Odds and ends

• AP: Dozens of dissidents were detained Sunday as they gathered for a march, and “by Sunday evening, many had been released and some driven back to their homes.”  Elizardo Sanchez’ group counted 604 such detentions in February.

• The Herald reports on an effort to allow jailed USAID contractor Alan Gross to depart Cuba for two weeks to see his cancer-stricken mother.  His lawyer says he has a Treasury Department license that would allow him to return to Cuba after such a visit.  There is a parallel effort to gain permission for one of the Cuban Five, Rene Gonzales who is out of jail and on parole, to go to Cuba to visit his dying brother.  (The Justice Department is opposed.)  Alan Gross’ wife Judy sympathized with the Cuban’s request: “I fully appreciate Rene Gonzalez’ need to visit a dying family member. We need to remember that these are real people and real lives that are profoundly affected by these decisions.”

• This podcast features a discussion of the Alan Gross case by editors and reporters of the Jewish Daily Forward, shortly after the February Associated Press story appeared.

• Emilio Aranguren, bishop of Holguin, issues a statement (pdf) on the protest in the Holguin cathedral last week.

• The New York Times on Havana buildings by New York architects.

• The New York Times on Havana’s expanding number of paladares.

• The Cuban foreign ministry has created a website about the Pope’s visit.

• The Oakland A’s Yoenis Cespedes in the Sacramento Bee: “What they earn, they don’t receive. That’s what motivates Cuban players to leave.”

• A number of Spanish-language blogs are linking to the 1937 papal encyclical (Spanish, English) on the “false messianic idea” of “atheistic communism,” mentioned here when Cardinal Bertone visited Cuba in 2008.