• Calls for the release of the Five in Peru
November 12, 2004
LIMA, Nov 12 (PL.).—Today was the culmination of another national action organized by Peruvian groups calling for the release of the five Cuban anti-terrorist fighters imprisoned in the United States since 1998. 

• Fabio Ochoa: an acceptable criminal
November 11, 2004
THERE is nothing easier to compare the treatment given to any criminal and even to “acceptable” terrorists with the attitude displayed to anti-terrorists who are standing up to this scourge, thus defending Cuba and the United States, and who are incarcerated in U.S. jails.

• Uruguay to reestablish diplomatic relations with Cuba
November 10, 2004
MONTEVIDEO, November 10 (PL).—Tabaré Vázquez, the president elect of Uruguay, has announced that his administration is to reestablish its diplomatic relations with Cuba, broken off in April 2002 by the current government of Jorge Batlle.

• MINREX STATEMENT
Conspiring with a foreign power constitutes a crime in any country
November 8, 2004
ON November 4, the U.S. State Department released a press note titled: Cuba: the Human Rights Situation, in which the usual lies, calumnies and charges of alleged human rights abuses have been marshaled against Cuba.

• A meeting of brothers
November 8, 2004
IN a new gesture of solidarity, President Hugo Rafael Chávez Frías, president of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela, arrived in our country on Saturday to inquire after the health of President Fidel Castro and to further strengthen links of friendship with the Cuban people.

• Arafat still in an intensive care unit
November 5, 2004
BEIRUT (PL).—Yasser Arafat, president of the Palestinian National Authority (PNA) remains in an intensive care unit in France although he is no longer in a coma, affirmed Nabil Abu Rudeina.

• Companies ask for dialogue between Spain and Cuba
November 5, 2004
THE Association of Spanish Entrepreneurs in Cuba has asked its country’s government to do as much it can to normalize both economic and political relations with Cuba.

• Brazilian foreign minister defends Rio Group dialogue with Cuba
November 5, 2004
RIO DE JANEIRO (XINHUA).— Celso Amorim, the Brazilian foreign minister, has defended a greater rapprochement of the Rio Group with Cuba and increased dialogue with the island. "Cuba must be attracted to a higher level of dialogue within the region.

• Conference on cooperation and solidarity with Havana
November 4, 2004
FOR the 12th time, mayors, deputies, deputy mayors, councilors, and representatives of organizations friendly to Cuba, are to meet for a conference on Cooperation and Solidarity of City Councils with Havana, including a session at the International Conference Center just hours before the city celebrates the 485th anniversary of its founding on November 16.

• MARSHALL ISLANDS AND PALAU
What is the status of those nations voting with the United States?
November 3, 2004
IN 13 consecutive votes in the UN General Assembly, the United States has been isolated not only by the overwhelming majority of nations (94% of the international community), which reject its genocidal policy made material by the blockade against Cuba, but also because, despite all their pressure, they cannot find allies to vote against the UN resolution of condemnation.

• Cuba collaborates on literacy programs in New Zealand
November 2, 2004
NEW Zealand, a developed country in the Southern hemisphere, but where there are still illiteracy problems, is one the countries that Cuba is helping in the that field.

• REPORTERS SANS FRONTIERES REPORT ON JOSE COUSO
“A terrible blow”, the cameraman’s family charges
November 1, 2004
“MY brother’s life has no price,” states Javier Couso, recalling how Reporters sans frontières tried to convince the family of Spanish cameraman José Couso – killed in Baghdad by U.S. troops – to bring a civil case before the U.S. courts instead of taking their claim against the U.S. government to the Spanish justice system.

• 179 countries vote against the blockade at the UN
October 28, 2004
For the 13th consecutive time, the UN General Assembly has passed a resolution calling for an end to the US blockade of Cuba

• Presidential budget in Panama spent on jewelry and clothes
October 26, 2004
PANAMA CITY, October 25.—Former president Mireya Moscoso was the subject of criticism on Monday, when it was revealed that during her mandate she used money from a discretionary budget to buy jewelry and expensive clothes, as well as spending large amounts on travel and meetings, according to AP.

