Chronicle on Cuba - February 2004

US-Cuba Relations

February 1: While some officers of the US Department of Homeland Security work overtime to thwart terrorists intent on using planes as weapons of mass destruction, their colleagues have been intensely monitoring Americans suspected of attempting to vacation in Cuba. Under an October 10 directive from President Bush, the department began devoting extra resources to more intensively inspect passengers who travel to Cuba on daily charter flights from Miami, New York and San Francisco. "Homeland Security and the Department of Foreign Assets Control officers are interrogating - or interviewing, depending on your point of view - everyone both on the way out and on return," says Bob Guild of Marazul Charters, a travel agency that arranges trips for those with legal exemptions to the travel ban. (Houston Chronicle, 1/2/04)

February 1: The federal Department of Homeland Security silenced renowned flamenco guitarist Paco de Lucia's first Bay Area concert in four years recently, denying Lucia's bandmate permission into the country because he is a Cuban national. De Lucia was supposed to play his groundbreaking version of jazz-influenced flamenco to a sold-out crowd at the University of California, Berkeley's Zellerbach Hall. But bass player Alain Rodríguez was held back from entering the country indefinitely as the Department of Homeland Security looks over his petition to visit. Rodriguez has been living in Spain for five years but is a Cuban national with a passport from Cuba. (The Daily Review, 1/2/04)

February 1: In an attempt to bring Texas farmers a potential $57 million in food and agricultural exports to Cuba that could result in 1,500 new jobs, Texas businesses, organizations and individuals pursuing the Cuban market have formed the Texas Cuba Trade Alliance. The TCTA is designed to support the effort with current information about economics, business opportunities, and export trade policies. (Farm Press, 1/2/04)

February 2: Pernod Ricard said that a US patent appeal board upheld its registration of the Havana Club trademark in the United States, handing the French spirits group a victory in its long-standing dispute with Bacardi USA. In a joint venture with the Cuban government, Pernod Ricard has been selling Havana Club-brand rum worldwide, although a four-decade old embargo against Cuba bars Pernod Ricard from selling the product in the United States. (Reuters, 2/2/04)

February 2: A US Cuban scientific expedition kicked off a biodiversity study in the Sierra Maestra mountains and the Nipe-Sagua-Baracoa massif in eastern Cuba. The purpose of the trip is to conduct quick ecological analyses of the La Bayamesa nature preserve in the Buey Arriba and La Melva municipalities, in the northeastern province of Holguin. Some 30 specialists from Cuba's National Museum of Natural History and the Eastern Ecosystem and Biodiversity Center, along with experts from Cornell University and Chicago's Field Museum, are participating in the study. (EFE, 2/2/04)

February 2: Cuban Parliament President Ricardo Alarcón has reaffirmed the Cuban people's determination to defend their Revolution by any means necessary. The island's top legislator was in Camagüey for the 490 th anniversary of the foundation of the central Cuban city. Ricardo Alarcón noted that Cuban patriots fought almost barehanded against the Spanish colonialist army in the 19th century - - the most powerful army at that time. And he emphasized that Cuba is once again willing to do whatever is necessary to defend its independence and sovereignty against any invasion. (Radio Habana Cuba, 3/7/04)

February 2: The US diplomatic mission in Havana has modified the procedures for those wishing to obtain a visitor’s visa. Anyone applying for a non-immigrant visa will have to call the US mission first to make an appointment. The new procedure attempts to eliminate daily line of thousand of people, outside the US mission, who try to get an entrance to the building. (El Nuevo Herald, 3/2/04)

February 3: Two Cubans who tried to sail to Florida in a truck converted to a pontoon boat last year have made another attempt, this time piloting a seagoing 1950s-era Buick. Marciel Basanta Lopez and Luis Grass Rodriguez, who were sent back to Cuba in July after they failed to reach Florida in a converted 1951 Chevy pickup, were apparently at the helm of the newest vehicle-boat conversion. The US Coast Guard refused to confirm the status of the tail finned car or the origin of photos of it in the water that were broadcast on television. US policy prevents the disclosure of information on such cases until they are resolved, such as by sending the participants back to their home countries, Petty Officer Sandra Bartlett said. Under US immigration policy, Cubans who reach US shores are allowed to stay, while those caught at sea are usually returned. (The Globe and Mail, 3/2/04)

