Confusion mounts over Port Tampa Bay's Cuba intentions
Paul Guzzo, Times Staff Writer
Thursday, February 2, 2017 5:30am
TAMPA — The official word from Port Tampa Bay last week was that the
port had no intention of entering into an agreement that would open the
door to possible future business dealings with Cuba.
Other ports in Florida, meanwhile, acknowledged that they were — in the
form of a so-called memorandum of understanding.
"We are taking a very conservative approach," the port's communications
vice president, Edward Miyagishima, told the Tampa Bay Times on Jan. 25,
adding, "we are not going to look at" an agreement without an okay from
a federal agency that enforces the U.S. embargo against Cuba.
The truth is, according to an internal document obtained by the Tampa
Bay Times, Port Tampa Bay had already drawn up a memorandum, gotten
approval from the federal office, circulated the word in maritime
circles and garnered congratulations for its efforts.
So why the denials?
Timing may be one reason. The port's public statement came as Gov. Rick
Scott, a critic of efforts to normalize relations with the communist
nation, was threatening via Twitter to cut funding for Cuba-friendly
ports. Scott followed through on the threat in the 2017 budget he
submitted this week.
The flip-flop comes as Port Tampa Bay is hosting an international
maritime trade conference today featuring a panel discussion that
includes port representatives from Cuba.
Word that Port Tampa Bay had indeed pursued its own Cuba deal came in an
email leaked to Tampa public relations executive Bill Carlson, an
advocate of improved relations between the United States and Cuba.
Carlson forwarded the email and the attached memorandum to the Times,
saying only that it came from an "insider" concerned that port
executives "were not telling the truth."
The email was sent Jan. 13 from Port Tampa Bay's chief commercial
officer, Raul Alfonso, to Steve Cernak, director of Port Everglades in
Fort Lauderdale.
"Paul asked me to send you a copy of the draft MOU our Legal Dept.
prepared and reviewed with the US State Dept. of Commerce, and OFAC," it
says. "Paul" is Port Tampa Bay CEO Paul Anderson and OFAC is the Office
of Foreign Assets Control of the U.S. Department of the Treasury.
The agencies "found it was acceptable for us to execute," Alfonso wrote.
The memorandum says Port Tampa Bay and Cuba's National Port Authority
would explore building a relationship through data and technological
interchange, market studies and training.
Miyagishima, the port vice president, acknowledged Wednesday there was a
memorandum but said no federal agency had approved it — contradicting
the email from port commercial officer Alfonso.
Miyagishima also said Port Tampa Bay had informed Port Everglades of the
decision not to sign.
That was news to Port Everglades spokeswoman Ellen Kennedy, who told the
Times on Wednesday that her port's staff was under the impression Port
Tampa Bay would sign. The first indication they received otherwise,
Kennedy said, was in a Times story last week.
What's more, U.S. Rep. Kathy Castor, the Tampa Democrat, said the Cuban
Embassy thought the agreement with Port Tampa Bay was a go based on
contacts she had Dec. 11. Castor said she emailed congratulations to
port CEO Anderson.
The ports in Palm Beach and Fort Lauderdale intended to sign memorandums
during visits last week by the Cuba port representatives. The two ports
and Port Tampa Bay were comparing notes, Kennedy said.
Gov. Scott scuttled those plans with his Jan. 25 tweets, one of which
said, "I don't believe any port in our state, none of them, should be
doing business with a brutal dictator."
Contact Paul Guzzo at pguzzo@tampabay.com.
Source: Confusion mounts over Port Tampa Bay's Cuba intentions | Tampa
Bay Times -
http://www.tampabay.com/news/confusion-mounts-over-port-tampa-bays-cuba-intentions/2311726
Thursday, February 2, 2017
Heitkamp, Boozman reintroduce bill to expand exports to Cuba
Heitkamp, Boozman reintroduce bill to expand exports to Cuba
By Agweek Wire Report Today at 10:29 a.m.
WASHINGTON, D.C. — U.S. Senators Heidi Heitkamp (D-N.D.) and John
Boozman (R-Ark.) on Thursday reintroduced their bipartisan bill to help
American farmers and support good-paying jobs in North Dakota, Arkansas
and across the country by lifting restrictions on private financing for
U.S. agricultural exports to Cuba.
The biggest barrier for producers in North Dakota, Arkansas, and beyond
as they seek access to Cuba—a market with high demand for U.S. crops
like beans and rice—is a prohibition on providing private credit for
those exports. Heitkamp and Boozman first introduced their bipartisan
Agricultural Export Expansion Act in April 2015 to lift the ban on
private banks and companies offering credit for agricultural exports to
Cuba, and to help level the playing field for exporters across the
country and support American jobs.
"Our farmers rely on exports, and exports help create more American
jobs. Any North Dakota farmer or rancher could tell you
that," said Heitkamp. "Financing restrictions are the number one barrier
facing North Dakota farmers who want to sell their crops to Cuba, and
this bill would do away with that obstacle. Cuba is a natural market for
North Dakota crops like dry beans, peas, and lentils, and there's no
good reason for us to restrict farmers' export opportunities—which
support good-paying American jobs—by continuing this outdated policy."
"It's time for Washington to enact commonsense reforms so Arkansas
farmers and agriculture producers across the country can compete fairly
for the Cuban marketplace," said Boozman. "Current law prohibits
the financing of agricultural exports to Cuba and requires cash payment
up front, essentially preventing U.S. farmers from being able to export
their products to Cuba. Lifting the ban would allow private banks and
companies to offer credit for the sale of U.S. agricultural commodities
to Cuba. This small step would help level the playing field for American
farmers and exporters while simultaneously exposing Cubans to American
ideals, values and products. This bill is a win-win for American farmers
and the Cuban people."
"North Dakota farmers rely on exports to make ends meet. This bipartisan
bill would make it easier for us to sell our top-notch black beans and
pinto beans to Cuba—a market with high demand for North Dakota
crops," said Dan Fuglesten, of Central Valley Bean Cooperative in
Buxton, N.D. "Lifting these outdated and self-imposed restrictions will
open a critical market for American farmers and support good jobs right
here in North Dakota—and it's time Congress acted. With commodity prices
what they are, we appreciate Senator Heitkamp's work to expand market
access and help American farmers."
"Being able to sell our commodities to Cuba just as easily as we sell to
other markets like Mexico and Canada would be huge, especially for
U.S.-grown rice," said Jeff Rutledge, of Newport, Ark., a rice farmer
and president of the Arkansas Rice Council. "Senator Boozman's bill
would strip away the regulatory red tape and allow us to compete in the
Cuban market just like we do everywhere else."
U.S. Senators Tom Udall (D-N.M.), Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.), Dick Durbin
(D-Ill.), Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.), Angus King (I-Maine), Susan Collins
(R-Maine), Debbie Stabenow (D-Mich.), Tammy Baldwin (D-Wisc.), Ron Wyden
(D-Ore.), Mark Warner (D-Va.) and Thad Cochran (R-Miss.) joined in
cosponsoring the bill.
In January 2016, the previous administration loosened export
restrictions to allow companies to sell non-agricultural products to
Cuba on credit, but statutory restrictions on financing agricultural
products are still in place.
For years, Heitkamp and Boozman have pushed to improve agricultural
export opportunities to Cuba and make it easier for farmers to sell
their crops to this high-demand market. Currently, all U.S. exports to
Cuba require cash up front, while other nations around the world offer
credit to Cuban importers, in effect preventing farmers and ranchers
from being able to ship their products to Cuba. The change in U.S.-Cuba
policy would provide at least some relief from low American commodity
prices by opening new markets.
The U.S. Senate Appropriations Committee approved the bill as an
amendment to a financial services spending bill last year, as well as in
July 2015.
Source: Heitkamp, Boozman reintroduce bill to expand exports to Cuba |
Agweek -
http://www.agweek.com/policy-and-politics/4210568-heitkamp-boozman-reintroduce-bill-expand-exports-cuba
By Agweek Wire Report Today at 10:29 a.m.
WASHINGTON, D.C. — U.S. Senators Heidi Heitkamp (D-N.D.) and John
Boozman (R-Ark.) on Thursday reintroduced their bipartisan bill to help
American farmers and support good-paying jobs in North Dakota, Arkansas
and across the country by lifting restrictions on private financing for
U.S. agricultural exports to Cuba.
The biggest barrier for producers in North Dakota, Arkansas, and beyond
as they seek access to Cuba—a market with high demand for U.S. crops
like beans and rice—is a prohibition on providing private credit for
those exports. Heitkamp and Boozman first introduced their bipartisan
Agricultural Export Expansion Act in April 2015 to lift the ban on
private banks and companies offering credit for agricultural exports to
Cuba, and to help level the playing field for exporters across the
country and support American jobs.
"Our farmers rely on exports, and exports help create more American
jobs. Any North Dakota farmer or rancher could tell you
that," said Heitkamp. "Financing restrictions are the number one barrier
facing North Dakota farmers who want to sell their crops to Cuba, and
this bill would do away with that obstacle. Cuba is a natural market for
North Dakota crops like dry beans, peas, and lentils, and there's no
good reason for us to restrict farmers' export opportunities—which
support good-paying American jobs—by continuing this outdated policy."
"It's time for Washington to enact commonsense reforms so Arkansas
farmers and agriculture producers across the country can compete fairly
for the Cuban marketplace," said Boozman. "Current law prohibits
the financing of agricultural exports to Cuba and requires cash payment
up front, essentially preventing U.S. farmers from being able to export
their products to Cuba. Lifting the ban would allow private banks and
companies to offer credit for the sale of U.S. agricultural commodities
to Cuba. This small step would help level the playing field for American
farmers and exporters while simultaneously exposing Cubans to American
ideals, values and products. This bill is a win-win for American farmers
and the Cuban people."
"North Dakota farmers rely on exports to make ends meet. This bipartisan
bill would make it easier for us to sell our top-notch black beans and
pinto beans to Cuba—a market with high demand for North Dakota
crops," said Dan Fuglesten, of Central Valley Bean Cooperative in
Buxton, N.D. "Lifting these outdated and self-imposed restrictions will
open a critical market for American farmers and support good jobs right
here in North Dakota—and it's time Congress acted. With commodity prices
what they are, we appreciate Senator Heitkamp's work to expand market
access and help American farmers."
"Being able to sell our commodities to Cuba just as easily as we sell to
other markets like Mexico and Canada would be huge, especially for
U.S.-grown rice," said Jeff Rutledge, of Newport, Ark., a rice farmer
and president of the Arkansas Rice Council. "Senator Boozman's bill
would strip away the regulatory red tape and allow us to compete in the
Cuban market just like we do everywhere else."
U.S. Senators Tom Udall (D-N.M.), Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.), Dick Durbin
(D-Ill.), Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.), Angus King (I-Maine), Susan Collins
(R-Maine), Debbie Stabenow (D-Mich.), Tammy Baldwin (D-Wisc.), Ron Wyden
(D-Ore.), Mark Warner (D-Va.) and Thad Cochran (R-Miss.) joined in
cosponsoring the bill.
In January 2016, the previous administration loosened export
restrictions to allow companies to sell non-agricultural products to
Cuba on credit, but statutory restrictions on financing agricultural
products are still in place.
For years, Heitkamp and Boozman have pushed to improve agricultural
export opportunities to Cuba and make it easier for farmers to sell
their crops to this high-demand market. Currently, all U.S. exports to
Cuba require cash up front, while other nations around the world offer
credit to Cuban importers, in effect preventing farmers and ranchers
from being able to ship their products to Cuba. The change in U.S.-Cuba
policy would provide at least some relief from low American commodity
prices by opening new markets.
The U.S. Senate Appropriations Committee approved the bill as an
amendment to a financial services spending bill last year, as well as in
July 2015.
Source: Heitkamp, Boozman reintroduce bill to expand exports to Cuba |
Agweek -
http://www.agweek.com/policy-and-politics/4210568-heitkamp-boozman-reintroduce-bill-expand-exports-cuba
Economist sees East, Gulf coasts served by Cuba, Nova Scotia transshipment hubs
Economist sees East, Gulf coasts served by Cuba, Nova Scotia
transshipment hubs
The U.S. East and Gulf coasts can expect to be significantly served by a
pair of transshipment hubs – ideally in Cuba and Canada's province of
Nova Scotia – a leading port industry economist said today [Feb. 2].
Robert W. West, Waltham, Massachusetts-based chief senior consultant for
the Colombia-based DUAGA consulting firm and former Worley Parsons Group
principal ports and marine strategist, offered the theory in the opening
presentation of the 10th annual Planning for Shifting Trade Conference
in Tampa, Florida.
West said Cuba's Port of Mariel is "in many ways the most ideal
location" for a major Caribbean transshipment center, while he expects
one or more of a trio of Nova Scotia port developments serving as a
northern hub. In response to a question from the American Journal of
Transportation, West expressed uncertainty regarding the potential
impact upon future Cuba transshipment prospects of Trump administration
policies and the recent threats by Florida Gov. Rick Scott to pull
funding from Sunshine State ports engaging in commerce with Cuba.
"The point here is not a political point," West said. "The point is an
economic point.
"As we know, politics can mess things up, but I'm not saying it's going
to happen here," he continued. "To me, Cuba looks like a great
opportunity for transshipment."
