May 2011 Issue

BY DOMINGO AMUCHASTEGUI

The Sixth Congress of the Cuban Commu-nist Party has concluded — and beyondits conventional rhetoric about socialism

and the percentage of old-guard “históricos” re-maining in key leading positions, the basic factremains: the process of reform has alreadybegun and there is no turning back.

This time, as President Raúl Castro repeated-ly insisted, the decisions agreed to during thecongress (an expanded version of the “Lineami-entos” or guidelines) will be fully implemented.The reason for failure, he said, “will be our inca-pacity to overcome the errors that we havemade for more than 50 years.”

Beginning with Raúl’s opening report, andthroughout all the debates and final closure,criticism prevailed when looking back at theParty’s performance over the last 52 years.

Any observer may question this criticism,arguing that he and his brother Fidel were

directly responsible for most of these errors.Indeed they were, but the need to blame

someone at this stage is not a crucial issue.The current leadership — which is basically

the same as before — decided to avoid commit-ting that second half of the harakiri, which was,by Cuban standards, very harsh and crude, upto the point of characterizing as “truly shame-ful” their lack of preparation for the necessaryrejuvenation of the Party leadership.

After all, they, as the generación de los históri-cos, are collectively the bearers of such guilt,but now the priority is their willingness to moveahead with a radically different economic andsocial design for Cuba’s 11.2 million people.

In doing so, out of the 291 original Lineamien-tos, 16 were merged, 94 were fully kept, 181were modified and 36 new ones were incorpo-rated, for a total of 311. This means that 68% ofthe guidelines were reformulated, based on crit-

BY LARRY LUXNER

Four months after President Barack Obamaannounced dramatic changes in the regu-lations that had long restricted religious,

cultural and educational travel to Cuba, thoserules were finally published by the TreasuryDepartment’s Office of Foreign Assets Control.

This comes as a U.S. consumer surveyreleased Apr. 26 found that 75% of respondentswould visit or at least consider a trip to Cuba, ifAmericans were allowed to travel freely there.

Another 1.7% said they’d already traveled toCuba, according to a poll of 953 people conduct-ed by the Travel Leaders travel agency networkMar. 10 to Apr. 10 across the United States.

“Culturally and historically, Cuba fascinates alarge number of Americans,” stated Roger E.Block, president of Travel Leaders FranchiseGroup, which sponsored the poll.

“Physically, Cuba is amazingly close to theFlorida coast, yet so far away because of contin-ued restrictions for most citizens.”

Treasury’s Apr. 21 publication of the OFACrules contain few surprises, though lawyers arenow going over the text of the new rules care-fully to determine what they actually mean.

“The release of the guidelines, while a hope-ful sign, does not necessarily mean people-to-people licenses will be forthcoming soon,” Wash-ington attorney Robert Muse told CubaNews.

“Nor does it tell us how expansive the U.S.government intends to be in its implementationof this promising category of authorized travelto Cuba,” he said. “In the end, that will dependto a considerable degree on the institutionalbona fides of the applicants and the strength ofthe application they file.”

Muse said the OFAC guidelines indicate forthe first time that “a non-Cuban, pre-existinginvolvement in educational activities with a peo-ple-to-people component will be required.” Thismeans that a startup organization — with nodomestic or overseas experience conducting

In the News

USAID freezed outSen. Kerry says USAID’s democracy pro-motion efforts aren’t working ......Page 4

New Cuba PACEmbargo foes create political action com-mittee to push their agenda ........Page 6

Microloans for CubaU.S. experts urge creative financing solu-tions to boost Cuban economy ....Page 8

Flying from TexasDFW begins Cuba charter flights Aug. 27;Houston’s IAH is added to list ......Page 9

Chicken in troubleSpecial report: Cuba’s dismal poultry, eggsector a victim of neglect ............Page 10

Brazilian interestParaná-based Globoaves mulls investingin Cuba poultry, egg industry ....Page 12

Quintales y arrobasA look at Cuba’s colorful, unique historyof weights and measures ............Page 13

Business briefsForeign firms to drill 5 offshore oil wells;Haiti aid barge claim disputed ....Page 14

BookshelfCoast Guard’s war on human smuggling,Hidden Cuba and beat writers ...Page 15

See Party, page 2

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].

Party Congress rolls out key economic

reforms — but leaves old guard intact

See OFAC, page 2

OFAC publishes new travel regulations;

some grumble they don’t go far enough

Vol. 19, No. 5 May 2011

2 CubaNews v May 2011

OFAC — FROM PAGE 1

such programs — may not necessarily qualifyfor a people-to-people license.

Secondly, one-year, multi-trip licenses willnow be issued. Therefore, a separate applica-tion with a specific itinerary will not have tobe filed for each trip to Cuba.

In addition, applications must now containexamples of activities that will result in“meaningful interaction between U.S. travel-ers and individuals in Cuba.”

That excludes individuals or entities “act-ing for or on behalf of a prohibited official ofthe Government of Cuba or a prohibitedmember of the Cuban Communist Party.”

John McAuliff of the New York-based Fundfor Reconciliation and Development foundmuch to criticize in the new OFAC rules, not-ing that “unfortunately, the far lengthier sec-tions on specific license reflects a controlrather than a facilitation attitude inconsistent

with the goals of purposeful travel.”He added that Obama’s Jan. 14 announce-

ment created the problem by unnecessarilyrequiring specific licenses for many catego-ries of travel — and then leaving in charge anagency whose primary mission is protectingthe financial side of national security.”

“Bottom line, the guidelines are a step for-ward to implement the new regulations,” saidMcAuliff, “but an oddly overcautious and out-of-sync response to a neighbor that haslaunched itself on a path of major social andeconomic reform.”

Miami attorney Tim Ashby, who followsU.S. policy on Cuba closely, says the OFACregulations come as no surprise at all.

“They haven’t gone as far as I would like,but they’re pretty much par for the course. It’sa step in the right direction,” he said. “I don’tthink we’ll see any more loosening of the trav-el regulations until after next year’s elections,unless something dramatic happens in Cuba.”

Ashby says that “something” would have tobe pretty dramatic — like Raúl Castro step-ping down.

“I don’t think even if Alan Gross is released,it would make a big difference in the nearterm. The Obama administration is still sowary about losing New Jersey and Floridathat they’ve done as much as they’re going todo” [with regard to relaxing travel rules].

Howard Farber, CEO of Fundación Avant-Garde — a Florida-based private, nonprofitgroup that promotes Cuban art — agrees thatthe new rules are nice, but not enough.

“I try not to be political, but my whole inter-est in Cuban contemporary art and culture isaffected by politics,” he told us. “I want to beable to buy a ticket in Miami, get on a planeand go to Cuba — and there are no guidelinesnow that say I can do that.” q

icism and suggestions from tens of thousandsof meetings where almost nine million peoplespoke up freely, and rather bluntly, about howthey wanted Cuba to be in 2015: a socialisteconomy where market relations, privateproperty, small businesses, private coopera-tives and foreign investments will reshape anew economic and social model.

Some of the most crucial guidelines arealready well advanced in their implementa-tion. These include land tenure, self-employ-ment, small enterprises, decentralization,drastic reduction of state bureaucracy, eco-nomic subsidies, welfare policies and institu-tions, closing down of non-productive statebusinesses and massive layoffs.

These reforms will continue to expand byallowing the buying and selling of houses,automobiles and other private property forthe first time ever; leasing idle state facilitiesfor Cubans to set up businesses; giving cred-its from state banks to small businesses andfarmers; granting additional land to produc-tive farmers, finqueros and cooperatives, andextending new incentives to foreign investors.

The guidelines will in the near future haveto be established in the form of legislation,codes, norm, and regulations, eventually lead-ing to serious amendments to the constitutionof the republic (see related story, page 7).

Parallel to this, the Party —while separat-ing itself for good of any meddling and intru-sion in government administration — willdeal with the many changes necessary toredefine its internal and public functions. Itwill continue eliminating prejudice againstany religious beliefs, something that Raúl saidwould only reinforce the nation’s unity.

This, together with the resolution estab-lishing term limits for Cuba’s top leaders, in-cluding the president, are among several ofthe most salient developments to come out ofthe four-day congress in Havana.

Raúl, 79, told some 1,000 delegates to the

congress that limiting key state appointmentsto two five-year terms — an unprecedentedmove — would help “guarantee the systemat-ic rejuvenation” of leadership.

“It wasn’t possible to do this before becausepresent circumstances are quite differentfrom those prevailing in the first decades ofthe revolution that was not yet consolidatedwhen it had already become the target of con-tinuous threats and aggressions,” he said.

The matter would not be taken up now, headded, but at a party conference in January.He said any limits would apply to him as well.

To provide strict supervision over theprocess of implementing and developingthese guidelines, the congress agreed to forma permanent government commission tooversee this gigantic task.

Newly elected Politburo member MarinoMurillo Jorge, 49, will preside over its work-ings; undoubtedly this commission and Mur-illo will be among the most important players.

Murillo, a key architect of the Lineamien-tos, comes from the ranks of FAR’s experts inthe field of the reform project known asPerfeccionamiento Empresarial. He is one ofthe three new Politburo members, and muchyounger than the “historicos.”

Together with two-thirds of the new CentralCommittee, Murillo represents the youngergenerations in their 40s and 50s.

The Party’s rejuvenation and reaching outto blacks, mestizos and women is already inthe making, and already quite visible.

And that process isn’t over yet.On Jan. 28, 2012, the Conferencia Nacional

del Partido will meet, and the reshaping of theCuban leadership will continue. As Raúl said,“this is just a first step.”

The Washington-based Council on Hemis-pheric Affairs, in an Apr. 25 analysis of thecongress, said “a disappointing component ofthe meeting was the absence of adequate dis-course” over the status of proposed reforms.

“As Raúl has promised not to burden Cubawith immediate and crippling changes due tothe maleficent effects on a nation unpreparedfor such shock therapy,” said COHA, “the tran-sition time for adopting the reforms will likelyturn out to be more torpid than electrifying.”

Regardless of whatever objections theremay be, the fact remains that Cuba is chang-ing. Five years from now, assuming thesechanges are fully implemented, Cuba will bean entirely different country than it is today. q

Party — FROM PAGE 1

Former Cuban intelligence officer DomingoAmuchastegui has lived in Miami since 1994. Hewrites regularly for CubaNews on the CommunistParty and South Florida’s Cuban exile community.

