Chronicle on Cuba - July 2005

Domestic Affairs

July 2: Cubans across the island practiced emergency drills for hurricanes and other natural disasters, part of a two-day activity called Meteor Exercise 2005, local media reported. The drills, organized by the Cuban government and local social groups, focused on hurricanes but also reacted to potential earthquakes, fires or toxic leaks. Authorities gathered, on the first day of the exercise, to coordinate plans, focusing on evacuation strategies to avoid loss of human life and ways to diminish economic damage to buildings and infrastructure. (AP, 3/7/05)

July 2: Citoprot-P, a new product designed in Cuba to treat diabetic ulcers, will be introduced into treatment regimens in hospitals throughout the country. The cutting-edge drug, designed by the Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology Center (CIGB), was produced in close collaboration with the Angiology Institute, and is the only preventative alternative to amputation of the extremities in diabetic patients presenting with these lesions. According to CIGB experts, the medication stimulates granulation and epithelization, and reduces surgical treatment thus limiting more invasive surgery due to relapses. (Prensa Latina, 2/7/05)

July 4: The Ministry of Public Health (MINSAP) and the National Assembly of the People’s Power signed an agreement aimed at curtailing the clandestine market of prescription drugs by authorizing government district representatives (“delegados”) in areas where pharmacies are located to oversee control of prescription drugs in short supply. Representatives of the People’s Power now have the right to go through invoices, according to the official media. (Cubanet, 4/7/05)

July 4: Experts from 30 countries are attending the 5th International Convention on Environment and Development in Havana´s International Conference Center. With participants from Latina America, Spain, Italy and Portugal, the event will address issues like water basin management, coastal eco-systems, protected areas, environmental education and more. US participants were denied visas to attend. Parallel events include the 4th Congress on Protected Areas, 5th Congress on Environmental Education for Sustainable Development, 1st Congress of Environmental Management for Business, Tourism and Environment and the International Symposium on Management of Hydrographic Basins and Resources. (Prensa Latina, 4/7/05)

July 5: Cuba's communist government has jailed 13 more political opponents this year, most on charges of "dangerousness," a veteran rights activist reported. The report released by the Havana-based Cuban Commission on Human Rights and Reconciliation said the total number of political prisoners as of June 30 was 306. The charges against those jailed highlight the government's practice of making ambiguous accusations against its opponents, said Elizardo Sanchez, the activist who runs the non-governmental commission, which releases reports every six months. The list includes most of the 75 dissidents arrested in a roundup on the opposition in March 2003, even though 14 of those were freed on parole last year. Of those 14, two of them were taken off the list because they left Cuba after their release. Sanchez said the other 12 remained on the list because they could be returned to custody if they violate parole. [Informe de la CCDHRN] (AP, 5/7/05)

July 5: The Cuban Communist Party has asked its members to up their “combative spirit” in the face of different types of problems, such us corruption, according to the official daily Granma. “Increased foresight capacity and unyielding attitude are required to stem mismanagement, lift members’ combative spirit and solidify revolutionary ethics, which are incompatible with theft, double standards and other expressions of corruption”, informed the paper. Granma offered a summary of the party’s meeting of the municipal committee of Plaza de la Revolución, one of 169 similar meetings taking place throughout the island since May 28 and due to conclude in early September. Without providing any details, the daily referred to incidents of corruption at a public company, a hotel, a cigar factory and technical school. (AFP, 5/7/05)

July 6: Glass bottles were thrown at the Provincial Traffic Control Office in Cienfuegos. The incident seemed to be part of popular protests due to discomfort generated by constant and long power cuts. Every half hour, bottles could be heard crashing against the walls of the police office while the neighbourhood was in a blackout. (Cubanet, 7//05)

