Chronicle on Cuba - May 2007

US-Cuba Relations

May 1: Marchers gathered in Havana’s Revolution Square on May Day protested the recent US court decision to free on bond anti-communist militant Luis Posada Carriles, pending his trial on US immigration charges. Havana accuses the Cuban-born Posada of orchestrating a 1976 airliner bombing that killed 73 people -- a charge he denies. Demonstrators held signs and banners declaring ''Prison for the Executioner'' in reference to Posada, accusing the Bush administration of a double standard on terrorism. (AP, 1/5/07)

May 1: One US government official did not seem overly impressed by Fidel Castro's possible reappearance at Havana’s May Day rally. ''We don't spend much time thinking about whether Fidel Castro will return to power or not,'' Kirsten Madison, Assistant Undersecretary of State for the Western Hemisphere, told the Spanish news agency Efe. ``If Fidel Castro returns to power tomorrow, I expect to see more of the same: repression against the people, the suppression of economic rights.'' (The Miami Herald, 1/5/07)

May 1: US trade officials heard pleas from business groups for looser trade rules with Cuba, which the groups said could be a major market for US farm goods. The US International Trade Commission, which provides independent analysis of trade issues, will release a report in late June on the impact that trade and travel restrictions have on US agricultural exports to Cuba. "The United States can better engage the market opportunity that Cuba represents," said Gary Martin, president of the North American Export Grain Association, a trade group. US sales could "expand significantly," Martin said, once current limitations are removed. NAEGA is one US commodity group that would like to see more seamless trade with Cuba. It hopes that stirrings in Congress will bring policy changes and boost farm exports that are now worth about $300 million a year. (Reuters, 1/5/07) 

May 2: The FBI office in Miami has been quietly gathering evidence on a 1997 bombing that killed an Italian man at a Havana hotel, with agents traveling to the Cuban capital recently to see if they can link Cuban exile militant Luis Posada Carriles to the attack.  The extraordinary effort at cooperation between the two countries underscores their shared goal to pin the plot on Posada, the focus of a federal grand jury probe in Newark, N.J. Posada, a former CIA operative trained in explosives, is under house arrest at his wife's West Kendall apartment as he awaits trial on immigration fraud charges unrelated to the bombing. ''Anything that comes from Cuba is fruit of the poisonous tree,'' said Posada's attorney, Arturo Hernandez. ``We deny these charges, and we will vigorously defend Mr. Posada against them if they ever come to fruition. This is part of the Castro regime's full-court press against my client.'' Human rights and exile groups ask how Cuba's justice system can be trusted when it routinely jails dissidents and journalists with scant evidence. The Cuban Interests Section in Washington did not return phone calls seeking comment. (The Miami Herald, 2/5/07)

May 2: A fugitive who was expelled from Cuba pleaded not guilty to jumping bond in the United States more than 40 years ago - but he was not given a chance for a repeat performance. US Magistrate Judge William Turnoff denied Joseph Adjmi's request for bond as the 70-year-old awaits trial. Adjmi was convicted of mail fraud and sentenced in 1963 to 10 years in prison, but disappeared before serving his sentence. Last year, Cuban officials alerted the US counterparts that Adjmi was in their custody for fraud-related crimes he'd allegedly committed on the island. They intended to expel him upon his release and asked the United States to take him. (AP, 2/5/07)

May 2: For the second time in two days a group of 14 Cubans, including a one-year-old, came ashore in the vicinity of the Rickenbacker Causeway in Miami. (El Nuevo Herald, 3/5/07)

May 3: Telecom giant AT&T Inc. unveiled a new calling plan for landline calls from South Florida to Cuba. The plan costs $7.99 a month, or about 75 cents per minute for direct dialed calls to Cuba. That's down from plans that now cost about 85 cents per minute for direct dial calls to Cuba, a spokeswoman said. AT&T said the majority of calls made to Cuba originate in South Florida. The area is home to more than 700,000 Cubans, according to 2000 Census numbers. Telecom rates to the communist-run island, among the most expensive in the world, depend largely on fees set by Cuban authorities, analysts said. (Sun Sentinel, 3/5/07)

May 3: The National Security Archives at George Washington University has released documents that prove the responsibility of Luis Posada Carriles with the 1976 sabotage of a Cuban airliner in which 73 persons died. Among the documents available on the Archives website, are statements from Freddy Lugo and Hernan Ricardo, who placed the explosives on the plane. Lugo and Ricardo incriminate each other for having blown up the aircraft with C-4 explosives and identify Luis Posada Carriles and Orlando Bosch as the leaders of the terrorist action. Peter Kornbluh, in charge of the documents related to Cuba at the Archives said the documents give a true historical framework from which to indict Posada. [Documents linked to Cuban Exile Luis Posada] (Granma, 4/5/07)

May 4: Austrian bank BAWAG P.S.K. offered to reinstate accounts held by Cuban nationals which it had cancelled last month due to the imminent takeover by a US investor subject to US sanctions against Cuba. The cancellations, which came after private equity fund Cerberus Capital [CBS.UL] agreed to buy the bank last year, caused a public uproar in Austria and triggered the foreign minister to charge the bank with violating European Union rules. "The board of BAWAG P.S.K. with immediate effect revokes the decision to terminate business relationships with Cuban nationals," BAWAG said in a statement. (Reuters, 4/5/07)

May 4: South Florida's three Cuban-American members of Congress condemned the Justice Department for sending Miami FBI agents to Cuba to collect evidence against Luis Posada Carriles in a hotel bombing that killed an Italian in Havana a decade ago. 'By asking a state sponsor of terrorism for `evidence' regarding terrorism, the Bush administration Justice Department demonstrates a shockingly profound ignorance of the nature of terrorism, of its origins and its state sponsors,'' US Representatives Ileana Ros-Lehtinen and brothers Lincoln and Mario Díaz-Balart said in a statement. It marked the first official public expression of anger over a heightening grand jury investigation in Newark, New Jersey. The former CIA-trained explosives expert was detained by immigration agents two years ago in Miami-Dade. Posada, 79, is under house arrest at his wife's home in West Kendall while he awaits a May 11 trial in Texas on immigration fraud charges unrelated to the bombing. (The Miami Herald, 4/5/07)

May 4: Luis Posada Carriles’s defense team will not be allowed to use the anti-Castro militant’s immigration records as evidence for his defense. Judge Kathleen Cardone denied the defense motion to be allowed to review the full extent of the documentation contained in the records. (El Nuevo Herald, 5/5/07)

May 4: The Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Inter-American Affairs, Kirsten Madison, and the coordinator of the US State Department’s Commission for Assistance to a Free Cuba, Caleb McCarry, met with officials of the European Union Council, the European Commission and diplomats from the twenty-seven to discuss the political situation in the island and the attending parties’ respective strategies to facilitate the establishment of democracy. (EFE, 4/5/07)

