Chronicle on Cuba - July 2009

US-Cuba Relations

July 1: Timothy Broglio, the Catholic archbishop for the US Armed Forces, presided over a Mass in the Cuban city of Guantanamo and called for reconciliation between Washington and Havana, the Cuban bishops conference said. "Let's pray to God that one day we can worship together, without anything separating us," Broglio said in a Mass celebrated June 24 at Guantanamo's cathedral with officials of the Cuban government and Communist Party in attendance, according to a note on the bishops conference's Web site. The prelate said his visit to Cuba "is an opportunity to communicate the affection the people of the United States of America feel towards you." "It's true that the recent history of relations between our respective governments has not been easy or happy. But that doesn't mean a barrier must be formed between believers in one part of the world and another," he added (EFE, 1/7/09).

Julio 2: El diario oficial cubano Juventud Rebelde acusó al gobierno estadounidense que preside Barack Obama de usar un "lenguaje confuso" sobre el golpe militar en Honduras. Un artículo de ese periódico, portavoz de la Unión de Jóvenes Comunistas, califica de "imprecisas y oscuras" las primeras reacciones de Washington tras el secuestro y deportación del presidente hondureño, Manuel Zelaya. "Estados Unidos sigue respondiendo, pero aún con su estilo de cachumbambé (balancín infantil). El Pentágono, que siempre ha mantenido una relación demasiado estrecha con las Fuerzas Armadas hondureñas, decidió suspender su cooperación con ese poder, pero hasta el momento se trata de aplazar las operaciones militares conjuntas", agrega la nota. Según el diario, el anuncio pudo alegrar a quienes han denunciado la presencia de tropas estadounidenses en América Latina, pero "viene acompañado de palabras tramposas que no le dan firmeza a la posición del imperio" (EFE, 2/7/09).

July 6: A bus full of medical and school supplies headed to Cuba will depart from Miami, continuing its decades-long battle against the US-imposed embargo on the island nation. Officials of Pastors for Peace, the ecumenical agency that delivers humanitarian aid to Latin America, say they hope President Barack Obama will lift the embargo and fulfill his promise to improve US-Cuba relations. The organization runs a caravan that includes dozens of buses and trucks that travel across the United States each year to pick up supplies. Each year since 1989, the convoy crosses the US-Mexico border, and loads the goods onto a Cuban government freighter to be distributed in Cuba (The Miami Herald, 6/7/09).

Julio 7: La secretaria de Estado norteamericana Hillary Clinton sostuvo que el diálogo entre los gobiernos de Estados Unidos y Cuba depende de "cambios fundamentales" por parte del régimen cubano. "Estamos abiertos a dialogar con Cuba, pero hemos dejado claro que queremos ver cambios fundamentales en el régimen cubano", dijo Clinton en entrevista con la televisora venezolana Globovisión. Clinton dijo que "los presos políticos deben ser liberados (y) se deben celebrar elecciones libres y justas". "Yo siempre he dicho que si uno piensa que está haciendo un buen trabajo, pues sal y persuade a la gente de que vote por ti en una elección honesta, libre y justa", agregó. Los gobiernos de Cuba y Estados Unidos reanudaron las negociaciones sobre migración, un tema que "creemos es importante", dijo Clinton (AFP, 8/7/09).

Julio 8: La sucursal estadounidense de Philips, el poderoso conglomerado multinacional de equipos electrónicos, fue penalizada con $128,750 por la administración de Barack Obama por realizar ventas de equipos médicos a Cuba en violación de las regulaciones del embargo. Philips Electronics of North America Corporation (PENAC), con sede en Nueva York, aceptó pagar la multa impuesta por el Departamento del Tesoro tras reconocer infracciones cometidas a través de una de sus filiales en el extranjero entre junio del 2004 y marzo del 2006. Es la mayor penalidad impuesta a empresas estadounidenses por violaciones del embargo durante el año fiscal 2009, que concluye el 30 de septiembre (El Nuevo Herald, 8/7/09).

July 8: John Block, Ronald Reagan’s secretary of agriculture, urged US leaders to drop restrictions on American travel and food sales to Cuba. “For years I’ve felt we should be doing business with Cuba,’’ Block told reporters in a conference call. The call was arranged by the Center for Democracy in the Americas, which favors trade and travel with Cuba, as part of a campaign to ease the US embargo. Block noted that Americans were selling grain to the Soviets during Reagan’s presidency and that the United States trades with Vietnam (Sun Sentinel, 8/7/09).

