Sand on Mondays, Gravel on Thursdays / Reinaldo Escobar
Sand on Mondays, Gravel on Thursdays / Reinaldo EscobarReinaldo Escobar, Translator: Unstated
The other day, watching a triumphalist report on the news about the unrestricted sale of construction materials and under pressure from his wife who has been asking him to build a closet in the bedroom for years, my neighbor Chicho made the trek to the corner of Paseo and 33rd to buy washed sand, gravel, cement, and four-inch thick blocks. The rest, the tools and the knowledge, he already had, having been a bricklayer for more than six years in those long-ago days of the microbrigades*.
He walked from his house to the place hoping to find someone there with the entrepreneurial spirit to offer to transport the materials, and indeed, outside was an old Toyota with a little trailer and two men with wheelbarrows waiting for customers. They gave him a little signal meaning "we can load up and get out of here right now" and he entered a kind of office where a woman was filling in the orders and taking money. "Who's last in line?" he asked, purely as a formality, as there was only one person at the counter. When it was his turn to be helped he said, "My dear, put me down for 40 four-inch blocks, a sack of cement, two sacks of sand and another of gravel."
The woman looked at him as if he were a Martian, and with her best smirk asked him, "Didn't you see what it said on the chalkboard?"
Only then did he realize that at the entrance there had been a piece of black cardboard written on in white chalk, but he'd overlooked it in the excitement of trying to behave like a customer. "My eyesight is poor," he fibbed, to justify himself. Then the woman told him, "For sand, you have to come on Monday and check in early. That same day you can get the cement and the blocks but the four-inch aren't available now. But look, the gravel is only available on Thursdays."
"So I have to come twice and pay for two separate deliveries?"
"Look here, son, not only are you near-sighted, you're deaf, or are you making fun of me?"
* Translator's note:Microbrigades = "In 1971 a novel form of sweat equity, the microbrigades, accompanied government investments. Under this system groups of employees from given workplaces would form brigades to build housing while other employees agreed to maintain production at current levels. Housing units were then allocated among the employees from that workplace…. Microbrigades experienced a revival in 1986 due to several social forces."Source: Kapur and Smith, Housing Policy in Castro's Cuba, 2002
12 October 2011
Delegación cubana vinculada a fraude sudafricano
Corrupción
Delegación cubana vinculada a fraude sudafricano
Más de 6 millones de Rands provenientes de los contribuyentes sudafricanos fueron empleados en el viaje y el equipo de intérpretes de la delegación cubana que asistió al XVII Festival Mundial de la Juventud y los Estudiantes
Redacción CE, Madrid | 11/10/2011
Más de 6 millones de Rands provenientes de los contribuyentes sudafricanos fueron empleados en el viaje, el equipo de intérpretes y las actividades de la delegación cubana que asistió al XVII Festival Mundial de la Juventud y los Estudiantes, patrocinado por el National Youth Development Agency (Organismo Nacional para el Desarrollo de la Juventud, NYDA, por sus siglas en inglés) y celebrado el pasado mes de diciembre, informó el lunes el rotativo surafricano The Witness.
Según el diario, los gastos aparecen detallados en un dossier de más de 100 páginas, obtenido por el grupo periodístico Media24 Investigations tras 10 meses de litigio respaldado por la ley de acceso a la información.
El dossier incluye un acuerdo entre el director ejecutivo del NYDA, Steven Ngubeni, y Cubana de Aviación firmado en noviembre, según el cual el organismo sudafricano abonó la cantidad de 5,6 millones de Rands (más de 700.000 dólares) para contratar el vuelo ida y vuelta de un avión Ilyushin que transportó a la delegación cubana de la Unión de Jóvenes Comunistas (UJC).
El NYDA firmó otro contrato por 440.000 Rands (una cifra superior a 55.000 dólares) para la contratación de 42 intérpretes cubanos que acompañaron a la delegación de la UJC durante el evento.
El diario añade que los cubanos manifestaron su respaldo a las denuncias contra los bombardeos de los "imperialistas" en Libia, apoyaron la nacionalización en Zimbabwe, así como la redistribución de la tierra, demandada por el Congreso de Estudiantes Surafricanos.
Los documentos revelados, indica el rotativo, fueron analizados por uno de los científicos forenses más prominentes de la nación africana, Andre Prakke, quien declaró que no se respetaron los procedimientos contables indicados y que existen indicios de fraude y robo.
