Chronicle on Cuba - December 2005

Terrorism

December 6: Havana will be the site of a "formal exploratory meeting" between Colombia's second-biggest leftist insurgency and representatives of the government on the possibility of starting a peace process, Colombian authorities said. "The Colombian government and the ELN (National Liberation Army) thank the Cuban government and people for their hospitality in providing their territory to make possible this effort for peace," President Alvaro Uribe's office said in a brief statement. The communique was signed by Peace Commissioner Luis Carlos Restrepo and by Gerardo Bermúdez, an ELN chief known as Francisco Galán who was released from prison in September to explore possibilities of beginning negotiations. A few hours before issuing the official communiqué, the Venezuelan government offered to “facilitate” the peace talk negotiations. Venezuelan Ambassador to Bogotá, Carlos Rodolfo Santiago, reiterated Hugo Chavez’ offer to initiate a process that could lead to a reconciliation agreement between the Colombian government and the ELN. (EFE, 6/12/05)

December 7: A group of 25 American Catholic peace activists, defying a US travel ban to Cuba, set out from the Communist island on a 50-mile (80.5-km) trek to the US Guantanamo Navel Base aiming to protest conditions for terrorism suspects. The priests, nuns and academics belonging to the organization ``Witness Against Torture'' apparently arrived in Cuba as tourists from a third country, breaking US restrictions on travel to the Caribbean island. The group plans to leave from eastern Santiago de Cuba and arrive at the base on December 10, International Human Rights Day, and demand to see prisoners on a hunger strike. The Cuban military rarely if ever allows any civilians near the enclave it claims as its own and which has been held by the United States for over a century. Cuba has mined its side of the enclave. Cuban authorities had no comment on the planned protest. But at least one official indicated the group had not asked for permission to enter the country and march on the base. (The New York Times, 6/12/05)

December 11: American Catholic peace activists arrived at the perimeter of the US Naval Base in Guantanamo, Cuba, to begin a three-day vigil and fast protesting conditions for terrorism suspects held there. "We want permission to see the prisoners and justice for them," said spokesman Mike McGuire by telephone from the United States, from where he was tracking the activists' progress. The group of 25 Roman Catholic activists, including a nun and a priest, defied US travel restrictions to Cuba. The protesters, from the "Witness Against Torture" organization, carried banners reading "torture no" and "close the US naval base" as they marched some 50 miles (80 km) over four days to reach the small town of Glorieta, some four miles from the Guantanamo prison. "The Cubans were at first apprehensive about us, but after days of talking and marching they have decided to accept us and will escort us to the base entrance if we get permission to see the prisoners," McGuire said. (Reuters, 11/12/05)

December 12: American activists camping out at a Cuban military checkpoint outside the US naval base at Guantanamo Bay started their first day of a water-only fast to protest the treatment of suspected terrorists detained at the base. Members of the largely Christian group Witness Against Torture are demanding access to the prisoner camp to meet with inmates. The activists arrived at the checkpoint, which is about five miles from the US base, after a five-day march from the eastern Cuban city of Santiago. ''We can see the windmills of the US base, we can see some lights off in the distance,'' Frida Berrigan, 31, said on her cell phone. ''We're not right next door, but we are closer to these prisoners than their family members have been since they were arrested.'' During their 66-mile march from Santiago, the activists slept in Cubans' backyards and at farms. Response from local citizens has been positive so far, Berrigan said. (The New York Times, 13/12/05)

December 13: Members of Colombia's second-largest rebel group have arrived in the Cuban capital to hold preliminary peace talks with the Colombian government. A spokesman for the left-wing ELN said the meeting in Havana represented a big step in the search for peace. The aim of the talks is to pave the way for a fully-fledged process to end the long-running conflict in Colombia. A similar attempt in Cuba two years ago collapsed after a failure to agree on a framework for negotiations. Rebel representatives from the National Liberation Army (ELN) and the Colombian authorities will hold several preparatory meetings throughout the week, ahead of the opening of formal exploratory talks on December 16. Diplomats from Spain, Norway and Sweden are expected to attend. (BBC, 13/12/05)

