On September 12, 2011, the soprano Yoslainy Perez Derrick, a member of
the National Lyric Theater Choir of Cuba (TLNC) sent a letter to the
State Council, with copies to the Ministry of Culture and National Arts
Council, complaining of irregularities hampering her artistic
development within that institution, because for 15 years she has played
only secondary roles without being evaluated as a solo artist, despite
her record, high professional standards and broad curriculum.

In her extensive testimony she enumerates the requests to the director
of the company, the pretexts used by him, the humiliations and the
constraints that favor her exclusion. "They've been closing the fence on
me every day, subtly forbidding the possibility to develop myself as an
artist, I'm not scheduled even in roles that previously performed… I was
evaluated as a first level singer with the choir in 2003, and since that
date I have not been re-evaluated."

To amend the opportunities denied to the 38-year-old black singer of it
would be enough to hear some of her recordings and concerts or read her
bulging curriculum, but things are not so easy with the Master Adolfo
Casas Chirino, director of TLNC, who upon receiving the complaint met
with the Secretary of Nucleus of the Communist Party and the Arts
Council before responding to Martha Orihuela, Director of Inspection of
the Ministry of Culture, who sent arguments against the applicant, dated
31 October and 2 November.

The first alleges appreciation of "the interest of the compañera in
excelling since she graduated at the senior level at ISA, and her
intention to progress, aspiring to roles in the various titles of the
works presented in the Grand Theater of Havana." She cites the roles
performed by Yoslainy Perez in La Traviata, Cecilia Valdés, Maria La O
and The Magic Flute, but warns that "she has already reached the maximum
level to which she can aspire as a choir singer" and that to ascend to
actress singer "would require a prior audition and a vacancy that
matches her type of voice," lyric soprano. After which she cites other
details and describes her as "disrespectful to the approach… we have a
retrograde thinking, demagogue, favoritism, insubordinate and even
patronizing …"

The second letter, signed by the Director and members of the Artistic
Council members, is more of the same.

Yoslainy Pérez Derrick (Havana, 1973), graduated in Music Education from
the Adolfo Guzman School (1989), has a Bachelor degree, studied English
and German, art direction and production, vocal technique with Ricardo
Linares Fleites, director of the Lyric Theatre Chorus, and with Martha
Clarke, soloist of the company and professor at the Instituto Superior
de Arte (ISA), where she majored in Voice.

With the Lyric, she joined the cast of Porgy & Bess, under the general
direction of Maestro Manuel Duchesne Cuzán and musician Enrique Pérez
Mesa, which won success in Austria and Spain in the summer of 2000. She
took on the characters Estrella in the operetta Amalia Batista, of Flora
in La Traviata, of the Second Lady in The Magic Flute, and was a cast
member in the operetta Cecilia Valdés.

She has been a soloist in in concert-tributes to G. Gershwin, Gonzalo
Roig, Mariana Gonitch, Lyrics of the Future, la Sala San Felipe Neri,
the Plaza de Armas with the National Concert Band, the Amadeo Roldan
Auditorium, and the Catalan Society; as well as singing in Galas of
closure and Master Classes of foreign directors such as the Austrian
Hartmut Krones, George Backer, from Luxembourg, the Korean Jae-Joon Lee,
and the Spanish soprano Elisa Belmonte. In 2009 she won 2nd place and
the award for best performer of opera Gonitch Marian Competition.

Such a record belies the disqualification about the lack of skills and
other pretexts used by the Director and the Arts Council to deny the
place of the TLNC singer actress where she remains in the choir since
1996. Is the color of her skin the cause of marginalization at the elite
institution?

Adolfo Casas argues that his company has no racial prejudice and that
the staff includes significant actors of African descent, among them one
of the leading sopranos. Yoslainy Pérez Derrick expressed otherwise and
considers it "segregated" because she prefers to realize her aspirations
without flattery or will not remain silent about nepotism and the abuse
of power practiced by Casas.

Artists requesting anonymity say that all who claimed their rights or
alleged irregularities in the "fiefdom de Zulueta 253″ (seat of TLNC),
were shown the exit door with little in hand.

This "bureaucratic apartheid" enjoys the complicity of the State Council
and the Ministry of Culture, agencies that sent Pérez Derrick's letter
back to the slaughterhouse, without subjecting it to an impartial
analysis with advice or views of experts not involved in the problem.

In the aftermath, the aspirations of the black soprano continue to be
held back by the unilateral opinion of the Maestro Adolfo Casas and the
Arts Council who bend their necks before its draconian codes.
Undoubtedly, this mechanism will continue wasting the artistry of
talented professionals.

The TLNC is losing ground to companies that exhibit greater force in
their development and scene settings. The easy way is to recycle the
same pieces, sets, actors, stage movements and concessions, but it only
manages to bore fans of the genre and divert viewers to other companies
that seek excellence.

For its human material, the Lyric Theater could multiply its proposals
and present them in various locations. Its professionals need practice
and freshness before the viewpoints of different managers and
specialists, which provide opportunities for singers like Pérez Derrick.

For such purposes a competent director is needed, and not an overseer
who cracks the whip on the slaves he develops. Despotic vices and styles
turn Cuban culture into a victim of these mistakes.

December 13 2011

http://translatingcuba.com/?p=14638

COLLEGE STATION – Though tightly controlled, there are opportunities for
Texas agricultural producers and businesses to capitalize on potential
exports of food 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 University 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
medicines 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) beans 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 tourism
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 rice, 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 Spain and China 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/

(Updates with Sanchez's comments in fourth paragraph.)

Feb. 3 (Bloomberg) — Cuba's best-known pro-democracy blogger said she
was denied permission to leave her country after Brazil granted her a
visa ahead of President Dilma Rousseff's state visit to the communist
island last week.

"There's no surprise," Yoani Sanchez said in a posting on her Twitter
account today. "They again deny me permission to leave. It's the 19th
time they violate my right to enter and leave my country."

Sanchez, a critic of Raul Castro's government on her Generation Y blog,
requested permission to travel to Brazil next month so she could attend
the screening of a documentary in which she appears. While she's been
barred from leaving Cuba for the past four years, expectations she might
be allowed to exit this time increased after Brazil granted her a visa
on the eve of Rousseff's visit this week.

After Rousseff failed to meet with Sanchez and other activists during
the three-day trade mission to Havana, the blogger complained on Twitter
that the Brazilian president came to Cuba "with her wallet open and her
eyes shut."

Rousseff, who was inspired by Cuba's revolution to take up arms against
Brazil's military dictatorship in the 1960s, said she would not get
involved in what is an internal Cuban matter.

"Brazil gave the visa to the blogger," she told reporters in Havana.
"The rest is not a matter for the Brazilian government."

Brazil's Foreign Ministry declined to comment on Cuba's decision when
contacted by Bloomberg News.

While blocked from traveling abroad, Sanchez openly criticizes Castro's
government online, and has emerged as a leader among a group of young
dissidents who describe the daily travails life in Cuba through
difficult-to-access social media. She was invited to Spain after winning
the Ortega y Gasset journalism prize in 2008. Many of her chronicles are
published by newspapers throughout Latin America.

–With assistance from Ray Colitt in Brasilia. Editors: Harry Maurer

http://www.businessweek.com/news/2012-02-05/cuba-denies-exit-to-pro-democracy-blogger-invited-by-brazil.html

HAVANA (AP) — Cuban imports from the United States fell sharply in 2010
while the country increasingly turned to trade with ally Venezuela,
according to newly released government statistics.

The government also announced that agricultural food prices rose 20
percent last year in part due to shorter supply, even as authorities try
to stimulate productivity with agrarian and economic reforms.

Cuba's National Statistics Office said the island imported $410 million
worth of goods from the U.S. in 2010, mostly food products. That was
down from $645 million the previous year and about $1 billion in 2008.

The nearly 50-year-old U.S. trade embargo outlaws most U.S. commerce
with Cuba, but it allows some things like agricultural goods and
medicine to be sold to the island.

Cuba has said in the past that it would be buying less from the United
States, saying the embargo's requirement that the transactions be done
in cash was too restrictive. Increasingly it has turned to sources like
China, Vietnam and Brazil in search of better terms.

The 2010 numbers on external trade released this week had not been
previously announced, and 2011 figures are not available.

The document said trade with Venezuela, which has become Cuba's main
commercial partner under President Hugo Chavez, topped $6 billion in
2010, nearly double the $3.4 billion registered the year before.

Venezuela provides about 100,000 barrels of oil a day to Cuba on
beneficial terms and receives doctors and technical advisers from Cuba.

China was Cuba's second-largest partner in 2010 with $1.9 billion in
trade, according to the report, followed by Canada, Spain, Brazil and
the Netherlands.

The United States ranked seventh.

Cuba said exports increased from $3.1 billion in 2009 to $4.6 billion in
2010.

So did imports, from $9.6 billion to $10.6 billion. Fuel and food topped
the list of goods Cuba purchased.

The National Statistics Office also said in a different report that
prices for goods in agricultural markets rose 19.8 percent last year,
led by crops like citrus, coconut, mango and melon.

The Cuban government has acknowledged that productivity is a problem on
the island, forcing it to resort to food imports it can ill-afford — a
total of $1.5 billion in 2010, according to the Statistics Office.

As part of a package of economic reforms, President Raul Castro has made
agricultural changes including handing over fallow state-run land to
independent growers and co-ops, and extending credits for farm equipment
and improvements and

He frequently stressed the need for homegrown products to substitute for
imports.

http://www.seattlepi.com/business/article/Cuba-says-imports-from-US-off-sharply-in-2010-2920370.php

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 China 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 economy, is
hoping oil will ease it chronic financial woes and bring energy
independence from its socialist ally Venezuela. 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 embargo 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 accident 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

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 food 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.

President Raul Castro 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 prison.

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.

Travel 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 investment 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 embargo.

Cuba depends on imports from its oil-rich ally Venezuela, 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

(Reuters) – Guaimaro, just one of many small poor and dusty towns along
Cuba's sparsely travelled central highway, is best known as the spot
where the island's first constitution was signed during the independence
war with Spain.

These days the talk of the town is about a different sort of
independence in state-dominated Cuba – the privately owned Magno
restaurant, the most luxurious place in Gua imaro. Its owner Tomas
Mayedo Fernandez is a local boy who once did jail time for involuntary
manslaughter but now, in just over a year as an entrepreneur, is a big
success.

The eatery is one of more than 1,000 home-based restaurants, or
paladares, that have opened on the Communist-run island since
restrictions on small private businesses were loosened in late 2010, as
part of a broader reform of the Soviet-style economy undertaken by
President Raul Castro.

A meal at the Magno will cost you the equivalent of a few dollars for a
beer and sandwich to $10 or more for steak and lobster, in a land where
the average wage is less than $20 per month.

There are just two other private eateries and a few shabby looking
state-run restaurants in Guaimaro, located 400 miles (650 km) east of
Havana. But they cater more to the local population rather than
passersby and do not boast air-conditioning, lobster, shrimp, beef,
whiskey and aged rum.

"I didn't know anything about running a restaurant, but I liked the idea
of going into business and so when the law changed I began, little by
little," said Mayedo, a strapping young man and son of a cattle rancher
in his mid-30s .

Mayedo lived in the second story of the once-crumbling, century-old
building. He sold clothing from his living room to make ends meet and
looked down on the ruins of the empty store front and big back yard the
neighbours had turned into a garbage dump.

SEEING THE POTENTIAL

The place nevertheless had potential because it fronted the central
highway, giving it access to a larger customer base than just the small
town, he decided.

"We were already working to clean the place up before the law changed,"
Mayedo said recently, taking time off from his chats with arriving
suppliers and his pacing back and forth with mobile phone in hand.

He began with a small cafeteria, but then on December 10, 2010, he
opened the restaurant beside it . His plans did not stop there.

"We also have a jewellery repair shop and in two or three years I want
to build a place in the back to rent out rooms," he said.

Like the rest of Cuba, many of Guaimaro's residents have family living
abroad, especially in Florida, and as luck would have it, U.S. President
Barack Obama lifted restrictions on Cuban Americans visiting their
homeland just a few months before the Magno opened for business.

Over the recent holidays the town – where legs, bicycles and horse-drawn
buggies are the main form of transportation – was dotted with rental
cars, many of them driven by visiting Cuban Americans who wanted to
treat their relatives and friends to a nice meal while out on the town.

There was only one place to go – the Magno, which has become a sort of
destination restaurant that is well known in the area .

"December was by far the best month we have had," Mayedo said.

His wife Yaima Lopez helps run the Magno, while his aunt, a retired
state economist, takes care of the books. Two cousins, with some cash
earned working in Angola, where thousands of Cubans work as doctors,
construction workers and teachers, lent him the seed money.

"I'm paying them back little by little, but they don't pressure me," he
said.

The hardest times were when Mayedo waited for his clientele to build up
and worried he might go bankrupt.

"Like all businesses the first year or two are the most difficult. And
this is the countryside, not the capital where there is more demand.
Here we depend on the people who pass by on the highway," he said.

THE TAX MAN COMETH

As his business has grown, Mayedo has added eight full-time employees to
help operate it.

The biggest challenge has been training a workforce that is disciplined
and pays attention to details, he said.

Mayedo said he has had no serious problems with the government, is
grateful for the reforms underway and believes they are here to stay.

"I thank them for giving us the opportunity to demonstrate to ourselves
that we are capable of doing this well," he said.

"No state can subsidize an entire population, it is impossible.
Furthermore, we provide jobs, pay taxes and help the economy in a big way."

Mayedo doubted he would become a millionaire any time soon because,
despite the reforms, there are still limits.

"The system is designed to allow us to keep living, not become rich. But
yes, my life will keep improving," he said.

In a land where everyone worked for the state and there was no income
tax until recently, one is now being levied on hundreds of thousands of
small businesses and farms that have appeared due to Raul Castro's reforms.

Mayedo said his aunt was preparing his first income tax return even as
he spoke.

Now that was something to worry about at a sliding scale of up to 50
percent of earnings, Mayedo admitted, but better to pay 50 percent of
earnings than no tax on no earnings at all, he said with a shrug.

(Editing by Jeff Franks and Philip Barbara)

http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/01/11/uk-cuba-entrepreneur-idUSLNE80A00Y20120111

President Mariano Rajoy, I turn to you on the day my daughter celebrates
her birthday. Just thinking of the Cuban young people, I decided to
write you these humble and sincere words without standing on ceremony
other than to offer you well-deserved congratulations, and to cry for
the young of my country whose only horizon is the Straits of Florida
which cause so many deaths. But not before giving you a small account of
the last two governments of my country and the impact they have had on us.

Since the absence in power of Spain's People's Party, three elections
back, the freedom of Cubans has been banished. We quickly received a
half-communist minister representing the PSOE (Socialist Workers Party),
who came to negotiate with the Castro brothers. Since then, the silence
and Spanish president Zapatero's complicity threw its dark mantle over
the Cuban archipelago. The days when the freedom of the people was more
important to Spain than relations with a tyrant, were long gone.

That complicity with which the Cultural Attache welcomed those of us
with the intention to participate in some literary contest in Spain, and
the envelopes full of stories and hopes, ended. From that time on we no
longer received the latest published books from the Iberian peninsula,
nor the journal Encuentro de la Cultura Cubana which had provided us
with the latest cultural events in the world and, especially, in the
culture of our diaspora forbidden on Cuban soil.

The literary, essay and photography contest thought up by the Spanish
embassy, which was juried and where I was told there was no pressure
because they would award the prize to some irreverent text despite the
political system that scorns us and exists in this country, only got as
far as a call for entries. The official policy of support for
marginalized artists vanished. We also lost the profound and hard work
of the Hispanic-American Center because the dictatorship closed it, not
wanting there to be a space for the cultural freedom it supported.

Then, the meeting with the ungainly ambassador of whom I only remember
his name "Lazarus," and who joked about a Bible passage, "Lazarus, arise
and walk," because the Lazarus sent to us only came to lie down at the
feet of the dictator. And the following meeting for Columbus Day, which
we had celebrated in the ambassador's residence for many years, and
Lazarus just read our group what his work plan was going to be, which
was "nothing," making him the second Government of the Island. Since
then we haven't gone back despite continuing to receive an invitation.

Months later the Ambassadors of the European Union wanted a
meeting-dialogue with Cuban writers in the residence of the Ambassador
of Austria, which chaired the EU at the time. Attending were Leonardo
Padura, Amado del Pino, Pedro Juan Gutiérrez, Reinaldo Montero and me.
Each gave his vision of the social reality.

Some Ambassadors wondered about the relationship between Venezuela and
Cuba, and thought that perhaps, as expressed by the Spanish Ambassador,
that starting with a substantion improvement in the economy, there would
arise an improvement in individual freedoms. He was hoping for better
times for Cuba, the raising of the national economy and social freedoms.

When I intervened I said that with reference to the possibility of
"economic improvement", I found myself pessimistic, given that the years
of dictatorship had demonstrated gross mismanagement of the assets of
the People, and that in the unlikely event that Venezuela became what
the Union Soviet and the rest of the socialist camp had been for Cuba,
it would be disastrous for individual liberties, as rather than being
strengthened, repression would also increase.

That the Ruler (at the time it was Fidel Castro, now it is his brother,
but it has always been the same last name), had ceded his harsh
dictatorship from the Special Period, when he lost credibility and
followers, but there was a return to economic consolidation, which I
doubted we could say for certain that it would sharpen the repression,
censorship and imprisonment of opponents of the government.

After the meeting ended, while having refreshments, I was approached by
Ambassador Lazaro, who told me light-heartedly, "Don't be so
pessimistic." I gave him a look as impotence threatened to overcome me.
"Sir," I said, "how is it possible that you dare to ask for optimism
from one of the members of the third generation that this process has
consumed without any benefit. Fidel Castro is a human crushing machine."

The ambassador wanted to escape but I stopped him: "Never," I
pronounced, "have I seen the Cuban State prosper, not in economic
matters nor in individual liberties, and unfortunately we two are going
to be alive to see it."

The Ambassador raised his arms and walked away. We never met again. I
did not accept his invitations. Wherever he finds himself today, he
should remember the words that without being an expert in political and
social matters, were offered to him, a career diplomat, most
disadvantaged by our forecasts, with his failure as Ambassador and his
role in a boring and submissive political party, so much so, that his
own workers in the Spanish embassy in Havana let us know that they had a
room full of the journal Encuentro de la Cultura Cubana, which they
couldn't distribute because the government had forbidden it in secret
negotiations.

In those two governments of Zapatero, we have suffered the shamelessness
of both presidencies (Zapatero-Fidel and Raul Castro) and their minions.
Supposed achievements in the matter of the prisoners of conscience have
only served them to be accomplices in helping to take the lid off the
pot and relieve the pressure and thus avoid a social explosion on the
island, to procure some respite for a process that is asphyxiating at
times, an that resorts to strategies intended to improve its
international image, award accomplices, and ultimately ultimately extend
a system which the population does not believe in, such as releasing the
prisoners of conscience to Spain which agreed to receive them as
political refugees, but which disengaged from them after their arrival
and haphazardly left them in the hands of God. The Master of Ceremonies
of this sizable circus was Foreign Minister Miguel Moratinos.

In the end they demonstrated that releasing the prisoners was not done
for humanitarian but for political reasons.I also pray for them and I
urge you to provide them the place they deserve after suffering
persecution, torture and imprisonment, it would be very kind of you to
stop this escalation of agony, and end something that started ill. Ii is
in your hands to do it.

Of course, we know that while the Popular Party has won, it doesn't mean
it will resolve the immense problems that have shaken Spain, much less
solve the dilemma of the Cubans. What we are sure of is that at least
you, President Mariano Rajoy, have extended a hand in solidarity and
know how to take the measure of a dictatorship that is dying, but that
even in its death throes, keeps kicking and is willing to take the lives
of those who confront it.

Recently Cubans have lost a friend, intellectual and former Czech
President Vaclav Havel, but God has provided us with you. Having called
the Czech writer to His side, he is right to leave this task in your hands.

With humility we simply ask you, President Rajoy, for an ambassador who
respects us and offers a place to the thoughtful opposition, dedicated
and determined to achieve the freedoms inherent in being human.

Welcome!

Sincerely,

Ángel Santiesteban-Prats

Translator's note: Slight changes have been made in this letter for
English-speaking readers who may not know what positions those named
hold or held in Spain and Cuba — they have been added.

December 26 2011

http://translatingcuba.com/?p=13885

(Reuters) – Hundreds of handwritten signs stuck on doorways and in
windows announce "se vende" or "for sale" in provincial cities and towns
across Cuba as the island's nascent housing market begins to bloom.

Buyers walk the streets looking at homes the whereabouts of which were
passed along by word of mouth as sellers outside of Havana have limited
access to the Internet or other means to advertise their sales.

There are hovels and there are splendid little places tucked between
crumbling buildings. There are two-story homes in need of repair and a
few in immaculate condition. Some places go for the equivalent of a few
thousand dollars, others for much more.

Buying and selling homes was banned for decades in Cuba. The best one
could do was trade dwellings in what Cubans call a "permuta" and expand
or decrease the size of where you lived by a single room.

That all changed when the ban was lifted in November, along with much of
the previous paperwork and bureaucratic tangles, though Cubans can still
own just one home and vacation place and non-resident foreigners are
excluded from the market.

The measure appears to be the most popular yet as President Raul Castro,
who replaced his ailing brother Fidel in 2008, works to reform the
Soviet-style economy and gradually lifts some of the more onerous
restrictions on people's daily lives.

Trading one's home was a nightmarish process that could take months and
even years under the old system, and often required bribes and
under-the-table payments.

The new system requires a simple notary and payment through the bank and
appears to be working relatively well according to more than a dozen
people selling their homes from one end of the island to the other.

"The new law is really good because there are people who get divorced,
or who have money but no place to live, or live in a big place and want
a smaller one, or have big families in a little place and want something
larger and now with this law they can meet their needs much more
easily," Tania Vigaroa, in the process of selling her home in eastern
Holguin, said.

Most of the sellers say they would like to move to a smaller home and
that permutas plus payments are now to difficult to find because people
prefer to buy or sell.

In neighboring Santiago de Cuba the other day a haggard looking
receptionist at the San Pedro notary office, where the waiting room was
full, said the three notaries working there had no time to talk.

"This place has been overflowing since they changed the law, every day
is the same," said receptionist Milaidy, who asked that her last name
not be used, adding there were three other offices in the city.

Most sellers have become used to strangers on the prowl for a home. They
are a hospitable lot, welcoming the passerby to come in for a look.

"I'm asking $55,000. The house has three rooms, two bathrooms, a big
back yard, kitchen, dining room and living room and this is right near
the center of town," said Jose Ramirez in the city of Ciego de Avila, in
central Cuba.

"A number of people have come by so we will see. It's a respectable sum,
but my daughter was recently divorced and lives across town and I want
to be near her for support. There is a house over there that costs
exactly the same amount," he said.

Some 60 miles to the east, in the city of Camaguey, bicycle-taxi driver
Roberto Sosa says "no problem," when asked to peddle the Cuban version
of a rickshaw around town for a look at what's on the market.

OVERSEAS INTEREST

An hour and five homes later one place catches the eye on Virgin Street.
The neighborhood needs a plaster and paint job and the road needs
paving, but the half-block-long, five bedroom single story house,
freshly painted and with new tile floors, is splendid.

"We want $35,000 and have a possible buyer, but she is checking with her
family in Miami," said the owner's son, who gave his name only as Santiago.

Bicitaxi peddler Sosa wasn't surprised.

