PÉREZ ROQUE "PRAYS" FOR END TO EMBARGO

    Cuba's foreign minister made an impassioned appeal for the lifting of the trade embargo against his country, saying the èblockade" has cost the Caribbean nation $72 billion in the last 42 years. "The blockade is a major obstacle to our development. (It) prevents and curtails our development,'' Perez told a sympathetic audience of more than 800 people, many of whom repeatedly interrupted with chants of ``Viva Cuba.'' The embargo has set back Cubaçs development, affecting education, trade, industry, business transactions and its ability to receive international assistance, the minister said.

    The embargo was imposed by the United States in 1961 to punish Cuba's Fidel Castro, then a Soviet ally. The United States has also imposed sanctions on companies that do business in the communist island. Perez is in New York for the annual ministerial session of the U.N. General Assembly. In a speech on Friday, the Cuban criticized the U.S.-led war in Iraq.

    POLICE SHUT DOWN INDEPENDENT LIBRARY IN CUBA

    The Cuban political police searched the home of dissident Lorenzo García in Holguín Tuesday, confiscating more than 250 books from an independent lending library García operated there. García pointed out the police didn't show a court order for the search. García said Captain Enrique Fornaris and officers Julio César Borrego and Pablo Guerrero searched his home for three hours.

    "They confiscated more than 250 books, as well as two typewriters," said García by telephone. "The library is no more." García is the president of the Claridad Human Rights movement, and operated the Félix Varela library out of the home. After the search, police left a watch in front of the building where García lives. The dissident said they follow him everywhere, even to church.

    LULA DID NOT MEET WITH CUBAN DISSIDENTS

    Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva and Cuban dictator Fidel Castro on Saturday pledged to emphasize business over politics in their relations and urged executives in both nations to make trade and investment deals. Lula was accompanied by more than 60 Brazilian executives on two-day visit to Cuba and he and Castro spoke at a seminar on doing business with the Communist-run nation. "We can increase our relations and mutually contribute to the growth and development of Brazil and Cuba," said Lula.

    The fate of 75 people detained by Cuba's government in March in a crackdown on dissent placed pressure on Lula to show support for dissidents and lobby during his visit for their release. However, Lula made clear before trip he would not broach the human rights issue and would focus instead on boosting commercial ties with Cuba. èI don't give opinions about the internal political conditions of other countries,'' Silva told reporters in Mexico this week.

    Lula and Castro kicked-off the visit Friday by presiding over the signing of cooperation agreements on health, education, sports, fishing, industry and, tourism. Another agreement was signed on Cuba's $40 million outstanding debt, which will be paid back with a percentage of revenues from Cuban exports to Brazil. Agreements of understanding were also signed between private Brazilian companies and Cuban state-run firms to jointly build hotels and produce pharmaceuticals and pesticides as well as ethanol from sugar. Brazil reported 2002 trade with Cuba was $88 million, all but $15 million of it Brazilian exports and compared with $122.5 million in 2001.

   LULA ARRIVES IN CUBA

    Brazil's leftist president arrived in Cuba Friday for a 26-hour visit to discuss regional trade, aid and political integration with his old friend Cuban dictator Fidel Castro - while keeping quiet on the communist island's internal affairs. Castro personally greeted President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva at the airport when he arrived midday on a morning flight from Mexico. Dressed in his traditional olive green uniform, the Cuban leader hugged Silva at the end of the red carpet leading up to his plane.

    Relatives and supporters of the Cuban dissidents have asked Silva to intervene on their behalf during meetings with Castro. But after his meeting Thursday night with Mexican President Vicente Fox, Silva indicated he had no such plan. "I don't give opinions about the internal political conditions of other countries," Silva told a Mexico City news conference. Silva might also begin renegotiating a $40 million Cuban debt and arrange the purchase of some Cuban products.

    PRISON INMATES IN CUBA DECRY CONDITIONS

    "Only the absence of fire keeps us from thinking we are in Hell," reads a message from a prisoner at the Valle Grande prison in Havana. Seven prisoners, Alexis Quintero, William Terrero, Oneris Rodríguez, Yarian León, Yordanis Amaya, Rancel Caballero, and Jorge Luis Osorio, have been sleeping on the floor in ward 8 for more than four months now. 36 additional inmates bunk on straw mattresses placed on the floor.

    Osorio said in the message: "The enclosure has become a cemetery of live men. We are deprived of all rights." Another part of the message points out that "the food is scant and very poorly made; we don't have access to medical attention. At present we are suffering from hemorrhagic conjunctivitis and we don't have water to wash." The inmates closed the message expressing appreciation for the pencils inscribed with thoughts by José Martí sent in by the Group in Support of Democracy.

   CHÁVEZ ACCUSED THE U.S. OF HARBORING èTERRORISTS"

    Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez accused the United States of harboring "terrorists" plotting to kill him and told the U.S. and Spanish governments to stop meddling in his country's affairs. The left-wing populist president has clashed with Washington over many issues, including the U.S. occupation of Iraq, but this was his most virulent attack so far against the country that is the leading buyer of Venezuela's oil.

    Chavez said he canceled a planned visit to the United Nations and the United States this week because his government had received information about a plot to kill him while he was there. "I have no conclusive proof to accuse anyone," he said. But he immediately added that "coup-mongering, terrorist Venezuelans" who had taken part in a failed coup against him last year were plotting and training in the United States. He said he had informed U.S. authorities. "If they (the U.S. authorities) are really fighting terrorism as they say, they should act against these terrorists who are threatening Venezuela," Chavez said.

    EQUAL? NOT EVEN DEAD!

    Just past noon August 16, the jeep arrived at the polyclinic of the former Orozco sugar mill in Pinar del Río province, carrying the first secretary of the local Communist Party apparently suffering from a heart attack. The party's first secretary from Bahía Honda arrived almost immediately, according to witnesses. And then some more officials; a resident by the name of Mario said in a few minutes there were 12 jeeps and Soviet-made Ladas at the polyclinic.

