Chronicle on Cuba - January 2008

US-Cuba Relations

January 2: The panel that runs Florida's university system has told a federal judge to throw out part of a state law that bans colleges from spending money to send professors to Cuba and other ''state sponsors'' of terrorism. The move by Florida's Board of Governors aligns the appointed board closer with the ACLU, which last year filed a lawsuit on behalf of a group of university professors and the Florida International University faculty senate challenging the ban. In its filing in US federal court lawyers for the Board of Governors contend that while state lawmakers can tell universities how to spend state taxpayer money, the Legislature does not have the authority to order universities on how they can spend private donations or federal research grants. ''Where nonstate funds are concerned, the travel act's prohibition runs afoul of the academic freedom accorded to universities under the First Amendment,'' the board states. The move to challenge the travel ban was criticized by Representative David Rivera, the Miami Republican who authored the 2006 law in response to the indictments of former FIU professor Carlos Alvarez and his wife, Elsa Alvarez, on charges of being unregistered agents for Fidel Castro's communist government. They later pleaded guilty to lesser charges. (The Miami Herald, 2/1/08)

January 3: In Timor-Leste, a country of less than a million people, on an island off the coast of Indonesia, three Cuban doctors have been in hiding for two months. They have been investigated by the US Department of Homeland Security and have parolee visas to come to travel to the United States. But the government of Timor-Leste have not given them permission to leave. In effect, Miriela Llanes Martínez, Reidén López Carrillo and Irina Valdés are in limbo, with the possibility of capture by government authorities and deportation back to Cuba. Their story is told by another Cuban doctor, Boris Rodríguez, who lived the Timor-Leste experience and was fortunate to get out before officials decided to make it difficult for others to leave. Rodríguez is one of three who was able to abandon Timor-Leste and enter the United States under an August 2006 law that grants visas to Cuban doctors working in third countries who want to defect. (Sun Sentinel, 3/1/08)

January 6: Wearing a Santa suit and a wide grin, a wealthy Florida rancher doled out sneakers and sweets to Cuban children, bringing holiday cheer to this communist-run island where the Christmas season goes largely unobserved. About 150 kids ages 5 to 15 shrieked with pleasure applauded and shouted "Viva Santa Claus!" as John Parke Wright tottered into an auditorium at a Roman Catholic convent on Havana's eastern outskirts. "Feliz Navidad!" he bellowed, Spanish for "Merry Christmas!" The celebration actually marked "Three Kings Day," a holiday popular in Latin America that commemorates the arrival of three wise men bearing gifts for the newborn Jesus. An outspoken critic of the embargo, Wright paid for the goodies he gave away and also donated baseball gloves, balls and caps to players for two little league teams he organized. His visit was not officially sanctioned by Havana, but Fidel Castro's nephew, Angel Ramon Castro, was on hand for the giveaway. (AP, 7/1/08)

January 8: The President of the Cuban Parliament, Ricardo Alarcon, explained to members of the Association of Combatants of the Cuban Revolution that the constant threats of the US government against the island is one of the main reasons to vote for all candidates in the upcoming national general elections on January 20th. Speaking at a meeting of the Association, on the occasion of the 49th anniversary of the triumphant entry of the Rebel Army into the city of Havana in 1959, Alarcon said that Washington insists on trying to harm the Caribbean nation and to divide its people. "This plan created half a century ago - aimed at causing unease, dissatisfaction, problems and difficulties - is still valid and that is why it is so necessary that revolutionaries stay united and also to fight our own deficiencies and errors," Alarcon said. He added that the US administration admitted in a recent report that the United States spends more human and financial resources on pursuing those who visit the island or trade with Cuba than on fighting terrorism and drug trafficking in the North American nation. (ACN, 10/1/08)

