Chronicle on Cuba - June 2005

June 1: Testimonies of state sponsored terrorism imposed on Latin America by successive US administrations were the subject of discussion on Cuban TV and radio program "The Round Table." Guest panelists from the region recounted how the US government supported Operation Condor, a conspiracy undertaken by Latin American military dictatorships to eliminate all opposition to their rule during the 1970´s and 80´s. (Radio Habana Cuba, 1/6/05)

June 2: Fidel Castro presided over the International Meeting against Terrorism, for Truth and Justice, at the International Conference Center in the Cuban capital with the participation of more than 300 Cuban and foreign delegates. Left-wing politicians and intellectuals attending the conference accused the US government of harboring a Cuban exile blamed for the bombing of an airliner in 1976. They said the Bush administration had a double standard in its post-9/11 war on terror because it refused to extradite former CIA operative Luis Posada Carriles to Venezuela to stand trial for the downing of a Cuban plane that killed 73 people. The meeting at Havana's convention center, was called to press for Posada's extradition by the United States, where he was arrested last month for illegal entry while seeking asylum. "Not extraditing him to Venezuela would be an act of great hypocrisy by the US government and President George W. Bush, and evidence that he does not care about other people's pain," said Michael Avery, associate professor at the Suffolk Law School in Boston and a conference participant. Piero Gleijeses, professor of American Foreign Policy at Johns Hopkins University's School of Advanced International Studies in Washington, said the US bears responsibility for the killing of 200,000 people in Guatemala and the work of death squads in El Salvador, but history is being rewritten today to show the United States as a champion of democracy in the region. Conference delegates included some of the Madres de Plaza de Mayo, mothers of leftists who disappeared in Argentina's "dirty war" in the 1970's, Andean peasant leaders and members of Communist Parties of Portugal and Brazil. (Radio Habana Cuba, Reuters, 2/6/05)

June 5: International leftist leaders, academics and activists joined the Cuban government's campaign to demand the extradition of anti-Castro militant Luis Posada Carriles to Venezuela, where he is wanted in connection with the 1976 bombing of a Cuban airliner. During a four-day Havana conference that drew 500 participants from the United States, Latin America and Europe, speakers slammed the Bush administration for rejecting Venezuela's arrest request for Posada and said Washington is trying to protect the former CIA operative. (Sun Sentinel, 5/6/05)

June 8: US Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld said that the Bush administration was not considering shutting down the detention center at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, and he defended the treatment of its prisoners by their American military guards and interrogators as humane. During a visit to Norway before a meeting with NATO defense ministers in Brussels, Mr. Rumsfeld responded to criticisms that the detention center should be closed after reports that the Koran had been mishandled and prisoners mistreated."I know of no one in the US Government, in the executive branch, that is considering closing Guantánamo," he said at a news conference. (The New York Times, 9/6/05)

June 8: US President George W. Bush left open the possibility that the US prison camp at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, could be shut down following mounting criticism from former President Jimmy Carter and others. “We’re exploring all alternatives as to how best to do the main objective, which is to protect America,” Bush said when asked in an interview with Fox News Channel’s Neil Cavuto in Washington if he would close the detention centre. Amnesty International also recently called for Guantanamo’s closure, saying the facility was the "the gulag of our time" – a characterisation Bush dismissed again. "It’s just absurd to equate Gitmo and Guantanamo with a Soviet gulag," he said. “Just not even close.” Bush said the Guantanamo Bay detainees were being treated in accordance with international standards and that any allegations of mistreatment were fully investigated. He also defended the policy of holding enemy combatants. (The Scotsman, 8/6/05)

June 10: Senator Mel Martinez of Florida said that the Bush administration should consider closing the detention center at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba. Mr. Martinez is the first high-profile Republican to make the suggestion. "It's become an icon for bad stories, and at some point you wonder the cost-benefit ratio," Mr. Martinez said at the Florida Society of Newspaper Editors/Florida Press Association convention. "How much do you get out of having that facility there? Is it serving all the purposes you thought it would serve when initially you began it, or can this be done some other way a little better?" (The New York Times, 11/6/05)

