Chronicle on Cuba - August 2009

US-Cuba Relations

August 1: Cuban President Raul Castro warned the United States and the European Union that the country's socialist political system was non-negotiable, adding he would not "restore capitalism" in Cuba. In a speech to the Cuban National Assembly, Castro acknowledged the United States under President Barack Obama was less "aggressive" toward Cuba, but he expressed irritation with Secretary of State Hillary Clinton for saying repeatedly that Washington expected Havana to make changes in exchange for better relations. "I have to say, with all due respect to Mrs. Clinton (…) they didn't elect me president to restore capitalism in Cuba, nor to hand over the revolution," said Castro, who succeeded his brother Fidel Castro as president last year. "I was elected to defend, maintain and continue perfecting socialism, not destroy it," he added, prompting a long standing ovation from assembly members, most of whom are members of the Communist Party. "We are ready to talk about everything, but (…)  not to negotiate our political and social system," he said (Discurso de Raúl Castro en la clausura de las sesiones de la Asamblea Nacional; AFP, Reuters, 1/8/09).

August 3: The US State Department had little to say about Raúl Castro's speech to the National Assembly. “I think we are willing to have a broader dialogue with Cuba. Clearly, Cuba has to take certain actions before we think that would be viable”, spokesman Philip J. Crowley said during his daily press briefing. “We have had some limited dialogue with Cuba in recent weeks on more technical subjects, obviously, restarting the migration talks. We have been willing to discuss other issues such as mail service. I think we’re taking this in a step-by-step”, he said (The Miami Herald, 4/8/09).

August 3: It's been about four months since President Obama announced looser restrictions on travel and sending money to Cuba. But they haven't gone into effect yet, the Treasury Department confirmed to the press. Some in the "Cuba lobby"--Cuban-Americans in Congress like Representative Ileana Ros-Lehtinen and Senator Bob Menendez--suggest the administration may be mulling their objections (Menendez questions lifting remittance restrictions; he favors travel). Others cite red tape in an administration dealing with 1,001 issues. But a State Department official, who isn't authorized to speak for the record about internal policy discussions, suggests one reason for the delay is a flurry of new talks between the countries that could lead to an even wider opening to Cuba, including a lifting of restrictions on diplomatic movements. "There are discussions going on, and some new things have been put on the table," says the State official (Newsweek, 3/8/09).

August 3: Groups of travelers who defied the federal government's ban on most travel to Cuba returned to the United States with some fanfare but no holdups, passing without incident through checkpoints at the northern and southern borders. Opponents of the ban have been making such protest trips for 40 years but said recent overtures from the Obama administration have lifted hopes that US relations with Cuba will improve. About 140 members of the Venceremos Brigade walked from Canada into the United States at Buffalo wearing orange T-shirts and chanting for an end to US sanctions. Meanwhile, about 130 members of the "US/Cuba Friendshipment Caravan" re-entered the United States at the Hidalgo International Bridge from Reynosa, Mexico. "It went pretty smoothly," said Bonnie Massey, returning from her 11th Cuba trip, after being cleared by US Customs and Border Protection officers in Buffalo. The Bronx woman, traveling with her 7-month-old son, said she and others in the group were allowed to pass even after declining to answer written questions they thought might be incriminating, like how much money they had spent. Customs and Border Protection spokesman Kevin Corsaro said no one in the group was detained (AP, 4/8/09).

August 5: The United States is pouring hundreds of millions of dollars into subversion in Cuba and elsewhere in Latin America despite a pledge to start a new era in regional relations, Cuba's Communist Party newspaper Granma charged. "There is a US offensive against progressive Latin America that is being stepped up at this time against the members" of the Bolivarian Alliance of the Americas (ALBA), the newspaper said. In Cuba, "US investments meant to facilitate annexing Cuba not only have not decreased but actually have increased and worsened, due to new technologies and media," the report alleged in harsh but not unusual language for the island's state media. Citing a American-Venezuelan researcher, the report said US President Barack Obama "continues to seek to destabilize the Cuban revolution" using USAID, the agency for international development. Granma said that despite promises from Obama, the United States has not stopped spending hundreds of millions of dollars a year in taxpayer funds on "this dirty war against Latin America" (AFP, 5/8/09).

August 5: The Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) of the US Treasury Department released its monthly report of civil penalties imposed for violations of the economic sanctions programs administered by the agency. OFAC announced a $10,341.00 fine imposed against, and paid by, MGE UPS based on allegations that the California-based company “sold electrical regulators ultimately destined for Cuba.” The allegation that the goods were “ultimately destined for Cuba” indicates that MGE didn’t ship the goods to Cuba but shipped the goods outside the country - likely to Schneider Electric, its parent company in France - and that the goods were then sent from outside the US to Cuba (ACN, 5/8/09). 

August 6. In the face of anticipated budget cuts in federal funding of the Office of Cuba Broadcast (OCB) in Miami, Radio and TV Martí will eliminate 35 jobs, or 21.8 percent of their workforce. ``We have done everything possible to minimize the impact of these cuts on our staff,'' said OCB spokeswoman Letitia King. Twenty-two employees will be laid off -- mainly television anchors and technicians, news editors and radio anchors, King said. The rest involve vacant positions and employees who have volunteered for buyout packages. The workforce cuts take place at a time when the stations, designed to break Fidel Castro's information blackout, get ready for a September retooling of their program format, which has been criticized for its scant reception in Cuba (El Nuevo Herald, 6/8/09).

