Chronicle on Cuba - June 2006

Domestic Affairs

June 1: Raul Castro, Fidel Castro's younger brother and designated successor, is no spring chicken. The world's longest-serving defense minister will be 75 on June 3rd, and many wonder whether he is too old to fill his brother's over-sized shoes if he outlives the president. The elder Castro himself recently suggested a younger generation will have to take up the baton if Cuba's socialist society is to survive. Cuba watchers say he is no obsequious subaltern in the communist state the two brothers built after their rag-tag guerrilla force ousted U.S.-backed dictator Fulgencio Batista in a 1959 revolution. Brian Latell, a former CIA analyst who has watched Cuba for decades, believes Raul, once an orthodox Communist and now a pragmatist, will emerge as Cuba's next leader with the backing of the army, keep the lid on dissent and push through economic reforms following China's model. ``A praetorian regime dominated by Raul and the generals seems all but certain, though for how long is impossible to know,'' he wrote in his book ``After Fidel.'' Yet most analysts believe Raul is bound to play a crucial role, at least initially, in any political transition once his brother has left the scene, while ensuring military stability. ``In a post-Fidel Cuba, Raul would provide an important leadership role, stepping into the void left by his brother,'' said Canadian historian John Kirk of Dalhousie University in Halifax. ``This would probably be a transitional contribution.'' (AP, 1/6/06)

June 1: Many women in Cuba resort to abortion, 40 years after it was decriminalised, as though it were just another contraceptive method. Some even prefer it to condoms, the pill or intrauterine devices (IUDs), without giving a thought to the risks involved or the ethical aspects. More than 4,000 women all over the country were interviewed by biostatistics expert Miriam Gran for her research study entitled "Voluntary termination of pregnancy and contraception: two methods of fertility control," published with the support of the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA). Although the abortion rate is falling, the trend is not so marked "as to be able to speak of major changes" in the last two years, Gran told the press. The study, which was published this year and is being circulated among government officials and specialists, included 1,806 women who decided to terminate their pregnancies, and 2,442 who did not. Experts believe that more than 70 percent of Cuban women who consult for infertility problems have a history of one or more abortions in adolescence or young adulthood. (IPS, 1/6/06)

June 1: Ditching the cigars but not the army fatigues, Fidel Castro leads a life that guarantees he'll live more than a century, according to his doctor. "He is going to live 140 years," said Dr. Eugenio Selman, who heads the 120 Years Club that promotes healthy habits for the elderly. Despite recurring rumors of his demise, Castro, who turns 80 in August, is not only a stellar club member but has also shown great resiliency as a leader, said Selman. "El Comandante" rose to power as Cuba's supreme leader in 1959, outlasting eight — and potentially nine — American presidents (Eisenhower, Kennedy, Johnson, Nixon, Ford, Carter, Bush Sr., Clinton and perhaps G.W. Bush). “It's in the genes”. Selman credits Castro's "good genes" and outstanding diet and lifestyle. "He eats moderately," he said. "His health is strong as iron — he has demonstrated that his whole life." The doctor shed no light on Castro's actual diet or if the leader drank specially brewed teas but emphasized that his famous patient follows all the club's six main guidelines. (Reason, 1/6/06)
June 2: The Eighth Seminar of Italian Language, Literature and Art wound up in Havana with a strengthening of ties between both countries. The third and last meeting was held at the recently restored Ruben Martinez Villena Library in Old Havana. Mayerin Bello, a professor from the Arts and Literature Faculty of the University of Havana, presented the “12th Notebook of Cuban and Italian Culture”, a valuable compilation reflecting the wealth of cultural ties enjoyed between the two countries. (AIN, 2/6/06) 
June 2: Fidel Castro participated in one of the regular working meetings the country's municipal and provincial mayors hold with the government's leadership to evaluate national priority topics, Granma newspaper reported. Attending debates on the plan to construct houses, the island's leader was interested on the course of those programs and requested information on the government's main leaders and from several organizations involved. Castro analyzed, among other issues, the functioning and modernization of construction material industries from a technical and cost point of view, as well as results of roofing imports and other elements used to build houses. (Escambray, 3/6/06)