May 4: A Cuban army officer killed during a failed airplane hijacking was buried with military honors, decorated posthumously with one of the communist regime's top medals as officials blamed Washington for his death. A government statement said the American policy of letting most Cubans stay if they reach US soil encourages violent attempts to leave this island, such as the incident that led to the fatal shooting of Lt. Colonel Victor Ibo Acuna Velazquez by two army deserters. The headline in the Communist Party newspaper called the hijacking attempt an "act of terror promoted by the United States." [Acto de terror promovido por Estados Unidos] (AP, 4/5/07)

May 7: The Czech Foreign Ministry has denied claims by the Cuban authorities that the Czech Republic is to become a safe refuge for Cuban terrorist Luis Posada Carilles, who is accused by Cuba and Venezuela of terrorism. "Unfortunately, this is a case of a deliberate campaign aimed at discrediting us," Czech Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Zuzana Opletalova told the press. (Mlada Fronta Dnes. 7/5/07) 

May 7: The United States, which has been planning for possible waves of fleeing Cubans when Fidel Castro dies, has hired a Florida company to build a temporary complex to hold migrants at the Guantanamo Bay Naval Base, the military said. Islands Mechanical Contractors Inc. of Jacksonville, Florida, has won a $16.5 million contract to build a ''migrant operations complex'' at the base, a US enclave in eastern Cuba, the US Defense Department said. The fenced complex would include showers and laundry facilities and is to be finished by May 2008, according to a Defense Department publication that announces contracts. The announcement did not specify the capacity of the complex and a Defense Department spokesman said additional details were not immediately available. Bob Turnage, the president of Islands Mechanical, declined to discuss the project. The contract announcement did not specify that the complex would be for Cuban migrants, but Navy officials told the press in January that they were preparing for a potential Cuban exodus because of Castro's health problems and would hold migrants at Guantanamo. (AP, 8/5/07)

May 7: Fidel Castro said two Cuban soldiers who killed an army officer during a failed attempt to hijack an airplane to escape from the island were encouraged by the prospect of impunity in the United States. In an editorial e-mailed to journalists, Castro, 80, described the attempted hijacking of a few days ago as ''a consequence of freeing the monster of terror.'' He was referring to an American judge's recent decision to free Luis Posada Carriles, an anti-communist militant wanted in Cuba and Venezuela in the 1976 bombing of a Cuban airliner that killed 73 people. ''The impunity and the material benefits that have been rewarded for nearly half a century for all violent action against Cuba stimulate such acts,'' said the editorial, the fifth attributed to Castro since he disappeared from public view more than nine months ago. ''It only takes the stunning liberation of a known terrorist and death again is visited upon our homes,'' the statement said. [The Tragedy Threatening Our Species] (AP, 8/5/07)

May 8: A federal judge dropped charges against former CIA operative and anti-Castro Cuban militant Luis Posada Carriles, blasting what she called government "fraud, deceit and trickery" in an interview with Posada that led to the charges. US district judge Kathleen Cardone ordered Posada's electronic bracelet cut off in the courtroom and cleared the way for him to return to Miami a free man. Cardone said the interpretation of the April 2006 interview "is so inaccurate as to render it unreliable as evidence of the defendant's actual statement." Posada's attorney, Arturo Hernandez, told the press the ruling was "an incredible legal victory." The Justice Department and the Department of Homeland Security said they were reviewing Cardone's decision. Cuba and Venezuela want Posada to face charges. Posada, 79, was charged with seven counts of immigration fraud. He was arrested in Miami in May 2005 after entering the country illegally. (CNN, Chicago Tribune, 8/5/07)

May 8: The Cuban government reacted angrily to news of Luis Posada Carriles' release, calling him a "known terrorist" in a statement released by Dagoberto Rodriguez Barrera, chief of the Cuban Interest Section in Washington. In the statement, the Cuban government blames the White House for having "made all the efforts necessary to protect the bin Laden of the hemisphere, [out of] fear that he could have talked and recount the whole history about the US government links with his terrorists' activities." The Cuban government accuses Posada of being involved in the 1976 downing of a Cuban passenger plane, which killed 73 people. Posada has denied any role in the airliner attack. He's also accused of being involved in a string of hotel bombings in Havana and making attempts on the life of Fidel Castro. (CNN, 8/5/07)

May 9: US Immigration and Customs Enforcement issued a statement noting that Luis Posada Carriles must check in with immigration officials upon his return to Miami -- but not saying whether it plans to appeal the ruling. "At this time, we're reviewing the judge's decision and we're evaluating our options," said Justice Department spokesman Dean Boyd. He declined to explain why the government had not filed terrorism charges against Posada. "I'm not going to get into our internal deliberations," he said. Leticia Zamarripa, a spokeswoman for the US Bureau of Immigration and Customs Enforcement, said her agency was notified of the dismissal of Posada's criminal indictment and "we are evaluating the matter and will take appropriate action." An immigration judge ruled in 2005 that Posada be deported, but not to Cuba, where he was born, or Venezuela because of fears he could be tortured. Several other countries have refused to take him. (The San Francisco Chronicle, AP, 10/5/07)

May 9: Venezuela and Cuba accused Washington of shielding a terrorist after a judge threw out immigration fraud charges against a man wanted in the 1976 bombing of a Cuban airliner. Venezuelan Foreign Minister Nicolas Maduro said his government planned to seek international support for the extradition of 79-year-old former CIA operative Luis Posada Carriles. ''What will happen to Posada Carriles is in the hands of the US government,'' Maduro said, calling Washington ``that terrorist-protecting government.'' He spoke at a news conference alongside Cuban Foreign Minister Felipe Perez Roque, who said the fact that Posada is now free shows the ''hypocrisy'' of US President George W. Bush's administration. Maduro reiterated demands that Posada either be tried in the United States for the 1976 jetliner bombing off Barbados or be turned over to Venezuela for trial. Cuba's Perez Roque said the Bush administration has refused to classify Posada as a terrorist and hand him over to Venezuela because Posada would ``make good on his threat to tell everything that he knows and all that he did for the U.S. government when he was a CIA man.'' In a briefing with the press, the spokesman for the US State Department Sean Mc Cormack said that the Posada case was “fundamentally” a Department of Justice issue. “They are the ones who are taking a look at the judgment of this”, he said regarding the immigration charges. “They're taking a look at the ruling, deciding what their options are. And the Department of Homeland Security ultimately has jurisdiction about, you know, what foreigners are in the United States and whether or not they are allowed to remain. As a matter of foreign policy, yes, we do consult with the Department of Justice and Department of Homeland Security on the matter. But we are not the ultimate arbiters of either (a) what court case may be brought against Mr. Posada Carriles or (b) whether or not he remains in the United States.” (The Miami Herald, US State Department Daily Briefing, 9/5/07)

