Chronicle on Cuba - Noviembre 2008

US-Cuba Relations

November 3: Cuba opened its annual trade fair (FIHAV 2008), attracting more than 230 US businessmen from 40 food and foodstuff companies. Addressing the opening ceremony in Havana, Vice President of the Council of State Carlos Lage spoke highly of the presence of US businesses, including J.P. Wright Company, Florida produce, Register International and USA Rice Federation, at the FIHAV 2008. The US companies to the fair, which welcomes thousands of business leaders from 56 countries, said Washington should create opportunities for US companies to take place in Cuba's untapped market (VNA, 3/11/08).

November 3: Asked about the US presidential election, Cuban Vice President Carlos Lage said the winner, be it Democrat Barack Obama or Republican John McCain, will have to decide whether "to maintain a criminal policy against Cuba," referring to the long-standing US trade embargo against the island. "I think what the world needs is a president of the United States that is rational, that has a minimal coefficient of intelligence, that's not alcoholic and is not demented," Lage said, using words often heard from Cuban officials to describe US President George W. Bush. Bush is heavily criticized in Cuba for strengthening the US embargo and his tough talk about the communist-run government (Reuters, 3/11/08).

November 4: Fidel Castro praised Barack Obama as smarter and less warlike than John McCain, but stopped short of endorsing either US presidential candidate. Cuba's former president said he delayed weighing in until the US Election Day, so that "no one would have time to say I wrote something that could be utilized by the candidates in their campaigns." "Without a doubt, Obama is more intelligent, cultured and levelheaded than his Republican adversary," Castro wrote in state-controlled newspapers. "McCain is old, bellicose, uncultured, of little intelligence and not healthy." The elder Castro also expressed skepticism about both candidates. "Worries about the overwhelming problems of the world will not really occupy an important place in the mind of Obama and much less in that of a candidate who, as a fighter pilot, dropped dozens of tons of bombs on the city of Hanoi," he wrote, alluding to McCain's military service. Castro also wrote that if the Republicans win due to US racism, "the danger of war will increase and the opportunities for peoples to move forward will be reduced" (The November 4th Elections; AP, 4/11/08).

November 4: Priceline.com Inc. has become at least the second online travel company to get slapped with a fine from the federal government for violating US sanctions on Cuba. Priceline, based in Norwalk, Connecticut, agreed to pay $12,250 after an internal audit revealed one of its foreign subsidiaries provided "limited travel services to Cuban nationals," company spokesman Brian Ek said. Ek said he could not reveal where the Cubans were traveling to or from. He said the company reported the violation voluntarily. A statement from the Treasury Department said a subsidiary of Priceline "provided travel-related services in which Cuba or Cuban nationals had an interest." The department said Priceline violated regulations on Cuba between September 2004 and November 2007 but did not say in how many instances (AP, 4/11/08).

November 4: A US appeals court rejected a lawsuit challenging federal regulations that heavily restrict Americans enrolling in overseas study in Cuba. The US Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit found that the regulations don't violate presumed rights to academic freedom and due process as argued by a group of more than 400 academic professionals that calls itself the Emergency Coalition to Defend Educational Travel, which brought the legal action. The regulations were included in 2004 amendments to Cuba travel restrictions and, among other measures, require that programs that use the academic exemption last for a full academic term. Previously, some courses had run only a few weeks. The regulations also require Americans who are studying in Cuba to enrol only in programs offered there by their own academic institutions. The plaintiffs argued that the amendments virtually shut down all courses offered in Cuba by US universities, while the court ruled that the restrictions didn't violate any presumed right to academic freedom because they are "content-neutral and supported by an important and substantial government interest," said the opinion by Judge Laurence Silberman (McClatchy Washington Bureau, 4/11/08).

