Chronicle on Cuba - June 2008

US-Cuba Relations

June 2: Seven migrants arrived at Hobie Beach, along Rickenbacker Causeway, on a boat from Cuba. Six scattered, but the seventh, Yenisel Alonso, asked someone to call police and then waited patiently for an officer to arrive. She was dressed in a white T-shirt, knee-length stretch pants and shoes. She said she left behind a 5-year-old son in Camaguey, her home in Cuba. The police officer showed up and gave her a flannel shirt and had her sit in the back of the patrol car until the US Border Patrol arrived. The 32-year-old woman said she has a godfather who lives in Miami. Under the government's wet foot/dry foot policy, Cuban migrants who arrive on U.S. soil are generally allowed to stay while those interdicted at sea are generally sent back. (The Miami Herald, 2/6/08)

June 3: After returning from a five-day trip to Cuba, Ernest Bezdek said he's confident that trade between Texas and the island could develop in the near future. "(The trip) was a building point," Bezdek, director of trade development for the Port of Beaumont, said. "The seeds were planted to begin business with them; if not in 2008, definitely in 2009. Friendships were made and invitations were issued." Bezdek and Louis Broussard Jr., president of Beaumont Rice Mills, were among 24 Texas farmers, ranchers, commodity suppliers and port representatives that accompanied Texas Agriculture Commissioner Todd Staples to Cuba on May 27. "It was a very intense and busy trip," Bezdek said. "We were busy from the time our wheels hit the ground in Cuba until the time we left. Bezdek said he, along with representatives from the ports of Freeport and Corpus Christi, met with Cuba's chartering department to discuss ways to get products from Texas ports into the country. (The Enterprise, 3/6/08)

June 4: Venezuela reiterated its request to the US Government to extradite terrorist Luis Posada Carriles, who is wanted by Caracas for the 1976 mid-air bombing of a Cubana airliner that killed all 73 people on board. According to Granma news daily, the petition was made by Venezuelan Foreign Minister Nicolas Maduro during a plenary session of the general assembly of the Organization of American States (OAS) that is underway in Medellin, Colombia. Maduro took the floor after Washington’s ambassador to the OAS said that his country condemns terrorism. The Court of Appeals of New Orleans has scheduled a hearing on the migratory case against Posada Carriles in which both sides will present their arguments. Attorney Jose Pertierra, who represents Venezuela in its extradition request, said this hearing is a farce as the indictment against Posada on migratory charges was rejected on May 8, 2007. He added that Posada is not being accused for his terrorist actions but only for lying to the US immigration service. (ACN, 4/6/08)

June 4: A US court upheld the convictions of five Cubans serving long prison sentences for spying and conspiracy to commit murder but opened the door to new and possibly lighter sentences for three of the men. FBI agents arrested the five in 1998 and they were convicted in 2001 of 26 counts of spying on the Cuban exile community in Miami on behalf of Fidel Castro's government. Lawyers for the men, in an August 2007 filing with the Atlanta-based US Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit, said they deserved a new trial because the prosecution made statements in closing arguments that violated court rules and because the sentences were harsher than the crimes deserved. The appeals court rejected arguments that the convictions should be overturned but said the federal court in Miami may have erred when it imposed the sentences against three of the men in 2001. The so-called "Cuban Five" are celebrated by many in Cuba as national heroes. To hard-line, anti-Castro members of the Cuban exile community the five agents were justly convicted, however, and Havana's support for them is seen as an example of an anti-US agenda in Cuba dating back to Castro's 1959 revolution. In the ruling, the appellate court affirmed a sentence of two life terms for Gerardo Hernandez, who was indicted for conspiracy to commit murder based on charges he passed information to Havana that led to the 1996 downing by a Cuban MiG fighter jet of two small planes operated by a Miami-based exile group that were flying near Cuba. Four people were killed. The court also affirmed the 15-year sentence of Rene Gonzalez, who was convicted of acting as an agent for a foreign government and conspiracy to defraud the United States. The sentences of the three other men, two of whom were serving life terms, were vacated and remanded for resentencing proceedings in district court. (Reuters, 4/6/08)

June 4: A US judge improperly dismissed immigration fraud charges against an anti-Castro militant suspected of plotting the 1976 bombing of a Cuban airliner, a government lawyer told a federal appeals court. Prosecutors are appealing the dismissal of charges that Luis Posada Carriles made false statements as part of his bid to become a naturalized US citizen. Posada is a Cuban-born citizen of Venezuela, where he is wanted for alleged involvement in a 1976 airliner bombing that killed 73 people. He denies any wrongdoing.
US prosecutors say he was taken into custody after he illegally entered the US from Mexico in 2005. In dismissing the immigration charges last year, US District Judge Kathleen Cardone in El Paso, Texas, said federal authorities engaged in trickery and deceit by using a naturalization interview to build a criminal case against Posada. Federal prosecutors argued before the 5th US Circuit Court of Appeals in New Orleans that Cardone should not have taken the case out of a jury's hands. John De Pue, a lawyer for the Department of Justice's national security division, said Cardone went too far in tossing out the entire transcripts of the interview. A ruling could take several months. (AP, 5/6/08)

June 4: For the second time in a week, a group fleeing Cuba has landed in South Florida, officials said. Eight migrants arrived at Virginia Key in a boat they said they built themselves. The Cubans said they spent five days at sea before reaching the United States. (UPI, 4/6/08)