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

CUBA’S NEW POLITBURO*1. Raúl Castro Ruz2. José R. Machado Ventura3. Ramiro Valdés Menéndez4. Abelardo Colomé Ibarra5. Julio Casas Regueiro6. Esteban Lazo Hernández7. Ricardo Alarcón 8. Miguel M. Díaz-Canel Bermúdez9. Leopoldo Cintra Frías10. Ramón Espinosa Martín11. Alvaro López Miera12. Salvador Valdés Mesa13. Mercedes López Acea14. Marino Murillo Jorge15. Adel Yzquierdo Rodríguez

SECRETARIAT1. José R. Machado Ventura2. José R. Balaguer Cabrera3. Esteban Lazo Hernández4. Víctor F. Gaute López5. Olga Lidia Tapia Iglesias6. Misael Enamorado Dager*Since 1997, two of the Politburo’s 24 members havepassed away (Juan Almeida and Alfredo Jordán) and 13were removed at different stages since then: surprising-ly Ulises Rosales del Toro, Abel Prieto Jiménez andConcepión Campa Huergo — and Fidel Castro Ruz, whoofficially announced his resignation.

May 2011 v CubaNews 3

expelled AmbassadorPatrick Duddy in2010 and then reject-ed the man nominat-ed to replace him,Larry Palmer.

One U.S. officialwho knows his workcalled Caulfield a“good and competentofficer with solidpolitical judgment.”Another said his lackof ambassadorial rank undercut his ability toimprove U.S.-Venezuela relations. q

John Caulfield, the veteran diplomat run-ning the U.S. Embassy in Venezuela, hasbeen picked to head the U.S. mission in

Havana, the Miami Herald reported Apr. 27.Caulfield will replace Jonathan Farrar, who

has been named as ambassador to Nicaraguaafter a 3-year assignment in Havana markedby complaints from some Cuban dissidentsthat criticized them too harshly.

U.S. officials said his replacement of Farrarwas a routine reassignment for both diplo-mats. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton hasapproved Caulfield’s new assignment but notyet made it official, the Herald reported.

The Senate, which must approve all ambas-sadors, is not required to endorse his postingbecause the U.S. Interests Section in Havanais not a full-fledged embassy.

Caulfield, who spent much of his diplomaticcareer of more than 30 years in consularposts, is regarded as a professional and quietdiplomat who did the best he could runningthe embassy in Caracas in the absence of anambassador, the Herald reported.

He was appointed as deputy chief of mis-sion in 2008 but has been charge d’affaires,responsible for the day-to-day management ofthe embassy, since President Hugo Chávez

In the early morning hours of Apr. 17, 1961 an expeditionary force of 1,400 fully equipped men landed at the Bay of Pigs, 100 miles southeast of Havana. Ifthe 2506th Brigade and the CIA were looking to establish a momentary stronghold on an isolated strip of land in Cuba, then they found it. Unlike many otherCuban natural harbors, the Bay of Pigs (known in Spanish as Playa Girón) is easily accessible day or night without navigational aids. It’s a long, deep and wideindentation along Cuba’s southwestern coast, open to the deep waters of the Caribbean Sea. Depths exceed 600 feet near the shoreline allowing larger ves-sels to get closer. The land around Playa Girón is a low grassy and mangrove swamp (part of the Zapata Swamp, the largest wetland in the Caribbean), impass-able for men or vehicles along its entire span with the exception of four narrow roads that can be blocked and guarded with a relatively small force. At thelanding points of Playa Larga (code-named Red Beach) and Playa Girón (Blue Beach), the swamp is 5-8 miles wide, and edged by a narrow dry belt along theshoreline forming a very rough surface of limestone covered with thick tropical forests and bushes. Then as now, this harsh environment made life tough inCiénaga de Zapata. As result, it was thinly populated. Fifty years ago barely a few hundred families lived in the area, mainly wood choppers, coal-makers andfishermen. On Apr. 17, the brigadistas rapidly secured a beachhead 35 miles long and up to 10 miles wide south of the Ciénaga de Zapata, from Playa Girónto Playa Larga. Three days after the landing — pushed inch by inch along five fronts by Castro’s much bigger Castro’s force — they surrendered at Playa Girón.

BAY OF PIGS INVASION: 50 YEARS LATER

John Caulfield to replace Farrar at U.S. mission in Havana

POLITICS

John Caulfield to Havana

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Another $750,000 would go to the Grupo deApoyo a la Democracia, an organization runby hard-line exiles in Miami that has providedmaterial support to dissidents in Cuba, includ-ing the Damas de Blanco. Groupo de Apoyo ala Democracia is among the groups the GAOsaid mismanaged funds.

Washington-based Freedom House, the or-ganization that’s received the most fundingfrom the USAID for pro-democracy programsin Cuba, would receive another $1.7 million.

Unhappy with results, Kerry freezes USAID Cuba programs

US-CUBA RELATIONS

BY ANA RADELAT

After more than a year of trying to changethe nature of a federal grant programaimed at destabilizing Cuba’s govern-

ment, Sen. John Kerry (D-MA) has frozen $20million appropriated to fund it this year.

“There is no evidence that ‘democracy pro-motion’ programs, which have cost U.S. tax-payers more than $150 million so far, are help-ing the Cuban people,” said Kerry, who headsthe Senate Foreign Relations Committee.

Kerry also said he’s asked the GovernmentAccountability Office to investigate “the legalbasis and effectiveness of these operations.”

The 1996 Helms-Burton Act, which tight-ened the U.S. embargo on Cuba, required theU.S. Agency for International Developmentand the State Department to establish a grantprogram aimed at “democratizing” Cuba.

But a 2006 GAO probe discovered thatmoney aimed at sparking dissent in Cuba wasspent instead on a gasoline-powered chainsaw, Nintendo Gameboys, Sony PlayStations,a mountain bike, leather coats, cashmeresweaters, crab meat and Godiva chocolates.

A congressional aide said Kerry wants theadministration to “decontaminate” the pro-gram so its goal is not an overthrow of Cuba’sCcommunist government, but to “help theCuban people help themselves.”

But that change in direction wasn’t evidentin how the Obama administration proposed tospend $20 million allocated for the programthis year.

It notified Congress that it would continueto fund the National Endowment for Demo-cracy’s programs in Cuba with a new $2 mil-lion grant. The NED grant would be used tosupport activists and independent journalistsin Cuba, the USAID said.

But the NED has been involved in opera-tions around the globe aimed at destabilizinggovernments hostile to the United States andcalled “a CIA front” by the Castro regime.

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

The U.S. Interests Section in Havana, which supervises USAID’s Cuba democracy promotion programs.

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Another $2 million would go to Creative As-sociates International of Bethesda, Md., whichemploys Caleb McCarry — the Bush admin-istration’s so-called Cuba Transition Coordi-nator and a hardliner when it comes to U.S.policy on Cuba.

EchoCuba, a Miami-based evangelicalChristian organization that teaches free-mar-ket skills in Cuba and is run by Cuban exile

Teo Babún, would be given $213,582.The rest of the money was not allocated by

the USAID or State Department to any partic-ular grantee, but divided up in eight areas tosolicit proposals. They included finding youngdissident leaders, increasing ways to thwartthe Cuban government’s control of theInternet and other forms of communicationsand support for Cuban lawyers who are will-ing to take on the state.

But Kerry said those goals haven’t

“achieved much more than provoking theCuban government to arrest a U.S. govern-ment contractor who was distributing satellitecommunication sets to Cuban contacts.”

That USAID subcontractor, Alan P. Gross, isserving a 15-year sentence in a Cuban jail, con-victed of “acting against the independence orterritorial integrity of the state.”

He worked for Bethesda-based Develop-ment Associates International and was paid$595,000 from the company’s multimillion-dol-lar USAID contract for his work in Cuba.

While Kerry has drawn a line in the sand,his counterpart in the House, Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (R-FL), chair of the House ForeignAffairs Committee, demanded the release offunds. She said the Cuba programs provided a“lifeline” to Cuban dissidents.

“It is regrettable that some would stop fund-ing for programs promoting democracy andhuman rights in Cuba and suggest that theprograms provoked the wrongful imprison-ment of a U.S. citizen in Cuba,” said Ros-Lehtinen, who was born in Cuba. “We have noapologies to make for standing with peopleyearning for freedom.” q

Mesa-Lago: Proposed reforms not enough

Cuba’s recently proposed reforms are“the most profound changes in morethan 50 years,” yet they represent

“small improvements incapable of solvingCuba’s current economic crisis.”

So says University of Pittsburgh profes-sor and Cuba expert Carmelo Mesa-Lago.

Even more importantly, warns the profes-sor, if these reforms don’t work, “social andpolitical conflicts” will increase significantly.

Mesa-Lago spoke Mar. 3 at the Universityof Miami’s Institute for Cuban and Cuban-American Studies. He began his lecture byquestioning the reliability of Cuban govern-ment sources and statistics.

The flow of data to the UN’s EconomicCommission on Latin America and the Car-ibbean (CEPAL in Spanish) is based on 23tables covering a range of topics and indica-tors. Impoverished Haiti was able to provide15 of those tables; Cuba provides only five.

Subsequently, Cuba’s claim of havingachieved 2.1% GDP growth in 2010 is highlyquestionable, he said.

Mesa-Lago also noted a huge decline injust about every economic indicator. Whileprices at Cuba’s hard-currency stores carrya 240% markup over normal retail prices andaverage prices (in pesos) have risen by

See Mesa-Lago, page 5

“Cubans are entrepreneurial people, and to the extent they are allowed towork and make some money, they will ... All over the world, the percentage ofsmall businesses that succeed is very small, even in the United States. In Cuba,the difficulties are enormous — but that doesn’t mean it can’t be done.”— Lorenzo Pérez, a member of the Washington-based Association for the Study of the

Cuban Economy, commenting on Cuba’s new private-sector economic reforms.

“It was all worth it to have lived to see the show today, and it is always worthremembering those who died to make this possible.”— Fidel Castro, in a column published Apr. 17 praising his younger brother, President

Raúl Castro at the inauguration of the Cuban Communist Party’s Sixth Congress —as well as a military parade to mark the 50th anniversary of the Bay of Pigs invasion.

