WASHINGTON, D.C., March 30

     AMERICAN DIPLOMAT SEES POLITICAL CHANGES ON HORIZON

     The Bush administration has stepped up support for a growing dissident movement in Cuba in an effort to speed up a peaceful transition to democracy, the top U.S. diplomat on the communist island said on Thursday.  "The transition, in fact, is under way. I believe it started when (the Cuban dictator) Fidel Castro fainted in public," Vicki Huddleston, chief of the U.S. interests section in Havana, told reporters on a visit to Washington.  Castro recovered quickly but, she said, the government made clear at the time that the Cuban leader's younger brother, Raul, would be the successor. This, she added, would not satisfy the yearning for change that most Cubans want.  ñThe people of Cuba don't want a succession, they want a transition," said the prestigious former ambassador.

    ñThere is no future for youth,'' Huddleston said. A shrinking economy, a decline in tourism and prospects for a poor sugar crop all suggest that the chances for a rebound over the short term are not good, she said. Beyond that, she said, a health care system touted by some as a model for Third World countries has greatly deteriorated because of chronic shortages of medicines.

     The United States, which broke off relations with Cuba after Castro seized power four decades ago, wants rapid change but in any event is laying the groundwork for transition to democracy after Castro's death. The Bush administration has added the word "rapid" to the existing U.S. policy of encouraging peaceful democratic reforms in Cuba, Huddleston said. Reflecting stepped up U.S. pressure on Cuba under President George W. Bush, Huddleston has become more vocal in recent weeks in criticizing the island's communist-led government.

Click here and read: Cuba -- Country Reports on Human Rights Practices - 2001  
PINAR DEL RIO, March 30

     LACK OF ENTHUSIASM, DEDICATION AND PROFESSIONALISM AMONG CDR MEMBERS

     The Committees for the Defense of the Revolution (CDR) in Pinar del Río will distribute unspecified material incentives to encourage participation in their activities, which has been flagging for some time now, according to officials.

     Lately, they complain, even committed Communist Party militants donÍt want to assume responsibilities such as the presidency of the local committees. Officials decried the present apathy, and talked about being more selective in appointing leaders, because present ones "are not well prepared for their duties and donÍt take the trouble to improve."

     Evidently the vigilance activities of the Committees are also lagging, since the population largely discounts the proposition that crime increases due to the lack of citizen participation in standing watch at State enterprises. "The people of Pinar del Río are apathetic to the CDR because through that organization the government wants to turn every person into a watchman over his neighbors, since the essence of the CDRÍs work is to compile socio-political information that may be useful to the repressive organizations of the Ministry of the Interior," said one resident.


HAVANA, March 29

     THE CUBAN DICTATOR BEGS: CARTER, PLEASE, COME TO CUBA, ƒ SAVE MY DYING REVOLUTION, ... AND PROLONG MY DICTATORSHIP

    Cuban dictator Fidel Castro said on Thursday that Carter, who plans to visit Cuba, soon, would be very welcomed and free to criticize his government. "If he wants, we'll fill Revolution Square so he can criticize us as much as he wants, because we are so convinced of the moral, ethical, ideological, political and human strength of our revolution." During his 1977-1981 presidency, Carter briefly lifted travel restrictions and also established the diplomatic mission in Havana called Interests Sections. Cuba and the United States broke formal ties soon after the revolution. "He took positive steps in relation to our country, and that wasn't easy," Castro said of Carter.

   Castro also said Carter had called him by telephone during the 1994 Cuban rafters' crisis, offering to mediate between Havana and Washington to stem the exodus across the Florida Straits. "But they didn't give him permission," Castro said, implying the U.S. government blocked CarterÍs visit to Cuba. White House spokesman, Ari Fleischer, said: "If President Carter were to travel to Cuba, the president (George W. Bush) hopes his message would be very direct and straightforward, that in order to have human rights in Cuba, it's important for Fidel Castro to allow democracy to take root, to stop the repression and to stop the imprisonments, to bring freedom to the people of Cuba." A State Department spokesman echoed that line, urging Carter to seek the release of well-known jailed Cuban dissidents like Vladimiro Roca or Oscar Elias Biscet.

    However, Republican Congresswoman Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, flatly opposed CarterÍs trip, saying it would fortify Castro's "dictatorship" and do nothing to help the Cuban people. "It is disappointing to see former President Carter, who made the defense and promotion of human rights a pillar of his foreign policy, who prides himself as an advocate of the downtrodden, would choose to travel to Cuba to meet with a ruthless dictator who oppresses and subjugates his people," she said.


FORT WASHINGTON, March 28

     THREE FEARS AND THREE HOPES

     The Cuban people have not rebelled against so much hunger, infamy, and oppression because of, what general Oliva calls, ñTHE THREE FEARS AND THE THREE HOPES".

     The THREE FEARS:
     1)     FEAR of the security bodies (both official and unofficial) of the State, members of the Revolutionary Defense Committees, informers to the government, organized mobs that frighten and persecute those who dare dissent from the laws promulgated by the Communist dictatorship;
     2)      FEAR of the chaos that will ensue in Cuba if the dictator dies a natural or violent death;
     3)      FEAR of the exiled community, who has always been depicted by the communist propaganda as vengeful, ready for retaliation, disposed to lynch any that have assisted the dictator, and anxious to snatch away from the people the so called ñsocial achievements" of the revolution.

     The THREE HOPES:
     1)     HOPE of leaving the Island one way or another, on a raft, on an airplane, or any other means of transportation that they may find;
     2)     HOPE that the U.S. Congress will lift the economic sanctions under pressure from American liberals (like Jimmy Carter) and sympathizers in the exiled community, causing CubaÍs social, economic and political situation to improve;
     3)     HOPE that the tyrant may one day reflect on what he has wrought and begin the process of political and economic change on the Island.

    The mentioned fears and hopes have paralyzed our people and prolonged our struggle to obtain the liberation of Cuba. Despite the prevalent passivity and fear, the Cuban military and CAMCO, working together, could help to eliminate such FEARS and FALSE HOPES from the minds of the Cuban people.


GENEVA, March 28

     CUBA: ñWE TRUST THAT NO JUDAS WILL NOW APPEAR ON THE LATIN AMERICAN SCENE"

     Cuba asked other Latin American states on Tuesday not to present a motion condemning the communist country in Geneva. Cuban Foreign Minister Felipe Pérez Roque said the United States was making "frantic efforts" in Latin America to get a motion condemning Cuba for human rights abuses presented to the U.N. Human Rights Commission's annual six-week session, which began last week.

     "We trust that no Judas will now appear on the Latin American scene," Pérez said in a speech to the Commission. Last year, the Czech Republic sponsored a motion condemning the Caribbean island state for rights abuses, which was narrowly passed after a diplomatic tussle. But Pérez noted that Prague had announced that it would not bring a similar resolution this year to the Commission on which, for the first time, the United States is not represented after losing a controversial election last autumn.


HAVANA, March 28

     CUBA CALLS CASTAÑEDA ñDIABOLICAL" AND ñMACHIAVELLIAN"

    On Tuesday, Cuba said Mexico's "diabolical" and "Machiavellian" foreign minister was the man responsible for President Fidel Castro's walkout during the summit in Mexico. "The man guilty for what happened in Monterrey is called Jorge Castañeda," said a statement from the Cuban communist party. Castro normally writes such statements. "Mexico's extremely strange policy over the incident has a diabolical and cynical architect -- Jorge Castañeda," it added of the former communist who is now a member of President Vicente Fox's right-leaning Mexican government.

    Castro eventually attended the summit, but, after a typically fiery, anti-capitalist speech, created a diplomatic flurry with a dramatic walkout. He returned to Cuba alluding to a "special situation" created by his presence in Monterrey. Cuban officials later alleged Castro was pressured by Mexico, on behalf of the United States, first not to attend, then to leave before the arrival of Bush, whom they said was threatening to boycott the summit if Castro was there.

     The communist partyÍs communiqué said the "dishonest and intriguing" Castañeda "humiliated" Cuba at Monterrey with his "arrogance and shadowy influence," then "blatantly lied" about events. Castañeda was also the mastermind of "other Machiavellian plans," including a meeting in Havana between himself and anti-Castro Cuban dissidents, which Fox briefly attended during his visit to the Caribbean island last month. "Castañeda did not stop there, however, in his maneuvers and provocations," the statement added, saying he gave Fox a list of jailed Cuban dissidents to press for their release. Carefully avoiding criticism of Fox himself, the statement also attacked Castañeda for his contacts with anti-Castro Cuban Americans, including a recent visit to Miami. "Why such slavering and cringing words to a group of Mafia and terrorists? Why should Cuba tolerate it? ... Such offenses and aggressions toward the Cuban people must stop," it said.


HAVANA, March 27

     DISSIDENTS SAY CUBA REPRESSES ñFÉLIX VARELA" PROJECT

    Cuban dissidents accused Fidel CastroÍs security agents on Monday of beating, detaining or threatening hundreds of people who are demanding in an unprecedented petition a referendum to reform the island's one-party communist system. Oswaldo Payá, the ñFélix Varela" Project's main promoter, said agents have harassed activists and seized paperwork, slowing the process of verifying the more than 10,000 signatures that have been collected over the last year in an initiative welcomed by Washington.

    The U.S. government is publicly backing the project. Washington's most senior diplomat in Cuba, Vicki Huddleston, called it the most important development of recent times among the island's small opposition movement.  Activists gathered the signatures for the Varela Project across the Caribbean island of 11 million inhabitants, according to Payá and his supporters.

    The project, named for a 19th century pro-independence Roman Catholic priest, Félix Varela, is based on a part of the Cuban constitution that citizens may propose new legislation to the legislature if more than 10,000 voters support it.  "These illegal actions against the popular sovereignty will only delay for a while this presentation (of the petition), but they will not prevent it," Paya said in a statement, claiming communist agents have retaliated against both signatories of the petition and its promoters. "Changes in every aspect are vitally necessary in Cuba," Paya said, "and the Varela Project is a way to achieve these changes peacefully and without exclusions."


