Dean gets backing of leading lawmaker  12/31/03 Miami Herald: "Menendez said he was comfortable with Dean's position on Cuba and the U.S. embargo, which has shifted in the past year, and planned to ''proselytize'' for Dean among Cuban voters in Florida and New Jersey. Dean said in August that while he wanted to ease the embargo in return for human-rights concessions in Cuba, ''we can't do it right now'' because of the Fidel Castro's crackdown on dissidents. ''The governor is open-minded on Cuba policy, but I appreciate his position that the policy should not be changed as long as Castro does not change,'' Menendez said."

Judicial Hearings on Travel to Cuba Finally Begin  12/30/03 AP

Castro as Hitler on Cuban front page sparks hunt for mystery satirist  12/30/03 Guardian, UK

Trade and travel to Cuba increases despite U.S. ban  12/30/03 Scripps Howard

Cuba says Parmalat debt claim false  12/29/03 Reuters

Un asesinato cubierto de misterio y silencio  12/28/03 Nuevo Herald: It's unclear what the mystery is here - "Aun consciente en el hospital, Carvajal no pudo identificar a sus agresores, que lo despojaron de $700 en efectivo, una chaqueta de piel, los zapatos y la camisa."

Vaccine production should be top priority in Viet Nam-Cuba scientific bonds, says scientist  12/28/03 Viet Nam Economy: "Prof. Hieu said a post-graduate bio-informatics course would be opened at the Ha Noi's National University next March with three Cuban experts to be invited to give lecture. He added that the two sides had agreed on cooperation in bio-informatics and in building an information technology institution in Viet Nam."

Long journey - Nantucket woman awaits hearing on 1999 Cuba trip  12/27/03 Cape Cod Times

Cuban anger at US over Guantanamo  12/26/03 Al Jazeera: "Cuba has charged the United States with running a concentration camp at the Guantanamo base on the eastern tip of the island. This is the Cuban government's first attack on the use of the facility to hold men Washington has seized in its "war on terror". "In the territory illegally occupied by the Guantanamo naval base, hundreds of foreign prisoners are subjected to indescribable abuses," said a statement passed by parliament earlier this week and broadcast by the state-run media in Havana on Friday. Communist-run Cuba's National Assembly said prisoners were isolated and denied the right to communicate with their families or to prepare an adequate defence."

U.S. yanks welcome mat for visiting scholars  12/25/03 LA Times: Though not mentioned in the article, this gives the context to how Cubans from the islans AND living abroad are finding it difficult to enter the US for academic visits.

Mexico, Cuba to patch old ties after 2002 tiff  12/23/03 Channel News Asia

Voyager schooner bringing humanitarian aid including special wheelchairs, to island  12/23/03 St Augustine Record

Oldest U.S. base overseas harbors hometown feel  12/22/03 Sun Sentinel: In reality, the US has reneged on thousands of pension payments to largely black West Indian Cubans - "The dwindling of the commuters, who range in age from the 60s to the 80s, presents a problem for the United States. The five men -- down from 10 a year ago -- carry pension payments to the hundreds of former base workers living in the surrounding towns. There is no other way for the U.S. government to transfer money to individuals in Cuba. "We can't just hand dollars through the gate," McCoy says. "We are working with the State Department to come up with a solution." "

Embargo ruling leaves engineer club in a tizzy  12/21/03 NJ Star Ledger: Fuck you, OFAC - "A powerful yet little known federal agency that has dogged everyone from Hugh Hefner to George Steinbrenner is making life difficult for one of the world's foremost technical societies. The Treasury Department's Office of Foreign Assets Control -- which enforces trade embargoes and tries to thwart money-laundering terrorists, drug kingpins and merchants of mass destruction -- has turned its attention to the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, which has 360,000 members in 150 countries. Wary of breaking tough U.S. laws against "trading with the enemy" -- a policy whose history predates the War of 1812 -- the IEEE angered Iranian scientists last year by curbing their membership privileges and ceasing to publish their scholarly papers. Some scientists say those were ill-advised moves at a time when the West is anxious to woo talent from developing nations who otherwise might be tempted to serve terrorists. The engineering society then pressed OFAC to clarify U.S. sanctions. The result was an odd ruling in September that could hinder free speech on a broader scale. It requires newspapers and religious groups to seek permission to publish certain materials from embargoed countries or risk millions of dollars in fines or jail terms up to 30 years."