“If the regime were willing to have talks, we have demands. We want Raúl andFidel Castro to resign because they have drowned the country in misery, politi-cal assassinations and persecution. Let them assign other people to representtheir interests and let’s begin a transition toward freedom for the Cuban people.”— Dr. Oscar Elías Biscet, telling Miami’s El Nuevo Herald that dissidents would help

negotiate a transitional government to implement democracy, avoiding civil war.

“The First Amendment prohibits the government from shutting down eventsor concerts they disagree with. It’s unconscionable that a public official wouldattempt to thwart people’s ability to attend a cultural event in this community.”

— John de Leon, president of the Greater Miami chapter of the ACLU, which hasasked Homestead (Fla.) Mayor Steve Bateman to investigate the cancellation of a

music festival featuring Cuban artists that was supposed to take place in early April.

“I see liberty at the end of my life. I have no aspirations in Cuba, exceptmaybe to see the beaches. I hope the Lord give me a few more years so I cansee them again.”— Luís Posada Carriles, speaking to reporters Apr. 9 after a federal court in El Paso,Tex., acquitted him of lying during his U.S. immigration hearing. The 83-year-old ex-

CIA agent has been linked to the 1976 bombing of a Cuban passenger jet that killed73 people off Barbados, as well as a series of Havana hotel bombings in the 1990s.

“It is my hope and that of my children, that my husband, the former presidentof Cuba, Gen. Fulgencio Batista, be granted permission to reside in your beauti-ful country, so we can establish our home there and be all together again. If thiswere to be possible, we shall always be grateful for your excellency’s kindness.”— Marta Fernández Miranda de Batista, wife of Cuba’s dictator, in a recently discov-

ered March 1959 letter to then-Irish President Sean O’Kelly. Her plea for refuge waswritten just four months after fleeing Cuba following Batista’s defeat by Fidel Castro.

It scares the bejesus out of me. The worst-case scenario is that you have ahurricane during a spill and the wind would just spread it all over the place.”— Mitch Roffer, owner of a consulting company in Melbourne, Fla., that tracked theBP oil plume, telling Florida Today newspaper he’s worried about plans by Spanish,Norwegian and Chinese energy giants to drill for oil and gas off the coast of Cuba.

“We are greatly relieved that the last independent Cuban journalist still inprison has been released. However, independent journalists in Cuba continue toface harassment and intimidation for their work.”— Committee to Protect Journalists, in an Apr. 11 statement following the release ofAlbert Santiago du Bouchet Hernández, former director of the news agency HavanaPress. He had been serving a 3-year sentence for “distributing enemy propaganda.”

“At the end of the day, the Cuban government is directly and solely responsi-ble for the sinking of this vessel. A lot of homes aren’t being built [in Haiti]because of the Cuban government.”

— Matt Williams, spokesman for Harbor Homes LLC, a Georgia firm whose bargewas carrying $2 million in building supplies for Haiti earthquake victims.

Williams says Cuba denied the U.S. Coast Guard permission to reclaim thebarge after it accidentally drifted into Cuban territorial waters last November.

In their own words …180% between 1989 and 2010, real wages — andtherefore actual purchasing power — has fallenby more than 75%.

Exports such as oil and nickel have seenalmost no growth at all in recent years, while thesugar harvest registered its worst season in 100years, along with citrus and other commodities.

At present, Cuban exports are down 30% from1989 levels, and income from tourism is seriouslylimited by three factors.

For one thing, tourists are staying fewer daysin hotels, while more than 300,000 of thosetourists (out of a total 2 million) are Cubans stay-ing with their families. In addition, there’sincreased competition from private rentals.

This becomes worse in the context of Cuba’sforeign debt, which since 1989 has jumped by217% with no effective solutions in sight.

At the same time, Cuba has become highlydependent on Venezuela. Some 15% of theisland’s GDP is derived from productive activi-ties, while 65% — or more than $9 billion —comes from exported services (mostly doctors,nurses and other professionals in Venezuela).

This country now accounts for 71% of Cuba’sforeign currency, making it Cuba’s biggest trad-ing partner (26% of the total). Much of this takesthe form of subsidized oil exports by Cuba’schief ally, Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez.

VENEZUELA’S PROBLEMS COULD HAMMER CUBA

Cuba has always suffered from a dependencysyndrome, Mesa-Lago reminded his audience —first with Spain, then with the United States, thenwith the Soviet Union and now with Venezuela.

But the deterioration of Venezuela’s economywill have a deep, disastrous impact on Cuba.

This all takes place in the midst of a drasticdecline in Cuba’s social indicators, includinghealth and education, which once representedthe pride of the revolution.

Cuts in subsidies and social welfare have onlymade things worse. In 1989, it was accepted thatunemployment had reached 7.9%, but by 2010,the unofficial jobless rate had fallen to 1.4%.

Only a few months later, the regime publiclyadmitted that almost two million state workerswould have to be laid off. Mesa-Lago said manip-ulating figures has been a recurrent patternamong Cuban officials.

If by 2005, there were only 169,000 cuentapro-pistas [self-employed people] after 10 years ofgranting licenses, he insisted, how is it possibleto state that 500,000 people will be self-employedwithin six months? There are no resources tomake this happen, he said, making such a possi-bility an impossibility.

In addition, excessive taxation not only help toachieve such goals, but on the contrary willundermine the effective implementation of suchchanges.

Mesa-Lago concluded that the proposedreforms are not enough; there’s a permanentcontradiction between centralization and decen-tralization; the regime is reluctant to be moreflexible and loosen up on restrictions, and it con-tinues to cling to a fiscal policy that completelycontradicts the announced changes.

– DOMINGO AMUCHASTEGUI


Mesa-Lago — FROM PAGE 1


petitive” when it comes to raising money.“Our opponents are wealthy Cubans who

for many years donated money to the Repub-lican Party and members of Congress. Theseare people who lost property. But times havechanged and a new generation is out there.They may not agree with the policies of theCuban government, but they understand it’stime to take a different course of action.”

As to whether the Castro regime reallywants to see the embargo lifted, both mensay it doesn’t matter.

“What difference does it make whetherCastro wants or doesn’t want this policy tochange?” asked Martínez. “At the end of theday, is it in our national interest to maintaintravel restrictions against our own citizens?We say no. This has empowered the verykind of repression we are objecting to today.”

Added Cancio: “As a Cuban-American citi-zen, to me it’s irrelevant what Castro wants atthis point. Every Cuban has a responsibilityto do what he believes is best, and to betterthe lives of 11 million Cubans.”

FUNDRAISING THROUGH SOCIAL NETWORKS

Asked for names of lawmakers the PACwould support, Martínez said: “We’d like tosee people like Jeff Flake and Jim McGovern[re-elected]. Obviously, we’d like to seeDavid Rivera out of Congress.

He added: “I think Debbie WassermanSchultz needs to take another look at herCuba policy. Her motivation for supportingthe embargo is really out of her friendshipwith the Díaz-Balart family and the fact thatshe consistently receives a lot of money fromthe pro-embargo community.”

The new PAC plans on raising money viasocial networks like Facebook and Twitter.It’ll also tap into the growing list of Americanswho travel to Cuba legally, whether on familyvisits or approved cultural exchanges.

“If 300,000 Americans traveled legally toCuba last year, let’s say 100,000 of themdonated $25 each to a national grass-rootsPAC,” said Martínez. “That would be a pot ofserious money.”

But it still wouldn’t compare to their oppo-nents’ war chest.

Claver-Carone told CubaNews that his orga-nization is the largest Hispanic PAC in U.S.history, raising nearly $5 million since 2003.

“The Cuban American National Foundat-ion had the Free Cuba PAC for about 20 yearsand they didn’t get to $2 million. We’ve morethan doubled that in five years.”

If Claver-Carone has any animosity towardthe new anti-embargo PAC, he sure doesn’tshow it. “People have the freedom to beinvolved in the political process,” he said.“That’s the beauty of democracy.” q

Anti-embargo forces create PAC to pressure WashingtonBY LARRY LUXNER

Anti-embargo forces, borrowing a pagefrom the past, have formed a PAC topush for a lifting of the U.S. travel ban

against Cuba — and ultimately an end to theembargo itself.

The United States Cuba Now PoliticalAction Committee, registered Feb. 1 with theFederal Election Commission, is headquar-tered in New York and Tampa, Fla.

Its treasurer is New York attorney AntonioMartínez, who is one of nine board memberscurrently serving a six-month term of office.

The other board members are Tessie Aral,Hugo Cancio, Michael Evers, Albert A. FoxJr., Elena Freyre, Joe Pérez, Randy Poindex-ter and Patricia Vila.

Advisors include Wayne Smith, formerchief of the U.S. Interests Section in Havana;Rob Sequin, publisher of the online HavanaJournal, Miami lawyer Antonio Zamora (part-owner of CubaNews) and half a dozen others.

Martínez said the new PAC is “an all-volun-teer organization” with no salaries, no consul-tants and, therefore, no overhead.

“Our intention is to maximize the contribu-tions that we raise in order to provide them tocandidates who support changing our failedpolicies,” he told CubaNews. “How much dowe need? Time will tell whether we raise$100,000 or $500,000.”

NATIONAL APPROACH TO ENDING THE EMBARGO

Martínez, a Dominican-American who wasonce married to a Cuban woman, is an out-spoken embargo foe. He specializes in tradeissues and advises politicians including for-mer New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson, whomhe accompanied on a 2009 trip to Cuba.

Likewise, Cancio, who was born in Havanabut has lived in Miami for the past 31 years, isalso a longtime anti-embargo activist. In addi-tion, he’s a music promoter and has broughtbig-name Cuban artists like Silvio Rodríguezand Los Van Van to the United States, creatinghis own share of controversy in the process.

“Millions of Americans want to travel freelyto Cuba. To get the attention of members ofCongress who have positive attitudes or atleast the willingness to hear the other side,we need to support their candidacy by raisingmoney,” said Cancio. “Fifty years of an inhu-mane embargo is unconstitutional. That’swhy Tony and I put this PAC together, to tryto spread the message around.”

He added: “We cannot continue like this. Ihave a lot of friends who want to see a nor-malization of relations between the UnitedStates and Cuba and open businesses inCuba. They need to put their money wheretheir mouth is.”

