Chronicle on Cuba - May 2006

Foreign Affairs

May 1: The Mexican Federal Preventive Police (PFP) reported the arrest of 17 undocumented Cuban emigrants during two inspections carried out in the states of Chiapas and Veracruz. In an unprecedented move, a high-ranking National Institute of Migration (UNM) official acknowledged that Mexican Immigration authorities have opened at least 20 cases against UNM employees suspected of alleged involvement in the trafficking of Cuban emigrants. (AFP, 2/5/06)

May 2: The Organization of American States (OAS) is expressing concern about the human-rights situations in Venezuela and Cuba. In its chapter about Cuba, the OAS Inter-American Commission on Human Rights expressed concern about the lack of free and fair elections "based on universal suffrage and secret balloting as an expression of sovereignty of the people" in that Caribbean nation. The OAS report recounted a series of acts of harassment carried out against political dissidents of the Cuban government during 2005. The human-rights commission said it received information on the continued practice of the Cuban courts to judge the accused based on ideological and political criteria. The commission said it also continued to receive reports of acts of repression and censorship against those wishing to express themselves freely in Cuba. Another abuse in Cuba, according to the commission, concerned the harsh prison conditions of most prisoners in that country, in particular, of political dissidents. A group of 75 dissidents sentenced in April 2003 remains imprisoned under poor conditions, the commission said. [IACHR Annual Report: Cuba] (US Fed News, 2/5/06) 

May 2: Cuba remained in 2005 the Latin American nation where news-gatherers have most to fear from the state, holding onto the dubious distinction of being "the world's second-largest prison for journalists" after China, according to Reporters Without Borders. The wave of repression launched by the Castro regime in the spring of 2003 continued last year, as three additional independent reporters joined the ranks of the 21 jailed at the beginning of the crackdown, the Paris-based group says in its annual report. RSF, as the organization is known, is releasing the document to coincide with the observance of World Press Freedom Day. (EFE, 2/5/06)

May 2: Honduras is looking into whether its extensive territory is used for the illegal trafficking of Cubans headed to the United States, reported Foreign Minister Milton Jiménez. According to Jiménez, “contact is being made with the United States and Cuba to investigate this issue so that it can be stopped immediately”. (AP, 3/5/06)

May 3: The Cuba entry in the online reference site Wikipedia shows just how difficult it is for the volunteer-run website to tackle politically charged subjects. One editor complained that Havana sympathizers were transforming a scholarly enterprise into ''their own private Fidel Castro fan page.'' A user was tossed out after threatening to sue another for libel. The fuss is over the Cuba entry in Wikipedia, the free online encyclopedia created, edited and administered entirely by volunteers with the altruistic purpose of becoming a Web-based knowledge repository for humanity. But the Cuba entry, like those on President Bush and abortion, has been snared in intense political divisions over everything from the impact of US sanctions on the communist-ruled island to whether it should have a separate section on its human rights record. Russia and North Korea do not. There have been so many dueling edits -- 30 entries on April 27 alone -- that the article has been placed off-limits to first-time or unregistered users. The article has notices alerting readers that the neutrality of four sections is under dispute. (The Miami Herald, 3/5/06)

May 3: A week after being beaten up by Castro supporters, Cuban dissident Marta Beatriz Roque urged the European Union to modify its policy toward the Communist-ruled island, saying the bloc's suspension of diplomatic sanctions encouraged the regime to step up repression. Roque, who was attacked in Havana April 26 by a mob she said had "the go-ahead from the regime," took part in a teleconference staged by Cuban exiles at the seat of the European Parliament in Brussels. "We're in a high-risk situation," Roque said, adding, ahead of the review of the common EU policy toward Cuba set for next month, that the European offer of a dialogue with Havana had not only failed to lead to a softening of the Castro regime's position but had actually resulted in its hardening. "Everything has indisputably worsened," Roque said. In January 2005, the Council of Europe accepted a Spanish proposal and lifted diplomatic sanctions against the Cuban government imposed in 2003 in response to the arrest and conviction of 75 dissidents. (EFE, Europa Press, 3/5/06)