"Most of the houses sold are (being bought) with the help of family
abroad, if not it wouldn't be possible because their value is going up a
lot now," he said, pointing out most local residents make only the
equivalent of $20 or $30 per month.

Emilio Morales in Miami wasn't surprised either.

"A number of law firms, mainly here in the United States and Spain, have
already called asking about the law for clients who want to know how
they can buy property in Cuba," the former marketing strategist for
CIMEX, one of the largest state-run trading and retail corporations on
the island, said in a telephone interview.

Morales, now CEO of The Havana Consulting Group, a startup company
specializing in potential Cuban markets, including residential real
estate, said there was plenty of interest.

"Here in Miami there are a lot of people interested in buying property
in Cuba for diverse reasons, some to start restaurants, cafeterias or
other businesses and others to have a place to retire and live out their
old age," he said.

(Editing by Jeff Franks and Cynthia Osterman)

http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/01/09/us-cuba-house-idUSTRE8081ZS20120109

One of the most relevant initiatives put forth by the Latin American
community of nations in recent years is the project "Educational Goals
2021: the education we want for the bicentennial generation" (A look at
education in Latin American (2011))

Its objective is to improve the quality of education and equity in
education in order to confront poverty and inequality, and to promote
social inclusion. It deals with an approach to as of yet unresolved
problems such as illiteracy, students leaving school early, child
labour, low student achievement, and the poor quality of public school
offerings. It attempts to confront, at the same time, the pressing
societal demand for information and knowledge: the incorporation of
information and communication technologies (TIC) in teaching and
learning, and the encouragement of innovation and creativity, and the
development of scientific research and progress (page 8).

With the aim of elaborating the afore-mentioned benchmarks of progress,
the promoters of the project "Educational Goals 2021″ considered it
necessary to begin with an analysis of the present situation, that
outlines the reality in which education finds itself in the Latin
American countries in the areas defined by the 2021 Goals. The base year
results of the study are from 2010. Some indicators include references
to previous years as it was not always possible to find the appropriate
data.

The overview offered by the OEI (Organization of Iberoamerican States)
are solid enough to be taken as a point of reference with respect to
Cuba and the rest of Latin America. The bulk of the information in the
document is available from other institutions such as the World Bank and
the United Nations.

In the future, a number of diverse indicators will form the basis of a
comparative analysis of the impact of the information age in Latin
America and Cuba.

Average number of students per computer

The development of TIC indicators in the realm of education raises the
need to quantity some dimension of this reality, beginning with a
fundamental aspect of its functioning: that of structure. In this way,
a common and generally accepted indicator to measure the extent of
computer use in schools came to light – that is, the student-computer
ratio. Among other things, comparisons between countries can be made
using this ratio and one can see the extent of the gap that separates
Latin America from developed nations.

With respect to the use of the computer and the ratio of students per
computer, an initial observation is the existence of a general consensus
as to the importance of using the TIC as learning tools. Upon weighing
the present situation in Iberoamerica, however, some marked differences
may be observed. Compared to countries promoting a policy of a 1:1
student-computer ratio (Portugal, Uruguay, Brazil, Argentina, and Spain,
among others) some countries have a very high student-computer ration.
Cuba reports a ratio greater than 30:1, one of the highest rates in
Iberoamerica. (Miradas sobre la educación en Iberoamérica, 2011, page 177)

A first difficulty lies in the different purposes for which computers
are used in schools. In general, most Latin American countries have
opted to add the total number of existing computers in schools, whether
they are used for administrative, educational or both. El Salvador
specifically mentioned that decision, while limiting its response to the
number of computers in the schools, without reference to the number of
students. As an exception to that rule, we may cite the case of Spain,
which calculates considering just the computers used for teaching and
learning tasks.

On the other hand, in connection with the use most of Latin American
countries are making of ICTs, it shows that in many cases it is
primarily aimed at achieving technological literacy of students. Despite
the diversity of situations in the region, a positive fact is that no
country supports never using use computers within the educational
environment, but in many cases use is limited to computer rooms, as
happens in Cuba.

The MIRADAS report acknowledges that there are currently no standardized
assessment systems that allow us to have concrete data about impact ICTs
have on learning. The absence of these data is of concern, while more
than 700 research efforts in the U.S. on the subject confirm the
positive effect of ICTs in the learning of students with access to
computers, either when they receive their instruction through them, or
use learning technology systems in collaborative groups or networks
(Schacter, J., 1999)

Strong evidence exists that learning with TIC is less effective when
learning objectives are not well defined and the purpose for utilizing
technology is controversial. Insofar as primary education is concerned,
experts recommend that we think about education first and technology
later. (Schacter, J. pg. 10).

Today, indicators need to be developed that can measure the effect or
impact of educational objectives, an aspect that goes hand in hand with
the development of other additional disciplines, such as cognitive
psychology to assess learning processes mediated by ICT. This constant
reformulation is part of the digital paradigm which, linked to the
learning process, is continually generating new returns in terms of
applications, content, competences, action plans, and, naturally, solutions.

Translated by: Scott and jCS

November 25 2011

http://translatingcuba.com/?p=13750

CUBA

Former spanish ambassador to Cuba to head relations with Latin America

Jesus Gracia Aldaz was ambassador in Havana when Cuban government jailed
75 dissidents
By Juan O. Tamayo
jtamayo@ElNuevoHerald.com

A Spanish diplomat who served as ambassador in Havana from 2001 to 2004
was appointed Thursday to head the Foreign Ministry section that handles
Spain's relations with Latin America.

Jesús Gracia Aldaz, named as Secretary of State for Iberoamerica, was
Spain's ambassador to Cuba when Havana courts sentenced 75 dissidents to
lengthy prison terms during a crackdown in 2003 known as "Cuba's Black
Spring."

He was appointed to the Cuba post in 2001 by the conservative People's
Party government of Prime Minister José Maria Aznar and left the island
in 2004, when socialist José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero succeeded Aznar. PP
leader Mariano Rajoy took over as prime minister after his party won the
November elections.

Joaquin Roy, who heads the European Union Center at the University of
Miami, noted that while Gracia is experienced in Spanish-Cuban
relations, he will have to follow the policy guidelines set by Rajoy and
Foreign Minister José Manuel García Margallo.

"Everything depends on how active Rajoy and García-Margallo want to be
on Cuba. I would be surprised if they start any 'harassment' (against
the Cuban government) … that goes beyond the verbal," Roy wrote in an
email to El Nuevo Herald.

After Cuba's crackdown in 2003, the Aznar government helped push member
nations of the European Union to adopt sanctions on Havana, such as
cutting back on government-to-government contacts and inviting
dissidents to embassy functions.

Rodríguez Zapatero and his foreign minister, Miguel Angel Moratinos,
reversed course by pushing the EU nations to abandon the 2003 sanctions
and trying unsuccessfully to lift a EU "Common Position" that loosely
links EU assistance to Cuba's human rights record.

The socialist government also eliminated the title of Secretary of State
for Iberoamerica in 2010. Gracia Aldaz' appointment to the resurrected
title points to Rajoy's stated goal of warming up relations with Latin
America.

The 51-year old Gracia Aldaz is currently the No. 2 at the Spanish
embassy in Argentina and has served in top positions in the government
agencies that are in charge of assistance to Latin American and other
nations.

A post Thursday in the Spain-based blog CubaEncuentro argued that Cuba
issues have a low priority for the Rajoy government because of Spain's
many domestic problems and the hefty Spanish investments in the Cuban
tourism and oil industries. The Spanish Repsol company is spearheading
the island's offshore oil exploration efforts.

But Rajoy also is unlikely to continue the Rodriguez Zapatero
government's strong push to drop the EU's Common Position, and trouble
may lie ahead, added the post, signed by Tony Gonzalez.

"Somewhere along there will be confrontation, and diplomatic notes with
insults and apologies," the post noted.

http://www.miamiherald.com/2012/01/05/2575578/former-spanish-ambassador-to.html#storylink=misearch

1. The Arab spring

Only when the events in Egypt exceeded the predictions, did the Cuban
press note (with tweezers) some isolated incidents. Nor had it published
anything earlier about the riots in Tunisia and Yemen, nor did it later
dig into the deposition of Hosni Mubarak. On Libya and and the fall of
Muammar Gadaffi, it limited itself to denigrating the role of NATO,
without mentioning the popular movement against the dictator. On Syria,
Cuban press coverage remains minimal.

2. Latin Grammy Awards

As no Cuban artist in residence in the island won a Latin Grammy in
2011, the Cuban press accolades applauded only the Puerto Rican duo
Calle 13, and omitted all exiled Cuban artists who were winners: Amaury
Gutiérrez, Lena Burke, Paquito D 'Rivera and the late Israel López "Cachao".

3. UN special report on Iran's nuclear program

On November 8 the International Atomic Energy Agency of the United
Nations presented a detailed report which showed not only Tehran's
efforts to achieve the atomic bomb, but to do so in record time, based
on special designs of enriching uranium by catalysts process methods.
Not one word of this report was revealed in Cuba, an ally of the regime
of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.

4. Convictions for child prostitution

Five were implicated in the death of a 12-year-old child prostitute in
the eastern city of Bayamo and four subsequently arrested for ties to a
child prostitution ring were sentenced in September of this year to
prison terms of between 10 and 30 years. Three of those convicted are
Italian. Despite the national and international turmoil after the death
of the girl, in 2010, the Cuban press did not reflect on the case.

5. Sports defections

In addition to promising young players such as the pitcher Gerardo
Concepción and footballer Yosniel Mesa, two major athletes fled Cuba in
2011 through risky and illegal ways. The great Yoenis Cespedes, member
of the Cuban baseball team and current national home run record holder,
left the island on a boat bound for the Dominican Republic in the
summer, and expects to contract with the major leagues. Paralympic
swimming champion at the 2011 Pan American, Rafael Castillo, crossed the
border and sought political asylum in the United States. Nothing was
said officially in Cuba about either of them.

6. The "cubañoles"

In 2011 Cuba set a record for requests for Spanish citizenship.
According to the Spanish newspaper El Mundo, the Spanish consulate in
Havana has already nationalized some 66,000 Cubans, and it is estimated
that at the end of the process about 190,000 residents of the island
will be citizens of Spain due to the Law of Historical Memory
(qualifying requires having a Spanish grandparent). In Cuba, not only
has this event been silenced, but Internet pages with information about
how to apply are blocked.

7. Hugo Chavez's Cancer

With the exception of an official note on the surgery in June of
Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, news coverage on successive
chemotherapy treatments in Havana, relapse, revenues emergency in
Caracas and in general the Venezuelan president's illness has been
practically nil.

8. Bill Richardson's visit to Havana

Only after former New Mexico Democratic Gov. Bill Richardson declared
his frustration with the unsuccessful trip he made to Havana in
September, did the official Cuban press counter with the reasons why the
government had not allowed Richardson will meet with Alan P. Gross, let
alone bring him back to the United States. During his stay in Cuba, Bill
Richardson was ignored by the Cuban media.

9. Pablo Milanes Controversy

Nor was a a visit to Miami by one of the two most important singers of
the Cuban Nueva Trova movement, Pablo Milanes, mentioned, nor was a word
published about his accusatory statements against the repression of the
Ladies in White and the stifling centralization of power. Only by
alternative means did Cubans learn of the controversial Pablo Milanes
concert at American Airlines Arena in Miami, and his public break with
the regime of the island

10. Cuba's first gay wedding

An event covered by the international press found no place in Cuban
journalism: the wedding of Wendy Iriepa, a transsexual, and the
homosexual dissident Ignacio Estrada in August. Not even because this
one-of-a-kind wedding occurred on the "symbolic" date of August 13th
(the birthday of Fidel Castro) did the Cuban media report it.

11. Record for corruption

Scholars of Cuban issues classify 2011 as the "year of corruption in
Cuba." Scandals in the fields of nickel (Sherritt International and
Cubaníquel), telecommunications (Empresa de Telecomunicaciones de Cuba,
known as ETECSA), the Cuban Volleyball Federation, the Tobacco Industry
(Habanos SA), among others, led to dismissal of ministers such as Yadira
Garcia (Basic Industry ) and legal actions against sports officials such
as the glory of Cuban volleyball, Raul Diago. On all these scandals, the
Cuban media issued terse notes, or in some cases ignored them entirely.

http://translatingcuba.com/?p=13626

In October Laura Pollan left us, in a dark hospital on a drizzly day, in
a year, 2011, that had been born already battered. In the early months,
the final prisoners of the Black Spring had been released and national
and international headlines gave most of the credit to the Catholic
Church and Spain's Foreign Minister, downplaying the struggle of the
Ladies in White, the pressure exerted from the street, Guillermo
Fariñas' hunger strike, and the wake of outrage left by the death of
Orlando Zapata Tamayo. April, the cruelest month, brought us the
Communist Party Congress focused only on economic issues, preferring the
word "adjustments" to "reforms," and consolidating the power of a blood
heir to the Cuban throne.

August, with its dog days and its scarcities, wasn't very different.
"Where are the changes?" many asked themselves. It wasn't until October
that they began to trickle out. We could buy a used car, but not freely
associate ourselves with a party nor express ourselves without
punishment. Then came the most daring of Raul's measures: it was
possible to buy or sell a home, although the most modest of them
necessitated the total wages of 45 years' work. Something was moving in
a society mummified for decades, but so slowly we despaired. In
mid-December we learned that more than 66,000 Cubans had obtained the
nationality of their grandparents, emigrants from the Asturias, the
Canary Islands, Galicia… people kept escaping. The despair is not
perceived in the streets as much as in the long lines at the consulates.

The area of land allowed to be given to farmers in usufruct grew, but
the price of food grew almost as much. The press spoke of advances, but
the reality showed stagnation. Private restaurants invaded every
neighborhood with their menus of spicy dishes and their anxiety about
whether they would be left to survive a while longer. The mute choir of
the National Assembly confirmed that for 2012 the country would need
much more money to import the foods that could well be produced on our
own soil. And the expected travel reform was kept from us again, for the
umpteenth time.

On Saint Sylvester night few homes displayed parties or music, at least
in Havana. But I felt relief that the year was ending. Of 2011, with its
advances overstated by propaganda and its setbacks silenced, once was
enough.

4 January 2012

http://translatingcuba.com/?p=13662

HAVANA Jan 4 (Reuters) – Cuba has opened more of its retail services to
the private sector and liberalized land lease terms so farmers can rent
more state land and keep it in the family as reforms aimed at fortifying
the socialist system for the future continue.

The Caribbean island's self-employed sector has continued to grow and
Cuba's long-delayed hope of exploring for oil offshore is close to
becoming a reality as a Chinese-built drilling rig is expected to reach
Cuban waters this month.

If oil is found, it will take at least three to five years to produce,
but eventually should reduce or eliminate reliance on oil imports from
Venezuela, whose President Hugo Chavez, the island's top ally and
economic partner, had surgery for cancer last year.

ECONOMIC REFORM

The government said it would allow Cubans to operate various service
businesses such as appliance and watch repair, locksmith and carpentry
shops, just as it has done the past year with 1,500 state barbershops
and beauty salons. [ID:nN1E7BPOOL]

They will pay a monthly fee for the government-owned space, buy
supplies, pay taxes and charge what the market will bear in another step
away from the doctrinaire communism imposed after the 1959 revolution.

Government officials said there are now more than 357,000 people working
in the self-employed sector, the growth of which is being encouraged
because the cash-strapped government wants to slash a million jobs from
its payrolls and encourage more private initiative. It has temporarily
lowered taxes and begun providing credits to the new entrepreneurs.

No figures have been released but government insiders said in October
that just under 150,000 people had lost their jobs as the government
pushes toward its goal of having up to 40 percent of the island
workforce of 5.2 million in non-state jobs by 2015.

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 Cuban state owns 70 percent of the land on the island and, according
to figures given at the National Assembly, has leased almost 3.5 million
acres (1.4 million hectares) to 150,000 private farmers since 2008 with
the goal of increasing agricultural production so it can reduce
budget-draining food imports. About 70 percent of the leased land was
said to be under cultivation.

Food output was up in 2011, but still below 2005 levels, so starting
this month, in response to farmer suggestions, the amount of land they
can rent has been quintupled to 165 acres (67 hectares) and leases
extended from 10 years up to 25.

The leases can be renewed and passed on to family members and farmers
can build homes on the land. [ID:nN1E7BH02Q]

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

He also emphasized the importance of an ongoing crackdown on corruption,
which already has shuttered three foreign firms and brought the arrest
of top executives at Tecnotex, a company run by the Cuban military.

Cubans had hoped Castro would announce reforms making it easier for them
to travel abroad, but he said only that changes would be made gradually.

The Cuban Communist Party and the government passed a series of reform
plans this year that would move all business administration out of the
ministries and grant newly formed holding companies more authority to
make day-to-day decisions and control a percentage of their profits.

Cubans are now allowed, for the first time in decades, to buy and sell
homes and used cars. As of the end of November, 6,009 cars had changed
hands and 301 homes had been sold, officials said.

What to watch:

- The pace of reforms and their consequences.

- The development of small businesses.

- The shedding of business management by the ministries.

FINANCIAL HEALTH

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

Cuba said it would end 2011 with a record 2.7 million tourists for the
year and a 9 percent increase in tourism revenues over the $2.1 billion
in 2010. Tourism is a top hard currency earner for the island.

Reserves at the Bank for International Settlements stood at $5.649
billion in June, double what they were three years ago.

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. [ID:nN24211495]

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 investment have yet to
materialize with no significant new ventures this year.

Long-awaited golf course developments, aimed at attracting wealthier
tourists, remain on hold. [ID:nN04118234]

What to watch:

- Resolution of outstanding short-term debt

- Signs of increased interest in foreign investment.

OIL PLANS

A Chinese-built drilling rig, the Scarabeo 9, was in Trinidad and Tobago
in early January and expected to reach Cuba later in the month. It will
be used in the first major exploration of Cuba's part of the Gulf of
Mexico. [ID:nN1E77P03U] Spain's Repsol YPF and its partners will get the
rig first, followed by Malaysia's Petronas and its partner, Russia's
Gazprom Neft.

The project has drawn opposition in the U.S. Congress [ID:nS1E78R1P9],
but, to allay safety concerns, Repsol will let the United States inspect
the rig. [ID:nN1E79H1XN] [ID:nN1E7BJ077] U.S. companies are forbidden
from operating in Cuba by the U.S. trade embargo.

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

What to watch:

- U.S. inspection of drilling rig.

- Results of Repsol's exploratory well.

- U.S. pressure to stop the drilling.

FOREIGN RELATIONS

A planned Papal visit in March [ID:nL6E7NC3I6] and improved ties with
Brazil are bright spots even as it faces a more hostile Spanish
government elected in November.

A major concern for Cuba is the health of Chavez, 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
[ID:nN1E79J13X], 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.
[ID:nN1E7AT2CK] He is serving a 15-year sentence for providing Internet
gear to Cuban groups under a U.S. program promoting Cuban political change.

Cuba is angry that five Cuban agents have been jailed in the United
States since 1998, and has given no indications that Gross will be
released early. [ID:nN1E7BR0BZ] (Additional reporting by Marc Frank;
Editing by Kieran Murray)

http://af.reuters.com/article/energyOilNews/idAFN1E7BR07020120104?pageNumber=2&virtualBrandChannel=0&sp=true

For any society, it will be frustrating if its history, instead of
progressing forward, heads backwards by leaps and bounds. This is the
case for Cuban society, whose situation with regards to freedom and
rights is the same or worse than it was leading to the Ten Years' War.

In mid-nineteenth century Cuba, when the contradictions between a colony
and a metropolis seems to be approaching a reformist solution, events
took a different path. The Information Board, convened by the Overseas
Minister with the participation of the Cuban commissioners in order to
outline a colonial reform project, failed. Instead of the island
reducing its tax contribution to 6%, a tax of 10% was imposed, which
affected the interests of the island's landowners, especially in the
eastern central region.

Let's look briefly at some of the decisive events.

On September 15, 1868 the Spanish monarchy was replaced by a provisional
government, which continued to deny for the Island the freedoms claimed
for Spain. The confluence of increased taxes, the lack of freedoms and a
growing national sentiment, coupled with external factors unfavorable to
Spain, resulted in separatist insurrection becoming the order of the
day, which was structured from the Grand Eastern Lodge of Cuba and the
Antilles (GOCA)*, an irregular Masonic body that became the center of
discussion and investigation of social and political issues.

On October 10, 1868, the independence movement started in the East and
in a short time extended to the center of the country. The need to
coordinate the efforts of rebel groups led to the convening of the
Assembly of Guáimaro, on April 10, 1869, which enacted the first Cuban
Constitution of an eminently democratic character, based on the division
of powers. However, ten years after the start of that civil-military
exploit, the conflicts between military leaders, and between them and
the President of the Republic, and between the legislative and executive
branches, together with the warlordism and regionalism, put paid to the
patriotic effort.

On November 14, 1876, when General Maximo Gomez had to leave the command
of the invasion of the West — the largest operation of this war — the
strategic initiative, both militarily and politically, was taken over by
Spain. The enforcement of the policy of pacification policy enforcement
fell on fertile ground. In September 1877, troops from Holguin
established an independent canton, one of the regiments of Jiguaní faced
the enemy, and in October, President Estrada Palma was taken prisoner. A
few days later, representatives of the Chamber entered into conversation
with the Spanish forces. And finally, the Central Committee, in charge
of peace negotiations, on February 10, 1878, signed a document that
ended the independence project; a war which, as José Martí said, "No one
let us down, but we let ourselves down."

From the historical point of view, the result of this enormous effort
can not be measured only by the failure to achieve any of its basic
objectives, but also by the current state of Cuban society, separated by
a century and a half from the Cry of Yara, which had launched the war on
October 10, 1868.

Then and Now

At that time, in exchange for independence and the abolition of slavery,
between 1879 and 1886 the Press Law, the Law on Meetings and the Law on
Associations were approved and put into effect and endorsed in the
Spanish constitution. Thanks to these were created news organizations,
economic associations, cultural, fraternal, educational, mutual aid and
instruction and recreation, trade unions and the first political parties
in Cuba. Thanks to the amnesty provided for in the Covenant and the
permissibility for the exiles to return to Cuba, José Martí, Juan
Gualberto Gómez and Antonio Maceo were able to set foot on Cuban soil
once again.

The result speaks for itself: when he arrived in Cuba Gerardo
Castellanos, sent by Marti to prepare the new uprising on the island,
found a movement already organized in several provinces.

Currently, in the XXI century, those freedoms are limited, but those
favoring the continuation of the struggle for independence are absent.
Even worse. Each year, upon arrival at October 10, the official press,
in tribute, recalls the uprising with events, articles and speeches,
while at the same time meticulously going after every civic
demonstration of freedom, as evidenced by the continuing repressive
actions and the huge number of peaceful opponents arrested.

What did all this immense effort for independence, freedom and dignity
of Cubans bring to the present in which we live? How is it possible that
people who bled and suffered in the name of freedom are now in such a state?

*Source: Torres-Cuevas, Eduardo y Oscar Loyola Vega. Historia de Cuba
1492-1898, Formación y liberación de la nación. La Habana, Editorial
Pueblo y Educación, 2001, p.210

November 14 2011

http://translatingcuba.com/?p=13582

VATICAN CITY, December 15 (CNA) .- Cardinal Jaime Ortega y Alamino of
Havana voiced anticipation over Pope Benedict XVI's planned visit to
Cuba in March of 2012.

