Chronicle on Cuba - June 2005

US-Cuba Relations

June 1: The US Coast Guard said it repatriated 40 Cuban migrants to Bahía de Cabañas, Cuba, and 162 Haitian migrants to Port-au-Prince, Haiti. The 40 Cuban migrants were intercepted by the Coast Guard aboard five different rustic vessels found in the Florida Straits between May 22 and the 24th. (Sun Sentinel, 1/6/05)

June 2: Novelist Ernest Hemingway's hideaway near Havana, where he wrote "The Old Man and the Sea" and spent more than 20 years of his life, is so tied to American culture - and so damaged by time and the elements - that a US preservation group has listed the house among its endangered historic places. The house, called Finca Vigía, or Lookout Farm, is the first historic site outside the United States to be part of the National Trust for Historic Preservation's annual call for help. "This is a very important part of America's cultural heritage even though it is outside our boundaries," said Richard Moe, president of the group. "It is part of our shared heritage with the Cubans." (Sun Sentinel, 2/6/05)

June 2: Fidel Castro accused the United States of protecting his old archenemy, Cuban militant Luis Posada Carriles, implying that the former CIA operative might have secrets American officials may not want revealed. ''This empire is letting itself be blackmailed by its accomplices,'' Castro said of Posada and other Cuban exiles who were active in efforts to topple the island's communist government during the Cold War. Although he wasn't on the agenda, Castro spoke several times during the first day of an antiterrorism meeting that drew about 400 participants from abroad, mostly from Latin America. (The Miami Herald, 3/6/05)

June 3: Citing both the positive actions and failures of governments around the world to take the necessary steps to end modern-day slavery, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice presented to the public the fifth annual Trafficking in Persons Report (TIP) at the US Department of State. The report records the efforts of 150 nations between March 2004 and March 2005 to deal with the issue, explained Ambassador John Miller, the senior adviser on trafficking in persons in the State Department. “Burma, North Korea, Sudan and Cuba remain on Tier III, largely because they still fail to address forced labor in their countries”, Miller said. Tier 3, the least favorable rating, lists countries whose governments fail to meet minimal international standards and are not making significant efforts to do so. [Trafficking in Persons Report. Countries A through G] (Washington File, 3/6/05)

June 3: Fidel Castro said that the US government’s current anti-terrorist crusade is a continuation of Operation Condor, a plan carried out in order to crush progressive forces in Latin America in the 70s. Referring to a speech by Argentinian writer Miguel Bonasso before the International Meeting against Terrorism, for Truth and Justice, Castro indicated that these plans include attempts to assassinate Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez and destroy the Bolivarian Revolution. Condor is against Venezuela now, one of the current US administration’s main concerns, something that cannot be underestimated if one wants to wipe out all abhorrent tragedies and events witnessed by this continent, he said. (Prensa Latina, 4/6/05)

June 4: Luis Posada Carriles said he will fight to remain in the United States, and he wants to live a quiet life, supporting himself by selling his paintings, a newspaper reported. In an interview with The Miami Herald, Posada did not say if he would give up violence in his campaign against Cuba's Fidel Castro. "In the United States, I want to lead a normal life,'' Posada said. "I will paint and work for my fatherland. That's what I'm going to do.'' Posada, 77, is in US custody in El Paso, Texas, facing deportation on charges of entering the United States illegally earlier this year. (Sun Sentinel, 5/6/05)

June 4: More than two dozen foreign dignitaries joined a call in South Florida for the Organization of American States to make Cuba's transition to democracy one of its top priorities. The University of Miami's Institute for Cuban and Cuban-American Studies took advantage of the OAS' annual General Assembly, being held in Fort Lauderdale, to organize a seminar on how the 34-hemispheric bloc can play a constructive role in Cuba's future. A dozen Latin American and European leaders signed a three-page declaration on Cuba passed around at the seminar and urging the OAS to "consider how it can play a constructive role in helping a future Cuban democratic transition government rejoin the hemispheric family of democracies and rebuild its political, legal and economic system.'' In addition, the resolution urged the OAS' Inter-American Human Rights Commission to remain vigilant on Cuba's human rights situation and help its people. Participants included former presidents Luis Alberto Lacalle of Uruguay, Luis Alberto Monge of Costa Rica, Vaclav Havel of the Czech Republic and Eduardo Frei of Chile. (The Miami Herald, 5/6/05)