August 6: Erika Crenshaw returned to Los Angeles this week from a 10-day trip to Cuba with a message for authorities charged with enforcing a ban on travel to the communist-ruled island: Come and get me. One of 270 US citizens who openly made the illegal journey over the last two weeks, the 30-year-old financial advisor would like the government to fine or charge her, forcing a courtroom showdown on whether the ban is constitutional. Groups such as the Venceremos Brigade, with which Crenshaw travels, have been defying the ban almost as long as it has been in force. This year, they ramped up the challenge with record numbers and blazing orange T-shirts to pressure the Obama administration to make good on pledges to improve ties with Cuba. "I have a duty, a responsibility, to disobey unjust laws," said Crenshaw, who returned from her fifth Cuba visit. "I would welcome a fine (…) It would give us a chance to go to court and have our voices heard" (Los Angeles Times, 6/8/09).

August 6: Two nuclear-powered Russian attack submarines have been patrolling off the eastern seaboard of the United States in the first mission of its kind so close to shore in nearly a decade, US officials said. The Pentagon said it was not alarmed by the maneuvers, carried out by what officials described as Soviet-designed Akula-class submarines in international waters as little as 200 miles off the coast. Pentagon press secretary Geoff Morrell said Obama saw that rivalry as "long passed" and that Washington was keeping an eye on the two vessels. "So we don't look at this action and automatically see threatening motives," Morrell said. "We view this, we are mindful of it, we watch it, but we do not assign motives that we don't believe are there." He said the Russian vessels were free to operate in international waters. "It doesn't cause any alarm within this building (the Pentagon).... It doesn't pose any threat," Morrell added. One of the Russian submarines remained in international waters a couple hundred miles (km) off the coast of the United States, officials said. The second sub made a port call in Cuba in recent days, the New York Times reported, citing Defense Department officials who spoke on condition of anonymity. "It is the first time in roughly a decade that we've seen this kind of behavior," Morrell said (Reuters, 6/8/09).

Agosto 7: El presidente de Estados Unidos, Barack Obama, mantiene la misma política sobre la isla de sus once antecesores con la aplicación a la isla de un bloqueo financiero y comercial, según publican medios informativos oficiales de Cuba. "El cambio preconizado por Barack Obama poco tiene que ver con la relación de Estados Unidos y Cuba, mucho menos con el bloqueo genocida que 11 administraciones han sostenido", afirma un artículo publicado en el diario Granma, portavoz del gobernante Partido Comunista, y divulgado por otros medios estatales. La nota añade que "el bloqueo continúa su engranaje asfixiante, los cinco (cubanos condenados por espionaje en EEUU) siguen presos injustamente, la ley de ajuste (para cubanos que llegan a ese país) permanece como aliento criminal a la emigración ilegal, Obama condecora a mercenarios por sus servicios, Hillary (Clinton) proclama condiciones para un diálogo". "¿Dónde está el cambio cuando se habla de Cuba?", pregunta uno de los principales presentadores de la televisión estatal de la isla, Randy Alonso, quien firma el artículo (EFE, 7/8/09).

Agosto 9: A pesar del embargo económico que aplica Estados Unidos a Cuba desde 1962, la isla importó de ese país productos por más de 4,00 millones de dólares en los últimos ocho años, principalmente alimentos, informaron fuentes oficiales. "Desde que se iniciaron las operaciones en diciembre de 2001 hasta la fecha, Cuba ha pagado a su contraparte estadounidense más de 4,400 millones", informó la edición digital del semanario Opciones, que cita al presidente de la empresa estatal Alimport, comercializadora de alimentos, Pedro Álvarez. Según Opciones, "las compras de productos agroalimentarios de Cuba a Estados Unidos, luego de mantener un ritmo ascendente hasta 2005, cuando alcanzaron la mayor cifra en volumen, sufrieron en los últimos tres años un decrecimiento". Álvarez atribuye la disminución a que se mantiene el embargo, a la crisis financiera internacional y a la falta de créditos. El gobierno de Cuba está a punto de pasar de la falta de la liquidez a la insolvencia, según fuentes diplomáticas (EFE, 9/8/09).

Agosto 10: Fidel Castro alertó que Estados Unidos "podría promover" una "guerra sucia" en Sudamérica desde las bases militares que instalará en Colombia y aseguró que los argumentos utilizados por ambos países para justificar el convenio son "un insulto a la inteligencia". "La lucha contra las drogas es un pretexto para establecer bases militares en todo el hemisferio", sostiene Castro en su último artículo titulado "Las bases yanquis y la soberanía latinoamericana" publicado en los diarios oficiales cubanos. Para Castro el "verdadero objetivo" de las autoridades norteamericanas es poder ejercer "el control de los recursos económicos, el dominio de los mercados y la lucha contra los cambios sociales" en el hemisferio sur. "La historia no perdonará a los que cometen esa deslealtad contra sus pueblos, ni tampoco a los que utilizan como pretexto el ejercicio de la soberanía para cohonestar la presencia de tropas yanquis", señala el texto. Castro alertó de que los soldados norteamericanos "podrían promover una guerra sucia como hicieron en Nicaragua, incluso emplear soldados de otras nacionalidades entrenados por ellos y podrían atacar algún país" de la región (Las bases yanquis y la soberanía latinoamericana; Europa Press, 10/8/09).

August 10: Referring to Honduras during an improvised speech in Quito, where he attended the second inauguration of President Rafael Correa, Raúl Castro said that "in this continent, nobody gives a coup d'état without authorization from the United States of North America." "Those putschists don't even breathe without permission from Washington," he said. Castro also criticized a US plan to use military bases in Colombia to combat drug trafficking bound for the United States. "That's not casual," he said. The US military presence in Colombia "is not to fight against drugs or against guerrillas."
President Obama "is well-meaning and full of good intentions," Castro said, but -- alluding to former President Bush -- "he's half the old and half the new, although nobody knows which half." Because of that ambivalence, "we see a president condemning a coup with one side [of the mouth] and supporting it with the other." When the United States "is unable to hold back the tide" of socialism in the continent, "the coups d'état will return," Castro said. "That is why the case of Honduras acquires great importance and the situation in Colombia is a perfect complement." Castro wondered against what Latin American government the US "is going to aim its guns and what tactics it will use -- coup d'état, assassination" and urged the region's presidents to remain "alert." Correa's inauguration speech "will go into history but at the same time will summon the devils and gorillas in Washington," the Cuban leader said. "That means that Cuba and other friendly countries will support the people of Ecuador with everything within our reach" (The Miami Herald, 11/8/09).

