Chronicle on Cuba - March 2004

Domestic Affairs

March 1: Raúl Castro's daughter called for an amendment of the Cuban constitution making it explicitly illegal to discriminate against homosexuals. Mariela Castro, head of the National Centre for Sexual Education (CENESEX), said that, while the National Constitution preserves the rights of all, it makes no specific reference to homosexuals. (El Nuevo Herald, 1/3/04)

March 1: According to relatives, dissident economist Oscar Espinosa Chepe, serving out a 20-year prison sentence, was diagnosed with "cancerous tumours" at the Havana Carlos J. Finlay hospital. (Encuentro en la Red, 1/3/04)

March 2: The November 30 Democratic Party "Frank País" called on all relatives of political prisoners and the opposition in general to permanently fast with Gregoria Corrales Borges, 61 years old and mother of political prisoner Luis Campos Corrales. Mrs Corrales is fasting in solidarity with her son who is on hunger strike. In February, Luis Campos Corrales was transferred from the Guanajay Prison to Agüica, a maximum security prison in Matanzas province. Luis Campos refused the food he was offered stating that he will continue a hunger strike until they tell him the reason of his transfer. He also refuses to wear the common prisoner's uniform. (Puente Informativo, 2/3/04)

March 3: According to Eloy Gutiérrez Menoyo, leader of the opposition group Cambio Cubano (Cuban Change), Fidel Castro's government could "very soon" review the sentences of up to 28 years in prison given to 75 Cuban dissidents last year. Menoyo expressed certainty that there are Cuban government officials who believe the judgments to be excessive. In his opinion, "a mistake was made that has done the country more harm than good." (EFE, 3/2/04)  

March 3: Cuban elementary school students from third to sixth grade will start studying English this year, as announced by an official from the Cuban Education Ministry. Up to now, the English language was just taught in secondary, senior high schools and universities in the island. (Prensa Latina, 3/3/04)

March 3: Corriente Agramontina, an illegal opposition group made up of dissident Cuban lawyers, denounced the harassment endured by three of its members in jail, including Juan Carlos González Leyva, the world's only blind political prisoner. The document, signed by the organization's president, René Gómez Manzano, points that González Leyva, though still confined, is yet to be sentenced. (AFP, 3/3/04)

March 4: Specialists from more than 15 countries discussed Autism -- absorption in fantasy as an escape from reality -- during a session of the 4th Cuban Conference on Neurology. Participants at the conference, which is being held in Santiago de Cuba, talked about the neurological bases of this generalizing disorder, manifested by alterations referred to as sociability, language, imagination and the ability to play. (Radio Habana Cuba, 5/3/04)

March 5: The first successful cellular heart transplant operation was recently performed in Cuba with stem cells taken from bone marrow. According to health officials, the surgery was not only the first of its kind in Cuba, but also in Central America and the Caribbean. (Radio Habana Cuba, 5/3/04)

March 7: In commemoration of the International Day of Women, hundreds of representatives of the Cuban Women´s Federation (FMC) announced their eighth congress next year. (Radio Habana Cuba, 8/3/04)

March 8: About 3,500,000 people visited the most recent Cuban Book Fair in the 34 venues all over the country. Cuban Book Institute Deputy President Edel Morales announced the number during the closing ceremony of the event, which sold 3,200,000 books. Beginning in Havana, and continuing throughout Cuba, the Fair went beyond all expectations, the official stated. (Prensa Latina, 8/3/04)

March 8: Relatives and human rights activists are urgently appealing to the Red Cross Organization and the international community to save the life of 52-year old Julio Antonio Valdés Guevara, an imprisoned Cuban dissident hospitalized with a serious kidney condition. (El Nuevo Herald, 9/3/04)

