Chronicle on Cuba - June 2007

Highlights

Domestic Affairs: Visibly recovered Fidel Castro offers a TV interview after receiving visiting Vietnamese Communist Party chief Nong Duc Manh. Dissidents and human rights activists denounce repression and harassment to dissidents by Cuban authorities and the bad conditions in which political prisoners are confined. Vilma Espin, wife of Cuba's acting president Raul Castro, dies in Havana. The Cuban Commission for Human Rights and National Reconciliation reports the death in police custody of dissident Manuel Acosta. The Ninth Ordinary Session of the Cuban Parliament focuses on major social and economic issues.

Economy: The state energy firms of Vietnam and Cuba sign contracts for oil exploration and drilling. Cuban vice-president Carlos Lage criticizes the progress of the housing program. Raul Castro presides over the ceremony at the startup of two electricity generators built under a joint agreement with Canadian Sherritt International Corp. Cuba and Iran meet in Havana under their 12th Inter Governmental Commission for Economic and Scientific Technical Collaboration. Several ministries report about their duties to the Cuban Parliament’s Commissions.

Exile Community: The International Labour Organization awards one of its two first annual Decent Work Research Prizes to Professor Carmelo Mesa-Lago. Emilio Ochoa, believed to be the last remaining signer of Cuba's 1940 constitution, dies in Miami.

Foreign Affairs: Fidel Castro receives the visit of the presidents of Venezuela, Bolivia and Nicaragua. Raul Castro meets in Havana with Ali Reza Tahmasbi, the Iranian minister of Industry and Mines. European Union foreign ministers offer to "open a political dialogue" with the communist island. UN Human Rights Council decides to end permanent investigations of Cuba. Canada issues an official statement showing its disappointment on the decision of the UN Human Rights Council. Cuba rejects the EU decision to open a dialogue with the island.

Security: President Hugo Chavez calls for the creation of a common defense pact between Venezuela, Cuba, Nicaragua and Bolivia.

Terrorism: Rodrigo Granda, known as the “foreign minister” of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) travels to Havana after been liberated by Colombian authorities.