MEXICO PULLS FOREIGN TRADE BANK OUT OF CUBA

    The Cuba-based representative of Mexico's state-run foreign trade bank, Bancomext, said Tuesday the institution would close its Havana office next month, in the latest blow to the two countries once close relations. "We have already let our staff go, the office shuts in mid-April and I leave in 20 days," said Cesar Lajud Desentis, in charge of Banco Nacional de Comercio Exterior S.N.C's Cuba operations.

    Bancomext has functioned as an intermediary for more than 200 Mexican companies doing business with Cuba and worked unsuccessfully for over a decade to recover $400 million in overdue debt. Bilateral trade was $255 million in 2003, said Lajud, all but $25 million Mexican exports and up 8 percent over 2002.

    "There is no doubt Bancomext leaving has political and economic overtones and is not good news for Cuba," said a Latin American diplomat whose embassy has hired some of the former staff. Some Mexican companies have urged Bancomext to reconsider shutting down the office established in 1975, the largest of 14 the bank says it is closing for budgetary reasons. Castro unilaterally canceled a debt restructuring agreement with Bancomext in 2002 during a political spat with Fox. The deal was signed just months earlier after years of negotiations.

    COSTA RICA CANCELS POLITICAL ASYLUM FOR CARLOS ORTEGA 

    Costa Rica's government said Monday it had canceled the asylum granted to an opponent of Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez who took part in an anti-Chavez demonstration in Miami. Union leader Carlos Ortega's presence at the protest on Saturday was "decidedly contradictory of the spirit in which asylum had been granted," Vinicio Vargas, Costa Rica's vice foreign minister, said in a statement.

    The move came just hours after Venezuela's foreign minister said his country would lodge complaints with Costa Rica and the United States, which has granted asylum to Venezuelan businessman Carlos Fernandez who also took part in the protest. The Miami demonstration against Chavez and his ally, Cuba's Fidel Castro, was organized by Venezuelan and Cuban exiles. Chavez's government argues that Costa Rica and the United States should not allow the two exiles to take part in public political activities opposing the Venezuelan president. 

    DOCUMENTARY AND MESSAGE FROM THE CUBAN INTERNAL OPPOSITION SHOWN IN GENEVA

    In spite of maneuvers of the representatives of the Castro régime to silence the voice of the defenders of the human rights in Cuba, today, the documentary "The spring of Cuba" was exhibited for the first time in the Palace of Nations where the Human Rights Commission of the United Nations is presently in session.

    Presenting the exhibition was the producer of the documentary Carlos González, member of the Czech ONG People in Need, as well as Jannet Rivero De Toro and John Suárez, activists of the Cuban Democratic Directorate and representatives before the Commission for the International  Liberal and the Christian Democrat International, respectively.

    The film was exhibited before an audience of more than 40 people, mostly members of the ONGs and delegations that participate in the meeting of the Commission. Also participating in the event were, Francisco de Armas, international representative of Oswaldo Payá Sardiñas who read a message from the well known Cuban oppositionist, and via telephone from Havana, Miriam Leiva, independent journalist and wife of the jailed economist Oscar Espinosa Chepe.In his message, Oswaldo Payá emphasized that to silence or  to justify in the Commission the violations of the human rights in Cuba would be a true condemnation for the Cuban People.

    REPORTERS WITHOUT BORDERS ANNOUNCES PRIZES FOR ONLINE REPRESSION

    To mark the Internet Festival that France and several French-speaking countries (Belgium, Burkina Faso, Senegal, Madagascar and Canada-Quebec) are holding from 29 March to 4 April, Reporters Without Borders announces its awards for online repression.

    Top Public (sector) Prize goes to the Cuban government for using the state telecommunications body, ETECSA, to restrict access to the Internet and for its complete control of all information.

    ELECTORAL CHAMBER REJECTS CONSTITUTIONAL CHAMBER’S DECISION

    Venezuela's highest appeals court will rule on a referendum against Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez after Supreme Court electoral judges Monday rejected a previous decision to deny the opposition bid for a recall vote. The latest move entangles the referendum challenge deeper in legal skirmishing within the politically divided Supreme Court and dims opposition chances of holding a recall on the leftist leader's rule before an August deadline.

    Supreme Court electoral branch judges, seen as aligned with the opposition, Monday rejected a constitutional branch decision a week ago that had dealt a blow to the vote campaign. Both branches claim jurisdiction over the referendum process. "The Electoral Chamber is taking this conflict of powers to the court's plenary chamber to be resolved," electoral judges said in a statement to reporters at the courthouse. The Supreme Court's full 20-member plenary chamber -- split between pro-Chavez and pro-opposition judges -- will now consider the case and could influence the final decision on whether the poll goes ahead. 

    PRISONER OF CONSCIENCE SELF INFLICTS WOUNDS 

    In letters dated March 22 and 24 respectively and written from the province of Camaguey’s prison Kilo 7, prisoners of conscience Juan Carlos Herrera Acosta and Léster González Pentón informed that to commemorate the anniversary of the unjust imprisonment and show solidarity with their fellow men in prison, a 5-day hunger strike was conducted. At the end, Herrera Acosta cut his legs repeatedly with a blade while González Pentón’s urine is bloody and he has lost 4.5 kilograms of weight.

    Both Herrera Acosta and Gonzáles Pentón were condemned to 20 years in political prison in the so-called Black Spring of Cuba. They were accused of conspiring with a foreign power in acts against the independence and sovereignty of the Cuban nation.

    VENEZUELA TO PROTEST TO US, COSTA RICA ABOUT EXILES

    Venezuela will protest to the United States and Costa Rica after two exiled opponents of President Hugo Chavez took part in an anti-Chavez demonstration in Miami, Foreign Minister Jesus Perez said Monday. Perez said Chavez's government was "very concerned" that union leader Carlos Ortega and businessman Carlos Fernandez participated in a public protest in Miami Saturday against the Venezuelan leader and his ally, Cuba's Fidel Castro.

    Venezuelan and Cuban exiles organized the demonstration. "We are looking at how we are going to make our protest to these two governments, the United States and Costa Rica," Perez told reporters in Caracas. Ortega and Fernandez were granted asylum in Costa Rica and the United States, respectively, last year after leading a two-month strike against Chavez that jolted Venezuela's oil-reliant economy. They fled after Venezuelan authorities ordered their arrest on rebellion charges. Chavez's government argues that Costa Rica and the United States should not allow the two leaders to take part in public political activities opposing the Venezuelan president.

    FLORIDA LOOKS AT TIGHTENING RULES ON TRAVELS TO CUBA

    With the support of several Hispanic lawmakers from Miami-Dade County, the Florida Legislature is considering tightening rules on travel to Cuba -- slapping extra fees on charter airlines that fly to the island and requiring state universities organizing educational Cuba trips to submit detailed itineraries well in advance.

    Rep. David Rivera, a Miami Republican and chief sponsor of the measures, said the proposed fees on charter flights would help pay for improved security at Florida airports and seaports, while the school reporting requirements would crack down on tourist excursions masquerading as academic trips. Such tourist trips have been criticized by exile groups as helping prop up the regime of Fidel Castro.

    ''The public will know who's going on these trips and where they're going. Are they going to the Copacabana [nightclub]? Are they going to party?'' Rivera said. “I just want to know that the trip is genuine.'' The fees on charter planes make sense, Rivera said, because the money is coming from travel to a nation listed by the federal government as a sponsor of terrorism. Those traveling to such places should help finance security efforts back home, he said. The bill has six cosponsors in the House and won unanimous approval at its first committee stop last week. The Senate version, sponsored by Miami Republican Alex Diaz de la Portilla, gets its first committee stop Monday.

    DEPITE A "FEROCIOUS BLOCKADE,” CUBA INCREASES CATTLE ORDER FROM FLORIDA

    Despite the “criminal blockade,” J.P. Wright & Company announced today it has reached an agreement with Alimport, Cuba's agency responsible for imports, to add 50 Florida cattle to its existing 250 head deal. The shipment of the 300 head will be the first shipment of Florida cattle to Cuba in more than 40 years. "We're continuing to rekindle the historic trade relationship Florida once had with Cuba," said Parke Wright, CEO of J.P. Wright & Company. "Through this cattle shipment, we're rebuilding a foundation for the supply and transportation of agricultural commodities and livestock from Florida to Cuba."

    Wright originally planned to ship the 250 head in March or April, but the shipment was delayed because of a single case of bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE) discovered in Washington state late last year. This is Baldwin's first sale of cattle to Cuba. "The cattle trade between our two nations was a significant part of the Florida economy before the embargo," said Wright.

    The original terms of the Florida cattle shipment were finalized between J.P. Wright & Company and Alimport in October 2003. The additional agreement was formalized between Wright and Alimport in Havana at the Boyeros Cattle Show, where Cuban ranchers and their counterparts from around the world meet annually to show the best examples of their herds. The total shipment, which now includes 288 head of cattle and 12 bulls, is scheduled to depart from a port in the Tampa Bay region in the second quarter of 2004.

