Chronicle on Cuba - May 2010

US-Cuba Relations

May 3: US government television and radio broadcasts to Cuba have failed to make “any discernible inroads into Cuban society or to influence the Cuban government,” the majority staff of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee said in a report. Although such programs may “have noble objectives,” Chairman John F. Kerry (D-Mass.) said, “we need to examine whether we're achieving them.” The report was the latest salvo in a years-long battle between congressional opponents of the broadcasting effort, who say it is a waste of money largely benefiting some members of the Cuban American community in Miami, and proponents, who insist that it is a useful adjunct to US policy that provides unbiased reporting to the island (The Washington Post, 4/5/10).

Mayo 6: Los viajes de los cubanos residentes en Estados Unidos a Cuba han aumentado un 50 por ciento desde septiembre de 2009, cuando el presidente norteamericano, Barack Obama, levantó oficialmente las restricciones de viaje hacia la isla como parte de su intento por suavizar la férrea política que mantiene Washington contra La Habana desde hace más de 50 años. Desde el pasado mes de septiembre unos 100,000 cubano-americanos más han podido trasladarse hacia la isla a visitar a sus familiares aprovechando la flexibilización de esta medida, explicó a Europa Press José Treviño, director comercial y de marketing de Havanatur, operador turístico encargado de gestionar todo lo referente a los viajes desde territorio estadounidense hacia la nación caribeña. Las perspectivas apuntan a que el flujo de connacionales incremente este año “siempre que el gobierno de Obama mantenga esta flexibilización”, aclaró Treviño. También dependerá del desarrollo de la crisis económica que ha golpeado con fuerza a la población inmigrante en Estados Unidos, agregó (Europa Press, 6/5/10).

May 6: President Barack Obama's top adviser on Latin America said Cuba was a “long way" from making improvements on the human rights front that would warrant lifting a decades-old US trade and financial embargo. Dan Restrepo, Senior Director for Western Hemisphere Affairs at the National Security Council, said Obama has made it clear that he has no intention of ending the sanctions against Cuba without positive steps by its communist government. “A significant change in the US-Cuba relationship -- and a lifting of the embargo would be a significant change -- requires action by both,” Restrepo said in an interview at the Reuters Latin American Summit. "And we're a long way from having seen the kind of action where that would even be in the mix,” he said. The Obama administration last year lifted restrictions on visits and cash remittances to the island by Cuban Americans in an effort to reach out to the Cuban people. It has also held “constructive talks" with Cuba on issues of mutual interest, primarily on migration, Restrepo said. But he added: “Obviously, the continued repression by Cuban authorities visited upon the Cuban people is something that nobody wants to see continue." "We have not seen positive action on respect for the fundamental rights of the Cuban people over the course of the last 18 months,” Restrepo said. Washington remains committed to supporting the desire of the Cuban people to “freely determine their own futures,” he said. “This will not, as the president has said, be something where change will happen overnight" (Reuters, 6/5/10).  

May 6: Cuban folk icon Silvio Rodriguez has been booked to play at Carnegie Hall during his first US tour in more than 30 years, but his office said that Washington has yet to approve his visa. The Cuban government Web site Cubadebate, where Fidel Castro posts his written essays, announced that the US tour would also take Rodriguez to Chicago, San Francisco, Los Angeles and Puerto Rico. His last American concerts came in February 1979, when he visited New York, Boston, Philadelphia and Washington during the administration of President Jimmy Carter, when US-Cuba relations experienced a slight thaw in nearly a half century of frigid ties. Rodriguez's office said his US visa had not been approved, but the New York concert has already been scheduled for June 4. The 63-year-old Rodriguez is a staunch defender of the Castro government and has for decades penned politically charged lyrics, though many fans are more moved by his poetic love songs (AP, 7/5/10).

Mayo 8: El ex presidente de Cuba, Fidel Castro, afirmó que el mandatario de Estados Unidos, Barack Obama, “ignora la realidad y no quiere ni podría superarla”, en una de sus habituales Reflexiones. “Más bien sueña cosas irreales en un mundo irreal”, sostuvo el líder histórico de la revolución cubana, quien se refirió al derrame de petróleo en el Golfo de México, el bloqueo contra la isla y las medidas contra la inmigración en el estado de Arizona (La tiranía odiosa impuesta al mundo; IPS, 8/5/10).

