Chronicle on Cuba - September 2005

Foreign Affairs

September 1: The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) reports that authorities arrested Albert Santiago Du Bouchet Hernández, director of the independent Havana Press agency, and sentenced him to a year in prison. His August 6 arrest became public recently, adding to the 24 other independent, Cuban journalists in jail. Both Du Bouchet and Oscar Mario González, who has been held without trial since July 22, were apparently punished for covering a congress organized by the Cuban opposition in May. The congress gathered more than 100 activists, who discussed strategies to create a democratic society in their country. (CPJ Press Release, 1/9/05)

September 1: El Salvador, mentioned as a possible destination for a Cuban anti-Castro alleged terrorist in the event his deportation is ordered by a federal judge in Texas, has said it doesn't want him. Salvadoran President Tony Saca said that in his country, "we do not receive terrorists." He was referring to Luis Posada Carriles, jailed in Texas on illegal immigration charges and subject to deportation proceedings. "Our government is a responsible government," Saca told a press conference. "We do not receive terrorists nor are we interested in associating ourselves with people who have been involved with acts that clash with the law." (EFE, 1/9/05)

September 1: The Slovak Embassy in Cuba did not hold a reception to mark the Slovak Constitution Day. This means that Slovak diplomats celebrated the public holiday neither with dissidents nor representatives of Fidel Castro's regime.  According to Foreign Ministry spokesman Juraj Tomaga, we thus "use one of the possibilities that the European Union has given us." This is a reaction to the conduct of Cuban official places, which ignore the Slovak ambassador to Cuba as the representative of a country that criticizes Castro's regime.  Mutual relations worsened after the statements made by Parliament Speaker Pavol Hrusovsky, who was interested in the state of health of imprisoned opponents of the regime and openly supported Cuban dissent.  Apparently, this is also a reaction to several meetings of representatives of the Slovak Embassy with Cuban dissidents. (Bratislava Sime, 1/9/05) 

September 2: Two members of the European Parliament criticized the European policy of engaging in dialogue with the Cuban government, a strategy they contend is not producing the desired results. Italians Emma Bonino and Marco Pannella said in a communique that, despite the Spanish government's efforts to foster a constructive dialogue with Fidel Castro's regime, the latter has freed "only 14 of the 75 dissidents jailed in April 2003, while several thousand remain in Cuban prisons for exercising freedom of speech and conscience." (EFE, 2/9/05)

September 2: With the signing of an agreement to strengthen cooperation, the 11th session of the Cuba-Laos Joint Commission concluded in Vientiane, the capital of that Indochinese country. The Cuban delegation led by Deputy Minister for Foreign Investment and Economic Cooperation, Ramon Ripoll Diaz, was received by Thongloun Sisoulith, Deputy Prime Minister and President of the Planning and Cooperation Committee. (AIN, 2/9/05)

September 5: Cuba presented a report before the United Nations on what has and still needs to do with regards to the Millennium Goals. The Minister for Foreign Investment and Economic Cooperation, Martha Lomas, handed the document to the local UN mission. The island "has completed" seven goals, particularly the ones that have to do with education and children's and youths' health; three other are at an "advanced" stage, like those linked to the eradication of certain illnesses, and four are in "early stages", for example, the application of technologies. The report admitted that "economic growth is the main limitation" of the Caribbean nation. (AP, 5/9/05)

September 5: Fidel Castro traveled to Jamaica for a summit of the PetroCaribe Regional Energy Integration Initiative. The gathering was called by Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez and Jamaica's Prime Minister Percival Patterson and is expected to conclude with the approval of a joint communiqué and a press conference. (AIN, 5/9/05)

September 5: The three fishermen from Yucatan accused of illegal entry to Cuba and human trafficking, were sent back to the prison for foreigners “La Condesa”, south of Havana, after being held for more than two months at Cuban state security’s headquarters known as “Villa Marista”. On August 26, Cuban authorities authorized for the first time Mexican Consul, Víctor Arriaga Weiss, to visit the prisoners. The Mexican embassy in Havana had not had contacts with the three since June 13. (El Sol de México, 6/9/05)