June 2: Cuba’s provincial and local government leaders, who have gathered at the Havana Convention Center, agreed to send a letter to General Raul Castro, second secretary of the Communist Party’s Central Committee, congratulating him on his 75th birthday. The letter, signed by all the leaders participating in working sessions, highlights Raul Castro’s achievements as head of the Ministry of the Revolutionary Armed Forces, his valuable contribution to the work of the government since 1974, and his intense work in fulfilling his commitment to the party and responsibilities to the state and government. (Granma, 3/6/06)

June 3: Vice President Carlos Lage led discussions about various aspects of people’s quality of life during a meeting with provincial and local government leaders gathered at Havana’s Convention Center. Public Health Minister Jose Ramon Balaguer, who is also a member of the Political Bureau, pointed out that the most important transformations underway in the primary health care sector are the expansion of services in polyclinics, improvements in the quality and organization of patient services, and the acquisition of high technology resources. "Ninety percent of the population’s health problems," said the minister, "are solved at the local level; therefore local assistance is and it will continue to be the fundamental base for supporting the revolution underway in this field." According to Deputy Public Health Minister Marcia Cobas, members of the healthcare sector are well aware of the deficiencies in those areas, noting that these are like "barometers for action." Among the flaws she mentioned were inadequate treatment, marginal hygienic conditions in some clinics, poor communication with the public, the misappropriation of resources and the poor organization of services in certain facilities. Ernesto Suarez, the secretary of the parliament, reported that in the delegate’s reports, one of the most frequent complaints was the lack of information on the reorganization of family doctor services. "It is necessary," he pointed out, "to be able to explain to people what the changes are and to use this information as a tool for local leaders to better manage and verify work." (Granma, 3/6/06)

June 3: The Communist Party of Cuba (PCC) replaced Salvador Valdés Mesa with Julio César García Rodríguez, as first secretary in the province of Camagüey according to the official daily newspaper Granma. The paper did not provide an explanation for the reshuffle. In the last few weeks, four first secretaries have been replaced in the provinces of Matanzas, Villa Clara, Pinar del Río and Cienfuegos, “at the request of the Political Bureau”— the highest authority of the PCC. (EFE, 4/6/06)

June 4: Raúl Castro, younger brother of Fidel and Cuba's defence minister, turned 75, still marching in step with his famous sibling whose back he has watched and whose decisions he has shared since they took power in the 1959 revolution. As head of the military and security apparatus, Raúl is the second most powerful man in Cuba. He runs much of the day-to-day affairs of the ruling Communist party. More important, as first vice-president and second secretary of the Communist party, he is in line to take over from Castro, who will be 80 in August, if he can no longer govern. "He needs to be taken very, very seriously," says Hal Klepak of the Royal Military College of Canada. "He built and has presided over Cuba's revolutionary armed forces for nearly half a century and has proved both his management and leadership skills in places like Angola, in defending the country and perhaps most dramatically deterring anyone from attacking." An increasing number of security experts believe Raúl might be the best option, even if a brief one, for stability if not gradual change, on Fidel Castro's death, Mr Klepak said. This view is opposed by the Bush administration, the Cuban-American establishment and dissidents, who say they are all working to make sure that it does not happen. (Financial Times, 4/6/06)

June 4: All things considered, Cuba is probably not the easiest place in the world to be Jewish. For one thing, there is not a single rabbi in the entire country. There is no local supplier of matzo or gefilte fish, either. What's more, the government of Fidel Castro broke off diplomatic relations with Israel more than 30 years ago and now officially denies the existence of the Jewish state, while earnestly backing the Palestinian side in the bloody and seemingly intractable Mideast conflict. "The Jewish community exists because we are very stubborn," says Adela Dworin, president of the Hebrew Community of Cuba. "The Jewish community exists because we have a wonderful organization called the Canadian Jewish Congress. They have done wonderful things for the saving of Judaism in Cuba." For more than 40 years, Canadian Jews have been supporting their few remaining Cuban brethren in a variety of ways, thereby helping to ensure that a Jewish presence survives in what is one of the world's few remaining Communist countries. That presence is now sadly reduced from former times. The Jewish population in Cuba peaked in the 1950s at around 15,000 people, but most of them fled the island in the wake of the 1959 revolution that brought Fidel Castro to power. Despite this persistent drain on its numbers, Cuba's Jewish community somehow manages to hold out against the ravages of communism and time. (Toronto Star, 4/6/06)

