NEW YORK, September 29

     UNITED NATIONS APPROVES ANTI-TERROR RESOLUTION

     The United Nations Security Council has approved a sweeping resolution sponsored by the United States requiring all 189 U.N.-member nations to deny money, support and sanctuary to terrorists. The legally binding resolution adopted unanimously Friday night is a significant international response to the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center in New York and the Pentagon. 

     The resolution was introduced and approved by the Security Council in just over 24 hours, a pace that reflects Washington's wide support as it leads a global campaign to pursue those responsible for the attacks, and any nation that harbors them. The resolution adopted Friday demands action by all nations and allows the council to take measures to restore international peace and security.

     Under the resolution, all countries must make the "willful'' financing of terrorism a criminal offense, immediately freeze terrorist-related funds and prevent movement of individuals and groups suspected of having terrorist connections. Nations must deny terrorists anyî safe haven.'' To ensure that all countries adopt the strongly worded measure, the council created a committee to monitor their efforts. Diplomats said the Security Council resolution incorporated key elements from the dozen legal instruments, which means they are now legally binding on all countries, whether the protocols and conventions have been ratified or not.


WASHINGTON, D.C., September 28

    CRISIS SPEEDS PENTAGON SPY°S ARREST

     The FBI accelerated the arrest of a Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) analyst on charges of spying for Cuba out of fear that she would pass along classified information about the U.S. response to the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, government sources said. FBI agents arrested Ana Belen Montes, the DIA's senior analyst for Cuba affairs, at her office Sept. 21, abruptly ending more than four months of surveillance.

     Prosecutors said they have evidence that Montes was working for the Cuban intelligence service and providing classified information. The surveillance, however, hadn't revealed who her contact was. While under surveillance, Montes continued to have access to the highest level of classified material. The FBI wanted to catch her in the act of meeting someone or picking up money, but it decided to halt the surveillance and arrest her because of the terrorist crisis.

     The investigation ended because Cuban intelligence could pass along information provided by Montes to other countries, particularly some in the Middle East. Government sources said Cuba has been known to share information with Libya, Iran and others that might be sympathetic to Osama bin Laden.


HAVANA, September 28

     CUBAN GOVERNMENT TRIED TO DISCREDIT DISSIDENT

     In an apparent attempt to discredit or confuse dissidents, the Department of State Security now claims Jesús Yanes Pelletier, a renowned Cuban dissident who died a year ago, as one of their own. Just last August 5, representatives of 12 dissident organizations had designated September 18, the date Yanes died, as "Cuban Dissidents' Day" in tribute to his exemplary conduct in the struggle for the liberty of the Cuban people, according to the declaration.

     On September 18, when Yanes' relatives and several dissidents arrived at the Colón cemetery in Havana to commemorate the first anniversary of his death, they found a large floral offering. The ribbon accompanying the flowers dedicated them to Yanes, identified him as a long-time, high-ranking officer of the Department of State Security, and was purportedly sent by his fellow workers in the Department.

     At the cemetery, Yanes' widow protested vehemently against what was called a maneuver by State Security and was arrested. She later said: "I knew Yanes very well. I spent years with him, and what State Security says is a big lie," the widow said.


MIAMI, September 28

     WEST NILE ALERT ISSUED FOR MIAMI-DADE

     The Florida Department of Health on Thursday added Miami-Dade to a growing list of counties that have been placed on a medical alert for the mosquito-borne West Nile virus. The decision was made after lab tests confirmed that two more birds collected late last month in Miami-Dade have tested positive for the disease. State epidemiologists last week announced that another bird in Miami-Dade, also collected in late August, had tested positive.

     Although the virus has recently been diagnosed in three people in neighboring Monroe County, no human cases of West Nile encephalitis have been reported in Miami-Dade. "What this means is that the virus is in our area. Now whether this eventually ends up in humans, we don't know, we cannot predict,'' said the medical director of the Miami-Dade County Health Department.

     Well over half of Florida's 67 counties -- the count is now at 48 -- are on a West Nile alert. One dead bird from Broward also tested positive for West Nile last week, though that county hasn't been placed under the alert. A spokeswoman for Miami-Dade Mosquito Control said Thursday that inspectors will now be dispatched to two affected areas.


HAVANA, September 27

     CUBA'S ECONOMIC FUTURE DOES NOT LOOK GOOD

    The terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center and Pentagon have caused a decline in tourist arrivals and in the money sent by Cubans living in the United States to relatives on the island, the cash-strapped country's two most important sources of dollars.  

     Cuba has been struggling to recover from a 35 percent fall in its gross domestic product in the early 1990s following the collapse of the Soviet Union. Tourism is considered the key driver of the effort, as the local peso currency has no value in the international market and cannot be used to import much needed fuel, food, and other products.

     According to Tourism reports, tourist arrivals were off 25 percent from what it was expected. But the worst may still be to come as war and economic jitters abroad result in canceled Caribbean vacations and reduction in Cuban American spending in the months ahead.


KEY WEST,  September 27

     NEW CASE OF WEST NILE VIRUS REPORTED IN KEYS

     A third person in the Florida Keys was diagnosed Monday with encephalitis contracted from the bite of a mosquito carrying the West Nile virus. The latest victim, the seventh in the state, is a 54-year-old Lower Keys nurse who was bitten at Sugarloaf Key, about a mile from where a 50-year-old man is believed to have contracted the virus last month. The woman, whose name is not being released, contracted the virus on Aug. 26. She didn't require hospitalization.

     On Friday, a 73-year-old Washington County woman was diagnosed with West Nile virus in the Panhandle, two days after a second person was confirmed as having contracted the virus in the Keys. Florida's first human case of West Nile-related encephalitis was confirmed in July in Madison County.

     Though West Nile hasn't shown up in humans in Miami-Dade or Broward counties, birds from both areas tested positive for the virus last week. Thirty-six Florida counties are now on a medical alert for the mosquito-borne West Nile, which poses the greatest threat to elderly people and those with immune problems. The Keys have been under a medical alert since Aug. 24, when lab tests confirmed that a 73-year-old Sarasota County tourist tested positive for the illness.


CARACAS, September 26

     VENEZUELA, CUBA DROP BARTERING PACT

     Venezuela and Cuba dropped a pact that allowed Cuba to pay for some of its Venezuelan oil imports with goods and services. Venezuela will now pay in cash for Cuban agricultural goods and for services in sports and tourism, Cuban ambassador German Sanchez said in an interview published in Monday's El Universal newspaper.

     Under a pact signed last year, Venezuela had been allowed to pay for such services with an unspecified amount of oil. Sanchez said the system was abandoned because it was "too complicated.'' He said the decision was made when Cuban President Fidel Castro visited Venezuela last month. Cuban embassy officials were not immediately available for additional comment.

     Another deal, which still stands, requires Venezuela to sell 53,000 barrels a day of oil to Cuba under preferential financial conditions. Cuba has 15 years to pay with a 2 percent interest rate. Sanchez said Venezuela owes Cuba between 10 and 12 million of dollars for goods and services. Cuba has exported sugar and sent dozens of sports trainers to Venezuela.  


