Chronicle on Cuba - July 2004

Foreign Affairs

July 1: The first course in Canadian Studies was opened in the eastern university of Ciego de Ávila (UNICA). Second Secretary of the Canadian Embassy in Cuba Jeff Senior attended the ceremony, which was held on the 137th anniversary of Canada's independence, and praised the new course for promoting mutual awareness and respect between the two countries. (Radio Habana Cuba, 1/7/04)

July1: In a 24-hour flying visit to Cuba, the Iranian Foreign Minister Kamal Kharrazi condemned the US blockade of the island and called on developing countries to join in solidarity for a multi-polar world. Kharrazi arrived in Havana, invited by his Cuban counterpart Felipe Pérez Roque, to hold high level talks on the bilateral relations between the two countries. (Radio Habana Cuba, 2/7/04)

July 2: Eloy Gutiérrez Menoyo, leader of oppositionist group Cuban Change, declared that he expects that the 36 th Congress of the Spanish Socialist Workers' Party (PSOE) will consider the issue of relations with Latin America as one of its "priorities". He does not think, however, that there will be any reference to the recently implemented US measures against Fidel Castro's regime. Menoyo pointed out that President Bush's actions against Cuba amount to "interference" and reminded that Spain and the European Union have been "traditionally opposed to the US embargo and foreign interference (in another nation's affairs)." (Europa Press, 2/7/04)

July 4: Prime Minister Roosevelt Skerrit says three Dominican students jailed in Cuba on drug-related charges will return home soon. "I'm happy to inform the country that the three students have left the Cuban jail and are now with the immigration authorities of Cuba and will return to Dominica in a few days," Skerrit said. Skerrit had obtained a presidential pardon for the students during his official visit to Havana earlier in April. The Dominican students had been found guilty of drug trafficking and cultivation and faced prison terms ranging from 10 to 18 years. (Caribbean Media Corporation, 4/7/04)

July 7: During the visit ofPresident of the Mexican Council for Culture and the Arts to Cuba, Minister Sari Bermúdez said she expects an increased cultural exchange between her country and the island. Bermudez, invited by Cuban Culture Minister Abel Prieto, attended a meeting with Cuban artists at Havana´s Wifredo Lam Contemporary Art Center. (Prensa Latina, 8/7/04)

July 8: The city of Santiago de Cuba was confirmed as the Caribbean capital of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO). The Director of the Regional UNESCO Office Francisco Lacayo said that there was no doubt of the importance of the eastern Cuban city in the culture of the Caribbean region. Lacayo was speaking at the end of a conference during the 24th Caribbean Festival, also know as the “Fire Festival”. (Prensa Latina, 9/7/04)

July 9: Cuban and Venezuelan Culture Ministers exchanged views on cultural policies in both countries with participants at the 24th Caribbean "Fire Festival" in Santiago de Cuba. The Cuban minister of Culture, Abel Prieto, and his Venezuelan counterpart Francisco Sesto, together with Venezuelan Ambassador to Cuba, Adán Chávez, met with foreign and local scholars and artists. (Prensa Latina, 9/7/04)

July 9: The Spanish Council of Ministers has appointed Carlos Alonso Zaldívar as the country's new ambassador to Cuba. Zaldívar, 58, a former secretary of the Spanish embassy in Washington and ambassador to Korea, also held different positions at the Spanish embassy in Israel. Since 2001 he had been posted to the Spanish Embassy in Rome in a Political Counselor capacity. Zaldívar was a member of the Communist Party's Executive Committee during the Franco Era and joined the PSOE when it rose to power, holding different posts within the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Presidency. (Europa Press, 9/7/04)

July 9: According to a Cuban government press release, Fidel Castro declared an official mourning period for Austrian President Thomas Klestil. Vienna and Havana have maintained diplomatic relations since July 1946 and, in 1999 and 2000, both nations' Deputy Foreign Ministers exchanged visits. (AFP, 9/7/04)

July 9: Madagascar Parliament’s Speaker, Jean Lahiniriko, is meeting with Cuban top government officials, as part of his two-day visit to Cuba. Lahiniriko´s agenda includes talks with Cuban Government Minister Ricardo Cabrisas and Foreign Minister Felipe Pérez Roque. (Prensa Latina, 9/7/04)

