Chronicle on Cuba - March 2007

US-Cuba Relations

March 1: US State Department released its 2007 International Narcotics Control Strategy Report, which acknowledged that Cuban law enforcement tipped US antidrug patrols off to more than 30 drug shipments last year. While recognizing the island's efforts in preventive measures and tough penalties, the report portrayed the cooperation as inconsistent. ''Certainly in the last 10 years, the Cubans saw drugs as a threat to their own kids and a corrupting influence on their government,'' former White House drug czar Barry McCaffrey said. ``There is every indication that they cooperate in general, tipping us off to intelligence and taking our intelligence and acting on it.'' But McCaffrey cautioned against giving too much credence to Cuban government statistics, which experts say are often manipulated. During a news briefing, Anne Patterson, the State Department's top anti-drug trafficking official, congratulated Cuba for deporting trafficker Luis Hernando Gomez-Bustamante to Colombia after holding him in prison for several months. He is expected to be extradited soon from Colombia to the United States.   "There is not a major trafficking issue through Cuba," she added. The Cuban government has long maintained that it is carrying on a strong fight against illicit drugs, despite past US allegation that government officials there were involved in protecting foreign traffickers. [International Narcotics Control Report: Caribbean, Cuba] (The Miami Herald, 2,3/3/07)  

March 2: The US Coast Guard intercepted 33 Cuban migrants in the Florida Straits on a boat headed for South Florida. Officials are holding the group aboard a cutter, including a doctor with a US visa, while the Bush administration decides what to do. After the boat was stopped on February 27, the Coast Guard brought one of the migrants to Key West because she needed emergency medical treatment related to a kidney illness. The other 32, including the doctor, remained aboard the cutter. The case was the latest involving Cuban migrants interdicted at sea under the controversial wet-foot/dry-foot policy. (The Miami Herald, 2/3/07)

March 2: Senator Mike Enzi (R-Wyoming), is co-sponsoring a bill that would remove all restrictions for Americans traveling to Cuba. Nine other senators are co-sponsoring the Freedom to Travel to Cuba Act. "If we want to give the Cuban people a taste of the real America, we need to allow Americans to go there and share it," Enzi said in a release. "Unilateral sanctions stop not just the flow of goods, but the flow of ideas - ideas of freedom and democracy are the keys to positive change in any nation." The bill's other sponsors are Senators. Byron Dorgan (Democrat-North Dakota); Max Baucus (Democrat-Montana); Larry Craig (Republican-Idaho); Patrick Leahy (Democrat-Vermont); Tom Harkin (Democrat-Iowa); Chuck Hagel (Republican-Nebraska); Russell Feingold (Democrat-Wiscosin); Dianne Feinstein (Democrat-California); and Jeff Bingaman (Democrat-New Mexico). (Billings Gazette, 2/3/07)

March 5: Soaked, shivering and disoriented, five migrants walked up to the Key Biscayne toll booth, where they received kindness from strangers. The group included men, women and children. Workers at the toll booth separating Key Biscayne from the mainland kept them warm and gave them coffee until the US Border Patrol arrived. Thirty minutes later, six other migrants showed up -- also wet, also shivering. Four of the six in the latter group identified themselves as Lidia Lugo, 34; son Jose Carlos Rodriguez Lugo, 9; daughter Amanda Rodriguez Lugo, 15; and 13-year-old Mario Nunez, who is not related. An employee of Miami-Dade County let them huddle in his truck for warmth until the Border Patrol arrived. Lidia Lugo said they left the day before from Cuba's Pinar del Rio. She declined to say how they made the voyage. (The Miami Herald, 5/3/07)

March 5: In Geneva, Cuba denounced the obstacles to trade relations imposed by the United States, which also affect third countries. Jorge Ferrer, minister counsellor of the permanent mission of Cuba, made the comments during an informal meeting of the Negotiating Group of Non-agricultural Market Access (NGMA). (AP, 5/3/07)

March 6: The US State Department released its annual assessment of human rights around the world. On Cuba, the report says the government, temporarily headed by Raul Castro due to Fidel Castro's illness, “continued to violate virtually all the rights of its citizens, including the fundamental right to change their government peacefully or criticize the revolution or its leaders”. [2006 Country Reports on Human Rights Practices: Cuba] (Reuters, 6/3/07) 

March 5: Cuban Olympic boxing champions Odlanier Solis, Yan Barthelemy and Yuriorkis Gamboa finally landed in Miami on March 1 after a long journey from Venezuela, where they defected last year. Since they arrived, they have eaten at La Carreta, reunited with long-lost relatives and friends and partied in South Beach. They addressed the media formally for the first time since their defection. ''When I walked out of the airport in Miami last week, I felt like I was on my own soil, like I had found my second home,'' said Barthelemy, a flyweight, who celebrated his 27th birthday. ``Finally, I can breathe easier. I can relax. It's been a very long two months. I cried a lot of tears on New Year's Eve, missing my family, wondering if this day would ever come.''  None of the three boxers still has his Olympic gold medal. Solis' and Barthelemy's are on display at a sports museum in Cuba. Gamboa, the super bantamweight amateur champion, sold his last year to give his 1-year-old daughter a birthday party. (The Miami Herald, 6/3/07)