HAVANA, Cuba, September 26

     RUSSIA AND CUBA HAGGLE OVER TRADE PACT

     Cuba exported 2 million tonnes of raw sugar to Russia this year, but has yet to receive a drop of oil from its former economic benefactor under a pact signed in 2000. Bilateral trade was reported as $890 million in 2000, and $887.8 million in 1999.

      Russian President Vladimir Putin and Cuban dictator Fidel Castro presided over the signing of a five-year trade agreement last December in Havana. The heart of the accord had Russia exporting 1.5 million tonnes to 2 million tonnes of oil and receiving 2.2 million tonnes to 2.8 million tonnes of sugar annually. The agreement has yet to go into effect because they have been arguing over how to execute it and over oil prices and debt."

     Communist-governed Cuba's debt to the ex-Soviet Union, inherited by Russia, has been previously estimated in Moscow at $20 billion.  But Havana disputes this figure and argues in return that the damage caused to its economy by the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991 adds up to an equivalent value.


VIEQUES, September 25

     BOMBINGS RESUME ON VIEQUES

     A U.S. destroyer fired shells at the Vieques bombing range Monday in the first full-scale military exercises since the United States declared war on terrorism. The Navy said the exercises began Monday morning with nonexplosive five-inch shells. From a hill, reporters heard distant thuds and watched smoke rise from the guns of the USS The Sullivans.

     The Navy has used the Vieques island to train for every major U.S. conflict over the past six decades. The aircraft carrier USS John F. Kennedy and its battle group of cruisers, destroyers, frigates and submarines were already in the area Sunday, practicing maneuvers far offshore. About 12,000 sailors were participating in the exercises, which could last up to 23 days.


MIAMI, September 25

     HIJACKER LOOKED INTO CROP-DUSTER IN FLORIDA

     Mohamed Atta, the suspected terrorist who crashed hijacked American Airlines Flight 11 into the World Trade Center, went at least twice to a small airport in rural Palm Beach County to ask detailed questions about how to start and fly a crop-duster plane. The news that Atta had shown an intense interest in that kind of aircraft coincided with a Federal Aviation Administration directive Sunday that grounded all crop-dusters around the country for "national security'' reasons.

    Appearing on CBS' Face the Nation on Sunday, Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld was asked about bioterrorism.  Rumsfeld said the threat of chemical or biological weapons was real because several countries suspected of harboring or sponsoring terrorism have tried to develop such weapons. These countries, Rumsfeld said, "have very active chemical and biological warfare programs and we know that they are in close contact with terrorist networks around the world.'' Among the countries Rumsfeld cited as sponsors of terrorism were Cuba, Iraq, Libya, North Korea and Syria.

    "The intelligence community came to us and encouraged us to shut down the crop-dusters,'' said Scott Brenner, an FAA spokesman, without giving details. FBI investigators asked the agency to ground the planes because of fears that crop-dusters could be part of a plot to disperse deadly biological and chemical agents.


Washington, D.C., September 24

     HAS CUBA CHOSEN ITS SIDE IN THE WAR ON TERRORISM? (Intelligence Report - By Marcelo Fernández-Zayas and Ernesto F. Betancourt)

     "The terrorist attacks against Washington and New York sent US fighter planes scrambling into the air over the Strait of Florida as US Cuba watchers stayed glued to their intelligence agency desks.  For several days Cuba was off the screen in Washington's official press releases and the media in general..."

     "It is evident Ashcroft has prevailed.  Besides, the Pentagon will now have to revise all policies in which Castro's spy had an input. Quite a setback for Castro."



HAVANA, September 23

     THE CUBAN DICTATOR OPPOSES WAR AGAINST TERRORISM

     Cuban dictator Fidel Castro on Saturday said that while Cuba opposed terrorism, it rejected a possible U.S.-led war on the perpetrators of the terrorist attack in New York and Washington, D.C. He said the U.S. operation, initially dubbed "Infinite Justice", could lead to an "Infinite Massacre." "Cuba is opposed to terrorism and it is opposed to war,'' Castro told his followers at a government rally Saturday outside Havana.

     Castro said that "the tragedy should not be used to recklessly start a war that could unleash an endless carnage of innocent people.'' He clearly took exception to parts of President Bush's Thursday night speech roughly outlining his plan against terrorism to the American people and the world. Bush's plan is for "a world military dictatorship under the exclusive rule of force, irrespective of any international laws or institutions,'' Castro said. "There would be only one boss, only one judge, and only one law,'' he said.

     Castro found troubling President Bush's declaration: "Either you are with us, or you are with the terrorists.'' "No nation of the world has been left out of the dilemma, not even the big and powerful states; none has escaped the threat of war or attacks,'' said Castro.


WASHINGTON, D.C., September 22

     DIA SENIOR ANALYST ACCUSED OF SPYING FOR CUBA

     The FBI says Ana Belen Montes, the senior analyst at the Defense Intelligence Agency and native of Puerto Rico, who was arrested yesterday in Washington, D.C., began spying for Cuba nearly five years ago, passing along secrets about a U.S. war games exercise and the American military's knowledge of weapons in Cuba.  In a 17-page affidavit, the FBI alleged that the Cuban intelligence service passed messages to Montes via short-wave radio and that the DIA analyst began spying for Cuba the day she bought her laptop computer, Oct. 5, 1996. The document said she used a set of computer disks to decrypt messages transmitted to her from the Cuban Intelligence Service. Montes maintained communication with members of the United Nations° Cuban Permanent Mission.

     One partially recovered message deals with "a particular special access program related to the national defense of the United States,'' which is so sensitive that it could not be publicly revealed in the court documents, the document said. The DIA confirmed that Montes and a colleague were briefed on the highly sensitive program on May 15, 1997. According to the affidavit, a message from her Cuban handlers said regarding the 1996 war games: "Practically everything that takes place there will be of intelligence value. Let's see if it deals with contingency plans and specific targets in Cuba.'' Montes attended the exercise conducted in Norfolk, Va. It is possible that Montes was behind the official statements that Cuba does not represent a military threat to the United States, and also, as a "respectedî member of the Cuba interagency group, was able to instigate official animosity against respected Cuba-American organizations.

     Some of the messages suggested that Montes disclosed the upcoming arrival of a U.S. military intelligence officer in Cuba, the FBI said. "As a result, the Cuban government was able to direct its counterintelligence resources against the U.S. officer,'' it said. The FBI said Montes got a message back from her Cuban handlers stating, "We were waiting here for him with open arms.'' It was unclear whether the Montes case was directly related to the five Cuban agents in Florida convicted in June of spying for the Communist government. However, the FBI affidavit notes repeatedly that methods of passing classified information that Montes allegedly used were the same as those used by the Miami defendants.  Two new Cuban spies pleaded guilty in Miami Friday, bringing to seven the number of defendants in a spy ring that prosecutors have labeled "The Wasp Network.''


