Chronicle on Cuba - July 2007

US-Cuba Relations

July 1: Fidel Castro said that the US government continues to be a "killing machine" after revelations that nearly 50 years ago it tried to use American mobsters to kill him with poison pills. "The empire has created a real killing machine made up not only of the CIA and its methods," the Cuban leader wrote in the latest of his nearly daily essays, published in the Communist Youth newspaper Juventud Rebelde. President Bush "has constructed powerful and expensive superstructures of intelligence (…) that lead to war, injustice, hunger and death everywhere on the planet," Castro wrote. CIA documents made public last week described the agency's recruitment of a former FBI agent in August 1960 to use mobsters and poison pills to kill Castro. Information about the plot was among hundreds of pages of CIA internal reports, known as "the family jewels." Fidel Castro’s essay is dated June 30. [The Killing Machine] (Reuters, AP, 2/7/07)

July 2: A convicted Cuban spy network leader admitted in a prison interview that he was an ''agent'' for Cuba's government, but that he infiltrated South Florida to defend his homeland against alleged attacks by Miami exile ``terrorists.'' Gerardo Hernandez, imprisoned for life in a federal penitentiary in California, said he was not guilty of conspiring with the Cuban air force to shoot down exile pilots over the Florida Straits in 1996 as part of his spy mission. ''Absolutely not,'' Hernandez, 40, said in an interview with the BBC World Service program “Newshour”. During the exclusive interview, Hernandez said the ''worst part'' of his imprisonment was not being able to see his wife of 19 years because the US government has rejected giving her a visa. Hernandez said he also spoke by phone two years ago with Fidel Castro, who said ''he was confident that justice will prevail'' in the spy case. Hernandez's attorney, Paul McKenna, said his client never denied at trial that he was working undercover for the Cuban government. ''The question has always been why were they here and what were they doing,'' he said. ``We were trying to show the jury that they were here for their country's national security and to identify people who were trying to harm Cuba.'' In the BBC interview, Hernandez said he came to South Florida to spy on exile ``terrorist groups.'' (The Miami Herald, 2/7/07)

July 2: One of 14 buses carrying "friendshipments" to Cuba is slated to depart from Seattle. The Friendshipment Caravan program — in its 18th year — will make more than 120 stops throughout the US and Canada collecting medical supplies and journals before the goods are flown to Havana from Tampico, Mexico. Many people don't understand the shortages the U.S. embargo on Cuba has created, said Mark Koenig, director of Providence Health International. Koenig's organization collects medical supplies in Lacey for distribution, and has done so for years. "What I experienced was very well-trained people very committed to helping people and not being able to get what they needed to do it," Koenig said. (Seattle Times, 2/7/07)

July 4: Cuba marked the 231st anniversary of the US's Independence Day, July 4th, with a jazz concert that was led by renowned trumpet player José Miguel Crego, El Greco, who was accompanied by other renowned jazz players at the Amadeo Roldán Theater in Havana. Laura Vilar, director of the Center for Research and Development of Cuban Music, noted that the US independence, declared by the Congress of Philadelphia in 1776, was being celebrated by both the people of Abraham Lincoln and also by the people of José Martí and Fidel Castro. Vilar also mentioned the ties that have existed for centuries between the Cuban and American cultures, particularly in the field of music and stressed that the concert was dedicated to the jazz players of New Orleans. (ACN, 4/7/07)

July 5: The closest the CIA came to killing Cuba's Fidel Castro was a 1963 attempt with a poison pill delivered by American mobsters that was to be slipped into a chocolate milkshake, a former Cuban intelligence chief said. But the capsule stuck to the freezer where it was hidden in the cafeteria of the Havana Libre (ex Hilton) Hotel and ripped open when the would-be assassin waiter went to get the poison. "That moment was the closest the CIA got to assassinating Fidel," retired state security general Fabian Escalante told the press in an interview. Escalante, who detailed the poison pill plot in his book "The Secret War" published in 2005, said the agency was trying to "purify" itself but continues its skulduggery today. While there is no evidence that the CIA has plotted to kill Castro since the Ford Administration banned assassination plots against foreign leaders in 1976, Escalante sees the hand of the CIA in more recent attempts by anti-Castro militants trained by the agency for the failed Bay of Pigs invasion of 1961. (Reuters, 5/7/07)

July 6: ING Groep NV, whose joint venture with Cuba was blacklisted by the United States last year, will close down its banking operations in Havana, a spokesman for the Dutch financial group said. ING, the first major Western bank to set up business in Communist Cuba in 1994, said the closure of its representative office was not due to political pressure from the United States. "It is a purely business decision (…) it comes as part of our assessment of the economic viability of our operations around the world," said spokesman Nanne Bos in Amsterdam. Business sources in Havana said the Dutch bank has lost business as Cuba increases its exports of nickel to China rather than European markets via Rotterdam. Last July, the US Treasury Department put the Netherlands Caribbean Bank, an ING joint venture with two Cuban state-owned financial entities chartered in Curacao, on a list of companies US companies and citizens cannot do business with. (Reuters, 6/7/07)