Por su parte, Ngubeni, si bien ha admitido que no se siguieron los "procedimientos adecuados" en el proceso de contratación y contable, defiende la manera en que se aplicó el presupuesto del festival, cuyos recursos provenían de la lotería nacional y de fondos públicos.
Ngubeni declaró que el NYDA no tuvo más remedio que llevar a la delegación cubana a Suráfrica, pues "Cuba ha sido uno de los partidarios más importantes y enérgicos del Festival Mundial. La Federación Mundial de Juventudes Democráticas pone como condición que los países sede (del Festival) transporten y alojen a los cubanos".
El rotativo agrega que, según Ngubeni, se trataba de una delegación de 227 cubanos, además de 40 intérpretes, y que la manera menos costosa para gestionar el vuelo era alquilar un avión.
Medios de prensa de la Isla informaron en su momento que la delegación multinacional —incluía a jóvenes de otras 27 naciones— viajó a Pretoria en un IL-96 de Cubana de Aviación.
http://www.cubaencuentro.com/cuba/noticias/delegacion-cubana-vinculada-a-fraude-sudafricano-269190
Youth Agency paid R6 million to fly Cubans to failed festival
Youth Agency paid R6 million to fly Cubans to failed festival10 Oct 2011Jacques Pauw
MORE than R6 million in taxpayers' money was spent to charter a jet to fly 262 members of the Cuban Young Communist League and their interpreters to South Africa for the National Youth Development Agency's (NYDA) abortive festival last December.Details of the spending are contained in document obtained by Media24 Investigations that show that the NYDA dished out lucrative contracts to politically-connected businessmen and squandered millions of rands on their disastrous World Festival of Youth and Students, which cost R106 million in lottery and public funds.Shocking details of the NYDA's excesses have been revealed for the first time in hundreds of pages of documents obtained after a 10-month legal battle using the access to information law.One of the country's foremost forensic scientists, Andre Prakke, says it is clear that proper bookkeeping procedure was not followed and that it is probable that large-scale theft and fraud were committed.Prakke, who studied the documents on behalf of Media24 Investigations, said proper tender procedures were not followed. For example, few of the contractors submitted tax clearance certificates, which is obligatory.The festival led to fierce criticism against the NYDA which is being investigated by the Public Protector.Among the documents obtained is an agreement signed in November last year between NYDA CEO Steven Ngubeni and Cubana, Cuban's national airline.The NYDA paid R5,6 million to hire a 260-seater Ilyushin aircraft to fly members of that country's Young Communist League to and from South Africa.The NYDA signed a further contract whereby 42 Cuban interpreters accompanied the Young Communists to South Africa at an additional cost of R440 000. Renting of interpreting equipment for the festival ran into several millions of rands.During the festival, the Cubans backed the denouncement of air strikes in Libya by "imperialists", supported nationalisation in Zimbabwe and threw their weight behind the SA Students Congress calls for immediate land redistribution.Several senior NYDA officials also hold positions within the ANC Youth League. Just three weeks ago, one of the NYDA's directors admitted that the agency is nothing but an "ANC Youth League-dominated gravy train".The opening and closing ceremonies at the festival cost R9 million and were awarded to businessman Julius Mekwa, who recently provided free facilities for Julius Malema's supporters during his disciplinary hearing in Johannesburg.A company belonging to a Springs policeman got a catering contract of more than R20 million — some R6,5 million paid in advance.The documents also show that several million rands was spent on flags, banners, "military-style" caps, rain ponchos, balloons, confetti and "cheerleaders/models".The festival goers consumed more than a million rands of Valpré mineral water, delivered to the NYDA at inflated prices.Another company, which has a prominent ANC Youth League lawyer as non-executive chairman, was paid R300 000 to provide "Central and West African food" — and a R90 000 headstone.Ngubeni admitted that "proper procedures" were not followed in all cases, but nevertheless defended the way the money was spent.Ngubeni said the NYDA had no choice but to bring the Cubans to SA. He said: "Cuba has been one of the biggest and strongest supporters of the World Festival. It is a condition of the World Federation of Democratic Youth that all host countries should transport and accommodate the Cubans."He said there were 227 Cuban delegates and 40 interpreters and chartering a plane was the most economical way of getting them to SA. The cost for the festival rose from R72 million to the final, audited figure of R106 million. Delegates played kissing games in the sun as they waited for something to happen.Last week the NYDA said it had received a "clean audit" from the auditor-general for the festival's and its own operational spending and Ngubeni said the organisation hoped to lay the controversy over the festival "to rest". However, the auditor-general noted at least R26 million of irregular expenditure relating to the festival and highlighted other problems such a lack of normal tender procedures.
