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South Africa: Cuban Bailout – Minister Davies Must Account to Parliament

South Africa: Cuban Bailout – Minister Davies Must Account to Parliament6 February 2012

press release

The South African government has wasted R600 million on sustaining the failed Cuban state, including what government has called a "solidarity grant". This follows a R1.4 billion Cuban bailout that Zuma authorised in December 2010.

When the Parliamentary session reconvenes, the Democratic Alliance (DA) will request that the Minister of Trade and Industry, Rob Davies, appear before Parliament to explain what economic objectives are achieved by this decision.

We want to know how this cash injection for Cuba will help the millions of South Africans who live below the breadline.

Cuba has a tiny and little to offer South Africa by way of trade. Our trade with Cuba is unlikely to ever exceed R100 million per year. And at the same time, we have our own massive domestic problems in , energy, infrastructure, unemployment and a host of other areas.

It is difficult to justify giving the Cuban regime R2 billion in handouts when our own people are suffering daily.

The R600 million Minister Davies handed out on Friday consisted of credit write-offs, new credit lines and some cash payments. It also includes a R100 million "solidarity grant", which will not need to be paid back to South Africa.

The Cuban regime has a long track record of failing to pay back our loans. In 2010, South Africa had to write off R1.1 billion in bad Cuban , and on Friday we wrote off another R250 million in bad .

It is a tragic irony that a portion of the Cuban handout is earmarked to promote security in Cuba, when our own security is under threat here at home.

We have recently been forced to import maize at a very high price, affecting millions of South Africans who rely on maize-based products as staple food.

The time has come for South Africa to invest in strategic partnerships that deliver prosperity for our people. Maintaining symbolic friendships at enormous costs do not help the South African people.

Geordin Hill Lewis, Shadow Deputy Minister of Trade and Industry

http://allafrica.com/stories/201202070038.html

University Reform Without Autonomy / Dimas Castellano

Reform Without Autonomy / Dimas CastellanoDimas Castellanos, Translator: Unstated

On the 50th anniversary of the University Reform enacted in January 1962, the newspaper Granma published on Monday, January 9, 2012, an article entitled University and Society by Armando Hart Dávalos, in which he proposes that "after the triumph of the Revolution university reform was essential to realizing the final link between the university and the people and the new national socio-economic reality … "

In the article he omits the most significant: the history that led to the loss of University Autonomy as the nerve center of civil society. This simplification of the antecedents allows Hart to confer a definitive character on the reform of 1962, as if social processes have a point of closure.

Jose Ortega y Gasset, in Mission of the University and other related essays, declared: "Man inherently belongs to a generation and every generation is not installed in any place, but with great precision on the previous. This means that it is forced live up to the times and especially to the height of the ideas of the time."

Between the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, Father José Agustín Caballero, Tomás Romay Chacón, Félix , José de la Luz y Caballero, José Martí and Enrique José Varona, among many others, made strenuous efforts to situate at the height of its times. It follows that education reform is an ongoing process that does not support "definitive" and that from this continuity emerged University Autonomy as unavoidable necessity of modernism.

In the Republic, Carlos de la Torre, in his inaugural speech as Rector of the University of Havana in 1921, outlined a program to reform the university and achieve University Autonomy, which for him was: "to authorize the University to manage in all its affairs in full independence, except as regards the management of its funds." The following year the Rector of the University of Buenos Aires, Joseph Maples, gave a lecture on "the evolution of Argentine universities," in which he explained the process begun with the manifesto of Cordoba, 1918, which led to a university reform whose centerpiece was the autonomy and the involvement of students in university government.

In this context a group of Cuban students published a manifesto in which they called for the formation of student association, which was founded in December 1922 under the name of Federation of University Students (FEU). Subsequently, on January 10, 1923, the fledgling federation issued the Document of the University Reform Program in Cuba, which called for "The status of the university and its autonomy in economic and educational matters." To remedy the situation, Enrique Jose Varona proposed creating a commission composed of professors and students to study the project, which upon acceptance led to the establishment of the Joint Commission, composed of the Rector, teachers and members of the FEU and recognized by Presidential Decree.

The project was analyzed by the Joint Commission, the Rector, the Board, teachers and students who went to the Presidential Palace and submitted to Alfredo Zayas, the bases of the bill for University Autonomy. Zayas, before the force of the reform movement, legally recognized the FEU and authorized the creation of the University Assembly, composed of professors, graduates and students. The advance led reform in October 1923, at the First National Student Congress, which demanded the repeal of the Platt Amendment and agreed to establish the José Martí Popular University to open the doors of the higher educational establishment to the workers.

During the government of Gerardo Machado the University Assembly was dissolved and the FEU outlawed, but the struggle continued. Finally on September 10, 1933, after the fall of Machado, the Government of the Hundred Days, led by Ramon Grau San Martin issued Decree Law 2059 of October 1933, which enacted University Autonomy. Subsequently, the failure of the March 1935 strike, the University was taken over militarily and the government revoked the autonomy.

In 1939, under President Federico Laredo Bru, University Autonomy was restored and the Constituent Assembly was convened which adopted and drafted the Constitution of 1940, which, in Article 53, upheld the constitutionality of the Autonomous University as follows: "The University of Havana is autonomous and shall be governed in accordance with its Statutes and the Law by which they will be tempered." Thanks to this they could form the forces that faced the military coup of 1952, though Fulgencio Batista overthrew the dangerous University Autonomy with the repeal of the Constitution of 1940.

In January 1959, rather than the promise of restoring the 1940 Constitution, as we read in History Will Absolve Me, it was reformed, without consultation, to confer to the Prime Minister the powers of Head of Government and to the Council of Ministers functions of Congress, an amendment similar to what Batista had done with the statutes that replaced the constitution after the 1952 coup. It then proceeded to dismantle civil society and all its instruments, including the University Autonomy.