HAVANA, March 27

    "WILD BEAST" REPRESSION IN THE ISLAND

    Yesterday, a dissident umbrella group, "All United," which includes most of Cuba's leading moderate opposition figures, protested against Cuban governmentÍs interference with the Varela Project. "Like a wild beast, the entire specialized police apparatus has attacked the Varela Project in a repressive process that includes detentions, searches, coercion, ill-treatment and humiliation, both against the dozens of activists collecting signatures and hundreds of people who have signed, many not linked to the political opposition," the group said.

    In its document, signed by group secretary Hector Palacios, another well-known dissident, "All United" said the Varela Project had "overcome the culture of fear" in Cuba and would become a "permanent demand" on the "totalitarian" state. A few prominent dissidents, including economist Martha Beatriz Roque, do not support it, saying Paya and others are unrealistic to seek change within a constitution designed by the Castro communist government.

    However, World personalities such as Czech President Vaclav Havel, former head of states Margaret Thatcher (Great Britain) Lech Walesa (Poland), Valery Giscard D'Estaing (France), Vitautas Lansbergis (Lithuania) and Jacques Delors (European Union), and human rights activists such as Pavel Bratinska, Adam Mischnik and Elena Bonner, and Nobel Prize winner in literature, the Russian Alexander Solzhenitsyn, have expressed their strong support to the project.


HAVANA, March 27

    THE DICTATOR BANS SALE OF COMPUTERS

    The Cuban dictator Fidel Castro has banned the sale of computers and computer accessories to the public, except in cases where the items are "indispensable" (of course for the government followers) and the Ministry of Internal Commerce must authorize the purchase. The computers that had been sold freely in the capital since mid-2001-- was yanked off store shelves in January.

     Internet and e-mail access in Cuba is as jealously guarded as the dictator's chokehold on power. The Cuban government controls the country's only Internet gateway. Out of 11 million Cubans, only about 40,000 academics and government workers are permitted to have Internet and e-mail accounts.


LIMA, March 26

     BUSH AND TOLEDO DISCUSSED CUBAÍS HUMAN RIGHTS SITUATION

     John Hamilton, U.S. ambassador to Lima, said Peru was in a good position to assume a "leadership role" on the subject of a resolution condemning communist Cuba's rights record at the U.N. session which is under way in Geneva and ends next month.

    "President Toledo said that Peru is leading Latin American action to resolve violations of human rights," Prime Minister Roberto Danino said. Asked if Bush had asked Peru to vote in favor of any eventual censure motion of Cuba, Danino said: "He didn't ask specifically. He signaled the importance the United States attaches to this subject."

     The United States is looking for a U.N. Human Rights Commission resolution condemning Cuba. "On this subject, Peru can only reiterate its commitment to democracy and human rights, but also the fact that it is a Latin American country, and that any steps that are taken in the next few weeks will be in coordination with the other democratic countries of the region," he added.


WASHINGTON, D.C., March 26

     BUSH ADMINISTRATION STUDIES CARTERÍS REQUEST TO VISIT CUBA

     The Bush administration is studying former President Carter's request to travel to Cuba this year. If he gets the green light, the White House wants Carter to push for human rights. White House spokesman Ari Fleischer said President Bush would want Carter to carry a ñvery direct, straightforward message" to the Cuban leadership. ñIn order to have human rights in Cuba, it's important for Fidel Castro to allow democracy to take root, to stop repression, to stop imprisonments, to bring freedom to the people of Cuba," Fleischer said. However, Carter said he wants to talk about expanding trade and tourism to Cuba.

     Under provisions that restrict travel to Cuba, people seeking to visit the country for humanitarian purposes need to get permission from the Treasury. Applicants must write a letter and provide information, details and documentation about the trip in order to get permission. ñThe law is clear, the law will be obeyed,'" Fleischer said Monday.

     A Carter spokeswoman said over the weekend that the former president received a personal invitation to visit Cuba from Castro. Carter said Friday he expects the Bush administration's ñtacit approval, not their blessing."


HAVANA, March 26

    SCHOOL IN G INES CLOSES TEMPORARILY DUE TO SEWER BRAKE
   
    The elementary school Manuel Ascunce Domenech was closed temporarily by order from the Ministry of Health of GÙines, Province of Havana, due to sewer water spills as a result of a main line break in the collection system.

     ñThe bathrooms of the schools were already true lagoons of excrements and urine", complained a mother whose son study in the school. The school registration is of around 500 scholars with ages ranging from 5 to 11 years. A school official of GÙines Education Department revealed that the sewer spill problem exists in other schools in which the government has to partially close them or decrease the daily schedule.

    Many educational installations are in desperate need of repair, but the government argues that it neither has the funds nor the material to accomplish the job", the official said. 


HAVANA, March 25

     CUBA ACCUSES MÉXICO OVER U.N. SUMMITÍS INCIDENT WITH THE DICTATOR

    Cuban communist government formally accused Mexico on Sunday of selling out Cuban dictator Fidel Castro to the United States at last week's U.N. aid summit in Monterrey, as a diplomatic spat over Cuba's alleged marginalization at the event heated up. Castro abandoned the summit on Thursday, shortly before U.S. President George W. Bush arrived.

    Cuban National Assembly President Ricardo Alarcón, who remained in Castro's place at Monterrey and was denied entry to some events where President Bush participated. "It is painful that this happened in Mexico, because if there was at least one thing you could say about the country in the past, it was that it had an independent foreign policy," Sunday's editorial said of the incident.

    On Saturday, Cuba's ambassador to Mexico, Jorge Bolaños, returned to Havana, presumably for consultations, a Cuban official said. "The United States put a price on the Monterrey Summit, and the Mexican government accepted the deal. The money of exchange was Fidel," said an editorial of a Communist Party newspaper. Cuban analysts believe Castro personally approved the editorial because, usually, he writes or reviews all editorials published by the country's official media.

MONTERREY, March 24

     CUBA SAYS U.S. PRESSURED MEXICO 

    Cuba accused U.S. President George W. Bush on Friday of threatening to boycott this week's U.N. aid summit in Mexico unless Cuban dictator Fidel Castro was made to leave, but Bush insisted he didn't pressure anybody. Mexican officials "with great authority transmitted the message and specifically asked us, given they could not prevent Fidel from coming, that he leave immediately after lunch," said Ricardo Alarcón, president of Cuba's National Assembly.

    As a result, Castro abandoned the meeting in Monterrey shortly after addressing the summit on Thursday, citing only ña special situation created by my participation in this summit, and I am obliged to return immediately to my country," Castro returned to Cuba and left Alarcón to represent him. Alarcón said senior Mexican officials told Cuba that they were under pressure from the United States to exclude Castro from a presidential retreat on Friday. Bush and some 50 other heads of state attended the retreat at an art museum in this modern, industrial city.

    President Bush, speaking at a news conference in Monterrey on Friday night, said there was ñno pressure on anybody. Fidel Castro can do what he wants to do. What I'm worried about is how he treats his people." The president called Cuba the only non-democratic country in the hemisphere without press freedom and basic human rights. ñThis island is a place of repression, a place where people don't have hope," he said.


LIMA, March 23

     AFTER CAR BOMBING, PERÚ CLAMPS FOR PRESIDENT BUSH VISIT

     Peru mobilized thousands of police in riot gear to guard the streets on Friday, anchored warships off the coast and readied fighter jets to keep U.S. President George W. Bush safe during his weekend visit following a deadly bomb attack in Lima. "We cannot flinch in the fight against terrorism," said President Alejandro Toledo late on Thursday as he toured the site where a car-bomb killed nine and injured 30 the night before across the street from the bunker-style U.S. Embassy.

    Some 7,000 police and soldiers were on "red alert" while helicopters buzzed the sky. Riot police wearing bullet-proof jackets shut down much of Lima's busy colonial center from its usual thick street commerce and snarled traffic, checking identification cards near the presidential palace where Bush will meet Toledo, the presidents of Colombia and Bolivia and Ecuador's vice president.

    Analysts say Bush could seek Toledo's support for a censure motion against Cuba at a U.N. Human Rights Commission meeting in Geneva.


ATLANTA, March 23

    CARTER EXPECTS TO WIN PRESIDENT BUSH'S APPROVAL TO TRAVEL TO CUBA

    Jimmy Carter, the worst president in U.S. history,  said Thursday he expects to win approval from the Bush administration to travel to Cuba ¿ he would be the first president or former president to visit Cuba since the two nations severed relations in 1961. "I expect to get their tacit approval, not their blessing," the Democrat said Thursday after a luncheon at the Carter Center here.  "We can't go, obviously, without the permission of the government. My understanding is that they will give that approval."

    The former Georgia governor, who occupied the White House from 1976 to 1980, said he has not yet decided on a date for the trip, a spokeswoman for the Carter Center in Atlanta said, but it would likely be sometime this year. Carter's view of relations with Cuba has differed sharply from those of administrations that followed his. He has said that, had he won re-election in 1980, he would have pursued better relations with Havana. Fortunately, he lost.

     The United States severed formal diplomatic ties to Cuba after Cuban dictator Fidel Castro took power and turned the island into a Communist nation. There has been a U.S. trade embargo against Cuba for more than 40 years, though it has eased just slightly in recent years. Carter has urged a further easing of trade and travel restrictions to Cuba.


HAVANA, March 23

    IN WORKERSÍ PARADISE, WORKERS ARE NOT PAID

    At least 200 workers at the Provincial Bus Rebuilding Company in Havana were idled because the government-run company doesn't have the money to pay their salaries. "Last week, the director told us we were from that moment on 'interrupted' (a frequently used term in Cuba to mean unemployed) and that we would receive 60 percent of our salaries for the next three months," said one of the affected workers. The worker said the laid off employees protested strenuously, but in the end, went home.

