Chronicle on Cuba - September 2005

Terrorism

September 9: The Cuban government is willing to facilitate peace talks between Colombian authorities and guerrillas if the nation requests it, Cuban Ambassador in Colombia, Luis Hernández Ojeda said in Bogotá. "Of that, there should be no doubt," the diplomat told RCN radio, adding that Cuba would also consider serving as "guarantor" if asked. "That is how we have behaved vis a vis peace processes in other countries," Hernández Ojeda said. Cuba provided its territory for peace talks between the Colombian government and National Liberation Army (ELN) guerrillas in 2002 and 2003. (EFE, 10/9/05)

September 10: Cuba's foreign minister honored the victims of the September 11, 2001 terror attacks in the United States, but blasted Washington's "hypocrisy" in setting standards on who is a terrorist. In a statement made public, Foreign Minister Felipe Pérez Roque expressed opposition to "all kinds of terrorism" as he remembered "the terrible death of thousands of innocent people in the attack on the Twin Towers, for which we offer a tribute in their memory." September 11 "is a day in which Cuba ratifies its opposition to all forms of terrorism," Pérez Roque said. He remembered Felix García, a Cuban diplomat with Havana's UN mission murdered in New York on September 11, 1981, allegedly by a hit squad of anti-communist Cuban exiles. Pérez Roque then blasted "Washington's hypocrisy" for refusing to extradite Luis Posada Carriles. (AFP, 10/9/05)

September 13: The number of Guantanamo Bay detainees taking part in a hunger strike has swelled to about a quarter of the prison population over the past month, according to Pentagon officials. Since August 8, the number of detainees refusing food has slowly increased from several dozen to 128, according to the Pentagon. Pentagon officials said the detainees are protesting their continued detention, but past detainee protests have occurred because of perceived treatment of the Quran by prison guards and treatment of the detainees by guards. (CNN, 13/9/05)