November 5: Cuba hails US President-elect Barack Obama's presidential election victory and would one day welcome an easing of the 46-year-old US trade embargo, Foreign Investment Minister Marta Lomas said in a statement. The Cuban Government, however, is prepared for US-Cuban relations to remain "the same," she added, alluding to Havana's struggle to have the embargo lifted. "If Obama takes some action to ease the embargo, it would be welcomed and of course it would be of help, but we're prepared for conditions to remain the same," she told reporters at a trade fair. After expressing satisfaction over Mr Obama's win over his Republican rival John McCain, Ms Lomas said Cubans should work out their problems on their own. "That's what will get us ahead" (AFP, 5/11/08).

November 5: Washington State National Guard Sgt. Carlos Lazo -- the Iraq veteran who gained fame when he couldn't visit his kids in Cuba -- last traveled to the island in January 2007. As things stand now, he can't go back until 2010. But with Barack Obama's White House win, Lazo is hopeful that will change -- soon. ''If Obama lifts family travel restrictions on the 22nd of January, I'm sure that in February I will be in Cuba visiting my family -- and celebrating the new Cuba policies,'' Lazo said. Lazo, 43, became a “cause celebre” for some when the stricter family reunification travel restrictions put in place by President Bush in 2004 kept Lazo from visiting his children in Cuba. The kids eventually settled in Washington, and Lazo became an Obama campaign volunteer. ''Obama will take away restrictions and establish low-level contacts with Cuba, extending a peace branch,'' Lazo said. ``It will be a change from policies that have given the worst results for 50 years.'' Vicki Huddleston, a former chief of the US diplomatic mission in Havana, said Obama's moves would lead to brisk business in Miami, creating jobs in the travel industry as more flights take off for the island and businesses pop up to handle the flow of care packages. More importantly, she said, the stream of Cuban Americans and their cash in their relatives' pockets will boost the independence of people on the island who are now heavily dependent on the Cuban government for their livelihood. The Cuban government, Huddleston said, might have preferred Senator John McCain. ''They might fear Obama more. The Cuban government is not dumb,'' she said. ``More people and more openness is a bigger threat than isolating them'' (The Miami Herald, 5/11/08).

November 5: While domestic opposition leaders celebrated Democrat Sen. Barack Obama’s electoral win in the United States, a few expressed reservations and others hope regarding the possibility of a dialogue with the Cuban government. "I think this bodes well for Cuba, because it opens up the possibility of a dialogue, although hard-line sectors in the government will surely try to derail it," said opposition activist and economist Oscar Espinosa Chepe. "In Cuba, there is great hope for a change in diplomatic relations with the United States. But the most important changes are not Obama’s to implement, but the Cuban government’s and the Cuban people’s," declared opposition leader Oswaldo Payá. The Ladies in White, wives and relatives of political prisoners, congratulated Obama but asked that he demand respect for human rights and the release of  their relatives before seeking a dialogue with the Cuban authorities (Cubaencuentro, 5/11/08).

November 5: Coast Guard officials said they have repatriated 24 Cuban migrants. Coast Guard crews interdicted a rustic vessel with seven Cuban migrants aboard on October 25, and another crew interdicted a go-fast vessel 22 miles east of Miami on October 29. That boat was carrying 17 migrants. The migrants were repatriated to Bahia de Cabañas, Cuba (AP, 5/11/08).

November 5: Representatives of Cuba's internal opposition expressed optimism that Barack Obama's election would lead to an easing of some aspects of the 46-year-old US economic embargo against the communist-ruled island. The dissidents said they are counting on the Democrat to keep his campaign promise to end the Bush admininstration's draconian limits on the ability of Cuban Americans to visit the island and send money to their relatives in Cuba. "The issue of Cuba has been more theoretical than real in the face of the priorities of the United States; it has been a matter of confrontation and now it will be a matter of conversation," former political prisoner Hector Palacios, leader of the Liberal Unity party, told reporters in Havana. "It's very good that he meet with (Cuban President) Raul Castro," the dissident said, referring to Obama's stated willingness to talk to all governments. Another former political detainee, economist Oscar Espinosa Chepe, said that the election of a black man as US president would likewise make it hard for the Cuban government to go on accusing the United States of racism. "Obama has promised he will lift the restrictions on Cuban Americans' visits, on the sending of packages and money, and that has a very big human connotation, it opens the possibility that the families make contact," Espinosa said. "From the political point of view, that will be a democratic injection for the island," he added. Manuel Cuesta Morua, of the social-democratic Arco Progresista group, said that with Obama in the White House, "it would require a lot of imagination from the Cuban authorities - which I don't believe they have - to maintain the confrontation with the United States." Miriam Leiva, founder of the Ladies in White group comprising relatives of political prisoners, said that scrapping the Bush administrations "absurd" restrictions on visits and remittances "would help Cuban families a lot" (EFE, 6/11/08).

