Thursday, March 31, 2011

Jimmy Carter: Goodbye, Havana!

Jimmy Carter: Goodbye, Havana!
Un reporte de Tania Quintero

James Earl Carter, de 86 años, quien de 1977 a 1981 fuera presidente de
los Estados Unidos, acaba de finalizar su segunda visita a La Habana. Y
probablemente la última, por su edad. En las dos ocasiones viajó a la
isla acompañado de su esposa, Rosalyn Carter.

La primera vez permaneció cinco días, del 12 al 17 de mayo de 2002 y
casi todo el tiempo estuvo acompañado por Fidel Castro. Ahora sólo tres
días, del lunes 28 al miércoles 30 de marzo de 2011. En las dos
ocasiones hizo un hueco en la agenda para reunirse con representantes de
la disidencia interna.

En el 2002, dedicó tres horas para hablar con 23 opositores, entre los
que se encontraban Oswaldo Payá Sardiñas, Martha Beatriz Roque Cabello,
Vladimiro Roca Antúnez, René Gómez Manzano, Félix Bonne Carcassés,
Elizardo Sánchez Santacruz y el periodista independiente Raúl Rivero
Castañeda.

Aunque de todos era conocido que en su Georgia natal, Carter se había
dedicado al cultivo de cacahuetes, a ningún opositor se le ocurrió
obsequiarle maní, crudo o tostado, salado o azucarado. Tampoco una
artesanía elaborada con granos de maní o un disco con Rita Montaner o
Bola de Nieve cantando El Manisero.

Nueve años después, en su encuentro con un número similar de disidentes,
entre ellos varios expresos políticos, damas de blanco y blogueros
(entonces no existían ni las damas ni los blogueros) a alguien se le
ocurrió regalarle una caja con cucuruchos y turrones de maní, un
obsequio bastante naif y poco creativo. Mejor le hubieran dado un album
con fotos de los vendedores de maní que deambulan por la ciudad, casi
todos viejos y pobres.

Cacahuetes aparte, en este segundo viaje se entrevistó con el
general-presidente Raúl Castro. El mismo día de su llegada, estuvo en el
Patronato de la Comunidad Hebrea y el Arzobispado de La Habana. Al día
siguiente, acompañado de Eusebio Leal, Historiador de la Ciudad,
recorrió el Convento de Nuestra Señora de Belén, donde a diario acuden
unos 1,500 ancianos residentes en la Habana Vieja.

Carter pudo reunirse con Alan Gross, de 61 años, contratista
estadounidense condenado en Cuba a 15 años de prisión por delitos contra
la seguridad del Estado. "Un hombre que a mi juicio es inocente, creo
que debe ser liberado porque es inocente de un delito serio", declaró
Carter en una conferencia de prensa.

El ex presidente dijo esperar la posibilidad "de un indulto o una
liberación por motivos humanitarios, Hay un proceso de apelación y
espero que los jueces declaren que es inocente", dijo Carter, quien
añadió que su compatriota "ha perdido varios kilos de peso, pero parece
estar de buen ánimo".

Antes, se había encontrado con Fidel Castro. Al momento de redactar esta
información no habían trascendido detalles de lo conversado ni se habían
publicado fotos.

Tania Quintero

http://www.gacetadecuba.com/2011/03/31/jimmy-carter-goodbye-havana/

Carter aide: Gross didn't know he was taking US-financed equipment to Cuba

Posted on Thursday, 03.31.11

Gross case
Carter aide: Gross didn't know he was taking US-financed equipment to Cuba

An aide to former President Jimmy Carter said Alan Gross, the U.S.
contractor jailed in Cuba, did not know he was carrying equipment
financed by the United States.
By Frances Robles And Juan O. Tamayo
frobles@miamiherald.com

NEW YORK -- The U.S. government contractor jailed in Cuba for bringing
satellite phones to Jewish groups claims he was unaware that he was
carrying equipment financed by the United States, a former top aide to
President Jimmy Carter said Thursday.

Former National Security Adviser Robert Pastor, who served as the White
House's point man on Cuba, accompanied Carter on his trip to Havana this
week. The former president met with both the Castro brothers as well as
Alan Gross, an American development worker who was sentenced to 15 years
in prison after getting caught smuggling sat phones, which he claimed
were to provide Internet to Jewish groups.

"We did meet with Gross. He claims not to know he was bringing equipment
from the U.S. government," Pastor told a Cuban conference audience at
the Bildner Center for Western Hemisphere Studies at the City University
of New York. "The facts are simply not all that clear, and this is
coming from someone who has spoken to all sides of this, often."

Carter also met with Jewish group leaders, who claimed they knew nothing
about Gross or his phones, said Pastor, now a professor at American
University in Washington.

Gross' trial was closed to the media, and Pastor's comments marked the
first time anyone indicated that the long-time development worker —
considered a "mercenary" by the Cuban government — was unaware of the
nature of his work. Pressed for details after his speech, Pastor said he
regretted "getting into that level of detail."

"I did not speak to him. I do not feel authorized to say what he said,"
Pastor said in an interview.

Gross, Pastor said, hopefully will not serve as long a term in prison as
the "Cuban Five" intelligence agents imprisoned in the United States —
13 years.

"A case could be made that a humanitarian gesture after 13 years in
prison should be seriously considered" by the Obama administration, he
said. He added that both Havana and Washington made it clear they were
not interested in a prisoner swap.

Havana is worried about "future Alan Grosses" as the Obama
administration has not scrapped the U.S. Agency for International
Development program that funded his trip.

Gross' wife Judy and the company that sent him, Development Alternatives
Inc., could not be reached for comment late Thursday.

Carter, his wife Rosalynn and his retinue spent nearly six hours —
including dinner — with the 79-year-old Raúl Castro, who replaced
brother Fidel, at first temporarily and then officially, after Fidel
suffered a nearly fatal health crisis in 2006.

"He is secure in his position and aware of his age and limited time to
undertake reforms that he's now convinced are needed to improve the
economy,'' Pastor said.

The reforms include a significant expansion of private businesses,
profound cuts in government subsidies and other measures expected to be
taken up at a congress of the ruling Communist Party that starts April 16.

Pastor is too optimistic because Castro will never surrender his
political controls or his anti-Washington bent, said Jaime Suchlicki,
head of the Institute for Cuban and Cuban-American Studies at the
University of Miami.

"Yes he's undertaking limited reforms, but he's not going to dismantle
communism or create a capitalist society,'' Suchlicki said. "There will
be no political opening and his government will remain repressive and
anti-American."

http://www.miamiherald.com/2011/03/31/2144072/carter-aide-gross-didnt-know-he.html

Havanatur getting access to Amadeus booking platform

Havanatur getting access to Amadeus booking platform

The Argentinean subsidiary of Madrid-based Amadeus IT Holding S.A.
signed a long-term agreement with Cuban state tour operator Havantur,
the booking service provider said in a press release.
Under the agreement, Havanatur agents will have access to the Amadeus
Selling Platform, which is used by 90,000 travel agencies worldwide. The
online service allows users to make reservations with 436 airlines,
87,000 hotels, 103 railroads, 21 cruise lines, and 37,000 rent-a-car
agencies. Travel agents like the one-stop platform because it allows
fast price comparisons and efficient booking.
The Amadeus platform was started, and is part-owned, by European flag
carriers Air France, Lufthansa and Iberia.
The agreement, signed in Havana by Havanatur Vice President Leonel Luis
Guillot and Amadeus Senior Adviser Felipe González-Abad, is the first
cooperation with a global booking services provider by a Cuban tour
operator. Amadeus already provides booking services to flag carrier
Cubana de Aviación and to state hotel chains Cubanacan, Gran Caribe and
Islazul.
Amadeus has also donated a computer lab and access to the system for
students and teachers of the Tourism Faculty at the Universidad de La
Habana.
Amadeus opened an office at the Miramar Trade Center in Havana in
February 2009.
Grupo Internacional de Turoperadores y Agencias de Viajes Havanatur S.A.
sells Cuba travel packages through 50 agencies in Argentina, Bahamas,
Canada, Chile, France, Germany, Italy, Mexico, Spain, Russia and United
Kingdom, among others.

http://www.cubastandard.com/2011/03/31/havanatur-getting-access-to-amadeus-booking-platform/

Woman calls Miami police after arriving ashore from Cuba

Posted on Thursday, 03.31.11

Woman calls Miami police after arriving ashore from Cuba
By Melissa Sanchez and Tim Chapman
msanchez@elnuevoherald.com

Even by Miami standards, this one is strange.

A young woman outside a Little Havana gas station flagged down a
motorist, borrowed his cell phone and called police.

Her story?

She and nine other Cubans had been abandoned there by smugglers who
dropped them off a few hours earlier.

Yanet Gispert Consuegra, 20, said she and the others - seven men and two
women - left Cuba in a high-speed boat, about 30 feet long, about 1 a.m.
Thursday. Two men piloted the boat, arriving onshore around 6 a.m. She
said she did not know the other passengers.

Gispert, who had never been in Miami, couldn't say where they landed.
But somebody in a vehicle was waiting. That unidentified person drove
the 10 passengers to a house -- she didn't know where that was, either.

The group showered and changed. Then, they were dropped off at a BP gas
station near SW 16 Street and 37 Avenue.

"I don't know what happened," said Gispert, who said she's from Pinar
del Rio. "I'm just here, sitting in this corner."

She said she was headed to family members in Tampa, where she plan to live.

"They're on their way, of course," she said. "We'll see what happens next."

She said she didn't know how much the smuggling fee was. Her stepfather
paid the bill.

Around 12:30 p.m., Miami officer Jorge Guerra arrived. He took a
statement and alerted immigration authorities.

He waited with Gispert until a U.S. Customs and Border Protection agent
arrived. Officials did not immediately comment on her story.

Gispert looked calm and rested. The gas station manager had allowed her
inside, to wait in the comfort of air conditioning.

