Chronicle on Cuba - August 2007

Domestic Affairs

August 1: The outlawed Cuban Commission on Human Rights and National Reconciliation said that three inmates were killed and another seriously injured at a maximum-security prison in the east-central province of Camagüey. "There are three prisoners dead and one seriously injured," Elizardo Sanchez, chairman of the commission, told the press in regard to the incident the previous weekend at the Kilo 8 penitentiary. According to Sanchez, three prisoners overpowered a guard and stole his keys in order to enter the cell of another inmate, whom they stabbed in an apparent "settling of scores." The guards later retaliated against the attackers, according to Sanchez, who said "they hit those involved in the fight with metal bars and other objects and killed two of them." "It was a very serious incident," he said, noting that "many cases of violence have occurred in the prisons." "Our concern is that the government is not assuming the responsibility incumbent upon it, because these people died in the government's custody," he said. (EFE, 2/8/07)

August 1: Elizardo Sanchez, president of the illegal Cuban Commission on Human Rights and National Reconciliation said that in the same provincial police station in which dissident Manuel Acosta was found dead on June 24 "last week another person committed suicide." Authorities informed Acosta's family members that his death is still under investigation after having previously informed them that he had committed suicide. After receiving notification of his death, one of Acosta's relatives sent a letter to acting President Raul Castro urging that "a thorough investigation" be carried out. (EFE, 2/8/07)

August 2: A new special education project will be implemented in Cuba in the next academic course, as part of the national program "Educate your Child," official sources reported. Eulalia Travieso, Master of Science in Education, said that children with special characteristics need a singular activity in the first years of life, to develop their potential. With that aim, she stated, the country has created a manual for experts, promoters and executers of the project, with theorical and methodological information and directions to detect cases. The program "Educate your Child," with several years of application in Cuba, is designed for the attention of communities on children from zero to six years old, without links to educational institutions. (Prensa Latina, 2/8/07)

August 2: The head of the Office for Religious Affairs of the Cuban Communist Party, Caridad Diego, met with a high-ranking official of the Supreme Council of the Masonic Lodge of Cuba. Diego brought up the upcoming elections in this Masonic body, scheduled for January 2008, and threatened to break all government relations with the Supreme Council if Gustavo Pardo Valdés were elected Grand Master. Diego referred to Pardo as an “enemy of the revolution”, who assists “counterrevolutionary” prisoners and maintains contacts with officials of the United States Interests Section. (Cubanet, 31/8/07)

August 3: Cuba is prepared for a process of “necessary transformation” without falling into chaos, either with Fidel Castro, or when he departs, according to Mariela Castro, daughter of Raúl Castro. During an interview with the media, Mariela Castro, psychologist and director of the National Center for Sexual Education (Cenesex), defended the need to encourage internal debate and to enrich the revolution for the future. “Cuban society is prepared for a process of necessary transformation to support the revolutionary process, with or without Fidel”. (EFE, 3/8/07)

August 6: Marta Beatriz Roque, president of the illegal Assembly for Civil Society in Cuba, demanded that authorities shutdown the maximum security prison of Kilo 8 in Camagüey province. The demand is based on the severe conditions and the cruel and inhumane treatment prisoners receive. The demand follows a similar request from political prisoners Juan Carlos Herrera Acosta and José Daniel Ferrer García, of the Group of 75, who are held in Kilo 8 prison. In the document—dated August 1—Roque recounts the events of July 29 when four inmates died in a brawl, which provoked a brutal response from prison guards. (Cubanet, 6/8/07)

August 6: The Catholic Church will increase its visits to Cuban prisons, the future archbishop of the central region of Cienfuegos told the press in an interview. Domingo Oropesa, a Spaniard, is the first foreigner appointed by the Vatican to a post in Cuba since the 1959 triumph of the revolution led by Fidel Castro. "The visiting by the Catholic Church to the jails is going to increase," the prelate said. Facilitating the Church's assistance to the prisoners and their families was one of the requests of the Latin American bishops council, or CELAM, to the island's authorities during the meeting the parties held in Havana in mid-July. "At the moment, it's only in the (east-central) province of Camaguey and the idea is that, when my tenure (as archbishop) begins - in mid-September - it will be taken on as part of the duties by the rest of the diocese to extend it to all of Cuba," Oropesa said. He said that the archdiocese of Camaguey, where Oropesa is still a parish priest, asked for volunteers among the priests and vicars to fulfill religious tasks in the prisons of that province. (EFE, 6/8/07)

August 6: Two events on dengue fever that started in Havana have attracted world experts to discuss the control and prevention of the disease. The two week-long events, the 10th International Forum on Dengue and the Seminar on Twenty Years of Fighting Dengue, have attracted doctors, virologists, sociologists and epidemiologists from several nations, sharing their experiences on dengue control and prevention. Cuba plans to present its results on the control of dengue and the people's role in the campaign against dengue. The two events are sponsored by the World Health Organization, the Pan-American Health Organization, and the Italy-based International Genetics and Biotechnology Engineering Center. (Xinhua, 6/8/07)