• Demonstration in Spain against the blockade of Cuba
October 25, 2004
BARCELONA, October 24.—Hundreds of people marched today in Barcelona calling for an end of the U.S. blockade of Cuba, in a demonstration convened by the Let’s Defend Cuba platform, EFE reports.

• Rosa Elena Simeón Negrín dies
October 23, 2004

LAST night at 11:50 p.m., the outstanding revolutionary, scientist and national leader Dr. Rosa Elena Simeón Negrín died in the capital after a serious and prolonged illness. She was 61.

• INTERFERENCE
Tourist Jorge Moragas has a lot of dirty laundry
October 23, 2004
JORGE Moragas, international relations secretary of Spain’s Popular Party, who tried to enter Cuba using a tourist visa whilst fulfilling his task as an agitator on behalf of his friends in Miami, did not express the same love of “democracy” and “human rights” when he mixed with the mafia, those terrorist friends of his master Aznar, last year in Florida.

• Departing Cuban Ambassador honoured
October 22, 2004
Belize and Cuba have had as close a diplomatic relationship as any two countries in the region. And over the last four years, the bonds of that deepening friendship took on a very public image, with the assignment of Regla Diaz as Cuba's first ambassador to Belize.

• ‘I am still in one piece’
October 21, 2004
Yesterday, after delivering an emotional speech to the young Arts Instructor graduates in the Ernesto Che Guevara Plaza in Santa Clara, on moving toward his seat and greeting the crowd, President Fidel Castro failed to notice the sidewalk curb, and fell forwards – instinctively protecting himself with his arms extended from what would have been a severe blow to his face and head.
- Informative note

• Cuba expecting a resounding victory against the blockade at the UN
October 20, 2004
FOREIGN Minister Felipe Pérez Roque affirmed that Cuba is hoping for a victory on October 28 when the UN General Assembly debates the U.S. blockade of Cuba.

• CIA secret war uncovered
October 20, 2004
IN his paper on the second day of the 4th World Conference of War Correspondents, former Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) agent Phillip Agee revealed the agency’s secret operations to destabilize governments, promote coups, and plan the assassination of heads of state, namely that of Cuban President Fidel Castro.
- Call for the killers of journalists to be tried and sentenced

• Spanish Aznar deputy attempts to enter Cuba illegally
October 18, 2004
ON Saturday October 16, the Cuban authorities reported that Spanish deputy Jorge Moragas had been deported from Cuba after "attempting to enter our territory fraudulently and illegally under the migratory status of a tourist.

• Florida dailies supporting Kerry two weeks before the elections
October 18, 2004
MIAMI, October 18 (Notimex).— A group of eight important Florida dailies have expressed their support today for John Kerry, the Democrat candidate for the presidency, including The Tampa Tribune, a morning paper that has supported the Republicans for the last 40 years.

• Michael Moore pursued by the Republican Party
October 18, 2004
Below is the text of a letter from U.S. filmmaker Michael Moore currently circulating in the United States that reveals, in its author’s incisive satirical style, the prersecution unleashed against him by official circles as a result of his critical opposition to to the reelection of the present leader, George W. Bush. Granma has reproduced it from the Miami radio program in charge of Cuban collegue Max Lesnik

• U.S. Congress alert on electoral fraud
October 15, 2004
WASHINGTON, October 15 (PL).—The U.S. Congress has warned that the government lacks response mechanisms to potential electoral fraud at a point when the presidential candidates have entered a decisive phase in terms of the White House seat.
- More than 50 million people witness Bush’s defeat in debate

• $250,000 fine and up to 10 years’ imprisonment for buying a Cuban cigar
October 14, 2004
CITIZENS of or permanent residents in the United States cannot now buy a Cuban cigar in another country, even if they are thinking of smoking it outside of their homeland. The Bush administration has reinforced the blockade on the import of the island’s cigars.

