Chronicle on Cuba - January 2006

Foreign Affairs

January 1: The international relations secretary of the PSOE (Spanish Socialist Workers' Party), Trinidad Jiménez, admitted in an interview with the press that not much progress has been achieved with Cuba in the last two years under the government of José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero. Nevertheless, the socialist official asked herself: "Have we seen any progress in the last 25 years?" and replied "The same thing is happening now, there has not been much progress in the last two years either. It is not new or a surprise". "The Castro regime", she added, "has now lasted the years it has lasted and the democratization attempts which there have been have occurred over the years with minimal results. Therefore it is no surprise that we have not seen substantial changes now either." Jiménez recalled that initially the release of 13 of the 75 dissidents sentenced to prison in April 2003 was achieved, including "a person who had become a symbol" - the writer and journalist Raúl Rivero. The government is now waiting "for some other gestures to occur". Anyway, it is clear to the Spanish government that this will only be achieved "with smooth diplomatic relations and what it calls a critical dialogue". "We never thought that the fact that the Spanish government was maintaining a certain pressure in one direction or another could produce immediate effects, much less that it would make the regime change. Thinking that is simply naive", she said. (Europa Press, 2/1/06)

January 2: Mexican port authorities and a US boater rescued 18 Cubans from a rickety, homemade boat off Mexico's Caribbean coast. The boat, made of doors, planks and other materials, was first spotted by an American sailing off Isla Mujeres in a sailboat. He alerted Mexican officials on a radio frequency, and port personnel from Isla Mujeres were sent to take charge of the Cubans. "We were looking for three people who had been reported missing, when we got word of Cuban rafters who had been rescued by an American," said Jose Luis Ibarra, port captain of Isla Mujeres. (AP, 2/1/06)

January 2: In a meeting with the Cuban Ambassador to Tehran Fernando N. Garcia, Iran’s Expediency Council Chairman Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani said that people in Latin America are regaining their previous anti-imperialistic spirit, so Cuba is not alone any longer in the American continent. He described the recent wave of anti-US developments in Latin America as a sign of the revolutionary spirit of the region’s people challenging the global arrogance. Rafsanjani stated that Iran and Cuba pursue independent foreign policies, which has led to an expansion of ties, adding that cooperation between the two countries in international fora and organizations can act as a determining instrument in countering the unilateral stances adopted by major powers. The ambassador said the two countries enjoy ample potential for expanding ties, noting that pressure on Tehran and Havana by major powers, especially by the United States, would positively affect Iran-Cuba ties. (MNA, 2/1/06)

January 3: The Secretary General of the Association of Caribbean States (ACS), Rubén Silié Valdez, began an official visit to Cuba to foster regional projects with the island’s authorities. Silié was welcomed by Deputy Foreign Minister Rafael Daussá at the airport, where he said his visit aims at consolidating the Cuban governments support, solidarity and enthusiasm to boost common ACS programs. (Prensa Latina, 3/1/06)

January 3: Bolivian President-elect Evo Morales clearly set Washington's fiercest Latin American critics as his models, praising Castro and Chávez. "We are here to resolve social problems, economic problems," Morales said in Caracas. "This movement is not only in Bolivia; Fidel in Cuba and Hugo in Venezuela are logging triumphs in social movements and leftist policies." "We are going to change Bolivia, we are going to change Latin America," Morales said. Venezuelan president Hugo Chávez referred to the three leftist leaders as "an axis of good" -- a play on US President George W. Bush's reference to North Korea, Iran and prewar Iraq as an "axis of evil." (CNN, 3/1/06)

January 3: Reporters Without Borders condemned the use of threats by state security agents on 29 December against 21-year-old Liannis Meriño Aguilera, the editor of the independent Youth without Censorship news agency. “We again protest against the constant harassment of independent journalists by the Cuban authorities, which is often the prelude to arbitrary arrests and heavy prison sentences,” the press freedom organisation said. “We call on the authorities to let Meriño and her team of young journalists work freely.” Meriño was arrested at her home in Banes, in the eastern province of Holguín, by two state security agents, who took her to the local fire brigade centre and held her there for two hours. The agent in charge of combating the opposition in Holguín ordered her to stop working as an independent journalist. He also accused her of reporting false information, which is punishable by imprisonment. (RWB Press Release, 4/1/06)

January 4: Mexican Ambassador to Cuba Carlos Piña Rojas said he is confident that Cuba-Mexico relations will improve in 2006, the last year of President Vicente Fox’s term in office. The diplomat indicated that the government of Mexico is taking steps to ensure that the relation with the island "keeps on flowing and may improve." He also revealed that the Cuban government has not yet replied to a request for the videos of businessman Carlos Ahumada Kurtz’s declarations during his stay in the Caribbean country. (Notimex, 4/1/05)

January 4: Iranian President Mahmud Ahmadinezhad spoke on the phone with the leftist presidents of the Latin American countries of Cuba and Venezuela and the president-elect of Bolivia. In the conversation with his Cuban counterpart Fidel Castro, Ahmadinezhad stressed Iran's desire to cooperate with popular governments especially those of the South American region. Ahmadinezhad said that continued friendly relations between Iran and Cuba will be in the interest of both states and nations. Fidel Castro said that closer relations between Tehran and Havana has been benefiting the whole world especially the Latin American countries. Stressing Iran's right to nuclear energy for peaceful ends, Castro said, "Like any other country, Iran has right to produce atomic energy for peaceful purposes." (Mehr, 4/1/06)

