Chronicle on Cuba - April 2008

Foreign Affairs

April 2: Cuban President Raúl Castro Ruz received Evguienevich Levitin, Minister of Transportation from the Russian Federation, who is leading his country’s delegation to the 8th Session of the Russia-Cuba Intergovernmental Commission for economic, commercial and scientific-technical cooperation. During the amicable meeting, the Cuban president emphasized the historic friendship between the two peoples, the successful development of bilateral relations and his confidence in the consolidation of these links. The co-president of the Russia-Cuba Intergovernmental Commission delivered warm greetings from President Vladimir Putin. "We need to actively promote cooperation in high-tech and investment sectors, such as biotechnology and pharmaceuticals, where your country has a lot of achievements. As it turns out, we should move to implement bilateral investment projects and create joint ventures," Putin said in his message. The Russian president also said relations between Russia and Cuba, resting on principles "of friendship, solidarity and mutual understanding," had stood the test of time and passed through a difficult period of adaptation. "I am pleased to point out that political dialogue between Moscow and Havana has become more trusting, with more dynamic trade and economic relations, while cultural and humanitarian cooperation has become stronger," Putin added. Russia's outgoing president also told Raul Castro that President elect Dmitry Medvedev also intends to continue developing relations between Moscow and Havana on a mutually beneficial basis. (Prensa Latina, Ria Novosti,  2/4/08)

April 3: India’s Congress General Secretary Rahul Gandhi met with Cuban Communist Party officials visiting the Asian country. Gandhi and Fernando Remirez de Estenoz, head of the Foreign Relations Department at the Central Committee of Cuba’s Communist Party, agreed on the excellent relations between their countries and talked about ways to further expand bilateral exchange. The Indian leader recalled his visit to Cuba in 2007 and said he was impressed by the Cuban educational and healthcare systems which, he said, every country should learn from. During the meeting both parties agreed that India and Cuba are long time friends and share common positions in the international arena. India´s Parliament speaker Somnath Chatterjee also welcomed the Cuban delegation, and said Cuba and Fidel Castro are sources “of inspiration for his people and his motherland.” Remirez de Estenoz is concluding an Asian tour that also took him to China and Viet Nam. (ACN, 3/4/08)

April 4: The human rights arm of the Organization of American States condemned Cuba for multiple violations, drawing an angry response from its allies Venezuela and Nicaragua, which argued that Havana had been unable to defend itself. In its 2007 annual report, the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, a semi-autonomous unit of the OAS, said Cuba restricted political rights and freedom of expression, lacked free elections and an independent judiciary and "created a permanent panorama of breached basic rights for the Cuban citizenry." The report also faults Cuba for the lack of independent trade unions and threats and attacks against rights activists. The commission also noted that foreign reporters were stripped of their work permits because "their assessment of Cuban problems is not acceptable to the Cuban government," the report said. It said Cuba jailed 26 journalists, more than any other country in the hemisphere. Cuba is also found to have violated multiple articles of international rights treaties and was urged to free jailed dissidents. One of the prisoners, Jose Gabriel Ramon Castillo, was confined to 15 months of solitary confinement and "suffered damage to his central nervous system and other pathologies," according to the report. (McClatchy Newspapers, 574/08)

April 5: Jean Enarson stood in an Edmonton warehouse, carefully checking off items destined for Cuba. The items are part of a huge collection of medical equipment that a group of Albertans recovered from the Canada’s East Central Health Region for needy Cuban hospitals. "In Cuba, a lot of the hospitals haven't had their equipment modernized since Castro (came to power in 1959)," said Al Bergsma, who helped organized the shipment. "We're putting equipment with lots of life left in it back in hospitals." Last year, Bergsma, from Rocky Mountain House, noticed some area hospitals were updating their equipment and wondered what would happen to the old items. He spoke with Dale Enarson, a friend through the Evangelical Free Church of Canada, who had done several mission trips in Cuba. The idea of sending second-hand medical equipment to the Caribbean country was soon born. (Edmonton Journal, 6/4/08)

