On Cuba, Díaz-Balart speaks for McCain

John McCain has designated Rep. Lincoln Díaz-Balart (R-Fla.) as adviser and spokesman on matters related to Latin America, the Agence France-Presse reports. In St. Paul, Minn., the Cuban-born Díaz-Balart sat down Sunday with the French news agency to spell out the candidate's stances. Among them:
• In a McCain administration, "there would be an even greater interest on the part of the U.S. president [...] in the need to help the domestic opposition and the civilian society" in Cuba. That would mean maintaining the embargo "until a democratic transition occurs in Cuba" and three conditions are met: "the release of political prisoners, the legalization of all parties, the press and labor unions, and a call for an electoral process."
• The U.S. will maintain "a closer relationship with our friends, such as Mexico, Colombia, Chile, Peru and other, very friendly governments" in the hemisphere.
• "McCain is aware that [Venezuelan President Hugo] Chávez is a threat for the entire hemisphere, that Chávez is funding destabilizing elements throughout the hemisphere. There is a need to counter Chávez's efforts to destabilize the democracies in the hemisphere through the utilization of the economic power given to him by his oil. Much of the problem we have with Bolivia and Ecuador comes from the utilization by Mr. Chávez of Venezuela's resources to expand his influence and anti-American agenda. What we're seeing in those countries is very worrisome."
To read the AFP article (in Spanish), click here. [Photo shows McCain and Díaz-Balart in Miami in May.]
---Renato Pérez Pizarro.

U.S. soccer team to travel to Cuba

The United States' national soccer team will play against Cuba on the island, the Cuban news agency ACN reported Friday. The game -- a Group-A match for the second round of the 2010 World Cup qualifiers for the North and Central America and Caribbean (CONCACAF) region -- is scheduled for Saturday, Sept. 6. More than 30 U.S. sports reporters have been cleared to accompany the soccer delegation, the agency says, but U.S. fans will not be able to attend the game because of Washington’s ban on travel to Cuba. The last time a U.S. soccer team played in Cuba was in 1991 during the Pan American Games hosted by Havana. That squad was in the under-20 division. According to ACN, "the U.S. is favored to lead Group A, in which two teams will qualify for further tournament play. For its third game, Cuba will travel to Guatemala City to play on Sept. 10. On Oct. 11, the island’s team plays a return match hosted by the U.S. in Washington, where a Cuban soccer team will be playing for the first time ever."
---Renato Pérez Pizarro.

State Department updates Cuba note

   Subscribers to the country background notes supplied by the State Department recently received an update on the notes for Cuba. The lengthy article is illustrated with a photo (somewhat similar to the one here) taken in 2006 of a vintage American-built car on a Havana street and contains information on almost anything you want to know factually about the island – from population to weather to type of government. In describing the current type of government in Cuba, the State Department’s Background Notes article does not mince words: "Totalitarian communist state; current government assumed power by force January 1, 1959.'' That's a reference to Fidel Castro's rebel army takeover of the island after dictator Fulgencio Batista fled the country on New Year's eve 1958. The update note takes into account the February change of leadership when Fidel Castro was replaced as president by his younger brother Raul. The article notes that Fidel Castro intended to remain Cuba's leader-for-life but ceded power to Raul because Fidel "became incapacited on July 31, 2006.''

   To read the updated State Department Cuba note click on this Internet web address: http://www.state.gov/r/pa/ei/bgn/2886.htm

-- Alfonso Chardy

Travel to Cuba is inhibited by new law

The plight of South Florida travel agencies that specialize in Cuba travel was featured on Page One of the Los Angeles Times on Saturday. In an article titled "Their Travail Agencies," The Times assesses the impact on the agencies caused by a new state law that forces them to post hefty bonds, on the grounds that they provide transportation to a country that -- according to the Bush administration -- sponsors terrorism. The law, SB-1310, has been challenged and has not taken effect (a ruling by federal Judge Alan Gold is due Sept. 25) but the brouhaha has scared travelers, who are waiting for a resolution to the legal contest. The article focuses on a Hialeah agency, Cojimar Express, to describe the problem: the agencies would go out of business if they had to post the high bonds required by the new law. And, as a result, family visits by Cubans in Florida would be curtailed further than they are now. To read the entire article, click here.
---Renato Pérez Pizarro.

