Chronicle on Cuba - April 2004

Foreign Affairs

April 1: Angolan Foreign Minister Joao Bernardo de Miranda is scheduled to meet with Cuban authorities and tour several sites of interests as part of his official visit to Cuba. The Angolan guest and his delegation met with Cuban Foreign Minister Felipe Perez Roque, who highlighted the long standing bilateral friendship and solidarity links. Bernardo de Miranda layed a wreath on the monument in Havana Colón cemetery dedicated to the 2,106 Cubans who died in the defense of Angola. (Prensa Latina, 1/4/04)

April 1: President Vicente Fox invited his Cuban counterpart, Fidel Castro Ruz, to attend the next European Union-Latin America and the Caribbean Summit, announced Mexican Ambassador to the island. Roberta Lajous informed a group of journalists that she had personally delivered the invitation for Castro to attend the III Summit of heads of state and government of the European Union and Latin America and the Caribbean in Guadalajara, Jalisco. (Notimex, 1/4/04)

April 1: Honduras said it would sponsor an international resolution calling for a human rights investigation in Cuba -- the harshest position the Central American country has taken since it restored diplomatic ties with the communist-run island three years ago. The decision was announced amid accusations by Cuba that Honduras bowed to US pressure in exchange for a promise of additional economic aid. Honduran President Ricardo Maduro avoided responding to the allegation during an impromptu news conference with Honduran news media. (AP, 1/4/04)

April 1: Dutch Ambassador to Cuba Wieck Wildeboer has been "frozen" for eight months. Except for that one hour when he presented his credentials. "It is rather frustrating," Wildeboer says. "All my requests to speak to officials are rejected or there is no reply." Persistent European protests over the treatment of Cuban dissidents have gone down completely the wrong way with the Fidel Castro regime. On the order of the commander who has been in charge for 45 years on the largest Caribbean island, no European diplomat is being spoken to. "The Cubans have dug a pit for themselves, and they can no longer come out of it because the leader has forbidden that," says EU ambassador in Havana Sven Kuehn von Burgsdorff. "They [dissidents in jail] are people who wish to have a chance to make known a different opinion quite peacefully.   It is unacceptable to shut up dissidents and treat them as criminals," Von Burgsdorff says. (Rotterdam NRC Handelsblad, 1/4/04)

April 2: Jannet Rivero del Toro, activist of the Cuban Democratic Directorate, spoke before the UN Commission of Human Rights in Geneva. In a very tense atmosphere, Del Toro denounced the Cuban government's violations to the civil and political rights of the Cuban people, topic being debated presently at the Commission. This is the second time that Rivero De Toro intervenes at this session. "The Cuban government still has not subscribed to the Civil and Political Rights International Agreement, recommendation addressed to them in numerous occasions by this Commission", Rivero Del Toro pointed out. "The Cuban people have right to the rights. We have the responsibility before the world of not remaining silent, and of requesting from all the countries and democratic institutions solidarity in the fight for the human rights of the Cuban people." (Puente Informativo, 2/4/04)

April 3: Fiji hopes to establish human resource and sports capacity development through its bilateral relations with Cuba. These are among key areas to be pursued as Fiji's Permanent Representative to the United Nations (UN) and the country's first Ambassador to Cuba, Colonel Isikia Savua. Mr Savua was in Havana recently and presented his diplomatic credentials. Mr Savua said he would also pursue relations in trade, sugar, tourism and technical cooperation. (BBC, 3/4/04)

April 4: Angolan Foreign minister, João Miranda, considered as fruitful the official talks he held in Havana (Cuba), with his local counterpart, Felipe Perez Roque. Speaking at a press conference, the head of the Angolan diplomacy said that under the existing bilateral cooperation, more than 200 Angolan students are currently attending Cuba universities, whereas more than 400 Cuban expatriates are working in Angola as professionals in various areas. (Angola Press, 4/4/04)

April 5: Cuban authorities ordered a Mexican businessman jailed without bail while investigators continue the probe his alleged swindling of the Mexico City government. Mexican fugitive Carlos Agustin Ahumada will remain in jail pending an investigation by local authorities, states an official document. Havana District Attorney Luis Lorenzo Palenzuela specifies the precautionary measure was adopted by his office after studying the case file that includes information provided by INTERPOL and the Mexican Embassy in Havana. The text signed by Palenzuela confirms that the businessman gave false information on his immigration declaration upon arrival at the Caribbean Island, and was detained after receiving a detention request from INTERPOL. (EFE, Prensa Latina, 5/4/04)

April 5: Delegates from 8 countries attend the 5th International Social Work Workshop in Camaguey´s Horizontes Hotel, at 530 km (329.3 miles) away from the Cuban capital. In the 5th edition, investigators and professionals from Canada, Mexico, Italy, Peru, Ecuador, Puerto Rico and Cuba take part. (Prensa Latina, 5/4/04)

