Chronicle on Cuba - October 2009

US-Cuba Relations

October 1: Former US President Bill Clinton, now appointed as UN special envoy to Haiti, praised the support given by Cuba and Venezuela to this Caribbean nation to help palliate its precarious social and economic situation. Granma newspaper reported that the acknowledgement is part of a report presented by Clinton to the Americas Conference sponsored by The Miami Herald newspaper in Miami. Clinton said that the last time he was in Haiti he inquired about what was being done in terms of prevention prior to the hurricane season and he learned that “(Venezuelan president) Hugo Chavez had donated 87 million dollars.” Haiti used the money to purchase machinery to remove land at the
places that were affected by the floods caused by last year’s hurricanes. The report highlights that “Latin America is helping Haiti now like it never did before.” An article published by Radio Habana Cuba’s website states that, up to date, over 2100 Cuban health professionals have helped the Haitian people since 1998 (ACN, 1/10/09).

October 1: The US is resisting a judge's order that could force disclosure of classified documents and other material sought by three men who are seeking reduced prison sentences for their 2001 convictions in a politically charged spying case. Federal prosecutors have asked for an emergency stay and appealed a magistrate judge's disclosure order in the so-called Cuban Five case, contending it is far too broad and could produce sensitive material not required in a criminal case. The order requires US officials to search for any national security damage assessments of the Cubans' actions, which could bear on whether three of the five get a more lenient sentence. The three Cubans — Antonio Guerrero, Ramon Labanino and Fernando Gonzalez — are to be resentenced by a Miami federal judge on October 13. The 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals upheld the convictions of all five Cubans in 2008, but vacated the life sentences for Guerrero and Labanino because there was no evidence they had obtained or transmitted top secret material. Gonzalez, also known as Ruben Campa, had his 19-year sentence vacated because he was wrongly labeled a manager or supervisor of the spy ring known as the "Wasp Network." The five men are hailed as heroes in Cuba, where government officials regularly claim they are victims of political persecution (AP, 1/10/09).

October 1: The leader of Cuba’s National Assembly said that US President Barack Obama has softened Washington’s “language” toward the island but that its decades-old economic embargo remains as much intact as on his first day in office, the official Prensa Latina news agency reported. Ricardo Alarcon said the 47-year-old embargo “remains in force” even though there have been some minor changes since Obama was inaugurated in January. Speaking at the opening of a meeting of the Latin American Parliament in Havana, the parliamentary speaker noted that the United Nations’ General Assembly once again will denounce the embargo this month, as it has every year since 1992 (Latin American Herald, 1/10/09).

October 1: The New York Philharmonic scratched its trip to Cuba at the end of October because the United States Treasury Department said it would deny permission for a group of patrons to go along. Without them and their donations, the orchestra said, it cannot afford to go. About 150 board members and other donors had promised to pay $10,000 each to spend October 30 to November 2 in Havana, where the orchestra was to play two concerts, said Zarin Mehta, its president. The money was to have covered the cost of the proposed trip, which came at the Cuban government’s invitation. The travel amounts to high-class tourism along with a chance to make business connections in foreign capitals.
“The patrons were excited about giving us the money with the opportunity of going to see Havana and be a witness and support their orchestra,” said Zarin Mehta, the Philharmonic’s president. “This is what’s important to them.” Mr. Mehta said he would not consider taking the patrons’ money while leaving them behind. “I wouldn’t want to insult them,” he said. “I think it’s most likely they would say, ‘Go another time.’” That’s what the orchestra will try to do, Mr. Mehta said. He said he had hoped that pressure applied by New York elected officials, including Senator Charles E. Schumer and Representatives Steve Israel and Charles B. Rangel — who have supported the trip — would help to have the decision overturned (The New York Times, 1/10/09).

Octubre 1: Cuba y Estados Unidos dieron un pequeño paso más hacia el diálogo al facilitar en La Habana un encuentro entre artistas de la isla y diplomáticos de Washington, en la prolongación de una especie de diplomacia cultural, paralela a las conversaciones oficiales entre los dos gobiernos. Por primera vez en casi una década varios creadores cubanos de primer nivel asistieron a una recepción que ofreció el jefe de la Sección de Intereses (oficina diplomática) de Estados Unidos, Jonathan D. Farrar. Un día antes el canciller Bruno Rodríguez anunció en la Organización de Naciones Unidas que la isla propuso al gobierno de Barack Obama una agenda de 12 puntos para un eventual proceso de diálogo. Semejante cóctel sería rutinario en cualquier otra parte del mundo, pero en La Habana es un termómetro político. En este caso, y según las reglas no escritas del sistema cubano, la presencia numerosa de artistas es un indicio de que el contacto tuvo la simpatía oficial (La Jornada, 1/10/09).

October 1: A US president has limited ways to ease the embargo on Cuba -- unless he or she certifies that Havana is moving toward democracy or Congress overturns US laws on the sanctions, according to a report by the US Government Accountability Office. ``The bottom line is that the president and Congress have done about as much as they can for now'' to ease the sanctions, said a US government official who studied the report. ``So, unless Cuba takes steps [toward democracy] the ball is in Congress' court.'' The report comes amid a debate between supporters of the sanctions, who argue that current laws make it all but impossible to change them, and sanctions opponents who argue the president has the power to significantly ease the embargo. Some have argued, for example, that President Barack Obama could allow all Americans to travel to Cuba by simply allowing tourism under the ``general licenses'' that do not require specific reasons for traveling to Cuba. The GAO report was requested by three supporters of easing the Cuba sanctions: Representative Charles Rangel (Democrat-New York); Representative Jeff Flake (Republican.-Arizona), and Representative Barbara Lee (Democrat-California) (El Nuevo Herald, 1/10/09).