The PAC says its legislative policy and reg-ulatory objectives include:

n Freedom of travel to Cuba by all U.S. citi-zens and legal residents.

n Free and open trade and investmentbetween the United States and Cuba, and thefull normalization of bilateral relations.

n Cooperation between U.S. and Cuban in-stitutions for development, educational, envi-ronmental, humanitarian, medical or scientif-ic purposes.

n Repeal of both the Torricelli Act of 1992and the Helms-Burton Act of 1996.

n The removal of Cuba from the State De-partment’s list of state sponsors of terrorism.

Under U.S. law, only U.S. citizens and legalresidents may contribute to the PAC, and noone may donate more than $5,000 per year.

Anonymous donations are not accepted,and individuals giving more than $200 in one

year must also specify their occupation andname of employer (if employed). In addition,donations are not tax-deductible.

Asked why this PAC will be different fromthe ones that came before it, Martínez said:“Because our approach and our audience isdifferent than the past. Pro-embargo groupsrepresent at most 600 wealthy donors whobasically have been funding the pro-embargoside of the equation for the last four electioncycles. It’s this same little group of people thatfeeds off this policy over and over.

“We intend to reach out to everybody whowants to travel to Cuba. Our approach isnational. We’re not just looking at Florida orNew Jersey. We’re looking at all 50 states.”

PAC, FOES AGREE: IT’S ABOUT VOTES AND MONEY

Mauricio Claver-Carone, founder of thepro-embargo U.S.-Cuba Democracy PAC,noted wryly that “this wouldn’t be the first orthe last” grass-roots effort by embargo oppo-nents to sway lawmakers to improve U.S. rela-tions with the Castro regime.

“Throughout the years, there’s been atleast three attempts to create such a PAC, andnone of them were successful. I have no rea-son to believe this will be any more success-ful, but it’s not for me to judge.”

Martínez acknowledged an earlier attemptcalled the New Cuban-American MajorityPAC. “But that was focused on the Cuban-American community,” he said. “Our effort isto reach out to the entire United States.”

Cancio said the new PAC will be “very com-

Details: United States Cuba Now PoliticalAction Committee, PO Box 15874, Tampa, FL33684. Email: [email protected].

POLITICS

Anti-embargo activists Hugo Cancio and Tony Mar-tínez are among supporters of the new Cuba PAC.


CATHOLICS CRITICIZE CUBAN HEALTH SYSTEM

The Catholic Church, in an article posted onthe website of the magazine Palabra Nueva,says it sees an urgent need to seek “new for-mulas” — including an opening to privateenterprise — in order to heal Cuba’s health-care system, which has deteriorated as aresult of corruption, lack of funds and anunstable professional environment.Magazine editor Orlando Marquez conceded

that the 1959 revolution achieved some not-able social triumphs including health care, butthe end of economic aid from the now-defunctSoviet Union gave way to a chronic crisis.Marquez says religious institutions should

play a role too, along with letting cooperativesprovide some services, and combining publicmanagement with private enterprise.The editor noted the recent death of 26 men-

tal patients suffering cold and malnutrition at aHavana psychiatric hospital. A court later sen-tenced 13 people to as many as 15 years in jail,including the hospital’s director.“Fame went to our head and we didn’t fore-

see what could happen, nor did we wish to seethe wound in our health-care system gapingever wider as the years went by,” he wrote.

MARANATHAS DEDICATE HAVANA SEMINARY

Maranatha Volunteers International dedicat-ed the Cuba Seventh-Day Adventist Semin-ary’s first church building in Havana in a Mar.26 ceremony that capped a long process ofobtaining building permits and fundraising,the Adventist News Network reported.Cuba now has more than 31,000 Adventists,

up from only 13,000 in 1994.The Havana seminary, which has graduated

most of the pastors now serving Cuba’s 294Adventist churches, is active in the surround-ing community, seminary officials said.Students have visited every home in their

neighborhoods, giving Bible studies and invit-ing people to worship at the church, whichfeatures theater-style seating for 336 people.

JEWISH LEADERS VISIT GROSS FOR PASSOVER

Maryland resident Alan Gross, serving a 15-year sentence in Havana for sedition, wasallowed a visit by leaders of Cuba’s Jewishcommunity, CBS News reported Apr. 18.Adela Dworin, president of Havana’s

Patronato synagogue, said they delivered tra-ditional Passover food to a “visibly emotional”Gross, who Dworin described as being in “agood physical state.”Dworin told CBS News that Cuban authori-

ties had authorized the “humanitarian visit,”which lasted 30 minutes and “took place in acordial atmosphere during which Mr. Grossexpressed interest in Jewish activities inCuba.” She was accompanied by the communi-ty’s vice-president, David Prinstein.Gross was arrested in December 2009 and

sentenced last month for smuggling in illegalInternet equipment that could be used by gov-ernment opponents to escape official controlsand promote regime change.

RELIGION BRIEFSPOLITICS

PCC urges reform despite resistanceBY DALIA ACOSTA / INTER PRESS SERVICE

Although it failed to spark the hoped-forgenerational renewal at the highestlevel of Cuba’s Communist Party

(PCC), the recent party congress may havemarked the start of a new stage of socialist de-velopment, if the resistance to change amongthe most conservative sectors is overcome.

Not a few observers lamented that the con-gress ended Apr. 19 with the presentation of a15-member political bureau mainly made upof the old guard, with an average age of 67.

Others stress that any real change in thecountry will depend on new ways of thinking.

“Years of reductionist thinking and simplifi-cations, of willfulness, weigh down on those

who must push the changes through,” psy-chologist and professor of communicationsJosé Ramón Vidal told IPS. “Awareness ofthese limitations and barriers is the first con-dition for preventing them from distorting orfrustrating the proposed changes.”

Vidal said it is clear that the “desired sce-nario” would require strengthened institu-tions, a break with the state monopoly over alleconomic activities, greater autonomy forpublic enterprises, and administrative decen-tralisation to make management of municipalgovernments more independent.

However, “popular participation is still lim-ited to consultation processes, to listening topublic demands, and no new ideas have beenset forth for how to boost the role of citizensin political decision-making or how to in-crease citizen oversight over the country'sinstitutions and leaders,” he said.

The new first secretary of the PCC, Presi-dent Raúl Castro, acknowledged the need fora change in mentality.

The president said Cubans would have toovercome a “mentality of inertia,” and theonly thing that could threaten the revolutionwas “our inability to rectify errors.”

However, the resistance to change is notonly identified with a specific generation, butwith sectors that could see the proposedtransformations as a threat to privileges theyhave gained in their careers as politicians orcivil servants.

Since Raúl first became acting presidentwhen his brother Fidel fell ill in 2006, he’s in-sisted on being wary of a false sense of una-nimity and to respect diversity of opinion.

But in Castro’s case, that respect may endwhere dissident groups start.

In the party congress, Castro called for do-ing away with prejudice against private enter-prise or “self-employment,” insisted ondelinking the party and the government, andreiterated the need to move forward without“haste or improvisation.”

The party’s “approval of the Guidelines forEconomic and Social Policy gave us the maintool, the ‘what’; now we need the ‘how’: thelegal framework, regulations and even chan-ges to the constitution,” economist ArmandoNova, a researcher at the Center for the Studyof the Cuban Economy (CEEC), told IPS.

In the analyst’s view, the country is facing

“a realignment, more than an updating,” ofthe social economic model.

“There is the development of differentforms of property, spaces are opening up to anon-state sector in the economy, and morerational labor and wage policies” are beingintroduced, he said.

The touchiest changes, said Nova, are therestructuring of the labor market — whichinvolves the dismissal of half a million publicsector workers this year alone — and theelimination of the ration card, which guaran-tees heavily subsidized food and other basicproducts to the entire population.

These changes are necessary for economicreasons, “but it is good that it has been clari-fied that conditions will be created for thesethings to happen, that the process will begradual, and that in the case of cuts to statepayrolls, the modifications will be linked tothe workers’ employment possibilities andoptions, added Nova.

Blogger Sandra Álvarez recognized thatthe number of women and blacks on the 115-member PCC Central Committee had grown.

But she called for close monitoring of“racial inequalities that could be generated orexacerbated” in the process of implementingthe economic and social policy guidelines.

“I hope the debate on race-based inequalityin Cuban society will also be taken up by thePCC National Conference,” added the writerof the blog “Negra cubana tenía que ser.”

The conference, to focus on internal partyquestions, is slated for Jan. 28, 2012. q

“Years of reductionist thinking and simplifications, of willfulness,weigh down on those who must push the changes through. Awarenessof these limitations and barriers is the first condition for preventing

them from distorting or frustrating the proposed changes.”— CUBAN PSYCHOLOGIST JOSÉ RAMÓN VIDAL

Dalia Acosta is the Havana correspondent forthe Rome-based news agency Inter Press Service.


BY DOREEN HEMLOCK

As Cuba seeks to revamp its economy,the island could benefit from non-tradi-tional tools to spur business and pro-

duction including microfinance, urban coop-eratives and social enterprise.

Those are among conclusions from twoseparate events: a Cuba Small Business Sum-mit held in New York in January and twoCuba panels at this month’s Sustainatopiaconference in Miami Beach.

Both meetings looked at innovative ways toease Cuba’s transition from a state-controlledto mixed economy, now that the cash-strapped Castro regime is firing more thanone million state workers and allowing smallbusinesses as part of a larger plan to boostCuba’s standard of living.

The Small Business Summit, sponsored bythe nonprofit Cuba Study Group, identifiedobstacles for private ventures in Cuba andways to overcome them, drawing on lessonsfrom Bolivia, China, Vietnam and other devel-oping nations.

“An orderly, market-oriented economicreform process is decidedly in the best inter-ests of Cuba, the United States and the re-gion,” the summit said its report issued mid-April and available in English and Spanish.

Key obstacles for small business: lack ofaccess to capital, dysfunctional wholesalemarkets, regulatory issues, insufficient busi-ness training, anemic domestic demand andU.S. sanctions against Cuba.

SUMMIT SUGGESTS CHARITY MICROLOANS

To boost capital, it suggested microfinanceprograms that would make tiny loans to entre-preneurs and also, offer training in account-ing, management and other business basics.

