Chronicle on Cuba - April 2005

Foreign Affairs

April 1: One of Cuba's highest-profile dissidents and its premier contemporary poet arrived in Spain to take up residence four months after being released from jail. Raúl Rivero, who was released from prison for health reasons in November, had been sentenced to 20 years behind bars in 2003. The 60-year-old poet arrived in Madrid in the company of his wife, Blanca Reyes, his 11-year-old daughter and his mother. The Rivero family was greeted at the airport by Foreign Affairs Secretary Bernardino Leon, the ruling Socialist Party's foreign relations secretary, Trinidad Jimenez, and journalist Pablo Diaz Espí, a friend of Rivero's. "I left on a temporary permit. At the last moment, I was told I had a two-year period in which to return if I wanted to. I always want to return, but I think my return does not depend on me but on the Cuban government”. (EFE, 1/4/05)

April 1: The Philippines signed with Cuba a memorandum of understanding establishing cooperation between the Senate of the Philippines and the National Assembly of the People's Power of Cuba, the Philippine Senate said. Senate President Franklin M. Drilon and Jaime Crombet Hernandez-Baquero, vice president of the Cuban National Assembly for People's Power, signed the memorandum of understanding, along with the formation of the Philippine-Cuban Parliamentarians' Friendship Association. (Xinhua, 1/4/05)

April 2: Canadian Luther College, Cuban Schola Cantorum Coralina, and other three choirs from the island announced a concert in Havana. The Canadian-Cuban choral performance in San Francisco de Asís’ Minor Basilica, in old Havana, will include works by famous composers, as British Elton John, Peruvian Chabuca Granda, US Kirby Shaw, Cuban Gonzalo Roig, and others. Cuban choir conductor Alina Orraca, the concert hostess, told the press that the children and youth choir of the Schola Cantorum, and the Chamber choirs of the Music Higher Institute and the National School of Art will also perform in the concert. This event will be sponsored by the Canada-Cuba Cultural and Sports Festival organization, presided over Jonathan Watts. (Prensa Latina, 2/4/05)

April 2: The Spanish government’s president José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero met with Cuban dissident Raúl Rivero for almost two hours. According to a communiqué from the President’s office, the two talked about the political situation in Spain and Cuba. (AFP, 2/4/05)

April 2: The Cuban government expressed condolences for the death of Pope John Paul II and declared three days of official mourning on the communist-run island. In a letter to the Vatican read by Cuban Foreign Affairs Minister, Felipe Pérez Roque, Fidel Castro called the pope's passing "sad news" and expressed "the most heartfelt condolences of the Cuban people and government." "Humanity will preserve an emotional memory of the tireless work of His Holiness John Paul II in favor of peace, justice and solidarity among all people," Castro wrote. The Cuban leader also highlighted the pope's historic January 1998 visit to the island, saying it will remain "engraved in the memory of our nation as a transcendent moment in relations between the Vatican State and the Republic of Cuba." The Cuban flag was to fly at half-staff on public buildings and military installations for three days, and several events, including anniversary celebrations for communist organizations and baseball games, were suspended. The decree praised the pope for all of his efforts "in favor of solutions for many social ills affecting humanity," as well as for publicly criticizing four decades of US trade sanctions against Cuba. The government said it would send a high-level delegation to the Pope's funeral, but it was not yet clear who would head it. (AP, Canadian News, Radio Habana Cuba, 3/4/05)

April 4: Fidel Castro added his name to the long list of Cubans who have signed a condolence book at the Vatican Embassy in Havana after the death of Pope John Paul II. Dressed in a black suit rather than his usual olive-green uniform, Castro looked emotional as he read out his message: "Your departure pains us, dear friend. We wish with fervor that your example will endure." "Rest in peace, tireless fighter for friendship among peoples, enemy of war and friend of the poor,'' Fidel Castro wrote in the condolences book at the Papal Nunciature. Accompanied by his younger brother and designated successor, Defense Minister Raúl Castro, Castro also recalled John Paul as an "unforgettable friend'' who would be remembered on the island for speaking out against the US trade embargo during his January 1998 visit. "This earned you the gratitude and the affection of all Cubans forever,'' Castro wrote. Cuba never broke ties with the Vatican, even during the years that the island was officially atheist after the 1959 revolution that brought Castro to power. The government removed references to atheism in the constitution in 1991 and allowed religious believers to join the Communist Party. (CNN, The New York Times, 4/4/05)

April 4: During a funeral mass for the Pope attended by Fidel Castro, the Papal Nuncio in Havana, Luigi Bonazzi, called for dialogue with Cuba, in accordance with the wishes of Pope John Paul II during his historic visit to the island. The Nuncio alluded to the “unforgettable” visit to Cuba of the late Pope on January 21-25, 1998 and cited some of the most significant phrases from his speeches. According to Bonazzi the Pope “was deeply impressed and amazed by the admirable expression of affection received from the Cuban people.” (EFE, 4/4/05)

April 4: A high ranking government delegation traveled to the Pope's funeral, according to Round Table (Mesa Redonda), a daily official TV show. The TV show's host, Randy Alonso, announced that the Cuban delegation to the funeral will be presided over by the President of the National Assembly of People's Power, Ricardo Alarcón, and made up of the head of the Communist Party's Religious Affairs Department, Caridad Diego, the head of the Cuban Foreign Ministry's Europe Division, Teresa de Jesús Vicente, and the island's ambassador to the Holy See, Raúl Roa Kouri. (Radio Habana Cuba, 4/4/05)

