Havana, cuba
{05-06-2012}

Cuba Must Boost Productivity to Hike Wages, Union Boss Says
EFE

Cuba will not be able to hike wages until it finishes the process of thinning state payrolls and eliminating unnecessary subsidies to raise productivity, according to the head of the Communist-rules island’s only legal trade union, the CTC.

“As long as the country, with the measures that are being adopted, has not managed to deflate payrolls, eliminate unnecessary free (services) and subsidies that conspire against the raising of labor productivity, it will not be in any condition to make salary increases,” said Salvador Valdes in an interview with the weekly Trabajadores published on Monday.

The union leader emphasized the need to revitalize the principle of socialist distribution through “systems of payment for results.”

The median salary in Cuba stands at about 450 pesos (about $18) a month, although the government downplays this figure with the argument that basic services like health care and education are free and that many others have subsidized prices.

The economic reform plan undertaken by President Raul Castro to “update” the socialist model includes a drastic reduction in inflated state payrolls, where 500,000 public employees will be let go by 2015.

So far, 140,000 state jobs have been eliminated and another 110,000 are forecast to vanish during 2012, according to what CTC officials told Efe.

The “labor reordering” has been “the most difficult situation” that the Cuban union movement has confronted during the 53 years since the revolution, CTC leaders admit.

Valdes acknowledged the complexity of the task in the cited interview, where he emphasized that it is “indispensable to deflate payrolls to achieve efficiency.”

“The CTC and the unions support the measures to update the economic model, preserve and perfect socialism, but we must not allow errors, mistakes or excesses that harm the right of workers,” Valdes said.

One of the alternatives for “available” state workers is self-employment, another of the “star” measures in the reform plan that has implied an opening to private initiative, albeit on a very small scale.

More than 370,000 Cubans have joined the emerging private sector.
 

Havana, Cuba
{04-28-2012}

Cuba plans massive shift to "non-state" sector
Marc Frank // Reuters

Cuba will move nearly 50 percent of the state's economic activity to the "non-state" sector, a senior Communist party official said at the weekend, the latest signal the island is headed toward a mixed economy.

Cuban President Raul Castro has hammered away at the need for the state to become more efficient and get out of secondary economic activity such as farming and retail services since taking over for his ailing older brother, Fidel, in 2008.

China and Vietnam adopted similar measures in the last few decades of the 20th century as they began to shift to what is known as market socialism.

"Today, almost 95 percent of gross domestic product is produced by the state. Within four or five years between 40 percent and 45 percent will result from different forms of non-state production," a long-time Communist party political bureau member, Esteban Lazo Hernandez, said in a speech to the Havana city government.

Lazo, who is considered by many to be the Communist party's top ideologue, said the increased private business and the tax revenue the move would generate meant local government needed to improve its efficiency in order to cope with the shift, according to clips of his speech broadcast by state-run television on Sunday.

The Cuban Communist party approved a comprehensive plan to revamp its Soviet-style command economy in April of last year.

The 311-point document calls on authorities to support and encourage, "mixed-capital companies, cooperatives, farmers with the right to use idle land, landlords of rental properties, self-employed workers and other forms that contribute to raise the efficiency of social labour."

The plans envision the reduction of the state workforce by at least 20 percent, or a million workers, the elimination of subsidies in favour of more narrowly targeted welfare programs and granting state-run companies more autonomy.

"The question will be to see how this 'non-state' production will be split between real private property and cooperatives, and how independent from the state the cooperatives really are," a Western diplomat said.

Since Castro took office the number of self-employed, often a euphemism for small businesses, has doubled to more than 300,000, and some 200,000 people have taken advantage of a land grant program to encourage small farming.

Small state retail services - from barber shops and beauty parlours to taxis and tiny cafeterias - have already been leased to employees. But local economists said a major shift to the "non-state" sector, like the one outlined by Lazo over the weekend, meant larger chunks of the state's economic activity would be peeled off.

"Such a shift means not just tiny mom-and-pop operations and small businesses such as restaurants and hostels, but mid-sized companies operating as cooperatives and individually owned," said a local economist who asked his name not be used.

Sceptics question how quickly Cuba's centrally planned economy can manage such a radical transformation. "I think a shift of this magnitude in such a short time period would be highly unlikely for Cuba," said William Messina, agricultural economist with the Food and Resource Economics Department at the University of Florida.

"Even though Raul is trying to implement a number of changes that could move the country in this direction, the bureaucratic resistance that there appears to be (at least within agriculture) will certainly slow the process," he added.

WASHINGTON, D.C.
{04-21-2012}

Obama mute, human rights abuses pick up
Jennifer Rubin  //  The Washington Post

     If it were not for the Middle East, Russia and China (and the premature pullout from Iraq), we might consider Cuba to be President Obama’s worst foreign policy debacle. He relaxed sanctions against the dictatorship. U.S. citizen Alan Gross was arrested and thrown in prison. He is in poor health. We’ve done nothing and have not reinstituted sanctions. And what has Cuba done?

Well, as former deputy national security adviser Elliott Abrams points out, in conjunction with Pope Benedict XVI’s visit, 1,158 people were swept up and detained. That’s more than have been grabbed off the streets or from their homes since the Bay of Pigs in 1961. Abrams rightly is concerned that the Catholic Church has gone mute, failing to respond to the widespread human rights violations.

We should be concerned about the loss of a critical voice for human rights and dignity, but the bigger problem here is U.S. policy. We have not re-upped sanctions, we have not exacted any penalty for the imprisonment of Gross and we are virtually silent on the hemisphere’s worst dictatorship.

Last September Obama spoke to the General Assembly of the United Nations. In his remarks he declared:

We believe that each nation must chart its own course to fulfill the aspirations of its people, and America does not expect to agree with every party or person who expresses themselves politically. But we will always stand up for the universal rights that were embraced by this Assembly. Those rights depend on elections that are free and fair; on governance that is transparent and accountable; respect for the rights of women and minorities; justice that is equal and fair. That is what our people deserve. Those are the elements of peace that can last.

