Chronicle on Cuba - March 2006

Foreign Affairs

March 1: A group of twelve Cuban immigrants arrived in Guatemala claiming political refuge. The group was intercepted by Guatemalan authorities while crossing a path close to the Aguascalientes border, between Guatemala and Honduras. In 2005, Guatemala granted refuge status to 17 Cubans. (AP, 1/3/06)

March 1: The Mexican government expressed its "concern" over capital municipal authorities' closure of a US-owned hotel after the inn was involved last month in an incident that became a three-nation diplomatic flap. The Maria Isabel Sheraton was ordered closed over alleged irregularities surrounding its business licensing. The spokesman for Mexican President Vicente Fox, Ruben Aguilar, expressed the "concern over the repercussions for Mexico City, the country in general and, particularly, for the workers of the delegational authorities' decision to close this company." Aguilar said at a press conference that the measure "not only puts at risk the source of the jobs for the people that work there, but also affects the image of the Mexican tourist sector and, probably, could discourage investment." The hotel, upon orders from Washington, expelled the members of an official Cuban economic delegation who were participating in a meeting with US businessmen to analyze business opportunities in the Communist island's energy sector. (EFE, 1/3/06)

March 2: Bolivia has launched a pilot literacy program in eight provinces of the country with Cuban assistance. The first stage of the campaign was symbolically launched by Bolivian Deputy Education and Literacy Minister Benito Ayma at the Laja locality, 35 kilometers west of the capital La Paz. Teachers will travel to remote Bolivian regions to undertake their mission and they will also teach the physically impaired how to read and write, Ayma said. Cuba’s ambassador to Bolivia Luis Felipe Vázquez stressed the experience attained by Cuban experts, who also participated in the literacy campaign undertaken in Venezuela, a country declared free of illiteracy in 2005. (AIN, 2/3/06)

March 5: Cuba reiterated "its firm and unchanging position of supporting the existence of only one China, with Taiwan as an inalienable part of it." The Cuban government released a statement on its position toward the question of Taiwan's status in response to the move by "the head of the Taiwanese authorities, Chen Shui-bian," who ordered the abolition of an organization created to work toward reunification with China. Chen, who is the president of Taiwan, has urged the country's allies in Latin America in the past year to support the island's efforts to be recognized as a sovereign state by the United Nations. [Declaración del gobierno revolucionario] (EFE, 5/3/06)

March 5: A 71-year-old Cuban national regarded as one of the best cigar rollers in Russia died after being beaten late at night in central Moscow. Luis Cardenas Miranda, 71, was attacked by two teenagers, said Sergei Marchenko, a spokesman for the City Prosecutor's Office. Cardenas had just left Staraya Gavana, the Cuban restaurant where he worked, when the two teens knocked him off his feet and started pummeling his head and body. Natalya Ishchuk, a spokeswoman for Staraya Gavana, downplayed the possibility that the attack might have been racially motivated. "I don't think there was a racial motive in Luis' killing," she said. "What happened to him could as well have happened to anyone who goes out on the street late at night." Dozens of dark-skinned foreigners have been beaten in Moscow, St. Petersburg and other cities in recent months. Several have died. (Moscow Times, 6/3/06)

March 5: The Organization of Solidarity with the People of Africa, Asia and Latin America (OSPAAAL) held a solidarity conference with Syria at the Arab club headquarters in Havana. The conference stressed the necessity of unifying efforts to defend the peoples struggling against imperialism. The Secretary General of the OSPAAAL, Alfred Lion, denounced the campaigns of pressure against Syria, highlighting the relations between Syria and Cuba. The OSPAAAL was founded in Havana in January 1966. (SANA, 6/3/06)

March 5: A Canadian tourist, who witnesses said is from Ottawa, drowned during a catamaran tour in Varadero, Cuba. Foreign Affairs would only confirm the woman's family had contacted the Canadian consulate in Cuba for assistance and that her identity was not being released. "We are aware of the case and we are talking to relatives of the person," said spokesman Rejean Beaulieu. Cuban authorities are investigating the incident, which appears to be an accidental drowning. Ottawa resident Stephen MacDonald was staying at the Tryp Peninsula Hotel in Varadero. He said that he and his wife had taken the same catamaran tour the day before the drowning. The couple were concerned for their own safety after noticing a lack of life preservers, life jackets and a steady flow of alcohol. (Ottawa Sun, 8/3/06)

March 6: Local authorities in Mexico City have fined a US-owned hotel, at the centre of a diplomatic row, $15,000 (£8,500). They said the branch of the Sheraton chain had discriminated against 16 Cuban officials by expelling them from its premises last month.
The delegation was ordered to comply with a US embargo against Cuba. A US law bans American companies from doing business with the island. The hotel denied discrimination and said it would appeal the decision. (BBC, 6/3/06)

March 6: Mongolian Vice Minister of Foreign Affairs Ts.Tsolmon paid a working visit to Cuba. The Vice Minister held official negotiations with his Cuban counterpart, Vice Minister of Foreign Affairs Marcos Rodriguez, and met with the Cuban Chairperson of the Mongolia-Cuba Intergovernmental Commission, Ramon Ripoll Diaz. During the visit, a cooperation plan between the Mongolian and Cuban ministries of Foreign Affairs was signed. (Mongolia Web, 6/3/06)

March 6: Health officials in St Lucia have confirmed that an 82-year-old woman has become the second person from that country to die in Cuba while seeking medical treatment under an eye care project. Eunice George died on March 5, one week after arriving in Cuba for surgery. She is the second to have died from the recent group of St. Lucians sent to Havana for medical attention under the Cuban government programme which began in August 2005. According to family members Mrs. George, who had no known medical complication when she left for Cuba, was due to have surgery to her eyes on March 17 and had been receiving medication ahead of the operation. However she collapsed suddenly and was diagnosed as having died from heart failure. Late last month, 62-year-old Henrietta James of Vieux Fort died in Havana prior to receiving surgery. (Radio Jamaica.Com, 6/3/06)