Programs developed by veteran microfi-nance groups such as Accion Internacionalalready serve other nations in Latin Americaand could be expanded to Cuba, the summitsaid in its 20-page report.

Funding for the microloans could comepartly from Cuban-Americans, who alreadysend significant sums to their relatives on theisland, estimated at more than $1 billion ayear. Cubans abroad might even sign promis-sory notes for relatives, who would repayfrom their island business, the report said.

New U.S. regulations approved this yearalso let any American send up to $500 perquarter to an ordinary Cuban, and thosefunds could be channeled for microloans too.

Some cash might be funneled through on-line giving portals modeled afterwww.kiva.org, which lets users browse profilesof specific entrepreneurs abroad and thenfinance the ones they choose.

Some microloan funds for Cuba also couldbe set up as U.S. charities, so Americans mak-ing donations could get tax benefits for help-ing entrepreneurs on the island, panelists saidat the Sustainatopia event that explored op-

tions for sustainable economic development.Some small-scale business and community

development programs already exist, fundedby governments and NGOs from Europe andCanada, panelists said in Miami Beach.

Canadian lawyer and consultant GregoryBiniowsky, who lives in Cuba, run a Ottawa-financed fund that provides $5,000 to $50,000for Cuban initiatives that have ranged from anirrigation system for a farm cooperative to acommunity forum on dispute resolution.

Biniowsky and other panelists said they seeopportunity for Cuba to develop non-tradi-tional business ventures.

For example, independent cooperativesthat share profits could expand beyond farmsinto industry and services — even exporting“fair trade” and organic products such as cof-fee and cocoa that command higher prices.

“There’s a lot of thinking going on in termsof what is a sustainable economy,” Eric Leen-son, co-founder of the Forum on Businessand Social Responsibility of the Americas,told the conference. “Cuba has the opportuni-ty to leapfrog into a new way of doing things.”

To help Cuba revamp, the Cuba Study

FINANCE

U.S. experts urge microloans to boost Cuban economyGroup said it intends to raise a $50 millionfund to provide ordinary Cubans with capitalto operate independent businesses.

It said the fund would be purely nonprofit,“with all interest reinvested to provide loansto more Cuban entrepreneurs.”

Washington could help by loosening rulesfor Americans to send money to small busi-nesses on the island, the summit report said.

Havana could help entrepreneurs too bysimplifying the process for business creation,reducing taxes on entrepreneurs, revising itsregulations and liberalizing prices, “similar towhat occurred in China and Vietnam,” theCuba Study Group said in its report.

Speaking days before Cuba’s Sixth PartyCongress, consultant Biniowsky said there’s“an incredible effervescence and huge de-gree of expectation” in his adopted homelandfor input and new ways to boost the economy.

He turned to baseball to describe the moodand the urgency for action in today’s toughtimes: “This is the bottom of the ninth.” q

Doreen Hemlock, former Havana bureau chiefand now business writer at the South Florida Sun-Sentinel, is a regular contributor to CubaNews.

Rapidly increasing food and fuel pricesand fears that an active hurricane sea-son looms have Cuba tightening its

belt, according to government leaders andlocal economists interviewed Apr. 26 byReuters correspondent Marc Frank.

“Just a few months into 2011 and accord-ing to the most recent data, imports thisyear will cost an additional $800 million forthe same amount of goods we planned topurchase, forcing us to adjust the plan ap-proved in December,” President Raúl Cas-tro told Communist Party bigwigs recently.

The country imports 60-70% of the food itconsumes and 50% of its fuel. High oil pricesalso increase prices of most other productsthe island purchases abroad, as well as thecost of transporting them.

Rainfall has been less than 10% of the aver-age over much of the island this year, whichcould force food imports up.

All this has creditors and foreign businesspartners raising their eyebrows as theyremember 2008, when high world food andfuel prices, hurricanes and the global finan-cial meltdown left debts and dividendsunpaid and their local bank accounts frozen.

The government was forced to slash im-ports 37% in 2009 and kept them at a similarlevel last year, which eased the 2008 finan-cial crisis, but slowed growth to under 2%.

Local economists interviewed by Reuterssaid Castro had improved management ofthe state-dominated economy and built up

reserves since 2008, making the prospectsof a liquidity crisis less likely.

According to the Bank for InternationalSettlements, Cuba had $5.3 billion in de-posits at international banks at the close of2010, compared with $2.6 billion at the endof 2008. Credit was tight, with outstandingbank loans to the country at $1.7 billion,down $200 million over the same period.

The economists said the amount Venezu-ela pays for some 40,000 healthcare andother professionals working there is peggedto oil prices, which helps offset rising prices.

Venezuela is Cuba’s only petroleum sup-plier. But there are no such deals for food.

Igor Montero, chief of state-run Alimport,told local media that imports of bulk foodslike wheat, corn, soy, powdered milk andcooking oil will cost the country 25% morethan planned this year, or $308 million.

“Our price for a pound of chicken hasgone from 33¢ in February to 51¢ for deliv-ery in June, up 52%,” said a U.S. business-man who sells poultry to Cuba under anamendment to the trade embargo thatallows food sales for cash.

In the end, this means Cubans, who havealready seen gas and food prices go up thisyear, must brace for more.

“This will increase external financial ten-sions and it will be necessary to apply newadjustments, which in the end, will impactnegatively the population,” said a Cuban eco-nomist, asking that his name not be used. q

Rising commodity prices to slam Cuba


Texas’ DFW to begin Cuba flights; Houston wins approval

Weekly charter flights to Cuba willbegin on Aug. 27 out of Dallas-FortWorth Airport now that the airport is

on the government's list of approved airportsto offer charter service to the island nation.

The Fort Worth Star Telegram reported Apr.7 that airport staff told board members at itsmonthly meeting that Miami-based ABCCharters will operate its service out of DFW.

Charter operators are permitted to sellseats only to those eligible to travel to Cubaunder government regulations whichincludes Cuban-Americans and their families,educators and religious groups.

Meanwhile, Houston Airport System offi-cials are evaluating the market potential forcharter flights to Cuba now that Bush Inter-continental Airport (IAH) was allowed to

begin offering such flights in limited situa-tions, the Houston Chronicle reported Apr. 9.“We’re going to do everything we can to

position Houston as a gateway to Cuba,” saidGenaro Peña, air service development direc-tor for the airport system.Peña said the system has been in “very pre-

liminary” discussions with Florida-based op-erators already authorized for such flights. Hesaid no individuals or groups have inquiredabout arranging trips yet.The charter-only flights would be limited to

family visits and authorized groups in a small

number of specific areas such as agriculture,medicine, education and religious activity.“The door is open maybe half an inch,

maybe an inch,” Peña told the Chronicle. “It’svery limited.” Still, he called it “a real excitingopportunity for us.”Until recently, only three domestic airports

were authorized to offer charter service toCuba: Miami, Los Angeles and New York JFK.But on Mar. 24, the Department of Home-

land Security, U.S. Customs and BorderProtection expanded to 13 the airports thatcan offer charter service. IAH and DFW arethe only Texas airports on the list.Also included were airports in Atlanta,

Baltimore, New Orleans, Chicago, Pittsburgh,Tampa, Fla., Fort Lauderdale, Fla., and SanJuan, Puerto Rico. q

Details: Genaro Peña, Air Service Develop-ment Dir., Houston Airport System, 16930 JohnF. Kennedy Blvd., Houston, TX 77032. Tel:(281) 233-3000. URL: www.fly2houston.com.

US-CUBA RELATIONS

CUBA’S PROVINCES: SIZE AND POPULATION


As result, Cuba was forced to reduce eggand chicken rations in the 1990s, and beganrelying on expensive imports.

Feeding the flocks and socialist bureaucra-cy turned to be formidable obstacles for theindustry. With sources of cheap grain cutfrom its former allies, production costs roseas Cuba turned to expensive fodder from

BY ARMANDO H. PORTELA

Once a proud symbol of Cuba’s plannedeconomy, the poultry and egg sectorhas been in crisis for the past 20 years.

The sector today is in a precarious situa-tion, with the production of chicken meat hav-ing fallen to the level of the early 1970s, whileoutput of eggs — albeit recovered from evenworse times — is still only at the levels of theearly 1980s.

Like many other agriculture sectors, theindustry fell victim of a wide array of adverse— and sometimes unpredictable — circum-stances that ultimately reduced the produc-tion system to shambles.

What seemed like a healthy, vibrant sectorturned into an unsustainable mirage oncecheap sources of fodder, fuel, financing andmachinery vanished with the collapse of theSoviet bloc in the early 1990s.

Strongly dependent on domestic and exter-nal subsidies, production, flocks and infra-structure crumbled while the specializedworkforce — sustained at a high cost — rap-idly abandoned ship.

During the so-called “Special Period” theindustry was unable to create its own wealthin order to buy essentials abroad.

As authorities tried in the mid-1990s to savethe sector with fresh credit and an attempt atreorganization, it proved too weak to resistthe next assault: an ill-fated spell of prolongeddroughts and fierce hurricanes beginning in2000 that caused widespread damage tohatcheries and broiler houses.

Hurricane Ike alone — one of seven mega-storms to hit Cuba since 1996 — killed hun-dreds of thousands of chicks and leveled facil-ities along its path throughout the entireisland (see CubaNews, October 2008).

AGRICULTURE

Cuba’s dismal poultry, egg industry a victim of neglectChina and Canada. Moreover, the sector’svery structure made it nearly impossible torun it efficiently. Cuba’s state-owned Combin-ado Avícola Nacional (CAN in Spanish) is agiant enterprise that runs the entire industry— not only management, marketing andtransportation, but also feed production,development, genetics and even constructionand repair of its own facilities.

Rigid, centralized managerial control limitsdecision-making at the production level to ahandful of irrelevant choices.

During the industry’s heyday in the late1980s, Cuba’s output averaged 94,200 tons of9 lbs. of chicken for every man, woman andchild on the island.

Reliable plans called for doubling that fig-ure in the mid to late 1990s, reducing theneed for imported chicken. But by 2009,chicken meat output had fallen to 33,228 tons— not even enough to serve three pounds ofchicken per person that year.

Egg production is in better shape. Between1985 and 1989, Cuba produced an average of2.453 billion eggs per year, a sixfold increaseover the 400 million eggs produced in 1958.