June 5: Cuban First Vice President Raul Castro chaired the main ceremony marking the 45th anniversary of the Ministry of Interior (MININT). After receiving a commemorative diploma from the hands of Minister of Interior Division Major General Abelardo Colome Ibarra, the vice president congratulated MININT members for their presence in every crucial battle of the homeland. In turn, the members of MININT vowed to continue to defend state security and domestic order in Cuba. (Prensa Latina, 5/6/06)

June 6: With the aim of fostering scientific and health research, the 2nd Conference on Education for Health in the sub region of Mexico, Central America and the Caribbean is kicking off in Havana. With the theme "Effectiveness in Fostering Health," the event, sponsored by the International Union for Health Promotion and Education, the Pan-American Health Organization and the UN Population Fund, gathers about one hundred experts of several countries. The meeting's agenda includes issues like primary health care, food and nutrition, development of public health policies, social communication, research, planning, development and education. (Prensa Latina, 6/6/06)

June 6: Opposition journalist Guillermo Fariñas, who has been on a hunger strike since January 31 of this year, is "in very delicate health" and doctors are considering performing surgery on him again, a source from the Cuban dissidence reported. The Marta Abreu Women's Movement, an illegal movement based in the central Cuban city of Santa Clara, said that a CAT scan was done on Farinas on June 5 and doctors found blood clots in his lungs. "They are giving him transfusions of plasma and albumin," said Noelia Pedraza Jimenez, president of the Marta Abreu Women's Movement. She spoke to members of the foreign press from Santa Clara, located about 300 km from Havana. She added that on June 4 she began a hunger strike in support of Fariñas, and that Idania Llanes Contreras, Lisel Zamora Carrandi, Luis Aragon Garcia and Yunieski Garcia Lopez, all of whom are members of the Marta Abreu opposition organization, are only taking liquids. Other dissident organizations are calling for a vigil on behalf of Fariñas. (Notimex, 6/6/06)

June 7: The ten permanent commissions of the People´s Power National Assembly (Parliament) will look into a Military Court Bill, according to official sources in Havana. Deputies of the National Defense and Constitutional and Juridical Affairs Commission will help parliamentarians discuss the bill. Jorge Lezcano Perez, advisor of the president of the National Assembly, asserted discussions before ordinary sessions address other issues related to those commissions. The Attention to Services, Economic Affairs, Local Organizations, Production Activity, Education, Culture, Science and Technology and Environment commissions will be discussing the situation of most domestic sectors. (Granma, 7/6/06)

June 7: During the celebrations for the 45th anniversary of the (Cuban) Ministry of the Interior, Fidel Castro said that smuggling operations of Cuban emigrants doubled in the last year, adding that they are organized by networks that operate “with impunity” and the indulgence of authorities in the southern United States and Mexico. In 2000, a total of 3,469 emigrants were involved in 470 operations; while in 2005 the number increased to 7,644 illegal emigrants and 713 operations, with “outside support”, added Castro. “In the first quarter of this year 331 operations involving 3,854 participants have been reported”, said Castro. (AFP, 12/6/06)

June 7: Participants in the International Literacy Congress being held in Havana urged UNESCO to adopt a Cuban literacy method known as the "Yo Si Puedo" (Yes I Can) program. Argentinean Claudia Camba --who spoke on behalf of the International Support Front in favour of the Cuban initiative which has already been successfully applied in over 15 countries-- gave a UNESCO representative a petition with over 2,000 signatures endorsing the request. Camba spoke during the first day of sessions in the International Seminar on Literacy Policies and Programs which will run until June 9 at Havana's Convention Center with some 600 delegates from over 30 nations. (ACN, 7/6/06)

