Cuba and Venezuela forge trade partnership  4/30/2005 Miami Herald: "Cuban leader Fidel Castro and Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez signed sales agreements worth $412 million."

A Monstrous Assault On The Cuban Family  4/28/2005 AfroCubaWeb: "An unprecedented event took place on April 27, 2005, when over 700 Cuban-Americans from Alaska, California, Virgin Islands, Puerto Rico, Florida and many other states in between, converged on Washington DC to express their outrage and denounce the brutal Presidential decree resulting from the recommendations of the Commission For The Assistance To A Free Cuba, that was co-chaired by Mr. Colin Powell and our own Senator Mel Martinez."

Hundreds in D.C. call for fewer limits on travel to Cuba  4/28/2005 Miami Herald: "Some 600 activists from Miami to Alaska rallied in Washington Wednesday to show support for congressional moves to ease restrictions on travel to Cuba. Among the participants in the Cuba Action Day were politicians, business leaders and Cuban Americans, including an Army reservist who fought in Iraq and now complains that he cannot visit his two sons in Havana until 2006 because of Bush administration tightenings of restrictions."

Rivals duel over Cuba policy - Florida legislators form new alliance  4/28/2005 Sun Sentinel: "Even as activists from across the country gathered in the Capital on Wednesday to protest U.S. sanctions against Cuba, pro-embargo members of Congress announced the formation of a new group that will work to further isolate Fidel Castro's government."

But Did He Inhale? Anti-Castro Majority Leader Tom DeLay enjoys a fine Cuban cigar  4/27/2005 Time: "DeLay's smoke may have run afoul of his principles, but it did not violate U.S. regulations at the time. However, it would now. Last September, the Treasury Department Office of Foreign Assets Control tightened its prohibitions against U.S. citizens importing or consuming Cuban cigars. Even Americans licensed to bring back up to $100 worth of Cuban goods are no longer allowed to include tobacco products in what they carry. The regulation also noted that Americans are barred not only from purchasing Cuban goods in foreign countries, but also from consuming them in those countries."

Ex-Venezuelan Soldier Says CIA Tried to Bribe Guards for Cuban Terrorist's Escape  4/27/2005 Venezuela Analysis: "According to retired Venezuelan National Guard member Nelson Díaz, the CIA financed the escape of Cuban terrorist Luis Posada Carriles from a Venezuelan penitentiary in 1985. During a telephone interview yesterday with the daily morning program En Confianza, on Venezuela’s state television channel, Nelson, who worked in the prison where Posada was in prison for the bombing of a Cuban airliner, spoke of $20,000 dollar bribes that he and several of his co-workers were offered in 1983 to facilitate Posada's escape."

Bioweapon threat still unclear  4/26/2005 Miami Herald: "Bolton's confirmation hearings and previous congressional testimonies do not reveal any hard evidence on whether Cuba is or is not working on bioweapons. But they do offer an intriguing vision of how the U.S. intelligence community has handled the semantics of the issue."

Plan to limit Cuba travel fails - Tactic would have stopped family visits  4/26/2005 Sun Sentinel: "TALLAHASSEE · A move to limit travel from Florida to Cuba died in the state Senate on Monday when committee members said they don't want to stop anyone from visiting a sick or dying relative. The plan championed by Rep. David Rivera, R-Miami, was designed to stop Floridians from traveling to and helping the economy of terrorist nations, mainly communist Cuba."

Desde El Monte hasta La Selva  4/22/2005 Encuentro: "El intelectual negro cubano Walterio Carbonell, condenado al ostracismo y el olvido, ha muerto en la Isla."