June 4: The US commerce secretary urged Europe to uphold sanctions against Cuba because easing them would allow the authorities to "get away" with persuading the world human rights had improved on the island. Carlos Gutierrez, in an interview with the press  said changes announced since Fidel Castro's retirement in February were "somewhat cynical" and did nothing to ease widespread poverty or guarantee Cubans fundamental rights. "The so-called reforms or so-called changes that have taken place in Cuba, we believe are somewhat cynical. We also believe they are targeted for international consumption," Gutierrez said after meeting officials in ex-Soviet Ukraine. "It is surprising that the world would rather talk about the fact that Cubans can now visit their own hotels and not talk about the fact that there are political prisoners starving in jails ..." Gutierrez said of the Czech Republic, which he visited earlier: "I never doubted their commitment and didn't really ask them. I assume they are as outraged as we are at the conditions in Cuba. And how detrimental it would be to give the regime a pat on the back that would confuse Cubans." "It would suggest to Cubans that there is no chance to have real change because the international community would be letting the regime get away with the type of change that probably no other country in the world would see as change," he said. The sanctions are expected to be on the agenda of a meeting of EU foreign ministers in Luxembourg on June 16. "I don't know what Europe will do (…) I would hope they think first and foremost about the plight of political prisoners, about human rights and the message it would send to the world to express support towards clearly a very repressive dictatorship, Gutierrez said. (Reuters, 4/6/08)

June 5: The United States kept its allies Kuwait, Oman, Qatar and Saudi Arabia on a list of countries that traffic in people but removed another Persian Gulf ally, Bahrain, as well as Malaysia. Fiji, Moldova and Papua New Guinea were added to the list in the State Department's annual "Trafficking in Persons Report," which analyzed 170 countries' efforts to fight trafficking for forced labor, prostitution and other purposes. North Korea, Sudan, Syria, Algeria, Iran, Myanmar and Cuba remain on the list. Nations on the list could face sanctions, including the withholding of some aid by the United States. [Trafficking in Persons Report 2008. Cuba: P 102] (The New York Times, 5/6/08)

June 6: The International Committee for the Freedom of five Cubans who remain imprisoned in the United States since 1997, issued a communiqué condemning a decision on the case made by a three-judge panel of the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals in Atlanta and urging solidarity groups to increase worldwide actions in favor of the Cuban Five – as these men are internationally known. “Given the United States’ government’s legal ploys to expand the sentences of our Five Brothers, we are not surprised by the judicial ruling. On the contrary, it reaffirms our need to continue fighting tirelessly to denounce this colossal injustice”, the statement said. (ACN, 6/6/08)

June 8: Cuban baseball's brightest star, Dayán Viciedo, has escaped from Cuba and is now in Miami, following the footsteps of talented island colleagues who have found their way into the major leagues. Viciedo, a 19-year-old third baseman, is considered as big a star in Cuba as Omar Linares, the most well-rounded player to emerge from the Cuban leagues since 1959 and a player highly coveted by major league scouts during the 1980s. ''At first I didn't like to be compared to Linares because he is almost a legend,'' Viciedo said. "Later, I felt proud. As a third baseman I have two idols: Linares from the Cuban National Series and Alex Rodriguez from the major leagues.'' Viciedo left Cuba on a boat bound for Mexico on May 20, accompanied by his family. Several days later he crossed the border from Mexico and traveled to Miami to reunite with friends and relatives. “Most Cuban ball players dream of playing in the major leagues,'' he said. “This is an aspiration that comes with risks, but I was willing to take them in order to try out. Inside, you have the desire to know if you have a place among the best in the world, if you belong to the elite.'' According to a person within the Cuban Baseball Federation, the authorities there already knew of Viciedo's escape to Mexico. His name was not included in the list of 43 players chosen to represent Cuba at the Beijing Olympics this summer. (The Miami Herald, 8/6/08)

June 8: Cuba rejected US claims that it does not do enough to combat human trafficking, saying that Washington "has a lot to learn" about life on the island. US authorities "are unfamiliar with and distort" Cuban reality, the Foreign Relations Ministry said in a written response to the US State Department's annual "Trafficking in Persons Report," released on June 5. The report tracks human trafficking for the sex trade, coerced labour and the recruitment of child soldiers, outlining efforts to fight it, including prosecution, sentencing and programs to help victims. Cuba said it maintains a "firm" policy against human trafficking and prostitution and noted that its communist system provides for the basic needs of all citizens, making such work unnecessary. "Cuba does not see any value in the State Department's report," the Foreign Ministry's statement said. "The government of the United States has a lot to do in its own country to combat the rampant phenomenon there of prostitution, sexual exploitation, forced labour and the trafficking of people." "The government of the United States has a lot to learn about Cuba and is not in a position to judge anyone," it said. [Declaración del MINREX] (AP, 9/6/08)

June 9: A young man from Miami showed up in Havana and picked up a group of five people that included Cuban reggaeton singer Elvis Manuel. Then the visitor drove the five about 100 miles west to a marshy beach in Pinar del Rio province and told them that a boat was coming later that night to take them to Miami. That man, according to two other people who were on the boat was one of the singer's Miami-based producers, Lester Delgado. The account from Manuel's mother, Irioska María Nodarse, and his musical partner Alejandro ''DJ Jerry'' Rodríguez for the first time implicates his Miami associates as having direct involvement in the tragic April 7 voyage that left the singer lost at sea and presumed dead. Their account suggests the voyage was a migrant smuggling operation and that Delgado, who they had met in Havana three months earlier, was aware of the trip before it began. Delgado came to Cuba ''a few days before'' the ill-fated voyage, Nodarse said. Delgado and business partner Eric Reyes ''organized'' the trip, she said, but would not go into specific details. Reyes and Delgado ''said they were going to pay double for us,'' Rodríguez said of the boat trip. "That it was paid for.'' Previously, Delgado and Reyes had told the press they learned Elvis Manuel was en route to Miami when relatives called from Cuba asking about his whereabouts. Reyes, 32, angrily denied the accusations, calling Rodriguez and Nodarse "liars.'' (The Miami Herald, 9/6/08)