July 9: Cuba, a member of the Montevideo-based Latin American Integration Association (ALADI), was excluded from the regulations-prescribed rotation of that regional body's Committee of Representatives' Chairman and Vice-chairman duties. Although, according to ALADI regulations, the Chairman and Vice-chairman posts are to be held on a rotational basis and in alphabetical fashion, when Colombian Ambassador Claudia Turbay took over as Chairman, the remaining Permanent Representatives passed over Cuba, and unanimously nominated the Ecuadorian ambassador as Turbay's replacement in 6 months from now. (Europa Press, 9/7/04)

July 9: The Japanese government has donated a state-of-the-art colonoscope to the Institute of Gastroenterology in Havana, with an aim to help further improve the Cuban national health system. The device is Video Colonoscope Olympus Exera 160, which was presented to the Cuban medical institution through the International Cooperation Agency of Japan (JICA). (Prensa Latina, 9/7/04)

July 10: Cuba's Foreign Ministry said that it was holding one of Colombia's top drug kingpins, Luis Hernando Gomez Bustamante. Bustamante, alias Rasguno, was captured when he entered the country on a false passport. The top figure in the Northern Valle drug cartel was being held at an Interior Ministry center for crimes against state security, the Foreign Ministry said in a statement. [Información del MINREX ] (CNN, 10/7/04)

July 10: Colombian officials seeking the extradition of a reputed drug lord who was being held in Cuba met with diplomats at their nation's embassy. Three men and a woman in civilian clothes were seen leaving the Colombian Embassy. They declined to give their names or answer questions about the arrest of Luis Hernando Gomez Bustamante. The men did, however, confirm they had just flown in from Bogota, Colombia. "It's in the hands of Cuban authorities," Colombian Army Colonel Eleuterio Mora, who is attached to the embassy, said of the case. "They know more than anyone." (CNN, 10/7/04)

July 10: Police are still looking into an incident at the Cuban embassy in Puerto España that resulted in Ambassador Félix Raúl Rojas being physically assaulted and robbed of US$ 6,000. Having just made the bank withdrawal, Rojas was at home when he was held up at gunpoint by three individuals who had climbed the property perimeter wall, said the police. Both the ambassador and a visitor were beaten up. (AFP, 11/7/04)

July 13: Cuba's anti-narcotics agency is actively working with Colombian authorities in their investigation of a major Colombian drug lord arrested in Havana, Foreign Minister Felipe Perez Roque said. But Perez Roque said it was too soon to say if Luis Hernando Gomez Bustamante would be sent back to Colombia. The foreign minister said Colombian officials had not yet presented a formal extradition request. If returned to his homeland, the Colombian government would likely arrange for his extradition to the United States, where he and two other kingpins were indicted earlier this year by a federal grand jury in New York on charges of conspiracy, money laundering and drug charges. [For more on this, see US-Cuba Relations] (AP, 13/7/04)

July 13: The Foreign Affairs Minister of Mozambique Leonardo Santos arrived in Cuba on a four-day official visit that will include talks with his Cuban counterpart Felipe Pérez Roque. Santos, who is accompanied by Mozambique's Ambassador to Cuba Jeronimo Joao Chivavi and the National Human Resources Director Jorge Tomo, will also meet other top Cuban officials including the Public Health Minister and the Minister for Foreign Investment and Economic Collaboration. (Radio Habana Cuba, 13/7/04)

July 13: The Cuban Minister of Foreign Affairs, Felipe Pérez Roque, met with the Minister of Foreign and Political Affairs, Economic Planning and Justice of the Republic of San Marino, Fabio Berardi. Berardi arrived for his first official visit to the Caribbean nation and will discuss issues of Cuba-San Marino bilateral cooperation at regional and international levels. (Radio Habana Cuba, 13/7/04)

July 13: Mexico is prepared to normalize its troubled diplomatic relations with Cuba, but the Caribbean island will have some explaining to do first about recent disagreements, a top Mexican official said. "Once these explanations have been given, Mexico is ready to normalize relations" by sending its ambassador back to Cuba, said Miguel Hakim, Mexico's assistant secretary for Latin American affairs. (AP, 13/7/04)

July 14: The Cuban Catholic Bishop's Conference informed that a Mexican Episcopal Conference (CEM) delegation, led by its president, Monsignor José Guadalupe Martín Rábago, arrived in Cuba for a religious visit. The Mexican clergymen will meet with the local bishops, until the arrival of Mexican Foreign Minister Luis Ernesto Derbez, who will attempt to mend diplomatic fences between the two nations with his Cuban counterpart Felipe Pérez Roque. (AFP, 14/7/04)