WASHINGTON, D.C., September 22

     U.S. DEFENSE DEPARTMENT ANALYST ARRESTED IN CUBA SPY CASE

     A U.S. Defense Department intelligence analyst was arrested Friday on charges of conspiring to deliver U.S. national defense information to Cuba, the FBI and Justice Department said.

     FBI agents arrested Ana Belen Montes, 44, an employee of the Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA), yesterday morning without incident at the agency's headquarters at Bolling Air Force Base in Washington, D.C. Montes has been employed by the DIA as an analyst since 1985. The FBI said it has obtained search warrants for her residence in Washington, D.C., for her car, her office and her safe-deposit box at a local bank.

     Montes's arrest should not surprise anyone. When the Cuban Foreign Minister, Felipe Perez Roque, reluctantly condemned the attacks in the cities of New York and Washington, D.C., he also said Cuba would continue to send spies to the United States to prevent what he called "terrorist actions against the island." One wonders how many more "Montes" are working, right now, inside the Pentagon and the State Department.  Now that President Bush has declared war against terrorism, it is hoped that this country's intelligence services find out where the communist government of Cuba has infiltrated its spies, and apprehend them.


MIAMI, September 22

     FLORIDA CUBAN COUPLE PLEAD GUILTY TO SPYING ON US FOR CUBA

     A Cuban couple residing in Florida pleaded guilty to charges they acted as spies for the Cuban government against the United States, an attorney for one of the defendants said on Friday. George and Marisol Gari, arrested in Orlando, Florida, last month, were part of the "Wasp Network," a Cuban espionage ring that attempted to infiltrate the Southern Command, the U.S. military headquarters for Latin America, prosecutors said.

     Both George and Marisol pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to act as unregistered agents for Cuba in exchange for a second count of spying being dropped, her attorney, Louis Casuso, said. Marisol faces a maximum of five years in prison and George ten years. They could be deported after their sentences are served.

    It was unclear whether the Garis will assist the Federal Bureau of Investigation with their on-going investigation into the Cuban spy network. Refusing to directly comment on that possibility, Casuso said: "Read between the lines."


WASHINGTON, D.C., September 21

     PRESIDENT BUSH ISSUES ULTIMATUM TO TERRORISTS AND SUPPORTERS

     "Either you are with us or you are with the terrorists,'' President George W. Bush said last night in a calm yet commanding voice during a speech delivered to a joint session of Congress. "From this day forward, any nation that continues to harbor or support terrorism will be regarded by the United States as a hostile regime,'' the President emphasized.

     The President also said, "Tonight we are a country awakened to danger and called to defend freedom … Our grief has turned to anger, and anger to resolution. Whether we bring our enemies to justice, or bring justice to our enemies, justice will be done." "Our war on terror," he said, "will not end until every terrorist group of global reach has been found, stopped, and defeated … And tonight a few miles from the damaged Pentagon, I have a message for our military: Be ready … the hour is coming when America will act, and you will make us proud … Americans are asking: Why do they hate us? … They hate what we see right here in this chamber -- a democratically elected government. Their leaders are self-appointed. They hate our freedoms " our freedom of religion, our freedom of speech, our freedom to vote and assemble and disagree with each other."

     Obviously, the President°s words represent a direct challenge to Cuban dictator Fidel Castro because Cuba has been designated by the State Department as one of the nations that sponsor terrorism. The Department of States has stated: "Cuba continued to provide safe haven to several terrorists and US fugitives in 2000. A number of Basque ETA terrorists who gained sanctuary in Cuba some years ago continued to live on the island, as did several US terrorist fugitives. Havana also maintained ties to other state sponsors of terrorism and Latin American insurgents. Colombia's two largest terrorist organizations, the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia and the National Liberation Army, both maintained a permanent presence on the island.î


WASHINGTON, D.C., September 21

     CASTRO°S ANTI-AMERICAN STATEMENTS DISAPPEARED FROM "GRANMAî

     A search of the Cuban Communist Party libel Granma°s Internet archives shows that most of Castro°s anti-American rhetoric had been deleted after the terrorist attacks in New York and Washington, D.C.   Nowhere one can find the speech made by the Cuban dictator at the Islamic University of Teheran during his visit to Iran on May 9, 2001. At the University, Castro urged Iran to help defeat the United States "as you toppled the Shah" in 1979. Iranian supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei welcomed Castro°s offer, saying the United States is "vulnerable and easy to break down…Iran and Cuba can work together to achieve this ... The people and governments of Cuba and Iran can put the United States on its knees.î

    Castro also said during the visit: "You overthrew the shah 22 years ago, but there is another Shah one thousand times stronger and better armed. "This new Shah is imperialism, and its main stronghold is only miles away from our border."

     The United States "has military bases and aircraft carriers everywhere and its nuclear warheads are aimed in every direction," Castro added. "But it can be toppled, just like your Shah was overthrown."  The Iranian leader responded to the dictator°s anti-American remarks: "America is very vulnerable and can be easily broken down.î


HAVANA, September 21

     CUBA TOURISM DAMAGED BY TERRORIST ATTACKS IN U.S.

     Cuba's tourism was hit hard by last week's attacks in the United States, and the industry is bracing for more damage if war breaks out. "Events of the magnitude that occurred in the United States have a negative impact on tourism -- creating confusion, airline delays, reasonable fears at the moment, and that leads to cancellations," Tourism Minister Ibrahim Ferradaz said. Any long-term decline in Cuba°s tourism would prove extremely serious for the communist-government. Cuban dictator Fidel Castro and the state-run media have condemned last week's attacks on the World Trade Center in New York and the Pentagon outside Washington, D.C., but they also strongly criticized U.S. war preparations.

     Ferradaz said it was too early to quantify the damage to tourism, but industry sources said it was already significant. "Sales at the airport are down 70 percent," said a manager at the firm supplying cafeterias and retail shops at Havana's Jose Marti International Airport, the country's largest. Hotels in Cuba's capital were reported empty, cabs idled waiting for customers, and restaurant managers said business was slower than normal. "It is always slow in September, but this is worse. There are no tourists in Cuba," said an employee at the Havana Libre Hotel.

    The situation at the Varadero beach resort, some 90 miles east of Havana was similar. Tourism and related revenues had been expected to exceed $2 billion in 2001, more than half of Cuba's hard currency earnings, while local industry was expected to supply more than 60 percent of goods and services consumed by tourism.


HAVANA , September 20

     CUBA CALLS FOR MEASURED U.S. RESPONSE

     Communist-run Cuba on Wednesday played down the importance of fresh diplomatic contacts with its traditional political arch-enemy, the United States, in the wake of last week's attacks on New York and Washington.

     A note sent by the Foreign Ministry to international media confirmed diplomatic contacts between U.S. and Cuban officials in both Washington and Havana in recent days.  The contacts "have no special significance and were in no way secret or abnormal,'' the Foreign Ministry statement said, acknowledging that it engages in sporadic contact with Washington over issues such as illegal immigration, drug trafficking and terrorism. The two countries have not had official diplomatic relations for four decades, and Cuba remains on the State Department's list of seven countries suspected of promoting terrorism.