    The Provincial Bus Rebuilding Company, in the El Cerro municipality of Havana, has been responsible for performing major repairs to city buses in Havana province and city of Havana, as well as to inter-urban buses. "This is the only facility where automatic transmissions can be repaired," the fired worker said. A number of smaller repair shops connected to the company were also closed for the same reason, but it wasn't immediately known how many lost their jobs as a result. "The company is now working with fewer than 10 percent of its employees. Those remaining cannot service the buses in Havana," said the worker.


MONTERREY, March 22  

    ABRUPTLY, THE DICTATOR WALKS OUT OF U.N. SUBMIT IN MYSTERY DISPUTE                                                         

     Cuban dictator Fidel Castro abruptly walked out of a major U.N. aid summit in Mexico, and a senior Cuban official said U.S. President George W. Bush had a hand in his sudden departure. Castro attacked the West's aid policies in a fiery speech on Thursday morning and then told the more than 50 heads of state present that he was returning to Cuba straight away.

     "I beg you all to excuse me since I am not able to continue in your company due to a special situation created by my participation in this summit and I am obliged to return immediately to my country," Castro said. Ricardo Alarcón, the president of Cuba's National Assembly, refused to give a detailed explanation of why Castro left but said Bush had made it clear he does not want to meet Castro. "It is his problem and it is up to his psychiatrist to help him deal with it," Alarcón said scathingly.

     Castro flew home to Cuba on Thursday afternoon, leaving Mexican soil shortly after Bush himself arrived in the northern city of Monterrey to attend the U.N. summit. "It is obvious there was a problem. It is obvious there was a delicate situation that led to this. It made it inevitable ... It wasn't us that created the situation," Alarcón added. "There is no question that, in the final analysis, it had to do with the United States."



LIMA, March 22

    CAR BOMB NEAR U.S. EMBASSY IN LIMA KILLED NINE 

    Three days ahead of a visit by President Bush, a car bomb exploded outside the U.S. Embassy in Lima, killing at least nine people and injuring dozens. The State Department said no Americans were killed in the blast, which was widely condemned as a terror attack.

     In the chaos following the blast Wednesday evening, the victims - including at least two police officers and a baby - lay in the rubble-strewn street. Prosecutor Maria del Pilar Peralta said at least nine people were confirmed dead. The car bomb ripped through a district of upscale shops and restaurants at about 10:45 p.m. EST, damaging buildings and cars, but not harming the fortress-like embassy, which is set far back from the street.

    President Bush is set to arrive in Lima on Saturday for a meeting with Peruvian President Alejandro Toledo and leaders from Colombia, Bolivia and Ecuador. U.S. Embassy officials issued a statement condemning ''the barbaric terrorist bombing.'' Toledo, speaking from a U.N. development meeting in Monterrey, Mexico, also condemned the attack. ''I will not permit democracy to be undermined by terrorist attacks,'' said Toledo. ''We will not give one centimeter. I am going to apply a hard-line policy within the framework of the law."


CARACAS, March 22

    CHÁVEZ FOLLOWERS, FOES FIGHT ON VENEZUELAN STREETS

    Supporters and opponents of Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez clashed on Wednesday, fighting running street battles in a western city and skirmishing with fists, sticks and stones outside the presidential palace in Caracas. Several people were hurt in the disturbances, which reflect growing political tensions in the world's fourth largest oil exporter, where left-wing populist Chavez is facing growing opposition to his three-year-old rule.

    Fierce fighting broke out in Barquisimeto, 218 miles (351 km) west of Caracas, when followers of the outspoken president confronted members of Venezuela's Workers Confederation, or CTV, the country's largest trade union, which has spearheaded labor opposition to Chavez. Later in Caracas, a group of protesting university students demanding more government funding clashed with pro-Chavez militants who habitually surround the Miraflores Palace.

    "There was a scrap, with sticks and stones and punches, and there were injuries," Metropolitan Police Operations Chief Emigdio Delgado told reporters. Police said at least four people were hurt in the Caracas fighting, while the number of injured in Barquisimeto was believed to be higher. Further west, in the Andean city of Valera, National Guard troops patrolled the streets on Wednesday after striking local police failed to stop rioting youths from looting banks, shops and offices Tuesday.


MIAMI, March 22

     MAKING INTELLIGENCE SMARTER --  Por Manuel Cereijo (Published by ñRevista Guaracabuya")

     Agencies must find a new balance between electronic eavesdropping and spies on the ground to counter global terrorism. An intelligence lapse can mean thousands of civilians dead, hundreds of billion of dollars in economic losses, babies stricken with potentially fatal diseases, and video images of unspeakable horror ricocheting around the globe. Rarely has intelligence been so vital to U.S. and never before has the intelligence challenge been viewed so grimly.

     In the United States analyses of intelligence weaknesses have focused on four areas:
     1)  Human inadequacies in analysis, language skills, and especially spying--the gathering of data from informers within a hostile organization or targeted government.
     2)  Growing gaps in technical intelligence in, for example, the ability to decipher, analyze, and deliver expeditiously messages intercepted amid the oceans of encrypted e-mail, phone calls, and other communications monitored around the world.
     3)  Lack of cooperation between organizations that collect foreign intelligence and others that counter the intelligence activities and terrorism of foreign countries at home (Click here and read this excellent report).


FORT WASHINGTON, March 21

    CAMCO NOMINATES CUBAN DICTATOR FIDEL CASTRO FOR BEST ACTOR IN UPCOMING OSCARS

    The Cuban-American Military Council (CAMCO) would like to make a last minute inclusion in the upcoming Hollywood Academy ceremonies in the category of Longevity Achievements by nominating Cuban dictator Fidel Castro as the BEST ACTOR OF THE 20th CENTURY.

    During his sixty-two years as a very well known world ñentertainer," the Cuban dictator could have easily been selected as ñBest Actor," in each one of the last six decades, for his ñoutstanding" theatrical performance in the following films:  

    1940Ís: The Cardinal -- in which he played a devoted and innocent Catholic youth trained and educated by Jesuit priests to become a militant anti-communist.
    1950Ís: Robin Hood -- for robbing the rich, and betraying and fooling his fans (the Cuban people).
    1960Ís:  The Three Musketeers -- in which he, along with Khrushchev and Mao Tse-Tung, tried to impose his utopian Communist ideas on the world stage.
     1970Ís: The Godfather -- in which he intended to take over the world with his "Tricontinental" mafia while kings, queens, presidents, senators, members of congress and dictators kissed his ñring."
     1980Ís: James Bond -- creating chaos throughout the world with terrorism, military interventions, Machiavellian intrigues and international wars.
    1990Ís: Superman -- surviving the collapse of the Soviet Empire.
    2000: I spy and  Little Red Ridinghood -- in which he spies on the United States and played the role of the ñwolf" by trying again to fool foreign presidents and legislators with his calls to negotiate agreements to fight drugs trafficking and terrorism.

    Nine previous distinguished jurors, by holding their historic votes during the last four decades, have prolonged the actorÍs acting career. As a result of actions and inactions by those jurors, our candidate has been able to unnecessarily prolong the suffering of his admirers. There is nothing that those nine previous jurors can now do to affect the actorÍs 74-year bloody and heartbreaking life.  However, at the moment there is a tenth juror out there who has already been tested in war, has proven to be determined and  courageous  and who could drastically change the aging actorÍs future career. He lives in a beautiful White House and, before casting his decisive and final vote, is wisely evaluating the role being played by this actor on the world stage. 

    Will the new juror  also be fooled as were his predecessors? Will he be charmed by the professional actorÍs lies and charisma? Will he  prolong the actorÍs despotic theatrical career? Orƒat last, will this new juror be the one to finish him, once and for all, and liberate this actor's fans, and the world, from his anachronistic presence.


WASHINGTON, D.C., March 21

     U.S. THANKS CUBA,. BUT DECLINES ANTI-DRUG ACCORD

    The top U.S. anti-drug enforcer thanked Cuba on Tuesday for capturing a Colombian drug smuggler but said Washington will continue anti-drug cooperation with the communist state only on a case-by-case basis. Cuba on Monday announced the arrest of Rafael Bustamante, a convicted drug trafficker who escaped from jail in Alabama 10 years ago and is wanted on narcotics and other charges in the United States. The Cuban government, which has been making friendly gestures to Washington in recent months, said it wanted a formal anti-drug cooperation agreement with the United States.

     "Any capture of a fugitive that is known and wanted for drug trafficking is a strong step forward, and we are very pleased with that result," said Asa Hutchison, head of the Drug Enforcement Administration. However, State Department spokesman Richard Boucher said Cuban President Fidel Castro's government had not cooperated on a range of other law enforcement cases. "If the regime were to demonstrate a willingness to work across the board with us on law enforcement issues, then we might consider some more formal structure," Boucher said "But that kind of global commitment from Cuba is completely absent," he added.

     Cuba has long been a safe haven for fugitives from the U.S. law, among them Charles Hill and Michael Finney, wanted for the murder of a New Mexico state trooper in 1971; Joanne Chesimard, sought for the murder of a New Jersey state trooper in 1973; and Victor Manuel Gerena, who is on the FBI's most wanted list for a multimillion-dollar armed robbery in 1983.


WASHINGTON, D.C., March 20

     U.S. ANALYST ADMITS SPYING FOR CUBA

    Ana Belén Montes, 45, a U.S. intelligence analyst who revealed the identities of four undercover agents to Cuban officials pleaded guilty Tuesday to espionage. She could spend 25 years in federal prison. Belén Montes was spying for Cuba from the time she started work at the Defense Intelligence Agency in 1985 until her arrest on Sept. 21, prosecutors say.

    By that time, she was a senior intelligence analyst and had used short-wave radio and coded pager messages to give Cuba U.S. secrets so sensitive they could not be fully described in court documents. ñYes, those statements are true and accurate," Belén Montes told U.S. District Court Judge Ricardo Urbina after the charges were read. When Urbina asked whether one reason she had agreed to plead guilty was ñthe fact that you committed the crime,'' Montes replied, ñYes.

