ALARCON DEFENDS THE ISLANDÍS SELF-DESCRIBED DEMOCRACY

    Parliament Speaker Ricardo Alarcon fielded tough questions on Cuba's electoral system Tuesday, defending the island's self-described democracy and explaining why he doesn't think Fidel Castro is a dictator in a live Internet forum ahead of upcoming local elections. Alarcon, who also serves on the Communist Party's ruling Central Committee, spent two hours answering questions from Cubans as well as foreigners about the complicated and unique process ahead of April 17 municipal elections.

     "If there were a dictatorship in Cuba, instead of a true democracy, the Revolution would have been destroyed long ago," Alarcon said in response to a question about what he says to those who call Castro a dictator. ñOur organs of power are genuinely democratic, elected without the participation of any political party, without electoral campaigns or corrupt contributions," he said earlier, in remarks that opened the forum. Participants tackled a wide range of sensitive topics, including freedom of expression, political opponents and the fact that Cuba's president is not elected directly.

    "It's possible that, after so many years in power, Fidel Castro claims that Cuba possesses a democratic electoral system," wrote one participant. "Why, then, is the president of this country not elected directly by the people?" Alarcon quickly responded, "The fact that the president is not elected directly by the people is not a phenomenon exclusive to Cuba. It also doesn't happen in Spain, or in England, and I generally don't hear about the lack of democracy in those countries." Castro, who came to power in 1959, is the world's longest ruling head of government and among the longest presiding heads of state. 

    CHÁVEZ:  ñWE ARE NOT PURCHASING ARMS FOR MAKING WAR"

    Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez Wednesday insisted that the arms his country is to buy from Spain under an agreement reached with the Spanish government are not intended to make war. "I do insist that the arms we are purchasing from Spain under this agreement are not for making war; these are supplies for peace," Chávez said after he and his Spanish counterpart, José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero, signed a number of agreements in the fields of energy, trade, culture, military and navy.

     He added that such equipment are intended to "keep reinforcing our capabilities of monitoring, patrolling, surveillance, fight against old and grave vices such as drug traffic, international crime, smuggling." Chávez said he did not understand the concerns voiced by some sectors in connection with his government purchase of patrol boats from Spain.  He also agreed with Zapatero's proposal to find ways to cut foreign debt in Latin American countries. Zapatero described Venezuela move to purchase arms as a commercial transaction intended to guarantee domestic security.

    WASHINGTON: VENEZUELA IS INCREASINGLY AUTHORITATIVE AND LESS RESPECTFUL OF HHRR

    The Venezuelan government exercises methods increasingly authoritative, the human rights performance in the country worsened over the last year, and the freedom of press and the judiciary independence have suffered a serious backlash, according to a report issued on Monday by the US Department of State.

     Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez was democratically elected but before that he attempted to come to power by means of a coup. Moreover, his "excessively populist message" is damaging the bases of the democratic system, said acting Assistant Secretary of State for Democracy, Human Rights and Labor Michael Kozak on presenting his report.

    "We have told the Venezuelan government that we are willing to work along with them provided that they respect the citizens' human rights. Unfortunately, we have seen in Venezuela a severe backlash in areas such as the freedom of press and the judiciary independence, among others," he stated as quoted by news agency DPA. Kozak underscored that if Chávez wishes to establish a "decent relation" with Washington, he should first "go the right way," and ensured that for the time being he is not doing so.

    VENEZUELAN STATE-RUN BANK SETS ASIDE $65 MILLION TO FINANCE EXPORTS TO CUBA

     One of Venezuela's state-run banks is setting aside US$65 million (50 million) to finance exports to Cuba, the president of the Venezuelan Industrial Bank said Tuesday. Luis Quiaro said financing for 13 Venezuelan exporters who want to ship goods to the communist-led island, but currently lack financial resources, could reach US$100 million (77 million).

    Quiaro told the state-run Bolivarian News Agency that exports to Cuba, which is Venezuela's most important political ally in Latin America, would begin in May. He did not provide additional details. Since taking office in 1999, Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez has strengthened ties with Cuba by signing dozens of trade and cooperation accords with Fidel Castro's government. Castro has recently expressed optimism about his nation's economy, based primarily on improved trade relations with Venezuela and China and the recent discovery of oil deposits off the island's coast.

    CUBAN PLANE COMES OFF RUNWAY IN VENEZUELA, 13 HURT

    Thirteen people aboard a Cuban airliner were injured on Monday when the plane came off the runway at Caracas' international airport after aborting its takeoff, airport and rescue officials said. "It was going to take off but couldn't and swerved off the runway," an air traffic control officer told Reuters.

    The Russian-made Cubana airlines Il-18 turboprop was preparing to fly to Havana from Simon Bolivar international airport at Maiquetia, which serves the Venezuelan capital.  Venezuela's Civil Defense Service chief Antonio Rivero told state television 13 of the 87 passengers on board were injured and were taken to hospital. "The information I have is that most of the injuries are light," he said.  Rivero said the airliner was thought to have aborted its takeoff because of a mechanical failure.

    CUBAN DISSIDENTSÍ WIVES ALLOWED TO PROTEST

     One week after being confronted by a group of pro-government counter protesters, the wives of jailed dissidents marched peacefully Sunday after Easter services to demand the release of their husbands. The counter protesters from the Federation of Cuban Women had indicated last week they would return again on Sunday, but they did not. "I think that this time they didn't want to make the same big error, especially with the vote in Geneva coming," said marcher Gisela Delgado, referring to the expected vote on Cuba's human rights record in mid-April by the United Nations Human Rights Commission.

    Sunday's peaceful half-hour march by about 30 women dressed in white and each carrying a single orange gladiola after services at Santa Rita Catholic Church contrasted with that of the previous week, when more than 100 women government supporters held a noisy counter protest with shouts of "Viva Fidel!" - "Long live Fidel!"  Afterward, Foreign Minister Felipe Perez Roque declared that the government supporters had every right to hold their counter protest, as long as they remained "within ethics and limits."

    On Friday, the women known as the "Ladies in White" for the clothing worn during their weekly march, sent a letter to Castro asking that their right to peacefully protest be respected and calling the interruption of their previous demonstration "an act of provocation." Also Friday, the European Union's development commissioner, Louis Michel, discussed human rights issues with the Cuban dictator during a visit to the island.

    THE PRESIDENTS OF SPAIN, VENEZUELA, BRAZIL AND COLOMBIA WILL MEET

    Spanish Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero will make his first official visit to Venezuela this week to meet President Hugo Chavez and the leaders of Brazil and Colombia in four-way talks aimed at strengthening political alliances and boosting trade. Chavez has said Tuesday's meeting in the eastern city of Puerto Ordaz will be of great importance in moving toward Latin unity as part of a "multipolar" world in which smaller nations participate in leadership rather than being forced to follow the United States.

     Spanish officials have said they are considering the sale of transport planes and military patrol ships to Venezuela, and could announce those deals during Zapatero's visit. Some observers suggest that might stir concern in Washington, where top U.S. officials have criticized Chavez's plans to buy helicopters and 100,000 Kalashnikov rifles from Russia. On the other hand, the talks also could allow leaders to try to defuse tensions between Venezuela and the United States. Presidents Alvaro Uribe of Colombia and Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva of Brazil have warmer relations with Washington.

    Last week, Silva's international affairs aide Marco Aurelio Garcia made clear Brazil would prefer less confrontation. "We have good relations with Venezuela, we have good relations with the United States, and we aren't interested in having any situation of tension in the region," Garcia told reporters in Brasilia. He said Zapatero wanted to join the talks as part of his policy of greater participation in South American affairs. The Spanish leader is to visit the Venezuelan capital of Caracas on Wednesday, then travel to Colombia on Thursday.

    A CUBAN WORKER DENIED TELEPHONE FOR NOT PARTICIPATING IN BLOCK COMMITTEE ACTIVITIES

     An employee of the state-run Cubapetroleo Company (CUPET) was denied the installation of a telephone in his home because he failed to participate in activities of the committees for the Defense of the Revolution, known popularly as bloc committees. In Cuba, only the government's ñapes" are provided with telephones without hassle.

    Julio Cabrera Rodríguez, 41, was the subject of an investigation last weekend by the block committee in the area where he resides with his parents, both over 75 and suffering from various ailments. A committee team told Cabrera Rodríguez did not meet the requirements for a telephone, leaving with him the impression that this meant he should was being punished for not participating in committee activities.

    EU COMMISSIONER TACKLES TOPIC OF POLITICAL PRISONERS  WITH CUBAN OFFICIALS

    European Union commissioner Louis Michel tackled the topic of Cuba's political prisoners with some of the island's top officials Friday, but said no agreements were reached yet about the activists' fate - an issue that threatens to dampen EU-Cuba relations just as they are warming up. The talks Friday come as both sides express optimism yet caution about a new chapter in their relationship, also strained by an upcoming United Nations vote on the country's human rights record.

    The EU has asked that Cuba release all political prisoners, and in particular 61 dissidents who remain behind bars after a roundup of 75 government opponents two years ago. The other 14 activists were later released on medical parole. The EU commissioner, who arrived to Havana late Thursday, expressed optimism that the current talks and future discussions could help ensure that EU sanctions against Cuba lifted earlier this year would not be re-imposed when the policy is reviewed this summer.

    Michel and six other members of an EU delegation started the day with official talks with Cuban Foreign Minister Felipe Perez Roque. Earlier this week, several EU ambassadors met four Cuban dissidents for more than two hours, listening to their ideas on how to prompt change under Fidel Castro's government. Michel was also expected to meet with dissidents on Saturday before giving a news conference. He also met for four hours with the Cuban dictator. 

    DISSIDENTSÍ WIVES URGE CASTRO TO RESPECT PROTEST

    Wives of imprisoned dissidents urged President Fidel Castro on Friday to respect their right to peaceful protest, calling a government-sponsored interruption of their weekly march ñan act of provocation.'' The women have spent every Sunday since a massive government crackdown imprisoned their husbands two years ago attending church services and then conducting a silent march down a central thoroughfare of Havana.

    The protest had taken place without incident up until last Sunday, the second anniversary of the crackdown, when some 150 female government supporters from the Federation of Cuban Women held a counterprotest, waving small paper Cuban flags and shouting ''Viva Fidel'' ¿ ñLong live Fidel.'' The women, known as the ''Ladies in White,'' have said they plan to continue their weekly march this Sunday.

    Organizers of the competing protest said last week they will not permit the women to ''take our streets,'' implying they will also likely return. In a letter delivered to Castro's offices, the ''Ladies in White'' said they will hold top members of the government responsible for any harm done to them in future standoffs. ''We do not discard the possibility that our blood will shed on the streets as we peacefully fight for the freedom of our men,'' said the letter, signed by six members of the group.

    EU COMMISSIONER MEETS WITH CUBAN OFFICIALS

    European Union commissioner Louis Michel met with top Cuban officials Friday, the latest sign of warming ties despite tensions over Cuba's imprisonment of dissidents. Michel, who arrived to Havana late Thursday, and six other members of an EU delegation started the day Friday with official talks with Cuban Foreign Minister Felipe Perez Roque.

    "These past few years have been difficult ones in our relationship, for many reasons," Michel told Perez Roque in initial remarks open to the news media. "The important thing today is for there to be various concrete elements and an expression of very strong determination for us to be able to strengthen our relationship." Perez Roque told Michel, "We receive you as a friend," and said he hoped the visit would represent "a new opportunity to give continuity to our discussion."

    The issue of human rights has strained Cuba-EU relations for several years. Two years ago, the EU imposed sanctions against the island after a massive crackdown in which 75 government opponents were sentenced to long prison terms. But a new chapter was opened earlier this year when European nations lifted the sanctions, partly in response to Cuba's release last year of 14 of the 75 dissidents for medical reasons. The new EU policy is up for review in June, however, and will likely hinge on whether the other 61 imprisoned dissidents still remain behind bars.

    IRAN STOCKPILING HIGH-TECH SMALL WEAPONS

    Iran is quietly building a stockpile of thousands of high-tech small arms and other military equipment - from armor-piercing snipers' rifles to night-vision goggles - through legal weapons deals and a U.N. anti-drug program, according to an internal U.N. document, arms dealers and Western diplomats. The buying spree is raising Bush administration fears the arms could end up with militants in Iraq. Tehran also is seeking approval for a U.N.-funded satellite network that Iran says it needs to fight drug smugglers, stoking U.S. worries it could be used to spy on Americans in Iraq or Afghanistan - or any U.S. reconnaissance in Iran itself.

    The United States has a strict embargo on most trade with Iran, which it accuses of supporting terrorist organizations and trying to build nuclear arms. It also has imposed sanctions on dozens of companies worldwide over the past decade for supplying Tehran with equipment that could be used for nuclear or conventional warfare. Much of the military hardware has been hard to hide - sales of tanks and anti-ship missiles by Belarus and China, or helicopters and artillery pieces from Russia have been well documented by U.S. authorities and international nongovernment agencies.