     Cuba also rapped the United States for belligerence in its reaction to the attacks. President George W. Bush has said the United States will retaliate against the perpetrators and nations that protect them with what he calls a war on terrorism. "Any honest person has the right to wonder if they are really seeking justice, or using the painful tragedy to impose methods, prerogatives and privileges that would lead to the tyranny of the world's most powerful state, without any restriction, over all the earth's peoples," said a separate communiqué of the Cuban communist government.


WASHINGTON, September 20

     OAS INVOKES MUTUAL DEFENSE TREATY

    The Organization of American States (OAS)  invoked a mutual defense treaty in support of the United States on Wednesday, declaring that last week's attacks in New York and Washington were a threat to the security of the whole hemisphere. The organization, which includes all 34 nations in the Americas except Cuba, said it would meet on Friday to discuss security matters, including possible measures of common defense.

    The treaty, signed in Rio de Janeiro in 1947 by most of the OAS members, is commonly known as the Rio Treaty.

     "By invoking the Rio Treaty we recognize and send a strong message to the terrorists that in our democratic hemisphere, an attack against one is an attack against all," said U.S. Ambassador to the OAS Roger Noriega.


WASHINGTON, D.C., September 19

     U.S. ASKS CUBA FOR HELP IN ITS "WARî AGAINST TERRORISM

     The United States has contacts with Cuba in its search for partners against terrorist networks after attacks on New York and Washington a week ago, State Department spokesman Richard Boucher said on Tuesday. "Contacts with Cuba had picked upî, he said.

    Cuba is on a list of state sponsors of terrorism along with Sudan, Iran, Iraq, Libya, North Korea and Syria. However, at Tuesday's briefing, Boucher said U.S. officials had been in contact with Cuba through its interests section in Washington, which takes the place of an embassy in the absence of full diplomatic ties.

     "We've asked the Cubans through established channels ... for any information they might have about the terrorist attacks," he said.  The State Department said several "terrorists" and U.S. criminal fugitives still found safe haven on the island last year and that two Colombian "terrorist" groups had a presence there. |


WASHINGTON, D.C., September 18

   STATEMENT MADE BY MAJOR GENERAL (DC) ERNEIDO A. OLIVA, RETIRED, CHAIRMAN OF THE CUBAN-AMERICAN MILITARY COUNCIL (CAMCO), IN WHICH HE STRONGLY CONDEMNED THE HEINOUS TERRORIST ATTACKS CARRIED OUT IN THE CITIES OF NEW YORK AND WASHINGTON, D.C. (The statement was released to the Miami and international press by CAMCO Senior Director of Communications, Dr. Ulises Carbó).

     Cuban dictator Fidel Castro, a longtime political enemy of the United States, warned on Tuesday of "dangerous days" ahead for the world and urged U.S. policy-makers to keep calm following dreadful attacks in Washington, D.C. and New York.  Repeating the  declarations made in Colombia by the FARC guerrilla leadership, in Libya, Iraq and other countries that sponsor terrorism, Castro said Washington's own past use of "terrorism" against other countries was to blame for the three crashes of hijacked planes against New York's landmark World Trade Center and the Pentagon outside Washington, D.C.  "In part, these tragedies are a consequence of having applied terrorist methods, against Cuba for many years, because they have spread the idea of terrorism," Castro said in a speech.

     Cuba, which is on the U.S. list of states sponsoring terrorism, in turn accuses Washington of "terrorism" and "genocide" against Havana through an economic embargo. Castro, who spoke at the inauguration of a school, said last Tuesday's events had thrown the world into uncertainty, and urged restraint from the United States.  However, the tyrant neither mentioned Cuba's four decades of military interventions in all Continents, nor the training he is presently providing in the island to thousands of terrorists.

     As CAMCO has been doing since the terrorist attacks, it  wants to express again, its most strong condemnation of the brutal terrorist attacks in the cities of New York and Washington, D.C. and, despite the Cuban dictator's statements, it reiterates its belief that Cuba is the one that represents a threat to the security of the United States because it openly harbors known criminals who are potential perpetrators of similar future terrorist attacks here or in other free countries. 

     As men and women who have faithfully served and defended this nation for forty-two years, the members of CAMCO wanted to be publicly known their readiness and willingness to assist the Bush administration in the implementation of any action the President may order to "hunt down and punishî those responsible for the September eleventh°s heinous attacks and those who harbor and protect international terrorists.


WASHINGTON, D.C., September 17

     MORE ATTACKS POSSIBLE

     The terrorists linked to those who attacked the World Trade Center and the Pentagon might be planning further strikes inside the United States, top U.S. intelligence officials said Sunday, adding that they could not rule out the use of chemical or biological weapons. The officials, while cautioning that they have no evidence about specific planned attacks, said it now appears that Tuesday's devastating strikes were part of a broader terrorist plot and that some of those involved were still at large.

     "The intelligence community is saying their plan of terrorism had more than just Tuesday,'' said Sen. Bob Graham, chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee. Graham, a Florida Democrat, said U.S. intelligence officials believe that the other potential components of the plot could include a variety of methods such as concealed small nuclear devices, or biological and chemical weapons. A commander of Afghanistan's Taliban leadership told The Associated Press last year that bin Laden was training his fighters in the use of chemical weapons. One of the few cases of terrorists using weapons of mass destruction occurred in 1995, when members of the Aum Shinrikyo cult released the chemical nerve agent sarin onto several Tokyo subway train stations. Twelve people were killed and up to 6,000 were injured.

     Senator Graham spoke after receiving a recent briefing from the intelligence community. Graham, in a separate appearance on ABC-TV, said the CIA had told him Sunday morning that while groups associated with bin Laden were the prime suspects, "there was also evidence that there might be other groups, including other terrorist groups outside of Afghanistan, that might be involved in this tragic situation.''


WASHINGTON, September 17

      SECRETARY RUMSFELD: US WILL GO AFTER NATIONS HARBORING TERROR

      Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said on Sunday the "terrorist network" responsible for the attacks on America is "bigger than one person" and the United States will go after countries that harbor "terrorists" and their organizations.  The Secretary added "there is no question" Saudi-born militant leader Osama bin Laden was involved in Tuesday's attacks on the World Trade Center towers in New York and the Pentagon.

      Rumsfeld warned that since attacks against Americans can occur "at any time in any place," the United States will have to move preemptively. "We just saw the use of aircraft, it could be ships, it could be subways" next time, he said. "The best defense against terrorism is an offense ... taking the battle to the terrorist organizations and particularly to the countries across this globe who have for a period of years been tolerating, facilitating, financing and making possible the activities of those terrorists." To that end, he said the United States would "go after the network. And you have to then also go after the countries that are harboring."