May 3: The government of President Vicente Fox will request Cuba that three fishermen convicted in Havana on human trafficking charges be allowed to serve their sentences in Mexican territory. “What the Mexican Foreign Office has been requesting is that these Mexican fishermen be allowed to serve their sentences in national territory," said the spokesman of the presidency, Rubén Aguilar. (BBC, 3/5/06)

May 3: A summary of the visit to Cuba and their joint communiqué, including with Fidel Castro, of Presidents Hugo Chavez (Venezuela) and Evo Morales (Bolivia) is circulating throughout the United Nations. The document includes the accord signed by the three presidents on April 28 and 29 for the application of the Bolivarian Alternative for the Americas and the Caribbean (ALBA) and the People´s Trade Treaty. The press note distributed by the permanent Cuban mission to the UN is titled "A New Model of Integration in Latin America and the Caribbean based on equity and respect, and sustained in brotherhood and solidarity". (Prensa Latina, 3/5/06)

May 3: An International Forum on Solidarity with Cuba held in Havana proved the increasing support offered by trade unions around the world to the cause of the Cuban people. The event was attended by over 1,000 delegates from 70 nations who defended the right of the Cuban people to self-determination —without US interference— and learned of the proposed world campaign to be carried out between September 12 and October 6 to free the Cuban Five, anti-terrorist fighters imprisoned in the US, Granma daily reported. In a special address, Ricardo Alarcon, president of the Cuban National Assembly, alerted the unionists of the need to provide information about the true situation of people's struggles through the alternative media, given the deluge of distorted news flooding from the corporate media. (ACN, 3/5/06)

May 5: Cuba put forward its candidacy to the recently created UN Human Rights Council. In a press release issued in New York, Cuba assured that all of its experience would be transposed to the new Human Rights Council to be used to avoid the "pernicious confrontational practices and unjust condemnation against underdeveloped nations," according to a report by Prensa Latina news agency. Cuba is among the eleven Latin American and Caribbean nations that so far have made public their interest in being elected to one of the eight seats assigned to the region in the new Human Rights Council which will replace the UN Human Rights Commission. (Granma, 6/5/06)

May 5: Cuba's national ballet is about to receive an injection of Alberta artistic flair. Alberta Ballet artistic director Jean Grand-Maitre will fly to Havana next month to set Mozart to dance for the National Ballet of Cuba. "It's thrilling for me, because the Cuban National Ballet is is one of the finest companies in the world," Grand-Maitre says. "Their school trains brilliant dancers (a result of the Russian cultural infusion during the heyday of Fidel Castro) and I've had a chance to work in Germany and the US with many of the wonderful dancers Alonso herself has trained." His involvement comes at the request of Cuba ballet director Alicia Alonso. The company will premiere the piece in October as part of the 20th International Ballet Festival of Havana. (Calgary Herald, 5/5/06)

May 8: Fresh from advocating an "anti-imperialist" bloc in the Andean region, the Socialist president of Bolivia met with the left-leaning nationalist candidate in Peru's upcoming presidential runoff election. The meeting between President Evo Morales and Peruvian hopeful Ollanta Humala took place at the inauguration of a Cuban-funded eye clinic in Copacabana, a town that overlooks Bolivia's portion of Lake Titicaca. The site of the meeting, amid the brilliant colors of Andean Indian celebrations, was Copacabana's Municipal Hospital, where an eye clinic had been established with Cuban support. It is the fourth such facility opened in Bolivia with the help of the Castro government since Morales became president in January. Two additional such centers remain to be set up.
In the few months that doctors have been working at the centers, including Cubans and Bolivians who attended medical school on the Caribbean island, the medical personnel have performed successful operations on 7,306 patients, according to the new Cuban ambassador to La Paz, Rafael Dausa, who was on hand for the occasion. The diplomat had been Havana's deputy foreign minister before being appointed to La Paz, a sign of the interest Castro has in converting Bolivia into a bastion of his foreign policy. (EFE, 8/5/06)

May 8: Since the beginning of 2006, a number of 138 Cuban rafters have been rescued from Mexican waters, in the Caribbean, and other 28 Cubans have been intercepted in land. This number is more than a third of the 364 immigrants intercepted last year (276 were rafters), according to data provided by Edgar Orozco, representative of the Migration National Institute in Cancun. (AFP, 9/5/06)

