Chronicle on Cuba - January 2007

Foreign Affairs

January 2: Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez sent an edition of the complete works of South American liberator Simon Bolivar to Fidel Castro on the occasion of the 48th anniversary of the Cuban Revolution, Cuban state-run media reported. The leftist Venezuelan leader also sent Castro "Venezuelan carvings and artesanal works," biographies of Bolivar and of national hero Francisco de Miranda, and several books on Venezuelan geography, according to Granma, the newspaper of the Cuban Communist Party. The gifts were sent "together with wishes for (Castro's) rapid recovery and big congratulations to him and the Cuban people" for Monday's anniversary, the daily said.  (EFE, Prensa Latina, 2/1/07)

January 2: Panamanian President Martin Torrijos began an official visit to Cuba, aimed at improving bilateral relations. Torrijos, who arrived in Havana accompanied by his wife and children, was welcomed at the Jose Marti International Airport by the secretary of the Council of State, Jose Miyar Barruecos, and Deputy Foreign Minister Alejandro Gonzalez. (Prensa Latina, 3/1/07)

January 3: The Panamanian President Martín Torrijos met the president of the Cuban national assembly, Ricardo Alarcón, as part of a four-day visit to Havana intended to strengthen bilateral relations between the two countries. Panama has recently taken up its temporary seat on the United Nations Security Council, where it emerged as the consensus candidate after a fierce contest between Guatemala and Venezuela over the seat failed to produce a winner. The Cuban and Panamanian governments will enlarge and deepen the scope of their bilateral co-operation, claimed Panama's President Martín Torrijos during his formal visit to Cuba. Torrijos clarified that the areas on which to focus will include genetics, agricultural, and forestry co-operation, along with the continuation and improvement of current schemes in ophthalmology, education and social programmes. The Panamanian leader, in power since 2004, also wished ailing Cuban President Fidel Castro a speedy recovery. (Latin News, 3/1/07)

January 3: First Vice President Raul Castro Ruz met with Panamanian President Martin Torrijos Espino, who arrived in Cuba for a working visit to the island. The two leaders discussed topics related to the development of bilateral ties including the state of the Operation Miracle eye surgery program in Panama, where an ophthalmologic center is soon to be inaugurated in the province of Veraguas with the cooperation of Cuba. High ranking Cuban government officials also participated at the meeting, among them, Carlos Lage Davila, secretary of the Executive Committee of the Council of Ministers; Fernando Remirez de Estenoz, member of the Secretariat of the Communist Party and Head of its International Relations Department; Felipe Perez Roque, minister of Foreign Relations; Carlos Eloy Garcia Trapaga, Cuban ambassador to Panama; and Rogelio Sierra Diaz, director of the Latin America and Caribbean desk at the Ministry of Foreign Relations. The Panamanian delegation included Carlos Vallerino, the minister of Economy and Finances; Anel Omar Rodriguez, Panama's ambassador to Cuba; and presidential advisers Efebo Diaz and Luis Gomez. (Granma, 4/1/07)

January 5: An Oslo hotel owned by the US Hilton Hotel Corp. faced protests, a boycott and a police complaint in Norway after refusing to book rooms for a Cuban delegation because the United States boycotts their homeland. The Cuban delegation, set to attend a travel fair in Oslo, planned to stay at the Scandic Edderkoppen Hotel in the city center, as they had on five previous visits. However, the 140-hotel Scandic group was bought by Hilton in March, and the Cubans were informed in December that they would have to find another hotel due to the American boycott. The 300,000-member Norwegian Union of Municipal and General Employees announced that it was boycotting all Scandic hotels in Norway, joining a wave of protests that started when the ban on Cuban guests became news. Christina Karlegran, regional spokeswoman for the Hilton and Scandic group, said Hilton is an American group and is bound by the Cuba boycott. "We have to follow American law," she said by telephone from Stockholm, Sweden. "We can't see that we have broken any Swedish or Norwegian law (…) If it turns out to be illegal, we will address that." (AP, 5/1/07)

