Updates & catch-ups

• Michael Moore’s martyrdom continues to blossom with his release of a defiant letter to the Secretary of the Treasury in which he ignores the questions he was asked to answer about his trip to Cuba, and launches into an attack on the Bush Administration and the health care industry.

• Cuban media publish what are purported to be transcripts of Luis Posada Carriles’ phone conversations in which he discusses the Havana hotel bombings and their financing: there’s “mucho billete” supporting his project, reads one quote.

• The Miami Herald rounds up opinion on where Cuba stands after nine months of Fidel Castro’s absence. Rep. Lincoln Diaz-Balart expects political change once Fidel Castro is gone. But most others cited see things differently; University of Miami Professor Jaime Suchlicki, quoted in the article, pretty much sums it up: “'Now, there is a growing realization that the succession of power has taken place – and that’s it.”

• The New York Times reports on fugitives from American justice who reside in Cuba, such as Charlie Hill and Joanne Chesimard.

• And phone service was restored in Cuba, New Mexico. No word on apagones.