June 8: Fidel Castro proclaimed Cuba the world's safest nation during an event marking the 45th anniversary of the Interior Ministry, which oversees law enforcement on the Communist-ruled island. "Cuba is the safest country in the world and our (law-enforcement personnel) at the Interior Ministry can also consider themselves the most honest and honorable," Castro said at the ceremony, which was off-limits to the foreign press. The Cuban leader added that, "capitalism will never resolve the problem of crime," the official daily Juventud Rebelde reported. "Crime problems get worse all the time in many countries, because there are more of all types of drugs going around and the governments don't have the political will or necessary preparation to guarantee their citizens the tranquility they deserve," Castro said. He added that Cuban police officers are the "most decent and humane, combating crime without there being injustices, murders, death squads, torture or other types of (state terrorism)." Dissidents and human rights monitors, however, say the 47-year-old one-party state does inflict inhumane treatment on the roughly 300 political prisoners now being held in Cuba's jails. (EFE, Prensa Latina, 8/6/06)

June 8: After a preliminary assessment, heavy rains in eastern Cuba left one person dead, seven houses destroyed and many others damaged, while causing flooding on highways and crops. Approximately 1,500 peoples have been evacuated, reported the Civil Defence. A 41-year-old farmer drowned while trying to cross a high river, according to the provincial CD. The official daily Granma added that the rise and overflowing of rivers in Guantánamo caused the destruction of seven houses, damaged others, and affected crops while blocking highways. (AFP, 8/6/06)

June 8: Cuba's state broadcasters will broadcast all the matches in soccer's World Cup, Cuban state newspaper Granma said. A state television channel will show 25 weekend matches live, and broadcast the remaining 39 after the matches have been played, while radio will broadcast 55 of the 64 matches live. (Xinhua, 9/6/06)

June 9: A growing dissatisfaction among many faithful in the last months is due to a perceived passivity on the part of the Cuban Catholic Church hierarchy vis à vis the regime of Fidel Castro. Some argue that several cardinals and high Vatican dignitaries who have travelled to the Island—with some official media coverage—have refrained from criticizing the increased deterioration of human rights and fundamental freedoms in Cuba, including the impossibility of the Church to carry out its essential functions normally and be granted access to the media. Others contend that some bishops have chosen to remain silent about the possibility of using state-controlled media to transmit religious messages, especially sanctioned during Christmas and Easter. (EER, 9/6/06)

June 9: Juan Antonio Picasso has never been to Paris and his paintings - now on exhibit here - sell for well under a thousand dollars, but that's just fine with this Afro-Cuban artist who says he wants nothing more than to remain on his native island. Juan Antonio, 32, said he is related to Pablo Picasso thanks to the famous artist's grandfather, who married a black woman who bore him four children, something for which there is "complete proof" in his family. He says he feels more inclined toward Antoni Tapies - another Spaniard - than to Picasso, but further details his influences citing Cuban artists Nelson Dominguez, Roberto Diago and Eduardo "Choco" Roca. He has currently mounted in Havana his third one-man show, after his March 2005 exhibition in the northeastern Spanish town of Figueras, where, he said, "it all went very well." (EFE, 9/6/06)

June 9: Cuban Parliament President Ricardo Alarcon said that the constant effort of the National People Power Assembly is directed toward perfecting democracy. Alarcon delivered the closing speech of a special session of the legislative plenary, which discussed a report of the Attention to Services Committee regarding the work of delegates at the grassroots level and in the Popular Councils. He pleaded for constant education and consciousness raising at all levels to develop a system of government in which the people have a main role. The essence of socialism is people’s power, the government for the people, so that the population understands the possibility to collectively solve all the problems, he added. (Prensa Latina, 9/6/06)

June 10: Five Cuban university students were suspended for up to five years for violations that their information technology school deemed ''very grave'': running chat rooms and using school servers to sell Internet access to others. Cuba's Internet police, the Office of Information Security, caught the students at the University of Information Sciences (UCI) using school property to charge $30 a month for stolen Internet passwords, according to a video of a campus meeting, smuggled out of the island. Critics of Fidel Castro's government say the video illustrates the lengths to which young Cubans are willing to go to access information in a place where the government tightly controls all information. (The Miami Herald, 10/6/06)