February 3: An editorial published on the front-page of this morning's edition of Granma refutes a recent Wall Street Journal article as part of Washington's cynical campaigns against Havana and Caracas. The Granma editorial refers to an article that appeared in the Wall Street Journal on February 1st, charging that Cuba and Venezuela are a threat to "democracy and human rights" in Latin America. The article accuses the government of Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez of propping up the Cuban Revolution with crude oil sold to the island at preferential prices. [Las cínicas campañas del gobierno de Estados Unidos] (Radio Habana Cuba, 3/2/04)

February 3: Cuba has accused the US government of preparing the ground for an invasion of the island and the assassination of Fidel Castro. Recent attacks by Bush administration officials on Castro for forging an axis with oil-producing Venezuela to destabilise Latin American countries are building a pretext for an invasion, the ruling Communist Party newspaper Granma said. They aim to "create a climate of artificial hysteria that would justify before American public opinion a military adventure against our homeland, including the physical elimination of compañero Fidel," Granma charged in a front-page editorial. [Las cínicas campañas del gobierno de Estados Unidos] (Reuters, 3/2/04)

February 4: Cuban filmmaker Fernando Pérez did not receive a visa to attend the screening of his movie Suite Habana (2003) at the 21 st International Film Festival of Miami. Pérez was in Spain at the time, where he was invited to attend the Goya awards ceremony. (El Nuevo Herald, 4/2/04)

February 5: Cuban officials complained that the Bush Administration has denied visas to Cuban Grammy nominees for the awards ceremony and wondered how aging musicians could be considered security threats. All five nominees for best traditional tropical Latin album are Cubans who live on the island. They include 77-year-old singer Ibrahim Ferrer of Buena Vista Social Club fame and salsa pianist Guillermo Rubalcaba, aged 75. "I am not a terrorist. I couldn't be one. I am a musician and have always been well received by American audiences," said Ferrer, one of the veteran musicians who were rediscovered and shot to world fame by the Buena Vista project. [Información del Instituto Cubano de la Música] (Reuters, 8/2/04)

February 5: A Baptist minister who sits on Cuba's parliament worried that politics will hurt relations between churches here and in the United States after failing again to get an American visa for a long-planned visit. The Reverend Raúl Suárez was invited by American church groups to take part in religious conferences and other Black History Month events in Mobile, Alabama, and Boston. "I presented my application 14 weeks ago," Suarez told the press. To participate in the planned events "I would have to travel this Sunday at the latest," he added. Officials at the US Interests Section, the American mission in Havana, declined to comment on the case, citing confidentiality rules. Suarez is a deputy on Cuba's National Assembly, or parliament, and directs the church-run Dr. Martin Luther King Center in Havana. (AP, 5/2/04)

February 5: US law enforcement authorities in South Florida arrested two men for defrauding the public by claiming to be Secret Service agents assigned to a CIA operation to recover money from properties confiscated by the Cuban government. Prosecutors announced that authorities arrested Roberto Martin Cabrera, who came to Miami in 1996 claiming to be a deserter from the Cuban intelligence service who had been instructed to assassinate several members of the Miami-based Cuban American National Foundation (CANF), one of the main exile organizations. The other man arrested was identified as Christopher Johnson, who with Martin stands accused of conspiracy and fraud. (EFE, 5/2/04)

February 6: In a race against time, a carload of 11 Cubans found floating at sea in a vintage Buick sought a court order to get into the United States against federal policy rather than face a return trip home. Taken aboard a US Coast Guard ship, the Cubans would lose their legal rights in US courts if they were repatriated, so their only hope was to get a helpful court ruling while still at sea. The attorneys contend U.S. agents rule differently on claims of political persecution depending on whether people are caught at sea or reach U.S. soil. They said about 99 percent are denied at sea, but almost all Cubans are allowed to stay if they reach land under a policy adopted by the Clinton administration and kept by the Bush administration. [For more on this, see Exile Community] (Sun Sentinel, 6/2/04)