September 6: Indian Foreign Affairs Minister, Rao Inderjit Singh, concluded an official visit to Cuba, aimed at further strengthening relations between both countries. Before leaving the island, the Indian government official met with Cuban officials on political relations, and visited the International Neurological Restoration Center and the old section of Havana among other places of interest. Minister Inderjit Singh gave a press conference at the end of his visit, during which both countries signed a bilateral cultural exchange program and considered new ways to enhance commercial and economic relations. (Ahora, 6/9/05)

September 6: A delegation of mayors and city councillors from Bolivia, supporters of coca leader and presidential candidate Evo Morales, praised in Havana the Cuban model which, according to them, "suits their country very well". “The Cuban model suits Bolivia very well; we do not intend to become communists or totalitarian, but we are going to try something", affirmed Adriana Gil, a councillor and leader of the youth of the opposition Movement Towards Socialism (MAS) led by Morales. Gil is part of a delegation of 72 mayors, 20 councillors and social leaders from Bolivia on a visit in Cuba. (AFP, 6/9/05)

September 6: The Prime Minister of Jamaica, Percival Patterson, praised Fidel Castro's history of human generosity despite huge challenges. Addressing the opening of the Petrocaribe Summit at the Ritz Carlton Hotel, Patterson set aside protocol and his address in English to welcome the Cuban head of state in Spanish and convey gratitude. "Allow me to laud President Fidel Castro, whose history of human generosity has never declined despite the huge challenges his government and people have faced in the past five decades," Patterson said. (Prensa Latina, 7/9/05)

September 7: Grenada said that a number of Cuban teachers would be arriving on the island under a bilateral agreement with the authorities in Havana. An official statement said the Memorandum of Understanding involves the assignment of the T.A. Marryshow Community College as the base for the teachers, whose main focus would be to deliver instruction in the community skills programs being coordinated by the Ministry of Education. (BBC, 7/9/05)

September 9: Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe is to exchange notes with Fidel Castro on how to stand up to "US imperialism" during a state visit to Cuba. "Historically the two countries have been very close and this is the president's sixth visit to Cuba which gives you a sense of how close we are," Mugabe's spokesman George Charamba told the press. Mugabe last visited the Caribbean island in 2002. (AFP, 9/9/05)

September 9: More than two hundred intellectuals from Spain have signed an open letter addressed to the US General Attorney demanding the immediate release of the five Cubans imprisoned in the United States. Thousands of public figures including several Nobel laureates from around the world have already signed the document, reported Prensa Latina news agency. (AIN, 9/9/05)

September 9: Diplomats working on a pivotal document on the management overhaul of the United Nations and updated approaches to terrorism, development and human rights have locked horns just days before it is to be presented to more than 170 world leaders for their endorsement. A senior United Nations official, speaking anonymously because of the need to maintain neutrality among member states, identified the principal spoilers as Cuba, Egypt, India, Jamaica, Pakistan and the United States. "There is progress on a lot of small stuff, but no deals on the big stuff," he said. “The spoilers are taking hostage the rest of the world, because Africa, Europe, large swatches of Asia, Latin America all want this deal, but the unholy alliance are holding out for their pet projects." (The New York Times, 10/9/05)

September 9: Fidel Castro attended the signing of a cooperation agreement between Bolivian and Cuban municipalities, Cuba's official press reported. Castro, 79, did not speak at the ceremony, the upshot of the First Cuba-Bolivia Meeting of Municipalities, which took place in Havana on September 4, the front page of Granma said. The agreement was signed by the speaker of the National People's Power Assembly, Ricardo Alarcón, Havana Mayor Juan Contino and 71 mayors making up the Bolivian delegation. The purpose of the agreement is to boost mutual friendship and cooperation and includes Cuba's pledge to award scholarships to poor Bolivian youth to study medicine in Cuba. It also includes free treatment in Cuba to Bolivians with visual problems and joint programs in education, sports, agriculture and services to children, youths and the elderly. (EFE, 10/9/05)