"The Pope's visit is always a special grace like John Paul II's was. I
am sure Benedict XVI's visit will be also," he told CNA after a Mass at
St. Peter's Basilica at the Vatican on Dec. 12.

During the Mass in honor of Our Lady of Guadalupe, Pope Benedict
announced his intention to visit Cuba and Mexico before Easter of 2012.
He said he would travel to both countries "to proclaim the Word of
Christ there and to and convince people that this is the time to
evangelize with strong faith, living hope and burning charity."

Pope Benedict will be the second pontiff to visit Cuba after the
historic visit by Blessed Pope John Paul II in 1998.

The Pope will arrive in Cuba during improving relations between the
Castro government and the Church through the mediation of the Spanish
government. More than 100 political prisoners were released in 2010 and
2011 and allowed to travel to Spain.

Relations are also improved thanks to a visit in June of 2010 by the
Vatican Secretary for Relations with States, Archbishop Dominique Mamberti.

While the process for releasing the political prisoners was met with
some criticism by Cuban dissidents, many analysts consider the move to
be a positive signal.

"I am very happy that the Pope is coming to Cuba, and we are waiting for
him," Cardinal Ortega told CNA. Vatican sources say the Pope will
tentatively travel to Cuba March 26-28 and then return to Rome.

http://www.ewtn.com/vnews/getstory.asp?number=117058

An estimated 180,000 Cubans could be eligible

Large numbers of people in Latin America have rushed to apply for
Spanish citizenship on the final day descendants of civil war-era exiles
were eligible to apply.

The scheme was open to people whose parents or grandparents fled Spain
under Franco and during the 1936-39 civil war.

Since 2008 more than 200,000 people have been recognised as Spanish.

Most applicants were in Latin America, particularly Cuba and Argentina.

The Historic Memory Law was passed by Spain's former socialist
government in 2007.

A provision added in 2008 – known as the Law of Grandchildren – offered
citizenship to anyone whose parents or grandparents were born in Spain
but left the country between 1936 and 1955.

A three-year period during which applications could be made expired on
Tuesday.
'Grateful'

A large queue formed outside the Spanish consulate in the Cuban capital,
Havana, as people rushed to beat the deadline.

"I am very satisfied to have done this on the last possible day," Cuban
pensioner Jorge Vallos told the Associated Press after submitting his
application.

"Everyone is trying to take advantage of this in order to travel and to
be able to visit our families," teacher Daisy Ramos said.

Spanish embassy officials say that up to 180,000 Cubans could be
eligible for Spanish citizenship – more than 1% of Cuba's population.

Long queues also formed outside the Spanish consulate in the Argentine
capital, Buenos Aires.

More than 60,000 Argentines have already been given Spanish citizenship,
out of about 300,000 who are thought to be eligible – the largest number
in any one country.

But most are not expected to go to live in Spain, which is suffering an
economic crisis and high unemployment.
Soldiers of Gen Franco's Nationalists escort captured Republican troops
in the Spanish Civil War Citizenship was also offered to foreign
volunteers who fought in the International Brigades

"For now I am staying here," Argentine Daniel Garcia told Reuters after
making his application. "I am doing it to be able to travel and to have
the passport."

Latin America accounts for more than 90% of those seeking citizenship,
with large numbers applying in Mexico and Venezuela.

Outside the region, the most applications have been in France, where
many Spanish Republicans took refuge after their defeat in the civil war.

The Spanish foreign ministry says that – as of 31 August – citizenship
had been granted to 213,787 people out of 378,862 applications.

The total by the end of the process is expected to reach 300,000. Those
granted Spanish passports do not have to give up their current citizenship.
Bitter legacy

About half-a-million people were killed during the 1936-39 Spanish Civil
War, in which a nationalist military revolt led by General Francisco
Franco overthrew a left-wing Republican government.

An estimated 500,000 people died in the war, and political killings and
persecution continued during Gen Franco's long dictatorship, which only
ended with his death in 1975.

The Historic Memory Law passed under the previous socialist government
was aimed at addressing the legacy of the conflict.

It offered compensation to the victims and help in finding the bodies of
the dead, many of whom were buried in secret mass graves.

But the measure proved controversial in a country still divided by the
Civil War. It was opposed by the conservative Popular Party, which won
power in this November's general election.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-16342340

HAVANA – Cuba's basic industry minister said the island produced an
estimated 4 million tons of oil equivalent in 2011, an amount roughly
unchanged from the previous four years, state media reported.

During an appearance Tuesday before the National Assembly's Energy and
Environment Committee, Tomas Benitez said this year's result was
equivalent to about half of the island's oil and gas consumption, the
state-run Prensa Latina news agency reported.

Development of Cuba's oil and gas wells, some of which have been in
service for up to three decades, is being carried out in compliance with
international standards, Benitez said.

A report presented by the Energy and Environment Committee, meanwhile,
said this year's production represents just over 98 percent of planned
output, attributing the shortfall to inferior results at some new wells
and technological difficulties.

Executives from Cuban state oil company Cupet also presented lawmakers
with a plan for increasing revenues from the sector, including ensuring
sufficient funding, signing necessary agreements with foreign suppliers,
carrying out repairs of crude storage and treatment tanks and increasing
drilling efficiency.

Cuba's most promising oil region is the Exclusive Economic Zone, located
in the southeastern Gulf of Mexico and estimated to hold between 5
billion and 9 billion barrels of petroleum.

The EEZ covers some 112,000 sq. kilometers (43,240 sq. miles) and is
divided into 59 blocks of 2,000 sq. kilometers (772 sq. miles) each, 22
of which have been awarded to foreign companies such as Spain's
Repsol-YPF, Venezuela's PDVSA and Vietnam's PetroVietnam.

According to official figures, the island also has 13 onshore blocks –
eight awarded to Cupet and five to foreign companies.

Cupet is awaiting the arrival of a Chinese-built, Repsol-hired rig that
will conduct exploratory drilling and determine the oil potential of
Cuba's territorial waters.

Cuba's oil and gas output has stabilized over the past five years at a
level of 4 million tons of oil equivalent, according to the Basic
Industry Ministry, which says that production represented revenues of
more than $1.3 billion in 2010. EFE

http://www.laht.com/article.asp?ArticleId=454450&CategoryId=14510

CUBA

Spain's new foreign minister has visited Cuba many times, favored
engagement and patience

José Manuel García-Margallo has visited the island 11 times, advocated
engagement and patience
By Juan O. Tamayo
jtamayo@ElNuevoHerald.com

Spain's newly appointed Foreign Minister José Manuel García-Margallo has
visited Cuba at least 11 times and declared that its government cannot
stay in power by force forever, but counseled engagement and patience
rather than confrontation.

García-Margallo, appointed by Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy Wednesday, is
expected to focus on critical issues such as the European Union's
financial chaos and relations with the United States and Moslem nations
across the Mediterranean.

But his past experiences with Cuba may serve him well in handling the
relations between Rajoy's right-of-center government and the island.
Rajoy's People's Party defeated the Spanish Socialist Workers' Party
(PSOE) in elections last month.

Miguel Angel Moratinos, who was foreign minister under former PSOE Prime
Minister José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero, was fired in late 2010 amid
complaints that he was too friendly with Cuba and Venezuelan President
Hugo Chávez.

García-Margallo, 67, who has a law degree from Harvard, is known in the
European Parliament as a level-headed conciliator — a trait he showed in
an interview in 2000 with the Madrid-based magazine Libertad Digital —
Digital Freedom.

While his interviewer branded Cuban rulers as dictators and murderers,
he chose his words carefully in describing his just-completed 11th visit
to Cuba — apparently many of them as a member of a European Parliament
economic panel that deals with Cuba issues.

García-Margallo said he had met with top government officials as well as
leading dissidents even though "it bothers the Cuban government when we
meet with dissidents. It bothers them a lot."

Asked how he could meet with such "evil" government officials, he
replied, "Politics is the art of the possible. You tell me: What else
can we do?"

"I believe that it's good that we visit the island and talk to everyone
that we can. The Cuban government has to know that we are watching
whatever happens to the dissidents," he noted.

García-Margallo added that it was not possible "to maintain a regime in
power by force permanently," but added that "trying to make them
surrender through hunger does not seem possible, or good. To seek a
bloodbath there cannot be the solution."

"I can affirm, with some knowledge, that until the plans for a
succession are carried out, there's not the least possibility of a
political change," he added.

In 2000, Cuban leader Fidel Castro was grudgingly beginning to adopt
some reforms in order to overcome the economic collapsed triggered by
the collapse of the Soviet Bloc and the end of Moscow's huge subsidies.

García-Margallo said that Spanish investments in Cuba, which were
expanding rapidly at the time, were not a bad thing.

"One of the things that can happen, if there's a change in the regime,
would be an absolute Americanization, that Cuba would become another
Puerto Rico," he declared. "I would consider it deplorable if Cuba's
Spanish identity were to be lost."

Asked if he had any final words for the Cuban people, García-Margallo
replied, "Wait." The interviewer, Victor Llano, shot back, "I was afraid
of that."

http://www.miamiherald.com/2011/12/22/2556614/spains-new-foreign-minister-has.html

Cuban entrepreneurs reshaping island's stagnant revolution
sonia verma
HAVANA— From Thursday's Globe and Mail
Published Wednesday, Oct. 12, 2011 8:42PM EDT
Last updated Sunday, Dec. 18, 2011 11:45PM EST

Barbershops, beauty salons, restaurants and car washes have sprung up
across Cuba in the year since the Communist Party allowed citizens to
open small, private businesses in an effort to save the country from ruin.

The government says more than 157,000 people have qualified for business
permits and are currently self-employed. This new generation of Cuban
entrepreneurs is quietly reshaping the island's stagnant revolution in a
way that was inconceivable when Fidel Castro was in control. The
economic changes brought about by his brother Raul, however, are proving
slow to take hold.

Cubans wait to order their meals at Tio Tito in Havana, Cuba Sept. 27,
2011. Taking its colour scheme from American fast food giant McDonald's
the small restaurant is one of many that have opened up since recent
economic reforms in Cuba have allowed for some private enterprise to exist.
Photos

Many are being implemented by young Cubans with virtually no memory of
life before communism. Some new entrepreneurs are struggling to
understand how to pay small-business taxes or navigate the country's
labyrinthine bureaucracy. With virtually no access to bank loans or
credit, most are relying on family living abroad to float their new
ventures.

Still, Cuba is buzzing with new energy as people attempt, for the first
time in their lives, to make money outside of the underground economy.
Business owners are experimenting with novel concepts, such as
advertising and open competition. It's unclear, however, how far the
Cuban authorities will allow the reforms to go – whether small business
owners will be permitted to accumulate vast amounts of wealth, for
example, or build empires.

At the moment, however, these new entrepreneurs seem content enough to
turn a profit they can officially pocket.

IVAN GARCIA PENA

His idea for a restaurant might ring a bell: a fast-food joint with a
red and yellow colour scheme where, for a couple of bucks, clients get a
meal deal.

Mr. Pena, 39, spent a decade of his life as a poorly paid information
officer in Cuba's tourism department before he decided to open Tio
Tito's in January. He siphoned his savings, hawked his personal gym
equipment and sold his mobile phone to finance the construction of a
modest grill in his front yard, borrowing refrigerators and Tupperware
from friends.

"Some of my friends thought I was crazy. Others encouraged me," recalled
Mr. Pena, his voice partially drowned out by the song Stand By Me
blasting from a super woofer on a shelf, next to the mustard.

With no restaurant experience to speak of, he relied on what he gleaned
as a customer from previous trips abroad, to Spain, Chile and Portugal.
An American friend offered to design and build a website, which is
hosted in Miami. He hired six employees, including his brother, Tito,
who works as head chef, paying them the equivalent of $25 a month, plus
a commission.

His inspired colour scheme? "If it works for McDonald's it can work for
me," he reasoned.

The family has yet to recover their initial investment of $3,000.
Business is brisk, however, and Mr. Pena is hopeful that soon he will
turn a profit.

"I want Tio Tito franchises all over Havana," he said.

He prefers the life of an entrepreneur to his previous existence as a
bureaucrat.

"You're obtaining profit from your own work. If you work more you will
earn more. The disadvantage is that this is much more work than being an
information officer."

LAZARO RAFAEL

He's led a double life since officially entering Cuba's work force:
During the day, he worked construction for a government ministry; by
night he worked as an underground mechanic, fixing cars for friends and
relatives at an unofficial workshop.

Between his two gigs, he earned about $15 a month.

His fortunes, however, changed in December when he quit his day job and
applied for a business licence to open his own garage. Since officially
opening shop, his income has tripled.

"I still have the same clients, but now I can do the work in the open,"
Mr. Rafael, 31, said standing in the shade outside his seaside apartment
in Havana's quiet Miramar neighbourhood.

His wife, Rachel, is an economist in the provincial Communist Party
office. Under Cuba's new economic plan, her job could be in jeopardy as
the country seeks to drastically trim its public service by half a
million workers over five years.

With his own thriving business for them to fall back on, Mr. Rafael
isn't particularly worried. His biggest problem at the moment is finding
a garage to rent – or even buy – when Cuba changes the law to allow
people to purchase private property in the coming months.

For now he works on the street, which is strewn with cables and car parts.

Today, he is trying to coax an aging Peugeot to start. Five more cars
await service with troubles ranging from a trunk failing to open to a
broken headlight.

A team of government inspectors has paid a visit to demand proof he has
paid his last instalment of taxes.

Mr. Rafael produced a bank receipt showing he paid the $40, but the
inspectors said the government has not received it, and ordered him to
pay it again.

"The system is not yet perfect," he says, "but at least we are moving in
the right direction."

JANETTE ALVAREZ

When she worked as a cook in a state-run cafeteria, her kitchen was
fully stocked when she arrived at work each morning. Now, as her own
boss, she scrambles to find basic supplies in the shops.

"This is very hard," the mother of two teenagers said, standing behind
the counter of La Jugada Perfecta, her baseball-themed restaurant
dedicated to the Industriales, Cuba's wildly popular baseball team that
was founded 50 years ago in the wake of the revolution. The restaurant
name translates as A Perfect Play.

"We are not used to this and we have to go out and find everything we
need. It's not like working for the state," she added.

Sometimes she comes up short. Unable to source proper kitchen
appliances, she appealed to relatives in Miami who sent a brand-name
blender and two bright orange coolers from Home Depot.

Ms. Alvarez's husband, an accountant, helped set up the books, but the
restaurant is women-owned and women-run.

Most days, clients line up all the way to the sidewalk to order an Extra
Base (hamburger with fries) or a Strike (bacon burger). The prices are
roughly twice that of a state-run cafeteria.

"I don't mind paying for quality," said a 26-year-old economist named
Alfredo Garcia, sipping on a strawberry milkshake.

Ms. Alvarez used to earn the equivalent of $80 dollars a month. Now she
pays $16 tax every month, as well as about $4 in social security for
each of her two employees, both cousins.

She is ploughing all her profits back into the restaurant, and hopes to
one day pay back the relatives in Miami who floated her.

"Up to this point I believe we made the right choice," Ms. Alvarez said.

"This is a new thing for us, but as time goes by I hope we are going to
be well," she said.

WALKIS HERNANDEZ LEGRA

She's a life-long bureaucrat who currently presides as director of the
office for work and social services in Havana's Plaza Revolucion.

She harbours no ambition to start her own business, but anyone in the
neighbourhood who does must first receive the blessing of her staff,
which issues all permits for the district.

Since the new law came into effect, about 40 people file through this
crumbling building each day, searching for door No. 6, where a handful
of state workers surrounded by broken filing cabinets sort through
applications. The process takes about eight minutes.

Applicants submit their identity cards with two pictures and a written
application. Five days later, they come back to pick up their permits.
The process has been simplified from a few months ago, when applications
had to be reviewed by the neighbourhood Committee to Protect The
Revolution before permits could be issued.

On this day, Nara Creas, a 63-year-old who constructs costumes and
pinatas for children's birthday parties, has come to renew her license.
Nelson Cruz, a 26-year-old taxi driver, is also applying for a permit,
to turn his illegal taxi business into something official.

"Our department rarely takes five days to complete the application
process. We can do it in one or two days," Ms. Legra said with pride.
Her office has processed roughly 6,000 applications since last October,
when the decree came into effect.

Permit in hand, entrepreneurs then proceed to the local tax office for
an assessment of how much they will pay per month.

After that, they can officially open for business.

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/world/americas/in-cuba-its-viva-la-evolucion/article2199403/singlepage/#articlecontent

Two of Canada's big banks are considering returning to Cuba after an
absence of more than half a century in the wake of reforms that portend
new opportunities for private enterprise and foreign investors.

Bank of Nova Scotia has applied to the Cuban authorities to set up a
representative office in Havana while Royal Bank of Canada is examining
its options.

Scotiabank said that the new office would allow it "to reacquaint
ourselves with the Cuban market, which will provide a strategic window
into the market place and enable us to acquire in-depth local knowledge
and build relationships".

Jim Westlake, head of RBC's international operations, said: "We're in
the very early stages of looking at it."

Mr Westlake met the Cuban ambassador to Canada this month with a view,
he said, of "trying to gauge how they are feeling about business
generally coming to Cuba".

But in planning a return to the island, he added, RBC was concerned
about not running foul of US sanctions.

Both RBC and Scotiabank operated in Cuba before the 1959 revolution and
still maintain an extensive presence across other parts of the Caribbean.

Mr Westlake said that one or two RBC employees return from holidays in
Cuba each year with pictures of the bank's former head office, its name
still carved in the stone façade.

Scotiabank said that the new representative office would not conduct any
local transactions or direct banking services.

"The office will continue and, to the extent possible, will expand
Scotiabank's trade finance business with Cuba," the bank said.

According to the Cuban central bank's website, nine foreign banks
currently have offices in the country. They include Société Générale,
BNP Paribas, Spain's Caja Madrid and Quebec-based National Bank of Canada.

National, the smallest of Canada's big six banks by assets, said its two
employees in Havana are mostly involved in trade finance for food items.
It declined to elaborate "for competitive reasons".

President Raúl Castro has opened the way for individuals to buy and sell
their homes for the first time since the revolution in the latest
market-oriented reforms aimed at reviving Cuba's moribund economy.

Other initiatives have included cutting subsidies, slashing state
payrolls and liberalising small businesses.

Numerous Canadian companies have invested in Cuba, mainly in the tourism
sector.

Toronto-based Sherritt International is the largest independent energy
producer and operates a nickel and cobalt mine on the island. Air Canada
has daily flights between Toronto and Havana.

http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/6e518d3c-2933-11e1-80a2-00144feabdc0.html#axzz1gzwNrFsR

Cuba's title recording system, part 1
By José Manuel Pallí, Esq.

I apparently raised more than a few eyebrows by claiming that Cuba's
land title recording system before Castro was much better than anything
we have ever had in the United States. At the risk of stepping on even
more toes, here is why I said what I said.

First, let me make clear that my statement is not born of any claim to
Cuban exceptionalism: Cubans can hardly brag about the recording system
they had back in 1959, since it was the creation of Spaniards in the
middle of the 19th century, who in turn followed ideas originally
developed in Germany. Of course, back then Cuba was part of Spain (it
was one of Spain's provincias de ultramar), and, as a matter of fact,
Cuba tasted this Spanish Recording Law (known in its original version as
the Ley Hipotecaria de Ultramar) even before it was in effect in the
mainland.

And I am not saying that our court-run recording system in the United
States is not serviceable as it is. I am saying it can be very much
improved if we would only look at what other countries are doing — and
have been doing for eons — with theirs. By humbly acknowledging the
possibility that others may have a better answer for problems such as
mortgage fraud, certainty as to who owns a given secured loan when the
time comes to foreclose on it, or people entering into contracts they do
not understand the consequences of, we may begin to resolve some of the
issues that are keeping us mired in this never-ending "financial crisis"
and clogging our justice administration system.

There are two main varieties of land title recording systems. The United
States one is the less elaborate, and it simply records and publicizes a
private document, assigning a priority to it, based on its date of
recordation. All you need to do to have your document recorded is take
it to the courthouse and present it, making sure it meets certain
minimal formalities, which are the only thing the record keepers review
prior to recording it. It is a system that records and publicizes documents.

In the kind of Spanish (German-inspired) recording system in place in
Cuba before Castro, the registrar in charge of the recording office
reviews the (usually "public" or notarial) document presented for
recordation, checking on it from several angles, its completeness and
its abidance by the applicable laws among them. The transaction
contained in that same notarial document has been previously reviewed to
mostly the same extent by a Civil Law Notary, an independent or
third-party lawyer who makes sure that the parties (signatories) to the
document or transaction fully understand its meaning and consequences.
In essence, what this fellow does is make sure the document is legally
effective, so as to accomplish what the parties freely will to do. The
combination of this strictly reviewed notarial document (which in Civil
Law carries a high evidentiary value that makes it almost self-proving),
the pre-recordation review by the Registrar (calificación notarial y
registral), and the legal principles on which the Spanish recording
system is based, make the rights of the owner (of a piece of real
property, of the mortgage encumbering it, or of any other real property
rights he claims over it) of record virtually unassailable. So it is
said to be a system that records (and even more importantly, assigns)
real property rights, not just documents. The recording entries of such
a system are sort of iron-cladded against the claims of those who may
try to question the rights of the owner of record, which rights are
thusly said to be legitimized by their recordation.

There are other reasons why this "recordation of rights" system is much
better than ours:

•The information pertaining to each piece of land is concentrated in a
single entry (called a folio real), which rules out the need to resort
to extended and cumbersome searches through grantor / grantee indexes.

•Its emphasis on preventing legal disputes through the power of review
both civil law notaries and registrars have, results in there being
relatively few lawsuits over land titles in those societies that opt for it.

•Even if the system is not absolutely risk free – no system is, but, I
insist, this Spanish recording system is, conceptually, much stronger
than ours — it makes title insurance or other such products unnecessary.

And I happen to know a thing or two about how our title insurance-aided
system works when compared with these recording models in place on
almost every Civil Law jurisdiction in the world, having spent many
years trying to "extrapolate" title insurance into other cultures.

My many friends in the title insurance industry have always seen its
international expansion from the very American perspective of "if it
works for us, it should work for everybody else." While I was already
well into my project of acculturating title insurance to civil law
habitats, beginning with Mexico, an American working for one of the
largest American title insurance underwriters asked himself a very
simple question: 'Why don't they have it in Canada?', where he happened
to live. With dedication, well-honed selling skills and hard work, he
turned this underwriter's Canadian venture into a relative success.

But then it all became a matter of finding how to sell – an endeavor we
are still unquestionably number one at — American title insurance
abroad, and any need to acculturate it or translate it into other
people's needs became an afterthought. So even today, about 99 percent
of the very few policies issued over Mexican real property titles are
bought by Americans.

The real question is, why do we have title insurance when no other
advanced – nor underdeveloped — nation in the world has ever found any
use for it? And the answer brings me back to the theme of this little
essay: Because our recording system (and even our real estate
transactional system) is a lot more frail and uncertain than it should
be, or than we, as the Greatest Nation on earth, deserve it to be.

And this is not news to a lot of folks in the United States. The last
chapter of the first version of RESPA (the Real Estate Settlement
Procedures Act) contained suggestions about how to change and improve
our recording system. Nothing ever happened, of course, for the same
reason it is very difficult to rid our Internal Revenue Code of a long
list of loopholes and tax breaks.

