Odds and ends

• In 2005, amid a retrenchment in several areas of economic policy, Cuba’s state enterprises were required to get the approval of a Central Bank committee to spend more than $5,000 in hard currency. El Nuevo Herald covers a decision to double that amount (to 10,000 convertible pesos, about $10,800), and links to the April 14 Central Bank resolution that made it official. It’s a small step that would take on greater importance if it means that more steps to decentralize decisionmaking are on the way.

• Blogger Yoani Sanchez won the prestigious Ortega y Gasset prize; the ceremony in Madrid is today, but the Cuban government won’t let her go pick it up.

• Another report on changes in the USAID Cuba program, this one from the Los Angeles Times: there will be a new emphasis on competitive bidding and grants to Eastern European and Latin American groups. Also a hint that there may be a positive response to the Cuban American National Foundation’s call for prohibition on cash assistance to be dropped.

• “It won’t be easy” for the Democratic challengers to Miami’s three GOP incumbents, reporter David Adams concludes in his St. Petersburg Times coverage. But it will be an interesting spectator sport.

• President Bush spoke with three Cuban dissidents yesterday via a videoconference link to the U.S. Interests Section in Havana. In this Reuters Spanish story based on dissidents’ account of the conversation, Martha Beatriz Roque is said to have asked for a change in regulations governing remittances from the United States. White House photo here.

• 23 indicted for alien smuggling by a Key West grand jury, El Nuevo Herald reports.