West said Nova Scotia transshipment opportunities include at the
Macquarie Group's Halifax undertaking, facilities being developed by DP
World at Saint John and/or the future Novaport project in Sydney in
which Ports America has recently expressed interest.
He said new leadership in Washington does combine with factors such as
consolidation of global containership capacity to create a future
outlook he termed "certainly uncertain."
Noting that nearly half of all the world's containership capacity is in
the hands of the three biggest shipping lines – Maersk/Hamburg Süd,
Mediterranean Shipping Co. and CMA CGM/APL – West said he anticipates
that three or four major alliances will ultimately control between 75
percent and 80 percent of global container volume.
West said he believes 2017 freight rates "will remain lower than we
would want them to be, with too much capacity chasing too little demand."
Of the 325 ships, representing 8 percent of world fleet capacity,
currently not in operation, West said, "It's too much. We really need to
squeeze that out."
West said that, with the Transpacific Partnership having been torpedoed,
he sees potential for expansion of the Pacific Alliance, which currently
includes Mexico, Colombia, Peru and Chile and is likely to soon add
Costa Rica and Panama, as well as Asian nations. But West said his
suspicion is that the United States will not join the Pacific Alliance.
The overall 2017 economic outlook for the Western Hemisphere is seen by
West as improving over 2016, including with 2.9 percent U.S. growth
compared with 1.6 percent last year.
"We're pretty optimistic; I can't say we're exuberant," he said. "2017
should be an up year for cargo, for consumers, for government
expenditures, all of which should stimulate the economy."
The Feb. 2-3 conference, hosted by Port Tampa Bay, is presented by the
American Association of Port Authorities and the Transportation Research
Board in partnership with the Florida Chapter of the American Planning
Association and in cooperation with the U.S.; Maritime Administration.
Comprehensive coverage of the conference is slated to appear in the Feb.
13 edition of the American Journal of Transportation.
Source: Economist sees East, Gulf coasts served by Cuba, Nova Scotia
transshipment hubs | AJOT.COM -
https://www.ajot.com/blogs/full/blog-economist-sees-east-gulf-coasts-served-by-cuba-nova-scotia-transshipme
transshipment hubs
The U.S. East and Gulf coasts can expect to be significantly served by a
pair of transshipment hubs – ideally in Cuba and Canada's province of
Nova Scotia – a leading port industry economist said today [Feb. 2].
Robert W. West, Waltham, Massachusetts-based chief senior consultant for
the Colombia-based DUAGA consulting firm and former Worley Parsons Group
principal ports and marine strategist, offered the theory in the opening
presentation of the 10th annual Planning for Shifting Trade Conference
in Tampa, Florida.
West said Cuba's Port of Mariel is "in many ways the most ideal
location" for a major Caribbean transshipment center, while he expects
one or more of a trio of Nova Scotia port developments serving as a
northern hub. In response to a question from the American Journal of
Transportation, West expressed uncertainty regarding the potential
impact upon future Cuba transshipment prospects of Trump administration
policies and the recent threats by Florida Gov. Rick Scott to pull
funding from Sunshine State ports engaging in commerce with Cuba.
"The point here is not a political point," West said. "The point is an
economic point.
"As we know, politics can mess things up, but I'm not saying it's going
to happen here," he continued. "To me, Cuba looks like a great
opportunity for transshipment."
West said Nova Scotia transshipment opportunities include at the
Macquarie Group's Halifax undertaking, facilities being developed by DP
World at Saint John and/or the future Novaport project in Sydney in
which Ports America has recently expressed interest.
He said new leadership in Washington does combine with factors such as
consolidation of global containership capacity to create a future
outlook he termed "certainly uncertain."
Noting that nearly half of all the world's containership capacity is in
the hands of the three biggest shipping lines – Maersk/Hamburg Süd,
Mediterranean Shipping Co. and CMA CGM/APL – West said he anticipates
that three or four major alliances will ultimately control between 75
percent and 80 percent of global container volume.
West said he believes 2017 freight rates "will remain lower than we
would want them to be, with too much capacity chasing too little demand."
Of the 325 ships, representing 8 percent of world fleet capacity,
currently not in operation, West said, "It's too much. We really need to
squeeze that out."
West said that, with the Transpacific Partnership having been torpedoed,
he sees potential for expansion of the Pacific Alliance, which currently
includes Mexico, Colombia, Peru and Chile and is likely to soon add
Costa Rica and Panama, as well as Asian nations. But West said his
suspicion is that the United States will not join the Pacific Alliance.
The overall 2017 economic outlook for the Western Hemisphere is seen by
West as improving over 2016, including with 2.9 percent U.S. growth
compared with 1.6 percent last year.
"We're pretty optimistic; I can't say we're exuberant," he said. "2017
should be an up year for cargo, for consumers, for government
expenditures, all of which should stimulate the economy."
The Feb. 2-3 conference, hosted by Port Tampa Bay, is presented by the
American Association of Port Authorities and the Transportation Research
Board in partnership with the Florida Chapter of the American Planning
Association and in cooperation with the U.S.; Maritime Administration.
Comprehensive coverage of the conference is slated to appear in the Feb.
13 edition of the American Journal of Transportation.
Source: Economist sees East, Gulf coasts served by Cuba, Nova Scotia
transshipment hubs | AJOT.COM -
https://www.ajot.com/blogs/full/blog-economist-sees-east-gulf-coasts-served-by-cuba-nova-scotia-transshipme
Meet the Entrepreneurs Breaking Into This Long-Forbidden Market
Meet the Entrepreneurs Breaking Into This Long-Forbidden Market
Less than 100 miles south of Key West sits a socialist country forbidden
from doing business with the U.S. for 57 years. Now it's on the brink of
being opened to American entrepreneurs. Meet the ones hoping to cash in
first.
By David Whitford
The Friday before Halloween, Josh Weinstein was set to take his first
trip to Cuba: bags packed, visa in hand, leased Beechcraft turbo-prop
booked for Sunday pickup at Sarasota Bradenton International. Then the
dispatcher called. We have verbal approval to fly to Havana, he told
Weinstein, but we're still waiting on one last stamp from the Cuban
government. Don't worry, he explained, this happens all the time.
Unfortunately, the government offices were now closed for the weekend.
"we'll keep pushing," he promised.
Weinstein is president of Witzco Challenger, a $12 million family
business that builds heavy-haul trailers in Sarasota, Florida, and ships
them all over the world. Witzco lost about half its sales in '08 and '09
during the Great Recession. That was not long after Weinstein, former
treasurer of his local stagehands union and grandson of Witzco's
founder, took over the company from his aunt and uncle, and he's been
scrambling to recover ever since. Exports are a big part of his
business, about 35 percent, but they've been slipping lately. The
stronger dollar hasn't helped.
His unlikely solution: Cuba. The forbidden market less than an hour's
direct flight from Witzco's central Florida factory is suddenly bursting
with pent-up demand. Tourism in Cuba is soaring, on pace to exceed
2015's record 3.5 million visitors, including a growing number of
Americans who find a way to qualify for one of 12 exceptions to the
Treasury Department's limits on travel. (U.S. tourism is technically
still banned.) Weinstein's betting on a construction boom, spurred by
the Cuban government's plan to double the number of hotel rooms in the
country by 2020, in pursuit of economic growth. "The first thing they're
going to have to do is infrastructure," Weinstein says excitedly.
"Water, septic, cable, electricity, communications. They're going to
need heavy equipment. My trailer moves the heavy equipment." Not exactly
a Cuba expert, Weinstein wants to see for himself. "I don't really know
the market, only what I've been able to Google," he says. So he booked a
booth at Cuba's international trade show, slated for the fall.
Sunday night, the stamp came through. Monday morning, he was on his way,
a day later than hoped. (The first lesson anyone learns when dealing
with Cuba: It'll happen when it happens.) Forty-five minutes across the
Everglades to Miami to top off the tank--gas is much cheaper in the
U.S.--and then another 45 minutes across the Straits of Florida to
Havana. Upon landing at José Martí International Airport, Weinstein and
his posse of two--all wearing khakis and Witzco golf shirts--were met in
an otherwise deserted terminal by unsmiling customs officials, who
opened one of Weinstein's bags. In it was a stash of trade-show
paraphernalia--candy, logoed pens, and sales pamphlets in Spanish,
English, and Russian (in case there were any Russians left in Cuba,
Weinstein figured). The pamphlets raised eyebrows. Propaganda, declared
one of the officials. Where is your approval? A discussion ensued.
Weinstein turned on his charm. Maybe a little bit of money changed
hands. "It's the cost of doing business," Weinstein says. "I'm OK with it."
And the Witzco delegation was in.
When President Obama flew to Havana last March, it marked the first
visit to Cuba by a sitting American president since Calvin Coolidge in
1928. His posse numbered more than 1,000. Among them: Brian Chesky,
founder of Airbnb, Dan Schulman, CEO of PayPal, and Fubu founder and
Shark Tank judge Daymond John. The president drove straight to the Meliá
Habana Hotel, where he addressed the staff of what used to be the United
States Interests Section of the Embassy of Switzerland in Havana (it's a
long story) but is now a full-fledged U.S. embassy. There he spoke of
his desire to "forge new agreements and commercial deals" with Cuba, in
line with the main thrust of U.S. policy as of December 2014, when the
current wave of reforms began.
A lot's happened since then, including the death of Fidel Castro; the
removal of Cuba from the U.S. list of state sponsors of terrorism; the
restoration of full diplomatic relations; the resumption of regularly
scheduled flights by U.S. airlines, including American, Delta, United,
and JetBlue; authorization for U.S. hoteliers Marriott and Starwood to
pursue Cuba deals; service agreements involving U.S. cell-phone
providers; and glory, hallelujah, the granting of permission for
American visitors to bring home Cuban rum and cigars.
But that doesn't mean Cuba is open for business. There's still the
nettlesome matter of the embargo--a dense web of constraints,
restrictions, and outright prohibitions, some in place since 1960, that,
despite the recent thaw, prevents anything approaching normal business
relations. Most commerce between the United States and Cuba is banned
outright. Everything else is a hassle. For instance, while U.S.
companies have been permitted to sell food and medicine to Cuba since
the Clinton administration, the U.S. government often requires Cuban
customers to pay the full amount up front. (That, in a nutshell, is why
Cuba buys nearly all its rice from Vietnam, rather than from nearby U.S.
growers.) And if you're an American trying to do anything in Cuba, you
had better bring plenty of cash, which is all anyone accepts. Unless you
happen to have a credit or debit card from Stonegate Bank--a Fort
Lauderdale, Florida, institution that has a temporary continental
American monopoly on Cuba-ready cards--plastic credit is worthless, and
ATMs barely exist.
The embargo is like an argument that's been going on for so long, nobody
remembers anymore how or why it started. Initially, under President
Eisenhower, it banned only sugar imports. After Cuba responded by
confiscating the assets of U.S. companies, it was broadened to cover
nearly all trade between the nations. Soon it morphed into a Cold War
weapon to punish Castro for aligning with the Soviet Union, and
supporting communist-led insurgencies in Nicaragua and Angola. Cuba's
dismal record on human rights didn't help.
But attitudes toward the embargo have changed. In a CBS News/New York
Times poll conducted on the eve of Obama's Cuba visit, more than half of
Americans (55 percent) said they supported doing away with it. A more
recent Florida International University poll of Cuban Americans living
in Miami-Dade County--traditionally ground zero for the no-compromise
camp--found an even bigger majority who would be happy at this point to
move on. But we're still stuck.
Washington, D.C., attorney Robert Muse has been advising U.S. companies
on Cuba for 25 years. He says that lifting the embargo is up to the
United States. He equates Cuba's position to that of an abused wife
whose husband says he'll stop beating her if she'll start putting dinner
on the table: "Her attitude, quite rightly, is, 'It's you attacking me!
You have to stop. Then we can have normal relations.' "
If and when the embargo is lifted, American companies need to remember
what kind of market they're dealing with. Cuba indeed dominates the
Caribbean, by landmass (it's roughly the size of Virginia) and by
population (11.3 million). But it's poor. The average state salary is
$25 a month. In 2010, according to the CIA's latest estimate, its gross
domestic product per capita was $10,200, one rung up on the world ladder
from Swaziland's. That's partly why John Kavulich, longtime head of the
U.S.-Cuba Trade and Economic Council, sees "a lot of inspiration and
aspiration chasing very little reality" in Cuba. Americans assume, not
unreasonably, that Cubans "need everything, they want everything, and
they put a period there," Kavulich says. "But there's a next sentence:
Do they have the resources to purchase everything? Dubai isn't 93 miles
south of Florida. Cuba is."
Even so, Weinstein and other eager Americans are stubbornly optimistic.
Entrepreneurs like Saul Berenthal, for instance, a 72-year-old in
Raleigh, North Carolina, who wants to sell small tractors to Cuban
farmers. And Darius Anderson, a political consultant, lobbyist, and
investor who's been visiting Cuba since he was a college student, and
now has a scheme to sell California wines to Cuban restaurateurs.
Everybody wants to believe that we're at the beginning of the end of an
era; that no one--not unforgetting Cuban émigrés in Miami, not Fidel's
ghost, not a brash and unpredictable President Trump--can halt the
momentum now. That the embargo must be, will be, swept aside, and the
rivers of commerce will flow.