April 4: Panama and Cuba could re-establish diplomatic relations this year, after Cuba broke them off in 2004 in the wake of the pardoning of four Cuban anti Castro exiles by the government of Mireya Moscoso. Panama’s First Vice-President and Foreign Minister, Samuel Lewis Navarro, said relations between Panama and Cuba remain at the consular level. (EFE, 4/4/05)

April 5: The plenary of the Mexican Senate urged the federal Executive to refrain from voting at the UN Human Rights Commission in favour of any resolution regarding human rights in Cuba. (Notimex, 5/4/05)

April 5: Fourteen Cubans were rescued near the Isla Mujeres coast, in the Mexican Caribbean waters, after their fragile wooden boat went adrift, according to official sources. The migrants—ten men and four women—were rescued 12.8 km from the Mexican coast. (EFE, 5/4/05)

April 6: Cuba's ambassador to the Dominican Republic called on Latin American countries to abstain from voting on any UN resolution condemning the island's human rights record. "The international community, and in particular Latin American countries, know Cuba doesn't violate human rights," Cuban Ambassador Omar Córdoba told reporters in Santo Domingo. Fidel Castro's government was pushing for abstentions, Cordoba said. The ambassador accused the US of putting heavy pressure on economically dependent nations to vote "yes," claims that Washington has denied. (AP, 6/4/05)

April 7: In a long speech broadcast live by radio and television, Fidel Castro denied the extent of the Pope’s role in the fall of communism in Eastern Europe at the start of the 1990s. Castro asserted that the fall of the socialist block was rather due to strategic errors and the communist leadership at that time. "It is true that the pope was very critical" of socialism, but "when the Soviet Union and the socialist camp disappeared, the pope became very critical of the capitalist system," Castro said, adding: "If, one day, Cuban socialism collapses, no one is to blame but ourselves." He said that “the Pope was not born or educated to bring down socialism.” Castro assured that Cubans felt honored by the visit of such an outstanding personality as Pope John Paul II. (AFP, Prensa Latina, 7/4/05)

April 7: In reference to the United Nations Commission on Human Rights Fidel Castro said “I couldn’t care less” and added that Europe will have the decisive vote in the upcoming vote in Geneva on a resolution drafted by the US against Cuba. The outcome of the vote “will largely depend on the Europeans; we’ll see what they say and what they do,” said Castro during a live speech broadcast on Cuban television. (AFP, 8/7/05)

April 7: The Ukrainian Foreign Ministry played down the scandal that emerged in relations with Belarus and Cuba after President Viktor Yushchenko signed with his US counterpart George W. Bush a declaration calling to promote freedom in the two countries and in Iraq. “Ukraine remains open for a frank dialogue and fruitful cooperation for the benefit of the Ukrainian, Belarusian and Cuban peoples. Ukraine highly values relations of friendly cooperation that exist between Ukraine and other world states, including Belarus and Cuba. However we proceed from the notion that true friends can always frankly speak about existing problems”, the ministry said in a statement. “The development of democracy, respect and protection of basic freedoms and human rights are the cornerstone of the activities of the new Ukrainian authority in the domestic and foreign policy. We follow with interest the development of democratic processes in every state”, the ministry said. (Itar Tass, 8/4/05)

April 7: Cuba was outraged by the declaration of the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry in relation with the promotion of freedom in Cuba. A government delegation that was in Kiev at the moment cut short its visit and Havana issued a protest to the Ukrainian government. Cuban Deputy Foreign Minister Eumelio Caballero Rodriguez said “it is incredible for us that the president of such a friendly country as Ukraine joined the strategy of the United States that has been for the last 40 years carrying out an aggression against our country through economic blockades and by staging over 600 terrorist acts against our country”. (Itar Tass, 8/4/05)

April 7: Ukrainian ambassador to Cuba, Viktor Pashchuk, died after experiencing chest pains. Pashchuck spent an hour an a half in intensive care in a Cuban hospital, but it did not help. Before that, the ambassador had been at the Cuban Foreign Ministry, where Cuban officials expressed their dissatisfaction concerning critical statements about Cuba made by Ukrainian officials during President Viktor Yushchenko's visit to the USA. The Ukrainian Foreign Ministry has denied any connection between the Ukrainian diplomat's death and his visit to the Cuban Foreign Ministry. Pashchuk was 59 years old. (One Plus One TV, 8/4/05)

April 8: Venezuela and Cuba began the discussion of common social programmes during a Friendship and Solidarity Meeting held in Caracas. The common social programmes will concern issues such as health services, education services and sports. The two Latin American countries are also expected to create a number of common social institutions. (Latin American News Digest, 8/4/05)

April 8: Fidel Castro awarded George Cadle Price, known as Belize's Father of Independence, with the island's highest honor, the Jose Martí Order in recognition of his extraordinary merits. Cuba Council of State Secretary, José Miyar Barrueco, underscored the important role played by the veteran politician in Belize's independence, which was proclaimed September 21st, 1981. George Cadle Price, honorary president of the United Peoples Party in Belize, a country of some 230 thousand inhabitants, expressed his gratitude for Cuba's cooperation in the area of health, a scholarship program under which students from Belize are studying in Cuba and for the friendship and good relations between the two governments. (Radio Habana Cuba, 9/4/05)