July 6: Cuba's Communist regime is conscripting members of Committees to Defend the Revolution in a campaign against the Aedes aegypti mosquito that transmits dengue fever, which killed 158 people on the island during a 1981 epidemic. "With the increase in the infestation index, the appearance of (…) flying adult mosquitoes, together with the current climatological situation that facilitates their reproduction, it is necessary to apply all measures in the interest of safeguarding our population from a dangerous evil," according to the most recent edition of “Tribuna de La Habana”. Health authorities have not released any official information about the number of dengue fever cases detected so far this year, but the media are calling upon the public to cover water containers, eliminate standing water, change the water in flower vases and vases used for religious purposes and maintain adequate hygienic conditions in animal troughs. (EFE, 6/7/05)

July 7: The President of the Cuban Olympic Committee (COC), José Ramón Fernández, indicated that Havana would present its candidacy to host the 2016 Olympic Games. The Cuban capital had sought to hosting the 2012 Games, but its aspirations were cut short after being dropped by the International Olympic Committee (IOC) after the first round. (Europa Press, 7/7/05)

July 8: Cuba is blaming major league baseball for the sport being dropped from the 2012 Olympics. Cuba has won three of the four gold medals since baseball was first played at the Olympics - in 1992, 1996 and 2004. The United States won the gold in 2000, with Cuba getting the silver. "Those who bear most of the blame are the owners of the professional leagues who refuse to free up their ball players to compete," Cuban Baseball Federation president Carlos Rodriguez told the press. "It's a shame because this decision will disappoint millions of young people who practise and love this sport," Rodriguez added. (Canadian Press, 8/7/05)

July 8: Hurricane Dennis bore down on the US Gulf Coast after slamming Cuba, sweeping away coastal homes and sending waves crashing over Havana's seawall. "It's arrived, with all its diabolical force," Fidel Castro said on state television. He said 10 people died in southeastern Cuba, including one child who fell into roiling waters as the mother tried to cross an old bridge. As the storm passed east of Havana, waves of up to 10 feet crashed over the city's Malecon seawall. Fierce gusts of wind tore huge chunks of concrete off dilapidated colonial buildings and shattered glass globes from antique street lamps in the city's old section. Downed trees and utility poles littered roads. Most of the damage in and around Havana and nearby beach towns appeared limited to uprooted trees and ripped lampposts and highway signs. Cuban television showed Defense Minister Raul Castro, the president's brother, touring storm-damaged areas along the southeast coast. Dozens of humble wooden homes in sparsely populated rural areas had been reduced to mounds of kindling. Corrugated metal roofs had been ripped off and twisted by the roaring winds, before being scattered across the countryside. A wooden sugar mill was missing its roof and parts of its sides. (AP, 9/7/05)

July 9: Fidel Castro praised the organization, discipline and commitment of the Cuban people as they faced Hurricane Dennis, which hit the island hard from east to west, causing 10 dead and considerable material damage. "We are optimistic about solving our problems," stressed Fidel Castro who congratulated the authorities, grassroots organizations and the population in general for their attitude in the face of the destructive hurricane. He also assessed the benefit Dennis could have brought to the drought-striken island in term of feeding reservoirs and damps up. As he spoke on TV, vicepresident Carlos Lage toured several of the hardest hit areas in Cienfuegos Province, where Dennis made its landfall, and in Matanzas. (Prensa Latina, 9/7/05)

July 12: Cuban Health Minister Jose Ramon Balaguer presided over the second graduation of the Salvador Allende Nursing School in Havana. The minister congratulated the 1,458 students graduating, of whom 819 are women, and urged them to strive to become ever better in their vocation. (AIN, 13/7/05)