November 5: Progressive Arch announced the appointment of a "Permanent Political Representation, which will seek recognition by the US State Department and Congress," and of a “Cuba - US Committee,” intended to "encourage bilateral exchange as well as plural and open relations” between the two countries. In a press release, the coalition of domestic Social-Democrat opposition groups pointed out that the election of Barack Obama as US president removes the confrontational elements that have so far defined relations between Cuba and the United States. “Cuba has a duty, now more that ever, to enter the new age that is dawning just 90 miles away,” said Progressive Arch’s statement and added that the United States must help the Cubans find "their own way towards democracy," by taking the "necessary steps" so that the animosity between both countries "no longer serves as an excuse for the lengthy lack" of freedoms in the island (Cubaencuentro, 6/11/08).

November 5: Michael Mauricio, president of the Florida Produce Company from the US, participating in Havana's International Trade Fair (FIHAV 2008), said he was in favour of an improvement of trade relations between Cuba and his country. "I want the American embargo against Cuba to be lifted," said Mauricio, who is the grandson of a Cuban and one of the 200 businesspeople from the United States showcasing their products in the Cuban international fair. In statements to the press at the Expocuba showground, Mauricio said he is very satisfied with this year's Fair. "I have already signed three deals to supply grapes, pears and raisins to Cuba," he said (ACN, 6/11/08).

November 6: With help from Democrats in Congress, President-elect Barack Obama will have the clout next year to deliver campaign promises to Florida voters who helped send him to the White House. Obama has pledged to loosen the US embargo of Cuba by allowing Cuban-Americans to make unlimited visits to the island and to send money to their families. This can be done by executive order, without action in Congress. "I expect he will do that fairly quickly," said William LeoGrande, an expert on US-Cuba relations at American University in Washington. Congress may go further by lifting the travel ban for American tourists. And Congress likely will make it easier for Cuba to finance food purchases from American farmers. "Senator Obama also has said the policy of isolating Cuba and not talking to Cuba has failed," LeoGrande said. "You can expect much greater diplomatic interaction between the US and Cuba than we've seen over the last eight years" (Sun Sentinel, 6/11/08).

November 6: Alicia Jrapko, Free the Five International Committee coordinator, pointed out that the international forum to open on November 7 in eastern Holguin province will outline the new strategies in favour of the five Cubans imprisoned in the United States. On her way through central Camaguey city to Holguin province, the American activist said that the 4th International Colloquium for the Freedom of the Five, to run until November 9, will provide those attending a chance to discuss what has been done and what needs to be done in the near future. Jrapko highlighted that there has been progress in the worldwide solidarity towards the case of René Gonzalez, Antonio Guerrero, Ramón Labañino, Gerardo Hernandez and Fernando Gonzalez.  “There is a larger number of activities and more creativity, but there is a lot to do still, especially in the United States¨ she added. Several delegations from Cuba and abroad will attend the Colloquium, among them African American writer and activist Angela Davis (ACN, 6/11/08).