    ZAPATERO: THE SPANISH ARE NOT COWARDS

    Prime Minister-elect Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero has pledged not to give in to terrorists, bristling at the notion that the Spanish are "cowards" when it comes to facing terrorism. "No Spanish government has given into terror and no government will do that," Zapatero told a Socialist Party conference Friday.

    Three days after the March 11 train bombings that killed 190 people, Spanish voters ousted the ruling Popular Party in favor of Zapatero's underdog Socialists. Public opinion polls showed a significant number Spaniards believed the trains were targeted because of current Prime Minister Jose Maria Aznar's support of the U.S.-led war in Iraq. The vote prompted a number of U.S. political commentators to lament the results, saying the Spanish had given into terrorism.

    In Brussels, the outgoing president said Zapatero's planned withdrawal from Iraq would be a huge blunder.  "My view is that to remove Spanish troops from Iraq is a calamitous error for Spanish politics," said Aznar during a news conference after attending his last EU summit as prime minister of Spain. 

    DISSIDENTS’ KIN LAMENT TV ENCOUNTER

    Cuba on Thursday released videotaped interviews with several relatives of 75 jailed dissidents, confirming the families' fears that their comments to Cuban TV would be manipulated to discredit allegations of prison abuses. The release came as the U.N. Commission on Human Rights was holding its annual meeting in Geneva, where it has often condemned Cuba for human rights abuses after strong lobbying by U.S. and Western European diplomats.

    In visits that began two weeks ago, reporters from Cuba's government-run television interviewed several relatives of the dissidents, sentenced to lengthy prison terms after brief trials a year ago. The surprise interviews -- Cuba's government-controlled media almost never report on dissidents' activities -- immediately prompted concerns among the relatives that their words would be misused to discredit complaints about poor prison conditions, bad food and water and mistreatments.

    Thursday, portions of the interviews were released during a news conference in Havana at which Foreign Minister Felipe Pérez Roque dismissed the complaints as a “campaign of exaggerations and lies.'' Pérez Roque then showed a 19-minute film of the wives, mothers and sisters of seven prisoners who have been reported as being in dire health. In the video, the women said their loved ones are receiving good medical care in prison hospitals. In telephone interviews from Havana, the wives of two of the jailed dissidents said  that they felt manipulated by the Cuban television interviews. The crew did visit other homes but was turned away.

    REPORTERS WITHOUT BORDERS SEEKS MEETING WITH MARCO TRONCHETTI PROVERA

    Reporters Without Borders has asked to meet the chairman of Telecom Italia's board of governors about the implications of the company's ties with Cuban telecommunications operator ETECSA, that has been made responsible for Internet censorship. "We would like to meet you to discuss together the problems arising from your investment in Cuban telecommunications", the international press freedom organization said in a 25 March 2004 letter to Marco Tronchetti Provera.

    "We believe that your company should broach the issue with ETECSA and the Cuban government to bring an end to relentless censorship of the Net in Cuba and so that 27 journalists jailed in March 2003, accused in particular of putting the Internet to "counter-revolutionary" use, can be released." The vast majority of Cubans are banned from using the Internet. In Fidel Castro's Cuba only those with explicit permission can access the Net. The ban is all the more severe because it is illegal to possess computer equipment. The cybercafés are reserved for the use of tourists and are under very strict control.

    In December 2003, the Cuban authorities announced that they would track down these "pirate" users. A government decree instructed ETECSA "to use all necessary technical means to detect and block access to the Internet" for unauthorised people. To put it bluntly, the Cuban authorities demand that your partner company monitors the Internet and helps police track down Cuban Internet-users who are getting round the official ban. The telecommunications operator thus becomes a party to the repression of the Internet. This decree moreover could lead to a new wave of arrests, this time against Cuban Internet "pirates". As shareholders of 29,3% of ETECSA, which has a monopoly on Cuban Internet, Telecom Italia is directly involved with the company's actions.

   CUBANS REACHED U.S. COASTS ON RAFT MADE OF INNER TUBES

    The Coast Guard and beachgoers pulled three Cubans to safety from the treacherous surf Thursday after they were spotted bobbing offshore on rafts made of lashed-together inner tubes. As many as five others were missing from a group that left Cuba for the Florida coast about three days earlier, said Deputy Fire Chief Mark Conn. ”The first man rescued said an hour before the rescue, he only knew of three that were alive,'' Conn said. ``At least five had dropped off somewhere.''

    A Coast Guard diver rescued one of the Cubans, a woman, from a black inner tube connected to three other tubes with white sheets. She was later hoisted into a helicopter. The two other Cubans, both men, were pulled to shore by people on the beach who were among a crowd of about 100 onlookers. All three were dehydrated and disoriented from about three days at sea and were taken to the hospital, authorities said. The Cubans were spotted offshore on two rafts, about a mile apart, amid 6- to 8-foot waves and wind gusts of more than 30 mph.

    Authorities planned to interview the Cubans. Under U.S. law, known as the “wet foot-dry foot'' policy, Cuban refugees who reach dry land are generally allowed to stay in the United States, while those who are intercepted at sea are returned to Castro. Officials searched for the others who set out on the voyage from Cuba, 90 miles from Florida. ”Trying to make it to the U.S. in this type of vessel is a recipe for disaster,'' Coast Guard Lt. Tony Russell said. But they, the Cubans, prefer death to living under Castro socialist tyranny.

    CUBAN MINISTRY PROTESTS UNESCO AWARD TO RAUL RIVERO

    Cuba is protesting UNESCO's decision to award jailed independent reporter Raul Rivero its press freedom prize. Rivero was among 75 Cuban activists sentenced to long prison terms in a crackdown on the opposition a year ago. He was given 20 years on charges of working with U.S. diplomats to undermine Cuba's socialist system - allegations he and Washington deny.

    "It is deplorable and embarrassing that the Guillermo Cano World Press Freedom Award has been used for ends separate from UNESCO's fundamental ideals," read a communiqué posted this week on Cuba's Foreign Ministry web site. The crackdown was condemned by governments and rights groups around the globe. All 75 were convicted and sentenced to terms ranging from six to 28 years.

    "The Prize is a tribute to Raul Rivero's brave and long-standing commitment to independent reporting, the hallmark of professional journalism," Koichiro Matsuura, director of the Paris-based United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization, said in announcing the award last month. "I am deeply concerned about the conditions in which Mr. Rivero, who is reported to be ill, is being held and I call on the authorities to free Mr. Rivero and the other journalists," the UNESCO head added.

    EUROPEAN UNION CONGRATULATES RAUL RIVERO FOR HIS UNESCO AWARD 

    The European Union congratulates Mr. Raúl Rivero, the Cuban journalist and poet, on his recent award of the annual Guillermo Cano World Press Freedom Prize by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO).  The European Union echoes the words of UNESCO Director-General, Koichiro Matsuura, at the announcement of the award, that "The Prize is a tribute to Raúl Rivero's brave and longstanding commitment to independent reporting, the hallmark of professional journalism".

    Mr. Raúl Rivero is among 75 Cuban dissidents and independent journalists imprisoned last April following summary trials. The European Union invites the Cuban Government to reflect on the significance of the granting of this Prize to Mr. Rivero and again calls on the Cuban authorities to release without delay all the imprisoned dissidents, some of whom are reported to be suffering from serious ill-health.

    The Acceding Countries Cyprus, the Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Malta, Poland, the Slovak Republic and Slovenia, the Candidate Countries Bulgaria and Romania, the Countries of the Stabilization and Association Process and potential candidates Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, Serbia and Montenegro, and the EFTA countries Iceland, Liechtenstein and Norway, members of the European Economic Area, align themselves with this declaration.

   AMBASSADOR SHAPIRO ANSWERS MINISTER CAPELLA’S CHARGES

    U.S. Ambassador to Venezuela, Charles Shapiro, sent a letter to the Venezuelan Minister of Health & Social Development, Roger Capella, who said that American citizens are punished if they express opinions against their government. The letter explains that "in the U.S. there is a law-based, well visible delineation between the performance of an official and his/her political tendency."

    Shapiro added that "according to Hatch Law," public servants are protected when they sign a petition in a personal manner, express their opinions about candidates and political issues, perform campaigns in favor or against the questions of a referendum, participate in political demonstrations, among other activities, and the government cannot fire or harm them.

   THE NUMBER OF FOREIGN COMPANIES DOING BUSINESS WITH CUBA DECREASES

    For the first time in 15 years, the number of foreign business concerns operating in Cuba has decreased, from 403 at the end of 2002 to 342 at the end of 2003, according to the Minister for Foreign Investment and Economic Cooperation, Marta Lomas. Even with fewer companies, said the minister, there was an increase in exports, internal sales, and profits. She said 70 cents of every dollar invested stayed in the country, and pegged net profits at 17%.