July 13: Several dozen dissidents commemorating a deadly 1994 tugboat sinking clashed with a larger group of government supporters who shoved and shouted them down. Nine dissidents were detained after the run-in near La Punta. No major injuries were reported. The midday incident occurred after the dissidents chanting "Justice, liberty!" commemorated the 11th anniversary of the sinking of the 41 would-be immigrants who drowned 11 years ago in a tugboat sinking in Havana Bay, by tossing white flowers into the sea and carrying posters with photos of the dead that proclaimed, "These are the victims of a cruel tyrant who claims to defend women and children." The dissidents were walking inland along Prado, a major boulevard in central Havana, when government supporters began shouting revolutionary slogans at them. Several dissidents were shoved, but no one was reported hurt. The dissidents carried signs with photographs of people who died in the tugboat sinking, which opponents blame on the government and which authorities maintain was an accident. A second protest took place close to “Hermanos Ameijeiras Hospital” by a group of individuals who shouted slogans against Castro and the Cuban government. A group of workers armed with pipes and sticks contested the protesters. A few of the protesters were hurt in the head. (Sun Sentinel, BBC, La Jornada, Reuters, AP, 13/7/05)

July 13: A group of more than 200 pro-government demonstrators assembled near a park where two dissidents had declared a hunger strike to protest their alleged eviction from a friend's home by government officials. Moisés Leonardo Rodríguez and Roberto Guerras, members of the dissident organization Corriente Martiana, had said that they would remain in the park indefinitely. Government supporters, who arrived in buses and trucks, shouted angrily, "This street belongs to Fidel! Viva Fidel! Down with the mercenaries!" and unfurled a Cuban flag. After one man was surrounded and pushed into a police car that sped away, the group quickly dispersed. Several government supporters refused to answer questions about their demonstration. (Sun Sentinel, BBC, La Jornada, La Hora, 13/7/05)

July 13: Some 5,000 students, civil servants and state workers massed in the center of Havana in a show of support for Fidel Castro, in reaction to the two dissident protests of La Punta and Hermanos Ameijeiras Hospital. Waving pro-Castro banners and yelling pro-government slogans, the regime supporters stayed for more than an hour. "The counter-revolutionaries (…) the anti-patriotic ones, must know that we will be organized," shouted Hassan Perez, an official from Cuba's Young Communists Union, as politburo member Pedro Saez looked on. "We will not be provoked," Perez yelled. "This street belongs to Fidel," shouted a group of hospital workers, who also chanted "We're here for you, Fidel, for whatever is needed." (AFP, 13/7/05)

July 13: Fidel Castro sent a message of congratulations to the group of Cuban teachers who arrived in Cuba after successfully completing their part in the literacy campaign and assessing the educational missions in Venezuela. Carlos Valenciaga, member of the Council of State, transmitted the greetings of the leader of the Revolution to the 68 educators, who spent two years in that South American country. Recognitions with which they returned to the island included the Order of Merit in Work, First Class, and the Medals Francisco de Miranda (1st, 2nd and 3rd Class) and Friends of the Homeland of Bolívar. (Granma International, 13/7/05)

July 13: Cuban Pianist Harold Lopez-Nussa, was awarded First Prize in the "Piano Soloist Contest", as part of the 29th Montreal International Jazz Festival, Canada. The second prize went to the American Max Haymer, followed by Philippe Baden Powel de Aquino, from Brazil, and Nial Djuliarso, from Indonesia. The Montreal International Jazz Festival has been internationally recognized for its quality and the variety of its programming. (AIN, 13/7/05)  

July 13: Lizette Vila, the only Cuban among the 999 women from 150 countries collectively nominated for this year's Nobel Peace Prize, told the press that as long as diversity is viewed in terms of "otherness", "there can be no harmony, and exclusion will continue to exist." Nearly 20 years ago, Vila began working in Cuba with the disabled, transvestites, people living with HIV and alcoholics. One of Vila's best known works as a filmmaker is the documentary "Y hembra es el alma mía" (And My Soul is Female), a ground-breaking exploration of the lives of transsexuals and transvestites in Cuba. She has won two Coral Prizes and two critics' awards at the Havana Festival of New Latin American Cinema. Vila has also represented the Union of Writers and Artists of Cuba on a UN special commission on the legal and social rights of women from 1996 to 2002. The campaign, "1000 Women for the Nobel Peace Prize 2005", was launched in 2003 at the initiative of Ruth-Gaby Vermot-Mangold, a member of the Swiss Parliament and the Council of Europe, with the support of Swisspeace (the Swiss Peace Foundation). It has since earned the backing of a worldwide network of organisations, including a number of United Nations agencies. (IPS, 13/7/05)