July 12: Prospects for Cuban performances by the New York Philharmonic look promising following a tour of concert halls and meetings with music officials on the island, orchestra president Zarin Mehta said. Mehta said a final decision will be made by the Philharmonic's board of directors. Eric Latzky, the orchestra's vice president for communications, said an official announcement could be as much as a month off. But Mehta said the trip looks promising, with tentative plans for performances on October 31 and November 1 at the 900-seat Teatro Amadeo Roldan, a renovated concert hall a few blocks from the Malecon coastal highway. "We have to go back now and work on repertoires, budgets. There are practical considerations like: how do you get the instruments in, where do you store them?" Mehta told the press in Havana. The Philharmonic's incoming music director, Alan Gilbert, would conduct. The island's Culture Ministry invited the orchestra to perform in Havana, and US officials have agreed to allow the musicians to visit under an exemption to legal restrictions on travel to Cuba, Latzky said (AP, 13/7/09).

July 12: One way to see Cuba is by visiting under a special license issued by the US Treasury Department. One such license allows travel for humanitarian projects. And that's how the M.S. Hershey Foundation is able to offer trips to Cuba. The foundation partners with the Bringing Hope Foundation, which is licensed to travel to Cuba "to deliver humanitarian supplies to an independent charity to benefit the Cuban people." The M.S. Hershey Foundation has an interest in Cuba because since the early 1900s, Milton S. Hershey built a sugar refinery and a town in Cuba he named Central Hershey to provide his chocolate factory with sugar, which was in limited supply due to World War I. That connection is what has motivated the foundation's 10 trips to Cuba in as many years. "There's a lot of interest [in our trips to Cuba]," says Jan Hester, travel planner for the M.S. Hershey Foundation in Derry Twp. "It's a unique story. And people are fascinated by it." Next year's trip is scheduled for April 16-24 and will include visits to Havana and Hershey along with humanitarian missions, says Hester, who will escort the group of 20 to 24 people (Pennlive.Com, 12/7/09).

July 14: Tampa Councilwoman Mary Mulhern and Tampa Port Authority Commissioner Carl Lindell will join about two dozen businesspeople on a fact-finding trip to Cuba, hoping to lay the groundwork for Tampa-area trade once US-Cuba relations improve. The group is scheduled to fly from Miami to Havana on July 17and return July 22, with a full itinerary of meetings. Lindell and the businesspeople will pay their own expenses. Mulhern will use her own money beyond about $1,380 for hotel, airfare and travel visa expenses drawn from her city council member discretionary account. "This trip is for the benefit of my constituents," Mulhern said. "It involves economic development possibilities, trade and jobs" (Tampa Tribune, 14/7/09).

July 14: The US State Department confirmed it will meet in New York to resume long-suspended talks between the United States and Cuba. In a three-sentence news release, the department said the talks will "focus on how best to promote safe, legal and orderly migration between Cuba and the United States.'' The US delegation, which includes representatives of the agencies involved in migration issues, will be headed by Craig Kelly, principal deputy assistant secretary of the Bureau of Western Hemisphere Affairs. Congressional sources said Dagoberto Rodríguez, a Cuban Foreign Ministry official and the former head of the Cuban Interests Section in Washington, will lead the Cuban delegation (The Miami Herald, 14/7/09).

July 14: President Barack Obama has informed Congress that he will waive for six months a 1996 law that permits lawsuits against foreign companies who use Cuban property once owned by Americans. The waiver has become routine. Both President Bill Clinton and President George W. Bush blocked the ability of US citizens to sue over properties seized after Cuba's 1959 revolution. The provision is contained in the Helms-Burton Act, sponsored by the late US Senator Jesse Helms and Representative Dan Burton, which forbids US officials from restoring full diplomatic relations with Cuba as long as either Fidel or Raul Castro is in charge. Using language virtually identical to that which Bush used in his first waiver, Obama wrote to members of Congress that the waiver is "necessary to the national interests of the United States and will expedite a transition to democracy in Cuba" (AP, 16/7/09).

