January 2011 Issue

BY LARRY LUXNER

Fidel Castro, bleeding internally on a domes-tic flight from Holguín to Havana in 2006,nearly died from diverticulitis of the colon

after refusing to submit to a colostomy.Three years later, Fidel’s brother Raúl — now

running Cuba — wanted to open secret talkswith the White House as the only way his gov-ernment could “make major moves toward meet-ing U.S. concerns,” according to Spain’s ambas-sador to Cuba, Manuel Cacho Quesada.

Officials of the U.S. Interests Section in Hav-ana, while clearly opposed to the Castro regime,have concluded that Cuba’s traditional dissidentmovement — the focus of millions in aid fromWashington over the years — is unpopular, inef-fective, greedy for American taxpayer dollarsand riddled with government spies.

China, meanwhile, is exasperated over Cuba’shabit of not paying its bills on time, and theCubans are so upset with Jamaica’s reluctance

to confront drug smugglers that they’ve evencomplained to their U.S. counterparts.

None of these dramatic revelations mighthave ever come to light if not for WikiLeaks, ashadowy “new media” nonprofit website thatsince Nov. 28 has been embarrassing U.S. diplo-mats around the world through its gradualrelease of classified State Department cables toSpain’s El País and other newspapers.

While most of the uproar surrounding Wiki-Leaks has focused up until now on Afghanistan,Pakistan and the Middle East, it’s clear thatbefore long, virtually every country with a U.S.mission on its soil will be dragged into the fray— and Cuba is no exception.

Only a fraction of these 251,287 once-secretcables has actually been published. Even so, thebiggest diplomatic bombshell in recent historyhas already been “devastating and destructive”for U.S. foreign service officers overseas, says

BY ANA RADELAT

The U.S. Agency for International Develop-ment has slammed the brakes on variouscontroversial new Cuba initiatives.

USAID and the State Department have notspent one cent of the $20 million that PresidentObama asked for — and Congress allocated —for the controversial Cuba program this year.

As lawmakers prepare to approve that pro-gram’s FY 2011 budget, USAID hasn’t even sentCongress its proposal on how this year’s fundsfor Cuba would be spent.

“Because we have yet to notify Congress ofour specific plans to spend the funds, we havenot issued any awards with fiscal 2010 funds,”USAID spokesman Drew Bailey told CubaNews.

USAID and State did hand out about $15.6million to Cuba program grantees earlier thisyear from its 2009 budget after key Democraticlawmakers released their hold on the money.

Bailey said most of that went to “incrementalfunding” of five organizations with multi-year

contracts: Freedom House, International Repub-lican Institute (IRI), People in Need, CreativeAssociates International and Institute forSustainable Communities (ISC).

USAID declined to say how much moneyeach grantee received. But the activities thatmoney financed appear to be winding down.

Brendon Keleher, vice-president at ISC, saidhis Vermont-based NGO had an 18-month, $1.2million contract to work with artisans in Cuba.

“We wanted to help them understand the mar-ketplace and work with other artisans in theCaribbean and Latin America,” Keleher said.

ISC’s contract expired Dec. 9. When Keleherasked for an extension, he was turned down.“USAID chose to end the program,” he said.

Steve Horblitt, director for external relationsof Creative Associates, based in Bethesda, Md.,said “USAID guidelines” prevented him fromspeaking about his company’s Cuba program.

Creative Associates’ staff includes Caleb

In the News

Costly connectionTeleCuba: FCC approval of rate hike maylower cost of calls to Cuba ............Page 2

National AssemblyReform-minded lawmakers pave way fromchaos to market socialism ............Page 3

Outlook for 2011Two Miami conferences offer rival scena-rios for Cuba’s future ....................Page 4

Political briefsBoard: Ice, pilot error caused ATR crash;OFAC OKs peso remittances .......Page 5

Iconic brandingFinal installment of 3-part series looks atCuban consumer preferences ......Page 6

Golf courses galoreSpecial 2-page map pinpoints the locationof more than a dozen golf and marina pro-jects planned across Cuba ............Page 8

SPECIAL REPORTCattle, livestock industry — once the prideof Cuba — takes a beating .........Page 10

Saving the herdFlorida cattle rancher J. Parke Wright tellsCubaNews how to do it right .......Page 13

Business briefsTrabajadores criticizes rice import policy;Meliá opens 25th property .........Page 15

Vol. 19, No. 1 January 2011

See WikiLeaks, page 14

CubaNews (ISSN 1073-7715) is published monthlyby CUBANEWS LLC. © 2011. All rights reserved.Subscriptions: $479 for one year, $800 for two years.For editorial inquires, please call (305) 393-8760 orsend an e-mail to: [email protected].

Secret cables unearthed by WikiLeaksoffer dramatic look at U.S. view of Cuba

See USAID, page 3

With U.S. subcontractor still in prison,USAID freezes all new Cuba programs

2 CubaNews v January 2011

Tracey Eaton, former Havana bureau chief ofthe Dallas Morning News, now lives in St. Augus-tine, Fla., and writes regularly for CubaNews.

TeleCuba, planning fiberoptic cable, asks FCC for rate hikeBY TRACEY EATON

Calling Cuba from the United States costsaround $1 per minute. That’s 13 timesmore expensive than calling London or

Madrid, and 11 times more expensive thancalling the Vatican to chat with the Pope.

“To have a normal conversation with a fam-ily member, you must budget the cost of a din-ner,” said Tony Martinez, a New York lawyerand editor of the United States Cuba Policy &Business Blog. “It’s tough on families.”

One reason Cuba calls are expensive is thatthey are routed through third countries suchas Italy.

Miami-based TeleCuba CommunicationsInc. wants to establish a cheaper direct con-nection that some analysts say could eventu-ally lower phone costs for consumers andallow U.S. visitors to Cuba to use roamingwhile making calls.

To do that, TeleCuba first needs the FCC’spermission to pay Cuba 84¢ per minute ofphone talk, up from current 60¢ per minute.

Both Verizon and AT&T have filed letterswith the FCC supporting TeleCuba’s request— which is in line with President Obama’s2009 directive aimed at improving phonelinks with Cuba.

State and Treasury don’t object, either. Butthe FCC, which must approve TeleCuba’srequest for a waiver, has not acted.

An FCC spokeswoman declined to saywhen her agency might make a decision.TeleCuba executives and their lawyers, whohave been traveling to Washington to meetwith FCC officials and argue their case,wouldn’t speculate either.

TeleCuba wants to lay a fiberoptic cablebetween the two countries, and put into effectan international roaming agreement it haswith Cubacel, Cuba’s mobile phone company.

FIBEROPTIC CABLE CONTINGENT ON RATE HIKE

A year ago, we reported that TeleCuba, inagreement with Great Eastern Group Inc. ofFort Lauderdale, plans to design, construct,install and maintain a 110-mile-long cablefrom Cojimar, Cuba, to Key West, Fla., thesame route occupied by an existing 1950s-eracopper phone cable linking the two countries.

Once up and running, TeleCuba claims in apress release, its $18 million fiberoptic cable“will eliminate the need for satellite communi-cations” between the United States and Cuba,“allowing for an array of new telecom prod-ucts and services such as high-speed Internetand cable TV, which are not feasible usingcurrent satellite communications” (seeCubaNews, November 2009, page 4).

But Cuban officials say they won’t moveforward unless TeleCuba raises its paymentsto 84¢ per minute, according to a May 21 let-ter from TeleCuba President Luis Coello toFCC Secretary Marlene Dortch.

Phone companies around the world pay

each other to handle international calls. InMay 2003, the FCC gave TeleCuba permis-sion to pay Cuba’s state-run phone monopolyEtecsa 60¢ for every minute of calls it chan-neled to Cuba. In turn, Etecsa agreed to payTeleCuba that same rate for calls originatingin Cuba.

One year later, Etecsa asked that its pay-ment be raised to 84¢. But Treasury didn’tagree, forcing TeleCuba to end direct phoneservice to Cuba.

Last March, Co-ello requested FCCpermission to payEtecsa at the 84¢rate so it could re-establish service.

Because U.S.authorities haven’tyet taken action,Coello’s May lettersaid, Etecsa andCuba’s Ministry ofCommunications“question the com-mitment of the U.S.to truly enact poli-cies that reflect thedirectives set forthin the April 2009speech delivered by President Obama.”

On Oct. 26, Jennifer D. Hindin, a lawyer forTeleCuba, told Dortch that the company’srequest would “serve the public interest” andimprove phone communication between “theU.S. public and their friends and family inCuba … consistent with the President’srecently expressed policy in favor of fosteringdeeper communication between the UnitedStates and Cuba.”

On Nov. 24, Hindin sent another letter tothe FCC, saying the public record “indicatesnothing but support” for her client’s petition.

Karen Zacharia, a lawyer for Verizon, toldthe FCC that the TeleCuba waiver was “rea-sonable” and in the public interest.

