Chronicle on Cuba - December 2005

Foreign Affairs

December 1: Fidel Castro fondly told President Martin Torrijos of Panama that he hoped they could share the same good relations their countries did during the 1968-1981 rule of Torrijos' late father, populist military strongman General Omar Torrijos. Torrijos traveled to Cuba with 74 disadvantaged Panamanians who will undergo free eye surgery courtesy of the communist-run government. "I am reminded of your father when he visited," Castro told the younger Torrijos, the online edition of the Communist Party daily Granma reported. Castro said father and son shared "the same spirit." "We enter a new era of cooperation and solidarity with Cuba," Torrijos told state-run news media before boarding his flight. "We leave with a suitcase full of ideas and hope." (CNN, 1/12/05)

December 1: The Spanish Defence Minister, José Bono, said he would repeat his statements made in Caracas in reference to Fidel Castro. “I said that Mr. (Hugo) Chávez” had come to power “by the polls, which is not the case neither of Pinochet nor Castro”, said Bono. He also added that his intention was not to “compare”. The Defence Minister emphasized that it’s impossible to say that Castro came to the power via the democratic route, “because it is a lie”, he said, “even if the Cuban Foreign Minister (Felipe Pérez Roque) does not like it”. (Europa Press, 1/12/05)

December 1: The president of the Cuban National Assembly of the People’s Power, Ricardo Alarcón, described as “disgusting” the statements by the Spanish Defence Minister, José Bono, who speaking to the press said that Venezuelan president Hugo Chávez was elected in the polls, “unlike Castro or Pinochet”. The president of the Cuban Parliament pointed out that “democracy cannot be measured through elections”, since Adolf Hitler “was himself elected by a large majority of votes”. (Europa Press, 1/12/05)

December 1: The 15th Congress of the World Federation of Trade Unions began in Havana to strengthen workers´ unity and seek for alternatives to face neoliberal globalization. Representatives of 300 unions will demand unconditional withdrawal of foreign troops in Iraq plus the end of Israel´s illegal occupation of Palestinian territories, said Leonel Gonzalez, Cuba's CTC (central trade union) chair for international relations. (Prensa Latina, 1/12/05)

December 2: On the 45th anniversary of diplomatic relations between both countries, Vietnamese Minister of Foreign Relations Nguyen Dy Nien declared that his country will continue strengthening friendship and bilateral relations with Cuba. Nguyen Dy Nien added that the only thing both nations have left to do is take bilateral economic and commercial cooperation to the level of current political relations. (Prensa Latina, 2/12/05)

December 3: Communist Cuba deported a Polish journalist two days after police detained her for interviewing dissidents while visiting as a tourist, a Polish diplomat said. Anna Bikont, who works for Gazeta Wyborcza, one of Poland's most widely circulated newspapers, was put on an Air Lauda flight to Milan by immigration police, said Polish First Secretary Daniel Gromann. Her colleague and travel companion, Nelly Norton, a dual national Swiss-Italian psychologist who works as a journalist, was also expelled. Cuban police seized their notes and deleted pictures from a digital camera, Gromann said. "They were told they broke immigration laws. Technically they have been deported,'' he said. Cuba requires foreign reporters who enter Cuba as tourists to abstain from practicing journalism. (The New York Times, 3/12/05)

December 4: Cuba’s Education Minister Luis Ignacio Gómez concluded his stay in China, where he attended the 5th High Level Group on Education (EFA), organized by UNESCO in Beijing. The three-day forum aimed at finding ways to decrease illiteracy worldwide. After the event, Luis Ignacio Gómez met with China’s education Minister Zhou Ji to exchange criteria on the two countries’ educational systems. Gómez and Zhou agreed to increase the number of Cubans studying Chinese language and that of Chinese people studying Spanish in cooperation with Cuba. (Prensa Latina, 4/12/05)

December 5: The main headline of the Granma newspaper on the Venezuelan elections was a phrase taken from statements by Venezuelan president Hugo Chávez in Caracas: “Venezuela immunized against the imperialist poison”. Cuban television newscasts devoted large segments to the Venezuelan elections, emphasizing the popular support to the President and the elections. (World Data Service, 5/12/05)