Additional Administrative Processing: Applying for a visa Section 306 of the Enhanced Border Security & Visa Reform Act of 2002  12/21/03 US Embassy in the UK: "Visa applicants aged 16 or over who are born in, or hold a passport from any of the following countries are required to complete a supplemental nonimmigrant visa application, Form DS-157. They are also required to apply for a visa in person before a consular officer. North Korea, Cuba, Syria, Sudan, Iran, Iraq & Libya" Yet another tool to shut down communication with Cubans.

DIVERSIDAD, IDENTIDAD Y POLÍTICA CULTURAL  12/19/03 Jiribilla: "No se puede tratar a las culturas populares extrayéndolas de su contexto, ni imponiéndoles una folclorización banal para poderlas exhibir, que desvirtúe su esencia popular, ni tratándolas a partir de parámetros técnico-artísticos abstractos, que no funcionan en un contexto donde la creación no emana de prácticas académicas, sino de la tradición que se traslada, y se recrea, de padres a hijos."

La Habana se lanza a invertir en el extranjero  12/19/03 Miami Herald

Vengo a Cuba a aprender, afirma el actor norteamericano Danny Glover  12/19/03 Prensa Latina

Miami TV station suspends program of actor who met with Castro  12/18/03 AP: "A Spanish-language television station has stopped broadcasting the program of an Argentine actor because he met with Cuban President Fidel Castro last week, channel officials said Thursday. WDLP-TV took Guillermo Francella's comedy show off the air until he describes his stance on the Castro government, station officials said. The program is recorded in Francella's native Argentina, where it is still broadcast." And where it will continue to be broadast without interruption, unlike the "home of the free."

U.S. Farm Leaders, Visiting Cuba, Seek End to Trade Curbs  12/18/03 AP

Feds go after Berkeley man for Cuba visit  12/18/03 Oakland Tribune

Bush tries farce as Cuba policy  12/18/03 Radio Progreso

Fidel attends encounter with U.S. entrepreneurs  12/17/03 Granma

Dissident issues Cuba manifesto  12/14/03 Sun Sentinel, FL: "Osvaldo Paya, Cuba's most prominent dissident and author of the Varela Project petition drive for government reforms, initiated a new campaign aimed at planning for a peaceful transition to democracy. In a 72-page manifesto issued on Friday evening, Paya, 50, called for multiple political parties, amnesty for political prisoners, national reconciliation and private enterprise while preserving Cuba's free health care and educational systems."

Preparing for a Mass Exodus — into Cuba  12/14/03 Time: "Despite Bush's roadblock, the island is bracing for an invasion of U.S. tourists"

Prohíben los regalos de embajadas europeas  12/13/03 El Nuevo Herald: ''Ante la llegada de regalos por fin de año, procedentes de las embajadas de los siguientes países: España, Italia, Gran Bretaña, Alemania, Suecia, Noruega, Francia, Holanda, Comisión Europea, República Checa, Eslovaquia y Polonia, la orientación es no aceptarlos y transmitir el siguiente mensaje oral'', señala un anexo de la normativa, fechada el 5 de diciembre."

OUR CARIBBEAN: Deepening our ties with Cuba  12/12/03 Daily Nation, Barbados

Ayuda de siete millones para la disidencia  12/12/03 El Nuevo Herald: this article is not in the English version Miami Herald and talks about $7 million in USAID money for dissidents in the same bill from which the Cuba travel provision was stripped. USAID is the same channel that was used to bring down the government in Georgia - "Unos siete millones de dólares para ayudar a la transición democrática en Cuba, serán otorgados por la Agencia Internacional de Desarrollo de Estados Unidos (USAID) durante el nuevo año fiscal, a grupos relacionados con la promoción de la sociedad civil en la isla."

