Chronicle on Cuba - Marzo 2010

Relaciones Cuba-Estados Unidos

March 1: All direct US flights to Cuba may be halted if the ex-wife of a Cuban spy wins a lawsuit to garnish money that South Florida charter companies pay in fees to Cuba, lawyers in the case said. Ira Kurzban, attorney for the charterers, said he filed a motion to dissolve the writs of garnish by Ana Margarita Martinez, and asked US Judge Frederico Moreno for an emergency hearing. The eight charter companies, all based in South Florida, have stopped making payments to Cuba, he added.  “My clients are now in breach of contract, and Cuba can stop them landing any time.” Martinez's suit could deal a blow to the Obama administration's efforts to increase people-to-people contacts with Cuba, and force Cuban-Americans to go through third countries to visit the island. An estimated 200 charter flights to Cuba leave monthly from Miami, New York, and Los Angeles carrying 20,000 passengers, industry experts said. The companies must pay Cuban agencies for landing rights, fuel, ground support, and other services. Charter-company and Cuban officials met in Havana to study the legal situation, and Havana decided to withhold a reaction until it determines how the legal case is moving, said a travel-industry member who declined to comment further because of the sensitivity of the case. Martinez, the ex-wife of Cuban spy Juan Pablo Roque, filed the writs on Feb. 19 to seize those funds. Her attorney, Thomas Withrow of Indianapolis, said the move was  “not a sure shot at all, but also not a long shot” (El Nuevo Herald, 2/3/10).

Marzo 1: El departamento de Estado estadounidense dijo que Cuba duplicó en 2009, con respecto a 2008, sus incautaciones de drogas y señaló que una mayor cooperación en materia de lucha contra el narcotráfico entre La Habana y Washington sería beneficiosa para ambos países. Según el informe “Estrategia Internacional para el Control de Narcóticos,”  en 2009 Cuba aprehendió 3,008 kilogramos de narcóticos, incluidos 86 fardos de narcóticos (1,037 kilos de marihuana, 2 kilos de cocaína y 31 kilos de hachís) que fueron arrastrados por las corrientes a las playas cubanas. El informe también recoge la posición del gobierno cubano de que el aumento de las incautaciones “no significa un aumento del uso de drogas o de la demanda en Cuba sino que varios casos supusieron mayores cantidades aprehendidas que en el 2008.” Dos casos citados fueron uno de mayo de 2009 en el que Cuba interceptó una lancha rápida que buscaba protección en aguas cubanas y el otro en julio, un pequeño aeroplano jamaicano que tuvo que realizar un aterrizaje de emergencia en Camagüey (EFE, 1/3/10).

March 2: Eight companies making charter flights to Cuba asked a US judge to dismiss a plea by the ex-wife of a Cuban spy that funds of those companies be withheld so that she can collect the $27.1 million in damages she was awarded after winning a lawsuit against the Havana government. Ira J. Kurzban, attorney for the Miami-based charter firms, said that the lawsuit brought by Ana Margarita Martinez could lead to Havana suspending their landing rights, according to a court document. The attorney asked US District Judge Frederico Moreno to deny Martinez’ plea because if his clients do not make the payments agreed upon with Cuba for lack of funds, their flights will end since they depend on those landing rights. The companies are ABC Charters, Airline Brokers Company Inc, C&T Charters, Cuba Travel Services, Gulfstream Air Charter, Inc., Marazul Charters, Inc., Xael Charters and Wilson International Services, Inc. Charter flights are the only option for direct air travel from the United States to Cuba (LAHT, 2/3/10).

March 3: Forty per cent of Americans say the Cuba embargo should remain in place while 36 per cent want it ended, and nearly half say they wouldn't visit the island even if allowed, according to a BBC/Harris Poll. Nearly three in 10 Americans believe President Barack Obama's gestures toward Cuba have not been enough, 35 per cent believe they went far enough and 10 per cent say they went too far, the poll showed. The survey came as Congress considers several proposals to ease US sanctions on Havana, including allowing unrestricted US travel to the island and making it easier for Cuba to buy US agricultural products. Harris Interactive said it surveyed 2,050 American adults online January 13-15 for itself and the British Broadcasting Corp. Harris said it doesn't report margins of error because they can be misleading. While 23 per cent of Americans said the Cuban government was an enemy of Washington, 63 per cent said Havana is unfriendly but not an enemy, 12 per cent said Cuba is a friend but not an ally and 2 per cent believe Havana is  “a close ally,” the poll showed. Forty-four per cent of those surveyed said it was too early to restore normal relations with Cuba and 38 per cent disagreed, while 75 per cent said the US relationship with the island is important and 25 per cent said it's not. Nearly 50 per cent said Obama should visit the island at some point in his presidency, while 25 per cent said maybe he should visit after Fidel Castro dies and 26 per cent said never, the poll showed (The Miami Herald, 3/2/10).

