Chronicle on Cuba - April 2007

US-Cuba Relations

April 2: The US International Trade Commission (ITC or Commission) has launched an investigation to report on the effects of US trade and travel restrictions with Cuba on US exports of agricultural, fish, and forest products to that country. US exports to Cuba of these products amounted to $337 million in 2006. The investigation, US Agricultural Sales to Cuba: Certain Economic Effects of US Restrictions, was requested by the US Senate Committee on Finance in a letter received on March 16, 2007. (US Fed News, 2/4/07) 

April 4: Fidel Castro blasted US President George W. Bush's biofuel plan as "genocidal" in an editorial, saying it would worsen global hunger. The column, signed the day before and published as "Reflections of the Commander in Chief" in the ruling Communist Party newspaper Granma, was the second in a week by Castro attacking Bush's proposals to increase the use of foodstuffs like corn for fuel to run cars. Unable to give speeches, the formerly verbose Castro has taken up the pen to attack his ideological nemesis, the US government, focusing on the Bush administration's plan to increase fuel production from renewable crops instead of oil. Ethanol production topped the agenda at Bush's meeting with Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva at Camp David. The United States and Brazil are the world's top producers of the biofuel. "The worst could be yet to come: a new war to ensure gas and oil supplies, which could place the entire human race into a total holocaust," Castro said. [Reflexiones de Fidel Castro](Reuters, AFP, 4/4/07) 

April 4: A US judge denied a request to set bail for veteran anti-Castro activist Luis Posada Carriles, who faces charges of immigration fraud. Posada, a Cuban-born Venezuelan citizen accused of terrorism by both Havana and Caracas, will remain in a New Mexico jail pending his trial in El Paso, Texas, set to begin May 11. Judge Kathleen Cardone said that the court considered the risk that Posada would attempt to escape the jurisdiction of the court to avoid being sent back to jail. She also believed that there was no guarantee he would comply with house arrest, as the defense requested, given that he escaped from a Venezuelan prison in the 1980s while awaiting a second trial for his alleged participation in the 1976 bombing of a Cuban airliner that left 73 people dead.  "What is most urgent now is to make sure that (Posada Carriles) receives medical attention because of his delicate heart condition," Felipe Millan, one of the anti-Castro activist's attorneys, told the press. (EFE, 4/4/07)  

April 5: The United States condemned human rights repression in Cuba. The State Department said in a new human rights report that Cuba had at least 283 political prisoners and detainees at the end of 2006.  The report said thousands more citizens in Cuba served sentences in 2006 for "dangerousness," in the absence of any criminal activity. In addition, the report said beatings and abuse of detainees and prisoners, including human rights activists, were carried out with impunity, and that harsh and life-threatening prison conditions included denial of medical care. The Cuban government uses the concept of "dangerousness" in an attempt to justify detaining its citizens, saying these people supposedly have a "special inclination" to commit crimes. [2006 Human Rights Record: Cuba] (US Fed News, 5/4/07)

April 5: The US State Department said that Raul Castro’s presence in Cuba shows that there is a transformation under a totalitarian regime, rather than a transition, taking place in the island.  Barry Lowenkron, Assistant Seretary of State for Democracy, Human Rights and Labour said that in Cuba, where NGOs cannot operate, the US has supported broadcasting. “It is to find all means possible in order to do the one critical thing that we need to do no matter how hard the case is, and that is to send a clear message that those individuals are not alone”. Lowenkron made his comments during a presentation of the “2006 Annual Report on Human Rights”, that documents the many ways the United States worked worldwide last year to foster respect for human rights and promote democratic government. Lowenkron admitted that “in some places is more difficult than in others”. “In the case of Cuba, for example, the funding goes into broadcasting. It goes into providing books and literature and material. It goes into helping develop sinews in relationship among the activists within Cuba”, he said. “In the context of what's happening in Cuba now, we have an interagency, senior interagency team, that laid out last summer publicly what this Administration is prepared to do in the context of offering, offering assistance to the Cuban people. But offering assistance, we made it clear, not in the context of a transition but in the context of a transformation”, Lowenkron added. (US Fed News, 5/4/07)  

April 5: A group of 20 Cuban immigrants arrived in Key West, Florida. The Sheriff Office of Monroe County reported that the immigrants said they had reached the coast in a vessel made of buckets and screws, but the vessel was not found. The group, comprised of men, women, and children was found at Key West airport. (EFE, 5/4/07)

April 6: A federal judge ordered Cuban militant Luis Posada Carriles set free on bail pending trial on charges he lied in a bid to become a US citizen, and the government immediatley asked that he remain jailed. Judge Kathleen Cardone said in a written order 79-year-old Posada Carriles, despite "a controversial past" as an opponent of Cuban leader Fidel Castro, was not a flight risk because he is "old, infirm and has strong ties to the community." He was not immediately released because prosecutors asked that he be detained while they consider an appeal to a higher court. His attorney, Felipe Millan, told the press he hoped to get Posada Carriles out of jail by the end of next week. Posada, 79, was arrested in Miami. He is wanted in Cuba and Venezuela on charges that he was in Caracas when he plotted the deadly 1976 bombing of a Cuban jetliner. (Sun Sentinel, Reuters, 7/4/07)