July 14: At least 11 protesters who participated in demonstrations in Havana commemorating a deadly 1994 tugboat sinking remained in custody, according to a human rights activist on the island. Elizardo Sánchez, head of the Cuban Commission on Human Rights and National Reconciliation in Havana, said his organization confirmed the detention of 11 people, including two women, but have reports of as many as 20 arrests. ''There are no charges against them and they remain incommunicado from family members,'' Sánchez told the press. Sánchez said the repressive actions -- veiled as counter-protests -- were carried out in four separate incidents, three of them along the Malecón and a fourth near the Plaza de la Revolución that involved ''punching and kicking'' by rapid-response brigades. Sánchez believes that ''tempers are flaring'' as the country continues to struggle with extended blackouts and a shortage of food, made worse by Hurricane Dennis, and used as examples a few incidents in different provinces regarding the throwing of stones and bottles against government facilities. Cuban media has maintained silence about the protests. (The Miami Herald, La Jornada, Netfor Cuba, 14,15/7/05)

July 14: Cuban Foreign Affairs minister, Felipe Pérez Roque, defended government supporters who launched a counter-protest against several dozen dissidents commemorating a 1994 tugboat sinking in Havana Bay, in which 41 would-be immigrants drowned. The United States "pays, stimulates, organizes and directs these provocations, which of course prompt the due reaction of our people, who are the owners of their streets," Pérez Roque said. The foreign minister said he didn't know if any of the activists were detained. International reporters, including an Associated Press Television News team, witnessed two dissidents being detained after the run-in, and human rights activist Elizardo Sanchez said at least 10 activists were detained, based on reports by family members and witnesses. (AP, 14/7/05)

July 14: Cuba's top sports official said he will work with the International Baseball Federation to ensure that the sport returns to the Olympics. "We have to reflect, look for alternatives," National Institute of Sports president Humberto Rodriguez told the press. "We cannot give up the battle as lost." Baseball and softball were dropped form the 2012 London Games after an IOC vote in Singapore. They are eligible to apply in 2009 for re-entry in 2016. (AP, 14/7/05)

July 14: Dozens of teenagers jailed at the Ivanov Penitentiary in Cotorro, Havana, have been on a hunger strike for several days in demand of their rights, according to a family source. The inmates, aged 16 and 17, are demanding, among others, that physical and verbal abuses stop, no more transfers to the “Combinado del Este” prison for adults as punishment, better food, and observance of family visits every 21 days. Most of the prisoners are part of some 400 young people from Havana who were sent to jail as part of the "Operación Contención", a police round up. (Cubanet, 14/7/05)

July 14: Maidelín Guerra, wife of political prisoner Mario Enrique Mayo, told the press that her husband began a hunger strike demanding his immediate release from prison. Mayo, 40, a lawyer and independent journalist, was imprisoned on March 2003 and sentenced to 20 years in prison for allegedly “committing acts against the independence and the territorial integrity of the State”. He directed an independent press agency in Camagüey to denounce violations of human rights in Cuba. Amnesty International recognized Mayo as a prisoner of conscience on July 2003. He is serving his term in Kilo-7 prison, Camagüey. (ADC, Press release, 15/7/05)

July 15: The City of Havana will host festivities for the Day of National Uprising, which this year marks the 52nd anniversary of the attack on the Moncada barracks, commanded by Fidel Castro on July 26, 1953. The Cuban Communist Party´s Political Bureau made the selection, in recognition of the work and efforts of the Havana population throughout the year. (Prensa Latina, 15/7/05)

July 15: With one teacher for every 36 people in the country, Cuba is an example to follow for other nations in the world, asserted Luis Ignacio Gómez, Cuba's Education Minister. The Cuban expert compared the Cuban rate to that of developed countries which usually have one teacher for every 50 to 80 people. Speaking at a graduation ceremony in Matanzas, Gomez said there are no limits on the training of teachers in Cuba. (Ahora.cu, 15/7/05)

