Chronicle on Cuba - April 2006

Domestic Affairs

April 1: The Cuban women's judo team picked up a silver medal and two fifth positions at the World Cup held in Birmingham, England. Sheila Espinosa -the silver medal winner- lost by Ippon to the Chinese athlete Yaling Yu, in the 57-kilo category finals, reports the website of that high-level international event. The fifth positions were attained by the Cuban novice Yamilka del Valle, 52 kg, who lost fighting for the bronze to the Portuguese Joana Ramos. Cuban veteran Ivis Dueñas, was also defeated competing for the bronze by Britian's Simone Callender in the over 78 kg division. (CAN, 3/4/06)

April 2: Fidel Castro voiced confidence that younger leaders coming up through the ranks of the Communist party, military and government will carry on his legacy. "In general I feel good. Most of all I feel energetic and enthusiastic about things," Mr Castro told Ignacio Ramonet, the director of Le Monde Diplomatique, in an interview published by the Spanish newspaper El País on April 2. The publication of extracts from 100 hours of interviews, given from 2003 to 2005 and now to be turned into a book, comes as the US Central Intelligence Agency reports that Mr Castro has Parkinson's disease. The Bush administration has been voicing its concern that Mr Castro's younger brother, the defence minister Raul Castro, 74, will soon take over. "If something happens to me tomorrow the National Assembly will surely meet and elect him," Mr Castro says, "and so will the political bureau." But then Mr Castro, for the first time, admits that his brother, who will be 75 in June and has been at his side since the 1959 revolution, is also getting on in years. "But already he is getting near my age and this problem [succession] is more generational," Mr Castro says, adding later, "now there are new generations [coming forward] because our generation is already passing." Most top party officials, military officers and ministers are now between 40 and 60 years of age, though the few "historicos" left, in particular the Castro brothers, still clearly set policy. His strongest supporters believe he should remain as long as possible, especially given continued US hostility, but his detractors insist he should have stepped down long ago as his antagonism to the US and state domination of the economy are ruining the country. [Interview with Fidel Castro] (Financial Times, 5/4/06)

April 2: Well-known Cuban artists have done wonders for about 50 old US refrigerators by converting them into works of art for the "Manual de Instrucciones" show that opened in Havana as part of the 9th Biennial Plastic Arts Exhibition. Painters such as Roberto Fabelo and Flora Fong, actor Jorge Perugorria ("Strawberry and Chocolate") and Eduardo Abela, among others, for the next month will exhibit the appliances - many of them from the 1950s - that they augmented according to their creative visions, turning them into curious and surprising artistic pieces. (EFE, 2/4/06)

April 2: Cuban political prisoner and independent journalist Roberto de Jesús Guerra Pérez has been on a hunger strike since last March 21, protesting the abuses he is being subjected to in prison as well as the fact that he is being held without due process for over fourteen months now. According to his relatives, Roberto de Jesús wrote 17 letters to his relatives and prison officials never mailed them. The 27-year old independent journalist and promoter of the "Corriente Martiana" in Havana is being held in prison without due process since July 13 of 2005. On January 20th, 2006, he was transferred to the prison Nieves Morejón in Sancti Spiritu while his legal situation is still in limbo. (Puente Informativo, 2/4/06)

April 3: The International Baseball Federation (IBAF) has awarded international prizes to Cuban baseball players Eduardo Paret and Dayan Viciedo. Paret, captain of the latest national team and most valuable player at the Holland 2005 World Cup, was named the best player of the year. Viciedo was awarded the Ike Ikura prize for the best junior player of the year, given his outstanding performance in the 15-16 national selection that won the world championship. (Prensa Latina, 3/4/06)

April 3: T he overcrowded tenement houses known popularly in Cuba by the name of "solar" are a dramatic reminder of the severe housing shortage still facing the country, despite the efforts made in recent years. While this a problem that now extends to all of Cuba's large cities, it is especially serious in Havana, where there are over 7,000 of these typically precarious multi-family dwellings. Since 2004, roughly 1,000 tenement houses in Havana have undergone major repairs. Efforts like these have been underway since the mid-1990s and involve numerous local and foreign entities. One example is the Cayo Hueso project, created in 1995 under the auspices of the Ministry of Basic Industry to benefit this sprawling Centro Habana neighbourhood - the second founded outside the former city walls of Old Havana, which is home to just over 200 tenement houses. The financing from the project came from Oxfam-Canada, the Canadian branch of the international development agency, and the Martin Luther King Centre in Cuba. The renovation work itself was done by a government construction brigade, assisted by a number of the building's residents, who received a salary for their work. ( IPS , 3/4/06)