Moreover, the United States will continue to support those nations that transition to democracy — with greater trade and investment — so that freedom is followed by opportunity. We will pursue a deeper engagement with governments, but also with civil society — students and entrepreneurs, political parties and the press. We have banned those who abuse human rights from traveling to our country. And we’ve sanctioned those who trample on human rights abroad. And we will always serve as a voice for those who’ve been silenced.

But that not what this administration does. It does nothing in the face of increased human rights abuses in Cuba. It is paralyzed in the face of mass murder in Syria. It is trying to do business with Iran (with human rights nowhere on the agenda), and it tried to give away more goodies to North Korea. In short, Obama’s responsibilities are far greater than the pope’s, for the president is the leader of the world’s only superpower and of the free world. But he is as mute and ineffective as the Catholic Church. It’s a disgrace and a signal to our foes that America will no longer “stand up for universal rights.” Obama can’t be bothered; he is running for reelection, you know.

Wahington, d.c.
{04-18-2012}

Will Cuba do the right thing with Alan Gross?
Judith E. Gross  //   The Washington Post

    Judith E. Gross is a psychiatric social worker in Maryland. Her husband, Alan Gross, was sentenced last year to 15 years in prison in Cuba for “acts against the independence or the territorial integrity of the State.”

There is nothing more agonizing than losing a loved one. The pain is made all the worse if there is no closure, no ability to say goodbye, no comforting one another.

René González, one of five Cuban intelligence officers — known as the “Cuban Five” — convicted in the United States of espionage and related charges, attained supervised release in Miami last year after 13 years in prison. A federal judge recently granted González’s humanitarian request to return to Cuba temporarily to say goodbye to his brother, who has terminal brain and lung cancer. I hope they find solace in their time together.

When U.S. District Judge Joan Lenard responded to González’s plea last month, I thought she made the right and moral decision. I began to hope the Cuban government would respond similarly to the situation of my husband, Alan Gross.

Alan has been imprisoned in Cuba since Dec. 3, 2009, for providing improved Internet access to three Cuban Jewish communities as part of his work under a subcontract with the U.S. Agency for International Development. Alan was not and is not a spy, as Cuban President Raul Castro has publicly agreed. Among the many other differences between González and my husband is that Alan is not yet able to say goodbye to a terminally ill loved one.

Alan’s 89-year-old mother has inoperable lung cancer. She longs to see her son. So far, the Cuban government has not decided to reciprocate the humanitarian gesture extended to González. Are Cuba’s leaders really that cold and uncaring? Why will they not allow Alan the same humanitarian privilege granted to González?

There had been reason recently to think Cuba was open to such “humanitarian reciprocity.” Although Alan was held in Cuba without charge for 14 months and then summarily tried and sentenced, Cuba’s foreign minister, Bruno Rodriguez, told the New York Times in September that he did not “see any way in which we can move on towards a solution of the Mr. Gross case but from a humanitarian point of view and on the basis of reciprocity.”

Last month, Cuba’s vice foreign minister, Josefina Vidal, told MSNBC: “We have conveyed to the United States government our willingness to have a dialogue to look for a solution on this case on [a] humanitarian reciprocal basis and we are waiting for a response.”

Just a few days after Vidal’s comments, Cuba received its response: Rene González arrived in Havana on March 30 to visit his suffering brother, thanks to Lenard’s humanitarian order.

I also felt hopeful because, early last month, my husband similarly made a direct request to Castro for permission to visit the United States for two weeks to be with his mother on what may be her final birthday. Alan had just learned that his mother’s lung cancer had taken a turn for the worse.

Alan and his mother, Evelyn, who turns 90 on Sunday, have always shared a special bond. Before his arrest, they spoke several times a day. Their phone calls were filled with stories, jokes and lots of laughter. Unfortunately, that warm tradition has been degraded to the occasional heart-wrenching phone call from a son who knows his mother is fading with each passing minute. Their laughter has been replaced by tears. I see the way they are tormented by the fact they may never see each other again. Both recognize that their fate lies in Castro’s hands, just as González’s fate rested with Lenard.

This week we are celebrating Passover — the Jewish holiday commemorating the emancipation of the Israelites from slavery in Egypt. We are reminded of the struggles our ancestors encountered so we might experience true freedom. As a family, we remain hopeful that Castro will likewise make the honorable, courageous and humanitarian decision to allow Alan to visit his mother. The anticipated chorus of responses on both sides — attempting to distinguish crimes, sentences and even governments — is irrelevant if the decision maker’s motivation is purely humanitarian, as was Lenard’s.

Cuban authorities, in particular Castro, should demonstrate whether they are the humanitarian people they claim to be, seriously interested in reciprocity and honoring their words — or whether their words are empty rhetoric, intended all along to deceive.

As Cuba’s vice foreign minister told MSNBC last month: We are waiting for a response.
 

LA HABANA, CUBA
{4-03-2012}

The Pope’s Castro Odyssey
Humberto Fontova

    A few items to keep in mind regarding the mainstream media version of the Pope’s visit to Cuba this week:

               

     “Viva Christ the King! Down with Communism!” The defiant yells “made the walls of La Cabana prison tremble,” wrote eyewitness to Cuba’s firing squad massacres, Armando Valladares, who suffered 22 torture-filled years in Castro’s prisons and was later appointed by Ronald Reagan as U.S. ambassador to the U.N. Human Rights Commission.

     The La Cabana prison and killing field weren’t far from where Pope Benedict gave his speech this week in Havana, while hosted by the killers.

