Odds and ends

• Senator Rubio stands behind his Cuba amendment that preserves Miami’s near-exclusivity on flights to Cuba in a statement published in El Nuevo. Also, a rebuttal from Joe Cardona in the Herald.

• Reuters: “Arrival of Cuba offshore oil rig delayed again.”

• Fidel Castro in a commentary published yesterday: “One can agree or not with Qaddafi,” but it is “absolutely evident” that the United States will soon “give NATO the order” to invade Libya – “perhaps in a matter of hours or a few days” – and “this must be denounced.” AP story here.

• Guillermo Martinez in the Sun-Sentinel: “Cuba isn’t Egypt because Cubans have Miami.”

• In the Herald, Juan Tamayo reports on pre-emptive detentions before today’s anniversary of Zapata Tamayo’s death, and Frances Robles profiles Zapata’s mother.

• Penultimos Dias links to a video promoting satellite Internet in Cuba; the provider is in the United States and the website seems to be down.

• The rappers Los Aldeanos visited Holguin to visit two fans in jail, big trouble ensued, and the Herald sorts through the various accounts.

• Tourism in Cuba could be a “significant external countercyclical source of growth,” a new IMF paper (pdf) argues. Authors Rafael Romeu and Andy Wolfe find that tourist arrivals in Cuba move in tandem with the economic fortunes of source countries; that travelers to Caribbean destinations are sensitive to price; and that Cuba could increase family travel significantly if it were to reduce consular and customs costs.

• Cubanet: USAID contractor Alan Gross will be defended by attorney Ramón de la Cruz Ochoa.

• Ubre Blanca, the Stakhanovite cow of 1980s fame, is remembered in today’s Juventud Rebelde. She was “svelte,” the story says.