Chronicle on Cuba - October 2005

Foreign Affairs

October 1: Cuban Government Minister Ricardo Cabrisas concluded a one-week visit to China, where he attended ceremonies to commemorate the 45th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between the two countries. (Prensa Latina, 1/10/05)

October 3: Canada’s Foreign Minister Pierre Pettigre pressed Cuba on its human rights record and expressed particular concern about three dissidents who are on hunger strike. Pettigrew said he had told visiting Cuban Foreign Minister Felipe Pérez Roque of Canada's "deep preoccupation" about the government's human rights record. "We believe very much that Cuba has to address this issue very, very squarely," Pettigrew told reporters in Ottawa. "I expressed particular concern (about) the 75 individuals who were arrested in March 2003. Three of them are now on hunger strike and I have expressed to the minister that Canada was particularly concerned with those three on hunger strike." Roque had replied by explaining the "difficult situation" that Cuba was in, Pettigrew added. Canada is now the largest foreign investor in Cuba and around 600,000 Canadians visit the island each year. (Reuters, 3/10/05)

October 3: Germany invited Cuban dissidents to its national day reception, splitting with a European Union decision in January to end the practice that had brought relations with Havana to the breaking point. Cuban officials boycotted the evening reception at the German Embassy and one held earlier in the day without dissidents in hopes of attracting the officials. "Cuba is clearly very upset with this as they wanted Germany to invite dissidents another day, but negotiations broke down," a European diplomat said. "German unification was the result of a failed planned economy," German Ambassador Ulrich Lunscken said in a brief speech in the evening, before inviting guests to view the German film "Goodby Lenin" on the reconstruction of the former German Democratic Republic. Pro-democracy activists appeared pleased with Germany's move, and have criticized the EU for what they see as a softening position toward Havana. (Reuters, 3/10/05)

October 4: A Mexican fishing boat rescued four Cuban rafters in the Caribbean Sea as the fragile craft in which they fled Cuba was on the verge of sinking in the midst of tropical storm “Stan”. (EFE, 4/10/05)

October 4: Iran's Ambassador to Havana Ahmad Edrisian and Cuban Deputy Foreign Minister Abelardo Moreno exchanged views on Iran's nuclear issue and the cooperation trend of the two countries. A report released by Iran's embassy in Havana said that during the meeting, Edrisian briefed Moreno on the latest developments on the issue. For his part, Moreno underlined Iran's right for access to nuclear energy for peaceful purposes and said that all nations are entitled to such a right. "We trust Iran as a friendly country and have confidence that Tehran's nuclear activities are based on peaceful objectives," he added. (IRNA, 5/10/05)

October 5: During a visit to Ottawa to mark the 60th anniversary of diplomatic relations between Canada and Cuba, Felipe Perez Roque, Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Cuba, acknowledged that relations between the two countries have been revamped after a period in which they were “frozen”. “It is true that a few years ago, former Canadian prime minister, the Honorable Jean Chretien, said that Canada would put some ice on the relation with Cuba, but now I think we have brought some sunlight from the Caribbean to this relation,” the minister said. Pérez Roque added that relations between Cuba and Canada are at a very mature point, although on human rights the perceptions are different. "Cuba doesn’t have anything to regret on this matter. Cuba feels proud of what it has done in this regard for the benefit of all Cubans," he added. (VOA, 5/10/05)

October 5: Cuba is one of the “most democratic countries in the world” because it has two presidents, Fidel Castro and Venezuela’s Hugo Chávez, affirmed in Caracas Cuban Vice-President, Carlos Lage. At the end of a meeting to review bilateral agreements, Lage said “they accuse our country of lack of democracy, but in events like this we realize that we are the most democratic, since we have two presidents, Fidel and Chávez”. (AFP, 6/10/05)

October 5: The leader of the Christian Liberation Movement, Oswaldo Payá, said that the Embassy of Spain in Havana met with several dissidents “to talk”, but did not disclose the objective of the meeting. Dissident representatives held a “formal” meeting at the British Embassy with European ambassadors, whom they expressed “the urgent need to demand the release and a more humane treatment of political prisoners”. (Europa Press, 6/10/05)

October 5: Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, an admirer of Fidel Castro, criticized the US trade embargo against Cuba in a speech and thanked Fidel Castro for a program that has sent thousands of Cuban doctors to treat Venezuela's poor. ''Cuba and Venezuela are one single fist,'' Chavez said. ''Latin America will be one single fist.'' Chavez says he is leading Venezuela toward socialism, though he has said he doesn't plan to copy the Cuban system. (AP, 5/10/05)

