Chronicle on Cuba - February 2006

Domestic Affairs

February 1: A dissident journalist in Cuba began a hunger strike to protest his loss of Internet access, one day after The Miami Herald featured him in a story. The Miami Herald featured Guillermo Fariñas, 43, in a front-p`ge article January 22 about a wave of attacks against dissidents. On January 23, Fariñas said, all the e-mail addresses he regularly used at a cyber cafe were suddenly blocked. The addresses include those of several Miami exile organizations that disseminate his reports about Cuban government persecution. Fariñas, director of the independent Cubanacán Press news agency in the central province of Villa Clara, said he will not eat or drink until the restrictions are lifted. It's the former psychologist's 20th hunger strike in a decade, he said. The longest lasted 11 days. (AFP, Europa Press, 1/2/06)

February 3: Havana’s 15th International Book Fair kicked off at the Morro-Cabaña Complex, attended by 112 writers and 500 publishers from 30 countries. The Fair, this time dedicated to Venezuela as guest of honour, was inaugurated by Venezuela’s President Hugo Chavez and Fidel Castro. Thousands of bonks will be waiting for the public until February 12, when the fair will close with the launching of a volume of sonnets by Spanish singer songwriter Joaquin Sabina, who will be in Havana. The event, with another 18 venues in the capital, has an extensive program that includes roundtable talks, panels and conferences, meetings of academics, editors, translators, an artistic program for children and concerts. (Prensa Latina, 3/2/06)

February 5: Cuban writer and cultural promoter Graciela Pogolotti was awarded the National Prize of Literature 2005 at Havana’s 15th International Book Fair. The agenda of the International Book Fair also included such important presentations as "Atlanta", a book on the case of the five Cuban prisoners who remain in US jails. (Prensa Latina, 5/2/06)

February 7: The Assembly to Promote Civil Society has condemned incrdased harassment of dissidents on the island by Cuban authorities including “searches, seizures and illegal interrogations”. “The (Cuban) Government increases its illegal acts on a daily basis, for example, by entering peoples’ homes to interrogate them about where they have been, without any legal grounds”, said the organization in a press release. (Europa Press, 7/2/06)

February 7: The Ladies in White, a group of mothers, wives and relatives of Cuban dissidents in jail called for an “end to harassment, repression and insults” against them. In a communiqué, the movement condemned the “acts of repudiation” carried out against them since March 2005 in Havana and other cities. The group pointed out that some of these acts have turned into physical attacks against “peaceful women”, putting “our health and our lives as well as that of our children and other relatives” at risk. (Europa Press, 7/2/06)

February 7: Fidel Castro attended the seventh international gathering on development at which more than 1,000 economists and intellectuals are debating alternatives to globalization. The Cuban leader attended the speech given by former Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad, who arrived in Havana to participate in the conference. The discussions about integration and the challenges of growth within the framework of globalization occupy a large part of the meeting's posted agenda. Participants will also analyze a proposal defended by Venezuela and supported by Cuba as an alternative to the U.S.-sponsored initiative for the Free Trade Area of the Americas. (EFE, 7/2/06)

February 7: Physically deteriorated, independent journalist Guillermo Fariñas began his seventh day of a hunger strike. Fariñas inhtiated the hunger strike on January 31 in protest for the lack of free access to Internet in Cuba. Several international human rights groups and journalism advocacy groups have taken up Fariñas' cause in recent days. Many Cubans can get access to simple e-mail accounts through government workplaces, universities and schools -- even post offices. But most Cubans who have access to Web pages through their jobs or schools are limited to a government-run intranet that filters out pages considered counterrevolutionary. Private Internet accounts paid for in foreign currency and allowing unfettered access to the Wide World Web are restricted to foreigners and Cubans with special government permission. (Cubanet, AP, 7/2/06)

February 7: A prize-giving ceremony, and a tribute to Cuban National Poet Nicolas Guillen, with several meetings dedicated to his poetry, was the highlight of Havana’s 15th International Book Fair. Venezuela, the Fair’s guest of honor, had its day with the presentation of "Hugo Chavez y el Socialismo del Siglo XXI" (Hugo Chavez and the 21 st Century Socialism) and “Hugo Chavez: El destino superior de los pueblos latinoamericanos” (Hugo Chavez: A Higher Destiny for Latin American Peoples) by German writer Heinz Dieterich. (Prensa Latina, 7/2/06)

