Ninety Miles

Repression still the rule, but Cuba sees year of change

2012-01-01T10:12:00.000-08:00

Dec. 31, 2011

By Juan O. Tamayo
jtamayo@ElNuevoHerald.com

STR / AFP/Getty Images

An elderly woman stands in the balcony of adilapidated building, on November 3, 2011, in Havana. The Cubangovernment has approved a law allowing individuals to buy and sellhomes for the first time in 50 years, the official newspaper Granmasaid on November 3, 2011. The measure is part of a series of economicreforms aimed at reviving the economy of the communist-ruled island andeasing a severe housing shortage. STR/AFP/Getty Images

     Joe Garcia, a former executivedirector of the Cuban American National Foundation, likes to joke aboutthe chat he might have today with the late Jorge Mas Canosa, founder ofthe powerful anti-Castro exile lobby.Garcia says he would tell MasCanosa that Cuba’s rulers have abandoned their dream of an egalitarianutopia, and that even Fidel Castro had confessed that his model ofsub-tropical communism “does not work.” He would add that RaúlCastro is now allowing Cubans to start more small businesses,recognizing their right to sell homes and vehicles and even embracingforeign investments in those icons of capitalism — golf resorts. “Jorgewould immediately say, ‘It’s over. We won!’” said the smiling Garcia, aSouth Florida Democrat who keeps tabs on developments in Cuba and hasmade two unsuccessful bids for the U.S. House of Representatives. Castrocritics would disagree strongly and portray the changes as nothing morethan lipstick on the rotting corpse of a Soviet-styled economy. RaúlCastro himself timidly calls the changes not “reforms” but “updates”and has vowed to keep central planning as the backbone of the island’seconomy and prevent any accumulation of private wealth. Yet thechanges clearly reflect an ambitious effort to address the structuralflaws of Cuba’s communist system, abandon its culture of paternalismand attack its parasitic bureaucracy — without risking the government’spower to repress dissent.
     In a nutshell, Castro’s goal is toslash a bloated state sector that controls an estimated 80 percent ofthe economy, and to allow more space for small-scale enterprises thatcan produce more efficiently, pay taxes to the government and often cancount on financial support from relatives or friends abroad.
It’snot been easy. Pushback from entrenched ideologues and bureaucratsappears to have undercut some of the changes, and cuts in the rationcards that provide basic food items at highly subsidized prices havepummeled Cuba’s neediest. A Catholic church in Havana reported ahefty increase in the number of people at its free lunches in recentmonths. And the government reportedly stopped disability and other aidpayments to about 3,000 people in the city of Santa Clara this year. Butmany reforms are under way, and the pace of change increased after acongress of the ruling Communist Party of Cuba in April gave a broadendorsement to Castro’s 300-plus proposals for change.

SLOWLY UNDOING NATIONALIZATION

     Perhapsthe most important reform for the average Cuban was the decision in2010 to permit an expansion of private economic activity in a countrythat nationalized every single business in 1968, down to push cartsthat sold hamburgers. Today, 357,000 people have licenses for“self-employment” — in tightly controlled categories such as partyclowns and street vendors of music CDs — and most have incomes wellabove the official average salary of $20 a month. For the firsttime this year, private entrepreneurs were allowed to hire employees —previously “the exploitation of man by man” — rent some state-ownedstorefronts and even list their services in the island’s phone book,which once rejected them as too “consumerist.” Many state-ownedbusinesses, such as locksmiths, carpentry shops and repair centers forelectrical appliances such as rice cookers, will be turned into privatebusinesses, according to an official announcement a month ago. Thegovernment also postponed some taxes and fees and reduced others whenit became clear they would drown the new businesses, and promised bankloans to the enterprises and to hire some of them to work in areas likeconstruction. But the initial rush to obtain self-employmentlicenses appeared to be slowing down, and official figures indicatethat nearly 20 percent of those who recently received licenses inHavana surrendered them later, apparently because they could not make aprofit. Cubans complain that the permitted activities are toolimited, that there are no legal wholesalers for the raw materials theyrequire — lumber for carpenters, for instance, — and that some taxesand fees remain unfair. Those who rent rooms to tourists pay the samefees regardless of their occupancy.

0BTAINING LOANS TO FIX UP A HOME

     Changes in the government’s banking monopoly, which has never offeredcredit cards, never mind a toaster, also mean that Cubans can nowobtain loans to build or renovate homes and pay for materials as wellas labor. Private farmers can open previously unavailable bankaccounts to handle their money, and loans can rise above the old limits— and go even higher if the borrower has a co-signer or collateral.
Some of the new entrepreneurs are eager to apply for those loans butless eager to put their money in government banks, amid fears that thegovernment could seize their accounts in case of a financial crisis.

PUTTING FALLOW LAND TO BETTER USE

     Castro also stepped up his attack on Cuba’s second most vexing problem:the myriad failures in agriculture that forced the island to import$1.5 billion in food last year — estimated at 60 to 80 percent of itstotal consumption. As of November, 3.4 million acres of fallowstate lands had been leased to 170,000 private farmers. Farmers alsowere permitted to sell directly to consumers and tourist centers, whichpay better prices and therefore help to increase production. Anotherchange coming soon will increase the limits on the leases from 33 to165 acres and from 10 to 25 years, and will allow relatives and in somecases laborers to inherit the leases, according to news media reports. The upcoming change also for the first time would allow the farmers tobuild homes on the leased land, and promises the government willreimburse the farmers for any improvements should they lose theirleases, added the reports. Yet nearly two million acres stillremain fallow and farmers must do most of their business throughAcopio, the notoriously inefficient state agency in charge of buyingtheir products and getting them to market — but which regularly allowsthem to rot on the way to market and fails to pay the producers. CommunistParty officials in some provinces are alleged to be grabbing the bestleased acres for themselves and getting all the supplies they need,like seeds and fertilizers, while other farmers get only part of theirneeds.

HOMES FOR SALE — AND ALSO CARS

     Also generating abuzz has been Castro’s easing of the restrictions on the sale of homesand vehicles — at times hailed as an unprecedented recognition ofprivate property rights, at times dismissed as merely legalizing whathad been going on illegally for years. The permission to buy andsell homes immediately turned the properties into potential cash anderased the unwieldy requirements for the previously allowed permutas — swaps of homes of roughly equal size or value. Morethan 4,000 “for sale” signs had gone up as of late December and thegovernment lifted most restrictions on the sale of constructionmaterials to private buyers, cut prices and made a deal with Brazil’sversion of Home Depot to import supplies.
The government reportedlast week that since the change went into effect it had registered 360homes sales and nearly 1,600 “donations” — most likely efforts tolegalize previous sales that did not fulfill all governmentrequirements. Cuba faces a critical housing shortage, officiallyput at 600,000 units in a country of 11.2 million people. Manyproperties have been subdivided many times over the decades toaccommodate more families, making for a messy trail of ownership rights. The government also announced that it registered 3,310 sales ofvehicles and 994 “donations” in just the first month of the newregulations allowing the sale of all used cars and trucks. Previously,only pre-1959 vehicles could be bought and sold without restrictions.Today, all used vehicles can be sold. But new vehicles are sold only toCubans who are approved by the government and earned their moneyworking for the benefit of the country — like doctors who work inVenezuela.

THE SAME INEFFICIENT CENTRAL PLANNING

     Less clearis the impact of Castro’s campaign to reduce the direct controls thatthe government exercises over the economy, and to give the managers ofstate-run enterprises more autonomy to run their business moreefficiently. The Ministry of Sugar, for example, which ran Cuba’sonce-premier industry as it plunged into disaster over the past decade— the 2006 harvest was the worst since 1905 — was turned into a stateenterprise. So was the island’s postal service. But the new“enterprises” apparently will still depend on the same centralgovernment planning system that proved inefficient in the past — in thecase of the sugar harvest, failing to ensure the timely delivery ofsupplies like fuel and spare parts. Government officials haveraised the possibility of allowing foreign investments in the sugarsector, and already have approved foreign financing for half-a-dozengolf resorts to be built on state lands leased out for 99 years.

NEXT UP? MAYBE UNFETTERED TRAVEL

     Castro also has said that he’s working on the one reform unquestionablyand most urgently desired by Cubans — the right to travel abroadwithout an exit permit that is expensive and must be approved by StateSecurity agents. Most Cubans also want to ease the restrictionson the return of relatives and friends living abroad, and an abolitionof the “definitive exit” category, which punishes those who leave theisland to settle permanently in another country. Castro toldCuban lawmakers on Dec. 23 that he understood the calls for reforms ofthe migration policy, but said that changes will have to come slowlybecause of the continued hostility of the U.S. government. Any Cubanwho sets foot on U.S. territory is allowed to remain and receives U.S.residency.

CLOSING CLINICS, CUTTING SPENDING

Raúl Castro’s reforms have come at a price. Ashe slashed government subsidies, he had to cut spending on some of thesectors the revolution still holds out as its iconic “victories” —health, education and welfare — greatly damaged since the end of theSoviet Union’s massive subsidies in 1991. Several neighborhoodclinics are being closed in favor of more regional facilities,universities are cutting enrollment in some study areas and a dozen orso food items once sold through the ration cards are now available onlyat much higher prices. What’s more, some of the reforms announcedby Castro, now in his sixth year in power after succeeding ailingbrother Fidel, were postponed or dropped amid reports of stiffopposition from within the ruling hierarchy. A plan to lay off500,000 state employees — a whopping 10 percent of the public payroll —between October of 2010 and April 1 of 2011 was postponed without a newdeadline. And a scheme to tie wages to a worker’s individualproductivity, announced with much fanfare in 2008, has not beenmentioned for nearly two years. Meanwhile, the basic outline ofCuba’s political system has not changed: one-party rule, tight controlson of the mass media and varying levels of repression for those whoactively oppose the government.

WHAT IT ALL MEANS STILL HARD TO SAY

ToCastro’s critics, all the changes amount to worthless cosmetic surgery,a confession of failure in 53 years of what the Castros call “buildingsocialism.” After all, they say, private enterprise existed and housescould be bought and sold under the Batista dictatorship, before theCastros’ 1959 revolution. To supporters, they are part of aslow but sure-footed campaign to eliminate a number of senselesseconomic constraints, move toward a more productive brand of socialismand keep the Cuban Communist Party in power. The onlycertainties are that Cuba is in the midst of complex changes — whichmay or may not lead to a more productive brand of socialism — and thatthe Castro government has no intention of easing its authoritarian andcoercive political system.

Cuba's Repression Escalates: The loosening of travel restrictions by the U.S. is read as weakness in Havana

2011-10-08T19:00:00.000-07:00

The Wall Street Journal, October 3, 2011

By Mary Anastasia O'Grady

Former New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson returned home from an attempted hostage-rescue mission to Cuba last month empty-handed and "still scratching [his] head" as to why the Castro regime double-crossed him. What is truly baffling is why Mr. Richardson expected anything different from a dictatorship operating in extreme-repression mode. In a Sept. 14 interview with CNN's Wolf Blitzer, Mr. Richardson said he had been invited to the island to discuss the release of U.S. Agency for International Development contractor Alan Gross. Mr. Gross was arrested in December 2009 and is serving a 15-year sentence.

Civil rights protester Sonia Garro after a seven-hour interview with Cuban state security.

Mr. Richardson admitted that he got stiffed by Cuba's "foreign ministry, which a lot of the people there I know and have been friends" with. What he could not grasp is why those "friends"—a strange designation for individuals who might one day be hauled before an international human-rights tribunal—don't appreciate the Obama administration's outreach. Yes, they are "hardliners," he admitted, but they ought to understand that the White House has been bending over backward to get along.
Actually they do understand, and that's why they treated him so badly. Mr. Richardson told Mr. Blitzer that he was "flabbergasted" when, after a "delightful" three-hour lunch discussing how U.S.-Cuba relations might be improved—including, he told me by phone Friday, the possibility of removing the country from the list of state sponsors of terrorism after the release of Mr. Gross—the foreign minister "slammed me three ways: one, no seeing Alan Gross; no getting him out; and no seeing Raul Castro." What happened was very predictable. The "loosened travel restrictions" and increased "remittances [from] Cuban-Americans" that Mr. Richardson cited as signs of Mr. Obama's willingness to deal are read as weakness by the bullying regime. It has something, i.e., somebody, the U.S. wants back very badly, and the administration acts as if it is powerless. Why should Castro deal?
Mr. Richardson did even less for Cuba's dissidents. One Richardson pearl of wisdom, shared on CNN, was that Cuba's "human-rights situation has improved." In fact, human rights in Cuba are rapidly deteriorating. To claim otherwise is to abandon the island's brave democrats when they most need international solidarity. Ask Sonia Garro, pictured in the nearby photo. For years Ms. Garro has denounced the regime's discrimination against Afro-Cubans. Despite her own poverty, in 2007 she created a recreation center in her home for poor, unsupervised children, according to a report by an independent Cuban journalist. One of her goals: to get young girls out of prostitution. Ms. Garro is also a member of Ladies in Support, a group that pledges solidarity to the Ladies in White, which was founded by the wives, sisters and mothers of political prisoners in 2003 to work for their liberation.
In October 2010, Ms. Garro was detained by state security and held for seven hours. She emerged from the ordeal with a broken nose. Another woman taken into custody with Ms. Garro had her arm broken. The nongovernmental organization Capitol Hill Cubans has reported that in the first 12 days of September, authorities detained 168 peaceful activists. These "express detentions" are designed to break up dissident gatherings, which risk spreading nonconformist behavior. Locking up offenders for long periods would be preferable, but the regime wants people like Mr. Richardson to go around saying that human rights have improved. The regime is also making greater use of civilian-clothed "rapid response" brigades that are trained, armed and organized to beat up democracy advocates.

Mr. Richardson told me he considers Cuba's record improved because 52 political prisoners were sent to Spain in 2010. Yet exiling promising opposition leadership hardly qualifies as a humanitarian gesture. Nor are gruesome Cuban prisons anything to ignore. Last month in a speech in New York, one former prisoner, Fidel Suárez Cruz, described his seven years and seven months of solitary confinement, including two years and eight months in a cell with no windows, ventilation or artificial light. One favorite pastime of his torturers: Four military men would pick him up and then drop him on the floor. His testimony, posted on Capitol Hill Cubans website, is required viewing for anyone who doubts the evil nature of this regime.

Nevertheless, Cuba's dissidents remain relentless, and there are signs that the regime is giving up on the express-detention strategy. Fearless democracy advocate Sara Marta Fonseca and her husband Julio León Pérez have been in jail since Sept. 24. Ms. Fonseca's son has seen her and says she is black and blue all over and has an injury to her spinal column. Word is the regime is preparing to charge the couple; 11 other dissidents are awaiting trial. Meanwhile, Yris Pérez Aguilera, the wife of the prominent dissident Jorge Luis García Pérez "Antúnez," and two peers were detained on Sept. 26. Their whereabouts are unknown. Any hope of protecting these patriots lies in international condemnation. Mr. Richardson could help by returning to CNN to correct the record.
Write to O'Grady@wsj.com

Cayman Immigration holds 19 Cubans after boat runs aground

2011-10-08T18:50:00.000-07:00

Cayman News Service, October 8, 2011

The Cayman Islands authorities have confirmed that they are holding 19 Cuban migrants on Cayman Brac after their boat reportedly ran aground off the Sister Island yesterday evening. Government officials said that the migrants are being temporarily housed under immigration control, and several other government as well as private sector agencies are helping meet their immediate needs. A spokesperson from government said that the group were expected to be transferred to Grand Cayman early next week for processing. No information was given regarding the sex or age of the latest group of refugees from Cayman’s northern neighbour. Although, Cuban boat people have frequently landed on Cayman the migration via Cayman had stopped throughout 2010 but this is now the fifth vessel that has passed through local waters this year. Cayman policy dictates that Cuban migrants cannot be assisted by the Cayman Islands if they wish to continue with their journey. If they request help, even food, water and fuel, they are taken into custody and eventually repatriated to Cuba. If the migrants choose not to be deported they must leave Cayman waters unassisted. In circumstances such as these if the boat is not seaworthy the refugees face enforced repatriation unless they claim political asylum.

Founder of Ladies in White, Laura Pollan is hospitalized

2011-10-08T18:45:00.000-07:00

HAVANA — The founder of a prominent Cuban dissident group, the Ladies in White, was hospitalized for acute respiratory problems and was in intensive care Saturday, family members and associates said. Laura Pollan went to a hospital Friday and was in serious condition the following day, though stable and showing signs of improvement. "She is very, very grave," said Bertha Soler, another member of the group. "They told us she has an acute respiratory deficiency," and the doctors "think the cause is viral." Pollan fell ill and was vomiting last weekend, and was seen by doctors twice this week before going Friday to the hospital, where she was intubated to help her breathe, Soler said by phone from the medical center.

Pollan's daughter, also named Laura, said her condition was still being studied but she has begun a treatment with antibiotics. Doctors told the family to expect that she will remain in intensive care for at least a week, said dissident Elizardo Sanchez, who was with them at the hospital. Pollan also has diabetes. The 63-year-old formed the Ladies in White in 2003 along with other wives of 75 activists, social commentators and opposition leaders who were arrested that year. Pollan's husband, Hector Maseda, was among those sentenced to 25 years in prison.
For years the Ladies pressed for their release by staging weekly marches through the streets of the capital, wearing white and holding gladiolas. On occasion, they have been met by rowdy pro-government crowds who surround the women, shouting insults and revolutionary slogans. The government accuses the Ladies in White and other dissidents of being mercenaries in the service of Washington. The last of those jailed in the 2003 crackdown have been released over the past year under a deal brokered by the Roman Catholic Church, and many went into exile with their families.
However the Ladies have continued to march and even expanded their activities outside the capital. They said they were refocusing their demands on the release of about 50 other, lesser-known prisoners. Most of those were arrested for politically motivated but violent crimes such as sabotage and hijacking, which disqualifies them from consideration by Amnesty International as "prisoners of conscience." "We are going to continue," Pollan told The Associated Press in a recent interview. "We are fighting for freedom and human rights." In 2005 the European Union recognized the Ladies in White with its top human rights distinction, the Sakharov Prize for Freedom of Thought, angering the Cuban government.

Source: Huffington Post

Cuba to Graduate 22,000 Foreign Physicians in 2011

2011-10-08T18:36:00.000-07:00

Saturday, 08 October 2011

Havana, Cuba, Oct 8.- Cuba expects to close 2011 with almost 22,000 physicians from 65 countries graduated with similar study plans to those applied in the Caribbean nation that emphasizes health prevention, press reported on Saturday.
The figure also includes the first graduation of physicians in Venezuela in December with Cuban professors and methods, Granma newspaper stated after reporting the graduation so far of about 13,600 physicians from other countries. About 10,000 students have studied at the Havana-based Latin American School of Medicine (ELAM), founded in 1999 to train youth from Central America, devastated by Hurricane Mitch the year before. Then, the initiative by the leader of the Cuban Revolution, Fidel Castro, was expanded to other Latin American, Asian and African countries, and even to poor U.S. communities.
About 21,000 scholarships from 113 nations have been enrolled in Cuban medical universities, more than 1,700 study in their countries the last year of the career. Also on the list are other 134,000 youth trained by Cuban teachers in Guinea Bissau, Timor Leste, Gambia, Tanzania, Eritrea, Equatorial Guinea, Angola, Bolivia, Nicaragua, South Africa, Guyana and Venezuela. (Prensa Latina).

Wikileaks: Cuban Cardinal pushed to close magazine (?)

2011-09-05T13:17:00.000-07:00

A spokesman for Cuban Cardinal Jaime Ortega denied the cleric sought to silence a Catholic publication critical of the communist system.

By Juan O. Tamayo
jtamayo@elnuevoherald.com

A Vatican expert on Cuba told U.S. diplomats in 2007 that Cuban Cardinal Jaime Ortega has pushed to shutter a highly regarded Catholic magazine that often criticized the communist system, according to a State Department cable made available by Wikileaks. Cuba’s government wanted to close the Vitral magazine for years but feared a backlash and so “must be happy because the Church did its dirty work for it,” the expert noted. The publication was not closed, but its editor resigned and its content was toned down. Ortega’s spokesman denied in an email that the church had bowed to government pressures and said that although the Cuban government had complained about Vitral and other church publications, “the complaints never turned into requests for closures.” “It’s not important if the fact is real or not, it’s simply repeated even though there’s no first-hand source that confirms it in public,” spokesman Orlando Márquez wrote. “It is good to ask who benefits from this.” The cable sent to the State Department by the U.S. embassy to the Vatican also mentioned previously unconfirmed reports that Vatican officials at times had felt Ortega, who also serves as archbishop of Havana, was too friendly with Cuban ruler Raúl Castro.

“Vatican officials have hinted in the past that Ortega has become too cozy with Castro,” noted the cable, dated May 14, 2007, and classified as “secret.” It was one of more than 250,000 State Department documents that Wikileaks provided to McClatchy, which owns El Nuevo Herald and The Miami Herald. Ortega recently has won wide praise for his unprecedented talks with Castro, which helped win the release of about 115 political prisoners over the past year. But some critics have claimed for years that he had failed to take a strong stance against human rights abuses. All but a dozen of the jailed dissidents were taken directly from prison to airplanes that flew them to Spain in what critics have called a forced exile. Vitral, founded in 1994 by the Diocese of Pinar del Río in westernmost Cuba, was considered to be the best church publication on the island. Its name, meaning “a stained-glass window,’’ referred to the many-colored opinions it published.

But in April of 2007 the magazine reported that “because of a lack of resources, the editorial board … will no longer be able to guarantee publication.” Director Dagoberto Valdés and most of his staff resigned and the magazine all but halted its criticisms of the government and started publishing every three months instead of every two months. The announcement sparked speculation at the time that after Pinar del Río Msgr. José Siro González, who backed Valdés, had retired in late 2006, his successor, Msgr. Jorge Enrique Serpa Pérez, had bowed to pressures to shut down the publication. One month later Kirsten Madison, then-deputy assistant secretary of state for Western Hemispheric Affairs, went to the Vatican and met with two monsignors who dealt with Cuba issues to ask their help with Vitral and discuss the island’s human rights situation, according to the cable. One official who was new to his post said that Vitral was closed for financial reasons, but the other was more experienced and “offered a goldmine of information on the church in Cuba.” McClatchy is not publishing the names because the cable asked that they be “protected.” The more experienced official “said that the government had been trying to close Vitral for years, but was afraid of the potential backlash. When the local bishop [Siro] retired, Cardinal Ortega pressured new Bishop Serpa to shut it down, apparently motivated by some animosity towards the leadership of the magazine,’’ the dispatch added.

The cable did not detail how the official had obtained that information. Valdés, who lives in Pinar del Río, chuckled when El Nuevo Herald read him the dispatch but declined comment. He now runs an independent online magazine titled Convivencia — Fellowship. “What I do know is that it [Vitral] did bother the government,” he said. An agricultural engineer, he was demoted to a menial job in a state tobacco enterprise in 1996 when he refused to stop working for the magazine.

In the statement he emailed to El Nuevo Herald, Márquez, the communications director for the Havana archbishopric, said Cuban bishops have long received complaints about several church publications. “Some of these publications dedicate more attention to the social environment in which we live,” Márquez wrote, adding that he knew of complaints against Vitral both before and after 2007 as well as the magazine that he edits, Palabra Nueva – New Word. “Despite all the occasional complaints, which are not new, the bishops have always defended the church publications before the authorities,” he added.

Márquez noted that although the church respects the authority of each bishop within his diocese, there was “only one occasion some years ago in which Cardinal Ortega spoke directly with Dagoberto Valdés about Vitral.” Complaints about Vitral reached the Vatican’s embassy in Havana, he noted, “and from that very [office] they asked Cardinal Ortega to visit Dagoberto and talk to him about the complaints, but there was never any talk of closing the publication.” The State Department cable went on to note that the Vatican official who was new to his job was surprised to hear the U.S. diplomat’s description of human rights violations in Cuba “but did not dispute it, simply seeking details.” The more experienced official “was not as surprised,” according to the cable, and recounted “three recent incidents of harassment of Catholic clergy at the airport.” The dispatch provided no details on the incidents.

Read more: http://www.miamiherald.com/2011/06/22/v-fullstory/2286065/wikileaks-cuban-cardinal-pushed.html#ixzz1X6yQvgzz

Cuba revokes accreditation of Spanish journalist, Mauricio Vicent

2011-09-05T12:15:00.000-07:00

MADRID -- One of Spain's largest media groups says Cuba has revoked the accreditation of its longtime correspondent on the Caribbean island for alleged bias and negative reporting, the latest in a series of steps by the communist government targeting foreign journalists and news organizations. El Pais said Sunday that 47-year-old Mauricio Vicent has reported from Cuba for the newspaper El Pais and the radio network Cadena SER – both part of Grupo Prisa – for 20 years. He is married to a Cuban woman and has children born on the island. It was not clear whether the revocation of his accreditation meant Vicent would have to leave the country, or if he was just barred from reporting.

Cuba's international press center informed Vicent his permit was withdrawn "irrevocably," according to El Pais. Several phone calls to Vicent went unanswered Sunday, and Cuba's government did not immediately respond to requests for comment. El Pais said Vicent's work was an example of professionalism, impartiality and balance, and that he won Spain's 1998 International Press Club award for best work. Several correspondents based on the island have not had their press credentials renewed in recent months, and some have left.

Cuba's state-run media often accuse the foreign press of being biased, and the country has kept up an unusually strong stream of criticism this year. State-run media most recently have accused the foreign press of misunderstanding the country's economic changes because they see them through a capitalist prism. In February, the Communist Party newspaper Granma carried an article denouncing The Wall Street Journal for an editorial that drew parallels between Cuba and Egypt, where a popular uprising forced former President Hosni Mubarak to step down. The editorial was published days after Cuban media lashed out at CNN's Spanish-language channel for reporting that an opposition demonstration was going to take place in Havana. The protest never occurred.

Cuban state cable TV providers in January removed CNN's Spanish service from a package of channels provided mostly to hotels, foreign companies and diplomats on the island, though no reason was given. Then in April, a Cuban state-television channel accused a former bureau chief for the Reuters news agency of helping arrange a meeting between an undercover Cuban agent and a U.S. diplomat who the program described as a CIA operative. Reuters vehemently denied the accusation.

Cuba Chases 5 Billion Barrels of Undiscovered Oil; U.S. Intervenes

2011-09-05T12:07:00.000-07:00

William Pentland
Forbes, September 4, 2011

The island nation of Cuba is scrambling to secure access to what it believe to be about 5 billion barrels of oil lying deep under the ocean off its northern coast. A massive drilling rig is en route to Cuba and plans to start drilling in a matter of months. Meanwhile, the United States government is sufficiently concerned about the risks of another oil spill that is dispatching a group of quasi-diplomats to Cuba on a fact-finding mission as early as tomorrow, according to reports in Dow Jones. U.S. officials believe Cuba’s waters could contain more than 5 billion barrels of undiscovered oil. Cuba will begin a plan to tap its offshore oil later this year, when a consortium led by Spanish company Repsol YPF S.A. plans to start drilling a well in more than 5,500 feet of water off the country’s northern coast, which will likely trigger a race to set up production in Cuban waters, presuming Repsol finds oil.

If oil is discovered, Cuba will reduce its reliance on Venezuela for its energy needs. In 2009, Cuba produced roughly 50,000 barrels of oil a day from onshore and coastal wells and relied on imports from Venezuela to supply an additional 130,000 barrels to meet consumption levels, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration. Repsol will be drilling in waters that are deeper than those in which the Deepwater Horizon rig operated at the time it exploded last year. Repsol will be using a Chinese-built drilling rig that only recently left Singapore for Cuban waters. The rig, known as Scarabeo 9, is expected to arrive in November or December. Scarabeo 9 is a semi-submersible drilling vessel recently built by Yantai Raffles, which will be on contract by Repsol YPF for deepwater exploratory drilling off Cuba.

In response to Cuba’s drilling plans, the U.S. is sending a delegation led by Bill Reilly, co-chief of the Deepwater Horizon oil spill commission, to Cuba next week to help evaluate that country’s plans for developing its oil resources, according to reports by Dow Jones. The delegation will be on a fact-finding mission to determine the country’s long-term plans for pursuing its oil resources and identify steps to ensure safety and environmental protection.

400 Anos de la Patrona de Cuba: Cardenal Ortega pide que "los cambios buenos lleguen"

2011-08-31T18:46:00.000-07:00

EFE, La Habana

El arzobispo de La Habana, cardenal Jaime Ortega, dijo hoy que tiene la certeza de que todos los presos políticos detenidos en la llamada ‘‘primavera negra'' de 2003 serán excarcelados, como ya ha sucedido con 32 de ellos. Ortega pronunció esas palabras durante la homilía por la misa en honor de la Virgen de la Caridad del Cobre, patrona de Cuba, en la parroquia del mismo nombre de la capital ante una iglesia abarrotada de fieles. En una homilía más "política'' que en años anteriores, Ortega se refirió a las excarcelaciones de los presos políticos, negociada personalmente por él con el Gobierno cubano, y que se tradujo en el anuncio de 52 excarcelaciones del grupo de 75 detenidos en una oleada represiva en 2003 (el resto ya fueron liberados por distintos motivos). Ortega dijo tener "la certeza de que todos los que forman parte del grupo de prisioneros de 2003 serán liberados'', en alusión a una decena de ellos que se niegan a partir a España y a dejar Cuba, como han hecho todos los demás hasta ahora en el momento de ser excarcelados. El cardenal también se refirió a los "muchos cambios que desde hace tiempo se espera que ocurran'' en Cuba, y a este respecto pidió a la Virgen del Cobre "que los cambios buenos lleguen'' y que puedan "aceptar los aspectos difíciles que ellos puedan traer consigo''. Aunque no los mencionó, sus palabras fueron interpretadas como referencia a los ajustes económicos que el Gobierno cubano ha anunciado como necesarios para dotar de mayor eficiencia a la economía, y que se han traducido hasta el momento en recortes -aunque muy leves- del enorme sistema asistencial cubano. Por último, el Cardenal se refirió a la espiritualidad del pueblo cubano y se congratuló de que "esto puede haber sido incomprendido o rechazado en un pasado que, afortunadamente, se ha hecho cada vez más lejano''.

La Iglesia cubana vive en los últimos tiempos una mayor tolerancia en todas sus actividades, lejos de la represión sufrida en los primeros años de la revolución comunista. En la procesión celebrada hoy en los alrededores de la Iglesia de la Caridad del Cobre participaron miles de personas de todas las edades, que cantaron y dieron vivas a su patrona. Muchas de las mujeres iban ataviadas con prendas de color amarillo, que es el color de Ochún, la divnidad con que los cultos afrocubanos asocian a la Virgen de la Caridad, en un sincretismo que nunca ha sido visto con buenos ojos por la Iglesia pese a que no lo puede evitar. La Fiesta de la Patrona de la Isla ha coincidido con la peregrinación nacional de una imagen de la Virgen iniciada en agosto pasado con motivo del 400 aniversario de su primera aparición que se celebrará en el año 2012.

Según la leyenda, la imagen de esta Virgen apareció por primera vez en 1612 ante tres pescadores que iban en una barca por la bahía oriental de Nipe. Uno de ellos, Juan Moreno, supuestamente dijo entonces que habían visto "una cosa blanca sobre la espuma del agua'' y que, al acercarse, encontraron la imagen de una virgen morena con un niño en una mano, flotando sobre una tabla con la inscripción "Yo soy la Virgen de la Caridad''. Los obispos católicos de Cuba convocaron en 2008 a todos los creyentes y no creyentes del país a participar del festejo porque la Virgen es símbolo y "vínculo de unidad'' entre los cubanos. La Virgen de La Caridad tiene su santuario nacional en El Cobre, pequeño pueblo cercano a Santiago, a unos 900 kilómetros al este de La Habana. Fue declarada patrona de Cuba el 10de mayo de 1916 y coronada personalmente por el papa Juan Pablo II el 24 de enero de 1998, durante su visita a la isla.