February 7: Cuba, where Ernest Hemingway lived for two decades, and a foundation in the US state in which he died agreed to swap information contained in books and documents the American writer left behind. The co-president of the Hemingway House Foundation in Idaho, Martin Peterson, struck the deal with Cuban officials at Finca Vigía, the estate on the outskirts of Havana where Hemingway lived from 1940 to 1960. Peterson gave the Cuban officials a black-and-white photograph of Hemingway on a hunting trip in Idaho during which he shot two antelope. Their stuffed heads hang in the sitting room at Finca Vigía. (Reuters, 7/2/04)

February 9: A Cuban family caught at sea on a floating 1959 Buick will not be returned to Cuba for at least two more days, a judge decided. US District Judge Federico Moreno extended an order while attorneys for the federal government and the family continue to examine immigration law and policies. Luis Grass Rodriguez, his wife and 4-year-old son are among 11 people found on the Buick off the Florida Keys. Assistant US Attorney Dexter Lee said the Coast Guard may be in a position to repatriate the other eight. [For more on this, see Exile Community] (CNN, 9/2/04)

February 9: The Bush administration identified 10 foreign companies -- most of which are involved in the travel business -- that it believes are linked to Cuba and thus are forbidden from doing business in the United States. The Treasury Department's action marks the latest development emerging from President Bush's call for more stringent enforcement of provisions that forbid most travel to Cuba. Under current rules, there are exceptions that cover working journalists, relatives of Cuban citizens, providers of humanitarian aid and others. The 10 companies named in the action are: Travel companies: Canada Inc., Montreal and Quebec; Corporacion Cimex S.A., Havana and all other locations worldwide; Havanatur S.A., Havana and other cities in Cuba; Havanatur, S.A., Buenos Aires, Argentina; Havanatur Bahamas Ltd, Nassau; Havantaur Chile S.A., Santiago, Chile; Cubanacan Group, Havana; Cubanacan International B.V., Zevenhuizen, Netherlands; and Cubanacan U.K., Limited, London. The gift company: La Compania Tiendas Universo, S.A., Cuba. [Treasury Designates & Blocks 10 Entities for Cuban Embargo Violations] (CNN, 9/2/04)

February 9: Appearing before about 100 Cuban-American businessmen in vote-rich southern Florida, US Treasury Secretary John Snow blasted Fidel Castro while naming the organizations to be put on a Treasury list that makes it illegal for Americans to deal with them. "We're cracking down," Mr. Snow told Cuban leaders. "We mean business. We're cutting off American dollars headed to Fidel Castro, period. At the same time, we're reaching out to the freedom hungry people of Cuba. While we will not tolerate illegal travel to Cuba, we sympathize with those desperate to travel here from Cuba. Because until Cuba is free, people will risk their lives to come to these shores of freedom." (Reuters, 9/2/04)

February 9: Fidel Castro signed baseballs, handed out cigars and flower bouquets and discussed increased ties with the United States in a meeting with two Republican legislators who want to lift a ban on US travel to Cuba. Senator Larry Craig and US Representative Butch Otter, both of Idaho, ``are pushing very hard to lift the travel restrictions,'' said Craig spokesman Mike Tracy, who attended the encounter with Castro at the Palace of the Revolution. The 22 other members of the trade and cultural delegation were also present, Tracy said. (AP, 9/2/04)

February 9: The Commission for Assistance to a Free Cuba (CAFC), established by President Bush on October 10, 2003, and chaired by Secretary of State Colin L. Powell, welcomes public input for working groups to assist in identifying and encouraging measures to help the Cuban people to bring and end to the dictatorship, and develop a plan for agile and decisive assistance to a post-dictatorship Cuba. The core agencies responsible for day-to-day operations of the Commission include, the State Department, the Department of Housing and Urban Development, the Treasury Department, the Commerce Department, the Department of Homeland Security, the National Security Council, and the U.S. Agency for International Development. Secretary Powell designated Assistant Secretary of State for Western Hemisphere Affairs Roger F. Noriega to direct day-to-day Commission activities. [CAFC Welcomes Public Input for Working Groups ] (Department of State, Press Release, 9/2/04)