http://www.witness.co.za/index.php?showcontent&global%5B_id%5D=69802
Bacardi, and its yeast, await a return to Cuba
Bacardi, and its yeast, await a return to CubaThe company's original rum production facilities in Cuba were seized in 1960, but the company had gotten its most prized property, its unique yeast, out of the country.By W. Blake Gray Special to the Los Angeles TimesOctober 6, 2011
At 6 a.m. on Oct. 14, 1960, Cuban national radio announced that the Communist government was nationalizing sugar mills and rum factories — including the island's most famous business, Bacardi. Cuban marines quickly headed to Bacardi's office in Havana with a one-page official document (riddled with misspellings) that gave them control.
However, Fidel Castro and his cabinet made a crucial error, and the repercussions live on in the world of rum today. They went not only to the wrong building but also to the wrong city.
Bacardi's headquarters and production facility were in Santiago, on the other side of the country. The marines responsible for seizing Bacardi had to catch a commercial flight to get there, and by the time they did, Bacardi's most valuable possession was gone from Cuba. It had already left the country, and anything left behind had been killed, completely — not a cell left alive.
Daniel Bacardi had known he wouldn't be able leave Cuba for several more weeks, according to Tom Gjelten's book "Bacardi and the Long Fight for Cuba," and had planned the mass murder — committed by his most loyal staff — ahead of time. But the carnage was bloodless: What they killed was the company's unique strain of yeast.
"The yeast is the biggest asset the company has," said Juan Piñera, a master rum blender for Bacardi.
Piñera speaks in the present tense because the Bacardi yeast strain, born in Cuba almost 150 years ago in the roots of a sugar cane, lives on under heavy security in refrigerators at Bacardi's rum plants in Puerto Rico and Mexico, where Bacardi had the foresight to send it before Castro's takeover.
Bacardi gives tours of its Puerto Rico plant, along with free cocktails, though visitors aren't allowed into the building that holds the master yeast strain. But it is possible, with company permission, to get into the yeast room in the plant in La Galarza, Mexico — if you beg. You have to sign a disclaimer. But if you're a fermentation geek, it's the chance of a lifetime. How many yeast strains built an international company and were snatched from the grasp of Fidel Castro?
First you enter a bare-bones lab that has large beauty photos on the wall of the yeast — round white cells against a purple background, displayed the way others might decorate with shots of movie stars. Laptops hooked up to cameras on microscopes show the yeast's sluggish activity; when not being propagated, it appears to subdivide almost lazily.
Most of the conversation about yeast is here in the lab. But you're this close: You want to enter the inner sanctum. You ask again. And again. And finally, you're in.
Amazingly, the old, noisy GE refrigerator that holds the precious yeast isn't even frost-free. The yeast sits in a round container in a gel with micronutrients, waiting to be propagated. This is a big job: Bacardi makes 20,000 liters of a solution of yeast, molasses and water each time it starts to make a new batch of rum.
One might think that the yeast would mutate and evolve over time — it has been more than 50 years since both Bacardi and its yeast left their homeland. But Bacardi takes its yeast legacy seriously, using gas chromatography to make sure each new batch is identical to the last.
The Bacardis love this yeast; they need it to create the style of rum that made them wealthy. The reason they killed it in Cuba was to make sure the Cuban government couldn't get it. Bacardi's president at the time, Pepin Bosch, believed that eventually Bacardi would be its former government's competitor in the rum business.
That indeed happened, as Castro's government soon began making rum in the old Bacardi facility, with the help of a few of the Bacardis' most senior employees. At first they even called the rum "Bacardi," but the Cuban government lost trademark battles in courts around the world and soon shifted to the name it uses today, Havana Club.
The products aren't actually all that similar — and the unseized yeast is a main reason. Rum is distilled from either sugar cane juice or molasses, a byproduct of sugar production. Because molasses is easy to transport, rum can be produced anywhere, even in places like New England, where sugar cane could never grow.