May 9: Cuba secured a seat on the new UN Human Rights Council, which replaced an agency where abusers were often members, obtaining the seventh spot out of eight reserved for Latin American and Caribbean nations. Venezuela failed to obtain a spot on the 47-member body, which will start its sessions June 19 amidst expectations that it will mark a departure from its discredited and defunct predecessor, the UN Commission on Human Rights. The other Latin American nations that secured seats, in the order of votes obtained, are Brazil, Argentina, Mexico, Peru, Guatemala, Uruguay and Ecuador. Brazil, the top vote-getter in the group, garnered 165 votes. Cuba obtained 135 votes. (The Miami Herald, 9/5/06)

May 9: The executive secretary of the UN Convention against Desertification and Drought, Hama Arba Diallo, expressed his support for the setting up of a Regional Training Center in Cuba for sustainable management of land. “We are enthusiastic about the Cuban project to set up an institution in the province of Las Tunas to train specialists from the different Caribbean islands”, the UN expert told the local press. Arba Diallo said that they are planning to inaugurate the center next July, following the launching of a campaign for the International Year of Deserts and Desertification in the Caribbean, at a ceremony at Havana’s Melia Cohiba Hotel. The campaign is a UN initiative in the face of the serious phenomena currently affecting the world and small island nations in particular. (ACN, 9/5/06)

May 9: A Pan-European Solidarity with Cuba Conference began in Vienna, prior to the fourth Europe-Latin America-Caribbean Summit of Chiefs of State and Government to start on May 11. The conference, attended by delegates from several European countries, aims to draw up, discuss, and approve resolutions for increased support with the Cuban Revolution. (Prensa Latina, 9/5/06)

May 10: Vice President Carlos Lage Davila heads the Cuban delegation to the 4th EU-Latin America/Caribbean Summit to take place May 11-12 in Vienna, Austria. Also representing the island is Foreign Minister Felipe Perez Roque, vice ministers Abelardo Moreno, Eumelio Caballero and other officials of the Foreign Ministry. The main theme of the forum is "Strengthening the bi-regional strategic association." Parallel to the EU-Latin America/Caribbean Summit, the "Linking Alternatives" people’s summit is also taking place in Vienna from May 10-13. Cuba will be represented by personalities of the sciences, culture, sports and social and mass organizations. (Granma, 10/5/06)

May 10: Cuba demonstrates to all peoples of the world how to rule with dignity and sovereignty, Bolivia’s President Evo Morales said during a news conference in Vienna, Austria. The Bolivian statesman is attending the fourth Europe-Latin America and Caribbean (EU-LAC) Ministerial Summit. Responding to a question by a Miami based journalist, Morales categorically stated his government does not think of Cuba as these gentlemen do and, on the contrary, he and the Bolivian people admire the island and its leader Fidel Castro. (Prensa Latina, 11/5/06)

May 10: An "alternative" summit to the one being held by the European Union and the Latin American and Caribbean countries kicked off in Vienna by clearly rejecting any free trade links between the two blocs and hailing Bolivia's nationalization of its energy sector. Among the representatives who spoke at the anti-summit proceedings were Joao Pedro Stedile of Brazil's Landless Movement, who rejected what he called the neoliberal policy that will be discussed at the official summit, adding that it is designed "to control our biodiversity, our water, our seeds." The opposition to the trade pacts is based on the "sufferings of the people of Mexico" after the signing of the NAFTA free trade accord with the United States and Canada, which some say has proven that "you can't compete on an equal basis," said Cuba's Aleida Guevara, the daughter of iconic guerrilla Ernesto "Che" Guevara. (EFE, 10/5/06)

May 11: The European Union's commissioner for development called on the Cuban government in Vienna to grant greater civil and political rights to its citizens. The exhortation from Commissioner Louis Michel to Cuban Vice President Carlos Lage came hours before the inauguration of the EU-Latin America summit meeting. In what EU and diplomatic spokespersons described as a "cordial" meeting, Michel told Lage and Cuban Foreign Minister Felipe Perez Roque that the bloc was unsatisfied with the development of the human rights situation on the island since European diplomatic sanctions against Fidel Castro's government were lifted in January 2005. Despite the lack of advances, however, Michel still backs continued "political dialogue between the EU and Cuba," the commissioner told the press. For their part, Lage and Perez Roque criticized what they termed Europe's "acquiescence" to U.S. wishes concerning relations with the Communist-ruled island. (EFE, 11/5/06)

