CUBA NEWSTRACK

 

By: Teo A. Babun, Jr.

Cuba-Caribbean Development Co., Ltd.

A Division of T. Babun Group, Inc.

All rights reserved

 

1999

 

 

 NOVEMBER

 

11/30   Cuba Sends Delegation With Heavy Security

The Miami Herald-Cuban President Fidel Castro abruptly announced Monday that he would not attend a world trade conference in Seattle, charging that the U.S. state Department  wanted to disrupt his visit. Foes said he feared being arrested.

 

11/30   Castro Announces Alleged Chavez Plot

The Associated Press-Havana- President Fidel Castro announced Tuesday night that his intelligence services had discovered a plot by Miami-based Cuba exiles to kill his friend and political ally,Venezuelan, President Hugo Chavez. In a live interview with Venezuelan journalists flown to Havana to attend a news

Conference with the Cuban leader, Castro said he had not even told Chavez of the plot.Zzzz

 

11/29   Castro, Citing U.S. Arrest “Plot” Shuns WTO Summit

Reuters-Havana- Cuba’s President Fidel Castro announced on Monday he was shunning a World Trade Organisation (WTO) summit in Seattle and he accussed U.S. authorities of backing a Cuban exile “plot” to have him arrested on U.S. soil. The announcement, made in the form of a public letter to a U.S. Democrat congressman who had invited him to the U.S. city, ended days of intense media speculation about the possible participation of the veteran Cuban leader in the WTO meeting. In the letter addressed to Representative Jim McDermott of Washington state, Castro cited moves by extreme right-wing Cuban exilees in the United Sates to have him arrested by U.. S. police for “murder” once he set foot on U.S. territory.

 

11/28   U.S. Farm Leader Willing to Meet with Castro

Reuters-Seattle-The President of the United States’largest farm group said on Sunday he would be willing to meet with Cuban President Fidel Castro to show that farmers support lifting the U.S. embargo on Cuba. In a telephone news conference, American Farm Bureau Federation, President Dean Kleckner estimated the United States could “fairly quickly” sell $1 billion of rice,wheat and other farm goods to Cuba if the embargo was lifted.

 

11/28   Cuba Seeks Return of Boy Survivor of Migrant Drama

Reuters-Havana-Cuba said on Sunday it asked the United States to return a 5-year-old boy who was rescued by the U.S. Coast Guard after a boat carrying 13 Cuban migrants sank off the Florida coast last week.It said the mother and stepfather of the boy, Elian Gonzalez, drowned in the sinking, but the boy’s father, Juan Miguel Gonzalez Quintana, remained in Cuba and had ased that his son be returned to him. It added the boy, who had been in the legal custody of his mother and stepfather, was taken out of the island “illegally” and without consulting the father, who comes from Cardenas on the northwest coast of Cuba.

 

11/28   Vatican Foreign Minister Visits Cuba

Reuters-Havana- The Vatican’s Foreign Minister, Archbishop Jean-Louis Tauran, has arrived in Cuba for a four-day visit which will include talks with Cuban authorities. A brief note published Sunday in the communist youth weekly Juventud Rebelde said Tauran, who flew into Havana Saturday night, would be received by the Cuban government “with all the attention which his high position makes him worthy of.”

 

11/27   ACP Acepta a la Isla

The Associated Press-Santo Domingo-Los gobiernos de 71 paises de Africa, el Caribe y el Pacifico (ACP) acordaron el viernes “aceptar con beneplacito” una propuesta para admitir a Cuba en ese grupo, que tiene trato comercial preferencial con la Union Europea (UE) y recibe ayudas economicas para programas de desarrollo.

 

11/27   Cuba Expects 1.6 Million Tourists

The Associated Press-Cuba will draw more than 1.6 million tourists this year, continuing steady growth in what has become the communist island’s largest industry, Cuban state television reported Friday. The television quoted officials as saying that tourism contracts signed through the end of the year guarantee the number of foreign visitors will reach 1.65 million, up from about 1.4 million last year and 1.2 million in 1997. Cuban officials have said they hope to attract 2 million tourists next year.

 

11/27   Cuba y EU a Nuevas Conversaciones Migratorias

El Nuevo Herald-La Habana-Representantes gobernamentales de Cuba y Estados Unidos se reuniran el proximo 13 de diciembre en la Habana para supervisar el cumplimiento de los acuerdos migratorios suscritos par ambos a mediados de esta decada para poner fin a la emigracion ilegal hacia Florida. La segunda ronda de conversaciones migratorias que celebran este ano delegaciones de Cuba y Estados Unidos se limitaran a tratar el habitual tema migratorio y las preocupaciones en torno al trafico ilegal de emigrantes, confirmo el portavoz de la Canccilleria cubana, Alejandro Gonzalez.

 

11/25   Castro May Attend WTO Meeting

The Associated Press-Havana- Cuban President Fidel Castro is studying up for next week’s World Trade Organization meeting in Seattle, though it is still uncertain whether he will attend, a government spokeksman said Thursday. “He has not yet decided if he will travel or will not travel to Seattle,” Foreign Ministry spokesman, Alejandro Gonzalez told a news conference. But Gonzalez said Castro “has spent days bottled up in the study of all the materials of the meeting in Seattle. He is used to preparing himself completely when there are events of this nature.” The communist leader has never visited the West Coast of the United States as president and the Ministerial Conference of the WTO would give him a chance. Because the WTO is a U.N. sponsored organization, the United States cannot deny him a visa under international law.

 

11/24   Arrest of Castro Called for in Miami

The Associated Press-Miami- A congressman from Florida is calling for the arrest of Cuban leader, Fidel Castro, if he shows up at a World Trade Organization conference next week in Seattle. Castro sent an advance team to Seattle and reserved a hall for an evening speech at the University of Washington. But he hadn’t requested an U. S. entry visa  of Wednesday, and it was uncertain whether he could attend the conference. Cuba is one of the 135 member countries in the WTO and is expected to send a delegation.

 

11/23   U.S. Warns Japanese Business of Cuban Debt

Reuters-Washington-The United States warned Japanese business people on Tuesday of the dangers of doing business with Cuba, despite a rescheduling of Cuban debt. State Department spokesman, James Rubin, asked to comment on a Japanese business mission to the communist-ruled island, said it was a bilateral matter between the two nations. The Japanese business mission, the most important ever to visit the island,began on Monday the first full day of a trip intended to restore currently minimal bilateral business ties to the healthy levels of former years. In March last year Cuba rescheduled $750 million of commercial debt with Japanese businesses—a deal that raised as yet unfulfilled hopes of a wave of new trade and investment from Tokyo on the Caribbean island.

 

11//22  Cuba Communists Asked to Pull Back

The Associated Press- Havana-Communist leaders in Cuba are urging party activists to stop meddling in government and state-run company affairs, asking them instead to focus on spreading enthusiasm for socialism. Local newspapers on Monday carried lengthy descriptions of Vice President Raul Castro’s call for the party to leave administration duties to bureaucrats, a message he has carried to provincial paprty assemblies across the island in recent weeks. The call seems aimed at cutting out a layer of duplicate bureaucracy in many local governments and state enterprises. For years, party officials have been deeplly involved in administrative decisions, often wielding veto power.