March 7: Spain's conservative opposition introduced a measure in Parliament calling on the Socialist government to condemn the upsurge in repression in Cuba. The "proposition," which is not draft legislation, urges Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero's government to demand that Cuban authorities release political prisoners and stop harassing the opposition. The center-right Popular Party, or PP, said Cuba's Communist dictatorship violated human rights, "including civil, political, economic, social and cultural rights." The PP said the island imprisoned, in conditions that were "subhuman, dozens of independent journalists, peaceful dissidents, human rights activists" and members of the democratic opposition. Cuban authorities also prevent citizens from leaving the country, as was the case with the Women in White - relatives of jailed dissidents - who were prevented from traveling to Strasbourg, France, in December to accept the Sakharov Prize from the European Parliament, the PP said. The PP noted that Zapatero's government changed policy toward Cuba, "both in Spain and in the EU Council," and "the change has not produced any results." (EFE, 7/3/06)

March 7: The Mexican government said it was stepping up security at detention centers for illegal Cuban migrants after a group of detainees fought police officers and held a guard against his will -- the seventh uprising or mass escape by Cubans in a year. Officials also will deny political asylum to those involved in the latest conflict. "After these acts, changes will certainly have to be reviewed to increase the level of security" at immigration holding centers like the one in Mexico City where a dozen Cubans rioted and briefly took over the facilities, presidential spokesman Ruben Aguilar said. The riots are fueled in part by the fact that most Cubans are forced to wait for months inside decrepit Mexican detention centers. The Cuban government often delays recognizing them as a means of punishment for their attempt to leave the island, Mexican officials say. The Cubans involved in the uprising were demanding not be returned to the island, saying they feared reprisals there. Eight Cubans were injured in the scuffle, though their injuries were not life-threatening, the government said in a news release. (AP, 7/3/06)

March 7: President Tran Duc Luong affirmed Vietnam’s collaboration with Cuba in preparing for the 14 th Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) Summit in Havana in September. At the reception for Ricardo Cabrisas, special envoy of Fidel Castro, in Hanoi, the Vietnamese state leader reiterated, “Vietnam always attaches importance to participating in the Non-Aligned Movement”. Talking with the special envoy, who conveyed Castro’s invitation to attend the 14th NAM conference to President Luong, the Vietnamese leader said he was pleased to see that Cuba, under the leadership of Fidel Castro, obtained great achievements in socio-economic development and external relations in spite of difficulties caused by hostile foreign forces. (Nhan Dan, 9/3/06)

March 7: Presiding Episcopal Bishop Frank Griswold blamed Cuba’s misery on US foreign policy from the pulpit of Havana’s Holy Trinity Cathedral. The Ash Wednesday homily concluded a six-day pastoral visit to the Anglican Church in Cuba. Bishop Griswold issued no public comments on the persecution of Cuban Christians during his Havana visit. In September the Cuban government passed new laws cracking down on evangelical and Pentecostal Christians, beginning a new round of jailing of church leaders and banning unsupervised home churches. Founded by missionaries from the Episcopal Church, the Anglican Church in Cuba became an independent diocese in 1967 amid worsening political tensions between the two countries. It is now governed by a Metropolitan Council whose members include the primates of the Church of Canada, the United States, and the West Indies. (Living Church Magazine, 7/3/06)

March 7: A special UN rights envoy expressed alarm at allegations of ill treatment in Cuban jails, but said that a US economic embargo was hampering attempts to improve Cuba's respect for political rights. "The extreme tension between Cuba and the United States has created a climate which is far from conducive to the development of freedom of expression and freedom of assembly," French magistrate Christine Chanet said. In a new report to the United Nations Commission on Human Rights, Chanet said her main concern was still the detention of dozens of dissidents whose arrest while working as journalists, writers and members of associations in March and April 2003 caused an international uproar. She said she was "alarmed at the allegations of ill-treatment in detention" submitted by prisoners' families. "Food and hygiene are substandard and medical care either unavailable or inappropriate," said Chanet, whose post was created in 2002. Furthermore, more people had been arrested over the past year for expressing opinions, added the magistrate, who has yet to be allowed to visit the Caribbean communist state. But Chanet, whose report was posted on the Commission's Web site, pointed to a number of "positive" developments in the areas of economic, social and cultural rights, especially in education and health. [Situation of Human Rights in Cuba] ( AFP, Reuters , 6/3/06)

March 7: Switzerland and Cuba have very good diplomatic relations marked by mutual respect and friendship, stated Swiss ambassador to the island Bertrand Louis. Switzerland established its first diplomatic mission in Havana halfway through the last century, and since then that has forged not only solid political ties but also stable cultural and economic links, said the ambassador to the local press. The ambassador pointed out that there are regular political contacts between the two nations, citing the example of an official visit to Cuba by Charles Kleiber, the Swiss Secretary of State for Higher Education and Research, last February. (AIN, 7/3/06)

March 7: The two-day Iran-Cuba Artistic Cultural Conference began at Tehran’s Honar Cultural Center. The conference features film screenings and reviews, musical performances, and book and poetry sections. Critics will be reviewing the films "Goodbye Ernesto" directed by Puyan Shahrokhi, “Comandante” by Oliver Stone, and “Sacrificio: Who Betrayed Che Guevara” by Erik Gandini in the film section of the event. The book “My Best Friend Che” written by Alberto Granado is also being reviewed at the conference. Cuban Ambassador Fernando Garcia, UNESCO Secretary General in Iran Mohammad Tavakol, the head of the Spanish Department of Tehran University, Ali Feizollahi, film director Naser Taqvaii, and several other Iranian and foreign officials will be attending the conference. The Iran-Cuba Friendship Association, Faragah Publishers, and the House of Young Movie Makers are sponsoring the cultural event in order to strengthen ties between the two countries. (Tehran Times, 8/3/06)

March 8: The Government of the Republic of Cuba has responded to a request from the St. Kitts-Nevis Labour Party administration to assist local residents in reducing their electricity bills. Minister of Public Works, Utilities, Transport and Posts, Dr. the Hon. Earl Asim Martin said that his formal request to the Fidel Castro Government in Havana to donate energy-saving bulbs to St. Kitts, free of cost, has been positive and will also result in reducing the country’s high energy bill. “We approached them (Government of Cuba) with respect to assisting us with compact fluorescent bulbs. These bulbs are energy saving bulbs and they have decided to donate these bulbs to the poor and vulnerable groups in our society free of charge,” said Dr. Martin in an exclusive interview with the Communications Unit in the Office of the Prime Minister. (CUOPM, 8/3/06)

