• Hugo Chavez's disappearing act fuels speculation about Venezuela's future

    Miraflores Palace via Reuters

    Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez blows a kiss from the door of an airplane before departing to Cuba at Simon Bolivar airport in Caracas on Dec. 10. Chavez flew to Cuba for cancer surgery, vowing to return quickly, but has not been seen in public since.

    By Kerry Sanders, Correspondent, NBC News

    MIAMI -- It’s been 40 days since anyone has publicly seen or heard from Venezuela’s President Hugo Chavez.

    Keith Rosenn, a law professor at the University of Miami with extensive experience in Latin American legal affairs, asks what is on so many minds: Did Chavez die at some point after flying to Cuba on Dec. 10?

    “It’s possible Chavez could be dead for a substantial period of time before we know he’s dead and why he died,” Rosenn said. “He’s in Cuba after all.”

    Chavez, in Havana suffering from an unspecified type of cancer, has been treated repeatedly by doctors on the communist island.

    Slideshow: Hugo Chavez through the years

    /

    The life of Venezuelan president Hugo Chavez from his rise as a lieutenant colonel after his failed coup attempt in 1992.

    Launch slideshow

    The Venezuelan leader not only shares a special relationship with brothers Fidel and Raul Castro, but his socialist revolution is modeled in many ways after the Cuban system. Fidel ruled the country from the end of the Cuban revolution until he ceded power to Raul in 2006.

    It’s highly unusual for Chavez to be gone from public view this long “for someone who craves attention,” Rosenn said.

    Now 58, Chavez has seldom been out of the public eye since he assumed power in early 1999.

    A former lieutenant colonel in the Venezuelan military, he grew up poor, only to wind up nationalizing and controlling his country’s vast treasure: oil.

    Since assuming power, it’s estimated his country has pumped more than $1 trillion of oil onto the open market, while at the same time sharing his nation’s riches with like-minded leaders in Bolivia, Nicaragua, Peru and Cuba.

    If Chavez is dead, his brand of socialism, so-called “Chavismo,” could live on “if the Chavistas who remain, remain united and are committed to his missions,” said Susan Kaufman Purcell, director of the Center for Hemispheric Policy at the University of Miami.


    But the mood could shift, she said. Chavez’s power base lies among the poor, the very people who “were lied to” in the past about Chavez’s health, Purcell added.

    “People were not prepared for this because Chavez suggested he was cured of cancer when he wasn’t,” she said.

    Chavez handily won re-election in October 2012 but was a no-show at his Jan. 10 inauguration.

    Despite his openly anti-American rhetoric, American officials will maintain a hands-off policy on Venezuela, predicted Aimee Arias, chair of political science at Florida Atlantic University.

    “The U.S. and Venezuela have had a tense relationship, but the business relationship with oil has continued pretty much in place, and barring any sort of unconstitutional change or undemocratic situation after Chavez's death, I would assume that will continue,” she said.

    If Chavez is indeed dead, Arias said Chavismo would have a hard time going forward without its founder.

    “The movement is named after him, after all,” she said.

    More Venezuela coverage from NBC News

    Vice President Nicolas Maduro, a former bus driver, is currently in charge.

    Some Chavez opponents, such as recent presidential candidate Henrique Carpriles Radonski, contend that Chavez missing his own swearing-in should trigger a new election within 30 days. 

    But Rosenn, a constitutional lawyer, interprets the document differently.

    “Article 231 says that the elected candidate is to be sworn in as president on Jan. 10, but then the last sentence says if for any unforeseen reason he can not take the oath, then he will be sworn in before the Supreme Tribunal of Justice, but it doesn’t say when,” Rosenn said.

    And therein lies wiggle room for Chavez’s backers.

    Despite calls for calm from both Chavistas and the opposition, it’s the threat of destabilizing violence that concerns Venezuela watchers in the U.S. most.  

    After all, unrest in the fourth-largest oil exporter to the United States could have a big impact on Americans.

    And with Venezuela’s economy already in disarray and oil exports down by 30 percent in the past 15 years, no matter who is in charge, times ahead in that country are likely to be tough.

    “If he’s dead,” Purcell said, “Chavez leaves behind a country that is in pretty bad shape.”

    Follow NBC News correspondent Kerry Sanders on Twitter.

    Related stories:
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  • After a century without the disease, Cuba fights to contain cholera

    Roberto Leon

    Arismael Nieto's job is to pour a diluted bleach solution over the hands of every commuter at this Havana bus station, and make sure everyone steps on a cloth soaked with the solution to clean the bottom of their shoes.

    By Mary Murray, Producer, NBC News

    Camilo, my 7-year old grandson in Cuba, has never been shy about asking for presents – especially when he knows I’m heading to Havana from that big shopping mall 90 miles away. His usual list includes a massive bag of M&M peanut candy, additions to what’s become a pretty pricey collection of Schleich resin animals, and goofy gags second-grade boys find funny, such as hand buzzers or that classic snake-in-a-can. When Camilo got on the phone with me last weekend, he only rattled off one item.

    “Aba,” (that’s what he calls me–short for "abuela", which is "grandma" in Spanish), “bring me soap.”

    “Soap? You want soap?” I repeated, convinced I must have heard him wrong.

    “Si”, he insisted. “Jabon!”


    Now he has me worried that I need to make an emergency supply-run for detergent, shampoo, dishwashing soap and other basics. The last time soap was in short supply in Cuba was in the 1990s but, if this kid is asking for soap, the situation must be dire. He’s about as germaphobe as your average stray puppy. Like a lot of little boys, he needs to be reminded that taking a shower means actually standing under the water.

    Camilo, however, didn’t want just any soap. He was looking for what he calls “the soap that melts.” He wanted me to bring him an alcohol-based instant hand sanitizer.

    Then he made it clear why. “Aba, there’s cholera here,” he said.

    As it turns out, Camilo had spilled the beans a full 72 hours before the Cuban Health Ministry issued a formal communiqué on what had been rumored since the start of the year -- cholera had surfaced in the city of Havana, home to 2.2 million people.

    The announcement explained that 51 new cases of cholera had been diagnosed in the Cuban capital along with a spike in the number of people suffering from "diarrheal diseases." The ministry made no mention of any fatalities. The public was being advised to be more careful with personal hygiene, boil all drinking water or use purification drops and thoroughly wash all fruits and vegetables, but to stay assured that Cuba’s massive public health machine was implementing preventive measures meant to “contain” and “eradicate” the disease.

    According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention website, cholera is a bacterial infection in the intestine that can range from mild to severe. In the latter case, an infected person will experience “dehydration and shock" that, if left untreated, can lead to death "within hours.” The CDC estimates that every year there are up to 5 million cases and more than 100,000 deaths from cholera worldwide.

    In most cases, the disease takes about a week to run its course, and during that time, warns the CDC, cholera is highly contagious. Spread hand to mouth, the bacteria is usually found in water or food sources contaminated by an infected person’s feces.

