Chronicle on Cuba - October 2006

Domestic Affairs

October 1: Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez said that his ailing ally, Fidel Castro, is recovering slowly from intestinal surgery but told him recently that he was prepared to die. "Fidel told me when I went to visit him in Havana: 'Chavez, I already lived my epoch, I can die”. Chavez, who is up for re-election on December 3, also told the crowd that Castro's health is progressing two months after he temporarily turned power over to his younger brother Raul. "Fidel's recovery is advancing, according to the report with details that I received last night," Chavez said. "It will be a slow recovery because of the type of illness, which was serious at one moment." (AP, 1/10/06)

October 2: In a letter to the Pan-American Health Organization (PAHO), the Cuban government acknowledged in August the occurrence of dengue hemorrhagic fever in Cuba, although the outbreak has not been confirmed domestically. "In August, we received a communication from the Minister of Health (José Ramón Balaguer) informing of recent cases of dengue fever in Cuba, even some instances of the hemorrhagic variant (which can be fatal)," said PAHO representative on the island, Lea Guido. (EFE, 2/10/06)

October 3: While former Communist party members now among the ranks of the dissidence are advocating a transition based on the Chinese model, Christian Democrat activist Oswaldo Payá supports a move towards a system that promotes both economic and political freedom. Elizardo Sánchez, Vladimiro Roca, Oscar Espinosa Chepe and Miriam Leyva are all ex-communists. They claim that Castrism has not been communism, but personality-centered totalitarianism, more repressive than the variant practiced in the Soviet Union. And also more estatist. "The Cuban regime has allowed much less room for private enterprise than the Eastern bloc did," Chepe concludes.” A number of small privately-owned farms were permitted to operate, but the State determines what the crops are going to be and at what price it is going to buy them." The solution, they argue, is along the lines of a Chinese-style economic opening without political reforms. "Cuba is not prepared for political-economic shock therapies," maintains Elizardo Sánchez, leader of Cuban Human Rights Commission. Roca points out that (the Cuban) society at large is more economic than political. "70 % of the population has been born under this regime and has no democratic experience," adds Leyva. However, for the leader of the Christian Liberation Movement, Oswaldo Payá, "the Chinese model is but a Chinese bedtime story." Because a real transition must also include political rights, (which have been) "denied to the Cubans for over 40 years." (Notimex, 3/9/06)

October 3: Some promotional materials for nightclubs in Havana announce: Accompanied women do not pay. This means women are given free access to artistic shows if they are accompanied by men. The so-called Ladies' Nights seem to be well accepted, especially because cover charge for these nightclubs has to be paid in convertible pesos (CUCs). Admission fees range from two to 10 CUCs. The current official exchange rate is one CUC to 24 Cuban pesos. "Ladies' nights as a concept has never been approved by the Ministry of Tourism, although many facilities have asked for permits", said a Ministry official who asked not to be identified. Skilful business people, however, have sought to present attractive ideas for women and please men. Other experts in gender issues think that the initiative goes far beyond giving free access to women. Most nightclubs in Havana admit only traditional (man-woman) couples. Yvette, a 44-year-old painter, feels excluded. I am lesbian and most of my friends are homosexuals. We are not allowed in these places because we refuse to pretend we are heterosexuals, she noted. The Ministry of Tourism official told the press that all this is part of the struggle against prostitution. Apparently, nightclub managers are flexible enough to allow men and women alone. If a couple separates after they are in, we reserve the right to ask them to leave, a provision stipulates. (Women’s Features Service, 3/10/06)

October 3: For the first time in 40 years, Cuban official media carried US Major League Baseball game scores. The daily Juventud Rebelde, official newspaper of the Cuban Young Communist League (UJC), reported in a brief sports section column entitled "Trip" the final score in the US professional baseball regular season, an unprecedented move in four decades. (EFE, 3/10/04)

October 3: Cuba's foreign minister said Fidel Castro will return to his post as maximum leader of the island, though he did not say when, state-run media reported. ''We will again have him leading the revolution,'' Foreign Minister Felipe Perez Roque said of the ailing Castro at an outdoor event to discuss the ill effects of the US trade embargo against Cuba, according to the Communist Party daily newspaper Granma. The 80-year-old Castro temporarily ceded power to younger brother Raúl Castro on July 31, saying he needed time to recover from intestinal surgery. Perez Roque told the press in New York in September that he expected the Cuban leader to be fully back at the helm by early December. (AP, EFE, 4/10/06)