March 3: A years-long battle over a famous Cuban brand — Havana Club rum — resurfaced on Capitol Hill as liquor giants Bacardi and Pernod Ricard tussled over an obscure — but potentially lucrative — provision in federal law. The measure — better known as Section 211 — has been under fire from the World Trade Organization, which in 2001 found it violated trade treaties and ordered the United States to revise it. Since then, a series of Florida lawmakers have proposed bills aimed at satisfying the WTO by tweaking the legislation. But critics say the entire provision should be scrapped because it benefits a single company — Bacardi — and could hurt the ability of other US companies to protect their trademarks.  “In order to live up to our treaty obligations, and indeed honor our reputation and history of leadership when it comes to defending intellectual property rights and the rule of law,” the provision should be repealed, Mark Esper, vice president of the US Chamber of Commerce's Global Intellectual Property Center, told the House Judiciary Committee. Bruce Lehman, a former assistant secretary of commerce and expert counsel for Bacardi, told lawmakers that the provision — which he said applies to companies beyond Bacardi — is  “easily correctable” and that repealing it would  “send a terrible signal to those throughout the world who wish to devalue intellectual property rights.” And he told lawmakers that opponents of the embargo against Cuba have seized the issue to push for changes in US-Cuba policy. The bill that would do away with the Bacardi provision — sponsored by Representative Charles Rangel, D-New York — would also lift the travel ban to Cuba. The goal of pushing Cuba toward a free-market economy, he said,  “is not advanced by giving effect to Cuban confiscatory measures in the United States.” At issue is the right to the Havana Club name. Bacardi says it purchased the rights to the name in 1997 from the rightful owner, the Arechabala family, which says the trademark was seized from it without compensation when Fidel Castro took power in Cuba (The Miami Herald, 4/3/10).

March 3: Cuban-Americans and others working to support political opposition in Cuba are demanding to know why the US has yet to disburse $40 million allocated over the past two years for pro-democracy efforts on the communist island. Congress approved about $20 million in both the 2009 and 2010 fiscal years, mostly through the US Agency for International Development, but the agency hasn't asked US-based pro-democracy groups to submit proposals for how they would spend the money. Nine Republican congressional representatives, including Florida's three Cuban-American representatives, have accused the Obama administration of trying to appease the Cuban government in part by freezing the funds. The government said it is taking its time to review the program to ensure stronger oversight and efficiency. For years the Cuba aid program has been criticized for failing to get money and other resources directly to those on the island and for not requiring competitive bidding. Supporters of the program say the February 23 hunger-strike death of one imprisoned dissident and the recent hospitalization of another show that aid is more crucial than ever. Frank Hernandez, executive director of the Miami-based Democracy Support Group, which has received more than $12.5 million over the past decade to aid dissidents in Cuba, said his small organization only has enough money to continue operating for a few more months. “It's unfortunate because the situation with the prisoners is worse than ever,” Hernandez said. “People will say they don't need food because they're on a hunger strike, but their families need food. Their children need food, and not all of them are on a hunger strike.” Political dissidents in Cuba, and sometimes their relatives, are often denied work authorization (The Miami Herald, 4/3/10).

March 4: A media watchdog group called on Cuba to release jailed independent journalists - or at least improve their prison conditions - and said it would hold the government responsible for the health of an opposition reporter staging a hunger strike. The New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists said Cuba, an island of just 11.4 million, has 22 reporters in its jails - putting it behind only China and Iran on the global list. “Cuban journalists have paid an extremely high price for exercising their right to freedom of expression,” Carlos Lauria, CPJ's senior program coordinator for the Americas, said in a statement. “These sentences are cruel and vengeful.” Cuba considers dissidents mercenaries of Washington who take money to try and destabilize the country's communist government, and it routinely dismisses groups like CPJ as agents of the US government (AP, 4/3/10).

March 7: Washington will allow technology companies to export Internet services to Iran, Cuba and Sudan in a bid to exploit their libertarian potential, The New York Times reported.  “The more people have access to a range of Internet technology and services, the harder it’s going to be for the Iranian government to clamp down on their speech and free expression,” a senior administration official told the paper. The Treasury Department will issue a general license on March 8 for exports of free personal Internet services such as instant messaging, chat and photo sharing as well as software to all three countries, said the unnamed official. The move will allow Microsoft, Yahoo and other Internet services providers to get around strict export restrictions, the report said (AFP, 8/3/10). 

March 9: The United States is easing rules for cash payments of agricultural sales to Cuba through September 2010, according to a document posted on the US Treasury Department's website. The move is at least a temporary victory for US farmers whose trade with Cuba was complicated by payment rules issued by Treasury's Office of Foreign Asset Control (OFAC) during the administration of President George W. Bush. The loosening was approved by Congress in December in a provision added to a spending bill funding federal agencies for the rest of the 2010 fiscal year. The rule change is labeled a final rule, although the effective date is not given. OFAC's new regulations, which it said only covered the remainder of fiscal 2010, reinterprets payment of cash in advance to mean before title and control of the farm goods are transferred to the Cuban buyer. That would allow Cuban buyers to pay for the goods just before they are unloaded in Cuba, lowering the financial cost of the transactions that are paid through third-country banks (Reuters, 9/3/10).

March 9: Experts, former officials and some university chancellors appealed to US President Barack Obama to end restrictions “immediately” on academic, cultural, sports and scientific exchanges with Cuba. At a conference in Washington organized by the Center for International Policy, members of the Emergency Coalition to Defend Educational Travel said the restrictions are a legacy of the Bush administration and should not be continued by Obama. The former chief of the US Interests Section in Havana, Wayne Smith, questioned the fact that Obama still has not taken the “easiest step” in his policy of rapprochement with Havana and has only lifted restrictions on Cuban-Americans’ travel and remittances to the island. Smith, the director of the CIP’s Cuba Program, said that little can be expected of Obama’s promised new Cuba policy if the president “is not even capable” of raising travel restrictions for academics (LAHT, 9/3/10).

March 11: Cuba requested before the UN Human Rights Council (HRC) in Geneva the reactivation of the case of five Cubans imprisoned in the United States. Their sentence was termed as arbitrary in Geneva, where the organization’s headquarters is located. Cuba considers it necessary to recall that the case of the five Cubans is still pending, said Anayansi Rodriguez, director of the Cuban Foreign Ministry’s Department for Multilateral Affairs. The diplomat clarified that, in its Opinion 19/2005, the Working Group on Arbitrary Detention stated the illegality of the measure, the Granma newspaper reported (ACN, IPS, 11/3/10).

