Cuba NEWSTRACK
By: Teo A. Babun, Jr.
Cuba-Caribbean Development Co., Ltd.
A Division of T. Babun Group, Inc.
All rights reserved
2000
OCTOBER
10/01/2000 IRAN’S PRESIDENT, CASTO MEET
AP-Havana-President Mohammad Khatami of Iran met Saturday with Cuba’s president, Fidel Castro, during an offical visit folllowing the OPEC, summit in Venezuela.
10/02/2000 DECIDEN ESTA SEMANA SUAVIZAMIENTO DEL EMBARGO
Washington-El Congreso de Estados Unidos resolverá esta semana la suerte del proyecto de ley que propone levantar el embargo económico a la venta de productos agrícolas y medicinas a Cuba, declararon fuentes legislativas. Al concluir la sesión legislativa del 2000, los lideres republicanos pretenden llevar a votación a mediados de semana el proyecto de ley de asignaciones agrícolas, que contiene la iniciativa sobre Cuba.
10/02/2000 FIDEL CASTRO, JIMMY CARTER TO ATTEND TRUDEAU FUNERAL
Ottawa-Reuters- Cuban leader, Fidel Castro, former U.S. president, Jimmy Carter, and Britain’s, Prince Andrew, are among the foreign dignitaries who will attend the funeral of former Canadian prime minister Pierre Trudeau, officials said on Monday.
10/02/2000 BACARDI GETS GO AHEAD TO SELL RUM
Associated Press-Washington-The Supreme Court, skirting a trademark dispute growing out of the U.S. embargo against Cuba, refused to stop Bacardi & Co, from selling Bahamian-produced “Havana Club” rum in the United States.
10/02/2000 FIGHT TO EASE U.S.- Cuba SANCTIONS ENTERS KEY STAGE
Washington-Reuters-A three-year fight by U.S. farm and business groups for unfettred food and medicine sales to Cuba, the object of a U.S. embargo for four decades, enters a crucial stage on Tuesday in Congress. Negotiatiors from the House of Representatives and Senate were set to consider exceptions to the Cuban embargo as part of their discussions concerning a $75 billion agriculture spending bill. While House Republican leaders last week announced a compromise on terms with the Senate, agreement was lacking on Monday on U.S. restrictions on travel to Cuba.
TRAVEL ISSUE UNRESOLVED
Republican leaders in the House want to write the current set of travel restrictions into law while creating a new category of permitted travel for people pursuing agricultural sales. But some senators want a “sunset” on the travel restrictions.
10/03/2000 LLEGO CASTRO A LOS FUNERALES DE TRUDEAU
Montreal-El gobernante Fidel Castro llego ayer a Monotreal para asistir a las exequias del ex-primer ministro canadiense, Pierre Trudeau.
10/03/2000 AGENCE FRANCE PRESSE-
La Habana- Los gobiernos de Cuba y Venezuela afinan un “Programa de Cooperación Energética” por el que Caracas suministrará petróleo a La Habana en condiciones preferenciales , de acuerdo a un borrador al que tuvo acceso la AFP. “Venezuela suministrara crudo y productos refinados a Cuba. Dicho suministro será objeto de evaluación y ajusten función de la evolución de las compras de Cuba, de las disponibilidades de Venezuela y de la s decisiones que adopte la Organización de Países Exportadores de Petróleo (OPEP)”, señala el borrador de tres paginas.
10/03/2000 RUM FEUD IS HEADED TO WTO
The U.S. Supreme Court declined Monday to step into a trademark quarrel between Bacardi and a French spirits maker partnering with Cuba, paving the way for the issue to be resolved by an international trade body. The World Trade Organization in Geneva is the next stop in the dispute over whether Bacardi, a Bermuda company whose U.S. headquarters is in Miami, has the right to the Havana Club rum brand or whether it belongs to a joint venture between the Cuban government and Pernod Ricard, a Paris company.
10/03/2000 US CONGRESS NEARS HISTORIC SHIFT IN Cuba SANCTIONS
Washington-Reuters-Congressional negotiators on Tuesday were poised to approve a landmark shift in four decades of U.S. policy toward Cuba, easing an embargo on exports of food and medicine to the communist nation. Senate and House negotiators were to consider the Cuban embargo as part of talks late on Tuesday afternoon on a $75 billion agriculture spending bill.
10/03/2000 TRAVEL RULES AN ISSUE ON U.C-Cuba EASING
Washington-Reuters-A congressional proposal to relax a four-decade-old U.S. embargo on Cuba by allowing food and medicine sales ran into trouble on Tuesday because of a dispute over travel restrictions to the Caribbean inland. Republican leaders hoped to resolve the dispute in time for a negotiating committee to adopt a final version of the bill, which would be the most significant relaxation in the embargo in years, according to some anallysts.
10/03/2000 U.S WHEAT GROWERS TO VISIT Cuba THIS WEEKEND
Reuters-Washington-With Congress moving closer to allowing food and medicine sales to Cuba, U.S. wheat growers said on Tuesday they will make their fifth visit in three years to the Caribbean island this weekend.
10/04/2000 U.S. CONGRESS DEFERS Cuba EMBARGO TALKS TO THURSDAY
Reuters-Washington-Republican leaders in the U.S. Congress decided on Wednesday after hours of meetingsd to wait a day before reconvening a committee negotiating an agriculture funding bill that will include allowing U.S. food and medicine sales to Cuba.
10/04/2000 MEXICO DEPORTS CUBAN SAID TO BE SEEKING ASYLUM
Reuters- Mexico- Mexican authorities deported a former Cuban consul on Wednesday described by human rights activists as an ex-intelligence agent for Cuba who was seeking political asylum in Mexico. Mexico’s National Immigration Institute (INM) said Pedro Anibal Riera Escalante, consul to Mexico from 1988 to 1994,was arrested on Tuesday afternoon in Mexico City and forced to return to Cuba on Wednesday because he lacked the immigration papers needed to remain in the country.
10/04/2000 BAHAMIANS HEAD TO COMMUNIST Cuba FOR SCHOOL
Reuters-Nassau-In search of higher learning, Bahamians are leaving the archipelago nation in droves for Communist Cuba to take advantage of free university education.
10/04/2000 BAHAMIANS HEAD TO COMMUNIST Cuba FOR SCHOOL
Reuters- Nassau-Bahamas- In search of higher learning, Bahamians are leaving the archipelago nation in droves for Communist Cuba to take advantage of free university education. A record 350 high school graduates from various Bahamian islands, many from low-income families, will travel to their Caribbean neighbour to the south this year to study Spanish, medicine, civil engineering, agriculture and other subjects.
10/04/2000 RICH NATIONS, Cuba CLOSER ON DEBT, DIPLOMATS SAY
Reuters- Havana- After years of deadlocked negotiations, rich nation creditors are willing to seek a multilateral rescheduling of the estimated $3.5 billion debt Cuba has with them as the island’s economy falters amid high oil prices, diplomats said.
10/04/2000 CONGRESS TO TRY AGAIN, NO ACCORD ON Cuba BILL
Reuters-Washington- Congress oon Wednesday was expected to try once again to move forward a bill to ease the decades-old U.S. embargo on Cuba by allowing food and medicine sales, amid complaints the measure does not go far enough. The disagreement prevented a House-Senate negotiating committee from taking up the issue on Tuesday. Leaders hoped to bring language to the panel for speedy approval at a Wednesday session but there was no agreement overnight, an aide said.