To accomplish this, the Supreme Council of Universities was created, made up of professors and students from three universities in the country and government representatives. This Council developed the draft University Reform presented on January 10, 1962. That same year, the Cuban Communist leader, Carlos Rafael Rodriguez, in an article published in the press, stated that the new university would be governed jointly by teachers and students, but said, "to the extent that the university revolution is the work of a real revolution and that socialism presides over the transformations, we can not think of teachers and students as two opposing groups… A professor of revolutionary consciousness, guided by Marxism-Leninism and a member of that ideology for years [he was referring to Juan Marinello], will have no need of the watchful presence of students with him in the governance of the University, because he will have the maturity to approach problems of higher education with certain criteria. "

Thus, University Autonomy, without having been lawfully repealed, in fact ceased to exist. Since then the University, one of the most important sources of social change in our history, was rendered inoperable for that purpose. One of its worst consequences is that under such control, the State raised the slogan of "The University is for the revolutionaries," which resulted in the expulsion of hundreds of students and teachers who did not share the ideology of the system.

The result could be no other. With the intention of giving finality to a changing process, the University, with the loss of autonomy, ceased to be nerve center of civil society. Therefore, the changes that are taking place in the have to be complemented by changes in the rights and freedoms, including University Autonomy, which is an inescapable necessity to put the University in step with the times.

(Published in Diario de Cuba on Monday, January 16, 2012: http://www.diariodecuba.com/cuba/9112-reforma-universitaria-sin-autonomía)

January 20 2012

http://translatingcuba.com/?p=14651

Texas agricultural exports to Cuba continue growth

Texas agricultural exports to Cuba continue growthFebruary 6, 2012 By: Blair Fannin

COLLEGE STATION – Though tightly controlled, there are opportunities for Texas agricultural producers and businesses to capitalize on potential exports of products to Cuba, according to a Texas AgriLife Extension Service economist.

Dr. Parr Rosson, AgriLife Extension economist and director of the Center for North American Studies at Texas A&M in College Station, said the Cuban economy has held its own amid world economic turbulence.

Dr. Parr Rosson, Texas AgriLife Extension Service economist.

Thanks to the Trade Sanctions Reform and Export Enhancement Act of 2000, U.S. businesses may export food, agricultural and forestry products and to Cuba.

Texas supplies Cuba with several export items, including chicken leg quarters, corn and wheat. U.S. corn exports to Cuba saw more than a 200 percent increase in value in 2011 to $109 million during the January-November period as Cuba uses more corn products for poultry feeding operations and other uses.

"We've begun to see some higher quality beef cuts enter the Cuban market as well," Rosson said. Pork, cotton and dairy products produced in Texas are also exported there.

"Pears, apples, raisins and dry (pinto) were exported in 2011, along with corn chips and potato chips," Rosson said. "These are products that we are seeing more interest in due to the growing market in Cuba."

International visitors are increasing, Rosson said, with 2.7 million traveling to the island in 2011, 7 percent above 2010 and a new record. Revenue from tourism exceeded $2 billion, providing more money for Cubans to use in purchasing imported foods. Canada is the top visitor, Rosson said, with 900,000 going to Cuba in 2011.

"They are more likely to go during the winter months," he said. "They can fly from Canada directly to the major beach resort of Varadero."

Those resorts serve many items, including chips, fresh fruit and table cuts of beef and pork.

"The downside is that Cuba is attempting to implement several economic reforms and design a new more market-oriented path for their economy," Rosson said. "It creates some instability and uncertainty."

Rosson said Cuba is "very proficient" in producing certain tropical crops such as sugar, tobacco, citrus and vegetables grown in greenhouses, but other crops such as , wheat and corn struggle due to high humidity, insects, disease and the high cost of production.

"And, of course, hurricanes are a threat with each season," he said.

Cuba also lacks consistent agricultural credit, so some crop and livestock production is constrained.

"They rely on joint ventures with and to finance many agribusiness opportunities," he said.

Agricultural commodities, such as dry beans for example, are shipped out of Corpus Christi. Corn and wheat grown in the Lone Star State ships out of the port of Houston, Rosson said.

The Cuban government's buying agency, Empressa Cubana Importada de Alimentos (Alimport), handles all U.S. exports to the island, Rosson said.

"Alimport is Cuba's exclusive agent for all purchases from the U.S. and negotiates purchases, handles documents and arranges logistics and transportation of goods," Rosson said.

Before a U.S. firm can take product samples or export its products to Cuba, Rosson said each product must be reviewed and licensed by the Office of Exporter Services, Bureau Industry and Security, U.S. Department of Commerce.

"The license is free and is valid for one year," Rosson said. More information on licensing requirements can be found at www.bis.doc.gov.

-30-

Contacts

Dr. Parr Rosson, 979-845-3070, prosson@tamu.edu

http://agrilife.org/today/2012/02/06/texas-agricultural-exports-to-cuba-continue-growth/

Spain’s Repsol begins Cuba offshore drilling-sources

's Repsol begins Cuba offshore drilling-sourcesReutersBy Jeff Franks | Reuters – Thu, Feb 2, 2012

HAVANA (Reuters) – Spanish oil company Repsol YPF has begun drilling the first well in Cuba's long-awaited exploration of offshore oilfields that the communist country says hold both billions of barrels of oil and the key to greater prosperity, industry sources told Reuters on Thursday.

The massive Scarabeo 9 drilling rig, which arrived in Cuban waters two weeks ago, began drilling into the sea floor about 30 miles northwest of Havana on Tuesday night, the sources said.

A Repsol spokesman said the company could not comment on "operational details."

The newly built, high-tech rig is operating in 5,600 feet of water, or what the oil industry calls "ultra-deep water," in the Straits of Florida, which separate Cuba from its longtime ideological foe, the United States.

Sources close to the project said such wells generally take about 60 days to complete.

Repsol, which is operating the rig in a consortium with Norway's Statoil and ONGC Videsh, a unit of India's Oil and Natural Gas Corp, has said it will take several months to determine the results of the exploration.

The well is the first of at least three that will be drilled in Cuban waters with the Scarabeo 9, which was built in and is owned by Saipem, a unit of Italian oil company Eni.

Sources have said that Repsol will drill the first well and then the rig will go to Malaysia's Petronas in partnership with Russia's Gazprom Neft and then back to Repsol for the third well.