March 11: Increased sales of US food and commodity exports to Cuba would be allowed under a bill introduced by US Senator Amy Klobuchar (D-Minnesota). The Travel Restriction Reform and Export Enhancement Act, introduced by Klobuchar and Senator Mike Enza (R-Wyoming), is the companion bill to one introduced last month by US Representative Collin Peterson. “American famers can greatly benefit from access to new markets in Cuba at a time when our economy needs it most,” said Klobuchar. “This bill will create jobs by promoting US agriculture exports. In addition, Cubans and Americans will be able to engage in open communication, an important step toward improving relations between our two nations.” The Klobuchar-Enzi legislation would allow exports to Cuba to occur under the same payment requirements as exports from other nations and eliminate the need for U.S. exporters to conduct payment transactions for agricultural sales to Cuba through banks in other nations, Klobuchar said (The Bemidji Pioneer, 12/3/10).

March 11: The US House of Representative's Agriculture Committee held a hearing on agriculture sales to Cuba. Bart Schott, the National Corn Growers Association first vice president and a grower from Kulm, N.D., participated in the commodity panel's discussion on increasing one-way exports to Cuba. “The Cuban embargo works. It works against US farmers and ranchers,” said Schott. “I simply can't believe that is what Congress intended this policy to accomplish. Chairman Collin Peterson (D-Minnesota) and Representative Jerry Moran (R-Kansas) have come up with good solutions in their bill that would eliminate the embargo's impact on me, an American farmer, without getting rid of the embargo altogether.” H.R. 4645, the Travel Restriction Reform and Export Enhancement Act, lifts the requirement known as “cash in advance” that times a Cuban payment for US agricultural goods prior to leaving port, instead of payment before title changes, which is generally at the point of destination. The bill also changes “third party banking” to allow the Cuban importer to pay a US bank directly, instead of going through a non-US third party bank. The bill also lifts the travel ban and, in doing so, would allow US tourists to go to Cuba. It would not increase travel from Cuba to the United States in any way. “This change is integral to increasing demand, especially for value-added products such as poultry,” said Steve Yoder, NCGA Trade Committee Chair, a grower from Dalhart, Texas. “Increased economic activity would lead to improvements in the Cuban diet, as their consumers seek out more animal proteins” (States News Service, 11/3/10).

March 11: Cuba continues to deny its citizens' basic human rights, including the right to change their government, and has committed “numerous and serious abuses,” the US State Department said. Among the human rights violations committed by President Raul Castro's regime were state harassment, beatings and threats against dissidents, the arbitrary detention of human rights activists and the lack of a fair judicial process, the State Department said in its annual human rights report (Human Rights Report: Cuba; AFP, 11/3/10).

Marzo 15: Calle 13 tiene programado dar un concierto gratuito en Cuba el 23 de marzo, informó el cante del grupo puertorriqueño René Pérez. “Teníamos ganas de ir hacía tiempo y no habíamos podido conectar...ahora todo se dio sin problemas porque no estamos haciendo nada malo, sólo música. Vamos por el pueblo, porque quiero que me escuche y escucharlos a ellos,”  dijo Pérez en una entrevista a Blinblineo, la página digital del género Reggaeton. “Estoy bien contento, porque este concierto se pudo lograr con mucho sacrificio. No estamos cobrando y llevamos toda la banda,”  agregó Pérez en las declaraciones que también fueron publicadas en el sitio oficial de la isla, Cubadebate. En el Instituto de la música de Cuba no respondieron a las llamadas para ratificar la información. La invitación a Cuba se manejó por intermedio de Milena Pérez, la hermana de René, y los músicos cubanos en la isla, Kelvin Ochoa y el dúo Gema y Pavel, explicó el cantante oricua. Calle 13 hizo varias gestiones en los últimos años para presentarse en Cuba, en particular estuvo considerando compartir escenario con el colombiano Juanes cuando ofreció el concierto “paz sin fronteras” en la isla en septiembre del 2009, pero los planes no se concretaron (AP, 15/3/10).

March 15: A US decision to ease sanctions on Cuba and two other countries to allow exports of Internet services is intended to “destabilize” the communist island, Cuba's government has said.
The US State Department announced March 8 it would ease sanctions against Cuba, Iran and Sudan to increase citizens' access to online communication tools and boost “free speech and information to the greatest extent possible.” But Cuban President Raul Castro's government said the decision “said clearly that its objective was to use these service as tools of subversion and destabilization,” according to statement from the Cuban Foreign Ministry. “This shows once again that the US government is not interesting in softening its policy nor in developing normal relations with Cuba, but only in developing a network that facilitates its subversive actions in our nation,” the statement added. The US Treasury Department modified sanctions against Iran, Cuba and Sudan to allow exports by US companies of services related to Web browsing, blogging, email, instant messaging, chat, social networking and photo- and movie-sharing (AFP, 15/3/10).

March 16: Eight charter companies that provide air travel between the US and Cuba are seeking to block an order requiring they help pay a $27 million award won by a woman who said she was tricked into marrying a Cuban spy. Ana Margarita Martinez won a 2001 default judgment against Cuba and successfully sued the companies in 2007 to help indirectly collect the money from the island. Martinez wants the air charter companies to pay her money they owe companies in Cuba. In a hearing scheduled for federal court in Miami, the charter companies are expected to ask a judge to halt any payments to Martinez. The companies say Martinez's efforts could put them out of business and hurt the ability of Cuban-Americans to visit relatives on the island (The Miami Herald, 16/3/10).

