HAVANA, April 30

    AGAIN, CUBA ACCUSES MEXICAN FOREIGN MINISTER OF LYING

    Cuba accused Mexican Foreign Minister Jorge Castañeda on Monday of lying, keeping alive a dispute with traditionally close ally Mexico that began with Cuban dictator Fidel CastroÍs release a week ago of a private conversation between him and President Vicente Fox. "It is worth asking what is behind his new maneuvers, intrigues, and lies," Cuba said in a statement issued to Granma, the state-run media, referring to Castaneda's comments last week that Havana was seeking credits to buy oil from Mexico in the midst of the diplomatic spat.

    Havana strongly denied on Monday it made the request, charging Castaneda was involved in a "new plot" and that the credit was signed well before the current dispute. "Any assertion about Cuban government efforts to obtain Mexican credits for those ends are the fruit of a pathological obsession that could damage the Cuban economy," the libel Granma said.

    Castañeda has brushed aside the criticism, saying the Fox administration would not be deterred from pointing out what the foreign minister last week said was the "absence of human rights in Cuba, the absence of democracy in Cuba." Castro had called Castañeda "diabolic" and "sinister."


CARACAS, April 29

    PRESIDENT CHÁVEZ NAMES NEW VICE-PRESIDENT

    Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, reshuffling his cabinet two weeks after surviving a short-lived coup against him, Sunday named his Defense Minister Jose Vicente Rangel as Vice-President. Rangel would replace Diosdado Cabello, a former military officer and close political ally of Chavez, who would remain in the cabinet in another job, the president said.

    "I have decided to name Jose Vicente Rangel as Vice-President of the Republic, and I will swear him in in the next few days," Chavez announced during his weekly television and radio show "Hello President". Chavez added he would make additional changes to his government, "starting with my economic team," but he gave no details and said these would be announced at a later date.







NEW YORK, April 29

    US TO GET BACK SEAT ON U.N. COMMISSION TODAY

    The United States was set today to regain its seat on the U.N. Human Rights Commission after a humiliating defeat last year for the first time since it helped found the body in 1947. European Union countries Italy and Spain have pulled out of the race to make sure the United States runs for a safe seat among those reserved for Western nations on the 53-member commission that probes human rights abuses around the world.

    The U.N. Economic and Social Council, parent body of the Geneva-based rights commission, scheduled the elections for today with many of the results decided in advance among regional groups. Australia, Germany and Ireland will be elected along with the United States for membership in 2003, as representatives from the Western European and Other States Group, known as WEOG.


WASHINGTON, D.C., April 27

    U.S. WILL NOT FINANCE CUBA FOOD

   The final version of a new U.S. farm law negotiated by Senate and House lawmakers dropped a provision that would have further eased the economic embargo against Cuba by allowing private U.S. financing of food sales to the communist-run island, Sen. Tom Harkin said Friday.

    Embargo rules currently allow food sales to Cuba only for cash and the first such transactions occurred in the last few months. Havana has paid cash for about $73 million in U.S. agricultural products, the first such sales in decades, and has indicated it may want more. But, in blending the House and Senate versions into a final farm bill, negotiators rejected a Senate plan to allow private banks and companies to finance shipments of agricultural commodities to Cuba, Harkin said.


MEXICO, April 27

    PRESIDENT FOX: ñWE ALL WANT TO SEE A DEMOCRATIC CUBA"

    President Vicente Fox said Thursday that a blistering attack on him by Cuban dictator Fidel Castro this week is proof that he is leading Mexico through profound change. ''We all want to see a democratic Cuba,'' Fox said in an interview. ''We all want to see a Cuba that is respectful of human rights. And that is a decision that Fidel [Cuban dictator Fidel Castro] has in his hands. So we have to wait until he decides this is going to happen in Cuba.''

    ''The important thing I want to underscore,'' Fox said, ''is that this is the proof positive that there are changes in Mexico in foreign policy, important changes, that there are policies and a decisiveness that have to do with the promotion of human rights, above other things.'' Fox also said he has received calls from heads of state to offer support for his position on Cuba. But he declined to say which leaders had called him.


WASHINGTON, D.C., April 27

    U.S STATE DEPARTMENT: ñDEMOCRACY MUST ONCE AGAIN THRIVE IN VENEZUELA"

    Democracy must once again thrive in Venezuela in order for that country and the United States to have a strong relationship, a State Department high official said Friday, two weeks after a coup temporarily ousted President Hugo Chavez.

    In the past three years under Chavez, the United States has increasingly become concerned about ñthe health of institutions in Venezuela that are essential to democracy ƒ For the U.S.-Venezuela relationship to thrive again, it is essential to revitalize Venezuela's democracy. The U.S. has a serious desire of good relations with Venezuela", said Lino Gutierrez, Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Western Hemisphere Affairs.


HAVANA, April 27

    ELIZARDO SANCHEZ CALLS FOR ACTIVISTSÍ RELEASE

    Elizardo Sánchez, President of the Cuban Commission for Human Rights and National Reconciliation called Thursday for the release of eight opposition activists, including a blind man, arrested during a protest last month. The eight men were arrested March 4 in the central provincial capital of Ciego de Avila during a protest at a hospital where another colleague was receiving treatment after police allegedly roughed him up, said Sánchez .

    The protest consisted of the men yelling human rights slogans, then sitting down silently in a hospital hallway, said Sanchez. They were later arrested and taken away by police. The blind activist, Juan Carlos González, and the rest have been accused of public disorder and disrespect, charges often leveled for insulting Cuban dictator Fidel Castro.


MÉXICO, el 26 de abril

     MÉXICO ACCUSES CUBA OF BLACKMAIL

     Foreign Secretary Jorge Castañeda accused Cuban dictator Fidel Castro of blackmailing Mexico into voting against a U.N. resolution targeting Cuba's human rights record - and then, after Mexico voted for it, trying to embarrass President Fox by making public a private conversation between the two leaders. ñIt was blackmail, and the release of the conversation was revenge, a vile revenge," Castañeda told TV Azteca. Castañeda said Mexico's traditional policy was to avoid criticizing Cuba ñso that they would not meddle here and would not say anything or do anything. That was the pact, and all of us know it existed."

     Castañeda said Fox had wanted to get Castro out of Monterrey for reasons other than the arrival of the U.S. president. ñThe problem was not Bush," Castañeda said. ñThe problem was that Castro had threatened, through his acts, to dedicate himself to internal politics in Mexico." Castañeda cited planned meetings with Mexican news media and anti-globalization protesters. In nightly state television broadcasts this week, Cuban officials have showered Castañeda with insults, calling him ñdiabolical." Castro has suggested that Fox is a ñdecent" but naive dupe of Castaneda.

    Fox said he has changed his country's foreign policy ñin a radical way" since becoming the first opposition party candidate to win Mexico's presidency. In addition to Mexico's traditional focus on noninterference in other nations' affairs, Fox said Thursday that human rights ñare universal and are above political and ideological interests." He promised that Mexico would ñgo forward with the relationship with Cuba, with the Cubans, continue defending the rights of the Cubans, continue defending human rights, electoral rights, democratic rights of the people of Cuba."


MADRID, April 26

    SPAIN BACKS MEXICO, URUG AY IN SPAT WITH CUBA

    Spanish Foreign Minister Josep Pique Thursday expressed his support for Mexico and UrugÙay in a political spat with Cuba. Communist Cuba's relations with Mexico were strained this week after Cuban dictator Fidel Castro aired a private conversation with Mexican leader Vicente Fox.

    Separately, UrugÙay broke off diplomatic relations with Cuba this week after Castro branded President Jorge Batlle a "Judas" for spearheading a United Nations motion last week protesting against human rights abuses in Cuba. "I want to express my solidarity with Mexico and Uruguay and with their presidents," Pique told a news conference.


MOTEVIDEO, April 25

    URUG AY BREAKS CUBA DIPLOMATIC TIES OVER ñAFFRONT"

     The President of UrugÙay Jorge Batlle said on Tuesday his government had broken diplomatic relations with Cuba because of "affronts" by Cuban dictator Fidel Castro. 

    "The tone of the affronts has grown stronger and so our response is simple. I don't think it makes sense to continue diplomatic relations with Cuba," Batlle said. Castro had called Batlle a "Judas" because of UruguayÍs initiative in Geneva aimed to probe charges of human rights abuses in Cuba. The UrugÙayan government told Cuba's ambassador to leave the country within 72 hours and recalled its man in Havana. "We have given him (Cuban Ambassador Joaquin Alvarez) a reasonable period of time to complete his diplomatic missions in the country," said Foreign Minister Guillermo Valles. 

    Castro was publicly haranguing Mexico further on Tuesday evening when he was told that Uruguay had broken relations. The dictator shrugged off the news, scorning Batlle as a "man full of complexes, angry, and full of hate." Then he added, ñhow we call him, Judas."


WASHINGTON, D.C., April 25

    CUBA WILL FALL UNDER NORTHCOM'S AREA OF OPERATIONS 

    The Pentagon has carved Cuba out of the rest of Latin America in a new defense plan that concentrates on homeland defense from headquarters in Colorado. Under the new Unified Command Plan, established in response to the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, the Southern Command, based just west of Miami, will be responsible for territory south of Cuba. A Northern Command will have jurisdiction over U.S. military activities from Canada to Cuba, including the U.S. Navy base at Guantánamo Bay.