 

11/22   U.S. Pro-Cuba Groups Invite Castro to WTO Meeting

Reuters-Seattle- Americans opposed to the U.S. embargo against Cuba invited on Monday Cuban leader Fidel Castro to attend the upcoming Seattle World Trade Organisation meeting on freeing up global commerce.Pro-Cuba solidarity groups, religious leaders, Seattle city counciclc members and Representative Jim McDermott, a Democrat from Washington, invited Castro to head the Cuban delegation to the trade conference, which convenes Nov. 30 to Dec. 3 It was not clear if Castro planned to attend the meeting or if the U.S. government would allow him in the country.

 

11/22   Cuba, Japan Seek to Revive Meager Business Ties

Reuters-Havana- The most important Japanese business mission to visit communist-ruled Cuba began on Monday the first full day of a trip intended torestore currently minimal bilateral business ties to the healthy levels of former years. The 60-member mission, which began meetings with Cuban officials on arrival Sunday afternoon, included Japanese businessmen and eight legislators from Tokyo’s lower house of parliament and some government observers.

 

11/21   Amenazan Con Embargar Bienes de EU y Exiliados

El Nuevo Herald-Con la amenaza de embargar bienes de norteamericanos y exiliados cubanos en cualquier parte del mundo, Cuba podria estar elaborando una carta de negociacion politica con Estados Unidos, a la vez que se prepara para salir airosa en un futuro procesoo de pago para confiscaciones, consideraron expertos legales. Un reciente veredicto de un tribunal de la isla ha exigido un pago de $181,100 millones por supuestos danos humanos causados a cubanos de alla debido a la politica de Washington hacia La Habana de los ultimos 40 años.

 

11/18   Anti-Drug Officials Downplay Cuba’s Role In Trade

The Miami Herald-Washington- A trio of the nation’s top anti-drug officials told an angry group of House Republicans Wednesday what they didn’t want to hear: There is no hard evidence that top Cuban officials are involved in drug trafficking. Two GOP leaders, Dan Burton of Indiana and Benjamin Gilman of New York joined by Miami’s two Cuban-American House members, had a contermessage: The Clinton administration is covering up Cuba’s involvement to pave the way for normalized relations between the two countries.

 

11/18   Castro Incapaz de Robarse la Cumbre

El Nuevo Herald- El tradicional encantamiento patriarcal que el gobernante Fidel Castro aprovechaba para robarse la popularidad durante las cumbres iberoamericanas desde 1991, parece haberse desplomado en la recien clausurada cita en La Habana ante el clamor democratico de los visitantes. La mas fuerte sacudida democratica la recibio en la ceremonia de clausura por parte de su principal aliado historico en el el continente: Mexico. En un energico discurso trasmitido en vivo a toda la poblacion por la television cubana, el presidente mexicano, Ernesto Zedillo, sorprendio a Castro con un dardo directo al corazon del sistema politico de la isla. Analistas politicos y medios de prensa internacionales consideraron los comentarios de Zedillo como un cambio en la politica mexicana de apoyo al gobierno castrista,  acaso el fin de una alianza incondicional, que se fraguo en los albores de la revolucion cubana.

 

11/19   Castro May Speak to Seattle Group

The Associated Press-Washington-Cuban President Fidel Castro is laying the goundwork for an appearance at the World Trade Organization ministerial meeting in Seattle-to run from Nov. 30 through Dec.4-but in the absence of a formal announcement, there is no assurance he will show up. The pro-Castro National Network on Cuba is so confident Castro will be there that it has moved its US/Cuba 2000 conference from Detroit to Seattle.

 

11/17   Polls Show Shift: End Cuban Embargo

Miami Herald-For the first time, a majority of Americans clearly and consistently disapprove of the policy of economic embargo and political isolation that have been the heart of the U.S. approach toward Cuba for four decades.

 

11/17   Temen Nueva Escalada Contra la Disidencia

El Nuevo Herald-El protagonismo logrado por la disidencia interna durante la IX Cumbre Iberoamericana de la Habana derivara en mayor legitimidad internacional para sus miembros, pero las consecuencias inmediatas pudieran ser amargas dentro de la isla, coincidieron el martes fuentes de la oposicion. Los lideres de la disidencia y activistas de derecho humanos se mantuvieron activos durante la ultima jornada de la Cumbre y establecieron contactos con altos funcionarios de las delegaciones de Brasil y Chile, mientras que al cierre de esta edicion un grupo de ellos era recibido por Mireya Moscoso, presidenta de Panama. Con los encuentros del martes, sumaron ocho las delegaciones visitantes que mantuvieron reuniones con la oposicion-historicamente ninguna por el gobierno castrista-entre ellos cinco jefes de Estado o de gobierno, ministros de Relaciones Exteriores y embajadores. Portugal, Espana, Uruguay y Panama tuvieron reuniones a Nivel presidencial, mientras Mexico, Brasil y Nicaraga lo hicieron con sus cancilleres, y Costa Rica mediante su embajador ante Naciones Unidas.

 

11/16   Leaders Push Democracy in Cuba

The Associated Press-Havana-President  Fidel Castro traded military drabs for an elegant black suit, filling the role of elder statesman Tuesday at a summit of European and Latin American leaders where he heard many participants’implicit calls for greater democracyc in Cuba. The 73-year-old Castro looked weary and his voice was gravelly after several days of playing host to fellow heads of state. He wrapped up a short speech with the communist refrain associated with the late revolutionary Ernesto “Che” Guevara: “Toward Victory-always!. Later during a news conference, Castro defended his country’s one-party electoral system As “a thousand times more serious and more honest” than those in the United States, where he said:”at least 50 percent of the people go to the beach on election day.”

 

11/16   Mexico’s Zedillo, before Casto, calls for Freedom.

Reuters-Havana-President Ernesto Zedillo of Mexico, traditionally Cuba’s strongest ally in  Latin America, on Tuesday made a call for political freedoms in the presence of President Fidel Castro, the island’s veteran communist leader. Zedillo made his remarks at the closing ceremony of the Ibero-American Summit,which Castro hosted. Although Zedillo did not mention Cuba by name, his words appeared to represent a message to Castro and his one-party government, which has exercised tight control during 40 years un power,

 

11/16   Spain Slams Control On Cubans for King’s Walkabout

Reuters-Havana-Spain on Tuesday complained about Cuban authoriries’ tight control of people during a walking tour of Old Havana by Spanish King Juan Carlos, sounding a discordant note in the Ibero-American Summit taking place in the communis nation’s capital. A Spanish spokesman lamented the “coldness” of the king’s tour, and dahshed Havana hopes for a future official visit from the monarch, saying that was not advisable. “For the conditions for a royal visit to exist, it is necessary that a country can express itself freely during  the visit,” the spokesman told reporters.

 

11/16   Spain Assails Summit Host Cuba’s Political System

Reuters-Havana- Spain openly criticised Cuba’s political system at the Iberian world’s showcase summit on Tuesday after host President Fidel Castro vowed to keep his country on its Communist course. In remarks that thrust the issue of Cuba’s one-party system and human rights record to the forefront of the Ibero-American Summit, Spanish Prime Minister, Jose Maria Aznar said opponents of Castro had a right to be heard whatever their views. A Spanish official lambasted Cuban authorities for their “iron control” of people, which he said had mared a tour Monday of historic Old Havana by Spain’s King Juan Carlos and Queen Sofia.

 

11/16   Spain King Reminds Castro of Rights

The Associated Press-Havana-Spanish King Juan Carlos toasted his host President Fidel Castro on the eve of today’s Ibero-American summit, wishing prosperity for the Cuban people but reminding the communist leader of the importance of human rights. “Only with an authentic democracy, with full guarantee for liberties and with scrupulous respect for human rights by all of us can our people face the challenges of the 21^st century with success,”Juan Carlos told the Cuban leader during a formal state dinner at the Palace of the Revolution. Castro, who changed from his trademark olive green military uniform into an elegant black suit for the dinner, previously had toasted the king as well. He thanked him for becoming the first reigning Spanish monarch toset foot on the island.

