Chronicle on Cuba - June 2004

Domestic Affairs

June 1: Cuba celebrated June 1 st, International Children's Day, with special programs to entertain and educate in daycare centers and schools across the island. Official commemoration of International Children's Day on the island began after the triumph of the Cuban Revolution. (Radio Habana Cuba, 1/6/04)

June 2: The Second International Congress on Dengue and Yellow Fever is underway in Havana. Some 500 delegates from 43 countries are attending this event sponsored by the World Health Organization (WHO) and the International Tropical Medicine Program. The director of the Pedro Kourí Tropical Medicine Institute pointed out that officials from the World Health Organization and authorities from other nations are presenting the latest advances on a dengue vaccine, as well as progress on the epidemiological control of the disease. (Radio Habana Cuba, 2/6/04)

June 2: Two overseas professors have reported that migration of Jamaicans to Cuba has surpassed 300,000 persons, and their descendants have created many active communities that survive in modern Cuba. Professors Graciella Chailloux and Robert Whitney were speaking in the Intra-Caribbean Migration series at the University of the West Indies (UWI). (Prensa Latina, 2/6/04)

June 2: The wife of Cuban dissident Diosdado Gonzalez Marrero - sentenced to 20 years in prison after a summary trial last year during Havana's harshest opposition crackdown in years - said she fears for the life of her hunger-striking husband. Earlier in Miami, an exile group said that one of the 75 dissidents sentenced to long prison terms in Cuba last year has sewed his mouth shut to protest the conditions of his imprisonment. Alejandrina Garcia de la Riva, a resident of Matanzas province, said she spoke by phone with her husband, when he told her he was about to join the hunger strike initiated by fellow political prisoner Normando Hernandez. "He told me he was going to go on strike that very moment and that Leonel Grave de Peralta and Jose Daniel Ferrer were joining them," said Garcia. Gonzalez, 41, is being held at Kilo Cinco y Medio prison in the western province of Pinar del Rio, along with the three others on hunger strike, all among the 75 pro-democracy activists, independent journalists and human rights advocates sentenced in April 2003 to up to 28 years behind bars. (EFE, 2/6/04)

June 3: Cuba's more-than-centenarian Chinese community celebrates its heritage, especially the culinary part, in Havana's Chinatown to mark the 153rd anniversary of the arrival of 206 "coolies" aboard the Spanish frigate Oquendo. Sponsored by the Chinatown Promotion Group of Havana and the Federation of Cuban Culinary Associations, the festival brought together more than 70 delegates from China, Spain, France, Canada, the United States, Peru, Vietnam, Panama and Ecuador. (EFE, 3/6/04)

June 3: Twelve years after Cuba's constitution was revised to prohibit religious discrimination, the Church is thriving in the communist nation of 11 million people. That's according to the Reverend Jim Cowell, former pastor of First United Methodist Church in Fort Collins, who traveled to Havana, Cuba, to attend an international evangelism summit of 120 Methodist and Wesleyan leaders. Christianity is alive and well in the Caribbean nation, he said. "When people have been oppressed, religion becomes very important (…) It provides a hope - a sense that God is concerned about them - and a sense of community," Cowell says. Since the early 1990s, churches - both Catholic and Protestant - have experienced a tremendous resurgence. In the 1990s, many Catholic parishes saw Mass attendance double or triple, and there was a 30 percent increase in the number of men studying to be Catholic priests. An even greater explosion has occurred in Cuban Protestant churches in recent years. (Coloradoan, 3/6/04)

June 4: It was reported in Santa Clara, that Cubans will have access to 11,000 new scientific electronic magazines as of October. That opportunity will be possible by virtue of a cooperation agreement between Belgium´s Council of Flemish Universities and the Central University of Las Villas. (Prensa Latina, 4/6/04)

June 5: About 11,000 third age elderly students are currently registered in the University for the Elderly Program, a project that contributes to improving quality of life in old age. The 4-year old initiative, promoted by the Ministry of Higher Education and Cuba´s Union of Workers, among other institutions, involves 450 professionals with 5,000 professors and lecturers, Granma daily informed. (Prensa Latina, 5/6/04)

