Chronicle on Cuba - June 2006

Exile Community

June 1: The famous Cuban painter Agustin Fernandez, 78, died in New York from pneumonia. Fernandez was one of the most significant of the exiled Cuban artists in the development of international modernism. Although he has been classified as a surrealist throughout his career, his work draws from a wide realm of visions, inventions and contortions. While not abstract in approach, his work does not represent objective realty, instead depicting unconscious yearnings, obsessions, and fantasies. In 1959 Fernandez moved to Paris, where he would remain for more than 10 years, producing a series of erotic work. In 1968, after moving to Puerto Rico, and destroying much of his earlier work, he began to work in collage, and continued to explore the armor-like metal facades. In 1972 he moved to New York where he lived the rest of his life. “My paintings were more Cuban, more romantic before 1960; in exile they hove and become more metaphysical. I don't know if exile influences my work, but it has influenced me. It is not that I left Cuba, it's not being able to return", he said. (El Nuevo Herald, Art in Context, 4/6/06)

June 5: In a special session of the Organization of American States in Santo Domingo, the president of MAR por Cuba, Sylvia Iriondo, described the situation on the island where for more than 47 years the people have not had the option of electing their leaders. The activist called on the OAS member states to support the democratic aspirations of the Cuban people, and denounced the situation of more than 330 political prisoners on the island who suffer in subhuman conditions. (MartiNoticias, 5/6/06)

June 7: Six years after the government raid to seize Elian Gonzalez and return him to his father, supporters of the Cuban boy continue to press their claims that federal agents used excessive force in seizing him. Oral arguments were heard before the 11th US Circuit Court of Appeals in an amended lawsuit against the government. The suit was filed by more than 90 people who say they were injured by a type of tear gas used by immigration agents who removed then-6-year-old Elian from his relatives' Miami home on April 22, 2000. An earlier lawsuit against former Attorney General Janet Reno was rejected by the federal appeals court in Atlanta on the grounds that she had immunity from damages. This suit, based on similar facts, only names the United States and has nearly twice as many plaintiffs as the previous one. The plaintiffs include supporters of Elian who were outside the home and neighbors who were sleeping at the time of the raid. Among them is Donato Dalrymple, who was on a fishing trip with his cousin on Thanksgiving 1999 when they found and rescued Elian, who had survived a shipwreck that killed his mother and others fleeing Cuba. (AP, 7/6/06)

June 9: The group Cuba Democracia Ya! condemned the “inaction” of European institutions with regards to the situation in Cuba, by continually “delaying” their actions while the acts of repudiation and violence against peaceful opposition increase on the island. (Europa Press, 9/6/06)

June 14: A small group of Cuban-Americans dressed in black gathered outside the Broward Center for the Performing Arts, holding posters picturing independent journalists held in Cuban jails, some serving sentences of more than 20 years. The group was demonstrating during an interview with Ricardo Alarcon, president of Cuba’s National Assembly, by the organizers of the annual convention of the National Association of Hispanic Journalists in Fort Lauderdale. One large poster featured Guillermo Fariñas, a Cuban journalist who has been on a hunger strike for the right to Internet access. The Cuban-Americans holding posters outside the center said they were not protesting, but wanted to educate visiting journalists about limited access to information in Cuba, and persecution of those who express dissenting views. Most Cubans don't have computers, and only a few government jobs carry full Internet privileges. (Sun Sentinel, 14/6/06)

June 17: Nearly 100 protesters gathered in Miami to oppose a ban on traveling to Cuba, the Miami Herald reported. The protesters marched outside the office of US Representative Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (Republican-Florida), carrying signs with slogans like "Breaking Up the Family is Compassionate Conservatism?" Ros-Lehtinen supported the travel ban, which was imposed in 2004. It allows only those with immediate family to visit the island once every three years for a maximum of two weeks. Maria de la Torre, 73, has many family members in Cuba -- numerous orphans she raised, and their children -- who she has not been able to see in years. "These are like my own children and grandchildren," said de la Torre. "I love and miss them. But I can't go visit them." (Washington Times, 18/6/06)

June 22: A former board member of the Cuban American National Foundation said he and other CANF leaders created a paramilitary group to carry out destabilizing acts in Cuba and do away with Fidel Castro. Jose Antonio Llama, known as Toñín, told the press that the arsenal to carry out these plans included a cargo helicopter, 10 ultralight radio-controlled planes, seven vessels and abundant explosive materials. The plans failed after Llama and four other exiles were arrested in Puerto Rico in 1997 on charges of conspiracy to assassinate Castro during the Ibero-American Summit on Margarita Island, Venezuela. A jury acquitted them after a federal judge threw out one of the defendants' self-incriminating statements. Llama, a close associate of the late CANF leader Jorge Mas Canosa, left the group's board in 1999. CANF spokesman Alfredo Mesa -- speaking for members and leaders -- told the press: ``In this case, we consider that it is extremely irresponsible for a press organization to echo what clearly represents an extortion and defamation attempt.'' The Cuban government has long claimed CANF planned armed attacks on the island, but up until now, none of its claims have been documented. (El Nuevo Herald, 22/6/06)

June 28: A new generation of Cuban-American activists are finding their own way to support Cuba's internal opposition. "I think every college kid has to have a cause," said Candice Balmori, 21, president of Harvard's Cuban American Undergraduate Student Association, or CAUSA. "Everyone has to take up a banner of some sort." That banner was handed to them by older exiles. The young Cuban-Americans, many born in the United States, grew up hearing stories from relatives who longed for their homeland. The youngsters learned to love Cuba, even if they had never visited it. "I think most people who had to leave (…) I think they all left being very proud of their country and loving everything about it," said Joanna González, who grew up in Miami and was one of the founders of Raíces de Esperanza, a national network of young Cuban-American activists.
"I heard about it constantly. I heard about absolutely everything, the culture and what happened to the country. You grow up not being able to be a part of that and that's how you become passionate about it," González said. (Sun Sentinel, 28/6/06)

June 29: The Spanish Socialist Party invited the Cuban American National Foundation (CANF) and other Latin American parties to a seminar on the future of the region. The Cuban Communist Party, Venezuela’s Movimiento Quinta República, and Ecuador’s Movimento al Socialismo, all in power, were not invited to the seminar. (El Nuevo Herald, 29/6/06)