March 5: US-born University of Miami students are helping pay homage to their roots by promoting ''A Week of Cuban Culture'' on campus, an annual event sponsored by the Federation of Cuban Students. “I think it's important to have events like this to keep the culture alive for us -- a generation of Cuban Americans who have not had the privileges of experiencing it first-hand,'' said Stephanie Fojo, 21, president of the club. The group launched the celebration of food, music, history and dance in front of the Whitten University Center Rock Plaza by handing out guava pastries, bocaditos, croquetas and churros. They even brewed Cuban coffee for students and faculty. As part of the festivities -- this year, they expanded from three days to seven -- the group also presented the club's award, the YUCA -- which stands for Young, Urban, Cuban Americans -- to several prominent, local Cuban Americans who have made an impact. (The Miami Herald, 6/3/07)

March 6: US President George W. Bush said that when Fidel Castro dies, his Communist government should as well. “How long he stays on Earth, that's a decision that will be made by the Almighty,” Mr. Bush told foreign journalists ahead of a weeklong trip to Latin America. “I don't know how long he's going to live. But nevertheless, I do believe that the system of government that he's imposed upon the people ought not live if that's what the people decide.” Mr. Bush said Cuba's future should not be based on the fact that “somebody is somebody's brother. What I hope happens is that we together insist that transition doesn't mean transition from one figure to another, but transition means from one type of government to a different type of government,” Mr. Bush said. He was referring to the role that Latin American countries can play in leading Cuba to democracy. “We believe the Cuban people ought to make the decision for the future,” Mr. Bush said. (AP, 6/3/07)

March 6: US presidential contender Mitt Romney has tapped a prominent Cuban-American Republican in Florida for his first radio ad targeting Spanish-speaking voters. Al Cardenas, former chairman of the Florida Republican Party and a close ally of former Florida Governor Jeb Bush, described Romney as a friend of the Hispanic community and an ally in its drive for a democratic Cuba. "It is a difficult time in the world, in the Americas, and in our Cuba in transition," Cardenas said in his native Spanish during the spot, which promotes Romney's speech at a Lincoln Day Dinner in Miami-Dade County. "Mitt Romney understands the dynamic of Cuba." During an appearance in Florida last month, Romney declared he supported the current US embargo on Cuba to avoid enriching Fidel Castro, a Communist dictator he accused of disrupting peace and stability in the region. (AP, 6/3/07)

March 7: The US government forbade Don Foster, president of the International Softball Federation, to visit Cuba to award the first Cuban coach in the Hall of Fame, Granma newspaper reported. "I regret much not having gone to Havana for the ceremony of introduction of Cuban coach Armando Aguiar Gil in the Hall of Fame, because the US government denied me a visa and has not given any information about it," Porter told the daily. From his office in Plant City, Florida, Porter said that he had the Cuban government's visa, but he is still waiting for a written explanation from the US Department of Treasure on his prohibition. According to the Cuban Federation on that discipline, Porter should have visited Havana in February to deliver Aguiar the ring that accredits him as the first Cuban expert in the Softball's Hall of Fame. (Prensa Latina, 7/3/07)

March 7: Cuba is not ready for the throngs of American tourists who would be expected to visit the island if a US ban is ever lifted, but it has the time to build new hotels, a senior Cuban official said. ``We have time to build the hotel capacity for the day that happens,'' Cuba's deputy minister of Tourism Oscar Gonzalez said in an interview. ``It will take the United States some time to dismantle that infernal apparatus that has barred its citizens from traveling to Cuba,'' he said, referring to proposals in the US Congress to relax sanctions against Cuba. By some estimates, there could be 3 million American tourists visiting Cuba within five years of an opening up of US travel. Cuba would have to more than double its current capacity of 42,000 hotel rooms, Gonzalez said. The island has the potential for more than 250,000 rooms, he said. (Reuters, 7/3/07)

March 7: US authorities presented independent Cuban activists and independent journalists with the State Department's annual human rights report, saying the situation has not changed since Fidel Castro stepped aside seven months ago. Jonathan D. Farrar, the State Department's principal deputy assistant secretary for democracy, human rights and labor, spoke via video-conference from Washington, answering questions from a small group of activists. "They changed one for the other," Farrar said of the 80-year-old Castro's decision in late July to temporarily cede power to his 75-year-old brother Raul while he recovered from intestinal surgery. "But we really have not seen a change in the human rights situation," Farrar added in Spanish to the group gathered inside the US Interests Section in Havana. Activists at the video conference were particularly interested in a section of the report that dealt with the island's Internet restrictions. The State Department said Cuba blocks access to Web sites it considers objectionable and usually only provides Internet access through government approved institutions. "We do not have the right to buy a computer, even with money in our pockets, unless it is through the black market," economist and independent journalist Oscar Espinosa Chepe said. "There are situations that are far more grave than the manipulation of access." (AP, 7/3/07)

March 7: The first-ever full-scale drill to ward off a mass migration to South Florida -- a dry run designed to prepare responders in case political instability erupts in a neighboring Caribbean nation and sets off a major exodus—began. Authorities from more than 85 government agencies were spurred to action, as officials launched a fleet of speedboats, readied cutters and alerted local health officials. The goal, Rear Admiral David Kunkel said, was to intercept 95 percent of those crossing the sea before they reached US shores and to deter others from trying the same. Unlike an indoor communications drill in December, the two-day event includes simulated emergencies at sea and on land. Scenarios included smugglers in speedboats heading down to Cuba to fetch relatives for paying clients in South Florida, beach landings and an onslaught of immigrants at local processing centers. "This is no small effort. We've been preparing for this for months," said Kunkel, head of the US Coast Guard in Miami and director of the task force running the exercise. The 400-member team began planning the exercise well before Fidel Castro fell ill and handed over political power to his brother in July. But he said the simulations would use Cuba as a source country. "It doesn't have to be from Cuba. It could be any Caribbean nation. However, we do recognize that Cuba is certainly an area where we must be prepared," Kunkel told reporters at the Emergency Operations Center in Doral, the drill's nerve center. (Sun Sentinel, 8/3/07)

