CUBA NEWS
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Power blackouts in Cuba to last through
end of year
HAVANA, 2 (AP) - Power blackouts that have
plagued Cubans all summer will continue
through the end of the year, an electricity
official told local media in an interview
published Thursday.
"It can't be asserted that there will
be total stability ... We should be achieving
that at the end of this year," Victor
Puentes, head of energy saving for the government's
Electricity Union power company, told the
Communisty Party's daily newspaper Granma.
Residents in Havana have suffered up to
11 hours a day without electricity in recent
weeks, testing their nerves and prompting
some to go out on their balconies and scream
in residential neighborhoods.
Energy-saving measures adopted early last
month appear to have done little to help
ease the blackouts, which historically plague
Cuba during the sweltering summer when residential
electricity demands rise sharply with children
home from school, adults on vacation, and
fans and air conditioners running almost
constantly.
While Cuba now produces all of the crude
it needs to fill the nation's electrical
needs, the island's overall electrical infrastructure
remains limited.
Hurricane Charley only exacerbated infrastructure
problems when it ripped through Cuba Aug.
13, knocking out power in the western provinces
of Havana and Pinar del Rio.
Honduras admits can't find missing
airline bombing suspect
Freddy Cuevas, Associated
Press Writer. September 1, 2004.
TEGUCIGALPA, Honduras (AP) - The government
said Wednesday it has been unable to find
an airline bombing suspect believed to have
entered the country, and it said the man
may have fled to the Bahamas.
Security Minister Oscar Alvarez reported
"zero results" in a search for
Luis Posada Carriles, who was freed from
prison in Panama last week and immediately
flown out of the Panama. Officials said
they believed he stopped here.
"He could have left the country and
we believe he is in the Bahamas," Alvarez
told a news conference.
"Our informants tell us that Posada
Carriles could have used Honduras as a point
to travel to the Caribbean."
Mark Wilson, the permanent secretary of
the Ministry of National Security in the
Bahamas, said his office was not aware of
any possibility that Posada had entered
the Caribbean country and said it was unlikely
due to tighter border security following
the Sept. 11, 2001 terror attacks in the
United States.
On Tuesday, Honduran President Ricardo
Maduro expressed anger at the possible arrival
of Posada and said he would demand explanations
from Panama and from the United States.
Officials said Posada had obtained a false
U.S. passport almost immediately on leaving
jail.
"I will not let terrorists and international
criminals enter Honduras and think that
the country will be their shield and shelter,"
Maduro said Tuesday.
Posada Carriles and three other Cuban exiles
were pardoned on Aug. 26 by Panamanian President
Mireya Moscoso and were allowed to board
a chartered private jet to leave of the
country.
The 76-year-old Posada, a former CIA operative,
till faces charges in Venezuela of masterminding
a 1976 bombing of a Cuban commercial airliner
that killed 73 people.
He was arrested with the other three exiles
in Panama in November 2000 after Cuba announced
they had come to Panama to kill Cuban President
Fidel Castro at a summit.
Panamanian courts found insufficient evidence
for that charge, but sentenced them to seven-
and eight-year terms on lesser charges.
Cuba immediately severed diplomatic relations
with Panama and Venezuela recalled its ambassador.
Neighboring governments, including El Salvador
and Honduras, quickly said Posada was unwelcome.
In the Bahamas, Wilson said Posada could
be arrested if he turned up there.
"A person like that, we would take
into custody," he said.
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