April 9: Brazil's leftist President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva has said he will work "for democracy in Cuba" and "against the (US economic) blockade" of the communist-run island, the newspaper Folha de Sao Paulo reported. "We have a lot to do for democracy in Cuba. We must help in the struggle against the US economic blockade (sanctions). Brazil has a chance to help normalize Cuba's relations," Lula told the daily in Rome, where he attended the funeral of Pope John Paul II. Lula, of the Workers' Party, made his remarks after meeting at Brazil's embassy in Rome with Cuban National Assembly speaker Ricardo Alarcón. (AFP, 9/4/05)

April 10: Former Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev joined intellectuals worldwide in urging a UN commission to avoid supporting a resolution sponsored by the US on the situation of human rights in Cuba, the government's writers and artists union said. Gorbachev, who in the past has called for an end to US trade sanctions against the country, recently joined more than 4,000 signatories who signed a letter backing Cuba, the union said in a press communique. [Let Us Stop a New Maneuver Against Cuba] (AP, 10/4/05)

April 11: The United States has filed a new resolution at the UN Human Rights Commission criticizing Cuba's record on abuses and requesting that the world body keep the communist country's record under observation, officials said. Keeping up its pressure on Cuba, the United States proposed the renewal of top UN investigator Christine Chanet's mandate to report to the commission on the human rights situation there. Washington requested that the commission renew resolutions from previous years condemning Cuba's human rights record, according to the draft text of the resolution. According to Joel Danies, a US diplomat at the UN Commission in Geneva, 37 countries including the European Union, Canada, Australia and Japan support the resolution. (AFP, ABC Online, 11/4/05)

April 11: Fidel Castro vented his anger at the European Union for planning to support a US resolution at an upcoming meeting in Geneva of the UN Committee on Human Rights calling for a review of the state of human rights in Cuba. "Its shameful that they should support a government guilty of monstrous war crimes, that advocates extrajudicial actions, that is responsible for torture in Iraqi prisons," Castro said. "We call on them to say something," he said referring to the European nations after reading a list of terrorist activities allegedly attributed to Luis Posada Carriles, who was convicted and sentenced to eight years in jail in Panama for trying to murder Castro during a Latin American presidential summit in 2000. (AFP, 11/4/05)

April 11: The circulation in Russia of the call “Let Us Stop a New Maneuver Against Cuba” has prompted a wide movement of support among political and intellectual figures, manifested by the addition of close to 600 signatures, including ex-president Mijail Gorbachov and Serguei Baburín and Vladimir Kuptsov, vice presidents of the Duma. With the signature of Gorbachov the total of Nobel Prize winners that have signed the statement has risen to six: the former Russian president, Guatemalan Rigoberta Menchú and Argentine Adolfo Pérez Esquivel were awarded the Nobel Peace Prize, while Portuguese José Saramago, South African Nadine Gordimer and Italian Dario Fo received nobel prizes in Literature. (Granma International, 12/4/05)

April 12: Cuban Ambassador to the United Nations, Rodrigo Malmierca, expressed his government’s willingness to continue the dialogue with the Twenty-five despite its “disappointment” over the European Union’s co-sponsorship with the US of a resolution condemning Cuba at the United Nations Human Rights Commission in Geneva, Switzerland. “We have always hoped that the EU would maintain an independent policy toward Cuba and not simply align itself with the US on any initiative against Cuba,” said Malmierca. (AFP, 12/4/05)

April 12: Antiguan Prime Minister Baldwin Spencer is visiting Cuba for talks on agriculture, health, tourism and education, the Antiguan government said. Spencer, who left the Caribbean island for the five-day trip, will meet with Fidel Castro and visit Antiguans studying in Cuba, the prime minister's office said. Talks between the two leaders are "expected to center on medical cooperation, cooperation in agriculture, tourism, construction and education," the office said. (AP, 12/4/05)

April 12: Carlos Martí, president of the Union of Cuban Writers and Artists (UNEAC) presented to the Cuban and international media in Havana a text titled “To our friends all over the world”, a brief response to the gesture of solidarity made by over 4,500 intellectuals and artists in the world who have signed the document "Let us halt the new anti-Cuba maneuver" against the US sponsored resolution on Cuba in Geneva. At the UNEAC offices, Carlos Martí recalled that the international appeal was made public on March 14 in Casa de las Américas and published in various newspapers around the world, on the occasion of the opening of a new session of the UN Human Rights Commission (HRC). More than 1,600 Cuban artists, writers, filmmakers, musicians, dancers, choreographers, and critics were the first to sign the brief letter, headed by Alicia Alonso, Silvio Rodríguez, Pablo Milanés, Roberto Fabelo, Harold Gramatges, Leo Brouwer, Abelardo Estorino, César Portillo de la Luz, Carilda Oliver Labra, Chucho Valdés, Celina González, Omara Portuondo, Frank Fernández, Kcho, Daysi Granados, Julio García Espinosa, Rosita Fornés. [To Our Friends All Over the World] (Granma International, 13/4/05)

April 12: The President of the International Olympic Committee (IOC) Sports for All Commission, Walter Troger, expressed satisfaction over his first working visit to Cuba, according to AIN News Agency. Troger told the press in Havana, that the main objective of his visit was to review and coordinate activities for the Sports for All Conference to be held in the Cuban capital in November 2006. (Radio Habana Cuba, 12/4/05)

April 13: Fidel Castro held closed-door talks with the Prime Minister of Antigua and Barbuda, Baldwin Spencer, touching on matters of bilateral interest, the Caribbean and the world, according to government sources. The visiting Prime Minister - who is on a five-day visit at the invitation of Fidel Castro - expressed his pleasure at returning to Cuba three decades after his first visit, this time to enhance bilateral ties in education, health care and agriculture. (Prensa Latina, 13/4/05)