October 4: Cuba's high number of centenarians say their longevity is down to laying off alcohol, but indulging in coffee, cigars and sex. The findings are the result of a study that looked into the lives of 54 out of the more than 100 centenarians who live in Villa Clara province. More than 60% of them had parents who also lived to be over 100. Cuba, with a population of 11.2 million, has about 3,000 people who have lived for more than a century. The results of the study were reported to the National Geriatrics and Social Work workshop in Santa Clara town, the newspaper Juventud Rebelde said. The life expectancy in Cuba is 76, but in Villa Clara province, where the study was carried out, it is 78. (BBC, 4/10/06)
 
October 5: The significance of the second edition of the book "One Hundred Hours with Fidel" by Ignacio Ramonet, revised, corrected and improved by the interviewer, was appreciated by Cuban academics. The analysis of the book took place at the Havana Conference Center attended by Ignacio Ramonet and Pedro Alvarez Tabio, as well as artists, researchers and students, among others. Tabio, editor and director of the Council of State's Office of Historic Affairs, said the revision was to formally polish up the text, clarify some areas, and enhance and complete some passages of the book. Ramonet said the book was a two-handed autobiography on ideas and life of the Cuban Revolution leader. (Prensa Latina, 5/10/06)

October 5: Cuban writer Amir Valle, author of “Jineteras”, a non-fiction book on the issue of prostitution in Cuba, voiced at the Francfurt Book Fair his concern that writer persecution in his country should once again reach the levels of what he described as the “dark decade” of the seventies. “According to current views in intellectual circles both on the island and abroad, everything points to a return to the dark decade of the seventies,” said Valle. (EFE, 6/10/06)

October 5: According to its national director, the illegal Independent Libraries of Cuba Project will not participate in a congress of similar institutions called for by opposition leader Marta Beatriz Roque, because it is perceived as being more of a "political" event, rather than a cultural affair. "The call from the Assembly to Promote Civil Society (APSC) contradicts the spirit of the Project and therefore we will not take part," said Gisela Delgado, wife of political prisoner Héctor Palacios, who was sentenced to 25 years in prison in the spring of 2003, along with another 74 dissidents. (AFP, 6/10/06)

October 7: The 4th Congress of the Jose Marti Pioneros student organization, began its sessions. The delegates from six to 12 years-old will debate in five commissions including Primary and Secondary education, Education, Sports and Recreation, Vocational Formation and Organizational Functioning in Adult Structure. More than 1.4 million primary and secondary education students are represented at the event by 903 delegates at a unique forum that allows new generations to be heard. For the 4th time the organization will analyze its leadership, profile and main aspects of its education. Schools have been getting ready since last March, preparing the issues and readying agendas of youth concern. (Prensa Latina, 7/10/06)

October 8: Each year, a four-kilometer race takes place in the Havana municipality of 10 de Octubre, which takes its name from the beginning of Cuba’s first war of independence on October 10, 1868. This time, a record 11,474 runners took part. Alberto Juantorena, Javier Sotomayor, and Emperatriz Wilson were among the Cuban Olympic champion athletes participating in the event that included 4,992 boys and 2,982 girls and zigzagged through the streets and avenues of the Vibora neighbourhood. David Lahera, first secretary of the Communist Party in the municipality of 10 de Octubre, fired the starting shot and participated in the awards ceremony along with provincial government authorities and representatives of the National Institute of Sports, Physical Education and Recreation (INDER), Franciso Arias, representative of the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) in Cuba, and Juan Nuiry, for many years Cuba’s representative to the FAO. (Granma, 11/10/06)

October 8: French musician, Charles Aznavour, is in Havana for the recording of an album with the virtuoso Cuban pianist and composer Chucho Valdes. The disc will have a romantic focus featuring the warm voice of Aznavour, 82, fused with the tropical rhythms of Cuba. Aznavour is rehearsing 11 songs with Valdes to prepare for recording. The disc is scheduled for release in February or March of 2007 and features an instrumental piece, reported Granma newspaper. (ACN, 12/10/06)

October 9: The Ladies in White, wives and relatives of political Cuban prisoners, assured that they would not participate in a congress of independent libraries called for by the opposition activist Martha Beatriz Roque. "The Ladies in White are not members of any project, organization or party, therefore we will not take part in the congress of libraries called for by the Assembly to Promote Civil Society in Cuba (APSC) that Roque leads,” they stated in a press release. (EER, 10/10/06)

