Chronicle on Cuba - January 2007

US-Cuba Relations

January 3: The number of undocumented Cuban and Haitian migrants stopped at sea by the US Coast Guard, which had been rising steadily year by year, dropped in 2006 -- dramatically in the case of Haitians and noticeably in the case of Cubans. While Cuban interdictions are down, the number of Cuban arrivals in South Florida on smuggling and other organized trips is up -- with 546 more landings in fiscal year 2006 than 2005, according to Border Patrol figures. There were 2,260 Cubans interdicted in 2006, compared to 2,952 in 2005 -- the first decline in annual Cuban interceptions since 2001 when 777 were stopped. The figures may simply reflect cyclical declines, but they could also represent a more complex set of factors such as use of alternate routes by Cubans to reach the United States including more efficient smuggling trips. (The Miami Herald, 3/1/07)

January 4: Even with Fidel Castro seriously ill and power transferred to his brother, the ailing leader's presence is widely felt and is keeping the country from taking any new economic or political direction, says the US government's top diplomat for Latin America. ''We see that this regime has made this successful transfer of power and is trying to consolidate itself, but it can't define itself or separate itself from Fidel,'' Thomas Shannon, assistant secretary of state for the Western Hemisphere, said in an interview. ``My guess is that we're not going to see that until Fidel Castro is dead and buried.'''Fidel Castro is in this odd moment where he is neither alive nor dead politically. He is alive physically, but he's not in charge day to day, and he's obviously not present day to day, but it appears that he still has the ability to sit up in bed and give orders occasionally,'' Shannon said. He said that Raúl Castro has shown no sign that he will be any different from Fidel, despite Raúl Castro's call on December 2 for the US government to meet with the Cuban government to work through their differences. Shannon said four goals must be met before the US government considers a change in policy: All political prisoners must be freed, human rights guaranteed, trade unions allowed to form and concrete moves made toward free elections. ''We're not going to engage with Cuba just to engage,'' Shannon said. ``Any engagement we have with Cuba has to be part of some kind of change process that leads toward this transition to democracy, and therefore we depend on what the Cuban people think and will want us to do.'' (The Dallas Morning News, 4/1/07)

January 4: US Representative José E. Serrano (Democrat-New York), introduced the Cuba Reconciliation Act (H.R. 217), legislation that would "lift the trade embargo on Cuba." The bill was referred to the House Foreign Affairs Committee, House Ways and Means Committee, House Energy and Commerce Committee, House Judiciary Committee, House Financial Services Committee, House Oversight and Government Reform Committee and House Agriculture Committee. (US FED News, 19/1/07)

January 4: Some dissident sectors say that now that the Democratic Party controls the US Congress, changes in the George W. Bush administration's strategy of confrontation with Cuba might be possible. "Cuba and the United States have to end their cold war," Manuel Cuesta Morúa, a spokesman for the Arco Progresista, a coalition of small social-democrat groups critical of Washington's position, told the press. In his view, "the ground should be prepared for interchange and dialogue" with the government that will succeed Bush, "which will probably not be Republican." Meanwhile, the issue of financial aid from Washington has again raised the question of how independent, or otherwise, the dissidents are. "All the financial aid being received now is like a dress rehearsal for the assistance that will be needed during Cuba's reconstruction," Sánchez said, without commenting on when he expects that to happen. In his view, "most dissident activists live in poverty, and they cannot be asked to give up the financial aid just to avoid accusations of being mercenaries." Sánchez was a signatory, along with three other well-known dissident leaders, of a letter delivered to Flake and Delahunt asking for "urgent and vital" financial aid to be restored to "political prisoners" and their families, and members of the human rights movement. Eloy Gutiérrez Menoyo is one of the critics of this position, because this cash funding "jeopardises the independence of those who oppose the government by peaceful means, seeking a democratic opening." "So many Cuban exiles are well-off economically, and they should be the ones to help the dissidents within the country," said Gutiérrez Menoyo, adding that the United States' strategy of confrontation "contributes nothing at all to democratisation in Cuba." Arco Progresista has also distanced itself from financial aid from the US government. (IPS, 5/1/07)

January 4: Two anti-Castro activists convicted in a South Florida weapons case have been subpoenaed as witnesses by a federal grand jury in Texas investigating whether detained exile militant Luis Posada Carriles lied about how he sneaked into the United States in 2005. Santiago Alvarez and Osvaldo Mitat, both in their 60s, were transferred in December from the Miami Federal Detention Center to a jail in El Paso to testify before the grand jury, a lawyer for Alvarez confirmed. The subpoenas were issued as Justice Department prosecutors pursue two investigations into Posada's past -- one in El Paso dealing with the perjury question and the other in Newark, New Jersey, probing the former CIA-trained explosives expert's alleged role in the bombing of Cuban tourist sites in 1997. A federal judge has set a February 1 deadline for the US government to justify Posada's continued custody as an immigration detainee in El Paso. Eduardo Soto, Posada's Coral Gables attorney, told the press that he ''totally'' anticipates the judge ordering Posada's release -- unless the federal government provides solid evidence to justify further detention. The government, in a recent court motion, said the law allows for Posada to remain in detention because his release would pose ``serious adverse foreign policy consequences.'' (The Miami Herald, 5/1/07)

January 5: Miami investment advisor Thomas J. Herzfeld created his closed-end fund for the day -- near or distant -- when political change opens Cuba to investment. But it's doing just fine in the meantime. Shares of the Herzfeld Caribbean Basin Fund, which trades on the Nasdaq index under the ticker CUBA, rose 124 percent in the past year, according to the Closed-End Fund Association. That makes the fund the No. 2 performer among 673 peers. Only the Greater China Fund fared better, with a 167 percent return, according to the trade group. The small fund, which has assets of about $14 million, scouts for companies with ties to Florida and the Caribbean that will do well without a change in Cuba but will likely get a boost once the embargo ends. (The Miami Herald, 5/1/07)

