Chronicle on Cuba - January 2006

Domestic Affairs

January 1: Priests of Afro-Cuban religions, Santeria, called on islanders to be wary of diseases, broken agreements and corruption as they issued their much-anticipated predictions for the New Year. Although the annual "Letter of the Year" is vague enough to be interpreted in a variety of ways, Cubans anxiously look forward to it each January. Several competing groups of Santeria priests, or babalaos, gather every New Year's Eve for religious ceremonies that include chanting and animal sacrifices. Predictions are announced in the first days of the New Year. The group said that the Santeria orishas, or gods, ruling 2006 will be Obatala, god of wisdom and justice represented in the Roman Catholic faith as Our Lady of Mercy, and Ochun, the goddess of maternity and newborns, whose representation is Cuba's patron saint, the Virgin of Charity. The priests predicted that Cubans will need to watch out for cerebrovascular problems, stomach disorders, hormonal ailments and unknown diseases. Society as a whole can expect an increase in crime, particularly corruption; broken agreements, including international accords, and a risk of drought and other natural disasters. A different Santeria group, the Yoruba Association, which is more closely allied with Cuba's communist government, had similar predictions with some variations and said that the orishas ruling 2006 would be Oggun, associated with St. Peter in Roman Catholicism, and the Virgin of Charity. (AP, 2/1/06)

January 3: Cuban dissident Oswaldo Payá lamented that Cuba had reverted to the "darkest days of intolerance and restriction" in 2005, with a renewed rejection of any progress toward a brighter future. Aside from the denial of basic legal rights, the most "serious and dangerous" phenomenon was the renewed rejection of any progress, Payá said in his annual report on the island's political climate. Payá leads the Christian Liberation Movement, which has sought a national dialogue on Cuba's future. In the past, it has launched a door-to-door campaign to deliver documents on initiatives for political change, including the Varela Project, which petitioned for a referendum to relax some of the Communist island's stricter laws. (AFP, 3/1/06)

January 5: Sixty percent of primary care doctors in Cuba have been sent to Venezuela and other international missions, triggering a crisis across the public health programs of the island, said a high-ranking Cuban health care official who defected in Mexico. "The Cuban health care system has remained subordinated to the relation with Venezuela." According to Dr. Alcides Lorenzo Rodríguez, ex-chief of the national family medicine group of Cuba, out of 31,000 doctors working at offices of the so-called family doctor program in 2003, the majority have been enlisted as part of a 26,000-strong contingent of Cuban health care professionals currently deployed in Venezuela. (El Nuevo Herald, 6/1/06)

January 7: Children of imprisoned Cuban dissidents gathered for a holiday party to receive gifts paid for by a powerful exile group in Miami. But the wives of jailed activists who organized the party said it comes at a time when those opposing the Cuban government have little to celebrate on the island. "I'm feeling very hopeless," said Dolia Leal, whose activist husband Nestor Aguilar is serving a 13-year prison sentence. "Every day there is more repression, and I don't see any sign that the prisoners will be released." The wives of political prisoners organizing the party bought the children's gifts with money from the Miami-based Cuban American National Foundation, a lobbying group which opposes Castro's regime. More than a dozen Havana children received dolls, toy guns and cars in the living room of the party's hostess Laura Pollán, the wife of prisoner Hector Maseda. Pollan talked to those gathered about Jesus and the celebration of the January 6 "Three Kings Day." Pollan said gifts for a total of 77 sons and daughters of prisoners were distributed across the island for the holiday. (AP, 7/1/06)

January 8: Cuba celebrated the 47th anniversary of Fidel Castro's triumphant entry into this capital after toppling dictator Fulgencio Batista. The event was commemorated with a political and cultural ceremony attended by hundreds of children and students at the Ciudad Libertad school, which used to be the Columbia military barracks, the island's largest base prior to Castro's revolutionary triumph on January 1, 1959. The ceremony, which the now 79-year-old Castro did not attend, was presided over by Education Minister Luis Ignacio Gomez and Higher Education Minister Fernando Vecino Alegret, as well as by Communist Party Central Committee official Roberto Montesinos and Julio Martinez, the head of the Union of Communist Youth. (EFE, 8/1/06)