March 7: Homeland Security officials in Washington, where immigration applications are processed, won't release figures on how many petitions it has received from Cuban medical personnel, nor the number it has granted. Julio Cesar Alfonso, a Cuban refugee and doctor who founded Miami-based Solidarity Without Borders to offer financial and legal help to Cubans trying to emigrate, estimates that about 170 applications for political asylum have been approved among the 200 or so people his group has helped. The program has proved a complicated one to administer, which is why it may be taking the Department of Homeland Security longer than expected to decide on asylum. Applications from Cuban medical professionals "require us to look closely to determine whether or not the person is fully eligible for the benefit," said department spokesman Chris Bentley. "The American public expects us to do that thoroughly and take as much time as needed to reach a sound decision." In addition to the lack of documentation from most of the Cubans who fled Venezuela, there is also the suspicion that some of the refugees may be spies sent by Castro to see who is applying. (The New York Times, 8/3/07)

March 8: Cuba responded to President George W. Bush's call for the island's transition to lead to a change in government, saying the US leader "does not understand anything" and "appears hallucinatory." Granma, the official newspaper of the Cuban Communist Party, said Bush "persists in showing once again that he does not understand anything."   Cuba's transition after the eventual death of Fidel Castro should be "from one type of government to a different type of government, based upon the will of the people," Bush said in a roundtable with Latin American media on the eve of his trip to the region. "He himself (Bush) gets caught up in the skein of a tortuous and even labyrinthine thought, because that, the revolution and socialism, is what the people have been deciding for nearly half a century. What does the butcher of Iraq want to happen? To return to the time of his friends the Diaz-Balarts?" Granma said. The paper was referring to Bush allies Lincoln and Mario Diaz-Balart, Republican congressmen from Florida whose father and grandfather were both associated with the regime of Cuban dictator Fulgencio Batista, one of them as deputy head of the strongman's secret police. (EFE, 8/3/07)

March 8: US businessmen who recently returned from a visit to Cuba dismissed the notion yesterday that that country's economy will collapse with the passing of President Fidel Castro, or that his death will spur an exodus from the island. Wayne S. Smith, a senior fellow at the Center for International Policy, which sponsored the businessmen's trip, disputed the idea that Mr. Castro's death or departure would bring down Cuba's system. "This idea that the Cuban economy is collapsing and the regime is on the ropes is absolute nonsense," he said, adding that Cubans are not likely to flee the island in the event of Mr. Castro's death. Jake Colvin, director of the pro-trade industry group USA Engage, said Cuban interest in outside investment is more limited than its interest in trade but that Havana has a particular interest in outside investment in the energy sector, including oil and gas production. (The Washington Times, 9/3/07)

March 8: While hundreds of US law enforcement agents intercepted imaginary Cuban migrants during a massive training exercise in south Florida, two boatloads of actual Cubans sneaked ashore on Miami Beach. Boaters dropped off 21 Cuban migrants at a popular nudist beach and left 19 others on another beach a few hours later, the Border Patrol said. Both vessels escaped. "It's our belief that they were the result of organized smuggling," Border Patrol spokesman Steve McDonald said. The Cubans arrived on day two of a training exercise to test "Operation Vigilant Sentry," the US Department of Homeland Security's plan to halt a possible mass migration from the Caribbean. About 325 agents from 85 federal, state and local law enforcement agencies took part in the exercise. "We're not embarrassed at all," McDonald said. "It's not uncommon for them (Cubans) to have landings." (Reuters, 8/3/07)

March 8: The top Republican on the US House of Representatives' Foreign Affairs Committee said she wants to stop Cuba from drilling for oil in waters 45 miles (72 km) from Key West, Florida. US Representative Ileana Ros-Lehtinen of Florida said Cuba's drilling plans could endanger her state's pristine beaches -- a prime driver of its tourist economy -- and endanger the only living coral reef in North America. "It is totally unacceptable that the Cuban regime be allowed to drill for oil just 45 miles from our shores," Ros-Lehtinen said. "The consequences of a spill are disastrous." Ros-Lehtinen said she will introduce legislation aimed at stopping the drilling plan. She did not give any details about how her legislation would accomplish the task, or if the plan would comply with international trade rules. (Reuters, 8/3/07)

March 11: Hundreds of Cuban doctors and other medical personnel who defected in third countries -- and one magician -- have applied for fast-track US entry under a special program launched six months ago, US officials said. More than 100 already have arrived in the United States under the program, and hundreds more are hiding in places like Bolivia and Venezuela, awaiting US background checks to ensure they are medical professionals and not rights abusers or Cuban government agents. After a slow start, the program, designed for Cuban medical personnel who defect while working abroad, has received so many applicants that Cuban American activists are scrambling to assist the new arrivals. There are reports that Cuban authorities are visiting family members of doctors stationed abroad to warn of reprisals if their relatives flee. ''It's a hugely successful program,'' said Emilio Gonzalez, the director of US Citizenship and Immigration Services, part of the Department of Homeland Security. ``The word is getting out and obviously we get an increased number every week.'' Cuba has an estimated 40,000 doctors, dentists, nurses and other medical personnel working in 69 countries, including about 15,000 in Venezuela. Miami Republican Representative Lincoln Diaz-Balart in February said that 366 medical professionals who defected abroad had applied under the US program, 160 have been approved and 55 had arrived. Twenty five were rejected. Among those rejected were a magician and a chess player, US immigration officials said. Gonzalez said the latest number are much higher but declined to provide a number. Ana Carbonell, Diaz-Balart's chief of staff, said more than 100 already have entered the United States. (The Miami Herald, 11/3/07)