May 10: Academy Award-winning filmmaker Michael Moore is under investigation by the US Treasury Department for taking ailing September 11 rescue workers to Cuba for a segment in his upcoming health-care documentary “Sicko”, the press has learned. The Treasury Department's Office of Foreign Assets Control notified Moore in a letter dated May 2 that it was conducting a civil investigation for possible violations of the US trade embargo restricting travel to Cuba. "This office has no record that a specific license was issued authorizing you to engage in travel-related transactions involving Cuba," Dale Thompson, OFAC chief of general investigations and field operations, wrote in the letter to Moore. In February, Moore took about 10 ailing workers from the Ground Zero rescue effort in Manhattan for treatment in Cuba, said a person working with the filmmaker on the release of “Sicko”. The person requested anonymity because Moore's attorneys had not yet determined how to respond. (AP, 10/5/07)

May 10: The US government has launched a probe into whether maverick director Michael Moore, whose 2004 documentary "Fahrenheit 9/11" criticizes the Bush administration, broke laws when he went to Cuba for a new movie about US health care.  US citizens face "civil and/or criminal penalties" for unauthorized travel to the communist country, the US Treasury Department warned in a letter to the Oscar-winning director that was posted on Moore's web site. Dated May 2, the letter highlights federal concern that Moore went to Cuba in March without approval, and asks for details about travel dates, people on the trip and reasons Moore might qualify for a journalist's license to go to Cuba. A spokesman for Moore declined comment on what the filmmaker was doing in Cuba, but said news reports about his taking victims of the September 11 attacks on New York's World Trade Centers there for health care were inaccurate. (Reuters, 10/5/07)

May 10: US Attorney General Alberto Gonzales expressed his disagreement with El Paso Federal Judge Kathleen Cardone’s recent decision to dismiss the charges for migratory offenses against anti-Castro firebrand Luis Posada Carriles. "We are aware of the Judge’s ruling. Obviously, we do not concur,” said the Secretary of Justice during a Congress hearing. (AFP, 10/5/07)

May 11: The future of a proposed $1 billion tunnel to the Port of Miami may be in limbo because the preferred contractor has close business ties to the Castro government. An affiliate of the French construction giant Bouygues Travaux Publics -- heading a team that was the low bidder for the tunnel project -- has built 11 high-end resorts in joint ventures with the Cuban military since 1999, according to a French government report and the company's own website. Fidel Castro also mentioned the Bouygues affiliate in a 2003 speech during the opening of Playa Pesquero, a five-star hotel that the firm built in the northeastern province of Holguín, according to the official government newspaper Granma. Lawyers for Bouygues strongly denied any wrongdoing, but the revelation of the Cuba connection could unravel a complicated financing package that is critically dependent on state, county and city tax dollars. The tunnel would link the port with the MacArthur Causeway and route thousands of trucks a day away from crowded downtown streets. ''I think once the public becomes fully aware of this, especially at the county commission level, then Bouygues is going to have a very hard time winning this contract,'' said Miami attorney Nicolas Gutierrez, who has raised the issue about Bouygues' possible violations of the Helms-Burton Act with officials in Miami, Tallahassee and Washington, D.C. (The Miami Herald, 11/5/07)

May 11: A grand jury is meeting in Newark to decide whether to indict Posada on charges of financing a terrorist operation. FBI agents visited Havana last year in connection with the probe, following up on a 1998 trip to the island, according to two U.S. law enforcement officials who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak publicly about the investigation. "We've provided American authorities with a lot of information," said Cuban Lt. Col. Roberto Hernandez Cabellero. Visiting FBI agents deposed him during the 1998 trip, and while he said he had no information on more recent visits, he said US prosecutors should have what they need. The federal probe in New Jersey has the most potential to put Posada behind bars in the United States. (AP, 10/5/07)

May 11: Cuba accused the US government of violating international anti-terrorism treaties by allowing Luis Posada Carriles, a man Havana accuses of violent acts against the country, to walk free of all charges after an immigration indictment against him was dropped. "The US government has not only violated its own laws and supposed commitment to its self-proclaimed 'War Against Terrorism,' but also to its own international obligations," said a government declaration published in the Communist Party newspaper Granma, signed on May 9. The declaration detailed several international treaties it said the United States had violated, but did not say whether it would take any diplomatic action. [Declaración del Gobierno de Cuba] (AP, 11/5/07)

May 11: In Havana, 300 Cuban artists, armed with music and poetry, gathered at the Jose Marti Anti-imperialist Tribune to protest the release of terrorist Luis Posada Carriles. “The way the Posada case has been handled confirms the complicity and commitment of the Bush administration and family with this individual,” said Ana Victoria Casadesus Pazos, member of the UJC National Committee, which along with the Cuban Institute of Music organized the event. Thousands of young people, including UJC First Secretary Julio Martinez Ramirez, gathered in the square in front of the US Interests Section in Havana to unite their voices with singers, artists, musicians and actors in protest of this terrible injustice. (Juventud Rebelde, 11/5/07)

May 11: Filmmaker Michael Moore has asked the Bush administration to call off an investigation of his trip to Cuba to get treatment for ailing 9/11 rescue workers for a segment in his upcoming health-care exposé “Sicko”. Moore, who made the hit documentary “Fahrenheit 9/11”assailing President George W. Bush's handling of 9/11, said in a letter to US Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson that the White House may have opened the investigation for political reasons. "I understand why the Bush administration is coming after me – I have tried to help the very people they refuse to help, but until George W. Bush outlaws helping your fellow man, I have broken no laws and I have nothing to hide," Moore said in the letter, which he posted on a liberal website. (AP, 12/5/07)

May 11: Demonstrators gathered outside the Justice Department to demand the prosecution of anti-Castro militant Luis Posada Cariles for allegedly blowing up a Cuban airliner and eluding responsibility for three decades. Photographs of some of the 73 victims who died in the 1976 explosion lined a sidewalk. Protesters carried signs saying "Prosecute Posada for Terrorism" or "Extradite Posada to Venezuela." And speakers in English and Spanish decried Posada's release from custody this week after a judge in El Paso, Texas dismissed immigration charges against him. It was part of what demonstrators called a national and international day of protest. Similar rallies were planned in New York, San Francisco, Seattle, El Paso, Boston and Philadelphia as well as other American cities and some in Canada and Mexico. (Sun Sentinel, 12/5/07) 

May 11: A former Florida college counselor will undergo cancer surgery before serving a prison term in connection with her husband’s role as a Cuban agent. A federal judge delayed the start of Elsa Alvarez's three-year stretch until the end of the month so she could have a growth removed. Alvarez, 57, pleaded guilty to charges she failed to tell investigators that her husband, Carlos, was acting as an unregistered agent of the Castro regime and feeding Havana information about the Florida exile community. The couple was recently declared indigent by the court, but continues to appeal their case despite reaching plea agreements with the US government. (UPI, 12/5/07)