May 9: Leaders of the National Council of Churches and Church World Service are urging the president to lift the restrictions on religious travel to Cuba, calling the current US policy toward Cuba “ineffective and counter-productive.” In a joint letter to President Obama, NCC General Secretary Michael Kinnamon and CWS Executive Director/CEO John L. McCullough said the “impractical restrictions” that resulted from the Bush administration's then-new interpretation and application of the US Code governing travel to Cuba by religious groups have reduced their ability to send religious delegations to Cuba, limited their opportunities to accompany and support their Cuban church partners and have the effect of “severely limiting” participation in Cuba missions by US churches and congregants. “Since 2005, US church denominations, mission agencies and ecumenical organizations at the national and regional levels have suffered from severe restrictions on religious travel,” the leaders noted in their May 4 letter.“We urgently ask that you now change the Cuba policy of the United States in ways that will assist the churches in their work and have wider benefits for our country and for the people of Cuba,” they added. Noting that Congressional action is not required to lift the travel restrictions imposed on religious groups, NCC and CWS has asked the president to take direct action. The letter also asked the president to work with Congress to end the travel ban to Cuba for all Americans (Christian Post, 9/5/10).

May 9: More than two dozen Cuban migrants were repatriated to Cuba, according to the US Coast Guard. The migrants were intercepted in three separate incidents, the Coast Guard said. Most were repatriated to Cuba, while others were taken to Guantánamo. On May 2, the cutter Key Biscayne crew spotted five male Cubans aboard a vessel about five miles south of Key West, the Coast Guard said. On May 4, an Air Station Miami HU-25 Falcon jet crew spotted a 27-foot pleasure craft being towed with 26 Cubans and three suspected smugglers aboard, the Coast Guard said. The three suspected smugglers were transferred to Customs and Border Protection. On May 5, a person spotted five male Cubans aboard a craft about 15 miles south of Key West and contacted the Coast Guard. The crew of the Coast Guard Cutter Key Biscayne responded, the Coast Guard said (The Miami Herald, 10/5/10).

Mayo 10: Jugadores de béisbol infantil de Cuba y Estados Unidos protagonizarán en la isla el documental From Ghost town to Havana (Del pueblo fantasma a La Habana), un filme del documentalista estadounidense Eugene Corr, que narra la vida de un entrenador cubano y uno del país norteño, trascendió a la prensa acreditada en la nación caribeña. La cinta es un proyecto que comenzó en 2007, pero no recibió la autorización del Departamento del Tesoro en Washington durante el gobierno de George W. Bush (IPS, 10/5/10).

May 10: Cuba's most famous ballerina Alicia Alonso will receive a tribute from the American Ballet Theater in New York next month in celebration of her 90th birthday, the National Ballet of Cuba said. Alonso, the ballet's director, has been an ambassador of the 1959 Cuban revolution, which set off decades of tensions with the United States including trade sanctions which continue today. She will travel to Spain on May 14, following a European tour, and already has a visa to travel to the United States at the end of May, before the June 3 tribute in New York's Metropolitan Opera House, a company spokesman told the press. The Cuban dancer and choreographer began her professional career with the American Ballet Theater, where she danced the main role in Giselle in a critically-acclaimed performance in 1943. Although she is almost blind and now struggling to walk, Alonso still actively directs the communist island's national ballet. The ballerina, who was born on December 21, 1920, has already received birthday tributes across the world, including in London and Enghien-les-Bains, France, last April (AFP, 11/5/10).

May 10: A former Dutch bank has agreed to forfeit $500 million for conspiring to defraud the United States and trade with US enemies, federal officials said. The former ABN AMRO Bank NV, now known as the Royal Bank of Scotland NV, agreed to the penalty as part of a criminal information filed in US District Court in Washington, the Justice Department said in a release. The former ABN AMRO was charged with one count of violating the Bank Secrecy Act, and one count of conspiracy to defraud the United States and violate the International Emergency Economic Powers Act and the Enemy Act. “ABN AMRO facilitated the movement of illegal money through the US financial system by stripping information from transactions and turning a blind eye to its compliance obligations,” said Assistant Attorney General Lanny Breuer. “Over the course of a decade, ABN AMRO assisted sanctioned countries and entities in evading US laws by facilitating hundreds of millions of US dollar transactions.” The bank was accused of conspiring to illegally facilitate US dollar transactions on behalf of financial institutions and customers from Iran, Libya, Sudan, Cuba and other countries between 1995 and 2005 (UPI, 10/5/10).