April 6: The president of the Cuban Olympic Committee (COC) Jose Ramon Fernandez, condemned the campaign “aimed to undermine the international confidence on China's capacity to organize the Olympic Games”. The Cuban Olympic Committee expressed its firm rejection of any attempts to interfere in China's domestic affairs, while recognizing the efforts made by the Olympic Committee and the Chinese government and people to guarantee the success of Beijing 2008 Olympic Games. In statements to the press in Beijing, Fernandez said the Asian nation, which he said holds such a "solid sovereignty, glorious history and millenarian culture" will not be put under pressure nor blackmailed. (Prensa Latina, 7/4/08)

April 7: Dozens of trade union leaders and social activists from Latin America, the United States and Europe have arrived in Havana to participate in the 7th Hemispheric Meeting against Free Trade Agreements (FTA). Sources from the Organizing Committee told reporters that everything is ready to hold the meeting, scheduled from April 9-11 and to be attended by more than 500 delegates. During the working sessions, participants will take concrete actions against neoliberal globalization. Cuban economist Osvaldo Martinez, chairman of the Parliament's Economic Affairs Committee, announced that the meeting will condemn "free trade tactics". FTAs have been criticized for being versions of the FTAA, promoted by the United States since the early 1990s, a model that "has failed and has been consigned to oblivion," Martinez noted. (Prensa Latina, 7/4/08)

April 7: Trade union leaders from 18 countries of all continents will attend the traditional May Day celebrations in Cuba. Representatives from all over the world have sent messages confirming their presence in Havana to celebrate International Workers’ Day. Raimundo Navarro Fernandez, a member of the National Secretariat of the Cuban Workers’ Confederation (CTC), also announced that Havana will host on May 2nd an International Meeting in Solidarity with Cuba in which all foreign guests of the May Day celebrations will participate. (ACN, 7/4/08)

April 8: Cuba reiterated its proposal to create a fund managed by the United Nations, which would receive half of the world’s current military spending, to finance economic and social projects in underdeveloped countries. Speaking during the inaugural session of the UN Disarmament Commission, the Cuban ambassador to the world body, Rodrigo Malmierca, expressed his concern for the interruption of the multilateral disarmament agenda in recent years, while the world’s military spending continues to rise. According to Granma news daily, Malmierca noted that the United States alone, the main military investor, could spend more than $700 billion this year. “The fact that the world military spending far exceeds the funds dedicated to achieving the Development Goals of the Millennium is counterproductive,” Malmierca stressed. (ACN, 8/4/08)

April 10: Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez said that his close friend Fidel Castro predicted the fall of the US dollar. Chavez said Cuba's 81-year-old former president mentioned the prediction some time ago before signs of a weakening dollar had begun to appear. ''Fidel told me one day, 'Chavez, it won't be long before the crisis of the dollar occurs,''' the Venezuelan leader said in a televised speech. Chavez said Castro handed him a document he had written during one of their meetings in Havana that said ''the United States has bought half the world with paper bills that don't have real backing. ... The world can't sustain that bubble.'' ''There it is, the crisis of the dollar,'' Chavez said. (AP, 10/4/08)

April 10: The 7th Hemispheric Conference against Free Trade Agreements continued at the Convention Center in Havana with a panel that will analyze topics such as the criminalization of protest and social struggles, as well as the anti-terrorist fight and its regulations – according to imperial concepts – and US military bases in Latin America. Meanwhile, two other panels will discuss issues related to the environment, climate change and the defense of natural resources as well as bio-fuels and food sovereignty. Delegates from 32 countries are attending the event that was inaugurated the day before. During the opening session of the event, Dr. Osvaldo Rodriguez, president of the organizing committee, said that although the Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA) failed, it adopted a new face with the same imperialist essence: free trade agreements. (ACN, 10/4/08)

