Chronicle on Cuba - October 2005

US-Cuba Relations

October 1: It is official US policy to ''undermine'' Cuba's planned succession from Fidel Castro to his brother Raúl, 74. Just how that process would unfold is not clear. ''We are looking to support a genuine transition to political freedom for the Cuban people,'' said Caleb McCarry, the State Department official recently put in charge of transition matters for Cuba. McCarry rejects charges that Washington's assistance plan is a blueprint for US control. ''The offer is not an imposition,'' he said, asserting that none of the proposed programs would go into place without the consent of the transitional government on the island. ''We need to give Cubans the opportunity for a different future and better future,'' McCarry said. ''What people lack under the dictatorship is hope. They have to hope there will be a better future.'' (The New York Times, 1/10/05)

October 4: After securing deals in August for Cuba to buy $30 million in agricultural products in the next year and a half, Nebraska governor Dave Heineman announced that he is returning later in October for a second trade mission. The trade mission is scheduled to run from October 30 to November 2 and will include a visit to the International Trade Fair in Havana. (AP, 4/10/05)

October 4: The US Department of Homeland Security's US Coast Guard, 7th District, issued a press release informing of the repatriation of 54 Cuban migrants to Bahia de Cabanas, Cuba. The migrants were intercepted at sea, caught attempting to enter the United States. (US Fed News, 4/10/05)

October 5: Fidel Castro has survived 10 American presidents who wanted his Communist government to fall and he will make George W. Bush the 11th, Cuba's foreign minister said. The US State Department last year outlined an ambitious plan for a post-Castro Cuba that calls for helping its transition from Communist dictatorship to democracy. "We are expecting to see Mr. Bush retire before he can fulfill that plan," Mr. Roque said yesterday after two days of meetings in Ottawa aimed at deepening ties between Cuba and Canada. (The Ottawa Citizen, 5/10/05)

October 6: Miguel Sigler Amaya and Josefa López Peña, along with their children, arrived in the United States. In September, both oppositionists had been detained in Havana by Cuban authorities when they were boarding the plane that would take them to the US. The grounds for the detention were unknown. (Bitácora Cubana, 6/10/05)

October 6: A Cuban baseball team that was to participate in a qualifying tournament at Puerto Rico for the Central American and Caribbean Games has not received visas from the US government, Cuba's Institute of Sports (INDER) said. "The Cuban baseball team will not visit Puerto Rico because it has not received authorization from the US State Department," said an INDER internet site, calling the Cubans "victims of US political discrimination." (AFP, 6/10/05)

October 6: Family and friends of 73 people killed when a Cuban airliner was blown out of the sky 29 years ago marked the tragedy's anniversary by bitterly accusing the United States of harboring the bombers. Some 200 people gathered at Havana's main cemetery to remember the victims of what Cuba views as its own 9/11. "What happened September 11, 2001, in the United States is not foreign to us,'' said Margarita Morales, whose father and the junior Cuban fencing team he coached died in the 1976 plane blast. "The families of the victims in the United States are waiting like we are for justice (…) We demand to stop looking for excuses to protect (Luis) Posada Carriles and Orlando Bosch,'' she told the mourners, many of whom, with tears in their eyes, wore T-shirts or carried placards with pictures of the dead. (The New York Times, 7/10/05)

October 9: The number of Cubans caught this year trying to make the risky voyage across the Florida Straits to the United States -- whether by puttering homemade boats or speedy smuggler's boats -- reached a 10-year high. There was a significant increase this year in Cubans who made it to US shores as well. While no mass migration appears on the horizon, Cuba experts and US officials say Cubans increasingly take to the ocean to flee the island run by Fidel Castro because of chronic economic hardship, repression of political dissent and a hard-line bureaucracy that makes it difficult for even some legal migrants to leave. "Something has to be happening that people would prefer to risk death rather than continue living there," said Ramon Sanchez, founder of the Cuban exile group Democracy Movement. "People just get so fed up with the system, they leave and risk their lives on the high seas." (CNN, 9/10/05)