March 8: Cuban officials said the 72-year-old Canadian tourist who died during a snorkelling excursion suffered a heart attack. The woman's body had been taken to Havana, said an official with the Barcelo Marina Palace Hotel's department of public relations. Ottawa resident Stephen MacDonald, who was also vacationing in the Varadero resort area at the time, told the press that a witness said the woman was from Ottawa and had drowned. (Ottawa Sun, 9/3/06)

March 9: Cuba is stepping up preparations for the 14th Summit of Heads of State and Government of the Movement of Non-Aligned Countries (NOAL) to be held in Havana on September 11-16. The written invitation by Fidel Castro has currently been extended to dignitaries of the movement's 144 country members. The agenda of the gathering includes preliminary discussions by representatives of all these nations, September 11-12, as well as meetings by foreign ministers September 13-14. The Heads of State and Government will meet on September 15-16 to approve the final documents of the summit. A meeting of the Ministerial Committee on Palestine will be held on the sidelines of the NOAL gathering to discuss the situation in the Middle East, according to sources from the Cuban Foreign Ministry. Malaysia is currently presiding over the NOAL Movement. The post will be handed over to Cuba at the Havana Summit. (Prensa Latina, 9/3/06)

March 10: Vice-president Carlos Lage Davila left for Chile heading the Cuban delegation to the inauguration of Chilean President-elect Michelle Bachelet. Cuba and Chile reestablished diplomatic relations in 1995 after ties were broken following the fascist coup that overthrew President Salvador Allende in September, 1973. The other members of the Cuban delegation heading for Santiago are: Foreign Minister Felipe Perez Roque; Deputy Foreign Minister Yilliam Jimenez Exposito; Jose Arbesu Fraga, deputy head of the Communist Party of Cuba’s International Relations Department; and Alejandro Gonzalez Galiano, director for Latin America and Caribbean in the Cuban Foreign Ministry. Lage was received by President-elect Michelle Bachelet in the Andres Bello Diplomatic Academy. The meeting was conducted in a friendly and relaxed atmosphere a few hours after the island’s senior official arrived in Santiago. "We bring the warmest greetings from the people of Cuba, from our President Fidel Castro, to our brothers and sisters in solidarity, the beloved Chilean people, and our most sincere desires for the success of the elected leader Michelle Bachelet," declared the Cuban vice president. (Granma, 10,11/3/06)

March 10: Cuba will open embassies in four more Caribbean countries, a move that will give it a presence in most of the Caricom nations, a Cuban official said. Embassies in Antigua, St Vincent, Dominica and Suriname will open in about a month, said Alejandro Merchante Castellanos, Cuban Ambassador to the 15-member Caricom. "We will be completing all the countries of Caricom. This is a decision of our country to develop relations with all of them. The integration of the Caribbean is very important to us," he said while presenting his credentials to Caricom secretary general Edwin Carrington. (AP, 12/3/06)

March 10: According to local media outlets, the Medical School of Bolivia demanded that President Evo Morales order the immediate departure of 600 Cuban health care professionals who came to the country in February to attend to flood victims. The president of the institution, Fernando Arandia, said in a letter to Morales that no step had been taken to validate the medical qualifications of the Cubans and, therefore they could not practise in Bolivia. (Reuters, 11/3/06)

March 11: Canadian artists Jane Bunnett and Larry Cramer donated musical instruments to the Esteban Salas conservatory of Santiago de Cuba. They were accompanied by luthiers Rag Ballagh, Gary and Kevin Amstrong, who built more than 40 of the donated instruments. (Prensa Latina, 11/3/06)

March 12: The new Honduran government of President Manuel Zelaya granted a petition by the Cuban exile in the United States that Honduras continue to give refuge to hundreds of Cuban raft-people who come ashore on its Caribbean coast, said the consul of Tegucigalpa in Miami, Carlos Siercke. Siercke added that "the budget set aside by his government to care for the raft-people had already been spent, and (the exiles) would finance the assistance requirements of these people." (AFP, 13/3/06)

March 12: Members of the Mexican Navy found a group of Cuban immigrants in the isle of Contoy, north of Cancun. According to the Mexican militaries, the immigrants, ten men between, 24-53, had arrived in a raft. They were all in good health conditions. (AFP, 13/3/06)

March 12: The Cuban government has handed over two field hospitals to Pakistan’s Islamic International Medical College Trust. Cuban Ambassador designate to Pakistan Mr. Ivan Mora Godoy signed a Memorandum of Understanding on behalf of the Cuban Government with the IIMC-T in Islamabad donating all the equipment of the field hospitals located in Hattian Bala, Azad Kashmir and Attar Shisha. (News Pakistan, 12/3/06)

March 13: Cuba and Uzbekistan established diplomatic relations. A Cuban delegation headed by Foreign Affairs Deputy Minister Eumelio Caballero visited the Uzbek capital of Tashkent. Caballero and Uzbek Interim Minister Ilham Nematov signed a joint declaration on both nations´ willingness to expand their friendship and cooperation. (Prensa Latina, 13/3/06)

March 14: A grieving Manitoba family is looking for more information on the death of a 21-year-old Winnipeg woman who was vacationing in Cuba. Melissa Nelson, 21, apparently fell from a fourth-floor balcony at her hotel in Varadero, a tourist hot-spot west of Havana. Her boyfriend, Manuel Ruiz, told the Winnipeg Free Press Nelson was sick after an evening of drinking at a nightclub when she fell over the balcony's waist-high railing. Nelson's uncle, Chief Terrance Nelson of the Roseau River First Nation, south of Winnipeg, says the family is devastated by the death of the young woman. Nelson said his niece was a hard-working woman who had earned a black belt in martial arts and was considering a career in the Royal Canadian Mounted Police. Nelson says the family wants the RCMP and the Canadian government to investigate the circumstances of Nelson's death. (Canadian Press, 14/3/06)

March 15: Costa Rican President-elect Oscar Arias said he was inviting all the Western Hemisphere leaders except Cuba's Fidel Castro to his inauguration. Arias, who governed Costa Rica from 1986 to 1990, is to be sworn in May 8. He told the press that he planned to invite "all the presidents from the hemisphere" except Castro because "we do not have diplomatic relations" with Cuba. Costa Rica, considered one of the best-functioning democracies in Latin America, has shunned Havana for the lack of freedom on the Communist-ruled island. (EFE, 15/3/06)

