PÉREZ ROQUE "PRAYS" FOR END TO EMBARGO

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

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

   US SAYS CUBAN DICTATOR FIDEL CASTRO NOT MEETING MIGRATION ACCORD

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

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

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

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

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

   

    U.S. LAWMAKERS MEET THE CUBAN DICTATOR 

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

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

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

  US LEGISLATORS MEET OSWALDO PAYÁ

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

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

     SENATOR BAUCUS AND REPRESENTATIVE BEHBERG IN HAVANA

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

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

    PRESIDENT BUSH IMPOSES NEW SANCTION ON CUBA

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

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

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

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

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

    HOUSE MOVES TO EASE SANCTIONS ON CUBA

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

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

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

    SENATOR DELAY: CUBAN TRAVEL WILL SUBSIDIZE OPPRESSION

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

     SENATORS JOHN KERRY AND HOWARD DEAN: KEEP CUBA SANCTIONS

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

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

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

    DEMOCRATIC CONTENDER DEAN HARDENS CUBA STAND

    As he surges to the top of the race for the 2004 Democratic presidential nomination and begins to think about a potential contest against President Bush, former Vermont Gov. Howard Dean says he is shifting his views on the trade embargo with Cuba. Speaking to reporters during a four-day national campaign swing, Dean said he supports rolling back the embargo in order to encourage human-rights advancements -- but citing Fidel Castro's recent crackdowns on dissidents, says that in recent months he has become convinced that ¿we can't do it right now.''

    Dean called Cuba a ''political question,'' and said that recent developments on the island would prevent him from his goal of ¿constructive engagement of Cuba.'' ''If you would have asked me six months ago, I would have said we should begin to ease the embargo in return for human-rights concessions,'' he said. ¿But you can't do it now because Castro has just locked up a huge number of human-rights activists and put them in prison and [held] show trials. You can't reward that kind of behavior if what you want to do is link human-rights behavior with foreign trade.''

    In recent weeks, some Cuban-American exile leaders have openly questioned their years-long loyalty to the Republican Party, accusing Bush of breaking campaign promises to ratchet up the pressure on Castro's government. The reaction -- sparked by the repatriation last month of 12 suspected boat hijackers who were sent back after negotiations with the Cuban government to spare them from execution -- has turned into a potential political problem for Bush's reelection next year, and Democrats are already looking to exploit the situation. Bush's political advisors know that he needs strong Cuban-American support next year.

    US LIMITS CUBAN DIPLOMATS° POWER TO BUY, SELL CARS

    The United States said on Monday it will make it harder for Cuban diplomats in Washington to buy or sell cars, retaliating against them because Cuba imposes similar restrictions on U.S. diplomats in Havana. The State Department said it would bar staff of the Cuban Interests Section at the Swiss Embassy in Washington and their families from buying cars. They would, however, be allowed to keep cars they already own, import cars from an overseas vendor and buy vehicles from other diplomats or embassies.

    In a notice published in the U.S. Federal Register, the State Department said the Cuban diplomats may also rent cars from rental companies for up to 30 days, effectively depriving them of the lower rates that might come from long-term leases. "The primary effect of these terms and conditions ... is to restrict the ability of the Cuban Interests Section and its personnel to purchase, lease, or sell any vehicle in the United States," the notice said. The State Department said it was retaliating because Cuba makes it "inordinately difficult, if not altogether impossible" for diplomats at the U.S. Interests Section in Havana to buy a new car or sell a used one.

    CASTRO: TV MARTI PLAN SURE TO FALL FLAT

    Cuban dictator Fidel Castro predicted that new U.S. government attempts to use a satellite to broadcast TV Martí signals to the island would fail. ''I read something about that, and I was laughing,'' Castro said, answering questions from reporters at a book presentation by visiting Paraguayan writer Augusto Roa Bastos. ''Up to now, experience has shown that it has gone badly,'' Castro said of earlier efforts to thwart the Cuban government's jamming of TV Martí's signal.

    The Miami-based Office of Cuba Broadcasting said last week that within days it will start using a satellite located over the Atlantic Ocean to strengthen TV and Radio Martí signals. The satellite technology will cost nearly $1 million. Only satellite dishes will be able to pick up the new signal. TV Martí, which went on the air in 1990, broadcasts its signal from a balloon tethered to Cudjoe Key, about 20 miles east of Key West. Because of Cuba's jamming of the signal, very few people on the island have ever seen TV Martí. The United States has had more success at reaching Cubans through Radio Martí. Owning a satellite dish is illegal for Cubans. The government has cracked down in recent months, seizing antenna and reception boxes brought in from Mexico and Miami.

    U.S. INDICTS THREE CUBANS OVER 1996 PLANES SHOOT-DOWN

    A U.S. grand jury has indicted three Cubans on murder charges in connection with the 1996 shoot-down of two private planes near Cuba in which four Cuban Americans were killed, prosecutors in Miami said on Thursday. Federal prosecutors said Ruben Martinez Puente, head of the Cuban air force at the time, ordered the shoot-down, and Lorenzo Alberto Pérez Pérez and Francisco Pérez Pérez, Cuban air force pilots at the time, carried it out. The indictment may be largely symbolic since Cuban dictator Fidel Castro is unlikely to ever hand over the men to face trial. Prosecutors declined to address what specific steps they might take to bring the Cubans into a U.S. courtroom.  "We will take appropriate measures to see that the defendants are brought into custody," U.S. Attorney Marcos Jimenez said. The Cubans killed were: Carlos Costa, Mario de la Peña, Armando Alejandre Jr. and Pablo Morales.

    Many among Miami's Cuban exile community have long called for more aggressive action by the United States over the deadly midair encounter, in which two small planes flown by the exile group Brothers to the Rescue were shot down on Feb. 24, 1996, by Cuban MiG fighter jets near the Communist-ruled island. The indictment charged the three men with four counts of murder, one count of conspiracy to kill U.S. nationals and two counts of destruction of aircraft. Maximum penalties if they are convicted would be life imprisonment or the death penalty. "This was an act of premeditated murder," Jimenez said in announcing the indictment.

    Cuba has always maintained it shot down the planes because they were flying over its waters and had provoked Havana into action. Washington says they were flying over international waters and that unarmed planes should never have been downed in any case regardless of where they were flying. Prosecutors described an elaborate plot involving a Cuban espionage ring in Florida to lure the exile group's planes into a trap. The indictment came after weeks of growing discontent among some Cuban exiles, who have complained that the administration has not been tough enough on Castro. Until recently, the exiles were seen as a bulwark of support for U.S. President George W. Bush, who is up for re-election in November 2004.

     TV MARTÍ VIA SATELLITE A BID TO DEFEAT CUBAN JAMMING

     TV Martí will begin satellite transmissions to Cuba as early as next month in an effort to defeat the government jamming, U.S. officials announced yesterday. ''The freedom of Cuba's long-suffering people remains a high priority for this administration,'' Kenneth Tomlinson, chairman of the federal agency that oversees the broadcasts, said at the Miami office for TV Martí. ¿Our efforts to provide a reliable, accurate and accessible source of news and information to the people of Cuba will advance the day when they can breathe free.'' The decision was viewed by some Cuban-Americans as part of an effort by President  Bush administration to quell rising frustrations among South Florida's exile community, which has openly criticized Washington in recent weeks for doing little to increase U.S. pressures on Cuba.

    Pedro Roig, director of the Office of Cuba Broadcasting, operators of TV Martí, characterized the satellite transmissions as ''historic,'' adding that ¿this will break the monopoly of information that Castro has over Cuba.'' TV Martí currently relies primarily on a regular TV signal, broadcast from a balloon tethered 10,000 feet above Cudjoe Key in the Florida Keys. Those transmissions have been easily blocked by the Cuban government, and few Cubans have ever seen its programs. The signal for Radio Martí, now broadcast on short-wave and AM frequencies, will also be broadcast on satellite, he added.

    ''We hope that the measures . . . will make it easier for the Cuban people to hear and see our signal through the electronic curtain that Fidel Castro has caused to descend upon the unfortunate Cuban people,'' Tomlinson said. ¿But if our efforts to penetrate this obstacle do not succeed, we will not stop trying. We will succeed.'' The signal will be broadcast from the Hispasat satellite, operated by a private Spanish company, which orbits above the Atlantic and close to the Brazilian coast. Hispasat provides a powerful signal with a ''footprint'' that covers all of Cuba and a large portion of Latin America, making it more difficult to jam, Tomlinson said. It is also widely used by broadcasters in Latin America and Europe.

    CUBA SIGNS FOOD SHIPPING ACCORDS WITH ALABAMA

    Cuba on Thursday signed agreements with Alabama and its port of Mobile to start importing food later this year, adding to a growing list of U.S. states trading with the communist-run island nation. Alabama Department of Agriculture and Industries Commissioner Ron Sparks, heading a state delegation to Cuba, called it "the first step toward establishing a permanent trade relation" with Cuba.  Sparks gave to the president of the Cuban food import agency Alimport, Pedro Alvarez, a copy of a proclamation of his department which announces the  agreement between Cuba and Alabama. Alvarez said during a press conference that Cuba was set to buy $10 million worth of food.

    Maria Conchita Mendez, a Cuban native, manager for Latin American Trade and Development at the Alabama State Port Authority, signed an accord that will lead to regular shipping services to Cuba from the port of Mobile. "Mobile cannot fall behind," she said, in reference to ports in Florida, Texas and Georgia that have already signed agreements with Cuba. Mendez said Mobile would start shipments to Cuba in September or October and could become one of the largest ports serving the country. Cuba started buying food from the United States in 2001 after the U.S. Congress eased a 42-year-old trade embargo.

    ANOTHER STRONG LETTER FROM LOCAL REPUBLICANS TO PRESIDENT BUSH URGING A NEW CUBA POLICY

   Dozens of local Republican-elected leaders have signed their names to a letter to President George W. Bush urging him to make changes to Cuba policy, a week after 98 directors of the Cuban American National Foundation and a group of state representatives sent the White House a similar notes. The letter echoes the message some Cuban-American leaders have delivered recently to Bush: GET TOUGHER ON CASTRO OR RISK LOSING CUBAN-AMERICAN SUPPORT IN THE 2004 ELECTION.

    ''We must not ignore the potential for significant erosion in the loyalty of our constituency, which is frustrated by the unfulfilled promise made by every candidate for president over the last 40 years: a free Cuba,'' the letter says. Hialeah Councilman Esteban Bovo, who drafted the document, said he followed the lead of several state legislators who sent a letter Monday to the White House asking for changes in Cuba policy. 

    The letter asks the president to authorize improvements in Radio and TV Martí; implement Title III of the Helms-Burton Act; abolish the wet foot/dry foot immigration policy that repatriates most Cubans picked up at sea; and stop the sale of food to Cuba by U.S. farmers. ''We supported your candidacy for President with great enthusiasm, and we expected a more proactive approach to the Cuba situation,'' the letter said. ¿Sadly, as of today, little has changed.''  The letter is signed by 34 Republican Cuban Americans who hold a wide range of offices, from County Commission to City Council. Unfortunately, last Wednesday, Secretary of State Colin Power said that it is not a function of the United States to install a democracy in Cuba.        

    CUBAN-AMERICANS ATTACK PRESIDENT BUSH POLICIES

    For the first time since he became a U.S. citizen decades ago, 62-year-old Santiago Portal won't vote for a Republican for president. The Cuban American says he's fed up with President Bush's policy on Cuba and is urging other exiles to choose someone else in next year's election. ¿He can't ask Cubans for votes if he hasn't helped the Cuban people get freedom,î said Portal, holding a sign saying ¿PRESIDENT BUSH PUSH FREEDOM FOR CUBA NOW! WHY ONLY IRAQ?î

    This kind of change of heart among Cuban-Americans - who overwhelmingly supported Bush in 2000 and helped ensure he won Florida's 25 electoral votes - has GOP officials in Florida concerned heading into an election year. Some Florida Republicans are now telling Bush they don't think his administration is doing enough to help the Cuban people and opponents of Cuban dictator  Fidel Castro's communist government. Even the president's brother, Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, publicly questioned the administration's decision in July to return 12 Cuban hijackers to be punished by the Cuban dictator.

    An increasing number of Florida's elected Republicans have urged the president to review or change his Cuba policy. ¿If our concerns are ignored, there's a real possibility that the Cuban community couldî stay away from the polls, said state Rep. David Rivera of Miami, one of 13 Hispanic GOP state lawmakers who warned the president that he could lose support in Florida if he fails to revamp his Cuba policy. Bush took Florida from Al Gore by only 537 votes in the 2000 presidential election. The president received about 80 percent of the state's estimated 444,000 Cuban-American votes. Florida now holds 27 electoral votes, a tenth of the 270 electoral votes needed to win the presidency. Some of Miami's Cuban-Americans are growing to distrust Republicans because of the lack of policy change. ¿They say: ´These guys come down, they make promises to the community, they don a guayabera, they make promises in bad Spanish and they don't deliver,°î Rivera said.

    STATE GOP LEGISLATORS URGE ACTION ON CUBA

    A group of Florida Republican state representatives has drafted a letter warning President Bush he risks losing their support for the 2004 election if he does not adopt a tougher Cuba policy. The move, which amounts to a litmus test for federal candidates on Cuban issues, exacerbates a widening rift between the administration and some Cuban-American leaders -- many of whom have begun questioning their steadfast loyalty to the Republican Party.

    The letter, expected to be mailed to Washington today, echoes demands expressed recently by other Cuban Americans: revise current migration policy; indict Fidel Castro for the Brothers to the Rescue shoot-down; ensure that TV Martí is seen by people in Cuba; and increase assistance to dissidents on the island.

    ''We feel it is our responsibility as Republican elected officials to inform you that unless substantial progress on the above-mentioned issues occurs rapidly, we fear the historic and intense support from Cuban American voters for Republican federal candidates, including yourself, will be jeopardized,'' reads the letter, signed by 13 members of the state's Republican Hispanic Caucus (...) "Our public is very upset," State Rep. Juan Carlos Planas said Sunday. "[Bush] needs to know that unless things change, the support he has gotten in the past will not be there."

     Please, click here   Read the full article and the letter signed by the legislators

    WASHINGTON'S POLICY TOWARDS CUBA OF "NO CHANGE" SHOULD BE "CHANGED" (Originally published on 25 February 2002)

    This article, written by Maj. Gen. (D.C.-Retired) Erneido A. Oliva, CAMCO Chairman and former Second in Command of the Bay of Pigs Invasion, was published in February 2002 by several national English and Spanish newspapers. The article is being reposted because in spite of the new wave of terror and repression implemented by Cuban dictator Fidel Castro, US policy toward Cuba remains one of "NO CHANGE". CAMCO leadership strongly believes that General Oliva's article, which predicted the failure of the "NO CHANGE" policy that we have observed throughout this year, is more relevant today than it was when it was initially published because even the President's brother is asking for CHANGES.

    "ÞUnfortunately, official statements of 'NO CHANGE' have been made year after year by presidents and senior officials of nine previous administrations. It seems that the 'tough' rhetorical position adopted by the current president, is only a ¿cosmeticî stance to appease the politically active Cuban-Americans. In reality, 'NO CHANGE'  in Washington°s Cuba policy means only a continuation of the status quo, a continuation of the only military dictatorship in Latin America, a prolongation of the Cuban people suffering under a terrorist regime that has intervened politically and militarily in every country of Latin America and has shamelessly fooled with impunity nine American presidents... For the reasons explained above, Washington's policy towards Cuba of 'NO CHANGE' should be 'CHANGED' if President Bush is really committed to bring democracy to the Cuban people." 

  Please, click here   and read the full article   

    AFTER FORTY-FOUR YEARS OF CASTRO DICTATORSHIP, U.S. SEEKS "FRESH IDEAS" TO ACHIEVE DEMOCRACY IN CUBA

    Ruling out tighter sanctions against Cuba, President Bush administration is pushing for a democratic transition on the island through increased international pressure and more robust support for Cuba's dissidents. The administration dispatched to Miami this week Otto Reich, White House special envoy for Latin America; Dan Fisk, a top State Department Cuba specialist; and Adolfo Franco, an assistant administrator at the Agency for International Development, in hopes of coming up with fresh ideas for bringing about a democratic Cuba.

    Meanwhile, Roger Noriega, newly installed as assistant secretary of state for Western Hemisphere affairs, said a tightening of sanctions against the island is not an option. Noriega said it was a ¿great tragedy'' that U.S. policy over the years has been focused on U.S. economic pressures on the island instead of looking to the dissidents themselves as the most effective agents of change.  Noriega also said the U.S. goal of  ¿reaching out in solidarity to dissidentsî will be a lot more effective if it has the support of the international community.

    However, Frank Calzon, director of the Center for a Free Cuba, said he strongly supports the appointment of Noriega but that he has doubts about the bureaucratic will to carry out Bush's policies. Calzon urged the administration to employ tough measures that, he said, have been available for years. Calzon cited the absence of an indictment of the Cubans responsible for the deaths of four Cuban-Americans in 1996. They were aboard two Miami-based private plane that were shot down north of Cuba by MiG jet fighters.

    NO CHANGE IN CUBA POLICY

    Suggesting that the Bush administration is unlikely to make major changes in its Cuban refugee policy, new State Department chief of Latin American affairs Roger F. Noriega said Wednesday that any dramatic policy shift could invite a massive stampede from the island and a humanitarian tragedy.

    Asked about the Bush refugee policy, which has come under attack from Cuban exiles who say Washington should stop repatriating would-be refugees following the execution in Cuba of three people who had hijacked a vessel to flee the island this spring, Noriega stressed that ¿we remain committed to safe, orderly and legal migration with Cuba.''

    ''Any decision on our part that would lead to a dramatic outflow of people from Cuba, that would lead people to believe that we are somehow suspending our immigration laws, would invite a real tragedy,'' he said. ¿Cubans would conceivably try extraordinarily dangerous crossings.'' But Noriega qualified that statement by saying that while the Bush administration does not contemplate changing the so-called dry foot/wet foot policy, under which only Cubans stopped at sea are repatriated ¿in light of the conduct of the Cuban dictatorship, it is not unfair to ask some of the questions that [exiles] are asking.'' ''I am not signaling any significant change in the policy, but we are constantly evaluating these issues,'' he said.  