Octubre 1: El gobierno de Estados Unidos mantiene sin ningún cambio su norma de invitar a la Sección de Intereses en La Habana a los opositores cubanos, según dijo Charles Luoma-Overstreet, portavoz del Departamento de Estado. Luoma se refería a una reciente recepción diplomática en La Habana, a la que no fueron invitados disidentes políticos cubanos pero sí artistas y figuras del mundo cultural de la isla. Aclaró que se trataba de una función especial para el mundo cultural, debido a la llegada a La Habana de especialistas en ese sector. Por otra parte dijo que la secretaria de Estado Adjunta para Latinoamérica, Bisa Williams, se había reunido con disidentes durante su estancia de seis días en Cuba en septiembre (Marti Noticias, 1/10/09).

October 5: US restrictions on travel to Cuba that led to the New York Philharmonic calling off a trip to the communist country are outrageous and should be ended, a senator who has long recommended lifting trade and travel restraints said. ``This is almost unbelievable what we are still doing with respect to travel policy with Cuba,'' Democratic Senator Byron Dorgan said in a speech on the Senate floor. Dorgan represents North Dakota, an agricultural state that stands to gain substantially from freer trade with Cuba.
Dorgan, who has introduced legislation to lift prohibitions on travel to and from Cuba, said he has written the Treasury Department office that issues travel licenses to ``see if we couldn't get them to think straight just a bit” (Canadian Press, 6/10/09).

October 6: Omara Portuondo, the sultry-voiced diva of the Buena Vista Social Club, has been granted permission to visit the US for the first time since 2003 and hopes a dose of her sensuous sound can inspire both countries to improve frozen relations. The US Treasury Department has granted Portuondo, who turns 79 this month, permission to perform at the San Francisco Jazz Festival on October 20 and give a concert three days later at the University of California, Los Angeles. "Cuban music is the best medicine," Portuondo said in a recent interview. "It's good to be able to share culture, which is the soul of a people" (AP, 6/10/09).

Octubre 6: El gobierno de Cuba aseguró que ha tenido pérdidas agropecuarias por 149 millones de dólares anuales, debido al embargo comercial y financiero que Estados Unidos aplica a la isla desde hace casi medio siglo. El viceministro de Agricultura, Alcides López, citado por medios oficiales, dijo que los sectores más afectados son el tabacalero (93 millones), el porcino (28 millones) y el avícola (24 millones), según datos del periodo que va de abril de 2008 a marzo de 2009. Precisó que las pérdidas incluyen 61 millones de ingresos no recibidos porque los puros habanos y otros tabacos cubanos no pueden entrar al mercado estadounidense, el mayor del mundo. López recordó que a principios de esta década Washington eliminó las restricciones para la venta a Cuba de productos agrícolas, pero no para la compra (EFE, 6/10/09).

October 6: On the 33rd anniversary of the bombing of the Cubana Air flight, the US National Security Archive released new CIA documents about Luis Posada Carriles. The documents show Posada, code name “AMCLEVE 15” had volunteered to spy on exile groups in the mid 1960s. And he snitched on Jorge Mas Canosa, who he says had planned bombings in Mexico. “In July of that year, Posada reported that he had completed two ten-pound Limpet bombs for a Mas Canosa operation against Soviet ships in the port of Veracruz, Mexico, using eight pounds of Pentolite explosives and a pencil detonator,” the archive’s director Peter Kornbluh reported. He also told his CIA handlers that he would help control other exiles who he could keep from doing embarrassing things like blowing up Russian freighters. “Posada was trying to ingratiate himself with the CIA,” Kornbluh said. “Notice that he mentions a pencil detonator, which is the same kind used years later in the Cubana Air bombing” (The Miami Herald, 7/10/09).

October 6: Cuban President Raul Castro and his army are running Cuba like a "military corporation" and former leader Fidel Castro maintains a powerful voice on the board, a Cuba expert said in a new book. Without Fidel. A Death Foretold in Miami, Havana and Washington by journalist, author and Cuba-watcher Ann Louise Bardach seeks to shed light on the circumstances surrounding Fidel Castro's near-death from colon surgery in 2006 and his handover last year to his younger brother, Raul Castro. Bardach, who has met both Castros in a dozen research and writing trips to Cuba, says the February 2008 handover and a government purge in March this year put the Communist-run island's immediate future in the hands of Raul Castro, 78. She describes him in the book as a "socialist reformer of sorts" equipped with a "Darwinian imperative of survival" but says he has "an indisputable charisma deficit" in his public persona when compared with his more famous elder brother. Bardach says former defense minister Raul Castro, backed by Cuba's powerful Revolutionary Armed Forces and a clique of pro-Castro revolutionary veterans in their seventies and eighties, are trying to keep intact and afloat a Cuban economy that she says is "crumbling like a stale cookie" (Reuters, 6/10/09).