January 8: In recent weeks, the Cuban government has made a series of rare public comments urging Cubans to embrace the revolution -- or risk its future. ''This country can self-destruct,'' Castro warned during a five-hour speech on November 17. Castro's comments were followed by a December 23 speech at a National Assembly session by Pérez Roque, a former Castro aide who represents the younger generation of Cuban officials. ''The fact that we have resisted all these years as we have resisted and battled, doesn't in itself guarantee we will be victorious in the future,'' Pérez Roque said. "I think we should pay all our attention to the call made by Fidel”. “That phrase has never been said publicly in the history of the revolution: This revolution can be reversible, and not by our enemies who have tried everything possible, but by our own mistakes.'' Experts agree that Pérez Roque's comments are important. ''I am surprised this kind of stuff is spoken of this openly,'' said Mark Falcoff, author of “Cuba, The Day After”. "It suggests two things: Castro's health may be as bad as the CIA says it is, and the [communist] party leadership recognizes they are going to have a rough time when he's not there.'' Falcoff said the recent comments are particularly important because they contradict the standard rhetoric in Cuban government circles that the revolution has been ''institutionalized.'' The government, he said, is admitting it failed to capture its young. “Nothing that happens in Cuba is an accident, above all anything these people say and say publicly,'' said María Dolores Espino, an expert on Cuba at St. Thomas University. "They are positioning themselves for the aftermath. Castro wants the survival of the revolution to be his legacy, and they are preparing for that.'' [Intervención de Felipe Pérez Roque ante la Asamblea Nacional] (The Miami Herald, 8/1/06)

January 9: The Cuban government has closed down at least three Protestant churches following new "harsh legislation" on house churches, a religious rights group said. UK-based Christian Solidarity Worldwide (CSW) told the press it has learned that "two of the churches, in the western provinces of Guantánamo and Holguín, were forcibly closed." CSW said that "the first was confiscated by local authorities in August and the other threatened with demolition at the end of 2005." A third church, in a suburb of Havana, was demolished while church members looked on at the end of 2005, CSW added.  All were allegedly accused of being “illegal constructions” by the authorities to justify the closures. The new legislation, Directive 43 and Resolution 46, was reportedly announced in April following Pope John Paul II's funeral, and required all house churches to register with the authorities. Under other new measures, services that have not been "authorized" are reportedly banned, while only one house church of any denomination can exist within two kilometers (1.25 miles) of each other. Foreigners cannot attend house churches in mountainous areas and require permission to attend them elsewhere. Violations will lead to the closure of the church and fines of up to $1,000, said human rights group Forum 18 recently in an investigation. [CSW Press Release] ( BosNewsLife , 9/1/06)

January 11: The 3rd Biennial International Seminar Complexity 2006 continued sessions in Havana with workshops on philosophic, epistemological and methodological implications of complexity theory. The meeting is attended by the prestigious French professor Edgar Morin, from Paris University, and by some other 300 professionals from United States Spain, France, Venezuela, Israel, Chile, Mexico and Uruguay. (Prensa Latina, 11/1/06)

January 11: The number of Cubans jailed for political reasons increased to 333 last year and new repression is expected in 2006 as discontent with Cuba's Communist system grows, the island's main rights group said. The nongovernmental Cuban Commission for Human Rights and National Reconciliation said the number of political prisoners rose from 294 at the end of 2004, while 15 jailed dissidents were released on medical parole. The number of people in jail for their political views could be higher, but there was no way of knowing because Cuba does not allow the International Red Cross access to its "enormous" penal system of more than 200 prisons and internment camps, the group's annual report said. The commission accused Fidel Castro of encouraging "acts of repudiation" or hostile demonstrations outside the homes of dissidents to intimidate his critics. "We can expect a further worsening in the situation of civil, political and economic rights in Cuba this year, because popular discontent will continue to grow," said the head of the rights group, Elizardo Sanchez. [Continúa aumentando el número de presos politicos en Cuba] (Reuters, 11/1/06)

January 11: The highest-profile Cuban dissident on the Communist-ruled island said that the 47-year-old Castro regime became more repressive and "Stalinist" last year, partly due to support from oil-rich Venezuela. Oswaldo Paya, winner in 2002 of the European Parliament's Sakharov Award for Human Rights and promoter of the pro-democracy Varela Project, took part by telephone from Cuba in the Madrid presentation of three reports by dissidents on the island discussing the deterioration of basic liberties on the island. Also participating in the event, organized by the Spanish Association for Cuba in Transition and the Ibero-American Association for Freedom, were poet and former political prisoner Raul Rivero, who spoke about the Castro regime's growing maltreatment of political prisoners and their families. Paya and Rivero agreed that Havana has felt "much stronger" in recent months due to the energy supplies, mainly petroleum, which it has received from Venezuela. "There's a regressive environment, where the regime feels supported, with more petroleum, and closes the door to the future," said Paya, who added that dissidents and their families are suffering constant death threats from Cuban officials. He described "a regressive environment in the Stalinist style." (EFE, 11/1/06)