    The smaller weapons and related material Iran is amassing may not be as eye catching. But they are of U.S. concern because of their origin - through U.N.-funded programs or technically advanced western countries - and because they could harm U.S. troops in Iraq, Afghanistan or ultimately Iran, which President Bush has not ruled out as a military target.

    CUBAN CONVERTIBLE PESO WILL NO LONGER BE ON PAR WITH THE AMERICAN DOLLAR

    In a move to further strengthen Cuba's national currency, Cuban dictator Fidel Castro announced that one of two types of money accepted on the island will no longer be automatically traded 1-1 to the U.S. dollar. Beginning April 9, the exchange rate for the Cuban convertible peso will no longer be on par with the American dollar and instead will be tied to several foreign currencies, initially marking an 8 percent revaluation, Castro said in a televised speech late Thursday.

    Castro said the move was necessary to create a Cuban economy no longer dependent on the U.S. dollar, which he noted is losing value against the euro and other major currencies. His announcement came a week after the communist government revalued the regular Cuban peso, a second currency used on the island, by 7 percent, marking the first change in that currency's exchange rate since it was frozen in December 2001.

    The latest move will also help raise the value of the regular peso, said Castro, who has hinted repeatedly in recent months that he wants Cuba to have just one currency to eliminate the confusion and inequalities created among citizens after the American dollar was legalized in 1993. The dollar was removed from circulation on the island four months ago and replaced by the convertible Cuban peso as the primary legal tender for many consumer goods.

    U.S. TO RELEASE $3.2 MILLION IN MILITARY AID TO GUATEMALA

    By releasing US$3.2 million (2.46 million) in aid, the United States is rewarding Guatemala for its progress in overhauling a military once blamed for human rights abuses. Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld announced the U.S. decision on Thursday after meeting with Guatemala's president, Oscar Berger. Since the mid-1990s, the United States has provided Guatemala a relative pittance, with only $350,000 (269,600) approved for tightly controlled purposes, such as maintaining U.S.-Guatemala contacts in 2005.

    The Bush administration is proposing to increase the amount to $900,000 (693,000) in 2006. The money is intended for uses such as assisting in training and the modernization of Guatemala's armed forces. Berger, appearing with Rumsfeld at a news conference in the Guatemalan capital, said the human rights abuses committed by his country's military are a thing of the past. "The shadows that plagued our army have disappeared," Berger said through a translator.

    Rumsfeld, saying Central America has reached a "magic moment," said he was satisfied that Guatemala's military was developing toward a force that could assist in peacekeeping operations and cooperate with other militaries in the region. "I've been impressed by the reforms that have been undertaken in the armed forces," he said. "I know it is a difficult thing to do but it's been done with professionalism and transparency."

    VICE PRESIDENT JOSE VICENTE RANGEL REBUFFS SECRETARY RUMSFELDÍS CRITICISM OF PLAN TO BUY RUSSIAN RIFLES

    Vice President Jose Vicente Rangel rebuffed U.S. criticism of a plan to buy 100,000 Kalashnikov assault rifles from Russia, saying the guns are for national defense and that most nations are more concerned about excessive U.S. military spending. Rangel's statement Wednesday night came hours after U.S. Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld's comments on a visit to Brazil. The Secretary said he couldn't understand why the weapons were needed and that they could pose a threat in the region.

    Rangel said Rumsfeld's criticisms violate Venezuela's sovereignty and are part of "systematic" U.S. campaign against President Hugo Chavez's government. Venezuelan officials plan to buy the Kalashnikov AK-103 and AK-104 rifles for the military's 100,000 soldiers. The deal has yet to be finalized, and it's unclear how soon the assault rifles could arrive, Venezuelan officials say.

    Rangel referred to Rumsfeld as "el Senor de la Guerra," or Mr. War, and said it's actually colossal U.S. defense spending that "has generated great worry in most nations of the world." He said the U.S. government aims to "control and guarantee its hegemony over the rest of the world." The vice president said Venezuela's only purpose in buying the assault rifles is to "defend our independence and guarantee the self-determination of our people." 

    CUBAN AMBASSADOR SAYS CHRISTINE CHANET'S REPORT IS ñBASED ON LIES AND SLANDER"

    Cuban Ambassador Jorge Mora Godoy told the U.N. Human Rights Commission Wednesday that Christine Chanet whose report criticizes human rights conditions in Cuba, was playing into the hands of the U.S. campaign against Havana. But Chanet, a French legal expert, sharply criticized Cuban authorities for banning her from the country, saying it made it difficult to prepare a balanced report about the country.

    The clash occurred when Chanet presented her report on human rights in Cuba to the 53-nation commission, which is part-way through its annual six-week session. The commission is the world body's top human rights watchdog. "This report, based on lies and slander, only serves as a platform for the anti-Cuban campaign of the government of the United States, which is completely immoral," Godoy told the commission. He said the United States had been waging a campaign of "aggression and manipulation" against Cuba for the past 45 years.

    In her report earlier this month, Chanet noted that Cuba's release of 18 political prisoners last year was a positive step, but did "not signify the end of the repression" because other political detainees were still behind bars. The report said Cuban authorities arrested people in 2004 for expressing anti-government opinions, working with international human rights organizations and participating in associations or academic groups deemed counterrevolutionary. She urged Havana to improve its treatment of political prisoners, who often receive poor food, hygiene and medical treatment, the report said.

    REPUBLICAN CONGRESSMEN WANT TO REDUCE CUBA EMBARGO

    Saying that American tourism and trade can do more to undermine Fidel Castro's government than current U.S. policy, two conservative U.S. lawmakers promised Thursday to back more legislation this year to ease restrictions against the communist country. "I don't think that the for the next four years we can maintain this policy," Rep. Jeff Flake, R-Ariz., told a small group of international journalists. "We need to do what we did in Eastern Europe," by putting more Americans in contact with Cubans, said Rep. Wally Herger, of California, another free-trade Republican. "Change will not come from the (Cuba) policies we've had in the past."

    Flake said this summer he will make his fourth attempt to get Congress to approve an amendment to a Treasury Department spending bill that would eliminate funding for enforcement of the U.S. travel ban against Cuba and thus allow Americans to travel to the island. "When you run a play up the middle and it doesn't work, you don't run the same play 45 times," Flake said, applying an American football analogy to the United States' four-decade old policy of trying to isolate the Castro government with trade sanctions and other restrictions.

    Flake said he didn't sponsor the spending bill amendment in 2004 because it was a presidential election year, but did back a similar one in the three prior years. All three times it was eliminated from the bill in conference meetings before going before a full congressional vote. Both lawmakers said they would also back other legislation aimed at making it easier for American food producers to sell to Cuba by easing new limitations on how communist Cuba pays for the goods.

    FÉLIX BONNE CARCASSES SAYS THAT FIDEL CASTRO HAS NEVER BEEN AS WEAK AS HE IS NOW

    In an extraordinary public phone conversation, Cuban dissident Félix Bonne Carcasses told Miami congressional representatives Tuesday night that the government of Fidel Castro ñhas never been as weak as it is now.'' The chat via speakerphone energized the crowd of Bay of Pigs veterans meeting in Little Havana at Brigade 2506 headquarters to express support for a planned meeting of dissidents in Cuba on May 20. Bonne Carcasses said the dissidents in Cuba today are merely an ''extension'' of the Bay of Pigs veterans, fighting for the same liberty and democracy. He said the dissidents in Cuba today are merely an ''extension'' of the Bay of Pigs veterans, fighting for the same liberty and democracy.

    Bonne Carcasses is one of the Cuban dissidents organizing the Assembly to Promote Civil Society. ñIf it weren't for the 53,000 barrels of oil that Hugo Chávez sends every day to Cuba, it would be over,'' he said. ñYou can be sure that we won't betray the confidence which Cubans have placed in us.'' Ros-Lehtinen yelled back at the phone: ñKeep fighting. We're here with you.''

    ''You are a tremendous leader and one of our heroes,'' she added. ñYou are fighting in favor of principles that are accepted worldwide, but are rejected in Cuba. . . . Your cause is our cause.'' Ros-Lehtinen also told Bonne that the U.S. Congress has begun a program to ''adopt'' political prisoners in Cuban prisons. Bonne Carcasses took a risk by speaking publicly to the group of  about 50, which included members of the media. His declarations could land him in trouble with the Castro regime.

    SECRETARY RUMSFELD QUESTIONS VENEZUELA ON RUSSIAN ASSAULT RIFLES

    U.S. Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld said Wednesday that reports of Venezuela's efforts to purchase 100,000 Kalashnikov assault rifles from Russia were troubling, suggesting the South American country has no need for so many weapons. "I can't understand why Venezuela needs 100,000 AK-47s," he said during a press conference with Brazil's Vice President and Defense Minister Jose Alencar. "I personally hope it doesn't happen. I can't imagine if it did happen it would be good for the hemisphere."

    American officials in Washington have expressed concern about the health of democracy under Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, his stance toward leftist Colombian rebels and his moves to buy helicopters and Kalashnikov rifles from Russia. Although Rumsfeld and Alencar praised U.S. and Brazilian cooperation on a number of issues, fractures were apparent: Alencar refused to directly criticize Venezuela or the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), which the United States considers a terrorist organization but Brazil does not.

    Rumsfeld also met with Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva and then was to fly to the jungle city Manaus to view what the Brazilians call "SIVAM" - or Amazon Surveillance System - a powerful array of radars and other sensors, networked to monitor both criminal activity and environmental conditions in the Amazon, the world's largest wilderness. Rumsfeld was to fly to Guatemala later Wednesday.

    EUROPEAN UNION LAWMAKERS BEGIN TRIP TO CUBA TO STRENGTHEN TIES

    A dozen European Union legislators started four days of meetings with Cuban authorities Tuesday as the EU pursues invigorated ties with the communist-run island. The delegation, representing 10 European countries, met Tuesday with Cuban Parliament Speaker Ricardo Alarcon. The group, led by Spanish lawmaker Miguel Angel Martinez, was also scheduled to hold discussions with Foreign Minister Felipe Perez Roque, Vice President Carlos Lage and Foreign Investment Minister Marta Lomas throughout the week.

    "The objective of this visit is to improve relations between the European Union and Cuba, normalizing them and making them more fluid," said Martinez, of Spain's ruling Socialist party. "The last two or three months have been a success for improved relations... We're going to see if, with this trip, we can give things an extra push." Cuba and the EU opened a new chapter in their relationship this year with the lifting of sanctions against the island in January, thawing a diplomatic freeze that banned high-level visits by European officials to the island and drastically reduced cultural events in Cuba.

    The sanctions were put in place after Cuba sentenced 75 government opponents to long prison term in a massive crackdown two years ago. Fourteen of the dissidents have since been released for medical reasons, with the EU continuing to push for the liberation of the 61 activists still behind bars. Martinez said the EU delegation would also be meeting with Cuban lawmakers, European ambassadors based on the island, and members of civil society who "might be in a position different from that of the authorities.

    CUBAN MINISTER JUSTIFIES HARASSMENT OF OPPONENTS

    The Cuban government justified Monday two incidents of public harassment of its opponents, saying they were "mercenaries" on the U.S. payroll who deserved to be repudiated. On Sunday, 200 women backers of President Fidel Castro intercepted a peaceful march by 30 wives of jailed dissidents in an attempt to intimidate them and shout them off the streets with chants of "Fidel, Fidel" and "down with the worms."  "If some annoying person provokes his neighbors he should know that they will lose patience," Cuban Foreign Minister Felipe Perez Roque said.

    "In Cuba the streets belong to the people. It is legitimate for them to defend their streets and oppose those who work for the government of the United States," he said. The noisy counterdemonstration against the wives of jailed dissidents, who dress in white and march in silence to demand their husbands' release, came on the second anniversary of the rounding up of 75 pro-democracy activists in March 2003.

    Leading dissidents said the protest was staged by Communist Party officials and protected by the police, who stopped traffic in the Miramar neighborhood of Havana to help the women cross a busy avenue. "Everyone knows it is not the people, it is the government," said dissident economist Martha Beatriz Roque, who was the only woman among the jailed dissidents and was released in July. "This is just another form of repression by the government," she said, after a meeting of dissidents with European Union ambassadors.

    FAMILY WHO TRIED FLOATING TRUCK TO U.S. NOW IN MIAMI VIA MEXICO 

    A Cuban family that twice tried to reach Florida with vehicles converted into boats has made it to Miami, this time coming overland via Mexico from Costa Rica, the family's lawyer said. Luis Grass, his wife Isora Hernandez and their five-year-old son Angel Luis Grass Hernandez, entered the U.S. though the Texas-Mexico border on March 12. They were held in custody in Brownsville, Texas until Sunday. They traveled to Miami on Monday after being released on parole for humanitarian reasons. They will be allowed to apply for permanent residence in 2006.