August 11: Tampa Councilwoman Mary Mulhern believes that the time is right for opening to Cuba and says so in an article in The Tampa Tribune. Back from a visit to the island with several Tampa businessmen and Tampa Port Authority Commissioner Carl Lindell, Mulhern says that expanded trade and travel would benefit "regions closest to Cuba. That means Florida, and especially Tampa's port, airport and businesses." "Louisiana and Texas now account for 81 percent of U.S. exports to Cuba while Florida accounts for just 6 percent," she writes. "Mobile, Alabama, a sister city to Havana since 1993, is actively courting Cuba's port business. To deny ourselves the huge economic and job potential that free travel and trade mean for Tampa Bay is indefensible, especially during this severe economic downturn." Because travel restrictions are a hindrance, Mulhern urges "US Representative Kathy Castor and Senators Bill Nelson and Mel Martinez to listen to their constituents, send a clear signal to the president, and sign on to the Senate and House bills ending travel restrictions" (The Miami Herald, 11/8/09).

Agosto 11: El gobierno cubano invitó a empresas de Estados Unidos a comercializar en su país un medicamento único producido en la isla para las úlceras de pie diabético, un mal que ocasiona 80,000 amputaciones anuales en ese país. "Estamos haciendo un llamado a empresas e inversionistas de Estados Unidos que quieran contribuir a controlar ese problema en su sociedad", dijo en conferencia de prensa Ernesto López, director del programa del medicamento. Se trata del Hebertrop-P, un preparado que desde 2006 el Centro de Ingeniería Genética y Biotecnología (CIGB) ensaya y que ya benefició a más de 4,000 diabéticos de varios países, pues logra curar esas úlceras y reponer los tejidos bajo tratamiento en hospital. López informó que en las dos últimas semanas enviaron comunicaciones a 18 compañías estadounidenses, de las cuales siete respondieron, cuatro alegaron que el fármaco no estaba en su línea y tres estudiarán la propuesta (AFP, 11/8/09).

August 13: During the last few weeks there have been thousands of cyber attacks on computers and computer networks in the US government and private entities. The United States, because of its dependence on computers, is very vulnerable to such attacks. A cyber attack on the United States could crush our country and the world economy, which depends on the United States as the world's leading economy. The US government has not publicly identified where the cyber attacks are coming from, but Cuba has such potential. A partially declassified CIA document released several years ago notes that Cuba started in 1991 to study how to interfere with computer networks. This project had a modest budget of $50,000. The Soviet Union maintained in Cuba the Lourdes electronic espionage base, to which Cuba did not have direct access. That base was dismantled in 2002, but there are others. In 1994, Cuba and Russia agreed to build a similar base in Bejucal, south of Havana. It became operational in December 1997 at a cost of $750 million. The Bejucal base shows the importance Cuba puts on cybernetics -- having gone from a $50,000 budget to $750 million in only six years. The Bejucal base has the capacity to listen to US. telecommunications, interfere with computer networks, read/change electronic files and, more important, change output commands of computers used to control infrastructure facilities (The Miami Herald, 13/8/09).

Agosto 13: En un nuevo capítulo de la controversia legal en el caso del militante anticastrista Luis Posada Carriles, el gobierno estadounidense tendrá que presentar sus argumentos para evitar el acceso público a las evidencias fundamentales de la acusación.
La jueza federal Kathleen Cardone puso de plazo hasta el 14 de agosto para que los fiscales del Departamento de Justicia entreguen al tribunal de El Paso, Texas, los materiales considerados ‘‘sensibles'' en el encausamiento de Posada, así como una explicación precisa sobre las razones que tiene el gobierno para impedir su divulgación durante el proceso judicial. Cardone revisará las evidencias en privado y programará una audiencia posterior para ventilar el tema con las partes contendientes (El Nuevo Herald, 13/8/09).

August 13: A delegation of three US Catholic bishops will visit Cuba on behalf of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB), August 17-21. Cardinal Sean O'Malley, OFM Cap., of Boston, Bishop Thomas Wenski of Orlando, Fla., and Auxiliary Bishop Oscar Cantu of San Antonio will join Father Andrew Small, OMI, director for the Church in Latin America at the USCCB, on the journey to meet with Cuban Church leaders and visit parishes. "Our main focus will be to follow up on the extraordinary grant awarded to the Church in Cuba after last year's hurricanes," said Father Small. "We will be visiting those impacted areas and seeing what kind of clean up has taken place since last year and how else we might help the Church in Cuba," said Father Small. USCCB welcomed the move by the Obama Administration in April to relax restrictions on Cuban-American travel and the regulation in remittances to Cuba. The US bishops also urge passage of the "Freedom to Travel to Cuba Act" (H.R. 874 and S. 428), which would remove travel restrictions to Cuba for all Americans (Targeted News Service, 13/8/09).

