Chronicle on Cuba - July 2006

US-Cuba Relations

July 1: A senior Cuban official has sharply criticized a US report on the future of Cuba after Fidel Castro leaves office. A draft of the report calls for a "democracy fund" to boost opposition to Cuba's communist government. The report is being issued by the Commission for Assistance to a Free Cuba, created by President George W Bush in 2003. For the government, the fact that the US would plan for the day when Fidel Castro's time in power ends should come as no surprise. However, the president of the Cuban parliament, Ricardo Alarcon, feels there is cause for anger and even concern. Mr Alarcon describes the report as nothing short of an aberration which should be read as an act of war, as it publicly contemplates how to bring the government of a sovereign foreign nation to an end. (BBC, 1/7/06)

July 1: The US-based international humanitarian agency Church World Service (CWS) is alarmed about the recommendations in an advance draft of a new report by the Bush Administration’s Commission for Assistance to a Free Cuba - which CWS says would end its ability to provide basic relief aid to people in need in the island nation and seriously hamper religious freedom. A draft copy of the report was supplied to Church World Service, the ecumenical relief and development body related to the National Council of Churches USA. “If the recommendations contained within this report are accepted by President George Bush and put into effect by the Commerce Department, it is likely that we will no longer be allowed to provide humanitarian aid through the Cuban Council of Churches, our agency’s partner in Cuba for 60 years,” said CWS Executive Director the Reverend John L. McCullough. (Ekklesia, 3/7/06)

July 1: Thirty of Cuba's leading libraries joined in a "national campaign" against the attempt in Miami to ban the book "Vamos a Cuba" and its English-language version "A Visit to Cuba," whose distribution in US schools has stirred controversy.  "What has brought out thousands of people around the country is something scandalous that is happening these days in Miami-Dade County (Florida)," Eliades Ochoa, head of the Jose Marti National Library in Havana, said. "There is an attempt to take this children's book off the shelves of student libraries of that country (...) a children's book that would never have been famous except for this barbaric attempt to ban it," he said. The dispute over the text by US author Alta Schreier started after a Cuban-born father in Miami, Juan Amador Rodriguez, criticized the children's book for not accurately reflecting life on the island and omitting the fact that Cuba is a Communist dictatorship. The Miami-Dade School Board subsequently banned it. (EFE, 1/7/06)

July 2: Taking the back door into the United States, droves of Cubans are crossing some of the world's stormiest seas and clambering onto this rugged speck of an island belonging to Puerto Rico. Forsaking the heavily patrolled Florida Straits, Cubans are increasingly reaching the US by flying to the Dominican Republic and traveling about 40 miles by boat to Mona Island. In fiscal year 2001, no more than five Cubans landed on Mona. But in the past nine months 579 have arrived, Jorge Diaz, a senior US Customs and Border Protection agent, said. The Cubans said they fly to the Dominican Republic on commercial airliners. Even accomplishing that step required patience and luck. To leave Cuba legally, Cubans must generally get a visa from the country they're going to visit, plus a letter of invitation from a citizen of that country. They then must seek an exit visa from the Cuban government, which is sometimes denied. The process can take months. The Cubans - who couldn't simply fly from the Dominican Republic to the United States without a US visa - then pay between $1,500 and $2,000 to be taken by boat to Mona. That's at least $12,000 total for one boatload. Dominican people-smugglers are turning huge profits in this growing industry, and few are prosecuted. (AP, 2/7/06)

July 2: Dulce Maria Téllez, one of the key players in Cuba’s women’s volleyball team, who were in Puerto Rico taking part in the Pan-American Cup, left her team to remain in the USA, reported the president of the North, Central America and Caribbean Volleyball Confederation (NORCECA), Cristóbal Mars Hoffitz. (EFE, 3/7/06)

July 3: The humanitarian activist group Bikes Across Borders will cross the Texas-Mexico border with New York-based Pastors for Peace on a mission to deliver bicycles and aid to Cuba. The group arrived at the border, sorting out medicines and cash donations, before it crosses the border into Mexico. Bikes Across Borders has sent more than 500 bicycles to Cuba, Mexico and Central America. (The Daily Texan, 3/7/06)

July 5: A wide-ranging report on US policies toward Cuba's possible transition to democracy was officially presented to President Bush at a meeting of the White House's National Security Council. The report by the Commission for Assistance to a Free Cuba, co-chaired by Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and the Cuban-American Secretary of Commerce, Carlos Gutierrez, makes recommendations to hasten the end of the island's communist government and assist the transition. Announcing the report's presentation to Bush, White House Press Secretary Tony Snow said ``a lot of the thinking is, what do you do in a post-Castro era?'' (The Miami Herald, 5/7/06)

