Chronicle on Cuba - April 2006

US-Cuba Relations

April 2: Cuba's parliamentary speaker criticized a branch of Canada's Bank of Nova Scotia, saying it had denied services to Cuba's diplomatic mission in Kingston, Jamaica. In comments carried by Cuba's National Information Agency, National Assembly President Ricardo Alarcon said the Jamaican branch of the Bank of Nova Scotia recently informed Cuban Ambassador Gisela Garcia it could no longer offer services to the embassy there "in accordance with the United States Patriot Act.'' Passed after the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, the Patriot Act gave US law enforcement a vast array of new investigative and prosecutorial powers, including increased reporting and monitoring requirements by American banks, as well as foreign banks doing business with the United States, to prevent transfer of US funds that could be used for terrorism.

Cuba remains on the US State Department's list of state sponsors of terrorism. "Now we discover that this instrument also has an aggressive end toward Cuba,'' said Alarcon. He said refusing bank services to Cuba by a non-US bank violates Jamaican and Canadian law. Scotiabank is one of many major banks with similar policies regarding US dollar wire transfers involving Cuba. (AP, Prensa Latina, Granma, 2,4/4/06)

April 3: The Florida chapter of the US-Cuba Trade Association will meet to discuss how businesses can benefit from current and potential trade policies with Cuba. If the United States doesn't take advantage of the opportunity, other countries will, according to member Stanley Riggs, a Sarasota resident and Palmetto businessman who is privately developing a $20 million warehouse complex near Port Manatee's US 41 entrance. We're talking about filling a void that some other country is going to fill, and we might regret how that plays out," Riggs said. The US-Cuba Trade Association is a collection of business interests that want to promote normal commerce between the United States and Cuba while leaving the political issues at the door. (The Miami Herald, 4/4/06)

April 5: Dresser-Rand Group Inc. said it may face US government sanctions over business dealings its Brazilian unit conducted with a Cuban mining company. The Olean, New York-based maker of compressors and turbines for the energy industry said it had discovered that the subsidiary is engaged in transactions with Moa Nickel SA -- jointly owned by the Cuban government and Canadian company Sherritt International Corp. -- and has informed the US Treasury Department of those dealings. The transactions date back to 1999 and total $4 million, $2.5 million of which came from the sale of a spare part ordered in October 2003, the company said. Dresser-Rand said it told the subsidiary to stop doing business with the Cuban company in July 2005, shortly before Dresser-Rand's initial public offering in August. The company said the dealings apparently violated the US Treasury Department regulations on Cuba, which is identified by the US State Department as a terrorist-sponsoring state. Dresser-Rand said it is in preliminary discussions with the US Treasury Department about the Cuban deals and may face sanctions and may face additional government scrutiny to see if it has done business with other countries subject to US sanctions. (Reuters, 5/4/06)

April 6: The second meeting of the Global Internet Freedom Task Force (GIFT) "discussed practical and constructive strategies to advance Internet freedom," said Under Secretary for Economic, Business and Agricultural Affairs Josette Shiner, who chaired the April 3 meeting. "The Internet, a powerful force for advancing knowledge and spreading information, is increasingly a target for censors," Shiner said. The multidisciplinary US State Department group reviewed issues, including increased monitoring of Internet censorship, discussions with US businesses, NGOs and academics on the challenges overseas and technologies that help break down barriers to Internet access. "In particular, we focused on challenges to Internet freedom in Iran, Cuba and China," Shiner added. (M2 Presswire, 6/4/06)

April 6: Administrative snags are delaying government aid to US-based groups that support pro-democracy organizations and dissidents in Cuba, several US officials and recipients said. The delays, though said to be a routine result of US government operations, come at a time that the Bush administration is under pressure to cut spending, fueling nervousness among grant recipients. The University of Miami's Cuba Transition Report, for example, is awaiting a payment of $400,000 from the US Agency for International Development (USAID) that was due January 1. Javier de Céspedes, who heads the Cuban Democratic Directorate, a group that seeks to provide support for pro-democracy organizations in Cuba, said he is temporarily using other funding sources to cover what USAID is late in delivering. Representative Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, a Miami Republican, raised the issue with Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice shortly before a House hearing on April 5, her office said. (The Miami Herald, 6/4/06)

