South Bend Tribune, IN - June 11
OUR OPINION
In case anyone still in unclear why the 46-year-old U.S. trade embargo and travel prohibition against Cuba doesn't make sense, a recent news report might clarify the issue.
Cuban cigars are legally imported into Canada, which has open trade with Cuba. Consumers in Canada are free to purchase Cuban cigars in Canadian stores.
California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger recently was in Canada on a trade mission. He reportedly bought a legal Cuban cigar in a country that legally imports and sells them.
Even so, if the cigar was Cuban, Schwarzenegger broke the law. U.S. law, that is. Not Canadian law.
Under U.S. trade restrictions against Cuba, U.S. citizens are prohibited from buying Cuban cigars anywhere in the world, not just in the United States.
It is hard to imagine U.S. Customs officials prosecuting citizens for such an arcane offense. But, should a visiting U.S. citizen be convicted of buying a legal cigar in Canada, the penalty is a fine and even prison. Luckily for the Governator, he smoked the evidence.
The United States has managed to develop productive, peaceful relationships with a host of former Cold War and shooting-war enemies, including Russia, Vietnam and China. Yet Cuba remains a Cold War relic.
The policy begun by President Nixon of spreading American values through contacts and commerce never has been applied to Cuba. And Fidel Castro continues to maintain the last bastion of Soviet-style communism in the western hemisphere. If Americans were free to trade with, visit and invest in Cuba, the once-and-future tropical paradise 90 miles off the Florida coast would be inundated by the free market. Castro quickly would become irrelevant. As it is, the old dictator has a handy scapegoat for Cuba's many problems.
Are there any reasons to cling to the embargo?
There are no trade-related reasons, to be sure. Schwarzenegger's cigar illustrates the ridiculousness of the United States trying to apply a trade embargo to the global realities of the 21st century.
There is no humanitarian reason. Millions of Cuban-Americans are separated from loved ones still living in the Caribbean nation, where deprivation of daily essentials is the norm.
Ah, but there is a political reason. No president, Democrat or Republican, has been willing to risk alienating the vehemently anti-Castro Cuban-American voting block in Florida.
That could change. There is a growing voice of moderation among Cuban-Americans as more come to understand that there are more sensible approaches than simply outliving Castro. It would be refreshing to hear presidential candidates in both parties address the Cuba question frankly.
Sometimes a cigar is just a cigar. But sometimes a cigar is a symbol of an outmoded foreign policy and a self-serving political view. This time it's a symbol.
Monday, August 20, 2007
Canadian investor bullish on Raul Castro's Cuba
Reuters Canada, Canada - June 11
By Anthony Boadle
HAVANA (Reuters) - Cuba's largest foreign investor, Sherritt International Corp., sees business running smoothly under acting President Raul Castro and will push ahead with a $1.2 billion expansion in nickel mining, and oil and electricity production.
Sherritt Executive Chairman Ian Delaney said there has been no adverse impact on the business climate since Cuban leader Fidel Castro took ill last year and handed over provisional power to his brother.
"Raul is a very good and crisp decision-maker, so there certainly has been no adverse change," Delaney said on Monday in a telephone interview from Toronto.
"For us things have continued to be good. He is a very good administrator," said Delaney, who met with the younger Castro last week for the opening of a power plant run by gas from coastal oil fields operated by Sherritt.
With soaring world nickel prices, the Canadian mining and energy company expects to complete the first phase of expansion at its Moa mine by the end of the year, raising output to 37,000 tonnes of nickel and cobalt in 2008. Another 9,000 tonnes is to be added by 2009, with further expansion planned for 2012. Nickel is one of Cuba's main exports.
"The operating environment in Cuba is really good. Our business is being run well," Delaney said.
Uncertainty over Cuba's political future without Fidel Castro at the helm has not shortened Sherritt's sights in Cuba, which could aim even higher if oil is discovered in deep-sea Cuban waters of the Gulf of Mexico.
Delaney said Sherritt was doing additional seismic studies and would take a decision by the end of the year on whether to drill in the four blocks it signed up for five years ago.
Sherritt last year exported some of the heavy crude it extracts from coastal fields and is looking to market more by building a processing facility to desalt the oil and lower its flash point, which is too high for international shipping.
BARRED FROM U.S.
Sherritt has expanded business in Communist Cuba despite opposition from the United States, which for decades has sought to undermine Castro with trade and financial sanctions.
Delaney and his wife Catherine have been banned from entering the United States for eleven years under tightened rules adopted by Washington in 1996 to dissuade foreign companies from investing in Cuba.
"I feel highly insulted, but otherwise there has been no effect," he said.
Castro came to power in a 1959 revolution. In 1962, the United States imposed an embargo on business transactions with Cuba, although food exports were allowed in 2000. The embargo is being scrutinized by the U.S. Congress, where critics say it is a relic of the Cold War that has not changed Cuba.
The embargo has not been factored into Sherritt's plans in Cuba. "We made all of our investments on the basis of the current political environment, and we are quite happy with it," Delaney said.
He called the embargo cruel and said it imposed great strain on Cuba's economy and the Cuban people while "satisfying narrow political interests in the United States."
A task force set up by the Bush administration to stop Cuban nickel imports into the United States has had no effect on that business, Delaney said.
Prices for nickel, used to make steel harder and more durable, could remain high for many years due to demand by its largest consumers, the United States and China, which have no significant production of the metal.
Sherritt is the world's lowest-cost nickel producer and is having a "terrific" time with prices now ten times higher than in 1999, Delaney said.
"It's too easy to say that business is good in this high commodity environment," he said. "For us business was good when nickel was $2 (a pound). Recently, it traded as high as $22."
By Anthony Boadle
HAVANA (Reuters) - Cuba's largest foreign investor, Sherritt International Corp., sees business running smoothly under acting President Raul Castro and will push ahead with a $1.2 billion expansion in nickel mining, and oil and electricity production.
Sherritt Executive Chairman Ian Delaney said there has been no adverse impact on the business climate since Cuban leader Fidel Castro took ill last year and handed over provisional power to his brother.
"Raul is a very good and crisp decision-maker, so there certainly has been no adverse change," Delaney said on Monday in a telephone interview from Toronto.
"For us things have continued to be good. He is a very good administrator," said Delaney, who met with the younger Castro last week for the opening of a power plant run by gas from coastal oil fields operated by Sherritt.