April 7: Cuba slammed what it said was the US’ double standard on terrorism after a US federal judge ordered the release of an anti-Castro activist convicted in the deadly downing of a Cuban jet. “The court ruling is yet another confirmation of the George W. Bush administration’s double standard on its alleged war on terror,” the Cuban Communist Party newspaper Granma said. The ruling by a federal judge in Texas, does not necessarily mean former CIA operative Luis Posada Carriles, 79, will leave jail immediately, since he could be arrested by US immigration officials who have a deportation order for him. He was ordered freed pending a hearing on immigration fraud charges. “The international community is demanding justice. And Venezuela is pressing on in its bid to have him extradited,” the Cuban statement in Granma added. (AFP, 8/4/07)

April 9: Border patrol authorities reported 40 Cubans landed on beaches in the Florida Keys around dawn. A group of 30 appeared near Marathon in what "appeared to be a `go-fast' smuggling event," said Miami assistant chief Victor Colon. Go-fast boats are large speedboats generally belonging to US-based smugglers who charge thousands of dollars per person to bring immigrants to the United States. An hour later, border patrol agents responded to a landing of 10 Cubans in north Key Largo. The group (five men and five women) said they'd been at sea for three days and showed signs of exposure to the sun, authorities said. (Sun Sentinel, 10/4/07)

April 9: Idaho is turning to Cuba in search of new markets for its products. With Cuba's communist dictator Fidel Castro ailing, Idaho Governor C.L. "Butch" Otter is among those optimistic that political change will help turn the island's 11 million residents into big consumers. In March, Nebraska Governor Dave Heineman was the latest US official to visit Cuba, which bought $340 million (euro254.2 million) in US farm products in 2006. Otter and his 35-member entourage are scheduled to travel to Cuba on April 10 for a four-day trade mission. "He's going down there to sell groceries," said Jon Hanian, Otter's spokesman. "It's an opportunity to make some sales." In a speech last March, Otter told reporters he had a "respectful" relationship with Castro. The United States has a trade embargo with Cuba that exempts food, and does not allow residents to visit the island nation. (AP, 9/4/07)

April 9: Stung by defeat, the US government launched a counteroffensive to prevent the court-ordered release of Cuban exile militant Luis Posada Carriles to Miami before his trial on fraud charges in federal court in Texas. Justice Department lawyers urged US District Judge Kathleen Cardone to reconsider her decision to grant Posada a $350,000 bond and to hold a hearing on the collateral pledged by supporters to secure his bail.  Lawyers in Justice's counter-terrorism division pressed the judge to delay her bond decision until that hearing, which could focus on a $1.5 million Coral Way office building owned by a Posada supporter, Judith Garcia Prado. In a court filing, she pledged the property on 1378 SW 22nd St. for his bond, which is set far lower than the building's value. ''The court's order thus waters down the bond conditions, and presents no real disincentive to flee,'' wrote Justice Department attorneys John W. Van Lonkhuyzen and Paul Ahern in a 10-page filing. (The Miami Herald, 10/4/07)  

April 9: A lawyer representing the Venezuelan government accused the United States of shielding a Cuban militant from standing trial for allegedly planning the deadly 1976 bombing of a Cuban jetliner. A federal judge in Texas had ordered Luis Posada Carriles freed on bail pending trial on charges he lied in an attempt to become a US citizen. Prosecutors asked the judge to reconsider. “If the White House doesn't want them to free Posada, the US government can easily prevent his release," lawyer Jose Pertierra claimed in a phone interview from his Washington office. "Either extradite him to Venezuela or try him in the United States for the 73 counts of first-degree murder," Pertierra said. (AP, 10/4/07)

April 10: Imprisoned independent journalist Normando Hernandez Gonzalez won the 2007 PEN/ Barbara Goldsmith Freedom to Write Award, the writers’ group announced in New York. The annual prize honors writers who have been persecuted or jailed for engaging in or defending freedom of expression. The award will be presented at PEN's annual New York gala on April 30. Hernandez Gonzalez, 38, was among 75 independent journalists, rights activists and other critics of the Cuban government arrested in a March 2003 crackdown on the island's opposition. Sixteen people in the group have since been released on medical parole, leaving 59 -- including Hernandez Gonzalez -- behind bars. (AP, 10/4/07)

April 11: Cuban exile militant Luis Posada Carriles took one step closer to moving to Miami on a $350,000 bond as he awaits trial on fraud charges in a Texas federal court. Posada's release from a jail in New Mexico near the Texas border could be imminent, thanks to a new ruling by US District Judge Kathleen Cardone. She rejected the US government's request to freeze her decision on Posada's bond until April 13, when Justice Department lawyers planned to decide on an appeal. In a separate bid, prosecutors have sought to increase Posada's bond, saying the former CIA operative could flee the country to evade his May 11 trial if his bond is not set higher. Cardone has not ruled on that request. (The Miami Herald, 11/4/07)