January 5: Norway and Cuba deplored the decision of a US-owned hotel in Oslo to deny lodging to a Cuban delegation in compliance with US trade sanctions against Havana.  "These actions from Scandic managers are totally unacceptable," deputy Foreign Minister Raymond Johansen told the press. "In Norway we are based on Norwegian law and Norwegian practices, not those of any other country," he said.  Cuba accused Europe of bowing to American pressure. "Helms-Burton rules in Europe," the ruling Communist Party newspaper Granma said in a front-page story that slammed the Norwegian hotel for what it said was kowtowing to Washington. (Reuters, 5/1/07)

January 6: A wide range exchange program takes place in the city of Camaguey between the local youth and members of the Quebec Brigade of Solidarity with Cuba that are visiting the island. Since its arrival, at the end of December, the Canadian group voluntarily works in the areas of the Pioneers Palace and of the Polytechnic Institute Álvaro Barba, both in this eastern city. Coordinated by Colette Lavergen, the project of solidarity is made up by secondary schools students from Quebec, and has been exchanging experiences with youngsters from Camagüey for over ten years. (Radio Cadena Agramonte, 6/1/07)

January 8: Pope Benedict XVI called for negotiations to end fighting in Somalia, and warned that democracies must not be transformed into dictatorships in Latin America. In a speech to diplomats about global issues, Benedict also urged nations to open up to Cuba and more efforts to restore security in Colombia, including an end to the frequent kidnappings.  He reiterated the stance of his predecessor John Paul II in urging the world to open up to communist Cuba, quoting the late pope as saying: "Let Cuba open itself to the world and let the world open itself to Cuba." (AP, 8/1/07) 

January 8: Brazil's good relations with the US and Cuba could help bring a peaceful transition to democracy in Cuba if Fidel Castro dies, Brazil's newly appointed ambassador to the US told the official government news agency. In an interview, Antonio de Aguiar Patriota said he believed the US could benefit from Brazil's analysis of the situation within the communist country. "Cuba is geographically close and also an important country in the region, with which we have fairly close relations these days. I consider Brazil could possibly play a role in the search for a transition to democracy that could be more calm and without possible turbulence," Patriota said in his first published interview as ambassador. Patriota was appointed by President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva as ambassador last November and is expected to head to Washington in the coming weeks. (Dow Jones Commodities Service, 8/1/07)

January 8: The Government of Mexico seeks to improve its damaged relations with Venezuela and Cuba, said Mexican Minister of Foreign Affairs, Patricia Espinosa. "We want diplomacy to work and work well, said Espinosa to a group of journalists. "In the case of Cuba there are also economic interests, as well as sectors that might offer important support to that country, just as Cuba has been offering support to Mexico", she added. (EFE, 8/1/07)

January 9: Honduran authorities prevented seven Cubans who attempted to leave that Central-American country from travelling illegally to the United States. According to the Immigration Office "they were detained after trying to bypass our routine controls, and their foreigners' status is now under review". The detention of the Cubans happened in Corinto, on the border with Guatemala. (EER, 9/1/07)

January 9: The Bolivian government deported an outspoken Cuban opponent of Fidel Castro, sending Amauris Samartino to Colombia, which agreed to accept him pending a response from Switzerland on his request for political asylum. Police placed the Cuban physician on a Peruvian airliner bound for Bogota. Attorney Rodolfo Tellez told the press that his client's stay in Colombia could last just "10 days or so" because the procedure whereby he might obtain asylum in Switzerland has moved forward. President Evo Morales' socialist government decided to expel Samartino, accusing him of having violated immigration regulations by participating in a political demonstration in the eastern city of Santa Cruz, where he had lived for the past six years. (EFE, 9/1/07)

January 9: Kemal Dervis, UN Development Program (UNDP) administrator, called Cuba’s experiences very positive in risk management and natural disaster prevention. Speaking at a press conference in Havana, Dervis said the UNDP will continue working with the island in this important area and said Cuba’s experiences could be very useful in Central America. The UN official thanked the Cuban government and specialists for their "impressive" assistance to the UNDP. Cuba and the UN organization are currently putting together a new program of joint cooperation for the period 2008-2012. Susan McDade, the resident UNDP representative on the island, said the areas of cooperation being discussed include the environment and energy, food security, health, risk management and housing, and human development. McDade noted that the UNDP budgets is around $13 million USD a year for its collaboration with Cuba. (AP, Granma, 10/1/07)