July 17: Matilde Gerez Guevara, sister of dissident Julio Antonio Valdés Guevara, one of the “Group of 75” oppositionists who was released from prison, demanded the Cuban government to let him leave the country and expressed concerns over his health. Valdés Guevara, 53, a human rights activist, leader of the “Golfo de Guacanayabo” opposition group, and one of the promoters of the "Varela Project" has fulfilled all the formalities to emigrate to the US, however he still needs an exit permit from the Cuban government to be able to travel, said his sister. “I ask the government to let my brother leave”, she added. (El Nuevo Herald, 17/7/05)

July 18: Arco Progresista, a group of moderate dissident organizations, warned that Cuban society is “reaching the point of no return for a social explosion” and called for prudence and a "national solution". "Society is boiling because Cubans are demanding change", said spokesperson Manuel Cuesta Morúa in a signed statement, in reference to protests staged in different places of the Cuban capital resulting in at least ten people being arrested, according to a human rights commission. (AFP, 18/7/05)

July 19: Three Cuban dissidents, including one who was released from jail in November after 15 months behind bars, were rounded up and jailed, a rights organization said. Marcelo Lopez Banobre, vice president of the outlawed Cuban Committee for Human Rights and National Reconciliation, was being held at a police station in Centro Habana, his colleague and the group's president, Elizardo Sanchez, told the press. Sanchez said that even as Lopez Banobre was detained, two other dissidents, Anaika Paneca and Luis Angel Medina, also were arrested in Havana. Lopez, 41, was one of the 75 dissidents jailed in a roundup that started in March 2003 and then sentenced to lengthy prison terms. Lopez was the first of the dissidents jailed after that major sweep to be let out on parole and now rearrested. Sanchez said the government recently had boosted its repressive operations. "There is an unprecedented police deployment, both uniformed and plainclothes, and there are thousands of them," Sanchez said. (AFP, 19/705)

July 19: Cuba's dissident "Women in White," mostly wives and mothers of political prisoners, say they are being increasingly harassed by pro-government mobs, with police standing by while they are insulted and shoved. Berta Soler, wife of jailed democracy advocate Angel Moya, told the press of an incident, when she and six other members of the group, known for their white clothing, went to visit Isabel Ramos outside the capital. Ramos, mother of Arturo Suarez, who was sent to jail 19 years ago for his attempted hijacking of an airplane to escape the island, is on a hunger strike to press for improvement of what she says are inhumane conditions of her son's imprisonment. As the women left Ramos' home, they were surrounded by a throng of several dozen supporters of Fidel Castro who shouted insults at the dissident women and chanted pro-government slogans. "The police stood by a block away, just watching," said Soler, whose husband was sentenced to 20 years in the Spring 2003 crackdown on peaceful dissent that saw 75 people jailed. Fourteen of those prisoners have since been released, ostensibly on medical grounds. "If anything happens to any of us, it will be the responsibility of the government," said Soler. (EFE, 19/7/05)

July 20: Three Cuban dissidents have been released from jail after being rounded up by authorities, who held them for several hours and warned one of them specifically against protesting the government, a prominent government opponent said. Marcelo Lopez Banobre, vice president of the outlawed Cuban Committee for Human Rights and National Reconciliation, was held at a police station in Havana, as were dissidents Anaika Paneca and Luis Angel Medina, the group's president, Elizardo Sanchez, told the press. Sanchez said that Paneca, who was arrested at her home in the town of San Miguel del Padron, was arrested explicitly for taking part in the protests involving dozens of dissidents in Havana on July 13. (AFP, 20/7/05)