April 14: The United Nations top human rights body backed a call by the United States to keep pressure on Cuba by renewing the mandate of a special investigator into alleged abuse there. The public vote, one of the most politically charged at the annual session of the 53-state UN Commission on Human Rights, was 21 in favor to 17 against, with 15 abstentions. The European Union co-sponsored the US resolution. Of the 12 Latin American states on the commission, only Costa Rica, Guatemala, Honduras and Mexico voted in favor of the resolution. With the exception of Cuba, which opposed it, the others abstained. [Votación por países, MINREX, UN Resolution on Cuba] (Reuters, 14/4/05)

April 14: Cuba said that its budding rapprochement with the EU "is on the verge of sinking" and asked the Europeans to join Havana in urging a UN forum to investigate the situation of detainees at the US Navy base in Guantanamo. Reacting to the vote in Geneva, Foreign Minister Felipe Perez Roque told a press conference in Havana that Cuba "acknowledges no legitimacy in this resolution and will in no way cooperate with this spurious mandate." The minister added that Havana will continue to deny entry to the French jurist named by the UN panel several years ago to serve as rapporteur for the situation on the Communist-ruled island. Perez Roque sharply criticized the EU's backing for Washington's resolution, calling it confirmation of Europe's adherence "to the aggressive policy of the United States" and saying that it jeopardizes the recent normalization of ties between Cuba and the 25-member bloc. He called the European Union stance at Geneva "pathetic". "The European Union knows what it has to do, what it has to rectify, and if it doesn't know that, then it doesn't know anything," Perez Roque said. "We will be alert and anxious to see what they do," he added, maintaining that the Cuban proposal offers "an opportunity for the EU to give proof of its ethical coherence." [Press Conference by Cuban Foreign Affairs Minister] (EFE, Prensa Latina, 14/4/05)

April 14: Cuba accused Mexico of having gone back on its word to Havana by voting to approve a UN resolution censuring the island's government over human rights. Foreign Minister Felipe Perez Roque also claimed at a press conference that Mexico City had supported the US-drafted text before the UN Commission on Human Rights in exchange for Washington's backing of the Mexican candidate to head the Organization of American States. "Once again, the Mexican government has opted for confrontation with Cuba," said Perez Roque. "Under pressure from the United States, (Mexico) has broken the commitments previously reached with us" at ministerial levels, he declared. The Mexican government "privately transmitted to the Cuban government more than once its position of abstaining" on the vote, Perez Roque asserted. "It's evident that (Fox's government) is using the Cuba issue as a bargaining chip" to get US support for Mexico's OAS candidate, said the foreign minister. "The consequence (of Mexico's vote) is that it reopens the confrontation and convinces the Cuban government that the attempts at dialogue and normalization with us were not honorable. It was purely a tactic," he added. [Press Conference by Cuban Foreign Affairs Minister] (EFE, El Tiempo, 14/4/05)

April 14: Fidel Castro said that the Geneva-based United Nations Commission on Human Rights, which earlier in the day voted to censure Havana for what it called its poor human rights record, was a "comedy." The Cuban leader made his remark at the beginning of a speech he delivered to regime officials focusing on anti-Castro activist Luis Posada Carriles. "Today a comedy took place in Geneva (…) What's it called? The (…) the Commission on Human Rights (…)" said Castro, referring to the commission's US-European-backed resolution condemning the Cuban regime for not extending full human rights to its citizens. Castro called the 21 commission members who voted in favour of the censure of Cuba, presented by the United States, "states serpents" (EFE, ANSA, 14,15/4/05)

April 14: In Mexico City, Mexican Secretary Luis Ernesto Derbez said that notwithstanding the UN vote in Geneva, his country "is not ready" to go back to the increased tension that existed in recent years with Cuba. "The Mexican government is in no way ready to have a situation in which our relationship with Cuba could sink to the levels of past years," he said. "I'm convinced that that will also be the case on the part of the Cuban government, because the relationship between the two countries is on terms that their peoples and they appreciate and value," added Derbez. He said that he personally informed Perez Roque of the Mexican decision to vote for the UN resolution, but he did not reveal what the Cuban minister's response had been. The Mexican foreign minister denied any link between his bid for the top OAS post and his government's vote in the UN Commission. Derbez warned that he would not tolerate ”offensive remarks” by representatives of the Castro government, or a further deterioration in relations between the two countries. (EFE, IPS, 14/4/05)

April 14: A court order has forced 96 Cuban doctors working in a health program in the Brazilian state of Tocantins to return to Cuba, reported the local government. Federal judge Marcelo Bernal ruled in favour of a demand from the Regional Medical Council requesting that foreign doctors be forbidden to practice in that state. (AFP, 14/4/05)

April 14: The Spanish government’s president, José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero, said that his “new commitment” is to make every effort for the release of more political prisoners in Cuba. During a ceremony in honour of Cuban poet and journalist Raúl Rivero, Zapatero indicated that he would do everything possible to get more Cuban dissidents out of prison so that “we have more friends and colleagues here and not in jail, but free, on the streets writing poetry and news articles.” (El Mundo, 14/4/05)

April 14: The government of Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva indicated it abstained from supporting a resolution on Cuba at the United Nations Human Rights Commission “because that, in the current circumstances, does not truly contribute to improving human rights” on the island. The Brazilian Foreign Ministry urged the government of Fidel Castro to “take new measures to ensure the full validity of all human rights not only economic, social and cultural but civil and political as well.” (AFP, 14/4/05)