April 11: Fidel Castro denounced a US court ruling allowing a jailed Cuban militant who was once a US operative to post bond, accusing the American government of planning to free a "monster." The charges came in a letter distributed by Foreign Ministry officials after US District Judge Kathleen Cardone refused to reverse her decision allowing Luis Posada Carriles to be released. "The answer is brutal," Castro wrote, referring to Cardone's initial ruling in El Paso, Texas. "The government of the United States and its most representative institutions have decided the liberation of the monster beforehand," said the statement, which bore Castro's signature. The letter was the third in recent days signed by the ailing Cuban leader, who has not been seen in public for more than eight months. [A Brutal Reply] (AP, 11/4/07)

April 11: The Police may be giving their Cuban fans a free show this Christmas. The super rock group, which recently reunited for a sell-out world tour, has received an invitation from the Cuban government to perform in Havana in December. The Havana show would be the last one in North America, ending the Police's massive tour that begins on May 28 in Vancouver. The invite stems from a recent visit to Havana over the 2006 Christmas holiday by Sting and Trudie Styler where they met with many local musicians and poets. "They were overwhelmed by the Cuban culture and the arts and the musicality," a source said. "The people were very generous to them with their time." (Fox News, 11/4/07)

April 11: Sports agent Gustavo Dominguez told a federal jury that the $225,000 he gave to a convicted drug trafficker was not payment for smuggling five Cuban baseball players into the United States -- it was to protect his family. ''I was scared,'' Dominguez testified, as his wife of 28 years and two grown children watched from the back of the courtroom. Dominguez, co-founder of California-based Total Sports International, is on trial on charges of financing an August 2004 smuggling operation by go-fast boat to the Keys, and of transporting and harboring the players in California for monetary gain. (The Miami Herald, 11/4/07)

April 11: Tearful relatives of Cubans killed in a 1976 airline bombing blamed on anti-communist militant Luis Posada Carriles denounced a US court ruling allowing him to be released from jail on bond. "I'm outraged," said Iliana Alfonso, whose father was among those killed on the Cubana de Aviacion flight that exploded off Barbados. "In the United States, they are talking about good terrorism and bad terrorism. To me, all terrorism is bad." Alfonso read aloud a protest by relatives of victims of the airline bombing. "It is not ethical to unleash wars against terrorism, provoking the deaths of thousands of citizens in distant parts of the world while sheltering in its own territory terrorists who are self-confessed and still active," it said. Posada, a Cuban-born former CIA operative and naturalized citizen of Venezuela, is wanted in Cuba and Venezuela for masterminding the jetliner bombing, which killed 73 people — charges Posada denies. (AP, 11/4/07)

April 12: An appeals court blocked the release of anti-Castro Cuban militant Luis Posada Carilles, who was set to be freed on bond. The 5th Circuit Court of Appeals in New Orleans issued an order blocking his release after the aging militant had already been transferred from the Otero County, New Mexico jail to the federal courthouse in El Paso to sign paperwork freeing him on $250,000 bond. Prosectors filed the emergency motion. US District Judget Kathleen Cardone had earlier denied the US Justice Department's motion to keep him jailed. Posada, 79, was escorted from the federal courthouse in El Paso back to New Mexico, wearing a red prison uniform and shackled at the waist and feet. (Sun Sentinel, 12/4/07)

April 13: A group of 21 Cuban immigrants touched US land close to the Rickenbacker viaduct, Miami. The US Coast Guard said the group was comprised of 10 men, nine women and one adolescent. (El Nuevo Herald, 17/4/07)

April 13: A fisherman in Cuba who is fighting for custody of his 4-year-old daughter living in Coral Gables will be allowed to go to the United States in the summer for as long as 45 days to make his case to a Miami judge. The US State Department's decision to allow the man, a fisherman and office-worker from Guayos, to enter the United States is an about-face from an earlier decision to deny him entry, sources told the press. Permitting the father to argue on his own behalf could dramatically strengthen his hand in the international custody dispute -- especially if he can extend his stay. The man, who is not being identified to protect the little girl's privacy, has been fighting the Department of Children & Families to gain custody of his daughter since she was taken away from her mother, who arrived in the United States in March 2005. The mom, who also is not being named, was hospitalized with severe emotional problems. The little girl and her 12-year-old brother, who has a different father, are living with a Cuban-American family in Coral Gables. (The Miami Herald, 13/4/07)