July 20: In Cuba, a small and poor nation proud of having produced a disproportionate number of acclaimed classical dancers, the path toward tutu and toe-shoes on a Parisian or New York stage begins early, with students as young as 4 receiving instruction at one of several "baby-ballet" schools. Cubans's passion for classical ballet has been fed by the National School of the Arts - created after the triumph of the 1959 revolution - and by the success of the Ballet Nacional de Cuba, led by venerable lead dancer and choreographer Alicia Alonso. Cuban ballet stars, and others, took their first steps under the tutelage of Cuba's Centro ProDanza, founded in 1988 under the direction of Laura Alonso, daughter of Alicia and Fernando Alonso. ProDanza operates from an impressive academy in Havana's Vedado neighborhood as well as in a renovated tobacco factory in the rundown district of Marianao, where locals were initially skeptical about the project. Today, more than 500 children and adolescents are now studying classical ballet and contemporary dance at the Marianao facility. (EFE, 20/7/05)

July 21: Cuban dissidents plan to hold a protest in front of the French embassy in Havana, one week after France normalized relations with Fidel Castro's regime. The Assembly for the Promotion of Civil Society (APSC) said the protest would call for the release of "all political prisoners," including six who were detained during a demonstration. But dissidents appeared to have chosen France's embassy to show their displeasure at French and European Union policies toward Castro's regime. "We will demand the liberation of the detainees and we will show to the European Union what happens with dialogue (with the Cuban government)," said Marta Beatriz Roque, head of the (APSC). (AFP, 21/7/05)

July 21: As Fidel Castro looked on, Elian Gonzalez, the shipwreck survivor whose custody battle morphed into a US-Cuban political wrestling match, graduated from the sixth grade in Havana. The ceremony at a Havana park, during which Castro spoke for an hour, was transmitted live on state radio and television. "His academic performance is very good," Castro said of Elian, now 11, calling him a symbol of advances in Cuban education after personally handing Elian his diploma. "He is a disciplined boy and respectful." Castro added that he's honored to be friends of Elian Gonzalez. "I have the privilege to be his friend," he said. (AFP,EFE, 21/7/05)

July 21: The Cuban oppositionist group Comité “Pro-Cambio” has launched an initiative aimed at replacing the current political system with a “modern and capitalist model based on solidarity”. Angel Polanco Torrejón, president of Comité "Pro-Cambio", founded in January and considered illegal by the government said to the press that the project is supported by 43 organizations based in Cuba and five others in the US and Puerto Rico. [Iniciativa Pro Cambio] (EFE, 21/7/05)

July 21: Cuba launched a massive civil monitoring operation in response to a series of opponents’ protests in Havana a few days prior to the July 26 celebrations, [of the 1953] armed attack that marks the start of the revolution led by Fidel Castro. The so-called "National Security Watch" ("Ejercicio Nacional de Vigilancia") is being led by the Committees for the Defense of the Revolution (CDR), an organization created by the government in the 1960s to curb actions against the communist government on the island. (Reuters, 21/7/05)

July 22: A small protest was staged outside the French Embassy urging the release of those arrested during the demonstrations of July 13, while at least four other opposition activists were arrested in other parts of the [Havana] city. A small gathering of some 15 people protested outside the French diplomatic mission, in the residential neighbourhood of Miramar, without authorities’ intervention. The Assembly to Promote Civil Society (APSC) called for the protest. (La Jornada, 22/7/05)

July 22: Cuban dissident leader Marta Beatriz Roque and more than a dozen other activists were arrested in a new crackdown on the Cuban opposition by Fidel Castro's regime, dissidents and relatives said. Roque, a 59-year-old economist, is president of the Assembly for the Promotion of Civil Society, which had organized a protest in front of the French Embassy in Havana to demand the release of political prisoners from Cuban jails. Many of those detained were leading figures in the group. "She was detained by state security agents shortly after leaving her home. About 20 dissidents have been arrested," said Elizardo Sanchez, president of the Cuban Commission for Human Rights and National Reconciliation. (AFP, BBC, 22/7/05)