July 5: Two senior Cuban officials charged that a report on the communist nation delivered to the Bush administration's National Security Council amounted to a blueprint for an Iraq-style regime change in the Caribbean. "We are facing a real threat of aggression," National Assembly President Ricardo Alarcon said of the Commission for Assistance to a Free Cuba's report, flashing a draft he said had appeared briefly on the US State Department's web page, to a national television and radio audience. The new report supports the earlier one and calls for building an international coalition to support a transition, increased organizational and financial support for dissidents and a further tightening of economic sanctions, among other measures. The first chapter, entitled "Hastening the End of the Castro Dictatorship: Transition not Succession," includes a separate "classified annex" of recommended actions. "You can't accomplish what they propose without an invasion, without a war (…) This plan implies a US military invasion of Cuba, a direct US intervention," said Bruno Rodriquez, First Vice Minister of Foreign Affairs. (Reuters, AP, 6/7/06)

July 5: US president George W. Bush and his national security team met to review the report by the official Commission for Assistance to a Free Cuba. A White House spokesman said it was the first meeting of the National Security Council dedicated to Cuba in 16 years, and that the report reaffirmed US commitment to a “democratic transition in Cuba”. (The Financial Times, 6/7/06)

July 6: Another children's book about Cuba will be challenged in Miami-Dade County schools, with a formal complaint expected to be filed. Political activist David Rosenthal, a Broward resident, said the book Cuban Kids "is nothing more than a series of falsehoods and distorted information, published with the intention of misleading children, and their parents, relatives and friends, about the reality of the totalitarian Castro regime of Cuba." The author of the book, which is available in six Dade elementary school libraries, was pleasantly surprised to learn of the complaint. "I've never been so flattered," said Santa Fe photographer George Ancona. "This is going to boost sales." Ancona's 40-page book, intended for third- to fifth-graders, paints a largely flattering portrait of life under Fidel Castro. A few photos and some text hint at the deep poverty, but most of the book focuses on free healthcare, housing and education. (The Miami Herald, 6/7/06)

July 6: The US government arrested a Miami friend of Cuban exile militant Luis Posada Carriles in Texas as part of an ongoing grand jury probe into Posada's illegal entry into the United States from Mexico. Ernesto Abreu, son of well-known Cuban exile militant Ernestino Abreu, was jailed in El Paso after he pleaded the Fifth Amendment and refused to testify before the grand jury investigating how Posada entered the United States, the elder Abreu said. Shana Jones, a spokeswoman for the US Attorney's Office Western District of Texas, said she could neither confirm nor deny Abreu's arrest. Abreu's father said his son was arrested on contempt charges for refusing to talk, even after prosecutors offered him immunity. He is being held in a jail in New Mexico, his father said. (The Miami Herald, 13/7/06)

July 7: Augsburg College must pay a $9,000 fine to the US Treasury Department to settle accusations that the college violated the US travel ban to Cuba. Augsburg is one of many US institutions that has had trouble meeting rules on travel to Cuba since the restrictions were tightened in 2004 to prohibit educational programs that last less than 10 weeks. In a retroactive snag, the Treasury Department told Augsburg it did not have the necessary travel provider license for four trips between January 2000 and June 2004. (AP, 7/7/06)

July 7: The Texas port of Corpus Christi renewed its commitment to keep shipping American food to Cuba despite US efforts to tighten sanctions on the communist-run island. Ruben Bonilla, chairman of the Corpus Christi Port Commission, and Pedro Alvarez of the Cuban food import company Alimport, signed a letter of intent to maintain their trade relationship. "We accept the commitment to broaden our relationship with Corpus Christi," Alvarez told a news conference. "And they, we are sure, will work to normalize" relations between the two nations, he added. US Representative Solomon Ortiz, a Texas Democrat, accompanied Bonilla on the trade mission. The port of Corpus Christi signed its first agreement with Alimport three years ago, and since then more than 100,000 metric tons of U.S. agricultural goods has moved through the port on its way to Cuba, Alvarez said. (Kristv.com, AP, 8/7/06)

July 8: A senior Cuban official blasted new restrictions proposed in a US draft report aimed at hastening change on the communist-run island, saying they will harm Protestant churches that count on their American counterparts for aid. Parliament speaker Ricardo Alarcon told the press that the proposed restrictions would also hurt needy people benefiting from Cuba's international medical programs. If adopted, those proposals would prove ``a very grave violation of international law,'' Alarcon said. In an interview at National Assembly headquarters, Alarcon repeated his earlier charge that the upcoming report aimed at speeding up a transition to American-style democracy in Cuba is a sinister plan for regime change. ``The impact that they want is not a change in the future, but now,'' the National Assembly president said. Alarcon said the draft report also calls for a revision of US licenses for medical equipment that could be used in large-scale Cuban operations that benefit foreigners. Among Cuba's large-scale medical programs for foreigners is Operation Miracle, which offers free eye surgery to needy people from around Latin America. (Sun Sentinel, 10/7/06)

