Chronicle on Cuba - July 2006

Highlights:

Domestic Affairs: The 5th Plenary Meeting of the Cuban Communist Party’s Central Committee unanimously adopts Raul Castro’s ideas on the role of the organization at a succession process. Fidel Castro undergoes complicated surgery and “provisionally” passes over power to his brother Raul.

Economy: Russia shelves Cuba’s external debt with the European nation for indefinite time. Cuba and Venezuela agree to extend their bilateral trade. The Common Market of the South (Mercosur) and Cuba sign an Economic Complementation Accord.  Fidel Castro inaugurates the country’s largest new power-generator system in the province of Holguin.

Exile Community: Cuban exiles take to the streets of Miami in the thousands convinced that Fidel Castro was at death’s door. The executive director of the Cuban American National Foundation reaffirms his organization decision to support a true and peaceful transition to democracy. The association Cuba, Democracy “Now" calls for "serenity and caution”.

Foreign Affairs: Fidel Castro participates in a Mercosur Summit in Argentina. Cuba condemns the international community’s “lack of action” in the face of the Israeli bombings against Lebanon. Fidel Castro and Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez rally thousands of leftist sympathizers in Argentina.

Security: Belarusian Defence Minister Leonid Maltsev meets with the Cuban Minister of Armed Forces Raul Castro in Havana.