 

11/15   “Viva España” In Old Havana as Spanish king tours

Reuters-Havana-To cries of “Viva Cuba! Viva Espana!,” Spain’s King Juan Carlos and Queen Sofia strolled through the history-laden streets of Old Havana on Monday and saw the splendors and the ruins of their country’s former empire on a morning that itself made history. Cubans leaned out from balconies to wave and stood on pot-holes streets to cheer the king, the first Spanish monarch ever to visit the Caribbean island that was a jewel among its New World colonies from the days of Cristopher Columbus until Cuba’s hard-on independence in 1898. The royal couple charmed locals and tourists alike, shaking hands and bestowing pecks on the cheeks of several onlookers as they were escorted through the area accompanied by Spanish Prime Minister Jose Maria Aznar, his wife, and a posse of Spanish and Cuban security agents.

 

11/15   Llega el Rey a La Cumbre

El Nuevo Herald-La Habana-Mas de cinco siglos de que Cristobal Colon avisto Cuba, el rey Juan Carlos y la reina Sofia fueron el domingo los primeros monarcas espanoles en pisar la isla caribena para participar en los actos de la IX Cumbre Iberoamericana que comienza hoy en la Habana. Aun auntes de comenzar oficialmente, la cita iberoamericana ha tenido ya como protagonista de fondo a la asfixiada oposicion interna al regimen comunista de la isla, el cual si bien tolero que algunos de los dirigentes opositores se entrevisten con dignatarios invitados,detuvo o reprimio de diversas maneras a 170 disidentes y activistas en los ultimos dias, para impedir que se sus voces de denuncia se dejaran escuchar antes y durante el evento.

 

11/14   Mexican Minister Meets Cuban Dissident in Havana

Reuters-Havana- Mexico broke four decades of unwritten protocol with Cuba on Sunday by holding an unprecedented high-level meeting in Havana with a prominent opponent of President Fidel Castro’s Communist government. Mexican Foreign Minister Rosario Green received dissident and human rights campaigner Elizardo Sanchez for about half an hour of private talks at the Mexican ambassador’s residence in Havana on the eve of the Ibero-American summit.

 

11/14   Heads of State Arrive in Cuba

The Associated Press-Havana-Amid much ceremony and heavy security, European and Latin American heads of state began arriving in Havana on Sunday for a summit that could help boost Fidel Castro’s international profile and further draw the communist country out of its isolation. While the Cuban leader  was at the airport greeting guests with a military honor guard, opponents of the government held the first of several planned meetings aimed at bringing their complaints about Cuba’s communist system to the world. Veteran Cuban human rights activist Elizardo Sanchez met briefly with Nicaraguan Foreign Minister Eduardo Montealegre in the Nicaraguan Embassy on Sunday morning. “Never in the history of Cuba have there been these kinds of meetings between foreigners and representatives of the opposition,” Sanchez said later. Sanchez, one of Cuba’s best-known and respected dissidents, said he planned to meet with delegationos from at least five countries.

 

11/13   Cuba Says U.S. Meddling In Iberian World Summit

Reuters-Havna- Cuba on Saturday accused its old ennemy the United States of interfering in next week’s Ibero-American summit in Havana, lambasting an appeal from Washington to visiting leaders to push President Fidel Castro toward political reform. Foreign Minister Felipe Perez Roqoue, speaking in indignant and mocking tones at a pre-summit news conference, also said the United States was instigating dissident activity in a bid to discredit the gathering.

 

11/13   Human Rights Group Urges Cuba to Free Journalists

Reuters-Paris-A paris-based human rights group urged Cuba on Saturday to free five journalists who were detained when they tried to cover a demonstration. In a letter to Cuban Interior Minister, Abelardo Colome Ibarra, the group, Reporters Without Frontiers, called for the immediate release of the five Cubans. RWF, which supports imprisoned journalists, said the reporters were trying to cover a demonstration by human rights groups that were not recognised by the Castro regime in Havana. Cuban dissidents said on Friday the island’s communist government had rounded up dozens of opponents or restricted their movements in a renewed crackdown.

 

11/13   Solicitan a Mandatarios Apoyo a los Dissidentes

Reuters-  Washington- Estados Unidos pidio el viernes a los jefes de estados que asistiran la proxima semana a la Cumbre Iberoamericana en La Habana que se pronuncien sobre la situacion de los derechos humanos en Cuba.Rubin sostuvo que existe clara evidencia que el gobierno del presidente Fidel Castro sigue violando los derechos humanos de los cubanos y reprimiendo su deseo de un cambio democratico.

 

11/13   Through The Looking Glass-Ibero-American Summit in Cuba

In an editorial the Miami Herald wrote: The only way these visiting lealdlers can retain their honor in Havana will be to give voice to those Cubans who took the Vina del Mar Declaration literally and now are detained and gagged by Cuba’s police state. They must hold Fidel Castro to his pledge that they might meet with whomever they wish. (Of course, such freedom has to be allowed.) Human-rights advocates, such as Juan Carlos of Spain, have a moral obligation to press Castro with questions such as : Why has the regime cracked down on dissidents prior to the summit? Why does it persecute peaceful opposition? Why does it monopolize media? Why can’t Cubans freely leave and return to their homeland? Why no multiparty elections in 40 years? – Ibero-American leaders who leave Cuba without having denounced the abuses of Cuba’s state will have committed the ultimate hypocrisy. Not only do they legitimize an amoral dictator, they become his latest tools.

 

11/12   Dissidents Accuse Cuba of Pre-Summit Crackdown

Reuters-Havana- Cuba’s communist government has rounded up dozens of opponents or restricted their movements in a renewed crackdown before leaders from throughout Latin America, Spain and Portugal arrive for a summit meeting. Cuban dissidents charged on Friday. Dissidents planned to hold a rate unity meeting on Friday at a house in the isolated Havana suburb of Jesus Nazareno, an event originally billed by its organiser as a major gathering of Cuba’s small, fragmented and illegal anti-government opposition movement.. Instead, foreign reporters heavily outnumbered the handful of dissidents at the meeting. The reported crackdown comes just days before leaders from across Latin America, Spain and Portugal gather in Havana for their annual Ibero-American Summit on Monday and Tuesday. Cuban President Fidel Castro has been warning the dissidents publicly that the government would not tolerate any attempts by “counter-revolutionaries” to disrupt the upcoming summit of Ibero-American leaders, which was due to start Monday.

 

11/12   Spanish Investors Lead Latin American “Reconquest”

Reuters-Havana- Spain this year will overtake the United States as the leading foreign investor in Latin America, according to the Madrid government, although it has offered no figures. Cuban Fidel Castro, the son of a Spanish soldier who fought in Latin America’s last colonial war, welcomed the Spanish investment and claimed it was making the United States jealous. The more they (the U.S.) hate these investments, the more we want them” he said at recent news conference.

 

11/12   Enlighten Castro on Pluralism, Freedom

In the Miami Herald the following was written: On the eve of the Ibero-American Summit in Havana, I want to recall the 1996 Vina del Mar Declaration that all the summit participants-including the Cuban government signed: This declaration reaffirms a commitment to democracy, political pluralism and respect for fundamental freedoms. As host of this year’s summit, it is only natural that Cuba-the hemisphere’s only remaining dictatorship-should come under increased scrutiny for its lack of progress in living up to that declaration.