10/04/2000 CASTRO Y CARTER CONVERSAN DURANTE EL FUNERAL DE TRUDEAU
Panorama/Cuba-Servicios de El Nuevo Herald-El ex-presidente de Estados Unidor, Jimmy Carter, y el gobernante cubano, Fidel Castro charlaron durante algunos minutos ayer en Montreal, según se observo en imágenes de la televisión canadiense.
10/04/2000 PREOCUPACION EN TOKIO POR EL ESTADO DE LOS DERECHOS HUMANOS EN LA ISLA
Tokio- El ministro japonés de Asuntos Exteriores, Yohei Kono, transmitió ayer al vicepresidente cubano, Carlos Lage, la preocupación de Japón por la situación de los derechos humanos en la isla, informaron fuentes oficiales.
10/05/2000 REANUDAN HOY DEBATES SOBRE EL EMBARGO
Reuters-Washington-Dirigentes republicanos del Congreso de Estados Unidos decidieron ayer esperar un día antes de volver a convocar a una comisión que negocia una ley de financiamiento agrícola que incluirá permitir la venta de alimentos y medicinas a Cuba.
10/05/2000 PROPONEN PROTEGER LAS INVERSIONES JAPONESAS
El vicepresidente de Cuba, Carlos Lage, propuso ayer al ministro de Comercio Internacional e Industria, Takeo Hiranuma, establecer un acuerdo de protección de inversiones para ampliar la presencia empresarial y comercial nipona en su país.
10/05/2000 Cuba COULD BECOME $1 BLN MARKET IN 5 YRS-US OFFICIAL
Reuters- Washington- If Congress decides to lift U.s. economic sanctions against Cuba, a top Agriculture Department official on Thursday estimaed U.s. farm exports to the Communist country could reach $1 billion within 5 years, with wheat, rice and livestock farmers reaping the majority of the benefits. Tim Galvin, administrator of USDA’s Foreign Agricultural Service, said Cuba has the potential to be the secoond largest market in Latin America after Mexico for U.S. agricultural commodities.
WASHINGTON, Oct 6 (Reuters) - The White House said on Friday it would have to take a closer look at a congressional plan to ease food and medicine sales to Cuba before deciding if the president will support the landmark measure.
``We're going to have to examine it in more detail, but it's going to have to strike the right balance,'' Jake Siewert, administration spokesman, told reporters
The White House is also concerned about the legislation infringing on foreign policy. ``There are also provisions in there, frankly, that undermine the president's authority to conduct diplomacy in this area,'' Siewert said.
MIAMI, Oct 6 (Reuters) - Whether they supported or condemned the embargo on Cuba, exiles found something to like in a congressional agreement allowing U.S. food and medicine sales while tightening the ban on U.S. tourism to the communist island.
``Passage of this agreement constitutes a manifestation of solidarity by the U.S. Congress with the oppressed people of Cuba,'' U.S. Representative Lincoln Diaz-Balart, a Florida Republican whose family fled Cuba into exile, said on Friday.
CHICAGO, Oct 6 (Reuters) - U.S. food groups hailed the congressional pact to ease the trade embargo on Cuba, saying it was a crucial step in resuming potentially-lucrative food exports to the Communist-run island after four decades.
TEHRAN, Oct 7 (Reuters) - Visiting Cuban Vice-President Carlos Lage on Saturday met with his Iranian counterpart to discuss economic cooperation, the official IRNA news agency said.
His visit comes only a week after Iranian President Mohammad Khatami left Havana after the first ever visit by an Iranian president to Cuba. Both countries' economies are suffering from U.S.-imposed sanctions.
HAVANA, Oct 7 (Reuters) - A planned agreement by Venezuela to supply oil to Cuba under favourable terms was an example of practical cooperation between the two Caribbean neighbours and had no special ideological significance, Venezuelan Foreign Minister Jose Vicente Rangel said on Saturday.
''REBEL'' GADDAFI SENDS CASTRO HUMAN RIGHTS PRIZE By Andrew Cawthorne
HAVANA, Oct 9 (Reuters) - Cuban President Fidel Castro received a Libyan human rights prize named after Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi late on Sunday, and thanked his fellow ``rebel'' for a gesture of ``anti-imperialist'' solidarity.
On the surface, at least, reaction to Thursday's historic House and Senate GOP agreement to end nearly 40 years of food and medicine sanctions against Cuba was a paradox. Those who seemed happiest about the deal were those who had fought hardest against any easing of the embargo. One of them, Rep. Lincoln Diaz-Balart (R-Fla.), called it "a tremendous victory."
But Democrats who have long supported a change in Cuba policy, and some Republicans who came to the issue more recently, were outraged.
HAVANA, Oct 9 (Reuters) - Cuba believes that plans to allow it to buy U.S. food and medicine are inadequate and says the Caribbean island will not buy goods from the United States unless it can sell products to its northern neighbour in return, a U.S. farm official visiting Havana said on Monday.
HAVANA, Oct 11 (Reuters) - Hailed by President Fidel Castro as the saviour of his revolution but decried by others as a Big Brother spy network, Cuba's neighbourhood watch system, Committees for the Defence of the Revolution, is marking a 40th anniversary.
Lawmakers agreed, sending the plan to the Senate for a final vote. The language was part of a $75 billion agriculture funding bill. ``This is going to work'' and expand farm sales, said Washington state Republican George Nethercutt, the prime House advocate of the change.
Although the package exempts food and medicine from unilateral U.S. embargoes, it denies any public or private U.S. financing for food sales to Cuba. It also writes into law regulations that bar tourist travel to the island unless Americans obtain a license or are invited by a non-U.S. group that pays the bill.
Cuba has criticised the proposal as a publicity stunt that actually tightens the embargo, due to restrictions on travel and financing, rather than loosening it. Clinton called the bill ``a big mistake'' that will do little for U.S. farmers while unwisely limiting travel. However, the White House said he would sign the bill.
WASHINGTON, Oct 12 (Reuters) - A Senate vote is now the final hurdle to a potentially landmark shift in the U.S. embargo on Cuba that would allow food and medicine sales to the communist island.
Senators, who voted overwhelmingly last summer for food and medicine sales to Cuba, have to give final congressional approval to the agriculture bill to send it to Clinton. While leaders tried to arrange a vote soon, the vote might languish until next week in the end-of-the-session crush.
HAVANA, Oct 12 (Reuters) - Cuba criticized the ``boring and insipid'' American presidential candidates on Thursday, and rejected an imminent change to the U.S. embargo on the island as toughening rather than easing the sanctions.
10/16/2000 Cuba CALLS PROTEST MARCH AGAINST U.S. EMBARGO MOVE
Reuters-Havana-Cuba called on Monday for a march of 800,000 people later this week on the U.S. diplomatic mission in Havana to express popular rejection of U.S. policy, including a move to change the four-decade-old trade embargo. In a lengthy and militant statement, the ruling Communist Party urged Havana residents to join the demonstration on Wednesday to denounce restrictions written into a bill in the U.S. Congress to allow food and medicine sales to Cuba.
