Chronicle on Cuba - July 2006

Exile Community

July 2: Czech ex-president Vaclav Havel, an advocate of freedom and human rights observance in Cuba, met with Cuban-born US film star Andy Garcia. Asked by the press whether he would return to Cuba if the current totalitarian regime collapsed, Garcia said he has been dreaming about returning to Cuba for all his life. The family of Garcia, now 50, left Cuba shortly after Fidel Castro's takeover, when Andy was a small boy. Before a private dinner with Have, Garcia said it is impossible to anticipate what will happen in Cuba. It is only necessary to hope and pray for the changes that can be expected one day, to be peaceful. For 47 years it has been hoped that changes will occur soon, Garcia said. He said he is meeting Havel because he highly esteems his activities in support of human rights. There are many people who have been doing much for Cuba. Mr.Havel is one of them, Garcia said. Garcia is staying in the Czech Republic as a guest to the Karlovy Vary international film festival that has presented him with a Crystal Globe for his extraordinary contribution to world cinema. (CTK, 2/7/06)

July 8: The Association of Christian Women in Defense of the Cuban Family held its fourth demonstration against the Bush administration's tightening of travel restrictions to Cuba. Shouting out '' Queremos viajar, vamos a viajar !'' a group of more than 50 protesters joined together in a demonstration in front of Hialeah's City Hall. The Association of Christian Women in Defense of the Cuban Family is a group of Cuban women, their husbands and other sympathizers who are against the tightened restrictions placed by the Bush administration on travel and remittances to the island.  ''These are arbitrary laws that separate families, uncles, cousins, nieces and nephews; they have no respect for family,'' a demonstrator said. (The Miami Herald, 13/7/06)

July 10: The NGO “Spanish Solidarity with Cuba” published the first "solidarity tourist guide" of a country, in which the customary description of the island and its tourist landmarks is used as a vehicle to deliver abundant information about the prisoners of conscience and his families, activists of human rights and civil society of Cuba. The head of Communications of the organization and coauthor of the guide, Maria Ángeles Altozano, pointed that several NGOs from other countries "have shown interest in having the guide translated into English, French, German and even Polish.” [Guía Turística y Solidaria de Cuba] (Europa Press, 10/7/06)

July 11: In South Florida, reaction to the Report by the Commission for the Assistance to a Free Cuba was divided, though somewhat muted, between those who favor or oppose the US embargo policy. Alfredo Mesa, director of the Cuban American National Foundation, said the report sends a message of support to potential reformers in Cuba who may be afraid to speak out. He said reformers should know they can turn to the United States, not to current Castro allies like Venezuela's Hugo Chavez. "At the end of the day, the Cuban American National Foundation is very clear that decisions on the future of Cuba have to be made in Cuba by Cubans," Mesa said. Silvia Wilhelm, head of the Miami-based Cuban American Commission for Family Rights, called the commission's report a "continuation of a totally failed policy." "On the one hand, they talk about engagement and the importance of people-to-people [contacts]. On the other hand, they have rules in place now that prevent families from seeing each other," Wilhelm said. "To me, that is most ironic." Sylvia Irizondo, president of Women and Mothers Against Repression, supported the Report saying that it is “a US commitment with Cuba’s democratic future”. However, Ramón Saúl Sánchez, president of the Democracy Movement, a well-known Cuban exile organization in Miami, said that the Report is a “mistake”, because the funding will go to groups based in the US and not to the Cuban dissidents. He also considered that the dissident movement will be paying a high cost once Fidel Castro takes advantage of the Report to increase repression under the argument that the dissidents are “mercenaries” paid by the US. (Sun Sentinel, EFE, 11/7/06)

July 14: The opposition organization Plataforma Cuba Democracia Ya released a letter addressed to US President George W. Bush, criticizing his Plan of Assistance to a Free Cuba for being “timid, confusing and vague” because it views the transition as conditioned upon the death of Fidel Castro, it does not define clear strategies to restore democracy on the island and it “does not guarantee” its own continuity. (Europa Press, 14/7/06)

