Top Cuban spy released by Obama says he's ready for his 'next order'
from Castro regime
In an exclusive interview with Yahoo News, Gerardo Hernandez is defiant
about his role as ringleader of the Cuban Five spy network
By Michael Isikoff
HAVANA — In the depths of his 16-year odyssey through the U.S. prison
system, convicted Cuban spy Gerardo Hernandez was transferred to an
underground cell at Lompoc Federal Correctional Institution that was
known to inmates simply as "the cage."
As Hernandez recalls it, he was stripped to his underwear, cut off from
all human contact and tormented by toilet water seeping — drip by drip —
from the cell above him into the sink in his cramped living space.
It was days after the U.S. invasion of Iraq in 2003, and the federal
Bureau of Prisons was taking no chances — "special administrative
measures," as they were called — with high-profile, politically
sensitive inmates such as Hernandez, who was serving a double life
sentence, with no possibility of parole, for conspiracy to commit
espionage and murder.
"Hello," he said when he was finally permitted to make his first phone
call to his designated contact at the Cuban Interests Section in
Washington. "It is the Count of Monte Cristo calling."
It was Hernandez's impish allusion to the famous 19th-century novel by
Alexandre Dumas, whose hero, Edmond Dantès, is imprisoned in a dungeon
on a Mediterranean island for the rest of his life — only to
miraculously escape and re-emerge years later, triumphant, as a wealthy
member of French nobility.
Today, after a series of plot twists every bit as improbable as those in
Dumas' novel, Hernandez counts himself as the modern-day, real-life
equivalent. His sentence commuted by President Barack Obama, he is now a
free man in his native Cuba, reunited with his wife, Adriana, and his
former spy comrades. Last Tuesday, Hernandez and his fellow spies — the
Cuban Five, they are called here — were officially decorated by
President Raúl Castro as national heroes in a grand celebration at
Cuba's National Assembly.
And, Hernandez tells Yahoo News in an exclusive interview, he's ready to
return for duty to advance the cause of his country's communist revolution.
"What I'm telling you right now, I already told Raúl Castro: I'm a
soldier," said Hernandez, pounding his chest. "I'm ready to receive my
next order. I can serve anywhere my country believes I am useful."
Perhaps most astonishing of all, Hernandez, 48, is also the father of a
7-week-old baby, Gema. The girl (her name means "precious stone" in
Spanish) was conceived last year while Hernandez was still in a U.S.
prison: His frozen sperm was shipped to Panama for secret fertility
treatments for Adriana, all facilitated by the Obama administration — at
the urging of Vermont Sen. Patrick Leahy — as part of its backdoor
diplomacy with the Cuban government.
"We have to believe in miracles," Hernandez said, gently rocking Gema, a
glowing Adriana by his side as the couple sat in the courtyard of the
foreign ministry villa where they now live, attended to by a
government-supplied staff of nannies, cooks and servers.
The release last Dec. 17 of Hernandez, as well as the last two
imprisoned members of his Cuban Five spy network, Ramon Labanino and
Antonio Guerrero, was a huge propaganda coup for the Castro government.
It also paved the way for a historic breakthrough in U.S.-Cuba relations
that has already brought a wave of American tourists to the island and
U.S. companies knocking on Havana's door looking for new
But the freeing of Hernandez and the Cuban Five spies — coinciding with
Cuba's release of imprisoned American contractor Alan Gross and a jailed
CIA spy — is continuing to stir raw anger among anti-Castro Cubans in
South Florida and some members of Congress.
"Shameful," wrote GOP Reps. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen and Bob Goodlatte,
chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, in a recent letter to the
Bureau of Prisons, describing Hernandez as a "convicted spy and
murderer" and demanding answers about the medical treatments for his wife.
For his part, Hernandez is unbowed and unrepentant, a proud Fidelista,
although one with a wry sense of humor. "I have a new warden now," he
said at the villa, nodding toward a woman looming in the background. "My
mother-in-law."
As Hernandez describes it, he is a patriot who was dispatched by Cuba's
Directorate of Intelligence to perform what Cubans viewed as a vital
mission inside the United States: to infiltrate anti-Castro exile groups
in South Florida that for years were plotting and conducting "terrorist"
attacks on their homeland.
"There were training camps in the Everglades in South Florida," he said.
"Those people used to go in speedboats to Cuba, do some shootings there,
place some bombs there and go back and give a press conference: 'Oh
yeah, we did this. We went to Cuba. Down with the Castro government.'"
Those attacks, which continued over a span of decades and are mostly
forgotten in the United States, are etched in the memories of most
Cubans. In 1976, a Cuban airliner was bombed over the Caribbean, killing
73 passengers, including the teenage members of the Cuban national
fencing team. As late as 1997, there was a series of bombings at Havana
hotels, aimed at disrupting the country's nascent tourism industry and
killing an Italian businessman — attacks that were said to be the work
of anti-Castro exile groups.
Hernandez compared his efforts to thwart those attacks to the CIA's own
attempts to disrupt terrorist groups such as al-Qaida and the Islamic
State. Only unlike the United States, he said, Cuba "doesn't have
drones" to kill the terrorists.
"And even in the U.S., where you have drones, you are sending people,
dressing them up like al-Qaida people with beards" and infiltrating
their training camps. "That's exactly what Cuba did."
As FBI and federal prosecutors later alleged, Hernandez — using a false
"legend" as a graphic designer from Puerto Rico — was the case officer
for the project, overseeing more than a dozen Cuban spies in the United
States known as La Red Avispa, or the Wasp Network. Prosecutors charged
that their efforts weren't restricted to simply spying on the exile
groups: They also tried to penetrate U.S. military installations. Cuban
Five member Guerrero, for example, landed a janitor's position at Naval
Air Station Key West in order to count airplanes flying in and out from
the base, providing "an early warning" system in the unlikely event of a
U.S. invasion. (Hernandez says this was a small part of the Wasp
Network's mission and, in any case, didn't involve the theft of "secret"
information.)
And in Hernandez's case, prosecutors charged, he also tipped off his
Cuban handlers to flights by Brothers to the Rescue, headed by Bay of
Pigs veteran Jose Basulto — an exile group that rescued "rafters"
fleeing Cuba in the open seas and dropped anti-Castro leaflets over the
island, violating Cuban airspace and infuriating the Castro government.
In February 1996, after multiple warnings, the Cuban military shot down
two of the planes, killing four pilots — and resulting in Hernandez's
conviction for conspiracy to commit murder.
Hernandez's association with the shootdown remains the most inflammatory
part of his case. In the days since his release, the families of the
slain pilots have expressed outrage that Hernandez should walk free;
last week, the same day the Cuban Five were receiving their medals from
President Castro, hundreds of Cuban exiles marched in Miami's Little
Havana to commemorate the Brothers to the Rescue pilots, and a silent
vigil, with family members holding hands in a circle, was held at
Florida State University. "This is very emotional for every single
family member touched by this — to have what little justice you had
taken away from you," said Maggie Khuly, the sister of slain Brothers
pilot Armando Alejandre Jr., about Hernandez's release. "This is never
going to go away."
Hernandez adamantly denies that he had any advance knowledge of the
Cuban shootdown that day. (At least one of the federal appellate judges
who reviewed his case concluded that the principal evidence against him
— a message he sent warning one of his fellow spies who had infiltrated
Brothers to the Rescue not to fly that day — was inconclusive.) Still,
when asked what he would say to a still-grieving sister like Khuly, he
responded that her brother shouldn't have been flying anyway because
Basulto had once been a terrorist himself, even though he had long since
renounced violence.
"I'm not going to go into whether that was the right decision or not,"
he said about Cuba's decision to shoot down the Brothers to the Rescue
planes. "That's not my call. I'm just explaining that Cuba has the right
to see Basulto and the Brothers to the Rescue not as a humanitarian
organization that they say they are. Can you imagine somebody like bin
Laden now" — and here Herandez held up his right hand, as if he were
taking an oath — "saying, 'From now on, I'm going to be a pacifist, and
I'm going to create an organization ... just to drop some food'? Can
you imagine a scenario like that?"
U.S. intelligence sources told Yahoo News that the FBI finally got onto
Hernandez and the Wasp Network through a cryptographer informant inside
the Cuban intelligence service — Rolanda "Roly" Sarraff, the very same
spy "asset" released by the Cubans in exchange for Hernandez. And after
Hernandez and the rest of the Cuban Five were arrested in 1998 and held
for 18 months in solitary confinement in a Miami detention center, the
FBI did everything it could to flip Hernandez and his colleagues,
repeatedly offering them deals to inform on their spymasters in Havana.
But Hernandez and his Cuban Five colleagues held firm, emboldened, he
said, by the words of Fidel Castro, who when asked about their arrest
told a CNN reporter, "I can tell you one thing: We will never leave them
behind."
"And that day, those statements reached us," Hernandez said. "That was
the day that changed everything for us. From that day on, we knew that
nothing would break us."
Hernandez's fortitude in the end seems to have paid off. He and the rest
of the Cuban Five are now rock-star celebrities in Cuba, instantly
recognized and cheered wherever they go. When they walked through the
streets of Romerillo, one of Havana's poorest neighborhoods, accompanied
by a reporter, they were mobbed: Women embraced and kissed them,
children beseeched them for their autographs and everyone wanted a
picture taken with them.
At one point, Hernandez and the group stopped by a small gold statuette
shrine to San Lazaro, a patron saint in Cuba — for miracles. It has not
gone unnoticed here in this communist, but still religious, country that
San Lazaro Day is Dec. 17, the same day that Hernandez, Labanino and
Guerrero were released from U.S. prisons.
"The fact that we came back on Dec. 17 — so many Cubans say that's not a
coincidence," Hernandez said, standing in front of the shrine.
"Remember, through 16 years, many Cuban people prayed and asked San
Lazaro for a miracle that the Five will one day come back. So who will
tell those people that the miracle wasn't granted by San Lazaro?"
Does he believe that himself, he was asked. The veteran spy laughed and
looked at the shrine. "All that matters to me is that I'm here. Who made
it possible," he said, looking up at the sky and throwing up his hands,
"congratulations! Thank you! Whatever."
Source: Top Cuban spy released by Obama says he's ready for his 'next
order' from Castro regime - Yahoo News -
http://news.yahoo.com/top-cuban-spy-released-by-obama-says-he-s-ready-for-his--next-order--from-castro-regime-211055253.html;_ylt=AwrBEiKXN_RU1hoAqmzQtDMD
Monday, March 2, 2015
Red flags in Cuba slow investment
Red flags in Cuba slow investment
Alan Gomez and Rick Jervis, USA TODAY 12:49 p.m. EST March 1, 2015
MIAMI — After an initial wave of enthusiasm following President Obama's
decision to re-establish relations and expand trade with Cuba, American
businesses are hitting the brakes.
Although companies such as MasterCard, American Express, Netflix and
Twitter have announced plans to expand operations in Cuba, they can't
flourish on the island until two essential U.S. industries get on board:
banking and telecommunications. And so far, officials in those fields
are hesitant to jump into the risky Cuban market.
"Capital doesn't like to go where there's risk," said Alex Sanchez,
president and CEO of the Florida Bankers Association. "It's not going to
Iran, it's not going to Iraq and it probably won't go to Cuba for a
while because of the risk."
Ever since Obama and Cuban President Raúl Castro made their historic
announcement in December that they would end 50 years of estrangement,
diplomats in both countries have been working to formalize that process.
The other part of the deal expands trade between the two countries.
American businesses can now sell more products to Cuba and Cuban
entrepreneurs can export their products to the U.S. market. American
businesses can establish corresponding bank accounts in Cuba to
facilitate those transactions, travelers can use their credit and debit
cards on the island, and U.S. telecom companies can help build up Cuba's
Internet infrastructure.
In the months since, however, lawyers and compliance officers at U.S.
companies have been raising red flags. The biggest is that Cuba remains
on the U.S. State Department's list of State Sponsors of Terrorism,
which severely limits the ability of American companies to do business
with the country.
That's just the start. Cuba has no independent judicial system U.S.
companies can turn to for settling disputes. The communist government
has a long history of seizing foreign property. American companies still
face restrictions because of the economic embargo the U.S. maintains on
Cuba. In the wake of the 9/11 terror attacks and the U.S. recession,
American regulators have cracked down on financial institutions that
deal with customers involved in money-laundering, narco-trafficking,
terrorism and other high-risk fields.
"In the 1990s, we thought $50 million was a heavy fine. Now we're in the
billions," said David Schwartz, former vice president for international
compliance risk management at Regions Financial Corporation and now the
executive director of the Florida International Bankers Association.
Because of those fears, no U.S. bank has agreed to process transactions
conducted in Cuba. In the telecom industry, only one U.S. company — IDT
Corp. of New Jersey — has signed a deal with the Cuban government.
Bringing better connectivity to Cuba has been one of the main tenets of
Obama's renewed diplomacy with Cuba. Today, a mere 5% of Cuba's 11
million residents are estimated to have access to the Internet — one of
the lowest rates in the hemisphere.
Cuba's state telecom company, ETECSA, retains a monopoly on Internet
service that is slow and expensive to the average Cuban. Internet
service is mostly available through one of 155 cybercafes across the
island and an hour of connection costs around $5 an hour, equivalent to
a full week's salary.
IDT's agreement, which creates direct long-distance links between U.S.
callers and Cuba, represents a "first step," said spokesman Bill Ulrey.
Company officials hope the agreement will lead to more Cuba-related
services, he said.
Even if more U.S. companies rush to the island offering deals on
cellular towers and broadband equipment, it's still largely unknown how
much Cuban officials will accept, said John Kavulich, a senior policy
adviser at the U.S.-Cuba Trade and Economic Council.
Cuban officials will likely want assurances that the telecom equipment
they're offered hasn't been tampered with by the U.S. intelligence
agencies, or they may ask for "backdoor" access to monitor the Internet
after it's installed. Telecom companies may find those requests
difficult to meet, he said.
Cuba has tightly controlled Internet access since it first surfaced in
the mid-1990s.
Setting up an Internet system that allows Cuban officials to control its
usage would go against Obama's goal of using connectivity as a way to
empower Cuban citizens, Kavulich said. "The lack of statements by the
Cuban government should be a very large yellow caution flag," he said.
Until Cuba signals a willingness to connect its people, all the telecom
firepower and know-how in the USA won't make a difference, said Larry
Press, professor of information systems at California State
University-Dominguez Hills, who has studied Cuba's Internet.
"The ball's in their court now," he said.
Jervis reported from Austin
Source: Red flags in Cuba slow investment -
http://www.usatoday.com/story/money/2015/03/01/cuba-us-banking-telecommunications-challenges/24124895/
Alan Gomez and Rick Jervis, USA TODAY 12:49 p.m. EST March 1, 2015
MIAMI — After an initial wave of enthusiasm following President Obama's
decision to re-establish relations and expand trade with Cuba, American
businesses are hitting the brakes.
Although companies such as MasterCard, American Express, Netflix and
Twitter have announced plans to expand operations in Cuba, they can't
flourish on the island until two essential U.S. industries get on board:
banking and telecommunications. And so far, officials in those fields
are hesitant to jump into the risky Cuban market.
"Capital doesn't like to go where there's risk," said Alex Sanchez,
president and CEO of the Florida Bankers Association. "It's not going to
Iran, it's not going to Iraq and it probably won't go to Cuba for a
while because of the risk."
Ever since Obama and Cuban President Raúl Castro made their historic
announcement in December that they would end 50 years of estrangement,
diplomats in both countries have been working to formalize that process.
The other part of the deal expands trade between the two countries.
American businesses can now sell more products to Cuba and Cuban
entrepreneurs can export their products to the U.S. market. American
businesses can establish corresponding bank accounts in Cuba to
facilitate those transactions, travelers can use their credit and debit
cards on the island, and U.S. telecom companies can help build up Cuba's
Internet infrastructure.
In the months since, however, lawyers and compliance officers at U.S.
companies have been raising red flags. The biggest is that Cuba remains
on the U.S. State Department's list of State Sponsors of Terrorism,
which severely limits the ability of American companies to do business
with the country.
That's just the start. Cuba has no independent judicial system U.S.
companies can turn to for settling disputes. The communist government
has a long history of seizing foreign property. American companies still
face restrictions because of the economic embargo the U.S. maintains on
Cuba. In the wake of the 9/11 terror attacks and the U.S. recession,
American regulators have cracked down on financial institutions that
deal with customers involved in money-laundering, narco-trafficking,
terrorism and other high-risk fields.
"In the 1990s, we thought $50 million was a heavy fine. Now we're in the
billions," said David Schwartz, former vice president for international
compliance risk management at Regions Financial Corporation and now the
executive director of the Florida International Bankers Association.
Because of those fears, no U.S. bank has agreed to process transactions
conducted in Cuba. In the telecom industry, only one U.S. company — IDT
Corp. of New Jersey — has signed a deal with the Cuban government.
Bringing better connectivity to Cuba has been one of the main tenets of
Obama's renewed diplomacy with Cuba. Today, a mere 5% of Cuba's 11
million residents are estimated to have access to the Internet — one of
the lowest rates in the hemisphere.
Cuba's state telecom company, ETECSA, retains a monopoly on Internet
service that is slow and expensive to the average Cuban. Internet
service is mostly available through one of 155 cybercafes across the
island and an hour of connection costs around $5 an hour, equivalent to
a full week's salary.
IDT's agreement, which creates direct long-distance links between U.S.
callers and Cuba, represents a "first step," said spokesman Bill Ulrey.
Company officials hope the agreement will lead to more Cuba-related
services, he said.
Even if more U.S. companies rush to the island offering deals on
cellular towers and broadband equipment, it's still largely unknown how
much Cuban officials will accept, said John Kavulich, a senior policy
adviser at the U.S.-Cuba Trade and Economic Council.
Cuban officials will likely want assurances that the telecom equipment
they're offered hasn't been tampered with by the U.S. intelligence
agencies, or they may ask for "backdoor" access to monitor the Internet
after it's installed. Telecom companies may find those requests
difficult to meet, he said.
Cuba has tightly controlled Internet access since it first surfaced in
the mid-1990s.
Setting up an Internet system that allows Cuban officials to control its
usage would go against Obama's goal of using connectivity as a way to
empower Cuban citizens, Kavulich said. "The lack of statements by the
Cuban government should be a very large yellow caution flag," he said.
Until Cuba signals a willingness to connect its people, all the telecom
firepower and know-how in the USA won't make a difference, said Larry
Press, professor of information systems at California State
University-Dominguez Hills, who has studied Cuba's Internet.
"The ball's in their court now," he said.
Jervis reported from Austin
Source: Red flags in Cuba slow investment -
http://www.usatoday.com/story/money/2015/03/01/cuba-us-banking-telecommunications-challenges/24124895/
On Cuba’s Missions Abroad
On Cuba's Missions Abroad
February 27, 2015
Janis Hernández
HAVANA TIMES — For years, the Cuban State has been preaching that
so-called "internationalist missions" are a means of offering other
nations "selfless aid." Many of us know, however, that something else
hides behind this philanthropist spiel, that, over time, this fraternal
assistance has become one of the country's main source of revenues.