April 15: The European Union rejected a Cuban call to back a UN human rights probe into the situation of terror suspects held by the United States at Guantanamo Bay. "The EU has never done so and does not have any intention of doing so," said spokeswoman Krisztina Nagy. And she rejected Cuban criticism of European support for a resolution at the UN Human Rights Commission that chastised Cuba's record. Nagy told reporters the resolution's call for UN investigators to report on Cuba was "an opportunity for the Cuban authorities to show human rights are respected." Cuban Foreign Minister Felipe Perez Roque said Thursday Cuba had presented a resolution to the UN 's Human Rights Commission meeting in Geneva asking the United States to authorize an independent and impartial investigation into the prisoners at Guantanamo Bay. (AP, Europa Press, 15/4/05)

April 15: Spain's prime minister cautioned Cuba against backing off from dialogue with the European Union, after the UN Human Rights Commission approved a resolution criticizing Havana's record. European nations backed the U.S.-sponsored resolution Thursday in Geneva, "I think that what the government of Cuba should do is listen to what is being said by the international community," said Spanish Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero. "The government of Cuba should not, in my opinion, go down the road that it may have insinuated after hearing of the United Nations' formulation," Zapatero told a news conference marking his first year in office. (AP, 15/4/05)

April 15: Venezuela, Cuba's staunchest ally in Latin America, came to the defense of Havana after the Fidel Castro regime was criticized by the UN Human Rights Commission, saying the worst abuses these days on the Communist island are being committed on a part of it controlled by the United States. "The great violations of human rights lately have been committed on Cuban territory controlled by the US," said Venezuelan Vice President Jose Vicente Rangel. (EFE, 15/4/05)

April 17: Cuban Defense Minister General Raul Castro arrived in the Chinese capital on the first leg of a tour that will also take him to Laos, Malaysia and Vietnam. Castro, the No. 2 man in the regime of his brother, Fidel Castro, met with the head of the International Department of the Chinese Communist Party's Central Committee, Wang Jiarui, shortly after his arrival in Beijing. The Cuban official is also scheduled to meet with President Hu Jintao, Prime Minister Wen Jiabao and the chairman of the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress, Wu Bangguo. Castro plans to visit a special economic zone in Beijing before traveling to China's financial capital, Shanghai, where he is slated to visit another of the development areas. Castro's delegation includes former Interior Minister Ramiro Valdes Menendez, Foreign Minister Felipe Perez Roque and Cuban Communist Party International Relations Department chief Fernando Remirez de Estenoz. (Xinhua, Granma, 17,18/4/05)

April 17: Fidel Castro mocked the European Union for failing to back Cuba's call for a UN investigation into US treatment of terror suspects at the Guantanamo Bay. Cuba asked the UN Human Rights Commission in Geneva to ask Washington to authorize an independent investigation into the situation at the US naval base in eastern Cuba. ''We were thinking too highly, and too honorably, of the European community'' to imagine they would back the project, Castro said. Castro also downplayed the importance of the European Union to Cuba, saying the island doesn't accept financial support from EU governments. ''We've renounced humanitarian aid (from Europe), we don't need it,'' Castro said. The Cuban leader also lamented new alliances between formerly communist Eastern European nations and the United States, saying former Soviet satellites ''are now rotating in the orbit of the (American) empire.'' (AP, 17/4/05)

April 17: Mexico should explain how Cuban militant Luis Posada Carriles passed through its territory undetected en route to the United States, Fidel Castro said. Posada, who is linked to assassination plots against Castro and wanted in Venezuela for a 1976 Cuban airliner bombing, entered the United States illegally through Mexico in March. He filed papers seeking political asylum in the United States last week. "The Mexican government should speak, because it's strange that such a notable gentleman should pass through Mexican territory and the authorities not say anything," Castro told reporters in Havana after casting his vote in countrywide municipal elections. "I’m only asking Fox to clarify, to give details, exact number of hours, who were with him [Posada Carriles], how long did they stay (…) Posada and his companions in the Mexican Caribbean”. “The honor and prestige of Mexico are at stake,” Castro added. (La Jornada, AP, 17/4/05)

April 17: Fidel Castro predicted that Mexican Foreign Minister, Luis Ernesto Derbez, would lose as a candidate for Secretary General of the Organization of American States (OAS). “All the peoples and governments of Latin America and the Caribbean know who the US-backed candidate is,” said Castro. He then targeted Derbez sarcastically linking him to the vote at the UNHRC in Geneva: “I suppose the Mexican will drop out of the race because by now I don’t know who the devil would vote for him, especially after his government behaved so properly, so honourably in Geneva, so concerned about human rights.” (La Jornada, 17/4/05)

April 18: Fidel Castro attacked once again Mexican Foreign Minister, Luis Ernesto Derbez, calling him a traitor for voting against Cuba at the UN Human Rights Commission. Castro added that the Mexican minister is an “agent” of the United States. According to the Cuban government, Mexico, in particular Foreign Minister Derbez, had promised to abstain during the vote at the UNHRC but at the last minute changed his mind due to pressure from the US. According to Castro the change of heart was part of negotiations by which the US would support Derbez’s candidacy as Secretary General of the Organization of American States (OAS). “It’s a dishonour to be the empire’s candidate to lead that rubbish,” said Castro and advised talking to the Caribbean governments to prevent “this gentleman from going out there politicking and making promises.” (BBC Mundo, 18/4/05)

