Chronicle on Cuba - June
2004
Foreign Affairs
June 1: Spain's governing Socialist party indicated that it hopes to improve bilateral relations with Cuba, ties that deteriorated during the previous conservative administration. The secretary of the ruling party's international committee, Trinidad Jimenez, met in Madrid with the vice president of Cuba's Council of Ministers, Jose Ramon Fernandez. Jimenez told the press that, during their meeting, Fernandez expressed his country's desire to "resume dialogue with Spain and the European Union." She added that her party considered relations with Cuba "extraordinarily important" because "we Spaniards have a lot in common with Cubans," including culture, trade relations and even family ties. But, for that to happen, the "will and effort of both countries" would be necessary, she added. (EFE, 1/6/04)
June 1: An urgent appeal to the UN Convention Against torture, and to the international public opinion, was made by Alejandrina García on behalf of her husband, political prisoner Diosdado González. Alejandrina requests urgent assistance due to inadequate treatment” received by her husband, a prisoner at Provincial Prison, Km 51/2, Pinar del Rio, where he is serving a 20 years sentence. She points out in the appeal that the prison regulations do not classify prisoners and that her husband is “ in danger of being placed alongside prisoners of different categories whom authorities do not care if they have had a criminal past or bad conduct”. (NetforCuba, 1/6/04)
June 2: Trade unions from 54 countries participating in the 92nd International Labor Conference taking place in Geneva have expressed their support for Cuba and condemned the measures announced by the US government to intensify the economic blockade of the island. Cuba's delegation to the meeting is being led by Pedro Ross Leal, General Secretary of the Confederation of Cuban Workers. (CTC) (Radio Habana Cuba, 2/6/04)
June 3: Mexico will not accept Cuba’s request to reinstate their respective ambassadors as a first step to normalize relations until the Cuban government explains the reasons why Cuba intervened in Mexico’s domestic affairs. According to Mexico’s foreign ministry, Cuba has not replied to a diplomatic note sent last April 29 asking for an explanation. Mexican foreign minister, Luis Ernesto Derbez, promised his Cuban counterpart, Felipe Pérez Roque, to visit Havana early in July; however, if an explanation has not been forthcoming before then, the visit will take place without ambassadors being present. (Grupo Reforma, 3/6/04)
June 3: UNICEF Spain has launched a campaign against sex tourism with the support of several airlines which have agreed to show a sensitization video on board their planes, informed the companies. The Spanish Association of Airline Companies (AECA), which includes all Spanish airlines except Iberia, agreed to prioritize the tape viewings during flights to classic sex destinations like Cuba, Brazil, Camboya and Thailand. (AFP, 3/6/04)
June 4: The regional government of the Canary Islands is set to provide more than 300,000 euros ($366,000) in aid to some 1,000 natives of the archipelago living in Cuba, officials said. The announcement was made during an official visit to the islands by Cuban Vice President, Jose Ramon Fernández. (EFE, 4/6/04)
June 4: Oman and Cuba pledged to strengthen their bilateral relations while exploring possibilities of joint ventures in various fields. Cuba's visiting Minister for Foreign Investment and Economic Cooperation Marta Morales, held talks with the top officials in the Sultanate. (Oman News, 4/6/04)
June 5: North Korean Deputy Foreign Minister Choi Su Hon is in Cuba for a three day official visit with the aim of strengthening bilateral relations and will meet Cuban Foreign Minister, Felipe Pérez Roque. Choi Su Hon expects to meet also with Cuban Deputy Foreign Ministers Abelardo Moreno and José A. Guerra Menchero,as well as ministry officials Rafael Dausá and Aramis Fuentes. (Prensa Latina, 6/6/04)