    After the patriot’s yell came “FUEGO!” And the volley shattered another young patriot. By mid-1961 the defiant yells started unnerving the trigger-pullers and many shots were going wild. The coup de grâce, recalls some eyewitnesses, was often delivered to a man (or boy) fully conscious, with eyes open, but convulsing in agony. In the early days of Castroite rule Che Guevara himself reveled in applying these final shots. Earlier while in Cuba’s mountains, Raul Castro specialized in gleefully blasting the skulls apart, say eyewitnesses now in exile.

    Most patriots murdered in La Cabana were buried in unmarked graves not far from where Pope Benedict gave his speech this week in Havana, hosted by Raul Castro and with a huge Che Guevara image as backdrop.

    “Executions?” Che Guevara once exclaimed while addressing the hallowed halls of the U.N. General Assembly Dec. 9, 1964. “Certainly we execute!” he declared, to the claps and cheers of that august body. “And we will continue executing as long as it is necessary! This is a war to the death against the revolution’s enemies!”

    Catholic youth groups were among the most militant of the Revolution’s enemies and among the first to mount resistance to Castro and Che Guevara’s Stalinization of Cuba. The Soviets then provided Castro’s economic lifeline. Cuban Catholics were jailed, and tortured, and massacred by firing squads. Nowadays tourists and remittances from the U.S. (many from U.S.-based Catholics) provide the largest lifeline to Castro’s Stalinist regime, right behind Venezuelan subsidies. So obviously a propaganda make-over was in order. And what better propaganda than a visit and blessing from the Pope himself, complete with a condemnation of the “Yankee embargo”?

    You simply cannot top this kind of PR, even from Madison Avenue.

    “Down with Communism!” was heard again this week in Havana. A young Cuban Black attending the Pope’s speech stood and yelled it in front of the stage. Then he was beaten and dragged off. His fate is unknown. But don’t look for this incident mentioned anywhere in the mainstream media. These “reporters” get Castro-accredited Cuban visas, after all.  And as a reminder to those who came of political age after the fall of the Iron Curtain, Stalinist regimes do not issue journalist visas randomly. These coveted visas come with conditions.

    Offer your dog a doggie treat. Ask him to beg and roll over first—and you’ll see the nature of these conditions.

    “Pray to your Jesus Christ NOW why dontcha! Ask him to help you NOW why dontcha!—Har-Har-Har!” Such were the taunts by the Pope’s hosts when Cuban Catholics were rounded up en masse at Soviet bayonet-point and herded into forced-labor camps in the mid ‘60s. The initials for these camps were UMAP, not GULAG, but the conditions were quite similar.

    “I never imagined such sadistic people existed in Cuba,” recalls former President of the UMAP Prisoners Association, Emilio Izquierdo. “Those prison camps were full of young people, long-hairs, rock & rollers, etc. But the guards — while beating and torturing us who were arrested for the crime of being active Catholics — really loved to constantly taunt us with that famous taunt : “Pray to your Jesus NOW!” while laughing. “I don’t see him helping you!—HA-HA!”

    “It’s been almost fifty years and I still can’t shake those taunts from my memory…[T]he Pope’s visit, his photo-ops while shaking hands with the Castro brothers, his speech with Che Guevara as backdrop etc….well,  let me put it mildly, it was a tremendous disappointment for us.”

     Emilio Izquierdo today serves as coordinator for the Miami-based group Cuban-American Friends and Patriots, a Tea-Party affiliate.

    “I am not Christ or a philanthropist,” wrote Che Guevara in his diaries. “I am all the contrary of a Christ–In fact, if Christ himself stood in my way, I, like Nietzsche, would not hesitate to squish him like a worm.”

    Castro’s KGB and STASI-tutored regime prepared for the Pope’s visit carefully. Any unsightly protests would mar the occasion, especially for a regime long-accustomed to preening in front of the international media mirror. And Snow White’s evil stepmother never knew such a trustworthy “mirror-mirror-on-the-wall” as does the Castro regime with its mainstream media mirror.

    Senator Marco Rubio knew about the sickening shenanigans playing out behind the scenes:  “The [Cuban] Catholic Church has negotiated a political space for themselves in exchange for their moral imperative,” he explained as a panelist at the Heritage Foundation a few days before the visit. “Last week the [Cuban] Cardinal [Jaime Ortega] invited Castro thugs to come into his church and remove people.”

    Some background: two weeks ago, 13 Cuban dissidents “occupied” a Cuban Catholic Church. But their demands hardly resembled those of the “occupiers” of Wall Street and Washington DC (as did their treatment).

    Instead, Cuban dissidents learned in advance that the Pope would be chumming it up with their Stalinist oppressors (including Fidel himself) while very diplomatically side-stepping any meeting with themselves. This incensed the dissidents and prompted their desperate occupation of Havana’s Our Lady of Charity church.

    Three days before the Pope’s visit, Cuban Cardinal Jaime Ortega summoned the regime’s KGB-trained police who kicked and clubbed the dissidents out of the church, whereupon all were held for “questioning.”

    Amnesty International confirmed the Castroite wave of terror in preparation for the Pope’s visit. “The detention of more than 150 political opponents is yet another example of how authorities in Cuba completely disregard human rights,” they wrote this week.

    Andrea Mitchell, on the other hand, seemed characteristically smitten with Castroism. “The advantages of the Cuban system, the low infant-mortality rate… which is legendary around the world,” she reported from Havana this week, courtesy of her Castro-issued “journalist” visa.

Havana, cuba
{03-29-2012}

Pope avoids ruffling Cuban regime by steering clear of dissidents
Luis Prados  & Yoani Sanchez

  Pope Benedict XVI completed his first trip to Mexico and Cuba on Wednesday with a large Mass held in Havana’s Revolution Square and a scheduled private meeting with former President Fidel Castro.

During his three-day visit to the communist island, the pope didn’t talk publicly about human rights issues, as many had wanted him to do. But the pontiff did make some calls for the government to help usher in change that could help the Cuban people.