It is not clear what happens after that, although some sources have said Repsol, which is leasing the Scarabeo 9 from Saipem at a rate said to be more than $500,000 a day, will move the rig to Brazil for exploration there.

Cuba has said it may have 20 billion barrels of oil in its northern waters, which are its part of the Gulf of Mexico. The U.S. Geological Survey has estimated it may have 5 billion barrels of oil, but its study does not include the entire Cuban gulf zone.

EASE FINANCIAL WOES

Cuba, which is in the midst of reforming its Soviet-style , is hoping oil will ease it chronic financial woes and bring energy independence from its socialist ally . It receives about 115,000 barrels daily from the oil-rich South American country.

But if oil is found, experts say it could take five years or so to begin production because more drilling will be needed and production infrastructure put in place.

Repsol drilled the only previous offshore well in Cuba in 2004 and said it found oil but that it was not "commercial."

It has been difficult to find a rig for more drilling because of the 50-year-long U.S. trade against Cuba, which limits the amount of U.S. technology that can be used.

The Scarabeo 9, which is of Norwegian design, has only one piece of American equipment – the blowout preventer, a key part that failed in the 2010 blowout of a BP well in the U.S. Gulf of Mexico.

The BP well, which was in more than 5,000 feet of water and spilled 5 million barrels of oil, stained hundreds of miles of U.S. coastline.

In Florida, 90 miles north of Cuba, the Cuba offshore project has raised fears that a similar could damage the state's beaches and coral reefs.

Drillers in Cuban waters could get within 45 miles of Florida, while in the U.S. gulf no exploration is permitted within 125 miles of the state.

At Repsol's invitation, a team of U.S. experts inspected the rig in December in Trinidad and Tobago and said it complied with all existing engineering and safety standards.

But the United States, which has no official diplomatic relations with Cuba, has only made safety preparations from afar and has not been otherwise involved in the project.

Countries such as Norway and Brazil have helped lead an international effort to get Cuba ready for oil exploration and the possibility of an oil spill.

The project has gone forward despite opposition in the United States from Cuban exile leaders, who have proposed legislation in the U.S. Congress to try to stop Repsol.

They fear that oil will enrich and assure the survival of the Communist government they have long opposed.

"We need to figure out what we can do to inflict maximum pain, maximum punishment to bleed Repsol of whatever resources they have if there's a potential for a spill that would affect the U.S. coast," U.S. Rep. David Rivera from Florida told a congressional subcommittee in Miami on Monday.

(Additional reporting by Jane Sutton in Miami; Editing by Bob Burgdorfer and Marguerita Choy)

http://news.yahoo.com/spains-repsol-begins-cuba-offshore-drilling-sources-184211604.html

Cuba, Where Sheep Are Trained To Venerate Wolves

Op/Ed – 1/31/2012 @ 11:15AM

Cuba, Where Sheep Are Trained To Venerate Wolves

With the death of Cuban Wilman Villar Mendoza, Cuba has lost one of its precious remaining brave souls. While a sputtering dissident movement shows occasional signs of life, reminding us of the hell the Cuban people endure, it casts a pale shadow compared to the fury of the Arab Spring. How is it possible that the Castro brothers have been able to run one of the world's most repressive and dysfunctional gulags for so long without their meeting the fate of the Ceausescus by now?

Their technique of how to introduce communism on an island scale is worth studying.

First, take a geographic area and build a firewall around it. Allow an elite group of monomaniacal thugs to subject the people trapped inside to five decades of brutal repression, privation, confiscation, and humiliation, all bolstered by relentless propaganda designed to convince victims and observers alike that this is necessary for the greater glory of the revolution.

Second, enlist an of global intellectuals to manufacture a smokescreen of respectability for a governing philosophy that extols the virtues of equality and sacrifice, despite the fact that it delivers the equality of poverty and the sacrifice of self respect. Build a few Potemkin village medical facilities to fool the gullible into believing some noble purpose or higher achievement motivates the endeavor.

Third, make it is risky, but not impossible, for anyone who possesses the ambition and courage to rebel to escape instead.

Finally, marinate for two generations as you chase off the best and the brightest and observe what happens to the character of the people that survive.

Welcome to Cuba, where the human spirit has been so thoroughly crushed that a nation of sheep passively waits for their predatory wolves to die of old age, safely in their beds, not a hand raised against them.

Given the Cuban people's apparent resignation to their own fate, is it any surprise that the rest of us just shake our heads in wonder and go about our business, our political leaders impotently decrying the occasional outrage that escapes the censors and makes it into the news?

When the nightmare runs its course and the complete story is finally told, there will be no redeeming chapters.

But what about the lower-than-average infant mortality and longer life expectancy touted by the Castro regime's boosters, if such statistics can be believed? Isn't living longer an end that justifies the means? Think about what living longer implies if you're forced to live under tyranny. America's founders—and indeed, the leaders of the Central and South American independence movements—preferred death to that sort of life, and said so with their words and deeds.

What about the famously low crime rate, where a midnight stroller is safer in Havana than in Washington, DC? Yes, violent crime is a government monopoly in a state. Plus, in a country that has so little, there is nothing much to steal. After all, how many iPhones can get ripped off when nobody can afford one and posting the wrong thing on Twitter can earn you a visit from state security?

It'll be interesting to see what happens to a demoralized people after Castroism breathes its final breath. A new pack of wolves might try to keep the workers' paradise going, but at this point even the most devoted cadres may well be weary of the experiment. Look for them to enrich themselves by "privatizing" the Russian oligarch-style, as they carve up the island to remodel it into the Caribbean resort destination it has every right to be—so long as the "right" people profit.

A brief vintage car export market will likely open up as the world's largest living auto museum sells off its collection. Prostitution will return, or more precisely come out of the shadows, perhaps along with the revival of what once was a thriving pornography industry. It's hard to imagine a manufacturing base springing up to take advantage of the cheap labor as this needs to be coupled with a work ethic, something the Castro regime has made every effort to destroy. Surely, some unique comparative advantage will come to the fore. But having tolerated the intolerable for so long, will the Cuban people know what to do with their newfound once liberated from their chains?

That is the experiment that awaits the return of capitalism.

