2011, That Year So Remote / Yoani Sánchez
2011, That Year So Remote / Yoani SánchezTranslator: Unstated, Yoani Sánchez
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
Cuban History Marches Backward / Dimas Castellanos
Cuban History Marches Backward / Dimas CastellanosDimas Castellanos, Translator: Unstated
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
Cardinal Says Pope’s Visit To Cuba Will Be A Special Grace
Cardinal Says Pope's Visit To Cuba Will Be A Special Grace16-December-2011 — Catholic News Agency (http://www.catholicnewsagency.com/new.php?n=23972)
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.
Spanish exiles’ Latin America families in passport rush
Spanish exiles' Latin America families in passport rush28 December 2011 Last updated at 06:21 GMT
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.
Cuba Estimates 2011 Oil and Gas Output at 4 Million Tons
Cuba Estimates 2011 Oil and Gas Output at 4 Million Tons
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
Spain’s new foreign minister has visited Cuba many times, favored engagement and patience
Posted on Thursday, 12.22.11
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 patienceBy Juan O. Tamayojtamayo@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
Capitalism
Cuban entrepreneurs reshaping island's stagnant revolutionsonia vermaHAVANA— From Thursday's Globe and MailPublished Wednesday, Oct. 12, 2011 8:42PM EDTLast 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.
Canadian banks eye return to Cuba
Canadian banks eye return to CubaDecember 18, 2011 10:19 pmBy Bernard Simon in Toronto
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
Analysis:Cuba's title recording system,part 1 – 2By José Manuel Pallí, Esq.
Cuba's title recording system, part 1By 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 2By 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/
Cuba’s cigars: a black market tale of survival
Cuba's cigars: a black market tale of survivalDecember 14, 2011. REUTERS/Enrique de la OsaBy Jack Kimball
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
Fidel Castro: Guilty of Murdering the Cuban Nation / Angel Santiesteban
Fidel Castro: Guilty of Murdering the Cuban Nation / Angel SantiestebanAngel Santiesteban, Translator: Regina Anavy
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
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