July 6: The Committee to Protect Journalists condemned the 15-month prison sentence given to independent Cuban journalist Armando Betancourt Reina on charges of public disorder. Betancourt Reina had been held without charge in a prison in the central city of Camagüey since May 2006. A Camagüey court sentenced Betancourt Reina, a reporter for the independent news agency Nueva Prensa Cubana, after a five-hour trial, according to press reports. Mercedes Boudet Silva, the journalist's wife, said her husband was returned to the Cerámica Roja Prison in Camagüey, where he has been held for more than 13 months. Boudet Silva said the time the journalist already served would count toward the sentence. Betancourt Reina was detained on May 23, 2006, while covering the eviction of poor families from their homes, members of his family told CPJ. (CPJ Press Release, 6/7/07)

July 8: The US Coast Guard reported it had repatriated more than 100 Cuban migrants to Bahia de Cabanas, Cuba, within seven days and transferred two suspected smugglers to US Customs and Border Protection. The two suspected smugglers, whose names were not disclosed, were apprehended when Coast Guard officials interdicted a go-fast boat about 35 miles south of Dry Tortugas. Thirty migrants were aboard the vessel, according to Coast Guard officials. Coast Guard officials said they apprehended several groups of migrants attempting to reach US shore. Among them were four migrants on a rustic vessel 50 miles south of Key West; eight from two rustic vessels 59 miles south of Key West and 40 miles south of Marathon; and 10 from two makeshift vessels 35 miles south of Marathon and 52 miles southwest of Key West. Eighteen other Cubans were picked up off a rustic vessel 65 miles south of Key West. Coast Guard crews intercepted 45 migrants in five separate cases. (The Miami Herald, 8/7/07)

July 9: Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said that the United States hopes that the "Cubans themselves" will decide their future and added that Washington will not tolerate the transition from one dictator to another in Havana. Rice made that statement during a press conference about Latin America with a small group of reporters. The secretary did not say what, if anything, Washington would do to stop the ailing Fidel Castro from passing on the mantle of leadership to younger brother Raul, who has been Cuba's acting president since the octogenarian Cuban leader underwent surgery last July. Rice said that Cubans "have the right to liberty" and that when the political transition takes place, Washington will support Cuba "as it holds free elections." (EFE, 9/7/07)  

July 10: California sports agent Gustavo "Gus" Dominguez was sentenced to five years in prison for smuggling Cuban baseball players to the US. The sentence was the mandatory minimum possible for Dominguez, 48, who was facing the possibility of more than 200 years in federal prison. A former pitcher at Cal State Northridge and co-founder of the Encino-based agency Total Sports International, Dominguez was found guilty in April of 21 felony counts of smuggling, conspiracy and harboring and transporting aliens for profit. (Sun Sentinel, 10/7/07)

July 10: The United States poked fun at Cuba's interim leader Raul Castro and termed the elections he had called for as a sham. Castro had scheduled the polls without making clear the role of his convalescing brother Fidel Castro. US State Department spokesman Tom Casey said based on past experiences, the elections would "not be giving the Cuban people the freedom they deserve. "If Castro-lite, meaning Raul Castro, wants to hold elections-lite, meaning the kind that they have held in the past -- single party elections that don't allow the people to have a choice and only allow them to ratify the rule of the current dictatorship -- whether its Fidel Castro's name that is on top of the ballot or Raul Castro's doesn't really matter much." Casey said that the United States wanted to see "free and fair" elections in which all Cubans participated and "anyone who wants to run for office and express their political opinion has an opportunity to do so." (AFP, 10/7/07) 

July 10: Repression is increasing in Cuba under the control of Raul Castro, and the domination of the government by his brother, Fidel, is nearing an end, Bush administration officials said. "In Cuba , this year will mark the end of the long domination of that country by Fidel Castro," Mike McConnell, the nation's new spy chief, told Congress. McConnell, who did not explain his remark, told the Senate Armed Services Committee that significant positive change immediately after Fidel Castro's death was unlikely. He said Raul Castro has had the opportunity to solidify his control in the seven months since his brother's incapacitating illness last July. (USA Today, 13/7/07)

July 10: The Bush administration official who oversees a White House effort to promote transition to democracy in Cuba said he has seen no indication that the Cuban government is getting ready to make any changes. "What has increased is repression," Caleb Charles McCarry said at a seminar at the American Enterprise Institute. Security forces have stepped up harassment of dissidents and have kept closer track of reporters since Fidel Castro transferred control of Cuba 's government to his brother after undergoing intestinal surgery, the US official said. McCarry said the White House Commission for Assistance for a Free Cuba does "what it can to hasten the day when they can enjoy freedom again." He spoke primarily of broadcasts to Cuba and expressions of support for human rights, and said only peaceful means are used by the United States. On the job since July 2005, McCarry dismissed any suggestion of U.S. dialogue with Cuba to prepare for transition to democracy. "The dialogue that needs to take place is between Cuban authorities and the Cuban people," he said. (USA Today, 13/7/07)