May 11: Three decades after he last played in New York, Cuban legend Silvio Rodriguez is headed to Carnegie Hall, at a moment when he and other celebrated island folk singers are raising unusually open questions about their country's communist system. Rodriguez, now 63, has been a sort of folk-song poet laureate of Fidel Castro's revolution in recent years, performing at important official events and even serving in Cuba's parliament for a time, though many admire him most for his poignant lyrics and haunting melodies. Yet the June 4 concert in New York — which still hinges on US government approval of his visa — may show Americans a more complex Cuba than many expect. Rodriguez is still firmly on the side of the socialist system Castro built, but his latest album suggests there need to be adjustments if it is going to survive. “Against disenchantment, offer hope,” he sings on the album “Segunda Cita,” or “Second Date,” which was released in March. “Overcome the 'r' in revolution,” the song goes — alluding to the uprising that swept Castro to power on New Year's Day 1959, and to almost everything in Cuba that has happened since. “If we don't change, they are going to change us,” Rodriguez wrote in response to written questions from The Associated Press, “and that's not what I want to happen to my country.” He added that, “I hope evolution takes us, as the angel in the song says, right up to the crossroads where we made the wrong decision and we rectify that.” It's light criticism by any measure — and Rodriguez has been coy when asked to shed light on what he meant. Rodriguez plans shows in San Francisco, Chicago, Los Angeles and Puerto Rico. He recalled last playing New York in 1978, singing at a theater on Broadway. “At 5 o'clock in the afternoon it was full,” he said. “I couldn't believe it.” Rodriguez called playing Carnegie Hall “fantastic,” but is careful not to get too hung up on playing famous venues for the first time: “I'm a bit too old for that" (AP, 11/5/10).

May 11: Cuba’s permanent representative at the United Nations, Pedro Nuñez Mosquera, condemned the US government in that forum, for keeping the island on the list of countries supporting terrorism. The Cuban representative recalled that, over the last 51 years, Washington has been involved in repeated terrorist actions against the Caribbean island, killing 3,478 people and disabling another 2,099, and causing material losses worth over 54 billion dollars. He added that the unilateral production by the United States of lists accusing other countries as supposed supporters of terrorism is incompatible with International Law and the UN resolutions, the Prensa Latina news agency reported. Nuñez Mosquera denounced the double standards of the US government, which thinks it has the right to certify the behavior of other nations in terms of terrorism, while it doesn’t trial confessed criminals who have committed horrible acts of terrorism against Cuba. In this regard, he mentioned the case of well-known international terrorist Luis Posada Carriles, whom the US authorities refuse to condemn for his crimes. He also demanded the US administration the release of the five Cubans it has maintained as political prisoners in high security jails for over 11 years now (ACN, 11/5/10).

Mayo 12: Cuando en una imagen de archivo del documental Oscar's Cuba se ve a una turba instigada por el gobierno gritar, frente a la casa del doctor Oscar Elías Biscet, una frase tan absurda como “Abajo los derechos humanos”,  queda inmediatamente validada la labor del médico y disidente a favor de los derechos humanos en la isla. Dar a conocer internacionalmente la figura de Biscet, quien cumple una condena de 25 años por exigir de manera pacífica el respeto a las libertades, es el objetivo de Oscar's Cuba. El documental, filmado clandestinamente en la isla por el realizador norteamericano Jordan Allott, se estrena en el Teatro Tower de Miami-Dade College con la presencia de directivos de esta institución educacional, el director del filme, ex presos políticos y de los hijos de Biscet, Yan Morejón y Winnie Biscet. “El mensaje de desobediencia civil y de no violencia de Biscet es muy fuerte, especialmente en el mundo de hoy”,  señaló Allott, quien se propone llevar el documental a una audiencia no cubana en varias ciudades europeas y en Washington DC, donde reside (El Nuevo Herald, 12/5/10).