March 17: US cruise companies are eager to add Cuba to their itineraries; but even if US policy allowed that, Cuba's ports would need years of rebuilding to accommodate the ships, industry officials said. “Our business has grown so much that these ports in Cuba that were (established) in the time of the Spanish conquistadors, that size of ports, they're going to need a lot of infrastructure improvement,” John Tercek, vice president of commercial development for Miami-based Royal Caribbean Cruises Ltd, said at an industry conference in Miami. The world's three largest cruise companies — Carnival Corp & Plc, Royal Caribbean and Norwegian Cruise Line, which is owned by US private equity firms Apollo Management LP and TPG Capital LP and by Genting Hong Kong Ltd — are all headquartered in Miami. They are prohibited by the United States from doing business with nearby communist Cuba, under a policy aimed at depriving Cuba of US dollars until it adopts democracy (Reuters, 17/3/10).

March 17: US and Cuban officials met in the Dominican Republic to discuss international cooperation on assistance for Haiti after the catastrophic earthquake there, diplomats said. The meeting took place in Santo Domingo on the sidelines of an international conference of experts and officials from the Haitian government, donor nations, United Nations agencies and humanitarian groups to draft a reconstruction plan for the poor, quake-stricken Caribbean nation. The United States sent thousands of soldiers and aid workers to Haiti after the January 12 earthquake, and Cuba sent hundreds of doctors and health personnel, all part of a huge international relief effort. Haiti says more than 300,000 people may have been killed in the catastrophe. Diplomats said Cheryl Mills, counselor and chief of staff to US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, and another senior State Department official, Julissa Reynoso, met in Santo Domingo with Cuban Deputy Foreign Minister Rogelio Sierra and a senior Cuban Health Ministry official. The diplomats, who asked not to be named, said the US and Cuban officials discussed aid for Haiti, including Cuba's capacity to help provide medical care for the hundreds of thousands of injured and homeless Haitian quake victims. More details of what they discussed were not immediately known. The US delegation also held separate meetings with delegations from several other countries, including Venezuela, the diplomats said (Reuters, 17/3/10).

March 17: An official of the US Interests Section “participated [Wednesday] in a new act of counter-revolutionary provocation” in Havana, Prensa Latina reported. Lowell Dale Lawton, a second secretary at the USINT, attended a mass at a church in the Párraga district along with members of the dissident group Ladies in White, the news agency said. “The American diplomat mingled with the demonstrators and walked with them the length of the provocation, which was spontaneously rejected by the local people,” Prensa Latina said. On March 16, the agency said, two other diplomats – one German, the other Czech – took part in a similar street protest “in open collaboration with the petty counter-revolutionary groups organized and funded by the United States and some European nations. “These actions of provocation in Cuba, with the presence of diplomats from the United States and western European countries, take place amid a media campaign against the island that intensified on March 10, when the European Parliament adopted a resolution condemning alleged human rights violations,” Prensa Latina concluded (The Miami Herald, 18/3/10).

March 18: A US citizen admitted to hijacking a flight with three others at New York’s John F. Kennedy International Airport and fleeing to Cuba more than 40 years ago. Luis Armando Pena Soltren, 67 years old, pleaded guilty to conspiracy, interference with flight crew members, aircraft piracy and kidnapping at a hearing before US District Judge Alvin Hellerstein in Manhattan. “The plane was supposed to go to Puerto Rico, but we ordered the crew to change course to Havana,” Pena Soltren said through an interpreter. He faces between 262 months and 327 months in prison under federal sentencing guidelines. Pena Soltren, a native of San Juan, Puerto Rico, voluntarily returned to the US from Cuba on a commercial flight to JFK in October and was taken into custody by Federal Bureau of Investigation agents. His lawyer said at the time that Pena Soltren had been in contact with US officials in Cuba for several years in hopes of returning to the US (The Wall Street Journal, 18/3/10).

March 18: The US State Department said it is “dismayed” that authorities in communist Cuba disrupted a demonstration by women relatives of political prisoners. President Barack Obama's administration, which has tried to engage diplomatically with Havana, is “dismayed that a peaceful march was disrupted by the Cuban government authorities, department spokesman Gordon Duguid said. The authorities, he said, “interfered with the right of Cuban citizens to peacefully assemble and express their support for their family members who are prisoners of conscience.” Hundreds of government supporters heckled members of the “Ladies in White” rights group as they silently marched in protest through the streets of downtown Havana. Police removed some 30 women during a march the day before. “We are concerned about the welfare of the” women, Duguid said (AFP, 18/3/10).

Marzo 20: El gobierno de Cuba reclama a EEUU que aumente la seguridad policial en la sede de su misión ante la ONU en Nueva York, tras una reciente protesta por la muerte del preso político Orlando Zapata protagonizada por exiliados de la isla, según una carta. La misiva, remitida el pasado 12 de marzo por la delegación cubana a la Asamblea General de las Naciones Unidas, resalta “las responsabilidades de las autoridades de Estados Unidos” en la protección de las dependencias diplomáticas de los miembros del organismo. ''Cuba exige que las autoridades de Estados Unidos garanticen la seguridad y la integridad física de la misión y de su personal,”señala el escrito firmado por el embajador cubano ante la ONU, Pedro Núñez Mosquera. El diplomático explica que el motivo del reclamo al gobierno estadounidense es un “peligroso y provocador incidente” ocurrido frente a la misión cubana el pasado 28 de febrero. Según su versión, unas 30 personas “comenzaron a hacer mucho ruido, gritando consignas ofensivas e insultantes” hasta que fueron dispersados por la Policía. ''Actos de este tipo ponen en peligro la seguridad de la misión y de los funcionarios cubanos e impiden el normal desempeño de sus funciones,”indica el embajador en la carta, en la que se lamenta que la Policía de Nueva York retirara en 2007 el dispositivo de seguridad que mantenía ante la sede diplomática. Núñez Mosquera también asegura que en Estados Unidos ‘‘residen muchos terroristas y delincuentes de origen cubano que representan una amenaza para los locales y el personal de la misión de Cuba” (EFE, 20/3/10).

