Chronicle on Cuba - October 2008

US-Cuba Relations

October 1: The United States has reversed itself and decided to allow two journalists for the Cuban news agency Prensa Latina to return to their posts at the United Nations, the State Department said. The department's original decision to deny re-entry to husband and wife team Tomas Granados Jimenez and Ilsa Rodriguez Santana had drawn condemnation from the press advocacy groups Reporters Without Borders, based in Paris, and the New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists. "In accordance with our UN headquarters agreement, we have decided to issue visas to the two individuals in question," the department said in a footnote to the transcript of spokesman Sean McCormack's daily briefing. McCormack had said he had been told that visa matters were confidential but added: "I think that they have appealed the decision, and I think that appeal is being considered right now." The couple have covered the United Nations for Prensa Latina since 2005 (AP, 1/10/08).

October 1: A Florida law that would make it more expensive for travel agents to book trips to Cuba is likely unconstitutional, a federal judge ruled. US District Judge Alan S. Gold issued a preliminary injunction that prevents Florida from enforcing the law, saying it likely violates the constitutional mandate that federal, rather than state, officials are responsible for foreign policy. The new law requires travel agencies to post a $250,000 bond when registering with the state if they book direct trips to Cuba. Travel agencies that book trips to other places are also required to post bonds when they first register, but those are much lower. The injunction is in effect until a trial on the law's constitutionality, which has not been scheduled. Terence McElroy, a spokesman for the Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services, said Gold's injunction essentially extends a temporary restraining order issued July 1. Agencies that book trips to Cuba argue that the law discriminates against them because it would drive up their costs, but Republican state Representative David Rivera of Miami, who sponsored the measure, said the state was within its rights (AP, 1/10/08).

October 2: A new Zogby-Inter-American Dialogue interactive survey showed that “American public opinion is far more open and flexible on issues of importance for US relations with Latin America than current policy would suggest,” said Peter Hakim, president of the Inter-American Dialogue, a Washington think tank that collaborated with Zogby International on the poll. The survey results were released at the Miami Herald’s 12th Annual Americas Conference, in Coral Gables. The Zogby Interactive survey of 4,752 likely voters nationwide was conducted on September 23-25, and carries a margin of error of plus or minus 1.5 percentage points. Now that Fidel Castro is no longer officially in power in Cuba, 60 percent of likely voters believe the US should revise its policies toward Cuba — even more believe all US citizens should be allowed to travel to Cuba (68 percent) and that US companies should be allowed to trade with Cuba (62 percent). In a Zogby Interactive survey conducted in July 2007, slightly more than half (56 percent) of Americans said the US should remove travel restrictions and end the embargo on trade to Cuba. More Barack Obama supporters favoured revising US policies toward Cuba (84 percent) than John McCain supporters (35 percent). Forty-seven percent of McCain supporters thought all US citizens should be allowed to travel to Cuba, and 40 percent thought US companies should be allowed to trade with Cuba (Naples Daily News, 2/10/08).

October 5: Journalists face barriers to doing their jobs across Latin American countries, especially Venezuela and Cuba, as governments seek to muzzle any criticism, a US-based press freedom group said. Independent journalists face "unprecedented violence, insecurity and impunity" since President Hugo Chavez came to power in Venezuela a decade ago, according to a report by the Inter American Press Association presented at its annual assembly. The report on Cuba said there have been no improvements in freedom of expression since Raul Castro took over as president from his brother Fidel in February.
Humberto Castello, the director of the Nuevo Herald, the Spanish language version of the Miami Herald, said "harassment was a daily routine against 60 independent journalists" in the communist Caribbean island. "Cuba is a tomb for information," he said, adding there were currently 26 journalists behind bars in Cuba (AFP, 5/10/08).