    The doctor was not able to revive the patient, who died. The ambulance from Bahía Honda administrators called for arrived promptly, to the amazement of onlookers. When it came time to transport the body in the stretcher, the party first secretary from Bahía Honda said: "We are not showing the comrade any respect by putting him on that dilapidated stretcher."

     WIVES OF JAILED CUBAN DISSIDENTS SEEK BRAZIL PRESIDENTçS AID

     Wives of 30 imprisoned Cuban dissidents have called on Brazil's president, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva,  to raise their husbands' cases with Cuban dictator Fidel Castro during a visit to the communist-run island this week, some of the women said on Tuesday.  The dissidents  were sentenced to long prison terms after being charged with working for the United States to subvert the government. Lula and Castro have been friends for decades. But Lula, a leftist, was democratically elected president last year. Castro came to power in a 1959 revolution and presides over a one-party state.

    "I appeal to his (Lula's) prestige, his humble background and position as a friend of Fidel Castro to intercede with the president and gain the release of my husband and the other 74," said Blanca Reyes, wife of jailed independent journalist Raul Rivero. She wrote to Lula asking for his help, and 29 wives of other jailed dissidents also sent a joint letter to the Brazilian president. Lula's schedule in Cuba includes two meetings with Castro, one Friday afternoon after his arrival from Mexico, and the other on Saturday afternoon before his departure for Brazil.

    Dissident leader Oswaldo Paya, who praised Europe and the United States for his efforts to bring peaceful change to Cuba, is also seeking a meeting with Lula. Mexican President Vicente Fox was the last head of state to meet with dissidents during a February 2002, trip to the island. Soon after, bilateral relations hit an all-time low, due to Mexico's increasingly vocal criticism of the human rights situation in Cuba.

   US SAYS CUBAN DICTATOR FIDEL CASTRO NOT MEETING MIGRATION ACCORD

    The United States accused Cuba of failing to live up to its commitments under joint migration agreements by refusing to issue exit visas to some citizens granted permission to leave the country. The State Department said Washington was adhering to the accords and had issued more than 20,000 immigrant visas to Cuban citizens during the past year but claimed that Havana was preventing those people from leaving.

    "The burden is now clearly on the Cuban government to grant exit permits to all those Cubans who have received US travel documents and to remove impediments it has placed to full implementation of the accords," said deputy spokesman Adam Ereli. "In particular, we call on the Cuban government to cease its discriminatory practices of denying such permits to doctors, information technology professionals, and family members of Cubans who have sought freedom in the United States," he said in a statement. Ereli said that US officials had complained to their Cuban counterparts about more than 600 cases in which US visa holders had been denied permission to leave the country, when they last met to discuss the migration issue in June.

     CUBAçS MANY PRISONS MAY HOLD 100,000 (BY NANCY SAN MARTIN ú THE MIAMI HERALD) 

    Cuba's jailing of 75 dissidents six months ago has focused fresh attention on one of the largest per-capita prison systems in the world, with an estimated 100,000 or so inmates in about 200 prisons and labor camps spread around an island slightly smaller than Pennsylvania. Letters smuggled out by a handful of the imprisoned dissidents describe tight, filthy quarters infested with rodents and bugs; food too disgusting to eat; limited access to medical care; and physical and mental abuse.

    But the estimated 300 political prisoners in Cuba make up only a fraction of what may be the world's most extensive per-capita prison gulag -- even larger than the U.S. penitentiary system, which tops the list kept by the London-based International Centre for Prison Studies.

    Vladimiro Roca, a human rights activist who served nearly five years in prison, said it's no surprise that Cuba's prison population is so high. ''Here, people get thrown in prison for anything,'' Roca said in a telephone interview from Havana, adding that breaking the law is often a matter of survival in a country where the government's monthly food rations last less than two weeks and the average wage is about $10 per month. ''If you kill a cow to feed your family, you go to jail,'' Roca said. èThat's part of the government's method to maintain control over the population.''

    Click here     and read the complete article

    VENEZUELAN CHURCH REJECTS CHAVEZçS ACCUSATION

    Venezuela's Roman Catholic Church on Monday rejected President Hugo Chavez's claims it was involved in a brief 2002 coup. Chavez said Sunday that Catholic bishops and a cardinal participated in the April 2002 rebellion that briefly ousted him. Loyalist troops restored Chavez to power within 48 hours.

    There are bishops from the Catholic Church who knew a coup was on the way and they used church installations to bring coup plotters together,'' Chavez said. He called clerics èimmoral'' and èpokesmen for the opposition.'' Monsignor Baltazar Porras said Monday that Chavez's remarks during the president's weekly talk show were meant to èdistract public attention from the real problems confronting our society.''

    Porras, head of the Venezuelan Episcopal Conference that represents the Roman Catholic Church in Venezuela, defended Venezuelans' right to demand a recall vote on Chavez's term, which ends in 2007. Chavez vows that the vote will not happen and recently has accused innumerable opponents of plotting yet another coup. Chavez, a self-proclaimed leftist revolutionary, lashed out at the church after it alerted Venezuelans Sunday to the country's deepening crisis. Venezuela's church has claimed that Chavez is trying to impose communism. Chavez has called the church a "tumor.''     

    HUGO CHÁVEZ SLAMS èLYING" CATHOLIC BISHOPS

    Venezuela's left-wing President Hugo Chavez on Sunday accused the local Catholic church hierarchy of siding with his political opponents and spreading lies about his populist government. Chavez accused the Venezuelan Episcopal Conference of passing out leaflets questioning his policies and the rise in crime, poverty and unemployment.

    "They are lying shamelessly ... The leaders of the Catholic church here go against what the Pope orders, what the Pope says," Chavez said in his regular Sunday television program. "All they need to put on the end of this is 'Chavez resign now'," he said, waving what he said was one of the leaflets. Chavez, who often brandishes a small crucifix during his marathon speeches, and the church have squabbled before. Church leaders have accused the Venezuelan president of dividing the country while Chavez once described the local church hierarchy as a "tumor" in the South American nation.  