Hijo de cubano asesinado por Posada Carriles exige justicia  4/22/2005 Jiribilla

Walterio Carbonell - Vivito, coleando y con las pilas puestas  4/22/2005 Jiribilla

An Exclusive CounterPunch Interview with Ricardo Alarcon About One of the World's Most Wanted Terrorists - "Is Posada Still Working for the White House?"  4/19/2005 Counterpunch: "The explosion took place probably more rapidly than they had expected because they eared and saw the explosion when they were in the taxi going from the airport to town. That perhaps has provoked their extremely instable attitude. They were very, very nervous. That is what the driver reported. And at some moment they asked the driver not to go to the hotel but to go to the American Embassy and, at a particular moment, something struck the mind of the driver. He listened when one of the individuals signalled a building, when approaching downtown Bridgetown, and referred to the American Embassy. In Bridgetown, at this moment, there were very few embassies. The US and very few countries had a representation there. We didn't at the time. This was noted by the driver because it is rather strange that somebody who is entering the country should know this, unless he had been there before. Then they went to the Embassy, according to this driver."

Formell sings of love and death in N'awlins  4/17/2005 Chicago Sun Times: "And then the rest of the world has divided Cuban music into two kinds: Dance band music that's loud, and if someone's playing guitar, it's got to be nueva trova, which is kind of dated now. But Juan-Carlos' music is based on clave [the rhythmic pattern that defines almost all Cuban styles], which nueva trova doesn't have. Besides he wasn't trying to imitate American protest singers here, which is what he thinks nueva trova singers did." Still the label of nueva trova continues to stick to Formell. Because he plays guitar, so the thinking goes, he must be by definition from the trova school. That assumption annoys him to no end. "Would Americans call Bob Dylan and James Taylor the same thing?" he said. "No. It's the same form of reductivism, and it's not really valid. Nueva trova is very labored, very intellectual, like a movement of university students. My music is about seizing the essence of real life because of its direct contact with that real life. It deals with the real life and real Cubans, the Afro-Cuban feeling, instead of that stuff from the '60s."

El Departamento de Estado instruyó a los medios de prensa para que difundieran que la presencia de Posada Carriles en Estados Unidos era una operación de la inteligencia cubana  4/15/2005 Tricontinental

Cuban Terror Suspect Sets Off Propaganda Battle  4/14/2005 Washington Post: "Posada has been living in unspecified Central American countries since 2000, his lawyer told Prensa Grafica (Spanish) in El Salvador. He recently entered the United States via Mexico, the lawyer said. In a three-hour appearance on Cuban television on Monday, Castro charged that the Bush administration knew Posada had entered the United States. "It is as if Bin Laden were in the United States and the US president did not know," Castro said according to the BBC. In Venezuela, the government of President Hugo Chavez says it will formally demand that the U.S. extradite Posada, according to two leading dailies, El Observador (Spanish) and El Nacional (Spanish). Venezuela is Cuba's closest ally in the hemisphere. One target of Castro's rhetorical offensive is Europe. Both Unavision (Spanish), the mainstream Mexican broadcast network, and the leftist daily La Jornada (Spanish) noted that Castro is seeking European help in getting Posada extradited."

US urges democracy and human rights in Cuba  4/13/2005 Jamaica Observer

'Bomb-plot' Cuban crosses into US  4/12/2005 BBC

Cuba pide a EU entregar a Luis Posada Carriles  4/12/2005 La Jornada, Mexico

Stubborn resistance and world support ends eight-year, eight million dollar ordeal  4/11/2005 Granma: "Eight years of battle over a key embargo issue came to a close early this year as the U.S. government quietly withdrew its final attack on Canadian businessman James Sabzali, an effort to deport him from his adopted home in the United States. Washington had pursued deportation despite an earlier plea agreement with Sabzali. "The government reneged on its offer," he explained in an interview. But now deportation has joined the original 76 charges filed against Sabzali in the rubble that was once Washington's largest prosecution for violation of its anti-Cuba embargo. Sabzali had faced life imprisonment and over $19 million USD in fines for sales of water purification supplies to Cuban hospitals. And while both the charges and their scale captured attention, the stakes were even more compelling: could the United States make its blockade legally binding on the entire world?"

Groups warned to obey travel limits  4/8/2005 Miami Herald: "The U.S. government warned religious organizations not to abuse their travel privileges to Cuba -- a move meant to enforce tightened restrictions on the island… Regulators acted after reports that some groups that practice Santeria and other religious organizations were allowing people who didn't officially belong to those groups or were not practitioners to visit Cuba under their U.S.-issued religious licenses. The Herald detailed cases in which some Santeria organizations in Miami with religious licenses were taking thousands of people to Cuba as a way to get around Bush administration travel restrictions."