April 18: Cuban dissident Oscar Espinosa Chepe, released from prison on health grounds, asked Brazil’s President, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, for his support of the release of the other 61 of the Group of 75 oppositionists who are still in jail. (EFE, 19/4/05)

April 18: The Honduran government rejected 25 out of 45 medical scholarships that Cuba's Latin American School of Medicine offered to Honduran students, officials said. Honduran Health Minister Merlin Fernandez said they were trying to "reorient the program" with Cuba and that they only wanted "to prepare laboratory technicians, anesthesiologists and other specialties that the country's health service needs." At least 650 Hondurans have studied at the Latin American School of Medicine since 1999. The rejected scholarships prompted speculation that the Honduran government had been pressured by Honduras' Medical College, which has at least 5,000 professionals, and the US Embassy in Tegucigalpa. But Fernandez said no such pressure exists. (AP, 18/4/05)

April 18: Guatemala’s Foreign Minister, Jorge Briz, recalled his Ambassador to Cuba to “exchange views”, after Cuban Foreign Minister Felipe Pérez Roque accused the Guatemalan government of betraying Havana at the UN Human Rights Commission. “I want to hear his opinion from a political standpoint and in the area of cooperation,” said Briz at a press conference. (AFP, 19/4/05)

April 18: Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez obliged all the nation's broadcasters to carry a speech in which he called Cuba's Fidel Castro his "elder brother" and dubbed the United States "a negative force that generates violence and wars among ourselves." The world has been made to believe - he said - "that Fidel Castro and Hugo Chavez have an evil plan to destabilize Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, Bolivia and the whole continent (…) (But) the destabilizer of this continent is and always has been the US government." "That is the great destabilizer of the region," he asserted at the graduation ceremony for a new group of former illiterates from a state-run - and Havana-aided - program to teach people to read and write. Washington is "a negative force that generates violence and wars among ourselves, (as well as) divisions to keep us as if we were its colonies, its back yard." This is the second direct verbal attack Chavez has made against the United States in less than 24 hours. (EFE, 18/4/05)

April 19: "China greatly values relations with Cuba, which are moving toward a new era of full growth and development," Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Qin Gang told the press. In light of the Cuban vice president and defense minister's visit to Beijing, Qin said China wished to "take bilateral relations to a new level" in the political, economic, educational, scientific and technological areas. Specifics of concrete accords were not announced. (EFE, 19/4/05)

April 19: Mexico would support the Cuban government’s proposal to create an international commission to visit and inspect the living conditions of the prisoners of war that the US keeps in Guantánamo, indicated the Foreign Minister. “I hope we can vote on it this year so that we can demonstrate the coherence of Mexico’s position vis à vis human rights” said the Minister. (La Crónica de Hoy, 19/4/05)

April 19: Fidel Castro harshly criticized the European Union (EU) for not joining Cuba’s denunciation of the situation of prisoners held at the US base in Guantánamo saying that the European bloc “obeys” the “empire”, in reference to the United States. Europe is a "mosaic" of nations “whose main characteristic shared by all is, on the whole, to obey the orders of the empire, supporting despicable acts in Geneva,” said Castro in a speech. Castro reiterated that he "could not care less" about the United Nations Human Rights Commission, adding that just like the Organization of America States, Geneva “stinks.” Fidel Castro also insisted in calling the OAS "garbage and nonsense," from which Cuba was expelled in 1962. (EFE, 20/4/05)

April 19: The President of the Medical Federation of Venezuela (FMV), Douglas León Natera, asked the government of Hugo Chávez to expel Cuban doctors from the country, like Brazil did after a court banned Cuban physicians who had not validated their degrees from practicing. “We are pleased with Brazil and we encourage the government to follow the example,” said León Natera. “The FMV has always said that (…) Cuban doctors have taken the place of Venezuelan doctors,” added León Natera. (AFP, 19/4/05)

April 19: Raul Castro arrived in Shanghai, travelling from Beijing, to hold a two-day visit to the eastern Chinese city. The Second Secretary of the Cuban Communist Party was accompanied by Wang Jiaru, director of the Chinese Communist Party International Department. Chinese Vice President Zeng Qinghong received the visiting Cuban top official, before he held extensive meetings with political leaders and government officials such as Prime Minister Wen Jiabao and the People´s National Assembly Permanent Committee Chairman Wu Bangguo. (Prensa Latina, 20/4/05)

April 19: Louis Michel, European Commissioner for Development and Humanitarian Aid, lamented the lack of a shared will in the heart of the European Union (EU) to normalize relations with Cuba, and warned reticent member states that without dialogue there is no way of improving the situation. Michel asked for a debate among the member states to clearly determine “what is the objective that the EU is proposing in relation to Cuba.” In that context he stressed that, “it is not about closing the channels of communication but improving the situation.” (Granma International, 20/4/05)

April 20: Fidel Castro called on the governments of Guatemala and Honduras to reveal what they know of the whereabouts of anti-Castro activist Luis Posada Carriles, whom Cuba accuses of terrorism. "Guatemala and Honduras, I beg you not to hold back from explaining what you know of Posada Carriles' comings and goings," Castro said in his seventh televised speech in just over a week given over to demanding the CIA-linked anti-Castroite be brought to trial. "It would be good to ask both governments whether the monster was there or not, and how it was possible not to find him despite the stench and the nauseating smell of death he carries about him," Castro said. (EFE, 20/4/05)