    ''It's messy and everyone recognizes that,'' said a senior Defense Department official in Washington. ''But they wanted to have a sense of covering the approaches'' to the United States from the sea. The transfer is not expected to take place immediately upon creation of NORTHCOM in October. SOUTHCOM could continue for about two years the supervision of military operations at the base called Gitmo (Guantanamo Naval Base), officials said, including the new prison for international terrorists.


WASHINGTON, D.C., April 25

    WHAT CARTER SHOULD AND SHOULDNÍT DO (By Michael Putney)

    Dear Mr. President:

    You'll be leaving for Cuba in about two weeks, which means you're in the process of finishing up your itinerary. Let me make a few suggestions, if you don't mind. I've been there several times since my first reporting visit in 1981ƒ (Click here and read the complete memo)


HAVANA, April 24

     CUBAN DICTATOR: ñVICENTE FOX IS A LIAR"

     Cuba's relations with long- time ally Mexico appeared headed for a new low on Monday after Cuban dictator Fidel Castro repeatedly called President Vicente Fox a liar, and played a tape of a private conversation between them to prove it. Castro, speaking before a national TV audience and almost 100 international journalists, insisted Fox lied about the his hasty departure last month from a U.N. aid summit in Monterrey, Mexico.

    "They were all lying left and right," Castro said. During the private telephone conversation Fox clearly pushed Castro to leave the meeting early and urged him "not to attack the United States or President Bush." ñListen Mr. President, I am an individual who have been in politics for 43 years and know what I have to do and what I should not do," Castro replied. The dictator said he would resign to ñall my positions and responsibilities at the head of the Cuban state and revolution," if the conversation proved false and challenged Fox to resign if it was not. Although Castro said he recognized his decision to air the private conversation could lead to severed diplomatic relations, Fox spokesman Rolando Elizondo told a news conference in Mexico City that his country had no plans to cut ties with the communist-run country. "Independent of anecdotes and episodes like this one, the Mexican government will continue its diplomatic relations with the Republic of Cuba," he concluded.

    Castro also criticized Mexico's vote last week at the U.N. Human Rights Commission hearings in Geneva calling it ñthe last straw," and a "despicable betrayal" because Fox had promised him "that Mexico would never do anything against Cuba" at the U.N. forum. But Interior Secretary Santiago Creel defended Mexico's decision to vote against Cuba. ñA government can only truly be called a democracy if its leaders respect human rights,'' Creel said. Previously, Creel has previously said the Cuban government was a ñdictatorship."


WASHINGTON, D.C., April 24

    AMBASSADOR REICH REJECTS CALLS FOR APOLOGY

    Ambassador  Otto Reich on Monday sharply rejected suggestions that Washington should apologize for its handling of the Venezuelan crisis.'' Apologies for what?'' asked Reich, the assistant secretary of state for the Western Hemisphere. ñIf it's shown we made a mistake, I'll apologize.

    Reich, a former U.S. ambassador to Venezuela, said the Bush administration's categorical April 12 statement that President Hugo Chávez had resigned Venezuela's presidency ñreflected the best information that we had at the time ƒ I pay absolutely no attention to people who say that we didn't respect democracy," he said.


WASHINGTON, D.C., April 23

    CUBA POLICY REVIEW ALMOST READY

     Informed sources said last week that Bush Administration officials charged with reviewing US Cuba policy and suggesting ways to hasten democratic reform on the island are considering a recommendation that calls for more US contact with young Cuban bureaucrats and military officers. These sources said the possible recommendation would be aimed at fostering limited relationships with young Cuban officials in the hope that they would support a US style transition toward democracy after the fall of Cuban dictator Fidel Castro.

     The sources also said the review may include recommendations aimed at more strictly enforcing the embargo. The recommendations are expected to be released late this month or no later than May 12, which is the beginning of former President Jimmy CarterÍs visit to Cuba. It seems that the administration wants to release the results of the review before May 20 ¿ Cuban Independence Day.

    There are divided opinions on whether the new Cuba policy will be different from those previously adopted by former U.S. presidents. Nevertheless, changes are expected because this review has been directed by George W. Bush, a president who last week described Cuba as "an incredibly repressive regime" and urged condemnation of Castro's dictatorship by the UN Human Rights Commission in Geneva.




HAVANA, April 23

    SENATOR BOXER: ñCASTRO IS DELIGHTED WITH CARTERÍS TRIP"

    Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.) said after meeting with Cuban dictator Fidel Castro in Havana that he seemed "extremely delighted" with CarterÍs planned visit to Cuba. "He (the dictator) says he is going to give permission to President Carter to speak to huge numbers of people and say whatever he wants to say," she told a Havana news conference accompanied by Wayne Smith, one of CastroÍs greatest apologists. "President (dictator) Castro feels under the Carter administration there was progress, and I think he is quite excited about his coming to Cuba," Boxer said. Carter is scheduled to visit Cuba from May 12 to 17.

    Boxer, who opposes the embargo and travel ban, was speaking at the end of a four-day visit as head of a delegation of businessmen and artists. A member of Boxer's delegation said it was the third time this year he had sat in on a meeting between Castro and U.S. lawmakers. "The drill was the same. They call you to the Revolution Palace in the evening. First, you have cocktails and chat, then a formal meeting, and after that is over, you have dinner until early the next morning," he said. "Castro (the dictator) is ingratiating and attentive. It is a charm offensive. He gives long answers to every question, but he is a good politician and manages to look you in the eye as he gives them," said the delegation member, who asked not to be identified.

    Recently, a Miami Herald editorial entitled ñCubaÍs Transparent Charm" said: ñƒNo, this isn't a kinder, gentler dictator; it's pragmatic propaganda from a totalitarian government that can't pay its bills -- mainly a whopping $11 billion in external debt. Now Cuba's regime is trying to woo U.S. capitalists into authorizing credits, floating loans and legitimizing a regime that is morally and materially bankrupt. Neither U.S. taxpayers nor Congress should buy it."


NEW YORK, April 23

    U.S. ROLE IN CHAVEZ COUP UNDERSTATED 

    Contacts between U.S. officials and Venezuelan military officers involved in the temporary Hugo Chávez ouster were more extensive than the White House has acknowledged, says an article in Newsweek magazine. According to Newsweek, the Senate Foreign Relations Committee is seeking classified cables and other documents detailing contacts between top U.S. officials and Venezuelans involved in the failed coup.

    Venezuelan military officers briefly detained Chávez almost two weeks ago after 17 people were killed during protests against his rule. The Bush administration, which appeared to tacitly endorse Chávez ouster, said last week it met with the opposition in the South American nation in recent months but denied encouraging the coup.

    "In the months before the coup, several dissatisfied Venezuelans visited Washington for closed U.S. officials," Newsweek said in an edition published on Monday. The publication adds that billionaire Gustavo Cisneros -- suspected of supplying money for the coup -- used to be one of the biggest supporters of Chávez until the leader tilted to the left.


HAVANA, April 22

    BELIEVE IT OR NOT! --  CUBA DECLARES VOTE IN GENEVA A ñMORAL VICTORY"  

     When the U.N. Human Rights Commission passed a resolution Friday calling on Cuba to grant its citizens individual liberties, Castro dictatorship declared a ñmoral victory." Cuba lost its battle to block the measure's approval by two votes. Foreign Minister Felipe Perez Roque said on state television that the slim margin proved the loyalty of friends in developing regions such as Africa, the Middle East and Asia.

    The Cuban minister said Cuba found the wide support for the measure in Latin America ñinconceivable." Cuba characterized the Latin American nations that voted in favor of the resolution as ñservile Judases'' of Washington. Nevertheless, the vote was welcomed by the island's human rights activists, who said the annual exercise is necessary to keep Cuba's rights record in the international spotlight. Cuba is governed by ñtropical Talibans" who ñhave a lot of power over a silent majority who desire greater space and liberty," said leading Cuban activist Elizardo Sanchez, president of the Cuban Commission for Human Rights and National Reconciliation.


HAVANA, April 22

    FIRE DESTROYED SUGAR CANE PLANTATION

    A fire that burned for more than 10 hours destroyed the sugar cane planted in about 500 acres by the Fabián Cabrera Basic Unit of Cooperative Production in the City of GÙines, South of Havana. The burn cane was assigned to the ñOsvaldo Sánchez sugar mill and the loss is estimated at 100,000 hundredweight. A source linked to the Ministry of Agriculture said the environmental damage to the surroundings could not be estimated immediately.

    Several sugar industry workers confirmed the extent of the losses, adding that a number of political and national police had seen investigating at the site. No official statement as to the cause of the fire has been released.




CARACAS, April 21

     FOUR VENEZUELA GENERALS DIE IN A HELICOPTER CRASH

    Venezuela's new air force commander and three other generals died in a helicopter crash, officials said Saturday. Gen. Luis Alfonso Acevedo was among 10 airmen who were killed Friday when their helicopter crashed in forests, likely due to bad weather, the military said.