July 11: A burgeoning democratic partnership between the Americas and Africa must translate into better lives for people in those regions, says Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice. Speaking at the Organization of American States (OAS), Rice lamented the “great and tragic suffering” by too many people in the Americas and Africa who are excluded from opportunities for economic advancement and social justice. Such conditions, said Rice, are causing people in those regions to “wonder whether democracies really can deliver” on citizens’ “rightfully high hopes for a better life.” She pointed to Cuba, Zimbabwe and Burma as examples of nations where people still are being deprived of basic human rights. “We must support the great people of Cuba who still long for a future of freedom that their government denies to them”, Rice said. [Remarks at the OAS] (US Info, 11/7/07)

July 11: The US Department of Homeland Security's US Coast Guard, 7th District, reported that 70 Cuban migrants interdicted in three events were repatriated by the crew of the Coast Guard Cutter Drummond to Bahia de Cabanas, Cuba. (US Fed News, 11/7/07)

July 12: US Senator Byron Dorgan (Democrat-North Dakota) won Senate Appropriations Committee approval for provisions removing two road-blocks the Bush Administration put in place to block US farm product sales to Cuba. "This is a big victory for American farmers," Dorgan said. "It means US farmers will compete on an even field with farmers from other countries selling food to Cuba." American farmers have sold more than $2 billion in farm products to Cuba since food sales were authorized in 2000 by legislation Dorgan authored ending the US embargo against food and medicine sales to Cuba. North Dakota farm sales have totalled more than $20 million during that time.    Both figures are a fraction of what US farmers could have been sold without the Bush Administration impediments. (US Fed News, 12/7/07)

July 14: US authorities are tending to 30 Cuban immigrants who were found on shore on Little Gasparilla Island in Charlotte County. The Cubans -- 20 men, six women and four children -- were spotted by an area resident who was walking the beach looking for nesting turtles. That person called the Charlotte County Sheriff’s Office, which alerted the Coast Guard and state marine patrol officers. All of the boat’s occupants were reported “safe and sound,” officials said. The Cubans were taken to Homestead to be processed by federal officials. The refugees told authorities that they came from Cuba in a raft. But no raft has been found, and authorities say it is unlikely the ocean currents would carry them to Little Gasparilla Island. (Herald Tribune, 14/7/07)

July 14: Fidel Castro suggested that Washington has deliberately failed to stop terrorist attacks against Americans because it needed "to deliver a bang" that would justify its war on terror. In the latest in a series of essays Castro, 80, has begun writing every few days, he seized on Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff's comments expressing a "gut feeling" that the United States faces an increased risk of attack this summer. "The government of the United States sees and hears all, with or without legal authority," Castro wrote. "They can prevent any attack on their people, unless there is some imperial need to deliver a bang so that they can carry on with and justify the brutal war which has been declared against the culture, religion, economy and independence of other peoples."  The accusation was made at the end of an essay titled "Bush, Health and Education," published in the official daily “Juventud Rebelde” on July 15, in which Castro claimed Cubans are better cared for than Americans, and that his poor island nation and its legions of doctors working around Latin America have done more for the region than the United States ever will. [Bush, Health, and Education] (AP, 16/7/07)

July 15: The close to 150 members of the US Cuba Friendshipment Caravan arrived to McAllen, Texas and will attempt to cross the border into Mexico on July 17 with 90 tons of humanitarian aid destined for the Cuban people. “Caravanistas” from the United States, Canada, Mexico and several European nations make up the group. "Anything can happen on the border," said Reverend Lucius Walker, Executive Director of the Inter-Religious Foundation for Community Organization, IFCO. He denounced the recent detention of the medical aid for Cuba at the Maine-Canada border, although immigration officials allowed the donations to pass through Vancouver and Winnipeg. (Radio Habana Cuba, 17/7/07)

July 16: Michael Moore's new documentary film "SiCKO" has given Cuba's free health system its best publicity since Fidel Castro's 1959 revolution, a Cuban doctor who hosted the filmmaker's visit said. "Michael Moore spurred more interest in our health system than the 40-odd years we have spent providing health to our people," Dr. Jaime Davis, who provided free check-ups and treatment to Moore's group, told the press. Davis, a surgeon now working for the Health Ministry's international affairs office, said Moore's group left with "improved health," but gave no details. (Reuters, 17/7/07)

July 17: Members of the US Venceremos Brigade and the Puerto Rican Juan Rius Rivera Brigade in solidarity with Cuba visited a foster home in Havana and exchanged views about Cuban reality with adolescents. The 38th Contingent of the Venceremos Brigade and the 16th Juan Rius Rivera Brigade arrived in Cuba last July 13th and will stay in the island until July 31st. They are participating in voluntary works and visiting places of social, cultural and historic interest. (ACN, 17/7/07)

July 17: Cuba chided the US for issuing only about 10,700 visas to Cubans during the first nine months of the fiscal year, barely half of the 20,000 visas US authorities have promised to give those who want off the island every year. "It is evident a considerable delay exists," the Foreign Relations Ministry said in a statement published on the front page of the Communist Party newspaper Granma. "If this trend continues during the last three months of the annual period, the government of the United States would violate its fundamental obligation guaranteed by the Migration Accord of 1994." Under that agreement, Washington uses a lottery system to grant up to 20,000 Cubans each year permission to emigrate to America. But Cuba's government said that through June 30, only 10,724 Cubans had been granted visas - just 53.6% of the annual minimum. [Declaración del MINREX] (AP, 17/7/07)