Besides, title insurance is as wired into our financial system as the
so-called rating agencies are – hard to believe in them, but at what
price the disbelief. We do need title insurance, and we need it, even if
it does not always work as we expect it to work. It has not happened
yet, but I would not be surprised to read in the near future about the
industry's claims that their policies are only "opinions," just as those
of the rating agencies … And even then, we may still be unable to live
without it.

In my next piece, I will try to explain where the Cuban recording system
stands today – its operating guidelines were altered by some provisions
published by the Cuban government the same day they published Decreto
Ley 288/2011, the law that facilitated home sales in Cuba — and explore
whether title insurance might prosper one day in the still forbidden
island.

Cuba's title recording system, part 2
By José Manuel Pallí, Esq.

Cuba's laws went through a tidal change as a result of the new
conception of socio-economic relations — property rights included — the
Cuban Revolution brought to the island. One of the early victims of this
process was the excellent title recording system Cuba inherited from
Spain, and which, by 1959, had served Cuba well for almost 80 years. It
was essentially dismantled.

A succession of laws and regulations containing provisions affecting the
recording system were adopted in order to set aside the "old" Registro
de la Propiedad. They included provisions in the Agrarian Reform Laws,
Urban Reform Laws and Housing Laws, which created new registries that
would replace the existing one, segregating the recording of titles to
urban lots from from that of rural land, for example. However, most of
these new recording schemes were never even implemented. The overseers
of this revolutionary (in name only) recording system were diverse. They
ranged from the Agrarian Ministry to the Housing Ministry to the
municipalities, but the registro's natural and sensible connection to
the legal system under the supervision of the Ministry of Justice called
for under pre-revolutionary law was eliminated. The result: For almost
30 years there was no land title recording activity in Cuba.

But in the early 1990s, as the world dramatically changed and Cuba was
left without the Soviet life support system, the consequent realization
that an opening of Cuban society was, eventually, inevitable, gave way
to a reassessment of a well-conceived and operated land title recording
system. Cuban lawyers were well aware that their 1880 Mortgage Law (Ley
Hipotecaria) remained part of their laws. It had never been formally
abrogated or rescinded, though technically, it appeared to be superseded
by some of the provisions I refer to above. They in turn, in my
understanding, resorted to it as a blueprint for the reform, if not
necessarily a re-birth, of their recording system.

This reform process began in 1998, with the sanction of Decreto Ley
185/98, which modified Cuba's Housing Law, just as the recent "Cubans
can now sell their houses" Decreto Ley 288/11did. And, subtly — even
unassumingly — Decreto 185, in my opinion, opened the door for the old
"Spanish model" Registro de la Propiedad to be brought back to life. The
Spanish seal was made even more evident by the fact that most of the
very bright and capable lawyers that were to be put in charge of the
Cuban land title recording system were being trained in Spain, by
Spanish registrars. The Colegio de Registradores de Valencia was
assigned this task through an agreement between the Spanish and Cuban
governments (Spain's government was then presided by don José María
Aznar). This was a teaching process that, surprisingly, seems to have
waned over the past almost eight years of Socialist government in Spain.
But the brand-new Spanish government is led by don Mariano Rajoy, a
politician who is also a Registrador de la Propiedad by trade, and
despite the fact that, amid the chaotic events that frame his
inauguration, Cuba may not be for him the Number One priority we Cubans
believe it should be, Rajoy's advent may turn out to be excellent news
for the reform of the recording system in Cuba.

This 1998 law also gave back to the Ministry of Justice the supervision
over the recording system. It marks the starting point of a careful,
stage-by-stage re-evaluation of Cuba's recording needs, and an even more
cautious implementation of what seems to be akin to the Spanish system
of old, as I could see for myself when I was allowed to visit the
recording office at La Lisa back in January 2003, one of the registros
then serving Havana (I felt as if I was at any small town recording
office in Spain). If you want to explore the topic any further — or if
you are having trouble with insomnia — you may browse (or drowse)
through these two pieces I wrote years back, when Cuba's reform of its
registros was in its early stages:

http://www.ascecuba.org/publications/proceedings/volume15/pdfs/palli.pdf

and

http://www.ascecuba.org/publications/proceedings/volume17/pdfs/palli.pdf

The same day Decreto Ley 288/11 was published in the Gaceta Oficial de
Cuba, and in the very same issue of the Gaceta, you will find Resolución
No. 324/11, issued by Cuba's National Housing Institute (Instituto
Nacional de la Vivienda or INAVI), which adopts a procedure for bringing
real property titles up to date (Procedimiento para la Actualización de
los Titulos de Propiedad y su Inscripción en los Registros de la
Propiedad), under the light of the changes brought by Decreto Ley 288.

This resolution from the INAVI — and the way it apparently interacts
with other recording rules and regulations in force in Cuba, mainly
Resolución 114/2007 of the Ministry of Justice, which establishes the
rules and procedures for the organization and operation of Cuba's land
title recording system (Normas y Procedimientos para la Organización y
Funcionamiento del Registro de la Propiedad) — will be the subject of my
next column here on Cuba Standard. I may even venture into crystal ball
territory and try to discern more clearly what the recording needs Cuba
pursues really are, what it is that is really driving this reform of its
recording system, and how effective the reform has been thus far. I may
not even have to borrow one of those tools of Miami based–meaning
without setting foot in Cuba — cubanology. I am told a couple of them
are already available in local pawn shops.

Part 1:
http://www.cubastandard.com/2011/12/01/analysis-cubas-title-recording-system-part-1/

Part 2:
http://www.cubastandard.com/2011/12/12/analysis-cubas-title-recording-system-part-2/

HAVANA | Fri Dec 16, 2011 6:11am EST

(Reuters) – Packing long cigars into a white box picturing Shakespeare's
Romeo and Juliet, a Cuban man delicately places a thin wax-paper stamp
of quality inside.

He then finishes the job with an official guarantee.

Now, no one will be the wiser that these stogies are black market cigars.

"We have to do this just so we can live," the man, who asked to remain
anonymous, said in the Cuban capital. "To make a living here, you have
to be constantly doing business."

In a country where the average salary is about $20 a month, many Cubans
say the black market helps buyers stretch their money and sellers
supplement their income.

Some experts estimate that as much as 20 percent of goods are stolen as
they are distributed to state outlets around the country – a drain
President Raul Castro says must be stopped.

A box of Cuba's prized cigars could cost hundreds of dollars in stores,
but black market dealers sell it for a fraction of that price, usually
to tourists.

In Havana, clandestine street dealers lead buyers up narrow staircases
to small apartments where different brands of cigars in tightly packed
boxes are spread out on beds.

Some workers smuggle surplus cigars out of distributors and sell them.
Others make them in their homes using leftover scraps, dealers said.

Police pressure is constant, they said.

Although official outcries against corruption are not new for
communist-run Cuba, Castro is taking tough action against graft and is
believed to have increased vigilance on the streets and around markets,
looking for people selling items illegally.

Cuba's premium cigars – grown and cured in western Pinar del Rio
province – dominate the world market and are one of the cash-strapped
Caribbean island's top exports.

The nimble fingers of Cuba's licit cigar makers rolled out 81.5 million
smokes last year, up 8 percent from 2009, according to the statistics
agency.

The main buyers are France and Spain, but the jealously guarded global
market share excludes the United States, where Cuba's cigars are banned
under decades-old trade sanctions.

On the black market, everything to make cigars look authentic is sold. A
bundle of quality stamps goes for about $30, boxes around $5-$6, a batch
of rings for as much as $30. Cigars themselves may be as low as $8 for
25, a dealer said.

All the goods are pilfered from manufacturers, sellers said, giving them
the right look, touch and smell.

Sellers said they are just trying to make a living.

"In Cuba, everything is dangerous. You depend on your wits and don't
look for problems with anyone," one seller said. "If you depend on just
your salary, you can't live."

(Reporting by Jack Kimball; Editing by Xavier Briand)

http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/12/16/uk-cuba-cigars-idUSLNE7BF00P20111216

The Cuban dictatorship criticizes the possibility offered by the U.S.
government of accepting Cubans who cross the Florida Straits in a bid to
achieve their dreams. They write lengthy manifestos to disguise the
reality of the island, and blame the ones who suffer the problem. Which
means looking at the result and forgetting the cause.

Of course, who in Cuba would question this required view of the problem?
Who would dare to question the "cause" when no name other than the
Castro brothers can come up? What have they done with this country?
Where is the success at the cost of the slain under their orders? What
is the price of human and material losses in the last 50 years? Why does
Fulgencio Batista now not seem so tyrannical? Who took charge of
surpassing him, to be a more extremist dictator? Who filled the prisons
and shot the young people who were dissatisfied, desperate, dissident,
and every one who opposed them? How many years in prison did they get
for attempting to leave the country illegally? They punished them with
the same sentence imposed on Fidel Castro for attacking the Moncada
barracks in Santiago de Cuba.

In 1967 my godfather received a letter from a cousin in Miami, trying to
convince him to emigrate with them, and in which he warned that a
government like Fidel Castro's could become a communist and totalitarian
one. They arrested him and sentenced him to 10 years in prison, which he
served to the day. They had opened his letter, which he never received.
When he came and saw me after almost 11 years, he started to cry for all
the time lost unfairly. He hugged my mother, and pleading with his gay
gestures, said he never wanted to see a man at his side again. He spent
10 years of being used by the beasts, he told my mother in the middle of
crying.

Who has been more of a dictator, Batista or Castro?

We know, according to the story that they told us themselves, that the
Batista government abused, tortured and secretly killed the young
people, then left them lying on the roadside. Which we considered
horrendous. But didn't Fidel Castro shoot them in front of people?!
Desperate young people who tried to steal a passenger launch in the bay
of Havana to go to Miami in order to work, to fulfill their dreams that
were more urgent than a "revolution" that didn't know how to support
them? And who were deceived, after being stranded at sea for lack of
fuel and being towed by the Cuban Coast Guard to the Bay of Mariel and
negotiating with the authorities, who spoke on behalf of Fidel Castro,
after being guaranteed that nothing would happen to them, and if they
surrendered, in exchange they would receive a minimum punishment?

Their own companions in the boat, among them foreigners who testified
that they were not mistreated nor did they understand that their lives
were in danger at some point, even if things were tense, asked for
leniency for the young men. But they were executed in front of Cuba and
the world. Without a trial. Hours after their capture. They waited for
their mothers to leave to get clothing and toiletries for them to clean
up, and before they got home they were informed that their sons had been
shot by strict order of the State Council. Of course, Cubans remained
silent, and some intellectuals and artists were left with dirty hands,
so much so that not even their own poetry will save them from Hell. And
all because of cowardice, by thinking about their own welfare. And now
they repeat like parrots that they had to do it because there was a real
threat that the U.S. fleet would invade Cuba, to complete the practice
of violating the sky and waters. That has never been proven. But if it
were true, it still would have been murder. They did not think about
their children, their grandchildren. Would they have done the same?
Surely not.

Intelligence at the service of mega-malignancy

We can't deny that Fidel Castro has been of uncommon intelligence, only
that he used it for personal gain, and for family purposes. Others would
say in the service of the Devil. But what would have happened if Fidel
Castro had done what he promised from the Sierra Maestra? If he had
fulfilled all those dreams of a better Cuba, without departing from
democracy and the principles of the most advanced civilization? Perhaps
he even would have accepted, in the style of King Juan Carlos of Spain,
being the Supreme Commander of the Armed Forces of Cuba, but without
intervening in the affairs of state. Alone he could have been in charge
of a human revolution, destined to improve the lot of all Cubans,
regardless of race, creed or political affiliation.

But those who have a bit of common sense know that Fidel Castro would
never have been satisfied with ​ overseeing the rules and rights of the
Cuban nation. He wanted more. He always wanted more. In fact, he left
Cuba — too small, like Cinderella's glass slipper was for her sisters —
and began looking for expansion in other continents, so that he forgot
about Cuba. We alone were the means of sacrifice for his mega-dreams,
his mega-revolution, his desire to be a mega-president, a mega-leader.
To this he dedicated his life, trying to hoodwink us in his delight with
words of principles and tenderness, to deceive others and add them to
his purposes with patriotic, heroic, "internationalist" locutions. Fidel
has served as a great magician of the word, I always picture him blowing
a flute to make the snake dance, and in this case the snake is in the
mirror, it is his own image that dances with his own interpretation,
hence the great trick that he has exercised for over half a century:
"the enchantment."

And many fell asleep under his enchantment, are still sleeping, the
minority, because the majority feign sleep, but it's nothing more than
fear that keeps them pretending compliance with the orders of the
magician-dictator.

Ángel Santiesteban-Prats

Translated by Regina Anavy

10 December 2011

http://translatingcuba.com/?p=12947

CUBAN nurses are in fear for their lives following two separate
burglaries at their living quarters on the compound of the Port of Spain
General Hospital.

The Express spoke with the Cuban coordinator of doctors and two nurses,
who confirmed that last Friday evening, one of their colleagues returned
to her fourth-floor apartment from a night shift and discovered that
numerous items she had bought to send back to her family in Cuba had
been stolen.

These included Liquid Crystal Display (LCD) televisions, mobile phones
and appliances.

The terrified nurse also found a sheet and blade lying on top of a
barrel in her apartment. A police report was made and officers visited
the apartment complex, where they dusted for prints.

Then, on Tuesday evening, thieves broke into another apartment on the
first floor of the building, taking shoes, a bank card, money and
appliances. The occupant was not at home at the time of the burglary.

The Express understands that in previous years, there have also been
one-off incidents of burglaries at the apartment complex.

The majority of nurses who were staying at the nurses' living quarters
have returned to their home in Cuba in recent months, but a handful of
nurses will remain in the apartment building until their contracts
expire next month.

A new batch of Cuban health workers arrived in Trinidad last week. Many
of them are expected to take up residence in the very same apartment
building.

The nurses staying there at present say the issue of security must be
addressed urgently.

"Something needs to be done to make us feel secure. We sacrifice and
leave our families back home to come here for work, so we want to feel
safe," said one nurse.

Since the break-ins, the nurses say they are unable to sleep and are in
constant fear for their lives.

They say they are counting down the days until they return home, while
some have said fervently they will never return to Trinidad.

"What would have happened to me if I came home while someone was in my
apartment? I could have been killed. I could never tell my mother what
has happened. She can't know about this. She is old and would be
concerned for my safety. She would want me to leave and come home
immediately," said one nurse, who asked to remain anonymous.

Aside from missing burglar proofing, on the adjoining verandah of each
apartment, there are no additional security features such as alarms or
close-circuit television cameras. For safety, the Cuban nurses must rely
on security guards.

These guards, in turn, should be held accountable, said Health Minister
Fuad Khan, when contacted for a response. When the Express spoke with
Khan, he said he had not received word about the burglaries.

"We must reassess the security and put cameras on the compound that will
pick up these culprits," said Khan.

"Everybody should be guaranteed safety at our hospitals. A lot of money,
in fact millions of dollars are spent contracting security firms to
guard the hospitals and they are supposed to do their job, so the
security firm should discipline its workers. I blame poor security for
the incidents," said Khan.

"I would hate for this to cause a souring of relationships between their
country and ours," he added.

Up to press time, attempts to contact Cuban Ambassador Humberto Rivero
Rosario for comment were unsuccessful.

http://www.trinidadexpress.com/news/Cuban_nurses_living_in_fear-135633178.html

HAVANA — Cuba has invited Japan to invest in its oil industry, Cuba's
Foreign Ministry said Wednesday as the communist-ruled island intends to
begin drilling early next year in its offshore economic zone.

Havana's ambassador to Tokyo Jose Fernandez de Cossio "signified Cuba's
interest in Japanese companies participating as partners in various
aspects of the country's high-priority oil industry," the ministry said
on its website cubaminrex.cu.

Addressing a recent Tokyo seminar including some 70 representatives of
Japanese companies, Fernandez de Cossio spoke of the "real potential of
Cuba's petroleum industry" and stressed that "a legal framework exists
in which Japanese firms can find business opportunities," the ministry said.

Cuba manages a zone of some 112,000 square kilometers (43,000 square
miles) in the Gulf of Mexico. Of the zone's 59 blocks, 22 are under
contract with Norway's Statoil, which has formed a consortium to exploit
the blocks with Spain's Repsol, OVL of India and PDVSA of Venezuela,
among others.

According to state-owned Cubapetroleo, the island and its foreign
partners will begin next year drilling five wells in the gulf, where
Cuba estimates its zone contains some 20 billion barrels of oil.

Cuba's 2010 onshore and offshore production totaled 21.4 million
barrels, representing nearly half the island's energy needs. It imports
the rest from its closest regional ally Venezuela, which provides Cuba
with some 100,000 barrels per day, at cut-rate prices.

http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5i3D6dxiBYlyscsetFX6p8ZbOyCPQ?docId=CNG.d1c14754f585e752b4e73771c6fc1b86.7c1

Cuban President Raul Castro yesterday lashed out at developed countries,
saying they have been of no help to Cuba and small islands in terms of
dealing with climate change and the global economic meltdown.

He added that to date there has been no move by US President Barack
Obama to lift the trade embargo against Cuba.

Castro called on Caricom and Latin America to continue forging stronger
ties and partnerships ahead in dealing with problems. He said that Cuba
needs help because parts of that country, according to scientific
studies, will be submerged by water in the future because of the effects
of climate change.

Castro, who is visiting this country for the first time, was speaking at
the IV Caricom-Cuba summit at the National Academy for the Performing
Arts (NAPA) in Port of Spain.

On the trade embargo, Castro said, "that remains essentially unchanged,
the measures publicised by the current President of the United States
have not gone beyond a partial relaxation of the restrictions limiting
remittances and travel to the island of Cuban citizens living in the
Untied States".

He also said that the Fifth Summit of the Americas which was hosted by
the former Patrick Manning led government had failed Cuba.

"We see the expectations of the so called 2009 Summit of the Americas
have failed to rise above the rhetoric," he said.

During that Summit, Venezuela's President Hugo Chávez used his first
meeting with Obama to argue in favour of lifting the US-led embargo of
Cuba as did leaders of Caricom nations.

This world, said Castro, is a place where "major powers violate
international law and exercise their domination though the use of force
assaulting sovereign nations under various pretext and manipulations.

"In this sense we need to focus on the viability of small island
developing states and we see the developed nations selfishness and lack
of political will has not even given a decisive decision so that we can
stop the growing deterioration of the environment and grant our nations
the preferable treatment that these island nations require," he continued.

"…Our people in developing nations, we are the main victims of the
exhaustion of the prevailing model and the plundering of natural
resources," he added.

Castro said climate change is a "global menace" which needs urgent
attention.

He pointed out that there is a failure to attain any concrete progress
with respect to climate change because of the "irresponsible attitude of
those profiting from waste, catastrophes and warfare".

Castro noted that the 17th conference on climate change is closing in
South Africa and this shows that the "legitimate and indispensable needs
of underdeveloped countries will not be met, particularly those of the
small island developing states".

The Cuban President spoke in detail of the threat facing Cuba because of
climate change.

Recent studies, he said, conducted by Cuban scientists over the past
five years on the vulnerability of the coastal regions warned of the
rising sea level between the years 2050 and 2100.

"This means there would be severe geographical, demographical and
economic consequences for our island states," he said.

The study, he said, estimates that by 2050, 2.3 per cent of the national
land mass of Cuba will be permanently submerged.

"That means that if the appropriate measures to adjust are not taken,
then 79 coastal settlements will be affected and 15 of these will
disappear completely and this is not the complete number of these that
will be affected," he said.

He said Cuba also has to battle with hurricanes, storms and tsunamis and
he noted that in 2008, hurricane Gustav badly affected the country, so
much so that it resembled a "nuclear disaster".

Castro said the Caricom-Cuba ties must be strengthened to address this
problem that would affect the region.

"When we look at our cooperation initiatives we as Caribbean countries
need to focus on this to mitigate the effects of these disasters and
preserve human life," said Castro.

He added that the establishment of the Caribbean Community of Latin
America and Caribbean States (CELAC) shows that the region was on the
right track.

Castro also pleaded for nations to continue helping Haiti in efforts of
reconstruction and seeing to the needs of that nation's people.

http://www.trinidadexpress.com/news/CASTRO_CRIES_FOR_HELP-135293793.html

A Spanish university and Catholic clergy in Cuba have joined forces to
help train Cuba's business leaders of the future — even if 'What
Future?' remains a looming question as regulations still restrict free
enterprise from blooming under the Castro regime.
By Daniela Arce
AMÉRICAECONOMÍA/Worldcrunch

HAVANA – Even before Cuba began cracking its doors open to capitalism,
Paulino Garcia always displayed an entrepreneurial spirit. He spent two
years at a university in the Soviet Union before returning to his native
Cuba to continue his law studies at the University of Havana. After
working for a firm called Climex, Garcia eventually managed to open his
own restaurant in 1996, thanks to a new law introduced that allowed
people to work for themselves.

"I built it from nothing, and with a lot of sacrifice," Garcia says. "I
really wanted to have my own restaurant."

When Cardinal Jaime Ortega Alamino told José Luis Mendoza, the president
of the Catholic University (UCAM) in Murcia, Spain, that all of the
administrators and owners of small businesses in Cuba needed to go to
business school, he was thinking about people like Garcia.

At the end of 2010, Raul Castro's government changed the rules and
opened up the economy to a small amount of private business. In
November, it announced that barber shops and small cafeterias would
become private, and that he would allow an expansion in the number of
small restaurants like Garcia's. Now people are starting to realize that
running a business requires more than just intuition and common sense.

"The cardinal was reflecting on this need, and our president offered to
help fill it," says Gonzalo Wandosell, the vice-dean at the Business
Management School at UCAM.

The classes began on Sept. 26 in a symbolic building: the old seminary
of San Carlos and San Ambrosio, founded in 1689 and home to the Cultural
Center of Father Felix Varela. Wandosell indicated that the 45 founding
students come from both state-run companies and private companies, and
that there is no requirement for students to be Catholic. "They are
engineers, lawyers and economists."

The Church's role in the new MBA program has been substantial. Since
1959, the Cuban clergy has been enemy No. 1 of the revolution, although
the Church-state relationship has improved substantially since then,
especially after Pope John Paul II's 1998 visit.

On the other hand, the financing for the project has come from a Spanish
university, the colonial power up until 1898, which many Cubans still
refer to as the Motherland. The connections between the two countries
didn't chill in the wake of the Communist revolution, with Spanish
investment in Cuba still strong today.

In contrast to the costly programs in other countries, the Cuban MBA is
free for students, with the costs covered by the University and
donations from businesses in Murcia.

According to Wandosell, the Spaniards are taking care of the
instructors' salaries and travel expenses, while the Church "supplies
the buildings and coordinates with local instructors," as their
director, father Yosvani Carvajal, said.

It isn't the first program of its type attempted Cuba. The Argentinian
Business School ADEN tried it first, and was followed by a series of
other high-profile trials and failures.

The innovation in the UCAM program is that it is the only one directed
exclusively towards entrepreneurs and sole proprietors. That is not the
case at the MBA program at the University of Havana, where students must
be employed by an official state business to be accepted.

Not recognized at home

Majel Reyes Quesada, an MBA student with a Bachelor's degree in English,
said he had practical reasons for wanting to do the program. "I see
myself doing something in the future, with the possible new economic
opening," he said. "Maybe I'll create a small business."

This is a typical student profile, and it can explain the pragmatic
character of the curriculum. "In Spain we would call it professional
master's degree," explains Wandosell. "It offers advanced training in
business management, but is very orientated toward small and very small
businesses and cooperatives, which are the type of enterprises that are
being started in Cuba."