But Cuba is not for innocents or neophytes. "People get besotted with
Cuba," Muse warns. "If you're a little guy, you might think that because
the big guys aren't there, you can play in those waters. It's exotic.
You're a pioneer! All these things combine to make some people abandon
basic business principles."
The fairground for Cuba's international trade show is 12 miles south of
central Havana. It's a slow cab ride, on crowded roads filled with
midcentury Fords, Chevys, and Cadillacs, many of them refitted with
diesel motors, not one of which would pass a U.S. emissions inspection.
A mural of Che Guevara hovers omnisciently over the Plaza de la
Revolución, while billboards flaunt slogans like socialismo o muerte
("Socialism or Death") and normalizar no es sinónimo de bloquear
("Normalization and Blockades Don't Go Together"), a blunt reminder of
Cuba's all-or-nothing stance on the embargo, which Cubans call "the
blockade."
The American pavilion is a hike from the trade show's main entrance, in
the farthest corner of the grounds, beyond the scattered remnants of
past exhibitions--a petrified pump jack, a stilled windmill, a parked
Air Cubana airliner repurposed as a restaurant. JetBlue banners flank
the entrance. Inside, ordinary Cubans who have managed to snag coveted
trade show credentials graze the American booths, scooping up free hats,
pens, and pistachios. Perhaps because there is no conventional
advertising in Cuba (it's illegal), Cuban consumers are adept at
ferreting out whatever's available, wherever it can be found.
The National Auto Parts Association has a booth, looking toward the day
when it can begin populating Cuba with its stores. So do a smattering of
state-sponsored trade delegations representing poultry farmers, soybean
growers, and the Port of Virginia; and all manner of small and midsize
U.S. manufacturers, displaying motors, electronic controls, and other
industrial gear, none of which are yet on the list of permissible
products. The U.S. embassy's chargé d'affaires, Jeffrey DeLaurentis,
roams the aisles in a seersucker suit, chatting up exhibitors and
awkwardly ducking reporters. ("There is still an embargo," his aide
explains apologetically.)
Overall, attendance by American exhibitors is lower this year than last,
when Obama's first round of reforms created a kind of euphoria that has
since dissipated. Those who have returned see the potential but
understand the need for patience. Among them is investor Noel Thompson,
decked out in a blue blazer advertising his ties to the U.S. Olympic
Committee. Thompson is a former Goldman Sachs banker now running his own
hedge fund in New York City. He's been coming down to Cuba every few
months for the past couple of years, working his way into the culture,
gathering intel, developing contacts. He imagines doing a lot of
business in Cuba one day-trading currencies, advising on deals, helping
privatize government assets, and otherwise capitalizing on the explosion
he thinks will surely come when the embargo lifts and America fully
engages with Cuba's suppressed capitalist passions. It won't happen
tomorrow, he knows, or even next year, but one day. "Maybe it's my
Goldman training," Thompson says. "When you see a butterfly flap its
wings ... "
Manning a nearby booth with sunglasses propped on his forehead and an
unlit cigar clenched in his teeth, another American, Darius Anderson,
presides over a winetasting led by his pal Fernando Fernández, Cuba's
preeminent blender of rums and cigars. Anderson first visited Cuba in
1986 as a student at George Washington University, where he had a poster
of Che Guevara on his dorm room wall. When his pals went to Florida for
spring break, he went north to Toronto, from which he was able to get to
Havana. His total visits since then: "Somewhere in the mid-60s," he
guesses. Every time the border agents run his passport, they ask, "Why
so many times?"
Originally, he went because it was forbidden, Anderson says, and now
it's because he's long since fallen in love with "all things Cuban: the
music, the culture, the cigars, the baseball." After college, Anderson
worked for a Democratic congressman on Capitol Hill, was an advance man
for Bill Clinton in California, and apprenticed seven years at the right
hand of supermarket billionaire Ron Burkle--a useful résumé for
navigating a market in which business and politics are inseparable.
With his company U.S. Cava Exports, Anderson, 47, is trying to bring
expensive wines from Napa Valley to Cuban consumers. He's been laying
the groundwork for years, hosting a seven-day tour of Napa and Sonoma
wineries for his Cuban friends, and leading a party of more than 100
California vintners on an educational mission to Cuba, where they met
with chefs and sommeliers. Like Weinstein, Anderson is hoping to make
money on tourism. Unlike Weinstein, he's peddling an embargo-exempt
agricultural product that's not contingent on new construction. This
should be easy.
And yet, 2,500 miles northwest of Havana, in a refrigerated warehouse
near Napa County Airport, sits a shipping container filled with
Anderson's stranded inventory: 1,200 cases of carefully curated
California sauvignon blanc, zinfandel, pinot noir, cabernet, and
chardonnay. Total value, just under $400,000. It's been there all fall,
costing him at least $500 per month, and not for want of a buyer. In
fact, Anderson has one all lined up, a Cuban state-owned distributor
willing to pay full price in advance, per U.S. law. But there's a
holdup. Anderson is waiting on final approval from the highest levels of
government--in this case, Cuba's foreign ministry.
U.S. Cava Exports is only one of Anderson's ventures at the moment, so
he has the luxury to wait this bureaucratic purgatory out. He still sees
a chance to have "a real, viable business and grow it over time." The
rest of the world is already here, he points out. Not just Cuba's
biggest trading partner, China, and Spain--it's oldest--but also Brazil,
Canada, Mexico, the Netherlands. The list goes on. "A whole litany of
countries are here doing business," Anderson says. "They trust the
system well enough to invest hundreds of millions of dollars. This idea
that it's not happening? It's happening, but it's happening without us."
Saul Berenthal went to high school before the revolution. He was born in
Havana, where his parents met after fleeing the Nazis in Eastern Europe.
His father worked his way from Holocaust refugee to sole GM parts
supplier for Cuba, which helped land Saul at the elite Havana Military
Academy. In 1960, his parents sent their 16-year-old son to study in the
United States. They visited him the following year, expecting to stay
for a few months. Then came the failed Bay of Pigs invasion. Suddenly,
they were unwilling to return to Cuba, refugees once again, this time in
America.
Bespectacled and trim, still at home in a loose-fitting guayabera,
Berenthal has a complicated relationship with his birthplace. He belongs
solidly to the generation of exiles whose grim resolve and political
clout have defined U.S. aggression toward Cuba. But he's also become a
full-fledged American, having had spent 18 years at IBM, where he met
Horace Clemmons, his future business partner. They bonded over their
frustration with IBM's stubborn attachment to proprietary product lines
when the future was all about open-source computing. "We worked hard,
lived the American dream, created three companies and sold them, and set
ourselves up for a nice retirement," says Berenthal.
But, a couple of years into retirement, Cuba beckoned, and starting in
2007, Berenthal was finding excuses to visit his birthplace. "It was
curiosity more than anything," he says. The surprise was that he felt
instantly at home. The language, the mannerisms, the customs, the
operating in a culture where it's hard to make appointments ("You'll be
here next week? Look me up") and a meeting might not happen because
somebody's car won't start or he can't find gas. Where checking email on
the fly means locating a Wi-Fi hotspot and making sure you've got enough
minutes left on your government-issued access card. "Not very well
organized, but I understand why," says Berenthal, revealing a trace of
his native Spanish. "People take care of things as they come up. They
don't know where they'll be at any time until it's that time."
Berenthal still knew people who knew people in Havana. He was introduced
to professors in the economics department at the University of Havana,
organized academic exchanges, and got involved in studies that led to
Cuba's accelerated reengagement with the global economy in 2011. But it
was Obama's dramatic announcement on December 17, 2014--"Today, the
United States of America is changing its relationship with the people of
Cuba"--and the policy changes that followed that convinced Berenthal it
was time to reunite with his old partner, Clemmons, and come up with a
business idea for Cuba.
Berenthal knew that an American company could succeed in Cuba only if it
was sensitive to the socialist country's motivations for doing business
with outsiders. Cuba is not interested in inviting foreign companies in
to make a few players wealthy. If Cuba is to embrace capitalism, it will
be on socialist terms: to generate revenue and become less dependent on
imports, and so protect what Cubans consider the lasting achievements of
the revolution--free education, free medicine, subsidized housing, and
subsidized food.
Clemmons, a farm boy from Alabama, thought of tractors. Inexpensive
tractors designed to meet the needs of small farmers in a poor country
that's rich in arable land but where many still work the land barefoot,
behind a mule or an ox, without basic equipment. An alternative to a
company like John Deere, which could come into Cuba with an expensive,
proprietary product. Instead, Cleber, as their company is called, would
assemble tractors according to open-source manufacturing principles,
using standard components, making them easy to maintain and infinitely
customizable. By creating an opportunity for Cubans to build an
ecosystem of products around Cleber's tractor, they would help
kick-start the creation of a homegrown agricultural manufacturing industry.
Berenthal and Clemmons proposed building their tractor factory in
Mariel, a planned economic development zone about an hour west of
Havana. When Cuban officials expressed support, the pair began working
to persuade their own government to create an opening in the embargo
that would allow them to proceed. "We spent a lot of time in the Office
of Foreign Assets Control and the Department of Commerce, trying to get
it through," says Berenthal. In February 2016, after months of meetings,
they succeeded. Cleber won U.S. approval to build the first
American-owned factory on Cuban soil since the revolution. It was a
happy story, shot through with hopeful symbolism, coinciding perfectly
with the Obama administration's initiatives. They even got a shout-out
in a White House press briefing.
But they still needed final approval from Cuba, and by last summer,
Berenthal didn't like the signals being sent from officials at Mariel:
pushback on environmental standards and workplace safety, and worrisome
doubts about whether Cleber fit with the development site's larger goal
of promoting high-tech manufacturing. Berenthal was baffled. None of the
other projects in the Mariel pipeline--cigarettes, cosmetics,
meatpacking, none of them U.S. backed--were obvious ways to achieve that
goal. Here he was, trying to persuade higher-ups who opposed a simple,
practical idea that somehow threatened them. He had flashbacks to his
time at IBM. "Everybody is acting in their own best interests," says
Berenthal. "IBM wanted to protect the proprietary lab where they were
building the proprietary technology and not accept change, because that
would mean loss of power or prestige or even their jobs."
In late October, Berenthal drove to Mariel for a meeting with
development zone officials. "They were very cordial," Berenthal says.
Then they proceeded to tell him that after much consideration, they had
decided not to approve Cleber's proposal after all.
Weinstein had a good trade show. He didn't arrive until late on the
first day--after the delay at customs, and an errant cab ride to the
wrong fairground--but he hit the ground running. Within an hour, every
bottled-water peddler in the building had a Witzco bumper sticker on his
cooler, and most were wearing Witzco baseball caps. He made no actual
sales to actual Cubans, of course. The embargo forbade him, which he
knew going in. But he met a lot of people there, and went home happy at
the end of the week with a long list of proposals to prepare for buyers
from Canada, Panama, Mexico, Belgium, and Spain.
Then history happened. Days after the trade show ended, Donald Trump was
unexpectedly elected president. Then Fidel Castro died. Suddenly
American entrepreneurs with dreams of doing business in Cuba were forced
to reevaluate everything.
When it comes to Cuba, Trump the politician appears to have a different
mind than Trump the entrepreneur. At least twice since the late '90s,
emissaries associated with Trump companies have visited Cuba to scope
out investment opportunities for hotels and golf courses--acts that may
well have violated the embargo. Since the election, however, Trump's
been all bluster and ill will. When the news broke of the former
dictator's passing, he tweeted gleefully: "Fidel Castro is dead!" He
soon followed up with, "If Cuba is unwilling to make a better deal for
the Cuban people, the Cuban/American people and the U.S. as a whole, I
will terminate deal."
In reality, Trump's tough talk is off base. As attorney Muse points out,
there is no Obama-era "deal" between the nations. Only a "series of
rolling measures" issued from various realms of the federal government
that would be next to impossible to untangle one by one, and which few
Americans object to anyway. But what Trump could do, says Muse, is "go
big and go unilateral," in a way that plays to his strength. That is, he
could leapfrog Obama's measured steps toward normalization by announcing
his willingness to negotiate America's $1.9 billion in outstanding
property claims against the Cuban government as a "necessary predicate"
to ending the embargo once and for all. "Where the embargo began is
where the embargo should end: With a resolution of the certified
claims," Muse says.
After the Cuban government derailed Berenthal's factory plans, he was
discouraged but not devastated. He understands why his company, in which
he and Clemmons have invested $5 million, was used as a political pawn:
Cuba wants the embargo gone; as long as it remains in effect, Cuba has
little incentive to grant piecemeal exceptions that reduce the pressure
on Congress to demolish it once and for all. At least, that's the best
explanation he or anyone else can come up with to justify what happened.
So Berenthal and Clemmons have shifted plans. Now they're building
tractors for export at a factory in Paint Rock, Alabama. Clemmons, the
more frustrated of the two, is focusing his energy on selling them to
other markets--small farmers in Australia, Ethiopia, and Peru.
Meanwhile, Berenthal's contacts at Mariel have told him, "Commercialize
your tractor and your products, and bring them to Cuba," and he's taking
them at their word. Cleber's new business model may in the end be more
lucrative, albeit less transformational for Cuba than Berenthal had
hoped for.