June 10: The Cuban Meteorological Institute (Insmet) gave its first warning of a tropical depression for the 2006 hurricane season with the appearance of an "extensive low-pressure area" in the Caribbean Sea. "Taking into account the rains that fell in the past few days and that rain is the chief danger of these tropical systems, local organizations in these areas should get activated," Civil Defense said in a communique published in the local media. (EFE, 10/6/06)

June 12: Tropical Storm Alberto, the first named storm of the 2006 Atlantic Ocean Hurricane Season, headed toward Florida after dumping rain over western Cuba. Cuba’s
weather system forced the evacuation of at least 27,000 people in western Cuba because of the threat of flooding, Cuba's National Information Agency said. Parts of the country received as much as 445 millimeters (18 inches) of rain in a 24-hour period, the official Granma newspaper reported. ``Rains are the most important factor in this meteorological situation, and they will continue this morning in the most western extreme of Pinar del Rio province, the provinces around Havana, and the Isle of Youth,'' Cuba's Institute of Meteorology said. Thousands of residents of western Cuba were in shelters waiting for Alberto's floodwaters to recede as the season's first tropical storm pulled away. State-run media reported that efforts were underway to restore power in Pinar del Rio province after a weekend plagued with more than 200 outages. The rain, exceeding a foot in some locations, quickly filled the reservoirs and caused rivers to burst their banks, washing out roads in several parts of the province. (Bloomberg, Reuters, 12,13/6/06)

June 12: Cuban leaders have named University of Havana Rector Juan Vela Valdes to be the new minister of higher education, replacing a man who was in the job for three decades, the island's state-run media reported. Vela Valdes is a member of the Communist Party's Central Committee and has been rector at several universities and medical institutes, the party's daily newspaper Granma said. He replaces Fernando Vecino Alegret, who served "with maximum dedication and devotion during 30 years," Granma said. The newspaper added that Cuba's governing body, the Council of State, made the decision to "liberate" Vecino Alegret from his post after his long career. (AP, 12/6/06) 

June 14: About 60 residents of the Havana town of Casablanca protested in Havana outside the principal seat of the Communist government in an effort to prevent eviction from their homes. Public questioning of authority in this one-party state is very rare, and participants in demonstrations not sanctioned or organized by the government are generally either detained or harassed by supporters of the regime. The protesters told the press that they do not want to leave their homes in the little sector of San Nicolas although local government authorities ordered them several years ago to do so because they are considered to be living there illegally. Several members of the group, which is made up mainly of women, said that if they are driven from their homes they have no other place to live and do not want to impose upon or drag their children into the matter.
One member of the group said that it was the fourth time they had gone to the Council of State, the seat of the Cuban government, "so that they listen to us." "The only thing we want is for them to leave us where we are," added one of the ladies, who said she had lived in San Nicolas for 15 years. (EFE, 14/6/06)

June 14: Fidel Castro's brother said the Communist Party will remain in control of Cuba if there is a leadership change, according to a speech published in Granma. Raul Castro, the island's defense minister and designated successor of his 79-year-old brother, dismissed claims that Cuba's political system would change dramatically after his brother is no longer president, saying the party would quickly fill any political vacuum. "Only the Communist Party -- as the institution that brings together the revolutionary vanguard and will always guarantee the unity of Cubans -- can be the worthy heir of the trust deposited by the people in their leader," he said in a speech marking a military anniversary. [Discurso de Raúl Castro] (AFP, La Jornada, Granma, 14,15/6/06)

June 16: Over the past 20 years, the prestigious San Antonio de Baños Film School has promoted among its hundreds of students a socially-oriented and fiercely independent kind of cinema. In the flatlands south of Havana sits San Antonio de los Baños - a decrepit urban sprawl of 40,000 inhabitants, stunted buildings and scant tourist appeal, which according to local legend is "the world's most frequently filmed town. Over the past 20 years, the Cuban International Cinema and Television School (EICTV) has hosted hundreds of budding directors, scriptwriters and producers from around the world, and in particular from other Latin American countries. "Viewers today are still condemned to see one type of filmmaking. What [Latin American] countries want is to come up with movies that have an impact on reality. We lack visibility. Christopher Columbus didn't really finish discovering us," explained the school's director Julio García Espinosa, who visited Spain earlier this month to celebrate the school's 20th anniversary. (El Pais, 16/6/06)