An FCC waiver, she said in a letter to theagency, “would facilitate greater contactsbetween separated family members in theUnited Sates and Cuba and increase the flowof information between the two countries.”

AT&T, VERIZON SUPPORT TELECUBA REQUEST

AT&T lawyer James J. R. Talbot echoedVerizon’s position.

In his own letter to the FCC, he wrote that“to implement the stated U.S. foreign policyobjectives, AT&T agrees that it may be nec-essary to allow some additional temporaryflexibility in U.S. carrier settlement rates as apredicate to the re-establishment of bilateralinternational traffic arrangements on theU.S.-Cuba route.”

The rate waiver would lead to increasedcompetition in the U.S.-Cuba phone market,and companies like AT&T and Verizon would

benefit, said Jose Magaña, a senior analyst atPyramid Research in Cambridge, Mass.

“AT&T and Verizon definitely want tostrengthen their position in the Hispanic mar-ket, where Cuban-Americans are important,”he said, adding that enhanced phone commu-nication — including roaming — would boostphone companies on both sides of the FloridaStraits. “There are definitely a few hundredmillion dollars there. There’s a good amount

TELECOMMUNICATIONS

LARRY LUXNER

of money to be made.”Asked why the FCC hasn’t acted on

TeleCuba’s waiver request, Magaña speculat-ed that conservative pro-embargo activistsmay be trying to influence the regulatoryagency, creating delays.

“There are a lot of politics going on,” hesaid. “President Obama was more flexibletoward Cuba in the beginning of his term.”

But sentiments in Washington have sincetaken a turn to the right, and that “mightcause things to be delayed a little bit longer.”

Magaña said FCC approval of TeleCuba’swaiver would help open up Cuba’s telecommarket and eventually lower the cost of calls.

As it is, calls to Cuba are expensive – from91¢ to $1.20 per minute, for instance, for cus-tomers of AT&T.

That’s roughly five times more expensivethan calling the Dominican Republic, sixtimes more expensive than calling China orBrazil, and 10 times more expensive than call-ing Hong Kong or Denmark.

AT&T prices for 192 countries and territo-ries show that Cuba ranked in 51st place. Themost expensive calls, at $3.25 per minute,were to the Wallis and Futuna Islands, aremote French overseas territory in thePacific with only 2,500 phone lines in service.

The five next priciest were: Chad, at $2.42;the South Pacific atoll of Vanuatu, $2.41; Laos,$2.39; Comoro Islands, off the African coast,$2:25, and Burma, $2.17. q

Miami storefront advertises, among other things, long-distance service to Cuba.

January 2011 v CubaNews 3

BY DOMINGO AMUCHASTEGUI

In his closing remarks Dec. 19 to Cuba’sNational Assembly, President Raúl Castrodescribed the gathering as “an exceptional

assembly” — and indeed it was.Never before had criticism been so preva-

lent, blunt and naked when discussing thestructure and functioning of Cuba’s socialisteconomy, and its disappointing performance.

The event was marked by a recitation ofpast blunders — and illustrated by scores ofexamples of inefficency, waste and misman-agement, as well as outright fraud and lies.

Raúl described it as “la historia repetida.”Of course, the central issue was not lack ofdiscipline or missed opportunities, but rathera failed approach to socialism and ill-con-ceived policies that ended in disaster.

Warning that “the life of the Revolution isat stake,” Raúl told the 611-member body that“many Cubans confuse socialism with hand-outs and subsidies, equality with egalitarian-ism. We can assure you that, this time, therewill be no going back.”

The 80-year-old Castro, speaking on behalfof Cuba’s so-called “historic generation,” as-sumed full responsibility for these mistakesand said the country’s leaders “have the dutyto correct the errors we have made in thesefive decades of building socialism in Cuba.”

The government expects Cuba’s economyto grow 3.1% in 2011, up from a projected 2.1%

USAID — FROM PAGE 1

growth in 2010. The budget, estimated at 2.47billion pesos, will run a 3.8% deficit instead of3.5% as originally predicted.

Yet Jorge Marino Murillo, minister of econ-omy and planning, joined Lina Pedraza, min-ister of finance and prices, in complainingabout “incumplimientos” [not meeting goals]“in every sector of the state economy, withoutexception.” As a result, Murillo said, Cubalost over $200 million, and will be forced nextyear to spend $1.6 billion on food imports.

RAÚL CALLS FOR AN ‘END TO SECRECY’

State investments from the budget will bespent as follows: 50% on short-term produc-tive activities that generate hard currency;19.2% on housing; 13% on infrastructure con-nected to industry; 10.6% on sidewalks, sew-ers, power lines and other public works; 4.3%on aqueducts, and 2.1% on urbanization.

In addition, 68 projects that weren’t proper-ly designed and documented were dismissed.

In agriculture, 493 million pesos will be ear-marked for input and supplies to farmers andfinqueros, and 1.52 billion pesos for construc-tion materials.

Pedraza said “tax income over the last threeyears has financed only 55% of the budget.”That’s why the 2008 budget deficit was 6.7%.At that point, cuentapropistas were kicking in200 million pesos, or only 1% of the total. Thestate’s contribution was 24.8 billion pesos,and state-run enterprises, 19.4 billion pesos.

This ratio will change drastically in 2011,and even more later on. Taxation will play amajor role considering that by 2015, some 1.8million Cubans will be engaged in privatebusinesses.

At the same time, financial administrationand taxation will be decentralized, with morepower handed over to Cuba’s provinces andmunicipalities.

For now, no value-added (VAT) or salarytax will be imposed, at least not until stabilityis in place concerning prices and salaries.

Joaquín Infante, a prominent economistlinked to the former economic system, hasstated that 2011 and the first half of 2012 willbe “extremely tense,” but that by 2013, “re-sults and improvements will be quite visible.”

Lastly, Raúl made three highly unusual re-marks. One was that with few exceptions,secrecy must be banished from Cuba, partic-ularly with regard to the way in which thegovernment and the Communist Party work.

He also said the self-employed and small-business sectors will expand in the shortterm, and that “the state doesn’t have to messaround trying to regulate relations amongindividuals” such as selling and buying.

Not long ago, such remarks would havebeen considered pure heresy. q

sweaters, crab meat and Godiva chocolates.Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (R-FL), an embar-

go supporter, is expected to try to ramp upthe Cuba program when she picks up thegavel of the House Foreign Affairs Committeefrom Berman in January.

She’s likely to press for more funding ofexile groups and destabilizing activities.

“I don’t want to talk about it now,” Ros-Lehtinen told CubaNews. “But we’ll see.”

Yet Ros-Lehtinen’s efforts may be check-mated by her counterpart in the Senate.

“We have undertaken a review of the pro-grams, and the State Department and USAIDhave reassured Sen. Kerry that they’re im-proving oversight and policy direction overthe programs,” an aide to Kerry told us. “Thesenator is in an ongoing dialogue with [Secre-tary of State] Hillary Clinton and [USAIDAdministrator Ravij] Shah.”

In addition, the continued detention of AlanGross — suspected of distributing high-techcommunications equipment in Cuba — hasdampened the White House’s enthusiasm forfunding provocative missions in Cuba.

Quipped a State Department official: “We’rehandling things with great sensitivity now.” q

Rather than attempt to destabilize theCastro regime through protests and dissidentactivities, Kerry and Berman sought to usethe program to help the Cuban people bringabout peaceful change.

That shift may be reflected in one USAIDprogram funded with 2009 funds this year.The agency gave Loyola University $3 millionto “create networks and empower communi-ties in Cuba.”

Loyola spokesman Steve Christiansen didnot want to discuss the school’s activities inCuba. The university won a $425,000 USAIDgrant in 2004 to provide English courses toadults in a poor Havana neighborhood.

But six months later, Loyola announced ithad suspended the school project because ofthe political nature of that program.

‘GREAT SENSITIVITY’ AT USAID

USAID also gave a $1.5 million grant toGrupo de Apoyo a la Democracia, an exilegroup based in Miami, for “delivery ofhumanitarian assistance to political prisonersand their families.”

The group, also known as GAD, is involvedwith various dissident groups in Cuba, includ-ing Las Damas de Blanco [Ladies in White].

Since 2000, GAD has received $11 millionfrom USAID. In 2006 it was accused of wast-ing some of these funds on computer games,

McCarry, a hardliner who was the Bush admi-nistration’s Cuba Transition Coordinator. Inthat position, McCarry urged USAID andState Department money to be used to fomentdissent and civil disobedience on the island.

Washington-based Freedom House, whichover the years received more USAID moneyfor Cuba programs than any other grantee,did not return repeated phone calls.

IRI and People in Need, a Czech NGO, alsodidn’t respond to interview requests.

Before President George W. Bush assumedoffice, most USAID Cuba grants went to exileorganizations. But Bush sharply boostedfunding for the program while directing morecash to groups like IRI and People in Needthat had helped destabilize Soviet blocregimes in the late 1980s.