March 21: Press freedoms in countries throughout the Western Hemisphere are facing serious threats from authoritarian governments, especially in Venezuela and communist-led Cuba, a group representing news media from across the Americas warned. Alejandro Aguirre, president of the Inter American Press Association, singled out Cuba as the region's the worst offender against press freedom. “The most worrisome case continues to be the case of Cuba, where a dictatorship that has lasted nearly half a century has not allowed a minimum of freedom of expression or free press,” Aguirre said in a telephone interview from the Caribbean island of Aruba. The Miami-based IAPA, which includes 1,380 publications from throughout the Western Hemisphere, is discussing what it considers a host of threats to freedom of expression emerging across the region during a meeting in Aruba (AP, 21/3/10).

March 22: We’ve come to Cuba with welled up in our Hearts, affirmed Rene Perez  and Eduardo Cabra, members of the famous Puerto Rican group Calle 13, during a meeting with the national and foreign press held at the Hotel Nacional. Rene affirmed that this invitation to offer a concert on Tuesday at Havana’s Jose Marti Anti-imperialist Tribune is one of the best things that have happened in his life, and that coming to the island was a mystery for him. He added that what he has seen so far looks very much like Puerto Rico and that he expects to know more of the island, especially to incorporate it to his creation. He’s confident that this visit will strengthen the historical bridge existing between Puerto Rico and Cuba, and that it will perhaps encourage many artists to travel to Cuba. Rene explained that Calle 13 is inclusive in all levels and that its members have their minds open to understand all positions, because they want to be minstrels telling stories from the peoples. For his part, young Eduardo Cabra pointed out that he feels he’s reconnecting the contemporary music of the two countries (ACN, 22/3/10).

Marzo 21: La goleta Amistad, réplica del barco en el que se produjo una protesta de esclavos en el siglo XIX y velero oficial del estado de Connecticut, atracará en La Habana como un gesto para “establecer puentes” entre los pueblos de Cuba y Estados Unidos. El anuncio fue hecho por Miguel Barnet, presidente de la Unión de Escritores y Artistas de Cuba (UNEAC), según reportó la agencia noticiosa italiana ANSA. La llegada de ese barco con bandera estadounidense por primera vez a Cuba representa “la sana y constructiva intención de establecer puentes y restablecer la amistad profunda entre los pueblos de Estados Unidos y Cuba,”  afirmó Barnet. “Es un símbolo de amistad y del abrazo que nos vamos a dar Estados Unidos y Cuba,”  agregó Barnet en una conferencia de prensa en la que se presentó junto a los estadounidenses Quentin Snediker y William Pinkny, respectivamente constructor y primer capitán de la nave. Snediker expresó que su satisfacción por “el sueño hecho realidad” que supone atracar en La Habana y agradeció la colaboración del Ministerio de Cultura cubano. El buque, con 13 tripulantes, todos de Estados Unidos excepto uno, que es de Sierra Leona, además de un grupo de estudiantes, llegará procedente de Santo Domingo (República Dominicana) a Matanzas, a 100 kilómetros al este de La Habana, y el 25 de marzo a la capital cubana, de donde zarpará seis días más tarde. La goleta, propiedad de una ONG estadounidense, es una réplica del barco construido en Cuba y convertido en emblema del movimiento abolicionista al salir de La Habana en 1839 con 53 esclavos africanos de Sierra Leona, quienes se rebelaron, tomaron el control de la nave y fueron detenidos en Estados Unidos. Dos años después fueron liberados. La goleta, que recorre la antigua ruta del comercio de esclavos en el Atlántico, forma parte del proyecto Ruta de la esclavitud de la ONU y la UNESCO (Télam, 21/3/10).

March 23: Puerto Rico's Calle 13 brought its edgy mix of reggaeton and hip-hop to Cuba's capital, rocking thousands of screaming fans from an outdoor stage while serving up a heaping dose of bitterness toward US policy. The Grammy-winning group played in front of towering Cuban and Puerto Rican flags as the sun set and foamy waves crashed against the famous Malecon boulevard that hugs the seawall along Havana's coast. The thunderous show was held on a public square dubbed the “Anti-imperialist Plaza,” located just a stone's throw from the US Interests Section — which Washington keeps in Cuba instead of an embassy, since it has no formal diplomatic relations with the island. Early on, lead singer Rene Perez screamed a string of profanity at the “building behind us,” and kept up the verbal assault on the Interests Section as the evening wore on. The US diplomatic mission was closed for the day by the time the show began. The band also played “Querido FBI,” or “Dear FBI,” a song dedicated to Filiberto Ojeda Rios, alleged leader of a militant Puerto Rican nationalist group accused of using stolen millions to finance bombings and attacks. Ojeda Rios died in a 2005 shootout with the FBI at a remote farmhouse in Puerto Rico. “He was a good boricua,” Perez told the crowd, using a slang term for Puerto Rican natives, “and they killed him” (AP, 23/3/10).

