Chronicle on Cuba - September 2007

US-Cuba Relations

September 3: Former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney severely criticized the declaration of Senator Barack Obama that he will grant Cuban-Americans "unrestricted rights to visit family and send remittances to the island" once he becomes president. According to Romney, the statement of Obama which was published in the Miami Herald proves that Obama “does not have the strength to confront America's enemies or defend our values." (Trans World News, 4/9/07)

September 4: A group of 25 people who say they're Cuban refugees have been handed over to the Border Patrol after someone dropped them off at an Oakland Park restaurant, Florida authorities said. The migrants had been smuggled into the United States earlier in the day and were taken to the restaurant. The group -- 10 adult men, nine adult women, two girls and three boys -- were released after they were processed at the US Border Patrol in Pembroke Pines. They were issued a notice to appear in front of an immigration judge and released on their own recognizance, said Victor Colon, an assistant chief Border Patrol agent. They were then taken to a medical facility in Miami. (Sun Sentinel, The Miami Herald, 4,5/9/07)

September 6: Liberalized trade with Cuba could double or triple the volume of agricultural exports leaving the Port of Corpus Christi, Texas. “The Trade Sanctions and Reform Act allows (US interests) to sell agricultural products, medicine and lumber to Cuba,” says Michael Perez, director of port operations and business development for the Port of Corpus Christi. Perez, during a recent National Cotton Council Producer Information Exchange (P.I.E.) tour, said Cuba currently buys some citrus, beans, and other agricultural products from the United States. They also purchase utility poles. “We’re not shipping any rice out of here yet,” he said to cotton farmers from California and Arizona and representatives from sponsors NCC and Bayer CropSciences. A sticking point that limits trade, even under the reform, is a stipulation that demands cash up front for any goods sold to Cuba. “The cash sales requirement hurts trade,” Perez said. “We always have a trade deficit through this facility. That’s why liberalized trade with Cuba is so important. We bring in a lot of crude oil through this port that’s used domestically.” (Farm Press, 6/9/07)

September 6: Cuba's Culture Minister Abel Prieto announced that the US blockade obstructs the participation of renowned American jazz players in the Varadero Jam Session International Jazz Festival that began in the central province of Matanzas. "I'm sure that many of them would have liked to participate in this event but the arbitrary laws of the Bush Administration obstruct these cultural ties," he said. Prieto recalled that before George W. Bush took office many Cuban and US artists were able to exchange their experiences and art in different events, but all this has been cancelled, he noted. The Cuban official participated, along with Tourism Minister Manuel Marrero and the President of the festival Maestro 'Chucho' Valdes, in the opening of the Jam Session event. (ACN, 7/9/07)

September 6: The Senate agreed to restore President Bush's requested $47 million funding for Cuban opposition groups in a foreign operations spending bill. Until now, the Senate had not made any pronouncements on Cuba policy. With the House and Senate in agreement on the levels of dissident aid for Cuba, the increase in funding is almost certain to become law. Earlier this year, senators in charge of appropriations cut the aid to $15 million, only a modest improvement from the $10 million a year Cuba democracy programs got in the past. The Senate approved an amendment to increase the funding by unanimous consent. It was presented by Florida Republican Senator Mel Martinez and co-sponsored by Republican Senator John Ensign of Nevada and Democratic Senators Bob Menendez of New Jersey and Bill Nelson of Florida. The increase is the latest setback for opponents of US policy toward Cuba. (The Miami Herald, 7/9/07)

September 6: Twenty-three Cubans -- women, men and children -- were dropped off at Biscayne National Park, at Boca Chita Key. Coast Guard and Biscayne National Park officials transported the group to Black Point Marina, where they were turned over to US Customs and Border Patrol officials. Biscayne National Park officials said this is the second group that has arrived in the last seven days. On August 31, 22 Cubans arrived at Elliot Key. (The Miami Herald, 7/9/07)

September 7: The face-off between a former federal prosecutor and the Cuban pig farmer seeking custody of his 4-year-old daughter continued at the Miami-Dade County Courthouse, where -- for the second day -- tensions remained high as the two dueled over the truthfulness of the father's testimony. Once again, farmer Rafael Izquierdo became flustered and, at times, angry as Department of Children & Families Chief of Staff Jason Dimitris, a former state and federal prosecutor, grilled him over key details. At issue are efforts made by Izquierdo to obtain a US visa to fight for custody. (The Miami Herald, 7/9/07)