April 13: Almost 50 years after the US government stripped William Morgan of his American citizenship for his role as a leader in the Cuban rebel forces, the famous “Comandante” has been reclaimed by his country. The US State Department now says it can no longer uphold its previous finding that the Ohio-born Morgan -- executed in 1961 by one of Fidel Castro's firing squads for counterrevolutionary acts in Cuba -- lost the right to call himself an American. ''We cannot sustain the finding of loss of nationality in this case,'' the State Department said in a letter to the attorney for Morgan's widow. ``Mr. Morgan shall be deemed never to have relinquished his US nationality.'' That leaves Morgan -- adventurer, martial arts expert, rumored CIA operative and hero to many in Miami's Cuban community for his unwavering anticommunist stance -- officially American once again. It also settles one question in the mysterious life and death of a man historians called a ''rock star'' revolutionary who helped lead Cuba's fight for freedom yet died without a country. (The Miami Herald, 13/4/07)

April 13: An Austrian bank recently bought by a US-headed consortium has told a Cuban-born customer to take her business elsewhere, her husband said, suggesting that Washington 's ban on commerce with Havana was behind the decision. Peter Pointner said his wife was born in Cuba but is an Austrian citizen. He said his wife, Maria Cajigal-Ramirez, was told by letter by officials of the BAWAG-P.S.K. bank that all her accounts at her hometown branch would be closed. When she asked why, personnel at their local branch, in the Upper Austrian town of Frankenmarkt, told her that the bank did not want business ties with "people originating from Cuba," said Pointner, speaking by phone from Tuzla, Bosnia, where he is stationed with European Union forces as a lieutenant. Pointner said he is considering taking legal action against the bank because of "antihuman, discriminatory and racist acts." (AP, 13/4/07) 

April 13: The United States is eyeing Spanish policy toward Cuba with concern after Foreign Minister Miguel Ángel Moratinos visited Havana, in a move that Washington fears could have undermined European and American efforts to goad the communist state toward democracy. In an interview, Thomas Shannon, the US assistant secretary of state for Western Hemisphere Affairs, said that US diplomats are still attempting to get a clear answer from Spanish officials as to the purpose of Moratinos’ visit, in which he signed an agreement to discuss human rights with the Cuban government but did not meet with political dissidents. “We’re trying to talk to the Spanish government to find out the purpose of the visit, what was achieved and what wasn’t achieved,” Shannon said. Shannon added that US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice would try to take advantage of her next meeting with Moratinos to receive that information. Shannon suggested that the visit could represent a setback in creating a common US-EU approach toward the island, and he underscored US surprise at Moratinos’ refusal to meet with Cuban dissidents. “Such meetings have a political and symbolic value,” he noted. “It is our opinion that one of the necessary elements for a dialogue is the end of harassment; it is necessary that the Cuban government stops using State Security to repress political expressions; it is necessary that the Cuban government finds political ways to promote dialogue instead of making a crime out of it”, he said. In terms of what the Cuban government could do to facilitate dialogue, Shannon said, “the release of political prisoners would be a humanitarian, political and symbolic gesture with repercussions inside and outside of Cuba, including the US”, Shannon said. “It could be seen as a proof that the regime is willing to initiate a dialogue, and confident that it can handle that situation”. (El País, 14/4/07)

April 15: Filmmaker Michael Moore's production company took ailing Ground Zero responders to Cuba in a stunt aimed at showing that the US health-care system is inferior to Fidel Castro's socialized medicine, according to several sources with knowledge of the trip. The trip was to be filmed as part of the controversial director's latest documentary, "Sicko," an attack on American drug companies and HMOs that Moore hopes to debut at the Cannes Film Festival next month. (AP, 15/4/07)

April 16: Barclays Bank has told the London branches of two Cuban organisations to take their accounts elsewhere in what is seen as the latest example of pressure exerted by the United States on British companies to enforce its embargo of the island. MPs are to discuss the controversial embargo at a special meeting in the House of Commons next month. The long-standing accounts held by Havana International Bank and Cuba-NACAM, a state-owned travel organisation, are understood to be healthy. But they have been told to take their accounts elsewhere. A spokesman for the Cuban embassy in London said: “We are aware of the intensification of US pressure in various countries in order to make them comply with the regulations of the blockade imposed on Cuba. These pressures include the banking and financial system”. (The Guardian, 16/4/07)

April 16: A spring break trip to Cuba taken by students and a teacher from a New York City public high school has raised concerns about whether the group violated US travel restrictions to the Communist country. "We are investigating," Mayor Michael Bloomberg told reporters. A city Department of Education spokesman said this month's trip to Cuba was not officially sanctioned by the Beacon School, although the school's Web site featured a call for applications and a list of selected students, as well as details of previous sponsored trips to the island. "We were told that it violated State Department travel restrictions," department spokesman David Cantor said. Molly Millerwise, spokeswoman for the US Treasury Department, declined to comment on the case. (The New York Times, 17/4/07)