March 9: Oswaldo Payá Sardiñas, promoter of the Varela Project, denounced the serious situation of four political prisoners presently on a hunger strike protesting the abuses being perpetrated against Iván Hernández Carrillo, public relations secretary of the “Pedro Luis Boitel” Democracy Party, director of the Varela Project, and now a political prisoner. Alberto Domínguez --member of the Christian Liberation Movement, confined in the same prison as Hernández Carrillo--, and three other political prisoners have been on a hunger strike for more than 10 days, demanding to stop abuses against Hernández Carrillo. "Therefore I call all those who sympathize with democracy and respect for human rights to pray and express their solidarity with these Cuban prisoners, to demand that our brothers be treated with dignity and their immediate release,” stated Payá Sardiñas. (Puente Informativo, 13/3/04)

March 9: Two groups of Cuban dissidents announced that they were starting a campaign to gather petitions for a moratorium on the death penalty on the communist-ruled island. Leonardo Calvo, coordinator of the Dialogue for Rights Coalition, told a news conference that the campaign will include a "national debate" and an anonymous survey in which citizens can explain their reasons for opposing capital punishment in Cuba. Beside the Coalition, the other organization pressing the issue is the Reflection Table of the Moderate Opposition. The campaign aims to start a national debate on human rights on the island to coincide with the upcoming meeting of the UN Commission on Human Rights in Geneva. The signed petitions will be presented to the legislature, said the coalition coordinator, who did not disclose the number of petitions the dissident group hoped to collect nor when the campaign will end. (EFE, 9/3/04)

March 10: New studies about the reproduction of orchids through biotechnological techniques are being discussed at the 7th International Workshop on Orchids, which runs in Havana. Nearly 50 experts from several continents are taking part in the workshop, which is held every two years at the Botanical Garden of Soroa, the largest of its kind in Cuba. Pedro Pablo Rivero, director of the Botanical Garden of Soroa, said that the main purpose of the event is to protect the bio-diversity of orchids, one of the species with the greatest danger of extinction in the world. (Radio Habana Cuba, 10/3/04)

March 10: The mother of a dissident who has been jailed for two years without charges said her son was critically ill and called on Cuban authorities to put him on trial. "He is a skeleton of his former self and has lost a lot of weight. He was vomiting blood from an ulcer when I saw him. If he dies the government will be responsible," said Alcira Avila, mother of Leonardo Bruzon. Bruzon, a 48-year-old former restaurant worker, went on hunger strike on January 27 to demand a trial, she said. (Reuters, 10/3/04)

March 13: Four of the six species of marine turtles that exist on our planet live in the Peninsula de Guanahacabibes Biosphere Reserve, located in the westernmost part of the island. Named "Fish with Shield" by ancient culture, the turtles find secure refuge in this region, which is considered one of the few homes to different species of turtles on the planet. Surrounded by a platform of coral reefs that protect wild life, this region has 14 almost virgin beaches serving as a home for the turtles. The Peninsula of Guanahacabibes is a protected area with highly trained personnel that carry out an environmental program in the area. (Radio Habana Cuba, 13/3/04)

March 14: Coming up on the one-year mark since the beginning of a wave of arrests that put 75 Cuban dissidents behind bars, their relatives and the opposition are not holding their breath to see the prisoners released any time soon. The crackdown on internal dissents that began at the middle of March 2004, led to the summary sentencing of some 75 opposition members to up to 28 years in prison on charges of conspiring against Cuban independence with the United States and undermining the Cuban Revolution's goals. The blow left the opposition more fragmented than it had been before, although some of its members claim the heavy-handed sanctions forced them to reorganize. This is the case for Christian Liberation Movement (MCL) leader Oswaldo Paya, who, in a recent interview with EFE said that the 50 members of his organization who were arrested have been replaced by new members and a "renewal" of the MCL's foundations has been effected. (EFE, 14/3/04)

March 14: Three-time Olympic medalist Juan Maren of Cuba defeated Moises Sanchez of Spain in a Greco-Roman wrestling Olympic qualifying tournament. (Seattle Post, 14/3/04)