February 10: The world's only flying eye hospital and training center -- the Orbis DC-10 --- is restocking its medical supplies and picking up staffers in West Palm Beach after training eye-care professionals in the Philippines. The jet heads for its seventh mission to Cuba this month. Orbis was invited as a humanitarian organization by the country's Ministry of Health -- where it will train doctors, nurses and medical technicians. (The Palm Beach Post, 10/2/04)

February 10: Eight of the eleven Cubans who tried to cross the Florida Straits in a boat made from a green 1959 Buick car were sent home by the US Coast Guard, which confirmed it had sunk the Buick. The Coast Guard said it repatriated the group as part of a larger batch of 98 Cuban migrants who were picked up at sea in recent days and delivered to the port of Cabañas in western Cuba. The other three Buick boaters, a family of three, are still being held on a Coast Guard cutter at sea pending a decision on their immigration status. (CNN, 10/2/04)

February 11: Two Republican US lawmakers, just back from a trade mission to Cuba, believe the United States will drop its ban on Americans' travel to the Caribbean island next year. Senator Larry Craig and Congressman Butch Otter, both Idaho Republicans, just returned from a four-day trip to Cuba, where they led a trade delegation and signed agricultural agreements with Cuban officials. (The Voice of Americas, 11/2/04)

February 11: The book “Cuba, the Untold Story” (“Cuba, la historia no contada”), denouncing the four decades of US terrorism against Cuba, is a splendid background to the case of the five Cubans imprisoned in the US, Cuban People's Power National Assembly (Congress) President Ricardo Alarcon said. At the book launching for "Cuba, La Historia No Contada" at the 13th International Book Fair in the presence of the wives and mothers of the Miami Five, Alarcon said the work explains just what terrorism means for the Cuban people. (Prensa Latina, 10/2/04)

February 12: A family of three Cubans will be sent to the US Naval Base at Guantanamo Bay, where their requests for political asylum will be reviewed. An asylum officer with the Department of Homeland Security said in court papers that Luis Grass Rodriguez, who pushed off Cuba's shores in a 1959 tail-finned Buick with his wife, Isora Hernandez Hernandez, and their 4-year-old son, Angel Luis, has demonstrated a "credible fear of persecution" in Cuba. (Sun Sentinel, 12/2/04)

February 12: Havanatur Tour company operating in the Bahamas may be forced to change the way it does business, in the face of an embargo by the US Treasury Department for allegedly providing Americans with travel packages to Cuba. Havanatur manager, Nelson Sarduy, told The Guardian newspaper that his firm is waiting to see what will happen and to have a better view of the measures they have to take. Sarduy admitted that the company would have to make adjustments to the present state of business. (Radio Habana Cuba, 12/2/04)

February 13: Morgan, Lewis & Bockius, one of the biggest US law firms, is facing a $40 million malpractice suit from a former client for allegedly advising it to continue trading with Cuba through foreign subsidiaries. Purolite, a privately owned water purification resin manufacturer based in the US, accuses Morgan Lewis of malpractice and gross misconduct for advising it that trading between a British subsidiary and "entities affiliated with Cuba", which is subject to a US trade embargo, was legal. (Financial Times, 13/2/04)

February 14: Fidel Castro urged US President George W. Bush for the second time in a week to state whether he, as a policy, renounces the assassination of foreign leaders. Referring to Bush on the reelection campaign trail, the 77-year-old communist leader asked in a lengthy address at an economic conference: "How can the transition (the US says it wants) be sped up in Cuba? " Quickly answering his own question, Castro said "the only way is by moving to an extrajudicial execution," and Castro challenged Bush to state openly whether he believes he has the authority to order the executions of foreign leaders. "We will honor our obligations and duties until the last breath," Castro said, warning, "we always are on guard." Instead of his usual "Fatherland or Death" salute to cap a speech, Castro addressed Bush jokingly, saying: "Hail, Ceasar. Those who are about to die salute you." (AFP, 15/2/04)