June 18: Marriage as a lifelong union is becoming more and more of an "anachronism" in Cuba, where the average length of time that couples stay hitched is 10-14 years, according to official statistics. An article in the daily Juventud Rebelde dealing with the subject of divorce and separation in current Cuban society says that the existence of couples who have celebrated their "golden wedding anniversary" - that is, 50 years of marriage - has almost acquired a social "heritage value." Thirty-five percent of the Cuban population is married, but there is also a high incidence of consensual and informal unions, according to National Statistics Office figures cited by the paper. In addition, the average age marriage for Cubans is 20-24 and the average age at which the members of couples separate is 30-35. The head of the Population and Development Studies Center within the National Statistics Office, Enrique Gonzalez, said that since 2000, the divorce rate on the communist island has been trendless, fluctuating between 3 and 3.4 per 1,000 residents. He said that the divorce rate "is high, but stable." (EFE, 18/6/06)

June 18: The sons and daughters of Cuba's ruling class live in Spain but keep a low profile so that Fidel Castro's government will let them return home for visits. They are known as quedaditos, which means ''those who stayed'' but implies the under-the-radar lives they lead to avoid the whiff of dissidence that might stick to their decision to live outside the communist system. Some are critical of Fidel Castro. Others just want to get away from the island's intense politics. Others want to do business, without Cuba's draconian controls. But for all, unlike Miami, living in Spain does not immediately point to dissidence and the end of their possibility of frequently visiting the island. There's Agustín Valdés, the son of the former Cuban interior minister and notorious hard-liner Ramiro Valdés, who has lived in Madrid for the past eight years. Javier Leal, the son of Eusebio Leal Spengler, who heads the Historian's Office of the City of Havana, runs a travel agency and an art gallery in Barcelona. Emma Alvarez-Tabío, the daughter of Pedro Alvarez-Tabío, who heads Cuba's Office of Historic Affairs, is married to a Spanish diplomat and works as a consultant on investments in Cuba. Enrique Alvarez Cambra, the son of Rodrigo Alvarez Cambra, a physician who is a trusted member of Castro's inner circle and performed surgery on former Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein. Enrique runs a medical clinic in the northern city of Santander. And Antonio Enrique Luzón, son of the former Cuban minister of transport of the same name, is based in Madrid and runs an import-export business. (The Miami Herald, 18/6/06)

June 18: Thirty-one Ladies in White--wives and relatives of (Cuban) prisoners of conscience--attended mass at the Santa Rita Church on Fathers’ Day. Later, the 30 women, many of whom had travelled from different parts of Cuba, marched three kilometers along 5th Avenue in Miramar. This marks the third year since the group of 75 was sent to prison in the spring of 2003.  (Cubanet, 19/6/06)

June 19: The Cuban Tobacco Research Institute has obtained a high quality protein from this plant, which will be used to treat patients with renal problems, reported the Institute’s deputy director, Norma del Castillo. The protein meets the standards of the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) and it is ideal for patients with renal problems, said del Castillo to local media. (AFP, 19/6/06)

June 19: A moderate opposition coalition asked the government of Fidel Castro for a general amnesty of political prisoners and a moratorium on the death penalty, consistent with Cuba’s entry in the newly created UN Human Rights Council, based in Geneva. Arco Progresista and Coalición Diálogo Pro Derechos Humanos also urged the Cuban government to “put a halt to the harassment and the so-called acts of repudiation against pro-democracy and human rights activists in Cuba”. (AFP, 19/6/06) 

June 19: According to an official local television station, a fire of medium proportions in a central building in Havana, which houses the Ministry of Trade and two television channels, caused some material damages, but there were no victims. The fire caused partial interruption to the transmissions of the two educational channels. (AFP, 20/6/06)

June 21: Cuba has sentenced a leading member of the Communist Party to 12 years in prison for corruption in what the country's only legal political organization said was proof no one stands above the law. The conviction of the highest-ranking party member in over a decade came amid a nationwide anti-corruption drive that has used young people, retired party members and others to fight rampant theft that has hobbled Cuba's state-run economy. A Political Bureau communique said party leader Juan Carlos Robinson was tried and found guilty of "continuous influence peddling".  Robinson was expelled from the Political Bureau, the party's highest body, in April. His trial was not publicized. (Reuters, Globe & Mail, BBC, AP, 21/6/06) 