     Acevedo, who took over as air force commander just last week in post-coup shake-ups, was in one of three French-built Super Puma helicopters carrying top officers back to Caracas from the installation of a new navy commander at Mamo, 20 miles north of Caracas. Political analysts say the failed coup has deeply split the military, which Chavez put at the center of his "revolution." The military has been shaken still further now with the dead of General Acevedo.

     There were no immediate signs of mechanical problems or foul play, but Gen. Gilberto Vallenilla told the news conference that the air force would investigate the cause. Also killed were Brig. Gens. Pedro Torres Finol, the air force operations commander, Rafael Quintana Bello, personnel chief, and Julio Cesar Ochoa Omañas, who worked for the general staff, and six lower-ranking personnel, including two who were piloting the craft.


CARACAS, April 21

    VENEZUELAN WORKERS ANNOUNCE A LARGE MARCH FOR MAY FIRST

    Venezuelan Workers Confederation (CTV) president Carlos Ortega emerged from a week of hiding on Saturday, calling on Chavez to disarm his civilian supporters and to include critics within his cabinet. ñIf we Venezuelans can't reach some kind of agreement, we are headed, unfortunately, painfully and irreversibly, toward a civil war,'' Ortega told a news conference. "If he really doesn't change his attitude ... I really think we're going to see a similar, or worse, situation to the one we saw," Ortega said. He added that Chavez had no choice but to change: "I think it's the only option open to him. He can't play around any more. ... It's all up to him now."

    Ortega also said his CTV is planning another large march on the traditional labor celebration May Day, but he said it would focus on labor issues rather than demands for Chavez's resignation.

    The labor union has been at odds with Chavez since the president tried to remove its leaders, first by promoting laws for open union elections and then by sponsoring rivals. In a rare defeat for Chavez, Ortega's ticket won an easy victory, but the president had refused to negotiate with him. After the coup, Ortega dropped out of sight, fearing arrest or attacks. But he said Chavez's aides assured him he was safe and offered to open a dialogue.


GENEVA, April 20

    CUBA SUFFERS GIGANTIC DEFEAT IN GENEVA -- U.N. HUMAN RIGHTS COMMISSION DEMANDS THAT CUBA DICTATORSHIP GRANTS FREEDOM TO ITS PEOPLE

    The U.N. Human Rights Commission on Friday demanded that Cuba grants its people individual liberties such as freedom of speech, the press, association and assembly. The resolution, passed 23-21 with 9 abstentions at the U.N. Human Rights Commission,. also said Cuba's communist authorities should let a U.N. rights representative visit the island to help officials comply with the resolution -- a suggestion Cuba has always rejected.

     The resolution was proposed by Uruguay and co-sponsored by several fellow commission members from Latin America and Europe. The only Latin American countries voting against the resolution were Cuba and Venezuela. In favor voted: Argentina, Chile, Costa Rica, Guatemala, Mexico, Peru and Uruguay. Brasil and Ecuador abstained. Cuba won the backing of African, Asian and Middle Easter nations.

  Cuban ambassador Juan Antonio Fernandez Palacios asked for the floor after the vote to immediately reject the prospect of a visit and denounced what he claimed was "extreme pressure by the United States" to pass the motion. He said: "This is not a Latinamerican initiative, there will be no concessions, no gesture, no dialogue and no visit (to Cuba), Fernandez said.


MEXICO, April 20

    MEXICO'S INTERIOR MINISTER SAID THERE IS "DICTATORSHIP" IN CUBA 

   Mexican interior Minister Santiago Creel said Thursday that Mexico will vote for a U.N. resolution calling for a human rights envoy to be sent to Cuba."

    The Mexican government is "not going to be silenced when it comes to the subject of human rights", Creel said. "Are we to point out dictatorships only of the right, and nor of the left? Or are dictatorships always dictatorships? We believe that they are. "Creel's remarks came in response to a flurry of criticism by opposition legislators since Foreign Minister Jorge Castaneda announced that Mexico will support the resolution, which was sponsored by Uruguay and backed by eight other Latin Amer5ican countries and Canada.

    Under the long-standing rule of the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI), Mexico had never voted in favor of a U.N. human rights resolution chastising Cuba's human rights record. Creel said that the 2000 election of President Vicente Fox of the National Action Party (PAN), wresting the executive branch from the PRI for the first time in 71 years, showed that Mexicans "voted for change" including a new stance on Cuba. PRI and leftist Party of Democratic Revolution lawmakers called this week for Mexico to abstain in Friday's vote. However,. Creel said that the Fox Administration would not let opposition legislators impose a "muzzle law."


WASHINGTON, D.C., April 19

     PRESIDENT BUSH ASKS CHAVEZ TO LEARN THE LESSONS FROM THE CRISIS

     President Bush denied any United StatesÍ involvement in the brief  coup against Venezuelan president Hugo Chávez and said today that his ñadministration was very clear when there were troubles on the streets in Venezuela, that we support democracy and did not support any extra-constitutional action.  My administration spoke with a very clear voice about our strong support of democracy."

     ñIt is very important for President Chavez to do what he said he was going to do, to address the reasons why there was so much turmoil on the streets. And it's very important for him to embrace those institutions which are fundamental to democracy, including freedom of press, and freedom for the ability for the opposition to speak out. And if there are lessons to be learned, it's important that he learn them," said President Bush during a press conference with Colombian President Andrés Pastrana.

    ñWell, first, the reason I mentioned freedom of the press is because when things got hot in Venezuela, he shut the press down.  I want you all -- I've never thought about doing that, no matter how, what kind of questions these guys ask hereƒBut nevertheless -- because I respect the press, and so should President Chavez.  It's essential he do that," the President said.


WASHINGTON, D.C., el 19 de abril

     PENTAGON CREATES THE NORTHERN COMMAND (NORTHCOM) 

     The Pentagon announced Wednesday a broad reorganization that creates a new command to defend the United States against terror attacks and leaves the Southern Command intact and in Miami-Dade County, with responsibility for U.S. military operations in Latin America and the Caribbean. The centerpiece of the plan is the creation of the Northern Command, to be headed by a four-star general whose mission is to defend the continental United States and to lend military support to civil authorities if another disaster like Sept. 11 occurs.

    Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld called the plan ''the most significant reform of our nation's military command structure'' since World War II. Northcom will also be responsible for monitoring events in Mexico, Canada and U.S. territory in the Caribbean, and for coordinating security and military issues in those areas. Its headquarters will be at Peterson Air Force Base, Colo., now home of the North American Aerospace Defense Command. NORAD, which is responsible for defending the United States and Canada against missile attack, will come under Northern Command.

    But on the ground, in the event of another attack like Sept. 11, or a natural disaster, the military will centralize its responsibility for lending support to the FBI, FEMA and state and local authorities. One exception would be a nuclear, biological or chemical attack within Washington, D.C., Rumsfeld said. In that instance, the military would lead emergency responses.


 

CARACAS, April 18

      OAS WISE ADVICE TO VENEZUELA: KICK MILITARY OUT OF POLITICS

     Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez must kick the military out of politics to restore his democratic credibility, Cesar Gaviria, Secretary General of the Organization of American States (OAS), told reporters. But uniforms still loom large in Venezuela. Chávez has promoted many former comrades and put ministries and key institutions in the hands of military officers.

    Gaviria said he saw no risk of a new coup like the one that overthrew Chávez on Friday after a huge anti-government protest when 17 people died, but warned: ñThere is a risk ... social unrest will come again soon." Indeed, opposition leaders, unconvinced that the former paratrooper whom critics say wants to install a Cuban-style regime has any intention of changing his autocratic ways, promised as much.

     ñAs long as Chávez remains in power, we will continue the protests," Henry Ramos, president of Accion Democratica, one of Venezuela's main opposition parties. ñThe coup plotters are under arrest and face likely charges of rebellion and mutiny," said defense lawyer Carlos Bastidas. "The information we have is that the investigation covers around 80 officials, generals and admirals," he said.


WASHINGTON, D.C., April 18

     SENATOR DORGAN DEMANDS CUBAN FOOD PROBE

  A leading Senate advocate of easing the embargo on Cuba wants an investigation of the Bush administration's decision to cancel visas for Cuban officials who planned to discuss buying American wheat and other crops.  

    Sen. Byron Dorgan, D-N.D., says the State Department told his staff the visas were canceled because it was not administration policy to encourage agricultural sales to Cuba. ñThis is a brainless policy to be saying that we don't want to sell grain to the Cubans," Dorgan, said in a statement Wednesday. ñWe sell grain to communist China, communist Vietnam, and it's just absurd to tell our farmers that our government doesn't want to sell grain to Cuba."


SANTIAGO, April 18

     CHILE FIRES ENVOY TO VENEZUELA

    The Government of Chile fired its ambassador in Caracas on Wednesday for openly supporting the business leader who briefly replaced Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez in a coup last week. Chilean President Ricardo Lagos condemned the coup shortly after it occurred last Friday but his envoy to Venezuela, Marcos Alvarez, told the Chilean media he had good personal relations with business leader Pedro Carmona, the newly installed president.

    Alvarez's remarks left Chile in an embarrassing position after a counter-rebellion reinstalled into power the triumphant Chávez just 48 hours after he was deposed. "On instructions from the president of the republic today, we have requested the resignation of the Chilean ambassador to Venezuela," Foreign Minister Soledad Alvear told reporters.