 

 11/12  Analysis-Castro to Hold Court at Havana Summit

Reuters- Havana-Castro, a wily politician who has defied 40 years of U.S. opposition to stay in power, will be hoping the summit goes as smoothly as last year’s landmark visit by Pope John Paul II. That trip, the first by a pope to Cuba, was a relatively trouble-free foreign relations triumph for Castro, bolstering his image as an international statesman and paving the way for a wave of rapprochement from abroad with his government. Despite the pontiff’s reputation for helping bring down communism  in Eastern Europe, and his calls for greater freedoms within Cuba, the visit did not spark  any serious challenge to Castro’s political hegemony. His condemnations of the U.S. economic embargo strengthened Castro’s case internationally.

 

11/12   Russia May Fly Nuclear Bombers to Cuba

Reuters-Moscow- Russia may fly nuclear-capable strategic bombers to Cuba and Vietnam next year, a Russian air force spokesman said on Friday. The latest edtion of the weekly military newspaper Nezavisimoye Voyennoye Obozreniye quoted the head of long-range aviation forces, Mikhail Oparin, as saying such missions were planned and would greatly surprise NATO.

 

11/11   Castro Explains Dissident Clash

The Associated Press-Havana-Alarmed by wide press coverage of a clash between Cuban dissidents and communist militants ahead of an international summit, President Fidel Castro explained the government’s version of events in a rate news conference that wound up early Thursday. During an eight-hour meeting with about two dozen correspondents that began Wednesday night, Castro presented 14 people who were at the park Wednesday morning when two would-be participants were roughed up. Castro said three would-be protesters were arrested. Castro and the “witnesses” brought to the Palace of the Revolution to talk with journalists, implied that the clash was a spontaneous reaction by ordinary Cubans to political acts they considered distasteful.

 

11/11   Stern Castro Warns Dissidents About  Protests

Reuters-Havana-Cuba’s communist leader Fidel Castro, who hosts next week’s Ibero-American Summit in Havana, sent a tough warning to dissidents organising protests around the event, including a foiled opposition march on Wednesday. Castro confirmed that two men were arrested and would be charged with provoking social disorder after Wednesday’s disturbance in a Havana park when students and government supporters angrily confronted the pair as they unfurled protest banners ans spoke to reporters.

 

11/11   Castro Rebuts Clinton’s “Unfair” Cuba Assessment

Reuters-Havana- Cuban President Fidel Castro, in an eight-hour session with reporters lasting until early on Thursday, rebutted President Bill Clinton’s claim that Havana was the stumbling block to a change in Washington’s policy toward the communist-run island. “I was a bit surprised by the lack of ethics, and falsehood in some of his comments…he must be a bit confused,” Castro said of Clinton during the meeting with foreign and local media, including Reuters, at Havana’s Revolution Palace.

 

11/10   Aboga Iglesia Catolica Cubana PorExito De Cumbre IberoAmericana

NTX-La Habana-La Iglesia Catolica de Cuba abogo hoy por el exito de la IX Cumbre Iberoamericana y porque la comunidad de esta region aune voluntades para “alcanzar el bien comun en nuestros pueblos sin olvidar el bien individual de las personas.”

 

11/10   Cuba Expects 5-6 pct Economic Growth in 1999

Reuters-Havana- Cuba’s economy, lifted by an improved sugar harvest and the continued expansion of the tourist industry, will grow by between five and six percent in 1999, Economy Minister Jose Lluis Rodriguez said on Wednesday. The forecast made by Rodriguez at a news conference in Havana signalled government optimism that the credit –starved Caribbean island would manage to sustain the accelerated level of growth already announced for the first half of 1999. Gross Domestic Product (GDP) on the communist-run island grew 6.1 percent in the first six months of the year, compared to the same 1998 period, according to government figures.

 

11/10   Cuba Left Off List of Drug Problems

The Associated Press-Washington- Rejecting appeals by House Republicans, President Clinton on Wednesday declined to include Cuba on a list of countries used to ship ille.lgal drugs to the United States. State Department spokesman James P. Rubin said an inter-agency assessment concluded there was no cocaine detected transiting Cuban soil or ports on the way to the United States during the first six months of 1999. The chairman of the House International Relations Committee, Rep. Benjamin Gilman, R-N.Y., reacted sharply to Clinton’s decision.

 

11/10   Puerto Rican-Cuban Documents Sought

The Associated Press-Washington-A congressman investigating President Clinton’s offer of clemency to 16 Puerto Rican separatists demanded information Wednesday from the CIA on the separatists’ purported ties to Cuba. The Hartford, Conn., Courant reported in a recent series of articles that the two groups were created in consultation with Cuban intelligence agents and acted with Cuban support.

 

11/9     Cuba Detains Anti-Castro Dissident-Sources

Reuters-Havana-Cuban security services have detained a local opposition activist trying to organise a protest march against President Fidel Castro’s government, relatives and dissident sources said on Tuesday. Oscar Elias Biscet, a medical doctor turned anti-Castro activist, was taken in six days ago and appeared set to remain at a Havana detention centre until after Wednesday’s intended public demonstration, the sources said. Biscet was one of various dissidents Castro named on television last week as “counter-revolutionary” agitators allegedly stirring up trouble ahead of next week’s Ibero-American Summit at the behest of the United States.

 

11/9     Comunist Cuba “calm and happy” on Wall Anniversary

Reuters-Havana-Comunist-ruled Cuba declared itself “calm and happy” Tuesday 10 years after the fall of the Berlin Wall, seen at the time as possibly heralding the end of  President Fidel Castro’s rule. Cuban Foreign Minister, Felipe Perez Roque added that the 10^th anniversary if the Iron Curtain’s end was a black day for Havana’s enemies who had gleefully predicted Castro’s downfall as other communist states were toppling in Europe.

 

11/9     Forbes; Castro Made Cuba a Purgatory

The Associated Press-Miami-Republican presidential candidate Steve Forbes told Hispanic business leaders Tuesday that this was not the time to lift the economic embargo against Cuba or to”go soft” on its president, Fidel Castro. “He turned Cuba ….into acute purgatory,” Forbes said. A world of secret police, midnight beatings and religious persecution.” Forbes spoke against lifting the economic embargo against Cuba and criticized those who want to open relations with the island.

 

11/9     U.N. Again Calls for End to U.S. Embargo On Cuba

Reuters-United Nations- The U.N. General Assembly, for the  eighth year in a row, overwhelming endorsed a resolution on Tuesday calling for an end to the 40-year-old U.S. economic embargo against Cuba. The vote was 155 to two, with eight abstentions-a record majority even larger than last year’s 152 to two, with 12 abstentions.                                                                                                                                                               

 

11/9     Cuba To File $100 bln Lawsuit Over U.S. Embargo

Reuters-United Nations- Cuba said on Tuesday it would file a lawsuit against the United States for more than $100 billion in compensation for the “enormous damages” caused by Washington’s 40-year-old economic embargo against Havana. The suit was announced by Ricardo Alarcon, president of Cuba’s National Assembly, at the start of the U.N. General Assembly’s annual debate on a Cuban resolution calling for an end to the U.S. embargo. He did not say where or in which court the suit would be filed.