January 4: Association of Caribbean States (ACS) Secretary General Ruben Silié Valdez, on an official visit to Cuba, held talks with Cuba’s Foreign Affairs Minister Felipe Pérez Roque. Silié Valdez also dialogued with Foreign Trade and Tourism ministers, Raúl de la Nuez and Manuel Marrero, respectively, as those industries along with transport and disasters are issues of interest for the ACS collaboration. (Prensa Latina, 4/1/06)

January 4: Cuban officials reaffirmed the island's commitment to the Association of Caribbean States (ACS) in its efforts toward regional integration and sustainable development. Upon welcoming the ACS General Secretary Ruben Silie Valdez, Cuban Vice President Carlos Lage reiterated Cuba's interest in the issue by asking Silie Valdes, "How can we help?" Silie said Cuba's support is crucial to achieving the integration goals of the Association of Caribbean States, made up of 25 member nations and which is now eying large-scale development projects. (AIN, 5/1/06)

January 4: According to a report issued by Reporters Without Borders, Cuba has become the ''world's second biggest prison for journalists'' with 24 in jail, the group wrote. Only China, with 115 times the population of Cuba, imprisons more, with 32. (AP, 4/1/06)

January 5: Fidel Castro appears on the guests’ list for the swearing-in of Honduran President-Elect Manuel Zelaya. Roberto Flores, general coordinator of the Presidential Handover Commission, said that the Honduran government has invited all the presidents of the countries with which Tegucigalpa maintains diplomatic relations. (ACAN-EFE, 5/1/06)

January 6: Bolivian president-elect Evo Morales said in Madrid that Fidel Castro is not a dictator. During a breakfast hosted by the Real Instituto Elcano, surrounded by researchers, representatives of the patrons of the institute and members of the administration, Morales said that it is not difficult for him “to say that I greatly admire Fidel Castro, who taught us to govern with dignity”. “Fidel is not a dictator because in Cuba one can only govern with 50 per cent plus one of the votes. And Fidel has them”, Morales said. (ABC, 6/1/06)

January 8: A family of thirteen Cubans, including three children, arrived in Honduras on their way to the United States. The islanders set out on December 24 from their birth town of Santa Cruz, south of the Camagüey province, and arrived at La Ceiba, 350 km north of Tegucigalpa, on the Honduran Atlantic coast. "They said that they were fleeing the repression of the Cuban government and that their destination was Miami,” said police spokesman Marcelino García. (AP, 9/1/06)

January 10: The mayors of Havana and Lima have signed a deal which will provide more than 66,000 Peruvians with the Cuban literacy program, Yo Si Puedo (Yes I Can), the director of Havana municipality's educational department said. Peru was particularly interested in the audio-visual teaching method used in the program, Isabel Maria Quintana said. The program consists of 65 classes of 30 minutes each, enabling the illiterate to read and write in only three months. Yo Si Puedo, created three years ago, was introduced first to Venezuela, where more than 1.5 million people received the training. It is also being used in Mexico, Paraguay, Haiti, Honduras, Brazil, Argentina and New Zealand. Lima officials were preparing the details to get the campaign under way, including training teachers, drawing up timetables and purchasing the necessary teaching equipment. (Xinhua, 10/1/06)

January 11: Cuban youth who are touring Mexico to honor Julio Antonio Mella, founder of the Cuban Federation of University Students (FEU), are slated to meet with students from Bauer College. On their third day in Mexico, where Mella was slain in 1929, the Cuban delegation, including members of the Young Communist League and the Federation of Junior High School Students, will hold talks with students and teachers at the National Autonomous University of Mexico. Members of the Cuban representation briefed Mexicans about the Operation Miracle, under which thousands of Latin American people with eye afflictions have been operated on, and the Bolivarian Alternative for the Americas, which is promoted by Cuba and Venezuela to help the region and contribute to its integration. (Prensa Latina, 11/1/06)

January 12: After a lengthy delay, the Venezuelan government put in effect legislation whereby it will be possible for Cuban citizens sentenced in this country to serve their prison terms in Cuba and vice versa. The law, published in the “Judicial Gazette” last December 27, expressly stipulates that the transfer can only take place with the inmate’s prior consent and only after final judgment has been passed in the country where the sentence was given. According to the law, convicts might avail themselves of amnesties and pardons in the country in which they serve the sentence, as well as of the local legislation in case the term to be served is shorter than what is provided by the laws of the country where the crime was committed. The law sanctions an agreement signed by Castro and Chávez in October, 2004. (El Nuevo Herald, 12/1/06)

January 12: The Chinese Parliamentary delegation which arrived January 9 in Havana to foster bilateral cooperation in the legislative and judicial fields, is winding up its visit to Cuba. The aim of the trip is to learn about the Cuban judicial system, as well as broaden collaboration in this and the legislative field. The Chinese lawmakers visited the Revolutionary Armed Forces Ministry, the General Attorney´s office, the People’s Supreme Court of Cuba and Havana University. (Prensa Latina, 12/1/06)

January 12: Congo’s Minister of Culture, Arts and Tourism Jean Claude Gakosso is kicking off a six-day visit to Cuba, to sign an exchange and cooperation agreement. Gakosso’s agenda also includes visiting sites of historic and cultural interest like the Castle of San Severino del Morro, the Museum of the Slave Routes, in western Matanzas province, the Jose Marti National Library and the Fine Arts Palace. (Prensa Latina, 12/1/06)