Read more: http://www.elnuevoherald.com/2010/09/08/798582/cardenal-ortega-pide-a-la-virgen.html#ixzz1Wf3bZdGl

From the Government: Cuban Airline and Pharmaceutical Executives Convicted on Bribery

2011-07-31T19:30:00.000-07:00

Saturday, 30 July 2011 13:58
Havana, Cuba, Jul 30.- The Provincial Court of Havana convicted ten former executives and officials of the Cuban Institute of Civil Aeronautics and the Commercializing Enterprise of Pharmaceutical Products HEBER BIOTEC S.A on bribery and handed down sentences of three to 13 years.
An official statement released Friday says the defendants were found guilty of favoring foreign companies in negotiations, at the expense of Cuban enterprises, in exchange of cash bribes and perks. The communiqué, which provides the names of the people found guilty and the sentences they were given, states that the sanctions were based on the seriousness of the crimes for the substantial loss to the Cuban economy and the deterioration of the defendants’ ethical values, as well as the level of responsibility of each of them and their conduct. The stiffest sanction went to Cubana de Aviacion’s Freight Director Jose Heriberto Prieto Ferrer, sentenced to 13 years. There were other three executives from Cubana de Aviacion with sentences of 10 to six years; one from Corporación de la Aviación Civil S.A (CACSA); and one from AEROVARADERO S.A. both condemned to six years. From HEBER BIOTEC S.A, former Head of the Exports Department Jair Rodriguez Martin received a 10-year sentence, while Edamir Medina Mendez, exports technician was condenmed to three. The Court also convicted the manager and deputy manager of CARIBE CARGO S.A, Alexei Crespo Gutiérrez and Maria Antonia Lopez Gonzalez on continued bribery and handed down sentences of six and seven years repectively. The two latter defendants are still pending for another trial on corruption. In addition to the jail terms, the sanctions included the confiscation of goods and cash adquired by the defendants as the result of the illegal activity and the prohibition of exercising the professions, posts or positions they were holding. The communiqué says the defendants and the prosecutor have the right to appeal to the Supreme Court.(ACN)

Castro Regime's Survival Depends Greatly on Ill Venezuelan Leader's Largess

2011-07-21T21:28:00.000-07:00

WSJ.com
JULY 20, 2011
In Cuba, a Prayer for Chávez
By JOSé DE CóRDOBA
CARACAS—Venezuela's ailing President Hugo Chávez says he is praying to Jesus Christ, the Blessed Virgin and the spirits of the Venezuelan savannah to help him beat his cancer.
Mr. Chávez hasn't mentioned it, but probably no one is praying harder for his health than Fidel and Raúl Castro in Cuba. Their ossified regime now largely depends on help from their ally in Caracas and they will do everything possible—short of an invasion—to keep Mr. Chávez or a like-minded ally in power, say U.S. officials, Venezuelan opposition leaders and analysts. Venezuela ships about 115,000 barrels per day of oil at cut rate prices to Cuba, meeting about 60% of the island's oil needs, according to a recent Brookings Institution paper, which calculates the value of the oil and other Venezuelan aid at about $5 billion a year, a major portion of Cuba's hard-currency earnings. In exchange, Cuba has sent to Venezuela tens of thousands of Cuban doctors, sports technicians, and intelligence and security experts, helping Mr. Chávez stay in power. Havana's relationship to Venezuela is akin to its economic dependence on the former Soviet Union in the 30 years before the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, which led to a 35% fall in Cuba's economy.

"To save Chávez is to conserve [Raúl's] presidential seat," wrote Yoani Sánchez, a well-known Cuban blogger and critic of the regime. "To lose him could lead to [Raúl's] own downfall."

Were Mr. Chávez to become gravely ill—he arrived in Havana Saturday to undergo chemotherapy after doctors recently removed a "baseball-sized" tumor—the Cuban government is likely to use its sway to try to shape events. Analysts say the Cuban leadership has significant clout, owing to its relationship with Mr. Chávez and top Venezuelan officials. The Cubans could also deploy their intelligence services to help one faction at the expense of another. "Cuba is the most important foreign power with a stake in Venezuela," said Moisés Naím, a former Venezuelan cabinet minister and an analyst at the Washington-based Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. "They are not going to be passive bystanders. They will be players." There is no political relationship in the Americas quite like the tie between Fidel Castro and Mr. Chávez. Mr. Castro, who officially handed power to his younger brother Raúl in 2008, has been a mentor, spiritual and political father, savior, psychiatrist, and even bedside doctor to Mr. Chávez. In return, Mr. Chávez has bankrolled Cuba's government and given Mr. Castro occasion to dream again of a Latin America united against his bëte noire, the U.S., or as both men sometimes call it, "the empire."

At times, Mr. Chávez and top Cuban officials have talked of melding the two countries into a single confederated state—an unpopular idea among most Venezuelans. "Cuba has two presidents, Fidel and Chávez," said then Cuban vice president Carlos Lage on a visit to Caracas in 2005. Two years later, the Venezuelan president said virtually the same thing. "Deep down, we are one government," said Mr. Chávez during a visit to the island.

During his tenure, Mr. Chávez has tried to indoctrinate the Venezuelan military, bringing on thousands of advisers to replicate Cuban military doctrine, and to deal with security and intelligence issues. Cuban officers are deeply involved in intelligence and security matters in Venezuela, from the acquisition of military equipment to overall military strategy, according to people with knowledge of the matter. One source estimates the number of Cuban intelligence experts working in Venezuela at 3,000. Last year, Brig. Gen. Antonio Rivero, once the head of Venezuela's civil defense, resigned his commission because of what he said was Cuban interference and influence at all levels of the armed forces. Shortly after, he was accused of revealing state secrets and forbidden by a judge from speaking publicly about the military. On Tuesday, Jorge Giordani, Venezuela's finance minister, said there was no doubt Mr. Chávez would run for re-election in 2012. Nonetheless, if Mr. Chávez dies or is too ill to run, his movement, divided by money, ambition, ideology and economic interest, will have a difficult time fielding a candidate who satisfies all factions, analysts say. The Cubans could push for Adan Chávez, Mr. Chávez's elder brother, now a state governor and a former ambassador to Cuba. "They will pick a horse, or more than one horse," Mr. Naim said.

"A negotiation will involve the Cubans," said Alexander Luzardo, an ex-senator and former Chávez supporter. "We will need to talk to them."

Mr. Chávez's relationship with Mr. Castro dates to 1994 when the Cuban dictator invited Mr. Chávez, then an obscure cashiered lieutenant colonel and failed coup plotter recently released from prison, to Havana. Mr. Chávez was given the red-carpet treatment, and even gave a speech to students at the University of Havana. "Fidel saw that in Chávez he had a diamond in the rough," said a former Chávez cabinet minister. "He turned on the full force of his charm and started to work on Chávez."The relationship blossomed when Mr. Chávez, riding a wave of revulsion against corruption, won the presidency in a landslide victory in 1998. Mr. Castro's blessing of Mr. Chávez's "Bolivarian Revolution" endowed the tank commander with revolutionary legitimacy. In return, Mr. Chávez's billions in oil money and his admiration of the Cuban leader have afforded Mr. Castro a chance to extend his revolutionary philosophy, at least by proxy. In 2000, Mr. Chávez took Mr. Castro on a trip to his dusty hometown of Sabaneta in the southern plains state of Barinas. There, Mr. Castro suggested that in 100 years pilgrims would flock to visit Mr. Chávez' humble house, said Luis Miquilena, a former Venezuelan Interior Minister who was on the trip. Mr. Chávez was overcome by Mr. Castro's flattery, Mr. Miquilena said.

A glimpse of how seriously Havana takes the relationship, and the risks should Mr. Chávez leave the stage, was on full display in 2002, when Mr. Chávez was ousted briefly by army generals. Mr. Castro assumed a major role in Mr. Chávez's return to power, as he helped mobilize support among Venezuelan generals and world leaders. Mr. Chávez' return was a lucky break for the Cuban regime. In the 48 hours that Mr. Chávez was out of power, thousands of Venezuelans who were angry over Havana's outsized role in their government surrounded the Cuban embassy in Caracas, demanding the new Venezuelan government cut off ties between the two countries. Meanwhile, Venezuelan officials mulled ending oil shipments to the island. Two years later, Mr. Castro sent thousands of doctors to man Mr. Chávez' neighborhood health program, known as Barrio Adentro,a move that helped revive Mr. Chávez' popularity.

More recently, Cuba last year sent Ramiro Valdez, the regime's legendary secret policeman, on an extended visit to Venezuela, ostensibly to advise Mr. Chávez on Venezuela's spluttering electrical grid. Another leading Cuban official has been a top adviser on Venezuelan agricultural and food issues. Last month, Mr. Chávez credited Mr. Castro, in almost religious terms, with being the first in realizing the Venezuelan leader was ill during his recent trip to Havana."We were...with Fidel, that giant who has surmounted time and place," said Mr. Chávez when he announced for the first time that he had cancer. "He interrogated me almost as a doctor, and I confessed, almost as a patient."

Write to José de Córdoba at jose.decordoba@wsj.com

First meeting of Twitter users in Havana?

2011-07-21T20:12:00.000-07:00

Follow this link for the report!

An Adolescent is Killed for Trying to Eat Genips* in Havana

2011-07-21T20:07:00.000-07:00

by Laritza Diversent (Cuban blooger)
July 19, 2011

On the afternoon of July 15, 2011, the town of Mantilla, on Havana’s outskirts, was shocked by the death of Angel Izquierdo Medina, a 14-year-old black teenager, who died from a gunshot to the femoral artery by Amado Interian, a retired police Major. According to the victim’s family members, three boys, including Angel, entered the property of the ex-police officer, to take genips, also known Spanish limes, from a tree. When the ex-cop caught them in the act, he fired two shots from his pistol. Before retiring, Interian had been a police chief in the area. The child’s body was laid out in the Mauline funeral home, at the entrance of Santa Amalia residential neighborhood. More than 500 people attended the viewing, most of them fellow students, in shock from the news, and also teachers and neighbors.

“Oh my God he was the same age as my son, because a mischief, that only can be done by an extremist”, said one of the spectators sobbing, while passing by the coffin. Agents of the State Security Forces dressed in civil clothes took over the funeral home because the mourners had been threatening to protest. Around midnight there were incidents reported at the site, without arrests being made. The burial was on Saturday July 16, 2011, at 2 o’clock in the afternoon, in the Christopher Columbus cemetery.

Mantilla is a Havana suburb, with a low income population and high levels of dangerousness. It belongs to the municipality of Arroyo Naranjo, the most violent and poor of the capital city. So far, we don’t know if the ex-police officer will be prosecuted because of the adolescent’s death. As is usual in Cuba, when things of this nature happen, the official media prefers to keep silent and not to report what happened.

Mamoncillos. With its sweet flesh, it is one of the most preferred fruits in Cuba. But as with so many fruits, after 1959 they were scarce in the market and could still be consumed only by those who have a tree of Melicoccus bijugatus (its scientific name) in the backyard. The genip along with the sugar apple, soursop, custard apple, cashew, canistel, loquat, plum and apple banana, is listed as one of the extinct fruits after Castros took power. Years after this barbaric event — one of the tasks of the ‘famous’ Che Guevara’s invasion brigade was to uproot fruit trees from the fields where it passed by — little by little the fruits started to reappear again — mangoes, guavas , mamey and avocados — among others fruits that have been always been greatly eaten by Cubans. With the only difference that before the bearded men, with 10 or 20 cents you could buy a mamey or an avocado and now days you cannot find them for less than 10 or 20 cuban pesos. (Tania Quintero)

*Translator’s note: Melicoccus bijugatus, commonly called Spanish lime, genip, genipe, quenepa, mamoncillo, limoncillo, it is a one-inch, round fruit with a green leathery skin at maturity. Each fruit has a large seed inside, the same ovoid shape as the fruit itself , the seeds have a fleshy tan-coloured edible sweet and juicy seed coat.

Yoani Sanchez addresses a conference on the Americas

2011-07-01T20:35:00.000-07:00

Young people in Cuba today

2011-07-01T20:30:00.000-07:00

Interview with Norberto Fuentes

2011-06-23T21:02:00.000-07:00

Asesinato de Camilo Cienfuegos

2011-06-23T21:00:00.000-07:00

Norberto Fuentes interviewed by El Mundo, Spain

2011-06-23T20:30:00.000-07:00

http://youtu.be/MVtn80qn_gk

Political prisoners not exiled from Cuba

2011-06-23T20:13:00.000-07:00

Published: June 23, 2011

HAVANA, June 23 (UPI) -- Cuban President Raul Castro made no deal to free 115 political prisoners if the Catholic Church got them to be exiled to Spain, a church spokesman said. The exile was totally voluntary, Orlando Marquez said in a statement. Representatives of the Ladies in White opposition movement, consisting of wives and other female relatives of jailed dissidents, said some family members thought it would be best if "their dear ones could leave Cuba, even if unaccompanied, because that was preferable to keeping them in prison," Marquez's statement said. Spain agreed to accept any prisoner wishing to leave Cuba, but going there was not a requirement for freedom, said Marquez's statement posted on the Web site of the church magazine Palabra Nueva. Cardinal Jaime Ortega, archbishop of Havana, called the prisoners -- 52 of whom were rounded up in 2003 -- to ask if they wanted to leave the island, Marquez said."A few asked if the trip [to Spain] was a condition for leaving prison. The cardinal told them no, and assured them that they would be freed later, as indeed occurred," Marquez wrote. The 115 who agreed to leave went directly from prison to the airport in Havana and flew to Madrid. The 12 who refused to go were later freed too, he said. Ladies in White spokeswoman Berta Soler told Miami's El Nuevo Herald Marquez was "telling the truth" and the decision of the 115 to leave for Spain was "understandable and voluntary." Ortega was recently accused helping Castro by forcing the 115 political prisoners freed during the past year to go into exile in Spain.

© 2011 United Press International, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

Aroldis Chapman's path back to the Big Leagues

2011-05-29T10:21:00.000-07:00

May, 29, 2011May 2911:16AM ETEmailComments1
The most pivotal moment for Aroldis Chapman, in the end, might not have happened on a mound, or in a bullpen session. It might've occurred in a conversation that he had with Reds pitching coach Bryan Price.

The Cincinnati left-hander is currently in the minor leagues, working his way back to the majors, after a spectacular start to his season, and an equally spectacular crash. Chapman didn't allow a run in his first 12 appearances of the season.

But in his 13th appearance, Chapman lost the strike zone, walking three batters in an inning. It was the first in a string of four outings in which Chapman walked 12 batters in 1.1 innings. The worst of it may have happened in Houston on May 10, when Chapman walked all three batters he faced.

It was apparent to the Reds' staff that Chapman, a defector from Cuba, was greatly embarrassed by his outing, and greatly frustrated. There were times when he was in the minors in 2010 in which he had seemed isolated, and appeared to struggle to assimilate with teammates. After the three-walk outing in Houston, he disappeared from the main room of the clubhouse.

Chapman and Price met that day to talk about what had happened and to discuss adjustments, not an easy conversation -- which is probably expected for players of Chapman's background, at this point. Many major League evaluators believe that the players who have the greatest cultural adjustments to playing Major League Baseball are not players from Japan, like Daisuke Matsuzaka, or from Korea, like Shin-Soo Choo. Rather, through the years, they have noticed that players who defect from Cuba tend to struggle within clubhouses, largely because they don't exhibit trust -- they fear an ulterior motive for routine decisions or interactions.

Cuban Prisoner Released, With Pro Bono Help From 2 U.S. Firms

2011-04-11T09:55:00.000-07:00

Six years of "back channel work" by lawyers from Sidley Austin and Hogan Lovells finally paid off earlier this month, when the Cuban government released human rights activist Oscar Biscet from prison after more than eight years behind bars, often in solitary confinement. "We were delirious with joy when we got the call from Oscar's wife," said Sidley Washington partner Andrew Strenio Jr. "It was a labor of love." Strenio credits Sidley associate Lauren Buckley and Hogan Lovells Washington partner Jeremy Zucker for much of the pro bono behind-the-scenes work they all did to help win Biscet's release. Biscet, a medical doctor who has been likened to South Africa's Nelson Mandela, was imprisoned for his nonviolent human rights work in Cuba. Supporters also said the Afro-Cuban doctor was the victim of Cuban racism. Biscet was one of 75 dissidents arrested in 2002. Most of those have been released in recent years, but Biscet's freedom was delayed in part because he wanted to remain in Cuba to continue his advocacy. "Some of the dissidents accepted exile as a condition of their release, but Oscar refuses to leave Cuba," said Strenio. "He is intent on continuing his work." Asked what the lawyers did to win Biscet's release, Strenio said it involved "quite delicate work" that he did not want to describe fully. But much of it was "back channel" communications aimed at making it clear to Cuba that Biscet's release was important to a wide range of government, civil and religious groups. "His eloquence and the force of his personality won him admirers around the world," said Strenio. Biscet has been nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize, and in 2007, President George W. Bush awarded him the Presidential Medal of Freedom in absentia. Last year, Strenio said, feedback began to turn positive about Biscet's possible release, so when the call came from Biscet's wife about his March 11 release, it was not entirely a surprise. Strenio said Biscet has since spoken with the lawyers who helped him, thanking them profusely. "The chance to be of help to him was such an honor that we were thanking him," said Strenio, an antitrust expert and former Federal Trade Commission member. The 49-year-old Biscet is "doing remarkably well," given his long confinement, said Strenio, who hopes to meet Biscet some day. Carter Phillips, Sidley's D.C. managing director, said in a statement, "Sidley is deeply honored to have been part of this inspiring struggle to free Dr. Biscet, and we are grateful that our efforts on his behalf have succeeded. Dr. Biscet's release represents a victory for the rule of law and demonstrates the important role that pro bono lawyers can play even on matters beyond our nation's borders."

Oscar Elías Biscet says Cuban dissidents are willing to discuss transitional government

2011-04-11T09:44:00.000-07:00

By JUAN CARLOS CHAVEZ jcchavez@elNuevoHerald.com Oscar Elías Biscet, the most important member of the opposition in Cuba, said dissidents would be willing to negotiate a transitional government to implement democratic measures that would avoid a civil war. “If the regime were willing to have talks, we have demands,” Biscet told El Nuevo Herald from Havana. “We want Raúl and Fidel Castro to resign because they have drowned the country in misery, political assassinations and persecution. Let them assign other people to represent their interests and let us begin a transition toward freedoms for the Cuban people.” Biscet was released on March 11 after mediation by the Cuban Catholic Church culminated in the release of 115 political prisoners. Fifty other prisoners are still jailed and there are no plans for their release. All, except Biscet and 12 others, accepted exile in Spain. “The fact that a group is not willing to leave the country is a way to show the world that our fight is about love of our country and dignity for human beings,” he said. “It seems to me that this favors the Cuban people’s cause.” Biscet, a 49-year-old doctor, said that Cuban authorities are giving the world and the people in Cuba false indications of change — allowing some to be self-employed, opening the country to foreign capital and opening a dialogue with dignitaries who advocate for human rights, such as former U.S. President Jimmy Carter. Carter met with the Castro brothers and Ricardo Alarcón, president of the National Assembly of Popular Power, and other officials during his visit to Havana last week. He also visited Alan P. Gross, a U.S. government subcontractor serving a 15-year prison sentence in Havana. Gross was arrested for carrying transmission equipment for independent groups. In his meeting with dissidents and bloggers, Carter was briefed on the economic, political and social crisis in the island, as well as on the corrupt, repressive and exclusionist nature of the regime. “We made it clear to Carter that a dictatorship rules Cuba and that no sovereignty exists,” Biscet said. “We were able to communicate some things, a brief synthesis of our thoughts.” About the Cuban economic situation Biscet said that any adjustment must be accompanied by policies that would guarantee, among other aspects, people’s fundamental rights, the legalization of independent groups and organizations within the civil society, religious freedoms and the release of all prisoners of conscience. “We want comprehensive changes and a market system associated to freedoms and things that lead to a harmonious and happy life in our nation,” he said. Biscet, founder of the Lawton Foundation for Democracy and Human Rights, accused the Cuban government of permitting acts of corruption and trumping up charges to get the members of civil society and their leaders out of the way. “It benefits the government to have corrupt people because with such characteristics they will not fight against them, and that is why they are allowed to exist,” he said. “And when they feel threatened that a new leader could emerge within their party or among those who govern with them, they attribute acts of corruption to them so they would not have any followers.” Biscet said that as long as a totalitarian dictatorship exists in Cuba there will always be a risk of raids and massive detentions of independent journalists and opponents, as was the case of the Black Spring of 2003. Biscet was serving a 15-year sentence after he and 74 other dissidents were arrested. Biscet had been arrested many times since 1998. “Everything is possible here. They are willing to go to any extent to never lose power,” he said. “This is one of the reasons why they do not sign any international or human-rights agreements, particularly those addressing basic freedoms.” He said that despite the Cuban government’s extreme vigilance of the opposition movement, there is a social force — the younger generation — escaping from the regime. “The Cuban youth does not believe in the system, and the spirit they are developing is not afraid of the government’s pressure. The fear the Castros wish to impose is not going to stop the wishes of the youth of pursuing the general welfare, including the economic and psychological perspectives,” Biscet said. “The youths will create their own space to accomplish their objectives.” Biscet also mentioned the work of the independent reporters and bloggers on the Internet, which threatens to bring down the government’s information monopoly that keeps the population uninformed of the denunciations and criticism against the regime. “They are giving the world different perspectives and ideas,” Biscet said. “And when these emerge everything else finds its place. This is very important for us because, associated to the state terrorist activities, the government wants to control all the information to continue deceiving the population.” In 2007, the Bush administration gave Biscet the Medal of Freedom in absentia in recognition of his opposition activities and his appeals to civil disobedience. Biscet said the U.S. government’s financial support is essential to promote democracy in Cuba. Recently Sen. John Kerry, who presides over the Senate’s Foreign Affairs Committee, announced his opposition to $20 million included in the 2012 budget to promote democracy in Cuba. “Kerry must know that resources are needed for this type of fight and he knows very well that Cubans in the island do not have those resources,” Biscet said. “If we are able to resist it’s because of our high morale not because we have resources. Here we have to depend on people’s mercy to survive.”

Radio Marti Interview of Oscar Biscet

2011-03-17T22:02:00.000-07:00

Comments on the Cuban situation today

2011-03-17T20:50:00.000-07:00

Winnie Biscet speaks of her father's release

2011-03-17T20:48:00.000-07:00

Sidley’s Pro Bono Team Helps Secure the Release of Human Rights Activist Oscar Elias Biscet from Cuban Prison

2011-03-17T20:40:00.000-07:00

WASHINGTON--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Sidley Austin LLP is pleased to announce the successful conclusion of its efforts to free human rights activist Oscar Elias Biscet from a Cuban prison, where he was serving a 25-year sentence.

“Dr. Biscet’s release represents a victory for the rule of law and demonstrates the important role that pro bono lawyers can play even on matters beyond our nation’s borders.”
.Dr. Biscet, who recently was nominated for a Nobel Peace Prize and received a Presidential Medal of Freedom in absentia in 2007 from George W. Bush, was released on Friday. Sidley, led by D.C.-based partner Andrew J. Strenio, Jr. and associate Lauren Randall Buckley, has worked for six years on behalf of Dr. Biscet, assisting an international effort aimed at his release.

“Sidley is deeply honored to have been a part of this inspiring struggle to free Dr. Biscet, and we are grateful that our efforts on his behalf have succeeded,” said Carter Phillips, the managing partner of Sidley’s Washington, D.C. office. “Dr. Biscet’s release represents a victory for the rule of law and demonstrates the important role that pro bono lawyers can play even on matters beyond our nation’s borders.”

Dr. Biscet has long served as a leader of the pro-democracy movement in Cuba, a powerful voice for individual freedom and an advocate of non-violent political protest. He was sentenced to a 25-year prison term in Cuba in 2003 for “acts against the sovereignty and independence of the national territory.” Cuba has recently released numerous political prisoners, but most of them have been sent to foreign countries, such as Spain. Dr. Biscet’s release was complicated by the fact that he successfully sought to remain in Cuba and intends to continue his human rights efforts.

Sidley, along with several non-profit organizations working to free non-violent prisoners of conscience, aggressively advocated for his release, generating support from the United Nations, the Vatican, the U.S. Congress and many foreign governments. The effort was part of Sidley’s expanding pro bono efforts in the area of international law.

Sidley Austin LLP is one of the world’s premier full-service law firms, with more than 1600 lawyers practicing in 17 U.S. and international cities, including Beijing, Brussels, Frankfurt, Geneva, Hong Kong, London, Shanghai, Singapore, Sydney and Tokyo. Sidley is recognized for service and responsiveness. Sidley received the most first-tier national rankings of any U.S. law firm in the inaugural U.S. News – Best Lawyers “Best Law Firms” rankings for 2010. BTI, a Boston-based research and consulting firm, has named Sidley as one of only three firms to have been in the top ten of the BTI Client Service rankings every year since the inception of those rankings in 2001, and as number one in three of those years.

Castro convierte a Ramiro Valdés en su superministro

2011-01-09T12:52:00.000-08:00

By SOLEDAD ALVAREZ / EFE, LA HABANA

El Nuevo Heraldo, 9 de Enero del 2011

Con la última remodelación del gobierno cubano, el comandante Ramiro Valdés asumirá la supervisión de un estratégico frente económico que incluye la industria petrolera, la minera, la construcción y las comunicaciones. Recién comenzado un año que estará marcado por el plan de reformas económicas emprendido en la isla, el presidente Raúl Castro ha vuelto a mover su gabinete para sustituir a los ministros de Informática y Comunicaciones y de Construcción, así como al responsable del Instituto Nacional de Recursos Hidráulicos.

En este cambio, Ramiro Valdés, de 78 años y también vicepresidente del Consejo de Ministros, ha quedado ``liberado'' como titular de Informática y Comunicaciones pero para ``facilitar'' su labor de coordinación tanto de este departamento como de los de Construcción y de Industria Básica. Este último ministerio tiene bajo su responsabilidad tres importantes sectores de la economía cubana: la energía (que comprende todas las actividades vinculadas al petróleo y la electricidad), la geología y minería, y la química básica.

Está dirigido por un titular interino desde noviembre, cuando Raúl Castro destituyó a la ministra Yadira García Vera por su ``pésimo trabajo'' reflejado en ``débil control'' de los recursos: así lo explicó el propio gobernante en el discurso ante la Asamblea Nacional del pasado 18 de diciembre. Desde su nueva posición, Valdés también supervisará el Ministerio de la Construcción, cuyo nuevo titular es el ingeniero civil René Mesa, de 52 años, en sustitución de Fidel Figueroa, destituido por ``errores'' en su función. Esa labor de coordinación incluye a su anterior ministerio: el de Informática y Comunicaciones, para el que Castro ha nombrado como ministro a Medardo Díaz Toledo, un general de brigada de 48 años que fue jefe de Comunicaciones de las Fuerzas Armadas.

Analistas consultados por EFE coincidieron en que Valdés se ha convertido en una especie de ``superministro'' al asumir la coordinación de un conjunto de sectores que concentran la ``masa crítica'' de las inversiones y proyectos estratégicos del país. Considerado un ``histórico'' de la revolución desde la guerrilla de la Sierra Maestra, Ramiro Valdés ha desempeñado diversas funciones en los últimos 50 años como la creación de los servicios de inteligencia y su gestión al frente del Ministerio del Interior, entre otras. Tras un largo periodo alejado de la cúpula gubernamental, Raúl Castro lo recuperó en 2006 al nombrarlo ministro de Informática y Comunicaciones.

Los últimos cambios del gabinete cubano, anunciados en la noche del jueves, han incluido el nombramiento de una nueva presidenta del Instituto Nacional de Recursos Hidráulicos, Inés María Chapman, de 44 años, quien desde marzo coordinaba las obras de rehabilitación hidráulica de la ciudad oriental de Santiago de Cuba, una función que seguirá ejerciendo. Esos movimientos se producen en un momento en el que Cuba está sumida en el debate sobre el plan de ajustes que Raúl Castro impulsa para superar la crítica situación económica del país.

Esta misma semana ha arrancado una de las medidas más drásticas de ese plan: la supresión masiva de empleos en el sector público para reducir las abultadas plantillas de empleados estatales. A lo largo de su mandato, Raúl Castro ha acometido numerosos cambios en el gobierno, el más profundo de ellos ocurrió en marzo del 2009, con la salida definitiva del Ejecutivo de cuatro vicepresidentes y ocho ministros.

Ex presidente de Alimport habría desertado de Cuba

2011-01-09T12:49:00.000-08:00

Por JUAN CARLOS CHAVEZ
jcchavez@elnuevoherald.com

Pedro Alvarez Borrego, ex presidente de Alimport, la empresa cubana que monopoliza el comercio con Estados Unidos, y quien el año pasado fue destituido bajo cargos de corrupción, escapó de la isla en circunstancias no aclaradas y se encuentra en este país, informaron el jueves medios de prensa y activistas. Alvarez, quien también presidió la Cámara de Comercio de Cuba, es uno de los funcionarios cubanos de mayor rango que haya escapado hacia Estados Unidos.

Según el periodista Oscar Suárez, quien dio a conocer la noticia en su blog www.universoincreible.com, la fuga de Alvarez ha desatado un intenso operativo de seguridad en Cuba. Las circunstancias de la fuga no están aclaradas, pero algunas versiones apuntan que escapó disfrazado de mujer por vía aérea. "Alvarez es un tipo de mucho interés para las autoridades cubanas y por esa razón la Seguridad del Estado quiere saber cómo logró salir y quiénes lo ayudaron'', dijo Suárez a El Nuevo Herald. Suárez aseguró que recibió la información de una fuente en Centroamérica. La fuga habría ocurrido entre el 27 y el 29 de diciembre, precisó. Alvarez habría llamado por teléfono a su suegra desde un punto no determinado para decirle que no regresaría más a Cuba. La esposa de Alvarez, Olga de la Cruz, murió en el accidente de un avión de Aerocaribbean ocurrido el 4 de noviembre cerca del pueblo de Guasimal, a unas 200 millas al este de La Habana. No hubo sobrevivientes.

Alvarez era investigado por supuestos actos de corrupción y actividades en perjuicio de la actividad económica cometidos durante su gestión en Alimport. El pasado año, parientes y amigos suyos fuera de Cuba dijeron a El Nuevo Herald que había sido interrogado por lo menos dos veces. Tanto su destitución de Alimport como de la Cámara de Comercio no fueron dadas a conocer oficialmente en la isla al momento de producirse.

Frank Calzón, director del Centro para una Cuba Libre, en Washington, D.C., indicó que un funcionario del gobierno estadounidense en esa capital le confirmó que Alvarez estaba en este país.

Mauricio Claver-Carone, director del grupo de cabildeo US-Cuba Democracy, señaló que la deserción de Alvarez tiene una extraordinaria importancia, puesto que controló por largo tiempo todas las negociaciones con exportadores estadounidenses.