July 8: The Bush administration is said to be considering retaliation for what it claims are harassments that US diplomats face in Havana, including the poisoning of family pets and the dumping of feces in US diplomats' homes. A US government official, who asked for anonymity because of the delicate nature of the issue, said reprisals against the Cuban mission in Washington were ''always under consideration.'' He declined to elaborate. Representative Lincoln Díaz-Balart (Republican-Miami), is pushing a measure that would force diplomats from countries designated as state sponsors of terrorism -- including Cuba -- to register all their lobbying contacts in Congress, presumably making congressional offices more reluctant to talk to the Cubans. (The Miami Herald, 8/7/06)

July 8: A woman on a boat loaded with Florida-bound Cubans perished from injuries she received as the vessel tried to flee from the Coast Guard, authorities said. Amay Machado Gonzalez, 24, died from head trauma and also had injuries on her arms, legs, back and chest, according to a Monroe County Medical Examiner's autopsy report. Immigration and Customs Enforcement Officials believe the injuries came from rough seas jostling the crowded boat, said spokesman Ivan Ortiz. Immigration officials will decide whether to repatriate the survivors, one of whom is a pregnant woman who was taken to a Key West hospital and released to her family in Miami. The Coast Guard was holding 29 other Cubans, including two teenage girls, 21 men and six women, on a cutter off the Keys. (Sun Sentinel, 10/7/06)

July 8: The US Citizenship and Immigration Services has expanded the list of documents that people born to Cuban parents outside Cuba can use to apply for permanent residency in the United States. For years, the agency routinely rejected green card applications that did not include a Cuban birth registry, citizenship certificate or passport to prove Cuban citizenship. Now, as a result of a June 30 decision from immigration authorities, the US government will also accept several other documents, including a Cuban Civil Registry document, as long as they are signed by an appropriate Cuban official and prove Cuban citizenship, a CIS spokeswoman said. The decision could potentially impact thousands of Cuban nationals who have been turned down for green cards in the past, including a large number of Venezuelans with Cuban parents. (AP, 8/7/06)

July 8: The groups fighting the Miami-Dade School Board's decision to yank a controversial Cuba book off school shelves have unlikely partners in their struggle against censorship: Cuban state librarians. The librarians, from a country that bans books and music it considers politically incorrect, compared the School Board to Nazis who censored Alice in Wonderland , according to a report in the Cuban press titled ``The True Censors are in Miami.'' Outraged over the School Board's vote to pull the children's book “Vamos a Cuba” out of school libraries because of what critics call its distorted portrayal of life on the communist island, the Association of Cuban Librarians and the José Martí National Library in Havana have launched a protest. Dubbed ''Yes, Let's Go to Cuba,'' the campaign seeks signatures worldwide to present at the 72nd International Federation of Library Associations General Conference and Council in South Korea next month. (The Miami Herald, 8/7/06)

July 8: A caravan organized by the Pastors for Peace to show solidarity with Cuba arrived in Havana without experiencing any problems crossing the US-Mexican border, local media reported. "This time we arrived at the US border with Mexico really early in the morning and the officials decided not to confront us," said the head of the Protestant group, Lucius Walker, at the Havana airport, the daily Juventud Rebelde reported. Walker said that the 97 members of the caravan from the United States, Canada, Mexico, Denmark, Sweden, England, Scotland and Germany made it to Cuba, in contrast to their attempt last year, when he and others remained at the US-Mexican border to demand the return part of their Cuba-bound humanitarian cargo which US authorities had seized. (EFE, 9/7/06)  

July 10: A leading Cuban rights group criticized the US Coast Guard for firing shots at the engine of a boat overcrowded with US-bound migrants during a confrontation that killed one woman and injured several other people off the Florida Coast. "We cannot understand why they were firing with weapons of war against a small civilian craft," Elizardo Sanchez of the Cuban Commission on Human Rights and Reconciliation said in a statement distributed to international news media in Havana. A woman relatives identified as 24-year-old Anei Machado Gonzalez died of blunt force trauma consistent with striking her head on the boat during a confrontation off the Florida coast, according to preliminary autopsy results. "The violence of this interception led to this tragedy and the case should be investigated," the rights commission said. (AP, 10/7/06)