May 11: An estimate of 1,798,000 tourists from the US will visit Cuba annually within two years of the end of travel restrictions. The American Society of Travel Agents (ASTA) testified to the US International Trade Commission on April 24 that by conservative estimates 1,798,000 Americans will visit Cuba annually within two years of the end of travel restrictions. Paul Ruden, ASTA’s senior vice president for Legal and Industry Affairs, predicted there would be 835,000 recreational visits by air, 480,000 cruise visitors and 482,000 family visitors. He noted that another study had estimated 2.8 million total visits annually. ASTA was invited to testify as the representative of the travel industry because at the request of Congress the USITC is preparing a report on the economic impact in the US of its unilateral embargo of Cuba. (TravelVideoTV.Com, 11/5/07)

May 12: Charlie Hill, an accused murderer and admitted hijacker, has lived 36 years as a fugitive of American justice. With the Cuban government providing him an offshore safe haven, he has managed to live a life beyond the reach of the FBI. But the years are catching up with him. Some of his fellow fugitives have died recently, forcing Mr. Hill, a 57-year-old grandfather whose hair, once a black afro, is now closely cropped and grey, to confront his own mortality. Inextricably linked with his fate is that of his patron, Fidel Castro, who is 80 and in failing health. For obvious reasons, Mr. Hill and other fugitives who have long been protected by Mr. Castro are hoping for the longtime leader’s recuperation and for a continuation of the Communist government that has long butted heads with Washington. “I don’t think there will be much change if Fidel dies,” Mr. Hill said. “There might be, but I think it’s 60-40 that not much will happen. If it does, well, what can I do?” (The New York Times, 12/5/07)

May 14: The US Coast Guard told US Senator Bill Nelson it is ready to tackle matters dealing with Homeland Security, hurricane preparedness or a possible mass exodus from Cuba, but not for a confluence of crisis' that potentially could occur in South Florida this summer. Nelson (Democrat-Florida), met with Coast Guard Rear Admiral David Kunkel in Miami to discuss the joint plan between the Coast Guard, Florida National Guard and other US military personnel to protect the nation's borders and respond to natural disasters. (AP, 14/5/07)

May 14: Cuba staged a mock trial for an anti-Castro militant it says the United States has avoided prosecuting for acts of terrorism. Luis Posada Carriles, a former CIA operative who is accused of bombing a Cuban airliner and tourist targets in Cuba, walked free in the United States when a US judge dismissed immigration charges against him. Red flags covered the walls of the once elegant Vedado Tennis Club where Cuba's Communist Youth organization set up an "anti-terrorist tribunal" that will hear witnesses for two days and condemn the Cuban exile for acts of violence against Cuba. Hundreds of college and high school students, many looking bored and squirming in their seats, filled the social club ringed by dilapidated tennis courts in Havana’s Vedado district. Witnesses included Cuban government investigators and students who studied the case in Cuba and in Venezuela. "The US authorities have enough proof to prosecute Posada Carriles as a terrorist with what we have given them," Interior Ministry investigator Lt. Col Roberto Hernandez said. Hernandez said indicting Posada Carriles for acts of violence would put an end to the impunity exiled groups have enjoyed for decades in launching attacks, such as strafing Cuban hotels with machine guns from passing speed boats. "Putting Posada Carriles on trial would restore the US government's authority and put a bunch of terrorists in Miami out of business," he said at the trial. (Reuters, AP, 14/5/07)  

May 15: Cuban law students concluded a two-day mock trial by convicting anti-communist militant Luis Posada Carriles and the United States of decades of terrorism against the government of Fidel Castro. Delivered at a courtroom set up outside the US mission in Havana, the verdict was a foregone conclusion. No sentence was issued.  The Communist Party's youth wing organized the event, hoping to pressure the United States to bring more serious charges against the 79-year-old, who has spent a lifetime trying to undermine Castro. "This tribunal declares the accused, Luis Faustino Clemente Posada Carriles, and the government of the United States of America, guilty of all of the terrorist acts expressed herein," said the tribunal's black-robed president, Iala Rodriguez. To the side of the bench was an empty seat, presumably for Posada. (The Washington Post, 16/5/07)

May 15: The Cuban father of a four-year-old girl at the center of an international custody dispute has quietly entered the United States in his fight to gain custody of the little girl.   Sharply dressed in khaki slacks and a tan button-down shirt, the girl's father sat quietly with attorneys at Miami's crowded juvenile courthouse before entering a three-hour hearing before Miami-Dade Circuit Judge Jeri B. Cohen. After the hearing -- the first attended by the Cuban national -- the father slipped out a back exit along with nearly a dozen attorneys and caseworkers. Portions of the courthouse were in virtual lockdown for the hearing. Cohen has closed all proceedings and forbidden all participants to discuss the case. Cohen has never said publicly why she closed the case, but sources with knowledge of the proceedings say the judge wants to avoid the kind of turmoil that surrounded the custody battle over Elián González, whose mother drowned at sea while bringing him to the United States. Elián was forcibly removed by federal agents from his relatives' Little Havana home in April 2000 and sent to his father in Cuba. (The Miami Herald, 16/5/07)

May 15: Relatives of five Cuban spies serving long US prison sentences said they were forming an international support group to press for their loved ones' release. US federal prosecutors failed to prove the men obtained any US secrets but were successful in arguing for sentences ranging from 10 years to life for Gerardo Hernandez, Rene Gonzalez, Ramon Labanino, Antonio Guerrero and Fernando Gonzalez. The men said they were gathering information that might prevent violent attacks on the island. All five were convicted of being unregistered foreign agents, and three also were found guilty of espionage conspiracy for failed efforts to obtain military secrets. Hernandez also was convicted of murder conspiracy in the deaths of four Miami-based pilots whose small planes were shot down on February 24, 1996, by a Cuban MiG in international waters off Cuba's northern coast. (The Miami Herald, 16/5/07)

May 17: Preparing for a day when US companies may trade freely with Cuba, a market research firm is planning to offer detailed data on island consumers to US businesses. Puerto Rico's Gaither International unveiled a deal for Horwath Consulting of the Dominican Republic to conduct consumer surveys in Cuba four times a year, starting June. Gaither will offer the research to US firms. "With this study, many US companies will be able for the first time to attain a basic understanding of the average Cuban family," Gaither executive Beatriz Castro said. Horwath will study a unique Caribbean neighbor that in the 1950s relied on the United States for most imports and served as a key test market for American products. (Sun Sentinel, 17/5/07)