Agosto 13: Fidel Castro celebró su cumpleaños 83 con la publicación de una “Reflexión”sobre la presente crisis económica mundial, en la que cuestionó las medidas del presidente de Estados Unidos, Barack Obama, para tratar de librar la problemática, porque la inmensa mayoría de los países en desarrollo es la que paga los platos rotos, dijo. “El Tratado de Libre Comercio de América del Norte –agregó– es el más claro ejemplo de lo que puede ocurrir con un país en desarrollo en las fauces del lobo: ni soluciones para los inmigrantes ni permiso para viajar sin visa a Canadá pudo obtener México en la última cumbre” regional, celebrada en Guadalajara, Jalisco. Castro se refirió marginalmente a la reunión de Obama con los jefes de gobierno Felipe Calderón, de México, y Stephen Harper, de Canadá, en un artículo titulado “Una causa justa que defender y la esperanza de seguir adelante”, donde dice que a pesar de que en las últimas semanas Obama se empeñó en demostrar que la crisis va cediendo como fruto de sus esfuerzos para enfrentar el grave problema que Estados Unidos y el mundo heredaron de George W. Bush, es posible que sus acciones provoquen austeridad y sacrificios al resto de los pueblos (Una causa justa que defender y la esperanza de seguir adelante; La Jornada, 14/8/09).

August 13: Three times during the last eight years, John Tredway applied for a license to take American students to debate their counterparts in Cuba. Three times, he was denied. Then the other day he got word that a new request to take students from New College in Sarasota had been approved by the Treasury Department. "It really came out of the blue," said Tredway, 60, director of USA Youth Debates, which sends groups of students all over the world. "We had been reading in the press about Obama's new Cuba policy for Cuban-Americans visiting Cuba, but nothing indicated that the policy had changed with regard to other Americans." After eight years of cultural freeze, it seems the ice is thawing between the United States and Cuba. In the coming months, a major Hispanic musician from Miami and a New York orchestra are planning to perform in Cuba, an apparent reversal of the Bush administration policy of isolating the island regime. A sudden surge of Cuban performers are coming to the US as well. "The president (Obama) has himself stated that people-to-people contact is good for both countries," said Timothy Ashby, a Cuba specialist with the Miami law firm Sonnenschein Nath & Rosenthal. Other licenses are pending. The Sarasota Yacht Club applied for a license to organize a regatta to Cuba in May 2010, one of a number of boating events in Cuba next year that Florida sailors are hoping to attend if restrictions are eased (St Petersburg Times, 13/8/09).

August 17: US Catholic bishops think US President Barack Obama needs to move more quickly to patch up long-bitter relations with Cuba and they hope to speed things up with a visit to the communist island. A delegation led by Boston's Cardinal Sean O'Malley arrived in Cuba, where they will meet with church leaders. They will also look over reconstruction work to repair damage caused by three hurricanes last year, said Father Andrew Small, director of the US Conference of Catholic Bishops' Collection for the Church in Latin America. But the main purpose of their five-day trip is to send a message to the White House that it must move more quickly to improve US-Cuba relations. "Isolation doesn't help change. There has to be greater contact. And the Obama administration has been, unfortunately, encouraging but painfully slow," Small said. "We need some radical changes, particularly from the US perspective," he told the press in the courtyard of a Havana church (Reuters, 17/8/09).

Agosto 17: El polémico concierto de Juanes en La Habana, puede convertirse en un fuerte mensaje de paz entre Cuba y Estados Unidos, deseo de la mayoría de las personas a ambos lados del Estrecho de la Florida, asegura Silvio Rodríguez. El trovador cubano señaló que en realidad son pocos los que han levantado revuelo en torno al espectáculo anunciado por el rockero colombiano para septiembre próximo en la Plaza de la Revolución. "Las voces que condenan a este concierto no son las de la inmensa mayoría de trabajadores emigrantes cubanos. Mucho menos la de los 11 millones que vivimos en Cuba. Las voces incómodas y agresivas son de la pequeña pero muy poderosa ultraderecha cubana" en Miami, comentó Rodríguez. "No creo que una canción o un concierto puedan cambiar la compleja realidad de la noche a la mañana", agregó. "Pero sin duda un evento como éste puede ser un fuerte mensaje de voluntad de paz, en este caso entre los Estados Unidos y Cuba, países separados por discrepancias de medio siglo" (AP, 17/8/09).

August 18: More than one in 10 deaths in immigration detention in the last six years have been overlooked and were omitted from an official list of detainee fatalities issued to Congress in March, the New York Times reported  – and curiously, nearly all the previously unreported deaths were of Cuban nationals. The paper reported that the Obama administration added 10 previously unreported deaths to the official roster and disclosed an 11th. The new roster includes the names of several Cubans who died in custody from 2004 to 2006. The causes of death range from suicide, to “failure to eat/drink” and natural causes (The Miami Herald, 18/8/09).

August 18: The United States and Cuba must "listen to their better angels" and end 50 years of hostilities that have caused suffering for people in both countries, US Catholic bishops visiting Cuba said. They said the United States should move more boldly to patch up US-Cuban relations or the opportunity for change that US President Barack Obama has endorsed may be lost. "There's about 50 years of lack of confidence on both sides," said Bishop Thomas Wenski of Orlando, Florida. "That's a lot of history to overcome, but for the good of people who are separated, and suffering because of that separation, we would hope that both sides listen to their better angels," he said at a press conference in Havana. Wenski was part of a delegation from the US Conference of Catholic Bishops visiting Cuba to meet with Cuban and church officials and to inspect reconstruction work on church facilities damaged by three hurricanes last year. Cardinal Sean O'Malley of Boston said the group met with officials at the US Interests Section in Havana and would meet with Cuban Parliament President Ricardo Alarcon (Reuters, 18/8/09).

August 19: Fidel Castro criticized the United States for being willing to spend billions on its high-tech military but finding it difficult to approve healthcare reform that would protect its poor people. He wrote in a commentary published on a state-run Internet site that huge military budgets are approved easily by the US Congress but US President Barack Obama is struggling to convince federal lawmakers to pass a bill that would "deliver health services to 50 million Americans that don't have them." "What hope can that society offer the world?" he asked. Castro pointed out that a free health clinic in Los Angeles recently attracted 8,000 patients, some coming from hundreds of miles away because they said they could not afford to go to a doctor or dentist (The Empire and the Robots; Reuters, 19/8/09).