June 6: Hemingway’s long-time Cuban home is sinking into serious and general decline - along with its priceless contents, which include some 9,000 books, thousands of long-playing records, more than 3,000 photographs and 2,000 documents, including hundreds of letters and at least a few manuscripts, whose contents are largely unknown. Most of the papers are stored in the house's basement. A host of American scholars is already tackling the delicate and arduous task of identifying the books and documents, conserving them physically and archiving them digitally - not necessarily in that order. This project, which may cost upward of $500,000 (U.S.), has been permitted to go ahead by Washington, in spite of the embargo it has imposed on Cuban trade and investment for more than 40 years. Nonetheless, Americans are still barred from involving themselves in efforts aimed at restoring the house that contains these documents, a house where Hemingway lived for almost the entire last two decades of his life - a house that is starting to fall apart. (Toronto Star, 6/6/04)

June 7: Oswaldo Payá, general coordinator of the dissident organization Movimiento Cristiano Liberación, issued an official note denouncing the raids performed by Cuban State Security agents against four Varela Project activists. The houses of Luis Enrique Junquera, Yamil Sánchez, Juan Carlos Alpízar y Juan Luis Rodríguez were searched, documents related to the Varela Project confiscated, and the four activists arrested. Two of them were released and the other two have been held incommunicado. (NetforCuba, 10/6/04)

June 8: The “riquimbili”, Cuba's noisy but effective home-made motorbike, is an ingenious improvisation to cope with a chronic public transport shortage the island has faced since the collapse of Soviet communism in the early 1990s. The riquimbili is cobbled together from scrap-yard parts of old motorbikes mounted on a light bicycle frame, usually powered by a 50 cc to 125 cc two-stroke engine obtained on the black market. Anything from water pumps and electricity generators to portable fumigator motors will do. Power boosters from old Soviet military tanks are preferred for reliability and strength. The transmission, controlled with a makeshift clutch, is frequently just a simple roller rubbing against the wheel, or a belt system, though prized riquimbilis use motorbike chains. Their fuel efficiency is unbeatable. Most do 120 miles per gallon (50 km per liter) of gasoline. Riquimbilis are illegal and their owners face frequent fines. Cuba's communist government says the do-it-yourself bikes are too dangerous to be on the road, and authorities only issue number plates for factory-made motorbikes. (Reuters, 8/6/04)

June 8: Leonardo Bruzon Avila, a Cuban dissident who spent 27 months in jail without trial, was freed and vowed to keep fighting human rights abuses under communist rule. "I want to continue fighting for the defense of human rights in Cuba," the 49-year-old former librarian told the press at his home in Havana. Bruzon was arrested on February 22, 2002 for inciting public disorder after trying to organize a memorial ceremony to honor four Cuban exile fliers killed when Cuban fighters shot down their two small planes flying near the island in 1996. Bruzon's health deteriorated in jail where he went on four hunger strikes to demand a trial. In April he was transferred to a hospital weighing 85 pounds (39 kilos), he said, adding that he was suffering from a bone disease. He walked with difficulty when he was released. Carlos Alberto Domínguez, an independent journalist who was kept in prison without a trial for two years, was also released. (Reuters, NotiCuba, 8/6/04)

June 9: Raúl Castro has taken over the Cuban tourism industry, according to a video that since last May has been circulated among party officers and economy executives. The video indicates a tendency towards re-centralization of the economy, including tourism. In the hour-long videotape, Raúl Castro speaks during a meeting of the Board of Directors of the Ministry of Tourism (MINTUR) and, after openly criticizing management practices in recent years, confirms he will now be in charge of the industry – Cuba’s main source of hard currency. (El País, 9/6/04)