July 15: Cuban Ambassador to Belize Regla Díaz Hernández has confirmed that a Cuban diplomat posted to her embassy defected early this month and his whereabouts are as yet unknown. Isaac Abreu Fajardo, the embassy's Commercial Attaché for a year, defected with his wife and two children. (El Nuevo Herald, 15/7/04)

July 15: Jorge Moragas, Foreign Relations Secretary of Spain’s Popular Party (PP), completed his visit to Cuba, where he met with oppositionists to Fidel Castro's regime. Among those he spoke to were Varela Project leader Oswaldo Payá and incarcerated journalist Raúl Rivero's wife, Blanca Guerra. However, Moragas has said that some PSOE members advocate searching for a "more active communications channel with the regime." (Europa Press, 15/7/04)

July 15: Cuba offered to build training centers for nurses to handle AIDS patients in Caribbean nations and provide antiretroviral drugs to fight the pandemic. Cuban Foreign Minister Felipe Perez Roque made the offer at a one-day meeting with counterparts from the Caribbean Community (Caricom). "From the social standpoint, the major challenge ahead of us is the fight against HIV/AIDS," Perez Roque said. He added that economic ties between Cuba and the 15-member regional Caricom bloc, whose members include Haiti, Jamaica and Trinidad, had not developed sufficiently, despite a trade agreement signed four years ago. The meeting is the first between Caricom and Cuban foreign ministers and comes in the wake of an agreement made during a 2002 Caricom summit to establish closer ties. At that summit it was agreed that Caricom countries and Cuba would meet every three years. (AFP, Reuters, 15/7/04)

July 15: CARICOM members rejected the recent tightening of the US embargo against Cuba and expressed concern over the impact of Washington's measures on "stability and security" throughout the Caribbean region. Foreign ministers from thirteen member countries of the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) attended the 1 st CARICOM-Cuba Ministerial Meeting in Havana. (EFE, 15/7/04)

July 15: The European Union welcomed the recent release of some dissidents in Cuba, but said the gesture was not enough. A statement made in Brussels by the EU presidency and distributed in Havana called the freeing of six of the 75 dissidents sentenced last year to jail terms of up to 28 years a "positive gesture." But it added that "the aim continues to be the immediate release of all political prisoners." [Declaration by the Presidency Concerning the Release of Political Prisoners] (Reuters, 15/7/04)

July 15: Cuban Foreign Minister Felipe Pérez Roque said in Havana that Cuba and Mozambique are faced with the enormous challenges of a globalized world, according to Granma newspaper. The Mozambican official voiced his country's willingness to continue bilateral cooperation in the fields of health and education and to broaden other sectors to the benefit of both countries. The Mozambican delegation held talks with Cuba's Health Minister Jose Ramon Balaguer, Education Minister Luis Ignacio Gomez and Higher Education Minister Fernando Vecino Alegret. (Radio Habana Cuba, 15/7/04)

July 16: Latin American scientists in Bangkok warned that the AIDS epidemic in Cuba, where nearly every HIV subtype has been detected, has turned the Caribbean island into a powder keg. "Cuba is a ticking time bomb," said Dr. Gloria Echevarría, Immunology Professor at the University of Venezuela's Medical School and member of the International AIDS Society's governing body. The same concern was shared by Prof. Luis Enrique Soto, head of Molecular Virology Research at the department of Communicable Diseases of the Mexican National Institute of Medical Sciences and Nutrition, as well as Ivette Lorenzana de Rivera, a microbiologist with the National University of Honduras. (EFE, 16/7/04)

July 16: Two Cuban dissidents who arrived in Paris on a flight from Havana are being held at Charles de Gaulle airport, following their request for political asylum in France. "We surrendered to the French police and asked for political asylum," said Mario Osvaldo Ruiz Fleites, 48, a former army officer and member of the anti-Castro group "Todos Unidos" (All United). Ruiz Fleites traveled with fellow Cuban Raúl Rolando Ruiz Fernández, 46. (El Nuevo Herald, 17/7/04)