April 20: The first vice president of the Cuban Councils of State and Ministers, Raúl Castro Ruz, said his visit to China proved very fruitful for strengthening bilateral relations. China is the first leg of an Asian tour that will also take the Cuban defense minister to Malaysia, Laos and Vietnam. Following his respect for local heroes, the Cuban Communist Party second secretary met with Wu Bangguo, Chairman of the Permanent Committee of the People´s National Assembly (unicameral Parliament). The visiting top official also held talks with Jia Ginglin, Chairman of the Chinese People´s National Consultation Conference Committee, which is considered the largest social body engaged in consults with the government. Raúl Castro also visited the monoclonal antibody plant built accompanied by Revolution Commander Ramiro Valdés Menéndez and Foreign Affairs Minister Felipe Perez Roque. Fernando Remírez de Estenoz, director of the Cuban Communist Party International Relations, and Alberto Rodríguez Arufe, Cuban ambassador to China, also accompanied Raúl Castro. (Prensa Latina, 20/4/05)

April 20: Fidel Castro again lambasted the Europeans for failing to support Cuba's resolution in Geneva calling for an investigation into the condition of the more than 500 terror suspects being held at the US Navy base in Guantanamo in eastern Cuba. The EU's stance "demonstrates the demoralization, the absolute lack of ethics, of shame, of character of countries that are described as independent and as noble and good," Castro said. (EFE, 20/4/05)

April 20: Fidel Castro said that Ecuadorian President Lucio Gutierrezs ousting was foreseeable. I had the conviction that the "little gentleman" (Lucio Gutierrez) was not going to last long, Castro said while addressing leaders from all sectors of national life, and military institutions. (Prensa Latina, 21/4/05)

April 21: Cuba's foreign ministry slammed the UN Human Rights Commission, saying it is plagued by "hypocrisy and double standards," after the body rejected Cuban calls for the United States to allow an independent probe of the Guantanamo Bay detention center. The vote is "a fresh example of the hypocrisy and double standards that reign at the Human Rights Commission, which our country has repeatedly denounced," the ministry said in a statement. [Statement by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs] (AFP, 21/4/05)

April 21: The delegation from Argentina and Brazil to the United Nations Human Rights Commission in Geneva released a statement asking the Cuban government to guarantee the protection of “all human rights not only economic, social and cultural rights but civil and political as well.” While both countries abstained during the April 14 vote, they expressed the obligation of “every state to guarantee the full validity of all human rights,” given their universal, independent and inalienable nature. They also urged Cuban authorities to take “new measures” similar to those by which political prisoners were recently released from prison. (AFP, 21/4/05)

April 22: Cuba reasserted its commitment to adopt measures against organized transnational crime at the 11th UN Congress on Crime Prevention and Criminal Justice taking place in Bangkok. Dr. Carlos Zaragoza, president of the Criminal Court in the Supreme Court of Cuba, stressed at the meeting the reasons causing crime, as well as criticized the Cuban Adjustment Act, applied by the US to encourage illegal immigration of Cubans to that northern country. Among the international topics of the event are drug trafficking, people smuggling, money laundering and sale of weapons and explosives. (Prensa Latina, 22/4/05)

April 22: Cuban Defense Minister, Raul Castro, arrived in the People's Democratic Republic of Laos, where he was welcome by Prime and Foreign Minister Somsavat Leng Savat and other top officials. Shortly after his arrival, Raul Castro and his delegation went to the Ho Kang presidential palace, where Laotian Vice President and Permanent Member of the Revolutionary Popular Party's Political Bureau, Shomali Sayasone, extended a warm welcome to the Cuban visitors. (Prensa Latina, 22/4/05)

April 23: At the conclusion of a visit to Laos by Cuban Defense Minister, Raul Castro, Laotian Prime Minister, Khamtai Siphandon, said that the visit was more than an official visit, it was like that of a friend, or a brother. Malaysia is the Cuban delegation's next stop in an Asia tour which will also take them to Vietnam. (Radio Habana Cuba, 23/4/05)

April 25: The Zimbabwean government is in the process of recruiting doctors and medical specialists from Cuba and Egypt to alleviate the shortage of health workers in the country, an official said. The official from the Health and Child Welfare Ministry said teams from Zimbabwe were already in Havana, Cuba, with orders to recruit as many doctors as they could. (Xinhua, 25/4/05)

April 26: Cuban Defense Minister Raul Castro, the country's second-in-command, began a weeklong visit to Vietnam, where he will celebrate the 30th anniversary of the end of the Vietnam War. Castro, the younger brother and designated successor of Fidel Castro, arrived in Vietnam as part of an Asian tour that also includes stops in China, Laos and Malaysia. Vietnamese Prime Minister Phan Van Khai welcomed Raul Castro. Castro is scheduled to hold talks in Hanoi with Van Khai, Communist Party leader Nong Duc Manh and President Tran Duc Luong. He is also expected to travel to Ho Chi Minh City to celebrate the communist victory on April 30, 1975, when northern forces crashed through the gates of the Presidential Palace in the former US-backed capital of South Vietnam, reunifying the nation. (AP, 26/4/05)

April 26: The Guatemalan government conveyed is appreciation to Cuba, which doubled to 90 the number of scholarships for youths interested in studying medicine in Havana. Public Health Vice Minister Salvador Lopez said the Guatemalan government was "very proud and satisfied" with the flourishing of a project that started in 1998, when Cuba allowed Guatemalans to study medicine in its schools free of charge. Lopez' remarks followed those by Cuban Ambassador to Guatemala Angel Abascal, who asserted the number of scholarships would be doubled, besides the 40 usually granted to study at the Latin American School of Medicine. (Prensa Latina, 26/4/05)