November 9: Operation USA, a Los Angeles-based international disaster relief group, announced it will send emergency assistance to Cuba in response of the devastation wrought by hurricanes. "As a result of the Hurricanes Gustav and Ike, nearly 440,000  homes were damaged and almost two million people were displaced  into temporary shelters," said Richard Walden, president of  Operation USA. "We're rushing aid to Cuba, including water purification materials and medical supplies." Operation USA, which has been licensed by the US government  to provide private humanitarian aid to Cuba since 1994, provides  aid to the country's main pediatric hospitals. In preparation of hurricane Paloma, an evacuation has been ordered for more than a half million people in Cuba from the coast and other vulnerable areas. "The residents of this already vulnerable region are at great  risk from this new hurricane, the third to hit Cuba in just 60  days," Walden said. Operation USA will also stage a benefit concert November 29 at the  Santa Monica Civic Auditorium near Los Angeles to raise funds for  relief efforts in Cuba, Haiti and the US, said Christine  Oppenheim, a spokesperson for Operation USA (Xinhua, 10/11/08). 

November 12: Alfredo Guevara, president of the 30th Havana International Cinema Festival, invited American moviemakers to attend the festival and get together with their Cuban peers. Guevara exhorted the intellectual forces that make up the movie industry and the audiovisual artists to unite, before the banal commercialism spreads even further, underscores the call published in the Festival’s website. He also advocated for the festival, named "Puentes y más puentes” (Bridges and more bridges), to become an unprejudiced rapprochement to understand each other, to talk, to enrich the creative experience and productions without the predominance of pressures or ideology. Guevara stressed that this is about learning to value and measure difficulties, but also about not giving up hoping, and above all, to contribute to make hope a possibility and a reality without any more delays. The XXX New Latin American Cinema Festival will run on December 2-12 (ACN, 13/11/08).

November 13: "Che," the movie about Argentine Ernesto "Che" Guevara who fought alongside Fidel Castro in the Cuban revolution, will be shown in December, in Cuba, the director of Havana's New Latin American Film Festival said. Ivan Giroud told reporters the movie, made by US director Stephen Soderbergh, would be a special presentation not eligible for any of the festival awards. Festival president Alfredo Guevara said in July that "Che" would not be shown if it included any "attacks" against Castro. Puerto Rican-born actor Benicio Del Toro played the role of Che, who was captured and executed October 9, 1967, while trying to lead a leftist insurgency in Bolivia. Del Toro won the best-actor prize at the Cannes Film Festival in May, where the film premiered. The film was shot in Spain and Bolivia because, according to Cuban Foreign Minister Felipe Perez Roque, the US government, which has a 46-year-old trade embargo against Cuba, would not allow Soderbergh to make the movie on the Communist-led island. Giroud said the film's principals would have to get US permission to attend the showing (Reuters, 13/11/08).

November 14: In just six years, trade between Cuba and Virginia farmers has grown from less than $1 million to more than $32 million. And Virginia Agriculture Commissioner Todd P. Haymore is hoping for even more growth. He recently returned from the Havana International Trade Fair in Cuba, where he and others pushed Virginia's apples, soybeans, poultry, wood and other products. Virginia is among the top five states exporting to Cuba (AP, 14/11/08).

November 14: Without naming US President-elect Barack Obama, former Cuban leader Fidel Castro cast doubt on the possibility that a new president would bring much change in US policy. In an obtusely worded column published on the official web site Cubadebate, Castro said "many dream that with the simple change of command in the leadership of the empire, it will be more tolerant and less bellicose." "The most intimate thoughts of the citizen who will take the helm are not yet known," he wrote. But, he went on, "It would highly nave to believe that the good intentions of one intelligent person could change what centuries of interests and selfishness have created. Human history shows another thing." Obama, who was elected November 4 and takes office on January 20 as the first black to lead the United States, has raised hopes of better US-Cuba relations by saying he would hold talks with the Cuban government and ease the 46-year-old US trade embargo against the Communist-led island (The Washington Meeting; Reuters, 14/11/08).