Octubre 7: El asentamiento de los inmigrantes cubanos en Estados Unidos costará un mínimo de $1,300 millones en subsidios y programas de asistencia para refugiados durante los próximos cuatro años, con un preocupante incremento del desempleo y la población inactiva en el sur de la Florida. "A los niveles actuales de la inmigración, el costo directo mínimo para poder subsidiar las necesidades de los inmigrantes cubanos durante sus primeros doce meses en Estados Unidos sería de $1,300 millones por los próximos cuatro años fiscales (2009-2012)'', indicó un informe del Instituto de Estudios Cubanos y Cubano Americanos (ICCAS) de la Universidad de Miami. La investigación repasó el impacto y las implicaciones de la inmigración cubana hacia el sur de la Florida entre 1994 y el 2008, pero concentró el análisis en el período fiscal del 2008 (concluido en septiembre de 2008), cuando 49,500 cubanos recibieron oficialmente su residencia permanente en Estados Unidos (El Nuevo Herald, 7/10/09).

Octubre 7: El fortalecimiento de la vigilancia y la crisis financiera global han reducido drásticamente este año las cifras de inmigrantes cubanos que intentan llegar a Estados Unidos por vía marítima, dijo la Guardia Costera estadounidense. En el año fiscal 2009, que culminó el 30 de septiembre, unos 799 cubanos fueron interceptados, desde los 2,199 detenidos el año pasado y los 2,868 en el 2007, según cifras de la Guardia Costera. El teniente comandante Matt Moorlag de la Guardia Costera estadounidense dijo que la aplicación de medidas contra el éxodo ilegal y la crisis económica en ambos países estaba amortiguando las salidas ilegales del territorio cubano. Moorlag dijo que tribunales estadounidenses fueron más severos al juzgar a contrabandistas de inmigrantes a quienes impusieron fuertes condenas. Pero el funcionario agregó que la recesión económica que afecta tanto a Cuba como a Estados Unidos también está fustigando el negocio del tráfico de personas, en el que los contrabandistas exigen tarifas de 10,000 dólares o más por persona (Reuters, 8/10/09).

Octubre 8: El gobierno de Barack Obama mantiene restringido el intercambio científico entre Cuba y Estados Unidos, como lo hicieron gobiernos anteriores, aseguró un directivo local. No "ha habido en el sector nuestro nada que evidencie un cambio en esa política'', dijo José Fernández, directivo del ministerio de Ciencia, Tecnología y Medio Ambiente (CITMA), en conferencia de prensa. Añadió que, durante décadas, la política de Estados Unidos hacia Cuba ha estado dirigida a "tratar de obstaculizar los contactos científicos entre ambas naciones'' y evitar "el acceso de los centros de investigación cubanos a equipamiento novedoso'' de procedencia estadounidense. Fernández precisó que, no obstante esa política, se logró "mantener un intercambio mínimo en el sector de la meteorología'', que se realiza regularmente en el caso de ciclones "sobre la base del respeto'', en el marco multilateral de la Organización Meteorológica Mundial (AFP, 8/10/09).

October 8: Nearly 180 people from 20 countries have confirmed their participation in an international colloquium on the five Cubans who remain imprisoned in the United States since 1998. The colloquium will take place in November, in the eastern city of Holguin.  Amauri Torno Gonzalez, from the Cuban Friendship Institute (ICAP) in Holguin province, said the event is scheduled for November 19-23 and that delegations will be coming from the United States, Austria, Germany, Canada, France and Puerto Rico, among other countries Granma newspaper reported that this is the fifth occasion the event is held (ACN, 8/10/09).

Octubre 8: El sector cubano de la vivienda tuvo pérdidas por 47,2 millones de dólares entre abril de 2008 y marzo de 2009 debido al embargo comercial y financiero que aplica Estados Unidos a la isla desde hace casi medio siglo, informaron medios oficiales. "Esas pérdidas incidieron de manera negativa en los propósitos de cumplir los programas de fabricación de casas previstos y lograr la recuperación de las afectaciones provocadas por el azote de tres huracanes en 2008", asegura la agencia estatal Prensa Latina. Fuentes oficiales cifraron en 149 millones de dólares las pérdidas agropecuarias por el embargo durante el mismo periodo de abril de 2008 a marzo de 2009. La campaña informativa cubana se produce en vísperas de una nueva votación sobre el bloqueo estadounidense en la Asamblea General de la ONU. (EFE, 9/10/09).

Octubre 9: El gobierno de Estados Unidos emitió una alerta de viaje a Cuba debido a las medidas de cuarentena que ha impuesto el gobierno de La Habana ante la gripe A.
En un comunicado, el Departamento de Estado explicó que en abril el gobierno cubano puso en práctica una política que le permite poner en cuarentena a pasajeros que presenten fiebre u otros síntomas de la gripe. El gobierno destaca que aunque el porcentaje de estadounidenses a los que se le impone cuarentena es reducido, las características del proceso de selección imposibilitan predecir en qué momento un viajero pueda ser aislado por parte de las autoridades (EFE, 9/10/09).

Octubre 9: A convicted Cuban intelligence agent who infiltrated the Boca Chica Naval Air Station in Key West -- but didn't obtain or pass along state secrets to his handlers in Havana -- could see his life sentence reduced to 20 years. Antonio Guerrero, convicted of espionage conspiracy in the highly publicized prosecution of the so-called ``Cuban Five'' spy defendants in 2001, has reached an agreement with the US attorney's office to lower his sentence. The agreement still must be accepted by US District Judge Joan Lenard. Last year, she was criticized by the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Atlanta for imposing the life sentence, which the court considered excessive because of insufficient evidence of harm to national security (El Nuevo Herald, 10/10/09).