Schiavo memo trips up rookie senator  4/8/2005 Miami Herald: "Republicans worry that Mel Martinez's involvement in a politically charged memo about the Terri Schiavo case could tarnish the freshman U.S. senator from Florida."

Washington busca restringir las licencias de viajes a Cuba  4/8/2005 Nuevo Herald

Moscoso obtained $4 million for pardoning Posada and his accomplices  4/7/2005 Granma: "The pardon of international terrorists Luis Posada Carriles, Pedro Crispín Remon Hernández, Gaspar Jimenez Escobedo and Guillermo Novo Sampol was negotiated in Miami by Ruby Moscoso, sister of the then Panamanian President Mireya Moscoso, for the sum of $4 million, according to documents published on the internet."

Jesse Jackson regresará a La Habana  4/7/2005 Nuevo Herald: "Esta tercera visita de Jackson, cuya fecha no ha sido precisada, fue pactada ayer en La Habana por el empresario de Alabama Gregory Calhoun y el director de la empresa estatal Alimport, Pedro Alvarez. Según contó a El Nuevo Herald un testigo del encuentro, ayer durante una degustación de alimentos en el Hotel Meliá Cohiba, Calhoun conversó por teléfono con el reverendo Jackson sobre la exposición que su empresa Calhoun Foods montó para la ocasión, y durante la conversación Alvarez propuso que el reverendo volviera a visitar la capital cubana. Jackson estuvo en La Habana por primera vez en 1984, de donde regresó con un grupo de presos políticos cubanos. Retornó en 1991, cuando se volvió a reunir con el gobernante cubano Fidel Castro. Esta visita sería la primera en que abordaría abiertamente la venta de alimentos a la isla."

Experts question sense of revaluing Cuban peso  4/5/2005 Miami Herald: "Cuba's recent strengthening of its currency is designed to close the gap in the purchasing power of those who earn only pesos and those who receive U.S. dollars from abroad, analysts say. But the peso's revaluation makes no economic sense because the communist-ruled island's economy is not strong enough to back up the 7-8 percent increase in the value of its currency, the experts added. When coupled with a government decision in November to charge a 10 percent fee on all dollars converted into pesos, the changes amount to a 17-18 percent strengthening of a currency that is not accepted anywhere outside Cuba."

BUFON CON SAXOFON DE NOMBRE PAQUITO D’RIVERA, ENCABEZA PROTESTA CONTRA CARLOS SANTANA EN MIAMI  4/5/2005 Terra.com.ve

Intel: Did Bolton Try to Intimidate Spies?  4/4/2005 Newsweek: "Bush critics in the Senate are hunting for evidence to derail or delay confirmation of State Department official John Bolton as U.S. ambassador to the United Nations. Foreign Relations Committee staffers are looking into charges that Bolton attempted to intimidate or victimize two career intelligence officials for what he viewed as their insufficiently alarmist analyses of intel on purported Cuban biological weapons. Committee investigators have contacted both the State Department and the intel community seeking records and witnesses. But Bolton's opponents are unsure if they will be able to make their case in time for Bolton's confirmation hearing Thursday."

Conference on U.S. Abuse of Prisoners at the Guantanamo Naval Base And U.S. Violations of the 1903 Base Agreement  4/2/2005 The Center for International Policy

Editorial ignores `activist' crimes  4/1/2005 Florida Sun Sentinel

HRC condemns prohibitions on Cubans resident in U.S.  4/1/2005 Granma: "Cuban-American groups at the Human Rights Commission (HRC) have condemned the measures – which they described as “criminal” – adopted by President George W. Bush to restrict their contact with relatives on the island, reported PL."