     THE CUBAN AMERICAN NATIONAL FOUNDATION (CANF) DEMANDS AN EFFECTIVE CUBA POLICY 

     "It is with deep regret that we write this open letter to President Bush to express our disappointment with the administration's present Cuba policy: We write as your friends to ensure a successful Cuba policy, Mr. Bush.

    "When you were a candidate for president and again in Miami in May 2002, we heard words from you that gave us great expectations that Cuba policy would soon lead to a free and democratic Cuba. Unfortunately, the administration's Cuba policy has not been significantly different than that of the prior administration.

    "Today, we are no nearer to a free Cuba. The wet-foot/dry-foot policy is still in effect. Recently, the administration returned 12 Cubans to a dictator who denies basic due process of law and, moreover, a priori negotiated with the dictator their prison sentences. Radio and TV Martí still do not reach the Cuban people in a meaningful way. Castro has not yet been indicted for the murder of the four Brothers to the Rescue pilots, three of them U.S. citizens and all four Florida residents."

Please, click here   and read CANF's open letter to The President    

    CUBANS° RETURN ´JUST NOT RIGHT,° GOVERNOR BUSH SAYS

    With political tension building over the U.S. government's decision to ship 12 boat hijacking suspects back to face prison in Cuba, Gov. Jeb Bush took the unusual step Thursday of criticizing his own brother's administration for the negotiations that led to the repatriation. The governor's rebuke comes as President Bush and the Republican Party face a rising tide of anger among Cuban-American exile leaders, who say last week's repatriation of the boaters is the latest offense by a GOP president who has failed to fulfill campaign promises to toughen policies targeting Fidel Castro's government.

    ''Despite the good intentions of the administration to negotiate the safety of these folks, that is an oppressive regime, and given the environment in Cuba, it's just not right'' to have sent the Cubans back, Gov. Bush said. ''There's an expectation that I'm going to be in lock step with the administration, and that tends to happen,'' the governor added. ¿But from time to time I have to disagree, and this is one of them.'' ''Early on, I was under the impression they would be sent to a third country,'' the governor said.

    The issue could prove politically damaging to the president, who relied, in part, on hundreds of thousands of typically loyal Republican Cuban Americans in 2000 to narrowly win Florida and, as a result, the White House. The president's advisors believe Florida could be pivotal for his reelection next year. The governor acknowledged in the interview that losing Cuban-American support could be devastating to the GOP, noting that President Bill Clinton's success in wooing even a mere third of their vote helped him win Florida in 1996. Acknowledging a failure by the White House to articulate a ''coherent policy'' on Cuba, the governor added that the president would announce major CHANGES in policy sometime before the 2004 election.  

    SENATORS LIEBERMAN AND GRAHAM ATTACK PRESIDENT BUSH°S WEAK CUBA POLICIES

    Connecticut Senator Joseph Lieberman assailed President George W. Bush Tuesday for an ¿abandonment of American values'' in sending 12 Cuban boaters back to Cuban dictator Fidel Castro°s communist island last week to serve prison time. Lieberman's attack marked the first push by a Democratic candidate for president to capitalize on a political rift within the Cuban exile community that has emerged in the days since the 12 suspected hijackers were sent back to Cuba.

    Senator Lieberman and Florida Sen. Bob Graham, who is also seeking the Democratic presidential nomination, are two of the party's most popular figures among Cuban-American voters. Lieberman pledged that as president he would increase aid to dissidents in Cuba and pay for stronger transmissions of Radio and TV Marti.  ¿For the U.S. government to negotiate a jail sentence for these people with a repressive regime that we know does not have fair trials is simply outrageous.'' About 400,000 Cuban-Americans from Florida voted in the 2000 election, and more than eight in 10 backed Bush. The President stood in Miami last year on Cuban Independence Day and read a list of Cuban goals -- none of which have been accomplished. The president ''has not done what he said he would do in relationship to the dictator who still rules Cuba,'' Lieberman said Tuesday.

    Senator Graham said the president was wrong to send the 12 boaters back. He called the decision to negotiate with the Cuban government and agree to prison terms of up to 10 years in exchange for avoiding execution a ''dramatic reversal'' in policy. ''I would have given them the opportunity to make their case for political asylum,'' Graham said. ¿If they did, I would have allowed them into the country, and if they didn't, I would have only returned them to Cuba with the understanding that they would not be adversely treated or discriminated against because they had attempted to flee the Castro tyranny.''  

      THE CUBAN AMERICAN NATIONAL FOUNDATION SAYS PRESIDENT BUSH HAS NOT FULFILLED HIS PROMISES

    The loyalty to the Republican party that has defined Cuban-American politics for two generations came under attack Saturday from leaders of the Cuban American National Foundation -- CANF -- at their annual board of directors meeting. CANF, the most influential Cuban-American group in Washington and one of the most highly regarded Cuban exile organizations, declared political war on President Bush administration and GOP congressional representatives from South Florida.

    The spark that ignited the backlash was the Bush administration's decision last week to repatriate 12 Cubans suspected of hijacking a boat to reach Florida. After negotiations with the Cuban government, the United States agreed to return the suspected hijackers after Castro's government pledged to spare their lives and sentence them to no more than 10 years in prison. ''This will cost them,'' said Jorge Mas Santos, chairman of the Foundation, referring to the Bush administration in a speech in Spanish to the board of directors. ¿They can't count on the support of our community if they don't fulfill their promises. This administration until now has done absolutely nothing to fulfill the promises they made to this community. ¿We will not give unconditional support to a political party or to any individuals.''

    As if to underscore the point, CANF for the second year in a row invited Democratic Senator Bill Nelson to be the keynote speaker. Nelson, in an attempt to make Democratic inroads into the coveted Cuban-American vote in 2004, blasted the White House. ''Has the administration taken leave of its senses, that we would negotiate a prison sentence for people seeking freedom?'' he said. ``This is a dramatic change in policy. The Bush administration should not only be stung with public scorn, they should change the policy.''

    CUBAN AMERICAN CONGRESSMEN: DECISION TO RETURN CUBAN REFUGEES IS A CONDEMNABLE MONSTROSITY (Lincoln Diaz-Balart (R-FL), Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (R-FL), and Mario Diaz-Balart (R-FL)

    Returning those who the Cuban dictatorship accuses of "hijacking" makes the U.S. complicit in Cuban dictatorship's actions .

    The three Cuban American Congressmen from South Florida, Lincoln Diaz-Balart (R-FL), Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (R-FL), and Mario Diaz-Balart (R-FL) today condemned the U.S. Administration's decision to return to the custody of the Cuban tyranny Cuban refugees who have been accused of "hijacking" by the dictatorship, thus subjecting the refugees to illegal punishment. The Administration says Castro will not punish the refugees with more than 10 years of prison. Accordingly, a sentence of 10 years in Castro's gulag, without due process, is acceptable.

    "This action makes the U.S. complicit in the fate of the returned refugees. This act of infamy in coordination with the Cuban tyranny, is a condemnable monstrosity," said Congressman Lincoln Diaz-Balart. "Castro's Cuba is a place where there are no laws, no independent courts or judicial system and the entire island is at the whim of a tyrannical despot who does what he wishes with every individual on the island. Cuba is a prison, due process is non-existent and to return individuals to Cuba is to hand their fate to the criminal who is Castro!" said Congresswoman Ros-Lehtinen. "This is an inconceivable act against freedom-seeking refugees. It is totally unacceptable," said Congressman Mario Diaz-Balart.

    CUBAN-AMERICANS ENRAGED BY U.S. DECISION TO RETURN 15 CUBANS PICKED UP AT SEA

    American officials said they decided to return the 15 Cubans home after receiving assurances from Cuban dictator Fidel Castro government that the alleged hijackers wouldn't be executed.  U.S. State Department spokesman Philip Reeker said American authorities determined the Cubans were ineligible for amnesty because they had committed acts of violence in Cuba as well as against Coast Guard personnel who boarded the boat Wednesday.

    A Coast Guard cutter brought the group to Bahia de Cabanas, Cuba, around 10 a.m., Coast Guard spokesman Luis Diaz said. Their return home raised humanitarian concerns, because Cuba executed three men in April for hijacking a ferry in a bid to reach the United States. Havana said the executions, by a firing squad, were necessary to halt a brewing migration crisis.

    Some Cuban-American leaders were enraged by President Bush Administration decision. ¿Unfortunately, what the U.S. government has done has entered into complicity with the Castro dictatorship,'' said Joe Garcia, executive director of the Cuban American National Foundation. The three Cuban-American congress members from South Florida, U.S. Representatives Lincoln Diaz-Balart, Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, and Mario Diaz-Balart, also criticized the move. ¿To return individuals to Cuba is to hand their fate to the criminal, who is Castro,'' Ros-Lehtinen.

    CUBAN DICTATOR FIDEL CASTRO APPLAUDS U.S. DECISION ON CUBANS INTERCEPTED AT SEA

    U.S. government on Monday returned 15 Cubans intercepted at sea on a boat owned by the Cuban government. Cuban dictator Fidel Castro praised the U.S. decision to return the Cubans, calling it ¿a valuable contribution by American authorities in the fight against the hijacking of planes and boats for illegal migration through the use of violence and force.'' A Castro's statement also praised the decision by American officials earlier this year to prosecute a Cuban charged with hijacking a plane full of passengers to the United States.

    The statement announcing the return of the Cubans was read on state-run television early Monday afternoon. Afterward, a government announcer read a statement written by U.S. Interests Section Chief James Cason, warning Cubans against hijacking planes or boats to emigrate illegally to the United States. ¿Hijackings of boats and aircraft are extremely serious violations of international law and of United States law,'' said an English language version of the Monday statement, provided by the U.S. mission in Havana.  

    CONGRESSMEN°S LETTER TO SECRETARY POWELL: DO NOT RETURN REFUGEES TO CUBA  (Lincoln Diaz-Balart (R-FL), Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (R-FL), and Mario Diaz-Balart (R-FL)

    "On Wednesday, July 16, 2003, the U.S. Coast Guard intercepted in international waters another boat filled with Cuban refugees seeking freedom in the United States.  It is reported that 15-20 refugees are now being held in custody and await repatriation to Cuba under the 1994 Clinton-Castro Migration Accord.  The Castro dictatorship has alleged that these refugees hijacked the boat, "Gaviota 16", in their attempt to flee the island.  We appeal to you in the strongest possible terms to prevent the return of these refugees to the Castro dictatorship where they will certainly be denied due process of law and will face the possibility of execution.

    "This year, faced with increasingly desperate attempts to seek freedom, the Castro dictatorship summarily executed several refugees who were convicted of hijacking in a secret trial.  The Castro dictatorship aggressively punishes those who attempt to flee the island.  Many of those who have attempted to leave Cuba and have been intercepted and returned by U.S. authorities under the 1994 Clinton-Castro Migration Accord have been subjected to retaliation by the Castro dictatorship.  This is a violation of the Accord.

    "In April, the U.S. had an opportunity to grant entry to Cuban refugees intercepted in international waters, who were instead returned to the Castro dictatorship by force, and subsequently, as noted above, three were executed.  We hereby request that the U.S. government not become complicit in what may become another series of illegal executions by the Castro dictatorship."  

    U.S. COAST GUARD INTERCEPTED A CUBAN BOAT AND DETAINED 15 PEOPLE

    The U.S. Coast Guard boarded a 36-foot Cuban boat Wednesday and took 15 people into custody, a day after the government-owned vessel was taken from the island and was chased by Cuban authorities. The Coast Guard had been tracking the vessel before boarding it Wednesday in international waters in the Straits of Florida. Cuba's dictatorial and totalitarian government said its coast guard chased the vessel into Bahamian waters on Tuesday. The Bahamian government said the vessel re-entered international waters Wednesday. The Cubans would remain aboard the cutter until immigration officials can interview them, at least until Thursday.

    A Coast Guard spokesman said he did not believe the boat had been forcibly hijacked. Cuban officials said the vessel ¿Gaviota 16î was owned by GeoCuba, a government-owned geologic exploration and mapping company. ¿We see this as a stolen Cuban vessel that has been commandeered as a vehicle in an illegal migrant voyage,'' the spokesman said. He did not say how far the boat was from U.S. waters. Usually, Cubans who reach U.S. shores are allowed to remain in the country, while those found at sea are generally returned to Cuba.

    In Washington on Wednesday, State Department spokesman Richard Boucher said the United States has reminded Cuba that ¿it has an obligation to resolve hijackings in a manner that's consistent with international law, and that it needs to conduct law enforcement judicial actions consistent with the Universal Declaration on Human Rights.''  He said that ¿any hijacker who arrives in the United States will be prosecuted with the full force of the U.S. legal system.''

    FIRST U.S. CARGO VESSEL IN HAVANA IN 42 YEARS AND 9 PREVIOUS U.S. ADMINISTRATIONS

    American barge "Helen III", from Mobile, Alabama approaches  Havana's port dock, carrying 1,614 metric tons of newsprint and about six tons of timber  on Friday July 11, 2003, in Havana, Cuba. The 323-foot-long barge -resembling a floating, tarp-wrapped warehouse - was the first U.S.-flag, U.S.-crewed commercial vessel to enter the harbor since the United States broke relations with Cuba in 1961. A few minutes after the barge docked, Pedro Alvarez, chairman of Cuba's import agency, Alimport, came out with Jack Maybank, Maybank's company owner, and his son Jack Maybank Jr.

    The American flag was hoisted briefly over the entrance to Havana Bay Friday for the arrival of the first U.S.-registered cargo vessel in four decades, another step in the growing trade with Cuba. The floating warehouse barge, towed by a tug from Chickasaw in Alabama, unloaded 1,614 tons of newsprint and 6 tons of timber in Havana. Washington eased trade sanctions on President Fidel Castro's government over two years ago to allow the sale of food and other agricultural products, including timber and paper. The United States slapped an embargo on Cuba and broke off diplomatic ties after Castro's leftist revolution in 1959.

     CUBA SIGNS CORPUS CHRISTI PORT AGREEMENT

    Cuba signed an operating agreement with the Port of Corpus Christi, an agreement that an official from the Texas city said could help erode the long-standing U.S. embargo of the island. ¿It's another very progressive step toward the ultimate abolition of an embargo whose time has long passed,'' said Ruben Bonilla Jr., the Port of Corpus Christi's commission chairman.

    While Cuba has operating agreements with 11 other U.S. ports, the Corpus Christi deal is the first ¿agreement on strategic work'' that sets out plans for future activity, said Pedro Alvarez, chairman of Cuba's food import agency, Alimport.

    Bonilla said that Corpus Christi, America's fifth-largest port, hopes to take some of the business now going through Florida, which has a large population of Cuban exiles, many vehemently opposed to the socialist government here. He said that while much of the population of Florida opposes normalized relations with Cuba, ¿nevertheless they receive the economic benefit'' of trade. The pace of contacts, if not contracts, had slowed after April, when Cuba sentenced 75 dissidents to prison terms of six to 28 years, but a delegation from Iowa visited in May.

     AMBASSADOR REICH PREDICTS THAT CUBAN DICTATOR FIDEL CASTRO°S REGIME IS ABOUT TO FALL

     Former Ambassador Otto Reich, U.S. Special Envoy for Latin America, said that Cuba and Venezuela are the biggest concerns in the region, and predicted that  Cuban dictator Fidel Castro's regime is about to fall, according to a report published on Wednesday by an Italian newspaper.

    Reich told the newspaper Corriere della Sera that "regarding Venezuela, President (Hugo) Chávez' policies are nothing but a cause of concern for us." The official is currently visiting Italy to meet with the country's authorities. He added: "We are closely watching a referendum that should be held on August 19, halfway Chávez' mandate."

    According to the U.S. official, the recent dead of Cardinal Ignacio Velasco "will not weaken protests against him (Chávez). He (Chávez) is an anti-Catholic who has described the Church as a tumor," Reich reminded. In addition, he ensure that "the Cuban regime has entered its terminal stage." "Castro is going to fall soon, I could bet on that."  

    CUBA TRADE SHOW LICENSES DENIED

     With U.S.-Cuban relations in a particularly difficult time, the Bush administration has denied the request of a U.S. firm to stage a second American farm products trade show in communist Cuba. The Treasury Department Office of Foreign Assets Control denied the request by PWN Exhibicon International LLC, of Westport, Conn., on June 2. The company hoped to stage its second agribusiness fair in the Cuban capital in January.

     Washington also denied the company's request for a license to hold its second American health care trade fair in Cuba, also planned for January. The Office of Foreign Assets Control grants licenses ¿based on foreign policy guidance from the Department of State.'' Treasury Department spokesman Taylor Griffin said he had no specifics about the action, but said the Bush administration ¿is committed to the full and fair enforcement of the U.S. embargo against Cuba.î ¿As President Bush has said, 'without meaningful reform, trade with Cuba would do nothing more than line the pockets of Fidel Castro and his cronies,''' said Griffin.

    SECRETARY POWELL SEEKS LATIN AMERICAN SUPPORT AGAINST CUBA

    Secretary of State Colin Powell called on Western Hemisphere nations Monday to help ''hasten the inevitable democratic transition in Cuba'' and protest a recent wave of arrests and executions by Cuban dictator Fidel Castro's government. Powell, raising the Cuba issue in a forum long reluctant to debate it, told the 34-nation Organization of American States: ¿The people of Cuba increasingly look to the OAS (and the United States) for help in defending their fundamental freedoms against the depredations of our hemisphere's only dictatorship.'' "My government looks forward to working with partners in the OAS to find ways to hasten the inevitable democratic transition in Cuba. ... Dictatorships cannot withstand the force of freedom," he added.

    Secretary Powell reminded the gathering of its past commitments to democracy, including the 2001 Inter-American Democratic Charter. That document 'declares that ´the people of the Americas have a right to democracy.' It does not say that the peoples of the Americas, except Cubans, have a right to democracy,'' he said. ''I think Castro made a very big mistake,'' said a senior OAS official. The European Union, which has advocated engagement with Havana, announced last week that it would cut back on high-level visits to Cuba and invite dissidents to EU functions.