October 9: Defense minister and second in the Cuban hierarchy, Raul Castro insisted that his 80-year-old brother, Fidel, was on the mend after undergoing abdominal surgery, and that he'd be back in office soon. However, the younger brother and presidential stand-in of more than two months is now taking over the leftist icon's political space like no one else has in 47 years, fostering renewed speculation over the future leadership of the Communist island nation. "Fidel is doing well. He has a telephone and is using it more and more," Raul said Sunday during a televised national meeting of 15-year-old students in Havana. "He is not dying as some press in Miami report, but constantly improving," he said, adding that the student delegates would hold a special session with his brother in December. Raul said he and other leaders had met with Fidel on October 6 "for a number of hours" during which they discussed "important matters" and Fidel "gave instructions." (Reuters, 9/10/06)

October 9: A morning of music, song, poetry, ballet, and dances from around Latin America brought an end to the Fourth Congress of the Jose Marti Pioneers Organization in Havana. The organization is made up of children and adolescents from first grade through junior high school. Yadrian Guerra Valido, a congress participant, read the pioneers declaration and 45 children, in representation of the more than 130,000 new first graders, received their blue scarves that symbolizes their affiliation. The cultural gala ended a weekend of activities for the 1,000 delegates and guests to the pioneer’s congress. Among the groups performing were La Colmenita, Bebé Compañía, Los Aragoncitos, a giant chorus and the Symphonic Orchestra. The event was presided by Esteban Lazo Hernandez, member of the Cuban Communist Party’s Central Committee; Mercedes Lopez Acea, member of the Central Committee Secretariat; Luis Ignacio Gomez, minister of Education; Julio Martinez first secretary of the Young Communist League; and Miriam Yanet Martin, president of the Jose Marti Pioneers Organization. (Granma, 10/10/06)

October 9: Six people, among them a young boy, died and four were injured in a highway crash near the eastern Cuban town of Buenaventura, the local press reported. Antonio Martinez lost control of the truck he was driving - in which the dead and injured, evidently, were riding - and went off the road some 40 kilometers (25 miles) east of Holguin, said the official AIN news agency. The dead, including an 18-month-old boy, lived in the municipality of Calixto Garcia in Holguin province. Driver negligence, the violation of traffic laws and the consumption of alcohol are among the main causes of road accidents in Cuba, according to local media. Official estimates are that traffic accidents constitute the fourth-leading cause of death in Cuba, after heart disease, cancer and cerebro-vascular problems. (EFE, 9/10/06) 

October 10: An Internet discussion on cultural diversity and social exclusion in the period of terrorism and globalization took place in the eastern province of Guantanamo, as part of the commemoration of Cuban Culture Day. The Cuban Culture Day recognizes the creation of the Cuban National Anthem 138 years ago. The digital interactive forum is called “Nationalities and nations facing the persistence of terrorism and globalization” and counts with the participation of people from all over the world with opinions on this and other related topics. (Prensa Latina, 10/10/06)

October 10: Approximately 300 Fidel Castro supporters gathered for a public “act of repudiation” that prevented the opening ceremony for a congress of independent libraries in Santa Clara. "Since early in the morning, some 300 individuals have been impeding access to the house of Noelia Rodríguez, in the José Martí neighborhood, and they did not let us get there," said librarian Idalberto González Gómez. (AFP, 11/10/06)

October 11: Cuban dissident Marta Beatriz Roque, who is heading a meeting of indepedent libraries considered to be illegal in Cuba, said that she will continue with the project despite an incident that occurred on the first day of the event. The congress began on October 10 with the participation of 152 independent libraries from all over the communist island, Roque told the press. Roque, who is the head of the Assembly to Promote Civil Society, said that during the first day of the congress an incident was registered in an independent library in Santa Clara province when government supporters prevented a group of librarians from meeting. Supporters of Cuba's Communist government, which seeks to control what people read, sometimes form groups or "mobs" to harass opponents of the 47-year-old regime. Dissidents say the gangs are encouraged by the government, and often include government agents. In homes in the central province of Cienfuegos, Camaguey in the east and Havana discussions of library issues were being held with the participation of about 20 people. "We're ready to continue with the congress until the end," said Roque, but she could not or would not specify the number of people who might be participating in the activities. (EFE, 11/10/06)