Marzo 23: El disidente cubano Darsi Ferrer recibió la “mención honorífica” del galardón Defensores de la Libertad 2009, informó el portavoz del Departamento de Estado estadounidense, Philip Crowley. ''Este premio es un reconocimiento del trabajo y la valentía de Ferrer en su lucha por la defensa de los derechos humanos en Cuba,”manifestó Crowley a los periodistas. El portavoz del Departamento de Estado manifestó que la de Ferrer, encarcelado en La Habana desde julio del año pasado bajo el cargo de obtención ilegal de bienes, fue la única mención honorable en el Hemisferio Occidental. Crowley informó que el secretario adjunto de Estado, Mike Posner, tuvo una teleconferencia con la esposa de Ferrer, Yusnaimy Jorge Soca, y otros miembros de su familia para conversar sobre el caso. Posner también habló directamente con miembros del grupo Damas de Blanco que en las últimas semanas ha realizado manifestaciones por los derechos humanos y el respeto a la libertad de expresión en Cuba, dijo Crowleyn (El Nuevo Herald, 24/3/10).

Marzo 23: Un grupo de 40 legisladores pidió al gobierno de Cuba la liberación del contratista estadounidense Alan Gross, encarcelado en La Habana desde diciembre pasado bajo cargos de espionaje. En una carta dirigida a la Sección de Intereses de Cuba en Washington, los legisladores señalaron que la liberación de Gross debe ser “inmediata” para que regrese con su familia en Estados Unidos. Gross, de 60 años, es un subcontratista de la Agencia Estadounidense para el Desarrollo Internacional (USAID) y trabaja para la empresa Development Alternatives (DAI), que se dedica a labores de desarrollo en otros países. El detenido distribuía en La Habana ordenadores portátiles, móviles y otros equipos tecnológicos en la isla cuando fue apresado. “En el momento de su arresto, Gross ayudaba a la comunidad judía a mejorar su capacidad de comunicación entre los judíos en Cuba y en el exterior,”  manifestó la carta. Añadió que el arresto y encarcelamiento de Gross son considerados “con gran consternación por el gobierno de EEUU, incluyendo miembros demócratas y republicanos del Congreso, liberales o conservadores” (EFE, 23/3/10).

March 24: US travel specialists are meeting with their Cuban counterparts in the Mexican Caribbean, preparing for what they hope will be the day that Americans can freely vacation on Cuba's sunny beaches. A 1962 travel ban sharply restricts visits by US citizens to the communist-governed island. The law requires US government permission to spend any money there. Cuban officials say 2.4 million tourists, including about 41,000 Americans, visited last year. They anticipate 1.7 million Americans would come if restrictions were lifted (AP, 24/3/10).

March 24: The American Soybean Association, as well as other groups such as the USA Rice Federation, are urging normalized trade and travel between the US and Cuba. The groups recently testified before the House Committee on Agriculture, urging support of HR 4645, the Travel Restriction Reform and Export Enhancement Act, which would eliminate financing and travel restrictions affecting trade with Cuba. The bill is consistent with the Administration's goal to double exports in the next five years. HR 4645 would eliminate the need to go through banks in other countries to conduct agricultural trades and the accompanying fees those banks charge. The bill would also require agricultural exports to Cuba to meet the same payment requirements as exports to other countries, which means payment would be required when the title of the shipment changes hands, not in advance. Finally, the bill would allow US citizens to travel to Cuba, reducing the bureaucratic red tape currently required for individuals to travel to Cuba to facilitate new agriculture sales (Mid-South Farms, 24/3/10).

March 24: US President Barack Obama slammed Cuba for its continued political and human rights repression and called for an end to the Communist regime's “clenched fist” policy against its people. Recent events, including the death of a hunger striker and crackdowns on protesters, “underscore that instead of embracing an opportunity to enter a new era, Cuban authorities continue to respond to the aspirations of the Cuban people with a clenched fist,” Obama said in some of his toughest words against Havana since taking office 14 months ago. “I join my voice with brave individuals across Cuba and a growing chorus around the world in calling for an end to the repression, for the immediate, unconditional release of all political prisoners in Cuba, and for respect for the basic rights of the Cuban people,” he added. The US leader described recent events, including the death of hunger striker Orlando Zapata, crackdowns against female protesters known as Las Damas de Blanco (the Ladies in White), and “intensified harassment” of other activists as “deeply disturbing.” “During the course of the past year, I have taken steps to reach out to the Cuban people and to signal my desire to seek a new era in relations between the governments of the United States and Cuba,” he said in the statement. “I remain committed to supporting the simple desire of the Cuban people to freely determine their future and to enjoy the rights and freedoms that define the Americas, and that should be universal to all human beings” (Declaraciones del Presidente; AFP, 24/3/10).

Marzo 25: El ex presidente de Cuba, Fidel Castro, aconsejó al mandatario de Estados Unidos, Barack Obama, que se ocupe de temas como el cambio climático y la situación de los emigrantes en ese país, al tiempo que calificó de “tonterías” las declaraciones del gobernante sobre la isla. En su más reciente Reflexión, Castro reconoció la importancia de la recién aprobada reforma del sistema de salud estadounidense, pero tildó de “insólito” que llegase 234 años después de la independencia (La reforma sanitaria de Estados Unidos; IPS, 25/3/10).