The sending of medical, sports, education, cultural and other
professionals to other nations is formalized through the signing of
agreements with the receiving countries. This personnel isn't offered
these countries free of charge – the Cuban government charges in hard
currency. According to some reports, by 2009 the main source of hard
currency revenues had already become the export of these services to
other countries, surpassing international tourism.
The Cuban government is paid the total monthly stipend agreed to for the
services rendered by each professional abroad, while the family back in
Cuba of this professional is paid 50 dollars a month and their salary in
Cuban pesos. Only after fulfilling their contract, after their files
have been officially sealed, can these professionals collect the money
in their frozen accounts. Coupled with the stipend they have received
during their stay abroad, the amount they collect is far less than what
the State pockets.
If these professionals wish to stop working before the agreed term – be
it for personal, health or other reasons – then that's that.
Venezuela is one of the main receiving countries. Cuban professionals
have been traveling to this country and working there for two or four
years for more than a decade.
For Cuban professionals, working in Venezuela means earning a bit of
money, with which they can later buy a house and/or some household
appliances that they would never be able to afford with their Cuban
salaries. It is also an opportunity to buy cheap trinkets to give to
relatives and friends and sell to others to make a little extra cash.
They don't really care that the government is exploiting them – it is
the only way they and their families can get ahead.
Getting people work abroad became a business for officials at the
Provincial Offices of the Ministry of Health, who would find jobs for
friends and relatives and sell them to others. In the Cuban on-line
classifieds page Revolico.com, I once came across an ad that read: "I'm
a doctor. I'm offering 300 CUC for a mission abroad."
From Venezuela, Cuban professionals were exporting all manner of
utensils and essentials. Anything from luxury fridges to fine china was
being shipped in containers (subject to preferential customs fees and
lax weight restrictions). One fine day, however, these perks were taken
away and those arriving from the sister nation of Venezuela were
required to pay duties as much as everyone else.
The economic and social crisis that Venezuela has been facing since
Chavez, exacerbated during Maduro's presidency, makes it more difficult
for Cuban professionals to purchase as many things as they could before.
Though they always claim to be proud of their selfless efforts in front
of the television cameras, in truth fewer and fewer professionals want
to go work in Venezuela. They prefer Brazil or African countries where
the pay is better.
To earn a bit more money and improve their quality of life, Cuban
professionals are willing to face all kinds of risks, from violent
deaths or accidents in remote areas, through contagion of deadly
diseases to acts of sabotage.
More than a hundred Cuban medical doctors working in Venezuela's Barrio
Adentro ("Into the Neighborhood") program have died since the program
began in 2003. Though Cuban authorities insist this is not the case, in
2010 El Nacional published an article that reported on the deaths of 69
Cuban medical doctors in the country.
The fact is that, be it as a means of making money, buying household
appliance or trinkets or finding a way to reach the United States, work
abroad has been an option sought out by the island's professionals that
has nothing to do with the much-advertised humanitarian gesture.
Today, I heard a conversation between two medical doctors. One was
saying to the other: "So here I am, pushing to get sent somewhere,
except Venezuela, you can't get anything out of that anymore. I prefer
to go to Africa, Ebola and all."
Just look at all that altruism.
Source: On Cuba's Missions Abroad - Havana Times.org -
http://www.havanatimes.org/?p=109646
February 27, 2015
Janis Hernández
HAVANA TIMES — For years, the Cuban State has been preaching that
so-called "internationalist missions" are a means of offering other
nations "selfless aid." Many of us know, however, that something else
hides behind this philanthropist spiel, that, over time, this fraternal
assistance has become one of the country's main source of revenues.
The sending of medical, sports, education, cultural and other
professionals to other nations is formalized through the signing of
agreements with the receiving countries. This personnel isn't offered
these countries free of charge – the Cuban government charges in hard
currency. According to some reports, by 2009 the main source of hard
currency revenues had already become the export of these services to
other countries, surpassing international tourism.
The Cuban government is paid the total monthly stipend agreed to for the
services rendered by each professional abroad, while the family back in
Cuba of this professional is paid 50 dollars a month and their salary in
Cuban pesos. Only after fulfilling their contract, after their files
have been officially sealed, can these professionals collect the money
in their frozen accounts. Coupled with the stipend they have received
during their stay abroad, the amount they collect is far less than what
the State pockets.
If these professionals wish to stop working before the agreed term – be
it for personal, health or other reasons – then that's that.
Venezuela is one of the main receiving countries. Cuban professionals
have been traveling to this country and working there for two or four
years for more than a decade.
For Cuban professionals, working in Venezuela means earning a bit of
money, with which they can later buy a house and/or some household
appliances that they would never be able to afford with their Cuban
salaries. It is also an opportunity to buy cheap trinkets to give to
relatives and friends and sell to others to make a little extra cash.
They don't really care that the government is exploiting them – it is
the only way they and their families can get ahead.
Getting people work abroad became a business for officials at the
Provincial Offices of the Ministry of Health, who would find jobs for
friends and relatives and sell them to others. In the Cuban on-line
classifieds page Revolico.com, I once came across an ad that read: "I'm
a doctor. I'm offering 300 CUC for a mission abroad."
From Venezuela, Cuban professionals were exporting all manner of
utensils and essentials. Anything from luxury fridges to fine china was
being shipped in containers (subject to preferential customs fees and
lax weight restrictions). One fine day, however, these perks were taken
away and those arriving from the sister nation of Venezuela were
required to pay duties as much as everyone else.
The economic and social crisis that Venezuela has been facing since
Chavez, exacerbated during Maduro's presidency, makes it more difficult
for Cuban professionals to purchase as many things as they could before.
Though they always claim to be proud of their selfless efforts in front
of the television cameras, in truth fewer and fewer professionals want
to go work in Venezuela. They prefer Brazil or African countries where
the pay is better.
To earn a bit more money and improve their quality of life, Cuban
professionals are willing to face all kinds of risks, from violent
deaths or accidents in remote areas, through contagion of deadly
diseases to acts of sabotage.
More than a hundred Cuban medical doctors working in Venezuela's Barrio
Adentro ("Into the Neighborhood") program have died since the program
began in 2003. Though Cuban authorities insist this is not the case, in
2010 El Nacional published an article that reported on the deaths of 69
Cuban medical doctors in the country.
The fact is that, be it as a means of making money, buying household
appliance or trinkets or finding a way to reach the United States, work
abroad has been an option sought out by the island's professionals that
has nothing to do with the much-advertised humanitarian gesture.
Today, I heard a conversation between two medical doctors. One was
saying to the other: "So here I am, pushing to get sent somewhere,
except Venezuela, you can't get anything out of that anymore. I prefer
to go to Africa, Ebola and all."
Just look at all that altruism.
Source: On Cuba's Missions Abroad - Havana Times.org -
http://www.havanatimes.org/?p=109646
Mexican company gets deal to invest in Cuba development zone
Mexican company gets deal to invest in Cuba development zone
Sunday, 1 Mar 2015 | 1:27 AM ET
Justin Solomon | CNBC
A Mexican meat processing firm has become the first international
company to get approval for an investment project in Cuba's first
special economic development area, Mexico's foreign ministry said on
Saturday.
Richmeat de Mexico plans to invest in the processing and packing of meat
within the Mariel special development zone of the island, the ministry
said in a statement, without giving details of how much money was involved.
News of the investment follows December's agreement between the United
States and Cuba to restore diplomatic ties after more than five decades.
That spurred hopes that the communist-run island could be start to open
up its economy.
The Mexican government is keen to play a central role in the process of
ending Cuba's diplomatic and economic isolation.
The rules and regulations governing the Mariel area were first set out
in 2013, but companies have been slow to take advantage of the tax and
customs breaks it is meant to offer.
The special development zone covers 180 square miles (466 square km)
west of Havana and is centered on a new container terminal in Mariel
Bay, 28 miles from the Cuban capital.
Source: Mexican company gets deal to invest in Cuba development zone -
http://www.cnbc.com/id/102465800#.
Sunday, 1 Mar 2015 | 1:27 AM ET
Justin Solomon | CNBC
A Mexican meat processing firm has become the first international
company to get approval for an investment project in Cuba's first
special economic development area, Mexico's foreign ministry said on
Saturday.
Richmeat de Mexico plans to invest in the processing and packing of meat
within the Mariel special development zone of the island, the ministry
said in a statement, without giving details of how much money was involved.
News of the investment follows December's agreement between the United
States and Cuba to restore diplomatic ties after more than five decades.
That spurred hopes that the communist-run island could be start to open
up its economy.
The Mexican government is keen to play a central role in the process of
ending Cuba's diplomatic and economic isolation.
The rules and regulations governing the Mariel area were first set out
in 2013, but companies have been slow to take advantage of the tax and
customs breaks it is meant to offer.
The special development zone covers 180 square miles (466 square km)
west of Havana and is centered on a new container terminal in Mariel
Bay, 28 miles from the Cuban capital.
Source: Mexican company gets deal to invest in Cuba development zone -
http://www.cnbc.com/id/102465800#.
Entrepreneurs embrace new possibilities on doing business with Cuba
Entrepreneurs embrace new possibilities on doing business with Cuba
SUNDAY, MARCH 1, 2015, 10:57 AM
BY HUGH R. MORLEY
STAFF WRITER | THE RECORD
One businessman was interested in the commercial possibilities of
helping Cubans renovate their homes.
Another had put together a $2 million investment fund, and was looking
for opportunities in the Caribbean country.
A third attendee, a Cuban-American, had no business plan, but he came to
see what the changes might mean for his native land.
The three reflected the diverse interests of about 100 people who
attended a lively forum Thursday night in Lyndhurst on doing business
with Cuba. The event sought to focus on opportunities in the communist
nation in the future, but it sometimes got tangled up in the past.
Related: N.J. business look to Cuba for a market, find difficulties
The event, organized by the Statewide Hispanic Chamber of Commerce of
New Jersey, was designed to provide information about the business
terrain in Cuba as a result of President Obama's executive orders in
December aimed at normalizing U.S.-Cuba relations. The orders took
effect in January.
Concerns ranged from caution at the possible risks to a desire to jump
in quickly. And some inquiries appeared to be shaped by Cuba's turbulent
history with the U.S. — especially after two representatives of the
Cuban government spoke of their belief in Obama's plan, and how it could
help the people in both countries.
A matter of risk
"There are laws in this country that protect me and protect my
investment," said Jose Sabater of Elizabeth. The Cuban-American said he
came to the forum to find out the effect of the changes on his native
country.
"What kind of guarantees does the Cuban government have in place" to
protect investments in that country? Sabater asked.
Marco A. Gonzalez, a Paramus attorney who gave a presentation on what
companies can and can't do under Obama's rules, replied that he has
helped clients do business in Cuba, and other countries, for years, and
hasn't found clients to be at greater risk of losing their investment in
Cuba than anywhere else.
Asked a similar question earlier, one of the Cuban government
representatives, Ovidio Roque, dismissed such concerns, and said his
country is very keen on making its relationship with the U.S. work, and
it wants to foster entrepreneurs and an independent business sector.
"If you ask an entrepreneur what is the main obstacle to a business in
Cuba, it's not the Cuban government," it's the difficulty of getting
materials to run a business, he said. He drew a laugh from the audience
when he said independent restaurants complain more that they can't get
Adobo Goya — a seasoning popular with Latinos that's made by the
Secaucus-based food manufacturer.
Cuba as a 'hybrid'
Frank Argote-Freyre, an assistant professor in Latin American history at
Kean University, predicted that Cuba would end up as a "hybrid" of
capitalism and communism, adding, "I think we will see economic reforms."
Some attendees were clearly motivated by the prospect of early entry
into a developing market with which they had personal ties.
Bill Borras, a general building contractor from Jackson, whose father
left Cuba in 1937, said he believed money could be made fixing up
dilapidated homes, or buying and selling them.
"I think it's going to be lucrative, not only in my industry," Borras
said, adding that whatever the U.S. was going to achieve with the
embargo had been achieved.
"It's time," he said of Obama's initiative. "I don't think we are going
to be getting anything more out of the embargo."
Mario Perez, a forensic accountant from Warren Township, said he came to
see if the business environment is ripe for him to invest a $2 million
venture fund he has put together.
"It's important to start peeling the onion, and really investigate
what's going on," said Perez, whose parents left Cuba in the 1950s.
"It's the initial stages of doing proper due diligence in our country."
He said he has no specific investments in mind, but he suggested that
putting money into real estate, a resort, or imports and exports could
be possible.
U.S. action urged
Some attendees, however, felt that U.S. businesses may need to move
quickly to seize a share of the market, a point underlined by the Cuban
representatives, who said investors in countries that don't have laws
restricting business with Cuba are already backing projects there.
"I don't think we have missed the boat," said Freddy Rambay, the New
Jersey representative for MAP Communications, a Virginia call center
company. "But we need to take steps to ensure we have our feet in the
water before it's too late."
Source: Entrepreneurs embrace new possibilities on doing business with
Cuba - News - NorthJersey.com -
http://www.northjersey.com/news/entrepreneurs-embrace-new-possibilities-on-doing-business-with-cuba-1.1280405?page=all
SUNDAY, MARCH 1, 2015, 10:57 AM
BY HUGH R. MORLEY
STAFF WRITER | THE RECORD
One businessman was interested in the commercial possibilities of
helping Cubans renovate their homes.
Another had put together a $2 million investment fund, and was looking
for opportunities in the Caribbean country.
A third attendee, a Cuban-American, had no business plan, but he came to
see what the changes might mean for his native land.
The three reflected the diverse interests of about 100 people who
attended a lively forum Thursday night in Lyndhurst on doing business
with Cuba. The event sought to focus on opportunities in the communist
nation in the future, but it sometimes got tangled up in the past.
Related: N.J. business look to Cuba for a market, find difficulties
The event, organized by the Statewide Hispanic Chamber of Commerce of
New Jersey, was designed to provide information about the business
terrain in Cuba as a result of President Obama's executive orders in
December aimed at normalizing U.S.-Cuba relations. The orders took
effect in January.
Concerns ranged from caution at the possible risks to a desire to jump
in quickly. And some inquiries appeared to be shaped by Cuba's turbulent
history with the U.S. — especially after two representatives of the
Cuban government spoke of their belief in Obama's plan, and how it could
help the people in both countries.
A matter of risk
"There are laws in this country that protect me and protect my
investment," said Jose Sabater of Elizabeth. The Cuban-American said he
came to the forum to find out the effect of the changes on his native
country.
"What kind of guarantees does the Cuban government have in place" to
protect investments in that country? Sabater asked.
Marco A. Gonzalez, a Paramus attorney who gave a presentation on what
companies can and can't do under Obama's rules, replied that he has
helped clients do business in Cuba, and other countries, for years, and
hasn't found clients to be at greater risk of losing their investment in
Cuba than anywhere else.
Asked a similar question earlier, one of the Cuban government
representatives, Ovidio Roque, dismissed such concerns, and said his
country is very keen on making its relationship with the U.S. work, and
it wants to foster entrepreneurs and an independent business sector.
"If you ask an entrepreneur what is the main obstacle to a business in
Cuba, it's not the Cuban government," it's the difficulty of getting
materials to run a business, he said. He drew a laugh from the audience
when he said independent restaurants complain more that they can't get
Adobo Goya — a seasoning popular with Latinos that's made by the
Secaucus-based food manufacturer.
Cuba as a 'hybrid'
Frank Argote-Freyre, an assistant professor in Latin American history at
Kean University, predicted that Cuba would end up as a "hybrid" of
capitalism and communism, adding, "I think we will see economic reforms."
Some attendees were clearly motivated by the prospect of early entry
into a developing market with which they had personal ties.
Bill Borras, a general building contractor from Jackson, whose father
left Cuba in 1937, said he believed money could be made fixing up
dilapidated homes, or buying and selling them.
"I think it's going to be lucrative, not only in my industry," Borras
said, adding that whatever the U.S. was going to achieve with the
embargo had been achieved.
"It's time," he said of Obama's initiative. "I don't think we are going
to be getting anything more out of the embargo."
Mario Perez, a forensic accountant from Warren Township, said he came to
see if the business environment is ripe for him to invest a $2 million
venture fund he has put together.
"It's important to start peeling the onion, and really investigate
what's going on," said Perez, whose parents left Cuba in the 1950s.
"It's the initial stages of doing proper due diligence in our country."
He said he has no specific investments in mind, but he suggested that
putting money into real estate, a resort, or imports and exports could
be possible.
U.S. action urged
Some attendees, however, felt that U.S. businesses may need to move
quickly to seize a share of the market, a point underlined by the Cuban
representatives, who said investors in countries that don't have laws
restricting business with Cuba are already backing projects there.
"I don't think we have missed the boat," said Freddy Rambay, the New
Jersey representative for MAP Communications, a Virginia call center
company. "But we need to take steps to ensure we have our feet in the
water before it's too late."
Source: Entrepreneurs embrace new possibilities on doing business with
Cuba - News - NorthJersey.com -
http://www.northjersey.com/news/entrepreneurs-embrace-new-possibilities-on-doing-business-with-cuba-1.1280405?page=all
Sunday, March 1, 2015
Why U.S. banks are keeping an eye on Cuba talks
Why U.S. banks are keeping an eye on Cuba talks
by Nancy Marshall-Genzer
Friday, February 27, 2015 - 05:00
U.S. and Cuban negotiators will meet in Washington Friday. On the agenda: whether Cuba should be taken off the U.S.'s list of state sponsors of terrorism. Cuba wants off that list, and American banks are watching the negotiations closely. So are U.S. travelers, who can’t use their credit or debit cards on the island.
Right now, Americans can pay for hotels and plane tickets to Cuba in advance. But once you get there, "all of your expenses, you need cash for them,” says Philip Peters, president of the Cuba Research Center in Alexandria, Va., who was traveling in Havana when we spoke.
“You’re going to rent a car, you’re going to rent a cell phone, you’re going to feed yourself," he says. "You’re going need about $200 a day in cash.”
Peters says, if Cuba were taken off the terrorism list, U.S. banks would be more willing to do business there.
Geoff Thale, a Cuba analyst with the advocacy group Washington Office on Latin America, says right now, banks are leery.
“What may seem like, to the bank, an innocent banking arrangement, could lead to substantial fines,” he says.
But Thale says, even if Cuba were taken off the list, U.S. banks would still be cautious.
Case in point: MasterCard is removing its block on U.S. card transactions in Cuba this Sunday. But, that doesn’t mean your bank will clear them. MasterCard says you should contact your bank before you go to ensure your card will be "supported on the island."
Source: Why U.S. banks are keeping an eye on Cuba talks | Marketplace.org - http://www.marketplace.org/topics/economy/why-us-banks-are-keeping-eye-cuba-talks
by Nancy Marshall-Genzer
Friday, February 27, 2015 - 05:00
U.S. and Cuban negotiators will meet in Washington Friday. On the agenda: whether Cuba should be taken off the U.S.'s list of state sponsors of terrorism. Cuba wants off that list, and American banks are watching the negotiations closely. So are U.S. travelers, who can’t use their credit or debit cards on the island.
Right now, Americans can pay for hotels and plane tickets to Cuba in advance. But once you get there, "all of your expenses, you need cash for them,” says Philip Peters, president of the Cuba Research Center in Alexandria, Va., who was traveling in Havana when we spoke.