Monthly consumption rose to an impres-sive 20 eggs per capita. In 1991, Cuban hensproduced 2.93 billion eggs (or 22 per personper month) — but just five years later, outputhad dropped by half, to 1.41 billion.

The recovery process has been slow.Between 2000 and 2004, the industry yieldedan average 13 eggs per month per capita. In2009, output climbed to 2.426 billion eggs,equivalent to pre-crisis levels.

Production of poultry and eggs is concen-trated in western Cuba — home to 5.1 millionpeople, including two million in the capital.

See Poultry, page 11


This is the sixth in a series of articles on vari-ous aspects of Cuba’s agriculture industry byHavana-born Armando H. Portela, a contributorto CubaNews since the newsletter’s birth in 1993.Portela has a Ph.D. in geography from the SovietAcademy of Sciences and resides in Miami, Fla.

State media reports that the island’s cof-fee industry is recovering after a tropicalstorm damaged crops in October last year.

Cuba has announced a target of 6,700tons of semi-processed coffee beans for2011, having already harvested almost2,700 tons in Santiago de Cuba.

Cuban coffee is highly sought after onthe world market, but today only makes upabout 1% of Cuba’s total exports, comparedto 3.9% in 1956, when its exports exceeded20,000 tons (see Armando Portela’s specialreport on the troubled coffee industry in theMarch 2011 issue of CubaNews, page 10-12).

Today Cuba relies heavily on imports forits domestic consumption, with locallygrown beans being rationed to citizens.

Cuban President Raúl Castro recentlysaid a boost in consumption might bringan end to rationing, noting that “if we wantto drink pure coffee without rations, theonly solution is to produce it Cuba.”

Coffee on road to recovery?

Havana province alone produced 35% of allchicken meat in Cuba last year, while Pinardel Río, Matanzas and Villa Clara provincesproduced a combined 23%.

Egg production is also higher in westernCuba, where Havana again leads the countrywith 441 million eggs produced in 2010 (or23% of the total). Pinar del Río, Matanzas andVilla Clara accounted for another 28% of eggproduction last year. q

Poultry — FROM PAGE 10


AGRICULTURE

U.S. eyes Brazilian firm’s entry into Cuba poultry marketBY VITO ECHEVARRÍA

Globoaves Agropecuaria Ltda., a majorBrazilian producer of eggs and chicksfor export to various countries, is nego-

tiating with the Cuban government to set upproduction facilities on the island.

According to Brazilian press sources, Glo-boaves — based inCascavel in the south-ern state of Paraná —will establish itself at anundisclosed site, withinitial production capaci-ty of 40,000 chickensper day. In the begin-ning, Globoaves willmanage the facility,though full ownershipwill eventually be trans-ferred to the Cubans.

Marcos Bertoli, thecompany’s internationalbusiness manager, toldthe Brazilian newspaperValor Econômico that thejoint venture took morethan two years to puttogether, and is expected to launch in 2012.

Bertoli said his company’s Cuban plant willmeet 30% of the island’s future demand forchicken meat, which will significantly lowerits imported chicken purchases.

Up until now, the eggs laid by Cuban hens(2.43 billion in 2009, up from 1.75 billion in2004, according to official statistics) havebeen strictly for local egg consumption, andnot for production of chicks.

Globoaves is not just any Brazilian firm in-jecting itself into the Cuban economy. It’sLatin America’s largest supplier of hatchingeggs and newly hatched chicks for the pro-duction of broiler chickens and laying hens.

The company grossed $1.2 billion in 2009revenues, with sales of poultry genetics packs(fertilized eggs and chicks) comprising halfof that. Globoaves aso sells to Middle Easternnations and other overseas markets.

U.S. EXPORTERS LOSE COMPETITIVE EDGE’

Assuming that Cuba’s plans with Globo-aves do move forward, one group of entre-preneurs most likely to be hurt will be U.S.food exporters, who have been supplying abig share of Cuba’s imported chickens.

U.S. poultry exports to Cuba have grownfrom $24 million in 2002 to $144 million in2009. Big processors like Pilgrim’s Pride, Car-gill and Tyson Foods exported nearly 185 mil-lion lbs of frozen poultry and pork to Cuba inthe 12 months ending November 2009.

At least one U.S. lawmaker isn’t surprisedwith this turn of events. In March 2010, Rep.Colin Peterson (D-MN), chair of the HouseAgriculture Committee, told the Atlanta Jour-nal-Constitution that current U.S. rules “havehand-delivered an export market in our own

backyard to the Brazilians, the Europeansand other competitors around the world.”

Meanwhiule, the Republican governor ofGeorgia, Sonny Perdue —recognizing Cuba’spurchase of $16.3 million of Georgia productsduring the first half of 2010, including poultry,soybeans, pork, sausage and margarine — led

a 43-member delegation to Havana last year toencourage more Cuban purchases of hisstate’s agricultural goods.

Even so, the Washington-based NationalChicken Council doesn’t seem worried.

“Our experience has always been that thereis plenty of room for both locally producedand imported product [in Cuba],” NCCspokesman Richard L. Lobb said in an emailto CubaNews. One reason is the central role ofchicken in the Cuban diet; after all, one of the

Details: Marcos Bertoli, InternationalBusiness Manager, Globoaves AgropecuariaLtda., Rodoviaria BR 467, Km. 5, 85817-010Cascavel PR, Brazil. Tel: +55 45 218-2000.Email: [email protected].

Canadians unfazed by Globoaves deal

For the past decade, Cuba’s Alimport —for both political and practical reasons— has been large importing large

quantities of chicken meat from U.S. suppli-ers under the Trade Sanctions Reform andExport Enhancement Act of 2000 (TSRA).

So it’s no surprise that Cuban movestoward self-sufficiency in raising chickenslocally will eventually hurt U.S. food sales tothe island. But it’s not as if the United Stateswas the only one exporting poultry to Cuba.

Before TSRA’s passage, the Cubans fre-quently turned to Canada for chicken. Ac-cording to Agriculture and AgriFood Can-ada, in 2001, Cuba imported $36.7 million inpoultry products from Canada.

However, as U.S. exports to Cuba shotup, Canadian chicken sales to Cuba fell tonearly nothing (only $490,563 in 2009, and aminuscule $219,859 last year).

That’s probably why Robin Horel, presi-dent and CEO of the Canadian Poultry and

Egg Processors Council, didn’t seem tooalarmed when asked about Globoaves’prospective deal with Cuba.

“In the grand scheme of things, I’m notsure that Globoaves’ intentions to set uphatcheries and egg operations in Cuba willhave a significant effect on Canada overall,given that the numbers are significantlysmaller than the other countries to whomwe export,” he told CubaNews in an email.

“But I imagine for a company that doesexport to Cuba, the impact will be felt farmore significantly.”

One country whose chicken exports maytake a hit from this deal is Brazil itself.

In 2009, Brazil shipped $28.5 million inpoultry to Cuba, virtually the same as in2008. Top exporters included ComercialSurimpex Ltda. and Net Trading Serviçoesof São Paulo — both previous participantsof Cuba’s annual trade show FIHAV.

– VITO ECHEVARRÍA

most popular dishes is arroz con pollo.Koch Foods, based in Cummings, Ga., has

previously shipped chicken meat to Cuba.The company’s owner, Pete Gress, says it’simpractical for Cubans to raise their ownchickens because they lack chicken feed.

“It’s not going to happen, my friend,” Kochtold us. “It doesn’t make economic sense. TheCubans don’t grow corn or soybeans; [their]import cost will be twice as much in the longrun. It’s just like the Russians. They’re pro-ducing a good part of their own chicken, butthey still have to feed them.”

While future U.S. poultry sales to Havanahard to predict, the situation with egg salesseems far more precarious. Radlo Foods, aone-time supplier of U.S. eggs to Cuba, hasseen its sales plummet after 2005, with noCuba-bound orders processed since then.

“Since the Bush administration changedthe payment rules and the Obama adminis-tration has not since change them back,smaller industries like eggs are no longer sell-ing to Cuba,” says Dave Radlo, president ofRadlo Foods LLC in Watertown, Mass.

“Due to hurricanes and seasonal issuesalong with the supply of the flocks, theCubans have not had enough shell eggs toprovide for the market,” Radlo told CubaNews.“They continue to grow and produce theirown eggs on the island, and this is part oftheir strategy.” q

Street vendor sells local eggs to shopper in the eastern city of Guantánamo.

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OXFAM FUNDS URBAN AGRICULTURE PROJECT

OXFAM International has kicked off a pro-ject to support urban farming in Cuba. BeatSchmid, the NGO’s joint program coordinator,said the project — budgeted at €3 million($2.2 million) — will span a four-year period.Schmid told the news agency Prensa Latina

in late February that Oxfam’s program willsupport projects in 10 municipalities in theprovinces of Camagüey, Las Tunas andHolguín, benefitting 87 institutions and compa-nies employing 10,000 people.OXFAM is a confederation of national asso-

ciations representing 80 countries. Schmidsaid Cuba’s National Small Farmers Associa-tion (ANAP in Spanish) will supervise theproject, along with the National TropicalAgriculture Investigation Institute (INIFAT).

Details: Oxfam America, 226 Causeway Street,5th Floor, Boston, MA 02114. Tel: (617) 728-2594. Email: [email protected].

NEW METHODS COULD BOOST TOBACCO YIELDS

The introduction of new technologies suchas the double-row planting method will letCuban farmers increase efficiency in the culti-vation of what many regard as the world’s besttobacco, news agency ACN reported Mar. 17.Oscar Basulto, director of the state-owned

entity Tabacuba, said the technique — beingimplemented in the province of Pinar del Río— yields production increases of 25-30% as thenumber of plants per hectare also increases.

2011 SUGAR HARVEST: NOTHING TO BRAG ABOUT

Cuban officials say 2011 sugar productionwill be similar to or slightly higher than lastyear’s total — described at the time as theisland’s worst in more than a century.Sugar Ministry expert Osiris Quintero said

Apr. 6 that the harvest is nearly complete, andthat production is expected to be slightlyabove forecasts. He says it will be about thesame as the 1.1 million tons produced in 2010.Cuba’s former sugar minister was ousted

last May after the government reported itsworst sugar harvest since 1905. Sugar oncedominated Cuba’s economy but has now fallenbehind tourism and nickel mining.