April 17: Spain's foreign minister said in Luxembourg that Madrid maintained a "good dialogue" on Latin America with the US government and that he kept Washington fully informed about his recent visit to Cuba.  Miguel Angel Moratinos commented at a press conference when asked about public requests from US officials for an explanation of why the minister did not meet with dissidents during his stay in Havana. Moratinos said the Spanish government had contacts with the United States "before, during and after my visit to Cuba." Spain's secretary of state for Ibero-America, Trinidad Jimenez, was in touch with US officials to brief them on the objectives and results of the trip, the foreign minister said. "Therefore," Moratinos said, "we don't have to give answers to anyone. We maintain a dialogue. We have many points of agreement with the United States, including on the subject of Cuba, but there are others on which our approach does not appear to fit the way of thinking of the United States." The Spanish government continues "working diligently for good bilateral relations with Cuban authorities, with all of Cuban society and, at the same time, within the EU (European Union), maintaining a dialogue of friendship and relations with the US," the foreign minister said. In the wake of the controversy, Jimenez plans to travel in late May to Washington to discuss Moratinos's Cuba visit with the US assistant secretary of state for Western Hemisphere affairs, Thomas Shannon. (EFE, 17/4/07)

April 18: A former executive at a US-funded anti-Castro TV station who pleaded guilty to accepting more than $100,000 in kickbacks was sentenced to two years and three months in prison, prosecutors said. A federal judge also ordered Jose M. Miranda to pay $8,000 in fines. Miranda was fired from the station after he pleaded guilty in February. The US government seeks to beam Radio and TV Marti into Cuba to provide an alternative to the government-run media. Miranda was the director of programming for TV Marti between 1999 and 2004 and earned $103,000 from the Office of Cuba Broadcasting, which oversees the station. (AP, 18/4/07)

April 18: When Governor C.L. "Butch" Otter set out for Cuba, he billed it as an opportunity to sell Idaho groceries and products to the Caribbean island's more than 11 million customers. For the most part, the Cuban cash registers were silent. Aside from one meat export contract, the governor and his delegation returned with more hopes than sales receipts, mindful that plenty of work remains before Idaho potatoes, beef and medical products find their niche on Cuban store shelves. "We did a lot of field preparation down there; I have high hopes that the work we've done and will continue doing in the weeks and months ahead (...) will result in a fruitful harvest for Idaho producers and businesses," Otter said in a statement. "The relationship we're building in Cuba could pay dividends for years to come," he said. Initially, Otter and his 35-member entourage returned from the four-day visit empty handed. But on April 16, Otter announced that Independent Meat Co. agreed to ship 54 metric tons of boneless pork legs to Cuba in June. The deal is valued at $100,000 and the Twin Falls company is expected to bid on additional contracts for delivery later this summer and in 2008. Agreements to ship spuds or seed potatoes hinge on a future, unscheduled visit to the state from Cuban trade officials and scientists, Otter spokesman Jon Hanian said. During talks, Hanian said Cuban officials insisted on an inspection of Idaho potato fields before issuing an import permit and the opportunity for Cuban researchers to collaborate in the fight against potato cyst nematodes, a microscopic root-eating worm. (AP, 18/4/07)

April 18: Congressional opponents of the communist regime in Cuba are condemning a New York City schoolteacher who took a group of teenage students to the island nation in an apparent violation of federal travel restrictions. "It's totally inappropriate to teach schoolchildren to circumvent federal law," a congresswoman who represents a district in South Florida with a large Cuban-American population, Representative Debbie Wasserman Schultz, a Democrat, said. "It's more than inappropriate. It's irresponsible. "City officials are investigating how a history teacher at the Beacon School on the Upper West Side of Manhattan, Nathan Turner, was able to take a group of students on a nine-day trip to Havana in early April. Both the Department of Education and the school principal have said they did not approve the trip. Federal law limits educational trips to Cuba to college and graduate students who are traveling for a minimum of 10 weeks. Violators can receive up to a $65,000 fine. (The New York Sun, 19/4/07)  

April 18: An anti-Castro Cuban militant was set to be freed after his attorneys posted $250,000 bail, but he still faced the prospect of being held by immigration authorities. Luis Posada Carriles wants to return to Miami, where his wife lives, to await his May 11 trial on immigration fraud charges. The former CIA operative, who admitted to entering the country illegally from Mexico two years ago, has been ordered deported; immigration officials could detain him after he is released from jail in Otero County, New Mexico. Posada, 79, was indicted on charges of lying to immigration authorities while trying to become a naturalized US citizen. An appeals court in New Orleans on April 17 rejected the federal government's bid to keep Posada jailed until his trial. (The Washington Post, 18/4/07)

April 19: The Committee to Protect Journalists denounced the arrest and sentencing of an independent Cuban journalist who wrote critical articles about dissident groups and the hardships of island life. Oscar Sanchez Madan, 44, was arrested April 13 and tried and sentenced to four years in prison that same day for the vaguely worded charge of "social dangerousness." Joel Simon, executive director of the New York-based press advocacy group said in a statement that, "it is outrageous that Cuba has once again thrown a journalist in jail after a summary trial or a trumped up charge." [Cuban Journalist Sentenced to Prison] (The Miami Herald, 19/4/07)