April 5: The leftist Unión Democrática (UD) party said that Honduran President Ricardo Maduro and his government "are mouthpieces for the war-mongering will of (US President George W.) Bush." In an open letter addressed to Maduro, the UD expressed outrage over his administration's decision to present before the UN Human Rights Commission in Geneva a resolution criticizing the regime in Havana. "We are convinced that this is not a sovereign initiative from the Honduran state, but that you and your government are simply mouthpieces for the war-mongering will of Bush, whose efforts to break the Cuban people and their resolve have failed, as have those of his predecessors," said the statement. (EFE, 5/4/04)

April 6: Honduras tabled a motion urging Cuba to guarantee freedom of expression and religion at the main United Nations human rights forum, with the apparent blessing of the United States. The text of the motion to the UN Commission on Human Rights also called on Havana's communist authorities to hold a "fruitful dialogue" with Cuban political groups and thinkers to develop democratic institutions and civil liberties. It backed citizens' rights to due process and deplored the heavy sentences handed down against some 75 dissidents rounded up a year ago, but stopped short of demanding their release. Peru, Nicaragua, El Salvador, Australia and the Czech Republic have so far joined Honduras as official sponsors of the motion. Diplomats said that although the United States had not yet signed up as a co-sponsor, it had made clear it backed the motion and would support it, along with European Union countries on the body. (Reuters, 6/4/04)

April 6: Puppeteers from Spain, Mexico and France are attending Cuba's 6th International Puppet Theater Workshop, at which French playwright Jean Marie Binoche is scheduled to deliver a lecture on the role of masks in the theater. Binoche's play "The Revenge of the Daisies" is being staged at the festival taking place in the city of Matanzas, 100 kilometers (60 miles) east of Havana. This year the workshop, which also features puppeteers from other Cuban provinces, includes a tribute to the children's puppet theater group "Papalote" on the occasion of its 42nd anniversary, and to its director, Rene Fernandez Santana. (EFE, 6/4/04)

April 6: A total of 78 French members of parliament and senators have joined the sponsorship campaign of Cuban political prisoners, launched by member organizations of Colectivo Solidaridad Cuba Libre. The parliamentarians and senators have sent letters to Foreign Minister, Dominique de Villepin, and to Cuban Ambassador in Paris, Eumelio Caballero, expressing concern over the health and prison conditions of their protegés and demanding their immediate release. (Encuentro en la Red, 6/4/04)

April 7: In a session marred by shouting matches between lawmakers and the forcible clearing of the galleries, Chile's lower house voted to urge the government to support a condemnation of Cuba in the UN Human Rights Commission. The motion passed by a vote of 67-8, with 14 abstentions. The resolution was introduced by the Christian Democrats, putting them at odds with the Socialists, their partners in the ruling coalition. Lawmakers from the two parties exchanged fierce barbs in the debate, accusing each other of inconsistency concerning human rights. (EFE, 7/4/04)

April 7: Cuban Foreign Affairs Minister, Felipe Pérez Roque, refused versions about the possibility of an arrangement between Cuba and the EU in the near future. “There are no conditions to talk about that possibility”, Pérez Roque said. “Relations have deteriorated because there are European countries that prefer to maintain relations with factions paid by Washington than with the Cuban government”, he added. (EFE, 7/4/04)

April 7: The Attorney General’s Office of the Republic of Mexico (PGR) presented Cuba four requests for judicial assistance that seeks to expand information in the case of businessman Carlos Ahumada, who is temporarily in detention on the island. The Coordinator of Foreign Relations of the PGR, Miguel Angel González Félix, delivered the requests to officials of the Cuban Ministry of Justice. (AFP, 8/4/04)

April 8: Hundreds of people participated in a two-hour interactive dialogue over the Internet with Cuba’s Foreign Minister Felipe Pérez Roque, who responded to questions on the most varied of issues related to the island’s realities during "Cuba, human beings with rights," as the forum was dubbed. As soon as the session began, a team set up in an office at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs received more than 20 questions, and proceeded to relay Pérez Roque’s answers. "It is very intense, but I think it is a useful effort. The participation has been massive; more than 800 cybernauts joined in, and we have responded to nearly 50 questions," he added. (Granma International, 9/4/04)

April 8: New Venezuelan Ambassador to Cuba Adan Chavez Frias said in Havana that his country is carrying out important social programs with good results with the support of the Cuban people and government. Adan Chavez refused to go into detail concerning the agreement under which Venezuela sells Cuba some 53,000 barrels of oil a day, but insisted "it is false that Venezuela is giving away oil to Cuba." The new ambassador mentioned the work being done by some 8,000 Cuban doctors in Venezuela's poorest regions, which he said is benefiting 8 million people. He also pointed out that some 9,000 Venezuelan students had received scholarships to study in Cuba, most of them in medicine. In addition, Chavez announced that Venezuela's Banco Exterior will open an office in Havana in June and noted that the value of goods and services traded between the two countries has risen to some $1 billion a year. (Prensa Latina, EFE, 8/4/04)