In his newspaper column “Reflections,” published Wednesday, Fidel Castro said that he would meet with the 84-year-old pontiff before he returns to Rome. “With pleasure, I will greet His Excellency Benedict XVI as I did with John Paul II,” wrote the 85-year-old.

The pope also came in for criticism for not meeting any Cuban dissidents, including members of the Ladies in White human rights group. He did urge Cubans to build a “renewed and open society,” and asked the Communist government to give the Catholic Church more freedom to help people in the time of change.

But he chose his words carefully, avoiding open criticism of the government. “I carry in my heart the just aspirations and legitimate desires of all Cubans, wherever they may be,” he said, including the “sufferings” of prisoners and their families.

His predecessor, Pope John Paul, did not meet with dissidents during his 1998 visit, but he did speak openly about human rights.

Aimeé Garcés, a Ladies in White member, told Reuters that she feared that the authorities had prevented some of the members of her group from actively protesting during the pope’s visit. During Benedict XVI’s first open air Mass in Santiago, a man shouting “down with communism” was taken away by security.

In Mexico, the pontiff’s prior three-day visit was also marred by controversy. The day after he arrived, two former members of the Catholic lay organization Legion of Christ protested the pope’s presence because they said the Vatican had eluded its responsibility to prosecute its group’s late founder, Father Marcial Maciel, who sexually abused hundreds of seminarians. “Not only did the Vatican know \[about Maciel’s abuse\] but it tolerated and protected Maciel,” said Bernard Barranco, a researcher who is preparing a case against the Church.

Among the documents he presented was a 1999 letter that Joseph Ratzinger, the current Pope Benedict XVI, sent to former Legion member Alberto Athié who asked for an inquiry into Maciel’s abuses. Maciel died in 2008. “Unfortunately, we cannot open a case against Marcial Maciel because he is a person much beloved by Pope Juan Paul II, and he has also done so much good for the Church. I am sorry, but it is not possible,” Ratzinger wrote.

The current pope had been in charge of the Church’s doctrine of faith congregation. In Mexico, the pope said that he was “saddened” by the wave of murders and suffering caused by the crackdown on drug traffickers.

MIAMI, FLORIDA
{03-26-2012}

Speaking out against evil
The Miami Herald Editorial

So it should be in Cuba

MIAMI, FLORIDA
{03-23-2012}

Despite U.S. concerns, judge allows Castro spy to visit dying brother in Cuba
Peter Orsi //  Associated Press

    A lawyer for a Cuban agent serving probation after a long jail term in the United States said Tuesday that his client is elated with a Miami judge's decision to let him visit his ailing brother on the island, and says the man will keep his word and return to serve out the remainder of the punishment.

The ruling in the case of Rene Gonzalez offered a rare moment of relaxation in tension between the two countries. It also raised hopes Cuba might reciprocate with a humanitarian gesture for jailed U.S. contractor Alan Gross, whose imprisonment has torpedoed any hope of rapprochement between the Cold War enemies.

Gross has asked authorities to be allowed to return to the United States to visit his mother and adult daughter, who are both battling cancer, and his supporters are looking to next week's visit to Cuba by Pope Benedict XVI as a chance for a goodwill gesture.

Gonzalez is one of the so-called Cuban Five, agents who were convicted of spying on Cuban exiles in South Florida and trying to infiltrate military installations and political campaigns. He was freed last year after serving most of a 15-year sentence, but was ordered to remain in the U.S. for three years on supervised release.

Phil Horowitz, a Miami-based criminal defense attorney who has represented Gonzalez since 1998, said Gonzalez would file all the paperwork to comply with the judge's order, including an itinerary with addresses and the names of people he plans to see, and intends to make the trip as soon as possible.

"He's happy he's going to be able to see his brother while he's in his time of need," Horowitz said. "Like I've always said in my motions, this is not a political request, this is a pure humanitarian request."

Gonzalez, a dual Cuban-American citizen whose brother has lung cancer, promises to return within the two-week limit established in the ruling.

"If he doesn't, he's going to be an international pariah," the lawyer said. "No. 2, there's still four more of his fellow countrymen in the United States prison system that are eventually going to get released. If he doesn't comply with the court order it may reflect badly on them, and he has absolutely no desire to do that."

As Cuban and U.S. officials have done in the past, Horowitz insisted that Gonzalez's and Gross' cases are separate.

However Philip Peters, a longtime Cuba analyst at the Virginia-based Lexington Institute Lexington Institute, noted similarities between Gonzalez and Gross, a 62-year-old from Maryland who was arrested in December 2009 while working with Cuban Jewish communities to improve their Internet access. Gross was convicted last year of crimes against the state and sentenced to 15 years in prison.

"There's this parallel situation where both Gonzalez and Gross have relatives that are (suffering from) cancer," Peters said. "Both have asked for a brief visit, and they've both promised that they would return to serve their sentence."

"One has been granted, and the other is pending."

But since permission came from the judicial branch rather than the executive, it's tough to interpret this as a clear beginning of a broader humanitarian agreement between Washington and Havana.

"It's definitely an interesting twist when you consider that Cuba has said that they're interested in reciprocal humanitarian steps," Peters said. "But the United States did not present this as a positive gesture, and in fact the (Obama) administration opposed it. ... It would be a little tricky for U.S. diplomats to turn around and try to get something out of this."

In court filings last week, the Justice Department argued against letting Gonzalez return to the island on the grounds that he could receive new spying instructions from Cuban intelligence officials.

In Washington on Tuesday, Department spokesman Dean Boyd declined to comment on whether an appeal was in the works.

Gonzalez's lawyer has said the dual Cuban-American citizen is working as a caretaker at a private home, but did not reveal the location out of concern for his client's safety.