With soaring world nickel prices, the Canadian mining and energy company expects to complete the first phase of expansion at its Moa mine by the end of the year, raising output to 37,000 tonnes of nickel and cobalt in 2008. Another 9,000 tonnes is to be added by 2009, with further expansion planned for 2012. Nickel is one of Cuba's main exports.
"The operating environment in Cuba is really good. Our business is being run well," Delaney said.
Uncertainty over Cuba's political future without Fidel Castro at the helm has not shortened Sherritt's sights in Cuba, which could aim even higher if oil is discovered in deep-sea Cuban waters of the Gulf of Mexico.
Delaney said Sherritt was doing additional seismic studies and would take a decision by the end of the year on whether to drill in the four blocks it signed up for five years ago.
Sherritt last year exported some of the heavy crude it extracts from coastal fields and is looking to market more by building a processing facility to desalt the oil and lower its flash point, which is too high for international shipping.
BARRED FROM U.S.
Sherritt has expanded business in Communist Cuba despite opposition from the United States, which for decades has sought to undermine Castro with trade and financial sanctions.
Delaney and his wife Catherine have been banned from entering the United States for eleven years under tightened rules adopted by Washington in 1996 to dissuade foreign companies from investing in Cuba.
"I feel highly insulted, but otherwise there has been no effect," he said.
Castro came to power in a 1959 revolution. In 1962, the United States imposed an embargo on business transactions with Cuba, although food exports were allowed in 2000. The embargo is being scrutinized by the U.S. Congress, where critics say it is a relic of the Cold War that has not changed Cuba.
The embargo has not been factored into Sherritt's plans in Cuba. "We made all of our investments on the basis of the current political environment, and we are quite happy with it," Delaney said.
He called the embargo cruel and said it imposed great strain on Cuba's economy and the Cuban people while "satisfying narrow political interests in the United States."
A task force set up by the Bush administration to stop Cuban nickel imports into the United States has had no effect on that business, Delaney said.
Prices for nickel, used to make steel harder and more durable, could remain high for many years due to demand by its largest consumers, the United States and China, which have no significant production of the metal.
Sherritt is the world's lowest-cost nickel producer and is having a "terrific" time with prices now ten times higher than in 1999, Delaney said.
"It's too easy to say that business is good in this high commodity environment," he said. "For us business was good when nickel was $2 (a pound). Recently, it traded as high as $22."
Havana: U.S. fugitives are no longer welcome
Posted on Wed, May. 30, 2007
Cuba has said it will stop providing safe haven to U.S. fugitives who arrive on the island.
BY PABLO BACHELET
pbachelet@MiamiHerald.com
WASHINGTON --
A little-noticed passage in two State Department reports says Havana has stated that it will no longer provide safe haven to U.S. fugitives who enter Cuba -- a promise the Castro government has met twice since September.
The promise and deportations amount to a rare sign of cooperation by Havana. Some 70 U.S. fugitives are believed to be living in Cuba, including Joanne Chesimard, convicted in the 1973 murder of a New Jersey state trooper.
Cuba has refused to return them, generally arguing that the U.S. charges against them are ''political.'' The refusals were among the reasons the State Department used for including Cuba in its list of nations that support international terrorism.
But a brief passage in the State Department's voluminous 2005 and 2006 Country Reports on Terrorism -- the 2006 report was released April 30 -- that went largely unnoticed until now said Cuba ``has stated that it will no longer provide safe haven to new U.S. fugitives who may enter Cuba.''
State Department spokesmen declined comment on who made the promise, when or whether it involved any U.S. counter-promise. Havana has long demanded the return of five convicted Cuban spies jailed in Florida.
Such Cuban acts of cooperation have come under more scrutiny since Raúl Castro took the reins of power after his brother Fidel Castro fell ill last summer. However, the 2005 report on terrorism, the first to include the wording on ending the safe haven, was issued before the ailment was announced on July 31.
A NEW DIRECTION?
State Department officials noted Cuba's history of on-and-off collaboration with the United States makes it hard to know if Havana's promise is signaling a new stance.
''We have no way of knowing for sure what the Cuban government is trying to accomplish, if anything,'' said Eric Watnik, a department spokesman.
Cuba has demanded the United States extradite anti-Castro militant Luis Posada Carriles to Venezuela, where he faces charges of masterminding the bombing of a Cuban jetliner in 1976 that killed 73. U.S. immigration fraud charges against Posada were dropped recently by a U.S. judge.
Cuba has returned at least two U.S. fugitives since the promise first appeared in the State Deparment report.
In September, a South Florida man kidnapped his son, stole a plane at a airport in the Florida Keys and flew to Cuba. The son was later returned to his mother in Mexico and the father was put on a plane to Miami, where he faces prosecution. That was the first time Cuba had returned a fugitive from U.S. justice, according to the 2006 U.S. report.
In April, Havana returned to Florida Joseph Adjmi, a fugitive sentenced to 10 years in U.S. prison for mail fraud in 1963.
Earlier this year Cuba also expelled to Bogotá Luis Hernando Gómez-Bustamante, wanted in Colombia as a leader of the Norte del Valle cartel. Colombia then extradited him to the United States.
Washington and Havana have long had tenuous communications on issues such as drug trafficking and migration. In early 2006, the Cubans briefed the Coast Guard officer based at the U.S. diplomatic mission in Havana on their counter-drug trafficking operations. But the Cubans refused to allow Drug Enforcement Administration agents to question Gómez-Bustamante while he was detained there on immigration fraud charges.
BILATERAL CONTACTS
An annual report on drug trafficking issued in March by the State Department said Cuban officials ''profess interest'' in more bilateral contacts with Washington on drug trafficking matters.
The Bush administration suspended biannual talks with Cuba on migration issues in 2004, and has refused any formal contacts with top Havana government officials.
Raúl Castro has on two occasions -- in August and December -- declared he would be willing to sit down and talk with Washington. The Bush administration replied that it was not interested in talks until Cuba takes the path of democracy.
Cuba has said it will stop providing safe haven to U.S. fugitives who arrive on the island.
BY PABLO BACHELET
pbachelet@MiamiHerald.com
WASHINGTON --
A little-noticed passage in two State Department reports says Havana has stated that it will no longer provide safe haven to U.S. fugitives who enter Cuba -- a promise the Castro government has met twice since September.