March 15: After reaching rock bottom in 1993 at the height of the country´s economic crisis, Cuban book publishing has been on a steady rise, increasing from two to ninety million volumes in 2003. By the end of the 1980´s, approximately 50 million books were being published annually but the figure took a nosedive after the collapse of the Socialist Bloc and the subsequent difficulties faced by the island. Now, banking on education and culture and the nation’s human resources as its greatest asset, Cuban publishing houses are busy trying to meet the large demand of a population that loves to read. (Prensa Latina, 15/3/04)

March 15: Dr. Omelio Borroto, Deputy Minister of Public Health, and Dr. Noel González, head of the Heart Transplant Team at the Hermanos Ameijeiras Hospital, revealed that Cuban scientists are currently working with mother cells to regenerate organs in animals. They said it was important to search for a better alternative to transplants, as the risk of rejection by the recipient's body is eliminated or greatly diminished. The doctors explained that the Cuban health system is against human cloning for ethical reasons -- primarily promoting preventive health care, transplants and organ regenerating procedures as ways of prolonging life. Among the pharmaceuticals developed to strengthen body response to the ageing process are Vimang -- made up of extracts from bark of mango trees -- and PV-2, a natural preparation based on morinda royoc and manufactured through homeopathic procedures. (Radio Habana Cuba, 15/3/04)

March 17: Oswaldo Paya, Cuba's most internationally celebrated opposition figure, proclaimed "Cuban Spring" in a letter released to mark the anniversary of a government crackdown on dissidents. In homage to the 1968 Prague Spring, in which Czech dissidents and artists protested against communism before a brutal Soviet crackdown, Mr. Paya said the suffering of Cuban dissidents had focused the world's attention on Fidel Castro's regime. "They are in cages, without space, even though they fought for the freedom of all," he said of 75 dissidents who have been jailed since their arrest last year, most for their participation in a petition campaign demanding basic human rights. (The Washington Times, 17/3/04)

March 17: Wives of Cuban dissidents jailed a year ago for opposing Fidel Castro said their husbands were withering away under harsh prison conditions and demanded their release. "My husband is dying slowly," said Cruz Delia Aguilar, whose husband Julio Antonio Valdes, needs a kidney transplant. "I ask for his release into the hands of the International Red Cross." To honor the imprisoned dissidents, their wives and mothers will take part in a 12-hour fast accompanied by a prayer chain, Gisela Delgado, wife of the jailed Hector Palacios, told the press. The largest gathering will be held at Delgado's home in Havana, but she said similar events were planned in other cities throughout the country. Most of the dissidents "are languishing in subhuman conditions that are a violation of the U.N.'s regulations concerning the treatment of prisoners," according to Elizardo Sanchez, who heads the outlawed Cuban Human Rights Commission. "At least a dozen are in their 60s, and some were suffering from serious illnesses when they were arrested," he said. A year later, their health "has deteriorated as a consequence of all this time suffering in solitary confinement and isolated punishment areas in some 10 high-security facilities generally hundreds of kilometers from their homes." "Nobody has access to really potable water. The food they are given is practically inedible and sanitary conditions are awful. Medical care is very poor and they are subjected to veritable plagues of insects and rats," Sánchez added. According to Sanchez's group, at least 13 of the dissidents are hospitalized and another 10 are in no condition to be in prison. (Reuters, EFE, 18/3/04)

March 18: A year after Fidel Castro launched a massive roundup of dissidents in Cuba, his pro-democracy opponents are divided and in disarray, but not defeated. "In spite of continued repression, the government has not achieved its main objective of eliminating the opposition," said Social Democrat Vladimiro Roca. "We were very battered, but we are recovering from this blow," said Roca. Oswaldo Paya, who started the Varela Project, a grass-roots effort backed by 11,000 signatures urging a national referendum on basic rights, including the right to open a business, said his nationwide campaign continues. "The government is afraid that Cubans have begun to lose their fear," Paya said in an interview. "It bragged about penetrating the dissidents and presented its spies. But this was a moral defeat for the regime, which is using repression and propaganda to stop Cubans learning about a peaceful road to change that Cuba badly needs," he said. With 50 Varela Project activists locked away, Paya said he has slowly rebuilt civic groups across Cuba and in September presented 14,384 more signatures to the National Assembly. (Reuters, 18/3/04)