March 12: Cuban Foreign Minister Felipe Perez Roque, who was in Paris to preside over a meeting of the Non-Aligned Movement in the Paris headquarters of the UN Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization, said he knew that Fidel Castro's improvement "isn't good news" for US President George W. Bush. He said that the US government had a plan to intervene in Cuba when Fidel Castro died, but added that Cuba's enemies and their president will have to wait, and that "Bush will retire without achieving his objectives" for Cuba. (EFE, 12/3/07)

March 12: The wives of five Cubans convicted in the United States of acting as agents of a foreign government launched a campaign to obtain visas for two of the wives, who have not seen their jailed husbands for years. At a press conference, the women insisted that it was an injustice to keep the men in prison, after the High Court of Atlanta ruled in 2005 that the trial held in Miami in the late 90’s lacked constitutional guarantees. (AP, 12/3/07)

March 14: Another bipartisan bill will be introduced in the US Congress aimed at easing the embargo on Cuba. This initiative, authored by Democrat Senator Byron Dorgan of North Dakota and Republican Senator Larry Craig of Idaho, would roll back the oil-drilling ban in the Gulf of Mexico, so that companies would now be allowed to drill in waters more than 45 miles off the US coast of Florida. This bill would allow US companies to gain access to deposits off Cuba’s coast, which could have reserves of at least 4.6 billion of barrels. In late 2006, the US Congress had put an end to a 25-year ban on drilling in deep waters 125 miles south of the Florida Panhandle, although it set some restrictions until 2020. In 1999 Fidel Castro opened the northern coastline of the Caribbean country to international exploration, but US companies could not invest in any projects due to the embargo on the island. The piece of legislation being introduced is  known as the "Security and Fuel Efficiency Energy Act of 2007". (Global Insight, 14/3/07)

March 14: The United States and Cuba accused each other of hypocrisy in professing support for UN human rights experts. The US delegation told the 47-nation UN Human Rights Council that it had been surprised to hear Cuban Foreign Minister Felipe Perez Roque strongly backing the panel's experts who investigate specific abuses — like torture, freedom of expression or arbitrary detention — around the world. "This is great news," said US delegation member Velia De Pirro. "My government sincerely hopes this new support from the government of Cuba will soon lead to invitations from Cuba to these mandate holders to visit Cuba for the first time in their history." A Cuban delegate responded that the United States was also selective in its cooperation, refusing to allow experts to meet individually with terrorism suspects detained at Guantanamo Bay. Rodolfo Reyes said Washington should allow UN experts unhindered access to what he called the "international center of torture" in Guantanamo. Last year the United States declined to allow a team of experts — including one on torture — to have private access to the Guantanamo detainees, and the experts refused to go. Reyes also accused the US government of allowing terrorist activities by members of the Cuban-exile community in Miami. (AP, 14/3/07)

March 15: Cuban intelligence agents are working inside the US government and one mole uncovered in the Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) caused the death of a US special operations soldier in Central America, a senior DIA counterintelligence official said in a new book. DIA analyst Ana Belen Montes, convicted of espionage in 2002, told Cuban intelligence officers about a secret US Army Special Forces camp in El Salvador that she visited in 1987. Weeks later, the camp was attacked by pro-Cuban guerrillas of the Marxist group Farabundo Marti National Liberation Front, DIA counterspy Scott W. Carmichael said in his book, "True Believer." Mr. Carmichael, who led the DIA's investigation of Montes, said in an interview that other Cuban agents are operating inside the US government. "I believe that the Cuban Intelligence Service has penetrated the United States government to the same extent that the old East German intelligence service, the Stasi, once penetrated the West German government during the Cold War," he said. Havana's intelligence service shares its stolen secrets with US adversaries, including China, Russia, Iran and Venezuela, Mr. Carmichael said. (The Washington Times, 15/3/07)

March 15: State officials have filed applications with the US State Department for Governor C.L. “Butch” Otter to travel to the communist island nation of Cuba on a trade mission to promote Idaho agricultural products. Cuba has been under a US trade and travel embargo since 1962, which Otter would like to see lifted. “While in Congress, he made it clear that the embargo with Cuba has been a failure,” Mark Warbis, Otter’s communications director, told the Idaho Statesman. “It’s not the government, but the people it’s punishing.” Otter would be part of a trade mission that would include other state officials as well as business leaders. State officials hope to receive approval by the end of the month, and travel to Cuba next month. The US began allowing the sale of food and medicine to Cuba in 2000. (AP, 15/3/07)