December 5: The secretary for international relations of the Spanish Socialist Workers’ Party (PSOE), Trinidad Jiménez, condemned the political persecution of the social-democratic opposition in Cuba. Jiménez decried the so-called “acts of repudiation” against social democrat leader Manuel Cuesta Morúa, spokesman of the illegal Progressive Arch. (EFE, 5/12/05)

December 6: Fidel Castro charged again at Europe and warned the Spanish Socialists, without mentioning names, after a recent criticism from Trinidad Jiménez on the harassment of dissident Manuel Cuesta Morúa. Castro referred to Jiménez as “one who calls herself an official of a supposedly socialist or social-democratic party”. “(...) let them know that we are keeping a watchful eye and that we have a good collection of information in the backpack”, he said. (EFE, 6/12/05)

December 7: The secretary for international relations of the Spanish Socialist Workers’ Party (PSOE), Trinidad Jiménez, reaffirmed her condemnation of the aggression against Cuban dissident Manuel Cuesta Morúa. Jiménez stressed that in 25 years of political career she has never received “warning nor threats from anybody”. “I follow political instructions from my secretary general, who is the President of the Government. Those, and the dictates of my own convictions, are the only ones that I attend to”. “I would repeat these statements when a social-democratic leader of a country, whoever may be, in any place, is the victim of some form of aggression (...) the Spanish socialist party has the ethical and political obligation to stand up in their defence”, said Jiménez. (EFE, 7/12/05)

December 7: Fidel Castro traveled to Barbados for a summit with leaders of Caribbean states, the state news agency reported. Castro was accompanied by Vice President Carlos Lage, Foreign Secretary Felipe Perez Rogue, Minister of Foreign Investment Marta Lomas, and other government officials. In the second such summit in three years, Castro was due to sign cooperation agreements on health and culture with the leaders of the Caribbean Community, CARICOM. The Cuban leader was also scheduled to attend a dedication ceremony for a monument erected to commemorate the bombing of a Cuban airliner in October 1976 over the coast of Barbados. (AFP, 7/12/05)

December 7: The first 136 Ecuadorian patients that will benefit from the Cuba-Venezuela sight-restoring program known as “Mission Miracle” arrived in Caracas. “The Mission is part of a strategy of the governments of Hugo Chávez and Fidel Castro of a Bolivarian Alternative for the Americas (ALBA). (EFE, 7/12/05)

December 8: Leaders of Caribbean nations were holding a summit to discuss health care cooperation and cultural exchanges, but a major focus was on Cuba and its thorny relationship with the United States. A draft declaration prepared for the one-day summit calls for an end to Washington's ''unjust and cruel'' 44-year-old trade embargo against Cuba”. ''It is an embargo that is not only inhumane but also blatantly inconsistent with international trade laws,'' said St. Lucia Prime Minister Kenny Anthony at the opening of the second Caribbean Community-Cuba summit. Castro chided wealthy nations for using a disproportionate share of the world's energy resources, saying they were growing richer at the expense of poorer countries, and endangering the environment. Bahamian Foreign Minister Fred Mitchell said Castro ''looks good.'' And Jamaican Prime Minister P.J. Patterson said his "intellectual acuity is as sharp as ever.'' The Cuban delegation played a 13-minute video about Cuba's assistance to the Caribbean, which includes 1,142 doctors working in CARICOM nations. Castro also boasted that 14 Caribbean nations have sent more than 3,000 students to study at Cuban schools. ''As of yesterday, thanks to Operation Miracle, 10,502 citizens from 11 nations have been operated on in Cuba in just four months and 14 days,'' Castro said. "That is to say, a pace of 30,000 patients a year.'' Leaders of every CARICOM nation except Haiti attended the summit, designed to encourage cultural exchanges and health care cooperation between the 15-nation bloc and Cuba. (The New York Times, The Miami Herald, 8/12/05)