The promise and deportations amount to a rare sign of cooperation by Havana. Some 70 U.S. fugitives are believed to be living in Cuba, including Joanne Chesimard, convicted in the 1973 murder of a New Jersey state trooper.
Cuba has refused to return them, generally arguing that the U.S. charges against them are ''political.'' The refusals were among the reasons the State Department used for including Cuba in its list of nations that support international terrorism.
But a brief passage in the State Department's voluminous 2005 and 2006 Country Reports on Terrorism -- the 2006 report was released April 30 -- that went largely unnoticed until now said Cuba ``has stated that it will no longer provide safe haven to new U.S. fugitives who may enter Cuba.''
State Department spokesmen declined comment on who made the promise, when or whether it involved any U.S. counter-promise. Havana has long demanded the return of five convicted Cuban spies jailed in Florida.
Such Cuban acts of cooperation have come under more scrutiny since Raúl Castro took the reins of power after his brother Fidel Castro fell ill last summer. However, the 2005 report on terrorism, the first to include the wording on ending the safe haven, was issued before the ailment was announced on July 31.
A NEW DIRECTION?
State Department officials noted Cuba's history of on-and-off collaboration with the United States makes it hard to know if Havana's promise is signaling a new stance.
''We have no way of knowing for sure what the Cuban government is trying to accomplish, if anything,'' said Eric Watnik, a department spokesman.
Cuba has demanded the United States extradite anti-Castro militant Luis Posada Carriles to Venezuela, where he faces charges of masterminding the bombing of a Cuban jetliner in 1976 that killed 73. U.S. immigration fraud charges against Posada were dropped recently by a U.S. judge.
Cuba has returned at least two U.S. fugitives since the promise first appeared in the State Deparment report.
In September, a South Florida man kidnapped his son, stole a plane at a airport in the Florida Keys and flew to Cuba. The son was later returned to his mother in Mexico and the father was put on a plane to Miami, where he faces prosecution. That was the first time Cuba had returned a fugitive from U.S. justice, according to the 2006 U.S. report.
In April, Havana returned to Florida Joseph Adjmi, a fugitive sentenced to 10 years in U.S. prison for mail fraud in 1963.
Earlier this year Cuba also expelled to Bogotá Luis Hernando Gómez-Bustamante, wanted in Colombia as a leader of the Norte del Valle cartel. Colombia then extradited him to the United States.
Washington and Havana have long had tenuous communications on issues such as drug trafficking and migration. In early 2006, the Cubans briefed the Coast Guard officer based at the U.S. diplomatic mission in Havana on their counter-drug trafficking operations. But the Cubans refused to allow Drug Enforcement Administration agents to question Gómez-Bustamante while he was detained there on immigration fraud charges.
BILATERAL CONTACTS
An annual report on drug trafficking issued in March by the State Department said Cuban officials ''profess interest'' in more bilateral contacts with Washington on drug trafficking matters.
The Bush administration suspended biannual talks with Cuba on migration issues in 2004, and has refused any formal contacts with top Havana government officials.
Raúl Castro has on two occasions -- in August and December -- declared he would be willing to sit down and talk with Washington. The Bush administration replied that it was not interested in talks until Cuba takes the path of democracy.
Private sector operates in Cuba's shadows
Posted on Wed, May. 30, 2007
CUBA
A small number of Cuban entrepreneurs are able to make ends meet under the pressure of Cuba's strict government-controlled economy.
BY MIKE WILLIAMS
Cox News Service
HAVANA --
It's nothing but a simple shed with a counter stuck in the front yard under a shade tree. The menu -- a tiny chalkboard hung from a rusty nail on the wall -- offers only two items: pizza and ice cream.
But for Esperanza Perez, the tiny food stand she has owned and operated in Communist Cuba for the past 13 years has been life changing.
''Before this my life was very difficult,'' she said. ``My husband died and I had to face life. I had my disabled mother and my daughter to support. This business is not making us rich, but we are surviving.''
Perez was part of a new wave of Cubans allowed to open private businesses in the 1990s, when Cuba's economy was devastated by the collapse of the Soviet Union and the loss of about $6 billion a year in subsidies.
The decision to allow privately owned enterprises was a dramatic departure from Cuba's long commitment to socialism, a doctrine adopted by Fidel Castro after his 1959 revolution.
But as Cuba's post-Soviet crisis eased in the late 1990s, Castro became uncomfortable with the threat posed by private profit in a state where riches are considered a sin.
Cuban officials in recent years have clamped down on the tiny private sector, raising fees, cutting back the number of licenses issued and increasing inspections.
LONELY BUSINESS
According to press reports, the number of private entrepreneurs -- called cuenta propistas, or ''people working on their own account'' -- dropped from around 200,000 in 1996 to about 150,000 today.
The question on many minds now is whether Cuba will continue to rein in private opportunity, or instead open its economy further.
While Castro remains firmly committed to socialism, the 80-year-old leader has been sidelined the past 10 months by serious illness. He officially turned over power to his 75-year-old brother, Raul, last July.
Raul Castro, head of Cuba's military, is said to be a pragmatist open to the idea of limited private enterprise. Cuban officials are also candid about the need to improve the living conditions of the Cuban people.
In a recent press briefing, Economics Minister Jose Luis Rodriquez insisted the cuenta propistas will be a part of Cuba's future. ''There is not a policy to destroy private businesses,'' he said. ``Legally people are allowed to do this. The state never thought of private business as a menace.''
That is good news to the business owners, many of whom say they enjoy the challenge of running their own enterprise.
''It's a good business that enables me to maintain my house, to sometimes drink a beer and to maintain my cars,'' said Miguel Gonzales-Carbajal, a Cuban physician who for the past seven years has run a casa particular, renting rooms to tourists. ``With just my salary, it was hard to make ends meet.''
He charges $25 for a small room and $35 for a larger room, both clean, neat, air-conditioned and with private bathrooms. For this privilege, he pays the Cuban state the equivalent of about $325 per month.
''There is risk because if I have no customers, I still have to pay the license fee,'' he said. ``But if we have a month we believe will be slow, we don't have to pay the fee but then we cannot rent the rooms.''
RISK TAKERS
The concept of risk is new to many Cubans, but some of the business owners seem to thrive on it.