October 10: Fidel Castro lauded the awarding of the Nobel Peace Prize to US President Barack Obama, saying it was "a positive measure" that was more a criticism of past US policies than a recognition of Obama's accomplishments. Castro said the prize made up for the blow Obama suffered last week when the International Olympic Committee awarded the 2016 Summer Games to Rio de Janeiro after Obama had flown to Copenhagen to pitch for Chicago, his adoptive hometown. "I don't always share the positions of that institution but I'm obligated to recognize that in this instance it was, in my judgment, a positive measure," Castro wrote in a column published in state-run media. The Nobel prize made up for "the reverse Obama suffered in Copenhagen (…) which provoked angry attacks by his adversaries of the extreme right," Castro wrote. His comments were part of a long piece entitled "The Bell Tolls for the Dollar" in which he said the US dollar was losing its position as the preeminent world currency. Also, he criticized the United States, as he often does, for not doing more to cut emission of greenhouse gases said to be causing global warming (The Bells are Tolling for the Dollar; Reuters, 10/10/09).

October 11: A man wanted in connection with the hijacking of a Pan Am flight to Cuba nearly 41 years ago was arrested in New York, a Justice Department official said. Luis Armando Pena Soltren was arrested at John F. Kennedy International Airport for suspected of involvement in the November 1968 hijacking of a Puerto Rico-bound Pan Am flight from New York, said Justice Department spokesman Richard Kolko. Kolko said Soltren, who has been in Cuba for almost 41 years, will appear in the Manhattan federal court (Reuters, 12/10/09).

Octubre 12: Many of the 75 activists jailed in a 2003 Cuban government crackdown on political dissent are congratulating Barack Obama for winning the Nobel Peace Prize. In a letter to international journalists, 29 of those imprisoned six years ago said Obama "has become a global symbol, especially for us who, under difficult conditions, are defending Cubans' right to democracy." In another letter, 21 of their wives, mothers and other female relatives also cheered Obama. Fifty-four dissidents remain imprisoned on allegations they conspired with the US to topple Cuba's government. Those freed were granted medical parole or forced into exile in Spain. One was released after completing a six-year sentence (AP, 13/10/09).

October 13: Cuba reiterated in the United Nations the situation of the five Cubans imprisoned in the United States since 1998 and that of their relatives. Cuban diplomat Claudia Perez presented the case before the Third Commission of the UN General Assembly which centered its discussions on women’s progress and the implementation of the results of the fourth World Conference on Women. The Cuban official said the sentences imposed on Gerardo Hernandez, Antonio Guerrero, Ramon Labañino, Fernando Gonzalez and Rene Gonzalez, internationally known as the Cuban Five, were arbitrary. She referred as well to the situation of the wives of two of them who have not been allowed to enter the United States to visit their husbands. Claudia Perez explained that Hernandez’ wife, Adriana Perez, was denied an entry visa to the US last July 15 for the 10th occasion (ACN, 13/10/09).

October 13: One of the Cuban Five defendants, initially sentenced to life in prison for espionage conspiracy, saw his term reduced to 22 years. The judge rejected an even lighter sentence recommended by prosecutors. At Cuban spy Antonio Guerrero's sentencing hearing in 2001, federal prosecutors pushed for the maximum life sentence, pointing to his resolute lack of remorse and his self-proclaimed loyalty to the Cuban regime. Advancing arguments sounding more political than legal, assistant US attorney Caroline Heck Miller urged a Miami federal judge to reduce Guerrero's life sentence to just 20 years, in keeping with an agreement reached between the government and defense. Heck Miller said the reduced sentence would show ``the fairness of the United States' judicial system'' to the rest of the world -- contrary to Cuba's very active public relations campaign to the contrary. But US District Judge Joan Lenard didn't buy it, sentencing Guerrero, 50, to nearly 22 years for espionage conspiracy and taking Heck Miller to task for singing such a different tune. In 2001, the judge pointed out, Guerrero's ``conduct posed a serious threat to the national security of the United States'' in the eyes of the government (El Nuevo Herald, 14/10/09).

October 14: The revised prison sentence imposed on Antonio Guerrero by a Florida court – 21 years and 10 months – was not lenient enough for the Communist Party daily Granma. Originally, Guerrero had been sentenced to life plus 10 years. Although the new sentence "is not as absurdly exaggerated as the previous one, it is still unjust," Granma says in an article taken from the antiterroristas.com website. It is "one proof of many that confirm the absolute arbitrariness of the process followed against those who are imprisoned in the United States solely and exclusively for fighting against the anti-Cuban terrorism promoted by the American authorities." The sentences imposed on the five Miami Cubans arrested in September 1998 on espionage-related charges reflected an "irrational disproportion" between crime and punishment, the newspaper said. Neither Fidel nor Raúl Castro had commented publicly on the news (The Miami Herald, 15/10/09).

October 13: A small Miami-based company said the US government has given it permission to lay the first optical communications fiber from the US to Cuba. That could drastically cut the cost of calling the island nation and make the Internet more accessible to Cubans. Treasury Department officials were unavailable to confirm that TeleCuba Communications Inc. has received approval, which is necessary even though the Obama administration eased long-standing restrictions on telecom links to Cuba in April. TeleCuba said that its cable will be operating by the middle of 2011. It still needs final permission from the Cuban government to land the cable. A government official in Cuba, speaking on condition of anonymity because he is not authorized to speak publicly, said Cuba has been waiting for the US to approve a "group of companies" seeking to build telecommunications infrastructure. But the official could not confirm whether Cuba would ultimately give them permission to enter the market. Cuba is the only nation in the Western Hemisphere that is not linked to the outside world by fiber optics. Instead, it relies on slow, expensive satellite links. While the cable could make calling very cheap, it would be up to the Cuban government to set rates, and it could keep restrictions on Internet access as well (AP, 13/10/09).