December 8: Fidel Castro laid flowers at a memorial to 73 people killed in the 1976 bombing of a Cuban airliner -- a plot allegedly masterminded by Luis Posada Carriles, a Cuban militant being held in the United States. The tribute came as Caribbean leaders condemned Washington's 44-year-old trade embargo against Cuba during a regional summit held in Barbados. Castro and the son of a crew member killed in the crash, Carlos Alberto Cremata, placed a bouquet of flowers at the base of the polished, gray granite pyramid, which is inscribed with the names of the bombing victims. The delegates observed two minutes of silence in honor of those killed. ''That was a very touching experience,'' Castro said at an evening news conference broadcast live on Barbados' CBC radio station website. "This has been such an incredible day.'' (The New York Times, The Miami Herald, 9/12/05)

December 10: In almost two months members of the Cuban Henry Reeve Medical Brigade attended more than 442,000 patients affected by Hurricane Stan in Guatemala. Dr. Daniel Posada, second head of that International Contingent reported that the Cuban doctors saved 1,360 lives, after the arrival in Havana of the last two groups of doctors working in that country. (Granma, 11/12/05)

December 10: East Timor Prime Minister Mari Bim Amude Alkatiri kicked off an official visit to Cuba, on an invitation by Fidel Castro. The prime minister is accompanied by a delegation made up of Health Minister Rui Maria de Araujo and other top government officials. (Prensa Latina, 10/12/05)

December 11: On his return to Argentina after meeting with Fidel Castro, Santa Fe Governor Jorge Obeid expressed satisfaction with his visit to Cuba and said it was a successful mission. “To be precise, we acquired vaccines to prevent meningitis, while Cuban teachers have been working in the northern region of the province for six months in an adult literacy program called “Yo Sí Puedo” (Yes, I can), he said to the press. The governor reported that this program has been so successful that the first 500 diplomas will be granted to people that have already learned how to read and write, and now they will join the formal adult education system. (Prensa Latina, 12/12/05)

December 12: The virtual president-elect of Honduras, Manuel Zelaya, does not foresee to appoint an ambassador to Cuba in the first year of his administration, but in 2007, said Milton Jiménez, whom the president has announced as Foreign Minister. (EFE, 12/12/05)

December 12: The Spanish Foreign Ministry, through its embassy in Cuba, expressed its “discomfort” to Cuban authorities on the expulsion from Cuba on October 8 of Spanish citizens Pablo Echánove and Juan Ignacio Peña, members of the Spanish Association Cuba in Transition (AECT). The source said that Cuban authorities did not notify the Spanish diplomatic mission when Echánove and Peña were detained and interrogated and authorities seized audio-visual and graphic material collected during the trip. (EFE, 12/12/05)

December 12: Both the conservatives and the socialists who make up the bulk of the European Parliament blasted the Cuban Communist regime's refusal to allow several women rights activists to fly to France to receive a prestigious award. Cuba's Ladies in White, an organization of female relatives of political prisoners, shares this year's Sakharov Prize with Nigerian human rights lawyer Hauwa Ibrahim and Paris-based Reporters Without Borders, a press-freedom watchdog. The award is given by the European Parliament annually, and this year's presentation ceremony is set for December 14. “I call on the Cuban authorities to let them depart. If they do not, we will be obliged to again harshly criticize (one of) the last Communist dictatorships on the planet," said Germany's Hans-Gert Poettering, the head of the center-right European Popular Party. "We reject the Cuban stance and are going to protest," said the head of the Socialist bloc, Martin Schulz, who also is German. (EFE, 13/12/05)

December 12: European Parliament president Josep Borrell said he was to meet the Cuban foreign minister in regards with Cuba’s refusal to allow The Ladies in White to travel to Europe to receive the Sakharov Prize granted to them by the European Parliament. But he added "I can't promise that the diplomatic pressure we are making will secure the permission for Cuban activists to arrive at Strasbourg. If the Ladies in White fail to get the green light, they will be represented in Strasbourg by their Europe-based associate, Blanca Reyes, who will take the floor on their behalf in plenary. However, she will not get the award herself. One member, Miriam Leiva, said that if she and her comrades are prevented from attending the ceremony in the European Parliament, "there will be a person who will explain the position of the Women in White but will not accept the prize." Instead, the activists have asked a delegation from the European Parliament to bring it to them to Cuba. (EUObserver, EFE, 12/12/05)