    The Grass family's voyage to America began in 2003 when they and others tried to cross the Florida Straits aboard a bright green 1951 Chevy pickup, which Luis Grass had converted into a boat. They were intercepted by the Coast Guard and sent back to Cuba. The Coast Guard then sunk the Chevy-boat. In February 2004 Grass made a second attempt to get to the United States illegally - this time aboard a floating Buick sedan powering another homemade boat.

    Again, they were intercepted. This time the Grass family was taken to the U.S. naval base in Guantanamo and the other would-be migrants aboard the Buick were returned to Cuba. The Buick was sunk. After interviews showed that the Grass family had a credible fear of persecution if they were sent home, the U.S. held them at Guantanamo until a third country, in this case Costa Rica, agreed to grant safe haven. The family lived in Costa Rica until last month, making their way into Mexico and to Texas by bus and hitchhiking.

    RUSSIAN DIPLOMAT DISMISSES U.S. CONCERNS OVER ARMS SALES TO VENEZUELA

    Russia's deputy foreign minister on Monday dismissed U.S. concerns that its sale of assault rifles and helicopters to Venezuela was intended to encourage a regional arms race. Serguei Kislyak said the arms sales, including a US$120 million deal signed earlier this month for ten military transport and attack helicopters, were to help the Venezuelan military meet its needs.

    "Our cooperation with Venezuela in the military field is related only to the country's needs ... it does not have any destabilizing nature," Kislyak said after a meeting with Venezuelan Foreign Minister Ali Rodriguez. U.S. officials have expressed concerns the weapons could fall into the hands of leftist rebels in neighboring Colombia or spur an arms race with other Latin American countries.

    Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, a fierce critic of U.S. foreign policy, has rejected U.S. criticism of the helicopter purchase and Venezuela's plans to acquire 100,000 Kalashnikov assault rifles from Russia. While Venezuela sells most of its oil to the United States, relations between Caracas and Washington have been strained due to Chavez's close ties with Cuban dictator Fidel Castro and his criticism of U.S.-backed free trade agreements in the hemisphere.

    CUBA PREDICTS U.S. WILL FAIL IN GENEVA

    Foreign Minister Felipe Perez Roque predicted on Monday that the United States would fail in its efforts to have Cuba condemned next month by the top U.N. human rights watchdog. "This will constitute the first defeat by the United States" in its annual efforts to condemn Cuba at the United Nations meeting, Perez Roque told a news conference. "The government of the United States really has a sick obsession with Cuba," he added.

    The administration of U.S. President George W. Bush has said in recent days that it plans to submit to the U.N. Human Rights Commission a resolution critical of Cuba's rights record. The commission, now meeting in Geneva, is expected to consider the U.S. resolution on Cuba by mid-April. While the United States generally gets another nation to present the resolution, it has been unable to get any country in Latin America or Europe to submit it to the commission this year, Perez Roque said.

    Cuba, meanwhile, plans to present to the commission nine of its own resolutions expected to appeal to other developing nations, including ones that characterize access to food and freedom from foreign debt as human rights. The U.N. commission last year narrowly passed a resolution critical of Cuba's rights record. Adopted 22-21 with 10 abstentions, the resolution said Cuba "should refrain from adopting measures which could jeopardize the fundamental rights, the freedom of expression and the right to due process of its citizens."

    ANNAN CALLS ON WORLD LEADERS TO ADOPT MOST SWEEPING U.N. CHANGES IN 60-YEAR HISTORY

    United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan proposed bold changes Sunday, fighting to right the U.N. ship of state after a year of scandal - blatant fraud in the Iraq oil-for-food program and sex abuse by peacekeeping troops that deepened the misery in Congo, not to mention the resignation of his refugee chief under the cloud of sexual harassment charges.

    Annan issued a call for his members to approve what would be the most sweeping changes to the United Nations in its 60-year history. His proposals, he said, would enable the world body to stop war, fight terrorists, combat poverty and put protecting human rights at the forefront of its work in the 21st century. The report to the 191 members of the U.N. General Assembly was released six months before world leaders meet at U.N. headquarters for a summit called by Annan. In its introduction, he urged the leaders to "act boldly" and adopt "the most far-reaching reforms in the history of the United Nations."

    "We will not enjoy development without security, we will not enjoy security without development, and we will not enjoy either without respect for human rights," Annan said. "Unless all these causes are advanced, none will succeed." One of the major proposals calls for the creation of a Human Rights Council - possibly as a principal organ of the United Nations like the Security Council or the General Assembly - to replace the Geneva-based Commission on Human Rights. It has long faced criticism for allowing the worst-offending countries to use their membership to protect each other from condemnation.

    HUGO CHÁVEZ VOWS TO FORGE AHEAD WITH LAND REFORM

    Hugo Chavez on Sunday vowed to continue with a nationwide land reform, even as landowners vowed to challenge the legality of the program that has claimed several estates including a large ranch held by a British-owned meat producer. Chavez's comments came a day after a local affiliate of Britain's Vestey Group announced it would appeal a decision declaring that the company had occupied a ranch in central Venezuela illegally. The president urged landholders to hire attorneys to prove their property doesn't belong to the state.

    "Whoever wants to find a lawyer, find one and go to the courts, but the large land estates are done with," Chavez said on his weekly television program as supporters in the background shouted "Viva La Revolucion!" "It's not enough to show any sort of document. You must show the original ownership title," Chavez added.

    The National Lands Institute two weeks ago declared as public land Hato El Charcote, a 12,950-hectare (32,000-acre) cattle ranch claimed by Vestey's Agropecuaria Flora. The government agency said that property documents presented by Agropecuaria Flora are not legitimate, and the land therefore belongs to the state. The company has two months to appeal the decision. Chavez has declared "war" on large estates, claiming that many property titles were acquired by a wealthy elite through corrupt dealings before he was first elected to office in 1998.

    WOMEN GOVERNMENT SUPPORTERS BREAK UP PEACEFUL MARCH BY ñLADIES IN WHITE"

    With shouts of "Viva Fidel," scores of angry government supporters on Sunday interrupted the weekly silent protest by political prisoners' wives after church services, where the women prayed for the release of their husbands. No blows were exchanged and no one was injured during the standoff between two opposing groups of women early Sunday afternoon after Palm Sunday Mass at the Santa Rita Roman Catholic Church. The wives were marking the second anniversary of the crackdown that put their husbands behind bars.

    It was the first such confrontation that has occurred since the wives began their quiet weekly protest shortly after the March 2003 government crackdown that put 75 activists behind bars.  "We have to support the revolution," said government supporter 70-year-old Aida Diaz, who said the counter protest by about 200 women was organized by the Federation of Cuban Women. "We have come to protest because  this goes against the country," said Diaz, referring to the silent march outside the church by about 30 prisoners' wives dressed all in white. "We cannot let them damage the revolution."

    Even before the late morning Mass, several dozen state security officers in civilian clothes and carrying walky-talkies were stationed outside the church, indicating that this week's regular protest would be different. When the prisoners' wives, known as the "Ladies in White," left the sanctuary, the counter protesters were waiting for them, some of them with the tiny paper red, white and blue flags commonly used at government organized rallies. 

    POLITICAL PRISONER'S WIFE REVEALS SUPPORT LETTER FROM SPAIN GOVERNMENT 

    The wife of a political prisoner on Saturday revealed a letter of support she received from the Spanish government as the prisonersÍ wives gathered to pray and protest their husbands' arrest in an opposition roundup two years ago. In the letter addressed to Laura Pollan, wife of prisoner Hector Maseda, Spain Foreign Minister Miguel Angel Moratinos wrote: "I share your concern about the prisoners." Pollan said the letter, which carried the Spanish foreign ministry's letterhead, seal and watermark, was delivered to her by Spanish diplomats.

    Moratinos says in the letter: "I guarantee that the European Union and Spain as one of its members will continue pursuing the same objectives that were defined in 1996 in relation to Cuba: to foment a peaceful transition toward a pluralistic democracy, respect for human rights and fundamental liberties, and sustainable improvement in the people's living conditions." Pollan said she waited to publicize the Feb. 10 letter until after Cuban Foreign Minister Felipe Perez Roque's visit with Spanish officials in Madrid earlier this month.

    NEIGHBORS ATTACK DISSIDENT DOCTOR ON CRACKDOWN ANNIVERSARY

    A protest by a little-known dissident physician marking the crackdown's anniversary was broken up by scores of government supporters from his neighborhood, who struck him with sticks and ripped down posters with the prisoners' photographs he placed on the side of his house. Dr. Darcy Ferrer, of a dissident physicians group, suffered scrapes and bruises on his hands and arms in the melee, which was witnessed by an Associated Press reporter. There were no uniformed police at the scene.

    Many of Ferrer's neighbors took exception to the poster, which could be seen clearly from the street. Scores of Castro supporters gathered outside his home Saturday afternoon to shout insults. "Viva Fidel!" some shouted - "Long Live Fidel!" Others sang Cuba's national anthem. Some in the group chased Ferrer into his house and struck him with sticks. Ferrer said was also roughed in a similar incident earlier in the day. "We're going to keep doing this until they kill us," Ferrer said. "This is the people of Cuba defending its revolution!" said one of the counter protesters, Danilo Luis Garcia. "He provoked us into being here," another, Ariel Ulloa, said of Ferrer. "The street belongs to revolutionaries."

   POLITICAL PRISONERSÍ WIVES DEMAND SPACE IN CUBAN STATE MEDIA

    Nearly 30 wives of political prisoners marched to the headquarters of the official journalists' union Friday to demand their plight be publicized in Cuba's state-run media, marking the second anniversary of the crackdown that put their spouses behind bars. Wearing all-white clothing and sashes that said "amnesty," the women dropped off a letter, directed to the union president, that harshly criticized editors and reporters working for Cuban newspapers, magazines and television stations. "Journalists for the state media keep silent. They don't see," the Cuban wives said in their letter demanding space in the official press. "They don't know what's happening in their times.

    "We are here to demand our page, our space," continued the letter from the Cuban prisoners' wives, "because although they don't like it, they can't deny our existence." The women also passed out copies of the letter to passersby. All of Cuba's national media is operated by the communist government and rarely reports on government opponents, who are typically characterized by officials as counterrevolutionaries and mercenaries. Workers at the journalist's union looked on with surprise as Laura Pollan, leader of the "Ladies in White," spoke to international journalists outside. "Perhaps they will stigmatize us as mercenaries too, but they don't realize that up until now we have been workers, housewives, and wives," Pollan said.

     "We are simply fighting for the liberty of our husbands, for the union of our families," said Pollan, whose husband, Hector Maseda, received a 20-year sentence in the crackdown. "We love our men, and we have the right for the press to present (our situation), so the Cuban people know we have the same rights as all other wives." Earlier in the day, the women gathered at Pollan's home to pray, read poetry and encourage each other to remain hopeful for the release of their husbands. The "Ladies in White," including several who traveled to Havana from outlying provinces, planned other events throughout the weekend, including a march Sunday after attending church services.

    U.S. PROMISES TO SUPPORT CUBANS WHO TRY TO INSTILL DEMOCRACY 

    The United States urged Cuba's government to release its political prisoners and promised to support Cubans who want to replace President Fidel Castro's government with a democratic system. State Department spokesman Adam Ereli said in a statement to mark the second anniversary of the Castro government's crackdown on dissidents that at least 300 political prisoners remain in Cuban jails serving sentences averaging 20 years. The 14 people released so far were in poor health but still are subjected to daily harassment, he said.

     "The United States and others in the international community will not remain silent before such repression," Ereli said. "We will not allow these champions of human rights to be forgotten nor let their courageous action ... be in vain." "The United States seeks a rapid and peaceful transition to democracy in Cuba and supports all Cubans who seek this outcome," Ereli said. "Only a Cuba that respects fundamental freedoms and independent civil society can make this transition." Two years after the crackdown, which Ereli called a "terrible act of repression," he said the United States urges "the Castro regime to free all political prisoners."

     WIVES MARCH IN HAVANA STREET TO PRESS FOR RELEASE OF JAILED CUBAN DISSIDENTS

     Wives and mothers of jailed Cuban dissidents dressed in white and marched through downtown Havana Friday to press for their release two years after a crackdown on President Fidel Castro's critics. The 30 "ladies in white" wore ribbons that said "Amnesty" and handed leaflets to surprised pedestrians in a rare protest in communist-run Cuba. They marched to the Cuban Union of Journalists to demonstrate against the failure of Cuba's state-run media to report on jailed opponents.