April 8: An editorial in Granma newspaper unmasks an attempt by former Mexican Foreign Minister, Jorge Castañeda, to capitalize on the crisis in his country over the "Ahumada Case" to mislead his compatriots and attack his political adversaries. In the article titled "Another Low Blow from Castaneda" the daily accuses the ex-official of suggesting that Havana is using the case of Mexican businessman Carlos Agustin Ahumada, arrested by Havana on request of INTERPOL and the Mexican Embassy, to obtain a favourable vote from that country at the UN Human Rights Commission in Geneva. (Prensa Latina, 8/4/04)

April 8: Cuba declined to negotiate with Honduras their respective maritime border in the Caribbean Sea, said Cuban Foreign Minister Felipe Pérez Roque in a telephone statement from Havana. “Cuba will not receive the Honduran delegation which is ready to travel to Havana to initiate the negotiations on the maritime border,” said Pérez Roque. (Notimex, 8/4/04)

April 8: In a press conference at Hotel Occidental Miramar, Alicia Alonso, Cuban National Ballet director, highlighted the ties of brotherhood binding Cuba and Spain while she called to the 26 th Festival La Huella de España, to take place in Havana. The ballerina stated that these events take place in Havana, and she expects something like Las Huellas de Cuba festival to take place in Spain in a near future. The 26 th Festival includes Cuban companies only. Spanish companies are not expected to attend. (Prensa Latina, Granma, 8/4/04)

April 8: French playwright Jean-Marie Binoche, famous for his work with masks and productions for adults, travelled to Cuba to participate in a dance event and defended Cuba’s artistic endeavours. Binoche’s presence is the main attraction of the 9 th International Encounter of Dance in Urban Landscape “Moving City”, which takes place in the island’s capital. (AP, 8/4/04)

April 9: Journalists participating in the official Roundtable TV Program presented aspects of the Cuban "battle of ideas" to unveil the untruth of the anti-Cuban resolution presented by Honduras in Geneva and sponsored by US. The Cuban journalists recalled the pressures, threats and blackmail in UN Human Rights Commission by the Bush administration to accomplish their goals recruiting governments to vote against Cuba. (Prensa Latina, 9/4/04)

April 11: Honduras President Ricardo Maduro said that he himself wrote the resolution asking Cuba to authorize a visit of the UN's High Commission for Human Rights - and not someone from the United States government as has been charged. Maduro was answering critics from across the political spectrum who claimed that the United States had handed him the text - in English - to be presented to the UN High Commission for Human Rights in Geneva. "I wrote the resolution myself," the chief executive told jounalists. He added that this would be the third time that the (Honduran) government backed "exactly the same position". "This resolution is almost identical to the one I voted for last year and the year before. It was written here, it is proudly Honduran, because with it we defend human rights," Maduro said. "If defending human rights is servile, then I'll go on defending them and anyone can call me what he wants to," he said. (EFE, 11/4/04)

April 11: Some 200 representatives from 56 Spanish associations and groups which support President Fidel Castro’s government, expressed their support of the island and denounced “the United States’ manoeuvres in trying to condemn” the human rights situation in the Caribbean nation at the (United Nations) Human Rights Commission in Geneva. (Europa Press, 12/4/04)

April 11: A demonstration of 10,000 Cubans in Havana condemned t he role of the Honduran government when it presented a resolution against Cuba at the United Nations Human Rights Commission (UNHRC). On behalf of the rest of the Cuban people, many representatives from the municipality of San Miguel del Padron pointed at US as the real author of the resolution in Geneva in an Open Tribune, a becoming habitual massive activity in Cuba. (Prensa Latina, 13/4/04)

April 12: Mexico’s vote at the United Nations Commission on Human Rights could be the difference between a free Cuba and a Cuba invaded by U.S. forces, said Cuban Ambassador to Mexico, Jorge Bolaños. The diplomat said it would be sufficient for Cuba if Mexico would abstained from supporting a resolution that Honduras will present by “request” from the United States. (El Sol de México, 11/4/04)

April 12: Dr. Peggy Mc Evoy, representative of the Non-Governmental Organization (NGO) Medicuba-Switzerland, said the health care results in the Cuban western province of Matanzas sets an example in preventive work against AIDS-HIV. Mc Evoy is visiting Matanzas to check how an agreement signed two years ago between her NGO and the Cuban health authorities is moving along. Medicuba-Switzerland -based in Zurich, Switzerland- created several departments in the district of Jaguey Grande, Calimete and Colon to accomplish preventive actions and train activists to carry out this task. (Prensa Latina, 12/4/04)

