Washington Watch - 01 April 2010
Cuba: On 31 March figures from charter airlines showed that the number of flights between the US and Cuba have increased by between 150% and 200% in the first quarter of 2010 compared with the same period of 2008. The increase is a result of the lifting of restrictions last year on travel, between Cuba and the US. The main beneficiaries of this surging trade are the eight US-based charter flight companies who operate the only flights allowed from the US. The charter companies say direct flights are up by 36%, year-on-year, after increasing by 70% in 2009. The charter companies say direct flights by Cuban Americans increased again by 36% so far this year on top of 70% growth for 2009. Cuban officials recently said about 250,000 Cuban exiles visited the island from the US in 2009, up from an estimated 170,000 in 2008 when direct flights were barred.
El Salvador: President Barack Obama's appointment of Mari Carmen Aponte, a lawyer and former president of the Hispanic National Bar Association, as US ambassador to El Salvador remains stalled in the senate. She was not one of President Barack Obama's recent 15 recess appointments, which sidestep the need for senatorial approval. Aponte's drawback is her relationship with a Cuban, Robert Tamayo, who had ties to the Cuban intelligence agency, DGI, which attracted the attention of the FBI. Aponte appeared before the senate foreign relations committee on 17 March and testified that she had been involved romantically with Tamayo between 1982 and 1994; that he had "some contacts" with the Cuban diplomatic mission to the US. She said that they met "on occasion" with Cuban officials but underlined that the contact was purely social. In 1993 Aponte was visited by the FBI who wanted to discuss the relationship. She cooperated fully until they asked her to take a polygraph test which she refused although she did agree to set up a meeting between agents and Tamayo.
Nicaragua: President Daniel Ortega has appointed Francisco Campbell as the next ambassador to the US. A native of the southern Caribbean port town of Bluefields and a member of the educated “Creole elite", Campbell served as ambassador to various African countries under the first Ortega administration (1979-1990). He is married to Miriam Hooker, the executive director of the Centre for Human, Citizen and Autonomous Rights (Cedehca) which was founded in 1995 to strengthen the autonomy process on the Caribbean Coast. The appointment, which would fill a year-long vacancy, has to be ratified by the US and Nicaragua's congress.
Ecuador: On 31 March President Rafael Correa told the US embassy in Quito that he did not have time to meet Arturo Valenzuela, the US Assistant Secretary of State for Western Hemisphere Affairs. Valenzuela had wanted to meet Correa during his visit on 4 and 5 April, instead Valenzuela will see Ricardo Patiño, Ecuador's foreign minister. On 5 April Valenzuela is due to talk about the US's policy towards Latin America at a Facultad Latinoamerica de Ciencias Sociales (Flacso) event in Ecuador.