June 10: The European Union and the United States urged Cuba's new government to free "all political prisoners" to show it is serious about improving human rights. US President George W Bush sharpened that challenge to new Cuban President Raul Castro in remarks after an EU-US summit in Slovenia, saying improved ties depended on a prisoner release. "Before relations should go forward, all political prisoners ought to be freed," Bush told a news conference. "If the Castro administration really is different, the first way to show that difference to the world is to free the political prisoners." Days after Castro took office as the island's new communist leader, Cuba in February signed two international human rights pacts that Fidel Castro opposed, including the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights. In a joint statement after the EU-US summit, both sides welcomed Cuba's signing of the treaty and urged the Castro government to ratify the covenant "and demonstrate its commitment by unconditionally releasing all political prisoners."  [US-EU Summit Declaration] (DPA, 10/6/08)

June 10: Cuba described the current US administration as the most serious and evil transgressor of International Law and the most notorious violator of human rights in the world. According to a press communiqué issued by the Cuban Permanent Mission before the UN Office in Geneva, that is why Washington fears all inspections on human rights. The text makes reference to a decision by the White House to work with the UN Human Rights Council only when it involves important matters related to the US national security as announced by the US State Department spokesman Sean McCormack. In an article, Granma news daily recalls that the United States is not a member of the UN Council of Human Rights. “Its poor record on human rights would prevent Washington from joining this body,” the communiqué reads. (ACN, 10/6/08)

June 10: The Cuban ambassador to the United Nations, Rodrigo Malmierca, presented a petition to the UN General Assembly's Special Committee on Decolonization demanding the independence of Puerto Rico, on behalf of the Non Aligned Movement (NAM). As president of the NAM Coordination Bureau, Malmierca requested that the Committee fully evaluates the colonial situation of Puerto Rico, under the rule of the United States for 110 years. The case of Puerto Rico was debated in the UN General Assembly until
1953, when Washington managed to take it off the list of Non-Self-Governing Territories by alleging autonomy under the status of Associated Free State granted in 1952. The Special Committee on Decolonization has approved 25 resolutions on the subject. The NAM declaration reiterates the right of Puerto Ricans to self-determination and independence, a position already taken by the 118 country members in the final declaration of the 14th NAM Summit held in 2006 in Havana. NAM also called on the United States to expedite a Puerto Rican self-determination process. (ACN, 10/6/08)

June 10: A good part of Cuba's internal opposition is hoping that Democrat Barack Obama triumphs over Republican John McCain in this year's US presidential contest. Independent economist Oscar Espinosa Chepe thinks that an Obama win would be "very positive for Cuba" and would mean "the change of a (US) policy that, in practice, has served as an alibi for maintaining totalitarianism in Cuba and has been very harmful.""A flexible attitude like Obama's could encourage the reformist sectors existing within the government, in the (communist) party and in Cuban society," the former political prisoner told the press. Another prominent dissident, Vladimiro Roca, said that "the proposal of the Democratic candidate is the most sensitive," but it is also the least convenient for the Cuban government because "it breaks the (…) state of siege that it tries to maintain to justify repression and narrow-mindedness." "On the other hand, McCain would help the hard line (…) to maintain the approach that they are beseiged by the greatest power in the world," he added. Differing with his colleagues, opposition figure Manuel Cuesta Morua suggested "Obama's discourse and possible election do not come at a good time because, although it's paradoxical, so that the government can control the inevitable reforms it needs McCain more than Obama." (EFE, 10/6/08)

June 10: The Cuban government organized a demonstration outside the US Interests Section in Havana to demand that Washington free five Cuban agents sentenced for espionage in 2001. Parliament speaker Ricardo Alarcon and Foreign Minister Felipe Perez Roque presided over the protest by hundreds of students and workers along with family members of the men who made up what Cuban intelligence designated as the Wasp Network. The demonstration was called after the decision by a US federal appeals court to uphold the convictions of the "Cuban Five." "The Cuban people are never going to stop demanding the return of those five men," Perez Roque said. "I think there exists in the United States the influence and the mechanisms for taking decisions to decide the immediate release of those men, if a sense of justice and respect for the human rights of the five and their families is allowed to prevail," the official said. Nonetheless, he said that Cuba has "no illusions about the current US government that has shown its total complicity with the most extremist and most violent forces of Cuban origin that still operate with impunity in Florida." (EFE, 10/6/08)

June 11: The State Department's top diplomat for Latin America said Tuesday that Washington is interested in avoiding conflict with the region and instead favors partnership and patience to strengthen relations. "We do not need to be walking through the Americas looking for additional confrontation, and we're not," Assistant Secretary of State for Western Hemisphere Affairs Thomas A. Shannon, Jr. said in a speech in Coral Gables. Although Shannon didn't talk about leaders in Cuba or Venezuela in his speech, he did say the United States needs to avoid falling victim to the "diplomacy of rupture" -- an apparent reference to the anti-Washington rhetoric of Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez. The career diplomat, however, did answer questions about both nations. Shannon ruled out talks with the government of Cuba's Raúl Castro, noting a relationship with the United States was not "the defining factor in Cuba's future." "We are not going to commit ourselves, at least in this administration, until we have seen bigger changes," Shannon said. (The Miami Herald, 11/6/08)