May 12: Cuban folk singer Silvio Rodriguez, considered the voice of the Cuban revolution, has received a US visa and is to perform a concert at New York's Carnegie Hall on June 4, his American attorney said. Lawyer Bill Martinez told the press in a telephone interview from San Franciso, California the visa was approved by US officials and is long enough to permit Rodriguez to play concerts in other US cities, including Los Angeles, San Francisco and Chicago. Rodriguez, 63, is the latest Cuban performer to be allowed into United States, which had routinely denied such visas under former President George W. Bush (Reuters, 12/5/10).

Mayo 13: Líderes republicanos de la Cámara de Representantes de Estados Unidos y miembros del Directorio Democrático Cubano divulgaron un informe que denuncia las violaciones de derechos humanos en Cuba. El reporte propone un cambio de estatus para los disidentes que han sido encarcelados en Cuba, de manera que pasen de ser “prisioneros políticos" a “secuestrados”. Según un comunicado del Directorio, el documento contiene una cronología detallada de los sucesos que ocurrieron en torno a la muerte del prisionero político Orlando Zapata Tamayo, quien falleció en febrero pasado tras una huelga de hambre de 85 días. Además, el informe critica que la Organización de Estados Americanos (OEA) haya dado el primer paso para el eventual regreso de Cuba al organismo regional. El informe critica que la OEA haya “incluido al régimen cubano en la organización pese a que éste no se adhiere a la Carta Democrática Interamericana”. En la presentación del informe participarán los legisladores republicanos Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, los hermanos Mario y Lincoln Díaz-Balart, y Albio Sires. La divulgación del informe se produce un día después de que varios congresistas, entre ellos Sires y los hermanos Díaz-Balart, así como ex presos políticos cubanos homenajearon en el Congreso a las “Damas de Blanco”, por su lucha por la libertad y la democracia en la isla (EFE, 13/5/10).

May 14: The defense team of Gerardo Hernandez, one of the five Cubans incarcerated in the US, will apply for habeas corpus on June 14, so justice reconsiders the situation of this prisoner. The appeal lodged in favor of Hernandez, who was given two life sentences plus 15 years in prison, will be made to Judge Joan Lenard, from the Miami Federal Court, who sentenced him along with another four Cuban antiterrorists in 2001. The defense hopes the case of Hernandez -who was given the longest sentences as a result of a long and arbitrary trial- will be reconsidered, the Cubadebate Web site reported (ACN, 14/5/10).

May 15: Cuba has held cultural celebrations to mark the 50th anniversary of the first meeting between former Cuban leader Fidel Castro and late American writer Ernest Hemingway. The four days of celebrations ended on May 15, coinciding with the date when exactly 50 years ago, Castro and the Nobel literature laureate personally met in Havana during a fishing tournament. "I truly admired his thirst for adventure,” Castro said in 2005. Hemingway spent long periods of time in Cuba, especially in “Finca Vigia,” an old farm on the outskirts of Havana. Hemingway left the Vigia farm for New York in 1960. He committed suicide on July 2, 1961. The farm was turned into the Hemingway Museum in 1962 where more than 22,000 of Hemingway's books, photos, films, hunting trophies, guns, and other personal items are on display (Xinhua, 15/5/10).

May 18: The sprawling oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico is prompting concern in Cuba, which boasts one of the Caribbean's most pristine coral reefs, thick mangroves and nesting areas for green sea turtles. Cuban government officials called US oceanographers looking for assistance. the scientists said, and the State Department confirmed that “ low, technical level'' talks are underway to help Cuba respond if the sheen should move close to its shores. But environmentalists note a lack of formal ties with the country could hamper efforts to get assistance to Cuba, and renewed a call to the Obama administration to engage in talks with Cuba. “ We simply can't afford to not communicate on the environment,'' said Daniel Whittle, Cuba program director for the Environmental Defense Fund. “ The economic and ecological impact, if and when, it reaches the loop current could be significant and we don't have any formal mechanism to respond or communicate.'' A State Department official said the US and Cuba -- which have a cooperative agreement on hurricanes -- are “ exchanging information and looking at avenues for further information exchange.'' Alberto Gonzalez Casals, a spokesman at the Cuban Interests Section in Washington, said the country would be “ ready to prevent this kind of oil spill.'' “ I can tell you we are aware of the situation, we are preparing in any case of the oil spill coming to Cuba to take measures,'' he said. He added that Cuba doesn't expect to be affected, but is in a “ position to cooperate with the United States'' (The Miami Herald, 18/5/10).