October 6: Cuba is always willing to share its health care expertise and to assist other nations of this region, said deputy health minister Joaquin Garcia Salabarria, at the 48th Session of the Executive Board of the Pan-American Health Organization (PAHO), held in Washington DC. Salabarria, who heads the Cuban delegation to the PAHO meeting, referred to the damage inflicted on his country by hurricanes Gustav and Ike. He stressed the efforts being made by the Cuban people to recover from the damage, and the work undertaken by the island’s medical personnel in the current difficult times, says a report by the Cuban Interest Section in Washington. The Cuban deputy health minister reiterated his country’s gratefulness for the solidarity gestures extended by institutions like PAHO and the World Health Organization (WHO), as well as by many governments in the region amidst the devastation caused in Cuba by the recent storms. He also reiterated Cuba’s position of principles of not accepting assistance from the United States as it has maintained a stiffening economic and financial blockade of the country for decades (ACN, 6/10/08).

October 7: Cuban Foreign Minister Felipe Perez Roque said that Havana expects an overwhelming condemnation of the US blockade against Cuba next October 29th when the UN General Assembly will vote, once again, on a resolution entitled ‘Necessity to End the Economic, Financial and Trade Blockade Imposed by the United States on
Cuba.’ The diplomat is heading the Cuban delegation that attends a meeting of
Latin American and Caribbean Foreign Ministers that began in Brazil as a preparatory event for the First Latin American and Caribbean Summit on Integration and Development that will take place in Salvador de Bahia, Brazil, on December 16-17. Perez Roque said that, “the blockade is the most serious violation of our rights and the biggest
obstacle to our development” (Prensa Latina, 7/10/08).

October 2: The executive of a Boulder software company accused of violating the US trade embargo with Cuba has pleaded guilty in an unrelated case to a misdemeanour charge that he hacked into a competitor's computer server and took protected information.
Jay E. Leonard, the 61-year-old president of Platte River Associates, could face up to a year in prison and a fine of $100,000 for the breaking into competitor ZetaWare Inc.'s secure Web site and downloading proprietary software files to achieve economic gain, according to court documents from the hearing in US District Court in Denver, Colorado. Leonard's sentencing hearing is scheduled for December 18.  His plea came a day prior to appearing before another federal court judge on behalf of his company for a "change of plea" hearing on charges of "trading with the enemy." The government claims Platte River dealt in property "in which Cuba and Cuban nationals held an interest" and provided software and computer training -- without a license from the Secretary of Treasury -- that were used in the exploration and development of oil and gas within Cuba's territorial waters.  If convicted of the felony, the company, which provides seismic and geologic analyzing software to the oil and gas industry, could be fined $1 million (Daily Camera, 7/10/08).

October 7: The Head of the Cuban Interest Section in Washington, Jorge Bolaños gave a lecture exposing the 50-year US economic, commercial and financial blockade of Cuba at the John Hopkins University, which opened the Fall Season Seminar on the West Hemisphere at that US higher education center. In his lecture titled "La otra verdad" (The Other Truth) ambassador Bolaños illustrated with specific examples the huge human and material loss inflicted by the US blockade on the Caribbean nation, since it was
imposed early in 1959. Attending the lecture were students and professors that filled the
auditorium of the Paul H. Nitze Advanced Studies School. Presiding over the seminar were Wayne Smith, former head of the US Interest Section in Havana, who acted as moderator, and Rioddan Roett, professor and head of Western hemisphere studies (ACN, 7/10/08).

October 8: The President of the Cuban National Assembly (Parliament), Ricardo Alarcon, highlighted the importance of youths’ solidarity, and particularly of American youths, for the release of five Cubans who remain in prison in the United States. During the opening of an exhibition entitled ‘A Bridge of Solidarity’, the Cuban top legislator recalled that Gerardo Hernández, Fernando González, Ramón Labañino, Antonio Guerrero and René González – internationally known as the Cuban Five – were arrested in 1998 and given harsh and unjust sentences for infiltrating anti-Cuba terrorist groups in South Florida. Alarcon reiterated his rejection of a decision made by the 11th Circuit
Court of Appeals in Atlanta earlier this year ratifying the sentences against Gerardo and Rene while the cases of Ramón, Antonio and Fernando were sent back to Miami where they will receive new sentences (ACN, 9/10/08).

October 8: The Cuban national soccer team left for Washington D.C., to play on October 11 against the US team for the second time in the CONCACAF world cup qualifying tournament. The US team played Cuba on September for the first time in Havana after
61 years. Veteran winger Jaine Colome, who was unable to play in the game when the
US beat Cuba 1-0 in Havana, passed the physical test and is expected to be in the line up for the match at the RFK Stadium (ACN, 8/10/08).