October 15: Cuba recently gave a top State Department official a long-blocked permission to visit dual US-Cuban citizens jailed on the island -- but it did not accept a US offer to relax travel restrictions on each other's diplomats. The two issues, though relatively minor in the broad sweep of decades of bilateral hostilities, underlined both the opportunities and limits for improved relations facing the new governments of Barack Obama and Raúl Castro. Havana's decision to allow the prison visits ``reflect the benefits that could accrue to both countries as a result of better communications and, conversely, how our interests are poorly served when we don't communicate,'' said Bob Pastor, the top Cuban expert in Jimmy Carter's administration. The State Department confirmed that acting Deputy Assistant Secretary of State Bisa Williams visited with jailed dual US-Cuban citizens there during her trip to Cuba last month to discuss a possible resumption of direct mail services between the two nations. No further details on the visits were available. Like other countries, including the United States, Cuba does not recognize dual nationalities. Cuba treats those cases as Cuban-only citizens and regularly denies foreign consular officials on the island access to the dual citizens jailed there (El Nuevo Herald, 15/10/09).

Octubre 16: La bloguera Yoani Sánchez, a la que se impidió por cuarta vez salir de Cuba para recibir un reconocimiento internacional, publicó un vídeo con su discurso de aceptación del premio María Moors Cabot de la Universidad de Columbia. “Lamentablemente no puedo estar junto a ustedes hoy", dice la conocida bloguera al comienzo de su discurso, filmado en lo que parece una plaza de la ciudad y con ruido de tráfico al fondo. "Lo lamento mucho, sin embargo me he acostumbrado a la idea de no poder moverme fuera de mi país desde hace más de un año". "Los cubanos somos como niños pequeños, necesitamos la autorización de papá para salir de casa", dice Sánchez durante la grabación. "En el caso de esa niña que se llama Yoani Sánchez, el precio y el costo personal y social por escribir en una página web mis impresiones de la realidad ha sido, sencillamente, la condena a la inmovilidad". "Me he convertido en una peregrina inmóvil dentro de esta isla", agrega la bloguera en su mensaje (Video; El Nuevo Herald, 16/10/09).

October 16: The mayor of New Orleans flew to Cuba on a mission to study the island's respected disaster preparedness methods in another sign of easing diplomatic relations. The visit comes a day after President Barack Obama promised New Orleans that the government would never repeat the "failure of government" seen after Hurricane Katrina ravaged the jazz city in 2005. Ray Nagin is the first US mayor to make a diplomatic visit to Cuba in 50 years, his office said. "We were victims of a tragedy. Now we want to be a model for response and preparedness," said spokeswoman Ceeon Quiett. The State Department gave approval to the mission because Cuba has been recognized internationally as a leader in emergency management, Quiett said (AFP, 16/10/09).

October 17: A steep drop in US payments for telephone calls to Cuba may have been caused by Cuban Americans' growing travel to the island, the US economic crisis or increased Internet communications, analysts say. US Treasury reports showed the payments plunged from $122.5 million in the first half of 2008 to $95 million in the same period this year -- a 22 percent drop. Treasury's reports are required by the Cuban Democracy Act of 1992 and the Helms-Burton Act of 1996. They are sent every six months to the office of the speaker of the US House of Representatives. The reports list the amounts paid by US-licensed companies for all ``telecommunications,'' although the bulk of the money goes to pay the Cuban side of long-distance phone calls initiated in the United States. Calls to Cuba average about $1 per minute, a high price by world standards and one largely driven by decades of political hostilities between Washington and Havana (The Miami Herald, 17/10/09).

October 18: In the six months after the 9/11 attacks, up to 20 Cubans walked into US embassies around the world and offered information on terrorism threats. Eventually, all were deemed to be Cuban intelligence agents and collaborators, purveying fabricated information. A White House official complained bitterly and publicly in 2002 that Fidel Castro's agents had tried to send US intelligence on ``wild goose'' chases that could cost lives at a time when Washington was reeling from the worst terrorism attacks in history.
But now two former US government experts on Cuba have told El Nuevo Herald that the post-9/11 ``walk-ins'' were part of a permanent Havana intelligence program -- both before and long after 9/11 -- that sends Cuban agents to US embassies to mislead, misinform and identify US spies, perhaps even to penetrate US intelligence. ``The Cubans periodically used walk-ins to continue to test US capabilities and reactions, but (…) later approaches were not as frequent as we saw in the immediate wake of the September 11 attacks,'' added a former top Bush administration official. Both asked that their names not be published because they were not authorized to speak on the topic (The Miami Herald, 19/10/09).

October 19: Agriculture leaders from Virginia are heading to Cuba to promote the state's offerings. Agriculture Commissioner Todd Haymore will lead the delegation to the Havana International Trade Fair in November. Officials say Virginia is pushing to expand international sales for its agricultural products. In 2008, Officials say Virginia's exports to Cuba have grown since federal law began allowing medical and agricultural exports to Cuba in 2000. In 2003, Virginia producers exported $838,000 worth of agriculture products to Cuba. In 2008, that number grew to more than $40 million (AP, 19/10/09).