January 6: The US intelligence community still believes Fidel Castro is terminally ill and has "months, not years" to live, a spokesman said. Though a Spanish doctor visited Castro last month and denied he has cancer, Ross Feinstein, spokesman for the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, said "The bottom line: He is terminally ill." "We believe that he has months, not years," Feinstein said, adding that "nothing has changed in the director's assessment" since the doctor's comments on Castro late last month. US Director of National Intelligence John Negroponte told The Washington Post on December 15 that "everything we see indicates it will not be much longer (…) months, not years," for the 80-year-old Cuban leader. (AFP, 6/1/07)

January 7: Peace activists visiting Cuba to protest the US military prison at Guantanamo Bay expressed hope that the new Democratic congressional leadership will help ease long-standing US trade and travel sanctions against the communist-run island. "I think it is about time we end the embargo and open up relations between the Cuban and American people," said Cindy Sheehan, who became an anti-war protester after her 24-year-old son, Casey, was killed in Iraq in April 2004. "It hurts both sides." Also in the delegation to Cuba is Medea Benjamin, who organized the trip through the California activist groups Global Exchange and Codepink. "The restrictions have been around way too long, change is way overdue," Benjamin said, adding that the Cuba sanctions made the group's trip very difficult. "We had to jump through hoops to put together this delegation," she said. (AP, 7/1/07)

January 8: Wives and mothers of Cuban political prisoners urged US peace activist Cindy Sheehan to visit the island's state-run jails during her weeklong trip to Cuba to call for the closure of the US-operated Guantanamo prison. The Ladies in White, a group of women demanding the release of their loved ones, described what they called "inhumane" conditions at Cuba's prisons in a letter for Sheehan that was sent to international reporters. The group said it was trying to get a copy to Sheehan as well. "At the same time you and your noble followers fight for the closure of the US prison at the Guantanamo naval base (…) just a few miles away at the provincial Guantanamo prison in Cuban territory, peaceful and defenseless political prisoners suffer inhumane conditions, (living) without potable water and with poor nutrition, deficient medical assistance, insects and rodents, limited visits and precarious communication," the letter said. "We exhort you to visit the prisons of Cuba, chosen randomly, and not those prepared" by authorities, it added. In the letter, the Ladies in White said they are a peaceful group that faces constant harassment from Cuban officials. They also asked Sheehan to meet with them so she "could know this other reality of Cuban society." (AP, 8/1/07)

January 8: A watchdog group called for a government investigation into TV and Radio Martí's use of privately owned South Florida media to broadcast anti-Castro programming to Cuba. The Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington asked the Government Accountability Office to look into the legality of TV and Radio Martí's contracts with Radio Mambí (Univisión's WAQI-AM 710) and Azteca América (WPMF-TV 38). ''Taxpayers should not be paying for the illegal transmission of government propaganda within US borders,'' said Melanie Sloan, executive director of Washington, D.C.-based CREW, a nonprofit group that gets some of its funding from Democratic-leaning donors. Larry Hart, spokesman for the Broadcasting Board of Governors, which oversees the Martís, said that the board remains confident it has the legal authority to lease time from the private stations.(The Miami Herald, 9/1/07)

January 8: Sixty-seven Cuban migrants turned up on the beaches of south Florida in three separate groups. The first group, of 21 persons, arrived at Dry Tortugas; the second one, of 28 peoples, at Key Largo; and the third group, of 18 migrants, arrived at Elliott Key. Eight out of the 67 were minors, 13 women, and the rest were men. (The Miami Herald, 10/1/07)

January 10: Cuba condemned as "theft" the use of frozen Cuban assets in the United States to compensate the families of two Americans killed in the 1961 US-backed Bay of Pigs invasion. The families of Thomas Ray, a CIA contractor whose plane was shot down by Cuban anti-aircraft guns, and Howard Anderson, who was executed by a firing squad, were cleared by a US court in November to collect nearly $91 million after they won separate lawsuits, in 2003 and 2004, against Cuba. The Cuban Foreign Ministry said the families were paid $72.1 million on November 27 from bank accounts holding frozen funds belonging to the National Bank of Cuba and the country's telecommunications company. It was the fourth compensation payout since 1996, totaling $170.2 million in Cuban funds, a ministry statement published by the ruling Communist Party newspaper Granma said. "The government of Cuba condemns these new assaults on the Cuban funds frozen in the United States because they violate international law and are another example of US government's criminal policy of blockade and hostility against our country," it said. [Statement from the Ministry of Feoreign Affairs] (Reuters, 10/1/07)

January 10: Anti-war activist Cindy Sheehan is ignoring an appeal by wives and mothers of imprisoned Cuban political dissidents for her to visit Cuban prisons during her trip to protest the treatment of suspected terrorists held at Guantanamo Bay. The Damas de Blanco, or Ladies in White, who march silently through the streets of Havana every Sunday in protest at the incarceration of political prisoners of the Castro regime, wrote a letter to Ms. Sheehan inviting her to visit Cuban prisons. The Damas drew Ms. Sheehan's attention to the poor state of Cuban prisons, which they say lack clean drinking water and adequate food and where their relatives are imprisoned solely for speaking out against Fidel Castro's government. The leader of Ms. Sheehan's trip, Medea Benjamin, said the American activists had not seen the letter and that they would be focusing solely on Guantanamo. "It just so happens that this is where the [Guantanamo] prisoners are," Ms. Benjamin said. That the group is visiting Cuba, where prisons define daily life for many, is "very incidental," she added. (The New York Sun, 10/1/07)

January 11: A US grand jury has indicted jailed anti-Castro Cuban exile Luis Posada Carriles, accused of bombing a Cuban airliner in 1976, on seven immigration charges in a move that may assure he stays in custody. The US Justice Department said that Posada, 78, was charged with one count of naturalization fraud and six counts of making false statements while seeking US citizenship after he entered the country illegally in 2005.  Posada has been held without charges since May 2005, but a federal judge had set a February deadline for his release unless legal action was taken. The government said he would go before a federal magistrate in a hearing on the charges. Posada has been a political problem for the Bush administration because US foes Cuba and Venezuela consider him a terrorist for his suspected involvement in a 1976 airline bombing that killed 73 people. (Reuters, 11/1/07)