October 6: Cuban Foreign Minister Felipe Perez Roque discussed trade and bilateral ties with his Canadian counterpart, Pierre Pettigrew, and other officials during a four-day visit to Canada, according to an official Cuban government statement. The statement, published by the official Communist newspaper Granma, said the meetings illustrated "the good state of Cuban-Canadian ties, especially with regard to trade and cooperation." The visit also showed "the possibilities for expanding and deepening the ties between these two countries in the future," it added. Canada is Cuba's fourth-largest trade partner, after Venezuela, China and Spain, and the leading source of tourists to the island, with some 600,000 Canadians a year visiting the Americas' only Communist nation, according to the statement. [Statement by the Cuban Foreign Affairs Ministry] (AFP, 6/10/05)

October 6: Cuban Foreign Affairs Minister, Felipe Perez Roque made a keynote address to Canada's business community at the Economic Club of Toronto. Mr. Roque was in town to beg for more Canadian investment, defend Cuba's questionable human rights record, promote the island nation's 60 years of diplomatic relations with Canada -- and take a few pot shots at US imperialism for good measure. Tourism is big business in Cuba and it's a good thing, too, since the Soviet Union's collapse killed Cuba's sugar daddy. Fortunately, altruistic Canadian companies lent a hand in rebuilding Castro's economy, Mr. Roque said. "That was a special symbol for us," he cooed. "It was a very difficult moment for our people." Cuba hasn't forgotten that corporate largess, and the country wants to do more business with Canada, he said. As for Cuba's oft-criticized human rights record, the Minister said that many countries violate basic human rights. Besides, 75 jailed dissidents -- several currently on a hunger strike -- are US operatives. "They had a trial," he told reporters. "Those dissidents were working for foreign powers -- they were receiving money. I think we have the right to defend ourselves against foreign aggression." That's not exactly how the Canadian government sees it. The Club, which hosted more than 60 events last year, is a catalyst for driving public policy dialogue throughout Canada and for engaging leaders in business and politics in that dialogue. (Financial Post, 7/10/05)

October 6: Reporters Without Borders voiced relief at the decision by imprisoned Cuban journalist Víctor Rolando Arroyo Carmona to end the hunger strike he had begun 25 days before, but the organisation stressed that it was still very worried about his state of health. Reporters Without Borders has decided to publish a letter of support for Arroyo which fellow journalist Raúl Rivero wrote just before he called off the hunger strike. Rivero, who is also a writer and poet, has been living in exile in Madrid since April. [Raúl Rivero’s letter] (RWB Press Release, 6/10/05)

October 6: A son of the fugitive Puerto Rican independence activist who was recently killed in a shootout with FBI agents joined Fidel Castro and other Cuban authorities in remembering his late father, Filiberto Ojeda Rios. "Filiberto lives," the son, Edgardo Ojeda, told an evening gathering of hundreds of top Cuban officials and young people, saying his father's death was "an act of terrorism of state" by the US government. Castro, dressed in his typical olive green uniform, sat in the front row of the event at Havana's Karl Marx Theater. Many other top officials were on hand, including Ricardo Alarcón, president of Cuba's parliament. Edgardo Ojeda also oversaw a simple a ceremony in which a memorial plaque with his father's name was unveiled at a monument honoring numerous political leaders and social activists in a seaside government plaza facing the US Interests Section, the American mission in Havana. (AP, 6/10/05)

October 6: The relatives of 75 jailed Cuban dissidents pleaded with Spanish King Juan Carlos I for help to gain from Cuba's communist regime the political prisoners' "immediate and unconditional" release. "They have committed no crime, except exercising their right to free speech," the "Women in White" said in an open letter sent to Madrid's embassy in Havana. The women's group, which wears white and includes prisoners' wives, was formed after 75 dissidents were arrested in a crackdown in March 2003. The group urged the Spanish monarch to "intervene before the highest Cuban government authority to gain the immediate and unconditional release of all 75 prisoners of conscience of Black Spring 2003." (AFP, 6/10/05)

October 6: Spain's ambassador in Cuba, Carlos Alonso Zaldivar, received representatives of the Communist island's internal dissidence movement at the Spanish Embassy in Havana. Attending the meeting were Marta Beatriz Roque, the leader of the Assembly to Promote Civil Society; Vladimiro Roca of All United; Elizardo Sanchez of the Cuban Commission for Human Rights and Reconciliation, or CCDHRN; and Manuel Cuesta Murua, of the Progressive Arc. Spain, headed the agenda during the nearly two-hour discussion, the dissidents said afterward. Cuesta Murua said that all persons present "fully agreed" about the need to find appropriate formulas to end the acts against the opposition and added that "dissidence seems to be on the agenda of the Salamanca meeting." Also, Roca said it was possible that the matter of the internal dissidence movement would be discussed at bilateral meetings between the governments of Cuba and Spain at the summit. Roque said that Zaldivar was "very receptive" to the complaints of an increase in the regime's "harassment" of the dissidents, while Sanchez said that the Cuban government "is entrenching and hardening its position." (EFE, 6/10/05)