10/17/2000 TURISMO
El Nuevo Herald- Más del 50% de los visitantes que arriban a la isla optan para permanecer en la capital pero los ingresos que esos turistas dejan al sector solo equivalen al 38% de todo lo recaudado en el sector.
10/17/2000 DENGUE
El Nuevo Herald-En el municipio 10 de Octubre se han reportado casi 700 focos, por lo que esa zona se sitúa en estado de alerta epidemiológica.
10/17/2000 Cuba EMBARGO EASING SEEN SURE TO PASS U.S. SENATE
Reuters- Washington- The U.S. Senate was sure to pass legislation allowing sales of U.S. food and medicine to Cuba, lawmakers and lobbyists said on Tuesday, despite complaints that a wider opening to the communist-ruled island was justified.
HARSH TRAVEL RESTRICTIONS POSSIBLE
Latin American expert Pamela Falk said the food exemption would restore the farm sector to pre-1992 conditions, when subsidiaries of U.S. firms were allowed to sell to Cuba.
Under the proposal, the Treasury Department could authorise direct shipping between the two nations, notwithstanding a 1992 law that requires 180 days between U.S. and Cuban port calls. U.S. firms could also provide insurance coverage for food and medicine sales.
10/18/2000 RUSSIA WARILY BACKS U.S. BILL TO EASE Cuba EMBARGO
Reuters-Moscow- Russia on Wednesday welcomed a U.S. Senate bill aimed at easing an embargo against Cuba while criticizing it as too limited.
10/18/2000 A TONO CON LOS TIEMPOS, LAS PROTESTAS DE LA HABANA CAMBIAN
El Nuevo Herald- “Tal golpe va dirigido a privarnos de las divisas que aporta a nuestra economia la industria turistica” subrayo Granma. Aunque el regimen lo niegue esta medida implica tambien un cambio importante en el embargo que EU mantiene desde hace cuatro decadas. Pero nada le impide utilizar creditos de entidades fiancieras, publicas o privadas de terceros paises. “Nuestro pais no adquirira un solo centavo de alimentos o medicinas en Estados Unidos”, sentencio Granma.
10/18/2000 Cuba PROTESTS U.S. EMBARGO BILL
Havana-Waving huge placards with portraits of Abraham Lincoln, hundreds of thousands of Cubans marched Wednesday in hopes of convincing Americans that pending U.S. legistlation will make it harder for them to visit the island. The march was being held in large part to show the world : and especially American public opinion, what our people think of the gross lie that the genocidal blockade has been softened,” the Communist Party daily Granma said Wednesday. Wearing his traditional olive green uniform with his now-familiar white athletic shoes for marching, Fidel Castro led a crowd the government estimated at 800,000 – nearly half the capital’s population of 2 million – down Havana’s Malecon coastal highway.
10/19/2000 SENADO APRUEBA LAS VENTAS A LA ISLA
El Nuevo Herald-El Senado aprobo ayer la venta de medicinas y alimentos a la isla, con ciertas restricciones , mientras en la Habana miles de cubanos fueron movilizados por el gobierno en una demostración publica contra la medida. Por una votación de 86 a favor y 8 en contra, los senadores siguieron la recomendación de la Cámara y enviaron el titulo a la firma del presidente, Bill Clinton el cual ha dicho ya que piensa suscribirlo.
10/19/2000 LA FIU RECHAZA LAS “CONDICIONES INACEPTABLES” DE Cuba PARA EVENTO
El Nuevo Herald-El gobierno cubano quiso imponer “condiciones inaceptables” a académicos estadounidenses para permitir que 37 investigadores de la isla viajaran a Miami con el fin de participar en un encuentro académico que empieza hoy en la Universidad Internacional de la Florida (FIU). Las autoridades de la isla exigían que el CRI no invitara al congreso a individuos de tendencias políticas inaceptables para Cuba, según Lisandro Pérez, director del CRI y profesor del Departamento de Sociología de FIU. Pérez no quiso señalar cuales fueron esas personas.
10/19/2000 U.S. FOOD, DRUG SALES TO Cuba POSSIBLE BY SPRING
Reuters-Washington-U.S. companies could begin sales of food and medicine to Cuba by next spring, a signal change in the four-decade-old embargo on the island nation, under legislation awaiting President Bill Clinton’s signature. Senators sent the plan to the Whhite House on a 86-8 vote on Wednesday as paprt of a $78 billion agriculture funding bill. Sales could begin four months after it is signed into law, although regulations to govern sales would have to be written.
10/20/2000 HOSPITAL
Nuevo Herald-Una total falta de higiene reina en el hospital pediátrico de Cienfuegos, que pone en riesgo la salud de los menores que allí están ingresados o que hacen uso de las consultas u otros servicios de dicha instalación. Enedina Urra Gonzalo, del Comité Cubano Pro Derechos Humanos en esa región, dijo al respecto: Durante el ingreso de mi hijo a finales de septiembre en ese hospital, no había agua en los salones de operaciones y de recuperación, y los enfermos no podían bañarse.” Alina Gonzalo, periodista de Cuba-Verdad, que reside en esa provincia, reporto que en el hospital pediátrico de Cienfuegos proliferan vectores transmisores de enfermedades, principalmente cucarachas.
10/20/2000 DENUNCIAN NUEVA OLEADA DE REPRESION EN Cuba
Reuters-La Habana- La seguridad estatal cubana ha llevado a cabo este mes una nueva “oleada de represión”, deteniendo a decenas de disidentes a través de la isla y hostigando a otros, para frustrar actividades de oposición, dijo ayer un grupo de defensa de los derechos humanos.
10/20/2000 VENEZUELA OPPOSITION DEPLORES RED CARPET FOR CASTRO
Reuters-Caracas-A visit by Cuban President Fidel Castro to Venezuela next week stirred angry polemics as opposition legislators protested plans for the veteran Communist leader to address the National Assembly, local press said on Friday.
10/20/2000 STATE DEPT. FEARS Cuba TRAVEL BILL
AP-Washington-Newly approved legislation easing the embargo against Cuba could hamper efforts to help sick Americans oon the island or prosecute criminals because it limits the ability of the United States to authorize travel, officials said Thrusday. The changes in the legislation the Senate approved Wednesday “might eliminate the president’s flexibility and discretion to conduct aspects of our foreign policy with Cuba,”State Department spokeman Richard Boucher said Thursday.
10/20/2000 SENATE PASSES EMBARGO BILL
Herald-The Senate gave final congressional approval Wednesday to a $78 billion farm spending bill that modestly eases the trade embargo against Cuba, ending a bitter months-long standoff and making both winners and losers of all the combatants. The bill, approved 86-8, would allow the sale of food to Cuba for the first time in four decades, but is restricted because it bars the federal govenrment or U.S. banks from financing the shipments.