     "We are not afraid. We are not alone," said Ada Rosa Borrego, 61, who said she hoped that international pressure would lead to the release of her son Horacio Pina, a civil liberties campaigner. The march came on the second anniversary of the jailing of 75 pro-democracy activists in March 2003 and followed the release in Madrid of a report by Amnesty International, which said that Cuba suppressed freedom of expression despite international pressure.

    Its report coincides with the annual meeting of the U.N. Human Rights Commission in Geneva, which will discuss Cuba, one of the last communist governments. Amnesty said cooperation with human rights groups, talking with the media, meeting U.S. officials or talking with exiles in the United States could lead to long prison sentences in Cuba.

    CASTRO ANNOUNCES REVALUATION OF CURRENCY

    Cuban dictator Fidel Castro late Thursday announced a 7 percent revaluation of Cuba's national currency, giving Cubans slightly more buying power as the communist-run island moves to reassert greater control over its economy. The move comes four months after Cuba eliminated from circulation the U.S. dollar, which was used as legal tender for many goods and services for more than a decade. Cuba now uses two currencies: the regular Cuban peso, which was the one revalued, and the convertible Cuban peso (Chavitos), which trades at 1-1 to the dollar.

    While the regular Cuban peso is used for government salaries and most government goods and services, the convertible Cuban peso has been used for many other consumer goods at businesses where the dollar was once accepted. Starting Friday, the convertible Cuban peso, which previously could be purchased with 27 ordinary Cuban pesos, will now be worth 25 Cuban pesos, Castro said. The decision appeared aimed at slowly eliminating one of the two currencies now circulating on the island.

    Reading from a resolution by Cuba's Central Bank at the end of a three-hour televised speech, Castro said the decision was based on improved trade relations with Venezuela and China and the recent discovery of oil deposits off the island's coast. Castro has hinted repeatedly in recent months that he wants Cuba to have just one currency and eliminate confusion and inequalities created when the U.S. dollar was legalized in 1993.

    CZECH ACTIVISTS HONOR CUBAN DISSIDENTS BY ENTERING SYMBOLIC PRISON

    Human rights activists clad in black and white striped prison uniforms entered a makeshift cell in Prague's Wenceslas Square Friday to serve symbolic prison terms marking the second anniversary of a major crackdown on Cuban dissidents. Czech human rights activists, celebrities and politicians joined the protest honoring 75 Cuban opposition activists, who were arrested two years ago and sentenced to prison terms averaging 20 years each for treason in the largest crackdown on Cuban dissent in recent history.

      "Our aim is ... the unconditional and immediate release of all political prisoners in Cuba," Liuver Saborit, a political refugee who left Cuba shortly after the crackdown, told supporters gathered in the square. More than 50 demonstrators were expected to take turns spending up to an hour each in "the cell," which can fit up to 10 people at a time. The demonstration ends Saturday night. 

    Senator Jaromir Stetina, former head coach of the Czech national ice hockey team Slavomir Lener and Helena Illnerova, head of the Czech Academy of Sciences were among the first to enter "the cell." The event was organized by the human rights organization "People In Need" to demand the prisoners be freed. Organizers said they also planned a demonstration in front of the Cuban Embassy next week. "(Cuba) is the country ruled by fear, where political prisoners are imprisoned for years only because they expressed their views," former Czech President Vaclav Havel said in a video address to the assembled crowd.

     CUBAN DIPLOMATS ANGERED BY FORBES ESTIMATE OF THE CUBAN DICTATORÍS WEALTH

    Most people would be flattered if Forbes magazine estimated their personal fortune at $550 million - but Cuban President Fidel Castro is not, apparently, one of them. Cuba's embassy in Mexico issued a stinging rebuke on Wednesday of the Forbes article without mentioning the magazine by name, calling it "a repugnant example of a campaign of lies" by "an American magazine of decaying credibility." "It is a clumsy slander and a repugnant example of a campaign of lies perpetrated in the United States with the sole aim of justifying the criminal blockade of Cuba," the embassy said in a press statement.

    Embassy officials could not immediately explain why the statement was released in Mexico, rather than in Havana, the Cuban capital. In a story published Tuesday about the fortunes of rulers and heads-of-state, Forbes estimated the communist leader's net worth at $550 million, but acknowledged "these estimates are more art than science." "In the past, we have relied on a percentage of Cuba's gross domestic product to estimate Fidel Castro's fortune," the article stated. "This year we have used more traditional valuation methods, comparing state-owned assets Castro is assumed to control with comparable publicly traded companies."

    The magazine said Castro "derives his fortune from a web of state-owned businesses," including a convention center and retail and pharmaceutical businesses. The embassy denied that, saying "income from Cuban state-owned companies are used exclusively for the benefit of the people, to whom they belong." While the embassy did not dispute Forbes' estimate that Castro "travels exclusively in a convoy of black Mercedes-Benzes, it claimed Cuba was the only country in Latin America to fight inequality.

    LATIN AMERICAN PERSONALITIES CALL ON CUBA TO FREE JOURNALISTS

    The Committee to Protect Journalists wrote to Cuban dictator Fidel Castro on Wednesday to urge his government to release 23 independent reporters jailed since a March 2003 crackdown on dissents. The letter from the New York-based watchdog group was endorsed by 108 Latin American writers and journalists, including novelists Carlos Fuentes and Elena Poniatowska of Mexico and Tomas Eloy Martinez of Argentina.

    The petition was also backed by former Venezuelan guerrilla and ex-planning minister Teodoro Petkoff, now a newspaper editor and vocal critic of populist Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez. It comes almost two years to the day after Cuba arrested 75 dissidents and independent journalists who were convicted of conspiring with the United States against the Cuban government and handed them jail terms of up to 28 years. Only 14 have been released so far.

    Cuba's Communist government labels all dissidents as "mercenaries" on the payroll of its archenemy the United States. But the committee said the journalists' work was within the parameters of the legitimate exercise of free expression established under international human rights standards.

    JOSE MARIA AZNAR CALLS ZAPATERO ïIRRESPONSIBLEÍ 

    Former Spanish President Jose Maria Aznar said Wednesday that his country's government was practicing ''irresponsible'' foreign policy, citing the coziness Spain is fostering with Cuba and Venezuela. Aznar said that under his administration, Spain stood proudly with the two strongest democracies in the world, the United States and Great Britain. And now, he said, Spain stands with Cuba and Venezuela, countries he called bedfellows in exporting trouble throughout Latin America.

    ''I was in Mexico last week, and I told them you and I have a right to be free, why deny that right to Cubans?'' Aznar said. ñI'll keep saying it all the time, I don't care if Castro insults me every day.'' He said he finds the close alliance between Castro and Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez troubling because they seem to be exporting trouble to Latin American countries such as Colombia and Bolivia. He said Spain and the European Union should not forge closer ties to Cuba because only Cuba will benefit, and nothing will change while Castro is in power. Aznar distanced Spain diplomatically from Cuba after Castro's government jailed 75 dissidents in 2003.

    He said he supported Cuban dissidents who are planning an assembly to promote civil society in Cuba May 20, but joked that he wasn't planning on attending because he didn't think the Cuban government would be very welcoming. In other remarks, Aznar said the new Spanish government, which beat his party last year just days after the March 11 railroad bombing, has not been able to answer key questions about the bombing. He said Spain remains vulnerable to terrorism.

    GENERAL CRADDOCK: VENEZUELA NEIGHBORS ARE WORRIED ABOUT ARMS PURCHASE

    Venezuela neighbors share the US government concerns about President Hugo Chávez' move to purchase new weapons, including 100,000 AK-47 assault rifles, Tuesday said General Bantz Craddock, the commander-in-chief of the US Southern Command. "We are wondering what is the intent here," Craddock was quoted as saying. "If it is for sovereign defence, obviously each nation can do their own... If it is to export instability, that is a different situation." "We are concerned about that and we would like that not to happen," he added.

    Chávez' purchase of these arms and 40 Russian military helicopters "is disturbing, and we are analyzing it closely," said Craddock in a hearing at the US Senate Armed Forces Committee. "We have talked with Venezuela neighbors, and there is now some concern on their part," added Craddock.

    "We just do not want to see an arms race in the region," which is one of the most demilitarized areas in the world, he said. The possibility that the AK-47s end up in Colombian guerrillas hands or other armed groups in the region "would be something very, very bad," warned Craddock.

    CUBAN REFUGEES IN BAHAMAS WERE SENT BACK TO CUBA

    On Tuesday, March 15th, 2005, at 2:30 in the afternoon, the Bahamian government repatriated without incident the group of 29 Cuban refugees, detained at Her MajestyÍs Fox Hill Prison in Nassau, thereby ignoring the pleas for a stay, the Cuban Exile Community made to the Government of this Caribbean Nation.

    This group of 29, were the last victims and witnesses of the brutal attack perpetrated by authorities of the Bahamian Government on December 9th, 2004, when guards unleashed their wrath against innocent men, women and defenseless children- firing at them with rubber bullets and sending some to the hospital with bullet wounds- in the aftermath of a failed escape attempt of two Cuban nationals and a Dominican from the Carmichael Road Detention Centre.  Among the repatriated Cubans there are 6 pacific opponents, all members of the Democratic Party November 30 ñFrank País", whom due to political persecution saw no other alternative but to take to the sea in the middle of a hurricane last August 31, 2004, in a desperate attempt to reach lands of freedom.

    Back then, they were intercepted in open waters by a coastguard vessel of the Bahamian government and all 6 were taken to the Detention Centre in question, where they were victims of physical abuses that included, lack of drinkable water as well as lack of food, psychological tortures and as previously stated, wounds due to the impact of rubber bullets fired by government authorities. The Bahamian government has once again demonstrated absolute apathy and disdain with the suffering of the Cuban people by favoring the regime responsible of the tragedy of the Cuban Nation.

    DR. MANUEL CEREIJOÍS NEW BOOK

    Cuba: A Real Threat, a new book by Dr. Manuel Cereijo, soon to be in the market, twenty seven chapters, is an assessment of the Cuban threat to the United States national security.

    This book presents a thorough analysis of the Cuban threat to the United States national security. The book analyzes the asymmetric threats of infiltrations, commando attacks, espionage, biowarfare, cyberterrorism, laser weapons, microwave weapons, and radiological attacks. Also, it covers the bilateral military agreements between Cuba and Iran, Cuba and North Korea, Cuba and China.

    Cuba, obviously, represents a very serious threat to the security of the United States, and this book will expose it to the general public and government officials.

    FOOD SCARCITY BECOMING CRITICAL IN GRANMA PROVINCE

    The 25,000 residents of Campechuela, in easternmost Granma province, are facing food shortages approaching the critical point as a result of the prolonged drought affecting the region. The one local market, operated by the government, gets one shipment per week of produce, and every Saturday, market day, long lines form before dawn of consumers who hope to buy their allotment of two kilograms of each product available.

    Sometimes, fights break out. Last week, one woman punched out another who tried to buy plantains before her without having waited her turn in line. Often, more than half of those waiting come out empty-handed. Residents despair of a ready solution to the problem. They say government authorities have sounded the alarm, but give no clue to the possible solutions. 

    CUBAN WORKERS RESENT UNFULFILLED PROMISES

    Workers at the Ramiro Lavendero cigarette factory here say they are very unhappy the government has not kept to its commitments when it recently distributed just part of a suite of working clothes. For four years, workers say, the administration has been promising the clothes and finally last week distributed a pair of shoes to each worker.

    Many say they sold the shoes, as they were not the right size. "For four years we have been wearing our clothes out in this factory that historically shows good returns. Now they try to keep us happy with these ugly shoes," said one worker.

    AL-QAIDA ABILITY DIMINISHING, AGENTS SAY

    Senior Bush administration officials have warned in recent weeks that al-Qaida is regrouping for another massive attack, its agents bent on acquiring nuclear, chemical or biological weapons in a nightmare scenario that could dwarf the horror of Sept. 11. But in Pakistan and Afghanistan - where Osama bin Laden and his chief deputy are believed to be hiding - intelligence agents, politicians and a top U.S. general paint a different picture.

    They say a relentless military crackdown, the arrests last summer of several men allegedly involved in plans to launch attacks on U.S. financial institutions, and the killing in September of a top Pakistani al-Qaida suspect wanted in a number of attacks - including the 2002 killing of Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl and two failed assassination attempts against President Gen. Pervez Musharraf - have effectively decapitated al-Qaida. Because of the secretive and underground nature of cells that operate throughout the world, it cannot be known for certain what effect the damage done to al-Qaida in its home territory has had on operations elsewhere.

    Pakistani intelligence agents told The Associated Press that it has been months since they picked up any "chatter" from suspected al-Qaida men, and longer still since they received any specific intelligence on the whereabouts of bin Laden or any plans to launch a specific attack They say the trail of the world's most wanted man - long-since gone cold - has turned icier than the frigid winter snows that blanket the mountains between Pakistan and Afghanistan, where the terror mastermind is considered most likely to be hiding. Pakistani officials have been quick to hail the long silence as a signal that it has already.