Travels in a Complicated Cuba  12/11/03 Alternet

Fidel Castro, Charisma and Santería: Max Weber Revisited  12/9/03 Cuba-L Direct: Commentary/Comentario

Crackdown on Cuba Travel Angers Some  12/9/03 Washington Post: "The athletes and doctors were due to meet in Miami on Nov. 13 and depart for Havana the next day. Those who needed wheelchairs would bring them. Others would arrive with teaching materials and donated artificial limbs in anticipation of working with disabled Cubans. Three years in a row, World Team Sports, a small nonprofit group, had received permission to travel to Cuba. But the day before the scheduled rendezvous, the Bush administration ruled that, this time, the trip would violate U.S. policy."

Health rumors amuse Raúl Castro  12/8/03 Miami Herald

Fact Sheet: Commission for Assistance to a Free Cuba  12/8/03 White House: "On December 5, 2003, the President's Commission for Assistance to a Free Cuba held its inaugural meeting at the White House. The meeting was co-chaired by Secretary of State Colin Powell and Secretary of Housing and Urban Development Mel Martinez. Also in attendance were Secretary of Commerce Don Evans, Secretary of Homeland Security Tom Ridge, and National Security Advisor Condoleezza Rice. United States policy regarding Cuba is clear -- hasten Cuba's peaceful transition to a representative democracy and a free market economy -- ending decades of an oppressive dictatorship. The President created the Commission for Assistance to a Free Cuba to focus the United States government efforts on achieving this objective." This group might start by insuring free and fair elections and a market economy free of oligopolistic domination in the US.

Selling George W.  12/7/03 Arizona Republic: "He left the Republican National Committee in July to join the Bush campaign. His inclination toward the Republican ideology began at home with his parents, who ended up in Venezuela after being driven out of Cuba when Fidel Castro took over the island more than four decades ago. He was born and raised in Venezuela. When he was 10, the family headed to Florida where most Cuban exiles live. And like most of them, the Fernández family gravitated politically to the Republican Party."

Cuba study trips face crackdown  12/7/03 Chicago Tribune: "But education officials worry that in an election year, the Bush administration won't stop with restricting study programs offered by non-accredited schools. "There are political considerations driving this crackdown on visits to Cuba," said Terry Hartle, senior vice president of the American Council on Education, a Washington-based organization that represents 1,800 college and university presidents. "The administration is under intense pressure from leaders of the Cuban exile community to be tougher on Cuba, and this is part of this effort." "

Castro not worried by tightening of US restrictions  12/7/03 Reuters

Raul Castro says Cuba ready if U.S. attacks  12/7/03 Reuters

When NGOs Attack - Implications of the Coup in Georgia  12/6/03 Counterpunch: must reading for anyone who think the Cuban government is being paranoid about its paid in the USA dissidence - "Illuminating background is available in a watershed USAID report, Foreign Aid in the National Interest: Promoting Freedom, Security and Opportunity, released in January 2003 but ignored by a press swept up in pre-invasion hysteria. In the report, USAID vows that development programs will no longer be directed primarily toward alleviating human misery, but will be committed to "encouraging democratic [i.e., US-friendly] reforms." This policy shift is explicitly linked to the National Security Strategy of the United States, the 2002 White House blueprint for a new, openly aggressive phase of US imperialism."

Penalty proposed for Cuba traders  12/6/03 Miami Herald: "Hoping to counter Cuba's efforts to require U.S. business partners to lobby against the U.S. trade embargo in exchange for commercial deals, two U.S. congressmen Friday introduced legislation that would impose a 100 percent tax on sales stemming from such agreements. The bill proposed by Reps. Peter Deutsch, D-Fla., and Bob Menendez, D-N.J., was in response to revelations that at least two U.S. entities -- Port Manatee in Florida and the Indiana Farm Bureau -- recently signed deals with Cuba that include a commitment to lobby Washington against the embargo."

Kennedy Sought Dialogue with Cuba  12/6/03 National Security Archives

Promoting Freedom, Security and Opportunity  12/6/03 USAID: must reading for anyone who think the Cuban government is being paranoid about its paid in the USA dissidence, especially given the recent USAID funding of $7 million for Cuban dissidents.

U.S. steps up searches of Cuba travelers  12/5/03 South Florida Sun Herald: "Noriega said before Bush's Oct. 10 speech, about 5 percent of passengers on one flight to Havana per month were scrutinized or searched. Now, he said, it is 100 percent of passengers on every flight… And, as reported in the South Florida Sun-Sentinel last month, Treasury officials also have for the first time begun judicial proceedings against travelers who have visited Cuba illegally. Bradshaw said that since Sept. 11, 90 cases have been initiated and 27 of those have been referred to administrative law judges. Another 37 cases have been settled."