''I really enjoy it,'' said Lazaro Ordonez, 44, who with his mother Elisa, 62, has run Los Amigos, a tiny paladar or private restaurant, out of their home for 12 years. ``You have to work more, but in the end, you have a compensation, a better life.''
Cuban law allows the businesses to hire only family members. The cost of the licenses vary. Perez, who charges the equivalent of about 30 cents for a small pizza and 13 cents for an ice cream cone, pays about $116 each month for her license and two family workers.
Entrepreneurs also pay 10 percent of their profit in yearly income tax.
Cubans are loathe to speak of how much they earn, but a Cuban professional who researched the private sector estimated that a stand like Perez's might earn $200 per month in profit.
There are also thriving private markets in Cuba, where farm cooperatives and individuals pay fees to sell goods and produce. The private markets often have higher-quality produce than state-run markets, although prices are also higher.
''The vendors pay 5 percent of sales in taxes and 5 percent to rent their stalls,'' said Orlando Valdez, manager of a market in Havana's Vedado neighborhood. ``The prices are set by supply and demand, but if a vendor is charging very high prices, we try to convince them to lower them.''
BARGAIN PRICES
Prices seem cheap by American standards, with a pound of tomatoes costing the equivalent of about 20 cents, while chicken and pork are sold for about $1 per pound in Cuban pesos.
Other vendors sell at a street fair held once a month in Vedado.
''I buy this stuff from the state and pay 10 percent of each sale in taxes,'' said Roberto Garcia, 28, who sold mops, brooms and detergent at the fair. ``I do OK because my prices are cheaper than in the state stores. I sell soap for 5 pesos [about 20 cents], while in the state stores it's 15. I'm not getting rich, but I'm surviving.''
Most of the Cuban entrepreneurs say the same thing. But most also say they would never go back to state jobs.
At the Ordonez family's small paladar, there is almost always a long line outside waiting for a chance to eat a typical Cuban meal of pork or chicken, rice and beans. With a beer or two, the meal costs the equivalent of about $7, or roughly half the average Cuban's monthly wage.
But the place is wildly popular, and filled mostly with Cubans, not tourists.
''This is good for us and good for the country,'' said Lazaro Ordonez. ``We support our economic system, but we hope they will allow more of these private businesses.''
Mike Williams' e-mail address is mwilliams@
coxnews.com
CUBA
A small number of Cuban entrepreneurs are able to make ends meet under the pressure of Cuba's strict government-controlled economy.
BY MIKE WILLIAMS
Cox News Service
HAVANA --
It's nothing but a simple shed with a counter stuck in the front yard under a shade tree. The menu -- a tiny chalkboard hung from a rusty nail on the wall -- offers only two items: pizza and ice cream.
But for Esperanza Perez, the tiny food stand she has owned and operated in Communist Cuba for the past 13 years has been life changing.
''Before this my life was very difficult,'' she said. ``My husband died and I had to face life. I had my disabled mother and my daughter to support. This business is not making us rich, but we are surviving.''
Perez was part of a new wave of Cubans allowed to open private businesses in the 1990s, when Cuba's economy was devastated by the collapse of the Soviet Union and the loss of about $6 billion a year in subsidies.
The decision to allow privately owned enterprises was a dramatic departure from Cuba's long commitment to socialism, a doctrine adopted by Fidel Castro after his 1959 revolution.
But as Cuba's post-Soviet crisis eased in the late 1990s, Castro became uncomfortable with the threat posed by private profit in a state where riches are considered a sin.
Cuban officials in recent years have clamped down on the tiny private sector, raising fees, cutting back the number of licenses issued and increasing inspections.
LONELY BUSINESS
According to press reports, the number of private entrepreneurs -- called cuenta propistas, or ''people working on their own account'' -- dropped from around 200,000 in 1996 to about 150,000 today.
The question on many minds now is whether Cuba will continue to rein in private opportunity, or instead open its economy further.
While Castro remains firmly committed to socialism, the 80-year-old leader has been sidelined the past 10 months by serious illness. He officially turned over power to his 75-year-old brother, Raul, last July.
Raul Castro, head of Cuba's military, is said to be a pragmatist open to the idea of limited private enterprise. Cuban officials are also candid about the need to improve the living conditions of the Cuban people.
In a recent press briefing, Economics Minister Jose Luis Rodriquez insisted the cuenta propistas will be a part of Cuba's future. ''There is not a policy to destroy private businesses,'' he said. ``Legally people are allowed to do this. The state never thought of private business as a menace.''
That is good news to the business owners, many of whom say they enjoy the challenge of running their own enterprise.
''It's a good business that enables me to maintain my house, to sometimes drink a beer and to maintain my cars,'' said Miguel Gonzales-Carbajal, a Cuban physician who for the past seven years has run a casa particular, renting rooms to tourists. ``With just my salary, it was hard to make ends meet.''
He charges $25 for a small room and $35 for a larger room, both clean, neat, air-conditioned and with private bathrooms. For this privilege, he pays the Cuban state the equivalent of about $325 per month.
''There is risk because if I have no customers, I still have to pay the license fee,'' he said. ``But if we have a month we believe will be slow, we don't have to pay the fee but then we cannot rent the rooms.''
RISK TAKERS
The concept of risk is new to many Cubans, but some of the business owners seem to thrive on it.
''I really enjoy it,'' said Lazaro Ordonez, 44, who with his mother Elisa, 62, has run Los Amigos, a tiny paladar or private restaurant, out of their home for 12 years. ``You have to work more, but in the end, you have a compensation, a better life.''
Cuban law allows the businesses to hire only family members. The cost of the licenses vary. Perez, who charges the equivalent of about 30 cents for a small pizza and 13 cents for an ice cream cone, pays about $116 each month for her license and two family workers.
Entrepreneurs also pay 10 percent of their profit in yearly income tax.
Cubans are loathe to speak of how much they earn, but a Cuban professional who researched the private sector estimated that a stand like Perez's might earn $200 per month in profit.
There are also thriving private markets in Cuba, where farm cooperatives and individuals pay fees to sell goods and produce. The private markets often have higher-quality produce than state-run markets, although prices are also higher.
''The vendors pay 5 percent of sales in taxes and 5 percent to rent their stalls,'' said Orlando Valdez, manager of a market in Havana's Vedado neighborhood. ``The prices are set by supply and demand, but if a vendor is charging very high prices, we try to convince them to lower them.''