February 14: America's economy hangs by a thread while Cuba -- after four decades under a US economic blockade -- continues to offer free health care and boasts an infant mortality rate lower than its northern neighbor, Fidel Castro asserted. In a 41/2-hour speech to economists, Castro also took shots at President Bush, saying he "couldn't debate a Cuban 9th-grader." He recited for a half-hour from "Dos Cabalgan Juntos (Two Men Riding Together)," a book of purported malapropisms by Bush. Castro also lashed out at the "foolishness" of the US economic blockade that has been in place since the presidency of John F. Kennedy, saying it hadn't stopped Cuba from surpassing the United States in many areas. At one point -- after offering his audience coffee to avoid falling asleep -- Castro went on to quote various reports from the US media severely criticizing Bush, the economy, US unemployment and the war on Iraq. (AP, 15/2/04)

February 14: The US Cuban Adjustment Law (1966) is responsible for illegal emigration in the Island, Granma daily reiterated, after informing that US authorities recently returned another 112 illegal Cuban emigrants. (Prensa Latina, 14/2/04)

February 15: Pulitzer Prize-winning author Alice Walker debuted the Spanish translation of her novel "Meridian" in Havana, telling her Cuban fans there is a direct correlation between the US civil rights movement and the socialist revolution that brought Fidel Castro to power. "I thought about Cuba a lot when I was writing this," Walker told a packed audience at an international book fair. "It has meant very much to me that Cubans have understood what I'm doing. Sometimes in my own country, I am very severely criticized by people who don't bother to read me at all." (AP, 15/2/04)

February 16: The Treasury Department announced that it would "take a hard look" at restricting "remittance" rules that allow Cuban Americans to send as much as $1,200 a year to relatives on the island. The government wants to be sure that the money really is ``going to where it's supposed to,'' Treasury Secretary John Snow said during a news conference announcing a crackdown on Cuban-owned companies conducting illegal business in the United States. A spokeswoman for the Treasury Department said that details of how remittance rules would be changed are still to be determined. The move to restrict remittances, spokeswoman Tara Bradshaw said, stems from President Bush's speech in October that condemned Fidel Castro for recent crackdowns on dissidents. (The Miami Herald, 16/2/04)

February 16: The Roundtable, broadcast from Havana, presented details of the latest “pandering of President George W. Bush government to the anti-Cuban right-wingers in Miami”. The panel of political analysts gave examples of the newest harassments of US citizens traveling to Cuba, restrictions on the amount of money and number of visits Cuban Americans can send or make to their families in Cuba. They also talk of Washington´s attempts to extend restrictions to companies in third countries that have Internet connections with US citizens but do business in Cuba. (Prensa Latina, 16/2/04)

February 16: US farmers and businesspeople believe that Cuba is a valuable market with which they want to develop and strengthen trade, according to Marvin Lehrer, director of the US Rice Federation for Latin America. Lehrer arrived in the Cuban capital to continue negotiations with Cuba's ALIMPORT company on US rice exports to Cuba. (Radio Habana Cuba, 17/2/04)

February 17: Despite four decades of trade sanctions and increasing White House hostility, Cuba has become the United States' 35th market for food exports. Cuba's purchases of American agricultural products doubled last year, as US agribusiness giants sold more and more grain to the Caribbean island, according to a report by a New York-based business group. The US-Cuba Trade and Economic Council, which monitors trade between the two countries, said Cuba imported $256.9 million worth of US agricultural products in 2003. (Aljazeera.Net, 17/2/04)

February 17: Cuba harshly criticized the US before the World Trade Organization (WTO) for refusing to fulfill its obligations in a dispute involving Brussels and Washington regarding the “Havana Club” brand name. The Cuban representative complained that the U.S. keeps on refusing to comply with an adverse ruling by the WTO’s disputes settling body, arguing that the case is being reviewed by the U.S. Congress. (EFE, 17/2/04)

February 17: US Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Latin America, Peter DeShazo, said he expects that the presence of Cubans in Venezuela is restricted to health and education. “There are Cubans in Venezuela” invited by President Hugo Chávez, said DeShazo in a TV program taped at the headquarters of the Voice of America (VOA). (AFP, 17/2/04)