July 17: The United States won't meet its commitment to provide at least 20,000 visas for Cubans to migrate from the island this year because the Havana government has put "unreasonable constraints" on its diplomatic mission there, the State Department said. The surprise admission that Washington would fail for the first time to meet a key obligation under a 1994 migration accord with Havana came after the Cuban Foreign Ministry accused the Bush administration of withholding immigration visas to try to destabilize the island. The accusation touches a raw nerve, as both sides often have traded allegations that the other uses migration for political ends. (McClatchy Newspapers, 18/7/07)

July 17: Fidel Castro accused the United States of siphoning off Cuba's best and brightest talents and accused Washington of "scientific apartheid" throughout the world. In an article appearing in Cuba's state-run press, on July 18, Castro said that America had skimmed off one in 20 Cuban professionals, including many of its highly-regarded doctors who he said are trained at great cost to the impoverished Communist state.  "Between 1959 and 2004, Cuba graduated 805,903 professionals, including doctors," Castro said. "The unjust policies of the United States has deprived our country of 5.16 percent of the professionals trained by the revolution," he wrote. Castro blasted Washington's "internalization of scientific investigation (...) creating a kind of 'scientific apartheid' for the great majority of humanity." [The Brain Drain] (Turkish Press, 18/7/07)

July 17: The US President sent a letter to the members of the House and Senate Committees on Foreign Relations, Foreign Affairs, and Appropriations suspending the application of Title III of the Helms Burton Law. “I hereby determine and report to the Congress that suspension for 6 months beyond August 1, 2007, of the right to bring an action under title III of the Act is necessary to the national interests of the United States and will expedite a transition to democracy in Cuba”, the letter said. (US Fed News, 17/7/07)

July 18: A top Cuban Foreign Ministry official rejected US charges that the island's government was to blame for Washington's inability to meet its annual 20,000-visa quota for Cubans seeking to leave the island. America's failure to meet the quota will likely encourage more illegal immigration to the United States, Josefina Vidal, director of the Foreign Ministry's North American Department, told the press. "The Foreign Ministry categorically rejects the affirmation by the US Interests Section that we are obstructing the work of that office," Vidal said in an interview. She dismissed complaints by the US Interests Section — the American mission in Havana — that Cuba had failed to authorize essential personnel and materials. Washington's failure to meet its annual quota of 20,000 visas by September 30 would be a "very grave violation" of migration accords between the two countries, she said. (AP, 19/7/07)

July 18: The 18th Cuba Solidarity Caravan crossed the border to Mexico under the harassment of US security officers and will be arriving at the port of Tampico, where they will embark to the island. In statements made to Prensa Latina, Ellen Bernstein, speaker of the religious organization Pastors for Peace, confirmed the US customs authorities confiscated a dozen computers, part of the humanitarian aid. "Goliath knows he is losing and has to take action in order to show he is doing something against David, who carries out the US blockade policy against Cuba," commented Bernstein by phone from the Mexican city of Reynosa. Before its arrival to the Mexican border, the group traveled through dozens of US cities and the south of Canada, where it collected donations and expressions of friendship with the Caribbean island. (Prensa Latina, 18/7/07)

July 18: A father who lives in Cuba, has been fighting to bring his daughter back to to the island. He has been in South Florida for some time to visit with his 4-year-old daughter. After a first hearing in the custody case, a local judge will decide whether the child will remain in the United States or be sent back to Cuba. The trial was under way at the Juvenile Justice Center in Miami. Several therapists testified about recent visits between the girl and her father. "Interaction continues to develop," Dr. Julio Vigil said. "She continues to have a degree of comfort with the parent." Other therapists testified that the process of reunification of the girl and her father was not going well. "It will take a huge number of people trying to help this process along, and the fact is that there seems to be no bond," Dr. Miguel Firpi said. The girl came from Cuba with her mother about two years ago. Courts in the US recently ruled the mother was not fit to care for her child.  Family friends have been caring for the girl and the father came to take her back to Cuba. (NBC8.Com, 18/7/07)

July 18: Imperial Tobacco chief executive Gareth Davis is already planning a charm offensive in Cuba to show that Altadis's 50pc stake in Habanos, the state-owned manufacturer of some of the world's most famous cigars, is in safe hands. He brushed aside fears that a change of ownership clause in the joint venture would be invoked, predicting a bright future for Imps in the spiritual home of smoking. We're very hopeful Habanos will go from strength to strength under our stewardship,'' Mr Davis said. Although the maker of Montecristo and Romeo y Julieta cigars was not Imperial's main target, the part-ownership of a clutch of famous brands, such as Cohiba, that the Altadis takeover brings is a prestigious bonus for the life-long smoker and a potential money-spinner if the huge American market was to open up after the death of Fidel Castro. The ultimate luxury product, cigars attract much wider margins than cigarettes. "These are iconic cigar brands,'' Mr Davis said. "Emerging, inspirational markets are growing at a cracking pace and these sorts of products are highly sought after. We can do really well with them.'' (The Daily Telegraph, 19/7/07)