October 9: With his popularity flagging, President Bush will bask on October 10 in the warm embrace of Cuban-American leaders in Miami. After eight years in office, Bush remains perennially popular among hard-line exiles for his steadfast refusal to blink when it comes to relaxing US policy toward Cuba -- and his championing of the island's dissidents. ''The fact that today you have the most active, widespread civil society in Cuba in the last 50 years is a testament to his commitment to Cuba,'' said Mauricio Claver-Carone, a leading pro-embargo lobbyist referring to what he said was the flowering of dissident groups. ``He has sought to make their plight known to the world.''
Yet Democrats suggest it was Bush's decision in 2004 to further tighten sanctions against the island that has given them what may be their best shot ever at unseating Miami's three Cuban-American members of Congress. For the first time, they say, there is an opportunity to compete for votes among an electorate once considered diehard Republican. ''He opened the door,'' said Democratic strategist Jeff Garcia, who contends that the restrictions capping remittances and visits to the island have turned off Cuban Americans who want to visit family more frequently. ``He completely misjudged and misread the community that had been solidly behind him, and that support has eroded every day since.'' At a White House Hispanic Heritage event, Bush thanked ''those who are working to hasten the day of freedom for the Cuban people.'' He's expected to avoid public politicking on what may mark his last visit to Miami as president (The Miami Herald, 9/10/08).

October 10: President Bush went to Miami to meet with Cuban-American leaders and raise money for GOP congressional candidates across the country. Noticeably absent were Miami's three Cuban-American congressional members, all Republicans waging spirited reelection races with Democratic challengers who are trying to tie the incumbents to the Bush administration. Representatives Lincoln Diaz-Balart and Mario Diaz-Balart and Ileana Ros-Lehtinen all cited prior commitments. For the Diaz-Balarts, that included a Miami fundraiser hosted by House Republican John Boehner of Ohio. Bush, in what could be his last visit to Miami as president, held the line on the Cuban embargo and remittances to the island while visiting with the Cuban-American leaders. ''Our government has been very clear about our strategy, and that is (…) that we will change the embargo strategy only when the government of Cuba lets the people of Cuba express themselves freely,'' said Bush, who did not take questions from reporters. Democrats have suggested that Bush's 2004 decision to further restrict travel and remittances to Cuba angered once-diehard Republican Cuban-American voters enough to put the three congressional seats into play (Address by George W. Bush; The Miami Herald, 11/10/08).

October 10: The office of the US attorney for the Southern District of Florida accused 39 people of people trafficking, extortion and causing the death of one Cuban migrant. If found guilty of conspiring to commit human trafficking that caused the death of one of the immigrants, the main suspects could be sentenced to life imprisonment. The other suspects could face up to 10 years in jail. The Justice Department said in a communiqué that the 39 defendants are responsible for trying to smuggle more than 450 immigrants into the United States. All the defendants stand accused of "encouraging and convincing 32 Cubans to come to the United States last month and for conspiring to commit people trafficking that led to the death of one of the immigrants" (EFE, 10/10/08).

October 10: Two members of Cuba’s national team have gone missing during the team’s trip to Washington for a World Cup qualifying match, the team’s coach said. “It is always a problem for the Cuba team,” coach Reinhold Fanz told the Washington Post. “We have security, but you can’t handcuff them to their rooms.” The Post identified the players as midfielder Pedro Faife, 24, and forward Reynier Alcantara, 26 (Chronicle News Services, 11/10/08).

October 11: DaMarcus Beasley scored two goals and the United States clinched a berth in next year's six-team World Cup 2010 regional qualifying tournament with a 6-1 romp over political rival Cuba. The Americans improved to 4-0 in Group A to secure a spot in the final phase of North American qualifying, where three berths in South Africa will be decided. The Cubans fell to 0-4, all but ending their hopes to advance. Cuba lost two players to defections earlier in the week. Forward Luis Alcantara, 26, and midfielder Pedro Faife, 24, were absent from the line-up. Faife had 46 caps, 10 more than Alcantara (AFP, 11/10/08).