"I'm a little tired but I'm fine," said Gispert. She left Cuba, she
said, "because I don't agree with what's happening there and I didn't
like it."

http://www.miamiherald.com/2011/03/31/2143571/woman-calls-miami-police-after.html

Forum Calls for Decentralisation, to Boost Participation

CUBA
Forum Calls for Decentralisation, to Boost Participation
By Dalia Acosta

HAVANA, Mar 31, 2011 (IPS) - The annual Critical Observatory Social
Forum discussed the need for new spaces of dialogue, debate and
participation in Cuba, including the use of information and
communication technologies (ICT) and decentralisation to empower local
communities.

"If we are going to make a revolution that is consistent, many Cuban
bloggers are committed to the idea of improving the situation, not going
backwards," said feminist blogger Yasmín Portales, who attended the
forum held in Havana last weekend. "And the way to improve things is to
be critical in a systematic way," she said.

"Blogs are for talking about whatever we want; we have to exercise that
right because this is our country and we have the right to talk about it
however we want," added Portales, in whose view creative uses of ICT and
social and political activism should not be seen as incompatible.

The sharp polarisation between government opponents and defenders in the
Cuban blogosphere, and the extension into cyberspace of the five-decade
political conflict between Cuba and the United States, occupied one of
the sessions at the Observatory Forum, which declared itself in favour
of expanding ordinary people's access to the internet.

In the view of participants, the so-called "cyberwar" denounced by the
government of President Raúl Castro in a documentary serial titled "Las
razones de Cuba" (Cuba's Reasons) should not be used as an excuse to
avoid opening up internet access to the population, once the island has
better connections to the global network.

Under the trees in the courtyard of playwright Manuel González's house
in the Havana neighbourhood of Coco Solo, Observatory Forum participants
shared opinions and experiences on subjects as diverse as communication
between genders, sexual diversity, the current debate on racial issues
in Cuba and real opportunities for citizen participation.

"The Forum is above all a place where meetings, encounters and groups
can be planned, and social activism can be constructed freely and
independently," Mario Castillo, the coordinator of the fifth edition of
the Observatory Forum, which attracted 60 people under the slogan
"Create, Show Solidarity, Revolutionise", told IPS.

Castillo said the Critical Observatory, founded in 2006 as a convergence
and coordination mechanism for the Haydeé Santamaría Critical Thought
and Emerging Cultures Collective, has managed to "remain a living
organisation, without owners or fixed schedules, through the
determination of a group of people."

This sense of freedom is one of its characteristics to this day, and "is
what makes it interesting to young people," he said.

The Haydée Santamaría Collective is a social and cultural project,
attached since 2005 to the Criticism and Research Section of the Saíz
Brothers Association (AHS), an organisation of young creative artists.
Under AHS sponsorship, it held its first Social Forum in 2006, and over
time has opened the event to projects and people from all over the country.

In 2009 the Critical Observatory Activist Network emerged as a natural
development. In addition to promoting different activities and projects
all year round, it sends out a regular e-mail information summary about
a wide variety of controversial topics in today's Cuba.

For the first time, this year's Forum was truly self-managed, and
transcended the narrow confines of an academic meeting on social and
cultural research and criticism to become "a real social forum,"
according to its organisers.

Among the projects that come together in the Network are the Cofradía de
la Negritud, a citizens' association that promotes debate about racial
discrimination in Cuba, El Guardabosques, an environmentalist electronic
newsletter, and NotiG, an independent news service on sexual diversity
issues.

As well as the democratisation of internet use and the media on the
island, there were debates on the changes in Cuba's economic model and
institutional responsibilities and procedures to encourage
self-organisation and popular freedoms, self-management and cooperatives.

Decentralisation as an effective means of citizen participation was the
first topic of discussion at the Fifth Critical Observatory Social
Forum, held ahead of the Sixth Congress of the governing Cuban Communist
Party announced for mid-April.

Researcher Jorge Luis Alemán, a member of the Haydée Santamaría
Collective, said decentralisation in Cuban society today implies the
transfer of power to small local bodies capable of self-management, and
the creation of effective opportunities for participation at
neighbourhood level.

A larger role for people like elected delegates to the local government
so that they can sign contracts with other local actors, like
self-employed workers, and wide opportunities for citizen participation,
will be essential for achieving decentralisation, said Alemán.

http://ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=55082

Pdval glitches reappear in purchase of medicines to Cuba

Pdval glitches reappear in purchase of medicines to Cuba

Comptroller General Office found that 27,000 syringes were damaged in
the warehouses of the Ministry of Health

Politics

"A man who has made a mistake and does not correct it, is making
another, bigger mistake." The Venezuelan government attested to the
statement attributed to China's philosopher Confucius. Months after
Venezuelans were surprised that more than 100,000 tons of food imported
by the Venezuelan Food Producer and Distributor (Pdval) were rotten and
stockpiled in several ports, the Venezuelan Comptroller's General Office
reported that thousands of pounds of medicines and pharmaceutical
products imported from Cuba by the Venezuelan Ministry of Health have
had the same fate.

The information is included in the annual report submitted this week to
the National Assembly by Clodosbaldo Russián, Venezuela's Comptroller
General. According to the report, there was an excessive purchase of
pharmaceutical products, delays in customs clearance and storage of
medical supplies in warehouses that failed to meet the conditions for an
effective conservation.

After auditing 20 out of the 30 contracts that the Ministry of Health
and the Servicio Autónomo de Elaboraciones Farmacéuticas, Sefar
(Institute of Pharmaceutical Products) signed in Havana between 2005 and
the first half of 2010, Russián reported that the Ministry of Health
received medications "with a composition and type that do not correspond
to those established in some contracts."

The Comptroller General' Office also found that 27,000 syringes were
damaged in the warehouses of the Ministry of Health.

http://english.eluniversal.com/2011/03/31/pdval-glitches-reappear-in-purchase-of-medicines-to-cuba.shtml

Canada's Dilemma With Cuba

Canada's Dilemma With Cuba
By Nelson Taylor Sol Created: Mar 31, 2011 Last Updated: Mar 31, 2011

This month Dr. Oscar Biscet was released from a Cuban jail, a move that
could mark a turning point in the country.

Detained during the "Black Spring" of March 2003, Dr. Biscet and 74
other members of the opposition movement were considered prisoners of
conscience by Amnesty International, drawing international condemnation,
including a common European Union stance against Castro's regime.

Carefully planned to decapitate Cuba's growing opposition movement at a
time when the world's attention was focused on the outset of the Iraq
war, the now infamous crackdown saw dozens of journalists, librarians,
and human rights activists rounded up, summarily tried, and sentenced
for up to 28 years in jail.

In Cuba, as is always the case in communist countries, the flow of
information is totally controlled by the government. That is more or
less the case for locally based foreign media, aware that whatever is
reported to their home countries, is closely scrutinized by Cuban
censors. However, this time around, the charges of "agents of the USA"
on which Dr. Biscet and the rest of the activists were sentenced,
somehow didn't find the usual indifference that the cause of freedom in
Cuba normally faces.

Dr. Biscet, a 49-year-old medical doctor, has been nominated for the
Nobel Peace Prize by the Prime Minister of Hungary, members of the
United States Congress, members of the European Parliament, members of
the British House of Lords, and members of the Parliament of Canada.
Their open letters to the Norwegian Committee (Canadian MPs requested
that their identities not be publicized) outlined the importance of
honouring Dr. Biscet, a human rights defender of universal stature, as a
way of recognizing his selfless struggle for human dignity.

Dr. Biscet's story of opposition started earlier in the 80s, but it
wasn't until 1997 that he really irked the government (see
lawtonfoundation.com for further reference) by conducting a clandestine
ten-month research study at the Hijas de Galicia Hospital documenting
unofficial statistical data on abortion techniques.

During this study, many Cuban mothers testified that their newborn
babies were killed right after birth, a common practice in hospitals
throughout the island. The research study, "Rivanol: A Method to Destroy
Life," was officially delivered to the Cuban government in June 9, 1998,
along with a letter addressed to Fidel Castro accusing the Cuban
National Health System of genocide. Needless to say, that was the end
not only of Dr. Biscet's medical career but also his wife's career as a
nurse.

Dr. Biscet's mere nomination [for the Nobel prize] helps to lessen the
degree of ostracism the regime uses to stifle Cuban dissidents. In
addition to the regular beatings and subhuman conditions suffered by
Cuban prisoners of conscience, the psychological tortures inflicted upon
these men and women include prolonged periods of solitary confinement,
the prohibition of literature, and forced separation from their
families. The main goal of this is to break their spirits. A frequent
script used by interrogators and jailers is: "While you rot in here,
life continues outside, and the fact is that in the so-called free
world, nobody cares whether you live or die."

By recognizing Dr. Biscet's struggle, the opposition movement gains the
legitimacy that most in the free world have exclusively granted to the
regime. Through Dr. Biscet, we see a solidarity that up to now was
accustomed to a world seemingly mesmerized by the charms of a despot.
Canada's Role

Canada has consistently been a major facilitator of the Cuban regime's
survival ever since the collapse of the Soviet Union. When it comes to
liquidity contribution via trade, investment, and tourism, Canada leads
the world by providing the cash that the Castro family desperately needs
to stay in power. This occurs regardless of which party has the most
seats in Parliament.

The apparent secret bond between Canada and the regime, which is common
knowledge among human rights activists in Cuba, has also damaged
Canada's reputation internationally. A Toronto Star article published on
December 17, 2010, states: "Canada is one of several countries that has
stopped pressuring Cuba on human rights to gain business favours from
Havana, according to confidential U.S. diplomatic cables released by
WikiLeaks."

With critical events unfolding sooner rather than later, perhaps it is
about time to realize that turning our backs on the people of Cuba and
failing to openly denounce the ongoing human tragedy in that country
will eventually backfire. Canadians should question the risks of dealing
with the worst tyranny ever to take hold on the western hemisphere for
two reasons: First, its practicality if the explosive socio-economic
context is considered, and second, the long-term moral consequences of
propping up a criminal regime in the heart of the Americas.