U.S. is Cuba's 5th-largest trade partner

The United States has become Cuba's fifth-largest trading partner, thanks to a $100-million hike in U.S. agriculture sales in 2007, the Reuters news agency reported Thursday from Havana, citing Cuba's National Statistics Office. Total U.S. sales in 2007 added up to $582 million, compared with $484 million in 2006, when the U.S. ranked seventh on the list. The U.S. began selling food to Cuba in 2002, under an amendment to the embargo.
Cuba's top four partners in 2007 were Venezuela ($2.698 billion in business), China ($2.457 billion), Canada ($1.411 billion) and Spain ($1.154 billion).
Cuba's total trade was $13.8 billion, with exports of $3.7 billion and imports of $10 billion, Reuters reported.
---Renato Pérez Pizarro.

U.S. kids' visit goes almost unreported

Although Cuba's printed media have yet to report on the goodwill visit of a preteen baseball team from New England, Radio Reloj mentioned it Tuesday in its website. In an article titled Three Strikes to the Blockade, Radio Reloj derides the efforts of "anti-Cuban Congressman" Lincoln Díaz-Balart (R-Fla.) -- "a sworn and avowed enemy of [our] politico-social system" -- to prevent the trip of the Twin State Peregrines. The article praises Sen. Patrick Leahy's (D-Vt.) defense of the trip and says that, "to make Díaz-Balart's tantrum even worse," the University of Alabama baseball team will travel to Cuba in December for a series of exhibition games.
On Sunday, the Peregrines lost in Havana, 16-5, to the local team Los Santos and won, 18-9, against Los Mangos. They will play again Friday at Havana's Sports City. On their schedule this week: a tour of Old Havana and a trip to the Varadero resort in Matanzas province.
---Renato Pérez Pizarro.

Fidel assails Bush's role in Georgia conflict

Fidel Castro on Monday endorsed his brother Raúl's support for Russia in its confrontation with Georgia. In an article in the Cubadebate website, titled "Cannon Fodder for the Market," he said "the government of Georgia would have never launched its armed forces against the capital of the Autonomous Republic of South Ossetia at dawn on Aug. 8 [...] without prior connivance with [George W.] Bush, who last April in Bucharest committed his support for Georgia's entry into NATO, which is the equivalent of a sharp knife aimed at the heart of Russia." Other comments by Castro:
• "Some of the countries that were part of the socialist camp or the USSR today act as protectorates of the United States. Their governments, compelled by an irresponsible hatred toward Russia -- such as Poland and the Czech Republic -- line up in positions of total support for Bush and the surprise attack against South Ossetia by [President Mikheil] Saakashvili, an adventurer with a strange history." [Photo shows Bush and Saakashvili meeting in April.]
• Georgia has sent "soldiers to the war adventure in Iraq and does not do so exactly out of an internationalist spirit. When Cuba, for two decades, sent hundreds of thousands of combatants to fight for independence and against colonialism and apartheid in Africa, it never sought fuel, raw materials or material value; they were volunteers. [...] What are Georgian soldiers doing in Iraq but supporting a war that has cost that country hundreds of thousands of lives and millions of injured people? What ideals did they go there to defend?"
• "The Russians have stated with absolute clarity that the withdrawal of the invaders to the starting point is the only possible decorous solution. Let us hope the Olympic Games can continue without being interrupted by a most serious crisis." To read the entire article in English, click here. For an update on the fighting in Georgia, click here. [Saakashvili is to Russian President Medvedev as Fidel Castro is to Bush, The Los Angeles Times says. Click here.]
---Renato Pérez Pizarro.

Ex-envoy: 'Renewed presence' is bluff

Recent reports that Russia wants to reestablish a military presence in Cuba are bluff leaked by Moscow, believes Wayne Smith, chief of the U.S. Interests Section in Havana from 1979 to 1982. "What the present brouhaha seems to stem from is Russian unhappiness over Washington's intentions to build a missile shield in the Czech Republic and Poland, supposedly to defend against missiles launched from Iran," Smith told the Inter-American Dialogue's Latin American Advisor. The Russians suspect the ABMs will be aimed at their country, "thus, they wish to hint -- but not actually say -- that they will retaliate in unpleasant ways." Smith concludes that "how energetically [the Russians] press their right to fly in and out [of Cuba] probably depends upon how insistently the Bush Administration presses forward with its missile defense system in the Czech Republic and Poland, which even many in the U.S. Europe regard as a harebrained scheme." And because "a new [U.S.] administration would be less enthusiastic about the system, there seems a good chance that this is a problem with an obvious solution waiting to happen." Smith is a senior fellow at the Center for International Policy in Washington.
---Renato Pérez Pizarro.