    Contamination
    A single food vendor at a baseball game appears to be the cause of the Havana outbreak. In early January, apparently, contaminated sandwiches or soda were sold during a packed game in the city’s main sports arena, the Latin American Stadium, located in a neighborhood called Cerro.

    "That's why people from different parts of the city tested positive for cholera at the same time,” said a medical source, not authorized to speak on the record but who claims to have first-hand knowledge of the findings from the epidemiological task force assigned to trace the origins of the outbreak.

    Roberto Leon

    Officials from Cuba's Health and Epidemiology department inspected this pizza parlor located not too far from where the outbreak started in Havana and closed it down.

    At Wednesday's nighttime game between Havana's beloved Industriales and last year's national champs, Los Tigres de Ciego de Avila, hawkers should have been making a killing on what had been one of the season's most sought-after tickets. Instead, 80 percent of the seats remained empty. Those die-hard fans who did show up were not allowed into the stadium until they sterilized their shoes and hands. Benches were wiped down with a disinfectant, and the floors hosed down with the same 0.5 percent bleach solution. And there was nothing to munch on during the three-and-a-half-hour game. All food stands have been temporarily shut down.

    The same goes for many mom-and-pop cafeterias across the capital. "Last week, officials from Health and Epidemiology inspected our place and then they closed us down," said one owner of a pizza parlor not too far from where the outbreak started. "They said it's to stop the spread of cholera but no one’s saying how long we have to stay closed." His only consolation is that this month he doesn’t have to pay taxes or his monthly licensing fee.

    Upset about his loss of income, he is also irked by the fact that some state-run food establishments passed the inspections, so they are being allowed to stay open. Many though are only authorized to sell bottled water, canned drinks and commercially packaged food.

    Arismael Nieto usually changes the light bulbs and fixes broken chairs at Havana’s Bus Terminal. For the last two weeks, he’s been drafted on the city’s anti-cholera campaign. He stands by the one door opened at the station and his job is to pour a diluted bleach solution over the hands of every commuter, and make sure everyone steps on a cloth soaked with the solution to clean the bottom of their shoes. No one gets on a bus or leaves the building without Nieto’s OK.

    Now, picture this procedure happening at every school from kindergarten to college, every public building, factory, lunch room, hospital, health clinic, department store, train depot and movie theater.

    Chlorine a "necessary inconvenience"
    Over the summer, two people who live in the Havana neighborhood of Fontanar thought they had the flu but tested positive for cholera. It was believed that they were exposed on the bus ride from eastern Cuba, an area of the country that had an outbreak earlier last year. In late August, Cuba revealed that cholera had killed three people and infected 417 in Granma province, some 450 miles east of Havana.

    Roberto Leon

    Signs such as this one are posted everywhere in Havana, alerting people to go to the hospital as soon as they experience any of the symptoms of cholera.

    Cuba’s cholera treatment protocol has doctors knocking on doors and testing anyone with possible cholera symptoms. A positive test means an automatic trip to one of the city hospitals for a more comprehensive test. While most suspected cases go to Havana’s Tropical Medicine Institute, known by its initials IPK, a pediatric hospital and a maternity hospital have also been designated to admit cholera cases. In addition, the protocol mandated that all of Havana’s 85 neighborhood health clinics set aside a room with ventilation and a closed door as a place to quarantine suspected cholera cases until an ambulance arrives to transport the patient to the hospital.

    Once hospitalized, a comprehensive history is taken that focuses on identifying all the people the patient has come in contact with over the past weeks. Health workers are dispatched to locate those persons to test them for cholera and administer a free prophylactic dose of doxycycline.

    Although none of the guidelines cited by the CDC recommend using antibiotics for cholera prevention, the Cuban Health Ministry believes otherwise. Hundreds of thousands of Doxycycline tablets, apparently readied in warehouses for just such an emergency, were distributed to hospitals and health clinics one morning earlier this week—another sign that Cuba is well-prepared to tackle this outbreak.

    Are people complaining? You bet. They hate the chlorine smell. They say the solution stings but many would agree with Angela Linares, a nurse raising a 13-year old daughter alone, who said: “It’s a necessary inconvenience.”

    “No one wants cholera, especially since we know so little about this disease,” she said.

    Linares was right. Until last year, the last reported cholera outbreak in Cuba was recorded almost a century ago.

    Upon learning this fact, I became even more baffled that my 7-year-old grandson mentioned cholera days before the government admitted the outbreak.

    As it turns out, his primary school had been put on alert early last week, and the kids learned about the intestinal bug and prevention at a school assembly. Community physicians were dispatched to all of the city’s 650 schools to not only give a crash course on cholera but hand out soap to every classroom.

    Still, it wasn’t until after the Health Ministry’s warning that Cuban state media began running public service announcements -- considerably behind the curve of Havana's second graders.

    Related content:

    Cuba scrambling to contain cholera outbreak in Havana

     

  • Cuba scrambling to contain cholera outbreak in Havana

    AFP - Getty Images

    Miriam Rodriguez shows a picture of her late son Ubaldo Pino -- who died of cholera on Jan. 6 -- on Jan. 15, 2013 in Havana. The official newspaper Granma announced Tuesday a cholera outbreak has allegedly sickened 51 people in Havana.

    By Marc Frank, Reuters

    Cuban authorities are scrambling to contain a cholera outbreak that has sickened dozens of people in Havana, the capital city of 2.2 million residents and a popular tourism destination.

    In a brief communiqué issued on Tuesday, the Health Ministry said the outbreak was first detected on Jan. 6, and was being contained.

    "Fifty-one cases have been confirmed to date," the statement read, without mentioning fatalities.


    "Due to the measures adopted, transmission is in the phase of extinction," it said.

    But in off-the-record discussions with a ministry official and doctor directly involved in fighting the outbreak, a different picture emerged with hundreds of suspected cases.

    They said the first cases were traced to a baseball game at the Latin American Stadium in the Cerro municipality of the Cuban capital, where fans come from all parts of the city to watch their team, the Industriales, play.

    "We know what happened. Either the pork sandwiches or Tan Rico soda pop was contaminated at a game earlier this month," the official said.

    "Even some of the baseball players became sick," she added.

    The Health Ministry statement said the outbreak had begun in Cerro and "later spread to other municipalities in the capital."

    Tens of thousands of tourists are visiting Havana, but there have been no reports of foreigners catching the illness.

    Community clinics and family doctors are on high alert and giving out instructions to prevent the disease, transportation hubs have passengers sterilizing their shoes before leaving town and eateries are being systematically inspected and sometimes closed, residents say.

    The official said Havana had been preparing to fight the disease since Cuba's first cholera outbreak in decades last year in eastern Granma province.

     

    There have been scattered cases since then, but all were traced to the Granma area and quickly contained, she said.

    "This time is different. There are many cases, but we are well prepared in terms of supplies and the protocol," she said, adding, "let's just hope we can stop this before it becomes much worse."

    'Army' of health personnel
    Martica, a Culture Ministry employee, tells a tale typical of the stories circulating around the city.