March 19: Two top officers on the State Department's Cuba desk are moving to Iraq, adding to a government reshuffle involving a total of six key Cuba posts. Stephen McFarland, who heads the Cuba desk, and his number two, Timothy Zuniga-Brown, will join the Iraqi provincial reconstruction teams, which operate outside Baghdad's Green Zone. US officials say there is nothing unusual about those departures or the changes in other US agencies. The top tier of government that sets Cuba policy is unchanged, the officials emphasize. "It is just rotation stuff," says Eric Watnik, a spokesman for the Western Hemisphere department at the State Department, noting that McFarland and Zuniga-Brown had completed two years in their jobs and volunteered for the Iraqi positions. John Regan, the Cuba desk's No. 3, will head the desk until the replacements arrive this summer, Watnik said. Adolfo Franco, the US Agency for International Development assistant administrator for Latin America and the Caribbean, is also leaving to join Senator John McCain's presidential campaign. To replace him the White House has nominated Paul J. Bonicelli, the current deputy assistant administrator for the Bureau of Democracy, Conflict and Humanitarian Assistance at USAID. David Mutchler, the USAID director for Cuba - a position also subject to regular rotation - is finishing his term in the job and will leave this summer, said Morgan D. Ortagus, a USAID press officer. Norman Bailey, the Cuba and Venezuela coordinator for the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, which coordinates intelligence-gathering among 16 U.S. agencies, was asked to leave when new ODNI director Mike McConnell took over earlier this year. A search for a replacement is under way. (McClatchy Newspapers, 19/3/07)

March 19: Cuba said that the unilateral, illegal US blockade against the island is a clear, serious, and violent instrument against Cuban children. Speaking before the plenary of the UN Council on Human Rights, currently in session in Geneva, Cuban delegate Yuri Gala recalled that children are victims of armed conflicts, aggressions and foreign occupations. Gala’s speech was part of the Council’s discussion of a report presented by independent expert, Brazilian Paulo Sergio Pinheiro. The Cuban delegate highlighted the recognition of issues including family, community, society and child labor in the document. However, he lamented that other central aspects of the concept of violence against children were missing. A comprehensive attention to the issue must include the negligent treatment of children, that manifests itself in the current unfair international order and the impact of politics and decisions of the World Trade Organization (WTO) and the Breton Woods institutions, he said. (Prensa Latina, 19/3/07)

March 20: Supporters of Republican presidential candidate John McCain said they expect to raise more than $200,000 for the Arizona senator's campaign at a fundraiser that kicks off a flurry of Florida events for two weeks. No political visit to Miami would be complete without an event involving the powerful Cuban-American community, and the McCain campaign is no exception. McCain plans to speak to a group of Cuban-American veterans of the failed CIA-backed Bay of Pigs invasion of Cuba in 1961 and make an appearance on the popular Spanish-language station Radio Mambi, according to McCain aides. One former Cuban political prisoner, Roberto Martin Perez, met McCain at the airport, and the senator made sure to note that he was meeting in Miami with "friends who are all freedom fighters" and to express support for continuing the US economic embargo of Cuba. That appearance comes after one of McCain's rivals for the GOP presidential nomination, former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney, raised eyebrows recently in Miami's politically powerful Cuban-American community by using a slogan of Fidel Castro's in a recent speech: "Fatherland or death, we shall overcome." (AP, 20/3/07)

March 20: Cuba is open to American companies that want to join the communist country's new oil-drilling ventures but any such deals are being blocked by Washington, the minister overseeing energy matters said. Basic Industry Minister Yadira Garcia said exploratory drilling in the Gulf of Mexico should start to yield profits by 2011. "A lot of American companies have been coming, they know about our studies (…) but we are not the ones limiting them," Garcia told reporters at an international gathering on earth sciences. Garcia said it was "a good moment" for Washington to let American oil companies invest in the Cuban market. Currently, a long-standing US trade embargo prohibits most American trade and investment with the communist-run island. (AP, 20/3/07)

March 20: The United States called on Cuba to stop repression and to free political prisoners, four years after Havana rounded up and jailed 75 political dissidents. Cuba is the only one-party communist regime in the Americas. "In March 2003, the regime arrested members of Cuba's independent civil society, rounding up 75 independent thinkers, journalists, librarians, and academics," said State Department spokesman Sean McCormack in a statement. "These individuals were sentenced to as many as 25 years in prison for carrying out activities that citizens living in democracies across the globe participate in every day. [Fourth Anniversary of the Cuban Dissident Crackdown] (AFP, 21/3/07)

March 20: Work to restore Ernest Hemingway's Cuban hideaway probably won't be finished until the end of 2009, held up in part by efforts to build a garage to house the author's long-lost Chevy convertible, museum officials said. Efforts began in 2005 to repair Finca Vigia and restore its grounds along with the papers, furniture and other objects inside. Museum director Ada Rosa Alfonso would not say how much restoration has cost to date, or how much was needed to finish it. “It's a process that requires dedication and time,” she said. The budget for the restoration comes from the Cuban state and “it will continue providing it,” she said. The museum is “open to accepting any kind of donation or support” but she said that Washington's embargo has blocked willing American donors. The restoration likely won't be completed for at least 2½ more years, she said. Six US experts have obtained permission to travel to Cuba and aid in restoration, and Alfonso said that the last American visit came in August. (Globe and Mail, 21/3/07)

March 21: Cuba denounced the United States to the World Trade Organization for the usurpation of Cuban labels of acknowledged international prestige. The protest referred to the systematic disregard by the US government over decisions made with the WTO and the serious consequences of incompliance of agreements on intellectual property. Cuban representatives referred to the denial of the US Office of Patents and Labels to grant a license to renew the Havana Club label, arguing political reasons. Six other delegations, Venezuela, Nicaragua, Brazil, India, China and Argentina supported Cuban concerns and demands while the United States has continued twiddling its thumbs for five years claiming it is trying to solve the problem. (Prensa Latina, 21/3/07)