    CUBANS WILL UNITE TO RESIST U.S.-STYLE CHANGE, RAUL CASTRO VOWS

    Demonstrating communist Cuba's defiance of societal divisions as it takes back state control, Defense Minister Raul Castro said in remarks published Saturday that Cubans form a ''monolithic block'' that will resist attempts to push the island toward political and economic change. Castro, who is the designated successor to his brother, President Fidel Castro, spoke Friday at a ceremony in eastern Cuba to pay homage to combatants of Frank Pais Eastern Front II who died in the Cuban revolution.

    In these times of growing threats and aggressive charlatanry about `transitions' and the 'restoration of capitalism,' it is opportune to remind those staying up all night [plotting] that the people, the army, and the party form an invincible monolithic block,'' Castro said in remarks published in Granma, the Communist Party's daily newspaper. That unity is what has protected the island from decades of aggressions by the United States, ''the mightiest imperialist power,'' he said.

    The defense minister defended Cuba's current system and said there was no reason for change. ''Our socialism is infinitely more democratic, just, equitable, humane and supportive than the fierce imperialism planted in the brutal and scrambled North, more dangerous now than ever,'' Castro said. Castro's remarks come as Cuba is reasserting state control over the nation's economy with moves including last fall's elimination of the U.S. dollar from circulation and tighter limits on private sector workers.

    HUGO CHAVEZ BACKS IRAN IN NUCLEAR ROW WITH US

    Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, whose country is a major U.S. oil provider, said Friday he backed Iran in its dispute with the United States and Europe over its nuclear program. "Iran has every right in the world, as do other countries, to develop its own atomic energy," Chavez said after the two countries signed more than 20 cooperation accords, including one for oil and gas ventures.

    Iran, branded part of an "axis of evil" by President Bush, is resisting intense pressure from Washington and the European Union to scrap parts of its nuclear program, such as uranium enrichment, which can be used to make nuclear weapons. The United States accuses Iran of secretly working to produce nuclear arms. Tehran says its atomic program is purely for civilian energy purposes.

    "You can count on our support, affection and solidarity against the threats of the U.S. government against the brother nation of Iran," Chavez told Khatami after presenting him with the Order of the Liberator, Venezuela's highest decoration. Khatami said Iran and Venezuela "wanted peace and security in the world" and would "stand firm against any aggression." Iran received Chavez's enthusiastic support for its nuclear plans as Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said in Washington the United States would offer Iran economic incentives to abandon its suspected pursuit of nuclear weapons.

    CALI DRUG CARTEL BOSS EXTRADITED TO U.S.

    The co-founder of the Cali drug cartel, which at its peak ruled the world's cocaine industry, was sent in handcuffs on a plane Friday to the United States to face trial for drug trafficking and related charges. Miguel Rodriguez Orejuela, known as "The Master" for his genius in concealing cocaine shipments, was indicted in Miami in 2003 along with his brother, Gilberto, on charges of drug smuggling, money laundering and obstruction of justice.

    The brothers face maximum life sentences if convicted. Gilberto was extradited three months ago. Miguel Rodriguez Orejuela, surrounded by armed guards, walked slowly across the tarmac of the Palanquero Air Base before boarding the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration plane to Florida. Wearing a bulletproof vest and with his hands cuffed behind his back, he earlier flew aboard a Black Hawk helicopter from the Palo Gordo prison in central Colombia to the base southwest of Bogota, the capital.

    Interior Minister Sabas Pretelt said he hoped Miguel Rodriguez Orejuela's extradition would deter other Colombians from trafficking in drugs. "Let this be a warning (for traffickers) not to continue in the business because they will pay for it in a U.S. prison," Pretelt told Caracol television. Miguel Rodriguez Orejuela left Colombia hours after hardline President Alvaro Uribe signed a final extradition order. Uribe has approved the extradition of more than 200 Colombians, notably former Medellin cartel kingpin Fabio Ochoa and two senior Marxist guerrillas, in the past two years, and he is Washington's closest ally in Latin America.

    CHURCHES AND CONVENTS APPARENTLY TARGETED IN THEFTS

    A recent series of thefts in Pinar del Río province seems to target churches and convents. The situation came to the attention of the province's bishop, Msgr. Siro, who issued a letter to be read in all parishes and other religious facilities, alerting nuns, priests and parishioners alike to the danger.

    Msgr. Siro wrote that about three years ago someone started preying on religious facilities, breaking in and leaving without a trace. "Forced by circumstances," the letter says, "the Bishops' Conference complained to authorities... Later the bishop of Manzanillo wrote to the Interior Minister and there followed a period of relative calm. Now, this unpleasant character is at it again."

    In his letter, Msgr. Siro says the thief tried to hit the Cathedral recently, and also managed to make his way into a convent, but was surprised by the Superior. "A few days later, he made his way in again, and while the Sisters were attending Mass, he went through the dormitories and stole what little money they had..." Msgr. Siro finished the letter questioning why "... this man doesn't break into private homes or government offices, but only in church facilities?"

    THE CUBAN AMERICAN NATIONAL  FOUNDATION ENCOURAGES ITS DIRECTORS TO TRAVEL TO CUBA

     For the first time, the Cuban American National Foundation is encouraging its directors to travel to Cuba -- to participate in a meeting of dissidents, diplomats and journalists in Havana in May. CANF is urging other Cuban exile organizations to do the same in a show of solidarity with Cuba's budding dissident movement. But its request was immediately rejected by CANF's archrival, the more conservative Cuban Liberty Council. CANF's declaration came in response to an invitation from dissidents planning the Assembly to Promote Civil Society on May 20.

    ''There will be a presence of directors and members of the foundation there,'' CANF Chairman Jorge Mas Santos said Thursday. ``We think it's an opportune time.'' The dissidents' invitation, dated Feb. 25, is from Felix Antonio Bonne Carcasses, Rene de Jesús Gomez Manzano and Martha Beatriz Roque Cabello, three well-known pro-democracy activists on the island. ''This event will mark the turning point for the work that all the member entities in our coalition -- more than 350 -- are doing to help organize the development of a civil society in our country,'' the dissidents wrote.

    A State Department official who spoke on condition of anonymity said the U.S. government encouraged people to legally travel to Cuba to support the conference despite Bush administration initiatives to curtail travel to the island. The Cuban Liberty Council said that it rejects the idea of traveling to Cuba for any reason while Castro remains in power. CLC Executive Director Luis Zuñiga said that the council is giving ''economic support'' for the assembly but declined to provide details.

    VENEZUELAÍS CHAVEZ SAYS IRAN HAS ïRIGHTÍ TO NUCLEAR PROGRAM

    Hugo Chavez said Iran has a right to its nuclear energy program Friday as he met Iranian President Mohammad Khatami for talks aimed at deepening ties between nations that face increasingly tense relations with the United States. Top government ministers signed a series of 20 agreements to cooperate in projects from oil exploration to a tractor assembly plant. Khatami said both governments "are firm against any aggression that could come up."

    Both presidents are viewed as potential problems by the United States, which has repeatedly voiced concerns about Iran's nuclear program and has criticized what Chavez's opponents call a drift toward dictatorship. "Iran has the right to develop its atomic energy like any other country in the world and continue its investigations in this field," Chavez said. "Venezuela and Iran agree in firmly rejecting the imperialist policy of the United States."

     "Iran and Venezuela, these two brothers, are and will be together forever," Chavez said after the talks at Miraflores Presidential Palace. Chavez said leading "revolutions" is the only manner of opposing U.S. hegemony in world affairs. Without referring to the United States, Khatami said both nations "have decided to be free." "Iran, confronted by the United States, has our solidarity," said Chavez, a fierce critic of U.S. foreign policy and close ally of Cuba's Fidel Castro. "Like you, we are willing to be free from imperialism."

    VENEZUELA BUYS RUSSIAN HELICOPTERS FOR $120 MILLION

     Venezuela Thursday signed a $120-million contract for 10 Russian helicopters as part of efforts to reinforce its military, especially along the frontier with Colombia. The helicopter contract, agreed at a bilateral meeting in Moscow last year, is one of several recent weapons deals negotiated by oil-exporter Venezuela that have stirred U.S. concerns over regional security. Defense Minister Gen. Jorge Garcia Carneiro signed the contract for the attack and transport helicopters with representatives from Russian state exporter Rosoboronexport as part of a broader deal for 44 aircraft over five years.

     "This will allow us to deploy with much greater mobility," Carneiro said. Left-wing President Hugo Chavez, a staunch critic of U.S. foreign policy, has sought to move Venezuela away from its military reliance on the United States by pursuing arms deals with Russia, Spain and Brazil. The signing of the helicopter deal clears the way for Venezuela's purchase of 100,000 Russian-made Kalashnikov automatic rifles to replace its aging FAL weapons.

    "We can say that in the course of this year, the first lot of these weapons could be arriving." Officials said the Russian helicopters should be delivered at the end of this year or the start of the next. The aircraft will patrol the border areas where kidnappings, murder and violent spillover from Colombia's conflict are common. Rosoboronexport officials said the delivery includes six MI-17V5 armored helicopters and three MI-35M attack helicopters, also known as "flying tanks." The contract also includes one MI-26T transport helicopter, one of the world's largest.  

    BRITAIN DIPLOMAT TELLS CUBA MORE NEEDED ON RIGHTS FRONT

    The highest ranking European official to visit Cuba since a diplomatic dispute over human rights erupted in 2003 said on Tuesday he urged the government to free all political prisoners and stop harassing dissidents. British Foreign Office Minister Bill Rammell, responsible for Latin America and human rights, said he had frank talks with members of President Fidel Castro's communist government on the need to improve its rights record as part of a new policy of engagement with Cuba. "I have raised my concerns directly about the need to release all political prisoners within Cuba, especially the 75 that were imprisoned following the crackdown on the peaceful opposition in March 2003," Rammell said at a news conference shortly before his departure.

    Cuba last year released 14 of the jailed dissidents, leading to the temporary lifting of European Union diplomatic sanctions and a thaw in relations. But Rammell said: "We want to see all of them released." "I have urged Cuban ministers to accept international access to their prisons, to end the harassment of individuals by the state and take steps toward the abolition of the death penalty," he added. Rammell met on Monday with Cuban Foreign Minister Felipe Perez Roque for two hours without reaching an agreement.

    In the final hours of his two-day visit, the British official met with five leading Cuban dissidents who thanked the EU for pressing for the release of all jailed opponents, though some said they wished the 25-nation bloc had kept sanctions in place. Brussels will review the suspension of sanctions in June. "We would regard any further crackdown on members of the peaceful opposition as a very retrograde step, but we also want to see further improvements in the human rights situation," Rammell said.

    LOUISIANA GOVERNOR WRAPS UP TRIP AFTER LUNCH WITH THE DICTATOR

    Louisiana Gov. Kathleen Blanco wrapped up a trip to bolster her state's trade with Cuba on Thursday after a two-hour, nonpolitical luncheon with President Fidel Castro. "We talked about a vast array of issues that are of common concern to both of us," Blanco told reporters at the airport before heading home. "He focused on good nutrition, on agriculture on oil and gas. These are very timely issues."

    Castro also talked about health care, but "there were no political issues discussed," Blanco said. She said the Cuban leader "still is apparently in a little discomfort" after shattering his kneecap in an accidental fall in October. Castro has been seen standing and even walking in recent months. "He confessed that he isn't doing his therapy as often as he should," Blanco added.

    The governor defended her decision to accept Castro's luncheon invitation despite calls by some Cuban exiles for he not to meet with the Cuban leader - or even visit the island at all. Blanco said that if a business delegation visited Louisiana and left after refusing to have lunch with her, "it might be a bit awkward." "I think we all understand that and Louisiana citizens all understand that," she said. Blanco expressed satisfaction with her visit, calling it "very dimensional" and "revealing." "You see that there's a struggle," she said of Cuba. "But when you sit down and talk to people, you can bridge a lot of gaps and create new alliances."

    KOFI ANNAN PROPOSES TREATY OUTLAWING TERRORISM

    Secretary-General Kofi Annan proposed the creation of a comprehensive treaty outlawing terrorism Thursday, denouncing attacks that target civilians and arguing that no political grievance justifies killing the innocent. Speaking at an international conference on terrorism, Annan said prevention is the best counterterrorism strategy, though he stressed that human rights and the rule of law must always be respected. "We cannot compromise on the core values," he said in an address to experts and world leaders from 50 countries.