June 4: A two-and-a-half hour speech by Fidel Castro was the final salvo fired in an international conference that accused the United States of hypocrisy in the fight against terrorism. "The empire has to be forced to hand over its henchmen, to comply with treaties, with UN and bilateral accords and those with the nations of the Caribbean, that it hand over the criminals," Castro declared, referring to Luis Posada Carriles, a CIA-trained Cuban exile wanted in connection with the 1976 bombing of a Cubana commercial jet that killed all 73 on board. This case has the United States in a bind, Castro said at the conference closing, but "we have to demand that they talk, that they explain, that they say how he entered [the country] and then we’ll know a whole lot of things." (Prensa Latina, CBS, 5/6/05)

June 5: The OAS member states cannot rest "until freedom and prosperity and security enrich the lives of all of our people," US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said as she opened the annual session of the OAS General Assembly. “Thirty-four nations have earned their rightful place in this great democratic organization. But there remains one open seat at the table -- a seat that will one day be filled by the representatives of a free and democratic Cuba”. Rice added that, “In Florida, we can glimpse the future potential of a free Cuba. As recently as 1999, the 2 million Cubans in the United States earned a combined income of $14 billion. Now compare that with Castro’s Cuba, a country of 11 million citizens and a GDP only slightly larger than $1 billion. The lesson is clear: When governments champion equality of opportunity, all people can prosper in freedom”. [Remarks by Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice] (OAS Press Release, 5/6/05)

June 6: US president George W. Bush singled out Cuba as the only non democratic nation in the Western Hemisphere during a speech to the Organization of American States, but said "the tide of freedom" would one day reach the communist island. The president, who was addressing the 34-member body at its annual summit, noted that 30 years ago, fewer than half of the OAS members had democratically elected governments. "Today, all 34 countries participating in this General Assembly have democratic, constitutional governments. Only one country in this hemisphere sits outside this society of democratic nations -- and one day the tide of freedom will reach Cuba's shores as well," Mr. Bush said. [Remarks by President George W. Bush] (The Washington Times, 6/7/05)

June 6: Civil society leaders from Latin America met with US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and, among other matters, expressed concern over the deteriorating human rights situation in Cuba. The director of Human Rights Watch (HRW) for the region, José Miguel Vivanco, said that Rice lent ear to concerns over human rights in Cuba, “where the repressive machinery has remained unchanged for many years.” The meeting with Rice was also attended by representatives from the US-based Cuban Democratic Directorate; Súmate (Join Us), from Venezuela; the Haiti Chamber of Commerce; the Inter-American Democracy Network, from Argentina; the Latin American Development Corporation, from Ecuador; and the Canadian Foundation for the Americas (FOCAL). (AP, 7/6/05)

June 6: The President of the National Council of Cultural Heritage (CNPC), Marta Arjona, highlighted that the Ministry of Culture is financing the restoration of the House-Museum Ernest Hemingway in San Miguel del Padrón, Havana. In statements to press, the also member of the International Council of Museums and Sites stressed the advisory work done by a group of architects who, without doing any structural modifications, currently work on the roof and other parts of the building. Arjona added that from last February the residence of Finca Vigía estate (about 8 miles southeast of downtown Havana) is being restored with a budget of 270 thousand dollars. (Prensa Latina, 6/6/05)

June 6: US President George W. Bush met with exiled Cuban doctor Alberto Hernández, a personal friend of anti-Castro firebrand Luis Posada Carriles. Nothing transpired from the brief discussion, whose images were broadcast by US Hispanic TV station Canal 51. (Notimex, 6/6/05)

June 7: Some lively dialogue about US policy on Cuba is expected as farm exports from the Southeast take the spotlight at a conference in Alabama's port city, chosen because of its cultural and shipping links to Havana. The fourth National Summit on Cuba which will be held in Mobile is sponsored by the World Policy Institute based at the New School University in New York. ''We are creating a forum for an intelligent and balanced discussion of US-Cuba relations,'' says summit spokeswoman Lissa Weinmann, a researcher at the institute. She said the agenda for the meeting is ''wide-ranging, but the focus is on trade.'' Some Cuban officials, who cannot attend, are expected to participate by phone or possible video hookup and answer questions from the audience. (AP, 7/6/05)