April 11: The seventh Hemispheric Meeting on the Struggle against Free Trade Agreements and for People Integration is set to conclude in Cuba. Over 500 delegates from 31 countries have participated in the meeting in Havana. During the event representatives from youth groups, students, jurists, professional associations and women's organizations discussed the current world economy, the challenges of globalization, and the unfair trading advantage first-world countries exert on developing nations. Strategies to resist neoliberal policies, terrorism and US military bases in Latin America were also on the agenda. The event was the third without the presence of its sponsor and creator, Fidel Castro. There was, however, a video of Castro's previous appearances played at the beginning of this year's conference. (Iran’s Press TV, 11/4/08)

April 11: Cuba's official newspaper Granma published an article stating that "Tibet is an inalienable part of China" and the current campaign by some Western governments aims to "discredit China." "Tibet is an inalienable part of China," said the article, adding that some religious persons who aimed at separating the country incited violence and chaos. It said that the riots that broke out on March 14 in Lhasa, capital city of China's Tibet Autonomous Region, were an "incitement promoted from overseas by the Dalai Lama." The newspaper also reported that many historic registries had confirmed Tibet's being part of Chinese territory since ancient times. The article also pointed out that the current campaign by some Western governments aims to discredit China using well-known media tools and words like "repression" and "violation of human rights" to any incident within China's borders. It added that "some Western governments bet this time on the Beijing Olympic Games' failure," and the Dalai Lama is once more their "disciplined soldier." (Xinhua, 11/4/08)

April 12: The Ecuadoran president, Rafael Correa, suggested that the Rio Group become the new organization of Latin-American states to solve regional conflicts, and proposed the inclusion of Cuba, currently excluded from the OAS. In particular, he advocated for Cuba’s inclusion, a country that in his opinion has been “segregated” and “discriminated against”, in other fora like the OAS, from which it has been suspended since 1962. (AP, 12/4/08)

April 14: Bulgaria Health Care Minister Radoslav Gaidarski left for an official visit to Cuba that will continue until April 18. By the time of the visit Minister Gaidarski will meet Cuba's Minister of Public Health doctor Jose Ramon Balaguer Cabrera. Both ministers will sign a Memorandum of co-operation in the health care sector. The document foresees the establishment of collaboration between the Bulgarian Bul Bio - National Centre for the treatment of infectious and parasitic diseases, and Cuba’s Institute for Tropical Diseases and the Centre for vaccine's production. (News Bg, 14/4/08)

April 14: Internal dissidents, exiles and Spanish intellectuals released a manifesto asking the governments of the European Union (EU) “to devise concrete measures in order to engage in a constructive and open dialogue with the entire Cuban civil society, in particular, with the democratic dissident movement”. The signatories of the document titled “Yes to dialogue — with Cuba’s people”, called the current situation on the island deeply “serious”, after the succession of Fidel Castro by his brother Raúl, and warn that “the country continues to be hostage to an elite determined to block any social, political or economic progress.” [Diálogo sí: también con el pueblo cubano] (EER, 14/4/08)

April 14: Twelve Cuban migrants bound for the United States have landed in Honduras after crossing the Caribbean by boat. Honduran national police said the migrants arrived in Puerto La Ceiba on the country's northern coast. Immigration officials say more than 1,000 Cubans have made the sea crossing to arrive in Honduras since 2000. Most are granted temporary visas and immediately leave for the US. (Sun Sentinel, 14/4/08)

April 14: Baseball's 2009 World Cup is being shifted from Cuba to seven European nations in an effort to bolster the sport's bid to get back into the Olympics. Cuba agreed to the move, the Italian baseball federation told the press. Italy will host the final, and games will also be played in six other European nations. An announcement was to be made in Rome, the federation said. (AP, 14/4/08)