BARGAIN PRICES
Prices seem cheap by American standards, with a pound of tomatoes costing the equivalent of about 20 cents, while chicken and pork are sold for about $1 per pound in Cuban pesos.
Other vendors sell at a street fair held once a month in Vedado.
''I buy this stuff from the state and pay 10 percent of each sale in taxes,'' said Roberto Garcia, 28, who sold mops, brooms and detergent at the fair. ``I do OK because my prices are cheaper than in the state stores. I sell soap for 5 pesos [about 20 cents], while in the state stores it's 15. I'm not getting rich, but I'm surviving.''
Most of the Cuban entrepreneurs say the same thing. But most also say they would never go back to state jobs.
At the Ordonez family's small paladar, there is almost always a long line outside waiting for a chance to eat a typical Cuban meal of pork or chicken, rice and beans. With a beer or two, the meal costs the equivalent of about $7, or roughly half the average Cuban's monthly wage.
But the place is wildly popular, and filled mostly with Cubans, not tourists.
''This is good for us and good for the country,'' said Lazaro Ordonez. ``We support our economic system, but we hope they will allow more of these private businesses.''
Mike Williams' e-mail address is mwilliams@
coxnews.com
Castro and Vietnam's Party Secretary Meet
Posted on Sun, Jun. 03, 2007
Upbeat Castro appears on Cuban TV
HAVANA --
(AP) -- Talking at length, grinning for cameras and even cracking jokes, Fidel Castro looked stronger and more vibrant Sunday as the first TV images of the ailing Cuban leader in four months appeared to confirm official reports he is feeling better.
The two-and-a-half-minute clip appears to show Castro in the same red track suit with black and white trim that he wore in past official images. At times, the 80-year-old shakes his fist and waggles a finger for effect while talking to Vietnamese Communist Party chief Nong Duc Manh, who met with him on Saturday.
The pair are later shown smiling and embracing warmly. An upbeat Castro even draws laughs when he compliments a translator on how well he speaks Vietnamese and Spanish.
''Vietnam is a country that we will never forget,'' Castro says.
Toward the end of the meeting, Manh says: ''I don't want to go, but I want you to rest to get better.'' Manh also invites the convalescing leader to visit Vietnam's capital of Hanoi. Castro visited the Asian country in 1973, when the U.S. was backing South Vietnam in a war with the communist north, which eventually won.
The clip ends with a round of applause from those accompanying Castro and Manh. A few seconds later, Castro is shown enthusiastically clapping with the others as the image fades out.
Photos of Castro standing with Manh also appeared on the front page of the Communist Youth newspaper Juventud Rebelde on Sunday. Some Cubans lined up at newsstands to buy a copy.
''He's always animated, but now he's healthier,'' Havana resident Marvis Lescay said. ``It is very satisfying for me to see him getting better.''
It was the first official videotape of Castro released since he met in Havana with his friend and ally Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez in January, and the first still photos of him since he met with the Chinese Communist Party leader Wu Guanzheng in April.
According to an official statement, Castro and Manh met for two hours.
''I'm very happy, very happy that during this visit I have had a meeting, a deep exchange of ideas of all kinds, with comrade Fidel Castro,'' said Manh, adding he was excited to see Castro happy and upbeat.
Castro has not been seen in public since he announced on July 31 that he had undergone emergency intestinal surgery and was temporarily ceding power to his brother Raul, the defense minister.
Raul Castro turned 76 on Sunday, but it was unclear how he spent his birthday. The government did not say whether he planned to appear in public.
The elder Castro's exact ailment and condition remain state secrets, but he is widely believed to suffer from diverticular disease, which forms sacs in the colon that can become inflamed and bleed.
Senior Cuban officials have repeatedly said Castro is on the mend, even ''practically fully recovered,'' and the government has occasionally released photographs and videotapes showing off his progress.
Raul Castro and Manh signed several accords on Friday, including one that makes Vietnam Cuba's latest partner in oil exploration in the Gulf of Mexico.
Upbeat Castro appears on Cuban TV
HAVANA --
(AP) -- Talking at length, grinning for cameras and even cracking jokes, Fidel Castro looked stronger and more vibrant Sunday as the first TV images of the ailing Cuban leader in four months appeared to confirm official reports he is feeling better.
The two-and-a-half-minute clip appears to show Castro in the same red track suit with black and white trim that he wore in past official images. At times, the 80-year-old shakes his fist and waggles a finger for effect while talking to Vietnamese Communist Party chief Nong Duc Manh, who met with him on Saturday.
The pair are later shown smiling and embracing warmly. An upbeat Castro even draws laughs when he compliments a translator on how well he speaks Vietnamese and Spanish.
''Vietnam is a country that we will never forget,'' Castro says.
Toward the end of the meeting, Manh says: ''I don't want to go, but I want you to rest to get better.'' Manh also invites the convalescing leader to visit Vietnam's capital of Hanoi. Castro visited the Asian country in 1973, when the U.S. was backing South Vietnam in a war with the communist north, which eventually won.
The clip ends with a round of applause from those accompanying Castro and Manh. A few seconds later, Castro is shown enthusiastically clapping with the others as the image fades out.
Photos of Castro standing with Manh also appeared on the front page of the Communist Youth newspaper Juventud Rebelde on Sunday. Some Cubans lined up at newsstands to buy a copy.
''He's always animated, but now he's healthier,'' Havana resident Marvis Lescay said. ``It is very satisfying for me to see him getting better.''
It was the first official videotape of Castro released since he met in Havana with his friend and ally Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez in January, and the first still photos of him since he met with the Chinese Communist Party leader Wu Guanzheng in April.
According to an official statement, Castro and Manh met for two hours.
''I'm very happy, very happy that during this visit I have had a meeting, a deep exchange of ideas of all kinds, with comrade Fidel Castro,'' said Manh, adding he was excited to see Castro happy and upbeat.
Castro has not been seen in public since he announced on July 31 that he had undergone emergency intestinal surgery and was temporarily ceding power to his brother Raul, the defense minister.
Raul Castro turned 76 on Sunday, but it was unclear how he spent his birthday. The government did not say whether he planned to appear in public.
The elder Castro's exact ailment and condition remain state secrets, but he is widely believed to suffer from diverticular disease, which forms sacs in the colon that can become inflamed and bleed.