March 15: The administration of Chilean president Michelle Bachelet is betting on an improvement of her country’s political ties with Cuba, said the Chilean ambassador to the island, Celso Moreno. “I can say that relations are very well and I will do everything possible so that they get better every day," added the diplomat shortly after presenting in Havana a cultural program in tribute to Chilean painter Roberto Matta. "Years ago, we were perhaps a little distant on the political arena," he offered. He said that the reason behind their differences was the position taken by Santiago against Cuba at the Human Rights Commission in Geneva. (AP, 15/3/06)

March 15: Cuba warned that the resolution approving the new UN Human Rights Council, to replace the former Human Rights Commission, will not impede the superpowers’ traditional maneuvers against the Third World. Rodrigo Malmierca, Cuban ambassador to the UN, noted that there was an aspiration to establish an agency that would contribute to the strengthening of the international system of promoting and protecting human rights through genuine cooperation. He stated that "despite its serious reservations and bearing in mind, above all, the requests that it has been receiving from friendly delegations, Cuba will vote for the resolution." The ambassador said that the text, approved by 170 votes in favor, four against and three abstentions, does not represent a balance of the negotiating positions, as many people wished to have believed. (Prensa Latina, Granma International, 15/3/06)

March 15: Both the Vietnamese and the Cuban National Assembly leaders agreed that the political relations between the two countries have been fine but their economic ties have yet developed commensurately. Cuban National Assembly President Ricardo Alarcon told Vietnamese National Assembly Chairman Nguyen Van An during their talks in Havana that the two countries should therefore promote economic, trade, investment and cultural cooperation in accordance with their political ties. The talks were held during Chairman An's ongoing visit to Cuba, which began after his tours of Brazil, Argentina and Venezuela. (VNA, 16/3/06)

March 15: Omara Portuondo, the Buenavista Social Club diva, put on a benefit concert in Havana leading up to the ninth edition of the Canadian Terry Fox Run. The world famous artist said that people could always count on her to help out, especially in such a beautiful and humane cause as raising funds for cancer research. (Granma, 17/3/06)

March 16: The last three years of intense repression against independent journalists in Cuba have not succeeded in wiping out a critical press on the communist-ruled island, Reporters Without Borders said in a report. "On March 18, 2003, an unprecedented wave of repression broke over Cuban dissidents. For three days, ninety opponents of the regime were arrested on grounds that they were 'agents of the American enemy.' Among them were twenty-seven journalists," begins the document from the Paris-based group known as RSF. [Three years after “Black Spring”] (EFE, 16/3/06)

March 16: Venezuela's National Assembly passed a draft resolution for the development of a cultural agreement with Cuba. According to Prensa Latina news agency, the bill includes a preamble and 16 articles aimed at consolidating the front of intellectuals and artists from both countries who are fighting against international neo-fascist and colonialist trends. Deputy Hayden Pirela Sanchez, with the Quinta Republica Movement said the bill falls within Venezuela's current foreign policy directives related to Latin American integration. (AIN, 16/3/06)

March 16: In a Bundestag (lower chamber of the German Parliament) debate over the human rights situation in Cuba, there was a fierce exchange of blows between the Left Group and the four other Bundestag Groups.  Deputies of the CDU/CSU (Christian Democratic Union/Christian Social Union), the SPD (Social Democratic Party of Germany), the FDP (Free Democratic Party), and the Greens expressed sharp criticism of the Left Party's position on the human rights violations under Fidel Castro.  In response, Left Deputy Michael Leutert accused the other groups of not being interested at all in the people of Cuba.  Rather, they want to "make" the Left Group "look like a fool," he said. The reason for the debate was a resolution by the European Parliament, where three of the Left Party deputies voted in favor of a condemnation of Cuba for gross violation of human rights.  (DDP, 18/3/06)

March 16: Some 50 people gathered outside the Cuban Embassy in Prague to protest against the imprisonment of Cuban dissidents by the regime of Fidel Castro. The demonstration opened a three-day event that the People in Need NGO organized which commemorates the 3rd anniversary of political repressions in March 2003 when 75 representatives of the political opposition were arrested in Cuba. Jiri Knitl from People in Need read an open letter addressed to Castro in which they call on him to release the political prisoners who often have health problems. The embassy did not react in any way, only loud music was heard through the opened windows of the building. (CTK, 16/3/06)

March 17: Delegations from Panama and Cuba, headed by Vice President and Foreign Minister, Samuel Lewis Navarro and Cuban Foreign Minister Felipe Perez Roque, respectively, put in a day of intense work. The sessions ended with the signature of important agreements that, in the words of the Minister Perez Roque, certainly constitute a landmark in the relationships and pave the way for increased exchanges between both countries. Following an exchange on the state of affairs in the respective nations, topics of bilateral interest were analyzed, such as the increment of trade and tourism and others like air and marine transport were identified. Of the two documents signed by Perez Roque and Lewis Navarro, the first one establishes a mechanism of inter-ministerial consultations on foreign policy issues, and the other provides for the exemption of visas for holders of diplomatic, official, consular, special and service passports. The visitor assessed the discussions and agreements signed as a step forward in a relationship that he described as extremely important for Panama. (Granma, 18/3/06)

March 17: Fidel Castro welcomed Vietnamese Parliament Speaker Nguyen Van An, who is heading a large business and government delegation on a visit to the island. Van An passed on the Cuban leader warm greetings sent by Vietnam´s top leadership and party, as well as an early special congratulation for his coming 80-years birthday. The talks were especially friendly, in accordance with the profound relations between the two countries, Cuba’s Granma daily highlighted. Parliament Speaker Ricardo Alarcon, and Foreign Affairs Vice Minister Marcos Rodriguez attended the meeting for the Cuban side. (Prensa Latina, 17/3/06)

March 17: Politicians from both the government and opposition parties have locked themselves closed in a symbolical prison at Prague's Wenceslas Square in support of Cuban dissidents. They supported a campaign by the group People in Need which will highlight the third anniversary of political repressions in Cuba. In March 2003, 75 representatives of Cuban opposition were arrested. A part of the sentence for Cuban dissidents has been "served" by Foreign Minister Cyril Svoboda (the Christian Democrats, KDU-CSL), Mirek Topolanek, the chairman of the opposition Civic Democratic Party (ODS), Alexandr Vondra, a former diplomat and ambassador to the USA, and film directors Vaclav Marhoul and Otakaro Schmidt . The campaign was watched by about 30 people who could sign an open letter to Fidel Castro. In it, the activists ask for the release of the opponents of the regime who are often in a bad health condition. (CTK, 17/3/06)