    The sectors most favorably affected by foreign investment are basic industry, communications, tourism, computing, agriculture and food production. Spain, Canada, Italy and France are the four biggest investors in the island. According to ministry reports, 3,242 entrepreneurs from 85 countries expressed and interest in investing in the Cuban economy. Despite existing U. S. government regulations forbidding most forms of trade between the two countries, the ministry said 62 U. S. delegations traveled to Havana for exploratory conversations.

    ANTI-GOVERNMENT GRAFFITI INCREASES IN CUBA

    People dissatisfied with the government are willing to express it at night by painting anti-government slogans on walls. Most recently, several slogans showed up on the morning of Friday, March 12, on the walls of houses in the center of Santa Clara. On the wall of one house belonging to prominent Communist Party members, someone wrote in black ink: "Down with Fidel." Nearby, almost under the nose of Popular Council president José Chalup, someone wrote: "Fidel, Murderer." Bystanders said police painted over one sign and scrapped the other one off.

    People's opinions ran the gamut: some said those doing the painting are crazy for taking the risk, others said the signs don't solve any problems or topple any governments, yet others said the surreptitious painting and other signs of rebellion were as nothing compared to the string of hardships and calamities Cubans have to endure everyday. Most people, though, who as majorities everywhere, expressed no opinion, wore complacent smiles as they wandered off.

    NEWSPAPER VENDORS SAY SALES OF GRANMA DOWN

    Six newspaper dealers in Havana say sales of Granma, the Communist Party newspaper, have gone down considerably since the middle of February. One of them, who like the rest asked not to be identified, said that towards the middle of February his sales dropped by 20 papers every day. He said: "I get fewer now. Some days I only get 60 or 80, whereas before I used to get 120 to sell."

    The others said their sales were down by similar numbers. Both vendors and readers said the newspaper seems to be increasingly out of touch with their needs, focusing instead in problems around the globe.

    NIGERIA GRANTS ARISTIDE TEMPORARY ASYLUM

    Nigeria has offered temporary asylum to Haiti's ousted president, Jean-Bertrand Aristide, at the request of Caribbean leaders. The 15-nation Caribbean Community asked Nigeria to allow Aristide to stay there for a few weeks until he finds another place to go, Nigerian presidential spokesman Remi Oyo said Monday.

    It was not immediately clear whether Aristide would agree to asylum in Nigeria. Aristide fled Haiti on Feb. 29 as rebels were closing in on the Haitian capital, Port-au-Prince. He arrived in Central African Republic on March 1 and stayed there with his wife and two bodyguards until March 15, when he flew to Jamaica to be with his two daughters.

    Interim Haitian Prime Minister Gerard Latortue, the United States and others have criticized Jamaica for accepting Aristide, saying his presence in the Caribbean would raise tensions in Haiti. Jamaica is about 100 miles from Haiti. A spokesman for Latortue, Minister Robert Ulysse, welcomed Nigeria's offer. “We didn't want any destabilization so it's good news if he can find a place'' outside the region, he said.

    A COMMUNIST AND EX-REBEL LOSES PRESIDENTIAL POLL IN EL SALVADOR

    The pro-U.S. candidate in El Salvador's presidential election Sunday easily defeated a former Communist Party guerrilla leader.  With almost all ballots counted, Elías Antonio Saca of the Nationalist Republican Alliance, or ARENA, had 59.8 percent of the vote, easily enough to avoid a May 2 runoff. His challenger, Schafik Handal of the Farabundo Marti National Liberation Front, or FMLN, had 33 percent of the votes.

    The 39-year-old Saca, a conservative broadcast media businessman, was the favorite of President Bush's administration, whose officials suggested an opposition victory could affect El Salvador's remarkably warm relations with the United States. The Central American nation has contributed troops to the coalition effort in Iraq. Handal had said he would bring Salvadoran troops back from Iraq and seek to establish friendly relations with Communist Cuba.

    U.S. officials so clearly favored Saca that Otto Reich, the White House special envoy for the Western Hemisphere, gave a group telephone interview last week to local reporters gathered at Saca's party headquarters. Local newspapers quoted him as saying a Handal victory would be "a radical change." "We could not have the same confidence in an El Salvador led by a person who is obviously an admirer of Fidel Castro and of Hugo Chavez," Reich was quoted as saying, referring to the Cuban dictator and the authoritarian leader of Venezuela.

   PRESIDENTS CAN’T HELP (Por José A. Vargas -- The Miami Herald)

    The campaign has barely started, and we're already talking about the candidates' positions on Cuba. After 45 years of Castro's regime, when are we going to realize that this is our problem and that American presidents have nothing to do with it? Haven't 10 presidents proved this so far? And the new candidates? Let's see. John F. Kerry probably found out in his recent trip to Miami that José Martí was a patriot and not a famous Cuban musician.

    President Bush's term in office speaks for itself. Every six months he postpones the two most important components of the Helms-Burton Act, increases trade with Castro's regime and returns rafters to the island. Cuba may have a dictator, but it doesn't have oil.

    When Bush came to Miami he yelled “Viva Cuba libre.'' He probably will do it again closer to November, and that will be enough for many of us to vote for him. There is a big and profitable anti-Castro industry here, and nobody wants to kill the goose that lays the golden eggs.

            

    COMMUNIST LEADER WANTS TO BECOME PRESIDENT OF EL SALVADOR

    Ex-rebel commander Schafik Handal makes a bid to become El Salvador's first communist president at elections held on Sunday and pull the country away from Washington after decades under strong U.S. influence. Communist Handal, 73, threatens to withdraw a small Salvadoran military unit from Iraq and re-establish relations with Cuba if he defeats at the polls the ruling Nationalist Republican Alliance, or Arena, led by Tony Saca.

    The White House's point man on Latin America, Roger Noriega, has voiced concern about Handal. Salvadoran conservatives have drummed up fears that Washington could expel some 200,000 Salvadorans living in the United States on temporary visas if the ex-rebel wins. As many as 2 million Salvadorans, almost a third of the population, live in the United States, most of them illegally, and their welfare is a concern for most families back home.

    The money sent home by emigrants makes up a 15 percent chunk of El Salvador's gross domestic product. The coffee-exporting nation is still divided between left and right 12 years after the end of civil strife between Handal's Farabundo Marti National Liberation Front, or FMLN, and a series of U.S.-backed governments. A university survey released on Saturday had the pair running neck and neck. If no one wins more than 50 percent of the vote, the top two candidates will face off in a run-off on May 2.

    CHAVEZ ORDERED THE FIRING OF DISSIDENT AMBASSADORS

    Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez Friday criticized again the United Nations and the Organization of American States for not supporting ousted Haitian leader Jean-Bertrand Aristide, whom he repeatedly said was deposed by U.S. troops.

    Chavez also ordered his country's ambassadors around the world to counter what he called a campaign of lies against his government. "We can't have ambassadors who don't feel able to state with courage the truth about what is happening in Venezuela," he said. His warning followed the surprise resignation earlier this month of Venezuela's U.N. envoy, who accused Chavez's government of becoming undemocratic and repressive.

    POLLING OF HISPANIC REPUBLICANS SHOWS GREAT CONCERN OVER PRESIDENT BUSH’S POLICY TOWARD CUBA

    A large majority of Hispanic Republicans in Miami-Dade County support President Bush in his reelection bid, but almost as many feel that he needs to get tougher on Cuba or risk losing their support, according to a new poll. The findings suggest that while the president remains popular among Cuban Americans, there is room for the Democrats to take advantage of their frustrations and siphon off some of their votes, the pollster says. But Sen. John Kerry, the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee, “has not announced a plan for the democratization of Cuba and has not released what his Cuba policy is. Until now, Cuban Americans don't have an alternative.''

    In August 2003, Miami's 11 Hispanic legislators sent a letter to Bush urging him to take a tougher line toward the Castro regime. The letter warned the president that if he did not toughen his stance toward Cuba, he could not expect the strong support of the Cuban community in the presidential election. ''My fear is that this poll is revealing a growing indifference among Cuban Americans that jeopardizes our goal of producing overwhelming voter turnout and reelecting President Bush,'' said Rep. David Rivera, R-Miami, one of the state lawmakers who helped write the cautionary letter to the White House.

    Manny Prieguez, R-Miami, who chaired the state's Republican Hispanic Caucus when the group wrote President Bush the letter, said Bush's actions to date aren't sufficient. To send a clear signal that he is serious about toppling Castro, Bush needs to suspend money remittance and most travel to the island, Prieguez said. ''That would guarantee the Cuban-American vote in November,'' Prieguez added.

    SECRETARY POWELL CONDEMNS CUBAN DICTATOR FIDEL CASTRO’S REGIME ABUSES

    One year ago this week, Cuba's notorious secret police fanned out across the island to arrest dozens of Cuban citizens for the ''crime'' of thinking and acting independently. Some of the arrested had compiled information about human-rights abuses. Others were independent librarians and journalists. Many had worked to obtain signatures for the Varela Project, a grass-roots effort to urge a national referendum on basic rights. All shared a commitment to peaceful, democratic reform in Cuba.