January 11: Raúl Castro, Cuba's acting president, will remain out of the spotlight after his brother's death but will maintain the system Fidel Castro established, a panel of Cuba experts said. "I'm not predicting that forever Cuba will remain the way it is, but for the short-term, the foreseeable future, one, two, three years ahead, I see significant repression, control of the population and very little openness," said Jaime Suchlicki, director of the University of Miami's Institute for Cuban and Cuban-American Studies. Suchlicki made the remarks during a media briefing on Cuba's future at the university's Casa Bacardi, the institute's headquarters. Other University of Miami experts weighing in included Brian Latell, a Latin American and Caribbean specialist and author; Andy Gomez, whose research focuses on human values and attitudes in a post-Castro Cuba; Jorge Piñón, an energy expert, and Eric Driggs, the institute's humanitarian aid coordinator. "He is a ruthless military leader that for 47 years has run Cuba next to his brother. I don't anticipate Raúl becoming a reformer in his old age," Suchlicki said. Latell said Raúl Castro's governing style differs from his brother's. He delegates authority and seeks a wide range of advice, including from those who disagree with him, Latell said. "He's going to lead collegially. He's going to share the stage," Latell said. Since taking power, Raúl Castro has twice made overtures to negotiate with the United States. Suchlicki said he did not think Raúl Castro was serious about opening up a dialogue with the United States. Latell said he thought Raúl Castro's offer was aimed at appeasing segments of Cuba's population. Several panelists said one danger for Raúl Castro's government is a younger generation that does not have as strong a connection to the Cuban Revolution and the Castro brothers as their parents did. (Sun Sentinel, 12/1/07)

January 11: Raul Castro is firmly in control of Cuba and in a position to keep the island stable, at least for the short term, after his brother Fidel dies, a top US intelligence official told a Senate committee. Army Lt. General Michael D. Maples, the director of the Defense Intelligence Agency, also said that Raul, who's been Cuba's defense minister since the early 1960s, enjoys "widespread respect and support among Cuban military leaders who will be crucial in a permanent government succession." Maples' remarks, in a brief written statement to the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, provide the first glimpse into what US officials believe might occur in the months following Fidel's demise. Raul Castro took the reins of power after Fidel fell ill nearly six months ago. "In Cuba, Raul Castro is firmly in control as Cuba's acting president," Maples said, "and will likely maintain power and stability after Fidel Castro dies, at least for the short-term." The US intelligence community's top chiefs joined Maples in an annual Senate hearing on threats to US security. Though the hearing focused almost entirely on Iraq and terrorism, the testimony shed some new light on the intelligence community's latest thinking on Latin America. The outgoing Director of National Intelligence, John D. Negroponte, whose agency coordinates the work of 16 US spying organizations, said the "key drivers" that will influence events in a post-Fidel Cuba are "how cohesive the governing elite will remain in the absence of Cuba's iconic leader, how astute Raul Castro proves to be as his brother's successor, and how much pressure the population will exert on the government in seeking economic and political reforms." (McClatchy Newspapers, 11/1/07)

January 13: Adolfo Franco, who oversees the US government's ambitious project to promote democracy in Cuba, will be leaving his post to serve as a foreign policy advisor for Senator John McCain, who is considering a presidential run. The announcement by Franco, assistant administrator for Latin America and the Caribbean for the US Agency for International Development, comes two months after a critical audit of the Cuba program by the congressional Government Accountability Office; a Miami Herald series also outlined problems with the program's oversight and effectiveness. But the Democratic congressional leader who sought the GAO audit said Franco should not be blamed, saying Franco inherited a flawed program. ''The whole Cuba democracy promotion program, it cries out to be reviewed in a very transparent way with rigorous oversight,'' said Representative William Delahunt (Democrat-Massachusetts) ``Let's have a full hearing. Let's air it out.'' Delahunt and Representative Jeff Flake (Republican-Arizona), both opponents of US sanctions on Cuba, requested the GAO audit. In response to e-mailed questions, Franco said he was not pressured to resign and that USAID had done ``phenomenal work to further the dissident human rights movement in Cuba.'' (The Miami Herald, 13/1/07)

January 15: Cuba said the United States should indict Luis Posada Carriles, a militant anti-Castro exile accused in the bombing of a Cuban airliner, for terrorism instead of minor immigration charges. The Cuban Foreign Ministry accused the US government of protecting the former CIA operative from extradition to Venezuela to face charges of masterminding the bombing of a Cuban airliner in 1976. A US grand jury in El Paso, Texas, indicted Posada, 78, on seven immigration charges including one count of naturalization fraud and six counts of making false statements while seeking US citizenship after he entered the country illegally in 2005. "The US government knows well, and has all the proof, about the innumerable acts of terrorism committed by Posada Carriles," the statement published by Granma, the ruling Communist Party's newspaper, said. [Statement from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs] (Reuters, 15/1/07)

January 16: The White House played down a Spanish news report that Fidel Castro is gravely ill following three failed operations, calling it "a round up" of previous reports. "We've seen the report out of El Pais. I think that as far as we can tell, it's sort of a round up of previous health reports. We've got nothing new," spokesman Tony Snow told reporters. The Spanish newspaper El Pais, in a report swiftly dismissed by the Cuban leader's Spanish doctor, said that an intestinal infection, followed by at least three operations and various complications had left Castro "laid up in a very serious condition."  The report published on the El Pais website quoted medical sources at Madrid's Gregorio Maranon hospital, from which a doctor traveled to Havana last month to examine the 80-year-old leader. (AFP, 16/1/07)

January 16: A bipartisan coalition of US lawmakers who favor easing the nearly 50-year-old trade embargo against Cuba say the new Democratic leadership in congress offers hope for progress this year.  The coalition, which embraces Democratic liberals from the Northeast and the West Coast and conservatives from agricultural states in the Midwest and Mississippi Valley, say they will probably pursue an incremental strategy designed to roll back steps taken to tighten the embargo by President George W. Bush over the past six years. In particular, the lawmakers, who are backed by a lobbying group for major US companies called USA Engage, think they can reduce restrictions on food exports to Cuba and on travel to the island, particularly by Cuban-Americans with family members there. "Things are better; we can make some real progress," said Democratic Representative Jim McGovern, one member of a delegation of 10 lawmakers who traveled to Cuba in mid-December. His observation was seconded by Jake Colvin, USA Engage's director, who accompanied the delegation on the trip. The new legislative push comes amid continued speculation about Cuba's apparent transition since last summer from the nearly 50-year rule of its ailing president, Fidel Castro, to the post-Castro era. (IPS, 16/1/07) 