Maheu dies at 91; was liaison in CIA plot

A footnote to history. Robert A. Maheu, who in late 1960 served as go-between with the Mafia in a CIA plot to kill Fidel Castro, died Tuesday in Las Vegas . He was 91. Maheu, who in 1960 was an aide to industrialist Howard Hughes, was asked by the CIA to find someone who might assassinate Castro. Maheu turned to Las Vegas mobster John Roselli, Chicago godfather Salvatore Giancana and Florida mob boss Santos Trafficante.
According to CIA archives declassified in 2007, Giancana recommended "some kind of deadly pill, something to be put into Castro's food or drink." He "indicated that he had a possible candidate in the person of Juan Orta, a Cuban official who had been receiving bribery payments in the gambling racket and who still had access to Castro." Trafficante delivered "six highly lethal pills" to Orta. "After several weeks of attempts, Orta appears to have chickened out and asked to be taken off the mission," the CIA narrative says. "He suggested another candidate, who made several unsuccessful tries."
In an article written last year, Castro recalled that in 1960, "working with me in the offices of the National Institute for Agrarian Reform was a man named Orta. [...] He was a respectful and serious man, but it could only be him. [...] I cannot lay my hands on information to immediately prove what happened to him."
---Renato Pérez Pizarro.

Farrar Still Waiting for a meeting

   The U.S. Interests Section tells me they have "nothing to add" to the news that their new head, Jonathan D. Farrar, is waiting for a meeting with Cuban government officials in Havana.
      El Nuevo Herald reported this week that Farrar has asked for a meeting and is still waiting. His story quoted spokesman Gregory Adams saying that former U.S. Interests Section chief Michael Parmly also requested a meeting but “was never received.”
A clarification ran yesterday, noting Parmly did get meetings with the Cuban government between September and December of  2005, but the talks were suspended the following year. The USINT apologized for the error.

Farrar started his new gig July 17.

-Frances Robles

Newspaper defends kids' baseball trip

"A Florida Congressman has launched a war against baseball. Apple pie may be next." That's the opening salvo of an editorial Friday in The Rutland (Vt.) Herald, aimed at Rep. Lincoln Díaz-Balart, the Republican legislator from Florida,  who opposes the trip to Cuba this month of the Twin State Peregrines, a team of preteen baseball players from Vermont and New Hampshire. After outlining the background to the trip (see our blog items Lawmaker Finds Kids' Trip 'Very Troubling' and Play Ball!), the editorial says: "American hostility toward Cuba has taken on the characteristics of a pathology that persists even after its original cause has been forgotten. One thing that might cure it is for American ball players to discover that Cubans are warm, fun, welcoming people. [...] And once we perceive their humanity, the idea of punishing them for their rulers' mistakes will make less sense. Maybe that is the discovery that Díaz-Balart is most afraid of. [...] Cuba may be on the cusp of change. Trade missions from Vermont and elsewhere have helped initiate a thaw. What the people of both countries need is a chance to swing the bat." To read the entire editorial, click here. To access the Peregrines' website, click here.
---Renato Pérez Pizarro.

New mission chief is ready to work

The new chief of the U.S. Interests Section  in Havana, Jonathan D. Farrar, has asked for an introductory meeting with Cuban Foreign Ministry officials, the German news agency DPA reported Tuesday. He replaces Michael Parmly, who left his post early in July after three years in Cuba. Farrar, who arrived in Havana on July 17, will have to wait to meet Foreign Minister Felipe Pérez Roque, who is in Iran this week attending a ministerial meeting of the Movement of Nonaligned Countries. The new mission chief was Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Democracy, Human Rights and Labor. His overseas postings include stints in Uruguay, Paraguay, Belize and Mexico. In Washington, Farrar was Deputy Director of the State Department's Office of Andean Affairs. For more information about his career and personal life, click here.
---Renato Pérez Pizarro.

Chávez: Common cause against Bush

In an effusive letter to Fidel Castro, published Monday in the official daily Granma, President Hugo Chávez of Venezuela congratulates the Cuban leader for an article in which he criticized a warning to Russia by a high-ranking officer in the U.S. Air Force. (See our July 24 blog item Fidel Urges Prudence in Bomber Flap.)
In the letter, addressed by hand to "Dear father Fidel," Chávez praises "the precise lucidity and enviable gift of synthesis" of Castro's article. "[It] is illuminating in the sense that a new attempt at aggression against Cuba is being designed," Chávez writes."And not only against Cuba; Venezuela is also in the crosshairs. [...] Bush, in the face of his inevitable decline, wants to revive the Cold War. The fact that Russia has stood up is driving the hawks out of their skins and they try, through the communication transnationals, to click the key of fear."
Alluding to published reports that Russia might be considering using Cuba as a refueling stop for strategic bombers (a report subsequently denied by Moscow), Chávez says: "I am fully in accord with you. We don't have to give explanations or report on our actions to the Yankee Empire, much less excuse ourselves or beg forgiveness. On this exact point, which admits no hesitation of any kind, Venezuela makes common cause with Cuba. To hesitate, and I paraphrase Bolívar, would be to lose our way."
To read the entire letter, in Spanish, click here. [Photo shows Chávez meeting in Havana with Fidel and Raúl Castro on June 17.]
---Renato Pérez Pizarro.