September 7: At the cactus-dotted fenceline where US and Cuban military officers meet face to face on the edge of the Guantanamo Bay naval base, Fidel Castro's name does not come up in official conversations. The base commander, Capt. Mark Leary, said he discusses mundane things like brush fires and construction work at monthly meetings with his Cuban military counterpart. “We haven't done anything differently really since his (Castro's) illness,” Leary told the press at the only US military base on communist turf. “Nothing has changed at the fence line meeting even, and really, I wouldn't expect it to. It really is kind of a military-to-military relation and really only a local kind of thing.” Firefighters from both sides joined up for their annual drill in June to practice for cross-border brush fires and other emergencies. Leary notified the Cubans that there would be an influx of construction workers for runway repaving and other work on the U.S. side. A year-old agreement to allow emergency medical flights to cross Cuban airspace was recently and uneventfully put to the test when a man at the base was flown to Miami for treatment unavailable on the base, Leary said. Residents on both sides of the fence can listen to each other's radio stations. A U.S. caller to an afternoon radio talk show on the navy base recently suggested that the Cuban soccer team be invited over for a match. Leary called that “a nice thought” but said there were no plans to carry it out. “That's really making policy. We don't do that,” he said. (Reuters, 7/9/07)

September 7: For nearly a decade, Republican presidential candidates have counted on Florida 's Cuban-American community to win the state and, with it, the presidency.    This year's hopefuls are again making the rounds in Little Havana and on Miami’s  Spanish-language radio. But this once fail-safe plan has become more risky as Florida's increasingly diverse Hispanic community no longer guarantees a monolithic vote. Of the state's estimated 3 million Hispanics, Cubans represent a third. Puerto Ricans and Mexicans, more traditionally Democratic voters, make up another third, and Central and South Americans round out the group. Meanwhile, Democrats are courting the community with renewed vigor, while also using Florida as a platform to reach out to Hispanics nationwide. The eight Democratic candidates will participate in a live forum on September 9, at the University of Miami sponsored by the Spanish-language Univision Network. The televised forum, with the candidates' answers translated simultaneously from English to Spanish, is aimed at the nation's more than 34 million Hispanics, underscoring the candidates' recognition of this demographic shift. On the Republican side, only John McCain agreed to attend Univision's now-canceled Republican forum. His rivals cited scheduling conflicts, though Univision executives say they are in talks with the candidates to reschedule the event. (AP, 7/9/07)  

September 8: An essay signed by Fidel Castro criticized President Bush for asking Asia-Pacific leaders to cooperate in a new framework on climate change that could compete with other international efforts. Castro wrote that the US and Australia, the host of this year’s Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum, never signed the Kyoto Protocol on energy security and climate change and their new proposal could undermine efforts to create a successor to the UN-backed agreement. He went on to blast the US and Australia for continuing their "adventure in Iraq," while other countries are pulling out troops. "It is known that in Iraq about 1 million people have died and 2 million have been forced to emigrate from their country occupied by troops from the United States and their allies, among them Australia," Castro added. [W and APEC] (AP, 7/9/07)

September 8: Democrat Christopher Dodd pledged that as president he would end a decades-old trade embargo with Cuba and lift travel restrictions to the communist island. The Connecticut senator also said he would open an embassy in Havana and shut down the 17-year-old TV Marti, a US government-run station that broadcasts to Cuba. "Other than the war in Iraq, no other American policy is more broadly unpopular internationally," Dodd said of American policy toward Cuba. Dodd called the policy an "abject failure." As president, he said he would seek a repeal of the 1996 Helms-Burton Act, which strengthened the US embargo against Cuba. He also said taxpayers should not spend millions of dollars annually on TV Marti, which virtually no one in Cuba sees, and that he would reform its companion, Radio Marti. The senator, who trails better known rivals in the race for the Democratic presidential nomination, said he would work to establish US mail service to Cuba. He added he would make staying in touch with family on the island easier for Cuban-Americans, by allowing US companies to lower prices for phone calls there. He said he has faith in the Cuban community, and in their willingness to take a look at his policy, though Cuban-Americans generally oppose any lifting of the trade embargo. (AP, 8/9/07)