May 17: Cuba asked the UN secretary general to circulate a protest against the release of international terrorist Luis Posada Carriles in the United States, as an official document of the General Assembly and the Security Council. Cuban Ambassador Rodrigo Malmierca said in a letter to UN Secretary General Ban Ki Moon that a US court dropped all charges against Posada and released him on May 8. Once again, Cuba holds the US government responsible for that decision, which is proof of Washington's double standard in its self-proclaimed "war against terrorism", the letter says. Malmierca added that by not considering this individual a terrorist, the US government is violating international covenants and treaties, in addition to breaking its own laws. (Prensa Latina, 17/5/07)

May 17: Treasury Department officials have dropped the threat of a $34,000 fine against the Alliance of Baptists, according to a letter the group's attorney received May 17. The department's Office of Foreign Assets Control, or OFAC, threatened the fine for alleged violations of the federal government's economic embargo against Cuba. The department alleged that five Alliance churches that sent mission teams to Cuba under the organization's travel license had engaged in forbidden economic activities. The letter said OFAC officials withdrew their recommendation to impose the fine. According to Stan Hastey, the Alliance's minister of ecumenical relations and mission partnerships, Treasury officials found that none of the five churches engaged in forbidden activity under the terms of the license. However, the letter also contained a warning on future travel. (ABP, 17/5/07)

May 18: Thousands of US companies -- hoping for compensation from the Cuban government for property seized after the 1959 revolution -- may as well forget the Cuban money once held at JP Morgan Chase bank in New York. Cuban funds, as much as $268 million at one point, sat in US bank accounts since 1963, when the Kennedy administration froze all Cuban assets in the United States. But now almost all of that money is gone, paid out to a handful of citizens who sued the Cuban government in Miami courts in wrongful-death cases. Awards from the frozen accounts have gone to the families of Brothers to the Rescue pilots shot down by Cuban MiGs, to the spurned wife of a Cuban spy and to relatives of Americans executed shortly after the revolution.  This means there is virtually no money at banks such as JP Morgan Chase for the long list of other parties who seek compensation from Cuba, including nearly 6,000 American companies and individuals who have certified claims for seized property and Cuban-Americans who also seek payments for former homes, farms and businesses. If and when Cuba and the United States get closer to normalizing relations, the issue could be a major stumbling block. Havana has denounced the payouts as theft, and at least one U.S. corporation has fought the payouts in court. During the 1960s, the Foreign Claims Settlement Commission certified 5,911 claims of American citizens and companies worth $1.85 billion. Now those claims are valued at more than $7 billion after 47 years at 6 percent interest. (The Miami Herald, 18/5/07)

May 18: Some Fortune 100 companies are paying the University of Miami $100,000 for help developing business plans for Cuba. A Cuba expert at a Miami law firm says his phone rings daily with potential clients interested in the island nation. There have been many false starts about doing business in Cuba, but these days, "everyone is poised, positioned and ready," said Jerry Haar, an international business professor at Florida International University. "There are a lot of US companies that are salivating to do business in Cuba." The revitalized interest comes as Fidel Castro's health wavers, his brother is perceived as more open to change and Congress considers further easing the trade embargo. Jorge Piñon, director of the University of Miami's Cuba Business Roundtable program, a year-old consulting and research service, said he is already helping more than 20 Fortune 100 clients plan to access a post-embargo Cuba. Piñon would not name the clients - trade with Cuba is a touchy subject, especially in Miami - but said they represent some of the biggest names in the cruise, construction and logistics industries. (South Florida Business Journal, 18/5/07)

May 19: Some 300 former students at the prestigious Ruston Academy in Havana, the children of Cuba's pre-Castro elite and those of American diplomats and businessmen, gathered for an emotional reunion. The final batch of students whose bilingual education at the prep school ended abruptly nearly 50 years ago with Fidel Castro's arrival, are scattered across the country. The prep school was an oasis for American kids who lived in Cuba before Castro’s revolution. They were there because their parents were diplomats, industrialists or representatives for US companies. A book was just published about the school and the report on the status of the Ruston-Baker Educational Institution, a foundation collecting seed money to one day reopen the beloved school in a Cuba without communism. That had long been the dream of the school's late headmaster, James D. Baker, and now his son and former students want to help make it a reality. ''Running Ruston was the highlight of my father's life -- the pinnacle of his teaching career. He always hoped to go back,'' said Chris Baker, 66, one of Baker's two sons who traveled from Maryland to attend the reunion at the Grand Bay Hotel. Now, with Cuba in political limbo, Ruston devotees want to be prepared -- just in case, he said. (The Miami Herald, 19/5/07)

May 20: US President George W. Bush offered greetings on the 105th anniversary of Cuba 's independence -- a date not recognized by the Cuban government.  "I send greetings to all those celebrating the 105th anniversary of Cuba's Independence," Bush said in a statement marking the day in 1902 when the United States yielded most control over the Caribbean island, which it had won in the 1898 Spanish-American War. "The longing for justice, freedom and human rights is a desire that can be delayed but never denied. The United States remains committed to extending the full blessings of liberty around the world, and on this important milestone, we stand united with freedom-loving people of all nations in the conviction that Cuba 's future must be one of dignity, liberty, and opportunity”. "This day is also an opportunity to recognize the generations of Cuban-Americans who have made contributions to our society. Your hard work and high ideals reflect the best of America and enrich our nation." Cuba's communist government does not celebrate May 20 as its National Day, instead choosing January 1, 1959, when Castro and his forces stormed Havana, toppling US-backed dictator Fulgencio Batista and initiating their revolution. (AFP, 20/5/07)  

May 21: Abdiel Ramos tried to leave Cuba for the United States six times in the past six months. The 24-year-old from Havana finally succeeded. He was among the 26 Cuban migrants who walked up to the tollbooth at the western end of the Rickenbacker Causeway around 1:30 a.m. "That trip was terrible," Ramos said. "But I feel really good right now." The group of 10 men, 10 women and six children was the latest in a wave of Cuban migrants -- 663 this year -- who have come ashore in South Florida. The total for 2006 was 1,426. This was also the third time in three weeks that Cuban migrants landed near the Rickenbacker Causeway. After being released later by the US Border Patrol, Ramos said conditions in Cuba made him keep trying. "Everyone knows things are bad since Fidel [Castro] got sick," he said. "There is no food and people are being carted off to prison." (The Miami Herald, 22/5/07) 

May 22: In an interview with the press, Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Rodham Clinton said she doesn't want to see immediate changes in the US embargo against Cuba and travel restrictions to the communist country, but she added that there may be need for change in the next presidency if Fidel Castro is no longer in power. She said she wants commitments to human rights and more openness in return for changes in US policy. (AP, 22/5/07)