June 11: John McCain is once again reaching out to Hispanic voters on the radio, this time targeting Cuban-Americans in South Florida in a 60-second radio ad voiced by Roberto Martin Perez, who was imprisoned by the Cuban government for 24 years, until his exile in 1988. "Cuban Prisoners," as the ad is called, will air on Radio Mambi, a 50,000-watt news and talk radio station popular with the state's Cuban-Americans. It's a station that transmits all across Southern Florida, and sometimes even as far away as Jamaica, according to Loretta Anaya, head of sales at Radio Mambi. "If there's one radio station that every politician must and will be on, it is that one," Anaya said. "It reaches the bulk of the Cuban community. It reaches business people. It's the where to be what to do, what's happening around the world news station." (The Washington Post, 11/6/08)

June 11: The Foreign Relations Commission of the Cuban Parliament condemned a recent decision by a three-judge panel of the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals in Atlanta upholding the guilty verdicts against five Cubans imprisoned in the United States. With the presence of Ricardo Alarcon and Jaime Crombet, president and vice president of the legislative body, respectively, the parliamentary group approved a Declaration on this issue during an extraordinary meeting in Havana. The text expresses the indignation over this decision of the parliamentarians, the Cuban people and the relatives of Gerardo Hernández, Fernando González, Ramón Labañino, René González and Antonio
Guerrero, or the Cuban Five as they are internationally known. (ACN, 12/6/08)

June 11: About 120 Cuban families and their travel agents urged Florida Governor Charlie Crist to veto a bill that would impose tough new regulations and penalties on companies that arrange travel to Cuba. The bill, sponsored by Miami Representative David Rivera and Eustis Senator Carey Baker, would require companies licensed by the US State Department to provide travel services to Cuba and ''any other terrorist nation'' to pay a $2,500 annual registration fee -- up from $300 -- and post a bond of up to $300,000. Travel companies complain that the measure will increase their costs, force them to defend against unfounded allegations by people with political motives, and make it nearly impossible for many financially strapped families with relatives in Cuba to afford the trips home. ''There is nothing in this bill that protects you as a consumer. It is basically a witch-hunt from people who have their own political agenda,'' said Tessie Aral of ABC Charters Travel in Miami, who organized the protest in the state capital. Her company flies 20,000 visitors to Cuba a year on flights that operate five days a week. Sylvia Wilhelm, executive director of the Cuban American Commission for Family Rights, said the measure could backfire this year because she believes most people in the Cuban American community want to see the tight travel restrictions lifted. (The Miami Herald, 11/6/08)

June 12: Sometime next year, Cuba plans to begin drilling a major oil field off its northern coast that might do what little else has done -- bring change to US-Cuba relations. In a rare confluence of circumstances, oil could grease the wheels for the two bitter enemies to come together in the middle of the Florida Straits out of mutual need, experts say. Getting there would require a sea change in US policy -- namely putting a major hole in the US trade embargo imposed against Cuba in 1962. If the embargo stays as is, a nearby source of oil will be off-limits to the energy-thirsty United States and the American oil industry will miss out on billions of dollars of business. Embargo opponents rule out change until President George W. Bush, who has toughened the embargo, leaves office next year. Even then they can expect a fight from influential Cuban-American leaders, who argue that helping Cuba produce oil will aid the Cuban government and undermine the 46-year-old embargo's reason for being. "We think what really needs to happen in Cuba is for that system to change," US Commerce Secretary Carlos Gutierrez told Reuters. But embargo foes say the combination of economics, energy needs and environmental concerns, as well as new leaders in the two countries make easing the embargo possible. An odd fact is that Cuba will be drilling 50 miles from the Florida Keys, or more than twice as close as US companies can get due to regulations protecting Florida's coast. US Representative Jeff Flake, an Arizona Republican who has introduced bills to lift the embargo for oil companies, said the environmental argument may be key because there is much concern in Florida about potential oil spills. The US Geological Survey has estimated the Cuban field holds at least 5 billion barrels of recoverable oil and 10 trillion cubic feet of natural gas. (Reuters, 12/6/08)

June 12: Vice President Dick Cheney's office acknowledged that he was mistaken when he asserted that China, at Cuba's behest, is drilling for oil in waters 60 miles from the Florida coast. In a speech to the US Chamber of Commerce, Cheney had said that waters in the eastern Gulf of Mexico, long off limits to oil companies, should be opened to drilling because China is already there pumping oil. "Oil is being drilled right now 60 miles off the coast of Florida," the vice president said. "We're not doing it, the Chinese are, in cooperation with the Cuban government. Even the communists have figured out that a good answer to high prices is more supply." He cited his source as columnist George Will, who last week wrote: "Drilling is under way 60 miles off Florida. The drilling is being done by China, in cooperation with Cuba, which is drilling closer to South Florida than US companies are." Congressional Democrats pounced on the vice president's remarks and were backed up by independent energy experts, who called the assertion hyperbole at best and a falsehood at worst. Cheney's office said in a statement to The Associated Press that the vice president had erred. (AP, 13/6/08)

June 12: Cuban actor and singer Yhosvany “Vanny” Carmona said upon arriving in Miami that today’s Cuban youth have overcome Fidel Castro’s influence, which had marked previous generations, and have no political commitments to the government. The 29-year-old artist arrived in Miami from Puerto Rico, where he had travelled to by boat from the Dominican Republic, along with nine other Cuban immigrants. American authorities took the group to the Aguadilla Service Processing Center, where they were processed as refugees. Carmona gained popularity in Cuba in 2001 when he made his debut in the soap opera “Doble Juego”. He later appeared in several dramatic television series. (El Nuevo Herald, 12/6/08)