September 8: More Cubans, frustrated by long waiting lists for visas, are arriving illegally in the US aboard boats, buses and planes. Nationally, 16,100 undocumented Cubans have arrived in the fiscal year that ends September 30 -- 1,749 more than last year.  The US Coast Guard has caught 2,435 Cubans in the Florida Straits this year -- exceeding interdictions for all of 2006. Border Patrol and Customs and Border Protection also disclosed figures showing an overall increase in Cuban migrant arrivals on South Florida shores and at border entry points nationally and international airports -- exceeding arrivals during a similar period last year. Recently arrived Cubans interviewed at the Catholic Charities Legal Services offices in Miami and Miami Springs said the leadership change in Cuba was a factor -- but not the only reason. ''With or without Fidel, things in Cuba are deteriorating,'' said Cabrera, 34. (The Miami Herald, 8/9/07)  
  
September 9: Seven Democratic Presidential pre-candidates for the US elections of 2008 took part in a television debate aimed at the Hispanic community, in which they agreed that Washington must prepare to take part in the democratic transition in Cuba. New York Sen. Hillary Clinton promised to work closely with the area countries in a transition that "is already under way in Cuba." Bill Richardson indicated that his administration would lift the embargo on Cuba and support movements like those taking place in Brazil, Chile and Argentina. (AFP, 10/9/07)

September 10: The island recalled the ninth anniversary of the arrest of Five Cubans in the US by denouncing the new irregularities committed in the legal process against them. Gerardo Hernandez, Ramón Labanino, Antonio Guerrero, Fernando Gonzalez and René Gonzalez were arrested in September 12, 1998 and condemned to severe sentences for the crime of miscarrying terrorist plans against their country, organized in Miami. Lawyer Rodolfo Avalos assured in an article published in the official media that nine years have already passed since the unfair and illegal arrest of those men, so it is necessary to continue fighting for their liberation. (Prensa Latina, 10/9/07)

September 11: Fidel Castro joined the band of September 11 conspiracy theorists by accusing the US of spreading disinformation about the attacks that took place six years ago. In a 4,256-word article read by a Cuban television presenter, the country's leader asserted that the Pentagon was hit by a rocket, not a plane, because no traces were found of its passengers. "Only a projectile could have created the geometrically round orifice created by the alleged airplane," he said. "We were deceived as well as the rest of the planet's inhabitants," he said. In fact, the remains of the bodies of the crew and passengers of American Airlines flight 77 were found at the Pentagon crash site, and positively identified by DNA. As for the attacks on the World Trade Centre in New York, Mr Castro wrote that the way the passenger jets crashed into the twin towers on September 11 and the data from the plane's black boxes "do not correspond with the criteria of mathematicians, seismologists, and information and demolition specialists".    In his article, Mr Castro said the truth behind the attacks with hijacked planes that killed nearly 3,000 people would probably never be known. [The Empire and Its Lies] (The Guardian, 11/9/07)

September 12: Fidel Castro claims Cuba's government saved the life of President Reagan by giving American officials information about an assassination plot in 1984. Castro had mentioned the episode in a 1989 speech to Cuba's Council of State, without providing details. Castro’s new essay seemed aimed at showing Cuba has cooperated with the United States in the past. Castro, who has not appeared in public for more than a year, wrote that a Cuban security official stationed at the United Nations told the then US mission security chief about an extreme right-wing group that was planning to kill Reagan during a trip to North Carolina. [The Empire and Its Lies] (The New York Times, 12, 14/9/07)

September 12: The Cuban government distributed a letter in which American author Alice Walker expressed her support to the children of five Cuban intelligence agents imprisoned in the United States. Walker, who won the Pulitzer Prize for her novel “The Color Purple”, has in the past joined American writers, artists and intellectuals in demanding the release of the so-called Cuban 5, who were convicted in 2001 of being unregistered foreign agents operating in the United States. The letter was released at a news conference held in Havana to unveil a new Cuban book celebrating the five. It was signed ''Alice,'' with ''Walker'' in parentheses. (AP, 13/9/07)

