U.S.-Cuba COOPERATION: A news chronology

(From stories compiled by FOCAL, the Canadian Foundation for the Americas)

2006

September 5: The sharp political rhetoric between Washington and Havana, including allegations of Cuban government harassment of the US Interests Section in the Cuban capital, does not resonate at Guantánamo. Navy Captain Mark Leary, Guantanamo base commander, holds a monthly meeting with his Cuban counterpart -- an orderly ritual that has gone on for about a decade as a way of ensuring that the 17.4-mile fenced border remains calm.  At the most recent meeting with Cuban Navy Captain Pedro Román Cisneros last month, "there was nothing brought up about Castro's health or anything like that," Leary said. "I thought if it was going to be brought up, it was going to be brought up by the Cubans," Leary said. It wasn't. Instead, the military men followed their typical "very pragmatic, very practical" dialogue about issues like construction projects near the fence.  The US Navy's post-Castro immigration-control plan was not altered by the news about the power changeover either, Leary said. "We had actually been reviewing it," he said. "It's continually reviewed." (The Miami Herald, 5/9/06) 

September 8: US law blocks most travel to communist-led Cuba, but the Caribbean nation will be represented at an international travel show in Orlando, Florida. A US-based group known as the Travel Industry Committee on Cuba will promote travel and business links with the neighboring island at a convention, September 10-12, spearheaded by the American Society of Travel Agents, the world's biggest travel agent group. More than 2,000 travel sellers and more than 1,000 consumers are expected at the show that will feature booths representing companies and countries from around the world. John McAuliff, coordinator of the Travel Industry Committee on Cuba, said by telephone that his group wants Washington to lift its 40-year-old restrictions on US travel to the island, just as it liberalized US food sales to Cuba. The move would open new business opportunities for US travel companies. (Sun Sentinel, 8/9/06)

September 25: Up to thirty percent of the food Cuba imports comes from the United States, that's more than from any other country. Despite the 47-year-old US trade embargo, today US companies are flocking to Cuba, all because of a loophole Congress approved in 2000 that allows for the sale of American food to Cuba. What started as a trickle has turned into a half billion dollar flood of sales each year. "I think it's substantial," said Kirby Jones of the US-Cuba Trade Association, in response to a question about US food sales to Cuba. "I think in the $100's of millions or billions of dollars." (CBS News, 25/9/06)

October 2: Harvard will participate with the University of Havana in a semester study-abroad program, after overcoming strict federal regulations on US travel to the island, reported The Harvard Crimson. The arduous process of obtaining this license took 18 months, and permission lasts for only one year, according to Harvard's vice provost for international affairs, Jorge I. Dominguez. The 2007 program will run from late January to early May. For these four months, students will live in Havana, the country's capital. (Prensa Latina, 2/10/06)

November 1: A Florida cattle broker who organized the sale of Vermont cattle to Cuba two years ago said Cuban officials were eying more of the state's animals. "In the spring, Cuba intends to buy more dairy cattle," John Parke Wright IV said. The 76 Vermont Holstein and Jersey heifers purchased two years ago are adapting to the country's hot and humid weather, officials said. The officials are happy with the cows' milk output and offspring. "They are animals with very good genetic potential," said Roberto Hernandez Antunez, manager of Nina Bonita Farm, where the cattle were sent. (Rutland Herald, 3//1/06)

November 8: Calling the Cuban military one of the most respected and strongest of the island's institutions, the former head of the Miami-based Southern Command said the US military is ready to work with, train and supply Cuban soldiers when democracy prevails there. Army General Bantz J. Craddock, the four-star general who now runs NATO operations in Europe, made the points in an academic article outlining the ways the US and Cuban armed forces could work together in humanitarian, counterdrug, counterterrorism and disaster relief operations. The article mirrors US policy toward Cuba, and in particular the recent Commission for Assistance to a Free Cuba report, but was unusual in that such a high-ranking Army general helped write it. The article published in Cuban Affairs, a University of Miami online journal, was co-authored by Major Barbara Fick. Craddock ran US military operations in Latin America and the Caribbean as Southcom chief from 2004 until last October, and Fick serves as Army special assistant to the head of Southcom. (The Miami Herald, 8/11/06)

December 10: The executive officer of the US Presbyterian Church helped Cubans celebrate the 100th anniversary of the opening of the capital's first Protestant temple, giving a sermon in which he urged all Christians to do more to eliminate global inequality. The Reverend Clifton Kirkpatrick spoke in both English and Spanish to hundreds of followers and diplomats at the ceremony in central Havana. Delegations from Florida and Washington D.C. were also present. "A better world is possible," said the American minister, criticizing Christians who fail to work toward creating a planet where everyone has a dignified life and enough to eat and drink. Kirkpatrick first came to Cuba 20 years ago. He spoke of the history of the church, which was inaugurated in 1906 and hosted the founding of the Cuban Council of Churches in 1941. "This church has been witness to very difficult, very complex times," he said, referring to low attendance rates and tension with the Cuban government in the past. (AP, 10/12/06)

December 20: The World Trade Center-Palm Beach plans a humanitarian, educational and information exchange mission to Cuba in June, the international business group announced. "We hope to exchange information about several key resources found in Palm Beach County: agriculture, ranching and food processing; water purification, irrigation and related technologies; transportation; and medicine and life sciences," Lou Haddad, president of the group, said in a statement. Haddad said the group is working with its counterpart in Cuba, the World Trade Center-Havana, to organize the visit. About 30 professionals from South Florida are expected to make the trip, pending government approvals. "There once existed a pre-Castro relationship between the Port of Palm Beach and Cuba," Haddad said. "We believe that Palm Beach County can re-establish former ties and assist the island to develop its economy." The delegation does not plan to meet with any Cuban government agencies or officials, "just everyday people like us exchanging information and getting to know each other's cultures better," he said. (Sun Sentinel, 21/12/06)