Cuban authorities were initially quiet about the ruling except for a short, matter-of-fact article in state media, where the Cuban Five are a constant fixture and cause celebre.

Requests for government comment and permission to interview Gonzalez's wife, Olga Salanueva, were not immediately granted.

"Imagine the happiness a Cuban feels (upon learning) that Rene has been given a humanitarian visa to visit his brother," Antonio Castro, a son of former President Fidel Castro, told The Associated Press at an unrelated event.

"This is a very long struggle. It has been going on for years and we have to keep moving forward," Castro said. "But of course it's a cause for personal satisfaction."

Havana, cuba
{03-08-2012}

Colombia president in Cuba to talk summit flap
Andrea Rodríguez  //  Associated Press

     Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos flew to Cuba on Wednesday to meet with counterpart Raul Castro about an upcoming regional summit amid talk of a possible boycott that would be a challenge to U.S. foreign policy.

Santos said on arrival that the April 14-15 Summit of the Americas in Cartagena, Colombia, will top the agenda for his discussions with Castro, but he did not answer questions about whether his country intends to invite Cuba.

"Our relations ... are very good, but any relationship can be improved," Santos said in brief comments at Havana's international airport.

Members of the leftist Bolivarian Alliance, or ALBA, demanded last month that Cuba be included in the regional gathering, but stopped short of threatening a boycott while urging Colombia to extend an invitation. As host, Colombia gets the final decision.

Colombia is one of Washington's staunchest allies in Latin America, but has also sought to maintain friendly ties to Cuba. Santos's efforts to improve ties with Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez have dramatically set him apart from his predecessor.

The Summit of the Americas is historically linked to the Organization of American States, and Cuba has not participated in the OAS since 1962. But Cuba has expressed a desire to attend the Cartagena summit.

U.S. officials say Cuba, ruled since 1959 by brothers Fidel and Raul Castro, does not meet OAS standards of democracy and thus has no business taking part.

"They don't fit the definition of democratic countries and the development of democracy in the hemisphere," U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said last week at a hearing of the House Foreign Affairs Committee. "So at this point we see absolutely no basis and no intention to invite them to the summit."

Geoff Thale, an analyst at the Washington Office on Latin America, a U.S.-based think tank, said the fact that Santos is going out of his way to smooth over the flap, together with ALBA's support for Cuba, shows that the region is increasingly willing to deviate from U.S. international policy.

"The widespread support in Latin America for Cuba's participation in the Summit, and the willingness of many governments to push the issue, underscores the decline of U.S. influence in the region," Thale said by email.

Santos also planned to meet with Venezuela's Chavez, who is being treated in Cuba for a relapse of cancer in the pelvic region. The two presidents were to have met March 1 about a commercial accord, but that was postponed by Chavez's illness, Santos said.

ALBA, Chavez's brainchild, is made up of Antigua and Barbuda, Bolivia, Cuba, Dominica, Ecuador, Nicaragua, St. Vincent and the Grenadines and Venezuela.

Miami, florida
{02-16-2012}

What “The Sun” shines on Cuba
John Paul Rathbone 

    February is the month of balmy summer days in Latin America, although the season of beach holidays hasn’t stopped a delicious diplomatic storm from brewing.

At the heart of the thundery electrostatic is the perennial problem. Will Cuba attend the “Summit of the Americas” this April?

This is more than recondite politics. It is drama. If Cuba does attend, then the world will enjoy the unique spectacle of a US President sharing the same podium as one of the Castro brothers.

If it doesn’t, well that would be because Cuba again does not meet the democratic requirements of the Organisation of American States.

The stakes – if you can call them that – are growing.

Ecuador – junior member of the Venezuela and Cuba- sponsored regional grouping, the Bolivarian Alliance for the Americas (or ALBA, which recently brought the world these words of support and respect for the Bashar Al-Assad regime in Syria) – has said Cuba should be allowed to attend. Furthermore, if Cuba isn’t invited, then ALBA should boycott the Summit, where 34 heads of state are otherwise supposed to attend.

That would hold out the prospect of a similar fiasco to the 2005 Summit, when a protest rally, partly organised by the Argentine hosts, saw Venezuelan president Hugo Chavez round on a trade deal that was subsequently approved by 29 other countries.

This time round, a similar boycott would produce collateral damage for the Summit’s hardworking but embarrassed Colombian hosts. More importantly, it would be a snub for the US. Why?

Because the OAS is the sole regional forum where the US still has a voice, and a walkout by Ecuador, Venezuela et al would show that even this forum no longer counts. A case of “adios” to the gringos.

There is all sorts of fun to be had wondering how, or if, this thorny issue might be resolved.

One possibility: Cuba does attend, but walks into a firestorm of criticism about human rights and lack of elections. (Forget it: the Castros haven’t remained in power for 50 years for nothing.)

Another possibility: Raul Castro turns up on the beach at Cartagena for his April holiday anyway, and sidles into the meeting. (Unlikely.)

A third: Cuba attends as just an observer, like Spain and Portugal, which would annoy both Havana and Washington in equal measure, but might give everyone else a laugh.

The problem with this meaningless membership debate, diverting as it might be, is that it masks the real question, and hijacks the real issue. Indeed, it is a diversion.

The real issue the region should be talking about is regional integration – which indeed is the Summit’s main theme. And the real question is why Cuba doesn’t meet the OAS guidelines? (The answer is not just because the US wishes it so: when Cuba was invited to enter negotiations with the OAS in 2009, Havana said it didn’t want to.)

Still, the best defence against criticism is often attack. Indeed, looking at it all from London, the affair is somewhat reminiscent of News International staff’s protests about the heavy-handedness of the police investigation into its Sun newspaper about possible phone-hacking. The Sun’s protest may be valid but is really just a smokescreen for the bigger question: why is there an investigation in the first place?