GENEVA, April 16

     WASHINGTON, MEXICO AND CHILE JOIN SPONSORING RESOLUTION ON CUBA

    The United States, Mexico and Chile will join the growing number of countries sponsoring a resolution against Cuba at the United Nations Commission on Human Rights annual gathering in Geneva, officials announced Monday. The participation of U.S., Mexico and Chile, brings to 18 the number of countries joining the effort to censure Cuba, including eleven from Latin America -- the first time such action on Cuba's human rights record has been spearheaded by the region. "It is not a condemnation. Chile has reiterated to Cuba its willingness to cooperate in any other initiative proposed by the island's authorities toward improving the human rights situation of the Cuban people," Chilean Foreign Minister Soledad Alvear told reporters. Mexican President Vicente Fox issued a statement on Monday saying his country also would back the motion "which, instead of the condemnations of years past, assumes a constructive and cooperative focus."

    ''This is the first time Latin American countries have said that human rights issues in Cuba is a matter of concern,'' said James Carragher, coordinator of Cuban affairs for the U.S.  Department of State. ñSome courageous Latin American countries and leaders have taken a principled stand on human rights.'' In addition to the United States, Mexico, Chile and Paraguay, the motion's sponsor, other co-sponsors include Peru, Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras, Panama, Nicaragua, Costa Rica, Argentina, Canada, Sweden, Latvia, Poland, the Czech Republic and Australia.

    Cuba already has condemned the proposed resolution, saying it is the handiwork of the United States, and has rejected the suggestions of a visit from a human rights monitor. ''They're having vain illusions if they think that Cuba would let an inspector in the service of the United States government come here under these conditions,'' Foreign Minister Felipe Pérez Roque told reporters last week. The minister also threatened with retaliation against any country sponsoring the resolution, denounced what he called U.S. "maneuvers" and "pressures" around the Geneva commission, and warned that any Latin American sponsoring or backing a resolution against the communist government would be considered a "Judas" by Cuba.


CARACAS, April 16

     CHAVEZÍS SUPPORTERS LOOT CARACAS

     In all, about 46 people are known to have been slain after the military high command confronted Chavez and announced that he had resigned, setting off street protests and a rebellion by some military commanders who didn't go along with the plan. Looters who sacked commercial districts of poor Caracas neighborhoods over the weekend left smashed display windows, charred businesses, bloodstained sidewalks and sorrow in their wake. The Catia neighborhood, one of Caracas's largest slums, resembled a war zone on Sunday. Mile upon mile of shops had been sacked and their battered metal shutters were painted with "Nothing left here" or "Already looted."

    Hundreds of looters dragged away all goods of shops on a street in the middle-class eastern neighborhood of La Florida on Sunday. Police and National Guard troops stood by helplessly, not risking more serious disturbances by making arrests. Caracas Mayor Alfredo Pena, a Chavez opponent, said that gunmen attacked his city hall building on Saturday night, riddling it with machine gun fire. "There's a confrontation of social classes here. There's a lot of hatred," he said.

    One member of the military high command said Sunday that the armed forces' deep division over Chavez would be difficult to mend. ñI admit that there has been a rupture ... and we must repair it in the best way possible," said Gen. Belisario Landis, commander of the National Guard. Chavez appealed for an end to the violence, adding that Venezuela had experience ñan avalanche of hate which I hope never comes to our country again."


WASHINGTON, D.C., April 15

     U.S.: CHAVEZ SHOULD RESPECT THE CONSTITUTIONAL PROCESS

     President Bush administration, which expressed no regret when the Venezuelan military ousted the Hugo Chávez last week, advised Chavez on Sunday to make good use of a second chance to govern.

     ñWe do hope that Chavez recognizes that the whole world is watching and that he takes advantage of this opportunity to right his own ship, which has been moving, frankly, in the wrong direction for quite a long time," said Condoleezza Rice, President Bush's national security adviser. She said Chavez ñneeds to respect constitutional processes" during this tumultuous period in Venezuela, the No. 3 supplier of oil to the United States.

     ñI hope that Hugo Chavez takes the message that his people sent him, that his own policies are not working for the Venezuela peopleƒ" Rice said on NBC's ñMeet the Press." Rice said she hopes Chavez ñunderstands this is a time for national reflection, that he recognizes it's time for him to reflect on how Venezuela got to where it is ƒThis is no time for a witch huntƒThis is a time for national reconciliation in Venezuela."


HAVANA, TEHERAN AND BAGHDAD, April 15

    CUBA, IRAN AND IRAQ: CHÁVEZ RETURN TO POWER IS A ñVICTORY OVER IMPERIALISM"

     In Havana, Cuba, on Sunday the state-controlled press hailed Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez's return to power as a "revolutionary victory" over a "fascist and reactionary counterrevolutionary coup." Slogans such as "long live President Chavez," "long live the friendship of the Cuban and Venezuelan people" and "revolutionary victory" flashed across the TV screen in bold letters as the video rolled again and again.

    In Teheran, Iran, state radio said. ñUsing force and illegal methods for changing legal and popular regimes is condemned in the present world," state radio quoted Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Hamid Reza Asefi as saying. Iran accused Washington for being behind the coup which ousted Chavez from power. Iran's state television on Saturday said Washington was concerned that Venezuela would heed a call by Iran to cut oil supplies for one month to countries that support Israel.

     In Baghdad, Iraq controlled-press hailed Chavez' return as a "victory against the American conspiracy." "We received with overwhelming and great happiness news of the foiling of the coup attempt that took place in your country, the country of democracy and freedom," INA quoted a message sent by Saddam to Chavez. "I would like to congratulate the friendly Venezuelan people for their victory against the American conspiracy," Iraq's Deputy Prime Minister Tareq Aziz told reporters. Aziz also said the United States would "fail not only in Venezuela but in all parts of the world," in a reference to U.S. attempts to overthrow Iraqi President Saddam Hussein.


CARACAS, April 15

    CHAVEZ RETURNS TO OFFICE

    President Hugo Chavez returned to office two days after he was ousted and arrested by Venezuela's military, raising his fist in the air as he greeted supporters and reclaimed the presidential palace Sunday. ñI'm still stupefied. I'm still assimilating,'' Chavez said in a live TV address to the nation after flying by helicopter to the palace in Caracas from captivity on a Venezuelan island in the Caribbean.

      Of course, the Cuban people remember a similar saga. On July 17, 1959, the newspaper "Revolución" issued an early morning edition with a headline in big red letters: "FIDEL RESIGNS!'  Immediately, the labor movement leader, David Salvador, called a one-hour labor strike, announcing that its purpose was to "get Dr. Castro to reassume his post as prime minister as soon as possible."  Posters suddenly appeared in all public places, factories, markets, busses, reading 'WITH FIDEL TO THE END."  "RESIGN FOR WHAT?" "FIDEL CLEAR THE GOVERNMENT OF THOSE WHO VACILLATE." "FIDEL OR DEATH." As treacherously planned, Castro withdrew his resignation and returned stronger than ever to the "palace" to impose tough revolutionary measures. Now, in Venezuela, to successfully implement his radical ideas, the disciple has to carry out the actions recommended by his old and experienced mentor.

    On Sunday, a State Department spokesman said U.S. officials are ñconcerned about the situation and are watching carefully as events unfold. We continue to call on all elements to avoid violence and seek ways to engage peacefully to resolve this crisis." ñThose in authority bear particular responsibility to maintain order and the conditions necessary for Venezuelans to work together to restore fully the essential elements of democracy," said the spokesman, Frederick Jones.


CARACAS, April 14

    VENEZUELA: WE ARENÍT GOING TO SEND A SINGLE BARREL OF OIL TO CUBA

     "And here's a piece of good news, we're not going to send a single barrel more of oil to Cuba," Edgar Paredes, head of sales at Petroleo de Venezuela PDVSA, told cheering employees at a news conference. The leftist government of Chavez had been supplying Cuba with up to 53,000 barrel per day on preferential terms.

    Chavez's friendship with Cuban dictator Fidel Castro had made his oil-rich nation, the world's fourth-largest petroleum exporter, the biggest single trading partner of Cuba. Chavez's energy deal with Cuba further infuriated his many political  opponents, who accused him of dictatorial tendencies.

    When CubaÍs Foreign Minister, Felipe Perez Roque, was asked about the impact that could have on Cuba PDVSAÍs actions, he would only say that the Venezuelan oil authorities ñanswer to the coup leaders who at this moment are trying to consolidate power by illegal means.''


CARACAS, April 14

    CHAVEZ MOVED TO NAVAL BASE ON VENEZUELAÍS CARIBBEAN COAST

    Hugo Chavez was moved Saturday under heavy military custody to a naval base on the Caribbean coast approximately 100 kilometers (60 miles) from the capital, said an aide close to the former president. Chavez spent Friday behind bars at Fort Tiuna in Caracas, which was surrounded by demonstrations in which shots were fired. It is not known if Chavez was moved to avoid the demonstrations or in preparation for an eventual exit from the country.

    Earlier Saturday, Chavez's daughter, María Gabriela Chavez, told Cuba's official television news agency that her father had been moved in the early morning hours. ''He was taken by helicopter to an unknown location,'' said María Gabriela. She said she learned of the move from her father's friends in the military.