October 6: Miriam Makeba has paused in Cuba on her global farewell tour to unload some criticism on the US government of President George W. Bush for its response to black communities after Hurricane Katrina. She also used the occasion to praise Cuba for its co-operation with African nations, particularly in health care. "I am 73 years old, and have been to many different countries of the world," the singer known as Mama Africa said at a news conference in Havana. "Since I'm feeling a little tired now, I decided I should return to many of the countries (...) that applauded me during my career." (The Canadian Press, 7/10/05)

October 7: Mexico accepted a Cuban donation of 24 tons of food and medicine for those affected by the torrential rains in the southeastern part of the country. (Granma, 8/10/05)

October 10: Havana almost doubled its medical contingent working in Guatemala by sending another 200 physicians to the country to help persons affected by Hurricane Stan, which killed hundreds throughout the region, authorities said. The doctors dispatched to Guatemala in the past few days are part of the Henry Reeve international brigade, created recently by the Cuban government to provide medical help in nations that suffer natural disasters. Havana also offered to send medical specialists to El Salvador on the weekend, but the Salvadoran government said that it had sufficient physicians to care for its population. (EFE, 10/10/05)

October 11: After sending hundreds of doctors to disaster-battered Guatemala, Cuba has offered Pakistan at least 200 doctors to help victims of a killer earthquake which shook that Asian nation and may end up killing over 33,000. Fidel Castro sent a letter to his Pakistani counterpart Pervez Musharraf, in which he informs of Havana´s readiness to send physicians with medical provisions. The note underlines the medical team could be ready in 24 hours to travel by air. The Cuban head of State told Musharraf that the island would cover the costs of transportation and food. (Prensa Latina, 11/10/05)

October 11: Cuba and Peru were chosen to join the 21-country UNESCO's Committee of World Heritage, an entity responsible for admitting monuments or sites valuable to humanity. Cuba, which failed being elected to the committee by one vote at the first voting round, was selected at the second round while Peru was selected in the third. Spain, Canada, South Korea, the United States, Kenya, Israel, Madagascar, Morocco, Mauricio Isles and Tunis have been also picked to be part of the committee board. (RHC, 11/10/05)

October 11: The French foreign minister demanded directly from his Cuban counterpart that Havana free its political prisoners. The meeting between Philippe Douste-Blazy and Felipe Perez Roque, which took place during at the Quay d'Orsay, focused "exclusively" on the human rights situation in Cuba, according to the spokesman for the French Foreign Ministry in a brief communique. He said that Douste-Blazy "firmly recalled our positions and demanded the freedom of the political prisoners (…) in Cuba." For his part, Perez Roque "stated the traditional position of his government on this point," said the spokesman. “The two ministers have stated, therefore, their disagreement," read the statement. The tone of the communique was unusually direct, which has been interpreted as a sign of France's unhappiness with the lack of a response from Fidel Castro's government to the European Union's decision in June to extend for one year the suspension of its political sanctions against the island's Communist regime. (EFE, 11/10/05)

October 11: The International Committee for Democracy in Cuba founded by former Czech Republic President Vaclav Havel called for the participants at the Ibero-American Summit in Salamanca, Spain, to hold Havana to the commitment to respect basic rights it made at a previous such conclave. The obligations stem, ICDC sources told the press, from the Viña del Mar Declaration ratified during the 1996 summit in that Chilean city, a document signed by Fidel Castro. Havel's committee, which will deliver the request to all Latin American and Iberian governments, said it harbors "deep concern about the lack of freedoms, violation of human rights, (and) persecution of dissidents, opponents, human rights activists and independent journalists" in Cuba. The ICDC call makes reference to paragraph 39 in the declaration's sixth chapter entitled "Our Commitment," and it has been supported by Ibero-American members of the committee, including several ex-presidents and prominent intellectuals. (EFE, 11/10/05)

October 11: Venezuela and Cuba are making great strides in sports cooperation as part of the bilateral Integral Cooperation Agreement. The Cuban delegation working in Venezuela provides Venezuelan coaches and referees with technical advice, as well as collaborates in sports promotion. Osvaldo Narvaes, director of the Inter-government Relations Office at Venezuela's National Sports Institute (IND), highlighted in a news conference the island's experience in this field. (Prensa Latina, 11/10/05)

October 11: The so-called "Women in White" - a movement of more than two dozen wives and relatives of imprisoned Cuban dissidents - sent a letter to the heads of state and government participating in the Ibero-American Summit in Salamanca, Spain, asking them to intervene with Havana and secure the release of their loved ones. "We hope that this meeting will also be memorable for your actions, as a result of which in Cuba we can move toward achieving the democracy you are trying to deepen in your countries and the respect for our political and civil rights," said the letter, which was released in Havana. (EFE, 11/10/05)