July 10: The academic community grouped under the Latin American Studies Association (LASA), chose the Canadian city of Montreal as the venue for its upcoming 27th international congress, to allow Cuban colleagues to attend its sessions. The meeting had originally been planned for Boston, Massachusetts, but faced with evidence that the US government would not allow the participation of researchers and professors from the island as in previous congress the LASA board moved the meeting to Canada. "This is a clear signal that US scholars, who make up 25% of LASA members, are fed up and will not be held hostages by US hostility against Cuba, a policy that goes against the free flow of ideas and culture," said a source close to the organizers. The Association’s co-chair of the Cuba section, Professor Felix Masud Pilot, from DePaul, University in Illinois, said "it is impossible to organize a LASA Congress without the attendance of Cuban academics, because of the depth, diversity and wide scope of their contributions and this is why we are going to Montreal in September. In that way, US authorities will not be able to deny visas or sabotage the conferences." (Granma, 10/7/06)

July 10: President Bush approved a long-awaited update on US policies to hasten and assist a Cuban turn to democracy after Fidel Castro's reign, including possible assistance to Havana's military and an $80 million-plus fund to boost the opposition to Castro. ''We are actively working for change in Cuba, not simply waiting for change,'' Bush said in a statement unveiling the 95-page report by the Commission for Assistance to a Free Cuba, a multiagency panel he created in 2003. Arguing that vital US interests are at stake in pushing for a transition to democracy, instead of a succession by new communist leadership after the 79-year-old Castro leaves power, the report underlined Bush administration pledges to promote freedom and democracy worldwide. The text -- accompanied by a two-page ''Compact with the People of Cuba'' that promises to ''work with the Cuban people to attain political and economic liberty'' -- predicts a clash between an ''energized'' opposition and an ''intrinsically unstable'' attempt at succession.
''The opposition movement is creating momentum for democratic change in Cuba,'' said the State Department's Cuba transition coordinator, Caleb McCarry. ``With our offer of advice and assistance (…) we hope to add to this momentum.'' [Report to the President by the Commission for Assistance to a Free Cuba] (The Miami Herald, 10/7/06)

July 10: Some dissidents worried that new funding to opposition groups on the island included in a report by the Commission for the Assistance to a Free Cuba could be used as a pretext by the Cuban government to harass or even arrest them. ''I don't doubt the report's good intentions, but it just adds kindling to the fire,'' said veteran activist Elizardo Sanchez of the Cuban Commission on Human Rights and Reconciliation. ''I really appreciate the solidarity of the United States government and people, but I think that this report is counterproductive,'' said dissident journalist Oscar Espinosa Chepe. ''It supports the government's hardline sector to justify repression.'' “The plan insists in a wrong US policy toward Cuba, which is this attempt of tutoring the dissidence politically and economically”, the spokesman of the Progressive Arch (Arco Progresista), Manuel Cuesta Morua said. The US offer is a "poisonous embrace", he added. Other dissidents in Havana met the report with mixed reactions. ''We didn't ask for economic help, and we don't want it,'' said Miriam Leiva, founding member of dissident group Ladies in White, in a telephone interview. ``This report serves as supposed evidence for the government to take us to jail.'' Former political prisoner Vladimiro Roca, who along with several other dissidents attended a teleconference on the report from Washington at the US diplomatic mission in Havana, said he would accept any aid.''It would be more than welcome,'' he said in a telephone conversation. ``The government is going to call us that anyway. That's what they want, for us not to take money (…) We need materials, equipment, clothes, everything.'' (The New York Times, The Miami Herald, EFE, 11/7/06)

July 10: The Bush administration vowed to crack down on nickel exports from Cuba, at least half of which are accounted for by Canada's Sherritt International Corp., alleging that the money from the sales is being "diverted to maintain the regime's repressive security apparatus." But Sherritt's chairman, Ian Delaney, immediately labelled the proposed actions as "nothing new" and said that the continuing US embargo on the Communist nation is simply "nonsense." The report specifically calls for a crackdown on nickel exports, which it says now account for "nearly half of the regime's current foreign income." "The revenue from these sales does not go to benefit the Cuban people, but is diverted to maintain the regime's repressive security apparatus and fund Castro's interventionist and destabilizing policies in other countries in the hemisphere," the report said. "There's always been more heat than light in this discussion," Mr. Delaney continued, arguing that the idea that Cubans are hiding assets abroad is a "ludicrous joke." "We're dealing with a country that really has the moral high ground," he continued. Officers and directors of Sherritt, including Mr. Delaney, have been banned from entry into the United States under the 1996 Helms-Burton Act. (The Globe and Mail, 11/7/06)