December 14: The military commander of Colombia's second largest rebel group said he was optimistic that efforts to reach peace with the Colombian government will be more fruitful than failed attempts in the past. Antonio Garcia of the National Liberation Army acknowledged there were many obstacles, but that he was hopeful solutions would be found. "The road is filled with multiple paths," Garcia told reporters at a hotel on the outskirts of the Cuban capital. He said those involved in conflicts "must know how to choose the right paths at the right time, without mistakes." "We always look for the right way, but we don't always find it. This time, I hope we do," he added. Cuban officials said they were just providing a meeting place for the talks and would not take part. "We want to help once again so that hopefully peace can be reached in Colombia," National Assembly Speaker Ricardo Alarcón said. (AP, Reuters, 14/12/05)

December 14: US activists camping at a Cuban military checkpoint outside the US naval base at Guantanamo Bay were rebuffed in their bid to gain access to terror suspects held at the facility. A Connecticut woman and other members of the Christian-oriented Witness Against Torture began a hunger strike at the checkpoint after a five-day march from the eastern Cuban city of Santiago. They said they have not received a reply to their formal request to gain access to the base. One of the activists, Gary Ashbeck, called the base on a cell phone, only to have communication cut off after a brief exchange with an operator. "We demand that prisoners at Guantanamo be treated with dignity," the group said in a statement read to reporters. (AP, 14/12/05)

December 15: Colombia's best-known writer, 1982 Nobel laureate Gabriel Garcia Marquez, hosted at his home in Cuba the military chief of a leftist guerrilla army beginning "exploratory" peace talks with the Colombian government, local media reported. The Bogota daily El Tiempo said on its Web page that the novelist, a longtime friend of Fidel Castro who has a home in Cuba and is on the island for a film festival, talked at his residence in Havana's Laguito neighborhood with Antonio Garcia, the top military commander of the Colombian National Liberation Army (ELN). In a dispatch from the Cuban capital, the paper's correspondent said the interview was seen as an effort by the author of One Hundred Years of Solitude to contribute to eventual success of the talks. (EFE, AP, 15/12/05)

December 16: American anti-torture activists who protest the detention of terror suspects at the US naval base at Guantanamo Bay ended a vigil they initiated five miles away the US base and went back home. Cuba's Communist government did not allow the 25 members of the Catholic Worker movement to march to the gates of the US military enclave and demand access to the prisoners. Instead of jumping at the chance to embarrass its foe, Cuba preferred to avoid an incident in the no-man's land of barbed wire and mines surrounding the 45-square-mile (117-sq-km) base. "It's a very sensitive zone where two enemy armies have faced each other for four decades,'' a Cuban official said. On the ground, the Cuban and American military cooperate through daily telephone contacts in securing the perimeter of the base. "The Cuban military is just loath to have any kind of incidents on that trench line that could result in a heated event,'' said Brian Latell, a former CIA analyst for Latin America. "They do not want to challenge the United States military.'' "Where Fidel's instincts would be to confront and antagonize the United States, Raúl's instinct [Raúl Castro, minister of Armed Forces] is to reduce tensions,'' Latell said in a telephone interview. "We don't hear Raúl and the generals talking about a concentration camp in Guantanamo.'' (Reuters, AFP, 16,18/12/05)

December 21: Colombia and the country's second largest Marxist rebel group moved a step closer to negotiating the end to a brutal 41-year insurgency by agreeing to work on an agenda for peace talks in January. Leaders of the 5,000-strong National Liberation Army, or ELN, and negotiators from President Alvaro Uribe's government ended five days of what they termed "frank and cordial" exploratory talks in an optimistic mood. They will meet again in Havana at the end of January to start thrashing out a peace agenda, they said in a joint statement issued in Havana, which is hosting the talks. (CNN, 21/12/05)

December 29: The number of Guantanamo Bay prisoners taking part in a hunger strike that began nearly five months ago has surged to 84 since Christmas Day, the US military said. Forty-six detainees at the prison for foreign terrorism suspects at the US naval base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, joined the protest on the Christian holiday, said Army Lt. Col. Jeremy Martin, a military spokesman. The prisoner population, which the Pentagon says numbers about 500, is believed to be uniformly Muslim. Only nine have been charged with any crime. (The New York Times, 30/12/05)