One can imagine a scenario in which an influx of returning expats, rich in both human and financial capital, blow past the locals as they reintroduce the courage, entrepreneurship, and work ethic they took with them when they escaped. A two-tier society could easily emerge, with returnees and their children lording their success over the bewildered and resentful locals. Petty theft likely will make a comeback, so expect a vigorous market for alarm and security services.

Cubans who have managed to get an advanced under Castro, like the many doctors staffing its medical system, will probably do fine, though many might move to the U.S. seeking better pay, filling our looming doctor shortage. Cigar exports will spike, although once Cuban cigars lose their naughty cachet they will have to compete with many excellent products produced by Cuba's neighbors. And the music industry will thrive once it is coupled with international distribution—some talents just cannot be stamped out.

But what will happen to the rest of the populace? Many might go to work as the cooks, dishwashers, waiters, and maids that will surely be in demand when Club Med comes to town. They'll be much better off than they are now. But don't expect that to stop the mainstream media from running nostalgic stories about the equality that should have, would have, and could have been had Marxism only been implemented properly.

http://www.forbes.com/sites/billfrezza/2012/01/31/cuba-where-sheep-are-trained-to-venerate-wolves/

Key political risks to watch in Cuba – 02-2012

Key political risks to watch in CubaBy Jeff Franks

HAVANA | Fri Feb 3, 2012 10:57am EST

Feb 3 (Reuters) – Cuba is opening the door to private management of some state-run cafes and service outlets in an apparent test of further reforms aimed at keeping the island one of the world's last communist countries.

The government said food prices rose nearly 20 percent in 2011 in a warning sign that economic change will not be painless.

Spain's Repsol YPF brought the massive Scarabeo 9 drilling rig into Cuban waters and began drilling what Cuba hopes will be the first of many wells in its untapped offshore oilfields.

ECONOMIC REFORMS

In eastern Holguin province, officials said 211 state-owned cafeterias would be leased to employeesin a semi-privatization similar to what has been done nationally with barber shops and beauty salons the past year and recently expanded to other service businesses such as watch repair and carpentry shops.

The Holguin program has not been mentioned in national media, but is likely a trial run before it becomes generalized, as was done with the other services.

The government, which wants to slash a million jobs from its payroll and encourage more private initiative, has said it will turn many small businesses, nationalized since the 1960s, over to employee cooperatives.

It is encouraging self-employment, with more than 362,000 people now working for themselves.

Economy Minister Adel Yzquierdo Rodriguez told the National Assembly in late December that 170,000 state jobs would be cut in 2012 and as many as 240,000 new non-state jobs added.

The government's goal is to have up to 40 percent of the island workforce of 5.2 million in non-state jobs by 2015.

has made reform of Cuba's lagging agricultural sector a top priority and the Cuban state, which owns 70 percent of the country's land, has leased 3.5 million acres (1.4 million hectares) to 150,000 private farmers since he succeeded older brother Fidel Castro as president in February 2008.

In some areas, the state has increased the land farmers can lease to 165 acres (67 hectares), extended their leases to 25 years, allowed them to build homes on the land and will let them pass the leases on to family members.

Yet food output was up just 2 percent in 2011 and still below 2005 levels.

That, reduced food imports by the cash-strapped government and reforms allowing farmers to sell more of their production for market prices combined to make food prices shoot up in 2011.

The National Statistics Office reported that meat prices rose 8.7 percent while produce prices increased 24.1 percent, for an average of 19.8 percent on the year..

At the same time, the average monthly salary inched up only a few percentage points to the equivalent of $19 a month, the government said. The statistics stated what Cubans already knew — their buying power has shrunk under Castro's reforms.

President Castro told the National Assembly that Cuba still expected to spend $1.7 billion on food imports in 2012.

He also emphasized at a Communist Party conference the importance of an ongoing crackdown on corruption, which already has shuttered three foreign firms and sent executives of some of Cuba's biggest state-run firms to .

He said the party would implement term limits for the country's leaders, but he gave no details.

What to watch:

- The pace of reforms and their consequences.

- The development of small businesses.

- Agricultural production and food prices.

FINANCIAL HEALTH

Castro said the economy grew 2.7 percent in 2011 and was expected to rise 3.4 percent in 2012.

Cuba said it drew a record 2.7 million tourists in 2011, bringing in revenues of about $2.3 billion.

industry experts say tourism has boomed this winter as the Arab Spring scared Europeans away from northern Africa, relaxed U.S. regulations made it easier for Americans to visit the island and Castro's reforms drew visitors curious to see the effects of changes. They said Cuba needs more hotels to accommodate its growing tourism industry, which is a top hard currency earner for the country.

Cuba is heavily indebted and still recovering from a liquidity crisis that led to a default on payments and freezing of foreign business bank accounts in 2009.

Castro told the National Assembly that accounts for foreign suppliers to Cuba had been unfrozen and steps taken to prevent the problem from happening again.

Hopes that reforms would bring more foreign have been slow to materialize, but Brazilian company Odebrecht said it would sign a contract to help Cuba improve its troubled sugar industry. One executive said the deal would include ethanol production.

Long-awaited golf course developments, aimed at attracting wealthier tourists, remain on hold.

What to watch:

- Resolution of outstanding short-term debt

- Signs of increased interest in foreign investment

- Growth of tourism and Cuba's ability to handle it

OIL PLANS

The Chinese-built Scarabeo 9 arrived in Cuban waters and at January's end began drilling the first of three exploration wells in Cuba's part of the Gulf of Mexico.

Spain's Repsol YPF and its partners plan to drill two of the wells and Malaysia's Petronas and its partner, Russia's Gazprom Neft, will drill the other, all this year and with the same rig.

The project has drawn opposition in the U.S. Congress, but, to allay safety concerns, Repsol allowed U.S. experts to inspect the Scarabeo 9 in Trinidad and Tobago. They said it met all international engineering and safety standards.U.S. companies are forbidden from operating in Cuba by the U.S. trade .

Cuba depends on imports from its oil-rich ally , but says it may have 20 billion barrels of oil offshore. The U.S. Geological Survey has estimated 5 billion barrels.

What to watch:

- Results of Repsol's exploratory well.