    A U.S. official familiar with the case, said Belén Montes was believed to have been recruited by Cuban intelligence when she worked in the Freedom of Information office at the Justice Department, between 1979 and 1985, and was asked to seek work at an agency that would provide more useful information to Cuba. Under the plea agreement, Belén Montes would accept a sentence of 25 years in prison with no possibility of parole, followed by five years of supervised release. In exchange, the government would get her full cooperation in disclosing all information she may have about criminal activity regarding herself or others with whom she may worked. Urbina set a sentencing date for Sept. 24. (Click here to learn more about the DIA/PENTAGON Spy)


WASHINGTON, D.C., March 19
    U.S. INDICTS COLOMBIAN GUERRILLAS FOR DRUG TRAFFICKING

    The United States indicted three Colombian guerrillas on drug-trafficking charges on Monday, turning its wars on terrorism and drugs on a single target. It was the first time the United States has brought formal drug-trafficking charges against the rebels in Colombia, the world's largest producer of cocaine.

    The seven indictments announced by Attorney General John Ashcroft were topped by Tomas Molina, also known as El Negro Acacio, a commander in the Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC). The other FARC members indicted were Carlos Bolas and a rebel known as Oscar El Negro. The indictments included a fourth Colombian, Nelson Barrera, and three Brazilians, Luis Fernando da Costa, also known as Fernandinho Beira Mar; Leonardo Dias Mendonca, and a third man known as Goiano.

    "The indictment marks the convergence of two of the top priorities of the Department of Justice: the prevention of terrorism and the reduction of illegal drug use," Ashcroft said at a news conference. "Today's indictment charges leaders of the FARC not as revolutionaries or freedom fighters, but as drug traffickers," he said. The FARC is one of three armed groups in Colombia on a U.S. list of terrorist organizations around the world. Washington has taken a harder line against these groups since the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks against the Twin Towers in New York and the Pentagon in Washington, D.C.


CARACAS, March 19

    THE CUBAN DICTATOR SAYS VENEZUELA CHAVEZ SPEAKS FOR HIM

    Cuban dictator Fidel Castro said on Sunday his friend and ally, president Hugo Chavez of Venezuela, could speak for him and his revolutionary ideas at a world development conference in the Mexican City of Monterrey this week. The dictator said he had not yet made up his mind whether to attend the March 18-22 Conference. "Even if I don't go, we, I, feel represented in your words," Castro told Chavez in a telephone call during the Venezuelan leader's weekly "Hello President" television and radio program.

    The United Nations meeting will bring together some 50 heads of state, including President George W. Bush and representatives from 100 other countries, who will seek ways to boost rich nations' funding of programs to help the poor. Chavez has often praised CubaÍs socialist revolution and expressed sympathy with CastroÍs anti-capitalist and "anti-imperialist" views.

    The Cuban dictatorÍs public praise for Chavez was certain to infuriate political opponents of the Venezuelan leader and his self-proclaimed "Bolivarian Revolution." Chavez's foes accuse him of trying to imitate Castro and Cuba's Revolution by trying to install a leftist authoritarian regime in Venezuela. Castro and Chavez hailed their nations' strong political and economic ties, which have been criticized by the United States. "However much they attack us, we are creating a new model of integration," the Venezuelan president said. Castro, who described himself as "an expert in putting up with attacks," urged Chavez to stand firm against criticism from his political enemies. "We've been under attack for 43 years and today the Revolution is stronger than ever," the dictator said.


PINAR DEL RIO, March 19

    700 CHILDREN IN PINAR DEL RIO WITHOUT BABY FOOD

    The prescribed quota of baby food sold for children under two years of age never reached the stores in February in the Sandino municipality of Pinar del Río province, and approximately 700 children had to do without. Local officials said there is no fruit to make the preserves. An official in charge of food distribution in the region, said the local government will not be able to satisfy sales demand for childrenÍs food this year. He said he foresaw only ten sale dates for baby food in 2002, and added he couldnÍt guarantee that could be done regularly.

    "Getting baby food has become a headache for parents, because the quota assigned by the government doesnÍt meet the needs of the children. Add that often even the promised sale date doesnÍt materialize, and there is only one way out, to buy the baby food in the dollar stores instead. But not everyone has dollars," said one resident.


WASHINGTON, D.C., March 18

     SECRETARY OF STATES PREDICTS EVENTUAL DEMISE OF CUBA COMMUNIST SYSTEM

     Secretary of State Colin Powell, in an interview Friday, called Cuba an anachronism in an otherwise democratic hemisphere, and he predicted the eventual demise of its communist system. ñI think historic forces and pressures are such that Cuba eventually will be part of this American revolutionary 21st century. How it will happen, I don't know ƒ We are not getting ready to invade.''

     GENERAL OLIVA:  CUBA POLICY SHOULD BE CHANGED


CALI, March 18

     COLOMBIAN ARCHBISHOP KILLED

    Two assassins shot the Archbishop Isaias Duarte at point-blank range Saturday night as he left a mass wedding ceremony he had presided over in the Buen Pastor Church, in a poor neighborhood of Cali, Colombia's third largest city. The 63-year-old was one of seven archbishops in Colombia and the highest- ranking clergyman ever killed in a country torn by decades of violence.

    A wooden cross and bouquets marked the spot where the archbishop had collapsed after being riddled with bullets, near the front door of the church. The government offered a $486,000 reward for information on the gunmen or those who ordered the slaying, said Luis Camilo Osorio, Colombia's attorney general.

    Shortly before March 10 legislative elections, Duarte had said some candidates were financing their campaigns with drug money. He did not name names despite calls by President Andres Pastrana for him to do so. Pope John Paul II, who named Duarte archbishop in 1995, said Sunday that the cleric had  ñpaid the highest price" for defending human life and opposing violence.


CARACAS, March 17

    CHAVEZ WILL ñMILITARIZE" PDVSA

    Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez said Sunday he would order the armed forces to take over and run state oil giant Petroleos de Venezuela (PDVSA), if protesting executives and employees tried to halt the company's operations. For nearly three weeks, PDVSA dissident staff have staged a campaign of public demonstrations, administrative stoppages and work slowdowns to protest the government-ordered management changes in Latin America's biggest oil firm.

    "If they halt the company, I will militarize it," Chavez said during his weekly Hello President radio and television program. "I have the plan ready," the former paratrooper added. The dissident PDVSA staff are demanding the resignation of five board members appointed by the president, but they have insisted they do not want to call an all-out strike in the company, which could cripple Venezuela's oil-reliant economy.

    Chavez described PDVSA as "of high strategic value" and said he would not back down over the appointments, which the oil company protesters say are based on political loyalty to the left-wing president and not professional merit.


SANTIAGO DE CUBA, March 17

    SEWER'S SPILL HAS CONTAMINATED SANTIAGO DE CUBA'S ENVIRONMENT   

    A spill of waters sewers has contaminated Santiago de CubaÍs environment for the last six years without the local government or the municipality of Public Health Officials solving the problem. The seep out comes from a break in the sewers pipe distribution located of the street San Gerónimo #501. The liquid runs and it is deposited in Serrano's terminal where passengerÍs transport trucks run. "The stench of these waters constantly bothers both the workers of the terminal and the passengers", declared an employee of the place.

    On the other hand, a man in line in the station said:  It is "shameful to see how they solve quickly the problems that arise in places near to the hotels for foreign tourism, while situations like this (spill of sewers of the street San Gerónimo) remain unsolved solved for years. There are a lot of people who are here exposed daily to contagious illnesses. The spill pestilence affects the terminal, the gas station and the housings of this area."


HAVANA, March 17

     CUBA COMMUNIST GOVERNMENT INCREASES DISSIDENTSÍ CRACKDOWN

     State Department officials and human rights activists said the Cuban government has begun a crackdown on dissidents and human rights activists in advance of the Geneva meeting. Cuba has been condemned at the annual meeting in each of the last three years, but the vote has been close.

     State security police on Wednesday arrested Roberto Larramendi in Havana, one day after his independent teachers' organization released a report detailing how teachers who disagree with the government are fired. The report, written for distribution at the U.N. commission, called for the "rehabilitation" of Cuba's education system.

     The State Department said it had independent reports of arrests in recent days, where dissidents were picked up and then released. The Castro government has said it has some 100 people in custody for trying to obtain asylum by crashing a bus into the Mexican Embassy compound in Havana last week. However, U.S. officials said the number detained is two or three times that figure.


HAVANA, March 16

     THE DICTATOR CALLS U.S. AMBASSADOR REICH ñTERRORIST"

     In a fast-escalating war of words between the new Latin America policy chief and Cuban dictator Fidel Castro, on Thursday the dictator called Ambassador Otto Reich a "terrorist in the U.S. government" with a "sick" hatred of the Cuban Revolution. The dictatorÍs withering comments on Reich came two days after the Ambassador labeled the Castro government  as "a failed, corrupt, dictatorial, murderous regime."

     In his speech on Tuesday, Reich firmly opposed any softening of the U.S. economic embargo established by Washington since soon after Castro's 1959 revolution. "We are not going to help Fidel Castro stay in power by opening up our markets to Cuba," the Ambassador said.


     SANTA CLARA, March 16

    17 KILLED IN CUBA PLANE CRASH

    Cuban authorities were pulling the bodies of 17 people -- including 13 foreigners -- from a pond in central Cuba early Friday after a chartered plane, a single-engine Soviet-made Antonov AN-2, went down Thursday afternoon in a small rural community south of Santa Clara, the capital of Villa Clara.

    The cause of the crash was not immediately known. The victims were two Germans, six Canadians, five British citizens and four Cubans, an official from the International Press Center said Thursday night. Authorities blocked access to the pond on Friday morning. The AN-2 was operated by a local charter company, Aerotaxi. SANTA CLARA, el 16 de marzo


MADRID, March 15

     SPAIN MOVES TO END ASYLUM REQUESTS FROM CUBANS

     Spain will require transit visas for Cubans who stop over en route to another country, seeking to end a flood of asylum requests from Cuban travelers at Madrid's Barajas International  Airport. The new policy goes into effect Friday, the Foreign Ministry said Thursday. Spain informed Cuba of the policy change in late January, and talk of it in Havana led to a surge in arrivals of purportedly Moscow-bound Cubans using a refueling stop in Madrid to request political asylum in Spain.