August 7: The National Workers’ Confederation of Cuba (CONIC) in the city of Santa Clara has been restructured and is ready to resume the work of free labour unions in the territory. The new provincial executive is composed of former prisoner of conscience Jorge Luis Artiles Montiel, Olga Lilia González, Sixto Gómez Pérez, Bárbara Jiménez Contreras and Alexis Oms Pérez. (Cubanet, 10/8/07)

August 7: Fidel Castro said that Cuba might not send boxers to next year's Beijing Olympics to prevent possible defections, vowing his country will not sacrifice its honor for gold medals. Castro wrote in a column published in official newspapers on August 8 that two Cuban boxers who disappeared during the Pan American Games in Brazil last month only to be arrested and sent back to the island "had reached the point of no return" with the national boxing team. Castro said Cuban officials were compiling the list of fighters for the 2008 Olympics, a squad that was scheduled to compete in the world championships in the United States and two other qualifying events before heading to China. "Just picture the mafia sharks lurking about in search of fresh meat," Castro wrote of promoters who could try to persuade Cuban fighters to desert. He said Cuban sports officials hoping to prevent defections are "analyzing all possible alternatives, including the option of changing the list of boxers or of not sending any delegation whatsoever, in spite of the penalties that may be in store for us." [A Written Record] (AP, 8/8/07)

August 8: One of the two Cuban boxers who disappeared during last month's Pan American Games in Brazil but were subsequently deported back to the Caribbean island told the press in Havana that neither he nor his colleague had any intention of defecting.   Guillermo Rigondeaux, in an interview conducted in the Havana apartment he shares with his wife and son, said that there had been no defection but rather a "discipline problem." According to his version, which has many gaps, the two boxers fled from the athletes' compound in Rio de Janeiro because they were overweight for their respective weight categories. They stayed for several days with a group of Cuban and German businessmen in a Brazilian beach-house but finally opted to return to Cuba. "We had no intention of defecting," said Rigondeaux, who admitted leaving the Pan American Village "without authorization." "We committed a big breach of discipline and we're ready to accept whatever," said the 26-year-old Olympic bantamweight champion, who said that he was questioned by members of the Communist Party Central Committee during his stay at a government guesthouse in Havana. There he was placed under "significant pressure," but "everybody's behavior (was) very good," he said.   Now, "we're waiting to see what happens," Rigondeaux said, adding that he was waiting for "higher authorities" to determine if he will be able to box again in Cuba. (EFE, 8/8/07)  

August 8: The Ministry of the Interior has intensified surveillance of beaches in the special municipality of Isla de la Juventud. At 6:00 p.m., at the beaches El Gallego, Punta Piedra, Paraíso and Bibijagua, police officers force swimmers out of the water and to leave the beaches. This measure is believed to be aimed at preventing human smuggling towards the United States through Mexico. (Cubanet, Miscelánea de Cuba, 8/8/07)

August 8: Outstanding Cuban intellectual Juan Emilio Friguls Ferrer, dean of the journalists of the island, died in Havana at the age of 88. Friguls, as everybody simply called him, was known as the teacher, the loyal colleague, the man of ethics, the extraordinary worker and the unyielding reporter. Friguls worked in the Public Relations Office of Havana’s Archbishop. Several years before the 1959 Revolution, he began his career in “Informacion”newspaper, but he also penned works in the conservative “Diario de la Marina” and the more liberal “El Mundo”. Friguls received all the honors a reporter could wish. In fact, he was the most awarded of all: National Vanguard since 1981, Jose Marti National Journalism Prize (1996), Jose A. Fernandez de Castro Cultural Journalism (1999), National Radio Prize (2003), the Replica of the Machete of Maximo Gomez, the Giraldilla of Havana, the Alejo Carpentier Order, the Distinction for National Culture, the Felix Elmuza Medal, and the Polish Culture Order among others. (Cuba Headlines News, 9/8/07)

August 8: Cubans will soon nominate their candidates for delegates to the municipal assemblies of the People's Power (local government), a process that takes place every two and a half years. The electoral process began in July and concludes in 2008 with the election of the National Assembly (Parliament) members. Electoral commissions in Havana are putting the final touches on preparations for the 9,110 meetings that will take place starting September 1 to nominate candidates for delegates to municipal assemblies. This time, there will be 1,433 more meetings than in 2005. Jose Pavon, president of the Provincial Electoral Commission (CEP), told the press that the increase in the number of meetings is to provide citizens with even more opportunities to nominate candidates. According to the Electoral Law, each district must nominate a maximum of eight and a minimum of two candidates. On this occasion, there will be more than 50,600 nomination assemblies nationally, 9,000 more than in the previous electoral process. (Radio Habana Cuba, 8/8/07)

