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The establishment Sunday of the Cuban National Assembly’s seventh legislature marks the conclusion of the general elections process begun July 9, 2007.

At today´s session the 614 lawmakers will elect the president, vice president and secretary of this legislative body, as well as the 31 members of the State Council, the organ of the National People’s Power Assembly representing it between each ordinary period of sessions.

The Council of State is made up of the president, who is chief of State and government, one first vice president, five vice presidents, a secretary, and 23 other members.

It has a collegiate nature and, for national and foreign purposes, is the highest representation of the Cuban State, as stipulated in Article 89 of the Constitution.

When voting, the deputies will take into consideration the proposals made by the National Candidacy Commission, in which are represented student and grassroots organizations.

In October Cubans chose 15,235 municipal delegates from the more than 37,300 citizens proposed in the neighborhoods September 1-26.

Once elected and constituted, on December 2 these delegates nominated the candidates to the provincial and national assemblies.

First Vice President Raul Castro attends today the first session of the 7th legislature of the People´s Power National Assembly, in which the new Cuban Council of State is to be elected.

The seventh legislature of parliament will be constituted when the 614 deputies assume their posts to which they were elected at the second stage of general elections, held last January 20.

This is the first occasion since 1976 that Fidel Castro, leader of the Revolution, is absent from the nomination to President of the Council of State, as five days ago he announced he would not aspire or accept being reelected to that post for health reasons.

Thus the nomination and election of a new president of the highest Cuban state organ for a period of five years takes on a special relevance.

Cuba´s current government system was approved by 97,7 percent of the voters taking part in the referendum held on February 24, 1976 and on December 2 of that same year, the first legislature of the People´s Power National Assembly assumed its duties.

The constitutive session of the 7th legislature started at 10:00 local time, at the Convention Palace in this capital, under the direction of the National Electoral Commission (CEN), Maria Esther Reus.

Reus immediately began to read the list of deputies while other members of the CEN examine and validate the election certificates of each deputy.

Having done this, the head of the CEN will declare its validity, inform about the social composition of the elected deputies and once assistance is checked, the national anthem will be heard, the deputies will take the oath to their posts and sign the list, so the National Assembly is formally constituted.

The nomination and election of those who will occupy the post of President, Vicepresident and Secretary of the Parliament will follow.

After that, deputies will nominate and elect those who will assume the posts of President, First Vicepresident, Five Vicepresidents, Secretary and other members of the Council of State.

Those proposed to the high posts were taken from a list made after a wide consultation process carried out by the National Candidacy Commission (CCN), formed by representatives of civil Cuban organizations.

The president of the CCN, Amarilys Perez, will then submit to the deputies the two candidacy projects and explain the bases on which they were made.

On her part, the president of the National Electoral Commission will ask the approval by the deputies of both candidacy projects and will then carry out the election by secret and direct vote.

According to the Electoral Law, those who obtain over 50 percent of the valid votes, will be declared elected.

The Cuban Constitution establishes that “in the Republic of Cuba sovereignty lies in the people, from which stems all the power of the State.” It adds that “such power is exercised directly or through the People´s Power assemblies and the rest of the State organs derived from them, in the form and according to the norms established by the Constitution and its laws.” Also, the Council of State is the People´s Power National Assembly organ which represents it between session periods, executes the accords of parliament and carries out the rest of the functions attributed by the Constitution.

It has a consensual nature and in the domestic and international issues, holds the supreme representation of the Cuban State.

With thousands of cigar experts and lovers worldwide, the 10th Habano Festival, the largest global meeting of premium cigars, is kicking off Monday in this capital.

The opening ceremony will take place at Karl Marx Theater and the Habana Club recreational center, where participants will show cigar novelties.

Planned to exchange criteria between tobacconists and handmade cigar traders, this kind of event also has a great impact to foster the Cuban cigar.

The beginnings included promotion dinners like that carried out in 1994 in Havana’s Las Ruinas restaurant, and a year later participants delivered for a first time the Cigar Man of the Year prize, now called the Habano Award.

This gathering is made up of several events, among them a trade fair, talks, conferences, meetings, tasting trials, visits to tobacco plantations and factories, as well as the contests like Habanos-Armagnac and Habanosommelier.

However, the center of the event is in the final day or closing dinner, where there will a humidor auction with very special cigars and the granting of the Habano Award.

Fidel Castro’s resignation as Cuba’s president leaves more room on Latin America’s political stage for another regional leader to emerge as the heir to Mr. Castro’s revolutionary mantle: Venezuela’s Hugo Chávez.

While Mr. Castro is still alive and will shift into a role as the elder statesman of Latin America’s hard left, his retirement means it will increasingly be Mr. Chávez who calls the shots on how the region should confront U.S. interests. Mr. Castro has already given his blessing to Mr. Chávez many times, and the Venezuelan has called himself “the next Fidel.”

With despicable and false accusations, five Cuban anti-terrorist fighters were taken to court a day like today but in 2001, for defending their country from terrorist actions.

With indulgence and satisfaction by anti-Cuban groups settled in Florida, the Cuban Five, as they are universally known, were condemned to long terms without witnesses or proof of the charges.

Gerardo Hernandez was sentenced to double life imprisonment plus fifteen years, Ramon Labanino condemned to life plus 18 years, Fernando Gonzalez, 19 years, Rene Gonzalez, 15 years, and Antonio Guerrero to life imprisonment plus ten years.

Hate and power of those who try to destroy the Cuban Revolution worked against those innocent men who risked their lives to provide intelligence on terrorist plans organized from the United States.

That June 8, the Cuban Five were declared guilty, even though authorities from Cuban State Security delivered a year before to the Federal Bureau of Investigation a huge volume of information and denunciations on the true perpetrators of terrorism, organized from the States.

Faced with that proof, the response was to detain Rene, Fernando, Ramon, Gerardo and Antonio on September 12, 1998, to subdue them to a tortuous and difficult process, ending in total solitary confinement.

The Cuban Five were turned into targets of a campaign that presented them as agents that threatened US security, when they actually were preventing the deaths of Cuban and even US citizens.