April 26: Cuba's Ministry of Foreign Relations (MINREX) called on for the political situation in Ecuador be solved without foreign interference in the wake of President Lucio Gutierrez' dismissal by Congress. “The current situation in Ecuador must be solved by Ecuadorians themselves, without any kind of foreign interference, in strict accordance with the principles of sovereignty, independence and self-determination," states a MINREX statement. [Declaración del MINREX] (Prensa Latina, 26/4/05)

April 26: Fidel Castro suggested in a speech that Mexican President Vicente Fox take an early retirement to prevent instability or even violence in the current political flap over Mexico City Mayor Andrés Manuel López Obrador. For Fox to take an early retirement from his post "is preferable to tensions or violence," Castro said in a meandering speech of more than four hours on state television. "This situation isn't looking good," Castro said of the brewing political crisis involving López Obrador, a presidential aspirant. (AP, 26/4/05)

April 27: The Mexican government said it will “keep holding its hands out seeking positive relations” with Cuba, despite the criticism it receives from Fidel Castro. At a press conference, the Mexican Foreign Minister, Luis Ernesto Derbez, said that “relations among nations should be based on international law and mutual respect.” Senators from all three main political parties in Mexico, including the left, condemned the criticism made this week by Fidel Castro against President Vicente Fox. (EFE, 27/4/05)

April 28: The European Union's legislative branch expressed its dissent with the executive over policy toward Cuba, condemning a shift seeking rapprochement with the Communist-ruled island that included suspension of diplomatic sanctions. The European Parliament approved a document with a paragraph on Cuba that "condemns the sudden change of strategy and lifting of sanctions by the Council," which comprises heads of state and government from the bloc’s 24 member nations. By a vote of 251-64 with 255 abstentions, Euro lawmakers accepted that portion of the Annual Report on Human Rights in the World 2004, a text dealing with the state of basic liberties in more than 70 nations. Most of the abstentions were by Socialist members of the body. [Annual Report on Human Rights] (EFE, 28/4/05)

April 28: Venezuelan president Hugo Chávez and Fidel Castro strengthened their economic ties amid uncertain hopes of wooing other Latin nations into an alternative trade pact not led by the United States. The meeting between Hugo Chavez and Fidel Castro in Cuba coincided with an international meeting in Havana of opponents to the US-backed Free Trade Area of the Americas, or FTAA, which failed to take effect as scheduled early this year. Together, they were to promote their own Boliviarian Alternative for the Americas, which would tie together the region's developing nations without US direction. The name refers to South American independence hero Simon Bolivar, frequently invoked by the Chavez government. (AP, 28/4/05)

April 28: Cuban Ambassador to the UN Orlando Requeijo asserted proposals to reform this international entity, currently under analysis, were superficial and excluded the true cause of its "bereavement." Orlando Requeijo contended that several member states defended only their own interests, and imposed their policies and models on the majority. "We cannot speak of a more democratic and effective UN if its General Assembly does not exert the powers its Charter grants," stressed the Cuban diplomat. Requeijo called all member states to recognize the Assembly as the only true democratic and representative body of the UN, that should develop a more active role. (Prensa Latina, 29/4/05)

April 29: Qatar and Cuba talked about energy cooperation and world politics during the visit of Sheik Abdullah Bin Hamad Al-Attiyah that served to broaden the ties between the two countries. "We've come to keep expanding and strengthening the relations that our Emir and President Fidel Castro had forged and to help each other in ways that we agree upon," the second vice President of the Council of Ministers of Qatar told the press. The Emir of Qatar Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa al-Thani opened the path for improved relations with Cuba when he visited Havana in 2000. Fidel Castro paid back the visit to the Gulf state in 2002. (Prensa Latina, 29/4/05)

April 29: The leaders of Cuba and Venezuela, who form a regional "anti-imperialist" axis, called on other nations in the hemisphere to join their alternative to the Free Trade Area of the Americas being pushed by Washington. Hugo Chavez's goal during his visit this week to Havana has been to flesh out the preliminary charter he and long-time friend Fidel Castro signed in December establishing what the Venezuelan calls the "Bolivarian Alternative for the Americas," or ALBA. Speaking at an anti-FTAA event in Havana, the fiery Venezuelan populist said Latin America must exploit the "wave of liberation" washing over the hemisphere and grasp the "historic opportunity" ALBA offers for regional integration. "It must go beyond Cuba and Venezuela," Chavez said. The most prominent of the other attendees at the anti-FTAA gathering were Bolivia's Evo Morales, who leads the Movement Toward Socialism and finished a close second in the country's 2002 presidential election, and former Salvadoran guerrilla Schafik Handal, leader of the Central American nation's leftist main opposition party. "For me it is an honor to be beside this great destabilizer and these two distinguished rebels," Castro said as he stood among Chavez, Morales and Handal after his hour-long address to the forum. (EFE, 29/4/05)

April 29: Fidel Castro called the withdrawal of Mexican Foreign Minister Luis Ernesto Derbez from the race for the vacant leadership of the Organization of American States (OAS) another defeat for Washington"s interests in the region. One more fall, one more defeat, said the Head of State while addressing the 4th Hemispheric Meeting of Struggle Against the Free Trade Agreement of the Americas (ALCA), on learning of Derbez" decision to withdraw. (Prensa Latina, 29/4/05)