August 8: Although the pope's influence was considered key to the collapse of communism in John Paul's native Poland, where Catholicism was strong and organized, the church has had much less say in Cuba than in other parts of Latin America. ''The Holy Father created great expectations because he was an international figure,'' Havana's Auxiliary Bishop Juan de Dios Hernández said in an interview with the press. Hernández acknowledged that church attendance has not increased significantly since then, but said numbers ``are not the criteria by which the church is defined.'' A more important legacy of the pope's visit, he said, is that the Catholics who do show up to Mass are generally more spiritually mature, and more inclined to be ''disciples'' who follow church's teachings. ''The Holy Father came to Cuba as he has gone to other churches, to affirm them in the faith,'' the bishop said. ``He came for all of Cuba, but in a special way for those who have had experienced the faith.'' Church pews were more populated for a while after the papal visit. Christmas was declared an official holiday again, and religious processions went public for the first time in decades. Catholic leaders today can speak or write in state media at times, and relations are cordial between Cuba's church and government, which never cut ties with the Vatican. (AP, 8/8/07)

August 9: State Security agents broke up a hunger strike in support of the freedom of political prisoners and of conscience and the “I do not cooperate” campaign. The agents burst into the house of independent librarian Julio Beltrán Iglesias, in Centro Habana, and took five strikers into custody. (Cubanet, 13/8/07)

August 9: A moderate Cuban oppositionist group thinks that Cuba has begun a new phase of “gradual changes” based on “revolutionary realism” under the government of the acting president, Raúl Castro. The Concertación Pro Diálogo y Reconciliación (CPDR) believes the language of the current leadership, in place since last year following the transfer of power from Fidel Castro to Raúl Castro for health reasons, “continues to give signs of a new time for Cuba”. [Diez claves o enfoques de Seguridad Nacional] (Notimex, 9/8/07)

August 9: Dissidents were threatened during interrogations by State Security officers on August 3rd and 6th in San Germán, in the province of Holguín. José Antonio Triguero, member of the Liberal Party of Cuba, and the independent journalists Yosvani Anzardo Hernández and Luis Felipe Rojas Rosabal were warned that they would go to prison and their exit permits to leave the country would be denied if they continued their dissident and journalistic activities. (EER, 9/8/07)

August 10: The Cuban National Liberal Party (PLNC) denounced the increased repression on the part of the political police against members of that organization, especially against the coordinator for the western provinces, Silvio Benítez Márquez. (Cubanet, 10/8/07)

August 10: Cuba released its longest-serving political prisoner, Francisco Chaviano González, who spent more than 13 years in jail, the country’s main human rights group said. Mr. Chaviano, 54, was arrested in May 1994, convicted of revealing state security secrets and sentenced to 15 years in prison in 1995, the Cuban Commission for Human Rights and National Reconciliation said in a statement. He was released on parole. A former mathematics professor, dissident and human rights activist, he was listed by Amnesty International as one of Cuba’s 72 prisoners of conscience. The rights group said his military trial fell short of international standards. ''We consider his release to be good news, but we regret that -- in his case, as in the cases of many other political prisoners -- the government of Cuba continues to violate the terms of early release, as established by the current penal code,'' said commission President Elizardo Sánchez. Sánchez said that under the code, Chaviano should have been freed unconditionally on May 7. However, Chaviano remained in prison an extra three months and his release was termed ``conditional.'' (Reuters, The Miami Herald, 11/8/07)

August 10: A group of top Cuban dissidents told international journalists at the Havana residence of US Interests Section head Michael Parmly that repression continues for critics of the communist government, even though the number of political prisoners has dipped in recent years. Elizardo Sanchez of the Cuban Commission for Human Rights and National Reconciliation has reported that the number of political prisoners had dropped by more than 20 percent in the year since Raul Castro took power from his ailing elder brother Fidel. The commission said 246 political prisoners were being held as of June 30, compared with 283 at the beginning of 2007 and 316 a year ago. At Parmly's residence, former political prisoner Martha Beatriz Roque and dissident leader Vladimiro Roca said the statistics do not provide a full picture, and that government harassment of critics continues unabated. "There is a general tendency to confuse partial statistics showing a drop in the number of political prisoners with an improvement in the human rights situation," Roque said. Cuban officials dismiss dissidents as "mercenaries" for the US charges Roque and others deny. (AP, El Nuevo Herald, 11/8/07)

August 10: One of Cuba's longest-serving political prisoners, Francisco Chaviano, was released on ''conditional freedom'' after serving 13 years in prison -- and immediately blasted prison conditions on the island. ''I am back from hell,'' Chaviano, 54, told the press from his home in Jaimanitas, west of Havana. ``If Dante had known the Combinado del Este [prison], he would not have needed his imagination to write “The Inferno”. He simply would have told what he saw there.'' ''I spent five years stuck in a cell without seeing the sun, two years without receiving visitors and four years without conjugal visits,'' he added. ``It was a cruel, merciless treatment that was also extended to my family, my wife and my children.'' Chaviano, a mathematics professor at Havana's Institute of Chemistry, was arrested on May 7, 1994, and sentenced by a military tribunal to 15 years in prison on charges that he ''disclosed secrets concerning the state security'' and falsified documents. He had been chairman of the Cuban Civil Rights Council, an organization that supported civil liberties and denounced the penetration of State Security agents into the dissident movement. Chaviano said prison life had seriously harmed his health, and that he now suffers from a rapidly growing tumor in one of his lungs and a serious heart condition. During the last two years, he was hospitalized several times with serious pulmonary and cardiac problems, he said. ''The damage in my lungs I owe to them [the government]. In Cuba, imprisonment kills,'' Chaviano said. But he added that he will not seek exile abroad and vowed to continue to actively oppose the government from inside the island. (The Miami Herald, 11/8/07)