     Click here     and read "Lágrimas en la sotana," (Spanish) written by Roberto Giusit and published by "El Universal", Caracas

    THE THREE FEARS AND THREE HOPES

    As our Chairman, Maj. Gen. Erneido A. Oliva (DC-Ret.), has said, the Cuban people have not rebelled against hunger, infamy, and oppression because of: "THREE FEARS and THREE HOPES."

     The THREE FEARS:

     1)      FEAR of the State secret police, informants of the Revolutionary Defense Committees, and the government organized mobs that frighten and persecute those who dare to dissent from the dictatorship;
     2)      FEAR of the changes that will ensue in Cuba if the dictator is no longer in power; and
     3)      FEAR of the exiled community, who has always been depicted by the communist propaganda as vengeful, ready for retaliation, and anxious to extinguish the so called "social achievements" of the revolution.

     The THREE HOPES:

     1)     HOPE of leaving the Island one way or another--by raft, by airplane, or by any other means of transportation that can be found;
     2)     HOPE that the U.S. Congress will lift the economic sanctions under pressure from American liberals; and
     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.

      CAMCO believes that these FEARS and HOPES have paralyzed our people and prolonged our struggle to free Cuba. However, the time has come when all free loving people, working together, could help to eliminate the FEARS  and HOPES that have paralyzed the Cuban people and make a peaceful transition to democracy possible.

    PUBLIC PROTEST IN HAVANA FOR AN EVICTION OF A POOR FAMILY

    Scores of residents staged a rare protest Friday in the neighborhood of Santa Fe when police arrived to evict a family that had built a home on a vacant lot without the government's permission. "Down with the eviction!'' the neighbors shouted during the protest in western Havana. The eviction, coming amid a crackdown on illegally constructed or modified dwellings, was another reminder of the severe housing crisis in this capital of more than 2 million people.

    "My son who lives in Russia sent us money to build this four-room house,'' said Hilda Machado, who was evicted by uniformed officers along with her four grown children and other relatives. "There was a trash dump here before,'' Machado said, standing in front of the humble, but neatly kept house of concrete blocks and bricks. Housing authorities on Friday carried the family's furniture and other belongings to the single room they had shared before - legally. Such spontaneous protests are  rare on this Caribbean island, where all public gatherings are organized by the communist government.

    While much of Havana's older housing stock has grown dilapidated and uninhabitable, new housing construction has slowed to trickle, sometimes forcing Cubans to build their own homes or enlarge existing ones. The only new constructions seen in the island during the last decades have been hotels and condominiums for foreigners.

     HAVEL, WALESA AND GONCZ CALL FOR A PEACEFUL OVERTHROW OF CUBAN DICTATOR

    The former presidents of three Eastern European countries have launched a campaign calling for the peaceful overthrow of Cuba's communist government.  In a letter sent to several leading newspapers internationally, Vaclav Havel of the Czech Republic, Lech Walesa of Poland and Arpad Goncz of Hungary said European countries should set up a fund to help opposition groups within Cuba. Castro should be treated as a dictator, say the three ex-presidents

    The three, all of whom were dissidents when their countries were ruled by communist regimes, said Cuban dictator Fidel Castro's regime was "at its last gasp" and compared its situation to Eastern Europe in the late 1980s. Facing an economic downtown and growing discontent, the Cuban Government in March arrested 75 members of opposition groups.  But the former presidents said "the internal opposition is getting stronger, it has not been brought to its knees by the police round-up last March." èTimes are changing, the revolution is getting old and the regime is getting nervous," they said.  "Fidel Castro knows well that one day the revolution will die with him." 

    "Europe ought to make it unambiguously clear that Fidel Castro is a dictator, and that for democratic countries a dictatorship cannot become a partner until it commences a process of political liberalization," it said. It also called for a "Democratic Cuba Fund" to support civil society which should be "ready for immediate use in the event of political change".  Europe and the US should seek a common policy on Cuba, the former leaders added.

    JUAN PÉREZ FRANCO -- ANOTHER GREAT CUBAN PATRIOT DIED IN MIAMI

    A great Cuban patriot and anti-Castro activist during the last four decades, Juan Pérez Franco, died of cancer Friday in his West Miami-Dade home. Pérez Franco, 75, èHis biggest dream was always the liberation of Cuba," said his wife Thelma Rodríguez. èThe only thing he asked God was to live a little longer to see the end of Fidel Castro and the islandçs democratization".

    On February 19, 1959, Pérez Franco fled Cuba, leaving behind his wife and their two children. After a brief stay in New York, he went to Miami after his family left the island. The reunion was short-lived. He left for the Guatemalan training camps in 1960. A year later, on April 17, he parachuted at the Bay of Pigs. He was captured and held for 22 months before being ransomed by the U.S. government. After his return to the United States, Pérez Franco continued his struggle to liberate Cuba. He was elected president of the Assault Brigade 2506 Veteransç Association in 1986 ú a title he capture five more times.  In 2001, the 40^th anniversary of the Bay of Pigs, Pérez Franco said: èWe have no army, no money for an army and no country to help us. The only weapon we have is our intransigence."

        On Sunday, his fellow exiles and brigadistas will file past his body as it lies in state at the association  headquarters at 1821 SW Ninth St., between noon and 4 p.m. A second viewing will be from 6 to 11 p.m. at Funeraria Memorial Plan of Coral Way and 98 Avenue SW, followed by a Monday funeral mass at Prince of Peace Church.  All members of CAMCO join the whole exile community in this moment of grief over the death of a hero and freedom fighter. Everyone who knew èJuanito" at all will have lost a real friend, and for the Assault Brigade2506, he has left a place that can never be filled.

  CUBA GROUPS SEEK IMPROVE CIVIL RIGHTS

     Opposition groups proposed greater civil rights and economic freedoms for the communist island Tuesday, saying they were basing their request on a survey of thousands of Cubans. A seven-page èLetter of Fundamental Rights and Responsibilities of Cubans'' was unveiled at a news conference organized by one of the leading organizations involved, the Moderate Opposition's Reflection Group.