June 5: Fidel Castro decorated famous Spanish dancer Antonio Gades with the Jose Marti Order, the highest award the Cuban State confers to distinguished personalities, at a private ceremony. After the ceremony concluded, Gades said he received the decoration with the satisfaction of sharing it with all those who anonymously defend the Cuban Revolution. (Prensa Latina, 6/6/04)
June 7: The Foreign Affairs Ministers of the member countries of the European Union (EU), are expected to revise its document under the name Common Position on Cuba at their meeting on June 14 and 15, 2004 in Brussels, the EU said. The Common Position of the EU countries on Cuba is a document in force as of 1996. The revision comes in a difficult moment for the Cuban-EU relations, affected recently by a series of arrests and sentences against dissidents, made by Cuban authorities in 2003 and continuing in 2004. The EU imposed diplomatic sanctions on Cuba at the end of 2003. Cuba answered to the diplomatic sanctions, rejecting the humanitarian aid of the EU for Cuba. (Latin America News Digest, 7/6/04)
June 8: Spain’s foreign minister, Miguel Ángel Moratinos, said he would like the Spanish Cultural Centre in Havana to reopen “as soon as possible.” During his first appearance before the Congress of Deputies the Minister indicated that “at the moment, Spain’s desire is to reinitiate the dialogue” with the Cuban government. (AFP, 9/6/04)
June 9: Honduran authorities have taken into custody a group of 22 Cuban rafters who arrived at Puerto Lempira, on the Caribbean coast, indicated an official source. Captain Salvador Miralda, of La Ceiba Fire Department, said the Cubans were brought to Honduras after being rescued by a fishing vessel. The group includes six women, two children 11 and 14, and fourteen men. One of the women is pregnant. (EFE, 10/6/04)
June 9: Cuban Ambassador to Brazil Pedro Nuñez Mosquera opened the 12th Brazilian National Convention of Solidarity with Cuba, that will discuss the latest US government measures against the island. In recent statements to Prensa Latina, Nuñez Mosquera asserted that the convention would turn into a new and strong condemnation to the US anti-Cuban restrictions. "The Movement of Solidarity with Cuba is highly solidified in Brazil. Here, our country has many friends who are concerned for the Revolution´s work and efforts during the last forty years, to defend its sovereignty and independence, and develop and consolidate its achievements," stressed the Cuban ambassador. (Prensa Latina, 9/6/04)
June 9: Cuban dissident and democracy activist Oswaldo Paya said he wants to accept the Spanish Socialists' invitation to attend their annual party congress in Madrid next month. What remains to be seen is if Cuba's communist government will allow the dissident to make the trip. "It's a gesture that acknowledges the pluralistic spirit in Cuba's civil society, which neither I alone nor Fidel Castro's government represent," Paya, leader of the dissident Liberation Christian Movement and winner of the European Parliament's Sakharov Prize for human rights, told the press. "It's my right to leave the country, but it's the government who decides if I may," he said. Paya said his presence at the assembly of the Spanish Socialist Workers' Party (PSOE) would be a good opportunity to "have an open exchange and strengthen the relationship between democratic movements like the PSOE and the Liberation Christian Movement." (EFE, 9/6/04)
June 11: Cuba has denounced the real economic and political objectives of the Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA). Speaking in Geneva at an event organized by the World Federation of Trade Unions and the Geneva Community of Trade Union Action, the general secretary of the Cuban Confederation of Workers (CTC), Pedro Ross Leal, reiterated his country's staunch opposition to the FTAA. Ross Leal is in Geneva as a member of the Cuban delegation to the 92 nd Meeting of the International Labor Conference.