April 4: United by their revolutionary ideas and loyalty to their country, young Cubans across the island celebrated the 45 th Anniversary of the Jose Marti Pioneers Organization and the 44 th Anniversary of the Young Communist League (UJC) in a ceremony at the Karl Marx Theater. During the ceremony, "Los Zapaticos de Rosa" award [named after a Jose Marti poem about sharing that all pioneers learn]; the national award for youths with an outstanding record of volunteer and school participation; and the UJC Flag of Honor were presented by different groups including the Cuban baseball team that recently placed second at the World Baseball Classic. (Granma, 4/3/06)

April 4: An address by Fidel Castro during the celebration of the 45 th Anniversary of the Jose Marti Pioneers Organization and the 44 th Anniversary of the Young Communist League Tuesday evening was broadcast live on Cuban television. In the speech at Havana’s Karl Marx Theater, Fidel Castro said that the Cuban education system is inconceivable without the Pioneers Organization. "Today has been a great day for everyone and I am happy to have been able to share in this celebration with the children and young people who have attended today’s event representing their peers from throughout the country," Commander in Chief Fidel Castro said. Castro praised the pioneers for their participation in 24 demonstrations in which they marched beside their teachers and parents and gave speeches. "The Cuban children participated in the process that reaffirmed the irrevocable socialist character of the Constitution and they signed 150,000 letters to President Bush, telling him about the life and work of Jose Marti. The Cuban children, the pioneers, know that the Cuban Revolution is invincible," said Fidel Castro. (Granma, 6/4/06)

April 4: The film "Una Rosa de Francia" (A French Rose) by the Spanish film maker Manuel Gutierrez, with script by Senel Paz (Strawberry and Chocolate) and actor Jorge Perrugorria, both Cuban, will be premiered in Havana. The premiere is scheduled at La Rampa theater, a downtown cinema, in which Gutierrez (Quartet in Havana) who is in Havana with part of the production team, will address the audience. (Prensa Latina, 4/3/06)

April 4: It was supposed to be a big scoop, one of those rare tell-all interviews with Fidel Castro that fills books and sells papers. But the interview published on April 2 in the prominent Spanish daily El País has some apparent problems: several quotes are verbatim from public speeches the Cuban leader gave. El País published an excerpt from “Fidel Castro: Biografia a dos voces” -- Fidel Castro: A Two-Voiced Biography -- written by French leftist intellectual Ignacio Ramonet and published by Debate, a division of Random House Mondadori. The headline said Ramonet, the editor of Le Monde Diplomatique, a Paris scholarly review, got an unprecedented 100 hours of conversations with Castro. ''When I read it, it sounded familiar,'' said Ernesto Hernández-Busto, a Cuban writer based in Spain who discovered the similarities. ``It wound up being a cut-and-paste operation.'' The similarities between the excerpts from Ramonet's book and Castro's speeches were exposed by prominent Spanish blogger Arcadi Espada on his website, www.arcadi.espasa.com. Writer Hernández-Busto was the first to notice, but others followed with at least five paragraphs that matched word for word. Hernández-Busto said he figures Ramonet likely struck a deal with the Cuban government that required him to turn in his manuscript for approval prior to publication. The Cuban government ''probably sent it back to him with corrections,'' Hernández-Busto said. (The Miami Herald, 5/4/06)

April 5: According to recent medical statistics, triplets occur at a rate of approximately one delivery per every 7,500 of single births. Periodico 26 Online reported on October 17, 2005 that Aracelys Jorge Perez, who lives in the northern town of Chaparra in eastern Las Tunas province, had become mother of three babies at the same time. Four months later, a similar delivery took place in nearby Ernesto Guevara Hospital. Since Dania Bermudez Gutierrez gave birth to her beloved triplets on February 17, that event has been the talk of her hometown of San Manuel, in northeast Las Tunas province. They were the first triplets in the history of that town and everyone wants to know details of the new experience that their lucky mother is going through. (CAN, 5/4/06)

April 6: The Ministry of Culture and the National Council for the Performing Arts annual Cuban National Dance Award was given this year to dancers, choreographers and teachers Ramona de Saa and Santiago Alfonso. Indisputable masters in their respective areas of the performing areas, De Saa is considered one of the mainstays in the formation and preservation of the Cuban School of Ballet. Alfonso was part of the first line performers of contemporary dance in Cuba, and has obtained an infinite number of achievements in dealing with Cuban popular dances. (Granma, 7/4/06)

April 7: Coinciding with the World Health Day, Cuba immunized 524,000 children in the second stage of the anti-poliomyelitis vaccination campaign. Nearly 384,000 under three-year-old toddlers, already vaccinated in February, received a second portion while the medication was reactivated for over 140,000 nine-year-old children. (Prensa Latina, 7/4/06)