October 11: Fidel Castro said a "profound racism" in the United States will stop millions from voting for Barack Obama in next month's presidential election. The ailing, 82-year-old former Cuban president says it is "a miracle that the Democratic candidate hasn't suffered the same luck as (assassinated leaders) Martin Luther King, Malcolm X and others who harbored dreams of equality and justice." Castro’s comments were published in the official media. In them, he insists a "profound racism" exists in the US and that millions of whites "cannot reconcile themselves to the idea that a black person (…) could occupy the White House, which is called just that: white." Castro also described Republican presidential candidate John McCain as "bellicose" (The Law of the Jungle; AP, 12/10/08).

October 13: Fidel Castro said US President George W. Bush's decision to attend a Republican fundraiser in Miami's Cuban-American community at the height of the financial crisis shows his anti-Cuban obsession. The former Cuban president criticized Bush for raising money for local candidates in Florida rather than attending a G-7 meeting of finance ministers to discuss measures to deal with the crisis. Castro said in an essay that this decision demonstrated Bush's "maniacal anti-Cuban obsession." Miami has a large community of anti-Castro Cuban-Americans who play a key role in US elections. Bush met with the finance ministers in Washington (The White House Ghost; AP, 13/10/08).

October 13: Cuban lawmakers requested their counterparts across the world to demand from the US Congress and government the lifting of the economic sanctions imposed on Cuba almost 50 years ago. In a statement, the parliament of Cuba said that in the last 16 consecutive years, the United Nations has approved resolutions against the US sanctions, but Washington "with its usual arrogance, has disclaimed the express mandate of the international community". The parliament said that recently, hurricanes Gustav and Ike cost Cuba 5 billion US dollars in damage, but the White House reiterated that it would lift the ban under no circumstances. "That policy clearly typifies the international crime of genocide which soon will reach half century," the statement said (Declaration; Xinhua, 13/10/08).

October 15: Representative Lincoln Diaz-Balart and his Democratic challenger, Raul Martinez, heatedly clashed over who has the better temperament for serving in Congress during a debate that was likely to be the last televised exchange between the two. The pair diverged on US-Cuba policy, with Diaz-Balart cautioning against loosening any restrictions ``until there is the liberation of all political prisoners and scheduling of free elections. ''And by the way, that's the position I supported with regard to Iran, and the position that I supported with regard to South Africa,'' Diaz-Balart said. ``I'm consistent and I think we have to fight for human rights not only in Cuba, but around the world.''
But Martinez said he hears complaints about Cuba travel restrictions from folks in factories and beauty parlours who want to visit family but are barred from going more than once every three years because of US policy. ''That's not what America is all about, and I'm saying lift those restrictions,'' Martinez said. ``Allow family-to-family travel. Allow the families to connect to each other and then we can work on all the other issues'' (The Miami Herald, 16/10/08).

October 16: Cuban Parliament President Ricardo Alarcon stressed the need to prevent the closing by the US Supreme Court of the case of five Cubans held in US jails. “We will avoid the closing of the case with arguments, rallies, concerts and the mobilization of the people of Cuba and the United States and of many other places of the world,” said Alarcon during the TVshow La Mesa Redonda , which analyzed the course of the appeal process of the case. The president of the Cuban Parliament explained about the arbitrary actions committed against the five antiterrorist fighters since they were arrested and later tried without proof. Alarcon insisted in the need to increase mobilizations around the world in favour of the release of Antonio Guerrero, Rene Gonzalez, Gerardo Hernandez, Fernando Gonzalez and Ramon Labañino. Those actions are very significant for the people of the United States, who do not know the truth of the case, due to the distortion or silence on the case by the US media, he said (ACN, 16/10/08).