Rum traveled the world for centuries with sailors who stopped in Caribbean ports of call and was, until the mid-1860s, a famously rough spirit that could only be smoothed by years of aging.
Facundo Bacardi started his family's company in 1862. Within a few years he created a lighter style of rum that proved a smash hit. Charcoal filtering was a big reason, but the Bacardi yeast strain — company records don't show exactly when Facundo isolated it — also played a key role. Its special characteristic is that it works fast.
"When you select a race horse, you select a horse that's fast and strong," Piñera said. "Our yeast was selected in exactly the same way."
Ironically, what was a huge benefit 150 years ago isn't exciting to spirits aficionados today. The Bacardi yeast strain converts sugar to alcohol so quickly that fewer esters and congeners are created — meaning Bacardi Superior actually has fewer flavor compounds than other rums. (It may also have fewer hangover-inducing compounds.)
Bacardi Superior today tastes light and slightly sweet; in order to taste much character in it, you have to use a neutral mixer like soda water. In comparison, a mass-market dark rum will usually have flavors of caramel and toffee, and a modern artisanal rum, particularly an agricole rum made directly from sugar cane juice, will have noticeable vegetal flavors, like celery or asparagus. These are what all rums used to taste like before the Bacardis' yeast breakthrough.
Why would anyone want to produce a rum with less flavor? Because of its light body and mild character, Bacardi quickly became Cuba's, and then the world's, rum of choice for cocktails. Even today, when agricole rums are all the rage in the cocktail community, some cocktail recipes call specifically for Bacardi because it doesn't assert itself over the other ingredients.
"It's an advantage in certain cocktails, absolutely," said Giovanni Martinez, head bartender at Fig & Olive in West Hollywood. "If I'm in a hot climate, humid and tropical, I'm not looking for darker flavors. I'm looking for something bright and light that I can accent with tropical flavors. I want something tart and effervescent and fruity."
Bacardi is still privately owned, and the family, scattered to Florida and elsewhere, is still fiercely loyal to its Cuban identity. During tours, visitors see a slide show in which current chairman Facundo L. Bacardi says, "The day is drawing near when Cuban exiles will be able to return home." If so, some of them will be traveling in a test tube with micronutrients.
http://www.latimes.com/features/food/la-fo-bacardi-20111006,0,1042.story
The Real Enemies of Raul Castro’s Reforms / Iván García
The Real Enemies of Raul Castro's Reforms / Iván GarcíaIván García, Translator: Regina Anavy
It's a war of power against power. On one side, General Raúl Castro manages military counter-intelligence, pulls the strings in the major economic sectors of the nation and has consolidated his cabinet with loyalists as bullet proof as atomic bombs.
But behind the scenes, his adversaries look at him sideways. They are high-flying bureaucrats, local business managers, heads of large wholesale storehouses for food, textile and electronics waste, construction materials, and managers of tourist facilities.
This fat layer of bureaucrats has dedicated itself to creating a dense network of diversion and theft at the expense of state resources. They have created a parallel economy.
For many years, the envelopes with thick wads of cash and all types of gifts have landed happily in the pockets of certain senior party officials and dishonest government employees. The local bureaucracy has taken root in the bone marrow at almost all levels of society.
Like the marabú weed, it will be difficult for Raúl Castro to cut them off at the root. They are enemy number one. Forget about internal dissent; for the moment, it doesn't count. It's a fight against the demons that provoke these systems of command and control and the military economy.
There are tangible indications that at the first sign of change, the true opponents of Castro II will go on strike to pull the floor out from under him in order to slow the economic reforms.
See for yourself. According to the official press, in August the production of beans tripled over the past six months: 90,000 tons. This is no small thing. That figure is the amount of grain that is consumed annually on the island.
However, despite the high cost of black and red beans, which are sold in private markets at 12 and 15 pesos a pound (half-kilo), only 9% were for sale. The rest was bogged down in the warehouses.
Or they were distributed by the usual clandestine channels that permeate life in Cuba. And that work like a Swiss watch. It happens that beans are sold in the state market at 8 pesos.
The corrupt bureaucrats who control the supply chain prefer to hold onto them and sell them out the back door, to supply the black market or the private agro-markets. So they always have beans.