November 17: Cuba's former President Fidel Castro said the Group of 20 developed and emerging nations' recent summit was dominated by US President George W. Bush and didn't focus on the problems that plague poorer countries. The so-called G-20 met in Washington on November 14-15 to discuss economic stimulus measures and tighter regulation of financial markets amid a credit crunch and global recession. The statement published at the end of the two-day summit didn't address any of the ``abuses'' caused by the US economic system that led to the current crisis, Castro said in a ``reflection'' published in official media. ``It's boring, filled with platitudes,'' the communist leader said in the statement. ``It says absolutely nothing. It was approved by Bush, a champion of neo-liberalism, who is responsible for killings and genocidal war.'' Castro also criticized the statement for failing to address the US policy for ``converting food into fuel,'' unequal trade terms for poorer countries and the global arms build-up (The Birth of the Mount; Bloomberg, 17/11/08).

November 20: Five journalists and an attorney who has long battled for press freedom were cited for risking their lives and liberty to report the news, often under the pressure of authoritarian regimes. The six, who work in Iraq, Afghanistan, Uganda, Zimbabwe, and Cuba, are recipients of this year's International Press Freedom Award presented by the Committee to Protect Journalists. Hector Maseda Gutierrez, a leader in Cuba's independent press movement, who is now serving a 20-year prison sentence in Cuba was honoured with the award. "These journalists and media activists (…) have risked their lives and liberty to bring us the news," said Joel Simon, executive director of the Committee to Protect Journalists. Simon said the group would campaign for the release of Hector Maseda Gutierrez, 65, saying that the journalist was imprisoned "for doing what everyone here today is doing -- his job as a reporter" (AP, 20/11/08).

November 22: Lincoln and Mario Diaz-Balart will return to the Capitol in January victorious after their first significant re-election challenges -- but also facing a new reality as members of a Republican party more marginalized than before. And the Miami pair who had the ear of President Bush for eight years on US-Cuba policy are at odds with President-elect Barack Obama, who has made it clear he'd like to lift some of the hardline sanctions the brothers backed. In interviews in their congressional offices, however, both Republicans maintained that they still see opportunities to pursue their agendas -- and help their party. ''It's happened before and we've survived,'' said Mario Diaz-Balart, whose challenger, former Miami-Dade Democratic party chief Joe Garcia, came within 6 points of defeating him. ``You've got to be able to work with both sides and the reality is that a lot of this stuff doesn't have to be a partisan fight.'' Advocates for relaxing travel and remittance restrictions to Cuba, though, are optimistic that the new Obama adminstration will move quickly to lift the restrictions that Bush imposed in 2004, partly at the behest of the Diaz-Balarts (The Miami Herald, 22/11/08).

November 23: Fidel Castro suggested that the US government has promoted Americans' fears about al-Qaida and other terrorist groups to justify its plans for world domination. In an essay titled “Stella Calloni”, and published on a government Web site, the 82-year-old former Cuban president wrote that al-Qaida "was born from the empire's own entrails," using "the empire" to refer to the United States, but failing to elaborate. He said the terrorist group was "a typical example of an enemy that the hegemonic power dangles in a place of its choosing where it needs to justify its actions, as it has done throughout its history, fabricating enemies and attacks destined to strengthen its plans of domination." The US has used al-Qaida as a pretext to carry out plans "outlined long before the attacks that brought down the Twin Towers on September 11, 2001," Castro wrote. Castro has previously accused the US government of misleading the public about the September 11 attacks, and his close friend and ally Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez says it is plausible that Washington was somehow involved in planning the attacks (Stella Calloni; AP, 23/11/08).

November 24: The US program that spends millions of dollars each year promoting democracy and human rights in communist Cuba is improving controls on grants, but still faces a risk that money could be misused, according to a federal audit. The US Agency for International Development has made strides in the Cuba Program since a highly critical 2006 audit, but the Government Accountability Office found its "ability to ensure the appropriate use of grant funds remains in question." Between 1996 and 2008, the Cuba Program has awarded about $83 million in grants to organizations and universities working to bring democracy to Cuba. The money goes for things such as humanitarian aid, uncensored books, human rights training and advocacy for human and worker rights.
Another $20 million has been requested in 2009 for the Cuba Program to be split between USAID and the State Department (AP, 24/11/08).