June 7: Republican Congresswoman Ileana Ros-Lehtinen said she was “very upset” with a group of architects seeking authorization to travel to Cuba to restore “Outlook Farm,” Ernest Hemingway’s home in Havana. In a press release, Lehtinen, a Florida Representative, pointed that the architects “are concerned about the condition of the Hemingway property, while Castro’s brutal government keeps hundreds of political prisoners in jail and the whole island under a totalitarian and despotic regime.” (EFE, 7/6/05)

June 7: A proposal by the US to monitor democracy in Latin America through the Organization of American States is a bid to weaken the authority of governments in the region, Cuba's vice president said. Tuesday. Carlos Lage, secretary of Cuba's Council of Ministers, or parliament, said the US proposal before the OAS was meant to "disregard the authority of governments and democratic institutions in our region." Lage, a sharp critic of US foreign policy, responded after meeting with Venezuelan Vice President Jose Vicente Rangel in Caracas. "Freedom and democracy arrived in Cuba on January 1, 1959, with the triumph of the revolution and they arrived to stay," said Lage. (AP, 7/6/05)

June 7: Bernardo Heredia fled communist Cuba a decade ago, and this year loaned his lookalike younger brother his US residency documents to help him do the same. But what started in March as an act of familial love became a full-blown sacrifice when Cuban authorities got wise to the ploy and refused to let the elder Heredia leave the island, effectively switching the lives of two brothers. Now, Heredia is living with his younger sibling's wife and child, plotting an ocean escape similar to the one he went through in 1994. It began when Heredia, 42, found out his younger brother, Fidel, planned to leave Cuba by sea. In Havana on a family visit, Bernardo Heredia persuaded his brother to use his US residency card and Cuban passport to leave on a plane for Mexico. Fidel Heredia then used his own documents to cross the Mexico border into the US as a regular Cuban migrant before working his way to his brother's home in Las Vegas. With his own documents mailed back to him and no record of an arrival in Las Vegas, Bernardo Heredia imagined there'd be no problem flying back to the United States. But Cuban immigration officials stopped him at the Havana airport after realizing his passport had been used a few days prior. Heredia spent 30 days in a detention center. When he was released, he said, he was told he wouldn't be leaving Cuba anytime soon. The US government can't do much because the elder Heredia never obtained American citizenship. (AP, 7/6/05)

June 7: A naval professor was sentenced to a year of probation for lying about a visit to Cuba to see his mistress. Alberto Coll, the Cuban-born chairman of the Strategic Research Department at the US Naval War College in Newport, pleaded guilty in March to lying about the purpose of the visit in 2004. Coll told federal authorities he was visiting an ailing aunt. US District Judge Ronald Lagueux also fined Coll $5,000, calling the crime an aberration and an ''error in judgment.'' (AP, 7/6/05)

June 8: A group of 13 Cubans set sail for the United States in a vintage blue taxicab converted into an unwieldy vessel, Miami television station NBC 6 reported. But the makeshift boat, with a prow jutting out of the front and a taxi sign on the roof, was intercepted by the US Coast Guard about 20 miles off Key West on the southern tip of Florida. The television station showed images of Coast Guard launches circling the vessel and the occupants rolling up the windows, presumably to try to avoid being caught. The Coast Guard declined to comment. ''Under US government policy, we cannot discuss migrant interdiction operations until disposition is complete,'' said Petty Officer Sandra Bartlett. That process often takes days, she said. (The New York Times, Reuters, 7/6/05)

June 8: A federal grand jury indicted two men accused of smuggling 31 Cubans to an island off Key West last month. Meanwhile, officials continue to investigate whether the smuggling case may be connected to an incident in which a man drowned off the coast of Cuba. The Florida-based smuggling suspects -- Elio Díaz Hernández and Edel Domínguez Carvajal -- were charged with one count each of conspiracy, 31 counts of smuggling illegal aliens into the United States for profit, and 31 counts of bringing aliens to an "undesignated port of entry.'' If convicted, the men -- who pleaded not guilty -- would each face a minimum sentence of five years in prison. (The Miami Herald, 9/6/05)