Octubre 20: El voleibolista cubano Leonardo Leyva, quien desapareció durante el campeonato Norceca celebrado en Puerto Rico, pidió asilo político en la isla. La policía informó que Leyva llegó a las oficinas de migración en la capital acompañado por su abogado Sergio Ramos y un amigo. "Me propuse una meta y la cumplí. De ahora en adelante, a trabajar por un futuro mejor para mí y mi familia en Cuba", expresó Leyva, según el portal de internet del diario Primera Hora (AP, 21/10/09).

October 20: Under Cuba's communist system, the government calls all the shots all the time - but during monster hurricanes that may not be such a bad thing, New Orleans' mayor said. In an interview during his six-day trip to Cuba's capital to study the island's disaster-response system, Ray Nagin told the press that "one of the biggest weaknesses we had during Hurricane Katrina is it wasn't clear who was the top authority." "The president and the governor were going back and forth (…) in Cuba you don't have that problem," Nagin said. "The government says, 'This is what we're doing, these are the resources we are going to deploy,' and it pretty much happens." The mayor and 15 US city and state officials, including from police, fire and port agencies, met with Cuban civil defense authorities and saw presentations on how the island's military mobilizes during disasters. "I think they do a much better job than we do on knowing their citizens at a very, very detailed level, block by block," Nagin said. In Cuba, Revolutionary Defense Committees on nearly every corner watch their neighbors. They help with evacuations and provide social services such as vaccinations, but also are supposed to report any behavior considered subversive (AP, 21/10/09).

October 20: New Orleans hopes to cash in on an improvement in US-Cuba relations by getting direct charter flights between New Orleans and Havana, the US city's mayor said in Havana. Mayor Ray Nagin met with the head of the Cuban Chamber of Commerce and spoke to authorities at the top tourism monopoly and at the Port of Havana. In the late 1950s, Cuba was the top source of trade for the Port of New Orleans. "They don't have to go to Vietnam for rice, and China for this and that. They could get it directly from us," Nagin said. "We grow it all." "We see a huge opportunity if President (Barack) Obama continues to go in the direction he's headed," Ray Nagin said in an interview. "The first thing is to get the license from the US, then everything else falls into line," he added, saying word on the fate of the license could come as early as January. Nagin was heading a delegation of New Orleans officials in Cuba to talk with the government about topics ranging from hurricane preparation to commercial opportunities, including flights (Reuters, AP, 21/10/09).

October 21: New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin called for an end to the US embargo against Cuba during a trade mission to Havana. The head of the beleaguered Gulf Coast city, home to one of the biggest ports in the United States, told the press the decades-old embargo should be scrapped or loosened. Nagin said both the United States and Cuba would gain from trade, which has slowed to a trickle since the embargo was introduced in 1962 (AFP, 21/10/09).

October 21: Cuba is ready to ship 1 million cases of rum to America if Washington eases its 47-year-old embargo, but would hold off exporting its flagship Havana Club brand because of US trademark battles, one of the island's top rum executives said. US trade sanctions have cost Cuba's rum industry $95 million annually in lost sales and additional spending to import production materials including glass bottles and machinery from Europe instead of from its neighbor to the north, said Juan Gonzalez, vice president of Cuba Ron SA, the communist state's rum production monopoly. Cuban rums can't be sold in the United States, but they are available in more than 120 countries, Gonzalez said, noting that the company sold 4 million cases in 2008. Of that, Havana Club counts for all but about half a million cases. The global financial crisis should cut into sales this year, but Cuba still hopes sell 5 million cases a year by 2013, Gonzalez said. The government does not release figures on revenue (AP, 21/10/09).

October 21: An anti-Castro militant was released after nearly four years in federal custody. He spent the last year in an immigration facility after serving prison sentences for stockpiling weapons and refusing to testify against a fellow Castro foe. Santiago Alvarez, a Miami real estate investor, had been detained by Immigration and Customs Enforcement in Georgia since last November, said one of his attorneys, Kendall Coffey. Alvarez, a legal US resident, fought ICE's bid to deport him. Alvarez and co-defendant Osvaldo Mitat pleaded guilty in September 2006 to conspiring to possess illegal weapons. They acknowledged that the arms were meant to battle Fidel Castro's totalitarian government. In late 2007, Alvarez, Mitat and three other associates of Cuban exile militant Luis Posada Carriles pleaded guilty to charges of obstruction of justice in an investigation linked to immigration fraud charges against Posada. The defendants refused to testify before the federal grand jury about Posada's entry into the United States in 2005 (The Miami Herald, 21/10/09).

October 23: Euro Group of Companies, Inc. announced that Europhone, the Company's telecommunications products and services subsidiary, has introduced its Clear Choice international calling program, offering dramatically lower per minute rates for worldwide calls from the United States. The Company has entered a marketing agreement with Blackstone Calling Card, Inc. to market the Clear Choice $0.89 per minute rate for calls from the US to Cuba. The new Cuba rate is being introduced in advertising banners on the city bus fleet and in bus shelters, and on Spanish language television, in Miami, Florida, the US home of many Cuban nationals. Euro Group of Companies, Inc. is an operating company headquartered in Port Chester, New York, with offices in Shanghai, China and Athens, Greece (Telecommunications Business, 28/10/09).

October 23: Environmental Defense Fund will send a team of experts to Havana, Cuba, to discuss ways to eliminate overfishing, protect coral reefs, conserve coastal areas, and tap potential ocean energy - a signal that greater environmental cooperation may be on the horizon.  EDF scientists and policy experts and Cuban scientists and environmental officials will have a series of meetings about how the United States and Cuba can work together to protect ocean waters and marine resources shared by the two countries.  The meetings come on the heels of a September visit to the United States by Cuban environmental officials. EDF has asked the Obama administration to ease policies that limit scientific exchanges between US and Cuban scientists and conservation professionals (PRNewswire, 23/10/09).