April 13: Chile's Socialists urged the coalition government headed by one of their number, Ricardo Lagos, to abstain on a vote to condemn Cuba before the UN Human Rights Commission in Geneva. Announcement of the request was made by Senator Ricardo Nuñez, chairman of the Foreign Relations Commission of the Socialist Party, which is part of the coalition that has governed Chile since 1990. (EFE, 12/4/04)

April 12: Fidel Castro said the events that took place in Venezuela April 11 through 13, 2002, were sad, glorious, unforgettable and historic, Granma newspaper highlighted. The statesman also underlined how important the education and social programs now in progress in Venezuela are because, he said, people cannot be tricked by propaganda when they have acquired sufficient culture. In his wide-ranging discussion encompassing Venezuelan, Cuban, and international issues, the Cuban leader also discussed the US election campaign, in which candidates spend many millions of dollars in propaganda. He also stressed his recognition of the ethical behavior of the US people when they know the truth. (Prensa Latina, 13/4/04)

April 13: Argentine Ambassador to the UN Human Rights Commission, Alfredo Chiaradia, stated in Geneva that his country will abstain on the US promoted anti-Cuba resolution as it did in 2003. President Kirchner maintains the stance of his predecessor Eduardo Duhalde, which broke a decade of votes against Cuba by Presidents Carlos Menem (1989-1999) and Fernando de la Rua (1999-2001). (Prensa Latina, 13/4/04)

April 13: The World Medical Association is pressing the Cuban Government for information on four physicians and two dentists who have been in prison in Cuba for the past two years for human rights activities. The WMA is urging its 80 national medical association members to write to their governments and to the European Commission requesting them to put pressure on the Cuban government to disclose information about what, if any, trials the six are facing, the exact nature of their sentences and to ask for their fair and humane treatment in prison. Dr Delon Human, secretary general of the WMA, said: We are particularly concerned about one of the six, Dr Oscar Elias Biscet, who has been in poor health, and this has been exacerbated by his imprisonment in an underground dungeon.' The other five are Dr. Marcelo Cano Rodriguez, Dr. José Luis Garcia Paneque, Dr. Luis Milàn Fernàndez and the two dentists, Alfredo Manuel Pulido Lopez and Ricardo Enrique Silva Gual. (WMA Press Release, 13/4/04)

April 13: The President of the Palestinian National Authority (PNA) Yasser Arafat thanked the Cuban people for their support and solidarity in a letter addressed to Fidel Castro. The PNA Vice Information Minister Ahmad Sabouh, who hand-delivered the letter, praised Cuba for what he called its principled defence of Palestine in all international forums, including the International Court of Justice in The Hague where the subject of Israel's so called 'Wall of Shame' was discussed recently. (Radio Habana Cuba, 14/4/04)

April 14: The Mexican government denied the allegation that the United States exerted pressure on Mexico to prompt its support for a resolution to condemn Cuba in the UN Human Rights Commission in Geneva. Agustin Gutierrez Canet, the government's international press director, told the press that there is no pressure. (People’s Daily Online, 14/4/04)

April 15: The UN Human Rights Commission condemned Cuba for its spring 2003 crackdown that sent 75 peaceful dissidents, mostly democracy advocates and independent journalists, to prison for terms averaging 20 years. The resolution presented by Honduras passed narrowly, by a vote of 22-to-21, with 10 abstentions. Most Latin American countries represented on the panel agreed to censure the Cuban government, with Chile, Costa Rica, the Dominican Republic, Guatemala, Mexico, Peru and sponsor Honduras voting for the resolution. Argentina, Brazil and Paraguay abstained. With the exception of the Dominican Republic, Paraguay and Honduras, which were not on the commission last year, Latin American countries stuck to the positions they took in 2003. Non-governmental organizations considered the resolution, with its moderate language, too soft on the wave of arrests in Cuba last year. The resolution said that Cuba "should refrain from adopting measures which could jeopardize the fundamental rights, the freedom of expression and the right to due process of its citizens." It added that it "deplores the events which occurred last year in Cuba," referring to the sentencing of the 75 dissidents. It also urges the Cuban Government to cooperate with the UN's special rapporteur for Cuba, French jurist Christine Chanet. (EFE, AP, Reuters, 15/4/04)

April 15: Within minutes of the vote being passed in Geneva, Cuba rejected it. Describing the resolution as "ridiculous", Cuba's Foreign Minister Felipe Perez Roque said that his government would not adhere to the commission's key request that a human rights investigator be allowed into the country. “Cuba rejects the spurious resolution approved in Geneva and would not abide by any of its stipulations”, he said. Cuba co-operates with the international community but not when it is discriminated against, Pérez Roque added. Mexico's UN vote against Cuba on the human rights front earned it a reproach from Havana. Pérez Roque said that Mexico’s vote made the resolution pass. [Press Conference by Cuban Foreign Affairs Minister] (BBC, EFE, Radio Habana Cuba, 15/4/04)