October 9: The US government has a plan to provide shelter for terrorists working against Cuba who seek protection in that country, denounced Juventud Rebelde newspaper. The daily claims that what is no less than a circus, apparently legal, has worked for Luis Posada Carriles in El Paso, Texas, and Orlando Bosch Avila years ago, who was even pardoned by George Bush senior. "It is tragic enough that justice be sullied for one murder, but what is worse is to design a strategy to protect everyone inside Operation Condor doing US dirty work," asserts the newspaper. (Prensa Latina, 9/10/05)

October 9: According to dissidents who met career diplomat Michael Parmly just hours after he took command at the US Interests Section three weeks ago, the first thing he did was listen. Supporting Cuba's dogged but damaged opposition movement will be a top priority for Parmly, who starts his Havana tour at a time when US-Cuba relations are sinking to new lows. "He's very friendly, pleasant, cultured," said Oscar Espinosa Chepe, one of the dissidents who met with Parmly before the diplomatic chief had even spent his first night in Havana. When asked what he hoped Parmly would contribute, he said: "A less confrontational climate would help." Martha Beatriz Roque, another former political prisoner, proudly displays a photograph of James Cason in her cramped front room. "He was a person with a tremendous imagination. He had valor," she said, noting that he had traversed Cuba to meet with prisoners' families before the government imposed a travel ban on him. Of the U.S. propaganda campaign, she said, "My hope is that [Parmly] does the same." Miriam Leiva, who is Espinosa Chepe's wife and participates in silent, weekly marches alongside families of detained dissidents, said the United States has a fine line to walk. "What we would like is for the US government to look for a situation of less confrontation than there is now," she said. Referring to the wave of arrests, house raids, confiscated documents and ongoing arbitrary detentions, she added. "The confrontation helps the hard-liners in the Cuban government to justify their wrongdoing." (Sun Sentinel, 9/10/05)

October 10: The world's largest "wealth management" firm, UBS, will be investigated by Congress for possibly laundering money for two state sponsors of terrorism, Cuba and Iran, lawmakers told the press. The Swiss bank, which operates a large financial services business in America, will be pressed about $3.9 billion deposited in UBS accounts by the Castro regime, according to Representative Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, a Republican of Florida, who first announced the impending investigation on Friday. Possible improper financial dealings with the Islamic Republic of Iran and Saddam Hussein's Iraq will also be subject to scrutiny, she said. In 2003, American soldiers liberating Iraq discovered $762 million in American currency stashed in hideouts belonging to Saddam. According to Ms. Ros-Lehtinen, a Federal Reserve Bank probe traced the cash to UBS and other international financial firms. While investigating the Swiss bank's possible business relationship with Saddam's dictatorship, it was discovered that the firm - as part of a program with the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, in which UBS allowed clients to retire old banknotes and replace them with fresh currency - had also conducted transactions with Cuba, Iran, Libya, and Yugoslavia. (The New York Sun, 10/10/05)

October 11: For the first time in over 40 years, representatives of the US energy sector will meet personally with their Cuban counterparts at the US-Cuba Energy Summit to discuss the potential for business in oil and gas ventures between the US and Cuba. This Summit will take place at the Westin Resort and Spa in Cancun, Mexico, from December 1-3, 2005. This historic gathering is being organized by Alamar Associates which has organized five previous Cancun Business Summits which have brought more than 500 US executives together with their Cuban counterparts. The Energy Summit is being sponsored by the US-Cuba Trade Association along with Caterpillar, Port of Corpus Christi, Louisiana Department of Economic Development, Valero Energy Corporation, Lafayette Economic Development Authority, National Foreign Trade Council, and USA Engage. "With Spain, China, Canada, Norway, and India exploring in Cuban waters less than 100 miles from our shores in the Gulf, it is time for US firms to understand what is going on and what the future business potential might be," said Kirby Jones, President of the US-Cuba Trade Association," and this event offers US executives the opportunity to do just that face-to-face with their Cuban counterparts." (PRNewswire, 11/10/05)

October 13: A 6-year-old Cuban boy drowned after a smuggler's boat carrying him and 30 other people capsized as a US Coast Guard vessel attempted to intercept it south of Florida, the Coast Guard said. The boat was spotted on radar about 45 miles south of Key West, according to Lt. Cmdr. Chris O'Neill. The cutter Dauntless gave chase and drew within sight of the 33-foot "go fast" boat, but the boat sped up and pulled away, the Coast Guard said. The Coast Guard cutter lost track of the boat, he said. About 20 minutes later, the crew found the boat capsized with about 30 people clinging to the boat or in the water. After they were rescued they told authorities the 6-year-old boy was missing. While a Coast Guard helicopter searched the water, the crew of the Dauntless tried to right the boat. When they did so, "the youngster was found inside," O'Neill said. The migrants are being held at sea aboard the Coast Guard cutter while US officials decide their immigration status, the Coast Guard said. (CNN, 14/10/05)