May 11: Cuban Vice President, Carlos Lage, said in Vienna that the European Union “doesn’t have any reason or moral to sanction Cuba”. In statements broadcast by Cuban TV, Lage was referring to an announcement made by the Austrian Minister of Foreign Affairs, Ursula Plassnik, about the June review of the EU policy toward the island regarding the situation of human rights. (EFE, 11/5/06)

May 15: Cuban Foreign Minister Felipe Perez Roque has welcomed the Vienna declaration issued by the EU-Latin America Caribbean summit as "an important political victory" for rejecting the US blockade of Cuba. He said there were still "grave differences of opinion" with the EU because, as he said, the EU failed to pursue its own policy and followed the US policy on Cuba. He said the EU "lacked credibility" because it demanded respecting human rights from Cuba, while it failed to criticize the USA over Guantanamo. “ There are still grave differences of opinion, because the EU does not pursue its own policy towards Cuba. It prefers to follow the United States. EU sanctions against Cuba were suspended in 2005. They had prohibited establishing political and cultural contacts. And they opened the doors of EU embassies to the mercenaries of the United States. If the sanctions are not lifted completely, our relations will not improve by a millimeter”, Perez Roque said. He quoted Fidel Castro as saying that he was the proudest man in the world because there were people like Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez and Bolivian President Evo Morales. Roque added: "The Cuban revolution rejuvenates in cooperating with these countries." (Der Standard, 15/5/06)

May 16: Reporters Without Borders condemned the brutal and unfair arrests of Odelín Alfonso, a regular contributor to Cubanet and Milisa Valle Ricardo of the Jóvenes sin Censura news agency on 13 May 2006 and the continued detention of Alfonso without any specific charges being put to him. “These arrests reveal once again an unfairness and denial of justice. No real reason exists to explain these repressive acts. It is pure and simple intimidation directed against peaceful opposition figures whose fate varies, apparently, according to the mood of their jailers,” said Reporters Without Borders, adding, “We hope that Odelín Alfonso will be quickly released”. (RWB, 16/5/06)

May 17: During a telephone conversation with Fidel Castro, Iran’s President Mahmud Ahmadinezhad expressed gratitude for the stances adopted by Cuba to support the Iranian nation's rights. The president said that, “Those [major powers], which intended to deny the Iranian nation its absolute right, have failed in legal and rational terms”. “I hope that during the next summit of the Non-Aligned Movement in Cuba, big steps will be taken to realize the aspirations of this movement”, Mr Ahmadinezhad added. Fidel Castro, for his part, said that, “We consider it our duty to defend Iran's rights at various international forums; and we believe that the world's public opinion is becoming closer to Iran's stances daily”. (Voice of the Islamic Republic of Iran, 17/5/06)

May 17: Cuban doctors deployed to Pakistan after last year's devastating earthquake concluded their aid mission to the country after treating 1.7 million patients, official media outlets reported. The work of the Cuban medical personnel is now being continued by 670 Pakistani specialists who are working in the locations where the Cuban field hospitals were set up, according to statements by Cuba's assistant foreign affairs minister, Bruno Rodriguez Parrilla. Rodriguez Parrilla, who was on hand in Pakistan to see off the last Cuban medical brigade on its homeward flight to the Communist island, said that Havana's doctors had trained more than 700 Pakistani medical students and 32 nurses. (EFE, 17/5/06)

May 17: Three Spanish associations organized a virtual conference between Spanish and Ibero-American journalists and Cuban dissidents Miriam Leyva, Óscar Espinosa Chepe and Jorge Olivera Castillo. One of the topics discussed was Guillermo Fariñas’s hunger strike to protest for the lack of free internet access on the island. The three Cubans connected to internet at the US Interests Section in Havana, following refusals by several European foreign offices, including the Spanish Ministry of Foreign Affairs, to facilitate the meeting. (Libertad Digital, 17/5/06)

May 18: Nicaraguan authorities detained eight illegal immigrants, including three children, in the border with Honduras. The Cubans were sent to migration authorities, after having filed an application for refugee status, Migration vice-director, Nubia Barbosa, said to the press. (AFP, 19/5/06)