- U.S. pressure to stop the drilling.

FOREIGN RELATIONS

A planned Papal visit in Marchimproved ties with Brazil, whose President Dilma Rousseff paid an official visit in January,are bright spots even as Cuba faces a more hostile Spanish government elected in November.

A major concern for Cuba is the health of Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, a loyal ally whose government provides 114,000 barrels of oil a day and investment to Cuba. He underwent chemotherapy in Cuba and has declared himself cancer free, but experts say it is too soon to tell.

If he were unable to continue in office, it would be a big blow to Cuba.

U.S.-Cuba relations, which thawed briefly under President Barack Obama, have been frozen by the imprisonment of U.S. aid contractor Alan Gross.He is serving a 15-year sentence for providing Internet gear to Cuban Jews under a U.S. program promoting Cuban political change.

A document reported to be the court's sentence said Gross knew the political aims of his work and tried to hide it from Cuban authorities despite his claims to the contrary.

http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/02/03/cuba-risks-idUSRISKCU20120203

Cuba reports big increase in food prices

Cuba reports big increase in pricesBy Marc Frank

HAVANA | Tue Jan 31, 2012 3:09pm EST

(Reuters) – Cubans paid almost 20 percent more for food in 2011 as economic reforms, reduced imports and stagnating farm production touched off price inflation at the country's many produce markets.

The National Statistics Office reported on its website (ONE.CU) that meat prices rose 8.7 percent while produce prices were up 24.1 percent, for an average of 19.8 percent.

The report was bad news for , who has been loosening the state's grip on farming and retail food services and sales as it seeks to reform its Soviet-style by allowing more private initiative and market forces to kick in.

The changes are part of more than 300 reforms adopted by the ruling Communist Party last year to "update" the economy, which authorities have warned will entail a difficult transition.

Similar reforms in other state-monopolized economies have proved inflationary in the early stages, but the Cuban government hoped increased output would mitigate price increases.

President Castro has made agricultural reform and increased food production a top priority since taking over for ailing brother Fidel Castro in 2008.

But agricultural output increased just 2 percent last year, after falling 2.5 percent in 2010 and remains below 2005 levels.

At the same time, Castro has cut food imports to reduce spending by the -ridden government. Because of low farm output, Cuba imports a budget-busting 60 percent to 70 percent of the food it consumes.

Castro also has allowed farmers to sell a growing percentage of their production for whatever price the market will bear.

Rising prices have provoked much grumbling from Cubans, whose buying power has shrunk under Castro's changes.

"Everything is going up, except wages. What I bought yesterday for a peso, today costs 1.10 pesos or 1.20 pesos, but I continue to earn the same," said a Havana office worker who gave her name only as Angelina.

While all Cubans get a subsidized monthly food ration, it is not enough to get by, so they must purchase additional food at the produce markets or other places not included in the statistics office report.

The increased prices are sure to have a big impact on the estimated 40 percent of the population who rely on state wages or pensions and do not have access to other sources of income, such as remittances from relatives abroad.

The average wage increased only a few percentage points to the equivalent of $19 per month in 2011, the government reported, while pensions, which average just over the equivalent of $10 dollars per month, remained the same.

"There is no doubt prices are rising, and from what I can see on the news the problem is worldwide," Yoandry Leyva, who sells plumbing and other supplies in eastern Santiago de Cuba, said in a telephone interview.

"But I live in Cuba and the problems are mine. Every day the prices go up and I keep earning the same. I hope they settle down because every day is more difficult," he said.

(Editing by Jeff Franks; Editing by Sandra Maler)

http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/01/31/us-cuba-inflation-idUSTRE80U1TS20120131

Make Repsol "bleed" if Cuban well leaks: lawmaker

Make Repsol "bleed" if Cuban well leaks: lawmakerBy Jane SuttonMIAMI | Mon Jan 30, 2012 7:19pm EST

(Reuters) – Since the United States couldn't stop Repsol from drilling for oil off Cuba's coast, it should make the Spanish oil giant pay dearly for damages from any spill that threatens neighboring Florida, a congressional Republican said on Monday.

"We need to figure out what we can do to inflict maximum pain, maximum punishment, to bleed Repsol of whatever resources they may have if there's a potential for a spill that would affect the U.S. coast," Representative David Rivera, a Florida Republican, told a congressional subcommittee that oversees the U.S. Coast Guard.

The House of Representatives subcommittee met at a Florida with a panoramic view of the waves breaking over an Atlantic beach dotted with sunbathers, to conduct a hearing on the potential impact on Florida's 800-mile (1,290-km) coastline from the first major oil exploration in Cuban waters.

Repsol is working on the project in partnership with Norway's Statoil and ONGC Videsh, a unit of India's Oil and Natural Gas Corp. The oil rig leased for the project, the Scarabeo 9, arrived off Cuban waters earlier this month and is expected to begin drilling any day now.

The rig is 60 miles from the Cuban coast and 80 miles from Florida, in a spot where the Gulfstream and other powerful ocean currents could rush any spilled oil to Florida beaches within five to 10 days.

"The significance of these strong currents is that they can move oil very quickly, potentially up to 70 to 80 nautical miles in a 24-hour period," said oceanographer Debbie Payton, who heads the emergency response division of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

A spill would have catastrophic effects on Florida , which accounts for a third of the state's , and on its fisheries, panelists said. Such an would devastate the state much as BP's Deepwater Horizon spill in the Gulf of Mexico in 2010 devastated other coastal areas.

Those powerful currents would make it harder to contain and burn or scoop up any oil on the water's surface, but they would make oil dispersants more effective by mixing them up with the water, panelists said. Booms and the anchors needed to hold them in place would likely do more harm to Florida's fragile coral reefs than the oil itself, they said.

The United States has no diplomatic relations with Cuba, which is considers a state sponsor of terrorism, and no oversight over companies that operate in its waters.

Repsol has said it will voluntarily adhere to U.S. safety and environmental regulations and international industry standards. It allowed U.S. authorities to inspect the rig off the coast of Trinidad and Tobago last month, including an examination of its construction, drilling equipment, blow-out preventer and other safety systems.