February 9: A Cuban dissident journalist has agreed to be fed intravenously after an eight-day hunger strike left him in critical condition, a family member told the press. Guillermo Fariñas, who heads the outlawed Cubanacan news agency, had called the hunger strike to protest the communist regime's censorship of the Internet. Fariñas initially "said that he didn't want any treatment and insisted on continuing his strike," said a relative, who asked not to be named. But after medical staff and relatives insisted, he consented to be put on an intr`venous drip, the relative said. His family did not support his hunger strike but respected the reasons for his protest, the source said. The journalist was in the intensive care ward of Arnaldo Milian hospital in central Cuba. His health remained in a "delicate" state after having arrived dehydrated and unconscious, the relative said. (AFP, 9/2/06)

February 9: The Alejo Carpentier Literary Award and the Nicolas Guillen Poetry Prize were presented during the International Book Fair in Havana. These awards are the most important literary distinctions in Cuba. Eminent journalist Marta Rojas received the Alejo Carpentier Literary Prize for 2006; it was presented by Abel Prieto, Cuba's Minister of Culture. The writer earned the distinction for her book "Inglesa por un año" (An Englishwoman for a year). The Nicolas Guillen Poetry Award went to Juana Garcia Abas for her book Circuloquio. Present at the ceremony wdre Iroel Sanchez, president of the Cuban Book Institute and various distinguished Cuban and foreign cultural figures. (AIN, 9/2/06)

February 9: The Cuban government is resorting more to mob action to stifle dissent and at levels of violence unseen for years, the Communist-run country's main human rights organization said. The illegal but tolerated Cuban Commission for Human Rights and National Reconciliation said that on 24 different occasions in January groups of government supporters harassed dissidents. Five were physically assaulted and five government opponents' homes were searched, the commission said. "The government has unleashed a major operation against its opponents," a report issued by the organization said, adding incidents had taken place in eight of 14 provinces. [Special Report] (Reuters, 9/2/06)

February 10: Fidel Castro attended Friday evening’s presentation of Argentine writer and Member of Parliament Miguel Bonasso’s novel “La Memoria en donde ardía” (The part of memory that burns). The event, part of the 15 th International Book Fair, was held at the Jose Marti Anti-Imperialist Plaza and featured the Argentinean band Juguete Rabioso, which includes Bonosso’s son, Federico, in an evening of literature and alternative rock. Cuban Minister of Culture Abel Prieto was also present during the event, as well as a large number of young Cuban rock music lovers, satisfying Miguel Bonasso’s expectations when he had said earlier, "I hope that many young people who love both literature and rock music will come." (Granma, 11/2/06)

February 12: The Havana portion of Cuba's annual International Book Fair came to a close on a cold, rainy and windy day that, nevertheless, didn't keep book lovers from turning out in droves. The closing day featured popular Spanish singer-songwriter Joaquin Sabina presenting his book of poems entitled "Ciento Volando de Catorce." Now the fair moves to the other Cuban provinces beginning with western Pinar del Rio. According to the organizers, some 300,000 copies of 200 titles will be available to Pinar readers. (AIN, 12/2/06)

February 12: Cuba chose Argentina as the guest of honour of next Havana’s International Book Fair 2007. Argentinean Vice Secretary of Culture, Pablo Wisznia, said in Havana that he was feeling “proud and grateful” for this invitation from the Cuban Book Institute and the Ministry of Culture. (EFE, 12/2/06)

February 12: For over two weeks, doctor Hilda Molina’s house, located in Plaza, City of Havana, has been besheged by mobs recruited by Cuban authorities, reported the illegal Assembly to Promote the Civil Society in Cuba (APSC). “They throw animal excrement in front of her door every day, and make a racket in front of her windows and throw objects at the door when Molina’s elderly mother rests”, added the APSC in a communiqué. Doctor Molina, a renowned Cuban specialist, who broke ranks with the regime more than a decade ago, has been held in Cuba by the government, which prevents her from travelling to Argentina to visit her son who resides there. [Comunicado de la APSC] (El Nuevo Herald, 15/2/06)

February 13: Fidel Castro presided at the inauguration of the Fifth International Conference on Higher Education: University 2006. The conference gathers more than 2,000 delegates from 80 countries, including 180 university directors from around the world to discuss challenges, strategies and the current problems related to university teaching. In a key note address at the opening, Fernando Vecino Alegret, Cuban minister of Higher Education, emphasized that universities can not be removed from the profound changes that the world needs to undergo and must champion these transformations, starting with the elimination of inequity in the field of education. The minister said the principle that higher education is a public right must prevail and the idea that the State can not afford to finance quality public higher education must be debunked. (Granma, 13/2/06)