Russia calls pit-stop reports 'a hoax'

Reports that Russian bombers might use Cuba as a refueling base are "disinformation," a spokesman for the Russian Defense Ministry said Thursday. Ilshat Baichurin told foreign reporters that statements to that effect in Monday's Izvestia, attributed to an unnamed government official were "a canard." "We consider such communications from anonymous sources as disinformation and a media hoax," Baichurin said. "The Defense Ministry regrets that some respected Russian media outlets, for incomprehensible reasons, accepted these unreliable allegations." The disinformation likely "was initiated by certain circles in those countries that themselves emplace military bases and objects around Russia," he said, alluding to U.S. plans to build antimissile bases in Poland and radar facilities in the Czech Republic. "Russia, because of its peace-loving policies, does not build military bases along the borders of other states," he said.

Fidel urges prudence in bomber flap

Stay cool, seemed to say Fidel Castro in his latest "reflection", published Thursday in the official daily Granma under the title Machiavellian strategy. Here are excerpts, as translated by The Miami Herald.
"Raúl did very well by keeping a dignified silence over the statements published last Monday, July 21, by Izvestia, in connection with the eventual installation of bases for Russian strategic bombers in our country. The news arose from hypotheses elaborated in Russia over Yankee obstinacy in emplacing radar stations and launching pads for a nuclear shield near the borders of that great power.
"Yesterday, the 22nd, Gen. Norton Schwartz, who has been nominated as the new U.S. Air Force Chief of Staff, declared in the Senate that, if Russia does that, it would cross the red line, which is inadmissible for the security of the United States.
"If you say yes, I kill you. If you say no, the same, I kill you anyway. That's Machiavelli's strategy, which the empire applies to Cuba. It is not necessary to give explanations, to apologize, or ask for forgiveness.
"What is needed in these times of genocide is nerves of steel, and Cuba has them. The empire knows it." To read the entire article, in Spanish, click here. For background, see our blog post General Cautions Moscow on Cuba Flights, below.
---Renato Pérez Pizarro.

White House: Russia is no threat

Following is an exchange Tuesday between reporters and White House spokesperson Dana Perino on the subject of the Izvestia report:
Q.: Dana, did you look into the report about the Russian bombers in Cuba?
A.: Yes, it appears to be just speculation and hypotheticals right now. I would repeat that what President Bush said to President Medvedev and had said to President Putin beforehand on our missile defense plan is that we want to work with them, we seek a strategic partnership with the Russians. We are working to prevent missiles from rogue nations. We do not believe that Russia is a threat. Nor do we believe that our missile defense system would be any sort of a match-up against the vast arsenal of weapons that Russia has. So our target is not Russia. In fact, what we would like to do is work as equal partners with Russia, with the Europeans and here in our own country. We've been trying to have a dialogue with them. The Russians have said that they will keep having that dialogue. So on that specific report, I'll decline to comment, since it seems speculative at this point.

General cautions Moscow on Cuba flights

Air Force Gen. Norton Schwartz warned that Russia would cross "a red line" if it used Cuba as a refueling stop for strategic nuclear bombers. (See blog item "Izvestia: Russia sees Cuba as landing strip," below.) Asked on Tuesday by members of the Senate Armed Service Committee how he would respond to such a move, Schwartz answered: "I certainly would offer best military advice that we should engage the Russians not to pursue that approach. And if they did, I think we should stand strong and indicate that that is something that crosses a threshold, crosses a red line for the United States of America." Schwartz spoke at a hearing for his confirmation as Air Force Chief of Staff. For a news report from Reuters, click here. For an AFP account, click here. Read also this report by the McClatchy news service.
---Renato Pérez Pizarro.

Fidel decries use of wiretapping by U.S.

Fidel Castro has come out against wiretapping -- if done by countries other than Cuba. In his latest "reflection," published Tuesday in the official daily Granma, the Cuban leader expressed barely suppressed shock at the enactment last week of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, which granted immunity to telecommunications companies that cooperated with Washington in the wiretapping program instituted after the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001.
"Something that offends people's sensitivities, in any social system, is the disrespect for privacy," Castro wrote. "In the past [...] the laws protected correspondence. Later, protection extended to telephone communications [...] The laws of the United States prohibited their interception without legal warrants." Not anymore, apparently. And Castro quoted the American Civil Liberties Union, which "described the law as 'unconstitutional' and 'an assault on civil rights and the right to privacy,'" as well as a news account from Sweden, which criticized the enactment there of similar wiretapping legislation.
Passage of the bill by Congress came even as "the government of the United States -- despite its genocidal acts -- attempted to be considered a champion of human rights," Castro wrote. He made no reference to Cuba's use of wiretapping and e-mail interception in the preparation of a radio and television special May 19 that accused Cuban dissidents of collusion with the U.S. Interests Section in Havana.
---Renato Pérez Pizarro.