    At a news conference in Santiago later, Secretary Powell rejected the argument that it was not for the OAS to criticize Cuba. "If we would call ourselves the community of democracies, it is our obligation to speak out. That's what I did today and that's what the United States will continue to do," he said. "We have come too far (in democratization in the Americas) not to continue the journey and help the people of Cuba ultimately achieve a democratic system," he added.

    UNITED STATES MAY JOIN EUROPEAN UNION IN COMMON CUBA STRATEGY

    Secretary of State Colin Powell, in Santiago, Chile, for a meeting of foreign ministers from the western hemisphere, says the United States may join with the European Union in adopting a common strategy toward Cuba.  Powell told reporters while en route to Chile that he planned to highlight  the Cuba issue ¿rather directly'' when he speaks to a meeting of Organization of American States foreign ministers on Monday.

   ¿The rest of the world is now starting to take note of Castro's increasingly poor human rights behavior,'' Powell said. ¿We will not shrink from pointing this out.'' The European Union (EU) and the United States both have reacted sharply to the crackdown on pro-democracy activists in Cuba earlier this spring.  Seventy-five dissidents were sentenced to long prison terms. The EU has said it is cutting back on high-level visits to Cuba and reducing ties in other areas.

    The Cuban government insists that the activists were subversives who collaborated with the U.S. diplomatic mission in Havana. The government staged an anti-American rally in the Cuban capital on Saturday. The principal theme of the Organization of American States meeting is the strengthening of democracy in the hemisphere. The Bush administration has taken no concrete steps in response to the moves by Cuban authorities against the dissidents.

       U.S. DEMANDS BETTER HEALTH CARE FOR CUBAN POLITICAL PRISONERS 

     "The United States demands that the Cuban government provide Oscar Espinosa Chepe with adequate health care and transfer him to a hospital where he can receive the level of care commensurate with his illness," State Department spokesman Philip Reeker said. Espinosa's wife, Miriam Leiva, said last week that his health was deteriorating alarmingly and that holding him in eastern Cuba was tantamount to a "more or less immediate death sentence." Espinosa has cirrhosis of the liver. Espinosa is one of 75 dissidents sentenced in April to long terms of imprisonment for their activities. He has been serving a 20-year sentence in the eastern town of Guantanamo

    "The United States is also concerned by reports that political prisoners Raul Rivero, Martha Beatriz Roque, Jorge Olivera and Roberto de Miranda are also ill. All should be given immediate access to adequate health care," Reeker said in a statement. He also said they and others among the group of 75 political prisoners were being held in inhumane conditions, with very poor sanitation, contaminated water and nearly inedible food.  "The Cuban government appears to be going out of its way to treat these prisoners inhumanely. It should immediately cease this practice and, at the minimum, allow the appropriate humanitarian organizations to monitor the treatment of its political prisoners," the spokesman added.

    AS USUAL, CASTRO HARSHLY ATTACKED US FOREIGN POLICY

    Cuban dictator Fidel Castro harshly criticized U.S. foreign policy in the Middle East and Latin America in a speech Monday in Buenos Aires. Castro, who attended Sunday's inauguration of President Nestor Kirchner, was on his first trip to this economically troubled South American country since 1995.

    Dressed in a dark blue suit and tie, Castro drew shouts of "Ole! Ole! Ole!" and "Fidel! Fidel!" as he spoke for more than two and a half hours. Castro compared his country's achievements in health care and education to levels attained by the United States in the same field. But his criticism of the U.S-led war in Iraq drew the loudest applause.  "We send our doctors, not bombs, to the farthest corners of the world to help save lives, not kill them," the dictator said. Castro also accused President Bush of trying to impose ¿a universal nazi-fascist tyrannyî.

    "The people of Buenos Aires are sending a message to those in the world who want to ride roughshod over our cities and our countries in Latin America," Castro added in a thinly veiled reference to the United States. Earlier Monday, the Cuban dictador met with Kirchner for almost an hour. Argentine Foreign Minister Rafael Bielsa later said Castro had asked the new president to strengthen the countries' ties by appointing a new ambassador to Cuba.  

     NEVADA°S SENATORS OFFER CUBA DEMOCRACY PLANS

    Sens. John Ensign, R-Nev., and Harry Reid, D-Nev., Tuesday unveiled separate efforts aimed at establishing democracy in Cuba. Reid introduced a resolution calling on the State Department and the Organization of American States to gather a tribunal that would have jurisdiction to try Cuban dictator Fidel Castro and other Cuban leaders who have committed "crimes against humanity," Reid said.

    Reid put Castro in the same category as Saddam Hussein as a leader who terrorized his citizens. "They have willingly chosen to torture and kill their people, and it is time to hold them accountable for that decision," Reid said in remarks prepared for a Senate floor speech. Meanwhile Ensign in Miami unveiled a bill that expresses support for active dissident pro-democracy groups in Cuba. The legislation would launch an international group to facilitate planning for a democratic government. The bill authorizes funding to help nongovernmental groups in Cuba prepare for a peaceful government transition.

    The legislation specifically authorizes up to $15 million for democracy-building, including helping political prisoners, aiding in workers' rights projects, helping independent journalists, youth groups and environmental groups, and improving Internet access. "The sad truth is that the Cuban people still are not free," Reid said. "Castro's regime is an insult to the legacy of the Cuban independence movement. As long as he continues to stifle the will of the Cuban people by denying them basic human liberties, any celebration of Cuban independence will ring hollow."

    CUBA: U.S. BOOSTING BROADCASTS INTO CUBA

    Cuba charged Friday that the U.S. government was stepping up radio and television broadcasts into the communist island, saying that the transmissions violate international law and the island's sovereignty. The Foreign Ministry said it had delivered a verbal protest to the top American diplomat here. The U.S. State Department in Washington denied that such broadcasts violated any laws or international norms.

    ¿This week's transmissions did not, nor will they, contravene any of our international obligations,î a U.S. State Department official said in Washington. ¿This was considered carefully.î  Cuba has long complained that both Radio Marti and the newer TV Marti, both U.S. operated, are used by the United States to send anti-Cuba propaganda to the communist island. For many years, authorities here have used transmitter antennas to interrupt frequencies used by Radio Marti, which broadcasts in the Spanish language.  

    CUBA THREATENS TO DISRUPT COMMERCIAL RADIO STATIONS IN SOUTH FLORIDA

    On orders from the White House, the Pentagon deployed a special airplane this week to beam the signals of Radio and TV Martí to Cuba, using a technology that one administration official said ''breached the wall'' of Cuban jamming efforts. ''The political green light is on'' to make the controversial U.S.-operated stations more effective at reaching Cubans, said the senior official.

    An Air Force EC-130 plane conducted the transmissions between 6:30 p.m. and 10 p.m. Tuesday. It operated within U.S. airspace, not passing into Cuban territory. Cuba acknowledged that the United States had altered its normal transmissions of the two stations, but said they were ineffective and hinted that Cuban dictator Fidel Castro government might retaliate.

    ''The government of the United States should not forget that Cuban radio might be heard on standard frequency in many American states,'' an editorial in the Communist Party libel Granma said. The statement appeared to suggest that Cuba might consider boosting the power of its own radio stations, a move that could disrupt the broadcasts of commercial radio stations in South Florida. Both Radio and TV Martí have transmitted from the Florida Keys. The TV Martí signal is sent from a balloon tethered 10,000 feet above Cudjoe Key at a low angle toward Cuba that is easily blocked.  

    CUBAN AMERICAN LEGISLATORS UNHAPPY WITH ADMINISTRATION°S WAVERING

    The celebration of Cuba°s Independence Day yesterday at the White House, where President George W. Bush sent a 40-second message to the Cuban people and met with a small group of eleven former Cuban political prisoners and relatives of newly imprisoned dissidents, did little to assuage the Cuban American community°s disappointment with the administration°s wavering. 

    Cuban American members of Congress and activists not only from Florida but from all over the country have accused the president of failing to fulfill the promises he made to crack down on Cuban communist government during Independence Day speeches last year, the year before and during his presidential campaign. 

    A terse statement issued by Cuban American Reps. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, Lincoln Diaz-Balart and Mario Diaz Balart, all Florida Republicans, said they had recommended that President Bush meet with the Cuban group after ¿we were informed that the White House had not yet completed its ongoing review of U.S. policy toward the Cuban dictatorship.î None of them attended the White House meeting. Rep. Robert Menéndez (D-NJ), also a Cuban-American, was more direct saying that President Bush has not lived up to his promises, after ¿relentlessly attacking Clinton policy as soft on Cuba, has done no better.î Menéndez, using very strong language, also accused the president ¿...for playing on the emotions of the Cuban American community.î 

    TO OBSERVE CUBAN INDEPENDENCE DAY, PRESIDENT BUSH SENDS A 40-SECOND MESSAGE OF HOPE TO THE CUBAN PEOPLE 

    With political tensions high between the United States and Cuba, President George W. Bush marked Cuban Independence Day on Tuesday by denouncing Cuban dictator Fidel Castro and expressing hope his rule will soon end.

    "My hope is for the Cuban people to soon enjoy the same freedoms and rights as we do. Dictatorships have no place in the Americas. May God bless the Cuban people who are struggling for freedom," President Bush said in a 40-second message played on U.S.-backed Radio Marti, which is beamed into Cuba.

    President Bush was also marking the 101st anniversary of Cuban independence from Spain by meeting at the White House with Mario Chanes de Arms and a small group of former Cuban political prisoners and relatives of current prisoners. There were no plans for Bush to announce any new steps, if any, to punish Cuba for the recent dissident jailing.

    FBI MEMO BEHIND CUBANS° EXPULSION

    The Bush administration's decision this week to expel 14 Cuban diplomats had its genesis in an FBI memorandum sent to the State Department last October citing concern about Cuban intelligence activities, officials asserted Thursday. ''Cuban intelligence agencies have and continue to pose a significant threat to the national security of the United States,'' the FBI statement said.

    ''Based on thorough investigations, and to preempt the activities of Cuban intelligence in the United States, the FBI recommended to the State Department that a number of Cuban intelligence officers be declared persona non grata and expelled,'' the statement added. ¿The State Department acted on our recommendation.'' For decades, the FBI has maintained an active counter-intelligence unit to thwart Cuban espionage in the United States. Its mission is ''to identify and neutralize agents'' seeking to harm the United States, one official said.

    By mid-April, more FBI documentation arrived recommending expulsion of Cuban diplomats, officials said. Authorities said they are required by the Immigration and Nationality Act to take action against foreigners who are believed to be engaged in spying. However, some analysts said the Bush administration is looking for ways to express its displeasure with a crackdown on dissidents in Cuba and the harassment of U.S. diplomats in Havana but don't have many tools available. The White House is under pressure from a great majority of the Cuban exiles to tighten the screws on the regime of Cuban dictator Fidel Castro.

    U.S. STOPS SIX CUBANS FROM REACHING FLORIDA KEYS

    The Coast Guard stopped six illegal Cuban migrants who tried to enter the Florida Keys on a small boat Thursday, plucking all six from the water, two after they tread water for more than two hours, authorities said. The six were taken aboard a Coast Guard boat off Tavernier, about 75 miles south of Miami. After receiving medical treatment, they will be questioned by a U.S. Border Patrol agent involved in the rescue to decide whether to send them back to Cuba or bring them ashore. Under the ¿wet foot, dry foot'' policy, Cubans who reach U.S. shores are generally permitted to stay, while those caught at sea are sent back.

    In an earlier case, two of the three Cubans arrested after swimming ashore near Key Largo on May 6 appeared Thursday before a federal magistrate judge in Key West. They are charged with threatening Coast Guard members with a knife and part of their boat's mast. They each face possible 20-year prison sentences. Bond was set for each of the men at $70,000. The third man was not charged and is en route to Krome Detention Center in west Miami-Dade County for processing.  

    THE UNITED STATES IS EXPELLING 14 CUBAN DIPLOMATS

    President Bush administration has ordered the largest expulsion of Cuban diplomats in recent times with the ouster of 14 diplomats for allegedly engaging in espionage activities, U.S. officials said Tuesday. The 14 diplomats hold positions at varying levels at Cuba's United Nations Mission in New York and the Cuban Interests Section in Washington.

    The Bush administration has declared the diplomats persona non grata in response to "inappropriate and unacceptable Cuban activities ... deemed harmful to the United States," the official said. Seven of the diplomats are based in Washington, at the Cuban interests section in the Swiss Embassy, and seven are at the U.N. mission in New York. They  were informed by letter Monday evening.  The seven diplomats who work out of the Interests Section were declared ''persona non grata'' because of ''intelligence activities incompatible with their diplomatic status,'' said a State Department spokesman.

    They have 10 days to leave, the U.S. official said. The Cuban diplomats from the U.N. mission are said "not to be at the top level but at various levels of the mission," a U.S. official said. The FBI and CIA tracked their activities, the official said. The seven Cubans at the U.N. Mission who received notice Monday have until May 22 to leave the country, ''unless we get information provided to us that justifies a contrary result,'' said a spokesman for the United States' U.N. ambassador.

     CASTRO°S ASSERTIONS ABOUT U.S. ATTACK ARE STARTING TO WORRY SOME CUBANS

    In speeches, television broadcasts and almost daily news reports, Cubans have been subjected to ''evidence'' that they are next on the U.S. invasion list. The snippets of ¿proofî come through disturbing images of warfare in Iraq, a string of hijacking incidents blamed on the United States, strong statements by President Bush administration repeated by Cuban officials for internal consumption and, now, the continued inclusion of Cuba as one of seven nations that sponsor terrorism.

    "By maintaining Cuba on its list of states sponsoring terrorism, the U.S. government is demonstrating that its irrational thirst for vengeance against the Cuban revolution is greater than any genuine interest to curb international terrorism,'' according to a statement published Thursday in the libel Granma. In the lengthy article, Cuba also accused the United States of trying to create ¿the right conditions for a possible military attack against Cuba.''

    The campaign to create a siege mentality is having an impact on the island, where some citizens are beginning to believe that something is in the works, opposition leaders in Havana said. ¿There is a fear that Cuba will be invaded, some people are saying, ´What will happen if the Americans come?°î U.S. officials, meanwhile, have said numerous times that Cuba is not a military target. However, Cuba and six other nations -- Iran, Iraq, Libya, North Korea, Syria and Sudan -- remain on a State Department list as sponsors of terrorism.

    SENATOR LIEBERMAN URGES PRESIDENT BUSH TO PRESSURE CUBA

    In a live broadcast to Cuba, Democratic candidate for president Joe Lieberman urged President Bush administration Thursday to ratchet up the pressure on Cuban dictator Fidel Castro's communist government and help the island nation's dissidents. The senator from Connecticut called on President Bush in an interview with Radio Marti ¿to be very aggressive'' in implementing the policies the president outlined in a May 2002 speech in which he promised to provide American aid for the development of civil society in Cuba.

    ¿And what does that mean? Specific support for the dissidents, the freedom fighters in Cuba and not stepping back at all in our position that we will not rest until this regime falls and the Cuban people rise to enjoy their freedom,'' Lieberman said in a brief interview. Lieberman told listeners in Spanish, ¿I have always fought for a free Cuba.''

    In response to reporters, Lieberman criticized the Bush administration's follow through on the 2002 speech. ¿There has been not adequate support particularly of the creation of civil society in Cuba and not adequate support of the dissidents,'' Lieberman said. Lieberman, the 2000 Democratic vice presidential candidate, voted for the 1996 Helms-Burton Act that tightened the U.S. economic embargo against Cuba. 

    CUBA ANGRILY REJECTS INCLUSION IN THE ANNUAL REPORT ON TERRORISM

    Cuba on Thursday rejected U.S. charges that the communist-run Caribbean island sponsors terrorism, and accused the Bush administration o obsessively trying to overthrow President Fidel Castro's government. Cuba charged the list was politically motivated, created "favorable conditions for a possible military aggression" and undermined the global war on terrorism. The new communiqué said the U.S. annual "Patterns of Global Terrorism" report, issued along with the list, contained "flagrant lies against Cuba." Our country has firmly and decidedly opposed the wars against Afghanistan and Iraq and the new Nazi-fascist doctrine (of preemptive war) that the United States is attempting to impose on the world," the statement said.

        "The Cuban government energetically rejects, once again, the infamous inclusion of our country on this unilateral and spurious list," a statement published on Thursday by both Granma and Juventud Rebelde states. The U.S. State Department on April 30 issued its annual list of "state sponsors of terrorism," including Cuba, which has made the list since 1981, this year with Iran, Iraq, Libya, North Korea, Sudan and Syria. Relations between the United States and Cuba, enemies since Castro took power in a 1959 revolution, have been increasingly strained during the Bush administration.  

    THREE CUBANS SWIM TWO MILES TO FLORIDA SHORE

    Three Cubans who jumped from their rickety wooden boat and swam to shore after refusing help from the U.S. Coast Guard were being detained, along with a fourth man who was captured at sea. The Cubans were spotted by a Coast Guard jet around 2 p.m. and three vessels were sent out to the area, an officer said. The men swung their oars at the boat to keep the vessels at bay, then got out of their boat and swam the two miles to shore. The three initially threw life jackets back to Coast Guardsmen, but eventually put them on. One was wearing flippers.

     A fourth migrant, too tired to stay afloat, allowed himself to be taken aboard a Coast Guard vessel. With rescue boats following and officers watching, the three Cubans kept swimming, hoping to make it two miles to freedom. Nearly three hours after throwing themselves from their rickety boat to stave off the Coast Guard, three Cuban migrants slogged through thigh-high water and into the mangroves off Key Largo on Tuesday. 

    Barefoot and wearing nothing but brief trunks, the trio gingerly picked their way across a bed of coral to the mangrove swamp ringing the affluent enclave of The Ocean Reef Club shortly before 6:30 p.m. As the ocean gave way to shallow puddles, one of the men lifted his arms to the sky, pumping his fists with joy. Under the wet foot/dry foot policy, Cuban migrants who reach shore are generally allowed to stay, while those interdicted at sea are typically sent back to communist Cuba.