At OAS, Venezuela's draft of rights charter irks U.S.  4/1/2005 Miami Herald: "But the draft Social Charter submitted by Venezuela -- the only one submitted so far -- reads like a manifesto for Chávez's revolution. In 17 pages it enumerates ''fundamental'' rights: from free schools and healthcare to state pensions for housewives; from the right of workers to be ''protected from unforeseen circumstances'' to the indigenous peoples' ``right to collective ownership of their lands.'' The draft also holds that all ''cultural, scientific, and technical media, including the new technologies, ought to be publicly available, at no cost'' and recognizes some workers' rights to ``control of the means of production.'' Few would argue that democracy is on a sound footing in Latin America, a region that has the world's worst income distribution and where over 40 percent of its inhabitants survive on less than $2 a day. These disparities prompted foreign ministers at the OAS General Assembly in Ecuador last year to agree to write a Social Charter. But the Bush administration has flatly rejected the Venezuelan draft and refused to let one of Venezuela's diplomats lead the working group that would write a final draft, although the country that promotes an initiative usually gets that honor. 'The process of creating a Social Charter must not result in rhetorical statements of unattainable statist-oriented `social goals,' '' said John Maisto, U.S. ambassador to the OAS."

Activist emerged from shadows  3/31/2005 Miami Herald: A half a dozen terror bombings in Havana returned longtime anti-Castro activist Luís Posada Carriles to the limelight in 1997.

Posada Carriles: a Hot Potato  3/31/2005 Radio Miami: "The news arrived to the media just a few hours ago, but the rumor has been going around Miami for a few days. Luis Posada Carriles, the most infamous terrorist of Cuban origin is already in the U.S., and he is ready to request political asylum over there. He had remained clandestinely in Central America, possibly Honduras and El Salvador, after having been pardoned in Panama by the then Panamanian President Mireya Moscoso, who released him from prison. He was serving a sentence for terrorist acts in that country."

Domino Sugar workers against the Franjuls  3/27/2005 AfroCubaWeb: "Since the Franjul Brothers took over, things have gotten really bad here. I pray ever day that the refinery will close and be bought by new owners who have a little more understanding of working people and not slave labor."

IX aniversario de la Fundación Martha Jean Claude  3/27/2005 Jiribilla

Rebelión en Washington contra acciones anticubanas de Bush  3/27/2005 Jiribilla

Reevaluación del peso cubano convertible beneficia a la población cubana  3/27/2005 PL

Washington Focuses on Cuba-Venezuela 'Axis of Evil'  3/26/2005 Venezuela Analysis

Stronger Convertible Peso Good News for Some, Bad News for Others  3/25/2005 IPS

Cuban media assailed for shunning dissidents  3/19/2005 AP

Lawmakers Warn Admin. on Cuba  3/17/2005 AgWeb: "House Ag Committee Chairman Bob Goodlatte (R-Va.) is pledging to monitor sales of U.S. ag goods to Cuba to make sure they aren't negatively impacted by a decision made recently by the U.S. Treasury Dept. regarding sales of U.S. ag products to the island nation."

Deportation of alleged Cuban spy upheld  3/17/2005 Kerala

Farm Bureau Says Flawed Cuba Payment Rule Must Be Changed  3/16/2005 Farm Bureau

Solidarity movement asserts right to visit Cuba  3/16/2005 Worker's World

Newsletter #9  3/15/2005 CARIBBEAN AMERICAN CHILDREN FOUNDATION: "Since our last newsletter in August 2004, in which we decided to focus all of our efforts on the Caribbean School of Medical Sciences in Santiago de Cuba, we are pleased to inform you, that we were able to send large quantities of critical donations that have addressed our concerns. We continue to receive increased amount of donations from educational, health institutions and individuals, who have grasped the magnitude and implications of this program, which will graduate its first 67 Haitians physicians this summer!"