      Cubans using a refueling stop in Madrid to request political asylum in Spain. More than 200 arrived over the weekend on separate flights, reportedly the biggest number in years. 

     Cubans fleeing Cuban dictatorship use flights to Moscow as escape routes because Russia is one of the few destinations they can aim for relatively easily. All they need is a letter from someone in Russia inviting them there, and money for air fare and an exit permit, according to the Cuban Center, an aid group in Madrid. Unlike applicants from other countries, most Cubans are allowed to enter Spain on humanitarian grounds, and given two months to try to obtain a residency permit that will allow them to work legally.


HAVANA, March 15

     26 CUBAN DISSIDENTS WILL FACE TRIALS

    Twenty-six Cuban dissidents rounded up since late February will face trial in a matter of days, in a government bid to leave opposition organizations leaderless, a dissident spokeswoman charged Tuesday. "This crackdown is aimed at removing the leadership of the dozens of dissident organizations working in Cuba, at a time of popular discontent with worsening social and economic conditions," said Marta Beatriz Roque, director of the Cuban Institute of Independent Economists.

    Just weeks ahead of a UN vote on Cuba's human rights record, Cuban dissidents have charged authorities with boldly stepping up politically motivated arrests. News of the pending trials comes amid recent dissident charges that stepped-up arrests were also aimed at crushing a landmark bid to get the National Assembly to call a referendum on political change.

    The constitution of Cuba allows for such a petition to the legislature if 10,000 signatures are collected. Oswaldo Paya, leader of the outlawed Christian Liberation Movement, last week said his organization for the first time had collected more than the needed number of signatures, and had verified them over two months. "At the same time, we are now under a wave of repression in which the people who have those documents are being arrested" by police in several provinces nationwide, he charged last week, promising nevertheless to present the petitions in a few weeks.


WASHINGTON, D.C., March 14

     AMBASSADOR REICH VOWS TO KEEP CUBA EMBARGO

     The State DepartmentÍs top official for Latin America said yesterday that the United States can speed a democratic transition in Cuba by ñno throwing a lifeline to a failed, corrupt, dictatorial, murderous regime." Ambassador Otto Reich, in his first speech since joining the State Department in January, vowed to maintain the 40-year old embargo against Cuba.

     The Ambassador promises to resist congressional pressure for closer ties with the communist dictatorship. ñWe are not going to help Fidel Castro stay in power by opening up our markets to Cuba," he said in a speech to a gathering sponsored by the Center for Strategic and International Studies. Some in Congress want to ease curbs on travel to Cuba on grounds that visiting Americans can promote democratic values among ordinary Cubans. But, as Reich sees it, that would give Castro economic breathing space and prolong his 43-year dictatorship. 


PHILADELPHIA, MARCH 14

     TRIAL OPENS FOR CANADIAN ACCUSED OF TRADE WITH CUBA

     Jury selection began Monday in Philadelphia in the trial of James Sabzali, a Canadian businessman accused by the U.S. Justice Department of violating the Trading with the Enemy Act by doing business with Cuba. Sabzali and his Canadian partners face a possible sentence of life in prison and a fine of $2 million, in a case that marks the first trial of a Canadian for conducting trade relations with Cuba while a Canadian resident.

    According to prosecutors, between 1991 and 1995, Sabzali, who headed a company based in Hamilton, Ontario, made 20 trips to Cuba to sell products made by the U.S. company Purolite. On those trips, Sabzali sold $2 million in chemical resin used to purify water in factories and hospitals. Sabzali was later hired by Purolite and promoted to an administrative position at its main offices in Philadelphia.

     In October 2000, after a five-year investigation, the Justice Department filed 76 charges against Sabzali and three other Purolite executives. Thirty-four of the charges are for trade transactions conducted while Sabzali was living in Canada. The trial is expected to last about three weeks.


HAVANA, March 13

     THE CUBAN DICTATOR DEMANDS REPARATIONS FROM THE UNITED STATES

     Cuban dictator Fidel Castro says the United States owes Cuba reparations and an apology for "more than 40 years of terror" directed at the communist nation. Castro made the remarks on Saturday, in a speech carried by Radio Havana. Castro said the United States government will never have "moral integrity in its so-called war on terrorism" as long as it doesn't renounce terrorism against Cuba. Castro described the U.S. war on terrorism as "prolonged, undefined and imprecise...the epitome of arrogance."

     Castro believes any U.S. apology to Cuba should include "repentance" for the economic and trade embargo against the communist nation, which has deprived the Cuban people of food and medicine, he said. President Bush has said that the trade and economic embargo against Cuba will not be lifted until Castro frees all political prisoners and conducts free and fair elections. Castro said the U.S. government should go beyond an apology, also providing financial compensation for "crimes" against the Cuban people.

     For the first time, Castro directly criticized the United States for imprisoning Taliban and al Qaeda detainees at the U.S. Naval Base at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba. The tyrant said the United States should negotiate with Cuba over "the illegal and arbitrary U.S. occupation of the Guantánamo Naval Base." In January, the Castro government complained about the "illegal U.S. occupation" of the base. In that January statement, the Cuban government said the U.S. presence on Guantánamo is a "bizarre and potentially dangerous problem" between the two countries. The Cuban government called on the U.S. to return to base to Cuba. "It should be returned to Cuba because it is a portion of its national territory," the Castro dictatorship said in a statement.


MADRID, March 13

     210 CUBANS SEEK POLITICAL ASYLUM IN SPAIN

     A group of Cubans seeking political asylum in Spain have been put up at Madrid's International Airport while authorities decide their cases, officials said Tuesday. Two hundred ten Cubans, reportedly the most to seek asylum this year, after 100 sought asylum in Barajas last November 30, arrived on separate flights over the weekend, Cadena SER radio said. It also said 123 men, women and their children sought asylum on a stopover from Havana to Moscow. There was no immediate information on who the Cubans were.

    The number of Cubans seeking asylum in Spain has soared in recent years. Nearly all arrive through the Spanish capital's Barajas International Airport. Interior Ministry statistics showed that 90 percent of the 3,273 asylum petitions processed at the airport last year were Cuban. Spain, with a population of 41 million, has some 1 million legal immigrants and several hundred thousand illegal immigrants. Recent statistics show that Spain, ñthe Motherland" as it is called by the Cubans, receives nearly a quarter of all new immigrants to the European Union.


WASHINGTON, D.C., March 13

     A NEW AFFRONT OF MEXICO TO THE CUBAN-AMERICAN COMMUNITY 

     Mexican Ambassador Juan Jose Bremer, who completed a trip to Miami last weekend, rankled the three Cuban-Americans members of Congress, Representatives Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (R-Fla.), Robert Menéndez (D-N.J.) and Lincoln Diaz-Balart (R-Fla.), by refusing to meet with them during his trip to Miami.

    They wanted to meet with Bremer in Miami to discuss what they consider a violation of international law. They are furious that the Mexican government had given instructions to the communist government of Cuba to forcefully expel 21 young Cubans who were seeking political asylum at the Mexican embassy.

   Diaz-Balart's chief of staff, Stephen Vermillion, said he had informed Sergio Zapata, the congressional liaison at the Mexican Embassy in Washington, that the three lawmakers were eager to meet with Bremer to discuss last week's incident. But Bremer flatly refused the invitation. Diaz-Balart said Bremer's refusal was a "grave mistake and a further affront of Mexico to the Cuban-American community."


HAVANA, March 12

     MASSIVE ARRESTS DURING MEXICAN EMBASSY INCIDENT

     Two young men arrested in connection with incidents in the Mexican embassy in Havana on February 27, say they were held with about 500 others, casting doubt on the initial official Cuban government figure of 150 arrests.

    The menÍs accounts suggest police began rounding up young men after a crowd started gathering outside the Mexican embassy. "We were first taken to a hall, where they questioned us as to what we had been doing that night. I think there must have been 500 of us there. I was questioned twice," said one of the youth arrested. "After the first interrogation, they let us watch a video with images of the Mexican embassy incident. We even saw people throwing stones. Later, the military made us line up in groups of about 45 and took us to Building No. 3 in the prison."

    The young menÍs parents, alerted by neighbors or acquaintances who had seen police pick them up, immediately set about trying to find out where they might have been taken. (Cuban law and procedure do not include the right to make phone calls after an arrest.) After making phone calls to several police stations during the night, they were eventually told to try the Combinado del Este, which some did early the next day and found their children.

HAVANA, March 12

    SPILL OF WATER AND SEWERS EXPOSES THE RESIDENTS OF ARROYO NARANJO  TO INFECTIOUS ILLNESS (CAMCO's Department of Engineers)

    The break of a pipe driver of waters sewers, to the side of Santa Bárbara's Church, it has become an infectious focus that puts in danger the health of the residents of this area of the Cuban capital. "When the church was repaired in 1999, it also caused the break of the pipe, since then, the liquid sewer pollutants has not ceased  to run out and accumulates in the whole street", a neighbor said. According to the source the problem has not been solved yet.

     "This infectious focus has harmed the members of our community for years. We have presented numerous complaints in the municipal Popular Power and in the corresponded policlinic, but the solution of the problem has not arrived" ¿ the resident remarked.


WASHINGTON, D.C., March 11

     EIGHT MEMBERS OF CONGRESS PRESSING FOR A BROADER OPENING TO CUBA

     Eight members of the House who oppose the U.S. trade embargo against Cuba have formed a working group to press for a broader opening, political and economic, to the communist government, just as the Bush administration is conducting a policy review certain to affirm the 40-year-old U.S. embargo. The principal leaders of the group are Rep. William D. Delahunt (D-Mass.) and Rep. George R. Nethercutt (R-Wash.). 

