Odds and ends

• Richard Blanco, a Cuban-American poet, has been chosen to appear at President Obama’s inauguration.  Penultimos Dias has an excerpt of a Blanco poem on growing up in Miami.

• Herald: A call for nonviolent resistance from dissident Oscar Elias Biscet.

• Senators Kerry and Hagel, respectively the nominees for Secretary of State and Defense, expressed their views on Cuba policy in this 2008 letter written by Senator Max Baucus.  More from Hagel here, and more from Kerry here. 

• A UN body on arbitrary detention called on the Cuban government to release USAID contractor Alan Gross, saying that the courts that convicted him did not act in an “independent or impartial manner” and that the Cuban statute under which he was tried is too vague in its description of criminal conduct.  Herald story here, UN opinion here (pdf), letter from Judy Gross here.  The Cuban government’s response to the UN body’s allegation, issued last December, is summarized here by the Cuban foreign ministry.