February 13: Cuban dissident Omar Martinez Cardoso was victim of threats and examination by agents of the Technical Department of Investigation (DTI) of the Cuban Ministry of Interior. Martinez Cardoso, 29, was officially cited to a police station in Centro Havana where he was submitted to an examination bx DTI agents Marco and Nemesio. “They threatened me”. “They told me to cooperate with them or I would be sanctioned”. The DTI agents gave Martínez Cardoso a telephone number in Havana in case he wanted to cooperate. "The agents also questioned me about a cellular telephone that I have and about my relations with counterrevolutionary elements in the Bahamas”, Martinez Cardoso said. (NetforCuba, 14/2/06)

February 13: Acting personally, a group of 135 Cubans embarked on an “urgent action against violence” in their country, and called on the rest of their compatriots to sign on to the project, according to a note sent to the media. “Many Cuban citizens are worried that—in a country where there’s no public debate on the topic—threats, rudeness and insults have come to replace communication between fellow citizens and call for respect in our relations”, adds the communiqué signed by 135 individuals. An attached note signed by moderate dissident Manuel Cuesta Morúa explains that “this is a strictly civic initiative calling on the decency of all Cubans, and does not respond to the interests of any particular civil, political or human rights organization in Cuba”. (AFP, 14/2/06)

February 14: Excitement is growing among Seventh-day Adventists in Pilon, Granma province, Cuba, as their new house of worship is nearing completion for a March 25 dedication. Adventist pastor Israel Leito, president of the church's Inter-America region, is expected to preside at the ceremony. According to church sources in Havana, in addition to the dedication celebration, the weekend will also include a special event on March 24 at La Vibora Church in Havana, on the opposite side of the island from Pilon. Along with these events, thousands of copies of the Desire of Ages, a book on the lhfe of Christ, are currently being shipped to Cuba and, for the first time, will be made available to church members there. (Adventists News Network, 14/2/06)

February 14: The changes being held in the Cuban education sector allow each citizen to have the same possibilities and access to knowledge, Cuban Education Minister Luis Gomez affirmed. The official opened the 2006 University Forum sessions with a lecture dedicated to Universalisation in Higher Education, also expounding on the main changes in the Cuban field, with innovations in all teaching levels. The minister indicated that the last few years have witnessed plans aimed at providing all citizens with an integral culture, based on necessary transformations in the sector. (Prensa Latina, 14/2/06)

February 1 5 : The 5th International Meeting on Higher Education, Universidad 2006, continued its working session with the analysis of challenges and perspectives of this sector in the world. The agenda includes the internationalization of Higher Education, especially in Latin America. With the motto "Universalization of Higher Education for a Better World," nearly 4,000 delegates aim to solve problems of education for everyone, to examine jointly this sector’s transformations and to analyze its sustainability in the world. The five-day forum will also be used to exchange experiences and results of studies linked to the improvement of teacher training and foster cooperation among institutions and universities worldwide. (Prensa Latina, 15/2/06)

February 15: A popular variety show on Cuba's state-run television was taken off the air following a broadcast devoted to the wedding of the program's host in a Havana hotel. The Cuban Institute of Radio and Television (ICRT) announced the temporary suspension of &qtot;El Expreso," saying that the February 12 broadcast "is not in keeping with the programming guidelines established" by the government agency. On February 12, the entire program was dedicated to the wedding of actor Jorge Martinez, the show's host and a well-known soap opera star. "Since we first learned of the program's content, we analyzed the causes of this serious violation so as to take appropriate action against every one responsible," the ICRT said. "Until a full evaluation of what happened is carried out and this music program complies with all the established requirements, free of all the banality and frivolousness that so annoy viewers, the show will remain off the air," the agency said. The TV show, which offers a combination of music and comedy, had occupied the prime-time slot in Cubavision's Sunday lineup for more than a year. (World Data Service, EFE, 15/2/06)

February 15: Fidel Castro attended the presentation of the book Operación Cóndor, Pacto criminal (Operation Condor: Criminal Pact) by Argentine journalist and author Stella Calloni. At the Jose Marti Anti-Imperialist Tribune, in front of the US Interests Section in Havana (USINT), a gathering of students, literature lovers, political leaders and guests listened to Ms. Calloni. The journalist described the Operation, listing its victims like Chilean General Carlos Prats and his wife, Senator Bernardo Leighton, Uruguayan legislators Zelmar Michelini and Héctor Rodríguez Ruiz, former Chilean foreign minister Orlando Letelier and his secretary, US Ronnie Moffit, President of Panama Omar Torrijos and Ecuador Jaime Roldós Aguiler, Bolivian General Juan José Torres and the Swedish Prime Minister Olof Palme. (Prensa Latina, 16/2/06)