March 17: Panamanian Vice President Samuel Lewis Navarro is visiting Cuba to discuss cooperation, a proposed Latin American Summit in Panama and that of the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) in Havana next September. Lewis, who is also Panama´s Foreign Minister, told the local press that relations with Cuba are growing in importance. Bilateral relations have recovered, the high-ranking official said, after they fell to a critical point with the prior Panamanian administration. (Prensa Latina, 17/3/06)

March 17: The most recent report by Amnesty International on the situation of human rights in Cuba highlights an increase of the attacks against fundamental freedoms in the island, and “urges the Cuban authorities to unconditionally and immediately free all prisoners of concience”. “ On 22 July 2005 approximately 30 people were arrested as they tried to participate in a peaceful demonstration outside the French Embassy in Havana, to demand the release of political prisoners in Cuba. Nine of them remain in detention without charges. Amnesty International believes that at least four of those arrested in July 2005 are prisoners of conscience, detained solely for exercising their right to freedom of expression, association and assembly. All the prisoners remain detained without trial or any formal charges. Although not charged, they are reportedly being held in maximum security prisons outside Havana”, the report says. [Cuba: fundamental freedoms still under attack] (El Nuevo Herald, 26/3/06)

March 17: Some of the former emigrants heading back to their Spanish homeland with the aid of the government in Madrid say they're particularly happy about the trip because if they don't do it now, they probably never would. Carrying with them memories of a country that in most cases they left behind decades ago, this group of elderly Spaniards - many of whom came to live in Cuba after fleeing civil conflict in their native land - is to arrive for a brief visit to Spain in April. The travelers, a total of 206 among those born in Spain and their family members, are beneficiaries of a program run by Spain's Institute of Migrations and Social Services, which for a decade has allowed Spanish emigrants over the age of 65 and with limited financial resources to return to Spain for a few weeks. According to figures from Spain's embassy in Havana, some 3,000 Cuban residents receive annual financial assistance totaling more than $6 million from the Spanish government. (EFE, 17/3/06)

March 18: Cuban Foreign Affairs Minister Felipe Perez Roque travelled to Egypt and Algeria to officially invite their presidents to the Non-Aligned Movement Summit Havana will host next September. Perez Roque is also slated to visit Sudan, where he will attend the Summit of the Heads of State of the Arab League between March 26 and 27. Cuba was invited to the Arab summit to brief participants about preparations of the NAM meeting, which brings together 114 countries. (Prensa Latina, 18/3/06)

March 18: Panamanian Health Minister Camilo Alleyne asserted his government is preparing to honourably host the Operation Miracle, a Cuba-Venezuela spearheaded project of free ophthalmology attention to poor Latin American communities. "Within one month and a half or two months we will open the venue of the Operation Miracle to contribute to the social integration of Latin America," stated Alleyne, who gave thanks for Cuba’s healing of 917 Panamanian with eye afflictions since November 2005. (Prensa Latina, 18/3/06)

March 19: Vice President Jose Vicente Rangel acknowledged that Caracas has "political, constitutional and social" differences with Cuba and Iran, but it maintains relations with those countries because doing so is in the interest of Venezuela. "We have differences of a political, constitutional (and) social nature, but there are also things that seem interesting to us. For example, we're all interested in things having to do with health and education in Cuba, which has also been acknowledged by the United Nations, and with Iran's industrial development," he said. (EFE, 19/3/06)

March 19: A graphic report in the Colombian news magazine Cambio, claimed that the Cuban ambassador to Colombia was at the center of an espionage network. According to the magazine, the Colombian government was only informed by the US that the Cuban ambassador José Antonio Pérez Novoa, was a spy sent to destabilize the country last week. Pérez Novoa has been in Bogotá since November 2005. Cambio's story implies that the US is long on innuendo but short on fact. Indeed, several sources in the Colombian foreign ministry argue that the US theories about Pérez Novoa are ridiculous. ( Latinnews Daily , 20/3/06)

March 20: A cruise ship rescued five Cuban immigrants close to the coast of Bahamas, the US Coast Guard said. The ship, from the Norwegian Cruise Line fleet, handed the immigrants over to the Bahamian authorities, the spokeswoman for the US Coast Guard, Dana Warr, said. (The Miami Herald, 27/3/06)

March 20: The practice of journalism is dangerous in much of Latin America, but no nation in the hemisphere sees the sort of systematic official repression of independent news gatherers that prevails in Cuba, the Inter American Press Association said in Quito, Ecuador. Cuba "continues to be the most repressive nation in this hemisphere, with little possibility of change under the regime of Fidel Castro," IAPA said in the final declaration from its midyear conference in Quito. The island's Communist government is currently holding 25 independent journalists behind bars, in conditions so awful that a number of the prisoners have resorted to hunger strikes. Another newsman, Mario Enrique Mayo, was released from prison into house arrest, but only after mutilating himself with a knife in a desperate bid to get medical attention. (EFE, 20/3/06)

March 20: The Colombian government denied having received a CIA report from the United States about the actions of Cuba's envoy to Bogota favoring the governments of Venezuela and Bolivia. The Colombian foreign ministry issued a communique denying the story published in Cambio magazine that such a report had been delivered by US envoy to Bogota William Wood. Neither Foreign Minister Carolina Barco nor Ambassador in Cuba Julio Londoño "has received any report from the US Embassy in Colombia concerning the activities of Ambassador (Jose Antonio) Perez Novoa before his accreditation in Colombia or during his stay in the country," said the statement. "It is not the policy of the Colombian government to get into grading the behavior of foreign governments' representatives with regard to the duties they carried out earlier, when those (activities) in no way affect the interests of Colombia or the principles of non-intervention in internal affairs," the communique continued. The foreign ministry recalled "the atmosphere of cordiality and understanding that characterizes all areas of the relations between" Colombia and Cuba. (EFE, 20/3/06)