    Annan's speech touched on themes discussed by experts during the conference, urging the world community to join together to fight violence. He appealed for vigilance, particularly in light of the possibility that terrorists could obtain weapons of mass destruction. "Perhaps the thing that is most vital we deny to terrorists is access to nuclear materials," he said. The United Nations or its agencies already have 12 treaties covering terrorism, but another is needed, Annan said, to define terrorism, stigmatize it and prepare a framework for governments to work together to curtail it. Their recommendations, including a proposed U.N. definition of terrorism, will be refined into guidelines called the "Madrid Agenda" that conference participants plan to take back to their governments.

    NORIEGA: CHAVEZÍS VENEZUELA BAD EXAMPLE FOR LATAM

    The United States Wednesday warned that Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez's policies could leave his country "poorer, less free and hopeless," and set a bad example for Latin American countries. Assistant U.S. Secretary of State Roger Noriega told a congressional committee that Chavez's "efforts to concentrate power at home, his suspect relationship with destabilizing forces in the region, and his plans for arms purchases are causes of major concern."

    If the United States and Latin American countries "ignore President Chavez's questionable affinity for democratic principle we could soon wind up with a poorer, less free, and hopeless Venezuela that seeks to export its failed model to other countries in the region," Noriega said. The United States, a major buyer of Venezuelan oil, wants "to strengthen our ties to the Venezuelan people," Noriega said. "We will support democratic elements in Venezuela so they can fill the political space to which they are entitled."

    Other than Venezuela, Cuba under Fidel Castro's Communist government, and the hemisphere's poorest country Haiti, Noriega gave a fairly upbeat assessment of democracy in Latin America. "Many of the old demons are gone," he said. "Inflation is largely tamed, countries are increasingly open to foreign trade and investment. Economic setbacks still occur, but no longer do they lead inevitably to crises affecting the entire hemisphere."

    WOMENÍS DAY GIFT FROM CASTRO: CHINESE RICE COOKERS

    El dictador cubano Fidel Castro gave Cuban women some good news on International Women's Day: rice cookers are coming to every household. In a five-hour 45-minute speech to cheering women on Tuesday night, the dictator announced 100,000 pressure cookers and rice cookers would be available each month at subsidized prices.

    "Those of you who like rice cookers, raise your hands," Castro said to applause from hundreds of women. The 78-year-old leader spent two hours talking about the merits of pressure cookers. Castro's gesture may have carried some irony, coming on a day commemorating women's battles for equality. But many Cuban women, who do the vast majority of domestic work despite advances toward equality under Castro, were only too happy to hear the Chinese-made rice cookers were on their way.

    The cookers were among appliances banned to save energy a decade ago when Cuba was plunged into economic crisis and power outages due to the loss of Soviet aid and oil. The cookers could be distributed now, Castro said, because Cuba was emerging from the crisis and had resolved its latest energy crunch, caused by a failure of the island's largest power plant last summer. With average salaries of $12 a month, most Cubans cannot afford rice cookers that now sell for $60 on the black market.

    CASTRO SEES SMALLEST CUBAN SUGAR CROP SINCE 1909

    Cuban dictator Fidel Castro said on Tuesday this year's sugar crop would weigh in at no more than 1.7 million tonnes of raw sugar, and perhaps less, the lowest level since 1909. "It is possible this year's harvest will not reach 1.7 million tonnes, no, perhaps 1.5 million tonnes," Castro said in a televised speech Tuesday night marking international women's day.

    Castro blamed "the worst drought in our history" for the disastrous harvest. Cuba produced 2.52 million tonnes of raw sugar last year. Dry weather this year has eaten away at Cuba's already drought-ravaged sugar crop, leaving local traders forecasting output at less than 1.5 million tonnes. Mills have operated at 71 percent of capacity with industrial yields of 11-12 tonnes of raw sugar per 100 tonnes of cane, and the amount of standing cane for harvesting has been well below expectations, the sugar ministry said. Cuba sells all but 700,000 tonnes of its crop abroad, mainly to Russia and China. This year, Cuba as been importing low-grade white sugar from Colombia.

    OUTSTANDING SELECTION ¿ PRESIDENT BUSH NOMINATES JOHN BOLTON AS THE NEW U.S. AMBASSADOR TO THE UNITED NATIONS

    President Bush on Monday nominated Undersecretary of State John Bolton, a prominent conservative in the State Department and a longtime critic of the United Nations, to become the U.S. ambassador to the international organization.

    The selection of Bolton, 57, a tough-talking, experienced diplomat, surprised many in Washington and the diplomatic community. He is a hard-liner who has advocated a no-concessions approach toward Iran and North Korea on their nuclear ambitions. He has also helped to lead administration efforts to have Mohamed ElBaradei removed as head of the U.N.'s International Atomic Energy Agency for allegedly being soft on Iran and its nuclear program.

    Bolton created a stir over Cuba in 2002 when he alleged that the communist island had ''at least a limited, developmental, biological weapons research and development effort'' -- the exact wording that had appeared in classified U.S. intelligence reports since 1999. Cuba stridently denied the allegation, and last year The New York Times reported that while an updated U.S. assessment does not discard the possibility that Cuba has a biological weapons program, it simply states that the intelligence community is now uncertain of the reliability of its sources.

    BRITISH MINISTER PRESSES CUBA ON POLITICAL PRISONERS

    A British official, the most senior to travel to communist Cuba since a lengthy freeze over EU support for dissidents, used a visit here Monday to call on President Fidel Castro to free political prisoners serving lengthy prison terms. "I will be talking directly to the Cuban government about the importance of the release of political prisoners and the need for international organizations such as the IRC (Red Cross) to have access to prisons," Bill Rammell told Reuters at Cuba's Foreign Ministry Monday morning.

    Rammell was expected to meet with Cuban Foreign Minister Felipe Perez Roque Monday afternoon. Rammell, the British minister responsible for Latin America, is the highest ranking official from a European Union state to visit Cuba since its communist government in January lifted a 19-month diplomatic freeze over European support for Cuban dissidents. Rammell planned to meet leading dissidents on the last day of his visit Tuesday.

    It was not known how the Cuban government would react to his meeting with its critics. While the EU has stopped inviting dissidents to national day receptions, it said in January that it would maintain a "constructive dialogue" with opponents of the government. Rammell's visit represents a change in EU tactics. EU officials hope to improve Cuba's human rights record by directly engaging the Cuban government in talks. The policy shift was opposed by ex-communist states Poland and the Czech Republic and condemned by former Czech President Vaclav Havel.

    IRAN PRESIDENT WILL VISIT VENEZUELA

    The presidents of Iran and Venezuela, two major oil producers pushing to maintain high prices and at odds with U.S. global policies, meet this week for talks that could stoke tensions with Washington. Iranian President Mohammad Khatami, whose country President Bush calls part of an "axis of evil" and accuses of seeking to develop nuclear weapons, will make a three-day visit to Venezuela to begin Thursday.

    Khatami will hold talks with President Hugo Chavez, whom Washington has criticized as a regional troublemaker and who has called for a counterweight to U.S. international influence. The United States is a major buyer of Venezuelan oil, but Chavez has been seeking alternative energy partners. OPEC members Iran and Venezuela will sign deals in oil, gas, petrochemicals and shipping during Khatami's visit, officials said.

    The deals do not represent a major policy shift. However, the visit is likely to play poorly with Washington, said Humberto Calderon Berti, a former Venezuelan foreign minister and former oil minister. "I think Chavez is playing an extremely dangerous geopolitical game, because he's permanently provoking and challenging the U.S. and drawing closer to countries that have strained relations with Washington," Calderon said. "All that's left is for him to visit North Korea," he added.

    BOLIVIAN PRESIDENT OFFERS RESIGNATION, WARNS PROTEST CALLS COULD PARALIZE COUNTRY

    President Carlos Mesa said he would submit his resignation to Congress after 17 months in office, warning that growing protests against Bolivia's oil and gas laws could soon block the country's highways and isolate its main cities. If lawmakers accept his resignation, Mesa would be the second leader driven from office by popular protests in less than two years in South America's poorest country. In October 2003, Mesa succeeded President Gonzalo Sanchez de Lozada, who resigned in the wake of bloody street protests that took the lives of at least 56 people.

    "Tomorrow, I will submit my resignation to the president of Congress, so Congress can make a decision," Mesa said in a nationally broadcast address Sunday. As the president made his emotional address, scores of people gathered in front of the presidential palace to express support for the historian-turned-politician. A woman demonstrator, tears in her eyes, told a local television station that she supports Mesa "because he's our president. We do not want to fall in the hands of coca growers, thieves, communists." If he steps down, Senate President Sen. Hormando Vaca Diez would be his constitutional successor.

    Mesa's announcement came after Evo Morales, an Indian congressman and leader of the nation's coca leaf growers, announced a nationwide road blockade unless lawmakers pass a law raising the taxes foreign oil companies would pay - a law that Mesa says the international community wouldn't accept. Mesa said he's not prepared to send troops or police to clear the roads, because that would lead to violence. Mesa blamed Morales and social leader Abel Mamani of the neighboring city of El Alto for what he called an atmosphere of instability in the Andean nation.

    SHERRITT PLANS $450 MILLION CUBAN NICKEL, COBALT PROJECT

    Sherritt International Corp., a Canadian producer of nickel and cobalt, signed an agreement with the Cuban government to expand production at a mining joint venture by half.  Sherritt reached an agreement yesterday to produce an additional 16,000 tons of nickel and cobalt, the Toronto-based company said today in a statement. Combined annual output of both metals will rise to 49,000 tons when the $450 million expansion is completed in 2007.

    The increase is planned for Sherritt and state-owned Cubaniquel's jointly owned Moa operation, 500 kilometers (300 miles) east of Havana, Reuters reported earlier, citing a government announcement. Cuba last year produced 76,000 tons of nickel, a metal used to make stainless steel, the news agency said.  Sherritt and Cuba will also assess expanding output by a further 32,000 tons, the Canadian company said. Deanna Horton, a spokeswoman for Sherritt, declined to comment.

    Sherritt said net income in 2004 almost doubled to a record C$160 million ($123 million) from C$83.2 million in 2003 because of higher metal and coal prices. Sales increased 20 percent to C$1.09 billion. Shares in Sherritt rose 3 cents to C$10.68 at 1:01 p.m. in Toronto Stock Exchange trading. They have risen 43 percent in the last year, giving Sherritt a market value of C$1.4 billion.

    PRESIDENT URIBE SAID ñTHOSE TERRORISTS WILL HAVE TO LOOK FOR ANOTHER PLANET"

    Colombian President Alvaro Uribe on Sunday visited a remote jungle community where he boasted that a government offensive had driven away a group of leftist rebels threatening to attack the town. A bombing campaign drove the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC, from the area of Puerto Inirida in the eastern Colombian province of Guainia, making it safe for Uribe's visit, the government said.

    "Those terrorists will have to look for another planet, because we kicked them out of here," Uribe, a staunch Washington ally, told the town's 13,000 inhabitants. The 52-year-old lawyer has increased defense spending in an effort to take control of Colombia's countryside from the Marxist rebels and their far-right paramilitary foes, both of which are linked to the Andean country's huge cocaine trade.

    Businesses and schools in Puerto Inirida, near the Venezuelan border, were closed last week during a six-day siege by about 400 FARC members, who launched raids against government troops guarding the town's perimeter, killing two soldiers. The area of Guainia is key to the FARC's coca-growing and cocaine processing operations. Despite almost no popular support, the 17,000-strong group, which started as a peasant militia but has grown thanks to funding from drugs and kidnapping, says it is fighting for socialist revolution.

    U.N. RIGHTS ENVOY URGES RELEASE OF CUBA DISSIDENTS

    A special U.N. rights envoy urged Cuba on Friday to free all political dissidents, grant freedom of expression and lift restrictions on travel. In her annual report to the United Nations Commission on Human Rights, French magistrate Christine Chanet said Cuba had continued to arrest dissidents, while journalists had been "threatened and intimidated."

    She also accused Cuba of giving "disproportionate" sentences to those jailed for the expression of views, and repeated her alarm at the jail conditions some prisoners faced. Chanet, who was appointed by the U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights in early 2003 to probe allegations of abuse in Cuba, has been repeatedly refused permission to visit the Communist Caribbean state.

    Among 10 recommendations in the report was a call to the Marxist government of President Fidel Castro to "release detained persons who have not committed acts of violence against individuals and property." Chanet also urged Cuba to halt the "prosecution of citizens who are exercising" such freedoms as expression, religion and assembly guaranteed under articles of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. "In 2004, more people were arrested and given disproportionate sentences for expressing dissident political opinions," she said.

    ROWHANI: "AIR STRIKES WON'T BE ABLE TO DO ANYTHING AGAINST TUNNEL UNDER CONSTRUCTION"

    Iran said Saturday it will never agree to permanently stop making nuclear fuel and warned that any attempt to haul it before the Security Council for possible sanctions would lead to more instability in the Middle East. Any effort by Washington to bring Tehran's suspended uranium enrichment program under Security Council scrutiny is a dangerous path, warned Hasan Rowhani, Iran's top nuclear negotiator.