July 10: The Council of Cuban Churches (CIC) criticized the measures taken by the US government to restrict contact with that country's National Council of the Churches of Christ (NCCC). CIC President Rhodes Gonzalez of the Christian Pentecostal Church accused Washington of making "another attempt to try to impose conditions on our relations". The minister thus alluded to recent regulations included in the new "[Commission] for Assistance to a Free Cuba" programme announced by the George W. Bush administration as an attempt to re-establish democracy on the island. According to the source, these regulations prevent the Church World Service (CWS) of the United States, an agency of the NCCC, from sending humanitarian aid to this country via the CIC. "I believe that no matter how many attempts are made, we will be able - as we have always been - to overcome all situations, because the relationship between the Cuban and US churches is a historic relationship," she said. The Reverend Oden Marichal, director of the CIC Research Centre and minister of the "Faithful to Jesus" Episcopal parish in Matanzas, said that in taking the measure they had argued that the CIC is "controlled by the government". Rejecting this, Marichal said that he "has never felt controlled" by President Fidel Castro's government or by the ruling Communist Party of Cuba. (BBC, 12/7/06)

July 11: Cuba's National Assembly president, Ricardo Alarcon, said the Report by the Commission for the Assistance to a Free Cuba was a "politically delirious provocation". Mr Alarcon told the press, that any dissidents who "conspired " with Washington and accepted its funding would have to "face the consequences". It would be a crime to accept such money under Cuban law, as it would be in any country, Mr Alarcon aid. "Imagine that someone in the US were to be supported, trained, equipped and advised by a foreign government, that in itself would be a crime. It would be a serious crime in the US, punished with far more years in prison than here in Cuba," Mr Alarcon said. (BBC, 12/7/06)

July 11: President Hugo Chavez rejected a US government report accusing Venezuela of funding efforts by Cuba's Fidel Castro to subvert democracy in Latin America, saying it indicated Washington's aggressive intentions toward the Caribbean island country. "They've launched what I consider a new imperialist threat," Chavez said in a nationally televised speech. "They've publicized a plan of transition, they think Fidel is going to die."  "This is what I say to US imperialism: Now is when Venezuela will support the Cuban revolution," Chavez added. "Long live Fidel -- brother, comrade and partner!"  Venezuelan Vice President Jose Vicente Rangel alleged the report was an announcement of Washington's "intention to attack and subjugate" Cuba. "The implicit message (...)must not be underestimated," Rangel said in a statement. "It confirms a policy to which we must be alert."  Chavez was defiant as he warned Washington to watch its own back. 
"Instead of thinking about a plan of transition for revolutionary Cuba or revolutionary Venezuela, they should be developing a plan of transition for themselves because this century the US empire will end," he said. (AP, 11/7/06)

July 11: As the United States again toughens its sanctions against Cuba, in what the Fidel Castro government says amounts to a "declaration of war," another caravan organized by the inter-faith foundation Pastors for Peace arrived in the island nation's capital with 100 tons of humanitarian aid. After passing through 124 communities in Canada and the United States promoting an end to the four-decade blockade against Cuba imposed by Washington, more than 90 "caravanistas" crossed the US border into Mexico on July 6. They reached Havana on July 8, without applying for the permits that the US government requires of its citizens to travel to this socialist-run country. Caravan No. 17 crossed the US-Mexico border and, unlike several other occasions since the first such caravan in 1992, no one was detained and nothing was confiscated, the Reverend Lucius Walker, director of the Interreligious Foundation for Community Organization (IFCO) Pastors for Peace, said in Havana. "They have arrived at a deeply significant time," just as President Bush approved a new plan that is seeking, among other things, "to support a group of people who want a different Cuba," Baptist pastor Raúl Suarez, the director of the non-governmental Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial Center in Havana, told the press. (IPS, 12/7/06)

July 12: The Bush administration's updated plan to speed up and support a shift toward democracy in Cuba means three things for the island: terrorism, assassinations and the use of force, Havana said in an official statement. This year's report -- an update of a 2004 document -- is controversial because it calls for $80 million in increased funding for anti-Castro activities, such as Radio and TV Martí. The Cuban government condemned the increased funding as an outright violation of international law, and particularly attacked the report's classified annex, which they allege may include plans to murder Fidel Castro.  An article in the international edition of the Communist Party daily Granma noted that the US report uses the word ''regime'' 145 times. 'It's a true gift to those in Miami who advocate terror and annexation (…) The text, which shows an abysmal ignorance of the Cuban reality, affirms that the `regime' does not attend to the 'basic human necessities' of the people,'' the article said.  ``The entire document reflects the will to sooner or later annex the island of Cuba.''  (The Miami Herald, 13/7/06)

