often extended. Meanwhile, many refugees leave Honduras for the United States before their temporary permits expire.

EU presses Cuba over diplomatic ties

BRUSSELS, 7 (AFP) - The European Union reiterated Thursday the need for Cuba to renew diplomatic ties with the whole 25-member bloc, saying it was "unfortunate" that Havana had resumed contacts only with eight EU states.

EU foreign ministers are to discuss this month how to proceed with sanctions in place against Cuba, after the resumption of ties by Havana with eight EU members who have stopped inviting dissidents to official embassy functions.

"It is a bit unfortunate that measures were for a few countries and not for others," said a diplomat from the EU's current Luxembourg presidency.

"We are discussing this," she added, but said: "It puts the EU in an uncomfortable position. The EU has a joint policy. And if we change a decision must be taken jointly," she added.

The EU froze relations with the communist government in June 2003 following a crackdown on opposition to President Fidel Castro. Seventy-five dissidents were rounded up and jailed for terms of between six and 28 years.

Three Cubans found guilty of trying to hijack a plane to the United States were executed.

The European Commission, the EU's executive arm, on Tuesday called the partial resumption of ties "a step in the right direction," but underlined that the EU wants Havana to resume full ties.

"Clearly diplomatic relations do need to be established with all members of the (European) Union," said commission spokeswoman Francoise Le Bail, adding that Cuba is on the agenda of a scheduled EU ministers' meeting on January 31.

"Cuba will be discussed... Various aspects will be discussed including sanctions on that day," she said.

According to diplomats, there is still strong opposition to ending the freeze on relations from the Czech Republic, the Netherlands and Poland, and intense debate is expected at the ministerial meeting later this month.

Cuba: Drought Will Reduce Sugar Harvest

HAVANA, 8 (AP) - Cuba predicted a smaller sugar harvest this year because of drought, one year after the island's harvest was down by a third.

The harvest for the 2004-2005 season in Cuba is expected to be just four months long, beginning in January and ending in April. Cuban sugar harvests usually begin in November or December and stretch into May or even June - a possible maximum of eight months.

Sugar Ministry official Oscar Almazan del Olmo blamed droughts for the expected smaller harvest, the Communist Party daily Granma reported Friday. He said the drought would depress sugar production in Thailand and India as well.

Cuba's 2003-2004 harvest was 2.5 million metric tons. That was down from the 2002-2003 harvest of 3.6 million metric tons.

More than a decade ago, harvests often were 6 million-7 million metric tons a year, but those have slowly declined since the collapse of the Soviet Union wiped out Cuba's most important market.

Cuba's sugar industry has been undergoing a major restructuring as officials struggle to make production more efficient.

Sugar has been replaced by tourism as the island's chief source of foreign income.

I am Cuba, the siberian mammoth (Soy Cuba, o mamute siberiano)

Deborah Young. Reviews - Variety, Mon Jan 3, 2005.

For the record, although Ferraz strongly implies that "I Am Cuba," shot in 1963, reemerged from the Soviet freezer due to the efforts of Martin Scorsese and Francis Ford Coppola, who endorsed Milestone's 1993 DVD release of the film, credit for rediscovering the film belongs to Tom Luddy, who spirited an unsubtitled print out of Moscow's Goskino and showed it at Telluride in 1992. The Telluride screening and a subsequent one by Peter Scarlet at the San Francisco film fest, both received standing ovations.

After the festival showings, Milestone bought the film from the Russians, who had forgotten Cuba's ICAIC owned all North American rights --- a dispute the co-producers eventually settled.

Filmed in Cuba, "Siberian Mammoth" saves the pic's revival as the final plum at the end of an exhaustive and sometimes overly detailed reconstruction of how "I Am Cuba" was made. Interviewing every aging dolly grip, sound recordist and production secretary was probably not necessary amid the wealth of material available, including plentiful excerpts from the original film.

Knockout opening sequence of a student's funeral on a crowded street illustrates Kalatosov's breathtakingly intricate long takes. Film's most famous tracking shot, aimed at showing the decadence of pre-Castro capitalism, snakes through a hotel to end on a rooftop swimming pool and dives underwater with a bevy of bikini-clad girls. Amusingly, Ferraz reports that this sequence's popularity with Russian viewers is one reason the authorities so quickly withdrew the film from release.

Another fascinating thread is the political background of the time including the installation of Soviet missiles in Cuba and the subsequent naval blockade in October 1962. This heightened Cold War tension brought sympathizing filmmakers Cesare Zavattini, Joris Ivens and French New Wavers Jean-Luc Godard and Agnes Varda down to Cuba. Docu ably captures the atmosphere of excitement behind the script by poet Yevgeny Yevtushenko and Enrique Pinedo Barnet, and the visuals by d.p. Sergei Urusevsky and camera operator Sasha Calzetti.

After the adventurous 14-month shoot, the audiences' negative reaction came as quite a cold shower. Cubans in particular thought pic's stylized images, huge crowd scenes and acrobatic long takes failed to reflect Cuban reality, and took to calling the film "I Am Not Cuba." They preferred Brazil's Cinema Novo and home-grown product like "Lucia" and "Memories of Underdevelopment," judged closer to the Cuban temperament.

For Ferraz, even "I Am Cuba's" reevaluation and the influence of its bold visuals on contemporary directors and cinematographers hold a sad irony. Calling "I Am Cuba" a fossil unearthed by film archaeologists, he mourns its missed chance to affect the politics of its time.

More than a making-of docu, "I Am Cuba, the Siberian Mammoth" focuses on a delirious time during the Cold War when Russian director Mikhail Kalatosov ("The Cranes Are Flying") and crew shot an epic celebration of Castro's revolution. The result, "I Am Cuba," the first Russian-Cuban co-production, disappointed audiences in both countries. Pic's rediscovery in the capitalist U.S., and its reappraisal as a masterpiece of visual pyrotechnics, gives Brazilian documaker Vicente Ferraz's tale an upbeat final twist --- after some mid-film doldrums. Apart from brisk TV sales, docu could enlighten auds in a double bill with the recently restored Kalatosov film.

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