April 15: The General Secretary of the Association of Caribbean States (ACS), Luis Fernando Andrade, arrived in Cuba for an official visit at the invitation of Cuban Foreign Minister Felipe Perez Roque. The ACS, comprised of 25 states and four dependent territories of the Greater Caribbean, is an organization of regional cooperation and integration to face common challenges among countries of the region. Cuba is one of its founding members and has worked in favor of its strengthening and revitalization. (ACN, 15/4/08)

April 15: President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf has commended the Government of Cuba for its interest in Liberia's development. She says Liberia can learn many lessons from the Cuban experience as far as staying the course of development is concerned. The Liberian leader made the recommendation at the Foreign Ministry during talks with a visiting delegation of the Cuban Government. The delegation is in the country for the Second Session of the Liberia-Cuba Joint Commission for Economic, Scientific and Technical Cooperation held in Monrovia, Liberia from the 9th -11th of April 2008. (All Africa.Com, 15/4/08)

April 16: The Lower House is debating with Dutch Foreign Minister Maxime Verhagen on whether the Netherlands should resume a political dialogue with Cuba. In a letter to the House, Minister Verhagen writes "The human rights situation in Cuba is still poor and there is still no democracy". Nevertheless, the minister is considering reviving diplomatic relations with Cuba now that Raul Castro has come to power. Resuming relations with Cuba could be in the Netherlands' interests because the Dutch Antilles are neighbours and changes are taking place on the island. (Radio Netherlands, 16/4/08)

April 16: Cuban Foreign Minister Felipe Perez Roque received Secretary General of ACS (Association of Caribbean States), Guatemalan Luis Fernando Andrade. Talks between Cuba’s top diplomat and the Caribbean leader were held closed-door at the Foreign Ministry headquarters. According to his agenda, Andrade will also meet with representatives of several local bodies linked to the work of ACS. (Prensa Latina, 16/4/08)

April 16: Former Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev spoke at the Seminole Hard Rock Hotel & Casino, where he accused the United States of demonizing Fidel Castro and failing to appreciate what Castro accomplished for Cuba. Before his speech, Gorbachev held a brief news conference. In his first question, he was asked what he thought of Fidel Castro's decision to relinquish the presidency of Cuba. "I know both Fidel Castro and Raul," Gorbachev said, adding that he hosted the new Cuban leader and his wife while still governor of a Soviet province. "I think the Cuban revolution was a truly popular revolution. And I believe that we have to recognize that that was the choice of the Cuban people." "I think it was a mistake to demonize Fidel Castro," he said, saying that early US opposition pushed Castro into the arms of communism. "I visited Cuba and the Cuban leaders visited our country many times," he said. "Today the Cuban people are well educated. They are healthy and they look good. I believe they have one of the best medical systems." "I believe Raul Castro will continue in many ways the cause of his brother," he said. "But I do believe there will be changes." (Sun Sentinel, 17/4/08)

April 17: Cuban Foreign Affairs Vice Minister Bruno Rodriguez arrived in Guatemala, where he will take part in the opening of an ophthalmologic center equipped by Cuba, at the Guatemalan western department of San Marcos. He will be received by Guatemalan Foreign Minister Haroldo Rodas, and will keep contact with Cuban doctors working in Guatemala. The center has up-to-date technology and will guarantee free medical attention to hundreds of thousands of people with low incomes. More than 20 Cuban helpers will work in the center, the third of its kind equipped by Cuba in Guatemala. After the inauguration, the Cuban delegation will tour places in Huehuetenango, Totonicapan and Retalhuleu, where Cuban public health personnel is working. A total of 400 Cuban public health workers are working in 18 of the 22 Guatemalan departments. (Prensa Latina, 17/4/08)

April 17: Acting president of Guatemala, Rafael Espada, thanked the government and people of Cuba for cooperating in setting up an ophthalmologic center built in the western department of San Marcos. "It is a very beautiful center that I was able to visit a few weeks ago and has high tech equipment that will be very useful in this region that has many patients with eye problems," Espada told the press. The modern installation that will be inaugurated on April 18, will have two surgery wards to attend low income patients with operations of several problems such as cataracts, tissue growth and cysts. There are about twenty Cuban cooperators that include two surgeons, one clinician, nurses and technicians to work in the hospital and it is the third of its kind equipped by Cuba in this country. "The installation of state-of-the-art technology and well-prepared specialists that were generously supplied by the Cuban government will help the elderly," added Joaquin Molina of the Pan American Health Organization. (Prensa Latina, 17/4/08)
 