October 13: A majority of executives interviewed in South Florida would be interested in doing business with a post-Castro, democratic Cuba, a survey shows. Hispanics surveyed are most interested in expanding business into neighboring Cuba after Fidel Castro leaves power. But a majority of Anglo and black executives also voiced interest, according to the poll commissioned by Miami-based South Florida CEO magazine. A majority interviewed also think a democratic Cuba would have a positive impact on South Florida and their particular industry, said the survey conducted by Coral Gables-based polling firm Bendixen & Associates. The results are based on phone interviews with 417 business leaders and high net worth individuals in Miami-Dade, Broward and Palm Beach counties. The interviews were conducted in English and Spanish during the first two weeks of September. (Sun Sentinel, 13/10/05)

October 13: The Cuban government has taken its campaign against the US embargo on trade and travel to the Internet. Representatives of the island government were online to answer inquiries and comments about the four-decade old policy. Officials were on hand to answer the comments and questions in a bulletin board-type forum, mostly in Spanish. Many of the messages were from people opposed to the embargo, including groups such as the Kenya-Cuba Friendship Association. Cuban embassies from around the world also posted messages. (Sun Sentinel, 14/10/05)

October 14: A Cuban-American who won a Bronze Star in Iraq but was not allowed to return to his homeland to care for a sick son said that his children are being allowed to visit the United States. Under an agreement with the State Department and the Cuban government, Sgt. Carlos Lazo's two sons, Carlos Rafael Lazo, 17, and Carlos Manuel Lazo, 19, will visit for three months. In an exceptional move, the Cuban government allowed the two boys to travel to the US although both are under military age. Lazo, a sergeant in the Washington state National Guard, plans to fly to Miami on Friday to meet them. The family's plight prompted US legislators from both parties to complain about the strict travel limits to Cuba imposed by the Bush administration. The rules allow family visits once every three years. "First of all, I'm very grateful for the outcome of this," Lazo said in an interview. (Sun Sentinel, El Nuevo Herald, 17/10/05)

October 14: Cuba accused the United States of waging "radio and television aggression" by bombarding the island with thousands of hours of propaganda every week, repeating a frequent complaint. The Cuban representative to the United Nations' political and decolonisation committee said the US is violating Cuba's national sovereignty with an "obsessive and sick" policy of seeking to topple Fidel Castro. The delegate said the United States beams 2,300 hours each week from 16 stations in 24 frequencies, programmes that are "totally alien to culture, scientific development and wholesome entertainment, let aside truthful and objective information," said Ambassador Rodrigo Malmierca, Cuba's representative to the UN committee. (The Hindu Times, 15/10/05)

October 17: Two Cuban parents won their bid for freedom, but at a life-shattering price -- the death of their 6-year-old son during an apparent smuggling attempt. Julian Villasuso Jr. died when the boat he was on overturned as it tried to elude the Coast Guard on its way to Florida's coast. Villasuso was buried at Woodlawn Park Cemetery in Miami. Dozens of friends and family members attended a memorial service for the boy in Coral Gables. The parents, among more than two dozen survivors of the failed smuggling trip, were allowed to enter the United States in a departure from normal procedure under the wet-foot/dry-foot immigration policy. (NBC6Net, The Miami Herald, 17/10/05)

October 18: Cuba's Parliamentary speaker blamed the US government for the drowning of a 6-year-old Cuban boy during an illegal migration attempt to South Florida. The US diplomatic mission in Havana in turn blamed smugglers and "the Cuban regime." The death of this child is the responsibility of the United States, as are all the others," Parliamentary speaker Ricardo Alarcón told reporters. If you arrive [in the United States] they admit you," said Alarcón, "But you have to make it, escape from the [US] Coast Guard, you have to violate American laws, you have to risk your life." The US Interests Section in the Cuban capital later issued a statement saying, "The culpable parties in this tragic accident were the smugglers in question and the Cuban regime. The regime continues to drive its citizens to risk their lives at sea by abusing their human rights and denying them economic opportunities." The statement added that the United States "is committed to safe, legal, and orderly migration from Cuba to the US" The child, Julián Villasuso, died when the boat smuggling him and 30 others -- including his parents -- capsized in the Straits of Florida. (CNN, 18/10/05)