April 6: The Cuban Coast Guard shot two suspected migrant smugglers from the United States, killing one, when they and a third man refused orders to halt their speed boat as it neared the island, official media said. The Communist Party daily Granma said the confrontation occurred on April 5 near Cuba's southern coast in the western province of Pinar del Rio. The Coast Guard official in charge ordered officers to open fire after the three-man crew aboard the 12-meter (40-foot) boat failed to stop as ordered and launched "violent sudden attacks" on a Coast Guard vessel, damaging the craft and almost causing it to overturn, the report said. The newspaper identified the owner of the speedboat as John Roberto, known as Blue Shark, of Florida and said the smugglers had planned to ferry the Cubans to Mexico. Two Cuban-Americans named Rafael Mesa Farinas and Rosendo Salgado Castro were wounded. A third man who was not immediately identified died later in hospital, the ruling Communist Party newspaper said. Police arrested 39 people, including 12 women and seven children, in connection with the attempt to leave Cuba illegally, Granma said. The women and children were later taken to their homes, it said. The Cuban government blamed the incident on US immigration policies it says encourage illegal migration, and accused Mexican government authorities in Quintana Roo and ''anti-Cuban mafia with connections in Miami'' of participating in smuggling rings. [El tráfico humano y la muerte viajan en lancha rápida] (AP, Reuters, 6/4/06)

April 6: Cuba's coast guard shot and killed one of three suspected people smugglers aboard a US-registered speedboat as it approached the island to pick up a group of Cubans, US officials said. The officials confirmed a report in Cuba's state-run Granma newspaper that the two surviving migrant smugglers, one of whom was wounded, are American citizens, but did not comment on the dead man's nationality. State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said the shooting was "deeply disturbing'' and Washington would be very worried if the dead man was a US citizen. "If you have an American citizen who's been shot and killed, I think that that is a deeply disturbing matter. And we would be very concerned about that,'' he said in Washington. The US Interests Section in Havana said it was notified of the incident some 22 hours later, in a 2 a.m. call to the Coast Guard officer assigned to the diplomatic mission. Drew Blakeney, spokesman for the US Interests Section in Havana, said American authorities had confirmed the names of the two surviving men and that they were US citizens. He said they were seeking consular access to them in custody. But Blakeney said they had not confirmed the identity nor the citizenship of the dead man. [El tráfico humano y la muerte viajan en lancha rápida] (Reuters, The Miami Herald, 6/4/06)

April 6: A children's book may be removed from dozens of elementary school libraries throughout the district because it contains themes from Cuba's communist regime. The book, “Vamos a Cuba” (“A Visit to Cuba”), is available at 33 schools, district officials say. A portrait of kids outfitted as Pioneers -- Cuba's communist youth group -- is emblazoned across the book's cover. Inside pages show scenes of a joyous carnival held on July 26, the anniversary of the Cuban revolution. After seeing the book, the parent of a Marjory Stoneman Douglas Elementary student promptly contacted officials at the West Miami-Dade school. First, a committee at the school will review the book's material, followed by district officials. If it's determined that censoring the book will not infringe on a student's right to a well-rounded education, a ruling will then be made on removing it. (The Miami Herald, 6/4/06)

April 7: Cuba wants to cooperate with the United States to fight drug trafficking and would even sign an agreement to make it official, a top official in Cuba's Interior Ministry said. Lt. Col. Miguel Landera, the No. 2 man in the ministry's international relations department, told reporters during a two-day government tour that "we are willing to contribute, we are willing to help with all the modest resources we have." Landera spoke to international media during a stop in Punta de Maisi, Cuba's easternmost point, while touring several provinces to show how the government keeps an eye out for traffickers with planes and helicopters, land patrols along unpopulated beaches and sea patrols in the Florida Straits. Cuba has agreements for anti-drug trafficking cooperation with more than 30 countries and regularly shares information with all other countries in the region about suspicious boats and aircraft. But despite being only 145 kilometers (90 miles) from southern Florida, Cuba has no formal anti-drug agreement with the United States. (AP, 7/4/06)