November 24: The US Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit recently upheld a lower court's ruling against a group of academics that had challenged restrictions affecting academic travel to Cuba. The approximately 200 study abroad programs in Cuba before the restrictions were put in place have since decreased to only a handful. University of California Davis' own Quarter Abroad program to Cuba, which takes from 20 to 25 students each spring to the capital city of Havana, is unaffected by the travel restrictions, said Quarter Abroad coordinator Robin Ducatillon in an e-mail.
Since the Cuba program began - one year after the 2004 restrictions - the current requirements for groups traveling to Cuba do not limit UC Davis abroad programs, she added. "I can say that for the eight programs not run through Quarter Abroad, Cuba is the only country for which a license through the US Department of Treasury is required," Ducatillo said. "Because the campus project is more than 10 weeks and we have a special license with the Department of the Treasury we have the go ahead," said Professor Beatriz Pesquera, who is co-leading the trip. "Education abroad programs are extremely important," Pesquera said. "Students are really enriched by their experiences abroad" (The California Aggie, 24/11/08).

November 24: With the election of Barack Obama, the United States has a fresh chance to reinvigorate its relations with Latin America, according to a new report that recommends Washington overhaul its drug policies at home and pursue a rapprochement with Cuba. The report, compiled by prominent former policy-makers from the United States and Latin America and scheduled for release by the Brookings Institution, called on the new administration to put Latin America at the centre of its foreign policy radar screen. Among the most striking recommendations is a near-total reversal in policy toward Cuba. The report advocates lifting all restrictions on travel by Americans, promoting more contacts with Cuban diplomats and taking Cuba off the State Department's list of state sponsors of terrorism. ''This may make the over-40 generation of Cuban-Americans in Miami jump-up-and-down mad, but there is a whole generation of Cuban-Americans who want to change this relationship,'' said Thomas R. Pickering, a longtime diplomat and former under secretary of state. Mr. Pickering, who once served as American ambassador to El Salvador, is co-chairman of a  commission that produced the report, along with the former president of Mexico Ernesto Zedillo (The New York Times, 24/11/08).

November 25: Connections among major US-based humanitarian groups and humanitarian groups in Havana are helping to get relief assistance to Cubans who have endured a long and devastating 2008 hurricane season. Baltimore-based Catholic Relief Services (CRS), one of the groups licensed by the United States to send humanitarian aid to Cuba, has been providing hygiene kits, medical supplies, food and home repair materials to partner Caritas Cubana, which distributes the aid to the thousands of Cubans displaced from their homes by a series of hurricanes and tropical storms. Caritas Cubana draws on a countrywide network of 12,000 volunteers to help with distribution. CRS and Caritas have been partners in sending aid to Cubans in need since 1993. CRS receives donations collected by Catholic churches and volunteer groups in the United States, such as the Daughters of Charity in Miami. Soon after hurricanes Gustav and Ike hit in succession in August and September, causing an estimated $5 billion in damage, Daughters of Charity volunteers worked around the clock to fill boxes with donated goods that CRS then shipped from Miami, according to CRS (Americas.Gov, 25/11/08).

November 25: A former aide to President Bush has been charged with theft from a government-funded centre that promotes democracy in Cuba. The single count of theft of $5,000 or more from a federally aided program was filed in US District Court in Washington against Felipe E. Sixto, who resigned on March 28 from his job as special assistant to President George W. Bush for intergovernmental affairs. The charge was filed as a criminal information, which means Sixto waived his right to have a grand jury decide if the government has enough evidence to charge him and usually also means the defendant intends to plead guilty as part of an agreement with prosecutors. No date has been set for Sixto to appear before US District Judge Reggie Walton. Sixto's attorney, Kathleen E. Voelker, did not immediately return messages seeking comment on the case. When Sixto resigned from the White House staff last spring, White House spokesman Scott Stanzel said Sixto had stepped forward March 20 to reveal his alleged wrongdoing and resign. Stanzel said Sixto took that step after learning that his former employer, the Centre for a Free Cuba, was prepared to begin legal action against him (AP, 25/11/08).