October 11: Cuba has recently committed to expanding and strengthening its traditional cooperation in education and training with Vietnam. Fernando Remirez, a member of the Cuban Communist Party Central Committee, called for stronger ties between the two nations in the area while meeting with a delegation led by Nguyen Minh Hien, Minister of Education and Training in Havana. Remirez said Hien's visit is a symbolic representation of tremendous friendship, solidarity and cooperation that have existed between Cuba and Vietnam over the past years. Earlier, Hien held talks with the Cuban counterparts. The two sides informed each other of their respective educational reform and training development programs. (VNA, 13/10/05)

October 12: Spain kept its policy of rapprochement with the government of Fidel Castro by not inviting Cuban dissidents to a reception in Havana on the occasion of its national day. “It has been a necessary rectification. It should have always been like that”, said the Cuban Vice-Minister of Foreign Affairs, Bruno Rodríguez. “They are not opponents, but individuals financed by the US Interests Section in Cuba. They are mercenaries”, added the Cuban diplomat. (Reuters, 12/10/05)

October 12: Fidel Castro and Venezuela's Hugo Chavez are among more than 20 government chiefs and heads of state from Spanish- and Portuguese-speaking countries scheduled to meet in Spain for a summit which organizers hope will see less of the usual rhetoric and more concrete results. "The latest we have is that he (Castro) is coming and there will be a full delegation from Cuba," said Fernando Pajares, spokesman for the summit's organizing body. The Spanish government have sought to play down the likelihood that a possible meeting between Castro and Chavez would divert media attention from what they hoped would, for a change, be a serious summit. "This summit aims to get past the rhetorical tendencies normally associated with these events, so we can achieve more concrete actions," said Enrique Iglesias, 74, who was recently elected the first Iberoamerican secretary general. Observers in Spain and Cuba say Castro could very well decide not to come at the last minute. They point out that although he hasn't canceled, neither has he confirmed his attendance. Castro's presence would likely lead to protests by Cuban dissidents and human rights groups. (AP, 12/10/05)

October 13: In an interview with the Italian daily La Stampa, Archbishop of Genoa Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone said that Fidel Castro asked the Catholic Church for help in fighting the scourge of abortion in Cuba. Bertone gave an account of his trip and his meeting with "the Lider Maximo, a man of great stature and great intelligence, a dominant figure who looks on the church with great respect", he said. Archbishop Bertone had been to Cuba to escort two Genoese priests sent out to run two parishes in the Santa Clara diocese. The meeting with Castro was a two-hour of talks on the evening of 11 October, shortly before the prelate set off back to Genoa after a week in Cuba. “Fidel Castro emphasized that the spread of abortion is one of the causes of the slump in the country's birth-rate. And it is also a consequence of the scourge of sex tourism. It is only to be expected that Castro should be worried and that I should be ashamed of certain Italians' conduct abroad”, Bertone said. “The church can make a contribution on abortion and a low birth rate in a country that has now opened up completely: A high-ranking party official welcomed me at the cathedral door and attended the service. There is no numerical limit on admissions to the seminaries, and there are no constraints on ordination, or, therefore, on believers' freedom”. Bertone also said that Castro invited the Pope to visit Cuba. (AFP, 13/10/05)

October 14: In spite of the repeated announcements and good offices in the form of prior concessions by the Spanish government, Fidel Castro did not attend the Ibero-American summit in Salamanca. This was announced "in extremis" by the Spanish government, ending the main uncertainty of the meeting. Cuban Foreign Minister Felipe Perez Roque, said that Castro was busy and had dealt personally with Cuba's medical assistance to Central American countries hit by Hurricane Stan. (ABC, Reuters, 14/10/05)

October 14: Reporters Without Borders voiced deep concern about the condition of imprisoned journalist Mario Enrique Mayo Hernandez after his wife and mother reported that he tried to commit suicide twice and is still determined to end his life. He has been detained since March 2003 and is serving a 20-year prison sentence. "Mayo cannot take any more, physically and mentally, nor can his family," the press freedom organisation said. "Does death offer the only relief in Cuban prisons, as exiled journalist Raul Rivero asked last week when fellow journalist Victor Rolando Arroyo Carmona was on hunger strike. We call on the Cuban authorities to free Mayo and all of the other 22 imprisoned journalists at once." [Mayo tries to take his life] (RWB Press Release, 14/10/05)

October 14: An Ibero-American Summit declaration supporting the peace process in Colombia and condemning terrorism sparked objections from Cuba and Venezuela, Latin American diplomatic sources said. Cuba and Venezuela objected to describing as "illegal" and "terrorist" the armed groups active in Colombia - Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) guerrillas in particular - which the two nations prefer to call "irregular," according to sources who requested anonymity. But that term was rejected by most of the Ibero-American delegations, which shared Colombia's position that the groups are rightly called "terrorist," and also expressed political support for President Alvaro Uribe's peace efforts. (EFE, 16/10/05)