January 16: President Fidel Castro's exit from Cuba's political scene is unlikely to spur major changes in the situation there, two House members who recently visited the country told reporters. Representatives Jim McGovern (Democrat- Massachusetts), and Jo Ann Emerson (Republican-Missouri), were part of a 10-member congressional delegation that visited Havana in December 2006. "There's no indication at all that what this administration's been telling people for a long time, that there's going to be this massive uprising, is going to happen; that's not going to happen," Mr. McGovern said.  Although Cuba's government may still be hanging onto the idea that Fidel Castro will return, average Cubans "have already kind of moved on," Mr. McGovern said. Both House members said that without a shift in US policy, political changes are not likely in Cuba. Mr. McGovern suggested that eased relations with the United States could lead to political liberalization. He also said some senior Cuban officials might not want the United States to ease its embargo or otherwise loosen relations, saying that every time the two countries start to get close, "they do something stupid," such as arrest dissidents or shoot down a plane. Mrs. Emerson criticized US isolation of Cuba for providing Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez an opportunity to exert influence and was critical of Radio and TV Marti, the US government program to broadcast US values into Cuba. (The Washington Times, 17/1/07)

January 16: Royal Bank of Canada has closed the US-dollar chequing accounts of hundreds of dual-citizen Canadians and refuses to open new ones -- a move it asserts was necessary to comply with US rules on antiterrorism and money laundering. The decision, which has prompted charges of discrimination and racial profiling, has affected "a couple of hundred" Canadian citizens with dual nationalities of Iran, Iraq, Cuba, Sudan, North Korea or Myanmar since April, RBC spokesman David Moorcroft said. Mr. Moorcroft stressed that RBC, which has the most US-dollar accounts in Canada, is simply complying with US Treasury Department rules that govern any dealings with the US currency. "These are not rules made by Royal Bank (…), they are rules for banks all over the world," he said. (Globe & Mail, 17/1/07)

January 17: Fidel Castro, ailing and out of sight, has been meeting with a trickle of international guests in recent months, a US government official said. The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitive situation with Cuba, declined to say with whom Castro was meeting. But the meetings, generally with visitors from Latin America, suggest he may be setting the stage for a transition of power that he hopes will protect the government he has built over four decades. In a review of global threats, National Intelligence Director John Negroponte said that Castro and his brother Raul, who has taken over as Cuba's temporary leader, are trying to create a "soft landing" during the transfer of control. "From the point of the United States policy, we don't want to see that happen," Negroponte said. "We want to see the prospects for freedom in that country enhanced as a result of the transition" from Fidel Castro. Negroponte also said Castro's days "seem to be numbered," a view supported by the US government official. That official said US intelligence believes that Castro is likely to die within a month or two, although analysts don't yet know the precise nature of his illness. (AP, 17/1/07)

January 17: Relatives of the 73 people killed in a 1976 jetliner bombing urged the US government to charge the Cuban militant suspected of the attack with terrorism, saying that anything less is an "insult to the memory of the thousands of citizens who have died victims of terrorist actions." In a statement published in Cuba's Communist Party daily Granma, the families rejected a recent US Justice Department decision to charge Luis Posada Carriles with lying to federal immigration agents in a bid to become a naturalized citizen. They said they received the news with "stupor and indignation." "To accept that the internationally known terrorist Luis Posada Carriles be judged merely as an innocuous liar is to accept the strange idea that our families were never massacred in the sabotage of the Cubana Airlines plane," the statement said. (AP, 17/1/07)

January 17: The United States denied a travel permit to its Greco-Roman wrestling Olympic team that had plans for a series of joint training sessions in Havana with its Cuban counterparts, said the official newspaper Granma. (Reuters, 17/1/07)

January 17: Royal Bank of Canada said it will allow customers with dual citizenship to open U.S.-dollar denominated bank accounts, providing they can prove they are resident in Canada. Gordon Nixon, chief executive officer at Canada's largest bank, said he was concerned that immigrant clients would feel that Royal Bank did not value their patronage. “The issue the banks face comes from Canadian citizens who don't reside in Canada,” said Mr. Nixon. “Royal Bank is no different from other financial institutions when it comes to dealing with those customers.” The bank has been under fire from critics who said that it had closed US-dollar accounts held by anyone with dual citizenship. Critics said the move smacked of discrimination and racial profiling. It affected Canadian citizens with dual nationalities of Iran, Iraq, Cuba, Sudan, North Korea and Myanmar. (Globe & Mail, 18/1/07)

January 17: If Cubans flee in droves when Fidel Castro dies, those intercepted at sea will likely wind up at this base where nearly 400 men captured in the war on terror are held, creating "an incredible challenge" for US forces, the base commander said. Military officials say they have begun planning for a possible mass exodus, scouting potential sites to detain migrants in tents while keeping them far from the prisoners suspected of links to al-Qaida or the Taliban. A sudden surge of migrants would return Guantanamo to an earlier role. More than 40,000 Haitian and Cuban migrants were held here in the 1990s when political and economic turmoil in their countries prompted a mass movement toward US shores. "We continue to plan for the possibility of that happening again," Navy Captain Mark Leary, the commanding officer of the base, told the press. But it would be much more difficult next time. In the 1990s, Guantanamo Bay, which covers 45 square miles of land and water, was a sleepy Navy outpost with plenty of open space. Now, the land where most of the migrants were held is occupied by Camp Delta — a prison complex behind tall fences and coils of razor wire. The United States would have to increase troop levels to provide additional security and bring in more food and other supplies, most of which now come in a barge every two weeks. Planning for a potential exodus has not involved Cuban officials, Leary said. Top officers based at Guantanamo Bay regularly meet with their Cuban counterparts to discuss low-level practical issues such as how to fight fires that frequently scorch the dry brush that surrounds Guantanamo Bay. (AP, 18/1/07)