January 9: The president of Costa Rica, Oscar Arias, reiterated his desire that Cuba hold a referendum so that the people can decide whether they want Raúl Castro to remain in power when Fidel Castro dies. Arias said he is only asking for respect for the self-determination of the people, that Cubans be asked if they want Raúl Castro to continue as president for life once his brother dies. He also recalled that in 1959 the president of his country, José Figueres, was the first to say to Fidel Castro that he hoped his government would not become a communist tyranny. (OCB, 9/1/07)

January 11: New Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega said he will upgrade diplomatic relations with Cuba, stepping further into Latin America's leftist camp in his second term in office. "We are going to reestablish full relations with Cuba: commercial, diplomatic and political relations with the brotherly Cuban people," said Ortega, who won November's presidential vote. Signs of moderation provided in recent months by Daniel Ortega, a former Marxist guerrilla chief and enemy of the United States during a decade-long stint in power, were nowhere evident during his new presidential inauguration, (Reuters, 11/107)

January 11: Nicaragua joined Venezuela, Cuba and Bolivia in the Bolivarian Alternative for the Americas, a political and trade pact. The ceremony took place in Managua just over two years after the ALBA was first signed by Venezuela’s Hugo Chavez and Fidel Castro in December, 2004. Bolivia joined up in April 2006. Presidents Daniel Ortega, Hugo Chavez, Evo Morales and Cuban Vice President Jose Ramon Machado Ventura were present. Moments before Hugo Chavez had told the crowd he arrived in Nicaragua "with my heart overflowing with emotion and joy."  "I bring the infinite and deep embrace of the Bolivarian Revolution," the term he uses to describe his intended transformation of Venezuelan society into a paragon of "true socialism of the 21st century."  He sent "an embrace to our compañero Fidel Castro," who he said "must be very happy."  After Morales spoke, Cuban Vice President Jose Ramon Machado was invited to take the microphone, and while he made a few relatively timid comments the Bolivian leader, Chavez and Ortega chanted in unison: "Long live Cuba! Long live Fidel!"  When the microphone was finally handed to the new president, Ortega blasted market-oriented laissez-faire economics and said his country would help blaze "a new path."  (Prensa Latina, Granma, EFE, 11/1/07)

January 11: Human Rights Watch criticized the performance of the new UN Human Rights Council. The rights watch group embraced the council when it was launched last summer as a big improvement over its predecessor, the UN Commission on Human Rights, which was considered ineffective and too influenced by human rights violators like Libya and Cuba. HRW's turnaround reflects the growing disappointment within the rights community with the new body, which has issued multiple condemnations of Israel but none against other violators. The Human Rights Watch 2007 Annual Report reiterates its critical stance on abuses in Cuba as ''the one country in Latin America that represses nearly all forms of political dissent.'' The group's 556-page report, which assesses violations worldwide, says the Geneva-based UN Council has ''quickly fallen prey to some of the same problems that doomed its predecessor.'' Countries charged with rights violations joined the previous body and then blocked its actions, with Cuba often acting as a lead lobbyist to water down resolutions. (The Miami Herald, 12/1/07)

January 13: Cuban ambassador to Bolivia, Rafael Dausá, said that this year his country will donate 23 second-level hospitals to Bolivia to provide medical attention to four million people, and it is expected that half a million will be taught to read and write. Dausá emphasized that medical attention and education will continue to be the priorities, as in 2006. (ABI, 13/1/07)

January 14: Ecuadorian President-elect Rafael Correa met with Cuban Vice President Carlos Lage and sent a greeting to Fidel Castro wishing him a speedy recovery. Lage also held talks with outgoing President Alfredo Palacio. "Cuba and Latin America are one single nation. The time has come to search for our common destiny”, Correa told Cuban journalists. He then sent a message of gratitude to the Cuban people for the help provided to Ecuadorians through eye care and literacy programs. Asked about the future of relations between the two countries, the Ecuadorian leader spoke about Cuba’s generic drug industry. "Here we euphemistically speak about free healthcare while people die at hospital doors because they don’t have a few dollars. This is going to end and one of the ways we hope to achieve this is by importing high-quality generic low-cost medicine such as those produced by Cuba." Correa also cited other successful Cuban experiences including a series of initiatives implemented to save energy called the Energy Revolution. Shortly after his arrival to Quito, Lage told the Cuban media that Correa’s election is undoubtedly an expression of the changes occurring in Latin America, "where the traditional party system is practically dead in the water." (Granma, 14/1/07)