Based on the inspection and on information Repsol provided, the inspectors concluded that "the well could be safely capped using existing methods," said Lars Herbst, Gulf of Mexico regional director for the Interior Department's Bureau of Safety Environmental Enforcement, or BSEE.

BSEE has no authority to endorse or certify the rig but it "found the vessel and the drilling safety equipment including the (blow-out preventer) to be entirely consistent with existing international and U.S. standards by which Repsol has pledged to abide," Herbst said.

UNSAFE WELDING

He said the inspectors found unsafe welding and incomplete wiring of safety systems, which Repsol pledged to repair. Asked if the agency could certify the rig had it been in U.S. waters, Herbst said it could not without confirming those repairs had been made.

Rear Admiral William Baumgartner, commander of the Coast Guard district that includes Florida, said there was a low probability of a spill, "but if it does happen, especially a complete well blowout, there would be high consequences."

"There are multiple safety provisions in any drilling operation. I'm not promoting, you know, business in helping Cuba develop oil, but this is a brand-new oil drilling rig, Norwegian designed, much of it is very much state-of-the art as I understand, so it should be capable," he told Reuters after the hearing.

The Norwegian-designed, Chinese-made rig is owned by an Italian company and flagged in the Bahamas, Baumgartner said.

Repsol and its partners are subcontractors, Herbst said, and the United States would have no way to hold them responsible for any oil spill damage, Herbst said.

"The Cuban government must have the full responsibility for any oil spill," Herbst said. "In this case it is Cuba that's doing the contracting and we have no control over that."

Rivera, a Cuban American from Miami, has sponsored a bill that would make foreign oil companies responsible for clean-up costs if a spill from their operations reaches U.S. shores.

He urged the panel to look into whether a Repsol subsidiary that operates off the U.S. continental shelf could be made to pay or stripped of its license if there was a spill from the Cuban well. Herbst said afterward that it could not.

The United States has maintained an economic against Cuba for five decades in order to put pressure on its communist government. But the U.S. Treasury and Commerce departments have already issued licenses to U.S. companies that would work under Coast Guard direction to contain and clean up any spill in Cuban waters, Baumgartner said.

Representative Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, a Cuban-American Republican from Florida, said the United States should impose sanctions against nations that help Cuba develop its oilfields.

She and other Republicans on the panel suggested that by failing to halt the project, the Obama administration was helping make oil tycoons of Cuban and his brother, former .

Subcommittee Chairman John Mica said he was "a little bit shocked" that President Barack Obama had rejected the Keystone XL pipeline project from while "doing everything we can to help the Cuban regime and we're going to get stuck with both the damage and also the clean-up cost."

(Editing by Cynthia Osterman)

http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/01/31/us-usa-cuba-oil-idUSTRE80U01520120131

Cuban communists OK term limits for party and government officials

Posted on Monday, 01.30.12

Cuban communists OK term limits for party and government officials

At the Cuban Communist Party's first national conference, term limits are approved for government and party officials.By Juan O. Tamayojtamayo@ElNuevoHerald.com

Cuba's Communist Party Sunday cleared the way for a long-term renovation of its Central Committee that might hint at the island's future leaders, while Raúl Castro issued a strong call for openness within the party and mass media — but only up to a point.

Closing a first-ever National Conference of the party, Castro as expected also confirmed that party and government officials will be limited to two five-year terms. He and brother Fidel have ruled Cuba since 1959.

Conference delegates also unanimously approved replacing up to 20 percent of the 115 Central Committee members over the next five years, a move that could shine a spotlight on younger leaders that will succeed the 80-year-old Castro.

Overall, however, the two-day conference fulfilled Castro's caution earlier this month that Cubans should not have too many "illusions" about the two-day, closed-door gathering of more than 800 delegates.

Castro spoke several times about the need to support and carry out the ambitious open-market reforms approved in April by a party congress — its supreme form of gathering — to rescue the Soviet styled from the doldrums.

The Central Committee will hold two plenum meetings per year to watch over the reforms as well as the annual budgets and production goals and keep them from "falling into a broken bag," he announced.

Castro also punched away at one of his complaints at virtually every one of his public appearances — the corruption at virtually every level of Cuban life that has been undermining his efforts at reforms.

"Corruption is "one of the principal enemies of the revolution, much more prejudicial than the subversive and meddlesome programs of the U.S. government," he declared, referring to Washington's pro-democracy programs in Cuba.

"The party will definitively assume the conduct" of the fight against corruption, he added, without giving details. Castro created the post of comptroller general after he assumed power to crack down on the corruption.

He urged party members to become more "democratic" and openly debate Cuba's myriad problems, adding that to abandon the island's one-party system would be "to legalize the party or parties of the [U.S.] empire."

Cuba's mass media, all party or state controlled, need to report on the debate "with responsibility and the most strict veracity," he added, "not in the bourgeois style, full of sensationalism and lies, but with proven objectivity and without useless secretiveness."

During the 40-minute address, Castro also ground away at party issues like the need for hard work, ethics and discipline, and he told party officials to not meddle in decisions that should be left up to the government officials.

"The only thing that can defeat the revolution and socialism in Cuba would be our incapacity to correct the errors committed in the last 50 years … and those that we could make in the future," Castro declared.

Marino Murillo, the island "reform tsar" in charge of guiding and enforcing the economic changes, was quoted as acknowledging that more changes are needed but adding "that there's a limit — the socialist system is untouchable."

And delegate Yosvani Verdial was quoted as saying that while the party wants young members, "we want youths who are committed, who are patriots, who are unconditional" supporters of the communist system.

One intriguing report noted that Castro's daughter Mariela Castro, who was not a delegate but was invited to address a Conference working group, had proposed amending a document to use the word "dialogue," a word much disliked by the government.

Mariela proposed "including the word in a direct way, where it had appeared more implicitly," Arleen Rodriguez Derivet, a who runs the nightly public affairs TV show Mesa Redonda, wrote in the government's CubaDebate Web page.

Rodriguez added that if she herself had been a delegate, she would have approved the change, but gave no details on whether the change was approved, or how the word would have affected the document.