MIAMI, April 14

    CUBA'S DARK DAYS (By Manuel Cereijo)

    The downfall of  Hugo Chavez will, in many aspects, adversely affect Castro in Cuba. I want to analyze in this report just one of them: OIL.

     In 1989, a year taken always as a reference to compare Cuba economically, the oil consumption of Cuba was 13 million tons per yearƒ The generating capacity of the electrical system was 3,500 Mwatts, with an average demand of 2,650 Mwatts.

    Cuba consumed 13 million tons of oil in 1989,of which, 40 million barrels, some 7 million tons., were for the generation of electricity. In 2000, Cuba consumed, for all needs, not only to generate electricity, 6.3 million tons. Of these, 1.2 million are domestic oil, not suitable to be used in the generation of electricity because of its high content of sulphur, approximately 10%.  (Click here to read the complete report)


HAVANA, April 13

     CUBANS SHOCKED WITH CHAVEZÍS FALL

     Friday's fall of Hugo Chávez, shocked ordinary Cubans who had received little information of the seriousness of the Venezuelan crisis due to the pro-Chavez coverage by state controlled media. "Oh, you must be joking!" said a retired state worker. "It seems whatever government tries to have a revolution or put in place a social system like ours fails. It is because this system doesn't work," she added, ticking off a list of countries including Chile, Nicaragua and Angola.

     Venezuela's provisional government said Chavez resigned on Friday after military officers insisted he leave office, blaming him for violence against a huge opposition protest in which at least 10 people were killed. Chavez apparently appealed to take refuge in Cuba, but that request was turned down by the military officers who acted against him. Cubans had a role in guarding Chavez. A senior official said a Cuban aircraft took off from the international airport outside Caracas two hours after Chavez resigned, possibly taking his ñbrave" bodyguards back home.

     "The fall of Chavez is really, really bad news for Cuba, especially on top of everything else that's been going on," one Latin American diplomat said. "It's going to make them more isolated. The end of the Castro-Chavez alliance comes on top of a cooling between Cuba and Mexico, traditionally Havana's strongest ally in Latin America but embroiled in diplomatic tensions with the Castro government since it began to criticize the Caribbean island over human rights and democracy. It follows a hurtful diplomatic slap in the face for Cuba this week from its own region when nine Latin American nations led by Uruguay presented a motion at the top U.N. human rights body in Geneva urging Cuba make progress on human rights.


CARACAS, April 13

    CHAVEZ MINISTER ARRESTED IN VENEZUELA FOR KILLINGS

     Venezuelan police on Friday arrested overthrown President Hugo Chavez's former interior minister, Ramón Rodríguez, in connection with the killings of at least 15 people during a demonstration that led to collapse of the Chavez government, officials said. Rodriguez, a close Chavez confidant, was punched by a furious mob as he was led handcuffed to a police vehicle outside an upscale Caracas apartment building.

     "He is suspected of responsibility for yesterday's incidents," the mayor of Caracas' Chacao neighborhood, Leopoldo López, told reporters. Rodriguez has been the only one of his former ministers to be arrested, but police have rounded up several men suspected of firing on the huge anti-Chavez protest in central Caracas on Thursday.


WASHINGTON, D.C., April 13

    ESPÍA CUBANO IN U.S. FOR DEBRIEFINGS ON CUBAN INTELLIGENCE OPERATIONS

    A top Cuban spy who defected in Panama two weeks ago has been brought to the United States for debriefings on Havana intelligence operations in Canada, America and Panama, U.S. and Panamanian officials say. Orlando Brito Pestana was stationed in the early 1990s in Canada, a critical Cuban intelligence post because of its access to the unguarded U.S. border.

    Brito is believed to be one of the most senior Cuban intelligence officials to defect in recent years. It is a blow to Havana intelligence operations already battered by the capture of confessed spy Ana Belén Móntez at the Pentagon last year and several members of the ''Wasp Network'' in Miami in 1998. U.S. government officials said Brito is undergoing debriefings by U.S. intelligence officials that could last for months, depending on the value of his knowledge.

    But an FBI official who has handled Cuban spy cases warned that Brito may also be a double-agent sent by Havana to misinform. ''Cuba has one of the most aggressive intelligence operations in the world, and until we know more he will probably be treated as a potential double agent,'' the official said.


CARACAS, April 13

    CHAVEZ REQUEST TO TRAVEL TO CUBA WAS DENIED

     Former Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, in custody after resigning under pressure from  military officers, asked to leave the country for Cuba but was refused, army general Roger Fuenmayor said on Friday. ñThe personal friend of Cuban dictator Fidel Castro was being held in the custody of the Venezuelan army", the general said.

     "Yes, that's correct, to Cuba, and it was denied because he has a responsibility to face before the nation," Fuenmayor said in response to a question from a reporter. Chavez has been blamed by senior military officers for violence against a big anti-Chavez march on Thursday in which at least 10 people were killed.

    Fuenmayor said the former president, who could face trial, would be accorded "rights as a person and as a comrade-in-arms." During his three-year rule, Chavez strengthened Venezuela's ties with Cuba, turning his oil-rich nation into the island's single biggest trading partner. He signed a bilateral oil supply deal that was providing Cuba with up to 53,000 barrels per day of oil on preferential terms. For its part, Cuba sent doctors, bodyguards, intelligence officers, sports trainers and athletes.


PANAMA CITY, April 12

    CUBAN DIPLOMAT VANISHES IN PANAMÁ

     A Cuban diplomat once expelled from Canada for espionage has vanished in Panama, and Cuban Embassy officials are calling him a turncoat. Orlando Brito Pestana, the Cuban Embassy's commercial attaché, disappeared along with his wife and family, embassy spokesman Alexis Fruto said. It wasn't clear if Brito had left Panama. Cuban officials have asked that his diplomatic status be removed.

     Asked about allegations that Brito had been a spy, Fruto replied, ñReally, I don't know. Like all traitors, he is going to say things.'' Panama Foreign Minister Jose Miguel Alemán said last week that Brito had disappeared but that there are no indications he was a crime victim.

     In 1994, Canada expelled Brito, then a vice consul, for alleged espionage. U.S. officials later blocked an attempt to have him stationed at the Cuban Interests Section in Washington. According to a press report, Brito approached Panamanian officials on March 27 and was flown to the United States two days later using false documents.


CARACAS, April 12

CHAVEZ OUSTED AND JAILED -- THE CUBAN PEOPLE AND THE MILITARY SHOULD FOLLOW THE PATRIOTIC EXAMPLE OF THE VENEZUELANS

     President Hugo Chavez, the former army paratrooper who polarized Venezuela with his strong-arm rule and whose close friendship with Communist Cuba and Iraq irritated the United States, resigned under military pressure Friday after a massive opposition demonstration ended in a bloodbath. Chavez, 47, presented his resignation to the military after top commanders confronted him at the presidential palace. Surrounded by a nervous ministers, Chávez handed his resignation to Armed Forces Inspector General, Gen. Lucas Rincon Romero, and National Guard commander, Gen. Belisario Landis. Before dawn, Chávez left the palace - wearing a military fatigues and red beret, as he did when he led a failed February 1992 coup - and was put in detention at Caracas' Fort Tiuna army base.

      Chávez resigned just hours after at least 13 people were killed and 110 wounded during a 150,000-strong opposition demonstration in downtown Caracas. Chavez had ordered National Guard troops and civilian gunmen, including rooftop snipers, to stop the marchers from reaching the palace, military officers said. Many resented Chavez's ties with leftist Colombian guerrillas and with Cuban dictator Fidel Castro. Many senior officers had fought Cuban-backed communist guerrillas in the 1960s and early 1970s.

   Pedro Carmona, head of Venezuela's largest business association, announced he would head a transitional government to be installed on  Saturday. Chavez was being held at the army base while investigators decide what charges he could face for Thursday's violence, said army commander Gen. Efrain Vasquez Velasco. Chavez asked to be allowed to go into exile in Cuba, but the military turned him down, army Gen. Roman Fuemayor said. ñChavez has to be held accountable to his country,'' Fuemayor said.


CARACAS, April 12

     VENEZUELA MILITARY OFFICERS CALL FOR CHAVEZ TO QUIT

     Senior Venezuelan military officers on Thursday called on President Hugo Chavez to resign, accusing him of "massacring" unarmed civilians, and one army general proposed the formation of a provisional government.  Two separate calls of this kind were made by officers after at least 10 people were killed and more than 100 injured when violence and shooting erupted during a huge protest march by opponents of Chavez in Caracas.

     "From this moment, this government should end," Gen. Camacho Kairuz, surrounded by 30 other fellow officers, told a news conference at National Guard headquarters. The general added he was quitting his government post as vice minister for security. Kairuz called for the formation of a provisional government junta, and appealed for other branches of the armed forces, the Roman Catholic Church and civil society to join the initiative. "Our citizens were massacred from the rooftops," Kairuz said. 