“You’re going to rent a car, you’re going to rent a cell phone, you’re going to feed yourself," he says. "You’re going need about $200 a day in cash.”
Peters says, if Cuba were taken off the terrorism list, U.S. banks would be more willing to do business there.
Geoff Thale, a Cuba analyst with the advocacy group Washington Office on Latin America, says right now, banks are leery.
“What may seem like, to the bank, an innocent banking arrangement, could lead to substantial fines,” he says.
But Thale says, even if Cuba were taken off the list, U.S. banks would still be cautious.
Case in point: MasterCard is removing its block on U.S. card transactions in Cuba this Sunday. But, that doesn’t mean your bank will clear them. MasterCard says you should contact your bank before you go to ensure your card will be "supported on the island."
Source: Why U.S. banks are keeping an eye on Cuba talks | Marketplace.org - http://www.marketplace.org/topics/economy/why-us-banks-are-keeping-eye-cuba-talks
An Ethical Roadway for Civil Society
An Ethical Roadway for Civil Society / Cubanet, Miriam Celaya
Posted on March 1, 2015
Cubanet, Miriam Celaya, Havana, 25 February 2015 — This Wednesday,
February 25th, 2015, a new meeting of the members Espacio Abierto [Cuban
Civil Society Open Forum] of the independent civil society took place
with a broad representation of members of various pro-democracy projects
throughout the Island, as well as independent journalists. A total of 25
participants took part in the symposium, where, in addition, views on
issues of interest to the Cuban reality were exchanged.
On this occasion, among the most important points of the discussion
adopted by full consensus was the document "An ethical roadway for Cuban
civil society" which — as its name suggests — provides a guide for the
basic principles governing the conclave, and a Motion of Solidarity with
civil society and the Venezuelan opposition at a time when the
repression tends to flare up with a statement that emphasizes leaders
like Leopoldo López, who recently served a year in prison; Maria Corina
Machado, a former deputy who was attacked and removed from office by the
Chavista authoritarianism; and the Mayor of Caracas, Antonio Ledezma,
elected at the polls by popular will, violently arrested in recent days
by the repressive forces of the government of that nation.
Whereas the document adopted at the conclave should be made known to the
public, especially Cubans from all shores, its contents are reproduced
here in their entirety:
An Ethical Path for Cuban Civil Society
As part of the independent Cuban civil society, we believe that every
moral choice is a strictly non-transferable decision, absent from all
imposition. We also recognize that, because of its relational character,
citizens seek to socialize and get incorporated into communities that
have received an established humus solidified with values and virtues
known as community ethos, whether family, group, national or
international. By agreeing to an ethical path, we reject a dogmatic
moral, prohibitive in itself, of frivolity and debauchery. We opt for
dialogical ethics against an authoritarian moral, ethics that
intrinsically link freedom and responsibility. We propose to educate
ourselves to assume, in our principles and in our attitudes, the
following ethical path, rooted in the best of our Cuban heritage:
1. We acknowledge that a human being is the central character of his own
story. Thus, the person must be the beginning, the middle and the end of
any institution or historical process. Human beings are not the means,
nor can they be an object in the hands of others, therefore they should
not be manipulated for scientific, social, political or economic
experiments.We believe that all human beings are equal before the law
and diverse in their abilities and personal choices.
2. We must encourage consistency between what we believe, what we say
and what we do. Any personal, civic and political engagement must be
inextricably supported by ethical behavior without which all individual
or community action loses value and meaning.
3. Cuba, that is, the nation known as the community of all its citizens
on the Island and in the Diaspora, its wellbeing, its freedom, its
progress and common good, is the inspiration and the end of all civic
and political action, banishing spurious interests.We consider that the
meaning and purpose of our ethical commitment to Cuba is to build a
peaceful, fruitful and prosperous coexistence in our country, rather
than a simple coexistence with those who are different or adversarial.
4. We opt for peaceful methods and for seeking nonviolent solutions to
both national and international conflicts and our interpersonal
relationships. We opt for the absolute respect for human life and
declare ourselves against all violence and the death penalty.
5. The discrepancy of opinions and political debate should leave no room
for personal or group attacks, insults or denigrating exclusions, or
defamation.
6. We believe that property, knowledge, and power are to serve and that
without agile and honest institutions there is no possible governance.
We believe that without civil sovereignty there is no progress,
articulation, or primacy of the governance of civil society as a valid
participant. Corruption, lies and excessive material interest are the
main enemies of civility in the world today, so, as part of the
independent Cuban civil society, we reject these evils and opt for
transparency, favor truth and the primacy of spiritual values.
7. We seek a modicum of ethics agreed to through a consensus building
process. We differentiate the processes of dialogue and negotiation.
Therefore, we believe that an ethical minimum must surface from a
dialogue leading to consensus agreements, while specific covenants
should surface from negotiations, which must be observed and followed by
the parties.
8. A civic ethic of minimums agreed to by consensus is an achievement of
pluralist humanity. Its basis is the full and utmost dignity of the
human person, achieved through acknowledgment, education and defense of
all rights for everyone, proclaimed in the Universal Declaration of
Human Rights resolved by the U.N. in 1948, which we fully embrace as our
inspiration and ethics program.
9. We adhere to the three fundamental values summarized by the best
aspirations of humanity: freedom, equality, fraternity and their
corresponding rights. First generation rights extol the value of
freedom, they are civil and political rights. Second generation rights
commend the value of equality, they are economic, social and cultural
rights. Third generation rights endorse the value of universal
brotherhood as ecological rights for a healthy environmental balance and
the right to a peaceful world.
10 Consequently, we wish to opt for inclusion and democratic
participation; moral authority, not authoritarianism; proposals, not
prescriptions; what ideas are expressed, rather than who speaks them;
programs and not just leaders. Unity in diversity, not uniformity.
Rational convictions, not fanaticism. The decriminalization of
differences, not intolerance. Decentralization and subsidiarity should
replace centralism and totalitarianism. Ethics must take precedence over
technique and science. Commitment must win over indifference. We opt for
the ethics of politics and economics, of national coexistence and of
international relations.
11. This ethical commitment should translate into attitudes and
proactive actions to heal the anthropological damage and overcome civic
and political illiteracy with the systematic labor of citizen
empowerment. Since we reject any moral imposition, we believe that
education is the only valid way. So we direct our efforts towards an
education liberating of ourselves and of all alienation, in order to be
able to contribute to the ethical and civic education of all Cuban
people, inspired by Human Rights and their corresponding Civic Duties.
Civic and political activists or intellectuals should not be society's
moralizers. Being chosen to represent does not confer moral authority,
but political commitment, subject to scrutiny and public willpower. We
believe in representation as a service to society. This representation
must be the product of popular choice, limited by time and succession.
12. Civic ethics is forged by each person, and it is the community's
responsibility to establish, educate, promote and safeguard the humus of
the ethics of the nation open to the world, based on the great values of
truth and freedom, justice and love.
By adopting this ethical pathway, we want to identify its roots in the
ethics of our founding fathers. The teaching of the Apostle José Martí
reminds us that: "For love we see, with love we see, it is love that
sees." We believe in civic friendship and in the reconciliation where
that righteousness should flow, which Maestro José de la Luz y Caballero
called the "sun of the moral world." Finally, we share Father Félix
Varela's philosophy that taught us that "There is no Motherland without
virtue or virtue without piety".
162nd anniversary of the death of Father Félix Varela
Translated by Norma Whiting
Source: An Ethical Roadway for Civil Society / Cubanet, Miriam Celaya |
Translating Cuba -
http://translatingcuba.com/an-ethical-roadway-for-civil-society-cubanet-miriam-celaya/
Posted on March 1, 2015
Cubanet, Miriam Celaya, Havana, 25 February 2015 — This Wednesday,
February 25th, 2015, a new meeting of the members Espacio Abierto [Cuban
Civil Society Open Forum] of the independent civil society took place
with a broad representation of members of various pro-democracy projects
throughout the Island, as well as independent journalists. A total of 25
participants took part in the symposium, where, in addition, views on
issues of interest to the Cuban reality were exchanged.
On this occasion, among the most important points of the discussion
adopted by full consensus was the document "An ethical roadway for Cuban
civil society" which — as its name suggests — provides a guide for the
basic principles governing the conclave, and a Motion of Solidarity with
civil society and the Venezuelan opposition at a time when the
repression tends to flare up with a statement that emphasizes leaders
like Leopoldo López, who recently served a year in prison; Maria Corina
Machado, a former deputy who was attacked and removed from office by the
Chavista authoritarianism; and the Mayor of Caracas, Antonio Ledezma,
elected at the polls by popular will, violently arrested in recent days
by the repressive forces of the government of that nation.
Whereas the document adopted at the conclave should be made known to the
public, especially Cubans from all shores, its contents are reproduced
here in their entirety:
An Ethical Path for Cuban Civil Society
As part of the independent Cuban civil society, we believe that every
moral choice is a strictly non-transferable decision, absent from all
imposition. We also recognize that, because of its relational character,
citizens seek to socialize and get incorporated into communities that
have received an established humus solidified with values and virtues
known as community ethos, whether family, group, national or
international. By agreeing to an ethical path, we reject a dogmatic
moral, prohibitive in itself, of frivolity and debauchery. We opt for
dialogical ethics against an authoritarian moral, ethics that
intrinsically link freedom and responsibility. We propose to educate
ourselves to assume, in our principles and in our attitudes, the
following ethical path, rooted in the best of our Cuban heritage:
1. We acknowledge that a human being is the central character of his own
story. Thus, the person must be the beginning, the middle and the end of
any institution or historical process. Human beings are not the means,
nor can they be an object in the hands of others, therefore they should
not be manipulated for scientific, social, political or economic
experiments.We believe that all human beings are equal before the law
and diverse in their abilities and personal choices.
2. We must encourage consistency between what we believe, what we say
and what we do. Any personal, civic and political engagement must be
inextricably supported by ethical behavior without which all individual
or community action loses value and meaning.
3. Cuba, that is, the nation known as the community of all its citizens
on the Island and in the Diaspora, its wellbeing, its freedom, its
progress and common good, is the inspiration and the end of all civic
and political action, banishing spurious interests.We consider that the
meaning and purpose of our ethical commitment to Cuba is to build a
peaceful, fruitful and prosperous coexistence in our country, rather
than a simple coexistence with those who are different or adversarial.
4. We opt for peaceful methods and for seeking nonviolent solutions to
both national and international conflicts and our interpersonal
relationships. We opt for the absolute respect for human life and
declare ourselves against all violence and the death penalty.
5. The discrepancy of opinions and political debate should leave no room
for personal or group attacks, insults or denigrating exclusions, or
defamation.
6. We believe that property, knowledge, and power are to serve and that
without agile and honest institutions there is no possible governance.
We believe that without civil sovereignty there is no progress,
articulation, or primacy of the governance of civil society as a valid
participant. Corruption, lies and excessive material interest are the
main enemies of civility in the world today, so, as part of the
independent Cuban civil society, we reject these evils and opt for
transparency, favor truth and the primacy of spiritual values.
7. We seek a modicum of ethics agreed to through a consensus building
process. We differentiate the processes of dialogue and negotiation.
Therefore, we believe that an ethical minimum must surface from a
dialogue leading to consensus agreements, while specific covenants
should surface from negotiations, which must be observed and followed by
the parties.
8. A civic ethic of minimums agreed to by consensus is an achievement of
pluralist humanity. Its basis is the full and utmost dignity of the
human person, achieved through acknowledgment, education and defense of
all rights for everyone, proclaimed in the Universal Declaration of
Human Rights resolved by the U.N. in 1948, which we fully embrace as our
inspiration and ethics program.
9. We adhere to the three fundamental values summarized by the best
aspirations of humanity: freedom, equality, fraternity and their
corresponding rights. First generation rights extol the value of
freedom, they are civil and political rights. Second generation rights
commend the value of equality, they are economic, social and cultural
rights. Third generation rights endorse the value of universal
brotherhood as ecological rights for a healthy environmental balance and
the right to a peaceful world.
10 Consequently, we wish to opt for inclusion and democratic
participation; moral authority, not authoritarianism; proposals, not
prescriptions; what ideas are expressed, rather than who speaks them;
programs and not just leaders. Unity in diversity, not uniformity.
Rational convictions, not fanaticism. The decriminalization of
differences, not intolerance. Decentralization and subsidiarity should
replace centralism and totalitarianism. Ethics must take precedence over
technique and science. Commitment must win over indifference. We opt for
the ethics of politics and economics, of national coexistence and of
international relations.
11. This ethical commitment should translate into attitudes and
proactive actions to heal the anthropological damage and overcome civic
and political illiteracy with the systematic labor of citizen
empowerment. Since we reject any moral imposition, we believe that
education is the only valid way. So we direct our efforts towards an
education liberating of ourselves and of all alienation, in order to be
able to contribute to the ethical and civic education of all Cuban
people, inspired by Human Rights and their corresponding Civic Duties.
Civic and political activists or intellectuals should not be society's
moralizers. Being chosen to represent does not confer moral authority,
but political commitment, subject to scrutiny and public willpower. We
believe in representation as a service to society. This representation
must be the product of popular choice, limited by time and succession.
12. Civic ethics is forged by each person, and it is the community's
responsibility to establish, educate, promote and safeguard the humus of
the ethics of the nation open to the world, based on the great values of
truth and freedom, justice and love.
By adopting this ethical pathway, we want to identify its roots in the
ethics of our founding fathers. The teaching of the Apostle José Martí
reminds us that: "For love we see, with love we see, it is love that
sees." We believe in civic friendship and in the reconciliation where
that righteousness should flow, which Maestro José de la Luz y Caballero
called the "sun of the moral world." Finally, we share Father Félix
Varela's philosophy that taught us that "There is no Motherland without
virtue or virtue without piety".
162nd anniversary of the death of Father Félix Varela
Translated by Norma Whiting
Source: An Ethical Roadway for Civil Society / Cubanet, Miriam Celaya |
Translating Cuba -
http://translatingcuba.com/an-ethical-roadway-for-civil-society-cubanet-miriam-celaya/
Blindness Leads the Way
Blindness Leads the Way / Rebeca Monzo
Posted on February 28, 2015
Rebeca Monzo, 8 February 2015 — After reading an article from the
January 31, 2015 issue of the newspaper Granma about Cuba and the
United Nations Development Program (UNDP) entitled "Cooperation Leads
the Way," a ton of questions came to mind about the subject at hand.
It has been forty years since a UNDP office was established in our
country with the objective to collaborate with the island's government
on the promotion of social development and public well-being.
From my meager understanding, the only party to have benefited from
this has been the government itself, especially in terms of the
favorable publicity it has received. They make up a negligible partof
the population but the Cubans who work for this and other UN
organizations are paid in CUC (Cuban convertible peso), which surpass by
leaps and bounds the highest salaries of the most qualified
professionals in our society, who are paid in CUP (Cuban pesos).
According to the aforementioned article, Granma "chatted" with Mrs.
Jessica Faieta, Director of the UNDP Regional Bureau for Latin America
and the Caribbean as well as the Assistant Secretary-General of the UN,
who discussed the improvement of the quality of life of our citizens.
She recognized the efforts of the Cuban government in regards to food
security and the strengthening of the agricultural and non-agricultural
cooperatives, pointing out, in addition, that the Cuban healthcare
system has been strengthened.
With all due respect, it strikes me that this official had only a
limited view of the situation, as is the case with everyone who visits
us. Guests are taken only to those organizations that have been prepared
in advance by the government and which serve as "display windows" for
foreigners.
Perhaps if she had to depend on the ration book for a while or to seek
medical help at one of our clinics — those used by the average citizen
— it is quite possible she might think differently. I do not understand
how UNDP, based in our country for four decades, has not been given the
task of investigating on their own — in closer contact with the
population — to verify the "wonderful statistics" provided by the
government, which does not at all reflect our reality.
One need only take a stroll through Central Havana, Old Havana (provided
one ventures beyond the historic center), Cerro, Tenth of October Arroyo
Naranjo, San Miguel del Padron and even Vedadao and other neighborhhoods
to see the poor sanitation conditions and overcrowding in which the
Cuban people must live. and the lack of specialists in our health
centers, for being these missions abroad, being replaced mostly by
students, many of them foreigners. There is also the issue of a shortage
of specialists in our health system due to the large number of them
serving abroad in medical missions. They are being replaced mainly by
medical students, many of them foreigners.
In terms of our society's standard of living, it should be pointed out
that the disappearance of the middle class — the very mark of a
country's wealth — has led to the emergence of an impoverished class
(with equality for all) with salaries that do not cover even the most
basic necessities. The contrast is made even more striking by the
emergence of a leadership class with an affluent lifestyle which only
accentuates the differences.
However, Mrs. Faieta and I are in full agreement when it comes to the
positive steps taken towards normalization of diplomatic relations
between the governments of the United States of America and Cuba. Once
there is a successful outcome — one hopes sooner rather than later — it
will be to the benefit of all Cubans. I believe that it is time to end
once and for all the blindness that until now has led the way.
Source: Blindness Leads the Way / Rebeca Monzo | Translating Cuba -
http://translatingcuba.com/blindness-leads-the-way-rebeca-monzo/
Posted on February 28, 2015
Rebeca Monzo, 8 February 2015 — After reading an article from the
January 31, 2015 issue of the newspaper Granma about Cuba and the
United Nations Development Program (UNDP) entitled "Cooperation Leads
the Way," a ton of questions came to mind about the subject at hand.
It has been forty years since a UNDP office was established in our
country with the objective to collaborate with the island's government
on the promotion of social development and public well-being.
From my meager understanding, the only party to have benefited from
this has been the government itself, especially in terms of the
favorable publicity it has received. They make up a negligible partof
the population but the Cubans who work for this and other UN
organizations are paid in CUC (Cuban convertible peso), which surpass by
leaps and bounds the highest salaries of the most qualified
professionals in our society, who are paid in CUP (Cuban pesos).
According to the aforementioned article, Granma "chatted" with Mrs.
Jessica Faieta, Director of the UNDP Regional Bureau for Latin America
and the Caribbean as well as the Assistant Secretary-General of the UN,
who discussed the improvement of the quality of life of our citizens.
She recognized the efforts of the Cuban government in regards to food
security and the strengthening of the agricultural and non-agricultural
cooperatives, pointing out, in addition, that the Cuban healthcare
system has been strengthened.
With all due respect, it strikes me that this official had only a
limited view of the situation, as is the case with everyone who visits
us. Guests are taken only to those organizations that have been prepared
in advance by the government and which serve as "display windows" for
foreigners.
Perhaps if she had to depend on the ration book for a while or to seek
medical help at one of our clinics — those used by the average citizen
— it is quite possible she might think differently. I do not understand
how UNDP, based in our country for four decades, has not been given the
task of investigating on their own — in closer contact with the
population — to verify the "wonderful statistics" provided by the
government, which does not at all reflect our reality.