January 15: Latin America lives a new era and Rafael Correa’s inauguration as President of Ecuador shows the creation of a left-wing and progressive way of thinking, Cuban Vice President Carlos Lage said in Quito. Presidents like Hugo Chavez (Venezuela), Evo Morales (Bolivia) and Daniel Ortega (Nicaragua) "represent a totally different way of thinking with social emphasis," Lage told the press. The Cuban leader, who was welcomed by a crowd of Ecuadorians in the outskirts of Mariscal Sucre Air Base, is heading the Cuban delegation to Correa’s assumption of Ecuador’s presidency. (Prensa Latina, 15/1/07)

January 16: Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez rebuffed pessimistic news about ailing Fidel Castro, saying that Castro was "doing well" despite some people longing to see him dead.  "Fidel is doing well, I spoke with him more than half an hour by telephone a few days ago," Chavez told Telesur television channel shortly before leaving Quito, where he attended President Rafael Correa's inauguration. Castro himself "told the world how he feels: he's dealing with a slow recovery that can't be easy for an 80-year-old," Chavez said.  A friend of the Cuban leader, Chavez rebuffed a report published in Madrid's El Pais newspaper that Castro was gravely ill following three failed operations. (AFP, 16/1/07)

January 16: Three Cuban boxers, Olympic champions in Athens 2004, defected in Venezuela shortly before Christmas. Heavyweight Odlanier Solís, light flyweight Yan Bartelemí and flyweight Yuriorquis Gamboa left a group that was training in Caracas along with their Venezuelan counterparts for the Pan-American Games in Rio de Janeiro. (EER, 16/1/07)

January 16: The death of Fidel Castro will undoubtedly bring about changes in his country, but it is desirable that they be agreed on by consensus, said OAS secretary general, José Miguel Insulza. Insulza said that once he is gone there should be change in Cuba. "Fidel Castro is part of the strength and stability of the Cuban revolution, therefore, some transformations will likely take place. The important thing is that they happen in a calm and peaceful way and based as much as possible on consensus and with the participation of all". (AP, 16/1/07)

January 17: Diplomatic representatives from Mexico and Cuba have kept under wraps an important meeting that took place at the beginning of January. Foreign minister Patricia Espinosa Cantellano and Cuban ambassador Jorge Bolaños reportedly met as a first attempt toward thawing relations. (El Universal, 17/1/07)

January 17: Prime Minister Robert Fico is beginning to change the value orientation of Slovak foreign policy. On January 11, the prime minister attended a celebration marking the victory of Castro's revolution. The Cuban Embassy in Bratislava had organized an official reception on the occasion of the 48th anniversary of Fidel Castro's arrival in Havana. Fico spent approximately half an hour in the luxurious Malecon restaurant in Bratislava and talked with the Cuban ambassador. Then he left to meet with Czech President Vaclav Klaus, with whom he had a working dinner. "The Government Office is not aware of any obstacle on the part of the European Union in connection with the level of participation in receptions marking Cuba's national holiday," stated Silvia Glendova, spokeswoman for the prime minister. The Cuban authorities have maintained almost no communication with Ivo Hlavacek, Slovak ambassador to Havana, who has not been received by the top brass of the regime at all over a period of two years. "We expect that he will meet with the Cuban foreign minister shortly. In Havana, the Slovak ambassador is conducting dialogue both with Cuban official representatives and dissidents," reacted Foreign Ministry spokesman Jan Skoda. (BBC, 17/1/07)

January 17: President Hugo Chavez said ailing Fidel Castro asked him to keep it a secret that the two spoke by phone earlier this month so that others would not get jealous. Chavez said in a speech that Castro's situation has been "delicate" recently, but he said recent Spanish press reports portraying Castro as near death were speculation. He did not elaborate on specifics of the Cuban leader's health. "About 10 days ago, he called me and we spoke for about half an hour," Chavez said. Chavez said he was breaking a promise because Castro had allegedly said to him: "I beg you please don't tell anyone that I called you because then they get jealous, and others call me from I don't know where and want to speak with me, but I'm hardly calling anyone." Chavez gave no further details on their conversation or on Castro's progress, other than saying: "Fidel has been in a delicate situation, and he himself said it: this will be a slow process and not free from risks, (and) it has been a serious complication." (AP, 18/1/07) 