January 17: President George W. Bush extended the suspension of a clause in a 1996 law, which allows legal actions against foreign companies that use US’s properties confiscated in Cuba for another six months. The clauses of Title Three of the Helms-Burton Act have been suspended every six months since the Law was passed. (OCB, 18/1/07)

January 18: Luis Diaz, a US Coast Guard spokesman in Miami, said officials there aren't expecting large numbers of Cuban migrants after Fidel Castro dies. "Since (Fidel Castro's) brother took over, we've seen a decrease in migrants," he said. "A lot of people expected the opposite, but our numbers indicate there has been a decrease." (AP, 18/1/07)

January 18: An Army National Guard staff sergeant who was denied the opportunity to visit his children in Cuba during a two-week break from the war in Iraq has appealed to the House Hispanic Caucus for help. Carlos Lazo, who addressed the congressional caucus, was a medic serving in Iraq in 2004 when the Bush administration changed its policies to no longer allow annual trips back to Cuba to visit family members. He discovered the change while on leave from the war zone when he flew to Miami with plans to make a trip to Cuba to see his two teenage sons. New rules that took effect June 30, 2004, allowed only one trip every three years — with no exceptions. “They said if they made an exception for me, they would have to make exceptions for everything,” Lazo said. “Before, you could visit every year — one trip a year — and more often for humanitarian reasons. I wasn’t able to see them, and I went back to Iraq.” After his tour in Iraq ended, Lazo said he still couldn’t make a trip to see his sons because he had last visited in 2001 and three years had not passed. Representative Hilda Solis (Democrat-California), a Hispanic Caucus member and member of the Cuba Working Group that visited Cuba in December, has been working to help Lazo. She called the travel restrictions “hurtful” and said she hopes there is a bipartisan move to change them. (Army Times, 19/1/07)

January 18: A Cuban prosecutor has asked for life in prison for an alleged Colombian drug trafficker jailed in Havana -- based on complaints from US, Colombian and Panamanian officials, but not on any allegations of trafficking within Cuba, according to the suspect's Miami lawyer. The decision enraged Miami attorney Oscar Rodríguez, who said his client, Hernando Gómez Bustamante, was arrested in Havana on charges of carrying false identification documents, not drug trafficking. ''There's something fishy here,'' Rodríguez said. ``Cuba's intentions are very dark (…) They're going to condemn him using Internet clippings.'' Considered one of the top leaders of Colombia's North Valley Cartel, Gómez is wanted by the US Drug Enforcement Administration. The US and Colombian governments have offered a total of $5 million for information leading to his arrest. Panama also has legal proceedings against him. (El Nuevo Herald, 18/1/07)

January 18: Nebraska Governor Dave Heineman will make another trade trip to Cuba in March. He announced his third visit to the country and the fifth trade mission of his administration during a conference call with reporters. A delegation that also is expected to include Greg Ibach, state agriculture director, and Richard Baier, director of the Nebraska Department of Economic Development, will be on the trade trail March 25-28. Taking advantage of an exception to a US trade embargo that allows for delivering agricultural commodities, Nebraska has already filled a $30 million order for dry edible beans and other entries on the Cuban shopping list. Lt. Gov. Rick Sheehy led a trade group to Cuba in 2006 that ended with a memorandum of understanding and prospects for another $30 million in sales. (The Lincoln Journal Star, 19/1/07)

January 19: The United States is calling on Canada to take about 40 Cuban refugees now housed at the American naval base at Guantanamo, Cuba. Ellen Sauerbery, an American assistant secretary of state, spent two days in Ottawa this week discussing the matter with foreign affairs and immigration officials. Canadian officials say no policy decisions have been made. “We've encouraged Canada to make this a priority in their resettlement policy because this is an area of tremendous need and vulnerability,” she told reporters. The Cubans at Guantanamo were plucked from the sea by the American coast guard while trying to escape their homeland. Ms. Sauerbery said most migrants are economic refugees and in no danger of political persecution and are routinely returned to Cuba. But the 40 at the naval base, along with a handful of Haitians, are deemed to be legitimate refugees, she said. “Canada has been very helpful in taking Haitians, but at this point has not taken Cubans. We would welcome Canada's assistance.” She said Canadian officials said they would look into the matter. Ms. Sauerbery also said the United States is planning for a new wave of migration when Fidel Castro dies. “A lot of people may see this as an opportunity to escape. We are laying out a strategy to try to discourage a mass migration, but at the same time we can't guarantee it won't occur.” A Canadian Immigration Department spokeswoman confirmed that Canada views Guantanamo as still being part of the territory of Cuba, which means these migrants are not considered refugees. Ms. Sauerbery said the United States has requested the federal government consider changing the law to fix this loophole, but Canada's response so far has been non-commital. (Canadian Press, National Post, 19,22/1/07)

January 19: US Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid included Fidel Castro and Venezuelan president Hugo Chavez in the global challenges the US has to face in 2007. Reid made the comments to the National Press Club in Washington. "Chavez and (Cuba's Fidel) Castro want to put their leftist marks on young democracies," Reid said. (Seattle Post, 19/1/07)

January 20: The Coastguard Service reported that twenty-seven Cubans managed to reach Boca Chita, a small island 16 miles south of Key Biscayne. Another group of 11 Cuban immigrants arrived on a beach on Isla Mona, Puerto Rico, on January 19, reported the police.  (The Miami Herald, 21/1/07)

January 22: From small South Florida businesses run by Cuban exiles to multinationals with sprawling global operations, many companies have long had a Cuba plan in a drawer or a file somewhere, ready for the day when the US trade embargo is lifted. Although the nation of 11.3 million people represents a virgin market for all types of products and services, several sectors appear riper for immediate investment than others. One industry that the Cuban government is already pushing is oil and gas exploration. Cuba boasts untapped reserves of both oil and natural gas, and both commodities could be big revenue earners for the cash-strapped island. But they also require significant capital investment and technical know-how, which foreign companies have. Housing is another sector that is in dire need of investment, both to rehabilitate existing stocks and build new housing. Experts estimate Cubans need some 50,000 new homes. US tourism operators are also eyeing a brand new market that is physically easy and cheap for Americans to access, especially from South Florida. If the embargo is lifted at some point and the Cuban economy opens up, some businesses may still be difficult to enter. Among them: the media, which the Cuban government may be reluctant to relinquish to foreign investors, and sectors that rely on a consumer-driven economy, such as advertising. (The Miami Herald, 22/1/07)