The theory was that such NGOs were mostqualified to weaken the Castro regime.

But after Alan Gross, a American subcon-tractor for former USAID grantee Develop-ment Associates Inc., was jailed in Cuba justover a year ago, Sen. John Kerry (D-MA),head of the Senate Foreign Relations Commi-ttee, and Rep. Howard Berman (D-CA), hisoutgoing counterpart in the House, held upUSAID funds to change the program’s focus.

Washington-based journalist Ana Radelat hasbeen covering Cuba-related issues on Capitol Hillfor CubaNews since the newsletter’s birth in 1993.

Cuba’s National Assembly: From chaos to market socialismPOLITICS

Former Cuban intelligence officer DomingoAmuchastegui has lived in Miami since 1994. Hewrites regularly for CubaNews about politics,economic reform and Cuba’s Communist Party.

It’s October 2011, half a year after the 6thCuban Communist Party Congress, andmany people who had hoped for signifi-

cant change in Cuba are disappointed. Theisland instead keeps muddling along.

The government and the Party, now bothled by Raúl Castro, are slowly implementingreforms approved at the congress.

More than one million state workers havebeen laid off, but fewer than expected havesought self-employment licenses because oftaxes; many work informally.

Public frustration runs high, but the polit-ical opposition remains small and fractured,with no common agenda.

The Catholic Church keeps negotiatingwith the regime, which lets more Cubansattend seminaries but still bans church-runschools. And U.S-Cuba relations remainchilly, as Washington sees no overridingnational interest in Havana.

That’s the bleak picture painted by AndyGomez, the University of Miami’s assistantprovost and a senior fellow at UM’s Instituteof Cuban and Cuban-American Studies(ICCAS), at a Dec. 13 media briefing on theoutlook for Cuba in 2011.

“Life goes on in Cuba. Nothing changes

under Raúl Castro,” Gomez told reportersand analysts. “Many Cubans on this side [ofthe Florida Straits] have expected change,and that change may not come.”

Researchers from the UM institute saidthey generally see little chance of “bottom-up” or democratic-style change in Cuba.

After nearly 50 years of military-backedcommunist control, Cubans have adjustedwith a mindset to wait for change from thetop down, said business specialist José Azel.

Yet a government that specifies 178 cate-gories approved for self-employment —including refilling disposable lighters andpruning palms but not other trees — “in noway signals serious change” to loosen itsgrip, said Azel.

The Castro regime doesn’t even use theterm “private sector” in offering new micro-business licenses to laid-off workers, refer-ring only to activities “outside the state sec-tor,” he pointed out.

That controlling attitude, he said, con-trasts with Chinese leaders in the 1980s whoshowed their willingness to move toward amarket-oriented system with such slogansas “To get rich is glorious.”

Pressure from Cuban-Americans for


Outlook for 2011: microbusinesses and a new junta?BY DOREEN HEMLOCK

Forecasting the future of Cuba is tricky,but four panelists at last month’s 34thAnnual Miami Conference on the Carib-

bean and Latin America offered scenarios for2011 that include a surge in microbusinesses,slowing trade with the United States and evena new governing junta on the island.

“I predict we will see a peaceful leadershipchange in Cuba this time next year, not to aperson … but to a junta,” said Tim Ashby, aMiami-based lawyer active in Cuba for years.

Ashby said President Raúl Castro will namea group of perhaps five people to lead Cuba asit reshapes its struggling economy.

That group would feature as “first amongequals” Raúl’s son-in-law, Maj. Luís AlbertoRodríguez López Callejas, now chief execu-tive of the powerful Cuban holding companyGaesa. And it will include Raúl’s son,Alejandro Castro Espín, Ashby said.

The junta, he predicted, would likely boostthe efficiency and autonomy of state-ownedenterprises, many of them run by young mili-tary leaders trained at business schools incapitalist Europe.

Ashby and his fellow panelists spoke dur-ing the annual Miami conference, which isorganized by the Washington-based nonprofitgroup Caribbean Central American Action.

C/CAA’s acting director, Sally Yearwood,moderated the Dec. 2 discussion on Cuba.

LIFTING OF TRAVEL BAN UNLIKELY FOR NOW

Cuba’s elite now is debating ways to stokethe economy, with a younger generation ofmarket-oriented reformers pitted against gen-erally older, communist hardliners, said TeoBabun of Miami-based Babun ConsultingGroup. “Both want to save the revolution butdiffer on how,” he said.

Castro already announced plans to lay off atleast one million government employees, butquestions remain over how to help them buildmicrobusinesses and how much to tax them.Babun’s recommendation: Don’t overtax thenew entrepreneurs, or you’ll fuel tax evasionand a backlash.

“Welcome to rookie capitalism. As theCuban government will find out soon, wherethere are high taxes, there will be changes inpeople’s behavior and at least, civil misbehav-ior,” Babun said.

In trade, Cuba has been slashing foodimports from the United States partlybecause of its financial woes, shifting pur-chases to countries that offer credit such asVietnam and Argentina. That’s the word fromJay Brickman, an executive of CrowleyMaritime Corp., which ships food to Cubawith U.S. approval.

Havana had hoped that buying food from asmany U.S. states as possible would boostpressure on Washington to ease its embargoon Cuba. But with little progress on that polit-ical front and Cuba short on dollars, “we will

POLITICS

probably continue to see an erosion” in U.S.sales to Cuba in 2011, Brickman predicted.

Washington also won’t thaw ties with Cubaanytime soon, now that Republicans have ad-ded seats in Congress and boosted their cloutin November 2010 elections, Ashby added.

Legislation to lift the ban on U.S. travel toCuba “is dead at least for the next two years,”the lawyer said. “And the executive order toexpand travel to Cuba on Obama’s desk, Idon’t think it will be released. [The Demo-crats] don’t want to lose Florida and NewJersey” by alienating Cuban-American hard-liners in those states, Ashby said.

POTENTIAL OIL DISCOVERY A GAME-CHANGER

Several factors could shift the scenarios.For one, a significant find of oil in waters offCuba could portend a financial windfall forHavana, probably slowing momentum for eco-nomic reform and certainly reducing theCastro regime’s reliance on Venezuela as anoil supplier and a benefactor, panelists said.

“Cuba is extremely vulnerable [to changesin Venezuela], at least as vulnerable as it waswith the Soviet Union,” said Rafael Romeu, aWashington-based economist who collabo-rates with the Association for the Society ofthe Cuban Economy. He referred to Cuba’sprevious dependence on Soviet oil suppliesand how the demise of the USSR in 1991 trig-gered economic crisis in Cuba.

A significant oil discovery also would boostpressure from U.S. oil companies to do busi-ness in Cuba, paving the way to ease that partof the embargo, panelists added. “That’s notdead. Congress could support” U.S. oil com-panies doing business in Cuba, Ashby said.

Stronger support from Brazil, Canada andother nations for Cuba’s new microbusinessesalso may influence how much Cuba’s privatesector grows and how the Castro regimetreats it, Babun said. Spain alone has offeredat least $600,000 in credit for private farmers.

The United States also might aid microbusi-ness in Cuba to improve the lives of dismissedstate workers and avert a mass exodus — anightmare concern that haunts U.S. authori-ties. Warned Babun: “We don’t want to seeone million Cubans jumping on boats andcoming to Key West.”

Caribbean nations are looking to see howthey too can help Cuba in its transition.

Trinidad & Tobago is considering a multi-million-dollar line of credit to Cuba to buyTrinidadian products, hoping to build sales ina market far less competitive than the UnitedStates, said panel attendee Brian Cecil Awang,chief executive at the Export-Import Bank ofTrinidad & Tobago Ltd. q

Details: Sally Yearwood, Acting Director, Car-ibbean/Central American Action, 1710 Rhode Is-land Ave. NW, Suite #300, Washington, DC 20036.Tel: (202) 331-9467. URL: www.c-caa.org.

An alternative view from UM’s ICCAS

See ICCAS, page 15

“When I first came to this country with my family as a young girl, we werefleeing from oppression and seeking an opportunity to live in freedom. In Cuba,activists are condemned to the gulag and denied every basic human right anddignity ... I pledge to do all that I can to isolate U.S. enemies while empoweringand strengthening our allies, and I will not make apologies for doing either.”

— Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (R-FL), longtime embargo supporter and incomingchairwoman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee in the 112th Congress.

“We see very little evidence that the mainline dissident organizations havemuch resonance among ordinary Cubans. [Without changes], the traditionaldissident movement is not likely to supplant the Cuban government.”— Jonathan Farrar, chief of the U.S. Interests Section in Havana, in a secret dispatch

to Washington dated Apr. 15, 2009, that questions prevailing U.S. policy on Cuba. Thecable was one of 251,287 exposed by WikiLeaks (see story on page 1 of this issue).