"El conoce como pocos los negocios del régimen, la estrategia de lobby en Washington y las intimidades de los políticos durante sus viajes a Cuba'', indicó Claver-Carone. ‘‘Debe haber varios políticos norteamericanos preocupados sobre lo que pueda revelar Alvarez sobre sus viajes a Cuba''.

Bajo la dirección de Alimport por parte de Alvarez, de 1998 al 2009, Estados Unidos se convirtió en el quinto socio comercial de la isla. En el 2008, las importaciones alcanzaron un récord de $711.5 millones. Sin embargo, en el 2009, las importaciones descendieron un 27 por ciento a causa de la crisis de liquidez y créditos en la isla.

Alex Cruz, portavoz de la oficina de la congresista republicana por la Florida, Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, indicó que ésta no haría comentarios sobre el tema. Los departamentos de Estado y Justicia no respondieron preguntas en relación al caso.

Alvarez nació en Alquízar el 8 de agosto de 1943. Ingresó a las filas del Ministerio de Comercio Exterior (MINCEX) a inicios de la década de 1960. Entre 1967 y 1982 fungió como consejero comercial en las embajadas de Cuba en la ex Unión Soviética y Bulgaria.

A su regreso al MINCEX sirvió como director de envíos y seguros internacionales. En 1990 fue nombrado viceministro, puesto que ocupó hasta 1998.

Read more: http://www.elnuevoherald.com/2011/01/06/865048/presidente-de-alimport-habria.html#ixzz1AZbTETX2

Gaveta News: Entrevista sobre el aborto en Cuba

2011-01-09T12:39:00.001-08:00

Cuba expects to receive 2.5 million tourists in 2010

2011-01-09T12:22:00.000-08:00

Xinhua, December 22, 2010

Cuban authorities plan to conclude 2010 with a total of 2.5 million tourists, with an expected growth of 10 percent in the number of tourists for 2011, a senior official of the Ministry of Tourism (Mintur) said on Tuesday.

Commercial Director of Mintur Jose Manuel Bisbe said that a total of 2.4 million tourists have visited the nation this year by Tuesday, and the number is expected to reach 2.5 million by the end of 2010. He considered the figure satisfactory given the situation in other countries. The official stated that Cuba hopes to welcome 2.7 million visitors in 2011. He described the goal as "ambitious" but not unattainable considering the current conditions in local tourism. "We are not so far away from the goal of 3 million visitors to Cuba per year," Bisbe said. Cuba has over 56,000 hotel rooms, most of them in the capital and in Varadero. According to Bisbe, visitors are mainly from Canada, Italy, Germany, Spain, France, Russia, Argentina and Mexico.

"Cuba is currently developing cruises, recreational boating and eco-tourism. It is also building a new golf courses for 2012," Bisbe added. Tourism is currently the second source of income for Cuban's economy. The National Statistics Office said tourism represented a 2.2 billion U.S.dollar income for the country in 2009. It is also one of the strategic sectors in the economic reform plan promoted by leader Raul Castro. Castro has proposed to expand the range of services offered in the industry, which he described as one of the most effective ways to inject currency to the weak Cuban economy affected by the global financial crisis.

Cardinal says Cuba will free prisoners as promised

2011-01-09T12:15:00.000-08:00

HAVANA, Jan. 1, 2011 (Reuters) — Catholic Cardinal Jaime Ortega assured on Saturday that "in coming months" Cuban leaders would release 11 political prisoners as promised under a landmark deal with the government. Speaking at a New Year's Day mass, Ortega expressed confidence the communist-led government would fulfill its commitment to release the men, who were among 52 dissidents included in the accord he brokered and announced on July 7.

The announcement said the process would take three to four months, but so far, almost six months later, only 41 of the prisoners have been freed. The 52 were part of a group of dissidents jailed in a 2003 government crackdown that strained Cuba's international relations. "A clear and formal promise from the Cuban government exists that all those prisoners will be freed," he said of the 11.

He and Cuban leaders have previously said the government planned to release not just the 52, but all political prisoners. Ortega repeated that in his mass. "I have the moral certainty that in the coming months not only those (11) prisoners will be freed, but others of a larger group of prisoners sanctioned for some type of act related to political actions," he said. Cuban leaders consider dissidents to be mercenaries in the pay of Havana's longtime ideological enemy, the United States, and they want the freed prisoners to leave Cuba and go to Spain, which has agreed to take them. Of the 41 released so far, 40 have accepted the deal, while one has been allowed to stay in Cuba.

Some of the 11 remaining prisoners want to go to the United States and others want to stay on the Caribbean island, Ortega said.

There is disagreement over how many other political prisoners Cuba has, but in recent months the government has freed 16 not included in the group of 52. All have agreed to go to Spain. Cuba's decision to release political prisoners followed an international uproar over the February death of a jailed dissident after an 85-day hunger strike for improved prison conditions.

(Reporting by Rosa Tania Valdes; Editing by Jeff Franks and Paul Simao)

Oscar Biscet es un ser humano

2011-01-09T12:08:00.001-08:00

(Radio Martí, 29/12/10) - La esposa del prisionero de conciencia, Oscar Elías Biscet, envió una carta a Raúl Castro en la que cuestiona el incumplimiento en la liberación de los 11 disidentes del Grupo de los 75 que permanecen en prisión.

En su misiva, Elsa Morejón Hernández indaga la razón por la cual su esposo está en un régimen carcelario que no le corresponde según la ley cubana, y los motivos por los que el gobierno comunista no ha cumplido con el plazo de excarcelación prometido a la Iglesia Católica en Cuba.

"Mi esposo y el resto de los presos políticos son ciudadanos cubanos y seres humanos que están en prisión por delitos de opinión", aseveró Morejón.

Oscar Elías Biscet fue condenado a 25 años de privación de libertad en la Primavera Negra del 2003 junto a otros 74 disidentes, periodistas independientes y activistas de derechos humanos. Está confinado en el Combinado del Este.

Amnistía Internacional considera que es un prisionero de conciencia y exige su liberación. En el 2006, el presidente estadounidense George W. Bush le otorgó la Medalla de la Libertad.

Pulse en el audio para escuchar una breve declaración de Elsa Morejón Hernández.

Aquí está su misiva completa (En formato PDF - Se necesita Acrobat).

Cuba: Cables Reveal Government Sees Bloggers as “Most Serious Challenge”

2011-01-09T12:02:00.001-08:00

From "Global Voices"

Like Venezuela, Mexico, and Brazil, Cuba was one of the Latin American countries most frequently referenced in the trove of diplomatic cables recently released by WikiLeaks. Cables confirmed much of what is already known about the diplomatic impasse that has stifled relations between Cuba and the USA for over fifty years. But they also revealed the Cuban government’s deep concern about the political impact of independent bloggers on the island.

Cables sent from the US Interest Section [1] (USINT) in Havana in 2009 (the most explicit of which can be found at El País) indicate that, in the eyes of USINT, the Cuban government does not see the traditional dissident community as a serious threat to political stability on the island, and that the movement has limited resonance within the general population.

An April 15 cable described the dissident movement in Cuba as, “as old and as out of touch with the lives of ordinary Cubans as the regime itself.” The dissidents mentioned here include leaders and groups such as Oswaldo Payá and Agenda para la Transición, who represent part of the island’s small, decades-old dissident community that receives considerable support from USINT and struggles to evade repression by the Cuban government.

On April 15, 2009, Jonathan Farrar of USINT wrote:

…we see very little evidence that the mainline dissident organizations have much resonance among ordinary Cubans. Informal polls we have carried out among visa and refugee applicants have shown virtually no awareness of dissident personalities or agendas.

Given that USINT surveyed visa and refugee applicants, a group that opposes the Raúl Castro government in greater proportions than the general population, this information should be particularly disconcerting to dissident leaders. Ironically, Farrar also wrote that “…dissidents have, and will continue to perform, a key role in acting as the conscience of Cuba and deserve our support in that role.” He did not elaborate on how these groups could represent the “conscience of Cuba” if they were, as mentioned earlier, “out of touch with the lives of ordinary Cubans.”

A cable sent on December 20, 2009 indicated that the Cuban government sees bloggers as “its most serious challenge” within the realm of civil society.

Another cable also described “[y]ounger individuals, including bloggers, musicians, and performing and plastic artists” as being “much better [than traditional dissidents] at taking “rebellious” stands with greater popular appeal.”

The December 2009 cable read:

The bloggers' mushrooming international popularity and their ability to stay one tech-step ahead of the authorities are causing serious headaches in the regime. The attention that the United States bestowed on XXXXXXXXXXXX, first by publicly complaining when she was detained and roughed up and later by having the President respond to her questions, further fanned the fears that the blogger problem had gotten out of control.

The name redacted here unquestionably belongs to renowned Cuban blogger Yoani Sánchez, who was abducted and beaten in November of 2009 and conducted an email interview with US President Barack Obama shortly thereafter. In September of 2009, a USINT cable described a meeting between Sánchez and US Deputy Assistant Secretary of State Bisa Williams in Havana, in which Sánchez told Williams that “[a]n improvement in relations with the United States is absolutely necessary for democracy to emerge [in Cuba.]”

Collectively, these and other cables suggest that for USINT, certain bloggers may come to represent a “next generation” of government critics and activists that the US government will likely seek to support, if it is not doing so already.

Rogelio M. Díaz at Bubusopía [es] wrote that he was glad that the US had recognized that Cuba’s future lies in the hands of Cuban youth, and not that of the “old guard” dissident community.

[Es] cierto que no nos sentimos para nada identificados con los fósiles de la contrarrevolución, los que venden al país por treinta monedas… [mientras] siguen apoyando el bloqueo…

[It’s] true that we do not at all identify with the fossils of the counterrevolution, those that are willing to sell their country for thirty coins… [who at the same time] continue to support the blockade…

But he was wary of the cables’ inference that bloggers could somehow replace, or serve the same purpose (however futile) as, traditional dissidents.

Jóvenes como yo, entonces, preferimos como ídolos…aquellos que…repelieron la vileza mercenaria con las armas en la mano…[y] continuaron trabajando y luchando con sus manos, su intelecto y su amor por construir un futuro mejor…

Young people like myself, then, prefer as idols…those who…fought off mercenary turpitude [2] with arms in hand…[and] continued working and fighting with their hands, their intellect, and their love to construct a better future…

It is important to understand that these cables refer only to bloggers who are critical of the Castro government; the island’s very small independent blogging community represents a wide range of political positions, many of which support Cuban socialism and hope for positive change that will face challenges and strengthen the system as it stands. Blogs like Bubusopía represent an important part of this community. If they are truly interested in understanding the “conscience of Cuba,” it would behoove USINT officials to read all of these blogs in earnest, and to incorporate the significant diversity of opinions that they represent into their diplomatic discussions.
[1]: A historically controversial institution, USINT is seen by most as a center for information gathering, and as a source of (unauthorized) support for dissidents, and of pro-US propaganda dissemination.

[2]: Díaz's mention of “mercenary turpitude” refers to forces of capitalism.
By Ellery Biddle · Posted 28 December 2010

Cuba: High-Ranking Official Is Missing

2011-01-09T11:49:00.000-08:00

By REUTERS
January 8, 2011

The State Department has no information about the whereabouts of a leading Cuban government trade expert who Miami news reports said had fled, an American official said Friday. The newspaper El Nuevo Herald and several Cuban-American Web sites reported that Pedro Álvarez, 67, the former head of Cuba’s state food importing company, and a crucial figure in legal Cuban purchases of American farm products, had defected to the United States. Cuban authorities and state-run media made no mention of the reports from Miami, which said Mr. Álvarez had escaped last week and had been under investigation for corruption.

Wikileaks document on Cuban health care

2010-12-28T20:54:00.000-08:00

Thursday, 31 January 2008, 19:52
C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 06 HAVANA 000103
SIPDIS
SIPDIS
DEPT FOR WHA/CCA
EO 12958 DECL: 01/25/2018
TAGS PGOV, PINR, PREL, ECON, AMED, SOCI, AMGT, CU
SUBJECT: CUBAN HEALTHCARE: “AQUI NADA ES FACIL”
(HERE NOTHING IS EASY)
REF: HAVANA 0076
Classified By: COM: Michael E. Parmly: For reasons 1.4 b/d
¶1. (C) SUMMARY: This cable is a follow up to Reftel and provides anecdotal accounts from Cubans about their healthcare, based on USINT FSHP’s (Foreign Service Health Practitioner) interactions with them, her unauthorized visits to Cuban hospitals, and her care of USINT American and Cuban personnel. End Summary.
¶2. (C) The following anecdotes were obtained from Cubans of various walks of life: domestic employees, neighbors in the Havana suburbs, USINT Local Contract National (LCN) employees, service providers such as manicurists, masseuses, hair stylists, chauffeurs, musicians, artists, yoga teachers, tailors, as well as HIV/AIDS and cancer patients, physicians, and foreign medical students.
-- A Cuban woman in her thirties confides, “It’s all about who you know. I’m okay because I am healthy and I have ‘friends’ in the medical field. If I didn’t have my connections, and most Cubans do not, it would be horrible.” She relates that Cubans are increasingly dissatisfied with their medical care. In addition to the general lack of supplies and medicines, and because so many doctors have been sent abroad, the neighborhood family physicians now care for 300-400 families and are overwhelmed by the workload. (Note: Neighborhood doctors are supposed to provide care for only 120 families. End Note.) In the absence of the physicians, patients go to their municipality’s “polyclinic,” but long lines before dawn are common, with an all too common 30-second diagnosis of “it’s a virus.”
-- A 40-year old pregnant Cuban woman had a miscarriage. At the OB-Gyn hospital they used a primitive manual vacuum to aspirate the contents of her womb, without any anesthesia or pain medicine. She was offered no emotional support for her ‘loss’ and no pain medication or follow up appointments.
-- A 6-year old Cuban boy with osterosarcoma (bone cancer) is admitted to the oncology hospital. Only his parents are permitted to visit, and then only for limited hours. He does not have a television nor any games or toys. The hospital offers no social support services. The parents do not seem informed as to their son’s case. When asked by the FSHP what they know about the management of the disease, they shrug their shoulders. According to the FSHP, cancer patients do not receive on-going basic care utilizing testing procedures common in much of the world to monitor cancer care -- such as blood chemistries and tumor markers, sonograms, x-rays, CT and bone scans, MRIs, PET scans, etc. Patients are generally informed of the type of cancer they have, but know little of its staging, tumor size, metastasis, or prognosis. They may be offered surgery followed by chemotherapy and/or radiation but are not given choices to decide an aggressive versus less aggressive approach, nor are they allowed internet access to learn more of their disease.
-- Many young cancer patients reportedly have become infected with Hepatitis C after their surgeries. Contracting Hepatitis C after surgery indicates a lack of proper blood screening prior to administering transfusions. All blood should be screened for Hepatitis B, C, HIV and Syphilis prior to use. Patients have no recourse and are not fully informed of the seriousness of such an inadvertent infection.
-- During chemotherapy and radiation treatments, patients receive little in the way of symptom or side-effects care (i.e., severe nausea, vomiting, low blood counts, fever, diarrhea, radiation burns, mouth sores, peripheral neuropathies,etc.) that is critically important in being able to continue treatments, let alone provide comfort to an already emotionally distraught victim. Cancer patients are not provided with, nor can they find locally, simple medications such as Aspirin, Tylenol, skin lotions, vitamins, etc. Most Cuban patients are not offered Hospice Care or any social support programs for children, adults, or their care providers.
-- HIV positive patients have had the letters ‘SIDA’ (AIDS)
HAVANA 00000103 002 OF 006
stamped on their national ID cards. Needless to say, in a country where the national ID card must be shown for everything from getting monthly rations to buying a train ticket, the person is stigmatized for life. There is no patient/doctor confidentiality and discrimination is very strong. (Note: According to Pan-American Health Organization (PAHO) officials in Havana, stamping ID cards used to be the case but is no longer the practice in Cuba, something we could not independently corroborate. End Note.)
-- Some newly diagnosed HIV/AIDS patients are held in what has come to be known as “Prision de Pacientes con SIDA de San Jose” (Prison for AIDS patients). There they are started on antiretrovirals AZT, D4T, 3TC. It is unclear to them why they were put in this prison-like facility but believe it is plain discrimination due to their homosexuality. The average period spent at this facility seems to be 18-24 months.
-- AIDS patients are not given prophylaxis medication for the prevention of PCP (Pneumocysti carinii pneumonia), and for lack of newer medicines some patients are re-started on antiretroviral regimens that were stopped due to significant side effects. The Cuban family physicians who care for these patients’ primary care needs do not have the authority to treat their HIV/AIDS disease. There is only one facility in Cuba, Instituto Pedro Kouri, located in Havana, where HIV positive patients can receive their specialty care, antiretroviral medications and treatments. According to HIV positive Cubans known to FSHP, one usually waits for months for an appointment, but can often move ahead in line by offering a gift or hard currency. We are told five Cuban convertible pesos (approximately USD 5.40) can get one an x-ray and more can get one a CD4 count. Patients on the island must travel to the capital city for their specialist visits and medication. Due to the lack of island-wide transportation and the cost of travel, many HIV-positive patients may be seen only once per year.
-- While the GOC claims there is a network of organizations that provide social support for HIV/AIDS patients, many of our sources say they have never been to one. Because they are “marked” as HIV positive, many are prevented from pursuing university studies and few can find gainful employment -- many must resort to menial jobs to survive.
-- A physician XXXXXXXXXXXX told the FSHP that he works 14 hours every other day, then has to hitchhike home because he cannot afford to own a car.
-- XXXXXXXXXXXX stated that Cuban authorities have banned Michael Moore’s documentary, “Sicko,” as being subversive. Although the film’s intent is to discredit the U.S. healthcare system by highlighting the excellence of the Cuban system, he said the regime knows the film is a myth and does not want to risk a popular backlash by showing to Cubans facilities that are clearly not available to the vast majority of them. When the FSHP showed Sicko to a group of XXXXXXXXXXXX, some became so disturbed at the blatant misrepresentation of healthcare in Cuba that they left the room.
-- Even the Cuban ruling elite sometimes goes outside of Cuba for the best medical care. Fidel Castro, in July, 2006 brought in a Spanish doctor during his health crisis. Vice Minister of Health Abelardo Ramirez went to France for gastric cancer surgery. The neurosurgeon who is Chief of CIMEQ Hospital (reportedly one of the best in Cuba) went to England for eye surgery and returns periodically for checkups.
-- According to a local pediatrician, the approximate breakdown of Cuban physicians’ salaries are: 1st & 2nd year residences earn 325 pesos monthly (USD 15.00); 3rd year residences earn 355 (USD 16.00); 4th year residences (specialists) earn 400 pesos monthly (USD 18.00). For every four years of medical practice thereafter, a physician receives an additional 20 pesos (USD 0.89 cents) per month.
-- There is reportedly such a shortage of nurses that within the last few years, a high-school graduate is now offered an
HAVANA 00000103 003 OF 006
accelerated training course of just ten-months duration entitled, “Enfermeras Emergentes” (Emergency Nurses). These “quasi” nurses are not trained to start Intravenous lines, interpret lab results or draw blood.
-- Few medical professionals are allowed access to the internet and are rarely allowed to travel to participate in international conferences or continuing education courses. Access to up-to-date medical literature is not available. Some physicians have confided to the FSHP, “All of us want to leave.” They are dissatisfied with their salaries and their own medical care. They receive no special privileges - most of them do not even have access to care at the better foreigner hospitals, even if they work there.
-- As described in reftel, the best medical institutions in Cuba are reserved for foreigners with hard currency, members of the ruling elite and high-ranking military personnel. These institutions, with their intended patient clientele in parentheses, include: Clinica Central Cira Garcia (diplomats & tourists), Centro Internacional de Investigaciones Restauracion Neurologica (foreigners & military elite), Centro de Investigaciones Medico Quirurgicas (military & regime elite), Clinica de Kohly (Primer Buro Politico & Generals of the Ministry of Interior), and the top floors of the Hermanos Ameijeiras Hospital (foreigners) and Frank Pais Hospital (foreigners). These institutions are hygienically qualified, and have a wide array of diagnostic equipment with a full complement of laboratories, well-stocked pharmacies, and private patient suites with cable television and bathrooms.
¶4. (C) Below are first-hand observations from USINT’s Foreign Service Health Practitioner’s (FSHP) impromptu and unauthorized (by the GOC) visits to major Havana hospitals where average Cubans receive their healthcare, and from conversations with Cubans in many walks of life.
¶A. Hermanos Ameijeiras Hospital
-- Address: San Lazaro #701 Esquina A Belascoain, Centro Habana, Havana
-- Date of visit: October, 2007
-- Built in 1982, this newly renovated 600 bed, 24 story hospital is depicted in Michael Moore’s film “Sicko,” where some 60 surgeries are performed daily including heart, kidney, and cornea transplants, mostly to patients who receive free treatment as part of Operation Milagro (mostly from Venezuela, but also from the rest of Latin America). The two top floors (shown in the movie) are the most modern and are reserved for medical tourists and foreign diplomats who pay in hard currency. The hospital has three intensive care units and all medical specialties except Pediatrics and Obstetrics/Gynecology and has no emergency room. The facility has a CT scanner (often said to be out-of-service), MRI and hyperbaric chamber capabilities.
-- Upon entering the building the FSHP was struck by the grand and impressive lobby with a four-story ceiling, polished terrazzo floors and an elegant center reception booth. No one was in the reception booth, which displayed a digital streaming ticker-tape announcing an outdated hospital event; 30 or 40 people were sparsely scattered in the leather-like chairs throughout the lobby. There were no wheel chairs or other obvious signs this was a hospital.
-- She was told the majority of patients came from Venezuela and each received weekly one bar of Palmolive bath soap, Palmolive shampoo, and a tube of Colgate toothpaste. She was also told the Venezuelan patients frequently take these items outside to the front parking lot and sell them to local Cubans. Cuban in-patients receive one tube of Colgate toothpaste and no other toiletries.
-- Due to the high volume of foreigners receiving treatments and surgeries, most Cubans do not have access - the only chance might be a through a family member or connection working there and a gift or 20 CUCS (USD 21.60) to the Hospital Administrator. Cubans are reportedly very resentful
HAVANA 00000103 004 OF 006
that the best hospital in Havana is “off-limits” to them.
¶B. Ramon Gonzalez Coro Hospital
-- Address: Calle 21 #856 between 4th & 6th Avenues, Vedado Plaza, Havana
-- Date of visit: July, 2006
-- What is today the Obstetrics & Gynecology (OB-Gyn) hospital for Havana, used to be a private clinic prior to the revolution. The hospital has: 300 beds and reserves 12 beds for foreigners; an Intensive Care Unit for women as well as a Newborn Intensive Care Unit (using a very old infant ‘Bird’ respirator/ventilator - the model used in the U.S. in the 1970s); an Intermediate Newborn Care Unit; one room for babies less than five pounds needing weight gain; a Genetics Department with a specialized laboratory; and five surgical suites.
-- The FSHP visited this hospital with a pregnant USINT American patient. Normally USINT staff is required to go to Cira Garcia Clinic, but because there were possible OB complications the FSHP was able to arrange, through a Cuban medical contact, for the patient to be seen by a highly-recommended obstetrician.
-- This hospital, located in the densely populated residential area of Vedado, had a dilapidated and crumbling exterior. The FSHP was stopped at the entrance by a guard, but upon mentioning the name of the doctor they were to see, were allowed to proceed to the second floor - supposedly the nicest part of the hospital, which is reserved for foreigners; it reminded the FSHP of some of the poorest hospitals she had seen in Africa - unkempt rooms, old wrought-iron beds, flat mattresses with only one sheet, no A/C, no TV, no amenities. At the nursing station there was no nurse, but a metal cabinet with glass doors that had one jar filled with cotton and one half-full 16 ounce bottle of isopropyl alcohol. There were no other supplies nor any indication this was a nurse’s station - no stethoscopes, no computers, no medical charts, no papers or pens on the desk - there was a lone dial-type black telephone.
-- After waiting 15 minutes a nurse in a white uniform appeared and told the FSHP and her patient to wait. She wasn’t friendly. There was no waiting room, so they found some chairs in the hall. It was very hot and the patient was very anxious and in pain. After 45 minutes and several attempts in a polite manner to move things along, a young female doctor came out smiling and asked for the patient - she asked that her husband remain in the chair, but did allow the FSHP to go with her upon insisting. At the end of a long hallway, the FSHP and the patient were guided into an “exam room.” There were no chairs, screens, posters, any medical supplies or equipment; only one old rusting sheet-metal table without any covering, extensions or stirrups. She asked the patient to undress and climb on the table with no intention to drape her. Having worked in third-world countries, the FSHP brought with her a bag of supplies that included paper drapes, which she placed on the table and over the patient. The doctor pulled out of a nearby drawer an old Pinard fetal heart stethoscope made of aluminum (funnel-shaped, like those used at the turn of the Century ) to listen for the baby’s heart beat. The FSHP could not believe her eyes -- this was one of the best OB/GYN hospitals in Cuba. When the FSHP offered the doctor a portable fetal Doppler she had brought from the USINT Health Unit (HU), she gladly accepted.
-- Although the doctor appeared to be clinically competent, she was abrupt and rough with the patient. FSHP believes this to be typical of the hierarchical doctor-patient relationship in Cuba. She stated, “She has an infection and needs an antibiotic,” and gave the FSHP a written prescription for an antibiotic generally not recommended during pregnancy. Upon returning to the HU the FSHP did a culture that returned negative for a bacterial infection. Needless to say, the FSHP did not give the prescription to the patient. As a result of this experience, the FSHP concluded that the best care for her unstable female pregnant patients in Havana -- barring a MEDEVAC to the U.S. -- would
HAVANA 00000103 005 OF 006
be by the FSHP in their own home with telephone consults to an obstetrician in the U.S.
-- XXXXXXXXXXXX told the FSHP that XXXXXXXXXXXX foreign medical students are increasingly covering for the gross shortages of physicians in Cuban hospitals.
¶C. Calixto Garcia Hospital
-- Address: Avenida De Universidad Y 27 De Noviembre, Vedado, Havana
-- Date of visit: November, 2007
-- Built in the late 1800’s, this dilapidated 400-bed hospital was the first teaching hospital in Cuba and is only for Cubans. FSHP believes that if Michael Moore really wanted the “same care as local Cubans,” this is where he should have gone. The 22-bed emergency room receives all the major trauma and accident victims from Havana City, plus there are large Intensive and Intermediate Care Units. It also has a CT scanner and an MRI, which are reportedly often out of order. The hospital provides specialist care in all medical fields except OB-Gyn and Pediatrics.
-- During the hospital visit, FSHP was struck by the shabbiness of the facility -- no renovations were apparent -- and the lack of everything (medical supplies, privacy, professional care staff). To the FSHP it was reminiscent of a scene from some of the poorest countries in the world.
-- In an open-curtained exam room inside the emergency room, FSHP saw a middle-aged man lying on a gurney in his own soiled clothes with a large bloody bandage wrapped around his head - he was breathing, but was neither moving nor talking - there was no IV, oxygen (in fact no piped-in oxygen at all at this facility) or monitoring equipment. Neither did there seem to be any sense of urgency to his care.
-- The hospital is spread out over several city blocks consisting of many two-story buildings with various specialties: Internal Medicine, Cardiology, General Surgery, Orthopedics, Ophthalmology, and Neurology, etc. Each building is set up in dormitory style, with 44 metal beds in two large open rooms.
-- The laboratory equipment is very rudimentary - a simple CBC (complete blood count) blood test is calculated manually by a laboratory technician looking through a microscope and counting the individual leucocytes, lymphocytes, monocytes, etc.
-- As the FSHP exited a building, XXXXXXXXXXXX drove up in a badly dented 1981 Moskovich that belched exhaust fumes. The private car, which is a luxury in Cuba, was a gift from his deceased father. He was a thin man, appearing disheveled, unshaved, with a cigarette between his lips, wearing a tattered white lab coat without a shirt underneath. He said his salary was 565 pesos (approximately $22) per month.
¶D. Salvador Allende Hospital
-- Address: Calzada Del Cerro # 1551, Cerro, Havana
-- Date of visit: November, 2007
-- This 400-bed hospital is located in Cerro - a poorer and more densely populated section than the others visited in Havana. It is an old, run-down facility similar in appearance to Calixto Garcia Hospital in that there are several two-story buildings each with a medical specialty.
-- The FSHP was dropped off a few blocks away so the guards wouldn’t see the diplomatic plates. When she walked in, the guards smelled of alcohol. In the emergency room there were about 40 mostly poor-looking Afro-Cuban patients waiting to
HAVANA 00000103 006 OF 006
be seen. It appeared to be very orderly, clean, and organized.
-- The rest of the buildings were in shambles . The FSHP did not see any “real” medicine or nursing practiced during her almost one-hour walk through most of the buildings. As she saw patients, she could not help but think that their own home might provide more value-added than remaining in that hospital. Patients had to bring their own light bulbs if they wanted light in their rooms. The switch plates and knobs had been stolen from most of the rooms so one had to connect bare wires to get electricity. There was no A/C and few patients had floor fans. Patients had to bring their own sheets, towels, soap and supplemental foods. Hospital food service consisted of rice, fish, rice, eggs, and potatoes day after day. No fresh fruits, vegetables, or meat were available.
¶5. (C) Comment: After living in Cuba for two and a half years, treating numerous Cuban employees at USINT, and interacting with many other Cubans, the FSHP believes many are malnourished and psychologically stressed. Hypertension, diabetes and asthma are widespread, but poorly treated. Common prescription and basic over-the-counter medications are unavailable. Given the large number of chronic diseases treated by the FSHP, preventive medicine in Cuba is a by-gone ideal, rather than the standard practice of care. PARMLY

Oswaldo Paya interviewed by Norwegian Christian Democrats

2010-12-28T20:49:00.001-08:00

Brief BBC Interviews with dissidents

2010-12-28T20:16:00.001-08:00

Que me pongan en la lista (1 de 2)

2010-12-28T19:30:00.000-08:00

Que me pongan en la lista (2 de 2)

2010-12-28T19:28:00.000-08:00

Cuba’s plan to shop talent may not help MLB

2010-12-28T18:48:00.001-08:00

By Jeff Passan, Yahoo! Sports
Dec 27, 4:36 pm EST

Pedro Luis Lazo retired from baseball the day after Christmas. A horse-drawn carriage took him into the stadium in Pinar Del Rio where he and Jose Contreras(notes) once formed the most fearsome pitching duo in the history of the Cuban league, Serie Nacional. Nearly a decade ago, Contreras fled Cuba for the riches of Major League Baseball. Lazo stayed.

For the last 21 years, Lazo pitched for a pittance. Outside of the tiny island shut off from the United States, he is barely known. Whatever Lazo could’ve been in MLB – monster closer or inning-gobbling starter in all likelihood, and outsized, magnanimous personality for certain – his nationalist and loyalist sensibilities handcuffed him to Cuba.

He is a dying breed. Over the last two years, major league teams have spent more than $75 million on Cuban defectors for whom a life with new cars and sparkling jewelry and freedom was too much to ignore. Nearly half the sum went to Aroldis Chapman(notes), who in his first season with the Cincinnati Reds threw the fastest recorded pitch in history and showcased the highest-end talent available in Cuba.

Chapman’s defection, along with that of shortstops Jose Iglesias (Boston signed him for $8.2 million) and Adeiny Hechavarria (Toronto signed him for $10 million), has compelled Cuba to reconsider its policy on restricting players from plying their trade professionally elsewhere. The Baseball Federation of Cuba, headed by Fidel Castro’s son Tony, is discussing a plan that would allow baseball players to leave the country in exchange for a proportion of their salary going to Cuba, according to two sources familiar with the proposal.