July 18: The United States accused Cuba of imposing "multiple roadblocks" that it said were stifling its ability to issue exit visas for Cubans, in a new row between the staunch enemies. The US Interest section in Cuba was "prevented" from meeting its obligations under a bilateral accord by "multiple roadblocks" that had been "put in place by the Cuban government," department spokesman Sean McCormack told reporters. As a result, he said, the United States would not be able to meet the minimum 20,000 travel documents for Cubans this fiscal year. His comments came a day after Cuba accused Washington of flouting a carefully-crafted deal on exit visas, alleging this was an effort by the United States to destabilize the communist island nation. (AFP, 19/7/07)

July 19: Heightened scrutiny of banking transactions by the United States since the September 11 attacks has led European and Canadian banks to curtail dealings with Cuba, bankers and businesses say. The USA Patriot Act allows US authorities to confiscate assets and penalize institutions that fail to report money laundering and terrorist financing. The result -- perhaps intended -- is that Western businessmen in Havana are having nightmares moving funds in dollars to and from Cuba because banks are increasingly refusing their business. HSBC, Barclays, Credit Suisse, Royal Bank of Canada and the Bank of Nova Scotia, also known as Scotiabank, have closed accounts of Cuban companies or reduced business tied to Cuba since last year to comply with US regulations. The moves were confirmed either by the banks themselves, by Cuban officials, or by people doing business in Cuba. (Reuters, 19/7/07)

July 19: A US humanitarian group delivered about 80 metric tons (90 tons) of aid to Cuba, defying Washington's 45-year-old trade embargo. Some 140 Pastors for Peace volunteers drove across the Texas border to Mexico, and then flew to Havana with computers and medical supplies, including X-ray machines, walkers and surgical gowns. The group, making its 18th annual pilgrimage to Cuba, said it was held up at two US border crossings while returning from Canada with donations, but completed the journey with "99.5 percent" of the aid it hoped to bring, said the Reverend Luis Barrios, pastor of San Romero de Las Americas, a non-denominational church in New York City. (AP, 19/7/07)

July 20: America's trade with communist-run Cuba could double if US financing rules on direct agricultural sales to the island were lifted, the US International Trade Commission said in a report. "All agricultural commodity sectors would likely benefit from the lifting of the financing restriction," said the 180-page report released in Washington. The report was requested by the Senate Finance Committee, the ITC said, which is chaired by Senator Max Baucus (Democrat-Montana). Baucus has introduced legislation that would lift most of the financing restrictions on US agriculture exports and eliminate limits on travel. "Common sense tells us that barring agricultural producers from doing business with the largest market in the Caribbean is hurting American interests," Baucus said in a written statement. "It's clearly time for Congress to curb the overzealous trade embargo on Cuba." (AP, 20/7/07)

July 20: A total of 69 Cubans who attempted a crossing to the United States but were intercepted at sea were taken back to Cuba, the US Coast Guard announced in a news release. The Coast Guard cutter Knight Island picked up a group of 17 immigrants on July 14, 40 miles south of Key West. On July 16, the Coast Guard cutter Diligence interdicted a group of 22 immigrants 75 miles southwest of Key West. The 39 Cubans were traveling on rustic vessels when they were caught. On July 17, 30 Cuban immigrants were sent back, also to Bahia De Cabanas, Cuba. They were from a total of four groups that had been intercepted over the previous week. (Sun Sentinel, 20/7/07)

July 23: Cuban inspectors are flying to North Dakota to look at seed potato fields in the Red River Valley. North Dakota Agriculture Commissioner Roger Johnson, through a spokeswoman, confirmed the visit but said he could not provide details under conditions of the inspectors' visas. M. Marie Martin, a trade director with the federal Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service, did not immediately return a telephone call seeking comment. Duane Maatz, president of the Northern Plains Potato Growers Association, said the two Cuban inspectors were to arrive on July 24 and stay in the region until July 27, touring fields in eastern North Dakota and northwestern Minnesota and possibly an ethanol plant in the region. "I think it will be the start of building some relationships," he said. "The point of this trip is to look at the growing crop. They may very well return in October" during harvest. Cuba announced in May that it would send experts to North Dakota this summer as the communist island closes in on a deal to buy about 100 tons of seed potatoes. It would be the first time Cuba has bought US seed potatoes, Maatz said. (Forbes, 23/7/07)

July 23: The president of the Cuban Parliament, Ricardo Alarcón de Quesada, reiterated that the almost fifty-year-old US policy of commercial, financial and economic blockade against Cuba is genocidal. The Cuban official made the statement during a meeting held in Havana with US organizations in solidarity with Cuba. Present in the meeting were members of the 18th Pastors for Peace U.S.-Cuba Friendshipment Caravan, the 38th contingent of the Venceremos Brigade, the Cuba Solidarity Network and the Association of US-Cuba Sister Cities. Alarcón denounced the aggressive anti-Cuba policy of the administration of George W. Bush, which openly expresses its intentions to topple the Cuban government and subjugate the country. (ACN, 24/7/07)