     Among the other rights spelled out in the letter are the rights to free expression, association and movement as well as the freedom to hold private property and work for whomever one chooses. The coalition of dissident groups said the document was written after a months-long process in which more than 35,000 Cubans were surveyed for their suggestions.

     The document will eventually be presented to Cuba's National Assembly as well as the Communist Party's Central Committee and other powerful institutions, said Manuel Cuesta Morua, of the Moderate Opposition's Reflection Group. The groups said respondents to the survey were from all of Cuba's 14 provinces and ranged politically from anti-government activists to Communist Party members. èThis project is about human rights, not politics like Varela,'' Cuesta Morua said.

    FELIPE PEREZ ROQUE: "BUSH WAS THE MOST AGGRESSIVE OF TEN U.S. PRESIDENTS THAT HAVE TRIED TO TOPPLE PRESIDENT (DICTATOR) FIDEL CASTRO SINCE HIS 1959 REVOLUTION."  IS THIS GUY TRYING TO FOOL FLORIDA'S CUBAN AMERICANS?

    Still fresh the signature of U.S. legislators on a memorandum of understanding to sell the Cuban government up to $10 million of products from the state, such as cattle, wheat, barley and dried beans, Cubaçs Foreign Minister Felipe Pérez Roque charged that President Bush administration was tightening a U.S. embargo on the island despite growing domestic and international opposition. "The economic, financial and commercial blockade the United States has maintained against Cuba for more than four decades has not only been scrupulously applied, but strengthened over the last two years," Roque said on Tuesday at a Havana news conference.

    Of course, in Washington, U.S. National Security Council spokesman Sean McCormack did not dispute that view. "President Bush has made very clear that he not only supports the embargo, he supports the strengthened enforcement of the embargo and he has taken steps to do that under his presidency," he said. Perez said President Bush was the "most aggressive of ten U.S. presidents that have tried to topple" Cuban dictator Fidel Castro since his 1959 revolution.        

  ELIZARDO SÁNCHEZ ACKNOWLEDGES GETTING A MEDAL FROM THE SECRET POLICE

    Cuban human rights activist Elizardo Sánchez admitted Tuesday he received a medal from Cuba's state security officials but said the videotaped ceremony was a setup and should not harm his work with international rights groups. "I admit I fell in a trap,'' Elizardo Sanchez said of the videotape released by the government last week in a campaign to discredit the opposition. "At first I did not remember the incident because there were so many meetings,'' Sanchez said. èBut when I saw the tape, I recognized the curtains.''

    Sanchez acknowledged last month that he has been meeting regularly with government agents over the years to try to influence the treatment and release of political prisoners. But he adamantly insisted he never collaborated with them. Sanchez, a 59-year-old former professor of Marxism, did not deny receiving the medal when international reporters asked him about the videotaped ceremony. But he did not flatly admit to receiving the medal until this week.

    Sánchez said his first round of conversations with government agents began in 1987, when a state security colonel visited him with a proposal for a discreet dialogue. èThey wanted me to talk to them about problems before going to the [foreign] media.'' Sánchez said he accepted but insisted that he was always transparent in his efforts to help political prisoners, and pointed to his 1988 public announcement that his commission had èregular work sessions with high-ranking officials of state security.'' At the time, Sánchez was quoted as saying that the "relationships were necessary for the solution to the current problems.''

    U.S. LAWMAKERS MEET THE CUBAN DICTATOR 

    Democratic Sen. Max Baucus told Cuban dictator Fidel Castro he was concerned about the human rights situation in Cuba during a four-hour meeting that ended early Monday, members of the American delegation said. Baucus, the highest ranking American official to visit Cuba since a March crackdown that put 75 dissidents behind bars, traveled to the island over the weekend with Republican Rep. Dennis Rehberg and a group of Montana farm leaders and foreign policy specialists.

    Baucus and Rehberg, both from Montana, have been leaders of congressional efforts to eliminate restrictions on travel to and trade with the communist-run island. èIt was a very fruitful conversation,'' said Anya Landau, of the Washington-based Center for International Policy. ``Everyone expressed their opinions, but there were things that both delegations did not agree upon.''

    The meeting began about 10 p.m. Sunday and wound up about 2 a.m. Monday, just hours before the bulk of the delegation returned to the United States. During their visit, Baucus and Rehberg also signed a memorandum of understanding to sell the Cuban government up to $10 million of products from the state, such as cattle, wheat, barley and dried beans.

  US LEGISLATORS MEET OSWALDO PAYÁ

    U.S. Senator Max Baucus and Representative Dennis Rehberg met with Oswaldo Payá Sunday. Baucus, a Montana democrat, told reporters as he left the Havana home of Payá, leader of a petition drive seeking a referendum for political and economic reforms of Cuba's one-party government. The wives of some of the recently imprisoned dissidents also participated in the meeting

    Payá said the meeting covered the political and economic situation in communist-run Cuba and the fate of 75 dissidents imprisoned in April after being charged with working to topple the government in collaboration with the United States. "It was very valuable for us because they came to Cuba and met with not only the government but other sectors of society," Paya said. Payá said he hoped the two U.S. officials would push Cuban dictator Fidel Castro to release the prisoners during a meeting scheduled for Sunday night. Baucus and Rehberg are opponents of the embargo. Baucus has introduced legislation in the Senate that would end a U.S. ban on travel to Cuba.

     SENATOR BAUCUS AND REPRESENTATIVE BEHBERG IN HAVANA

    U.S. Sen. Max Baucus and U.S. Rep. Dennis Rehberg, leaders of congressional efforts to eliminate restrictions on American travel to Cuba, arrived in Havana Saturday for a weekend trip with Montana farm representatives. It was the second trip to Cuba for both Montana congressmen.