      "Some of the countries that are harboring terrorist networks do in fact have high-value targets, they do have capitals, they do have armies," Rumsfeld said. "What we need to do is go to the countries that we have knowledge and tell then that it has to stop and if it does not stop, we have to help stop it." The Secretary did not specify the countries the United States believed were harboring suspects in the attacks but said the list of nations sponsoring "terrorists" was public. Seven countries are on the U.S. State Department's list of "state sponsors of terrorism."  They are: Cuba, Iran, Iraq, Libya, North Korea, Sudan and Syria. Afghanistan is not on the list because the United States does not recognize its Taliban leadership. Click here to read: State Department's "Overview of State-Sponsored Terrorism."


HAVANA, September 16

     CUBA AGAINST TERRORISM AND THE UNITED STATES GOVERNMENT

     During a weekly rally Cuba condemned terrorism Saturday and expressed its support for the American people. The rally in Majibacoa, Las Tunas, a small town 410 miles east of Havana, bore the theme: "Our solidarity with the American people during the national tragedy they are living through.'' 

     Defense Minister Raul Castro, Cuban dictator Fidel Castro's brother, presided over the gathering, where speakers after speaker criticized the four-decade U.S. embargo against the Communist island, denounced U.S. immigration policy toward Cuba, the jailing of five Cuban spies in Miami, and racism and anti-environmental practices they said were prevalent in America. "Their political myopia does not let them see that those really guilty of terrorism are the imperialist governments who promote and stimulate this practice in the world," an speaker said.

     The Cuban Foreign Minister, Felipe Perez Roque, condemned the attacks in New York and Washington, D.C., saying that Cuba "strongly condemned terrorism in any form and against whomever it may be." Perez Roque also said Cuba would continue to send spies to infiltrate Cuban exile groups within the United States to prevent what he called "terrorist actions against the island." The U.S. Government has identified Cuba as a state that sponsor terrorism.


WASHINGTON, D.C., September 16

     ANOTHER NEWS TO REMEMBER - (Published by CAMCOCUBA on May 10, 2001, during the dictator's visit to the Middle East.) 

TEHERAN, May 10

     CUBAN DICTATOR SEEKS IRAN°S HELP AGAINST U.S.  

     Cuban dictator Fidel Castro urged Iran Wednesday to help defeat the United States "as you toppled the Shah" in 1979. Iranian supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, a staunch opponent of the United States, immediately welcomed the offer, saying the United States is "vulnerable and easy to break down…Iran and Cuba can work together to achieve this."

     Referring to the late Iranian monarch who was backed by the United States, Castro said earlier: "You overthrew the shah 22 years ago, but there is another Shah one thousand times stronger and better armed. "This new Shah is imperialism, and its main stronghold is only miles away from our border," he said in a speech to students and faculty members at Tehran University.

     The United States "has military bases and aircraft carriers everywhere and its nuclear warheads are aimed in every direction," Castro added. "But it can be toppled, just like your Shah was overthrown." Khamenei told Castro that Iran strongly backed Cuba's anti-U.S. stance, state television reported. "Iran likes Cuba because it has withstood U.S. bullying. This is very precious from Islam's standpoint," the Iranian leader said. "America is very vulnerable and can be easily broken down, Khamenei said.


WASHINGTON, D.C., September 15

     NEWS TO REMEMBER: CASTRO VISITS LIBYA (Published by Reuter on Wednesday May 16, 2001) 

     "Cuban leader Fidel Castro flew Wednesday to oil-rich Libya, which once honored him with a human rights award for crusading against the United States. Castro came to Libya from Syria, where he held talks with President Bashar Assad as part of an extended tour to strengthen ties with new and old allies in the Middle East and Asia and seek cheap supplies of energy. The 74-year-old Castro was met by three members of the Revolutionary Command Council, the country's top decision-making body, and was whisked for a meeting with Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi. No other details were available. The visit is Castro's second to this north African country. The previous one was in March 1977.î

     "The two socialist states share anti-U.S. sentiments and were close allies of the former Soviet Union. Libya has supported Cuba throughout a decades-old U.S. trade embargo while the Latin American state stood by Libya during a seven-year U.N. air embargo. The sanctions were imposed to force Libya to hand over two suspects in the bombing of Pan Am Flight 103 over Lockerbie, Scotland, on Dec. 21,1988. The embargo against Cuba remains in place, while that against Libya was suspended after it handed over the two suspects in 1999. The United States, however, has maintained unilateral sanctions against Libya, citing state support of terrorism.î

     "In 1998, Libya honored Castro with its human rights award for the ´defense of his people and his steadfast stand against the imperialism that  surrounds him.° Castro's stop in Libya is the sixth on a tour that began May 6. The Cuban leader has stopped in Algeria, Iran, Malaysia, Qatar and Syria ... He then met Assad for talks over lunch, according to the official Syrian Arab News Agency. It was Castro's first visit to Syria. The Cuban leader met with Assad's father, the late Syrian leader Hafez Assad, several times at international gatherings. Cuba, Libya and Syria are on the U.S. State Department list of countries sponsoring terrorism.î

      Deputy Secretary of State, Richard Armitage, said this week: "You are with us or you're not. Are you on our team or not? There is no gray area."


HAVANA, September 13

     SINN FEIN GERRY ADAMS WILL VISIT CUBA

     Cuban Foreign Affairs Minister Felipe Perez Roque says Sinn Fein President Gerry Adams will visit the communist-led island.  Speaking to reporters Monday in Havana, Perez Roque said the Cuban Communist Party invited Adams to Havana in order to strengthen relations with Sinn Fein, the Irish Republican Army's (IRA) political wing.

     The pending visit comes as three members of the IRA remain imprisoned in Bogotá, facing charges of passport fraud, being senior IRA members and of training the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) guerrillas in tactics and the use of explosives. The men were arrested in Colombia as they were preparing to leave the country. The three accused Irishmen are: Niall Terence Connolly, Martin McCauley and James Monaghan.They were arrested on 11 August.

     The Cuban authorities identified one of the three, Niall Connolly, as an official Sinn Fein representative who had lived in Cuba. But Gerry Adams immediately denied that one of the IRA suspects being held in Colombia is a member of his party.  A Sinn Fein spokesman also added that the party did not have, nor ever had, a representative in Cuba or anywhere else in Latin America. On Monday, however, Perez Roque confirmed the statement made by his office last month that Sinn Fein had a representative based in Havana.


HAVANA, September 12

     IRONICALLY, CASTRO URGES U.S. TO "KEEP CALMî

     Cuban dictator Fidel Castro, a longtime political enemy of the United States, warned on Tuesday of "dangerous days" ahead for the world and urged U.S. policy-makers to keep calm following dreadful attacks in Washington and New York.  Castro said Washington's own past use of "terrorism" against other countries was partially to blame for the three crashes of hijacked planes against New York's landmark World Trade Center and the Pentagon outside Washington.  "In part, these tragedies are a consequence of having applied terrorist methods, against Cuba for many years, because they have spread the idea of terrorism," Castro said in a speech.