10/20/2000 HOPE FOR CHANGE IN Cuba FADING
FIU SURVEY REVEALS LOCAL EXILES’ VIEWS
The Herald-In the aftermath of the Elian Gonzalez case, more Cuban exiles than ever before believe there will never be major political change in Cuba, according to a poll released Thursday by Florida International University. While 33 percent of local Cuban exiles said they foresee change on the island within 2 to 5 years, a surprising 28 percent said change will never occur-
10/20/2000 BUSINESS GROUP PREACHES PRIVATE ENTERPRISE IN Cuba
Reuters-Havana-An international business organization on Friday urged Cuba to open its government-run economy to free trade and private enterprise, but said the Communist-ruled island should take the decision itself and not be forced. Although President Fidel Castro’s government remains committed to socialist state control and ownership of most industries, Cuba in May became a full member of the Paris-based ICC, which advocates free trade and private enterprise. Asked about this apparent contradiction, ICC Secretary-General Maria Livanos Cattaui said the global business grouping, which has more than 7,000 member companies in 134 countries, was not seeking to impose its philosophy on Cuba.
10/20/2000 EL EXILIO NO ESPERA CAMBIOS EN Cuba
MAS DEL 60% DE LOS ENCUESTADOS FAVORECE MANTENER EL EMBARGO
El Nuevo Herald-Si las elecciones presidenciales fueran hoy, el 64 por ciento de los exiliados cubanos en Miami votaría por el gobernador George W. Bush y, si de ellos dependería, Estados Unidos tendría “luz verde” para invadir la isla, posiblemente porque muchos no vislumbran cambios políticos en Cuba en un futuro inmediato. El pesimismo sobre el futuro político de la isla ha aumentado notablemente. En marzo de 1991, solo un 9 por ciento pensaba que jamás ocurrirían cambios políticos en Cuba. El 51 por ciento de los entrevistados dijo que apoyaría un dialogo político con el gobierno de la isla. Según los autores de la encuesta, el hecho de que mas de la mitad quiera entablar una comunicación con el gobierno cubano puede ser interpretado como que entre la comunidad cubano americana el dialogo es visto como un “factor positivo de cambio.”
10/21/2000-PRESENCIA DE CASTRO IRRITA A LEGISLADORES
Reuters-Caracas-La próxima visita a Venezuela del gobernante Fidel Castro, ha desatado protestas por parte de los legisladores de oposición a quienes irrita que el líder comunista hable a la Asamblea Nacional. Castro tiene previsto llegar a Venezuela el 26 de octubre.
10/21/2000 LA FUNDACION CRITICA LA VISION DE LA CASA BLANCA SOBRE VIAJES
Washington-Las restricciones a los viajes de turismo de estadounidenses a Cuba, que según la Casa Blanca ponen en riesgo la asistencia medica de emergencia, ha motivado duras criticas por parte de la Fundación Nacional Cubano-Americana (FNCA) que tacho esta postura de “ridícula y sin meritos”. Dennis Hays, vicepresidente ejecutivo de la FNCA, dijo ayer que la decisión del Congreso de preservar las políticas actuales de viajes a Cuba no afecta a loas emergencias medicas.
10/23/2000 Cuba MAY CUT PHONE LINKS WITH U.S.
Associated Press-Havana-Cuba warned on Monday that it could cut off all telephone communications with the United States if the U.S. government seizes $58 million in Cuban funds from AT&T accounts frozen since the 1960s.
10/23/2000 Cuba RETALIATES AGAINST U.S. WITH PHONE CALL TAX
Reuters-Havana-Cuba, retaliating against a bill in the U.S. Congress that makes use of frozen Cuban funds in the United States, on Monday slapped a 10 percent tax on the cost of telephone calls between Cuba and the United States. The tax, which would increase the communist-ruled Caribbean island’s income form phone services between the two countries, was introdued in a surprise decree signed by President Fidel Castro and published in the Communist Party daily Granma.
10/23/2000 Cuba MAY CUT PHONE LINKS WITH U.S.
The Associated Press-Havana-Cuba warned on Monday that it could cut off all telephone communications with the United States if the U.S. government seizes $58 million in Cuban funds from AT&T accounts frozen since the 1960s.
10/23/2000 WALL STREET SEES Cuba EMBARGO MOVE AS STAB IN BACK
Reuters-New York- Wall Street economists are flummoxed the U.S. government thinks it is passing a bill that eases sanctions against Cuba, when they say the legislation could actually push the Communist-led island further into the economic abyss.
10/23/2000 Cuba DETAINS SIX BRITONS, UK SAYS
Reuters-London-Cuba has detained six Britons, and the British embassy in Havana is trying to gain access to them, the Foreign Office said on Monday.
10/24/2000 UK SEEKS ACCESS TO SIX BRITONS DETAINED IN Cuba
Reuters-London- Britain said on Tuesday that Cuba’s detention of six Britons was unacceptable, and threatened to summon a top Cuban official in London for urgent talks if access to the group, held for at least two weeks, was denied.
10/24/2000 Cuba MUSES ABOUT NORTH KOREA’S POWER
The Associated Press-Pyongyang-North Korea-On the eve of Albright’s trip here Monday, a Cuban diplomat in Washington mused about how the Clinton administration’s relationship with Havana would change, if Cuba possessed the kind of weapons that North Korea boasts.
10/24/2000 Cuba WANTS TO BOOST U.S. PHONE TAX
If the Cuba tax stands, it would affect thousands of Cubans and Cuban-American exiles who communicate by telephone between the island and the United States. In 1999, there were 152 million minutes of calls billed between the United States and Canada, or about 16 million calls at about 10 minutes each. Under normal conditions, Cuba’s telecommunications department and the companies agree on the rate to charge callers, now an average of 80 to 90 cents a minute, one of the highest in the region despite the island’s proximity to the United States. A call to Mexico, for example costs about 30 cents a minute. The companies pay Cuba a maximum of 60 cents a minute for every call, a rate codified in the telecommunications provision of the Cuban Democracy Act.
10/24/2000 WASHINGTON BALLET HOPES TO THAW U.S.-Cuba TIES
Reuters-Havana-The Washington Ballet, which this week becomes the first professional U.S. ballet company to dance in Cuba in 40 years, hopes the visit will help foster warmer U.S.-Cuban ties, its artistic director said Tuesday.
10/25/2000 HONORS AND OUTCRY AS CASTRO SET TO VISIT VENEZUELA
Reuters-Caracas-Cuban President Fidel Castro stands to boost his diplomatic credibility while being feted as a revolutionary ono a five-day trip to Venezuela that begins on Thursday, analysts said. The trip will be the Communist leader’s first state visit to the oil-producing country in 40 years, and, according to analysts, marks an important moment in Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez’s bid to expand his influence in region.
10/25/2000 CASTRO TO ATTEND FOX INAUGURATION IN MEXICO
Reuters-Mexico City-Cuban President Fidel Castro will travel to the Dec. 1 inauguration of Mexico’s first opposition president elect in seven decades, the Mexican foreign minister said on Wednesday.
10/25/2000 Cuba REBUFFS U.S. FARMERS’ APPEAL FOR PURCHASES
Reuters-Washington-A Cuban diplomat on Wednesday rebuffed a call by the leader of a U.S. farm group for Havana to buy American agricultural products despite Cuban complaints that the U.S. embargo is not being eased enough. President Bill Clinton was expected within the next week to sign into law legislation exempting food and medicine from U.S. sanctions on Cuba dating back to 1962. But President Fidel Castro’s government has said it will buy nothing because of “discriminatory” provisions barring U.S. financing of food sales or travel to the communist-ruled island.