October 15: The 15th Ibero-American Summit drew to a close with the adoption of a Declaration of Salamanca that in six pages outlines the great challenges facing the region and includes 15 special communications of marked social and political content. One of the resolutions reaffirmed the commitment to combat terrorism and called for the extradition to Venezuela of the perpetrator of the bombing of a Cubana de Aviacion plane, which killed 73 civilians in October 1976. The Cuban government accuses anti-Castro activist Luis Posada Carriles of the attack, but his name does not appear in the declaration. (EFE, 16/10/05)

October 15: Iberoamerican leaders demanded that the United States abide by UN resolutions to end its economic blockade against Cuba, as they concluded a two-day summit with a series of final statements. The 17 leaders began discussing the Cuban issue at the start of the annual summit, prompting the US Embassy in Madrid to object to the word ''blockade'' instead of ''embargo.'' Spanish officials countered that the word ''blockade'' had been used in UN resolutions as well. ''We call on the United States of America to comply with that laid down in 13 successive resolutions approved by the General Assembly of the United Nations, and to bring an end to the economic, trade and financial blockade it maintains against Cuba,'' one of a set of final statements said. (The Miami Herald, 16/10/05)

October 15: President Vicente Fox reasserted Mexico's long-standing position against the economic blockade imposed by the United States against Cuba on his last day at the 15th Ibero-American Summit in Salamanca. Fox said that in his opinion the measure against Cuba was an attack on the welfare of the Cuban people. "Mexico has long held this position, a position that it will not change but maintain out of what we deem to be respect and justice," said Fox during his final press conference of the summit. He stated that to try to solve the Cuban situation by means of a commercial and economic embargo or blockade "is out of touch with reality." (El Universal, 16/10/05)

October 15: Hundreds of Spaniards and Portuguese marched in Salamanca, Spain, in solidarity with Cuba and Venezuela, present at the 15th Ibero-American Summit of Heads of State and Government. Actions to back Cubans and Venezuelans, known as the Solidarity Forum, took place in spite of hurdles set by local authorities. (Ahora, 15/10/05)

October 16: The 14th Ibero-American Summit has given “a definite signal that this forum can be rescued from its discredited reputation of the last few years”, said Cuban Foreign Minister Felipe Pérez Roque. He told journalists however, that first there must be Latin American integration for summits to be consolidated. Cuba’s foreign minister explained that this regional integration is in process, a task for which Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez has hoisted the same flags upheld for decades by the Cuban Revolution, particularly Fidel Castro, in resurrecting the ideas of Bolivar and Marti. (Prensa Latina, 16/10/05)

October 16: President Amadou Toumani Toure of Mali, who arrived in Cuba, said it was an honor to be in that country and thanked the nation for its solidarity with the African liberation struggle and assistance in training African students. "It is an honor to me to be here because of the great love, consideration and affection the whole African continent feels toward Cuba and our brother Fidel Castro," he told the press upon his arrival in Havana for a State visit at the invitation of Castro. (Prensa Latina, 16/10/05)

October 17: Supreme Court Judge Ismael Moreno will be in charge of determining whether to hear a lawsuit presented by the Cuban Foundation for Human Rights against Fidel Castro, his brother Army General Raúl Castro, and former regime ministers Osmani Cienfuegos and Carlos Amat, for genocide, crimes against humanity, torture and terrorism. The suit presented by the Foundation and thirteen Cuban citizens recalls a sentence of the Constitutional Court that allows Spanish jurisdiction to prosecute crimes of genocide regardless the nationality of the victims. (Europa Press, 17/10/05)

October 17: Cuba praised the Ibero-American summit for urging the United States to end its 43-year-old embargo against the communist island and describing it as a "blockade." "It is historic," National Assembly President Ricardo Alarcón told reporters. The summit "spoke in a more precise, exact language," he said. The summit displayed its "rejection of the economic war policy used by the United States against Cuba," said Alarcón, who is in charge of Cuban policy toward Washington. In a resolution attached to the summit's final declaration in Salamanca, Spain, countries called on Washington to "put an end to the economic, commercial and financial blockade that it maintains on Cuba." (AFP, 17/10/05)

October 17: Cuban dissident Oscar Espinosa Chepe sent a letter to French Foreign Minister, Philippe Douste-Blazy, thanking him for requesting Cuban Foreign Minister, Felipe Pérez Roque, that imprisoned oppositionists be released from jail. The request took place during a meeting in Paris, on October 11. (EFE, 17/10/05)

October 18: Cuba was re-elected for a fourth term, as a member of the Economic and Social Council of the United Nations, illustrating the international community's support toward the island, Cuban Ambassador Orlando Requeijo said. Paraguay, Guyana and Haiti were also elected. (Prensa Latina, 18/10/05)