June 12: The US Commerce Department said that its previously announced policy of allowing Americans to send cellular phones to family members in Cuba begins on June 13. The US expanded the list of items that eligible family members are able to send on a monthly basis to Cuba and increased the permitted value of each package to $400, Commerce Secretary Carlos Gutierrez said in a statement. President George W. Bush unveiled the new policy on phones on May 21. "While the Cuban regime continues to brutally repress its people, it is touting recent reforms as signs of change,'' Gutierrez said in the statement. “In light of Cuba allowing cell phones, as the President said, the US will now allow Americans to send cell phones to relatives in Cuba.'' (Bloomberg, 12/6/08)

June 13: Cuba sent an American fugitive back to the United States where he is wanted on charges of child sex tourism and possessing child pornography. The Cuban Foreign Ministry said Leonard Auerbach entered Cuba via Mexico on April 8 and was detained on May 7 based on information provided by US authorities. In an April press release, US Immigration and Customs Enforcement said Auerbach, a 61-year-old California resident and mortgage finance expert, had been placed on its "most wanted list" for having sexual relations with and possessing pornographic photos of a girl in Costa Rica. The Cuban government said it took action because "the crimes of which he is accused in the United States are of grave character and strongly fought by our authorities." (Reuters, 13/6/08)

June 15: US Commerce Secretary Carlos M. Gutierrez released the following statement after speaking with Cuba's leading dissidents on Father's Day. Representatives of the Ladies in White and other Cuban dissidents participated in the call. "Today I had the distinct privilege to speak with some of Cuba's leading dissidents in Havana who continue to struggle every day living in repression under Raul Castro's communist regime. I have the utmost respect and admiration for their continued efforts on behalf of freedom for political prisoners and democracy in Cuba, and assured them of President's Bush's continued support. "We must never forget that the Cuban people are suffering terribly under a brutally repressive regime. It is important that the United States continues to support the dissidents' efforts for change until the hundreds of political prisoners are released, and human rights are restored." Secretary Gutierrez co-chairs with Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice the Commission for Assistance to a Free Cuba, a U.S. Cabinet-level commission formed to explore ways the United States can help hasten and ease a democratic transition in Cuba. (US News Service, 15/6/08)

June 16: A group comprising relatives of the 75 opposition activists jailed in spring 2003 says it will continue accepting aid from Cuban exiles, but won't take money from the US government. Spokeswoman Berta Soler told foreign correspondents in Havana that the Ladies in White welcomes help from exile groups on the condition "that really no government gives them money." The exiles "collect money through campaigns, lunches, exhibitions. They collect money for us. That is not dirty money," said the wife of Angel Mora, who is serving a 20-year sentence. "The United States government has never given the Ladies in White a penny. No government has ever given us money," Soler said. "I don't know if it gives anything to the opposition, but the US government gives nothing to the Ladies in White." The Cuban regime accused Ladies in White member Laura Pollan of receiving $2,400 from anti-Castro elements in Miami. The activist confirmed receipt of the funds and that the aid was distributed among 18 families of political detainees.
Pollan said she didn't know the ultimate source of the money. (EFE, 16/6/08)

June 16: A Somerset health shop selling Cuban sugar and a London tobacconist dealing in Habanos cigars are among British businesses told by a bank to cut their ties with the island or move their accounts. Lloyds TSB has written to customers who have dealings with Cuba saying they will have to take their accounts elsewhere, apparently in the wake of threats by the US government, which operates an embargo against Cuba. The US has said it will prosecute any businesses that have any dealings with Cuba and also have a branch in the US. The Queenswood Natural Foods company, of Bridgwater in Somerset, started buying sugar from Cuba last year and has found it to be a popular line. Last May, the company received a letter from Lloyds TSB saying that the bank had "recently reviewed its approach to dealing with countries and entities that are subject to government and international sanctions across the globe in order to best protect its customers, its businesses, its people and its reputation". It was no longer prepared to authorise payments from the company to buy sugar from Cuba. (The Guardian, 16/6/08)

June 16: The 19th US-Cuba Friendship Caravan has begun its route through US and Canadian territory, in defiance of the US economic embargo against Cuba. The members of the caravan are set to bring ten vehicles and more than 100 tons of humanitarian aid to the Caribbean island, which they will collect as they move through 12 Canadian cities and more than 130 towns belonging to 47 US states on their way to Cuba, the Cuban Institute for Friendship with the Peoples informed the press. This project is sponsored by Pastors for Peace, from the Inter-religious Foundation for Community Organization (IFCO), a US ecumenical institution created in 1967 to fight for social justice. (ACN, 16/6/08)

June 17: US Representative Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (Republican-Florida) will meet separately with incoming Chief of Mission to Cuba, Jonathan Farrar, and US Ambassador to Venezuela, Patrick Duddy, to discuss the topics of democracy promotion and regional security. Mr. Farrar currently serves as Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary of State in the Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor and will assume his duties as the Chief of Mission at the US Interests Section in Havana in mid-July. Ros-Lehtinen, Ranking Republican on the House Foreign Affairs Committee, will discuss with Mr. Farrar the United States’ continued commitment to supporting efforts for democracy on the imprisoned island nation. "As others appear to be fooled by Raul's façade of superficial reforms, the United States remains resolute in our unwavering support of the Cuban people and their unequal struggle for freedom," said Ros-Lehtinen. "I am confident that Mr. Farrar' extensive experience in the areas of democracy and human rights will serve as an invaluable contribution to the promotion of US interests and liberty on the island." (US News Service, 18/6/08)