May 19: The US and Cuba were holding talks on how to respond to the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, a US State Department official said, underscoring worries about the oil reaching a strong current that could carry it to the Florida Keys and the pristine white beaches of Cuba’s northern coast. The official was not authorized to comment publicly and spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity. Oil has been spewing since the offshore drilling rig Deepwater Horizon exploded off the Louisiana coast April 20. Government scientists, meanwhile, were surveying the Gulf to determine if the oil had entered a powerful current that could take it to Florida and Cuba and eventually up the East Coast. USand Cuban officials are holding “working level” talks on how to respond to the massive Deepwater Horizon oil spill that is believed to be dumping some 5,000 barrels of crude a day into the Gulf of Mexico, two State Department officials told The Associated Press. “I can confirm that they are ongoing and going on at the working level,” State Department Spokesman Gordon Duguid told reporters in Washington. “It is incumbent upon us to inform all of our neighbours, not just the islands, but those countries that could be affected by disasters that happen within our territorial waters.’’ Another State Department official had previously discussed the talks with The Associated Press on condition of anonymity. Neither would say where the talks were taking place, or what specifically was being discussed. It was not clear if the US has offered assistance to Havana in the event the oil hits Cuban beaches, or if officials here would accept.  There was no immediate comment from Cuban authorities on the oil spill talks (The Toronto Star, 20/5/10).

May 19: US State Department spokeswoman Virginia Staab said US diplomats in Havana delivered a note to communist-ruled Cuba's foreign ministry informing it about the Gulf oil spill and what was known about the slick's projected movement. “We have had working-level discussions with the Cuban government to keep them informed of developments,” she said. "We also communicated the US desire to maintain a clear line of communication with the Cuban government on developments,” Staab added, stressing that “stopping the oil leak is our top priority.” Cuba has said it is monitoring the US oil spill (Reuters, 19/5/10).

May 19: Two Cuba experts who are advisors to the Washington-based Brookings Institution think tank said in a May report that environmental cooperation was essential for both countries to be able to work together effectively against the kind of ecological disaster that the Gulf oil spill heralded. “Obviously, the establishment of working relations between the United States and Cuba to facilitate marine environmental protection is the first step in the contingency planning and cooperation that will be necessary to an effective response and early end to an oil spill,” attorney Robert Muse and oil expert Jorge Pinon said in the joint paper. Although the oil that could threaten Cuba is gushing from a well in US waters, Muse and Pinon said there was the same possible risk of an accident in Cuba's plans to move forward with deepwater exploration drilling in its own territorial segment of the Gulf of Mexico. “The sobering fact that a Cuban spill could foul hundreds of miles of American coastline and do profound harm to important marine habitats demands cooperative and proactive planning by Washington and Havana to minimize or avoid such a calamity,” they wrote. The United States should hold joint exercises with Cuba to coordinate emergency responses, and facilitate immediate scientific cooperation, Muse and Pinon said (Muse and Pinon Report; Reuters, 19/5/10).

May 20: The Cuban Parliament is proclaiming its solidarity with those who’re facing the brutal violation of their human rights in the United States, after the enactment in the state of Arizona of “a law of deep racist and xenophobic nature.” A Declaration issued by the Commission for International Relations of the National Assembly of the People’s Power, published by Granma newspaper, denounces that the law allows the police to use the racial profile to arrest any person if they have “reasonable suspicion" that he or she is an illegal immigrant. The text adds that, in fact, immigrants without documents are criminalized, thus creating an atmosphere of persecution against immigrants in general, who from now on will be constantly submitted to arbitrary detentions, searches and humiliation, including deportation to his or her country of origin. The declaration also expresses concern about the implications of this law –which could spread throughout the US territory- for millions of human beings that in this region are forced to go to the United States to look for better living conditions for themselves and
their families (ACN, 20/5/10).