 

11/9     State Department Unveils Cuba Web Site

Washington-In a bid to help Americans understand the maze of rules and regulations governing travel to Cuba, the U.S. embargo against the island and related issues, the State Department unveiled a new Web site Monday focused exclusively on Cuba. The site is largely fact-based but also highlights, with the help of pictures, the shortcomings of the revolution in such areas as housing and transportation.

 

11/9     U.S. Faces Annual U.N. Roasting Over Cuba Embargo

Reuters-United Nations- The United States faces its eight annual U.N. roasting by both friends and adversaries on Tuesday when the General Assembly votes on a Cuban resolution calling for an end to Washinton’s nearly four-decade old economic embargo against Havana. Similar resolutions have been adopted by increasing majorities each year since 1992, culminating in last year’s record vote of 152 to two, with 12 abstentions. Only Israel voted with the United States. The 15 members of the European Union along with such allies as Japan, Canada, Australia and New Zeland all voted for the resolution.

 

11/8     Latam heads to condemn U.S. Embargo On Cuba

Reuters-Havana- Heads of Latin America, Spain, and Portugal will unite against the nearly four-decade-old U.S. embargo on communist-ruled Cuba in a joint declaration at the end of next week’s Ibero-American Summit in Havana. The leaders will also pledge their commitment to democracy and political plurality, and warn of the perils a globalized economy presents for poorer nations, according to a draft version of the Declaration of Havana seen on Monday by Reuters. The largely predictable 12-point document was negotiated ahead of the summit by advance delegation from the 21 countries that form the Ibero-American region and participate in its annual meeting. Five Presidents- from Argentina, Chile, Nicaragua, Costa Rica and El Salvador-are boycotting the meeting either as a protest against Spain over the case of former Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet or due to political differences with Cuba.

 

11/8     La Feria Confirma el Interes Por el Mercado Cubano

Agence France Press-La Habana-La importante participacion internacional en La Feria Internacional de La Habana, que cerro sus puertas ayer, confirma un aumento de interes por el mercado cubano. Mas de 1,700 firmas de unos 60 paises, entre ellos por primera vez Iran, expusieron durante una semana en el marco de la XVII edicion de la Feria Internacional de La Habana, en la que estuvieron representadas igualmente 496 firmas cubanas. Ademas de 14 delegaciones oficiales acompanadas de ministros y 23 presidentes de camaras de comercios internacionales se trasladaron a la Habana”prueba fehaciente de la presencia cada vez mayor de nuestro pais en el comercio internacional a pesar del recrudecimiento del bloqueo economico durante 40 anos, estimo Abraham Maciques, presidente del comite organizador de la Feria.

 

11/8     State Poll Shows that Endig The |Embargo Is Favored

A poll by The Herald and the St. Petersburg Times shows and found support in Miami-Dade and Broward for another controversial idea-lifting the U.S. economic embargo against Cuba. Forty-four percent of those polled want the embargo to end, but responses also reflect some uncertainty over the island.

 

11/8     N.Y.-Cuba Direct Flights to Begin

The Associated Press-New York- For the first time since the early 1960s, there will be direct passenger flights between New York and Cuba beginning Dec. 3. On Monday, Marazul Charters, Inc. said it will run a 3 ½ hour flight for these select groups from Kennedy International Airport to Havana every Friday night. The round-trip fare will be $629.00. Marazul’s founder, Francisco Aruca, said he hoped the new flights would promote” normalization with Cuba….We view this flight as creating a lingk between the financial

Capital of New York and Havana.”

 

11/8     Paraguay, Cuba Restore Relations

The Associated Press- Asuncion- Paraguay and Cuba restored full diplomatic ties in a surprise ceremony Monday,  38 years after relations were cut following Fidel Castro’s communist revolution.

A cuban foreign ministry official, Jorge Bolanos Suarez, joined Paraguay’s foreign minister, Jose Felix Fernandez Estigarribia, in making the announcement in the Paraguayan capital, Asuncion.

 

11/8     U.S. Government Station Boosts Broadcasts to Cuba

Reuters-Miami-The U.S. Government has boosted the power of Radio Marti’s broadcasts to Cuba to 100,000 watts in a bid to overcome jamming of the U.s. government station by Cuba’s government, station officials and politicians said on Monday. The Miami –based station, intended to broadcast unbiased news to the Cuban people, has long been castigated as a propaganda outlet for the rhetoric of Cuban-Americans most staunchly opposed to the Communist government of Cuban President Fidel Castro. Until Monday, it had broadcast at 50,000 watts. Critics said the station lately has reached only about 9 percent of Cuba’s 11 million people.

 

11/7     Report Links Puerto Ricans, Cubans

The Associated Press-The Puerto Rican nationalists offered clemency by President Clinton were members of two groups with ties to Cuban intelligence agents, The Hartford Courant reported.

In a story in Sunday’s editions, the newspaper said FBI files on a Wells Fargo robbery in West Hartford document Cuba’s support for the Puerto Rican independence movement. The contents of the files have not been disclosed until now, the Courant said.

 

11/7     Cuba Weighs Gain, Damage from Ibero-American Summit

Reuters-Havana-Cuba’s Communist government trumpeted the success of the Ibero-American Summit in Havana on Wednesday despite a barrage of calls for political reforms from visiting foreign leaders, among the strongest such appeals heard on the island in 40 years since Fidel Castro’s Revolution. Opposition groups meanwhile said state security forces were releasing anti-government activists who had been rounded up in a wave of arrests aimed at blocking any attempt to “sabotage” Monday and Tuesday’s summit. Only eight remained under arrest on Wednesday, according to the dissident Cuban Commission for Human Rights. It said 108 dissidents had been briefly held since Nov. 1 across the island and nearly 100 more ordered to stay in their homes. The government has confirmed 15 arrests.

 

11/7     Nicaragua Protesta Por Aspera Reaccion Cubana

El Nuevo Herald-Managua- El gobierno de Nicaragua protesto por la reaccion cubana ante la negativa del presidente Arnoldo Aleman de asistir a la cumbre iberoamericana a celebrarse en La Habana a mediados de mes. Un boletin de la cancilleria cubana conocido aqui el jueves pasado califico de “extrano y contradictorio” el hecho de que mientras Aleman ha dicho que no asistira  a la cumbre, enviara en cambio a su canciller, Eduardo Montealegre.

 

11/5     Clinton Says Could Back Easing Cuba Sanctions

Reuters-Washington-President Clinton said on Friday he could favour an easing of the 37-year trade embargo on Cuba under the right circumstances but said Fidel Castro was using the sanctions as an excuse for his country’s economic problems. Clinton said he did not support a total lifting of sanctions, because he wanted to keep putting pressure on Castro’s government to move toward democracy and respect for human rights. But he said he could favour “under the right circumstances” a plan similar to legislation considered recently by Congress to exempt food and medicine from U.S. embargoes.

 

11/5     Argentina President-Elect to Skip Havana Summit

Reuters- Buenos Aires- Argentina’s Alliance president-elect Fernando de la Rua refused an invitation to attend the Ibero-American summit in Havana, Cuba, but Peronist Foreign Minister Guido di Tella

 

11/5     Clinton Airs Castro Frustrations

The Associated Press-Chicago- President Clinton said he believes Cuban leader Fidel Castro may have orchestrated events to scuttle U.S. overtures to the island nation. In an interview with Spanish-language television, Clinton also laid most of the blame on the U.S. military for a standoff between the Pentagon and Puerto Ricans who oppose live firing exercises on Vieques island. The president said he was concerned that an upcoming meeting of 17 leaders of Spanish-speaking countries in Havana might seem to legitimize Castro’s rule, and that he had asked many of them to “reaffirm their support for democracy and for human rights, and for a transition to demoncracy” in Cuba.