August 19: A Maine court has found the Republic of Cuba guilty of the wrongful death of an American veteran believed to have been shot down while on a covert mission over the island decades ago. In finding in favor of Stockton Springs resident Sherry Sullivan, Waldo County Superior Court Justice Jeffrey Hjelm granted her damages of $21 million plus interest. Sullivan is the daughter of Geoffrey Sullivan, whose plane is believed to have disappeared over Cuba in October 1963. “I’m just overwhelmed,” Sullivan said. “It was never about money; it was to find out what happened to my father. The answer to finding my father is not what I got.” Sullivan filed her suit against Cuba in May 2007. Also named were former President Fidel Castro, President Raul Castro and the Cuban army. Those names were dismissed without prejudice by Hjelm because it could not be determined whether they were ever served the documents. The Swiss Embassy in Havana served a copy of the suit to the Cuba Ministry of Foreign Affairs on September 22, 2008. Cuba never responded to the suit leading Justice Hjelm to issue his default judgment on August 10 (Bangor Daily News, 20/8/09).

Agosto 20: El cantante colombiano Juanes denunció ante la policía de Miami que recibió mensajes amenazantes en su página de Twitter por el concierto que prevé ofrecer en Cuba el próximo 20 de septiembre, informó la cadena de televisión Telemundo. A raíz de esos mensajes, el interprete de “A Dios le pido” estaría considerando cancelar el Concierto por la Paz, en la Plaza de la Revolución, en La Habana, según un informe policial con fecha del 15 de agosto citado por ese medio de comunicación. La estrella del pop latino acudió al Departamento de la Policía de Key Biscayne, en el condado de Miami-Dade, y denunció que le escribieron mensajes anónimos que señalaban: "Prefiero morir en la batalla que en prisión. Paz sin libertad'', y una frase atribuida al filósofo Voltaire que dice, “Odio lo que dices, pero morirás por defender tu derecho a decirlo”. ''Juanes tomó esos mensajes como una amenaza y dice que teme por su seguridad y la de su familia'', afirmó Telemundo (El Nuevo Herald, 20/8/09, The Miami Herald, 21/8/09).

Agosto 21: El gobierno de Estados Unidos rehúsa entregar cierta información confidencial a los abogados del anticastrista Luis Posada Carriles, bajo el argumento de que no hay bases legales que le obliguen a suministrar ese material, según un documento judicial. La información está relacionada con el proceso judicial que se le sigue a Posada Carriles en un tribunal de El Paso (Texas), por presuntamente mentir a las autoridades estadounidenses en su trámite de asilo político y ciudadanía. Los fiscales federales, que han solicitado una orden judicial para proteger la información, respondieron a una solicitud de la defensa del ex agente de la CIA, en el documento, presentado en el tribunal el pasado miércoles 19 de agosto. "El acusado señala que las reglas de procedimientos civiles federales requieren que el gobierno le entregue documentos que intenta mantener fuera de su alcance bajo la orden de protección solicitada", indicaron los fiscales. El gobierno estadounidense expone que los argumentos de la defensa carecen de fundamento, ya que los procedimientos civiles no aplican en casos criminales (EFE, 21/8/09).

August 21: The first tropical storms of the season have begun raging across the Atlantic, bringing with them all manner of panic and potential destruction — and, behind the scenes, a little boost in United States-Cuba relations. The weather is one of the few topics on which the United States and Cuban governments regularly engage. “We’ve had a close working relationship in regard to tropical cyclones that goes back to the ’70s and ’80s,” said Max Mayfield, who retired in 2007 after seven years as director of the National Hurricane Center in Miami. “Any storm that goes toward Florida goes over Cuba, so we need their observations. And they need our data from the aircraft.” Wayne Smith, a former American diplomat in Havana who is now a fellow at the Washington-based Center for International Policy, has brought an array of American officials to Cuba in recent years to look at how Cuban disaster preparedness programs manage to keep the number of hurricane deaths on the island so low. Among those who made the trip last month were Russel Honoré, a retired lieutenant general who was the commander of the military’s Hurricane Katrina task force; Robert Turner, regional director of the Southeast Louisiana Flood Protection Authority East; and Stewart Simonson, assistant secretary for emergency preparedness in the Department of Health and Human Services during the George W. Bush administration (The New York Times, 21/8/09).

August 21: Returning from a short trip to Havana, former Miami pastor and Orlando Bishop Thomas Wenski said he was ``very impressed'' with church-funded hurricane recovery efforts in Cuba following three hurricanes that battered the Caribbean nation last summer. Wenski was part of a delegation of US Roman Catholic Church leaders hoping to take advantage of the new Obama administration to further push for the lifting of Washington's 47-year-old economic embargo against Cuba, and show support for the Catholic Church on the island. “There has to be a stepping away from the rhetoric and engagement has to take place in some small areas that don't represent a surrender on either side,'' said Wenski, a well-known and respected church leader. The trip included visits to the US Interests Section, which serves as an informal U.S. government mission; a meeting with Ricardo Alarcón, head of Cuba's parliament; a tour of hurricane-damaged churches and talks with Cuban church officials. The delegation met privately with Alarcón, who tried to get the group's support for the release of five Cuban agents jailed in the United States. Cuban President Raúl Castro has offered to free political prisoners in exchange for the release of the convicted agents. Wenski said no decision has been made by the delegation on what position -- if any -- it will take on the matter of a prisoner swap (The Miami Herald, 21/8/09).