In spite of the recent reforms, there are still substantial obstacles
for potential entrepreneurs on the island nation. On the one hand, the
list of authorized activities precludes Cubans from opening businesses
likely to grow large. For example, a book-repair shop is ok, but a
publishing house is not. An artisan bricklayer can open his or her own
business, but not a construction company. No such company can open while
Cuba's constitution specifies that "the economic system is based on
socialist principles."

In addition, there is no credit or micro-credit system. Without any
access to start-up funds, entrepreneurship opportunities remain limited;
and finding funding can be a major obstacle even for people with family
abroad. And although the Communist Party passed a resolution during
their most recent congress to liberalize the wholesale markets, the
reforms have yet to be implemented.

Is this the back door to Cuba's capitalist tradition? Father Carvajal
offers the Church's non-ideological position: "It is for Cuba's benefit.
The graduates are for Cuba."

At the end of their program, the MBA students will have a degree
recognized in the European Union, but not in their own country. The
Education Ministry will not officially sanction the program until it is
paired with a Cuban university.

Read more from AméricaEconomía in Spanish

http://www.worldcrunch.com/cuba-mbas-communism-lingers-new-backdoor-capitalism-opens/4264

Dec 2 (Reuters) – The success or failure of Cuba's economic reforms will
be the key issue to watch in the next year as the government moves to
strengthen the economy and ensure survival of the island's communist
system once the current aging leadership is gone.

The cash-strapped government is looking for ways to cut spending while
increasing income, and could get long-term help if offshore oil
exploration slated to begin in 2011 is successful. [ID:nN05129084]

All this occurs against a backdrop of only slightly tempered hostility
with the United States, including an ongoing dispute over a U.S.
contractor held by the Cubans on suspicion of spying. [ID:nN24221723]

ECONOMIC CHANGES

President Raul Castro has taken aim at Cuba's chronic economic problems
with plans to slash 500,000 jobs from state payrolls by March while
expanding the private sector and encouraging less reliance on the state.

About 200,000 of those jobs are expected to shift over to employee-run
cooperatives that will be created at businesses currently operated by
the state. The government also has begun issuing 250,000 new licenses
for self employment and for the first time, the self-employed will be
able to hire workers. [ID:nN13223894] So far, 30,000 licenses have been
granted.

Self employment was first allowed in communist Cuba during the economic
crisis that followed the collapse of the Soviet Union, the island's main
ally, in 1991. There were 143,000 licensed self-employed in 2009, and
many more illegal ones.

The government's bet is that it can create enough jobs quickly enough to
absorb the laid-off government workers, most of whom it says were not in
productive positions. After the first 500,000 jobs are cut, it plans to
slash another 500,000 in the next few years, likely leading to more
private sector expansion.

Castro announced the ruling Communist Party would hold in April its
first Congress since 1997 to ratify the changes, many of which are
already in action. Before the Congress, Cubans are to provide input at
forums across Cuba. [ID:nN09241030]

The reforms are the biggest since Raul Castro succeeded brother Fidel
Castro as president in 2008, and come with many questions.

Among them are whether the cumbersome government bureaucracy can move
quickly to implement the plan and whether the new entrepreneurs will be
too handicapped by regulations, taxes and lack of credit to succeed.
[ID:nN25269725]

Also, do the planned job cuts present the danger of many people ending
up without work and if so, what will the consequences be in a socialist
country where people basically have been guaranteed employment for decades?

But the key question is whether the reforms will accomplish what Castro
wants — more productivity, a stronger economy and, ultimately, the
survival of communism, installed after his brother took power in a 1959
revolution. He has said maintaining the system is key to protecting
national sovereignty.

Other reforms have been made, particularly in agriculture, with the same
goal in mind. Castro, trying to increase output and reduce dependence on
budget-draining food imports, has leased fallow lands to private farmers
and taken other steps, but food production was down 7.5 percent in the
first half of this year, as farmers complain that they are still too
stifled by the state.

What to watch:

– How quickly the government moves to implement reforms.

– The numbers and performance of the newly self employed.

– The effects of government layoffs.

– Agricultural production.

CASH SQUEEZE, SOURCES OF REVENUE

Cuba, hit hard by hurricanes in 2008 and by the global financial crisis,
has been so short of hard currency that it stopped paying most of its
bills and froze Cuban bank accounts of many foreign businesses two years
ago. [ID:nN02159253] The situation has eased, but is not yet resolved.
[ID:nN24211495]

To avoid future cash shortages, Castro has cut spending and sought more
income for the state, which controls 85 percent of Cuba's economy. He
has slashed imports by 30 percent.

Cuba is hoping to collect taxes from the newly self-employed and boost
revenues from old standbys like nickel exports and tourism, two of its
top hard currency earners.

The government has said it will allow construction of golf course
developments, with the goal of attracting wealthier tourists.
[ID:nN04118234] The courses will be a small piece of the tourist
industry in Cuba, but, given golf's image as the leisure sport of the
rich, a larger symbol of how far Cuba is prepared to go to improve its
economy.

The government also hopes to one day get more American tourists, should
the U.S. ease or eliminate the ban on most travel to Cuba under its
48-year-old trade embargo against the island. Republican gains in the
U.S. Congress in the Nov. 2 mid-term congressional elections make
changes less likely.

In a potentially game-changing development, a consortium led by Spanish
oil firm Repsol YPF (REP.MC) is expected to drill an exploratory well in
Cuba's part of the Gulf of Mexico in 2011. It previously drilled an
offshore well in 2004, but said it did not find oil in commercially
viable quantities.

The drilling rig to be used, which has been under construction in China,
will be passed on to other companies such as Malaysia's state-owned
Petronas and a unit of India's ONGC (ONGC.BO) to explore in blocks they
have leased in Cuban waters.

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

Russia's state oil company Zarubezhneft has said it plans to begin
exploration next year in two blocks adjacent to Cuba's coast.
[ID:nN03329371] A unit of China National Petroleum Corp. is set to begin
a $6 billion upgrade of Cuba's Cienfuegos refinery, with financing
mostly by China's Eximbank, backed by Venezuelan oil. [ID:nN22266891]

What to watch:

– Possible U.S. moves to ease its ban on travel to Cuba.

– Movement of nickel prices, start of golf course projects.

– Repsol's second deep water exploratory well in Cuba.

– China's growing presence in Cuba energy sector

U.S.-CUBA RELATIONS

Cuba's relations with the United States have dominated events on the
island for more than a century. During the last five decades of open
hostility, the United States has tried to unseat the Castro brothers
through subversion, assassination, coercion and a half-baked invasion.
The long-standing trade embargo meant to topple the Castros through
economic strangulation remains in place despite its lack of success.
Cuba has used it to gain international support by casting itself as
David versus an overweening Goliath, and at home as a scapegoat for its
economic problems. [ID:nN26150816]

Despite modest changes at the beginning U.S. President Barack Obama's
administration, U.S.-Cuba relations have thawed only slightly and
near-term prospects for improvement look dim due to Cuba's detention of
U.S. aid contractor Alan Gross.

Gross has been held since Dec. 3, 2009 on suspicion of espionage and
providing illegal satellite communications equipment to government
opponents, but has not yet been officially charged with a crime. The
United States says he was only helping Jewish groups set up Internet
access, but Cuba is suspicious because he was working for a U.S.
federally-funded program seeking to promote political change on the island.

The U.S. government says it will take no major initiatives to improve
relations with Cuba as long as Gross is held. Cuba may want to hold him
until it gets something in exchange, such as the return of five Cuban
agents imprisoned in the U.S. or an end to the programs like the one
that sent Gross to Cuba.

The Cuban government is in the process of releasing political prisoners
and sending them to Spain to resolve one of its biggest problems with
the international community and to get its opponents out of the country.
[ID:nN2223242]

While U.S. reaction has been guarded, the 27-nation European Union has
instructed its foreign affairs chief to explore improved relations with
Cuba.

Meanwhile, Cuba has steadily built relations with other key countries,
among them China, Brazil, Russia and Spain. It has a special
relationship with top trading partner Venezuela, whose President Hugo
Chavez is close to Fidel Castro and agreed in November to extend
economic cooperation another 10 years.

What to watch:

– Fate of Alan Gross.

– Continued release of political prisoners.

– U.S. and EU reaction to Cuban reforms. (Editing by Kieran Murray)

http://www.reuters.com/article/2010/12/02/cuba-risks-idUSRISKCU20101202

Cuban dissidents: Colleagues injured in police crackdown
The dissidents say they want police to free 10 dissidents arrested.
By Juan O. Tamayo
jtamayo@ElNuevoHerald.com

Cuban dissidents vowed to protest at a State Security office Tuesday
unless police free 10 government critics detained in a crackdown where
several suffered head wounds, a broken rib and other injuries.

Police also severely beat Angel Moya, a well known former political
prisoner, in a lockup because he would not stop shouting anti-government
slogans, according to the dissidents. There was no word on his condition.

Dissident Danis Lopez de Moya said that as of Monday police had freed 38
of the 48 government critics arrested Friday in an unusually harsh
crackdown as they tried to start a protest march from his house in the
eastern town of Palma Soriano.

Police likely were holding the rest until the physical signs of the
beatings they received has lessened or disappeared, Wildo Izaguirre, one
of the 38 freed, told El Nuevo Herald by phone from Palma Soriano.

Lopez de Moya, who was himself arrested and released, said many of 38
already had gathered in his house and agreed to march to a State
Security office Tuesday morning unless the other 10 are released.

Izaguirre, Lopez de Moya and Prudencio Villalón, another of the 38
dissidents freed, said the police crackdown Friday was one of the most
violent they had experienced.

"As we left the house in groups of five, police jumped us, beat us and
dragged us to the parked buses," said Izaguirre, who added that police
lined up in a gauntlet pushed him to the ground and kicked him in the face.

Police continued beating the dissidents once inside the government-owned
buses, Izaguirre added, and the driver of one bus also hit several of
the government opponents with a mechanic's wrench.

Eurbis Perales needed nine stitches to close his wounds and Abraham
Cabrera needed five, according to Villalón, who said he spoke with the
pair in a police lockup after they were brought in from the hospital.

Cabrera was bleeding so much on the bus that he smeared some of his
blood on a window, drawing anti-government slogans from some of the
neighbors who were watching the crackdown, Villalón added.

Misael Valdes Diaz was treated for a broken rib and another dissident
suffered a swollen eye, but virtually all were punched or kicked, said
Villalón. He and several of the 20 other dissidents in one of the buses
also vomited when police sprayed them with some type of crowd-control gas.

Police put the 38 detainees into buses that began dropping them off
Saturday and Sunday one-by-one, every half-mile or so, on the road to
Santiago de Cuba, the country's second-largest city.

Still detained were Moya and José Daniel Ferrer García, both former
political prisoners freed this spring as part of a decision by Cuban
Ruler Raúl Castro to release 52 political prisoners.

"I was told they [police] especially vented their anger on Angel and
José Daniel," said Berta Soler, Moya's wife and the leader of the Ladies
in White.

The 52 were the last dissidents still in jail from a harsh crackdown in
2003 that sentenced 75 of them to prison terms of up to 28 years after
one and two-day trials. Most of them — plus another 60 prisoners freed —
agreed to go directly from prisons to the Havana airport and exile in Spain.

Moya, Ferrer and 10 others insisted on remaining in Cuba and continuing
their dissident activities.

As it freed the political prisoners, the Castro government also stepped
up its harassment of dissidents, usually detaining them for brief
periods to avert planned protests such as the Palma Soriano march.

Cuban authorities have carried out 3,327 such "temporal detentions" so
far this year, compared to 2,074 in all of 2010, according to a report
from Havana on Monday by the Cuban Commission for Human Rights and
National Reconciliation.

The march Friday in Palma was to have been part of a rotating series of
street protests starting Thursday in Cuba's easternmost province of
Guantánamo and following later from towns and cities to the west.

The "National March Boitel-Zapata Live!" named after two dissidents who
died during prison hunger strikes, was designed to demand the release of
all political prisoners and an end to human rights abuses.

http://www.miamiherald.com/2011/12/06/2533003/cuban-dissidents-colleagues-injured.html#storylink=misearch

TRAVEL AND TRADE

Tampa business leaders hope to strengthen ties with Cuba

Since the first charter flights from Tampa to Cuba in nearly 50 years
began, business leaders have been reaching out to the island nation and
even invited Cuban diplomats to visit.
By MIMI WHITEFIELD
mwhitefield@MiamiHerald.com

The first charter flight from Tampa International Airport to Cuba in
nearly 50 years took off Sept. 8 — the feast day of Our Lady of Charity
of Cobre, Cuba's patron saint — and since then, Tampa hasn't quite been
the same.

There has been a flurry of Cuba-related activity in the Tampa Bay area —
the likes of which would be hard to imagine in South Florida — starting
with the letter of friendly greetings that the Tampa City Council sent
to Ricardo Alarcón, president of Cuba's National Assembly.

Since charter service began, the president of the Greater Tampa Chamber
of Commerce says he's planning a trip to Cuba, there's been an
invitation extended to Cuban diplomats in Washington to visit Tampa
business leaders, the Tampa-based Florida Orchestra sent a contingent of
musicians to Cuba on a cultural exchange and the Tampa Port Authority
held a seminar on potential trade opportunities with the island.

Meanwhile, plans to try to position Tampa as the gateway for travel and
trade with Cuba gain momentum in the business community.

"We think Tampa is a perfect place as a gateway city to Cuba,'' says
Rep. Kathy Castor, a Tampa Bay Democrat who has championed lifting all
restrictions on travel to Cuba and lobbied hard for the Tampa charter
flights.

People traveling to Cuba could come to Tampa, she says, and take an
immersion course in Cuban history, learn Spanish and walk the narrow
brick streets of Ybor City, the Tampa neighborhood where Cuban patriot
José Martí rallied cigar workers to lend their support in the Cuban War
for Independence against Spain in the 1890s.

"Miami has great Cuban historical and cultural ties but Tampa Bay does,
too,'' she says.

For Castor, who also thinks the embargo has "outlived its usefulness,''
cementing Tampa's status as a gateway city is all about creating jobs,
especially for small businesses such as motels and hotels in Ybor City,
restaurants and shops. "The No. 1 issue is jobs and the economy in my
area,'' she says.

'UNFORTUNATE'

But Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, R-Miami, says such efforts are misguided:
"I find it unfortunate when some look to partner with the Cuban regime
and place the value of dollars over the value of people. There are many
city officials and businesses throughout the U.S. who are advocating a
lifting of all travel restrictions but this goes far beyond humanitarian
family travel and would further enrich the Cuban tyranny.''

While there have been some dissenting voices in Tampa's long-established
Cuban community, Castor says most Cuban-Americans there are supportive
of increasing linkages with Cuba. "The Tampa Bay area is a little bit
different from Miami, and Tampa Bay Cubans are different from those who
came to Miami after Castro's revolution. They have different ties to the
island and are not quite as strident,'' she says.

"We have a long-standing history with Cuba that transcends what has
happened in Cuba over the past 50 years,'' says Tom Keating, president
and chief executive of the Ybor City Chamber of Commerce.

It dates back to 1886 when Vicente Martinez Ybor opened the first cigar
factory. Master cigar workers from Cuba and Key West settled in casitas,
or cottages, that surrounded the brick cigar factories, and at Martí's
urging, many pledged a day's salary per week in support of Cuban
independence.

Keating says the new flights to Cuba offer an opportunity to play up
such connections.

Setting up the opening in travel was President Barack Obama's decision
in 2009 to allow unlimited travel to the island by Cuban Americans.

Then at the beginning of the year, he followed that by authorizing
people-to-people exchanges that allow more Americans to visit Cuba and
lifting some restrictions on travel by religious and academic groups.
The president also increased the number of U.S. and Puerto Rican
airports that could provide charter service to Cuba from three to 15.

"As policy toward Cuba changes, we want to take advantage of it,''
Keating says.

Shortly before the new flights began, Castor convened a brainstorming
session with business owners, representatives from both the Ybor City
and West Tampa chambers of commerce, tourism officials and the Ybor City
Development Corp. to come up with ways to market Tampa to families, and
educational and cultural groups as the "jumping-off point" for Cuba travel.

Now three charter companies offer four weekly flights between Tampa and
Cuba. By the end of the year, they are expected to carry 8,874
passengers, says Janet Zink, a spokeswoman for Tampa International Airport.

But that pales compared to Miami International Airport, which handled
nearly 320,000 Cuba-bound passengers last year and expects even more
this year.

Still, Zink says, "There's no question about it, we consider ourselves
an alternative to Miami. There's a very strong effort here in Tampa, not
only by the airport, to strengthen ties with Cuba.''

That's what Tampa Councilwoman Mary Mulhern was trying to do when she
proposed sending a letter of goodwill to the president of Cuba's
parliament to mark the inauguration of the charter flights and to
express a desire to expand them and explore "future opportunities."

During one discussion about the letter, Councilman Mike Suarez objected,
saying, "Our role as City Council is not to make international policy.''

After three rounds of discussion, the City Council finally voted on
Sept. 22 to send the letter — two weeks after the inaugural flight and
after Mulhern had already flown and returned from a quick trip to Cuba.

In an editorial before the vote, The St. Petersburg Times noted that
"the last thing Tampa needs is to reprise the Cold War dramas over Cuba
that too often drag down the political discourse in Miami" and urged the
council to "focus on the progress this nation and the community are
finally making on reuniting two nations with a shared heritage.''

Albert Fox, a former Washington lobbyist who has made some 80 trips to
Cuba and arranged visits by members of Congress and governors, says he
finally hand-delivered the letter to Jorge Bolaños, chief of the Cuban
Interests Section in Washington.

Adding to the Cuba drama in Tampa Bay is the aborted visit of two Cuban
diplomats — First Secretary Raul Sánchez and Juan Jacomino, second
secretary and press attaché at the interests section.

Normally, such Cuban officials aren't permitted to travel beyond the
Beltway and they must ask special permission of the State Department to
venture further afield.

But Fox — the founder of the Alliance for Responsible Cuban Policy
Foundation, which supports normalization of relations with Cuba — and a
coalition of business executives extended the invitation and began
arranging meetings. Fox says the Tampa chamber, executives at the port
and airport, and the Florida Citrus Mutual had all agreed to meet with
the Cuban diplomats.

He says the Oct. 26 trip was canceled because the State Department said
paperwork wasn't in order. A new date of Nov. 9 was set, says Fox, but
the State Department denied the travel request. Castor questioned the
turn-down, especially since Bolaños had permission to speak in Ohio in
mid-November. Castor said the State Department told her it was
responding to travel restrictions on the new U.S. station chief in
Havana and the Ohio trip "was planned and approved well before.''

Ros-Lehtinen, who heads the House Foreign Affairs Committee, does not
favor Cuban diplomats traveling around the United States.

"These so-called Cuban 'diplomats' sometimes serve as spies for the
Castro regime,'' she says, and Havana "continues to be a threat to the
national security of the United States.''

Meanwhile, both Robert Rohrlack, president and chief executive of the
Tampa chamber, and Castor say they are planning trips to Cuba early next
year.

The Cuba flights, Rohrlack says, are part of an overall strategy to
bring more international business to the Tampa airport and he will make
the trip mostly to show support for the flights and a desire to keep
them successful.

During her visit, Castor says she intends to press Cuban officials on
their plans for offshore oil drilling and its potential impact on
Florida, and to follow up on the Florida Orchestra exchange, which is
envisioned as a multi-year program with the National Symphony Orchestra
of Cuba.

Pointing up the differences between Miami and Tampa, last year the Miami
City Commission passed a resolution urging Congress to pass legislation
to oppose such exchanges as long as Cuba continues to violate human
rights and deny its citizens basic freedoms.

http://www.miamiherald.com/2011/12/04/v-fullstory/2531731/tampa-business-leaders-hope-to.html

Cuba's Forum on Alternative Media and Social Networks Ignores
Alternative Voices
Posted: 12/ 2/11 10:12 PM ET

The sign reads: Alternative media and social networks. New scenarios of
political communication in the digital environment.

Architecture that was once daring, a carefully tended lawn and
well-guarded doors to ward off the curious. The Palace of Conventions
has been the site of so very many events organized by the government
that it is difficult to separate its name from the word "official." It
has also served as the parliamentary hall for a National Assembly that
doesn't have its own space and refuses to use the gorgeous chamber of
Havana's Capitol. This, in the inner sanctum of the state and
government, has been the site of this week's Forum on Alternative Media
and Social Networks, called by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. The
ragged grass of any park would have been a better site, but there the
participants would have been exposed to passersby and the uninvited…
and this, of course, they could not allow.

In a country where the alternative blogosphere and twittersphere are
both expanding, they held a meeting on Web 2.0 without inviting a single
non-institutional voice. To ignore the existence of "the other" is at
the very least childish; to hold exclusive events to talk about social
networks displays a strong fear of differences. Perhaps among the
attendees — from five continents — none was warned about the
ideological bias of the Forum. They probably truly believed they would
find the wide range of opinions so strongly on display in the blogs and
Cuban-themed sites created on and off the island. But what they
discovered was a structured script, where the Internet is analyzed as a
weapon, a trench, a shield. The already exhausted methods of political
confrontation and extremism, now painted over with a thin mantle of
kilobytes.

It's enough to read the 14 points that came out of the meeting, which
lasted two days, to conclude that the participants weren't there to be
heard but rather to receive instructions. I found one of the accords
especially surprising for the authoritarianism it reveals: the one where
daily hashtags are established for use on Twitter. As if they don't
realize that putting this mandate in writing exposes the lack of
spontaneity of their Web campaigns. To the organizers of this Forum,
believe me: defined sets of labels, mandated articles, imposed postures,
have nothing to do with social media or alternative media. The seams of
the vertically ordered are obvious. Readers prefer the spontaneity of
the individual who interacts horizontally with others, versus agreements
reached in the office of some palace official, in the most official zone
of this city.

The Declaration that came out of the event is translated below from the
text in Cafe Fuerte.

Final Declaration of the International Workshop "Alternative media and
social networks, new scenarios of political communication in the digital
realm." Havana, November 29-30, 2011.