January 9: Philip Agee, a former CIA agent who became an outspoken critic of Washington's Cuba policy, has died in a Havana hospital following ulcer surgery, state media reported. He was 72. Agee quit the CIA in 1969 after 12 years working mostly in Latin America at a time when leftist movements were gaining prominence and sympathizers. His 1975 book "Inside the Company: CIA Diary," cited alleged CIA misdeeds against leftists in the region that included a 22-page list of purported agency operatives. Granma, Cuba's Communist Party newspaper, said Agee died on January 7 and described him as "a loyal friend of Cuba and fervent defender of the peoples' fight for a better world." In 2000, with European investors and a state-run travel agent as his partners, Agee opened a travel Web site designed to bring US tourists to Cuba. The site offers package tours and other help with Cuban tourism that is largely off limits to Americans. Agee has also been accused of receiving up to $1 million in payments from the Cuban intelligence service. He denied the accusations, which were first made by a high-ranking Cuban intelligence officer and defector in a 1992 report. (AP, 9/1/08)

January 9: US Representative Lincoln Díaz-Balart says the likelihood of a contender for his seat is a Democratic Party strategy to soften US policy toward Cuba after he and other Cuban-American members in Congress have successfully maintained a hard line toward the communist island. ''What you have now is a [Democratic] decision that if they don't defeat Mario, Ileana or Lincoln, they won't be able to do anything'' to improve relations with Cuba, he said at a meeting with El Nuevo Herald editors and reporters. Díaz-Balart was referring to his brother Mario Díaz-Balart and Ileana Ros-Lehtinen. All three Republicans represent South Florida in Congress. The Democrats have yet to announce a candidate to oppose Díaz-Balart, but former Hialeah Mayor Raúl Martínez has said he is considering returning to politics. (The Miami Herald, 9/1/08) 

January 12: A dead man found floating in Biscayne Bay was part of a group of Cuban migrants who were abandoned by smugglers on a sandbar off Cape Florida early on New Year's Day. Feisy Rafael-Miranda, 28, one of 30 Cuban migrants, including six children, were left on the sandbar after an argument broke out over payment money. Rafael-Miranda was found on January 4, when a fishing boat captain spotted the corpse bobbing in a channel south of Stiltsville.  The case comes as federal authorities are increasingly concerned about human smuggling from Cuba. US Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents and Miami-Dade homicide detectives are investigating the death. (The Miami Herald, 12/1/08)  

January 14: The US Committee to Free the Cuban Five announced a new international campaign called "The Day After" that will immediately follow the long awaited ruling by the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals on the case. The organization calls on all those supporting the cause of the Cuban Five --imprisoned in the United States--, to hold press conferences and/or rallies in front of government offices at home and US embassies and other offices abroad, reads the article published by Granma daily. The committee also urged letters be sent to US President George W. Bush and Attorney General Michael Mukasey demanding the release of Gerardo Hernandez, Antonio Guerrero, Ramon Labanino, Fernando Gonzalez and Rene Gonzalez, arrested in September 1998. (ACN, 15/1/08)

January 14: Sixteen Cuban migrants dropped by smugglers on a Key Biscayne sandbar have been repatriated -- but those who survived the swim from the sandbar to shore were allowed to stay. Caught between the US ''wet foot/dry foot'' policy for Cuban migrants were families separated by rough waters. The wife and young daughter of Sixeo Sánchez, one of the Cubans who reached land, were sent to Villa Clara, where the trip began on December 30. Sánchez, 29, a physical education teacher in Cuba, was able to reach land, but his wife and 6-year-old daughter couldn't swim against the currents and were detained by the Coast Guard. Of the repatriated group, at least three are dissidents affiliated with the Miami-based migrant advocacy group Democracy Movement and should have been considered for political asylum, the group's Miami-Dade spokesman said. ''This is another proof that the process of interviewing people aboard the [Coast Guard] cutters is defective,'' Ramón Saúl Sánchez said. "It lacks minimal due process.''  He said the Cubans were not given a chance to show identification that proved their dissident status while they were in Coast Guard custody. (The Miami Herald, 15/1/08) 