10/25/2000 BLOCK OF Cuba PHONE CHARGE SOUGHT
Herald-STATE DEPARTMENT, COMPANIES HOPE TO HAVE A STRATEGY SOON Cuba’s decision to place a 10 percent surcharge oon phone calls to and from the United States has politicians, as well as government and phone company lawyers, looking for ways to avoid the tax without breaking the law or cutting off communication between the two countries. Representatives from the State Department and the phone companies say they expect to come up with an appropriate strategy at the end of the week.
10/25/2000 Cuba INFORMS BRITISH DIPLOMATS
Associtated Press-Havana-British officials say the Cuban government has told them seven Britons being held in Cuba were arrested for working in the country as private investigators. Cuba informed British diplomats Tuesday that the Britons had been involved “in some type of spy mission in Cuba, of the private investigative kind”, Foreign Office Minister Peter Hain told the British Broadcasting Corp. in London.
10/25/2000 NOTA DE EFE SOBRE LIBRO
La ley Helms-Burton solo ha servido para aislar a EEUU –La ley Helms-Burton ha sido contraproducente y solo ha servido para aislar a Estados Unidos del resto del mundo, según coincidieron los presentadores de un libro sobre la materia del español Joaquín Roy, profesor de la universidad de Miami.
10/25/2000 VENEZUELA’S CHAVEZ TO GIVE CASTRO HERO’S WELCOME
Reuters-Caracas-Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez prepared a hero’s welcome for Cuban leader Fidel Castro on Thursday, offering a lucrative oil deal to his fellow “revolutionary” to relieve the embargoed communist island. Castro was due to arrive on Thursday on a five-day trip, his first state visit to the oil-rich South American nation since the days following his 1959 revolution.
10/26/2000 DESERTAN 20 MEDICOS CUBANOS
El Nuevo Herald-Unos 20 médicos cubanos que prestaban servicio en Guatemala desde noviembre de 1998 han desertado y se desconoce su paradero actual, admitió el miércoles el embajador de Cuba en ese país, Damodar Pena. La brigada de 459 médicos y trabajadores de la salud llego el 4 de noviembre de 1998 tras los estragos que ocasionó el huracán Mitch en Guatemala.
10/26/2000 FUERTE POLEMICA EN VENEZUELA POR LA VISITA DE FIDEL CASTRO
Associated Press-Caracas-La visita oficial que inicia hoy aquí el gobernante cubano Fidel Castro ha suscitado gran polémica entre algunos sectores opositores y organizaciones sindicales, que han amenazado con manifestaciones callejeras y acciones de protesta.
10/26/2000 COMPANIAS DE EU NO AUMENTARAN LAS TARIFAS DE LAS LLAMADAS A Cuba
El Nuevo Herald-El costo de las llamadas telefónicas entre Cuba y Estados Unidos permanecerá sin cambio alguno, a pesar de que el gobierno cubano anuncio que a partir del miércoles comenzaría a gravar en un 10 por ciento las comunicaciones telefónicas entre ambos países. La Empresa de Telecomunicaciones de Cuba (ETECSA) informo que, en cumplimiento del decreto-ley recién aprobado por el Consejo de Estado, el impuesto de 10 por ciento a las llamadas telefónicas con Estados Unidos entro en vigor ayer, miércoles.
10/27/2000 APRUEBAN FONDOS PARA RADIO Y TV MARTI
El Nuevo Herald-Legisladores demócratas como el congresista, José Serrano, propusieron eliminar los fondos de Radio y TV Martí. Con una votación de 205 a favor y 198 en contra.
10/27/2000 INTERVIEW-ADM AIMS FOR CUBAN RICE BUSINESS
Reuters-Chicago-Agribusiness giant Arher Daniels Midland Co. is aiming for a share of the lucrative rice market in Cuba, once the top U.S. customer for the grain, ADM Senior Vice-President Marty Andreas said. ADM, which calls itself “Supermarket to the World”, is also exploring opportunities in other sectors, Andreas said. If business proves viable, the company would consider investing in Cuba.
10/28/2000 Cuba’S CASTRO EXHORTS VENEZUELA FARMERS TO REVOLUTION
Reuters-Barinas, Venezuela- Cuban leader Fidel Castro exhorted Venezuelan peasants on Saturday to take an active role in the “revolution” being led by his fellow leftist radical, Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez. On the third day of a five-day state visit to the South American oil exporting country, during which he hopes to sign a deal for cheap oil, Castro visited the Chavez family home in the southwestern state of Barinas.
10/28/2000 CASTRO TEME POR LA SEGURIDAD FISICA DE CHAVEZ
El Nuevo Herald-El gobernante cubano Fidel Castro abogo ayer por aumentar la seguridad de su colega, Hugo Chávez, advirtiendo que “su muerte intencional o accidental” acabaría con su política y “traería el caos” a Venezuela, en su discurso ante la Asamblea Nacional. El gobernante cubano califico de “venenosas” las campanas contra su visita oficial a este país, nego que Chávez regale a Cuba petróleo con el acuerdo energético para sacar su economía adelante.
10/28/2000 CLINTON SIGNS BILL EASING Cuba EMBARGO
Reuters-Washington-President Bill Clinton on Saturday signed into law legislation allowing sales of U.S. food and medicine to Cuba, marking a potentially landmark change in the four-decade-old embargo of the island. Havana has denounced the legislation as a sham that actually tightens the embargo and says it will not make any purchases.
10/29/2000 Cuba SLAMS U.S. EMBARGO CHANGE SIGNED BY CLINTON
Reuters-Havana-Cuba on Sunday stressed its firm rejection of a U.S. law that modifies the four-decades-old U.S. trade embargo against the island to allow food and medicine sales, saying the new legislation was unworkable and insulting. “We totally reject this measure” Cuban Vice President Carlos Lage told reporters a day after President Bill Clinton signed into law the bill approve by Congress. “It’s not real; it’s not practical; there is no transport; there are no banking relations; you have to seek permission case-by-case; there is no financial backing,” Lage said, listing the curbs on U.S.-Cuban trade that remained in place.
10/30/2000 ENVIARAN 600 MEDICOS A HAITI
Agence France Presse-Venezuela-El presidente cubano, Fidel Castro, anuncio ayer que su Gobierno enviara a Haití 600 especialistas de la salud, entre enfermeras, médicos y técnicos.
11/01/2000 CUBAN DISSIDENTS CHALLENGE CASTRO TO ALLOW DEBATE
Reuters-Havana-A Cuban dissident group challenged President Fidel Castron on Wednesday to let it take part in an unprecedented public debate, after the communist leader made such an invitation to his detractors in Venezuela. During this recent visit to Venezuela, Castro publicly invited opponents there, who had protested his address to the National Assembly on grounds that he abused human rights, to come to Cuba and publicly discuss their differences with him.
11/01/2000 Cuba ANUNCIA EL FIN DE LOS “APAGONES”
El Nuevo Herald-Cuba aseguró ayer que había llegado a su fin la era de los impopulares apagones eléctricos, pero algunos expertos, dudan que este “hágase la luz” oficial pueda resistir los embates de la crisis económica interna. Apenas 24 horas después de firmar un jugoso acuerdo petrolero con Venezuela, las autoridades cubanas anunciaron oficialmente que su capacidad energética esta ya por encima de la demanda nacional, lo que de hecho eliminará los cortes de electricidad a la población.
