Caribbean & Central America - March 2006 (ISSN 1741-4458)

The president of the Cuban parliament, Ricardo Alarcón, accused the US of concocting an "annexationist and genocidal" programme to try and usher in democracy in Cuba. Alarcón's diatribe came the day after the annual publication by the US of its Human Rights' Report.

Alarcón did not allude to the report released on 10 March. The head of the US Interests Section in Havana, Michael Parmley, who is intensifying the propaganda war with Cuba (see RC-06-02), made sure that it did not go unnoticed. He said Cuba was guilty of "a sinister wave of repression", inciting "mobs" to threaten Cuban dissidents. The report was slightly more measured. "In Cuba, the regime continued to control all aspects of life through the Communist Party and state-controlled mass organizations_ The regime suppressed calls for democratic reform, such as the Varela Project, which proposed a national referendum."

* Cuba will open embassies in Antigua & Barbuda, Dominica, Suriname, and St Vincent and the Grenadines in April to strengthen ties with the Caribbean Community, Cuba's ambassador to Caricom, Alejandro Marchante Castellanos, said. Cuba already has embassies in the other 11 countries in the 15-member Caricom group.