    "There is this young man who often buys a milkshake around the corner from the office building where I work. He comes to the cafeteria and eats lunch with his girlfriend," she said.

    "Last week he was hospitalized with cholera and an army from the Health Ministry descended upon the area and my building, handing out penicillin, checking the water supply, closing snack shops and questioning residents and workers," she said.

    The lack of official information until Tuesday has led to rumors that dozens have died in the Cuban capital, though the official and doctor said there had been only one fatality.

    Three Havana hospitals have been designated to handle cholera cases - one for adults, another for children and a third for pregnant women.

    Another doctor working at the designated adult hospital, the Center for Tropical Medicine, said they were swamped during the weekend with suspected cases.

    Cholera is generally not fatal, but can kill in just a few hours when diarrhea and vomiting cause dehydration, especially among the elderly.

    The illness runs its course within a week, making it relatively easy to track, but at the same time is highly contagious, spreading from hand to mouth, through contaminated food and the water supply.

    "So far there is no indication it's in the water supply, but we are dumping more chlorine in the system," the Health Ministry official said.

    Until 2012, there had been no cholera outbreaks reported in Cuba since well before the 1959 revolution and the creation of a national health system by the Communist government.

    Hundreds of Cuban doctors and nurses have worked for more than a decade in Haiti, which has battled a cholera outbreak that has killed more than 7,000 people since that country's 2010 earthquake.

    Cuba lies closer to Haiti than any other Caribbean country, with the exception of the Dominican Republic, which shares the island of Hispaniola with the crisis stricken country and has reported more than 20,000 cholera cases and 350 deaths since the Haiti epidemic began.

    Copyright 2013 Thomson Reuters. Click for restrictions.

  • Venezuela top court OKs postponing Chavez inauguration

    Miguel Gutierrez / EPA

    A view of a wall depicting Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez and Simon Bolivar in Caracas, Venezuela, Jan. 9, 2013.

    Venezuela's top court endorsed the postponement of Hugo Chavez's inauguration this week and ruled on Wednesday that the cancer-stricken president remained the South American OPEC nation's leader.


    The 58-year-old socialist has not been seen in public nor heard from in almost a month following surgery in Cuba. The government says he is in a delicate condition and cannot attend Thursday's scheduled swearing-in for a new six-year term.

    "Right now we cannot say when, how or where the president will be sworn in," Supreme Court Chief Judge Luisa Morales told a news conference.

    "As president re-elect there is no interruption of performance of duties ... The inauguration can be carried out at a later date before the Supreme Court."

    Both Chavez and his heir apparent, Vice President Nicolas Maduro, would remain in the roles after Jan. 10, she added in a judgment quashing opposition appeals for a caretaker president to be named.

    Government leaders insist Chavez is fulfilling his duties as head of state, even though official medical bulletins said he suffered multiple complications after the surgery, including a severe pulmonary infection, and has had trouble breathing.

    It was his fourth operation since being diagnosed with an undisclosed type of cancer in June 2011.

    The government has called for a massive rally outside the presidential palace on Thursday, and allied presidents including Uruguay's Jose Mujica and Bolivia's Evo Morales have confirmed they will visit Venezuela that day despite Chavez's absence.

    The president's resignation or death would upend politics in the oil-rich nation, where he is revered by poor supporters thankful for his social largesse.

    His critics denounce him as an autocrat who has squandered billions of dollars from crude sales while dashing the independence of state institutions.

    Reuters

     

  • Venezuela tensions brew as Chavez remains ill, absent

    Leo Ramirez / AFP - Getty Images

    Literature praising Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez on sale at a shop in Caracas on Monday. As the date approaches for Chavez to be inaugurated for a new term in office, the president remained out of sight and gravely ill after a complicated cancer surgery in Cuba.

    By NBC News and wire services

    Leaders of the Roman Catholic Church in Venezuela are warning that the country's stability is at risk amid growing tensions surrounding President Hugo Chavez's long absence after cancer surgery in Cuba.

    Catholic leaders in the Venezuelan Bishops Conference said on Monday that conflicting stances by the government and opposition ahead of Chavez's scheduled swearing-in for a new term make for a potentially dangerous and violent situation.

    "The nation's political and social stability is at serious risk," said Bishop Diego Padron, the conference's president, reading a statement from the organization.


    Venezuela's opposition is accusing the government of violating the constitution by proposing to delay Chavez's inauguration for a new term, slated to take place on Thursday.

    The socialist leader's allies say the Jan. 10 inauguration date laid out in the constitution is just a "formality."  They say Chavez, who has not been heard from for almost a month after complex cancer surgery in Cuba, can take office when his health allows.

    His adversaries say that would be running roughshod over the constitution as the former soldier remains in Havana and appears too weak to return to Venezuela after winning re-election in October for a third six-year term.

    "If the president of the republic does not take office (on Jan. 10), the country cannot be left in a power vacuum," said Tomas Guanipa of the opposition Justice First party, insisting Congress head Diosdado Cabello should be temporarily sworn in.

    The dispute centers on an article of the constitution that says a president-elect should be sworn in on Jan. 10 but does not say what happens if the inauguration does not take place that date.

    The official position is that Chavez is fulfilling his duties as head of state despite a severe respiratory infection that has at times left him struggling to breathe. He has not been seen in public or in a lived broadcast since his surgery.

    The government, which has refused to discuss having Chavez temporarily step aside as he recovers, is providing only terse statements with bare-bones details of his condition.

    Watch the most-viewed videos on NBCNews.com

    Television networks have for days aired contrasting interpretations of the constitutional articles in question, with the opinions of constitutional lawyers and ad hoc experts now filling social networks.

    It remains unclear what the opposition intends to do if Chavez doesn't show up on inauguration day.

    But National Assembly President Diosdado Cabello warned the opposition not to try to stir up trouble. Speaking to reporters alongside Maduro on Monday, he called for the government's supporters to demonstrate in the streets of Caracas on Thursday.

    Cabello also said at a news conference that some foreign leaders would soon visit Venezuela to express solidarity with Chavez. He didn't give details or identify the presidents.

    But Cabello also avoided saying whether the inauguration was definitely being put off. Asked if the government now rules out Chavez being able to make it back on time for the inauguration, Cabello said: "We don't rule out absolutely anything at all."

    Maduro reiterated the government's view that Chavez may be sworn in before the Supreme Court at a later date. Referring to the Catholic Church's leaders, Maduro said he hopes they "maintain a conduct of respect."

    Constitutional expert Roman Duque Corredor, a former Supreme Court magistrate, said the constitution is clear that Chavez's inauguration cannot legally be postponed.

    Duque said he believes the Supreme Court should now form a board of doctors to determine the president's condition.

    Some opposition politicians also say it's time for such a medical team to travel to Havana to determine whether Chavez is fit to remain in office or not.

    Opposition lawmaker Julio Borges said on Monday that Chavez's allies have turned to a convoluted interpretation of the constitution for their political aims while they hold sway in the president's absence.