July 15: A presidential commission's report on US plans to promote democracy in Cuba has earned applause from Cuban exiles, particularly for an $80 million commitment to bolster civil society and independent media. But while many expressed broad support for the commission's message, some were wary of how, and if, the promised funds will be spent. "It would be very harmful if they said that money will come and then people didn't get it,'' said Orlando Gutierrez, the National Secretary of the Miami-based Cuban Democratic Directorate, which seeks to provide humanitarian aid to the pro-democracy movement on the island. Ninoska Perez Castellon, of the conservative Liberty Council, said concerns about US influence were unwarranted. "Nobody questioned it when Europe was under communism, and it was the United States and Margaret Thatcher that provided the help,'' she said. (AP, 15/7/06)

July 15: Manuel Ochoa, the conductor and musical director of the Miami Symphony orchestra he founded in 1989 passed away of heart failure. He was 80 and had been in poor health for most of the year and, regrettably, was no longer able to conduct.  Born into a musical family in the Cuban provincial city of Holguín, Manuel Ochoa first conducted professionally at the age of 17 -- a performance of Verdi's opera Il Trovatore . He graduated from Havana's prestigious Conservatorio Internacional de Música, where he would later serve as Professor of Conducting Techniques. In Cuba, Ochoa went on to conduct the Orquesta Filarmónica de La Habana, but it was at choral conducting that he first excelled, becoming the island's preeminent choral conductor. He continued his studies in Europe, graduating from the Real Conservatorio de Madrid and learning conducting techniques in Rome and Vienna. One of his achievements was to be an early interpreter of Cuba's first composer, the now revered Baroque master Esteban Salas. (The Miami Herald, 16/7/06) 

July 21: The executive director of the Cuban American National Foundation (CANF), Alfredo Mesa, will resign his post to work for a firm that deals with government affairs, although he will continue to fulfill his duties as spokesman for the Cuban exile organization and could sit at its executive board meetings. "The current position  of the CANF is very solid, which allows for these changes," pointed out Mesa, 31, who, following the CANF congress, will become vice-president of the global government affairs strategy and management firm Dutko WorldWide. In letter to Mas Santos, Mesa praised the current CANF strategy, focused on supporting the dissident movement, a non-violent political transition in Cuba and the articulation last year of the Cuban Consensus project, which brought approximately 20 exile organizations together under the same program. (El Nuevo Herald, 21/7/06)

July 22: The Cuban American National Foundation, the organization that pushed the Cuban exile cause to national prominence, celebrated its 25th anniversary with great fanfare during its annual conference. ''This represents a quarter century of victories and sacrifice by so many men and women who worked toward the common goal of liberty in Cuba,'' said Jorge Mas Santos, current CANF chairman and son of Mas Canosa, who died in 1997. ``It reflects on the vision of the founders, who left us their vision to make sure that every Cuban on the island knows that they are not alone.'' Highlighting the foundation's current focus on providing financial and other support to dissidents still living in Cuba, Mas and his mother Irma Mas Santos announced a $1 million donation to the foundation to mark the quarter century milestone. (The Miami Herald, 22/7/06)

July 25: A coalition of US-based Cuban exile groups launched a campaign to urge their compatriots in the Island "not to cooperate with the dictatorship." According to the organizations, the campaign aims to provide support for civic resistance movements in Cuba and was organized in response to calls from political prisoners and dissidents in the Island. The initiative was launched by the organizations Plantados (made up of former Cuban political prisoners who refused all rehabilitation plans and insisted on their status as political prisoners), MAR Por Cuba and Cuban Democratic Directorate. (AP, El Nuevo Herald, 26/7/06)

July 31: Alfredo Mesa, executive director of the Cuban American National Foundation, a powerful Miami-based exile group, said he believed Castro's medical condition was serious enough to put in place the Cuban government's succession strategy. "It is very important that everyone remain calm," Mesa said. "Those in power need to know that the foundation is ready to support a true and peaceful transition to democracy." (Chicago Tribune, 1/8/06)