August 24: A Cuban Communist Party (PCC) delegation attending the 15th Sao Paulo Forum being held in Mexico urged participants to counter US maneuvers against achievement made by the Latin American left wing movement. Jorge Marti, head of the International Affairs Department of the PCC Central Committee, spoke at the plenary session of the meeting, where the document "Left Wing Alternatives against the Capitalist Crisis" was debated. He noted that actions must be taken timely in the light of recent developments, including the creation of the Fourth US Fleet, the installation of seven US military bases in Colombia and the coup d'etat in Honduras. Marti said leftwing revolutionary parties and movements in the Sao Paulo Forum are meeting now to analyze the new swipes the US is taking like a wounded beast. He pointed out that in 14 Latin American and Caribbean countries, parties and political forces from the Forum are in office or are part of governing coalitions (Inside Costa Rica, 24/8/09).

August 25: President Barack Obama is trying to make positive changes in the United States, but is being fought at every turn by right-wingers who hate him because he is black, former Cuban leader Fidel Castro said. In an unusually conciliatory column in the state-run media, Castro said Obama had inherited many problems from his predecessor, George W. Bush, and was trying to resolve them. But the "powerful extreme right won't be happy with anything that diminishes their prerogatives in the slightest way." Obama does not want to change the US political and economic system, but "in spite of that, the extreme right hates him for being African-American and fights what the president does to improve the deteriorated image of that country," Castro wrote. "I don't have the slightest doubt that the racist right will do everything possible to wear him down, blocking his program to get him out of the game one way or another, at the least political cost," he said (I Wish I Were Wrong; Reuters, 25/8/09).

August 24: New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson, who has a history of diplomatic troubleshooting, may try to push US-Cuba relations forward on what one expert called an "intriguing" visit to Cuba. A spokeswoman in Santa Fe, New Mexico, said Richardson was to arrive in Havana and return home on August 28 on a trip officially billed as a trade mission for New Mexico farm products. A statement said the governor would be accompanied by several New Mexican officials whose primary aim is increasing the state's agricultural sales to the communist-led island. Richardson, who was US ambassador to the United Nations and energy secretary under President Bill Clinton, served as a special envoy on diplomatic missions to countries such as North Korea, Myanmar and Cuba. In 1996, he met with then-Cuban leader Fidel Castro and negotiated the release of three political prisoners. The New Mexico press release did not say with whom the delegation would meet (Reuters, 25/8/09).

Agosto 24: Antes de viajar sorpresivamente a La Habana, el gobernador de Nuevo México y ex candidato presidencial demócrata, Bill Richardson, se reunió con exiliados cubanos en Miami, según supo El Nuevo Herald de fuentes familiarizadas con la reunión. "El gobernador se reunió con un importante recaudador de fondos republicano y miembros del exilio tradicional cubano'', dijo una de las fuentes. La cita se extendió por un par de horas en los alrededores del Aeropuerto Internacional de Miami, después que Richardson arribara desde Nuevo México. Ninguna de las fuentes quiso abundar sobre los temas que se trataron (El Nuevo Herald, 26/8/09).

August 24: Allegiant Travel Company's Allegiant Air subsidiary will stop flying charters to Cuba, the carrier announced. "While our Cuba flying has been and continues to be profitable, these programs are exposing the airline and its people to operational complexity inconsistent with our operating philosophy," said Maurice J. Gallagher, Jr., Allegiant Travel Company CEO. "Keeping things simple is a key attribute of our business model and since we are not short of profitable opportunities consistent with operational simplicity, we decided the sensible thing was to remain true to our proven operating philosophy and return our people and aircraft to such efforts." The charters, which Allegiant started earlier this summer, were flown as part of a US government program open to eligible travelers (Aviation News, 24/8/09).

Agosto 24: Australia & New Zealand Bank Group (ANZ), un poderoso conglomerado financiero en el Pacífico Sur y Asia, pagó una multa de $5,750,000 por realizar transacciones en beneficio de Cuba y Sudán a través de cuentas de bancos estadounidenses, informó el Departamento del Tesoro. Según un informe de la Oficina de Control de Bienes Extranjeros (OFAC), las violaciones ocurrieron "en operaciones de comercio internacional y cambios de moneda extranjera realizadas entre el 2004 y el 2006, e involucraron a ANZ en el procesamiento de las transacciones utilizando cuentas correspondientes de filiales bancarias de Estados Unidos''. La sanción representa el mayor monto gravado en relación con el embargo a Cuba desde junio del 2004, cuando la Unión de Bancos Suizos recibió una multa de $100 millones por permitir que el gobierno cubano usara un programa internacional de la Reserva Federal de Estados Unidos para la sustitución de billetes de dólares en mal estado (El Nuevo Herald, 26/8/09).

August 25: New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson met with Cuban political and economic authorities during a visit to Havana to promote trade between his state and the communist-ruled island. Richardson told reporters that he dined with the leader of the National Assembly, Ricardo Alarcon, and that his conversations continued with the president of the Chamber of Commerce, Pedro Alvarez, and were "very positive." "I ate dinner last night with my friend Ricardo Alarcon," said the governor, a former Democratic presidential hopeful thought to be close to President Barack Obama. He said his talks with the president of the Chamber of Commerce were "very positive," adding that New Mexico "is interested in selling (Cuba) wheat, beans, potatoes and apples." He added that the delegation accompanying him is comprised of nine people, including several businessmen who are interested in selling agricultural products to Cuba. This is the third business mission organized by the state of New Mexico to Cuba. Richardson is the first US governor to visit Havana this year and his trip sparked speculation about possible political activities between the two countries (EFE, 26/8/09).