June 13: US Vice President Dick Cheney said he doesn't believe revelations about the treatment of prisoners at the US military prison at Guantanamo Bay have become an image problem for the United States and that the facility should not be shut down. "Those who most urgently advocate that we shut down Guantanamo probably don't agree with our policy anyway," the vice president said after presenting the Gerald R. Ford Foundation journalism awards at the National Press Club. Given all the facts, he said, "Our policy is the correct one." (CNN, 13/6/05)

June 14: The detention center at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, will be needed for years to come, Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld suggested. Mr. Rumsfeld said at a news conference at the Pentagon that there was no alternative site to hold and question the suspected terrorists there. "I don't know any place where we have infrastructure that's appropriate for that sizable group of people," he said. "The United States government, let alone the US military, does not want to be in the position of holding suspected terrorists any longer than is absolutely necessary. But as long as there remains a need to keep terrorists from striking again, a facility will continue to be needed." (The New York Times, 15/6/05)

June 16: US Senators considered imposing new limits on the treatment of so-called enemy combatants as the Bush administration defended the military prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. In an often-confrontational hearing, members of the Senate Judiciary Committee grilled administration officials on the status of about 520 prisoners, mostly from the war in Afghanistan, being held at the military prison on a US-occupied sliver of Cuba. Lawmakers clashed sharply, with Senator Patrick J. Leahy, Democrat-Vermont, calling the offshore prison compound "an international embarrassment," while Senator Jeff Sessions, Republican-Alabama, said some of the detainees should be executed. (Los Angeles Times, 16/6/05)

June 17: The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) hit back at a US Republican report which questioned its impartiality, dismissing the accusations as false and unsubstantiated. ICRC President Jakob Kellenberger vowed the Swiss-based agency would stick to its principles of neutrality and expressed confidence the United States would remain its top donor. A policy adviser for the US Senate Republican majority said this week the ICRC had lost its impartiality and was advocating positions at odds with US interests. (The New York Times, 17/6/05)

June 18: Amnesty International and human rights activists of different nationalities condemned continued human rights abuse against detainees at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, calling for greater transparency from the United States on inmates’ conditions and for the closure of the detention center. The demands came during a conference organized by the human rights and freedom organization (HOOD) and Amnesty International, and attended by lawyers from Washington, Britain, Europe and Middle East countries. (The Daily Chew, 19/6/05)

June 20: Former President Bill Clinton has said the United States should either "close down or clean up'' the Guantánamo Bay prison for foreign terrorism suspects. In an interview with the Financial Times, Clinton said American or British troops would be at much greater risk if they had a reputation for abusing people. "Well, it either needs to be closed down or cleaned up,'' Clinton said when asked whether the camp on Cuba should close. "If we get a reputation for abusing people, it puts our own soldiers much more at risk,'' Clinton said. (The New York Times, 20/6/05)

June 23: UN human rights experts said they have reliable accounts of detainees being tortured at the US base in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. The experts also said Washington had not responded to their latest request to check on the conditions of terror suspects at the facility in eastern Cuba. The experts, who report to UN bodies on different human rights issues, said their request for a visit was ''based on information, from reliable sources, of serious allegations of torture, cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment of detainees, arbitrary detention, violations of their right to health and their due process rights.'' US officials so far have allowed only the International Committee of the Red Cross to visit Guantanamo detainees. (The New York Times, 23/6/05)

June 25: During a tour of the US prison for suspected terrorists in Guantanamo, House Republicans and Democrats, including one who has advocated closing the facility, said the United States has made progress in improving conditions and protecting detainees' rights. The US lawmakers witnessed interrogations, toured cellblocks and ate the same lunch given to detainees on the first congressional visit to the prison for suspected terrorists since criticism of it intensified in the spring. ''The Guantanamo we saw today is not the Guantanamo we heard about a few years ago,'' said Representative Ellen Tauscher, Democrat-California. (AP, 26/6/05)