October 18: The relatives of three young Cuban men who were summarily tried and executed in 2003 for attempting to hijack a small boat testified before the Inter-American Commission of Human Rights through a video smuggled out of the island. The identities of the three relatives filmed in the video were revealed during the proceedings, but organizers asked the news media not to publish the names to protect them from retaliation by the Cuban security services. On April 2 of 2003, Lorenzo Copello, Bárbaro Sevilla and Jorge Martínez tried to hijack a Havana ferry with about 50 people on board at gunpoint and force it to sail for the United States. They were caught, tried and executed by firing squad nine days later in a case condemned by the human rights community, the US and other governments. Cuba does not recognize the IACHR's powers because the island's OAS membership was suspended in 1962. Seats reserved for Cuban officials to defend the executions were empty. The IACHR argues that Cuban citizens still enjoy the protections of the Inter-American Declaration of Human Rights, an instrument that Cuba has ratified. (The Miami Herald, 18/10/05)

October 18: Presidents Amadou Toumani Toure of Mali and Fidel Castro of Cuba held official talks in Havana. Both heads of state reviewed the positive development of bilateral relations and had exchanges on the current situation in Africa, Latin America and the Caribbean, as well as in other parts of the world. Amadou Tomani and Fidel Castro also addressed bilateral cooperation programmes. (AIN, 19/10/05)

October 21: Around 100 Cuban doctors, nurses and paramedics arrived in Pakistan, ready to work right away to bring relief to survivors of the earthquake that savaged northern areas of the country two weeks ago. A first batch made the 26-hour flight from Havana a week ago and the latest influx brought the total number of Cuban medical staff on the ground in Pakistan close to 200. "We are happy to be here to help our Pakistani brothers and sisters and we are ready to work despite the very long flight," Francisco Rivera, a nurse from Santa Clara, told the press at a military airbase in Rawalpindi, the garrison city next to Islamabad. Cuba's First Deputy Minister Rodrigo Parrilla said the medical teams could stay for at least 90 days, and added that Fidel Castro personally ordered the teams to be sent to Pakistan. The Cubans make up one of the largest foreign contingents of medical workers to have been rushed to Pakistan's aid. (Reuters, 21/10/050)

October 23: In the face of the huge damage caused by hurricane Wilma in the Yucatan Peninsula, Fidel Castro offered medical assistance for the victims of the powerful storm. The Cuban leader made the offer while participating in the TV news analysis hour, Round Table, which was aired on the island’s main TV channels and radio waves. Fidel Castro said that Cuba is ready to offer the Mexican government the support it needs after the passage of the storm. "Given the solidarity that exists between the Cuban and Mexican people, it is a gesture that Cuba is happy to make," he stressed. (Prensa Latina, 23/10/05)

October 23: Eleven members of a Cuban choir vanished after a Toronto concert and are seeking political asylum. "They evaporated," said promoter Robert Missen, who brought the 40-member Coro Nacional de Cuba to Canada for a 13-city tour. Cuban baritone Ernesto Hermes Cendoya-Sotomayor, a member of the Coro Nacional who decided to stay in Canada, said to the press that 11 of the 41-member choir managed to flee the hotel between 6 p.m. and 9:30 p.m, when Digna Guerra, the choir's manager, discovered the absences. Mr. Cendoya-Sotomayor said the singers did not plan to seek asylum en masse, but instead there was a kind of "domino effect." He imagined there were government informants within the choir. And once they arrived in Canada for their two-week tour, the singers were only given $20 a day for meals, and their performance pay was withheld, he said. All 11 who defected were taken to the homes of Cuban exiles. The President of the Cuban Canadian Foundation, Ismael Sambra, who is helping some of the defectors, in Toronto, believes that six in the group have already crossed the border and entered the United States where they have relatives. A spokesperson for the Vancouver choir said all but 11 members of the Cuban choir had arrived in British Columbia. (The Globe and Mail, 25, 26/10/05)

October 24: It will be impossible to strengthen cooperation on human rights if the principles of universality, objectivity, impartiality and non-selectivity are not borne as pillars, the Cuban delegation said in the United Nations. Ambassador Ileana Núñez, Cuba’s alternate permanent representative at the United Nations, spoke in those terms at the 3rd Commission of the General Assembly, which debated human rights issues. In her speech, the Cuban diplomat said, "We know in advance that the issue will not be about fostering dialogue, impartiality and non-selectivity according to a group of developed countries." "For them, the promotion and protection of human rights, through genuine and clear international cooperation that respects the principles governing the UN Charter is a dead letter," she added. (Prensa Latina, 24/10/05)