June 9: Four Cuban dissidents held in prison without trial for more than two years have been released. They include Leonardo Bruzon Avila, 49, a human rights group leader whose cause has been championed across the world. The other three men released were Carlos Alberto Dominguez, a journalist, and Emilio Leyva Perez and Lazaro Rodriguez Capote, members of the small Pro Human Rights Party. The four were among 88 dissidents in Cuba granted the status of "prisoners of conscience" by Amnesty International. They were arrested on 22 February 2002 for trying to organise memorial ceremonies for four Cuban exiles whose aircrafts, were shot down near the island in 1996 by the Cuban authorities. (BBC, 10/6/04)

June 9: The Cuban government released a fifth imprisoned dissident due to health reasons. Miguel Valdes Tamayo, the 47-year-old head of the outlawed Fraternal Brothers for Dignity dissident group, was sentenced to 15 years in prison last April along with 74 other dissidents and human rights activists. He told the press that he is suffering from hypertensive cardiomyopathy which, if it gets worse, might require a heart transplant. Valdes Tamayo said that he had no plans to leave Cuba, but rather continue working in the human rights movement as much as his health would allow. He said he was not tortured in prison, but he was threatened with beatings and he was struck many times by the guards. (EFE, 9/6/04)

June 10: Cuban Parliament President, Ricardo Alarcon, has called for the third ordinary period of Cuba´s sixth People´s Power National Assembly (unicameral Congress) to session on July 1, according to a report in Granma daily. (Prensa Latina, 10/6/04)

June 10: Cuba has opened in its southeastern hills the first museum dedicated entirely to medicinal plants, a farm where more than 300 species used to cure various ailments are being grown by a natural-remedy autodidact. The museum is the result of long years of study by Enrique Otero Fernandez, a 76-year-old Cuban farmer who loves folk medicine, the official Communist Party newspaper Juventud Rebelde reported. (EFE, 10/6/04)

June 11: Cuban Vice President Raúl Castro was among the individuals and institutions receiving the National Award for the Environment. The distinction, presented by the José Martí Memorial, recognizes contributions to the prevention and/or solution of environmental problems and for making an impact on the management of natural resources, production and services. (Radio Habana Cuba, 11/6/04)

June 11: A group of wives of jailed Cuban dissidents approached a son of Fidel Castro to plead for their relatives during a reception hosted by the Portuguese Embassy in Havana. Dressed in white—as they do in their protests—, the women spoke to Antonio Castro for about 10 minutes. “ We asked him to be true to his Hippocratic oath,” said Laura Pollán, married to Héctor Maseda, who is serving a 20-year sentence. Castro is a physician with Cuba’s national baseball team. (AP, 12/6/04)

June 14: "The Motorcycle Diaries," a portrait of Ernesto "Che" Guevara as a young romantic, was being shown in as the director and several of the film's actors marked what would have been the late revolutionary's 76th birthday. "There is no other place I want to be than here," Mexican actor Gael Garcia Bernal, who played the role of Guevara, told a Havana news conference. The film, produced by Robert Redford and directed by Walter Salles, traces Guevara's early adventures when he and his friend Alberto Granados traversed South America on a motorcycle in 1952. (AP, 15/6/04)

June 14: Residents –including members of the alternative press-- in the island’s capital and the town of Colón, in Matanzas, founded in Havana, the First Investigative Unit of the Independent Press. Facilitated and directed by correspondents of LUX- INFO-PRESS, the group is headed by the independent reporters Orlando Carlos García Pérez, Hector Alonso Santos, Mercedes Toledo Mesa, Ines Guerra Ochoa and Caridad Roudette, after concluding a course in investigative journalism at the facility of the Cuban Independent Teachers Union. (Puente Informativo, 14/6/04)

June 14: Oswaldo Paya, one of Cuba's best-known government opponents, accused authorities of harassing activists involved in a new project aimed at sparking discussion about possible changes on the island. Paya, lead organizer of the Varela Project democracy drive, said in a statement to international news media that activists in the new National Dialogue project have been visited at their homes by state security agents trying to persuade them not to take part. In a written statement faxed to news organizations in Havana, Paya maintained the project was "persecuted because of the well-founded fear that the people will support it." (AP, 14/6/04)