June 22: The Cuban Foreign Ministry rejected criticism of the prison conditions of a group of dissidents accused of cooperating with foreign governments by saying they are in perfect health. “The human dignity and physical and mental well-being of the mercenaries sentenced to prison have been carefully respected”, said the Foreign Ministry in a lengthy report. Cuba thus stated its position on the criticism made by the wives of some of the 60 imprisoned dissidents. “The allegations of supposed human rights violations against any of them are absolutely false”, said the ministry. (AFP, 22/6/06)

June 23: Fidel Castro was presented with a painting allusive to the recent graduation of the millionth person from the Youth Computer Clubs set up around the island, handed to him by the first secretary of the Young Communist League (UJC) Julio Martinez, during the radio and TV program "The Round Table." “This is a birthday’s gift," said Castro, who added, "but it is just the beginning!!" Panellists on the TV and radio program evaluated the 18 years of uninterrupted work of the Youth Computer Clubs. (Granma, 24/6/06)

June 23: During the celebration for the 12th anniversary of “Vitral” magazine, Dagoberto Valdés, its editor and director of the Centre for Civic and Religious Education, said that Cuba “needs renewal and rebuilding on the foundations of Varela and Martí and if either apathy or power prevents it, the nation languishes”. Valdés insisted that “dialogue is the way, in spite of any stubbornness and violence, and in spite of frustrations and doors being closed”. (EER, 23/6/06)

June 23: In what scientists billed as a breakthrough, Cuba has developed the first monoclonal antibody from transgenic plants -- dubbed a "plantibody" -- used in making a human vaccine. The antibody, CB-Hep.1, is from an "ancestor" of the tobacco plant. 
It replaces an antibody obtained from mice in Cuba's manufacturing of the hepatitis B vaccine, researchers told reporters in Havana. Carlos Borroto, deputy director at Cuba's Biotechnology and Genetic Engineering Center (CIGB), said the plantibody had won approval from Cuba's medication quality control agency, part of the public health ministry. CB-Hep.1 is the first plantibody authorized anywhere in the world for manufacturing a vaccine. Borroto said since the breakthrough was achieved, "145 million doses have been exploited and not a single problem in their use has been reported." (AFP, 24/6/06) 

June 24: A truck crashed in the mountains of Eastern Santiago de Cuba province, killing nine people and injuring 45, the official media said. A field hospital was set up at the scene after the crash and a military helicopter was ferried the most seriously injured from the remote area to hospitals. Five young people were among the dead, including a 4-year-old girl. Some of the seriously injured were also children. Cubans often pack trucks in the area because there is a lack of public transportation. The official report said the truck apparently went out of control and tumbled repeatedly when a front tire blew out as it was passing another vehicle. (Reuters, 24/6/06)

June 26: Cuba has 332,000 teachers, one for every 36 inhabitants, the best such indicator in the world, said Cuban Education Minister Luis Gomez speaking at the closing ceremony of the 2005-2006 school year in eastern Las Tunas province. In statements to the press, Gomez announced that by this September, some 3 million students will be enrolled at all of the various education levels on the island, an unprecedented figure.
He stressed that the country is able to guarantee high quality teaching. (ACN, 26/6/06)

June 27: A group of opponents asked the Apostolic Nunciature and the Cuban Catholic Church to intercede with the government of Fidel Castro on behalf of independent journalist Guillermo Fariñas, who’s been on a hunger strike for almost five months and whose health is in critical condition. Internal human rights activists sent a letter dated June 14th to the Apostolic Nuncio, Monsignor Luigi Bonazzi, asking for help. (EER, 27/6/06)