May 18: Bolivia’s House of Representatives ratified the designation of Amazonian indian Saúl Chávez Orozco as the new ambassador to Cuba. Chávez Orozco is a leader of the Yucararé minority ethnic group in the Amazon, one of Bolivia’s 37 original indigenous nations. Senator Gastón Cornejo, from the ruling party Movimiento Al Socialismo, said that Chávez Orozco’s main mission is to know about “the methodology” that Fidel Castro’s government has applied to rule in Cuba for over 40 years “with dignity, in spite of the US embargo”. (AFP, 18/5/06)

May 18: Local Mexican specialists claimed that the cataract surgical procedures performed in Cuba are conducted with older technology. Héctor Noé Medina López, Coahuila representative before the Mexican Ophthalmology Council, said he did not know why patients are being sent to Cuba when in the island cataract surgery is still conducted using the mininucleous technique, which stopped being performed a long time ago in Saltillo. (Palabra, 18/5/06)

May 19: Palestine's ambassador to Cuba, Ibrahim Al Zeben, expressed his recognition to the Cuban people, their Socialist Revolution and Fidel Castro for the support offered to the Palestinian cause. In an interview with Juventud Rebelde newspaper in Havana, Al Zeben, denounced that the United States, European Union and Israel are using economic pressure against the Palestinian people over their democratic election of the Islamic Resistance Movement Hamas in that country's most recent legislative elections. (CAN, 19/5/06)

May 21: The Evangelical Czech Brethren Church sent a letter to Fidel Castro with a request to release immediately Cuban human rights activists. The letter demands that Cuban authorities respect the citizens who are seeking dignified life in freedom to the benefit of their own country. The synod of the church, which ended in Prague, also informed the World Council of Churches (WCC) and other international church organizations about the step. It has called on them to pay attention thoroughly and persistently to the discriminated Christians and persecuted activists in Cuba and not to limit their ecumenical contacts to official representatives, recognized by the regime. A few days ago, the Czech Brethren organized a seminar on Cuba as an appeal for the European and global ecumenical movement. (CTK, 21/5/06)

May 22: The Cuban government has promised to finance 1,000 Pakistani medical students for September. The offer was made by Bruno Rodrigues Parrilla, Cuba’s First Deputy Minister for Foreign Affairs, in a meeting in Islamabad with Federal Minister for Education Javed Ashraf. The scholarships would be for 6 years, and the selected students will have to learn Spanish language in the first year, and during the next five years they would study medicine to get the graduation degree. The scholarships would be distributed among the provinces and the regions, whereas special quota would be reserved for students from earthquake-affected areas and for low-income families. ( Business Recorder , 23/5/06)

May 22: Shortly after his arrival in Havana, St. Lucia’s Prime Minister, Kenny D. Anthony, said he was in Cuba to embrace his “Cuban family”. Anthony is visiting the island at the invitation of Fidel Castro. The Santa Lucia PM, who is accompanied by a large delegation, was welcomed at the "Jose Marti" International Airport by the Minister of Government Ricardo Cabrisas. He has a full agenda which includes visits to places of scientific, economic, cultural and social interest. In an exchange with the Cuban press, Anthony said that the people of St. Lucia are very moved by the tremendous support they have received from Cuba, especially by "Operacion Milagro", an eye surgery and treatment program known in the English-speaking Caribbean as "Vision Now." (Granma, 23/5/06)

May 22: Fidel Castro stressed the need to boost relations between the communist parties of North Korea and Cuba. Castro met with an official delegation of the Korean Workers' Party [KWP] led by Kim Ki-nam, secretary of its Central Committee, at the Palace of the Revolution. Also present were members of the KWP delegation, Pak Tong-joon, and the North Korean ambassador to Cuba. The Cuban part included, Carlos Lage Davila, member of the Political Bureau of the Communist Party of Cuba and vice-president of the Council of State of Cuba, Fernando Ramirez, head of the International Department of the CPC Central Committee, and other party officials. (KCNA, 22/5/06)