September 12: The President of the Cuban Parliament Ricardo Alarcon said in Havana that the US State Department has once again denied the entry visas to Adriana Perez and Olga Salanueva to visit their husbands Gerardo Hernandez and Rene Gonzalez in prison. Alarcon made the announcement during an activity comemorating the 9th anniversary of the FBI detention of Gerardo Hernandez, Ramon Labañino, Fernando Gonzalez, Rene Gonzalez and Antonio Guerrero held at Havana´s Mella Theater. (Radio Habana Cuba, 12/9/07)

September 12: A Miami judge threw out a significant piece of the case against a Cuban farmer who wants to take his daughter back to Cuba, ruling at the end of the state's presentation that child-welfare lawyers failed to offer sufficient evidence the dad knew his daughter was at risk of being harmed by her mentally ill mother. Though much of the Department of Children & Families' case against the Cuban father, Rafael Izquierdo, remains, Miami-Dade Circuit Judge Jeri B. Cohen signaled state lawyers would face an uphill battle when his side begins to present its case on September 14. The judge said recent Florida appeals court rulings make it very difficult to prove a parent abandoned his or her child. ''It is very difficult to show abandonment in Florida,'' Cohen said. ``I was very surprised to find out how hard it is when I read the case law. Believe me, if it were up to me, it would be easier.'' For the first time, the judge acknowledged the politics that overshadow the case. ''The United States is reluctant to repatriate a child to a communist country,'' Cohen said, adding that she believes state workers might have acted differently had her father lived anywhere but Cuba. ``We don't need to mince words here.'' (The Miami Herald, 13/9/07)

September 13: The president of Cuba's legislature, trying to explain recent comments by Fidel Castro that a ''projectile'' and not a plane slammed into the Pentagon on September 11, said that a more thorough investigation of the terror attacks would clear up any misconceptions. Speaking to Wolf Blitzer on CNN's The Situation Room, National Assembly President Ricardo Alarcón said Castro's comments were based on assertions that others have made, including individuals in the United States. ``President Castro was referring to various allegations by scientists, even by journalists, that suggest (…) contradictions between the data that has been published or known about the incidents. ''The fact is that a full investigation of that event, as far as I know, didn't take place,'' Alarcón said from Havana. Asked by Blitzer about the DNA and other evidence from the airplane, Alarcón said ``the best answer to that would be a full investigation and a presentation of every detail on every individual that may have had responsibility on what happened.'' Blitzer told Alarcón that the 81-year-old Castro's comments raise questions about his state of mind. (The Miami Herald, 14/9/07)

September 14: A push to rid New York State's pension fund of companies invested in nations identified as backers of terrorism could be derailed by America's longtime pariah state: Cuba. While some are pressing to make New York a leader in the divestment movement - which is attempting to wield America's economic muscle against its enemies - legislation that's been introduced in Albany has a built-in snag. In addition to listing Iran, North Korea, Syria, and Sudan, the legislation also includes Cuba, which is subject to a decades old trade embargo with America. That embargo was relaxed in 2000 and many American businesses are waiting for the day that it is removed entirely and they can begin expanding to the island. The bill passed the Republican controlled Senate despite the dissent of several New York City Democrats, but it is being considered dead on arrival in the Democratic-controlled Assembly. (The New York Sun, 1114/9/07)

September 14: Attorneys for a Cuban farmer who wants to take custody of his 5-year-old daughter were so confident state lawyers have failed to prove their client is an unfit father that they rested their case without presenting a single witness or piece of evidence. The unusual move by the attorneys for Rafael Izquierdo came after the judge said that the state Department of Children & Families will have a hard time convincing her the father abandoned his daughter. When the trial resumes on September 18, Miami-Dade Circuit Judge Jeri B. Cohen will hear closing arguments. She said she expects to render a decision by September 21. (The Miami Herald, 15/9/07)

September 14: US Republican Presidential candidate Fred Thompson said that Fidel Castro presides over a nation that sponsors terrorism and therefore it is necessary to maintain the existing embargo against the Caribbean island. According to the former Senator and actor, who discussed the Cuban topic during a visit to the restaurant "Versailles," where Cuban exiles meet, Fidel Castro is a dictator and a leader of State-sponsored terrorism and must be treated accordingly. (EFE, 14/9/07)