October 11: Benito Martinez Abrogan, Cuba's oldest person and star of the government's efforts to promote healthy lives for its oldest citizens, died at the age of 126. ``He died this afternoon. He had been in intensive care, but old age was the main problem,'' said an official at Ciego de Avila Hospital in central Cuba. Martinez, who attributed his longevity to a healthy diet of fresh vegetables, some meat and only occasional consumption of alcohol, was born in Haiti in 1880 and migrated to Cuba to work on sugar cane plantations in 1925, according to his Cuban documents. There was no definitive proof of his age as he had no birth certificate. The toothless centenarian was the star attraction of Cuba's 120-Club, a group formed by Fidel Castro's personal physician Eugenio Selman to promote healthy lives for Cuba's elderly. (Reuters, 11/10/06)

October 12: After attending the opening ceremony of the Congress of Independent Libraries, non-violent opposition activists Nancy Suárez and her husband, Orestes Suárez Torres, were brutally beaten up by a team from the Rapid Response Brigades just outside the city of Santa Clara. Members of a Brigade forced the oppositionists into a taxi and viciously assaulted them. (Cubanet, 12/10/06)

October 16: Cuban Vice President Raul Castro sent a diploma recognizing the work of Cuba's Mundo Latino TV Productions Enterprise on the occasion of its 20th anniversary. The diploma sent by the Minister of the Cuban Revolutionary Armed Forces highlights the contribution made by Mundo Latino to the spread and defense of the truth of the Cuban Revolution, and the rescue of the most significant developments of the recent national history. Esteban Lazo, Vice President of the Cuban Council of State, also attended the ceremony at Havana's Jose Marti Memorial. More than 450 documentary films produced by Mundo Latino have been sent to all continents and have raised the interest of countless TV production companies due to their high quality and the content of their subjects, such as the transformations of Cuban education and culture. (ACN, 16/10/06)

October 16: The Ladies in White, made up of relatives of imprisoned Cuban dissidents, denounced the authorities in Havana for not allowing their representatives to travel to New York to receive a human rights prize. About 20 members of the movement met in the home of the group's spokeswoman, Laura Pollan, just a few hours before the Human Rights 2006 prize award ceremony, sponsored by the organization Human Rights First, was due to begin in New York. Pollan said that she and Miriam Leyva, one of the founders of the Ladies in White, had followed the proper travel procedures with the Cuban authorities to make a trip to the United States, and she lamented the Havana regime's lack of response to their requests. (EFE, 16/10/06)

October 18: Cuba's Jose Marti National Library celebrates its 105th birthday with 24,000-plus clients and daily average services to 450 readers. Director Eliades Acosta told Granma daily that services comprehend a stock of four million books, photos, maps and other documents. He added that restoration work allowed to show 16th century books and a hall to provide service for blind people. The Library was initially opened at a small hall at La Fuerza Castle, on October 18, 1901, until it moved to its current location on June 12, 1957. (Prensa Latina, 18/10/06)

October 18: Carlos Lage Codorniu, 25, leads 300,000 Cuban university students and is the son of Cuba's third most powerful man after the Castro brothers. He confidently believes one-party socialism will survive in Cuba for another generation whether or not ailing Fidel Castro re-emerges to run the nation. But Cuba must win the hearts of its disaffected youth and improve "material" conditions for its people who have put up with economic hardships since Soviet communism collapsed, Lage told the press. "The greatest challenge of the Revolution is to incorporate these young people and get them to participate more in Cuban society," Lage said.  Lage admits the benefits of Cuban socialism are not always visible 47 years after Castro's revolution and there is room for debate over changes in Cuba's economic policies. "The main thing is to keep the guiding principle of the revolution: this apparently utopian search for the greatest possible social justice," Lage said.  "We know there are deficiencies (...) People must be able to see results in their material life," he said. Lage said Cuba still had to find the right balance between centralizing control over the economy and opening up incentives to spur growth. But for the student leader there is no question of reducing 90-percent state ownership in the Cuban economy. Nor of following the Chinese path to "market socialism" that opened up China to capitalist enterprise while keeping political power firmly in the hands of the Communist Party. "We do not agree with privatization, not even on a small scale," he said. "China cannot be our model. We are a much smaller country. They do not have the United States 90 miles (145 km) away," he said. (Reuters, 18/10/06)