May 22: Despite the US Trading With the Enemy Act, which governs Washington's 45-year-old embargo, sales on Fidel Castro's island are lining the pockets of corporate America. Nikes, Colgate and Marlboros, Gillette Series shaving cream and Jordache jeans -- all are easy to find. Cubans who wear contact lenses can buy Bausch & Lomb. Parents can surprise the kids with a Mickey Mouse fire truck. Dozens of American brands are on sale in Cuba -- and not in some black-market back alley. They're in the lobbies of gleaming government-run hotels and in crowded supermarkets and pharmacies that answer to the communist government. The companies say they have no direct knowledge of sales in Cuba, and that the amounts involved are small and would be impractical to stop. But it's hard to deny that a portion of the transactions wind up back in the United States. Christopher Padilla, US Assistant Secretary of Commerce for Export Administration, said from Washington that Cuba even sends delegations on "buying missions," hunting for specific American products in third countries for resale back home. Cuban press authorities did not make relevant officials available to discuss the practice. (AP, 22/5/07)

May 22: Another Alabama trade mission is scheduled to arrive in Cuba with several legislators planning to accompany officials from the state Department of Agriculture and Industries. Department spokeswoman Christy Rhodes Kirk said the state-funded delegation will assist Alabama companies in negotiations for the sale of a variety of products, including poultry, lumber, utility poles, cotton, peanuts, fish and snack foods.   Agriculture Commissioner Ron Sparks has led some trade missions in the past, but Kirk said this one will be led by the department's director of international trade, John Key. (AP, 22/5/07)  

May 22: North Dakota wants to ship potatoes to Cuba, and was looking for ways to get the highly perishable vegetable to the island without spoiling. Representatives from two potato producing companies, as well as state experts on plant diseases and varieties of potatoes were meeting with top representatives from Alimport, Cuba's food import company. "If we can begin sales of North Dakota potatoes and do it in a way that gets them down here in good shape, that would be a very successful trade mission because we've been talking about it for five years and so far it hasn't happened," said Roger Johnson, the state's agriculture commissioner. Johnson, making his sixth trip to Cuba, said North Dakota has sold about $30 million worth of products to the communist country since 2001, mostly peas, as well as garbanzo and lentil beans. He is heading an 18-member delegation that includes producers of those products, as well as the potato experts and wheat and dry bean suppliers. (AP, 22/5/07)

May 22: Cuba and Venezuela clashed with the United States in the U.N. Security Council over the release this month by a US judge of an anti-Castro militant wanted for bomb attacks against Cuba. Cuban charge d'affaires Ileana Nunez Mordoche accused Washington of a bid to conceal details of Luis Posada Carriles' CIA past by permitting his May 8 release after the judge in El Paso, Texas, dismissed immigration fraud charges against him. Nunez Mordoche accused the United States of double standards on terrorism. ``It is impossible to eliminate terrorism if some terrorist acts are condemned while others are silenced, tolerated or justified,'' she said. She urged the Security Council to ``take all the necessary steps'' but did not elaborate. U.S. Ambassador Zalmay Khalilzad replied that the decision to free Posada Carriles had been made by an independent judiciary. ``The United States is currently reviewing that decision and its options for challenging it,'' he said. He said the immigration judge who originally considered Posada Carriles's case had barred his deportation to Cuba or Venezuela. But he said Washington would be prepared to send him to another country with terrorism-related charges against him. (Reuters, 22/5/07)

May 22: Communist Cuba expects to sign contracts for as much as $150 million in American agricultural goods next week at the largest gathering of US farm producers in Cuba since Fidel Castro fell ill last summer. Pedro Alvarez, chairman of the island's food import company Alimport, said that talks beginning on May 28 should produce enough deals to ensure Cuba buys as much US goods in 2007 as it did last year. About 100 American farm groups and companies from 22 U.S. states are participating. In 2006, Cuba spent $570 million for US food and agricultural products, including shipping and banking costs, Alvarez said in an interview with the press. So far this year, his government has spent $225 million to purchase and import American goods. ''We are hoping that by the end of the coming week, we will have between $100 million and $150 million in new contracts,'' Alvarez said, adding he expects as many as 250 Americans at the talks that will wind up with contract signings on May 30. (The Miami Herald, 23/5/07)

May 23: The Texas subsidiary of a Scottish oil company that had business in Cuba has paid a fine of $164,006 for violating the US embargo on the island, the US Treasury department has announced. A Treasury announcement said PSL Energy Services (PSLES), an international firm that provides technology and services for the oil industry, paid the fine after acknowledging that it had violated US restrictions on commerce with the island between April and September of 2004. Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) said PSLES voluntarily revealed that it had violated the US embargo ``by engaging in the unlicensed exportation and re-exportation of oil field servicing equipment and related skilled services to Cuba.'' Treasury spokeswoman Molly Millerwise, who handles OFAC issues, declined to comment further on the case. (The Miami Herald, 23/5/07) 

May 24: A federal judge said he needs more facts before deciding whether US courts have jurisdiction over a lawsuit from three Cuban men, who say Havana 's communist government forced them into virtual slavery to pay off a debt to a Curacao shipbuilding company. Among the key issues, said Senior US District Judge James Lawrence King, is whether the arrangement was intended to circumvent the US economic embargo by allowing Cuba to profit from work done in Curacao on American cruise and merchant vessels. "That is one of the primary problems I'm having," King told attorneys at a hearing. "I believe that I'd be more comfortable if the record were developed more fully." The three Cuban men, who all now live in Florida -- Alberto Justo Rodriguez, Fernando Alonso Hernandez and Luis Alberto Casanova -- claim they were among hundreds of men forced by Cuba to work at Curacao Drydock and threatened with prison or worse if they refused.  They say they worked 112-hour weeks at hard labor, were watched by armed Cuban guards and were forced to watch videotapes of long speeches by Fidel Castro. The arrangement -- a conspiracy, according to lawyers for the men -- was Cuba's way of paying off a debt for a drydock installation the company had built some years earlier near Havana. The Cuban Interests Section, which represents the Castro government in Washington, did not return a telephone call seeking comment. (AP, 24/5/07) 

May 25: Fidel Castro lashed out at President Bush, hours after the American leader approved legislation paying for military operations in Iraq without setting a timetable for troop withdrawal. In his latest comments as he convalesces from intestinal surgery, the 80-year-old Cuban leader accused Bush of waging a war that was causing conditions in the region to deteriorate. "Just yesterday, Bush bragged about having won the battle over his adversaries in Congress," he wrote in a four-page statement released to the media. "He has $100 billion, all the money he needs to duplicate, however he wishes, the sending of American troops to Iraq and continue the slaughter." In signing the measure, Bush said it would provide a roadmap to help the Iraqis secure their country and strengthen their young democracy. [Bush Expects Everything to Be Solved with a Bang] (AP, 26/5/07)