February 19: A crackdown by the Bush administration on US travel to Cuba has reduced the number of non-Cuban Americans visiting the island to a trickle, travel agents and Cuban officials said. At Havana's Hemingway Marina, it is hard to find a yacht or big-game fishing boat with a US flag these days. "The Commerce Department began asking for export licenses for the vessels," said the marina's commodore, Jose Miguel Diaz. "The yachters didn't want trouble." Havana was packed with American tourists in November and December, including museum curators and retired academics, who rushed to get a glimpse of the communist-run nation before permits for cultural and educational visits ended. (Reuters, 19/2/04)

February 19: Despite tough talk by both countries, the US and Cuba quietly maintain ties and cooperate with one another, a leading Cuba expert said. Jorge Dominguez, director of the Weatherhead Center for International Affairs at Harvard University, made the remarks during a gathering at Florida International University. He said while President Bush and Fidel Castro maintain a show of "fierce hostility," the countries actually work together when it comes to issues like migration, security and exports to Cuba. "It is easier to engage in rhetoric if Castro's rhetoric is equally high and hostile," Dominguez said. Bush's tough stance on Cuba, Dominguez said, allows him to win over traditionally Republican Cuban-Americans who might otherwise sit out the upcoming presidential election, which could be detrimental considering the crucial role Florida played in the 2000 election. “ Every vote here counts and every campaign penny here counts," Dominguez said. (Sun Sentinel, 19/2/04)

February 19: Republican US Representative Lincoln Díaz-Balart issued a statement refuting professor Jorge Dominguez's take on US-Cuba relations. He said Bush has expelled Cuban spies, indicted Cuban officials, and threatened to veto attempts to weaken the embargo and travel restrictions to the island. Diaz-Balart suggested Dominguez's remarks were tied to Democratic efforts to undermine the president's re-election campaign. "Dominguez' remarks are a clearly calculated political maneuver to weaken Cuban American support for President Bush," Diaz-Balart said in the statement. (Sun Sentinel, 19/2/04)

February 19: The United States Olympic women's basketball team began training workouts in advance of its trip to political rival Cuba for three exhibition games. The Americans, who have named nine members of their roster for August's Athens Games, will play against the 2003 Pan American Games champions three days in a row and conduct a final practice session before returning home. (AFP, 19/2/04)

February 20: The top US diplomat in Havana said Cuba's government was fabricating a threat of invasion by the United States to instill fear in Cubans and retain political control. “The Cuban government is fabricating the ‘threat’of a US military attack to engender fear in the Cuban population”, the head of the U.S. mission in Havana, James Cason, said in a statement. “Last year the Cuban Foreign Minister suggested that we were slowing down the processing of travel documents for Cubans migrating to the US to create a mass migration crisis as a pretext for war, which of course was untrue. The US Interests Section asked MINREX [the Cuban Foreign Affairs Ministry] to allow Mr. Cason to address the Cuban public through Cuban newspapers and television to tell the Cuban public directly that we had no intention to attack or invade Cuba. We were trying to reassure the Cuban people. The Cuban government did not allow it”, the note adds. (News Havana, Reuters, AP, 20,21/2/04)

February 20: José Contreras, the New York Yankees pitcher who defected from Cuba, expressed his frustration saying the Cuban government is keeping his family there to punish him. The righthander also said he wished the team would try harder to help him out, a sentiment echoed by his agent, Jaime Torres. Torres plans to set up a meeting with Yankees officials sometime during spring training. "I'm hoping Randy Levine or Mr. Steinbrenner can maybe contact the White House and get our diplomats involved in contacting the Cuban government," Torres said. Contreras already has tried the usual route, saying his wife, Myriam, and two daughters, Nailan, 11, and Nailenis, 3, were granted visas on three occasions from Nicaragua, where Contreras, established residency. He said the Cuban government has steadfastly refused to give them the white cards necessary to leave the country. "They were told they weren't eligible for the white card until five years after I left the country," Contreras said. (Newsday, 20/2/04)

February 20: The US Immigration and Customs Enforcement Office dismantled a ring of human smuggling between Cuba and South Florida, which had brought 250 persons into the US in the last three years making about $2 million. (El Nuevo Herald, 20/2/04)