August 11: Cuban university students celebrated 41 years of the foundation of the Latin American and Caribbean Continental Organization of Students (OCLAE) in a ceremony dedicated to the heroes and martyrs of the students continental movement. The soiree, held at Havana’s park “13 of March”, was dedicated to Cuban University Martyr Jose Antonio Echevarria and the Puerto Rican combatant Jose Rafael Varona who died fighting in Vietnam. OCLAE was founded in Havana in 1966 and presently has nearly 40 organizations from 23 countries as full members or friends that represent about 120 million of university and secondary students. (Prensa Latina, 11/8/07)

August 11: Cuba is free of dengue cases today due to the existence of an epidemiological security service system that allows to control this increasing problem existing all over the world, affirmed Cuban deputy minister of health Gonzalo Estevez. The doctor emphasized that the country is free of infection thanks to the national sustainability program the country is carrying to fight the aedes aegypti's mosquito, carrier of the disease. He highlighted the educational actions within the community, where the family plays the main role intensifying the searching and defusing of aedes aegyptis' breeding grounds which increase during summer. (Prensa Latina, 11/8/07)

August 12: Cuba won the title of the 11th edition of the International Baseball Tournament of Port Cities that concluded in the Dutch city of Rotterdam. This was the seventh crown for Cuba in 10 participations in the Rotterdam contest. On this occasion, the United States walked away with the bronze medals. (ACN, 13/8/07)

August 12: Celia Guevara March, the Cuban-born daughter of legendary communist revolutionary Ernesto "Che" Guevara, became a citizen of Argentina, the daily Clarin newspaper reported. Guevara, who was four years old when her Argentine-born father was killed in Bolivia in 1967, took her oath at the Argentine consulate in Havana, the daily said. A veterinarian in charge of animal health at Havana's National Aquarium, Celia Guevara chose her father's nationality under an Argentine law that grants citizenship rights to children of Argentine nationals regardless of their place of birth.   Celia Guevara, who told Argentine officials that she has no plans to leave Cuba, began the nationalization process in January. The paperwork was approved and is on its way to Cuba, according to Clarin. (AFP, 12/8/07) 

August 13: Fireworks exploded over Havana Bay as ailing leader Fidel Castro turned 81, spending his second consecutive birthday convalescing at an unknown location. No major public celebrations of Castro's birthday were announced, and there was no expectation that he would make a public appearance more than a year after he announced he had undergone emergency intestinal surgery and was temporarily ceding power to his brother Raul, who is now 76. Even when well, Castro traditionally has always celebrated his birthday in a low-key manner, often simply sharing a cake with Cuban school children. Mexico's most influential newspaper, Reforma, reported that Castro had several surgeries in the past few weeks in an attempt to stave off a potentially fatal blood infection. Castro, the paper said, has lost a lot of weight and no longer wishes to receive visitors. (AP, The Miami Herald, 13,14/8/07)

August 13: The five Cubans held in US jails ratified their loyalty to Fidel Castro by sending their regards to the leader of the Cuban Revolution on the occasion of his 81st birthday. Granma newspaper published letters written by Ramon Labanino, Fernando Gonzalez and Antonio Guerrero, as well as a caricature drawn by Gerardo Hernandez.  Likewise, the Official Organ of the Central Committee of the Cuban Communist Party issued a commentary by Rene Gonzalez on the happy coincidence of his birthday with Fidel Castro's. (ACN, 13/8/07)

August 13: A hundred Cuban youths will represent Cuba at an international meeting that will take place in Venezuela from August 22-27 to celebrate the 60th anniversary of the World Festivals of Youth and Students. According to Ernesto Fernandez, member of the national bureau of the Cuban Young Communist League, most of the island's representatives to the event are members of the Cuban internationalist contingent that is currently making their contribution in the South American nation. They will be joined by pre-university and university students and also by youths who are participating in important social programs currently underway on the island. (ACN, 13/8/07)

August 14: The Cuban Union of Journalists (UPEC) honoured Fidel Castro with the Dignity Award in recognition of his exceptional merits and work in favour of the press and the homeland. The announcement was made during a ceremony at UPEC headquarters in Havana. UPEC’s president Tubal Paez said that the Cuban president represents a synthesis of the dignity of all Cubans, the homeland and humankind. (Prensa Latina, 14/8/07)

August 14: In Havana, the Council of Human Rights Rapporteurs of Cuba expressed its satisfaction with the release of four political prisoners from prison. Jorge Luís García Pérez (Antúnez), spokesman of the CRDHC and Rapporteur for Prisons, said that although the government’s repressive policies have not changed, they are very happy for the release of prisoner of conscience Francisco Pastor Chaviano González. Also released from prison in Camagüey were Raúl Hernández Loyola and Roberto Velasco Quiñones, two defenders of human rights whose sentences would not have been completed until 2008. Francisco Pacheco Espinosa was also released from prison in Camagüey. He had been accused of throwing rocks at shop windows, and was five months short of serving a five-year sentence. (Cubanet, 21/8/07)