January 13: India will host an Asia-Pacific solidarity conference with Cuba in Chenai, capital of southern Tamil Nadu state, attended by 300 national delegates and 15 regional states, it was reported. A. Vijayaraghavan, coordinator of the Indian National Committee of Solidarity with Cuba, told the press in Havana that the aim of the meeting is to condemn imperialist aggressions against the Cuban people and foster solidarity movements in the region. (Prensa Latina, 13/1/06)

January 13: A third group of 120 Panamanians traveled to Cuba as part of the “Operation Miracle” eye-surgery program. The patients received a send off at Tocumen International Airport by First Lady Vivian Fernandez de Torrijos, who coordinates Panama’s participation in the program. In a press release of the Panamanian presidency, Fernandez de Torrijos highlighted the success of Operation Miracle and noted that Cuba has allotted Panama 12,000 operations per year. Under the project, the Panamanian government helps low income patients receive free medical care at the Ramon Pando Ferrer Ophthalmology Hospital in Havana. The wife of President Martin Torrijos encouraged underprivileged Panamanians on surgery waiting lists for cataracts, strabismus, sunken eyelids or other eye ailments to report to their nearest health center to sign up. The first two groups of Panamanian patients were treated in Cuba at the end of 2005. The new group is from San Miguelito and Panama Este and includes 11 children, 88 adults and 16 people accompanying them (EFE, Granma, 13/1/06)

January 14: Cuba is rarely thought of as a hotbed of crime, but the Department of Foreign Affairs is warning tourists that increasing numbers of Canadians have been victims of pickpocketing, theft and assault — especially in Havana's Old Havana, Centro Havana, the Malecon, and Vedado and on the beaches of Playas del Este and Varadero. Those who are mugged and stripped of identification and money should contact the Canadian embassy before the local cops may just toss them in jail until their identity is confirmed and their solvency restored. (The Globe & Mail, 14/1/05)

January 14: Lebanese Youth and Sport Minister Ahmed Fatfat is visiting Cuba to strengthen cooperation, especially in boxing and track and field. “I think my visit will be very fruitful in both, politics and sports," asserted Fatfat. The Lebanese minister is slated to sign a sport agreement with local officials on January 17, before leaving for his nation. (Prensa Latina, 14/1/06)

January 15: Ecuadorian President Alfredo Palacio highlighted Cuba´s support to his country in public health, saying that 474 people have undergone operations performed by Cuban surgeons in 2005 to cure them of eye afflictions. At a congressional presentation in Quito, Palacio said that about 5,000 people with ophthalmologic diseases have been treated through “Operation Miracle”, 474 of them operated free on the Caribbean island. The statesman praised a plan to build in Quito this year two specialized centers, donated by Cuba, where 150 people could be operated daily for free. Cuba and Ecuador signed an agreement last October, aimed at expanding Operation Miracle, which was initially conceived for Venezuela, but has included other Latin American nations. (Prensa Latina, 15/1/06)

January 15: Cuban physician and health official Alcides Lorenzo, who had been held in Mexico since December, was allowed by the Mexican government to travel to the United States, a relative told the press. The Mexican immigration service confirmed that its office in the state of Quintana Roo granted a travel permit to Lorenzo. The 43-year-old Lorenzo was the head of a national family health program in Cuba and the island's representative to the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO). The doctor had been held at an immigration processing center in Chetumal, in the southeastern Mexican state of Quintana Roo, since December 10. Lorenzo used a stopover in Cancun on a flight to Havana to defect and request political asylum. (EFE, 15/1/06)

January 16: In a letter remembering his struggle for the release of 75 dissidents incarcerated in Cuba in the spring of 2003, the Ladies in White sent their "warmest congratulations" to Chilean President Elect Michelle Bachelet. "Since March, 2003, we face the unjust imprisonment of 75 prisoners of conscience (…) They and our families are submitted to permanent repression and psychological torture. But, difficult as it may seem to attain a luminous future, we know that we women, with our perseverance and dignity, will be able to achieve it," they wrote. (CubaEncuentro, 16/1/06)

January 16: Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez has seen off a group of students leaving for the Republic of Cuba where they are to study Comprehensive Community Medicine. The ceremony was held in the Ayacucho Hall of Miraflores Palace, with the presence of 150 students representing the 3,479 who are leaving for Cuba. During President Chávez’s message to the students, a telephone call was received from Fidel Castro, who sent his greetings to the future doctors and was applauded by those present. Through the Venezuelan president, Castro expressed the emotion he feels about Cuba hosting these students, whom he called “a Battalion for Life”. He said that Cubans are ready to welcome them in the island’s best facilities, including the Salvador Allende School in Havana and the Latin American School of Medicine, prior to their being located in definitive medical school locations. (World Data Service, Granma International, 16/1/06)

January 16: Twelve exhausted Cubans drifting on a barely-afloat raft 90 miles north of the port of Río Lagartos were rescued by fishermen from the Yucatan community of Progreso, Mexico, after a fishing boat sighted the raft with nine males and three women onboard. The Cubans had fled the island in an attempt to reach the coast of Florida. (CubaEncuentro, 18/1/06)