April 7: The man killed by Cuban border guards during an alleged immigrant-smuggling attempt had left Cuba just three weeks earlier, Cuban media reported. Geovel González Morera paid smugglers to get him and his girlfriend out of Cuba on March 14, but he was back on Cuban shores just before dawn on a Florida-registered 40-foot speedboat heading to pick up 43 people, Cuban TV reported. The Cuban Border Guard shot at the vessel as it approached the shore of Pinar del Río in southwestern Cuba with three men aboard when it refused orders to stop and rammed a Naval patrol boat, the Cuban newspaper Granma said. González died, and a Cuban-American man from Miami named Rosendo Salgado Castro was wounded. The other survivor now in custody in Cuba, Julio Rafael Mesa Fariñas -- a Cuban American who has lived for 26 years in Miami -- told authorities that he got involved in human smuggling to pay off a $20,000 debt. He owes the money to smugglers who helped get his wife and child out of Cuba to Mexico last year, and the smugglers are holding the woman and baby at a safehouse along the Gulf of Mexico until the debt is paid, the Cuban TV show Mesa Redonda reported. The U.S. Interests Section in Havana said it has not been able to independently verify the Cuban government's version of events. A spokesman said Cuban authorities have not responded to requests for American diplomats to have consular access to the accused smugglers, both of whom are US citizens. (The Miami Herald, 7/4/06)

April 11: Twelve Cuban immigrants arrived at Mona Island, Puerto Rico, after leaving Dominican Republic, local authorities said. This number adds to 439 Cuban immigrants that have arrived in this US territory since October 2005, Victor Griffin, US Coast Guard press spokesman said. (AP, 12/4/06)

April 12: Four decades ago, thousands of Cubans took to the Escambray mountains in a CIA-backed guerrilla war against Fidel Castro. Today, US law brands them as terrorists. In a twist of fate, 320 Cubans on the island with links to that armed revolt are now having problems winning US political asylum because the Patriot Act bars asylum for terrorists and people who help them. The Department of Homeland Security says the holdups affect 160 asylum applications involving 320 individuals who joined or helped the anti-Castro guerrillas, as well as some of the close relatives of the asylum seekers. Bill Strassberger, a spokesman for US Citizenship and Immigration Services, said lawyers from Homeland Security and the departments of State and Justice are trying to resolve the legal tangle of who's a terrorist and whether civilians who provide willing or unwilling support to terrorists should be denied asylum. (The Miami Herald, 12/4/06)

April 13: Business leaders and Cuban government officials expressed frustration with Bush administration policies that have tightened restrictions on travel and commerce between America and the Communist island nation. About 30 executives gathered for the first meeting of the Florida chapter of the US-Cuba Trade Association -- the same group whose Mexico City gathering between Cuban officials and US energy representatives in February was canceled after the American government pressured a hotel to expel the Cubans. The conference Thursday was intended to help Floridians better understand how to do business with Cuba. It was neither protested nor interrupted, but rife with concern over present hostility. "They are afraid of the free exchange of ideas," Dagoberto Rodriguez, head of the Cuban Interest Section in Washington, D.C. said by teleconference. "They are afraid of free contact between our two countries." He and several others said they doubted any restrictions would loosen before Bush's term ends. Irving Wheeler, a Polk County citrus grower, said he was interested in shipping oranges to Cuba, but not right now. "Not for the next two years, at least," he said, hoping for a different political climate. Molly Millerwise, spokeswoman for US Treasury Department, which enforces trade sanctions, said strong Cuba sanctions encourage democracy and hamstring a dangerous leader. (AP, 13/4/06)

April 13: Cuba spent $172 million on US food imports so far this year, representing a spike in sales over last year, the island's top agriculture import official said. Cuba bought mostly wheat, corn, rice and chicken, despite a rule enacted last year by the Bush administration that requires Havana to pay cash for American products before the goods leave US ports, instead of when they arrive in Cuban ports, said Pedro Alvarez, chairman of Alimport, the island's food import company. He spoke by teleconference from Havana at the ''Doing Business in Cuba'' conference in Orlando. Cuba spent 20 percent more in the first two months of 2006 over the same period last year, experts said. ''That is huge,'' said Kirby Jones, president of the US-Cuba Trade Association, which organized the conference for Florida companies interested in doing business with the communist country. "That's way up from last year. It doesn't mean it will continue that high, but it is substantial.'' (The Miami Herald, 13/4/06)

April 14: The controversial nation of Cuba, quickly emerging as a world trade partner, is showing serious interest in buying Oklahoma wheat, and possibly timber, pork and cattle. But agricultural officials worry that opposition by some members of Oklahoma's congressional delegation to easing trade restrictions will seriously hamper budding trade relations with the Caribbean island. US Representative Dan Boren, Democrat-Oklahoma, voted for three of four proposed amendments to the US trade embargo against Cuba last year that would have eased trade and travel restrictions for agricultural agents. US Senator Tom Coburn, Republican-Oklahoma, has yet to cast a vote on the issue. But US Senator Jim Inhofe and US Representatives John Sullivan, Frank Lucas, Tom Cole and Ernest Istook Jr. -- all Republicans -- voted against all of the amendments, which were attached to appropriations bills. ( Tulsa World , 14/4/06)