Nelson Taylor Sol is the Ottawa representative director of the Cuban
Canadian Foundation and a Cuban expatriot. His blog address is
http://esquimal-desde-canada.blogspot.com. Further information can be
seen at www.cubancanadianfoundation.com."

http://www.theepochtimes.com/n2/opinion/canadas-dilemma-with-cuba-53898.html

Artists put Cuba's painful history of suppression on display with new exhibit

Artists put Cuba's painful history of suppression on display with new
exhibit

Jordan Schnitzer Museum of Art will show pieces from 19 influential
Cuban artists
Ryan Imondi | Scene Reporter
Published: Wednesday, March 30, 2011

Last week, while the majority of campus was on break, the Jordan
Schnitzer Museum of Art unveiled "Diaspora, Identity, and Race: Cuba Today."

The exhibition features new works from contemporary Cuban artists who
focus on issues of racism, homophobia and other problems occurring in
Cuban society that have been silenced by the Cuban government over the
last few decades.

Remaining on display until June 21, the exhibition's main purpose is to
give current Cuban artists a platform to express their feelings toward
the state of the country. After the Cuban revolution in 1959, the
government officially declared that issues of racism, sexism,
prostitution and poverty had all been solved. In reality, many of these
problems persisted. Because of the government's claims, many of these
topics were taboo to talk about. The art featured in the Schnitzer
exhibit is a representation of the artists' feelings and emotions of
growing up in a society where addressing such issues was strongly
discouraged.

"Only recently in the past 20 or 30 years have artists started to come
forward and discuss these issues openly in their work and sometimes to
very severe punishments," said Ashley Gibson, exhibit curator.

The exhibit combines quite a few different art forms, including
sculpture, video, paintings, photography and a few others to accurately
depict the feelings of the artists.

"Hopefully all this work sitting together can kind of inform some large
conversation about racism or other social issues," Gibson said. "While
it's definitely getting the word out there about what's going on in
Cuba, people can take this and kind of relate it to their own experiences."

Gibson, a University master's student with a contemporary art history
focus, started working on the exhibit in the fall. Working with the
executive director of the Schnitzer, Jill Hartz, Gibson was able to use
pre-existing art that was stored in the museum's collection, while also
bringing in a number of new pieces. There are a total of 28 pieces in
the exhibit.

The exhibit takes pieces from as far back as 1990 but focuses on more
recently produced art — some as new as from 2010. A total of 19 artists,
all Cuban-born, are featured. Each artist brings a unique perspective to
the exhibit with some artists considered some of Cuba's most
influential, while others are relatively new aspiring artists.

Almost every artist in the exhibit is considered to be part of a
generation in Cuba that endured economic hardship brought on by the fall
of the Soviet Union. After Cuba lost roughly 80 percent of its trade
because of the fall of its powerful ally, the country's living
conditions dropped significantly. Many of the artists from this
generation created their art with little money and limited resources.
Most of the pieces on display project the strong emotional reaction to
the two decades that have followed that time period.

The exhibit is sponsored by The Americas in a Globalized World
Initiative and the Department of Romance Languages, along with the
Schnitzer.

Anyone interested in seeing "Cuba Today" or any other exhibit can
partake in a visit during the museum's free first Friday, April 1.

rimondi@dailyemerald.com

Tag: Repression

http://www.dailyemerald.com/scene/artists-put-cuba-s-painful-history-of-suppression-on-display-with-new-exhibit-1.2133063

Napoleonic museum opens in Cuba

Napoleonic museum opens in Cuba
(AFP)

HAVANA — Napoleon Bonaparte goes on display in Cuba on Friday with the
reopening of the Napoleonic Museum of Havana, which boasts the largest
collection of French revolutionary and imperial items outside of Europe.

Napoleon never set foot in Cuba but his physician, Corsican-born
Francesco Antommarchi, who treated him during his last days in exile on
Saint Helen, moved here after the emperor died in 1821, bringing with
him the French icon's death mask.

The death mask is the centerpiece of the museum, which after a
three-year renovation now includes some 8,000 French Revolutionary and
Imperial artifacts and takes up four floors of an ornate
Renaissance-style Havana palace.

The museum is "a contribution towards the study of an event of universal
relevance that concerns many people, including those in Latin America,"
said Havana historian Eusebio Leal at the museum inauguration ceremony.

"This is not a monument glorifying conquest or the cult of militarism,"
he added.

The collection includes paintings, statues, clothing and weapons from
the era, and a library of some 5,000 books relating to the period in
French, Spanish and English.

It also includes a gold watch the descendents of Antommarchi gave
President Raul Castro in the 1960s, at a time when Julio Lobo, a wealthy
businessman and fervent Napoleon admirer, collected most of the items.

French ambassador Jean Mendelson was at the inaugural event along with
Alix de Foresta, 84, the widow of a descendant of Napoleon's youngest
brother Jerome.

The representative of the Bonapartes, who had visited Cuba in 1951 with
her husband, was thrilled by the ceremony and donated a porcelain dinner
service to the museum.

In his opening presentation historian Leal mentioned Francisco de
Miranda and Simon Bolivar, South American leaders in the early 19th
century wars of independence against Spain, who were strongly influenced
by the French Revolution.

Miranda actively participated in the French Revolution, rising to the
rank of general, and his name is engraved on the Arc de Triomphe in Paris.

http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5heHqN8R8RED_3Yt39k5b6XmEIttQ?docId=CNG.74d12d8ce9226f5284693faa982457e7.01

Canadian Salvation Army Team Heading to Cuba with a Mission

Canadian Salvation Army Team Heading to Cuba with a Mission

TORONTO, March 31 /CNW/ - Canadians from across Canada will assemble at
Toronto's Pearson International Airport early Friday, April 1, 2011 to
head to Holguin, Cuba not for a sunny vacation but to work for the next
two weeks on special building projects for The Salvation Army.

The 26 team members will spend the next two weeks working on five
construction projects and participate in various opportunities in Banes
and Holguin, Cuba. Teams will help with construction, renovations,
teaching and training seminars.

The group will meet a 40 foot container being shipped to the area with
$40,000 worth of construction materials. We thank the Home Depot,
Sherritt International and private donors for their partnership in
making this mission trip possible with their generous contributions.

"The Salvation Army believes in building stronger communities not only
here in Canada but around the world. We are grateful to our community
partners who believe in the work we do each day and who continue to see
the difference we are making." Said Captain John Murray, spokesperson
for The Salvation Army. "Together we are giving hope and dignity."

This is the third mission of its kind by The Salvation Army in Canada to
Cuba. The first occurred in 2009 in Havana and the second in 2010 in
Baragua and Havana, Cuba. The Salvation Army has a strong presence in
Cuba, operating 14 churches, 14 community service programs, a senior's
residence and an addiction rehabilitation program.

Tag: Aid

http://www.newswire.ca/en/releases/archive/March2011/31/c8125.html

Wednesday, March 30, 2011

Statement from Bacardi U.S.A., Inc. on the U.S. Court of Appeals Ruling Regarding Havana Club Rum Registration

Statement from Bacardi U.S.A., Inc. on the U.S. Court of Appeals Ruling
Regarding Havana Club Rum Registration
By: PRNewswire | 30 March 2011
CORAL GABLES, Fla.--(BUSINESS WIRE)

Statement from Patricia M. Neal, spokeswoman for Bacardi U.S.A., Inc.,
on the U.S. Court of Appeals ruling on March 29, 2011 regarding the
HAVANA CLUB registration.

"Bacardi U.S.A., Inc. applauds the U.S. Court of Appeals for confirming
that the Cuban government had no `vested right' to the renewal of the
HAVANA CLUB trademark registration in the U.S., and that the U.S. Office
of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) acted lawfully in denying Cubaexport a
license for the renewal. The effect of the Court of Appeals' decision is
that the Cuban government's registration is expired and cancelled. The
U.S. courts have also consistently ruled that the Cuban-French venture
Havana Club Holding has no rights to the HAVANA CLUB trademark in the U.S.

"With this ruling, the United States reaffirms the traditional principle
that confiscation of trademarks in one country has no effect on another.
Cuban confiscation of trademarks without compensation to the original
owners does not extend to U.S. trademarks.

"We are thrilled with the decision of the U.S. Court of Appeals. As we
have maintained all along, Bacardi is the legitimate owner of the brand."

About Bacardi U.S.A., Inc.

Bacardi U.S.A., Inc. is the United States import and distribution arm of
one of the world's leading spirits and wine producers. The company
boasts a portfolio of some of the most recognized and top-selling
spirits brands in the United States including BACARDI® rum, the world's
favorite and best-selling premium rum, as well as the world's most
awarded rum; GREY GOOSE® vodka, the world-leader in super-premium vodka;
DEWAR'S® Blended Scotch Whisky, the number-one selling blended Scotch
whisky in the United States; BOMBAY SAPPHIRE® gin, the top-valued and
fastest-growing premium gin in the world; CAZADORES® 100 percent blue
agave tequila, the number-one premium tequila in Mexico and a
top-selling premium tequila in the United States; MARTINI® vermouth, the
world-leader in vermouth; and other leading and emerging brands. For
additional information, visit http://www.bacardiusa.com.

Contacts

Bacardi U.S.A., Inc.

Amy Federman, 441-294-1110

afederman@bacardi.com

or

Patricia M. Neal, 441-294-1110

http://www.just-drinks.com/news/statement-from-bacardi-usa-inc-on-the-us-court-of-appeals-ruling-regarding-havana-club-rum-registration_id103455.aspx

Witness: Cuba out to kill militant on trial in US

Witness: Cuba out to kill militant on trial in US
By WILL WEISSERT
Associated Press

A former Cuban intelligence officer is testifying in federal court that
Cuba's domestic spy apparatus has a special department dedicated to
assassinating enemies of the communist government.

Roberto Hernandez Del Llano says an ex-CIA agent on trial in El Paso,
Texas, is among its primary targets.

Hernandez Del Llano was a spy with Cuban state security but left his
post in 1992, saying he was disillusioned with government corruption.

He fled to Miami in 2007 and has been called by the defense for
83-year-old Luis Posada Carriles. Posada is a Cuba-born anti-communist
militant facing 11 counts of immigration fraud, obstruction of justice
and perjury.