July 13: Cuba suspects the Bush administration has military plans to topple Fidel Castro's Communist government, but is too bogged down in Iraq to invade, one of Castro closest aides said. What has worried Havana most is a classified annex containing recommendations that were kept secret for national security reasons. "What they always keep secret are plans for political assassination, a campaign of terror or a military invasion," Ricardo Alarcon, president of Cuba's National Assembly and Castro's point man on US affairs, said in an interview. Alarcon said US President George W. Bush's loss of popularity over the protracted war in Iraq ruled out another "military adventure" by the United States. "At this time they are wondering how and when to pull out of Iraq, not how to get involved elsewhere," Alarcon said. "Still, we shouldn't forget we are only 90 miles away," he said.  US officials deny Washington has any military designs on Cuba. (Reuters, 14/7/06)

July 14: The new measures approved by US President, George W. Bush, to toughen the embargo against Cuba, have resulted in increased harassment of dissidents on the Island, said Oswaldo Payá, leader of the Christian Liberation Movement. "The secret police sends agents every Sunday to the church where we go, intercepting some of those who greet me to ask them for information. If they refuse, the threats are bone-chilling," he added. "Once again the Cuban government feels that it has an excuse to unleash its repression against us," he said. "This report, regardless of its intention, creates a negative environment that shifts the focus away from the important issues towards the conflict between Fidel Castro and the United States," said Payá. (Reuters, 17/7/06)

July 17: The complaint against a controversial children's book was given new life when an anti-Castro activist and his daughter asked for “Cuban Kids” to be removed from two Miami-Dade schools. Former Cuban political prisoner Emilio Izquierdo filed the complaint at Bob Graham Education Center in Miami Lakes, one of six Miami-Dade schools that own the book. His adult daughter, Dalila Rodriguez, filed a similar complaint at Christina Eve Elementary in Southwest Miami-Dade. ''I have to fight this or else move to Switzerland,'' said Izquierdo, best known for leading protests against the Latin Grammy Awards in 2001 and for being arrested outside a 1999 performance by Cuban dance band Los Van Van. Two prior complaints about the book have been summarily dismissed -- Rodriguez had filed one at a school that had lost its copy of the book, and the other was made by an activist who lives in Broward. In both cases, district lawyers said there were no grounds for the lengthy book-appeals process to begin. Neither Izquierdo nor Rodriguez have children at the schools where they complained, but the district's rule allows any ''citizen'' to file a complaint. (The Miami Herald, 17/7/06)

July 17: US President George W. Bush extended for another six months the suspension of a measure allowing US citizens to sue foreign firms which use property seized by Havana after the 1959 Cuban Revolution, the White House announced. The determination on the property rights of US citizens is included in Chapter 3 of the 1996 Helms-Burton Act, which strengthens the trade embargo imposed on the Communist island by Washington in 1961. Bush sent a brief letter to the foreign relations and appropriations committees of both houses of Congress in which he said, "I hereby determine (…) that suspension for 6 months beyond August 1, 2006, of the right to bring an action under title III of the Act is necessary to the national interests of the United States." The short statement concluded by adding that the suspension "will expedite a transition to democracy in Cuba." The law in question allows former owners of the confiscated property to sue foreign companies the Cuban government has permitted to make use of it. (EFE, 17/7/06)

July 17: US officials have begun cracking down on its citizens who fly to Cuba from Toronto. About 50 members of Venceremos Brigade, a US aid group, were questioned by agents and issued summonses at the Peace Bridge after returning home from two weeks in Cuba. "These people are violating economic and trade sanctions based on US foreign policy," said Kevin Corsaro, of US Customs Border Protection. (Toronto Sun, 19/7/06)

July 19: Ten Cuban immigrants arrived in Mona Island, an islet between Puerto Rico and Dominican Republic. Police said that one of the immigrants was suffering from severe burns in different parts of his body, as consequence of an incident that took place in Cuba two weeks before, and was taken to a hospital. The immigrants, --three women and seven men— arrived in Puerto Rico from the Dominican Republic in a boat that returned to DR without been intercepted by local authorities. (AP, 20/7/06)

July 20: Cuban migrant Odalys Conde was the first of 28 Cuban migrants to hug her South Florida family after a federal court hearing in an alleged smuggling case involving the death of a 24-year-old woman during a high-speed chase. Conde's teenage daughters, who had also made the trip but were released earlier, welcomed her with kisses and hugs at the federal courthouse. The US Coast Guard brought the 28 Cuban migrants ashore after detaining them off shore since July 8. The migrants will be material witnesses in the alleged smuggling case in which Anei Machado Gonzalez suffered fatal head injuries during a high-speed chase to reach Florida. The migrants were allowed to stay so they can testify directly against three men charged with the smuggling attempt that caused the 24-year-old woman's death. ''This decision is the result of the unique circumstances of this specific criminal matter,'' said interim US Attorney R. Alexander Acosta. ``[It] is a reflection of our determination to engage in a complete investigation and a vigorous prosecution of all individuals associated with this incident using all prosecutorial tools at our disposal.'' (The Miami Herald, 20/7/06)