    Within three weeks, Castro's kangaroo courts had convicted 75 Cubans to an average of nearly 20 years of imprisonment. Their trials were a travesty of justice, utterly lacking due process. Independent observers and even family members of the accused were excluded. Amnesty International considers all 75 activists to be ''prisoners of conscience.'' That brings the number to a total of 89, making Cuba the country with the world's highest per-capita percentage of political prisoners. These selfless men and women are serving out their Draconian sentences under inhumane and highly unsanitary prison conditions, where medical services are wholly inadequate.

    The crackdown in Cuba over the past year has generated a growing international consensus on the need for change on the island. The European Union has expressed its deep concern about the continuing flagrant violation of the human rights and fundamental freedoms of members of the Cuban opposition and independent journalists. To demonstrate their rejection of the Cuban regime's repressive actions, the European Union member states have taken a number of steps, such as suspending high-level government-to-government visits, reviewing the appropriateness of cultural and other exchanges and inviting pro-democracy activists to diplomatic functions. The Inter-American Democratic Charter, adopted by every single country in our hemisphere except Cuba, states that  “The peoples of the Americas have a right to democracy, and their governments have an obligation to promote and defend it.''

    CUBAN DISSIDENT JOURNALIST ACCUSED OF INSULTING CUBAN DICTATOR FIDEL CASTRO

    Aracelis Hernández Duarte, lawyer for jailed dissident journalist José Agramonte Leyva, says an additional charge of insulting Fidel Castro has been levied against her client. Agramonte Leyva has been jailed in Camaguey since February 4 for allegedly breaking windows in a super market, although his lawyer says he was out of town at the time.

    Agramonte Leyva's mother, Zoila Leyva Naranjo, said she recently saw her son for 10 minutes. "He's very thin," she aid. "He told me that he sleeps on the floor without a mattress and that he has to do without the most basic necessities, like adequate clothing, cleaning supplies and food." Agramonte Leyva is director of an independent library project in Camaguey and a reporter for the Lux Info Press news agency. There were no details given of the alleged insult to Castro.

    PRESIDENT BUSH THANKS TROOPS FOR ‘A JOB WELL DONE’

    President George W. Bush visits Fort Campbell, Kentucky. A year after he sent troops to Iraq, President Bush thanked thousands who have returned home for ''a job well done'' and said the United States must persevere in the war against terrorism. ''Welcome home!'' exclaimed the president, wearing a military-style jacket as he spoke Thursday to thousands.

    President Bush told the soldiers they were serving ''at a crucial hour in the history of freedom.'' ''In the first war of the 21st century,'' he said, ''you're defending your fellow citizens against ruthless enemies. And by your sacrifice, you're making our country more secure.'' ''You have delivered justice to many terrorists, and you're keeping the rest of them on the run,'' the President said.

    Interviews with troops here suggested that President Bush retains the strong support of the rank and file in the military, although many have lost comrades in Iraq. Fort Campbell has lost the most soldiers in the Iraq campaign, and has seen several killed elsewhere recently.

    EUROPE SAYS NO TO REPRESSION IN CUBA

    Proclaiming "Europe says NO to repression in Cuba," Reporters Without Borders held a news conference at the European Parliament in Brussels today to mark the first anniversary of the start a wave of arrests in Cuba on 18 March 2003, which ended with a total of 75 dissidents, including 27 journalists, being sentenced to long prison terms. The organization's secretary-general, Robert Ménard, urged European parliamentarians to sign a "Brussels Declaration" in which they undertake to constantly petition the Cuban government for the release of the 75 dissidents and to call on the "European Commission and Council to pursue policies consistent with this goal."

    Cuba became the world's biggest prison for journalists on 18 March 2003 Cuba's constitution only allows the governmental press to exist. Independent news agencies have tried to challenge the state's monopoly of the news media for the past 10 years or so. As they are unable to get their reports and articles published inside Cuba, these agencies send them abroad where they are used by both websites and print media. A special section of the Reporters Without Borders website (www.rsf.org), entitled "Cuba, the world's biggest prison for journalists," offers Internet users information about detained journalists, international reactions to their long prison sentences, and background briefing about how the news is  controlled in Cuba.

    ZAPATERO REJECTS PRESIDENT BUSH’S APPEAL NOT TO CAVE IN TO TERRORIST PRESSURE

    Spain's next prime minister spurned the U.S. president's appeal for unity Wednesday and branded the Iraq occupation a fiasco as a probe into the Madrid bombings that killed 201 people entered a "decisive phase." Socialist Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero, who ousted the government of Prime Minister Jose Maria Aznar in a shock election victory Sunday, stood his ground on withdrawing Spanish troops from Iraq despite a plea from President Bush.

    "I will listen to Mr. Bush but my position is very clear and very firm," Zapatero told Spanish radio. "The occupation is a fiasco." President Bush has urged Spain and other allies not to cave in to pressure from the Muslim militant al Qaeda group by withdrawing their troops from Iraq, where a suspected car bomb blast killed 27 people Wednesday.

    Zapatero's pledge to leave Iraq drew a promise Wednesday of a Europe-wide truce from a terrorist group that says it has links to al Qaida and has claimed responsibility for the Madrid terrorist attacks "Because of this decision, the leadership has decided to stop all operations within the Spanish territories...until we know the intentions of the new government that has promised to withdraw Spanish troops from Iraq," said a statement signed by the Abu Hafs al-Masri Brigades, sent to a pan-Arab newspaper. The group also urged its European units to halt terrorist activities.

    HUGO CHAVEZ OFFERS REFUGE TO HAITI'S FORMER PRESIDENT 

    Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez snubbed the United States and courted Caribbean sympathy Tuesday by offering refuge to ousted Haitian leader Jean-Bertrand Aristide, whom he called Haiti's legitimate president. "We don't recognize the new government of Haiti. The president of Haiti is called Jean-Bertrand Aristide, who was elected by his people," the left-wing Venezuelan leader said in a speech in eastern Venezuela.

    "Venezuela's doors are open to President Jean-Bertrand Aristide," Chavez said, in what appeared to be an open-ended invitation. Chavez made his offer a day after Aristide flew to Jamaica Monday for what Jamaican officials have said is a visit of up to 10 weeks. The White House described Aristide's presence in Jamaica, just 115 miles from Haiti's shores, as unhelpful.

    CUBAN DICTATOR FIDEL CASTRO CALLS FOR LATAM TROOP WITHDRAWAL FROM IRAQ

    Cuban dictator Fidel Castro said on Tuesday 1,000 Latin American troops were "cannon fodder" in Iraq and called for them to be withdrawn along with the Spanish unit they are serving in. Castro, a fierce critic of the U.S.-led occupation of Iraq, applauded Spanish Prime Minister-elect Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero for his decision to withdraw Spain's contingent of 1,300 troops by the June 30.

    In a message published by the ruling Communist Party daily Granma, Castro said "more than 1,000 young men from small and impoverished Latin American countries were sent to Iraq as cannon fodder under the command of the Spanish Legion." "The death of any of those youths is thus the responsibility of the Spanish state," he said. "The Latin American people have the right to expect the immediate return of those young men." There are 380 Salvadoran, 370 Honduran and 300 Dominican soldiers in Iraq as part of the Spanish-led Plus Ultra Brigade. The three Latin American countries said they intended to keep their contingents in Iraq even if the Spaniards leave.

    VENEZUELA’S SUPREME COURT GIVES BOOST TO CHAVEZ’S OPPONENTS

    Venezuela's Supreme Court gave a major boost Monday to opponents of President Hugo Chavez, ruling that signatures on recall petitions need not be validated. The high court overturned a decision by the National Elections Council to force more than 870,000 citizens to confirm they signed the petitions seeking a vote to recall Chavez. The court ordered the council to accept those signatures as valid unless citizens come forward to say they had not signed a petition.

    The ruling, while not guaranteeing a recall, was a big victory for Chavez's opponents, who had claimed the council's decision had made holding the referendum nearly impossible. If the citizens don't come forward, Chavez opponents would have more than enough signatures to trigger the vote. The government immediately appealed the decision, said Freddy Bernal, mayor of the Federal District of Caracas and leader of Chavez's Fifth Republic Movement party.

     The ruling was made by the Supreme Court's electoral chamber and can be overturned by its constitutional chamber. Opposition leaders submitted more than 3 million signatures Dec. 19. They needed some 2.4 million to force the vote. Chavez insisted the elections council had reason to suspect the petition was fraud-ridden. The president claimed many signatures were duplicated or belonged to dead people, minors or foreigners. International observers who monitored the petition drive said that they had seen no indication of widespread fraud in the collection of signatures.