October 18: Members of Cuban civil society, dissidents and diplomats attended a video-conference organized by the US Interests Section in Havana as part of its "Series of Conferences on the Transition" on the Communist-ruled island. The video-conference, on the Cuban health care system, was held at the residence of the top US diplomat in Cuba, Michael Parmly, and was conducted from Florida by Cuban-American physician Antonio Maria de Gordon, the co-director of Miami's Westchester General Hospital. The doctor gave a presentation about the state of Cuba's public health system and its future prospects. Among those attending the session were several well-known opposition figures including Vladimiro Roca and formerly imprisoned dissidents Marta Beatriz Roque and Oscar Espinosa Chepe, two of the 14 jailed dissidents from among the so-called Group of 75 who were released by the Cuban regime over the past year for health reasons. (EFE, 19/10/05)

October 19: Washington and Havana rip apart Cuban families with travel policies that violate civil rights, Human Rights Watch said in a 69-page report that marks the first time the group investigates two countries in the same study. Based on interviews with dozens of Cubans and Cuban-Americans, the report documents the terrible human cost of these restrictions, which have torn young children away from their parents, and prevented adults from caring for ailing relatives—including in some cases dying parents. “The US and Cuban travel restrictions reflect an utter disregard for the welfare of families,” said José Miguel Vivanco, Americas director at Human Rights Watch. “Both countries are sacrificing people’s freedom of movement to promote dead-end policies.” The report notes that Fidel Castro had long used travel restrictions to control defections, silence critics and punish people. But it also faulted the Bush administration for tightening rules on travel to Cuba last year, on the ground that trips home by Cuban expatriates were providing the government with much needed hard currency. The report calls on Cuban and US authorities to ease all travel restrictions. [Families Torn Apart: The High Cost of US and Travel Restrictions] (The Miami Herald, BBC, Chicago Tribune, The New York Times, 19/10/05)  

October 19: A senior State Department official said Caribbean nations have been successfully resisting efforts by Cuba and Venezuela to “drive a wedge” between the United States and nations of the region. “Caribbean countries have not been lured by failed static ideologies,” said Dan Fisk, a ranking official in the State Department’s Western Hemisphere Affairs bureau. But he warned that the region’s particular circumstances could, over time, create opportunities for a variety of transnational threats, including terrorism and inroads by criminal organizations. Fisk testified before a House International Relations subcommittee. Close engagement between the United States and the Caribbean is essential at a time when “Cuba and Venezuela are promoting an alternative and regressive vision for the region’s future,” he said. Fisk said Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice has two relatively recent meetings with Caribbean counterparts and plans are under way for another meeting early next year. (AP, 19/10/05)

October 21: US business executives, Cuban-American ones and "Anglos" alike, are anxious to pour billions of dollars into Cuba in the tourism, agriculture, real estate, manufacturing, communications and other sectors once Communism there goes the way of other disappeared Marxist regimes. The Greater Miami Chamber of Commerce estimates that post-Castro investment from the United States will amount to more than $2 billion a year. The results of a new survey of Miami-area executives by veteran pollster Sergio Bendixen revealed that many business leaders plan to take advantage of this opportunity. Of the 417 respondents to the survey, 64 percent said they would be interested in setting up business operations in Cuba. The poll also showed that some 72 percent of Cuban-American executives said they planned to do business with Cuba once restrictions on trade with the island are lifted, compared with 63 percent of "Anglos" and 50 percent of African-Americans. (EFE, 21/10/05)

October 25: North Dakota Agriculture Commissioner Roger Johnson said 11 people will accompany him on a trade trip to Cuba. The delegation will attend the Havana International Trade Fair October 31 through November 5. "The Cubans have said up front that they want to buy at least 20,000 metric tons of dry peas from North Dakota, and that they are also very interested in other commodities, including wheat, pulses, potatoes and onions," Johnson said. The president of Cuba's state food-buying agency invited North Dakota to take part in the trade fair, Johnson said. (WestCan Cuba, 25/10/05)