April 7: A report issued by the illegal dissident organization, Cuban Foundation of Human Rights (FCDH), denounces the “critical situation that the Cuban people suffer in matters concerning human rights, as well as public freedoms”. Signed by Juan Carlos Leiva, president of the FCDH, based in the city of Ciego de Avila, in the eastern province with the same name, the report denounces the “acts of repudiation” as “the main weapon of repression and terror currently used by the Cuban government” against the dissidents and their families, and states that “in the last ten months, the government has carried out over 100” of these repressive acts. The report also denounces violations of civil and political rights, as well as the inhuman conditions in jail. “More than 500 political prisoners remain locked in Cuban prisons. Close to one hundred of them are prisoners of conscience. Almost daily, military officials in all the prisons of the country deal savage beatings to the prisoners in general (…) The prisoners are beaten with whips made from marabou, rubber straps, and hoses: they are also kicked and slapped. Food and water is cut back to insignificant quantities. The prisoners’ cells are enclosed (without light) with a hole in the floor for their bodily functions”, the report says. (Netfor Cuba, 7/4/06)

April 7: The Cuban University Students Federation (FEU) will discuss new ways to guarantee the invulnerability of the Revolution at their seventh Congress, the organization’s president Carlos Lage Codorniu said. The FEU hopes this congress will make a difference, and to that end it is stepping up its role as a popular organization with a deep social vocation, he stressed. He added that the FEU wants young people to become a social force that contributes to the revolutionary project of the Cuban people. (Prensa Latina, 7/4/06)

April 10: Fidel Castro's government has made a point of cultural diplomacy, inaugurating the Havana biennal 22 years ago with the aspiration of making the capital city the cultural hub of the Third World. Throughout the city, museums have been refurbished, and installed with many politically charged works that speak both for and against the revolution, displays that seem to demonstrate the government's tolerance of dissenting voices. But in the studios, we see many works that will not be publicly exhibited in Cuba. The artists know the consequences: irresolvable bureaucratic hang-ups, complicated exit visas, harassing calls from state security. These artists and curators function in a shadowy world, where freedoms and consequences are never clear. And nothing is quite what it seems. (…) It is censorship of a subtle, Kafkaesque sort. Yes, you can show the work; no, we cannot assure you the space. Uncertainty is a theme that runs through much of the best contemporary art made in Havana. Other works present utopian schemes for public spaces and housing projects, visionary speculations that inspire dreaming over despair. (…) In Cuba, it's a delicate dance between the government and the artists. The one thing they can agree on is the power of the visual in mobilizing thought. No one here is underestimating the power of art. (The Globe and Mail, 10/4/06)

April 10: T he Christian Center for Reflection and Dialogue, in the western Cuban city of Cárdenas, is working to carve out a larger space for reflection in Cuban society. "If we are not part of the solution, then we are part of the problem" is one of the slogans of the center, which organizes workshops and retreats on issues like reconciliation, peace, conflict resolution, inter-religious dialogue, gender violence and sexuality. "The future is not about closing our minds, but about opening them, without losing the basic essence of our project," Pastor Raimundo García, executive director of the religious institution founded in the early 1990s in Cárdenas, 150 kilometers from Havana, told the press. He also said the country is still experiencing "a lack of dialogue and participation" that makes it difficult to improve the political system. "More than ecumenical, this is an all-inclusive institution," said García. "Our assembly and board of directors include Christians from different denominations, as well as people from other religions, non-believers and members of the Communist Party. We have achieved mutual respect for each other, and we have been able to reach a consensus." In his view, Cuba should not cut off any lines of dialogue. On the contrary, "they need to be deepened, to see what people think in different sectors, how we can work together on a shared project for the future. It is possible that some officials could start to think about the total centralization of the state once again, but it has already been proven that this doesn't work," he said. "We can't go back to what we were in the past. If we close our eyes and bury our heads in the sand like ostriches, then we will definitely destroy what we have," he said. (IPS, 10/4/06)

April 10: Notables from more than 15 countries are attending the 9th International Conference on African and African American Culture. The event in session at the Heredia Convention Theatre in Santiago de Cuba includes a symposium on Culture and Medicine. Issues under discussion include the historical heritage and universal significance of African and African-American cultures. (Prensa Latina, 10/4/06)

April 10: Over 400 delegates from 36 countries gathered in Havana to participate in the 5th Hemispheric Meeting Against the Free Trade Agreement of the Americas. In the inaugural speech, the president of the Department of Economic Affairs of Cuba’s National Assembly, Osvaldo Martinez, said that this forum will “update, coordinate, and consolidate the social and popular movements’ strategies” against the US sponsored FTA. (EFECOM, 10/4/06)

April 10: Cuban authorities allowed two bishops to broadcast Holy Week messages on the radio , confirmed monsignor Emilio Aranguren, bishop of Holguín . According to the prelate, the Office of Religious Affairs, affiliated with the Central Committee of the Cuban Communist Party, permitted him and Bishop Dionisio García Ibáñez of Bayamo-Manzanillo, to broadcast radio messages for the start of Holy Week in their respective dioceses . This is the first time that this happens in Holguín in 46 years. (Zenit, 10/4/06)