     In a separate prerecorded statement, another group of at least 10 officers from different branches of the armed forces also called for Chavez and his government to step down. "We, generals and admirals of the Army, Navy, Air Force and National Guard ... we have decided to address the Venezuelan people to reject the current government, the authority of Hugo Chavez Frias and the military high command," said one of the officers. "We cannot accept a tyrant in the presidency," said the officer, who identified himself as Adm. Hector Ramirez. Citing what he said was the duty of the armed forces to maintain order, Ramirez said this duty required "the peaceful departure of the president and the substitution of the military high command." The statement, which was broadcast several times, did not say if the dissident officers were planning any military action.


GENEVA, April 12

    CUBA REJECTS U.N. RIGHTS MONITOR PROPOSAL

    Cuba rejected with "indignation" on Thursday a U.S.-backed proposal from Latin American nations to send a human rights' monitor from the United Nations to Cuba, saying it was a pretext to justify Washington's trade embargo. In a diplomatic slap in the face from its own region, nine Latin American nations led by UrugÙay presented a last-minute motion on Wednesday at the top U.N. human rights body in Geneva urging Cuba to make progress on rights.

    "They are dreaming in vain if they think Cuba, under these conditions, will allow in an inspector at the service of the U.S. government to justify its blockade," Foreign Minister Felipe Pérez Roque said at a Havana news conference. In a proposal Cuba has rejected in the past, the Latin American countries urged U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights Mary Robinson to appoint a special representative to monitor the situation on the communist-run Caribbean island.

    The Cuban minister said the Latin American nations backing UrugÙayÍs motion -- Argentina, Nicaragua, Peru, Panama, Honduras, El Salvador, Guatemala and Costa Rica -- had received  "brutal pressures" from the United States. "They do not have the courage to face up to the pressures," Pérez added, saying Washington persuaded Uruguay to present the motion at the last minute after Peru pulled out following a vote from its Congress opposing the measure.  "There is not one reason to justify having Cuba on the agenda of the Human Rights' Commission ... Cuba will fight this maneuver with all its strength," said Felipe Pérez Roque.
          

MIAMI, April 12

    INS DESTROYED ELIÁN DOCUMENT

    The then chief of the Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS), Doris Meissner, ordered the destruction of an attorney's e-mail document that could have bolstered Elián Gonzalez's request for asylum during his stay in Miami. A copy of the memo survived and was made public Wednesday by Judicial Watch. It discussed the possibility that the Cuban boy's father at one time sought a visa to move to the United States. It also discussed allegations that the Cuban government had been coercing the father, Juan Miguel Gonzalez. Judicial Watch attorneys said INS lawyer Diana Alvarez provided the copy of the memo to them this week.

    If coercion could be shown, the roughly drafted e-mail memo said, INS could ñpotentially accept the child's asylum's application and advise that there is no prohibition on age to child filing application. As such PA (political asylum) should proceed."

    The memo, written by INS attorney Rebeca Sanchez Roig and dated Dec. 29, 1999, summarized a conference call on the Elián case involving several INS employees, including Meissner. A handwritten notation on a printout of the e-mail memo, added by Roig at some point after the memo was written, said Meissner ordered the destruction of all copies of the memo through another INS official. It also said Meissner ordered that no more discussions related to Elián's case be put in writing. Elián was forcefully returned to Cuba on June 28, 2000.


VENEZUELA, April 12

    FOES OF VENEZUELAÍS CHAVEZ CALL INDEFINITE STRIKE

    Labor and business foes of Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez called on Wednesday for a two-day-old general strike to last indefinitely, launching the most determined challenge so far to his three-year-old rule.

    The general strike in Venezuela was declared after thousands of anti-Chavez demonstrators, braving persistent rain, clamored in the streets for a second day, calling on the president to step down. Adding his voice to the protests, Nestor González, a Colombian army general, directly addressing the president said, "We are a worthy country which deserves someone better than you." The general accused Chavez of betraying the nation with his leftist policies and of lying about the presence of Colombian Marxist guerrillas in Venezuelan territory.

    However, the general said the armed forces would not attempt a coup against Chavez. Gonzalez, wearing his military uniform, said "He's more interested in his relation with (Cuban dictator) Fidel Castro and communism." Gonzalez also accused the president, a former paratroop officer, of weakening Venezuela's armed forces. "Generals and admirals must be respected, Mr. Lieutenant-Colonel," he said, scornfully referring to the president's former military rank in the armed forces.


GENEVA, April 11

     LATIN AMERICAN COUNTRIES ATTACK CUBA AT U.N. RIGHTS MEETING

     Latin American countries criticized Cuba on Wednesday at the top U.N. human rights body in a move certain to spark the ire of veteran communist dictator Fidel Castro. Uruguay. Backed by eight other Latin American states, Perú formally presented a resolution calling on Cuba to "make similar progress in the field of human rights to that made in the social rights of its people." The motion, which will be put to a vote next week also urged U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights, Mary Robinson, to appoint a special representative to monitor the situation in Cuba. The states backing the resolution are: Argentina, Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua, Panama and Peru, as well as Canada.

    "This is treachery," said Ivan Mora, Cuba's ambassador to the United Nations in Geneva. "They are serving the interests of the United States," he told journalists.  Latin American states in the past have been reluctant to take the lead in presenting resolutions about their Caribbean neighbor. But diplomats said that the United States, which has lost its seat on the 53-state Commission and only has observer status, had canvassed hard among Latin American countries after the Czech Republic, its usual ally, announced it would not present any resolution against Cuba this year.


ATLANTA, April 11

    FORMER PRESIDENT CARTER READY TO MEET CUBAN DICTATOR

    Former President Jimmy Carter is preparing to meet with President Fidel Castro of Cuba next month in what both supporters and opponents of current U.S. policy toward Cuba hope will ultimately open the way for changes in the two countries' relationship. Carter will be the first former president to travel to Havana since Castro took control in 1959.

    ''President Carter looks forward to the opportunity to meet with Cubans from all walks of life and to talk with president (dictator) Castro,'' said Deanna Congileo, a Carter spokeswoman. ''Now that he is going, we hope that he will take a message supporting democracy, human rights and freedom,'' said a White House official. ``President Bush hopes that message will be taken directly to Fidel Castro.''

    President Bush, meanwhile, is expected to unveil the administration's revised policy on Cuba later this month. Plans also are under way for Bush to visit Miami in May to commemorate Cuba's independence from Spain.


PERU, April 10

     PERÚ WILL INTRODUCE MOTION AGAINST CUBA AT U.N. MEETING

    Several Latin American nations said on Monday they were seeking to join forces at a U.N. human rights meeting in Geneva next week to ask the United Nations on April 15 to send an inspector to Cuba to verify allegations of rights abuses. "Practically (all) Latin America ... (including) Peru, Bolivia, Costa Rica, El Salvador, Honduras and Nicaragua will support the proposal", a Latin American diplomat said on Monday.

    According to La República newspaper, Peru's government's has drafted a four-point declaration, backed by Chile, Uruguay, Costa Rica and Guatemala, and was circulating it among its allies. The United States, which has imposed a four-decade-old economic embargo on the Caribbean island, has said it sees Peru as an obvious leader for a resolution on Cuba's rights record. U.S. President George W. Bush discussed the subject with his Peruvian president, Alejandro Toledo, when he visited Lima in March.

    The Czech Republic, which sponsored a censure last year that passed by 22-20 with 10 abstentions, has decided it will not take the lead this year. Cuba accused Washington on Friday of trying to make Peru present a motion condemning Havana at the U.N. Human Rights Commission meeting. It blasted Argentina, Uruguay and Costa Rica as "servile" for saying they would vote against Havana if such a motion were presented.


ATLANTA, April 10

    FORMER PRESIDENT CARTER TO VISIT CUBA IN MAY

     The Bush administration has granted former President Jimmy Carter permission to travel to Cuba, according to a Carter spokesperson. "Late Friday, we did receive approval from the U.S. Treasury Department. We are tentatively planning a trip for May," said spokesperson Deanna Congileo. "But I can't give the specific dates yet because they are not confirmed," she added.

    Carter will be the first U.S. president (current or former) to visit Cuba since Cuban dictator Fidel Castro took over in 1959. The Center For A Free Cuba reacted favorably to the visit, according to its executive director Frank Calzon. "I welcome [Jimmy Carter's] visit to Cuba. I hope that before he goes to Cuba, he asks for the release of all Cuban political prisoners, and I hope that he demands that by the time he goes to Cuba, no Cuban will be denied access to hotels, beaches, restaurants, and clinics that are set aside for foreigners." Calzon said even Cubans with U.S. dollars are not allowed to enter hotels set aside for foreign tourists. He said it would be "shameful" if Carter stays at one of those "segregated" hotels.


VENEZUELA , April 10

    GENERAL STRIKE SHUTS DOWN REFINERY

     One of the world's largest oil refineries virtually shut down and industries and businesses closed Tuesday during a general strike that Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez tried to keep off radio and TV. Large industry and commerce closed after the 1 million-member Venezuelan Workers Confederation and Fedecamaras, Venezuela's largest business federation, called a 24-hour nationwide strike to support PDVSA dissidents.

   The strike has oil markets on alert following Iraq's decision to stop oil exports for 30 days to demand that Israeli forces abandon Palestinian territories. Iraq and Venezuela, both OPEC members, jointly export about 4.5 million barrels of oil per day. Venezuela is among the top four oil exporters worldwide, sending nearly 1 million barrels of crude daily to the United States alone. Oil provides 80 percent of Venezuela's export revenue and half of its government income. Labor and business leaders declared Tuesday's strike a success, with an 80 percent compliance rate.