    CUBAN DICTATOR FIDEL CASTRO SAYS U.S. IS PROVOKING WAR

    Cuban dictator Fidel Castro, addressing a May Day rally of hundreds of thousands of people, accused the United States on Thursday of trying to provoke a war with Cuba. ¿In Miami and Washington they are now discussing where, how and when Cuba will be attacked,'' the Cuban dictator said in a speech at the annual celebrations in Havana's Plaza of the Revolution. Castro charged President Bush administration was out to assassinate him or invade the country, stating that he was not worried about being killed, but rather about a U.S. attack.

    ¿On behalf of the one million people gathered here this May Day, I want to convey a message to the world and the American people: We do not want the blood of Cubans and Americans to be shed in a war.'' Castro accused the United States of hypocrisy over recent hijackings of Cuban planes and boats, saying Americans were provoking and actively encouraging the hijackings, only to later denounce them. "Castro appears to be using the U.S. threat as a cover to clamp down because the economy is not doing well, though he does have some reason to worry about the Bush administration," a European diplomat said.

    "If the solution were to attack Cuba like Iraq, I would suffer greatly because of the cost in lives and enormous destruction it would bring Cuba. But it might turn out to be the last of the (Bush) administration's fascist attacks, because the struggle would last a very long time," he said. As an example of America's ¿brazenly provocative'' actions, Castro said Kevin Whitaker, chief of the State Department's Cuban bureau, warned Cuban diplomats in Washington on Sunday that the American government ¿considered the continued hijackings from Cuba a serious threat to the national security of the United States.''

    CUBAN DICTATOR FIDEL CASTRO ACCUSES UNITED STATES OF CONSPIRING AGAINST CUBA.

    Fidel Castro harshly criticized America's top diplomat in Cuba on Friday, accusing him of provoking his government by hosting dissidents whom the Cuban president called ¿counterrevolutionaries'' and ¿mercenaries.'' Castro listed a series of acts and statements by U.S. Interests Section Chief James Cason, who took up his post in the fall. ¿He came here with instructions to carry out all kinds of provocations against Cuba,'' Castro said in a speech carried live on the island's Cuba's state-run television and radio.

    Castro's detailed accounting included the numerous meals, cocktail parties and other gatherings - complete with dates and names of people in attendance - that he said Cason hosted for dissidents, who the dictator characterized as ¿counterrevolutionaries'' and ¿mercenaries.'' Castro leader has criticized Cason in the past as a ¿bully with diplomatic immunity.''

    In the past month, Cuba has come under heavy world criticism for holding rapid tribunals and giving 75 dissidents sentences ranging from six to 28 years on charges of collaborating with American diplomats to subvert the socialist system - charges that the opponents and U.S. officials deny.
    "After years of calling for liberalized relations with Cuba, this editorial page must now urge American policy makers to hit the brakes. This month, Fidel Castro threw up a roadblock that cannot be ignored: He sicced his political police on about 90 independent journalists, political dissidents, union activists and people who had made the mistake of privately lending books by such authors as Vaclav Havel and George Orwell. Labeling their targets traitors, Castro's cops seized computers, typewriters and books. At least 70 are still in jail. Those found guilty of 'conspiratorial activities' could end up with sentences of 20 years. The return to repression looks like a trend." Editorial page of The Los Angeles Times.

     CUBAN DIPLOMAT ACCUSES UNITED STATES OF CREATING CRISIS

    Cuba's top diplomat in Washington said Wednesday the President Bush administration is ¿trying to create conditions for a crisis'' by cutting back on legal migration and showing a tolerant attitude toward plane and boat hijackers who flee to the United States. Dagoberto Rodriguez, who heads his country's small diplomatic mission here, also said that President Bush's policy of pre-emption poses a threat to Cuba. ¿This is the dark reality we face today,'' Rodriguez told a news conference. Under the pre-emption doctrine, the United States may use force against a country if it has reason to believe U.S. citizens or interests may be targets of a terrorist attack from within that country. It was a key rationale for the attack on Iraq last month.

    Rodriguez said there have been seven hijackings of Cuban planes and boats in recent months but there ¿has been no clear action'' by the administration to stop these activities. He appeared to be saying that a lax U.S. attitude toward hijackings could prompt many Cubans to try that option as the most efficient way to reach U.S. shores. State Department officials disputed Rodriguez's premise, noting that all hijackers involved in two incidents in recent weeks remain in pre-trial detention. The United States does not consider several other incidents to be hijackings because the captains in these cases headed for the United States on their own without coercion.

    Rodriguez also said there has been a substantial drop in the number of Cubans who have been given permission by U.S. officials to migrate legally to the United States. He suggested that the slowdown could encourage Cubans prevented from migrating legally to seek illegal means to flee the country, possibly creating a migration crisis similar to the ones that occurred in 1980 and 1994.

    UNITED STATES READY FOR POSSIBLE NEW EXODUS FROM CUBA

    Coast Guard cutters operating off South Florida's shores have picked up fewer Cuban migrants in the first three months of the year than Haitians and Dominicans combined. But the absence of large numbers of Cuban migrants headed for South Florida may be the calm before the storm. A wave of repression in Cuba in recent weeks has been so alarming that U.S. officials have begun to wonder whether Cuba may unleash a new Mariel-style exodus -- a typical Cuban response in times of crisis. American officials are so worried that they have already quietly advised Cuba not to attempt any such action.

    But if a new exodus occurs, officials say they will activate a classified federal contingency plan designed to deal with migrant surges. Operation Distant Shore would trigger a dramatic escalation in the number of Coast Guard and other military vessels patrolling the Florida Straits -- a veritable floating wall designed to interdict as many migrants as possible at sea. Talk of the plan is all the more relevant in the wake of reports last week that President Bush was preparing punitive steps against Cuba along with a possible public warning to Fidel Castro not to resort to a new exodus. No one will say when Bush would deliver the warning, but officials at the White House's National Security Council and the State Department have left no doubt that Washington is concerned.

    ''The United States remains committed to safe, legal and orderly migration from Cuba to the United States,'' National Security Council spokesman Sean McCormack said. ''We make clear to Cuba that the United States expects it to live up to its commitments under the migration accords,'' a State Department official said.  

    CUBA SAYS IT CAN SURVIVE BAN ON U.S. REMITTANCES

    Communist-run Cuba reacted angrily on Friday to a report the United States government was considering suspending family remittances by Cuban-Americans and said its socialist economy would survive the blow. The cash remittances from relatives in the United States, now estimated to total as much as $1 billion a year, are a vital source of income for many Cubans coping with economic hardship in Cuba since the collapse of the Soviet Union.

    It was reported on Thursday that President Bush administration was studying a series of steps to punish the Cuban government for a recent crackdown on dissidents.  Washington was also considering halting direct charter flights to Cuba to limit the number of Americans traveling to the island, as part of a series of sanctions in response to the wave of repression. U.S. officials said they may consider new steps to pressure Cuba, but so far discussions of specifics were at a low level of government. Last week, Cuba shocked human rights organizations with the execution by firing squad of three men who hijacked a Havana Bay ferry in a bid to cross the Florida Straits to the United States.  

    U.N. HUMAN RIGHTS COMMISSION APPROVES RESOLUTION CONDEMNING CASTRO

    Thursday, the Castro dictatorship has been dealt another blow with the passage of resolution L-2 at the United Nations Human Rights Commission meeting in Geneva.  The resolution, condemning Cuban human rights practices, passed by a vote of 24 to 20, with 9 abstentions.

    The censure is particularly timely because of the recent brutal crackdown in Cuba that led to the arrests of more than 75 members of peaceful opposition groups who were sentenced to a combined total of 1454 years in prison, as well the execution by firing squad of three Cubans, all following summary judicial proceedings that received world-wide condemnation.

    The resolution, which urges Havana to receive the U.N. human rights commissioner's representative, Christine Chanet, was introduced by Nicaragua, Costa Rica, Peru and Uruguay.  It is the second time the resolution condemning Cuba is introduced by Latin American nations and the thirteenth time in 14 years that Fidel Castro's dictatorship has been censured by the U.N. for its continued violation of human rights.

    PRESIDENT BUSH ADMINISTRATION PONDERS SANCTIONS AGAINST CUBA 

    President Bush administration is considering a series of steps to punish the Cuban government for its recent crackdown on dissidents, officials said on Thursday. President Bush is likely to make a public statement soon about the crackdown, in which nearly 75 government critics have been jailed, dampening the hopes of some U.S. lawmakers seeking to ease the current trade sanctions, the officials said.

    At the same time, the president is expected to issue a stern warning to the Havana government that the United States will not tolerate another exodus of rafters. Several times during Castro's 44-year dictatorship, most notably in 1965, 1980 and 1994, he has relieved internal tensions by allowing mass migrations to Florida.

    Administration officials said they were preparing a variety of options for the president, and no final decisions have been made. The harshest sanctions involve restricting or eliminating the transfer of cash payments, called remittances, to friends and relatives on the island. The payments, sent primarily from South Florida exiles, are a lifeline to millions of Cubans and, with estimates as high as $1 billion, a mainstay of the economy. Also being considered is a move to limit the number of Americans who travel to Cuba by ending direct charter flights between the countries.  

     SECRETARY POWELL DECRIES CUBA°S HUMAN RIGHTS RECORD

     Secretary of State Colin Powell, calling Cuba's rights situation horrible and getting worse, urged the U.N. Human Rights Commission to censure Cuba for suppressing dissent. The 53-member commission, winding up its annual meeting in Geneva, is expected to vote on a Cuba resolution on Wednesday. The United States has been pushing for the strongest resolution possible. The resolution already drafted asks only that Cuba accept a visit by a U.N. monitor assigned to observe the rights situation on the island. In recent years, the commission has usually approved resolutions critical of Cuba.

    Secretary Powell spoke in unusually harsh terms about Cuba when he was asked Tuesday at a news conference for an assessment of its rights record. "It has always had a horrible human rights record. And rather than improving as we go into the 21st century, it's getting worse," Powell said. He noted that scores of dissidents were arrested and given long prison terms recently "just for expressing a point of the view that is different from that of Fidel Castro." Powell said Cuba's behavior "should be an outrage to everyone. It should be an outrage to every leader in this hemisphere, every leader in this world."  

   AFTER IRAQ, CUBA NOT NEXT ON U.S. LIST, SECRETARY RUMSFELD SAYS

    Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld suggested Sunday that Cuba would not likely become a U.S. military target. During an interview on NBC News' Meet the Press, Secretary Rumsfeld responded to a question about Cuba from program moderator Tim Russert. ''There are some suggestions that there°s a checklist, that if Syria, Iran, North Korea does not get rid of their weapons of mass destruction, that they could very well meet the same fate as Iraq,'' Russert said. ¿What about a country like Cuba, which has just executed some political prisoners, waged a major crackdown over the last few weeks? Would we ever consider trying to liberate the people of Cuba?''

    ''We care about the people of Cuba, who are repressed in a dictatorship,'' the Secretary replied. ¿People are imprisoned and killed and denied rights to speak their mind, and that°s sad. It is unfortunate. ¿But we recognize we can°t try to make everyone in the world be like we areÞWe hope they have the opportunity to say what they want, and practice freedom of religion and freedom of speech, freedom of assembly. But we recognize in a complicated world that there are countries that live differently. And so it isn°t a matter for the United States to try to have everyone else be like us,î he added.

    However, Secretary Rumsfeld did not totally close the door to the possibility of U.S. military action in Cuba. ''But if they had weapons of mass destruction, that°s a different matter?'' Russert asked. Rumsfeld answered: ¿To the extent our country is threatened or our people are threatened, then the president and the government " that°s the first responsibility of government, is to see to the protection and security of our country.'' President Bush administration said last year that it believed Cuba has ''at least a limited offensive biological warfare'' program and could be sharing its expertise with other countries that are hostile to the United States. In May 2002, Cuban dictator Fidel said at Tehran University: ¿The people and the governments of Cuba and Iran can bring the United States to its knees. The U.S. regime is very weak, and we are witnessing this weakness from close up.''

    (Click here and read "Cuba policy should be changed)

    CUBAN DICTATOR FIDEL CASTRO CRACKDOWN MAY THWART ANTI-EMBARGO MOVES

    Cuba's intense crackdown on dissidents threatens to stymie attempts to ease travel and trade restrictions between the United States and its communist neighbor, U.S. lawmakers said. Cuba's quick execution on Friday of three men who hijacked a ferry on April 2 in hopes of reaching the United States only highlights the human rights abuses that embargo supporters have decried for years. Many lawmakers say Washington's response to Cuban president Fidel Castro's actions must now be to tighten the noose.

    Even before Friday's executions, a unanimous U.S. House of Representatives last week condemned the roundup of dissidents, and called for Cuba to release all political prisoners. The Senate's working group on the embargo also took its first action -- sending a letter to Havana's interests section in Washington that also condemned the political crackdown.

     THE CUBAN DICTATOR DEFIANT AMID CRITICISM, PROTESTS

     Cuban dictator Fidel Castro remained defiant amid international criticism of Cuba's harsh measures taken against Cuban dissidents and the execution of three hijackers, saying he would fight to the end to defend his nation against the United States. "We are now immersed in a battle against provocations that are trying to move us toward conflict and military aggression by the United States," Castro told a group of Venezuelans in a Friday night speech broadcast on state television. "We have been defending ourselves for 44 years and have always been willing to fight until the end," Castro added in the speech, which marked the coup attempt against his political ally Venezuelan socialist president Hugo Chavez a year ago.

     Castro made no direct reference to Friday's execution of three convicted hijackers by firing squad, nor the sentences of up to 28 years handed down earlier in the week for 75 government opponents charged with collaborating with U.S. diplomats to undermine the socialist system. But he made it clear that he considers his country to be under attack from the United States and that he will do all to ensure his communist system remains intact. "They have not been able to [harm Cuba] up to now," Castro said. "If someday they make us disappear from the map, we will die (excellent idea) with the greatest dignity in the world," Castro added. 

     "I think that the Cubans have looked at what is happening in Iraq and have concluded that the United States will not be restrained by international law and international institutions," a Cuban affairs analyst said. "And I do think they have the idea they could be next."

    ANOTHER CRIMINAL ACT OF CUBAN DICTATOR FIDEL CASTRO

    Cuban dictator Fidel Castro has executed three men convicted of hijacking a passenger ferry to sail to the U.S. The firing squad sentences were carried out immediately after a Cuban court found the men guilty of ¿terrorism. Another four men received life sentences. They were part of a group of approximately 10 men and women that tried to escape from Cuban communist dictatorship. The group was involved in the April 2 hijacking in which the ferry, carrying at least 30 men, women and children, was forced to sail into the Straits of Florida, but ran out of fuel 30 miles from Havana. Cuban officials towed it back to the Port of Mariel. After the boat was docked in Mariel, west of Havana, Cuban authorities gained control of the ferry April 3 and arrested the suspects without firing a shot.

    The executions come in the wake of two plane hijackings in recent weeks and amid a crackdown on civil liberties that has unfolded as world attention has been focused on Iraq. Since the U.S.-led war on Iraq began last month, 85 dissidents have been sentenced to as many as 27 years in prison. The Baraguá was hijacked a day after a Cuban passenger plane was hijacked to Key West, Fla. Ten of the Cubans aboard that flight opted to remain in the United States.

    The men executed were: Lorenzo Enrique Copello Castillo, Bárbaro Leodan Sevilla García and Jorge Luis Martínez Isacc. Three more names to be added to the list of martyrs murdered by Cuban dictator Fidel Castro.

    Click here    and read the names of Cubans murdered by Cuban dictator Fidel Castro

    SECRETARY POWELL URGES CUBA TO RELEASE DISSIDENTS

    Accusing Cuba of engaging in ¿despicable repression,'' Secretary of State Colin Powell on Thursday urged Cuban President Fidel Castro to free the scores of dissidents imprisoned recently and sentenced to long terms. ¿Nearly 80 representatives of a growing and truly independent civil society have been arrested, convicted and sentenced to lengthy prison terms in summary, secret trials,'' Powell said in a statement. ¿Their only crime was seeking basic human rights and freedoms.''

    Omitting the Cuban leader's title and first name, Secretary Powell urged ¿Castro'' to free these "prisoners of conscience,'' and added that the United States and the international community will be unrelenting in its insistence that ¿Cubans who seek peaceful change be permitted to do so.''

    Meanwhile, communist-run Cuba condemned one of the island's best known dissidents, Dr. Oscar Elias Biscet, to 25 years in prison on Thursday, as the last sentences were handed out for 75 dissidents swept up in an unprecedented political crackdown.

    CUBA CALLS OFF A CONFERENCE DUE TO DETERIORATING TENSIONS WITH U.S.

    Cuba's communist government, blaming "U.S. provocations" for deteriorating relations with the United States, announced on Friday it had called off a conference that was to be attended next week by hundreds of Cuban émigrés from Florida. A government statement published in the ruling Communist Party libel Granma said the conference designed to build a bridge with Cuban exiles would be held at a later date.

    "To the international tension caused by the war against Iraq is now added the growing deterioration in the relations between Cuba and the United States, as a result of the increased hostility and provocations against our country," the statement said. In the past two weeks, Cuban dictador Fidel Castro's government has repeatedly attacked the top U.S. diplomat in Havana, James Cason, for actively supporting the island's small but growing opposition.

    More than 600 Cubans émigrés had planned to attend the "Nation and Emigration" conference scheduled to take place in Havana April 11-13. The meeting was called to supposedly improve communications between the Cuban exile community and Havana, and discuss ways to clear obstacles to travel to Cuba and financial remittances to relatives that help economically battered Cuba.

     U.S. CONDEMNS DISSIDENTS° TRIALS IN CUBA

    The State Department condemned trials in Cuba against 78 dissidents and called the proceedings a "Kangaroo court." ¿The Castro regime's actions are the most despicable act of political repression in the Americas in a decade,'' spokesman Philip Reeker said Thursday, hours after the trials got under way. ¿While the rest of the hemisphere has moved toward greater freedom, the anachronistic Cuban government appears to be retreating into Stalinism,'' he said.