January 17: Cuba and Panama signed an agreement to reinforce both countries efforts in the area of occupational health and environmental hygiene. The accord was signed for Cuba by Alfredo Morales, minister of Labor and Social Security and Reynaldo E. Rivera, Panama’s minister of Labor and Labor Development. The agreement includes the holding of seminars, tutorships and technical consulting on the organization of inspection systems. (Periódico 26, 19/1/07)

January 18: The Mexican spy agency will have ten days to disclose documents related to an investigation in which Mexico accused Cuban officials of spying in 2004, reported the Federal Institute of Access to Information (IFAI). The IFAI ordered the National Security and Investigation Center (CISEN), to disclose and deliver a "public version" of the document it prepared for the ministries of Government and Foreign affairs, which served as an excuse to recall its ambassador in Havana and to ask the Cuban ambassador to leave Mexico. (EFE, 18/1/07)

January 18: Russian Vice-Minister of Foreign Affairs, Sergei Kisliak, said that the slump in relations between his country and Cuba is over. Kisliak’s statement was made during a "solemn meeting dedicated to the 48th anniversary of the Cuban Revolution", in Moscow. (Ria Novosti, 18/1/07)

January 18: British pop star Sting was spotted in Havana, learning Afro-Cuban dances, signing autographs and strolling along the city's colonial streets. Clad in dark jeans and a dark violet T-shirt, the famed crooner was initiated into the intricacies of Afro-Cuban dances by an elderly teacher of the National Folkloric Ensemble. The former Police lead singer, was also seen taking salsa classes at the National Ballet School in the Cuban capital and touring the colonial streets of Havana's historic center. Sting, 56, arrived in Cuba for a private visit, according to an official of the Cuban Music Institute who accompanied the singer. (AFP, 18/1/07)

January 19: Prensa Latina news agency of Cuba has launched an online news edition in Turkish. Making a keynote speech in a meeting held in Istanbul on this occasion, Cuban Ambassador to Turkey Ernesto Gomez Abascal said that the Havana-based Prensa Latina, which now has 22 representations, is transmitting news 24 hours a day. Turkish citizens can have access to easier and more reliable news about Cuba from the Turkish edition, the ambassador added. (Anatolia, 19/1/07)

January 19: Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez said that Fidel Castro is ''battling for his life'' and said he spoke with the Cuban leader for nearly half an hour several days ago. Chávez, a close ally and admirer of Castro, compared Castro's attempt to recover from an unspecified medical condition to efforts in the 1950s, when Castro was a guerrilla in Cuba's eastern mountains fighting the government he would overthrow. ''Fidel is in the Sierra Maestra again, battling for his life,'' Chávez said after attending a summit of South American leaders in Rio de Janeiro. (The Miami Herald, 20/1/07)

January 19: A delegation from Carleton University’s Centre for Trade Policy and Law is heading to Havana on a mission to help Cuba improve its economic outreach. The Canadian men in Havana will be Derek Burney, head of the Harper transition team and a veteran diplomat; trade negotiator, corporate executive and director Bill Dymond, a former trade negotiator and diplomat; and Phillipe Rourke, executive director of the Centre. “It takes time to build trust and develop relationships, so this is a mission to assess how we can help the Cuban trade agenda”, explains Mr. Rourke. “We think we’ve got a lot to share”. Backed by the Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA), the group will hold meetings and workshops with senior bureaucrats that focus on such issues as trade negotiations, commercial diplomacy and how to structure bilateral and multilateral agreements. The Centre also expects that Cuban officials will come to Ottawa to participate in future trade training programs. (Ottawa Citizen, 18/1/07) 

January 22: The World Trade Organization (WTO) should “speak out against the laws and measures of the blockade” imposed by the United States on Cuba for more than 40 years, Cuba said. Jorge Ferrer, a Cuban diplomat, made that request during an informal meeting of the WTO negotiating group for Access to Non-Agricultural Markets (NAMA), and asserted that a basic principle of that institution is non-discrimination. Cuba believes that this is an appropriate forum for taking a stand against violations that hinder and prevent trade with Cuba, Ferrer affirmed, noting that the WTO negotiations group is also responsible for eliminating non-tariff trade barriers. (Granma International, EFE, 23/1/07)