October 20: Jorge Luis Sierra is the new Transportation Minister of Cuba, a change decided due to the importante of the sector, officials sources announced. Sierra, member of the Political Bureau of the Cuban Communist Party (PCC), substitutes Carlos Manuel Pazo. Before his appointment he was in the Secretariat of the political organization, The decision to replace Pazo was adopted by the Council of State, on a proposal of the PCC Political Board and attending the importance of the sector, the daily states. Public transportation was one of the Cuban industries that shrank most with the end of subsidies related to the collapse of the Soviet Union in the 1990s. Cuba has increased commercial ties with China in recent years to replace its aging vehicle, train and fluvial technologies. (Prensa Latina, EFE, 20/10/06)

October 20: A Cuban writer of detective novels and a new nonfiction book about prostitution on the communist-run island says he has not defected to Germany, but he doesn't know when -- or if -- he can return home. Amir Valle, now living in Berlin with his wife and their 5-year-old son, says he planned to return to Cuba in a few months when he left the island last fall for a book tour in Europe. Despite differences with his government, "I had decided to remain in Cuba because I feel that from there my way of thinking and acting is most valid," Valle said. But a year later, the celebrated 40-year-old author he says he lacks papers from his own government allowing him to return. After months of confusion about his migratory status, Valle now says that if he is allowed back in Cuba, he'll return only on his own terms and timing. "Many Cuban intellectuals have spent years asking for this absurd regulation for entering and departing the country to be annulled," Valle wrote from Berlin. "We have not received any answer, except for the classic, 'It's under discussion.' " Valle said, he demands "my right to return to Cuba when I deem it convenient in accord with my current international commitments." (AP, 20/10/06)

October 22: Author, critic and literary expert Salvador Bueno Menéndez (Havana, 1917), who presided over the Cuban Academy of the Language until two years ago, passed away in Havana at the age of 89. Bueno joined the Academy in 1992 and became its president in 1995. In 2004, he was replaced by author Lisandro Otero. (EER, 23/10/06)

October 22: Cuba has begun debating how to correct rampant theft and inefficiency in state-run services, from pouring beer to shining shoes, that could signal a step toward economic reform under acting President Raul Castro. In a scathing three-part series on graft in shops and bars entitled The Big Old Swindle, the Communist Youth newspaper Juventud Rebelde said a team of university experts will investigate ways to improve services. "The current irregularities in the country's services, in the midst of the search for a better economic model, has meant Cuba still does not have a retail and services sector that satisfies people's expectations," the newspaper said. Cuba's economy, modeled on Soviet communism that ultimately failed, is overwhelmingly state-controlled. The state provides supplies and sets serving amounts and prices for everything from a cup of coffee and ham sandwich to watch repairs and shoe shining. "The theory that came from the Soviet Union was skewered," economist Luis Marcelo Yera of the National Economic Research Institute told Juventud Rebelde. He advocated giving workers more power to decide the running of state enterprises. Yera was one of a number of academics quoted in the paper who stated systemic problems, including over centralization, hampered economic development and could not be dealt with simply by more regulation and discipline. "We live in a society with many distortions; that's why many things have to be guaranteed through cohesion and control, but not everything can be accomplished that way," Ernesto Molina, from Cuba's top school for international relations, told the paper.  "We need a scientific plan to organize society politically and economically so it works better," he said. (Reuters, 23/10/06)

October 23: Ongoing restoration work in the historic centre of the Cuban capital has been praised by UNESCO consultants, and could serve as a model for preserving heritage sites around the world. In 2007, Old Havana will be celebrating the 25th anniversary of its proclamation as a World Heritage Site by UNESCO (United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation), with one-third of its total area of 2.1 square kilometres completely restored. Two highly qualified independent experts, architects Sylvio Mutal of the Netherlands and Fernando Carrión of Ecuador, described the work carried out by the Cuban state in that part of the city as "successful and commendable," in a report commissioned by UNESCO. (IPS, 23/10/06)