October 26: US Coordinator for Transition in Cuba, Caleb McCarry, defended in Madrid the importance of the “democratic allied forces” working together to promote “a real transition” on the island and of being prepared to support that process. McCarry participated in a forum on the future of Cuba and met with “high officials” of the Spanish Ministry of Foreign Affairs. In a press conference he said he had a “good discussion” and pointed out that “this has been only the first visit”. He added that one of his objectives is for all democratic nations to play a positive role “in favour of a genuine transition and to not be content with a mere succession”. (EFE, 27/10/05)

October 26: The Chief of the US Interests Section in Cuba, Michael E. Parmly, said he had requested Washington’s aid for those affected by Hurricane Wilma on the island. “We have offered the Cuban government our assistance in a diplomatic note sent to Havana last Monday, the 24 th”, said an official from the State Department. The official added that the aid includes medical supplies and other items for emergencies, as well as a disaster assessment and control group. “Up to this moment the Cuban government has not replied”, he said. (El Nuevo Herald, 27/10/05)

October 27: Lina de Feria, one of the most prominent writers of Cuban contemporary poetry, requested political asylum in the United States. De Feria arrived in Miami after spending a few hours in the Brownsville, Texas, immigration camp where she was taken after crossing the US-Mexico border. The writer was a candidate this year for Cuba’s National Prize for Literature. (Encuentro en la Red, 27/10/05)

October 27: On learning of the award bestowed by the European Parliament on Cuba’s Damas de Blanco (Ladies in White), the Bush administration offered its congratulations to the women’s group.  In a statement, State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said: "The United States congratulates the Damas de Blanco of Cuba on being awarded the 2005 Sakharov Prize for Freedom of Thought by the European Parliament." McCormack also praised the women’s measured response to the repressive tactics of Fidel Castro.  "Damas de Blanco have held peaceful protests every Sunday since the March 2003 dissident crackdown on their husbands and sons, the majority of whom remain imprisoned in Cuba," he said.  "Despite regular harassment and abuse by the Castro security forces, the Ladies in White peacefully and nonviolently demonstrate the enduring freedom-loving spirit of the Cuban people.  They vow to continue their silent protests until the release of all of the 75 dissidents arrested in the March 2003 crackdown by the Castro regime." Finally, McCormack said: “The United States calls on the Castro regime to release all prisoners of conscience.” (USINFO, 27/10/05)

October 27: Cuba has accepted a US offer of emergency assistance following Hurricane Wilma, the first time in the memory of State Department officials that the island nation has accepted such an offer, according to State Department spokesman Sean McCormack. Cuba accepted the offer, also via diplomatic note, on October 26, and a three-person team from the US Agency for International Development's Office of Foreign Disaster Assistance currently is preparing to travel to Cuba to survey the damage and recommend appropriate assistance, McCormack said.  He added that any assistance would be provided through independent nongovernmental organizations. "I think in everybody's memory this is the first time that they have accepted an offer of assistance, at least in the collective memory bank here at the State Department," McCormack said. (USINFO, 27/10/05)

October 27: Fidel Castro denied that his Communist government had accepted US aid for the first time in the wake of Hurricane Wilma. Havana's reply to the US offer, read out by Castro on a live television broadcast, said Cuba had not requested international aid. "That is not an acceptance of aid," the Cuban leader said. Castro, annoyed that Washington was distorting Cuba's intentions, said Havana had only accepted a visit by the assessment team in an effort to build regional cooperation in dealing with the growing danger posed by hurricanes. He agreed with the idea that the US, Mexico and other countries in the area should help each other in disaster situations, such as hurricanes, which are more frequent and stronger. "We have no objections at all to the three officials visiting us, to know their assessment and exchange views on these matters," Castro said. "We won't close the door." "This does not mean we are accepting Washington’s aid," he ratified, and added that Cuba considered cooperation must extend to all the Caribbean and Central America. (Reuters, Prensa Latina, 27/10/05)