February 15: Because all the necessary conditions for full development of the human being h`ve been created, knowledge in Cuba knows no limits, Cuban Public Health Minister Jose Ramon Balaguer said. In his discussion at the second session of Universidad 2006, the 5th International Meeting on Higher Education, the minister used the example of medical sciences to expound on the process of Cuban universalization. Addressing delegates and guests from over 70 countries, Balaguer referred to the repercussion and strategic scope of this project in the Cuban health system. (Prensa Latina, 16/2/06)

February 16: Independent journalist Guillermo Fariñas Hernández is determined to restart his hunger strike to press his demand to the Cuban authorities for Internet access that he began on 31 January 2006, friends said. Friend and colleague Manuel Vázquez Portal, founder of the Grupo de Trabajo Decoro news agency, now living in exile in Miami, confirmed it. “I phoned him at the hospital on 14 February and he told me that he would resume his hunger strike as soon as he was discharged,” he said. He was admitted to the Arnaldo Milián Castro provincial hospital in Villa Clara, central Cuba on 8 February and is still on a drip. However his state of health has continued to progressively deteriorate despite the artificial feeding. (RWB Press Release, 16/2/06)

February 16: Cuba’s 15th International Book Fair has been extended to the central cities of Sancti Spiritus and Trinidad, Hilda Montero, from the Provincial Book and Literature Center, informed. This year’s edition, with Venezuela as guest of honor, will offer about 250 new titles in these venues, with 70 of them dedicated to children. Colloquiums and roundtable talks will be also among the main attractions. The book festival, as it is commonly known, is also dedicated to Cuban poets and essayists Nancy Morejon and Angel Augier. (Prensa Latina, 16/2/06)

February 17: The Cuban Commission of Human Rights and National Reconciliation (CCDHRN) called a “man hunt” an act of repudiation against opponents in the city of Moa, Holguín, where three dissidents were beaten on the streets.” Government officials, members of the Communist Party and supporters organized by the political police, set out on a hunt after Omar Pérez Torres, José Manuel de la Rosa Pérez and Alejandro Aranda Martínez”, reported Elizardo Sánchez Santacruz, president of the CCDHRN. “Without any warning, they started beating them. Omar Pérez was knocked unconscious by the blows, and they continued kicking him on the ground, (...) he was hospitalized “for broken ribs and lacerations to the face”, which might cause the “loss of vision in one of his eyes ”. (EER, 23/2/06)

February 18: Cuba´s Public Health Ministry announced that a new anti-poliomyelitis vaccination campaign will start on February 24 to immunize more than half a million children. Nearly 400,000 under three-year-old toddlers will receive the oral dose in the first stage and a second portion from April 3-13 while the vaccine will be reactivated for over 140,000 nine-year-old children. Miguel Galindo, chief of the National Vaccine Program, explained the antigen has been administrated to more than eight million Cubans in these decades. (Prensa Latina, 18/2/06)

February 21: Juan Carlos González Leiva, a blind Cuban lawyer and civic activist, president of the Cuban Foundation for Human Rights (CFHR), denounced that almost every day the Cuban State Security is sending him "messages" with strangers who request membership in the CFHR, that he will soon suffer another violent “act of repudiation”. Rubber tubes and cables were given to Gonzalez Leiva by these strangers, as proof of the knowledge they have that he will soon be violently attacked in another act of repudiation being prepared against him. In mid January, Gonzalez Leiva's house was under military seige for several days, where he remained confined without any water, electricity or telephone service. Mobs of up to 400 people brought by State Security surrounded his home, screaming governmental slogans, committing acts of vandalism, and beating activists. (Netfor Cuba, 21/2/06)

February 22: Cuban independent journalist Guillermo Fariñas, on a hunger strike, was again taken to the intensive care unit at the Santa Clara Provincial Hospital—where he’s been since February 10. Fariñas began a hunger strike on January 31 in demand of unrestricted access to the Internet. (EER, 22/2/06)

February 22: Reverend Ofelia Ortega is the first Cuban and the first woman ever to be elected president of the World Council of Churches (WCC) for Latin America and the Caribbean, at the 9th Assembly of that organization underway in Porto Alegre, Brazil. The pastor of the Presbyterian-Reformed Church of Cuba was elected along with seven representatives from other regions of the world, to head the major ecumenical organization, which groups 348 churches of several denominations, including evangelic, protestant and orthodox. (Prensa Latina, 23/2/06)

February 23: The Cuban Council of State has appointed Marino Murillo Jorge as Minister of Domestic Trade. Murillo Jorge, formerly first vice-minister of that ministry, replaces Bárbara Castillo Cuesta, who held that position since January 24, 1995. “(She) is now fulfilling an important international mission assigned by the Council of State”, according to a note published in Granma. (EER, 23/2/06)