January 15: The US State Department is asking foreign governments to demand greater respect for labor rights from foreign companies that operate in Cuba, US officials say.
In Cuba, companies can't hire or pay workers directly but must go through a state agency, which pockets the lion's share of the wages. In the 1990s, Cuban dissident Gustavo Arcos proposed minimum labor standards for foreign investors to operate on the island, such as hiring directly without political discrimination and allowing Cubans access to hotels and beaches. ''We've talked to governments how they might use economic engagement to push for greater freedoms,'' Kirsten Madison, the deputy assistant secretary of state in the Bureau of Western Hemisphere Affairs said. "We've specifically talked to governments about the Arcos principles.'' Since Fidel Castro became ill in July of 2006, the State Department has embarked on a campaign to have countries bring more pressure on Cuba to enact democratic reforms. ''We hope that working in concert we can help define a shared expectation in the international community of what a transition in Cuba should look like,'' she told a gathering at the American Enterprise Institute, noting most countries agree Cuba should free political prisoners. (The Miami Herald, 17/1/08)

January 15: Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, a former union leader, could raise the violation of labor rights with the Cubans, a US State Department official said. ''As a government of democratic left in Latin America they are particularly well positioned to talk to the Cubans and to lay out some basic expectations about what they would like to see,'' Kirsten Madison, the deputy assistant secretary of state in the Bureau of Western Hemisphere Affairs said. "Labor rights is a particular area where I think they would have something to say.'' (The Miami Herald, 17/1/08)

January 16: US President George W. Bush informed the US Congress that he has extended for another six months a waiver of Title III of the 1996 Helms-Burton Act, which upholds the right of US and Cuban American companies to sue foreign firms in US courts for using properties confiscated from them by the Cuban Government.
(EFE, 16/1/08)

January 17: Cuba is not interested in improving relations with the United States while President Bush is in office and will wait for a change in US leadership before extending anew an offer for dialogue, Cuba's top diplomat in the US said. Havana is looking to America's vote in November to decide whether it wants to talk to Washington, said Jorge Alberto Bolanos Suarez, head of the Cuban Interest Section in Washington. In an interview with the press, he said Cuban offers for dialogue with the United States made by Castro's brother, Raul, after he took day-to-day control of the government in 2006 were not intended for the Bush administration. "When Raul spoke about it he was not referring to the present administration," Bolanos said. "He was speaking clearly that after the US elections, the new (US) government should take a position with regard to Cuba. "That is the time when Cuba would be ready to dialogue on the basis of mutual respect, without the arrogance that has always colored the US position," he said. "I'm not concerned what the current State Department says because we are waiting for what the next one has to say about Cuba." (AP, 18/1/08)

January 19: Once taboo in Miami, the exhibiting of artwork from Cubans on the island is no longer unusual. Exempted from the US embargo against the Cuban government, art made by Cuban artists on the island is often featured in group and solo shows and sold at galleries in Coral Gables, Wynwood and the Design District. The artist Kcho, considered one of Cuba's top talents, has never had a solo show in Miami, but his sculptures sold in December at the fair Art Miami almost as soon as they were displayed by a Venezuelan gallery. Currently, the show “AfroCuba Works on Paper, 1968-2003” at the Lowe Art Museum features the work of artists on the island. Most of the work is on loan from art institutions in Cuba or the artists themselves. (The Miami Herald, 19/1/08)

January 20: There’s a bright ray of hope for students in the United States who want to become doctors. Beginning in 2001 students from the US began studying in Havana for free at the Latin American School of Medicine (LASM). Originally 500 students were offered scholarships annually. This has been increased to 1,000. The only condition is that the students make a commitment to serve poor communities in the US after receiving their medical licenses. Most of the U.S. students who have either graduated from the LASM or are now in the medical program are people of color and/or women. (Workers World, 20/1/08)

January 21: California, the top US food producing state, has sent its first official agricultural trade mission to communist Cuba, looking to tap a potential $180 million food market. While other US states have pushed ahead in selling Cuba an average $350 million per year in agricultural products, mainly grains, California is a late arrival. Californian companies sold products worth just $735,000 to Cuba in 2006. "Some of us might be a little late in getting here, but we are here," California Food and Agriculture Secretary A.G. Kawamura told reporters in Havana. Kawamura is leading a delegation of companies seeking Cuban contracts for dairy products, wine, grapes, figs, nuts and other specialty fruits. So far, Cuba has bought powdered milk and rice from California, and some wine and apples. (Reuters, 22/1/08)