January 18: The UN’s much derided Commission on Human Rights, slated to be replaced soon by a proposed new council, formally opened its 2006 session with Cuba, Saudi Arabia, Zimbabwe and several other accused rights abusers assuming their seats on the 53-nation body. According to a report released by UN Watch, a Geneva human rights monitoring organization, more than half of the incoming members of the 2006 Commission fail to meet accepted democratic standards, with 30% constituting regimes where basic political rights and civil liberties are systematically denied. “It’s scandalous,” said Hillel Neuer, executive director of UN Watch, after attending the meeting in Geneva’s Palais des Nations. Neuer objected to the latest UN draft’s proposal to allow members of the existing Commission to automatically become the first members of the new Human Rights Council. “Replacing the word ‘Commission’ with the word ‘Council’ does nothing for the dozens of journalists suffering in Fidel Castro’s prisons, or for the victims of mass rape in Sudan,” said Neuer. (EFE, UN Watch Press Release, 18/1/06)

January 18: Russia supports the Cuban population's call for a cessation to the unfriendly actions against their country and attempts to fuel anti-Cuban sentiment, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Alexander Grushko said. "Cuba remains one of Russia's priority partners in the Latin American region," Grushko said at a ceremony in Moscow marking the 47th anniversary of Fidel Castro's revolution. "Russia has always called for an end to the American embargo and to other sanctions against Cuba." “The two countries have managed to overcome a decline in their relations in the late 1990s”, he said. "The process of adapting Russian-Cuban relations to today's political and economic realities has been completed successfully," Grushko added. (Interfax, 18/1/06)

January 18: The Council of State of the Republic of Cuba has appointed Rodrigo Malmierca Díaz as Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary (Embajador Extraordinario y Plenipotenciario) and permanent Cuban representative to the United Nations, Gramna newspaper reported. Before his appointment, Malmierca was Cuban ambassador to Belgium. (Prensa Latina, 18/1/06)

January 18: Lawmakers from Cuba and Venezuela will take part in a parliamentary hearing in Havana to discuss the conceptual basis and development of the Bolivarian Alternative for the Americas (ALBA). Osvaldo Martinez, National Assembly chair of the Permanent Committee on Economic Issues, told journalists that legislators will discuss challenges to be faced by Latin America at a political moment marked by the Bolivarian Revolution and the triumph of Evo Morales in Bolivia. The Cuban congressman highlighted current reality with the emergence of anti-neoliberal governments in Latin America, and the need to back them by building an alternative to US plans. (Prensa Latina, 18/1/06)

January 18: Human Rights Watch said in its World Report 2006 that Communist-ruled Cuba "remains a Latin American anomaly: an undemocratic government that represses nearly all forms of political dissent." New York-based HRW said that Fidel Castro, after 47 years in power, "shows no willingness to consider even minor reforms. As a result, Cubans are being systematically denied their basic rights to freedom of expression, association, meeting with their fellows, privacy and freedom of movement, HRW said.
HRW devotes a chapter of its 2006 report to the Communist island in which it emphasizes that the country's legal and institutional structures are at the root of all the rights violations, adding that although Cuba's government framework is, in theory, one of separation of powers, "in practice the executive retains clear control over all levers of power." The report recalls that in early July 2005 the Cuban Commission on Human Rights and National Reconciliation - a prominent dissident group - released a list of 306 persons being held in prison for political reasons. HRW also mentioned the US embargo on Cuba, stating that the unilateral measure "continues to impose indiscriminate hardship on the Cuban people and to block travel to the island." [HRW’s World Report 2006: Cuba] (EFE, 18/1/06)

January 18: Cuban Foreign Minister Felipe Perez Roque received Uruguay´s Social Development Minister Marina Arismendi, who is visiting the island at the invitation of the government and the Cuban Communist Party. Arismendi, also general secretary of the Uruguayan Communist Party, said that Operation Miracle, by which Cuba provides medical attention to other countries of the world, is something of great interest for her country, as is trading medications and vaccines to Cuba in exchange for food from the South American nation. The Uruguayan minister also spoke of the future use of the Cuban literacy method in Uruguay. (Prensa Latina, 18/1/06)

January 18: The Central Committee of the Cuban Communist Party has called on politicians at the Political Committee of the Council of Europe Parliamentary Assembly to reject a proposal on the need for condemnation of former communist countries crimes. According to a statement, the document entitled the Need for International Condemnation for Communist Crimes is scheduled to be presented to the ongoing Parliamentary Assembly by the European Council. The communist party has condemned the document, which it says has been concocted in the European Council chambers. (Lusaka Post, 25/1/06)

January 19: The Ladies in White, wives and relatives of political prisoners in Cuba, sent a letter congratulating Ellen Johnson Sirleaf for her recent election as first woman president of Liberia. “We convey to you our warmest congratulations for your inauguration as President of Liberia, and first woman president in Africa”, the letter said. “You have brought great hope to the impoverished and long-suffering people of your country, who deserve a democratic environment enabling a sustained development for the well-being of all”, the letter added. The letter explains that The Ladies in White are the “wives, mothers, daughters, sisters, aunts” of political prisoners, “who have been seeking their immediate and unconditional release” since their imprisonment, thus they are facing “repression and harassment by the government”. “You are an example of the possibilities for us, women, when we are determined to strive for a just cause”. (AFP, 19/1/06)

January 20: Evo Morales, who became President of Bolivia, sent a special greeting in the name of his people and Bolivian popular and indigenous movements "to the Cuban people and their president, Commander in Chief Fidel Castro, who have taught all Latin Americans how to live and govern with dignity." The message was sent by the leader of the Movement to Socialism (MAS) during a conference with the Cuban press covering events related to Morales’ inauguration ceremony. "I want to thank the Cuban people for the strength of their example. Now —he said— we can take part in this anti-imperialist struggle, not just from our union leadership position but also from that of the presidency." The Cuban delegation, headed by Carlos Lage, vice president of the Council of State, was received among waving Cuban flags and solidarity banners expressing affection towards the Cuban people and Fidel Castro. Lage returned the warm welcoming by saying, "I bring you an embrace from Fidel and the Cuban people; to the Bolivian people our love. The Comandante has not been able to come due to work commitments. We have come to reconfirm our admiration for Evo; his triumph is a victory for all Latin Americans." (Granma, 22/1/06)