October 24: The ten best Cuban books on Art and Literature published in 2005 received the Literary Critics 2005 Award in a ceremony at the Dulce María Loynaz Cultural Center. These high acknowledgements were for “Falsos Documentos” by Mirta Yañez, who received the same awards in 1998 and 1999, “El Caribe en su Discurso Literario”, by Luis Alvarez Alvarez and Margarita Mateo Palmer and “La Visita de la Infanta”, by Reinaldo Montero. Also awarded were “Alejo en Tierra Firme”, by Leonardo Acosta and “La Neblina del Ayer”, by Leonardo Padura, Ensenada de Mora, by Alex Pausides, “Contra el Silencio”, by Zaida Capote and “Una Vieja Redonda”, by Ivette Vian. Added to this list are “El Amor como Energía Revolucionaria en José Martí”, by Fina García Marruz and “El Hombre Discursivo”, by Antón Arrufat. (Prensa Latina, 24/10/06)

October 24: Fidel Castro's health has been improving each day since his intestinal surgery in late July, and he will soon resume his duties, the head of the Cuban Interests Section in Washington said. "His health has been improving every day and soon he will resume his responsibilities as president," said Dagoberto Rodriguez in an attempt to lay to rest the rumours that have gained strength in certain circles about Castro's alleged terminal illness. (EFE, 24/10/06)

October 24: A small group of ordinary craftsmen in Cuba are trying to preserve one of their country's national treasures, the boat Ernest Hemingway once fished from. The fishing vessel named "El Pilar" has fallen into disrepair following years of being ravaged by hurricanes and a lack of upkeep. The craftsmen are now using little more than their hands and sandpaper to tear years of corrosion from the boat. The men hope to have "El Pilar" returned to its former glory within six months. The boat has been part of Cuba's national history since Hemingway's death in 1961 when his estate on the communist island became government property. (NBC6.Net, 24/10/06)

October 24: Bactivec, a biological product produced in Cuba, will be used throughout the island against the reproduction of the Aedes Aegypti mosquito, the agent transmitting dengue fever, Granma newspaper reported. Developed by the Cuban company Labiofam, the product rapidly destroys larvae of Culex, Anopheles and Aedes, the latter a dengue and yellow fever carrier. Over 62,000 liters of the product have been sprayed by helicopter in the city of Havana and Havana province, as part of the health drive implemented in the island. (Prensa Latina, 24/10/06)

October 25: Catholic priest Julio Alberto Fernández Triana, a member of the Salesian Priests congregation, was detained and confined in a cell at a police station located on the corner of Dragones and Zulueta, in Old Havana. Father Julio went to the police station to inquire about a young man who had been previously arrested on the street for not carrying personal ID. He identified himself as a catholic priest and asked the desk officer why the young man had been detained. The policeman exploded in anger, took away his ID document and ordered him jailed. Father Julio resides at the church of María Auxiliadora (Mary the Helper) in Old Havana. (Puente Informativo, 25/10/06)

October 25: Interim Cuban leader Raul Castro appeared for the first time in three weeks to congratulate “Palante” humor magazine on its 45th anniversary, the Cuban agency AIN said.  Castro, interim head of state while his brother Fidel, Cuba's longtime strongman, recuperates from surgery, hadn't appeared in public since October 8, when he announced that Fidel was "constantly improving" and "not dead as the Miami press has reported". (AFP, 25/10/06)

October 25: In the wake of an unusual investigation by Cuban state journalists into public employees who regularly cheat customers, Havana has announced an even more surprising response: a study of what's wrong with the entire system. But the study won't be all. New rules aimed at cracking down on widespread fraud at state businesses will take effect January 2, the Communist Party newspaper Granma reported. Together, the two announcements appear to hint at what some experts say could be a significant change in policy in the wake of Fidel Castro's surrender of power - an acknowledgement that perhaps the root cause of Cuba's workplace fraud is a flaw with its socialist system. This week's announcements came on the heels of a three-part series in the Communist youth newspaper, Juventud Rebelde. In a remarkably unusual piece of journalism for Cuba's state-controlled media, reporters went undercover to restaurants, taxis and shoe repair shops to show how customers were routinely cheated. Beer mugs were not filled to the top, sandwiches were light on ham, taxi fares were too high and repair shops charged more than state-set prices. While the October 1 article did not stress the meager wages that often drive Cubans to pilfer from their state employers, it quoted workers as saying it was unfair to judge them when the government failed to provide the supplies needed to conduct business. (McClatchy Newspapers, 25/10/06)