July 17: The Mexican and Cuban foreign ministers have announced they will reinstate ambassadors to each other's countries on July 26, normalizing official relations after a diplomatic spat several months ago. The two countries still had issues to work out, but they were back on the road to reconciliation, the ministers told a press conference after their meeting. "July 26th the ambassadors will be back in their respective posts," Perez Roque said. The date marks the start of Castro's revolution and is an important Cuban holiday. "We've made progress, and agreed on the importance of working in favor of bilateral relations," said Cuban Foreign Minister Felipe Perez Roque. Luis Ernesto Derbez, Mexico's foreign minister, called the move "positive" and said the two countries would continue "resolving issue by issue." "Not everything has been resolved by these conversations, but we believe it is a first step," Perez Roque said. [Press Conference] (CNN, Reuters, EFE, 17/7/04)

July 19: Just back from a trip to Cuba designed to patch up strained relations, Mexico's foreign minister said that the issue of respect for human rights continues "to separate" the two nations. Interviewed over Mexican radio, Derbez said the arrangement he had hammered out with Perez Roque had not been arrived at "by force," but by virtue of the two governments' shared understanding "that it would be important to clarify" their differences and restore trust in each other. The two friends can move forward while holding differing views on human rights, Derbez told W-Radio. "We both understand clearly that the issue that separates us" is human rights, in which Mexico is not focusing on just one country but on "the idea of improving human rights" in general, Derbez said. (EFE, 19/7/04)

July 19: The regional director of the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF), Alfredo Missair, has praised Cuba's achievements in education. The UN official, who recently attended an educational meeting in the Cuban capital, said that such achievements in a Latin American country are extraordinary. During a visit to an institution developing the preschool teaching program in Cuba, Missair said participants to the meeting agreed to maintain contact with the center. He said that this would favor a dialogue supporting policies aimed to develop intelligence as a child's right. (Radio Habana Cuba, 19/7/04)

July 20: One of the most prestigious Spanish artists in contemporary dance, Antonio Gades, died of cancer in Madrid at the age of 67. The Cuban press lamented the loss of a dancer who was a supporter of the Cuban Revolution. In the 70’s, Gades collaborated with the Cuban National Ballet choreographing and dancing “Ad Libitum”, with Alicia Alonso, and Blood Weddings (Bodas de Sangre), a ballet based on Federico García Lorca’s play. Following his expressed wishes, a simple, private funeral was held in Madrid and the dancer's ashes were to be taken to Cuba. (Europa Press, Radio Habana Cuba, 20/7/04)

July 20: After returning from Spain, Cuban oppositionist Eloy Gutiérrez Menoyo said that he held talks in Madrid with Spanish government’s president José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero, and other authorities. Menoyo considers that Rodríguez Zapatero has the will to “improve relations with Cuba”, in spite of “Cuba’s problems with political prisoners”. “Spain should follow the European Union’s position in this regard, ” he said. “It would be very good if Cuba makes a gesture, releases political prisoners, and allows an independent opposition in the island”, he said. “That would be a positive move, and would help change Cuba’s image and position in the world”, Menoyo said to the foreign press. (El Nuevo Herald, 20/7/04)

July 20: Nicaragua´s Sandinista National Liberation Front (FSLN) has decorated Fidel Castro with the Order and Medal Always Towards the Light, Towards the Truth, 25 Years of Sandinista Revolution. The decision was announced to a crowd of some 400,000 Nicaraguans who participated in the main event on the Revolution´s anniversary, held in Managua´s John Paul II Square. (Prensa Latina, 20/7/04)

July 20: Cuba emphasized at the United Nations that respect and protection of human rights must transcend all borders and not acquiesce to political considerations of any description. The declaration was made by the Vice Director of the Cuban Foreign Ministry Roberto Reyes as part of a resolution project that seeks to protect human rights within the context of military campaigns in the so called "war on terror" presented to the UN Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) in New York. (Radio Habana Cuba, 21/7/04)

July 21: Uruguayan Foreign Minister Didier Opertti said Cuba has not met the conditions, including accepting human rights inspections by the United Nations, to restore diplomatic relations. The foreign minister responded to statements by the South American nation's leading presidential candidates, who said they would restore relations with the island if they won the October elections. "Diplomatic relations are neither established forever, nor broken forever," Opertti said, adding that "if the conditions for re-establishing links with Cuba were present today, they would be restored today." To restore diplomatic relations with Cuba, "it would first be necessary" for Havana to allow the United Nations to “verify the situation of human rights" on the island, Opertti said. (EFE, 21/7/04)