“We track every pound that goes on the airplane. Our average bag weight inthe last year has gone from 85 to 132 pounds [40 to 60 kg] per person.”— Tom Cooper, owner of Miami-based Gulfstream Air Charter, which flies a 146-seat

Boeing 737 to Havana daily. Cooper, quoted Dec. 16 by Associated Press, said hiscompany’s passenger load has jumped from 23,000 in 2009 to nearly 50,000 this year.

“This is terrific news for thousands of Cuban families and for communitiesacross Florida.”

— Hiram Ruíz, Miami-Dade director of refugee services at Florida’s Department ofChildren and Families, commenting on a U.S. decree reversing an earlier decision by

the Departments of State and Homeland Security that would have denied a broadrange of public assistance to about 3,200 Cuban migrants upon arrival in the U.S.

“Alan’s incarceration for a year without clarity of the legal process he will faceor its timing is a travesty. It violates every international standard of justice anddue process ... We urge Cuban authorities to release Alan immediately on hum-anitarian grounds, as well as the fact he has already served one year in prison.”— Peter Kahn, Washington attorney for the Gross family, in a statement issued on theone-year anniversary of his client’s imprisonment by Cuba on suspicion of espionage.

“Sadly, I believe Alan Gross may stay in jail a long time, as long as these[USAID pro-democracy] programs continue. I see the key to unlocking his free-dom lies in our ending these covert and subversive programs.”— New York attorney Tony Martínez, editor of the US-Cuba Policy & Business Blog.

“You’ve got to stop this war in Afghanistan.”— The last words of Richard C. Holbrooke, President Obama’s special representative

to Afghanistan and Pakistan. Holbrooke, who died Dec. 13, began his diplomaticcareer in Vietnam and brokered a 1995 peace accord that ended the war in Bosnia.

“They got it ‘bass-ackwards.’ They are laying off first and hoping and prayingthat the small private sector is going to expand enough to absorb them.”

— Archibald Ritter, Cuba scholar and professor at Ottawa’s Carleton University,quoted by the Miami Herald’s Juan Tamayo in a Dec. 20 article about Raúl Castro’sreforms entitled “Panic, Anger As Cuba Plans To Lay Off 1 Of Every 10 Workers.”

“Almost all of us, if we haven’t planted a bomb or picked up a rifle, we’ve doneother things. I went to prison for 20 years for Cuba. These are things that wethought were right at a given time. And at least I do not renounce my past.”— Angel de la Fana, 71, a close friend of militant exile Orlando Bosch, speaking at a

Dec. 9 gathering in Miami’s Little Havana for the unveiling of Bosch’s memoirs.

“You follow me on Cuba, and I’ll follow you on Israel, and we’ll be all right.”— Rep. Lincoln Díaz-Balart (R-FL), who’s retiring from Congress after 18 years, to then-

fellow Florida lawmaker Robert Wexler, a Jewish liberal Democrat. Wexler,now president of the Center for Middle East Peace, recalled Díaz-Balart’scomment from the early 1990s in a Dec. 12 story in the Chicago Tribune.

In their own words …NEW OFAC RULE LETS CUBANS WIRE MONEY IN CUCs

Western Union has received approval from theU.S. Treasury Department’s Office of ForeignAssets Control to begin paying out money trans-fers in local Cuban convertible pesos (CUCs).

Effective Dec. 20, says WU, “consumers willreceive money in CUCs at the exchange rate set atthe time the money transfer transaction is sent.The [sender] will receive a receipt that providesboth the exchange rate and the exact amount thatthe receiver will be paid in local currency. Payoutin local currency will relieve the receivers of the10% tax imposed on U.S. dollars.”

Also, the $5,000 limit for family remittancetransactions has been raised to $10,000.

“This is a great step forward that will benefitCubans living on the island, since they won’t havedo any kind of currency exchange to get theirmoney,” said WU’s Victoria López Negrete, whosecompany has been sending money to Cuba since1999. “This measure makes our work a lot easier.”

The new ruling allows anyone living in the U.S.to send money orders to Cuba to parents, broth-ers, sisters, children, aunts and uncles, said OFAC.

Details: OFAC Field Office, PO Box 229008,Miami, FL 33222-9008. Tel: (786) 845-2828.

BOARD: ICING, PILOT ERROR CAUSED ATR CRASH

Icing and pilot error caused the Nov. 4 crash ofan AeroCaribbean commuter plane which killed all68 passengers aboard, Cuba’s Civil AeronauticsBoard announced Dec. 16.

Investigators found that “extreme weather condi-tions” led to a “severe” buildup of ice on the planethat, “combined with errors by the crew in thehandling of the situation, caused the accident.”

It said the ATR 72-212 twin turboprop had beenin good condition and functioned properly beforeplummeting to the ground near Sancti Spíritus.

On that day, Cuba had the unusual condition of acold front sweeping down from the north while asmall hurricane brushed along Cuba’s eastern tip.

The combination of cold air and very highhumidity from the storm created the unusual con-ditions conducive for icing, aviation experts said.

POSADA LOSES BID TO KEEP EVIDENCE FROM TRIAL

A U.S. judge has rejected Luis Posada Carriles’request to throw out evidence against him provid-ed by the Cuban government, and kept his sched-uled Jan. 10 trial date in Texas, the Miami newspa-per El Nuevo Herald reported Dec. 18.

Posada is charged with lying under oath duringimmigration procedures about his role in a dozen1997 bombings of Havana hotels. He’s not chargedwith the bombings, which killed an Italian tourist.

U.S. District Judge Kathleen Cardone in El PasoThursday denied a motion by Posada’s Miami law-yer, Arturo Hernández, to throw out 6,200 pagesof evidence gathered by the Cuban governmentand submitted in the case by U.S. prosecutors.

Hernandez claimed he received the documentsin November, although prosecutors had them inMarch 2007 and he repeatedly asked for a copybeginning May 2009.

Posada, who lived in Venezuela and El Salvadorfor much of his exile life, was detained after heturned up in South Florida in 2005.

POLITICAL BRIEFS



See Brands, page 7

the potential of taking popular national sym-bols and assessing to what extent they areassociated with the top 10 Cuban brands (seeCubaNews, November 2010, page 10).

One open-ended question central to theissue of iconic brands was posed: “Is thereanything Cuban about this product?” Wecounted the number of times respondentsreferred to Cuban myths or folklore indescribing the top-10 Cuban brands.

Four findings stand out.First, the sugar and tobacco legacy regis-

tered more comments (123) than the second-(marianismo (70)) or third-place (creativity(66)) categories. Half of the top 10 products(cola, coffee, tobacco, and alcohol products)come from sugar and tobacco.

Second, the Thaba backpack and Suchelsoap and moisturizers failed to reveal anymyth affiliations. Our hunch was that thebackpack might symbolize the Revolution’scommitment to universal education, and thuscould reflect the “creativity” dimension.

We also thought the soap would tap into asocial value that because Cubans wash often,it might be a stalwart symbol of purity, andtherefore reflect the marianismo dimension.

A third finding was the distinction betweenthe “light” Cristal versus the “strong”Bucanero beers, even though just 0.4% alco-hol content separates them.

Participants associated the green (lighterlooking) Cristal can and would read the label“suave” [smooth] word out loud, and thencontrast the word “fuerte” [strong] printed onthe darker (heavier looking) Bucanero can.

Iconic brand potential: What’s ‘Cuban’ about this product?MARKETING

BY EMILIO MORALES & JOSEPH L. SCARPACI

In the last issue of this newsletter, we dis-cussed the importance of iconic brandingand presented categories that reflect

broadly held values which Cubans hold dear(see CubaNews, December 2010, page 15).

These values, machismo/marianismo, creati-vity and resourcefulness, sugar and tobacco

heritage, and the underdog syndrome (a.k.a.David and Goliath) are readily identifiable byCubans. If advertisers can bundle their prod-ucts with a widely held value, they have thepotential of establishing an iconic brand.

In this issue, we present the results of ourfocus groups. As such, we organized 10 focusgroups comprising 84 participants to explore

Havana Club and other popular Cuban rum brands.


BY VITO ECHEVARRÍA

French financier Arpad Busson and NewYork’s International Center for Photo-graphy last month co-sponsored a panel

discussion on Cuba’s political future, againsta backdrop of historical photographs assem-bled by Busson’s London-based InternationalArt Heritage Foundation (IAHF).

The Dec. 8 event, “La Revolución: Comple-xities of Cuba Today,” was moderated by vet-eran CNN anchor Christiane Amanpour andheld at the New York Times Center. Participa-ting in the discussion were Peter Kornbluh,director of the Cuba Documentation Project,and journalists Jon Lee Anderson, Rafael PiRomán and Patrick Symmes.

Independent filmmakers Saul Landau andJauretsi Saizarbitoria also speculated on thedirection Cuba will likely take once theCastro brothers pass away.