April 10: Cuba reduced infant mortality in the first quarter of 2006 to 5.3 for each 1,000 live births, down from the same period in 2005 when it reported 6.2 percent, Cuban health officials reported. Maria Cecilia Santana, director of the Cuban Public Health Ministry´s (MINSAP) Maternal Infant Department, pointed out that this decrease was thanks to the work of all sectors of Cuban society. (Radio Habana Cuba, 10/4/06)

April 10: The 11 th International Gathering of Dance in Urban Landscapes: City in Motion is set to take place from April 12 to April 16. Havana’s architecture will once again be the setting for the festival, which showcases national and international dances inside the buildings of one of the region’s most architecturally interesting metropolises. As of 1999, the festival has been included as part of the International Cities that Dance Circuit, a network created in Barcelona in 1992 and made up of 12 European, and North and South American cities. Dance troupes from 14 countries will perform in the ancient plazas, streets and walls of Old Havana. (Granma, 11/4/06)

April 11: Medical services in Sibanicú, Camaguey, are scarce. Since its inauguration at the beginning of 2005, the municipal optical is deficient in prescription lenses. The laboratory of the municipal hospital lacks reagents to conduct clinical analyses, which affects diabetic patients and pregnant women. The X-ray department doesn’t have plates for radiographies of the thorax. These scarcities add to a shortage of doctors, since many of them left their practice to work in Venezuela. All this has created discontent in the population, opposing the massive arrival of foreign patients to undergo eye surgery as part of the so-called Operation Miracle. (Cubanet, 11/4/06)

April 11: A small number of Cubans have embraced Islam, gathering for prayers and attending religious events mostly sponsored by Iranian diplomats in Havana, one of the converts said. Some Havana residents place the total number of converts at 300; others, at 3,000. What's certain is that about 70 usually attend the gatherings hosted by the Iranian diplomats. ''We are a small community that struggles on. (…) Many people associate Muslims with a not-very moderate Islam, but we are very moderate,'' said Alí Nicolás Cossío, a former foreign ministry official who now reports for the Voice of Islam, the official Iranian radio station. “The community owes much to the embassies' moral and human support, and the Iranian Embassy -- the only Shiite mission -- stands out in that regard,'' Cossío told the press. There are about 16 Arab diplomatic missions in Havana, Cossío said, but the Iranian embassy plays the leading role in contacts with the local Muslims. So the converts are now asking for permission to build a mosque in Havana. ''Cuba is the only Latin American country without a mosque, and where there's no mosque it is very difficult to establish social exchanges,'' Cossío said. For now, though, that would seem unlikely. For years, the Islamic diplomatic community asked for one but had to resort to makeshift prayer halls in diplomatic compounds. And Cuba has been all but barring other religions from building new temples. (El Nuevo Herald, 12/4/06)

April 11: It does not appear that capital punishment will disappear any time soon in Cuba despite a de facto moratorium on the death penalty. April 11 marked the third anniversary of the executions of three Cubans who hijacked a ferry carrying dozens of passengers, including four foreign tourists, in an attempt to reach the United States in April 2003. At present, the Cuban government stresses that the death sentence is only handed down in "exceptional" circumstances, and is kept on the books as a judicial weapon that can be used by the country to defend itself from both external attack and potential internal activities aimed at destroying the state. "The possible abolition of capital punishment in Cuba would be linked to a cease in the policy of hostility, terrorism and economic, commercial and financial warfare to which its people have been subjected for over 40 years by the United States," the Cuban Foreign Ministry told the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights in 2004. With regard to crimes against life and physical integrity, the Cuban Criminal Code establishes the death penalty for cases of homicide, rape, sexual abuse of minors involving violence, robbery involving violence and intimidation, and crimes in which corruption serves as an aggravating factor. "Right now there are around 50 people either sentenced to, or eligible for, the death sentence," opposition leader Elizardo Sánchez told IPS. Sánchez is the president of the Cuban Commission for Human Rights and National Reconciliation, an opposition group that has no legal status but is tolerated by the Cuban government. (IPS, 11/4/06)

April 12: Leaders of the Communist Party of Cuba (PCC) and of the Ministry of the Interior (MININT), met “to look into incidents of street violence” and to take strong measures against the “acts of vandalism” taking place in cities around the country. According to a source, one of the tasks of this commission will be to analyze “the outbreak of protests” against public transport - including the buses recently bought from China-, particularly alarming in the City of Havana. (El Nuevo Herald, 12/4/06)

April 13 The mortal remains of first lieutenant Hermes Peña Torres, killed in combat in Argentina on April 18, 1964, were buried with military honours close to those of Che Guevara in Santa Clara , in the centre of Cuba. Peña Torres was part of the People’s Guerrilla Army commanded by Argentine journalist Jorge Ricardo Masetti, founder of the Cuban press agency Prensa Latina, in the Argentine province of Salta. His grave had been located in that country a few months ago. (AFP, 13/4/06)