One need only take a stroll through Central Havana, Old Havana (provided
one ventures beyond the historic center), Cerro, Tenth of October Arroyo
Naranjo, San Miguel del Padron and even Vedadao and other neighborhhoods
to see the poor sanitation conditions and overcrowding in which the
Cuban people must live. and the lack of specialists in our health
centers, for being these missions abroad, being replaced mostly by
students, many of them foreigners. There is also the issue of a shortage
of specialists in our health system due to the large number of them
serving abroad in medical missions. They are being replaced mainly by
medical students, many of them foreigners.
In terms of our society's standard of living, it should be pointed out
that the disappearance of the middle class — the very mark of a
country's wealth — has led to the emergence of an impoverished class
(with equality for all) with salaries that do not cover even the most
basic necessities. The contrast is made even more striking by the
emergence of a leadership class with an affluent lifestyle which only
accentuates the differences.
However, Mrs. Faieta and I are in full agreement when it comes to the
positive steps taken towards normalization of diplomatic relations
between the governments of the United States of America and Cuba. Once
there is a successful outcome — one hopes sooner rather than later — it
will be to the benefit of all Cubans. I believe that it is time to end
once and for all the blindness that until now has led the way.
Source: Blindness Leads the Way / Rebeca Monzo | Translating Cuba -
http://translatingcuba.com/blindness-leads-the-way-rebeca-monzo/
NJ business look to Cuba for a market, find difficulties
NJ business look to Cuba for a market, find difficulties
SUNDAY, MARCH 1, 2015, 1:21 AM
BY HUGH R. MORLEY
STAFF WRITER | THE RECORD
* Telecom company, travel agency and tech-life science executives test
waters, but experts tamp down expectations
President Obama's actions late last year, beginning the process of
normalizing the United States' long-frozen relationship with Cuba, lit a
fire under some New Jersey business leaders eager to tap into a new market.
A Newark-based telecom company has already made a deal with Cuba's
telecom agency on long-distance phone service. A group of New Jersey
tech and life science executives, intrigued by the potential of Cuba's
educated population, will visit the island in April. And a North Jersey
travel agency with extensive experience planning trips to Cuba has seen
a dramatic increase in calls.
Yet experts say low income levels in Cuba, where the average worker
makes about $20 a month, the communist government's tight control of the
economy, and America's continuing, stringent trade embargo put the
island 90 miles from the U.S. coast a long way from becoming more than a
negligible part of the nation's or New Jersey's economy.
"This is just the first step," said Lawrence Diamond, a Newark attorney
who specializes in helping companies do business with Cuba. "This is not
something that's going to change in any great extent doing business with
Cuba. It's going to take time before American companies will be, on a
broad scale, able to do business in and with Cuba."
The possibility of closer business ties with Cuba is a sensitive issue
in New Jersey, home to the second-largest population of Cuban exiles —
after Florida — who have historically opposed better relations with Cuba
out of a belief that isolating the country would help spur the downfall
of former President Fidel Castro, and now his brother, President Raul
Castro.
That sentiment reaches the top political echelons — Sen. Bob Menendez is
a fierce critic of Obama's initiative. And it continues to divide the
Cuban community, said Carlos Medina, chairman of the Statewide Hispanic
Chamber of Commerce of New Jersey, which met on Thursday night in
Lyndhurst to explore Cuban business possibilities.
"It's somewhat generational," said Medina, whose father and
mother-in-law are Cuban. "My mother-in-law is 82, and she still doesn't
want anybody to have any interaction with Cuba. And then you see more
folks in their 40s and 50s a little more open" and asking questions
about Obama's initiative, Medina said, adding, "Just the fact that they
are asking means they have some sort of desire. 'What can I do there? Is
it safe to invest?' "
Medina said he organized Thursday night's event after the chamber
received many member calls seeking information on what businesses could
and couldn't do in Cuba as a result of Obama's announcement.
Most of the changes are the result of executive orders announced by
Obama in December as the first step toward normalizing relations with
Cuba. Included were new regulations governing business and travel
between the U.S. and Cuba. Obama also said he would open an embassy in
Havana.
The overall effect was to limit, albeit in a modest way, the impact of
the 50-year-old embargo, which only Congress can remove.
Even with its limitations, Obama's action clearly allows more business
opportunities than in the past. Until the changes, U.S. laws allowed
American companies to do business in Cuba only in three areas that gave
humanitarian help to the country's population — pharmaceuticals,
agricultural products and health care devices, Diamond said.
According to the U.S. Treasury, the executive orders allow American
companies to create telecommunications links with Cuba, to travel and to
forge banking links with Cuban institutions, which will include allowing
the use of U.S.-issued credit cards in Cuba.
The orders also allow Americans to be involved in "certain
micro-financing projects and entrepreneurial and business training," and
the importing into the U.S. of "certain independent Cuban
entrepreneur-produced goods and services," the Treasury said.
IDT, the Newark-based telecom company, said it has reached an agreement
with Cuba's national telecom provider, Empresa de Telecomunicaciones de
Cuba S.A., to exchange international long-distance voice traffic between
the United States and Cuba directly.
A statement by Bill Pereira, CEO of IDT Telecom, said the company had
been in contact with the Cuban agency for years, and then last year it
expressed a "desire to move forward on an agreement with us."
The agreement would allow IDT to route international long-distance calls
to Cuba directly into the Cuban provider's network, instead of a
third-party network, he said. The toughest part, he added, was
developing the relationship with the agency "to the point where they
were comfortable moving forward with us."
The deal fits IDT's business of providing prepaid and other call
services to first- and second-generation immigrants in the U.S., Pereira
said.
Perhaps the most lucrative area in the short term will be travel. Delta
Air Lines, United Airlines, American Airlines and JetBlue Airways have
expressed interest in starting regular flights to Cuba, which now
receives only charter flights from the U.S. Since Obama's announcement,
Marazul Charters & Travel Agency in North Bergen, which has arranged
trips to Cuba since 1979, has been deluged with calls, said Robert
Guild, a company vice president.
The executive orders have dramatically reduced the amount of red tape
involved in traveling to Cuba, which previously required trip organizers
to give a detailed report on their itinerary before and after the trip.
The rules lifted the requirement that travelers obtain a license from
Treasury to visit the country, and only requires travelers to read, and
ensure that they meet, the requirements of one of 12 categories of
travelers' licenses allowed to go to Cuba, Guild said.
In the past, he said, it could take four to six months to get a license.
Now, "any organization can sponsor a trip," and no licenses are needed,
he said. Although Americans are still not allowed to visit Cuba solely
for tourism, travel to professional meetings and conferences, and to
complete "certain authorized export transactions" are allowed, according
to the Treasury rules.
"We already have requests from organizations through 2017, for hotel
space in Cuba," he said. The increased demand for travel to Cuba means
that Marazul, which has a headquarters in Miami and a workforce of 100,
of whom 20 are in New Jersey, expects to add at least 15 new employees
companywide, Guild said.
The trip by the tech and life science executives will be led by the New
Jersey Technology Council and is aimed at assessing opportunities for
hiring Cuban workers, said James Barrood, president of the NJTC, a
support and advocacy group for the tech industry.
"Cuba is one of the most-educated countries in the Western Hemisphere,"
said Barrood. "And there are a lot of smart people, especially in the
tech areas."
While workers there may not have state-of-the-art IT skills, Barrood
said, Cuba has a strong health industry, the country is well-known for
producing a large number of doctors, and the country's free education
system produces workers strong in math and science basics, who could be
trained, he said.
"There is a tech talent shortage" in the U.S., said Barrood, who visited
Cuba last year with a student group from Fairleigh Dickinson University,
where he was head of the Rothman Institute of Entrepreneurship. "And
it's only going to get worse. We want to make sure that our companies
can partner, collaborate or employ this talent in the near or long term."
The trip is being organized with The Latino Institute, a Newark-based
non-profit group that advocates for education among Hispanics.
The scope of business opportunities in Cuba will depend in part on what
happens next in Cuba, where independent businesses are a relatively new
phenomenon.
A description of doing business in Cuba drawn up by the Embassy of
Canada, which does not have an embargo on doing business in the
Caribbean country, makes the difficulties clear.
"The Cuban market is challenging and complex, and not suitable for the
novice exporter," the embassy statement said. "However, for those with
experience exporting, in particular to developing and emerging markets,
the medium- to long-term prospects look promising."
Although "the Cuban government has been gently reforming and
liberalizing the economy over the past few years," the embassy said,
"all imports to the country remain controlled by Government of Cuba
import agencies."
Cuban importers can deal only with "established companies" with at least
five years' experience, and "individual entrepreneurs or newly created
companies will not generally be considered." Companies seeking to sell
goods in Cuba cannot open an office there until they have three years of
selling in the country, and $500,000 in sales there, the Canadian
Embassy said.
Herb Ouida, director of the Global Enterprise Network at Fairleigh
Dickinson University, which has put together an April conference for
local businesses on "Opening the Door to Cuba," said he expects Obama's
move to be followed by other initiatives that will expand the areas of
business open to U.S. companies.
"It's incremental, I agree, it's very incremental," Ouida said. "But
it's in the right direction in terms of opening the door. … You go now
to do your research, to determine what changes will be prospective as
well as what changes are in place today."
Email: morley@northjersey.com
Source: NJ business look to Cuba for a market, find difficulties -
Business - NorthJersey.com -
http://www.northjersey.com/news/business/nj-business-look-to-cuba-for-a-market-find-difficulties-1.1280459?page=all
SUNDAY, MARCH 1, 2015, 1:21 AM
BY HUGH R. MORLEY
STAFF WRITER | THE RECORD
* Telecom company, travel agency and tech-life science executives test
waters, but experts tamp down expectations
President Obama's actions late last year, beginning the process of
normalizing the United States' long-frozen relationship with Cuba, lit a
fire under some New Jersey business leaders eager to tap into a new market.
A Newark-based telecom company has already made a deal with Cuba's
telecom agency on long-distance phone service. A group of New Jersey
tech and life science executives, intrigued by the potential of Cuba's
educated population, will visit the island in April. And a North Jersey
travel agency with extensive experience planning trips to Cuba has seen
a dramatic increase in calls.
Yet experts say low income levels in Cuba, where the average worker
makes about $20 a month, the communist government's tight control of the
economy, and America's continuing, stringent trade embargo put the
island 90 miles from the U.S. coast a long way from becoming more than a
negligible part of the nation's or New Jersey's economy.
"This is just the first step," said Lawrence Diamond, a Newark attorney
who specializes in helping companies do business with Cuba. "This is not
something that's going to change in any great extent doing business with
Cuba. It's going to take time before American companies will be, on a
broad scale, able to do business in and with Cuba."
The possibility of closer business ties with Cuba is a sensitive issue
in New Jersey, home to the second-largest population of Cuban exiles —
after Florida — who have historically opposed better relations with Cuba
out of a belief that isolating the country would help spur the downfall
of former President Fidel Castro, and now his brother, President Raul
Castro.
That sentiment reaches the top political echelons — Sen. Bob Menendez is
a fierce critic of Obama's initiative. And it continues to divide the
Cuban community, said Carlos Medina, chairman of the Statewide Hispanic
Chamber of Commerce of New Jersey, which met on Thursday night in
Lyndhurst to explore Cuban business possibilities.
"It's somewhat generational," said Medina, whose father and
mother-in-law are Cuban. "My mother-in-law is 82, and she still doesn't
want anybody to have any interaction with Cuba. And then you see more
folks in their 40s and 50s a little more open" and asking questions
about Obama's initiative, Medina said, adding, "Just the fact that they
are asking means they have some sort of desire. 'What can I do there? Is
it safe to invest?' "
Medina said he organized Thursday night's event after the chamber
received many member calls seeking information on what businesses could
and couldn't do in Cuba as a result of Obama's announcement.
Most of the changes are the result of executive orders announced by
Obama in December as the first step toward normalizing relations with
Cuba. Included were new regulations governing business and travel
between the U.S. and Cuba. Obama also said he would open an embassy in
Havana.
The overall effect was to limit, albeit in a modest way, the impact of
the 50-year-old embargo, which only Congress can remove.
Even with its limitations, Obama's action clearly allows more business
opportunities than in the past. Until the changes, U.S. laws allowed
American companies to do business in Cuba only in three areas that gave
humanitarian help to the country's population — pharmaceuticals,
agricultural products and health care devices, Diamond said.
According to the U.S. Treasury, the executive orders allow American
companies to create telecommunications links with Cuba, to travel and to
forge banking links with Cuban institutions, which will include allowing
the use of U.S.-issued credit cards in Cuba.
The orders also allow Americans to be involved in "certain
micro-financing projects and entrepreneurial and business training," and
the importing into the U.S. of "certain independent Cuban
entrepreneur-produced goods and services," the Treasury said.
IDT, the Newark-based telecom company, said it has reached an agreement
with Cuba's national telecom provider, Empresa de Telecomunicaciones de
Cuba S.A., to exchange international long-distance voice traffic between
the United States and Cuba directly.
A statement by Bill Pereira, CEO of IDT Telecom, said the company had
been in contact with the Cuban agency for years, and then last year it
expressed a "desire to move forward on an agreement with us."
The agreement would allow IDT to route international long-distance calls
to Cuba directly into the Cuban provider's network, instead of a
third-party network, he said. The toughest part, he added, was
developing the relationship with the agency "to the point where they
were comfortable moving forward with us."
The deal fits IDT's business of providing prepaid and other call
services to first- and second-generation immigrants in the U.S., Pereira
said.
Perhaps the most lucrative area in the short term will be travel. Delta
Air Lines, United Airlines, American Airlines and JetBlue Airways have
expressed interest in starting regular flights to Cuba, which now
receives only charter flights from the U.S. Since Obama's announcement,
Marazul Charters & Travel Agency in North Bergen, which has arranged
trips to Cuba since 1979, has been deluged with calls, said Robert
Guild, a company vice president.
The executive orders have dramatically reduced the amount of red tape
involved in traveling to Cuba, which previously required trip organizers
to give a detailed report on their itinerary before and after the trip.
The rules lifted the requirement that travelers obtain a license from
Treasury to visit the country, and only requires travelers to read, and
ensure that they meet, the requirements of one of 12 categories of
travelers' licenses allowed to go to Cuba, Guild said.
In the past, he said, it could take four to six months to get a license.
Now, "any organization can sponsor a trip," and no licenses are needed,
he said. Although Americans are still not allowed to visit Cuba solely
for tourism, travel to professional meetings and conferences, and to
complete "certain authorized export transactions" are allowed, according
to the Treasury rules.
"We already have requests from organizations through 2017, for hotel
space in Cuba," he said. The increased demand for travel to Cuba means
that Marazul, which has a headquarters in Miami and a workforce of 100,
of whom 20 are in New Jersey, expects to add at least 15 new employees
companywide, Guild said.
The trip by the tech and life science executives will be led by the New
Jersey Technology Council and is aimed at assessing opportunities for
hiring Cuban workers, said James Barrood, president of the NJTC, a
support and advocacy group for the tech industry.
"Cuba is one of the most-educated countries in the Western Hemisphere,"
said Barrood. "And there are a lot of smart people, especially in the
tech areas."
While workers there may not have state-of-the-art IT skills, Barrood
said, Cuba has a strong health industry, the country is well-known for
producing a large number of doctors, and the country's free education
system produces workers strong in math and science basics, who could be
trained, he said.
"There is a tech talent shortage" in the U.S., said Barrood, who visited
Cuba last year with a student group from Fairleigh Dickinson University,
where he was head of the Rothman Institute of Entrepreneurship. "And
it's only going to get worse. We want to make sure that our companies
can partner, collaborate or employ this talent in the near or long term."
The trip is being organized with The Latino Institute, a Newark-based
non-profit group that advocates for education among Hispanics.
The scope of business opportunities in Cuba will depend in part on what
happens next in Cuba, where independent businesses are a relatively new
phenomenon.
A description of doing business in Cuba drawn up by the Embassy of
Canada, which does not have an embargo on doing business in the
Caribbean country, makes the difficulties clear.
"The Cuban market is challenging and complex, and not suitable for the
novice exporter," the embassy statement said. "However, for those with
experience exporting, in particular to developing and emerging markets,
the medium- to long-term prospects look promising."
Although "the Cuban government has been gently reforming and
liberalizing the economy over the past few years," the embassy said,
"all imports to the country remain controlled by Government of Cuba
import agencies."
Cuban importers can deal only with "established companies" with at least
five years' experience, and "individual entrepreneurs or newly created
companies will not generally be considered." Companies seeking to sell
goods in Cuba cannot open an office there until they have three years of
selling in the country, and $500,000 in sales there, the Canadian
Embassy said.
Herb Ouida, director of the Global Enterprise Network at Fairleigh
Dickinson University, which has put together an April conference for
local businesses on "Opening the Door to Cuba," said he expects Obama's
move to be followed by other initiatives that will expand the areas of
business open to U.S. companies.
"It's incremental, I agree, it's very incremental," Ouida said. "But
it's in the right direction in terms of opening the door. … You go now
to do your research, to determine what changes will be prospective as
well as what changes are in place today."
Email: morley@northjersey.com
Source: NJ business look to Cuba for a market, find difficulties -
Business - NorthJersey.com -
http://www.northjersey.com/news/business/nj-business-look-to-cuba-for-a-market-find-difficulties-1.1280459?page=all
US and Cuba a step closer to normal diplomatic relations
US and Cuba a step closer to normal diplomatic relations
28/02 03:39 CET
The United States and Cuba both said good progress was made at the
second round of talks aimed at restoring diplomatic relations that were
severed 54 years ago after Cuba's revolution.
These latest discussions at the state department in Washington followed
the first round of talks in Havana in January.
"I can say that we had a good meeting today", said the head of the Cuban
delegation Josefina Vidal. "We made progress in our discussions."
One priority for Cuba is its removal from the US list of state sponsors
of terrorism, but diplomats would not be drawn one which issues were
causing any division.
"I don't feel that it would be appropriate for me to go into specifics
about which issues we made more or less progress on, some of them quite
honestly are close to resolution", said US assistant Secretary of State
Roberta Jacobson.
The negotiations signify a dramatic change in policy by the United
States towards its communist neighbour and some political analysts think
President Obama is looking for a legacy.
For over 50 years there has been a relationship of sorts between the two
countries, but it has always been through a third party, even though
they do have diplomats working in each other's capitals.
At present Cuba's interests in the US are represented by a division of
the Swiss embassy, but if these talks ultimately succeed, that could
soon change and embassies could be re-established in the respective
capitals.
Source: US and Cuba a step closer to normal diplomatic relations |
euronews, world news -
http://www.euronews.com/2015/02/28/us-and-cuba-a-step-closer-to-normal-diplomatic-relations/
28/02 03:39 CET
The United States and Cuba both said good progress was made at the
second round of talks aimed at restoring diplomatic relations that were
severed 54 years ago after Cuba's revolution.
These latest discussions at the state department in Washington followed
the first round of talks in Havana in January.
"I can say that we had a good meeting today", said the head of the Cuban
delegation Josefina Vidal. "We made progress in our discussions."
One priority for Cuba is its removal from the US list of state sponsors
of terrorism, but diplomats would not be drawn one which issues were
causing any division.
"I don't feel that it would be appropriate for me to go into specifics
about which issues we made more or less progress on, some of them quite
honestly are close to resolution", said US assistant Secretary of State
Roberta Jacobson.