Delegates from Argentina, Brazil, Canada, Cuba, Ecuador, El
Salvador, Spain, USA, France, Guatemala, Italy, Mexico, Nicaragua,
Palestine, Venezuela, participants in the International Workshop
"Alternative media and social networks, new scenarios of political
communication in the digital realm," Havana, November 29-30, 2011,
present the following:

Create a directory of contacts with participants of the event
to allow us to connect in real time and face attacks against our
countries, alert us to different topics and place our messages. This
directory will be sent via email. (Ventanapolitica@yahoo.es)
Articulate a collaborative network, starting with the
participants in this international workshop, that allow us to socialize
content, information, contacts and experiences to work on Internet
platforms and tools, on the basis of a defined political strategy. Its
expression on the Web will be the www.ventanapolitica.wordpress.com blog.
Work together synergistically on the overall campaign.
Generate actions to enhance the continuous updating and
training in the effective use of new technologies in the context of
hypermedia, support the creation of multidisciplinary teams and the use
of online tools and services such as videoconferencing, online courses,
and others.
Create a multidisciplinary group, including technical experts,
that allow us to assess all the proposals we articulate emanating from
the network.
Support the reissue of events like the World Bloggers Meeting
or this Workshop on Alternative Media and Social Networking.
Promote the creation of quality content, that allow us to
overcome our shortcomings in technological development.
Support the incorporation into the network of younger
generations and transform them into active progressive forces in these
new platforms.
Work together to design communication projects in social
networks and other media that include the variety of themes, media and
channels, as well as different audiences.
Intensify work and research, in order to design and create our
own alternatives (such as platforms, support, and even information
security services) that allow us technological independence from the
empires of capitalist production.
Express our solidarity and support with the newspaper La
Jornada, a publication that has been maligned by the magazine Letras
Libres which has accused this prestigious Mexican publication, without
arguments or evidence, of being complicit in terrorism.
The theme of the five Cubans unjustly sentenced in the United
States must be an axis of permanent struggle. And it will be efficient
if we always keep in our minds that each one of us could be in their
place. Every Cuban could be one of the 5. Demand the return of the 5
Cuban heroes to their homeland. Send a daily Twitter message in favor of
their release. Create and utilize the following hashtags: #FreetheFive
#Liberenlos5ya, #LosCinco, #TheFive.
Convert the interventions of Aylin, Rosa Aurora and Olguita
into a group of tweets that are socialized at once.
Explore with our respective responsible government bodies the
appropriateness of the mechanisms of integration that exist or are now
being born in Latin America and the Caribbean to give priority to the
issue of Communication and especially to the alternative media and
social networks for the dissemination of the new reality to our
geographical area.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/yoani-sanchez/cuban-forum-alt-media_b_1126398.html

Plagued by US$72 billion in foreign debt, rising unemployment and low
industrial productivity, the government of Cuban leader Raul Castro is
undertaking a series of economic reforms aimed at downsizing Cuba's
bloated public sector and encouraging Cubans to find — or create —
employment in the private sector. Despite the focus on the country's
long dormant private sector, the goal of the reforms is not really to
build the capitalist economy long dreamed about by Cuban-American
refugees. Instead, the government is aiming to enable Cuba — which
annually imports 80% of its essential foods at a cost of US$1.6 billion
– to gain the financial footing to pay for critical imports without
resorting to further soft credits and long-term flexible financing
currently provided by Venezuela, China, Brazil, Iran and Vietnam.

"Cuba's credit cards are all maxed out," says Hans de Salas Del Valle, a
Cuban-born researcher at the Institute for Cuban and Cuban-American
Studies at the University of Miami. "The Cuban government needs to
increase food output, and it can't afford to pay wages to [between] two
million to 2.5 million people for whom there are no real productive
jobs." Real unemployment is over 25%, Del Valle notes, and it could rise
to as high as 45% if the government enacts its anticipated series of
massive dismissals of public-sector employees.

With a debt burden equivalent to 125% of Cuba's gross domestic product
in 2010, "Havana finds itself between a rock and a hard place," argues
Del Valle. The debt is "an unbearable burden and surreal sum to repay
for a country with an economic output barely one-fifth the size of
Greece's own bankrupt economy, and an unemployment rate far higher than
Europe's worst [case], Spain." He adds that "Greece is an economic
success story in comparison with Cuba." Consider the numbers: Greece's
population of 11.28 million people — almost the same level as Cuba
(11.2 million) — generated more than US$300 billion in goods and
services last year, and earned a modest US$21 billion in hard currency
through exports. Meanwhile, Cuba's US$58 billion economy exported a mere
US$3.3 billion in 2010.

According to Del Valle, Cuba's debt crisis, which has been expanding
over the past two decades, "has always been very troubling for Raul
Castro," who sees economics as a pillar to the country's survival,
unlike his brother Fidel, "who put ideology over economics" during his
decades of ruling the island-nation. Speculation that Venezuelan
president Hugo Chavez could soon pass away – or at least resign his
office – has boosted the pressure on Raul to take stronger reform
measures, as had growing encouragement from his mentors in communist
China and Vietnam, who see Cuba as an important counter-weight to U.S.
influence in the Caribbean.

Cuba's debt crisis has received little media attention in the U.S. or
Europe, despite widespread distress over the EU's debt. Yet the
predominantly European members of the Paris Club collectively hold over
US$30 billion in Cuban debt, virtually all of it in default or arrears,
notes Del Valle. Other major creditors of Cuba include Russia — with
some US$27 billion in outstanding trade credits and loans — and
Venezuela. By 2015, Venezuelawill surpass Russia as Cuba's largest
creditor, predicts Del Valle. Over the latest decade, Venezuela has
provided more than US$15 billion in crude and refined oil in an effort
to keep Cuba's lights lit and its buses running.

Modeling China and Vietnam

At first glance, say experts, Raul Castro seems to modeling his
country's future after China and Vietnam, whose one-party, nominally
communist governments have managed to maintain power for decades while
also emerging as globally competitive exporters of industrial and
agricultural goods. Look deeper, however, and it is apparent that Raul's
approach won't turn Cuba into a miniature of those two much larger Asian
communist countries, experts say. The key problem for Cuba is that
Raul's reforms are not nearly as deep or thorough as those enacted by
communist governments in China and Vietnam. In Cuba, "they are going in
the right direction, but the issue is whether the reforms are profound
enough or fast enough to meet the difficult crisis," says Carmelo Mesa
Lago, emeritus professor of economics at the University of Pittsburgh,
whose new book on the Cuban economy is scheduled to be published in
Spain and the U.S. in 2012.

Mesa Lago notes that in China and Vietnam, local farmers have been
allowed to lease from the government the land that they work on for an
indefinite time period; Chinese and Vietnamese farmers have been
encouraged to care for that land as if it were their own. In Cuba,
contracts to lease plots of land are valid for only ten years. "After
ten years, that contract may or may not be renewed by the government,
and the land may be seized by the Cuban state for social needs," Mesa
Lago notes. That's particularly troubling because "a lot of land in Cuba
has been taken over by the notorious marabou plant," says Adrian E.
Tschoegl, a management lecturer and senior fellow at Wharton. It often
takes two years just to clear marabou-infested land, Tschoegl adds, so a
ten-year lease is effectively cut by one-fifth, right off the bat.

Equally counter-productive, says Mesa Lago, is that "Cuban farmers must
sell part of their crops to the Cuban government at a price below market
price." In China and Vietnam, farmers are free to sell to whomever they
want, and at whatever prices the market can bear. In Cuba, the new law
also prohibits the construction of houses on these newly distributed
lands. As a result, notes Mesa Lago, farmers must regularly carry their
crops back and forth from their farms, rather than risk leaving them
behind at the farm and having them stolen.

As if that weren't enough, loans for acquiring supplies and tools to
work these newly distributed lands are in short supply, Mesa Lago says.
Only about 2% of the 400,000 members of ANAP, Cuba's national
association of small farmers (Asociación Nacional de Agricultores
Pequeños) have received loans from the Cuban government to buy the
equipment and tools they need to make their lands productive.

If the Cuban government were to enact all of the reforms already made by
China and Vietnam, says Mesa Lago, "Cuba would be self-sufficient in
food, and it could export its surplus." Pursuant to its own such
reforms, for example, Vietnam's rice output more than tripled between
1976 — the first year after the Vietnam War — and 2007, as Vietnam
overtook Thailand to become the world's largest rice producer. (Last
year, Vietnam's production fell sharply because of drought.) Given the
limitations of Raul's agricultural reforms, that kind of productivity is
not likely to happen in Cuba. According to Jaime Suchlicki, director of
the Institute for Cuban and Cuban-American Studies at the University of
Miami, "The Cuban government is not creating institutions that will
enable the country to make deals to import or export its products or
attract foreign investments" that enable manufacturers to take advantage
of Cuba's proximity to U.S. markets. In short, "Raul Castro is not a
reformer like [China's] Deng Xiaoping or [the Soviet Union's] Gorbachev."

Workforce Reduction

Removing vast quantities of unproductive workers from the public payroll
– and finding private-sector jobs for them — is a cornerstone of the
government's current reform strategy. The Cuban government originally
planned to dismiss about 500,000 public sector workers between October
2010 and March 2011 — the equivalent of about 10% of its workforce,
says Mesa Lago. Its eventual goal was to dismiss a total of one million
workers by the end of 2011 – or 20% of its total workforce – and 1.8
million by the end of 2014. Those dismissals seemed to make economic
sense, since the government had long been hiring far more workers than
it needed, says Mesa Lago. "They would hire 200 workers to build a
factory that everyone knew needed only 100 workers." Huge numbers of
workers would report to their jobs daily with few if any tasks on their
daily plate.

The government's plans for vast workforce reductions were predicated on
the assumption that newly dismissed workers would be able to find
employment in the private sector. The stakes are significant because if
250,000 private-sector positions are not created this year (2011),
Cuba's unemployment rate will soar to unprecedented levels. But when the
projected number of new jobs failed to materialize last spring, the
government was forced to hold back on its ambitious layoff plans. So
far, only about 100,000 workers have apparently been dismissed, says
Mesa Lago, because so few private-sector jobs have opened up for those
who were dismissed by the government.

Why have so few jobs been created in the private sector? In part, that's
because the government initially defined 178 separate categories of new
jobs in an artificial way that reflects the mindset of Cuban
bureaucrats, not the needs of the marketplace, experts point out. (Other
job categories are to be created in the future.) Workers must apply for
a permit to get any job in any specific category; they are not permitted
to identify a need, and then create a job that meets that need. Some of
the new jobs have been defined in ways so narrow that they are
"ridiculous," notes Mesa Lago. For example, there are specific positions
for people who peel fruits, and other jobs for people who sell fruits;
but the same person can't (legally) both peel fruits and sell fruits.
Other "authorized" job categories include clowns, shoe-shiners, water
carriers and people who fill cigarette lighters. When it comes to
higher-paying jobs, professional workers – such as teachers, managers
and accountants – face a particularly daunting challenge: Having lost
their government jobs, these professionals are nonetheless not
authorized to exist in the context of private-sector positions.

Any jobs that have not been explicitly spelled out in the regulations
are presumed to be forbidden, says Tschoegl. "It's a code law regime,
and it has a very interesting dynamic," he notes, contrasting the Cuban
approach to the common law regime used in the U.S., where anything not
explicitly forbidden by law is presumed to be permitted. Mesa Lago adds
that by imposing higher taxes on those private sector companies that
hire larger numbers of displaced workers, the Cuban government is
providing a further disincentive to hire people. "It is ridiculous," he
says. "If you dismiss 500,000 people, you want to create jobs for them,
but by imposing [especially] high taxes, you are punishing
entrepreneurial people who want to hire larger numbers of people."

How much worse can things get for ordinary Cubans? Del Valle believes
that surging unemployment could lead thousands of Cubans to seek refuge
in southern Florida, generating a new, massive wave of Cuban
immigration. "If you add two million to 2.5 million people to the ranks
of Cuba's unemployed, many of them will see immigration as their best
hope for a better life." He estimates that as many as one million Cubans
could flock to the U.S. (80% of them to Florida) over the next decade —
a pace of 100,000 a year. "It is impossible for the Cuban government to
create so many jobs; this [new wave of immigration] is an economic
relief valve," according to Del Valle.

According to Suchlicki, the recent relaxation in U.S. immigration
policy, which allows more Cubans to travel to the U.S. and send money
back to their relatives at home, will help only the minority of
relatively affluent, mostly white Cubans. "More than 60% of Cubans [in
Cuba] are blacks [or mulattos], and they have no relatives in Florida;
they are getting nothing" from the changes in U.S. policy. Overall, the
bleak reality is that, rather than follow in the same path pursued by
China and Vietnam — which managed to raise their living standards while
preserving an authoritarian style of government — "a gradual
deterioration" of the country's economy "seems the more likely scenario
in Cuba," says Suchlicki.

http://knowledge.wharton.upenn.edu/arabic/article.cfm?articleid=2744&language_id=1

Posted By Ellery Roberts Biddle On 23 November 2011 @ 2:19 am In Citizen
Media,Cuba,Digital Activism,English,Freedom of Speech,Human Rights,Latin
America,Photos,Spanish,Technology & Internet,Weblog | 2 Comments

The first post [1] in this two-post series featured highlights from a
discussion between bloggers in Cuba, the United States (US), and Spain
focusing on the use of new media in Cuba, where Internet access and
technological tools are extremely scarce [2].

For this post, I interviewed City University of New York (CUNY)
Professor of Sociology, Ted Henken, a Cuba expert who is the author of
El Yuma [3], a blog that explores social currents in contemporary Cuba
and closely follows the Cuban blogosphere.

I discussed with Henken his recent appearance on Radio Martí where he
helped facilitate a dialogue between several of the most prominent Cuban
bloggers writing today and his students at Baruch College in New York
City. This was a unique event for Radio Martí [4]. Funding and oversight
of the station come from the Broadcasting Board of Governors [5], a US
federal agency devoted to broadcasting radio and television into
countries where media outlets independent of the state are either scarce
or heavily censored.
Ted Henken (on the right) with blogger Orlando Luis Pardo Lazo. Posted
with permission of photographer. [6]

Much of Radio Martí programming is explicitly anti-Castro and supportive
of US policy towards Cuba; the station is seen by many as a symbol of
the political gridlock that has defined US-Cuba policy for decades.
Henken shared his perspective on the political nature of Radio Martí:

You can describe their goals in different ways. You can say that
it's intended as a way to overthrow the Cuban government, or as a way to
get information to people.

Ted Henken is a unique contributor to the online conversation about
Internet use and blogging in Cuba. He is both a scholar of, and active
participant in, the Cuba-focused blogosphere. Henken also takes an
objective approach to studying Cuban politics and culture; he does not
come down firmly "for" or "against" the revolution.

In our conversation, he explained that while he had never wholly
dismissed Radio and TV Martí, he has long been wary of the program. "In
a perfect world, Radio Martí wouldn't exist," he told me. "But the world
is not perfect."

Yoani Sánchez [7] and Orlando Luis Pardo Lazo [8] [es], two of Cuba's
best-known "critical" bloggers were featured on the program. Both are
members of the Voces Cubanas [9] [es] blogging collective, where most
bloggers are explicitly critical of the government. While members of
this group are often thought of as "dissident" bloggers, many of them,
including Sánchez, reject this label. Henken commented on the
distinction between "citizens" and "dissidents."

"Even though they have clear systemic criticisms of the
government,their main thing is civic action, working [their voices]
into the dominant discourse. To me that is what the story is."

People try to adopt them as political dissidents, and sometimes
they're presented that way because of their criticisms. Yoani [says],
people try to call me a dissident but I think of myself really as a citizen.

According to Henken, under the Obama administration, Radio Martí
producers are making greater efforts to diversify political viewpoints
in their programming. As part of this effort, they have solicited
interviews with bloggers who have been classified as supporters of the
Cuban revolution, including Global Voices contributor [10] and La
Polémica Digital [11] [es] author Elaine Díaz, who declined the
opportunity [12] [es].

Henken noted that many bloggers who are not explicitly against Cuban
government policies "would not agree to do this, because of the
repercussions it could have for them."

He acknowledged that Radio Martí, a broadcast station that fits cleanly
into the "old media" model of "one-to-many" communication, provided an
unusual setting for discussing the power and importance of independent,
citizen-driven social media. He paraphrased a quote from Reinaldo
Escobar [13] [es], husband of Yoani Sánchez, and an active blogger in
Cuba, who acknowledges that Radio Martí is not the ideal venue for their
message.

"The last thing we want to do is rely on the propaganda of a
foreign government to get our voices out.
We need to communicate with other Cubans. We use the Internet, and
that's limited for all the reasons we know, and we listen to Radio Martí."

In the radio interview, Sánchez mentions that Cubans who want to speak
out critically about their government have very limited options as far
as different media are concerned. So, as Escobar says, they use any
channel to which they can gain access.

"People like Yoani or Reinaldo will talk to anyone who wants to listen
to them," Henken told me. "They're just responding to people who are
interested in hearing what they have to say."

Though scarce, the availability of access to cell phones and the
Internet has strengthened communications between people in Cuba and the
rest of the world. These new technologies, along with the old, have
created a unique collage of new and old media spaces in which Cubans are
able to initiate critical conversations about government policy, human
rights, and the direction in which Cuba is headed, without having to
rely on government entities for support.

Of course these media remain politicized, but civic dialogue in a
politically complex space is better than no civic dialogue at all.
Henken believes that what Sánchez and others are trying to do is
exercise "real rights."

[Yoani] tries to say what she really thinks. She tries to exercise
real rights. This is in some way more radical. Luckily she's eloquent
and responsible. I think she appeals to a group of people who are, if
not middle of the road, at least responsible.

URL to article:
http://globalvoicesonline.org/2011/11/23/cuba-blogger-and-scholar-ted-henken-on-new-media-in-cuba/

URLs in this post:

[1] The first post:
http://globalvoicesonline.org../2011/11/04/cuba-bloggers-discuss-the-internet-offline-on-radio-marti/

[2] Internet access and technological tools are extremely scarce:
http://www.policyinnovations.org/ideas/briefings/data/000195

[3] El Yuma: http://elyuma.blogspot.com/

[4] Radio Martí:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Radio_y_Televisi%C3%B3n_Mart%C3%AD

[5] Broadcasting Board of Governors: http://www.bbg.gov/

[6] Image:
http://globalvoicesonline.org/2011/11/23/cuba-blogger-and-scholar-ted-henken-on-new-media-in-cuba/henkenandorlando/

[7] Yoani Sánchez: http://www.desdecuba.com/generaciony/

[8] Orlando Luis Pardo Lazo: http://vocescubanas.com/boringhomeutopics/

[9] Voces Cubanas: http://vocescubanas.com/

[10] Global Voices contributor:
http://globalvoicesonline.org../author/elaine-diaz/

[11] La Polémica Digital: http://espaciodeelaine.wordpress.com/

[12] who declined the opportunity:
http://espaciodeelaine.wordpress.com/2011/05/04/a-radio-marti-n-u-n-c-a/

[13] Reinaldo Escobar: http://www.desdecuba.com/reinaldoescobar/

[14] Image:
http://globalvoicesonline.org/2011/11/23/cuba-blogger-and-scholar-ted-henken-on-new-media-in-cuba/vocescdjlori_bync/

Chevron's oil spill off the coast of Rio de Janeiro last week will have
many repercussions. For the company – a $28m fine. For Brazil, perhaps,
a re-consideration of the development of its massive deep-sea oil
reserves. And, for Washington, a reminder of potential problems closer
to home – in fact, less than 30 miles outside US waters, namely Cuba's
looming "oil crisis".

Florida residents and environmentalists are worried about Cuba's plans
to start prospecting for oil in the Gulf of Mexico, using a rig built in
China and operated by Spain's Repsol. So too some lawmakers. Thus, in
part, new legislation proposed by Bill Nelson, Florida's senior senator,
and Robert Menendez, of New Jersey. Their new law would allow claimants
to sue foreign companies responsible for any oil spill, and without limit.

Memories of the BP oil spill are clearly at work here. Yet this law is
not so much an environmental measure. It's more of a stick with which to
beat Cuba – or rather, as the sponsors admit, to discourage companies
from drilling for oil there. It's not the first such initiative.

The real problem, of course, is not Cuba, or the fact it wants to
explore for what look like some promising oil reserves – over 5bn
barrels, according to the US Geological Survey. Rather, it is the
embargo and the fact that, because of it, should there be an oil spill,
US companies would not be allowed to step in and help with US technology.

Recent testimony by US officials suggests, however, that a number of
licenses have already been pre-emptively awarded to some US companies,
just in case. If so, that would be another sign (such as rising travel
between the US and Cuba) of the gradual thawing of relations between the
two countries – if not their governments.

Fifty years ago, the Cuban missile crisis almost brought the world to
nuclear war and froze Cuban-US relations. It would be ironic if the
Cuban "oil crisis" did the opposite today.

http://blogs.ft.com/the-world/2011/11/the-cuban-%E2%80%9Coil-crisis%E2%80%9D/#axzz1eSFHYQGv

Spain's newly elected government may be less friendly to Cuba

The new Conservative government that won Sunday's elections in Spain may
be less friendly to Cuba, analysts say.
By Juan O. Tamayo
jtamayo@ElNuevoHerald.com

Relations between Cuba and Spain may be headed for choppy waters after
Spain's conservative Popular Party won elections Sunday, although
analysts say neither side is primarily interested in picking a mayor fight.

The PP victory ended nearly eight years of rule by the Spanish Socialist
Workers' Party (PSOE), often criticized as too friendly to Havana's
communist rulers and insensitive to their human rights abuses.

Asked last week about Cuba, Mariano Rajoy, PP leader and Spain's next
prime minister, declared, "I want democracy. I want freedom. I want
human rights. Well, not just me. The whole world wants that."

Yet his party's campaign platform barely mentioned Cuba or leftist
Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez, and his speeches on the stump focused
largely on Spain's tough economic crisis and its 20 percent jobless rate.

What's more, bilateral commerce hit more than $1 billion last year and
more than 200 Spanish companies have significant investments in the
Caribbean island, many of them in the growing tourism sector.

"I would doubt very much that Cuba would become a priority or even an
important issue" for Rajoy, said Joaquin Roy, a Spaniard who heads the
European Union Center at the University of Miami. "He has many other
concerns."

"I also don't believe that Raúl (Castro) and his people would have any
interest in starting something with the new Spanish government. Raúl
also has other important things to do," added Roy.

Castro is in the midst of a politically risky campaign to overhaul
Cuba's feeble economy by chopping back public spending, allowing more
private enterprise and attracting more foreign investments.

Cuba's government-controlled news media on Monday reported Rajoy's
victory relatively straight-forward, not attacking the PP but noting
that the PSOE lost because it wandered away from its socialist principles.

Yet others argue that turbulence in bilateral relations would be
inevitable if Rajoy tries to put even slightly stronger pressure on the
traditionally thin-skinned Cuban government to improve its human rights
record.

"It will not be easy for the Popular Party to carry out a minimally
cordial relationship … due to the Castros' historical predisposition
against any government that questions them," noted the blog Diario de
Cuba (Cuban Diary).

One point of conflict could be Castro's harsh anti-corruption campaign,
which already has put several foreign businessmen in jail. A Spanish
lawyer who represents several enterprises with offices in Havana said
some of his clients are concerned that now they will be singled out for
investigations.

Havana human rights activist Elizardo Sánchez said Spain's policy toward
Cuba under the PP must change "because lamentably, the policy designed
by the (PSOE) government … failed."

Under outgoing PSOE Primer Minister José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero, Spain
persuaded the 27-nation European Union to lift the sanctions imposed on
Cuba after it jailed 75 peaceful dissidents in 2003.

But it failed in several attempts to push the EU to lift its "Common
Position," adopted in 1996 to link EU relations with Havana to Cuba's
human rights record.

Zapatero also agreed to receive about 115 political prisoners and
hundreds of their relatives, released over the past year by Castro after
unprecedented talks with Catholic Cardinal Jaime Ortega, and increased
cultural and academic exchanges.

Rajoy's government should now retain "the positive elements of the
people-to-people exchanges," Diario de Cuba added, and adopt a new
"manifest solidarity toward the internal dissidence and respect for exiles."

Dissident Guillermo Fariñas said he was "very happy" with Rajoy's
victory and hoped Spain would provide more assistance to the Cuban
opposition, as it did under Prime Minister José Maria Aznar, a Popular
Party member defeated by the PSOE in 2004.

The PSOE government was "an accomplice of the Cuban dictatorship,"
Fariñas added by telephone from his home in Cuba.

In Miami, the Cuban American National Foundation said the Spanish
embassy in Havana should quickly start allowing Cuban dissidents to use
its Internet facilities so they can communicate with the outside world.

Ladies in White leader Berta Soler praised the embassy for its warm
treatment of dissidents under Zapatero, but added that she hoped that
under Rajoy it would return to the even better levels of the Aznar
government.