January 22: A University of Colorado study predicted in 2002 that nearly 1 million Americans would visit Cuba the first year it was opened to the United States -- rivaling both Puerto Rico and Jamaica as tourism draws. The report said travel would soar to 3 million Americans by the fifth year, a potential flood that has tourism officials throughout Florida worried. Also in 2002, Visit Florida produced a report warning that interest in visiting Cuba was growing among Florida tourists and that one in five would pick Cuba over the Sunshine State if given the choice. ''People want what you can't have,'' said Dale Brill, Visit Florida's marketing chief. ``And when what you can't have is made available, it's going to have immediate appeal.'' But some experts say that even with white-sand beaches and colonial charm, Cuba's government-run hotels and crumbling infrastructure will limit its appeal. ''They can't handle a whole lot more'' tourism, said Joseph Scarpaci, a Virginia Tech professor who recently returned from his 45th Cuban trip. ``And they aren't handling what they have very well.'' From concerns of a clogged A1A highway as tourists flock to Havana-bound ferries to the use of Cuban migrants to alleviate the Keys' labor shortage, the island chain predicts big changes should Washington open up commerce with the communist nation. Virginia Panico, president of the Key West Chamber of Commerce, met with government tourism officials in Havana in May 2005. Joined by a delegation of Chamber members (the group delivered medical supplies under an exclusion of the travel ban for humanitarian missions), Panico said they discussed luring vacationers to both destinations. ''We told them we are prepared to do pre- and post-packaging -- three nights here, two nights there, or vice versa,'' she said. ''We've done our homework,'' Florida Keys tourism director Harold Wheeler said. ``We're prepared.'' (The Miami Herald, 22/1/07)

January 22: Cuban officials told American suppliers that they plan to shift about $300 million in food purchases away from the United States toward friendlier countries in the coming months, according to US executives present at a recent meeting. The reason: Cuba has been buying food from suppliers in some 30 states in an effort to get those suppliers and their states to lobby Washington to ease the US embargo. But after six years of buying, the strategy has failed to result in an easing of the embargo, Pedro Alvarez, chief of Cuba's Alimport import agency, told the group last December. Cuba likely will buy more rice, soy and wheat from Vietnam, China, Argentina and Brazil this year instead of US farmers, said Jay Brickman, vice president of government services for Crowley Maritime Corp., present at the meeting. Crowley ships haul US food products to Cuba from Broward County's Port Everglades, with US authorization. The Cuban government began slowing purchases from the United States about two years ago, shifting business to such political allies as Venezuela, according to trade reports from Washington and Havana. (Sun Sentinel, 22/1/07) 

January 22: An anti-Fidel Castro militant accused of bombing a Cuban airliner in 1976 pleaded not guilty to US immigration charges, the latest round in a long fight by the US government to keep him in jail. Luis Posada Carriles, 78, who says he has renounced violence in the fight against Castro and only wants to join his family in Miami, Florida, appeared before US Magistrate Norbert Garney in El Paso shackled at his wrists and feet. He has been detained since May 2005. If convicted on all charges, he could be sentenced to 40 years in prison. The charges are the latest effort to hold Posada without declaring him a terrorist. Cuba and Venezuela have demanded Posada's extradition in the Cubana Airlines bombing that killed 73 people, including teenage members of Cuba's national fencing team returning from a tournament in Venezuela. (Reuters, 22/1/07)

January 22: A Coast Guard cutter repatriated 47 Cuban migrants to Bahia de Cabañas.
The Coast Guard said a first group of 32 Cubans were picked up after a Coast Guard jet crew spotted two go-fast vessels on January 18 in the vicinty of Cay Sal Banks, Bahamas. A Coast Guard cutter with a Bahamian official on board was diverted to intercept the two vessels. Another group of 16 Cuban migrants were spotted by the cruise ship Coral Princess. The migrants, who were on a raft or homemade boat, were later turned over to the Coast Guard. (Sun Sentinel, 24/1/07)

January 23: Members of the bipartisan Cuba Working Group have proposed legislation to lift economic restrictions on Cuba. They have been explaining to Washington audiences why they back the normalization of relations with the poor island nation.  Democrat William Delahunt of Massachusetts told the Inter-American Dialogue research center the trip itself showed that many in Congress disagree with existing US policy on Cuba. "I would submit that our paramount motive in going to Cuba was to demonstrate just simply by our physical presence, given the size of our delegation, that many in this country, particularly in the US Congress, want dialogue," he said. "And that obviously is not the position of the administration." Washington forbids US citizens to travel to Cuba or spend money on Cuban products. The two countries do not have diplomatic relations.  Republican Jeff Flake of Arizona said US policy of shutting Cuba out has not worked to oust the island's communist government or end human rights abuses. He said Washington should instead try focusing on engaging Havana with trade and dialogue. "We're losing influence," he said. "We could have influence in Havana, but we are very much on the sidelines while this transition is taking place." (VOA, 23/1/07)

January 23: Republican and Democratic lawmakers said they would push hard to get legislation through Congress this year to ease restrictions on travel to Cuba.  Republican Representative Jo Ann Emerson of Missouri said the strategy was to attach Cuba legislation to a mammoth bill, most likely the farm bill, making it harder for President George W. Bush to veto it once it reached his desk for signature.  Emerson and Democratic Representative James McGovern of Massachusetts, who were speaking at the Council on Foreign Relations, were optimistic that such a strategy would work, particularly with the Democrats now in charge of Congress.  "There is a real opportunity for us to actually make some policy changes here (…) we have to go through this back door approach," said McGovern. (AP, 23/1/07)