The negotiations signify a dramatic change in policy by the United
States towards its communist neighbour and some political analysts think
President Obama is looking for a legacy.
For over 50 years there has been a relationship of sorts between the two
countries, but it has always been through a third party, even though
they do have diplomats working in each other's capitals.
At present Cuba's interests in the US are represented by a division of
the Swiss embassy, but if these talks ultimately succeed, that could
soon change and embassies could be re-established in the respective
capitals.
Source: US and Cuba a step closer to normal diplomatic relations |
euronews, world news -
http://www.euronews.com/2015/02/28/us-and-cuba-a-step-closer-to-normal-diplomatic-relations/
Ex-FBI chief tells of cop-killer swap that Cuba rejected
Kelly: Ex-FBI chief tells of cop-killer swap that Cuba rejected
SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 28, 2015, 11:11 PM
BY MIKE KELLY
Years before Joanne Chesimard was placed on the FBI's list of most
wanted terrorists and the bounty for her capture was increased to $2
million, federal authorities secretly reached out to their Cuban
counterparts with a plan to bring the convicted cop killer back to New
Jersey.
It was the fall of 1998. The FBI drew up a proposal to trade five
captured Cuban spies for Chesimard, who had been convicted two decades
earlier of killing a New Jersey state trooper in a turnpike gunfight but
had broken out of jail and fled to Cuba, where she was granted political
asylum.
The proposed 1998 trade, which has never been publicly acknowledged by
either the United States or Cuba, was described in detail in two recent
interviews with The Record by one of its originators, former FBI
Director Louis Freeh.
Why the plan failed may offer insight about the obstacles facing the
state police, the FBI and a host of political figures as they renew
efforts to bring back Chesimard. The story also illustrates the legacy
of suspicion that permeates U.S.-Cuban relations.
In New Jersey, however, the renewed discussion of Chesimard's fugitive
status has reopened old wounds that date to an unsettling time in
America — a time that was punctuated by a horrific confrontation on the
New Jersey Turnpike between state troopers and members of the Black
Liberation Army who were calling for an armed revolution.
Just before midnight on May 2, 1973, Chesimard, then 25, was traveling
south with two male compatriots when two troopers stopped their car.
Within minutes a wild gunbattle broke out, leaving Trooper Werner
Foerster dead and his partner wounded.
Chesimard, who also was wounded, was later caught, charged with murder
and sentenced to a life term. But in 1979, she escaped from the state
women's prison in Clinton and disappeared, only to turn up five years
later in Cuba.
Chesimard, 67, and reportedly living in the Havana area under the name
Assata Shakur, is regarded as a criminal by U.S. authorities. Cuba has
never shown any inclination to rescind her political asylum, which was
granted by Fidel Castro in the mid-1980s.
In the fall of 1998, however, Freeh thought he saw an opening for U.S.
authorities to get their hands on Chesimard.
As outlined by Freeh in two interviews with The Record, the FBI hoped to
start talks to extradite Chesimard and possibly other American
fugitives, including William Morales, a Puerto Rican nationalist who was
implicated in a series of U.S. terror bombings, including one at
Manhattan's Fraunces Tavern that killed a Fair Lawn resident.
Freeh, who grew up in North Bergen and was a student at Rutgers Law
School in Newark in the mid-1970s, said he had long harbored a special
interest in the Chesimard case. And with the September 1998 arrest of
the five Cuban spies in Florida, Freeh, who became FBI director five
years earlier, said he figured he might have enough leverage to persuade
the Cubans to return her.
"It always occurred to me that exchange would be a good one," he said,
recalling his enthusiasm.
But Freeh, who now runs a private security consulting firm, said the
Cubans wouldn't consider even the most ordinary of discussions.
"The response was no response," he said.
Today, that message from Cuba appears unchanged.
Days after President Obama announced plans on Dec. 17 to restore
diplomatic relations with the communist nation, Cuba's foreign ministry,
in response to questions from journalists in Havana, defended
Chesimard's status.
"Every nation has sovereign and legitimate rights to grant political
asylum to people it considers to have been persecuted," said the
ministry's head of North American affairs, Josefina Vidal.
"We've explained to the U.S. government in the past that there are some
people living in Cuba to whom Cuba has legitimately granted political
asylum," she said.
In a recent interview, Guillermo Suarez, a counselor at Cuba's U.N.
mission, said extradition of Chesimard was not part of the talks to
reestablish diplomatic ties with the U.S.
Suarez said Cuban officials were "quite surprised" to learn that the
announcement of Cuban-American détente was greeted with demands from law
enforcement officials and political figures in New Jersey and elsewhere
for Chesimard's return. He added that the $2 million bounty for her
capture made Cuban officials "very nervous" about whether an influx of
tourists would include bounty hunters.
By the fall of 1998, Cuban-American relations had grown very tense.
In February 1996, Cuban Air Force fighters shot down two civilian planes
and killed four members of the Miami-based anti-Castro group Brothers to
the Rescue, whose planes patrolled waters off Cuba to spot people trying
to escape to the United States. Although the Cubans maintained that the
planes had entered Cuban territory on the day they were shot down, an
investigation showed they were attacked in international airspace.
In June 1998, FBI agents flew to Havana at the invitation of Cuban
authorities to hear complaints about bombings in Cuba that had been
allegedly orchestrated by anti-Castro dissidents supported by Florida's
large exile community.
Three months later, when FBI agents in Miami arrested the five Cuban
spies who had reportedly infiltrated that exile community, Freeh saw an
opening.
The arrest of the spies, known as the Cuban Five or the Miami Five,
confirmed what the FBI and anti-Castro Cuban-Americans had long
suspected: Cuba's intelligence service had numerous operatives in the
United States. One of the alleged spies was later charged with passing
along information about Brothers to the Rescue flights.
Freeh sensed that the spies' capture might also offer an opportunity to
gain access to Chesimard. He approached U.S. Attorney General Janet Reno
with the idea of a trade.
Freeh said Reno approved the plan, which called for him to reach out to
his contacts in a nation with friendly ties to Cuba and the United
States. That nation, which Freeh declined to identify, agreed to
communicate the proposal to Cuba.
Because the plan was in its early stages, Freeh said neither he nor Reno
contacted the White House or the State Department.
"What I did is I contacted the chief of service in another country's
security service," Freeh said "We asked them to contact their
counterparts in Cuba to see if they were interested in a conversation
where we would exchange Chesimard for one or more of the Cuban Five. The
answer came back: 'No. Not interested.'Ÿ"
Freeh, who has never publicly discussed the rejected offer until now,
said he was doing so to raise awareness of the importance of extraditing
Chesimard. Reno could not be reached for comment.
Why the Cubans so hastily rejected Freeh's overture to trade for
Chesimard may have had something to do with how angry they were about
the timing of the spies' arrests — which came only months after the June
1998 meeting with the FBI in Havana to discuss concerns over violence by
anti-Castro dissidents.
"When these spies were arrested, from the Cuban point of view, they had
just been betrayed," said Stephen Kimber, a Canadian journalist who
wrote a book about them. "Why would they have been interested in a deal
at that point?"
U.S. Sen. Bob Menendez, the New Jersey Democrat and former chairman of
the Senate Foreign Relations Committee who has emerged as a vocal critic
of Obama's plan to restore ties with Cuba, said he was surprised the
Cubans had not agreed to exchange Chesimard for the spies.
"The Cuban government placed a high value on the spies," said Menendez,
the son of Cuban immigrants, noting that for years Cuba has campaigned
for their return. "If there had been a deal more than a decade ago that
they could have achieved the same thing, for them to say no just tells
you what Chesimard means to them."
Menendez called Chesimard "an enemy of the United States."
"We see her for what she is — a cold-blooded murderer, who had her day
in court and was convicted," Menendez said. "They see her in some
broader struggle for liberation. For them, she is a great propaganda claim."
Peter Kornbluh, director of the Cuba Documentation Project at the
National Security Archive, a non-governmental research institute in
Washington, D.C., said the Cubans viewed the granting of political
asylum to Chesimard as a matter of sacrosanct honor.
"I've discussed these cases, particularly Joanne Chesimard," said
Kornbluh, who returned from Cuba recently. "Their focus is that they
made the political commitment of political asylum to her. They made the
decision to give her political asylum and they are not going to revisit
the issue."
Lennox Hinds, Chesimard's attorney and a professor of criminal justice
at Rutgers University, said he had been assured by Castro that his
client would not be sent back to the United States under any circumstances.
"In my view, Assata would not be viewed as someone who they would trade
off," Hinds said, using the name Chesimard calls herself
Freeh, who left the FBI in 2001, months before the 9/11 attacks, has not
given up on bringing back Chesimard.
"The issue is, will there be a point where they are willing to consider
exchanging her?" he said. "They clearly did not want to do that when we
contacted them."
Source: Kelly: Ex-FBI chief tells of cop-killer swap that Cuba rejected
- News - NorthJersey.com -
http://www.northjersey.com/news/kelly-ex-fbi-chief-tells-of-cop-killer-swap-that-cuba-rejected-1.1280279?page=all
SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 28, 2015, 11:11 PM
BY MIKE KELLY
Years before Joanne Chesimard was placed on the FBI's list of most
wanted terrorists and the bounty for her capture was increased to $2
million, federal authorities secretly reached out to their Cuban
counterparts with a plan to bring the convicted cop killer back to New
Jersey.
It was the fall of 1998. The FBI drew up a proposal to trade five
captured Cuban spies for Chesimard, who had been convicted two decades
earlier of killing a New Jersey state trooper in a turnpike gunfight but
had broken out of jail and fled to Cuba, where she was granted political
asylum.
The proposed 1998 trade, which has never been publicly acknowledged by
either the United States or Cuba, was described in detail in two recent
interviews with The Record by one of its originators, former FBI
Director Louis Freeh.
Why the plan failed may offer insight about the obstacles facing the
state police, the FBI and a host of political figures as they renew
efforts to bring back Chesimard. The story also illustrates the legacy
of suspicion that permeates U.S.-Cuban relations.
In New Jersey, however, the renewed discussion of Chesimard's fugitive
status has reopened old wounds that date to an unsettling time in
America — a time that was punctuated by a horrific confrontation on the
New Jersey Turnpike between state troopers and members of the Black
Liberation Army who were calling for an armed revolution.
Just before midnight on May 2, 1973, Chesimard, then 25, was traveling
south with two male compatriots when two troopers stopped their car.
Within minutes a wild gunbattle broke out, leaving Trooper Werner
Foerster dead and his partner wounded.
Chesimard, who also was wounded, was later caught, charged with murder
and sentenced to a life term. But in 1979, she escaped from the state
women's prison in Clinton and disappeared, only to turn up five years
later in Cuba.
Chesimard, 67, and reportedly living in the Havana area under the name
Assata Shakur, is regarded as a criminal by U.S. authorities. Cuba has
never shown any inclination to rescind her political asylum, which was
granted by Fidel Castro in the mid-1980s.
In the fall of 1998, however, Freeh thought he saw an opening for U.S.
authorities to get their hands on Chesimard.
As outlined by Freeh in two interviews with The Record, the FBI hoped to
start talks to extradite Chesimard and possibly other American
fugitives, including William Morales, a Puerto Rican nationalist who was
implicated in a series of U.S. terror bombings, including one at
Manhattan's Fraunces Tavern that killed a Fair Lawn resident.
Freeh, who grew up in North Bergen and was a student at Rutgers Law
School in Newark in the mid-1970s, said he had long harbored a special
interest in the Chesimard case. And with the September 1998 arrest of
the five Cuban spies in Florida, Freeh, who became FBI director five
years earlier, said he figured he might have enough leverage to persuade
the Cubans to return her.
"It always occurred to me that exchange would be a good one," he said,
recalling his enthusiasm.
But Freeh, who now runs a private security consulting firm, said the
Cubans wouldn't consider even the most ordinary of discussions.
"The response was no response," he said.
Today, that message from Cuba appears unchanged.
Days after President Obama announced plans on Dec. 17 to restore
diplomatic relations with the communist nation, Cuba's foreign ministry,
in response to questions from journalists in Havana, defended
Chesimard's status.
"Every nation has sovereign and legitimate rights to grant political
asylum to people it considers to have been persecuted," said the
ministry's head of North American affairs, Josefina Vidal.
"We've explained to the U.S. government in the past that there are some
people living in Cuba to whom Cuba has legitimately granted political
asylum," she said.
In a recent interview, Guillermo Suarez, a counselor at Cuba's U.N.
mission, said extradition of Chesimard was not part of the talks to
reestablish diplomatic ties with the U.S.
Suarez said Cuban officials were "quite surprised" to learn that the
announcement of Cuban-American détente was greeted with demands from law
enforcement officials and political figures in New Jersey and elsewhere
for Chesimard's return. He added that the $2 million bounty for her
capture made Cuban officials "very nervous" about whether an influx of
tourists would include bounty hunters.
By the fall of 1998, Cuban-American relations had grown very tense.
In February 1996, Cuban Air Force fighters shot down two civilian planes
and killed four members of the Miami-based anti-Castro group Brothers to
the Rescue, whose planes patrolled waters off Cuba to spot people trying
to escape to the United States. Although the Cubans maintained that the
planes had entered Cuban territory on the day they were shot down, an
investigation showed they were attacked in international airspace.
In June 1998, FBI agents flew to Havana at the invitation of Cuban
authorities to hear complaints about bombings in Cuba that had been
allegedly orchestrated by anti-Castro dissidents supported by Florida's
large exile community.
Three months later, when FBI agents in Miami arrested the five Cuban
spies who had reportedly infiltrated that exile community, Freeh saw an
opening.
The arrest of the spies, known as the Cuban Five or the Miami Five,
confirmed what the FBI and anti-Castro Cuban-Americans had long
suspected: Cuba's intelligence service had numerous operatives in the
United States. One of the alleged spies was later charged with passing
along information about Brothers to the Rescue flights.
Freeh sensed that the spies' capture might also offer an opportunity to
gain access to Chesimard. He approached U.S. Attorney General Janet Reno
with the idea of a trade.
Freeh said Reno approved the plan, which called for him to reach out to
his contacts in a nation with friendly ties to Cuba and the United
States. That nation, which Freeh declined to identify, agreed to
communicate the proposal to Cuba.
Because the plan was in its early stages, Freeh said neither he nor Reno
contacted the White House or the State Department.
"What I did is I contacted the chief of service in another country's
security service," Freeh said "We asked them to contact their
counterparts in Cuba to see if they were interested in a conversation
where we would exchange Chesimard for one or more of the Cuban Five. The
answer came back: 'No. Not interested.'Ÿ"
Freeh, who has never publicly discussed the rejected offer until now,
said he was doing so to raise awareness of the importance of extraditing
Chesimard. Reno could not be reached for comment.
Why the Cubans so hastily rejected Freeh's overture to trade for
Chesimard may have had something to do with how angry they were about
the timing of the spies' arrests — which came only months after the June
1998 meeting with the FBI in Havana to discuss concerns over violence by
anti-Castro dissidents.
"When these spies were arrested, from the Cuban point of view, they had
just been betrayed," said Stephen Kimber, a Canadian journalist who
wrote a book about them. "Why would they have been interested in a deal
at that point?"
U.S. Sen. Bob Menendez, the New Jersey Democrat and former chairman of
the Senate Foreign Relations Committee who has emerged as a vocal critic
of Obama's plan to restore ties with Cuba, said he was surprised the
Cubans had not agreed to exchange Chesimard for the spies.
"The Cuban government placed a high value on the spies," said Menendez,
the son of Cuban immigrants, noting that for years Cuba has campaigned
for their return. "If there had been a deal more than a decade ago that
they could have achieved the same thing, for them to say no just tells
you what Chesimard means to them."
Menendez called Chesimard "an enemy of the United States."
"We see her for what she is — a cold-blooded murderer, who had her day
in court and was convicted," Menendez said. "They see her in some
broader struggle for liberation. For them, she is a great propaganda claim."
Peter Kornbluh, director of the Cuba Documentation Project at the
National Security Archive, a non-governmental research institute in
Washington, D.C., said the Cubans viewed the granting of political
asylum to Chesimard as a matter of sacrosanct honor.
"I've discussed these cases, particularly Joanne Chesimard," said
Kornbluh, who returned from Cuba recently. "Their focus is that they
made the political commitment of political asylum to her. They made the
decision to give her political asylum and they are not going to revisit
the issue."
Lennox Hinds, Chesimard's attorney and a professor of criminal justice
at Rutgers University, said he had been assured by Castro that his
client would not be sent back to the United States under any circumstances.
"In my view, Assata would not be viewed as someone who they would trade
off," Hinds said, using the name Chesimard calls herself
Freeh, who left the FBI in 2001, months before the 9/11 attacks, has not
given up on bringing back Chesimard.
"The issue is, will there be a point where they are willing to consider
exchanging her?" he said. "They clearly did not want to do that when we
contacted them."
Source: Kelly: Ex-FBI chief tells of cop-killer swap that Cuba rejected
- News - NorthJersey.com -
http://www.northjersey.com/news/kelly-ex-fbi-chief-tells-of-cop-killer-swap-that-cuba-rejected-1.1280279?page=all
U.S. demand for travel to Cuba rises amid thaw in U.S.-Cuba relations
U.S. demand for travel to Cuba rises amid thaw in U.S.-Cuba relations
BY HANNAH SAMPSON HSAMPSON@MIAMIHERALD.COM
02/28/2015 9:58 PM 02/28/2015 10:27 PM
Cuba is facing a tourism tsunami as Americans who can more easily visit
the island rush to experience a frozen-in-time culture before it disappears.
More than two months after President Barack Obama first announced that
travel restrictions to the communist island nation would be eased and
several weeks after the release of less-stringent regulations, tour
operators say inquiries and bookings have shot up while more travel
providers have waded into the mix.
"There's a sense of urgency from travelers," said Collin Laverty, owner
of Cuba Educational Travel in Washington, D.C. "People feel that it's on
the verge of opening, so they want to get there right away."
Tom Popper, president of New York tour operator InsightCuba, said he
returned from a trip to Cuba last week and was amazed by the number of
Americans he encountered. The fresh interest comes during high season in
Cuba, adding pressure to an already strained tourism infrastructure.
"There were more than I've ever seen before," said Popper, whose company
has organized travel to Cuba for U.S. citizens since 2000. Since
mid-December, his company has seen six times the web traffic and three
times the bookings as normal for the same time of year, and the demand
has shown no signs of waning.
"We had the President of the United States talk about people-to-people
travel and the fact that you can go and that we want to make it easier,"
Popper said. "After Dec. 17, tens of millions of people said, 'Oh yeah,
President Obama said I could go to Cuba.'"
Tourism is still prohibited, which means Americans have to wait for all
travel restrictions to be lifted before they can lounge at a beach
resort in Varadero or spend a weekend sampling mojitos and Cuban cigars.
But on Jan. 15, the U.S. Treasury Department announced that citizens who
fall under 12 categories of authorized travel — including educational
activities, public performances, athletic competitions, support for the
Cuban people and humanitarian projects — would not need to apply for a
specific license to go to Cuba.
Travel agents and airlines can operate without a specific license from
the Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control, a process that
previously took months and mountains of paperwork, as long as travelers
are going for authorized reasons.