June 17: Cuba's ruling Communist Party has launched a drive against corruption in government and business, and what it views as a creeping capitalist ideology in the ranks, party sources said. Thousands of officials, bureaucrats and executives of state-run companies are being told to stop corrupt practices or risk their jobs and party membership. "There are those who have copied capitalist methods so well that they have become capitalists themselves," Communist Party political bureau member Jose Ramon Machado Ventura told party leaders in western Matanzas province. Machado Ventura, long a defender of hard-line ideology, is in charge of the campaign as head of the National Commission to Fight Corruption and Illegalities. He is a close associate of Castro's younger brother and chosen successor, Defense Minister Raul Castro. (Reuters, 17/6/04)

June 18: Cuban authorities freed two more imprisoned dissidents for health reasons, and both men called for the release of their fellow prisoners of conscience. Released from prison were Carmelo Diaz Fernandez and Orlando Fundora Alvarez. Both belonged to the "Group of 75" dissidents - independent journalists and human rights activists. Diaz has liver disease and high blood pressure and was admitted to the prison hospital at Combinado del Este four months ago. His friend Fundora, who underwent two operations in prison for intestinal problems, has a bleeding ulcer, angina pectoris and a replacement valve in his heart. He went on a hunger strike in April after being hospitalized in August 2003. The two releases raise the number of freed political prisoners to eight so far this year. (EFE, 18/6/04)

June 19: The announcement made by Cuban Armed Forces Minister (FAR), Raúl Castro, that he will personally supervise the operations of the tourism industry and other key economic sectors, has sparked speculation on the future of Carlos Lage, who up to now had been in full charge of the Cuban economy. Marzo Fernández, a former high-ranking Cuban official who worked in the economic sector, said that in the last few weeks several of Lage's closest collaborators have been removed from key ministerial positions and political posts. He cited as examples the case of dismissed Tourism minister, Ibrahim Ferradaz, and former Mayor of Havana, Conrado Martínez. “There’s also the case of Economy Minister, José Luis Rodríguez, who is said to be suspended as part of the so called ‘pyjamas plan’,” he added. These officials, mostly civilians, have been replaced by retired army officers who, according to Fernández, answer to Raúl Castro. (El Nuevo Herald, 19/6/04)

June 20: On Father's Day, a group of women related to the 75 Cuban dissidents jailed a year ago once again demanded their release and, encouraged by the recent release of six of them, some said that they are beginning to see “a ray of hope.” After attending mass, as they’ve been doing for several months now, nearly twenty wives and mothers, dressed in white and some wearing T-shirts printed with photos of their husbands, re-enacted a mile-long protest walk along 5 th Avenue's median strip . (El Nuevo Herald, 21/6/04)

June 20: Recent cuts to Havana’s water supply are part of a batch of “special measures” announced by the authorities in the face of water shortages brought about by a prolonged drought, indicated the local media. “Surface and underground water resources supplying the City of Havana have decreased and, in some cases, depleted altogether, and continue to shrink," reported the weekly Tribuna de La Habana.(El Nuevo Herald, 21/6/04)

June 21: In an open letter released to the media, Blanca Reyes Castañón, wife of dissident poet Raúl Rivero, currently serving 20 years in prison, accused Fidel Castro of using recent US sanctions as an excuse “to hold political prisoners hostage” and decried a cut in the number of family visits her husband is allowed. She denounced that, while they had been allowed almost on a monthly basis prior to the sessions of the UN Human Rights Commission in Geneva, the next scheduled visit will not take place until August. (Europa Press, 21/6/04)

June 21: The stifling heat gripping the city of Havana for some weeks now reached a record high of 36.3 Celsius, the National Meteorology Institute informed. The hottest day on record in Havana was May 2, 1923, with 35.8 Celsius, also reported on August 26, 1998, it was revealed. (Prensa Latina, 21/6/04)

June 22: The wife of jailed Cuban dissident Oscar Espinosa said agents from State Security refused to give him a letter from Spanish Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero. Miriam Leiva told the press she planned to show Espinosa the letter during her visit on June 20 to the military hospital where her husband is being held when the agents took the letter from her. The Spanish premier responded to a letter Leiva sent him where she explained her husband's situation and commended the Socialist leader for his victory in Spain's March general elections, she explained. (EFE, 22/6/04)