January 21: US diplomats arranged for Cuban dissidents to get a pep talk from former Polish President Lech Walesa in the latest chapter of Washington's long-running ideological battle against Fidel Castro's communist government. "The system will fall because nobody believes in communism," said Walesa, the founder of Poland's Solidarity movement which toppled Poland's communist government and led to the collapse of Soviet influence in Eastern Europe. "You are close to your goal," he said in Warsaw in a videoconference with dissidents gathered at the Havana home of the top US diplomat in Cuba, Michael Parmly. (Reuters, 22/1/06)

January 21: Fidel Castro expressed concern about the nuclear dispute between Iran and countries including the United States and France, urging all nations to refrain from using nuclear weapons. The Cuban leader chided France for recent comments by President Jacques Chirac that the European nation could respond with nuclear weapons against any state-sponsored terrorist attack. Castro also accused the United States of searching for an excuse to attack Iran. "It is very worrisome that this alliance of countries is proclaiming the right to use nuclear weapons against 'terrorist' states," Castro said in a live appearance on the daily Cuban TV public affairs program "Mesa Redonda," or "Round Table." “What's being spread is fear," he added. (AP, 21/1/06)

January 22: Bolivian president Evo Morales announced that he would bring in Cuban and Venezuelan intelligence teams to clear government offices of hidden microphones and guard against "imperialist intervention." “We would ask Cuba and Venezuela to assist us with our security”, Morales said in a public address to his supporters on his inauguration day as president of Bolivia. “How would we know if there are hidden microphones or cameras there [in the presidential office]?, Morales added. “They [Cuba and Venezuela] have a lot of experience concerning security issues”. According to a Bolivian security official who worked together with the Cubans, Cuban agents were allocated discreetly close to Morales during his inaugural day. Cuban advisers manage the personal security team around Morales, which is composed largely of members of the MAS (Movimiento Al Socialismo) "syndicate police," originally created to protect coca growing interests. An estimated 10,000 MAS militants are studying in Cuba on medical and other scholarships. A Bolivian intelligence officer, until recently assigned to the Joint Task Force, said many of the Bolivian students also are receiving military and security training to form a special militia or "parallel police" that the government is creating. (Grupo Reforma, The Washington Times, 24, 31/1/06)

January 23: Newly inaugurated Bolivian President Evo Morales began his historic, five-year term by meeting with leaders from Cuba and Venezuela. Morales woke before dawn, then sat down with Cuban Vice President Carlos Lage, who attended the president's inauguration. The men discussed how Cuba, which has exported thousands of teachers around the world, can help Morales' government fight illiteracy, which runs about 20 percent in the impoverished, Andean country. Morales didn't specify whether he reached any agreements with Lage. Lage, who heads the delegation that attended Morales´ swearing-in, is accompanied by Foreign Investment and Economic Collaboration Minister Martha Lomas, Foreign Vice Minister Rafael Daussa, Ambassador Luis Felipe Vazquez and Deputy Jorge Gonzalez. (The Miami Herald, Prensa Latina, 24/1/06)

January 24: Cuban Vice President Carlos Lage visited Santa Cruz de la Sierra’s Hospital for Children to officially donate medical equipment to its intensive care room. The Cuban vice president recalled the recent signing of bilateral agreements during Morales´ visit to Cuba in December. The agreements signed by Evo Morales and Fidel Castro include 5,000 free scholarships for Bolivian students to study medicine in Cuba. During his visit to Santa Cruz, Lage also met with 30 Cuban specialists and 25 Bolivian physicians recently graduated in Havana that work at the National Ophthalmology Institute, as part of “Operation Miracle” to restore vision to hundreds of thousands of Latin American and Caribbean people. (Prensa Latina, 24/1/06)

January 24: Iranian Parliament Speaker Gholam-Ali Haddad-Adel is to visit Cuba and Venezuela in mid-February. Haddad-Adel's visit to the two states are to take place at the invitation of his Cuban and Venezuelan counterparts. (Teheran Times, 24/1/06)

January 24: A Cuban identified as 34-year-old Lázaro Ulloa Borges, has been stranded for 11 days in a Costa Rican airport where he arrived on a fake travel visa and requested political asylum. An echo of the plot of the Tom Hanks vehicle "The Terminal," the foreigner has had no choice but to spend his nights in the waiting areas adjacent to the boarding gates at the Juan Santamaría international airport, 19 kilometers north of San Jose, while his request for asylum is processed. (EFE, 24/1/06)

January 24: An Ottawa-area man detained at a Cuban resort for breaking the ankle of his wife's masseur says he is hoping Canadian Embassy officials can help get him out. But the government can do little for Clyde Carriere besides ensure his rights are respected, a Foreign Affairs spokesman said. "We can't interfere with local justice,'' said Rejean Beaulieu. "There's not much we can do.'' Embassy officials can only "make sure his rights in this case are taken into account,'' he said. Cuban authorities will decide Carriere's fate, Beaulieu said. Carriere, who has consulted a Cuban lawyer, said he's been told he might face a fine and have to pay damages, but wouldn't likely have to go to jail. Carriere is being held at the all-inclusive Sol Club Cayo Coco following a scuffle with a man he hired to give his wife a massage. Carriere is paying a discounted rate of about $50 a day to stay at the hotel while police investigate. Lynne Carriere alleges the masseur touched his wife’s breast, kissed her and told her she was beautiful. (Canadian Press, 24/1/06)