March 18: The first anniversary of Cuba's crackdown on a group of dissidents was marked by prayer and sadness along with defiant calls from family members for the release of the 75 people imprisoned. "We are in mourning because it's been one year since the wave of repression," said Laura Pollán, wife of imprisoned dissident Hector Maseda. "But we are united in demanding the freedom for the 75. They are imprisoned unjustly." The family members of more than a dozen of the prisoners gathered in Pollán's cramped home to pray, provide support and speak with reporters. They dressed in white, and many wore T-shirts emblazoned with faces of the jailed dissidents. (The Chicago Tribune, 18/3/04)

March 19: Cuban TV reporters are interviewing wives of incarcerated Cuban dissidents, purportedly for a documentary film in the making. The initiative has focused on the wives of a score of political prisoners, currently ill or hospitalized in penitentiaries across the country. (El Nuevo Herald, 19/3/04)

March 18: One year after Cuba rounded up 75 activists in a crackdown on dissent, wives and relatives of the prisoners fasted for 12 hours to demand their immediate release.    "We make another call for the release of the 75 innocent prisoners, just as we have made various calls in the past," said Gisela Delgado, wife of jailed opposition party leader Hector Palacios. "The government has been increasingly intransigent, but we will keep on fighting," said Delgado, who wore a white T-shirt printed with a color photograph of her husband. Palacios, who recently underwent a gall bladder operation, is one of more than a dozen of the prisoners currently hospitalized in custody for serious ailments.    Sitting under a red, white and blue Cuban flag tacked to the wall of her living room, Delgado spent the day in a protest fast with other prisoners' wives. At another gathering, Yolanda Vazquez, wife of imprisoned journalist Manuel Vazquez, called the wives' protest "a triumph." “ I thank all the world for their solidarity with the 75 prisoners," said Blanca Reyes, wife of jailed journalist and poet Raúl Rivero. (AP, 18/3/04)

March 18: The wives of 15 Cuban political prisoners jailed in last year's crackdown on dissent held a rare public march in Havana's streets demanding amnesty for their husbands. The women - dressed all in white, with many pinning their husbands' photographs to their chests - started their march at the well-known Coppelia ice cream restaurant in the city center. "Freedom for the 75 political prisoners!" the women shouted as they marched up to Department of Prisons headquarters seven blocks away. There, they submitted a letter to the department's director, General Rafael Calderín Tamayo, demanding freedom for their husbands and improved prison conditions. Authorities did not interfere with the march, which lasted about 2 1/2 hours. Several men who appeared to be plainclothes police officers were seen along the way, watching the protest from a distance. A green Peugeot sedan slowly followed the group while someone inside videotaped the procession. The wives also took a bus to the Miramar neighborhood, where they marched more than 30 blocks down the main Quinta Avenida thoroughfare to National Assembly headquarters. The women delivered a letter addressed to parliament President Ricardo Alarcon seeking amnesty for the prisoners. (EFE, AP, 19/3/04)

March 20: Cuban rock bands joined the world protests against war and terrorist acts and organized a concert at Havana´s John Lennon Park. Inaugurated by Fidel Castro in 2000, the park is becoming a usual venue for peace concerts. Titled Concert for Peace, the show presented the bands Agonizer, Combat Noise and Chlover, as part of the 27th Culture Week in the Plaza de la Revolución municipality. (Prensa Latina, 20/3/04)

March 23: Cuba is hoping to repeat its 2000 feat and place among the top 10 medal winners at the Olympic Games in Athens. Jose Ramon Fernandez, president of Cuba's Olympic Committee, made his comments at a regular meeting of the group in this capital city. "Our delegation's main objective is to equal or surpass our performance in Sydney and remain among the top 10," Fernandez said. No fewer than 119 Cuba athletes have already qualified for the Games this year, though the number could increase because some trials have not been held yet, he added. (EFE, 23/3/04)