Mayo 20: Arturo Valenzuela, subsecretario de Asuntos Hemisféricos del Departamento de Estado, manifestó en Miami la preocupación de la actual administración por la situación de los derechos humanos en Cuba, al tiempo que valoró el papel de las Damas de Blanco. Valenzuela dijo que el clima político en la isla “ ha contribuido a la muerte reciente del prisionero de conciencia Orlando Zapata”,  un hecho que conmovió a la opinión pública internacional en febrero y generó airadas críticas de la disidencia dentro y fuera de la isla. El subsecretario habló durante la tradicional celebración de la Fundación Nacional Cubano Americana (FNCA), con motivo de un nuevo aniversario de la independencia de Cuba. A la cita asistió un grupo de representantes de las Damas de Blanco, a las cuales Valenzuela saludó y elogió personalmente tras su presentación. “ Mis saludos a las Damas de Blanco por su labor”,  precisó. Valenzuela ratificó el compromiso de Estados Unidos de alentar el quehacer democrático en toda la región latinoamericana, incluyendo a Cuba (El Nuevo Herald, 20/5/10).

Mayo 21: El gobierno cubano hizo llegar a Estados Unidos “una propuesta de agenda" para un diálogo bilateral “serio" que englobara temas de interés común como la inmigración, la lucha contra el narcotráfico o los desastres naturales antes de pasar a abordar los “temas difíciles”, pero, según explicó en una entrevista a Europa Press el ministro de Exteriores cubano, Bruno Rodríguez, no han recibido una respuesta aún. Por otra parte, consideró que el presidente Barack Obama tiene ante sí una “oportunidad histórica" de cambiar la política de su país hacia la isla como reclama la mayoría de los estadounidenses. Según explicó el ministro, dado que “hay muchos temas en común" entre los dos países, en julio de 2009 “nosotros le presentamos a Estados Unidos una propuesta de agenda para un diálogo bilateral, para un diálogo serio, y lo hicimos discretamente como se hace cuando se hace con responsabilidad y seriedad”. “Yo soy realista y comprendo que un diálogo bilateral difícilmente podría empezar por temas difíciles de esta naturaleza" como la supresión del bloqueo, por lo que la propuesta de La Habana es “empezar por temas de cooperación y presentamos al gobierno norteamericano documentos y propuestas concretas”, aclaró el ministro, que esta semana participó en Madrid en la Cumbre Unión Europea, América Latina y Caribe. La propuesta incluiría abordar “áreas como el narcotráfico, de enorme interés para el pueblo norteamericano y una prioridad nacional de Estados Unidos”, la “cooperación en el área del tráfico de personas o el área migratoria, en terreno del control de tráfico aéreo" o en el plano medioambiental y en la “prevención y mitigación de desastres naturales”. “Sin embargo el gobierno de Estados Unidos no ha respondido a esta agenda y no ha dado ningún paso práctico”, lamentó Rodríguez, pese a lo cual, aclaró que Cuba ha decidido seguir “asistiendo a las conversaciones en el área migratoria y en el terreno postal" que los dos países han retomado desde que Obama llegó a la Casa Blanca en enero del año pasado, “porque consideramos que son útiles y se conducen de manera respetuosa" (Europa Press, 21/5/10).

May 24: The 60th edition of the Ernest Hemingway International Fishing Tournament was inaugurated in Havana, and will be devoted to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the first and only meeting held between Fidel Castro and the celebrated US novelist. With Havana’s Hemingway Marina as its venue, the event’s program includes the unveiling of a plaque to commemorate the occasion in which Fidel and the Nobel Literature Prize winner coincided in the competition (ACN, 24/5/10).