Castro's daughter, who heads the Cuban National Center for Sex , has at times said she favors more and faster changes in Cuba, and at times fiercely defended the communist system and her father's rule.

In another odd line in her report, Rodriguez asked whether the work of the Conference could be seen as "social engineering?" Soviet Joseph Stalin's goals for creating selfless communists were often referred to as "social engineering."

José Ramón Machado Venture, No. 2 to Raúl Castro in both the government and the party, noted that nearly 43 percent of the delegates were women and 37.5 percent were black or "mestizo," percentages higher than in the party's 800,000 members.

http://www.miamiherald.com/2012/01/29/2614707/cuban-communists-ok-term-limits.html

Dissident blogger says Cubans wanted more from Brazilian visit

Posted on Thursday, 02.02.12

says Cubans wanted more from Brazilian visit

The Brazilian leader had vowed to make a cornerstone of her foreign policy pointed to the U.S. detention camp for suspected terrorists at Guantánamo Bay on the island's southeastern tip.By Matthew BristowBloomberg News

HAVANA — Cuban blogger Yoani Sanchez said her compatriots had hoped for more from Brazilian Dilma Rousseff, who avoided criticizing the human rights situation on the communist island during a state visit to Havana this week.

Sanchez said she had looked for at least a "small wink" from Rousseff, who was imprisoned and tortured for fighting Brazil's dictatorship in the 1960s, after a jailed dissident, Wilman Villar, died last month following a hunger strike and President vowed to maintain single-party rule.

"It was pure chance that she came at this time, but people had hoped for more," Sanchez said in an interview last night in Havana. "I would've hoped for a small wink, a phrase with a double meaning that we could interpret, and that the government could interpret too."

Rousseff, who concludes a three-day visit to Havana today, said that it was an internal matter for Cuba to decide whether to allow Sanchez to leave the island after Brazil last week granted the 36-year-old blogger an entry visa to attend next month a screening of a documentary she appears in. Sanchez, a critic of the Castro government on the Generation Y , has been denied permission to leave Cuba for four years.

"Brazil gave the visa to the blogger," Rousseff, 64, told reporters yesterday in Havana before meeting with Castro and his brother Fidel. "The rest is not a matter for the Brazilian government."

Rousseff, who has vowed to make human rights a cornerstone of her foreign policy, failed to comment on the Cuban government's record, pointing instead to the U.S. detention camp for suspected terrorists at Guantánamo Bay on the island's southeastern tip.

"He who throws the first stone has a roof made of glass," said Rousseff, whose Workers' Party has long supported Cuba. "We in Brazil have our problems too."

While critical of the Brazilian president's stance, Sanchez said Rousseff's silence is preferable to her predecessor and mentor Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva's siding with the Castro government after the death of another jailed hunger striker in 2010, she added.

"I wake up every day and say to myself, today I am going to behave like a free person," Sanchez said. "Dilma once said the same. She paid a high personal and physical cost, but in the end life proved her right and Brazil became a democracy."

Julia Sweig, an author of publications on Cuba and Brazil, said criticism of the Castro government is more widespread today than it's ever been since the 1959 revolution and taking many forms that escape the attention of foreign governments and media. As Cuba's second-biggest , helping Castro ease state control of the , Brazil is well-positioned to discuss the island's rights record behind the scenes in a productive manner, she added.

"Yoani's situation bears zero comparison to what Dilma went through," said Sweig, director of the Latin America program at the Council on Foreign Relations in Washington. "Unlike Dilma, she hasn't been and won't be jailed or tortured and I seriously doubt she's going to be president of Cuba."

Cuba's government relies on beatings, short-term detentions, forced exile and restrictions to repress virtually all forms of political dissent, New York-based Human Rights Watch said in a report this month. Cuba denies it's holding any political prisoners and considers dissident activity to be counterrevolutionary supported by anti-Castro "mercenaries" in the U.S.

While blocked from traveling abroad, Sanchez has emerged as a leader among a group of young dissidents who describe the daily travails of life in Cuba through difficult-to-access social media. Many of her chronicles are published by newspapers throughout Latin America. She has also written a book, "Havana Real: One Woman Fights to Tell the Truth About Cuba Today."

Sanchez said the visibility she has gained through blogging gives her some protection from the Cuban government.

"The day I stop blogging, they'll put me on trial," she said.

Rousseff, who travels to Haiti today, discussed the possibility of hosting Raul Castro at a future date, according to a Brazilian official with the president who isn't authorized to comment on the two leaders' talks publicly.

http://www.miamiherald.com/2012/02/02/2620793/dissident-blogger-says-cubans.html#storylink=misearch

Conjectures About 2012 / Miriam Celaya

Conjectures About 2012 / Miriam CelayaMiriam Celaya, Translator: Norma Whiting

A recurring theme among the last days of 2011 and early 2012 by Cubans and foreign individuals interested in the Cuban reality has been about the outlook for the year just begun, given the chronic nature of the national economic crisis, the ongoing measures (reforms) of the General-, with his Galapagos kind of pace, the announced increase in the worldwide recession and the political events that will have an important influence on the situation in the medium term, namely, the presidential elections that will take place in the United States and, fundamentally, those in .

The warning signs that constitute the tip of an iceberg floating adrift erratically became more pronounced in Cuba in 2011: the removal of some subsidies, the end of the monthly lifetime allowance in hard currency (50 CUC) to staff having completed "missions" in other Third World countries, the shut-down of several work centers and other silent layoffs, the reduction in ALBA (Bolivarian Alliance of the Peoples of Our Americas) student programs, especially at the Latin American Medical School, increases in prices and other staples, worsening economic living conditions in the poorest sectors of society (the majority), in contrast against increases in the standard of living of a small sector of the new middle class, among others. This, coupled with the general apathy and the growing feeling of helplessness on the part of groups that will not benefit from Raulista measures, is a picture that points to the further deterioration of social situations and the potential increases in crime, among other adverse factors.