January 23: Ariel Dacal Diaz, a Cuban delegate to the Seventh World Social Forum, warned that Europe and the United States can differ on some matters but have the same pretensions to dominate the markets and natural resources of the Third World. Dacal, from the Martin Luther King Jr. Center in Havana, pointed out that the imperialist philosophy is what dominates in Europe, which closely allies itself with Washington when it comes to defining its relations with poor countries. The Cuban delegate participated on a panel about the role of Europe in militarization and neoliberalism, programmed as part of the more than 1,300 local initiatives being studied by the WSF that began on January 20 in the Kenyan capital. (Periódico 26, 23/1/07)

January 23: The Governments of Belize and Cuba renewed their medical agreement for the next three years. Belize’s Minister of Health Jose Coye said they were renewing the agreement in terms of human resources. “Is that in the area of the health care providers we were very short in the rural areas and what the agreement is doing is indeed to renew the contribution of human resources”, Coye said. “Today we enjoy a number of sixty three physicians from Cuba, which is made up of forty five general practitioners, eighteen specialists that work in the secondary and tertiary care of our country and it also provides nurses and in addition to that we also have engineers, x-ray technician, occupational therapists”, he added. Cuban First Deputy Foreign Minister Bruno Rodriguez Parrilla said the signing will improve the level of cooperation between Belize and Cuba. (LoveFM, 24/1/07)

January 24: A federal court dismissed the charges of discriminatory behaviour against the Maria Isabel Sheraton hotel in Mexico City in the case of the expulsion of a delegation of Cuban officials staying at the hotel in February 2006. (AFP, 24/1/07)

January 24: Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez said that ailing Fidel Castro is up and walking and "almost trotting" like a horse. Chavez offered the upbeat description of his ally after hearing from Cuban Vice President Carlos Lage, who delivered a letter from Castro to the Venezuelan president. Chavez declared that, according to Lage, the 80-year-old Castro is "walking more than me; he's almost trotting" like a horse.  Holding up the letter before television cameras, Chavez said: "This is for those who say he's dying." Chavez, who has visited the ailing Castro and says he often speaks to him by telephone, said Castro had asked him not to publish his letter but to read some of it in public.  Lage and his delegation, he quoted Castro as writing, "are bringing 17 points [of agreement] (…) I'm happy with the idea of including the tourist zone in the place you've selected."  “I'm pleased the energy program is going ahead at full speed (…) It is a vital issue for the human race," Castro wrote, according to Chavez. Lage said Castro would be around for "a long time to come" and joked he would outlast his younger brother Raul Castro, who has been in charge of the communist-run island after Fidel had stomach surgery last year. Despite U.S. pressure, the country remained united during Castro's illness, he added. (AFP, Reuters, 25/1/07)

January 24: Cuba and Antigua and Barbuda signed a sports cooperation agreement, which both countries view as a new step towards strengthening their bilateral ties. The agreement was signed by Christian Jimenez Molina, chairman of the Cuban National Institute for Sports, Physical Education and Recreation (INDER), and Winston Williams, Antigua and Barbuda Youth Affairs and Sports Minister. The five-year agreement includes developing human resources, building sports facilities, exchanging teams and delegations, controlling doping, organizing programs, applying sports medicine and collaborating in physical education and some other things. (Caribbean Press, 27/1/07)

January 25: Cuba´s First Deputy Foreign Minister Bruno Rodriguez is due to be welcomed by Foreign Minister Gert Rosenthal at the beginning of a three-day official visit to Guatemala. The aim of the visit is to examine bilateral relations and affairs of regional and multilateral interest. Cuban official´s agenda includes meeting with government officials and political leaders, attending the 12th Ministerial Conference of the Association of Caribbean States and opening an ophthalmologic center equipped by Cuba in Jalapa department. (Prensa Latina, 25/1/07)

January 26: The Cuban embassy in Mexico criticized the presence of Cuban exiles attending a meeting of the Christian Democrat Organization of America (ODCA) in that country. In a press release, the Cuban embassy in Mexico said that the presence of the exiles, whom it called "mercenaries" and did not mention by name, left no "room for doubt about the real intentions that drive them” alluding to what the embassy considers is an alliance with the government of the USA. (EER, 29/1/07)