    LUIS POSADA CARRILES GOES ON TRIAL IN PANAMA

    Luis Posada Carriles, a Cuban-born anti-communist, went on trial Monday accused of plotting to kill Cuban dictator Fidel Castro in Panama in 2000, but his lawyers say he was framed by Havana's security police. Posada Carriles, 74, is being tried with five others, Gaspar Jiménez Escobedo, Guillermo Novo, Pedro Remón and César Matamoros, of possessing explosives, threatening public security and plotting to violate the law, but not for attempted murder. 

    The accused were detained in 2000 in a hotel in Panama City.Prosecutors said Posada was planning to blow up Castro while the Cuban dictator gave a speech at the University of Panama after the end of an Ibero-American summit. "There is no evidence to condemn them and we hope they are declared innocent," Rogelio Cruz, the defense lawyer and former Panama attorney general, told reporters. Posada's lawyers maintain Castro's security police framed him by planting the bomb in his rental car while he was visiting Panama in order to help a high-ranking Cuban official defect from Castro's government. Panama has refused extradition requests from Cuba and Venezuela, where Posada had lived since the 1960s.

    RODRIGUEZ ZAPATERO WILL BRING SPANISH TROOPS HOME FROM IN IRAQ

    The leader of Spain's victorious Socialists, Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero, said Monday he will bring Spanish troops home from Iraq by June 30, fulfilling a campaign pledge a day after his party's win in elections overshadowed by terrorist bombings. ''It's evident that I considered the participation ... of our country an error,'' Rodriguez Zapatero said at a news conference.

    ''I think the military intervention was a political error for the international order, for the search for cooperation, for the defense of the United States.... I maintain the idea was an error,'' the socialist leader said. Zapatero said during his campaign that Spain's 1,300 troops, sent in the aftermath of last year's U.S.-led invasion, might stay if the United Nations assumed control of the peacekeeping operation. Asked Monday to specify a date or condition for withdrawal, he said, ''I don't want to provide a date. I have expressed that June 30 is the limit ... established by the government of our country,'' adding a date would be set after he formally takes over as prime minister, some weeks from now.

    TERRORIST ATTACKS MADE POSSIBLE SOCIALISTS’ VICTORY IN SPAIN

    Spaniards voted Sunday to remove the party of Prime Minister Jose Maria Aznar from power, apparently blaming his staunch support of the U.S.-led war in Iraq for the bombings that killed 200 people in Madrid on Thursday.  In Sunday's election the Socialists, led by Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero, defeated the ruling Popular Party, jumping from 125 seats to 164 in the 350-member Congress of Deputies. The conservatives fell from 183 to 148. The election followed last Thursday's train bombings, reportedly claimed by al-Qaida, that killed 200 people. On Monday, 243 people remained hospitalized, 11 in critical condition.

    Millions of people across Spain took to the streets following the attacks. The government of Prime Minister Jose Maria Aznar was accused of misleading voters by insisting that armed Basque separatists were the prime suspects even as evidence mounted of an Islamic link. "The terrorists have killed 200 people and defeated the government -- they have achieved all their objectives," said Gustavo de Arustegui, a Popular Party member of parliament and foreign policy spokesman for the government. "I think the terrorist attacks were politically planned. We have transformed terrorists into political actors with this."

    Rodriguez Zapatero said Monday he would attempt to form a purely Socialist government, not a coalition with other parties. The Spanish Socialist Workers Party ruled from 1982 to 1996 but was plagued by corruption scandals and lost power to Aznar's Popular Party in 1996. The Popular Party's loss deprives President Bush administration of one of its most solid allies in Europe. Aznar has been a frequent visitor to the White House and to the president's ranch in Crawford, Tex.

    MILLIONS OF SPANIARDS CHOKE MADRID STREETS IN BOMB PROTEST

    Chanting "Cowards" and "Killers," millions of protestors packed rain swept streets across Spain on Friday condemning the country's worst ever guerrilla attack which killed at least 199 people. Spain's Crown Prince Felipe headed the main Madrid march with Prime Minister Jose Maria Aznar and opposition leader Juan Luis Rodriguez Zapatero to demonstrate national unity a day after what was also Europe's bloodiest bomb attack in 15 years. Senior European officials including Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi, EU Commission President Romano Prodi and French Prime Minister Jean-Pierre Raffarin, were also there.

    "It isn't raining, Madrid is crying!" chanted some protestors in a column of more than 2 million marchers, which filled Madrid's main thoroughfare under a sea of umbrellas for more than two miles (3 km). Spain's authorities estimated that more than 11 million of Spain's 42.7 million people participated in marches across the country. They included the young, old and disabled. Some were on crutches; others carried candles or banged drums. "We Were All On That Train" read one banner in Madrid, in reference to 10 bombs which tore apart four commuter trains on Thursday.

    The government has not determined who was behind the country's worst terror attack. Spanish authorities at first blamed armed Basque separatists ETA outright for the attacks but have since called the group the main suspects while not ruling out Islamic militants such as Osama bin Laden's al Qaeda network. Media in the northern Basque region reported that ETA had denied its involvement. The group has killed some 850 people since 1968 in a bloody campaign for an independent Basque homeland and Spaniards are used to protesting its attacks.

    PARENTS DENIED PERMISSION TO SEE IMPRISONED SON IN CUBA

    The parents of imprisoned dissident Librado Linares García, who traveled from Havana to see their son for the first time in six months, were denied permission to do so on the grounds he was rejecting re-education efforts. The Movimiento Cuba Reflexión, of which Linares is the general secretary, said he was refusing to attend all prison activities, salute the guards, stand up during the daily head count or wear prison garb.

    When Linares' parents, accompanied by his wife and son, asked to see him on Feb. 27, the date scheduled for a regular visit, they were told they could not. Nor were they allowed to leave for him a package containing food and medicine. Linares was sentenced last April to 20 years imprisonment.

    PAYÁ EXPRESSES HIS SOLIDARITY WITH THE SPANISH PEOPLE 

    The Cuban oppositionist Oswaldo Payá Sardiña sent a letter to the president of the Spanish Government, José María Aznar, expressing his solidarity with the Spanish people and condemning the genocide committed by the terrorists that carried out today's attacks in Madrid. 

    In the letter, Payá said to feel the same anguish and indignation that the Spanish families feel, with whom he shares the same pain today.  The promoter of the Varela Project added that this crime is against life itself, against every Spanish citizen, is a crime against all those who love the Spanish people, a crime against humanity.

    I am sure that those that practice terrorism, those that support it and those that justify it will find all the Spaniards are united and they will not break their will, added the leader of the Christian Liberation Movement and winner of the European Parliament Sajarov Prize.

    ARISTIDE HEADING FOR JAMAICA NEXT WEEK 

    Former Haitian President Jean-Bertrand Aristide is to travel to Jamaica early next week, Jamaican Prime Minister P. J. Patterson has said. Aristide is currently in the Central African Republic, where he fled after resigning and leaving his turbulent country February 29 in the face of an advancing rebel insurgency.

    Aristide has said he was abducted by the United States and forced to leave, a charge Washington has vehemently denied. Patterson said Aristide will come to Jamaica to see his children. "Mr. Aristide has expressed a wish to return temporarily to the Caribbean with his wife and to be reunited with their two young children who are currently in the United States," said a statement on Patterson's Web site.

    Patterson's statement said the former Haitian president is not seeking political asylum in Jamaica. "His stay in Jamaica is not expected to be in excess of eight to 10 weeks," the statement said. Patterson said Aristide is engaged in seeking permanent residence outside the Caribbean region.  He has already been in direct contact with me and proposes to visit Jamaica for discussions prior to the meeting of Caricom heads of government in St. Kitts later this month.

    MULTIPLE BLASTS IN MADRID LEAVE MORE THAN 200 DEAD AND 1,400 WOUNDED ­ THE TERRORIST GROUP AL-QAIDA CLAIMS RESPONSIBILITY

    Ten terrorist bombs tore through trains and stations along a commuter line at the height of the morning rush hour Thursday, killing at least 200 people and wounding 1,400 others three days before Spain's general elections. Spain initially blamed Basque separatists  (ETA) for the bombings, but the interior minister also said other lines of investigation were opened after police found a van Thursday with detonators and an audiotape of Quranic verses near where the bombed trains originated.

     The Arabic newspaper Al-Quds al-Arabi said it had received a claim of responsibility issued in the name of al-Qaida. The e-mail claim of responsibility, signed by the shadowy Brigade of Abu Hafs al-Masri, was received at the newspaper's London offices and said the brigade's ''death squad'' had penetrated ''one of the pillars of the crusade alliance, Spain.'' ''This is part of settling old accounts with Spain, the crusader, and America's ally in its war against Islam,'' the claim said. Spain had backed the U.S.-led war on Iraq, and many al-Qaida-linked terrorists have been captured in Spain or were believed to have operated from there. After an emergency cabinet meeting, Prime minister Jose Maria Aznar vowed to hunt down the attackers. ''This is mass murder,'' he said.