June 9: Four of the 14 Cubans intercepted at sea aboard a vintage taxi converted into a boat will be allowed to stay in the United States because they have valid immigration documents, but the others will be sent back to Cuba, US officials said. Rafael Diaz Rey, the mechanic who built the blue, 1948 Mercury taxi-boat, and his wife and their two children appear to have legitimate documents that would permit them to stay in this country, according to the US attorney's office in Miami. An attorney for Democracy Movement, a Cuban exile group in Miami, said Diaz and his family last year won the documents in an annual lottery in Cuba for legal travel to the United States. But the government of Fidel Castro refused to let the family leave, said attorney Wilfredo Allen. "They had to act before the documents expired," Allen said. After interviewing the remaining 10 migrants, Homeland Security Department officials concluded they have no reasonable fear of being persecuted or tortured if they are repatriated to Cuba, according to documents filed in federal court. (AP, CNN, 9/6/05)

June 9: Arizona Republican Representative Jeff Flake’s efforts succeeded when the Foreign Relations Committee of the Lower Chamber of Congress passed an amendment to the State Department’s proposed authorization bill to include Cuba among the countries that would benefit from US government-sponsored study abroad program funding. The amendment proposes to assign $5 million USD to Cuban or US citizens seeking to study in the US or Cuba within the grant framework provided by Fellowships from the Fulbright Program, EducationUSA, Gilman (study abroad programs), Humphrey Fellowships, the International Visitor Leadership Program, as well as the professional, cultural and youth programs managed by the Office of Citizen Exchanges. (El Nuevo Herald, 9/6/05)

June 9: Four days before anti-Castro militant Luis Posada Carriles is scheduled to appear before an immigration court in Texas, the private National Security Archive posted a declassified CIA document from 1976 that quotes Posada as saying, "We are going to hit a Cuban airplane.'' The source of that information is not known, although it is described as ''a former Venezuelan government official'' who is "usually a reliable reporter.'' The new documents also suggest that Posada was spying on Cuban exiles for the CIA. One 1976 memo from the CIA to the FBI said, "Posada also was used as a source of information on Cuban exile activities.'' Posada is asking the US government to grant him political asylum, arguing that Cuban government agents want to kill him. (The Miami Herald, 10/6/05)

June 10: Roberto Martin conned a cast of Cuban exiles, lawyers and bankers in an only-in-Miami scam to bring into the United States billions of dollars supposedly stolen from Fidel Castro's government. But the con game masterminded by Martin, who arrived in South Florida from Cuba on a raft in 1994, came to an end in a federal courtroom in Miami. Martin, posing as a CIA operative, sweet-talked people into believing that he was a former Cuban intelligence officer who skimmed money from Castro's government and moved upward of $20 billion to Swiss bank accounts. Working with a colleague who impersonated a real Secret Service agent, Martin convinced an entourage of exiles and others that he had official US government support for his plan to move Castro's money -- and that he could make them rich with their up-front financial assistance. Martin, who pleaded guilty to mail fraud and other charges last fall, fleeced upward of $1 million from investors, lawyers and others who assisted him, according to Assistant U.S. Attorney Christopher Clark. (The Miami Herald, 10/6/05)

June 10: Participants in the National Summit on Cuba were told that lifting the embargo on Cuba would be a financial boon to the United States, and particularly the South. The fourth annual summit drew about 300 people to the Mobile Convention Center to hear from political and academic leaders who generally advocated lifting of the embargo. A handful of officials from Cuba participated with live feeds from Havana. Semoon Chang, director of the Center for Business and Economic Research at the University of South Alabama, and Tim Lynch, director of the Center for Economic Forecasting and Analysis at Florida State University, both provided numbers showing the financial benefit of trade with Cuba. (The Sun Herald, 11/6/05)

June 11: The Venezuelan government said it has provided the US with key information on the role of a former CIA agent in the downing of a Cuban airliner. Venezuela is seeking the extradition of Cuban-born Luis Posada Carriles, who is currently in jail in the US. The new documents purportedly prove his role in masterminding the 1976 bombing in which 73 people died. (BBC, 11/6/05)

June 11: Fidel Castro characterized Cuban militant Luis Posada Carriles as a symbol of past US-backed terrorism in the region, reiterating his earlier insistence that American officials turn his old nemesis over to Venezuela for prosecution in a deadly airliner bombing three decades ago. "If they were intelligent, the first thing they would do is send that man to Venezuela," Castro said at the presentation of a new collection of interviews and stories by Argentine journalist and politician Miguel Bonasso. "They are searching where to send him," Castro said of US officials, who he has accused of trying to protect Posada, and of seeking another country that will take him. (AP, 11/6/05)