     Rowhani, speaking during a two-day international conference on nuclear technology, also confirmed that Iran was building a tunnel next to a nuclear facility in Isfahan without first informing the International Atomic Energy Agency, the U.N. nuclear watchdog agency. A diplomat familiar with Iran's dossier said this week that parts of the concrete tunnel could run as deep as a half-mile underground and could withstand the severest of air attacks.

    "Constructing a tunnel is not a nuclear activity," Rowhani said. "It's not clear for us if we had to inform the IAEA of the tunnel construction at all." Rowhani said the tunnel, which is under a mountain, will be used to store unspecified equipment. Asked if the tunnel was meant to protect nuclear equipment against air strikes, he added: "Air strikes won't be able to do anything against it." Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice on Thursday had asked the IAEA to investigate reports about the tunnel. 

    U.S. AMBASSADOR TO VENEZUELA DENIES CHAVEZ'S ALLEGATION THAT PRESIDENT BUSH TRIES TO KILL HIM 

    The U.S. ambassador, William Brownsfield, refuted allegations by President Hugo Chavez that the U.S. government was plotting to assassinate the Venezuelan leader, a newspaper reported Saturday. Brownsfield was quoted by El Nacional as saying "there are no plans, opinions or thinking about the assassination of the president here, nor any other leader" in the world.

    Brownsfield said geographical proximity made the United States and Venezuela "natural" trade partners but added: "If the United States doesn't buy oil from Venezuela, we'll buy oil from another country, and if Venezuela doesn't sell oil to the U.S., it'll sell oil to another country." U.S. ambassador Brownfield said: "In the almost 200 years of mutual existence of our two countries ... the United States has never invaded, is not invading at this moment and will never invade Venezuela. Full stop."

    CHAVEZ INSISTS PRESIDENT BUSH TRIES TO KILL HIM

    Hugo Chavez said on Saturday he had evidence that the United States was planning to assassinate him, an accusation that a U.S. official quickly denied. "We have enough evidence. ... If anything happens to me, the person responsible will be the president of the United States," Chavez told reporters in New Delhi. He did not offer any evidence.

    Chavez, a self-described "revolutionary," most recently suggested Washington was plotting to kill him Friday during a visit to India. "If anything happens to me, the person responsible will be President George W. Bush," he said. Chavez also said his nation, the world's fifth-largest oil exporter, would cut off oil supplies to the United States if Washington tries to "hurt" Venezuela.

    Chavez, who took office in 1999, has also repeatedly accused the Bush administration of trying to destabilize his government, arguing that Washington had key roles in a short-lived coup in 2002 and a general strike in 2003. The U.S. government has denied the allegations. Officials in Washington have expressed concern over Chavez's close ties to Cuban leader Fidel Castro and warned that Chavez threatens stability in Latin America.

    LOUISIANA GOVERNOR WILL LEAD A DELEGATION TO CUBA

    Gov. Kathleen Babineaux Blanco is leading a state delegation to Cuba for four days beginning Tuesday. She said she wants to win business for Louisiana ports and companies seeking to expand trade with Cuba, which has been controlled by Castro's communist regime since 1959. At the Louisiana School Boards Association meeting in Alexandria, Blanco said other states already had been in trade contact with Cuba. She said she understood the concerns of Cuban Americans, but she wanted to make the trip to help Louisiana's economy.

    The governor's economic development secretary, Michael Olivier, made a similar trip in December that stirred up complaints that Louisianans should not be making formal visits to a country designated by the U.S. State Department as supporting terrorists. The relaxation of a trade embargo three years ago allows the sale of U.S. food, agricultural, medical and some wood products to Cuba.

    George Fowler, the New Orleans head of the Cuban American National Foundation, said there is very little real trade to be had with the impoverished island nation and Blanco stands only to give Fidel Castro a propaganda coup that can be used against U.S. interests - and the Bush administration, which has adopter a harder line against Cuba. "Castro is a dying monster and if the governor goes over there, she will tie Louisiana to this dying monster forever," Fowler said.

    SYRIA SIDESTEPS TROOP PULLOUT DEMAND

    President Bashar Assad on Saturday ignored the Bush administration's demand that he completely withdraw Syria's 15,000 troops from Lebanon by May, announcing a two-step pullback to the Lebanese border and negotiations with Beirut on a full pullout. Assad said his plan would put Syria in full compliance with international requirements. "Our way is a gradual and organized withdrawal," he told the Syrian parliament, adding that Syria has "an interest" in withdrawing from Lebanon. "By carrying out this measure, Syria will have fulfilled requirements of the Taif agreement and implemented U.N. Resolution 1559."

    President Bush said Friday that anything less than a full withdrawal by May - when parliamentary elections are to be held - would be an unacceptable "half-measure." Bush issued no military threat, but Arab nations worry Washington or the United Nations may take tough measures to push Syria into leaving Lebanon.

    THREE PROMINENT DISSIDENTS TELL U.S. LAWMAKERS THEY BACK PRESIDENT BUSHÍS HARD-LINE POLICIES

    Three Cuban dissidents addressed a congressional committee by telephone from Havana on Thursday, praising President Bush's policies and denouncing Fidel Castro. It was testimony that could land dissidents back in a prison where they all had once served time, lawmakers said. One asked if the dissidents feared that would happen. "I am simply a soldier for freedom and democracy," said Felix Bonne, speaking over a crackling phone line from the U.S. diplomatic mission in Havana. "I don't want to go back to prison. None of us do. But I wouldn't hesitate in returning if it were necessary to defend the rights of the Cuban people."

    The hearing by two House International Relations subcommittees was the latest in a series of acts of mutual defiance and outright hostility between the Bush and Castro governments. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice described Cuba as being among the world's "outposts of tyranny." Castro has called Bush "deranged." At the hearing Thursday, the State Department's top official for Latin America, Assistant Secretary of State Roger Noriega, said Castro would be remembered as "a wretched old man who told too many lies."

    The dissidents at the hearing endorsed Bush's approach. They were Martha Beatriz Roque, an economist, Rene Gomez, an attorney, and Bonne, an electrical engineering professor. Roque, Gomez and Bonne were among four well-known Castro opponents arrested in 1997 and convicted of incitement to sedition in 1999 after a closed trial that sparked international protests. They were released in May 2000. Roque was later among 75 opponents arrested in a crackdown on the opposition in March 2003. She was released for health reasons in July 2004. Roque said visits by American tourists wouldn't help ordinary Cubans and would lead to more prostitution and drug trafficking.

    CUBA ROMAN CATHOLIC CHURCH CLAIMS CARDINAL ORTEGA WAS RUDELY TREATED IN MIAMI AIRPORT--  HOWEVER, THE CHURCH'S NOTE DOES NOT DARE TO MENTION CASTRO'S DAILY MISTREATMENT OF THE CUBAN PEOPLE 

    The Roman Catholic Church in Cuba said Thursday that U.S. immigration authorities rudely treated its top prelate, Cardinal Jaime Ortega, during a visit to Miami. A U.S. official said only routine procedures were followed. "During the exchanges with immigration officials, the treatment received by Cardinal Jaime Ortega was brusque and discourteous," read a communiqué issued by Cuba's Catholic Bishops Conference.

    "Nevertheless, it must be clarified that there was no type of reference made to the cardinal's beliefs about the political situation in Cuba or in the United States," said the statement about the prelate's Feb. 25 arrival. It added that U.S. immigration officials never mentioned a "deportation order," as was suggested by some media at the time.

    "We can confirm that he did arrive and was processed just as any other foreign arrival would be processed when visiting the United States," Zack Mann, spokesman for the Bureau of Immigration and Customs Enforcement, told the Herald. "All procedures were absolutely followed." The cardinal, who traveled to South Florida to visit family for the weekend, had refused to be interrogated by the officials, the bishops conference said. When told it was a requirement for U.S. entry, the cardinal suggested he could head right back to Cuba.

    SALVADORAN AUTHORITIES ARREST A CUBAN SWIMMING COACH FOR TRYING TO SNEAK HIS WIFE INTO THE COUNTRY

A Cuban swimming coach who fled his homeland will be tried on people smuggling charges in El Salvador for trying to sneak his Cuban wife into the country, migration officials said Thursday. Jose Guillermo Herrera, 36, was hired as a swimming coach by El Salvador's National Institute of Sports in 1999, but announced three years later he was staying here for good and instead of returning to his homeland.

Investigators say that Herrera's wife Yusmara Alvarez, 32, flew from Cuba to the northern city of San Pedro Sula in neighboring Honduras last week and joined a group of Salvadoran swimmers in town for a one-day event. Herrera is accused of dressing his wife in athletes' clothing and placing her on a Salvadoran sports federation bus with other swimmers as a means of sneaking her into this country.

Border officials noticed Alvarez in a group of female swimmers, many of whom were under 18, and also noticed that the number of the people on the bus exceeded how many migration forms its passengers had filled out when crossing into Honduras by one. Both Herrera and Alvarez were arrested by members of the Salvadoran national police force in El Poy, a town near the Honduran border. Herrera faces up to eight months in prison and also could eventually be deported back to Cuba.

    ROGER NORIEGA ANNOUNCES CAMPAIGN TO ALERT FELLOW COUNTRIES AGAINST CHAVEZÍ MOVES IN THE REGION

    US Assistant Secretary of State for Western Hemisphere Affairs Roger Noriega Wednesday stated that the United States intends to make Venezuela's fellow countries more aware of the "destabilization acts" Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez insists on. The countries of the region are expected to "join us in the defense of the region's stability, safety, and prosperity," Noriega added.

    "I am not saying that Venezuela is to be isolated, but Chávez must be asked more frequently about his intentions and his stance vis-ö-vis guerrilla groups." NoriegaÇs statements came during a hearing of the Inter American Affairs Undercommittee of the Senate Foreign Affairs Commission. The White House is concerned about the risk that "Chávez' personal agenda undermines the democratic institutions in Venezuela and its fellow countries as well," Noriega said.

    "In spite of all our efforts to establish a normal working relation with the (Venezuelan) government, Chávez insists on opposing the US," the US Assistant Secretary of State said. Venezuelan President's efforts to "consolidate power, his dubious relations with destabilizing forces across the region, and his weapons purchase plans (with Russia) are the greatest causes of concern for the US administration." Noriega ensured that the United States shall continue supporting "democratic elements" in Venezuela so that they "carry on occupying the political space they deserve."

    PRESIDENT BUSH DEMANDS SYRIA WITHDRAW FROM LEBANON

    President Bush increased pressure on Syria Wednesday, demanding it withdraw its troops from Lebanon, while Iran and its nuclear weapons program drew fresh U.S. criticism. Overall, the American rhetoric toward Damascus and Tehran was combative, reminiscent in some ways of the tough talk that preceded the U.S. invasion of Iraq two years ago. There appears to be no give in the hard U.S. position that Syria must withdraw its troops and security forces from Lebanon and permit the neighboring Arab country it has long dominated to run its own political affairs.

    Speaking at a community college in Maryland, Bush demanded Syria give democracy a chance to flourish in Lebanon. With France solidly aligned with the United States - in contrast to France's dissent from the Iraq war - Bush said, "The free world is in agreement that Damascus' authority over the political affairs of its neighbor must end.'' In Damascus, however, the Syrian government went on the offensive in its controlled press, calling Rice haughty and arrogant for describing the ruling Baath party as "out of step with the growing desire for democracy in the Middle East.''

    In an editorial, the government-run Tishrin newspaper denounced the U.N. resolution that urged Syria to withdraw a "U.S.-Zionist plan'' that "will not succeed without setting off fires.'' In Washington, Turkish ambassador Osman Farul Logoglu urged the Bush administration to offer trade and other economic and diplomatic incentives to Syria to pull out. "The chances of Syria withdrawing are greater than ever before,'' he said. "But it is obviously going to take a long time.''  

    VENEZUELA DEVALUES CURRENCY BY 12 PERCENT

    Oil-rich Venezuela on Thursday devalued its bolivar currency by 12 percent to 2,150 bolivars to the dollar as foreseen in the country's budget, according to the government gazette. Venezuela, the world's No. 5 oil exporter, will generate more bolivars for government coffers from its oil exports in dollars with the devaluation from the rate of 1,920 bolivars to the greenback.

    Domestic financial markets have been speculating over the expected adjustment since December when the finance minister at the time, Tobias Nobrega, said devaluation would go ahead at the start of 2005, but later said he could not give a date. The government's 2005 budget plan called for the current fixed exchange rate of 1,920 bolivars to the dollar to be changed some time this year to 2,150 bolivars.