April 16: After an initial flurry of activity, Vermont's fledgling export trade with Cuba appears to be in a holding pattern. From the perspective of Vermont's secretary of agriculture, Steve Kerr, US exports to Cuba are being squeezed by the Bush administration's imposition of tighter economic sanctions against the communist island. At the same time, Kerr and others say the Cubans remain committed to doing business with Vermont, especially to the purchase of high quality cows from the state's farmers.
Since Vermont Lt. Gov. Brian Dubie's inaugural trade mission to Cuba two years ago, Cuba has purchased 76 cows from Vermont farmers and 4,000 metric tons of powdered milk. The government of Fidel Castro also agreed to buy 4,000 bushels of Macintosh apples and a deal was in the works last fall to buy additional cows. But the Cubans haven't followed through on the apple deal or the purchase of additional cows, Kerr said. He said one likely reason is the Bush administration's attempts to make trade with Cuba more difficult. (Rutland Herald, 16/4/06)

April 16: Puerto Rican agents of the Natural Resources Department’s Vigilantes Corp detained seven Cubans and 27 Dominicans who arrived at Mona Island after leaving Dominican Republic. The group arrived at Playa Mujeres, in Mona Island, in three boats that left from Dominican Republic. (EFE, 17/4/06)

April 17: A Pennsylvania congressman who wants to drill for natural gas just 20 miles out from the nation's shoreline has found a most unusual model: Fidel Castro. Representative John Peterson, a Republican who is trying mightily to lift the presidential and congressional bans that protect much of the US coastline from offshore drilling, is citing Cuba's fledgling energy-exploration program - and its proximity to Florida's coastline - as a reason the United States should explore its own coast for natural gas. "It's astounding we're going to sit here and say `We're not going to produce,' and, meanwhile, our good friend Fidel Castro is going to suck it up under our noses," Peterson said in a phone interview, citing reports that show Cuba is moving aggressively to explore waters northeast and northwest of Havana, some parcels about 50 miles from Key West. (Knight Ridder Newspapers, 17/4/06)

April 17: Nineteen Cubans came ashore in Hollywood and were being interviewed by immigration authorities. The group -- four adult women, 12 adult men, two girls and one boy -- appeared to be in good health, said Hollywood police Captain Tony Rode. The Cubans were discovered in the 3500 block of North Ocean Drive, at Hollywood North Beach Park, Rode said. Police were investigating the possibility that the migrants were brought in by a smuggling operation. The Cubans were taken to the US Border Patrol office in Pembroke Pines, where they were interviewed and asked whether they were part of a migrant-smuggling operation. (The Miami Herald, 18/4/06)

April 18: The Miami-Dade School Board rejected a move to immediately remove a controversial children's book on Cuba from all school libraries, clearing the way for an appeals process to continue. The bill failed in a 6-3 vote, with sponsor Frank Bolaños and board members Perla Tabares Hantman and Marta Pérez supporting an immediate ban of Vamos A Cuba (subtitled A Visit to Cuba ). District lawyers said the bill would likely have violated a landmark Supreme Court decision and possibly state law, and the American Civil Liberties Union indicated its readiness to file suit had the bill passed. The 5-year-old book drew attention this month after a parent at Marjory Stoneman Douglas Elementary complained about its depiction of Cuba under Fidel Castro. (AP, 19/4/06)

April 19: The Bush administration is battling to stop Venezuela and Cuba from gaining seats in important UN posts in a confrontation that has many Latin American nations caught in the middle, diplomats and analysts say. Most observers believe Washington faces an uphill battle to keep Venezuela out of the Security Council and Cuba out of a newly created UN Human Rights Council. The first showdown will take place May 9, when the 191-member UN General Assembly votes for 47 members of a new Human Rights Council. Eleven Latin American nations, including Venezuela and Cuba, are vying for eight spots reserved for the region. (The Miami Herald, 19/4/06)