     Castro's decision to expand purchases of U.S. agricultural products is an effort to influence the U.S. political debate over future sales and financing, according to administration officials and Cuba analysts. "Cuba has discovered that providing a desired constituency with economic value has more immediate impact than does rhetoric," an analyst said. The eight companies that signed the first round of contracts with Cuba in November consciously spread the bounty among 21 states.  

    Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (R-Fla.), an strong opponent of any weakening of the U.S. embargo, dismissed the efforts of the working group and its prospective allies. "This is a group that will have minimal impact in changing the course of U.S.-Cuba policy. They will be playing Castro's game," she said. And she added: "As long as we have George W. Bush in the White House, their efforts will continue to be failed ones."


HAVANA, March 10

     CUBAN DICTATOR FIDEL CASTRO SAYS U.S. SHOULD ASK "FORGIVENESS" OF CUBA

     Cuban dictator Fidel Castro has lambasted the U.S.-led war on terrorism as hypocritical and said ñThe government of the United States should ask Cuba for forgiveness for the thousands of acts of aggression, sabotage and terrorism committed against our country for 43 years." The dictator was speaking at a ceremony to honor the mothers and wives of five Cubans jailed in Florida for spying against the United States.

    Castro, 75 and one of the world's longest-serving dictators said Washington's declared new war on terrorism following the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks was two-faced. "The U.S. government will never have the moral authority to combat terrorism while it continues to use such practices against nations like Cuba and to support massive, repugnant and brutal massacres like those carried out by its ally Israel against the Palestinian people," Castro said. "It should renounce its policy of world domination, stop intervening in other countries, respect the United Nations' authority and comply with international treaties it signed."

     The U.S list of seven nations that sponsor terrorism was "the height of prepotency and arrogance," Castro added. "They have the cynicism to mention Cuba among those countries ..." In a long list of grievances against Washington, Castro said Cuba was owed an apology for its economic embargo, whose banning of food and medicine were "acts of genocide." Despite the dictatorÍs litany of complaints, President George W. Bush's government has made it clear it wants no rapprochement with him unless there are reforms to his one-party Communist system.

   
WASHINGTON, D.C., March 10

     VERY SUCCESSFUL VISIT OF CANF LEADERS TO WASHINGTON

     Yesterday, the leaders of the Cuban American National Foundation (CANF) met at the White House and the State Department with key policymakers on Cuba. They also met with Mexico's ambassador to the United States Juan José Bremer. The talk Friday afternoon with Ambassador Bremer included a discussion on the incident at the Mexican embassy in Havana. The Mexican Ambassador used the opportunity, said CANF chairman Jorge Mas Santos, to express his desire to continue a close relationship with the foundation and the Cuban exile community.

     Mas Santos said he met with: White House political advisor Karl Rove; Colonel Emilio T. Martinez, director for the Caribbean and Central America of the National Security Council; Ambassador Otto Reich, Assistant Secretary of State for Western Hemisphere Affairs (the Ambassador will be officially sworn in at 4:00 p.m. tomorrow Monday) ; James Carragher, the State Department's coordinator for Cuban Affairs; and U.S. Rep. Tom Delay (R-Texas), who has often decried efforts to weaken pressure on Castro.

    Discussions also touched on TV Martí, the U.S. role in the upcoming United Nations Human Rights Commission in Geneva and President Bush's visit to Latin America later this month, Mas said. The CANF delegation included Mas Santos; Joe García, CANF Executive Director; Domingo Moreira, Director; and Ambassador Dennis K. Hays, Executive Vice- President.

WASHINGTON, D.C., March 9

     PRESIDENT BUSH ADMINISTRATION HAS BEGUN A COMPREHENSIVE REVIEW OF CUBA POLICY

     The review will include an assessment of whether Cuba can disrupt U.S. military communications through the Internet, a senior official says. That issue will be examined along with others to determine Cuba's potential to damage U.S. interests, the official added. The senior official also said Cuba's involvement in international terrorism also will be part of the review.

     In addition, the administration is examining the possibility of seeking an indictment against Cuban dictator Fidel Castro in the 1996 shoot down by MIG jet fighters of two Miami-based private planes, the official said.

    Thus far, the centerpiece of President Bush's Cuba policy has been support of the U.S. embargo against the communist island. But the official's comments suggested the administration has a more proactive agenda in mind for countering the dictator.   PLEASE READ: "NO CHANGE"  POLICY HAS TO BE "CHANGED"

MIAMI, March 9

     EMBASSY INCIDENT SHOULD NOT COW MEXICO

     If President Fidel Castro of Cuba instigated the Feb. 27 occupation of the Mexican Embassy in Havana in an effort to press the Mexican government to drop its defense of human rights and democracy on the island, as many of us suspect, he may not have succeeded.

    A week after 21 young Cubans hijacked a bus in Havana and crashed into the Mexican embassy gates in hopes of leaving the country, growing numbers of Mexican and U.S. officials believe that the incident was encouraged by the Cuban regime in part to create a major political problem at home for Mexican Foreign Minister Jorge Castañeda and his pro-democracy foreign policy.

    But there are hopeful signs that Fox and Castañeda will not be cowed into shelving their pro-democracy foreign policy. In an interview, Castañeda gave the first clear indication since the Feb. 27 incident that Mexico will go ahead with its pro-human rights stand. He said Fox will continue seeking both closer trade relations with the island and closer ties with Cuban human rights activists. ''This incident will not result in the slightest change in Mexico's policy toward Cuba,'' Castañeda said. ñIt will neither change our intention to continue deepening our economic relations with Cuba nor our insistence in the absolute respect for human rights on the island." In coming days, a senior Mexican diplomat is to visit Miami to reassure Cuban exile leaders of Fox's continued commitment to human rights in Cuba.


HAVANA, March 8

     HURRAH! THE CUBAN DICTATOR ñEXONERATES" THE FOREIGN SECRETARY OF MEXICO

     Cuban dictator Fidel Castro said he didn't blame Mexican Foreign Secretary Jorge Castañeda for last week's occupation of Mexico's embassy in Havana after comments he made in Miami. ''We do not say ... that Castañeda was responsible for what happened,'' Castro said Tuesday in a live late-night appearance on national television. "His words were manipulated ƒ I  EXONERATE HIM!''

     His ''manipulated'' comments sparked feverish rumors that authorities say prompted a group of young men to steal a bus and crash through the mission's gates. During his three-hour live appearance on national television, Castro warned that any more Cubans who force their way into foreign missions here will never receive permission from the Cuban government to leave the island. ''We guarantee the security of the embassies,'' Castro said.

    Castro said the incident in no way harmed Cuba's relationship with Mexico, nor changed his view of President Vicente Fox, with whom he spoke by telephone during the standoff. The Cuban leader said he considered Fox ''a man of honor'' and insisted that he had ''no problem'' with the Mexican president's brief meeting with a group of Cuban dissidents during his visit here.


HAVANA, March 8

    CUBAN DISSIDENTS DENOUNCE BEATINGS AND ARRESTS

    Cuban internal security forces beat four dissident journalists in recent days, while another roughly 100 activists opposed to President Fidel Castro's government have been detained in recent weeks, opposition sources said Wednesday. "There's been a massive wave of political repression," said Ricardo Gonzalez, of the Manuel Marquez Sterling Journalists' Association.

    Several journalists were beaten Sunday in the eastern provinces of Las Tunas and Ciego de Avila by Interior Ministry officers and members of pro-government civilian Rapid Response Brigades, as they arrived to report events by a local human rights group.

    ñThe Marquez Sterling JournalistsÍ Association asks colleagues around the world to protest against these attacks," said from Havana an association spokesman, adding it was concerned that if such measures against government opponents were taken just ahead of a U.N. Human Rights Commission, it feared what might come afterward. The Geneva-based U.N. human rights body is due to discuss a motion to censure the Communist government of Cuba over its continued rights abuses at its upcoming session.


MEXICO, March 8

    MEXICAN OFFICIAL FIRED

    A Mexican official was fired from his job for failing to stress President Vicente Fox's commitment to human rights in Cuba in an e-mail exchange with a Miami businessman Armando ''Manny'' Suarez who had written to complain about Mexico's handling of the February 27 occupation of Mexican Embassy in Havana, Mexican officials said Wednesday. ''What happened with President Fox's promises of respecting human rights?'' Suarez had asked in his March 1 e-mail.

    The incident took place Tuesday, after Mexican officials received copies of an e-mail signed by Manuel Morán, the coordinator of Mexico's foreign ministry's web site, in response to Mr. SuarezÍs e-mail. In his e-mail, Morán had written that Mexican President Fox had ñreaffirmed his position, based on the principle of self-determination, that the political and democratic evolution of Cuba is the exclusive province of the Cuban people."

    Hours after he got his first e-mailed response from the Mexican government's web site, Suarez got a second e-mail, this time by Arturo Sarukhan Casamitjana, the coordinator of Mexican foreign minister Jorge Castañeda's team of advisers. ñDear Mr. Suarez," Sarukhan's e-mail said. ñI'm writing to you in response to the letter you sent to the Mexican Foreign Ministry's web site. I'm hereby informing you that the foreign ministry does not stand by the content of the letter sent by Mr. Manuel Morán, coordinator of the foreign ministry's web site. It by no means represents the foreign policy of Mexico's current government, nor its position on international human rights or democracy. The official has been relieved of his duties." ñI'm more relieved now," Suarez said later. ñI'm glad to see that the first e-mail I got does not reflect Mexico's point of view."


WASHINGTON, D.C., March 7

     PRESSURE ON CUBA MAY INCREASE

     Some of Cuban dictator Fidel Castro's critics are becoming impatient because there has been no discernible toughening of U.S. policy toward Cuba. One even said President George W. Bush's first year in office was little more than an extension of Clinton era policies toward the island. A key unanswered question is what action the administration would take against Cuba, if the policy review being conducted now by the White House concludes the island represents a genuine threat to American interests.