February 20: The United States Department of Commerce revoked the license of Send a Piano to Havana, a non profit organization that has donated pianos to Cuban music schools since 1995. The project had sent 237 refurbished pianos to date with the latest shipment of 27 instruments arriving in Havana earlier this month. The Cuban representative of the US charity, Armando Gómez recently established the Newton Hunt School of Tuning and Instrument Repair in the Cuban National School Of Music. The project is named after a New Jersey piano tuner who died last year bequeathing the entire contents of his workshop to the Havana school. (Prensa Latina, 12/2/04)

February 20: House Majority Leader Tom DeLay (Republican-Texas) delivered an impassioned speech denouncing Fidel Castro's terrorist regime and honoring thousands of victims of communist violence and oppression at el Memorial Cubano in Miami, Florida. "Humanity has known it by many names -- Nazism, fascism, Communism, terrorism. But it is one and the same evil, inhuman ideology -- no matter what language it speaks, or what uniform it wears," DeLay said. "The war on terror is a war against evil, and it is therefore a war against Fidel Castro," DeLay said. "Freedom and terrorism cannot coexist, and evil will not stand. And if it will not stand in Baghdad, Kabul, Tehran, or Ramallah, then it will not stand in Havana." DeLay joined Florida congressmen Lincoln Diaz-Balart, Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, and Mario Diaz-Balart, along with members of the Cuban Memorial Project, an assembly of various organizations, groups, and individuals from the Cuban exile community, to denounce Fidel Castro's regime. (US Newswire, 20/2/04)

February 21: Cuba, the US poultry industry's eighth export market, said it would increase imports despite the appearance of the dreaded bird flu in four states and bans slapped on US chicken and eggs by some countries. "We have limited purchases from a few states due to avian influenza, but see no problem with the vast majority," said Pedro Alvarez, chairman of Cuba's state food importer Alimport. Alvarez said Cuba would purchase 120,000 metric tons of US poultry in 2004 as his company increased US food imports in general. (Reuters, 21/2/04)

February 21: In a move that pits national security concerns against academic freedom and the international flow of information, the US Treasury Department's Office of Foreign Assets Control recently declared that American publishers cannot edit works authored in nations under trade embargoes. Although publishing the articles is legal, editing is a "service" and it is illegal to perform services for embargoed nations, the agency has ruled. This includes the five embargoed nations: Iran, Iraq, Sudan, Libya and Cuba. (Los Angeles Times, 21/2/04)

February 21: Thirteen Cuban migrants were picked up by US Border Patrol agents after being smuggled into the Florida Keys aboard a speedboat, an official said. Members of the group said they left from Cuba, and the boat left them on Duck Key, about 90 miles southwest of Miami, Border Patrol supervisor Kerry Heck said. The group had made it to shore by the time they were spotted, and will therefore likely be allowed to stay in the country. (CNN, 21/2/04)

February 21: Cuba announced an agreement to buy $1 million in cattle feed from Iowa under ongoing deals that have carried Cuba to No. 35 on the US's list of food export markets. Pedro Alvarez, president of the Cuban food import-export firm Alimport, announced the deal to buy 10,000 metric tons of feed from Midwest Grain Processors during a news conference with visiting Iowa farm representatives. The deals announced are the latest in a series of ongoing transactions between the communist-run island and US farm producers that are allowed under an exception to the US trade embargo. (AP, 23/2/04)

February 23: America's top diplomat in Cuba said that there were no plans to restart formal US-Cuba migration talks that the United States suspended last month. The meetings, held every six months, were established to monitor 1994 and 1995 accords designed to promote legal, orderly migration between the two countries -- and prevent a mass exodus as in 1994 when tens of thousands of Cubans took to the sea in flimsy vessels for Florida. The United States said it suspended the migration talks because of Cuba's repeated refusal to discuss key issues, while Cuba blamed the suspension on US presidential election politics. "The talks potentially could be useful," James Cason, chief of the US Interests Section in Cuba, said. "But I think we have found in recent years that they haven't been." Cason said Cuban authorities are still refusing to discuss allowing American diplomats to visit repatriated migrants in the countryside and are denying exit permits to hundreds of doctors and health care workers who have US government approval to immigrate. He said three other issues Havana refuses to discuss are: C uba's cooperation in holding a new registration for the lottery from which two-thirds of all legal migrants are chosen; a deeper port in Cuba for repatriations, allowing the US Coast Guard to use its larger vessels to return migrants and free up smaller ones for patrols; and Cuba's obligation under international law to accept the return of Cuban nationals the United States wants to deport. (Houston Chronicle, AP, 23/2/04)