In farewell, Granma editor reviles Helms

In a semiofficial reaction to the death Friday of Senator Jesse Helms, the Cuban daily Granma on Monday published an article by its editor calling the late North Carolina Republican a "paladin of evil." Helms "felt a profound hatred for the Cuban Revolution [...] and supported all the actions undertaken by the U.S. administrations to overthrow it and assassinate Commander-in-Chief Fidel Castro," Lázaro Barredo wrote in an article titled "An icon of the ultraright is dead." Barredo, who is also a National Assembly deputy, said that, in his final years, "the titan of intolerance [...] was irremediably submerged in the darkness of dementia." Helms, who died at 86, was co-author of the 1996 Helms-Burton Act, which tightened Washington's economic sanctions on Cuba. "Who could guarantee that Senator Helms was in his right mind when he formulated that absurd and aberrant law?" Barredo asked. And he concluded by saying that Helms "became an emblem of the madness in Washington's hegemonic policy and at times seemed to be the leader of a gang intent on destroying the world."
---Renato Pérez Pizarro.

Minister: We can talk, but as equals

Cuba is willing to engage in talks with the United States "on the basis of equal rights," without renouncing its principles, said Foreign Minister Felipe Pérez Roque on Friday, while attending an international conference in Venezuela. Those principles include Cuba's right to independence and to build its future without foreign interference, he told the Prensa Latina news agency. "Cuba remains willing, as we have said on other occasions, to talk seriously with the authorities of the United States, if they so decide, on the basis of equal rights, not as a subordinate or dependent country that goes on its knees to beg forgiveness," he said. If the new U.S. president "offers to dialogue and discuss a bilateral relationship, we shall do so, but maintaining respect for the standards and principles that Cuba will never renounce." The Americans "are the ones who must decide what course to take with Cuba. We shall remain firm, in the middle of the Caribbean, and nobody will remove us from there."
---Renato Pérez Pizarro.

U.S. mission and dissidents get warning

An "escalation of provocative actions organized and financed by the U.S. Interests Section in Havana" has occurred in the past several weeks, the Cuban Foreign Ministry charged Wednesday. In an official statement published in the official daily Granma, the MinRex listed the offenses:
• The video conference held June 15 at the USINT, at which Commerce Secretary Carlos Gutiérrez addressed "a group of counter-revolutionary elements."
• The classes given to the counter-revolutionaries ("self-described as 'journalists'") by teachers at Florida International University through closed-circuit TV. The MinRex does not describe the subjects taught.
• The visits by U.S. diplomats, including the USINT chief, Michael Parmly, to the homes of the "counter-revolutionary ringleaders" for the purpose of giving them instructions.
• The incitement of dissidents by U.S. diplomats, so the dissidents may carry out "provocative acts on the streets and symbolic places such as Revolution Square." One such street demonstration has been planned for July 4, the MinRex said, citing "confirmed information."
• The access given to dissidents to USINT communications facilities, and the distribution to dissidents of money, cell phones, computers and propaganda material.
The MinRex's note demanded an end to all such activities and blamed the Bush administration for any consequences the USINT's actions may create. To read the entire note (in English), click here. For a BBC News report, click here.
---Renato Pérez Pizarro.

1962 missile crisis prompts a 'what if?'

In a book review Sunday in The New York Times, career diplomat Richard Holbrooke describes Michael Dobbs' "One Minute to Midnight" as "a book with sobering new information about the world's only superpower nuclear confrontation -- as well as contemporary relevance." He is referring, of course, to the 1962 Cuban missile crisis. After describing President Kennedy's "brilliantly calibrated approach" to the confrontation, Holbrooke closes with this observation:
"It is hard to read this book without thinking about what would have happened if the current administration had faced such a situation -- real weapons of mass destruction only 90 miles from Florida; the Pentagon urging 'surgical' air attacks followed by an invasion. [...] Life does not offer us the chance to play out alternative history, but it is not unreasonable to assume that the team that invaded Iraq would have attacked Cuba. And, if Dobbs is right, Cuba and the Soviet Union would have fought back, perhaps launching some of the missiles already in place.
"One can only conclude that our nation was extremely fortunate to have had John F. Kennedy as president in October 1962. Like all presidents, he made his share of mistakes, but when the stakes were the highest imaginable, he rose to the occasion like no other president in the last 60 years, defining his goal clearly and then, against the demands of hawks within his administration, searching skillfully for a peaceful way to achieve it." To read the entire book review, click here. And what do you think of Holbrooke's assessment?
---Renato Pérez Pizarro.