January 11: Two members of an opposition trade union party imprisoned during the repressive wave against political dissent in March, 2003, were transferred to prisons relatively nearer to their place of residence. Alfredo Felipe Fuentes, a delegate of the Unitary Council of Cuban Workers (CUTC) in the province of Havana, was moved from Guajamal prison, in the central region of the country, to a penitentiary facility in Agüica, Matanzas, a location somewhat closer to Artemisa, Pinar del Río, where he resides. Iván Hernández Carrillo, a member of the National Independent Workers’ Federation of Cuba (CONIC), who was serving a prison sentence in the provincial jail of Holguín, was transferred to a penitentiary facility known as “El Pre,” in Santa Clara. (InfoLux Press, 1/1/06)

January 14: A blind Christian human-rights activist in Cuba has suffered severe harassment for several days, Christian Solidarity Worldwide reported. Juan Carlos Gonzalez Leiva, who will complete a 4-year prison sentence on March 12, believes the harassment is a bid to make him leave the country after his release. Juan Carlos, who has spent the last two years of his sentence under house arrest, says the government stops him from going out and denies him basic necessities such as water and electricity. He also says that crowds gather round his house chanting pro-government slogans and playing loud music at all hours of the day. His wife Maritza has left Cuba to go into exile in the US because he feared for her emotional and physical welfare. Juan Carlos is determined to continue to campaign for human-rights improvements while remaining in Cuba, despite the threats. Juan Carlos was arrested in March 2002 after staging a protest in a hospital over the mistreatment of a journalist who had been beaten up by the Cuban police. Juan Carlos was badly beaten before he was arrested and needed four stitches for a blow on the head. He was imprisoned without trial for two years before being sentenced in April 2004 to four years of house arrest after a summary trial. He was convicted of "disrespect against the Head of State" along with other charges of "public disorder, disobedience, and resisting authority." (Encuentro en la Red, CWNews, 16,17/1/06).

January 16: The Episcopal consecration of the auxiliary bishop of Havana, Mons. Juan de Dios Hernández Ruiz, designated by the Pope Benedicto XVI, was held in the Cathedral of Havana. In a rarely seen move by the official media, the provincial newspaper “Tribuna de la Habana,” released a short biographical note outlining the highlights of the newly appointed bishop’s life. (Encuentro en la Red, 16/1/06)

January 18: The independent journalist Oscar Mario González was moved to a San Miguel del Padrón prison referred to only by the designation number 1580, said his wife Mirta Wong. Oscar Mario has been held without charges since July 22, 2005. (Cubanet, 20/1/06)

January 20: Marta Beatriz Roque Cabello, president of the illegal Assembly to Promote Civil Society (APSC), announced in Havana the date for the Congress of Independent Libraries. In the press release, Roque Cabello indicated that the appointed date will be October 10, 2006, and that all independent libraries under the APSC umbrella will participate. (Cubanet, 20/1/06)

January 22: A violent “act of repudiation” took place at the family home of the Sigler Amaya family in Matanzas. The home, located in Pedro Betancourt, Matanzas, serves as the national headquarters for the peaceful dissident group Movimiento Independiente Opción Alternativa. Confidential reports indicated that Communist Party officials and State Security agents had, for days, been organizing the event in order to prevent a dissident meeting. January 22nd marks the sixth anniversary of a violent attack on the family home as they and several supporters held a fast in support of political prisoners. (Netfor Cuba, 23/1/06)

January 26: Writers from Peru, Cuba, Brasil and Guyana received awards at a ceremony for the 2006 edition of the Casa de las Americas Literary Awards, in Havana. Cuban writer Ángel Santiesteban won in short story with his book, “Dichosos los que lloran”. (AFP, 26/1/06)

January 26: According to Fidel Castro supporters protesting outside the home of political dissident Marta Beatriz Roque, president of the Assembly to Promote Civil Society (APSC), a US diplomat was prevented from entering the residence. "A diplomat from the USIS (US Interest Section) came and we did not allow him to enter. We blocked his way (…) but he was neither insulted nor assaulted," said Marta Maria Sánchez, who lives next door to Roque in the Santos Suárez neightborhood. Approximately 25 local neighbors took position across from the building where Roque's apartment is located to prevent any dissidents' access to the place. Félix Bonne, a leader of the APSC, was not allowed to enter either. (AFP, 26/1/06)

January 26: Political prisoners Randy Cabrera Mayor, Luis Cabrera Ballester, Frank Pérez Carlitos, Julio Inza Góngora, Adolfo García García and Alfredo Domínguez Batista joined a hunger strike at Holguin’s provincial prison, in the northeastern part of the island. The hunger strike was initiated by political prisoner Nelson Vázquez Lima who has been claiming to be transferred to a prison closer to his home town in the central province of Villa Clara. Vázquez Lima’s mother, who is disabled, hasn’t been able to visit him since he was imprisoned due to the long distance between Villa Clara and Holguin and prevailing difficulties in transportation. (Cubanet, 30/1/06)