June 22: The 6th International Digital Art Exhibition and Colloquium got underway in Havana. The exhibit includes many works by Cuban and foreign artists from 30 countries, including Mexico, Chileand Brazil. Sponsored by the Pablo de la Torriente Brau Cultural Center and the Dutch Cultural Collaboration Agency Hivus, the program includes contests in different categories, debates and lectures. The aim of the exhibition, as well as the Colloquium, is to promote artistic and cultural values through new technologies. (Radio Habana Cuba, 22/6/04)

June 23: Cuban dissident Roberto de Miranda Hernandez, one of 75 mostly rights activists and independent journalists sentenced last year to lengthy jail terms on the island, was released for health reasons. De Miranda, a 59-year-old professor and head of an unofficial teachers' organization, told the press he was released due to a heart ailment, high blood pressure and cysts on a kidney. He said he was deeply moved to be reunited his family and friends, adding that more than 50 people stopped by his home. De Miranda's release brings to nine the number of dissidents freed from jail so far this year. Five of them are from the so-called "Group of 75," who were convicted of subversion and sentenced to prison terms of up to 28 years in March and April of last year. (EFE, 23/6/04)

June 23: Cuban dissident writer, Manuel Vázquez Portal, who was condemned to 18 years in jail during March-April 2003 crackdown on dissidents in the island, was released for health reasons. Vázquez Portal’s release brings to ten the number of dissidents freed from jail in the last weeks, and is the sixth of the group of 75 condemned to long term sentences last year. (AFP, 6,04)

June 23: A letter released in Havana, by Elsa Morejon Hernandez, wife of prisoner of conscience, Dr. Oscar Elias Biscet, denounced the critical situation this Cuban physician is facing at Prison Kilo 8, in the province of Pinar del Rio, 162 km. away from his home where he is serving a 25 year sentence after being sanctioned for committing crimes “against the sovereignty and the integrity of the Cuban territory.” (NetforCuba, 30/6/04)

June 24: After having been released, dissident writer Manuel Vazquez Portal traveled to Havana, where he spoke with reporters. "I'm stunned," said Vazquez Portal, adding that he was surprised some of the prisoners with more serious health problems weren't released before him. ''[Oscar] Espinosa Chepe should have been released before me”, Vázquez Portal said. Vazquez Portal said he didn't know why he was set free, but his wife, Yolanda Huerga, said her husband evidently was released early because of his high blood pressure. He said authorities recommended he leave Cuba following his release, making clear they would not stop him if he wanted to go. Before being arrested, Vázquez Portal and his family had entry visas to the US and they wanted to leave. ''Now, this is something I need to discuss with my family, but unless I am forced to do it [by Cuban authorities] I would like to stay.” “I don't know. It's a long-awaited moment, like the last act in an opera," he added. (El Nuevo Herald, The Miami Herald, 24/6/04)

June 25: The Cuban government's decision to free six jailed dissidents in recent days is designed to avoid the embarrassment of having them die behind bars and is not an indication that it is loosening its grip on dissent, experts said. ''The common denominator here is that all are in poor health,'' said Elizardo Sánchez, head of the Havana-based Commission on Human Rights and National Reconciliation. "It's apparent that the government is trying to avoid a mishap. They don't want anyone to die in jail.''''The release of some and the imprisonment of others shows the power of the state to do whatever it wants whenever it wants to,'' said Damián Fernández, director of Florida International University's Cuban Research Institute. ''These latest releases give the appearance of a thaw, an opening that is more a mirage than a reality,'' Fernández added. Also of concern is the fact that the six dissidents freed were sent home under an ''extrapenal license,'' meaning their convictions remain in effect and that they could be returned to prison at any time. (The Miami Herald, 25/6/04)