April 14: Cuban prisons remain packed full of political prisoners and repression against dissidents, opponents of the regime, independent journalists and correspondents is on the rise. All this is made clear with the recent detentions and threats carried out by the forces of the State Security against members of the opposition on the threshold of the third anniversary of the wave of repression of March 2003. In the municipality of Consolación del Sur in Pinar del Río province, the house of Felipe Gil Sanjudo, an independent journalist, was visited by two State Security agents and by the chief of the police in that territory. They threatened to jail Sanjudo if he participated in the activity commemorating the anniversary of the crackdown on dissidents of 2003. They also told him they wouldn't allow him to travel to the city of Pinar del Río. In the eastern zone of the island in the town of San Luis in Santiago de Cuba, Maura Isset was assaulted, together with her husband, in her own home by security agents. The agents insulted her verbally for her membership to a dissident organization. Isset is affiliated with the Federation of Latin American Rural Women (FLAMUR). (Cubanet, 14/4/06)

April 15: Cuban photographer Raul Corrales, known as one of the leaders in his field in the post-Revolutionary period, died in Havana, state television reported. He was 81. Born in 1925, Corrales was for almost 60 years "a paradigm of Cuban photography" and his death represents "a regrettable loss" to Cuban culture, the station added. Along with Alberto Diaz "Korda," author of the most famous photo taken of Argentine-born Cuban revolutionary icon Ernesto "Che" Guevara; and Osvaldo Salas; Corrales is recognized as one of the leading figures of the so-called "Epic Photography of the Cuba Revolution" period that followed Fidel Castro's rise to power in 1959. He also is known for important photographs of the April 1961 Bay of Pigs invasion. (EFE, 15/4/06)

April 16: On the same place the socialist character of the Revolution was declared 45 years ago, Cuba ratified the willingness and resoluteness to continue with its political, economic and social project irrespective of the ever-present US threats and aggressions. Cubans endorsed their stance at a public rally on 23 and 12 streets in the Havana borough of El Vedado, on April 16, 1961, when then Prime Minister Fidel Castro delivered a speech in the national mourning for victims of US air raids of several Cuban airports. In the political on meeting, Havana Communist Party First Secretary Pedro Saez recalled the US refused to accept that a small country like Cuba would decide on its own destiny, and organized a troop of Cuban exiles, but in less than 72 hours, they were defeated. The celebration was also headed by commanders Ramiro Valdés and Guillermo García, together with Communist Party officials, Esteban Lazo and Pedro Ross. Fidel Castro was not present at the event, nor was Raúl Castro, minister of Defence and number two in the country’s hierarchy. (Prensa Latina, EFE, 16/4/06)

April 17: Seven women whose attempt to leave the island with their children was frustrated when Cuban coast guard officials opened fire on their alleged smugglers will be tried in court for endangering their children's lives, state media reported. The Communist Party daily Granma said the seven children, ages 1 to 14, had to walk through swampy terrain plagued with mosquitoes and without water or food for two days before April 5, when they were to be picked up by migrant smugglers in the western province of Pinar del Rio. “Once again it has been exposed how irresponsible and unscrupulous people put the lives of their children in twice as much danger: to drown during their voyage or get sick because of the bad environment chosen by the smugglers," Granma said. The newspaper offered no details on the specific charges against the women or when they would be tried. [Nada ni nadie puede poner en peligro la vida de un niño] (AP, 17/4/06)

April 18: The Cuban Commission of Human Rights and National Reconciliation (CCDHRN) criticized the “lack of basic guarantees” in the judicial process that authorities have announced against seven mothers who tried to flee the island on a boat used for “human smuggling”. “The process is not transparent”, said the president of the organization, Elizardo Sánchez Santacruz. “All 39 detainees are incommunicado and without access to basic guarantees”, added the activist. (EER, 20/4/06)

April 18: Cuba is the second country in the world with the largest number of hyperbaric oxygen chambers, only following South Korea, Dr. Juan Chui informed. Dr. Chui, president of the Cuban Society of Hyperbaric Medicine and Undersea Activities, said that hospitals throughout the country are equipped with hyperbaric chambers, part of the health authorities' strategy to improve the quality of health care. (Prensa Latina, 18/4/06)