July 14: The first talks between the Obama administration and Cuba ended with an invitation for US diplomats to visit Havana in December, marking the official beginning of the first dialogue between Havana and Washington in six years. The invitation came as the head of the Cuban delegation characterized the six-hour gathering as a "fruitful working session.'' ''Progress was made in the identification of areas in which both countries should work and cooperate (…) '' Dagoberto Rodríguez Barrera, Cuba's deputy foreign minister, said in a statement. The Cuban delegation said it had submitted a proposal to US representatives for a new immigration agreement and "more effective cooperation to combat illegal alien smuggling.'' It also underscored its opposition to US-Cuba immigration policy, saying that ''legal, safe and orderly migration from Cuba would not be achieved'' under the US ''wet foot/dry foot,'' policy which the Cubans said ''encourages illegal departures and human smuggling.'' The policy allows most Cuban migrants who make it onto US soil to stay. The State Department didn't say whether it had accepted the invitation for talks in Havana, but spokesman Ian Kelly said the US delegation "reaffirmed the US commitment to promote safe, orderly, and legal migration' (The Miami Herald, 15/7/09).

July 15: Washington has denied Adriana Perez, the wife of Gerardo Hernandez, one of the Cubans imprisoned in the US, an entry visa to visit her husband. The US State Department denied an entry visa to Adriana, which will prevent her from visiting Gerardo, incarcerated in the US along with Rene Gonzalez, Ramon Labañino, Antonio Guerrero and Fernando Gonzalez. Gerardo was condemned to serve 15 years plus two life imprisonments and, he has been deprived of seeing his wife for 11 years (ACN, 15/7/09).

July 16: Fidel Castro blames the coup in Honduras on the US Embassy in that Central American country and other American diplomats in the region appointed during the administration of George W. Bush. "Unscrupulous characters of the extreme right who were trustworthy officials of George W. Bush" toppled the democratically elected government of Honduran President Manuel Zelaya, Castro claimed. In a column posted on a government Web site, the 82-year-old former Cuban president stopped short of blaming Barack Obama for Zelaya's ouster. He suggested the US State Department conspired with the leaders who took power after the coup to broker a false diplomatic solution while Obama was distracted by travels in Russia. "The idea that the ambassador of the United States in Tegucigalpa, Hugo Llorens, knew nothing about or discouraged the coup is absolutely false," Castro wrote, referring to America's top diplomat in the Honduran capital. "He knew about it, as did American military advisers who have not ceased training Honduran troops even for one second" (Lo que debe demandarse a EEUU; AP, 17/7/09).

July 16: A New York man filed a lawsuit challenging the US government's restrictions on spending by American citizens and permanent residents while traveling to Cuba. The lawsuit, filed in US District Court in Brooklyn, alleges Zachary Sanders was fined after he failed to respond to a March 2000 request by the Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control for information on an alleged June 1998 trip to Cuba and travel while he was there. The complaint claims that people who respond to OFAC's request open themselves up for potential criminal sanctions. "The penalty imposed against Mr. Sanders is unlawful because the Fifth Amendment prohibits the government from punishing failure to obey any regulation that requires a self-incriminating act," the lawsuit said (Dow Jones Newswires, 16/7/09).

July 17: The prestigious New York Philharmonic will offer two concerts in Havana on October 31st and November 1st later this year. The announcement was made by Alejandro Guma, International Relations vice president of the Cuban Music Institute, who said that the concerts at the Amadeo Roldan Auditorium Theater in the Cuban capital will mark the end of a tour that will take the New York Philharmonic to various Asian nations. Guma added that these concerts will constitute a big cultural event
as the New York Philharmonic is one of the most prestigious and emblematic cultural institutions of the United States (ACN, 17/7/09).

July 20: Cuban Vice President Esteban Lazo said in Nicaragua that the future of Latin America and the people’s right to freely choose their leaders will be decided in Honduras.  Lazo, who led a Cuban delegation to the commemoration of the 30th anniversary of the Sandinista Revolution in Nicaragua, pointed out that the Honduran usurpers would not be able to survive if they were not counting on Washington’s support, and he singled out American authorities as responsible for the military action. In this regard, the Vice President quoted Fidel Castro as saying: “The only right thing to do at this moment is to demand the US government to cease its intervention, to stop providing military
support to the coup perpetrators and withdraw its taskforces [from Honduras],” reported Granma newspaper (ACN, 20/7/09).