June 25: Cuban dissident Leonardo Bruzón Ávila denounced that he has been the victim of political harassment even after having been released from prison. Bruzón Avila told the independent press in Cuba that only three days after his release, a member of the Cuban State Security named Yan Santiago visited his house and told him not to keep talking about Cuban politics. The day after, Avila was taken to a “security house” where he was submitted to interrogation by this agent and another named Aramís. A third “interview” took place two weeks later. (Cuba Verdad, 25/6/04)

June 25: Though shunned by the communist state that controls all Cuban media and big-venue concerts, Pedro Luis Ferrer, a 52-year-old Dylan-style singer-songwriter continues to delight a loyal following with melodic calls for change and audacious criticism of the one-party regime. Ferrer does not hold back in demanding a multi-party system and the release of poet Raul Rivero, sentenced to 20 years in prison, and dozens of other jailed dissidents. Ferrer’s songs have not been heard on Cuban radio for many years, his concerts are not broadcast on national television and he cannot perform in large public venues, though his followers have recently been able to see him perform once a month at a Havana club known as "El Hueco" (the Hole). "I would have liked to have been invited to sign a letter calling for clemency for Raul Rivero, I would have signed one for Fidel Castro as well, because what the world needs is forgiveness," Ferrer said. "How are we going to become a nation that sustains itself on the basis of these harsh measures, that is trying to stop violence with violence, it is an excessive use of power." (EFE, 25/6/04)

June 27: The 35 year old political prisoner Migdalia Hernandez Enamorado, is requesting solidarity on behalf of her three daughters who desperately need both of her parents. Hernandez Enamorado and her husband Rafael Benitez Chui were arrested on March 19, 2003 soon after they arrived at a police Unit in Guantánamo to protest the arrest of two of their peers. Migdalia wants the entire world to know that every Sunday, since her arrest, her daughters Lissi, 12, and Migdalia, 10, go to El Combinado de Guantánamo and they stand in front of the prison until they are allowed to see their mother at a distance even though they are allowed to see her only for five minutes. (Puente Informativo, 27/6/04)

June 28: Prior to formal meetings of the National Parliament, the Parliament started sessions, with its members being informed about the performances of several state bodies,. Divided into 10 commissions, the members of the National Assembly of People's Power will analyze topics such as the results in food production, use of fertile lands and economic performance. Also included in the agenda will be the universalization of Higher Education, stemming from the establishment of colleges in the country´s 169 municipalities. (Prensa Latina, 28/6/04)

June 28: The Catholic Church journal Palabra Nueva urged Fidel Castro's government to use the widespread domestic condemnation of the new measures from Washington against the island to open up to all Cubans, including political dissidents. “Why not carry out now that social project ‘with all and for all’ Cubans, including those who think differently and have different political views within Cuba and wish to participate?” asked in an editorial the director of the journal, Orlando Márquez. [Cuba: La injerencia y la virtud] (Encuentro en la Red, 28/6/04)

June 28: Cuba launched a new campaign to characterize the country's dissidents as Washington's puppets at a time when the United States was preparing to increase financial support for the island's opposition. "All of these people are puppets manipulated by the State Department of the United States," parliament Deputy Lazaro Barredo told a news conference called by the Foreign Ministry's International Press Center. Cuban authorities showed clips from a secret government videotape taken five years ago of veteran rights activist Elizardo Sanchez telling state agents that several other opposition members "were manipulated." The news conference also seemed aimed at further discrediting Sanchez, who has grown more active recently. "This is more of the same," Sanchez said of the videotape. "They are trying to distract the public with a fake scandal." His Cuban Commission on Human Rights and National Reconciliation has long been an important source of information for international rights groups. (AP, 28/6/04)

June 30: Opposition member Eloy Gutierrez-Menoyo, a repatriated exile who refused to leave the island for fear he wouldn't be allowed to return, said the government gave him a passport allowing him to visit Spain and come back. Gutierrez-Menoyo said in a statement distributed via e-mail to international media that he was leaving Havana for Spain, where he had been invited to attend a congress of the Socialist Workers Party. Although his immigration status in Cuba remains unclear, Gutierrez-Menoyo said that the passport letting him go and return to the island was a positive sign. He previously was living in Havana without immigration documents of any kind. (AP, 30/6/04)