• FORUM DEBATE ON BUSH’S TRANSITION PLAN FOR CUBA
Let the empire make no mistake!
October 14, 2004
“IT is impossible for the empire to make its ‘transition plan’ a reality,” affirmed Ricardo Alarcón de Quesada, president of the National Assembly, during an online forum on the blockade.

• New minister of basic industry
October 14, 2004
THE Council of State and the Political Bureau of the Communist Party have agreed to appoint Yadira García Vera as minister of basic industry, replacing Marcos Portal León, after “a lengthy and profound discussion of problems” within the sector, according to an official note published October 14 in Havana.

• Report on a street protest
October 13, 2004
THIS is the title of our commentary, because what we are going to talk about is last Saturday morning’s protest (October 9) organized by the Christian Women in Defense of the Family Association.

• The United States prevents the sale of vaccines to the island
October 13, 2004
THE Dutch Intervet Company has halted the delivery of a quadruple vaccine to Cuba after being notified by the U.S. government of the risk of being fined, given that the product contains an antigen manufactured in the United States.

• DOUBLE STANDARDS IN U.S. POLICY
Enma no, Jiménez yes
October 12, 2004
Seventy-four year old Enma Cruz, a Miami resident, was categorically refused permission to visit her daughter on her deathbed in Cuba: there was no way of obtaining a reply to her request. Her daughter died without the elderly woman having the opportunity to give her a last kiss.

• PALESTINIAN VICE PRESIDENT IN HAVANA
‘They want to exterminate us, but they will not succeed’
October 12, 2004
"The homeland is not conceded by a resolution, the homeland has to be conquered," Tassyr Quba, vice president of the Palestinian National Council emphasized in Havana, while exposing the Ariel Sharon government’s incessant brutality in complicity with the United States, in actions that are repudiated by the Palestinian people.

• Panama called on to annul terrorists’ pardon
October 11, 2004
TARAPOTO, Peru.-More than 40 Peruvian organizations have called on Martín Torrijos, the new president of Panama, to annul the pardon granted by the former government to four notorious terrorists, PL reports.

• COSTA RICA
“Champion” of democracy and godfather of anti-Cuban mafia accused of corruption
October 9, 2004
FORMER Costa Rican President Miguel Angel Rodríguez, well known for his speeches on democracy and legitimate political power as well as for his unconditional support of the Cuban-American mafia’s aims to isolate Cuba and end to the Revolution’s prestige, is facing serious charges of corruption in his country.

• Washington admits denying visas to 64 Cuban academics
October 8, 2004
WASHINGTON, October 7.—The George W. Bush administration admitted today that it has denied visas to 64 Cuban university professors who were invited to an academic event in the United States, because it viewed them as loyal to the island’s revolutionary process, PL reports.

• Popular Cuban presenter and actress Consuelo Vidal dies
October 8, 2004
THE popular Cuban presenter and actress Consuelo Vidal died yesterday in the capital at the age of 74, after being hospitalized for a number of months with a serious heart disorder.

• Heavy political and economic tension over Bush’s anti-Cuba measures
October 6, 2004
THE restrictions imposed by President George W. Bush on travel to Cuba have dealt a devastating blow to the charter flight industry, but the economic effects are barely the façade of a hotbed of political tension, inefficient bureaucracies, and familiar dramas that are today shaking up the Miami community, according to El Nuevo Herald.

• 28 YEARS AFTER THE BARBADOS CRIME
The killers remain unpunished
October 5, 2004
IT was midday on that Wednesday, October 6, 1976. The aircraft commenced the maneuver of revving its four engines, and cutting off the auxiliary ignition motors. A few minutes later it cruised along the runway and took off in a smooth but rapid ascent.