    Venezuela implemented strict currency controls and a fixed exchange rate in February 2003 to shore up the battered bolivar after months of political conflict over the rule of left-wing President Hugo Chavez. The South American country is now recovering from two years of slump as high world petroleum prices, improved consumption and public spending help drive its economic growth. The devaluation is the second since the currency curbs were introduced. The government last devalued the bolivar in February 2004 by 16.7 percent as populist Chavez faced a recall referendum on his presidency, which he won.

    HISTORY REPEATS ITSELF -- CUBA, RUSSIA WORK ON ACTIVATING ECONOMIC TIES AHEAD OF THIS MONTH'S MOSCOW MEETING

    As the Castro-Khrushchev saga began 45 years ago, a Russian delegation traveled to Cuba to activate economic and political ties between the two countries ahead of bilateral talks to be conducted in Moscow this month. This time, it was not the ghost of Anastas Mikoyan but Grigori Elkin, head of Russia's Federal Agency of Technical Standardization and Metrology, who led last week's delegation to Havana. He met with Cuban Foreign Minister Felipe Perez Roque and Minister of Government Ricardo Cabrisas.

     Cubans are traveling to Moscow in March for a meeting of the Joint Inter-Government Russia-Cuba Commission. Cuba is most interested in prompting exchange with Russia in the automotive, transportation, biotechnology, aviation and tourism industries. Officials from the island's sugar ministry said they also want to strengthen trade with Russia. Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov visited the island in September, meeting with Cuban President Fidel Castro to work on re-creating more modest versions of alliances that unraveled after the Soviet Union collapsed.

     Under an ideological and economic alliance lasting for three decades, Cuba once received about 20 percent of its gross national product from Soviet subsidies. Relations between the two countries chilled after the Soviet Union's collapse but warmed up in December 2000 with a visit by Russian President Vladimir Putin. The Caribbean island exports sugar to Russia as well as vaccines and other products from its advanced biotechnology industry.

     COMMANDER OF VENEZUELAÍS ARMY DENIES DISCONTENT WITHIN MILITARY RANKS

     The commander of Venezuela's army denied Thursday the existence of discontent within the ranks of the military, responding to rumors that soldiers resented recent transfers and changes in the line of command. Army Cmdr. Raul Baduel said there has recently been "much uncertainty" in central Venezuela, where several army bases are located, due to "rumors" regarding possible discontent in the barracks and troop movements.  Baduel said the population "can be sure the men and women who make up the army" and the other branches of the military are "dedicated to their duties in accordance with the constitution and the laws."

    Before leaving for Uruguay, Chavez transferred Army Gen. Virgilio Lameda, who was in charge of the presidential guard, to a base in the western state of Zulia. Chavez, a former paratroop commander, purged the military of hundreds of suspected opponents following the 2002 coup. Rumors of discontent within the armed forces have stirred on occasion since the putsch, but Chavez claims he commands complete loyalty from the military.

    VENEZUELAÍS NAVY TAKES CLOSE LOOK AT U.S. MILITARY PRESENCE IN NEARBY CURACAO

    Venezuela's navy is taking a close look at the American military presence on the nearby island of Curacao to determine the intention of U.S. operations there, Venezuela's navy commander said Monday. Navy Cmdr. Armando Laguna said the Venezuelan navy was "taking precautions" as it observes the presence of U.S. Marines, along with military planes and amphibious vehicles on the Caribbean island. He did not provide details regarding what measures the navy was taking.

    Laguna told the state-run television channel the navy "detected a series of (military) units" on the island, located roughly 75 kilometers (46 miles) northeast of Venezuela's Paraguana Peninsula. "We took precautions to determine what the intention is," said Laguna, adding that the U.S. navy often carries out exercises in southern Caribbean but failed to notify Venezuela's military on this occasion. There was no immediate comment from the U.S. Embassy in Caracas.

    U.S. STRONGLY CRITICIZES CUBA

    The State Department on Monday listed prisoner abuse in Cuba as an area of concern for human rights in Latin America. The concern was part of the department's 2004 Human Rights Report, detailing conditions around the world. The report reserved its sharpest language for Cuba. During her introductory remarks at a media briefing on the report, Paula Dobriansky, under secretary of State for gobal affairs, called Cuba's record ña blight on the stunning advancement of freedom worldwide.''

    The report details mistreatment of the 75 dissidents arrested in 2003 and sentenced to long prison terms. Eighteen of them were released last year, but the government also arrested 22 other human rights activists. The report said respect for human rights in Venezuela remained poor during 2004 as the government increased its control over the judicial branch, passed laws to curtail media freedom and intimidated nongovernmental organizations.

    Separately, the human-rights arm of the Organization of American States held its first hearings on Cuba in five years Monday, with the Miami-based Cuban American Bar Association stating its case against the Fidel Castro government for the 75 arrested dissidents before a panel of judges. The International Human Rights Commission can recommend that countries pay reparations to the victims or their families, or refer the cases to the Inter-American Court of Human Rights Tribunal in Costa Rica. Cuba, which was suspended from the OAS in 1962, does not recognize the commission's jurisdiction.

    URUGUAY AND CUBA RESTORE FULL DIPLOMATIC TIES

    Uruguay's new president restored full diplomatic ties with communist Cuba in one of his first acts Tuesday, more than two years after a diplomatic row divided the two Latin American countries. President Tabare Vazquez was joined by Cuban Foreign Minister Felipe Perez Roque as he made the announcement only hours after being sworn in as Uruguay's first leftist president.

    Jorge Battle, the outgoing president, broke diplomatic relations with communist Cuba in 2002 after a war of words with Cuban leader Fidel Castro following Uruguay's decision to condemn Cuba's human rights record in an annual U.N. vote in Geneva. The two countries had since maintained consular relations.

    URUGUAY TO INAUGURATE LEFTIST PRESIDENT 

    The inauguration of Uruguay's first leftist president marks a continuation of South America's political shift leftward. Several of South America's most prominent leftist leaders - including Brazil's Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, Hugo Chavez of Venezuela and Argentina's Nestor Kirchner- were expected to join thousands of Uruguayans on Tuesday celebrating the swearing in of Tabare Vazquez, a 65-year-doctor who won the presidency in the Oct. 31 election.

    The red-white-and-blue flags of Vazquez's Broad Front coalition of socialists, communists and former Tupamaro guerrillas fluttered above Montevideo's plazas and boulevards ahead of the inauguration as Uruguayans expressed optimism over the transition. Only hours after receiving the presidential sash, he is also expected to restore diplomatic relations with Cuba. Vazquez takes over from Jorge Batlle, a centrist who pursued closer ties with the United States at a time when leftists were taking power in Argentina, Brazil, and Venezuela and distancing themselves from Washington on a range of economic, trade and foreign policy issues.

    While Vazquez has vowed to pursue moderate policies, he has promised to strengthen the country's ties with neighbors Argentina and Brazil, whose leaders to varying degrees have expressed skepticism about U.S.-backed free-market policies to further open their economies. Vazquez said on Monday that Castro would not attend Tuesday's ceremonies because of "health reasons."

    LEFTIST MEXICAN PARTIES WILL REQUEST AN INVESTIGATION OF CANF

    The Cuban American National Foundation is under fire from Mexican politicians demanding that the influential exile organization be investigated for ñanti-Cuban activities in Mexico.'' The lower house of Mexico's legislature is expected to vote next week on what it calls a ''point of accord'' on the issue. The Mexican documents accuse CANF of being involved in an explosion that took place in 1997 at the Cubanacan Travel offices in Mexico City. They say the bomb was placed by a Salvadoran mercenary contracted by exile activist Luis Posada Carriles, who is called an ''accomplice of Jorge Mas Canosa,'' the foundation's late leader.

    CANF's new executive director, Alfredo Mesa, vehemently rejected the allegations, saying the foundation is considering legal action if the Mexican government moves forward. ''This is the first time an elected body anywhere is going to condemn or investigate the foundation, which they say is conducting terrorist activities within its borders. We are looking at libel, or suing the Mexican government,'' he said. Most of the resolution is based on past allegations, including references to four Cuban exiles pardoned by Panama last year after being convicted in connection with a supposed plot to kill Fidel Castro.

    Mesa said the document that accompanied the vote quoted from an article that ran in February in a magazine funded by Castro's government. Mesa provided the Herald with a copy of the article, which ran in Milenio Semanal. Mesa said the Mexican vote was orchestrated by Castro's government. ''In Havana and Miami, they try to discredit us, and in other countries they call us terrorists,'' Mesa said. ``This is a direct attack from the Mexican government on the foundation orchestrated by the Cuban government.''

    ANTI-CASTRO GRAFFITI FOUND ON CHURCH USED BY ñLADIES IN WHITE"

    Someone scrawled "Christ yes, Castro no, down with Fidel" on a Havana church Sunday as wives of imprisoned dissidents attended Mass inside. "This is a provocation by state security to cause trouble for us and the church," said Gisela Delgado, wife of well known dissident Hector Palacios and a member of the Santa Rita Church in the upscale Miramar district.

    Once the graffiti was found, police quickly arrived at the church and covered the large green letters on the front of the building with cardboard, then waited for the graffiti to be cleaned off.  About a dozen women in white held a quiet march outside the church as police looked on, one holding the cardboard over the sign. The wives said state security agents were always posted outside the church on Sundays and it would have been impossible to vandalize the building without their noticing.

    The church has become the center of unprecedented protest in a country known for effectively quashing all public dissent. The one exception is the wives of the dissidents who attend mass at the church, then hold marches and vigils outside. The women said they believed the graffiti could be aimed at forcing the church to stop them from marching outside in the future. "I am very sad about this (the graffiti) and the use of Christ's name," the Rev. Jose Felix Perez told Reuters, as he talked with some of his flock inside the church after the Mass. "It is lamentable," he said, adding his church would remain open to all worshipers whatever their politics.

    SANTERIA USED AS PLOY TO SKIRT TRAVEL RULES TO CUBA

    A Santeria group with a religious license to travel unimpeded to Cuba reports a boom in the size of its congregation, drawing criticism and scrutiny. Despite the Bush administration's crackdown on exiles' trips back to Cuba, there are still ways to travel to the island without restriction. One seems to be increasingly popular: Go as a Santero. Religious groups can get licenses with little trouble. And the head of at least one group that says it practices the Afro-Cuban religion Santeria acknowledged that his congregation has exploded in size since the new travel restrictions kicked in.

    Jose Montoya, head of the Sacerdocio Lucumi Shango Eyeife in Miami, said that between 1996 and July 2004, he took about 60 people to Cuba under his religious travel license. Since the restrictions took effect in July, he has taken about 2,500, he said. ''Before, people didn't have a necessity, and Afro Cubans who practice our religions could travel to Cuba without a license, but now they need a license,'' Montoya said. ñThis is a ticking time bomb. They will give a religious license to anyone.''

    Exiles who support the restrictions -- which cut exile trips to Cuba from once a year to once every three years -- say the Santeria groups are abusing their religious privilege. Tom Cooper, CEO and chairman of Gulf Stream International Airlines, one of the biggest companies still operating flights to Cuba, said he has also noticed a recent increase in the number of people coming to his airline with religious licenses. ''I have my own questions about it,'' Cooper said. ñI think the Cuban people are very industrious and ingenious, and I think that they really will find a way to visit their relatives in Cuba.''

    CUBAN CARDINAL ORTEGA ALAMINO RETAINED SEVERAL HOURS AT MIAMI AIRPORT

    The U.S. Department of Homeland Security is denying a published report that Cardinal Jaime Ortega Alamino, the archbishop of Havana, was detained at Miami International Airport for three hours Friday and threatened with deportation back to Cuba. El Nuevo Herald, citing two unnamed eyewitnesses, reported in Saturday's editions that immigration authorities at MIA harassed the prelate, who was traveling on a diplomatic passport issued by the Vatican.

    Zack Mann, spokesman for the Bureau of Immigration and Customs Enforcement, said Saturday that Ortega was ''detained briefly'' for about an hour after he arrived aboard a charter flight from Havana about 11:50 a.m. ''We can confirm that he did arrive and was processed just as any other foreign arrival would be processed when visiting the United States,'' Mann said. ``All procedures were absolutely followed. ñHe was treated in the utmost courteous manner.''

    El Nuevo Herald reported that the Roman Catholic dignitary was questioned about the reasons for his visit and his political views on Fidel Castro's government. When he objected to a search of his luggage, the newspaper reported, Ortega was threatened with possible deportation. Mann said having a diplomatic passport does not automatically entitle a person to diplomatic status. ''If you have a diplomatic passport but the purpose of your visit is not diplomatic . . . you will be processed as a visitor,'' he said. ñHe was stopped and processed and that process took about an hour. ñWe respect every individual's right to privacy and we don't disclose information about their arrival . . . or details regarding any types of questions posed to them.''

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