11/02/2000 HELMS PIDE REVOCAR LAS VISAS DE HOTELEROS ESPANOLES
Associated Press-Washington-El senador Jesse Helms pidió ayer al Departamento de Estado que revoque las visas concedidas a funcionarios y directores de una cadena hotelera española, al esgrimir que la empresa opera en Cuba en propiedades confiscadas a estadounidenses.
11/02/2000 GERMAN STEEL DEAL IN Cuba SIGNALS STRONGER TIES
Reuters-Havana-A German machinery firm plans to build a steel rolling mill in Cuba in a project that reflects moves by Germany’s government and private sector to strengthen trade and investment ties with the communist-ruled Caribbean island, German officials and businessmen said.
11/03/2000 DUTCH METALS GROUP LOOKS TO Cuba PORT DEVELOPMENT
Reuters-Havana-A Dutch metals group that handles more than half of Cuba’s annual nickel sales is working on a project to renovate, develop and manage a north coast port on the communist-rules Caribbean island, the group president said. Willem van’t Wout, president of Rotterdam-based Fondel International B.V., told Reuters that if the development project for Mariel port was successful, it could lead to Fondel forming a joint venture to manage up to 10 other Cuban ports.
Fondel, which has six companies operating in Cuba including two shipping lines and a metal processing firm, was working on the Mariel venture in partnership with firms representing the Dutch ports of Rotterdam and Moerdijk, and Willemstad, Curacao. Over the last three years, Fondel had helped to arrange some $200 million of financing for the modernisation of Cuban nickel plants, working with Dutch banks like ING Group, which was one of the first overseas banks to open a permanent representative office on the island six years ago.
12/06/2000 CASTRO EXTENDS FRIENDSHIP TO MEXICO
Associated Press-Havana-President Fidel Castro made a surprise appearance at the unveiling Monday of a new status of Mexican hero Benito Juarez-a gesture of friendship just three weeks before the inauguration of a new Mexican government. Castro’s unannounced appearance at the morning ceremony on the Avenue of the Presidents was welcomed by Mexican senators who were winding up a four-day visit to Cuba.
11/07/2000 PIDEN ATENUAR LAS DESIGUALDADES EN LA SOCIEDAD CUBANA
Agence France Presse-La Habana-La Central de Trabajadores de Cuba (CTC, única), se pronuncio ayer por atenuar las desigualdades sociales que abrieron las reformas económicas en la isla y “que son ajenas a los valores que defendemos.” Esas medidas comprendieron la libre circulación del dólar, autorización para el envío de remesas familiares en divisas de los cubanos residentes en el exterior a sus parientes en la isla, así como la autorización del trabajo por cuenta propia en un centenar de oficios y servicios. Las reformas lograron detener la caída del 38 por ciento del Producto Interno Bruto de 1990 a 1993 y estimular una lenta recuperación económica, pero la población se dividió entre los que tienen dólares y los que dependen de su salario en moneda nacional. El salario medio en Cuba es alrededor de 230 pesos, y la cotización semioficial del dólar es de 21 pesos.
11/07/2000 CUBAN DISSIDENTS SEEK FOREIGN PRESSURE ON CASTRO
Reuters-Havana-Some of Cuba’s best-known political dissidents united on Tuesday in a call to leaders of the Ibero-American group of nations—comprising Latin America, Spain and Portugal—to press Havana for democratic reforms. A message to the Ibero-American heads of state, prior to their 10th annual summit in Panama next week, was signed by 41 of Cuba’s numerous small dissident groups opposed to President Fidel Castro’s one–party communist system.
11/07/2000 Cuba, CITING DROUGHT DAMAGE, DELAYS SUGAR HARVEST
Reuters-Havana-Cuba said Tuesday its sugar crop had suffered heavy drought damage this year, forcing the island to delay the start of the 2000-01 harvest until mid-December. The annual sugar harvest on the communist-ruled Caribbean island normally starts in November.
11/07/2000 Cuba SEEKS FOREIGN INVESTORS FOR BIOMASS POWER VENTURES
Reuters-Havana-Cuba is seeking foreign partners to invest in biomass electricity generation projects that would use sugar cane residue left over from the island’s sugar industry, Sugar Ministry, Ulises Rosales del Toro said on Tuesday. Rosales said the Norwegian government was interested in cooperating with Cuba in a possible co-generation venture in the sugar industry that would mostly involve private companies.
11-08-2000 TRAVEL AGENCY PLANS TO CANCEL Cuba TRIPS
El Herald-A Canadian travel agency that booked hundreds of Americans for weekly cruises to Cuba announced Tuesday that it was canceling the tours indefinitely because of threats against the company. There were more than 400 passengers and crew booked on the M.V. La Habana’s inaugural voyage, which was scheduled to leave Nassau on Nov. 18, on a trip that included three nights in Havana. The tours would have been led by the Toronto-based Center for Education and Training, a nonprofit corporation that provides training in other countries such as China.
11/6/2000 Cuba BLAMES EXILES FOR ELECTION WOES
Associated Press-Havana-Cuba blamed election uncertainty in Florida on foes of Fidel Castro, charging that Cuban exiles there are desperately trying to regain the political power they lost with Elian Gonzalez’s return to the communist island. For Cuba, the recount of presidential votes across Florida, complaints of voter confusion over ballots in Palm Beach County and a smattering of reports alleged irregularities in other areas was proof of efforts by Cuban exiles to hold on to power.
11/09/2000 UN TO PASS Cuba RESOLUTION
The Associated Presse-The United Nations- Despite a recent effort to ease the U.S. embargo, Cuba has again drafted a resolution in the General Assembly criticizing the sanctions and calling on the United Sates to lift them as soon as possible. The resolution was expected to pass Thursday with a wide margin-as it has for the past eight years that Cuba has brought the initiative to the United Nations. Usually only the United States and Israel vote against it.
11/10/2000 BUOYED BY U.N VOTE, Cuba DEMANDS U.S EMBERGO END
Reuters-Havana-Jubilant about a record vote in the U.N. General Assembly to condemn the U.S. economic embargo on their island, leaders of Cuba’s ruling Communist Party demanded on Friday an unconditional lifting of the sanctions. The vote was a record 167 for to three against – the United States, Israel and the Marshall Islands-with four abstentions: El Salvador-Latvia, Morocco and Nicaragua.
11/11/2000 FOREIGNERS RALLY SUPPORTING CUBA
Associated Press- Vice President Carlos Lage and other high-ranking leaders on Friday greeted nearly 4,000 foreigners gathered to show their support of Cuba’ s government and people. Along with Lage, National Assembly President Ricardo Alarcon and Foreign Minister Felipe Perez Roque attended the World Encounter of Friendship and Solidarity with Cuba-an indication of the importance Cuba’s communist government gave the event. Participants came from about 120 countries and included the Rev. Lucius Walker of the U.S. group Pastors for Peace; Puerto Rican nationalist, Rafael Cancel; and leftist theologian Frei Betto of Brazil.
11/10/2000 U.S. FARMERS URGE Cuba TO TEST NEW LAW, BUY FOOD
Reuters-Havana-American farmers urged Cuba on Friday to try buying U.S. food products under controversial new U.S. legislation which modifies the 38-year-old U.S. trade embargo against the communist-ruled island. Jack Laurie, vice president of the American Farm Bureau Federation, who led a delegation of Michigan farmers to Cuba this week, told reporters he had tried to persuade his Cuban hosts to show a more positive response to the new legislation. Laurie said he and his colleagues would return home and campaign for improvements in the existing legislation to permit freer, wider sales of U.S. foodstuffs to Cuba.