MIAMI, FLORIDA
{02-05-2012}

Why candidates want the Cuban vote
Mike Valdes-Fauli

Mike Valdés-Fauli is President of JeffreyGroup, the largest independent communications firm focusing on Latin audiences. He has been a media commentator on Hispanic issues for CNN en Español, AdWeek, PR Week, the Miami Herald. Mike was named one of PR Week magazine’s 40 Under 40. He lives in Miami with his wife and son.
CNN

For months, Cuban-American Senator Marco Rubio has sat atop pundits’ vice presidential lists, and the Republican primary here on January 31 once again places the Florida Hispanic population at the forefront of our political landscape. This demographic will come into even greater focus as it presents the first real test of Latino voters for candidates in a fierce battle to attract them in November.

Florida's many diverse demographics make it a microcosm of the U.S. melting pot, but politicians understand that Cuban-Americans, in particular, hold significant influence over the entire Latino community in this country, and directly impact the outcome of elections in Florida. This crucial swing state is home to the third-largest Latino population in the country – more than 4.2 million people. One-third of eligible Hispanic voters here are Cuban.

Since the first wave of arrivals in 1960, the Cuban immigrant population in the United States has become wildly successful and credited - or faulted, depending on your viewpoint - for swaying many presidential elections.

Although traditionally this group leaned heavily to the right and voted Republican in both local and national elections, the times have shifted and younger Cuban-Americans are more moderate in their views. Additionally, Cubans vote in greater numbers than other Latinos. Nearly half - 49.3% - of Latinos of Cuban origin voted in 2010, compared with just 29.6% of Puerto Ricans and 28.7% of Mexican-Americans, according to the Pew Hispanic Center.

Because of this, presidential candidates have long made the trek down to Miami for fundraisers, but also to make the obligatory stop at Versailles café, donning the traditional Cuban Guayabera for photo opps, and drinking espresso with the noisy and passionate Cuban cognoscenti.

But there’s another reason: The Cuban community has financial might and the numbers don’t lie. At $50,000, native-born Cuban-Americans have a higher median income than all other Hispanic groups, and even non-Hispanic whites, who come in at $48,000, the Pew Hispanic Center reports. This is due in large part to a focus on education, exemplified by the fact that 39% of U.S.-born Cuban-Americans have a college degree or higher, as compared to only 30% of non-Hispanic whites. Even though they only represent 5% of the U.S. Hispanic population, Cubans were elected among the first Latino senators - Robert Menendez, Mel Martinez and Rubio - the first Hispanic commerce secretary - Carlos Gutierrez - and the first Latin Fortune 50 CEO - Roberto Goizueta of The Coca-Cola Company.

So how has an island nation, so small in geography and population, rendered an immigrant population that achieves levels of success unlike others? How did people who arrived here with nothing become kingmakers for our national politics time and again?

My own family is an example. My grandparents had a mansion in Havana with all the trappings of an opulent life; a mansion, servants, and drivers. But immediately upon exiling Cuba, they lost it all and needed to work twice as hard in Miami just to make ends meet. My grandfather had to go back to law school in his mid-40s, while my grandmother, who had never worked a day in her life, took a job as a toy store cashier to put food on the table. For them, like many of their peers, this hard work most certainly paid off. They had four children, all of whom went on to be great successes. My father went to Harvard Law School, founded one of the country’s first Hispanic-owned law firms and served as a four-term mayor of Coral Gables, Florida. His three siblings were high-ranking financial institution executives. Yet what makes this story so amazing is the fact that there are so many others like it.

I attribute the remarkable success of the Cuban people, and their current political influence, to three factors:

It’s the education, stupid

The majority of Cubans who left shortly after Fidel Castro’s arrival, disillusioned by a surprisingly violent Communist regime, were from the upper echelon of Cuban society and had affluent lives on the island. Their parents educated them well, and thousands of doctors, lawyers, bankers and ambitious teenagers flocked to the United States. This is different from other immigrant groups, who are often coming to this country in search of a better economic life they couldn’t access back home - even if that means service labor.

You don’t know what you’ve got till it’s gone

If you are born with money and never lose it, you may not be hyper-motivated. If you are born with nothing, you may never know the difference. But going from having everything in Cuba to nothing in Miami is a recipe for wanting to work hard to get it all back as quickly as possible. Fortunately, this generation passed on the value of hard work to mine, even though we’ve had a more stable upbringing without the unimaginable drama of exiling your country in adolescence.

Let’s stick together

The term “enclave development” has been used for 30 years to describe the Miami Cuban community’s penchant for helping itself ascend. Cubans not only succeeded in this country, they helped build a micro-society in Miami, with entrepreneurs, elected officials, real estate developers, bank executives and university presidents, using various "Latino connections" to ensure they lifted up their brethren.

This potent formula contributed to the success of previous generations, and has impacted greatly descendants like me.

What’s more, this success, and the perspective on politics it created, is sure to impact the GOP candidates this week as they descend on Miami. The candidates will need to understand the passion points of a complex electorate, still rightfully obsessed with an island 90 miles off our coast, but also realize the perils of generalizing. New generations bring entirely modern-day issues to the voting booth, even if they still frequent Versailles for their "cafecito."
 

Havana, cuba
{02-03-2012}

Wanna buy a revolution?
Mikael Goodwin

    Margaret Thatcher once said, “The problem with socialism is that you eventually run out of other people’s money.” During my week in Cuba, I saw firsthand the truth of her case.

    Havana, a once-glorious architectural gem, is falling down — literally. Much of the central city is crumbling and building collapses are common because there is no maintenance. Many people live without running water, and roosters can be heard crowing a block from the nation’s capitol, which is shuttered for “renovations.”

    The sight of American cars from before 1959 plying the streets is charming but an indication of chronic stagnation. Going to the rural areas is like boarding a time machine to the 19th century. Farmers plow by walking behind two oxen, and horses provide basic transportation. Public “buses” consist of horse-drawn wagons.