September 11: The president of Zimbabwe Robert Mugabe started a state visit to Cuba at the invitation of Fidel Castro. His busy agenda in the island includes official meetings with Fidel Castro and with other Cuban officials. Mugabe is accompanied by his wife Grace Mugabe, as well as an important delegation including Foreign Minister Simbarashe S. Mumbengengwi and other high-ranking officials. (Prensa Latina, 11/9/05)

September 12: Reporters Without Borders voiced great concern about the plight of Cuban journalist Oscar Mario González Pérez of the Grupo de Trabajo Decoro independent news agency, who is still awaiting trial more than 50 days after his arrest on 22 July in Havana. “González has been held in four different police stations since his arrest and still does not know what will become of him,” the press freedom organisation said. “Is this a new method the Cuban authorities are using to break a dissident? It is just as absurd as arrest without good reason and constitutes harassment, especially as the victim is a 61-year-old man in frail health.” [González Pérez judicially harassed] (RWB Press Release, 12/9/05)

September 12: Parliamentarians from the European People's Party nominated in Brussels the "Ladies in White"--the group of wives and mothers of political prisoners in Cuba--for the 2005 Sakharov Prize for Freedom of Thought that grants the European Parliament. This is one of 10 proposals that will be presented officially in the Committee on Foreign Affairs of the European Parliament. Subsequently, the three official candidates will be selected by vote. (Notimex, 12/9/05)

September 13: Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe expressed his satisfaction over his official visit to Cuba. Minutes before boarding the plane, President Mugabe told the press that his visit allowed for an exchange of ideas with his comrade Fidel Castro and expressed his gratitude for the Cuban medical personnel working in his country. After praising the work of almost 200 Cuban medical personnel in Zimbabwe, the African leader ratified his country's solidarity with the island and its leaders and condemned Washington's blockade against Cuba. The distinguished visitor ended a tight program which included official talks with Fidel Castro. (Ahora, 15/9/05)

September 13: After bitter and divisive negotiations, the 191-member General Assembly approved an agreement to reform the UN that is a shadow of the ambitious agenda laid out by Secretary-General Kofi Annan only six months ago. In a press conference, an embattled Mr. Annan acknowledged that many critics will judge the deal -- to be endorsed by some 170 world leaders -- to be a failure, "but they'll be wrong," he said. The US Ambassador to the UN, John Bolton, has come under particular fire from non-governmental organizations for playing hardball in the negotiations, while Cuba and Venezuela refused to endorse the agreement in the General Assembly. (The Globe & Mail, 14/9/05)

September 14: Cuba has revealed irregularities and a lack of transparency in the negotiating process for the approved document to be submitted to a summit of heads of state and government at the UN. Abelardo Moreno, Cuban deputy foreign minister, affirmed during the closing of the 59th Session of the UN General Assembly that the document contains omissions and distortions of issues previously agreed upon or which do not appear, and that this is the result of pressure from the United States. Likewise, Moreno criticized one of the paragraphs in the section titled "Responsibility for protecting populations from genocide, war crimes, ethnic cleansing and crimes against humanity." The deputy minister described as negative the non-inclusion of the disarmament issue, at least in language similar to that used in the Millennium Summit, and warned that it "could create a disastrous precedent for the UN’s work." (Granma International, 14/9/05)

September 14: The presentation of the ambassadors of Mexico and of Peru marked a new phase in the diplomatic relations between Cuba and these countries, after long tensions between their governments. The ambassadors of Mexico, José Ignacio Piña, and of Peru, Martín Yrigoyen, presented to the Cuban government the credentials that ratify them as heads of their respective diplomatic missions on the island. (Reuters, 14/9/05)

September 16: Cuban Public Health Minister Jose Ramón Balaguer described as useful the health networks recently approved at a meeting with ministers and officials from 22 countries in Granada, Spain, prior to the 15th Ibero-American Summit in October. The Cuban Minister said that having each network addressing a specialty will help enhance cooperation among the member countries. He spoke of Cuba’s experience in the field of transplants and exchanges with other countries in the cases of heart, lung and liver transplants, something the networks may help improve. (Prensa Latina, 16/9/05)