U.S. Biological Warfare against Cuba: The Dengue Epidemic  3/14/2005 Prensa Latina: "We reviewed the reports on the epidemic of the Pan American Health Organization and of the Cuban Ministry of Public Health, and interviewed a number of health officials. There are indeed indications that the epidemic was artificially induced. The epidemic began with the simultaneous discovery in May 1981 of three cases of hemorrhagic dengue caused by a type 2 virus. The cases arose in three widely separated parts of Cuba: Cienfuegos, Camagüey, and Havana. It is extremely unusual that such an epidemic would commence in three different localities at once. None of the initial victims had ever traveled out of the country; for that matter, none of them had recently been away from home. None had had recent contact with international travelers. Moreover, a study of persons arriving in Cuba in the month of May from known dengue areas found only a dozen such passengers (from Vietnam and Laos), all of whom were checked by the Institute of Tropical Medicine and found free of the disease. Somehow, infected mosquitoes had appeared in three provinces of Cuba at the same time. Somehow, the fever spread at an astonishing rate. There appears to be no other explanation but the artificial introduction of infected mosquitoes."

NOSTALGIA OF THE MUSIC BRIDGE  3/13/2005 Cuba Now

Cuban-American Relations: Democracy and the Multiparty Political System  3/13/2005 G;obal Politician

The first monument  3/11/2005 Granma: "The island has recently marked the 100th anniversary of the first statue erected in Cuba in honor of José Martí, located in Havana’s Parque Central. Created by Cuban sculptor José Villalta de Saavedra – who also created the Monument to the Eight Medical Students who were executed by the Spanish colonial government in 1871 – it is 10 meters high and is made of 36 tons of Carrara marble." - [In the shadow of this monument, Marti's son celebrated the 1912 Massacre of over 6000 AfroCubans with the members of the Cuban Army who carried out that massacre.]

Dos momentos de la esclavitud blanca en Cuba  3/6/2005 Cubarte: "El 6 de marzo de 1854 el puerto de La Habana estaba singularmente animado con la llegada de la primera partida de colonos gallegos que, bajo la consigna de un proyecto denominado "Salvación y progreso para España y Cuba", venían contratados supuestamente para trabajar la tierra en la Isla…. La naciente empresa, fruto de la tozudez y ambición del diputado a cortes gallego Urbano Feijóo Sotomayor, bajo los sellos de legalidad y el respaldo del gobierno colonial, escondía los más crueles y bajos intereses, pues sometió a aquellos infelices al trabajo esclavo, como a los antecesores grupos de culíes chinos que habían empezado a arribar a Cuba desde 1847 y los bozales de origen africano."

Church and state: The importance of separation  3/3/2005 Progreso Weekly: "“Despite the Bush administration's crackdown on exiles' trips back to Cuba, there are still ways to travel to the island without restriction,” the story began. “One seems to be increasingly popular: Go as a santero.” A santero is a follower of Santería, a religion brought to Cuba by the earliest African slaves… One thing is clear: by challenging the legality of religious pilgrimages, Díaz-Balart and the Treasury Department are opening a Pandora's box they may not be able to close. An attempt at religious persecution – and that is how this action will be perceived by many – can turn into a hornet's nest in less time than it takes to say “pogrom.” It is a weapon that can backfire."

HAVANA AND NEW YORK: JAZZ, FEELING, AND MAMBO  3/2/2005 Cuba Now

CUBANS FOUGHT FOR US INDEPENDENCE  3/1/2005 Cuba Now: "The facts are almost unknown: Cuban Creole officers, NCOs and soldiers, members of the Mulatto and Black battalions, organized in Havana, fought under the Spanish flag in the War of Independence of the so-called Thirteen Colonies."

HAVANA AND NEW YORK: JAZZ, FEELING, AND MAMBO  3/1/2005 Cuba Now

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: 3/05-4/05

List of Cuban provincial papers and other sites

Contacting AfroCubaWeb

Copyright © 1997 AfroCubaWeb, S.A.
Last modified: April 11, 2005

	AfroCubaWeb

Cuba in the News Archive: 3/05-4/05

List of Cuban provincial papers and other sites

Contacting AfroCubaWeb

Copyright © 1997 AfroCubaWeb, S.A. Last modified: April 11, 2005

Cuba in the News
Archive: 3/05-4/05

Copyright © 1997 AfroCubaWeb, S.A.
Last modified: April 11, 2005