October 24: Actor Sean Penn left Las Vegas for Havana in a private jet, the entertainment news website TMZ.com reported. "Sean is going to the land of Fidel as a journalist, writing a story for Vanity Fair about how the Obama administration has affected Cuba," the brief article said. Penn reportedly was traveling in a plane owned by Diana Jenkins, the wife of Barclays Bank executive Roger Jenkins. A spokesman for Penn told TMZ.com that there is "no appointment scheduled and no current plan" for Penn to meet with Raúl Castro's brother Fidel. Penn spent the day on the Isle of Youth, talking with Cuban artists, reported the official site Cubadebate in a lavishly illustrated article. His host was painter Alexis ("Kcho") Leyva. Others included singer Kelvis Ochoa, trumpeter Yasek Manzano and painters Ernesto Rancaño and Sándor González. Penn visited an arts gallery in the city of Nueva Gerona and toured an arts camp called The Second Front (the Miami Herald, 26/10/09).

Octubre 25: US President Barack Obama asked Spain to send a message to Cuba urging its president Raul Castro to step up efforts to improve relations with Washington, a Madrid newspaper reported. "Tell Raul that if he does not take steps, neither can I," Obama told Spanish Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero, according to El Pais, which cited a diplomatic source. "We are making efforts, but if they do not make efforts, it will be very difficult for us to continue," said Obama during the meeting on October 13 at the White House, the newspaper added. The message was passed on to Havana the following week by Spanish Foreign Minister Miguel Angel Moratinos during a visit to Cuba, El Pais said (AFP, 25/10/09).

October 26: A top Cuban communications official said that the communist government is wary of a Miami company's plan to run a fiber optic cable to the island and it hasn't yet even been asked for permission. TeleCuba Communications Inc. announced on October 13 that it had received US Treasury Department approval to lay about 110 miles (175 kilometers) of cable from Florida to Cuban territory -- seemingly a significant dent in the US embargo against the island. But Francisco Hartmann, director of strategy for Cuba's national Office of Information, said his government has "no official knowledge that there is interest to negotiate" such a project, and he indicated they may frown on it if asked. "If all the information that we have passes by cable to Florida, that technological independence, the sovereignty that for us is so important, what will happen to it?" he asked at a news conference. TeleCuba said the cable, following the route of a defunct 1950s copper telephone cable from Key West, Florida, to the Havana suburb of Cojimar could be operational by the middle of 2011. It acknowledged that it had not obtained Cuban permission to bring the cable ashore. No one answered the phone at TeleCuba's office. Instead of the TeleCuba proposal, Hartmann said Cuba is content to wait for a much longer, 960-mile (1,550-kilometer) undersea cable that its socialist ally Venezuela plans to run to the island (AP, 26/10/09).

Octubre 26: El gobierno de Estados Unidos señaló que la libertad religiosa es "ampliamente respetada" en América Latina, "excepto" en Cuba, según su informe sobre Libertad Religiosa, que incluye también a Venezuela entre los países que ponen trabas a la libertad de culto. El Departamento de Estado analiza anualmente la situación mundial respecto a la persecución y la discriminación por motivos religiosos, así como las iniciativas y leyes desarrolladas para promover el respeto confesional en el mundo. En su informe correspondiente a 2009, Cuba y Venezuela se encuentran entre el grupo de países en los que se ha detectado "restricciones y abusos" a la libertad religiosa, en el que también están, entre otros, Irán, China, Irak, Corea del Norte, Pakistán y Sudán (International Religious Freedom Report: Cuba; EFE, 26/10/09).

October 27: Broward residents who want to fly to Cuba may have an option closer to home than Miami in the future. County Commissioners will vote on whether to ask the federal government to designate the Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport as a point of entry for flights to and from Cuba. County officials also want to designate Port Everglades as another point of entry. Low cost carriers at the airport ``can offer travelers an economical alternative to travel to Cuba that they might otherwise not be able to afford,'' states a draft letter written by County Mayor Stacy Ritter to the US Department of Treasury (The Miami Herald, 27/10/09).

October 27: US, Cuban and Mexican scientists have drawn up plans for joint research in the Gulf of Mexico, in another sign of improvement in long-hostile US-Cuba relations. In a meeting in Havana, they agreed on top priorities for collecting information about the Gulf, a body of water shared by the three countries but about which little cooperative research has been done in recent years. "This is a logical, low-risk area in which to begin discussions with Cuba. It is without question in our mutual interest to share science and ideas on our shared resources like the Gulf of Mexico," Environmental Defense Fund senior attorney Dan Whittle said. Whittle was among 30 Americans, 30 Cubans and six Mexicans at the meeting, held ahead of an international meeting on ocean science in the Cuban capital (Reuters, 28/10/09).

October 27: Michael Douglas staged an impromptu walking tour of the Cuban capital's historic district, posing for photos with construction workers and surprised residents. His visit came two days after fellow Oscar-winner Sean Penn arrived in Cuba, reportedly seeking an interview with 82-year-old Fidel Castro. Little was known about Douglas' plans for his four days in Cuba, but he was accompanied on his walk through Havana's old quarter by Patricia Rodriguez, an official at the city historian's office (AP, 28/10/09).

