Chronicle on Cuba - April 2006

Terrorism

April 19: The US government released the first list of detainees held at the Guantanamo Bay prison -- the most extensive accounting yet of the hundreds of people held there, nearly all of them labeled enemy combatants. In all, 558 people were named in the list provided by the Pentagon in response to a Freedom of Information lawsuit by The Associated Press. They were among the first swept up in the US global war on terrorism for suspected links to al Qaeda or the Taliban. Those named are from Afghanistan, Saudi Arabia and 39 other countries. Many have been held at the US prison at Guantanamo Bay for more than four years. Only a handful have faced formal charges. (CNN, 20/4/06)

April 25: Representatives of the Colombian government and the South American nation's second-largest rebel group met in Havana in a renewed attempt to hammer out an agenda for peace talks. Neither side spoke to the news media after the meeting, which took place behind closed doors at the Palco hotel in western Havana. Headed by government peace envoy Luis Carlos Restrepo and rebel leaders Francisco Galan and Antonio Garcia, the two sides hope to fashion a schedule for talks to end at least part of the ongoing violence in Colombia. It is the third time in six months that representatives of the National Liberation Army, or ELN, have met with Restrepo in Havana for exploratory talks (La Jornada, AP, 25/4/06)