June 28: Moderate dissidents in Cuba urged the government of Fidel Castro to declare a legal moratorium on executions and announced that a campaign would be launched this year to raise public awareness on the issue. Capital punishment has not been applied in this Caribbean island nation since the April 2003 execution by firing squad of three Cubans who hijacked a ferry carrying dozens of passengers, including several foreign tourists, in an attempt to reach the United States. "The time is right to move from a 'de facto' moratorium to a legal one," Manuel Cuesta Morúa told the press, clarifying that he was speaking on behalf of the Pro Human Rights Dialogue Coalition and not as the spokesman for the Arco Progresista, which links groups with social democratic tendencies. Both coalitions signed a statement, at the start of the very first session of the new United Nations Human Rights Council, demanding general amnesty for political prisoners and the creation of national mechanisms aimed at guaranteeing respect for human rights. Cuesta Morúa said "it is in this context that we are calling, among other things, for a moratorium on the death penalty." (IPS, 28/6/06)

June 28: One of 15 Cuban migrants sent home after reaching an abandoned bridge in the Florida Keys said the group is growing desperate after three months awaiting final Cuban government approval to leave for good. The migrants were returned to Cuba in January. But a deal allowing 14 of them to emigrate permanently was reached in March between US District Judge Frederic Moreno in Miami and the US government. Now all they lack is the so-called ''white card,'' an exit permit Cubans must receive from the communist government to leave the island. Fourteen of the original 15 have humanitarian visas from the American government to emigrate to the United States. The migrants have quit their jobs as instructed by Cuban authorities in preparation to leave for the United States. (The New York Times, 28/6/06)

June 29: Mariela Castro is leading a Cuban revolution less well known than her Uncle Fidel's: one in favour of sexual tolerance within the island's macho society. Castro, 43, is leading the charge from her government-funded National Center for Sex Education, based in an old Havana mansion. As director of the group, she promoted a soap opera that scandalized many Cubans in March by sympathetically depicting bisexuality. Now Castro's niece is pushing for passage of a law that would give transsexuals free sex change operations and hormonal therapy in addition to granting them new identification documents with their changed gender. A draft bill was presented to parliament last year and was well received, she said. It is expected to come up for a vote in December.
If approved, it would make Cuba the most liberal nation in Latin America on gender issues. Castro says her goal is to bring the revolution her uncle and father, Defense Minister Raul Castro, fought 47 years ago to the terrain of sexuality. Her group has also campaigned for better AIDS prevention as well as acceptance of homosexuality, bisexuality and transvestites. "I want to bring the revolution's humanity to those aspects of life that it hasn't reached because of old prejudices," she told the press. (Reuters, 29/6/06)

June 29: Over 30 Cuban rafters detained in Kilo 5 ½ prison, in Pinar del Rio province, were released after being accused of cooperating with smuggling activities. Last April, police authorities captured some one hundred citizens from La Habana and Pinar del Rio provinces when they were trying to leave the island by illegal means. Women with children were sent to Manto Negro prison, accused of putting the lives of their children in danger. After over forty days in jail, a group of thirty prisoners were released on a $5,000 pesos bail until trial, some of the detainees said. (Cubanet, 29/6/06)

June 29: A dissident group monitoring human rights in Cuba said there are at least 347 prisoners of conscience on the island and warned that the jailing of opposition activists was rising. ''There is a worsening of the situation,'' said Aida Valdés Santana, of the National Coordinating Group of Prisoners and Ex-Political Prisoners. Valdés told a news conference that her group would begin offering periodic updates on the number of political prisoners. According to another group, the Cuban Commission for Human Rights and National Reconciliation, there are 333 political prisoners. (AP, 30/6/06)

June 30: The traditional activities that Havana authorities organize every summer will be dedicated this year to Fidel Castro's 80th birthday and the 50th anniversary of the landing of the motor launch Granma, on which the rebel leader and his comrades arrived from Mexico. Under the slogan "Summer for my People," the summer campaign in Havana has scheduled activities "for relaxation and fun, with events that promote human values," the front page of the official daily Juventud Rebelde reported. The campaign will begin on July 8 and will include cultural and sports events, parades and musical groups, special movie passes, get-togethers with old sports heroes and screenings of the 2006 World Cup matches from Germany in coffee shops around town. The celebrations are particularly dedicated to Castro's 80th birthday on August 13, and to the 50th anniversary of the arrival of the motor launch Granma on the Cuban coast and the start of the revolution that brought down the Fulgencio Batista dictatorship on January 1, 1959. (EFE, 30/6/06)