    "We don't know who's governing Venezuela now," Borges told the Venezuelan radio station Union Radio.

    The Associated Press and Reuters contributed to this report.

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  • Chavez still has 'severe' respiratory problem

    The opposition in Venezuela is demanding that the government come clean on the true state of Hugo Chavez's health. He's due to be sworn in again as President within the next week. However, he hasn't been seen in public since flying to Cuba for medical treatment last month. ITN's Jonathan Rugman reports.

    By Reuters

    CARACAS - Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez is still suffering a "severe" respiratory infection that has hindered his breathing as he struggles to recover from cancer surgery in Cuba, the government said on Thursday.

    The 58-year-old socialist leader has not been seen in public nor heard from in more than three weeks. Officials say he is in delicate condition after his fourth operation in just 18 months for an undisclosed form of cancer in his pelvic area.

    "Comandante Chavez has faced complications as a result of a severe lung infection," Information Minister Ernesto Villegas said in the latest official update on the president's condition.



    "This infection has caused a breathing insufficiency that requires Comandante Chavez to comply strictly with medical treatment," the communique added, giving no further details.

    Vice President Nicolas Maduro had earlier returned to Venezuela on Thursday after visiting Chavez in hospital as rumors swirled that the president could be close to death.

    Flanked by senior government figures including Diosdado Cabello, the head of the National Assembly, Maduro toured a coffee production plant in Caracas - the type of visit that the president made frequently before he fell ill.

    AP file

    In this photo provided by Miraflores Presidential Press Office, Venezuela's President Hugo Chavez speaks during a cabinet meeting at the Miraflores presidential palace in Caracas, Venezuela, Nov. 8, 2012.

    "He is conscious of the battle that he's in, and has the same fighting spirit as always, with the same strength and energy as always, with his confidence and security," Maduro said. "We're going to be alongside him with the same strength and the same energy."

    Maduro said Cabello, Oil Minister Rafael Ramirez and Chavez's elder brother Adan, among others, had all been with the president in the Havana hospital.

    Venezuela opposition demands update on ailing Chavez

    Venezuelan bonds rallied to five-year highs earlier on Thursday on rumors that Chavez's health had taken a turn for the worse. Foreign investors generally hope for a more business-friendly government in Venezuela, and its assets have rallied in recent months on news of his illness.

    In scenes that recalled Chavez's hours-long televised visits to building sites, hospitals and oil refineries, Maduro told workers at the nationalized Fama de America factory that there was no "transition" taking place in the country.

    "The only transition in Venezuela is the transition to socialism," he said in comments carried live by state television.

    Pictures: Hugo Chavez through the years

    "It began six years ago, ordered by Comandante Hugo Chavez as chief and president, elected, re-elected and ratified, much as it pains the bourgeois hucksters and the right, who have done so much damage to our fatherland."

    Chavez's abrupt exit from the political scene would be a huge shock for the South American OPEC nation. His oil-financed socialism has made him a hero to the poor majority but critics call him a dictator.

    His condition is being watched closely by Latin American allies that have benefited from his help, as well as investors attracted by Venezuela's lucrative and widely traded debt.

    Presidencia / AFP - Getty Images

    This handout image released by the Venezuelan Presidency shows Communications Minister Ernesto Villegas reading a statement on the health of President Hugo Chavez in Caracas, Thursday.

    'Make no mistake'
    Chavez is still set to be sworn in on January 10, as spelled out in the constitution. If he were to die or had to step aside, new elections would be held within 30 days, with Maduro running as the ruling Socialist Party (PSUV) candidate.

    While the constitution gives January 10 as the start of a new presidential term, it does not explicitly state what happens if a president-elect cannot take office on that date.

    Top PSUV officials have suggested that Chavez's inauguration could be postponed - while the opposition says any delay would be just the latest sign the former soldier is not fit to govern.

    Cabello said the "Chavismo" movement was in pain but remained resolute, and he issued a warning to the opposition: "Make no mistake about these people or this revolution. It is going to cost you very, but very, dearly," he said.

    On Saturday, Cabello will likely be re-elected as head of the Chavista-dominated National Assembly, a key post that could see him assume Chavez's role temporarily while new elections are called should the president have to step down.

    Relative says Venezuela's Chavez 'stable'

    In the past Cabello has been considered as a rival of Maduro, but the pair have been at pains to deny that. Their appearance side-by-side at the coffee factory on Thursday looked to be the latest effort to project a unified front.

    Last year, Chavez staged what appeared to be remarkable comeback from the disease to win re-election to a new six-year term in October despite being weakened by radiation therapy. But he returned to Cuba for more treatment within weeks of his win.

    Venezuela's controversial president Hugo Chavez — who makes no secret of his dislike for the US — was re-elected to an unprecedented third term, fending off a serious challenge to win decisively, 54 to 45 percent. NBC's Kerry Sanders reports from Caracas.

    Officials have said he suffered unexpected bleeding and then a respiratory infection after a six-hour operation on December 11. That respiratory infection caused further complications, they have said, without giving more details.

    The head of the opposition's Democratic Unity coalition, Ramon Aveledo, has accused the authorities of breaking a pledge to keep Venezuelans informed about Chavez's health.

    And one opposition leader suggested on Thursday that legislators should form an official commission to visit Cuba and assess the president's condition for themselves.

    Maduro hit back in his televised comments, saying the public had been provided with updates almost every day, and he accused Aveledo of orchestrating a campaign of misinformation.

    "We have no doubt Mr. Aveledo is behind the campaign of sick rumors that began on Twitter and Facebook," Maduro said.

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    Copyright 2013 Thomson Reuters. Click for restrictions.

  • Cuba's jailing of American contractor 'arbitrary,' UN panel concludes

    By Michael Isikoff, NBC News

    /

    American Alan Gross, a 63-year-old U.S. government subcontractor from Montgomery County, Md., has been in prison in Cuba since late 2009.

    A United Nations panel has called on Cuba to immediately release jailed American contractor Alan Gross after finding that his detention was “arbitrary” and violated international human-rights standards, according to a report obtained by NBC News.

    The 16-page decision by the U.N. Working Group on Arbitrary Detention, which has not yet been publicly released, is a  victory for the legal team working to free Gross, a State Department contractor who was arrested three years ago for allegedly smuggling sophisticated satellite equipment to Cuba’s tiny Jewish community.

    The Cuban Foreign Ministry dismissed the findings as a result of “pressures exerted by the United States” and vigorously defended its detention of the 63-year-old American. Gross “was sentenced for committing acts against Cuba’s national security and public order, not for promoting freedom,” the ministry said in a statement also obtained by NBC News. A Cuban official said that the working group reached its findings without visiting Cuba or interviewing Gross. The official also noted that the same U.N. panel has in the past criticized as “arbitrary” the detention of five Cuban agents prosecuted in the U.S. on espionage related charges.