    Baucus, a Democrat, visited Cuba in 2000 and Rehberg, a Republican, this year. The legislatorsç visit is accomplished days after the U.S. House of Representatives voted to ease restrictions on traveling to the island, despite a threatened veto by President Bush. The U.S. Senate is expected to vote on a similar version of the spending bill later this fall, but no date has been scheduled. Baucus and Rehberg also support an end to more than 40 years of U.S. trade sanctions against Cuba, which were designed to force a change in Fidel Castro's communist government.

   THE FAN SHOULD NOT FOLLOW CUBAN ARMED FORCESç FOOTSTEPS

    "The National Armed Force (FAN) are now more bonded than ever," said President Hugo Chávez on July 5, 1999. But his words did not match his actions. Ever since he came to office, he announced his determination to reinstate the military officers who participated in a military coup on February 4, 1992 -and who were dismissed from the military- in their positions. He warned that those officers, as well as the officers who played a role in the rebellion but remained in FAN, would be vindicated. This was the origin of a first division within the military.  Subsequently, Chávez promoted officers who were delayed as compared to their classes, without taking into consideration the authority the Congress had to make such appointments. After the violent events of April 11 last year, Chávez expelled and dismissed more than 900 officers, leaving FAN in the hands of troops of lower ranking officers who support the so-called "chavista" process. "Fifteen lies Hugo Chávez has told."

     èHundreds of my honorable comrades-in-arms, who were respectful of the Constitution, as the Venezuelan military is, were coldly and unjustly executed without having been given the opportunity to appear before competent tribunals. Thousands of them spent long years in prison, defenseless and accused of crimes they did not commit. Others tried to cross the Strait of Florida in improvised boats -- many died in the dangerous voyage. Hundreds achieved their objectives and reached lands of freedom--but the immense majority that remained in the enslave island, ended or are ending their lives forgotten and despised by those who only sought vengeance and who cried slogans similar to what members of the Bolivarian movement repeat today, ‚TO THE WALLç (to be executed) and 'HOMELAND OR DEATH.'  Less fortunate than I was also an entire country that has remained enslaved for 44 long years, without any "friend" or international organization willing to provide much needed assistance to liberated itself and scream 'ENOUGH IS ENOUGH!' to a communist tyrant who has remained in power for over four decades". Message from Maj. Gen. (DC) Retired Erneido A. Oliva to the FAN    

   CNE DECLARED INVALID THE SIGNATURES TO DEMAND A RECALL AGAINST CHAVEZ 

    The National Electoral Council's directorate decided to declare invalid the signatures submitted on August 20 in order to demand a recall vote on President Hugo Chávez' mandate.  The signatures were gathered before time, and civil association Súmate had no capacity to collect the signatures, CNE said. It also said that the heading of the forms used to gather the signatures was not a formal petition addressed to the electoral body, but a sort of unlawful proclaim.

    The five directors of CNE discussed a draft resolution rejecting the presidential recall petition arguing it is inadequate in terms of opportunity, form, and origin. The signatures were declared invalid by simple majority -with the favorable vote of three of the five directors of CNE. Based on a ruling issued by the Supreme Court of Justice's Constitutional Chamber on June 5, 2002, CNE's legal advisor, Andrés Brito, declared in his recommendations that "any recall petition should be accompanied by the corresponding names and last names, identity card numbers, and signatures, so that these data can be verified by CNE. CNE should determine, through the Civil and Electoral Register Committee, whether the voters appearing as petitioners of the recall vote are duly registered with the Permanent Electoral Register."

    CUBAN VIDEO PAINTS DISSIDENT AS GOVERNMENT SPY

    Cuba on Thursday presented a video of human rights activist Elizardo Sanchez receiving a medal from state security agents, in the latest government attempt to paint one of the island's best-known dissidents as a spy. Sanchez, who spent 8-1/2 years in prison in the 1980s, said the video was part of the government's "dirty war" against dissent, and insisted he had no memory of the event, implying he may have been drugged. "There is one day when I lost my sense of reality and time. I have no idea what happened, only a very cloudy memory," he said, acknowledging that he had no proof of having been drugged.

    Sanchez has admitted he maintained regular contact with state security agents to further his work to improve prison conditions and free dissidents. Journalists employed by Cuban dictator Fidel Castro's communist government presented a book last month portraying Sanchez as secret agent "Juana," who since 1997 had informed on other dissidents, diplomats, foreign journalists and visiting dignitaries. In the book targeting Sanchez, who is president of the Cuban Human Rights Commission, was a photo in which he ostensibly receives a medal from a colonel in Castro's intelligence services, though no medal can be distinguished.

    In the video presented to the press on Thursday, Sanchez appears singing the national anthem with a group of state security agents, after which a statement is read congratulating him for "distinguished service." The video clearly shows the colonel pinning an Interior Ministry medal on Sanchez's chest. Then the two embrace and toast the award. The video also shows the colonel thanking Sánchez, who turned dissident in 1977, for information on visitors from the United States and other countries.

    PRESIDENT BUSH IMPOSES NEW SANCTION ON CUBA

    U.S. President George W. Bush imposed sanctions on Cuba on Wednesday for failing to do enough to stop the trafficking of people forced into servitude or the sex trade. An administration official said Bush's announcement could translate into further travel restrictions, and may bring to an end some educational and cultural exchanges.

    "These important actions will punish the perpetrators and help the victims of this heinous crime around the world," White House spokesman Scott McClellan said. The announcement followed the release in June of the State Department's annual "Trafficking in Persons Report" on the 800,000 to 900,000 people the United States estimates are smuggled across international borders each year, many of them forced into prostitution (jineteras) or other involuntary servitude.

   CUBAN DICTATOR TAKES OVER SPAINçS CULTURAL CENTER IN HAVANA

    Cuban dictator Fidel Castro took control of Spain's cultural center in Havana on Thursday as relations between the Communist-run country and its main economic partner, the European Union, deteriorated further over human rights issues. The Spanish Embassy called the move "a profoundly lamentable blow to freedom of expression," and "an attempt to impede Cuban intellectuals and artists from having access to a pluralistic space between cultures," in a verbal note to Cuban authorities.