September 17: A multimillion-dollar human smuggling enterprise is bringing thousands of Cubans to the US on high-powered speedboats at a price of up to $10,000 a head, and the flourishing business has increased the number of Cubans illegally entering the US by double-digit percentages in each of the last three years. More than 16,000 Cubans have arrived illegally this fiscal year, which ends September 30. Most arrived on remote beaches in the Florida Keys or in Mexico, where they could enter the US Southwest through official border crossings. Coupled with the 20,000 visas issued to Cubans each year for legal immigration, the numbers arriving now rival the 35,000 who crossed the Straits of Florida in 1994 to escape the poverty that gripped communist-ruled Cuba after the Soviet Union disintegrated. "We don't know at 3 a.m. when we see a 'go-fast' boat running without lights if that's migrants seeking a better life or terrorists coming here to blow up a nuclear power plant," said Zachary Mann, senior special agent and spokesman for Customs and Border Protection. The smugglers' success using so-called go-fast boats has convinced South Florida Cuban exiles who put up the money for their relatives' passage that they are paying for a service rather than committing a crime, authorities say. (Los Angeles Times, 17/9/07)

September 17: A Nebraska delegation will be making another trade trip this fall to Cuba. Governor Dave Heineman said he's going to lead the agriculture-based group to the island nation in November. This would be Heineman's fourth trade trip to Cuba. Since 2005, Cuba has bought 60 million dollars in Nebraska commodities, including dry edible beans, corn, wheat, turkey, pork, beef, soybeans and other soy products. (Chrom.Com, 17/9/07)

September 18: Cuban Cardinal Jaime Ortega y Alamino is one of five personalities to be honoured by the American Bible Society in New York, on the Day of the Spanish-American Bible, reported LaBibliaWeb.com. (EER, 18/9/07)

September 18: Commerce Secretary Carlos Gutierrez said that the United States was ready to work with Cubans seeking real economic and political reform, but that he saw little sign to date of change as ailing leader Fidel Castro passes from the scene. The Cuban-born Mr. Gutierrez strongly defended the 45-year US trade embargo with Cuba, saying the transfer of power from Mr. Castro to his brother Raul amounted to a "preservation of dictatorship." It is "more than a bit naive" to think the shift from the 81-year-old Fidel to the 75-year-old Raul would bring meaningful reforms, Mr. Gutierrez added. "Unless the regime changes, our policy will not change," the Havana-born Mr. Gutierrez said in the first of a series of programs on the future of post-Castro Cuba at the Heritage Foundation. But he said the US government is anxious to do business with Cuba once the Castro regime is replaced. He said the United States was already the largest source of food and humanitarian aid to the Cuban people, despite the hostility to the regime. "The question is not, when will the United States change its [embargo] policy? The real question is, when will Cuba change its policies? (…) We are prepared to work with Cuba if there is real reform," he said. (The Washington Times, 18/9/07)

September 18: Though Cuba's economy is small, it still offers interesting prospects for commerce, trade experts said. Without a nod to the highly charged political issues that usually swirl around Cuba, the SeaCargo Americas Conference dissected the Cuban economy and its trade and economic potential in a roundtable. ''It is limited,'' said John Price, president of the business consulting group InfoAmericas. ``But Cuba is interesting as a trading partner.'' According to Price, because the Cuban economy doesn't have a lot of productive sectors, it has to import about $10 billion a year in goods. Oil products account for about a third of those imports. Despite the US trade embargo, the United States is still one of the largest exporters to Cuba, though its exports -- largely food and agricultural products -- reach only about $350 million a year and have fallen slightly as Cuba has turned to other countries for food imports. Like the rest of the region, Cuba faces major challenges in how to stretch its limited resources. Price pointed out that nickel prices are falling and that the tourism sector has the worst record in the Caribbean in attracting return visitors. Capital for future investments will need to come from outside Cuba, and the future depends on Cuba's ability to attract those investments, Price said. US companies are not allowed to invest in Cuba and U.S. service firms also do no business there. (The Miami Herald, 19/9/07)