Still, there's one more wild card. Cuba's current president, Fidel's
brother Raúl Castro, is scheduled to end his term in 2018. "In my
opinion," says Berenthal, "this will trigger the final removal of the
embargo." Castro's likely successor, Miguel Díaz-Canel, was born nine
months before the revolution. If there's going to be real
change--generational change--in U.S.-Cuba relations, that'll be the
turning point. "I hope others will take the long view and continue the
efforts to bring the two countries together through commerce," Berenthal
says. He understands, as best as anyone can, how it works in Cuba. That
things happen when they happen. But, eventually, they do happen.
Source: Meet the Entrepreneurs Breaking Into This Long-Forbidden Market
| Inc.com -
http://www.inc.com/magazine/201702/david-whitford/crashing-into-cuba.html
Less than 100 miles south of Key West sits a socialist country forbidden
from doing business with the U.S. for 57 years. Now it's on the brink of
being opened to American entrepreneurs. Meet the ones hoping to cash in
first.
By David Whitford
The Friday before Halloween, Josh Weinstein was set to take his first
trip to Cuba: bags packed, visa in hand, leased Beechcraft turbo-prop
booked for Sunday pickup at Sarasota Bradenton International. Then the
dispatcher called. We have verbal approval to fly to Havana, he told
Weinstein, but we're still waiting on one last stamp from the Cuban
government. Don't worry, he explained, this happens all the time.
Unfortunately, the government offices were now closed for the weekend.
"we'll keep pushing," he promised.
Weinstein is president of Witzco Challenger, a $12 million family
business that builds heavy-haul trailers in Sarasota, Florida, and ships
them all over the world. Witzco lost about half its sales in '08 and '09
during the Great Recession. That was not long after Weinstein, former
treasurer of his local stagehands union and grandson of Witzco's
founder, took over the company from his aunt and uncle, and he's been
scrambling to recover ever since. Exports are a big part of his
business, about 35 percent, but they've been slipping lately. The
stronger dollar hasn't helped.
His unlikely solution: Cuba. The forbidden market less than an hour's
direct flight from Witzco's central Florida factory is suddenly bursting
with pent-up demand. Tourism in Cuba is soaring, on pace to exceed
2015's record 3.5 million visitors, including a growing number of
Americans who find a way to qualify for one of 12 exceptions to the
Treasury Department's limits on travel. (U.S. tourism is technically
still banned.) Weinstein's betting on a construction boom, spurred by
the Cuban government's plan to double the number of hotel rooms in the
country by 2020, in pursuit of economic growth. "The first thing they're
going to have to do is infrastructure," Weinstein says excitedly.
"Water, septic, cable, electricity, communications. They're going to
need heavy equipment. My trailer moves the heavy equipment." Not exactly
a Cuba expert, Weinstein wants to see for himself. "I don't really know
the market, only what I've been able to Google," he says. So he booked a
booth at Cuba's international trade show, slated for the fall.
Sunday night, the stamp came through. Monday morning, he was on his way,
a day later than hoped. (The first lesson anyone learns when dealing
with Cuba: It'll happen when it happens.) Forty-five minutes across the
Everglades to Miami to top off the tank--gas is much cheaper in the
U.S.--and then another 45 minutes across the Straits of Florida to
Havana. Upon landing at José Martí International Airport, Weinstein and
his posse of two--all wearing khakis and Witzco golf shirts--were met in
an otherwise deserted terminal by unsmiling customs officials, who
opened one of Weinstein's bags. In it was a stash of trade-show
paraphernalia--candy, logoed pens, and sales pamphlets in Spanish,
English, and Russian (in case there were any Russians left in Cuba,
Weinstein figured). The pamphlets raised eyebrows. Propaganda, declared
one of the officials. Where is your approval? A discussion ensued.
Weinstein turned on his charm. Maybe a little bit of money changed
hands. "It's the cost of doing business," Weinstein says. "I'm OK with it."
And the Witzco delegation was in.
When President Obama flew to Havana last March, it marked the first
visit to Cuba by a sitting American president since Calvin Coolidge in
1928. His posse numbered more than 1,000. Among them: Brian Chesky,
founder of Airbnb, Dan Schulman, CEO of PayPal, and Fubu founder and
Shark Tank judge Daymond John. The president drove straight to the Meliá
Habana Hotel, where he addressed the staff of what used to be the United
States Interests Section of the Embassy of Switzerland in Havana (it's a
long story) but is now a full-fledged U.S. embassy. There he spoke of
his desire to "forge new agreements and commercial deals" with Cuba, in
line with the main thrust of U.S. policy as of December 2014, when the
current wave of reforms began.
A lot's happened since then, including the death of Fidel Castro; the
removal of Cuba from the U.S. list of state sponsors of terrorism; the
restoration of full diplomatic relations; the resumption of regularly
scheduled flights by U.S. airlines, including American, Delta, United,
and JetBlue; authorization for U.S. hoteliers Marriott and Starwood to
pursue Cuba deals; service agreements involving U.S. cell-phone
providers; and glory, hallelujah, the granting of permission for
American visitors to bring home Cuban rum and cigars.
But that doesn't mean Cuba is open for business. There's still the
nettlesome matter of the embargo--a dense web of constraints,
restrictions, and outright prohibitions, some in place since 1960, that,
despite the recent thaw, prevents anything approaching normal business
relations. Most commerce between the United States and Cuba is banned
outright. Everything else is a hassle. For instance, while U.S.
companies have been permitted to sell food and medicine to Cuba since
the Clinton administration, the U.S. government often requires Cuban
customers to pay the full amount up front. (That, in a nutshell, is why
Cuba buys nearly all its rice from Vietnam, rather than from nearby U.S.
growers.) And if you're an American trying to do anything in Cuba, you
had better bring plenty of cash, which is all anyone accepts. Unless you
happen to have a credit or debit card from Stonegate Bank--a Fort
Lauderdale, Florida, institution that has a temporary continental
American monopoly on Cuba-ready cards--plastic credit is worthless, and
ATMs barely exist.
The embargo is like an argument that's been going on for so long, nobody
remembers anymore how or why it started. Initially, under President
Eisenhower, it banned only sugar imports. After Cuba responded by
confiscating the assets of U.S. companies, it was broadened to cover
nearly all trade between the nations. Soon it morphed into a Cold War
weapon to punish Castro for aligning with the Soviet Union, and
supporting communist-led insurgencies in Nicaragua and Angola. Cuba's
dismal record on human rights didn't help.
But attitudes toward the embargo have changed. In a CBS News/New York
Times poll conducted on the eve of Obama's Cuba visit, more than half of
Americans (55 percent) said they supported doing away with it. A more
recent Florida International University poll of Cuban Americans living
in Miami-Dade County--traditionally ground zero for the no-compromise
camp--found an even bigger majority who would be happy at this point to
move on. But we're still stuck.
Washington, D.C., attorney Robert Muse has been advising U.S. companies
on Cuba for 25 years. He says that lifting the embargo is up to the
United States. He equates Cuba's position to that of an abused wife
whose husband says he'll stop beating her if she'll start putting dinner
on the table: "Her attitude, quite rightly, is, 'It's you attacking me!
You have to stop. Then we can have normal relations.' "
If and when the embargo is lifted, American companies need to remember
what kind of market they're dealing with. Cuba indeed dominates the
Caribbean, by landmass (it's roughly the size of Virginia) and by
population (11.3 million). But it's poor. The average state salary is
$25 a month. In 2010, according to the CIA's latest estimate, its gross
domestic product per capita was $10,200, one rung up on the world ladder
from Swaziland's. That's partly why John Kavulich, longtime head of the
U.S.-Cuba Trade and Economic Council, sees "a lot of inspiration and
aspiration chasing very little reality" in Cuba. Americans assume, not
unreasonably, that Cubans "need everything, they want everything, and
they put a period there," Kavulich says. "But there's a next sentence:
Do they have the resources to purchase everything? Dubai isn't 93 miles
south of Florida. Cuba is."
Even so, Weinstein and other eager Americans are stubbornly optimistic.
Entrepreneurs like Saul Berenthal, for instance, a 72-year-old in
Raleigh, North Carolina, who wants to sell small tractors to Cuban
farmers. And Darius Anderson, a political consultant, lobbyist, and
investor who's been visiting Cuba since he was a college student, and
now has a scheme to sell California wines to Cuban restaurateurs.
Everybody wants to believe that we're at the beginning of the end of an
era; that no one--not unforgetting Cuban émigrés in Miami, not Fidel's
ghost, not a brash and unpredictable President Trump--can halt the
momentum now. That the embargo must be, will be, swept aside, and the
rivers of commerce will flow.
But Cuba is not for innocents or neophytes. "People get besotted with
Cuba," Muse warns. "If you're a little guy, you might think that because
the big guys aren't there, you can play in those waters. It's exotic.
You're a pioneer! All these things combine to make some people abandon
basic business principles."
The fairground for Cuba's international trade show is 12 miles south of
central Havana. It's a slow cab ride, on crowded roads filled with
midcentury Fords, Chevys, and Cadillacs, many of them refitted with
diesel motors, not one of which would pass a U.S. emissions inspection.
A mural of Che Guevara hovers omnisciently over the Plaza de la
Revolución, while billboards flaunt slogans like socialismo o muerte
("Socialism or Death") and normalizar no es sinónimo de bloquear
("Normalization and Blockades Don't Go Together"), a blunt reminder of
Cuba's all-or-nothing stance on the embargo, which Cubans call "the
blockade."
The American pavilion is a hike from the trade show's main entrance, in
the farthest corner of the grounds, beyond the scattered remnants of
past exhibitions--a petrified pump jack, a stilled windmill, a parked
Air Cubana airliner repurposed as a restaurant. JetBlue banners flank
the entrance. Inside, ordinary Cubans who have managed to snag coveted
trade show credentials graze the American booths, scooping up free hats,
pens, and pistachios. Perhaps because there is no conventional
advertising in Cuba (it's illegal), Cuban consumers are adept at
ferreting out whatever's available, wherever it can be found.
The National Auto Parts Association has a booth, looking toward the day
when it can begin populating Cuba with its stores. So do a smattering of
state-sponsored trade delegations representing poultry farmers, soybean
growers, and the Port of Virginia; and all manner of small and midsize
U.S. manufacturers, displaying motors, electronic controls, and other
industrial gear, none of which are yet on the list of permissible
products. The U.S. embassy's chargé d'affaires, Jeffrey DeLaurentis,
roams the aisles in a seersucker suit, chatting up exhibitors and
awkwardly ducking reporters. ("There is still an embargo," his aide
explains apologetically.)
Overall, attendance by American exhibitors is lower this year than last,
when Obama's first round of reforms created a kind of euphoria that has
since dissipated. Those who have returned see the potential but
understand the need for patience. Among them is investor Noel Thompson,
decked out in a blue blazer advertising his ties to the U.S. Olympic
Committee. Thompson is a former Goldman Sachs banker now running his own
hedge fund in New York City. He's been coming down to Cuba every few
months for the past couple of years, working his way into the culture,
gathering intel, developing contacts. He imagines doing a lot of
business in Cuba one day-trading currencies, advising on deals, helping
privatize government assets, and otherwise capitalizing on the explosion
he thinks will surely come when the embargo lifts and America fully
engages with Cuba's suppressed capitalist passions. It won't happen
tomorrow, he knows, or even next year, but one day. "Maybe it's my
Goldman training," Thompson says. "When you see a butterfly flap its
wings ... "
Manning a nearby booth with sunglasses propped on his forehead and an
unlit cigar clenched in his teeth, another American, Darius Anderson,
presides over a winetasting led by his pal Fernando Fernández, Cuba's
preeminent blender of rums and cigars. Anderson first visited Cuba in
1986 as a student at George Washington University, where he had a poster
of Che Guevara on his dorm room wall. When his pals went to Florida for
spring break, he went north to Toronto, from which he was able to get to
Havana. His total visits since then: "Somewhere in the mid-60s," he
guesses. Every time the border agents run his passport, they ask, "Why
so many times?"
Originally, he went because it was forbidden, Anderson says, and now
it's because he's long since fallen in love with "all things Cuban: the
music, the culture, the cigars, the baseball." After college, Anderson
worked for a Democratic congressman on Capitol Hill, was an advance man
for Bill Clinton in California, and apprenticed seven years at the right
hand of supermarket billionaire Ron Burkle--a useful résumé for
navigating a market in which business and politics are inseparable.
With his company U.S. Cava Exports, Anderson, 47, is trying to bring
expensive wines from Napa Valley to Cuban consumers. He's been laying
the groundwork for years, hosting a seven-day tour of Napa and Sonoma
wineries for his Cuban friends, and leading a party of more than 100
California vintners on an educational mission to Cuba, where they met
with chefs and sommeliers. Like Weinstein, Anderson is hoping to make
money on tourism. Unlike Weinstein, he's peddling an embargo-exempt
agricultural product that's not contingent on new construction. This
should be easy.
And yet, 2,500 miles northwest of Havana, in a refrigerated warehouse
near Napa County Airport, sits a shipping container filled with
Anderson's stranded inventory: 1,200 cases of carefully curated
California sauvignon blanc, zinfandel, pinot noir, cabernet, and
chardonnay. Total value, just under $400,000. It's been there all fall,
costing him at least $500 per month, and not for want of a buyer. In
fact, Anderson has one all lined up, a Cuban state-owned distributor
willing to pay full price in advance, per U.S. law. But there's a
holdup. Anderson is waiting on final approval from the highest levels of
government--in this case, Cuba's foreign ministry.