October 16: First Lady Laura Bush has used her final year in the White House to try to influence two of the most doggedly difficult human rights and foreign policy issues to face the Bush administration and its recent predecessors. She brought a very public spotlight to the Ladies in White, the group of spouses and other relatives of jailed dissidents seeking to bring respect for human rights to Cuba. Just as her work on behalf of Burmese dissidents has had an "in-your-face" quality, so, too, has her direct challenge to the Castro regime in Cuba. With Commerce Secretary Carlos M. Gutierrez, who was born in Havana, she spoke with members of the group by digital video conference. In a written statement issued after the long-distance meeting, she said: These women show a courage and determination that is deeply moving, and their stories are an important reminder that dictatorship cannot crush the spirit of freedom. The United States will continue to shine a light on the abuses of the Castro regime, which has imprisoned the husbands, sons and brothers of the Ladies in White, as well as other Cubans who attempt to exercise their fundamental human rights.  The United States supports the efforts of the Ladies in White and other independent civil society activists to free all political prisoners and restore human rights in Cuba (Los Angeles Times, 16/10/08).

October 17: Republican presidential candidate John McCain promised at a Miami rally that if elected he would press the communist authorities of Cuba to free the island's people. Miami has a large and influential community of Cuban migrants who fled the island when Fidel Castro took power in 1959. Fidel's brother Raul currently leads the island. "If I'm elected president, I won't meet unconditionally with the Castro brothers, while they keep political prisoners in jail, stifle free media and block free elections in Cuba," said McCain. The comment was a swipe at his Democratic rival, Barack Obama, who has said he would meet with the leaders of countries that are enemies of the United States. "When I am president, we are going to pressure the Cuban government to free their people," McCain promised. The crowd welcomed the statement with a long ovation (AFP, 17/10/08).

October 18: On the night Lazaro Mendez got an alert that his boat had been stolen from the Florida Keys, he was swept up in a new chapter of the Cuban boat people drama.
Grabbing a laptop computer that tracked the fishing boat's position by satellite, he watched as it stopped for refuelling at sea, then shot off toward Cuba -- the latest in a swarm of thefts of Florida boats prized by smugglers for their speed. Mendez, a Cuban-American and a popular Miami radio personality known as ''DJ Laz,'' set out to get his boat back, succeeded, and even came face to face with the men who stole it. But it was just the tiniest of setbacks for a human-trafficking industry that is thriving off the Cuban exodus. Because it has become so hard to dodge the US Coast Guard and reach Florida to qualify for US residency, Cuban migrants in recent years have been heading for Mexico, then overland to Texas. Last year 11,126 used that route, compared to just 1,055 who landed in the Miami area, according to the Department of Homeland Security (The Miami Herald, 18/10/08).

October 22: Looking ahead to a new American administration, Cuba's top diplomat in Washington opened a campaign to generate world pressure to kill a half-century old US trade embargo that he likened to genocide. "It's equivalent to genocide; its intention is strangulation," Jorge Bolanos said in an Associated Press interview a week before Cuba plans to ask the UN General Assembly to condemn the US boycott of his country. Bolanos steered clear of presidential politics, but he said Cuba was ready for talks with the United States "if the US considers Cuba an equal partner in negotiations." Democratic presidential nominee Barack Obama has said he would be willing to meet with Cuban leader Raul Castro without preconditions and would ease restrictions on family-related travel and on money Cuban-Americans want to send to their families in Cuba. Republican nominee John McCain, meanwhile, has called the offer to meet "the wrong signal," but also has said he favors easing restrictions on Cuba once the United States is "confident that the transition to a free and open democracy is being made." The trade embargo, imposed in 1962, has been tightened during President Bush's two terms. "The last eight years have seen the most ruthless and inhumane application of the blockade," Bolanos said. It "typifies the act of genocide" and from the start was designed to undermine the Cuban revolution of 1959 led by Fidel Castro, the diplomat said (AP, 22/10/08).

October 23: During a press conference at Puerto Vallarta, Mexico, US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice responded to questions related to an agreement on migration recently signed by the governments of Mexico and Cuba. “We all have problems with migration. We, and Mexico, have discussed this issue (…) But as to the Cuban matter, I think that there, the problem with migration is Cuba. It’s the problem of the way Cuba is ruled. It is the problem of people who have a real fear of political persecution. It is a place that depravation and fear have been what Cuba gives to its people for now, decades and decades. And that’s the problem. And I – by all means, I think that Mexico and Cuba having a migration accord – the United States has a migration accord with Cuba -- it’s important. But let’s be clear on what the real problem of migration is with Cuba, that’s the problem” (US Department of State, 23/10/08).