11/11/2000 ESPERAN UN CRECIMIENTO ECONOMICO DEL 5 POR CIENTO
Agence France Presse-La Habana-La economía cubana crecerá este ano por encima del 5 por ciento, pese a la peor relación de precios entre el azúcar que exporta y el petróleo que compra en una década, afirmo ayer el vicepresidente de Cuba, Carlos Lage. Cuba inicio una reforma en 1993 con elementos de economía de mercado después del colapso del bloque socialista, que afecto severamente a la isla. En cuanto al consumo alimentario de la población, Lage aseguro que la crisis hizo caer el promedio de calorías ingeridas diariamente de un nivel de 3,000 (se considera que el mínimo necesario son 2,500) a 2,000, con una cierta recuperación actual a 2,400.
11/14/2000 PRO-Cuba CAMPAIGNERS SLAM U.S. EMBARGO IN HAVANA
Reuters-Havana-Several thousand foreign supporters of Cuba from around the world cheered President Fidel Castro Tuesday and demanded the U.S. government lift its economic embargo against the communist-ruled island. More than 4,000 delegates from over 100 nations attending a Cuba Solidarity meeting in Havana took part in a political rally organized by their Cuban government hosts and staged in front of the U.S. diplomatic mission on the city’s seafront.
11/15/2000 CASTRO SAYS Cuba SEEKS “MORE EFFICIENT” SOCIALISM
Reuters-Havana-Cuba’s President Fidel Castro said on Tuesday his country was pursuing a “more efficient” form of socialism and had survived a decade of economic crisis by shunning the International Monetary Fund and its pollicies.
11/15/2000 SOME U.S. LEGISLATORS VOW TO ALTER Cuba EMBARGO
Reuters-Washington-U.S. legislators opposed to the U.S. trade embargo against Cuba said on Wednesday they are confident they will overturn restrictions on travel and credit for food and medicine sales in the next session of Congress. Republican Rep. Mark Sanford, who has visited Cuba twice, vowed to return to the issue with “hand-to-hand combat” to repeal restrictions that neutralized last month’s easing of the 38-year-old embargo. Sen. Byron Dorgan, a North Dakota Democrat who met with Cuban leader Fidel Castro last year, said he would use the first appropriations bill in the Spring to attach new changes to the embargo.
11/16/2000 PANAMA PROHIBE PROTESTAS CONTRA CASTRO
El Nuevo Herald-Panama-El ministro de Gobierno y Justicia de Panamá, Winston Spadafora, advirtió ayer a exiliados cubanos que el gobierno no tolerara protestas ni manifestaciones publicas contra el gobernante cubano, Fidel Castro, durante su estancia en esta ciudad, con motivo de la X Cumbre Iberoamericana.
11/16/2000 Cuba COULD BECOME U.S. SUPPLIER OF FRUIT, VEGETABLES-USDA
Reuters-Washington-Cuba could become an important supplier of fruits, vegetables and organic foods to the U.S. market if all food trade barriers are eventually removed by Congress, the U.S. Agriculture Department said on Thursday. In a report on the outlook for agricultural trade with Cuba, the USDA’s Economic Research Service summarized food imports that Cuba would likely buy from the United States if American private or public financing was permitted.
11/16/2000 FIVE KILLED, 11 HURT IN Cuba ARMY FACTORY ACCIDENT
Reuters-Havana-Five Cuban workers were killed and 11 more were injured in an accident at a military factory on the island this week. Cuba’s Armed Forces Ministry said on Thursday.
11/16/2000 U.S. SUPPORTS CUBAN MEDICAL PROGRAM
Associated Press-Washington-The State Department has no objection to a Cuban proposal to provide medical training to 500 low-income Americans annually, mostly minorities. U.S. officials said Friday. The officials, noting Clinton administration policy is to encourage contact between ordinary Cubans and Americans, said it is not unusual for Americans to study in Cuba.
11/17/2000 CASTRO TALKS OF U.S. DEATH PLOT
Associated Press-Panama City-Cuban President Fidel Castro said Friday that a U.S. Cuban exile group is plotting to kill him, and has smuggled weapons and explosives into Panama, where he is attending an international summit.
11/18/2000 Cuba ACCUSES SALVADOR OF HARBORING POTENTIAL KILLER
Reuters-Panama City- President Fidel Castro of Cuba on Saturday accused his counterpart from El Salvador of allowing his country to harbor a man who had allegedly planned to kill the Cuban leader. Speaking before an audience of regional heads of state at the 10th Ibero-American Summit in Panama, Castro chided El Salvador President, Francisco Flores, for allowing Luis Posada Carriles- who was arrested on Friday on suspicion that he might have planned to assassinate Castro at the summit—to reside in his country.
11/19/2000 PRODUCIRAN AUN MENOS AZUCAR EN LA PROXIMA ZAFRA
EL Nuevo Herald-Las dudas sobre la magnitud de la próxima zafra azucarera-cubana comienzan a disiparse. La cosecha quedara por debajo de los 4.058 millones de toneladas de azúcar que se produjeron en la zafra anterior. Así lo afirma una escuela nota divulgada el viernes por Bridge/CRB, un servicio de información e investigaciones del mercado con sede en Chicago. De acuerdo con esa información, expertos cubanos y extranjeros, que menciona, estiman que la zafra se vera reducida entre un 5 y un 10 por ciento en comparación con la precedente.
11/20/2000 Cuba’S DELAYED SUGAR HARVEST TO START IN DECEMBER
Reuters-Havana-Cuba’s 2000-01 sugar harvest, delayed by heavy drought damage, will finally start in early December with 22 of the island’s 55 mills beginning to operate, the Sugar Ministry said Monday. The annual sugar harvest normally starts in November. Havana had been hoping to surpass this season the 1999-2000 crop of just over four million tonnes. But analysts say the drought damage will make that improvement difficult to achieve.
11/20/2000 HELMS WANTS HOTELIERS’ VISAS REVOKED
Associated Press-Washington-Sen. Jesse Helms is calling on the State Department to revoke the visas of officers and directors of a Spanish hotel company on grounds that the firm is operating in Cuba on property confiscated from U.S. nationals. Helms, chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, issued his appeal in a letter last Thursday to Thomas Pickering, the State Department’s third ranking official. A copy of the letter was made available on Monday. Helms,R-N.C., said the Spanish hotel company Grupo Sol Melia has run afoul of a law Helms co-authored in 1996.
11/20/2000 CASTRO Y FLORES SE ENCONTRARAN EN MEXICO
El Nuevo Herald-Ciudad de Panamá-El presidente de El Salvador, Francisco Flores, anuncio ayer que sostendrá un encuentro en México con Fidel Castro, durante la toma de posesión presidencial de Vicente Fox, el próximo 1 de diciembre.
11/21/2000 IRRITADA ESPANA CON LA POSTURA DE CASTRO
El Nuevo Herald-San José-El presidente del Gobierno español, José María Aznar, dijo ayer que la posición de Cuba en contra de firmar la declaración contra el terrorismo de la ETA en la Cumbre Iberoamericana de Panamá, tendrá consecuencias en las relaciones hispano cubanas.
