March 2007

AP reports:

The Cuban government has replaced its justice minister and the head of the National Institute of Water Resources.

The Council of State, Cuba’s executive body headed by the ailing Fidel Castro, announced in a statement read on state television Friday that Justice Minister Roberto Diaz Sotolongo will be replaced by the vice minister, Maria Esther Reus.

Jorge Aspiolea Roig, president of the water resources institute, will be replaced by Rene Mesa, a construction vice minister. The position is also in the Cabinet.

The statement did not say why the two Cabinet members were being replaced, but said they would be assigned other jobs.

With Friday’s announcement, four Cabinet level officials have been replaced since Castro temporarily ceded his functions to his brother Raul, the defense minister, in late July after undergoing intestinal surgery.

The Council of State replaced its transportation minister in October with Jorge Luis Sierra, a top Communist Party leader. It named Ramiro Valdes, a historic revolutionary commander and former interior minister, the new minister of information science and communications in late August.

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Cuban oil officials took foreign geologists and petroleum experts on a tour of the island’s oil and natural gas works to attract more international interest in investment, reports said.

Attendees at an earth sciences conference were taken to several extraction facilities in a deposit-rich strip along the northern part of the island, which includes the $200 million Cuban-Canadian natural gas plant in an area called Boca de Jaruco.

According to reports, about 95% of Cuba’s daily production of 85,000 barrels of petroleum and 120 million cubic feet of natural gas comes from the region along the north coast.

Source: Real Time Traders

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A diplomatic crisis has developed between Sweden and Cuba. The Cuban ambassador has been called to the foreign ministry after it was discovered that Cuban officials had opened Swedish diplomatic post. Carl Bildt has also accused a Cuban delegate to the UN of “using unacceptable language”.

The row began when Foreign Minister Carl Bildt gave a speech to the UN Human Rights Council, in which he criticized Cuba’s human rights record.

Rodolfo Reyes Rodriguez, Cuba’s delegate to the Human Rights Council, is quoted as having said that “Cuba, unlike Sweden, does not persecute migrants or carry out ethnic cleansing that only allows those whose skin and hair color fit with the racial patterns of former Viking conquerors to remain in the country”.

Bildt issued a swift condemnation of Rodriguez’ comments on Wednesday.

“It is completely unacceptable language.”

The foreign ministry called in Cuba’s ambassador in Stockholm to explain the comments and apologize on his country’s behalf. Some time later the foreign ministry discovered that its diplomatic post had been opened by the Cubans. This too Bildt described as entirely unacceptable.

“The Cuban ambassador is going to be called in again,” he said.

“When we put forward the view that respect for human freedoms and rights were lacking in Cuba, it led to a furious outburst from the Cuban ambassador about Sweden’s blood, colonialism, imperialism, Vikings and oppression and so on and so forth. We have said that this is an unacceptable use of language,” said Bildt.

“We’ll see if the Cubans explain themselves. We have demanded an explanation and an apology but I’m not sure I have such high expectations of this Cuban regime,” he added.

Bildt conceded that the situation was now so serious that it could be designated a diplomatic crisis.

“The UN has a responsibility to supervise respect for human rights and human freedoms. Both are rather restricted in Cuba and it is our duty to say so. It should not lead to the sort of hysterical attack on an entire nation such as that made by the Cubans,” said Bildt.

Have the Cubans started opening Swedish diplomatic post?

“We have had one case where out diplomatic sacks were opened. That is serious. There are international conventions about this sort of thing, so we are going to take that up too,” said Bildt.

Rodolfo Reyes Rodriguez has accused Bildt of hypocrisy after the foreign minister failed to mention the Guantanamo base in Cuba or the American-led war in Iraq during his speech on human rights.

He also asserted that Cuba had been granted a place on the Human Rights Council, a post for which Sweden was not considered worthy. On balance, he thought it might have been better if Bildt had stayed in Stockholm.