    Cuba put 75 dissidents behind bars for up to 28 years in March, then executed three men who hijacked a ferry in a failed bid to reach the United States. That angered the EU, which then slapped diplomatic and cultural sanctions on the country. Cuban dictator Fidel Castro responded by accusing the 15-member European body, and in particular Spain and Italy, of meddling in his country's affairs, and canceled the contract with Spain allowing it to run the center. Spain had 90 days to hand over the center's keys. The deadline expired on Thursday.

    NATION REMEMBERS SEPTEMBER 11 TERRORIST ATTACKS

    Vigils are being held across the world to remember the victims of the September 11 attacks. The thousands killed two years ago are being formally honored at the World Trade Center site, the Pentagon and in rural Pennsylvania on Thursday. Across the nation, bells tolled, firefighters stood at attention, and in many places, moments with no words at all were held for the second anniversary of the terrorist assault that killed more than 3,000 people.

    ''We remember the lives lost,'' President Bush said at the White House. ''We remember the heroic deeds. We remember the compassion, the decency of our fellow citizens on that terrible day. ''We pray for the husbands and wives, the moms and dads and the sons and daughters and loved ones ... we pray for strength and wisdom.''  

     
     DRAMATIC SHIFT IN VOTES ON CUBA TRAVEL
     Lincoln Diaz-Balart: The Embargo is strategically alive

    Last year the Flake Amendment to open U.S. tourist travel to totalitarian Cuba obtained 262 votes in the House of Representatives. Tuesday night, September 9, it got 227 votes.

    U.S. tourism is the number one goal of the Cuban dictatorship. But President Bush has threatened to veto any such embargo weakening amendments. "With President Bush's continued firm support, the embargo will stand until all political prisoners are liberated and free elections are scheduled in Cuba. Tuesday night was a turning point. The embargo is strategically alive," said Congressman Lincoln Diaz-Balart (R-FL).

    HOUSE MOVES TO EASE SANCTIONS ON CUBA

    House lawmakers, contending that 40 years of isolating Cuba had failed to undermine the Castro government, voted to ease restrictions on traveling to the island and sending money to Cuban households. The Bush administration threatened to veto an $89.3 billion spending bill if the Cuba provisions were included.

    The White House warned the Cuba votes would kill the bill because "it is essential to maintain sanctions and travel restrictions to deny economic resources to the brutal Castro regime.'' President Bush has yet to veto a bill coming out of Congress, and it is unclear if this bill will reach that stage. The Senate has yet to take up the legislation, funding Transportation and Treasury Department programs for the budget year starting in October, and House-Senate negotiators could take out the controversial provisions.

    The Flake amendment, while passing, was 35 votes short of a similar amendment last year as lawmakers reacted to the recent crackdown on political dissent in Cuba. House-Senate negotiators removed the language last year before the bill got to the president. It's unconscionable after the arrest of close to 80 dissidents, said Cuban-American Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, R-Fla., èto be here seeking to reward the dictatorship for its deplorable action.''

    SENATOR DELAY: CUBAN TRAVEL WILL SUBSIDIZE OPPRESSION

    House Majority Leader Tom DeLay (R-Texas) opposed an amendment to the Treasury and Transportation Departments appropriations bill that would lift the current prohibition of American tourism in Cuba. "This amendment would reward injustice," DeLay said. "There is no such thing as a 'Cuban tourism industry.' There is only Fidel Castro and his thugocracy."

    "Fidel Castro -- thief, murderer, and tyrant -- is the only Cuban who will benefit from this amendment. "Proponents of this amendment would have us believe that vacationers in flip-flips and Hawaiian shirts, sipping mojitos at Cuban beach resorts will somehow improve human rights conditions there," DeLay said. "Instead it will subsidize Castro's oppression and torture. Fidel Castro is not some curious anachronism: he is a violent criminal. Money American travelers spend in Castro's Cuba will be confiscated by his secret police and invested in his criminal empire."

   CUBAN CATHOLIC CHURCH SEEKS MORE FREEDOM

      The Cuban Roman Catholic Church called on Cuban dictator Fidel Castro's government on Tuesday to allow more religious, political and economic freedom, and begin a dialogue toward national reconciliation. The message came as Communist-run Cuba finds itself isolated abroad over a crackdown on government opponents, and faces serious economic difficulties due to a shortage of foreign exchange to import food, fuel and other products.

    The Cuban Conference of Bishops expressed its concern over the government's "return to language and methods used during the first years of the revolution," asking it to release 75 dissidents sentenced to average 19-year prison terms earlier this year in the most severe repression in decades. The bishops also criticized the summary firing-squad execution of three Cubans who hijacked a Havana Bay ferry in April to try to reach Florida.

    In a message to the faithful, outlining the church's position on various issues and marking the day of the Caribbean island's patron saint, la Virgen de la Caridad del Cobre (Virgin of Charity), the bishops took aim at what they view as the government's backtracking on economic reforms of the 1990s, in particular harassment of the country's small family businesses. "We call on all Cubans, for the good of Cuba, to overcome the common temptation to dominate others and seek in responsible dialogue, among all, solutions to our conflicts," the bishops said.

   U.S. ADMINISTRATION SAYS WOULD VETO END TO RESTRICTIONS ON TRAVEL TO CUBA

    President Bush administration on Monday repeated a threat to veto any repeal of the restrictions on travel to Cuba, saying that tourism would not help get rid of Cuban dictator Fidel Castro. The U.S. House of Representatives is expected to vote on Tuesday on an amendment that would deny the administration the funds it needs to enforce the travel restrictions to Cuba.

    "Sunbathers are not going to liberate Cuba nor is upgrading the brunch at Cuba's isolated tourist enclave hotels," Assistant Secretary of State Roger Noriega told an event at the Center of Strategic and International Studies. The U.S. government requires licenses to visit Cuba but does not give them to tourists, arguing that tourism dollars strengthen the government without benefiting the people.