July 20: About 150 US and Cuban troops worked side by side, testing collaboration across a minefield that has long divided the Cold War adversaries. A Cuban Army helicopter flew over Guantanamo Navy base and dropped 500 gallons of saltwater on burning plywood to extinguish a simulated raging wildfire. American sailors crossed into Cuban-controlled turf to set up a mock triage center run by both nations' militaries, should catastrophe strike. Nearly anywhere else, the event would have been a run-of-the-mill training exercise. And although US forces at this remote base have engaged in the annual rite with the Cuban Frontier Brigade for more than a decade, the Bush administration forbade the disclosure of information. The Southern Command usually answered questions about the time, date or operation scenarios with "no comment." This time, the US military struck a different tone. It provided details but refused to let journalists already on the base for war-court hearings observe the "mass casualty exercise." Sailors photographed the event but were forbidden to release the images, said US Navy base spokesman Terence R. Peck. Retired US Marine Corps General Jack Sheehan called the calibrated exposure a likely "trial balloon" by an Obama administration experimenting with expanded relations with Havana (The Miami Herald, 20/7/09).

Julio 20: Close to a hundred US citizens arrived in Cuba without Washington’s permission to travel to the island, in an open challenge to the economic, commercial and financial blockade of their country against Cuba. All 98 members of the Venceremos solidarity brigade arrived in Holguin’s Frank País International Airport, in the eastern region of the country, from where they headed to the city of Bayamo, in the nearby province of Granma. One of the coordinators of the group, Bob Guild, told the press that the brigade was proud to be in Cuba again, specially this year when the Brigade is marking its 40th anniversary (ACN, 20/7/09).

July 20: Ellen Bernstein, Associate Director of the Inter-religious Foundation for Community Organization IFCO/Pastors for Peace, ratified that her organization will continue defying the US blockade against Cuba. Bernstein travelled to Havana to make the arrangements for the arrival, by plane, of some 130 members of the 20th US-Cuba Friendship Caravan, a humanitarian project that defies the economic, commercial and financial blockade imposed on Cuba by Washington. The visitor told the press that the caravan is made up of US, European, Mexican and Canadian citizens, which, in 14 routes, have visited close to 140 US cities to denounce the criminal policy against the Caribbean nation (ACN, 20/7/09).

Julio 21: Estados Unidos puso sobre la mesa de negociaciones migratorias con Cuba el tema de más de 600 cubanos que el gobierno de Raúl Castro mantiene retenidos con visa en la isla, dijo una fuente de la Casa Blanca vinculada a las recientes conversaciones bilaterales. Según la fuente, que pidió no ser identificada, la delegación estadounidense presentó entre las prioridades de su agenda ante la representación cubana los casos de ciudadanos impedidos de emigrar legalmente a Estados Unidos, en su mayoría profesionales de la salud y sus familiares. "Definitivamente, el asunto de los cubanos retenidos es algo que mantenemos como preocupación esencial y que fue planteado en estas charlas'', dijo la fuente sobre el encuentro sostenido en Nueva York (El Nuevo Herald, 21/7/09).

July 22: Cuba’s former President Fidel Castro said that two rounds of talks to resolve a political crisis in Honduras, mediated by Costa Rican President Oscar Arias, were a US-backed ploy to buy time. Castro repeated accusations that the State Department and the “extreme right” in the US supported the overthrow of Honduran President Manuel Zelaya on June 28. His comments were posted in a “reflection on the Cubadebate.cu Web site. “The United States government’s calculations were based on the fact that Arias boasts a Nobel Peace Prize,” Castro wrote. “Oscar Arias’s real history indicates that he is a neo-liberal politician, talented and fluid with words, extremely calculating and a loyal ally of the United States” (The 30th Sandinista Anniversary and the San Jose Proposal; Bloomberg, 22/7/09).

July 23: A Miami journalist has released photos showing three fired Cuban officials holding up cans of beer and partying at a ranch apparently belonging to the deposed Cuban representative of business interests in Spain's Basque region. The pictures appear to be related to talk in Cuba that the officials — ex-Vice President Carlos Lage, former Foreign Minister Felipe Perez Roque and Fernando Remirez de Estenoz, the former head of international relations for the Communist Party — were dismissed as part of a government purge in March for making insulting remarks about Fidel Castro while guests on the property of Conrado Hernandez, the Cuban business representative in the Basque region. In the photographs, Hernandez appears with the fired officials, toasting with beers and playing dominos. Maria Elvira Salazar, host of Maria Elvira Live on Miami's MegaTV, said about 30 pictures were delivered anonymously to her station, and she showed a bit more than half of them on July 20 and 21 during her show. Reached by phone, Salazar said "we cannot really know" what the pictures mean. "We only know what the Cuban government is saying (…) that they were fired for talking badly about the brothers," she said, referring to 82-year-old Fidel Castro and his younger brother Raul, who succeeded him as president in February 2008. She said the pictures show that the officials were "partying hard together" (The Miami Herald, 24/7/09).