Ideally, one source said, Cuba would send players to the major leagues and circumvent the spate of defections that have embarrassed the country. Such a plan, the source said, is currently a non-starter. Though MLB would welcome Cuban players, the arrangement would in effect pay the Cuban government for players, a violation of the United States’ 50-year-long embargo on Cuba. That is unlikely to thaw for baseball. While the U.S. government has allowed Cuba to play in both World Baseball Classics, Cuban players were the only ones not given the prize money handed out by the International Baseball Federation.

For now, the idea is for Cubans to go to Japan, South Korea, Mexico or Europe, like doctors and entertainers who make money elsewhere, then return home eventually. Because of working agreements with the first three countries, MLB would not take defectors from them. And baseball in Europe is played at a significantly lower quality and salary, likely keeping the top-end Cuban talent from playing in the Netherlands or Italy.

Accordingly, the defections probably will continue unabated. In November, Yasiel Balaguer, a 17-year-old on the Cuban Junior National team, defected to Nicaragua. Whether Balaguer is anything more than a marginal talent seems not to matter, as MLB teams’ intrigue with Cuban players continues despite the deep risk involved with their signings. Eleven Cuban players made major league debuts in the last three seasons and 35 have done so since 1995.

For every Chapman and Iglesias – he is expected to take over as the Red Sox’s full-time shortstop by 2012 – there are Noel Arguelles(notes) and Dayan Viciedo(notes). Kansas City paid $6.9 million for Arguelles last December, and he’s looking like Kei Igawa(notes) to Chapman’s Daisuke Matsuzaka(notes). Arguelles still hasn’t thrown a professional pitch and underwent shoulder surgery in August. Viciedo’s two main problems – plate discipline and weight – haven’t resolved themselves, and the White Sox only hope their $10 million investment in the third baseman isn’t a complete wash.

Even if they’re busts, there have been enough Cuban successes in the major leagues to feed the defecting marketplace. The Angels’ Kendry Morales(notes) is among the best hitters and the White Sox’s Alexei Ramirez(notes) is among the best-fielding shortstops in the American League. Shortstop Yunel Escobar(notes) is poised for a breakout season with Toronto, and pitcher Yunesky Maya(notes) joins Washington’s rotation this season, and outfielder/first baseman Leslie Anderson could crack Tampa Bay’s opening day roster.

Despite the dozens of players who have left over the past two years, Cuba remains No. 1 in IBAF rankings. Major league teams still covet Frederich Cepeda and Yulieski Gourriel and Alfredo Despaigne and even Lazo, who, at 37 and sporting a paunch, can fire fastballs and forkballs like his old teammate in Pinar Del Rio.

Contreras signed a two-year, $5.5 million deal to remain with Philadelphia this offseason. Already he has made $62.5 million in his eight major league seasons. Depending on the report, players in Cuba are paid anywhere from a couple hundred dollars to $2,000 or $3,000 per season. Over his career, Contreras has made $3,396.55 per pitch.

Lazo could’ve had that. He could’ve been like so many Cubans who leave behind their families to be rich and famous and free. There is something tragic about Pedro Luis Lazo, just as there is about Cuba. And yet as Lazo rode off into the sunset on a horse, having pitched for 21 seasons in the place he loves most, there was something beautiful about it, too, about the dying breed going out exactly like he wanted.

Fidel Castro to appear on Cuban television and radio

2010-07-12T09:12:00.001-07:00

Mon Jul 12, 2010
HAVANA (Reuters) - Former Cuban leader Fidel Castro, who has lived in seclusion since falling ill four years ago, will appear on Cuban television and radio on Monday evening to discuss his theory that the world is on the verge of nuclear war, the Communist Party newspaper Granma said in its Monday online edition. The appearance will mark the second time in less than a week that the suddenly resurgent 83-year-old has made a public appearance, after staying out of view, except in occasional photographs and videos, since undergoing emergency intestinal surgery in July 2006.

Last Wednesday, he made a visit to a Havana scientific center that was disclosed in a blog on Saturday. Castro writes opinion columns, or "Reflections," for Cuba's state-run media that in recent weeks have focused on his prediction that nuclear war will soon break out, sparked by a conflict between the United States and Iran over international sanctions against Iran's nuclear activities. "The empire is at the point of committing a terrible error that nobody can stop. It advances inexorably toward a sinister fate," he wrote on July 5. The "empire" is how Castro usually refers to the United States, his bitter foe from the time he took power in Cuba in a 1959 revolution. In a column published on Sunday night, Castro said the "principal purpose" of his writings has been to "warn international public opinion of what was occurring." He said he has reached his dire conclusion based in part on "observing what happened, as the political leader that I was during many years, confronting the empire, its blockades and its unspeakable crimes." The columns have attracted little attention internationally and caused little reaction in Cuba, but Castro promised to continue his lonely fight to warn the world of the coming disaster. "I don't hesitate in running risks of compromising my modest moral authority," he wrote on Sunday. "I will continue writing 'Reflections' about the topic." Castro ruled Cuba for 49 years before provisionally ceding power to younger brother Raul Castro following his 2006 surgery. Citing age and infirmity, he officially resigned in February 2008 and Raul Castro, now 79, was elected president by the National Assembly. Fidel Castro's reappearance comes as Cuba is preparing to release 52 political prisoners, all jailed in a crackdown on the opposition in 2003 while he was still in power.

Cuban dissident ends hunger strike after prisoner release deal

2010-07-08T13:37:00.000-07:00

BY JUAN O. TAMAYO
jtamayo@ElNuevoHerald.com
Cuban dissident Guillermo Fariñas Thursday ended a 135-day hunger strike that had put him close to death, and the island's Catholic church identified the first five political prisoners to be freed. Fariñas a 48-year old psychiatrist and independent journalist, has refused to eat and drink since Feb. 24, but has received nourishment intravenously in a Santa Clara hospital since March 11. He took his first glass of water around 2 p.m. Thursday, according to bloggers Yoani Sanchez and Claudia Cadelo, who were with Fariñas when he announced that he was ending his hunger strike after the government agreed to free 52 political prisoners. A church statement Thursday identified the first five political prisoners to be released as Antonio Villarreal Acosta, Lester González Pentón, Luis Milán Fernández, José Luis García Paneque and Pablo Pacheco. Pacheco's wife, Oleivys García, told El Nuevo Herald she was surprised when she visited him in a Ciego de Avila prison Thursday and learned Ortega had just called Pacheco to let him know he would be freed.``We were surprised '' Garcia said via telephone from Cuba. Her husband ``told me he thanked Ortega, who was very courteous, and told him that he was glad to be one of the first released, but hoped he would not be one of the last.'' Pacheco, an independent journalist who has been writing a blog from jail, Voz Tras las Rejas, -- Voice from Behind The Bars -- with the help of Cadelo, has been serving a 20-year sentence. Fariñas launched the strike one day after the death of political prisoner Orlando Zapata following an 83-day hunger strike, to demand the release of 26 other political prisoners reported to be in ill health. Sanchez and Cadelo were among about 30 activists who traveled to Santa Clara Thursday to persuade Fariñas to abandon his strike after Cuba agreed Wednesday to release the 52 political prisoners over the next four months. The 52 are the last dissidents still in jail from the 2003 crackdown on 75 opposition activists known as Cuba's Black Spring. The others were released for health reasons.

Dissident leader: No forcible deportations

2010-07-08T09:53:00.000-07:00

'We want true freedom. Let the prisoner and his family decide. If there are forcible deportations, there can be no talk about an advancement of human rights.'
–Laura Pollán, leader of the Ladies in White, quoted in that organization's website.

List of Cuban Political Prisoners scheduled for release / deportation

2010-07-08T09:43:00.000-07:00

List of prisoners about to be liberated, according to The Associated Press:
Pedro Argüelles Morán, Víctor Rolando Arroyo Carmona, Mijail Barzaga Lugo, Oscar Elías Biscet González, Marcelo Cano Rodríguez, Eduardo Diaz Fleitas, Antonio Ramón Diaz Sánchez, Alfredo Domínguez Batista, Alfredo Felipe Fuentes, Efrén Fernández Fernández, Juan Adolfo Fernández Sáinz, José Daniel Ferrer García, Luis Enrique Ferrer García, Próspero Gaínza Agüero, Miguel Galván Gutiérrez, Julio César Gálvez Rodríguez, José Luis García Paneque, Ricardo Severino Gonzales Alfonso, Diosdado González Marrero, Lester González Pentón, Jorge Luis González Tanquero, Leonel Grave de Peralta Almenares, Iván Hernández Carrillo, Normando Hernández González, Juan Carlos Herrera Acosta, Regis Iglesias Ramírez, José Ubaldo Izquierdo Hernández, Librado Ricardo Linares García, Héctor Fernando Maseda Gutiérrez, José Miguel Martínez Hernández, Luis Milán Fernández, Nelson Molinet Espino, Ángel Juan Moya Acosta, Jesús Mustafá Felipe, Félix Navarro Rodríguez, Pablo Pacheco Ávila, Arturo Pérez de Alejo Rodriguez, Horacio Julio Pina Borrego, Fabio Prieto Llorente, Alfredo Manuel Pulido López, Arnaldo Ramos Lauzerique, Blas Giraldo Reyes Rodríguez, Alexis Rodríguez Fernández, Omar Rodríguez Saludes, Omar Moisés Ruiz Hernández, Claro Sánchez Altarriba, Guido Sigler Amaya, Ricardo Silva Gual, Fidel Suárez Cruz, Manuel Ubals González, Héctor Raúl Valle Hernández, Antonio Augusto Villarreal Acosta. Read more: http://miamiherald.typepad.com/cuban_colada/#ixzz0t6sZrWRC

Catholic Church in Cuba announces impending release of 52 political prisoners

2010-07-08T06:32:00.001-07:00

(Reuters) - Cuba will free 52 political prisoners, Cuba's Catholic church said on Wednesday, in a major concession to international pressure and a possible step toward improved relations with the United States and Europe. The church said five of the prisoners would be freed later on Wednesday and allowed to go to Spain, while the remaining 47 would be released over the next few months and permitted to leave the communist-led Caribbean island, if they choose. The 52 men are those still in jail from 75 arrested in a 2003 government crackdown against dissidents that damaged Cuba's international standing. The release was the result of recent dialogue between President Raul Castro and Cuban Catholic leader Cardinal Jaime Ortega as the church has taken a more prominent role in national affairs. Spanish Foreign Minister Miguel Angel Moratinos came to Havana this week to join in their discussions. He said the release would "open a new era in Cuba ... with the desire to definitively resolve the question of the prisoners." The release would be the largest since 1998, when 101 political prisoners were among about 300 inmates freed following a visit by Pope John Paul II. It will reduce the number of dissidents behind bars to about 100, which moves Cuba closer to eliminating one of the biggest stumbling blocks in its relations with the United States and Europe. The United States and European Union have long pressed Havana to free political prisoners, improve human rights and move toward democracy. The Cuban Commission for Human Rights said on Monday that Cuba had 167 political prisoners, including 10 who were out on parole, which was the lowest number since the 1959 revolution that put Fidel Castro in power.
U.S. SEES POSITIVE DEVELOPMENT
The U.S. State Department issued a cautious statement, saying it was working to confirm the church's report but "would view prisoner releases as a positive development." But Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, a Cuban-born member of the U.S. Congress from Florida and the top Republican on the House of Representatives Foreign Affairs Committee, warned against being "fooled" by the government in Havana and said "maximum pressure must be exerted" until all Cubans are free. Reaction from Cuban dissidents was mixed, with Elizardo Sanchez of the independent Cuban Commission on Human Rights saying the release was "something good" but not an indication that Cuba's human rights will improve. Laura Pollan, leader of the dissident group Ladies in White, said the release was an important moment in Cuba. "I believe we are at the doors of a change, a significant change," said Pollan, whose husband Hector Maceda was one of those still behind bars from the 2003 crackdown. Hopefully, she said, it will be "the first steps of a true freedom, of a true democracy." Cuba's state-run television reported Castro met Ortega and Moratinos on Wednesday but did not mention the prisoner release. Cuba came under heavy international criticism after the February 23 death of hunger-striking dissident Orlando Zapata Tamayo and in recent weeks has slightly relaxed its policy toward dissidents, whom it views as mercenaries working for the United States and other enemies to topple the government. Zapata's death prompted another dissident, Guillermo Farinas, to launch a hunger strike that, after 134 days, reportedly has brought him near death in a hospital in the central city of Santa Clara. He is demanding the release of 25 ailing political prisoners, who are believed to be included in the group to be freed. But Farinas said through his spokeswoman that he would not yet abandon his strike because he has not received word from the church or the government.
DRAMATIC SCENE
His refusal led to a dramatic scene at Pollan's home in central Havana, where she implored him by phone to start eating. "Trust a little bit," she said. "Stop the hunger strike. You are more valuable alive than dead." Sarah Stephens, director of the Washington-based Center for Democracy in the Americas, said she hoped Wednesday's events would shift U.S. policy away from its cornerstone -- a 48-year-old trade embargo against Cuba -- and toward greater dialogue. "This is joyful news ... and a lesson for U.S. policymakers that engagement -- talking to the Cubans with respect -- is accomplishing more right now than the embargo has accomplished in 50 years," she said. U.S. President Barack Obama has made modest efforts to improve relations with Cuba, including a slight easing of the embargo, and has said there would be further progress when the island released political prisoners. But standing in the way is Cuba's detention of U.S. contractor Alan Gross, who has been jailed in Havana since December on suspicion of espionage activities. U.S. officials, who say Gross is not a spy and was only providing Internet access to Jewish groups, maintain there will be no significant improvements in relations until he is freed. Cuba, which considers Gross to be part of longstanding U.S. efforts to undermine its system, has said only that he remains under investigation. Moratinos said the release of the prisoners "logically has to help (Cuba's) relations with the United States, because now there is no excuse." The Spaniard has been a leading voice in Europe for engagement with Cuba instead of confrontation and has pushed for the 27-nation bloc to drop its common position emphasizing improved human rights and democracy on the island. The Cubans view the EU's stance as an obstacle to relations. Zapata's death helped derail Moratinos' efforts to amend the EU position while Spain led the bloc in the first half of this year but he said freeing the prisoners changes things. Many in Europe "did not trust this way of doing policy and today we see that it gives results," Moratinos said.
(Additional reporting by Nelson Acosta and Rosa Tania Valdes; Editing by John O'Callaghan)

La Iglesia de Cuba "esperanzada" con la visita de Moratinos

2010-07-06T20:02:00.000-07:00

«La visita reafirma la esperanza acerca de los prisioneros y Cuba en el contexto mundial», señaló el cardenal arzobispo de La Habana

Agencia EFE, La Habana

7 de Julio del 2010

El cardenal Jaime Ortega, arzobispo de La Habana, aseguró hoy que la visita a Cuba del ministro español de Asuntos Exteriores, Miguel Ángel Moratinos, "reafirma la esperanza" sobre la situación de los presos políticos en la isla. "Se reafirma con su visita (en referencia al ministro español) la esperanza que ya hemos anunciado anteriormente acerca de estos temas de los prisioneros y de todo lo que tenga que ver con un avance en la presencia de Cuba en el contexto mundial positivamente considerado", señaló Ortega.

Moratinos con el cardenal arzobispo de la Habana

El cardenal hizo estas declaraciones a periodistas tras reunirse en el Arzobispado de La Habana con el ministro español, que se encuentra en Cuba para apoyar el diálogo abierto entre la Iglesia católica y el Gobierno de Raúl Castro sobre los presos políticos. Jaime Ortega agradeció al ministro español su postura de "comunicación y puente" con Cuba, así como su esfuerzo para tratar de normalizar las relaciones con la Unión Europea, regidas desde 1996 por la llamada "posición común", que las condiciona a avances en materia de derechos humanos. "Se lo agradezco como cubano, como arzobispo de La Habana y como miembro de esta Iglesia que ha tenido esta oportunidad especial de llevar adelante un momento muy propicio para poder dar algunos pasos positivos en el mejor sentido de nuestra situación nacional", declaró el religioso. Por su parte, Moratinos manifestó que el Gobierno español se siente "muy satisfecho" de la labor de la Iglesia cubana en su diálogo con las autoridades de la isla. "Esperamos lógicamente que ese trabajo dé resultados", dijo el jefe de la diplomacia española, quien garantizó que el Gobierno de España "está acompañando todas las actividades y actuaciones del cardenal Ortega y la Iglesia Católica". Tras su encuentro con Ortega, que duró cerca de una hora y media, el ministro español eludió pronunciarse sobre la posibilidad de que España acoja a presos políticos cubanos en el caso de que se produzcan excarcelaciones, al ser preguntado por la prensa. "Vamos a seguir trabajando, vamos a seguir dialogando y eso es lo que tenemos que hacer", manifestó. La visita de Moratinos a Cuba ha aumentado las expectativas de que el Gobierno del general Raúl Castro libere a presos políticos, en el marco del proceso de diálogo abierto con la jerarquía católica el pasado mes de mayo. Fruto de esas conversaciones, el régimen cubano excarceló en junio a un preso gravemente enfermo, Ariel Sigler, y "acercó" a doce a centros penitenciarios ubicados en sus provincias de residencia. Además de con Ortega, el jefe de la diplomacia española se reunió este martes con el canciller cubano, Bruno Rodríguez, con quien repasó el estado de las relaciones bilaterales entre ambos países. Ambos coincidieron en que el momento de esta visita -la tercera de Moratinos a Cuba- se produce en un momento "importante" y "promisorio" y se mostraron convencidos del éxito de la misma.

Moratinos espera obtener gestos hacia los presos en Cuba que cambien la política de la UE

2010-07-06T19:55:00.001-07:00

El ministro de Exteriores confía en la derogación de la Posición Común que condiciona desde 1996 el diálogo europeo con La Habana

M. VICENT / M. GONZÁLEZ | La Habana

6 de Julio del 2010

El Pais

Nunca una visita del ministro de Asuntos Exteriores, Miguel Ángel Moratinos, había levantado tanta expectación como la que inició el lunes por la noche a La Habana. La pregunta no es si se producirá una liberación de presos políticos, algo que casi todo el mundo da por descontado, sino qué alcance tendrá y si se hará coincidir su anuncio con la presencia del jefe de la diplomacia española, que en la noche del miércoles regresa a Madrid.

Miguel Ángel Moratinos Cuyabué

La noticia en otros webs

Moratinos ha dado a entender que no se marchará con las manos vacías al declarar, al inicio de la reunión que las dos delegaciones han mantenido este martes por la tarde en la sede de la cancillería cubana, su convencimiento de que la visita será un éxito y, lo que es más importante, que así lo considerarán también los otros socios de la UE. Su objetivo explícito es la derogación de la llamada Posición Común, que condiciona desde 1996 el diálogo europeo con La Habana al respeto a los derechos humanos y los avances democráticos. El ministro español ha conseguido que sus colegas de la UE le den una prórroga de dos meses, hasta septiembre, para obtener gestos significativos por parte de las autoridades cubanas. Pero sabe que los partidarios de la firmeza -encabezados por Alemania, República Checa o Polonia- se negarán en redondo a cualquier concesión si no se produce antes la liberación de un grupo significativo de los 167 prisioneros políticos que hay en la isla. No bastan las excarcelaciones a cuentagotas y los traslados penitenciarios realizados hasta ahora. El propio canciller cubano, Bruno Rodríguez, ha reconocido los "esfuerzos" realizados por la presidencia española de la UE para derogar la Posición Común, que ha tachado de "injusta, injerencista y discriminatoria", y se ha mostrado convencido de que la visita de Moratinos, "en un momento promisorio", no sólo será un éxito desde el punto de vista bilateral sino que también tendrá también efectos para las relaciones entre Cuba y la UE. Un guiño dentro de la calculada ambigüedad que rodea esta visita. Rodríguez acudió el lunes por la noche a recibir al ministro español al aeropuerto José Martí y luego le acompañó a la residencia oficial del embajador español en La Habana, Manuel Cacho, como muestra de la complicidad que se ha generado entre ambos. El tercer actor de este drama, cuyos hilos se tejen entre bambalinas, es el cardenal Jaime Ortega, con quien Moratinos ha departido durante hora y media este martes en el Arzobispado de La Habana. "Apoyamos las gestiones de la Iglesia cubana y esperamos que ese trabajo dé resultados", declaró el ministro tras la entrevista. "Se reafirma con su visita [del jefe de la diplomacia española] la esperanza acerca de los prisioneros" políticos, añadió el cardenal, quien agregó que el actual momento es "muy propicio para que se puedan dar algunos pasos positivos". Un lenguaje cauteloso que apenas disimula el temor a que pudiera malograrse en el último momento la esperada liberación de presos políticos. Uno de los elementos que más preocupan es el la situación del disidente Guillermo Fariñas, que se encuentra en estado crítico tras más de 130 días de huelga de hambre y sed en demanda de la liberación de 25 reclusos de conciencia que se encuentran enfermos. La delegación que acompaña al ministro ha estado permanentemente pendiente de su estado de salud, pues un desenlace trágico de su protesta podría hacer descarrilar o como mínimo retrasar, toda la operación. Por su parte, el presidente de la Comisión Cubana de Derechos Humanos y Reconciliación Nacional (CCDHRN), Elizardo Sánchez, ha informado de que unos 40 presos políticos han sido entrevistados o sometidos a chequeos médicos en las cárceles en los últimos días, un hecho que en su opinión podría indicar que se prepara una excarcelación masiva. La última palabra la tiene el presidente Raúl Castro, con quien Moratinos tiene previsto reunirse antes de regresar a Madrid, a pesar de que la cita no figura en el programa oficial.

Dissident on hunger strike in danger of dying, Cuba says

2010-07-06T19:48:00.000-07:00

Los Angeles Times
July 6, 2010

A prominent Cuban dissident on a hunger strike has developed a blood clot that could kill him, Cuba's government said in an unprecedented official report in the Communist Party state-run newspaper. Here's the report in state-run Granma, in Spanish, headlined "Fighting for life is our responsibility." (The English version of the site does not appear to have the article posted.) In the report, a doctor who has been treating Guillermo Farinas said the dissident is fed nutrients intravenously and has gained weight since being admitted to the Arnaldo Milian Castro University Hospital in the city of Santa Clara. But infections and a recent clot that could block the flow of blood to his heart is putting Farinas's life in danger, Dr. Armando Caballero said. The Granma story fills two pages in the eight-page newspaper but does not mention that Farinas is on a hunger strike to demand the release of political prisoners in Cuba. The 48-year-old psychologist and journalist began the hunger strike Feb. 24; he was moved March 11 to the Milian Castro hospital, where he has access to a telephone line and a television. The dissident has carried out 22 hunger strikes in the last 15 years, reports said. He has vowed to remain on hunger strike until all political prisoners and dissidents in Cuba are released. Cuba usually ignores calls to release dissidents but has faced increased international pressure and protests on the island from the "ladies in white." The movement of mothers and wives of jailed dissidents grew after the February death of another hunger-striker, Orlando Zapata. Late last month the Cuban government released one dissident, Darsi Ferrer. Ferrer had been jailed for 11 months for allegedly buying black-market cement. Critics said his punishment was excessive. "The entire Cuban population buys black-market goods," economist Oscar Espinosa Chepe said.

-- Daniel Hernandez in Mexico City

Spain's FM in Cuba as hunger-striker nears death

2010-07-06T19:37:00.000-07:00

By Rigoberto Diaz
HAVANA (Agence France Press)

July 5, 2010 — Spain's top diplomat rushed to Havana in a bid to save the life of a hunger-striker who is defying the communist government and demanding that sick political prisoners be freed. In Madrid, Spain's leading daily El Pais said Foreign Minister Miguel Angel Moratinos, who arrived in Cuba late Monday, believes the communist government will gradually begin releasing all political prisoners, starting with 26 who are in poor health, as a result of his visit. Releasing the sick, jailed dissidents would meet the top demand of seriously ill hunger-striking Cuban activist Guillermo Farinas, a psychologist and online journalist who has put his life on the line in a high-stakes clash with the Americas' only one-party Communist regime. In unprecedented coverage of a dissident's protest, the Communist Party daily Granma reported Saturday Farinas could soon die -- without mentioning his hunger strike seeking freedom for jailed dissidents has left him near death. Farinas, 48, hit back against Cuban government authoritarianism and repression in a statement released on an opposition blog Monday, complaining sarcastically: "they forgot to explain why it is I am on a hunger strike." In any case, "the only people who will be responsible for my death are brothers (former president) Fidel and (President) Raul Castro," Farinas said. "I want to die in my country right under the noses of the dictators who have the guns, rifles, cannons and bombs. I have the moral weight of the people from below, who have been deceived and repressed for 51 years by those who have the weapons, the violence and totalitarian laws they use to govern poorly from above," Farinas added. Moratinos is to hold talks with his Cuban counterpart, Bruno Rodriguez, and the archbishop of Havana, Jaime Ortega. But a meeting with Cuban President Raul Castro "is not yet confirmed," the Spanish foreign ministry has said. The visit comes after Havana said at the weekend that dissident Farinas is close to death after 132 days on a hunger strike.

While Moratinos is not scheduled to meet with Farinas, the Spanish diplomat told a news conference Monday that his delegation would be in touch with the dissident's entourage "and will express our conviction that the best thing for everyone would be for him to end this hunger strike. "We think that (Farinas) should already feel satisfied with his aims and that he should work, as we are all doing, to improve human rights in Cuba," he said. "I obviously have other objectives on this visit to Cuba which make it worthwhile and can lead to results and help all the citizens of Cuba," he said. Farinas stopped taking food the day after leading dissident Orlando Zapata died on February 23 as the result of an 85-day hunger strike. The international outcry over both hunger strikes and pressures from the Catholic Church led the Castro regime last month to free a paraplegic dissident and transfer 12 other prisoners to jails closer to their homes. The Cuban Human Rights and National Reconciliation Commission (CCDHRN) -- an outlawed but tolerated group -- estimates there are 167 political prisoners in the Caribbean nation of more than 11 million people. The group's leader, Elizardo Sanchez, said "there is a high likelihood" Havana will set free 30-40 political prisoners in coming "days or weeks." "There are a lot of signs inside the prisons, They are getting medical checkups and being asked in prison if they want to leave the country," Sanchez said. Spanish media have reported France and Italy would take released prisoners, but officials believe most would depart for the United States. Chile also has said it would take in some of those freed. Cuban authorities consider the dissidents a threat to national security, and claim the prisoners are "mercenaries" on Washington's pay, out to smear the Cuban government.

Drilling off Cuba could be sticky proposition

2010-07-06T19:32:00.000-07:00

By Christine Stapleton

The Seattle Times (Cox Newspapers)

WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. — Despite the warnings of Dick Cheney, George Will, Rush Limbaugh and Fox News, the Russians are not drilling for oil off Cuba. Neither are the Chinese. In fact, no one — not even Cuba — is drilling for oil off Cuba. The pesky and persistent rumor, bubbling back up with the Deepwater Horizon disaster, is still nothing more than a pesky and persistent rumor — aired in 2008 by former Vice President Cheney (who got the misinformation from conservative columnist Will), repeated on Fox News and recently revived by conservative radio commentator Limbaugh, who told his listeners 10 days after the spill: "The Russians are drilling in a deal with the Cubans in the Gulf. The Vietnamese and Angola are drilling for oil in the Gulf in deals with the Cubans. "However, as oil from BP's exploded well continues surging from the Gulf floor and washing onto Panhandle beaches, the rumor is poised to become fact. Repsol, a Spanish company, expects to begin drilling off Cuba in 2011, according to published reports and oil-industry analysts. Companies from at least 10 other countries, including Russia and China, are negotiating or already have signed lease deals to drill off Cuba. Should the United States be concerned about drilling off Cuba? Yes, according to Jorge Piñon, former president of Amoco Oil Latin America and now a visiting research fellow with the Cuban Research Institute at Florida International University. "Let's face it, the oil industry is a risky enterprise and there is always concern for a Deepwater Horizon incident," Piñon said. But he added: "If we are going to be afraid of drilling off Cuba, we need to be afraid of the 3,500 rigs drilling in the Gulf of Mexico. "How much oil lies beneath Cuban waters is unknown. Only one exploration well has been dug and hydrocarbons were detected. A U.S. Geological Association survey indicated there are significant reserves. The troubling question for companies hoping to drill is what to do with the oil after they get it out of the ground. Cuba has limited ability to refine oil. The embargo bans U.S. companies from refining Cuba's oil, and two other large refineries in the Caribbean are owned by U.S. companies: Hess in St. Croix, Virgin Islands, and Valero in Aruba. Venezuela's refineries are "maxed out," Piñon said. "Oil has zero value unless you can turn it into gasoline or diesel," Piñon said. "Where are they going to refine it?"

Politics could force an answer to that question. Lifting the embargo and allowing U.S. companies to profit from refining Cuban oil is one option. Another is to continue the embargo and risk Cuba strengthening its friendships with U.S. foes. A refinery on Cuba's northern coast is being built by a partnership between Venezuela and Cuba. "People say they (Cuba) can't or shouldn't do it (drill for oil). Well, forget it," Jones said. "It is going to happen, and you guys in Florida can't stop it, and the U.S. government can't stop it, but you'd better think of a way to deal with it." Zones established by maritime law in 1977 gave the United States and Cuba special rights of exploration and navigation in the Florida Straits.

The boundary of Cuba's Exclusive Economic Zone extends to within 45 miles of Key West. The parcels within the zone that Cuba has leased for drilling are along Cuba's northwest coast — about 65 miles south of Key West. By comparison, the Deepwater Horizon well, as much of a concern as it is to South Florida officials, is 800 miles away. Oil from a spill off Cuba could much more quickly enter the Florida Straits and blanket the Keys and South Florida as it is pulled north on the Gulf Stream. "It's ironic that we have been worried about them drilling when it is us that we had to worry about," said Kirby Jones, president of Alamar Associates, a consulting firm specializing in trade with Cuba. The Deepwater Horizon disaster has forced politicians, policy makers and petroleum companies to rethink how an oil spill off Cuba would play out, Jones said.

Politics, geography and long-standing grudges would make responding to a spill from Cuba much more complex. The 48-year-old Cold War era embargo against Cuba would bar U.S. companies from providing equipment, technology, advice, vessels or personnel to stop and clean a spill off Cuba. "Today, if Mexico or the Bahamas or Canada have a spill, all they have to do is call Houston and in a matter of hours they have access to submarines, skimmers and blowout preventers," Piñon said. "With Cuba, that is not the case. "Wayne Smith, a former chief of the U.S. Interests Section in Havana — the equivalent of ambassador — recently traveled to Cuba with a group of lawmakers from Texas to discuss hurricane preparedness. Conversations quickly turned to the oil spill. With oil from U.S. waters heading toward Cuba and Cuba poised to begin offshore drilling, now would be a good time for the United States to rethink its relations with Cuba and the embargo, Smith said. "Certainly you could make arrangements and exceptions to the embargo," Smith said. "Cuba seems to have the same effect on American administrations as the moon used to have on werewolves."

Can the internet bring change to Cuba?

2010-07-06T19:17:00.001-07:00

Daniel Wilkinson
The New York Review of Books
July 6, 2010

Cuban blogger Reinaldo Escobar (center) and other dissidents, being harrassed by pro-government supporters during a protest march, Havana, November 20, 2009

For decades, the Castro government has been very effective in repressing dissent in Cuba by, among other things, preventing its critics from publishing or broadcasting their views on the island. Yet in recent years the blogosphere has created an outlet for a new kind of political criticism that is harder to control. Can it make a difference?