January 23: President Bush said his administration would continue to ''speak out'' for freedom in Cuba, mentioning the island for the first time in a State of the Union address. ''We will continue to speak out for the cause of freedom in places like Cuba, Belarus and Burma, and continue to awaken the conscience of the world to save the people of Darfur,'' Bush said in a portion of his speech listing foreign policy priorities. Earlier, national security advisor Stephen Hadley said, ``we hope there is an opportunity for a democratic transition in Cuba, where the Cuban people will have an opportunity, really for the first time, to take control of their own future and define the kind of government they want going forward.'' The president did not mention Cuba when he listed nations that violate human rights in his State of the Union speech a year ago. (The Miami Herald, 24/1/06)

January 24: Nineteen Cuban illegal migrants came ashore in the backyard of the home of US Naval Air Station Key West's commander, officials said. The group of 12 men, five women and two children was discovered by an off-duty Defense Department officer who was jogging on US military property, Key West police said. The group arrived in what appeared to be a homemade boat, police said. (AP, 25/1/07)

January 24: The US government should emulate the Catholic Church and look for a dramatic way to improve relations with Cuba, said a US lawmaker after returning from a fact-finding trip to the Caribbean island. Representative James McGovern (Democrat-Massachusetts), cited the 1998 trip to Cuba by Pope John Paul II and said it had a "dramatic impact" on improving the church's situation in the communist-ruled country.  "The pope's visit opened things up for the church," said McGovern at a January 23 panel discussion in Washington on US-Cuban relations. "We should learn by that example," he said. McGovern was part of a bipartisan delegation of House members that visited Cuba in December to check out the political situation caused by the lengthy hospitalization of Fidel Castro after intestinal surgery. (Catholic News Service, 24/1/07)

January 25: The US Treasury Department shot down the World Trade Center Palm Beach's plan for a humanitarian, educational and information-exchange trip to Cuba in June. The WTC Palm Beach, a not-for-profit trade group affiliated with 278 similar organizations around the globe, unveiled plans to take about 30 South Florida professionals to the island last December. The Palm Beach group said it wanted to discuss ideas and technology related to food, water and medicine with non-government agencies and private citizens in Cuba. It said the delegation didn't intend to conduct business or to meet with Cuban government officials. The group was coordinating the mission with its counterpart, the World Trade Center Havana. (The Miami Herald, 25/1/07)

January 25: A human right watchdog has launched a campaign to defend Cuban human rights activist, Juan Carlos Gonzalez Leiva. According to New York based Human Rights First, Leiva and his family have been subject to harassment, intimidation, and violence on the part of government officials and mobs of civilians (who are widely believed to be organized by the government) who have repeatedly surrounded his home for hours at a time, shouting threats and banging on windows. Leiva is a human rights lawyer and President of the Cuban Foundation for Human Rights, a human rights monitoring group that exposes human rights violations by the government and reports on attacks against peaceful activists and independent journalists. (HRF Press Release, 25/1/07)

January 25: Legislation to chip away at the Bush administration's hard-line Cuba policy is in the works in the House, where Republicans and Democrats are planning a variety of measures aimed at easing the US policy on Cuba. The first bill, which would lift the ban on Americans traveling to Cuba, was introduced by Representative Jeff Flake, Arizona Republican. The measures to ease the policy will be filed as stand-alone legislation or as amendments to appropriations bills or other legislation. Mr. Flake, who introduced his bill with House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Charles B. Rangel, New York Democrat, said that nearly 50 years of the current policy have "done little" to bring democracy to Cuba. Instead of aiding democratic reform, the policy has given Fidel Castro "a convenient scapegoat for his own regime's failures," Mr. Flake said. Representative Bill Delahunt, Massachusetts Democrat, plans legislation to ease restrictions on Cuban-American family travel. Other possibilities include legislation to ease payment restrictions for cash sales of food to Cuba. The White House had no comment on the bills yesterday. National Security Council spokesman Gordon Johndroe only said: "Our Cuba policy is unchanged." (The Washington Times, 25/1/07)

January 26: World-renowned salsa singer Issac Delgado has emigrated from Cuba and plans to pursue his career from a new home in Florida, becoming the biggest name in Cuban music in more than a decade to make the politically charged move away from the communist enclave. Unlike the highly publicized defections in recent years of two other prominent Cuban vocalists, Manolin and Carlos Manuel, Delgado made his move under a cloak of secrecy. Internet chat rooms have been abuzz about the star's whereabouts since late last year, but Delgado and his new US business associates have kept mum until now.  Concert promoters were notified that the William Morris Agency had signed Delgado for worldwide representation. "Issac is probably the most significant singer of his generation," said Michel Vega, head of Latin music for William Morris, in an interview this week from his Miami office. "We're thrilled to be working with him and we think he's going to be a great addition to the American music landscape." The critically acclaimed singer was not immediately available for interviews. But Vega confirmed that the artist has settled into a new home in Tampa, Florida, along with his wife and children. Details of his entry into the country were not disclosed. (Los Angeles Times, 26/1/07)

January 26: After eight years of separation, Rene Gonzalez, one of the five Cubans imprisoned in the US, and his daughter Ivette finally got together at the Marianna, Florida, prison on the 30th of December of 2006, according to a statement from the family. The information was made public during the Cuban Round Table Broadcast. The girl went together with her sister Irma; her mother was not allowed to enter the US. It was the first time that their communication was not by telephone since father and daughters were abruptly separated, when Ivette was just four months old. (Granma, 27/1/07)

January 29: US lawsuits seeking monetary compensation from Cuba face discouraging prospects: The Cuban funds frozen in US accounts now are estimated at only around $70 million and are expected to run out soon. The depletion of the Cuban assets held in US banks has alarmed Havana, which has accused the US government of stealing $170.2 million of its money over the past five years. Cuba's accusation was contained in a note from the Ministry of Foreign Relations earlier this month, after a court ruling in Miami awarded $400 million to the survivors of Robert Fuller, a US citizen executed by firing squad in Cuba in 1960. The compensation in that case has not been collected. ''Cuba will never renounce its right to demand that the U.S. government take full responsibility for the theft of the funds that are legitimately ours, to the last cent,'' the ministry's note said. ''These funds could be a subject for negotiation with Washington,'' said Jaime Suchlicki, director of the Center for Cuban and Cuban-American Studies at the University of Miami. ``The new clique of Raúl Castro, [Central Bank President] Francisco Soberón and company, is interested in those accounts, with a pragmatic vision.'' (The Miami Herald, 29/1/07)