Source: The Local - Sweden’s News in English

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The Cuban government rarely misses an opportunity to stay on message. Using President Bush’s visit to Latin America this week, three top Cuban leaders warned against military action against the island.

“If anyone attacks us, we’re prepared to pay any price necessary (to defend the country). But, our invaders will pay a much higher price,” said Defense Minister and acting President Raul Castro, as he reviewed a tank unit in the western Pinar del Rio province, during the country’s annual war exercises.

“We are improving our readiness… against an enemy politically committed to destroy the Revolution,” said Raul Castro. He went on to call Cuba’s socialist Revolution “unbeatable.”

Raul, who has run the country’s military machine since he and his brother Fidel swept to power in 1959, described the yearly military exercises as a chance to display the country’s defense capabilities, and send the message to Washington that any type of military strike would turn into a protracted and lost war.

This year’s war games are being billed as the largest mobilization of reservists and active members of the Cuban Revolutionary Armed Forces since the 1961 Bay of Pigs and the 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis.

Soldiers are engaged in artillery and missile launches, combat practice and naval and air drills. Civilians of all ages dressed in blue militia uniforms and carry government-issued rifles and handguns for drills to defend their towns against surprise invaders, while civil defense units put out staged fires and evacuate residents from their homes.

Patriotic beat

Cuba’s state-owned TV picked up the patriotic beat, running old news reels of past military exercises and speeches to rally the nation.

Military sources here believe this year’s exercises are being conducted with unusual seriousness given the fragile health of Fidel Castro. After falling ill last summer and temporarily ceding power to his younger brother, the 80-year old Fidel has not been seen in public. Meanwhile, government representatives insist that Fidel is recovering.

“It’s not good news for Bush or for the U.S. government, but the truth is that Fidel is recuperating, exercising and is much stronger,” said Felipe Perez Roque, the Cuban Foreign Minister and Castro’s close confidante at a U.N. meeting in Paris.

Despite the rhetoric, Perez Roque suggested that his country would like “normal and respectful relations with the United States.”

How real?

While his government is willing to hold bilateral talks with Washington, he said, “Bush has no moral authority to dictate” to Havana. “We are an independent and sovereign state and in our land we do what we want.”

Ricardo Alarcón, Cuban Parliament speaker, echoed that sentiment on Tuesday in a speech carried live on national television. During an event marking the 50th anniversary of a student uprising against the old dictatorship of Fulgencio Batista, Alarcón called on all Cubans “from every trench, every street corner, every university, and every school” to meet today’s “risks and threats.”

How real are these threats?

On more than one occasion, the Bush administration has strongly denied any intention to use military force to topple the Castro government, preferring instead tightened trade sanctions and active support to build an internal resistance.

But, in Cuba where the press is solidly controlled by the ruling Communist Party, Washington’s denials rarely gain air time.

In the minds of many Cubans, the threat of Washington resorting to a military option remains more than rhetoric.

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Fidel Castro will be in “perfect shape” to run for “re-election” to parliament next spring, the first step toward securing yet another term as Cuba’s president, National Assembly head Ricardo Alarcon said Thursday.

“I would nominate him,” said Alarcon, the highest-ranking member of parliament. “I’m sure he will be in perfect shape to continue handling his responsibilities.”

Mobbed by foreign reporters following a parliamentary session to discuss Cuba’s upcoming elections, Alarcon said Castro “is doing fine and continuing to focus on recovery and rehabilitation.”

A lengthy process of nominating candidates for municipal elections will begin this summer, leading to several rounds of voting. Then, by March 2008, Cuba should be ready to hold parliamentary elections that are expected to include Castro, Alarcon said.

The 80-year-old Castro was the world’s longest-ruling head of state, occupying the island’s presidency for 47 years before temporarily stepping aside in favor of his younger brother, Raul, following emergency intestinal surgery in July.

Source: AP

[Has Cuba ever really had fair and free elections? It would seem that a single party system does not hold sway for the fair and free aspect of it. -ed.]

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