There are more than 100 unauthorized bloggers in Cuba, including at least two dozen that are openly critical of the government. The best-known blog, Generation Y, gets more than a million visitors a month and is translated into 18 languages. Its author, thirty-four-year-old Yoani Sánchez, has won major journalism awards in the US and Europe and in 2008 Time Magazine named her one of the world’s 100 most influential people. Sánchez has set up a “blogger academy” in her apartment, and she helped found the Web site, Voces Cubanas, which hosts the work of thirty independent bloggers.

Like other government critics, these bloggers face reprisals. Last November, for example, Sánchez reported being detained and beaten by Cuban security agents. Weeks later, her husband and fellow blogger, Reinaldo Escobar, was subject to an “act of repudiation” by an angry mob of government supporters on a Havana street. Such public harassment, as Nik Steinberg and I reported in our recent New York Review piece is commonly used against “dissidents” on the island, along with police surveillance, loss of employment, and restrictions on travel. (The Cuban government requires its citizens to obtain permission to leave the island, and those marked as “counterrevolutionaries” are generally denied it.) And then there is the perennial fear of the “knock on the door”—as Sánchez puts it—announcing the beginning of an ordeal that has been endured by countless critics: arrest, a sham trial, and years of “re-education” in prison. Cuba has more journalists locked up than any other country in the world, except China and Iran.

Policing the Internet, however, is not so easy. The Cuban government controls the island’s Internet servers, just as it controls the printing presses and broadcasting transmitters. But the inherent porousness of the Web means that anyone with an Internet connection can disseminate new material without prior approval. The government can block the sites it does not like (as it blocks Generation Y in Cuba, for instance), but it cannot stop other sites from springing up to replace them.

The biggest challenge for Cuban bloggers isn’t outright censorship. It’s simply finding a way to get online. To set up a private connection requires permission from the government, which is rarely granted. Public access is available only in a few government-run cybercafés and tourist hotels, where it costs approximately five US dollars an hour, or one-third of monthly wage of an average Cuban. As a result, bloggers often write their posts on home computers, save them on memory sticks, and pass them to friends who have Internet access and can upload them—for example workers in hotels and government offices. Others dictate their posts by phone to friends abroad, who then upload them through servers off the island.

No amount of resourcefulness, however, can change the fact that most people in Cuba are unable to access even the unblocked blogs. Indeed, the bloggers themselves are not always able to read their posts online. Some have never even seen their own sites.

Still, by reaching large audiences abroad, the critical blogs pose a threat to the Cuban government’s international image—which explains why the government and its supporters have reacted so virulently, attempting to discredit the bloggers as pawns or even paid mercenaries in the service of US imperialism. Granma, the official state news organ, published an article in its international edition dismissing Generation Y as “an example of media manipulation and interference in the internal affairs of a sovereign nation.” The editor of the pro-government blog Cubadebate, put it this way: “the United States has been waging economic and political warfare against [Cuba] for the past 50 years. And this is just the latest form of that warfare.”

Yoani Sánchez herself, when asked by another blogger about the “external factors” that had contributed to Generation Y’s popularity, acknowledged that attention by The Wall Street Journal and other foreign publications had helped bring new visitors to her site. “But,” she went on, “what happened was the readers came and they stayed. Users could have come once and not come back. Press coverage doesn’t make a site.”

So why do the readers come back?

I asked the Cuban novelist José Manuel Prieto what the bloggers’ appeal was for Cuban exiles like himself. “First, it’s their moderation,” he said. “They criticize the Cuban government without calling for its overthrow.” Indeed, Sánchez, Escobar, and others are unequivocal in their condemnation of the US embargo toward Cuba, a position that until recently was taboo within much of the exile community. In late May, for example, a group of Cubans, including Sanchez, Escobar, and several other bloggers from Voces Cubanas, signed a public letter to the US Congress, urging support for a bill to lift travel restrictions to Cuba.

But more than their politics, Prieto said, what’s appealing is their measured tone. Sánchez herself puts it this way: “I have never used verbal violence in my writings. I have not insulted or attacked anyone, never used an incendiary adjective, and that restraint may have garnered the attention and sympathy of many people.” Ironically, the bloggers’ moderation may be their most subversive quality. It makes it harder for the Castro government and its supporters to dismiss them as right-wing ideologues.

If these blogs are to serve as a catalyst for change, however, it will not be by influencing Castro sympathizers, who are less likely to read them anyway. Instead it will be their growing audience within the exile community, whose leaders have largely shaped US policy toward Cuba. Like the Cuban leaders, the anti-Castro hardliners have sought to discredit opposing views by questioning the motives and allegiances of those who hold them. They accuse critics of the US embargo of ignoring the Castros’ repressive policies. But this charge does not work with the independent bloggers in Cuba who question US policy. For not only are these writers themselves victims of the repression, they are today among its most credible witnesses.

Whether the bloggers can ultimately influence US policy is an open question. In any case, their objectives appear to be more modest—and more profound. They are not polemicists or pundits so much as poets and storytellers. They are less concerned with proposing new policies than chronicling the costs to ordinary people of the repressive policies already in place. The bloggers’ ability to evoke the realities of daily life in Cuba, Prieto says, is another principal source of their appeal.

Here is Sánchez describing one of Havana’s many sex workers:

With a tight sweater and gel-smeared hair, he offers his body for only twenty convertible pesos a night. His face, with its high cheekbones and slanted eyes, is common among those from the East of the country. He constantly moves his arms, a mixture of lasciviousness and innocence that at times provokes pity, at others desire. He is a part of the vast group of Cubans who earn a living from the sweat of their pelvis, who market their sex to foreigners and locals. An industry of quick love, of brief caresses, that has grown considerably on this Island in the last twenty years.

Here she recounts the daily chore of getting water:

I still remember how annoyed my grandmother was when I told her I couldn’t take it anymore, having to use the bathroom when there was nothing to flush with. Then we had to pull up the bucket on a rope from the floor below, helped by a pulley installed years before on the balcony. This up-and-down ritual has continued to multiply until it has become standard practice for thousands of families. In their busy daily routine they set aside time to look for water, load it and carry it, knowing that they cannot trust what comes out of the taps.

Another blogger, the forty-year-old novelist, Ángel Santiesteban, records the struggle over scarce bread outside a bakery:

When the bread comes out of the oven, the mobilization starts, disorganized shoving…. Everyone shouts, offended if someone tries to join an acquaintance in the line or tries to sneak into a possible gap with the objective of cutting in; but the violators don’t listen, the insults don’t matter, hunger is worse than shame, and they keep on pushing.

Claudia Cadelo, the twenty-seven-year-old author of the blog Octavo Cerco, begins a post with this account:

I met him when I was eighteen: intelligent, tall, good looking, mulatto, bilingual and a liar. He said he was an Arab and that was a lie, he told me he had traveled and that was a lie, he told me he had a “yuma” girlfriend who was going to get him out of the country, and that too was a lie. But I liked him anyway, I like dreamers. We became friends.

Then life took us on two different paths: I got tired of waiting for a way to leave the country [after having been refused permission to do so]; while he chose the infinite wait. Once or twice a year we see each other, every time we are further apart: I deeply enmeshed in the thick of things, he waiting and waiting.

The post then takes us up to the present. The friend, now fifty, is still waiting, his old lies exposed, his charm long gone.

He is not alone, the “infinite waiting” has claimed almost all of my friends—the petition, visa, permit to leave, permit to live abroad, permit to travel or scholarship—everyone is waiting for that paper that will take them far away, very far from The Land of No-Time…I have come to define it as a physical and spiritual state: you haven’t gone, but you are not here.

Sánchez tells the story of a man who made his living repairing damaged books. One day the man opened a large volume that had been sent for restoration and discovered inside a “detailed inventory of all the reports that the employees of a company had made against their colleagues.” It was, Sánchez writes, a “testimony, on paper, of betrayals.”

As in the plot of Dangerous Liaisons, in one part it could be read that Alberto, the chief of personnel, had been accused of taking raw material for his house. A few pages later it was the denounced himself who was relaying the “counterrevolutionary” expressions used by the cleaning assistant in the dining room. The murmurs overlapped, producing a real and abominable spectacle in which everyone spied on everyone. Maricusa, the accountant—as witnessed by her office mate—was selling cigars at retail from her desk, but when she wasn’t involved in this illegal work she turned her attention to reporting that the administrator left some hours before closing. The mechanic appeared several times, mentioned for having extramarital relations with a woman in the union, while several reports against the cook were signed in his own hand.

Some of the most telling posts probe the bloggers’ own reactions to the limits the government has placed on their freedoms. In one, Sánchez describes how she was unable to obtain copies of her own book, a compilation of her blog postings published in Chile, which she had hoped to distribute among her friends on the island. Instead, she received a note from the customs office explaining that the shipment of books had been confiscated on the grounds that the “content goes against the general interests of the nation.” In the post, she imagines what might have gone through the minds of the agents who confiscated the books and concludes:

If three years of publishing in cyberspace would serve to bring my voice only to these grim censors, I would have sufficient reason to be satisfied. Something of me would remain inside them, Just as their repressive presence has marked my blog, pushing it to leap toward freedom.

Here Cadelo reflects on her failed effort to obtain a visa to travel abroad:

Today I look at my refusal of permission to travel and it gives me peace: I was not hurt, not surprised. It is the long line that I have been drawing of my path, it’s the certainty that I wasn’t wrong, it’s the proof that the Cuban government has taken the trouble to tell me so I will know—despite the Party and its State, the security forces and their impunity—that I have managed to live as a free woman.

The paradoxical satisfaction both bloggers describe reflects a sense of vindication: The government’s confiscation of Sanchez’s book and denial of a visa for Cadelo confirms their work—not only the truth of what they write but the fact that, in the government’s own estimation, their blogs matter.

Yet there appears to be something even more basic here: the satisfaction of discerning the value of things as perhaps only someone who is deprived of them can. To a large extent this is what these blogs are: chronicles of deprivation. What appears to affect these bloggers most acutely is being deprived of ways to discuss and disagree about their country’s problems. When they manage to initiate such debate—even if it takes place in a forum that is inaccessible to most Cubans—their enthusiasm is palpable.

The bloggers of Voces Cubanas. Many Cubans are unable to access their own blogs.

Here is Sanchez’s answer to the question of why readers of her blog keep coming back:

[T]hey feel that Generation Y is a public place or a neighborhood where they can sit and talk or argue with a friend. And they have stayed there, right up to today. In this very moment my blog is alive, while I am sitting here, talking to you. People are recounting, narrating, publishing, and that is the most important kind of wealth there is.

Indeed, the posts on Generation Y routinely elicit thousands of comments from readers, most of them abroad. Some are angry diatribes. Some display the familiar intolerance of ideologues insisting on adherence to their beliefs. Most, however, are from people eager to contribute their own observations and commentary—and their own stories and vignettes—to this new “public place.” This open dialogue is a historic achievement for Cuba, and it is only possible thanks to the Internet. Yet the bloggers themselves have only limited access to this conversation, and most other Cubans on the island still have none.

One of the more moving passages I’ve come across in Generation Y over the past few months follows an interview with a Spanish journalist. Here is Sánchez, one of the world’s more influential bloggers, describing what appears to be her first encounter with the iPhone earlier this year. The passage conveys the playfulness and yearning that make her voice of moderation so appealing:

Between the walls of this house, which had heard dozens of Cubans talk of the Internet as if it were a mythical and difficult-to-reach place, this little technological gadget gave us a piece of cyberspace. We, who throughout the Blogger Academy, work on a local server that simulates the web, were suddenly able to feel the kilobytes run across the palms of our hands. I had the desperate desire to grab [the Spanish journalist’s] iPhone and run off with it to hide in my room and surf all the sites blocked on the national networks. For a second, I wanted to keep it so I could enter my own blog, which is still censored in the hotels and cybercafés. But I returned it, a bit disconsolate I confess.

For a while on that Monday, the little flag on the door of my apartment asking for “Internet for Everyone” did not seem so unrealistic.

July 6, 2010 2:15 p.m.

Entrevistas a Dr. Darsi Ferrer y a Juan Juan Almeida

2010-06-30T13:32:00.000-07:00

Entrevistas a Dr. Darsi Ferrer y a Juan Juan Almeida

Cuba - Telecoms, Mobile and Broadband

2010-06-30T13:23:00.000-07:00

Paul Budde
Communication Pty Ltd., March 2010,
Table of Contents

The Cuba - Telecoms, Mobile, and Broadband profiles the fixed-line, mobile and broadband markets in Cuba. Cuba still has the lowest mobile phone penetration in Latin America, one of the lowest levels of Internet penetration, and is among the five lowest in terms of fixed-line teledensity. Cubas fixed-line services remain a monopoly in the hands of government-controlled Empresa de Telecomunicaciones de Cuba SA (Etecsa), while mobile services are provided exclusively by Cubacel, a subsidiary of Etecsa.There remains substantial state control over the right to own and use certain communications services, including the right to access the Internet. The Obama administration has recently relaxed some of the embargo rules pertaining to telecommunications, in an attempt to improve freedom of communication and information for Cubans. Despite this, and although Raul Castro is more reform-minded than was his brother Fidel, the genuine liberalisation of Cubas telecommunications sector is expected to occur slowly over the next five to ten years.Market Highlights:In mid-2009 the Obama administration issued new policies in relation to US-Cuban relations, half of which related to the telecommunications sector. The steps were prefaced by a statement from the Obama administration saying it aimed to promote the freer flow of information to the Cuban people.For instance, the Obama administration said it would forthwith authorise US telecoms companies to establish themselves in Cuba, whether that be by way of establishing telecommunications facilities, roaming agreements with Cuban service providers, or transactions leading to the provision of satellite radio and television services. The US administration would also allow US residents to enter into service agreements with telecoms companies providing services to Cubans, as well as allowing the donation of certain telecommunications devices to Cuba without a licence.By early 2010 it was still unclear whether the Cuban government would approve of the US policy steps.In October 2009 the US government gave permission to a small Miami-based company called TeleCuba Communications to lay the first fibre-optic cable connecting the USA and Cuba. The project, which in early 2010 was still awaiting approval by the Cuban government, would cost around $18 million, financed by private investors, and would result in an 8Tb/s-10Tb/s capacity cable which could be operational by mid-2011. In addition to the US initiatives, stimulus for reform may also be aided by recently improved bilateral relations with Russia. In March 2010 Cuba and Russian signed a telecommunications pact in which the two countries agreed to jointly develop information technology. As part of the pact, delegates from both countries would also evaluate other possibilities for cooperation in the areas of radio spectrum, telecommunications and professional training.In the meantime, the substantial gap between Cubas mobile penetration, which stands at around 6% as at early 2010, and the rest of Latin Americas, which averages above 80%, continues to widen.Data in this report is the latest available at the time of preparation and may not be for the current year.

Cuba sets free Darsi Ferrer in Havana

2010-06-23T10:28:00.001-07:00

Taken from "beforerumors.com" from June 23, 2010 post

The Cuban prisoner Darsi Ferrer is already released. After spending 11 months on remand and numerous protests by his situation, so yesterday was tried by a court in Havana, coinciding with the unprecedented process of open dialogue between the Cuban Catholic Church and the government of Raul Castro, now has allowed the release of political prisoner Ariel Sigler Amaya. Ferrer was arrested in 2009 for an alleged crime of illegal purchase of construction materials, and prosecutors asked for him three years in prison for “receiving” and “bombing.” The court sentenced him to 15 months, but allowed him to perform on his home the four remaining months of sanction under the regime of “probation.”
The dialogue between the Church and the regime has helped release. “It was the predictable,” he said yesterday human rights activist Elizardo Sanchez. For him, the release of Ferrer “deals” with the process of dialogue between the Church and the Government, even though his case is different from that of prisoners of conscience from the Group of 75. “The current line of the government is leaving the problem of prisoners,” he says, after stating that there will be “more prisoner releases and movements” in the coming weeks. Ferrer is a doctor, is 40 and began military opposition a decade ago. He became known for its street actions, especially the marches organized in a central park in Havana 10 December to mark the World Day of Human Rights. For his opposition activities was arrested on numerous occasions, but the arrests were always short. It was only the July 21, 2009. That day he was detained and questioned about the provenance of some building materials seized in a pre-registration at home. Ferrer was charged with receiving, for having “illegally acquired” two bags of cement, aluminum windows and several plates of iron which would reform the home. In addition, the office was accused of an attack by an alleged physical assault on a person in your neighborhood. During the 11 months he spent in prison, Ferrer made several protests and hunger strikes to demand that his trial. In early 2010, Amnesty International declared him a prisoner of conscience. The resolution of the case Ferrer takes place in a special moment, when the Catholic Church stars in a mediation process that has already yielded its first fruits. Ariel Sigler Amaya, the first of those released, received last week a U.S. humanitarian visa to receive medical attention. Might be the way to continue other released, according to some analysts.

"Reporters without Borders" Statement on Dr. Darsi Ferrer

2010-06-23T09:46:00.000-07:00

Wednesday, June 23, 2010
From the Paris-based Reporters Without Borders:Dissident doctor and reporter paroled after nearly a year in pre-trial detentionDarsi Ferrer, a dissident public health activist who contributes to independent news media, was finally tried yesterday on charges of "irregularities" and "assault" and was granted a conditional release after being held without trial since July 2009.A physician who heads the independent "Juan Bruno Zayas Health and Human Rights Centre," Ferrer upset the authorities by gathering and disseminating information about the current state of the Cuban health system and the situation of political prisoners.Ferrer had been held in Valle Grande prison, west of Havana, since his arrest on 21 July 2009, for which the official reason was his "illegal" acquisition of building materials to repair his house. Prosecutors requested a three-year jail sentence, but the court sentenced him yesterday to 15 months and said he could serve the remaining four months under house arrest."We are obviously relieved by Ferrer's release even if he was finally given a jail sentence to match the time he already had spent behind bars," Reporters Without Borders said. "No one is fooled about the real reason for his detention as this is a country in which the authorities tolerate no public expression of dissenting views. His release was not in any way an act of clemency or, even less so, a sign of an improvement in respect for basis rights and freedoms."Cuba still has approximately 200 prisoners of conscience, who include 24 journalists. One of them is the Reporters Without Borders correspondent Ricardo González Alfonso, who has been held since the "Black Spring" crackdown of March 2003.Dissidents continue to be the target of harassment, repression and hate campaigns by the authorities and their supporters. Hablemos Press, a small independent news agency, reported that two more journalists, José Manuel Caraballo Bravo and Raúl Arias Márquez of the Agencia de Prensa Libre Avileña (APLA), were arrested on 21 June.Reporters Without Borders reiterates its appeal to the community of Latin American countries to intercede on behalf of Cuba's imprisoned journalists and dissidents, some of whom have fallen seriously ill since their arrest.

Dr. Darsi Ferrer's Story in Pictures
Outside of a courthouse in Havana, a crowd awaits the arrival of Cuban pro-democracy leader and political prisoner, Dr. Darsi Ferrer, demanding his release.

"Surrounded by Cuban state security, Dr. Ferrer smiles at the crowd. After 11 months of imprisonment without trial, Dr. Ferrer's wife and supporters are relieved by his release and placement under house arrest.
The "L" stands for "Libertad" ("Freedom").According to Dr. Ferrer, his release "is due in large measure to international pressure, to the courage of the opposition, to the overwhelming needs of the Cuban people that don't have the possibility of a dignified life amidst this [regime's] unsustainable failures."

Cuba, Vatican say talks on dissidents continuing

2010-06-16T18:09:00.000-07:00

By PAUL HAVEN (AP)
June 16, 2010
HAVANA — Cuba and a top Vatican official expressed optimism Wednesday that landmark negotiations between the church and Raul Castro's government will continue and indicated they could produce more breakthroughs on the treatment of dissidents and political prisoners. The comments by Archbishop Dominique Mamberti, the Vatican's foreign minister, and his Cuban counterpart were the latest signal that a month-old dialogue that has already led to the release of an ailing prisoner of conscience and the transfer of 12 others to jails closer to their homes is gaining strength. "The dialogue that is happening now makes us happy, and I hope that it will be strengthened through my visit," Mamberti said at a joint news conference with Cuban Foreign Minister Bruno Rodriguez. "I think it is important ... to see the fruits" of such talks. Rodriguez applauded the role the Church has been playing on the island, and said all signs point to more dialogue.
"We have held fluid and profoundly productive talks," he said. "We appreciate the constructive role of the Church in these matters and we think that all conditions exist ... for these fruitful exchanges to continue." Neither spoke of any concrete steps that would see the release of more of Cuba's 180 political prisoners. Mamberti said he had no plans to meet with dissidents, though he did not rule it out. The Vatican official arrived in Havana on Tuesday, ostensibly to celebrate the 75th anniversary of relations between Cuba and the Vatican. He is also scheduled to attend discussions on the island's economic plight and efforts to bridge the divide between Cubans and exiles in the United States and elsewhere. The church has traditionally been cautious in dealing with Cuba's communist government since relations improved in the 1990s. That changed dramatically in May, when Havana Cardinal Jaime Ortega intervened in a standoff between the government and the Ladies in White, a group of mothers and wives of some of the 75 activists jailed in a 2003 crackdown on dissent. On May 19, Ortega and another church leader held a four-hour meeting with President Castro, emerging optimistic that the government was prepared to make concessions to the dissidents. Prisoner transfers began June 1, and on Saturday Cuba released Ariel Sigler, a 44-year-old inmate paralyzed from the waist down who was serving a 25-year sentence for treason. Critics say the government's concessions have been underwhelming so far, but church leaders have consistently urged patience, saying there is no deadline for progress.
While Cuba has welcomed the Church's role, it made clear this week that it did not appreciate a running commentary on the talks from the outside — particularly Washington.
After State Department spokesman P.J. Crowley issued a mostly upbeat statement saying the United States viewed the release of Sigler as "a positive development" and hoped it would lead to the release of others, Cuba reacted strongly.
"Cuba doesn't recognize any authority by the State Department or its spokesman to pass judgments on internal matters," Josefina Vidal Ferreiro, director of the Cuban Foreign Ministry's North American affairs office, told The Associated Press late Tuesday. "Moreover, the United States doesn't have moral authority to give lessons to anyone." Cuba and the United States have been at odds since shortly after the 1959 triumph of Fidel Castro's revolution. Cuban authorities consider the dissidents to be a mixture of common criminals and agitators funded by Washington to destabilize the country. At Wednesday's news conference, Rodriguez also brought up the case of Alan Gross, a U.S. government contractor arrested in December on accusations of spying. Gross has been held without charge for six months, and American officials have made clear that relations cannot improve until his case is resolved. Rodriguez said Gross had been detained for "committing grave crimes in our country at the service of the subversive policy of the United States against Cuba." He said Gross was still under investigation and gave no indication of when he might be charged, adding that the prisoner had been given repeated access to consular officials, offered legal representation and allowed to speak with his relatives. "The legal situation of Mr. Gross has conformed strictly with Cuban criminal procedures," Rodriguez said.

Cuba preparing for possible arrival of oil spill

2010-06-16T06:27:00.000-07:00

By ANDREA RODRIGUEZ (AP) – 18 hours ago

HAVANA — Cuba's civil defense chief said Tuesday that authorities are preparing coastal residents for the oil spill fouling the Gulf of Mexico, and a top military official said its possible arrival would be "a disaster." It still is unclear whether some of the millions of gallons of spilled crude will reach Cuba, though government scientists appeared on state television within days of the April 20 rig explosion that touched off the spill to say the island was not immediately at risk. So far there has been no apparent impact on tourism to the island's breathtaking north coast beaches. "In Cuba we have had small spills involving tankers on our coasts, but we've never had to confront anything of this magnitude," Gen. Ramon Espinosa, vice minister of the armed forces, said at a government meeting on natural disaster preparedness. "Nonetheless we are documenting and studying. We are preparing with everything in our power." Espinosa provided no details on preparations, but added that "for Cuba it would be a disaster" if the spill hits. Some oil has already reached the coast of Florida, and scientists worry that crude will get caught up in the loop current, a ribbon of warm water that begins in the Gulf of Mexico and wraps around Florida. U.S. and Cuban officials have put aside nearly 50 years of frigid relations to hold working-level talks on how to respond. Espinosa said he had no information on any concrete cooperation. Speaking on the sidelines of the same event, Ramon Pardo, head of Cuban civil defense, also said he could not comment on discussions with Washington. But Pardo said Havana "is taking all precautions: the preparation of the coast, vigilance, creating all necessary conditions, preparing the people who live on the coasts that could be impacted." Both Espinosa and Pardo said the island will rely on the expertise of Venezuela, one of Cuba's top allies and a major oil producer.

Un Presidio Plantado, Part 9

2010-06-15T18:52:00.001-07:00

Un Presidio Plantado, Part 8

2010-06-15T18:50:00.001-07:00

Un Presidio Plantado, Part 7

2010-06-15T18:48:00.001-07:00

Un Presidio Plantado, Part 6

2010-06-15T18:46:00.001-07:00

Un Presidio Plantado, Part 5

2010-06-15T18:43:00.000-07:00

Un Presidio Plantado, Part 4

2010-06-15T18:39:00.001-07:00

Un Presidio Plantado, Part 3

2010-06-15T18:36:00.000-07:00

Un Presidio Plantado, Part 2

2010-06-15T18:35:00.001-07:00

Un Presidio Plantado, Part 1

2010-06-15T18:32:00.001-07:00

Espionaje cubano en Quintana Roo, Mexico

2010-06-07T14:41:00.000-07:00

La Vanguardia (Mexico)
02-Junio-2010
La detención del candidato de la izquierda a la gubernatura de Quintana Roo Gregorio Sánchez, abrió una ventana inesperada: la penetración de la inteligencia cubana en México, que se ha venido dando de manera ininterrumpida desde que el ex gobernador Mario Villanueva organizó el tráfico de cubanos a México en los 90 en sociedad con Roberto Robaina, quien fue canciller del régimen castrista. Robaina cayó de la gracia del comandante Fidel Castro porque convirtió ese contrabando en un negocio personal. Las redes del espionaje cubano se reforzaron desde que el presidente Vicente Fox —manipulado por sus principales asesores en política exterior— inició un rompimiento descuidado y poco inteligente con La Habana. El resultado fue el cambio radical de la vieja regla de oro de que a cambio de no cerrar espacios políticos para Cuba en territorio mexicano, no se mezclarían en los asuntos internos del país. En el gobierno de Felipe Calderón, la secretaria de Relaciones Exteriores Patricia Espinosa regresó la diplomacia a ortodoxia, con el agravante de que su obsesión por mejorar la relación bilateral con Cuba no ha pasado de ser un buen deseo.
Las torpezas en el manejo de la relación bilateral con Cuba y los enfrentamientos públicos entre Fox y Castro, propiciaron que desde finales de 2001 el régimen cubano tuviera una participación activa en asuntos mexicanos. El punto más álgido de esa relación se dio a propósito de todo el largo episodio de los llamados “videoescándalos”, que fueron una serie de grabaciones que hizo secretamente el empresario Carlos Ahumada y que después quiso vender a cambio de protección al gobierno de Fox, con la intermediación del ex presidente Carlos Salinas y de su influyente amigo panista Diego Fernández de Cevallos. Por sugerencia del entonces gobernador de Michoacán, Lázaro Cárdenas, Ahumada viajó a Cuba desde un mes antes de que se dieran a conocer los videos en marzo de 2004, ayudado por el embajador cubano Jorge Bolaños, con quien tenía una estrecha relación. Bolaños, muy cercano a Fidel Castro, arregló que recibieran a Ahumada en una casa de seguridad en La Habana, al cuidado del teniente coronel Francisco Miguel Estrada Portales, segundo de la policía política. Lo que hicieron con él fue ponerle enfrente una cámara para que comenzara a platicar todo el episodio de los videos, que tenía como propósito descarrilar la candidatura presidencial de Andrés Manuel López Obrador. Ahumada dijo tiempo después que fue torturado psicológicamente por los cubanos, pero diplomáticos cubanos dijeron otra cosa: “El problema era callarlo”. El hecho es que videograbaron alrededor de 40 horas donde revela los detalles de porqué realizó las grabaciones, porqué se las entregó a Salinas, cómo y en qué términos habló con Martha Sahagún en Los Pinos, cómo se planteó la protección con el procurador general Rafael Macedo, cómo blindaríaHacienda sus cuentas y propiedades, y cuánto le iban a pagar porellas. Con ese material enviados de La Habana viajaron a México.
Se trató de José Arbezú Fraga, jefe del Departamento de América Latina del Comité Central del Partido Comunista. El consejero político de la Embajada cubana, Orlando Silva, histórico jefe de la inteligencia de La Habana en México, los llevó con varios políticos a espaldas del gobierno mexicano. La conversación principal fue con López Obrador. Lo vieron en una oficina donde había varios colaboradores del entonces jefe de Gobierno del Distrito Federal y le ofrecieron entregarle todas las grabaciones con Ahumada, para defenderse del gobierno de Fox. López Obrador se negó, y les dijo que no quería esos materiales. Ninguno de ellos sabía que esa conversación estaba siendo grabada por el CISEN, y que fue la base para que el Gobierno mexicano declarara persona non-grata a Silva, y expulsara a Bolaños de México. La inteligencia cubana tuvo un serio revés con la salida de Silva, y su capacidad de inteligencia en México se tuvo que reconstruir.
De muy bajo perfil en los últimos años volvió a aparecer su mano estos días tras la detención de Sánchez en Cancún, tras el hecho que Jesús Ortega, líder nacional del PRD y amigo personal del candidato a gobernador, decidiera utilizar a la esposa del político-empresario detenido por presunto lavado de dinero y vinculación con el narcotráfico, Niurka Sávila, como vocera en su defensa. Desde la semana pasada autoridades federales comenzaron a dar detalles sobre Sávila. Lo más sorprendente fue que es hija de un coronel muy cercano a Raúl Castro, actual gobernante de Cuba, adscrito al Ministerio del Interior y miembro de los eficaces servicios de inteligencia. La señora Sávila ya fue confrontada en entrevistas sobre el tema, y lo único que no ha admitido es que su padre sea miembro de los servicios de inteligencia. Pero la ficha abre toda esa variable al caso de Sánchez.
Los servicios de inteligencia cubanos están bajo sospecha de que están utilizando los canales del tráfico de cubanos hacia Estados Unidos para infiltrar agentes, sobretodo porque varias de sus redes más profundas han sido descubiertas y desmanteladas en los últimos años. La utilización de las bandas de tráfico de personas son usadas también por terroristas y narcotraficantes, que en los últimos años ha generado gran preocupación en Washington. Hasta dónde llegará este nuevo episodio del espionaje cubano en México no se sabe. Pero que se les abrió un nuevo boquete, profundo, no hay duda, en el campo económico y en el político.

rrivapalacio@ejecentral.com.mx

Cuba moves political prisoners closer to home

2010-06-04T10:38:00.000-07:00

Jeff Franks and Rosa Tania Valdes

June 1, 2010 (Reuters) - The Cuban government began moving political prisoners to jails closer to their homes on Tuesday in a modest humanitarian gesture promised in recent talks with the leader of Cuba's Catholic Church, human rights advocates and church officials said. Family members said they hoped the transfers were a first step toward freedom for some of the island's 190 imprisoned dissidents. The Catholic Church said in a statement that six men, who were among 75 government opponents jailed in a 2003 crackdown, were in the process of being transferred to prisons nearer their families in various Cuban cities. Another move was confirmed by the prisoner's family, bringing the known total to seven so far. Families of the jailed dissidents had complained that it was difficult to visit them in distant prisons.