"It's kind of like a new normal," said Popper.
This is what the new normal looks like for travel companies across the
country: hundreds more calls every week, fresh rounds of questions and
increased bookings from travelers eager to witness the island's classic
cars, historic architecture and cultural riches.
Normal, in today's travel landscape, includes a Canadian cruise line now
booking Americans for Cuban itineraries; hotel rooms in Havana popping
up on Kayak.com and one-stop shopping for plane tickets to Cuba via
Mexico on CheapAir.com.
And, in Cuba, it means fewer hotel rooms, tour guides and buses
available to shuttle eager visitors around, not to mention a scarcity of
airplane seats on the way there.
Joe Diaz, co-founder of travel media company AFAR Media, left for Havana
on on a flight Jan. 16, the day the new regulations kicked in. Traveling
through Panama City, he arrived the next day with nowhere to stay
because hotels were full in prime tourist season. Cuba says it has about
63,000 rooms among hotels, motels, hostels and serviced apartments.
Diaz stayed at a private home for $30 a night — "clean, quiet, basic"
with hot water and a comfortable bed — and got to know the family who
lived there.
But he said he quickly realized that American travelers who are
accustomed to Wi-Fi, working credit cards and functional infrastructure
are probably not ready for the experience.
"Cuba is not for that luxury type traveler," he said. "It's for the more
adventurous, experiential traveler."
Bob Guild, vice president of travel agency Marazul Charters, said his
groups have had to stay in private apartments recently instead of hotel
rooms because beds are in such demand.
"There is more space than ever, but it's all been taken up," Guild said.
"What are they going to do next season?"
Guild said Marazul, which has been providing travel to Cuba since 1979,
is getting an average of 75-80 requests a day for information. In the
two weeks after the regulations were released in January, 1,300 requests
came in compared to 30 requests during the same time period in 2014.
"Nothing has really died down," he said. "We are generally telling
people that nothing is possible until next season, beginning in October.
And there are people still trying to get in right now."
Cuba Educational Travel's Laverty said he is fielding last-minute
requests, many from small groups of four to 10 people.
"Just in the last two days, we've booked three or four additional groups
in the middle of March," he said last week.
According to statistics from the Cuban government, 92,348 Americans
visited in 2013, though that number does not include Cuban-Americans
visiting family. About 3 million total visitors came to the country in
2014, and a new survey released Thursday indicates interest in future
travel is high.
According to the travelhorizons survey released by marketing services
firm MMGY Global, 46 percent of travelers from the U.S. who are likely
to visit a Caribbean destination during the next two years would be
willing to change their vacation plans to go to Cuba instead. And 19
percent of U.S. adults said they would consider taking a vacation to
Cuba during the next two years. Questions about Cuba had never been
included in the survey before.
Kim Cavendish, president and CEO of the Museum of Discovery and Science
in Fort Lauderdale, has been thinking about making the short trip for "a
long time," she said. And just within the past week, she finally made
arrangements for a people-to-people trip in April.
"I like to travel, I like to visit other cultures and see new places,"
she said. "Cuba is something that's what, 90 miles away? And yet we
haven't been allowed to go there for some time."
With a small group, she will visit cultural sites, museums, community
projects, a dolphin preserve and other locations to scout out the
possibility of including Cuba in the museum's adventure travel program
in the next year or so.
She said she's seen firsthand that the easing of restrictions doesn't
automatically translate to easy planning.
"I think this idea that we're all going to be able to pop off to Cuba is
still going to be in the future," she said.
In the meantime, more travel companies are jumping in to help.
A spokeswoman for the American Society of Travel Agents said there was
"immediate interest" from members who wanted more information about
selling travel to Cuba after the December and January announcements. The
organization has scheduled an online seminar for March 11.
When the United States Tour Operators Association hosted a webinar on
the subject in mid-February, more than 100 people listened in.
"I think everyone's very interested in how do we get a piece of the
action," said Terry Dale, the association's president and CEO.
"Absolutely the needle has moved."
With its partner ABC Charters, JetBlue is adding an additional weekly
charter flight from Tampa to Havana in June. Kayak.com is now listing
information on flights to Cuba and hotels, though it does not include
booking links. Cuba Cruise, a Canadian cruise operator that launched in
2013, now promotes its trips around Cuba to Americans and American
travel agents.
And the booking site CheapAir.com just added flights to Cuba to its
search engine on Thursday, packaging trips from the U.S. that go through
Mexico.
"Right after the announcements of the changes in regulation, we started
seeing a big uptick in searches for Cuba," from almost none to 50 or 60
searches a day, said CheapAir CEO Jeff Klee.
Still, travel agents say they expect demand to explode when travelers
can set their own agendas free of any restrictions. Michelle Weller,
director of operations for a Travel Leaders agency in Houston, wrote in
an email that most people asking about travel don't want a
people-to-people tour.
"When Cuba can offer an atmosphere where Americans can hang out at
all-inclusives or bar hop in old Havana, dancing to local Cuban music
and smoking Cuban cigars at Ernest Hemingway haunts like La Floridita,
you will see a massive wave of tourists flood the country," she wrote.
This report includes comments from the Public Insight Network, an online
community of people who have agreed to share their opinions with the
Miami Herald and WLRN. Become a source at MiamiHerald. com/insight.
BY THE NUMBERS
The number of Americans* visiting Cuba has increased significantly since
2009, though there was a dip in 2013, the most recent year that
statistics are available. Overall, the number of visitors has steadily
increased.
Year United States Total
2009 52,455 2,429,809
2010 63,046 2,531,745
2011 73,566 2,716,317
2012 98,050 2,838,607
2013 92,348 2,852,572
Source: Cuba's National Statistics Office
* The figures do not include Cuban-Americans traveling to visit family.
VISITING CUBA TODAY
Under rules released earlier this year, U.S.-born individuals who fall
under one of 12 categories can visit Cuba without getting specific
advance permission from the U.S. government. Groups comprised of people
in those categories — such as professional and educational groups — can
create their town people-to-people style trips without U.S. government
permission.
Airline space and hotels are surprisingly easy to arrange using
guidebooks — as those from Moon and Lonely Planet — and the internet.
(And yes, some sites will take your credit card.) What isn't so easy is
finding space in hotels, so you're best to secure that first, then book
your air.
Here's the process:
Lodging:
Cuba Travel Network, cubatravelnetwork.com, books official hotels online
and accepts credit cards. (All hotels are owned either fully or partly
by the government.)
Many casas particulares — B&B rooms in private homes — can be reserved
online and paid once you arrive. One good, responsive source is
casaincuba.com.
Airlines:
Go to the website of a Cuba airline broker (you'll find a list at
http://cubatrips.org/charter-flights-to-cuba.html). (CheapAir.com. also
is offering flights, but via Mexico.)
Fill out a request. (You can't just pick a flight online.)
The broker will be back in touch with the OFAC authorization form. You
will need to check the qualifying category, sign and return, before the
airline can book your flights.
About three weeks prior to flight time, the broker will supply tickets
and a tourist card that allows entry into Cuba.
On the ground:
Recent visitors advise grabbing a good guidebook and asking at your
lodging for guides and taxis. Most recommend against renting a car and
driving yourself.
JANE WOOLDRIDGE
Source: U.S. demand for travel to Cuba rises amid thaw in U.S.-Cuba
relations | Miami Herald Miami Herald -
http://www.miamiherald.com/news/business/tourism-cruises/article11763743.html
BY HANNAH SAMPSON HSAMPSON@MIAMIHERALD.COM
02/28/2015 9:58 PM 02/28/2015 10:27 PM
Cuba is facing a tourism tsunami as Americans who can more easily visit
the island rush to experience a frozen-in-time culture before it disappears.
More than two months after President Barack Obama first announced that
travel restrictions to the communist island nation would be eased and
several weeks after the release of less-stringent regulations, tour
operators say inquiries and bookings have shot up while more travel
providers have waded into the mix.
"There's a sense of urgency from travelers," said Collin Laverty, owner
of Cuba Educational Travel in Washington, D.C. "People feel that it's on
the verge of opening, so they want to get there right away."
Tom Popper, president of New York tour operator InsightCuba, said he
returned from a trip to Cuba last week and was amazed by the number of
Americans he encountered. The fresh interest comes during high season in
Cuba, adding pressure to an already strained tourism infrastructure.
"There were more than I've ever seen before," said Popper, whose company
has organized travel to Cuba for U.S. citizens since 2000. Since
mid-December, his company has seen six times the web traffic and three
times the bookings as normal for the same time of year, and the demand
has shown no signs of waning.
"We had the President of the United States talk about people-to-people
travel and the fact that you can go and that we want to make it easier,"
Popper said. "After Dec. 17, tens of millions of people said, 'Oh yeah,
President Obama said I could go to Cuba.'"
Tourism is still prohibited, which means Americans have to wait for all
travel restrictions to be lifted before they can lounge at a beach
resort in Varadero or spend a weekend sampling mojitos and Cuban cigars.
But on Jan. 15, the U.S. Treasury Department announced that citizens who
fall under 12 categories of authorized travel — including educational
activities, public performances, athletic competitions, support for the
Cuban people and humanitarian projects — would not need to apply for a
specific license to go to Cuba.
Travel agents and airlines can operate without a specific license from
the Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control, a process that
previously took months and mountains of paperwork, as long as travelers
are going for authorized reasons.
"It's kind of like a new normal," said Popper.
This is what the new normal looks like for travel companies across the
country: hundreds more calls every week, fresh rounds of questions and
increased bookings from travelers eager to witness the island's classic
cars, historic architecture and cultural riches.
Normal, in today's travel landscape, includes a Canadian cruise line now
booking Americans for Cuban itineraries; hotel rooms in Havana popping
up on Kayak.com and one-stop shopping for plane tickets to Cuba via
Mexico on CheapAir.com.
And, in Cuba, it means fewer hotel rooms, tour guides and buses
available to shuttle eager visitors around, not to mention a scarcity of
airplane seats on the way there.
Joe Diaz, co-founder of travel media company AFAR Media, left for Havana
on on a flight Jan. 16, the day the new regulations kicked in. Traveling
through Panama City, he arrived the next day with nowhere to stay
because hotels were full in prime tourist season. Cuba says it has about
63,000 rooms among hotels, motels, hostels and serviced apartments.
Diaz stayed at a private home for $30 a night — "clean, quiet, basic"
with hot water and a comfortable bed — and got to know the family who
lived there.
But he said he quickly realized that American travelers who are
accustomed to Wi-Fi, working credit cards and functional infrastructure
are probably not ready for the experience.
"Cuba is not for that luxury type traveler," he said. "It's for the more
adventurous, experiential traveler."
Bob Guild, vice president of travel agency Marazul Charters, said his
groups have had to stay in private apartments recently instead of hotel
rooms because beds are in such demand.
"There is more space than ever, but it's all been taken up," Guild said.
"What are they going to do next season?"
Guild said Marazul, which has been providing travel to Cuba since 1979,
is getting an average of 75-80 requests a day for information. In the
two weeks after the regulations were released in January, 1,300 requests
came in compared to 30 requests during the same time period in 2014.
"Nothing has really died down," he said. "We are generally telling
people that nothing is possible until next season, beginning in October.
And there are people still trying to get in right now."
Cuba Educational Travel's Laverty said he is fielding last-minute
requests, many from small groups of four to 10 people.
"Just in the last two days, we've booked three or four additional groups
in the middle of March," he said last week.
According to statistics from the Cuban government, 92,348 Americans
visited in 2013, though that number does not include Cuban-Americans
visiting family. About 3 million total visitors came to the country in
2014, and a new survey released Thursday indicates interest in future
travel is high.
According to the travelhorizons survey released by marketing services
firm MMGY Global, 46 percent of travelers from the U.S. who are likely
to visit a Caribbean destination during the next two years would be
willing to change their vacation plans to go to Cuba instead. And 19
percent of U.S. adults said they would consider taking a vacation to
Cuba during the next two years. Questions about Cuba had never been
included in the survey before.
Kim Cavendish, president and CEO of the Museum of Discovery and Science
in Fort Lauderdale, has been thinking about making the short trip for "a
long time," she said. And just within the past week, she finally made
arrangements for a people-to-people trip in April.
"I like to travel, I like to visit other cultures and see new places,"
she said. "Cuba is something that's what, 90 miles away? And yet we
haven't been allowed to go there for some time."
With a small group, she will visit cultural sites, museums, community
projects, a dolphin preserve and other locations to scout out the
possibility of including Cuba in the museum's adventure travel program
in the next year or so.
She said she's seen firsthand that the easing of restrictions doesn't
automatically translate to easy planning.
"I think this idea that we're all going to be able to pop off to Cuba is
still going to be in the future," she said.
In the meantime, more travel companies are jumping in to help.
A spokeswoman for the American Society of Travel Agents said there was
"immediate interest" from members who wanted more information about
selling travel to Cuba after the December and January announcements. The
organization has scheduled an online seminar for March 11.
When the United States Tour Operators Association hosted a webinar on
the subject in mid-February, more than 100 people listened in.
"I think everyone's very interested in how do we get a piece of the
action," said Terry Dale, the association's president and CEO.
"Absolutely the needle has moved."
With its partner ABC Charters, JetBlue is adding an additional weekly
charter flight from Tampa to Havana in June. Kayak.com is now listing
information on flights to Cuba and hotels, though it does not include
booking links. Cuba Cruise, a Canadian cruise operator that launched in
2013, now promotes its trips around Cuba to Americans and American
travel agents.
And the booking site CheapAir.com just added flights to Cuba to its
search engine on Thursday, packaging trips from the U.S. that go through
Mexico.
"Right after the announcements of the changes in regulation, we started
seeing a big uptick in searches for Cuba," from almost none to 50 or 60
searches a day, said CheapAir CEO Jeff Klee.
Still, travel agents say they expect demand to explode when travelers
can set their own agendas free of any restrictions. Michelle Weller,
director of operations for a Travel Leaders agency in Houston, wrote in
an email that most people asking about travel don't want a
people-to-people tour.
"When Cuba can offer an atmosphere where Americans can hang out at
all-inclusives or bar hop in old Havana, dancing to local Cuban music
and smoking Cuban cigars at Ernest Hemingway haunts like La Floridita,
you will see a massive wave of tourists flood the country," she wrote.
This report includes comments from the Public Insight Network, an online
community of people who have agreed to share their opinions with the
Miami Herald and WLRN. Become a source at MiamiHerald. com/insight.
BY THE NUMBERS
The number of Americans* visiting Cuba has increased significantly since
2009, though there was a dip in 2013, the most recent year that
statistics are available. Overall, the number of visitors has steadily
increased.
Year United States Total
2009 52,455 2,429,809
2010 63,046 2,531,745
2011 73,566 2,716,317
2012 98,050 2,838,607
2013 92,348 2,852,572
Source: Cuba's National Statistics Office
* The figures do not include Cuban-Americans traveling to visit family.
VISITING CUBA TODAY
Under rules released earlier this year, U.S.-born individuals who fall
under one of 12 categories can visit Cuba without getting specific
advance permission from the U.S. government. Groups comprised of people
in those categories — such as professional and educational groups — can
create their town people-to-people style trips without U.S. government
permission.
Airline space and hotels are surprisingly easy to arrange using
guidebooks — as those from Moon and Lonely Planet — and the internet.
(And yes, some sites will take your credit card.) What isn't so easy is
finding space in hotels, so you're best to secure that first, then book
your air.
Here's the process:
Lodging:
Cuba Travel Network, cubatravelnetwork.com, books official hotels online
and accepts credit cards. (All hotels are owned either fully or partly
by the government.)
Many casas particulares — B&B rooms in private homes — can be reserved
online and paid once you arrive. One good, responsive source is
casaincuba.com.
Airlines:
Go to the website of a Cuba airline broker (you'll find a list at
http://cubatrips.org/charter-flights-to-cuba.html). (CheapAir.com. also
is offering flights, but via Mexico.)
Fill out a request. (You can't just pick a flight online.)
The broker will be back in touch with the OFAC authorization form. You
will need to check the qualifying category, sign and return, before the
airline can book your flights.
About three weeks prior to flight time, the broker will supply tickets
and a tourist card that allows entry into Cuba.
On the ground:
Recent visitors advise grabbing a good guidebook and asking at your
lodging for guides and taxis. Most recommend against renting a car and
driving yourself.
JANE WOOLDRIDGE
Source: U.S. demand for travel to Cuba rises amid thaw in U.S.-Cuba
relations | Miami Herald Miami Herald -
http://www.miamiherald.com/news/business/tourism-cruises/article11763743.html
The Cuba Deal - How Raúl Castro Duped Obama
The Cuba Deal: How Raúl Castro Duped Obama
2/27/2015 @ 2:14PM
GUEST POST WRITTEN BY Néstor T. Carbonell
Mr. Carbonell is an international affairs consultant and author of "And
The Russians Stayed: The Sovietization of Cuba."
On December 17, following a year and a half of secret negotiations with
the Castro regime, President Obama trumpeted what many have called a
historic breakthrough—a new course to normalize relations with Cuba.
The course, however, is not really new. It was pursued by 10 previous
American presidents who tried to engage Fidel Castro directly or through
intermediaries both during and after the Cold War. The desired
rapprochement failed mainly because the Cuban dictator would not agree
to stop his subversive activities and open up the island, or offer a
modicum of respect for human rights.
What's new about President's Obama's détente is that he is engaging Raúl
Castro—not his ailing brother Fidel—and has not established any
preconditions for normalization.
How different is Raúl from Fidel? He is certainly less charismatic and
verbose than his older brother, but more focused and disciplined. While
Fidel roused and manipulated the masses, Raúl, with Soviet assistance,
quietly bolstered the armed forces and built the totalitarian
infrastructure of the regime. Despite their contrasting physique and
personality, they both share a visceral hatred of the United States,
cold-blooded ruthlessness and mastery of deceit.
Fidel's duplicity, combined with a fair amount of histrionics, is well
known. He bragged about tricking the Cuban people, who fell for his
promise to restore democracy, and unabashedly proclaimed in December
1961: "I am a Marxist-Leninist and will be one until the last day of my
life."
Fidel also was able to dupe U.S. presidents and senior government
officials into believing that he would be amenable to a fair settlement
of all outstanding disputes. Even David Rockefeller, a strong advocate
of engagement who had a good rapport with Fidel, felt that he could help
strike a deal with him.
Heading an impressive delegation of foreign policy heavyweights,
Rockefeller presented to Fidel Castro in February 2001 a proposal
developed by the Council on Foreign Relations to normalize U.S.
relations with Cuba. After five hours of marathon discussions which
ended at 4AM, Fidel rejected the "half-measures" proposed by the Council
and demanded the unconditional lifting of the U.S. embargo without
acquiescing to any significant economic and political reforms. A
disillusioned Rockefeller wrote in his memoirs: "Castro harangued us
continuously throughout the night…I think there is little possibility
for change while Castro remains in power…"
But that was Fidel Castro. What about with Raúl now calling the shots
and posing as a pragmatist? Even though Raúl had only introduced
non-systemic, revocable reforms to alleviate the appalling living
conditions on the island, Obama thought that he could be lured or tamed
with goodwill gestures and concessions. So shortly after taking office
in 2009, the President relaxed restrictions on travel and remittances to
Cuba and voted in favor of inviting the Cuban regime to rejoin the
Organization of American States, only to be rebuffed by both Castro
brothers.