    Fidel Castro’s “revolución,” now in its 54th year, as spray-painted slogans constantly remind you, is running out of other people’s money. First the Soviet Union propped up the Communist takeover, and after its collapse, Hugo Chavez of Venezuela came to Castro’s rescue.

    It’s a devil’s bargain. Castro barters young Cuban professionals for oil, with Chavez delivering a reported 100,000 barrels a day. In exchange, Cuban doctors and teachers are sent to Venezuela. Chavez went to Cuba for cancer treatment last year.

    Castro himself almost died in 2006, although of what remains a mystery. He still heads the Communist Party, but is rarely seen and there are rumors he suffers from dementia. His brother, Raul, runs the government, though it’s not clear he could survive Fidel’s death.

    The brothers’ scramble to keep 11 million Cubans sullen but not mutinous is leading to a patchwork of liberalizations. Tourism is growing, bringing in foreign investment and the dreaded C-word — capitalism. Large collective farms are being divided, with farmers getting plots to use for 10 years and permits to sell their produce.

    Some houses can be bought and sold, though the rules are subject to bureaucratic whim. Except for the prerevolution Chevies and Cadillacs, “ownership” remains an elusive concept. The state holds all power, and harassment by the police and military is a reminder that any freedom can be canceled without notice.

    A member of the revolutionary generation told me he sees Cuba as “an aging police state.” He said with sadness that the grandchildren of the revolutionaries have fled to America and elsewhere.

    Young people who can’t leave largely are cut off from the world. I saw only a few cellphones and not a single iPhone. The Internet is a stranger and Cuban TV is limited to four or five channels.

HAVANA, CUBA
{01-26-2012}

CUBA REJECTS US CRITICISM OVER PRISONER'S DEATH
Peter Orsi  //  Associated Press 

THE CUBAN GOVERNMENT IS HITTING BACK AT WASHINGTON for its criticism over the death of a jailed dissident who was described by Amnesty International as a prisoner of conscience on hunger strike.

The Cuban Foreign Ministry lambasted the White House and the U.S. State Department for comments that "yet again demonstrate the permanent policy of aggression and meddling in Cuba's internal affairs, and are astonishing for their hypocrisy and double standard."

The statement issued late Friday accused the United States of torture, extrajudicial executions and police brutality, and asked where was the outcry from Washington when a 52-year-old Indian citizen died of malnutrition Jan. 3 after going on hunger strike in an Illinois jail.

The woman was being held on a misdemeanor charge of resisting arrest after struggling with deputies who tried to arrest her for failing to show up for jury duty. She suffered from mental health problems and had been behaving erratically recently, according to her lawyer, family and friends, The Chicago Tribune reported.

"In a colossal act of cynicism, the American government dares to condemn Cuba while it closes its eyes and remains quiet about flagrant violations of human rights," said the statement signed by Josefina Vidal, the Foreign Ministry's director of North American affairs.

Wilman Villar, 31, died Thursday night from complications of pneumonia after a 50-day hunger strike to protest his four-year sentence for assault, resisting arrest and disrespecting authority, fellow dissidents said. He had been hospitalized since Jan. 14 and was in a coma.

Amnesty International said it had determined Villar was imprisoned for peaceful political activity and was preparing to issue an urgent action notice designating him as a prisoner of conscience. That would have made him the first inmate on the island to be recognized as such since the last of 75 government opponents arrested in 2003 walked free from Cuban lockups last spring. Amnesty designated three other Cubans as prisoners of conscience later Friday.

News of Villar's death prompted wide and immediate criticism in the United States, from Cuban-American members of Congress to the White House.

"Villar's senseless death highlights the ongoing repression of the Cuban people and the plight faced by brave individuals standing up for the universal rights of all Cubans," President Obama said in a statement.

The Cuban government denied that Villar was on hunger strike or was even truly a dissident, describing him as a "common criminal" who joined up with government opponents in hopes that he could evade justice in a domestic violence case.

"A regrettable occurrence, unusual in Cuba, has once again been distorted and manipulated by petty political interests to justify the policy of blockade against our country," Vidal said.

Cuban officials use the term "blockade" to refer to the nearly 50-year-old U.S. economic embargo. The country denies holding any political prisoners and characterizes dissidents as counterrevolutionary mercenaries who seek to undermine the communist-run government at Washington's bidding.

Villar is the second jailed dissident to die on hunger strike in two years. In February 2010, Orlando Zapata Tamayo, also considered a prisoner of conscience by Amnesty, died after refusing food for months.

In late December, President Raul Castro announced that Cuba would pardon 2,900 prisoners ahead of a March visit by Pope Benedict XVI, including some convicted of political crimes. The list included many women, elderly inmates, and young people without long criminal records.

Inmates convicted of serious crimes like homicide, spying or drug trafficking were not included in the amnesty.

MIAMI, FLORIDA
{01-11-2012}

VENEZUELAN ASSISTANCE TO CUBA
Vanessa Lopez

CUBA ENTERED INTO THE SPECIAL PERIOD, infamous for significant food shortages and constant blackouts, in 1991 with the disintegration of the Soviet Union and consequent lack of Soviet subsidies. Saving Cuba as its new benefactor was Venezuela’s Hugo Chavez, who has sacrificed his country’s needs to financially support a bankrupt Cuba. Chavez has supported the Castro brothers for various reasons, most notably: 1) Chavez is indebted to Fidel Castro for helping him after the 2002 anti-Chavez coup attempt; 2) Chavez shares with the Cuban revolution an ideological hatred for the United States; and 3) Cuba’s security apparatus has been invaluable to Chavez by helping him solidify his position of power and offering him personal protection.