March 23: Orlando Tamayo Zapata, one of the 75 prisoners of conscience arrested on the last wave of repression that began on March 2003, began a hunger strike in solidarity with a common prisoner who is not receiving the medical attention he needs. The common prisoner, named Luis Moreira Ávila, began a hunger strike fifteen days before and is presently in critical conditions. Prison authorities ignore his plea. Moreira Tamayo Zapata's strike is indefinite. (Puente Informativo, 30/3/04)

March 23: Fidel Castro has urged the US and European governments to mirror Cuba`s example of health cooperation; Cuba has more than 16,000 medical personnel volunteering in Third World countries. In his speech at the commemoration of the founding of Cienfuegos Provincial Hospital 25 years ago, the Cuban leader noted how Cienfuegos alone has contributed almost 600 doctors, dentists and technicians to that assistance program. Try to find a similar number of US or European doctors to volunteer on similar missions and you won`t find them, the president pointed out, because "those countries do not have our type of human capital." (Prensa Latina, 24/3/04)

March 24: The Cuban Ministry of Public Health (MINSAP) reported that, with 7 cases per 100 thousand inhabitants, the island's tuberculosis rate is one of the lowest in the Americas. The announcement was made as the island received an award from the World Health Organization's Stop TB Initiative for the development of efficient means of control and treatment of the disease. (Notimex, 24/3/04)

March 24: Miguel Valdés Tamayo has sent his wife letters depicting the subhuman conditions at the Kilo 8 prison in Camagüey where he is serving out the 15-year jail sentence he was handed during last year's crackdown on political dissidence. According to Tamayo, "the food is still bad, stinky and the rations are meagre (…) rats, gnats, cockroaches, and insects of all kinds proliferate (…) and the quality of medical attention is abhorrent." (Cubanet, 24/3/04)

March 24: With respect to Cuba's prison system, Col. Rafael Guzmán, deputy head of the Ministry of the Interior's Prisons Directorate, stressed that efforts are being made to enforce human dignity in the inmates. The daily TV program Round Table (Mesa Redonda) depicted the increasing relevance of education, culture and sports as instruments of prison rehabilitation programs. Col. Guzmán emphasis was placed on the inmates' guaranteed access to medical and dental care, sentence reductions of up to two months per year served, conjugal visitation, and the improvement of food and clothing quality, as well as of living and working conditions. (Granma, 24/3/04)

March 24: In letters written from the province of Camaguey’s prison Kilo 7, prisoners of conscience Juan Carlos Herrera Acosta and Léster González Pentón informed that to commemorate the first anniversary of their unjust imprisonment, and to show solidarity with their fellow men in prison, a 5-day hunger strike was conducted. At the end of the strike, Herrera Acosta cut his legs repeatedly with a blade to protest against harassment by prison authorities. (NetforCuba.Com, 28/3/04)

March 25: The Cuban government refuted international charges that jailed dissidents had been ill-treated, presenting medical reports and videotaped statements by wives of prisoners. Foreign Minister Felipe Perez Roque denied any of the 75 opponents of president Fidel Castro, arrested one year ago, were being held in solitary confinement, had been beaten or were being denied medical attention. "Cuba is complying with United Nations standards on the treatment of prisoners," he said at a news conference where he took no questions. "It is false that they have received degrading or inhumane treatment." International rights groups have criticized the conditions under which the dissidents are serving terms of up to 28 years. Cuba's record will be debated next month by the UN Human Rights Commission. (Reuters, AP, IPS, 26/3/04)

March 26: Adolfo Fernández Saínz, 56, a translator, journalist and democracy advocate in Cuba, is in a cell in Holguín prison, nearly 500 miles from his family, which is permitted a two-hour visit every three months. Mr. Fernández Saínz shares his cell with 47 common prisoners, one of whom beat him into unconsciousness in December. Mr. Fernández Saínz, who is serving a 15-year sentence, is one of 75 journalists, economists, librarians, human rights workers and doctors arrested in Cuba last March and later convicted. (The New York Times, 26/3/04)