July 23: Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama suggested that he would meet with two leaders who top South Florida 's most-hated list: Fidel Castro and Hugo Chavez. During a nationally televised debate, Obama responded to a hypothetical question: ``Would you be willing to meet separately, without precondition, during the first year of your administration, in Washington or anywhere else, with the leaders of Iran, Syria, Venezuela, Cuba and North Korea, in order to bridge the gap that divides our countries? The senator from Illinois responded: ``I would, and the reason is this: the notion that somehow not talking to countries is somehow punishing them, which has been the guiding diplomatic principle of this administration, is ridiculous.'' ``Ronald Reagan and Democratic presidents like JFK constantly spoke to the Soviet Union at a time when Ronald Reagan called them an evil empire, and the reason is because they understood that we may not trust them, that they may pose an extraordinary danger to this country, but we have the obligation to find areas where we can potentially move forward.'' He added: ``And I think it is a disgrace that we have not spoken to them.'' The Democratic frontrunner, Hillary Clinton, disagreed with her leading rival: ``I will not promise to meet with the leaders of these countries during my first year (…) I don't want to be used for propaganda purposes and don't want to make a situation even worse, but I certainly agree that we need to get back to diplomacy, which has been turned into a bad word by this administration.'' (The Miami Herald, 24/7/07)  

July 24: Eight Americans graduated from a Cuban medical school after six years of studies fully funded by Fidel Castro's government. They plan to return home, take board exams for licenses to practice and provide cheap health care in poor neighborhoods. “Cuba offered us full scholarships to study medicine here. In exchange, we commit ourselves to go back to our communities to provide health care to underserved people," said Carmen Landau, 30, of Oakland, California. The program is part of Castro's pet project to send thousands of Cuban doctors abroad to tend to the poor in developing countries, such as Venezuela and Bolivia, and train tens of thousand of medical students from developing countries in Cuba. Officials in Cuba's communist government relish the idea of training doctors for the United States, its arch-enemy since Castro took power in a leftist revolution in 1959. There are 88 Americans studying medicine in Cuba. The first to graduate two years ago was Cedric Edwards, who is now working at Montefiore Hospital in New York City's Bronx borough. (Reuters, 24/7/07)

July 25: Abel Gómez, a Cuban refugee showed up in June at a US-Mexico border crossing in Texas certain that immigration authorities would let him in, along with his wife and two children. As a Cuban refugee, Gómez, 30, was indeed paroled into the United States under the wet foot/dry foot policy. But his Venezuelan wife Ocdalis, 22, and their Venezuela-born children -- 2-year-old Abel and 6-year-old Winnelis -- were immediately put in deportation proceedings in Texas. Gomez is among the rising number of Cubans arriving via the Mexican border -- 84 percent of all Cuban migrants came through Mexico, according to figures released by Customs and Border Protection. Those numbers have been increasing year by year as a result of intensified Coast Guard interdictions in the Florida Straits. In fiscal year 2005, 8,994 Cuban migrants arrived in the United States -- but the majority, 7,267, came in through the Mexican border. In fiscal year 2006, arrivals reached 10,329, with 8,639 showing up at the border. The Gómez case illustrates the increasingly frequent detention of foreign families under tightened immigration rules post-9/11. Prior to the terrorist attacks in 2001, undocumented families were generally released pending resolution of their cases. (The Miami Herald, 25/7/07)

July 25: Representative Mark Udall (Democrat-Colorado) has introduced legislation that would let US oil and gas companies drill off the coast of Cuba. The bill, according to Udall's office, would "make an exception to all laws, executive orders and regulations that now prohibit exports to or imports from Cuba or transactions in property in which a Cuban national has an interest." Udall said oil companies from countries including China and Venezuela have expressed interest in offshore development deals with Cuba. "But our trade embargo continues to prevent American companies from seeking similar opportunities. This does not make sense, and the bill I am introducing today would change that," Udall said in a prepared statement. The bill would require US companies engaging in exploration and production agreements with Cuba to adhere to environmental standards that apply to the US outer continental shelf, according to Udall's office. (Rigzone.Com, 26/7/07)

July 26: Acting President Raul Castro asserted his leadership of Cuba with promises of economic improvement and an offer of talks with the United States when the Bush administration is gone. Raul Castro said it has been a difficult year since his brother fell ill because Cuba's enemies in the United States had banked on the collapse of its socialist system. The administration of US President George W. Bush stepped up an "implacable war" to undermine Cuba with trade and financial sanctions that include denying Cuban access to international financial services, he said. But he said Cuba remains stable and Cubans united behind the ruling Communist Party. "Cuba is a dangerous example in a poor continent. They have not succeeded in bringing us to our knees," he said. The Bush administration has rejected what it calls a "succession from one dictator to another" in Cuba. Raul Castro last year twice made overtures to the United States offering to negotiate an end to the decades-old political rift on an equal footing. He is now looking past the next US presidential elections. "The new administration will have to decide whether it maintains this absurd, illegal and failed policy against Cuba or accepts the olive branch we extended," he said. "If the next U.S. government puts arrogance aside and decides to talk in a civilized fashion, that is welcome. If not, we are prepared to continue facing their hostile policy for another 50 years," he said. (Reuters, 26/7/07)