October 25: Cuba's ambassador to Venezuela condemned the decades-old US embargo that blocks most trade with the island and said Cuba's close ties with the South American country offer an alternative to US economic policies in Latin America. Cuban Ambassador German Sanchez Otero said his country's close relationship with Venezuela offers the region "an alternative, a different path from that which the United States is developing," under an initiative called Petrocaribe. Participating countries will be required to pay 60% in cash and allowed to finance the rest through long-term, low-interest loans. Venezuela, the world's fifth largest oil exporter, has said it will accept goods such as rice or bananas and services as partial payments. Such oil accords represent "an option in the face of US neo-liberalism and its intention of completely absorbing Latin American economies in the function of its own interests," Sanchez Otero told reporters. Despite the close relations between Caracas and Havana, Sanchez Otero noted that calling between the two remains difficult, with those trying often receiving a recording saying all the lines are busy. Sanchez Otero called that situation a "blockade" in itself and said the embassy had taken up the matter with the Venezuelan government. (AP, 25/10/05)

October 25: The expo "Approaching, from the Santiago de Cuba artist to the plastic arts" opened in the Centre of Ceramique Bonsecours pinacotecha, in Montreal, Canada. Monique Girad, directress of the gallery, opened the exhibition in which Cuban consuls Oscar Coet and Liliana García were present. Art personalities in Québec, directors of galleries and government officials attended the opening. (Ahora, 26/10/05)

October 26: A Cuban opposition movement, a Nigerian human rights lawyer and an international media organization were jointly awarded the European Union's human rights prize. The "Ladies in White" women's movement, lawyer Hauwa Ibrahim and Reporters without Borders received the 2005 Sakharov Prize for Freedom of Thought awarded by the European Parliament. "Ladies in White" is a group of women that has been protesting peacefully every Sunday since 2003 against the continued detention of their husbands and sons who are political dissidents in Cuba. They wear white as a symbol of peace and innocence of those imprisoned. The prize, named after a former Soviet dissident, is awarded annually to the person or group who are judged to have made a particular achievement in the field of human rights, protecting minorities, defense of international cooperation or promotion of democracy and the rule of law. (AP, 26/10/05)

October 26: The Ladies in White celebrated the EU's top human rights prize - something they hope will draw attention to their cause. “It puts the Cuban government on notice," Gisela Delgado said after finding out that she and the other "Ladies in White" will share the 2005 Sakharov Prize for Freedom of Thought with a Nigerian human rights attorney and an international media organization. "And it affirms our fight for the liberation of our family members, who are innocent," she said. ''Let me say that we're not an organization, but women, wives, mothers and sisters who united,'' said Gisela Delgado, whose husband Héctor Palacios is serving a 25-year sentence. "It's the first time in 47 years that women in Cuba go out to the street to protest against unjust imprisonment.'' Dressed in white and wearing t-shirts and buttons printed with photos of their loved ones, the "Ladies in White" gathered in the home of Laura Pollán, one of the members who is best known among diplomats and the international media. Pollán and several other women were called early Wednesday to the European Union delegation office in Havana, where they met with EU business attaché Sven Kühn von Burgsdorff and other European officials. After the meeting, Pollán said they would try to travel to Europe to receive the prize in December. "We are going to fight to the last moment to go and receive the prize," which she considered a recognition and backing for the group by the international community. ( AP, IPS, The Miami Herald , 27/10/05)

October 26: The corpse of a woman, apparently a Cuban rafter victim of Hurricane Wilma, was found on the Caribbean island of Holbox, Mexico. No identification was found on the body. Presumably, there had been others on board due to the size of the boat. (AP, 27/10/05)

October 26: Teachers of surgical speciality departments at the University of the Republic of Uruguay opposed the sending of Uruguayan patients to Cuba to undergo eye surgeries. The doctors protested against the recruiting in public hospitals of patients with surgical diagnoses who would be sent in groups of 25 to 30 a week to the island. Three Cuban doctors have been visiting hospitals in southern Uruguay with that intention as part of a project between Havana and the Uruguayan government. The Uruguayan ophthalmologists propose to finance the surgeries with the savings from airfare to Cuba. (AFP, 27/10/05)

October 26: Scientific-academic exchange and the training of physicians in Cuba are aspects to be developed with the reestablishment of diplomatic ties between Panama and Cuba, Panamanian Health Minister Camilo Alleyne said. The minister said that the training of doctors on the Caribbean island is an opportunity for poor people to study for free, and to later assist people living in the country' s outlying areas. Alleyne recalled that during a recent visit to Havana he updated a series of old agreements with his Cuban counterpart Jose Ramon Balaguer. (Prensa Latina, 27/10/05)

October 26: The final statement of the upcoming fourth Summit of the Americas will include no mention of terrorism, regional security or Cuba, a Brazilian foreign ministry official said. The 34 nations expected to attend the Nov. 4-5 summit in Mar del Plata, Argentina, will focus on labor issues in a tightly written final statement, said Afonso Jose Sena Cardoso, head of multilateral political coordination of the Brazilian Foreign Ministry. In preliminary talks, there has been no mention of Cuba, regional security or combating terrorism, Sena Cardoso said. (AP, 26/10/05)