March 26: In telephone interviews from Havana, the wives of two of the dissidents jailed since March 2003, told the press that they felt manipulated by the Cuban television interviews. ''The problem is that nobody had a chance to prepare,'' said Margarita Borges, whose husband, Edel José García, 58, was sentenced to 15 years. ``I was so nervous that I couldn't think.'' The two women said the interviews lasted about 30 minutes and focused on the medical treatment that their husbands have received, they said. ''I felt depressed and cried a lot after the interview when I figured out what they could do,'' said Dulce María Amador, whose husband Carmelo Díaz is serving a 16-year sentence. ``I said the truth. I didn't lie, and if they manipulate it then that's a different story.'' Amador, 42, said she became suspicious when the reporter only wanted to know about her husband's health and their prison wedding, while ignoring her pleas for her husband's freedom. The Cuban TV interviewer ''had specific questions and knew everything about our situation,'' Amador said. According to both women, the reporter also asked about their husbands' personal hygiene, eating schedule, reading materials, visitation rights, and any type of torture or mistreatment. (The Miami Herald, 26/3/04)

March 26: Cuban dissidents have appealed to the regime to allow international inspectors into prisons holding democracy advocates and independent journalists amid continuing reports of degrading and insalubrious conditions. The conditions under which 75 dissidents imprisoned a year ago are being held have become an issue in Cuba as the UN Commission on Human Rights debates the issue in Geneva. According to Oswaldo Paya, leader of the Liberation Christian Movement, the government is trying to cover up a "very serious" situation with a view to the upcoming vote in Geneva. "Why don't they release the sick? Why don't they let the International Red Cross into the prisons? Why don't they hold new trials in Cuba?" Paya asked. Elizardo Sanchez, who heads the outlawed Human Rights Commission, said the only way to establish the truth about the situation of the "prisoners of conscience" is to allow the International Red Cross, UN inspectors and even the international press to enter the prisons. Vladimiro Roca of the "Todos Unidos" movement called the government's attitude "choreography, theater," designed to confront "a difficult situation in Geneva." According to Blanca Reyes, wife of author and journalist Raul Rivero - sentenced to 20 years in prison - the dissidents' wives were "manipulated." Reyes was one of the relatives who refused to be interviewed by Cuban reporters. (EFE, 26/3/04)

March 28: In closing the final session of the 3 rd Workshop on the "Integration of the University in the Battle of Ideas" at Havana's Convention Centre, Fidel Castro told the 400 plus delegates in attendance that, with regards to education and health care, Cuba is today a world capital and a true model of a humane society. Fidel Castro had a lengthy exchange with the workshop participants. (Granma, 29/3/04)

March 29: A house of prayer of the Russian Orthodox Church will appear in Havana. "We hope construction will start even within the year," says Archpriest Nicholas Balashov, Secretary for contacts between Orthodox Christian communities at the Moscow Patriarchate Department of External Church Relations, Father Nicholas has just come back to Moscow from a trip to Havana. There are many Russian nationals in Cuba, and it is high time to build a Russian Orthodox church for them. It has to be a big place as a congregation of up to three hundred gathers for festive liturgies in Havana. Meanwhile, the Russian trade representation has to host those liturgies in its hall. That has been so since 2001. (Novosti, 29/3/04)

March 29: Relatives of jailed dissident Oscar Espinosa Chepe who is serving a 20 year sentence, urged Cuban authorities to allow the International Red Cross to visit him to verify his health. Miriam Leiva, the 63-year-old economist's wife, refuted last week's statements to the contrary by Cuban foreign minister Felipe Perez Roque, calling for her husband's release on poor health grounds. The dissident's wife has maintained Espinosa Chepe suffers from cirrhosis of the liver, prostate adenoma, as well as hypertension, and is too sick to stay in jail. Leiva called for Amnesty International, which considers Espinosa Chepe a "prisoner of conscience", and Human Rights Watch as well as the Red Cross to personally verify her husband's state of health and his prison conditions. (AFP, 29/3/04)