    AGAIN, HUGO CHÁVEZ INSULTS THE U.S. AMBASSADOR

    Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez warned the United States on Sunday to back off after its Ambassador, Charles Shapiro,  met with National Electoral Council  officials who must decide whether to allow a referendum on the leftist leader's rule.

    "This is a sovereign nation, mister ambassador, and you must respect this country and your government must respect this country," Chavez said during his regular Sunday television program. "What prerogative does Ambassador Shapiro have to visit them, and what's worse, to visit them before the national authorities, before representatives of the National Assembly?"

    Shapiro, who the government has rebuked several times before, drew criticism from two ministers after holding a news conference at the council's headquarters Wednesday and offering U.S. technical assistance for the poll if requested. Last month the Supreme Court named a new National Electoral Council to rule on the validity of 3 million opposition signatures demanding a referendum and to organize a possible vote. The council has said it would announce a decision on those signatures this week. But Chavez has already questioned the validity of the petition, saying it is tainted by forgeries.

    EUROPEAN UNION CONDEMNS HUMAN RIGHTS VIOLATIONS IN CUBA 

    Demanding Cuban dictator Fidel Castro release political prisoners, the European Parliament on Friday condemned human rights violations in Cuba. A resolution by the European Union legislators criticized èthe continuing flagrant violation of the civil and political human rights and the fundamental freedoms of members of the Cuban opposition and of independent journalists.''

    In July, Castro said his country would no longer accept aid from the EU, accusing it of backing the anti-Castro policy of the United States. EU members have already agreed to reduce high-level governmental visits and participation in cultural events on the island.

    In Havana, nine political dissidents meeting with German lawmakers hailed the resolution. The German legislators were part of a delegation visiting Cuba for a two-week international environmental conference sponsored by the United Nations. èWe all support the resolution,'' said Elizardo Sanchez.

    HUNGER STRIKERS IN CUBA TRANSFERRED TO AN UNKNOWN PLACE

    Monday morning, before sunup, prison guards transferred four political prisoners who were staging a hunger strike in Boniato prison, Santiago de Cuba, to a place or places unknown. The four, independent journalists Manuel Vázquez Portal and Normando Hernández, and government opponents Nelson Aguiar and Próspero Gaínza, had started a hunger strike the day before to protest prison conditions.

    Department of State Security officials in Havana told Vázquez Portal's sister, Xiomara, that they had been transferred to Aguadores prison, also in Santiago de Cuba. Hernández' wife, Yaraí Reyes, said that a few days back officer Arrate, of the Department of State Security, had asked some of the inmates' relatives to talk to them in an attempt to convince them not to go on a hunger strike. "Arrate said the strike would constitute a serious breach of discipline and that he would rather not have to resort to force. He said every problem will be solved in time, and that they were not going to open their mouths to feed them."

    Reyes listed some of the prisoners' grievances: Scarce and sometimes spoiled food, no light or electricity in the cells, no access to radio, TV, or newspapers, little or no medical attention.

   EUROPEAN UNION DEMANDS FREEDOM FOR CUBAN POLITICAL PRISONERS

    European Union on Wednesday demanded  that Cuban dictator Fidel Castro end his political crackdown on opposition groups and free all political prisoners or face further isolation. Italian Foreign Minister Franco Frattini, whose country holds the EU presidency, told the European Parliament that the human rights situation on the Caribbean island continues to deteriorate.

    ''We . . . do hope that we will see a change of attitude from the Cuban side,'' Frattini said. èThe Cuban government has not taken a single positive step to meet the goals that Europe has set and, in fact, the situation of human rights has worsened yet further.'' In a joint resolution expected to be passed by the 626-member EU assembly today, the parliament calls on Cuba to ''take all necessary steps to ensure the immediate release of political prisoners.''

    The 15-nation EU previously decided to reduce high-level governmental visits and participation in cultural events in Cuba after the roundup of the dissidents and the firing squad executions of three ferry boat hijackers last spring.

     PRESIDENT BUSH RE-ISSUES VETO THREAT ON CUBA EMBARGO WEAKENING AMENDMENTS 

    Expecting the approval of various amendments on the House Floor today to next year's Transportation/Treasury Appropriations Bill, The White House has once again issued a firm written warning that President Bush will veto any such embargo weakening amendments. President Bush's firmness on this issue has enabled the Cuban American Members of Congress and the House Leadership to succeed during the last three years in eliminating all embargo weakening amendments from various bills.

    "President Bush's support for freedom in Cuba continues undiminished. His threat to veto any embargo weakening amendments is a guarantee that the U.S. embargo on the Cuban dictatorship will stand until all political prisoners are liberated and free elections are scheduled in Cuba. We are deeply grateful to President Bush for his firm support on this critical issue," said Congressman Lincoln Diaz-Balart (R-FL).

    WIVES OF JAILED CUBAN DISSIDENTS PROTEST PRISON CONDITIONS

    Wives of 25 jailed dissidents protested on Tuesday that Cuban dictator Fidel Castro's communist government was holding their husbands in "subhuman" prison conditions and feeding them rotten food. They said six of the jailed dissidents had begun a hunger strike to demand better food and medical treatment. The wives on Monday handed in a letter at the Interior Ministry calling on the government to "change the inhuman conditions that our loved ones are subjected to."

    "They are undergoing very high temperatures, plagued by insects. They have no running water and the water they are given is not drinking water. The food is insufficient and many times rotten," they wrote to Interior Minister Abelardo Colome. The husbands are among 75 dissidents arrested in March and sentenced to jail terms of up to 28 years for collaborating with the United States, Castro's longtime ideological foe.

    The dissidents were sent to prisons far from their homes and their wives must make long trips to see them for two hours once every three months, said Dolia Leal, wife of Nelson Aguiar, serving a 13-year sentence in eastern Cuba.  "They are asking for humane treatment, food that is not rotten, access to their mail and electric light in their cells," she said. Leal said her husband was in a cell 1.5 meters (5 feet) by 2.6 meters (8.5 feet) wide, with no table or chair and a hole in the ground for a toilet, she said. Two of the dissidents have been moved to hospitals due to their worsening health, the dissidents said.