 

11/4     Spain’s Sol Melia Undeterred in Cuba by U.S. Threat

Reuters-Havana-Spanish hotel chain, Sol Melia, one of the biggest foreign investors in communist-run Cuba, will keep expanding its business interests on the island despite the reported threat of U.S. sanctions. The Spanish chain currently operates 14 hotels with 5,000 rooms, throughout the Caribbean island under management contracts with the state. It plans to take over administration of five new hotels in 2000, and four more at a later date.

 

11/4     Cuba Says Ibero-American Heads Can Meet Dissidents

Reuters-Havana-Cuba warned on Thursday it would punish any attempt by U.S-backed dissidents to disrupt an Ibero-American summit in Havana, but added that he invited  leaders could meet anti-government activitists if they wished.

The position outlined by a Foreign Ministry spokesman was an unusual gesture by Cuba’s Communist  Part government, which regularly dismisses and ridicules the dissidents as “counter-revolutionaries” in the pay of the United Sates. Spokesman Alejandro Gonzalez said the heads of state and government invited to the Nov-15-16 summit would be allowed “free time and complete freedom of movement.”

 

11/4     Cuba Projects Up to 160mln Cigar Exports in 1999

Reuters-Havana-Exports of Cuba’s world-famous Havana cigars should reach up to 160 million this year, well above the 1998 total, but below the official target due to rains in tobacco-growing areas, industry heads said Thursday. The directors of state tobacco firm Habanos S.A., which controls production and sales of Havana cigars, said exports would finish 1999 at between 150 and 160 million, compared to 126 million last year. Heavy rains and high humidity levels, particularly in the western province of Pinar del Rio—Cuba’s tobacco growing heartland—harmed leaf preparation and undermined the ambitious official aim of 200 million exports this year.Total revenues from this year’s exports should reach $260 million, up from $200 million last year, Habanos Vice-President, Manuel Garcia told a news conference.That would make tobacco the Cuban economy’s third biggest export earner after sugar and nickel.

 

11/4     El Comandante’s Rant  - Power to His Critics

Miami Herald-The dictator is slipping toward the edge, frustrated by criticism and running out of people to blame for the collapse of his country.Only two weeks before the Ibero American Summit is set to take place in Havana, Fidel Castro launched a disjointed harangue against Cuba courageous dissidents who, he said, are being manipulated by the United States into “sabotaging “the summit.

 

11/3     Castro Acusa a los Disidentes de Boicotear La Cumbre

El Nuevo Herald-En un hecho sin precedente el gobernante cubano, Fidel Castro, denuncio por sus nombres ante las camaras de la television nacional a disidentes politicos, a organizaciones internacionales de derechos humanos, diplomaticos estadounidenses y al Arzobispo de Santiago de Cuba, Pedro Meurice, de querer boicotear la Cumbre Iberoamericana y confabularse para destabilizar su regimen, con el apoyo de la Fundacion Nacional Cubano Americana.

 

11/3     Castro Acusa a EE.UU. de Querer Secuestrar la Cumbre

Diaro Las Americas-En su intervencion televisiva  de mas de cuatro horas, Castro aseguro que en agosto ultimo, el jefe de Asuntos Cubanos del Departamento de Estado, Charles Shapiro, “insto” a la disidencia . Castro acuso tambien a la conservadora Fundacion Nacional Cubanoamericana (FNCA) de pretender financiar millonariamente si fuera necesario a la disidencia y la Iglesia Catolica, para obstaculizar la cumbre.

 

11/3     Es Hora de Cambiar La Politica de EE.UU. Con Cuba Dice el New York Times

Nueva York-EFE- El mantenimiento del embargo estadounidense contra Cuba no ayudara a este pais a llevar un cambio constructivo, afrma hoy el diario “The New York Times” en un editorial, en el que aboga por modificar esta politica.

 

11/3     Nuevas Acusaciones de Fidel Castro contra opositores y periodistas independientes

La programacion de los dos unicos canales televisivos cubanos fue interrumpida por una aparicion del gobernante Fidel Castro. La comparecencia, que fue anunciada el dia anterior, tenia por objeto “denunciar” la labor de los grupos de opositores internos y periodistas independientes, a quienes el gobernante acuso de “cabecillas contrarevolucionarios”, “conspiradores” y de “estar pagados” por la Seccion de Interes de los Estados Unidos en La Habana.

 

11/3     Colombia Confirma Seguna Reunion con el ELN en Cuba

Agence France Press- El Alto Comisionado para la Paz del gobierno colombiano, Victor G. Ricardo, confirmo el martes que el pasado fin de semana se reunio en Cuba con voceros de la guerrilla guevarista del ELN, para hablar sobre la posibilidad de iniciar un esquema formal de reconciliacion.

 

11/2     IAPA to Castro stop harassing independent press

Reuters-Miami-The Inter-American Press Association called on Cuban President Fidel Castro on Wednesday to stop his “intimidation” of Cuba’s fledgling independent journalists. The IAPA, which represents the hemisphere’s newspaper editors, said it was concerned Castro’s verbal attacks put the physical and mental well-being of the journalists  and their families at risk.

 

11/2     Cuba Upholds $181 Billion in Claims Against U.S.

Reuters-Havana-A Havana court on Tuesday upheld a 181.1 billion compensation claim by Cuba against the U.S. government for deaths and injuries attributed to four decades of hostilities against President Fidel Castro’s government.

 

11/2     Cuba Signs Investment Accord With Netherlands

Reuters-Havana-Cuba signed Tuesday a mutual investment agreement with the Netherlands, the 43^rd such accord reached since the communist-ruled Caribbean island opened up to foreign investment at the start of this decade.Dutch junior economic minister Gerrit Ybema signed the investment Promotion and Protection  agreement with Cuba’s Foreign Investment Minister, Marta Lomas during a visit to coincide with this week’s annual Havana business fair. The accord should boost bilateral trade, which stood at $200 million last year. Cuban minister Lomas noted the agreement would be “another impluse” for commercial ties with Holland, which is already the third most important destiantion of Cuban exports, especially nickel, in Europe.

 

11/2     Castro attacks Dissidents on TV

The Associated Press-Havana-Fidel Castro launched a rare televised attack on the communist island’s dissidents early today, mocking them and accusing them of taking advantage of the upcoming Ibero-American summit to carry their “counterrevolutionary” message to foreign leaders.

He named many of the dissidents during the broadcast. He said one had approached embassies here about meeting with leaders during the Nov. 15-16 gathering of heads of state from Spain, Portugal and Latin America.

“They were planning a parallel summit,” Castro said angrily.                                                 

 

11/2     Fidel: U.S. Blocking Governor’s Visit

The Associated Press-Havana- President Fidel Castro on Monday accused U.S. Government’s diplomatic mission in Cuba of trying to block Illinois’s governor from meeting him during the governor’s visit.

Gov. George Ryan met with Castro for seven hours during his stay here last week. The U.S. State Department afterward said it preferred that American officials who visit Cuba not met with the communist leader.

 

11/2     Pugna por la designacion de un diplomatico cubano

Miami Herald-Segun han dicho funcionarios de Estados Unidos, un diplomatico cubano vinculado a terroristas puertorriquenos recibira una visa para trabajar en Washington una vez que Cuba acceda a dejar entrar a dos funcionarios del Departamento de Estado que estan assignados a La Habana. Los funcionarios anadieron que el FBI primero presento una objecion formal al nombramiento de Fernando Garcia Bielsa a la Seccion de Intereses Cubanos en Washington, pero despues reconsidero y retiro la objecion.