U.S. Cava Exports is only one of Anderson's ventures at the moment, so
he has the luxury to wait this bureaucratic purgatory out. He still sees
a chance to have "a real, viable business and grow it over time." The
rest of the world is already here, he points out. Not just Cuba's
biggest trading partner, China, and Spain--it's oldest--but also Brazil,
Canada, Mexico, the Netherlands. The list goes on. "A whole litany of
countries are here doing business," Anderson says. "They trust the
system well enough to invest hundreds of millions of dollars. This idea
that it's not happening? It's happening, but it's happening without us."
Saul Berenthal went to high school before the revolution. He was born in
Havana, where his parents met after fleeing the Nazis in Eastern Europe.
His father worked his way from Holocaust refugee to sole GM parts
supplier for Cuba, which helped land Saul at the elite Havana Military
Academy. In 1960, his parents sent their 16-year-old son to study in the
United States. They visited him the following year, expecting to stay
for a few months. Then came the failed Bay of Pigs invasion. Suddenly,
they were unwilling to return to Cuba, refugees once again, this time in
America.
Bespectacled and trim, still at home in a loose-fitting guayabera,
Berenthal has a complicated relationship with his birthplace. He belongs
solidly to the generation of exiles whose grim resolve and political
clout have defined U.S. aggression toward Cuba. But he's also become a
full-fledged American, having had spent 18 years at IBM, where he met
Horace Clemmons, his future business partner. They bonded over their
frustration with IBM's stubborn attachment to proprietary product lines
when the future was all about open-source computing. "We worked hard,
lived the American dream, created three companies and sold them, and set
ourselves up for a nice retirement," says Berenthal.
But, a couple of years into retirement, Cuba beckoned, and starting in
2007, Berenthal was finding excuses to visit his birthplace. "It was
curiosity more than anything," he says. The surprise was that he felt
instantly at home. The language, the mannerisms, the customs, the
operating in a culture where it's hard to make appointments ("You'll be
here next week? Look me up") and a meeting might not happen because
somebody's car won't start or he can't find gas. Where checking email on
the fly means locating a Wi-Fi hotspot and making sure you've got enough
minutes left on your government-issued access card. "Not very well
organized, but I understand why," says Berenthal, revealing a trace of
his native Spanish. "People take care of things as they come up. They
don't know where they'll be at any time until it's that time."
Berenthal still knew people who knew people in Havana. He was introduced
to professors in the economics department at the University of Havana,
organized academic exchanges, and got involved in studies that led to
Cuba's accelerated reengagement with the global economy in 2011. But it
was Obama's dramatic announcement on December 17, 2014--"Today, the
United States of America is changing its relationship with the people of
Cuba"--and the policy changes that followed that convinced Berenthal it
was time to reunite with his old partner, Clemmons, and come up with a
business idea for Cuba.
Berenthal knew that an American company could succeed in Cuba only if it
was sensitive to the socialist country's motivations for doing business
with outsiders. Cuba is not interested in inviting foreign companies in
to make a few players wealthy. If Cuba is to embrace capitalism, it will
be on socialist terms: to generate revenue and become less dependent on
imports, and so protect what Cubans consider the lasting achievements of
the revolution--free education, free medicine, subsidized housing, and
subsidized food.
Clemmons, a farm boy from Alabama, thought of tractors. Inexpensive
tractors designed to meet the needs of small farmers in a poor country
that's rich in arable land but where many still work the land barefoot,
behind a mule or an ox, without basic equipment. An alternative to a
company like John Deere, which could come into Cuba with an expensive,
proprietary product. Instead, Cleber, as their company is called, would
assemble tractors according to open-source manufacturing principles,
using standard components, making them easy to maintain and infinitely
customizable. By creating an opportunity for Cubans to build an
ecosystem of products around Cleber's tractor, they would help
kick-start the creation of a homegrown agricultural manufacturing industry.
Berenthal and Clemmons proposed building their tractor factory in
Mariel, a planned economic development zone about an hour west of
Havana. When Cuban officials expressed support, the pair began working
to persuade their own government to create an opening in the embargo
that would allow them to proceed. "We spent a lot of time in the Office
of Foreign Assets Control and the Department of Commerce, trying to get
it through," says Berenthal. In February 2016, after months of meetings,
they succeeded. Cleber won U.S. approval to build the first
American-owned factory on Cuban soil since the revolution. It was a
happy story, shot through with hopeful symbolism, coinciding perfectly
with the Obama administration's initiatives. They even got a shout-out
in a White House press briefing.
But they still needed final approval from Cuba, and by last summer,
Berenthal didn't like the signals being sent from officials at Mariel:
pushback on environmental standards and workplace safety, and worrisome
doubts about whether Cleber fit with the development site's larger goal
of promoting high-tech manufacturing. Berenthal was baffled. None of the
other projects in the Mariel pipeline--cigarettes, cosmetics,
meatpacking, none of them U.S. backed--were obvious ways to achieve that
goal. Here he was, trying to persuade higher-ups who opposed a simple,
practical idea that somehow threatened them. He had flashbacks to his
time at IBM. "Everybody is acting in their own best interests," says
Berenthal. "IBM wanted to protect the proprietary lab where they were
building the proprietary technology and not accept change, because that
would mean loss of power or prestige or even their jobs."
In late October, Berenthal drove to Mariel for a meeting with
development zone officials. "They were very cordial," Berenthal says.
Then they proceeded to tell him that after much consideration, they had
decided not to approve Cleber's proposal after all.
Weinstein had a good trade show. He didn't arrive until late on the
first day--after the delay at customs, and an errant cab ride to the
wrong fairground--but he hit the ground running. Within an hour, every
bottled-water peddler in the building had a Witzco bumper sticker on his
cooler, and most were wearing Witzco baseball caps. He made no actual
sales to actual Cubans, of course. The embargo forbade him, which he
knew going in. But he met a lot of people there, and went home happy at
the end of the week with a long list of proposals to prepare for buyers
from Canada, Panama, Mexico, Belgium, and Spain.
Then history happened. Days after the trade show ended, Donald Trump was
unexpectedly elected president. Then Fidel Castro died. Suddenly
American entrepreneurs with dreams of doing business in Cuba were forced
to reevaluate everything.
When it comes to Cuba, Trump the politician appears to have a different
mind than Trump the entrepreneur. At least twice since the late '90s,
emissaries associated with Trump companies have visited Cuba to scope
out investment opportunities for hotels and golf courses--acts that may
well have violated the embargo. Since the election, however, Trump's
been all bluster and ill will. When the news broke of the former
dictator's passing, he tweeted gleefully: "Fidel Castro is dead!" He
soon followed up with, "If Cuba is unwilling to make a better deal for
the Cuban people, the Cuban/American people and the U.S. as a whole, I
will terminate deal."
In reality, Trump's tough talk is off base. As attorney Muse points out,
there is no Obama-era "deal" between the nations. Only a "series of
rolling measures" issued from various realms of the federal government
that would be next to impossible to untangle one by one, and which few
Americans object to anyway. But what Trump could do, says Muse, is "go
big and go unilateral," in a way that plays to his strength. That is, he
could leapfrog Obama's measured steps toward normalization by announcing
his willingness to negotiate America's $1.9 billion in outstanding
property claims against the Cuban government as a "necessary predicate"
to ending the embargo once and for all. "Where the embargo began is
where the embargo should end: With a resolution of the certified
claims," Muse says.
After the Cuban government derailed Berenthal's factory plans, he was
discouraged but not devastated. He understands why his company, in which
he and Clemmons have invested $5 million, was used as a political pawn:
Cuba wants the embargo gone; as long as it remains in effect, Cuba has
little incentive to grant piecemeal exceptions that reduce the pressure
on Congress to demolish it once and for all. At least, that's the best
explanation he or anyone else can come up with to justify what happened.
So Berenthal and Clemmons have shifted plans. Now they're building
tractors for export at a factory in Paint Rock, Alabama. Clemmons, the
more frustrated of the two, is focusing his energy on selling them to
other markets--small farmers in Australia, Ethiopia, and Peru.
Meanwhile, Berenthal's contacts at Mariel have told him, "Commercialize
your tractor and your products, and bring them to Cuba," and he's taking
them at their word. Cleber's new business model may in the end be more
lucrative, albeit less transformational for Cuba than Berenthal had
hoped for.
Still, there's one more wild card. Cuba's current president, Fidel's
brother Raúl Castro, is scheduled to end his term in 2018. "In my
opinion," says Berenthal, "this will trigger the final removal of the
embargo." Castro's likely successor, Miguel Díaz-Canel, was born nine
months before the revolution. If there's going to be real
change--generational change--in U.S.-Cuba relations, that'll be the
turning point. "I hope others will take the long view and continue the
efforts to bring the two countries together through commerce," Berenthal
says. He understands, as best as anyone can, how it works in Cuba. That
things happen when they happen. But, eventually, they do happen.
Source: Meet the Entrepreneurs Breaking Into This Long-Forbidden Market
| Inc.com -
http://www.inc.com/magazine/201702/david-whitford/crashing-into-cuba.html
Unquestionable Scarcity
Unquestionable Scarcity
FRANK CORREA | La Habana | 2 de Febrero de 2017 - 11:14 CET.
An American named John, who speaks Spanish and is the owner of a
sailboat anchored in the Hemingway Marina, questions whether there are
real shortages in Cuba.
"From what I can see there is everything," he says, with his thick
accent. "Here people are fat, always cheerful, drinking, dancing."
Colombians Pedro Peña and Henry Carnavali, apprentice filmmakers who in
December shot scenes in Jaimanitas, also addressed this issue fervently,
reporting that they lacked nothing to do their work. "We even got
girlfriends," they added, "and we plan on getting married and taking
them to Bogotá."
Tourists doubt it, as they enjoy all the good things on the Island,
unable to believe that its people lack a thing. Demonstrating their
penury to them can be a task in vain when the first thing one finds is a
drunk with a bottle in his hand after a big night out, even though it's
a regular Monday morning. Or they see a beautiful girl who woke up
luchando and returns home with her bag full. Or on Saturdays they see
the whole town carrying bags after hunting down bargains at the fair.
In a fishing town like Jaimanitas, the only kind of seafood you can
easily find are Mercomar croquettes. The old fish, like pargos,
rabirrubias, agujas and casteros only remain in the memories of the
oldest fishermen, who recount their feats with all the nostalgia
befitting a bygone era.
State inspectors' siege last year last against cart vendors , the
closing of the El Trigal supply center, and the price caps have left the
people destitute. The only surviving cart vendor is set up on Tercera A,
and last Wednesday he was only selling bananas, oranges and sweet
potatoes. People walking down the streets like zombies, complaining
about the lack of pumpkins, yucca, carrots, kidney beans, lettuce,
onion, garlic…
On a stroll through two stores we notice that are no mops, or
toothpaste, umbrellas, detergent or toilet paper. At the TRD store on
the Calle Séptima I found a couple complaining because they had searched
half of Habana but could not find any disposable diapers, or tubs, or
cologne or talc for babies. The woman was seven months pregnant, bracing
for her baby's arrival, but they were worried because they had bought a
used cradle, but still needed a mattress. They talked about
visiting Revolico, a website selling all kinds of things, to see if
there they could find one.
At the door of the El Caracol, on the Calle Primera, I spoke with a
woman who had just bought a house and was refurbishing it. She said it
was hard for her to find suitable furniture, because everything was
exorbitantly expensive. And it was impossible for her to find scouring
pads, electrical cables, or an antenna for her television set. According
to her, she couldn't even find these things on the black market. She
went to La Cuevita, where she had been told one could find anything, but
had no luck there either.
"The shortages are relative when you look at the different social
classes," says Federico, a reflective local barber. "Many people in Cuba
were not even affected by the Special Period, nor are they by the
current crisis, during which people cannot make ends meet. Those are the
people at the top, those with their own businesses, and those who work
for foreign companies. They lack nothing. Nor do the tourists, who come
for a few days, have a good time, and go away. Tell them to live like
the people for a day, and they'll be squealing. The big problem is that
there is another type of shortage, one that is not material: the loss of
values, the lack of a civic spirit, the disinterest in producing and,
above all, the absence of democracy. Those are the engines that drive a
country, and enables it to lack nothing."
Source: Unquestionable Scarcity | Diario de Cuba -
http://www.diariodecuba.com/cuba/1486030453_28616.html
FRANK CORREA | La Habana | 2 de Febrero de 2017 - 11:14 CET.
An American named John, who speaks Spanish and is the owner of a
sailboat anchored in the Hemingway Marina, questions whether there are
real shortages in Cuba.
"From what I can see there is everything," he says, with his thick
accent. "Here people are fat, always cheerful, drinking, dancing."
Colombians Pedro Peña and Henry Carnavali, apprentice filmmakers who in
December shot scenes in Jaimanitas, also addressed this issue fervently,
reporting that they lacked nothing to do their work. "We even got
girlfriends," they added, "and we plan on getting married and taking
them to Bogotá."