June 17: An orchestrated effort may be afoot in Florida and across the country to persuade people and companies --whose properties were confiscated in Cuba-- to sell their decades-old claims, warns the US Foreign Claims Settlement Commission. Mauricio Tamargo, head of the commission, said his agency had begun to receive inquiries last summer from some claimants -- many with sizeable claims -- saying they had been offered payments for those holdings. It is not illegal to sell or purchase these claims, Tamargo said, but the purpose of this sudden activity remains unclear to the government. As a result, the commission has put out an alert for potential sellers and buyers to beware. The warning comes as claimants and their descendants are losing faith that after nearly a half-century they will ever see their accounts settled between Washington and Havana. There had been a glimmer of hope with Fidel Castro's departure from power. But the commission, which oversees their claims, has said more recently that it "is not aware of any plans for, or any indication of, a settlement between the United States and Cuba, nor is the commission aware of any bilateral negotiations between the United States and Cuban governments regarding these claims." (The Tampa Tribune, 17/6/08)

June 17: People living in the United States could travel to Cuba more often and visit a broader list of family members under legislation approved by a congressional panel. A House of Representatives appropriations panel embraced the liberalized travel initiative, which faces several more legislative steps over the next few months and likely would be opposed by the Bush administration. Under a proposal that funds several federal agencies next year including the Treasury Department, which oversees Cuba travel and trade restrictions, travelers would be able to visit close relatives in Cuba once a year, instead of the current once-every-three-years restriction. The list of eligible family members US residents could visit in Cuba would grow from immediate relatives to include first-cousins, uncles and aunts. "This is not a concession to the Cuban government. This is a concession to Cuban Americans who keep asking for it," said Representative Jose Serrano, the chairman of the appropriations panel that is advancing the legislation. "There is no reason to place harsh restrictions on those who simply wish to visit close family members," he added, detailing existing impediments for visiting sick relatives in Cuba. The legislation, which could clear the House next month, also would further normalize US agriculture trade with Cuba by removing an obstacle that forces Cuban importers to prepay all shipments, instead of when the commodities are delivered. (Reuters, 18/6/08)

June 18: Two groups of Cuban immigrants arrived at Key Biscaine. A first group of twelve immigrants arrived at the Rickenbacker Speedway, while a group of 21 persons arrived at the Bill Baggs Park. In the group of twelve arrived a family of three: the mother, María del Carmen González, her daughter Dayona, 15, and her eight year-old son Yail. (The Miami Herald, 18/6/08)

June 18: In defiance of the long-standing United States economic and travel embargo on Cuba, Ashlanders will again join with citizens from communities across the country in contributing aid to the communist island. Ashland participants, backed by Peace House, have been gathering supplies needed by Cuba, including computers, health equipment, medical supplies, wheel chairs, sports gear and bicycles, said local organizer Mary Ann Jones, who joined the Pastors for Peace caravan on its trip to Cuba three years ago. The caravan begins with 14 smaller caravans taking different routes through 120 U.S. cities, ending in Texas. The caravan then crosses into Mexico, where the supplies are shipped by dockworkers who volunteer their time, said Jones. Aid workers fly to Cuba, help distribute the supplies and go on tours to learn about the nation's educational, health, agricultural and other systems. "It's a very worthwhile humanitarian project and the Cubans are extremely pleased," said Jones. (Daily Tidings, 18/6/08)

June 19: In an article published by the local press, the Cuban leader Fidel Castro said that in the field of international health and education cooperation, the North American “elephant” lost out to the Cuban “ant,” which it will “never” be able to defeat. “In this area the United States will never be able to compete with Cuba. Our small country will hold its own. In short, the ant has proved stronger than the elephant!” says Castro. [La hormiga y el elefante] (AFP, 19/6/08)

June 19: The United States' trade blockade on Cuba, imposed almost 50 years ago, is not affected by the EU decision to lift sanctions on the island, but National Security Council spokesman Gordon Johndroe expressed disappointment over the move. "We think the Castros need to take a number of steps to improve the human rights conditions for ordinary Cubans before any sanctions are lifted," he said. State Department Deputy Spokesman Tom Casey said earlier that the United States did not support such a move by the European Union and sees no reason to shift policy. "While we've seen some very minor cosmetic changes made by this regime, we certainly don't see any kind of fundamental break with the Castro dictatorship that would give us reason to believe that now would be the time to lift sanctions or otherwise fundamentally alter our policies," Casey told reporters prior to the EU's decision. "So certainly, we would not be supportive of the EU or anyone else easing those restrictions at this time." (CNN, 20/6/08)

June 19: A group of 18 Cubans crossed into Texas in good health more than a week after heavily armed masked men seized them from immigration agents in southern Mexico, the Attorney General's office said. The hijacking of a bus carrying the illegal migrants to a detention center shows how violent criminal organizations are increasingly smuggling Cubans into the United States through Mexico. Cuba's ambassador to Mexico Manuel Aguilera blamed a Miami-based mafia for the attack. Thomas Shannon, a top State Department official in Washington, also expressed concern, saying this week that all Cubans sneaking out of the communist-run island through Mexico are being managed by professional traffickers. Few details have been made public about how the 18 Cubans made it through Mexico, or about the fate of 19 other migrants who were on the bus seized by six gunmen in southern Chiapas state. The 18 Cubans walked across an international bridge in Hidalgo, Texas and surrendered to the US Border Patrol, the Attorney General's office said. Under the US government's "wet-foot, dry-foot" policy, Cubans intercepted at sea are turned back to Cuba, but those who reach US soil are usually allowed to stay. (AP, 19/6/08)