August 26: Ricardo Alarcon, President of Cuba’s National Assembly, sent a message asking for support of the five Cubans imprisoned in the United States, that was read out in a meeting marking the 40th anniversary of the Young Lords, a revolutionary group organized in New York to demand social progress. The CubaDebate website reported that the ceremony was held in the First Hispanic Methodist church in the so-called city of skyscrapers, with the participation of former members of the movement and of the members of the US Congress Nydia Velazquez and José Serrano, and state deputy Jose Rivera. “I'm asking you to support a demand for the release of Oscar Lopez Rivera, Carlos Alberto Torres and Avelino González Claudio, the Puerto Rican patriots,” wrote Alarcon and added, “they deserve to be free as much as Gerardo Hernandez, Ramon Labañino, Antonio Guerrero, Fernando González and Rene Gonzalez, the five Cuban revolutionaries that have been unfairly punished in the US” (ACN, 26/8/09).

August 26: New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson said he plans to report to Barack Obama's administration his assessment of Cuba-US relations following a five-day trade mission to the island even though he is not an official envoy of Washington. Richardson is meeting with a host of Cuban government officials, including a scheduled encounter with Foreign Minister Bruno Rodriguez. He met with Ricardo Alarcon, president of Cuba's parliament. So far, everyone has brought up the US embargo and other aspects of US policy, Richardson said, without elaborating. "I'm not an envoy of the (Obama) administration. I'm carrying no message. I'm here as a governor seeking agricultural trade," he said. "Obviously I do plan to submit my impressions to the administration after I conclude," he added. "I will do that as a citizen and as a governor. They're my impressions alone" (AP, 26/8/09).

August 26: New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson said he had “very fruitful and positive” meetings with Cuban officials on tourism, agriculture and trade, adding that he was seeking to “increase the economic ties” between his state and Cuba. The governor said in brief comments to reporters in Havana that economic, cultural, educational and other types of contacts between the United States and the communist-ruled island should be expanded. “I am in favor of more humanitarian trips to Cuba, more tourism, more remittances and personal contacts between American citizens and Cubans,” the governor said. Richardson met with Deputy Tourism Minister Maria Elena Lopez and other tourism officials. The governor also toured Old Havana and visited the Ernest Hemingway Museum at Finca Vigia, the writer’s home in Cuba, to which he donated an antique telephone. Richardson was accompanied to the island by his agriculture secretary, Miley Gonzalez, cultural affairs secretary, Stuart Ashman, and finance secretary, Katherine Miller (Latin American Herald, 28/8/09).

August 27: New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson kept up a busy schedule in Havana by meeting with Cuba's Deputy Foreign Minister Dagoberto Rodríguez Barrera. The Cuban government's choice of Rodríguez as Richardson's interlocutor is interesting. An experienced diplomat, Rodríguez headed the Cuban Interests Section in Washington before being elevated to second-in-command at the Foreign Ministry, or MINREX, as it's known in Havana. He represented Cuba at the immigration talks with the US held in New York City in mid-July (The Miami Herald, 27/8/09).

August 27: The number of Cubans attempting to cross the Florida Straits has fallen by more than half, putting 2009 on track to be perhaps the lowest for migration from the communist island in almost a decade. Experts say it's hard to pinpoint what has caused such a drastic drop but attribute it to combination of factors, with the US economic downturn topping the list. They also point to stepped up US law enforcement against smugglers, eased US restrictions on Cuban-Americans who want to travel to the island and send money to family there and a clampdown by the Cuban government. From October 1 through July 31, the US Coast Guard intercepted an average of 72 Cubans a month, compared to 183 a month in the previous fiscal year. The last time the numbers were that low was in 2002, the year after the September 11 attacks. The US Customs and Border Patrol said there was also a huge drop since last year in the number of Cubans who reached the US by sea, falling from nearly 4,000 annually to about 1,000. And the number entering through Mexico has plunged, falling to about 5,000 between October and July, compared to almost 9,000 during the same period a year earlier, Border Patrol said (AP, 27/8/09).

August 27: Fidel Castro accused the United States of seeking to "eliminate" Venezuela's leftist government and amass power in South America through its military deals with Colombia. His attack came on the eve of a summit of South American presidents that could be overshadowed by a growing row over a deal between Washington and Bogota to give the American military access to seven Colombian bases. Washington's "only purpose with these bases is the ability to put US troops in South America in a matter of hours", Castro said in an article published on the official government website Cubadebate. The United States insists the facilities, spread across the territory of its main regional ally, are aimed at fighting drug gangs and left-wing rebels in Colombia. Castro said America's real objective was to "eliminate the revolutionary process" begun by Venezuela's firebrand leader Hugo Chavez, a key Cuban ally, and to "gain control of the oil and other natural resources in Venezuela". "The delivery of land to establish seven US military bases in Colombia directly threatens the sovereignty and integrity of the peoples of South and Central America and the great Latin American fatherland our forefathers dreamed of," he wrote (It is the Time of Mobilization, of Marching Together; Reuters, 28/8/09).

Agosto 27: El diario oficial Granma consideró decisivo el apoyo del fallecido senador demócrata estadunidense Edward Kennedy para la victoria del presidente Barack Obama y elogió su batalla a favor de la reforma de salud en su país. "Edward Kennedy ha arrastrado hasta su último aliento el reto de su familia: sanear la sucia política de Estados Unidos", señaló este jueves en el comentario "El reto de los Kennedy" sobre su muerte ocurrida el 25 de agosto a los 77 años de edad de un tumor cerebral. En ausencia de una reacción de funcionarios gubernamentales, el órgano del Partido Comunista publicó un comentario sobre la vida de los asesinados hermanos John y Robert y sobre el último representante de ese influyente clan familiar (Notimex, 27/8/09).