    Gross’ imprisonment and the 15-year prison sentence imposed on him last year by a Cuban court has become a new flashpoint in U.S.-Cuba relations. Last week, the U.S. Senate passed a unanimous resolution calling for Gross’ immediate release. The dispute over his detention has been further heightened by assertions by Gross’ family that he has lost over 100 pounds in prison and that his health is failing. 

    The working group, an arm of the Geneva-based U.N. Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, conducted its investigation in response to a petition submitted by Gross’ lawyers. Its findings can now be  submitted to the U.N. General Assembly and, if adopted, put further international pressure on Cuba over its treatment of the jailed American. A spokesman for the High Commissioner did not respond to a request for comment.

    In Cuba, American contractor Alan Gross has been imprisoned for three years for smuggling satellite equipment to the country's Jewish community. NBC's Michael Isikoff reports.

    According to lawsuit he recently filed against the U.S. Government and the contractor that employed him, Gross has charged he was a “pawn” in a larger U.S. government program to change Cuba’s government and was never advised about the dangers he faced. (The State Department has declined comment; the contractor, Development Alternatives Inc., has said only that Gross’ release is its “highest priority.” ) Gross made five trips to Cuba between March 30, 2009 and November 2009, delivering telecommunications equipment that he said was designed to “increase Internet access in Cuba,” according to the lawsuit.

    The  U.N. panel’s report found that Gross’ detention near the end of his fifth trip was “arbitrary”  and that  he was tried and  convicted after a two-day trial by a Cuban court that did not operate in an “independent and impartial” manner. It  further found that he was charged under a Cuban law – prohibiting “acts against the independence and/or territorial integrity of the state” – that was too vague by international standards. The panel also concluded that  Gross should have been released on bail during the 14 months between his arrest and his conviction by the Cuban court.

    “On those grounds, the Working Group requests the Government of the Republic of Cuba order the immediate release of Mr. Alan Phillip Gross,” the report states.

    Chris Fletcher, a lawyer for Gross, said in an email: “If what is being reported is accurately quoted from the U.N. Working Group opinion, then it reaffirms what we said previously: the government of Cuba is violating its international legal obligations. It should therefore immediately release Alan Gross from prison and allow him to return to the United States to be reunited with his family.  Moreover, regardless of the outcome of the case, Alan’s health is declining and it has long been clear he should be immediately released on humanitarian grounds.”

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    In its response to the U.N. report, the Cuban Foreign Ministry condemned the United Nations working group for its “hasty” analysis. 

    “Mr. Gross was detained, prosecuted and sentenced for illegally and covertly introducing in Cuba communication equipment using non-commercial technology, which is only meant to be used for military purposes and for creating clandestine networks.” He did so to implement a U.S. government program “with the aim of subverting Cuba’s constitutional order," to overthrow the Cuban government, the foreign ministry statement said. 

    A senior Cuban official, Ricardo Alarcon, recently told NBC News that the Cubans would consider releasing Gross, but want the U.S. government to take similar “humanitarian” steps by releasing the so-called Cuban Five, the convicted Cuban agents in the U.S. whose prosecution the U.N. had also criticized. 

    Michael Isikoff is NBC News' national investigative correspondent.

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  • 'So, where's the party?' Chavez asks in theatrical return from Cuba treatment

    Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez arrives at Simon Bolivar airport in Caracas on Friday following medical treatment in Cuba.

    By Reuters

    CARACAS, Venezuela — Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez made a theatrical return home Friday after medical treatment in Cuba, walking and joking in a first public appearance for three weeks that quashed rumors he may have been at death's door.

    "So, where's the party?" an ebullient and robust-looking Chavez said after flying in before dawn to the surprise and delight of supporters.

    "I'm happy and enthused to be back again," he told beaming ministers after walking unaided down the steps from his plane at the international airport outside Caracas.

     

    The 58-year-old socialist leader has had three cancer operations in Cuba since mid-2011 and returned to Havana 10 days ago to receive "hyperbaric oxygenation" -- a treatment normally used to alleviate bone decay from radiation therapy.

    Speculation had been rife that he may have suffered a recurrence of the disease, and one local journalist had said he was confined to a wheelchair.


    Earlier this year, Chavez declared himself "completely cured" and went on to win re-election comfortably in October.

    Amid a barrage of rumors fed by the opposition, officials had maintained that his latest visit to Cuba was just a scheduled follow-up to the radiation therapy he underwent in the first half of 2012.

    Supporters celebrated the return of a man who has dominated the South American country since he first won election in 1998. He wore a blue and white tracksuit and flew with relatives and aides, including Vice President Nicolas Maduro.

    Venezuela's Hugo Chavez wins 3rd term, vows to deepen socialist revolution

    "YEEESSSS!!!!," tweeted Eva Golinger, an American-Venezuelan lawyer close to the Chavez government.

    "Chavez is back and has shown up all the rumor-mongers, necrophiliacs, gossips and ill-thinkers ... Welcome comandante," she wrote (in Spanish).

    Chavez looked relatively well, moving with ease and chatting for 15 minutes on the runway, although he remains puffy-faced as he has been since the radiation treatment.

    NBC's Kerry Sanders answers questions about Chavez re-election

    Questions linger
    Chavez's return gives him a week to campaign for Venezuela's Dec. 16 state elections, where his ruling Socialist Party hopes to use the momentum of the presidential victory to win back some opposition-held governorships.

    The opposition, however, is hoping that discontent with grassroots issues like crime, power-cuts and cronyism will enable it to at least hold the seven states it controls out of Venezuela's 23.

    Speculation over Chavez's health is unlikely to end, given the scant details given by the government.

    Doctors say hyperbaric oxygenation is a treatment normally given in different sessions over several months, meaning he could return to Cuba again soon.

    Complete World coverage on NBCNews.com

    They also say nobody can declare themselves cured of cancer until a couple of years have passed without recurrence.

    In Venezuela, Hugo Chavez won another 6-year term as president of the oil-rich nation with official results showing the socialist leader garnering 54 percent of the vote. NBC's Kerry Sanders reports.

    Opponents criticize Chavez for secrecy over his health and preferring Cuban doctors to Venezuelans.

    "His whole absence has been a black hole of misinformation," opposition legislator Tomas Guanipa told local media.

    More Venezuela coverage from NBC News

    Chavez has chosen to be treated in Havana due to his friendship with Cuba's past and present leaders Fidel and Raul Castro, plus the discretion he is guaranteed thanks to the Communist government's strict controls on information.

    Cuba's Communist Party newspaper published photos showing Raul Castro bidding farewell to Chavez at Havana airport. Chavez said he had met Fidel Castro during his stay. 

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  • Cuban official accuses US of 'lying' about health of jailed American contractor

    Roberto León / NBC News

    Josefina Vidal, Cuba's director of U.S. Affairs at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, addresses the media in Havana on Wednesday.

    By Mary Murray and Mike Brunker, NBC News

    HAVANA -- A Cuban official on Wednesday accused the U.S. government of “lying” about the health of Alan Gross, an American contractor serving a 15-year prison sentence here, in an effort to force his release. 