April 17: In June, European Union member states are expected to consider whether to normalize relations with Cuba. This follows a call by the EU's  Commissioner of Development to permanently lift diplomatic sanctions. Within the EU, the Czech Republic leads a group of former communist states that oppose engagement with Cuba. "It is as if the people who are fighting the Cuban regime are their brothers in a political sense, the people who are fighting for the same causes that the Czechs or Polish or the Hungarians were fighting for 20 or 30 years ago," explained Piotr Kaczynski of the Centre for European Policy Studies. Cuba's former colonial ruler, Spain, and a handful of other EU countries are pushing Brussels for engagement with Cuba, but the British Conservative and member of the European Parliament Edward Mcmillan-Scott says Cuba has done nothing to merit any change in relations. "I think that the European Commission is quite wrong to pretend that it's business as usual with Cuba; that somehow the departure of one Castro, and his replacement by another, has made some sort of difference.  It hasn't.  The regime is still as corrupt," Mcmillan-Scott said. (VOA, 17/4/08)

April 18: Cuba warned that the food security of developing countries is endangered for a variety of reasons, among them the rising cost of fuel. Jorge Ferrer, minister counselor of Cuba’s permanent mission in Geneva, told the World Trade Organization that the spiraling cost of food is threatening world stability. During a meeting of the Trade Negotiations Committee known as the Doha round,  Ferrer emphasized that the WTO’s agriculture negotiations, which in practice reduce food aid and export credits, are also issues which must be taken into account. Obviously, the economic, political and social stability of an important group of underdeveloped countries cannot be put at risk solely as a result of trade considerations, he emphasized. (Granma International, 18/4/08)

April 20: The Seychelles islands and Cuba are celebrating their first three decades of cooperation. Margot Castro Maya, Cuba's Charge d'Affaires to this small archipelago located in the Indian Ocean, announced celebrations will include congratulation exchanges between Cuba and Seychelles governments. The diplomat added that festivities have already begun this month, to finish on July 26, Cuba's National Rebellion Day. (Prensa Latina, 20/4/08)

April 20: Cuba's Deputy Foreign Minister Bruno Rodriguez highlighted in Ciudad Guatemala the good state of relations between Cuba and Guatemala. Rodriguez spoke with the press shortly before winding up an official visit to Guatemala, where he attended the opening ceremony of the third ophthalmologic center equipped by Cuba. "We have had a full agenda reflecting the satisfactory relations and promising perspectives between the two countries," said the official. Rodriguez met with President Alvaro Uribe Colom, vice president Rafael Espada, Foreign Minister Haroldo Rodas and Health Minister Eusebio del Cid, among other government officials. He also presided over, along with Colom, the opening of the ophthalmologic hospital Carlos J. Finlay in the western department of San Marcos. (Prensa Latina, 20/4/08)

April 20: A group of 16 undocumented Cuban migrants has landed in Honduras after two weeks at sea, an immigration official said. Francisco Alvarado of Honduras' regional immigration office said the nine men, four women and three children were in good health after setting out on March 31 from the Cuban province of Manzanillo. "One of the motors broke down and while we repaired it, we were surrounded by sharks for a whole day," migrant Raymundo Legon Rivero told local television. Some of the migrants drank sea water after their drinking water ran out, Legon Rivero said. They reached the island of Guanaja on April 14 and were taken to mainland Honduras. Cubans bound for the United States are increasingly traveling through Mexico and Central America instead of trying to get past US Coast Guard patrols off Florida. (AP, 20/4/08)