December 13: The Jamaican government is seeking to deepen ties with Cuba, particularly in the areas of water and housing development. Minister of Water and Housing, Donald Buchanan recently led a delegation to Cuba, where meetings were held with the Cuban Minister of Water, Jorge Aspiolea Roig and the President of the National Housing Institute of Cuba, Victor Ramirez Ruiz. Speaking on his return to the island, Minister Buchanan observed that "the challenges in Cuba and the challenges in Jamaica are quite similar," and so it is important and prudent to enhance cooperation between both countries. Meanwhile, on the housing side, discussions with the President of the National Housing Institute were very fruitful, and focused, among other things on establishing cooperation to deal with slum upgrading and the regularisation and improvement of squatter settlements. Minister Buchanan informed the press that in furtherance of cooperation efforts, Jamaica would exchange experiences with the Cubans to develop practical solutions. (JIS News, 1/12/05)

December 13: East Timor Prime Minister Mari Bim Amude Alkatiri is winding up his Cuba visit after talks with Fidel Castro. The two heads of State presided over the bilateral talks between high level delegations from the two countries. Vice President Carlos Lage, Public Health Minister José Ramón Balaguer, Foreign Minister Felipe Pérez Roque and Basic Industry Minister Yadira García, among other officials, also attended the talks for Cuba. Health Minister Rui Maria de Araujo, Ricardo da Costa, the Prime Minister advisor for National Security, Cabinet Chief Jose Manuel Gomes and Protocol Director Leonor Cardoso represented East Timor at the meeting. (Prensa Latina, 13/12/05)

December 13: Mexican police at the international airport in Cancun seized a shipment of 22 pounds (10 kilograms) of cocaine found in a suitcase that arrived aboard a flight from Cuba, authorities reported. The drugs were packed into a suitcase that was being shipped from the Cuban resort of Varadero, and was apparently destined for Brussels, Belgium, the Public Safety Department said in a statement. Police sniffer dogs detected the drugs during a routine inspection of incoming luggage. No arrests were immediately reported in the case. (AP, 13/12/05)

December 14: Fidel Castro said that Cuba is willing to send up to 300 physicians to the Democratic Republic of East Timor, to broaden assistance on this field. The Cuban leader made the offer to East Timor Prime Minister Mari Bim Amude Alkatiri during a meeting with 200 medicine students in Havana. Presently, there are 65 Cuban doctors working in East Timor. (Prensa Latina, 14/12/05)

December 14: The European Union expressed regret that Havana has barred members of Cuba's "Ladies in White" opposition movement from traveling to France to receive the EU's top human rights prize. In a statement issued on behalf of the 25-nation bloc, EU chair Britain also said that the decision highlighted Cuba's disregard for human rights. "The Presidency of the European Union regrets the fact that the Cuban authorities have prevented the “Damas de Blanco” from traveling to Strasbourg to collect their prize," it said, referring to the Spanish name for the women's group. "Such cases (…) demonstrate the Cuban authorities' disregard of the right to freedom of movement for its own citizens," the presidency said in a statement. The Cuban women are joint winners of the 2005 Sakharov Prize for freedom of thought, which was awarded at a ceremony in the European Parliament. (Reuters, 14/12/05)

December 14: China, Cuba, Eritrea and Ethiopia jail more journalists than any other country. The top four countries accounted for two-thirds of the 125 imprisoned editors, writers and photojournalists as of December 1, according to the report by the New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists. China topped the list for the seventh year in the row, with 32 imprisoned, of which 15 were Internet journalists. Cuba is holding 24 reporters, most of them jailed after a March 2003 crackdown on dissidents and independent media, the CPJ said. (Reuters, 14/12/05)

December 14: The Inter-American Press Association (IAPA) joined an international appeal for the release from prison of independent Cuban journalist Ricardo González Alfonso, serving a 20-year sentence and whose health has deteriorated. González Alfonso was arrested in March 2003 during “the crackdown against independent journalists and political dissidents by Cuban authorities”, said the IAPA. (EFE, 14/12/05)