Hernandez Del Llano says a special wing of state security focuses on
Cuban exiles opposed to the Cuban government and has been charged with
"liquidating" Posada.

http://www.kansascity.com/2011/03/30/2763808/witness-cuba-out-to-kill-militant.html#storylink=rss

Cuba's Remnant Rediscovers Religion

Cuba's Remnant Rediscovers Religion
Letter from Havana
By Michael Orbach
Published March 30, 2011.

The hubbub surrounding Cuba's small Jewish community these days does not
faze Yakob Berezniak Hernandez.

Sitting behind a desk crowded with a typewriter, several cans of
Lieber's tomato paste and piles of loose foreign change, Hernandez, of
Havana's Adath Israel synagogue, waved away inquiries about Alan Gross,
the 61-year-old American Jewish contractor sentenced to 15 years in
prison March 15. Gross was found guilty of seeking to clandestinely
distribute Internet satellite communications equipment to Cuba's Jewish
community on behalf of United States Agency for International Development.

"We have good relationships with the goyim," said Hernandez. "This is a
paradise for religions. You can't find anti-Semites [here]. No one cares."

But several days later, it became clear that some people outside Cuba
care a lot. When former President Jimmy Carter arrived in Cuba on March
28, he met almost immediately with Jewish community leaders, followed by
meetings over the next two days with senior Cuban officials, including
President Raul Castro. ABC News reported that the Gross case was a
prominent part of his discussions with the Cuban officials.

The Gross case also shined a spotlight on the small Cuban-Jewish
community or "Jubans," as they are known. While close to 95% of the
Jewish population fled Cuba before or soon after the revolution, a
remnant remained. Now numbering a little more than 1,000, the community
has experienced a religious reawakening.

These days, 200 people or more pray every Sabbath in the El Patronato
Bet Sholom Synagogue, the largest in Cuba, and close to 100 teenagers
attend Sunday school, where they learn Hebrew and study about Judaism.

Adath Israel, located in the old Havana district, is the sole Orthodox
synagogue in Cuba. Hernandez, a hulking, bearded 29-year-old, fulfills
many roles in the congregation. He is the synagogue's cantor, public
prayer reader, one-man burial committee and treasurer. After spending
four months in Haifa in 2009 studying the laws of kashrut, he also
became the community's sole shokhet, or ritual slaughterer, a task he
fulfills five blocks away, in a butcher shop. (Meat, a luxury in Cuba,
is regularly provided to members of the Jewish community under the
national rationing system, instead of the pork rations others receive.)

Outside Hernandez's office, women knitted yarmulkes with Israeli and
Cuban flags intertwined, which they sold to tourists for roughly $10, a
little less than a month's salary for most Cubans.

While Israel and Cuba do not have formal diplomatic ties, Cuban Jews can
make aliyah and leave the country, unlike their fellow citizens. Many
Jews have immigrated to Israel, though Hernandez said that some have had
trouble adjusting. "It's difficult to adapt to life in Israel,"
Hernandez said, citing the relaxed atmosphere of Cuba. "People that stay
are very happy. It's a place to practice Judaism."

The Orthodox Adath Israel, which holds daily morning and
afternoon-evening services, found a novel way to attract people in this
country of scarcities to its gatherings: food. The synagogue provides a
meal after both shacharit, the morning service, and mincha, the
afternoon service.

Hernandez said that the congregation numbers 300 members, many of whom
he claims keep kosher thanks to donations from the Jewish community of
Panama. The synagogue bakes challah in its own kitchen; for Purim, Adath
Israel baked hamantaschen. A new van, with the name and logo of the
synagogue's website, was parked outside — a strange sight in Havana,
where bicycle taxis and refurbished 1950s Chevrolets and DeSotos crowd
the dusty streets. This relative wealth didn't stop members of the
community from offering to sell cigars to a reporter.

Ruth Behar, a professor of anthropology at the University of Michigan
and the author of "An Island Called Home: Returning to Jewish Cuba,"
said that the community is composed mainly of converts.

"There's a handful of Jews on both their mother and father's side," she
said. "Most have converted because their father is Jewish or they have a
grandparent. They're very much a larger part of Cuban society."

Outside Adath Israel, Bryam Ernesto Quirch Acosta, 21, an engineering
student at the University of Havana whose grandfather was Jewish,
explained why he came to the synagogue. "I feel sorry," he said in
Spanish. "I don't know how to be Jewish."

The community's makeup has caused some problems for Lubavitch, the
Hasidic sect famed for its worldwide outreach. The Orthodox synagogue
broke ties with the group recently.

"They make propaganda against the Jews and the goyim," Hernandez said,
explaining the break.

Shimon Aisenbach of the Chabad Canadian Friends of Cuban Jewry said that
the falling-out was caused when the synagogue's old president left.
Lubavitch emissaries, according to Aisenbach, were told that the
synagogue no longer believed in the Orthodox definition of someone who
is Jewish, which requires matrilineal descent.

"They proved it clearly to our emissaries by allowing an outright
non-Jew to blow the shofar on that Rosh Hashanah," he explained in an
email to the Forward.

Hernandez said that the synagogue is strictly Orthodox and does not do
conversions, though it does allow those who have converted in the
Patronato synagogue to take part in its services.

For most Cubans, though, conversions and intermarriages seem a part of
life. Rosa Behar (no relation to the anthropologist), a prominent,
retired gastroenterologist who runs a free pharmacy for the Jewish
community and serves as president of the Cuban chapter of Hadassah,
called them the "most beautiful thing" about the Jewish community.

"They come because life is better," she said, referring to the many
assimilated Cubans with some Jewish ancestry who flock to synagogue
services.

Cuba's hostile foreign policy toward Israel is largely typical of
leftist governments worldwide. But there are low-profile chinks in the
public stance. In 1992, Rafi Eitan, a former senior Mossad operative and
current Israeli Cabinet minister, founded a company that owns several
large citrus cooperatives in the country. He markets the cooperative's
fruits in Israel. Eitan, who was implicated in Jonathan Pollard's
Washington espionage scandal in the 1980s, has a personal relationship
with Fidel Castro through his company. In 2006, Eitan joined Castro to
inaugurate Havana's Holocaust memorial monument — a large seven-branch
menorah in a central city square.

"The Cuban government doesn't like the Israeli government and their
attitude toward the Palestinians, but they actually love Jewish people
and appreciate the Jews," Ruth Behar said.

Arturo Lopez-Levy, a lecturer at the Josef Korbel School of
International Studies at the University of Denver who lived in Cuba
until 2001, said he believed that Gross was an unwitting instrument of
the old U.S. policy of regime change dressed as Jewish solidarity. At
Gross's closed trial, Lopez-Levy related, citing accounts he heard from
Cuba, a Jewish communal leader testified that Gross, who entered on a
tourist visa, had never informed the Jewish communal official he was
working on behalf of USAID. The Cuban government views USAID's Cuba
programs, funded under Congress' Helms-Burton Act imposing sanctions on
their country, as part of a U.S. effort to undermine the regime.

"It is legitimate to promote human rights, legitimate to promote
religious freedom, legitimate to promote communications with Cuban
citizens [to] the outside world," said Lopez-Levy, who strongly supports
Gross's release. "What is not legitimate is to do so as an agent of a
government that seeks to undermine the regime without the informed
consent of the community."

http://www.forward.com/articles/136596/

Carter to meet with prominent Cuban blogger

Carter to meet with prominent Cuban blogger
From Shasta Darlington, CNN
March 30, 2011 -- Updated 0741 GMT (1541 HKT)

STORY HIGHLIGHTS
Former President Jimmy Carter is on the third day of his visit to Cuba
The trip is officially to strengthen bilateral ties
Carter will meet with prominent blogger Yoani Sanchez on Wednesday
He says he has spoken to officials about Alan Gross, who was recently
sentenced to 15 years in prison.

Havana, Cuba (CNN) -- On the third day of his visit to Cuba, former U.S.
President Jimmy Carter is expected to meet with prominent blogger Yoani
Sanchez.

Sanchez announced the meeting via Twitter on Tuesday morning: "They just
called my house. I will meet with Jimmy Carter tomorrow morning. More
later!"

Sanchez told CNN that a representative of the Carter Center called to
invite her to a meeting at 7 a.m. on Wednesday but asked that she not
reveal the location.

"It¹s a good gesture," Sanchez said. "And a sign of respect for the
plurality of voices, rather than resigning himself to the government's
message."

During his 2002 trip to Cuba, Carter also met with dissidents and
criticized the country's lack of democracy in a speech carried live on
local television.

Carter's meeting with Sanchez is likely to ruffle feathers. She has been
slammed in state media for alleged links to Washington and accused of
trying to rally dissidents against the government via the internet.

On Tuesday, Carter squashed speculation that he can secure the release
of American contractor Alan Gross during his trip.

"We have spoken to some officials about Mr. Gross. But I am not here to
take him out of the country," he told journalists, when asked about the
case.

Expectations were high that Carter would try to negotiate the release of
Gross, who was recently sentenced to 15 years in prison. U.S. Secretary
of State Hillary Clinton talked to Carter before his departure to
encourage him to raise the issue.

Cuba accuses Gross, a USAID subcontractor, of working a "subversive"
project to illegally connect people to the internet with the goal of
destabilizing the government.

Washington maintains Gross was helping the island's small Jewish
community communicate.

On Monday afternoon, Carter met with Jewish leaders and the archbishop
of Havana, Cardinal Jaime Ortega. He visited the Patronato Jewish center
and Temple Beth Shalom.

Analysts say that even if Carter doesn't fly home with Gross, he could
pave the way for Gross to be released early on "humanitarian grounds."

Gross's family has called for such a release, as his mother and his
daughter are battling cancer.

http://edition.cnn.com/2011/WORLD/americas/03/30/cuba.carter.visit/index.html?hpt=T2

Carter says he is not taking U.S. contractor home from Cuba

Carter says he is not taking U.S. contractor home from Cuba
CARTER CENTER
March 29, 2011|By Shasta Darlington, CNN

Former U.S. President Jimmy Carter squashed speculation on Tuesday that
he can secure the release of American contractor Alan Gross during
Carter's trip to Cuba.

"We have spoken to some officials about Mr. Gross. But I am not here to
take him out of the country," he told journalists, speaking in Spanish,
when asked about the case.