Raúl then played the hostage trick on Obama, and it worked. He arrested
Alan Gross, a USAID contractor who was distributing computer equipment
to the Jewish community in Havana to gain access to the internet, and
sentenced him to 15 years in prison. Fearing that Gross, in poor health,
might die behind bars in Cuba, the President accepted the swap proposed
by Castro—Gross for three convicted Cuban spies, including one serving a
life sentence in the U.S. for conspiring to commit murder. Trying to
balance out the uneven swap, Castro released several dozen political
prisoners, a bargaining chip he uses when it suits his purpose.
To conduct the secret negotiations, which were broadened beyond the
exchange of prisoners, Castro assigned two of his sharpest KGB-trained
intelligence officers, fluent in English and well versed in diplomacy as
a cover for espionage in the U.S., Josefina Vidal and Gustavo Machin.
The deal they were able to extract from the American delegation is so
one-sided in favor of the Castro regime that it could well be called the
Cuban Munich.
Indeed, from a weak position, with Cuba in dire straits and facing the
possible loss of its Venezuelan financial lifeline, Castro got pretty
much what he wanted. And Obama, who surrendered the U.S. leverage of
continued economic pressure on the Cuban regime and support for the
dissident movement, got virtually nothing in return.
The U.S. will restore diplomatic relations with Cuba while repression
continues on the island, and will ship telecommunications technology
with no assurance that censorship will end. In addition, the Castro
regime will receive more dollars from U.S. "purposeful visits," which
will flow to the owners of the tourist industry in Cuba: the military.
But for Castro, more important than those concessions is the removal of
Cuba from the U.S. list of terrorist states which would open doors to
the IMF, World Bank and other international financial institutions. His
regime gets this provision despite smuggling 240 tons of heavy weapons
to North Korea in violation of U.N. sanctions, maintaining close links
to Iran, Syria and Hezbollah, and harboring dozens of fugitive
terrorists and criminals, including one of the FBI's Top Ten Most Wanted
Terrorists, Assata Shakur.
To meet Castro's ultimate requirement for normalization of relations,
President Obama promised to seek congressional approval for the
unconditional lifting of the U.S. trade embargo. This would open the
floodgates for U.S. investments in bankrupt Cuba, but in a subordinate
position to the only authorized partner—the Cuban government—which
controls the economy, hires and fires the labor force, and pockets 92
cents on every dollar of each worker's salary. Not quite Deng Xiaoping's
model of capitalism.
Not content with that, the cagey Raúl Castro surprised the White House
last month with two additional demands that did not surface during the
negotiations: payment by the U.S. to Cuba of reparations for the alleged
damages caused by the embargo (his claim is for $100 billion), and the
return to Cuba of the U.S. Naval Base of Guantanamo. Moreover, he
declared that he will not change his Socialist system—not one iota, he
emphasized. So democracy, human rights and free enterprise are out.
The Cold War may be over but Raúl Castro seems intent on reigniting it.
Last year, he offered Putin an espionage listening post on the island,
and is currently training and equipping Venezuela's repressive forces in
support of President Maduro's plan to Cubanize his country.
The only way out of the President's one-sided deal with Cuba is not to
give the deceitful Cuban ruler a blank check, but to insist on a
step-by-step quid pro quo that would safeguard the interests and
security of the U.S., as well as the long-fought aspirations of
freedom-loving Cubans.
Source: The Cuba Deal: How Raúl Castro Duped Obama -
http://www.forbes.com/sites/realspin/2015/02/27/the-cuba-deal-how-raul-castro-duped-obama/
2/27/2015 @ 2:14PM
GUEST POST WRITTEN BY Néstor T. Carbonell
Mr. Carbonell is an international affairs consultant and author of "And
The Russians Stayed: The Sovietization of Cuba."
On December 17, following a year and a half of secret negotiations with
the Castro regime, President Obama trumpeted what many have called a
historic breakthrough—a new course to normalize relations with Cuba.
The course, however, is not really new. It was pursued by 10 previous
American presidents who tried to engage Fidel Castro directly or through
intermediaries both during and after the Cold War. The desired
rapprochement failed mainly because the Cuban dictator would not agree
to stop his subversive activities and open up the island, or offer a
modicum of respect for human rights.
What's new about President's Obama's détente is that he is engaging Raúl
Castro—not his ailing brother Fidel—and has not established any
preconditions for normalization.
How different is Raúl from Fidel? He is certainly less charismatic and
verbose than his older brother, but more focused and disciplined. While
Fidel roused and manipulated the masses, Raúl, with Soviet assistance,
quietly bolstered the armed forces and built the totalitarian
infrastructure of the regime. Despite their contrasting physique and
personality, they both share a visceral hatred of the United States,
cold-blooded ruthlessness and mastery of deceit.
Fidel's duplicity, combined with a fair amount of histrionics, is well
known. He bragged about tricking the Cuban people, who fell for his
promise to restore democracy, and unabashedly proclaimed in December
1961: "I am a Marxist-Leninist and will be one until the last day of my
life."
Fidel also was able to dupe U.S. presidents and senior government
officials into believing that he would be amenable to a fair settlement
of all outstanding disputes. Even David Rockefeller, a strong advocate
of engagement who had a good rapport with Fidel, felt that he could help
strike a deal with him.
Heading an impressive delegation of foreign policy heavyweights,
Rockefeller presented to Fidel Castro in February 2001 a proposal
developed by the Council on Foreign Relations to normalize U.S.
relations with Cuba. After five hours of marathon discussions which
ended at 4AM, Fidel rejected the "half-measures" proposed by the Council
and demanded the unconditional lifting of the U.S. embargo without
acquiescing to any significant economic and political reforms. A
disillusioned Rockefeller wrote in his memoirs: "Castro harangued us
continuously throughout the night…I think there is little possibility
for change while Castro remains in power…"
But that was Fidel Castro. What about with Raúl now calling the shots
and posing as a pragmatist? Even though Raúl had only introduced
non-systemic, revocable reforms to alleviate the appalling living
conditions on the island, Obama thought that he could be lured or tamed
with goodwill gestures and concessions. So shortly after taking office
in 2009, the President relaxed restrictions on travel and remittances to
Cuba and voted in favor of inviting the Cuban regime to rejoin the
Organization of American States, only to be rebuffed by both Castro
brothers.
Raúl then played the hostage trick on Obama, and it worked. He arrested
Alan Gross, a USAID contractor who was distributing computer equipment
to the Jewish community in Havana to gain access to the internet, and
sentenced him to 15 years in prison. Fearing that Gross, in poor health,
might die behind bars in Cuba, the President accepted the swap proposed
by Castro—Gross for three convicted Cuban spies, including one serving a
life sentence in the U.S. for conspiring to commit murder. Trying to
balance out the uneven swap, Castro released several dozen political
prisoners, a bargaining chip he uses when it suits his purpose.
To conduct the secret negotiations, which were broadened beyond the
exchange of prisoners, Castro assigned two of his sharpest KGB-trained
intelligence officers, fluent in English and well versed in diplomacy as
a cover for espionage in the U.S., Josefina Vidal and Gustavo Machin.
The deal they were able to extract from the American delegation is so
one-sided in favor of the Castro regime that it could well be called the
Cuban Munich.
Indeed, from a weak position, with Cuba in dire straits and facing the
possible loss of its Venezuelan financial lifeline, Castro got pretty
much what he wanted. And Obama, who surrendered the U.S. leverage of
continued economic pressure on the Cuban regime and support for the
dissident movement, got virtually nothing in return.
The U.S. will restore diplomatic relations with Cuba while repression
continues on the island, and will ship telecommunications technology
with no assurance that censorship will end. In addition, the Castro
regime will receive more dollars from U.S. "purposeful visits," which
will flow to the owners of the tourist industry in Cuba: the military.
But for Castro, more important than those concessions is the removal of
Cuba from the U.S. list of terrorist states which would open doors to
the IMF, World Bank and other international financial institutions. His
regime gets this provision despite smuggling 240 tons of heavy weapons
to North Korea in violation of U.N. sanctions, maintaining close links
to Iran, Syria and Hezbollah, and harboring dozens of fugitive
terrorists and criminals, including one of the FBI's Top Ten Most Wanted
Terrorists, Assata Shakur.
To meet Castro's ultimate requirement for normalization of relations,
President Obama promised to seek congressional approval for the
unconditional lifting of the U.S. trade embargo. This would open the
floodgates for U.S. investments in bankrupt Cuba, but in a subordinate
position to the only authorized partner—the Cuban government—which
controls the economy, hires and fires the labor force, and pockets 92
cents on every dollar of each worker's salary. Not quite Deng Xiaoping's
model of capitalism.
Not content with that, the cagey Raúl Castro surprised the White House
last month with two additional demands that did not surface during the
negotiations: payment by the U.S. to Cuba of reparations for the alleged
damages caused by the embargo (his claim is for $100 billion), and the
return to Cuba of the U.S. Naval Base of Guantanamo. Moreover, he
declared that he will not change his Socialist system—not one iota, he
emphasized. So democracy, human rights and free enterprise are out.
The Cold War may be over but Raúl Castro seems intent on reigniting it.
Last year, he offered Putin an espionage listening post on the island,
and is currently training and equipping Venezuela's repressive forces in
support of President Maduro's plan to Cubanize his country.
The only way out of the President's one-sided deal with Cuba is not to
give the deceitful Cuban ruler a blank check, but to insist on a
step-by-step quid pro quo that would safeguard the interests and
security of the U.S., as well as the long-fought aspirations of
freedom-loving Cubans.
Source: The Cuba Deal: How Raúl Castro Duped Obama -
http://www.forbes.com/sites/realspin/2015/02/27/the-cuba-deal-how-raul-castro-duped-obama/
US could reopen embassy in Cuba within weeks
US could reopen embassy in Cuba within weeks
By Jo Biddle
Washington (AFP) - The United States and Cuba said they made progress
Friday in talks on restoring diplomatic ties and Washington could reopen
its Havana embassy before a key April summit if differences are overcome.
After a second round of historic meetings, negotiators from both
countries appeared optimistic about the road ahead, but cautioned there
were still outstanding issues to resolve in order to restore diplomatic
ties frozen for half a century.
"Today was productive and encouraging. In open, honest and sometimes
challenging...conversation we addressed the requirements of each side
and the differences we identified in our first discussion in Havana a
month ago," said top US diplomat for Latin America, Roberta Jacobson.
"And we made meaningful progress in resolving them," she said,
cautioning that "serious disagreements remain."
The head of the Cuban delegation, Josefina Vidal, at a press conference
at the State Department, also said she believed progress had been made.
But she renewed a call for Havana to be removed from the US blacklist of
state sponsors of terrorism and urged that provisions be found to enable
Cuba's interests section in Washington to have access to the US banking
system.
Vidal stressed that while it was "not a precondition" that Havana be
removed from the blacklist in order to restore diplomatic relations, it
should happen before ties can be renewed.
"It would be very difficult to explain that Cuba and the United States
have established normal diplomatic relations when Cuba is kept on this
list that we believe we have never belonged to," she said.
Secretary of State John Kerry earlier rebuffed communist Cuba's demand
to have the designation -- in place since 1982 -- lifted immediately,
saying the current review would run its course.
"The state-sponsored terrorism designation is a separate process, it is
not a negotiation," Kerry said.
"And that evaluation will be made appropriately and nothing will be done
with respect to the list until the evaluation is completed."
Friday's talks were only the second between the Cold War foes since
President Barack Obama and Cuba's President Raul Castro surprised the
world in December with their decision to restore ties after more than a
half century of enmity.
The hope is that within the coming months both nations will agree to
reopen embassies in each other's capitals and appoint full-fledged
ambassadors.
- Permanent contact -
An initial round of talks in Havana last month -- the highest level
since US-Cuban relations were severed in 1961 -- broke the ice but ended
with little sign of a breakthrough.
Obama is due to attend the Summit of the Americas in Panama on April
10-11, which Cuba will also be at for the first time.
"I do think that we can get this done in time for the Summit of the
Americas," Jacobson said, when asked if the embassies could be reopened
by then, but she stressed much depended on whether "we can get things
done in time."
Washington has insisted that its diplomats and embassy be granted full
powers under the Vienna Convention to operate freely, including meeting
with Cuban dissidents.
Although no new date for the next round of talks has been set, Vidal
said the two delegations had promised to be in "permanent" contact.
Jacobson revealed that more diplomatic exchanges were planned --
including a first US-Cuba human rights dialogue, due to be held sometime
in late March.
Next week two separate Cuban teams will visit Washington to discuss
human trafficking and civil aviation, and then early next month a US
delegation will travel to Havana to work on greater Internet
connectivity "to better support access to information for the Cuban people."
Obama has called on the US Congress to lift the decades-old biting
economic embargo of Cuba.
But some lawmakers -- as well as parts of the Cuban dissident community
-- remain wary of the diplomatic demarche, arguing Obama has failed to
secure guarantees about progress on human rights on the island.
Source: US could reopen embassy in Cuba within weeks - Yahoo News -
http://news.yahoo.com/us-cuba-resume-normalization-talks-152623534.html;_ylt=AwrBEiTYpPFUxUcANCDQtDMD
By Jo Biddle
Washington (AFP) - The United States and Cuba said they made progress
Friday in talks on restoring diplomatic ties and Washington could reopen
its Havana embassy before a key April summit if differences are overcome.
After a second round of historic meetings, negotiators from both
countries appeared optimistic about the road ahead, but cautioned there
were still outstanding issues to resolve in order to restore diplomatic
ties frozen for half a century.
"Today was productive and encouraging. In open, honest and sometimes
challenging...conversation we addressed the requirements of each side
and the differences we identified in our first discussion in Havana a
month ago," said top US diplomat for Latin America, Roberta Jacobson.
"And we made meaningful progress in resolving them," she said,
cautioning that "serious disagreements remain."
The head of the Cuban delegation, Josefina Vidal, at a press conference
at the State Department, also said she believed progress had been made.
But she renewed a call for Havana to be removed from the US blacklist of
state sponsors of terrorism and urged that provisions be found to enable
Cuba's interests section in Washington to have access to the US banking
system.
Vidal stressed that while it was "not a precondition" that Havana be
removed from the blacklist in order to restore diplomatic relations, it
should happen before ties can be renewed.
"It would be very difficult to explain that Cuba and the United States
have established normal diplomatic relations when Cuba is kept on this
list that we believe we have never belonged to," she said.
Secretary of State John Kerry earlier rebuffed communist Cuba's demand
to have the designation -- in place since 1982 -- lifted immediately,
saying the current review would run its course.
"The state-sponsored terrorism designation is a separate process, it is
not a negotiation," Kerry said.
"And that evaluation will be made appropriately and nothing will be done
with respect to the list until the evaluation is completed."
Friday's talks were only the second between the Cold War foes since
President Barack Obama and Cuba's President Raul Castro surprised the
world in December with their decision to restore ties after more than a
half century of enmity.
The hope is that within the coming months both nations will agree to
reopen embassies in each other's capitals and appoint full-fledged
ambassadors.
- Permanent contact -
An initial round of talks in Havana last month -- the highest level
since US-Cuban relations were severed in 1961 -- broke the ice but ended
with little sign of a breakthrough.
Obama is due to attend the Summit of the Americas in Panama on April
10-11, which Cuba will also be at for the first time.
"I do think that we can get this done in time for the Summit of the
Americas," Jacobson said, when asked if the embassies could be reopened
by then, but she stressed much depended on whether "we can get things
done in time."
Washington has insisted that its diplomats and embassy be granted full
powers under the Vienna Convention to operate freely, including meeting
with Cuban dissidents.
Although no new date for the next round of talks has been set, Vidal
said the two delegations had promised to be in "permanent" contact.
Jacobson revealed that more diplomatic exchanges were planned --
including a first US-Cuba human rights dialogue, due to be held sometime
in late March.
Next week two separate Cuban teams will visit Washington to discuss
human trafficking and civil aviation, and then early next month a US
delegation will travel to Havana to work on greater Internet
connectivity "to better support access to information for the Cuban people."
Obama has called on the US Congress to lift the decades-old biting
economic embargo of Cuba.
But some lawmakers -- as well as parts of the Cuban dissident community
-- remain wary of the diplomatic demarche, arguing Obama has failed to
secure guarantees about progress on human rights on the island.
Source: US could reopen embassy in Cuba within weeks - Yahoo News -
http://news.yahoo.com/us-cuba-resume-normalization-talks-152623534.html;_ylt=AwrBEiTYpPFUxUcANCDQtDMD
EU and Cuba to restart talks after cultural dispute
EU and Cuba to restart talks after cultural dispute
BY ROBIN EMMOTT
BRUSSELS Fri Feb 27, 2015 1:30pm EST
(Reuters) - Cuba and the European Union will hold a third round of talks
in Havana next week aimed at increasing trade, investment and political
dialogue after overcoming a dispute that delayed the negotiations, an EU
official said on Friday.
The round on Wednesday and Thursday follows normalization talks this
week between Cuba and the United States, was due to take place in January.
It was postponed because Havana was upset over a cultural event
organized by the EU in Washington in March last year.
The EU is already Cuba's top foreign investor. EU officials say the
proposed accord would give Brussels a bigger role in Havana's
market-oriented reforms, position EU companies for Cuba's transition to
a more open economy and allow the Europe to press for political freedoms
on the Communist-ruled island.
EU officials suspect that Havana may not have felt ready for a third
round last year because they were due to discuss human rights, which is
always a sensitive topic for Cuba, a one-party state that represses
dissent and controls the media.
"We will only go when they feel they are ready to receive us," said an
EU official on condition of anonymity.
It was unclear how ready Havana is now willing to discuss human rights
this time but the EU official said Cuba is aware that the issue is an
essential demand for Europe.
"That has been accepted by our Cuban counterparts. The Cuban side has
been aware that these issues will have to be integrated into the
agreement," the official said.
The EU and Cuba began the negotiations in April last year to improve
relations, part of a significant deepening of ties since the bloc lifted
diplomatic sanctions in 2008.
The talks remain delicate. People involved in preparing the talks told
Reuters last year that Cuba was upset by an exhibition of photos of Cuba
by a Lithuanian artist that had Havana's backing.
The exhibition was shown in Washington but Cuba did not approve of some
of the people who attended its inauguration there, sources said.
Human rights remain the biggest stumbling block for an EU-Cuba accord.
Diplomats say any serious violation of human rights during negotiations
would also interrupt the talks.
EU officials say the recent rapprochment in ties with the U.S.
government, Cuba's longtime foe that has kept an embargo against the
Caribbean island since 1962, have not had any direct impact on the talks.
"It is too early to say how it will play into our negotiating process,"
the EU official said, referring to the decision on Dec. 17 by the United
States and Cuba to work to normalize relations severed 54 years ago.