November 25: Kansas Representative Jerry Moran sent a letter to President-elect Barack Obama asking him to make it a priority in his new Administration to reform US trade policies with Cuba. In his request, Moran asked President-elect Obama to reverse regulations put in place in 2005 by the Bush Administration that have hindered agriculture and food exports under the Trade Sanctions Reform and Export Enhancement Act of 2000 (TSRA). TSRA enacted the first substantial change in trade policy with Cuba since imposition of the Cuban trade embargo in 1962. It allowed the export of food, agricultural commodities and medical supplies from the US to Cuba. Moran was the original sponsor of this legislation in July of 2000, which eventually became law in 2001.

"Since coming to Congress I have consistently supported and voted for legislation that opens Cuban markets to American goods," Moran said. "In 2000, I was proud to lead the effort to help pass the Trade Sanctions Reform and Export Enhancement Act that changed the trade policies of US agriculture products to Cuba for the first time in nearly 40 years. The Bush Administration's regulations changed the meaning of TSRA policies and weakened the original intent to promote agriculture trade between the U.S. and Cuba. I encourage President-elect Obama to restore the original intent of TSRA" (US News Service, 25/11/08).

November 26: Raul Castro is open to meeting US President-elect Barack Obama on neutral ground to try to resolve the island's four-decade-old feud with Washington, according to an interview with a US magazine. The interview for The Nation was conducted by US actor Sean Penn, who traveled to Havana after meeting Cuban ally Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez and before Obama won the US presidential election on November 4. "You asked if I would accept to meet with (Obama) in Washington. I would have to think about it. I would discuss it with all my comrades in the leadership," Castro told Penn in the interview for a December 15 issue published on its website. "Personally, I think it would not be fair that I be the first to visit, because it is always the Latin American presidents who go to the United States first. But it would also be unfair to expect the president of the United States to come to Cuba. We should meet in a neutral place." "Perhaps we could meet at Guantanamo," Castro said, referring to the bay where the US maintains a naval base, which Cuba considers a violation of its sovereignty. "We must meet and begin to solve our problems, and at the end of the meeting, we could give the president a gift (..) we could send him home with the American flag that waves over Guantanamo Bay" (The Miami Herald, 26/11/08).

November 27: Authorities say 17 Cuban migrants have landed ashore in Boca Grande in southwest Florida. The Lee County Sheriff's Office received a call shortly before 2 a.m. from a security guard who spotted the nine men and eight women. Authorities say the migrants were cold, wet and dirty from their journey. A Boca Grande Fire Department spokesman said firefighters "took care of them" until immigration agents came to pick them up, giving the migrants food and coffee and warming their clothes. Under US policy, Cubans found on shore are generally allowed to stay in the United States. Those found at sea are usually returned to the island (AP, 27/11/08).

November 30: The US and Cuba traded barbs over the decades-old TV and Radio Marti broadcasting saga in late filings for the ITU Radio Regulations Board meeting. Cuba wants a letter from the US saying TV transmissions from a tethered balloon antenna won't resume, it said, citing a case involving 497 MHz. Cuba also wants US action on broadcasts adversely affecting TV stations operating at 509 MHz. Cuba wants to keep the case on 497 MHz open and to add a further alleged violation of the radio regulations to its list of complaints, namely operation of a broadcasting station by an aircraft stationed over the sea, outside national territories. But nothing new warrants reopening the case, the US said in a letter signed by David Gross, the US coordinator for international communications and information policy. Cuba's complaints are with broadcasts that took place within US airspace, the US said. The US interprets the radio regulations to mean international waters outside of national territories, according to the response. Cuba also doubts whether the US administration answered the ITU Radiocommunication Bureau request for technical characteristics of transmissions at 530 kHz, as indicated in the last RRB summary of decisions. Cuba has no recorded assignments in the Master International Frequency Register, so it can't claim harmful interference, the US said (Communications Daily, 1/12/08).