December 14: During a meeting with Gambian Foreign Minister Lamin Karba Bajo, host Foreign Minister Felipe Pérez Roque reiterated the Cuban government´s willingness to enhance bilateral relations with that nation. Pérez Roque told Karba Bajo that Cuba is grateful for Gambia’s support to the Cuban people’s struggle against the US blockade. The visitor thanked the Cuban people and government for giving him a warm welcome, and praised the work of a Cuban medical team assisting his country. "We may not have much to offer, but you will have our support in all international forums and against the blockade," the visitor declared. (Prensa Latina, 14/12/05)

December 14: Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez will receive an award from the UN Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) for his efforts to unify Latin America, UNESCO said. The so-called José Martí Prize was founded in 1994 at the initiative of Cuba to promote efforts in protecting the cultural identity and historic values of Latin America and the Caribbean. Its earlier winners include Mexico's sociologist Pablo González Casanova and Dominican historian Celsa Albert Bautista. The 5,000-dollar prize will be presented in January in Cuba, said UNESCO. (Xinhua, 14/12/05)

December 15: Cuba called for a drastic reform of the World Trade Organization (WTO) so that it can respond with new and effective policies to the interests of the majority of its member states. The statement was made by Ricardo Cabrisas, Cuba’s Minister of Government, who led an official delegation to the 6th WTO Ministerial Conference. Cabrisas indicated that such policies should target primarily the social development of the peoples, and should not be based on neo-liberal doctrines or exclusively on trade to solve the pressing problems of the Third World. (Europa Press, 15/12/05)

December 16: Six illegal Cuban migrants who had arrived in Mexico on a raft, escaped from a detention centre after sawing a bar of the cell where they were being held while awaiting deportation, said the government of the state of Quintana Roo. The rafters had been detained on December 14 in Cancún after five days in high seas. (AFP, 19/12/05)

December 18: Luo Gan, member of the Political Bureau Standing Committee of the Central Committee of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), arrived in Havana for a goodwill visit as guest of the Communist Party of Cuba. In a written statement delivered at the airport upon arrival, Luo said Cuba was the first Latin American country that established diplomatic relations with China. Cuba is the last leg of Luo's tour of three Latin American countries. He visited Argentina and Uruguay before. (BBC, 19/12/05)

December 19: Gisela Delgado, wife of Cuban dissident Héctor Palacio, in prison since March 2003, delivered to the Embassy of the United Kingdom in Havana a letter asking the international community to intercede for the release of her husband. In the letter, Delgado says that her 64-year-old husband has been hospitalized for 22 months due to cardiovascular problems and chronic hypertension. The United Kingdom currently holds the presidency of the European Union. The letter is also addressed to Pope Benedict XVI, the UN Secretary General, and to the Cuban Commission of Human Rights and National Reconciliation. (Cubanet, 19/12/05)

December 19: Bolivian President-elect socialist Evo Morales thanked Communist-run Cuba for providing an example for Latin America and vowed to "liberate" Bolivia and the region. "Thank you very much Cuba for showing Latin America and the world how to live with dignity and sovereignty," Morales said in a phone interview for a Cuban television show on his victory at the polls. Randy Alonso, moderator of the state-run television show, which reflects the views of the government, hailed Morales' victory as an important contribution to Latin American integration and a defeat for Washington. "Evo's election represents a severe blow to neoliberalism and its backers and a defeat for Washington's aggressive neoconservative policies in the region," Alonso said. Cuba's Prensa Latina news agency quoted Morales as declaring that "the Third Millennium belongs to peoples, not to the Empire," a reference to the US. (Reuters, Crosswalk.Com, 19/12/05)

December 20: Fidel Castro wants Pope Benedict to make a visit to his country, an Italian cardinal has said. Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone of Genoa, who recently visited Cuba and met Castro, told the Italian Catholic business magazine "Il Consulente Re" that Castro told him he was impressed by Benedict, who was elected last April. “I would like to invite him toCuba," Bertone quoted Castro as telling him. Cuban Minister of Culture Abel Prieto said that, cultural relations between the Vatican and Cuban institutions will develop further in 2006. Abel Acosta, president of the Cuban Institute for the Music, said that Cuban artists will participate in five cultural events organized at the Holy See in 2006. This year, Acosta participated in a Cuban concert titled “Cuban Mass for the Virgen del Cobre”, held at the Vatican on the occasion of the 70 th anniversary of relations between the Vatican and Cuba. (Reuters, AFP, 20/12/05)