October 27: Argentine soccer hero Diego Maradona promised Fidel Castro he would be at the front of an anti-Bush march in Argentina next week. US President George W. Bush will attend a summit of leaders from all countries from the Americas -- except Cuba -- in Mar del Plata, Argentina. "I think Bush is a murderer (…) I'm going to head the march against him stepping foot on Argentine soil,'' Maradona said, appearing on Cuban television with Castro. "I promised the 'Comandante' that I would do it and I will,'' the 44-year-old football legend said, referring to Castro. "For me he is a god,'' Maradona said of the 79-year-old left-wing Cuban leader, whom he considers a friend and a father figure who helped him kick drugs. Maradona was in Havana to interview Castro for his weekly television show in Argentina. (The New York Times, 28/10/05)

October 27: Cuban exile militant Luis Posada Carriles no longer needs to worry about whether the US government intends to deport him to Venezuela, his adoptive country. The 30-day deadline to appeal an immigration judge's September 26 ruling against Posada's removal to the South American country expired; the federal government did not appeal the decision, Posada's lawyers said. This means that unless the Bush administration finds a third country willing to take Posada or pursues Venezuela's extradition request in federal court, Posada is now virtually guaranteed permanent protection in the United States. Deportation to Cuba, Posada's country of birth, was ruled out earlier. US officials had no comment on the lack of appeal, but noted that the immigration judge ordered Posada removed -- albeit neither to Venezuela or Cuba. ''The immigration judge has ordered that Mr. Posada be removed from the United States,'' said Dean Boyd, an Immigration and Customs Enforcement spokesman. "ICE intends to carry out that order.'' José Pertierra, an attorney who represents the Venezuelan government in Washington, said the Bush administration can still pursue the case in federal court if it decides to file Caracas' extradition request for Posada. ''We expect the US government to follow this route,'' Pertierra said. Posada's attorneys said it would be unlikely that a federal court would consider such a request because Posada could be tortured if returned to Venezuela. (The Miami Herald, 28/10/05)

October 29: The US government refused a visa to a Cuban scientist arguing that his presence would be prejudicial to that country’s interests. The San José, California Technical Museum awarded one of its annual prizes in the health category to the team of specialists who worked on obtaining the Cuban vaccine against Haemophilus infuenzae Type B, the bacteria that causes meningitis, pneumonia and other infections in under-fives. Dr. Vicente Vérez Bencomo was supposed to travel to the award ceremony scheduled for November 9 at the museum itself, but the US government refused him a visa. (Granma International, 29/10/05)

October 31: There are a variety of US products on display at Havana’s annual trade fair. More than 300 representatives of 171 American firms confirmed they would attend the International Fair of Havana, said Pedro Alvarez, head of the Cuban food import company Alimport. "We have a larger American participation this year despite the (US) restrictions," Alvarez said as he toured the Expo Cuba fairgrounds on Havana's outskirts. "But the (Bush) administration has created serious obstacles for small and medium-sized companies." Marvin Leherer, of the USA Rice Federation, said the trade group he represents indicates that American rice sales to Cuba this year have been down, "mostly because of the problems with the terms of payment" created by US rules. "It's definitely made things harder," Leherer said as he set up the Rice Federation's booth at the fair. But rice farmers are determined to keep selling as much to Cuba because it is a key future market, Leherer added. "This is a huge market for rice. We have to be here," he said. "Cuba imports as much or more than Mexico with just one-tenth of the people." (AP, 31/10/05)

October 31: During an interview with former soccer player Diego Maradona, broadcast in Argentina, Fidel Castro warned US President George W. Bush to stay away from the summit of leaders of the Americas, to which Cuba was the only nation not invited. "It would be better for him to find a pretext and not go. This is seriously an error, the FTAA is already dead and buried," Castro said during a five-hour interview. (Reuters, 31/10/05)

October 31: A federal appeals court jolted Miami with another electrifying ruling in the case of five Cuban men accused of spying for Fidel Castro -- reinstating their original convictions in the 2001 trial. The 11th US Circuit Court of Appeals threw out a ruling in August by a three-judge appellate panel that had overturned those convictions. Now the appeals process starts all over again. The Atlanta appellate court must decide whether the five Cuban defendants -- convicted of infiltrating Miami's exile community and trying to pass US military secrets to Havana -- received a fair trial in a community that despises Castro. This time, a majority of the 12-member appellate court has agreed to rehear the so-called Cuban Five's appeal, which leaves the case in limbo for several more months. (The Miami Herald, 2/11/05)