Amanpour asked Busson about his involve-ment with ICP’s current photo exhibit “Cubain Revolution” — a collection of 150 photos ondisplay until Jan. 9. Photographers RobertoSalas and Elliott Erwin talked about what it

New York’s ICP hosts ‘Cuba in Revolution’ photo exhibit

Modifiers of Cristal’s lightness included“easy to drink”, “goes well with food”, “thewomen prefer it”, and it’s good “for relaxing”.

The heavier Bucanero pulled the oppositeway: “good for parties”, “it’s more for men”,“its good for dancing”, and even “it’s gets youdrunk quicker”; all characterizations of extro-verted machista behaviors.

The strongest iconic content was AliciaAlonso perfume, even though very few par-ticipants in our survey had actually used thefragrance (much like Montecristo cigars,which few had actually smoked). It registeredstrongly on the creativity (64) and marianismo(24) dimensions.

Three reasons underscore this iconicbranding potential. First, Alicia Alonso, the“primera bailarina de Cuba” [first lady of bal-let], epitomizes creativity. At 90, she’s a livinglegend in ways that Fidel Castro, Che Gue-vara, and other revolutionary figures are not.

She has overcome adversity and has usedprofessional and feminine talent to bridge ide-ological gaps. Cuban national and regionalballet performances reach all corners of theworld, despite opposition against the regime.

Cuban sensuality is also embodied in theproduct and the woman herself; at least in heryouth. Both the person and the product exudeelegance and femininity. This perception tapsinto strong beliefs about the role of men(machismo) and women (marianismo).

Third, Alicia Alonso herself represents howinhabitants of a small island can have animpact worldwide. This is also evident inCuba’s quest to excel in sports, spread the

revolution and serve as cultural goodwillambassador wherever possible.

Such a strong national perception taps intothe national belief that Cuba can produceheroes, not only in the context of the David-and-Goliath tensions betweenthe island and the “imperioyanqui” but also betweensomeone who lived before andafter the revolution, and whoexcelled during both eras.

CONCLUSIONS

Our findings indicate thegreatest potential to developiconic products, within andoutside Cuba, rests in AliciaAlonso products and, to a less-er extent, Havana Club.

Several people identified thelatter as the rum of Cuba andonly a few stated that they didnot like it or that substituterums were widely available for less cost.

Rum, of course, derives from sugar, animportant resource historically. However, theclosure of nearly half the island’s mills since2002 — coupled with a saturated global mar-ket of Caribbean rum — could make it diffi-cult to become an iconic brand.

Moreover, Havana Club taps only into our“sugar and tobacco” category, whereas AliciaAlonso spans several value dimensions.

Iconic features about Alonso were capturedwell by one 33-year-old woman from SanctiSpíritus: “She, just like the product itself, rep-resents the best of Cuba … what the typicalCuban woman aspires to in her own life: suc-cess and elegance. And that matters as much

here [in Cuba] as it does outside the island.”In this regard, Alicia Alonso is cultural icon,

artist, feminist, and heroine.Her perfume is enhanced in consumers’

minds in ways that Havana Club rum doesnot; no transcendental figure isassociated with Havana Club.

Alicia Alonso products arehigh-value goods that, on theexport market, at least, couldallow perfume users to tap intothe “feminine side” of Cuba,much like the allure that forbid-den Cuban cigars hold for men.

In a future market in Cuba,Alonso’s line will have to squareoff against Chanel perfumes,while Havana Club will go head-to-head with Bacardí, Coke andPepsi will encroach on tuKola’smarket share, and the manyproduct lines of Budweiser willrival Cristal and Bucanero.

These findings hold promise for brandadvertising in the future when a broader ar-ray of consumer goods might be promotedacross the island.

Such brand novelty will reflect the level towhich Cuban consumers acquire experienceabout particular brands — as well as theirattachment to iconic national symbols. q

Brands — FROM PAGE 7

Emilio Morales, a former marketing direc-tor of Cuba’s CIMEX SA, and Joseph L.Scarpaci, an adjunct marketing professor atVirginia Tech, wrote this article for CubaNews.

Details: The Havana Consulting Group.URL: www.thehavanaconsultinggroup.com.

Cheap, locally made cigarettes.

ARTS & CULTURE

was like to cover Fidel Castro as his 1959 rev-olution literally exploded before their eyes.

The IAHF has assembled an extensive col-lection of well-regarded 20th-century photo-

journalism, including an archive of more than2,000 photographs of Cuba. Along with thework of Salas and Erwin, on display were theworks of 30 other photographers, includingthose of 1950s Cuba by Constantino Arias.

At one point, Busson traveled to Cuba tohelp assemble that collection.

“It was fascinating to see the beauty ofthese images,” Busson told Amanpour. “Butwhen I met these photographers, I realizedthat there was a much wider range of [Cuban]photos that have never been shown.”

A shot of Castro and his band of rebels en-tering Havana was used as the exhibit’s pro-motion (see picture, upper left). There werealso some rarely seen photos, including one ofFidel skiing in Russia, and Che Guevara at hisoffice in Havana — as well as familiar iconicimages by Alberto Korda and others.

After New York, the exhibit will travel toWashington, Moscow and Paris. q

Details: International Center for Photography,1133 Avenue of the Americas at 43rd Street, NewYork, NY 10036. Tel: (212) 857-0003. URL:www.icp.org/museum/exhibitions/cuba.

BURT GLINN

RENE BURRI

Fidel enters Havana, 1959; Che in his office, 1963.


TOURISM

NOTE TO READERS: The above map, prepared by cartographer Armando Portela, is being published in this issue of CubaNews as a referencefor our subscribers. Several months ago, we began a series of articles looking at the 15 or so luxury golf and marina developments now in vari-ous stages of planning across Cuba. Our November edition took a look at Bacunayagua, along Cuba’s north coast between Havana and Varadero,

CUBA’S EXISTING AND PLANNED LUXURY GOLF/MARINA PROJECTS


while our December issue examined La Altura, a similar project east of Pinar del Río in the new province of Artemisa. Likewise, the February2011 issue of CubaNews will offer a detailed look at Leisure Canada Inc.’s three luxury hotel projects planned for Havana, Jibacoa and Cayo Largo.For more information on these new ventures, please see our extensive report on tourism which ran in the October 2010 issue (see pages 1-4).


See Cattle, page 11

lowest number since 1915 (see chart, page 13).In per-capita terms, the herd has shrunk

from 88 head of cattle per 100 inhabitants in1960 to only 33.7 per 100 over the last fiveyears — not enough to supply the domestic

BY ARMANDO H. PORTELA

With its herd reduced to 1915 levelsand little chance for a rapid recovery,Cuba’s cattle-raising industry faces

its most severe challenges ever — a victim ofprolonged neglect and problems that havegone unattended for decades.

All sectors of the Cuban economy were de-vastated by the collapse of the Soviet bloc inthe early 1990s, but unlike other areas, cattle-ranching is still in a free fall — and expertssay recovery would take 5 to 10 years at best.

The crisis unleashed in the cattle sector issystemic. As one part failed, it knocked downthe next in a domino effect that weakened thewhole industry, to the point that for many ex-perienced farmers, the situation is irrever-sible without a comprehensive overhaul tomake it self-sustaining.

Half a century ago, Cuba nationalized theisland’s entire cattle-ranching structure,removing it from private hands and changingthe genetic composition of the herd itself.

What had been a well-adapted, unpreten-tious system that fulfilled the needs of thedomestic market became a much more mod-ern system — but one highly dependent onfinancial, energy and material inputs fromabroad that proved to be unsustainable onceSoviet patronage collapsed.

The sudden loss of credits, fuels, machin-ery, fertilizers, medicines, fodder, irrigationcapacity, personnel and genetic quality after1990 translated into a devastating blow for thewhole sector. Several consecutive droughts— including a particularly severe one in 2004-05 — made things even worse.

After peaking at 7.3 million head in theearly 1970s, Cuba’s herd declined to an aver-age of 5 million in the 1980s and fell again inthe 1990s. It now stands at an average 3.78million head over the last five years — the

AGRICULTURE

Cattle industry, once the pride of Cuba, takes a beating

market, considering the herd’s low productiv-ity (see chart, page 12).

Meanwhile, the overall weight of slaugh-tered cattle has dropped by 60%, from 296,400tons in the 1980s to 116,600 in the past fewyears (see graph below). These figures trans-late into annual per-capita production of 66 lbsof boneless beef in the 1980s, dropping to 23lbs per-capita in the last few years.

Finally, the average weight per animal sentto the slaughterhouse has dropped from 725lbs in the 1980s to only 698 lb in the last fiveyears. The late scholar Leví Marrero men-tions an average weight of 1,000 lbs per ani-mal slaughtered in the 1950s.