January 28: The Christian Democrat Organization of America (ODCA) volunteered to mediate a dialogue between different Cuban factions in order to promote a peaceful transition to democracy on the island, announced ODCA’s president, Mexican Manuel Espino. "We will try, through dialogue, to convince as many players and partisan leaders as possible that what Cuba needs is a national reconciliation and that all Cubans face the challenge of a peaceful transition to democracy", said Espino. (AFP, 29/1/07)

January 29: Amnesty International expressed its concern over the violation of human rights in Cuba, but it also criticized the "negative impact" of the US economic embargo on the communist-ruled island. In a communique released from its headquarters in London, AI denounced the government in Havana for assorted abuses, "in particular, the imprisonment of political dissidents and journalists as a result of severe restrictions on the freedom of expression, freedom of association and assembly." Moreover, AI said, 2006 saw "an increase in the public harassment and intimidation of critics and political dissidents by quasi-official groups in so-called acts of repudiation." [Cuba: Amnesty International’s Human Rights Concerns] (EFE, 29/1/07)

January 29: Cuba and Guinea Bissau began their 13th Inter-Government Joint Committee Session, for future cooperation spheres, including trade, medical assistance, scientific-technical collaboration, education, and energy. Economic Collaboration and Foreign Investment Minister Marta Lomas welcomed the delegation presided over by Guinean Prime Minister Aristides Gomes, and highlighted the importance of the meeting, which will bring both nations even closer. Lomas said this working meeting with the western African nation is of great significance to Cuba, because the agreements they sign will benefit the two countries. Gomes highlighted the brotherhood and solidarity between both countries, and recalled the 19 Cuban internationalist combatants who died in his country in the struggle for independence from Portugal. (Prensa Latina, 29/1/07)

January 30: Canadians fed up with long health care waiting lists at home have begun seeking out orthopedic surgery and other services in Cuba, as the communist country markets its well-regarded health-care system on the international free market. A new medical broker in Quebec has just started arranging for patients here to receive care in the Caribbean nation, but Health Services International says its clients will not be the first Canadians to try the new brand of Cuban tourism. More than 30 underwent hip replacements, cosmetic operations and other procedures in Cuba last year alone, according to Lucie Vermette, a partner in the newly formed company. She said her firm has contracts with five patients, including a young mother blinded by a rare eye disease, and strong interest from another 20, just days after Health Services opened for business. "Cuba, it's true, is a socialist, communist government," said Ms. Vermette. "But this government gives priority to medicine and education and offers all the people very good treatment." Despite its generally moribund economy, Cuba has developed a reputation for a relatively high-quality health care system and for a number of years has provided medical services for a fee to patients from elsewhere in Latin America. (National Post, 30/1/07) 

January 31: Cuba plans to send doctors and medicine to Nicaragua, extending its so-called medical diplomacy to the new government of leftist President Daniel Ortega, a longtime ally of Fidel Castro. Cuba's top diplomat in Nicaragua, Manuel Guillot, said the doctors would work along the Caribbean coast, the most impoverished part of a country second only to Haiti as the poorest in the Americas. He gave no more details but said the region had been "effectively abandoned in terms of sanitation.”(Reuters, 31/1/07)

January 31: First Vice President Raul Castro met with Dr. Aristides Gomes, prime minister of Guinea Bissau, who is paying an official visit to Cuba, on occasion of the 13th Session of the Joint Commission. During the encounter the two discussed important issues of bilateral interest relating to the diversification of Cuba’s cooperation with the African nation, particularly those pertaining to the training of doctors and a pilot project for a literacy campaign using the "Yes, I can" Cuban method. On hand for the meeting for the visiting delegation were Antonio Isaac Monteiro, minister of Foreign Affairs, International Cooperation and Communities; and Aristide Ocanto da Silva, minister of Natural Resources. For the Cubans were Foreign Minister Felipe Perez Roque and Pedro Dona Santana, Cuba’s ambassador to the Republic of Guinea Bissau. (Granma, 1/2/07)

January 31: A total of 41 Nicaraguans travelled to Havana to undergo cataract surgery, as part of "Operation Miracle" promoted by Hugo Chávez and Fidel Castro, according to official sources. (EFE, 31/1/07)