January 21: The United States remained Cuba's main supplier of food and farm products in 2007, selling the communist-run island more than $600 million in agricultural exports despite its trade embargo, a top official said. Cuba imported roughly the same amount of agricultural products as it did in 2006, but rising production and transportation costs forced it to spend $30 million more than the $570 million it paid two years ago for the same goods, said Pedro Alvarez, chairman of Cuba's food import company Alimport. Alvarez's comments came during a joint news conference with California Secretary of Food and Agriculture A.G. Kawamura, who is in Cuba on a trade mission and is hoping America's largest food-producing state can one day sell as much as $180 million in agricultural products to the island. It was the state's first agricultural mission to Cuba. (The New York Times, 21/1/08)

January 21: Cuba's ambassador to the World Trade Organization read a statement at the organization's headquarters criticizing a US law denying trademark ownership rights to Cuba's government for confiscated property. Ambassador Juan Antonio Fernandez told the trade group that the US had failed to comply with the WTO's dispute-settlement body regarding Bacardi trademarks, according to the Cuba News Agency. Fernandez suggested the dispute-settlement body mechanisms needed reformation, since they weren't successful in resolving and preventing trade disputes between countries, according to Cuba News Service. Cuba and its licensee Pernod-Ricard SA and Bacardi Ltd. have battled for more than a decade over rights to the Havana Club rum brand. (Bloomberg, 24/1/08)

January 22: With a trio of Cuban American congressmen flanking him, Senator John McCain held himself out as a warrior of the Cold War, who understands the importance of keeping up the fight against Communism in nearby Cuba. Surrounded by a mob of press and voters of epic proportions, McCain visited the Versailles restaurant, a signature spot in Miami’s Cuban American community, throwing back a “cortadito” to the cheers of the crowd. "I understand Cuba," said McCain. "I am proud to have sat on a flight deck of a United States Navy aircraft during the Cuban missile crisis." McCain served on the USS Enterprise, which was the first aircraft carrier sent to Cuba to circle the island, because it was nuclear capable. "I'm proud to have fought for and defended freedom for the people of Cuba, consistently calling for continuing the embargo until there are free elections, human right organizations and a free and independent media," he said. "Then and only then will the United States of America extend the aid and assistance because we don't want American tax dollars to go to a corrupt government headed either by Fidel or Raul Castro or anyone else who has denied freedom from the Cuban people." McCain was accompanied to the restaurant by each of South Florida's Cuban American members of Congress: Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, Lincoln Diaz-Balart, and Mario Diaz-Balart. Also by his side was Roberto Martin Perez, the president in exile of Cuba's political prisoners, who was imprisoned for 28 years by Fidel Castro. (The Swamp, 22/1/08)

January 22: The United States refused to accept the parliamentary electoral process held in Cuba as genuine “elections,” while admitting that it continues to work on a President George W. Bush proposal to establish an international fund for the freedom of the Caribbean island. The head of US diplomacy for Latin America, Tom Shannon, declared to have no comments regarding the electoral process, claiming that it had not been an election and therefore he would not refer to it as such. Asked if foreign countries had already announced their intention to join in President George W. Bush’s initiative to create an international fund for “freedom” in Cuba, Shannon replied that his government was still working on the project. [Thomas Shannon’s briefing on Western Hemisphere, video] (AFP, 23/1/08)

January 22: The religious leader who helped organize a Manhattan school's controversial trip to Cuba must speak to investigators, a judge has ruled. The Reverend Lucius Walker was ordered to comply with a subpoena regarding the Beacon School's spring break trip to Cuba with his group, the Interreligious Foundation for Community Organization. Schools investigator Richard Condon is probing the role of the school and a teacher in the planning of the 10-day trip, which appears to have violated travel restrictions. Walker has repeatedly refused to speak with investigators about the April trip. His attorney, Palyn Hung of the New York Civil Liberties Union, said that Walker hadn't decided whether to appeal. (Daily News, 23/1/08)