Soon after the fall of the Soviet bloc, pas-turelands began to be invaded by marabú, athorny hardwood bush that creates impene-trable thickets and requires continuous

This is the 2nd in a series of articles by ourcorrespondent Armando H. Portela that examinevarious sectors of Cuban agriculture. In our nextissue, we’ll take a look at the cultivation of rice.

investments to keep it under control.In Camagüey, Cuba’s leading cattle-produc-

ing province, marabú covers over 70% of theland, while nationwide 48% of all pasture landsare “highly infested” by the bush, concedesCuba’s Ministry of Agriculture.

Compounding their problems, Cuban cattle

Cows graze on a farm near Matanzas. Cuba’s livestock industry has declined sharply since the early ‘90s.

LARRY LUXNER


Cattle — FROM PAGE 10

See Cattle, page 12

ranchers could no longer readily purchasefodder, since without Soviet subsidies Cubahad no money to buy wheat, maize or othercommodities on the world market. The down-sizing of Cuba’s sugar industry sharply cutthe supply of molasses, torula yeast and othervaluable nutritional supplements.

As a result, the whole herd suffered, whilesome Cuban premium cattle breeds simplystarved to death. Camagüey lost half of itsherd, according to one article in the Cubanjournal Bohemia.

In addition, the specialized farms nearHavana lost their highly productive animals— many of them averaging 25 liters or moremilk per day — by the tens of thousands.Anecdotic references describe starving live-stock weighing less than 500 lbs as they werebrought to slaughter.



See Cattle, page 13

One ironic outcome of the crisis has beenthe fate of the F1 breed, Cuba’s cherishedmilk cow created by crossbreeding India’sresistant Zebu — from which the F1 gets one-fourth of its genetic makeup — with theEuropean Holstein that makes up the otherthree-fourths.

The F1, highly vulnerable to dry climatespells, proved to be unsustainable under cur-rent conditions and is being slowly substitut-ed by the Siboney breed, which carries moreZebu blood and is therefore more resistantbut less productive when it comes to milking.

In recent years, meanwhile, costly irriga-tion systems have been lost to neglect whilethe lack of transport makes it hard to bringwater trucks to fields during the dry season.

Farmers who lived through the “specialperiod” of the early 1990s still remember howthousands of animals died of thirst in the drymonths from November to May.

Barbed wire, crucial to keeping cattleunder control, simply disappeared from statewarehouses, indirectly causing more damagedue to unrestrained grazing.

RECOVERY ON THE HORIZON?

Another particularly serious problem wasthe exodus of skilled people — from insemi-nators and engineers to agronomists, pasturespecialists, veterinarians, managers andceladores (the ones who check whetherfemales are ready to mate).

With dollarization in 1994, many suchworkers earning the equivalent of $15 amonth or less left the farms in search of bet-ter-paying jobs. Other problems includedawful roads, large-scale theft and lack ofseeds, fertilizers and medicines.

These days, agriculture officials see a glim-mer of hope in some improved figures after


Havana-born Armando Portela, a contributorto CubaNews since the newsletter’s birth in 1993,has a Ph.D. in geography from the Soviet Aca-demy of Sciences. Portela resides in Miami, Fla.

Fla. rancher Parke Wright: U.S. is key to industry’s recoveryBY LARRY LUXNER

Cuba’s cattle industry could have a reallybright future — if only the Castro gov-ernment privatizes state lands to attract

foreign investors, and Washington restoresdiplomatic relations with Havana so that U.S.tourists could flock to Cuba by the millions.

So says John Parke Wright IV, a Floridarancher from Naples who’s been to Cubanumerous times and probably knows moreabout the island’s livestock industry than anycattleman in America.

Days after returning from a cattle fair inBayamó — capital of the eastern province ofGranma — Wright spoke to CubaNews withpassion about an industry that’s been a part ofhis family for generations.

“Beef cattle production is up. The headcount of beef cattle is increasing, especiallywith the cattle of Flora y Fauna SA, MININT(Ministry of Interior) and of course theMinistry of Agriculture,” he said.

“The quality of the herds I visited has

increased dramatically in the last four years,with much healthier weights and appearancethan before. It took me 11 hours to drive fromBayamo to Havana, and I noticed very healthyherds in Camagüey and Jagüey Grande.”

Wright, 60, is a lifelong Floridian, a devoutCatholic and the owner of Naples-based con-sulting and trading firm J.P. Wright & Co.

Profiled six years ago by this newsletter(see CubaNews, July 2004, page 8), Wright andhis family have been shipping cattle to Cubasince the 1840s.

AGRICULTURE


Cattle insemination lab, Camagüey province (top);Fidel Castro and the Kaehler boys sign contracts.

Lykes Brothers, a shipping firm started byhis great-great-grandfather, owned a 15,000-acre ranch near Bayamo which was expropri-ated shortly after the 1959 revolution.

“Between 1929 and 1956, my familyshipped 359 Brahma bulls from the Hudginsranch in Hungerford, Tex., to Cuba,” Wrightsaid proudly. “My ancestors were responsiblefor introducing the Zebu brand into Cuba. I’mnow following in the same footsteps.”

Despite a $3.6 million claim for his family’sconfiscated land, Wright doesn’t appear tohold any grudges. On the contrary, he sayshe’d like to help Cuba as much as possible.

“Governments don’t know how to runranches. We wouldn’t have any meat inMcDonald’s if the government was runningranches in our own country,” said Wright,who counts Fidel’s older brother Ramónamong his closest buddies.

“I’m hopeful that privatization will come,and that Cuba will reach out to foreign invest-ment, so that people like myself can invest incattle-ranching again in Cuba, and be back inthe saddle.”

Ralph Kaehler of St. Charles, Minn., wasthe first U.S. cattleman to sell livestock toCuba after the embargo was relaxed in 2000to allow food and medical sales to the island.

In 2002, Kaehler and his two young sonsbecame local celebrities after news photoswere published around the world as theyshowed Fidel Castro one of their bulls, namedMinnesota Red, during a Havana trade show.

In subsequent years, Wright managed tosell 400 to 500 Brangus heifers, Brafords,Black Angus and Beef Masters to the island’sfood purchasing agency, Alimport.

In the last two years, Alimport has alsobought 3,000 to 4,000 head of cattle fromCanada, but there have been no purchasesfrom the United States since 2004.

However, he said, “I have a contract in theworks for frozen Brahma and Brangus bullsemen. I’m involved in an artificial insemina-tion program to increase beef production.”

So far, Wright says he’s shipped 2,500“straws” of frozen bull semen to Cuba worth atotal of $100,000, with another 2,500 straws tobe delivered shortly.

“We’ve also been giving workshops for thelast seven years in Cuba on breeding and feedtechnology at Cuba’s Institute for AgriculturalSciences,” he told CubaNews.

“There’s a lot going on behind the scenes. Isee the Cuban government making a consci-entious effort to raise standards of living byreducing restrictions,” Wright said.

“Secondly, the development of agricultureand tourism fits into their long-term plan, butthe opening of relations with the UnitedStates is vital to economic activity. So I’m look-ing to President Obama to normalize rela-tions with Cuba.” q

LARRY LUXNER

Washington-based journalist and photographerLarry Luxner is the editor of CubaNews.

2005, the year of the great drought. Since2005, the herd has grown 5% in size, whilebeef production has risen 8% and milk pro-duction has shot up by 66%.

It’s hard to know, however, what part of therecent recovery can be credited to govern-ment initiatives and what part was thanks sim-ply to better weather.

Authorities must decide what kind of recov-ery they want and how far to pursue such ini-tiatives. If their goal is just to keep the indus-try from falling further, probably not muchmore has to be changed. But if their target isto return to a self-sustaining herd with anaffordable, non-subsidized supply of milk andbeef for the people of Cuba, reforms will obvi-ously have to go much deeper. q


confrontational: “best-friends-forever,” “keep-it-private,” “we-respectfully-disagree” and, inrare cases, “take-your-visit-and-shove-it.”

The Times article quoted that cable as say-ing that most countries with diplomatic postsin Havana “do not raise human rights issueswith the Cuban government in public or pri-vate. A handful of countries including Britain,Germany and the Czech Republic have re-fused to send senior officials to Cuba, ratherthan accept the government’s restrictions onwho they can meet while there.”

Commenting on that apparent discrepancy,Julia Sweig — a Cuba expert at the Council on

against the largely black Santiago team.

CHINESE VIP GETS THE COLD SHOULDER

Here’s another tidbit from Parmly’s missive:“A couple of weeks ago, there was a con-

cert at Amadeo Roldan theater that featured aChinese conductor as guest of the NationalSymphony ... The Chinese Embassy made abig deal out of the Chinese guest conductor,turning out a pretty much full house of Cu-bans and others, and most importantly, thevisiting Chinese vice-minister of culture, whowas in town on an official visit.

“After the concert, several officials got upto speak,” the cable continues. “Leading theCuban cohort was Abel Prieto, minister of cul-ture, who had the usual things to say aboutthe depth and strength of Cuban-Chinese ties.All the speakers got the usual polite applause.