July 22: Cuban police released dissident leader Martha Beatriz Roque and two other women but continued holding other opponents of Fidel Castro detained in a roundup, a human rights group said. Roque, a 59-year-old economist who has been jailed twice since 1997 for criticizing communist rule in Cuba, was freed without charges, said veteran activist Elizardo Sanchez of the Cuban Commission for Human Rights. Roque and her driver were seized as police rounded up members of her opposition movement prior to a demonstration they had called outside the French Embassy in Havana to demand the release of political prisoners in Cuba. "They were detained arbitrarily, with no warrants, without charges and not allowed to make telephone calls to their families who did not know where they were,'' Sanchez said. He said that at least 22 people were detained and that most were still being held including Roque's top two political associates, lawyer Rene Gomez Manzano and engineer Felix Bonne. (AP, 22/7/05)

July 22: Sweltering summer heat in the 90s, blackouts of more than 12 hours and water shortages have increasingly frayed Cubans' nerves, challenging Fidel Castro's government as he prepares for July 26 th celebration marking the launch of the Cuban revolution. "Amid the miscellaneous promises and speeches of triumphs that cannot be demonstrated, Cubans are losing patience," dissident Manuel Cuesta Morua said this week. "Cuba is annoyed." While Havana residents said the situation eased somewhat - at least in the capital where the celebration is being held - Cubans worry about the rest of July and August, the year's hottest months. And they hope for good news on July 26 th, when Castro is expected to address the nation. "It won't take much more time," Castro said of the power problems when he spoke at the primary school graduation of Elian Gonzalez, who returned to Cuba from Miami five years ago after a high-profile international custody battle. "You can trust what I say," he said. (Seattle Times, 22/7/05)

July 23: Cuban dissident Martha Beatriz Roque, who was arrested for calling a demonstration in Havana, said upon her release that she will continue to protest and demand freedom for all dissidents. Roque, 59, heads the outlawed Assembly to Promote Civil Society or APSC, along with Rene Gomez Manzano and Felix Bonne Carcasses, who were arrested along with 20 other activists from the group when they organized a rally in front of the French Embassy in Havana. "I declare myself totally responsible for what happened. I convened the rally to call for the release of those arrested on July 13, because we cannot continue piling up prisoners," the economist the press after her release. According to her estimate, 22 members of the Assembly were arrested and 16 remain behind bars. As the arrests were taking place, hundreds of pro-government demonstrators engaged in "acts of patriotic reaffirmation" in front of the homes of dissidents, preventing them from leaving. (EFE, 23/7/05)

July 24: Cuban health authorities urged Havana residents to take extra hygiene precautions as they investigate the deaths of eight children from an unknown cause. A government communique said that there had been an increase in digestive and respiratory illnesses reported in the Cuban capital coinciding with power, cooking gas and water problems, in part caused by Hurricane Dennis, which passed a few miles east of Havana. "In this context eight deaths among minors have occurred which are being meticulously investigated," the communique, broadcast during the government's nightly television newscast, said. While children die at high rates in developing countries from various diseases, such deaths are rare in Cuba, which takes pride in a relatively well-developed and free health care system. (Reuters, CNN, 25/7/05)

July 25: The Catholic community of Santiago de las Vegas celebrated the day of Santigo the Apostle with the inauguration of the recently restored chapel of the Holy Sacrament. The mass was presided over by Cardinal Jaime Ortega y Alamino, Archbishop of Havana. A procession carrying an image of the Apostle riding on horseback marched through the town’s streets. (Cubanet, 25/7/05)

July 25: Cuban authorities have freed 23 dissidents, a leading human rights activist said. In all 33 people were detained on July 22. The dissidents had planned to attend a protest that day outside the French Embassy to press European nations to lobby for the island's political prisoners. Cuba's government has not commented on the roundup of dissidents. (The New York Times, 25/7/05)