August 14: The president of the Christian Liberation Movement in Cuba, Oswaldo Paya, has sent an open letter to the public denouncing the growing risk of death that prisoners of conscience are facing in Cuban prisons. In his letter, Paya noted that the increased risk is due to the fact that “Cuban political prisoners are confined together with common prisoners who on occasion threaten and harass them, with the encouragement of the authorities themselves.” Violence and bloodshed are frequent among common prisoners and from abusive prison guards, Paya said, noting that in all the prisons of Cuba, “political prisoners have a high possibility of being assaulted and suffer great anxiety and stress, due to confinement in cruel, degrading conditions that are life-threatening.” “To confine political prisoners with common ones,” the letter explained, “has not been very common in Cuba’s history, even during the dictatorship prior to this one, but now it has become a perverse practice on the part of authorities who are enraged with these people only because they dared to defend and promote the rights of Cubans,” Paya noted. [Denuncia del MCL] (Catholic News Agency, 14/8/07)

August 14: Cuban authorities released a little-known dissident who was jailed three years ago on vague political charges, the second prisoner of conscience to be freed on the island in four days, a veteran rights activist said. Lazaro Gonzalez Adan, 37, who belonged to an independent labor movement, was freed from the prison in the eastern province of Camaguey, where he lives, said Elizardo Sanchez of the National Commission for Human Rights and National Reconciliation. Police visited Gonzalez in October 2004 after he painted a Cuban flag and two quotes about liberty by independence hero Jose Marti on his house. Sanchez said he could not recall the exact quotes, which apparently were chosen to criticize the government. When Gonzalez refused police demands to erase the paintings, he was arrested on charges of disrespect, disobedience to authorities and resisting arrest. He later received a three-year prison sentence. (AP, 15/8/07) 

August 15: Cuba finds the way for the October general elections through meetings to train citizens who make up grass-roots electoral commissions. Created hardly a month ago, those bodies are formed by volunteers, who as electoral authorities have the responsibility to lead the process in municipalities and constituencies. Their main task is to prepare the assemblies to nominate candidates, as well as neighborhood meetings where neighbors, without the participation of the Communist Party, run their candidates. Those meetings will start on September 1 until the end of that month, to choose candidates as delegates for the municipal assemblies of the People's Power. According to "Granma" newspaper, there are experienced people in those commissions, who have worked responsibly in previous elections. (Prensa Latina, 15/8/07)

August 15: The number of sightless writers who are members to the amateur movement of the National Association for the Blind in Cuba has increased to nearly 800 over the last few years.  The blind Cuban writers are organized in 101 workshops, where they gather to discuss and choose the works to compete in literary competitions. The leading provinces in the promotion of such cultural activities are Havana, Holguin, Cienfuegos, Santiago de Cuba and Camaguey. (ACN, 15/8/07)

August 16: Cuba's electoral process formally got under way - at a time when Cubans are increasingly beginning to wonder how permanent Fidel Castro's absence from power will be. The country's electoral process will culminate early next year in a new National Assembly, or Parliament, which in turn elects the country's president for another five-year term. Until now, the official line had been that the ailing leader would eventually return to the helm and run for re-election next year. But, in an exclusive interview with the BBC, the president of Cuba's National Assembly, Ricardo Alarcon was far more cautious in his latest assessment about Castro’s health. Alarcon said that Fidel Castro had had to adjust to a strict regime to help his physical recovery, while remaining active in the decision-making process. "He's also doing something that probably he would have liked to have done more of in the past but didn't have time to do before his illness, which is reading a lot and writing a lot." But when asked specifically if Fidel would return to front-line politics, he was more circumspect. "I hope that he will continue recovering and I look forward to him continuing to play the leading role that he has always played in our country," he said. (BBC, 16/8/07)

August 17: The border patrol department of Punta de Coco, north of Morón, reinforced its guard forces due to an increase in illegal migration from the keys of Coco and Guillermo. Patrol operations are conducted by border officers, guards in the Military Service and specially-trained dogs. (Cubanet, 17/8/07)

August 17: In an article published by the magazine “Vitral”, Doctor Maria De la Luz Casas reminded doctors and students that the practice of medicine should be motivated by the desire to learn science that helps the patient, as “learning in order to have knowledge can be good (but) learning in order to serve can be better.” “Perhaps it sounds strange to ask that we love our patients, perhaps it is better to say: let’s be committed to their wellbeing.  Only this way can we find fulfillment for them and for ourselves,” she wrote in the latest edition of the magazine published by the Diocese of Pinar del Rio. In her article she also addressed the issue of euthanasia, noting that it “minimizes the value of life and leads people to act according to their economic or social utility, forgetting that a fundamental part of the reason for human life is a person’s own existence.” Other articles in “Vitral” include, among others, an analysis by Jose Miguel Insulza on the main problems in Latin America, reflections by Chilean president Michelle Bachelet on the changes taking place in her country, and the essay “Ego versus Society” by Cuban Félix Sautié. [Conocer y Amar, vocación médica] (CNA, 17/8/07)