 

OCTOBER

 

10/31   Cuban Dissidents Get Rare Meeting

The Associated Press-Havana-Two leading Mexican opposition lawmakers held a rare meeting with several Cuban dissidents after discussions with Cuban legislators. Luis H. Alvarez of Mexico’s center-right National Action Party and independent lawmaker Adolfo Aguilar Zinser met with the dissidents for a little more than an hour on Sunday, said Hector Palacio, head of Cuba’s Democratic Solidarity Party.

 

10/31   Ultimatum a La Sol Melia

El Departamento de Estado enviara proximamente una notificacion a la cadena hotelera espanola Sol Melia, en la que se le dara un plazo de 45 dias para abandonar Cuba o indemnizar a los demandantes, para evitar sanciones administrativas previstas en la ley Helms-Burton. La segunda dira:” Hemos determinado que estan traficando” dijo el abogado Nicholas Gutierrez.

 

10/30   Comienza en La Habana reunion interparlamentaria Cuba-Mexico

El Nuevo Herald-La III Reunion Interparlamentaria Cuba-Mexico comenzo el viernes sus sesiones en esta capital, encabezada por Ricardo Alarcon, presidente del Parlamento cubano y el embajador de Mexico en la isla, Pedro Joaquin Coldwell.        

 

10/30   Cuba, Mexico To Expand Cooperation

The Associated Press – Havana- Cuban and Mexican lawmakers agreed Saturday to cooperate more on the economic front, to encourage more Mexican investment on the island more Cuban exports to Mexico. Wrapping up the third annual Mexico-Cuba Interparlimentary Meeting, the legislators also agreed to work on ways to protect their developing nations from the effects of economic globalization, as well as competition from large international corporations.

 

10/30   Desde la Isla

El Nuevo Herald –Protesta en La ONU- El embajador cubano ante la ONU, Bruno Rodriguez Parrilla, ha protestado ante Naciones Unidas y el Gobierno de Estados Unidos por “la actitud injustificable y arbitraria” de Washington de continuar la imposicion de restriciones de movimiento a los diplomaticos de ese pais. La protesta fue cursada mediante una nota verbal a la embajada de EU ante la ONU y al Comite de Relaciones con el Pais Anfitrion de Naciones Unidas. Los diplomaticos cubanos tienen prohibido desplazarse mas alla de un limite de 40 kilometros del centro de Nueva York y cualquier salida que traspase esa linea debe ser aprobada previamente.

 

10/29   La Habana rechaza la oferta de becas de la Coca Cola

El Nuevo Herald-El regimen dice que no quiere aceptar nada de la bebida del “enemigo”.

Cuba rechazo ayer un ofrecimiento para que universitarios cubanos se preparen en Estados Unidos con financiamiento de la multinacional Coca-Cola, cuya famosa bebida fue considerada durante decadas en la isla un simbolo del “enemigo”.

 

10/29   Diplomatica de EU forcejea con la Seguridad cubana

El Nuevo Herald-La jefa de la mision diplomatica norteamericana en La Habana, Vicki G. Huddleston, tuvo que forcejear el lunes con un agente de la Seguridad cubana que trato de impedir su entrada al Aeropuerto Internacional Jose Marti en La Habana, para despedir al gobernador de Illnois, Georoge Ryan. El incidente refleja la hostilidad oficial hacia los representantes norteamericanos acreditados en La Habana, quienes segun las autoridades cubanas, hicieron “todo lo posible para torpedear”la reciente visita del gobernador a la isla, al incluir en su programa encuentros con opositores.

 

10/29   Castro dispuesto a restablecer relaciones a pesar del embargo

El Nuevo Herald-El gobernante Fidel Castro afirmo que esta dispuesto a establecer relaciones con Estados Unidos, aunque Washington no levante el embargo que mantiene sobre la isla hace 37 anos. “Podriamos restablecer relaciones sin levantar el bloqueo. Nos hemos acostumbrado al bloqueo. Hemos preparado al pais para resistir.” Dijo el mandatario y agrego que “nos hemos acostumbrados al bloqueo, estamos inmunizados.”

 

10/28   Pro-Castro Protest Outside Cuba Dissident Meeting

Reuters-About two dozen supporters of Cuban President Fidel Castro chanted pro-government slogans and hurled insults on Thursday during a rowdy gathering outside a meeting of dissidents to announce upcoming activities.

 

10/27   Cuba Blasts U.S. Diplomats over Governor’s Visit

Reuters- Havana-Cuba condemned U.S. diplomats in Havana on Thursday for seeking to “torpedo” and “sabotage” Illinois Governor George Ryan’s landmark trip this week by arranging for him to meet with dissidents opposed to President Fidel Castro. But Havana had warm words for Ryan himself, repeateadly praising the republican politician’s decision  to make the first visit to the communist-run island by a sitting U.S. governor since Castro ‘s 1959 Cuban Revolution.

 

10/27   U.S Not Letting Up on Cuba

The Associated Press- Washington- As Illinois Gov. George Ryan returned home from a meeting in Cuba with President Fidel Castro, the Clinton administration said it opposes such sessions as well as Ryan’s advocacy of dropping the U.S. ban on trade with the communist nation. State Department spokesman James Rubin said Wednesday that personally visiting the Cuban leader should be avoided “to not give the impression that anyone supports the oppression that he has visited on his people.”

 

10/27   Governor Taking Sick Boy to US

The Associated Press-Havana-Concern over a sick child’s welfare triumphed over political differences today, as Fidel Castro granted Illinois’ visiting governor permission to take an ailing 7-year-old boy back to the United States with him for treatment. The boy, Raudel Alfonso Garcia, suffers from portal hypertension, a potentially fatal disease that produces high pressure in blood flowing from several organs to the liver. Cuban doctors don’t have the facilities to treat him.

 

10/27   Cuba Bill Again

The Associated Press-Washington- A bill to reduce most tariffs on African products won a major vote in the Senate, but the legislation still faces many hurdles as senators sought to load it with amendements. Some farm-state senators moved Tuesday to attach a previously spurned amendment to ease a trade embargo on Cuba and other nations under U.S. sanctions.

 

10/26   Andreas Meets With Investment Official

Sun-Times-Allen Andreas, CEO of Archer Daniels Midland, whose company represents one of the largest business interests accompanying illinois governor Ryan and other members of Illinois’ delegation met with various Cuban officials Saturday night, including the island’s minister of foreign investment. However, Andreas said no trade prospects were discussed. As much as Sunday was a day of leisure for Ryan and the Illinois delegation, it also was a day that first impressions of Cuba began to sink in. But Bishop Joseph Perry of the Archidiocese of Chicago, who co-celebrated mass at the Cathedral de Cuba, said the level of hardship he has witnessed in Cuba is far beyond the most deprived neighborhoods in Chicago.

 

10/26   CANF Deplores Attempts to Revive Trade With Terrorists’ Bid; Group Says Senate Proposal Is Beyond Cuba Trade, Fully Detrimental To the U.s. National Interest

PRNewswire-Washington-The Cuban American National Foundation today deplored an effort to bring back to the Senate floor a proposal that would gut U.S. economic sanctions against countries identified by the State Department as promoting international terrorism. The controversial proposal had been summarily stricken from a recent Senate-House Conference Committee by Senate and House leaders with a strong sense of the U.S. national interest.