June 13: Supporters of Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez presented thousands of signatures demanding the United States extradite a Cuban exile wanted in the 1976 bombing of a Cuban jet. Jesus Marrero, a former leftist guerrilla who helped organize a signature drive to demand the extradition of Luis Posada Carriles last month, said at least 40,000 Venezuelans signed the petition. (CNN, 13/6/05)

June 13: A US immigration court ruled that anti-Castro militant and accused terrorist Luis Posada Carriles must remain in custody while it studies his case and determines whether or not to deport him. In a hearing held in El Paso, where Posada was transported after his arrest in Miami, immigration Judge William Lee Abbott postponed his bail hearing until June 24. He also set July 29 as the date for Posada's trial for immigration violations. At the hearing, Posada's attorney, Eduardo Soto, requested political asylum for his client as well as the transfer of his trial to Miami, which has a very large Cuban exile population. However, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) prosecutors opposed that move, and the judge made no ruling upon the matter. (EFE, 13/6/05)

June 13: A three-person delegation from Cuba arrived in Vermont looking to buy Holstein and Jersey heifers -- young dairy cows about to start their milking careers. The three -- a cattle expert, a veterinarian and an official with Cuba's import agency -- toured farms in southeastern Vermont's Windham County, a hot and muggy day that appeared to make them feel at home. Tatiana Taboada Gonzalez of Cuba's Alimport agency said the country currently has about 1.5 million dairy cows, not enough to provide milk and dairy products for the country of 11.3 million people. "The first goal is to be self-sufficient," she said. The group hopes to buy 100 heifers in Vermont, a similar number in Maine, and others in Pennsylvania, Minnesota and Florida. (AP, 14/6/05)

June 13: Two Cuban brothers were sentenced to six years in prison for assaulting a US Coast Guard crew that tried to prevent them from illegally reaching the Florida Keys by boat. US District Judge K. Michael Moore sentenced Jorge Cartaya-Acosta, 35, and Jose Cartaya-Acosta, 39, at a hearing in which their lawyers argued they were mentally impaired. The crew of the Coast Guard cutter Valiant approached the boat driven by Jose Cartaya-Acosta off the coast of Key West on February 8. When the brothers refused orders to stop and tried to outrun the cutter, the Coast Guard gave chase in a small inflatable boat. The brothers rammed the Coast Guard boat, breaking its stern light. Jorge Cartaya-Acosta brandished a metal tire iron, threatened to beat the officers and tried to puncture the inflatable boat, court documents said. Under US policy, Cuban migrants who reach land are usually allowed to stay and those intercepted at sea are repatriated to Cuba. The brothers were convicted in March of assaulting the Coast Guard officers, and faced up to 20 years in prison. (Reuters, 14/6/05)

June 13: A group of ten Cuban immigrants who attempted to reach US soil on a raft made out of an old vehicle once used as a taxi cab has been repatriated. According to the US Coast Guard, four of them were taken to Guantánamo Bay US Naval Base and will be allowed to return to US territory within a few days as they already had their immigrant visas. (AFP, 13/6/05)

June 14: In seeking to pass a resolution to normalize US relations with Cuba, Salt Lake City Mayor Rocky Anderson faced indignation - not from Cuban exiles, but from New Jersey mayors. During the US Conference of Mayors annual meeting last week in Chicago, four mayors from the Garden State attacked the resolution while it was being discussed in the conference's international affairs committee, the Trentonian reports. The reason: A woman who killed a New Jersey trooper in 1973 escaped from prison and fled to Cuba, where she has been protected from extradition, according to the newspaper. The mayors' committee eventually tabled Anderson's proposal, which says the US economic embargo harms children and the elderly and that the policy has further isolated Cuba. It "urges the normalization of diplomatic and economic relations." Anderson said the committee formed a five-member task force to work on a new Cuba resolution for next year. (The Salt Lake Tribune, 15/6/05)