"That was a government that truly saw and watched over the problems that
exist in Cuba," Soler added, "with the Cubans on the streets, with the
opposition groups, with the human rights groups."

http://www.miamiherald.com/2011/11/22/2513141/spains-newly-elected-government.html#storylink=misearch

After dinner they stayed at the dining room table to fill out the
ballots. He nervous, she more decisive. They worked like crazy, marking
them with crosses, while the kids played on the sofa. Those papers
received from the Spanish Consulate in Havana smelled new, of fresh ink
on a shield of columns and crowns. But the newest thing for the couple
was the act itself, choosing from a list of several parties, the action
of deciding among different political stripes. Both, who not so long ago
had guarded the ballot boxes in their pioneer neckerchiefs, voted for
the first time since acquiring the condition of naturalized Spanish
citizens. They took the pen with a determination they'd never applied to
a national ballot, choosing from a distance because they can not yet do
the same where they live.

Millions of Cubans have never heard a political program with the voice a
parliamentary candidate. Nor even a preliminary pronouncement from one
of them on such timely themes as the dual currency, gay marriage, or the
urgent immigration reform. Perhaps it is from this local disappointment
that springs the seriousness with which 12,458 of our compatriots asked
to participate in the Spanish elections of this November 20.
Beneficiaries of the "Law of Grandchildren," they rehearse with the
Atlantic interposed and try to make their mark on another reality,
knowing that their own destiny is decided only by a tight circle of
higher-ups. Who's to say that their growing presence in these elections
won't influence the seats and alliances, the smiles and tears that are
set to fall tonight in Madrid.

The attention with which the Spanish community on the Island follows the
Spanish electoral process is surprising. Among voters here there is a
clear intention to push the policies of Madrid's Moncloa Palace so that,
in turn, something will move in the Plaza of the Revolution. The ballot
cast in this "overseas ballot box" carries a scream demanding attention,
and a handkerchief waving from the shipwreck. The same couple who – from
their Havana table – made their marks next to the name of a foreign
party, now face the dilemma of whether to take their children to "the
motherland" or to leave them in the country where they were born.
Whether we like this dependence or not, today in Spain a part of the
Cuba's course was also decided, of this nation that boasts of its
sovereignty but which, in reality, hangs on many threads that are woven
abroad.

20 November 2011

http://translatingcuba.com/?p=12684

SOLEDAD GALLEGO-DÍAZ – Buenos Aires – 18/11/2011

Latin American leaders are paying close attention to see what changes,
if any, Spain's new government will make regarding its policy toward Cuba.

The Communist island's relations with Madrid and the rest of the
European Union have been an important focus of bilateral relations, and
Latin American presidents know that a conservative Popular Party (PP)
government won't be so keen to try to foment a friendly approach toward
the Castro regime.

During the past two decades, the majority of Latin American nations have
been governed by left-leaning presidents, who have identified themselves
more closely with Spain's Socialist Party. All of them recall the
hardline position the past PP government of José María Aznar took with
respect to Cuba, when the prime minister successfully campaigned at the
EU level to cool relations with Havana.

The PP has also not done much to improve its own image in certain
countries. After President Cristina Fernández de Kirchner won her first
term in 2007 ? taking over the Casa Rosada from her husband Néstor
Kirchner ? Spain's conservatives were very vocal in their opposition to
the idea of keeping the Argentinean presidency "within the family."

Nevertheless, even though Mariano Rajoy and Fernández de Kirchner are on
opposite ends of the political spectrum, bilateral relations between
Spain and Argentina are not thought to be in jeopardy should the PP
leader win the race on Sunday ? just in the same way Chilean-Spanish
relations didn't suffer when conservative Sebastán Piñera was elected
two years ago. Buenos Aires never cared for Colombia's former President
Álvaro Uribe, but now has a wonderful relationship with his predecessor,
Juan Manuel Santos, who is also a conservative.

Spain's relations with Brazil should the PP win are also expected to
remain on an excellent level. The Socialists have always had more
historic ties and contact with the Social Democratic Party of former
President Fernando Henrique Cardoso, than the Brazilian Workers Party
(PT), which is the governing party of President Dilma Rousseff.

Venezuela could be a different matter. But given that Venezuelans are
caught up with their internal problems, such as high crime and
inflation, as well as with the illness of their president, Hugo Chávez,
who is undergoing cancer treatment, they are unlikely to be overly
concerned about a change to a conservative government in Spain.

The majority of Latin American governments are paying close attention to
the economic crisis unfolding in Spain, which could have political as
well as financial repercussions for them. Between 1990-2010, Spanish
business deals flourished in the region, transforming Spain into the
second-largest investor in the region, after the United States.

Many Spanish companies now see their Latin American affiliates as being
essential to their survival. For example, more than 35 percent of Banco
Santander's operations are located in Brazil and more than 50 percent of
BBVA's holdings are located throughout the region. Repsol's Argentinean
affiliate, YPF, is responsible for 40 percent of the oil giant's profits.

Managers at some of Spain's transnational companies say they want the
new government to keep these figures in mind, as well as the importance
of the investments already made in Latin America because, as they say,
it is not about the region but rather helping the Spanish economy to grow.

http://www.elpais.com/articulo/english/Latin/America/keeps/watchful/eye/on/Spain/s/incoming/government/elpepueng/20111118elpeng_5/Ten

MIAMI — Blogger Yoani Sanchez denounced the travel restrictions and
censorship imposed on dissidents like her in communist Cuba, as she
introduced her latest book at a Miami book fair via telephone.

Sanchez, named by Time magazine as one of the world's 100 most
influential people in 2008, called in Thursday evening to a Miami Book
Fair International event moderated by Cuban writer Carlos Alberto
Montaner, journalist Alberto Muller and her editor, Eugenio Tuya.

"I couldn't come because of migratory limitations. To feel free in
cyberspace has also brought me immobility as a punishment," she told the
mainly Cuban audience before the connection was lost.

In a pre-recorded video, she touted her blogging manual — "WordPress, a
blog to speak to the world" — as "more than a technical guide because I
included stylistic advice and then some personal experiences."

"I think it is a manual that could be useful both to someone who lives
in New York, with everything in reach, but also someone who like me has
lived in a country with censorship," said Sanchez, whose blogs won her
El Pais's prestigious Ortega y Gasset Journalism Awards in 2008.

The new book was published by Grupo Anaya, Spain's leading educational
publisher, and released in Spain in June. It goes on sale in some Miami
bookstores after the book fair.

After the telephone connection was dropped the first time, Sanchez's
Twitter account was lit up on big screens in the auditorium at
Miami-Dade College, the venue for the event.

"I am sick of narrating my life in the improbable tense… 'If I had
been there,'" she wrote.

"Nobody has the right to prevent another from seeing the fruits of her
tree, of watching her child grow, of seeing her book be presented. But
I'll survive! I will live in a future without so many absurdities, I
will live in a freer, more civil Cuba."

http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5iH8rLAMLaCjFdEI1I6mHqYp8k5Aw?docId=CNG.bb560ae65a071dc80a1c88fdc371ec35.671

Prevention of Cuba's Drilling Best Serves U.S. Interests
Posted: 11/16/11 01:53 PM ET

Reasonable minds should be able to agree that it's not in the United
States' national interest to assist anti-American dictators in searching
for oil to support their repressive, failing regimes. It won't drop the
price of gas in the United States or do anything to enhance our "energy
independence."

Yet American assistance to make oil-drilling in the Florida Straits
profitable is exactly what Cuba's dictators Fidel and Raul Castro hope
to gain as they use the threat of oil-drilling to maneuver the Obama
Administration into once again unilaterally lifting U.S. sanctions on Cuba.

Cuba's search for leverage over the United States is not new. The Castro
brothers have been using offshore-drilling as a lure to extract economic
and political concessions from various nations since 1991, when the
collapse of the Soviet Union ended that country's hefty subsidies to Cuba.

Brazil recently declassified documents showing that in 1993 the Castro
regime offered oil rights on the "most promising" areas of Cuba's
offshore waters to then-President Itamar Franco and Brazil's national
oil company Petrobras. In exchange, Cuba wanted Brazil to shun Cuban
dissidents and cancel a meeting of Cuban exiles at Brazil's Washington
Embassy. The Franco government all-too-happily complied. Years later,
Petrobras exited Cuba empty-handed.

Castro found a new "partner" when Hugo Chavez rose to the presidency of
oil-rich Venezuela in 1998. With the backing of Chavez and Venezuela's
national oil company PDVSA, the Castro regime resumed its diplomatic
offensive signing highly publicized oil-leases with Spain's Repsol,
Norway's Statoil, Russia's Gazprom, India's ONGC Videsh, Malaysia's
Petronas, Canada's Sherritt, Angola's Sonangol, Vietnam's PetroVietnam,
and China's CNPC.

Only one company, however, actually conducted any exploratory drilling:
Spain's Repsol in 2004. The company found some oil, but not in any
commercially viable quantity. It, too, then pulled out of Cuba.
Similarly, Canada's Sherritt and Brazil's Petrobras — perhaps the most
credible and respected of the region's oil companies outside the United
States — publicly abandoned their efforts in 2008 and 2011,
respectively, stating Cuban oil production was not "commercially viable."

Why? U.S. sanctions drive up costs of production. Even the Castro regime
admits it. Keep in mind that Mexico's Pemex and Venezuela's PDVSA refine
most of their heavy crude in the United States, and then repatriate it.
As long as U.S. sanctions against the Castro regime are in place,
producing and refining any oil found in Cuban waters in the United
States isn't an option.

That leads to a question: If off-shore drilling in Cuban waters is not
commercially viable for respected regional oil companies experienced in
dealing with Cubans, is such drilling really viable for the Angolans,
Malaysians or the Chinese? The answer is no.

We learned this in 2006, when the Castro regime seemingly had convinced
Washington policymakers, including then-Vice President Dick Cheney and
Congressional leaders that the Chinese were ready to drill off Cuba's
shores. The drilling never materialized, but the threat served the
Castro regime's political interests as Reuters reported: "Havana is
eager to see American oil companies join forces with the anti-embargo
lobby led by U.S. farmers who have been selling food to Cuba for four
years."

It may still be working. The ideological and commercial propaganda
currently emanating from the Castros has both hypocritical
environmentalists and unscrupulous oil companies lobbying to ease U.S.
sanctions. BP's disastrous oil blow-out in the Gulf Mexico last year and
the justifiable public outrage that ensued, virtually invited the
Castros to employ the threat. Cuban Foreign Minister Bruno Rodriguez
confirmed as much in a message to former New Mexico Gov. Bill
Richardson, who recently traveled to Havana in an unsuccessful effort to
secure the release of American hostage Alan Gross.

In a flashback to 2004, Spain's Repsol is back in Cuba preparing to
drill another exploratory well early next year. If Repsol abandons its
drilling, the Castros say India's ONGC Videsh or Malaysia's Petronas
will step forward. Curiously, Chavez last year granted this peculiar
trio extensive oil-rights in Venezuela's Orinoco belt, where proven
reserves are estimated at 235 billion barrels. That's about 50 times
greater than speculations about all Cuban off-shore reserves. Foul play
can certainly be deduced.

Despite the fact that Repsol still faces exploratory hurdles (and
gargantuan production costs if oil is found), the United States is
cautiously licensing specialty oil mitigation firms to respond quickly
to any accident. Commendable as that is, Cuba's search for oil in the
Florida Straits could be thwarted altogether if the United States
swiftly tightened its sanctions on Cuba by withholding U.S. executive
visas for the Castro regime's foreign partners; stripping those partners
of drilling rights and concessions in the United States and our
off-shore waters; multiplying their legal liabilities; and legally
disqualifying use of the drilling rig Scarabeo 9 that is now enroute to
Cuba.

Irrespective of whether the United States lifts sanctions or tries again
to engage Cuba, the anti-American nature of the Castros' regime is
unlikely to provide necessary safeguards for off-shore drilling.
Precaution might bring us temporary peace of mind, but prevention would
better serve our long-term national interests.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/mauricio-clavercarone/prevention-of-cubas-drill_b_1093925.html

15 November 2011 Last updated at 13:20 GMT

Cuban oil project fuels US anxieties
Michael Voss By Michael Voss BBC News, Havana

A massive $750m (£473m) Chinese-built oil rig, the Scarabeo 9, is due to
arrive in Cuba before the end of the year, to begin drilling a series of
exploratory wells.

A whole range of international oil companies from Spain, Norway, Russia,
India, Vietnam, Malaysia, Canada, Angola, Venezuela, and China – but not
the US – are lining up to hire the rig and search for what are believed
to be substantial oil deposits.

"We will drill several wells next year and I'm sure we will have
discoveries. It is not a matter of if we have oil, it is a matter of
when we are going to start producing," Rafael Tenreiro, head of
exploration for the Cuban state-owned oil company Cupet, confidently
predicts.

The Spanish company Repsol will be the first to drill, with an
exploratory well in extremely deep water just 50 miles (80km) off the
coast of Florida.
Be prepared

It has sent alarm bells ringing in the United States because if there
were an accident, the ocean currents would push any oil spill onto
Florida's beaches and the Everglades.

Yet under the US trade embargo, neither American firms nor the Coast
Guard could come to Cuba's assistance or provide much needed equipment
such as booms, pumps, skimmers and oil dispersant systems.

The Cubans would need to turn to the Norwegians, British or Brazilians
for help.

"In the event of a disaster we are talking a response time in terms of
equipment of four to six weeks as opposed to 36 or 48 hours. This is a
serious impediment," warned Lee Hunt, president of the Texas-based
International Association of Drilling Contractors.

Mr Hunt was part of a team of oil industry and environmental experts who
were given permission by the Obama administration to visit Cuba to
discuss safety issues with the authorities in Havana.

Leading the group was William Reilly, a former head of the US
Environmental Protection Agency and co-author of the government report
into last year's BP oil disaster.

He was impressed with Cuba's awareness of the risks and knowledge of the
latest international safety measures.
Continue reading the main story

"The decaying Cuban regime is desperately reaching out for an economic
lifeline"
Ileana Ros-Lehtinen Anti-Castro US Congresswoman

The explosion and blow-out aboard BP's Deepwater Horizon rig off the
coast of Louisiana killed 11 people and spilled 5m barrels of oil into
the Gulf of Mexico. It was one of the worst environmental disasters ever
to hit the Gulf Coast.

It took 85 days to cap the well head, which was 5,500 feet beneath the
surface. The Scarabeo 9 will be drilling in even deeper water.

After his talks with Cuban officials, William Reilly said he found them
serious about safety and aware of international best practice but
lacking in experience.

He wants to see the US co-operate with Cuba on safety issues and ease
the embargo to allow US companies to assist in case of an emergency.

"It is profoundly in the interests of the United States to prepare the
Cubans as best we can to ensure that we are protected in the case of a
spill. We need to make it 'Key West safe'."

But Florida's powerful Cuban-American lobby has other ideas and with the
2012 presidential election looming, Barack Obama is in a difficult position.

Oil windfall?

The anti-Castro groups want the administration to take action to halt
the drilling altogether and not just for safety reasons.

A major oil find would make this communist-run Caribbean island
financially independent for the first time since the revolution in 1959.

For more than half a century Cuba has been dependent on the largesse of
its ideological allies. First it was subsidised by the Soviet Union,
then more recently Venezuela and, to a lesser extent, China.

Cuba has long produced some oil from a series of small onshore and
coastal deposits.

Tourists going from Havana to the beach resort of Varadero drive past
several kilometres of nodding donkeys and the occasional Chinese or
Canadian drilling rig.

Cuba currently produces about 53,000 barrels of oil a day but still
needs to import about 100,000 barrels, mainly from Venezuela.

Its deep territorial waters, though, lie on the same geological strata
as oil rich Mexico and the US Gulf.

Estimates on just how much offshore oil Cuba is sitting on vary. A US
Geological Survey estimate suggests 4.6bn barrels, the Cubans say 20bn.

Even the most conservative estimate would make Cuba a net oil exporter.
A large find would provide untold riches.

It is one of the US-based anti-Castro lobby's worst nightmares.

"The decaying Cuban regime is desperately reaching out for an economic
lifeline, and it appears to have found a willing partner in Repsol to
come to its rescue," Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, the Cuban-born Republican and
Chairwoman of the influential House Foreign Affairs Committee, said in a
statement recently.

The Florida Congresswoman and a group of 33 other legislators, both
Republican and Democrat, wrote to Repsol warning the company that the
drilling could subject the company to "criminal and civil liability in
US courts".

Repsol responded saying that its exploratory wells complied with all
current US legislation covering the embargo as well as all safety
regulations.
A Havana street If oil exploration goes well, Cuba could meet its energy
needs and become a net exporter

It has also agreed to allow US officials to conduct a safety inspection
of the Chinese rig before it enters Cuban waters.

Under the embargo it is limited to just 10% American technology.

The rig was fitted in Singapore and the one piece of US equipment which
was installed was the blow-out preventer.

It was the failure of BP's blow-out preventer which was at the heart of
that disaster.

According to Lee Hunt, the Scarabeo 9 is a state of the art deep-water
rig and there are six similar platforms built at the same Chinese
shipyard currently operating in US waters.

For the moment environmental concerns appear to be taking precedence
over politics.

The government will take up Repsol's offer to inspect Scarabeo 9 and a
limited number of licences have been issued to US clean-up operators to
enter Cuban waters and assist in the event of a spill.

But the arguments are far from over as environmentalists are pushing for
greater co-operation while Cuban-American groups are looking at ways to
place legal and legislative hurdles in the way.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-latin-america-15737573

VATICAN CITY (AP) — Pope Benedict XVI is looking into visiting Cuba and
Mexico next spring and will make a final decision shortly, the Vatican
said Thursday.

The announcement marks the first word from the Vatican of a possible
foreign trip for the pontiff next year, and signals that despite his age
— he turns 85 in April — and increasing frailty, Benedict still intends
to travel far to meet the world's Catholics.

In recent days, the Vatican asked its papal envoys in Cuba and Mexico to
inform religious and political authorities that Benedict is studying a
"concrete project" to visit the two countries, Vatican spokesman the
Rev. Federico Lombardi said.

Benedict has focused his travels mostly in Europe, both to spare him
from long trips and to focus his efforts on a continent where
Christianity has fallen by the wayside. He did visit Brazil in 2007 and
has said he hopes to return in 2013 for World Youth Day. And he has a
trip to Benin coming up later this month, his second to Africa in his
six-year-pontificate.

Lombardi said Latin America's Spanish-speaking countries have long
wanted a visit of their own, particularly Mexican Catholics, who have
received four visits from Pope John Paul II — including the very first
foreign visit by the new pontiff in 1979 that marked the first ever by a
pope to Mexico.

John Paul also visited Cuba in a historic 1998 visit.

Though Cuba under Fidel Castro never severed ties with the Vatican,
relations between the communist government and the church were strained
for decades. Tensions eased in the early 1990s, however, when the
government removed references to atheism in the constitution and allowed
believers of all faiths to join the Communist Party.

John Paul II's 1998 visit further improved relations, and top Vatican
cardinals have made frequent visits to the island since then: The
Vatican's No. 2 visited in 2008 and the foreign minister just last year.

The Catholic Church has played an increasingly visible role on the
island since then, most significantly in negotiating the freedom of 75
intellectuals and social commentators who were jailed during a 2003
crackdown on dissent.

The last of the detainees was released earlier this year under a deal
brokered by Cardinal Jaime Ortega, and many were sent into exile in Spain.

Lombardi said a visit by Benedict to Cuba would offer "great
encouragement" to the island's faithful, particularly as they celebrate
the 400th anniversary of the discovery of the image of the Virgin of
Charity of Cobre, Cuba's patron saint.

He acknowledged, however, that the trip will not be easy on the pope.
Benedict has appeared weaker in recent public appearances and recently
began using a moving platform to spare him from having to walk down the
long aisle of St. Peter's Basilica during Masses, leading to speculation
that he might trim back his travel schedule further.

No other foreign trips have been announced by the Vatican for 2012.

Lombardi noted the long flight from Rome to Latin America in explaining
that there would be just a few stops, not many, but that they would be
"of great symbolic and pastoral value." Mexico City itself would likely
be left off the itinerary because of its high altitude, he said, adding
that another alternative is being studied.

http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5gCY_UbMgJH-14y32kGC6XUrghHsw?docId=47530c67e05643b9b420529a2c219133

Defiant Cuban dissident Guido Sigler arrives in Miami
By Juan Carlos Chavez
jcchavez@ElNuevoHerald.com

Guido Sigler Amaya, one of 12 former political prisoners who opted to
stay in Cuba after their release from prison earlier this year, arrived
Tuesday at Miami International Airport determined to continue his
opposition to the island nation's regime and denouncing the abuses of
the Castro brothers.

Sigler, 58, was greeted by friends, family members and Cuban exiles amid
shouts of "Down with dictatorship!" and "Down with the Castro murderers!"

"I have come from Cuba with the same idea of continuing to defend human
rights," Sigler said. "And from here I tell my Cuban brothers to
continue fighting to overthrow the dictatorship that oppresses Cuba. We
are going to continue fighting for our country's freedom, the freedom
they have taken away from us."

Sigler, along with other well-known dissidents like Oscar Elías Biscet,
decided to continue his political activism in Cuba while other political
prisoners who had been released departed for Spain. He decided to leave
for the United States in the face of continued hostility from the
government and police.

Two months ago he signed the Declaration of Unity, which asks Cuban
dissidents to unite around key points such as fighting without violence
and respecting human rights, pressing for moves toward democracy and
calling for the unity of all Cubans regardless of where they live.

He also has called for a modern economy that would move away from
central planning.

Sigler is one of the 75 dissidents and independent journalists convicted
in 2003 during the repression wave known as the "Black Spring," a Castro
government plan to silence critical voices and petitions for free elections.

"I feel very happy to be in the country of freedom," he said Tuesday,
draped in a Cuban flag. "I am a patriot trying from here to help Cuba to
be free."

His brothers and former political prisoners Ariel and Miguel greeted him
at the airport.

"Eight years ago we hardly had any communication, and now the entire
family is very happy to have him among us," Ariel Sigler said.

Ariel Sigler arrived in the United States in July 2010 in a wheelchair
after being released from prison due to frail health. In Miami he spent
several weeks at the Jackson Memorial Hospital suffering from
polyneuropathy, which he overcame with a daily rehabilitation program
and intensive care.

http://www.miamiherald.com/2011/11/08/2493663/defiant-cuban-dissident-guido.html

HAVANA, CUBA (BosNewsLife)– The leader of a major Cuban network of
independent churches and his family have urged Cuba's government to let
them leave the Communist-run island following years of harassment,
including imprisonment, Christian rights activists told BosNewsLife
Monday, November 7.

Pastor Omar Gude Perez of the growing 'Apostolic Movement', his wife and
two children were granted asylum in the United States in July but were
refused permission to exit Cuba, said advocacy group Christian
Solidarity Worldwide (CSW).

"We are deeply concerned at the news that Cuban officials have once
again declined to issue the Gude family an exit visa," added CSW's
Special Ambassador Stuart Windsor in a statement to BosNewsLife.

Pastor Gude, served almost three years of a six and a half year prison
sentence on what his supported called "trumped up charges". He was
released on "conditional liberty" earlier this year but is reportedly
prohibited from preaching or from traveling outside his home city of
Camaguey.

"After receiving asylum in the US in July, the couple was informed by
government officials that they would not be issued exit visas, or "white
cards", as they are called in Cuba," CSW said.