Germany key in EU vote on Cuba

The Spanish government is "perplexed" by Germany's sudden bid last week to postpone the European Union's debate over the lifting of its sanctions against Cuba until Thursday, the Spanish daily ABC reported Wednesday. The sanctions -- and their possible termination -- were supposed to be debated by the EU's foreign ministers on Monday, but Chancellor Angela Merkel asked for a postponement without explanation. Until Monday, Germany had leaned toward lifting the sanctions, so Merkel's request caught everyone at the EU by surprise, especially Spanish Prime Minister José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero, who champions an end to the sanctions. Even German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier was startled.
A clue may be found in a press briefing given on June 11 by Judy Ansley, Deputy Assistant to the President, after President Bush met in Berlin with Chancellor Merkel. Ansley told reporters: "On Cuba, they talked about the importance of the Cuban government unconditionally releasing all political prisoners as a test of whether or not the Raúl Castro regime is willing to move forward, as they have stated, in terms of human rights for the Cuban people."
So, it is possible that Germany on Thursday will vote against lifting the sanctions until Cuba meets that condition. Other countries adopting that stance are the Czech Republic, Sweden and Britain.
According to ABC, the Spanish government feels that the hardliners' objections can be overcome by a careful drafting of the EU's final declaration. So far, Cuba has insisted on an unconditional end to the sanctions, which were imposed in 2003 and suspended in 2005.
---Renato Pérez Pizarro.

CIA scans Fidel tape for clues on health

The Central Intelligence Agency has been looking closely at the video of Fidel Castro released Tuesday, to see what it can learn about the Cuban leader's health, NBC News reported Wednesday. CIA analysts believe the video was made in the gardens of Punto Cero, Castro's family compound west of Havana, NBC said. One unidentified intelligence official observed that:
• Raúl had to be present at Fidel's meeting with Hugo Chávez, or there might be confusion in Cuba as to who is actually in charge.
• The outdoor meeting was "intended to show Fidel Castro as engaged and relaxed, rather than close to death, as many believe."
• The video was carefully edited, to show Fidel to best advantage. It was short -- 2 minutes 24 seconds. The meeting lasted 90 minutes.
• The video was silent, preventing analysts from determining the strength of Fidel's voice.
• Cuban officials told an NBC producer in Havana that Fidel will not appear again in public. And a U.S. intelligence official told NBC that there is no doubt that Fidel is dying. "We just don't know when," he said. For the NBC News report, click here.
---Renato Pérez Pizarro.

House bill would ease travel curbs

Travel restrictions to Cuba could be eased under the terms of a bill approved by the House Appropriations Committee, the Reuters news agency reported Wednesday. The bill would enable Cuban-Americans to visit close relatives in Cuba once a year, instead of once every three years, as the restriction stands now. And the list of approved relatives would be expanded to include uncles, aunts and first cousins. Rep. José Serrano (D-NY), the panel's chairman, called the proposal "a concession to Cuban-Americans who keep asking for it. There is no reason to place harsh restrictions on those who simply wish to visit family members." The bill could clear the House next month but undoubtedly will encounter strong opposition from the White House, as similar proposals have. To read the Reuters report, click here.
---Renato Pérez Pizarro.

Editorial: Oil lubricates embargo's end

The end of Washington's trade embargo on Cuba is being hastened by Cuba's apparent intention to drill for oil in waters south of Florida, The Houston Chronicle said Wednesday in an editorial. This would encourage the two countries "to come together for mutual advantage," the editorial said, "opening up a desperately needed source of oil for the U.S. and a multibillion-dollar business opportunity." The end of the embargo -- or at least an easing of it -- "can't come soon enough," the newspaper said. It "has nothing to do with democracy. It is a political measure that succeeded in punishing the Cuban people rather than communist ideology." The editorial gives several reasons why the embargo should be eased or lifted, but concedes that "it will not be feasible until President Bush [...] leaves office." To read the entire editorial, click here.
---Renato Pérez Pizarro.

More on Cuba Terrorism

Commerce Department press secretary Ann Marie Hauser offered to elaborate on the secretary’s letter to the editor in the Post about Cuba funding anti-American terrorists. She points to the State Department’s Patterns of Global terrorism report -- which you read here: Download global_patterns_of_terrorism_report.pdf. It says that Cuba dispatched agents around the world to spread false leads designed to subvert the post 9/11 investigation.

