Chronicle on Cuba - January 2004

Exile Community

January 9: According to Lt. Col. Lamberto Fraga, head of a department with the Cuban Immigration Directorate (DIE), new procedures are currently being implemented whereby, as of April 2004, Cubans residing abroad would be exempted from acquiring a visitor entry permit, a decades old consular requirement for those travelling to the island. (El Nuevo Herald, 10/1/04)

January 16: Uncorroborated rumors that Fidel Castro had died or suffered a stroke buzzed around Miami-Dade County, with anxious callers inundating police departments, media outlets and exile groups. ''We've gotten hundreds of calls, mostly from the media, but also from our own officers and some members of the public,'' said Miami-Dade police spokesman Randy Rossman. ``At this point, we are not mobilizing anyone for anything special at this time.'' The latest rumor -- something that has occurred frequently over the years -- appears to have spawned from comments published from Luis Eduardo Garzón, the leftist mayor of Bogotá, Colombia. He said that Castro appeared to be ''very sick'' during their talks in late December. (The Miami Herald, 17/1/04)

January 28: A University of Miami project has taken the first steps toward measuring the ideological divide between newly arrived Cubans and those who have lived in the United States for decades. A preliminary survey of 208 newly arrived Cubans recently found that the new arrivals distrust the established Cuban exile community in the United States and institutions in Cuba. That has implications for a post-Castro transition in Cuba, said Andy Gómez, co-director of the project and a senior fellow at the UM Institute for Cuban and Cuban-American Studies. Researchers hope to use the early findings to secure funding for a broader study of the Cuban-American community, Gómez said. (Sun Sentinel, 28/1/04)

January 29: The First International Congress on Cuban Culture, organized by the Spanish Association "Cuba in Transition" (AECT), began in Madrid. Its goals include among others, showing support for the Cuban domestic opposition and solidarity with persecuted democracy proponents, particularly those from cultural circles, as in the case of the poet Raúl Rivero. For three days, this conclave will bring together more than one hundred leaders of the Cuban opposition in exile. (ABC, 29/1/04)

January 30: Several Cuban Americans said they met with Bush in Austin but denied that there has ever been any discussion of assassinating Castro or of military action to remove him from power. Castro’s allegation that President Bush and Cuban Americans in Miami were plotting to assassinate him was widely covered by foreign correspondents in Havana, although he has made similar allegations on at least four other occasions, including in two speeches in which he claimed that the plot was hatched during a Texas meeting between Bush and exiles before the 2000 presidential election. ''Castro needs to have a constant war against shadows,'' said Joe Garcia, executive director of the Cuban American National Foundation, who attended the Austin meeting. He said the gathering, which included several exile leaders, was short and focused on Bush's stance on US policy toward Cuba, including the embargo. 'Castro's accusation has no basis or foundation of truth,'' Garcia said. ''There's no need to kill Castro. He's half-dead already,'' said Luis Zuñiga, a member of the anti-Castro Cuban Liberty Council in Miami. (The Miami Herald, 31/1/04)

January 31: Governor Jeb Bush fired up a roomful of supporters of his brother's reelection campaign in Miami, but there were signs of lingering tension over the Bush administration's Cuba policy. A few Cuban-American Republican legislators and local elected leaders chose to skip the morning rally and a closed-door reception with the governor, underscoring, they said privately, concern over the president's commitment to a crackdown on Fidel Castro. ''The lack of turnout among Republican-elected officials at the campaign kickoff may highlight a problem among Cuban-American voters that must be addressed,'' said state Representative David Rivera of Miami. He was among the legislators who did not attend, saying he had scheduling conflicts. ''As Republican-elected officials, we want to deliver overwhelming support for the president's reelection, but we need help on the Cuba issue to achieve it,'' said Rivera. (The Miami Herald, 1/2/04)