    Denying speculation that the 63-year-old Gross has cancer or is otherwise in poor health, Foreign Ministry official Josefina Vidal said at a press conference in the Cuban capital that the 63-year-old American has "been treated decently and well in prison.”

    She also stated that “his health has "not deteriorated" and that he "speaks regularly with friends and family."

    "Gross has been seen by the most qualified Cuban medical specialists," Vidal said. "The U.S. government is lying to suggest that he has cancer and that he is not receiving adequate treatment." If these lies continue, she said, "Cuba will present new evidence that shows Gross is not sick."

    Vidal’s statement came in response to increasing pressure from the U.S. government and lawmakers to release Gross, who was convicted in 2009 of "acts against the independence and/or territorial integrity of the state” for  distributing telecommunications equipment to Cuba’s tiny Jewish community.

    At the time, Gross was in Cuba on a  tourist visa, working  for Development Alternatives, Inc., a State Department contractor, as an "independent business and economic development consultant" under an $8.6 million contract from the U.S. Agency for International Development.

    The court that convicted him described the effort as an effort to subvert the Cuban government.

    “It was demonstrated that (Gross) illegally introduced telecommunications equipment in Cuba to create internal networks as part of a program of the government of the United States that aimed to promote destabilizing actions in the country and subvert Cuban constitutional order," it said at the time.

    Since his imprisonment more than three years ago, Gross has lost more than 100 pounds and developed a mass on his right shoulder blade, which Cuban doctors diagnosed as a non-malignant hematoma that would be reabsorbed within a few months, according to Reuters.

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    Gross’ wife, Judy, has been leading a public relations campaign in the United States for her husband’s release on humanitarian grounds. An American radiologist she consulted said last month that the mass had not been properly evaluated and speculated that it could be cancerous. The radiologist, Alan Cohen, said that Gross needed an urgent evaluation – and likely a biopsy of the mass – preferably at a facility in the United States.

    At a press conference on Capitol Hill Tuesday – the fourth anniversary of her husband’s imprisonment – Judy Gross said her husband “is frail, suffers from chronic pain ... and still doesn’t know whether he has cancer.”

    U.S. State Department spokesman Mark Toner sounded a similar theme on Monday.

    “Mr. Gross has lost more than 100 pounds and suffers from severe degenerative arthritis that affects his mobility, and other health problems,” he said in a statement. “His family is anxious to evaluate whether he is receiving appropriate medical treatment, something that can best be determined by having a doctor of his own choosing examine him.”

    While resisting calls to release Gross, Cuban officials have floated an alternative to resolve the impasse: They say they will free Gross if President Barack Obama agrees to release five Cuban spies held in the U.S.

    The spies – known as the Cuban Five – are national heroes in Cuba as a result of their mission in the late 1990s to infiltrate  anti-Castro exile groups in South Florida that Havana suspected of plotting terrorist attacks inside Cuba. They were convicted in Miami in June 2001 of conspiracy to commit espionage, conspiracy to commit murder, acting as an agent of a foreign government, and other illegal activities.

    Vidal referred to this scenario on Tuesday, reiterating “Cuba's willingness to immediately start talks with the U.S. government to find a humanitarian solution that is mutually beneficial to both parties." She also stated that her government would not make a "unilateral" move and release Gross because the "problem also belongs to the U.S." -- referring to the Cuban Five.

    Gross himself pushed for a diplomatic solution in a meeting on Nov. 28 with Peter Kornbluh, a Cuba specialist from the National Security Archives in Washington.

    "He’s angry, he’s frustrated, he’s dejected — and he wants his own government to step up" and negotiate, Kornbluh told NBC News last week. "His message is that the United States and Cuba have to sit down and have a dialogue without preconditions. … He told me that the first meeting should result in a non-belligerency pact being signed between the United States and Cuba."

    Mary Murray is an NBC News producer; NBC National Investigative Correspondent Michael Isikoff also contributed to this report.

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  • American held in Cuba wants US to sign 'non-belligerency pact' to pave release
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  • American jailed in Cuba wants US to sign 'non-belligerency pact' to speed release

    American contractor Alan Gross has been imprisoned for three years in Cuba for smuggling satellite equipment to the country's Jewish community. NBC's Michael Isikoff reports.

    By Michael Isikoff, NBC News

    HAVANA, Cuba — Three years after he was arrested in Havana, jailed American contractor Alan Gross is asking the U.S. government to sign a "non-belligerency pact" with Cuba as a first step toward negotiating his release, according to a Cuba policy analyst who just visited him.

    Peter Kornbluh , right, stands with Alan Gross, in a picture taken on Kornbluh's iPhone by a guard during his visit to the Havana prison where Gross is being held.

    Peter Kornbluh, a Cuba specialist at the National Security Archives, a nonprofit research center in Washington, met with Gross for four hours on Wednesday at the military hospital in Havana where the contractor is being held. He said Gross appeared "extremely thin" — he has lost over 100 pounds since his arrest —and dispirited.

    "He’s angry, he’s frustrated, he’s dejected — and he wants his own government to step up" and negotiate, said Kornbluh. "His message is that the United States and Cuba have to sit down and have a dialogue without preconditions. … He told me that the first meeting should result in a non-belligerency pact being signed between the United States and Cuba."

    Gross' comments appear to represent a new tack in an aggressive public relations campaign to win his freedom. His supporters have planned a candlelight vigil outside the Cuban interests section in Washington D.C., on Sunday and the U.S. Senate is poised to take up a resolution Monday demanding his release, Gross’ wife, Judy, has also become increasingly critical of the U.S. government for not doing more to demand that her 63-year-old husband be allowed to return home.

    Jose Luis Magana / AP

    Judy Gross at her home in Washington, D.C. on Nov. 29.

    "He feels like a soldier in the field left to die," she said at a press conference in Washington last week.

    Gross, who worked for an Agency for International Development contractor, was arrested by the Cubans on Dec. 3, 2009, and accused of smuggling sophisticated satellite and other telecommunications equipment into  the country to give to the island’s tiny Jewish community. Gross has said he was only trying to increase Internet access  in Cuba. But he was convicted by a Cuban court in March of last year for crimes "against the independence and territorial integrity of the state" and sentenced to 15 years.

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    Slideshow: Castro through the years

    Last month, Gross and his wife filed a $60 million lawsuit against the U.S. government and the contractor he was working for, Development Alternatives, charging he was used as a "pawn" in a U.S. government program to change the Castro regime and never advised about the dangers he faced bringing high tech satellite transmission equipment into Cuba. (The State Department, of which AID is a part and which has repeatedly called for Gross’ release, declined comment. Development Alternatives has released a statement saying it has "no higher priority" than bringing Gross home.) 

    Kornbluh, who has advocated closer U.S.-Cuba dialogue, was in Havana last week to attend a conference marking the 50th anniversary of the Cuban missile crisis. He was granted permission to visit Gross by Cuban officials. (The Cubans so far have denied all news media requests to meet with him.) He said Gross was most upset about being unable to return home to see members of his family who are ill, especially his 90-year-old mother in Texas who has cancer.