July 24: Members of the 20th Pastors for Peace US-Cuba Friendship Caravan arrived in Cuba headed by the Reverend Lucius Walker. The caravanistas were welcomed at Havana’s Jose Marti International Airport by the head of the Religious Affairs Office at Cuba’s Communist Party Central Committee Caridad Diego, and the president of the Cuban Friendship Institute (ICAP) Kenia Serrano. This time, 130 activists make up the humanitarian caravan, which travelled across the United States collecting humanitarian aid for the Cuban people (ACN, 24/7/09).

July 24: President Barack Obama said he's open to more overtures to Cuba, such as lifting restrictions on academic travel to the island, but not without signs of changes from the government in Havana. "We're not there yet,'' he said. "We think it's important to see progress on issues of political liberalization, freedom of the press, freedom of assembly, release of political prisoners in order for there to be the full possibility of normalization between our two countries.'' Several members of Congress and groups, including the leading association that promotes student travel to and from the United States, have urged Obama to remove what they said are restrictive regulations on academic and other "purposeful'' travel to Cuba imposed by President Bush in 2004. The Association of International Educators said this week that study abroad to Cuba has "declined precipitously.'' Obama referenced last week's "government-to-government conversations'' in New York and said that the administration's "hope is that if we're seeing progress on those issues, then they can begin to broaden.'' "We're taking it step by step, seeing if, as we change some of the old approaches that we've been taking, we are seeing some movement on the Cuban government side,'' he added. "I don't think it's going to be happening overnight. I think it's going to be a work in progress'' (The Miami Herald, 24/7/09).

July 24: Governor Mike Beebe of Arkansas will travel to Cuba on a two-day visit to promote his state's agricultural interests, The Arkansas News reported. Beebe will be accompanied by the state's Economic Development director and two state legislators.
“We will meet with trade officials and visit local markets that have sold or potentially could sell Arkansas farm products,” Beebe said in his weekly radio address. The trip is being coordinated by Riceland Foods and Tyson Foods, producers of rice and poultry.
There are indications that trade restrictions "may soon be eased further or lifted completely,” Beebe said. “I have no knowledge of the specific trade politics or timing of any such decision, and that is not the purpose of my trip. I am going to Cuba to ensure that, if and when agriculture trade is permitted, Arkansas will be in the best possible position to seize the opportunity to sell our products" (The Miami Herald, 25/7/09).

Julio 27: La Sección de Intereses de Estados Unidos en Cuba negó la visa a un opositor anticastrista aduciendo que realizó actividades violentas contra el gobierno cubano, según informó el propio afectado, Tomás Ramos. Ramos inició sus actividades en la década de los años 60 y vivió en la Florida, desde donde viajaba clandestinamente a Cuba para realizar acciones violentas, como destrucción de torres de comunicación y organización de alzamientos armados. Perteneció a varios grupos anticastristas de Miami, los cuales lo enviaban la isla a cumplir misiones, razón por la cual fue capturado varias veces y por la que cumplió largas penas de prisión. El pasado año salió de la cárcel e intentó infructuosamente regresar a Estados Unidos (BBC Mundo, 27/7/09).

July 27: The Obama administration has turned off an electronic sign at the US diplomatic mission in Havana that had displayed pro-democracy and human rights messages to Cuban passers-by and riled the government for the past three years. The State Department said that the sign, a news "zipper" on the fifth floor of the sea-front American Interest Section in the Cuban capital, was shut down last month amid the administration's ongoing efforts to engage with Cuba's leadership that has already seen some US sanctions eased. "We believe that the billboard was really not effective as a means of delivering information to the Cuban people," spokesman Ian Kelly told reporters. He noted that since the sign was first erected in 2006, the Cuban government had taken steps to obscure it from view and questioned whether it was serving its original purpose. "It was evident that the Cuban people weren't even able to read the billboard because of some obstructions that were put in front of it," he said. He added that President Barack Obama's decision in April to allow US telecommunications companies to do business with Cuba would do more to boost the flow of information to the island (AP, 27/7/09).