April 15: The beating by Cuban officials of a member of a nongovernmental organization at the United Nations in Geneva should be considered a criminal act for which the Cuban government must be censured, Freedom House said. After the United Nations Commission on Human Rights narrowly passed a resolution today critical of Cuba, members of Cuba's governmental delegation attacked Frank Calzon, executive director of the Washington-based Center for a Free Cuba. The attack took place inside the United Nations building in Geneva. Witnesses said a Cuban delegate punched Mr. Calzon, knocking him unconscious. UN guards reportedly protected him from further assault by additional members of the Cuban delegation. The attack occurred shortly after the Commission passed a resolution critical of Cuba's human rights record. (EFE, 15/4/04)

April 15: Mexican President Vicente Fox defended his administration's support of a resolution criticizing Cuba's human rights record Thursday, saying it was a vote "in favor of a cause, not against a nation." "Mexico has a firm commitment with democracy and human rights," Fox said at a public event during a visit to his central home state of Guanajuato.  "This is about a vote in favor of a cause not against a nation that has always deserved and will continue to deserve our respect and support," Fox said. He added that the decision was "not based on political or circumstantial considerations." "On the contrary, our vote in favor of the resolution for the defense of human rights was a vote in keeping with our principles," the president said in a speech broadcast live on Mexican news media outlets. (AP, 15/4/04)

April 16: Grenada Foreign Affairs Minister Elvin Nimrod of the ruling New National Party government has called on the United States to lift the over 40 year old economic blockade against Cuba. Addressing a Cuban delegation attending a seventh joint commission on collaboration, the Minister said that Grenadians once again join with the overwhelming majority of countries of the world in calling for the immediate and unconditional lifting by the United States of these harsh sanctions it imposed on the Caribbean neighbour for over four decades now. (Prensa Latina, 16/4/04)

April 17: Cuba ratified that it would not obey the US-imposed anti-Cuban resolution at the UN Human Rights Commission, in a rally held in Yara municipality, in the province of Granma. Revolution´s commanders Juan Almeida and Guillermo Garcia, two important figures of the Cuban revolutionary process, participated in the act. (Prensa Latina, 18/4/04)

April 17: The Cubans -- part of the country's 525-member medical mission here -- treated more than 400 Haitians who had sustained deep gashes from machete attacks, bullet wounds or burns from being doused with gasoline and set on fire, when Haiti's political crisis spiraled into massive bloodshed. ''Hellish,'' is how some of the Cubans describe February 29, when President Jean-Bertrand Aristide left the country and his angry supporters roamed the streets on a murderous rampage. ''In my capacity as a doctor it was the worst day I've lived,'' Dr. Héctor Torres Nuñez, 39, said of the carnage. ``By noon the injured started to arrive and we worked almost into the evening in what became a makeshift hospital in the courtyard.'' Even before that day, the Cuban doctors had won the love and respect of many poor Haitians who now seek them out for medical care or drop by to say hello. ''I'm very happy with them,'' said Marie-Lourdes Pierre, a nurse at the overcrowded general hospital in Port-au-Prince. ``Every time you call them, no matter what time, they come. The patients like them.'' (The Miami Herald, 17/4/04)

April 18: About 45 MBA candidates from the Richard Ivey School of Business in London, Ontario, will take a course in capitalism to countries in Eastern Europe that have embraced free-market economics only in the last decade. Some will also travel to Cuba. For the third year, the project will send Ivey students to three universities in Cuba, building on a relationship the University of Western Ontario has forged with a school in Holguín. The Caribbean island is "at a very, very different stage in the developmental process than even Eastern Europe was 10 years ago," says Krista Pettit, 31, a co-director of the project. "In Eastern Europe, the wall had fallen and they were on their way, whereas in Cuba the wall has not fallen." Cuban students, for example, are surprisingly well versed in business theory, says Pettit, but "the application of the theory is still very, very foreign to them." In discussions of cases, she added, "you'd often get somebody in class putting up their hand, saying, “That's what happens when you have a capitalist system. You can't really trust it." (The Toronto Star, 18/4/04)

April 19: Cuban authorities detained an assistant to Carlos Ahumada—a businessman who’s also under arrest in Cuba to be extradited, informed the Mexican Foreign Ministry. A Mexican citizen, Antonio Martínez Ocampo was arrested in Havana last April 5 in relation to current investigation on the Ahumada case, adds a communiqué from the Ministry. [Nota Diplomática del Gobierno Cubano al Gobierno Mexicano] (AP, 19/4/04)

April 19: Cuba denounced that terrorism of State is being practiced by Israel with the help of modern and lethal weapons, knowing no limits. Cuban ambassador to the UN, Orlando Requeijo, condemned the most recent assassination committed by Israeli aviation on the person of the Palestine Hamas resistance movement leader, Abdelaziz Rantissi. According to the diplomat the new extrajudicial execution is added to an increasing and wideranging Israeli portfolio of aggressions and violations of the most basic human rights and physical and moral damages to the Palestinian people. (Prensa Latina, 19/4/04)