The marketing network is an unresovled matter for the Ministry of Agriculture. Tons of bananas, fruit or tomatoes rot after harvest, for lack of packaging or means of transport.
This leaves the door open to the czars and clans who control the food supply. Who for years have made money thanks to the inefficiency of the Ministry of Agriculture. To this add the absurd policies of the government, which stipulates that 80% of the agricultural production of private farmers must be sold to the state.
At laughable prices. So private farmers must cheat to keep more of their crop. Or they let their cattle and oxen graze on railroad tracks or the highway, to be killed by "accident."
Cuban farmers own the livestock, but they cannot market or sell the meat. Only the state is allowed to do that.
The pricing policy is irritating. A kilo of onions costs one peso and 30 cents in the store. With one peso in Cuba you can only buy a newspaper, take a city bus, or get a cup of coffee.
Now many farmers steal from their own production. To sell in markets governed by supply and demand. There a pound of onions sells for 10 pesos.
It's precisely in the collection centers, refrigerated storage and warehouses where the cartels and mafias operate at full throttle, enriching themselves and profiting from the food supply.
Right now Raúl Castro is someone they can't stand, someone who is going to fuck up their business dealings. The only thing left is to fight him.
They use devious strategies. They don't show their true feelings. Nor do they publicly complain about the government and its policies. They are kings of pretense. They know how to pull the strings.
To create obstacles they have a panoply of excuses. From lack of oil, transport, spare parts or a shortage of workers. They know how the system works better than anyone; they have lived off it for years.
The same thing is happening with construction materials. According to the official media, industry warehouses are over-stocked with cement, slabs, floor tiles and toilets.
However, despite being sold without subsidies in the municipal markets, people who try to repair or build a house always get "No" for an answer when they ask for certain materials.
Only low-quality materials are for sale. Or something else that is so expensive that many prefer to buy it on the black market or with hard currency, for a better rate. Remember that 60% of homes in Cuba are technically in fair or poor condition.
Therefore, construction materials are in demand and urgently needed to prevent roof collapses. General Raúl Castro wants the street stalls and agricultural markets to be saturated with products. So families can have a glass of milk.
And for the disappearance of so many absurd regulations for traveling or buying a car or a house. But his wishes and reforms go cautiously forward at a turtle's pace.
As an adversary, he has a monolithic wall of corrupt people and bureaucrats who have joined ranks. There are two options: Either he will demolish them, or they will demolish him.
Translated by Regina Anavy
September 15 2011
Cuba designing management courses for private sector workers
Cuba designing management courses for private sector workersPublished September 22, 2011EFE
Havana – Cuba's ANEC economists association is designing a training program directed at private sector workers so that they can broaden their knowledge of basic principles of accounting, expenses, costs and taxes.
Official media outlets reported Thursday that the project takes into account the "needs" of the private sector, which includes more than 333,000 people and has been growing since in October 2010 the government of Raul Castro broadened opportunities for self-employment and small business.
ANEC Vice President Maria Victoria Berrace told the state-run AIN news agency that the aim of the training course will be "to contribute to the development and better performance" of people in the expanding private sector.
Berrace emphasized that entrepreneurs must "understand the laws, contribute to the state that which is established and achieve dividends that will return profits to them."
ANEC says that some surveys show that private sector workers face "the greatest difficulties" at the time they pay taxes, and the group emphasizes that "Cubans have very little (knowledge)" of those subjects.
The government broadened the scope of private employment last October as part of a package of economic reforms, a plan that also includes labor adjustments in the state sector and forecasts in the first phase the elimination of half a million state jobs to reduce bloated government payrolls.
As per a decision by the Cabinet, this month the number of activities that one can pursue privately to earn a living will be expanded to 181, and the hiring of people in all those areas has already been approved.
According to government figures, currently 10 percent of the workers in the private sector are employees.
The majority of the business licenses awarded since October have been in activities such as food preparation, passenger transport and the sale of "household items."
Cuba’s 2010 oil and gas analysis
Cuba's 2010 oil and gas analysisBy Jorge R. Piñón
Crude and natural gas production
Cuba's domestic heavy-sour crude oil production reflected an increase of approximately 11 percent, from 47,517 bd in 2009 to 52,623 bd in 2010. This new production was predominantly the result of new record-breaking 6,000 meter horizontal drilling coastal prospects around the town of Camarioca, east of the beach resort of Varadero in Matanzas province.