April 19: After a two-year battle with immigration authorities, Cuban exile militant Luis Posada Carriles, looking frail and unsteady on his feet, arrived in Miami after being released on $350,000 bond by a federal court in El Paso, Texas. Wearing a rumpled light-colored jacket and trousers, Posada was rushed up a walkway to a narrow staircase as newspeople tried to take his picture, and pose questions. Asked how he felt, Posada responded: ``Estoy muy contento'' -- ``I'm very happy.'' Asked if he had a message to the community, he replied: ''Estoy muy agradecido'' -- ``I'm very grateful'' -- as his attorney urged him not to speak. Posada's release unleashed a firestorm in Venezuela and Cuba, where leaders accuse Posada of masterminding the bombing of a civilian jetliner that killed 73 people in 1976, among other alleged terrorist acts. Posada has denied any involvement in the bombing, was cleared by a Venezuelan military court and was awaiting the outcome of a civilian court's ruling when he escaped in 1985. (The Miami Herald, 20/4/07)

April 19: Nicaragua will request the extradition of Luis Posada Carriles, President Daniel Ortega announced, while he condemned the terrorist's release by US authorities. We are giving instructions for Nicaragua to, besides condemning his release, offer its territory so that Posada Carriles can be tried in our country, taking into account that he also committed terrorist acts here, Ortega said. (Prensa Latina, 19/4/07)

April 19: Hundreds of Cubans chanted "Justice! Justice!" outside the American mission in Havana as protests across the island were organized by the Cuban government after an anti-Castro exile wanted in the 1976 bombing of a Cuban airliner was released from federal prison in New Mexico. Luis Posada Carriles posted bail totaling $350,000 to get out of a federal prison in New Mexico.  He flew to Miami, where he was placed under house arrest at his wife's home pending his May 11 trial on immigration fraud charges. Yellow school buses brought about 600 youngsters to a plaza outside the US mission in Havana, where they waved plastic Cuban flags and demanded justice. A 22-year-old university student held a sign showing a cartoon of Posada's head, with bloodstained fangs, on a canine body. "The Dog is Loose," it read. A Communist youth leader recalled that President Bush has said anyone who harbors or supports terrorists is as guilty as the terrorists themselves. Rallies were hastily organized across Cuba, including two large demonstrations in the eastern cities of Bayamo and Granma. (AP, The Miami Herald, 20/4/07) 

April 20: Cuba says it holds the US government responsible for the release of a Cuban exile blamed for the 1976 bombing of a Cuban airliner. In a statement on the state-run newspaper, Granma, the Cuban government condemned the release of Luis Posada Carriles, who was freed on bond from a US jail. Havana accused the United States of having double standards in the fight against terrorism. [Statement by the Government of Cuba] (VOA, 20/4/07)

April 21: Cuban spy Ana Montes, who passed US military and intelligence secrets back to Havana for 16 years from her senior post in the Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA), was ''our worst nightmare,'' says the man who caught her. But she wasn't alone. ''Fidel Castro has the American government thoroughly penetrated'' with spies, says Scott W. Carmichael, the DIA mole hunter who first identified Montes as a Cuban agent and nagged the FBI into launching the investigation that finally brought her down in 2001. ''It was so easy for the Cubans to recruit Ana Montes and place her where they wanted to, in the heart of US intelligence,'' Carmichael says. ``I have to believe that if they're that good, they've been able to do it more than once.'' Carmichael is in Miami to read from his new account of the Montes case, “True Believer”, at Books & Books. He spent 2 ½ years wrangling with the DIA and other US intelligence agencies to get the book into print, he says, because he's trying to sound an alarm about Castro's spies -- an alarm the government isn't taking very seriously. (The Miami Herald, 21/4/07)

April 24: Fidel Castro's health is improving and he is increasingly involved in Cuba's foreign affairs, but he is unlikely to ever retake full command again, a senior US intelligence official said. The comments come after the Chinese Xinhua news agency reported that the 80-year-old Castro was in ''a hospital'' when he met with a top Beijing delegation. The US intelligence official said the Cuban photos themselves suggested that while Castro may indeed be recuperating, he's not out of the woods. ''An 80-year-old man who's gone [from public view] nine months and still wears a track suit when he meets with foreign dignitaries suggests this is an extremely serious illness still,'' the official said while briefing two journalists who cover Cuban issues. The intelligence community believes that Castro may suffer from multiple ailments, including Parkinson's disease, diverticulitis and Crohn's disease, an inflammation of the digestive tract, the official said. ''What seems obvious is that over the past couple of months, Castro's health seems to be on the upswing,'' said the official. ``He seems to be following, particularly foreign affairs, very carefully.'' But he added: ``It still seems unlikely, at least to me, that he'll regain the full range of control he had before the end of July.''  (The Miami Herald, 24/4/07)