May 27: A non-official meeting on the prevention of hurricanes was carried out in Monterrey, the Mexican state of Nuevo Leon, with the participation of experts from Cuba and the United States. The informal forum, which ran until May 25, was promoted by Wayne S. Smith, former chief of Washington’s Interest Section in Cuba, and host Victor Lopez Villafane, director of the Monterrey Technological Institute. The Cuban delegation was led by Dagoberto Rodriguez, chief of Cuba’s Interest Section in Washington, along with meteorologist Jose Rubiera and two physicians of the Henry Reeve Medical Brigade, who worked in Indonesia and Pakistan. Meanwhile, the United States representation was made up of experts from the states of Alabama, Louisiana and Mississippi, as well as other members of non-governmental entities of the neighbour country. (Prensa Latina, 27/5/07)

May 27: Once-secret CIA and FBI documents make a compelling case that Cuban exile militant Luis Posada Carriles knew of a plot to bomb a Cuban airliner more than three decades ago -- but not the one that Cuba and Venezuela blame Posada for orchestrating.   One document shows the former CIA operative referring to a plan to bomb a Cuban plane leaving Panama in June 1976. But that was unrelated to the Cubana plane that was attacked off Barbados about three months later -- killing 73 people. None of the declassified documents says Posada ordered the bombing of any Cuban plane. A confidential source, however, ''all but admitted'' to the FBI that Posada and fellow exile militant Orlando Bosch ''had engineered the bombing of the airline'' in October 1976. In another document, Posada was overheard saying: “We are going to hit a Cuban airplane.''  Posada's lawyer said his client had no involvement in the jetliner bombing. He declined to let Posada be interviewed. (The Miami Herald, 27/5/07)  

May 28: Cigar Aficionado, the glossy magazine for lovers of expensive cigars, criticized the US Treasury Department for continuing to spend federal funds chasing people for buying Cuban cigars. "Stop wasting our time and money chasing cigar smokers," the magazine said in an editorial in its June issue, which is dedicated to Cuba as it approaches the post-Castro era. The premium cigars hand-rolled in Cuba are considered the world's finest, but they are banned in the United States under a trade embargo adopted in 1962 to undermine Cuban leader Fidel Castro's communist government. New York-based Cigar Aficionado said American agribusiness companies sell millions of dollars a year in food to Cuba, while momentum is growing to allow US oil companies to get involved in oil exploration in Cuba's Gulf of Mexico waters. "Yet if you buy a Cuban cigar, you may end up in jail," it said. "Something is wrong with our government priorities here." (Reuters, 28/5/07)

May 28: Five US lawmakers, including a Georgia congressman, made an unannounced visit to Cuba, appearing at an agricultural trade fair during which the communist island hopes to sign contracts for as much as $150 million in American goods. Representative Rosa DeLauro (Democrat-Connecticut), is heading the delegation, which plans to meet with at least one top Cuban official before returning to the United States, said Sarah Stephens, director of the Washington-based Center for Democracy in the Americas, which opposes the US embargo toward Cuba and helped organize the trip. Also in Cuba were Democratic Repreentatives Marion Berry of Arkansas and Bob Etheridge of North Carolina, as well as Representative Rodney Alexander (Republican-Louisiana), and Representative Jack Kingston, a Republican from Georgia. All were making their first trips to the island, except Berry who visited Cuba in 2000. DeLauro, Berry and Etheridge have all supported legislation to ease US trade restrictions toward Cuba in the past, while Kingston has supported the embargo. The lawmakers said agriculture trade opportunities were a key reason to make the trip. “We are a diverse group geographically and in our politics toward Cuba," DeLauro said. "But we view this as an opportunity to learn, to create dialogue about issues of mutual concern." (The Miami Herald, 28/5/07)

May 28: With a catfish fry for Cuban officials and pleas to US President George W. Bush to ease sanctions, dozens of American businessmen began negotiating new sales of agricultural products to communist Cuba. "I challenge Mr. Bush to tear down this embargo," said Mississippi cotton farmer John Newcomb, borrowing Ronald Reagan's famous 1987 line to Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev at the Berlin Wall. Executives of 114 companies from 25 states, backed by five members of the US Congress, are looking to increase sales of rice, wheat, corn, soy products, peas, lentils, chicken, pork, supermarket goods, newsprint, wooden poles and lumber. The opening session of the largest gathering in Cuba of US food suppliers since convalescing Fidel Castro fell ill last summer, was attended by the five congressional members. "We in Mississippi are absolutely committed to ending the political barriers that separate our countries," said William Hawks, a Mississippi farm executive and former undersecretary in the U.S. agricultural department. "It is time that we move forward." "The trade embargo has not only hurt the Cuban people but it has hurt the American farmer," said John Newcomb, an Arkansas farm executive. "I want to challenge Mr. Bush to tear down this embargo now: Open trade and travel between our two countries." Still, Pedro Alvarez, chairman of the island's food import company Alimport, said the three-day meetings should generate enough deals to ensure that Cuba buys as much US goods in 2007 as it did last year. He said more than 200 agribusiness executives, food exporters and farm groups from 28 US states were attending the talks. (Reuters, Sun Sentinel, 29/5/07)

May 28: Fidel Castro said in a statement published on May 29 in Granma newspaper that President Bush is waiting for him to die but that the American leader cannot kill his ideas. The latest in a series of essays by the 80-year-old Castro was published on the front page of the Communist Party daily. The Cuban leader said that Bush, asked recently about his Cuba policy, replied: "I'm a hard-line president and I'm only waiting for Castro to die." "I'm not the first, nor will I be the last, who Bush has ordered to be deprived of life," said Castro, who offered no details of the alleged conversation. American law now prohibits the US government from ordering the assassination of foreign leaders, but declassified US documents show that the CIA made numerous attempts to kill Castro in the early years after the 1959 Cuban revolution. "Ideas are not killed," Castro wrote. [Ideas Cannot Be Killed] (AP, 29/5/07)

May 29: US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice criticized Spain for its dealings with Cuba and said she would press Spanish officials on the issue in Madrid. After several years of tense relations with Spain, Rice is set to make her first visit as the top US diplomat to Madrid. She will meet King Juan Carlos, Prime Minister Jose Luis Zapatero and Foreign Minister Miguel Angel Moratinos. "On Cuba, I am not sure that we see eye to eye," Rice told reporters traveling with her to Germany where she is meeting Group of Eight ministers. Rice said a country like Spain that had overcome its own "authoritarian past" -- a reference to Spanish dictator Francisco Franco -- knew of the need for democracy in a nation such as Cuba. "I don't see how that course (of democracy) is advanced by simply dealing with the current regime, a regime that seems to be setting itself up for a non-democratic succession when the transition takes place in Cuba and doing that at the expense of contacts with the very nascent and fragile democratic opposition that is beginning to arise in Cuba," she said. "The Cubans deserve better and I think we will talk about that," Rice said. (Reuters, 29/5/07)