The gross working interest of Cuba's national oil company CubaPetróleo (Cupet) in 2010 was 31,419 bd, while that of Canada's Sherritt International Corp. was 21,204 bd. This represents 59.7 percent and 40.3 percent, respectively, of total domestic crude oil production.
Oil-in-place estimates for Cuba's northern oil province range from 1,000- 2,000 mmbo, with recovery ratios of between 6 and 7 percent of oil in place, determined by the viscosity of the oil and the permeability of the rocks. Future production is expected to increase, thanks to planned enhanced secondary oil recovery projects between Cupet and Russia's Zarubezhneft in the Boca de Jaruco field.
Cuba's domestic crude-oil production peaked in 2003 at 64,018 bd. (Note: Cuba's Oficina Nacional de Estadísticas reports national crude oil production in metric tons; a conversion factor of 6.35 barrels per metric ton was used for this analysis)
Associated natural gas production (97 percent recovery factor) seemed to be reaching a plateau of approximately 38bcf annually as a result of the maturity of the Varadero and Puerto Escondido oil fields. Cuba saw its associated natural gas production increase by more than 40 percent, from approximately 26bcf in 2005 as a result of its Energas joint venture with Canada's Sherritt.
Petroleum demand
Cuba's petroleum demand levels have been declining over the past five years, primarily as a result of conservation efforts and increases in fuel and electricity prices reflecting international market conditions. Petroleum demand of 137,025 bd in 2010 reflected a decrease of approximately 2 percent from 2009 demand level of 139,651 bd.
High-sulphur residual fuel oil/crude oil blend consumption of 89,868 bd — used as boiler fuel for the electric power sector, steel, mining and cement industries — represented over 65 percent of total demand.
The second-largest petroleum demand product was diesel at 26,453 bd, intended for the commercial land transport and rail sectors. Motor gasoline consumption of 6,184 bd represents the lack of a private sector vehicle fleet, particularly when you compare it on a per capita basis with the region's largest mogas consumers of Puerto Rico at about 55 mbd and the Dominican Republic with demand levels of around 23 mbd according to EIA figures.
Refinery production
The Havana and Santiago de Cuba refineries continue to run intermittently, each averaging about 22,000 bd, from boiler plate capacities of 100,000 bd each.
The 65,000 bd revamped Russian-built Cienfuegos refinery, today a Cupet (51%) PdVSA (49%) joint venture, ran 55,295 bd in 2010 compared with 57,316 bd in 2009. This refinery is basically a hydroskimming configuration with a reformer but with two (naphta and distillate) hydrotreating units, which as of this date have not been revamped and are not operating. As a result, diesel and mogas qualities do not meet regional specifications.
Petroleum imports and exports
Cuba imported a total of 113,000 bd of refined products and crude oil from Venezuela in 2010, compared to 112,000 bd in 2009, according to PdVSA's 2010 financial reports.
Imports of Venezuelan refined products — avgas, LPG, lubricant base stock, diesel, and fuel oil — rose to about 14,000 bd in 2010 from about 9,000 bd in 2009. Imports of Venezuelan Mesa 30 crude oil amounted to 99,000 bd in 2010, down from 103,000 bd in 2009.
The majority of Cuba's Venezuelan petroleum import volumes — 93,000 bd — are part of the Convenio Integral de Cooperación Económica, a barter agreement of petroleum for goods and services with subsidized payment terms signed by both countries in October of 2000. Approximately 20,000 bd of total Venezuela crude oil imports represent PdVSA-Caribe equity tolling volume, which is exported to regional and West African markets via tenders to international oil trading companies.
Source: Oficina Nacional de Estadísticas de Cuba 2010 Energy Report, published June 23, 2011.
Jorge R. Piñón was president of Amoco Corporate Development Company Latin America from 1991 to 1994; in this role he was responsible for managing the business relationship between Amoco Corp. and regional state oil companies, energy ministries and energy regulatory agencies."
http://www.cubastandard.com/2011/08/22/pinon-on-energy-cubas-2010-oil-and-gas-analysis/
Se autoagredió reo en Ciego de Ávila
Se autoagredió reo en Ciego de ÁvilaFélix Reyes Gutiérrez17 de agosto de 2011
Ranchuelo, Cuba – www.PayoLibre.com – El reo Rafael Segura Isac se autoagredió en la cárcel de Canaleta, en Ciego de Ávila, el 14 de agosto pasado, porque lo cambiaron de fase carcelaria.