July 26: US State Department Spokesman Sean McCormack responded coolly to Raul Castro’s invitation to a dialogue with Cuba. "The only real dialogue that's needed is with the Cuban people," McCormack said in Washington. "If the Cuban people were able to express their opinion on the question of whether or not they would like to freely choose their leaders, the answer would be yes”. “Unfortunately that's not a dialogue that is taking place in Cuba at the moment." (AP, 26/7/07)

July 26: A Maine woman is suing Cuban leader Fidel Castro over the capture and death of her father, a pilot believed to have vanished over Cuba four decades ago, the clerk's office at a Maine court said. The suit filed by Sherry Sullivan in May and sent to Cuba names Fidel Castro, his brother and acting president Raul Castro, along with the Republic of Cuba for the wrongful death of Geoffrey Francis Sullivan. In court papers filed in Maine's Waldo County Superior Court, Sullivan said her father had been involved "in various anti-Castro covert operations in Central America and Cuba" before disappearing while flying over Cuba in 1963. It said he "was shot down over Cuba in the course of a covert mission against the Castro regime and was and had been imprisoned by the Castro regime in Cuba." Geoffrey Sullivan has been declared dead by US authorities, according to the suit, which seeks unspecified damages. (New Zealand Herald, 26/7/07)

July 26: The preteen brother of a 4-year-old girl at the center of an international custody dispute is emerging as a key player in the drama, which has pitted the girl's birth father, a Cuban national, against Florida child-welfare administrators and the boy's adoptive family. Alan Mishael, the attorney for the Coral Gables family that adopted the 12-year-old boy and wishes to adopt his sister, announced at a court hearing that he will ask a judge to make the boy a party to the dispute. If that is approved by Miami-Dade Circuit Judge Jeri B. Cohen, the boy would be allowed to help in trying to sway the judge's ruling. Regardless of the judge's decision, the boy's plight already is casting a large shadow over the dispute, which involves children born to the same woman, but who have two different birth fathers. The battle began in December 2005, when the children's mother was hospitalized following a suicide attempt. Both children were taken into custody by the DCF, and the children's birth mother later came to court and announced she did not wish to regain custody. The boy's father agreed to allow the foster parents, prominent Cuban exiles living in Coral Gables, to raise him. But the girl's father, a fisherman and part-time office worker from Guayos, Cuba, insisted that she be returned to him -- setting in motion the emotional drama. (The Miami Herald, 27/7/07)

July 27: Ten months ago, the US government launched a new effort to beam TV broadcasts into Cuba via a Gulf Stream jet, an end-run around the communist government's close grip on the island's media. A US State Department draft report circulated in June called the jet "a best practice" to beat the Cubans' jamming efforts and said the $10 million startup cost was "a big investment but appears to be paying off," with viewership on the rise. But more than two dozen Cubans immigrants who recently arrived in Florida paint a very different picture. They said while the US government's Radio Marti is heard throughout the island, TV Marti can rarely be seen. The TV operation costs US taxpayers more than $20 million a year. "I saw it during a day with very good climatological conditions, but it still barely came through," said Efrain Ramos, 56, who arrived in Florida June 29 from Havana. Those outside of Havana couldn't see it at all. The station remains in sync with the views of Miami's most hardline, Cuban-American political leadership, and efforts by some members of Congress to put the 17-year-old station out of business have never gotten very far. (AP, 27/7/07)

July 27: The House rejected an initiative to ease restrictions on US agricultural exports to Cuba, virtually burying any chance that US policy toward the island could be relaxed by Congress this year. By a 245-182 margin, the House voted down an amendment presented by Representative Charles Rangel (Democrat-New York), that would have allowed Cuban officials to travel to the United States to inspect US export facilities and products and let Cubans make direct payments to US banks for any purchases. The initiative would have also allowed the Cubans to pay for the goods after they are shipped from a US port, rather than before as now required. Rangel's initiative was backed by a coalition of mostly Democratic opponents to US policies toward Cuba and farm-state Republicans, but opposed by Cuban-American lawmakers and others. Miami Republican Representative Ileana Ros-Lehtinen argued the initiative would provide Cuba, deemed by the State Department as a state sponsor of terrorism, direct access to US banks, and that Havana would use the visas for its inspectors to infiltrate spies into the United States. (The Miami Herald, 27/7/07)

July 27: Immigration authorities abruptly released the Venezuelan-born wife and children of a Cuban refugee who was paroled into the country on the same day his family was put in deportation proceedings at the Texas-Mexico border. An emotional Ocdalis Gómez, 22, and her children Abel, 2, and Winnelis, 6, immediately boarded a plane in Austin, Texas, bound for Miami, where they rejoined Abel Gómez, 30 -- the Cuban migrant who for weeks desperately tried to gain freedom for his family. ''I'm immensely happy,'' he said when he finally was able to speak, tears rolling down his cheeks. ``Thanks to God, I am now next to my family again.'' (The Miami Herald, 27/7/07)