     "It's very important to know what the U.S. government's reaction will be. There are possibly dangerous days ahead for the world," Castro said. "If on one occasion it is permissible to make a suggestion to the enemy ... we would urge the leaders of the imperial power to be calm, act with equanimity, and not be dragged by moments of anger or hatred ... into wanting to hunt people, tossing bombs all over the place." Fidel Castro°s words show great apprehension about the future. Why is the dictator so concerned?


NEW YORK, September 12

     AMERICA UNDER TERRORIST ATTACK

     In the most devastating terrorist onslaught ever waged against the United States, hijackers crashed two airliners into the World Trade Center on Tuesday, toppling its twin 110-story towers. The deadly calamity was witnessed on televisions across the world as another plane slammed into the Pentagon, and a fourth crashed outside Pittsburgh.

     ''Freedom itself was attacked this morning and I assure you freedom will be defended,'' said President Bush, who was in Florida at the time of the catastrophe. ''Make no mistake,'' he added, ''The United States will hunt down and pursue those responsible for these cowardly actions.'' Officials across the world condemned the attacks but in the West Bank city of Nablus, thousands of Palestinians celebrated, chanting ''God is Great'' and handing out candy.

     Since Cuba figures on the U.S. government's list of states that sponsor terrorism, Cuban Foreign Minister Felipe Perez Roque, to pre-empt possible speculation that Havana might have had a hand in Tuesday°s event, told reporters that  "About any idea of Cuban government involvement, I don't think that's even worth referring to. No one could be thinking such a barbarous thing."


PERU, September 10

     OAS TO SIGN PACT DEFENDING DEMOCRACY

     The general assembly of the Organization of American States (OAS) gathers in Lima today to approve a document aimed at protecting the region's democracies against assaults by "disguised dictatorships.''  The pact defends against elected leaders who dissolve legislatures, interfere with courts, rewrite constitutions, resort to political coercion and rig elections to perpetuate themselves in power.

     A Latin American political analysts said that a traditional military coup is not the only way an autocrat can destroy democracy. He said the growing danger to Latin American democracies is from civilian leaders rather than from military coups. The current OAS charter provides for suspension of a member country,  "whose democratically constituted government has been overthrown by force.î But it does not address the more insidious problem of an elected leader who subverts a country's democratic institutions. The proposed Inter-American Democratic Charter would allow the OAS to suspend a member nation if it alters its "constitutional regimeî or interrupts "democratic order.î

     The proposed chapter was initially endorsed by leaders of all 34 OAS members - every country in the Americas and Caribbean except Cuba. But enactment of the treaty was blocked during the OAS' June general assembly in Costa Rica by several nations wary of committing to a binding definition of representative democracy. The strongest opposition came from Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, whose failed coup attempt in 1992 and political reforms since his election in 1998 have drawn accusations that he is trying to consolidate near-dictatorial powers.


MIAMI, September 9

     PATRONESS OF CUBA MARKS 40^TH ANNIVERSARY IN MIAMI

     It was a night of prayer, faith -- and yearning " around 15,000 Cuban exiles gathered at American Airlines Arena on Saturday night to celebrate with a mass the 40th anniversary of the arrival in Miami of Our Lady of Charity (La Caridad del Cobre), patroness of Cuba. Young and old Cubans attended the event in downtown Miami. Many remembered the Catholic festivities in a pre-1960s Cuba and hoped for a time when they could celebrate the feast back on the island.

"We're praying not just as regular Catholics but as Cuban exiles … We also pray for more strength, harmony and some measure of tolerance for the exile community to help us survive this involuntary exodus,'' a Cuban participant said. "We're asking for her, through her son Jesus Christ, to restore democracy and peace to Cuba. Not by anyone dying, but in the way that God wants it to happenî, he added. The Cuban was referring to recent news reports speculating that Cuban dictator Fidel Castro°s end is very near.

     That message, a hope for a democratic Cuba, rang through a rosary prayer led by the Rev. Luis Perez of St. Lázaro Catholic Church of Hialeah. He peppered the prayers with exclamations of "VIRGIN OF CHARITY: SAVE CUBA," which the audience also chanted. Meanwhile, the image of the Virgin ("Cachita") made its way from La Ermita de la Caridad, its national shrine near Mercy Hospital, on one of four small motorboats that traveled along Biscayne Bay to the arena. In Washington, D.C., many Cubans, including our Chairman General Oliva and his family, prayed yesterday to the Virgin of Charity for Cuba and its freedom at the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception.

HAVANA, September 8

     THOSE WHO HAVE COMMITTED CRIMES UNDER THE DICTATORSHIP, SHOULD HAVE  SECOND THOUGHTS BEFORE FLEEING TO THE UNITED STATES AFTER CASTRO°S DEMISE

     Cuban dictator Fidel Castro said Thursday that the arrest in the United States of a retired Cuban immigrant, accused of torturing political prisoners in a Havana hospital, was merely a "trick" to discredit his government. "This is another trick, another filthiness, another 'son-of-a-bitch' action," Castro said in Cuba's first official response to the arrest earlier this week in Miami of 78-year-old Eriberto Mederos, nicknamed "The Nurse" by his alleged victims.

     In his comments on the subject at the end of a day-long teachers' assembly in Havana, Castro implied the detention was a set-up by his foes among anti-communist Cuban American groups in Florida, with the complicity of U.S. judicial authorities.  "They are getting more and more desperate. The proof is there in the things they do," he added, saying his enemies in the United States would have to send 10 atomic bombs if they really wanted to shake the Cuban Revolution.

    "The revolution is more united than at other times, and politically stronger than ever," Castro said. Mederos was arrested in his Miami home Tuesday, and is formally charged with illegally obtaining U.S. citizenship. A federal indictment stated that in  order to enter the United States and gain citizenship, Mederos falsely told authorities that he had never been  a member of the Cuban Communist Party and that he had not persecuted people for their political beliefs. The indictment also said that from around 1968 to 1978 Mederos tortured Cuban political prisoners, "administering repeated electric shocks to them in the Mazorra Psychiatric Hospital, causing extreme pain, physical injury, loss of control of bodily functions and loss of consciousness to the victims and extreme fear in the victims and in other prisoners." (Click here to read about other Castro°s atrocities)


MIAMI, September 7

     CUBAN ACCUSED OF TORTURE IS INDICTED

     A Cuban accused of torturing dissidents in the communist island was indicted for allegedly lying about his past to obtain U.S. citizenship. The indictment accuses Eriberto Mederos of being of bad moral character, falsely denying a history of torture and denying past Cuban Communist Party ties when he sought U.S. residency, in violation of a Cold War-era disclosure requirement.

     "He is somebody who might very well be taken back by the Cuban government,'' an Assistant U.S. Attorney said Wednesday at Mederos' first court appearance. Mederos, 78, was held temporarily on $500,000 bail. A hearing was set for today, Friday.

     Former Cuban political prisoners have accused Mederos of using electrical torture on them at a Havana psychiatric hospital from 1968 to 1978. Mederos said he worked as an orderly there since the 1940s, but administered electroshock therapy only on doctors' orders. He came to the United States in the 1980s, was identified as a torturer in a 1991 book and became a citizen in 1993. The criminal charge carries a possible 10-year prison sentence and loss of U.S. citizenship.