Tourists doubt it, as they enjoy all the good things on the Island,
unable to believe that its people lack a thing. Demonstrating their
penury to them can be a task in vain when the first thing one finds is a
drunk with a bottle in his hand after a big night out, even though it's
a regular Monday morning. Or they see a beautiful girl who woke up
luchando and returns home with her bag full. Or on Saturdays they see
the whole town carrying bags after hunting down bargains at the fair.
In a fishing town like Jaimanitas, the only kind of seafood you can
easily find are Mercomar croquettes. The old fish, like pargos,
rabirrubias, agujas and casteros only remain in the memories of the
oldest fishermen, who recount their feats with all the nostalgia
befitting a bygone era.
State inspectors' siege last year last against cart vendors , the
closing of the El Trigal supply center, and the price caps have left the
people destitute. The only surviving cart vendor is set up on Tercera A,
and last Wednesday he was only selling bananas, oranges and sweet
potatoes. People walking down the streets like zombies, complaining
about the lack of pumpkins, yucca, carrots, kidney beans, lettuce,
onion, garlic…
On a stroll through two stores we notice that are no mops, or
toothpaste, umbrellas, detergent or toilet paper. At the TRD store on
the Calle Séptima I found a couple complaining because they had searched
half of Habana but could not find any disposable diapers, or tubs, or
cologne or talc for babies. The woman was seven months pregnant, bracing
for her baby's arrival, but they were worried because they had bought a
used cradle, but still needed a mattress. They talked about
visiting Revolico, a website selling all kinds of things, to see if
there they could find one.
At the door of the El Caracol, on the Calle Primera, I spoke with a
woman who had just bought a house and was refurbishing it. She said it
was hard for her to find suitable furniture, because everything was
exorbitantly expensive. And it was impossible for her to find scouring
pads, electrical cables, or an antenna for her television set. According
to her, she couldn't even find these things on the black market. She
went to La Cuevita, where she had been told one could find anything, but
had no luck there either.
"The shortages are relative when you look at the different social
classes," says Federico, a reflective local barber. "Many people in Cuba
were not even affected by the Special Period, nor are they by the
current crisis, during which people cannot make ends meet. Those are the
people at the top, those with their own businesses, and those who work
for foreign companies. They lack nothing. Nor do the tourists, who come
for a few days, have a good time, and go away. Tell them to live like
the people for a day, and they'll be squealing. The big problem is that
there is another type of shortage, one that is not material: the loss of
values, the lack of a civic spirit, the disinterest in producing and,
above all, the absence of democracy. Those are the engines that drive a
country, and enables it to lack nothing."
Source: Unquestionable Scarcity | Diario de Cuba -
http://www.diariodecuba.com/cuba/1486030453_28616.html
Wednesday, February 1, 2017
Coexistence Profiles Future Proposals For Cuban Education And Culture
Coexistence Profiles Future Proposals For Cuban Education And Culture /
14ymedio, Mario Penton
14ymedio, Mario Penton, Miami, 30 January 2017 — A pluralistic
education, deeply democratic, with a privileged use of technology and
communications together with a vision of culture open to universality:
these were some of the proposals of the third meeting of the Center for
Coexistence Studies (CEC) for the future of Cuba held this weekend in Miami.
The Cuban think tank, based in Pinar del Rio, held its meeting at
Florida International University (FIU) within the framework of an
journey of thought for Cuba. A similar process is taking place in
parallel on the island, although that meeting had to be suspended in the
face of the repression of the political police. Paradoxically, the
prohibition decreed by the authorities facilitated greater interaction
through alternative means such as email.
Dagoberto Valdés, director of the CEC, offered an overview of the
national reality that, in his opinion, is marked by several elements,
including the country's economic crisis "in free fall," the death of
Fidel Castro and the end of the wet foot/dry foot policy that allowed
Cubans who touched American soil to remain in the country, regardless of
whether they had a visa.
The analysis of Cuban culture involved preparing a list of paradigmatic
personalities, institutions and referential processes that make up the
nucleus of the nation's identity. It also addressed "weaknesses" and
"negative features" in the country's cultural processes.
With regards to education, there was a discussion of pedagogical models
that tend to strengthen ethical values and individual autonomy.
"The projects presented seek to clarify the roots of identity that
should be rescued and maintained, as well as detail models, content and
methodologies. Also, the types of institutions and educational spaces
that should predominate in the future, and what the profile of an
educator should be," said the press release issued by the institution.
Four sessions enriched the meeting, including one led by the economist
Carmelo Mesa Lago, another by anthropologist and journalist Miriam
Celaya, as well as two led by members of the editorial team of
Coexistence magazine, Dagoberto Valdes and Yoandy Izquierda.
The meeting at the FIU, together with the work being done in Cuba, has
enabled the drafting of 45 legislative proposals for a new Cuban legal
framework.
The results of the workshops will be compiled by the Center's Academic
Council and the Board of Directors and published on its website.
Source: Coexistence Profiles Future Proposals For Cuban Education And
Culture / 14ymedio, Mario Penton – Translating Cuba -
http://translatingcuba.com/coexistence-profiles-future-proposals-for-cuban-education-and-culture-14ymedio-mario-penton/
14ymedio, Mario Penton
14ymedio, Mario Penton, Miami, 30 January 2017 — A pluralistic
education, deeply democratic, with a privileged use of technology and
communications together with a vision of culture open to universality:
these were some of the proposals of the third meeting of the Center for
Coexistence Studies (CEC) for the future of Cuba held this weekend in Miami.
The Cuban think tank, based in Pinar del Rio, held its meeting at
Florida International University (FIU) within the framework of an
journey of thought for Cuba. A similar process is taking place in
parallel on the island, although that meeting had to be suspended in the
face of the repression of the political police. Paradoxically, the
prohibition decreed by the authorities facilitated greater interaction
through alternative means such as email.
Dagoberto Valdés, director of the CEC, offered an overview of the
national reality that, in his opinion, is marked by several elements,
including the country's economic crisis "in free fall," the death of
Fidel Castro and the end of the wet foot/dry foot policy that allowed
Cubans who touched American soil to remain in the country, regardless of
whether they had a visa.
The analysis of Cuban culture involved preparing a list of paradigmatic
personalities, institutions and referential processes that make up the
nucleus of the nation's identity. It also addressed "weaknesses" and
"negative features" in the country's cultural processes.
With regards to education, there was a discussion of pedagogical models
that tend to strengthen ethical values and individual autonomy.
"The projects presented seek to clarify the roots of identity that
should be rescued and maintained, as well as detail models, content and
methodologies. Also, the types of institutions and educational spaces
that should predominate in the future, and what the profile of an
educator should be," said the press release issued by the institution.
Four sessions enriched the meeting, including one led by the economist
Carmelo Mesa Lago, another by anthropologist and journalist Miriam
Celaya, as well as two led by members of the editorial team of
Coexistence magazine, Dagoberto Valdes and Yoandy Izquierda.
The meeting at the FIU, together with the work being done in Cuba, has
enabled the drafting of 45 legislative proposals for a new Cuban legal
framework.
The results of the workshops will be compiled by the Center's Academic
Council and the Board of Directors and published on its website.
Source: Coexistence Profiles Future Proposals For Cuban Education And
Culture / 14ymedio, Mario Penton – Translating Cuba -
http://translatingcuba.com/coexistence-profiles-future-proposals-for-cuban-education-and-culture-14ymedio-mario-penton/
Fire Destroys Cultural Assets Warehouse in Central Havana
Fire Destroys Cultural Assets Warehouse in Central Havana
14ymedio, Yosmany Mayeta, Havana, 31 January 2017 — A fire reduced to
ashes, on Monday, a warehouse and the offices of the Cultural Assets
Fund, which managed raw materials for artistic productions on Subirana
Street, between Benjumeda and Santo Tomás, in Central Havana. The fire
spread quickly and it required several fire brigades to put itout, due
to its intensity and the flammable materials stored there.
Beatriz Noa, a resident of No. 301 Subirana, told 14ymedio that "the
flames went out the front windows and the black smoke covered all these
streets." When she peeked out of the door of her home "the area was
filled with police and firefighters, but they had to ask for
reinforcements from nearby stations."
According to the neighbors, the incident began when some welding sparks
fell on the rolls of fabric stored in the warehouse. The flames quickly
reached the offices, the workshops and the furniture housed in the premises.
The Ministry of the Interior has begun an investigation to determine the
causes of the fire.
The images of the flames spread quickly through the application Zapya,
widely used to share content on mobile phones. Onlookers filmed from the
surrounding rooftops, but as the fire spread, police officers evacuated
the area.
"There were many firefighters who came to support the first responders,
because the flames went everywhere and the trucks arrived almost without
water, but it was more than an hour before it was completely
extinguished," said Carlos, a young man who recorded everything with his
cell phone from the top of a nearby building where "everything could be
seen clearly."
Noelia Fuentes, a resident of Subirana Street, between Santo Tomas and
Clavel, explained that the smell of burning spread quickly throughout
the neighborhood and the neighbors went out to see what was
happening. "But when we saw that there were a lot of flames, we had to
get away. The fire almost reached the electrical wires and was a
danger," she reported.
Some speculated that a fire in a place "with many valuable products,
like fabrics, wood and lacquers," would result in thousands of pesos
worth of loses.
Minutes after arriving, the first fire trucks shut off the electricity
because the flames were reaching the wires. After seven hours, at about
five o'clock in the afternoon, electricity was restored.
In the evening hours, local workers and company managers began cleaning
up and the street was once again passable for vehicles.
Source: Fire Destroys Cultural Assets Warehouse in Central Havana / –
Translating Cuba -
http://translatingcuba.com/fire-destroys-cultural-assets-warehouse-in-central-havana/
14ymedio, Yosmany Mayeta, Havana, 31 January 2017 — A fire reduced to
ashes, on Monday, a warehouse and the offices of the Cultural Assets
Fund, which managed raw materials for artistic productions on Subirana
Street, between Benjumeda and Santo Tomás, in Central Havana. The fire
spread quickly and it required several fire brigades to put itout, due
to its intensity and the flammable materials stored there.
Beatriz Noa, a resident of No. 301 Subirana, told 14ymedio that "the
flames went out the front windows and the black smoke covered all these
streets." When she peeked out of the door of her home "the area was
filled with police and firefighters, but they had to ask for
reinforcements from nearby stations."
According to the neighbors, the incident began when some welding sparks
fell on the rolls of fabric stored in the warehouse. The flames quickly
reached the offices, the workshops and the furniture housed in the premises.
The Ministry of the Interior has begun an investigation to determine the
causes of the fire.
The images of the flames spread quickly through the application Zapya,
widely used to share content on mobile phones. Onlookers filmed from the
surrounding rooftops, but as the fire spread, police officers evacuated
the area.
"There were many firefighters who came to support the first responders,
because the flames went everywhere and the trucks arrived almost without
water, but it was more than an hour before it was completely
extinguished," said Carlos, a young man who recorded everything with his
cell phone from the top of a nearby building where "everything could be
seen clearly."
Noelia Fuentes, a resident of Subirana Street, between Santo Tomas and
Clavel, explained that the smell of burning spread quickly throughout
the neighborhood and the neighbors went out to see what was
happening. "But when we saw that there were a lot of flames, we had to
get away. The fire almost reached the electrical wires and was a
danger," she reported.
Some speculated that a fire in a place "with many valuable products,
like fabrics, wood and lacquers," would result in thousands of pesos
worth of loses.
Minutes after arriving, the first fire trucks shut off the electricity
because the flames were reaching the wires. After seven hours, at about
five o'clock in the afternoon, electricity was restored.
In the evening hours, local workers and company managers began cleaning
up and the street was once again passable for vehicles.
Source: Fire Destroys Cultural Assets Warehouse in Central Havana / –
Translating Cuba -
http://translatingcuba.com/fire-destroys-cultural-assets-warehouse-in-central-havana/
On Notice - Cuban Repressor Dainier Suarez Pagan
On Notice: Cuban Repressor Dainier Suarez Pagan / Foundation for Human
Rights in Cuba
Foundation for Human Rights in Cuba, 30 January 2017 — To Mr. Suarez
Pagan: For six months, since we took the initiative to identify those
people who exercise the repression of the Cuban tyranny, your name is
repeated more often than any other, associated with the use of methods
that stand out for their brutal violence against peaceful citizens.
We have accusations against you that have been issued by your numerous
victims and that are validated by photos, videos and medical opinions.
However, your more recent act of intimidation intended to recruit as an
informant the young woman Liset Maria Santos, from the recently formed
Dignity Movement, has exceeded all limits.
You have told her that you released the criminal who raped her when she
was 11-years-old, and have given her the choice of informing against her
friends or facing the consequences of what this criminal might do to her
or even to her daughter. To brag about your total control over the lives
of others you tell her that, if she cooperates, you can put the rapist
back in prison (he hasn't served even half of his sentence for that and
other crimes) or even kill him.
You believe yourself to be immune for being a part of the national
repressive machinery. But you are wrong Mr. Suarez Pagan.
You are a cog in that machine, it is true, but you are inescapably
personally responsible for your actions. Even your superiors – if they
consider it convenient to their own interests – could take the
initiative to prosecute you at any time to distance themselves from your
abominable crimes.
You may believe that the current non-violent vocation of the regime's
opponents assures you of a peaceful future. But you are wrong there,
too. No one is going to forget or forgive your crimes. For repressors
like you there will be no amnesty.