June 15: Venezuela has made a formal request to the US to extradite a militant Cuban exile wanted over the downing of an airliner which killed 73 people. Caracas says Luis Posada Carriles is a "terrorist" and is urging the US not to protect the ex-CIA informant. "It is up to the state department to decide if it will protect a terrorist or not," said Venezuelan Vice Foreign Minister Delcy Rodriguez. The Venezuelan note asks that the extradition request take precedence over the immigration charges against Posada. The request was based on a 1922 bilateral extradition treaty and other international accords, said the Venezuelan ambassador in Washington, Bernardo Alvarez. (BBC, Sun Sentinel, 16/6/05)

June 15: A $61.3 billion appropriations measure, which also funds the State and Commerce departments, figured in a second battle over Commerce Department rules restricting gift packages mailed from the US to Cuba. In a 216-210 roll call, lawmakers reversed the trend of taking a more open approach to Cuba, instead voting to uphold the rules after strong pressure from Majority Leader Tom DeLay. Mr. DeLay held his Republican defections to just 35, 11 fewer than last year when he lost on the same issue. "To deny the Cuban people toothpaste and toilet paper will not bring down Fidel Castro," chided Representative William Delahunt (Democrat, Massachusetts). Mr. DeLay said lawmakers risked undercutting the plight of dissidents in Cuba. (The Wall Street Journal, 16/6/05)

June 15: With the first sale completed in a contract signed in March committing Cuba to spend $15 million for Louisiana products, an official with the state Office of Economic Development said that the office is planning another trade mission to the island nation in hopes of finding more opportunities for Louisiana businesses. Speaking to a lunch meeting of the World Trade Club of Greater New Orleans, Felipe Martinez, project manager for the state Department of Economic Development, said Cuba is a "natural trading partner" for the state and a number of opportunities remain for Louisiana businesses there. (Times Picayune, 16/6/05)

June 15: According to US Customs and Border Protection spokeswoman Judy Turner, more than 40 Cubans who reached the United States via México and requested asylum are now undergoing medical exams. The immigrants claimed political asylum when they were detained at the Brownville area checkpoint on the border between Texas and México. (AP, 20/6/05)

June 20: The New York state Assembly is calling for eased restrictions on Americans' travel to Cuba, advocating a policy some observers of Cuba say enriches Fidel Castro's communist regime and exploits ordinary Cubans. The Assembly passed a nonbinding resolution calling on the Bush administration to encourage "streamlining licensing procedures for qualified United States persons traveling to Cuba" for "people-to-people" visits. Such visits, members of the Assembly argue, establish meaningful ties between ordinary Americans and Cubans, sowing the seeds for cross-cultural exchanges that will promote democracy on the island. (The New York Sun, 20/6/05)

June 20: The attempt by two brothers to go to the United States from Cuba fell short and left one brother trapped in Cuba. But, now both brothers are on American soil. Bernardo Heredia has been stuck in Cuba for the last three months hoping to get back to his home and family in Las Vegas. His brother, Fidel Heredia used Bernardo's documents to leave Cuba. Once Fidel got to the United States, he mailed Bernardo's documents back to him so he too could leave but not before Cuban officials caught on. Cuban authorities forced Bernardo to a stay in the communist country he fled for a better life. Bernardo says the intense pressure from the media is what he believes forced the Cuban government to release him and allow him to return to the United States. (Las Vegas Sun, 20/6/05)

June 20: Immigration proceedings for a Cuban exile accused of planning the deadly bombing of an airliner in 1976 will remain in El Paso, a judge ruled. Lawyers for Luis Posada Carriles asked that the case be moved to Florida, where Posada was staying before his arrest and where his lawyer lives. Posada is charged with entering the country illegally in a case that has sparked an international battle. US Immigration Judge William L. Abbott issued a written ruling to lawyers in the case, said Greg Gagne, a spokesman for the Executive Office for Immigration Review in Washington. Posada's attorney said he wanted the trial moved because holding it in El Paso would cause Posada hardships. He also said his client wants to be closer to family in Miami. Prosecutors said holding Posada in South Florida would be a security risk. (The Miami Herald, 20/6/05)

June 21: A congressional panel voted to undo a new Bush administration regulation that critics say threatens to squelch US food sales to Cuba. The House of Representatives Appropriations Committee, by voice vote, approved an amendment that would roll back a Treasury Department rule issued in February that requires communist Cuba to pay for food imports from the United States before they leave port. (Reuters, 21/6/05)