CARACAS, September 7

    CHAVEZ SAYS TIES ESTABLISHED BETWEEN VENEZUELA AND CUBA MAKE THEM "ONE TEAMî

    Venezuela and Cuba, united in "one team" by their growing economic and political ties, should spearhead an international campaign against free-market capitalism, Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez said. In a speech on Wednesday night opening a bilateral cooperation meeting in Caracas, Chavez heaped praise on Cuban dictator Fidel Castro and his communist-ruled island and hailed a year-old economic accord between the two countries.  "Now we can talk of a single team. This isn't two teams any more, this is a single Cuban-Venezuelan, Venezuelan-Cuban team," he told high-level delegations from both countries.

     Since he took office in early 1999, Chavez, a left-leaning nationalist and former paratrooper, has rapidly strengthened ties between his oil-rich country and Cuba in a shift away from Venezuela's past close political alliance with Washington. Chavez, who during his speech took a call from Castro in Havana on a mobile phone, said Cuba and Venezuela were creating an alternative to the "neo-liberal" economic integration model he said was being imposed on Latin America with U.S.-backed plans for a Free Trade Area of the Americas.

     "We, Cuba and Venezuela, and other countries, through the circumstances of our political will, are called upon to be a spearhead, and summon other nations and governments," he said. Chavez said the Venezuelan-Cuban cooperation offered a "revolutionary" option, and he added: "Let's present it to other nations ... let's offer it as an alternative."


FORT WASHINGTON, September 6

     A RESPECTFUL REQUEST TO OUR DEAR PRESIDENT


We invite our visitors and foreign policy advisors to the Forty-Third President of the United States, George W. Bush, to read the request made by the Cuban-American Military Council (CAMCO) to the president-elect on December 25, 2000, just twenty-six days before he assumed the presidency following a very close election in which the vote of the Cuban-Americans in the State of Florida was so decisive in his favor.  (PLEASE, READ OUR REQUEST).

     It is very important to remember that the Cuban-Americans° massive vote for president Bush was inspired by their strong belief that the new President of the United States would not follow the example of his nine predecessors, who so unforgivably ignored the continued violations of the Cuban people°s human and institutional rights by the Communist government of Fidel Castro.

     Again, CAMCO would like to ask the question it made several months ago to all those past and present government officials who have ignored or excused the Cuban dictator°s actions and, instead, have accused the Cuban-Americans of being  very "intransigentsî in their crusade against the tyranny.

     WHAT WOULD YOU DO IF THE SAME PARTY AND THE SAME DICTATOR HAD GOVERNED YOUR COUNTRY FOR FORTY-TWO YEARS?


MIAMI, September 5

     JANET RENO TO RUN FOR FLORIDA GOVERNOR

     Former U.S. Attorney General Janet Reno formally kicked off her campaign for Florida governor on Tuesday, a race that could pit her against the U.S. president's younger brother and incumbent Republican governor, Jeb Bush, in next year's election.

     If Reno wins the Democratic nomination, the gubernatorial battle is expected to be one of the most brutal and expensive in U.S. history, as Democrats have pledged to unseat Bush for his perceived role in last year's presidential election in Florida that decided the race in favor of George W. Bush.

     However, a case that may play the largest role in her bid for governor is that of Élan Gonzalez, the Cuban boy who survived a shipwreck off the U.S. coast then was caught up in a custody battle between his father in Cuba and relatives in Miami. Reno never wavered in her belief that the boy should be sent back to his father in communist Cuba, angering anti-Castro Cuban exiles in Miami, a large and powerful south Florida voting bloc.

MIAMI, September 5

     MORE CUBANS LAND IN FLORIDA KEYS

     Smugglers dropped 55 Cuban nationals in the Florida Keys on Tuesday, bringing to 107 the number of migrants brought to the United States from the communist-ruled island in three days, U.S. authorities said.  The latest arrivals were found in three groups near Marathon Key.

     The U.S. Border Patrol said the first group of 24 told agents they had paid smugglers to transport them from Cardenas, Cuba, on a 30-foot boat that returned to the island after dropping them off. The group included seven men, nine women and eight children. The second group of 28 -- 16 men, seven women and five children -- left Villa Clara, Cuba. The third group, three people " one man, a woman and a child -- also was found near Marathon.

     For many years following Fidel Castro's 1959 revolution, Cubans left the Caribbean island on makeshift rafts or in small boats to cross the Florida Straits. In recent years, organized smuggling rings have taken over the traffic, transporting migrants to Florida in fast boats. The latest arrivals were being held at an immigration detention center near Miami.


HOLGUIN, September 5

     FIVE CUBAN CUSTOMS OFFICERS IMPLICATED IN CONTAINER THEFT

     Five Cuban customs officers formerly assigned to the port of Moa, in eastern Cuba, have been awaiting trial since June, presumably for having taken part in the theft of an indeterminate number of freight containers full of merchandise, according to knowledgeable sources at the port.

     The containers were typically trucked to Santiago de Cuba and there put on ships to Havana, where the stolen merchandise was more easily disposed of. The operation was uncovered when a full container was changing trucks on the road from Moa to Santiago de Cuba.

     The incident is potentially embarrassing to the government, since jobs in customs are generally reserved for those who are considered "reliable" and are members of the Communist Party.


MIAMI, September 5

     THE NUMBER OF CUBANS ILLEGALLY ARRIVING TO U.S. COASTS IS INCREASING 

     U.S. officials say it is a worrisome to see the increased number of  illegal inmigrantes arriving from Cuba. "Smugglers are packing in more paying customers per trip to maximize profits … We're seeing more people in the boats …  We're seeing them arrive in 20s and 30s, jammed in these boats,'' a Border Patrol spokesman said.

     New immigrants have told Border Patrol agents strikingly similar stories about their illegal trip to the United States. In most instances, they said they paid large sum of money for a spot on a boat. Officials said that it was possible the Cubans are brought by the same ring of smugglers, who often work on both sides of the Florida Straits.

     The spokesman said he doesn't know what caused the sudden rush of refugees.  Smuggling operations have increasingly become an alternative for Cubans who want to reach the U.S. since 1995, when federal policy began to call for the return of rafters found at sea. Often called "the wet-foot, dry-foot'' rule, the policy allows for Cubans who reach U.S. soil to stay. 


HAVANA, September 5

     CUBAN PHONE SERVICE IS UNDEPENDABLE

     In Havana, you can listen to the radio through a telephone, or pick-up telephone conversations through your radio or TV set; sometimes your neighbor's conversations come in clearer than the local radio stations. This is not a new feature or an advance in communications technology; it is simply another instance of the poor service that customers of the Cuban telephone company ETECSA complain about constantly.