April 18: The wife of political prisoner Dr. Alfredo Pulido Lopez, denounced that her husband’s health condition has significantly worsened. Rebeca Rodriguez said that Dr. Pulido, a dentist who was incarcerated in Kilo 8 Prison, Camaguey province, after the crackdown against dissidents in 2003, has lost a lot of weight and suffers from chronic bronchitis. Lack of air also affect Dr. Pulido’s health, and recently, dark bruises of an unknown origin have appeared on his skin. He is now at least 20 pounds under what he weighed when he was incarcerated in 2003. Rebeca said that she had never seen her husband so depressed and psychologically distraught. According to the Cuban dentist’s testimony, his condition is related to an increase of aggressiveness among the prisoners. He pointed out that a few days before his wife’s visit, one prisoner had killed another. “We are constantly under inspection. They call those of us that are political prisoners ‘counter-revolutionaries’ and treat us like common criminals.” Dr. Pulido, 46, practiced dentistry for 22 years until 1998 when he was expelled from his clinic for linking himself to the dissident movement through the Christian Liberation Movement. (Netfor Cuba, 24/4/06)

April 19: Cuba celebrated the 45th anniversary of its forces' humiliating defeat of a US-organized invasion of exiles, with the main newspaper saying Washington's belief that the invaders would be welcomed by a cheering populace was a major miscalculation that helped doom the effort. A politico-cultural event set for the evening in Havana will cap the commemorations of the Castro regime's triumph at the place known in the United States as the Bay of Pigs, but more commonly called here Giron Beach. Veterans of the battle will be among the more than 3,000 people on hand at the capital's Karl Marx Theater, according to state-run media. (EFE, 19/4/06)

April 19: A national poster exhibit celebrating the 45 th anniversary of the Bay of Pigs victory opened at the Pedro Esquerre Art Gallery in Matanzas, sponsored by the Cuban Association of Social Communicators. The show brings together 40 posters related to the heroic triumph in April, 1961 against the US financed and organized invasion of the Bay of Pigs. Posters are by artists from Guantanamo, Santiago de Cuba, Las Tunas, Pinar del Rio and the host city. A jury headed by cartoonist Manuel Hernandez awarded prizes to Jose Ramon Chavez for his overall work and Norberto Pena Caamano and Jorge Luis Abreu for specific posters. (Granma, 19/4/06)

April 19: Fidel Castro told a rally in Havana to commemorate the 45th Anniversary of the defeat of the 1961 Bay of Pigs mercenary invasion, that no power on earth will ever be able to make the Cuban people kneel down. In his speech, Castro remembered the Cubans who were killed in combat. The leader of the Cuban Revolution said that the United States has maintained a permanent aggressive policy against the Cuban people since then. "We do not provoke and will not provoke any wars, but we will never beg for peace, because we are confident that the victory was, is and will always be ours," said Fidel Castro. (CAN, 20/4/06)

April 20: The health of Doctor Oscar Elías Biscet González, a Cuban prisoner of conscience in the Combinado del Este prison in Havana, has “notably deteriorated”, reported his wife Elsa Morejón. “Oscar is in a humid cell with no light, and without adequate food”, denounced Morejón, who criticized the complete abandon in the administration of medicines to her husband. Biscet has been in prison under severe conditions for several years after being sentenced to 25 years in jail in the spring of 2003. (Europa Press, 20/4/06)

April 21: Cuban pianist and composer Hilario Duran was named Best Latin Jazz Artist at the 2006 Canadian National Jazz Awards. Also nominated in this category was young Cuban pianist David Virelles. Duran was also nominated in the Best Contemporary Jazz Album category for his album “Encuentro en La Habana” and in five other categories: Musician of the Year, Keyboardist of the Year, Arranger of the Year, Acoustic Group of the Year, Big Band of the Year. Hilario Duran’s latest recording, “Encuentro en La Habana”, was also recorded in Havana in the EGREM studios in February 2005. In addition to the Canadian National Jazz Awards nomination, the album was also nominated to the 2006 Canadian Juno Awards. (Granma, 21/4/06)

April 20: A total of 220 dogs are competing for the title of "most beautiful" at Cuba's biannual dog show. It's an opportunity for this communist island's dog lovers to show off their Miniature and Giant Schnauzers, Chow Chows, English Pointers, Siberian Huskies and other breeds. Love for dogs in Cuba runs deep, but in a country where a state salary averages about US$12 (euro9.72) a month and dog food is rare and expensive, dog owners often have to make sacrifices to pamper their pets. With breed dogs costing between US$200 (euro162) and US$300 (euro243), having one seems a luxury. Dog grooming at a state-run pet shop costs between US$6 (euro4.86) and US$7 (euro5.67) and dog owners said they spend an average of US$15 (euro12.15) weekly on food per dog. (AP, 20/4/06)