(Reporting by Robin Emmott; Editing by Angus MacSwan)
Source: EU and Cuba to restart talks after cultural dispute | Reuters -
http://www.reuters.com/article/2015/02/27/us-eu-cuba-idUSKBN0LV28J20150227
BY ROBIN EMMOTT
BRUSSELS Fri Feb 27, 2015 1:30pm EST
(Reuters) - Cuba and the European Union will hold a third round of talks
in Havana next week aimed at increasing trade, investment and political
dialogue after overcoming a dispute that delayed the negotiations, an EU
official said on Friday.
The round on Wednesday and Thursday follows normalization talks this
week between Cuba and the United States, was due to take place in January.
It was postponed because Havana was upset over a cultural event
organized by the EU in Washington in March last year.
The EU is already Cuba's top foreign investor. EU officials say the
proposed accord would give Brussels a bigger role in Havana's
market-oriented reforms, position EU companies for Cuba's transition to
a more open economy and allow the Europe to press for political freedoms
on the Communist-ruled island.
EU officials suspect that Havana may not have felt ready for a third
round last year because they were due to discuss human rights, which is
always a sensitive topic for Cuba, a one-party state that represses
dissent and controls the media.
"We will only go when they feel they are ready to receive us," said an
EU official on condition of anonymity.
It was unclear how ready Havana is now willing to discuss human rights
this time but the EU official said Cuba is aware that the issue is an
essential demand for Europe.
"That has been accepted by our Cuban counterparts. The Cuban side has
been aware that these issues will have to be integrated into the
agreement," the official said.
The EU and Cuba began the negotiations in April last year to improve
relations, part of a significant deepening of ties since the bloc lifted
diplomatic sanctions in 2008.
The talks remain delicate. People involved in preparing the talks told
Reuters last year that Cuba was upset by an exhibition of photos of Cuba
by a Lithuanian artist that had Havana's backing.
The exhibition was shown in Washington but Cuba did not approve of some
of the people who attended its inauguration there, sources said.
Human rights remain the biggest stumbling block for an EU-Cuba accord.
Diplomats say any serious violation of human rights during negotiations
would also interrupt the talks.
EU officials say the recent rapprochment in ties with the U.S.
government, Cuba's longtime foe that has kept an embargo against the
Caribbean island since 1962, have not had any direct impact on the talks.
"It is too early to say how it will play into our negotiating process,"
the EU official said, referring to the decision on Dec. 17 by the United
States and Cuba to work to normalize relations severed 54 years ago.
(Reporting by Robin Emmott; Editing by Angus MacSwan)
Source: EU and Cuba to restart talks after cultural dispute | Reuters -
http://www.reuters.com/article/2015/02/27/us-eu-cuba-idUSKBN0LV28J20150227
FIU conference focuses on race in Cuba
FIU conference focuses on race in Cuba
BY NORA GAMEZ TORRES NGAMEZTORRES@ELNUEVOHERALD.COM
02/27/2015 11:20 PM 02/27/2015 11:20 PM
Cuba's political future, the impact of renewed relations between the
United States and Cuba and its new policies towards the island, were the
focus of some of the discussions held on the first day of the 10th
annual Conference of Cuban and Cuban American Studies in Florida
International University.
A panel, which made up by FIU experts discussing the consequences of the
December 17th announcement in regards to diplomatic and financial
relations between the U.S and Cuba, seemed to generate great interest.
Professor Marifeli Perez-Stable's opening statement was: "Cuba is a
dictatorship." She focused on criticizing what she considers the
"weaknesses" of the Cuban government. Among them she mentioned its
"arrogance of power" and the fact that "Cuban leaders really don't know
what the people think, its ideology is more repressive and less
inclusive as time goes on, and that's a terrible weakness."
She added: "Human rights can't have a 'but' in front of them, they don't
belong to any government, you either respect them or plaster them."
Perez-Stable, who is also the sociologist of FIU's Department of Global
and Sociocultural Studies, highlighted the varying opinions within the
Cuban opposition in regards to the restoration of relations with the
U.S. but warned that national politics shouldn't interfere with these.
Dario Moreno centered on analyzing the impact of Barack Obama's
announcement and what it meant for Florida election politics. According
to Moreno, the President has benefited from the Hispanic non-Cuban vote
and "the idea is that any vote that he loses because of his policy
towards Cuba, can be won within other Hispanic groups, because of the
topic of immigration."
Moreno noted that this was only "a bet".
Professor Marcos A. Kernel, on the other hand, assured that from a
banker's point of view, "we won't see big changes until the embargo is
lifted" and that the measures announced make some transactions easier to
make but others are still observed.
"I don't think that the banks are going to create credit lines to
provide them to Cuba so easily," said Kernel.
Frank Mora, director of the Latin American and Caribbean Center at FIU,
formed part of Obama's cabinet during his first term. He said that "some
people overestimate the role that the Vatican played in the
negotiations" which ran for 18 months.
According to Mora, the Vatican communicated with each side to promote
dialogue, but aside from that "didn't do much else."
He pinpointed Canada as having more of a protagonist role, hosting
several secret meetings, although he said that he considers negotiations
between the U.S. and Cuba took place "without much external influence."
In that panel as well as in another about ideology and reform in the era
of Raul Castro, philosopher and guest FIU professor, Alexis Jardines,
touched upon Cuba's financial motivations which are behind its
negotiations with its historic enemy. He noted that lifting the embargo
"would be the oh think that could save the country from collapsing."
Jardines things that the present government will resist the empowerment
if civic society and will attempt to "kidnap" this space and replace it
with "the organization of the masses" in the country. However, he
doesn't discard the "foreseeable construction of a fake opposition" or
even "bipartisanship among the loyals."
He also affirmed that "the potential to contest lies with the people,
not the opposition, the upstanding and middle class Cuban and those
people are more capitalist then internal dissidence."
However, Sebastian Arcos mentioned that small business owners who
operate on their own account have been extremely careful to not make any
political statement and referred to a list of "cosmetic reforms" created
to make the Cuban government appear as being "more tolerant". An example
of this is Mariela Castro's work with transvestites and transsexuals.
Arcos insisted that economic pressure being experienced by the current
government "has been left with no one to support it" and said that
"we're the ones running out of time, we're the ones who want to
recuperate our country."
The new voting law recently announced in Cuba's official press outlets
was also discussed although details are presently unknown. Several
panelists speculated that it could lead to an increased popularity
within the Communist Party of Cuba or the possibility of a
bipartisanship in which critical sectors could be defined as "loyal".
In the event's main session, organized by the Institute of Cuban
Studies, several investigations about the issue of race in the island
were presented.
Ada Ferrer, Historian at the University of New York, proposed a
rereading of Jose Antonio Aponte - a man condemned to be hung for
leading an abolitionist rebellion at the start of the 19th century. At
the same time, Alejandro de la Fuente, a professor at Harvard
University, analyzed the contributions of the Antillano Group and delved
into how forgotten it is in Cuba's cultural history.
Andrea Queely and Danielle Clealand, both professors at FIU, presented
some conclusions about their investigative efforts in Cuba about racial
prejudice and negro consciousness respectively.
Other panels involving similar topics included the development of the
racial problem since the time of civil rights movement in Cuba, social
integration, national identity, literature, cinema and dance, among others.
The conference concluded for the day with a welcome reception offered by
FIU president, Mark Rosenberg, in which he paid homage to Cuban Academic
Carmelo Mesa Lago.
The conference will continue to run until Saturday.
Source: FIU conference focuses on race in Cuba | Miami Herald Miami
Herald -
http://www.miamiherald.com/news/nation-world/world/americas/cuba/article11413571.html
BY NORA GAMEZ TORRES NGAMEZTORRES@ELNUEVOHERALD.COM
02/27/2015 11:20 PM 02/27/2015 11:20 PM
Cuba's political future, the impact of renewed relations between the
United States and Cuba and its new policies towards the island, were the
focus of some of the discussions held on the first day of the 10th
annual Conference of Cuban and Cuban American Studies in Florida
International University.
A panel, which made up by FIU experts discussing the consequences of the
December 17th announcement in regards to diplomatic and financial
relations between the U.S and Cuba, seemed to generate great interest.
Professor Marifeli Perez-Stable's opening statement was: "Cuba is a
dictatorship." She focused on criticizing what she considers the
"weaknesses" of the Cuban government. Among them she mentioned its
"arrogance of power" and the fact that "Cuban leaders really don't know
what the people think, its ideology is more repressive and less
inclusive as time goes on, and that's a terrible weakness."
She added: "Human rights can't have a 'but' in front of them, they don't
belong to any government, you either respect them or plaster them."
Perez-Stable, who is also the sociologist of FIU's Department of Global
and Sociocultural Studies, highlighted the varying opinions within the
Cuban opposition in regards to the restoration of relations with the
U.S. but warned that national politics shouldn't interfere with these.
Dario Moreno centered on analyzing the impact of Barack Obama's
announcement and what it meant for Florida election politics. According
to Moreno, the President has benefited from the Hispanic non-Cuban vote
and "the idea is that any vote that he loses because of his policy
towards Cuba, can be won within other Hispanic groups, because of the
topic of immigration."
Moreno noted that this was only "a bet".
Professor Marcos A. Kernel, on the other hand, assured that from a
banker's point of view, "we won't see big changes until the embargo is
lifted" and that the measures announced make some transactions easier to
make but others are still observed.
"I don't think that the banks are going to create credit lines to
provide them to Cuba so easily," said Kernel.
Frank Mora, director of the Latin American and Caribbean Center at FIU,
formed part of Obama's cabinet during his first term. He said that "some
people overestimate the role that the Vatican played in the
negotiations" which ran for 18 months.
According to Mora, the Vatican communicated with each side to promote
dialogue, but aside from that "didn't do much else."
He pinpointed Canada as having more of a protagonist role, hosting
several secret meetings, although he said that he considers negotiations
between the U.S. and Cuba took place "without much external influence."
In that panel as well as in another about ideology and reform in the era
of Raul Castro, philosopher and guest FIU professor, Alexis Jardines,
touched upon Cuba's financial motivations which are behind its
negotiations with its historic enemy. He noted that lifting the embargo
"would be the oh think that could save the country from collapsing."
Jardines things that the present government will resist the empowerment
if civic society and will attempt to "kidnap" this space and replace it
with "the organization of the masses" in the country. However, he
doesn't discard the "foreseeable construction of a fake opposition" or
even "bipartisanship among the loyals."
He also affirmed that "the potential to contest lies with the people,
not the opposition, the upstanding and middle class Cuban and those
people are more capitalist then internal dissidence."
However, Sebastian Arcos mentioned that small business owners who
operate on their own account have been extremely careful to not make any
political statement and referred to a list of "cosmetic reforms" created
to make the Cuban government appear as being "more tolerant". An example
of this is Mariela Castro's work with transvestites and transsexuals.
Arcos insisted that economic pressure being experienced by the current
government "has been left with no one to support it" and said that
"we're the ones running out of time, we're the ones who want to
recuperate our country."
The new voting law recently announced in Cuba's official press outlets
was also discussed although details are presently unknown. Several
panelists speculated that it could lead to an increased popularity
within the Communist Party of Cuba or the possibility of a
bipartisanship in which critical sectors could be defined as "loyal".
In the event's main session, organized by the Institute of Cuban
Studies, several investigations about the issue of race in the island
were presented.
Ada Ferrer, Historian at the University of New York, proposed a
rereading of Jose Antonio Aponte - a man condemned to be hung for
leading an abolitionist rebellion at the start of the 19th century. At
the same time, Alejandro de la Fuente, a professor at Harvard
University, analyzed the contributions of the Antillano Group and delved
into how forgotten it is in Cuba's cultural history.
Andrea Queely and Danielle Clealand, both professors at FIU, presented
some conclusions about their investigative efforts in Cuba about racial
prejudice and negro consciousness respectively.
Other panels involving similar topics included the development of the
racial problem since the time of civil rights movement in Cuba, social
integration, national identity, literature, cinema and dance, among others.
The conference concluded for the day with a welcome reception offered by
FIU president, Mark Rosenberg, in which he paid homage to Cuban Academic
Carmelo Mesa Lago.
The conference will continue to run until Saturday.
Source: FIU conference focuses on race in Cuba | Miami Herald Miami
Herald -
http://www.miamiherald.com/news/nation-world/world/americas/cuba/article11413571.html
US, Cuba cite progress on restoring diplomatic ties
US, Cuba cite progress on restoring diplomatic ties
BY BRADLEY KLAPPER ASSOCIATED PRESS
02/27/2015 9:39 PM 02/27/2015 9:39 PM
WASHINGTON
The United States and Cuba claimed progress Friday toward ending a
half-century diplomatic freeze, suggesting they could clear some of the
biggest obstacles to their new relationship within weeks.
After Friday's talks in Washington, the second round of U.S.-Cuban
discussions in the last month, diplomats of both countries spoke
positively about fulfilling the promise made by Presidents Barack Obama
and Raul Castro in December to restore embassies in each other's capitals.
The U.S. even held out hope of clinching a deal in time for April's
summit of North and South American leaders, which Obama and Castro are
expected to attend, however unlikely that appeared.
"We made meaningful progress," Roberta Jacobson, the State Department's
senior envoy to Latin America, told reporters, calling the negotiations
"open, honest and sometimes challenging, but always respectful."
Her Cuban counterpart, Josefina Vidal, indicated she received assurances
that the U.S. would move on two of the biggest hurdles remaining: Cuba's
inclusion on the U.S. state sponsor of terrorism blacklist and its
inability to conduct normal banking operations in the United States. She
expressed confidence of progress on both priorities "within the
following weeks."
Cuba's 33-year status on the terrorism list appeared the biggest hurdle,
with Vidal saying the issue needed to be resolved if the Cold War foes
were to improve ties. Washington is reviewing the designation, which
stems from Havana's support decades ago for the Basque separatist group
ETA and the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Columbia, Latin America's
oldest and strongest rebel group.
The U.S. has yet to make a decision, but all signs point toward Cuba
being taken off the list. American officials say they should make their
recommendation ahead of the six-month schedule set out by Obama in
December. And the administration has supported Cuba's hosting of peace
efforts between the FARC and Colombia's government.
At a news conference earlier Friday with Liberian President Ellen
Johnson Sirleaf, Secretary of State John Kerry emphasized his
government's position that the discussions on re-establishing embassies
were technical and distinct from the U.S. legal examination of Cuba's
record on terrorism.
"That's one set of fairly normal negotiations with respect to movement
of diplomats, access, travel, different things," Kerry told reporters.
"The state sponsorship of terrorism designation is a separate process.
It is not a negotiation. It is an evaluation that is made under a very
strict set of requirements, congressionally mandated, and that has to be
pursued separately."
Cuba cannot get off the list immediately. If the State Department
recommends removal and Obama sends such a decision to Congress, the
communist country would only come off after a 45-day waiting period.
That makes it practically impossible for the embassies to be
reconstituted in Havana and Washington in time for the Summit of the
Americas in Panama, if Cuba sticks to its position.
The likelihood of prolonged talks on normalizing ties has dampened
somewhat the excitement generated when Obama and Castro announced they
were exchanging imprisoned spies and would chart a new course for
U.S.-Cuban relations.
Although the U.S. has eased some trade and travel restrictions, the
economic embargo on Cuba remains in force. Cuba still hasn't said
whether it will meet America's full demands for unfettered diplomatic
access on the island. And the same democracy and human rights concerns
that have long hampered the relationship remain.
Both sides are speaking of the embassies as a first step toward bridging
the historic divide between countries separated by only 90 miles.
But other efforts are afoot to improve cooperation. Jacobson and Vidal
spoke of U.S.-Cuban meetings in the coming weeks on human trafficking,
marine conservation, migration, civil aviation, Internet connectivity
and the always testy topic of human rights.
Source: US, Cuba cite progress on restoring diplomatic ties | Miami
Herald Miami Herald - http://www.miamiherald.com/news/article11336555.html
BY BRADLEY KLAPPER ASSOCIATED PRESS
02/27/2015 9:39 PM 02/27/2015 9:39 PM
WASHINGTON
The United States and Cuba claimed progress Friday toward ending a
half-century diplomatic freeze, suggesting they could clear some of the
biggest obstacles to their new relationship within weeks.
After Friday's talks in Washington, the second round of U.S.-Cuban
discussions in the last month, diplomats of both countries spoke
positively about fulfilling the promise made by Presidents Barack Obama
and Raul Castro in December to restore embassies in each other's capitals.
The U.S. even held out hope of clinching a deal in time for April's
summit of North and South American leaders, which Obama and Castro are
expected to attend, however unlikely that appeared.
"We made meaningful progress," Roberta Jacobson, the State Department's
senior envoy to Latin America, told reporters, calling the negotiations
"open, honest and sometimes challenging, but always respectful."
Her Cuban counterpart, Josefina Vidal, indicated she received assurances
that the U.S. would move on two of the biggest hurdles remaining: Cuba's
inclusion on the U.S. state sponsor of terrorism blacklist and its
inability to conduct normal banking operations in the United States. She
expressed confidence of progress on both priorities "within the
following weeks."
Cuba's 33-year status on the terrorism list appeared the biggest hurdle,
with Vidal saying the issue needed to be resolved if the Cold War foes
were to improve ties. Washington is reviewing the designation, which
stems from Havana's support decades ago for the Basque separatist group
ETA and the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Columbia, Latin America's
oldest and strongest rebel group.
The U.S. has yet to make a decision, but all signs point toward Cuba
being taken off the list. American officials say they should make their
recommendation ahead of the six-month schedule set out by Obama in
December. And the administration has supported Cuba's hosting of peace
efforts between the FARC and Colombia's government.
At a news conference earlier Friday with Liberian President Ellen
Johnson Sirleaf, Secretary of State John Kerry emphasized his
government's position that the discussions on re-establishing embassies
were technical and distinct from the U.S. legal examination of Cuba's
record on terrorism.
"That's one set of fairly normal negotiations with respect to movement
of diplomats, access, travel, different things," Kerry told reporters.
"The state sponsorship of terrorism designation is a separate process.
It is not a negotiation. It is an evaluation that is made under a very
strict set of requirements, congressionally mandated, and that has to be
pursued separately."
Cuba cannot get off the list immediately. If the State Department
recommends removal and Obama sends such a decision to Congress, the
communist country would only come off after a 45-day waiting period.
That makes it practically impossible for the embassies to be
reconstituted in Havana and Washington in time for the Summit of the
Americas in Panama, if Cuba sticks to its position.
The likelihood of prolonged talks on normalizing ties has dampened
somewhat the excitement generated when Obama and Castro announced they
were exchanging imprisoned spies and would chart a new course for
U.S.-Cuban relations.
Although the U.S. has eased some trade and travel restrictions, the
economic embargo on Cuba remains in force. Cuba still hasn't said
whether it will meet America's full demands for unfettered diplomatic
access on the island. And the same democracy and human rights concerns
that have long hampered the relationship remain.
Both sides are speaking of the embassies as a first step toward bridging
the historic divide between countries separated by only 90 miles.
But other efforts are afoot to improve cooperation. Jacobson and Vidal
spoke of U.S.-Cuban meetings in the coming weeks on human trafficking,
marine conservation, migration, civil aviation, Internet connectivity
and the always testy topic of human rights.
Source: US, Cuba cite progress on restoring diplomatic ties | Miami
Herald Miami Herald - http://www.miamiherald.com/news/article11336555.html
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