MINISTRY: 80% OF LAND GRANTS PRODUCTIVE

Cuba’s minister of agriculture, GustavoRodríguez, said nearly 80% of the lands grant-ed in usufruct are already being used to raiselivestock and grow fruit and vegetable crops.Rodríguez admitted to state media Mar. 15

that the process of approval of applications isstill slow and that there are delays in theassessment of the annual agreement amongusufruct beneficiaries, the municipal delegate,the director of the agricultural and livestockenterprise and the president of the cooperativeto which the producer is linked.As of Dec. 31, 2010, the government had

granted 1,179,795 hectares in usufruct andhad received more than 155,000 applications,out of which over 128,000 were approved andanother 19,000 were pending approval.

AGRICULTURE BRIEFS


COAST GUARD DISPUTES HAITI BARGE CLAIM

The U.S. Coast Guard claims it neversought to enter Cuban waters to recover astranded barge, contradicting an Americancompany’s account of an incident that resultedin the loss of $2 million in building suppliesbound for Haiti, the Miami Herald reported.Last November, with the barge adrift about

15 miles off Cuba’s northern coast after thetugboat towing it broke down, the CoastGuard alerted Cuban authorities, who saidthey would respond, said Chief Petty OfficerRussell Tippets, a spokesman based in Miami.The company, Harbor Homes LLC, had said

Cuba rejected the Coast Guard’s request torecover the drifting barge and tug.Tippets gave a different account. The crew

of the barge and tugboat were not in danger,which would have allowed the Coast Guard toenter Cuban territorial waters without permis-sion under international law, and the Cubanauthorities reported that they were capable ofresponding to the drifting vessels, he said.What happened next was an expensive loss:

The Cuban military allegedly towed the twovessels toward shore, but a line broke and thebarge ran aground, spilling into the oceanequipment and materials that had been meantto build 1,000 homes in quake-ravaged Haiti.Harbor Homes, which was hauling the mat-

erial on behalf of World Vision, made the inci-dent public only after its insurer, Lloyd’s ofLondon, denied a damage claim.The company blamed Cuba for the loss on

the grounds it wouldn’t let the Coast Guardtow the vessels to safety.Tippets said Harbor Homes may have misin-

terpreted the Coast Guard’s role in the inci-dent, but the company stood by its version.Two company officials traveled to Santiago

de Cuba in December seeking unsuccessfullyto reclaim the barge and cargo. Cuban autho-rities detained both men as they tried to leaveCuba but released them after 90 minutes.

LIAT NOW FLIES CARIBBEAN CARGO TO CUBA

Regional airline LIAT, which launched dedi-cated freighter service in February, says itcan now move cargo from Eastern Caribbeandestinations to Cuba with same-day delivery.Wilbur Edwards, LIAT’s director of cargo

and Quikpak, said the partnership withPanama’s Copa airline now makes possiblesame-day movement of cargo from theEastern Caribbean to Cuba and from Cuba tothe Eastern Caribbean via Santo Domingo.“With so many students from the islands

now studying in Cuba and with the manyCuban doctors, nurses and diplomatsthroughout the Caribbean, we think theyshould be aware that there is a very efficientway of transporting goods including personaleffects to and from Cuba,” Edwards said.“With LIAT’s recent launch of its dedicated

cargo freighter service and 3,400 kg capacity,large shipments can be accommodated with-out any difficulty. We are eagerly waiting toserve the many Cubans in our network as

BUSINESS BRIEFSwell as the large student community in Cuba.”LIAT Cargo operates five days a week via

the airline’s 22 destinations and utilizes auto-mated cargo systems to make bookings, gen-erate manifests, and provides rate calculationsand cargo tracking on its website.Last year LIAT converted one of its Dash-8

100 aircraft to full cargo configuration provid-ing regional exporters with an air bridge tomeet demands for their various products.

Details: LIAT Airlines, V.C. Bird InternationalAirport, PO Box 819, St. John’s, Antigua &Barbuda. Tel: (268) 480-5740. Fax: (268) 480-5625. URL: www.liatcargo.com.

JAMAICA: LIGHT-BULB PROGRAM A SUCCESS

Jamaicans are turning out in large numbersto exchange high energy-burning incandes-cent light bulbs for more efficient fluorescentbulbs, in the final phase of the Cuba-JamaicaCompact Fluorescent Lamp (CFL) Project,also known as the Cuban light bulb program.The project was restarted Mar. 26 in North

West St. Andrew, and has since covered morethan 30 communities throughout Kingston.“The new strategy of using distribution cen-

ters instead of going house to house is work-ing well,” said Oral Rainford, policy directorat Jamaica’s Ministry of Energy and Mining.Rainford told JIS News that in South St.

Andrew, at the People’s Church complex,some 5,000 compact fluorescent lamps havebeen exchanged; lamps are also being distrib-uted in other centers.Jesús Díaz Camargo and Carlos Collado

Martínez, representatives of Cuba’s Ministryof Basic Industries, both expressed satisfac-tion with the process. “It’s going well so far,”Collado said in halting English.The distribution of the fluorescent lamps

will have a significant impact on Jamaica’s

national energy bill, with residents hoping tosave money by swapping bulbs of up to 150watts for 14-watt fluorescent lamps.

Cuban experts have indicated that the pro-ject’s final stage is likely to yield an approxi-mate 6.5-megawatt decrease in Jamaica’s peakload demand, and a 36,000-ton reduction incarbon dioxide emissions per annum. leaveCuba but released them after 90 minutes.

HAVANA CLUB TO SELL 4m CASES OF RUM IN ‘11

Havana Club officials say they expect to sell4.0 million nine-liter cases of rum this year,despite a recent U.S. court ruling that blocksthe French-Cuban venture from renewing itslicense to market rums in the United States.Juan González, president of state-run

CubaRon, told the official Communist Partynewspaper Granma that 2011 revenues willexceed $100 million, thanks to strongerdemand in Asia — particularly China. Thisyear, Havana Club Internacional SA alsohopes to boost its market position in Europe,Latin America, Africa and Asia.Legal consultant Arian Remedios said that

in 2010, the joint venture sold 3.8 millioncases, a 14% increase over 2009.He told Granma that Havana Club rum is

registered in 186 nations, ranks 22nd amongthe world’s top 100 spirits and is 4th in globalsales growth, trailing only Absolut vodka, andJohnny Walker and Jameson whisky.Remedios said that currently his company

has an online strategy to promote the brandthrough social networks and warn consumersagainst fraudulent brands. Havana Clubremains the top selling Cuban export rum.

Details: François Renie, Media Affairs Dir.,Havana Club Internacional SA, 39 Avenue Pierre1er de Serbie, 75008 Paris. Tel: +33 1 4952-9739. Email: [email protected].

Foreign companies will perform at leastfive exploratory drills in Cuban watersbetween this summer and 2013, a

Cuban official announced during an inter-national conference in Havana.

Manuel Marrero Faz, a consultant andprincipal oil expert at the Ministry of BasicIndustries, said during the Geociencias2011 conference on Apr. 7 that the drillswill be in water depths between 400 and1,500 meters. “We are all hopeful, withoutsilly or false hopes, that there exist proba-bilities to find big oil and gas reserves,”

Marrero said that foreign oil companieshave identified “more than 20 prospects”for commercially viable finds offshore.

He added that 37 blocks were still avail-able in Cuba’s exclusive economic zone,“no matter where the foreign companiesare from, as long as they respect the sover-eignty of our country and the laws.”

Six companies and consortia have con-tracted 22 blocks so far.

One company, Petrobras, quietly let therights to its only block in Cuban waters

lapse last fall, even though it discovered“prospects,” according to Marrero.

The relatively small prospect by theBrazilian state company, which is racing todevelop major offshore finds off Brazil’sAtlantic coast, “cannot compete” with thehundreds of other prospects they mustdevelop, he said.

The Italian-owned Scarabeo 9 platform isexpected to arrive in the Gulf of Mexicothis summer, said another Cuban official,Rafael Tenreyro. “Everybody is anxious[since] 99% of the platforms are late.”

The first company that contracted theplatform is a consortium led by Spain’sRepsol YPF, which expects the platform toarrive in late summer.

Cuba wanted Repsol to commit todrilling two wells, but Repsol limited its riskby agreeing to do one well for sure, aRepsol official told Reuters.

After Repsol, Malaysia’s Petronas, Rus-sia’s Gazprom, India’s ONGC Videsh andVenezuela’s PDVSA are next in line.

Foreign firms to drill 5 offshore oil wells


BOOKSHELF

War on human smuggling,‘hidden Cuba’ and beat writersCOAST GUARD’S WAR ON HUMAN SMUGGLING

Of all the hot-button issues facing theUnited States in the early 21st century,perhaps none is presently generating

more passion than illegal immigration.But what the vociferous public debates and

sound bites often miss is that the story is farlarger than the U.S. land border with Mexico.

The U.S. Coast Guard has been chargedwith preventing undocumented migrantsfrom entering the country for its entire exis-tence. Best known, perhaps, for rescuing livesand preventing the smuggling of goods, theUSCG is theonly branch ofthe armedforces actuallycharged withlaw enforce-ment.

In his book,“The U.S. CoastGuard’s War onHuman Smug-gling,” retiredCoast Guardsenior chiefmarine sciencet e c h n i c i a nDennis Noblehighlights the policies, strategy and tacticsused by the USCG in enforcing immigrationlaws. But throughout, the focus remains onthe human stories — both those of the smallgroup of men and women charged with car-rying out a difficult mission, as well as thoseof the desperate people willing to risk theirlives for a chance to escape crushing povertyor persecution back home.

About the book (ISBN 978-0-8130-3606-9,$29.95 harcover), Kelly M. Greenhill, author ofWeapons of Mass Migration: Forced Displace-ment, Coercion and Foreign Policy” has this tosay: “In this examination of a timely andimportant public policy issue, Noble skillfullyinterweaves tales of bravery, compassion andskill on the part of the U.S. Coast Guard withmoving portraits of those willing to risk theirlives in dank, overcrowded holds and on rick-ety rafts for a chance at a new life in the U.S.

“In rich, narrative case studies of migra-tions from China, Cuba and Haiti, Noble’s pas-sion for the topic and his empathy for thoseon both sides of the human smuggling equa-tion shines through on every page,” saidGreenhill, who it seems read all 320 pages.