October 26: Fidel Castro sent a digital camera to a Cuban teenager who was denied the prize he won in an international competition by the terms of Washington's four-decade-old economic embargo against the island, the Cuban press reported. Raysel Sosa Rojas, 13, was the author of one of the winning submissions to a UN-sponsored environmental contest, but unlike the other award winners, he did not receive a Nikon camera. Because the camera contained parts made in the United States, Nikon maintained that delivering it to the youngster would be in violation of Washington's embargo, according to Cuba's Juventud Rebelde newspaper. The official daily had reported that Sosa had since received more than 1,200 messages of support from around the world and even offers to send him a camera with similar features. The newspaper accused Nikon of "obsequious reverence for the Yankee embargo." (EFE, 26/10/06) 

October 27: Cuban authorities released a pro-democracy activist who had been imprisoned since July 2005 after taking part in a rally outside the French Embassy in Havana, dissident organizations said. The outlawed Assembly to Promote Civil Society said in a statement that Ricardo Medina Salabarria, a member of that organization, received notice that he was being released and was subsequently taken to his home by a government official. Medina was among a score of dissidents arrested during a July 22, 2005 rally to demand the release of political prisoners. With his release, seven of those detainees remain behind bars, according to the Cuban Commission for Human Rights and National Reconciliation (CCDHRN). That demonstration was held a week after several opponents of the island's Communist regime were arrested - six of whom remain in prison - following a ceremony commemorating Cuba's deadly sinking of a tugboat packed with fleeing refugees. Thirty-seven would-be migrants to the United States died in that 1994 tragedy.  CCDHRN leader Elizardo Sanchez told EFE that the people detained in the two demonstrations never had formal charges filed against them and are in a "type of (legal) limbo." (EFE, 27/10/06) 

October 28: Fidel Castro appeared on state television speaking to Cubans as he browsed the day's newspapers, his first public appearance in 40 days. “Now, when our enemies have prematurely declared me moribund or dead, I'm happy to send to our compatriots and friends around the world this short film footage," said Castro, 80. The Cuban leader walked unassisted in the five-minute video. The footage showed Castro in a sports jacket as he paged through copies of the government dailies Granma and Juventud Rebelde. "This," Castro says as he lifts the day's newspapers, "is in case there were any doubts that this (was filmed either) ten days ago or today," he said. (AFP, 28/10/06) 

October 29: Photographs of Fidel Castro standing and talking on the phone were published in Cuba's state-run media, a day after the ailing leader appeared in a video to dispel rumors he was on his deathbed. The Communist Youth newspaper Juventud Rebelde dedicated its front page to the Cuban president, printing a blown-up picture of a pensive Castro with the title "Always fighting for something, and fighting with optimism!"  The latest photos apparently were taken during the filming of a video, in which Castro, looking thin and tired, was shown walking slowly but steadily in an unidentified room and reading in a loud voice an edition of Granma, the Communist Party daily newspaper.  "They've declared me moribund prematurely," he said. "But it pleases me to send my compatriots and friends this small video."  (AP, 29/10/06)

October 30: Fidel Castro's older brother said the Cuban leader is doing well and that the family will try to make him rest more before he goes back to work. "He is well, he's been resting a bit because of the operation he had," Ramon Castro, 82, told reporters at a trade fair outside Havana. "It's been published that he's going to start working again. We're trying to hold him back a bit longer though." (AP, 30/10/06)

October 31: A low and declining birth rate, one that does not provide for replacement of the population, combined with high life expectancy has Cuban authorities concerned about who is going to do the country's work in the coming decades, including caring for more and more old people. "For 28 years the fertility rate in Cuba has been below the level needed for replacing the population," said the official Communist daily Granma in an article underscoring the worrisome demographics. Though officials of the nearly 48-year-old one-party state have been looking at this matter for years, Granma says it is becoming "more disturbing" lately, as more and more women decide either to have only one baby or forgo the experience of motherhood entirely. Juan Carlos Alfonso Fraga, director of the national office of population studies, said the falling birth rate is the main reason for the aging of the Cuban population.  Other factors are the relatively high level of education achieved by Cuban females and easy and free access to birth control and state-provided abortion. But material and economic factors also come into play. Many women are discouraged from having children, he said, by a lack of housing and other things and the high cost of living. He also noted the scarcity of support services for small children such as day care and the difficulty in obtaining "la canastilla," or "basket" of infant-care items that used to be readily available at subsidized prices. Another factor pointed out by experts on demography is the inclination to emigrate among women of child-bearing age. (EFE, 31/10/06)