Chronicle on Cuba - July 2005

Exile Community

July 4: Cuban painter Guido Llinás, a pioneer of Abstract Expressionism in Latin America, died in Paris at 82. His paintings were displayed in many exhibits in Havana and abroad during the 1930s and 40s. However, it was in the 1960s when he became internationally renowned as a master of Abstract Expressionism. Llinás had left Cuba due to disagreement with the government of Fidel Castro and moved to Paris in 1963. (El Nuevo Herald, 5/7/05)

July 11: Leaders in both the Cuban-American and Haitian-American communities were divided over how -- or whether -- humanitarian aid should be sent to their respective, politically beleaguered homelands. Opposed to tough US rules tightening remittances and travel to Cuba, Silvia Wilhelm, executive director of the Cuban American Commission for Family Rights, said a letter-writing campaign was under way to have the travel restriction rescinded for a few months. The proposed freeze, she said, would allow those with family in Cuba to travel to the island to assist in disaster relief. Wilhelm said for those who can't visit, the government should also consider broadening the items that Cuban-Americans can send to the island. In a joint statement, US Representative Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, Lincoln Díaz-Balart and Mario Díaz-Balart, all Miami Republicans, encouraged local residents to donate to local organizations licensed to send unlimited amounts of humanitarian aid to Cuba through non-governmental organizations. Still, some were skeptical about the effectiveness of non-governmental organizations, saying aid would end up in the wrong hands or simply refused by the communist government. ''Every time the exile community has wanted to send aid, Castro has said he doesn't want it,'' said Ninoska Perez Castellon, a conservative commentator on Radio Mambí. She also said that some relief supplies sent after Hurricane Lillie wound up in tourist gift shops in Havana. (The Miami Herald, 11/7/05)

July 12: The commemoration of the anniversary of Cuba's deadly sinking of a tugboat packed with fleeing refugees was cancelled due to bad weather conditions. Ramón Saúl Sánchez, the president of the Democracy Movement, told the press that because of adverse "weather conditions" his group had decided not to hold the traditional flotilla it has staged each year in the Florida Strait to pay homage to the 37 victims of the July 13, 1994, sinking of the "13 de Marzo." In place of the normal commemoration, the group had planned to hold a ceremony on Miami's Biscayne Bay with boats, helicopters and small planes that would have dropped thousands of flowers onto a "cemetery" of crosses floating on the waves. (EFE, 13/7/05)

July 12: Ramón Saúl Sánchez, the president of the Democracy Movement, an organization of Cuban exiles based in Florida, called on Washington to suspend the travel and shipment restrictions to Cuba "so that those Cubans who have gone to the island within the last three years can travel there again." "We have to concentrate on achieving the political will on both sides of the Florida Strait so that the exiles can directly help the Cuban people," said Sánchez, while noting that his proposal to dispatch aid to the storm-ravaged island had caused a "political storm." While Consenso Cubano, a recently-created coalition of exile organizations, supports the temporary lifting of the restrictive measures, other groups and South Florida's three Cuban-American US legislators, Republicans Ileana Ros-Lehtinen and brothers Lincoln and Mario Diaz-Balart, strongly oppose the idea. (EFE, 13/7/05)

July 14: Cuban poet and journalist Raúl Rivero was awarded the 2005 International Thought and Humanities Award granted by the Spanish Cristóbal Gabarrón Foundation. Rivero was chosen from among 29 candidates from Cuba, the United States, Spain, France, Israel, Mexico and South-Africa. The prize was granted in recognition “of his tireless fight in favour of the freedom of expression of every human being, a fight that has turned him into a symbol of that freedom”. Raúl Rivero is one of the 75 dissidents rounded up by the Cuban government and sentenced to prison terms of up to 28 years in 2003. In late November 2004, he was granted a special release from prison on health grounds and in April arrived in Madrid with his family. (Europa Press, 14/7/05)

July 14: Plataforma Internacional Cuba Democracia Ya! (a movement advocating changes in Cuba) pleaded in Madrid for the Spanish government and the European Union to intervene in the wake of the events that took place in Havana when supporters and opponents of Fidel Castro’s regime clashed. The Plataforma called on Madrid and Brussels to intercede to “prevent peaceful demonstrations taking place in different parts of Cuba ending up in a blood bath, as could have happened when about 20 peaceful dissidents were harassed by paramilitary forces in Havana”. (AFP, 14/7/05)