March 21: US officials say that the image of an increasingly revitalized Castro is impeding the island's day-to-day leadership from making major changes. Thomas Shannon, the top US diplomat for Latin America and the Caribbean, told the press that Cuba was in a period of ''suspended animation'' as Castro exerted a ''controlling political presence'' on the island. While Shannon did not directly contradict previous statements from US officials that suggested Castro was close to death, he suggested that the Bush administration is more cautious in its assessment of whether Castro will return, and in what capacity. Shannon said the transfer of power had occurred ''in terms of managing day-to-day government'' but that the new leadership was ``unable to define itself independent of Fidel Castro.'' When asked about Castro's health, Shannon started by responding with the collective ''we,'' but then corrected himself. ``At least I've tried to be very careful about Fidel Castro's health, and be careful about making it clear that the Cuban state is so opaque and that his health is treated as a state secret, and guarded in such a way that it's hard to assess what it is.'' Shannon in December said that the Cuban government was unlikely to embark on major reform as long as Castro was alive, but his statements are stronger now. ''I think we're kind of in this period of almost suspended animation, that there is expectation of change in Cuba but it's not happening; and it's not happening because Fidel Castro is not a day-to-day presence, but he's still a controlling presence,'' he said. Shannon said the United States would continue its policy of supporting the opposition in Cuba and ``to attempt to work internationally to get people who communicate with the regime to convince the regime that now is the time for it to engage in a dialogue with the Cuban people.'' (The Miami Herald, Reuters, 22/3/07)

March 21: State trade visits to Cuba have helped Nebraska farmers and ranchers make nearly $40 million in sales to the island nation, Governor Dave Heineman said. Announcing another trip to Cuba, Heineman said that Nebraska has gained an edge over other states because its trade missions have been led by top state officials. The governor leaves on March 25 for the latest round of meetings with officials from Alimport, the Cuban import agency. "The goal of my administration is to continually seek opportunities for agricultural producers," he said. The upcoming mission will be Heineman's third trip to Cuba since 2005. Lt. Governor Rick Sheehy led a trade mission in 2006. (Omaha World Herald, 22/3/07)

March 21: Idaho has received a license to export agricultural goods, wood products and medical supplies to Cuba, according to Jon Hanian, spokesman for Governor C. L. “Butch” Otter. Otter plans to lead a trade mission to Cuba April 9-14 with 34 businesspeople and state officials. When asked which Cuban government officials the trade delegation would meet with since Cuba’s government may be in transition, Hanian said, “That’s a very sensitive issue with the Cubans right now. We’re going to meet with current government officials. I’m assuming that is Fidel Castro and El Presidente.” Idaho could gain trade partnerships for producers of seed, beef, pork, beans, dairy products, bandages and generic drugs, Hanian said. Much of the trip will be about establishing good will, he said. Idaho medical supply companies plan to donate some medical supplies as a humanitarian gesture. This is Otter’s fourth trip to Cuba, Hanian said. The previous three times were as a member of Congress. (Idaho Business Review, 21,3/07)

March 23: The office of US Representative Dan Burton, the Indiana Republican who co-authored the 1996 Helms-Burton Act tightening the squeeze on Cuba, denies the lawmaker has decided to support a bill that seeks to lift restrictions on Cuban-American travel to the island. His denial came after the Center for Democracy in the Americas, an advocacy group, issued a press release saying Burton had twice told them he would support a bill that eases family travel. But Burton's office denied this. ''It's just a rumor,'' said Clark Rehme, Burton's spokesman. Sergeant Carlos Lazo, a decorated Cuban-American US Army medic who is visiting Congress to lobby in favor of lifting travel restrictions to Cuba, said Burton twice assured him he supported the bill, which is sponsored by Representatives Bill Delahunt (Democrat-Massachusetts), and Ray LaHood (Republican-Illinois). Lazo became a symbol of the impact of Cuban-American travel curbs after he was denied permission to go see his two teenage sons when he finished his tour of duty in Iraq. Lazo earned a bronze medal for his service in Fallujah. 'He told me, `I'm on board,' '' Lazo told the press. (The Miami Herald, 23/3/07)

March 23: The US Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) is urging Congress to pass legislation that would end travel restrictions to Cuba and encourage more contact between Cuban and American citizens. In a letter sent to Representative Charles B Rangel of New York, Bishop Thomas G Wenski of Orlando, Florida, chairman of the US Bishops' Committee on International Policy, commended Rangel, Representative Jeff Flake of Arizona and other lawmakers for sponsoring HR 654, a bill that would allow travel between the US and Cuba. “The USCCB has for many years consistently called for relaxing the sanctions against Cuba," Bishop Wenski said. "These policies have largely failed to achieve greater freedom, democracy and respect for human life. At the same time, our nation's counterproductive policies have unnecessarily alienated many in the hemisphere who should be our friends and allies, and brought needless hardship on the Cuban people. It continues to be our position that the goals of improving the lives of the Cuban people and encouraging democracy in Cuba will best be advanced through more rather than less contact between the Cuban and American people." Bishop Wenski described the travel restrictions on Cubans living in the US as particularly objectionable. (Catholic Online, 23/3/07)