    ñNo one is going to overthrow this government," Chavez said. ñI can tell the country, the world, that the country isn't paralyzed, the situation is absolutely normal. ... Oil is being produced and being exported." However, on Tuesday, more than 20 tankers waited for loading at main terminals, and production at the 950,000-barrel-a-day Paraguana refinery complex was ñvirtually shut ... with no products leaving, even by ship,'' manager Jose Manuel Bacardo told a radio station. The complex produces 70 percent of Venezuela's refined products.


HAVANA, April 9

    VICKY HUDDLESTON: ñI DONÍT THINK WE SHOULD BE INTIMIDATED"

    Vicky Huddleston, the chief of the U.S. mission Havana  Monday rejected charges by Cuban dictator Fidel Castro's government that American officials had violated diplomatic norms when they distributed hundreds of small radios to Cubans.

    Last week, Havana protested to Washington that U.S. diplomats -- including Huddleston -- had distributed 500 radios to Cuban activists. Cuban officials characterized the action as ''subversive'' and Foreign Minister Felipe Perez Roque in a speech on Saturday accused the American mission of violating the Vienna Convention. ''We reject that this was in any way a violation of the Vienna Convention,'' Huddleston said, ñEverything done by the mission here is correct."  ''How could any government in the world be worried about people having a radio?'' asked Huddleston, who said American officials have distributed similar radios in countries around the world, including Africa.

    Former Ambassador Huddleston characterized Perez's warnings Saturday to American diplomats as ñan attempt at intimidation.'' ''Our patience has limits,'' the foreign minister said during his speech. ''I don't think we should be intimidated,'' Huddleston said. ñAnd if there are consequences because I won't be intimidated then I suppose I'll have to accept the consequences.

PINAR DEL RÍO, April 9

    RUMORS HAVE DOZENS OF OFFICIALS IMPLICATED IN COMMON CRIMES

   Rumors about the arrests of dozens of officials implicated in bribes, counterfeit documentation and other criminal activity are on the increase in Pinar del Río province. Since neither the government press, or government and Communist Party officials have released any information, several versions of the incident are circulating from mouth to mouth.

   The only certain information at this time is that dozens of administrative officials and Interior Ministry officials have been arrested, and that others have been either sent to take courses or to work outside the province, but all are in some way or other involved in the conversion of motor vehicles into scrap into modernized cars based on parts, as well as supplying the documentation to make these vehicles legal.


CARACAS, April 8

     TWO PDVSA WORKERS DEAD IN VENEZUELA

    A clash between supporters of the leftist Venezuelan government and opposition party members at a drilling site in the eastern state of Monagas on Thursday left two oil workers dead and three injured, police said Friday. The two workers were killed by blasts from a pistol and a shotgun fired from the ruling party crowd. No arrests were made.

    Thousands of Petroleos de Venezuela workers stayed home, closed gates to facilities, slowed gasoline and oil tanker deliveries and staged noisy protests. Two out of five main export terminals for crude oil and refined products -- El Palito in central Venezuela and Puerto La Cruz in the east -- shut down because of labor unrest, Petroleos de Venezuela or PDVSA and industry sources told the press. At least a dozen vessels were waiting at the ports for operations to resume.

    Venezuela is one of the top three oil suppliers to the United States, and PDVSA owns its U.S. refineries along with Citgo gasoline stations. PDVSA's board suspended seven high-ranking executives, while lawmaker Luis Salas said his efforts to negotiate a solution had ended. President Chávez also announced a further 12 PDVSA executives were being retired from their jobs. Defying government threats to fire them, the PDVSA protesters want Chávez to remove company directors whom they consider to be political appointees and replace them with ''qualified'' PDVSA veterans.


HAVANA, April 7

     CUBA: ñOUR PATIENCE HAS LIMITS"

     Cuba's foreign minister Felipe Pérez Roque lashed out at the United States Saturday over allegations that U.S. diplomats are distributing radios so Cubans can listen to Radio Marti. Speaking before tens of thousands of people at a weekly government rally, Pérez also accused the United States of conducting ñelectronic espionage" at its office in Havana.

     During Saturday's speech, which was carried live on state television and radio, Perez said: ñOur patience has limits ƒ You cannot tell your girlfriend a secret that they won't find out," he said. ñWe are warning the American diplomats ... that they not believe that we don't know'' of their activities," he remarked.

    Perez said that actions by American officials in Cuba violate diplomatic norms as well as the spirit of the agreement that established the U.S. Interests Section here in 1977 under then-President Jimmy Carter.


HAVANA, April 7

    CUBA PROTESTS ñSUBVERSIVE" U.S. RADIO HANDOUTS

    Cuba complained on Friday of an escalation of "subversive" activities by U.S. diplomats stationed in Havana including the distribution of hundreds of short-wave radios to Cuban dissidents. Cuba's Foreign Ministry had formally complained about the radio handouts.

    A Cuban spokesman said U.S. diplomats had been ñgoing around various provinces to organize, finance and instruct little counter-revolutionary groups, and hand out clandestine publications and contraband items." The more than 500 radios distributed by U.S. diplomats across Cuba were programmed to pick up Radio MartíÍs transmissions, he added. Vicki Huddleston, head of the U.S. Interests Section in Havana, said that in fact American diplomats had distributed "more, quite a bit more" than the 500 radios mentioned by Cuba on Friday.

    A state-run rally was scheduled for Saturday morning in Havana where, according to a statement in the ruling Communist Party's daily newspaper Granma, "130,000 of the capital's residents ... will raise their voice to condemn the provocative, subversive and meddling activity of the U.S. Interests Section in Havana."


GENEVA, April 7

    CUBA LAMBASTED ARGENTINA, URUGUAY AND COSTA RICA IN GENEVA

    Cuba went on the offensive on Friday in an annual diplomatic battle over its human rights' record, accusing Washington of trying to oblige Peru to present a motion condemning Havana at a U.N. forum meeting in Geneva. Foreign Minister Felipe Perez Roque also lambasted three "servile" Presidents of the Latin American nations -- Argentina, Uruguay and Costa Rica -- who have said they would vote against Havana if such a motion was presented.

    Last year in Geneva a Czech-sponsored motion to censure Cuba was passed by 22 votes to 20, with 10 abstentions. Perez said Peru had informed Cuba it would not present a resolution which Havana says was prepared on Lima's behalf by the United States, and copies of which the minister handed to foreign correspondents at Friday's news conference. "The government (of Peruvian President Alfredo Toledo) assured us this is not a Peruvian project, that this document was drawn up in Washington behind Peru's back," he said.

    The three-point document exhorts Cuba to permit "fundamental liberties" and "guarantee rule of law on the basis of democratic institutions," and requests the U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights to send an envoy to Cuba.


WASHINGTON, D.C., April 6

      SENATOR ROBERTS URGES POWELL TO APPROVE VISAS

     U.S. farmers could be hurt by the State Department's decision to deny travel visas to key Cuban food import officials who need to come to the United States to purchase American grain, Sen. Pat Roberts says in a letter to Secretary of State Colin Powell. The senator urged Powell to reverse the decision made last week by Otto Reich, assistant secretary of state for Western Hemisphere affairs, to deny the visas.

     Cuba has signed contracts to buy nearly $73 million in U.S. agricultural products since last November, said Roberts, a leading congressional advocate for removing trade embargoes and travel restrictions on Cuba. A new round of sales, totaling $25 million, could be postponed and some deals could be canceled because of the visa rejection.

     ñWhile I have no illusion about the Cuban government's poor human rights record and its failed economic policies, the grain we export to Cuba feeds Cuban citizens," wrote Roberts, who visited Cuba two years ago to discuss U.S. agriculture sales to the communist island.


GUANES, April 6

      INCREASE IN POLICE PRESENCE IN GUANE

     Residents of Guane, Pinar del Río province, find in the increased police presence here evidence that the recent fires in at least three tobacco curing houses may not have been accidental. Authorities and the official press have not mentioned the fires or any other aspect of the matter.

     The last house burned on the night of March 26 in El Naranjal. Sources say the house was full of recently picked leaves belonging to one Fidel Obregón, famed for producing top quality leaves. Approximately 72 hours earlier, another house had burned not too far from ObregónÍs curing house, in the town of Isabel Rubio.


VENEZUELA, April 5

    WORK STOPPAGES AT PDVSA

    The Venezuelan government, faced with an escalating labor protest in its strategic Petróleos de Venezuela, or PDVSA, stated Thursday it was ready to take all necessary measures to guarantee domestic oil supplies and international shipments. ñIf they shut down the company, we'll militarize it. I am not going to allow PDVSA to be shut down," President Hugo Chavez said last month. Critics accuse Chávez of  installing in Venezuela a Cuban-style left-wing authoritarian regime.

     Oil executives in tailored suits walked picket lines and workers shut down refineries and gasoline deliveries Thursday, escalating their fight to force the government to change top management at PDVSA. Protests erupted at PDVSA's Caracas headquarters and at installations in eleven of Venezuela's 23 states.