May 23: Human rights abuses were widespread in Latin America last year with slave labor in Bolivia, government critics reportedly harassed in Venezuela and dissidents intimidated in Cuba, Amnesty International said in a report. "There were continued concerns that critics of the government were being harassed” in Cuba, “including through the criminal justice system," it said. Fidel Castro's regime maintained "tight control" over its critics and nearly 70 "prisoners of conscience" remained jailed. "There was increasing international concern about Cuba's failure to improve civil and political rights," the report said. [AI Report 2006: Cuba] (AFP, 23/5/06)

May 23: Fidel Castro and St. Lucian Prime Minister, Kenny Anthony, held official talks at Havana’s Palace of the Revolution. In a cordial atmosphere, both leaders and their respective delegations exchanged about subjects of national interest and bilateral cooperation, as well as on international issues. The Cuban leader was accompanied by Vice President Carlos Lage; Yadira Garcia, Basic Industry Minister; Foreign Minister Felipe Perez Roque, as well as the Minister of Foreign Investment and Cooperation Martha Lomas; and Government Minister Ricardo Cabrisas, among other officials. The St. Lucian Prime Minister was joined by his Foreign Minister, Petrus Compton;, the Minister of Health, Human Services, Family Affairs and Gender Relations, John Odlum and other members of his delegation. (Granma, 24/5/06)

May 24: Fidel Castro came out in support of a free program that treats poor Latin American patients with eye diseases, and discredited a complaint presented to local authorities by Uruguayan physicians against Cuban doctors. “Who are the enemies of this project? Rich ophthalmologists!”, Castro said during a TV appearance. (AP, 24/5/06)

May 24: Cuba is trying to focus on its international musical work by collaborating with alternative record companies, according to reports in Havana. Ciro Benemelis, President of the International Cubadisco Fair, said "Despite our limitations we have notable experience that allows us to lead projects and dreams." Those initiatives could be directed by the Bolivarian Alternative for the Americas (ALBA), a project of emancipation and solidarity headed by Venezuela, Cuba and Bolivia, according to the high-ranking official, who is also a musician. "It is necessary to create an Internet side of Latin and Caribbean music," Benemelis said. (Prensa Latina, 24/5/06)

May 24: A group of 17 Cuban immigrants arrived in Honduras on their way to the United States, local authorities said. The group of thirteen men and four women arrived at Cocalito, Colon province, in the Nicaraguan border. This community is 400 km north of Tegucigalpa. (AP, 24/5/06)

May 24: Cuba said the Non Aligned Movement (NAM), created 40 years ago as an alternative to a bipolar world under the East-West conflict, should become a forum where the rights of the Thirld World countries are safeguarded. “NAM is more necessary than ever before”, Cuban Minister of Foreign Affairs, Felipe Perez Roque said. “The fact that there is only one superpower in this world demands actions from the Movement”. The Cuban minister said that the Havana Summit in September will gather from 50 to 60 heads of state. Latin American countries like, Bolivia, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, Nicaragua, Panama, Peru and Venezuela are members of NAM. According to Perez Roque, Cuba’s participation in the Bolivarian Alternative for the Americas (ALBA) –an alternative to the Free Trade Agreement sponsored by the United States and comprised of also by Venezuela and Bolivia—has its focus on Latin America, “while the focus of NAM is global”, he added. (AFP, Reuters,

May 24: UK Leicestershire Cares has developed a scheme designed to prepare students for interviews by enabling them to practise answering the questions they can expect to be asked. Following a visit to Leicestershire Cares by the Cuban Minister of Education, the programme is set to be adopted in Cuba. Members of the Cuban delegation were attending a conference at the University of Leicester when they learned of the scheme. They were so impressed with the idea of students being given help to prepare for interviews before they leave school that they have decided to consider it for their own education system. (Leicester Mercury, 24/5/06)

May 24: Controversial British MP George Galloway made a surprise appearance on live Cuban television. He defended Fidel Castro against allegations made by a US magazine that he has amassed a personal fortune of $900m (£477m). Mr Galloway said the article was part of a "Yankee imperialist" conspiracy. Castro has said the claim in Forbes magazine is "rubbish" and that he would resign if anyone proved he had a single dollar in a foreign bank account. (BBC, 25/5/06)