11/21/2000 PANAMA MULLS PENALTY FOR Cuba COUP
Associated Press-Panama City-Panamanian authorities said Monday they will consider pressing charges against a group of Cuban exiles detained in connection with an alleged plot to kill Cuban President, Fidel Castro. Panama might also have to weigh an extradition request from Venezuela for Luis Posada Carriles as well as calls for an investigation in El Salvador, where Posada got a false passport.
11/22/2000 BASQUE ISSUE DIVIDES SPAIN, CASTRO
El Nuevo Herald-Cuban President, Fidel Castro’s refusal last weekend to sign am declaration condemning Basque separatist terrorism has drawn sharp condemnation from Spain, whose government warned it may have “consequences” in the two countries’ relations.
11/23/2000 LISTOS EN LA HABANA PARA RECIBIR AL PRIMER GRUPO DE ENFERMOS PROCEDENTES DE VENEZUELA.
Caracas-El presidente de Venezuela, Hugo Chávez, anuncio ayer que próximamente viajara a Cuba el primer grupo de enfermos venezolanos que serán atendidos por médicos cubanos, dentro del marco del Acuerdo Integral de Cooperación suscrito por ambos países el pasado 30 de octubre.
11/23/2000 Cuba IN DEBT RELIEF TALKS WITH JAPAN, EUROPE STATES
Reuters-Paris-Cuban envoys, testing uncharted waters, met foreign government representatives on Thursday to discuss what could amount to a landmark deal to alleviate the pain of Havana’s crippling foreign debts. Finance ministry and central bank representatives from one of the world’s last Communist nations met delegates from Japan and several European governments with total claims of some $3.5 billion on Havana, a European official said. The European official said Havana, whose state finances are suffering badly from a surge in oil import prices on top of a decades-old embargo by the United States, was now publicly stating its desire to reach a debt deal, and that many creditor nations were willing to broach the issue.
11/25/2000 CASTRO: EL SALVADOR OKs TERRORISTS
Associated Press-Fidel Castro accused el Salvadoran government on Saturday of tolerating “the worst terrorist in the hemisphere”, a political nemesis who the Cuban leader says was plotting to kill him. Castro told a gathering of about 30,000 people in eastern Cuba that Salvadoran President Francisco Flores did not act on information sent to him on Oct. 5 about Luis Posada Carriles, who lives in El Salvador.
11/25/2000 CASTRO UPS ANTE IN POSADA CASE, SWIPES AT SPAIN
Reuters-Havana-President Fidel Castro, in an escalating political campaign over the case of an anti-Castro Cuban exile captured in Panama, led a protest on Saturday at which he blasted the leaders of El Salvador, Mexico and Spain.
11/27/2000 FLORES NO SE REUNIRA CON CASTRO
San Salvador-El presidente de El Salvador, Francisco Flores, declino ayer reunirse con el gobernante Fidel Castro, durante el traspaso de mando presidencial en México, el próximo viernes, para abordar el caso de Luís Posada Carriles.
11/27/2000 Cuba SEES 2000 CIGAR OUTPUT OFF 15 PERCENT
Reuters-Havana-Output of Cuba’s world-famous product is set to drop 15 percent in 2000 from 1999 because of a lengthy drought, tobacco selling firm Habanos S.A. said on Monday.
11/28/2000 ANUNCIAN CAIDA FUERTE EN LA INDUSTRIA TABACALERA
La Habana-La intensa sequia que azoto Cuba en los primeros meses de este ano podria ocasionar una disminucion de hasta un 15 por ciento en la produccion de puros habanos, uno de los tradicionales productos de exportacion de la isla.
11/28/2000 INICIAN LA SELECCIION DEL JURADO PARA EL PROCESO CONTRA LOS PRESUNTOS ESPIAS
El Nuevo Herald-Un amplio espectro de la sociedad estadounidense desfilo ayer por la sala de audiencias de la jueza federal , Joan A. Lenard, al iniciarse el proceso de seleccion del jurado que juzgara a cinco acusados de espiar para el regimen cubano capturados en el sur de la Florida hace poco mas de dos anos.
11/28/2000 FUTURO INCIERTO PARA LOS LAZOS DE CASTRO Y FOX
El Nuevo Herald-La Habana-El gobernante, Fidel Castro, viaja esta semana a México en medio de una sensitiva coyuntura de las relaciones cubano-mexicanas, tras acusar por los intereses de Estados Unidos poco antes de que asuma en aquel país latinoamericano un mandatario conservador, Vicente Fox.
11/28/2000 MINISTRO SALVADORENO ACUSA A Cuba DE PROTEGER DELINCUENTES
El Nuevo Herald-San Salvador-El ministro salvadoreño del Interior, Mario Acosta, acuso ayer al gobierno de Cuba de “ocultar a “delincuentes” y apoyo la decisión del presidente Francisco Flores de no reunirse en México con Fidel Castro.
11/28/2000 LA ECONOMIA CUBANA ENTRE LAS MENOS LIBRES DEL MUNDO
El Nuevo Herald-Caracas- El Salvador es el país de América Latina que goza de mayor libertad económica, mientras que Cuba es la nación que tiene una economía mas encorsetada, señala un estudio internacional hecho en 155 países divulgado ayer en Caracas. El Informe “Indice de Libertad Económica 2001” (ILE), elaborado anualmente desde hace siete anos por investigadores de la fundación privada estadounidense Heritage y editado por el periódico neoyorquino TheWall Street Journal, fue presentado hoy internacionalmente en Caracas en el Foro “Indice de la Libertad Económica en el Mundo: Análisis de la situación venezolana.”
11/2/8/2000 FIDEL TRAVELS TO MEXICO
Associated Press-Havana-Cuban President Fidel Castro travels to Mexico this week at a sensitive time in relations between the two countries, shortly after accusing Mexico of acting in U.S. interests and just before conservative President-elect, Vicente Fox takes office.
11/29/2000 GROUP SUGGESTS EASING CUBAN EMBARGO
Associated Press-Washington-The United States should ease the Cuban embargo to help the island’s transition to a post-Castro era and reduce chances of U.S. military intervention, a Council on Foreign Relations panel recommended Wednesday. The task force urged that the United States eliminate travel restrictions to Cuba, allow regular commercial flights between the two nations and permit U.S. companies whose businesses were nationalized by Cuba to resolve their claims by entering into joint ventures in Cuba. It also recommended increased U.S.-Cuban cooperation in fighting drugs, helping resolve the Colombian civil war and developing military-to-military contacts.
11/30/2000 Cuba SEES 2000-01 SUGAR CROP DOWN ON PREVIOUS YEAR
Reuters-Havana-Cuba’s 2000-01 sugar harvest will be lower than the previous crop of 4,058 million tonnes due to the Caribbean island’s lengthy drought this year, a senior official was quotes as saying Thursday. “Given the reduction caused by the drought in cane yield, the harvest which is about to begin will be less than the last one,” said Vice President Carlos Lage, who is considered the architect of Cuba’s economic policies.
11/30/2000 VENEZUELANS IN Cuba ON OIL-FOR-MEDICINE DEAL