March 25: Cuba's government-run news media regularly praises the armed forces as a model of efficiency, yet seldom mentions their powerful role in the island's crippled economy, according to a US intelligence report. Raúl Castro has been increasingly presenting himself as a civilian leader, the report added, appearing less frequently in his army general's uniform and more often in suits or guayaberas. The report was issued on February 26 by the Open Source Center (OSC), a US intelligence community branch that monitors foreign news accounts. It was not publicly released, but a copy was obtained and published by Secrecy News, a Federation of American Scientists program on government secrecy. Cuba's military, widely viewed as the most respected official institution on the island, controls an estimated 60 per cent of the country's economy, hard hit by the global financial crisis, hurricane damages and domestic failures. Many of its top officers have studied business administration abroad, and the management system it uses in its own enterprises in areas such as tourism is portrayed in Cuba as a model to be followed. The OSC analysis noted, however, that while Cuba's official media frequently praised the Revolutionary Armed Forces (FAR), it made little mention of the military's leading role in the economy.  “State media portray the military as a model of collective and individual performance [and] regularly find fault with civilian agencies and workers (...) but coverage of the military is generally (...) silent on the subject of FAR involvement in the Cuban economy,” the report noted. The state media in 2009  “had only one mildly critical report on the military: a call for improved living conditions for active duty soldiers,” added the report, titled  “Cuba — Military's Profile in State Media Limited, Positive” (Military’s Profile in State Media...; The Miami Herald, 25/3/10).

March 25: Cuba’s hotels could manage a sudden influx of 1 million American tourists if the US Congress lifts its 47-year ban on travel to the Communist island, Tourism Minister Manuel Marrero said. Additionally, the Caribbean nation is set to expand its capacity of about 50,000 rooms, with groundbreaking scheduled for least nine hotels in 2010, Marrero said. About 200,000 rooms may be added in the “medium to long-term,” he said. Cuba is also seeking investment partners for 10 golf courses and luxury hotels aimed at Americans, according to a ministry official. “I’m convinced that today, with the available capacity, we could be receiving the American tourists without any problem,” Marrero said in an interview in Cancun, Mexico where he was attending a conference of 40 American and Cuban tourist industry representatives.
The tourism industry meeting comes as the US Congress considers a law that would lift the ban on travel to Cuba. Senator Byron Dorgan, one of 38 co-sponsors of the bill, said he has 60 votes lined up to win passage of the measure this summer. Similar legislation introduced in the House has 178 co-sponsors and needs 218 votes to pass if all 435 members vote. “This is a 50 year-old failed policy,” Dorgan, a North Dakota Democrat, told the meeting in a phone call from Washington. “Punishing Americans by restricting their right to travel just makes no sense at all.” Tourism to Cuba increased 3.5 per cent amid the global financial crisis to 2.4 million visitors last year, with 900,000 visitors from Canada leading the way, Jose Manuel Bisbe, commercial director for the Tourism Ministry, said in an interview. Bisbe expects foreign arrivals to grow by a similar amount this year. If the US travel ban is lifted, hotels won’t be overburdened because Americans will visit year-round and face capacity problems only during the winter high season when occupancy reaches 85 per cent, he said (Bloomberg, 26/3/10).

March 25: Cuban dissidents applauded President Barack Obama for denouncing their ill treatment by the Cuban government and said it had helped their cause. They praised him for standing by them in what appeared to be a new, tougher turn for the president who has said he wanted to improve US-Cuba relations that went bad after Fidel Castro took power in a 1959 revolution. The Cuban government, which views dissidents as US-employed subversives, has said nothing about Obama's statement. In Cuba, dissident hunger striker Guillermo Farinas said in a telephone interview from his hospital bed in the central city of Santa Clara that Obama's declaration would not have an immediate effect but would help isolate the Cuban government. “That is very important, given that with a dictatorial, totalitarian government as exists here, one must not negotiate. You have to condemn and isolate dictatorships,” he said. Farinas, 48, was in the 29th day of a hunger strike seeking the release of 26 ailing political prisoners. He has vowed to die for his cause if necessary. “In name of the Ladies in White, I thank Obama for the statement criticizing the government,” said Berta Soler, whose husband, Angel Moya, was arrested in the 2003 crackdown and is serving a 20-year sentence. “It is very important to count on the solidarity of international personalities, and on Obama in particular, raising their voice asking for respect of human rights,” she said. Former political prisoner Oscar Espinosa Chepe also thanked Obama for the “strong show of support” and accused the government of rejecting Obama's overtures because “totalitarianism needs confrontation to justify repression (Reuters, 25/3/10).

March 26: The US replica of the Spanish schooner Amistad, famous for the 53 African slaves aboard who rebelled in 1839 and won their freedom, docked in the Cuban capital for the International Day of Remembrance of the Victims of Slavery and the Transatlantic Slave Trade. As it entered Havana Bay, the port from which the original Amistad sailed in 1839, the American ship finally achieved its goal of visiting every city linked to the rebellion that became a worldwide symbol of abolitionism. Cuban parliament speaker Ricardo Alarcon and Deputy Foreign Minister Dagoberto Rodriguez were present at the official reception of the sailing ship. The president of the Cuban Writers and Artists Union, Miguel Barnet, said that the ship’s presence in Havana shows that the Cuban and American people share a common history that “transcends” contemporary problems and disputes between the two governments. He also said that as long as cultural gestures like this visit continue, the “knots” existing in the bonds between two countries can be eliminated through “goodwill” and a “dialogue of equals.” Gregory Balinger, president of Amistad-America, the organization that owns the replica and operates its voyages, said that the visit to Cuba is an “honour” and completes the schooner’s goals (LAHT, 26/3/10).