January 23: Cuba's cruise business has been been paralyzed by US sanctions that deter cruise ships from visiting during their tours of the Caribbean, the director of Havana's passenger terminal said. The cigar and rum shop is closed in the deserted $10 million terminal and no ships are expected to moor for days. "The reason is the US blockade, which does not allow ships to visit Cuban ports," said Jose Antonio Lopez, general manager of the state company that run Cuba's four cruise terminals. "This is paralyzed," he said. "All cruise operators want to come to Havana and thousands of cruises sail around Cuba, but they are penalized if they visit," Lopez said. "Even the ones most interested in visiting Cuba don't dare do so." Fidel Castro has not helped much with his criticism of the cruise business. A year before he fell ill and dropped out of public sight in 2006, Castro called cruise ships "floating hotels" that left behind "rubbish, empty cans and paper" but little income. (Reuters, 23/1/08)

January 23: Senator Bill Nelson (Democrat-Florida), a foe of drilling offshore Florida, has asked President Bush not to renew an international agreement that allows for oil and natural gas drilling in Cuban waters within 50 miles of the Sunshine State's coastline. A number of foreign countries have signed agreements with Cuba to explore its energy-rich waters in the Gulf of Mexico. The latest country to partner with Cuba is Brazil, which joins China, India, Spain and companies from Canada. "Soon there could be oil [and gas] rigs within 50 miles of the Florida Keys and the Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary. And, as the Gulf Stream flows, an oil spill or other drilling accident would desecrate part of Florida's unique environment and devastate its $50 billion tourism-driven economy," Nelson said in a letter to President Bush. (NGI's Daily Gas Price Index, 25/1/08)

January 24: US President George W. Bush reinforced his hard line against communist Cuba, accusing Fidel and Raul Castro of repressive policies and urging them to free all political prisoners. Bush took his latest swipe at Cuba's government at a meeting with the wife of jailed Cuban dissident Oscar Elias Biscet, recently awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the highest US civilian honor. "It's hard for us to imagine what it would be like if we're living in a society as repressive as the society of Fidel and Raul Castro," Bush said sitting in the Oval Office beside Elsa Morejon, who wore a pin bearing her husband's portrait. "My call is for those who believe that the Cuba of today is a hopeful place to recognize the realities," Bush told reporters at the White House. "This is a country that's got political prisoners who are languishing in jails, who are mistreated in jails. Our message is that political prisoners ought to be free. So should the Cuban people -- free to express themselves, free to realize their God-given talents," he added. Biscet, a doctor and human rights activist, has spent eight years in jail for opposing Cuba's communist government. He was released in 2002 but arrested again weeks later and sentenced for 25 years for acting against Cuba's independence, a common charge against dissidents. [President Bush Meets Elsa Morejon] (Reuters, 24/1/08)

January 24: One month after three top Cuban dancers defected to the US, seven more have fled the communist island, according to a newspaper report. At least seven members of the Spanish Ballet of Cuba left an arts festival in the Mexican city of Merida, and four of them have already arrived in Miami. Dancers Cindy Arguelles and Lisandra Frontella, both 20, Daryl Perez, 19, and Erick Pupo, 18, arrived in Miami, days after defecting during Merida’s International Arts Fair. After the group’s performance on January 17, three other dancers left the troupe, including renowned dancer Liliana Fagoaga, according to Perez. He said those dancers were hiding in Mexico while trying to reach the United States. (AP, 24/1/08)

January 24: Canadian credit unions are advising their customers who plan to travel to Cuba to use credit cards other than their MasterCards. The problem is the result of the Bank of America Corp.'s acquisition last October of the credit card business of Regina-based CU Electronic Transaction Services (CUETS), the largest issuer of MasterCard credit cards in Canada. CUETS provides credit cards to Canada's credit union system. Betty Riess, a spokeswoman for North Carolina-based Bank of America, said its MBNA Canada subsidiary, which bought the credit card business, isn't able to process transactions in Canada, so it has to do so in the US. "That puts us under US law to disallow transactions from sanctioned countries, which would include Cuba," she said. (The Peterborough Examiner, 24/1/08)