June 22: Hours before a neighborhood youth group was to play a team from the US mission in Havana, Cuban security agents confiscated the baseballs, bats and mitts.   The agents charged into the home of activist Marcos de Miranda to grab the sports gear, family members said, in the latest and among the most bizarre in a long history of harassment targeting this family of dissidents opposed to communist President Fidel Castro. "It was to be a sports and cultural event - nothing at all political,'' de Miranda, 28, said in his family's crumbling apartment. "We're denied even the right to play our national sport.'' De Miranda's 59-year-old father, Roberto, was among 75 government opponents rounded up two years ago, though he was released for health reasons last year. His 54-year-old mother, Soledad Rivas, is a member of the increasingly audacious "Ladies in White'' who have protested for the release of imprisoned dissidents. (Boston Herald, 22/6/05)

June 22: The United States told Cuba it would continue to "play ball", despite complaining that communist authorities blocked a friendly baseball game between US officials and youths in Havana. "It says a lot about the paranoia and insularity of the regime that it can't tolerate young kids playing baseball with Americans," said State Department deputy spokesman Adam Ereli. The department said that staff of the US Interests Section in Havana planned a recent baseball against a group of young people, some of whom were human rights activists. But the Cuban government confiscated baseball equipment from the youths and prevented the US envoys from lending their kit to their opponents, and blocked access to the field where the game was supposed to take place, Ereli said. Asked what the United States planned to do about the aborted game, Ereli said: "We play ball." "We will continue to try to engage. We will continue to try to bring more democracy and openness and freedom to a country that knows very little of any of this." (AFP, 22/6/05)

June 22: A group of Americans from a US trade association pushing for normalized commercial relations with communist Cuba arrived in Havana to discuss future business possibilities and the current state of trade with their Cuban counterparts. The visit by delegates from the Washington-based US-Cuba Trade Association comes as members of Congress consider amending a new Treasury Department rule that forces Cuba to make full payment for American farm goods before the cargo leaves US ports. "The purpose of the trip really is for the members to get an update on what's happening from the Cuban point of view," primarily with the island's economy and the effects of the latest US measures, Kirby Jones, the association president, told the press. Hopefully companies will sign some contracts as well, he said. (AP, 22/6/05)

June 23: A yearlong delay in the purchase of an airplane to broadcast TV and Radio Martí's signals to Cuba has stoked concern on Capitol Hill that the C-130 currently being used may be reassigned to Iraq. The possible loss of the airborne broadcasts -- touted by President Bush as a key strategy to break through Havana's jamming and hasten the island's transition to democracy -- has prompted foes of Fidel Castro to send pleas to the White House and Pentagon. In letters to Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and President Bush, Miami Republican Representative Ileana Ros-Lehtinen cited ``grave concerns about reports that the C-130 Commando Solo airborne platform transmission currently dedicated to Cuba-related activities may be reassigned.'' (The Miami Herald, 23/6/05)

June 23: Cuba will spend less than two-thirds of the money it had planned to invest in American farm goods this year because of increased US restrictions, Cuba's top import official said. The communist-run island had planned to purchase up to $800 million in goods this year from the United States, according to Pedro Alvarez, chairman of Cuba's food import company Alimport. But a rule that forces Cuba to make full payment for goods before the cargo leaves US ports has complicated commerce and forced the island to turn to other markets, Alvarez said. As a result, Cuba is now aiming just to match the amount it spent last year on US products -- about $475 million. ''Not only have the recent measures made American exports more expensive, they've also introduced a lot of uncertainty,'' Alvarez told a news conference during a visit to the island by members of a US trade association pushing for normalized trade with Cuba. (The Miami Herald, 24/6/05)

June 23: US food producers who sell to Cuba complained that a payment rule introduced by the Bush administration has cut their exports to the Communist-run island by 25 percent. "What is disturbing for producers is that we are losing solid exports to Cuba every week," US Rice Producers Association President Dwight Roberts said on a visit to Cuba. US food businesses sold almost $400 million to Cuba last year, mainly in bulk shipments of corn, wheat and soy, under an exception to a trade embargo enforced for four decades against Fidel Castro's government. But sales fell to $131 million in the first four months of this year compared to $173 million in the same period of 2004, according to US Department of Agriculture figures. (Reuters, 23/6/05)