January 25: Cuban Minister of Foreign Relations Felipe Perez Roque praised in Havana the trend of increasing bilateral ties with Iran in all fields, and called for further cooperation. At a meeting with Iranian Ambassador to Cuba Ahmad Edrissian, Perez Roque promised he would pay a visit to Iran in the near future. Perez Roque said that he would be bringing with him an invitation to his Iranian counterpart, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, from Fidel Castro, to attend the summit of the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) that is to be held in Havana in 2006 at a date still to be fixed. (IRNA, 26/1/06)

January 25: Activists at the World Social Forum held in Caracas called for decisive actions against poverty, an immediate end to the war in Iraq and a radical shift away from free trade. Those attending included more than 800 participants from Cuba, Venezuela President Hugo Chavez's close ally. Cuban Parliament Speaker Ricardo Alarcon called for a campaign across Latin America to rid the region of US troops, including from Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, and the US territory of Puerto Rico. He said young Americans "don't want to go to unjust wars," mentioning Vietnam and now Iraq. (CNN, 25/1/06)

January 25: Norway will resume dialogue with the Cuban authorities, frozen since 2003 when the Norwegian embassy in Havana invited representatives of the Cuban opposition to an event celebrating Norway’s national day. “The government will resume dialogue with the Cuban authorities. Norway supports a democratic development in Cuba,” said the Norwegian Secretary of State, Jonas Gahr Store. (EFE, 25/1/06)

January 25: Czech supermodel Helena Houdova took a break from the catwalk to visit communist Cuba and was arrested for taking photographs in a slum, she said. The former Miss Czech Republic 1999 runs a foundation in New York that supports disadvantaged children in nine countries, and she wanted to see what she could do to help in Cuba. But on January 23, Cuban security police detained Houdova and her travel companion, Czech psychologist Mariana Kroftova, while they were taking photographs in the poor Havana neighborhood of Arroyo Naranjo. The two women were held overnight in police custody and not allowed to call the Czech Embassy. They were released 11 hours later after signing a letter vowing not to engage in "counter-revolutionary" activities, the model said. (Reuters, 25/1/06)

January 26: The current, former and incoming heads of the Non-Aligned Movement began a two-day meeting in Hermanus, South Africa, to prepare for an upcoming summit. South African Foreign Affairs Minister Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma, the group's former chairperson, was hosting her counterparts from Malaysia, the current head, and Cuba, who will lead the movement next, after the next summit in September, in Cuba. The meeting of the so-called troika, chaired by Albar, comes ahead of a bilateral meeting between Dlamini-Zuma and Cuban Foreign Minister Felipe Perez Roque. A Foreign Ministry statement said the talks would include: economic and political ties, developments in the Middle East and Latin America, conflict resolution in Africa, disarmament, nonproliferation and arms control, including Iran's row with the International Atomic Energy Agency. The 114-member Non-Aligned Movement remains the largest political grouping of countries outside the United Nations. (Mail & Guardian Online, 26/1/06)

January 26: Ricardo Alarcon, president of the Cuban Parliament, called on the peoples of the world to support the Venezuelan and new Bolivian governments in statements made at the 6th World Social Forum (WSF) taking place in Caracas, Venezuela. Alarcon stressed that backing the processes underway in Latin America, headed by Hugo Chavez in Venezuela and by Evo Morales in Bolivia, is a way of helping to make a better world. (World Data Service, 26/1/06)

January 26: In a congratulatory message to Chilean President Elect Michelle Bachelet for his electoral victory of last January 15, the Cuban social-democratic opposition group Progressive Arch advocated a "broad-reaching exchange" with the head of state. "As part of the emergent civil society in Cuba, the Progressive Arch expresses to you our wish to establish in the near future a broad-reaching exchange on topics of mutual interest such as democracy, human rights, social justice and political ethics,” the text read. (AFP, 27/1/06)

January 26: Vice-President Abd-Rabuh Mansur received an invitation for president Ali Abdallah Salih to take part in the non-aligned movement conference which would be held in the Cuban capital, Havana, 15-16 September. The invitation was handed over by Cuban deputy foreign minister and presidential envoy Marcos Rodriguez during his meeting with the vice president. The Cuban official highlighted level of the bilateral relations between Yemen and Cuba calling for further cooperation in various fields, especially the medical and academic fields. (Saba, 26/1/06)

January 27: The Cuban Institute of Friendship with the Peoples opened a book of condolence for the death of Schafik Handal, leader of the Farabundo Marti Front for National Liberation (FMLN) in El Salvador. According to Granma website, Cuba remembers him with affection for tirelessly defending the island´s revolution. The renowned leftwing leader died on January 24, after suffering a heart failure at the Comalapa airport, returning to El Salvador, after attending Evo Morales’ inauguration in Bolivia. (Prensa Latina, 27/1/06)