Osvaldo Grau Rodríguez, miembro del Presidido Político Pedro Luís Boitel, expresó que Rafael se cortó los tendones de los dos pies con una cuchilla de afeitar porque fue trasladado del campamento de trabajo forzado con internamiento de Navales para el destacamento #3, galera #41 de Canaleta, penal de máxima severidad.
Agregó la fuente, que el traspaso se produjo porque en una requisa efectuada a Segura le ocuparon una tableta de Carbamazepina, medicamento que consume desde hace 10 años para la epilepsia por indicación de los facultativos.
Antes de la vista oral, el uniformado de apellido Tejeda, alias el Cojo, le propinó una golpiza a Rafael en el interior del vehículo que lo transportó hasta la sede del tribunal provincial avileño, la cual le ocasionó contusiones y excoriaciones en su cuerpo, concluyó Grau.
Cuba tourism revenues go up
Cuba tourism revenues go upBig News Network.com (IANS)Wednesday 10th August, 2011
Cuba's revenues from tourism jumped 13 percent in the first half of the year compared with the same period in 2010, authorities said.
According to the National Statistics Office, or ONE, figures, total income from Cuba's tourism sector between January-July amounted to $990,464, while in 2010 it was $874,513.
Profits are being reported this year in such areas as hotels, retail sales, gastronomy and transport, and losses in others such as recreation.
Official data indicates that more than 1.5 million foreign tourists visited Cuba in the first six months of the year, an increase of 10.6 percent over last year.
Canada headed the list of the leading sources of tourists to the island, followed by Britain, Italy, France and Spain, while Argentina remains the island's most important and fastest growing market in Latin America.
Tourism, the second largest contributor to the nation's economy after technical and professional services, last year earned $2.1 billion from the visits of some 2.5 million tourists.
This year Cuba will welcome 2.7 million tourists, above all from Canada and Europe, according to tourism ministry estimates.
Cuba approves flights from 9 more American cities
Cuba approves flights from 9 more American citiesFri Jul 29, 2011 5:24pm EDT
HAVANA (Reuters) – Air travel between the United States and Cuba will become easier with the opening of charter flights to the forbidden island from an additional nine U.S. cities announced by Cuba authorities on Friday.
Cuban travel agency Havanatur Celimar said it added the cities of Tampa, Fort Lauderdale, Baltimore, Chicago, Atlanta, New Orleans, Dallas, Houston and San Juan, Puerto Rico, to the list from where charter flights would be accepted.
Cuba is preparing for an increase in visitors from its long-time ideological foe under a recent loosening of travel restrictions by the Obama administration.
The United States, which maintains comprehensive sanctions on the communist-run island and bans tourism to Cuba, does not allow regular commercial flights between the two countries.
But the Obama administration has lifted all restrictions on Cuban Americans visiting their homeland and allowed religious, academic and other professional travel by Americans to Cuba.
Havana Celimar has a monopoly on the Cuban end of U.S. charter flights and already receives travelers on flights from Miami, New York and Los Angeles.
The number of U.S. citizens visiting Cuba increased last year by 20 percent, to 63,000, according to Cuban statistics.
Some 350,000 Cuban Americans visited Cuba in 2010 after the Obama administration lifted all restrictions on their travel.
The travel opening annoyed Cuban American lawmakers who have introduced legislation in Congress that would reimpose a Bush-era restriction on Cuban American travel to the island of only one visit every three years and more strictly enforce the ban on U.S. travel to Cuba.
The lawmakers argue that the Obama administration is helping prop up the Cuban government, while the White House counters more people-to-people contact is the best way to undermine the island's communist system.
President Barack Obama has threatened to veto any move to undercut his people-to-people policy toward Cuba.
Cuba has said it had 2.53 million tourists in 2010, with Canada the largest provider at nearly 945,000, followed by Britain at 174,000 and Italy at 112,000.
Tourism is one of Cuba's most important earners of foreign exchange, with revenues of $2.2 billion last year, and an important provider of jobs.
(Reporting by Marc Frank; Editing by Anthony Boadle)
Tag: Transport, Tourism, Economy
http://ca.reuters.com/article/topNews/idCATRE76S6IH20110729?sp=true
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