April 21: Fidel Castro praised pope Benedict XVI's speeches on multilateralism pronounced during his apostolic visit to the US, stating that they are "the antithesis of the politics of brutality and force" carried out by the Bush administration. In an article published in local papers the former president of Cuba also noted that "it is not easy to analyse the Vatican's thought on thorny issues in a world where the US president and his rich allies have imposed a bloody war on culture and religion on more than a billion people, all in the name of war on terror". Castro, who is aged 80 like the Pope, thinks that Benedict XVI proved all of his energy when he "came out of the aircraft barely touching the railings on the stairway". [Paz y prosperidad] (AGI, 21/4/08)

April 21: A newspaper report said Cuban President Raúl Castro wants to improve relations with Mexico based on conversations Mario Vazquez Rana recently had with Castro in Havana. Vazquez Rana said in an article published in his paper El Sol de Mexico, that the Cuban leader told him he wants Mexico and Cuba to return to the close friendship the two countries once shared. Relations between Mexico and Havana deteriorated under former Mexican President Vicente Fox, who criticized Cuba's human rights record. But President Felipe Calderon said he wants to continue to have warmer ties with the communist island. (AP, 21/4/08)

April 21: Foreign Ministry official spokesman Mikhail Kamynin has been appointed Russian ambassador to Cuba, a source from the Russian Foreign Ministry told the press. In 2002 -2005 Kamynin was Russian ambassador to Spain and concurrently, to Andorra, and was a Russian representative at the World Tourism Organization. Kamynin was a member of official delegations of the former Soviet Union and Russia at a number of international forums. He is a member of the Union of Russian Journalists and an Honorary Professor of the Spanish Society for International Research. He has a diplomatic rank of Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary ambassador. Kamynin speaks Spanish, English and Portuguese. (Itar Tass, 21/4/08)

April 22: Cuban Vice President Esteban Lazo met in this capital former Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Bin Mohamad, who is attending the First International Conference on Security and Defense, "Granma" newspaper reported. Both leaders exchanged information on the regional and international situation, the role Cuba and Malaysia have played in strengthening the Non-Aligned Movement and the struggle for peace, against terrorism and for a better world, the daily states. They also discussed possibilities of cooperation and development of economic relations between both nations. The visitor also met with Fernando Remírez de Estenoz, member of the Secretariat and chief of the International Relations Department of Cuba's Communist Party Central Committee. (Prensa Latina, 22/4/08)

April 22: President Hugo Chavez welcomed the Cuban delegation that will participate in an Extraordinary Summit of the Bolivarian Alternative for the Americas (ALBA) called by the Venezuelan leader to analyze ongoing threats against the government of President Evo Morales in Bolivia and the food crisis that his region faces today. According to Granma news daily, the Cuban delegation to the meeting in Caracas is led by Vice Presidents Esteban Lazo – representing the Cuban Communist Party - and Carlos Lage – on behalf of the Government - as well as by the Cuban ambassador to Venezuela, German Sanchez. Chavez said that he had called the extraordinary meeting due to the ongoing attacks against the Bolivian government by right-wing imperialist movements. (ACN, 23/4/08)

April 23: The situation in Bolivia is on the table in Caracas at a special summit of the Bolivarian Alternative for the Peoples of Our America (ALBA), called by Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez. Interviewed on "Venezolana de Television," Chavez stated that the aim is to seek ways to avoid worsening the situation in the Bolivian territory, amid attempts to divide that country. "Bolivia is on the verge of breaking out and the fascist right-wing does not want to meet," said the statesman before accusing the US Empire of injecting hatred into those people through a media war. "We sometimes have the terrible and dramatic sensation that we can do nothing, but I had an idea of calling a special ALBA meeting and talking about the issue with presidents of Brazil, Ecuador and Argentina," Chavez noted. The summit, attended by Bolivian President Evo Morales, Nicaragua's Daniel Ortega, and Cuban Vice President Carlos Lage, will also analyze topics like food and energy alliances. (Prensa Latina, 23/4/08)