    Reeker said at least a dozen of the accused could face life sentences. ¿The United States calls on the international community to join us in condemning this repression and in demanding the release of these Cuban prisoners of conscience,'' he said. "The government has never before tried so many people for their political beliefs or sought such draconian sentences," said Elizardo Sanchez, president of the non-governmental Cuban Human Rights Commission.

    Among those facing life sentences are dissident economist Martha Beatriz Roque; poet and journalist Raul Rivero; opposition labor activist Pedro Pablo Alvarez; opposition leader Dr. Oscar Elias Biscet and Ricardo Gonzalez, editor of Cuba's only dissident magazine. Diplomats from Germany, Great Britain, Spain, Sweden, the Czech Republic, Canada and the United States were turned away from court houses in Havana. "They told us the diplomatic corps and journalists could not attend," a European diplomat said.  

  THOUSANDS OF CUBAN EXILES RALLY ON CALLE OCHO CALLING FOR CUBAN DICTATOR FIDEL CASTRO'S OVERTHROW  

    A 12-block-long surge of demonstrators, most of them Cuban Americans, flowed across the heart of Little Havana on Saturday to pump up support democratic changes Cuba. With chants of ''Long Live America!'' and ''Long Live A Free Cuba!'' they applauded the Bush administration's tough stance against terrorism and likened Cuba's Fidel Castro to Iraq's Saddam Hussein.

    The sea of red, white and blue flags along Southwest Eighth Street, known more commonly as Calle Ocho, conveyed one distinct message: that the exile community in Miami has not shifted to a more moderate position in bringing about democratic reform in Cuba, despite recent polls supposedly  indicating that today's exiles favor a more pragmatic approach.

    Some analysts said the show of support for Cuba freedom on Calle Ocho also was a display of political power. ''What we're reminded is that what matters in politics is the voters, and these people in the streets are the voters,'' said a political science professor.

    RULES CHANGED ON CUBA TRIPS

    President Bush administration released new rules Monday that will allow more Cuban Americans to visit relatives on the island, restrict the kinds of groups that can participate in exchanges and increase the flow of money to Cuba, including funds meant to reach government opponents. 

    Among the most dramatic changes in licensing rules:

‚ Travel permits no longer will be granted to organizations that take individuals to Cuba to participate in ''educational'' exchanges that are not related to academic course work. The change will require more scrutiny of license applications.
‚ Travelers with relatives in Cuba can now carry as much as $3,000 in household remittances, up from $300, each quarter.
‚ Licenses will now also be issued to independent organizations designed ``to promote a rapid, peaceful transition to democracy.''
‚ The so-called humanitarian activities will be expanded to include construction projects intended ''to benefit legitimately independent civil society groups'' as well as promote educational training in such fields as civic education, journalism, advocacy and organizing.

    The new rules were in response to President Bush's ''Initiative for a New Cuba'' announced last May, according to the Treasury Department's Office of Foreign Assets Control, which issues the travel licenses. The revisions took effect Monday but written comments on the changes will be accepted through May 23, meaning that the provisions could be altered.

    PRESIDENT BUSH CONDEMNS INTENSIFIED REPRESSION OF THE CUBAN GOVERNMENT

    President George W. Bush on Wednesday accused Cuba of launching "personal attacks" against U.S. diplomats and urged it to release more than 75 Cuban dissidents arrested in a recent crackdown. "President Bush condemns the Castro government's intensified repression of Cuba's growing pro-democracy and human rights activists," a White House statement said.

    The statement said the dissidents have been "unjustly imprisoned" in a sweep that began last week and has been described by Cuban officials as a crackdown on U.S.-backed anti-government conspirators. "Arrest of these dissidents comes on the heels of recent personal attacks by the Cuban government against our diplomats in Havana," it said. "We call upon the Castro government to release immediately Marta Beatriz Roque, Rene Gomez Manzano, Felix Bonne, Oscar Elias Biscet, and all other unjustly imprisoned dissidents," the White House statement said.

    The crackdown carried out by the Cuban government was regarded as one the most severe in years. The European Union on Wednesday also criticized the arrests, and European diplomats said the arrests could damage Cuba's hopes for EU aid.  

    CUBAN AGENTS ROUND UP MORE DISSIDENTS

    A human rights group said more than 100 dissidents had been arrested. The detainees included more than a dozen independent journalists, owners of lending libraries, leaders of opposition political groups and pro-democracy activists who gathered signatures for a reform effort known as the Varela Project. The crackdown alarmed international rights and press advocates, including former President Jimmy Carter, who called on Cuban authorities to respect human rights and ¿refrain from detaining or harassing citizens who are expressing their views peacefully.î

    The organization Reporters Without Borders accused the Cuban government of taking advantage of the world's preoccupation with the U.S.-led war in Iraq to carry out the roundup. ¿Human rights in Cuba can therefore be viewed as one of the first cases of collateral damage in the second Gulf war,'' said Robert Menard, the group's secretary general. The leadership of the Inter-American Press Association, currently meeting in San Salvador, El Salvador, expressed concerns about the arrest. The American Society of Newspaper Editors sent a letter to Cuban Foreign Minister Felipe Perez Roque urging the release of those detained.

    Meanwhile, some of the island's best-known critics remained free, including veteran rights activist Elizardo Sanchez, Varela Project organizer Oswaldo Paya and Vladimiro Roca, son of the late Cuban Communist Party founder Blas Roca. But all three reported they had been under heavy surveillance by plainclothes security agents in recent days and said they would not be surprised if they were next. The crackdown began during a meeting in Geneva of the United Nations Human Rights Commission, which has repeatedly criticized Cuba.  

     CUBAN DICTATOR EXPANDS CRACKDOWN, GRABS AT LEAST 100 DISSIDENTS

    Cuban dictator Fidel Castro's agents arrested some of the government's leading critics in an escalating crackdown and accused them of working with U.S. diplomats to undermine Cuba's socialist system. With the world focused on the war on Iraq, Cuban authorities began looking at higher-profile opponents Thursday, picking up Raul Rivero, the island's best known independent journalist.

    State security agents on Thursday evening also detained Hector Palacios, a leading organizer of the Varela Project reform effort, after an extensive search of his home, said veteran rights activist Elizardo Sanchez. Both Sanchez and the Varela Project's top organizer, Oswaldo Paya, reported that their homes were under heavy surveillance by plainclothes security officers late Thursday. ¿They are outside my house, on the corner,'' Sanchez said by telephone. ¿We don't know how far this crackdown is going to go,'' said Sanchez. ¿The Cuban government wants to silence the dissident movement. But that is not possible.''

    Earlier in the day, agents arrested several people at a home where they were fasting to demand the release of Oscar Elías Biscet. The day's arrests raised the number of detentions during three days of sweeps to at least 100, according to Sanchez, of the non-governmental Cuban Commission on Human Rights and Reconciliation. At least a dozen are independent journalists. Relatives of well-known government opponent Marta Beatriz Roque confirmed she was among the small group of people at the home in Havana where they had been fasting since March 11.

    CUBAN DICTATOR FIDEL CASTRO CRACKS DOWN ON U.S. DIPLOMATS

    Cuban dictator Fidel Castro government has confirmed that U.S. diplomats may no longer move freely around the island. An official statement read on state television's evening news Tuesday accused the chief of Washington's diplomatic mission in Havana, James Cason, of trying "to foment the internal counterrevolution." "No nation, no matter how powerful, has the right to organize, finance and serve as a center for subverting the constitutional order," the statement said.

     In Washington, a State Department official said that American authorities had not yet had time to study Havana's announcement. The Cuban statement did not describe the restrictions, but U.S. officials have said that American diplomats here must now get prior approval to travel outside the 434-mile area that includes Havana and surrounding Havana Province. Washington last week imposed similar travel restrictions on Cuban diplomats in the United States, saying it was responding to Havana's move.

    CARTER°S DISAPPOINTED BY CUBA°S HANDLING OF VARELA PROJECT PETITION

    Former President Jimmy Carter, who 10 months ago made headlines by endorsing a pro-democracy petition in a nationally televised speech during a visit to Cuba, said Tuesday that he is ''disappointed'' by the Cuban regime's lack of response to the request. Carter added that ¿we have to be constantly critical of any violation in Cuba of their own Constitution, which guarantees freedom of speech, and freedom of assembly, which in my opinion authorizes the Varela Project.''

    ''I've been disappointed that the National Assembly did not accept the Varela petition and act on that petition, one way or another,'' Carter added. Referring to the Cuban government's claims that it could not consider the referendum request because it allegedly demanded constitutional changes, which would require a different procedure under Cuban laws, Carter said, ¿I read the Varela petition very carefully, and I read the Cuban Constitution. In my opinion, the Varela petition does not call for constitutional changes. It calls for changes in statutory laws.''

    CUBAN FOREIGN MINISTER LAMBASTES THE SENIOR U.S. DIPLOMAT IN HAVANA

    Cuba's Foreign Minister Felipe Perez Roque said on Friday that the top U.S. diplomat in Havana was part of President Bush°s plan to halt growing U.S. sentiment against the embargo of the island. Pérez issued a highly personal attack on the head of U.S. Interests Section, James Cason, at a Havana press conference. He said that Cason had engaged in activities that were "truly offensive" and "violated international conventions governing diplomats."

    On Friday Cason opened his residence for a seminar on media ethics attended by 30 independent journalists, whom Cuba considers to be dissidents organized and paid by the United States. "The fact that this is newsworthy in Cuba is a reminder of the status of freedom of expression in this country," the Interests Section said. The State Department has said it fully supported the U.S. Interests Section.

    Cuban dictator Fidel Castro has threatened to close the U.S. mission, calling it "an incubator for counter-revolutionaries" after Cason visited the home of a leading dissident, Martha Beatriz Roque last month. The dictator  has accused the U.S. Section of trying to undermine his one-party communist state with stepped-up support for Cuba's small but growing dissident movement.

    CUBA WON°T LET HUMAN RIGHTS MONITOR IN

    Cuba said Friday it will not let a U.N. human rights monitor visit the island because the U.S.-backed resolution creating her post was illegitimate. Human Rights Commissioned Christine Chanet was appointed in January. ¿Cuba has not cooperated, nor will it cooperate with the resolution,'' Perez Roque said. The Minister charged that U.S. arm-twisting brought about the resolution and said Cuba does not accept the legitimacy of the commission vote.

    ¿The only place on this island where the existence of such a special envoy could be justified is at the (U.S.) Naval Base at Guantanamo,'' he said. The United States is holding 650 suspected Taliban and al-Qaida fighters at the base in eastern Cuba. The commission has voted to censure Cuba every year over the past decade except 1998. Cuba annually accuses the United States of strong-arm tactics to lobby support for the vote - a claim American officials deny.

     UNITED STATES SAID IT WOULD CONTINUE ENCOURAGING DISSIDENTS DESPITE THE CUBAN DICTATOR°S CRITICISM

    The United States said on Friday it would keep encouraging Cuban dissidents despite Cuban dictator Fidel Castro's criticism of the top U.S. diplomat in Havana and his threat to close the U.S. Interests Section. Cuba and the United States have not had diplomatic relations for four decades and the American mission operates as the U.S. Interests Section of the Swiss embassy in Havana.

    In a speech on Thursday to the National Assembly, the dictator accused the U.S. Interests Section of trying to undermine his one-party communist state with stepped-up support for Cuba's small but growing dissident movement. The State Department shot back by saying it fully supported the U.S. Interests Section and protested what it called Castro's "derogatory" comments about its chief, U.S. diplomat James Cason. Castro threatened to close the mission after Cason visited the home of a leading dissident, Martha Beatriz Roque, on Feb. 24.

    "Castro's defamatory language and his criticism of Mr. Cason's comments in support of democracy and freedom underscore yet again that Castro abhors freedom of expression, and fears any measure of support for human rights in Cuba," State Department spokesman Philip Reeker said in a statement. Cason has accused Cuba of suppressing human rights and freedom of expression, and said a transition to democracy was already underway in Cuba. "Despite Castro's repeated threats to close the U.S. Interests Section we will continue to reach out to Cubans to assure them that they are not alone as they work toward a free, democratic and prosperous future," Reeker said. "The United States places high priority on supporting the Cuban people in a peaceful transition to democracy."

    CUBA SEIZES U.S. MISSION°S BOOK SHIPMENT

    Works by Martin Luther King Jr., John Steinbeck and Groucho Marx were among 5,101 books seized by Cuban authorities after being shipped in by the U.S. government, America's top diplomat in Havana said Thursday. American diplomats were told it was a "firm decision by the government" not to allow the books into the communist-run country for distribution to dissident groups, including independent libraries, U.S. Interests Section Chief James Cason said.

     "They said it wasn't the books, but who we were going to give them to," he told a small group of international reporters. He said the American mission has imported similar books in the past. The Cuban government takes exception to, but largely tolerates, the scores of independent libraries now operating across the island. However, it resents their contacts with American officials. The $68,770.41 shipment seized recently remains in the control of Cuban customs officials, Cason said. American officials said they would happily pay duties on the books, but were told that was not an option.

    "It's fear of losing political control," said Cason, who arrived in Havana five months ago. "That's how Groucho Marx ... can suddenly become a subversive." Cason made a high-profile appearance earlier this week - and even spoke with the foreign media - during a meeting of opposition groups at the home of well-known dissident Marta Beatriz Roque. Cason denied the Cuban government's charges that the mission provides financial support to dissidents. "We don't give out cash to the opposition," he said. "We provide information materials from the United States. What we do here is logistics."  

     U.S. ENVOY MEETS WITH CUBAN DISSIDENTS

    America's top diplomat in Havana visited with Cuban dissidents Monday and said the communist-run government is afraid to grant civil liberties such as freedom of speech to its citizens. It was the first time in recent years that the top American diplomat had traveled to a dissident's home. Previously, the U.S. envoys met with dissidents at the mission or the section chief's home.

    U.S. Section Chief James Cason and other American diplomats met with about 40 members of a recently formed dissident umbrella group at the home of well-known government opponent Marta Beatriz Roque. The group calls itself the Assembly for the Promotion of Civil Society. ¿Sadly, the Cuban government is scared - scared of freedom of conscience, scared of freedom of expression, scared of human rights,î Cason told international reporters.

    The reporters were summoned to the meeting by Beatriz, who did not inform them that America's top diplomat would be there. Reporters were merely told they were invited to a meeting of dissidents honoring the 108th anniversary of the launch of Cuba's wars of independence. Cason also called for the release of Dr. Oscar Elias Biscet, a government opponent who was released in October after serving more than two years in prison only to be arrested again several weeks later. ¿This group is demonstrating that there are Cubans such as Dr. Biscet who do not have fear,î Cason said. ¿They know that the transition toward democracy is already under way. We want them to know that they are not alone, that the whole world supports them,'' Cason said.

    A Cuban court has sentenced two supporters of the pro-democracy Varela Project to 18 months in prison for contempt and resisting arrest, organizers of the reform movement said. Jesus Mustafa Felipe, 58, and Robert Montero, 32, were sentenced Tuesday by a provincial court in the eastern city of Palma Soriano, said a statement by the Christian Liberation Movement.

    The contempt and resisting arrest charges evidently were the result of a confrontation the pair had with police in their hometown on Dec. 18, said Efren Fernandez of the Christian Liberation Movement, which informed journalists of the sentences. The men had visited a local police station to get information about a third man who had been detained and refused to leave when officers ordered them to, Fernandez said in a telephone interview.

    The contempt charge is generally applied for acts considered disrespectful to Cuban leaders, symbols or institutions. In the past it has been used for those accused of publishing or broadcasting insults against Cuban dictator Fidel Castro and other senior government officials.

       THE CUBAN DICTATOR SAYS U.S. WAR ON IRAQ UNJUSTIFIED

     Cuban dictator Fidel Castro said on Friday a U.S.-led war against Iraq was unjustified because it was unlikely that Baghdad possessed weapons of mass destruction. Lashing out at his longtime ideological foe, Castro said the United States had failed to prove its case against Iraq and was acting unilaterally by ignoring the United Nations.

    "A war is about to break out. ... It is an unnecessary war, using pretexts that are neither credible nor proven," Castro said in a speech to a conference of Latin American economists. "The immense majority of world opinion unanimously rejects a new war," he said, adding that it was "hardly probable" that Iraq had biological, chemical or nuclear weapons. The Cuban dictator added that  Washington was flouting international rules and disregarding the United Nations, which "was practically dissolved by imperial decision after the fateful 11th of September."

     The 1,500 leftist economists at the anti-globalization conference issued a declaration condemning U.S. plans for a possible war on Iraq. "This time it is Iraq. It could be any other country next," the statement said.  

    EFFORT TO WEAKEN EMBARGO OF CUBA IS ELIMINATED FROM BILL

    The White House succeeded in stripping language to weaken the U.S. embargo of Cuba from a massive spending bill making its final passage through Congress, a Miami legislator said Thursday. Republican Rep. Lincoln Diaz-Balart credited President Bush and his threat last week to veto the entire $397 billion spending bill if legislators dismantled any part of the four-decade-old embargo. ''President George W. Bush's support for Cuba's freedom is extraordinary,'' Diaz-Balart said in a statement.

  In a Feb. 4 letter to four key legislators, White House Budget Director Mitchell Daniels warned that Bush considers the embargo of Cuba ''vitally important'' and might veto any bill that tinkered with efforts to lessen economic sanctions of the Fidel Castro regime. 

    U.S. GIVES DEFECTOR°S BOAT BACK TO CUBA

    The Bush administration has returned a 32-foot Cuban patrol boat used by four members of the Cuban border guard Friday to flee to Key West, U.S. officials said Monday. The Coast Guard handed off the patrol boat to Cuban officials Sunday afternoon on the high seas. The U.S. Coast Guard has declined comment on how the military men, armed with a handgun and two loaded AK-47 assault rifles, managed to pull their government vessel into a dock at a Key West hotel last Friday without being noticed. The incident took place on the same day the United States raised its security alert to its second highest level and warned of a heightened possibility of terrorist attack.