January 25: Montana pea and lentil growers have negotiated a $7.8 million sale to Cuba. The deal will move nearly 15,000 tons of crops from one of the fastest-growing segments of Montana farming. To complete a deal, Cuba must deposit its payment in the bank of a third country, where US businesses can then take the cash while still honoring the trade ban. Business travel to Cuba, less than 100 miles off the Florida coast, is tightly regulated. Yet Montana pea growers have coveted the Cuban market. "It's so close to us, it makes producers salivate," said Kim Murray, of the Montana Pulse Advisory Committee. (Billings Gazette, 25/1/08)

January 28: Blanca Gonzalez, whose son, Normando Hernandez Gonzalez, has become an international symbol of Cuban human-rights abuses, joined Laura Bush in the first lady's gallery when President George W. Bush delivered his final State of the Union address. In a press release, the White House described Gonzalez as ``the mother of Normando Hernandez Gonzalez, a political prisoner suffering under the regime of Fidel and Raul Castro.'' Bush has insisted throughout his presidency on keeping US sanctions against Cuba. His administration has also called for Cuban President Fidel Castro to release all political prisoners. Blanca Gonzalez, herself a political activist, has lived in Miami since being granted political asylum by the US in 2002. (Bloomberg, 28/1/08)

January 29: The family of an American who was tortured and executed by a Cuban firing squad is asking a federal court to enforce a state judgment that awarded them millions of dollars. Jeannette Hausler is the sister of Robert Fuller, a US citizen who owned a plantation in Cuba and was killed in 1960, in violation of US anti-torture and extra-judicial killing laws. In 2007, a Florida state court awarded her family $400 million in damages. They filed court papers last week asking a federal court to pay them $80 million. Receiving payment is difficult in cases like this because they are trying to identify Cuban assets frozen in US bank accounts. (AP, 29/1/08)

January 29: North Dakota Agriculture Commissioner Roger Johnson is making another trip to Cuba to push North Dakota farm products. Johnson said he has traveled to Cuba seven times in the past seven years to pitch the state’s commodities. He said the state has sold about $30 million worth of peas and lentils to Cuba since 2001. But he said a deal he helped broker last year that would have sent 100 tons of seed potatoes to Cuba has languished. Rules have not been crafted to deal with potato food-safety issues, known as “sanitary and phytosanitary measures,” that ensure the commodity is disease- and insect-free, Johnson said. “It’s disappointing,” Johnson said. US regulators “are still dithering around with the protocol – it’s hard to say where the block is.” (AP, 29/1/08)

January 30: Fidel Castro called President Bush's State of the Union address a new low point in "demagoguery, lies and total lack of ethics" in a new commentary. Castro wrote that "Bush tells us more with his external expressions than with the words written by his advisers," but added that "for a population that knows how to read, write and think, nobody can offer a more elegant criticism of the empire than Bush himself." Castro and top Cuban officials routinely refer to the United States as "the empire." In his essay, called "The Antithesis of Ethics" and published on the front pages of government newspapers, Castro said Bush's latest speech was worse than earlier State of the Union addresses: "the worst for its demagoguery, lies and total lack of ethics." [The Antithesis of Ethics] (AP, 30/1/08)

January 31: The president of Cuba’s Parliament, Ricardo Alarcon, urged those who fight for a better world to create new alliances in “this time of unity” when the ideals of Cuban National Hero Jose Marti are more valid than ever. During the closing ceremony of the 2nd International Conference “For World Equilibrium” in Havana, Alarcon referred to the participation in the event – with their ideas and solidarity – of five Cuban political prisoners – internationally known as the Cuban Five. Alarcon criticized the US government that, in spite of the current situation of hunger and illiteracy that prevails in many regions of the world, continues with its crazy ideas of world domination and its military race. (ACN, 31/1/08)

January 31: The US Free the Five Committee has issued a press release announcing new actions for the liberation of five Cubans who remain imprisoned in the United States.