Senior Cuban officials have repeatedly said Castro is on the mend, even ''practically fully recovered,'' and the government has occasionally released photographs and videotapes showing off his progress.
Raul Castro and Manh signed several accords on Friday, including one that makes Vietnam Cuba's latest partner in oil exploration in the Gulf of Mexico.
Cuba to buy $118 million in U.S. food
By ANITA SNOW
Associated Press Writer
HAVANA --
Cuba agreed Wednesday to buy $118 million in U.S. food products ranging from pork and corn to soybeans and Spam, and said it was negotiating deals that could bring the total to nearly $150 million.
"The sales this week went beyond all of our expectations," said Jim Sumner of the U.S. Poultry and Egg Export Council, one of more than 200 Americans from 25 states who visited Havana for talks with communist officials. "When the embargo is lifted, which we hope will be very soon, these deals will be much greater."
Although Washington's 45-year-old embargo remains, U.S. food and agricultural products can be sold directly to Cuba under a law passed by Congress in 2000. Since 2001, Havana says it has spent more than $2.2 billion on American farm products and related costs.
A smiling Pedro Alvarez, chairman of the Cuban food import company Alimport, said Americans are "recovering the market" they lost in the 1960s with the imposition of the embargo.
"The active and massive participation of the American business community makes us very happy," said Alvarez, whose company organized the latest round of negotiations with U.S. farm producers.
Cuba expects this year to match the $570 million it spent in 2006 on American food and agricultural products, including shipping and banking costs.
Cuban Commerce Minister Raul de la Nuez said most of the food would be sold at heavily subsidized prices, on the government's food ration and at public schools and workplace dining rooms.
"This will help feed our people," De la Nuez said.
"We have a common goal of normalized relations between the United States and Cuba," Kirby Jones, founder of the U.S.-Cuba Trade Association in Washington, told the gathering. "One day, we hope there will be free and open trade."
Associated Press Writer
HAVANA --
Cuba agreed Wednesday to buy $118 million in U.S. food products ranging from pork and corn to soybeans and Spam, and said it was negotiating deals that could bring the total to nearly $150 million.
"The sales this week went beyond all of our expectations," said Jim Sumner of the U.S. Poultry and Egg Export Council, one of more than 200 Americans from 25 states who visited Havana for talks with communist officials. "When the embargo is lifted, which we hope will be very soon, these deals will be much greater."
Although Washington's 45-year-old embargo remains, U.S. food and agricultural products can be sold directly to Cuba under a law passed by Congress in 2000. Since 2001, Havana says it has spent more than $2.2 billion on American farm products and related costs.
A smiling Pedro Alvarez, chairman of the Cuban food import company Alimport, said Americans are "recovering the market" they lost in the 1960s with the imposition of the embargo.
"The active and massive participation of the American business community makes us very happy," said Alvarez, whose company organized the latest round of negotiations with U.S. farm producers.
Cuba expects this year to match the $570 million it spent in 2006 on American food and agricultural products, including shipping and banking costs.
Cuban Commerce Minister Raul de la Nuez said most of the food would be sold at heavily subsidized prices, on the government's food ration and at public schools and workplace dining rooms.
"This will help feed our people," De la Nuez said.
"We have a common goal of normalized relations between the United States and Cuba," Kirby Jones, founder of the U.S.-Cuba Trade Association in Washington, told the gathering. "One day, we hope there will be free and open trade."
Tuesday, June 5, 2007
Tampa Meeting Builds Collaboration for Normalization
Cuban Groups Gather In Tampa To Speak With One Voice
The Tampa Tribune
Published: May 30, 2007
In his youth, Havana native Antonio Zamora put it all on the line to take out the Fidel Castro regime and rid the hemisphere of a menacing Soviet satellite. He survived the 1961 Bay of Pigs invasion - and subsequent imprisonment in a Cuban jail.
He could be the avatar of anti-Castro, pro-embargo Cuban gravitas. For years he was legal counsel for the hard-line Cuban American National Foundation. And he readily acknowledges that he 'wrote the book on Miami politics.'
But time has elapsed, and times have changed. The influential Miami lawyer is now president of FORNORM, the Foundation For The Normalization of US/Cuba Relations.
He was in town last week, along with representatives of 16 other organizations to speak with one voice on the need to normalize relations with Cuba. To speak, in effect, with a voice other than the strident, pro-embargo, South Florida one that has dominated the subject of Cuban-American relations for the better part of half a century.
They gathered, appropriately enough, in the theater of Ybor City's Circulo Cubano (Cuban Club).
'It's a different world now,' Zamora said. 'Back then was a function of the Cold War era. That's over. Things change. The U.S. now is talking to North Korea, talking to Iran, mending its relations with Libya, and Cuba is 90 miles away and we have this estranged relationship.
'Normalization will open up all kinds of opportunities,' he stressed. 'For too long, we shut out reconciliation. We need a different approach.'
To that end, the Change U.S. Policy Towards Cuba national forum, which featured speakers from California to South Florida, represented a pragmatic leap for those who want to end the counterproductive, Cold War atavism that is U.S. policy toward Cuba.
It's a policy long driven by the highly partisan influence-peddling of savvy, right-wing, South Florida Cuban-Americans. The hardliners haven't merely worn their emotions on their guayabera sleeves. They formed PACs, 501c-3s and delivered money and votes to those they targeted. They took copious notes on the inveterately effective Jewish lobby. All discussions and debates were framed in rhetoric that routinely resonated with 'dictator' and 'freedom' references. Who didn't loathe the former and love the latter? That simplistic, that effective.
The playing field tilted more in the 1990s when the GOP took over Congress - and then Florida. In fact, the Sunshine State's congressional delegation would include Cuban-American, pro-embargo zealots Mario Diaz-Balart, Lincoln Diaz-Balart and Ileana Ros-Lehtinen in the House and Mel Martinez in the Senate.
This is what the less-organized, pro-travel, anti-embargo normalization crowd has long faced. The frustration of trying to combat the well-financed, take-no-prisoners opposition armed only with better arguments - from economic to geopolitical to moral - and well-intentioned splinter groups. Not nearly enough ammo to fight the good fight - and win.