August 28: New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson offered to set up talks between the Cuban government and Cuban Americans with the aim of ending five decades of mutual animosity and helping restore US-Cuba relations. At the conclusion of a five-day visit to the communist-led island, he said he had not seen a better atmosphere for improving relations between the two countries, but that things would have to proceed gradually to overcome years of bad blood. Richardson, a Hispanic Democrat who has a history of being a diplomatic trouble-shooter, said he came to Cuba on a trade mission for New Mexico, not at the behest of the White House. Richardson, speaking in both English and Spanish, said he has proposed informal Cuban-Cuban American talks as a way of improving relations between two groups who have been bitter enemies since Fidel Castro took power in a 1959 revolution and many Cubans fled to Miami. "If there's going to be a solution to the normalization of relations between Cuba and the United States, Cuban Americans must play a role," said Richardson (Reuters, 28/8/09).

Agosto 28: El gobierno de Raúl Castro impidió la salida del país de una treintena de universitarios cubanos que habían recibido becas para participar este verano en dos programas en instituciones académicas de Estados Unidos. "Lamentamos la decisión del gobierno cubano de no permitir la participación de sus ciudadanos en estos proyectos, pero continuaremos brindando oportunidades para que los cubanos participen en este tipo de programas educativos, los cuales ofrecemos a estudiantes de todo el mundo'', dijo Sara Mangiaracina, portavoz del Buró de Asuntos Hemisféricos del Departamento de Estado. La convocatoria para ambos programas -- auspiciados por el Buró de Asuntos Educativos y Culturales (BECA, por su nombre en inglés) del Departamento de Estado -- fue lanzada a mediados del pasado año a través de la Sección de Intereses de Estados Unidos (USINT) en La Habana y en pocas semanas recibió una avalancha de solicitudes. Es la primera vez que estudiantes cubanos son invitados a participar en este tipo de programas internacionales del gobierno estadounidense (El Nuevo Herald, 28/8/09). 

Agosto 29: For the first time since Fidel Castro took power in Cuba over a half-century ago, a drug developed by the Communist regime is going through clinical trials in the United States. The drug nimotuzumab is designed to target cancer cells including those in rare and deadly types like glioma. A researcher at the University of Florida, where one trial is already in progress, calls the drug ``exciting, interesting.'' But, even if trials prove successful, nimotuzumab could not be sold in the United States because 20 percent of the company holding the license is owned by the Cuban government. ``We're in the business of developing drugs,'' said David G.P. Allan, chief of YM Biosciences, based in Canada. ``We could care less about the political side.'' YM Biosciences owns 80 percent of CIMYM, the company that has the rights to develop nimotuzumab in North America, Europe, Japan and other places. The other 20 percent is owned by the Center of Molecular Immunology, the biotech lab in Havana that developed the drug (Europa Press, 29/8/09; The Miami Herald, 31/8/09).

August 31: Three of the five Cubans incarcerated in the US were taken to the Miami detention center to wait for a re-sentencing hearing scheduled for October 13th. Last year, the Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals of Atlanta ruled that the sentences given to Ramón Labañino, Antonio Guerrero and Fernando Gonzalez “were imposed incorrectly” and sent them back to Judge Joan Lenard who, in the presence of a jury, will have to give them new sentences. Ramon Labañino and Antonio Guerrero are serving life terms while
Fernando Gonzalez was sentenced to 19 years. The two other Cubans, Gerardo Hernandez and Rene Gonzalez, who are serving two-life terms and fifteen years, respectively, were not benefited with the re-sentencing ordered by the Atlanta appeals court (ACN, 31/8/09).

August 31: The President of Cuba’s National Assembly, Ricardo Alarcon, denounced the reasons behind the US Government’s decision to impose excessive sentences on the five Cubans who remain imprisoned in the United States. In an article posted on the CubaDebate website, under the title “Inhabilitando a Los Cinco” (Disqualifying the Five), Alarcon comments on the sentences imposed on Gerardo Hernandez (two life terms plus 15 years), Ramon Labañino (one life term plus 18 years), Antonio Guerrero (one life term plus 10 years), Fernando Gonzalez (19 years), and Rene Gonzalez (15 years). Alarcon points out that the sentences are out-of-proportion compared to those imposed recently by the US government against other individuals who were charged with committing espionage (ACN, 31/8/09).
 
August 31: Talks aimed at resuming direct postal service between the United States and Cuba, which has been suspended for decades, are set to be held in mid-September in another sign of thawing US-Cuba relations, Western diplomats said. Officials from the US State Department and US Postal Service were expected to attend the discussions in Havana, the diplomats, who asked not to be named, said. No further details were immediately available and there was no immediate confirmation from the Cuban government. At present, mail between the two countries must go through a third country (Reuters, 31/8/09).

Agosto 31: Diez cubanos llegaron al islote Monito, en territorio puertorriqueño, y se encuentran en buen estado de salud, informaron las autoridades. Los cubanos dijeron haber sido dejados en el islote por una embarcación procedente de República Dominicana, indicó la Policía en un comunicado. El islote Monito está ubicado entre el oeste de Puerto Rico y el este de República Dominicana, en el Canal de la Mona (AP, 31/8/09).

August 31: Cuba accused the Obama administration of following in the footsteps of the Bush administration and violating US law by denying a visa to the wife of a convicted intelligence agent for the communist nation. In a letter to Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, Cuba's UN Ambassador Abelardo Moreno Fernandez demanded that the US government grant Adriana Perez "a humanitarian visa immediately so that she may visit her husband," Gerardo Hernandez. The ambassador said that on July 15, after a wait of 95 days, the US Interests Section in Havana denied Perez a visa for the 10th time, using "the crude argument" that she "constitutes a threat to the stability and national security of the United States." "This is shameful confirmation that the current Secretary of State Hillary Clinton is using the same argument as her predecessor Condoleezza Rice to deny Ms. Adriana Perez her visa," Moreno Fernandez said. "This decision of the United States authorities violates the country's own law and demonstrates a systematic violation of its international obligations," he said (AP, 31/8/09).