August 17: A little-known group of rural Cuban women said it has gathered more than 6,000 signatures petitioning lawmakers to study the possibility of a law closing the gaps in a dual economy they say hurts the island's poorest people the most. The petition asks the government to allow the use of standard Cuban pesos — the currency of state employee salaries — in upscale stores, restaurants and hotels that only accept the convertible Cuban peso, whose value is linked to the US dollar. Crowded into the tiny living room of a modest Havana apartment, a half-dozen members of the Latin American Federation of Rural Women (FLAMUR) told journalists that they launched their campaign, called "With the Same Money," a year ago and still need 4,000 more signatures to present them to the Cuban parliament, known as the National Assembly. Activist Belinda Salas said hundreds of people around the island are gathering signatures, but authorities repeatedly seize the petitions when they find them. (AP, El Nuevo Herald, 18/8/07)

August 18: National Civil Defense General Staff declared cyclone alert for the Cuban provinces of Guantanamo, Santiago de Cuba, Granma, Holguin, Las Tunas and Camaguey, due to the possible path of Hurricane Dean. The second report of the National Civil Defense said that Dean continued moving in the Eastern Caribbean Sea after reaching category 4. Taking into account the proximity of the hurricane to the Cuban territory, its possible path, and favourable conditions for its intensification, the rest of the country's provinces and the Isle of Youth special municipality were declared on information alert. Due to the fast movement of the hurricane, measures in case of natural disasters have been established, giving priority to the Cuban southern coast and mountain regions, added the report. (Prensa Latina, 18/8/07)

August 19: Cuba concluded in the fifth spot of the medal standings of the 3rd Para-Pan American Games that concluded in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, with the participation of some 1300 athletes from 25 nations. The island's delegation to the event was comprised of 51 athletes who competed in only five of the ten sports disciplines included in the program: athletics, swimming, judo, weightlifting and table tennis. (ACN, 20/8/07)

August 20: The president of the Provincial Electoral Commission in Havana City, Jose Pavon Cruz, said that everything is ready for the successful development of the process of nomination of candidates for municipal and provincial assemblies. Speaking to reporters, Pavon said that this process will begin on September 1st across the nation. He noted that the electoral authorities are prepared to explain how these meetings to nominate candidates should develop. He added that on this occasion there are 9,110 electoral districts in the capital, 1,403 more than in the previous electoral process, which will allow the people to nominate more candidates for the Municipal Assemblies. (ACN, 20/8/07)

August 20: An independent Cuban journalist arrested on charges of public disorder was released after 15 months behind bars. Armando Betancourt Reina was released from the Ceramica Roja prison, in the central provincial capital Camaguey. He is the third dissident to be released in less than two weeks. Betancourt, a little-known journalist who contributed dispatches to the Miami-based Web site Nueva Prensa Cuba, was detained on May 23, 2006, while covering a family's eviction in Camaguey. Police told Betancourt's family that he had joined a protest against the eviction, but he denies that. (CPJ Press Release, Cubanet, 21/8/07)

August 21: Increasing his fight against corruption and mismanagement in Cuba, interim leader Raúl Castro has signed a decree requiring tough, swift and long-lasting punishment for public officials who violate labor rules. The decree, published in the Official Gazette, covers the enforcement of earlier decrees designed to counter official corruption and illegal but widespread workplace activities, including petty thievery of public supplies, 4-hour work days and hiring friends for good jobs. The decree brands as ''a collaterally responsible'' any official whose job is on the same level as violators but doesn't punish them or report them to authorities, saying they are guilty of a ''lack of exigency'' or ``of being negligent'' Sanctions include dismissal and a total ban on any official employment. Punishment will be meted out ''directly and with immediate effect,'' and authorities will track violators to ensure the punishments are being observed. The decree will take effect September 1, six months after the enactment of a new resolution aimed at cracking down on some aspects of the notorious labour inefficiencies in Cuba's government-dominated economy: workers who show up late or leave early, who filch supplies from their jobs or accept bribes to help clients. (The Miami Herald, EER, 22/8/07)

August 22: Reporters Without Borders voiced dismay on learning that Alberto Santiago Du Bouchet Hernández, an independent journalist who was released in August 2006 after spending a year in prison, was given another jail term by a Havana court on 15 August for allegedly stealing a handkerchief signed by Fidel Castro from an elderly woman who was once a pro-Castro activist. “We are outraged by the way the authorities continue to persecute Du Bouchet,” the press freedom organisation said. “Imposing a heavy sentence on him for the supposed theft of a handkerchief is grotesque and disgraceful. His trial was as summary as the one in 2005, and relied on evidence that could well have been obtained under threat. We call for him to be acquitted on appeal.” A municipal court in Plaza (a district of Havana) sentenced Du Bouchet on 15 August to two years in prison plus an additional two years of work in a prison environment and another two years under judicial control for “illicitly” taking a signed handkerchief which Castro gave in 1957 to María Encarnación González Guerra, an active member of the then-underground 26 of July Movement (a pro-Castro movement created four years earlier). Du Bouchet insists that González gave him the handkerchief and believes the political police pressured her to testify against him. For the time being he remains free pending the outcome of the appeal he has filed. (RWB Press Release, 22/8/07)

