Chronicle on Cuba - April 2004

Terrorism

April 2: Fifteen detainees held at the US naval base at Guantanamo Bay have been freed, the Pentagon has said. They come from a variety of countries, including Afghanistan, Turkey, Tajikistan, Sudan, Iraq, Jordan and Yemen, it added. The prisoners, who were not identified, were flown out to their home countries in the past few days, an official said. It brings to 146 the number of men to have left Guantanamo, for release or for detention by their own governments. (BBC, 2/4/04)

April 12: As the indefinite detention of terrorism suspects faces legal challenges, military authorities have allowed unprecedented media access to prison operations in a bid to dispel what they call ''the myth'' of human rights violations. For the first time since terrorism suspects were brought to the base two years ago, authorities in recent weeks opened the door to rooms used for interrogations, provided limited information on efforts to gather intelligence from prisoners and showed off a courtroom where military tribunals likely will be conducted. (The Miami Herald, 12/4/04)

April 16: Cuba has asked 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 Bay, ending Havana's policy of avoiding direct confrontation on the issue. The Cuban delegation urged the Commission, the highest UN authority on human rights, to investigate the conditions in which the non-US citizens of around 40 different nationalities are being held. Most of the men, who the United States describes as Al Qaeda and Taliban suspects, have been held at Guantanamo Bay in southeastern Cuba since January 2002. [Draft Resolution presented by Cuba] (The Australian, IPS, 16/4/04)

April 19: Fidel Castro lashed out at the United States for building a "concentration camp" at Guantanamo Bay for prisoners suspected of ties to terrorist organizations. Castro said European nations that voted against Cuba last week at the U.N. Human Rights Commission are now faced with an "embarrassing" decision on whether to monitor the situation at the US naval enclave in eastern Cuba, where hundreds of prisoners have been held without charges since 2002. Without naming the United States, Castro said the US naval base had been "converted into a concentration camp where absolutely no rights are respected." The 77-year-old Castro, wearing a military uniform, spoke during a television talk show marking the anniversary of the botched 1961 Bay of Pigs invasion by CIA-trained Cuban exiles seeking to end his fledgling socialist revolution. (Reuters, 19/4/04)

April 20: Mexico plans to vote for a resolution introduced by Cuba in the UN Human Rights Commission condemning the United States for "arbitrary detentions" at the US naval base in Guantanamo, Cuba, a top diplomat said. The deputy secretary for global affairs at the Mexican Foreign Ministry, Patricia Olamendi, said that if Cuba brings its proposal to a vote, "our vote will be in the same vein - we are demanding respect for human rights in the struggle against terrorism." (EFE, 20/4/04)

April 20: A Panamanian judge convicted four Cuban exiles in a plot to kill Cuban President Fidel Castro and sentenced the oldest -- 76-year-old Luis Posada Carrilles -- to the maximum sentence of eight years. Caught in Panama City with a fake passport and 33 pounds of explosives, Posada and the three others were found guilty of endangering public safety after 3 ½ years in jail. Codefendants Pedro Remón and Guillermo Novo, both of Miami, were sentenced to seven years, Remón told The Herald by telephone from prison. Posada and Gaspar Jiménez, also of Miami, received an extra year each for using false passports to enter Panama in November 2000, just before Castro was to visit the Ibero-American summit. The defendants will all get credit for time served. (The Miami Herald, 21/4/04)

April 20: The US Supreme Court began weighing the historic question of the power of a wartime president, hearing the first of a series of challenges to the Bush administration's policy of holding what it calls "enemy combatants" without trial. At least five of the nine justices raised grave questions over US President George W. Bush's contention that a nation at war against terrorism has the right to hold almost 600 prisoners at the Guantanamo Bay naval base in Cuba without charging them or permitting them access to courts or legal advice. (The Toronto Star, 20/4/04)

April 21: Cuba called the sentences handed down in Panama to six anti-communist militants accused of plotting to kill Fidel Castro with explosives in November 2000 too short. "The sentences imposed do not correspond to the seriousness of the crimes they planned to commit in Panama," the Cuban Foreign Ministry said in a statement published by official government newspapers in Havana. [Official Statement] (EFE, 21/4/04)

April 22: Cuba avoided a showdown with the United States by withdrawing from the top UN human rights body a hard-hitting resolution which called for an investigation of treatment of terrorism suspects at the US naval base at Guantanamo. Citing US "threats and blackmail," Cuban Ambassador Jorge Mora Godoy told the commission he would not ask for a vote on the motion, which claimed widespread rights abuses against the suspects held at Guantanamo. Western diplomats said Havana likely feared the UN Human Rights Commission would fail to condemn the United States over its detention of more than 600 individuals from 44 countries at the base. Mora Godoy accused the United States of bullying other governments on the 53-nation commission to ensure the failure of the Cuban resolution. (AP, 22/4/04)

April 22: Cuban Foreign Minister Felipe Pérez Roque conducted a press conference in Havana to inform the national and international news media of Havana's decision to not insist on a vote of its draft resolution concerning arbitrary detentions at US Naval Base at Guantánamo. With Cuba's decision, said the island's foreign minister, Havana will be able to bring up the issue of the arbitrary detentions at any time and at any international forum, such as the UN General Assembly. [Cuban Foreign Affairs Press Conference] (Radio Habana Cuba, 22/4/04)

April 22: Cuba dropped a call to the UN's top human rights body to probe allegations of US abuse of Guantanamo detainees and accused European and some Latin American states of cowardice for not backing it. The resolution expressed "deep concern" that the United States might be depriving detainees at the US naval base on the southeast tip of Cuba of their rights under international law. Cuba's ambassador to the UN in Geneva told the 53-state Commission on Human Rights Cuba was withdrawing the resolution because the United States "and its allies" were preparing to present a counter motion to prevent any action on Cuba's call. He said the Europeans and Latin Americans, many of which have been critical of the United States over Guantanamo, had caved in to US pressure. (Reuters, 22/4/04)

April 23: Panama's Foreign Affairs Minister Harmodio Arias said that the anti-Castro Cuban, Luis Posada Carriles, must serve out his entire eight-year prison sentence for planning to assassinate Fidel Castro. "Mr. Posada Carriles was comdemned to eight years in prison and will have to serve out his time for the crime of which he was found guilty," said Arias in a brief statement carried by Panamanian local television's Channel 11. (EFE, 23/4/04)

April 29: The United States has praised efforts by countries across Latin America to fight terrorism in 2003, but again designated Cuba a state sponsor of terrorism. The US State Department, in its annual report on terrorism, said Cuba continued to provide support to US-designated foreign terrorist groups. The report said that Cuba also acted as host to several terrorists, including members of the Basque separatist group ETA. The United States also named Cuba a state sponsor of terrorism in 2002. [Patterns of Global Terrorism, 2003] (VOA News, 29/4/04)