May 24: Authorities found a group of Cuban migrants along the Rickenbacker Causeway, in Miami. Someone called police just before 5:30 a.m. to report 15 people on the south side of the causeway. When police arrived, they found 13 migrants, some walking along the causeway, Miami police said. All were in good condition. Police notified US Customs and Border Protection, who took the migrants to the Dania Beach station to be processed, an agency spokesperson said. The group included eight men, four women and a juvenile girl. The group told officials they made a vessel from 55-gallon drums and a single engine, but authorities have not found a vessel, according to Elee Erice, a Customs spokeswoman. They said they piloted it themselves, leaving “ from an isolated area to the east of Havana on May 21,'' Erice said. The migrants will likely be allowed to stay, she said. Under the so-called wet-foot/dry-foot policy, Cubans intercepted at sea are repatriated, while those who touch land are allowed to stay (El Nuevo Herald, 25/5/10).

May 26: Cuba has yet to open a legal case against a US government contractor from Maryland nearly six months after he was arrested as a suspected spy, the head of the island's high court said. Alan P. Gross was detained on December 3 at Havana's Jose Marti International Airport and has been held without charge at the capital's high-security Villa Marista prison ever since.
Formal charges cannot be filed in Cuba without a judicial accusation and the opening of a court case, so it appears unlikely charges against Gross are imminent even as he approaches a half-year in custody.  It is rare for suspects to be held for extended periods in Cuba without charges or even a case being opened. But Supreme Court President Ruben Remigio said that “there still is not a case related to this matter" and he did not know whether prosecutors were working on one. “The courts receive cases when cases are presented,” Remigio added, speaking on the sidelines of an international legal conference in western Havana. “When they aren't presented, we don't have a case.” The general in charge of investigations for the Interior Ministry attended the same event but declined to comment (AP, 26/5/10).

May 26: The US government has licensed a Houston-based oil drilling group to travel to Cuba to start cooperation on safety and environmental practices following the Gulf of Mexico oil spill. The International Association of Drilling Contractors (IADC) said the Obama administration denied it permission to travel to Cuba in December, but reversed the decision apparently due to the attention the BP Plc (BP.L) well blowout brought to the potential for an environmental catastrophe. “The license was granted, curiously, just after the spill in the United States,” said IADC Executive Vice President Brian Petty. “We are pleased the government has relented.” The IADC is waiting for Cuba to set a date for a visit by a delegation of five of its staff to enhance Cuban awareness of global standards in the prevention of accidents, safety procedures and environmental protection, Petty said. The delegation would discuss the prospect of deepwater drilling offshore Cuba, the IADC. It would be the first time a US oil industry delegation visits the communist-run country which has no diplomatic ties to Washington and is under a trade embargo enforced after Fidel Castro's revolution five decades ago (Reuters, 26/5/10).

Mayo 27: La Sección de Intereses de Estados Unidos en Cuba (SINA) aplicará a partir del 1 de junio un nuevo sistema para visados, conocido como Solicitud Electrónica Para Visas de No-Inmigrantes DS-160, según un comunicado. “El nuevo sistema electrónico aplicará a todas las solicitudes sometidas en el futuro y reemplazará [a] la solicitud actual”, informó la SINA. El procedimiento está diseñado para “simplificar el proceso de solicitud" y “a la vez ofrecer mayor privacidad al individuo”. Desde enero de 2010, el Departamento de Estado de EE UU empezó a introducir la DS-160 en varios países (Diario de Cuba, 27/5/10).

May 27: Cuban singer and songwriter Silvio Rodriguez arrived in Puerto Rico after a nine hour flight and a “welcome” that turned into an “interrogation” that lasted three hours at the San Juan International Airport. The artist offered a press conference in which he said “I do not feel like a stranger in Puerto Rico despite the controls and the amount of hours that I had to travel despite the fact that Cuba and Puerto Rico are so close.  We went through a number of controls which are special for Cubans and went through an interrogation process, but they were nice after all”. After 30 years of his last US tour (with Pablo Milanes), the singer arrived in Puerto Rico (13 years from his last visit) accompanied by the  Trovarroco Trio (Maikel Elizarde, Cesar Bacaro and Rachid Lopez) his flute player Niurka Gonzalez in addition to his sister Anabel Lopez and daughter Violeta. They will all be present on May 30 when Silvio and company will perform at the Puerto Rican Coliseum in the city of Hato Rey, where the audience will be able to listen to a “collection of his best songs, because it would be unjust to sing music from his recent CD (Segunda Cita).  They will be songs that everyone knows”, said the renowned musician, now dedicated to composing music for movies and updating his blog. Now in the US, far from being in this 30’s, he has made an exception, “because I do not carry out tours anymore, but only free popular concerts (…) I have dedicated many years to touring and I now wish to dedicate myself to composing and writing” (ACN, 27/5/10).