Marzo 27: Disidentes cubanos aprobaron la decisión del senador John Kerry de vetar la ayuda oficial estadounidense a la oposición al gobierno de Raúl Castro hasta tanto se revisen esos programas. “Es cierto que la disidencia necesita alguna ayuda, pero también creo que es muy importante que se revise, que se haga una auditoría” para ver que ese dinero se emplee realmente para la ayuda, dijo Laura Pollán, líder de las Damas de Blanco, esposas y familiares de disidentes presos. Kerry, jefe de la Comisión de Relaciones Exteriores del Senado estadounidense, interpuso un veto a la subvención de actividades de la oposición en Cuba, de $40 millones anuales, hasta tanto el Departamento de Estado no revise esos programas. Pollán y su grupo de mujeres familiares de presos políticos, admiten haber recibido medicinas, alimentos y ropas de “organizaciones muy prestigiosas,”y estiman que la ayuda a la disidencia “debe continuar” pero revisada “para que no existan desvíos, para que no haya malas interpretaciones tampoco''. Por su parte, el socialdemócrata Manuel Cuesta Morúa, dijo que “lo que está haciendo Kerry me parece justo, es lo que debe ser, que proceda a una revisión de la transparencia, los destinos reales de esos recursos,”pues “no ha habido un manejo transparente de la cantidad inmensa de recursos” destinada a los opositores. “Nunca he apoyado que ningún gobierno extranjero ayude a la disidencia cubana. Pensamos que únicamente es aceptable la ayuda de un gobierno extranjero de forma humanitaria a los presos, pero no a la disidencia para su actividad política,”dijo por su lado Oscar Espinosa Chepe, uno de los 75 opositores encarcelados en el 2003 y liberado por motivos de salud (El Nuevo Herald, 27/3/10).

March 28: The three-day meeting of US businessmen and Cuban tourism officials ended in the Mexican city of Cancun with hopes that the restriction on travel to the Caribbean island imposed by Washington will be eliminated. Businessman Kirby Jones, president of the Bethesda, Maryland consulting firm Alamar Associates and promoter of the event, said he hopes that the next meeting will be held in Cuba, a reference to possible US political changes toward the island, but he gave no date when that might occur. Cuba is a magnet for tourism and a great place for United States companies to do business – everything is up and running and all that is lacking now is for conditions in the US Congress to be favourable for eliminating travel restrictions, Jones said. “In Congress now there is a bill to do away with the restrictions. And we’ve been working for almost a year to support that new law. Some of the attendees (at Cancun) visited the offices of the lawmakers to motivate them to vote in favour of lifting the restrictions,” Jones said. He said the most valuable part of the meeting, the first since the US-Cuba Travel Summits he organizes were suspended due to the tightening of restrictions against Cuba, was that US businessmen could hear from the Cubans themselves about tourism developments in recent years. “In the United States nobody talks about Cuba. Businessmen don’t know what is happening on the island and much less about the progress being made in the area of tourism,” he said. “This meeting reflects the opinion of the US people who want to visit Cuba without limitations,” Jones said. The 65 businessmen from the tourism sector who attended the Cancun meeting, received information packs providing them with comprehensive updates on the island’s tourism industry (LAHT, 28/3/10).

March 29: Agricultural exports to Cuba declined by more than $180 million in 2009, down from a record $715 million in exports set in 2008, according to a Texas AgriLife Extension Service economist. The decline was a result of a number of factors, including the US recession, which restricted money flowing from Cuban Americans back home, lower nickel prices, a slowdown in tourism to Cuba and restrictions on payment terms used by US exporters, said Dr. Parr Rosson, AgriLife Extension economist and director of the Center for North American Studies at Texas A&M University. “The lack of money being sent back home to Cuba resulted in less purchasing power and a big drop off in exports to Cuba,” he said. “As a result, the Cuban government has decided to try to revitalize production of rice and milk.” US exports to Cuba included corn, wheat, soybeans, oil, meal and frozen broilers. Texas-grown commodities exported to Cuba included cotton, wheat and broilers, according to Rosson. “The decline is a result of a combination of factors,” Rosson said. “Weak economies across the globe and a reduction in expenditures by tourists. That decline accounted for about 15 per cent compared to 2008. The collapse in world nickel prices was also a big factor. The nickel price dropped from $24 per pound in the 2007-2008 to $7 per pound earlier this year.” Tourism accounted for a large portion of money flowing into the Cuban economy, with Canadians among the most popular to frequent the country. Approximately 933,000 out of 2.4 million tourists visiting Cuba in 2009 were Canadian. “The beaches are a big draw during the wintertime,” Rosson said. “(From Canada) there are direct flights and all-inclusive packages at the major beach resort, Varadero.” Agricultural commodities imported into Cuba that support the tourism industry include beef steaks, chicken and pork, Rosson said (Texas A&M AgNews, 29/3/10).

Marzo 31: El canciller de Cuba, Bruno Rodríguez Parrilla, sostuvo una reunión de trabajo con la jefa de gabinete y coordinadora para Haití del Departamento de Estado estadunidense, Cherryl Mills, junta en la que abordaron la reconstrucción del sistema de salud de Haití, informó a la prensa la representación cubana en la Organización de Naciones Unidas (ONU). El encuentro se realizó en el contexto de la Conferencia Internacional de Donantes para la reconstrucción de Haití, celebrada en la sede neoyorquina de la ONU. Cuba y Estados Unidos ya han realizado acciones de cooperación a fin de enfrentar la emergencia que siguió al sismo del 12 de enero, y se espera que se produzcan más intercambios en este terreno en el futuro, añadió la representación cubana (La Jornada, 1/4/10).