July 28: Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney criticized Democrat Barack Obama for saying that he would meet with the leaders of Iran, Venezuela, Syria and Cuba, telling a crowd that the next president should meet with friendly nations first.  "Surely the next American president would want to reach out to our friends around the world, particular here in our own hemisphere," Romney said, specifically mentioning Colombia and Mexico. "And what's he going to do during his first year? He's going to meet with the world's worst tyrants," Romney said. "He's going to in his first year be meeting with (Fidel) Castro, (Venezuelan President Hugo) Chavez, (Iranian President Mahmoud) Ahmadinejad, (Syrian President Bashar) Assad. Think of that. Those are his priorities," Romney said. (The Miami Herald, 28/7/07)

July 28: American protesters walked across the border from Canada after a visit to Cuba that violated a US travel ban. About 60 members of pro-Cuba group Venceremos Brigade walked the Peace Bridge border crossing linking Canada and Buffalo, New York, on their return from Havana. US travelers to Cuba often fly through Canada, which has regular flights to the country. The protesters walked in groups of 15, hauling their luggage up a narrow sidewalk high above the Niagara River as trucks, buses and cars rumbled by on the three-lane span. US customs officials processed the first 15 members through in about 20 minutes, with minimal fuss. (Reuters, 28/7/07)  

July 29: Over the past several years, Florida ranchers - some from famous old families - have toured ranches on the communist island and saddled up with their cowboy-hatted counterparts. They also have shipped heifers and breeding bulls to those Cuban "friends" to help replenish the island's depleted cattle supply. They have even hosted Cuban officials on their Florida ranches to select the animals. These ranchers are among a growing number of US business owners who want to trade with Cuba. Some of them favor an out-and-out end to the 45-year economic embargo and travel restrictions against the island so they can form closer business ties with Cuban cowpokes. And they don't see the Cuban government as a barrier. "When we go to Cuba, we don't talk politics," says Jim Strickland, 52, owner of the 6,000-acre Strickland Ranch in Manatee County, who has been to the island at least eight times. "We're just vaqueros and ganaderos - cowboys and cattle ranchers - talking about our animals and our ranches with cattle people down there," he says. "We speak the same language. Cattlemen historically have always looked for new markets, and that's what we're doing." (Palm Beach Post, 29/7/07)

July 29: After a lull following Fidel Castro's illness last year, Cubans once again are taking to homemade boats or powerful speedboats manned by smugglers on a trip to the United States that often includes a detour through Mexico. Since May, the US Coast Guard has been intercepting more boat people in precarious craft crossing the Straits of Florida in the calm summer waters. The US Border Patrol also has been processing rising numbers turning up at the US frontier with Mexico. So far this fiscal year, 2,819 Cubans have made it ashore in Florida, compared with 3,076 in all of last year, said US Customs and Border Protection spokesman Zachary Mann. The number of Cubans intercepted in the Florida Straits are still below -- but likely to exceed -- last year's 2,810, according to the US Coast Guard. That was the highest number since the 1994 exodus when the Coast Guard picked up more than 35,000 people floating off Cuba in all kinds of rafts when Castro opened the doors briefly. To avoid interception by the US Coast Guard and forced repatriation to Cuba, most boat people are now leaving through the Gulf of Mexico on speedboats that ferry them to Mexico's Yucatan peninsula. Some also go south to the Cayman Islands, and on to Central America. From there, they make their way north on well-trodden migrant routes to the US-Mexico border. US officials say 89 percent of the Cubans emigrating illegally from Cuba to the United States are entering by land border rather than coming ashore from a boat. This fiscal year up to July 26, 9,296 Cubans have entered the United States via land entry ports, compared to 8,677 for all of fiscal 2006 and 7,281 the previous year, said Jennifer Connors, a Customs and Border Protection spokeswoman. (The New York Times, 29/7/07)

July 30: The US Commerce Department estimates Cuba will import $300 million to $350 million in goods from the USA this year. Alabama will provide about a third of that, at $100 million to $120 million in goods, according to the state's Department of Agriculture and Industries. That's consistent with recent history. Alabama businesses exported $100 million or more of goods to Cuba in each of the past three years, according to state figures. A 2005 Texas A&M study showed Arkansas leading the nation with exports to Cuba, with an estimated $167 million in trade a year. Alabama was second at $120 million, followed by California ($98 million), Iowa ($71 million) and Texas ($54 million). Many Alabama farmers would like to see that business expand further. Last year, 66% of the wheat imported by Cuba came from the USA. Other staples imported included: corn, 71%; rice, 77%; poultry, 65%; pork, 42%; soybeans, 100%; and animal feed, 76%, according to a July US International Trade Commission report. (USA Today, 30/7/07)

July 31: Fidel Castro said Cubans should be under no illusions about his ideological enemy, the United States, negotiating peace with Cuba, qualifying a recent overture made by his brother. "The struggle must be implacable, against our own deficiencies and against the insolent enemy that tries to take hold of Cuba," he wrote in a column published on August 1 by the Communist Party newspaper Granma. Castro said the "Empire" was obsessed with turning Cuba into a multi-party democracy. Acting President Raul Castro extended an olive branch to the United States, saying he was open to negotiations when the Bush administration is gone, to end a feud that began after Castro's leftist revolution. [The Eternal Flame] (Reuters, 1/8/07)