You are personally responsible for any and all of the detestable
assaults you have perpetrated against peaceful opponents. Do not forget
that. This has happened historically since the trials of the Nazis in
Nuremberg. Each person is legally obliged to take individual
responsibility for their actions and no one can excuse themselves
afterwards with the justification that they "carried out orders from my
superiors."
You told young Liset Maria Santos that it was within your reach that
nothing would happen to her or her family. Make it so.
You believe yourself omnipotent because you know where each opponent
lives. We also have the facts and reliable proofs of your despicable career.
Know that we are already working to apply various international
sanctions and we will do the same with any superior of yours who is
implicated in this and other sadistic actions. We are not going to wait
for things to change in Cuba. And they will change, Mr. Dainier Suárez
Pagán. Keep that in mind.
Source: On Notice: Cuban Repressor Dainier Suarez Pagan / Foundation for
Human Rights in Cuba – Translating Cuba -
http://translatingcuba.com/on-notice-cuban-repressor-dainier-suarez-pagan-foundation-for-human-rights-in-cuba/
Rights in Cuba
Foundation for Human Rights in Cuba, 30 January 2017 — To Mr. Suarez
Pagan: For six months, since we took the initiative to identify those
people who exercise the repression of the Cuban tyranny, your name is
repeated more often than any other, associated with the use of methods
that stand out for their brutal violence against peaceful citizens.
We have accusations against you that have been issued by your numerous
victims and that are validated by photos, videos and medical opinions.
However, your more recent act of intimidation intended to recruit as an
informant the young woman Liset Maria Santos, from the recently formed
Dignity Movement, has exceeded all limits.
You have told her that you released the criminal who raped her when she
was 11-years-old, and have given her the choice of informing against her
friends or facing the consequences of what this criminal might do to her
or even to her daughter. To brag about your total control over the lives
of others you tell her that, if she cooperates, you can put the rapist
back in prison (he hasn't served even half of his sentence for that and
other crimes) or even kill him.
You believe yourself to be immune for being a part of the national
repressive machinery. But you are wrong Mr. Suarez Pagan.
You are a cog in that machine, it is true, but you are inescapably
personally responsible for your actions. Even your superiors – if they
consider it convenient to their own interests – could take the
initiative to prosecute you at any time to distance themselves from your
abominable crimes.
You may believe that the current non-violent vocation of the regime's
opponents assures you of a peaceful future. But you are wrong there,
too. No one is going to forget or forgive your crimes. For repressors
like you there will be no amnesty.
You are personally responsible for any and all of the detestable
assaults you have perpetrated against peaceful opponents. Do not forget
that. This has happened historically since the trials of the Nazis in
Nuremberg. Each person is legally obliged to take individual
responsibility for their actions and no one can excuse themselves
afterwards with the justification that they "carried out orders from my
superiors."
You told young Liset Maria Santos that it was within your reach that
nothing would happen to her or her family. Make it so.
You believe yourself omnipotent because you know where each opponent
lives. We also have the facts and reliable proofs of your despicable career.
Know that we are already working to apply various international
sanctions and we will do the same with any superior of yours who is
implicated in this and other sadistic actions. We are not going to wait
for things to change in Cuba. And they will change, Mr. Dainier Suárez
Pagán. Keep that in mind.
Source: On Notice: Cuban Repressor Dainier Suarez Pagan / Foundation for
Human Rights in Cuba – Translating Cuba -
http://translatingcuba.com/on-notice-cuban-repressor-dainier-suarez-pagan-foundation-for-human-rights-in-cuba/
Delegación de Carolina del Norte viaja a Cuba para explorar negocios
Delegación de Carolina del Norte viaja a Cuba para explorar negocios
Incluye legisladores y líderes de negocios
Miércoles, febrero 1, 2017 | CubaNet
MIAMI, Estados Unidos.- Un grupo de legisladores y líderes de negocios
de Charlotte, Carolina del Norte, ha viajado a Cuba este martes para
explorar las potencialidades de negocios con la Isla en la medida que
las relaciones entre el país comunista y Estados Unidos han mejorado,
reporta una filial de NBC.
La delegación, que incluye al director de aviación del Douglas
International Airport de Charlotte, Brent Cagle, sostendrá una visita de
tres días al país caribeño. Cagle afirma que, como destino, Cuba ha
comenzado a despertar interés en los pasajeros.
"Fue una de las cosas que me motivó a venir en este viaje", añadió Cagle.
"Para entender de qué se trata la cultura cubana y ver realmente una
parte del mundo que parece demasiado remota pero realmente está tan
cerca de Charlotte", añadió Cagle.
Lla concejal de Charlotte, Vi Lyles, dice que piensa que es el momento
de establecer una relación más fuerte con Cuba. "Es realmente una
oportunidad para que aprendamos sobre las relaciones que podemos tener
con el pueblo cubano", dijo.
Lyles señaló además que traerá lo que ha aprendido en Cuba de vuelta a
Charlotte con la esperanza de cubrir la brecha bilateral y sentar las
bases para futuras alianzas.
"Necesitamos educarnos unos a otros, pero también tenemos que trabajar
unos con otros", agregó.
En este momento hay vuelos directos desde el Aeropuerto Douglas a La
Habana, pero el viaje a la isla está restringido. Los pasajeros tienen
que calificar bajo 12 categorías legales para hacer el viaje incluyendo
visitas familiares, trabajo humanitario e investigación del gobierno.
Source: Delegación de Carolina del Norte viaja a Cuba para explorar
negocios | Cubanet -
https://www.cubanet.org/noticias/delegacion-de-carolina-del-norte-viaja-a-cuba-para-explorar-negocios/
Incluye legisladores y líderes de negocios
Miércoles, febrero 1, 2017 | CubaNet
MIAMI, Estados Unidos.- Un grupo de legisladores y líderes de negocios
de Charlotte, Carolina del Norte, ha viajado a Cuba este martes para
explorar las potencialidades de negocios con la Isla en la medida que
las relaciones entre el país comunista y Estados Unidos han mejorado,
reporta una filial de NBC.
La delegación, que incluye al director de aviación del Douglas
International Airport de Charlotte, Brent Cagle, sostendrá una visita de
tres días al país caribeño. Cagle afirma que, como destino, Cuba ha
comenzado a despertar interés en los pasajeros.
"Fue una de las cosas que me motivó a venir en este viaje", añadió Cagle.
"Para entender de qué se trata la cultura cubana y ver realmente una
parte del mundo que parece demasiado remota pero realmente está tan
cerca de Charlotte", añadió Cagle.
Lla concejal de Charlotte, Vi Lyles, dice que piensa que es el momento
de establecer una relación más fuerte con Cuba. "Es realmente una
oportunidad para que aprendamos sobre las relaciones que podemos tener
con el pueblo cubano", dijo.
Lyles señaló además que traerá lo que ha aprendido en Cuba de vuelta a
Charlotte con la esperanza de cubrir la brecha bilateral y sentar las
bases para futuras alianzas.
"Necesitamos educarnos unos a otros, pero también tenemos que trabajar
unos con otros", agregó.
En este momento hay vuelos directos desde el Aeropuerto Douglas a La
Habana, pero el viaje a la isla está restringido. Los pasajeros tienen
que calificar bajo 12 categorías legales para hacer el viaje incluyendo
visitas familiares, trabajo humanitario e investigación del gobierno.
Source: Delegación de Carolina del Norte viaja a Cuba para explorar
negocios | Cubanet -
https://www.cubanet.org/noticias/delegacion-de-carolina-del-norte-viaja-a-cuba-para-explorar-negocios/
Ports deserve state support in dealing with Cuba
Editorial: Ports deserve state support in dealing with Cuba
Posted: 5:43 p.m. Tuesday, January 31, 2017
Port of Palm Beach officials see an opportunity in normalizing relations
with the communist island of Cuba. As well they should.
The port is in an advantageous position geographically. It has a deep
and rich history of trade with the island, pre-Fidel Castro. And most
important, the 156-acre port has room to expand and accommodate any
future growth in a relationship.
This is no pie-in-the-sky proposal. This is a well-thought-out growth
plan led by Port Executive Director Manuel Almira, who was born in Cuba.
For example, ground was broken in July 2016 on a $10.4 million mini-slip
at the port's southernmost berth that could eventually serve as a base
for cargo service to Cuba — and boost local businesses.
This economic potential deserves the state's support, not to be held
hostage to politics of the moment. But Gov. Rick Scott, who has made job
growth the focal point of his two terms in office, has unfortunately
lost focus when it comes to the state's ports doing business with Cuba.
Days before a delegation of Cuban maritime leaders was to arrive for
separate meetings with officials of three Florida ports — Palm Beach,
Port Everglades and Port Tampa Bay — Scott issued a threat, via Twitter
no less, to cut funding for port operators that do business with Cuba.
That threat risks $920,000 this year for the Port of Palm Beach.
"Disappointed some FL ports would enter into any agreement with Cuban
dictatorship," Scott wrote in a series of tweets on Jan. 25. "I will
recommend restricting state funds for ports that work with Cuba in my
budget. We cannot condone Raul Castro's oppressive behavior. Serious
security/human rights concerns."
Though laudable, the governor's reasoning smacks of hypocrisy. The Cuban
government indeed remains an oppressive regime under President Raul
Castro, despite the movement toward normalization of relations begun by
President Barack Obama two years ago. But more than a half century of
Cold War relations, centered on a draconian trade embargo, hasn't done
much to bring democracy to the island's 11 million residents either.
Moreover, Cuba is not the only oppressive communist regime the United
States — and Florida — would do business with.
China, the United States' largest trading partner, is well known for its
iron hand and shows little sign of changing. "The outlook for
fundamental human rights, including freedoms of expression, assembly,
association and religion, remains dire," says the nongovernmental Human
Rights Watch in its latest world report.
The government controls the media, restricts the internet, arrests
dissidents, regulates religious practice. There is only one political
party. Human rights lawyers and activists are detained, their forced
"confessions" shown on nationwide TV, and punished with stiff prison
sentences.
Yet the People's Republic of China is a land of McDonald's, Starbucks,
KFC, Pizza Hut and Wal-Mart. General Motors and other major American
giants do big business there. It's where iPhones and iPads are
manufactured, where the all-American Barbies and G.I. Joes are made.
Was Scott thinking of any of these contradictions when, on human rights
grounds, he slammed the ports' plans to sign a memorandum of
understanding (MOU) with the National Port Administration of Cuba to
cover future cooperation?
"There's no human rights down there. I don't believe our ports should be
doing business with a brutal dictator," Scott said last week. "We should
say to ourselves, 'We are going to do business where they are not doing
what Raul Castro is doing.' "
Did Scott somehow forget that he has personally courted China during
trade missions for the state of Florida?
As Almira told The Post's Susan Salisbury: "Private businesses based at
ports do business with Cuba, not the ports themselves. The port's role
is to help with that."
The state's role is to help expand Florida trade and grow Florida jobs.
Not pick winners and losers based on politics.
Though laudable, the governor's reasoning smacks of hypocrisy.
Source: Florida ports deserve state support in dealing with Cuba -
http://www.mypalmbeachpost.com/news/opinion/editorial-ports-deserve-state-support-dealing-with-cuba/nx6GJslfTZl2Q17LItjXwN/
Posted: 5:43 p.m. Tuesday, January 31, 2017
Port of Palm Beach officials see an opportunity in normalizing relations
with the communist island of Cuba. As well they should.
The port is in an advantageous position geographically. It has a deep
and rich history of trade with the island, pre-Fidel Castro. And most
important, the 156-acre port has room to expand and accommodate any
future growth in a relationship.
This is no pie-in-the-sky proposal. This is a well-thought-out growth
plan led by Port Executive Director Manuel Almira, who was born in Cuba.
For example, ground was broken in July 2016 on a $10.4 million mini-slip
at the port's southernmost berth that could eventually serve as a base
for cargo service to Cuba — and boost local businesses.
This economic potential deserves the state's support, not to be held
hostage to politics of the moment. But Gov. Rick Scott, who has made job
growth the focal point of his two terms in office, has unfortunately
lost focus when it comes to the state's ports doing business with Cuba.
Days before a delegation of Cuban maritime leaders was to arrive for
separate meetings with officials of three Florida ports — Palm Beach,
Port Everglades and Port Tampa Bay — Scott issued a threat, via Twitter
no less, to cut funding for port operators that do business with Cuba.
That threat risks $920,000 this year for the Port of Palm Beach.
"Disappointed some FL ports would enter into any agreement with Cuban
dictatorship," Scott wrote in a series of tweets on Jan. 25. "I will
recommend restricting state funds for ports that work with Cuba in my
budget. We cannot condone Raul Castro's oppressive behavior. Serious
security/human rights concerns."
Though laudable, the governor's reasoning smacks of hypocrisy. The Cuban
government indeed remains an oppressive regime under President Raul
Castro, despite the movement toward normalization of relations begun by
President Barack Obama two years ago. But more than a half century of
Cold War relations, centered on a draconian trade embargo, hasn't done
much to bring democracy to the island's 11 million residents either.
Moreover, Cuba is not the only oppressive communist regime the United
States — and Florida — would do business with.