June 20: The United States downplayed the European Union's decision to lift its sanctions on Cuba, even after a White House official a day earlier called it disappointing. "The US and the European Union share common objectives in Cuba: freedom, democracy and universal human rights," State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said. On June 19, National Security Council spokesman Gordon Johndroe said Washington was "disappointed" at the EU decision, which he said should have come after human rights conditions improved in Cuba. McCormack refused to describe the US reaction as disappointment, saying: "This is a tactical difference." "From our consultations (…) we understand that the European Union will set human rights benchmarks for its dialogue with the Cuban government," including the release of political prisoners, respect for civil and political rights and freedom of information for all Cubans. "These benchmarks send the right message about what is important: the need for the Cuban government to change the way it treats its citizens," McCormack said, adding the EU was expected to announce its conditions for normal relations with Cuba next week. EU foreign ministers took the decision to lift Cuba sanctions on the sidelines of an EU summit in Brussels. The move, which is to become official on June 23, is a largely symbolic gesture as the sanctions have been suspended since 2005. They were imposed in 2003 after Cuba jailed 75 dissidents. (AFP, 20/6/08)

June 23: Leading British banks have been accused of operating a covert embargo of Cuba out of deference to the US. The accusation comes after revelations that Lloyds TSB and Barclays Bank have been telling clients who trade with Cuba to take their accounts elsewhere. Although none of the major banks are prepared to go on record over their policy towards Cuba, the press has learned that Lloyds TSB, Barclays Bank, the Royal Bank of Scotland and HSBC are all complying with the US embargo against the island. A London cigar importer and a Somerset natural food company, which imported Cuban sugar, were told by Lloyds TSB that the bank could no longer carry out transactions involving Cuba. Phil Markey, relationship director at Lloyds TSB, told one client in a letter: "I would like to find a way to continue to make these payments for you - the decision, however, is down to a full risk assessment process within Lloyds TSB." Other leading British banks have adopted a similar policy, although all are reluctant to talk about it. (The Guardian, 23/6/08)

June 23: Josefina Vidal follows the American presidential campaign with great interest but no delusions. Vidal is a point person in the Cuban government's effort to blunt the Bush administration's attempt to topple the Castro regime. Like many others in Havana, she's intrigued by the possibility Barack Obama might become the next US president. She's intrigued by Obama's willingness to meet with America's enemies without preconditions. But she worries that even an Obama victory in November would not bring meaningful improvement in US-Cuba relations. Vidal, the Foreign Ministry's director of North American Affairs, said it's time for the two sides in this long-running Cold War drama to normalize relations. But if the next administration expects Cuba to make major concessions in return for improved relations, she said, that won't happen. "If the American government continues to insist that Cuba has to make dramatic change to its economic and political system, that's a nonstarter," she said in an interview with the press. "The same way we won't discuss the American way of government, ours is not open for discussion." When I asked what Cuba is prepared to discuss with the next occupant of the White House, Vidal provided an unofficial list of issues. Immigration is No. 1. Cuban officials want an end to American immigration policy that encourages Cubans to defect. Another issue Cuba wants to resolve is control of the Guantanamo Bay Naval Base, a military facility the United States has operated on Cuban soil for more than a century. Cuba also wants to talk about terrorism, she said -- not the terrorism of Osama bin Laden, but the terrorism of Orlando Bosch and Luis Posada, two Cuban exiles the Castro regime believes were behind anti-Castro terrorists attacks. (Gannett News Service, 23/6/08)

June 24: Cuba is spending more than ever on US food imports — but that’s not because bilateral ties have improved or because Cuba’s new leadership has suddenly acquired a taste for California cherries, Oregon pears or New York sweet corn. Rather, it’s because the cash-strapped government of Raúl Castro, which is forced to spend more on suddenly expensive staples like rice and wheat, has fewer dollars left over for imported fresh produce. “My industry is very interested in sales to Cuba,” said Kevin Moffitt, president and chief executive officer of the Pear Bureau Northwest, Milwaukie, Oregon. “People say Cuba used to be a great market for pears in the 1950s, and there’s a specific variety they really like, the comice pear, which is very sweet. We’re holding out hopes that when this market opens up, we will once again have a good market for that variety.” US fresh fruit is a miniscule part of overall agriculture exports. According to the US Department of Agriculture’s Foreign Agricultural Service statistics, US fresh fruit exports to Cuba totaled $1.83 million in 2007, up from $1.1 million in 2006. Most of the 2007 shipments consisted of apples ($1.35 million), followed by smaller amounts of grapes ($235,000) and pears ($71,000). Vegetable exports were negligible. The US Commerce Department reports that since passage of the act, essentially a loophole in the 1962 trade embargo against Cuba, that island’s purchases of US food and other agricultural commodities (including lumber and newsprint) have totaled $2 billion. (Cuba News, 24/6/08)