It was not known how many prisoners would be moved, but Elizardo Sanchez of the independent Cuban Commission on Human Rights said as many as 17 have been in jails far from home.
President Raul Castro promised the moves in a May 19 meeting with Cardinal Jaime Ortega, in what was seen as a concession ahead of a mid-June visit by Vatican foreign minister Dominique Mamberti. Catholic officials said Castro also pledged that ailing prisoners would be moved to hospitals. At least 26 prisoners are said by human rights advocates to be in ill health.
Some reports said Castro indicated an unknown number of prisoners may be released, but the government has only confirmed that he met with Ortega. Julia Nunez told Reuters she had received word that her husband, Adolfo Fernandez, was among those being moved to a Havana prison from his current jail in the central city of Ciego de Avila.

LIGHT AT END OF TUNNEL

"I am very happy. It's a small light at the end of the tunnel," she said. Berta Soler, a leader in the "Ladies in White" dissident group whose husbands and sons were jailed in the 2003 crackdown, said the moves were a hopeful sign. "This is a window, a door that is opening," said Soler, whose husband, Angel Moya Acosta, is serving a 20-year sentence. "I think some of the most ill may be released." More than 50 of the 75 people jailed in 2003 remain behind bars. Sanchez downplayed the moves, saying they were "irrelevant" because they were simply "changing the prisoners from one jail to another." He said only the freeing of all Cuban political prisoners would be considered a "significant" step forward. But dissident Guillermo Farinas, now in the 98th day of a hunger strike seeking the release of the 26 ailing political prisoners, called the government's action "laudable." He said if the government releases 10 or 12 of the sick prisoners, he might call off his fast, which has prompted international criticism of Cuba's human rights record.

Farinas, who is receiving liquids intravenously in a hospital, has refused to eat or drink since the February death of imprisoned hunger striker Orlando Zapata Tamayo, who demanded better prison conditions and whose demise also brought condemnation of Cuba. The government concession to dissidents was the second brokered in recent weeks by the church, whose influence has been restricted since the 1959 revolution that transformed Cuba into a communist state.
Officials tried last month to stop the Ladies in White from making the weekly protest marches they have staged for seven years, bringing in pro-government mobs to harass them for hours.
But they allowed the marches to go on after Ortega intervened. Cuban leaders say dissidents are mercenaries working to undermine the government.

Cuba 'moves political prisoners closer to their homes'

2010-06-04T10:35:00.000-07:00

2 June 2010

A prisoners' wives group has kept up pressure on the government

Cuba has begun transferring several of the country's 200 political prisoners to jails closer to their homes, according to relatives and campaigners.

Human rights activist Elizardo Sanchez said the relocation of dissidents had begun, while the Archbishop of Havana's office said so far six had been moved. Officials agreed to relax the prison regime after talks with Church leaders. There was no immediate official confirmation from the Cuban government. There has been pressure on the Cuban leadership to improve conditions for political prisoners since the death in February of hunger strike protester Orlando Zapata.
He was the first Cuban activist to starve himself to death in protest in nearly 40 years.
As part of the recent agreement, the government also said it would move sick dissident prisoners to hospital and committed to stop harassing the prisoners wives' group, the Ladies in White, who would be allowed to continue their weekly protest march. However, the Cuban authorities deny that the men are political prisoners, calling them mercenaries paid by the US to undermine the system. Amnesty International considers 65 of them to be "prisoners of conscience".

The BBC's Michael Voss in Havana says Mr Sanchez's human rights group, the Cuban Commission on Human Rights and National Reconciliation, is illegal but tolerated by the country's Communist authorities. Mr Sanchez said the families of four men had been told by the authorities they would be moved to jails closer to home. Felix Navarro and Antonio Diaz, who were sentenced to 25 and 20 years and jailed in the central province of Ciego de Avila, had been taken to jails in Matanzas and Havana City, he told the AFP news agency. Diosdado Gonzalez, serving a 20-year sentence, was sent from Pinar del Rio in the west to his home province of Matanzas, Mr Sanchez added. The archbishop's office also named Jose Luis Garcia, Ivan Adolfo Hernandez and Arnaldo Ramos.

Cuba to improve conditions of prisoners: source

2010-05-24T06:27:00.000-07:00

Reuters, May 22, 2010

Cuba has agreed to move political prisoners held in far-off jails to facilities closer to their hometowns and transfer sick prisoners to hospitals, a dissident said on Saturday, following talks between Catholic Church leaders and President Raul Castro this week.

Guillermo Farinas, on a hunger strike for 88 days demanding ill prisoners be released, told Reuters in a telephone interview that he received the news from a bishop who visited him in the hospital where he is being fed intravenously. A Catholic Church source, speaking on condition his name not be used, confirmed what Farinas said. "Everything appears that is what will happen," he said. Cardinal Jaime Ortega and Archbishop of Santiago de Cuba Dionisio Garcia, who heads the Cuban Bishops' Conference, held a four-and-a-half-hour meeting with Castro in Havana on Wednesday which they both described as positive. Farinas said Prelate Juan Dios Hernandez, the auxiliary bishop of Havana, brought him the message from Ortega after the cardinal was informed by the government that measures were being taken as agreed in the meeting. "These are first the transfer of all the prisoners to their respective provinces of residence, and the transfer also of all sick prisoners to hospitals," Farinas said. He said he was told a second meeting would be held next week toward "resolving the situation of the prisoners." There was no immediate word from Cuban officials. Wednesday's meeting was the Cuban Catholic Church leaders' first talks with Castro since he took over the presidency of the Communist-ruled island from his ailing elder brother Fidel Castro in 2008.

"The Church is interested in there being some kind of relief in the situation of the prisoners, which could include the freeing of some of them, and that is what we're talking about," Ortega said during a news conference on Thursday. He said the subject was being discussed seriously, but neither he nor Garcia offered specific details of what steps the Cuban government might take over the political prisoners. The cardinal added the talks would continue. The rare meeting, which received wide coverage in the official media, followed Ortega's successful mediation between the Communist authorities and female relatives of imprisoned dissidents earlier this month hat allowed them to resume weekly marches without being harassed by government supporters. The Vatican's foreign minister, Archbishop Dominique Memberti, is due to visit the island next month as Cuba is facing increasing economic difficulties and international attention on human rights abuses in the country. Political prisoner Orlando Zapata Tamayo died in February after a hunger strike. Memberti is expected to press authorities to release political prisoners whom the government brands as mercenaries and subversives in the pay of the United States. Local human rights organizations put the number of political prisoners in Cuba at around 200, while Amnesty International says there are around 60 prisoners of conscience.

Cuba's Castro meets Catholic Church leaders

2010-05-24T06:22:00.000-07:00

BBC, May 20, 2010

Cuban President Raul Castro has held a rare meeting with leading members of the Catholic Church. Mr Castro met Cardinal Jaime Ortega, head of the country's Church, along with Archbishop Dionisio Garcia of Santiago. Wednesday's talks touched on the sensitive issue of imprisoned political dissidents, Church sources said, without providing details. This comes ahead of a visit next month by the Vatican's foreign secretary. Dissidents hope that the visit of Archbishop Dominique Memberti could lead to the release of some political prisoners, says the BBC's Michael Voss in Havana. The official Communist party newspaper - Granma - said the discussions had covered relations between Church and state, as well as international and domestic issues. 'Small steps' Archbishop Garcia, the head of Cuba's bishops' conference, was cautious when asked whether the discussion might lead to an agreement to free dissidents. "There will be a process and this process has to start with small steps and these steps will be made," he was quoted as saying by AFP. "We hope that the conversation will go in that direction." Earlier this month Cardinal Ortega successfully mediated between the Cuban authorities and a group of wives and female relatives of imprisoned dissidents, known as the Ladies in White. That resulted in the group being allowed to resume their Sunday marches in Havana free from harassment by government supporters. In the early days of the revolution, Cuba officially became an atheist state, but relations with the Church have been steadily improving since Pope John Paul II's historic visit in 1998.

Cuban Cardinal and President Castro in rare meeting

2010-05-24T06:17:00.000-07:00

Cuban President Raul Castro held a rare meeting on Wednesday with leaders of an increasingly active Roman Catholic Church to discuss international and domestic issues, the official media reported on Thursday. The meeting followed Cardinal Jaime Ortega's successful mediation between Communist authorities and female relatives of imprisoned dissidents earlier this month. That resulted in the group, known as the Ladies in White, resuming Sunday marches along a main Havana avenue free from harassment by government supporters. "During the meeting various issues of mutual interest were analyzed, in particular the favorable development of relations between the Catholic Church and Cuban state and the current international and domestic situation," the official media said in a communique. It was accompanied by photographs of Castro with Ortega and the head of the Catholic Bishops Conference, Archbishop Dionisio Garcia. The Vatican's foreign minister, Archbishop Dominique Memberti, is due to visit the island next month amid increasing economic difficulties and international attention on human rights abuses in Cuba. Dissident hunger striker Orlando Zapata Tamayo died in February and another, Guillermo Farinas Hernandez, has been hospitalized since March. Memberti is expected to press authorities to release political prisoners whom the government brands as mercenaries and subversives in the pay of the United States. "This is the first time the conference has had such a high level meeting," Jose Feliz Perez, spokesman for the bishops conference, told Reuters. "It was especially relevant in the context that the church has recently been working to mediate solutions to a number of difficulties in society." In an April interview with the Archdiocese of Havana's magazine, Palabra Nueva (New Word), Ortega said economic woes and accusations of human rights abuses had placed Cuba in "a difficult situation, the most difficult we have experienced in the 21st century." He criticized authorities for moving too slowly on economic reforms and mistreating dissidents. But he also said the international reaction to human rights abuses was overblown and aggressive. Laura Pollan, leader of the Ladies in White, termed the meeting "very important" in the context of the efforts to free jailed dissidents and Memberti's visit. "If only all this could prove successful and lead to the freeing of prisoners," she said. Relations between the Church and Cuba's government have been marked by bitter recriminations in the past, but have steadily improved since the 1990s, especially after a visit by Pope John Paul II in 1998.

Letter from Cuba: Orlando Zapata

2010-04-08T10:47:00.000-07:00

Una reflexión sobre Zapata

Estimados compañeros:

Me llamo Daniel y vivo en Cárdenas, Matanzas. Trabajo en turismo y por eso he podido ver en estos días todo el debate que se ha levantado a raíz de la muerte del preso Orlando Zapata. Lo he visto en CNN en Español y Televisión española. También he leído algunos periódicos porque en los hoteles tenemos internet. He leído artículos escritos por intelectuales extranjeros, disidentes cubanos, amigos de la revolución, enemigos. A raíz de todo eso, y de las cartas que andan circulando por ahí, me gustaría compartir una reflexión con ustedes. Yo no soy nadie, ni actor ni cantante ni figura pública, tampoco intelectual, pero si sirve de algo, antes de dedicarme al turismo hice la carrera de sociología, soy militante del Partido y miembro de la asociación de Combatientes de la Revolución por haber cumplido misión internacionalista en Etiopía.

Lo primero que quiero contarles es que la muerte de Zapata me ha dejado muy confundido. Al margen de que Amnistía Internacional diga que era un preso de conciencia y nuestro gobierno insista en que era un preso común, Zapata ha muerto por una huelga de hambre. Porque se negó a comer. He pensado mucho en eso. ¿Qué le pasa por la mente a una persona para hacer algo así? Yo no lo sé, pero reconozco que en este país ningún disidente había llegado tan lejos. Al menos que yo tuviera noticia. El Granma ha dicho que Zapata hizo la huelga porque quería un televisor, un teléfono y una cocina en su celda. Que alguien muera por eso sólo admite dos lecturas, o Zapata estaba loco o el Granma miente. Ciertamente la locura podría explicar todo esto, pero si Zapata tuviera antecedentes psiquiátricos, no tengo duda de que el Granma los habría publicado. Así que no me queda más remedio que asumir que este señor no murió por un televisor. Murió por otra cosa. No sé cuál. Dicen que lo manipularon, y seguramente haya algo de verdad en eso, pero convencer a alguien para que se deje morir no debe ser fácil. Ni es tan simple.

Aquí siempre nos han dicho que los disidentes son mercenarios, pero un mercenario no hace eso. Los mercenarios cobran y viven. Los mercenarios no se inmolan por una idea (por muy ridícula que sea), por eso los terroristas de Al Qaeda no usan mercenarios sino fanáticos. ¿Era Zapata un fanático? ¿Un fanático de qué, de la contrarrevolución? No sé qué pensar, porque un fanático no surge de la nada, necesita un caldo de cultivo. ¿Existe en la Cuba de hoy ese caldo de cultivo que genera fanáticos? Sería realmente preocupante. Y una señal muy grave del estado de las cosas. Ya sé que la muerte de un solo hombre no tiene por qué significar nada. Puede ser un hecho aislado. O no. Mientras escribo esto hay otros dos disidentes que también se han declarado en huelga. Y uno de ellos está ingresado. ¿Qué pasará si mueren? ¿Serán otros dos mercenarios aislados, dos pobres víctimas manipuladas?

Lo bueno de hacerse viejo (yo tengo 44 años) es que uno tiene una memoria enorme de las cosas que ha visto. Yo estos días me acuerdo mucho de algo que pasó hace casi treinta años… En 1981 diez presos del ejército republicano irlandés (IRA) se declararon en huelga de hambre en sus cárceles de Gran Bretaña. Muchos cubanos no se acordarán, pero entonces el tratamiento que se le dio en la televisión nacional fue de respeto y admiración. Desde que falleció el primero; Bobby Sands hasta que murió el último; Mickey Devine, todos sus nombres fueron mencionados en el noticiero de las ocho como una forma de mostrar la represión política que entonces ejercía Margaret Thatcher sobre Irlanda del Norte.

No intento comparar Cuba con Irlanda. Pero sí me llama la atención que aquellos huelguistas (algunos de ellos condenados por delitos de terrorismo en los que fallecieron inocentes) merecieran tanta gloria, y los que tenemos aquí sólo desprecio. ¿Por qué? ¿Porque supuestamente son delincuentes comunes, porque son cubanos, porque están contra el gobierno? Soy consciente de que el mero hecho de plantearme esto me coloca en el bando del enemigo. Pero yo no soy el enemigo. Cuestionar la versión oficial de quién era Orlando Zapata no significa que comparta sus ideales (que desafortunadamente ni siquiera conozco). A mí la revolución no me educó para convertirme en una persona insensible, ni en una máquina de repetir consignas (aunque lo han intentado). Yo creo que si un cubano muere de huelga de hambre tengo derecho a exigir respuestas claras y convincentes.

Además, no es la primera vez que me cuestiono una versión oficial. Ni la primera vez que la rechazo. Antes he contado que pasé dos años en Etiopía, en la brigada que apoyaba al gobierno de Mengistu Haile Mariam. Los que estuvimos allí sabemos quién era ese señor, y las barbaridades que hacía en su país. Era obvio que aquello no tenía nada que ver con el socialismo sino con prácticas de un gobernante feudal, pero aunque todos en la brigada éramos conscientes de lo que pasaba (incluidos los jefes de misión) la versión oficial siguió insistiendo en que apoyar a Mengistu era bueno para la causa revolucionaria, pero poco después de que Cuba retirara sus tropas (no el apoyo político) Mengistu huyó de Etiopía en un avión cargado de dinero. Hoy vive en Zimbawe y está acusado en su país de genocidio. Repito: GENOCIDIO. Cuando lo supe, en 1991, me dio rabia por tantos compañeros que fueron a Etiopia a luchar por una causa justa y murieron apoyando a un genocida que hoy vive de su cuenta en Suiza .

Aquella vez mi gobierno se equivocó. Como se ha equivocado muchas veces. Por eso tengo que decirlo; soy cubano, soy revolucionario, pero apoyo incondicional no. Me niego a confiar ciegamente en un sistema que a veces dice la verdad, a veces sólo media verdad, y a veces miente. Como todos los gobiernos del mundo, dirán algunos. Pero éste es el mío, éste es el que me exige cerrar filas sin hacerme preguntas, sin cuestionar qué está pasando en la sociedad cubana para que un preso muera de huelga de hambre.

A mí me enseñaron que en Cuba las huelgas de hambre las hacían los revolucionarios contra Batista. ¿Qué está pasando aquí para que ahora hagan huelga los gusanos? ¿Qué tendría Zapata en la cabeza para que no le baste con ser mercenario, para que elija morirse? Yo creo que para responder a eso tenemos que dejar de mirarnos el ombligo y ser autocríticos.

Hay que cuestionar las cosas, compañeros, porque eso es lo que hace un revolucionario. Y no se le puede llamar mercenario a todo el que lo haga. Algunos lo son, no tengo dudas, pero todos no. Yo no tengo buena opinión de los disidentes porque, en primer lugar, sólo sé de ellos lo que me cuenta el Granma, y segundo porque me siento lejos de personas que defienden posturas conservadoras que llevarían este país a un extremismo de derechas, justo aquello contra lo que siempre he luchado, pero tengo que reconocer que algunas de las cosas que dicen tienen razón. ¿Eso me convierte en disidente? Rotundamente no. Entonces, ¿Dónde está la línea? Por ejemplo, exigir responsabilidades políticas porque en Mazorra han muerto de frio treinta enfermos mentales de los que nadie se ocupó, ¿Eso es hacerle juego al enemigo? Quejarnos de que en los hospitales no haya higiene, o que no podamos salir del país sin permiso ni tener acceso a internet, ¿eso es de revolucionarios o de mercenarios? Lamentar que en mi país exista una ley de peligrosidad, copiada del régimen fascista de Franco, que condena a las personas “proclives” a cometer un delito (sin haberlo cometido aún), ¿Eso es de gusanos o de comunistas? Sinceramente no lo sé.

No sé dónde quejarme, dónde lamentar, dónde exigir. No sé con quién tengo que hablar. ¿Con mi núcleo del partido, con mi presidente del CDR, con el delegado de mi circunscripción? ¿Con el Granma? Créanme que ya lo he hecho y no ha servido para nada. Entonces, ¿Dónde canalizo mi vergüenza? ¿En el Miami Herald? Les voy a contar de qué se habló en la última reunión de mi núcleo del partido; de retirarle el carné a un compañero porque había pedido la nacionalidad española. De eso se habló.

Cuando veo el noticiero me indigno porque siento que me tratan como si tuviera diez años y viviera en la luna. Yo no vivo en la luna. Yo vivo en Cuba y sé lo que pasa. Y me indigna que me digan que un preso ha muerto porque quería un televisor.

Yo no sé lo que quería Orlando Zapata con su huelga, pero sé lo que quiero yo: soluciones a los problemas de mi país. Y podemos buscarlas o decirle al mundo que la culpa de todo la tienen los yanquis y los mercenarios, podemos intentar arreglar esto entre nosotros o mentirnos diciendo que no pasa nada, que la juventud está comprometida, que nuestro pueblo cada día es más heroico y viril, que somos la referencia del mundo, que la calle es de Fidel…

Y sí, mi calle hace cincuenta años que es de Fidel, y no tiene bombillas porque se las roban los de la empresa eléctrica (esos sí son mercenarios), se inunda siempre que llueve y necesita asfalto.

Así que ustedes dirán,

Revolucionariamente,

Daniel

Part 2 Friends of Orlando Zapata

2010-04-08T10:30:00.000-07:00

Part 1 Friends of Orlando Zapata: Raúl Arencibia Fajardo

2010-04-08T10:25:00.000-07:00

Cuban dissident: Government lying about case of political prisoner

2010-03-25T14:15:00.001-07:00

CNA STAFF, Mar 18, 2010 / 02:15 pm (CNA).- In an interview with CNA, the president of the Christian Liberation Movement in Cuba, Oswaldo Paya, offered encouragement to those struggling for democracy in the country and accused the government of spreading lies about the recent death of prisoner of conscious, Orlando Zapata Tamayo. Referring to the plight of prisoners of conscience, Paya remarked that they “are treated like common prisoners” and are “abused and harassed” right in front of government officials. These prisoners are held “often far from their families, in conditions of extreme overcrowding, with barely enough water to drink,” said Paya adding that they “have to use paper or bags when they go to the bathroom.” These conditions they face are in addition to the “systematic beatings and abuse they receive, such as the case was with Orlando Zapata,” Paya said. Speaking about Zapata, who recently died, Paya explained that he was first sentenced “to three years in prison,” and after being “subjected to arbitrary trials” he was “sentenced to 36 more years.” Because of this oppression, he said, “Zapata declared a hunger strike. He was put in a prison, in a cell that was truly like a cage. We even received reports that they left him without any water for several days.” Paya said hunger strikes are sort of an “act of desperation because the prisoner has no other recourse and for this reason his demands must be supported.” When “a prisoner declares a hunger strike we must ask that his demands be met, which is different than the lies that the Cuban government has spread that are an insult to people’s intelligence. We must ask for a more decent treatment, for more respect of the human being.” He then reported there are some 200 political prisoners in Cuba, and that the government paints them as dangers to society in order to avoid the appearance of incarcerating them for political reasons. “They are considered to be delinquents and agents of imperialism ... In this case the political motives were the defense of human rights, the proposal for peaceful change, the denunciation of human rights violations, the organizing of peaceful civic movements to promote dignity, rights and information.” “This is what Stalin, Hitler, Franco, Pinochet, Saddam Hussein did, and it’s what the government of Fidel and Raul Castro are doing,” Paya said.

Dissident encourages dignity and rights for Cubans

2010-03-25T14:11:00.000-07:00

CNA STAFF, Mar 22, 2010 / 11:56 am (CNA).- In an interview with CNA, the president of the Christian Liberation Movement, Oswaldo Paya reiterated the need for a democratic change in Cuba and called on the international community to support this peaceful struggle without ideological bias. In the second part of his interview with CNA, Paya spoke of the complicated situation on the island that has caused some to lose hope. “First of all, our call is that people, whether they are believers or not, discover that they have the God-given capacity to be free. That is, they are born free and with rights. We say: Cubans have a right to rights.” “And we are sowing hope not in a foreign power nor in the demise of a dictator,” but we tell people to “discover your own dignity, discover your own rights and show solidarity out of love for your neighbor.” “In other words, the source of this liberation is not hatred, nor the desire to destroy others, but rather love, the unselfish love of oneself.” Referring later to the Varela Project, an initiative of the Christian Liberation Movement, Paya explained that it proposes “asking Cubans in a referendum whether or not they want these changes." The project, he continued, “is a peaceful path but it gives citizens the power, it gives citizens the ability to participate in public and economic life and vote on changes. Let the people be the ones to decide what is good, what they want, but above all in an atmosphere of reconciliation, in an atmosphere of brotherhood. This is very important, because we don’t want liberation resulting from a brother against brother confrontation.” “We don’t see the Christian Liberation Movement as the interpreter of the gospel ... but we do get light from the gospel, recognizing each human being as our brother. For this reason our motto is, ‘Cubans All, Brothers All, and Now Freedom’,” Paya said. He added that the central point of solidarity lies in “the liberation of all political prisoners. Why? Because they are prisoners for defending these rights. They are prisoners for calling for these peaceful changes, and nothing else.” “Let us seek out the truth together. Nobody has a monopoly on the truth. The truth is in God and we are all children of God. God gives freedom to human beings – to those who believe or do not believe,” Paya continued. “For this reason we speak in terms of liberation, not through violence or through hatred, but through the restoration of liberation, dignity, and the rights of each human being,” he concluded.

Biosketch: Cardinal Jaime Lucas Ortega y Alamino

2010-03-25T14:04:00.000-07:00

Cardinal Jaime Lucas Ortega y Alamino, Archbishop of San Cristóbal de La Habana (Cuba), was born in Jagüey Grande in the diocese and province of Matanzas, Cuba, on 18 October 1936. His father was first a worker in the sugar factory close to the village where he was born, and subsequently a shop-keeper. When he was five years old, his family moved to the city of Matanzas. There he completed his compulsory education at the prestigious school Arturo Echemendía. He completed his higher education at the Advanced Institute for Secondary Studies of Matanzas, a state-run student centre. He earned a diploma in arts and sciences in 1955 and after one year at the university, entered the diocesan seminary of San Alberto Magno, directed by the Fathers of the Foreign Mission of Quebec.
After four years studying humanities and philosophy, the Bishop sent him to study theology at the seminary of the Foreign Mission in Quebec, Canada. He then returned to Cuba and was ordained priest on 2 August 1964, in the Cathedral of Matanzas. His ministry as Coadjutor Vicar of Cárdenas was interrupted in 1966 when he was detained in work camps known by the initials UMAP. In 1967, at the end of his imprisonment, he was appointed parish priest of Jagüey Grande, his native town. Like all parish priests in Cuba during this period when priests were few and far between, he was in charge of several parishes and churches. In 1969 he was appointed parish priest of the Cathedral of Matanzas. Responsible for the parish of Pueblo Nuevo in the city and another two churches outside it, at the same time he was also President of the Diocesan Commission for Catechesis and maintained an active apostolate with the youth of the Diocese. In those years, very difficult for the Church's pastoral activities, he founded a youth movement, which included among the various forms of the apostolate summer camps for young people and evangelization by the means of theatricals, performed by the young people themselves. For several years, in addition to his pastoral activities in the city of Matanzas, he taught at the Sts. Charles and Ambrose interdiocesan seminary in Havana, which he visited once a week to give courses in moral theology. On 4 December 1978, John Paul II named him Bishop of Pinar del Rio. He was consecrated on 14 January 1979 in the Cathedral of Matanzas, and on 21 January he took possession of his diocese. Three years of pastoral work in a deeply religious Catholic Diocese with a very committed and participative laity left an indelible mark on the soul of the Bishop who was promoted to the Archdiocese of Havana as Archbishop on 20 November 1981. On 27 December he took possession of this new See. He was in charge of pastoral activities for 13 years in this Archdiocese. He created new parishes, set up the Diocesan Council for Pastoral Initiatives, rebuilt more than 40 churches and parish houses, founded a priests' residence for the priests of the Diocese and of the whole of Cuba for meetings, retreats or simply for holidays, created a lay centre for meetings with a library, chapel and guest rooms, built two centres for meetings and conferences especially for youth. These are some of the principle initiatives undertaken by the Archbishop who always showed special interest in the laity and above all, in young people. In 1991 he set up Caritas in Havana, thus founding Caritas Cuba. The Archbishop's chief concern was for vocations to the priesthood. In the course of his episcopal mission, Archbishop Ortega ordained 22 Cuban priests; a modest but significant number in a country where the Church's pastoral action has always been considerably curtailed. Thanks to his homilies, the archdiocesan monthly bulletin Aqui la Iglesia and other speeches and messages, he made himself known to the people in his archdiocese who listened to his opinions and followed his guidance despite the fact that the Church in Cuba has no access to the media. In 1988 until November 1998, he was President of the Cuban Conference of Catholic Bishops. In this capacity, he took part in the fourth General Conference of the Latin-American Bishops in Santo Domingo. From 1995 to 1999, he was the Second Vice President of the Latin American Episcopal Council (CELAM). From December 2001 until February 2006, he served his fourth time as President of the Cuban Conference of Catholic Bishops. Has received degrees Honoris Causa from the Barry and St. Thomas Universities (Florida), University of San Francisco (California), Providence College (Rhode Island) and Boston College (Massachusetts). January 2001, Honoris Causa doctorate, St. John’s University (New York). Created and proclaimed Cardinal by John Paul II in the consistory of November 26, 1994, of the Title of Sts. Aquila e Priscilla.
Curial membership:
Clergy (congregation)
Health Care Workers (council)
Latin America (commission)

Cardinal Ortega: Church in Cuba “is alive and united with her people”

2010-03-25T13:48:00.000-07:00

Havana, Cuba, Jan 9, 2008 / 08:04 pm (CNA).

In an extensive interview with the magazine “Espacio Laical,” published by the Archdiocese of Havana, Cardinal Jaime Lucas Ortega said the Church in Cuba is “alive and united with her people.” Speaking with reporter Lenier Gonzalez Mederos on the occasion of the 10th anniversary of John Paul II’s visit to Cuba, the cardinal noted that during the first few years after the Castro revolution, the Church experienced a drop in the number of priests and personnel and a lack of resources to carry out her mission. The focus was mainly on internal Church affairs, the sacraments and the spiritual, moral and material support of the Catholic communities, he explained. However, “in 1981 the Church in Cuba began to develop what was called the Cuban Ecclesial Reflection program, which was carried out over five years and ended with the National Cuban Ecclesial Encounter in 1986.” That event “opened doors” and “breathed a new spirit into the communities,” the cardinal said. “Our faithful needed to understand this and come out from the fold and the Church needed to recognize that the Church has a mission that is not limited to the confines of the sacristy.”

“The Catholic faithful,” he added, “has progressively understood that the Church has an irreplaceable mission to carry out here, and the State has also progressively accepted and understood the mission of the Church, which is not limited just to worship.” Pope John Paul’s visit to Cuba was a consequence of the “enthusiastic and coherent attitude of all the bishops of Cuba. At that time we acted as one, with great determination and enthusiasm to make the Pope’s visit a reality,” Cardinal Ortega said. The visit required intense coordination with local officials, he went on, and thus it became clear that it was possible to participate in society and live together “without giving rise to conflict.”

“The whole time the Pope was in Cuba, the gestures of the people were very significant. The reception by the people surpassed our expectations,” the cardinal said. “One day,” he recounted, “the Pope told me as we were coming back: ‘These people are intelligent. They applaud the concepts and not just the way a speech sounds’.”

Evaluating the current situation in Cuba, Cardinal Ortega pointed out that Cuban culture is essentially Christian but that during the last 50 years there has been an attempt to erase Christianity in the country—“through a very strong Church-State separation.” Today the new generations of Catholics are called to insert themselves into society, he said, and “this is something the Church should foster.” Cardinal Ortega acknowledged that the concept of “national reconciliation” is “a term that many times cannot be used in Cuba,” because it is often a politically charged idea that “refers to the possibility of reconciling ideologies.” However, “people can be reconciled. I believe that we can reach that kind of fraternity through personal dialogue. We’re not talking about dialogue between Church and State leaders, but rather dialogue between the diverse political sectors,” the cardinal stated. As reconciliation between people spreads, he emphasized, “other situations, including political ones, will improve.” Finally, Cardinal Ortega stressed that with the historic papal visit, “The Church made our society known to the entire world: The Catholic Church was there, she was alive and she was united with her people,” he said.