January 27: Iran's Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki made a surprise visit to South Africa where he appeared to win the guarded support of this country, Cuba and Malaysia to oppose Western plans to refer Iran to the United Nations Security Council about its nuclear programme. European powers are planning to report Iran to the United Nations Security Council this week because they suspect it is preparing to build nuclear weapons.
Iran insists it only wants to develop nuclear energy for peaceful purposes as it is entitled to do under the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT). Mottaki went to Hermanus to lobby Foreign Minister Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma and her counterparts, Malaysia's Syed Hamid Albar, and Cuba's Felipe Perez Roque. They had just held a meeting of the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) troika to prepare for the September NAM summit in Cuba. Mottaki seemed to win partial support from the NAM troika, judging by a joint statement issued by the foreign ministers. It "urged all parties concerned to exhaust all efforts through dialogue and negotiations", and also insisted that the issue of Iran's nuclear programme "should be resolved within the framework of the (International Atomic Energy) Agency". This seemed to imply that the issue should not be taken up by the UN Security Council. The NAM troika statement also stressed "the basic and inalienable right of all states party to the NPT to develop nuclear technology for peaceful purposes". But the NAM ministers also pointedly reminded Mottaki of the "principled position of NAM concerning disarmament, non-proliferation of nuclear weapons and the peaceful uses of nuclear energy". (Cape Times, 30/1/06)

January 27: The legislature of the European Union will approve a resolution stating that the EU's policy of dialogue with Cuba has done nothing to increase freedom on the island, and asks member nations to "take action as a consequence." The resolution has been promoted in the European Parliament by the conservative European People's Party (EPP), but its content has already been agreed with socialist and liberal parties. The working document relates the European Parliament's disappointment that "Cuban authorities have not given any significant indications that they will respect fundamental liberties, and particularly for freedom of expression and political association, which the European Union has demanded." The resolution charges Cuba with "an intensification of repression," an increase in the number of political prisoners, and "forbidding" the Ladies in White - relatives of jailed dissidents - to travel to Strasbourg, France, in December to accept the Sakharov Prize from the EuroParliament”. "(Parliament) states that these facts betray the hope of improving relations between the EU and Cuba, the principal reason for the changes introduced by the Council in January of 2005 to its previous policy, and asks the Council that it take action as a consequence," says the text that will be voted on in a full session set for February 2. (EFE, 27/1/06)

January 27: Cuban charge d'affaires to the Czech Republic Aymee Hernandez will be explaining why Czech supermodel Helena Houdova and psychologist Mariana Kroftova were detained in Havana, Richard Krpac from the Foreign Ministry's press section told the press. "The Foreign Ministry has invited the Cuban charge d'affaires to explain the incident," said Krpac. He added that Czech diplomacy would primarily like to know why the women had been detained over taking pictures and why the Cuban authorities had not allowed them to contact the Czech embassy. Cuban police detained both Czech women when they were taking photographs of a slum in Havana. Houdova said that she had left for Cuba to find out how she could help children in this communist country. However, Houdova and Kroftova were detained by the Cuban secret police. Both Czech women spent 11 hours in police custody without being able to contact the Czech embassy. They were released after they pledged in writing that they would not join any "counter-revolutionary activities" in the country, Houdova said. (CTK, 27/1/06)

January 29: The World Social Forum (WSF) wrapped up in Venezuela after six days of debate on globalisation, poverty and war, and some concern over the dominant role played by Venezuela's leftist president and Cuban officials. There were some grumblings within the forum, where some participants complained over the dominant role played by Mr Chavez, and to a lesser degree by Cuba, which deployed an 800-strong state delegation to the non-governmental event. "It's a little invasive," said Olivier de Marcelus, 62 a civil servant and a delegate from a small Geneva-based anti-globalisation group. "We need to concentrate on finding other avenues than the form of socialism that has been tried in Eastern Europe and Cuba," he said. (ABC, 30/1/06)

January 29: High-level Cuban and South African officials discussed bilateral relations, the situation in Africa and other international issues, and called for increased cooperation at a meeting in the city of Hermanus, in the South African southwestern region. Cuban Foreign Minister Felipe Perez Roque and his South African counterpart, Nkosazana Dlamini Zuma, met for two days to discuss a wide range of issues and seek ways to bolster bilateral cooperation, the South African Foreign Ministry said in a communique. Iran's nuclear ambitions was one of the issues discussed at the fourth South Africa - Cuban Consultative Forum. The discussions were held after a two-day gathering among officials from Cuba, South Africa and Malaysia to prepare for the upcoming Non-Aligned Movement meeting. Cuba takes over chairmanship of the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) in September. (AFP, SABC News, 29/1/06)

January 29: Fidel Castro sent his condolences to the family of late revolutionary leader Schafik Handal and the leadership of the Farabundo Marti Front for National Liberation (FMLN) in El Salvador. “Schafik was a great captain for workers, a great revolutionary leader, an extraordinary human being,” highlights the letter read by Jaime Crombet, member of the Cuban Communist Party Central Committee, during Handal’s funeral rites. “The world is paying tribute to one who has always lived with dignity, faithful to his principles, without giving up his ideas,” says Fidel Castro’s message, that was read to a crowd of over 800 people gathered at El Salvador University’s Faculty of Law. (Prensa Latina, 29/1/06)

January 30: Five Cuban castaways found adrift 20 days after their raft sank were picked up by a Mexican fishing boat from the Yucatan peninsula, and handed over to the National Institute of Migration, where they requested political asylum. The raft-people left the island on January 7 aboard a home-made raft that sank some days later. They were suffering from dehydration when they were rescued. (El Universal, 30/1/06)