April 20: Jamaica and Cuba will sign an agreement pledging greater cooperation against drug trafficking through the Caribbean, a Jamaican official said. The memorandum of understanding will allow for intelligence sharing and joint training for anti-drug operations, National Security Ministry spokesman Donovan Nelson said without giving details. The agreement will also set a framework for prosecuting transnational crimes like money laundering and counterfeiting, Nelson added. (AP, 20/4/04)

April 20: In a press conference, Cuban Foreign Affairs Minister, Felipe Pérez Roque, said that the UN Human Rights Commission in Geneva has become “a pathetic scenario” in which “third world countries, traditionally accused by the richest countries, have now become accusers.” The Cuban Minister was referring to debates taking place about a resolution presented by Cuba against human rights violations in US Naval Base in Guantánamo. [Press Conference by the Cuban Foreign Affairs Minister] (World Data Service, 20/4/04)

April 21: A third figure linked to Mexico City corruption scandals has been detained in Cuba, Mexico's Foreign Relations Department announced. The department said in a news release that Cuba had reported that Enrique Arcipreste, who is accused here of fabricating documents to force a government payment, was detained in Havana and was being held at a security headquarters there. Cuban officials were already holding two other figures - businessman Carlos Ahumada and Antonio Martinez Ocampo. (AP, 21/4/04)

April 21: "No government or transitory action can affect the bonds between the peoples, legislators and NGOs [Mexico-Cuba]", Cuban Parliament Vice President Jaime Crombet said concerning current strained bilateral relations. In an interview with the press during the Inter-Parliamentary Union meeting, the legislator recognized that Mexico´s submission to the United States in the vote against Cuba at the UN Human Rights Commission has injured bilateral relations and that immediate prospects are not promising. The significance of this vote, Crombet explained, is that the US uses this policy to justify its 45-year blockade on the Island and, to judge by a series of declarations by Bush, even a possible armed invasion. (Prensa Latina, 22/4/04)

April 22: Cuban Minister of Foreign Affairs, Felipe Pérez Roque, accused the European Union of being an accomplice of the human rights violations inside the US military base in Guantánamo. According to Cuba, the allegation is based on the EU’s support of the United States and opposition of a Cuba-sponsored draft resolution on the issue at the UN Commission of Human Rights in Geneva. (Europa Press, 22/4/04)

April 22: Cuba's highest profile dissident wrote to both the new Spanish prime minister and the man who held that post until mid-April, thanking the latter for his staunch support for persecuted human rights activists on the island and telling the current leader, a Socialist, he hopes the support will continue. In a letter, Cuban dissident Oswaldo Paya said he trusts Zapatero will continue showing solidarity with the opposition movement on the island and thanked Aznar for his support. Paya - head of the Christian Liberation Movement and winner of the 2002 Sakharov Prize, Europe's highest recognition for human rights advocates - sent a letter to Zapatero and one to Aznar. "We hope that Spain, which has taken a new step within its democratic continuity, will continue fostering solidarity with the Cuban people," Paya said in his letter to Zapatero. "Those of us inside Cuba who fight for peaceful changes toward democracy and respect for human rights, many of whom are unjustly imprisoned, want to see the historic ties between Spain and Cuba find fulfillment in friendly relations that reach" throughout society, said the letter. (EFE, 22/4/04)

April 22: Cuba’s planned trial of a blind human rights lawyer, along with nine other dissidents and independent journalists, on charges of “disrespect for authority” demonstrates a continuing pattern of political repression, Human Rights Watch said. Human Rights Watch has learned that the trial of the 10 defendants is scheduled to be held on April 27. Juan Carlos González Leiva, a blind lawyer, is the president of the Cuban Foundation for Human Rights (Fundación Cubana de Derechos Humanos). He and most of the other defendants have been held in pretrial detention in eastern Holguín province for more than two years. “The upcoming trial is a travesty,” said Joanne Mariner, deputy director of Human Rights Watch’s Americas Division. “The defendants face criminal charges that clearly violate their basic rights to freedom of expression.” (Human Rights Watch, 22/4/04)

April 22: With the adoption of a resolution on the situation in Cuba after its emergency debate, the European Parliament again calls on the Cuban authorities to immediately release all political detainees. It is pleased to note the release of Julio Antonio Valdes for health reasons. It is waiting for the Cuban authorities to decree a new de facto moratorium on the death penalty. Parliament calls for utter compliance with the constitutional process, which consists in collecting signatures in the context of the Varela project on the basis of Article 88 of the Constitution, which authorises citizens to present a legislative initiative as soon as 10,000 signatures, or more, have been collected. It unreservedly restates the EU's commitment and willingness concerning aid for the Cuban population. The Parliament invites all Community institutions to send an open invitation to Oswaldo Paya Sardinas, Sakharov Prizewinner 2002, and calls on the Cuban authorities to no longer prevent him travelling to Europe. [Political Prisoners in Cuba] (Agence Europe, 22/4/04)