April 19: Cuba agreed to buy another $30 million in food from Nebraska, strengthening trade relations with a US farm state already selling corn, wheat, soybeans and other products to the communist island. Nebraska Lt. Governor Rick Sheehy and Agriculture Director Greg Ibach led the trade delegation, which included meat and other agriculture producers on the four-day trip. In August, Nebraska Governor Dave Heineman visited Cuba and signed a separate deal to export $30 million in agricultural products in an 18-month period. Most of those deals have since been completed, said Pedro Alvarez, head of the Cuban food import firm Alimport. "We've had a great commerce experience with Nebraska and this shows the desire of many (U.S.) states to work for free trade with the United States,'' Alvarez told the press at Havana's historic Hotel Nacional during a breakfast hosted by Farmland Foods Inc. featuring Nebraska pork and other meat products. Sheehy said the new deal will include the export of pork, cattle, poultry, wheat, corn, soybeans, dry beans and dairy in the next 18 months. (AP, 19/4/06)

April 21: A federal informant playing a critical role in a South Florida weapons case against the wealthy Miami benefactor for Cuban exile militant Luis Posada Carriles also was sharing details about the exiles with a Cuban government official known as ''Daniel'' as far back as 2001, prosecutors have revealed. Prosecutors also disclosed for the first time that the FBI informant, Gilberto Abascal, traveled by boat with Posada's benefactor and other friends last year to pick up the CIA-trained Posada in Mexico and bring him back to the United States illegally. Details of Abascal's past contacts with a Cuban official and Posada's entry into the United States surfaced as attorneys for the weapons-case defendants, Santiago Alvarez and Osvaldo Mitat, sought to obtain more information from prosecutors that could help their clients' defense. For months, prosecutors claimed to have no evidence that Abascal communicated with Cuban government officials. The explosive admission was made public just two weeks before the May 8 trial in Fort Lauderdale, a location opposed by the defendants because they maintain they cannot get a fair trial outside of Miami-Dade. (The Miami Herald, 22/4/06)

April 24: US President Bush defended his administration's travel ban to Cuba telling a Cuban American who suggested that visits to the island would topple Fidel Castro that "trade with the country enables a tyrant to stay in power.'' The remarks came as Bush campaigned in California, urging Congress to revive a stalled immigration plan that would provide a means to citizenship for some illegal immigrants. Bush defended the ban, saying it was keeping money out of Castro's hands. ''Fidel Castro has got the capacity to arbitrage your dollars to the advantage of his administration,'' Bush said. "You pay in dollars, he pays in Cuban money and collects the difference. So you go to a hotel in Havana, the money goes to the hotel, which has kind of got a deal with the government in order to be there in the first place, and the workers get paid in a currency that's worthless compared to the US dollar. And he makes the balance”. ''And so, in all due respect, I have taken the position that trade with the country enables a tyrant to stay in power, as opposed to the opposite,'' Bush said. (The Miami Herald, 25/4/06)

April 25: Fifteen Cuban immigrants arrived to the dessert island of Mona, west of Puerto Rico. Local police said that the immigrants arrived in two groups, of seven and eight persons, from Dominican Republic. (AP, 25/4/06)

April 25: The US government denied permission to a boxing team to travel to Cuba. The athletes were supposed to participate in the 3 rd Cuban Olympic Games, Sarbelio Fuentes, chief of the Cuban national team said. "We received notice that the US team, nine boxers, did not receive authorization to travel to Cuba for the games”, Fuentes said to the press. (AFP, 25/4/06)

April 25: The United States will introduce sweeping changes in the way Cubans apply for visitors' visas to end long delays and corruption in the process, the top US consular official on the Caribbean island said. "Currently, our visitor visa applicants have to go through a torturous process of trying to call in to set up an appointment. It is very difficult to get a line, and so our clients have been paying anywhere from $20 to $100 on the street to make appointments," Consul General Carl Cockburn said. As of May 25, family members or other potential US hosts will call a toll-free number to make the appointments for the Cuban applicants, who can then simply show up at the US Interests Section on the given date for an interview. The United States and Cuba do not have diplomatic relations, but maintain lower level missions in each other's capitals to handle visa and other matters. Around 30,000 Cubans applied to visit the United States in fiscal 2005, of whom 12,500 were granted visas, Cockburn said. Another 20,125 Cubans were allowed permanent US entry under an immigration agreement signed in 1994. (Reuters, Sun Sentinel, 26/4/06)

April 25: A Cuban militant accused of masterminding the 1976 bombing of a Cuban airliner has applied to become a US citizen, his lawyer said. Luis Posada Carriles, who has been jailed in El Paso on immigration charges since May, is scheduled to be interviewed on April 26 as part of his application. Felipe D.J. Millan, an immigration lawyer hired by Posada's Miami lawyers, said he will accompany Posada during the interview but declined to provide details of the application. (AP, 25/4/06)