March 24: A 4-year-old girl living in Coral Gables is at the center of an international custody dispute between the United States and Cuba over who will raise her: her father who lives in Cuba and wants her back, or a family acquaintance who Florida child welfare administrators say is more fit. Because of a secrecy order, the battle over the youngster has played out quietly in Miami-Dade County 's juvenile courthouse in Allapattah. But three sources with knowledge of the case say state child-welfare workers have asked Circuit Judge Jeri B. Cohen to grant long-term custody of the girl to an acquaintance of the girl's family. The girl, whose identity is being withheld by court and child-welfare administrators, was taken from her mother by the Florida Department of Children & Families about a year ago, sources said, after an investigation into charges that the mother's severe mental illness made her an unfit parent. DCF also took custody of the girl's older, preteen brother. The children, who have different fathers living in Cuba, came to the United States legally two years ago. The boy's father agreed to surrender his parental rights, sources said, so there is no dispute about his staying in the United States. The girl's father, though, is pressing to gain custody. His lawyer is Ira Kurzban, a prominent immigration attorney who has represented the Cuban government in the past. Cohen, who presides over child-welfare, foster-care and adoption cases, has closed all proceedings in the case to the public and ordered all parties involved not to discuss it. It is not known when she will make a decision in the case. (The Miami Herald, 24/3/07)

March 25: Since 2003, one country has been the main supplier of food to Fidel Castro's Cuba: the United States. Many Americans think their government's 45-year-old embargo blocks all trade with the communist government, but the United States is the top supplier of food and agricultural products to Cuba . In fact, many Cubans depend on rations grown in Arkansas and North Dakota for their rice and beans. Cuba refused to import one grain of rice for more than a year because of a dispute over financing, but finally agreed to take advantage of a law passed by Congress in 2000 authorizing cash-only purchases of US food and agricultural products, after Hurricane Michelle in November 2001 cut into its food stocks. Since then, Cuba has paid more than $1.5 billion for American food and agricultural products, said John Kavulich, senior policy adviser at the US-Cuba Trade and Economic Council of New York. The $340 million in exports in 2006 represented a drop of about 3 percent from 2005, which was down from nearly $392 million in 2004. Kavulich said the decline was caused mostly by generous subsidies and credits from Venezuela and China. But the US remains on top. Its main exports to Cuba include chicken, wheat, corn, rice and soybeans -- much of it doled out to Cubans on the government ration. The United States also sends Cuba brand-name cola, mayonnaise, hot sauce and candy bars, as well as dairy cows. Kirby Jones, founder of the U.S.-Cuba Trade Association in Washington, said Cuba 's food import company Alimport has an entire department dedicated to American purchases. (AP, 25/3/07)

March 26: The visiting governor of the US state of Nebraska, Dave Heineman, was in Havana to sign a deal to expand food exports to the communist Cuban government. "It's a good opportunity to expand our relationship. It's a very good relationship for both, Cuba and our state, and we want to continue to expand it in the future," said Heineman, who arrived with 30 US businessmen. He was to sign a deal with the Cuban state food import agency Alimport for US beans, corn, wheat, turkey, pork, beef and soy products. The governor did not immediately put a figure on the trade deal. It was the Republican's third visit to Havana. In 2005, he signed deals to export $30 million worth of agricultural products to Cuba, and Nebraska officials agreed to a similar deal a year ago, with about a third of those contracts executed since, the governor said. Cuban officials scheduled a signing ceremony at the capital's Hotel Palco, but Heineman would not say how much those contracts would be worth. He said Nebraska officials are beginning to explore shipping medical supplies to Cuba. "We're down here for a long-term relationship," he said. "This is not about just this year or next year. We want to be down here for years to come. Ten years from now, even when I'm no longer the governor." (AFP, AP, 26/3/07)

March 26: Proponents of US offshore oil and gas drilling were infuriated by assertions made by Cuban officials regarding development plans in oil and gas basins adjacent to US waters in the eastern Gulf of Mexico. "This just shows that Cuba is moving forward, with or without US companies," said a spokesman for Senator Larry Craig (Republican-Idaho). "Florida is going to have China drilling off their coast in no time. Let's be honest, China doesn't exactly have the best environmental record. US companies, which do have the best environmental record and the best technology, should be doing this work." Craig co-sponsored earlier in March with Senator Byron Dorgan (Democrat-North Dakota), a bill that would allow US gas and oil producers to drill in Cuban waters within 45 miles of the Florida coast. It also would open up most of the US waters in the Eastern Gulf of Mexico to exploration and development. Jack Gerard, president and CEO of the American Chemistry Council said: "It is ironic indeed that Cuba and other nations have access to energy reserves only 45 miles from the US coastline while US energy policy prevents our country from competing for these same resources. We need policy change that will level the playing field for access to energy--especially natural gas--to meet America's significant economic and security needs." A spokeswoman for the American Gas Association said the 45-year-old trade embargo against Cuba and the 25-year-old moratorium on offshore drilling, "are forcing the United States to continue to be dependent on foreign fuel sources." (Platts Commodity News, 26/3/07)

March 26: The Chief of the Western Hemisphere in the US Department of State, Thomas Shannon, said that Fidel Castro is weak and ill but keeps on establishing the parameters under which the island is ruled. "It seems that a transfer of power took place, but Fidel Castro still stablishes the context for the government. He stablishes the parameters", Shannon said at a news conference in Madrid. "It is evident that he [Castro] is totally ill and weak, but still walks, and that is a simple reality", he added. (Europa Press, 26/3/07)