January 30: Hundreds of thousands of Cubans, particularly children and pregnant women, receive food under projects by the UN World Food Program, the agency's new representative to the island said. The program has invested some US$234 million (euro194 million) over four decades in the projects, which focus on food for vulnerable groups -- primarily in the island's eastern regions -- and emergency help after natural disasters like hurricanes and drought, said Myrta Kaulard. Cuba's main nutritional problem is a lack of vegetables in a diet too rich in grains and oils, Kaulard said. Frequent hurricanes and a hot, sometimes dry climate also challenge Cuba's ability to properly feed all people year-round. A program to fight anemia benefits some 600,000 Cubans in the island's east, at the cost of US$5 million (4.1 million euro) per year. An emergency project to feed Cubans affected by drought reached 773,000 children in 2005, according to agency figures. Despite Cuba's challenges, it has become a donor to the World Food Program in recent years, sending crackers to Haiti and sugar to countries including Jamaica, Honduras and North Korea, Kaulard said. (AP, 30/1/06)

January 30: Czech top model Helena Houdova, who was arrested in Cuba while taking photographs of Havana's slums, told journalist that she will display the pictures she took at an exhibition portraying the island not only as a tourist paradise but also as a land of political oppression. Houdova, Miss Czech Republic 1999, spoke to journalists after returning from Cuba. "The revolution's watchmen rose up because I was taking pictures of something they do not like," said the top model, referring to the fact that the Communist regime of Fidel Castro denies the existence of slums on the island. (CTK, 30/1/06)

January 30: Five Cuban castaways found adrift 20 days after their raft sank were picked up by a Mexican fishing boat from the Yucatan peninsula, and handed over to the National Institute of Migration, where they requested political asylum. The raft-people left the island on January 7 aboard a home-made raft that sank some days later. They were suffering from dehydration when they were rescued. (Notimex, 30/1/06)

January 31: Namibian President Hifikepunye Pohamba has assured the visiting Cuban foreign affairs minister, Felipe Perez Roque, a special envoy of Fidel Castro, that he will attend the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) summit scheduled for September in Havana. The head of state confirmed his attendance when the special envoy delivered the special invitation to him at State House in Mamibia’s capital. President Pohamba, who was flanked by the Foreign Affairs Minister Marco Hausiku, Finance Minister Saara Kuugongelwa-Amadhila, and the Namibian ambassador to Cuba, Grace Uushona, welcomed the special envoy, accompanied by the Cuban ambassador to Namibia, Cipriano Castro Saez. ( Namibian Broadcasting Corporation , 31/1/06)

January 31: Cuba’s Armed Forces Minister, Army General Raul Castro, congratulated Mexican Antonio Conde Pontones, known as “El Cuate”, for his decisive contribution to the Granma yacht expedition. The Cuban minister sent a congratulatory letter to Conde on his 80th birthday. El Cuate, who in the 1950´s helped organized the Granma expedition from Mexico to the island, was conferred the Order of Solidarity from the Council of State of the Republic of Cuba, an award signed by Fidel Castro. The decoration was presented by Cuban ambassador Jorge Bolaños at a ceremony at the island’s embassy in Mexico City. (Prensa Latina, 31/1/06)

January 31: The Czech nonprofit NGO People in Need was not granted UN Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) consultative status when the ECOSOC Committee on Non Government Organizations accepted Cuba's proposal to reject its application, Pravo wrote. The committee supported the Cuban proposal by nine votes against four with four abstentions, the daily wrote. Pravo said that the US delegation allegedly tried to postpone the debate on the Czech application by procedural objections before the decisive vote was taken. "It is an important victory for our people," Cuban Ambassador to the UN Rodrigo Malmierca commented on the Cuban proposal's approval, Pravo wrote. Malmierca connected People in Need, that he said is financed by the Untied States and whose supervisory board is headed by Czech Deputy Foreign Minister Tomas Pojar, to "subversive activities" in Cuba. "It has taken illegally to Cuba promotion material and money from the US State Department and from the USAID," Pravo quoted him as saying. According to its web site People in Need, founded in 1992, implements relief and development projects in crisis regions all over the world and supports human rights and democracy in countries with totalitarian regimes. (CTK, 31/1/06)

January 31: Venezuelan president Hugo Chavez announced that he will be traveling to Havana on February 2, the same day that a military parade commemorating his seven years in power is being held in Caracas. “If God allows me, day after tomorrow I will be in Havana”, Chavez said. On January 27 Chavez said that “in a few hours” he would be making a trip to Cuba to talk with Fidel Castro about “Latin American integration”. (EFE, 31/1/06)

January 31: A group of education experts from Cuba joined with Bolivian authorities to launch a massive bilingual literacy campaign, with which Socialist President Evo Morales seeks to eliminate illiteracy in the Andean nation. The arrival of 24 Cuban experts will begin the work of educational counseling and support promised by Cuban leader Fidel Castro in a meeting with the Bolivian head of state last December, Education Minister Felix Patzi told the press. "This is the start of a process that will last 30 months," the minister said. (EFE, 31/1/06)

January 31: A global press freedom advocacy group said it is "dismayed and outraged" by the Cuban government's "continuing harassment of independent journalists." In a letter to the European Union (EU), the Paris-based Reporters Without Borders said independent journalists in Cuba are unable to work freely or defend themselves against the Cuban government's "state repression." Reporters Without Borders said it wrote the letter as the EU prepared to debate the state of its relations with the regime of Cuban dictator Fidel Castro. In its letter, Reporters Without Borders calls on the Europeans to "seriously reconsider" their position on Cuba by resuming diplomatic initiatives aimed at supporting human rights and dissidents in that nation. (US Fed News, 31/1/06)