US Blocks Cuba Hemingway Recovery
The US government has continuously frustrated restoration of the Ernest Hemingway Museum in Havana, where the prominent novelist and writer lived from 1939 to 1960.

In a Saturday editorial entitled what does Hemingway matter to Bush? the Granma newspaper condemned the US blockade of the preservation of the legacy of Ernest Hemingway, winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1954.

The National Trust of Historic Preservation, the main entity engaged in the preservation of the US cultural heritage, selected La Vigia farm, where the museum is located, as the first center abroad to be renewed, according to the paper.

The trust made the decision because it knows the Hemingway Museum, El Pilar yacht and thousands of documents should be restored.

Ada Rosa Alfonso, director of the museum, told Granma that the Social Science Research Council and the Cuban National Cultural Heritage signed an agreement in November 2002 to recover, protect and digitalize 11,000 books, letters, magazines and brochures belonging to Hemingway, and reconstruct his house and other facilities.

"As soon as the government of George W Bush found out about the project, it came up with all sorts of snags," said Alfonso.

"The agreement envisaged distribution of equipment and work materials but the US Department of Treasury denied the licenses to bring them here," she noted.

Maria Rosa Alfonso asserted three US conservation experts recently worked at La Vigia with rain gauges and instruments that should remain there for a year to assess humidity, temperature and characteristics of the environment.

However, the Treasury Department wants them back in the US no later than August 31, she concluded.