May 29: Convalescing Fidel Castro lambasted President Bush for opposing the European Union's goal for an agreement on carbon emissions at the Group of Eight summit. In the latest in what are becoming almost daily opinion pieces called "Reflections of the Commander in Chief," Castro said Bush would be wise to listen to his ally, outgoing British Prime Minister Tony Blair, who has made global warming a primary focus of his last weeks in office. The ailing 80-year-old Cuban leader also criticized both Britain and the United States for heavy military expenditures. "Perhaps someone with one of the new computer programs by Bill Gates could figure out how much the war expenditures have deprived humanity of education, health and culture," the essay read. "George should say what he really thinks at the G-8 meeting, including the subject of the dangers threatening peace and food for human beings," Castro added. "Someone should ask him. And he should not try to escape from the counsel of his friend Blair." [The G-8 Meeting](AP, Granma, 30/5/07)

May 29: The US Congress should take a hard look at US policy toward Cuba and debate whether Washington's 45-year-old embargo is working, visiting US lawmakers said.  Headed by Representative Rosa DeLauro (Democrat-Connecticut), the five-member bipartisan delegation is spending five days in Cuba to discuss farm trade and catch a glimpse of life on the communist-run island. The group attended a US-Cuba trade fair, speaking with US business leaders and Cuban trade officials before meeting with Cuban parliament speaker Ricardo Alarcon and representatives from the island's Roman Catholic Church. "It's bipartisan but it's also with different histories with regard to lifting the embargo and travel restrictions," DeLauro, who favors easing US sanctions, said of the group. "So it's the conversations, it's the dialogue, it's the understanding from both perspectives what the future could be. And I think that helps us to move forward on legislation in the Congress." (AP, 29/5/07)  
 
May 30: A little-noticed passage in two State Department reports says Havana has stated that it will no longer provide safe haven to US fugitives who enter Cuba -- a promise the Castro government has met twice since September. The promise and deportations amount to a rare sign of cooperation by Havana. A brief passage in the State Department's voluminous 2005 and 2006 Country Reports on Terrorism -- the 2006 report was released April 30 -- that went largely unnoticed until now said Cuba ``has stated that it will no longer provide safe haven to new US fugitives who may enter Cuba.'' State Department spokesmen declined comment on who made the promise, when or whether it involved any US counter-promise. Some 70 US fugitives are believed to be living in Cuba, including Joanne Chesimard, convicted in the 1973 murder of a New Jersey state trooper. Cuba has refused to return them, generally arguing that the US charges against them are ''political.'' The refusals were among the reasons the State Department used for including Cuba in its list of nations that support international terrorism. [2006 Country Report on Terrorism: Cuba] (The Miami Herald, 29/5/07)

May 30: Former Congressman Bill Hendon’s compelling new book about American POWs in Southeast Asia stirs up memories of an earlier controversy – charges that American prisoners in Vietnam were tortured by Cuban agents. In "An Enormous Crime – The Definitive Account of American POWs Abandoned in Southeast Asia," Hendon and co-author Elizabeth Stewart disclose that Fidel Castro was a key adviser to the North Vietnamese government during the Vietnam War. They report that Castro gave Hanoi a strategy for capturing GIs and then trading them for postwar reconstruction aid from the US, just as Cuba had done with the Bay of Pigs prisoners. But another Cuba-Vietnam connection came to light in late 1999 with the revelations about the torture of POWs.  US Air Force Colonel Edward Hubbard, a former POW, said he had received brutal treatment at the hands of a Cuban advisor the prisoners nicknamed "Fidel.” Hubbard claimed that "Fidel” was actually Fernando Vecino Alegret, Cuba’s Education Minister.  After reports of the Cuban torture program first surfaced, Fidel Castro dismissed the claims on state television, saying Alegret had never even set foot in Vietnam. (NewsMax, 30/5/07)

May 30: Cuba’s food import company signed a deal to buy about USD 118m in American food products ranging from pork and corn to soybeans. "The sales this week went beyond all of our expectations," said Jim Sumner of the US Poultry and Egg Export Council, one of more than 200 Americans from 25 states who visited Havana for talks with the Cuban officials. "When the embargo is lifted, which we hope will be very soon, these deals will be much greater." "The active and massive participation of the American business community makes us very happy," said Alvarez, chairman of the Cuban food import company Alimport, who organized the latest round of negotiations with US farm producers. US providers include the firm Bunge, of Florida, which will supply 30,000 metric tons of soybean flour and Pilgrims Pride, of Georgia, which will sell Cuba 4,200 tons of chicken meat. The island will also purchase 25,000 tons of corn from the Connecticut Corporation, whose president Louis Dreyfus called for an expansion of the bilateral trade exchange in the benefit of both nations. It is expected that Cuba's expenditure on food from US in 2007 would match the $570 million it spent on American food and agricultural products the previous year. Cuban Commerce Minister Raul de la Nuez said most of the food would be sold at heavily subsidized prices, on the government's food ration and at public schools and workplace dining rooms. "This will help feed our people," De la Nuez said. (AP, ACN, 31/5/07)

May 30: Relations between Cuba and the United States "are at their worst moment" and never before has the island confronted such an aggressive administration in Washington, the speaker of the Cuban parliament said. Ricardo Alarcon told Colombia's RCN television that US President George W. Bush's administration had dedicated itself clearly and explicitly "to destroying Cuba and taking control of it." Bush has established a government commission to aid the transition to a "free Cuba" and has tightened the 44-year-old economic embargo against Fidel Castro's regime, but Washington denies any bellicose intentions toward the communist-ruled island. "But besides that, (it is) resorting to the worst methods," added Alarcon, going on to mention the recent "unusual" release from custody of anti-Castro militant Luis Posada Carriles. Alarcon said that Posada escaped from a Venezuelan prison in 1985 and subsequently turned up on an air base in El Salvador, from where he helped funnel arms to US-backed Contra rebels fighting against the Sandinista government in Nicaragua.  "This man appears in the United States, and Venezuela (...) renewed its request to have Posada Carriles turned over," the Cuban legislative chief said, adding that Washington not only refused to hand him over to Caracas, but also refused to bring him to trial, despite the existence of international agreements regarding people accused of terrorist acts. (EFE, 30/5/07)

May 30: Matt Lauer and NBC's "Today" show will broadcast live from Cuba to report on the political and economic climate there. Although Lauer is a frequent round-the-world traveler for "Today," it took 18 months to arrange the visit to a country only 90 miles from the United States, said Jim Bell, the show's executive producer. Bell used his ability to speak Spanish in the negotiations. "It's always timely to go to Cuba," Bell said. "There's always news there. Being there is news in itself." Besides examining Cuba's political future, "Today" plans stories on the impact of the US embargo on both countries. (AP, 30/5/07)