 

10/26   Dissident Urges Summit Leaders To Meet All Cubans

Reuters-Havana-One of Cuba’s most prominent dissidents criticised Tuesday the U.S. embargo on the communist-ruled island and urged heads of state at next month’s Ibero-American summit in Havana to meet with a wide cross-section of the Cuban people. The satements from Oswaldo Paya, who heads the small, moderate Christian Liberation Movement, came as part of a flurry of dissident activity in Cuba ahead of the Nov. 15-16 meeting of leaders from Latin America, Spain and Portugal.

 

10/26   Analysis-Governor’s Cuba Trip Will Not Sway U.S.

Reuters-Miami-Illinois Gov. George Ryan’s trip to Cuba, the first by a U.S. governor since Fidel Castro’s 1959 revolution, adds momentum to efforts by U.S. businesses to end the U.S. economic embargo against the communist-ruled island, analysts said, but will not change many minds in Washington.

 

10/25   Gov. Urges End to Cuba Embargo

The Associated Press-Illinois Gov. george Ryan called for an end to the U.S. embargo against Cuba on Monday after ambassadors and opponents of the communist government told him the trade sanctions were blocking democratic change on the island. Critics of the sanctions have long said President Fidel Castro uses the embargo as a scapegoat to deflect blame for Cuba’s economic ills.

10/24   Gov.  Makes Landmark Cuba Visit
The Associated Press-Havana-Illinois Gov. George Ryan toured historic Old Havana on Sunday after attending Mass at the capital’s towering Roman Catholic Cathedral, where he was thanked for bringing more than $1 million in humanitarian aid to Cuba. 

Visita La Habana El Gobernador de Illinois
El Nuevo Herald-Associated Press-La Habana-El gobernador de Illinois, George Ryan, primer gobernador de un estado norteamericano que visita Cuba desde el arribo al poder del governante Fidel Casto en 1959, llego el sabado aqui para una visita de cinco dias.

10/24   Hallazgo

Joyas de oro, ceramicas chinas y balas de canon fueron encontradas en un galeon probablemente espanol, hundido frente a las costas de Cuba, informo el sabado el periodico Juventud Rebelde.

 

10/24   Creditos

Cuba obtuvo a medio y largo plazos por unos $500 millones en los ultimos dos anos, confirmo el sabado el ministro presidente del Banco Central de la Isla, Francisco Soberon. Asimismo, indico que este ano el sistema bancario sera capaz de prestar a la empresa cubana alrededor de $1,400 millones, cifra que era cero en 1993 y en 1998 llego a $1,000 millones.

 

10/23   Cuba Appoints New Labor Minister

Reuters-Havana-Cuba’s government said on Saturday it was appointing a new minister for labour and social security, in the country’s third Cabinet change in five months. The ruling Communist Party’s daily newspaper, Granma, identified the new minister as Alfredo Morales Cartaya, a former labour union official who had been serving in the Havana City  provincial party bureau.

 

10/22   Cuban Official Blasts U.S. Embargo

The Associated Press-Havana-A top Cuban official charged Friday that the United States was not carrying  through on its decision to allow the sale of limited amount of food and medicine to Cuba.Ricardo Alarcon, president of the Cuban National Assembly, criticized measures announced by the Clinton administration earlier this year allowing case-by-case sales of the U.S. products.

 

10/22   Iraq May Buy Cuba Sugar, Medicines Under U.N. Deal

Reuters-Havana-Iraq is exploring the possibility of buying medicines and sugar from Cuba under the Gulf state’s oil-for-food deal with the United Nations, Iraqi Trade Minister Mohammed Mehdi Saieh said.

 

10/22   Confirman que Viajara a La Habana el Gobernador del Estado de Illinois

Seria la primera vez desde 1959 que un gobernador en ejercicio se reune con Castro

El Nuevo Herald-Por otra parte, una delegacion de la Iglesia Metodista Unida de Estados Unidos concluyo el jueves una visita a Cuba, tras haberse entrevistado la noche del miercoles durante cinco horas con Fidel Castro. Roger Ireson, secretario de la Junta de Educacion Superior y Ministerial de esa Iglesia, declaro que le objetivo de su visita fue “buscar la forma de que pueda haber intercambios de estudiantes y profesores [de los dos paises] a nivel superior.” Segun declaraciones recogidas por la Agencia de Informacion Nacional (AIN) cubana, Ireson dijo que “la posicion oficial de la Iglesia Metodista Unida es que el bloqueo debe ser levantado do inmediato.”

 

10/22   Cubans May Get Coke Scholarships

AFP-Havana-Roger Ireson of the Higher Education Board of the United Methodist Church on Thursday announced that Coca-Cola “has offered to fund scholarships for Latin American students in our universities”-Cubans included. The UMC has 124 schools in the United States, financed through donations from foundations and major companies. The church favors a lifting of the 36-year-old U.S. trade embargo against Cuba. Coca-Cola plans to make money available to Emory University in Atlanta for the UMC project.

 

10/22   Disruptions Planned For Cuba Summit

Miami Herald-Hoping to grab some of the limelight of a summit of foreign leaders in Havana next month, Cuba’s small dissident movements are planning their biggest burst of public defiance since Concilio Cubano in 1996.

 

10/21   Cuban Sugar Harvest OK After Storm

AP-Havana- Flooding from hurricane Irene affected thousands of acres of cane fields in central and western Cuba but won’t significantly affect the island’s important sugar harvest, the Communist Party daily newspaper Granma said Thursday. Some 85,000 acres of cane were flooded and 76,000 acres were damaged by the storm, which hit Cuba on Oct.14. Only 753 acres were a total loss, Cuba’s Sugar Ministry said-well below occasional losses due to drought. Workers set to drain flooded fields after the storm. Some 16,000 acres required immediate attention, Granma said. Work was continuing.

 

10/21   Cuba Hails First U.S. Governor Visit Under Castro

Reuters-Havana-The forthcoming first visit to Cuba by a U.S. governor since President Fidel Castro’s 1959 revolution is further proof of opposition in the United States to Washington’s sanctions on the island, Havana said on Thursday. Illinois Gov. George Ryan was given U.S. permission earlier this week to lead a five-day visit to the communist-run nation, starting on Saturday. He is terming the trip a humanitarian mission and bringing $1 million of aid.

 

10/21   Colombian Government Envoys, Rebels Meet In Cuba

Reuters-Leaders of Colombia’s second largest leftist rebel group met Colombian government envoys in communist-ruled Cuba for talks that could pave the way for future peace negotiations, authorities said on Tuesday. Foreign Minister Guillermo Fernandez said the secret meeting with the national Liberation Army (ELN).which has some 5,000 combatants, was held on Tuesday and Wednesday with the backing of Cuban President Fidel Castro.

 

10/21   Cuba Denies Persecution Of Opposition Activits

Reuters- Havana-Cuba denied on Thursday it was persecuting political opponents, despite claims of a government crackdown against heightened dissident activity ahead of an Ibero-American Summit next month in Havana.

 

10/20   Detentions In Cuba As Dissidents More Active

Reuters-Havana-About 30 Cuban dissidents have been detained or confined to their homes for short periods in the past two weeks as part of the government’s response to a rise in meetings and other low-level actions by Cuba’s splintered opposition. Most recently, at least half a dozen dissidents were ordered not to leave their homes or were taken to detention centres late Tuesday and early Wednesday after an opposition meeting was scheduled in Havana for Wednesday morning.

 

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