IN the afternoon of February 27, the head of the U.S. Department of State
                   Cuba Bureau delivered Diplomatic Note 058/2 to the Cuban Interests
                   Section in Washington. The note states that, with immediate effect, the
                   Department of State only will approve consular visits once every three
                   months to "Cuban nationals" imprisoned in U.S. jails.

                   In practice, this measure means that the U.S. government has reduced
                   the consular visits to the five Cuban patriots imprisoned in U.S. jails by
                   Cuban diplomatic officials based in Washington from monthly to three
                   monthly.

                   The Ministry of Foreign Relations denounces this new attack on our five
                   heroes, compounding a long list of aggressions, psychological torture and
                   violations of their most elemental human rights by the U.S. government
                   since the moment they were arrested in 1998.

                   This action once again reveals the cruelty and irrationality of the U.S.
                   government in its vain attempt to break the indomitable spirit of our
                   comrades.

                   This decision is in flagrant violation of international law; specifically, the
                   1963 Vienna Convention on Consular Relations, which clearly establishes
                   in various of its articles facilities that should be granted by governments
                   for unhindered access by diplomatic missions to nationals imprisoned in
                   the country in question.

                   Among other consequences, this unjust action against our five political
                   prisoners of the empire rules out a visit to our comrades prior to the
                   appeal hearing scheduled for March 10, given that State Department
                   officials have stated that visits for the first trimester of the year have
                   been used up, and thus subsequent visits must be scheduled starting April
                   1. In this way, the right of our diplomatic officials – likewise acknowledged
                   by the Vienna Convention on Consular Relations – to support our
                   comrades has been impeded and, of course, their right to support from
                   our diplomatic mission.

                   This new aggression comes in addition to the recent refusal by the
                   Department of State to allow Cuban diplomatic officials to accompany our
                   heroes’ relatives when they are in the United States, the repeated denial
                   of visas for Olga Salanueva and Adriana Pérez – the wives of René
                   González and Gerardo Hernández, respectively – and the general delay in
                   granting visas to family members, including several of our comrades’
                   heroic mothers, who have been waiting for a response from the U.S.
                   Department of State since August and September 2003.

                   Cuba reiterates that neither these aggressions nor any other infamy will
                   overcome the stoicism, morale and noble spirit of our five heroes, their
                   families and our people.

                   Ministry of Foreign Affairs

                   March 4, 2004