April 23: Raul Castro made a call to the unity of all the militaries as guarantors of the continuation of the Cuban political process after the death of current leadership in the island. The designated official successor in Cuba after Fidel Castro, addressed a group of veterans during a political and military ceremony to celebrate the 45th Anniversary of the founding of the Cuba's Eastern Regional Army. “I am optimistic about the future of this Revolution once we all have disappeared in a short time due to biological or any other reason”, the Minister of Armed Forces said. “Once I am gone (…) it will be with great satisfaction as long as we are able to continue what we just saw here today, the unity of civilian and militaries”. Miguel Diaz-Canel Bermudez, Member of the Political Bureau and Communist Party First Secretary in Holguin province, also addressed the ceremony. “Only a legitimate Revolution, made up of common people in uniform, can achieve the miracle of a close alliance between the Army and the population”, Diaz-Canel said. (La Jornada, Granma, 24, 27/4/06)

April 24: The Third Cuban Olympiad will offer athletes sound sports, technical and scientific competition, said Fidel Castro in his inaugural speech of the games, at Havana’s Ciudad Deportiva Coliseum. The leader of the Revolution affirmed that "this modest event" is "taking place after the joy left in the country due to the brilliant performance" of the Cuban team, who won second place in the Classic. "From today all of you are to be involved in a beautiful fiesta of sports, friendship and solidarity. While violence and unjust wars are expanding, we are here paying tribute to peace, fraternity and the finest values of human beings," Fidel added in an inaugural speech of 20 minutes. The ceremony in Havana’s Sports Coliseum included a parade by the delegations and a colorful cultural show. (CAN, Granma International, 25/4/06)

April 25: Over 120 members of an international brigade of solidarity with Cuba are in Havana to carry out voluntary work and visit sites of historic and social interest in the country. Starting a 15-day visit, the group denominated "Primero de Mayo" are due to attend the Workers' Day's central act in Havana, and the following day they will hold a world meeting of solidarity with Cuba and other delegates. The brigade members came from nations from five continents and, in addition to working in agriculture and construction, they are expected to meet with representatives of social, economic, political, religious, cultural and scientific institutions. (Prensa Latina, 25/4/06)

April 25: Knowledge is the decisive resource for competitiveness and economic growth, declared America Santos, the vice minister of Science, Technology and the Environment (CITMA), during the inaugural conference of the International Workshop on Intellectual Property that is taking place in the Jimaguayu Hall of Havana’s Capitol Building. At the meeting, specialists on Intellectual Property pointed out that 87 percent of invention patents and registered trademarks worldwide belong to transnational corporations. The seminar is co-sponsored by CITMA and the Andres Bello Agreement, an intergovernmental organization that brings together twelve Latin American nations for educational, scientific, technological and cultural integration. (Granma, 26/4/06)

April 25: A gala celebration dedicated to the 168 th anniversary of the Garcia Lorca Hall of the Gran Teatro of Havana put the finishing touches on the 13 th International Gathering of Ballet Academies and the 9 th International Ballet Competition for students. The gathering, held over two weeks, brought together teachers, students and guests from 46 ballet academies and 17 countries to take part in workshops, exchange experiences and socialize. In this environment of cultural vitality, students from the Alejo Carpentier School of Ballet delighted the public during the gala evening with three performances choreographed by Eduardo Blanco: “Obertura cubana”, “Mojito criollo” and “Zapateo por derecho”(by Cuban musician Frank Fernandez). (Granma, 26/4/06)

April 25: A mob organized by the Communist government's secret police beat up a prominent dissident and invaded her home, a human rights group and the victim of the agression said. Marta Beatriz Roque told the press that the incident occurred when a group of people stationed themselves in front of her house in the capital to prevent her from attending a meeting at the home of the head of the US Interests Section in Cuba, Michael Parmly. She said that when she tried to leave her home, about 10 men and two women pushed and beat her in the passageway that leads from the house to the street, and a man entered her residence and slugged her in the face. She acknowledged she had shouted, "Down with Fidel!," referring to the aging autocrat who has ruled this island nation since 1959. Roque, an economist and former university professor, said that after being beaten she had problems seeing out of one eye and had bruises on one of her legs and an arm. The Cuban Committee for Human Rights and National Reconciliation (CCDHRN) denounced what it called the "brutal aggression" against Roque. Also the Christian Liberation Movement, lead by dissident Oswaldo Paya, denounced the aggression as a “cowardly” and “fascist” assault against a woman. [Sobre golpiza a Martha Beatriz Roque] (EFE, El Nuevo Herald, 26/4/06)

April 25: "We realize that the Committees for the Defense of the Revolution (CDRs) speak a different language now, because we have heard self-critical speeches that recognize shortcomings", said Jose Ramon Machado Ventura, member of the Political Bureau, during an address at the Sixth National Session of the CDRs underway at the EXPOCUBA exhibition grounds. Machado Ventura also said during his address that it was evident that the CDRs’ leadership was well aware of the main problems facing neighbourhoods, and were trying to find solutions, working directly with the base community. "Today we are witnessing a much stronger organization, with better results. The Party has great confidence in the CDRs." (Granma, 26/4/06)