July 28: US airports are pressing the government to broaden the list of ports of entry allowed to handle flights to and from Cuba, even though the White House is proceeding cautiously with changes in travel policy. In a recent letter, Peter Horton, the director of Key West International Airport in Florida, urged the Treasury Department to add the facility to the list of three big international airports in Miami, Los Angeles and New York. Earlier this year, Tampa's airport made a similar request. And airport officials in Houston, already one of the biggest gateways between the US and Latin America, say local business leaders have pressed them to push for access to Cuba, too. A new Key West airport departure terminal, opened in February, is part of a big expansion of passenger facilities (The Wall Street Journal, 28/7/09).

July 28: Members of the 20th US-Cuba Friendship Caravan visiting the central province of Sancti Spíritus met with impaired people and health authorities of the area and discussed the effects of the US economic blockade against Cuba. Social Assistance Office director Lidia Caballero thanked the visitors on behalf of hundreds of disabled people in the province for having been able to collect more than 100 tons of aid to bring this year to the island. The 38 members of the caravan, led by the US Pastors for Peace
Inter-religious Foundation, were touched by testimonies from visually impaired and deaf and mute people whose condition affects all the members of their families (ACN, 28/7/09).

July 29: A state senator from Wynne said he is leaving for a trip to Cuba, a trip he says could help Arkansans in the future. Senator Jim Luker (Democrat-Wynne), said the 3-day trade mission he is going on with Governor Mike Beebe; Arkansas Department of Economic Development official Maria Haley; Morril Harriman, Beebe’s chief of staff; and officials with Riceland Foods and Tyson Foods has potential. “Rice is a major part of our agriculture, and Cuba was once a major market for us (before the October 1960 embargo with the communist country was enforced),” Luker said. Luker, who represents Cross County as part of his Senate district, said Riceland Foods, Tyson Foods and consumers would benefit if the embargo were lifted. “We hope the (Obama) administration will liberalize trade with Cuba and foster trade,” Luker said. “It is a potential major market for rice and chicken.” Luker said under current standards, processed poultry can be sent to Cuba, and the sale of food stock is allowed. The trade of both items could lead to both Arkansas-based products being sent there, Luker said (Jonesboro Sun, 29/7/09).

July 30: The Association for the Study of the Cuban Economy will hold its 19th annual conference in Miami, beginning Thursday, July 30. The three-day affair, sponsored by the University of Miami, will be held at the Hilton Hotel, 1601 Biscayne Blvd. Topics will range from the island's current economic and political situation to the state of its relations with the United States and other countries, from foreign investment to its reaction to natural disasters. In effect, "this conference is a supermarket of studies pertinent to the reconstruction of Cuba," ASCE president Jorge Sanguinetty told the press. As described by Sanguinetty, the purpose of the 20-year-old organization is to keep Cuba specialists abreast of the latest developments, in the expectation of a transition to democracy on the island (The Miami Herald, 30/7/09).

July 30: El economista disidente Oscar Espinosa Chepe definió con solo tres palabras el dilema que enfrenta el gobierno de Raúl Castro ante el impacto de la crisis mundial: reformas urgentes o caos. "Todo es propicio a condiciones favorables para incontrolables explosiones sociales'', dijo Espinosa Chepe desde La Habana ante los participantes de la XIX Conferencia Anual de la Asociación para el Estudio de la Economía Cubana (ASCE), que sesionará hasta 1ro de agosto en Miami. "La actitud actual del gobierno negado a emprender reformas para mantener su poder, además de ser egoísta e irresponsable, es antinacional''. Hablando en la sesión de apertura de la conferencia ante más de 200 académicos, investigadores y estudiosos del tema cubano, Espinosa Chepe describió un panorama de desolación económica, parálisis política y marginalidad social que pudiera conducir al desplome total en la isla. "Recuérdese el Maleconazo de 1994, espontáneo y sin dirección alguna, lo que debe hacer reflexionar a todos los cubanos sobre los cambios urgentemente requeridos, podría conducir a la violencia y la anarquía'', argumentó el economista, ex prisionero de la llamada Causa de los 75. El fantasma de un estallido social y las posiciones encontradas sobre el embargo gravitaron sobre la primera jornada del evento (El Nuevo Herald, 31/7/09).