September 18: Cuban Foreign Minister Felipe Perez Roque released a 56-page report on the embargo, calling it devastating and an attempt to "beat our people into submission with hunger and disease." Stricter enforcement of 40-year-old US sanctions has made it harder for Cuba to do its banking and has seen Cubans evicted from US-owned hotels around the world, Roque said. Even Cuban musicians have been banned from playing for guests at Hilton, Marriott and Ritz-Carlton hotels as far as Asia, the Foreign Minister complained. Tougher US actions include stripping Cuba of rights in the United States to its best known trademarks, Cohiba cigars and Havana Club rum, he said. "Enforcement of the blockade has reached levels of madness and has been particularly ferocious and cruel in the last year," he said at the presentation of an annual report to the United Nations on the impact of US sanctions. The most serious development has been the growing refusal of international banks to conduct Cuban business in dollars, for fear of running afoul of US regulators, he said. "No bank dares accept a Cuban transaction," Perez Roque said. "Our country wants to pay but can't. The Swiss banks are afraid of receiving transfers," Perez Roque said. "World rejection of the embargo is practically unanimous," said Perez Roque, who will represent Cuba at the UN General Assembly. The vote on Cuba is on October 30. [Report Cuba vs Blockade] (ABC, Reuters, 18/9/07)

September 18: Cuba's Foreign Minister Felipe Perez Roque said that Cuba is ready to open a dialogue with the United States, if the US is respectful of Cuba’s sovereignty and rights; otherwise, it will continue resisting the blockade for a thousand years. Cuba has not been brought to its knees nor will it be made to do so in the future, stressed Cuba's top diplomat, while presenting to journalists accredited to Havana a report on the need to put an end to the blockade that affects the island's social and economic life. (Prensa Latina, 18/9/07)

September 19: Fidel Castro denounced that the United States government is using unimaginable economic means to defend a right that violates the sovereignty of all the other countries. In an essay entitled "Deliberate Lies, Strange Deaths and Aggression to the World Economy," the leader of the Cuban Revolution states that it keeps on buying raw materials, energy, advanced technology industries, the most productive lands and the most modern buildings on the face of our planet with paper money. [Deliberate Lies, Strange Deaths and Aggression to the World Economy] (Prensa Latina, 19/9/07)

September 19: The judge in the contentious child custody battle that spans the Florida Straits interrupted closing arguments in the case to lament that nearly everyone in the courtroom -- including herself -- shares blame in a ``tragic situation.'' Miami-Dade Circuit Judge Jeri B. Cohen said that responsibility for what has become a long, tense legal battle lies with several parties, including the father of the 5-year-old girl at the center of the dispute, who failed to act decisively when his child entered foster care in December 2005. Cohen also blamed herself, for listening to a state child-welfare lawyer who insisted that father Rafael Izquierdo come to the United States from Cuba to fight for his daughter, instead of letting him plead his case on the telephone -- as the judge said she allows in cases virtually every week. But Cohen reserved her harshest criticism for the Florida Department of Children & Families, saying the agency could offer no explanation for waiting months before notifying the father, a farmer from Cabaiguán in Central Cuba, that the state wanted to strip him forever of custody of his child. ''You blame, you blame and you blame,'' Cohen said, looking at DCF attorney Rebecca Kapusta. ``But the Department of Children & Families [has] a lot of responsibility for the tragic situation we have here. You [have] a lot of the responsibility because you let politics get in the way.'' (The Miami Herald, 20/9/07) 

September 19: Fernando Gonzalez, one of the five Cubans imprisoned in the US, was taken from Waseca Prison in Minnesota to Terre Haute, Indiana, the Free the Five International Committee reported. Gonzalez was sentenced to 19 years in jail. Along with Gerardo Hernandez, Ramon Labañino, Rene Gonzalez and Antonio Guerrero, Fernando was arrested September 12, 1998. (Prensa Latina, 19/9/07)

September 20: The top US diplomat for Latin America urged nations to push Cuba to hold an internal dialogue that would pave the way for democracy on the island. ''There is a quiet consensus in the Americas and in Europe that Cuba's future must be democratic,'' Thomas Shannon, assistant secretary of state for the Western Hemisphere, told participants at the The Miami Herald Americas Conference in Coral Gables. ''All successful political and economic transitions, from South Africa to Eastern Europe, have required dialogue between the existing regimes and the citizens of their countries,'' he said. ``Cuba will be no different.'' Shannon's comments were a rare public admission of the difficulties the United States faces in its diplomatic efforts. ''Currently, the regime believes it can buy time and space through increased repression within Cuba and aggressive diplomacy outside of Cuba,'' Shannon said to a crowded room. ``This is not a long-term strategy, and it does not address the forces of change that ripple beneath Cuba's surface.'' Shannon said there ''still exist differences'' about how to promote democracy in Cuba, given Latin America's ``historic commitment to the principles of non-interventionism and national sovereignty.'' ''But have no doubt,'' he noted, ``helping the Cuban people achieve their democratic destiny and reintegrate their country into the Americas will be one of the biggest diplomatic challenges we face.'' [The Americas: Dynamic Change in the 21st Century] (The Miami Herald, 21/9/07)