"NEGATIVE PRESS COVERAGE"

Following "negative press coverage" officials told the family they would
in fact "be allowed to leave, but three months on they say they have yet
to see any indication that they will be permitted to go into exile," CSW
explained.

The family reportedly said they are concerned about "the long delays and
contradictory messages."

Another couple, both pastors from the same network in Camaguey as the
Gude family, have also been harassed by government officials and
threatened with imprisonment and forcible closure of their
church,according to Christian rights activists.

"On the most recent occasion, Benito Rodríguez and Bárbara Guzmán were
ordered to appear at the local Ministry of Justice on 11 October and
fined 200 Cuban pesos, approximately a one month's salary in Cuba,' CSW
added in a statement.

These are no isolated incidents. Last month a Baptist pastor in the
province of Santa Clara, Mario Felix Lleonart Barroso, was reportedly
put under house arrest on multiple occasions.

GOVERNMENT "WARNS" FAMILY

"Officials warned the family that they could be a target of an "act of
repudiation", government orchestrated mobs often mobilized by officials
to intimidate and attack human rights and democracy activists," CSW
explained. "News of increased pressure and threats against other church
leaders is also extremely worrying," said Windsor. "

He stressed his group has urged Cuba "to uphold its commitments as a
signatory to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights
and to cease harassment of religious leaders."

"We hope that the government will also honor its promise to the Gude
family to allow them to leave the country and begin a new life in the
United States without any further delay."

Cuban officials did not comment on the latest cases. However the Cuban
government has repeatedly denied holding any political or Christian
dissidents saying those held are mercenaries paid by the United States.

OPPOSITION MOVEMENT DIFFICULTIES

The reported crackdown on Christians come also at a difficult time for
Cuba's small opposition movement.

Leading dissident Guillermo Fariñas was released last week from a jail
in the central Cuban city of Santa Clara after spending two days in
custody. He was detained Tuesday, November 1, when trying to enter
Arnaldo Milian Castro Provincial Hospital to visit fellow dissident
Alcides Rivera, who has been on hunger strike for over a month.

Last year, he went on a four-and-a-half-month fast to demand the release
of political prisoners following the death of Orlando Zapata, who died
February 23, 2010, after a lengthy hunger strike behind bars to protest
jail conditions.

The international outcry over Zapata's death prompted the Cuban
government to launch a Spain-backed dialogue last year with the Cuban
Catholic hierarchy that led to the release of over 100 political
prisoners. Those released included dozens of dissidents jailed in March
2003 amid what observers called "the harshest crackdown" in decades.

Since last month they continue without Laura Pollan, the founder of the
Ladies in White, who every Sunday walk out and march in silence along
Havana's busy Fifth Avenue, dressed in white and carrying red gladiolas.
She died at te age of 63 on October 14 following her peaceful battle for
human rights that included the release of her activist husband Cuban
dissident Hector Maseda, after eight years in prison.

http://www.bosnewslife.com/18935-cuba-urged-to-let-church-leader-family-leave-island

HAVANA (Reuters) – Cuba's wealthiest creditors have decided to test
President Raul Castro's pledge to improve the island's financial
credibility by inviting his government to talks with the Paris Club
about settling billions of dollars of outstanding debt, according to
Western diplomats.

A letter recently sent to the Cuban central bank asked if the
Communist-run country would like to explore the resumption of
negotiations broken off a decade ago, the sources said.

"Cuba was discussed for the first time in many years at the Club's
meeting on October 9 and 10, and it was decided to see if they were
interested in talking," a European diplomat said.

"They have not formally replied, but have expressed some interest
through the central bank," he added.

The Paris Club reported that Cuba owed its members $30.5 billion (19.0
billion pounds) at the close of 2010, but more than $20 billion of the
debt was in old transferable Soviet rubles that Russia now claims but
Cuba does not recognise.

According to its annual report, the Paris Club is an informal group of
creditor governments composed of Australia, Austria, Belgium, Canada,
Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Japan, the
Netherlands, Norway, Russian Federation, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, the
United Kingdom and the United States.

Unlike the International Monetary Fund and World Bank, from which Cuba
is excluded under to the longstanding U.S. trade embargo, the Paris Club
does not issue multilateral loans.

Castro, who replaced his ailing brother Fidel as president in 2008, has
drastically reined in imports, cut state payrolls and subsidies while
insisting the government get its financial house in order.

Last week, Cuba's government gave Cubans the right to buy and sell their
homes for the first time since the early days of the 1959 revolution —
a long-awaited reform that creates a real estate market and promises to
put money in people's pockets.

The Communist Party and government this year approved a five-year
economic plan that calls for efforts to "enhance Cuba's credibility in
its international economic relations by strictly observing all the
commitments that have been entered into."

The plan also said the rescheduling of Cuba's foreign debts must be
expedited and that "flexible restructuring strategies for debt
repayment" must be put in place as soon as is practical.

OBSERVERS CAUTIOUS

The Bank for International Settlements reported banks in 43 countries
held $5.76 billion in Cuban deposits as of March of this year, compared
with $4.285 billion at the close of 2009 and $2.849 billion at the close
of 2008.

Cuba last reported its foreign debt in 2007 at $17.8 billion, but most
analysts agree it now exceeds $21 billion, or close to 50 percent of
gross domestic product and 30 percent more than annual foreign exchange
revenues.

The central bank reported more than half the debt was classified as
inactive, dating back to when the country defaulted in the late 1980s,
while the remainder was active debt piled up after the demise of the
Soviet Union, Cuba's former benefactor.

In recent years, China has become the country's largest creditor with
local experts estimating the amount owed at around $5 billion.

Cuba over the last year restructured its debt with China and has been
pursuing similar bilateral agreements with various other creditors,
diplomats said.

"Talks can only be a good thing," said Stuart Culverhouse, chief
economist of Frontier Market Investment Banking at the London-based
Exotix. "Although Cuba has pursued bilateral deals, there have been no
substantive negotiations with the Paris Club for ten years. So it would
signal some progress."

"But I'd be cautious in concluding that it means some sort of
rapprochement on the debt is imminent," he added.

Western diplomats appeared divided between those who expressed cautious
optimism that something would come out of the initiative and those who
were skeptical it would go anywhere.

Talks between the Paris Club and Cuba were indefinitely put on hold in
2001 after nearly two years of discussions. During the talks, the United
States agreed not to participate.

The negotiations had marked Cuba's first sitdown with creditors to
negotiate multilaterally since the late 1980s when it defaulted.

Along with restructuring terms, Cuba's 20-billion convertible ruble debt
to the former Soviet Union was considered another major obstacle to any
multilateral accord.

Though Cuba and Russia have since agreed to put the old debt aside and
work to rebuild their economic relations, it remains on the books.

"We proposed an accord similar to those with other middle-level
developing countries, but the Cubans wanted something special and
unheard of. We were miles apart," a European diplomat, who had followed
the negotiations closely, said at the time.

http://uk.news.yahoo.com/exclusive-paris-club-invites-cuba-resume-debt-talks-172644580.html

MIAMI – Cuban dissidents are skeptical about the economic changes taking
place in Cuba, arguing that they are no substitute for democratic
reforms, reports El Nuevo Herald. That was the message that three Cuban
dissidents brought to Capitol Hill recently, where they discouraged the
U.S. government from making concessions to Cuba.

Normando Hernández, Regis Iglesias y José Luis García, who were among
the Group of 75 jailed in 2003 during a crackdown known as Cuba's Black
Spring, called the recent economic reforms "hollow."

Beginning Nov. 10, Cubans will be permitted to buy and sell homes
without government intervention, ending a decades-long ban regulating
the real estate market on the island. The announcement was published
last week in Cuba's official daily, Granma. The reform is part of
package of proposals initiated by Raúl Castro to boost the economy.
Castro is also proposing an increase in private enterprise and foreign
investment, as well as deep cuts to state subsidies and dismissal of
more than 1 million public employees. He has also considered decreasing
government control over private companies and expanding the legal sale
of cars.

Regis Iglesias, a Cuban exile who now lives in Spain, said that more
than buying and selling homes and cars, Cubans need elections and
respect for their freedom.

"Economic freedom does not bring liberty or democracy to people, let
alone to a country that has had 52 years of tyranny," said Miami
resident Hernández.

http://newamericamedia.org/2011/11/cubas-reforms-ring-hollow-in-miami.php

Lawmakers meet with freed Cuban prisoners

Miami lawmakers on Capitol Hill hosted several former Cuban prisoners
who had protested against the regime of Fidel Castro.
By Erika Bolstad
ebolstad@mcclatchydc.com

WASHINGTON — Three Cuban dissidents jailed in a 2003 crackdown and
imprisoned until their exile last year to Spain, brought their story to
Capitol Hill Thursday.

The three were sponsored by European Union politicians who hope to build
a trans-Atlantic coalition to put as much international pressure on Cuba
as possible.

"They've been in the belly of the beast, they know what it'slike to live
there," said Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, R-Miami, said of the three:
independent journalist Normando Hernández González, Regis Iglesias
Ramírez of the Varela Project and former Nueva Prensa Cubana Director
José Luís García Paneque.

"And they know what a difficult struggle it is to get international
solidarity to the cause that we all are in agreement with," Ros-Lehtinen
said, "and that is the promotion of democracy, of freedom, of human
rights, multi-party elections, freedom to express one's ideas, and
freedom to pray to a God of our choosing."

All three were arrested by Cuban authorities as part of Fidel Castro's
crackdown on dozens of dissidents and activists in what became known as
the Black Spring of 2003. They were released under an agreement
negotiated by the Spanish government and Cuba's highest-ranking
Catholic, Cardinal Jaime Ortega.

One of the former political prisoners, Iglesias, said he met Wednesday
in Dallas with former U.S. President George W. Bush and the former
president of Spain, Jose Maria Aznar. He said he aimed to bring forth
the message of a "Free Cuba," and not just in the economic sense some
Cubans have seen recently.

"The fact is that more than the power to purchase cars or houses, Cubans
need freedom, free elections, respect to individual freedoms," he said.

Hernandez, who spent more than seven years in prison and now lives in
Miami, said his aim was to "bring awareness about the experience we have
lived through."

He warned that economic freedom "does not bring freedom nor democracy to
a people, and certainly not to a country under an iron tyranny for 52
years."

Rep. Mario Diaz-Balart, R-Miami, called it a "huge privilege" to spend
time with with the three. They represent the best of what is in Cuba,
said Rep. David Rivera, R-Miami.

"People who are willing to risk their lives, their liberties, sacrifice
friends and relationships on the island," Rivera said, including leaving
everything "for the cause of a free and democratic Cuba. They
demonstrate to the world of what is going on on the island."

Isabel Morales, a special correspondent for El Neuvo Herald, contributed
to this report.

http://www.miamiherald.com/2011/11/03/2486195/lawmakers-meet-with-freed-cuban.html#storylink=misearch

In March 2003, the Cuban regime rounded up 75 journalists, librarians
and human peaceful dissidents and quickly hustled them off to prison for
lengthy terms on bizarre, trumped-up charges.

For example, Normando Hernandez, who had been writing articles on
CubaNet since 1999, was found guilty of reporting on the health,
education and judicial systems and sentenced to 25 years in prison. Jose
Luis Garcia Paneque, a surgeon who was hounded from his profession for
his political beliefs, was sentenced to 24 years, with 17 months of it
in isolation. Ill with pneumonia and a cyst on his kidney, his weight
dropped to 90 pounds. Regis Iglesias, a poet, received an 18-year sentence.

All of the 75 Cubans were released by 2010, a few months after an
international outcry over the death of imprisoned dissident Orlando
Zapata Tamayo. But the releases did not come until many of those jailed
in the spring of 2003 — including Hernandez, Paneque and Iglesias — had
spent more than seven years in prison, in terrible conditions for
alleged crimes that amounted to nothing more than the exercise of "the
most elementary of human rights, especially as regards freedom of
expression and political association," as the European Union put it, in
a statement denouncing the prosecutions.

For these three and many of the others, however, the privations did not
end with release from prison. They were exiled to Spain, where they were
denied basic liberties customarily accorded political refugees. In a
column in the Wall Street Journal on June 13 of this year, Mary
Anastasia O'Grady criticized the Spanish government for "assisting the
Cuban dictatorship to disguise the deportation as 'liberation.'"

Among the readers of the column was former President George W. Bush. The
three ex-prisoners learned of his interest, and, on Tuesday, they fly to
Dallas to tell their stories to a packed assembly at an event sponsored
by the Bush Institute.

The Cubans were accompanied by Jose Maria Aznar, former president of
Spain, and Antonio Lopez-Isturiz White, secretary general of the
European People's Party, the pan-European center-right organization that
has been looking out for the welfare of the exiles as the Spanish
government has shirked its responsibility.

The sad fact is that much of the world is either consciously ignoring or
is blissfully unaware of the brutality and repression being exercised by
the Cuba regime against citizens simply asking basic freedoms. While
global attention has focused on the Arab Spring and the liberation of
Tunisia, Egypt and Libya, a Caribbean island has remained for more than
60 years in the grip of a family that has destroyed its economy and
stripped its people of the most fundamental rights.

What's the answer for Cuba? Start with an intensification of
international pressure on the regime. Certainly, the attitude of the
Spanish government will change later this month if, as expected, the
Socialist government so friendly to the Castros is defeated.

But international pressure won't increase unless the world hears the
stories of brave Cubans like Dr. Paneque, who told the rapt audience in
Dallas about the hell of solitary confinement in a tiny cell. He said
that his life would never be the same. You could see the emotional scars.

The Castro brothers probably expected that the experience of prison
would chasten or silence the released dissidents – those in Spain or the
United States or still in Cuba. But it has not. Hernandez, Paneque and
Iglesias remain defiant. They're telling tales of one of the most
repressive governments in the world. "We must seek the truth," said
President Aznar on Tuesday, "and make known the lies of the regime."

Change in Cuba also requires that freedom-loving Americans – especially
high officials — to lend their moral support. Aznar reminded the
audience that freedom "will never come from appeasement and complacency."

When President Bush was in office, he vigorously and publicly put the
weight of his office behind hundreds of dissidents and freedom advocates.

He met with Dr. Paneque's wife and daughter in the Oval Office during
the dissident's fourth year in prison and then, six months later, in the
East Room of the White House for a "day of Solidarity with the Cuban
People." The President even helped Paneque's wife get a better job in
Texas so she could be at home with her daughter at night. He mentioned
Paneque three times in speeches, including an address to the Cuban
people a few days before he left office in 2009.

President Bush also mentioned the jailed Normando Hernandez in three
speeches, and Hernandez's mother joined Mrs. Bush in the First Lady's
box for the 2008 State of the Union address. We know from interviews
with other dissidents that word of this kind of support seeps into
prisons and gives freedom advocates the courage to struggle on.

Finally, the United States and other nations need to be steadfast in
their policies. Any change in relations with Cuba must be predicated on
free elections. Freedom won't come to the nation until the current
regime leaves power and the Cuban people themselves are able to choose
their leaders.

Perhaps nature will have to run its course, but I hope not. There are
non-violent ways to bring freedom to Cuba, and they all come down to
helping courageous Cubans like Hernandez, Paneque and Iglesias succeed.

James K. Glassman is the founding executive director of the George W.
Bush Institute and a former Undersecretary of State for Public Affairs
and Public Diplomacy.

http://www.forbes.com/sites/jamesglassman/2011/11/03/the-cuban-political-prisoners-deserve-a-cuban-spring/

Nobody can deny the foundational importance of October 10, 1868 for the
Cuban nation. Though twenty years before Narciso Lopez had, for the
first time, unfurled the national flag calling for combat against the
oppressor, though his voice was not listened to then, the opposite
occurred in Yara, when Cubans, conscious of their nationhood, responded
to the call of Carlos Manuel de Cespedes.

This historic feat, praised and respected by all generations, is
generally presented only from the point of view of the heroism and
selflessness of its protagonists, ignoring the economic interests, which
had a fundamental role and that should not be forgotten. Many of those
who rose in arms that day, maybe most of them, were rich landowning
Creoles who for some time had been conspiring against Spain, as their
interests in expansion clashed with the restrictive policies it
ordained, that constrained their development.

They, other than their national sentiment, which without a doubt they
possessed, needed to throw off the Spanish yoke that smothered their
businesses and, as a result, the garnering of profits, needled by what
was happening further North, where the United States was rapidly
becoming a world power, with a regime of liberty and rights, that
constituted the example to follow.

It is not surprising then, that even Carlos Manuel de Cespedes, in the
beginning, supported annexation to the American Union, though he soon
gave up on that idea, focusing his efforts on obtaining Independence. It
must also be pointed out, if we are to be one with historical truth,
that the initial call for emancipation of the slaves included indemnity
for their owners and their incorporation into the uprising's army as
condition of their liberty, something that was only eliminated months
later in the Assembly of Guaimaro, where the total abolition of slavery
was decreed.

As can be appreciated, historical facts are not simple and
crystal-clear, as they are sometimes presented. They are influenced by
interests of a different nature, material as well as moral, that far
from diminishing their value, make them more real, and illuminate their
protagonists not as gods of purity come down from Olympus, but as mere
mortals, with light and shadow, that sometimes are right and sometimes
are mistaken, but that are capable of imposing themselves over their
difficulties and reaching their objectives.

On October 10, 1868 patriotic and economic interests conspired. The same
has happened in other historical moments of the Cuban nation, up until
our days. Today, the same as in 1868, the political and economic chains
imposed by the model, hinder the development of citizen initiative and
that of its the productive forces. To overcome this anachronistic
situation is everybody's obligation, so that the country can advance,
eliminate the accumulated misery and take its rightful place among free
nations, a place it once held thanks to the work of all her children and
that, because of erroneous policies, it lost.

*Translator's Note: The Cry of Yara.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ten_Years%27_War

Translated by: lapizcero

October 13 2011

http://translatingcuba.com/?p=12398

HAVANA Nov 1 (Reuters) – The Cuban government has been quietly cutting
its bloated payroll and stepping up plans to boost agricultural
production as part of reforms aimed at strengthening its socialist
system for the future.

Its long-delayed offshore oil exploration project in the Gulf of Mexico
is expected to start in January after the arrival of a Chinese-built
drilling rig now on its way from Singapore.

If oil is found, it will reduce or eliminate Cuba's reliance on oil
imports from Venezuela, whose President Hugo Chavez — the island's top
ally and economic partner — is battling an undisclosed type of cancer.
He is receiving treatment in Cuba.

ECONOMIC REFORM

Cuba has begun a government reorganization that will include replacement
of its sugar ministry with a state holding company [ID:nS1E78S0AG] and
the creation of new energy and mining ministries. Other ministries may
be eliminated.

Most state companies are controlled by ministries and lose money, but
will be given greater independence in hopes of improving their
performance. [ID:nS1E78T0I8]

Cuban media reports say there are now 338,000 people working in the
self-employed sector, the growth of which is being encouraged because
the cash-strapped government wants to slash a million jobs from its
payrolls.

So far, just under 150,000 people have lost their jobs, government
insiders say. [ID:nN1E7940HC] The goal is to have a third of Cuba's work
force of 5.2 million working in the "non-state" sector by 2015, up from
15 percent in 2010.

Cuban media said many state-owned small service businesses would be
leased to employees in October to run essentially as private businesses,
an extension of an experiment begun last year with barber shops and
beauty salons. So far, there has been no announcement of the change or
evidence it has begun.

Still to be announced are reforms, promised by President Raul Castro,
that will liberalize the sale of homes and loosen restrictive travel and
immigration rules. [ID:nN1E7701VN]

Cuba has been handing out idle land for farming and, looking to increase
output, has decided to increase the maximum size of plots to 165 acres
(67 hectares), up from the current maximum of 33 acres (13 hectares.
[ID:nN1E79I0BN]

Food output is up this year but still below 2005 levels and farmers
complain reforms are slow in coming. [ID:nS1E78R08J]

Two Canadian trading companies [ID:nS1E78F16C] and a British investment
firm [ID:nN1E79F034] are under investigation as part of Castro's
campaign to crack down on corruption that he says is a drag on the economy.

What to watch:

– The pace and final version of reforms.

– The numbers and performance of the newly self-employed.

– Agricultural production.

FINANCIAL HEALTH

Cuba still is recovering from a liquidity crisis that led to a default
on payments and freezing of foreign business bank accounts.
[ID:nN24211495] President Castro said the bank accounts issue will be
resolved by year's end, but many companies say they are still owed money.

The government has said tax payments from the self-employed have
increased revenues, while its top hard currency earners — tourism and
nickel exports — have improved.

Castro has said Cuba's economy should grow 2.9 percent this year, up
from 2.1 percent in 2010. Cuba's reserves at the Bank for International
Settlements stood at $5.75 billion in March, double what they were at
the end of 2008. [ID:nN1E79U0I0]

Long-awaited golf course developments, aimed at attracting wealthier
tourists, remain on hold. [ID:nN04118234]

The first American tourists to visit Cuba under more flexible travel
rules ordered by U.S. President Barack Obama began arriving in August.
Experts say the new rules could bring as many as 100,000 additional
Americans this year. [ID:nN1E77F13C]

What to watch:

– Resolution of bank account access for foreign businesses.

– Effects of global economic problems.

– The growth of American travel to Cuba.

OIL PLANS

A Chinese-built drilling rig, the Scarabeo 9, is expected to arrive in
Cuban waters by late December [ID:nN1E790U0], where it will be used in
the first major exploration of Cuba's part of the Gulf of Mexico.
[ID:nN1E77P03U] Spain's Repsol YPF and its partners will get the rig
first, followed by Malaysia's Petronas and its partner, Russia's Gazprom
Neft.

The project has drawn opposition in the U.S. Congress [ID:nS1E78R1P9],
but Repsol has rejected accusations it is breaking U.S. law
[ID:nL5E7KU118] and said it will let the United States inspect the rig.
[ID:nN1E79H1XN] U.S. oil companies are forbidden from operating in Cuba
by a long-standing U.S. trade embargo.

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

China has signed an agreement to play a major role in increasing Cuban
oil production [ID:nN08140650] and its state oil company is said to be
considering leasing exploration blocks in Cuban waters. [ID:nN1E76C1S6]
China and Cuba are also negotiating contracts for a $6 billion expansion
of Cuba's Cienfuegos refinery and a liquefied natural gas project.
[ID:nN22266891]

What to watch:

– Arrival of drilling rig.

– Results of Repsol's exploratory well.

– U.S. pressure to stop the drilling.

– China's growing involvement in Cuban oil development.

FOREIGN RELATIONS

A major concern for Cuba is the health of Chavez, whose government
provides 114,000 barrels of oil a day and investment to Cuba.

He has been undergoing chemotherapy in Cuba and recently declared
himself cancer free [ID:nN1E79J13X], but his death or departure from
office would be a big blow to the island. Chavez is very close to former
leader Fidel Castro, who is 85 and increasingly frail.

U.S.-Cuba relations, which thawed briefly under Obama, have been frozen
by the imprisonment of U.S. aid contractor Alan Gross. [ID:nN24221723]
He is serving a 15-year sentence for providing Internet gear to Cuban
groups under a U.S. program promoting Cuban political change.
[ID:nN12265306]

Cuba is angry that five Cuban agents have been jailed in the United
States since 1998, and has given no indications that Gross will be
released early.

What to watch:

– Health of Chavez.

– Continued imprisonment of Alan Gross. (Additional reporting by Marc
Frank; Editing by Kieran Murray)

http://af.reuters.com/article/commoditiesNews/idAFRISKCU20111101?sp=true