December 20: Fidel Castro held talks with Luo Gan, member of the Political Bureau Standing Committee of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China (CPC), at the Palace of the Revolution in Havana. The two leaders analyzed the excellent relations between China and Cuba. (Granma, 21/12/05)

December 21: Cuba's veteran head of state Fidel Castro may attend an EU-Latin America-Caribbean summit in Vienna next May, said the Austrian newspaper Kurier. It quoted Chancellor Wolfgang Schuessel's foreign policy spokeswoman, Verena Nowotny, as saying: "Whether Castro will come may only be decided right at the end - among other things for security reasons." Cuban Ambassador to Austria, Norma Goicochea Estenoz would not confirm in an interview with the Austria Press Agency whether the 79-year-old leader planned to attend the summit during Austria's EU presidency. "That will be decided at the last moment. We don't have any information about it." In any case, she said, "we will take part in the summit with a high-level delegation", and added that, "who will lead it is not clear yet." The ambassador said Cuba gave great importance to the summit, and was actively taking part in preparations. (APA, 21/12/05)

December 21: Yves Bur, vice-president of the French National Assembly, condemned the attacks “orchestrated by Cuban authorities” against relatives of the Cuban political prisoners José Daniel and Luis Enrique Ferrer García. The prisoners’ wives, children and sister were attacked “while exercising one of their few opportunities to visit Luis Enrique Ferrer García”, said Bur, an MP from the ruling conservative party UMP. Bur said he was “outraged about these violent acts of intimidation against the families of dissidents” and, in particular, the harassment “children are subjected to”. (EFE, 21/12/05)

December 21: The new Cuban ambassador to the UN, Rodrigo Malmierca, presented his diplomatic credentials to UN Secretary General Kofi Annan at the UN mission in New York. Malmierca, former Cuban ambassador to Brussels, replaces Cuban ambassador to the UN, Orlando Requeijo. (EFE, 21/12/05)

December 22: Fidel Castro and hundreds of Cuban parliament members sent a message of solidarity and congratulations to Bolivia's president-elect, Evo Morales, a longtime Cuba ally. "We received the results of these historic elections with profound joy," said a message read at a year-end National Assembly meeting, during which more than 500 lawmakers gathered to present annual economic reports. The message was the Cuban government's first formal reaction to Morales' stunning election victory, when the Aymara Indian leader received more support than any president since Bolivian democracy was restored two decades ago. "With your victory, a new history is born," the Cuban message said. "It's the hour of true discovery in the Americas." (Prensa Latina, AP, 22/12/05)

December 22: Castro said Europe should condemn the United States for plans to build a wall on its border with Mexico, where hundreds of immigrants die trying to cross every year. The US House of Representatives authorized building 700 miles of fence along the 2,000-mile US-Mexico border. Castro also said he is also waiting for a “real protest” from Europe against the illegal US CIA controlled detentions centres in its territory. In his remarks at the Cuban Parliament, Castro accused the European countries of having “a double standard” because, he said, they vote against Cuba in the UN Human Rights Commission in Geneva, while avoiding criticism against the US. “There has never been cases of torture in our prisons”, Castro said emphatically. “I demand from everybody to prove that one single prisoner has been tortured in any of our prisons along 46 years of revolutionary power”. (EFE, 22/12/05)

December 23: Alcides Lorenzo Rodríguez, chief of the National Group for Family Medical Services in Cuba has been under arrest in a migratory centre at Chetumal, Mexico. Guadalupe Lorenzo, a doctor’s aunt who lives in the US, said that the Cuban doctor left the island to Peru where he was to teach a course, but decided not to go back to the island due to disagreements with Fidel Castro’s regime. The Mexican National Institute for Migration (INM) said that the Cuban has been at the Chetumal detention centre since December 10. (El Universal, 23/12/05)