September 20: US Commerce Secretary Carlos Gutierrez spoke briefly about Cuba calling it the "human rights travesty of the hemisphere." Gutierrez was speaking at the Americas Conference sponsored by The Miami Herald. “I am often asked when the US will change its policy toward Cuba . That's not the right question”, Gutierrez said. “This is not about US policy--this is about Cuban policy--about the Cuban regime's treatment of its own people”. “Cuba is the human rights travesty of the Hemisphere. There is no place in Latin America where workers and citizens have fewer rights than in Cuba”, Gutierrez said. And added: “We recognize the future of Cuba is in the hands of the citizens of Cuba. We hope that some day we can welcome Cuba into the community of democracies and into a hemisphere of freedom, hope and opportunity for all”. Speaking at the same conference last year, Gutierrez proposed Cubans hold a referendum to decide if they want to live in a democracy or under a dictatorship, an idea that never went anywhere. Gutierrez himself was born in Cuba. Referring to whether the US has any military plan toward Cuba, Gutierrez affirmed that “the US does not have any military ambition in Cuba”. “That has always been an alibi of the Cuban regime to keep on oppressing the Cubans”. (US Fed News, The Miami Herald, Notimex, 20/9/07)

September 21: United States' Treasury Department has banned the export of medicines or devices made by US companies to Havana's  William Soler Pediatric Hospital, opened 21 years ago by Fidel Castro primarily to treat children with congenital heart malformations. The first sign of the recently stepped up measure to block the sale to Cuba came with the ban on sales of catheters and other devices by AGA and NUMED companies to the pediatric hospital's Cardiocenter, used by specialists to perform the technique known as interventionist catheterization. Sources from the Ministry of Public Health note that since 2006 the US Department of Commerce began to list Cuba's most important hospitals as blacklisted facilities, in a new attempt to strangle the development of medical attention on the island. "This is not a political problem," said cardiovascular surgeon Dr. Eugenio Selman-Housein Sosa, director of the "William Soler" Cardiocenter, "but an ethical humane and moral one," which in his opinion speaks poorly of the US government. (ACN, 21/9/07)

September 22: Cubans on a flimsy inflatable raft begged Carnival Cruise Line officials not to interrupt their journey to ''freedom'' while passengers tossed them water bottles and shot video. Adlin Sukhwani, of Kendall, was on the last leg of a seven-day cruise, about 45 miles from Key West, when she spotted the small raft on Saturday and her husband started videotaping the 10 men -- an effort to get their faces splashed in the news media and help their families identify them. Following US Coast Guard procedure, the cruise ship intercepted the raft about 45 miles off Key West, said a Carnival spokesman. Before the cruise ship crew took the men aboard, ''one of the Cuban men said with despair he had risked his life and this was his fifth time being returned,'' Sukhwani said. The men said they were from El Cotorro, a town on the outskirts of Havana. Carnival later turned the men over to the US Coast Guard. (The Miami Herald, 25/9/07)

September 24: Lawrence Wilkerson, former chief of staff to US General Colin Powell, published an open letter where he denounces injustices committed against the five Cubans imprisoned in the US and calls for public protests in their support. The report published in Granma daily says Wilkerson, a retired US Army colonel and assistant to former Secretary of State Powell, said he based his courageous stance on the Five largely on his extensive knowledge of the George W. Bush administration. Wilkerson said he became convinced that defending the Five was a just cause after attending a September 12 lecture by defense attorney Leonard Weinglass at Howard University Law School. (Prensa Latina, 24/9/07)