March 27: Cuba spent $108 million so far this year on American food and agricultural products and associated logistical costs, but would have spent far more if not for Washington's 45-year-old embargo, a top official said. Pedro Alvarez, director of the island's food import company, Alimport, made the announcement as he signed agreements to purchase an additional $15.75 million worth of wheat and pork from Nebraska producers. He said Cuba spent $560 million on US food and agricultural products and associated shipping and other costs last year, and more than $2.2 billion since December 2001. Alvarez said that if the embargo were lifted, US-Cuba trade in goods and services -- including tourism -- could balloon to $21 billion in the first five years. (AP, 27/3/07)

March 28: The five Cubans found guilty of conspiracy and espionage in the United States in 2001 were judged in accord with the principles guaranteed by the laws of that country, an American diplomat said in Geneva before the UN Human Rights Council. After recalling that the five were found guilty of acting as agents of a foreign government, as well as conspiring to commit espionage in three cases, the political advisor for the US mission to the UN in Geneva, Velia De Pirro, said that the men received the full protection of the US legal system. She was responding to accusations that, shortly before her remarks, had been made before the council by the wife of one of the five condemned Cubans. Gerardo Hernandez, Rene Gonzalez, Antonio Guerrero, Ramon Labañino and Fernando Gonzalez were sentenced to prison terms ranging from 15 years to life behind bars for being members of the so-called "Wasp network" broken up in South Florida in September 1998. Adriana Perez, the wife of Hernandez, told the UN panel that "the deprivation of freedom of our relatives for nine years violates their human rights, the prevailing international conventions and treaties and also the U.S. Constitution." In response, De Pirro said that the five condemned spies never denied their clandestine activities in the service of the Cuban government and added that Washington firmly believes that they were tried respecting all legal guarantees of due process. (EFE, 28/3/07)

March 28: US Creighton University has impressive credentials in legal studies, mediation, team projects and international outreach. All of those qualities are on display this year as Creighton scholars help Cubans address some important economic challenges. Creighton's $375,000 project, funded through a grant from the US Agency for International Development, could help Cuba chart a constructive new course for the post-Fidel Castro era. A team of researchers from the Creighton School of Law and the university's political science department is working to resolve long-standing international legal disputes over private property claims in Cuba. This effort, entering its final months, is aimed at improving economic opportunities for ordinary Cubans by encouraging an appreciation for property rights. The property claims involve more than $6 billion in investments lost by American businesses and citizens with financial ties to pre-Castro Cuba . The legal processes being developed also could be used by Cubans who had American assets frozen. The goal of the Creighton project is to find ways to make the repayment of larger claims an economic engine for a new and more democratic Cuba, one open to free-market principles. (Omaha World Herald, 28/3/07)

March 28: Thirteen US Democratic Congress members, including several who favor easing sanctions against Havana, decried Cuba's recent expulsion of three foreign journalists. ''As members of the new majority in the United States Congress, we write today to express our concern with the recent expulsion of three veteran foreign journalists from Cuba as well as the continued restriction and abuse of native journalists in Cuba,'' the legislators wrote in a letter. Addressed to the Cuban diplomatic mission in Washington, the letter is signed by a mix of Democrats who oppose or favor the Bush administration's tough stance against Havana. In February, the Cuban government refused to renew the press accreditation of Gary Marx of the Chicago Tribune, César González-Calero of Mexico's El Universal newspaper, and Stephen Gibbs of the BBC, presumably for reporting critical of Havana. (The Miami Herald, 30/3/07)

March 28: Cuba has agreed to buy $16.3 million worth of Nebraska wheat and pork, Governor Dave Heineman said after completing a trade mission to the island nation. The new contracts mean total sales of Nebraska agricultural products to Cuba will hit $60 million, fulfilling all previous trade promises made by Cuban officials, Heineman said. Even more encouraging, he said, is that Cuban officials are continuing to negotiate with representatives from the Farmland Foods and Hormel companies. Those talks could yield sales above and beyond the previous promises and indicate that trade will continue, even without formal agreements, State Agriculture Director Greg Ibach said. "We have established Nebraska as a reliable supplier of high- quality agricultural products," he said. Ibach and Heineman spoke from the Miami airport on their way back from a four-day trip to Havana. (Omaha World Herald, 29/3/07)

March 29: Ailing Fidel Castro published an article in state media criticizing US environmental policies, emerging from months of silence on political matters during his long recuperation from intestinal surgery in an apparent move to reassert his voice on international issues. The article, signed the day before, was written in the same kind of apocalyptic style Mr. Castro traditionally has used when discussing the impact of US international policies on developing countries, and there was no reason to doubt that the ailing 80-year was its author. In his article, Mr. Castro quotes extensively from a Washington-datelined story by The Associated Press reporting on the meeting between Mr. Bush and US auto makers and their comments about using corn to create ethanol as an alternative to fossil fuels. The Cuban leader noted that Cuba has also experimented with extracting ethanol from sugarcane. But if rich countries decide to import huge amounts of traditional food crops such as corn from developing countries to help meet their energy needs, it could have disastrous consequences for the world's poor, Mr. Castro wrote. [Fidel Castro's Editorial in Granma] (Globe & Mail, AP, 28/3/07)

March 29: Cuba denounced at the Human Rights Council in Geneva that the United States is hastily implementing the so called Bush Plan for "the annexation of the island". Cuban delegate Rodolfo Reyes said that the plan represents a strengthening of the anti-Cuba policy of hostility, aggressions and blockade by current US administration. The intention is to speed up what they call a "change of regime" in Cuba, for which they have increased recruitment, organization, and financing of mercenaries used in the anti-Cuba strategy, he added. (Prensa Latina, 29/3/07)