July 20: A Senate panel moved to boost US food sales to Cuba with legislation that effectively would end a US regulation requiring Havana to pay cash for goods before ships leave American harbours. The Senate Appropriations Committee unanimously approved the amendment to a fiscal 2007 spending bill that funds the Treasury Department, which administers the controversial rule. In June, the US House of Representatives voted to overturn the Bush administration regulation. But during a similar effort in Congress in 2005, the Bush administration threatened to veto the fiscal 2006 spending bill because of the Cuba language and lawmakers backed down. A similar result could occur this year. (Reuters, 20/7/06)

July 21: US officials condemned potential outside interference in Cuba's future by those who don't support democratic elections there - singling out Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez as "meddling" in Cuban affairs. US Senator Mel Martinez (Republican-Florida), distinguished between aid from Venezuela and other countries to help the current Cuban government maintain its control over the island after 79-year-old Fidel Castro dies, and U.S. aid to promote democracy. "There's a big difference between attempting to prevent a transition and being of assistance to a transition," Martinez said. "If there are those who believe they can impose upon Cuba a succession of a tyranny, they are wrong, and this government will not permit that." Martinez, who fled Cuba as a teen, was joined by three Cuban-American US Congressional representatives, and by Commerce Secretary Carlos Gutierrez to promote a presidential commission report calling for democracy in Cuba. They met with reporters after speaking at an event sponsored by the non-partisan lobbying group Cuba Democracy Advocates. (Gainesville.Com, 21/7/06)

July 24: With Congress deadlocked over allowing oil drilling in presently restricted areas of the Gulf of Mexico, communist Cuba is already drilling for oil 60 miles off the coast of Florida. Republicans in Congress have tried repeatedly in the past decade to open up the outer continental shelf to exploration. There are an estimated 45 billion barrels in oil reserves and 232 trillion cubic feet of gas reserves in banned drilling areas of the Gulf, and Florida's waters hold the promise of major energy finds. They have been strenuously opposed by Florida and environmental-minded legislators from both parties. Florida's powerful tourism and booming real estate industries fear that oil spills could hurt their business. Meanwhile Cuba "is exploring in its half of the 90-mile-wide Straits of Florida within the internationally recognized boundary as well as in deep-water areas of the Gulf of Mexico,” the Washington Times reported. A Senate bill would permit drilling in a key area in the eastern Gulf but allow Florida to retain a 125-mile no-drilling buffer zone. (NewsMax.Com, 24/7/06)

July 24: A federal judge ordered all copies of "Vamos a Cuba" and 23 other children's books returned to Miami-Dade school libraries, hobbling the Miami-Dade School Board's attempt to ban the controversial books. In a sometimes-scathing 89-page opinion, US District Judge Alan Gold said the School Board "abused its discretion in a manner that violated the transcendent imperatives of the First Amendment." His ruling was not final, but the preliminary injunction will apply while the American Civil Liberties Union and Student Government Association continue their lawsuit against the School Board. Depending on the board's response, that could be weeks or years. (The State.Com, 24/7/06)

July 24: The Scots surgeon Stephen MacLeod was told by the US Treasury that he was banned from travelling to Cuba as he had violated US laws the last time he visited the island. The news published by The Herald online explains that MacLeod specializes in jaw-repairing surgery at the University of Minnesota and his crime was that he and a group of his colleagues delivered medicine to the Jewish community in Havana. They also met students and academics at Havana University, and gave some lectures. He has been invited back more than once, but cannot take up the offers, and is bemused to think his visit, a few months ago, is a threat to the stability of the region. (Prensa Latina, 24/7/06)

July 26: Fidel Castro compared Cuba’s social and humane exploits to a Plan devised by US President George W. Bush for "a democratic transition" on the island. "Granma province does not need a Yankee transition plan to educate, vaccinate and provide health care to the people," said Castro on addressing National Rebel Day celebration. "We should invite Mr. Bush and those talking of plans of transition to see in Granma the achievements of literacy, arts and culture," he said. The White House recently approved a Report from the Commission for the Assistance to a Free Cuba. Cuba, Castro boasted, has an infant mortality rate of 5.56 per 1,000 births and more than 7,000 TV sets in Granma province elementary schools alone, according to Cuban government news websites. (Prensa Latina, EFE, 26/7/06)