October 24: Washington's trade embargo costs Cuba an estimated US$232 million per year in lost foreign investment, and Havana is not hopeful that the nearly half-century-old sanctions will be lifted regardless of who becomes the next US president, a top official said. Racial Proenza, US and North America director for Cuba's Ministry of Foreign Investment, said authorities studied US investment in other Latin American countries in recent years to come up with the figure. "It's true we don't have real statistics with the United States, but we have estimates and can see that we would have achieved an average of US$232 million if the embargo didn't exist," Proenza said at a news conference. Total foreign investment would top US$300 million a year without the sanctions, he said.
From 1999 through 2007, more than 3,500 American business representatives traveled to Cuba without US permission to investigate investing on the island if US policy changes, Proenza said. Last year, however, only nine visited. He blamed the decline on the Bush administration, which has tightened trade and travel restrictions since 2004. Proenza also said Havana does not expect either Democratic presidential nominee Barack Obama or Republican John McCain to lift the sanctions once in the White House. "We don't think that either one who wins will break the embargo," he said. "This fight will continue" (AP, 24/10/08).

October 26: The US’s Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) was responsible for an attack against a freighter carrying British buses bound for Cuba in 1964, TheObserver newspaper revealed.  In an article entitled ‘CIA Accused of Sabotage in Thames’,The Observerexplains that the target of the attack was an East German freighter, the MV Magdeburg, which was carrying 42 Leyland buses bound for Cuba. Citing the article published by The Observer, Granma news daily adds that the study includes statements by people involved in the event, when a Japanese ship, the Yamashiro Maru, ploughed into the MV Magdeburg at more than 10 knots, holing her below the waterline and pushing her across the river. Although it was regarded as an accident, historian John McGarry, quoted by The Observer, says he has now found evidence given by Gordon Greenfield, the British pilot of the Magdeburg, stating that the Japanese ship broke international law by navigating the wrong way and giving misleading signals. According to the news daily, McGarry believes a crime was committed (Caribbean Net News, 27/10/08).

October 26: On Election Day in the United States, Dr. Elsa Gutierrez will tend to her young psychiatric patients as usual. But, like many Cubans, she will anxiously await news about the history-making presidential campaign. "I don't think many Cubans will be going to work on November 4," she said. "They'll be watching to see what happens. I won't miss it." The US presidential race has generated intense interest in Cuba. For many, Barack Obama has fuelled hope for better relations with Washington with his vow to lift restrictions on family visits and remittances from US exiles and his openness to dialogue with Raul Castro's government. “At least, there is hope that with Obama relations will improve," Gutierrez said. "That would be good for everyone." While the state-controlled media has focused on the US electoral process rather than the candidates, Cubans have managed to keep abreast of the 2008 campaign via word of mouth, illegal satellite hook-ups, limited Internet access and US-sponsored Radio Marti broadcasts. "There isn't much election information on the national news, but people are discussing the vote at the university, at workplaces, on the street," said Elena Ortega Kostik, 21, an accounting student at the University of Havana. "People wonder whether there will finally be an American president who isn't against Cuba" (Sun Sentinel, 26/10/08).

October 28: Unrepentant terrorist former leading Weather Underground Organization (WUO) member William Ayers was aided by Fidel Castro’s Cuba in the 1970s, according to a Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) report. The 400-page report, a copy of which was obtained by the New York Times, revealed that Cuban intelligence officers in the General Directorate of Intelligence (known by its initials in Spanish as the DGI, Cuba’s equivalent of the CIA) set up the Venceremos Brigades in which WUO members participated. “The ultimate objective of the DGI’s participation in the setting up of the Venceremos Brigades was “the recruitment of individuals who are politically oriented and who someday may obtain a position, elective or appointive, somewhere in the US government, which would provide the Cuban government with access to political, economic and military intelligence.” “After the Weathermen went “underground” in 1970 when many of them were being sought by the FBI on criminal charges, Cuban intelligence officers were in touch with them from both the Cuban Mission to the United Nations in New York and the Cuban Embassy in Canada.” In fact according to the report, Ayers played a primary role in the Venceremos Brigades, a role revealed courtesy of Larry Grathwohl, a man publicly described as the “most effective informer the FBI ever placed among the Weathermen.” It was Ayers who told “fellow underground WUO member Grathwohl that if communication could not be made through specially arranged Canadian numbers to flee American authorities, an individual should get in touch with the Cuban Embassy in Canada in order to establish contact with other members of the WUO (Canada Free Press, 28/10/08).