“Cuba has been a long-standing supporter of groups that engage in anti-U.S. actions like the FARC and the ELN, and continues to harbor known terrorists who have committed terrorist acts against the U.S. and fugitives from justice from the U.S." she said.

Cuba is also one of the six countries on U.S. State Department’s list of state-sponsors of terrorism.

Not 100 percent sure that addresses the accusation that Cuba FUNDS terrorism, but the point is taken, and the reports duly noted.
- Frances Robles

Gitmo was nuclear target in '62, book says

Soviet nuclear missiles were ready to obliterate the U.S. naval base at Guantánamo Bay if American troops had invaded Cuba in 1962, says a new book by Washington Post reporter Michael Dobbs. The book, One Minute to Midnight, draws on the National Security Archive's documentary work on the Cuban Missile Crisis and is summarized in the NSA's website.  The missiles -- armed with 14-kiloton warheads, similar to the U.S. bomb that destroyed Hiroshima -- were deployed to within 15 miles of the base on Oct. 27, 1962, the same day the Joint Chiefs of Staff recommended an all-out invasion of Cuba, the book says. President Kennedy rejected that recommendation. For details, click here. For a book review by The Christian Science Monitor, click here.
---Renato Pérez Pizarro.

Plaintiffs foiled as travel case opens

In Burlington, Vt., Judge William Sessions opened hearings on a lawsuit by four residents to lift federal restrictions on travel to Cuba. The plaintiffs contend that the restrictions violate their constitutional rights and discriminate against people of Cuban descent. At the hearing Wednesday, the judge denied a request for a temporary injunction that would have allowed three of the plaintiffs, who are Cuban-born, to travel to their native country. The presentation of arguments from both parties is expected to take at least one month.  According to Sessions, "This is not something that's going to be expeditiously resolved." [Photo shows: Armando Vilaseca, one of the plaintiffs, visiting his aunt, Gladys Casdelo, during a trip to Cuba last year. Last month, she died of cancer.] For details on the hearing, click here. For a feature story, click here. ---Renato Pérez Pizarro.

Fidel on Obama's speech: Ho-hum

Fidel Castro apparently was not impressed by Barack Obama's speech Friday to the Cuban American National Foundation. In an article published Monday in the official daily Granma, Castro said he had "no reservations about criticizing him and about expressing my points of view on his words frankly. [...] Obama's speech may be formulated as follows: hunger for the nation, remittances as charitable handouts, and visits to Cuba as propaganda for consumerism and the unsustainable way of life behind it." To read the entire article, translated into English by Granma, click here. For Herald coverage, click here.
---Renato Pérez Pizarro.

Clinton sets conditions for talks

If she became President of the United States, Hillary Rodham Clinton would not meet with Cuba's leaders until at least three conditions were met, the Democratic candidate said Sunday in Puerto Rico. The conditions are: "Release political prisoners, permit free assembly, and host open and competitive elections." She pooh-poohed recent economic reforms on the island, calling them "first steps [that] are minor, compared with the giant leaps that must be taken in order to achieve genuine political reform in Cuba." Her comments appear to be a response to contender Barack Obama, who has said he's willing to meet with Cuba's leaders "without preconditions" but after diplomatic "preparation" at lower levels.
---Renato Pérez Pizarro.

End embargo, start dialogue, panel urges

The United States should repeal its embargo on Cuba and dialogue with Havana, recommends the Council on Foreign Relations, an independent think tank based in Washington. In a 76-page report released Wednesday ("U.S.-Latin America Relations: A New Direction for a New Reality") the Council concedes that Cuba is "an authoritarian state guilty of serious human rights violations," but points out that positive changes have occurred under Raúl Castro and more may follow. Among the CFR's recommendations to the incoming U.S. administration:
• Repeal the restrictions placed on Cuban-American family travel and remittances in 2004.
• Reinstate the 13 categories of “purposeful travel” for other Americans, which include humanitarian and religious travel.
• Hold talks with Havana on issues of mutual concern, such as migration, human smuggling, drug trafficking, and the future of the Guantánamo naval base.
• Work with nations in the Americas and Europe to press Cuba for more reforms leading to democracy and improved human rights.
• Assure Cubans that the U.S. will pursue a respectful arm’s-length relationship with a democratic Cuba. Repeal the 1996 Helms-Burton law.
• Permit Congress to pass laws designed to liberalize trade with (and travel to) the island.
To read the entire report, click here. For an overview, click here.

---Renato Pérez Pizarro.