September 25: US President George W. Bush, in a speech to the UN General Assembly, called for "free and competitive elections" in Cuba, saying the long rule of ailing Fidel Castro "is nearing its end." "In Cuba, the long rule of a cruel dictator is nearing its end," he told world leaders gathered at the UN, in New York, in a reference to Castro. "The Cuban people are ready for their freedom," he added, stressing as the communist-rule island enters a period of transition, "The United Nations must insist on free speech, free assembly and ultimately free and competitive elections." [George W. Bush Address to the UN GA] (AFP, 25/9/07) 

September 25: Cuba's foreign minister walked out of the UN General Assembly in protest of US President George Bush's speech in which he said the ''long rule of a cruel dictator is nearing its end'' on the communist island. The Cuban delegation issued a statement saying the decision by Foreign Minister Felipe Pérez Roque to leave was a ``sign of profound rejection of the arrogant and mediocre statement by President Bush.'' Cuba's UN Mission said Bush had no moral standing to criticize anyone. It accused Bush of responsibility ''for the murder of over 600,000 civilians in Iraq'' and for ''the torture of prisoners'' at the US Navy base at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, where more than 300 men are being held on suspicion of terrorism or links to al Qaeda or the Taliban. [Declaración del MINREX] (The Miami Herald, 26/9/07)

September 25: Members of the Cuban Council of Churches and Cuban religious leaders of diverse denominations joined the campaign of solidarity with five Cubans imprisoned in US jails. Rev. Raúl Suárez, head of the Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial Center, told the press that the call is also a demand to afford dignified and humane treatment for the "Five Heroes" and their relatives. (Trabajadores, 25/9/07)

September 26: The crew of the Coast Guard Cutter Kodiak Island repatriated 61 Cuban migrants, who were interdicted at sea in five separate events, to Bahia de Cabañas, Cuba. The Coast Guard was assisted in two of the five Cuban migrant interdictions by the crews of cruise ships. (US Coast Guard News Release, 26/9/07)

September 26: The judge presiding over a contentious international dispute over the fate of a 5-year-old Cuban girl ruled that state child-welfare lawyers failed to prove that the girl's father is an unfit parent. In the 47-page ruling, read aloud in a crowded downtown Miami courtroom, Miami-Dade Circuit Court Judge Jeri B. Cohen said lawyers for the state Deparment of Children & Families failed in proving their case against Rafael Izquierdo, a Cuban farmer who wants to return to the island with the girl. The judge ruled that state child-welfare workers failed to prove that the father had ''abandoned'' his daughter under Florida law. But Cohen's ruling does not immediately resolve the fate of the girl at the center of the dispute: A second chapter of the legal fight -- to determine whether the girl should stay in the Coral Gables home of Joe and Maria Cubas, where she has been living for the past 19 months -- is expected to begin in October. (The Miami Herald, 27/9/07)

September 26: Cuba's foreign minister launched a blistering attack on President Bush at a UN General Assembly meeting, a day after the US leader spoke of a Cuba no longer ruled by Fidel Castro. Felipe Perez Roque told world leaders that Bush ''came into office through fraud and deceit'' and has ''no moral authority or credibility to judge anyone.'' He also accused the American leader of authorizing the torture of prisoners at the US military prison at Guantanamo Bay. Perez Roque, who spoke on behalf of the 118-nation Nonaligned Movement, said Bush's comments forced him to respond. ''It was an embarrassing show,'' he said. ''The delirium tremens of the world's policeman, sprinkled with the mediocrity and the cynicism of those who threaten to launch wars in which they know their life is not at stake.'' [Statement by Felipe Perez Roque] (The New York Times, 27/9/07)

September 27: A new order issued by the Fifth Circuit of Appeals of New Orleans, Louisiana, has granted the US administration another thirty days to present arguments on the case Luis Posada Carriles. According to a notice published on the US Court PACER systems, October 24 is the new deadline for Washington to appeal the decision made in El Paso, Texas by Judge Katlheen Cardone, by means of which Luis Posada Carriles was found not guilty for minor immigration charges. (ACN, 27/9/07)

September 28: Eighteen Cuban migrants -- three of them children -- were picked up in the Florida Keys by a trucker and dropped off overnight at a gas station in South Miami-Dade. All were seen by Miami-Dade Fire Rescue workers and seemed to be doing well. The migrants said they had departed Cuba from the port of Mariel. (The Miami Herald, 28/9/07)