• Fidel visits Venezuelan ship bringing aid to Cuba
October 4, 2004
“THIS is a gesture of Bolivarian and Latin American solidarity, a gesture of fraternity, which is what we are,” affirmed President Fidel Castro on describing the aid offered by the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela to the Caribbean nations gravely affected by the recent Hurricanes Charley, Ivan and Jeanne.

• The blockade provokes losses of more than $1.8 billion every year
October 1, 2004
AN exhaustive explanation – including information dating back to February 6, 1959 when the United States appropriated the $424 million stolen by Batista’s cronies that was taken to the northern nation, from where it never returned, up to the latest measures adopted by the Bush administration in its eagerness to destroy the Cuban Revolution – was given by Foreign Minister Felipe Pérez Roque yesterday, when he...

• Report by Cuba on Resolution 58/7 of The United Nations General Assembly
October 1, 2004
The more than forty long years of suffering by the Cuban people, caused by their sovereign decision to stand up to the blockade imposed on it, to preserve their independence and to not renounce their right to build their own development model, is something that President George W. Bush’s administration treats with contempt.

• 59TH UN GENERAL ASSEMBLY
Protagonists: hunger, poverty, reforms and plagues of locusts
September 30, 2004
ON Tuesday September 21, 80 heads of state and/or government attended the opening session of the 59th UN General Assembly at its headquarters in New York City.

• Carter confirms that electoral problems are continuing in Florida
September 29, 2004
WASHINGTON (EFE.) – In spite of reforms in the electoral system, the necessary conditions to ensure fairness of the elections are still not in place in the state of Florida, according to former U.S. president Jimmy Carter.

• Russian and Cuban foreign ministers for reactivating relations
September 29, 2004
THE foreign ministers of both Cuban and Russia have confirmed the decisions of their respective governments to reject the U.S. blockade of the island and combat terrorism. On the second day of his visit, Serguei Lavrov, the Russian foreign minister, was received by President Fidel Castro.

• Young English tourist saved in Cuba
September 28, 2004
HOLGUIN (AIN).— On Friday September 24, the efficiency of the Cuban healthcare system saved the life of a young English boy who was vacationing on the island and who runderwent an emergency operation at the Octavio de la Concepción y de la Pedraja hospital in this city in eastern Cuba.

• British MPs against aggression of Cuba
September 28, 2004
AN overwhelming majority of British MPs, including Prime Minister Tony Blair, have made written declarations affirming that they would not support any military action against Cuba on the part of the United States.

• STATEMENT BY H.E. MR. FELIPE PÉREZ ROQUE, MINISTER OF FOREIGN AFFAIRS OF THE REPUBLIC OF CUBA, AT THE 59TH SESSION OF THE UNITED NATIONS GENERAL ASSEMBLY. NEW YORK, SEPTEMBER 24, 2004
September 27, 2004
Mr. President:
Every year at the United Nations we go through the same ritual. We attend the general debate knowing beforehand that the clamor for justice and peace by our underdeveloped countries will be ignored once again.

• Cuban foreign minister to address UN General Assembly today
September 24, 2004
THE Cuban delegation is continuing its activities in the framework of the 59th session of the UN General Assembly. Foreign Minister Felipe Pérez Roque was received by the Sam Njoma, president of Namibia, who transmitted the solidarity of the government and people of that country in relation to the damage wreaked by Hurricanes Charley and Ivan.

• U.S. House of Representatives approves changes in policy on travel to Cuba
September 23, 2004
WASHINGTON, Sept. 22 (PL)-In a blatant challenge to President George W. Bush, the House of Representatives approved an amendment that would allow Cubans residing in the United States to travel once a year to their country of origin.

• Solidarity with the Five in the Dominican Republic
September 23, 2004
SANTO DOMINGO.—The Dominican “De Multitudes” radio program from the Cielo FM 103.7 broadcasting station today devoted one hour to the issue of the five Cubans unjustly imprisoned in the United States for fighting against terrorism, Prensa Latina reports.

