Chronicle on Cuba - April 2004

Highlights

Domestic Affairs: A Cuban court grants a blind human rights lawyer and another opposition activist conditional liberty. Thousands of Cubans break the world record for most people playing chess simultaneously.

Economy: Cuban officials and eight Canadian import companies meet in Havana.

Foreign Affairs: A resolution presented by Honduras at the UN Human Rights Commission in Geneva condemns Cuba for its March 2003 crackdown on dissidents. An exchange of diplomatic notes on the Carlos Ahumada case tenses relations between Cuba and Mexico. The European Parliament again calls on the Cuban authorities to immediately release all political detainees.

Terrorism: Cuba asks the UN's top human rights body to investigate the United States' detention of al-Qaeda and Taliban suspects at its naval base in Guantanamo. Cuba calls the sentences handed down in Panama to six individuals accused of plotting to kill Fidel Castro too short.

US-Cuba Relations: Cuba opens its petroleum sector to US investment at a bilateral meeting with US businessmen in Havana.