Chronicle on Cuba - December 2006

Highlights

Domestic Affairs: Fidel Castro misses a massive military parade held in his honour in Havana. Dissident Hector Palacios and other political prisoners are released. A mob of some 200 people uses force to halt a peaceful march organized by a group of government opponents to commemorate International Human Rights Day. A Spanish surgeon who examined Fidel Castro states that the Cuban leader does not have cancer and is recovering from complications after surgery. A statement attributed to Fidel Castro assures Cubans that the ailing leader could still recover from his prolonged illness.

Economy: Legislation passed by the government of Raúl Castro attempts to tackle workplace absenteeism and increase productivity in state-owned companies through a rigorous regulation of workplace schedules. Cuban Economics Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez reports that the country's economy grew 12.5 percent in 2006. At the year-end meeting of the National Assembly, acting president Raul Castro says there is no excuse for the transportation and food production problems that anger many Cubans. Cuba owns Canadian company Pebercan US$ 69 million.

Exile Community: Cuban Consensus releases a report calling for the US administration and Cuban government to ease travel restrictions. The Cuban American National Foundation (CANF) proposes a set of measures whereby Miami-based Cubans would be empowered to act as "agents of change" in the island.

Foreign Affairs: Secretary General of the Organization of American States, José Miguel Insulza, says Cuba and the United States should sit down to talk about their relationship without conditions and without making the talks dependent on the death of Fidel Castro. Cuba and Honduras establish full diplomatic relations. Cuba blasts Costa Rican President Oscar Arias for comparing Fidel Castro to the late Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet. Fidel Castro telephones the Chinese ambassador in Havana to wish his president Hu Jintao a happy New Year. Cuba condemns the execution of deposed Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein.

Security: A military parade in Havana’s Revolution Square closes the festivities of Fidel Castro’s 80th birthday and marks the 50th anniversary of the Granma landing. Raul Castro meets with military delegations from China, Vietnam, and Lao.

US-Cuba Relations: Raul Castro opens a military parade in Havana by offering to hold conversations on bilateral relations with Washington. Washington rejects to embrace in a dialogue with the Cuban government. US Homeland Security Task Force Southeast conducts an exercise designed to prevent a mass migration from Cuba. Raul Castro does not meet with the largest delegation from the US Congress to visit Cuba since 1959. The chief of US State Department's bureau of Western hemispheric affairs says Canada's ties with Cuba can help nudge that country toward democracy after Fidel Castro is gone. Top Bush administration aides hold a meeting at the White House on a post-Castro Cuba.