June 11: The French government hopes the recent release of five Cuban dissidents is a "prelude" to the liberation of "all political prisoners" on the island, a Foreign Ministry spokesman said. "France rejoices at the release of Carlos Alberto Dominguez, Emilio Leyva, Lazaro Miguel Rodriguez, Leonardo Bruzon and Miguel Valdes Tamayo", official spokesman Herve Ladsous said. "In any case, let us recall that all the member nations of the European Union (EU) have repeatedly asked the Cuban government to release all current political prisoners," he observed. France "hopes this decision is a prelude (to that action)," he added. (EFE, 11/6/04)
June 12: The government of Fidel Castro refuses to allow a Paraguayan woman and her six-month-old daughter to leave the island. The woman is married to a Cuban dissident—a doctor who defected while on a mission in Venezuela and moved to Paraguay, according to a complaint from the Paraguayan Foreign Ministry. In a letter addressed to foreign minister Leila Rachid, the victim, Nilda Graciela Oviedo Ozuna, urged the Paraguayan government to intervene. (AFP, 12/6/04)
June 12: Fidel Castro called for unity among developing nations in the face of globalization. Castro spoke on the 40th anniversary of the founding of the Group of 77 developing nations, ahead of the UN Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD), which is to open in Brazil. "In today's world, characterized by a unipolar and neoliberal order, under an economic and military dictatorship of a superpower which attempts to impose its model as the only one for all humanity, the countries of the South must continue to strengthen our unity and cooperation," he said in a letter addressed to the Group of 77, which was founded in 1964 at the first UNCTAD meeting. [Mensaje de Fidel Castro] (AFP, 12/6/04)
June 13: According to the Cuban official daily Juventud Rebelde, the Cuban government has inaugurated the Hispano-American Cultural Centre at the site of the former Spanish Cultural Centre in Havana, shut down by Fidel Castro last September. Sources with the new institution confirmed that it was inaugurated two weeks ago by Havana City historian Eusebio Leal. (EFE, 14/6/04)
June 13: In the last few weeks, Mexico has recalled its First Political Secretary, the Military Attaché, and the Naval Attaché to Cuba. These decisions raise some doubts as to the full restoration of relations between the two countries. (Grupo Reforma, 13/6/04)
June 14: The European Union Ministers reiterated diplomatic sanctions against Fidel Castro’s regime. The Group of the Twenty Five made an implicit acknowledgement to Cuban internal dissidents while renovating their invitations to their diplomatic events in Havana to the oppositionist organisations. In the document approved by consensus, the Group makes explicit their interest to renovate dialogue with Havana, and regrets Cuba’s rejection to accept cooperation from the EU nations. (Europa Press, 14/6/04)
June 14: The Cuban government authorized the departure of the Paraguayan wife of a Cuban doctor who defected while serving abroad, diplomatic sources told the press. The couple's infant daughter will accompany Nidia Graciela Oviedo Ozuna when she leaves for Paraguay, where she will meet up with her husband, Pablo Ramon Linares. Four months ago, Linares decided not to return to Cuba after taking part in a medical mission in Venezuela, though his wife and daughter, now 6-months-old, remained on the communist-ruled island. (EFE, 14/6/04)
June 14: Fidel Castro has sent a message to the 11th United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD), underway in Sao Paulo, Brazil. The leader of the Cuban Revolution said that the UN Conference on Trade and Development, an organization founded 40 years ago, "was a noble attempt by the underdeveloped world to create in the United Nations, through fair and rational international trade, an instrument to serve its aspirations of progress and development." Fidel Castro said that there were lots of hopes then and the idea that the former colonial masters were aware of their duty and the need to share that goal. (Mensaje a la UNCTAD) (Radio Habana Cuba, 14/6/04)
June 14: Cuban dissidents expressed satisfaction with the European Union decision to keep up diplomatic pressure on the Fidel Castro regime following renewed repression on the island. "The EU had to maintain its position not only because of the lack of a positive response from the Cuban government, but due to the visible evidence that the political, economic and human rights situations in our country continue to deteriorate," Elizardo Sanchez, leader of the outlawed Human Rights Commission, told the press. According to Sanchez, the EU "is distancing itself from the government of Cuba and aligning itself with the Cuban people." Vladimiro Roca, of the All United dissident organization, praised the 25-nation bloc's decision, noting that "they couldn't do anything else, because the Cuban government is still determined to remain isolated from the rest of the world." (EFE, 14/6/04)