April 26: Cuba’s ambassador at the United Nations Rodrigo Malmierca accused the United States at the UN General Assembly Information Commission for increasingly financing illegal anti-Cuba radio and TV broadcasts to the island. The Cuban diplomat said Washington tries to fabricate a false crisis that would serve as a pretext for a military intervention against the island. The Bush administration allocated 37 million dollars in fiscal 2006 to boost anti-Cuba subversive propaganda broadcasts to the island through the so-called Radio and TV Martí, said Malmierca. Such anti-Cuba and illegal action uses 2,107 radio and TV broadcast hours to the island every week, which constitutes a violation of regulations established by the International Telecommunications Union. The Cuban diplomat warned that Cuba will continue to take all possible measures to counter such aggressive US actions. (CAN, 26/4/06)

April 26: The Florida House and Senate gave tentative approval to bills by South Florida legislators to restrict students and professors at state-run colleges and universities from using taxpayer funds to travel to Cuba and five other nations on the federal government's terrorist watch list. House and Senate bills that are expected to pass both chambers would bar Florida universities and colleges from sponsoring or promoting trips to Cuba, even for academic research missions. Critics have warned that the legislation could impede academic freedom. (Sun Sentinel, 27/4/06)

April 26: A delegation of Alabama officials, politicians and businessmen visiting Cuba said they hoped a resolution by their state legislature to lift the US embargo would lead others to take similar action. "We are going to continue to do everything we can to get restrictions lifted," Alabama Agriculture Commissioner Ron Sparks told a news conference, where framed copies of the resolutions were presented to Cuban official Pedro Alvarez, Chairman of Alimport, the state food importing monopoly. The resolution, passed by the Alabama House in January and Senate in April, calls for an end to "all trade, financial and travel restrictions on Cuba." (Reuters, 26/4/06)

April 26: Because of current US policy, US companies are prohibited from developing oil fields that lie in Cuban waters and come within 50 miles of Florida. However, Cuba is exploring and potentially developing these oil fields, estimated by the US Geological Survey to possess more oil than the Alaska National Wildlife Refuge, and Cuba is partnering with China and other countries, such as Spain, France, and Canada. Senator Larry Craig, Republican-Idaho, took the opportunity to raise this issue during a speech on the floor of the United States Senate. Craig stated, "I must point out that it is certainly ironic that the same people blocking the American public from obtaining resources in our own country, and in the region, are the same people not offering solutions to our growing demand. "Red China should not be left to drill for oil within spitting distance of our shores without competition from US industries. Not only is this a supply and energy security issue for us, it is an environmental issue. China has a dismal environmental record fraught with cover-up and blatant disregard for its own people”. (US Fed News, 26/4/06)

April 27: The Upland man accused of selling guns illegally from his home said in a jailhouse interview that some of the weapons were covertly supplied to him by the US government, intended for an attempt to overthrow Fidel Castro. Police say felon Robert Ferro had 1,571 firearms and some hand grenades stashed inside secret compartments and hidden rooms he built inside the sprawling foothill estate. He was arrested after a search of his home in connection with another case uncovered the weapons. But in an interview, Ferro, 61, contended that some of the high-powered weapons -- including assault rifles, silencer-equipped handguns and Uzis -- were supplied to him by the US government. He said the weapons were supposed to be used in an attempt to oust Castro that would have coincided with U.S. Navy operations being conducted in the Caribbean Sea. (Los Angeles Times, 28/4/06)

April 28: Columbia University granted Oswaldo Payá, leader of the dissident Christian Liberation Movement in Cuba, the Honoris Causa. Andrew Jones, assistant secretary at CU confirmed the news to “Encuentro en la Red”, an online journal based in Madrid. (El Nuevo Herald, 28/4/06)

April 28: US Senator Bill Nelson announced legislation to keep Cuba from oil drilling in the waters between the Caribbean island nation and the Florida Keys. The Democratic senator's bill would block the renewal of a 1977 international agreement allowing Cuba to conduct commercial activity near the Keys -- unless Cuba would agree not to put oil rigs in the Florida Straits close to the low-lying island chain off Florida's southern tip. "At risk are the Florida Keys and the state's tourism economy, not to mention the $8 billion that Congress is investing to restore the Everglades,'' Nelson in a statement. The 1977 Maritime Boundary Agreement dividing control of the 90 miles of sea between Cuba and the Keys must be renewed every two years, and was last renewed in 2004. Nelson's legislation would also deny visas to executives of foreign oil companies who continue drilling off Cuba's northern coast. (Sun Sentinel, 28/4/06)