October 28: Charles Shapiro, the senior advisor for economic initiatives in the State Department's Bureau of Western Hemisphere Affairs, is slated to be among the dozens of speakers at a three-day conference in Miami Beach on Cuba and other international issues. Organized by the American Bar Association's international law section, the annual event this year will take a close look at trade and investment opportunities in Cuba as relations between Washington and Havana begin to thaw. Some will argue the time is now for a change in how the neighboring adversaries interact. But others will argue that better relations won't come anytime soon. ``There's the big question on when or if the embargo will be lifted or relations will be normalized (…),'' said George Harper, a panelist and president of the Inter-American Bar Association. ``I hate to say it, but I don't see anything new along on those lines'' (The Miami Herald, 28/10/09).

October 28: The Obama administration defended the long-running US economic embargo against Cuba in the face of another overwhelming UN General Assembly vote condemning American policy toward the island nation. But administration officials also stressed efforts to reach out to the Cuba's communist government. Susan Rice, the US Ambassador to the United Nations, said the UN resolution did not reflect the "current realities" in Cuba. She said it was wrong to blame the US sanctions for deprivation among the Cuban people. "It is high time for this body to move beyond the rhetorical posturing of the past, to recognize the situation in Cuba for what it is today and to encourage progress toward genuine change," Rice told the General Assembly. In a sign of thawing ties, Obama has lifted limits on Cuban Americans traveling and sending money to Cuba, and initiated talks with Havana on migration and mail service, the latter aimed at reinstating direct postal service between Cuba and the United States suspended since August 1963. "These are important steps and we hope they can be the starting point for further change," Rice said (VOA, Reuters, 28/10/09).

October 28: Cuba is willing to hold talks with the United States "on any level," Cuban Foreign Minister Bruno Rodriguez said in conciliatory remarks aimed at the Obama administration. Rodriguez said in an interview with the press the island nation was waiting for a response from Washington to Cuba's offer to broaden discussions. His comments came despite a testy exchange between the top Cuban diplomat and a senior US official just before the UN General Assembly voted overwhelmingly to condemn America's 47-year trade embargo. "We are prepared to have a dialogue with the government of the United States at any level," the foreign minister told AP after the vote, adding that such talks must be held on the basis of mutual respect and sovereignty. He reiterated that Cuba formally offered in July to hold expanded talks with the United States to cooperate in combatting terrorism and drug trafficking, and to work together to fight natural disasters, among other things. "We are waiting for the North American response," Rodriguez said. He also said Cuba has been pleased by progress of ongoing talks on migration and re-establishing direct mail service. He called those discussions "productive and respectful" (AP, 29/10/09).

Octubre 28: Una jueza federal de Miami fijó para el 8 de diciembre las nuevas sentencias a dos espías cubanos en Estados Unidos cuyas condenas fueron consideradas excesivas por una corte de apelaciones, informó el tribunal. Los agentes de inteligencia cubanos Fernando González --condenado a cadena perpetua-- y Ramón Labañino --19 años de cárcel-- recibirán nuevas condenas por parte de la jueza federal Joan Lenard, al igual que ocurrió dos semanas atrás con otro miembro de los llamados "Cinco de Cuba'', Antonio Guerrero. La condena de Guerrero, se redujo de cadena perpetua a 22 años de cárcel (AFP, 29/10/09).

October 28: Medications to combat cancer manufactured by a Chinese-Cuban biotechnology firm have managed to break Washington’s 47-year-old economic embargo against Cuba, given that the good results achieved with their use to date have caused them to be approved for use in the United States. “The FDA (US Food and Drug Administration) approves these products ... in spite of the embargo,” the head of engineering for Biotech Pharmaceutical, Jose Suarez Rivero, told the press in Beijing. The United States is one of the countries where clinical trials on the products are being carried out – a required step prior to allowing them to be sold – along with about 100 hospitals in Japan, Canada, Germany, India, Malaysia, Brazil and Mexico (LAHT, 28/10/09).

October 29: The Treasury Department says it wants companies such as Microsoft Corp. and Google Inc. to resume instant messaging services in countries including Cuba and Iran that remain under US trade sanctions. Microsoft and Google cut off the use of instant messages by citizens of Iran, Syria, Cuba and Sudan, saying US regulations prohibit the required downloads. Now the Treasury Department is saying the online communications foster democracy and should be restored. Ensuring the flow and access to information available through the Internet and similar public sources is consistent with the policy interests of the United States. The company-imposed blackouts show how US trade restrictions can conflict with diplomatic goals, said James Lewis, an analyst at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington. “We want people to be able to communicate,” Lewis, who administered US export control rules in the 1990s, said in an interview. “But in the normal course of business this stuff is on autopilot. The sanctions system rolls on and generates an answer that is no.” The US began an “interagency effort” to make sure electronic communication is available in nations facing sanctions “to the extent permitted by current US law,” Szubin said in the letter to Sarah Stephens, executive director of the Washington-based Center for Democracy in the Americas (Bloomberg, 29/10/09).

October 30: Omara Portuondo's Latin Grammy Award-nominated "Gracias" was released in the United States in 2008, but she wasn't able to tour stateside in support of the album until now. Like other Cuban singers, Portuondo, best known as one of the stars of the "Buena Vista Social Club" album, had been barred from performing in the States since 2003, when the administration of President George W. Bush tightened visa regulations. Her recent shows in Los Angeles and San Francisco mark the start of what is expected to be a new wave of performances in the United States by Cuban artists (Billboard, 30/10/09).