The gross amount of financial assistance flowing from Venezuela to Cuba has been difficult to fully quantify as a result of the secrecy surrounding the affairs of both countries, but looking at a number of indicators, one can estimate that Venezuela’s largesse approaches roughly $10 billion a year for Cuba over the past few years. Without this financial support, the poor state of Cuba’s economy would likely rival the levels of distress experienced during the mid-1990s.

Venezuela sends Cuba approximately 115,000 barrels of petroleum a day – a figure worth about $3.5 billion per year. (1) It has been reported that this is provided at a 40% discount, and Cuba pays the rest through a subsidized loan provided by Venezuela. It is also estimated that Cuba’s medical personnel operating in Venezuela through the Barrio Adentro program earn Cuba roughly $5.86 billion a year. (2) Between both these sources of aid, Venezuela contributes roughly $9.3 billion to Cuba’s economy, yearly.

Venezuela’s generosity does not end there. A recent Bandes (Venezuela’s Bank of Economic and Social Development) report, obtained by El Nuevo Herald and provided to ICCAS, documents even more financial assistance to Cuba from January 2007 through May 2010. This report indicates that Venezuela provided 100 Cuban companies (involved in Venezuela’s “twin enterprises” program) with nearly $1 billion worth of solidarity credits. Additionally, $47 million worth of financing was provided for a telecommunications project between the countries. A line of credit worth at least $100 million was approved for Cuba’s railway sector and a $45.5 million credit line was opened for the expansion of two Cuban airports. This report does not include the $500 million Venezuelan investment in the Cienfuegos oil refinery and it is unclear if it includes the $70+ million investment in a Venezuelan-Cuban fiber optic cable. Given the trajectory of the relationship between both countries, other such investment projects are likely in the future.

Venezuela also approved a loan – which Cuba is refusing to pay – worth $150 million to help Cuba recover from hurricanes Ike and Gustav. This loan was made pursuant to Hugo Chavez’s instruction in October of 2008, and in July of 2009, Cuba indicated that it was told the loan was a grant and would not be making payments on the $150 million.

Ultimately, between January 2007 and May 2010, Bandes approved $1.5 billion worth of aid. The report indicates that 83% of these funds went directly to Cuba (excluding projects that benefit the Caribbean in general), providing Cuba with at least $1.25 billion over the 3 year period. This is in addition to the regularized assistance of oil provided by Venezuela and the monetary payments made for Cuba’s medical personnel stationed in Venezuela.

Totaling the regularized assistance and the assistance provided through Bandes, between 2007 and 2010, Venezuela subsidized Cuba with a sum just shy of $10 billion per year – an astonishing figure considering Venezuela’s own domestic problems. General Raul Castro, cognizant of Cuba’s increasing dependence on Venezuela, is fostering relationships with other ideologically sympathetic world leaders, hoping for other sources of support should Venezuela no longer be willing to so generously support Cuba’s ailing economy.

 WASHINGTON, D.C.
{01-01-2011}

U.S. SLAMS CUBA FOR NOT FREEING ALAN GROSS WITH OTHER FOREIGN PRISONERS
Associated Press  

THE U.S. GOVERNMENT SAID THAT IT IS “DEEPLY DISAPPOINTED” THAT U.S. CONTRACTOR ALAN GROSS, A PRISONER IN HAVANA, was not included on the list of 86 foreigners soon to be freed by the Cuban government. “If this is correct, we are deeply disappointed and deplore the fact that the Cuban government has decided not to take this opportunity to extend this ‘humanitarian release’ to Mr. Gross this holiday season,” U.S. State Department spokesman Mark Toner said in a communique.

Toner stressed the deteriorating health of Gross, sentenced to 15 years behind bars, and asked the Cuban government to end the difficult situation the contractor’s family has been in for some time.

The spokesman repeated the U.S. government’s plea to Cuban authorities to release Alan Gross “and return him to his family, where he belongs.” “To receive news in the middle of Hanukkah that the Cuban authorities have once again overlooked an opportunity to release Alan on humanitarian grounds is devastating. Our family is simply heartbroken,” Judy Gross, the contractor’s wife, said a little earlier in a communique sent to several media.

Judy Gross said that “Alan is 62 years old, has lost 100 pounds in captivity, is increasingly mentally weak and depressed, and is losing all hope that he will ever see his mother again.”

She also expressed fear of how much both Alan and his mother would be hurt by the news that he is not on the list of prisoners to be released. “I again call on President (dictator) Raul Castro to show compassion for our family’s plight and release Alan during this important holiday for Jews around the world,” Judy said.

Cuban President (dictator) Raul Castro announced this Friday in a speech to the National Assembly that his government will pardon 86 foreignersfrom 25 countries who have been convicted of crimes committed on the island, including 13 women. According to the president, those convicts will be released “on condition that the governments of their home countries accept their repatriation.”

Foreign Ministry spokespersons said that Gross is not among those pardoned, and his case remains one of the chief political obstacles to improving relations between Havana and Washington.

The U.S. contractor was arrested in December 2009 on the island for distributing communications technology to a Jewish community, and in March a Havana court sentenced him to 15 years in jail for plotting against Cuba.

At the time of his arrest, Gross, a native of Baltimore, Maryland, was working for Development Alternatives, a subcontractor for the U.S. Agency for International Development. USAID’s Cuba program, financed with $20 million for fiscal 2012, focuses its efforts on “increasing the ability of Cubans to participate in civic affairs and improve human rights conditions on the island,” says the federal agency on its Web page.

Washington has continued to demand the contractor’s freedom, while appeals have been made by such dignitaries as ex-U.S. President Jimmy Carter and religious leaders of the United States that he be released as a humanitarian gesture, given Gross’s poor state of health and the ailments suffered by his mother and daughter.

The Cuban government also announced Friday that in the coming days it will pardon more than 2,900 prisoners for humanitarian reasons, in what Gen. Castro calls “one more example of the generosity and strength of the revolution.”