    Immigration and Naturalization Service officials are interviewing the Cuban border guards, examining their request to remain in the United States, officials said. They were still in the custody of the U.S. Border Patrol late Monday.

      CUBA IS A THREAT TO THE FREE WORLD (By Arch Kielly)

     Fidel Castro may have some serious problems in the near future.  The Free world considers Cuba a country that exports terrorism and maintains dangerous close ties with Iraq.  In addition, Cuba°s best friends and supporters are the  pariah countries of the world.  Countries like North Korea, Iraq, Iran, Vietnam, Libya, countries that have not provided freedom nor basic human rights for their people.  The United Nations and the United States have declared war to any country that exports terrorism or produces biological, chemical or nuclear weapons.  It was the Clinton Administration that declared Cuba in the 1990s to be a threat to the United States.

    Proof that Cuba is a threat to the free world was not introduced by the CIA nor the FBI.  It came from Cuban and Soviet defectors who are experts in special warfare. Soviet Colonel Ken Alibek declared that Cuba has been producing biological weapons for more than 10 years although Cuba claims that they are only producing vaccines and medicines.  He added that Cuba is part of a  bioterrorist program formed by the late Soviet Union.  Carlos Wotzkow, a scientist of the Cuban Zoo Institute, told the West that Castro uses the institute  to produce biological weapons.   He said that the institute introduces infectious viruses in birds that migrate to the United States.  Some American scientists believe that the West Nile and the encephalitis viruses were introduced in the United States through migrating birds .

    A large number of professional Cuban military members are well aware of these practices and they are against these experiments.  They secretly oppose the Castro regime because they operate outside international laws and act against their own constitution.  Unfortunately, the Cuban military members have been placed in a dangerous situation.  Both the United Nations and the United States have stated that any civilian or military member involved in the use of biological, chemical or nuclear weapons, will be charged for crimes and punished under existing international laws.  CAMCO strongly recommends to their Cuban  brothers to take no part in the production or use of these weapons.  ¡VIVA CUBA LIBRE!

 

    PRESIDENT BUSH WARNS CONGRESS ON CUBA EMBARGO

    The White House has warned Congress that it may veto a massive $390 billion spending bill if it includes language that weakens the embargo of the island. President Bush considers it ''vitally important'' to maintain the 4-decade-old embargo of Cuba, Office of Management and Budget chief Mitchell E. Daniels told four key legislators in a letter delivered Tuesday.

    The letter is the latest sign that the White House is preparing for major clashes with legislators seeking to open up trade with the island. The Bush administration, keeping a watchful eye on Cuban-American voters in Florida instrumental to its 2004 reelection, has vowed to maintain the embargo against a surge of legislative proposals to allow greater trade.

    The warning on Cuba came in a six-page letter from Daniels delivered to Rep. C.W. Bill Young, a Florida Republican who is chairman of the House Appropriations Committee, and three other legislators.  ''Lifting the sanctions now would provide a helping hand to a desperate and repressive regime, whereas the president's policy calls for reaching out to help the Cuban people,'' the Daniels letter said. ¿As noted in the July 11, 2002, letter from Secretaries [Colin] Powell and [Paul] O'Neill, the president's senior advisors would recommend that he veto a bill that contained such changes.''  

    U.S. DETAILS HARASSMENT OF DIPLOMATS BY CUBANS

    Cuban dictator Fidel Castro's agents have left human waste in the Havana homes of American diplomats, disturbed their sleep and tempted married envoys with sexual affairs in a harassment campaign aimed at exhausting the U.S. officials, according to an internal State Department document. Originally classified, the cable was written by the U.S. Interests Section in Havana in December and outlines complaints that while not new, are exceptional in their details. It was declassified this week.

    Diplomats and opponents of the Castro government have complained for years about harassment of U.S. government employees by Cuban agents and the so-called Committee for the Defense of the Revolution (CDR), Communist party loyalists who stage protests outside Castro opponents' homes. In Washington, a senior State Department official said Cuban agents monitoring U.S. diplomats in Cuba have ''gotten more aggressive'' in recent months. ''They're engaged in active psychological operations against U.S. personnel. Spouses are not immune. Children are not immune,'' said the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity.

    Using language reminiscent of Cold War conditions for Americans operating behind the Iron Curtain, the nearly three-page cable also said that the diplomats ¿are treated to a steady diet of officially sanctioned provocations, surveillance, recruitment attempts and harassment.'' The cable said the goal of harassment was to ''take a psychological and physical toll'' on the American envoys. Washington severed ties with Havana in 1961 and resumed partial relations in 1977 during the Carter administration.

    CUBA ACCUSES UNITED STATES OF AIDING TERRORISM

    Ricardo Alarcón, president of Cuba's parliament, said on Thursday at a Havana news conference that the sale in Florida of a small plane taken from the island by a defector "... is another demonstration of the U.S. authorities' engagement with anti-Cuban terrorism."

    On Nov. 11, a Cuban pilot snatched the government-owned plane, flying seven of his relatives from the Caribbean island to Key West, 90 miles (145 km) north of Havana. The United States ruled the act a defection and granted those involved asylum. Cuba called it air piracy and demanded the return of the aircraft and its passengers. However, a Florida court ruled in December that the crop duster could be sold to help pay a $27 million judgment against Havana in the case of the ex-wife of a Cuban spy who had sued for civil damages. The plane was sold -- to the ex-wife -- on Monday for $7,000.

    Alarcón added that Cuba had posted on the Internet a dossier it gave to the Federal Bureau of Investigation in 1998 detailing exile activity against the country. Alarcón said that, soon after the dossier was handed over, the FBI rounded up Cuban agents instead of the exiles. Five Cuban spies were convicted in 2001 of plotting against the United States and imprisoned. The five spies were part of a ring that infiltrated U.S. military bases and Cuban exile groups and fed information to Havana.

    AGAIN, PRESIDENT BUSH EXTENDS SUSPENSION OF HELMS-BURTON LAW'S TITLE III

    Following the lead of former President Bill Clinton, President George W. Bush on Thursday suspended for six months Title III of Helms-Burton law that allows Americans  to sue foreign companies using Cuban property confiscated after the 1959 communist takeover of the Caribbean island.

    In an open letter sent to key members of Congress, President Bush said, as he stated last year, extending the suspension ¿is necessary to the national interests of the United States and will expedite a transition to democracy in Cuba,î The letter does not say what everyone knows, that extending the suspension of Title III allows the United States to avoid potential disputes with European Union nations whose firms have big investments in a communist nation that exploits slavery work.

    The President last extended the waiver in July. The 1996 law, written by now retired Sen. Jesse Helms, R-N.C., and Rep. Dan Burton, R-Ind., gives Americans and Cuban-Americanas the right to sue any individual, investor or business using property seized after Castro took power in 1959. The law, passed in the aftermath of the downing of two small civilian planes by Cuban air force fighters, gives the president authority to waive enforcement of the ban at six-month intervals. President Clinton (a democrat) exercises his authority ten times after the law took effect, and President Bush (a republican) has now decided four times - contrary to pleas from the Cuban-American community - not to change President Clinton°s policy.

     SECRETARY POWELL TO MEET OSWALDO PAYA

     Secretary of State Colin Powell plans to meet Monday with Osvaldo Paya, the Cuban dissident recently awarded the European Union's top human rights prize. Paya gained international attention earlier this year with his nationwide effort to gather signatures for a petition to hold a referendum to promote human rights for all Cubans.

    The petition drive gathered enough signatures for presentation to the National Assembly. But Cuban dictator Fidel Castro countered with own petition campaign in support of a constitutional amendment to make the country's socialist system untouchable. The amendment was adopted this past spring. Paya received the European Union award last month at a ceremony in France.

    U.S. OFFICIAL TOLD TO LEAVE CUBA

     A U.S. official visiting Cuba for routine migration talks said he was asked to leave Wednesday by the Cuban government after he met with leaders of opposition groups. Kevin Whitaker, who coordinates the State Department's Office of Cuban Affairs, met Wednesday morning with two groups of dissidents and the wife of a jailed opponent of President Fidel Castro. Cuba's communist government had allowed Whitaker to spend 72 hours in Cuba as head of the U.S. delegation to Tuesday's bi-annual migration talks, but he planned to stay another day.

    ¿I was given to believe that would be all right, but we were informed in a telephone call this afternoon that I would be required to leave,î Whitaker said at a news conference. ¿The regime has informed us that I'm required to leave the country, so I will be leaving tonight for the United States,î he said. Whitaker said he had ¿very fruitfulî discussions with Cuban dissidents, adding that the meetings were one of the main purposes of his trip to Cuba. Castro's government labels the small dissident movement ¿counterrevolutionaries on the payroll of the United States.î

    Whitaker met at the residence of the top U.S. diplomat in Havana with Vladimiro Roca and Elizardo Sanchez and other dissidents who are seeking peaceful internal change in Cuba through a signature campaign called the Varela project. He also met with Martha Beatriz Roque, who heads a rival group that is gathering social support for a post-Castro transition, and Elsa Morejon, wife of dissident physician Oscar Elias Biscet, who has been under arrest since Dec. 6. ¿The Cuban opposition is growing in strength. I think they have real moral backing for what they do ... under extremely difficult circumstances,î Whitaker said.

    WELL! CUBAN DICTATOR FIDEL CASTRO'S FINAL HOUR IS NEAR. AFTER 43 YEARS OF TYRANNY, THE STATE DEPARTMENT ANNOUNCES PLANS TO DISTRIBUTE 25,000 SPANISH LANGUAGE BOOKS TO CUBAN KIDS -- WOW, TERRIFIC...IDEA!

    The State Department announced plans last Monday to distribute 25,000 Spanish-language books to Cuban children next year through the U.S. diplomatic mission on the island. The project will be carried out with the Sabre Foundation (NOT THE CENTER FOR A FREE CUBA), which distributes books and other education materials throughout the Third World.

    Curt Struble, the senior official in the State Department's Latin America bureau, told reporters the Bush administration hopes the project will offer Cuban children "a window to limitless worlds, a view of others' lives and dreams, a respect for the opinions of others."  Lorne Craner, who heads the State Department's human rights bureau, said the Cuban government has not been consulted about the project or the type of books that will be sent.

    AMBASSADOR REICH SHOULD BE RE-ASSIGNED TO THE LATAM POST

    The timing for Ambassador Otto Reich's situation could not be worse for President Bush administration and the Cuban-American community. The Cuban-Americans, with their vote, have just showed their overwhelmingly support for both the President's policies and his brother, Jeb Bush, Governor of Florida. Cuban-Americans were celebrating the successes they had helped to achieve, when they were hit by the unexpected news. Despite the newly acquired Republican control of the Senate, Reich's interim appointment came to an end and the administration failed to re-nominate him. As the chairman of CAMCO, Maj. Gen. (D.C.-Ret.) Erneido A. Oliva, correctly predicted a few days ago, the non-appointment of Reich as Assistant Secretary of State for Western Hemisphere Affairs has been celebrated in Havana as a new great victory for Cuban dictator Fidel Castro -- one that is of great importance and it fully compensates him for the earlier defeat he had received at the United Nations in Geneva.

    If President Bush was confident enough to appoint Reich to an interim position early on, what has changed since then (except the Republican takeover of the Senate) to justify the current impasse? We admire and respect President Bush, and pray for his success and that of his policies. There is no substitute for American leadership in today's dangerous world. But President Bush has to have at his disposal professionals like Otto Reich to take the heat and defend and implement his strong policies.

     All CAMCO members, as well as the CAMCOCUBA visitors who agree with our position, should telephone the White House Public Liaison Office, to express their opinion and urge President Bush to  re-appoint Ambassador Otto Reich to the Assistant Secretary position. 
     White House Phone: 202-456-1414 " Office of Mr. Carl Rove or Mr. Leonard Rodriguez.

WASHINGTON, D.C., April 27, 2001

     AGAIN, CAMCO RESPECTFULLY URGES PRESIDENT GEORGE W. BUSH TO FULFILL HIS PROMISE TO PRESSURE CASTRO UNTIL CUBA IS FREE

    The Cuban-American Military Council (CAMCO), again, urges President George W. Bush to fulfill his promise of helping the Cuban people in their struggle to free their native country from oppression and communism.   Since 1959 the small Caribbean island of Cuba is home to the oldest surviving dictatorship in the worldÜone which has continuously violated human and institutional rights--as was demonstrated last week in Geneva. However, in spite of forty-two years of despotism in the Cuban nation, leaders of the Free World have failed to take actions against the dictator similar to those previously adopted against other Latin American military dictatorships.

    The United Nations° vote condemning Cuba for its human rights violations should make the democratic governments of the world reconsider their positions concerning Cuba and decide to help Cuban dissidents and those outside the country who are determined to bring political changes to the island.

    Despite the pronouncements of civilian and military officials who want to diminish the threat represented by communist Cuba so as to not provoke its dictator, the military professionals of CAMCO have repeatedly stated that Cuba continues to pose a real and present danger to this country°s national security as long as the Castro brothers remain in power. CAMCO leadership strongly believes that this great nation should do no less and no more in Cuba than it did in the Dominican Republic, Grenada, Haiti and Panama, that is, help bring democracy, freedom and a better life for these countries° people.

    To those politicians who are still helping Cuba politically and economically to maintain its dictatorship, CAMCO asks only one question: WHAT WOULD YOU DO IF YOUR OWN COUNTRY HAD BEEN GOVERNED BY THE SAME PARTY AND THE SAME DICTATOR FOR FORTY-TWO YEARS? WOULD YOU PRAISE THE TYRANT?

     HAVE YOU READ THE ARTICLE WRITTEN  BY GENERAL OLIVA ON FEBRUARY 25? ALMOST NINE MONTHS AGO OLIVA STATED:

    ¿Recently, the White House, tried to justify President George W. Bush°s second waiver of the Helms-Burton Title III, and to explain why the president was not enforcing the laws on Cuba, as promised during his presidential campaign ...' The recent appointment of Otto Reich as Assistant Secretary of State for Western Hemisphere Affairs completes the President°s foreign policy team. With it, a full review of the tools we are using to achieve our policy goal in Cuba is now appropriate.' ... In my dealings with many of their past and present colleagues (at the State Department), I have found out that many of them have been afraid of directly interfering with Cuba°s dictatorship and have been opposed to supporting the Cuban-Americans who are peacefully struggling for a free, civic and democratic Cuba ... It seems that the tough rhetorical position adopted by the current president, is only a 'cosmetic' stance to appease the politically active Cuban-Americans ... until the next state or national elections as it was repeatedly done during past administrations ... the consolidation of Castro, an international terrorist who has intervened politically and militarily in every country of Latin America and has shamelessly fooled with impunity nine American presidents...For the reasons explained above, Washington°s policy towards Cuba of ¿NO CHANGEî should be "CHANGED" if President Bush is really committed to bring democracy to the Cuban people."

    SECRETARY OF STATE COLIN POWELL FIRED AMBASSADOR REICH FROM HIS LATAM POST

    On his first work day back at the State Department after being shouldered out of his senior post on Latin America, Ambassador Otto J. Reich worked in a less-exalted office Monday and faced both unclear responsibilities and a distinctly murky future. Reich is now a ¿special envoyî to the Western Hemisphere, reporting directly to Secretary of State Colin Powell. Even the State Department's senior spokesman did not know what the job would entail. Reich was to leave Monday to accompany Powell to talks in Mexico City but he canceled ¿to focus on his new job and responsibilities,î a State Department colleague said.

    Supporters of Reich say they fully expect the Bush administration to send his name back to the Senate, which will be in Republican hands and, in theory, more favorable to White House wishes. But at the State Department, spokesman Richard Boucher stated he didn't know if Reich's name would be submitted. ¿That's a White House question,î he said.

    Ambassador Reich was one of two controversial nominees to high-profile posts in the Bush administration who were removed from their jobs Friday when the House adjourned for the year, forcing a legal end to their temporary White House appointments. Unlike Reich, the other nominee, Eugene Scalia, son of Supreme Court justice Antonin Scalia, was immediately put back in his job as the Labor Department's solicitor by the White House. However, Reich did not get a temporary reappointment as Scalia. Nor did he get any public assurance from the White House that it would again push for the Senate to finally approve him as the Assistant Secretary of State for Western Hemisphere affairs.

     ANOTHER VICTORY IN WASHINGTON FOR CUBAN DICTATOR FIDEL CASTRO: AMBASSADOR OTTO REICH OUT AS LATIN ENVOY FOR U.S.

     In a hasty job reshuffling that will affect U.S. policies in Latin America, Ambassador Otto J. Reich was forced to step down Friday from the top State Department position for the region. Reich arrived on a flight from Brazil early in the day, where he'd been on a grueling diplomatic trip, only to be greeted by the news that his tenure as assistant secretary of state for Western Hemisphere affairs was at an end.

    Secretary of State Colin Powell, who fired Reich, has not named his replacement, but sources said Reich's principal deputy, J. Curtis Struble, a career Foreign Service officer, would fill the job in the interim. Reich reportedly has been the victim of sniping elsewhere in the department. In compliance with instructions from the Secretary, Reich was asked Friday afternoon to move out of his spacious sixth-floor State Department office to a smaller one some 100 feet away.

    Reich had held the job since January, thanks to a recess appointment by President Bush after he failed to win Senate confirmation. Reich's friends and supporters said they had received private assurances that he would be nominated again and were puzzled by a lack of a public announcement. However, they must realize by now that the mid-term elections are over and the Cuban-American vote will not be needed until 2004.

    FOUR CUBAN ENVOYS EXPELLED

    President Bush administration said Tuesday that it is expelling two Cuban diplomats and asking two others to leave the United States in retaliation for a U.S. senior intelligence analyst spying for Havana. ''In response to unacceptable activities, the United States decided to take strong action,'' said a State Department spokesman. Almost three weeks ago, a federal judge handed down a 25-year jail term to a Pentagon senior analyst, Ana Belen Montes, for her lengthy spying career.