June 23: The US military aircraft broadcasting TV and Radio Martí's signals to Cuba will not be diverted to Iraq, at least until a replacement plane is bought and equipped, a senior State Department official said. ''The president has made the decision that we would do what we could to break through the information blockade imposed by the Castro regime,'' the official said after the press reported concerns raised by Miami Republican Representative Ileana Ros-Lehtinen that the Pentagon's C-130 Commando Solo plane could be sent to the Middle East. ''As far as we know (…) until the permanent platform is available, the C-130 is flying,'' said the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because of sensitivity surrounding the issue. The official added that negotiations are under way with legislators to win approval for President Bush's $10 million budget request for the purchase of the plane. ''The president is fully committed to securing a permanent platform for Radio and TV Martí,'' Representative Lincoln Díaz-Balart, Republican-Miami, said. "And I am not aware of anyone in the administration challenging the president on issues where he has clearly made his intent known, such as this one.'' (The Miami Herald, 23/6/05)

June 23: The head of Cuba's state-run food importing company said the country would import 750,000 to 800,000 tonnes of rice this year, 300,000 tonnes more than in 2004. "We are providing more subsidized rice to our people and the rice crop was severely impacted by drought," Pedro Alvarez, president of Alimport, told a news conference, explaining why imports were up by around 75 percent. Cuba usually produces 150,000 to 200,000 tonnes of rice and imports 400,000 to 500,000 tonnes, mainly from Vietnam and China. Alvarez said Cuba bought 100,000 tonnes of rice from the United States last year, but would purchase less in 2005 due to new regulations regarding food for cash trade exempted from the trade embargo. (Reuters, 23/6/05)

June 23: Agriculture Secretary Dennis Wolff announced that a second shipment of cattle has been sold to Cuba as a result of his trade mission trip last year, and as part of Cuba's commitment to invest $10 million in agricultural commodities within Pennsylvania. "Building relationships with domestic and international markets is consistent with Governor Edward G. Rendell's commitment to economic development, and is a win-win situation for Pennsylvania agriculture and for Cuba's dairy industry," said Wolff. "The sale not only is a significant economic boost to Pennsylvania's farm economy, but also helps to grow the Cuban dairy industry with high quality genetics." Some 300 Holstein and Jersey animals from Pennsylvania will be shipped in two groups in early and mid-July; 100 in the first and 200 in the second. (US Fed News, 23/6/05)

June 24: Several dozens of American philosophers and social scientists participating in the 18th Conference of Cuban and US Philosophers and Social Scientists demanded the extradition of terrorist Luis Posada Carriles from the United States to Venezuela. Participants in the Conference that concluded at the University of Havana also demanded a revision of the pardon granted to also terrorist Orlando Bosch by former US president George Bush Sr. In addition, they demanded the lifting of the US economic blockade against the island, the release of the five Cuban prisoners incarcerated in the United States and the elimination of travel bans that prevent American citizens from visiting the island. (Radio Habana Cuba, 25/6/05)

June 26: US Representative Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, a fierce opponent of communist Cuba under Fidel Castro, could gain even more clout over the volatile issue if she gains the chairmanship of the House International Relations Committee in the next Congress. Ros-Lehtinen, who has represented a Miami district since 1989, would become one of the most powerful Cuban-Americans on Capitol Hill if she can defeat Republican colleagues with greater seniority to win the post being vacated by veteran US Representative Henry Hyde, Republican-Illinois, who is retiring and would be forced to relinquish the chairmanship anyway under House term limits rules. (AP, 26/6/05)

June 26: The eighth New York International Ballet Competition concluded with an awards ceremony and gala performance at Alice Tully Hall that brought together 48 dancers between the ages of 17 and 24 from 19 countries. Daniel Sarabia, from Cuba, won the men’s silver medal. (The New York Times, 28/6/05)

June 30: Reversing years of congressional votes that showed supporters of easing US sanctions on Cuba gaining strength, the US House of Representatives rejected three such proposals and gave a categorical win to supporters of a tough line on Havana. An amendment seeking to overturn limits on Cuban-Americans' family travel to Cuba was defeated 211-208 -- the first time such an initiative was beaten back in a congressional vote. A similar amendment, also submitted by Florida Democrat Jim Davis, was approved last year on a 225-174 vote. A proposal to ease restrictions on US student travel to Cuba, presented by Representative Barbara Lee, Democrat-California, was defeated 233-187. Last year it was so heavily backed that it passed by a simple voice vote. (The Miami Herald, 1/7/05)