August 23: Cuban Foreign Minister Felipe Perez Roque said Fidel Castro was still recovering from his operation last year and was keeping busy, having personally instructed him on his visit to Brasilia. While attending the Forum for East Asia Latin American Cooperation (Fealac), Roque, in an interview with the press, dispelled rumours about the Castro's health taking a turn for the worse since his 81st birthday on August 13.   He continues "in process of recovery," Roque said. "In particular, he keeps in constant touch with the leaders of Cuba's (Communist) Party and government," he added.  Asked if Castro was still in charge of Cuban affairs, Roque said: "Exactly, he is being informed and consulted constantly and works all the time." Roque said he was in Brasilia for the Fealac forum at Castro's personal behest: "He gave me instructions to take part here in this meeting." (AFP, 23/8/07)

August 24: Maria Esther Reus, president of the National Electoral Commission, said the preparatory process of next general elections in the island is ruled by a tight program. At the end of a meeting on the process held in the island's eastern province of Santiago de Cuba, the official told the press that October 21 is the date to elect delegates to the Peoples' Power municipal assemblies in the island. The Cuban general elections were called on July 9, through a decree from the Council of State, which also specifies that there will be a second time to elect provincial delegates and deputies to the National Assembly. (Prensa Latina, 24/8/07)

August 26: Dissident Jorge Luis García Pérez, Antúnez, denounced that former political prisoner Benito Ortega Suárez was brutally beaten by two State Security agents in the city of Matanzas. Ortega was in the streets of Matanzas distributing copies of the UN Human Rights Charter when the two agents intercepted him, beat him, and offended him calling him “worm” and “traitor”. The authorities confiscated all the copies of the UN HHRR Charter that Ortega had with him. (MartiNoticias, 26/8/07)

August 26: Blind Cuban lawyer Juan Carlos González Leyva, president of the illegal Cuban Foundation for Human Rights (FCDH), was detained and beaten by the police. Hospital guards prevented Gonzalez Leiva, independent journalist Luis Esteban Espinosa, and human rights activist Eisy Marrero from filming a conversation with a patient at the Amalia Simoni hospital, in Camaguey province, and then called the police.  Six policemen immobilized Gonzalez Leiva against the floor and beat him when the activist refused to get into the police car. The three activists were detained for several hours. (EER, MartiNoticias, 28/07)

August 26: Fidel Castro signed a lengthy essay published in Cuban official media saluting a Cuban political figure but giving no hint of how he is feeling, even amid rampant rumours of his death. Castro's essay, the latest in dozens of ''Reflections of the Commander in Chief'' columns he has published several times a week since late March, was signed on August 25 and appeared in the Communist Youth newspaper Juventud Rebelde. Verbose but clearly stated and easy to follow, Castro wrote of Eduardo Chibas, the president of Cuba's Orthodox Party, who was born 100 years ago this month. Chibas campaigned against corruption that plagued Cuba's government before Castro and his band of rebels toppled dictator Fulgencio Batista in January 1959. [Remembering Chibás, 100 years after his birth] (AP, 26/8/07)

August 28: The representative in Havana of the dissident Social Democratic Party (PSD), Raúl Borges Álvarez, condemned the severe prison conditions and harassment of his son, Ernesto Borges Pérez. Ernesto is serving 30 years in the Guanajay prison, in the province of Havana, for the alleged crime of spying. The sentence was handed down on July 17, 1998 by a military court. Borges senior has expressed concern for the health and life of his son. He and other relatives have sent letters to the Communist Party and to the Council of State, with no response. The prison internal control officer threatened the prisoner with death, and told him that even if a change should happen in the country, he would not live to see it, suggesting a government plan of selective killings in the event of a crisis. (Cubanet, 28/8/07)

August 28: Havana is promoting economic changes to reach economic “invulnerability,” said the vice-minister of Economy, Julio Vázquez Roque, who also indicated this does not mean the country will “renounce the socialist model”. “We are indeed making changes: changes in the management and organizational systems to stimulate national production” as well as “to link salaries to performance results”, said Vázquez Roque at an event organized by the Latin American Faculty of Social Sciences (FLACSO) in San Jose, Costa Rica. The said changes “don’t mean in any way that we are going to renounce the socialist model”. It is only a question of “changing anything that needs changing”, he added. “From an economic point of view, [Cuba] has no other option but to develop its economy so that it becomes self-sufficient and doesn’t need to depend on the outside”, he said. (AFP., EER, 29/8/07)

August 29: Cuban Vice President Carlos Lage squashed speculation that Communist Cuba is heading toward Chinese-style reforms of its economy, in a speech to state managers. Cuba will not follow the paths of other Communist-run nations, such as China and Vietnam where capitalist markets have flourished, and said Perestroika reforms failed in the former Soviet Union. "The countries that are working to build socialism today in different parts of the world, are doing so in political and economic situations very different from ours," said Lage, who heads Cuba's cabinet of ministers. "Their successes and failures should enrich our efforts, but the building of socialism in Cuba is only possible as a result of our own experience," Lage said in the speech printed by the Communist Party newspaper Granma. Lage, who is 55 and viewed as a possible future president, said Cuba would follow a business management system introduced by the armed forces two decades ago to cope with the economic crisis that followed the collapse of the Soviet Union without resorting to private property and markets. Lage said profits, wages and productivity had increased in the 800 companies that are applying management methods known as "perfeccionamiento empresarial" or perfecting the state system of 3,000 enterprises. [Discurso de Carlos Lage] (Reuters, 30/8/07)