March 20: Bolivia's new Socialist president traveled to the eastern town of Camiri to kick off a mass literacy drive that enjoys the support of the governments of Cuba and Venezuela. Evo Morales was joined by the education ministers of Bolivia, Felix Patzi, of Cuba, Luis Ignacio Gomez, and of Venezuela, Aristobulo Isturiz. In his speech, the president thanked Venezuela's Hugo Chavez and Cuba's Fidel Castro for the cooperation they have provided on the campaign and he compared the advances those countries have made in education with that achieved in the United States. He added that he had always considered Chavez and Castro to be his ideological allies against US "imperialism." The centers will teach people to read and write using the "Yo, si puedo" (Yes, I can) audiovisual method created by Cuban pedagogue Leonela Relys and used in Venezuela from 2003-2005 and in 13 countries throughout the Americas, as well as in New Zealand, for which an English-language version of it was created. Cuba sent to Bolivia 24 experts in applying the method, as well as 10,000 televisions, VCRs and training manuals, as well as 270,000 videotapes with the classes on them and 200,000 readers for 10,000 instruction centers. The value of the aid has been calculated at about $15 million, said Gomez. Gomez recalled that the support of Cuban advisers and technical means for the Bolivian literacy campaign was signed by Presidents Evo Morales and Fidel Castro during Morales’ visit to Havana on December 30, then as president-elect of his country. (EFE, Prensa Latina, 20/3/06)

March 21: Calling them a "disgusting lie" and a “coarse canard," the Cuban Foreign Ministry rejected accusations against the Cuban ambassador in Bogota, José Antonio Pérez Novoa, of allegedly pursuing a "secret agenda" on behalf of Bolivia and Venezuela. In a press release carried by the official daily "Granma," the Foreign Affairs Ministry rejected "each and every lie" contained in an article published last March 18 th by the Colombian magazine “Cambio”, accusing Ambassador Pérez of helping organize "spy networks." [Declaración del MINREX] (EFE, 21/3/06)

March 21: A Cuban legislative delegation attended a meeting of the Latin American Parliament (PARLATINO) Legal Committee in Brazil, with the main goal of ratifying support to Mexico against US discriminatory migration policy and its border wall. The Cuban mission from the Permanent Committee for Constitutional and Legal Affairs of the Assembly of People’s Power is led by vice chair Elba Martinez. The meeting will hear Mexico´s demand for a structured migratory legislation. Cuban solidarity with Mexico was expressed in advance by Parliament Speaker Ricardo Alarcon in a letter to his counterpart of the Mexican House of Representatives, Heliodoro Diaz Escarraga. (Prensa Latina, 21/3/06)

March 21: Three fishermen from Yucatan and Nuevo León under arrest in Cuba since May, 2005 will stand trial “starting next April 12,” accused of illegal human trafficking, while another Mexican has just been arrested in Havana under similar charges, reported the Ambassador of Mexico to Cuba, José Ignacio Piña. The ambassador also pointed out that the Mexican embassy in Cuba will seek to attend the proceedings that will reportedly take place in Cienfuegos. (Milenio, 21/3/)6)

March 21: Cuban Foreign Minister, Felipe Perez Roque, was received by the President of Algeria, Abdelaziz Bouteflika, with whom he spoke on topics related to bilateral relations. The Minister arrived to Algiers and after a short meeting with his Algerian counterpart Mohamed Bedyaui, he was received by Bouteflika at the venue of the Presidency. In relation to Perez Roque’s visit, the Algerian Foreign Affairs Ministry noted the good relations between the two nations, and pointed to the areas in which Cuban cooperation is participating. As an example, he recalled that Cuba is helping to install an ophthalmologic clinic in Bechar province, to the south of the country, and that this facility is to be inaugurated soon. (Granma, 21/3/06)

March 21: Cuba “protects Iran’s right to peaceful uses of nuclear energy with appropriate safeguards of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA)”, Cuban Deputy Foreign Minister Eumelio Caballero told the press. He stressed that, “Cuba is for peaceful settlement of all international disputes.” “Iran is a friendly country, a member of the Non-Aligned Movement,” Cabaliero said. “Over these years Tehran came up against countless difficulties and pressure from foreign countries, especially the United States,” he said. Washington “tried to impose on Iran economic, political and social models of development alien to its sovereign will,” Caballero said. “Cuba is against nuclear weapons proliferation,” Caballero stressed. “We firmly stand for general and complete disarmament, including nuclear disarmament.” (Itar Tass, 21/3/06)

March 21: Fidel Castro has reiterated his deep appreciation for the visions and ideas of the brother leader of the Lybian revolution, Al-Qadhafi, in dealing with international issues. In a letter delivered to Lybia’s leader, Castro said that his country would be honoured if the brother leader would attend the proceedings of the Non-Aligned Movement's summit which would be held in Havana this coming September. (JANA, 21/3/06)

March 22: Belarusian Foreign Relations Minister Serguei Martinov expressed appreciation for the congratulatory message sent by Fidel Castro to Alexander Lukashenko on his electoral victory. The message, given by Cuban Foreign Relations Deputy Minister Eumelio Caballero, head of a delegation on an official visit to Belarussia, states that the overwhelming victory of Lukashenko illustrates the wide support of the people to his successful work as president. The letter also served to invite the Belarusian president to the 14th Summit of the Non-Aligned Countries Movement to be held in September in the Caribbean island, which expects to host delegates from 114 nations. (Prensa Latina, 22/3/06)

March 22: Cuba and Pakistan signed an understanding memo assuring that the tent hospitals granted by the Cuban people to that country will continue providing permanent, free health care. The document was sealed in Abbottabad city by Cuban Deputy Foreign Minister, Bruno Rodriguez Parrilla, and by Pakistan army surgeon general, Lieutenant General Syed Afzal Ahmad, Cuba´s “Juventud Rebelde” newspaper reported. (Prensa Latina, 22/3/06)

March 22: Cuban Foreign Minister, Felipe Perez Roque, defended the importance of the Non Aligned Movement (NOAL) amidst a unipolar world, in a press conference at the end of his visit to Algeria. "In this unipolar world, with one single superpower with the highest technological and military development, we should concentrate our efforts in finding ways to fight for peace, to favor multilateralism, and for a world where international law is respected," noted the Foreign Minister. Perez Roque said revitalizing the weakened Third World movement is the primary goal of the NOAL Summit to be held in Havana. Outlining the objectives of the Non Aligned Movement, Perez Roque said that its members should struggle for the respect of all religions, against all forms of discrimination, for the right to development and for the sovereign equality of all states. "And we want to oppose preventive wars; the idea that one country can proclaim its right to change the regime of another; and I think that if we succeed in keeping ourselves united, our voice will be heard and the Non Aligned Movement will be a relevant actor in international relations," he said. (Granma, 23/3/06)