February 23: The Conference of Cuban Bishops reorganized its structure to lead the church as it seeks "greater space" to carry out what it sees as its mission on the island. The shuffle, described in a communique issued by the prelates as "a renewed stage," came on the heels of the visit to the island this month of Cardinal Renato Martino, head of the Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace. Following the restructuring, which was approved at a February 19-22 gathering, Cardinal Jaime Ortega, the archbishop of Havana, is being replaced as president of the conference by Camaguey Archbishop Juan Garcia Rodriguez. "We're conscious of the fact that we are starting a renewed stage for the Church that lives in Cuba," the conference said. The gathering started right after the February 16-18 visit to Cuba by Cardinal Martino, who met with Fidel Castro, the atheist leader of the Communist-ruled island. (EFE, 23/2/06)

February 23: The independent journalist Jorge Olivera Castillo declared that a judge in Havana that goes by the name of Vicente, threatened to send him back to prison if Olivera Castillo does not comply with the stipulations that the Court said were placed on his conditional release. “I am forced to work for a centre predetermined by the court where I will be watched by members of the Cuban Communist Party, the official labour union and employees from the court”. “I can no longer travel outside the limits of the city of Havana without authorization from that court and I cannot assist in any public event or in any public festivity”, declared Olivera Castillo. The independent journalist who continues writing articles on the Cuban reality pointed out that his writings “do not constitute a crime”. “I onlx write the truth that the official press refuses to publish. It was the reason I was sentenced to 18 years in jail”. At the time of his arrest in March of 2003, Olivera was the Director of the Independent Press Agency. He was released in 2004 due to poor health condition. Since February of 2005, Jorge Olivera Castillo awaits for a permit from the Cuban Immigration Department to be able to leave the island with his family. (Puente Informativo, 23/2/06)

February 24: For the 45th consecutive year, more than half a million Cuban children are expected to be immunized against polio (poliomyelitis) during a vaccination campaign in the island. Dr. Miguel Angel Galindo, an official in the Cuban Health Ministry, explained that the first stage of the campaign includes 384,126 children between the ages of one month and 3 years. This phase is scheduled to extend from February 24 to March 2. During the second stage, spanning from April 7-13, booster shots will be administered to three-year-olds who previously received the vaccination and to 140,354 nine-year-olds, added Galindo. The dosages -dispensed as two droplets orally- will be given at family doctor clinics, while community health workers will be in charge of promoting and organizing the campaign. Each family doctor assists some 120 households. In 1962 the island became the first Latin American country to eradicate the disease. (AIN, 24/2/06)

February 24: Cuban government authorities organized and directed a violent act of repudiation against human rights defenders to prevent them from holding a meeting in the house of dissident Guido Sigler Amaya, in Pedro Betancourt, province of Matanzas. The demonstrators forced open a door and entered the house. They savagely beat up all inside, including several women with children, one of whom had just recently given birth. With a wound to the head, Antonio Perez Morell, was handcuffed and beaten again inside the police car that took him to the police station, accused of “public disorder”. (Payo Libre, 24/2/06)

February 27: A group of "the Ladies in White", mothers, wives and other relatives of the 75 Cuban political prisoners, sentenced to long prison terms by the Cuban government back in the Cuban Spring of 2003, paid a visit to the Shrine of Our Lady of Charity, in Santiago de Cuba province. Miriam Leyva, wife of the economist and independent journalist Oscar Espinosa Chepe, sentenced to 20 years prison, now in parole due to health condition, declared to the press that, they “also prayed and implored for the cease and desist of the “actos de repudio” (acts of repudiation) and repression against the dissidents”. Also visiting the Shrine with Mrs. Leyva were Laura Pollán Toledo, Berta Soler Fernández, Julia Núñez Pacheco, Alejandrina García de la Riva and Yailín Fernández. (Puente Informativo, 27/2/06)

February 28: With its opening in five Cuban eastern provinces, the 15th International Book Fair: Cuba 2006, enters its final stage. In Santiago de Cuba, headquarters of the closing ceremony, the audience will enjoy book presentations, symposiums, musical and dramatic performances, and fine arts exhibitions in the organizers' attempt to bring arts and culture within everyone's reach. Theoretical work sessions of the book fair in Cuba’s east will focus on present and future projection of digital publications, literature's impact on children and young people, paths of Cuban lyrics, editors' work, writers' responsibility and the narrative speech of rap. (Prensa Latina, 28/2/06)