In many cases, the service’s interdictionresponsibilities go hand-in-glove with rescueoperations. As Rear Adm. Arthur E. Brooksput it: “You can’t do migrant operations with-out having your heart broken.”

Details: Stephanie Williams, Publicity andPromotions Manager, University Press of Flor-ida, 15 NW 15th Street, Gainesville, FL 32603-1933. Tel: (800) 226-3822. Fax: (352) 392-0590.Email: [email protected]. URL: www.upf.com.

HIDDEN CUBA: A PHOTOGRAPHIC JOURNEY

While most Americans may not visit Cubawithout advance proper approval from theU.S. government, journalists, researchersand those on humanitarian missions can revelin the beauty Cuba has to offer.

Renowned photojournalist Jack Watsontraveled to Cuba on a humanitarian visa anddocumented the heartbreaking yet awe-inspiring images of Cuba’s countryside, citiesand citizens.

“This is an unauthorized journal of photo-graphs taken during my visit,” said Watson.“While I certainly share similar and compas-sionate thoughts about humanitarian aidtoward people in need, I felt a greater callingin compiling the images in this book.”

The result is “Hidden Cuba” (ISBN: 978-1601-28569-7, softcover price $39.95), a 240-page photographic guidebook to Cuba print-ed on recycled, acid-free, alkaline-free paper.

Watson explains that this is not a typicaltravel guide that boasts glossy images of cigarshops and outdoor markets; rather, it’s abehind-the-scenes viewof a Cubamost touristsare unable tosee.

“If one pic-ture is in-deed worththousands ofwords, thenthis is anencyclopedicportrayal ofthe real, hid-den Cuba,”he said.

On thisphotographic journey, which began in Havanaand captured images of the Bay of Pigs,Trinidad, Cienfuegos, and Varadero Beach inthe province of Matanzas, Watson coveredhundred of miles by bus, pedicab, 1957 Chev-rolet, coco cab and foot.

“I have tried to present a wide portrayal ofimages that will allow the viewer to see allaspects of Castro’s Cuba,” said Watson. “Youcannot look at the glitz alone and make logicalconclusions about this country; while there issome beauty, there is more decay.”

Details: Atlantic Publishing Group Inc., 1405SW 6th Avenue, Ocala, FL 34471. Tel: (352) 622-1825. Email: [email protected].

BEAT WRITERS IN REVOLUTIONARY HAVANA

Immediately after the Cuban Revolution,Havana fostered an important transnationalintellectual and cultural scene.

Later, Fidel Castro would strictly imposehis vision of Cuban culture on the populaceand the United States would bar its citizensfrom traveling to the island. But for these fewfleeting years, the Cuban capital was steepedin many liberal and revolutionary ideologiesand influences.

Some of the most prominent figures in theBeat Movement — including Allen Ginsberg,L a w r e n c eFer l inghet t iand AmiriBaraka, wereattracted tothe new Cubaas a placewhere peoplewould beracially equal,sexually freeand politicallyenfranchised.

What theyexperiencedhad resound-ing and lastingliterary effectsboth on their work and on the many writersand artists they encountered and fostered.

Todd F. Tietchen captures this era in “TheCubalogues: Beat Writers in Revolutionary Hav-ana” (ISBN 978-0-8130-3520-8, hardcover$39.95, 192 pages).

Titchen, assistant professor of English atUnion County College in Cranford and Eliza-beth, N.J., clearly documents the multipleways in which the Beats engaged with thescene in Havana.

He also demonstrates that even in theseearly years, the Beat movement expounded adiverse but identifiable politics.

“As an early supporter of the original non-communist Cuban revolution, I much appre-ciate this story of the involvement of Ameri-can beat poets with the fidelista cause,” saysFerlinghetti.

“Dubbed the ‘Cubalogues,’ their interac-tion with Cuban editors and poets is a uniquepart of Cuban cultural history, and it needs tobe told to an American audience.”

Adds Sarah MacLachlan, author of TheCambridge Introduction to Chicano/a Literatureand Culture: “An exciting, timely and wide-ranging intervention which reassesses theBeat Movement, the Beat canon, Cold Warpolitics and the Cuban revolution ... A tight,lively and skillful presentation of the topic.”

Details: Stephanie Williams, Publicity andPromotions Manager, University Press of Flor-ida, 15 NW 15th Street, Gainesville, FL 32603-1933. Tel: (800) 226-3822. Fax: (352) 392-0590.Email: [email protected]. URL: www.upf.com.

“Bookshelf” is an occasional feature ofCubaNews. If you’d like your book, novel orscholarly publication to be featured in anupcoming issue, please mail a press releaseto Larry Luxner, PO Box 1345, SilverSpring, MD 20915, fax it to (301) 949-0065or send an email to [email protected].


CARIBBEAN UPDATEYou already know what’s going in Cuba,

thanks to CubaNews. Now find out what’shappening in the rest of this diverse andfast-growing region.Subscribe to Caribbean UPDATE, a

monthly newsletter founded in 1985. Cor-porate and government executives, as wellas scholars and journalists, depend on thispublication for its insightful, timely cover-age of the 30-plus nations and territories ofthe Caribbean and Central America.When you receive your first issue, you

have two options: (a) pay the accompany-ing invoice and your subscription will beprocessed; (b) if you’re not satisfied, justwrite “cancel” on the invoice and return it.There is no further obligation on your part.The cost of a subscription to Caribbean

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INTERNATIONAL STOCK PHOTOSIf your business needs high-quality photo-graphs of Cuba — or anywhere else — toillustrate annual reports, articles, bro-chures or presentations, you’ve come tothe right place. Luxner News Inc. has over20,000 color images on file from 95 coun-tries in North, South and Central America,the Caribbean, Africa, Europe, the Mideastand Asia, depicting a variety of topicsranging from agriculture and aerospace totourism and zoology. For details, pleasecall Luxner News Inc. at (301) 452-1105or search our user-friendly website at:

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Editorn LARRY LUXNER n

Washington correspondentn ANA RADELAT n

Political analystn DOMINGO AMUCHASTEGUI n

Feature writersn TRACEY EATON n

n VITO ECHEVARRÍA nn DOREEN HEMLOCK n

Cartographern ARMANDO H. PORTELA n

Graphic designern CARI BAMBACH n

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].

Apr. 2 9 : “Cuba’s Sixth Party Congress: Results and Consequences,”Washington. Speakers:American University professor Robert Pastor, national security advisor for Latin America inthe Carter administration; Juan Antonio Blanco, assistant director of Florida InternationalUniversity’s Cuban Research Institute, and Arturo López-Levy, lecturer at the University ofDenver. No charge. Details: Inter-American Dialogue, 1211 Connecticut Avenue, NW, Suite #510,Washington, DC 20036. Tel: (202) 822-9002. Fax: (202) 822-9553. URL: www.thedialogue.org.

May 6 : “Business Opportunities in Cuba,” ALTA 2011 Annual Conference & Expo, San Juan,Puerto Rico. Speeches by attorneys and Cuba experts Antonio C. Martínez II and AntonioZamora. Moderator: Walter Rivera. Cost: $250. Details: Affiliated Laywers of the Americas, 61Broadway, Suite #1030, New York, NY 10006. Te; (800) 697-2582. URL: www.affiliatedlawyers.org.

May 1 0 : “Changes in the U.S. and Cuba: The Impact on Florida,” GrayRobinson, Tampa, FL.Discussion on the new OFAC regulations and how they will affect Florida businesses. Panel-ists: William R. Messina, University of Florida’s Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences;Gary Resnick, Telecommunications Practice Group, GrayRobinson; Mercedes Costa of Des-tination Management Consultants; Jorge R. Piñón, energy consultant at Florida InternationalUniversity’s Cuban Research Institute and Emilio Santandreu, manager, Our Micro LendingLLC. Moderator: Antonio Zamora. No charge. Details: GrayRobinson, 201 North FranklinStreet, Suite #2200, Tampa, FL 33602. Tel: (813) 273-5000. Email: [email protected].

May 1 7 -Oct. 2 : “A Revolutionary Project: Cuba From Walker Evans to Now.” J. Paul GettyMuseum, Los Angeles. Photo exhibit showcases works by Walker Evans, Virginia Beahan,Alex Harris and Alexey Titarenko. Details: Desiree Zenowich, Getty Museum, 1200 Getty CenterDrive, Suite #400, Los Angeles, CA 90049-1681. Tel: (310) 440-7304. Email: [email protected].

May 1 8 -Jun. 2 0 : “Cuba’s Past, Present and Future,” University of Miami. Summer course(3 credits) at UM’s Casa Bacardi offers 10 weekly classes covering everything from the 1959Cuban Revolution to Eastern Europe’s transition to democracy. Cost: $4,700. Details: VanessaLópez, Institute for Cuban and Cuban-American Studies, 1531 Brescia Street, Coral Gables, FL33146-2403. Tel: (305) 284-2822. Email: [email protected]. URL: www.miami.edu/iccas.

May 2 0 -2 2 : CineCuba, Brooklyn, NY. In tandem with New York’s Havana Film Festival, thisevent showcases new Cuban films including Boleto al paraíso [Ticket to Paradise]; Casa vieja[Old House]; Eso que anda [Van Van Fever]; Afinidades and Habana Eva, as well as an exclu-sive presentation of Los sobrevivientes [The Survivors] by Tomás Gutiérrez Alea. Cost: $7-12.Details: Brooklyn Academy of Music, 30 Lafayette Ave., Brooklyn, NY 11217. URL: www.bam.org.

May 3 0 : “Cuba Libre: Is Now The Time to Invest?” Toronto. Luncheon panel hosted by theCanadian Council for the Americas, the key private-sector link among Canada, Latin Americaand the Caribbean. Speakers: CubaNews editor Larry Luxner; Mark Entwistle, Canada’s ex-ambassador to Cuba, and Cy Tokmakjian, CEO of the Tokmakjian Group. Moderator: AndreaMandel-Campbell, TV anchor of Business News Network. Cost: $75. Details: Cristina Flores,CCA, PO Box 1227, Oakville, Ontario L6J 5C7. Tel: (416) 367-4313. URL: www.ccacanada.com.

CALENDAR OF EVENTS

Documents

May 2011 Issue