April 23: The President of Chile, Ricardo Lagos, said in Santiago that his government would support Cuba in its presentation in the UN Human Rights Commission of a request for investigation of alleged human rights violations in the US military base in Guantánamo. The Chilean leader indicated that after knowing of the Cuban proposal, “the Chilean government considered and studied it and decided to support it as it contained a legal issue. Cuba knows it could count on the Chilean vote. We are a small but honourable nation, and the Chilean foreign policy is decided here, in the Palacio de La Moneda (seat of the Chilean government), nowhere else.” (Europa Press, 23/4/04)

April 23: Several Cuban dissidents praised new Spanish Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero's statement in support of democratic change in Cuba. "Fidel Castro's regime must open up to democracy," Zapatero said in an interview published in the Madrid daily El Mundo. “All my communication with Cuba and Fidel Castro will point in that direction." According to Oswaldo Paya, leader of the Christian Liberation Movement and winner of the 2002 European Parliament's Sakharov Prize, this "expression of commitment to Cuban democracy is a demonstration of true respect for the Cuban people and is the essence of what relations between our nations should be." (EFE, 23/4/04)

April 23: Peruvian organizations and personages held a workshop on Cuba`s respect for human rights, in an expression of solidarity with the Island and condemnation of the US blockade, organizers said. More than 500 people attended the two central conferences in Trujillo given by Cesar Vellejo University`s Dean Sigifredo Orbegozo and the Cuban Embassy Political Consul Eneida Sanchez. (Prensa Latina, 23/4/04)

April 24: Cuba considers "positive" its participation at the 60th Session of the UN Human Rights Commission, and applauded 12 of the resolutions passed by the 53-nation body. Juan Antonio Fernandez, chief of the Cuban delegation, said his country's support for those resolutions, as well as its motion on the arbitrary detentions at the US Naval Base in Guantánamo, reinforced the island nation's prestige at the international body. (Radio Habana Cuba, 24/4/04)

April 25: Dominica´s Commonwealth Prime Minister and Minister of Finance, Planning and Caribbean Affairs, Roosevelt Skerrit, is beginning an official visit to Cuba to further expand trade and economic relations. Skerrit will participate in several official activities including the 3rd Meeting of the Cuba-Dominica Joint Commission and will visit sites of political, economic and social interest. (Prensa Latina, 25/4/04)

April 26: Former International Chess Federation world champion Anatoli Karpov is in Cuba and is expected to participate in a gigantic simultaneous chess game at the close of the Cuban Sports Olympiad. (Prensa Latina, 26/4/04)

April 26: Special recognition was given to members of the Cuban delegation to the 60th session of the UN Human Rights Commission that concluded recently in Geneva, Switzerland. Cuban Foreign Ministry officials greeted the delegates during a ceremony held in Havana. Cuba showed the enormous strength of the Revolution at the United Nations Human Rights, said Cuban Communist Party Political Bureau member Jose Ramon Balaguer at the ceremony. He said the voting results (22-21 with 10 abstentions) showed what can be done in a world militarily, politically and economically dominated by one powerful country. Balaguer stressed the strength of Cuba"s positions based on principle, capable of defeating the US Empire. (Radio Habana Cuba, 26/4/04)

April 27: Dominica´s Prime Minister Rossevelt Skerrit visited the Latin American School of Medicine and the Computer Science School in Havana on the second day of his official visit to Cuba, geared to strengthen bilateral ties. Fidel Castro and other Cuban authorities welcomed Skerrit and his delegation and held the first round of talks. The visitor also presided over the opening session of the 3rd Cuba-Dominica Mixed Commission. (Prensa Latina, 27/4/04)

April 27: Cuba and Ethiopia have signed an agreement in Havana to strengthen bilateral legislative cooperation. Participants in the signing agreement ceremony included Cuban Politburo member Esteban Lazo Hernandez, the Vice President of the Cuban Parliament Jaime Crombet Hernandez-Baquero and the Speaker of the Ethiopian House of Representatives Dawit Johannes. (Prensa Latina, 27/4/04)

April 27: Cuba has requested Honduras to co-sponsor a new draft resolution for the United Nations to inspect the U.S. Guantánamo base where over 600 detainees accused of terrorism are held, said diplomatic sources. Cuba hopes the motion be discussed in July or August in the context of the Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC), or during the next UN General Assembly in November, said the Cuban Ambassador in Tegucigalpa. (Europa Press, 27/4/04)