September 16: Cuba called the UN summit an "unforgivable sham" with the powerful nations seeking to transform the United Nations into an instrument of global dictatorship. Addressing world leaders, Parliamentary speaker Ricardo Alarcón de Quesada, once Cuba's UN ambassador, mentioned the United States by name just once but clearly directed his comments at the Bush administration. Instead of meeting the UN Millennium Development Goals on poverty, hunger, primary education, infant mortality and AIDS, the powerful had tried to divert the summit into a war on terrorism and to reduce the UN secretariat "to a tool for their designs," Alarcón said. (Tehran Times, 18/9/05)

September 17: Cuba, which is the next chair of the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM), has expressed strong support for India becoming a permanent member of the UN Security Council. Cuban Foreign Minister Felipe Perez Roque, conveyed his country's position when he met External Affairs Minister K Natwar Singh, on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly's session in New York. During their 45-minute meeting, the two ministers discussed the bilateral relations, especially in the economic field, with a view to strengthening them. (The Hindu News, 18/9/05)

September 18: The 15 Mpumalanga student doctors in Cuba could be the last group from this South African province doing medical studies in the Caribbean. The South African Mpumalanga Health Department is investigating the possibility of enrolling future medical students at local universities to cut costs. The Department spends over R30 000 per annum for each student studying in Cuba. Medical students on a study break say much of their medical equipment, that the Cuban government are supposed to supply, have to be supplied by the provincial government. These items are hard to find in Cuba. The decision by the Mpumalanga government will not affect other provinces making use of the Cuba deal, as every province decide for themselves. (SAB, 18/9/05)

September 18: Prince Saud Al Faisal, Bahrain’s Foreign Minister, received separately in New York his counterparts from Norway, France, Cuba and Turkey, Jan Petersen, Philippe Douste Blazy, Felipe Pérez Roque, and Abdullah Gul respectively. (BNA, 18/9/05)

September 18: Cuban Foreign Minister Felipe Pérez Roque pledged to cooperate "closely" with Spain to ensure the forthcoming Ibero American Summit is a success, amid Spanish officials' plans to seat Fidel Castro at the negotiating table at the meeting in Salamanca. The summit on October 14 and 15 will be the 15th time that representatives from Spain, Portugal and 21 Latin American countries gather to discuss inter-regional development, trade, investment and socio-cultural cooperation. On the last four occasions, Castro has been absent. Pérez Roque did not confirm in a meeting with Spanish Foreign Minister Miguel Angel Moratinos whether the Cuban leader would be present this time around, indicating that a decision would only probably come at the last minute. Spanish officials are eager for Castro to be present at the meeting, seeing his attendance as the consolidation of recent improvements in Spanish-Cuban relations. (El País, 19/9/05)

September 19: The “Ladies in White”, the group of wives and relatives of political Cuban prisoners, said it is “a great honor” to be among the 10 candidates proposed for the the Sakharov Prize that awards the European Parliament. “We want the world to know that all we do is for love and for the freedom of these men”, said Laura Pollán, wife of Héctor Maseda, sentenced to 20 years of jail during the trials against 75 dissidents in 2003. (EFE, 190/9/05)

September 19: Nearly 80,000 Venezuelans have undergone eye operations at Cuban hospitals this year as part of the "Mission Miracle" program, Fidel Castro said. The Cuban leader mentioned the figure during an official ceremony marking the creation of a medical foreign legion comprising more than 1,500 physicians trained and equipped for overseas humanitarian missions. He said that since January, more than 83,600 Venezuelan and Caribbean nationals with vision problems have been treated in Cuba. The majority of the patients, 79,450, were from Venezuela, with the balance coming from various Caribbean countries. The volume of Venezuelan medical "tourists" is so great that Cuban authorities have designated particular hotels for the exclusive use of visitors from the Andean nation. In fact, some of those lodging facilities have been converted into "hotel-hospitals." (EFE, 20/9/05)