April 23: A warning about the danger of Bolivia "exploding" as a result of the "separatist plan behind the (May 4) autonomy referendum" in the eastern province of Santa Cruz was issued at a Bolivarian Alternative for the Americas (ALBA) summit. Bolivian President Evo Morales received the backing of the alternative trade bloc in a statement signed in Caracas with his counterparts Hugo Chávez of Venezuela and Daniel Ortega of Nicaragua, as well as Cuban Vice President Carlos Lage. The leaders of Dominica, the fifth ALBA partner, were unable to attend the emergency meeting convened by Chávez. The statement, read by the Cuban Vice President, expressed the presidents’ "staunch rejection of the destabilisation plans that seek to undermine peace and unity in Bolivia" and the "separatist attempt" based on "a referendum that clearly violates Bolivia’s constitution and laws. ALBA called on "the international community and especially that of Latin America and the Caribbean to act in a timely and decisive manner in solidarity with Bolivia." (VOA, AFP, Telesur, 23/4/08)

April 24: The president of Cuba's Councils of State and Ministers, Army General Raul Castro, received former Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Bin Mohamad. According to local TV news, Mohamad was attending the first International Conference of the Center for Studies on Defense Information. During the meeting, both personalities talked about the excellent Cuba-Malaysia relations, as well as different international issues. Raul gave the visitor the book “One Hundred Hours with Fidel”, dedicated by the leader of the Cuban revolution. The commanders of the Revolution Juan Almeida, vice president of the Council of State, and Ramiro Valdes, information technology and communications minister, were also present for the Cuban party, while Malaysian ambassador in Cuba Zainol Abidin Bin Omar accompanied Mohamad. (Prensa Latina, 24/4/08)

April 24: Cuba’s ambassador to La Paz, Rafael Dausá, insisted that the body of a Bolivian student who died on the island was sent to Bolivia following international norms and denied accusations of organ theft. The family of 22-year-old, Beatriz Porco Calle, who died in Cuba on March 29, claimed that the body arrived in Bolivia with no organs, including the brain. The young woman had been studying Medicine in Cuba and died of “cerebral haemorrhage”, according to the forensic report received from Havana. The Bolivian foreign minister, David Choquehuanca, vowed to request a report from the District Attorney’s office on the case, while adding that the Cuban government carried out the transfer of the body in accordance with current norms. (El Nuevo Herald, 24/4/08)

April 25: Fidel Castro accused the United States of scheming in the case of the recent death of a Bolivian student in Cuba to subvert (Cuba’s) collaboration with of the government of Evo Morales, according to an article published in the newspaper Granma. In an editorial, Castro described the death of 22-year-old Beatriz Porco, who was studying medicine in Cuba, and whose relatives claim that the body was missing several organs. “It is hard to write about this. But it is harder still to read the newswires broadcasting throughout the world the notion that the body has been stripped of its organs,” said Castro. [Nuestro espíritu de sacrificio y el chantaje del imperio] (AFP, 25/4/08)

April 26: UNESCO’s representative in Cuba Herman Van Hoof, says the use of informatics in Cuba is admirable, speaking at a round table during the International Congress on Information underway in Havana. The resident director of the UN’s Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) noted the importance of the use of the new technologies in education. He said he has seen how they have been implemented in schools in the most isolated spots of the country. The UN official said Cuba’s leadership in the achievement of the Millennium Goals relevant to education in Latin America is the result of the government’s consistent and continuing policy that began in 1961 with the literacy campaign. Van Hoof noted that while illiteracy was eradicated in Cuba many years ago, it continues to be a problem in most Latin American nations. (Radio Cadena Agramonte, 26/4/08)