August 29: Four participants in a prison revolt in Santiago de Cuba province that left two military officers dead have been given sentences of 30 years to life, a human rights activist in Havana reported. Army recruit Yoelvis Delgado Arvelo, who was working as a guard, and an inmate known only as Mursuli were given life sentences, said Elizardo Sánchez, head of the Cuban Commission on Human Rights and National Reconciliation. Army recruit Irán Cabrera León and another soldier who was not identified -- both also guards -- were sentenced to 30 years of imprisonment, Sánchez told the press. The sentences were imposed by an army tribunal in June but were disclosed only recently, Sánchez added. Cuban media have not reported the sentences. The prison break allegedly took place on December 20, 2006, when three recruits on compulsory military service and one prison inmate tried to take over El Manguito Prison, 17 miles from Santiago. Details are sketchy, but Cubans on the island have said that the armed recruits seized the sentry post at the prison's gate, cut off telephone lines and tried to flee with two prison inmates after a shootout in which two military officers were killed and one of the inmates was wounded. The slain men were Lt. Oliverio Orozco and 2nd Lt. José A. Tamayo, according to the sources. The three recruits and the other inmate were believed to have been captured within 24 hours and taken to Boniatico Prison near Santiago. (EER, El Nuevo Herald, 29/8/07)

August 29: Cuban authorities still have not revealed the fate of three army recruits who on May 3 attempted to hijack a plane at José Martí International Airport in Havana, an incident in which an army lieutenant colonel was killed. Cuban authorities have said the would-be hijackers shot the officer to death. The recruits are believed to be in a military prison. (The Miami Herald, 30/8/07)

August 29: Cuba won't send a boxing team to the world championships in Chicago, heeding Fidel Castro's fears about future defections after two fighters abandoned their teammates during the Pan American Games. The competition is one of three qualifying tournaments for the 2008 Olympics. "We will not expose anew a Cuban boxing team to the abuses and provocations that in this case will be present in Chicago, American territory, the perfect location for marketers and traffickers to act freely and with the total complicity of US authorities," the Cuban Boxing Federation said. The Cuban boxing federation said "many factors" influenced its decision, but Castro's defection worries carried the most weight. "The robbery of everything that stands out in Cuban society, it doesn't matter if its an athlete, teacher, doctor, artist, scientist or anything else, has been the practice of different US governments in their permanent political aggression against our people," its statement said. In reaching its decision, the federation wrote, it "profoundly analyzed the threats of groups that with teams of negotiators serve one of the most vile interests of the United States and some of its allies, the theft of athletes." (AP, 29/8/07) 

August 30: The potential for a massive exodus has increased in Santiago de Cuba. The prevailing political uncertainty due to Fidel Castro’s health, and recent news regarding the refugees at the (US) Guantánamo Base who will be sent to a third country, have increased the desire of the population to flee the island. (Cubanet, 30/8/07)

August 30: The architect of the Varela Project pro-democracy drive asked Cuba's parliament to abolish and replace the country's electoral law and hold free, democratic general elections as soon as possible. In the letter addressed to the president of Cuba's national assembly, Oswaldo Paya also asked for a change in existing laws to guarantee citizens "freedom of expression, respect for diverse opinions existing in society and access by all citizens and opinions to mass media." A copy of the letter and an accompanying news release were hand-delivered by messenger to the press. The latest move by Paya, among Cuba's best-known dissidents, appeared aimed at reviving the long-shelved Varela Project just as communist-run Cuba gears up for municipal elections this fall. There was no immediate official reaction to the new initiative, which was announced after government offices closed for the day. [Petición Ciudadana a la Asamblea Nacional] (AP, 30/8/07)

August 30: Recently released political prisoner Francisco Chaviano sent journalists a letter addressed to National Assembly President Ricardo Alarcon, asking that the next general elections include a referendum on whether to continue with Cuba's current system. Signed by Chaviano and his wife, Ana Anguililla, the letter said such a popular referendum "is necessary, given the historical juncture implied by the end of Fidel Castro's mandate due to his health and age." Chaviano, among Cuba's most veteran dissidents, was released earlier this month after 13 years in prison. (AP, 30/8/07)

August 31: Cuba won its first gold medal today in the World Athletics Championship in Osaka, Japan, with Yargelis Savigne’ victory in the triple jump, setting a national record of 15.28 meters. The 23-year-old Cuban Pan American champion went into the lead in the competition after her first jump, which would later win her the gold medal. Savigne, native of Guantánamo in the eastern part of the country, committed a foul in her second attempt and later jumped 14.74 meters. The victory makes Savinge a favorite for next year's Olympics in Beijing. (Granma International, AP, 31/8/07)