September 21: Cuba´s government has picked new diplomats to represent Havana as its new ambassadors to Britain and to the UN, according to the official Granma newspaper. René Mujica Cantelar, a history graduate of the University of Havana who served as Cuba's ambassador to Belgium from 1996 to 2002 was appointed ambassador to Great Britain. In the 80´s, Mujica had been also a diplomat at Cuba´s Interest Section in Washington. Juan Antonio Fernández is the new Cuban Ambassador to the UN. Fernández had been the head of the Multilateral Affairs Department of the Cuban Foreign Affairs Ministry. (AFP, 21/9/05)

September 21: Jamaican immigration and police officials were questioning at least 13 Cubans, who were picked up at sea off the coast of the southern parish of Clarendon. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs said it would hold discussions with officials from the Cuban embassy on the issue. The Cubans said they had been stranded at sea following a mishap with their vessel. They said they had fled Havana and were trying to reach the United States. (Caribbean Media Corporation, 22/8/05)

September 23: The Committee to Protect Journalists is concerned about the health of jailed independent journalist Víctor Rolando Arroyo who went on hunger strike for two weeks and is now in the prison hospital, his sister Blanca Arroyo told CPJ. Arroyo refused food to protest mistreatment at the Guantánamo Provincial Prison, in eastern Cuba, where he is serving a 26-year sentence. He is one of 24 independent journalists behind bars in Cuba. (CPJ Press Release, 23/9/05)

September 23: Yang Hyong Sop, a leader of the Supreme People's Assembly of North Korea, began a week-long visit to Cuba, the Cuban government announced. The vice president of the assembly's presidium is to meet with Cuban Vice President Carlos Lage, Foreign Minister Felipe Perez Roque, and Marta Lomas, Cuba's minister of foreign investment and economic cooperation. The visit coincides with the 45th anniversary of the re-establishment of ties between the two countries, Cuba's National Information Agency said. (AFP, 23/9/05)

September 24: The Inter-American Press Association (IAPA) held Cuban authorities responsible for the deterioration of Víctor Rolando Arroyo's health, who is on a hunger strike in the provincial prison of Guantánamo. Arroyo, sentenced to 26 years in prison on April 4, 2003, went on a hunger strike in this southeastern prison, where 25 independent journalists serve their sentences. "On top of sentencing a journalist to over 20 years in prison for the crime of writing, we regret prison guards add their abuse to the injustice of the government's sentence", said the IAPA in a press release. (AP, 24/9/05)

September 25: The relatives and wives of the so-called Group of 75 Cuban dissidents thrown in prison here in 2003 sent a letter to Spanish Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero asking him to intervene on their loved ones' behalf. Some 30 women - known as the "Women in White" for the color of the clothing they wear at their protest activities – signed the letter. Miriam Leyva, the wife of Oscar Espinosa Chepe, who was released from prison earlier this year for health reasons, showed the press the letter to Zapatero she and her colleagues delivered to the Spanish Embassy in Havana. They state in the letter that their relatives "have not committed any crime, but rather attempted to exercise their right to freedom of expression, and achieve respect for human rights and democracy in Cuba." "Therefore, they must be freed immediately and unconditionally," argues the letter, which is also directed at the other heads of state and government who will participate in the Ibero-American Summit in Salamanca, Spain, in October. (EFE, 25/9/05)

September 25: In 2005, Mexico will seek a migratory agreement with the government of Cuba in order to ensure an orderly flow of persons, informed the Mexican newspaper “La Jornada”, according statements by the new Mexican ambassador to Cuba, José Ignacio Piña. “La Jornada” informed that in recent years illegal migration of Cubans to Mexico "has become a matter of top priority". (AFP, 25/9/05)

September 26: Academics, activists and prominent figures are attending in Havana the World Jubilee South Assembly and World North-South Meeting on Resistance and Alternatives to Foreign Debt. Both events will take place at Havana's International Conference Center, and among guests are Nobel Peace Prizewinner Adolfo Perez Esquivel and Latin American Social Sciences Council general secretary Atilio Boron. Jubilee South is a network of people's organizations and social movements, NGOs, research centers and figures from Africa, Asia, Latin America and the Caribbean, whose main aim is to promote study, criticize and resist the credit extortion that scourges Third World countries. (Prensa Latina, 26/9/05)