May 24: Fifty-seven Cuban immigrants who arrived in Mexico in homemade boats were sent back to the island in a flight. The immigrants, who came from almost all Cuban provinces, arrived to Mexican territory in small groups and were detained at the new federal prison for undocumented immigrants in the state of Chiapas. (Cubanet, 24/5/06)

May 26: Carlos Lage was welcomed by Bolivian President Evo Morales in La Paz. Vice-president Lage arrived in the South American country on a working visit, and he will participate in the signing of cooperation accords between Bolivia and Venezuela, as well as in a public gathering that will take place in the locality of Shinahota, in the Chapare region with the attendance of Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez. Upon his arrival, Lage told the press that, “we came to take new steps toward solidarity integration”. “This is prove of our commitment toward achieving this goal”, he added. Lage and Morales held talks at the Government Palace and later were greeted by a crowd, gathered across from the building, with shouts of Long-live Cuba and Long-live Fidel. Lage arrived in La Paz in a Venezuelan plane. (AP, ACN, 26/5/06)

May 27: The Medical Association of Bolivia (CMB) has called a strike of its 14,000 members for June 1 to protest the contracting of Cuban doctors and medical technicians by the administration of Socialist President Evo Morales, the association announced.
Medical Association President Fernando Arandia told the press that the measure was approved by the National Medical Council, made up of presidents of professional associations in the sector, which has been meeting for a week. Arandia said that the strike is "the only way to protest against the government's health-care policy which does not make use of Bolivia's own doctors." The CMB says that the Bolivian government pays for the Cubans' stay in the form of food and lodging, a system not applied to Bolivian doctors who are willing to work under the same conditions in order to have employment. (EFE, 27/5/06)

May 29: Cuba confirmed its support to Iran in its efforts to master atomic technology with peaceful objectives, in an interview between Iranian Foreign Minister Manuchehr Mottaki and a high official from the Cuban Communist Party (PCC). Fernando Remirez, head of the PCC International Relations Department, spoke with Mottaki about the Non-Aligned Movement, bilateral ties and nuclear energy. Iranian news agency IRNA said Mottaki spoke about the common ideas of all Non-Aligned countries, which defend freedom and justice. He said that in the case of Tehran and Havana, there is continuity and increasingly greater links, a reflection of the solidarity between two countries that love freedom. (Prensa Latina, 29/5/06)

May 29: Cuban Foreign Minister Felipe Perez Roque declared the support of his government and nation for Iran's legal right to access nuclear technology for peaceful purposes and expressed their solidarity with the Iranian nation. Speaking at a meeting with Iran’s Foreign Minister Manuchehr Mottaki, on the sidelines of the foreign ministerial meeting of the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) in Kuala Lumpur, Perez Roque said that Iran's stance to safeguard its right to access nuclear technology for peaceful purposes is legitimate. A two-day meeting of NAM foreign ministers kicked off in Putrajaya, political capital of Malaysia. The foreign ministers will discuss the agenda fixed by NAM's senior officials and decide on the agenda of the 14th summit of the movement slated to be held in Havana, Cuba, on September 11-16. (IRNA, 30/5/06)

May 30: Bolivian President Evo Morales is due to open in Escoma, on the border with Peru, the first of 20 top-technology hospitals donated by Cuba to Bolivia, the governmental headquarters reported. Armando Garrido, coordinator of the Cuban medical brigade in Bolivia, stated that the Aymara Hospital is provided with a medicinal gas system, labs with gasometry and fixed and portable ray-x equipment. The center, like the other 19, will have one intensive therapy room with four beds, as well as services of obstetrics, neonatology, digestive endoscopy and a fully-equipped operation room. Qualified Cuban staff and paramedics will work in the hospital and the donation also includes maintenance of medical equipment, medicine and materials, said Garrido. (Prensa Latina, 30/5/06)

May 30: The European Union is not pushing hard enough for democratic change in Cuba, a former Czech president said, and called on the newest EU member states to grab a leading role in defending human rights on the communist island. Vaclav Havel and former Lithuanian President Vytautas Landsbergis -- both dissidents in their countries under the Communist regime that fell in 1989 -- spoke at a conference organized by the Prague-based International Committee for Democracy in Cuba. The committee was formed in 2003 and its members include former US Secretary of State Madeleine Albright and former Spanish Prime Minister Jose Maria Aznar. (AP, 30/5/06)