October 29: The UN General Assembly voted overwhelmingly for the 17th year in a row to demand an end to the 46-year-old US trade embargo on communist-ruled Cuba, with only three countries saying no. Some 185 of the assembly's 192 members voted in favour of the text, which reiterated a "call upon all states to refrain from promulgating and applying laws and measures (such as those in the US embargo) in conformity with their obligations under the Charter of the United Nations and international law." The United States, Israel and Palau voted against the resolution while Micronesia and the Marshall Islands abstained. Ronald Godard, the US State Department's senior advisor for Latin American affairs, defended the embargo and blamed the communist regime in Havana for Cuba's woes. "The real reason the Cuban economy is in terrible condition and that so many Cubans remain mired in poverty is that Cuba's regime continues to deny its people their basic human and economic rights," he told the General Assembly. Cuban Foreign Minister Felipe Perez Roque welcomed the assembly vote but also looked ahead to future US-Cuban relations after next week's White House election between Democrat Barack Obama and Republican John McCain. Noting that the US embargo is "older than Barack Obama and my entire generation," Perez Roque said the new US president "will have to decide whether to concede that the embargo is a failed policy which each time creates greater isolation and discredits his country or whether he continues, with obstinacy and cruelty, to try to wear out the Cuban people with hunger and diseases" (AFP, 29/10/08).

October 29: Cuba's foreign minister said his government expects the next US president to respond to overwhelming international demand and lift the 47-year-old US trade embargo against Cuba. After the UN General Assembly supported repeal of the economic and commercial embargo by its highest margin ever — 185 to 3 with 2 abstentions —, Felipe Perez Roque said in an interview that the winner of the November 4 election should heed the message. "We expect that the new president will change the policy toward Cuba after nearly 50 years," he told the press. Perez Roque said the vote in the 192-member General Assembly was "a clear signal of the feeling of the international community in favour of the normalization of the relations between the United States and Cuba, and in favour of the lifting of the embargo." Following the US election, he said, "we hope for the full normalization in the relations between Cuba and the United States." He said Cuba proposed to the Bush administration acting together against drug trafficking, human smuggling and illegal immigration but this proved impossible "because the current government is opposed and its policy towards Cuba is a change of regime." He said Cuban President Raul Castro has said on several occasions "that we are ready to begin conversation between both parties, of course based on respect, sovereignty and the right of each country to follow its own way" (AP, 30/10/08).

October 29: The President of the UN General Assembly Miguel D'Escoto said the US economic, financial and commercial blockade against Cuba must end, “once and for all,” after a Cuban resolution on the issue was overwhelmingly approved by the Assembly for
the seventeenth consecutive year. In his concluding remarks after the vote on the resolution, which drew 185 in favour, D'Escoto pointed out that once again the international community had rejected the “illegal and criminal” blockade imposed on Cuba, calling the island nation a “heroic country of unfailing solidarity.”  D’Escoto called the embargo against Cuba an “act of cruelty”, especially after the recent hurricane damage. He expressed his unwavering solidarity with all the Cuban people and to Fidel Castro, as a “hero of international solidarity”.  “Viva Cuba,” he exclaimed (Prensa Latina, 30/10/08).

October 31: The president of the international Association of Educators for World Peace (IAEWP), Charles Mercieca, denounced that Washington recently fined two US pastors from the state of Alabama with 50,000 dollars for meeting in Cuba with members of local Baptist congregations. During the 18th Congress on World Peace that wound up in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, Professor Charles Mercieca explained about US travel restrictions imposed on American citizens who want to visit Cuba. He said that US citizens are not free to travel wherever they wish (Prensa Latina, 1/11/08).