September 26: Cuba announced to the American nations a joint plan with Venezuela to graduate some 200,000 doctors at universities in the two countries for students of diverse origins in the next 10 years. Health minister, José Ramón Balaguer Cabrera, said before the annual assembly of the Pan-American Health Organization (PAHO) that the first students of the so-called Latin-American School of Medicine graduated in August. (AP, 26/9/05)

September 27: Reporters Without Borders voiced deep shock at the public beating which a pro-government group gave Guillermo Fariñas, the editor of the independent Cubanacán Press agency, in the central city of Santa Clara, after he took part in a protest against the arrest of a dissident. “This extremely violent attack on Fariñas shows that Cuban independent journalists are not just under threat from the government but also from ultra-revolutionaries, who in this case vented their anger on Fariñas as the political police looked on,” the press freedom organisation said. The attack came after Fariñas and some 15 other government opponents demonstrated outside a police station to demand the release of Noelia Pedraza Jiménez, a fellow dissident who had just been arrested. (RWB Press Release, 27/9/05)

September 27: Cuban Defense Minister Raúl Castro discussed challenges facing Cuba and North Korea, two of only five remaining communist states in the world, in a meeting with the vice president of North Korea's parliament, state-run media reported. Castro, who is the younger brother of Fidel Castro, and other top officials received Yang Hyong Sop and his delegation, the Communist Party daily Granma said in an article on its front page. They talked about shared experiences "in the construction of socialism" as well as "the fight to preserve...national independence in the face of constant imperialist aggressions," Granma said. (AP, 27/9/05)

September 28: Eight young Bermudians have flown to Cuba to begin university studies, courtesy of the Cuban government. One of the eight — Iman Gibbons — is planning to study medicine, something he has been unable to do because of lack of funds. The scheme was arranged by Bermuda Friends of Cuba, whose president is Pauulu Kamarakafego, formerly Roosevelt Brown, who told the press the opportunity for the students came about because of his friendship with Lazaro Fleitas, who runs the Cuban Institute of Friendship in Havana. Mr. Fleitas, who visited Bermuda some years ago, was unavailable for comment by email. (Bermuda Sun, 28/9/05)

September 28: Police arrested two Cubans and a Paraguayan in Asunción, Paraguay, in possession of fake passports, during an operation conducted by a district attorney investigating a forgers' network. The Cubans were identified as Iván Alonso Ramos and Robin Ríos Sánchez. The investigation began after the police noticed the number of more than 200 Cubans who have entered the country in the last few months. (AFP, 28/9/05)

September 28: Secretary General of the Organization of American States (OAS), Jose Miguel Insulza was in Ottawa for a one-day visit, at the invitation of Foreign Affairs Canada. He spoke with the Canadian magazine “Embassy” about the main issues and challenges within the OAS and in the hemisphere. Arguably one of the most contentious issues in the Organization's history has been Cuba, expelled from the OAS in 1962 and currently the only state in the hemisphere that is not a member. Mr. Insulza once again showcased his pragmatic approach: "The problem of Cuba in the OAS is that it is a divisive issue and you know what the result is going to be," he says. "We could discuss Cuba even though we know that we will arrive to no result. I have said that if we know it is divisive why bring it to the Organisation? Let us just leave it the way it is until we are ready and prepared to raise it again. We should engage with Cuba in some way, but I will not be ready to pay the price of dividing the OAS on Cuba." (Embassy, 28/9/05)

September 29: Fidel Castro has sent his "warmest fraternal salute" to the people and authorities of China, marking 45 years of bilateral ties. In a letter to President Hu Jintao published in the Cuban Communist Party newspaper Granma, Castro said "we deeply value that, over these four and a half decades, our relations have been marked by warm feelings of solidarity, and commitment to socialism and mutual support." China is Cuba's key number two trade partner after Venezuela. (AFP, 29/9/05)