May 30: The EU could do more in support of human rights in Cuba and other dictatorial regimes in the world, Czech ex-president Vaclav Havel said at a Brussels conference devoted to the EU policy towards Cuba. Havel said the Czech Republic should not present itself as "a poor relative" in the EU, but it should act as a full-fledged member who has something to offer. Apart from elementary human solidarity and civil aid to people in totalitarian countries, international and institutional solidarity is needed as well," Havel said. "In this respect, the EU could do more not only in relation to Cuba but also other dictatorships in the world," he said. (CTK, 31/5/06)

May 30: Bolivian President Evo Morales said that he will take a cake made with coca leaves to his Cuban counterpart, Fidel Castro, when he visits Havana on August 13, the latter's 80th birthday. "Since we've been invited, why don't a few of us go to the birthday (celebration) and spend a day with comrade Fidel," Morales said in a speech in the town of Escoma to inaugurate the first of 20 rural hospitals financed by Cuba in the Andean country. "But what can we take him as a present? We could take him a poncho, we could take him a 'chicote,'" a whip with which to herd cattle, Morales said. "The coca growers say, 'Why don't we take a coca cake to Fidel?' So, the coca growers will (...) go with a coca cake," he continued to the laughter of the crowd. Evo called Castro "our wise grandfather," and he asked the crowd - most of whom were Aymara Indian peasants - for a round applause for the Cuban leader. (EFE, 30/5/06)

May 30: Peru's jailed former spy chief Vladimiro Montesinos has returned to the political stage, alleging in a 37-page booklet apparently written in prison that presidential candidate Ollanta Humala is a pawn of Cuban and Venezuelan intelligence. The timing of the book's publication, five days before the election runoff, raised suspicions that it's part of the dirty campaigning by Humala and his opponent, former President Alan Garcia, who have traded stinging insults in recent days. But several intelligence experts say Montesinos, who was captured in Venezuela in 2001 and is being tried on dozens of criminal charges, may simply want to become a political player again in Peru. The book, entitled "Chess Pawn," alleges that Cuba's Fidel Castro and Venezuela's Hugo Chavez want to use Humala, a left-leaning nationalist, as part of a strategy to reduce U.S. influence in Latin America. (AP, 30/5/06)

May 30: The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) condemned the detention of independent Cuban journalist Armando Betancourt who was arrested while covering the evictions of dozens of families from their homes in the central city of Camaguey, sources told CPJ. On 23 May, authorities forcefully evicted families allegedly occupying homes illegally, according to local sources. Betancourt, a reporter for the news agency Nueva Prensa Cubana in Camaguey, was arrested along with several people who were protesting the evictions, a relative told CPJ. The journalist did not participate in the protests, according to several sources. (BBC, 31/5/06)

May 31: Local Mexican specialists claimed that the cataract surgical procedures performed in Cuba are conducted with older technology. Héctor Noé Medina López, Coahuila representative before the Mexican Ophthalmology Council, said he did not know why patients are being sent to Cuba when in the island cataract surgery is still conducted using the mininucleous technique, which stopped being performed a long time ago in Saltillo. (Palabra, 31/5/06)

May 31: Reporters Without Borders blasted Cuba for jailing a reporter for his coverage of the eviction by police of homeless individuals who had taken up residence in a drainage pipe. "We firmly condemn the arbitrary arrest and solitary confinement" of Armando Betancourt, who reports for the Miami-based Nueva Prensa Cubana news Web site, RSF, as the Paris-based organization is known, said in a statement. The press watchdog group said that, by arresting Betancourt, Cuban authorities "are highlighting their determination to censor news and information. Betancourt must be freed at once." (EFE, 31/5/06)

May 31: Malaysian Prime Minister Abdullah Bin Haji Ahmad Badawi reiterated his full confidence that Cuba will successfully assume the presidency of the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) and will continue the task of revitalizing it. The prime minister made these statements during his meeting with Cuban Foreign Minister Felipe Pérez Roque shortly after the official inauguration here of the Ministerial Meeting of the NAM Coordination Bureau. Badawi had words of affection and praise for Fidel Castro and expressed his satisfaction at his being able to once again lead the Movement during a complex international situation. (Granma International, 31/5/06)