Carter was visiting the Belen Convent on the second day of his three-day
private visit to talk about Cuba's economic reforms and bilateral
relations. He is set to meet with President Raul Castro on Tuesday
evening and dissidents on Wednesday morning, and will give a press
conference later Wednesday.

http://articles.cnn.com/2011-03-29/world/cuba.carter.visit_1_carter-center-jimmy-carter-dissidents?_s=PM:WORLD

Preparing For Perestroika

CUBA: Preparing For Perestroika
The Daily Reckoning | Mar. 29, 2011, 3:30 PM

Dividing Old Havana from Chinatown is Cuba's Capitolio Nacional, a
monumental edifice with a fateful past. El Capitolio was conceived
during the Roaring '20s, when the island led the world in sugar exports
and the future seemed sky blue.

President Gerardo Machado dreamed of turning Cuba into the Switzerland
of the Americas. He decided that his 4 million countrymen needed a domed
capitol building even taller and more ornate than the one he toured in
Washington. So Cuba's Congress dutifully poured 3% of the country's GDP
into their new home. (This would be akin to the US Congress spending
$420 billion for a new office today, but let's not give them any ideas…)

It took 8,000 skilled Cuban laborers just three years to complete El
Capitolio, which featured gilt ceilings, a giant diamond embedded into
the pristine marble floor and the world's third-largest indoor statue.
However, the showy project couldn't have been more poorly timed. Work
completed in 1929, just as America's stock market crashed and the Great
Depression unfolded.

The Smoot-Hawley tariffs crushed Cuban sugar prices by 74%. When El
Capitolio's ribbon was cut in 1931, Cuba's economy lay in tatters.
Machado was forced out of office, and his dream building would perform
congressional service for only 28 years before Fidel Castro's
revolutionaries swept into Havana and opted for more austere premises. I
don't need to recite the history from here, which you probably well know.

The winds of change are gathering in Cuba, though. Since Fidel Castro's
health nearly failed in 2006, power has passed to his younger brother,
Raul Castro. Raul has quietly reshuffled more than 30 cabinet members to
prepare his party and people for a sweeping economic policy overhaul –
Perestroika al Cubano. Even the semi-retired Fidel seems to have glumly
accepted that change is inevitable, candidly admitting to a visiting US
journalist that "the Cuban model doesn't even work for us anymore."

The global economic crisis whacked Cuba hard. Venezuela cut back on its
largesse as its own economy worsened. Tourism and remittances softened,
while nickel export prices tanked. Furthermore, three severe hurricanes
left a wake of destruction in 2008. Unable to service Cuba's estimated
$21 billion foreign debt, and running out of generous leftist patrons to
hit up, Raul Castro has, apparently, decided he has little choice but to
pry open Cuba's economy.

Castro's wild card is Cuba's oil and gas reserves. The island currently
produces 60,000 bbl a day. But its US-facing northern waters hold an
estimated 5-20 billion barrels of oil and 20 trillion cubic feet of
natural gas. (Note: This compares with 29 billion barrels of oil
reserves in the entire US.) Accessing this undersea oil requires the
sophisticated drilling technology the US excels in. But as long as
sanctions remain in place, the US oil majors are excluded from that
bonanza. Amidst the applause of oil industry lobbyists, the dance for
reengagement has begun, with both partners taking some unprecedented steps.

Raul Castro has issued a far-reaching five-year road map for Cuba's
future economic reform. The proposed changes would put Cuba on a very
similar path to that taken by China in the 1980s and Vietnam in the
1990s. Here are some of the ideas: permit real estate transactions
amongst Cubans, merge the two-tier currency system, close down
inefficient state enterprises, decentralize state ownership, facilitate
private ownership of businesses, distribute idle land to farmers, open
state-owned wholesale markets and further encourage foreign investment –
particularly in tourism.

In recent months, some planned reforms have already been implemented in
an effort to delay Cuba's impending insolvency. Costly subsidies on
sugar and personal care products are being scaled back. The government
announced plans to shed 500,000 state workers (that's 10% of the
country's government work force in a country where 85% of workers work
for the state) and guide them somehow into the private sector.

Cubans are being encouraged to grow and sell their own fruits and
vegetables. The government is inviting foreign investors to develop 10
golf course estates in Cuba, with a new law allowing 99-year land leases
to foreign buyers of plots in such projects. In the old days of Fidel's
revolution, such policies were unthinkable.

So what is the potential for a liberalized Cuban economy?

Just look 90 miles across the straits to Florida. A million
Cuban-Americans call Miami home. Cuba has 60% of Florida's population
and 80% of its landmass, but greater natural resources and a much longer
coastline, so one might conclude that the two are of comparable overall
potential.

Perhaps to underscore their similarities, remember the fact that England
and Spain cleanly swapped the two in 1763. Today, Florida's economy is
12 times larger than Cuba's. One reason is that Florida gets 20 times as
many tourists as Cuba, plus an inflow of affluent retirees.

When the US government stops restricting its citizens from traveling to
Cuba, the island will become an instant tourist magnet. Offering short
flights, sunny beaches, cool music, "old world" architecture and cheap
surgery, Cuba should have no problem drawing several million American
tourists a year, as further-away destinations like Costa Rica have done.

Should reforms become comprehensive enough, agriculture seems an obvious
investment play: Half the land is arable, labor is cheap and rain is
plentiful. Cuba's once-vaunted sugar industry stands in disarray, with
80% of the old mills shut down. However, today's high sugar prices
provide ample incentive to revive the sector, along with other
traditional crops such as cigar tobacco.

Despite its long coastline, fisheries and aquaculture remain largely
overlooked. Cuba is a world-class producer of nickel, but other mineral
deposits remain underexploited. And then there's the oil. The entire
power system needs to be updated, financial services developed,
retailing expanded – the opportunities seem endless.

Beyond the subsidized basics, most consumer goods have to be imported,
and imports draw heavy duties. Telecom services are costly due to
government monopolization and inefficiency. The list goes on. In this
environment, it is tough for most Cubans to get by unless they receive
remittances, tourist gratuities or tea money.

All in all, we eagerly await the implementation of Cuba's economic
reforms. As this process unfolds, Cuba could transform into one of the
world's most attractive frontier investment destinations. America has a
long track record of turning bitter rivals into productive partners (a
recent example being Vietnam), and re-engagement with Cuba could be one
of Obama's most notable foreign policy legacies.

Some frontier investors are not waiting for that and are already
investing in Cuba. While 100% foreign ownership is permitted, most
investors enter joint ventures with Cuban state enterprises, which
typically contribute land, labor and sometimes capital. Over 250 such
joint ventures exist, mostly for specific sectors or projects.
Investments are made in foreign currency, eliminating exchange rate
issues, and there are no restrictions on capital repatriation. Corporate
income tax is 30% for joint ventures and 35% for wholly owned foreign
companies, but tax holidays of five-seven years are available.

A few Cuba-focused investment groups have been established that non-US
investors can access. Canada-listed Sherritt Group is a major player in
Cuban nickel mining and, formerly, telecoms. A private investment group
backed by European investors, Coral Capital has restored Havana's
historic Saratoga Hotel, which was recently ranked by Conde Nast as the
16th best hotel in the world. Coral is now planning a number of golf
course, marina, housing and hotel projects, as is Leisure Canada, a
Canada-listed investment vehicle.

Regards,

Douglas Clayton
for The Daily Reckoning

http://www.businessinsider.com/cuba-preparing-for-perestroika-2011-3

India to expand IT cooperation with Cuba

India to expand IT cooperation with Cuba

Cuban IT consulting firm Avante signed a memorandum of understanding
with India's Electronics and Computer Software Export Promotion Council
(ESC) at the Indiasoft 2011 fair in Maharashtra state, Cuba's foreign
ministry announced in a press release.

The two state entities agreed to "promote information exchanges,
business opportunities, and the participation of businesspeople on both
sides in exhibitions, seminars and workshops," according to an Avante
official quoted by the press release.

No further details were immediately available.

In 2009, Cuba's Ministry of Information and Communication signed an
agreement with India's Ministry of Communications & Information
Technology in Havana for cooperation in computer science and
communications. The agreement includes a program to train up to 400
Cuban computer science and communications professionals with Indian
experts; professors of India's National Institute of Technology (NIIT)
have been teaching courses in Cuba for development of mobile
applications (J2ME), administration of Linux and Windows servers, and
architecture associated to J2EE and MDA. The agreement also provides for
technology transfer and exchange among institutions in both countries.

http://www.cubastandard.com/2011/03/29/india-to-expand-it-cooperation-with-cuba/

Jimmy Carter meets Cuba dissidents

30 March 2011 Last updated at 17:15 GMT

Jimmy Carter meets Cuba dissidents

Former US president Jimmy Carter has had talks with prominent Cuban
dissidents on the third day of his visit to the communist-run island.

Among them were several activists recently released from prison and the
dissident blogger Yoani Sanchez.

Mr Carter also met the jailed US contractor Alan Gross, but said the
Cuban authorities had made it clear they did not intend to release him.

He had talks with Cuban leader Raul Castro on Tuesday.

He is due to give a news conference shortly.

The Cuban independent human rights activist Elizardo Sanchez said Mr
Carter "wanted to express his solidarity and his recognition of the
movement for civil rights and the emerging civil society".

"Hopefully his visit will be useful, even if it is just one step towards
the normalisation of relations between the governments in Havana and
Washington," he added.
Unexpected visit

Dissident blogger Yoani Sanchez - whose website Generation Y has won
international acclaim - said she could not comment on what Mr Carter had
to say.

"My words were dedicated to the need for freedom of expression and free
internet access for Cubans," she said.

Mr Carter, 86 - who is on his second trip to Cuba - is the only serving
or former US president to visit Cuba since the revolution in 1959.

His three-day visit at the invitation of the Cuban government was only
announced on Friday.

There had been speculation that he would be seeking the release of the
US contractor Alan Gross, who was sentenced to 15 years in prison
earlier this month for providing satellite communications equipment to
Jewish groups in Havana.

But on Tuesday Mr Carter said he had not come to take Mr Gross back to
the US, but to meet Cuban leaders and citizens and try to improve
relations between Washington and Havana.