     President Bush has made it clear he will not allow further weakening of the 40-year-old embargo against Cuba in the absence of a rapid transition to democracy and a free market economy, U.S. officials said. In its annual global human rights report released on Monday, the U.S. government said Cuba was a "totalitarian state" that continues "to violate systematically the fundamental civil and political rights of its citizens."


WASHINGTON, D.C., March 7

     STATE DEPARTMENT OFFICIAL SAID: "CUBA WILL REMAIN ON THE LIST OF STATES THAT SPONSOR TERRORISM"

    Cuba offered condolences, blood and airports for diverted airliners after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks on the Twin Towers and the Pentagon, and provided intelligence to help the United States track the culprits. But the information proved worthless and the Caribbean island will remain on a U.S. list of states that sponsor terrorism, along with Libya, Iraq, Iran, Syria, Sudan and North Korea, a U.S. official said on Wednesday. "Cuba was quick to condemn terrorism, but has done nothing to assist in the global effort against terrorism," the State Department official said.

    "We were convinced that it was deliberately of no assistance. Given Cuba's history there could have been more information at their disposal to provide us," said a State Department official. "There is no inclination in this building or anywhere in the executive branch to consider that Cuba is anywhere near qualified to come off the terrorism list," he emphasized.

     While a Pentagon report concluded five years ago that Cuba had ceased to be a threat and no longer exported revolution, Washington continues to blacklist Cuba's communist government for harboring two dozen members of the Basque separatist group ETA and maintaining close ties with Marxist guerrillas in Colombia.


PARIS, March 7

    POLICE BRUTALITY INCREASES IN CUBA

    Media advocacy group Reporters without Borders (RSF) on Friday protested an act of police brutality against two reporters from the British-based Reuters news agency in Cuba. In a letter to Cuban Interior Minister Abelardo Colome Ibarra, the RSF asks that an investigation be carried out into police aggression against Andrew Cawthorne and Alfredo Tedeschi on February 27 as they were covering the forced eviction of 21 Cubans seeking freedom inside the Mexican Embassy in Havana.

    "Those responsible for this aggression must be identified and punished so this type of thing ... does not happen again," said RSF Secretary General Robert Menard from the organization's headquarters in Paris. The association has similarly asked Cuban authorities to do everything possible to find and return Tedeschi's camera, which "disappeared" during the incident.


WASHINGTON, D.C., March 6

     THE SECRETARY OF STATE ATTACKS CASTRO RECORD ON HUMAN RIGHTS

     The Secretary of State, Colin Powell, has said he does not expect any improvement in human rights in Cuba so long as Fidel Castro remains in power.

     Interviewed on American CNN television, Secretary Powell said Fidel Castro had demonstrated since he came to power in 1959 that he is not interested in human rights or the democratization of society, or opening up the economic system.


WASHINGTON, D.C., March 6

     ANOTHER DICTATOR SYMPATHIZERÍS OPINION: ñCUBA DOES NOT REPRESENT A THREAT TO USA"

     Retired General Barry McCaffrey, who was President Clinton's ñanti-drug czar" director and now a university professor visiting the island with the Center for Defense Information, told a news conference in Havana that Cuba did not present a military risk to the United States. ''Cuba represents zero threat to the United States,'' he said. The general said he told Cuban authorities during meetings on Saturday that the United States did not present a military risk to the island, either. McCaffrey talked for 12 hours with Cuban dictator Fidel and his brother Raúl.

     The retired general said: ''I see no evidence at all that the Cubans are in any way facilitating drug trafficking.'' McCaffrey said he also did not believe that Cuba was a terrorism threat to the United States, as some Cuban exile groups insist. ''I don't believe they are harboring terrorist organizations,'' he emphasized. Nevertheless, Cuba remains on the U.S. State Department's terrorism watch list, primarily because of the presence on the island of Basque separatists, former members of Puerto Rican nationalist groups, and a handful of American fugitives. Of course, McCaffrey sees and believes only what he wants to see and believe to fully justify his ultimate goal: future business opportunities with the Castro brothers. 


WASHINGTON, D.C., March 6

     VICKI HUDDLESTON, A STRONG ADVOCATE OF HUMAN RIGHTS AND DEMOCRACY 

     Before becoming the top diplomat at the U.S. Interests Section in Havana in September 1999, Vicki Huddleston -- a career foreign service officer and former ambassador -- had worked in Africa, Haiti and Latin America. She had also worked on Cuba issues before, as deputy coordinator and then coordinator of the State Department's Office of Cuban Affairs from 1989 to 1993.

    After her stint on the State Department's Cuba desk, Ambassador Huddleston  was named deputy chief of the U.S. Mission in Port-au-Prince from 1993 to 1995 during the deployment of the multinational force meant to restore democracy in Haiti. As the top U.S. diplomat in the troubled nation, she held meetings at her home with top Haitian commanders and was attacked by members of a mob protesting U.S. interference in their country. They pounded on her car at the port as she arrived to greet some 200 American soldiers and 25 Canadian military trainers as part of a 1,300-member U.N. military and police contingent arriving in Haiti to prepare for the return of President Jean-Bertrand Aristide.

     In 1994-1995, Mrs. Huddleston and other members of the U.S. Embassy in Haiti, were honored with the Distinguished Service Award and the Award for Valor for their efforts in an extremely hostile environment. Due to her diplomatic successes, she was then named United States ambassador to the Republic of Madagascar from 1995 to 1997, and spent the two years after that as Deputy Assistant Secretary for African Affairs. Unfortunately, her tour of duty in Cuba ends in September, at the moment that she has become more vocal in defense of island dissidents and in her criticism of the communist government of Cuba. In a Free Cuba, we will need an envoy of Ambassador HuddlestonÍs professionalism, moral values and integrity.  


CHILE, March 5

     SUDDENLY, CHILE RECALLS ITS AMBASSADOR FROM CUBA

     The Chilean government has asked its ambassadors to Cuba and Switzerland to return to Santiago "to report" on the four rebels who traveled to those countries after escaping from a high-security prison in 1996, officials said. Foreign Minister Soledad Alvear revealed the move Sunday night following a dinner with EU Trade Commissioner Pascal Lamy.

     After three years of denials, the Cuban government finally admitted last week that at least two of the fugitives, Mauricio Hernandez Norambuena and Ricardo Palma Salamanca, had been in Cuba after fleeing from Chile. The Cuban government said the fugitives entered the island using false documents but were expelled as soon as their real identities were discovered.

    Cuban dictator Fidel Castro confirmed this report, first to two Chilean senators who visited Havana to gather information on the case and later to Santiago Mayor Joaquín Lavín.


HAVANA, March 5

     EMBASSY INCIDENT UNCHAINS MIGRATORY SENTIMENTS

     The recent incidents at the Mexican embassy in Havana stirred migratory feelings, especially among younger Cubans. "That's all people are talking about this morning," said a clerk at the Arroyo Naranjo post office.

    Groups of young people talked openly about their intentions of leaving the country. "I have everything ready, just in case we have a rerun of Mariel in 1980," yelled one man to his neighbor across a courtyard. He was referring to the events of 1980, when what started as a similar incident at the Peruvian embassy led to a mass exodus of 125,000 Cubans through the port of Mariel.


PINAR DEL RIO, March 5

      POLLUTION AND DIRT IN THE PUBLIC FACILITIES OF PINAR DEL RIO (CAMCO's Department of Engineers)

       The provincial government of Pinar del Rio is unable to give the necessary resources to maintain clean the public facilities of this region of Cuba. You can confirm the state of polution and dirt in the  hospitals, schools, policlínicas, offices and other state dependences.

       During the 2001 this situation worsened with regard to previous years, but in so far in the current year the worsening of the problem is appreciated. There is a lack of the most elementary of  cleaning articles. The quantities of cleaning articles are so minimum that they don't allow to maintain the basic norms of hygiene. In the schools they have a request to the parents of the students to contribute with sanitary and cleaning articles that each one can.

    While the government of Pinar del Rio decides what he will make to solve this health problem, the pollution and the dirt win land, except in the municipal and provincial headquarters of the Communist Party of Cuba and of the Popular Power, where there is never lack anything.


HAVANA, March 4

     MEXICAN AMBASSADOR'S SUSPICIONS

     Mexican authorities think the young Cubans who penetrated Mexican embassy in Havana this week could not have organized the operation by themselves. He would not say whether those he believes planned the incident were abroad or in Cuba.

    Mexico's envoy to Havana, Ricardo Pascoe said in a press conference in Havana:  "The 21 young Cubans forcefully evicted from the Embassy of Mexico carried out a relatively audacious and sophisticated operation which, in my opinion, was a situation where they were being exploited. ... I don't think those people by themselves would have been capable of it," Pascoe said, noting the low intellectual level of the men.


COLOMBIA, March 4

    A COLOMBIAN SENATOR MURDERED BY "FARC" MEMBERS

    A Colombian senator and two companions who were trying to negotiate the release of rebel hostages were tortured and killed by the guerrillas. Sen. Martha Catalina Daniels  was shot at close range with two bullets to the head, police said Sunday. The bodies of the senator; her driver, Carlos Lozano; and Ana Maria Medina were found Saturday outside Zipacon, 35 miles north of Bogota, town mayor Bernardo Gonzalez said.

    Medina was the wife of Mauricio Anzola, a former town mayor, who is being held hostage by the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC. The three were trying to win the freedom of the relatives kidnapped in May, according to a statement released by Colombia's intelligence police.

    ñI think that the three Colombians were killed somewhere else and brought here on Friday night," Gonzalez said. They were identified Sunday morning. The group had left the senator's home in Bogota Friday evening without taking along her bodyguards, Gonzalez said. Daniels was a member of the opposition Liberal Party. She had served 12 years in Congress and was not running for re-election in next week's elections.