March 23: Cuban Ambassador to Bolivia, Luis Felipe Vazquez, said that his country, as President of the Non Aligned Movement starting next September, will be supporting Bolivia’s claim to have access to the sea. “We will be as solidary as we have always been in regards with Bolivia’s access to the sea. The Bolivian people deserve that justice is done”, Vazquez said. The Cuban diplomat participated in a ceremony to pay tribute to Bolivian hero Eduardo Albaroa, during the “Sea Day”, which commemorates this country’s loss of access to the sea, 127 years ago, during the war against Chile in the 19 th century. (EFE, 23/3/06)

March 23: Costa Rican authorities detected several fake visas used by Cuban citizens trying to enter the Central American country. The Costa Rican Migration office issued a press release explaining details of the falsifications. This year, authorities have received 278 applications to enter the country from Cuban citizens, of which 95% are married to Costa Ricans. (AP, 23/3/06)

March 23: Trying to reach the United States, a group of 28 Cuban immigrants arrived in Honduras’ Atlantic coast. The Cubans, who had left the island a week before from the southern coast of Camaguey province, arrived in Cocalito, northeast of Tegucigalpa. ''We have come to find freedom, the freedom we don’t have in Cuba”, Arnulfo Tejada, the group leader said. Tejada, 39, is a journalist. “We couldn’t stand anymore the conditions imposed by the Cuban government and decided to go to Miami, where our relatives live”, Tejada said to a local radio station. (AP, 23/3/06)

March 23: Seven Cuban rafters, including four women and three men, arrived in Honduras’ Atlantic coast. The Cuban migrants left Cuba a week before trying to reach the United States, Honduran migration authorities said. "They are in Trujillo. “And although they have claimed political asylum, their purpose is to keep on going to Miami”, the Migration office’s spokeswoman, Carmen Peña, told the press. (AP, 23/6/06)

March 24: Foreign Ministers Felipe Perez Roque, of Cuba, and Micheline Calmy-Rey, of Switzerland addressed bilateral issues and the new UN Human Rights Council, during talks in Bern. The meeting between the two foreign ministers "has helped strengthen the political dialogue between the two countries," Jean Phillipe Jonnerap, a spokesperson from the Swiss Ministry of Foreign Affairs, told the press. Both foreign ministers also addressed human rights issues and the new UN Human Rights Council that will replace the controversial Human Rights Commission as of June 19, 2006, Granma newspaper reported. (CNA, 24/3/06)

March 24: Eleven Cubans rafters arrived in the southern coast of Isla Mujeres, Mexico. Mexican authorities took the group to an office of the Migration National Institute, in the island. According to witnesses, the group was trying to reach a contact in Cancun who would take them to the United States. The Cubans said they had left Havana on March 18. (Novedades Quintana Roo, 26/3/06)

March 24: A US-owned hotel that expelled Cuban guests under pressure from the Treasury Department must pay $112,000 in fines for violating Mexican commercial law, the Mexican government said. Mexico's Foreign Relations Department said the hotel violated national commercial laws, which bar companies from discriminating against customers because of their nationality. The Sheraton Maria Isabel Hotel, located at Mexico City's Angel of Independence monument, kicked out 16 Cuban officials attending a February 2 meeting with US oil executives after receiving a warning from the Treasury Department that it was in danger of violating a four-decade trade embargo against the regime of Fidel Castro. (AP, Prensa Latina, The Guardian, 25/3/06)

March 27: The press watchdog and advocacy organization Reporters Without Borders asked Cuban authorities for "a humanitarian gesture" toward journalists Guillermo Fariñas Hernandez and Juan Carlos Herrera Costa who are on a hunger strike in prison. The organization said in a communique that Fariñas Hernandez is "dying" and Herrera Costa is "in a critical state of health." "How can we understand so much indifference towards the suffering of these two people who ask for nothing more than the freedom to write or navigate the Internet?" the Paris-based Reporters Without Borders, or RSF for its initials in French, asked. The Inter American Press Association (IAPA), at its meeting in Quito earlier this month, demanded the release of all journalists imprisoned in Cuba and the end of government reprisals against independent reporters on the island. (EFE, 27/3/06)

March 27: Gisela Garcia Rivera, Cuba's ambassador in Jamaica, angrily closed all her government's accounts at a branch of the Bank of Nova Scotia in the Jamaican capital, ending a business relationship that had lasted a decade or more. The Cuban diplomat received a letter dated March 7 from Barrington Chisholm, manager of the Scotiabank branch on Knutsford Blvd. in Kingston, in which Chisholm said his bank is no longer willing to handle US dollar accounts for the Cubans or to carry out international financial transactions on their behalf. Frank Switzer, a Scotiabank spokesman in Toronto, told the press the company's new restrictions involving its dealings with Cuba apply not only in Jamaica but anywhere the bank does business. Andrew Hannan, a spokesman for the Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade in Ottawa, said the federal government is not yet prepared to make an official comment on the dispute in Jamaica between Scotiabank and the Cuban Embassy. “We are aware of the situation and are looking into it," he said. (The Star, 27/3/06)

March 27: Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo received a special message from Fidel Castro. The special envoy of Castro and Cuban Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs, Mr Marco Rodriguez delivered Castro’s message on preparations for the Non-Aligned Movement Summit to be hosted in Havana in September at the State House, in Abuja. Responding, President Obasanjo stressed the need to "revitalize and re-energise" the Non-Aligned Movement. (AllAfrica, 27/3/06)

March 27: Cuba’s Foreign Minister, Felipe Perez Roque, addressed the ministerial segment of the Arab League Summit that took place in the Sudanese capital of Khartoum, with the attendance of the 22 countries that form that regional bloc. Perez Roque ratified Cuba’s unwavering solidarity with the just causes of the Arab nations and particularly, its steadfast support for the heroic struggle of the Palestinian people, their inalienable right to self-determination, the creation of a sovereign and independent state with East Jerusalem as its capital, and the unconditional return of all the Arab territories occupied by Israel since June of 1967. “ This is a time where we have witnessed clear manifestations of intolerance and a lack of respect to Islam and to the Arab nations. Cuba strongly criticizes such acts," said the Cuban minister. He also expressed his country’s gratitude for the Arab people’s solidarity with the struggle of Cuba against the US blockade. On behalf of Fidel Castro, the foreign minister invited the dignitaries of the Arab League to be present in the 16 th Summit of the Non Aligned Movement, slated to take place in Havana September 11-16. Perez Roque made reference to the need to strengthen the Non-Aligned Movement, especially in today’s world where unilateralist and hegemonic pretensions prevail in international relations. (Granma, Prensa Latina, CAN, 27/3/06)