July 27: A growing chorus of experts say America will pay a price for maintaining its 45-year trade ban with the communist nation — a strategic and economic price that will have negative repercussions for the United States in the decades to come. What has changed the equation is oil. To be more specific, recent, sizable discoveries of it in the North Cuba Basin — deep-water fields that have already drawn the interest of companies from China, India, Norway, Spain, Canada, Venezuela and Brazil. This, in turn, has reheated debate in the U.S. Congress and the Cuban-American community on an old question: Has the time finally come to shelve the embargo — given America's need for more sources of crude at a time of rising gas prices, soaring global demand and the outbreak of war in the Middle East? Jonathan Benjamin-Alvarado, an expert on Cuba energy matters and a political science professor at the University of Nebraska at Omaha, says America's thirst for oil will soon force a fundamental change in Washington's relations with Havana. “I've always argued that we would keep the Cuban embargo in place until we got to the point where it started to cost us something.” Today, he added, “we're almost there.” Phil Peters, vice president of the Lexington Institute, a think tank in Arlington, Viginia, said that, “If Cuba discovers a lot of oil and becomes an oil exporter, the embargo almost becomes an absurdity.” Kirby Jones, founder and president of the US-Cuba Trade Association in Washington, D.C. said, that, “Our choice is: Are we going to let those other countries take that oil? Or are we going to look at our strategic interests and recognize that very close to our shores is a substantial quantity of oil that is going to be exploited?” (The Globe and Mail, 27/7/06)

July 28: More US-produced poultry and beans are set to head through Corpus Christi to Cuba starting August. Alimport, Cuba's food importing agency, has promised to buy nearly 17,000 tons of poultry from Arkansas-based Ozark Mountain Poultry. The meat will be shipped through the Port of Corpus Christi starting this fall. Corpus Christi is one of about 17 US ports that have been trading with Cuba since the US government in 2000 eased a trade embargo put in place in the 1960s to pressure the communist Cuban government. "This is a significant market for our port," said Michael Perez, the Port of Corpus Christi's business development director. "You're talking about an island with the buying power of the greater New York City area." WestStar Food Co. in Corpus Christi, which has been exporting to Cuba since 2003, is preparing to ship 10,000 pounds of pinto beans next month. (Tribune Business News, 28/7/06)

July 28: Critics of the second Report by the US Commission for the Assistance to a Free Cuba such as Elizardo Sanchez, an activist who heads the Cuban Commission of Human Rights and National Reconciliation in Havana, described the increased $80 million support to the dissidence as "counterproductive". Sanchez said authorities already are using the Commission’s July 10 announcement to harass the dissidents. "This is putting gasoline on the fire," he said. "This is fuel for the Cuban government's propaganda." Sanchez said the US aid program is characterized by "a lot of inconvenient rhetoric from Washington and few practical results."  Vladimiro Roca, another prominent opposition leader, complained that only a small fraction of the assistance actually reaches the dissident community. "What arrives here to us is very limited," Roca said. "Fundamental things have to change." One initiative cited by Sanchez and others as ill-conceived is the Georgetown University Scholarship Program, which received a $400,000 grant to provide family and friends of dissidents two years of study at US community colleges. Jorge Olivera, a dissident journalist in Havana, said it is "impossible to think that they can implement this program. It's an illusion." (Chicago Tribune, 28/7/06)

July 27: The Bush administration's plans to send an additional $80 million over the next two years to support Cuba's struggling opposition movement is being criticized by the very people the money is intended to help. Caleb McCarry, Bush's top adviser for Cuba, said recently that the additional $80 million in support to Cuba’s dissidence movement included in the Report will help "empower and support Cubans as they lead the way toward a democratic transition in their country."  Despite the program's failure, U.S. officials are allocating $10million of the additional $80million to fund more scholarships for Cubans to study abroad. During a US Congress hearing, McCarry was asked why the US is expanding a scholarship program for Cubans that has been paralysed. "This is a serious offer to support young Cubans, economically disadvantaged Cubans," he responded. (Chicago Tribune, 28/7/06) 

July 29: The Cuban government has become more selective of the US groups that it allows in, disillusioned with efforts to lobby for easing US sanctions and trying to shift its foreign policy priorities elsewhere, Cuba watchers said. Organizers of two missions -- one of congressional staff members and another of former chiefs of the US diplomatic mission in Cuba -- say they have been denied visas in recent months. But more trade-related missions have been given the green light. ''My guess is that they are having some discussions over foreigners coming, and until they come to some agreement, they're going to sort of hold off,'' said Wayne Smith of the Center for International Policy, a liberal Washington think tank that promotes more contacts with Cuba. Smith was organizing the delegation of former heads of the US Interests Section, which serves as a quasi-embassy, as the two countries have no formal diplomatic relations. Smith is a former Interests Section chief and has been critical of US policy toward Cuba. Many experts believe the rejections underscore the increasingly low priority that the United States represents for Cuban leader Fidel Castro's government. (The Miami Herald, 31/7/06)