May 28: There is a new push to make Tampa a gateway to Cuba, including direct flights to Havana, in an effort to connect Tampa's economical future with its historical past. The vision is to have at least two non-stop flights each day to Havana, totaling more than 8,000 passengers a month, and open the Port of Tampa to shipping trade with Cuba. “That will create jobs, and it will also help to break down some of those old barriers that need to be broken down in a peaceful way,” said Stephen Michelini with the World Trade Center. Backers of Cuba trade asked the Tampa City Council to visit the island nation on a cultural and trade mission. They found an ally in councilwoman Linda Saul-Sena. “It's for our economic future, as well as our cultural, social, and economic heritage,” Saul-Sena said. A hundred years ago, Florida cattle were driven across the state to steamships in Tampa, bound for Cuba. Then came the famous Tampa cigar factories staffed by Cuban immigrants. The rise of Fidel Castro, however, led to the US embargo that severed much of Tampa's historical Cuban connection (Tampa Bay Times, 28/5/10).

May 28: Cuban Parliament President Ricardo Alarcon affirmed that if the US people knew the truth about the case of the five Cuban antiterrorists, they would force President Barack Obama to release them from prison.  Injustice against Antonio Guerrero, Fernando Gonzalez, Gerardo Hernandez, Ramon Labañino and Rene Gonzalez will continue as long as the US population is prevented from knowing the real facts, warned Alarcon, who is also a member of the Politburo of the Cuban Communist Party. If they knew the truth, they would demand Obama to do what he has to do: withdraw the charges and set them free, added the Cuban leader during his address to participants in the final session of the 5th International meeting on Justice and Law, held at Havana’s Convention Center. However, “the so-called media outlets impose silence, since they don’t have much to do with information and are actually instruments of ideological control at the service of the empire”, pointed out Alarcon in the presence of relatives of the Cuban Five and of professionals from 14 nations attending the event. He recalled that the only thing the Cuban Five did was trying to discover and prevent criminal actions, which, against Cuba and its people, have been carried out from the United States with scandalous impunity for years, he pointed out (ACN, 28/5/10).

Mayo 30: La bailarina y coreógrafa cubana Alicia Alonso viajó a Estados Unidos para asistir al homenaje que le ofrecerá, el 3 de junio en Nueva York, el American Ballet Theatre por su 90 cumpleaños, informó la Oficina de Prensa del Ballet Nacional de Cuba (BNC). Alonso, directora del BNC desde hace 60 años, actuó con el American Ballet Theatre (ABT) entre 1941 y 1948, en los inicios de su carrera, y fue en esa compañía norteamericana donde debutó en el papel de “Giselle”, considerado la cumbre de sus interpretaciones. El director artístico del ABT, Kevin McKenzie, ha declarado que la compañía reconocerá a Alonso con una gala que incluirá una retrospectiva fílmica de su carrera y una función especial de “Don Quijote”. El homenaje a Alonso en el Metropolitan Opera House, sede del ABT en Nueva York, coincidirá con los festejos de la compañía estadounidense por el 70 aniversario de su fundación que comenzaron el pasado 17 de este mes. Alonso dijo valorar este homenaje como “un gran honor”. Alicia Alonso está recibiendo homenajes por sus 90 años tanto en Cuba como en otros países, aunque los cumplirá el próximo 21 de diciembre (EFE, 30/5/10).

Mayo 31: Fidel Castro le pidió a Estados Unidos “que nos explique cómo va a resolver el problema de las drogas”, en una de sus habituales Reflexiones, que publica la prensa estatal de la isla. En el texto, el líder histórico de la Revolución cubana recordó episodios como la guerra del opio y destacó el esfuerzo de los gobiernos de Venezuela y Bolivia en el enfrentamiento al narcotráfico (El imperio y la droga; IPS, 31/5/10).