“Then the Chinese vice-minister got up.Rather than just respond with counter-inani-ties, he launched into a speech on the suc-cess of China’s economic model, includingnoting the degree to which openness to theworld, encouraging private initiative andletting individual creativity have free reinwere key to economic progress. The audi-ence went cold. Not a clap, not a peep whenthe minister finished speaking.”

SOME QUESTION RELEVANCE OF U.S. CABLES

Other cables describe cooperation betweenU.S. and Cuba in counternarcotics efforts —especially in the face of Jamaican indifference— and harassment of Cuban doctors in Vene-zuela who quit their jobs and want to leave.

One 2010 report issued by the U.S. Em-bassy in Caracas says physicians approved forhumanitarian parole via the Cuban MedicalProfessionals Program have been physicallyand verbally abused while trying to fly out ofVenezuela’s Maquetía International Airport.

“Many of those allowed to board flights toMiami are only able to do so after paying size-able bribes (generally $700 to $1,000) to Vene-zuelan immigration officials or Cuban offic-ials said to be working at the airport,” it said.

Another cable describes how Cuba has suc-cessfully taken over the management of Vene-zuela’s ports, yet in a February 2010 dispatchout of Havana, Farrar quotes a top Chinesediplomat there as expressing “visible exasper-ation” with Cuba’s insistence on retaining amajority control of any joint venture.

“No matter whether a foreign business in-vests $10 million or $100 million, the GOC’sinvestment will always add up to 51%,” the un-happy Chinese diplomat told USINT staff.

The commercial counselor also complainedabout Cuba always paying back loans late.

Yet just as diplomats are suspicious of Wiki-Leaks, so is at least one veteran Cuba-watcher.

“We should not accept what the cables aresaying as the absolute truth. The Interest Sec-tion in Havana talks to people and they get theinformation and send a cable,” Jaime Such-licki, chief of the University of Miami’s CubaTransition Project, recently told reporters.“We are not getting the whole picture.” q

Foreign Relations — told the Times that “onthe one hand, the U.S. is saying the dissidentsare hopeless and aging. On the other hand,the same interests section is saying that Cana-dian and EU engagement is not helpingprogress on human rights.”

Not all the diplomatic traffic out of Havanadeals with life-or-death issues. A colorful dis-patch dated Jun. 5, 2006, and signed by Parm-ly touches on baseball, health care and racism.

“USINT is always looking for human-inter-est stories and other news that shatters themyth of Cuban medical prowess, which hasbecome a key feature of the regime’s foreignpolicy and its self-congratulatory propagan-da,” said the cable.

It went on to describe a prominent Jamai-can surgeon, Dr. Albert Lue, who “has pub-licly denounced Cuban medical incompetencyin handling Jamaican patients who traveled toCuba for eye surgery. Of 60 such patients hesurveyed, three were left permanently blindand another 14 returned to Jamaica with per-manent cornea damage.”

The cable continues with an eyewitness ac-count of racial slurs and name-calling during abaseball game pitting Havana’s Industriales

WikiLeaks — FROM PAGE 1

George Washington University professor Ed-ward “Skip” Gnehm, former director-generalof the U.S. Foreign Service and former U.S.ambassador to Jordan, Kuwait and Australia.

“This has broken our confidence and hasleft most of our interlocutors fearful andangry,” Gnehm told CubaNews in a phone in-terview from Amman, Jordan. “In the future,people are going to be wary about talking tous, and it’ll be harder for us to give our owngovernments the information they need tomake analytical decisions.”

PREDICTING FIDEL’S DEATH — AGAIN

When it comes to Cuba, the sheer volumeof traffic exposed by WikiLeaks could keepan enterprising journalist busy for years.

One cable dated Mar. 16, 2007, almosteight months after Fidel ceded power toRaúl, has received lots of attention.

In it, Michael Parmly — then-chief ofthe U.S. Interests Section in Havana —quotes unnamed sources as saying theelder Castro fell ill on a domestic flightafter a long day of giving speeches.

“They had to land urgently once theyknew of his bleeding,” it says. “He wasdiagnosed with diverticulitis of the colon.”

That same cable quotes a medical sourceas saying Castro “won’t die immediately, butwill progressively lose his faculties andbecome ever more debilitated until he dies.”

Parmly himself adds: “We are missing toomany variables to be able to predict accurate-ly how many more months Fidel will live.”

In a January 2009 dispatch, Parmly’s suc-cessor in Havana, Jonathan Farrar, said “GOC[Government of Cuba] officials would mostlikely manage the death announcement andsubsequent funeral arrangements in greatdetail with a view toward putting the best faceon the situation, both domestically and to theworld.” It goes on to speculate that Fidel’sdeath could even spark a drop in the numberof Cubans seeking to emigrate, as islanderswait to see what unfolds.

U.S. HAS DOUBTS ABOUT CUBA’S DISSIDENTS

On another topic, a series of cables sent toWashington in May 2009 and signed by Far-rar hints that Cuba’s dissident movement isno longer worthy of America’s full support.

“Many opposition groups are prone todominance by individuals with strong egoswho do not work well together,” Farrar toldhis superiors. “We see very little evidencethat the mainline dissident organizationshave much resonance among Cubans.”

In that cable, the USINT chief suggestedthat new generation of “non-traditional dissi-dents” such as blogger Yoani Sánchez wouldhave more impact in post-Castro Cuba, butthat “the most immediate successors to theCastro regime will probably come from with-in the middle ranks of the government itself.”

The New York Times reported that in a cableabout how other countries deal with Cuba onofficial visits, U.S. officials classified thoseapproaches on a scale from kowtowing to

For an in-depth analysis of the impact ofthe WikiLeaks scandal on U.S. diplomacy, seethis reporter’s article in the January 2011issue of The Washington Diplomat, page 9, oronline at http://www.washdiplomat.com. Washington-based journalist and photographer

Larry Luxner is the editor of CubaNews.

change on the island also is waning.Recent surveys of exile voters in South Florida show their top con-

cerns are the Iraq war, rising health-care costs and the U.S. economy— not Cuba. Gomez said Florida’s new U.S. Senator-elect, MarcoRubio, reflects that trend, with his prime focus on U.S. domesticissues including jobs and not on Cuban affairs.

Of course, Cuba’s leadership must change some time, especiallywhen Raúl and many of his top aides are in their 70s and 80s.

ICCAS Director Jaime Suchlicki predicted a growing role for Raúl’sson, Alejandro Castro Espín, now a colonel and possibly “the nextheir” to the presidency.

But ex-CIA official Brian Latell warned that Raúl — a four-star gen-eral and the world’s longest-serving military leader — would be mak-ing one of his “biggest political mistakes” to name his son as heir, andthat “it might create some kind of rebellion in the Cuban military.”

For serious change, Latell said Cuba would need a real reformerlike a Gorbachev in the Soviet Union. But outspoken reformers havebeen pushed aside by Raúl and could be shunted in the future too.

“It’s almost as likely there’s a Putin lurking out there as aGorbachev,” said Latell, referring to the former Russian presidentwidely criticized for keeping a hold on power even after leaving office.

The researchers warned that laying off a million state workers willboost tensions in Cuba, since most of them will lack the credit, skills,raw materials and tools to operate microbusinesses successfully.

Plus, so many new entrants into service jobs from repairs to foodsales will likely reduce the incomes of people already hustling to makea living in those job categories.

“Perhaps one of the ironies is that the capital will mostly come fromthe Cuban diaspora, so a Cuban family member can sell used booksor trim palm trees” to make ends meet on the island, said Azel.

Growing social and economic tensions — especially among Cubanswith no relatives abroad to help financially — could lead to incidentsof protest, but researchers don’t foresee a mass uprising. Cubans are“all about bread-and-butter,” not democracy, Azel said.

And state repression is likely to increase to quell the tensions,Suchlicki said. “The pot is boiling,” he said, but “not to the point ofsocial explosion.”

– DOREEN HEMLOCK


SOUTH AFRICA FORGIVES $160m CUBAN DEBT

South Africa will cancel 1.1 billion rand(about $160 million) of debt owed by Cuba inan effort to boost trade between the two coun-tries, said Rob Davies, the country’s trade andindustry minister.

Bloomberg also reported on Dec. 8 thatSouth Africa will offer R70 million of extendedcredit lines, R40 million of support to Cuba forseeds and fertilizers and R100 million from itsAfrican Renaissance Fund to fund purchasesfrom Africa’s largest economy.

Meanwhile, the Moscow Times — quoting apreliminary prospectus for Russia’s first saleof ruble-denominated Eurobonds — reportedthat Cuba and North Korea owe Russia a com-bined $37 billion, more than half of all foreignassets claimed by the Russian government.

CUBAN MEDIA SLAMS RICE IMPORT POLICIES

In 2011, Cuba will once again have to importtwice the amount of rice it produces in orderto meet domestic demand, the official weeklyTrabajadores reported Dec. 13, citing theisland’s deputy minister of agriculture.