    Two diplomats from the Cuban Interests Section, the island's diplomatic mission in Washington, were informed last Friday that they had 10 days to leave the country, the spokesman said. He identified them as Oscar Redondo Toledo and Gustavo Machín Gómez, both with a diplomatic rank of first secretary. ¿These expulsions represent our response to the unacceptable Cuban activities for which Ana Belen Montes was arrested and convicted,î he said. ¿The Montes matter is extremely serious.î

    Separately, two diplomats at Cuba's mission to the United Nations in New York City have been requested to leave the United States for ¿engaging in activities deemed to be harmful to the United States.'' One of the Cuban diplomats in Washington declared persona non grata, Machín, has variously served as a spokesman, first secretary or business affairs secretary since 1997. Machín's expulsion is considered a blow to the Cuban government because he has experience in dealing with the business and congressional community. We call on the Cuban government to ensure that there will be no similar episodes or new actions in the future against the interests of the United States,'' the State Department said.

   SECRETARY OF STATE COLIN POWELL PRAISES CASTRO DICTATORSHIP

     Just one day after Cuban dictator Fidel Castro, upset for his defeat in Geneva, assailed Latin American democratic governments and President George W. Bush,  Secretary of State Colin Powell praises him in Congress. ¿He's done some good things for his people,'' Powell said of Castro, who took over Cuba in a revolution in 1959 and has ruled the Caribbean country ever since.

    ¿He is no longer the threat he was,'' Secretary Powell said in response to questioning at a House Appropriations subcommittee hearing by Rep. Jose E. Serrano, D-N. Y. Serrano has denounced many times before U.S. diplomatic isolation of Cuba as senseless.

    Asked by Miami reporters about Secretary Powell's comments, a distinguished leader of the Cuban exile community declared: "It is profoundly regrettable what he said. The death and misery that Fidel Castro has caused trumps a thousand times over any good he has done for the Cuban people.''

      Successive Democratic and Republican administrations, including President Bush's, have sought to isolate Cuba economically and politically. Castro, however, has managed to hang on for forty-two years, before with the financial support from the former Soviet Union, and now with that of China and Russia.

    ANA BELEN°S CASE SWEPT UNDER THE RUG

    According to court reports, details of Ana Belén Montes' espionage career will remain largely secret. Officials in President Bush administration have said ''she did grave damage to this country'' by providing "secret" and "top secret" information to the regime of Cuban dictator Fidel Castro through her Cuban handlers stationed in Washington, D.C. However, these officials are trying to sweep the Pentagon spy case under the rug to prevent the American people from knowing that Cuban dictator is as, or even more, treacherous than Saddam Hussein.

WASHINGTON, D.C., October 17, 2002

    US SPY FOR CUBA SENTENCED TO 25 YEARS IN PRISON

     Ana Belen Montes, a former senior intelligence analyst for the Defense Intelligence Agency convicted of conspiring to spy for Cuba, was sentenced on Wednesday to 25 years in prison after saying she opposed U.S. government policy toward Cuba. Prosecutors have said Montes identified to Cuban intelligence four undercover American agents on the island and gave Havana classified information about U.S. national defense. She also gave Cuban agents details of a secret military training exercise in which she took part in 1996.

    Montes, an American citizen of Puerto Rican descent, has admitted she spied for Cuba for 17 years. She acknowledged that her way of responding to the government's Cuban policy may have been "morally wrong." After the sentencing, U.S. Attorney Roscoe Howard, whose office prosecuted the case, said Montes has cooperated fully, as required by her plea agreement. "She did grave damage. She owed the country an apology. I'm disappointed she did not provide it," he said.

    U.S. District Judge Ricardo Urbina cited her betrayal, saying Montes, 45, decided to put her fellow Americans and her country "in harm's way' and must pay the penalty. In addition to the 25-year sentence, the judge placed the spy on five years of probation, to be served after she completes her prison sentence.

WASHINGTON, D.C., October 15, 2002

    CONGRESSMAN DOOLEY INTRODUCES LEGISLATION TO NORMALIZE RELATIONS WITH CUBA

    Democrat Congressman Cal Dooley yesterday introduced a bill to normalize U.S. relations with Cuba. "I strongly believe that the best way to support democratic change and human rights in Cuba is by promoting trade and travel, which would engage the people of Cuba," Dooley said.

    The measure aims to set a date for the expiration of the Helms-Burton Law, which in 1996 made law and tightened the full U.S. economic embargo that has been imposed on Cuba since 1962.

    In July, the House of Representatives voted 262-167 in favor of a measure that would ban using federal funds to enforce U.S. restrictions on its nationals' travel to Cuba. The Senate has not yet voted on the measure, and President George W. Bush has promised to veto it.

FORT WASHINGTON, October 1st ., 2002

      UNBELIEVABLE! -- (Published in our LATEST NEWS  of June 13, 2002) - - YESTERDAY, THE CUBAN DICTATOR AND HIS LACKEYS AGAIN AFFRONTED THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES; HOWEVER, THE STATE DEPARTMENT IS SENDING TO CUBA A DIPLOMAT WHO WANTS TO ¿SAILî WITH THEM 

    The Department of State has denied rumors circulating within the Cuban-American community that the diplomat expected to head the U.S. Interests Section in Cuba plans to take a sailboat to Havana. Spanish-language radio in Miami was abuzz Monday with reports that James Cason will be "sailing" around the Caribbean waters (with the communist leadership) when he replaces Vicki Huddleston (an outstanding American Ambassador) in September. ''It's not true,'' a State Department spokesman said. ¿He does not have a sailboat. He does not have a yacht. He has a fishing boat that is going to stay in storage when he is gone.'' State Department officials acknowledged that Cason had given some brief consideration to taking his 24-foot motorboat but almost immediately decided against the idea.  

    "This is just a rumor and there's no controversy that I'm aware of in Washington," said James Carragher, coordinator for Cuban affairs. Cason, a longtime Department of State official, currently serves in the Bureau of Western Hemisphere Affairs in Washington.

     In a statement made public on February 25, 2002, our Chairman, Major General (DC-Ret) Erneido A. Oliva, said: "...I personally know that Ambassador Reich is an outstanding professional and I do not question his democratic values. However, due to my 30 years of experience in Washington, I am sorry to say that the task assigned to him in this Hemisphere, to make possible a democratic transition in Cuba, is going to be very difficult to accomplish if changes are not implemented soon. In my dealings with many of their past and present colleagues, I have found out that many of them have been afraid of directly interfering with Cuba°s dictatorship and have been opposed to supporting the Cuban-Americans who are peacefully struggling for a free, civic and democratic Cuba..."

HAVANA, October 1st ., 2002

    JAMES CASON: CUBA HAS A ¿JURASSIC ECONOMYî

    James Cason, the top U.S. diplomat to Cuba, sporting a white tropical dress shirt known as a guayabera greeted food producers from across the United States Saturday while visiting a giant agribusiness fair in Havana. During his tour of the facility, Cason encouraged American exhibitors to get their payments in cash, instead of arranging financing for sales. Cason used the opportunity to dampen enthusiasm by cautioning them about the risks involved with engaging in commerce with Cuba. He also accused communist Cuba of having a "Jurassic economy."

    Cuban Foreign Minister Felipe Perez Roque, who also toured the fair Saturday, responded that it was the U.S. trade embargo that was from ¿Jurassic Park.î ¿The embargo-sour will someday be in the Museum of Natural Sciences in New York - in a corner because no one remembers it,'' he said. Cason and Perez Roque stood a few feet away at one point, but did not meet. Asked if there was any chance for the passage of legislation that would dismantle the four-decade old trade embargo, Cason said: ¿The president would veto it. He made it clear. So I would concentrate on cash sales.î

    Munching on an ice cream bar, Cason continued strolling past the product-packed aisles, chatting with exhibitors. ''I used to do trade shows, so as a vehicle for selling trade it's great,'' Cason told representatives of the Kentucky Department of Agriculture. Still, he warned, ¿Credit is a different ball game. They [the Cubans] have the poorest credit in the world.î

HAVANA, September 26, 2002

    CUBA HOPES US FOOD SHOW COULD HELP END EMBARGO

    An unprecedented U.S. agriculture trade show in Havana this week will boost food sales to the Communist-run Island and might help end the U.S. trade embargo. Pedro Alvarez, chairman of state-run Alimport, said that since purchases of U.S. food began in November last year, purchases had reached $140 million. The figure could amount to $200 million by the end of the year. Alvarez said the trade show has attracted 288 exhibitors from 33 states. 

     The exhibition is being organized by Peter Nathan, a Connecticut businessman. Minnesota Governor Jesse Ventura will cut the ribbon at the five-day fair on Thursday. U.S. business sources said they were surprised at the breadth of Cuba°s interest in U.S. food products, which they said now included Jell-O, Jiffy Peanut Butter, M&Ms, Pepsi, alone with giant agribusiness firms such as Cargill Inc., Archer Daniels Midland Co., Con Agra Foods, Perdue Farms, Hormel Foods Corp and Tyson Foods Inc.

    One of the Florida companies, Splash Tropical Drinks of Pompano Beach, received U.S. permission in recent weeks to sell to Cuba. Florida alone sent about 100 people to the fair, representing 34 companies and other entities. A list distributed by the sponsors contained only 26 companies, however, although that would still make Florida the principal state participant. No explanation for the apparent discrepancy was immediately available. Click here and read ¿CUBA BUSINESS IS DIRTY BUSINESS.î


HAVANA, September 4, 2002

    CRIMINALS SOUGHT BY U.S. FIND A PROTECTOR IN CASTRO°S CUBA

    Cuban dictator Fidel Castro's authoritarian regimen has long protected fugitives on the run from U.S. authorities, and it now protects more than 70 of them. While Washington has always wanted them returned, the Bush administration has become increasingly vocal about the issue, tying it to its global offensive against terrorism.

    The State Department includes Cuba on its list of countries supporting terrorism, partly because the United States says the dictator harbors people involved in terrorist rebel groups from Colombia, Spain and elsewhere. Washington also calls Castro a pro- terrorist for harboring outlaws from the United States.

    Cuban Officials say the only Americans they protect are those who deserve protection. The Castro regimen does welcome those it contends were unfairly prosecuted in the United States, officials said. They call ¿freedom fightersî criminals such as New Jersey's most wanted fugitive convicted cop-killer Joanne Chesimard. Click here and see a list of US fugitives in Cuba.


WASHINGTON, D.C., August 15

    US CALLS CUBAN DICTATOR A DINOSAUR ON 76^TH BIRTHDAY

    The United States labeled Cuban President Fidel Castro a "dinosaur" as he turned 76 years old on Tuesday and issued him a birthday challenge to renounce communism and embrace reform for the benefit of the Cuban people. "I knew there was a reason I wore my tie with dinosaurs," deputy State Department spokesman Philip Reeker said when asked about any birthday wishes Washington might have for its Cuban nemesis.

    He then suggested that Castro take a close look at US President George W. Bush's initiatives for Cuba which promise an easing of sanctions against the island in exchange for broad democratic and market reforms. "If the Cuban government takes these concrete steps toward democracy, President Bush will work with the United States Congress to ease the ban on trade and travel between the United States and Cuba," Reeker said. "So there's a birthday challenge, dinosaurs notwithstanding, for Mr. Castro to once again step back and think about the future of his own people."

WASHINGTON, D.C., July 25

    HOUSE VOTES TO LIFT CUBAN SANCTIONS

    The House brushed aside a veto threat from President Bush and approved several measures to ease restrictions on travel and trade with Cuba. By a 262-167 margin the House approved an amendment to a spending bill that would eliminate restrictions on American tourists traveling to Cuba. The legislators followed with a 251-177 vote on another measure lifting the cap, now $1,200 a year, on what Cuban-Americans can remit to their families in Cuba. Additionally, they approved by voice a measure to remove hurdles to the sale of food and medicine to Cuba. The most far-reaching attempt to reverse the four-decade-old policy of isolating Cuba, an amendment to lift the economic embargo, was defeated, but by a narrow 226-204.

    The White House, in a statement, threatened a presidential veto if the bill removed sanctions on Cuba. ¿Lifting the sanctions now would provide a helping hand to a desperate and repressive regime,î it said. White House spokesman Ari Fleischer, asked Wednesday about the Cuba votes, said that as ¿people realize that it's a serious (veto) message, the president is hopeful that that provision will be removed so that the bill can be signed into law.î State Department spokesman Richard Boucher said the president's policy continues to be to ¿take steps to improve relations if Cuba takes steps toward democracy and ending human rights abuses.î He said that has not happened.


WASHINGTON, D.C., July 23, 2002

    HOUSE REPUBLICANS REQUEST INVESTIGATION INTO EXPORTS TO CUBA

     "Seven House Republicans sent a letter to Assistant Secretary of State Otto J. Reich, requesting an investigation into exports to Cuba. The letter states: ¿We are concerned that payments from the Castro dictatorship for shipments of US agricultural products may not be, in reality, being made as required by lawÞThe Castro dictatorship is basically a bankrupt tyranny that owes billions of dollars in debt worldwide and cannot pay its billsÞî

     "Precisely because, among other reasons, the Castro dictatorship remains on the State Department°s list of Terrorist Nations, refused to allow the delivery of food directly to the Cuban people, continues to control all aspects of the Cuban economy and prohibits private enterprise, continues to use food as a weapon to control opposition activities, and is unable to pay many of its bills, the sale of US food and agricultural products must be very closely scrutinized and monitored. We are not convinced that the law°s requirements are being fully met..."

    The letter is signed by: Lincoln Díaz-Balart (R-FL), Henry Hide (R-IL), Dan Burton (R-IN), Cass Ballenger (R0-NC), Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (D-FL), Chris Smith (R-NJ), and Chris Cox (R-CA). Click here and read the letter.


WASHINGTON, D.C.., July 20, 2002

    WHITE HOUSE SAYS WOULD VETO THE ELIMINATION OF CUBA TRAVEL BAN

    The White House Thursday again threatened to veto any move to relax a ban on Americans traveling to the communist-led island. A Senate panel voted this week to lift the ban and the House is expected to follow suit.

    However, Republican leaders and the influential Cuban exile community oppose the move, saying more commerce with the United States would only bolster the communist dictator. They say the ban should be lifted only if Castro releases political prisoners and returns fugitives from U.S. justice. "Lifting the sanctions now would provide a helping hand to a desperate and repressive regime, whereas the president's policy calls for reaching out to help the Cuban people," said the White House°s statement. "The president's senior advisers would recommend that he veto a bill that contained such changes," it added.

    Cuba said Thursday it expected Bush to veto the lifting of the ban, but a top communist government official foresaw continued efforts on Capitol Hill to the ease restrictions on trade and travel to the island.


HAVANA, July 18 , 2002

    CUBAN DICTATOR BLASTS ¿SAVAGEî US POLICY TOWARDS IRAQ

    Cuban dictator Fidel Castro blasted Wednesday the "savage" policy of the United States towards Iraq, which has found itself under the looming specter of a US military campaign, the INA news agency reported.

    In a telegram of congratulations to his Iraqi counterpart, the Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein on the 34th anniversary of the July 17, 1968 coup that brought the Baath Party to power, Castro slammed the "savage policy of the United States towards the friendly Iraqi people."  The Cuban Communist tyrant assured Hussein of his "solidarity" and his desire to make stronger the relations between Cuba and Iraq, two countries targeted by Washington for the human rights violations of their respective dictatorial regimes.

WASHINGTON, D.C., July 18

    U.S. SENATE VOTED UNANIMOUSLY TO LIFT TRAVEL BAN TO CUBA

    The Senate Appropriations Committee voted unanimously to lift the four-decade-old travel ban on the Communist island. The House is expected to back lifting the ban for the third year in a row. In the past, those efforts failed because the Senate did not act on the issue.

    Proponents of ending the travel ban say it infringes on U.S. citizens' constitutional right to travel freely and has demonstrably failed to weaken the grip of Cuban dictator Fidel Castro on the Caribbean island.


WASHINGTON, D.C., July 17

    PRESIDENT BUSH EXTENDS SUSPENSION OF LAWSUITS

    Following the lead of former President Bill Clinton, who issued six-month suspensions of the controversial provisions 10 times in a row, U.S. President George W. Bush on Tuesday suspended for six months a law allowing Americans  to sue foreign companies using Cuban property confiscated after the 1959 communist takeover of the Caribbean island.

    In a letter sent to key members of Congress, President Bush said extending the suspension is ¿necessary to the national interests of the United States and will expedite a transition to democracy in Cuba.î Extending the suspension allows the United States to avoid potential disputes with European Union nations whose firms have investments in communist Cuba. 

    President Bush made a decision that might hurt his credibility among Cuban Americans in the crucial state of Florida, where his narrow victory in the 2000 presidential election handed him the White House. The law that provides for U.S. citizens and companies suing foreign firms is part of the Helms-Burton Act, enacted in 1996 after Cuban MiG fighters shot down in international waters two small planes flown by Cuban-American pilots.

WASHINGTON, D.C, July 17

    TWO TOP ADMINISTRATION OFFICIALS REITERATE SUPPORT OF WHITE HOUSE°S CUBA POLICY

    Secretary of State Colin L. Powell and Treasury Secretary Paul H. O°Neill launched a preemptive strike against renewed bipartisan congressional efforts to ease economic sanctions against Cuba and lift the ban on American travel to the communist island, telling the House Appropriations Committee they would ¿recommend that the president veto such legislation if it reaches his desk.î

    In their July 11 letter to House Appropriations Committee Chairman C. W. Bill Young (R-Fla.), Secretary Powell and Secretary O°Neill reiterated ¿the administration°s strong opposition to any legislative efforts that weaken the United States° current Cuba policy,î saying that ¿a relationship of continuing hostilityî exists between the two governments. Besides, the secretaries added that  Cuba is included in the list of countries that sponsor terrorism, provides shelter to fugitive criminals who had escaped from American justice, and it has a long history of espionage activities against the United States.