March 27: Haiti´s President-elect Rene Preval highly praised the collaboration of Cuba, from whence 120 Haitian doctors have graduated to return to his nation to help needy people in urban areas. Presently, 750 Haitian youth are studying in Cuba and 120 will return to their hometowns to treat people, Preval told the press in New York. Preval referred to the numerous problems of his country and the 500 workers of the health sector, and also spoke about the work of Cuban doctors, who will be gradually replaced by Haitians. (Prensa Latina, 27/3/06)

March 28: Gambian Foreign Minister, Lamin Kabba Bajo, arrived in Havana on an official visit following an invitation by Cuban Minister of Foreign Affairs Felipe Perez Roque. This is the second time that the Gambian foreign minister visits Cuba, within the framework of the excellent ties of friendship and cooperation that exist between this African nation and Cuba. Lamin Kabba Bajo will be also presiding over an important delegation of his country that will be participating in the Sixth Session of the Gambia-Cuba Intergovernmental Mixed Commission, set to meet in Havana. (Granma, 28/3/06)

March 29: Cuba was re-elected to the vice presidential position of the Board of Directors of the Association of Caribbean States’ Ministerial Council during its 11th Ministerial Meeting. Cuban Ambassador and ACS representative Sergio Oliva Guerra told Prensa Latina that the Board of Directors, which will be presided over by Guatemala next year, re-elected Cuba and also selected Cuba to chair the ACS Special Transport and Special Budget and Administration committees. The Cuban delegation was headed by Cuban assistant minister Rafael Daussa and Edilia Prince, director for Latin America, of the Foreign Affairs Ministry, and Angel Socarras, official of the Cuban Transport Ministry and new ACS transport chair. (Prensa Latina, 29/3/06)

March 30: Members of the Venezuela-Cuba Friendship Parliament Group started a visit to Havana to tighten bilateral ties. The visit will allow for exchange of legislative information and cooperation on common issues, official daily newspaper Granma stated. The Speaker of the Venezuelan Parliament, Nicolas Maduro, is heading the Venezuelan delegation. The gathering will also analyze the ALBA integration project (Bolivarian Alternative for the Americas), US aggression and interventionist policy, Washington´s economic and financial emargo on Cuba and the release of five Cubans imprisoned in US jails. The inter-parliamentary cooperation between the two nations and their coordination in international forum will also be an item for discussions, including Latin American integration policy and collaboration experiences between Cuba and Venezuela. (El Universal, Prensa Latina, 31/3/06)

March 30: T he Vienna-based International Press Institute (IPI) said in its latest annual report that Fidel Castro's Communist-ruled government continued to exercise "tight control over (the island's) independent journalists, regarding them as counter-revolutionaries”. IPI said that Cuban security forces in 2005 "systematically monitored, harassed or detained" independent journalists who had not been arrested during a huge 2003 crackdown on the dissident press. [2005 Country Reports: Cuba] (EFE, 30/3/06)

March 30: Ricardo Alarcon, president of the Cuban parliament, traveled to Kingston to attend the inauguration of Portia Simpson as Jamaica’s first woman prime minister. Before becoming prime minister, Simpson, 60, held the post of minister of Labor, Social Welfare, Tourism and Sports and is known as one of Jamaica’s most popular political figures in recent years, reported Prensa Latina. (Granma, 31/3/06)

March 31: A former governor of the Chilean 8 th Region and former minister during Salvador Allende’s government has been appointed ambassador to Havana. Jaime Tohá González is the person selected by president Michelle Bachelet to occupy the diplomatic post in Cuba. Although the Chilean chancillery has not yet confirmed Tohá’s nomination, government sources indicated that his name has been already presented to the Cuban government. Considered a socialist hard liner, Tohá will asume his post at a moment in which relations between the two countries have been weakened by Chile’s stance regarding resolutions on Cuba at the UN Human Rights Commission. (La Tercera, 31/3/06)

March 31: “Sahrawi children who are sent to Cuba followed military training and courses on making explosives,” testified one of the Cuban former officials, who made documentaries on the inhumane conditions of the Sahrawi children in Cuba. Some former Cuban senior officials confessed that children, who were snatched from their parents in Tindouf camps and deported to Cuban “Youth Island” (Isla de Pinos), endured ill-treatment. “These children followed military training and courses on the making of explosives,” said former Cuban instructor, Dariel Alarcon. Dariel Alarcon, known as “Benigno”, testified in a documentary entitled “Cuba and Polisario Front: crime partners” that he was in charge of making Sahrawi children, barely nine years old, undergo a military training. (Morocco Times, 1/4/06)

March 31: Carolina Barco Isakson, the foreign minister of Colombia, arrived in Havana for a working visit. The distinguished guest traveled accompanied by two other cabinet members, Jorge Humberto Botero, minister of Commerce, Industry and Tourism; and Luis Ernesto Mejia Castro, minister of Energy and Mines. During her stay in Cuba, the Colombian official will hold talks on topics of bilateral interest with her Cuban counterpart Felipe Perez Roque. The two foreign ministers are expected to discuss both regional and international matters. (Granma, 31/3/06)

March 31: Fidel Castro met with Colombian Foreign Minister Carolina Barco at the Palace of the Revolution. Minister Barco was accompanied by Humberto Botero, minister of Trade, Industry and Tourism; Luis Ernesto Mejia Castro, Energy and Mining minister; the Colombian High Commissioner for Peace, Dr. Luis Carlos Restrepo; and Colombian Ambassador to Cuba, Julio Londoño. During the encounter the issues discussed included bilateral relations between Cuba and Colombia, the economy and international politics. On behalf of her government, Carolina Barco expressed gratitude for Cuba’s support to the peace process in Colombia, and conveyed a personal message from President Alvaro Uribe. Prior to the meeting with Castro, the Colombian delegation held talks with Cuban Foreign Minister Felipe Perez Roque at the Foreign Ministry. (Granma, 31/3/06)