Top Cuban tourism officials held  12/4/03 BBC: "Several senior officials in the largest state-run tourism organisation in Cuba Cubanacan have been placed under house arrest on suspicion of corruption."

Cuba produces cancer vaccine  12/4/03 Radio Progresso: "Cuba has filed for patents for at least 150 new medicines and technologies to be used to treat cancer, AIDS and other diseases. But an obstacle to expansion is a lack of government funding to fully develop and test all its new drugs. For that purpose it’s looking for financing from abroad. The Bush administration already denied a license to U.S. research centers for a joint program for the study of Rotavirus, a transmitter of acute infections of the digestive tract that is responsible for 600,000 to 800,000 child deaths between the ages of 4 and 34 months, particularly in the Third World (See “Known... But Not Told”, Progreso Weekly, November 6-12, 2003). Instead, it launched a campaign claiming without evidence that Cuban facilities are used for the research and manufacture of biological weapons. The Center for Defense Information, or CDI, a private research group based in Washington, toured nine Cuban biotech centers and could not find any sign that the country was researching or making biological weapons."

SA, Cuba Cement Ties  12/3/03 BuaNews: "South Africa and Cuba have further deepened their bilateral relations with the two nations committing to joint cooperation in various cross cutting areas. The move follows the conclusion of the third bilateral commission yesterday on economic, scientific, and technical and business co-operation between Havana and Pretoria."

Clark hints he would explore Cuba ties  12/3/03 Miami Herald

Gulf of Mexico oil, Cuba's billion-dollar bet  12/3/03 Reuters

All options open, US warns 'rogue' countries  12/2/03 Financial Times: "John Bolton, under-secretary of state for arms control and international security, singled out Iran, North Korea, Syria, Libya and Cuba as being "hostile to US interests" during a speech in Washington."

Guerrillero»	«Pinar del Río
El Habanero»	«La Habana
Tribuna de La Habana»	«Ciudad de La Habana
Girón»	«Matanzas
Vanguardia»	«Villa Clara
5 de Septiembre»	«Cienfuegos
Escambray»	«Sancti Spíritus
Invasor»	«Ciego de Ávila
Adelante»	«Camagüey
26»	«Las Tunas
La Demajagua»	«Granma
Ahora»	«Holguín
Sierra Maestra»	«Santiago de Cuba
Venceremos»	«Guantánamo
Victoria»	«Isla de la Juventud

Radio Ciudad de La Habana	Radio Metropolitana
Tiempo 21	Radio Cadena Habana
Radio Sancti Spíritus	CMHW Villa Clara
Radio Victoria	Radio Ciudad del Mar

Bohemia	Habanera
Giga	Temas
Prisma	Negocios en Cuba
Alma Mater	Caimán Barbudo
Mujeres	La Jiribilla
La Gaceta de Cuba	Zunzún
Avances Médicos de Cuba	Travel Trade Cuba
Somos Jóvenes	Opus Habana
Tricontinental	Cine Cubano
Revolución y Cultura	Cuba Internacional
Ciencias de la Información	Salsa Cubana
Juventud Técnica	Pionero
Opciones	El economista
Notinet	El Fénix
Orbe	Senderos

Ceniai	IslaGrande
Infocom	Cubaweb
Infomed	Citmatel
Archivo Nacional	Cubaciencia
Cubanic	Cubarte
Cienfuegos	UPEC
Redsolar	Gobierno cubano
Sitio de Elián	Cuba demanda
Cuba contra el bloqueo	CubAhora
Sitio del Ajedrez en Cuba	Marinas Puertosol
Directorio Turístico de Cuba	Ballet Nacional de Cuba
Casa de las Américas	NO al ALCA

Cuba in the News
Archive: 12/03

List of Cuban provincial papers and other sites

Contacting AfroCubaWeb

Copyright © 1997 AfroCubaWeb, S.A.

Cuba in the News Archive: 12/03

List of Cuban provincial papers and other sites

Contacting AfroCubaWeb

Copyright © 1997 AfroCubaWeb, S.A.

Cuba in the News
Archive: 12/03