His visit comes a week after the Cuban authorities released the last of
the "Group of 75" dissidents arrested in a crackdown on opposition
activists in 2003.

Their release had been a key condition set by the US and EU for any
improvement in relations.

But Washington has also said there can be no easing of tensions until Mr
Gross is also freed.

Tag: Dissident

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-latin-america-12913267

Cuba approves loans to help private entrepreneurs launch small businesses

Cuba approves loans to help private entrepreneurs launch small businesses
By The Associated Press – 2 hours ago

HAVANA — The Cuban government has authorized local banks to offer credit
to private small business owners and agricultural producers as part of a
sweeping economic overhaul announced last year.

Havana is dismissing hundreds of thousands of state employees while
granting licenses for a broad array of private businesses to absorb the
layoffs.

The credit measure is intended to help would-be entrepreneurs get off
the ground.

State-run newspaper Granma announced Wednesday that the measure was
approved March 25 during a meeting of the Council of Ministers, presided
over by President Raul Castro.

Castro has said the economic overhaul is intended to update Cuba's
socialist economic model and is not a wholesale switch to capitalism.

http://www.google.com/hostednews/canadianpress/article/ALeqM5iSE8yXDu2I6y4mnkYXEnUU3VuOhA?docId=6409730

Pernod Ricard Loses Appeals Court Ruling in Bacardi 'Havana Club Fight

Pernod Ricard Loses Appeals Court Ruling in Bacardi 'Havana Club Fight
By Susan Decker - Mar 29, 2011 11:19 PM GMT+0200

Pernod Ricard SA, the world's second-biggest liquor maker, lost a U.S.
court ruling in its decades-long battle with Bacardi Ltd. over the right
to use the name Havana Club on rum in the American market.

The U.S. Court of Appeals in Washington ruled today that the U.S.
Treasury Department's Office of Foreign Assets Control was correct when
it refused to let a Cuban state-owned group renew its U.S. trademark on
the Havana Club name because of a 1998 law that barred renewal of
certain Cuban trademarks.

Pernod Ricard sells Havana Club throughout the world except in the U.S.
under a 1993 venture with Cuba's state-owned Cubaexport. It has been
fighting with Bacardi over rights to the name in the U.S. since 1994,
when Bacardi applied for a U.S. trademark on Havana Club. The U.S.
Patent and Trademark Office rejected Bacardi's request in part because
of Cubaexport already had a trademark.

At stake is Pernod's future use of an historic brand name in the world's
second-largest market for rum should the U.S. embargo on Cuban goods be
lifted. U.S. consumers buy about 17 percent of the world's rum, second
only to India's 29 percent, according to the London-based industry
research firm International Wine and Spirit Research.

"We will appeal," Ian Fitzsimons, Pernod's general counsel, said in a
telephone interview. "We're encouraged that it was only a decision by a
2-1 majority. We were particularly encouraged by the dissenting opinion."
Cuban Trademarks

Cuban trademarks have been registered in the U.S. in anticipation of an
end to the embargo, and for the same reason U.S. companies regularly
register trademarks in Cuba even as the 1963 U.S. embargo blocks most
trade between the countries.

The Havana Club trademark was first used by the Arechabala family in
Cuba, which lost its distilling company in 1960 when it was nationalized
by Fidel Castro's revolutionary government. After the trademarks owned
by the Arechabalas lapsed, Cubaexport registered the trademark in the
U.S. in 1976 and assigned it to a Pernod joint venture in 1993.

In 1998, Congress passed legislation making trademarks confiscated by
the Cuban government unenforceable in the U.S. The law, known as Section
211, has been applied only to the Havana Club mark. The World Trade
Organization has said since 2001 that the law violated international
treaties and demanded that it be changed.

Each company claims to have the legal rights to the Havana Club name and
to make the "real" Havana Club rum. Pernod says its rum is made in Cuba
using traditional methods.
Family Rights

Bacardi, which traces its roots to 1862 in Cuba and bought rights to the
name from the Arechabala family, contends that it relies on the recipe
of Jose Arechabala, the original maker of Havana Club, according to
court papers.

Bacardi, based in Hamilton, Bermuda, said it was "thrilled" with the
decision.

"With this ruling, the United States reaffirms the traditional principle
that confiscation of trademarks in one country has no effect on
another," Patricia Neal, a spokeswoman for Bacardi, said in an e-mailed
statement. "Cuban confiscation of trademarks without compensation to the
original owners does not extend to U.S. trademarks."
Standard Rum

Pernod, based in Paris, has turned Havana Club into the world's
fourth-most popular brand of standard rum, selling about 3.5 million
cases a year, up from 400,000 cases sold in 1993, according to the
International Wine and Spirit Research report.

Without access to the U.S. market, Pernod's Havana Club has 5 percent of
the world's rum market, compared with 35 percent for Bacardi's eponymous
rum, about 16 percent for Diageo Plc's Captain Morgan and 6.9 percent
for closely held Brugal Co.'s namesake spirit, according to the report.
Bacardi's Havana Club, available since 2006 only in Florida, doesn't
sell enough to register on the firm's ranking.

After its 1994 bid to register the Havana Club name failed, Bacardi sued
in 1999 in Spain, claiming it was the rightful owner of the Havana Club
trademark.

Two Spanish courts ruled that the joint venture with Pernod is the
proper owner because the Arechebala family neglected its rights, both in
allowing its trademark to expire and waiting too long to challenge
ownership. The Spanish Supreme Court in February sided with Pernod.
Assets Control

Bacardi has had more luck in the U.S. The decision today upholds a trial
judge's ruling that the Office of Foreign Assets Control acted within
the scope of the 1998 Section 211 law blocking Cubaexport's application
to renew the trademark on Havana Club.

Still pending is an appeal in a case in which a federal judge in
Wilmington, Delaware, rejected Pernod's claim that Bacardi was
misleading consumers into thinking its rum was made in Havana. The fact
that it is made in Puerto Rico is clearly marked, the judge said.

The OFAC case is Empresa Cubana Exportadora v. Department of Treasury,
09-5196, U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit (Washington). The
lower court case is Empresa Cubana Exportadora de Alimentos y Productos
Varios v. U.S. Department of Treasury, 06cv1692, U.S. District Court for
the District of Columbia.

The 3rd Circuit case is Pernod Ricard USA LLC v. Bacardi USA Inc.,
10-2354, 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals (Philadelphia). The Delaware
case is Pernod Ricard USA LLC v. Bacardi USA Inc., 06-cv-505, U.S.
District Court for the District of Delaware (Wilmington).

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-03-29/pernod-ricard-loses-appeals-court-ruling-in-bacardi-havana-club-fight.html

Carter says can't bring home jailed US contractor

Posted on Wednesday, 03.30.11

Carter says can't bring home jailed US contractor
By PETER ORSI
Associated Press

HAVANA -- Former President Jimmy Carter met with a jailed American
contractor but said Wednesday that Cuban authorities had made it clear
they do not plan to release him.

The announcement was a disappointment to supporters of Alan Gross after
the trip had raised expectations the 86-year-old former American leader
would be allowed to bring the Maryland native home. Gross is serving a
15-year sentence after being convicted earlier this month of bringing
communications equipment into Cuba illegally.

State Department officials have said privately that Cuban authorities
indicated they might release Gross on humanitarian grounds following the
trial. But Carter said that even before he arrived, Cuban authorities
told him that "the freedom of Alan Gross would not be granted."

He said he met with Gross at an undisclosed location Wednesday morning,
and that the 61-year-old contractor told him he had lost 40 kilograms
(88 pounds) since his arrest in December 2009.

Carter said Gross's lawyer plans to appeal his conviction, and if that
fails, he hopes Gross will be granted an "executive pardon" on
humanitarian grounds. Gross's 26-year-old daughter and elderly mother
are both suffering from cancer.

The former U.S. president said he believes Gross is "innocent of any
serious crime."

In addition to meeting Gross, Carter also sat down Wednesday with Cuban
revolutionary icon Fidel Castro, a day after holding talks with
President Raul Castro.

"We welcomed each other as old friends," Carter said of the meeting with
the 84-year-old former Cuban leader.

During the three-day visit, Carter also met with other senior government
and religious leaders. On Wednesday, he had breakfast with members of
the island's small opposition community, including 10 dissidents
recently released from prison by the Cuban government and members of the
Ladies in White opposition group.

Human rights activist Elizardo Sanchez said Carter told the dissidents
he "wanted to express his solidarity and his recognition of the movement
for civil rights and also the emerging civil society.

"Hopefully his visit will be useful even if it is just one step toward
the normalization of bilateral relations between the governments of
Washington and Havana."

"We can't comment on the content" of the meetings added blogger Yoani
Sanchez. "My words were dedicated to the need for freedom of expression
and free Internet access for Cubans."

Before Carter's press conference, hope had been rising in Washington
that the former leader would bring Gross home. Last August, the 39th
U.S. president and winner of the 2002 Nobel Peace Prize traveled to
North Korea to secure the release of an imprisoned American, and many
expected the same sort of result in Cuba.

"It is what everyone is hoping for and many of us are expecting," a
congressional staffer who deals with U.S.-Cuba relations told AP. "To
invite Carter to visit Havana strongly suggests a willingness to make a
humanitarian release of Alan Gross, but the Cuban government is also
looking for signals from Washington, and those signals haven't always
been clear."

The staffer spoke on condition of anonymity due to the sensitivity of
the issue.

Gross was arrested while working on a USAID-backed democracy-building
project and convicted of crimes against state security earlier this
month in a case that has blocked improved ties between the U.S. and Cuba.

Gross has said he was working to improve Internet communications for
Cuba's tiny Jewish community. Havana considers such U.S. projects to be
aimed at toppling the government.

Carter said Tuesday that he discussed the Gross case with Cuban
officials but was visiting to talk about strained ties.

"I am not here to take (Gross) out of the country," Carter said in Spanish.

"We are here to visit the Cubans, the heads of government and private
citizens. It is a great pleasure for us to return to Havana," he added.
"I hope we can contribute to better relations between the two countries."