June 14: The Spanish Minister of Foreign Affairs and Cooperation, Miguel Angel Moratinos, said the European Union would be willing to revise its diplomatic sanctions against Cuba, which are renewed every six months, provided further positive steps are taken, like the recent release on health grounds of one of the 75 imprisoned dissidents. (Europa Press, 14/6/04)
June 14: The Secretary General elect of the Organization of American States (OAS), Costa Rican Miguel Angel Rodríguez, ruled out Cuba’s return to that institution because it does not have a democratic government. “The situation is very clear: the (member) countries approved the Inter-American Democratic Charter, which establishes democracy as one of the conditions to become a member of the OAS”, he asserted. (Reuters, 14/6/04)
June 16: A group of European and Latin American activists and lawmakers announced the establishment of a joint commission to monitor human rights abuses and promote democracy in Cuba. The non government commission will pressure Fidel Castro's government to respect the rights of citizens seeking democracy in the communist nation, said Francisco Landero, a Mexican federal congressman from the conservative National Action Party. Also present at the announcement at Miami's Our Lady of Charity Shrine were Anna Maria Stame Cervone, an activist in Italy's conservative Christian Democratic party, and Alvaro Dubon, a conservative Guatemalan member of the Central American Parliament. Stame said the Joint Commission of European and Latin American Parliamentarians in Support of Democracy and Human Rights in Cuba has 50 members from Chile, the Czech Republic, Argentina, Guatemala, Mexico and Italy, and expects many more to join in coming weeks. (The Miami Herald, 17/6/04)
June 17: Cuba has expressed its full support for a global system of preferential trade. Speaking with delegates at the 11th United Nations Conference on Trade and Development underway in Sao Paulo, Brazil, Cuban Foreign Trade Minister Raúl de la Nuez said that Havana will work with other underdeveloped countries to develop a system of preferential treatment. (Radio Habana Cuba, 17/6/04)
June 18: The International Labor Organization (ILO) criticized Cuba, Venezuela and Zimbabwe for violations of the right of citizens to associate freely. Regarding Cuba, the same report deplores the government refusal to have direct contact with an ILO mission, which was proposed in November 2003. It also complained that Havana had not sent information requested by the ILO in connection with the long jail sentences - in some cases more than 26 years - given to seven union leaders, whose immediate release is being requested. With respect to the monopoly of unions established by Cuban law, the ILO asked Havana to adopt regulations that recognize in practice the right of workers to organize independently based on the results of their own elections. (EFE, 18/6/04)
June 20: Eleven Cubans recounted how they reached the Honduran coast after drifting at sea for a week on a small boat. A previous group of 22 rafters had reached Puerto Lempira, on Hondura's Atlantic coast. And last May another 23, including six women and two children, were shipwrecked along different places on the North coast. Official Honduran statistics indicate that at least 200 Cubans have arrived in the country in the last two years aboard rafts and later left for the United States. (AP,20/6/04)
June 20: Members of the Mothers' Committee for the Freedom of Political Prisoners delivered a letter to the pope's representative to Havana. "There are more than 200 political prisoners in Cuba, some imprisoned only because of the way they think, while others endure excessive sentences," said the letter delivered to papal nuncio Luigi Bonazzi, who gave mass at the Church of Jesus on the Mount in Havana. The group asked to meet with Bonazzi so they could talk about their jailed relatives. Nuris Duran, mother of Lazaro Duran and president of the committee, stood in line to greet Bonazzi and to hand him the letter. She was accompanied by a dozen women similarly dressed in black and white. (AFP, 20/6/04)