    Slideshow: US and Cuba: A long tense relationship

    Keystone / Getty Images

    Ever since U.S.-backed Cuban President Fulgencio Batista was forced from power by rebels led by Fidel Castro in 1958, the relationship between the two nations has been fraught with difficulties.

    Launch slideshow

    "He really wants to see his mother, who is quite old and infirm,” said Kornbluh. When Kornbluh had his photo taken with Gross, the contractor held up a photo that read: “Hi Mom.” When he asked Gross what he wanted to get out of the lawsuit, the contractor replied: “I want to see my wife and I want to see my mother."

    To accomplish that, Gross is seeking to nudge the Obama administration, according to Kornbluh. Gross knows that his freedom "is going to depend on his government negotiating in good faith with the Cubans," said Kornbluh. "His message to Barack Obama is: I’m fired up and ready to go. Where are you at this moment?"

    Michael Isikoff is NBC News' national investigative correspondent; NBC News producer Mary Murray also contributed to this report.

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  • Cuba pushes swap: its spies jailed in US for American contractor held in Havana

    In what could be the setting for a gripping thriller, Cuba and the U.S. are reportedly locked in a standoff this weekend, with the fate of an American contractor hanging in the balance. NBC's Michael Isikoff reports.

    By Michael Isikoff, NBC News

    HAVANA, Cuba — It seems straight out of a Cold War spy movie. A group of Cuban undercover agents sneak into the U.S. and set up a secret pro-Castro network in south Florida — receiving instructions in code through late night radio transmissions from handlers in Havana. But the FBI gets wind, tails the agents, intercepts their messages and busts them, sending the agents off to federal prison, their ringleader for life.

    Today, the story of those spies — called La Red Avispa, or the Wasp Network — rolled up by the feds 14 years ago is barely known in the United States. But its members, now  known as the Cuban Five, are national heroes in Cuba — the subjects of mass demonstrations, their pictures on billboards and  posters – and their petitions for freedom are championed around the world by Nobel Prize winners, celebrities like Danny Glover, even former President Jimmy Carter.

    And they may now prove key to the tense impasse between Havana and Washington over the fate of jailed American contractor Alan Gross, arrested three years ago Monday for distributing sophisticated satellite equipment to Cuba’s tiny Jewish community and later sentenced to 15 years in prison for "acts against the independence and/or territorial integrity of the state." (Gross says he was only bringing Internet access to Cuba.)

    While the U.S. is demanding that Cuba release Gross, who visitors say is angry and frail, having lost 110 pounds in prison, Cuban officials say they are willing to do so only if President Barack Obama will  release the Cuban agents.

    "I understand what Mr. Gross is going through," Gerardo Hernandez, 47, the Cuban Five ringleader, said in an exclusive interview with NBC News in October at his current home --a federal prison outside Victorville, Calif. "I understand his sufferings and that of his family. … If an agreement can be reached, to stop the sufferings of six families, then I welcome it."

    The idea of a swap — the release of Gross for Hernandez and his confederates among the Cuban Five — faces legal and political hurdles.

    NBC News

    A billboard in Cuba shows the Cuban Five -- Gerardo Hernández, Antonio Guerrero, Ramón Labañino, Fernando González, and René González.

    An Obama administration official told NBC News that the "imprisonment of Alan Gross, an international development worker, is not comparable in any way to that of the five Cuban agents," noting that the Cubans were afforded their "due process rights" and convicted of serious crimes.

    Cuban Five ringleader Gerardo Hernandez

    Members of Congress have denounced Cuba for holding Gross "hostage" to the release of the Cuban Five. "The Castro regime has no regard for human rights or international law," said Democratic Sen. Robert Menendez of New Jersey, a senior member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee and frequent critic of the Castro regime. "The Cuba Five should serve their sentences for spying."

    And Hernandez, who sports a trim goatee and displays a hearty laugh despite 14 years in prison,  might not make the ideal candidate for a pardon or commutation from Obama — a precondition for a swap to take place. Asked if he regretted any of his actions, he smiled and said,  "I regret that I got caught." In a follow up phone interview, Hernandez readily acknowledged that "we violated some U.S. laws" — mainly failing to register as foreign agents with the U.S. Justice Department. "We came here with fake passports. Fake identities."  But, he added, "We act out of necessity."

    As Hernandez and Cuban officials tell it, the Cuban Five was not sent to spy on the U.S. government. In fact, the members weren’t accused of stealing any U.S. secrets (although they were convicted of conducting surveillance of U.S. military bases.) Instead, the mission of the Wasp Network, they say, was to infiltrate  anti-Castro exile groups in South Florida who Havana suspected of plotting terrorist attacks inside Cuba. Among those attacks: the notorious bombing of Cubana Flight 455 over the Caribbean in 1976, killing 73 passengers (including teenage members of a Cuban  national fencing team)  as  well as a string of hotel bombings in Havana in  1997 that killed an Italian businessman and were believed to have been aimed at disrupting Cuba’s nascent tourist industry.   

    "Cuba doesn’t have drones to neutralize the terrorists abroad," said Hernandez. "They need to send people to gather information and protect the Cuban people from these terrorist actions. … I think it’s the same feeling that Americans have that defend their country and love their country when they go to infiltrate al-Qaida and send information here to avoid the terrorist acts. And the U.S. has to understand that Cuba has been involved in the war against terrorism for 50 years.”

    Alan Gross in an undated family photo, left, and in 2012, after losing 110 pounds while imprisoned in Cuba.

    While admitting his role in spying on anti-Castro exiles — "I would do it again," he said — Hernandez adamantly denies the most serious charge against him: conspiracy to commit murder. His conviction on that count, which has earned him a life sentence, was based on his alleged complicity in the February 1996 shoot-down by a Cuban fighter jet of two Cessna planes flown by members of the Cuban exile group Brothers to the Rescue, killing four men.

    The anti-Castro group had provoked Cuba by dropping anti-government leaflets over Havana. At the trial of the Cuban Five, prosecutors introduced messages between Hernandez and his controllers in Havana suggesting he had prior knowledge of the shoot-down. But Hernandez insists that prosecutors misinterpreted the messages and he knew nothing that wasn’t already public.

    "No, sir, absolutely not," Hernandez replied when asked if he knew in advance about the incident. "All I knew was what everybody knew: that Brothers to the Rescue through the years has violated many times Cuban air space, that there have been 16 diplomatic notes from Cuba complaining over that situation."

    /

    Ricardo Alarcon, president of the Cuban National Assembly

    Ricardo Alarcon, president of Cuba’s National Assembly (the Parliament) and a longtime Castro confidante, said this week in Havana that "the Cuban government publicly, front page in our papers, months before that incident had warned that we are not going to allow any more intrusions into our air space. … The order, the decision (to shoot down the planes) came from the highest level. Fidel Castro himself had said that publicly, that he was responsible for that decision."