April 26: Little Cuban girls fantasize about being flamenco dancers -- strong, beautiful women in ruffled skirts and swept up hairdos, who evoke wondrous, thunderous magic by stomping their black strapped shoes. In a country that gained its independence from Spain a little more than a century ago, the Spanish dance remains highly popular among young Cuban girls, in the same way ballet enthralls girls in the United States and tango in Argentina. Still-thriving cultural societies formed by Spanish immigrants to Cuba represent regions such as Asturias and Andaluz and offer flamenco dance and other programs. But the leading school is run by the government's Ballet Espanol de Cuba, operating under the auspices of the grande dame of ballet, Alicia Alonso, and the leadership of classically trained dancer Eduardo Veitia, the company's general and artistic director. Reynaldo Ibanez, technical director of the school for 12 years, says the best of the best have the chance of joining the dance company as they mature. (AP, 25/4/06)

April 27: The Cuban government supports a project to build a Russian Orthodox church in Havana, said Caridad Diego, head of the Department for Religious Affairs at the Central Committee of the Cuban Communist Party. The Cuban leadership and the Moscow Patriarchate made the decision to build the church two years ago, Diego told a news conference in Moscow. However, the best ideas were articulated during a recent meeting between Fidel Castro and the Metropolitan of Smolensk and Kaliningrad Kyrill, she said. "It was decided to build not just a church for Cuban Russian Orthodox believers, but a large cathedral, where Russian Orthodox priests will be trained not only for Cuba, but for the whole Caribbean Basin and Latin America," she said. "It is no secret that the construction of the Russian cathedral will become a symbol of friendship and cooperation between our nations," she said. (Interfax, 27/4/06)

April 27: Cuban dissident Guillermo Fariñas, three months into a hunger strike, is in stable condition under doctors' care but continues to refuse food or liquids, family members told the press. Fariñas, who remains hospitalized in the central city of Santa Clara, launched the hunger strike on January 31 to press his demand for Cubans to be allowed unrestricted access to the Internet. Cuba's 47-year-old one-party Communist government limits legal access to the Web in an effort to control what the populace may read and see. The dissident's mother, Alicia Hernandez, said that her son has experienced a "slight improvement" in recent days after surviving repeated kidney failure and an infection accompanied by very high fever. (EFE, 27/4/06)

April 27: Papal Nuncio in Cuba, Luigi Bonazzi, called as “positive” the results of the dialogue between the State and the Church in the island, and requested from Cuban top officials more space to develop the work of the Church. Monsignor Bonazzi read his message during a reception for the first anniversary of Benedict XVI pontificate, attended by the president of the National Assembly, Ricardo Alarcon, the minister of Health, José Ramón Balaguer, and other government representatives. (MartiNoticias, 27/4/06)

April 28: Cuban ornithologists have received permission to search for the long-lost, ivory-billed woodpecker in heavily wooded areas of the island that have been off-limits even to scientists since Fidel Castro seized power here almost 50 years ago. Backed by a grant from Birdlife International, a British conservation group, the search began in the pine forests of the Sierra Maestra mountains of eastern Cuba. "I believe the bird is here," said Arturo Kirkconnell, co-author of the Field Guide to the Birds of Cuba and one of the island's top researchers. "We have a chance now to go to areas never visited before. The habitat is ideal, and there has been no evidence that the woodpecker is not there." The reason that some remote areas of Guantanamo province, in the eastern end of the island, and in Pinar del Rio, to the west of Havana, are now open for scientific exploration are not exactly clear, even to the scientists involved. Outsiders familiar with the project suggest the reasons for earlier prohibitions may be a combination of state security and bureaucratic whims. (Sun Sentinel, 28/4/06)

April 28: The Political Bureau of Cuba's Communist Party (PCC) announced the removal of one of its members and changes in the auxiliary structure of the Central Committee, amid the "continuing process for the improvement of the party’s role." According to a note by the Political Bureau, a meeting headed by its first secretary Fidel Castro assessed "the regrettable, unusual ineptitude of a political figure to overcome his mistakes," alluding to its member Juan Carlos Robinson. After being criticized, warned, and encouraged more than once by the PCC leadership to overcome his faults, Robinson pretended he had admitted them and left them behind, the text added. Far from accepting the reprimands and warnings, he behaved even more arrogant, with increasing abuse of authority, imprudence, and softening of his ethical principles, the note reads. As a result, a new, thorough analysis of his behaviour was made, which led to the final decision to remove him from the Political Bureau, the Central Committee, and the PCC. The Political Bureau agreed to suggest that the Central Committee re-establish its Secretariat as auxiliary leading organ of the Political Bureau in the Party's daily task, and organize and watch over the implementation and fulfilment of its agreements. Similarly, it was agreed to create the departments of culture, public health, and science in addition to the other ten that form part of the Central Committee's auxiliary structure. (Prensa Latina, 28/4/06)