July 30: Oscar-winning actor Benicio del Toro has been presented with an award by the Cuban government in Havana, in recognition of his body of work. The inaugural Tomas Gutierrez Alea prize was presented at a ceremony attended by US actors Robert Duvall, James Caan and Bill Murray. Puerto Rican-born del Toro played revolutionary hero Ernesto "Che" Guevara in two films out last year. Named after prolific Cuban filmmaker Alea, the new award was voted for by the National Union of Writers and Artists of Cuba.
Del Toro - who won a best supporting actor Oscar for Traffic in 2001 - said it was "an honour" to receive the award and thanked Che director Steven Soderbergh. Murray sang songs to union members packed into a room behind the group's main headquarters. "This is a show that will never be able to be repeated," del Toro said. "Bill Murray singing, Robert Duvall with his flowers, James Caan sitting here next to me, with [Cuban actors] Jorge Perugorria and Mirta Ibarra. "It will stay in history forever" (BBC, 31/7/09).

July 30: A Miami federal judge has set an October date to impose new sentences on three of the so-called "Cuban Five'' accused of spying in the United States. A federal appeals court last year ordered new sentences for Fernando Gonzalez, also known as Ruben Campa; Luis Medina; and Antonio Guerrero. Medina and Guerrero had been serving life terms, and Gonzalez was sentenced to 19 years. The appeals court ruled their sentences were too long. US District Judge Joan Lenard will impose new sentences on October 13. The five men were convicted in 2001 of acting as unregistered Cuban agents and of espionage conspiracy for attempting to penetrate US military bases. The US Supreme Court in June refused to review the case. They are considered heroes in Cuba (AP, 30/7/09).

Julio 30: El gobierno de Puerto Rico inició las gestiones con el fin de obtener los permisos necesarios para que Cuba pueda participar en los Juegos Centroamericanos y del Caribe Mayagüez 2010. El secretario de Recreación y Deportes, Henry Neumann, dijo que ya se designó a un funcionario de la Administración de Asuntos Federales de Puerto Rico (PRFAA) para que convoque a funcionarios de diversas agencias del gobierno federal que tengan que ver con esos permisos. Neumann manifestó que no vislumbra problemas con la otorgación de las visas a la delegación cubana. "Todo el mundo sabe que si Cuba no viene, los Juegos no tendrán el mismo sabor ni la misma importancia. Pero si vemos que no hay movimiento, nuestro secretario de Estado, Kenneth McClintock, moverá sus contactos empezando con la secretaria de Estado estadounidense, Hillary Clinton", afirmó (AP, 31/7/09).

Julio 31: Las medidas decretadas por el gobierno de Raúl Castro para incentivar la producción agrícola no conseguirán resultados eficientes ni lograrán llevar más alimentos a la mesa de los cubanos, aseguraron expertos ante la XIX Conferencia Anual de la Asociación para el Estudio de la Economía Cubana (ASCE). Al abordar el tema de la entrega de tierras ociosas en usufructo en la isla, el economista Juan Tomás Sánchez aseveró que no tiene sentido añadir nuevos campesinos en la inepta legislación agraria existente. ‘‘Ya existen en Cuba numerosos agricultores no estatales con una eficiencia y bajo costo probados en las peores condiciones, para tener que compartir las escasas raciones de implementos y suministros que puedan aparecer casi inesperadamente'', dijo Sánchez. "Sacrificar lo existente por añadir un sistema de campesinos de supervivencia parece demostrar que la intención es otra''. El economista agrícola José Álvarez, profesor retirado de la Universidad de la Florida, considera que la agricultura cubana está en callejón sin salida. "No hay forma de que un proyecto de reanimación agrícola pueda prosperar sin insumos ni estímulos suficientes y bajo el control de burócratas'', opinó Álvarez. "Aunque la reorganización puede mostrar algún nivel de eficiencia, es difícil valorar de dónde va a proceder la inversión para garantizar un mínimo de aseguramiento para la producción, desde contenedores y medios de transporte hasta almacenes'' (El Nuevo Herald, 31/7/09).

July 31: Governor Mike Beebe says he's optimistic that Arkansas can increase its agricultural exports to Cuba after a trade mission to the island nation. Beebe didn't say whether he thought the federal government's 47-year-old trade embargo should be lifted against Cuba. But Beebe told reporters he thinks there are signs that the federal government is open to easing trade restrictions against the nation. Beebe returned from a three-day trip to Cuba with legislators and economic development officials. Representatives from Riceland Foods Inc. and Tyson Foods Inc. also traveled to Cuba on the trade mission (AP, 31/7/09).