April 28: Cuba's best-known opposition leader said that a former Castro comrade-in-arms who later turned on the regime is speaking like "a spokesman for the regime's vile position" in his comments on last year's arrests and convictions of 75 dissidents. The public spat between Oswaldo Paya, leader of the Christian Liberation Movement, and one-time revolutionary "comandante" Eloy Gutierrez Menoyo is the result of a communique released by the latter. The Spanish-born Gutierrez Menoyo accused Paya of "opportunism" for backing the policy toward Cuba of Spain's former conservative Prime Minister Jose Maria Aznar and then writing a letter to his successor, Socialist Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero, expressing hope for continued support for dissidents by the new administration. Paya, for his part, accused Gutierrez Menoyo of "lying" and "joining forces with the regime, accusing us with the same arguments that were used to unjustly sentence our 75 brothers," alluding to the prison sentences averaging 20 years handed down to dissidents in April of last year. Gutierrez Menoyo "has become a spokesman for the regime's vile position by repeating the same false arguments that were used to unjustly condemn the prisoners of the Cuban Spring," he added. (EFE, 28/4/04)

April 28: Cuba has ratified to the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) its will to help train experts on nuclear security from nations with less development on this field. The IAEA Board of Directors in Vienna, Austria, welcomed this recent proposal, said Cuban Angelina Diaz, president of the Nuclear Energy and Cutting-Edge Technologies Agency (AENTA) who attended a meeting of this organization. (Prensa Latina, 28/4/04)

April 28: The Mexican media gave wide coverage to the Cuban decision to deport the businessman of Argentinean origin established in Havana, Carlos Ahumada, summoned by Mexican courts. Radio stations read the whole text of the Cuban Ministry of Foreign Affairs communique where the reasons leading to the decision are explained. Secretary of the Interior of Mexico, Santiago Creel, expressed satisfaction Wednesday for the Cuban decision to deport Ahumada. Creel told the program Monitor during a visit to the state of Tlaxcala that if Cuba decided to give up Ahumada, "we are going to be very satisfied"[Official Statement by the Cuban Foreign Affairs Ministry] (Prensa Latina, 28/4/04).

April 29: The return of a fugitive Mexican businessman from Cuba has touched off a terse diplomatic exchange between Mexico and Cuba. Mexico's Foreign Relations Department objected to comments by Cuban authorities about the motivations behind the request to extradite Ahumada. "To insinuate that the extradition request by Mexico is part of a scandal constitutes a value judgment about an internal matter in Mexico, which is clearly discordant with (...) healthy relations between nations," said Arturo Dager, a legal consultant at Mexico's Foreign Relations Department. [Diplomatic Statement by the Mexican SRE] (AP, El Universal , 29/4/04)

April 29: The Cuban Foreign Ministry has not received any “official note” from Mexican authorities regarding the deportation to that country of businessman Carlos Ahumada. “We have not received a single official document from Mexico,” said a source from the Cuban Ministry who also added that Cuba is disconcerted after information released in Mexico by spokesperson Alan Nahum saying that Mexico had sent a diplomatic note in protest to Cuba. (Europa Press, 29/4/04)

April 29: In a letter to a Senator from Strassburg (North), the French Minister of Foreign Affairs, Michel Barnier says that the French government closely follows the situation of political prisoners in Cuba, and will continue to request from Cuban authorities their total liberation. The French Minister also says that he has “attentively followed the situation of Mr. Manuel Vázquez Portal and that of the whole group of political prisoners in Cuba”. He also added that France has “regularly” requested from Cuban authorities “to review their position on this matter”. (AFP, 29/4/04)

April 29: A French Film Festival has been inaugurated in eight Cuban provinces after its success in Havana. The official inauguration of this annual event in the island took place in the Charles Chaplin Theater with the film The Choir. (Boletín Cubarte, 30/4/04)

April 29: The expansion of the European Union to embrace former Soviet-bloc states has deepened a diplomatic "cocktail war" between Europe and Cuba over human rights on the Communist-run island, diplomats said. The Cuban national anthem played at a hotel reception in Havana to mark the entry into the EU of its 10 new members. But the only Cubans present were Catholic Church officials and the waiters serving mojitos and Cuba Libre cocktails. (EFE, 29/4/04)

April 30: Blanca Reyes, wife of dissident imprisoned Raúl Rivero, denounced that Cuban authorities have not yet responded a petition she made to travel. Reyes asked an exit permit to travel to Belgrade where she will receive Rivero’s award granted by UNESCO. The World Award for Freedom of the Press was granted to the dissident intellectual. Although some UNESCO sources feel optimistic about the possibility of Cuban authorities granting Reyes the permit, she showed her skepticism about it. (El Nuevo Herald, 30/4/04)

April 30: Spain will favor democratic development in Cuba through dialogue, the first vice president of the socialist government in Spain, María Teresa Fernández de la Vega, said. “Our policy will be that of favoring, supporting and trying to help the modernization of those countries which are still under non democratic situations from an economic, social and political perspective.” “And Cuba is one of them,” Fernández de la Vega said. (AFP, 30/4/04)