     In spite of a slight increase in the number of lines and telephones in use, service standards of the joint Cuban-Italian company remain backward and quirky. The company has stepped up the installation of public and private telephones, but the service has not kept pace. Most public phones around Havana, for example, are not in working order. The would-be user typically finds a screen that reads: 'Only good for emergency calls.' That may mean that the set is broken or that the coin box is full. ETECSA officials have repeatedly said they will address the situation, but they have been saying that for years.

     Some months ago, the company started selling pre-paid telephone cards in pesos. The problem is that there are practically no phones that accept the cards. International calls also bring complaints. Cubans must go through an operator to make calls abroad. Some wags have said that instead of phone service, the company offers "a classical music service," because operators put customers on hold with music while they try to connect. Someone actually connecting in a half-hour, say, is considered lucky.


MIAMI, September 4

     52 CUBANS SMUGGLED INTO FLORIDA KEYS

     Smugglers dropped 52 Cubans, including 10 children, in the Florida Keys during the Labor Day holiday weekend, U.S. authorities said on Monday. The Cubans landed in two groups on Sunday and Monday at Key Largo, an island about 50 miles south of Miami, the U.S. Border Patrol said.

     The first group of 30 told Border Patrol agents they had paid the smugglers $8,000 per person to transport them in a 30-foot speedboat from Villa Clara, Cuba, to an area near John Pennekamp Coral Reef State Park. The group -- 16 men, six women, five girls and three boys -- was found on Sunday wading in shallow water among mangrove trees. They said they had spent 10 hours in the area before being found.

     The second group of 22, including 12 men, seven women, two girls and a boy, was found near the Ocean Reef resort, a few miles north of the park. They told agents they left Sagua la Grande, Cuba late on Sunday and landed early Monday morning. According to reports coming from the island, "there are boats lined up along the beaches in Cuba waiting for people to jump into them to come to the United States." The latest arrivals were being held at an immigration detention center near Miami.


HAVANA, September 3

     HAVANA RESIDENTS CALL "TRABAJADORESî NEWSPAPER°S  ARTICLE A JOKE


Residents of Havana called an August 27 article on the weekly Trabajadores (Workers), detailing the improvements in cleanliness and sanitation in the city, a joke, pointing out the overflowing garbage cans in front of the offices of the government-controlled Workers' Union, of which the newspaper is the official publication.  

    The same overflowing bins can be seen everywhere in the city. A resident of Pueblo Nuevo pointed out that in neighborhoods where people formerly had two garbage cans now they can only use one, which contradicts the report in the Trabajadores article to the effect that there are now more such bins.

HAVANA, September 3

     CRIME IS UP; EVEN THE WATER PIPES GO MISSING

     Crime is on the increase in the Santos Suárez neighborhood of Havana; even installed water supply pipes are fair game for thieves. Several residents woke up Saturday morning to dry faucets. Later in the day, they figured out the reason for the drought: someone had taken a number of pipes that used to supply water to the neighborhood.

     Residents speculate that the thieves must have been professionals, saying that no one heard or saw anything suspicious. In general, area residents complain of an increase in crime. "This used to be a quiet neighborhood, but in the last few months, anything that can be taken is taken, clothing, auto parts, furniture, anything," said an elderly resident.


MIAMI, September 2 

     TWO MORE CUBAN SPIES ARRESTED BY THE FBI

     A husband and wife who lived in Miami for about eight years were arrested in Orlando on Friday and charged with being part of a now-dismantled Cuban spy ring -- the latest salvo against Fidel Castro's foreign espionage apparatus on U.S. soil. A federal indictment accuses George Gari, 41, and Marisol Gari, 42, of being agents for the Cuban Directorate of Intelligence who assisted in two primary goals: trying to infiltrate West Miami-Dade's Southern Command headquarters.

     The couple allegedly belonged to Cuba's La Red Avispa, or Wasp Network, which the FBI busted in September 1998. Five high-ranking intelligence agents from the group were convicted on federal spying-related charges in June. Those men are awaiting sentencing. The investigation of the spy ring may lead to even more arrests, law enforcement officials said.

     Officials said George Gari was born in Brooklyn, N.Y., but moved with his family to Cuba as a child. His wife was born in Cuba. The pair received several years of training in weapons, explosives, encryption and surveillance techniques before moving to the Miami area about 10 years ago, officials said. According to the indictment, the Garis managed another agent named Gabriel in his bid to get a job at the Southern Command.


HAVANA, September 2

     AUTHORITIES ACKNOWLEDGED CASES OF DENGUE IN HAVANA

     For the first time, public health authorities acknowledged the existence of cases of dengue fever in Havana. Doctor Istven Hernández, director of the polyclinic in Managua, in the Havana municipality of Arroyo Naranjo, authorized the crews working to erradicate the Aedes aegypti mosquito to inform the population as to the existence of an unknown number of cases of dengue.

     Dr. Hernández said that it is necessary that the people know about the existence of the disease in the area, and added that one youth already died as a result of the disease, but gave no details about him. Residents speculate Dr. Hernández could have been referring to a young conscript in military unit 1011 who died last Wednesday, after a four-month hospital stay. There are also two cases of dengue in the "Comandante Pinares Contingent," a camp housing construction workers. In the La Lira district, also in Arroyo Naranjo, public health authorities declared an "epidemiologic alert" because there are several patients presenting all the symptoms of dengue.

     Mosquito erradication workers said that, as part of the campaign, people in whose homes mosquito breeding areas are found will be fined up to 1,500 pesos. Yet residents pointed out that the sanitary authorities do not pick up the garbage regularly or repair the network of supply and drain pipes who leak water and lead to standing pools, where mosquito primarily breed.


HAVANA, September 1^st.

     CUBAN DICTATOR FIDEL CASTRO ARRIVED IN AFRICA

     Cuban dictator Fidel Castro arrived yesterday at Durban (South Africa) where he will  participate in a global racism conference.  The United Nations has confirmed that the Cuban leader will speak Sept. 1, the second day of the World Conference Against Racism in Durban, South Africa. Cuba is the only Latin American country participating in the conference.

     Since Castro took power in Cuba in 1959, the communist government has been involved in African affairs. As early as 1963, Cuban troops were reportedly sent to Algeria to help in a border dispute with Morocco. Also during the 1960s, Cuban units were dispatched to Congo, where they backed a military government for more than two decades. Those early forays into Africa were minor compared with Cuban interventions in Angola and Ethiopia, beginning in the last half of the 1970s.  Cuba sent several tens of thousands of troops to back Ethiopian forces after a Somali invasion in 1977-78.


FORT WASHINGTON, September 1st.

      IMPORTANT NOTICE FOR CAMCO MEMBERS 

      We recommend our membership to regularly visit our "CLASSIFIED AREA.î  Critical  and important updates on our ACTIVITIES / PROJECTS and CUBA are posted regularly in the sections:  "DEPARTMENT OF INTELLIGENCE" (Intelligence Reports/Reportes de Inteligencia -- By LTC Fernández) AND "INSTRUCCIONES / ACTUALIZACIONES."
(See Also "Mensajes Electrónicos")