One of the strongest contradictions is the slow pace of government reforms, which, so far, has been unable to stop the deterioration of the system, compared to the rapid social impoverishment that is directly reflected in the disappointment, uncertainty, and lack of confidence in the future, especially a future dependent on the power group that controls both the macro and national politics. There don't seem to be many flattering indicators, or reasons for hope. If the welfare of Cuban families hinges on setting up a kiosk or an eatery, on remittances received from relatives abroad –those who have that luxury- or on expectations that hang on the generosity of the government, we might as well start turning out the lights and closing the doors: that is not a future.

On the other hand, none of the new economic "rights" has been matched by social and political rights, as is logical under totalitarian regimes. Cubans have been so thoroughly disenfranchised and have been subjected to such "paternalistic" controls that even we in the opposition factions and independent civil society have sometimes unconsciously wished that of , of association and of the press be "allowed", as if they weren't natural rights inherent to the human condition. What can we expect from others who have let discouragement win!

Nevertheless, 2011 was also witness to a surge in alternative and civic groups and to obvious links between the two. A spontaneous process of modest but visible growth has been taking place within the independent civil society, which could be consolidating gradually. Undoubtedly, though it is a small sector, corresponding to the conditions of the dictatorship, this is the reflection of the will of Cubans with emancipated mentalities, determined not to ask permission to be free, convinced that it is vital to transform reality within ourselves. A few years ago this was unthinkable. Similarly, along with the growth of civic spaces, we can expect strong resistance from the authorities, and an eventual increase in repression.

The fate of one and all in this 2012 will be marked, among other situational factors, by the interests that have already been outlined more clearly, which, in very general terms, are: the olive green elite and all of its caste, by virtue of recycling itself in order to maintain power; the great entrepreneurs, members of that same caste or associated with it, for maintaining an economic monopoly and increasing their private capitals; new small businessmen and owners, for increasing their profits, making use of the meager reforms, and perhaps for fighting for other reforms; the ever-unfortunates, for surviving another year of shortages; we, the disobedient dreamers, for increasing activism in order to promote awareness of democratic changes and for seeking new ways to foster them.

Some readers may think I'm pessimistic, but that is not the case. My greatest optimism consists precisely in viewing reality face-to-face and continuing to wish for changes. Today, the despair of tens of thousands of Cubans is one of the main allies of the regime. However, we must not give up. We might find the opportunity and perform a miracle in the midst of all this dark, murky and imprecise present. Nobody knows how much time we have left, but it is not the time to throw in the towel. Those of us who are alive and want to achieve will not allow fatigue and defeat to win the game.

Translated by Norma Whiting

January 9 2012

http://translatingcuba.com/?p=13947

Migration Costs and Benefits for Cuba

Migration Costs and Benefits for CubaJanuary 12, 2012Fernando Ravsberg

HAVANA TIMES, Jan 12 — Referring to the expected changes in immigration policy, a Cuban-American colleague wrote: "Not only is it absurd, but it is totally irresponsible to think that Cuba must open the doors to its borders wide open." (1).

Certainly no country opens "its borders wide open," but that's not what's being discussed today in Cuba. Rather, the discussion is around the right of citizens to enter and leave the island without undergoing lengthy, complicated, unnecessary and expensive procedures.

My colleague reminds us that "there is a war against Cuba" and he asserts that Washington maintains a high level of political hostility, prosecutes international financial transactions with the island and maintains the economic .

But what I don't understand is how you defend the country by requiring travelers to pay $150 USD for a letter of invitation to leave the country, which also means finding a foreigner to "take responsibility" for the Cuban abroad.

It's as if Cuban citizens were children or mentally disabled, unable to fend for themselves. Also, since no one investigates the "inviter," this poses the risk that the worst of criminals will end up as the "guardians" of the most honest Cubans.

said that in the area of migration reforms he would move slowly and gradually, measuring the impact of each step. They tell me that he was referring to its effects on national security as well as on the "brain drain."

Therefore I think that the "Letter of Invitation" will disappear very soon because it doesn't provide much control and nor does it prevent the departure of professionals. Really, it only serves to generate dollars out of the irritation of citizens.

Something similar will happen with the duration of time people will be permitted to reside outside the country. It's hard to believe that national security would be threatened if Cubans abroad spent more than 11 months away. This seems to be just another measure that to make money off of discomfort.

One would have to calculate the balance between what is collected and the political cost paid for it. I know people who started the immigration process for economic reasons and eventually left the island full of resentment against the government.

In the 1960s, the costs didn't vary because those who left the country were economic and political enemies of the revolution. But now even the government acknowledges that people are emigrating to improve their standard of living.

Certainly the immigration issue can't be seen outside of the confrontation with Washington. One needs only mention the operation that took 14,000 children from Cuba without their parents in the 60's or the fact that US visas are now offered to Cuban doctors.

They attack where it hurts. It's no coincidence that the White House offers such opportunities to doctors and not to bricklayers. Physicians who carry out service missions abroad are now the main source of income for the Cuban .

During external conflicts all politicians argue that it's necessary to restrict civil liberties. This is not a not a new argument and nor is it one that's exclusively Cuban – as is well demonstrated through the US Patriot Act signed into law in 2001.

But citizens should keep an eye out that the restrictions on civil rights are only the essential ones, preventing politicians tempted to take advantage of emergencies to resolve other problems of a domestic nature.

In the case of Cuba, there are also some immigration regulations that are not public, so Cubans never know whether the official who denied them their exit permit was acting within the law or was going around those laws currently in force.

My colleague's article ends by saying that "Cuba will open the door to whoever it wants, whenever it wants and in the way it wants." This is logical reasoning as long as when it refers to "Cuba" it means the Cuban nation as a whole.

There is no doubt that a country has the right to legally regulate migration according to its needs, but to speak of "Cuba" means that, in addition to the government and the authorities, the majority of its citizens support those measures.

I didn't do a formal survey, but none of the Cubans I know is in agreement with the semi-secret immigration regulations, paying $400 USD for the world's most convoluted paperwork or having to beg foreigners for a "Letter of Invitation.—–(1) http://www.kaosenlared.net/america-latina/item/3179-sobre-tibores-y-taburetes/3179-sobre-tibores-y-taburetes.html

An authorized translation by Havana Times (from the Spanish original) published by BBC Mundo.

http://www.havanatimes.org/?p=59626

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