News

Juan Juan Almeida, son of deceased Commander of the Cuban Revolution Juan Almeida, will arrive today in Miami from Mexico, after having received a temporary exit permit from the island’s government, the Miami-based El Nuevo Herald reported. Almeida, author of the book Memorias de un guerrillero cubano desconocido (Memories of an Unknown Cuban Guerrilla), which criticizes the Caribbean nation’s political system, will be treated for a bone disease in Los Angeles.

More than 20,000 persons will have learned to read and write in Argentina at the close of 2010 thanks to the Cuban Yo sí puedo (Yes I Can) literacy program, Claudia Camba, president of the A Better World is Possible (UMMEP) foundation, affirmed. Camba also said that some 29,000 persons have been operated on as part of Operation Miracle, a regional initiative for free ophthalmologic care launched in 2004 by Cuba and Venezuela.

Salvadoran President Mauricio Funes asked the opposition to overcome “the ideological past” regarding Cuba, with which he established diplomatic relations after he became president on June 1, 2009, which had been broken for almost 50 years, in statements to the press in the Central American nation. Funes postponed his September trip to the island because of agenda matters.

The US government should relax sooner than later restrictions on travel to Cuba, the governor of the state of New Mexico, Bill Richardson, affirmed in statements to the MSNBC TV channel from the island’s capital. Richardson also considers that the embargo has not worked and announced he would discuss with the Cuban authorities the case of U.S. contractor Alan Gross, detained since December 2009.

The Cuban Espacio Laical magazine, published by the lay Catholic community, rejected a letter sent to Pope Benedict XVI by representatives of the island’s political opposition, which it considered part of an international campaign to torpedo the Catholic Church’s mediation regarding the political prisoners.

Another six Cuban political prisoners will soon be released, announced today the Archbishopric of Havana, which has announced all the releases up to now. With these prisoners a total of 32 opposition members imprisoned since 2003 have been released and they have asked to leave for Spain, according to the negotiations between the Cuban government, the Catholic Church and Madrid.

Cuban Cardinal Jaime Ortega asked US authorities during a recent visit he made to Washington that they accept the released political prisoners who have expressed interest in traveling to that country, Orlando Márquez, spokesman for the Archbishopric of Havana, announced.

Former Cuban President Fidel Castro met with a group of Cuban scientists to inform them of the dangers of a possible nuclear war and its consequences for the planet, the island’s state-run press reported today. Castro is carrying out a campaign in the Caribbean nation to warn about the war that could break out in the next few weeks between the United States, Iran and Israel.

The government of the Czech Republic expressed to Cardinal Jaime Ortega and to the Spanish Foreign Ministry its willingness to receive as refugees two of the three released political prisoners and their families, diplomatic sources from the European country announced.