• Cuban foreign minister in series of meetings at the UN
September 22, 2004
AS part of its participation in the general debates in the 59th session of the UN General Assembly, the Cuban delegation headed by Foreign Minister Felipe Pérez Roque, has had various bilateral meetings.

• Message of solidarity from the Communist Party of Gaudaloupe
September 22, 2004
CHRISTIAN Celeste, general secretary of the Communist party of Guadaloupe, has sent the Cuban people a message of solidarity from his organization in the face of U.S. aggression and the consequences of the hurricanes that recently swept the island.

• The Five awaiting response from the Court of Appeal
September 21, 2004
ON September 12, the five Cuban heroes sentenced to lengthy terms in a rigged trial, full of violations of U.S. law and political manipulations, completed six cruel years in jail with their dignity and steadfastness intact.

• Ivan: 18 deaths as soon as it entered U.S. territory
September 17, 2004
WASHINGTON, September 16.-Hurricane Ivan entered U.S. territory with trail of wind and rain that provoked at least 18 deaths, according to partial reports announced by Prensa Latina.

• Jeanne still lashing Dominican Republic
September 17, 2004
HAVANA, September 17 (PL).—Tropical Storm Jeanne continues lashing the Dominican Republic today in its slow advance through the north of that country in a west northwesterly direction at approximately eight kilometers per hour, according to the Cuban Meteorological Institute.

• CARICOM to help Grenada and Jamaica
September 16, 2004
PORT OF SPAIN, September 15.—Leaders of the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) are today discussing a emergency program to help Grenada and Jamaica, both devastated by Hurricane Ivan, which left close to 70 people dead in its route throughout the region, while similar phenomena are threatening the Puerto Rico, the United States and Mexico, respectively, according to the international cable agencies.

• Cuba survives Ivan with no human lives lost
September 15, 2004
THE two hurricanes – Charley and the powerful Ivan, which hit Cuba in the space of just one month were a good training exercise for the people and the political state and governmental authorities, not just in terms of confronting the ravages of nature but also how to successfully survive any disaster.

• UN presents Cuba as an example in prevention against hurricanes
September 15, 2004
GENEVA (EFE).—UN officials today stated that Cuba is an example in the prevention of hurricane risks and a model that could be applied in other countries with similar or better economic conditions that have not been able to protect their populations as effectively as the island. Recently, Hurricane Charley took four lives in Cuba, as opposed to 30 in Florida

• Ivan leaves Cuba
September 14, 2004
AT 12:00 today, Ivan’s center was estimated at 23.5 degrees latitude North and 86.3 degrees longitude West, some 220 kilometers northwest of Cape San Antonio and 820 kilometers south southeast of New Orleans in the United States.

• Trail of tragedy in the Caribbean; Yucatan coast threatened
September 14, 2004
MEXICO CITY, September 13.- The number of fatalities caused by Hurricane Ivan’s passage through the Caribbean rose to at least 70 this Monday. The hurricane, currently at category five on the Saffir-Simpson scale, is on route to the waters of the Gulf of Mexico, informed PL.

• Another battle against hurricanes
September 14, 2004
THE cyclone season for 2004 is indeed fulfilling forecasts made by specialists at the Meteorological Institute in May, when they predicted a total of 13 tropical organisms with names (acquired once they have reached the tropical storm phase), of which seven would become hurricanes.

• Ivan should hit Cuba at the weekend
September 10, 2004
IF the route predicted by the majority of Cuban and foreign forecast models is correct, Hurricane Ivan is more than likely to penetrate Cuban territory at some point of the west or center of the island on Sunday.

• Ivan, potential danger for Cuba
September 9, 2004
GIVEN its position in the central area of the Caribbean Sea and its predicted trajectory in a west northwesterly direction and subsequently further northwest, the powerful hurricane Ivan currently represents a serious threat to Cuba and is likely to directly hit the country this weekend, almost certainly on Sunday.