Accompanied by former first lady Rosalynn Carter, the ex-president met
with Raul Castro at the Government Palace for private talks Tuesday, but
there was no word on what they talked about.

Castro and Carter later arrived by motorcade for an apparent late dinner
at an upscale restaurant in Old Havana.

Washington and Havana have not had formal diplomatic relations since the
1960s, and the United States maintains economic and financial sanctions
on the island.

U.S. officials say no thaw in relations is possible while Gross is in
prison.

Carter, who was president from 1977 to 1981, previously visited Cuba in
2002, becoming the only former U.S. president to do so since the 1959
revolution that brought Fidel Castro to power.

Associated Press writer Andrea Rodriguez and Paul Haven in Havana
contributed to this report.

http://www.miamiherald.com/2011/03/30/2141368/report-carter-may-meet-imprisoned.html

ACTO DE REPUDIO CONTRA OPOSITOR EN PALMA SORIANO

ACTO DE REPUDIO CONTRA OPOSITOR EN PALMA SORIANO
30-03-2011.
Roberto de Jesús Guerra Pérez
Centro de Información Hablemos Press

(www.miscelaneasdecuba.net).- La Habana. El opositor Raudel Ávila
Losada, informó desde Palma Soriano, Santiago de Cuba que más de 100
personas le realizaron un mitin de repudio.

A través de un mensaje de texto llegado al teléfono celular de este
reportero, Raudel comunicó el domingo: Rodean mi vivienda para
realizarme acto de repudio más de 100 efectivos, entre altos dirigentes
del gobierno municipal y miembros de las brigadas de respuesta rápida.
Presentes también el jefe de la PNR y más de 20 policías.

Raudel reside en calle Cayamo 618. Su domicilio permanece con estas
pancartas en la parte frontal. Dirige la revista independiente Renacer,
voz del cubano de a pie en esa localidad.

Desde la semana pasada, Raudel ha estado informando por diferentes
medios, la muerte de dos jóvenes en el salón de parto de la localidad
por negligencia médica en lo que funciona como hospital.

El régimen trata de desinformar a los familiares sobre las verdaderas
causas del fallecimiento. Palma Soriano, con más de 150 mil habitantes y
a 45 kilómetros de Santiago, no cuenta con un hospital a pesar de ser
uno de los territorios con mayor cantidad de habitantes del país.

Por suerte, el domingo Raudel no fue detenido otra vez, pero si su
vivienda fue objeto de una gran violencia gubernamental.

Tags: Disidente, Represión

http://www.miscelaneasdecuba.net/web/article.asp?artID=31779

Tuesday, March 29, 2011

Cuba's Only Nuclear Reactor Is Crumbling

Yoani Sanchez

Cuba's Only Nuclear Reactor Is Crumbling
Posted: 03/28/11 06:39 PM ET

In our little room, he told us that morning about the time he had spent
in the USSR. He'd only been in Havana a few hours, after an Aeroflot
plane had brought him back from his long sojourn in the land of
Gorbachev. The gothic letters on his diploma showed he'd graduated from
the university in some kind of engineering my childish mind couldn't
understand. It was the first time I'd heard about the Juraguá nuclear
reactor, which was built in Cienfuegos in 1983. The recent arrival's
voice described an enormous VVER 440 reactor located in central Cuba as
if it were a live dragon breathing its whiffs on us. Hundreds of young
people, trained in research centers nearly 6,000 miles from home, would
work there as atomic scientists. Millions and millions of rubles
arriving from the Kremlin helped to construct what would be the pinnacle
of our "tropical socialism," the fundamental pillar of our energy
independence.

Later I learned that this young enthusiast never worked as a nuclear
engineer. The Soviet Union was dismembered just as the first of two
planned reactors was 97% complete. Grass covered a good part of the
site, and exposure to the elements broke down everything from pieces of
the core, to the steam generators, the cooling pumps and the isolation
valves. Juraguá became a new ruin, a monument to the delusions of
grandeur left us by Soviet imperialism.

With his graying temples, while cutting metals in his new career as a
lathe operator, the one-time expert told me now, "It was lucky we didn't
start it up." According to what he and his colleagues had calculated,
the chances of an nuclear accident at Juraguá were 15% more than at any
other nuclear plant in the world. "We would have ended up with the
island cut in half," he said dramatically. I imagined a piece of the
nation here and another over there, while a stubbornly smoking hole
changed our national geography.

Now that the plant in Fukushima is spreading its residues, and with them
fear, I can't but rejoice that the Cienfuegos reactor has not awakened,
that under the concrete sarcophagus a nuclear reaction hasn't started.
Thinking about all that has happened, all of our current problems seem
small to us, insignificant trifles compared to the horrifying spread of
radioactivity.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/yoani-sanchez/cubas-own-nuclear-reactor_b_841058.html

Carter: Not in Cuba to get jailed contractor

Posted on Tuesday, 03.29.11

Carter: Not in Cuba to get jailed contractor
By ANDREA RODRIGUEZ
Associated Press

HAVANA -- Former President Jimmy Carter said Tuesday he has met Cuban
officials and discussed the case of a U.S. government contractor who was
sentenced to 15 years in prison for crimes against state security, but
said he is not in Cuba to bring the man home.

Carter said he talked with Cuban officials about Alan Gross, who was
arrested in December 2009 while working on a USAID-backed
democracy-building project, but added, "I am not here to take him out of
the country."

"We are here to visit the Cubans, the heads of government and private
citizens. It is a great pleasure for us to return to Havana," the former
president said in Spanish during a visit to a senior center, accompanied
by his wife, Rosalynn Carter.

"I hope we can contribute to better relations between the two countries."

Already poor relations have been strained by the conviction of Gross
this month.

Washington has encouraged Carter to lobby for the release of Gross, who
was convicted of illegally importing telecommunications equipment.

Gross has said he was helping improve Internet access for the island's
small Jewish community, though Jewish leaders here have denied dealing
with him.

Havana considers USAID programs such as the one Gross was working for to
be aimed at undermining the government.

Carter, who arrived Monday, was scheduled to meet with Cuban President
Raul Castro later Tuesday as part of his three-day trip to explore ways
to improve ties soured by a half-century of opposition.

Washington and Havana have not had formal diplomatic relations since the
1960s, and the United States maintains economic and financial sanctions
on the island, one of the biggest points of contention for the Cuban
government.

Havana also wants the United States to release five Cubans convicted of
being unregistered foreign agents and sentenced to lengthy prison sentences.

The "Cuban Five" are considered national heroes by the government, which
says they were monitoring anti-Castro groups in the United States and
posed no threat to U.S. national security.

In previous public comments, Cuban officials have played down the
possibility of swapping Gross for the agents.

U.S. officials say no thaw in relations is possible while Gross is in
prison.

Carter previously visited Cuba in 2002, becoming the only former U.S.
president to do so since the 1959 revolution. On that six-day tour, he
met with then-President Fidel Castro and criticized both Washington's
economic embargo against the island and the lack of political plurality
in Cuba.

During the Carter administration, the two nations enjoyed
better-than-usual ties and opened interest sections, which some
countries maintain instead of embassies, in their respective capitals.

Florida Rep. Mario Diaz-Balart, an outspoken critic of the Castros, said
Carter was wrong to meet with Cuban officials and oppose the embargo.

"Instead of supporting the lifting of sanctions against a state sponsor
of terrorism, President Carter should demand the Castro regime to allow
free and fair elections, freedom of the press, the establishment of
political parties and the unconditional release of all political
prisoners," Diaz-Balart said in a statement.

http://www.miamiherald.com/2011/03/29/2139492/carter-to-meet-with-raul-castro.html

Defector claims torture in ex-CIA operative's case

Posted on Monday, 03.28.11

Defector claims torture in ex-CIA operative's case
By WILL WEISSERT
Associated Press,

EL PASO, Texas -- A former Cuban intelligence officer is testifying in
the perjury trial of an ex-CIA agent.

Roberto Hernandez Del Llano worked for Cuban counter-intelligence before
defecting in 2007. He told jurors he was tortured in 2005 by a man who
is now a key prosecution witness in the trial of Luis Posada Carriles
(loo-EES' poh-SAH'-dah kah-REE'-lays).

He returns to the stand Tuesday as attorneys for the 83-year-old Posada
try to discredit the prosecutors' case.

Posada is accused of lying to U.S. immigration officials and failing to
disclose his alleged involvement in bombings in 1997 in his native Cuba.

Del Llano says that after leaving state security, he was arrested and
tortured in Havana by Roberto Hernandez Caballero, an investigator for
Cuba's Interior Ministry.

Hernandez Caballero testified earlier about the bombings.

http://www.miamiherald.com/2011/03/28/2137808/more-defense-expected-in-militant.html

Carter in Cuba for meetings with Raúl, Ortega

Posted on Monday, 03.28.11

Carter in Cuba for meetings with Raúl, Ortega
By Juan O. Tamayo
jtamayo@elnuevoherald.com

Former President Jimmy Carter arrived in Havana on Monday to discuss
Raúl Castro's economic reforms and how to improve U.S.-Cuba relations,
stymied by the imprisonment of U.S. government subcontractor Alan P. Gross.

Carter is the most important U.S. figure to visit Cuba, both under Fidel
Castro's rule in 2002 and now under his younger brother Raúl. The older
Castro has praised him as the president who tried hardest to normalize
U.S. relations with Havana.

His first scheduled meeting, with leader of Cuba's tiny Jewish
community, strengthened speculation that he will push Havana to free
Gross, a U.S. Agency for International Development subcontractor serving
a 15-year sentence.

Gross, a 61-year-old from Potomac, Md., was arrested in late 2009 after
he delivered sophisticated equipment to members of the Jewish community
and other non-government groups so they could communicate better with
each other and the outside world.

Havana officials have branded the Washington campaign to improve Cuban's
access to the Internet, part of its effort to support civil society on
the island, as a thinly disguised effort to subvert the communist
government.

The Obama administration has repeatedly said that any significant
improvements in U.S. policies toward Cuba will not be possible until he
is freed as a "humanitarian gesture."