     SENATORS JOHN KERRY AND HOWARD DEAN: KEEP CUBA SANCTIONS

     Massachusetts Sen. John Kerry, a Democratic candidate for president who has campaigned heavily in Florida for cash and votes, appeared to shift his stance on the trade embargo with Cuba on Sunday, telling a national television audience that he now supports keeping sanctions in place. Kerry's remarks, seemed to contradict statements he made during a 2000 interview with The Boston Globe that a reevaluation of the embargo was ''way overdue.'' Kerry on Sunday called that ''an honest statement,'' but when asked whether he endorsed lifting sanctions he replied: èNot unilaterally, not now, no.'' The Massachusetts senator, who has met privately over the past year with exile leaders, said that he might consider allowing more money to be sent to dissidents.

    Kerry's shift was similar in tone to that of his biggest rival for the Democratic nomination, former Vermont Gov. Howard Dean, who said last week that recent human rights abuses by Cuban dictator Fidel Castro have convinced him that now is the wrong time to end the embargo. Kerry indicated that his stance was not dramatically different from that of Dean, who has surged over the past month to surpass Kerry in opinion polls in the key early-primary states. The interest on what is essentially an issue of higher interest in South Florida illustrates the growing belief among Democratic strategists that they can make a legitimate appeal for traditionally Republican Cuban-American voters in the state that decided the 2000 election and could do the same next year. Cuban Americans were decisive in 2000, when more than 8 in 10 of the state's 400,000 Cuban-Americans voted for Bush.

    Leading Cuban-American activists recently have criticized what they call the President Bushçs failure to follow through on campaign promises to ratchet up pressure on Castro's government -- especially after last month's repatriation of 12 suspected boat hijackers, sent back after the Cuban government agreed to sentence them to a maximum of 10 years in prison instead of executing them. Some elected Republicans have even said they would consider withholding their support from Bush's reelection if his administration didn't intensify its focus on Cuba. Two of the demands were satisfied this month: the indictment of Cuban pilots who shot down planes flown by Brothers to the Rescue activists in 1996, and technological improvements to TV Martí broadcasting into the island.

    HUGO CHÁVEZ: CNEçS PRIORITY IS RESTRUCTURING THE ELECTORAL POWER

    Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez said on Sunday that nobody should put pressure on the newly inaugurated National Electoral Council (CNE). But he could not refrain from warning that under the law the electoral body has to undertake -during the next six months- a restructuring. His statements came in his weekly radio and television show ¡Aló, Presidente!, transmitted from western Lara State.

    Chávez referred to the Electoral Power Organic Law, and claimed that this legislation establishes that said restructuring is urgent. Chávez' suggestion matches the government's determination to delay -and/or abort- a petition for a recall referendum intended to terminate his mandate. "The illegal signatures they (the opposition) have submitted (to CNE) are frozen. They are not a priority as the electoral body has to be restructured first. In any case, those signatures are obviously invalid."

    According to Chávez, CNE is to undertake a reshuffle in the next six months. "This term elapses in February. There is enough time to launch an electoral campaign -there would be four months left. During the first or second week of July, we would be holding elections for governors and mayors. And the revolution is to regain lost ground." In addition, Chávez stressed that CNE has some obligations, "such as establishing the rules for the operation of mass media during electoral campaigns, which in Venezuela is not governed by any legislation, while other countries even have a maximum time for electoral campaign spots."

    CASTRO CLOSES RANK WITH FRIENDLY LEADERS

    Alienated from European nations after a crackdown on the opposition and the execution of three ferry boat hijackers, Cuban dictator Fidel Castro closed ranks Monday with friendly African, Caribbean and South American heads of state at a U.N. conference.  About 20 heads of state from Africa and the Caribbean arrived on the communist island over the weekend for the sixth U.N. Convention to Combat Desertification. Notably absent from the conference were high-ranking representatives of the European Union. The EU's 15 members unanimously agreed to reduce high-level governmental visits and participation in cultural events in Cuba.

    One of Castro's close friends, Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez - who faces his own headaches at home where he is facing a recall effort - arrived Sunday and was personally greeted at Havana's airport by the Cuban dictator. The Venezuelan president also appeared for the communist leader's welcoming speech Monday, the sixth day of the two-week conference. Opening Monday's session for the heads of state, Castro noted that despite a more than 40-year U.S. economic blockade, Cuba has made progress in crucial areas of health, employment and education, while preserving the environment. 

HAVANA, September 1st.

    ELIZARDO SÁNCHEZ SANTACRUZ WEATHERS CASTRO SPY CHARGES

    Dissidents and international rights groups said on Friday they stood by Cuba's best known rights activist despite accusations that he was a spy for Cuban dictator Fidel Castro's communist government. Foreign diplomats in Havana said they would still trust the information reported by Elizardo Sanchez Santacruz, head of the Cuban Commission for Human Rights.

    A book published by the Cuban government last week said Sanchez was a decorated agent of Cuba's secret police and had informed on dissidents as well as diplomats and foreign journalists since 1997 under the code-name "Juana." The book contained photos of Sanchez apparently receiving a medal and a hearty embrace from an security force colonel, images the dissident has had trouble explaining. Sanchez did not deny the meetings with intelligence officers, contacts that he maintained were useful in pressing for the release or better treatment of political prisoners.

    Foreign diplomats, who rely on Sanchez's commission for reports on the human rights situation in Cuba, said they did not know whom to trust now in Havana. But if the allegations raised suspicions about Sanchez, diplomats said his information on rights abuses not in doubt. "Whether he is a state security agent or not, the figures are accurate and very useful, and we will continue using them," a European diplomat said. International rights groups that have worked with Sanchez for years monitoring conditions in Cuba said he was a "highly reliable" source.