Cuba eyes foreign investment to halt sugar decline

2010-03-25T10:36:00.000-07:00

Reuters
Thu Mar 25, 2010 9:54am EDT
* Talks with foreign investors advancing: sourcesBonds
* Joint administration of mills on the table
* U.S. embargo, national pride seen as obstacles
* First such projects since 1959 revolution

By Marc Frank
HAVANA, March 25 (Reuters) - Cuba may open sugar production to foreign investors for the first time since the 1959 revolution as it seeks to reverse the once proud industry's relentless decline, business sources said this week. Talks between investors and the government have come and gone with little result for years, but what is shaping up as perhaps the island's worst harvest in a century has increased interest in bringing foreign partners, the sources said.
Their money and management know-how could help revive a sugar industry that has collapsed from neglect and the decapitalization of mills and plantations, local experts and foreign traders said. President Raul Castro, who took over from ailing brother Fidel Castro two years ago, is trying to right communist Cuba's cash-strapped economy by increasing exports and cutting imports.
Sugar, once the driver of Cuba's economy, now accounts for less than 5 percent of Cuba's foreign earnings, but prices have been driven up by ethanol demand, so Cuba is turning to it once again.
A Cuban source with knowledge of the sugar industry said the government has been seriously exploring foreign participation for several months. "The executive Committee of the Council of Ministers approved plans to pursue talks last November, and again this year to sign administrative agreements," the source said. Foreign banking and other business sources confirmed talks were advancing toward agreements that would have investors jointly administer several mills and share in the production for a limited number of years. The sources would not name the various companies involved or provide further details. Similar agreements already exist in the citrus industry, where Panama-based Israeli investors jointly operate juice plants with the government.
U.S. HELMS-BURTON LAW
Theoretically, the state-run sugar industry has been open to direct investment since 1995, but in practice there has been little interest on the government's part except in a few joint ventures making sugar derivatives such as alcohol and parts used in sugar processing, the sources said.
A big obstacle is the U.S. Helms-Burton law, which penalizes investment in properties expropriated from U.S. owners and contains a yet-to-be implemented chapter allowing Cuban-Americans to sue investors who "traffic" in their expropriated properties. All but eight of Cuba's mills were built before the revolution and therefore nationalized, and most plantations are lands expropriated by the government after Fidel Castro took power in 1959. Foreign investors are forbidden by law to own land in Cuba, and do not need to own anything for the proposed sugar ventures, said a local economist. "There is little need for investors to own land. In fact, it is in their interest to simply administer mills, provide farmers with technology packets and process the cane," he said.
Cuba was once the world's biggest sugar exporter with raw output reaching 8.1 million tonnes in 1989, but the industry went into decline after Cuba's top ally for 30 years, the former Soviet Union, collapsed in 1991. The Soviet Union paid padded prices for Cuban sugar to boost the island's economy, so its demise hit Cuba and the sugar industry hard. Cuba shut down and dismantled 71 of 156 mills in 2003 and relegated 60 percent of sugar plantation land to other uses. More mills have closed since then, with just 44 mills open this season. Another 20 have been maintained in working condition for future use. Only 1.7 million acres (700,000 hectares) of the over 5 million acres (2 million hectares) once controlled by Cuba's Sugar Ministry are currently dedicated to sugar cane. Cuba planned to produce 1.3 million tonnes of raw sugar this season, but milling problems and low yields have resulted in a shortfall of more than 100,000 tonnes to date. With the harvest scheduled to end by May, Cuba is in danger of reaching its lowest output since 1908, when 1.2 million tonnes of sugar were produced.

Can Cuba’s Mysteries Help Save the World’s Coral Reefs?

2009-11-12T10:15:00.000-08:00

by Ocean Doctor
July 18, 2008

Until that tranquil morning in late June 1974, the sum total of my SCUBA diving experience had been in a landlocked state, in a stifling, moldy indoor YMCA pool in the Philadelphia suburbs and a Pennsylvania quarry, flooded with icy soup-green water. Barely comprehending the new world of pungent humidity, mountainous afternoon cumulus clouds, and lush tangles of flowering succulents I experienced at water’s edge during my first visit to the Florida Keys, I was wholly unprepared later that morning when I found myself seated in sugar-white sand with 40 feet of warm, clear aquamarine water above my head. As impossibly multi-colored fish passed slowly within reach before my wide 15-year-old eyes, my gaze broadened as I marveled at the towering jetties of coral around us, living layer cakes of corals upon corals, brown and mustard rock-like structures, encrusted with brilliant red, violet and orange coralline fans and branches, swaying in the warm, nourishing current and, like eager spring blossoms, reaching toward the dancing sunlight scattered on the surface above. Even in those first minutes face-to-face with a coral reef, the enormity of what I was witnessing was clear to me. I remember thinking, “There’s a whole living world going on down here, and we don’t know anything about it.” While I may have suspected in those moments that I would dedicate my career to something having to do with the oceans, I never would have dreamed that more than three decades later I would be literally immersed in some of the most important work of my life just 90 miles to the south of where I was seated beneath the waves.

Last week, as I departed Ft. Lauderdale and the 11th International Coral Reef Symposium, the world’s largest coral summit held every four years, the news was sobering. One-third of the world’s corals are well on their way to outright extinction, and the rest are threatened with, among other things, the indignant end of simply dissolving away, as increasing carbon dioxide in the atmosphere from fossil fuel emissions enters the oceans, raising their acidity to the point where any ocean creature with a calcium carbonate shell — from corals to clams — succumbs to the acid waters. When my daughter was 15 and floated above that same reef I had experienced, it had become a pale shadow of the miracle of nature I had so delighted in. Nearly half the corals in the Florida Keys have died in my lifetime. Some are bleached bone white, others shackled in diseased bands of black. Many more lie smothered in broad blankets of algal slime which have robbed the reef of its rainbow of colors, leaving a lifeless green-gray skeleton where countless diversity once eeked from every imaginable crack and crevice. As I beheld this tragic image, little did I imagine that important clues to saving this reef and many more like it around the Caribbean and the world, might lie just 90 miles to the south.

I now sort through assorted dive gear, video equipment, and sunscreen preparing for my 37th visit to that magical place 90 miles to the south, to an island larger than all the other Caribbean islands combined, to an island whose coat of arms bears a key — “llave del golfo“, the key to the Gulf of Mexico — a subtropical nexus where the waters of the Caribbean Sea, Gulf of Mexico and the Atlantic Ocean intertwine in a sublime undersea cocktail of diversity, color and mystery. Our fourth joint expedition of Proyecto Costa Noroccidental (Project of the Northwest Coast) — a project of the University of Havana’s Center for Marine Research (Centro de Investigaciones Marinas: CIM) and the Harte Research Institute for Gulf of Mexico Studies at Texas A&M University-Corpus Christi — will continue our ongoing project to explore the most unknown corner of the Gulf of Mexico: Cuba’s northwest coastal waters.

A green sea turtle hatchling at Cuba's westernmost point, Guanahacabibes

It is often said that those 90 miles of open water south of the Florida Keys — the Straits of Florida — separate Cuba and the USA. Like a hand-drawn blue borderline, the Straits are often invoked as a symbol of the 50-year-old Cold War that has frozen our two countries so tantalizingly close, yet so tragically far apart. But to the sea turtles, sharks, lobster, whales and other sea life, those same 90 miles of blue unite our countries with racing blue currents, unseen underwater pathways, and a web of colorful life that defies the perceptions of so many of the Gulf of Mexico, who know it only as a hot, muddy cauldron that spawns hurricanes and oil platforms. Cuba, Mexico and the U.S. share the Gulf of Mexico and have a responsibility to work together to understand and protect it. Thankfully, despite debilitating restrictions, which are ever-changing in the cool winds of Cold War politics, we have worked for a solid eight years now with our Cuban colleagues, advancing our understanding of the Gulf of Mexico and providing research opportunities for Cuba’s next generation of marine scientists — nearly 20 have based their Masters and Ph.D. research on our joint projects.

Cuba’s northwest coast – the verdant Pinar del Río province, home to Cuba’s legendary cigars — is the least-developed coastal region of Cuba. But as Cuba’s tourism trade continues to develop and as Cuba’s fledgling offshore oil development expands into the Gulf, we hope that the insights from our joint research help to guide the hand of such development so that some of Cuba’s most precious assets, its coral reefs, will be spared the all too common fate I’ve seen elsewhere in the Caribbean. And there is much at stake.

As we dove during the second expedition, it was as if we had been transported decades backward in time, to the healthy, vibrant, towering reefs I remember from my mid-teens. The reefs I have seen in the Archepiélago de Los Colorados, the barrier reef that runs along Cuba’s northwest coast, are the healthiest I have seen in my life. For that reason, and because of its unique history and geography, Cuba may hold important clues for coral reefs elsewhere in the Caribbean and perhaps around the world. Good friend and colleague, Dr. Gaspar González-Sansón, titular professor at University of Havana, CIM, and co-principal investigator of Proyecto Costa Noroccidental, recently pointed to a number of possible reasons for the health of Cuba’s reefs when we spoke when I was recently in Havana:

Cuba’s tourism industry did not begin until 1993, necessitated by the demise of
the Soviet Union and its aid to the island. Though tourism has proceeded at a
rapid pace, it is highly localized at specific resort areas on the coasts. The
healthiest reefs also happen to be far from shore, such as Los Colorados to the
north and Jardines de la Reina to the south, perhaps beyond the reach of harmful
concentrations of coastal pollution.

Cuban commercial fishing vessel in the Gulf of MexicoCuba does have a commercial fishing fleet, but fishermen principally use hook and line, so unlike nets and trawls which result in catching just about everything, fishing in Cuba is highly selective. In contrast, more than 80 percent of what’s caught in U.S. Gulf of Mexico shrimp trawls is not shrimp — it’s small finfish and other creatures collectively known as “bycatch” that represent the unforgivable waste of this fishing practice. Cuba is now phasing out all bottom trawling on its continental shelf.

In the early days of the revolution, President Fidel Castro declared, “Not one drop of water to the sea,” a call to action to dam rivers and streams in order to divert water for use in agriculture and population centers. Reducing fresh water input upset the delicate balance of fresh and salt water in Cuba’s estuaries, resulting in the disappearance of populations intolerant to the saltier waters, such as the white shrimp. In another way, however, this policy may have inadvertently served to help reefs by reducing the transport of fertilizers and pesticides to the reefs. Use of fertilizers and pesticides has dropped dramatically since the withdrawal of the Soviet Union. Given that nutrient pollution is a key factor in the growth of coral-smothering algae, this may also be an important factor.

In countless ways, the island of Cuba is unique. And when it comes to coral reefs, Cuba is again, unique. Here an island of thriving corals flourishes amid a world of corals dying and disappearing. In this mysterious corner of the Gulf of Mexico where time seems to have stopped, I find hope. Hope that the rich ecosystems of this beautiful island will endure. And I find hope that Cuba’s coral reefs might share some of their tantalizing secrets, secrets that can offer clues to protecting and restoring coral reefs elsewhere, including a special place I still remember in the Florida Keys, just 90 miles to the north.

Can Cuba

2009-11-12T10:13:00.001-08:00

Can Cuba’s Mysteries Help Save the World’s Coral Reefs?

Posted using ShareThis

Cuba orders extreme measures to cut energy use

2009-11-11T19:17:00.000-08:00

11 Nov 2009
* Cuba's energy situation termed "critical"
* Some factories, workshops to be closed through December
* Most other economic activities to be reduced
By Marc Frank
HAVANA, Nov 11 (Reuters) - Cuba has ordered all state enterprises to adopt "extreme measures" to cut energy usage through the end of the year in hopes of avoiding the dreaded blackouts that plagued the country following the 1991 collapse of its then-top ally, the Soviet Union. In documents seen by Reuters, government officials have been warned that the island is facing a "critical" energy shortage that requires the closing of non-essential factories and workshops and the shutting down of air conditioners and refrigerators not needed to preserve food and medicine. Cuba has cut government spending and slashed imports after being hit hard by the global financial crisis and the cost of recovering from three hurricanes that struck last year. "The energy situation we face is critical and if we do not adopt extreme measures we will have to revert to planned blackouts affecting the population," said a recently circulated message from the Council of Ministers. "Company directors will analyze the activities that will be stopped and others reduced, leaving only those that guarantee exports, substitution of imports and basic services for the population," according to another distributed by the light industry sector. President Raul Castro is said to be intent on not repeating the experience of the 1990s, when the demise of the Soviet Union and the loss of its steady oil supply caused frequent electricity blackouts and hardship for the Cuban public. The directives follow government warnings in the summer that too much energy was being used and blackouts would follow if consumption was not reduced. All provincial governments and most state-run offices and factories, which encompasses 90 percent of Cuba's economic activity, were ordered in June to reduce energy use by a minimum of 12 percent or face mandatory electricity cuts. The measures appeared to resolve the crisis as state-run press published stories about the amount of energy that had been saved and the dire warnings died down. The only explanation given for the earlier warnings was that Cuba was consuming more fuel than the government had money to pay for. The situation is not as dire as in the 1990s because Cuba receives 93,000 barrels per day of crude oil, almost two-thirds of what it consumes, from Venezuela. It pays for the oil by providing its energy-rich ally with medical personnel and other professionals. Cuba has been grappling with the global economic downturn, which has slashed revenues from key exports, dried up credit and reduced foreign investment. The communist-run Caribbean nation also faces stiff U.S. sanctions that include cutting access to international lending institutions, and it is still rebuilding from last year's trio of hurricanes that caused an estimated $10 billion in damages. In response, the government has cut spending, slashed imports, suspended many debt payments and frozen bank accounts of foreign businesses. It reported last week that trade was down 36 percent so far this year due mainly to a more than 30 percent reduction in imports.

Cuba's blogosphere has developed a sharper edge

2009-11-10T09:55:00.000-08:00

Nov. 09, 2009
BY JUAN O. TAMAYOjtamayo@ElNuevoHerald.com

Cuban blogger Yoani Sanchez, speaks during a interview with AFP in Havana, on May 6, 2008. Sanchez won the Ortega y Gasset prize in Spain for digital journalism for her critical Internet blog on Cuban reality. Cuban authorities have refused to give a travel visa to Sanchez so she can receive one of Spain's top journalism awards in Madrid on Wednesday, said Spanish newspaper El Pais which hands out the awards annually. When a dozen Cuban bloggers wanted to stage a protest last month, they simultaneously tweeted, texted and posted messages like ``Freedom.''

One later used a blond wig to sneak into a government building and complain against censorship of the Internet. And the next day, she posted a video of her complaint on her blog. Carefully, but with daring determination, some Cubans whose blogs once focused largely on the frustrations of daily life are moving toward sharp-edged commentaries and activities that some fear will eventually lead to a crackdown by the communist government. ``We do not have a common position . . . but yes, some people have been doing actions that go beyond the click and the keyboard and try to exercise the rights of a free person,'' said Reynaldo Escobar of the Havana blog Desde Aquí (From Here). Some bloggers indeed have become ``more assertive, more confrontational, more pushing the limits -- and pushing their luck,'' said Ted Henken, a Baruch College professor who is writing a paper on the social implications of the Cuban blogosphere's growth.

In fact, on Friday the best known of the Cuban bloggers, Yoani Sánchez, reported that she and another blogger were detained and beaten severely by state security agents, apparently to keep them from joining a peaceful march in Havana organized by young musicians. Cuba's blogosphere is tiny for an island of 11.5 million people. About 200 blogs have official approval and 100 don't, among them dissident journalists and human rights activists, according to a recent report by the New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists. But about 15 bloggers have captured widespread attention at home and abroad -- sometimes becoming better known than political dissidents -- with posts that challenge the government and break its monopoly on information entering and leaving the island. While human rights activists report ``the sufferings on the island, which are indeed tragic,'' said Henken, the usually younger bloggers tend to use more humor and nonpolitical language to connect with young Cubans and foreigners. ``They appeal to a new generation that speaks their language, the language of social networks'' like blogs and Facebook, he added. ``They appeal to people like my students, who have no politics.''

Escobar said some of the bloggers -- sometimes called alternative bloggers to differentiate them from government-approved and dissident writers -- have now decided ``their purpose is not just to be on the Web but to express their individual will to come together in a place, on an issue.'' They have arranged three ``virtual protests'' since May, but their largest came on Oct. 20, the anniversary of the day the Cuban national anthem was first sung, when a dozen Cuban bloggers and about 100 other sites coordinated their posts, text messages, tweets and other Web activities for Blogacción -- Blog Action. Escobar wrote that if he had a microphone for only two seconds he would ask for ``freedom.'' Myriam Celaya blogged demanding Internet access for all. Claudia Cadelo wrote that she dreamed of the release of blogger Pablo Pacheco, who has been jailed since 2003 but dictates his post to Cadelo, who then arranges to have them posted on Voz Tras Las Rejas -- Voice from behind Bars.

``It's a matter of trying to grease the machinery for online protests,'' Sánchez, 34, wrote about the Oct. 20 event in her blog Generación Y. The total number of participants is unknown, but Google reported 22,000 searches for the words ``Blogacción'' and ``Cuba.'' Six days later, Escobar and Sánchez, who are married, hosted the first session of the Bloggers Academy of Cuba, a series of training sessions for some 30 would-be bloggers in their Havana apartment that includes technology, photography, ethics and the legalities of the Internet. And three days after that, Sánchez sneaked into a government-run cultural center that was hosting a discussion on the Internet. While other cyberactivists were barred from entering, Sánchez took off her wig and launched a withering critique of the government's ``ideological filter'' on the Internet. A video of her comments -- and the thin applause she received -- was posted on her blog hours later. The government has long tried to control Cubans' access to the Internet, putting restrictions on computers and subscriptions, keeping prices high and blocking access to unfriendly sites, including most alternative blogs. It also has assigned university students of computer sciences to post comments supporting the government and attacking its critics.
But Cubans have found myriad ways to get around the roadblocks: Passwords for Internet access sell on the black market for $10 a month. People with access download information to CDs and USB thumb drives and pass them on to others, who then copy the data and pass it further on. One file being passed around instructs cybernauts on how to get around government blocks on the unfriendly blogs and other websites. Yosvani Anzardo, a young engineer from the eastern province of Holguín, even established the digital newspaper Covadonga and an private e-mail system called Red Libertad -- Liberty Net -- by reprogramming his laptop to work as a much more powerful server. Then there's Bluetooth, which allows the rapid transfer of files such as forbidden books, songs and foreign news reports between cellphones that are near each other, without going through telephone or computer lines. Security agents probably don't realize the impact of Bluetooth, Escobar said. ``Those people studied in the KGB and maybe now they are studying in China, but their knowledge is antiquated,'' he said in a telephone interview from Havana.
© 2009 Miami Herald Media Company. All Rights Reserved.http://www.miamiherald.com

Cuba capable of waging a cyberwar

2009-08-13T10:27:00.000-07:00

BY MANUEL CEREIJO
pacpe@aol.com

During the last few weeks there have been thousands of cyber attacks on computers and computer networks in the U.S. government and private entities. The United States, because of its dependence on computers, is very vulnerable to such attacks. A cyber attack on the United States could crush our country and the world economy, which depends on the United States as the world's leading economy. If they take us down, they cripple everybody. The U.S. government has not publicly identified where the cyber attacks are coming from, but Cuba has such potential. A partially declassified CIA document released several years ago notes that Cuba started in 1991 to study how to interfere with computer networks. This project had a modest budget of $50,000. The Soviet Union maintained in Cuba the Lourdes electronic espionage base, to which Cuba did not have direct access. That base was dismantled in 2002, but there are others.

Upping the investment

In 1994, Cuba and Russia agreed to build a similar base in Bejucal, south of Havana. It became operational in December 1997 at a cost of $750 million. The Bejucal base shows the importance Cuba puts on cybernetics -- having gone from a $50,000 budget to $750 million in only six years. The Bejucal base has the capacity to listen to U.S. telecommunications, interfere with computer networks, read/change electronic files and, more important, change output commands of computers used to control infrastructure facilities. In 1999, China and Cuba signed an agreement, known as Operation Titan, which allows Chinese personnel to collaborate at the Bejucal base and other facilities in Cuba. Since 2002, Cuba has used China's satellites to operate the Bejucal base, which employs 1,100 engineers, technicians and staff. The Cuban government has emphasized training talented young engineers in computation and cybernetics. A select group has been placed in key positions in cyber facilities there. The Cuban government has declared publicly that computers have replaced canons in the modern asymmetric war. Here's a partial list of other Cuban cybernetic facilities I've found through years of research:

• The Electronic Warfare Batallion in the Vedado neighborhood of Havana cost $75 million. Its main task is interfering with telecommunications.
• The Cojimar electronic complex, east of La Habana, cost $40 million.
• The Wajay farm, also known as the Antenna Farm, near Bejucal cost $15 million and houses hundreds of special antennas.
• The antenna farm in Santiago in eastern Cuba is similar to the one in Wajay and cost about $15 million.
• The University of Informative Sciences was established in 2003 on the site of the old Russian
Lourdes base, enrolling 10,000 students in a five-year program.

In the summer of 2004, Cuba interfered with satellite communications from the United States to the people of Iran from the Bejucal base. That operation confirms Cuba's high technology and its close ties with Iran. Cuba and Iran, along with Sudan and Syria, are classified by the U.S. State Department as state sponsors of terrorism in its April report. Cuba is considered to have the most developed cyber infrastructure among those countries. American society, the media and civic and judicial institutions should realize that Cuba's cybernetic war threatens our democratic principles and freedom. We ignore it at our own peril.

Manuel Cereijo is an electrical and computer engineering professor who holds patents in manufacturing, telecommunications and control systems. He lectures at the University of Miami.

Interview with "El Duque"

2009-07-22T16:48:00.000-07:00

Jews in Cuba

2009-06-21T05:39:00.000-07:00

Florencia Arbiser • Cover Story
Published: 19 June 2009

CARTAGENA, Colombia – The recent thaw in relations between Cuba and the United States is being greeted with caution by some Jews in Cuba. In April, the Obama administration announced it was moving to ease restrictions on American travel to Cuba and money transfers to the island. Then, earlier this month, the 34-nation Organization of American States agreed to conditionally accept Cuba if Havana was interested. Cuban officials in the past have said they are not interested in membership and denounced the OAS, which receives about 60 percent of its funding from the United States, as a tool of American domination. “We would very much like to receive more visitors,” William Miller, the vice president of the House of the Hebrew Community in Cuba, one of the nine Jewish congregations in the island, told JTA. “Most Cuban Jews rarely travel abroad; the foreign Jewish visitors nourish our souls.” But Miller, who often receives Jewish missions from overseas, said the thaw in U.S.-Cuba ties may change the nature of visits to Cuba by American Jews.

American Jews are now allowed by U.S. law to visit Cuba only if they are traveling under the auspices of a licensed religious organization and their trip is ostensibly for religious purposes. They tour Jewish Cuba, meet with local Jews, share Shabbat dinner in Cuban homes, and even join in communal ceremonies. But if the religious requirement is eased, Miller said, American Jews coming to Cuba simply might head straight for Cuba’s Caribbean beaches, as they do in places like Mexico and elsewhere, and ignore the local Jewish community. “It is a challenge for us to see how we get involved with a potential increasing number of visitors,” Miller told JTA at a conference of Latin American Jewish leaders organized in Colombia last month by the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee. “We must work to spread the word to worldwide Jews that we exist and need contact with them,” David Prinstein Señorans, who lives in Cuba, told JTA at the conference.

Cuba has approximately 1,500 Jews and nine synagogues, three of which are in Havana. Before the Communist revolution of 1959, Cuba had about 15,000 Jews, but many left after Fidel Castro came to power. Some of those who stayed participated in the revolution, achieving prominence in Cuba’s fields of science and culture. For three decades following the revolution, religion was suppressed, leading to assimilation. But in 1992 the government eased restrictions on religion, and since then international Jewish aid agencies have built strong links to Cuba’s Jews. Their activities are centered on bolstering Jewish life on the island, including sending religious items to Cuba and helping its Jews with everyday needs.

The JDC has a permanent office in Cuba that helps run cultural, educational, and religious programs, including religious education for children and youth, bar mitzvah prep courses, Shabbat meal assistance, youth camps, and activities for the elderly. It even has a drugstore. Groups like the JDC and B’nai B’rith also coordinate missions to Cuba that each year draw hundreds of American Jews. “Several families from the United States, Canada, and France come to the island and feel committed to the Jewish community,” said Yacob Berezniak, a Cuban Jewish engineer and member of the Orthodox congregation Adath Israel in Havana.

JDC’s executive vice president, Steve Schwager, said he was not concerned that the personal ties would suffer if travel restrictions were eased. “I am confident that Jewish interest and visits with Cuban Jews will not be diminished by political changes,” he said. Cuba’s Jews remain desperately poor by Western standards, but thanks to the aid of Jewish agencies overseas, they are in a better position than most Cubans. B’nai B’rith provides food and medical assistance in Cuba. One of the group’s current projects includes installing a filter for potable water at Adath Israel. Panama’s Jews send kosher food to Adath Israel. London-based ORT runs a language lab and provides computer training at the House of the Hebrew Community.

Though Cuba does not have diplomatic ties with Israel, Cuban Jews say their community has good ties with the government, which is now led by Castro’s brother, Raul. For example, the government grants requests by Cuban Jews to leave the country to attend Jewish-related gatherings. Eduardo Kohn, the Latin American Affairs director of B’nai B’rith, says the community’s good ties with the government are based on the fact that the Jewish community is involved in religious and cultural activities but never takes part in political issues. Anti-Semitism is virtually unheard of in the country. “As a Jew, I’ve studied in school and at Havana University with my kippah and never had to face a hostile situation,” Berezniak said. “I walk calmly in the streets and I am accepted by my neighbors.

“Cuba is a peculiar country. Anti-Semitism does not exist,” he said. “Unlike other places in the world, we don’t need guards in the Jewish buildings.” Fernando Lapiduz, the JDC’s representative in Cuba, said he is reserving judgment on what Obama’s change in approach might mean for Cuba’s Jews. “We will have to see how this develops day by day,” Lapiduz said. “We might not perceive such a big impact.” Berezniak echoed that sentiment. “It is hard for me to see any remarkable change in our routine coming from Obama’s announcement,” he said.

Jewish Group back from ‘eye-opening’ trip to Cuba

2009-06-21T05:34:00.000-07:00

Josh Lipowsky
The Jewish Standard, Cover Story
19 June 2009

Howard Brown of Cresskill wanted to go somewhere he hadn’t been before. He decided on Cuba. But the United States has had an embargo on the small Communist country for decades, preventing trade and travel — except for humanitarian reasons. Brown called Howard Charish, executive vice president of UJA Federation Northern New Jersey, to discuss sending a mission to the island nation to learn about and help the small Jewish community there. “I’ve never been to Cuba and I decided to go,” said Brown, who with his wife Nancy was among the trip’s co-chairs. “I felt like a lot of people who went on the trip would like to see how the Jewish community is surviving and what we can do to help out.”

Fourteen people signed up to go — although one couple had to turn back in Miami because of illness — and UJA-NNJ’s Charish accompanied them. From May 20 through 25, the group toured the country’s small Jewish community.
“It was absolutely eye-opening,” Charish said. “Here’s a community that experienced almost 30 years where Judaism was repressed and now the spark has been reignited.” Before Fidel Castro rose to power, some 15,000 Jews lived in Cuba. Many had thought of Cuba as a stop-off along the way to America but ended up staying. Within 20 years of the 1959 revolution, however, the Jewish population dropped to 800. After the fall of the Soviet Union, Cuba’s religious groups once again began to grow. “It was a beautiful thing,” said Jodi Epstein of Alpine. “I didn’t realize they were keeping [Judaism] alive there or that they were allowed to.”

Today, Cuba’s Jewish community is made up of approximately 1,500 people, about 1,000 of whom live in or around Havana. (See related story.) There are no rabbis and no communal kosher supervision. The capital city has three synagogues: Orthodox, Conservative, and Sephardic. Adath Israel, the Orthodox synagogue, maintains a kosher butcher, as well as the country’s only mikvah. The Patronato, the Conservative shul, is home to an extensive Jewish library, a pharmacy, a community center, and a Hebrew school started in 1992 that now has 50 children. The Sephardic Hebrew Center was founded in 1954 and hosts a community Sunday school for adults as well as a Hebrew teachers’ school. “We couldn’t believe the progress the Jewish community is making,” Brown said. He recalled singing and dancing with some 50 children at the Patronato’s Hebrew school on Sunday.

“They were just adorable,” Epstein said. “It made me see how it took very little to make the children happy. Just having us there made them very happy.” At the Patronato, the group learned from Adela Dworin, the synagogue’s president, that a van that brings people to the center had been funded by Bill and Maggie Kaplen, local philanthropists known for their contributions to the Kaplen JCC on the Palisades, among other institutions. “I felt terrific when I heard that,” Epstein said. “Maggie and Bill are very generous people.”

According to Robert Miller, UJA-NNJ’s director of missions, the van will pick some people up at 4 in the morning on Saturdays and bring them to the center where they will have breakfast, services, lunch, and then other activities. “That shows a tremendous amount of dedication,” Miller said. “You have to throw out from your mind what the conventions are because of the different system that exists there.” Epstein had been encouraged to go on the trip by her friends, the Browns, but also by her mother-in-law, Eleanor of Englewood Cliffs, who had been to Cuba almost 10 years ago with a federation mission. “She was telling me how they lived in a time warp there,” Epstein said.

The average Cuban earns $20 to $30 a month and food is rationed. During Shabbat dinner at the Patronato, the group learned that the chicken dinner was the only source of protein all week for many of the attendees. “It’s a black hole to a lot of people,” said Miller, who organized but did not participate in the trip. “They are going back 50 years in some ways.” Before the trip, the Cuban community gave the federation a wishlist of necessities, including sun block, vitamin A, deodorant, mosquito repellant, and sneakers. Miller recalled that one participant asked him what size sneakers to buy. “I said, ‘They’re not expecting you to buy anything, they’re expecting it to be used,’” Miller recalled.

According to government regulations, religious groups must commit to undertake only those activities “that are consistent with U.S. foreign policy.” These include “attendance at religious services as well as activities that contribute to the development of a Cuban counterpart’s religious or institutional development.” “It was unlike anything we’ve ever done or contemplated because of [other] government restrictions,” Miller said. Before the federation could make any travel arrangements — booking flights, hotels, or even settling on dates — Miller had to wait for the U.S. government to send a special license that would permit travel to the embargoed country on humanitarian grounds. The mission could depart only after approval, which meant the dates were left fluid. Yet in order to apply, Miller had to submit an exact list of all the participants, who waited to learn when they might go. The license came through in the end of March, and Miller quickly got the group together.

He had hoped for a bigger number, inasmuch as the license covered a group of up to 25, but he noted that the advertising essentially had to be done through word of mouth because of government restrictions. Miller worked with the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee, which has an office in Havana and sponsors the country’s only chazzan, to organize the trip. Steven Schwager, CEO of the JDC, said that typically, there is one trip a month from the U.S. Jewish community to Cuba through JDC or the federation system. JDC has played a strictly non-political role in the country since the early 1990s.

“These trips strengthen the connection between the Cuban Jewish community and other Jews around the world,” he said. “In addition, they can provide material support for those Jews living at or below the poverty line.” “We could tell that our visit meant a lot to the people that we visited,” Charish said. “The message was loud and clear that this community is not going to be isolated from the Jewish communities in the United States, even though there are no relationships between Cuba and the U.S.” UJA-NNJ’s travel license expires next May. Under its terms, the organization is permitted one trip every three months. Miller is already thinking about a second trip some time in December, which has excited participants eager to return. “I think the future holds a lot for [Cuba’s Jews], especially if there are more missions like ours who keep going to Cuba,” Epstein said. “I think we give them hope and eventually when Fidel Castro dies and Raul Castro dies, it’ll be a free country.”

For more information on this and upcoming trips to Cuba, call Miller at (201) 820-3954

Cuba to rejoin OAS?