    The bombers used titadine, a kind of compressed dynamite also found in a bomb-laden van intercepted last month as it headed for Madrid, a source at Aznar's office said on condition of anonymity. Officials blamed the ETA separatist group at that time. Police found a van with detonators and an Arabic-language tape with Quranic verses in the town of Alcala de Henares, 15 miles east of Madrid, Interior Minister Angel Acebes said Thursday night. Police found seven detonators and the tape on the front seat of the van, Acebes told a news conference. The blasts began about 7:40 a.m., tearing through trains or platforms on the commuter line running to the Atocha station.

    DIAZ-BALART CONDEMNS TODAY'S COWARDLY TERRORIST ATTACK IN SPAIN 

    Washington, DC - Congressman Lincoln Diaz-Balart (R-FL) today condemned the terrorist bombings in Madrid, Spain this morning, which have thus far claimed close to 200 lives and injured close to 500 people, calling it "a massacre carried out by cowardly terrorists".

    "My prayers, sympathy and solidarity are with the Spanish people on this tragic day. Those who carried out this cowardly massacre must be brought to justice and their efforts to spread terror by killing innocent men, women and children must be defeated. Today is a day for the brave people of Spain to know that the entire world stands with Spain," said Diaz-Balart.

    SENTENCING DELAYED FOR SIX CUBANS CONVICTED IN PLANE HIJACKING

    A federal judge has delayed sentencing six Cubans convicted of hijacking a passenger plane to Florida so that a key witness who apparently defected can be questioned about his testimony. U.S. District James Lawrence King ordered prosecutors to ask Cuban flight attendant Abilio Hernández García whether he wished to change his testimony or meet with the defense.

     Hernández García traveled from Cuba to Key West with other crewmembers to testify against the six Cubans convicted on federal hijacking charges December 11. Only Hernandez Garcia did not return to the island, slipping out of a hotel and away from Cuban government representatives the day after the trial ended. At the trial, Hernández García testified the hijackers pressed a knife to his throat and forced him to comply. Defense attorneys argued that crewmembers participated in the plan to fly the plane to Florida on March 19, 2003.

    "Defendants assert that Mr. Hernández García's testimony may have been influenced by the prospect of a return to Cuba," King noted in an order that became public Monday. The judge gave prosecutors eight days to contact the witness. In earlier correspondence, the government indicated that Hernández García would stand by his testimony.

    ARISTIDE’S LEGAL TEAM PREPARES COMPLAINTS AGAINST U.S., FRANCE FOR KIDNAPPING

    Former Haitian President Jean-Bertrand Aristide's legal team is preparing cases accusing authorities in the United States and France of abducting him and forcing him into exile, lawyers said Wednesday. Aristide believes he is still president of Haiti and will use the courts in his fight to return home, U.S. lawyer Brian Concannon said in Paris after meeting Aristide in Central African Republic. In the United States, "there are preparations for a kidnapping case against the American authorities," Concannon said, without providing further details.

    U.S. authorities say Aristide fled of his own will as his government collapsed and rebels advanced on Port-au-Prince, but Aristide's lawyers claim U.S. authorities forced him to board a 20-hour flight out of the country. "He was not free to leave the plane," Concannon said. "He was not free to decide the plane's direction. He did not even know where the plane was going." U.S. officials strongly deny claims that Aristide was abducted. Secretary of State Colin Powell has said they acted at Aristide's request and probably saved his life.

    He also accuses France of working with the United States to force his departure. In France, a lawyer is preparing a complaint for "complicity in abduction" against four people connected with the Foreign Ministry, Concannon said. Collard said he will file a legal complaint in France as soon as he receives clearance from Aristide but would not name the targets of the complaint. "At the very least, France was an accomplice," Collard said.

    CUBAN SINGER DENIED VISA

    Controversial Cuban singer/songwriter Carlos Varela has been denied a U.S. visa to enter the country to perform Wednesday at the Gusman Center for the Performing Arts. The trip would have been Varela's second visit to Miami in the past six years. Varela's is the latest in a series of visa denials for Cuban artists who periodically perform in the United States.

    In the most recent cases, the State Department says it had reversed its earlier people-to-people policy, in which artists' visas were granted, because it did not want money going into Fidel Castro's coffers. A nonprofit cultural institution, Cubart, that was sponsoring the concert, was notified of the government's decision at mid-day Friday by the attorney trying to secure visas for Varela and his band. Last December, Varela traveled to Venezuela with Cuban superstar Silvio Rodriguez, a Castro supporter, to perform in support of Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez.

    INTELLECTUALS AGAINST BARBARISM

    Last weekend, the International Society for Human Rights and the Andrei Sajarov Foundation, two prominent European NGOs, issued a communiqué criticizing the government of President Hugo Chávez. They said that "considering the recent wave of crimes against Venezuela's civilian population, which is claiming for respect for democracy and its institutions, crimes perpetrated by a totalitarian-strongman to be, Hugo Chávez, our human rights organizations firmly condemn and make a call to the international public opinion to categorically reject this step back into a barbarism which, under the direct influence of Stalinist directives issued by Fidel Castro in Havana, threatens to lead the whole Venezuelan society to a debacle and a tyrannical submission."

    The communiqué also says that the "subterfuges and false arguments" used by pro-Chávez players in Venezuela have been "historically used by other despots that ended up killing millions of human beings with the sole purpose of perpetuating themselves in power." According to the communiqué, "a new wave of fascist and Stalinist national socialism is going throughout Latin America, with Hugo Chávez and Fidel Castro playing the role of Commanders in Chief." It adds: "Those that fight for the respect of human rights, wherever they might be in the planet, cannot remain impassive facing this new cycle which can returns us to medieval servility."

    Signed, among others, by Serguei Agrusow, founder of the ISHR; Alexander Soljenitzyn, Nobel Prize in Literature; Elie Wiezel, Nobel Peace Prize; Lech Walesa, former president of Poland; Václav Havel, former president of the Czech Republic; and Adam Michnik, Polish essayist and reporter. 

    CNE WAITS FOR OPPOSITION’S RESPONSE UNTIL WEDNESDAY

    The National Electoral Council (CNE) will wait only until Wednesday March 10 for a definitive answer from the opposition about proposed modifications to the conditions to the signature claim and ratification process related to the presidential recall petition. The CNE will "propose" to the opposition umbrella group Democratic Coordinator (CD) to hold the claim process in five days, as the political leaders have requested, but under new conditions.

    The electoral body keeps its position that the citizens who want to "ratify" their support to the referendum petition or report that their signature has been used without their consent can file their cases in 2,700 CNE claim centers, distributed throughout the country, as initially approved. However, it is willing to accept the political parties' request to extend the process for three additional days, but limiting the number of claim counters to 335 in the whole country, that is, one per district. The CD, meanwhile, will ratify its demand for an explanation on the so-called "empty forms," and formally ask the CNE to provide the serial numbers of the collection forms included in that group.

    “DEAD VENEZUELAN" ON CHAVEZ'S RECALL SHEET “RESUSCITATES”

    A man President Hugo Chavez claimed was dead begs to differ with the Venezuelan leader. "I'm not dead. I'm alive and kicking," 61-year-old Emiliano Chavez Rosales said in comments published Monday by El Universal newspaper. Chavez Rosales also said he signed a petition for a vote to recall the president, who alleged the signature was bogus during a speech to foreign ambassadors on Friday.

    "I'm sure Emiliano Chavez doesn't exist," the president said, holding up a copy of the petition form. He pointed to an identification number accompanying the signature - No. 2,550,083 - saying it belonged to a dead woman. In local interviews, Chavez Rosales insisted the number is his. A search of the country' voter database turned up Chavez Rosales' name and the same number. There was no immediate comment from the government. The form was one of several Chavez offered as evidence of fraud.

    CHAVEZ THREATENS U.S. WITH A ‘100-YEAR WAR’

    President Hugo Chavez on Sunday vowed to freeze oil exports to the United States and, "as Fidel said before",  wage a "100-year war" if Washington ever tried to invade Venezuela. Chavez accused the United States of ousting former Haitian President Jean-Bertrand Aristide and warned Washington not to "even think about trying something similar in Venezuela."

    Venezuela "has enough allies on this continent to start a 100-year war," Chavez said during his weekly television show. He added that "U.S. citizens could forget about ever getting Venezuelan oil" if the United States ever tried to invade the South American country.

    Venezuela provides about 15 percent of U.S. oil imports but relations between the two countries are rocky over Chavez's friendship with Cuban President Fidel Castro, his criticism of U.S.-led negotiations for a free trade zone in the Americas and his opposition to the war in Iraq. Chavez has increasingly railed against U.S. meddling in Venezuelan affairs as his opponents step up protests to demand the recall vote. Top U.S. officials have recently accused Chavez of becoming increasingly autocratic.