April 28: Bolivian Foreign and Religious Minister David Choquehuanca started a visit to Havana, to hold official talks with his Cuban counterpart Felipe Perez Roque and other leaders from the island. The delegation is also comprised of Jean Paul Guevara, general director of Bilateral and Religious Relations, Nelly Pinto, adviser of the minister's cabinet, as well as other officials from that ministry. Choquehuanca arrives in Cuba at a moment of particular political tension in Bolivia, when destabilizing plans and separatist attempts aim to ignore the current constitutional order and threaten that country's territorial integrity, Granma newspaper reported. The visit will be used to hold the Second Meeting of the Cuban-Bolivia Political Consultations, the daily stated. (Prensa Latina, 28/4/08)

April 28: Cuba and Bolivia signed three agreements to strengthen bilateral cooperation, in Havana. The host Foreign Minister Felipe Perez Roque and his Bolivian counterpart David Choquehuanca subscribed to two agreements, one on the serving of judicial sentences and a second accord on the protection and recovery of cultural and patrimonial assets. A third agreement on cooperation in the fields of sports and physical education was signed by the president of Cuba’s National Institute of Sports, Physical Education and Recreation (INDER) Christian Jimenez, and Saul Chavez Orozco, ambassador of Bolivia in Havana. (ACN, 28/4/08)

April 28: Cuban Foreign Minister Felipe Perez Roque reiterated that the Cuban government is opposed to separatist plans orchestrated against the Bolivian state and people. "We are with Bolivia in the struggle against foreign plots that affect territorial integrity," Perez Roque stated during official talks with his Bolivian counterpart David Choquehuanca at Havana's Foreign Affairs Ministry. Perez Roque noted that Cuba supports the deep social and democratic changes in which the Bolivians, led by President Evo Morales, have undertaken. The island's top diplomat pointed out that his country will continue collaboration in public health, which has allowed almost 12 million people to receive care from 2,000 physicians, nurses and specialized staff in the last two years. "So far," stated the Cuban minister, "about 190,000 low-income Bolivians have received free ophthalmologic surgery."[Declaración Conjunta] (Prensa Latina, 28/4/08)

April 29: The President of the Republic of Panama, Martin Torrijos, is on an official visit to Cuba on the invitation of Cuban President Raul Castro Ruz. Torrijos arrived at Havana’s Jose Marti International Airport, where he was welcomed by Government Minister Ricardo Cabrisas. The Panamanian President is being accompanied by First Vice President and Foreign Minister, Samuel Lewis; Trade and Industry Minister Carmen Gisela, and other government officials. During his stay in Cuba, Martin Torrijos is scheduled to hold official talks with Cuban President Raul Castro. (Prensa Latina, 29/4/08)

April 30: Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa Al Thani, Emir of Qatar, is to arrive in Cuba on a working visit, invited by Cuban President Raul Castro. The heads of state are expected to develop and strengthen bilateral relations, Granma newspaper reported. This visit, the daily said, takes places after the successful celebration, in Doha, of the Fourth Session of the Cuba-Qatar Intergovernmental Joint Commission, in which both countries inked important accords of cooperation in health and tourism, among others. The visitor became the Emir of the State of Qatar on June 27, 1995 and has attended several international events, especially in the Persian Gulf countries and Arab nations. (Prensa Latina, 30/4/08)

April 30: Panamanian President Martín Torrijos met with Cuba's new head of state Raúl Castro and talked at length with his ailing older brother Fidel by telephone. Torrijos also placed the first stone for a monument to be built on a major thoroughfare in honor of his father, the late Panamanian leader Gen. Omar Torrijos. Fidel Castro was a longtime supporter of the elder Torrijos' successful push for a treaty under which the US agreed to turn over the Panama Canal. His son offered no specifics about his phone conversation with Cuba's 81-year-old former president, but members of Panama's diplomatic delegation described it as lengthy. Torrijos' visit was his fifth to the island -- and the first since Raúl Castro permanently assumed the presidency on February 24. Raúl had previously served in a provisional role for 19 months, since Fidel announced in mid-2006 that he had undergone emergency intestinal surgery. (AP, 30/4/08)