September 29: Jiang Shixue, one of the top Latin America specialists in China said that fears about the alliance between the Chinese communist regime and Cuba and Venezuela are groundless. During the Conference of the Americas of The Miami Herald, in the United States, Jiang said that, in the case of Cuba, the nature of the bilateral relations is changing. Trade between China and Cuban has more than doubled in the last five years, but "today's China-Cuba relations are not like those of the early sixties, which were based principally on ideology", said Jiang. (El Nuevo Herald, 29/9/05)

September 29: The Cuban Government is the only one of the 20 Ibero-American countries that has turned down an invitation by the Spanish Defence Department to take part in the traditional military parade on the occasion of Spain's National Day on October 12. Cuban diplomatic sources confirmed Havana's decision to not attend the traditional military parade because it is not the custom of "the Cuban Revolutionary Armed Forces" to take part in these type of events abroad. The Defence Department had invited all the Ibero-American countries, coinciding with the celebration in Salamanca of the XV Ibero-American Summit of heads of state and government. (Europa Press, 29/9/05)

September 29: The death of the Puerto Rican nationalist leader, Filiberto Ojeda Rivers, in a shooting with FBI agents shocked Puerto Rican residents in Cuba, while the local media highlighted his figure as a "revolutionary". At the same time, during an event in Havana of organizations working to coordinate strategies for the cancellation of foreign debts of the developing countries, a declaration was passed condemning the "vile murder" of the leader. (AP, 29/9/05)

September 29: Cuba, Syria and Belarus joined the International Atomic Energy Agency's 35-nation board. The three nations were among 10 approved as new board members at the IAEA's 139-nation general conference as part of a rotation that results in some board seats changing hands each year. Although the board does not have permanent members, the United States, Russia, China, Britain, France, Germany, Canada and Japan effectively enjoy that status because of their nuclear or economic standing. (AP, 29/9/05)

September 29: The European Union said it was seriously concerned about three political prisoners being held in Cuba, who have been on a hunger strike to protest their conditions in detention. "The EU has noted with grave concern the situation of political prisoners, Jose Daniel Ferrer Garcia, Victor Rolando Arroyo and Felix Navarro, all in extremely poor health," the 25-nation bloc said in a statement. "The EU calls on the Cuban authorities to take immediate action to improve the conditions of detention of these individuals and other political prisoners who are being held in circumstances that fall below the UN minimum standards for the treatment of prisoners," the statement added. The bloc also repeated a call for all political prisoners in Cuba to be released. [ Declaration of the European Union] (Reuters, 29/9/05)

September 29: Fidel Castro and the presidents of the United States, George W. Bush, and of Peru, Alejandro Toledo, are the least popular leaders among Latin-American elites, according to a poll by Zogby International. The poll, conducted last September for the University of Miami, was based on interview with 520 opinion leaders (politicians, businessmen, journalists and academics) in Brazil, Mexico, Argentina, Chile, Colombia and Venezuela. The results were presented during the Conference of the Americas, organized by the daily “The Miami Herald ” in a hotel of Coral Gables, Florida. (AFP, 30/9/05)

September 29: The government of Paraguay granted asylum to two Cuban citizens, Robin Ríos Sánchez and Iván Alonso Branch. The two had been detained in possession of fake Paraguayan passports, and refused to go back to their country. The arrests were part of an investigation on the irregular massive entry of Cubans to Paraguay, approximately 200 since January, of which only 15 left the country legally. (AFP, 30/9/05)

September 30: Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez offered South American leaders $5 billion from his country's oil industry, the world's No. 5 crude exporter, to set up a development bank to fund infrastructure. The leftist urged leaders to ask Cuba for help with education and health projects. "We want to share this oil with the most needy people in the world, starting with those of South America and the Caribbean,'' Chavez said. (The New York Times, 1/10/05)

September 30: Attendees at the North-South Meeting agreed on the untenable nature of the Third World foreign debt during an international forum winding up in Havana with delegates from 53 countries. The prevailing trend of the World North-South Meeting on Resistance and Alternatives to Foreign Debt has been to demand those governments make concrete political plans to deal with international financial organisations. (Prensa Latina, 1/10/05)