2009-05-28T18:53:00.000-07:00

http://online.wsj.com/video/how-is-cuba-a-democracy/31278B79-62F3-4F15-9671-A29B3320DD2F.html

WSJ Editorial: Now Open Cuba's Prisons

2009-04-17T12:58:00.000-07:00

The Obama opening does little for Castro's political prisoners

President Obama's decision this week to ease some parts of the embargo against Cuba is being hailed as a first step toward altering a U.S. policy that has prevailed for a half-century without unseating Fidel Castro. We don't object, though it'd be nice if Mr. Obama also began speaking up against the Castro dictatorship. Mr. Obama's changes are partly a humanitarian response to Cuban hardship. They might even expose the regime's phony claim that the Yankee "bloqueo," or embargo, is the cause of Cuba's misery. But let's not expect too much. Embargo or not, Cuba will remain an island prison until its rulers are forced to ease their grip. We have long supported lifting the embargo as a way of accelerating that process. But the demoralized Cuban people also need international solidarity. Economically engaging the regime while ignoring the hundreds of political prisoners and millions trapped in squalor would betray the cause of Cuban liberty. To that end, the most useful thing Mr. Obama can do at this weekend's Summit of the Americas is to call on other leaders to denounce the regime's human rights violations. The Obama plan to lift all limitations on family visits and cash remittances is a welcome development for Cuban-Americans who left loved ones behind. Family separation is a tragic consequence of the Castro regime, and the restrictions on visits, tightened by the Bush Administration to once every three years, have increased that pain. Lifting the remittance cap, also tightened by President Bush, will allow free Cubans to support poor relatives. The Administration says it will also allow U.S. telecom companies to compete on the island, offering fiber optics and other advanced technology. A State Department official tells us the idea is to achieve "a greater level of connectivity and information flow" with Cubans. In theory this has marvelous possibilities. Imagine a Cuban accessing the Web via telephone and realizing that others think the way he does. It would erode the silent fear that the regime depends on to survive -- which may explain why Havana hasn't embraced Mr. Obama's offer. A spokesman at the Cuba Interests Section in Washington said he thinks access to Cuba for U.S. telecom companies should be contingent on re-establishing diplomatic relations. This gets at the heart of Cuba's objection to the embargo. It wants "normalization" with the U.S., which would allow the dictatorship to tap the cash wells at the World Bank, International Monetary Fund and InterAmerican Development Bank. Having earned global deadbeat status for defaulting on loans from the former Soviet Union, Europe and Latin America, Cuba is also seeking credit in the U.S. On Monday Brazil Foreign Minister Celso Amorim said Cuba's absence "from the inter-American system, including the [Organization of American States], is an anomaly and needs to be corrected." This is odd given that the OAS has something called the "democratic charter," which all members supposedly back. But then Brazil sees investment opportunities in a post-embargo Cuba that has access to the U.S. market. Mr. Obama should respond by asking Brazil to unite behind a call for Cuba to free political prisoners and hold elections. The embargo has not worked to free Cuba, but a hemisphere united against the Castro tyranny has never been tried.

Castro Feeds on Cubans’ U.S. Cash Support as Obama Eases Limits

2009-04-17T12:49:00.000-07:00

By Jerry Hart

April 17 (Bloomberg) -- The Cuban state pension that Juan Gonzalez-Corzo receives since he retired from a government job in 2003 makes life easier after more than 50 years of work.
So does the cash that comes regularly by wire from his son in West New York, New Jersey.
It’s part of an estimated $1.1 billion sent to Cubans last year by relatives and friends around the world, an amount equal to about 1.8 percent of the communist country’s 2007 gross domestic product. “Most of the remittances end up used for consumption,” said Gonzalez-Corzo’s son Mario, 39, a Cuban-born assistant economics professor at Lehman College in New York City who has studied remittances and provided the estimates. “It helps.” The money also helps the island’s $58 billion economy, as the Cuban government charges fees that take about 20 percent of exchange-wired dollars, Gonzalez-Corzo said. That troubles U.S. politicians who say the transfers support the totalitarian state created by Fidel Castro in 1959 and now run by his brother Raul. President Barack Obama this week eased restrictions that had limited money transfers by Cuban-Americans, most of whom live in southern Florida. “The Castro government will confiscate a high percentage of those dollars, further propping up a regime that suppresses human rights,” said Representative Kendrick B. Meek, a Democrat who represents parts of Florida’s Miami-Dade and Broward counties. About 735,000 people around the world -- more than half from the U.S. -- sent an average of $150 to friends or relatives in Cuba last year, according to a study by Inter-American Dialogue, a Washington-based research organization. The cash sent in 2007 was equal to 42 percent of the island’s tourism income and 4.7 times more than its sugar exports, Gonzalez-Corzo said.

Economic Prop

“Remittances are a key component to the Cuban economy,” where state wages averaging about $17 a month don’t cover basic living expenses, Inter-American Dialogue said in a statement when it released the study last month. “Cubans typically augment state wages with hard-currency obtained remittances.” That’s why Myriam Faya and Lourdes Rodriguez, sisters who are among the 795,000 Cuban-Americans in Miami-Dade County, the largest concentration outside Cuba, send money to the island. “I have an aunt who is 87 years old and her pension is very low so we send regularly, without any doubt, $50 a month,” said Faya, who works for an insurance broker. “My sister also sends money to her blind, 60-year-old sister-in-law.”

Wire or Mula

About 60 percent of the money sent to Cuba goes via electronic wire transfer, according to the Inter-American Dialogue study. The rest travels in the pockets of visitors. These mulas, Spanish for mules, bypass the government fees. “If you send by wire, it’s very expensive because the government takes 20 percent,” Faya said. “But if a friend goes there, you can give it to them.” On the other end are charges by transfer agents. Calls to wire services in Miami found fees of as much as $124 to deliver 100 pesos to a recipient in Cuba, or 24 percent. The nationwide average is 15 percent per $100, Gonzalez- Corzo said. Including what Cuba charges, the transaction cost for $100 becomes 35 percent. That’s more than the 5.8 percent cost for money wired to Mexico and the 9.5 percent for the Dominican Republic, data from the World Bank show. “Cuba is the most expensive remittance market in the world when it comes to the transaction cost,” Gonzalez-Corzo said.

Bush’s Restrictions

Under rules imposed by the administration of President George W. Bush in June 2004, money sent to Cuba could go only to immediate family members and the amount was capped at $300 each quarter. Travelers could carry only $300 into the country. Obama granted unlimited transfers and travel cash for Cuban-American families to anyone in Cuba, which is expected to reduce costs as competition grows, Gonzalez-Corzo said. The president’s action raised optimism among investors that other parts of the U.S. economic embargo against Cuba could be lifted. The Herzfeld Caribbean Basin Fund, a closed-end mutual fund of companies that could benefit from increased business with Cuba, rose 41 percent, the most ever, the day money transfers were eased. Companies that wire money to Cuba must be licensed by the U.S. Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control, under economic sanctions imposed in 1963 after Fidel Castro established his Communist dictatorship. Castro, 82, turned over power to Raul Castro, 77, last year because of illness. More than 100 companies are authorized by OFAC, with three- quarters of them in Florida. The largest is Western Union Co., the world’s biggest money-transfer business.

10-Year Business

The company has been active in Cuba since 1999 and has 153 agents there, Stewart Stockdale, executive vice president and president for the Americas, said in an interview. He declined to break out the company’s revenue for transactions with Cuba. “We think lifting the restrictions is going to expand the business to Cuba significantly,” he said. Western Union charges $15 to wire amounts up to $100 to Cuba, Stockdale said. The fees are “something we’re reviewing,” he said. Gonzalez-Corzo favors anything that makes it easier for him to send money to his 70-year-old father in Santa Clara, in central Cuba. “I have personally gone through all the tribulations of sending money,” he said. “So I know how it works.”

To contact the reporter on this story: Jerry Hart in Miami at jhart@bloomberg.net.

Youth discuss life in Cuba

2009-04-06T12:01:00.000-07:00

Apr. 03, 2009

BY TRENTON DANIEL

Giselle Palacios, the daughter of a prominent dissident family in Cuba, recounted Friday how the island regime's henchmen deflated her school grades, threw stones at her Havana home and jailed her parents. ''It was a hard experience for me,'' said Palacios, 24, the daughter of Héctor Palacios, who was among the 75 human rights activists, librarians and independent journalists who were arrested in a major crackdown in Cuba in 2003. It was first-hand tales like this one -- coupled with Academy Award-nominated actor Andy Garcia's own life story -- that united about 200 Cubans, Cuban Americans and non-Cubans at the GenerAcción conference at the University of Miami's Coral Gables campus.

CLOSER TIES

In its sixth year, the 2,500-member Raíces de Esperanza, or Roots of Hope, aims to bolster ties between the 5 million Cuban youths estimated to be on the island and their U.S. counterparts. The nonprofit's genesis stems from the founders' belief that many Americans misunderstand Cuban Americans' strong feelings on Cuba issues. The group's membership has swelled over the years. Academic conferences have become commonplace. Duke, Princeton, Georgetown and Harvard have hosted forums. On Friday, more than 100 college students from across the nation filled the UM auditorium to learn more about their peers on the opposite side of the Florida Straits. Topics ranged from the apparent apathy among island youth to the role they must play in securing a democratic, post-Castro Cuba. Lauren Vanessa López, a research associate at UM, knocked the idea that Cuban youth were infected with apathy. Citing a 2007 study from the Washington-based International Republican Institute, López noted that 74 percent of the respondents said they would like to vote for a successor to a regime that has been controlled by Fidel Castro and now his brother Raúl for half a century. ''This signifies that Cuba's youth really does want change,'' López said. Visiting the Castro-ruled island has long been a hot-button issue for many exiles, but López urged audience members to make the trip -- within legal means.
''It's really an experience that will be unforgettable for both you and them,'' López said about island youngsters. ``Feel[ing] what they feel is very impactful for them.''

DIFFERING OPINIONS

In her first time to participate, a recent Cornell graduate said she enjoyed encountering a range of thoughts on Cuba, . ''I can appreciate there's more diversity of opinion,'' said Katy Sastre, 25, of New Jersey. ``It's nice to get a different opinion.'' The highlight Friday was almost certainly Garcia, film star of movies such as The Untouchables and the director of The Lost City. In a light yet earnest talk, the actor spoke about his unapologetic support for a post-Castro Cuba (''The necessity for freedom is something that's not negotiable''), his early days in Hollywood (``change your name, fix your teeth, lose your accent,'' he was told) and his directing experience with The Lost City (``that movie is the most important thing I've done in my life.)'' Garcia also spoke of the need for audience members, many of them in their 20s, to stay involved in the Cuban cause. ''Both Castro brothers are not going to be around forever,'' he said. ``The dismantling of that regime will eventually happen.''

Judge kills Cuban lawsuit on Havana Club trademark

2009-03-31T11:48:00.000-07:00

By NEDRA PICKLER
March 31, 2009

WASHINGTON (AP) — A federal judge dismissed a Cuban lawsuit Monday over the termination of U.S. trademark rights for its Havana Club rum, a victory for Bacardi's effort to take over the brand name as its own in the United States. The dispute dates back decades and is entangled in property seizures during the Cuban revolution, the trade embargo with the island nation and U.S. trademark law.

Cuba's Havana Club is not sold in the United States because of the trade embargo, but the company got a U.S. trademark for the name in 1976 for future opportunities in case the embargo is lifted. French spirits producer Pernod Ricard has partnered with the Cuban government to sell Cuba's Havana Club internationally and has successfully driven up sales around the world outside the United States. Cubaexport, Cuba's state-owned export enterprise, filed the lawsuit three years ago against the U.S. Treasury Department's Office of Foreign Asset Control after the agency refused to allow renewal of its trademark. Tom Gjelten, an NPR reporter and author of a book on the dispute, said Bacardi realizes it's possible the Cuba trade embargo could be lifted and Cuba's Havana Club could become a threat to its rum sales in the United States. Gjelten said Bacardi shrewdly bolstered its case by getting Congress to pass a law in 1998 that prevents the registration or renewal of trademarks connected with companies nationalized by the Cuban government. U.S. District Judge Royce Lamberth cited that law Monday in his decision to throw out Cubaexport's case. "What this decision seems to be is one more nail in the coffin for Pernod Ricard trying to hold onto its use of the Havana Club trademark in the United States," said Gjelten, author of "Bacardi and the Long Fight for Cuba."

Cubaexport attorney Vincent N. Palladino said they will appeal the decision. "The decision, and the process OFAC followed in denying Cubaexport a license, are especially disappointing given that U.S.-Cuba policy is under review," Palladino said in an e-mail. Pernod Ricard referred requests for comment to its attorneys, who did not respond to messages left by The Associated Press. Bacardi fought to have Cuba's trademark canceled and is now selling its own Havana Club rum in limited quantities in Florida, made in Puerto Rico so it doesn't violate the trade embargo. Bacardi has an application pending to register the mark in its own name. As Bacardi explains it, Havana Club rum was developed in 1935 by a family owned Cuban company, Jose Arechabala SA. When Fidel Castro rose to power, the family's plant and trademark were seized and the Cuban government began producing rum under the Havana Club label. Bacardi bought the original recipe and the Havana Club name from the Arechabala family in 1994. "We are the legitimate owners of the brand," said Patricia M. Neal, spokeswoman for Bacardi USA Inc. "We're thrilled that once again the U.S. courts have upheld these laws."

Copyright © 2009 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.

Cuba loosens spending rule for state companies

2009-03-26T14:43:00.000-07:00

Thu Mar 26, 2009 12:46pm EDT
By Marc Frank
HAVANA (Reuters) - Cuban President Raul Castro has loosened controls on how state companies spend foreign currency in the first sign a recent cabinet shake-up heralds changes in the running of the economy, businessmen and economists said. The Cuban and foreign sources said authorities have ended a regulation requiring the Central Bank to approve all state company expenditures of more than $10,000. Analysts said the move would mean less bureaucracy and central control. The regulation now lifted had slowed the day-to-day operations of state businesses and hurt production, but in the end had done little to effectively control state spending on the island, the sources said. They asked not to be named due to government restrictions on talking with foreign journalists. "The Central Bank's foreign exchange commission is no longer in business," one Cuban businessman said. A foreign businessman also said the control measure was lifted. The latest move followed a major government reshuffle earlier this month that replaced eight ministers and several top officials and brought armed forces generals, former officers and middle-aged Communist Party officials into the cabinet. The shake-up by Raul Castro, who is widely viewed as a pragmatist and took over as president last year from his ailing elder brother Fidel Castro, appeared targeted at streamlining and improving Cuba's communist system and economic model.

A number of business leaders said the measure would benefit all sectors of the economy by quickening the flow of parts for factories and supplies, especially those that require the most agility, such as tourism and agriculture. Analysts said the latest regulation change ended a control that dated back to 2003-2004 when the government, then headed by Fidel Castro, reimposed rigid centralization over the economy after previously allowing more autonomy for state companies in the 1990s to cope with a deep economic crisis. "It means less bureaucracy, less central control, and more authority and responsibility in the hands of managers of state enterprises," said Phil Peters of the Lexington Institute in Virginia, who has studied Cuban state business practices. "If deeper reforms follow, then state enterprises will be more efficient and profitable -- and fewer, because losers will go out of business," Peters added. Communist authorities often do not comment on internal reforms and official decrees announcing them are often published well after they are signed.

BATTERED ECONOMY

Peters and other analysts believe that Raul Castro, by bringing trusted military officers and other allies into his cabinet team, is seeking to shake off the bureaucratic inertia and disorganization that has long afflicted the Cuban economy. The Caribbean island's economy has been badly battered by three hurricanes last year, wild spikes in commodity prices and the global financial crisis. The balance of payments that measures the flow of foreign exchange in and out of the country went from a $500 million surplus to a deficit of more than $2 billion last year, according to various estimates. This left the country with little choice but to negotiate new payment terms with foreign creditors and businesses. The latest policy move appeared aimed at removing some rigidities in the state-dominated economy. "In the future a more normal budgetary process will be followed under which the ministries will approve annual company budgets in coordination with the Economy and Planning Ministry," a Cuban economist said.
"It will be up to the cabinet to ensure there is financial backing for the budgets, then company managers will be able to purchase what they need without further regulation, unless very large sums are involved," he said.

Cuba experts see the recent cabinet appointments by Raul Castro as following a military reform model called "perfeccionamiento empresarial" -- a Spanish term which translates as "perfecting the (state) company system". The model was developed for companies supplying the armed forces when Raul Castro was defense minister. It seeks to incorporate modern management and accounting practices and grant local managers more day-to-day decision-making power, and also ties wages to individual and collective performance. Since taking office last year, Raul Castro has taken small but symbolic steps such as lifting restrictions on some consumer goods for ordinary Cubans and allowing them to enter tourist hotels previously reserved for foreign visitors. He has also decentralized decision-making in agriculture, granted producers more autonomy and land, and lifted income caps, declaring workers and farmers should earn all they can through their efforts. (Editing by Kieran Murray)

Latin American countries normalize ties with Cuba

2009-03-23T10:34:00.000-07:00

HAVANA, March 22 (Xinhua) -- Latin America has opened a new chapter in its ties with Cuba as Costa Rica reestablished ties and El Salvador intended to resume ties with the country. Havana and San Jose agreed last week to resume diplomatic relations despite both sides have been caught by political disagreements on a number of issues in recent years. "Today the world is completely different with what it was in those days," Costa Rican President Oscar Arias said on Wednesday. San Jose and Havana suspended ties on Sept. 9, 1961. He said the diplomatic ties with Cuba were broken during the Cold War era, but the world has changed since then and the decision of restoring the ties is justifiable at this moment. Cuba's Foreign Ministry said the decision is "in accord with its call for integrity and unity with the brotherly people of Latin America and the Caribbean." In San Salvador, newly elected President Mauricio Funes said his government intended to restore ties with Cuba. The outgoing Salvadorian President Elias Antonio Saca had refused to normalize ties with Cuba despite the fact that its neighbors like Honduras, Guatemala, Nicaragua and Panama had done it. Now, Funes is expected to close an era which began in 1959, when the revolutionary army led by Fidel Castro took power and nearly all Latin American countries agreed to cut diplomatic ties with Cuba in the following year. Half a century later, Latin America lives another reality as many governments choose to step away from Washington and break U.S. isolation of Cuba. On December 2008, the Latin American and Caribbean Summit held in Brazil issued a declaration without precedent demanding an end of the embargo set by the U.S. against Cuba since 1962. It will be one of the main issues at the 5th The Americas Summit, to be held in Trinidad and Tobago from April 17 to 19, without Cuba's participation. The issue will be discussed at the Summit without the intention of cornering U.S. or anybody, Trinidad and Tobago's Prime Minister Patrick Manning said last week. Many Latin American countries also called on the U.S. President Barack Obama to lift sanctions against Cuba. Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva said Latin America expects Obama to lift or at least to loose its embargo against Cuba because there are not moral, political or economic justifications to keep these sanctions. Since end of 2008, Cuban Leader Raul Castro has met with leaders from many countries, signaling that Latin America is opening a new chapter in its ties with Cuba.

新华网版权所有

Obama Administration Seen Chipping Away at Cuba Embargo

2009-03-23T10:13:00.000-07:00

Wire reports note that the Obama Administration could be slowly opening up more trade to the island nation.

3/23/2009
Farm Futures staff

Could the Obama Administration be further weakening the trade embargo with Cuba? That's the conclusion supported by U.S. Rice Producers Association President and CEO Dwight Roberts, according to a Reuters report. Roberts told the wire service he fully expects Obama to enlarge on the small steps taken by the administration and Congress earlier this month, which softened some travel and trade restrictions. Roberts says he sees a trend in easing trade restrictions, but is also quick to add that he doesn't foresee an immediate end to the 47-year-old trade embargo with the island nation. Amendments passed in 2000 opened food sales to the island, including rice. American rice shipments to Cuba rose to 175,000 tonnes in 2004, but has slipped due to tighter rules introduced in the Bush Administration. Roberts says there will be considerable pressure from a variety of groups to ease trade restrictions with Cuba.

Cuba says open to human rights discussion with EU

2009-03-19T10:48:00.000-07:00

Wed Mar 18, 2009

By Jeff FranksHAVANA, March 18 (Reuters) - Cuba said on Wednesday it was willing to discuss human rights with the European Union as part of their renewed relationship, but indicated that talk about its prisons may not be any of Europe's business.The EU and Cuba, which reestablished cooperation last year after a five-year rift over Cuban political prisoners, said they would meet in Brussels in May for political dialogue in another step toward normalizing relations.The announcement was made at a joint appearance by new Cuban Foreign Minister Bruno Rodriguez and EU Development and Humanitarian Aid Commissioner Louis Michel, who is visiting the Cuban capital.The two met on the sixth anniversary of a government crackdown in which 75 dissidents and independent journalists were arrested and jailed on sentences ranging from six to 28 years.The crackdown, which came to be known as Cuba's "black spring," caused the 27-nation EU to break off some diplomatic relations with the communist-run island.Michel, speaking through an interpreter, told reporters that Cuba was willing to discuss different issues including "the penitentiary system, an aspect that may be of as much interest to Cuba as to us."Rodriguez, who replaced longtime foreign minister Felipe Perez Roque in a recent cabinet shake-up, quickly corrected Michel.NEW COOPERATION"Cuba is willing to continue the political dialogue with the EU on various topics, among them the field of human rights," he said."But we have not dealt with nor expressed any position about the penitentiary system because we consider that that belongs to the internal jurisdiction of the state," Rodriguez said. "It was possibly a misunderstanding I want to clear up."The EU lifted the sanctions last June with the proviso that it would review Cuba's human rights situation annually. In October the EU and Cuba signed an agreement pledging new cooperation.The United States, which has imposed a trade embargo against Cuba for 47 years but whose new President Barack Obama has spoken of improving U.S.-Cuba relations, marked the "black spring" anniversary by urging the Cuban government on Wednesday to free all political prisoners "and to undertake measures to improve human rights conditions in Cuba."The independent Cuban Commission on Human Rights has said Cuba has about 200 political prisoners. Cuba views dissidents as mercenaries working for the United States.Even though President Raul Castro replaced eight cabinet ministers in his government reshuffle, Rodriguez assured "there is absolutely no change" in Cuban's foreign policy.He shed no light on the reasons for the ouster of his predecessor, Perez Roque, who had been considered one of Cuba's top young leaders.He said there had already been enough information released, including a column by Fidel Castro, in which the former leader wrote without explanation that Perez Roque and cabinet chief Carlos Lage, also ousted, had succumbed to the "honey of power."Rodriguez also sidestepped a question about recent comments from a Russian general that Russia might base strategic bombers in Cuba and Venezuela.He said only that Russia and Cuba had "excellent and growing bilateral relations."( Editing by Sandra Maler)

Obama will use spring summit to bring Cuba in from the cold

2009-03-08T19:54:00.000-07:00

US companies are queuing up as the president moves to ease restrictions on travel and trade, raising hopes of warmer relations and an end to the embargo

Rory Carroll, Latin America correspondent
The Guardian, The Observer,
Sunday 8 March 2009

President Barack Obama is poised to offer an olive branch to Cuba in an effort to repair the US's tattered reputation in Latin America. The White House has moved to ease some travel and trade restrictions as a cautious first step towards better ties with Havana, raising hopes of an eventual lifting of the four-decade-old economic embargo. Several Bush-era controls are expected to be relaxed in the run-up to next month's Summit of the Americas in Trinidad and Tobago to gild the president's regional debut and signal a new era of "Yankee" cooperation. The administration has moved to ease draconian travel controls and lift limits on cash remittances that Cuban-Americans can send to the island, a lifeline for hundreds of thousands of families. "The effect on ordinary Cubans will be fairly significant. It will improve things and be very welcome," said a western diplomat in Havana. The changes would reverse hardline Bush policies but not fundamentally alter relations between the superpower and the island, he added. "It just takes us back to the 1990s."
The provisions are contained in a $410bn (£290bn) spending bill due to be voted on this week. The legislation would allow Americans with immediate family in Cuba to visit annually, instead of once every three years, and broaden the definition of immediate family. It would also drop a requirement that Havana pay cash in advance for US food imports. "There is a strong likelihood that Obama will announce policy changes prior to the summit," said Daniel Erikson, director of Caribbean programmes at the Inter-American Dialogue and author of The Cuba Wars. "Loosening travel restrictions would be the easy thing to do and defuse tensions at the summit."
Latin America, once considered Washington's "backyard", has become newly assertive and ended the Castro government's pariah status. The presidents of Brazil, Chile, Dominican Republic, Ecuador and Guatemala have recently visited Havana to deepen economic and political ties. Brazil's president, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, is expected to tell Obama on a White House visit this week that the region views the US embargo as anachronistic and vindictive. Easing it would help mend Washington's strained relations with the "pink tide" of leftist governments.
Obama's proposed Cuba measures would only partly thaw a policy frozen since John F Kennedy tried to isolate the communist state across the Florida Straits. "It would signal new pragmatism, but you would still have the embargo, which is the centrepiece of US policy," said Erikson.
Wayne Smith at the Centre for International Policy, Washington DC, said: "I think that the Obama administration will go ahead and lift restrictions on travel of Cuban Americans and remittance to their families. He may also lift restrictions on academic travel. "There are some things that could be done very easily - for example it's about time we took Cuba off the terrorist list. It's the beginning of the end of the policies we have had towards Cuba for 50 years. It's achieved nothing, it's an embarrassment." Wayne Smith, a former head of the US Interest Section in Havana, famously said Cuba had the same effect on American administrations as the full moon had on werewolves. Cuban exiles in Florida, a crucial voting bloc in a swing state, sustained a hardline US policy towards Havana even as the cold war ended and the US traded with other undemocratic nations with much worse human rights records. To Washington's chagrin, the economic stranglehold did not topple Fidel Castro. When Soviet Union subsidies evaporated, the "maximum leader" implemented savage austerity, opened the island to tourism and found a new sponsor in Venezuela's petrol-rich president, Hugo Chávez. When Fidel fell ill in 2006, power transferred seamlessly to his brother Raúl. He cemented his authority last week with a cabinet reshuffle that replaced "Fidelistas" with "Raúlistas" from the military. Recognising Castro continuity, and aghast at European and Asian competitors getting a free hand, US corporate interests are impatient to do business with Cuba. Oil companies want to drill offshore, farmers to export more rice, vegetables and meat, construction firms to build infrastructure projects. Young Cuban exiles in Florida, less radical than their parents, have advocated ending the policy of isolation. As a senator, Obama opposed the embargo, but as a presidential candidate he supported it - and simultaneously promised engagement with Havana. A handful of hardline anti-Castro Republican and Democrat members of Congress have threatened to derail the $410bn spending bill unless the Cuba provisions are removed, but most analysts think the legislation will survive. Compared to intractable challenges in Afghanistan, Pakistan and the Middle East, the opportunity for quick progress on Cuba has been called the "low-hanging fruit" of US foreign policy. That Obama has moved so cautiously has frustrated many reformers. But after decades of freeze, even a slight thaw is welcome, and there is speculation that more will follow.

Old enemies

President Kennedy imposed an economic and trade embargo on Cuba on 7 February 1962 after Fidel Castro's government expropriated US property on the island. Known by Cubans as el bloqueo, the blockade, elements have been toughened and relaxed under succeeding US presidents. Exceptions have been made for food and medicine exports. George Bush added restrictions on travel and remittances.

The sanctions regime
• No Cuban products or raw materials may enter the US
• US companies and foreign subsidiaries banned from trade with Cuba
• Cuba must pay cash up front when importing US food
• Ships which dock in Cuba may not dock in the US for six months
• US citizens banned from spending money or receiving gifts in Cuba without special permission, in effect a travel ban
• Americans with family on the island limited to one visit every three years.

Cuba replaces top Cabinet ministers

2009-03-02T13:07:00.000-08:00

March 3, 2009
HAVANA (AP) — President Raul Castro shook up Cuba's top leadership on Monday, replacing key figures tied to his brother Fidel Castro with others apparently closer to him. The abrupt shakeup came a year after Fidel Castro handed the presidency to his younger brother because of poor health. It was announced at the end of the midday news, after the weather and sports. Perhaps the most prominent of those ousted, Foreign Minister Felipe Perez Roque, was the youngest of Cuba's top leaders and had been widely mentioned as a possible future president. Perez Roque, 43, was replaced by his own deputy, Bruno Rodriguez. Vice President Carlos Lage, 57, apparently kept his job as vice president of the ruling Council of State, but was replaced as Cabinet Secretary by Gen. Jose Amado Ricardo Guerra, who had been a top official in the military that Raul Castro ran for decades. Lage was credited with helping save Cuba's economy by designing modest economic reforms after the Soviet Union collapsed. Perez Roque was once personal secretary to Fidel Castro and a former leader of the Communist Party youth organization. He had been foreign minister for almost a decade. Among the others ousted was Economy Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez, Finance Minister Georgina Barreiro Fajardo and Labor Minister Alfredo Morales Cartaya. Several ministries were combined in the shakeup. The communique said the decision matched President Raul Castro's desire for a "more compact" and efficient government. Fidel Castro has not been seen in public since July 2006, when he underwent emergency intestinal surgery.

Debate heating up again over U.S. policies toward Cuba

2009-03-02T06:26:00.000-08:00

By Ken Dilanian, USA TODAY

WASHINGTON — Political momentum is building behind efforts to soften America's half-century old policy of isolating communist Cuba, foreign policy experts and lawmakers say.
President Obama, who promised during the campaign to lift restrictions put in place by President Bush on Cuban Americans visiting their relatives, has been largely silent on Cuba as the State Department reviews its policy toward the dictatorship. Last week, the House of Representatives jumped ahead of him by passing a provision in a spending bill banning enforcement of the very provisions Obama said he would repeal.

Also last week:
•The ranking Republican on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, Richard Lugar of Indiana, issued a report pronouncing the 47-year-old U.S. embargo of Cuba a failure.

•A group of diplomats, activists and academics working with the Brookings Institution, a Washington think tank, released a "road map" calling for the removal of all restrictions on humanitarian travel to Cuba, more diplomatic dialogue and an easing of sanctions for art, movies and music. The group included Francisco Hernández, president of the Cuban American National Foundation, which has for years backed a tough stance.

"I think what you're seeing is a trend," said Rep. Bill Delahunt, D-Mass., who has long sponsored legislation that would allow Americans to travel to Cuba as tourists. After years of going nowhere, he says, the bill now stands a chance. "I think many members are acknowledging, not publicly but privately, that this is such a failed policy it deserves a burial," he said. Changes are likely to happen incrementally. The House provisions, which also ease rules on the sale of food and medicine, will face opposition in the Senate. Among the opponents are Cuban-American lawmakers such as Sens. Mel Martinez, R-Fla., and Robert Menendez, D-N.J. While calling for engagement, Obama stopped short during the campaign of saying the U.S. should lift the embargo. Some analysts nevertheless believe it will happen on his watch. "When you have Lugar taking a position to the left of Obama, Obama is not going to be able to maintain that position," said Larry Birn, director of the Council on Hemispheric Affairs. "You've got farm state Republicans, Fortune 500 CEOs and U.S. oil companies all clamoring for some form of constructive engagement of Cuba." Obama has more political leeway than any president in recent memory because he won Florida in the election despite advocating more engagement with Cuba, said Sarah Stephens of the Center for Democracy in the Americas, which favors lifting the embargo. In contrast, Bill Clinton and George W. Bush campaigned on a tough Cuba stance.
The U.S. stance towards the island nation, now governed by Fidel Castro's brother Raúl, was forged at the height of the Cold War and has been sustained in part because of domestic politics. Many in the Cuban-American community have long rejected efforts to moderate Cuba policy. Given Florida's importance in presidential politics, Democrats and Republicans in Congress and the White House have tended to stand with them. Yet opinion among Cuban Americans is shifting. A poll last month by Florida International University found that 55% of Cuban Americans favor lifting the embargo. Other polls have returned different results, but there is no doubt that a younger generation wants a fresh approach, Hernandez told USA TODAY. Rep. Jeff Flake, R-Ariz., who is co-sponsoring the bill to allow American tourism to Cuba, said he believes such visits would lead to the lifting of the embargo, which he says merely bolsters Cuba's repressive government. "This policy really inures to the benefit of those who want to stay in power there," Flake said. Hernandez says that any change to the embargo policy "should wait for a significant response in kind from the Cuban government."