March 30: The First Cuban Congress on Prison Medical Care began in Havana amidst national and international debate on prison conditions on the island. According to Lt. Col Terencio Batista, Cuba guarantees its prison population standards of free medical care equal to the rest of the population, as well as the possibility to upgrade their educational and cultural levels. The Cuban officer also informed a roundtable of 250 delegates that at present there is a doctor for every 200 prisoners, a dentist for every 900, and a nurse for every 100. The organizing committee member for the event also informed that all prisoners are routinely given a thorough medical and dental examination upon entry, and then receive immediate and appropriate treatment. Lt. Col. Doctor Rosa Campoalegre spoke on the success of the educational program functioning in all penal institutions on the island, providing prisoners the opportunity for culture and learning, which has not only proven itself in their increased self-esteem and better behavior, but has created a more secure climate and better functioning of the prisons themselves. This congress is part of the complete spiritual renovation of Cuban prisons, a qualitative transformation of the concept of penal regime, now in progress for prisoners in Cuba while they fulfill their debt to society. (Prensa Latina, 30/3/04)

March 30: Young Cubans showed their tattoos during the live tattoo and piercing exhibit held in Havana. Cubans gathered at an annual event organized by the “Hermanos Saíz” Association, an arts organization under the Cuban Ministry of Culture. Tattoos are the latest rage in Cuba. (Reuters, 30/3/04)

March 30: Political prisoner Nelson Aguiar Ramírez, confined in the prison Combinado de Guantánamo, is presently hospitalized at the Guantánamo provincial hospital due to high blood pressure and chest pains. State Security officials have him in isolation, incommunicado. He is not allowed to receive telephone calls or any foods whatsoever. "They say he is in the hospital for a checkup but no tests results have been provided to him or his family", said Ada Kaly Márquez Abascal, coordinator in functions of the Democratic Party November 30 "Frank País". (Puente Informativo, 30/3/04)

March 31: At the closing session of the first Cuban National Penitentiary Medicine Congress taking place in Havana, it was emphasized that without regard to ideology or social conduct, all prisoners have equal access to all health services of the country. According to this principle, the island´s emphasis on preventive health extends to its prisons, Assistant Health Minister Gonzalo Estevez averred. (Prensa Latina, 31/3/04)

March 31: Cuba opened the doors of two penitentiaries to international journalists, hoping to rebut criticism about prison conditions in the weeks before the UN human rights body votes on the island's rights record. The visit by international media, limited to the hospital wards of Havana's Combinado del Este for men and the Manto Negro Western Women's Prison, was the first such group media visit to Cuban prisons in more than 15 years, authorities said. Military doctors and nurses led reporters, photographers and cameramen through operating rooms, an intensive care ward, and recovery rooms linked by hallways reeking of disinfectant and fresh paint. Journalists were invited to join the tour, originally organized for a national congress on prison medicine. In recent days, relatives of imprisoned opposition activists said Roberto de Miranda and Orlando Fundora - two of the peaceful dissidents convicted last April in Havana's worst crackdown in years - had been admitted to that hospital, along with Leonardo Bruzon, who was jailed in December 2002 and has been on a hunger strike demanding a trial. However, the press did not see any of these men at the hospital. Hospital chief Avelino Gonzalez said De Miranda and Bruzon had been transferred, although he did not specify where or when, while Fundora, he said, left the hospital on a conjugal visit. Reporters did not have access to any jailed dissidents or to inmates outside the medical centers. (Sun Sentinel, AP, BBC, Canadian Press, EFE, 1/4/04)

March 31: María de los Angeles Falcón Cabello, niece of Martha Beatriz Roque, informed that when she arrived at Carlos J. Finlay Hospital for her weekly visit to her aunt, she was informed by the officer in charge that Martha Beatriz refuses to receive any visits or food. Falcón Cabello does not know what this prisoner of conscience’s situation is, or what she is going through at the present time. (Puente Informativo, 31/3/04)