     PDVSA is Venezuela's largest income producer and the No. 3 supplier of oil to the United States. It employs 40,000 workers. Operations were partly or totally paralyzed at refineries and distribution facilities in Puerto La Cruz, Caracas, Maracaibo and elsewhere. On Wednesday, Chavez, again, warned he would declare a state of emergency if workers tried to paralyze production.


PHILADELPHIA, April 4

     U.S. JURY CONVICTS CANADIAN OF TRADING WITH CUBA

    A Canadian businessman named James Sabzali, 42, whom U.S. authorities described as the only foreign national ever prosecuted for alleged infringement of the Cuban embargo, was found guilty by a federal jury for violating the U.S. Trading With the Enemy Act (TWEA) and one count of conspiracy. This case likely will widen a dispute between the United States and Canada over trade relations with Cuban dictator Fidel Castro.

    "I'm simply shocked and confused," a visibly shaken Sabzali said after the jury of seven women and five men delivered their verdict on Wednesday, ending four days or deliberation.

    Two of his fellow business executives, both U.S. citizens, were also convicted, along with their Bala Cynwyd, Pennsylvania-based chemical company Bro-Tech Corp. The trial over the alleged sale of $2.1 million worth of water purification chemicals to Cuba lasted two weeks. The three executives could now spend years in prison and face steep fines.


HAVANA, April 4

    BREAK-IN AT HAVANA DOLLAR STORE

    Someone broke into a dollar store (CADECA) in the area of Havana known as Altahabana during the night of March 29. Police arrived in the morning of March 30 to find the door of the establishment ajar. There is no word at this time as to what was taken.

    The Cuban communist press usually carries no news about this type of crime, but people increasingly talk about them. Private housing is often protected by wrought iron grates, in spite of the cost involved.


AUSTRALIA, April 3

     WHAT IS AN AMERICAN?  (An anonymous letter written by a dentist in Australia)

    "You probably missed it in the rush of news last week, but there was actually a report that someone in Pakistan had published in a newspaper an offer of a reward to anyone who killed an AMERICAN, any AMERICAN. So I just thought I would write to let them know what an AMERICAN is, so they would know when they found one.

    An AMERICAN is English, or French, or Italian, Irish, German, Spanish, Polish, Russian or Greek. An AMERICAN may also be Cuban, Mexican, African, Indian, Chinese, Japanese, Australian, Iranian, Asian, or Arab, or Pakistani, or Afghan.  An AMERICAN may also be a Cherokee, Osage, Blackfoot, Navaho, Apache, or one of the many other tribes known as natives.

    An AMERICAN is Christian, or he could be Jewish, or Buddhist, or Muslim. In fact, there are more Muslims in America than in Afghanistan.  The only difference is that in America they are free to worship as each of them chooses. An AMERICAN is also free to believe in no religion.  For that he will answer only to GOD, not to the government, or to armed thugs claiming to speak for the government and for GOD.

    An AMERICAN is from the most prosperous land in the history of the world. The root of that prosperity can be found in the Declaration of Independence, which recognizes the GOD given right of each man and woman to the pursuit of happiness...




WASHINGTON, D.C., April 3

     CASTROÍS TOP SPY: ANA BELÉN MONTES (By: Ronald Radosh, FrontPage Magazine Columnist)

     AN AP REPORT OF APRIL 10, 1998 PRESENTED AN UNUSUAL STORY.  ñThe Pentagon received praise from an unlikely source," the article stated, ñCuban President Fidel Castro."  What Castro was citing was a Pentagon intelligence review leaked to the press, which had concluded Cuba posed no serious military threat to the United States, due especially to a severely weakened Cuban military.  The report, Castro said, was ñan objective report by serious people."  There was good reason for Castro to be pleased with the leaked report.  It was prepared by the Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) in cooperation with other intelligence arms of the Government, and was written by Ana Belen Montes, CastroÍs top spy in the United Statesƒ

    The argument in the Montes draft was repeated to Congress by Gen. Charles Wilhelm, commander of the US Southern Command based in Miami, when he commented on the report that same week.  ñI do not consider the current Cuban armed forces to be a threat to the United States," Wilhelm said, ñit is a force that can no longer project itself beyond the boundaries of Cuba."  ƒ The first draft that Montes wrote, however, was so soft that it was toughened up by then Defense Secretary William Cohen.  When Cohen sent the report to Congress in May of 1998, he stressed that although the Cuban military was itself no longer a serious threat to the US, Cuba still had the potential to make deadly biological weaponsƒ 

     Last week, on March 19, Montes pleaded guilty to espionage ƒ  Montes was in a position to give Cuban intelligence lots of critical information they soughtƒSenator Bob Graham, Chair of the Senate Intelligence Committee, calling MontesÍ actions ñtraitorous," points out that ñthe very fact that sensitive national security informationƒwas compromised" it in and of itself is ñan indication of Fidel CastroÍs continuing desire to undermine the U.S. government and the security of our people."  
(Click here to read the complete report)

(Click here to read a related HeraldÍs article)
(Click here to read other articles on the DIA spy)


NEW JERSEY, April 3

     THE FIRST CUBAN-AMERICAN GOVERNOR

    Abio Sires became the country's first Cuban-American governor on Monday - but held the office for only a day. Gov. James E. McGreevey and both Senate presidents were out of the state Monday, so the line of succession for acting governor passed to Sires, the Assembly Speaker. ñI'm not invading Pennsylvania or New York,'' Sires said of his plans for the day. ñI don't intend to spend any money.''

    Sires, a Democrat who emigrated to the United States from Cuba when he was 10 years old, had a party Monday night at the governor's mansion for a handful of staff members. He said it was an honor to become the country's first Cuban-American acting governor, even if it was for only one day.


MIAMI, April 2

      TV MARTI CAN AND MUST BE SEEN IN CUBA: WHY IS IT NOT? (By: Eng. Manuel Cereijo)

     If TV Marti were to transmit for the entire Cuba, Castro needs, in order to have an efficient interference signal for the entire country, one station per 50,000 inhabitant neighborhoods or geographical regions. That is, to interfere TV Marti, if transmitted to the entire Island, Castro needs 350 stations and 1,750 antennas. This is not feasible, technologically, neither financially. However, TV Marti has been, and still is, transmitting only to a certain area of La Habana.  Each of these stations need, because of the high power, a consumption of 1.7 barrels of oil per each hour of functioning. This is not feasible either for Castro if TV Marti were transmitted to the entire Island.

    What is needed to transmit TV Marti in order to be seen in the whole Cuba properly?

1.      Three transmitters, 5 Kw each. Approximately total cost, $ 150,000.
2. Three antennas, 1000 feet high each, directional. Approximately total cost $ 250,000.
3. Other costs: wire installation, engineering design, etc, possibly $2 million dollars total.
4. Change of frequency spectrum from VHF to UHF.
5. Total cost: Less than $3 million dollars.

    If this is implemented, TV Marti will be seen in all Cuba without a trace of interference. Why it has not been done yet? What are we waiting for?   (Click here and read Eng. Manuel Cereijo's excellent report).


MIAMI, April 1^st.

  CUBAÍS TRANSPARENT CHARM (The Miami Herald)

     Cuba eagerly awaits a visit from former President Jimmy Carter. Similarly, it has been welcoming with open arms a parade of U.S. lawmakers and power brokers this year. There is a good explanation for these selective -- if uncharacteristic -- efforts to curry favor with the United States: Desperate for credit and hard currency, Cuba's communist regime is courting deep capitalist pockets.

     The efforts are part of Cuba's recent ''charm offensive.'' The dictator-in-chief is entertaining scores of U.S. lawmakers and business executives. He's buying food from U.S. farmers in cash. Also, to show that he's tough on terrorism, he isn't complaining about al Qaeda prisoners under U.S. watch at Guantánamo.

    No, this isn't a kinder, gentler dictator; it's pragmatic propaganda from a totalitarian government that can't pay its bills -- mainly a whopping $11 billion in external debt. Now Cuba's regime is trying to woo U.S. capitalists into authorizing credits, floating loans and legitimizing a regime that is morally and materially bankrupt. Neither U.S. taxpayers nor Congress should buy it.


HAVANA, April 1^st.

     THE CUBAN DICTATOR DEMANDS U.N. HALT ISRAELIÍS ñGENOCIDE"

     Cuban dictator Fidel Castro demanded the United Nations stop Israel's "bloody offensive" against Palestinians Sunday, backing their "resistance and rebellion against occupation" and charging Israel with genocide. The dictator, through a Foreign Ministry statement carried by the state-run media, said: "Cuba demands a more energetic action by the international community, and in particular the U.N. Security Council, to stop the massacre and genocide being carried out by the Israeli army."

      The Cuban dictator said Israel's move into Palestinian territory, and siege of Palestinian President Yasser Arafat, was a response to the Arab League's peace initiative at last week's Beirut Summit. "The response of the  Ariel Sharon government, supported and financed by the United States, has been death and destruction, making clearer than ever before its opposition to a Palestinian state," he said, in his first official reaction to spiraling violence between Israelis and Palestinians.

    Castro's statement made no mention of the recent wave of suicide bombings carried out by Palestinians against Israeli civilians, instead it reiterates Cuba's "complete support of the heroic Arab people's struggle, and specially of Palestine."