January 29: The anti-Castro militant Luis Posada Carriles, wanted in Cuba and Venezuela in connection with the 1976 bombing of a Cuban airliner and other terrorist attacks, pleaded not guilty to charges that he lied on his citizenship application about how he entered the United States. The 78-year-old anti-communist, who fought with CIA forces in the Bay of Pigs invasion and is believed to have plotted a failed attempt to kill Castro, is being held at an immigration facility near El Paso, Texas. A federal grand jury in early January indicted him on seven counts of making false statements to immigration officers about the details of his March 2005 arrival in the United States. Posada claims that he entered through the Mexican border, but authorities believe he sneaked in aboard a shrimp vessel owned by his allies Santiago Álvarez and Osvaldo Miat, both of whom also face legal charges. (El País, 29/1/07) 

January 29: Oil prospecting in Cuban waters in the Gulf of Mexico may become another factor in the conflict with the United States, but researchers from both countries are carrying out joint studies on this body of water to preserve one of the planet's richest ecosystems. The US Harte Research Institute for Gulf of Mexico Studies (HRI) is carrying out a research project on the northwestern coast of Cuba. HRI is collaborating with the University of Havana's Center for Marine Research (CIM) in the project, which began in 2003, and so far they have carried out three joint coastal expeditions, with four more planned for this year. "The Harte Institute is fortunate to be one of the few institutions licensed (by the US government) to carry out marine research in Cuba," David Guggenheim, the director of the HRI program on the island, said. This permission is in stark contrast with, for example, Washington's ban on US oil companies participating in oil prospecting on the Cuban underwater platform in the Gulf of Mexico, only 137 kilometers from the Florida peninsula. (IPS, 29/1/07)

January 31: A federal judge in South Florida has slapped three immigrant-smugglers with stiff prison terms of 12 years each for their part in a human-trafficking operation from Cuba that left a young woman dead. Judge K. Michael Moore, in imposing sentences that were twice those recommended by federal guidelines, said the harsh punishment was meant to serve as a deterrent to prospective smugglers. Amil Gonzalez Rodriguez, Rolando Gonzalez Delgado and Heinrich Castillo Diaz, all Cubans or Cuban-Americans, were sentenced in Key West. Gonzalez Delgado and Castillo Diaz pleaded guilty last year in a bargain with prosecutors to charges of involuntary manslaughter and people-trafficking that resulted in death. At trial, Gonzalez Rodriguez was acquitted of the manslaughter charge, but convicted on the people-trafficking count. He also was found guilty of providing false information to federal agents. (EFE, 31/1/07)

January 31: The US government is ready to stop a mass migration of Cubans when Fidel Castro dies, two Florida lawmakers said after meeting with military and Homeland Security officials. US Representative John Mica, the top Republican on the House Transportation Committee, organized the closed-door meeting to find out if the Coast Guard and other Homeland Security agencies are prepared to protect Florida, where many refugees likely would migrate. Mica, of Winter Park, said he was satisfied with what he heard. US Representative Mario Diaz-Balart (Republican-Miami), agreed. The United States will not lose control of its borders, Diaz-Balart said. "That's just not an option." But Andy Gomez, assistant provost of the University of Miami and a scholar on Cuban issues who has met with federal officials about their plan, said they may be underestimating the fallout from Castro's death. Gomez said as many as 500,000 Cubans could end up fleeing if social and political unrest breaks out on the island just 90 miles from Florida. (Sun Sentinel, 1/2/07)

January 31: Starting in February the United States will allow Cubans to obtain visa information and schedule appointments by using a telephone service operating since 2006 to eliminate inconsistencies. Starting February 15th, Cuban residents in the United States will be able to contact a "call center" to request three new types of permanent visas on behalf of their relatives in Cuba: immigrant visas, fiancé visas and family-based paroles.
 (Reuters, 31/1/07)

January 31: US immigration officials have asked a federal judge to toss out Cuban militant Luis Posada Carriles' bid to be set free pending his ordered deportation. In a four-page motion filed in El Paso, the government argued that Posada's lawsuit is moot because he was transferred to the custody of the US Marshals Service after being indicted January 11. He had filed the lawsuit last year after spending nearly a year in a federal detention center on an immigration violation. Posada, 78, was indicted on charges that he made several false statements about how he made it into the US in 2005. Posada, a former CIA operative and US Army soldier, is accused by Cuba and Venezuela of masterminding the 1976 bombing of a Cuban jetliner that killed 73 people. (AP, 31/1/07) 

January 31: The United States admitted it had no idea about Fidel Castro's state of health, hours after Cuban television broadcast new pictures of its ailing communist nemesis. "We don't actually have any idea what the status of his health is," State Department deputy spokesman Tom Casey said, despite previous predictions by a senior US official that Castro's days may be numbered. "The Cuban regime is surprisingly disinterested in providing the US government with assessments of Fidel Castro's health," Casey told reporters. "I can't tell you whether these new images are significant or not and I think it's rather speculative for anybody who is not an intimate part of the regime to try and give you one." (AFP, 31/1/07)

January 31: Citing the heartbreak of divided families, House members introduced a bill that would allow Cuban-Americans to visit their relatives in Cuba as often as they wish and take as much money as they want. "I look at this as an emergency. This needs to take place right now," said Silvia Wilhelm of Miami, a travel-rights advocate eager to visit her cousin in Cuba. "Lots of people are suffering on both sides of the Florida Straits." The House bill is the latest of several measures in Congress designed to chip away at the US embargo of Cuba. A separate bill introduced the week before would remove travel restrictions for all Americans, not just Cuban-Americans. Farm-state members plan to introduce another bill to remove restrictions on financing to ease food sales to Cuba. Yet another bill already filed would allow Cuban baseball players to come and go between this country and the island. (Sun Sentinel, 1/2/07)