• INFORMATIVE NOTE FROM THE MINISTRY OF FOREIGN AFFAIRS
Cuba is opposed to terrorism  whatever its source
September 9, 2004
THE people of Cuba have learned with pain and indignation of the acts of terrorism perpetrated on citizens of the Russian Federation, including children, in the city of Beslan, Republic of North Osetia, which cost the lives of more than 330 people, among them some 150 children.

• NESTOR BAGUER
‘I was the first RSF representative in Cuba’
September 7, 2004
IN an exclusive interview with the authors of Le Dossier Robert Ménard – Pourquoi Reporters sans frontieres s’archane sur Cuba (The Robert Ménard Dossier – Why Reporters sans Frontieres is venting its anger on Cuba, Néstor Bageur Sánchez Galárraga explains how Ménard recruited him and then presented him with a laptop computer, an identical procedure used all over the world by the “honorable correspondents” of the CIA in recruitment operations and in order to provide information.

• Two PARLATINO committees to meet in Havana
September 7, 2004
ON Thursday and Friday of this week in Havana, two of the 13 standing committees of the Latin American parliament (PARLATINO) – those of Health and Energy and Mines, are to work on important agendas including access to medical services and the impact of that on life indicators, and the role of public enterprises in the exploration, production and sale of hydrocarbons, respectively.

• Cuba opens service for remittances from Spain and Italy
September 6, 2004
CUBA has instigated a new service for the receipt of remittances from Italy and Spain, the European countries with the largest number of residents from the island, two months after the tightening of the U.S. embargo of the country, EFE informs from Havana.

• More than 570 people arrested in demonstrations against the Republican convention in New York
September 1, 2004
NEW YORK.— Police today arrested 23 people who were blocking the streets of New York’s commercial district as part of a day of civil disobedience in protest at the Republican Party convention.

• Posada Carriles said to be in Honduras
August 31, 2004
EVERYTHING would seem to indicate that terrorist Luis Posada Carriles has taken refuge in Honduras, his traditional lair along with El Salvador.

• IVETTE, RENE AND OLGA’S DAUGHTER
Four years without seeing her father due to a State Department decision
August 31, 2004
"A little girl doesn’t know anything about hatred or judges or political trials. She just needs to grow up in peace, knowing her father and having the chance to give him kisses," said Olga Salanueva during a meeting with members of the Canadian Che Guevara Brigade, commenting on the fact that their daughter Ivette has not been able to see her father for almost four years.

• Mireya Moscoso’s shameful and repugnant action
August 27, 2004
ONE of the most treacherous acts in the history of relations between Cuba and Panama was consumed today.

• Mireya Moscoso pardons terrorists
August 26, 2004
PANAMA CITY.—The government of Panama has pardoned four terrorists sentenced to eight years’ imprisonment for conspiring to assassinate Cuban President Fidel Castro, the national press announced today Thursday, according to EFE and Notimex.

• Popular demonstrations in Panama in response to possible pardon for terrorists
August 25, 2004
DOZENS of Panamanian workers and university students marched through the capital city’s streets after learning of a possible pardon being granted to the terrorists being held in Panama.

• Cuban Project brings hope to illiterate Ecuadorans
August 25, 2004
Quito, August 2, (Prensa Latina) .—The Cuban basic literacy campaign program currently being applied in Ecuador is beginning to bear fruit, as the first group of 415 residents in Cotacachi district are no longer illiterate.

• Mayor Capriles Radonsky faces trial in Caracas
August 24, 2004
THAT day Caracas was stunned by the news of the overthrow and imprisonment of President Hugo Chávez for 47 hours. The Cuban-Venezuelan opposition took advantage of that lapse to organize demonstrators who besieged the island’s diplomatic headquarters, cutting off its water and electricity supplies and destroying the delegation’s cars parked at the entrance.