For example, when Republican congressional ally Jeff Flake of Arizona attended a fundraiser in Miami in his honor, he left with some $6,000. This was no way 'to fund a friend in Congress,' underscored Tampa's Al Fox, president of the Alliance for Responsible Cuba Policy Foundation.
'The legislative process,' Fox said, 'is like a paella. Without rice, no paella. You need sponsors, legislative know-how and money. Without money, there is no legislative process.'
Times Have Changed
But times, as Zamora said, have changed. So have some priorities. Islamist terrorism will do that. So will a tragically botched Iraqi invasion and occupation.
At a time when the United States needs serious allies and its prestige and clout are on the global skids, a seemingly arrogant, mean-spirited, pro-embargo policy against Cuba belies our protestations that we really are the good guys.
It's also a time when public opinion has turned.
According to Associated Press, Gallup and CNN polls, Americans now favor normalized relations between the United States and Cuba. Some show the margin at nearly 2-to-1. And a recent survey by Florida International University reports that 55.2 percent of Cuban-Americans in Miami-Dade County are in favor of unfettered travel from the United States to Cuba; 51.3 percent support the establishment of full U.S.-Cuban diplomatic relations; and 76.4 percent agree that the embargo has not worked well or not at all.
So much for the monolithic mind-set of Cuban-Americans, especially across generations. Even in South Florida.
Moreover, the Miami Herald, long an editorial mouthpiece for militant anti-Castroites, has now recognized the 'counterproductive restrictions on travel to the island.'
In Congress, there are two bills trolling for more co-sponsors that would end restrictions on travel to Cuba by all Americans. House Resolution 654, which has 108 co-sponsors to date, was submitted by Reps. Charles Rangel, D-N.Y., and Jeff Flake, R-Ariz. Rangel also chairs the powerful House Ways and Means Committee. On the Senate side, there is S 721, introduced by Sen. Mike Enzi, R-W.Y., and Sen. Byron Dorgan, D-N.D., which has 20 bipartisan co-sponsors.
None of the co-sponsors, unconscionably, is from Florida.
Rep. Jose Serano, D-N.Y., has proposed the embargo-lifting Cuban Reconciliation Act, and Rep. Jerry Moran, R-Kan., has introduced a bill to ease payment regimens for agricultural sales to Cuba. Last year, Sen. Larry Craig, R-Idaho, submitted a bill that would exempt U.S. oil exploration from the embargo.
The rumblings of change are manifest. The tipping point, however, isn't yet imminent.
That can't happen as long as South Florida's hard-liners have a de facto veto in U.S.-Cuba relations. And Congress, which has the real power to undo a failed Cuban policy, needs to be pressured the old-fashioned way: money and an organized voting bloc.
Pragmatic Approach
Amid exhortations for more money, better cooperation and increased media sophistication, Zamora underscored a bottom-line approach that harkened back to his Cold War roots. Because 'winning the message' wasn't enough, he urged the implementation of 'guerilla tactics.'
Zamora, however, isn't so literal these days.
He urged an alliance with other political constituencies - notably black Americans and non-Cuban Hispanics. He also advised going after non-Cuban, Florida politicians who are hardly true believers when it comes to a pro-embargo, anti-travel Cuban policy, but have had to go along to get along with a Republican majority in Congress - a majority that is no longer there.
And, yes, Zamora was talking about Democratic U.S. Reps. Debbie Wasserman Schultz, Kendrick Meek and Allen Boyd. The latter two remain incongruous members of the hard-line Cuban Democracy Caucus.
Before the forum was finished, others had strongly suggested pressuring presidential candidates such as Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton into co-sponsoring the Senate bill to lift travel restrictions to Cuba.
Fox even urged calling U.S. Rep. Kathy Castor's office every single day.
It obviously remains to be seen how much, if any, difference the Tampa forum will make. This much, however, seemed apparent. Such a gathering, with its emphasis on building cooperation and leveling the playing field, was long overdue. As was a key role for Tampa, the city with intimate, historic roots to Cuba, direct links to national icon Jose Marti and a reputation for moderate Cuban politics. Tampa is now a major player in whatever unfolds.
The timing would seem propitious as events fast forward. To wit: the eroding role of Fidelismo, a Bush presidency in retreat and a rapidly metastasizing geopolitical mess. Plus, the evolving generational attitudes among Cuban-Americans, 40 percent of whom don't live in South Florida. Then add the inevitability of more aggressive lobbying by U.S. business interests, residents appalled by un-American travel restrictions and Cuban-Americans wanting to see loved ones on the island more often than once every three years.
'The significance of the forum,' summarized Fox, the Alliance for Responsible Cuba Policy president, 'is that we have an umbrella big enough to cover a whole range of opinions. We all don't agree on everything. But we agree on the goal of removing the economic embargo. We are working together. That is significant.'
Joe O'Neill is a writer who lives in Hyde Park. He can be contacted at www.OpinionsToGoOnLine .com.
http://www2.tbo.com/content/2007/may/30/cuban-groups-gather-in-tampa-to-speak-with-one-voi/
The Tampa Tribune
Published: May 30, 2007
In his youth, Havana native Antonio Zamora put it all on the line to take out the Fidel Castro regime and rid the hemisphere of a menacing Soviet satellite. He survived the 1961 Bay of Pigs invasion - and subsequent imprisonment in a Cuban jail.
He could be the avatar of anti-Castro, pro-embargo Cuban gravitas. For years he was legal counsel for the hard-line Cuban American National Foundation. And he readily acknowledges that he 'wrote the book on Miami politics.'
But time has elapsed, and times have changed. The influential Miami lawyer is now president of FORNORM, the Foundation For The Normalization of US/Cuba Relations.
He was in town last week, along with representatives of 16 other organizations to speak with one voice on the need to normalize relations with Cuba. To speak, in effect, with a voice other than the strident, pro-embargo, South Florida one that has dominated the subject of Cuban-American relations for the better part of half a century.
They gathered, appropriately enough, in the theater of Ybor City's Circulo Cubano (Cuban Club).
'It's a different world now,' Zamora said. 'Back then was a function of the Cold War era. That's over. Things change. The U.S. now is talking to North Korea, talking to Iran, mending its relations with Libya, and Cuba is 90 miles away and we have this estranged relationship.
'Normalization will open up all kinds of opportunities,' he stressed. 'For too long, we shut out reconciliation. We need a different approach.'