    FIVE DEAD AFTER HAITI GUNMEN OPEN FIRE ON CROWD

    Gunmen fired Sunday on thousands of protesters demanding the prosecution of Jean-Bertrand Aristide, drawing return fire from U.S. Marines and leaving five people dead in the worst attack since the Haitian president's ouster. Several witnesses said they saw Aristide militants open fire from the roof of the Rex movie theater across the plaza as thousands of people gathered in front of the National Palace.

    U.S. military spokesman Maj. Richard Crusan said it was unclear who the gunmen were. Ricardo Ortega, a New York correspondent for the Spanish television station Antenna 3, was shot in the chest and abdomen and died at the hospital. Among more than 30 injured people was Fort Lauderdale Sun-Sentinel photographer Michael Laughlin, 37, who was shot in the face and shoulder but was in stable condition at the hospital.

    U.S. COAST GUARD BOOSTS PATROLS OFF HAITI

    The U.S. Coast Guard Cutter Diligence was among a dozen patrolling waters off Haiti on Sunday, a fleet increased from the usual two vessels to prevent a feared exodus. Sea and air patrols have been stepped up since President Bush on Feb. 25 urged Haitians to “stay home'' and warned anyone who did not would be repatriated.

    That policy, announced as the United States was preparing to evacuate Americans from a dangerously volatile situation, has drawn criticism from human rights groups and some U.S. legislators. Critics say the United States is obligated by international law to grant asylum to people fleeing conflict zones.

      VIETNAM LEADER VISIT COMMUNIST CUBA 

    The secretary-general of Vietnam's Communist Party, Nong Duc Manh, arrived in Cuba Friday to strengthen ties between two of the world's last five communist-run countries. The Vietnamese leader will hold political talks with Cuban dictator Fidel Castro and visit Havana's Center for Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology, Cuban officials said.

    "The friendship and solidarity between Vietnam and Cuba are permanent," Manh said before departing Hanoi on a two-week trip that includes Germany and Belgium. Hanoi and Havana have been good allies since Cuba backed North Vietnam in the Vietnam War. Vietnam supplies Cuba with 250,000 to 300,000 tons a year of rice, the Caribbean island's main staple. Castro visited Vietnam in February last year.

    ARISTIDE SUPPORTERS PROTEST IN HAITI’S CAPITAL

    Anger simmered among supporters of President Jean-Bertrand Aristide in the Port-au-Prince slums on Saturday nearly a week after he fled to Africa. ''We are going to burn down the palace with the Americans inside,'' said Jean Enzo, a resident of the slums where Aristide built a power base as a firebrand Roman Catholic priest two decades ago. ''We have weapons and we are ready to fight.''

    The harsh words and a huge demonstration by Aristide supporters on Friday showed Haiti's poor masses were not ready to give up on their elected president, who was pushed from office on Sunday by a bloody revolt and foreign pressure. Aristide, from exile in the Central African Republic, has repeatedly said he was kidnapped. The death toll in the month long rebellion has swelled to more than 200.

    A council of ''wise men'' was chosen on Friday to help pick a new government includes only one member of Aristide's Lavalas family movement, which had dominated the government. Four are from the political opposition and two are from churches.

         500,000 VENEZUELANS MARCH IN CARACAS TO PROTEST RECALL VOTE

    Blowing whistles and chanting, 500,000 Venezuelans marched through Caracas on Saturday to protest the rejection of a petition aimed at recalling President Hugo Chavez. Protesters streamed toward a central avenue from several gathering points in the capital, many dressed from head to toe in the national colors of red, yellow and blue.

    "It doesn't matter how many obstacles they put in our way!" bellowed opposition leader Enrique Mendoza, to an eruption of cheers. "Don't let them intimidate us!" The march was peaceful, in contrast with last week's demonstrations. At least eight people were killed and hundreds arrested in five days of rioting set off by the National Elections Council's decision. "We're prepared to take to the streets a thousand times until we're allowed the recall referendum," said opposition leader Henry Ramos Allup. "Nobody is going to rob us of our right to oust Hugo Chavez peacefully."

    Opposition leaders have appealed to the Organization of American States and the U.S.-based Carter Center for support, saying the stability of the world's fifth-biggest oil exporter is at stake. Street violence abated last week after the OAS and Carter Center promised to help ensure that citizens would have a chance to prove they signed. Negotiations over the process continued Saturday.

    CHAVEZ: UNITED STATES “TO GET ITS HANDS OFF VENEZUELA”

    Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez told the United States on Friday to "get its hands off Venezuela" as he accused Washington of backing a wave of opposition protests seeking a recall vote against him. Chavez, who sent troops onto the streets to control a week of protests in which at least eight people were killed, appealed to the international community to condemn what he said was the second U.S. attempt in two years to topple him.

    "In the name of the truth, I have to ask the Washington government to get its hands off Venezuela," the left-wing leader told foreign ambassadors whom he summoned to the presidential palace. U.S. Ambassador Charles Shapiro was not present and was represented by his deputy.

    "Mr. Bush's government is financing this mad opposition, I have quite a lot of evidence," Chavez said, without immediately giving details. He repeated charges that Washington had backed an April 2002 coup that briefly ousted him. U.S. President George W. Bush's government has persistently denied repeated accusations by the outspoken Venezuelan president that it is trying to overthrow him. It says Chavez's anti-U.S. rhetoric is an attempt to distract attention from his domestic problems.

    ANNAN IS CONCERNED FOR THE SITUATION IN VENEZUELA

    Kofi Annan, UN Secretary-General, remains worried for the situation in Venezuela and is "dismayed" at the violence recorded in the last days in the country, said his spokesperson Fred Eckhard. "The Secretary-General welcomes the support given by the Organization of American States and the Carter Center to the work of the National Electoral Council (CNE), an important element in ensuring a peaceful, electoral and constitutional solution to the country's political impasse," the spokesman said.

    Annan also said that the UN keeps its commitment to support the government and the other parties to find a pacific way out of the crisis. These are his first remarks after a violent week that has left at least seven dead, 50 injured and hundreds of arrested people.

    AZNAR IS ALSO CONCERNED FOR THE SITUATION IN VENEZUELA

    José María Aznar, head of Spain's government, joined Central American presidents expressing their concern for the situation faced by Venezuela, and warned about the necessity to respect democracy.  Aznar said that the most important thing is to respect democracy in order to resume a normal situation in which "the voice and opinion of Venezuelans can be heard."

    His declarations were produced in a joint press conference, together with the president of Guatemala, Oscar Berger, who is leading the secretary of the Central American Integration System. According to Aznar, the Venezuelan situation was discussed by the Central American presidents during a meeting in which Madrid joined the Central American Bank for Economic Integration.

    URUGUAYAN LAWMAKERS SAY CUBA SPIED

    The Chamber of Deputies of Uruguay has denounced what it called the tapping of its telephones by the Cuban intelligence services. In a resolution passed by a 41-36 vote late Wednesday, the lawmakers expressed “the most severe condemnation of any act committed within the national territory or from another territory toward Uruguay aimed at violating the jurisdiction of the Legislative Branch and its members.''

    The resolution approved said the eavesdropping was ''committed by the intelligence services of a foreign state, the Republic of Cuba, regarding telephone conversations made from the Legislative Palace,'' where the deputies meet. ''Any action that seeks to impede the free exercise of the activities of legislators and the free utilization of the means at their disposal'' constitutes a violation of the lawmakers' jurisdiction, the document said.

    Havana and Montevideo broke diplomatic relations on April 24, 2002, after Uruguay sponsored a motion at the U.N. Commission on Human Rights in Cuba criticizing Cuba's human-rights abuses. Cuban dictator Fidel Castro then called Uruguayan President Jorge Batlle a ''bootlicker'' and a ''lackey'' of the U.S.

    VENEZUELA’S U.N. AMBASSADOR RESIGNS

    Venezuela's ambassador to the United Nations said Thursday he was resigning his post in protest at the policies of the government of President Hugo Chavez , who is fighting a movement to oust him. Milos Alcalay told a news conference at U.N. headquarters that his key concerns throughout a 34-year diplomatic career were to promote democracy, human rights and a non-confrontational foreign policy.

    "Sadly, Venezuela now is operating devoid of these fundamental principles, which I still remain intensely committed to, he said. "The increasing bipolarization and problems we are experiencing at home in Venezuela have impacted our relationships around the world," he said.

    The announcement took the Venezuelan Foreign Ministry and his U.N. colleagues by surprise as an official announcement had been published just two days earlier in Caracas that Alcalay's next diplomatic posting would be as ambassador to London. Alcalay said the actions of the National Electoral Council, which has ordered the reconfirmation of more than 1 million disputed pro-referendum signatures, "rob Venezuelans of the right to affect change through the democratic process."

    VENEZUELAN PROTESTS INTENSIFY AFTER RULING -- FIVE PERSONS KILLED -- CARACAS ABLAZE

    Demonstrators hurled rocks and gasoline bombs at soldiers as protests intensified after Venezuela's elections council ruled against an opposition petition to force a presidential recall referendum. Opponents of President Hugo Chavez say they submitted more than 3.4 million signatures.