February 24: The Reverend Lucius Walker, director of IFCO/Pastors for Peace, is in Cuba with a group of US students who are enrolling in Havana's Latin American School of Medicine. Of the nearly 7000 students from Latin America and other parts of the world attending classes at the medical school, 60 students are from poor families in the United States. Their only obligation is to return as graduating doctors and treat poor people in their communities. (Radio Habana Cuba, 24/2/04)

February 25: The State Department issued its annual Country Reports on Human Rights Practices. The report found that human rights abuses in Cuba "worsened dramatically" as the regime of Fidel Castro continued to commit numerous serious abuses and denied Cuba's citizens the right to change their government. The report pointed to the sentencing of 75 dissidents to lengthy prison terms for exercising their fundamental rights as evidence of the government's poor performance. The report was also critical of the Castro regime for ignoring petitions, which contained thousands of signatures, calling for a national referendum on political and economic reforms. [See, Cuba 2003. Country Reports on Human Rights Practices] (EFE, 26/2/04)

February 26: The US National Committee to Free the Cuban Five has issued a statement on the status of two wire transfers sent to the Committee from overseas to help pay for the upcoming full-page New York Times ad on the Cuban Five. According to the solidarity organization, the US Department of Treasury, Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC), in conjunction with Wachovia Bank, first prevented the National Committee from receiving two wire transfers sent to it from two Cuban Five support committees: the Coordinadora Andaluza de Solidaridad con Cuba, in Andalucía, Spain, and the Paris-based National Coordinator for the French Committee to Free the Cuban Five. Neither the OFAC nor Wachovia explained why they unlawfully denied the National Committee access to these funds. Instead, they demanded that the groups involved answer intrusive questions about the work they do on Cuba and the case of the Five. It was announced that the funds have now been released. (Radio Habana Cuba, 25/2/04)

February 26: President George W. Bush stepped up restrictions on boats traveling between US ports and Cuba, citing "the disturbance or threatened disturbance of the international relations of the United States caused by actions taken by the Cuban government." Bush signed a presidential proclamation authorizing Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge to take the necessary measures to keep tabs on boats bound for Cuba and increase inspections of vessels in US. The president also asked local and state authorities to collaborate with the federal government to prevent "the unauthorized departure of vessels intending to enter Cuban territorial waters." The measure strengthens enforcement of the US embargo against Cuba. [See also, Exile Community] (EFE, 26/2/04)

February 26: US President George Bush signed an order that expands the government's authority to inspect US vessels sailing to Cuba, further tightening the embargo in a move critics say aims to appease Cuban-American voters during a hotly contested election year. Stating that US boaters could be endangered by the Cuban military's "potential use of excessive force," Bush directed Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge to develop new rules to prevent unauthorized vessels from entering Cuban waters. US authorities would be authorized to inspect any vessel in US waters, place guards on ships and take possession under some circumstances. (Sun Sentinel, 27/2/04)

February 27: One of the Cubans who tried to reach Florida last summer aboard a truck converted into a boat was called by US officials to a surprise interview about his request to migrate legally to the United States. (AP, 27/2/04)

February 27: Thirty-six Cubans were returned to their homeland after they were found at sea in two separate interdictions, the US Coast Guard said. (Sun Sentinel, 27/2/04)

February 27: Seven months after a group of Cubans boarded a customized '51 Chevy pickup and headed out to sea, only to be returned by the US Coast Guard days later, the remaining camionautas -- or ''truckonauts'' -- have yet another chance. Eight of the Cubans whose political asylum claims were denied by US officials were summoned once again to resubmit their paperwork, according to family members and reports from the island. A ninth truckonaut, Ariel Diego Marcell -- whose asylum application is still being processed -- fainted on the steps of the US Interest Section in Havana after showing up for interviews. ''He just passed out from nerves,'' said Rubén García of Miami, a relative of several of the Cubans who left the Havana coast aboard the battered, diesel-powered Chevy. (The Miami Herald, 28/2/04)