June 21: Cuban Council of State Vice President Carlos Lage Dávila is leading the Cuban delegation participating in the fourth Africa, Caribbean and Pacific ACP this week in Mozambique, official sources informed. The Cuban delegation also includes Marcos Rodríguez (director of the Cuban Foreign Ministry´s Sub-Saharan Africa Department), Rodrigo Malmierca (Cuban Ambassador to Belgium) and Eduardo González Lerner (Cuban Ambassador to Mozambique), among other officials. (Prensa Latina, 21/6/04)
June 21: Cuba and China have announced that inter-ministerial meetings, which got underway over the weekend in Havana will strengthen relations between both countries and raise levels of cooperation in the international arena. (Radio Habana Cuba, 21/6/04)
June 21: Cuba denounced at the Executive Board of the UN Development Fund (UNDP) and UN Population Fund (UNPF) United States soaring aggressions in stepping up the sanctions against the island. On addressing the debates of the UNPF 2003 report, Cuban specialist Jorge Garcia denounced the new measures that President George W. Bush announced on May 6 with which Washington not only tightens the economic embargo, but “is an open violation of international law”, he said. (Radio Habana Cuba, 21/6/04)
June 22: Honduran officials said they would mount operations "by sea and by land" to prevent the mass arrival of Cuban rafters trying to use the country as a stepping-stone to the United States. Ramon Romero, the director general of immigration, made the announcement a day after saying he believed that Miami-based groups were encouraging Cubans to flee to Honduras. About 300 Cubans have arrived in Honduras aboard rafts or small boats over the past two years -- most apparently trying to head by land to the United States. (CNN, 22/6/04)
June 22: Namibian President Sam Nujoma began an official three-day visit to Cuba set to include talks with Fidel Castro, officials said. Nujoma was welcomed in Havana by Foreign Investment and Cooperation Minister, Marta Lomas, and Deputy Foreign Minister, Jose Guerra Menchero. (AFP, 23/6/04)
June 23: Eleven Cubans recounted how they reached the Honduran coast after drifting at sea for a week on a small boat. A previous group of 22 rafters had reached Puerto Lempira, on Hondura's Atlantic coast. And last May another 23, including six women and two children, were shipwrecked along different places on the North coast. Official Honduran statistics indicate that at least 200 Cubans have arrived in the country in the last two years aboard rafts and later left for the United States. (Europa Press, 23/6/04)
June 23: During his three-day visit to Cuba, Namibian president Sam Nujoma was welcomed by Fidel Castro at a ceremony also attended by Cuban Foreign Minister Felipe Pérez Roque, Health Minister José Ramón Balaguer and Marta Lomas, Minister for Foreign Investment and Economic Cooperation. Also present were members of the accompanying delegation from Africa, including Namibian Foreign Affairs Minister Marco Hausiko and Hifikepunye Pohamba, Namibia's Minister of Land, Reestablishment and Rehabilitation. (Radio Habana Cuba, 23/6/04)
June 24: Colombia and Cuba began their 6th Joint Mixed Commission in Bogota with discussions on economic, technical, scientific, educational and cultural cooperation. The consul minister of the Cuban diplomatic mission in Colombia, Ramón Arnao, said that Havana and Bogotá agree that the results of this meeting and the fulfillment of agreements will contribute to the strengthening of bilateral relations between both countries. (Radio Habana Cuba, 24/6/04)
June 24: Cuban Vice President Carlos Lage addressed the opening of the 4th Summit of the Africa, Caribbean and Pacific Group ACP) in Maputo -- noting the ACP has become an important forum of consultation that international institutions must take into account. Carlos Lage said that every day the European Union shamelessly boasts of its alliance with the United States. He noted that Washington's unilateral and imperialist policy is unprecedented, without regard to the United Nations, its allies or international public opinion. And Cuba's vice-president said that recent events confirm that empires have neither friends nor principles, only interests. (Radio Habana Cuba, 25/6/04)
June 24: Abelardo Fernández, a Cuban citizen who requested from Spanish authorities political asylum for him and his family, has been deported to Cuba. On arriving to Havana’s airport, Cuban authorities denied him and his two daughters –4 and 12 years old—permission to enter to their country alleging that they left the island under “permanent bases”. "It is an untenable situation”, Victoria Fernández, technical director of the Fundación Hispano Cubana said. “The girls have been traveling for 20 hours. In Cuba, they were not allowed to enter, and Spain insists on deporting them to Havana”, Fernández added. Officials from the Centro Cubano de España are also trying to obtain from Spanish authorities permission for Fernández and his family to stay in that country under humanitarian bases. (Encuentro en la Red, 24/6/04)