October 27: Independent journalist and former political prisoner, Oscar Espinosa Chepe, sent a letter to Canada’s Minister of Foreign Affairs, Pierre Pettigrew, thanking him for his defense of human rights in Cuba, during the visit of Cuban Foreign Minister, Felipe Perez Roque to Canada, “at a time when repression against peaceful dissent mounts, aimed at sowing terror in Cuban society.” The letter points out that “most peaceful dissidents in Cuba oppose foreign interference in our own affairs (...) Nevertheless, we think that the international community cannot remain indifferent of the flagrant and increasing violations of human rights in Cuba”. (Cubanet, 27/10/05)

October 27: Fidel Castro criticized the European Union, accusing it of scarcely helping Third World countries struck by natural disasters, subordinating itself to the United States, and defending "mercenaries of the empire". "Europe is a sham, they speak about human rights while they defend mercenaries of the empire", said Castro on local television, one day after the European Parliament awarded the Sakharov Prize for Human Rights to the wives and relatives of Cuban imprisoned dissidents, known as the “Ladies in White”. “The Europe that condemns us, that casts its vote (at the UN) obeying the orders of the United States, I dare to send doctors”, added Castro. [Fidel Castro’s speech] (EFE, 27/10/05)

October 28: Cuban authorities banned the reception which was to take place in a Havana hotel, the Czech national holiday, branding it a "counter-revolutionary event." The reception was to mark the 87th anniversary of the establishment of independent Czechoslovakia. The authorities called the event counter-revolutionary as it was to be attended by members of the Ladies in White, the wives and relatives of Cuban political prisoners. The guests who arrived at the luxurious Spanish-Cuban hotel were informed that the reception had been cancelled and transferred to the residence of Czech Ambassador Petr Stiegler. "The hotel management told me that the hotel cannot be a venue of counter-revolutionary activities," AFP agency quoted Stiegler as saying. The improvised reception in his residence was attended by many ambassadors from European countries, and also by twenty members of the Ladies in White. (CTK, 29/10/05)

October 28: D uring its 123 rd regular sessions, the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) reported on the activities carried out in relation with Cuba. The Commission continued to receive information on the situation of human rights, particularly on the conditions of detention of persons deprived of liberty because of their political dissidence; on the violation of labor and union rights of workers and the restrictions placed on the exercise of their right of residence and transit of the island’s habitants”. The IACHR also reiterated its position with regards to the US sanctions on the island and said that, “the economic and commercial sanctions imposed by the [US] government produce a grave impact on economic, social and cultural rights of the Cuban community, and urges that they be lifted”. (OAS Press Release, 28/10/05) 

October 30: An Israeli tourist was murdered in Cuba while on vacation with his wife. Initial details from the Foreign Ministry in Jerusalem indicate that the man was stabbed to death a short time after leaving his hotel in Havana. Local police said the couple left the hotel when they were attacked by about eight robbers. The couple was forcefully separated and the man was taken into an alley where he was robbed and stabbed to death. According to the Foreign Ministry, his body is to be returned to Israel via Canada, as Israel does not have diplomatic relations with Cuba. (Ynetnews, 30/10/05)

October 30: The President of the Cuban Parliament, Ricardo Alarcon, left for Mar del Plata, Argentina to participate at the 3rd People's Summit. The gathering opens the same week that the 4th Summit of the Americas is set to be held in Mar de Plata. The island's delegation is comprised of 300 representatives from community, labor, and student organizations, and well as artists and professionals of all Cuban social sectors. (AIN, Granma, 31/10/05)

October 31: During Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva's successful presidential campaign in 2002, his Workers' Party received up to $3 million in illegal campaign contributions from the government of Cuba, according to the cover story in the current issue of Brazil's leading weekly newsmagazine. According to the Veja story, the money arrived in the country's capital, Brasilia, in 2002 by unidentified means. Then, the money was safeguarded by Cuban diplomat Sergio Cervantes, who since has returned to Cuba. The Cuban embassy said in a statement that, "the government of Cuba categorically rejects these slanders and affirms that it has never interfered in the internal affairs of its sister nation." The government of Cuba, which funneled money to selected guerrilla groups and left-wing parties in Latin America through the 1980's but says it has abandoned the practice because of its own moribund economy, also denied the report in emphatic terms. In a statement, the Cuban Embassy in Brasília called the Veja article part of "an orchestrated campaign of lies" motivated by the "aggressive plans of imperialism against Cuba and against Lula," as Mr. da Silva is popularly known. [Declaración del embajador cubano en Brasil] (The New York Times, BBC, The Denver Post, 1/11/05)