December 23: A Mexican naval vessel rescued 17 exhausted Cuban emigrants in a leaky wooden boat near Isla Mujeres off the Yucatan peninsula, authorities said. The navy said the 14 men and three women had been at sea a week since departing southwestern Cuba, presumably hoping to reach the United States, the destination of almost all Cubans seeking to leave the Communist-ruled island. The navy communique said those rescued showed signs of exhaustion, and one needed treatment for infected cuts on his leg, so they were transferred to Cancun for medical attention at the naval base there. They were then handed over to immigration authorities. More than 400 Cuban "rafters" have reached Mexican shores this year, an increase of 25 percent over 2004. (EFE, 23/12/05)

December 27: Cuban diplomats in Mexico City said that Cuba’s "Yo sí puedo" (I can do it) literacy program has taught more than 266,000 Mexicans from ten federal states to read and write. Sponsored by Cuban specialists, the method, also called Alfa-TV, is taught by 10,500 volunteers, mostly junior high school graduates who teach illiterate adults to read and write in seven-week courses. The project has been carried out in the states of Michoacán, Oaxaca, Tabasco, Puebla, Guerrero, State of Mexico, Veracruz, San Luis Potosí, Nayarit and the Federal District. (Prensa Latina, 27/12/05)

December 28: Thirty-five years after he was exiled to Cuba for his part in the kidnapping of British diplomat James Cross, Jacques Lanctôt, a former member of the Front de Libération du Québec (FLQ), returned to the island. La Presse reported that the 60-year-old former terrorist was married in Havana, and plans to move to Cuba permanently. The Montreal newspaper said he met his fourth wife, Yarilis, at a recent book fair in Havana. Lanctôt, who returned to Quebec in 1979 and served two years in prison, told La Presse he was grateful to the late former Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau for enabling him to get to know Cuba by exiling him there. Last summer, he severely criticized Governor General Michaëlle Jean for a documentary the former CBC journalist had done on Cuba. "It doesn't matter to me that she became governor general," he said. "What wounded me was the reporting she did in Cuba." (The Star, 29/12/05)

December 30: Fidel Castro ordered full state honors for the visit of Bolivian President-elect Evo Morales, who chose the Communist-ruled as the destination of his first trip abroad. Morales traveled to Havana with a delegation of some 60 people to meet with Castro, who was waiting for him at the bottom of the stairs of the Cuban airliner that the Cuban leader sent to collect Mr. Morales and his supporters. In brief statements to the press, the leftist who will become Bolivia's first Indian president when he is sworn in on January 22 said his visit translates into "a joy, an emotion, a friendship with the Cuban people." "It appears the map is changing, but one has to be reflective,'' Castro told reporters at the airport. Morales, who made the trip on Castro's invitation, had visited the island several times in the past, most recently in April, when he was operated on for a knee he injured playing soccer. The Bolivian president-elect's "friendly visit" was confirmed in an official communique the Cuban government released. Granma newspaper referred to Mr. Morales as “comrade Evo Morales”. (BBC, EFE, Reuters, Prensa Latina, 30/12/05)

December 30: Fidel Castro and Latin America's latest leftist leader, Bolivian President-elect Evo Morales, announced plans to increase cooperation between the two countries after a day of talks in Havana. The two leaders signed a joint communique in which Cuba pledged to train 5,000 Bolivian doctors and provide eye treatment to 50,000 Bolivians each year. The agreement, which also included promises to develop cooperation in many other areas such as education and energy, was signed in the presence of 250 Bolivian medical students already enrolled in Cuba. "This is a meeting between two generations of fighters for dignity and independence,'' Morales, 46, said with Castro, 79, looking on. (Reuters, 30/12/05)

December 31: Fidel Castro said good-by to Bolivian President-elect Evo Morales, who returned to his country after a brief, though intense, visit to the island. Castro saw off Morales and his entourage at José Martí International Airport along with Cuban Vice President Carlos Lage, president of Parliament Ricardo Alarcón, Foreign Minister Felipe Pérez Roque, member of State Council Carlos Valenciaga and other Cuban officials. (Prensa Latina, 31/12/05)