June 25: Mozambican President Joaquim Chissano and Cuban Vice President Carlos Lage held talks in Maputo on matters of mutual interest -- especially Cuban assistance to the African country in the fields of health, education, tourism and fishing. The meeting, held at the Government Palace in Maputo, was also attended by Cuba's Ambassador to Mozambique, Eduardo González, and Marcos Rodríguez, head of the Foreign Ministry's Africa Department. (Radio Habana Cuba, 25/6/04)
June 25: Namibian President Sam Nujoma concluded a three-day official visit to Cuba. Speaking with reporters before returning home, the Namibian leader said he was very satisfied with his visit and talks with high-ranking Cuban officials, including his Cuban counterpart, Fidel Castro. (Radio Habana Cuba, 25/6/04)
June 26: Spanish authorities deported to Cape Verde three Cuban citizens who requested political asylum and had been in detention at the Barajas airport after being turned down by both Havana and Madrid. Abelardo Fernández, and daughters Valentina and Lesly, 4 and 12 years old respectively, were sent to the African nation after failed attemps by exile organizations to secure their asylum on humanitarian grounds. (Encuentro en la Red, 29/6/04)
June 25: Belize will widen areas of cooperation with Cuba, especially in the treatment of AIDS. According to reports from Belmopan, the Belizean capital, a delegation recently visited Havana to see first-hand the methods used to fight HIV/AIDS in Cuba. Both governments are reportedly studying the possibility of sending a group of doctors from Belize to Cuba, to train at specialized hospitals. Cuba now has 112 doctors and medical personnel working in remote areas of Belize. (Radio Habana Cuba, 25/6/04)
June 25: Amnesty International (AI) welcomes the release of two further prisoners of conscience by the Cuban authorities, but calls for more to be released. AI has received numerous reports of illnesses among prisoners having been aggravated by prison conditions, insufficient access to appropriate medical care and, at times, hunger strikes. [Releases of prisoners of Conscience Should Continue] (AI Press Release, 25/6/04)
June 28: Jamaica Foreign Affairs and Trade Minister Keith Desmond St. Aubyn Knight is arriving in Cuba, leading an entrepreneurial delegation at the invitation of Cuban Foreign Minister Felipe Perez Roque. This first visit of the Jamaican minister since taking office will strengthen the traditional bilateral ties of solidarity and cooperation established in 1903 and raised to embassy status in 1972, Granma daily reports. The economic and trade links maintained by the two countries in health, education, culture, science and tourism are likely to be raised in K.D. Knight ´s talks with Foreign Ministry officials and other representatives of the Cuban government. (Prensa Latina, 28/6/04)
June 29: Ten Cuban illegal migrants who arrived on Mexico's Caribbean coast in a fragile boat were detained by the Mexican navy, authorities said. The rafters set sail four days ago from the western Cuban province of Pinar de Rio, but their boat's engine broke down. Among the rafters, all of whom were adults, were three women. The Cubans were all sent to the migration station in Cancun so that their immigration status can be determined. (EFE, 29/6/04)
June 29: Fidel Castro characterized himself as a friend and admirer of Diego Maradona and said he hopes the Argentine former soccer superstar can return to Cuba, where he spent several years undergoing treatment for drug problems. "I hope he can come," Castro told reporters during a reception at the home of Argentine Ambassador Raul Taleb. (AP, 1/7/04)
June 29: Indian lawmaker Elsa Guevara Aguirre has been nominated to serve as Bolivia's ambassador to Cuba and will most likely be confirmed for the post, Foreign Minister Juan Ignacio Siles said. Guevara, a Quechua Indian, is vice president of the lower house and has received the Cuban government's blessing for the job. (EFE, 29/6/04)
June 30: Iranian Foreign Minister Kamal Kharazi will make an official visit to Cuba, where he will meet with his Cuban counterpart Felipe Perez Roque, the foreign ministry said in Mexico. Iranian President Mohammad Khatami visited Cuba in September 2000, and first vice president Hassan Ebrahim Habibi visited the island, in July 1999 and April 2000, heading his country's delegation to the Group of 77 Summit in Havana. (AFP, 30/6/04) |