WASHINGTON, D.C., March 3

     THE MEXICAN GOVERNMENT BETRAYED CUBAN YOUNGSTERS' HOPE

     Despite promises that force would not be used, President Vicente Fox had officially asked his friend, Cuban dictator Fidel Castro, to send his special force troops and secret police to his embassy in Habana in a pre-dawn raid and forcefully evict the 21 youngsters who had sought asylum there. On the streets and the airwaves of Miami, ñbetrayal and deception" were the words muttered by Cuban exiles. ñUna bofetada en la cara," they called it repeatedly: ñA slap in the face." A small plane flew over downtown Miami with a giant banner that read: ñFIDEL AND FOX: NO RESPECT FOR HUMAN RIGHTS."

     ñIt is a great disappointment to think that a Latin American powerhouse like Mexico could only find this type of solution to the crisis, to deliver these Cubans into the hands of their oppressors," said a Cuban-American. He and others said the quick resolution leaves the impression that there was never an intent to truly consider the youthsÍ request for asylum.

     Many protesters at the Mexican consulate in South Miami expressed their discontent with FoxÍs insensitivity. One of the demonstrators said: ñThis is not just a betrayal of Cubans. It is a betrayal to the principles of decent people.'' A Mexican woman with a sign reading ñFOX: DECIDE IF YOU ARE WITH GOD OR WITH THE DEVIL." ñHe has failed us -- and in what a way! He made a big mistake," said another Mexican, who worried that Fox's action could cast South Florida Mexicans in a bad light. She was partially right: At WAQI-AM, Radio Mambi, commentators after commentators urged Cuban exiles to boycott Mexican products, turn in undocumented Mexicans and not travel to the country.


MIAMI, March 3

     CUBAN EXILE ORGANIZATIONS WILL COORDINATE STRATEGY AGAINST MEXICO

     WAQI news director, Armando Perez-Roura, said representatives of many exile organizations would meet Monday at the Little Havana headquarters of the Bay of Pigs veterans to lay out a strategy following this week's incident. A Mexican-born U.S. citizen, called the station to ask that hate be directed to the Mexican government, which he said did not represent the Mexican people. ñIf our embassy in Havana is not going to serve as an embassy but as a branch of the Cuban government, then they should close it," the caller said.

    The majority of the Cuban Americans, including the members of CAMCO, are furious, saying the men's right to asylum was violated by both, the governments of Cuba and Mexico, while dissidents in Cuba are concerned about the harassment and reprisals taken now by CastroÍs police. In Mexico City, some local commentators also said President Vicente Fox's government had made itself look hypocritical by championing human rights on the world stage while ignoring the plea of Cuban youngsters who desperately wanted to escape from Cuba.

     Cuban dictator Fidel Castro said the 21 young Cubans, as well as many others, wanting to leave by illegal means are criminals incited by Washington and his foes in exile. However, Cuban dissidents say the majority of the Cuban people are simply fed up with harsh economic conditions, emigration restrictions and an authoritarian one-party political system.

HAVANA, March 2

     21 YOUNGSTERS FORCEFULLY EVICTED FROM MEXICAN EMBASSY

     Early Friday, acting on Mexican governmentÍs official and written request, Cuban Special Forces removed the 21 young men that were occupying the Mexican Embassy. Journalists at the scene were unable to watch the operation because the street outside the mission was blocked by police cars and wooden barricades.

     ñToday at 4:30 a.m., an operation by specialized personnel undertook the eviction ... and conforming to the request and desires of the government of Mexico," the communist government said in a statement Friday. There was no information on where they were taken or what charges might be filed against them. President Fox spoke with Cuban dictator Fidel Castro about the situation by telephone on Thursday. After the incident, police arrested 150 more people who then attempted to enter the embassy. Of course, the government also characterized those people as ñantisocial" criminals. 

     However, dissidents and many young Cubans outside the embassy claim that harsh economic conditions, emigration restrictions, and Castro's authoritarian one-party political system are the root causes for this week's incidents and the desire of millions on the island to leave. "Just let us go, I hate it here! Why can't I go where I want?" one youth said Wednesday night outside the embassy minutes before the bus storming. Since the triumph of the 1959 revolution, Castro has maintained a military dictatorship and outlawed all opposition political groups.  


MEXICO, March 2

     MEXICAN CONGRESSMEN DEMAND CASTAÑEDA'S RESIGNATION

     Mexican Congressman Sergio Acosta Salazar of the Democratic Revolution Party demanded Foreign Secretary Jorge Castañeda's resignation. Congressmen from two other parties also demanded that Castaneda step down or at least explain himself before lawmakers.

     Castañeda's trouble started when a reporter in Miami he was asked this week if Cuban dissidents were welcome at the Mexican Embassy in Havana. He was quoted as replying that ñthe doors of the embassy and the doors of Mexico would be open, as they would be to any Cuban or Latin American citizen interested in visiting Mexico."

     Repeated broadcasts of  CastañedaÍs remarks apparently whipped up false rumors in Havana that Mexico was either casually handing out visas or that it was breaking ties with Cuba. As a result, 21 youths hijacked a bus and rammed their way into the embassy to seek escape. 

WASHINGTON, D.C., March 1

     U.S. FAULTS CUBA OVER MEXICAN EMBASSY INCIDENT

     The United States government said Thursday it expected Mexico to find a humanitarian way to remove 21 Cubans who crashed a bus into the Mexican Embassy in Havana but it also said such problems would not arise if Cuba had a "free society."

     "Cubans would not seek entry to foreign embassies if they had an opportunity to choose their own government, receive independent and accurate information, participate in a more open market, and thereby benefit from the economic advantages that a free society would provide," State Department spokesman Richard Boucher told a regular news briefing.

    "Bottom line is, they wouldn't have to go through the wall if they were allowed to go to the front door," Boucher added. "We're sure the Mexican government will seek a solution  which pays due regard to humanitarian concerns and to its international obligations," the State Department spokesman said.  "We note that in a similar case, in 1993, the Cubans who had entered the Mexican Embassy were permitted to leave Cuba," he stated.

MEXICO, March 1

      MEXICO FOREIGN SECRETARY SAYS: "CUBANS WOULD BE ASKED TO LEAVE AS SOON AS POSSIBLE"

     Mexico scrambled on Thursday to limit diplomatic damage after 21 Cubans broke into its embassy in Havana overnight in an incident prompted by remarks by Foreign Secretary Jorge Castañeda. The incident is acutely embarrassing for Mexico, which over the years has assiduously cultivated a special relationship with Cuba but more recently has criticized Cuban dictator Fidel Castro's human rights record.

     Trying to ignore 42 years of  Castro dictatorship, Castañeda , a former Marxist who wrote a biography of guerrilla Che Guevara, told national radio: "They are not asylum-seekers because they haven't asked for asylum. They did not show any political motivation for entering the embassy. They are being told that if they want to apply for a visa, they should do so and they will be considered just as many people are. But if they are, as appears to be the case, without work and want to come to Mexico for economic reasons, then it will be difficult to grant them a visa. We know there are radical elements in Miami. ... Undoubtedly they wanted to use my declarations, twisting them, about Mexico's Cultural Institute in Miami and Mexico's traditional policies in order to launch what we might call a small provocation."


HAVANA, March 1

     MEXICO CONFIRMS 21 YOUNGSTERS SEEK ASYLUM IN ITS HAVANA EMBASSY

     The Mexican Embassy in Havana confirmed on Thursday that 21 young Cuban asylum-seekers remained in the diplomatic compound after a dramatically driving a bus through police cordons and smashing past the perimeter gate.

     ñThey are all men. There are 21 of them, all very young," Mexican Embassy No. 2 Andrés Ordoñez said by telephone from within the diplomatic mission. Ordoñez added that the Cubans had been given food and received medical inspections overnight, but would not comment on their likely fate. Mexican Foreign Minister Jorge Castañeda was due to speak on the incident later Thursday, he said.

    A Cuban communiqué gave no indication of what might happen to the 21 inside, but as usual, condemned the occupants of the bus as "anti-social and lumpen elements." Young Cubans on the street interviewed by reporters before the bus break-in spoke with anger and desperation. "We just want to get out! Let us out! We'll go anywhere. We've got nothing here," shouted one young man, who identified himself only as Julio.


HAVANA, March 1

     YOUNG CUBANS OCCUPY MEXICAN EMBASSY

     About young 20 Cubans seeking to leave their country stood on the roof of the Mexican Embassy shouting anti-Fidel Castro slogans and threatening to jump off if police came in to get them. Cuban dictator Fidel Castro's government accused the U.S. government's Radio Marti early Thursday of provoking the embassy occupation the night before by repeatedly broadcasting statements by Mexican Foreign Secretary Jorge Castaneda, which it said were interpreted as ñan open invitation to occupy the embassy of Mexico in Cuba."

     The government statement said the occupation of the Mexican Embassy took place about 9:30 p.m. Wednesday when a group of about 20 hijacked a bus and slammed into the embassy gates. Police blocked youths trying to run in behind the bus, chasing, beating and detaining people in the street, and attacking two journalists with batons in chaotic scenes after the incident at about 10 p.m. A local human rights' group, the Cuban Commission for Human Rights and National Reconciliation, said dozens of arrests were made and denounced what it called "many acts of police brutality."


HAVANA, March 1

     BUS CRASHES IN MEXICAN EMBASSY IN HAVANA

     A bus crashed into the gates of the Mexican embassy and an unknown number of Cubans rushed inside. ''We can stay here four years, 10 years, but we are not going to leave!'' one man shouted from the roof. ''Down with Fidel!'' several others shouted in unison.

    Cuban dictator Fidel Castro arrived at the embassy shortly after midnight. Traveling in a group of three military jeeps full of bodyguards, Castro was accompanied by Foreign Minister Felipe Pérez Roque and Vice President Carlos Lage, among others. The incident occurred sometime before 11 p.m., several hours after the embassy's commercial attaché, Andrés Ordóñez, spoke with international journalists who came to investigate reports that Cubans were trying to enter the embassy.

     In the past, there have been similar rushes on foreign embassies in Havana by desperate Cubans seeking to leave the country. It was such an incident at the Peruvian embassy that precipitated the refugee crisis of 1980 and led to the exodus from Mariel to South Florida.