July 26: Fidel Castro marked the 52nd anniversary of his revolution, gathering his staunchest supporters around him amid growing public discontent aggravated by sweltering heat and breakdowns in the communist island's aging electrical system. Castro's government acknowledged that many are unhappy. "There is complete consciousness of the dissatisfactions, insufficiencies, shortages and, above all, of the challenges we must overcome ahead," Pedro Sáez, the Communist Party chieftain for Havana, said in the party's Granma newspaper. An opinion piece in the government-run Granma newspaper acknowledged: "We are living in difficult times." "There may be no paint to beautify facades, or asphalt to fill in potholes," the editorial said. "There's no transportation to go to the beach with the children and the summer TV programming is interrupted with blackouts that bother and irritate." Nevertheless, "there's a celebration in Havana," it said. "And as tense as things are now, it is the same Havana of yesterday, today and tomorrow." (AP, 26/7/05)

July 26: Leaders of the opposition movement on the island began plotting their next move to bring international attention to their plight. ''The detentions are completely arbitrary,'' said prominent dissident Martha Beatriz Roque, who was released from custody without charges. "We cannot allow the government to continue to treat us this way.'' ''There must be a response, not only from the opposition but from everybody,'' Roque told the press in a telephone interview, declining to reveal whether any new anti-government protests were planned in the coming days. However, she hinted they could be organized at a moment's notice. ''All I can say is that opposition groups all over the island are on alert,'' Roque said. "They are waiting for the call to take to the streets. I see the strong possibility of civil unrest.'' (The Miami Herald, 26/7/05)

July 26: Communist Cuba marked the 52nd anniversary of the start of Fidel Castro's revolution without a traditional outdoor mass rally. In the darkest, bluntest warning to Cuban dissidents yet, Fidel Castro said that ''acts of treason'' would not be tolerated and warned that attempts to destabilize would be confronted by the population "whenever traitors and mercenaries go one millimeter beyond what the revolutionary people (…) are willing to permit.'' Castro again accused government opponents of being paid US mercenaries playing a dangerous "game.'' ''The much-publicized dissidence, or alleged opposition in Cuba, exists only in the fevered minds of the Cuban-American mafia and the bureaucrats in the White House,'' Castro said to resounding applause. But even as Castro tried to minimize the relevance of dissidents, the 78-year-old ruler acknowledged that a lengthy drought, a crippling energy crunch and devastation from Hurricane Dennis has made life more difficult on the island, and he asked the Cubans to be patient. [Discurso de Fidel Castro] (The Miami Herald, 27/7/05)

July 27: Members of the Cuban opposition expressed their concern about the possible use of repressive special legislation known as the "Gag Law" - which establishes prison terms of up to 20 years - against at least three recently-arrested dissidents. Special Law 88, approved in 1999, was used for the first time against most of the 75 opposition members sentenced to prison terms of up to 28 years in spring 2003, the largest wave of repression against dissidents on the communist island in decades. The Cuban Committee for Human Rights announced that the police had told relatives of dissidents René Gómez Manzano, Oscar Mario González and Julio César López - all of whom were arrested in July 22 - that the trio would be prosecuted under the "Law for Protection of the National Independence and Economy of Cuba," as the measure's full title reads. (EFE, 27/7/05)

July 28: A group of dissidents from Villa Clara who tried to leave Cuba via Guantánamo Bay have been transported to a prison, although leaving the country without an exit visa is not a punishable crime. Luis Enrique Junquera García, Juan Carlos Alpízar Rodas, Aleixis Sotolongo Díaz, Didier Arencibia Pérez and Orlando Rodríguez Salazar, all members of the Liberal Party of Cuba, tried to leave June 25. Alexis Lázaro Pérez Bernal, a relative of one of the men, said he had been advised that the group was being held at the Aguadores prison in Santiago de Cuba. (Cubanet, 28/7/05)

July 30: A Russian aeronautical company revealed that Cuba purchased two Ilushin 96-300 for $100 million , one of them to be used exclusively for Fidel Castro’s travels. According to the Director of the VASO Company , Alexandr Rubtson, the purchase of the two aircrafts by Cubana Airlines was made possible thanks to credit obtained from Russian and foreign banks. (El Nuevo Herald, 30/7/05)