April 24: The United States has praised a statement from representatives of the Cuban opposition movement calling for peaceful democratic change in Cuba. The statement said that the task of achieving democratic change in Cuban society is up to “Cubans and only Cubans.” The Bush administration's Cuba transition coordinator, Caleb McCarry, told the press on April 20 that the statement is an “important message to the Cuban people and the outside world from Cuba's peaceful democratic opposition.” The United States, said McCarry, “supports the right of the Cuban people to define a democratic future for their country.” Michael Parmly, chief of mission at the US Interests Section in Havana, added that US policy “has been to give the Cuban people the lead in deciding their country's future.”  Parmly told the press that the statement from the opposition Cuban group, dubbed “United for Freedom,” represents the “views of many Cubans who have been advocating for human rights and democratic change for a long time." In its statement, released April 16 in Spanish, members of most of Cuba’s leading opposition groups said they were united in their call for Cuba to change peacefully from communist rule to democracy, freedom, social justice and human rights for all the Cuban people. (USINFO, 24/4/07)

April 25: Cuba protested the decision by an Austrian bank recently bought by a US consortium to stop serving Cuban customers. ''For us, this action is unacceptable,'' Norma Goicochea Estenoz, Cuba's ambassador to Austria, told reporters at the Cuban Embassy.  BAWAG P.S.K., linked to the collapsed US commodities broker Refco, was bought in December by a consortium headed by New York-based private equity company Cerberus Capital Management. Since US law prohibits not only American businesses but also their subsidiaries abroad from conducting any commerce with Cuban nationals, the bank said it had terminated its relationship with its Cuban customers. Goicochea Estenoz said the embassy had been in touch with several Austrian ministries and the speaker of parliament and had been told that the matter would be looked into. (The Miami Herald, 25/4/07)

April 25: A Delaware poultry business signed an agreement with Cuba to ship its products there. Mountaire Farms will begin shipping containers of chicken to the country in May. The company's president, John Wise, said he worked with Delaware Agriculture Secretary Michael Scuse. He said it was a challenge that required negotiating and building relationships with Cuban officials. Scuse said a March trip to Cuba was very helpful to find other avenues for exporting Delaware goods to the country. 38 other states export goods to Cuba. (AP, 25/4/07)

April 25: A British member of Parliament has criticised Barclays Plc over its plans to close the bank accounts held by two Cuban organisations after pressure from the US.  Barclays, Britain's third-biggest bank, has asked for the withdrawal of accounts held by Havana International Bank and Cubanacam, a state-owned travel organisation. The US bars trading with Cuba and it has recently put pressure on companies in the UK to sever ties with companies based there too. "British law states that no person will be discriminated against on grounds of race or nationality," Ian Gibson, a lawmaker for the ruling Labour Party, said in an e-mailed statement in London. "This decision clearly contradicts this and could place the bank in contravention of British discrimination laws." (Bloomberg, 26/4/07)

April 25: The Provincial Court of Madrid, Spain, has rejected the Bacardi claims over ownership of the Havana Club rum, the spokesperson of the distribution firm of the Cuban spirit with headquarters in Havana said. A report by the distributor, Havana Club International S.A., said that the court rejected the demand by Bacardi over ownership of the brand in Spain. The court considered unfounded the arguments presented for the claim, as the Havana Club brand was never used by the previous owner and neither was it renewed when the time to do so expired. (Prensa Latina, 25/4/07)

April 25: Bolivian President Evo Morales added his signature to the petition, already signed by 800 personalities from 80 countries, urging Washington to try Luis Posada Carriles for his terrorist crimes. The document was also signed by Bolivian lawmaker Gustavo Torrico, leader of the Movimiento al Socialismo Party (MAS)in the Bolivian Parliament. (ACN, 25/4/07)

April 25: Venezuela and Cuba asked a UN counterterrorism committee to investigate the release from a US jail of a Cuban militant who is wanted in Venezuela on charges of plotting a 1976 airliner bombing that killed 73 people. The two countries made the request in a letter to Panamanian Ambassador Alberto Arias, the committee's chairman, saying it was urgent the case be considered as soon as possible following the release on bail of 79-year-old former CIA agent Luis Posada Carriles. "This international terrorist's release constitutes a clear violation of the Security Council resolutions on counter-terrorism," Venezuela and Cuba said in the letter. Venezuela's acting ambassador Aura Mahuampi Rodriguez de Ortiz and Cuban Ambassador Rodrigo Malmierca Diaz also said Posada's release on bail, while awaiting trial on charges of lying to US immigration authorities, demonstrates the US government's "complicity and full responsibility." (AP, 25/4/07)

April 25: Venezuela's ambassador to the Organization of American States accused Washington of protecting alleged terrorist Luis Posada Carriles, drawing a sharp reply from the lead US diplomat at the session. Nelson Pineda, Venezuela's envoy to the OAS, said Posada is believed to have ''planned or carried out'' terrorist acts in 20 of the hemisphere's 35 nations, including Cuba, Venezuela and the United States. He charged that the US State Department has ignored Venezuela's extradition request. (The Miami Herald, 26/4/07)