Bush talks with dissidents via TV

Dissidents in Havana spoke with President Bush via closed-circuit TV for 45 minutes at noon Tuesday, the French news agency AFP reported from Cuba. Topics included the political, economic and social situation in Cuba and the status of political prisoners, AFP said, quoting dissidents Martha Beatriz Roque, José Luis García ("Antúnez") and Berta Soler, who participated in the conversation from the U.S. Interests Section (USINT) in Havana. (For Herald story, click here.) The White House released a photograph of Bush and aides in the Situation Room (above) but no transcript of the conversation. On April 24, the Cuban Foreign Relations Ministry issued a statement calling the USINT "a pillar of the U.S. government's subversive policy, and [...] the General Headquarters of the domestic counterrevolution. [...] It has organized for them several video-conferences with top officials of the Bush administration" and "is constantly guiding those counterrevolutionaries, whom it systematically contacts and gives instructions to."
---Renato Pérez Pizarro.

Envoy said to be on secret mission

Caleb McCarry, the State Department's Cuba Transition Coordinator, was in Madrid Saturday to meet with "anti-Cuban mafiosi and terrorists," reported the leftist website Kaosenlared. The meeting's host was Cuban-born U.S. Ambassador Eduardo Aguirre. The purpose of McCarry's trip was to keep Spain and other European Union countries from lifting the economic sanctions they imposed against Cuba and have temporarily suspended, Kaosenlared said. According to another leftist website, Rebelión, for the past two weeks McCarry has visited Germany, Belgium, Norway and Sweden "in absolute secrecy" to convince those countries to maintain economic pressure on Cuba. Delegates from E.U. countries plan to meet in June to decide on the elimination or continuation of the sanctions. They will also meet in Lima in the E.U.-Latin American-Caribbean Summit beginning May 16.
---Renato Pérez Pizarro

They're Watching TV Marti, They're Really watching!

A report from Miscellaneous from Cuba, the Swiss anti-Castro dissident news group, says more and more Havana cities are tuning in to TV Marti.
Pipián, Vega, Lote Seco, San Nicolás de Bari, Aguacate, Madruga, La Riva, Juan Borrell, Guasan, Güines, La Teresa, Ojo de Agua, Peniche, Melena del Sur, Jersey, Santa Cruz del Norte – all cities in the province of Havana – are getting reception, according to a report from opposition journalist  Roberto de Jesus Guerra Perez. The reporter said he surveyed the towns Feb. 28 to March 2 and said he found the station coming through on channels 20 and 13.

In 2006, The U.S. government started beaming TV Marti via twin-engine propeller plane known as Aero Marti for five hour slots six days a week. It costs about $6 million a year and was supposed to help getting around Cuban government signal-jamming. A government report last year said there is “anecdotal” evidence that more Cubans are watching, although an Associated Press report last year said otherwise.
The Miscellaneous from Cuba report quotes Bertha from a farm called La Diamante saying she and her kids can’t get enough.
Her son, she said, “sits in front of the TV with tremendous interest. He has learned the names of many political prisoners, and he doesn’t want to watch the official channels any more because he knows the programming by heart.”

(Photo: courtesy of Miscellaneous de Cuba)

U.S. senators urge "new look" at Cuba policy

Cuba's leadership changes have prompted congressional opponents of U.S. Cuba policy to renew their calls for a new policy.
A bipartisan group of of U.S. senators urged Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice to "take a fresh look at our policy toward Cuba". The letter is signed by outspoken critics of U.S. Cuba policy Sens. Max Baucus (D-Mont.) and Michael Enzi (R-Wyo.) plus 22 other lawmakers.
"We should seize upon Castro's long-awaited and welcome departure to chart a new course that favors hope and engagement over isolation and estrangement,'' the letter says.
A group of over 100 House members sent Condoleezza a similar letter after Fidel Castro announced last week he would not seek the presidency.
- Pablo Bachelet

US intel: watch Cuba's "fourth generation"

At a Senate Armed Services Committee hearing, the U.S. intelligence chiefs were asked to comment on the transfer of power in Cuba from Fidel Castro to his brother Raul. Florida Sen. Mel Martinez wanted to know if migration had increased recently.
Not really, he was told. But watch Cuba's youth.
"The key, in my view, is going to be the fourth generation,'' said Director of National Intelligence Mike McConnell, whose office coordinates 16 government intelligence agencies. "They're thinking new thoughts and asking hard questions.''
"So how do you get from the first generation of the revolution to the fourth generation? That's going to be the question. And what my concern is there's going to be some instability in that process.''
Gen. Michael Maples, the head of the Defense Intelligence Agency, said the U.S. government needed to watch what happened in the next six or seven months, "looking for any indicators that the dissatisfaction is going to reach a level where a migration from the island might take place."