WASHINGTON, D.C., July 16

    CUBA EMBARGO OPPONENTS PROPOSE CHANGE

    House opponents of the administration's Cuba policy are hoping for a strong showing today on several votes designed to soften long-standing restrictions on U.S. dealings with Cuba. The amendment seen as having the best chance of passage would ease curbs on American travel to Cuba. A similar measure was approved 240-186 last year. ¿We ought to allow Americans to spread our culture and our values among Cubans,î Rep. Jeff  Flake, R-Ariz., said.

    The House also is expected to take up amendments to lift restrictions on remittances to Cuba and end a ban on credit sales of food to Cuba. Cash-only sales have been legal since 2000. A fourth amendment would prohibit the administration from using its resources to enforce the 40-year old U.S. embargo against Cuba. Congressional sources said this proposal, whose chief sponsor is Rep. Charles Rangel, D-N.Y., is given the least chance of winning House approval. The amendments would be attached to an appropriations bill for the Treasury Department and the U.S. Postal Service.

    The administration seems resigned to defeat on one or more of the proposed amendments, but officials do not believe the policy toward Cuba will be overturned. President Bush has said he will veto any moderation of the Cuba policy. A senior official the administration believes the votes are coming at a time when Cuban dictator Fidel Castro least deserves U.S. accommodation. The official said Castro has spurned a grass-roots democracy initiative, been less than helpful in the war on terrorism and has compared president Bush to Adolf Hitler.

WASHINGTON, D.C., July 9

     U.S. ACCUSES CASTRO OF DUPLICITY FOR JULY 4 EVENTS

     The United States on Monday accused Cuban dictator Fidel Castro of duplicity for organizing his own American Independence Day celebration in Havana on July 4. Communist Cuba celebrated the event by paying homage to the American people, their music and their poetry at an event attended by Castro at Havana's Karl Marx theater. The U.S. Interests Section in Havana had a separate celebration.

    U.S. State Department spokesman Richard Boucher said: "July 4 celebrates the Declaration of Independence, the freedoms that we have enjoyed for 226 years, sadly denied the Cuban people these last 43 years. The celebration of U.S. independence in Cuba will only be meaningful fully to us when the Cuban people are permitted to enjoy democracy, individual rights and freedoms." ¿It would seem to indicate a contradiction in his thinking, that he thinks that it's laudable to praise the United States for having these freedoms and not give them to his own people. Noteworthy for the duplicity of the action," Boucher said.

    Relations between Cuba and the United States have been going through a particularly bad period since President George W. Bush restated support for the U.S. trade embargo in May.

WASHINGTON, D.C., July 3, 2002

    THE BUSH ADMINISTRATION AUTHORIZES AMERICAN FOOD EXPO IN COMMUNIST CUBA

    Despite President George W. Bush's tough words against trade with communist Cuba, his administration approved an American food exposition in Havana. American food companies will be able to showcase their products in communist Cuba during a Sept. 26-30 trade fair as the island makes new deals to buy apples, dried lentils and peas - even brand-name packaged food - directly from the United States. PWN Exhibicon International LLC of Westport, Conn., announced the dates Monday, about a month after receiving Cuba's final approval to organize the U.S. Food & Agribusiness Exhibition in Havana.

    The U.S. Treasury Department earlier granted PWN Exhibicon a license to organize the trade fair - a necessary legal step because Cuba remains under a four-decade-old U.S. trade embargo. Exhibitors will be covered under PWN Exhibicon's license and will not have to obtain individual ones to showcase their products, the New York-based U.S. Cuba Trade and Economic Council said.

    About 150 U.S. companies, as well as agricultural agencies and organizations, have expressed interest in the trade fair, PWN Exhibicon has said. Communist officials first agreed to buy American food last November after Hurricane Michelle battered Cuba. They previously had refused to buy U.S. agricultural goods despite a 2000 U.S. law allowing them to do so. Since then, Cuba has bought, contracted or confirmed its intention to buy about 650,000 tons of U.S. agricultural products worth about $102 million, according to the U.S. Cuba Trade and Economic Council. The council projects Cuba will buy more than $165 million worth of American food by year's end and more than $250 million by the end of 2003.

HAVANA, July 1^st.

    
     THE TYRANT ACCUSES THE UNITED STATES

    Among the things Cuban dictator Fidel Castro blames President Bush administration for is a citizens' initiative known as the Varela Project that seeks a referendum on changes to Cuba's social, economic and political structure. The tyrant has said the campaign is the work of the U.S. Interests Section.

   Other incidents and activities Castro cited to justify his virulent rhetoric against the President of the United States are:

‚ The U.N. censure of Cuba for human rights violations.
‚ Public accusations by U.S. officials that Cuba is involved in biological weapons research.
‚ Speeches by President Bush in both Washington and Miami on May 20, vowing to maintain the trade embargo until democratic elections are held on the island.
‚ The State Department's continued inclusion of Cuba as a state that sponsors terrorism.
‚ A June 1 commencement address by President Bush in West Point that centered around preemptive strikes as part of a new U.S. doctrine for the fight against terrorism.

    ''The responsibility will lie with the U.S. government if its repeated commission of such offenses leads to the cancellation of the migration agreement and even to the withdrawal of the U.S. Interests Section in Havana,'' Castro said. The dictator directly told President Bush that he is not afraid of the consequences. ¿It is not my purpose to offend you personally, but I can tell you this because I have the modest possibility of meditating with objectivity and because, together with our valiant and heroic people, I lost long ago any notion of fear.''

HAVANA, July 1^st.

THE DICTATOR ATTEMPTS TO INTIMIDATE THE PRESIDENT 

    The threat by Cuban dictator Fidel Castro to possibly close the U.S. diplomatic mission in Havana and dissolve bilateral migration accords sets the stage for a potential crisis. Castro issued the warning earlier this week during a speech delivered at the National Assembly hours before lawmakers unanimously approved an amendment to make the socialist-framed constitution ¿irrevocableî and ¿untouchable.î

    The warnings have raised concern that Castro is prepared to unleash another massive exodus of migrants to get rid of alleged malcontents, a tactic he has used three other times during his 43 years in power -- in 1965, 1980 and 1994. Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, during a visit to Miami this week, said that abandoning the migration accords would be considered an ''act of aggression,'' and that the United States would react strongly to a new exodus. Washington officials have said that breaking off the migration accords would be a grave mistake.

HAVANA, June 30, 2002

    THE CUBAN DICTATOR BRUSQUELY REJECTS PRESIDENT GEORGE W. BUSH°S SCHOLARSHIP OFFER

    Cuban dictator Fidel Castro rejected a proposed U.S. program to provide scholarships to Cubans to study in the United States, mostly in technical and vocational fields. Castro said that ¿money instead should focus on low-income American blacks, Indians and Hispanics who cannot afford a university education.î

    President Bush, the tyrant said, ¿offers scholarships that the country has absolutely no need of and he does so with a hidden agenda. He shouldn°t even think that we would cooperate with a plan aimed at creating something similar to the School of the Americas to train agents of subversion and destabilization to serve his interventionist and imperial ends.î

    On 20 May, President Bush offered scholarships to Cuban students and professionals, hoping the skills they acquire will be useful when the island embarks on a democratic path. The President indicated some of the scholarships would go to relatives of political prisoners.

WASHINGTON, D.C., June 28, 2002

    U.S. SAID CASTRO'S COMMENTS ARE "DANGEROUS" FOR THE CUBAN PEOPLE

    The United States dismissed charges made by Cuban dictator Fidel Castro on Thursday that the U.S. mission in Havana is violating the country's sovereignty and are putting at risk migration agreements between the two countries. State Department spokesman Richard Boucher calls the U.S. Interest Section in Havana "a vital link to the Cuban people and said moving away from this system would be a mistake and "dangerous" for the Cuban people. Only Castro would consider a democracy, a system that exists everywhere else, to be subversive,'' Boucher said. 

   "We think his complaints are basically groundless," Boucher said. The spokesman said the migration talks, the last round of which took place in New York this month, had helped regulate the flow of people and ensure the safety of migrating Cubans. The migration agreements were negotiated to stem illegal migration by Cubans on rafts or small boats, many of whom drowned while attempting to reach the United States.

    Boucher said the U.S. Interests Section provides information to ordinary Cubans so that they can understand democracy and open markets. "This is a legitimate outreach function that's respected all around the world,î Boucher said. ¿But maybe that's why Castro doesn't like the Interests Section.î ¿Frankly, the Cuban Interests Section here does similar things in putting out information on Cuban policy and we don't object to that.î ¿He has an opposition on the island. The Cuban people are saying loudly and clearly that they want basic human freedoms and rights. He cannot disguise the fact that his 43 years of control over the island and denial of basic human rights are under considerable pressure,î Boucher said.


HAVANA, June 28, 2002

    THE CUBAN DICTATOR THREATENS TO REDUCE U.S. CONTACTS

    Cuban dictator Fidel Castro warned Wednesday that limited Cuba-U.S. relations could be cut further and the American mission on the island could be closed if U.S. diplomats continue ¿violations of our sovereignty, and the humiliating disregard of norms ruling the conduct of diplomats.î He said that migration agreements between the two countries were also being put at risk by American diplomats ¿who go around the country as they like, organizing networks and conspiracies.î The migration accords Castro referred to were signed in 1994 and 1995 and permit the repatriation of Cubans intercepted at sea. Prior to the migration accords, all Cubans fleeing the island were allowed to seek asylum in the United States. Now only those who reach U.S. soil automatically qualify for legal residency.

    Castro also said in his speech, ¿the contraband of merchandise in diplomatic pouches also is not admissible,î in an apparent reference to the means used to transport small short-wave radios into Cuba. ¿It will be the responsibility of the government of the United States if the insistence of such practices results in the annulling of the migration agreement, or even the withdrawal of the Interests Section in Havana.î

    Hours after Castro's speech, Cuba's National Assembly, comprised in its totality of communist party members, voted to consecrate its 41-year-old socialist system in the constitution as ¿irrevocableî and declare that ¿capitalism will never return againî to this Caribbean island. After a special meeting that included 168 speeches over three daylong sessions carrying long into the evenings, the voice vote among the 559 assembly members present was unanimous.

WASHINGTON, D.C., June 27, 2002

    PRESIDENT GEORGE W. BUSH°S GREAT INITIATIVE

    The Bush administration is planning to offer scholarships to Cuban students and professionals, hoping the skills they acquire will be useful if and when the island embarks on a democratic path. When the U.S. diplomatic mission in Cuba passed word of the plan recently, long lines formed outside the building, causing traffic problems.

    President Bush mentioned the plan in a speech last month, indicating some scholarships would go to relatives of Cuban political prisoners. Adolfo Franco, a top official at the U.S. Agency for International Development, said the initiative is a ¿wonderful vehicle for introducing young Cuban people to the United States and to give them a taste for academic freedom.î

    The Cuban government will have no role in the process until those selected for scholarships need permission to leave the country. U.S. officials said they are pushing ahead with the program even though there is no certainty that exit visas will be granted by the Communist government of Cuba. It will be up to U.S. diplomats in Havana to screen all applicants to ensure that no Cuban agents get visas.

HAVANA, June 26, 2002

    AS USUAL, RICARDO ALARCÓN ATTACKED PRESIDENT BUSH°S CUBA POLICIES

    Ricardo Alarcón, the National Assembly president, ruthlessly attacked President George W. Bush's vision for Cuba on Monday as millions of workers across the island got two days off to watch a televised special session called to enshrine socialism as ¿untouchable.î

    Alarcón declared that the U.S. president wanted the communist island to return to what he called  the ¿brutality and corruption of pre-revolutionary Cuba.î ¿'Does Mr. Bush really think that he will return to sink us in this hell of injustice?'' Alarcón asked. ''Does he imagine for a moment that we are going to turn over to that corrupt and criminal mafia our lands, our homes, our factories, our schools and hospitals, our research and cultural centers, our child-care centers, our retirement homes?'' he said. ''Does he perhaps suppose that Cubans will renounce the work they have realized, that they will turn over their sovereignty, betray their history and their nation?'' emphasized Alarcón.

    In a major policy speech last month, President Bush promised not to lift U.S. trade and travel restrictions until Cuba holds multiparty elections and undertakes other deep reforms in its communist system. The dictator's answer to President Bush's demand and the Project Varela's request has been to declare his revolution  "untouchable."


HAVANA, June 24, 2002
    THE CUBAN DICTATOR°S RECENT SLURS AGAINST THE UNITED STATES AND PRESIDENT BUSH

    ¿An unfortunate and crazy speechÞin the Nazi styleÞHitler never used that kind of language.î (Havana, June 10, referring to President Bush°s West Point speech)

    ¿They (the US) are the kings of the earth. There are more people frightened of them than were scared of Hitler.î ( Havana, June 10)

    ¿The economic, technological and military power network in (the US) is so pervasiveÞ(that) the world is coming under the rule of Nazi concepts and methods.î (Santiago de Cuba, June 8)

    ¿What is the difference between (the US° antiterrorism) philosophy and methods and those of the Nazis?î (Santiago de Cuba, June 8)

WASHINGTON, D.C., June 16, 2002

    THE STATE DEPARTMENT DISMISSES CUBAN DICTATOR FIDEL CASTRO°S SIGNATURE CAMPAIGN

    The US State Department dismissed on Friday Cuban dictator Fidel Castro's campaign for signatures supporting the communist system, saying Castro was trying to obscure popular support for a reform petition. Defying U.S. calls for political reform, the dictator announced on Thursday a nationwide campaign to support a petition in favor of making the socialist system "untouchable."

    Critics said his aim was to squash a dissident attempt to seek moderate internal reform and guarantees of civil liberties through a popular referendum known as the Varela Project. State Department spokesman Philip Reeker agreed. "Instead of addressing this peaceful plea for change, Castro has chosen to manufacture an alternative petition supporting the current constitution and to intimidate the population into signing it," Reeker told a daily briefing.

    Reeker added: "Obviously, given Castro's control over the Cuban population, he is no doubt going to try to get more signatures on this than on Project Varela. "No matter what the outcome, he's not going to be able to obscure the fact that one important thing has occurred with Project Varela, and that's it's succeeded in getting 11,000 Cubans to brave Castro's tyranny and to call for change.

WASHINGTON, D.C., June 13, 2002

      UNBELIEVABLE-- YESTERDAY, THE CUBAN DICTATOR AND HIS LACKEYS AGAIN AFFRONTED THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES; HOWEVER, THE STATE DEPARTMENT IS SENDING TO CUBA A DIPLOMAT WHO WANTS TO ¿SAILî WITH THEM

    In a statement made public on February 25, 2002, our Chairman, Major General (DC-Ret) Erneido A. Oliva, said: "...I personally know that Ambassador Reich and colonel Emilio Gonzalez are very capable men and I do not question  their democratic values. However, due to my 30 years of experience in Washington, I am sorry to say that their task in this Hemisphere, to make possible a democratic transition in Cuba, is going to be very difficult to accomplish if changes are not implemented soon. In my dealings with many of his past and present colleagues, I have found out that some of them have been afraid of directly interfering with Cuba°s dictatorship and have been opposed to supporting the Cuban-Americans who are peacefully struggling for a free, civic and democratic Cuba..."

HAVANA, June 11, 2002

     CUBAN DICTATOR FIDEL CASTRO SAID IN A SPEECH IN SANTIAGO DE CUBA ON JUNE 8: ¿THE WORLD IS COMING UNDER THE RULE OF NAZI CONCEPTS AND METHODSî

    Once more, the dictator shows his loathing for the United States and its president. In his speech full of hatred, Castro said: ¿In a recent speech made on the occasion of the bicentennial year of the West Point Military Academy, Mr. W. Bush threw a fiery harangue at the graduation ceremony of 958 cadets. However, his remarks were also addressed to the United States and the entire world. Some of the ideas expressed there are a reflection of his thinking.  He said for example: "If we wait for threats to fully materialize, we will have waited too longÞIn  the world we have entered, the only path to safety is the path of action. And this nation will actÞto strike at a moment°s notice in any dark corner of the world. And our security will require... to be ready for preemptive action when necessary to defend our liberty and to defend our livesÞWe will not leave the safety of America and the peace of the planet at the mercy of a few mad terrorists and tyrants. We will lift this dark threat from our country and from the world."

    ¿As you can see," the dictator continued, "he (President Bush) doesn°t mention once is his speech the United Nations Organization. Nor is there a phrase about every people°s right to safety and peace, or about the need for a world ruled by principles and norms. He only talks of alliances between powers, and of war and more war. He speaks of war on behalf of peace and liberty, words that coming from him sound as meaningless and empty as soap bubbles. His entire speech is no more than a sweetened exaltation of chauvinism, and of the superiority of his country°s culture, glory and power.î

    ¿In the face of such cowardice," Castro emphasized, "many peoples of the world will look hopefully to the American people as the only one capable of putting a straightjacket on, or stopping, the bigots in their lust for power, abuse and conflict.î

HOLGUIN, June 2, 2002

     THE CUBAN DICTATOR REJECTS PRESIDENT BUSH DEMOCRACY RECOMMENDATIONS

    In a speech before thousands of people in a drenching rain Saturday, Cuban dictator Fidel Castro said the democracy President Bush wants to see in Cuba would be a corrupt and unfair system that ignores the poor. ¿For Mr. W. Bush, democracy only exists where money solves everything and where those who can afford a $25,000-a-plate dinner - an insult to the billions of people living in the poor, hungry and underdeveloped world - are the ones called to solve the problems of society and the world,î Castro said in his continuing attack on President Bush's hard line policies toward the island. ¿Don't be a fool, Mr. W,î Castro said. ¿Show some respect for the minds of people who are capable of thinking...Show some respect for others and for yourself,î the dictator said.

     Castro's early morning address in Holguin is part of Cuba's answer to the President°s May 20 speeches in Washington and Miami, promising trade sanctions against Cuba would not be lifted until all political prisoners are freed, independently monitored elections are allowed and a series of other conditions are accepted for a ¿new government that is fully democratic.î Saturday's speech in this eastern provincial capital 500 miles east of Havana was aimed directly at President Bush.

     ¿None of our lead