April 26: Major League Baseball officials are quietly preparing to re-establish a relationship with Cuba if the United States lifts its trade embargo. “There may not be any significant changes with our relationship with Cuba in the near term, but that doesn’t mean we shouldn’t think about these things,” Joe Garagiola Jr., the senior vice president for baseball operations, said in a telephone interview. “We are thinking about them, and that is probably the extent of what we can say at this point.” Garagiola, a former general manager of the Arizona Diamondbacks, is coordinating baseball’s discussions on Cuba. (The New York Times, 26/4/07)

April 26: A man who fled to Cuba after being convicted of mail fraud in the United States has been expelled from the island after 42 years. His expulsion from Cuba is highly unusual. Both the US and Cuba accuse each other of harbouring fugitives from each other's justice systems. Joseph Adjmi, now 70, has returned to the US after spending more than half his life on the run from US justice. In 1964 Mr Adjmi was convicted in Florida of mail fraud, and sentenced to 10 years in prison. But he failed to turn up to his final court appearance and fled to Cuba. In early 2006 a message was sent to American officials at the US Interests Section in Havana that he was in a Cuban prison and would be expelled from the country when he had served his term. Mr Adjimi was put on a regular charter flight to Miami. He was taken into custody on arrival by agents of the US diplomatic security services. Several other fugitives from US justice remain in Cuba. They include hijackers and convicted murderers. (BBC, 26/4/07)

April 26: A Florida medical supply company opened two days of meetings with Cuban authorities, showing off an anesthesia machine and other equipment in hopes of whetting the island's appetite for American medical goods. "Cuba appreciates the high quality of American medical supplies," said Pedro Alvarez, chairman of the Cuban food import company Alimport. "But the (US) embargo affects the ability to export these supplies to Cuba."  Alvarez said at the small exhibition by Mercury Medical of Clearwater, Florida, that companies have lost billions of dollars in sales over the years. The equipment will be donated to the Cuban Health Ministry for distribution to hospitals and clinics after the gathering, said event organizer Pamela Ann Martin, of Molimar Export Consultants Inc. of Ambler, Pennsylvania.  (AP, 26/4/07)

April 26: Austria is charging  BAWAG, being taken over by US investor Cerberus Capital, with violating European Union rules after the bank cancelled the accounts of around 100 Cubans, foreign minister Ursula Plassnik said. BAWAG, Austria 's fifth-largest bank, told around 100 Cuban clients that it had to cancel their accounts because US sanctions against Cuba meant Cerberus could not buy BAWAG if it kept them as clients. Plassnik told Austria 's parliament that  BAWAG had violated EU rules against implementing the US Cuban sanctions on European soil, and that she had therefore launched proceedings against  BAWAG. (Reuters, 27/4/07)

April 26: Bob Woodruff of ABC News is headed to Havana for his first overseas reporting trip since being severely injured by a roadside bomb in Iraq last year. He'll be accompanied by cameraman Doug Vogt and sound technician Magnus Macedo, the team with him on the fateful Iraq trip. His coverage of May Day commemorations in Cuba will begin on "World News". (AP, 26/4/07)

April 26: Shareholders arriving at the bank's extraordinary AGM were greeted by noisy protesters and a giant George Bush puppet waving a Barclays banner. Under pressure from Washington, the bank has agreed to force London-based Cuban organisation Havana International Bank and state-owned travel organisation Cubanacan to take their accounts elsewhere. The protesters, who included MPs Diane Abbott and Colin Burgon, along with representatives from trade unions Amicus, GMB and ASLEF, said that banning Cuban businesses not only undermines British sovereignty but flouts our anti-discrimination laws. (Morning Star Online, 26/4/07)

April 26: New Mexico Governor and Democrat White House hopeful Bill Richardson showed his support for an examination of the US embargo on Cuba and a softening of travel restrictions to the island for Cubans living on American soil. "We should be planning for a post-(Fidel) Castro Cuba, and that means re-evaluating the embargo. It also means that we should find avenues that ensure that Cuba becomes a democratic country," he said. (AFP, 26/4/07)  

April 27: Cuba has lifted a ban on imports of US long-grain rice that it put in place last year because of fears about genetic contamination. Raul Sanchez, director of the US division of the island's food import company Alimport, said the ban was lifted earlier this month and that in recent weeks Cuba has imported 30,000 tons of long-grain US rice and expects to import 10,000 more soon. A US announcement in August that American long-grain rice samples had tested positive for trace amounts of a genetically modified strain not approved for consumption prompted Japan to suspend its US rice imports. Cuba imposed a ban of its own after conducting independent testing, Sanchez said. Sanchez, who spoke during a meeting with US medical company representatives, did not provide details about the exact date and why Cuba had lifted the ban, suggesting only that US long-grain rice no longer appeared to be a problem. (AP, 27/4/07)