    U.S. Appeals Court Judge Phyllis Kravitch of Atlanta concluded in 2008 that prosecutors never proved their case tying Hernandez to a plot to shoot down the planes, but she was outvoted two to one and his conviction on the murder conspiracy charge was upheld. Now Hernandez and his lawyers are appealing on another ground: that hundreds of thousands of dollars in secret  U.S. government payments to anti-Castro journalists in Miami — newly discovered through Freedom of Information Act requests — inflamed the Miami community against the Cuban Five and made it impossible for them for them to get a fair trial. The payments were mostly made for appearances on Radio Marti, a TV and radio operation funded by the Broadcasting Board of Governors, an independent agency that oversees international broadcasting sponsored by the U.S. government.

    Slideshow: Castro through the years

    In court papers, lawyers for the Cuban Five have cited articles by some of the journalists, including one that denounced the "genocidal character" of Castro’s regime and another that speculated that the real purpose of the Wasp Network was to introduce "chemical or bacteriological weapons" into south Florida. “"his information was spread throughout the Miami area and helped inflame the community against these guys," said Martin Garbus, Hernandez’ lawyer. "It was total madness. … When the case was brought, the anti-Castro feeling in the Miami area was at a fevered pitch."

    Slideshow: US and Cuba: A long tense relationship

    Keystone / Getty Images

    Ever since U.S.-backed Cuban President Fulgencio Batista was forced from power by rebels led by Fidel Castro in 1958, the relationship between the two nations has been fraught with difficulties.

    Launch slideshow

    U.S. prosecutors dismiss as “implausible” and "unfounded" the idea that the Radio Marti payments were part of a U.S. government effort to influence the jury in the Cuban Five case.

     "The jury (in the case) was carefully selected, following a searching voir dire (jury selection process) that the appellate court deemed a high model for a high-profile case, and that the trial comported with the highest standards for fairness and professionalism,” wrote Caroline Heck Miller, an assistant U.S. attorney in Miami, in a court filing in July asking a judge to reject Hernandez’ motion for a hearing into the payments to the journalists. She also noted, as federal prosecutors have repeatedly done when the issue has come up, that “no Cuban-Americans – the audience (Hernandez) hypothesizes as the target of the government campaign he imagines — served on the jury."

    Unless Hernandez can somehow persuade a court to reopen his case  – or barring a prisoner swap with Gross — he would seem to have few options.

    American imprisoned in Cuba may have cancer, doctor says

    Rene Gonzalez, another member of the Cuban Five who was not convicted of the conspiracy-to-commit-murder charge, was released from federal prison on probation late last year, but has not yet been allowed to return home to Cuba to live.

    /

    Adriana Perez, wife of imprisoned Cuban agent, Gerardo Hernandez

    The Cubans are doing their best to ratchet up the pressure. Just as Judy Gross has launched a public relations campaign in the United States to free her husband, appearing at a National Press Club press conference on Friday, this week the Cubans made Hernandez wife, Adriana, available for an interview with NBC News. A chemist in the food industry in Havana, she wept as she described the pain of separation from her husband — and how it has left her unable to bear children. "Every detail, every single moment reminds me of him," she said. "I believe there are many people in the U.S. and the American people as a whole, who could convey to President Obama that there is a woman here suffering."

    Hernandez, too, says missing his wife is the hardest part of his life in prison. And he has few illusions about his prospects of being freed. "The only thing I know for sure with me is that I have two life sentences and live with that every day," he said. "And to keep your sanity and your mind, you have to be realistic. But I would be dishonest to say that I don’t have hope."

    Michael Isikoff is NBC News' national investigative correspondent; NBC News Producer Mary Murray also contributed to this report.

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  • Many Cubans to pay taxes for first time in half a century

    Greg Kahn / Getty Images, file

    A street market sells necklaces and bracelets in Old Havana on November 12, 2012 in Havana, Cuba. Shops like this, until a year ago, were only found in the black market.

    By Reuters

    HAVANA -- Most Cubans have not paid taxes for half a century, but that will change under new regulations starting January 1.

    The landmark move will change the relations of Cubans with their government and are a signal that market-oriented reforms are here to stay.

    They were launched after President Raul Castro succeeded his brother, Fidel Castro, in 2008.


    The recently published code constitutes the first comprehensive taxation in Cuba since the 1959 revolution abolished just about all taxes.

    In the 1990s after the collapse of the Soviet Union, the country's main benefactor, the Cuban government imposed a few scattered taxes, but mostly preferred to maintain low wages so it could fund free social services.

    The government's free-market reforms introduced over the last two years are designed to encourage small businesses, private farming and individual initiative. There are also plans to pay state workers more.

    Under the new tax code, the state hopes to get its share of the proceeds.

    'Major step' toward 21st century
    The government also envisions replacing subsidies for all with targeted welfare, meaning that the largely tax-free life under a paternalistic government is on its way out.

    "This radically changes the state's relationship with the population and taxes become an irritating issue," said Domingo Amuchastegui, a former Cuban intelligence analyst who lives in Miami and writes often about Cuba.

    Slideshow: Return to Cuba

    Traveling to Cuba is now easier for Americans and Cuban exiles because the government has relaxed years of restrictions on who can visit.

    Launch slideshow

    A Western businessman who has worked in Cuba for almost two decades told Reuters the reforms would take time, but added, "this is of course a major step forward toward the 21st century and a modern state."

    The new code covers 19 taxes, including such things as inheritance, environment, sales, transportation and farm land, various license fees and three contributions, including social security.

    Cuba issue deals blow to US stature at 'Summit of the Americas'

    A sliding-scale income tax -- from 15 percent for annual earnings of more than 10,000 pesos (about $400) to 50 percent for earnings of over 50,000 pesos (about $2,000) -- adopted in 1994, remains in the new code for the self-employed, small businesses and farms.

    It also includes a series of new deductions to stimulate their work. For example, farmers may deduct up to 70 percent of income as costs.

    'Can't spare a single peso'
    Eventually all workers will pay income taxes as well as a new 2 percent property tax, but both measures are suspended until "conditions permit" them to go into effect.

    The government admits, with an average pay of about 450 pesos per month (or $19), many workers do not earn enough to make ends meet.

    Cuba to let its people leave the country?

    "They collect taxes for all these things around the world, it's normal," said Havana economist Isabel Fernandez.

    "But here we face two problems. On the one hand we are not used to paying for anything and on the other our wages are so low we can't spare a single peso," she said.

    Under the old system, large and small state-run companies, which accounted for more than 90 percent of economic activity, simply handed over all their revenues to the government, which then allocated resources to them.

    Cuba detains 70 'Ladies in White' ahead of Pope visit

    The reforms call for large state-run businesses to be moved out of the ministries and become more autonomous.

    The state-owned Cuban National News Agency said Cuba had studied the tax systems of a number of other countries, including several with capitalist economies.

    "The experiences of China, Vietnam, Venezuela, Brazil, Spain and Mexico were taken into account, but they were refined to the particularities and conditions of the island," the news agency said. 

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