To that end, the Change U.S. Policy Towards Cuba national forum, which featured speakers from California to South Florida, represented a pragmatic leap for those who want to end the counterproductive, Cold War atavism that is U.S. policy toward Cuba.
It's a policy long driven by the highly partisan influence-peddling of savvy, right-wing, South Florida Cuban-Americans. The hardliners haven't merely worn their emotions on their guayabera sleeves. They formed PACs, 501c-3s and delivered money and votes to those they targeted. They took copious notes on the inveterately effective Jewish lobby. All discussions and debates were framed in rhetoric that routinely resonated with 'dictator' and 'freedom' references. Who didn't loathe the former and love the latter? That simplistic, that effective.
The playing field tilted more in the 1990s when the GOP took over Congress - and then Florida. In fact, the Sunshine State's congressional delegation would include Cuban-American, pro-embargo zealots Mario Diaz-Balart, Lincoln Diaz-Balart and Ileana Ros-Lehtinen in the House and Mel Martinez in the Senate.
This is what the less-organized, pro-travel, anti-embargo normalization crowd has long faced. The frustration of trying to combat the well-financed, take-no-prisoners opposition armed only with better arguments - from economic to geopolitical to moral - and well-intentioned splinter groups. Not nearly enough ammo to fight the good fight - and win.
For example, when Republican congressional ally Jeff Flake of Arizona attended a fundraiser in Miami in his honor, he left with some $6,000. This was no way 'to fund a friend in Congress,' underscored Tampa's Al Fox, president of the Alliance for Responsible Cuba Policy Foundation.
'The legislative process,' Fox said, 'is like a paella. Without rice, no paella. You need sponsors, legislative know-how and money. Without money, there is no legislative process.'
Times Have Changed
But times, as Zamora said, have changed. So have some priorities. Islamist terrorism will do that. So will a tragically botched Iraqi invasion and occupation.
At a time when the United States needs serious allies and its prestige and clout are on the global skids, a seemingly arrogant, mean-spirited, pro-embargo policy against Cuba belies our protestations that we really are the good guys.
It's also a time when public opinion has turned.
According to Associated Press, Gallup and CNN polls, Americans now favor normalized relations between the United States and Cuba. Some show the margin at nearly 2-to-1. And a recent survey by Florida International University reports that 55.2 percent of Cuban-Americans in Miami-Dade County are in favor of unfettered travel from the United States to Cuba; 51.3 percent support the establishment of full U.S.-Cuban diplomatic relations; and 76.4 percent agree that the embargo has not worked well or not at all.
So much for the monolithic mind-set of Cuban-Americans, especially across generations. Even in South Florida.
Moreover, the Miami Herald, long an editorial mouthpiece for militant anti-Castroites, has now recognized the 'counterproductive restrictions on travel to the island.'
In Congress, there are two bills trolling for more co-sponsors that would end restrictions on travel to Cuba by all Americans. House Resolution 654, which has 108 co-sponsors to date, was submitted by Reps. Charles Rangel, D-N.Y., and Jeff Flake, R-Ariz. Rangel also chairs the powerful House Ways and Means Committee. On the Senate side, there is S 721, introduced by Sen. Mike Enzi, R-W.Y., and Sen. Byron Dorgan, D-N.D., which has 20 bipartisan co-sponsors.
None of the co-sponsors, unconscionably, is from Florida.
Rep. Jose Serano, D-N.Y., has proposed the embargo-lifting Cuban Reconciliation Act, and Rep. Jerry Moran, R-Kan., has introduced a bill to ease payment regimens for agricultural sales to Cuba. Last year, Sen. Larry Craig, R-Idaho, submitted a bill that would exempt U.S. oil exploration from the embargo.
The rumblings of change are manifest. The tipping point, however, isn't yet imminent.
That can't happen as long as South Florida's hard-liners have a de facto veto in U.S.-Cuba relations. And Congress, which has the real power to undo a failed Cuban policy, needs to be pressured the old-fashioned way: money and an organized voting bloc.
Pragmatic Approach
Amid exhortations for more money, better cooperation and increased media sophistication, Zamora underscored a bottom-line approach that harkened back to his Cold War roots. Because 'winning the message' wasn't enough, he urged the implementation of 'guerilla tactics.'
Zamora, however, isn't so literal these days.
He urged an alliance with other political constituencies - notably black Americans and non-Cuban Hispanics. He also advised going after non-Cuban, Florida politicians who are hardly true believers when it comes to a pro-embargo, anti-travel Cuban policy, but have had to go along to get along with a Republican majority in Congress - a majority that is no longer there.
And, yes, Zamora was talking about Democratic U.S. Reps. Debbie Wasserman Schultz, Kendrick Meek and Allen Boyd. The latter two remain incongruous members of the hard-line Cuban Democracy Caucus.
Before the forum was finished, others had strongly suggested pressuring presidential candidates such as Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton into co-sponsoring the Senate bill to lift travel restrictions to Cuba.
Fox even urged calling U.S. Rep. Kathy Castor's office every single day.
It obviously remains to be seen how much, if any, difference the Tampa forum will make. This much, however, seemed apparent. Such a gathering, with its emphasis on building cooperation and leveling the playing field, was long overdue. As was a key role for Tampa, the city with intimate, historic roots to Cuba, direct links to national icon Jose Marti and a reputation for moderate Cuban politics. Tampa is now a major player in whatever unfolds.
The timing would seem propitious as events fast forward. To wit: the eroding role of Fidelismo, a Bush presidency in retreat and a rapidly metastasizing geopolitical mess. Plus, the evolving generational attitudes among Cuban-Americans, 40 percent of whom don't live in South Florida. Then add the inevitability of more aggressive lobbying by U.S. business interests, residents appalled by un-American travel restrictions and Cuban-Americans wanting to see loved ones on the island more often than once every three years.
'The significance of the forum,' summarized Fox, the Alliance for Responsible Cuba Policy president, 'is that we have an umbrella big enough to cover a whole range of opinions. We all don't agree on everything. But we agree on the goal of removing the economic embargo. We are working together. That is significant.'
Joe O'Neill is a writer who lives in Hyde Park. He can be contacted at www.OpinionsToGoOnLine .com.
http://www2.tbo.com/content/2007/may/30/cuban-groups-gather-in-tampa-to-speak-with-one-voi/
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