    The decision triggered demonstrations by citizens banging pots and pans and exploding fireworks throughout the capital, Caracas, where thousands took to the streets. Rioting - which began earlier Tuesday as the opposition anticipated the ruling - also was reported in several of Venezuela's most important cities in the hours after the council's decision. National guard troops in armored personnel carriers rolled through several cities as demonstrators burned tires and threw rocks and gasoline bombs at soldiers. Sporadic gunfire was heard for a second straight night in Caracas.

    Many opposition leaders had said they would not accept a decision requiring voters to confirm their signatures. The measure was allegedly not included in rules established for the verification process, they said. Protests have forced private banks to shut 20 branch offices, prevented garbage collection, caused traffic jams and hampered transit by emergency vehicles, keeping thousands from work. Chavez's foes have been blocking traffic throughout Caracas since Friday to protest what they view as a government plot to derail the referendum - their last chance of legally ousting Chavez before the next elections in 2006. Five persons have been killed and 60 wounded since Friday. Dozens have been arrested.

    USS JFK SAILED INTO PORT EVERGLADES YESTERDAY FOR A SHORT VISIT

    Weighing more than 90,000 tons and standing 23 stories high, the USS John F. Kennedy aircraft carrier sailed into Port Everglades early Tuesday morning for a brief visit to South Florida. The USS JFK, which is based in Jacksonville, recently finished the first stage of a multi-level training program.

    The ship will remain at Port Everglades for several days, allowing more than 5,000 Navy personnel to enjoy some sightseeing and reunite with family and friends before they embark on a another training session in the Atlantic Ocean and Gulf of Mexico. ''We couldn't be happier to be in Fort Lauderdale,'' said USS JFK Strike Group Commander and Rear Admiral Donald R. Bullard. “These men and women have been working really hard.''

   VENEZUELA REFERENDUM BID SUFFERS SETBACK AMID PROTESTS

    Venezuelan's top election official on Tuesday said opponents of President Hugo Chavez had initially failed to collect enough signatures for a recall vote against him as anti-government demonstrators protested in the streets. But opposition voters would have a chance to reconfirm disputed signatures, leaving open the possibility they could still meet the target to trigger a referendum, National Electoral Council President Francisco Carrasquero said.

    Carrasquero said the council's preliminary results showed the opposition had collected only between 1.7 million and 1.8 million valid pro-referendum signatures -- short of the minimum 2.4 million required by the constitution. "It's not enough," he said before an expected official announcement. He said an additional 600,000 to 700,000 signatures would be subject to reconfirmation.

    Carrasquero spoke as troops and anti-government protesters skirmished in the streets for a fifth day. National Guard soldiers fired tear gas to clear protesters in eastern Caracas and demonstrators set up burning barricades to block several highways in the capital and other cities. A final decision on the referendum would be made in March after the complex reconfirmation process, which has been criticized by the opposition as a tactic to delay the vote. Angry opposition leaders said they did not accept them. "These are not the correct figures," said opposition leader Andres Velazquez, insisting they had handed in more than 3 million signatures in December.

    DIAZ-BALART: BASELESS ACCUSATIONS AGAINST U.S. BY ARISTIDE SUPPORTERS ENDANGER LIVES OF U.S. TROOPS IN HAITI 

    Congressman Lincoln Diaz-Balart (R-FL) today blasted the Aristide supporters in the U.S. Congress and elsewhere who have "irresponsibly and in a baseless fashion" accused the U.S.  of   "kidnapping" or otherwise being responsible for the exile of former Haitian strongman Jean-Bertrand Aristide.

    "I cannot stand silently by while Aristide supporters continue to make baseless and recklessly irresponsible accusations against the U.S.  The allegations that U.S. troops are responsible for the ouster of Aristide, are inciting passions among Aristide supporters in a dangerous way which is threatening the safety of U.S. peacekeeping troops, embassy employees and other personnel in Haiti. This ultimate recklessness must stop," said Diaz-Balart.

    CHAVEZ: THE BUSH ADMINISTRATION IS ILLEGITIMATE; IT WAS ELECTED THROUGH AN ELECTORAL FRAUD

    Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez said Sunday that neither the Organization of American States (OAS) nor any other international organization would be allowed to participate in the solution of the crisis created by the National Electoral Council's (CNE) decision to make serious objections to the signatures in more than 148,000 collection forms requesting a presidential recall vote. "Neither the OAS nor anyone else!," Chávez said.

    "We all have guts enough to defend the nation from any fucking foreigner wanting to humiliate it!" Chávez devoted the largest part of his two-and-a-half-hour speech to criticize and insult the U.S. President George W. Bush, whom he accused of financing groups that want him out of power. "This event is for saying no to the Yankee intervention in Venezuela," Chávez said. "No to the government of Mr. Bush, an interventionist, invading and colonialist government as very few others." Chávez added that the Bush administration is an illegitimate one as, in his opinion, it was elected through an electoral fraud.

    Reiterating that he has evidences of Washington's involvement in the events of April 11, 2002, when he was shortly ousted from the presidency, Chávez described Bush as an "asshole" for believing the advisors who "told him Chávez had no support in the Armed Forces." Chávez challenged Bush to accept this bet: "Let's see who stays longer, Mr. Bush, you in the White House or myself in Miraflores," he said.

    ARISTIDE SAYS THE U.S. FORCE HIM OUT

    Jean-Bertrand Aristide said in a telephone interview Monday that he was "forced to leave" Haiti by U.S. military forces who said they would "start shooting and killing" if he refused.  When asked if he left Haiti on his own, Aristide quickly answered: "No. I was forced to leave. "Agents were telling me that if I don't leave they would start shooting and killing in a matter of time," Aristide said during the brief interview via speaker phone. He spoke with a thick Haitian accent and was interrupted at times by static.

    When asked who the agents were, he responded: "White American, white military. "They came at night. ... There were too many, I couldn't count them," he added. Aristide told reporters that he signed documents relinquishing power out of fear that violence would erupt in Haiti if he didn't comply with the demands of "American security agents."

    Aristide, who fled Haiti under pressure from the rebels, his political opponents, the United States and France, arrived Monday in the Central African Republic, according to the country's state radio. The White House, Pentagon and State Department have denied allegations that Aristide was kidnapped by U.S. forces eager for him to resign.

    HUGO CHAVEZ THREATENS TO STOP OIL TO U.S. IF INVADED

    Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez warned the U.S. government Sunday that if it tried to invade Venezuela or impose a trade blockade against his country, he would shut off Venezuelan oil supplies to the United States. It was the first time Chavez had publicly mentioned the possibility of cutting off oil supplies to the United States. Venezuela is among the four top suppliers of crude and oil products to the U.S. market.

    The left-wing Venezuelan leader made the warning in a fiery speech to supporters in which he accused U.S. President Bush's administration of backing opposition attempts to oust him from the presidency. "Mr. Bush must know that if he gets the mad idea of trying to blockade Venezuela, or, even worse, of invading Venezuela, if that happened, the people of the United States should know that not a drop of oil would reach them from Venezuela, not a drop more," Chavez told tens of thousands of cheering supporters.

    In his speech, Chavez also called Bush an "asshole" for, he said, supporting a short-lived coup in 2002 that briefly toppled him. Chavez said that if the U.S. government tried to confiscate Venezuelan oil refineries in the United States, run by the Citgo affiliate of the state oil firm Petroleos de Venezuela (PDVSA), he could do the same to U.S. oil operations in his country. "There are plenty of American installations here," he said. Chavez said U.S. oil magnates were manipulating Bush "like a puppet" and added the United States wanted to "get its hands on PDVSA."

    ARISTIDES LEAVES HAITI

    Under intense pressure from the United States and France, Haitian President Jean-Bertrand Aristide has left the country, a senior U.S. administration official said Sunday.  A U.S. official said Aristide left at about 6:45 a.m. EST, accompanied by members of his security detail.  Cabinet minister and close adviser Leslie Voltaire said Aristide was on board along with his palace security chief Frantz Gabriel. Voltaire said Aristide, Haiti's first democratically elected president in 200 years of independence, was flying to the Dominican Republic and would seek asylum in Morocco, Taiwan or Panama.

    Militant rebels intent on removing Aristide from power had taken over most of the northern part of impoverished and embattled Caribbean country, and leaders of the movement said they had advanced to within 30 miles of the capital, Port-au-Prince.  Aristide was ousted in a 1991 coup, within months of becoming Haiti's first democratically elected leader.

    Aristide was restored to power three years later by U.S. troops.  France, Haiti's former colonizer, and the United States, which sent 20,000 troops to restore Aristide after a coup in 1994, had suggested he step down for the good of his Caribbean nation of 8 million people. Word of Aristide's departure comes a day after the White House accused him of orchestrating the violence that has gripped the capital, Port-au-Prince.