Cuba needs “more people growing rice andselling it though various channels, but withdiscipline,” said Juan Pérez Lamas in a meet-ing with growers, according to the publicationof Cuba’s only legal trade union, the CTC.

Trabajadores slammed the fact that a lack ofresources, general disorganization and apathytoward such options as cutting by hand havecaused “regrettable losses” in the rice fields.

“We’re left with the impression that rice pro-duction goes at a faster pace than the develop-ment of a national infrastructure to sustain it.”

In that sense, it said, there are problemswith machinery like tractors, mills and dry-ers, and a “poorly maintained network ofcanals between reservoirs and plantations”that loses half the water meant for crops.

“Cuba now spends on producing the grainseven times more than Vietnam,” according toTrabajadores, which stressed the importanceof “better planning.”

BUSINESS BRIEFS It also suggested that in the new context ofeconomic adjustments being planned by theCastro regime, “it would be healthy to explainto the grower just how much the governmentcan promise him.”

“It’s absurd and anti-economic that we can'tcome up with the $250 that it costs to producea ton of rice here when it’s needed, but wecan find the $500 it costs to bring it fromAsia,” the weekly said.

In 2009, the Agriculture Ministry’s RiceProgram launched a state plan aimed at sub-stituting 29% of imports that year, a numberprojected to rise to 56% by 2013.

Cuba spent more than $2 billion on riceimports in 2009, according to official figures,which show that Cuba’s 11.2 million inhabi-tants each consume an average of 11 lbs. ofrice per month, translating into annual con-sumption of more than 600,000 tons.

ANGOLA TO DRILL FOR OFFSHORE CUBAN OIL

Angola’s state-run oil company Sonangolhas won rights to operate two Cuban offshoreoil blocks in a venture with Cupet SA,Angola’s official news agency said Dec. 20, asAngola expands its international footprint.

Sonangol already has interests on the U.S.side of the Gulf of Mexico and in Brazil.

T&T CONGLOMERATE EXPLORES CUBA POTENTIAL

Trinidad’s ANSA McAL Ltd., parent compa-ny of Guardian Media Ltd., Trinidad Broad-casting, Carib Brewery Ltd. and 50 other localbusinesses in the brewing, manufacturing,financial services, media and real-estate sec-tors, sent a five-day mission to Cuba in lateNovember to explore investments there.

ANSA chief executive Gerry Brooks led thedelegation to Cuba — the first in the compa-ny’s 129-year history, said a press release.

Brooks was accompanied by the heads ofANSA’s various divisions, including ABELBuilding Solutions, ANSA McAL Chemicals,ANSA Polymer, Caribbean Development Co.Ltd., and Carib Glassworks Ltd.

“A rapidly expanding market, promisingbusiness environment and commitment toattracting foreign investments in strategic sec-

tors puts Cuba among the region’s mostpromising markets in the non-English speak-ing Caribbean,” said the company. “Theseinternal developments align well with theANSA McAL Group’s business strategy.”

The company, which already operates inTrinidad & Tobago, Barbados, Guyana,Grenada, St. Kitts & Nevis, St. Lucia and theUnited States, has annual revenues of $790million and a workforce of over 6,000.

Brooks said ANSA wants to export to Cubaas well as joint ventures with Cuban entities ingeneric drugs, biotechnology, food, construc-tion supplies and plastic and glass containers.

Last year, bilateral trade reached barely $40million, mainly made up of petroleum prod-ucts from Trinidad. Even so, the twin-islandnation is Cuba’s largest trade partner in the15-member Caricom bloc.

Details: Norman Sabga, Chairman, ANSAMcAL Ltd., 11th Fl., Tatil Bldg., 11 Maraval Rd.,Port of Spain, Trinidad. Tel: (868) 625-3670.Fax: (868) 624-8753. URL: www.ansamcal.com.

U.S. BEAN GROWERS MAKE NEW SALES TO CUBA

Industry sources are now confirming recentsales of U.S. dry beans to Cuba, totaling20,000 metric tons, or 440,000 bags, accordingto the Northarvest Bean Growers Association.

WestStar Food Co. sold Cuba’s state purcha-sing agency Alimport 5,000 tons of pintobeans, which left Corpus Christi, Tex., onDec. 13. PS International has sold 10,000 tons,split evenly between blacks and pintos, toCuba, and St. Hilarie Seed Co. has sold theCubans 5,000 tons of black beans.

In early December, a delegation from NorthDakota discovered that Alimport wanted tobuy 5,000 tons of black beans. This is in addi-tion to its recent purchase of 20,000 tons.

MELIA INAUGURATES 25th PROPERTY IN CUBA

Spanish hotel chain Sol Meliá has openedits 25th resort in Cuba after 20 years of doingbusiness on the island.

The 105-room Meliá Buenavista — an “all-inclusive royal service and spa hotel” — islocated on Cayo Santa Maria, along the northcoast of Villa Clara province.

ICCAS — FROM PAGE 4


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If your organization is sponsoring an upcoming event, please let our readers know!Fax details to CubaNews at (3 0 1 ) 9 4 9 -0 0 6 5 or send e-mail to larr [email protected].

Jan. 2 9 : “ALBA and the future of Caribbean and Latin American Integration,” Tower Bldg.,London Metropolitan University. Participants: Carlos Alzugaray Treto, University of Havana;Michael Erlsman, Indiana State University; LMU’s Emily Morris; Ken Cole, International In-stitute for the Study of Cuba, and others. Details: Stephen Wilkinson, Director, Center for Carib-bean and Latin American Research, London Metropolitan University, 31 Jewry Street, London N78DB, England. Tel: +44 20 7320-3060 / +44 795 638-1640. Email: [email protected].

Feb. 3 : “Outlook on the Americas” luncheon, InterContinental Hotel, Miami. Speakers: JoséFernández, assistant secretary of state for economic, energy and business affairs; EduardoSolorzano, CEO of Wal-Mart Latin America; Susan Kaufman Purcell of the Center for Hemis-pheric Policy, and Jeffrey Schott of Peterson Institute for International Economics. Cost: $75.Details: Allison Parmiter, Association of American Chambers of Commerce in Latin America, 1615H Street, NW, Washington, DC. 20062. Tel: (202) 463-5573. Email: [email protected].

Feb. 7 -1 1 : Informática Habana 2011, Palco, Havana. 14th International Convention & Fair.Cost: CUC 300 . Details: Palacio de Convenciones, Calle 146, e/11 y 13, Cubanacán, La Habana.Tel: +53 7 202-6011. Fax: +53 7 202-8382. URL: http://evento.informaticahabana.com.

Mar. 1 5 : Lecture by Gen. Gustavo Chui, London Metropolitan University. Chui is co-authorof book, “Our History is Still Being Written: The Story of Three Chinese-Cuban Generals inthe Cuban Revolution.” No charge. Details: Stephen Wilkinson, Director, Center for Caribbeanand Latin American Research, London Metropolitan University, 31 Jewry Street, London N7 8DB,England. Tel: +44 20 7320-3060 / +44 795 638-1640. Email: [email protected].

Apr. 3 -6 : 12th Sustainable Tourism Conference, Fairmont Southampton, Bermuda. STC-12will bring together Caribbean and global tourism specialists to share their experiences insustainable tourism. Cost: $695. Details:Caribbean Tourism Organization, 80 Broad St., #3200,New York, NY 10004. Tel: (212) 635-9530. Fax: (212) 635-9511. Email: [email protected].

Apr. 4 -8 : IV Cuban Earth Sciences Convention & Fair, Palco, Havana. Focus is on Cubanand Caribbean earth sciences. More than 600 abstracts already received; abstracts accepteduntil Jan. 30. Cost: CUC 260. Details: Palacio de Convenciones, Calle 146, e/11 y 13, Cubanacán,La Habana. Tel: +53 7 202-6011. Fax: +53 7 202-8382. URL: www.cubacienciasdelatierra.com.

Apr. 23 -May 5 : US/Cuba Labor Exchange Seminar to Cuba. Includes one week of laborcourses at the Lazaro Peña School of the Cuban Workers Central Union. Hosted by the Con-federación de Trabajadores Cubanos. Price: $1,650 (inc. round-trip airfare between Cancúnand Havana; 2 meals a day, transportation, translation and visas). Details: US/Cuba Labor Ex-change, PO Box 39188, Redford, MI 48239. Tel: (313) 575-4933. Email: [email protected].

May 1 0 -1 2 : Caribbean Hotel & Tourism Investment Conference, location TBA. “Highlightsthe attractive business and investment opportunities available in the Caribbean.” CHTA 2010conference featured a special panel on Cuba. Details: Alec Sanguinetti, Director-General andCEO, Caribbean Hotel & Tourism Association, 2655 LeJeune Road, Suite #910, Coral Gables, FL33134. Tel: (305) 443-3040. Fax: (305) 443-3005. Email: [email protected].

CALENDAR OF EVENTS

Documents

January 2011 Issue