July 22: German police and Prosecutor's Office sources informed that the lifeless body of a 20-year-old Cuban stowaway was found in the wheel-well of an airplane when it landed in Düsseldorf. The aircraft had stopped in Cuba and had since been flying between the Dominican Republic and Düsseldorf. According to a passport he was carrying, the young man, who died from hypothermia, was Cuban, said Johannes Mocken, a spokesman with the North-Rhine-Wesphalia Prosecutor's Office. (AFP, 22/7/04)

July 22: According to Col. Oscar Naranjo, head of the Colombian Judicial Police Directorate, Hernando Gómez Bustamante, a.k.a. "Rasguño" (Scratch), a Colombian drug kingpin high on the FBI's most-wanted list who was apprehended in Cuba in early July, will not be handed over to Colombia any time soon. Cuban authorities informed that Gómez would remain in their custody while his possible activities on the island are further investigated. (El Nuevo Herald, 23/7/04)

July 25: The ambassadors for Cuba and Mexico returned to their posts, marking the end of a three-month diplomatic spat between Cuba and the country that used to be its strongest ally in Latin America. Cuban Ambassador Jorge Bolaños and Mexican Ambassador Roberta Lajous Vargas returned to their posts on the 51st anniversary of a failed rebel attack that gave a name to Castro’s cause — the July 26 Movement — and laid the groundwork for the Cuban leader’s victory over the dictatorship of Fulgencio Batista. "I am supremely happy to return to Mexico, after a brief and involuntary absence," Bolaños said. "Cuba and Mexico are two nations that geography made neighbors, and that our histories and heroes, both Cuban and Mexican, have united forever." Mexican Ambassador Roberta Lajous Vargas returned to Havana "with the aim of working toward a new vision of the future," Mexico's Foreign Relations Department said in a press statement. (The Globe and Mail, Det New.Com, 25/7/04)

July 25: Panamanian Ambassador to Cuba, Abraham Bárcenas, has confirmed that Consul Oscar Alarcón and himself are being investigated in Panama on charges of alleged involvement in document forgery and corruption while issuing Panamanian visas to Cubans. (El Nuevo Herald, 25/7/04)

July 26: Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez commended Cuban aid in helping his country develop educational and health care programs for the benefit of long-excluded social groups, Cuba´s Granma newspaper published. Chavez acknowledged the Cuban medical staff"s substantial cooperation, saying they have already assisted over 64 million cases for free in little more than a year, as part of the "Misión Barrio Adentro" (In the Neighborhood Mission), a campaign sponsored by the president himself. (Prensa Latina, 26/7/04)

July 30: Cuba's Acting Foreign Minister Fernando Remírez de Estenoz held talks with the president of the 58th Session of the UN General Assembly, Julian Robert Hunte. The UN official is also the foreign minister of Cuba's Caribbean neighbor, Saint Lucia. Hunte told reporters that discussion with Cuban officials concerned viewpoints on the revitalization of the United Nations General Assembly and the transformation of the UN Security Council. The UN official said that they also touched on topics related to the Caribbean, specifically regarding the possibility of establishing associations in different fields of common interest and the relationship between CARICOM and Cuba. (Radio Habana Cuba, 30/7/04)

July 30: The first eight South African doctors graduated in Cuban schools of medicine have received their certificates in an official ceremony in their country. Following additional studies in South Africa, they recently passed the state examination at the University of Transkai School of Medicine in Eastern Cape province. (Radio Habana Cuba, 30/7/04)

July 30: Six Cuban balseros are missing after they left for Honduras in a raft. Jorge Luis Eguiguren Rodriguez, and 11 other men left Havana in the late-night darkness on July 6. They planned to go to Honduras, using a channel where the currents and winds were in their favor. Some days later, four of the men drowned. Six wanted to keep going, but the two remaining survivors fought to return to Cuba. They argued. Finally, they cut off a piece of the raft and split into two parties. When the two men got back to Cuba, they recounted what happened. From the six, there has been no word. (The Miami Herald, 30/7/04)

July 30: Sources of the 11th Latin American Brigade of Solidarity and Voluntary Work informed that one hundred Colombians volunteers would arrive in Cuba. As in previous years, the Camilo Cienfuegos Corporation of Solidarity with Cuba (CORSOLCUBA), chaired by John Jaime Posada, will have the largest representation with 74 people, while the rest belongs to the Jose Marti y Perez Friendship and Solidarity Corporation. Posada said that CORSOLCUBA would comprise citizens from Cali and the provinces of Antioquia, Norte de Santander and Meta, representing various sectors of the social and political life in Colombia. (Prensa Latina, 30/7/04)