June 26: Travel agencies in Florida that sell tickets to Cuba or send packages there will be subject from July 1 to new state regulations that will make contact with relatives on the island more difficult and more costly, official newspaper Granma reported. The law further tightens controls on trips to Cuba, already severely limited by measures imposed in 2004 by President Bush to limit visits and the sending of remittances to the Caribbean country. Governor Charlie Crist signed the controversial bill that imposes strong restrictions on companies authorized by the US Treasury Department to organize trips and send items to Cuba, obligating them to pay elevated licensing fees. The regulations stipulate that agencies located in Florida will have to deposit bonds of up to US $250,000 as a licensing requirement, pay a registration fee of $2,500 and regularly inform the state government on the volume of their business, the number of passengers and the merchandise sent to Cuba. (ACN, 27/6/08)

June 26: If American oil companies are allowed to drill in the Gulf of Mexico, when will they be permitted to engage in offshore oil exploration in Cuba? That's one of the questions some analysts are asking after Senator John McCain and Governor Charlie Crist recently suggested lifting the 26-year-old moratorium on drilling off Florida's coast. American oil companies have long had their eyes on Cuba's offshore potential. The US Geological Survey has estimated that Cuba could have somewhere between 4.6-billion and 9.3-billion barrels of oil as well as even greater quantities of natural gas. That's about half the size of the estimated resources in the Gulf of Mexico. "It's ironic that the Bush administration won't allow American companies to exploit those reserves - just because it's Cuba," said former US Ambassador Vicki Huddleston, who is leading a project at the Brookings Institution in Washington looking at US policy toward Cuba. (St. Petersburg Times, 27/6/08)

June 29: Members of the US Venceremos solidarity-with-Cuba brigade vindicated their constitutional rights to travel to this or any other country, despite Washington’s travel ban, threats and pressures. Some 50 US activists traveled to Cuba to express their
support of Cuba’s defense of its sovereignty and in open defiance of US extraterritorial legislations. The activists were welcomed at the Cuban Friendship Institute. (ACN, 30/6/08)

June 29: US officials said the number of Cubans trying to cross the Straits is rising. In fiscal 2007, the US Coast Guard interdicted 2,868 Cubans at sea, the highest total since the rafter crisis in 1994, when more than 37,000 left the island. Since October 1, 1,733 Cubans have been interdicted, compared with 1,547 a year earlier. US diplomats said 70 percent of the migrants are young people between 18 and 35 years old. They said the figures show Cubans have little faith life would improve under Raul Castro, who officially succeeded ailing brother Fidel as president in February. Havana accuses the United States of encouraging Cubans to risk their lives at sea by granting residence to those who reach American soil. Visa applications can take between three and seven years. (Sun Sentinel, 29/6/08)

June 29: No matter what happens to America's offshore military prison, this much is clear: This Navy base will remain open for years to come. ''We're not going anywhere anytime soon,'' declared Navy Cmdr. Jeffrey M. Johnston, who gets upset when people equate the closing of the detention center for suspected al-Qaida and Taliban figures with a shutdown of this 45-square-mile base. The US maintained this base long before the first detainees arrived in January 2002. The base, which boasts a deep harbor and strategic location along the Windward Passage, now supports operations against drug trafficking and illegal migrants. Johnston, Guantanamo's public works officer who requisitions the $4,085 annual payments to Cuba to lease the base, described the military as a perfect tenant. ''We don't bother the landlord. We don't (complain) when things go wrong. We pay our rent on time,'' Johnston said. The Castro government disagrees. Cuban officials regularly refer to the US military prison here as a ''torture camp'' and demand that the base be returned to Cuba. Cuba doesn't cash the rent checks but cannot evict the Americans because the treaty granting the base remains in effect unless both Cuba and the US abrogate it or the US abandons Guantanamo. As for the future, the military has considered ''in a very, very preliminary way'' basing Marines at Guantanamo for rapid deployment elsewhere, said Navy Capt. Mark Leary, Guantanamo's commanding officer. Even if democratic change comes to Cuba, the Navy would probably still want to stay here, he said. ''I think there's a good reason we've been here for 110 years,'' Leary said. ''I don't think we would abandon this place.'' (AP, 29/6/08)

June 29: Miramar-based Spirit Airlines has been fined $100,000 for paying the Cuban government for permission to use the island's airspace, constituting a violation of the long-standing US embargo against the island. According to a report by the Office of Foreign Asset Control of the Treasury Department, Spirit Airlines made several money transfers to Cuban government accounts from September of 2004 to March of 2007 without a valid license for such activity. The fine imposed on the airline, which has its main hub at Fort Lauderdale--Hollywood International Airport, is the largest such penalty imposed by the agency during the fiscal year that began last October. Spirit is the second Florida corporation fined this year for violating the embargo, following the $7,500 fine imposed on Fort Lauderdale's Bank. (The Miami Herald, 29/6/08)

June 30: A coalition of 16 Miami-based travel agencies specializing in trips to Cuba plan to file a lawsuit against the state, hoping that a judge will halt a recently approved law aimed at increasing state regulation of their trade. They say the measure, which goes into effect on July 1st, will drive up operating costs and force many to shut down if they can't muster the $250,000 bonds mandated by the bill. The measure, sponsored by state Representative David Rivera as a homeland-security issue, was drafted to apply to all Florida-based vendors selling trips to countries on the US State Department's list of nations that sponsor terrorism -- which includes Cuba. ''It is unfortunate that certain state of Florida legislators have decided to waste taxpayer funds to further their own goal of preventing and hindering Cuban-Americans who desire to visit their families in Cuba,'' said Steven Weinger, one of the lawyers involved in the lawsuit against the Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services. The travel agents have until July 1st to register their companies with the state, pay $2,500 in fees and find bond companies willing to front the thousands of dollars required by the law, which the Legislature passed in May and Governor Charlie Crist signed. (The Miami Herald, 29/6/08)