Dissidents in Havana reported that authorities arrested at least two
government critics who staged a protest Monday near Havana's Cuban
Capitol to coincide with Carter's arrival. They identified the two as
Eriberto Liranza Romero and Boris Rodríguez Jiménez, both members of the
Cuban Youths for Democracy Movement, and added that other dissidents had
been detained Sunday night to block their participation in the protest.

Wearing a white guayabera, Carter was greeted at the Havana airport by
Cuban Foreign Minister Bruno Rodríguez and the top U.S. and Cuban
diplomats in Havana and Washington, Jonathan Farrar and Jorge Bolaños.

After his meeting with the Jewish community, Carter met with Cardinal
Jaime Ortega, whose unprecedented talks with Raúl Castro last year led
to the release of more than 100 political prisoners. About 90 were freed
only after they agreed to go into exile in Spain, and 12 remain in Cuba.

The Carter schedule released by the Cuban government did not say whether
he would meet with dissidents or Fidel Castro. The former Cuban leader
usually meets with important visitors to the island.

Carter is not expected to make any comments until he holds a news
conference in Havana's massive Conventions Palace on Wednesday, just
before he flies back to the United States.

During his six-day visit to Havana in 2002, he met with Fidel Castro as
well as dissidents and delivered a nationally televised speech that
urged improvements in Cuba's human rights record.

The Atlanta-based Carter Center announced last week that the former
president was making the trip to Cuba as a "private mission" and at the
invitation of Raúl Castro.

He was accompanied by his wife, Rosalynn; Robert Pastor, the White
House's point man on Cuba during the Carter presidency 1977-1981;
Jennifer McCoy, director of Americas programs at the Carter Center; and
Carter Center President John Hardman.

U.S. relations with Havana reached their warmest point since 1959 under
Carter, who negotiated the establishment of diplomatic missions in each
other's capitals and allowed U.S. tourists to visit the island.
Relations were frozen again when Fidel Castro increased his troop
deployments in Africa and then unleashed the Mariel boatlift.

The Carter Center's announcement said the former president wanted to
learn more about the market economic reforms that Raúl Castro is
pushing, and the Communist Party congress scheduled for the second half
of next month — its first since 1997.

Gross' wife, Judy, issued a statement over the weekend saying she hoped
Carter — who last year won the release of a U.S. citizen jailed in North
Korea during a visit to that country — would intercede on behalf of her
husband.

"If he is able to help Alan in any way while he is there, we will be
extraordinarily grateful," she declared. "Our family is desperate for
Alan to return home, after nearly 16 months in prison. We continue to
hope and pray that the Cuban authorities will release him immediately on
humanitarian grounds."

http://www.miamiherald.com/2011/03/28/2138730/carter-in-cuba-for-meetings-with.html

Carter meets Cuban Jews, no talk of jailed U.S. man

Carter meets Cuban Jews, no talk of jailed U.S. man
Reuters
By Jeff Franks – Mon Mar 28, 5:37 pm ET

HAVANA (Reuters) – Former U.S. President Jimmy Carter met with Cuban
Jews on Monday at the start of a private three-day visit to the island,
but he did not discuss with them a U.S. aid contractor jailed for
allegedly providing illegal Internet access to Jewish groups.

Local Jewish leader Adela Dworin told reporters Carter did not talk
about contractor Alan Gross or any political topics during a stop at
Cuba's main Jewish headquarters, located in Havana's Vedado district.

"That was not talked about," she said when reporters asked about Gross.
"In reality, we did not talk about anything political."

She said Carter asked about religious freedom and was told "that we
openly practice our religion."

Carter, 86, was kept well away from the press, but he shouted that he
would speak at a press conference on Wednesday. He later met with Cuban
Catholic leader Cardinal Jaime Ortega.
[ For complete coverage of politics and policy, go to Yahoo! Politics ]

Gross, 61, was given a 15-year prison sentence this month after a Cuban
court convicted him of providing illegal Internet access to Cuban
groups, including the communist island's small Jewish community.

His case has worsened relations between Cold War enemies Cuba and the
United States, at odds since a 1959 revolution toppled a U.S.-backed
dictator and put Fidel Castro in power.

Relations had warmed slightly under U.S. President Barack Obama before
Gross's arrest in December 2009, but the United States said there will
be no more progress until Gross is free.

Carter, winner of the Nobel Peace Prize in 2002, may try to lay the
groundwork for Gross' release during his visit, but Cuban officials
reportedly have told him not to expect to take the American home when he
leaves on Wednesday.

The former president and his wife Rosalynn were invited by Cuba's
government, which gave them a low-key welcome on Monday at Havana's Jose
Marti International Airport.

SECOND CUBA VISIT

Carter made a previous visit to Cuba in 2002 and remains the only U.S.
president, sitting or former, to go to the island since the revolution.

At that time, Fidel Castro was president. Now 84, Castro stepped down
three years ago and was succeeded by younger brother Raul, 79.

Carter was to meet with Raul Castro on Tuesday.

The Carter Center in Atlanta said this trip was a "private,
nongovernmental mission" for Carter to learn about Cuba's new economic
policies and discuss ways to improve U.S.-Cuba ties.

Since leaving office after his 1977-1981 term, Carter has occasionally
served as an unofficial diplomatic trouble-shooter , including a mission
last August to North Korea to secure the release of an American
imprisoned there.

Gross was working under a U.S. program promoting political change on the
island. Cuba says the program is subversive.

The U.S. government has said Gross was in Cuba only to provide Internet
access to Jewish groups and committed no crime.

Many think Cuba may be open to freeing Gross soon, partly due to
humanitarian concerns. Gross's 26-year-old daughter and 88-year-old
mother are both suffering from cancer.

During his one term in office, Carter took the most significant steps
yet to improve U.S.-Cuba relations.

In his 2002 visit, he urged Washington to end its long trade embargo
against Cuba. He also called for democracy and better human rights in
Cuba and boosted dissidents by publicly mentioning their movement.

The Castros complain regularly that Obama has done little to help
relations, despite his stated desire to seek a "new beginning" with Cuba.

Obama has eased U.S. travel restrictions to Cuba, allowed a free flow of
remittances to the cash-strapped island and initiated new talks on
migration and postal service issues.

Cuba has released most of its political prisoners and is modernizing its
economy, but Obama has said it must do more if it wants better relations.

(Additional reporting by Nelson Acosta and Marc Frank; Editing by Pascal
Fletcher and Deborah Charles)

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20110328/pl_nm/us_cuba_carter_5

Monday, March 28, 2011

Quota for Revolucionaries, or "If you have to do it, you have to do it."

Quota for Revolucionaries, or "If you have to do it, you have to do it."
Miriam Celaya, Translator: Norma Whiting

University of Havana. Photograph from the Internet

If someone had told us in the distant 70's that the day would come when
attendance at a march or other event in support of the revolution would
be guaranteed by assigning quotas, I'm sure we would have made a face,
incredulous. However, what back then would have been unthinkable is
today a palpable reality.

Just a few days ago, the official press announced the forthcoming
implementation of a parade to mark the 50th anniversary of the
proclamation of the socialist character of the Cuban revolution and the
victory at Bay of Pigs to be held on April 16th with the massive
participation of children and the young in the municipalities of Havana
"on behalf of the Cuban people." What the press did not report is they
had begun a process of selection in primary schools, secondary technical
schools and colleges days before, pledging a fixed number of potential
participants to ensure a respectable attendance at the event. A similar
process has been taking place at universities and workplaces, where
grassroots committees of the UJC (Communist Youth League) have had to
mandatorily meet a quota to pay tribute at the parade. This is not
really very difficult, given that the capital has a population of two
million people and the event will begin with a military parade, which
will swell the march.

It seems clear that the authorities know the lack of spontaneity of "the
people" when holding the ceremonies of the revolutionary anniversaries.
In previous years, many study centers were not limited to collecting
lists of the disposition of their young to march in different events,
but they were coerced into taking part in the ritual using resources
previously unimaginable. For example, the School of Stomatology used a
procedure sui generis for a more massive achievement at the March of the
Torches — a fashion reminiscent of the Brownshirts youth of Nazi Germany
— which in Cuba ends before the Marti's Flame. The repressor-wannabes of
that university faculty have established, throughout the course of that
march, three control points to which each student must report,
preventing the classic dispersing into side streets after the young
people leave the march starting point: the aforementioned faculty is
located at Carlos III and G Streets. I heard that other schools are
using the same method as the only resource for the parade to be
sufficiently attended.

The procedure for the allocation of quotas has become widespread and in
a way that even the repudiation rallies have had to appeal to it. At the
March 18th march, the Ladies in White were the target of further
harassment by pro-government mobs that prevented a march of remembrance
for the crackdown of the Black Spring. The repressive forces were
ordered to deploy an operation to block the exit from Laura Pollan's and
Hector Maseda's house, and from Neptune, a main street. Meanwhile, they
arrested several people who were preparing to participate voluntarily
and spontaneously in the march.

They also mobilized their hordes of people to keep the participants at
bay, hordes that were maintained throughout the day on Friday the 18th
and Saturday the 19th shouting pro-government slogans and yelling
insults. To achieve this, they rely on the quota system. This is why
every base committee of the UJC at all campuses in the capital and the
suburbs had to allocate at least one militant for such an bothersome
mission. Since Friday, for example, 18 young CUJAE (Technical
University) militants had to guarantee the ones who would concentrate
the next morning at Parque Trillo, Centro Habana, to go to "repudiate"
outside the home of Laura and Hector. The operation, of course, was a
"success."

According to reliable sources, this has led to the establishment of a
sort of lottery, through which militants that are called raffle off "the
package." There are discussions among those who already participated
"the last time" and who wield in their defense the phrase "I already did
it." A total aberration of what once was a true and enthusiastic support
for the revolution and its leaders.

Having learned about such unorthodox procedures to force young people
into shameful practices, I feel even more contempt for the system that
turns people into beasts and more compassion for the unaware youths that
lend themselves to such a degrading service. Poor rookies, who condemn
themselves to have to hide, tomorrow, such a mean and cowardly attitude!

Translated by Norma Whiting

March 21, 2011

http://translatingcuba.com/?p=8524