China, the United States' largest trading partner, is well known for its
iron hand and shows little sign of changing. "The outlook for
fundamental human rights, including freedoms of expression, assembly,
association and religion, remains dire," says the nongovernmental Human
Rights Watch in its latest world report.
The government controls the media, restricts the internet, arrests
dissidents, regulates religious practice. There is only one political
party. Human rights lawyers and activists are detained, their forced
"confessions" shown on nationwide TV, and punished with stiff prison
sentences.
Yet the People's Republic of China is a land of McDonald's, Starbucks,
KFC, Pizza Hut and Wal-Mart. General Motors and other major American
giants do big business there. It's where iPhones and iPads are
manufactured, where the all-American Barbies and G.I. Joes are made.
Was Scott thinking of any of these contradictions when, on human rights
grounds, he slammed the ports' plans to sign a memorandum of
understanding (MOU) with the National Port Administration of Cuba to
cover future cooperation?
"There's no human rights down there. I don't believe our ports should be
doing business with a brutal dictator," Scott said last week. "We should
say to ourselves, 'We are going to do business where they are not doing
what Raul Castro is doing.' "
Did Scott somehow forget that he has personally courted China during
trade missions for the state of Florida?
As Almira told The Post's Susan Salisbury: "Private businesses based at
ports do business with Cuba, not the ports themselves. The port's role
is to help with that."
The state's role is to help expand Florida trade and grow Florida jobs.
Not pick winners and losers based on politics.
Though laudable, the governor's reasoning smacks of hypocrisy.
Source: Florida ports deserve state support in dealing with Cuba -
http://www.mypalmbeachpost.com/news/opinion/editorial-ports-deserve-state-support-dealing-with-cuba/nx6GJslfTZl2Q17LItjXwN/
Cubans stranded in Mexico due to 'Wet Foot' policy demise refuse to return
Cubans stranded in Mexico due to 'Wet Foot' policy demise refuse to return
NUEVO LAREDO, Mexico – Scores of Cubans meet every day at the Gateway
to the Americas International Bridge in Nuevo Laredo on the U.S. border
after an odyssey through 10 countries, never knowing if they would
achieve their dream of entering the United States, but with the
conviction that returning to the island is "not an option."
As more groups of Cubans keep arriving to Nuevo Laredo, approximately
400 are staying at "migrant houses" set up by several churches.
Every day the Cubans gather there, just steps away from Laredo, Texas,
hoping for news about the border being opened to receive them.
"We've been here 16 days and Mexican migration authorities have never
bothered us," Yamira Gonzalez, who left Cuba with her sister and a
minor, told EFE.
Gonzalez said that local authorities offer them medical care and ask
whether there is anybody with chronic illnesses so they can see to their
medication. "They make everything normal while we're resolving our
status with the United States," she said.
Most of them left Cuba with tourist visas for Guyana and roundtrip
tickets that cost them $259 (240 euros) each. They sold everything they
owned to finance the trip, paying a series of "coyotes" (people
traffickers) along the way.
Their odyssey took them through 10 countries, dangerous rivers, dense
jungles and the threat of criminal gangs.
Those who arrived after Jan. 12 were unable to achieve their dream of
reaching the "promised land," since that day the government of then-US
President Barack Obama eliminated the "wet-foot, dry-foot" statute that
permitted them legal asylum.
"Why did we come here? In Cuba we have no rights," said Yeleni Diaz, who
left the island because she found the system of government unbearable.
"My husband spent three years in jail and I could never agree with the
Cuban president because of his disgusting policies. Fidel passed the
presidency on to his brother, and Raul will pass it on to his sons. In
what country have we ever seen the same president for 60 years?" she said.
Diaz said that Cubans who left after "wet-foot, dry-foot" was revoked
are in a state of extreme anxiety.
More than 11,000 Cubans arrived in Mexico during the last three months
of 2016. Since last Friday the Mexican government began deporting dozens
from the 21st Century Migration Station in Tapachula, Chiapas state.
"Returning to Cuba is not an option," said Lester Diaz, who lived in
Havana. "It's unfair what is happening to us."
About their prospects after a possible deportation, Sara Ramos said
"Cuba supposedly has no political prisoners, but they pin other charges
on you to put you in jail."
Others who were interviewed asked to remain anonymous in case they are
deported to Cuba, while all agreed that economic conditions on the
island are insupportable and are what forced them to leave their country.
Source: Cubans stranded in Mexico due to 'Wet Foot' policy demise refuse
to return | Fox News -
http://www.foxnews.com/world/2017/02/01/cubans-stranded-in-mexico-due-to-wet-foot-policy-demise-refuse-to-return.html
NUEVO LAREDO, Mexico – Scores of Cubans meet every day at the Gateway
to the Americas International Bridge in Nuevo Laredo on the U.S. border
after an odyssey through 10 countries, never knowing if they would
achieve their dream of entering the United States, but with the
conviction that returning to the island is "not an option."
As more groups of Cubans keep arriving to Nuevo Laredo, approximately
400 are staying at "migrant houses" set up by several churches.
Every day the Cubans gather there, just steps away from Laredo, Texas,
hoping for news about the border being opened to receive them.
"We've been here 16 days and Mexican migration authorities have never
bothered us," Yamira Gonzalez, who left Cuba with her sister and a
minor, told EFE.
Gonzalez said that local authorities offer them medical care and ask
whether there is anybody with chronic illnesses so they can see to their
medication. "They make everything normal while we're resolving our
status with the United States," she said.
Most of them left Cuba with tourist visas for Guyana and roundtrip
tickets that cost them $259 (240 euros) each. They sold everything they
owned to finance the trip, paying a series of "coyotes" (people
traffickers) along the way.
Their odyssey took them through 10 countries, dangerous rivers, dense
jungles and the threat of criminal gangs.
Those who arrived after Jan. 12 were unable to achieve their dream of
reaching the "promised land," since that day the government of then-US
President Barack Obama eliminated the "wet-foot, dry-foot" statute that
permitted them legal asylum.
"Why did we come here? In Cuba we have no rights," said Yeleni Diaz, who
left the island because she found the system of government unbearable.
"My husband spent three years in jail and I could never agree with the
Cuban president because of his disgusting policies. Fidel passed the
presidency on to his brother, and Raul will pass it on to his sons. In
what country have we ever seen the same president for 60 years?" she said.
Diaz said that Cubans who left after "wet-foot, dry-foot" was revoked
are in a state of extreme anxiety.
More than 11,000 Cubans arrived in Mexico during the last three months
of 2016. Since last Friday the Mexican government began deporting dozens
from the 21st Century Migration Station in Tapachula, Chiapas state.
"Returning to Cuba is not an option," said Lester Diaz, who lived in
Havana. "It's unfair what is happening to us."
About their prospects after a possible deportation, Sara Ramos said
"Cuba supposedly has no political prisoners, but they pin other charges
on you to put you in jail."
Others who were interviewed asked to remain anonymous in case they are
deported to Cuba, while all agreed that economic conditions on the
island are insupportable and are what forced them to leave their country.
Source: Cubans stranded in Mexico due to 'Wet Foot' policy demise refuse
to return | Fox News -
http://www.foxnews.com/world/2017/02/01/cubans-stranded-in-mexico-due-to-wet-foot-policy-demise-refuse-to-return.html
Cuba oil potential estimate revised higher
Cuba oil potential estimate revised higher
Melbana Energy more than doubles its reserve estimate onshore.
By Daniel J. Graeber | Feb. 1, 2017 at 7:08 AM
Feb. 1 (UPI) -- Cuba-focused Melbana Energy said it more the doubled its
reserve estimates for onshore oil, though recovery rates there are low
so far.
Melbana is one of the few Western oil companies, and the only one listed
on the Australian exchange, with a footprint in Cuba. In a statement on
its reserve estimates, CEO Peter Stickland said the 612 million barrels
of prospective oil in its Block 9 onshore area was "extraordinary."
"Significantly, these leads have the potential for billions of barrels
of oil-in-place however the prospective resources so far assume only the
historical 5 percent recovery factor from offset fields in Cuba," he
said. "The application of modern enhanced oil recovery techniques may
increase the recovery factor and therefore has the potential to
substantially increase the potential recoverable oil."
Primary recovery from oil deposits relates to natural pressure in the
reservoir. Secondary recovery involves water or gas injection into the
well to increase production. Enhanced oil recovery techniques include
further stimulation from steam, gas or chemical injections into the well.
The latest estimate for Block 9 is more than double its previous
forecast. Melbana said plans for an acceleration of its drilling
programs onshore Cuba are underway with the aim of finalized well
proposals by the end of the quarter.
The national oil company of Cuba, CUPET, extended its contract last year
for early exploration efforts in Block 9 by eight months to November
2017. Melbana estimates Cuban programs have a competitive operating cost
of around $7 per barrel of oil.
"Melbana is currently undertaking a detailed investigation of the
in-country operating environment to support the drilling program," the
company said.
Source: Melbana Energy: Cuba oil potential revised higher - UPI.com -
http://www.upi.com/Cuba-oil-potential-estimate-revised-higher/4171485948125/
Melbana Energy more than doubles its reserve estimate onshore.
By Daniel J. Graeber | Feb. 1, 2017 at 7:08 AM
Feb. 1 (UPI) -- Cuba-focused Melbana Energy said it more the doubled its
reserve estimates for onshore oil, though recovery rates there are low
so far.
Melbana is one of the few Western oil companies, and the only one listed
on the Australian exchange, with a footprint in Cuba. In a statement on
its reserve estimates, CEO Peter Stickland said the 612 million barrels
of prospective oil in its Block 9 onshore area was "extraordinary."
"Significantly, these leads have the potential for billions of barrels
of oil-in-place however the prospective resources so far assume only the
historical 5 percent recovery factor from offset fields in Cuba," he
said. "The application of modern enhanced oil recovery techniques may
increase the recovery factor and therefore has the potential to
substantially increase the potential recoverable oil."
Primary recovery from oil deposits relates to natural pressure in the
reservoir. Secondary recovery involves water or gas injection into the
well to increase production. Enhanced oil recovery techniques include
further stimulation from steam, gas or chemical injections into the well.
The latest estimate for Block 9 is more than double its previous
forecast. Melbana said plans for an acceleration of its drilling
programs onshore Cuba are underway with the aim of finalized well
proposals by the end of the quarter.
The national oil company of Cuba, CUPET, extended its contract last year
for early exploration efforts in Block 9 by eight months to November
2017. Melbana estimates Cuban programs have a competitive operating cost
of around $7 per barrel of oil.
"Melbana is currently undertaking a detailed investigation of the
in-country operating environment to support the drilling program," the
company said.
Source: Melbana Energy: Cuba oil potential revised higher - UPI.com -
http://www.upi.com/Cuba-oil-potential-estimate-revised-higher/4171485948125/
Cuban artists paint garments, not canvases for 'Fashion Art' show
Cuban artists paint garments, not canvases for 'Fashion Art' show
By Sarah Marsh | HAVANA
A fantastical blue bird emerges from leaves in the latest work by Manuel
Mendive, considered Cuba's top living artist. But this isn't a framed
canvas, it's a painting on a dress, for the exhibit "Fashion Art Havana"
that opened on Tuesday.
In creations by other Cuban artists, a ghostly face seems to scream out
from a dark cape, a red and blue matryoshka doll is painted onto a
dress, while a bubble-shaped frock is covered with wooden spikes.
The show is the latest in the "Fashion Art" series by Spanish designer
Manuel Fernandez, who has worked with artists all over the world to
create one-off garments at the intersection of both disciplines.
"Art doesn't have to always be hung on walls, it could also be on floor
tiles, earrings, tights or many other places," Fernandez said in an
interview.
Participating artists said at the opening they had high hopes the
exhibit would help fashion become viewed in Communist-ruled Cuba as more
than a mere consumerist indulgence.
"Fashion is also art, and this is a concept we need to start
understanding here," said Jorge Perugorría, who painted a graphic black
and white design on his dress.
Fernandez said he first designs a garment for an artist, letting their
work and personality inspire the form. He leaves the fabric blank
though, like a canvas for them to then paint.
Given that he lets the artists paint whatever they wish, he has no idea
what his shows will look like until the very last minute - a nail-biting
experience.
In the case of "Fashion Art Havana", which will run in Havana's
sumptuous, neo-baroque Gran Teatro until Feb. 11, Fernandez said he was
struck with how two painters ended up drawing on Russian themes.
This testified to the strong influence the Soviet Union had on Cuba
during their Cold War alliance, something you would not find in other
Latin American cultures.
Eduardo Abela, son of the Cuban artist of the same name, daubed a
matryoshka doll onto his dress, while Gustavo Echevarría, known as
"Cuty," stained his scarlet, then painted communist symbols like a
hammer and sickle on it.
"Cuba remains a Communist country, yet at the same there is the
sensuality of the dress and the consumerism of the designs - there is a
contradiction there that in this case coexist perfectly," Cuty said.
With this show, Fernandez said he decided to juxtapose the new Cuban
creations with works from previous collections by Puerto Rican and
Spanish artists like Antonio Martorell and Rafael Canogar.
Since embarking on his "Fashion Art" project in 1998, he has worked with
300 artists worldwide with a particular focus on Latin America although
his next exhibit will be in Zimbabwe, in May. His long-term aim is to
create a museum for his collection, currently stored between Spain and
Panama.
(Reporting by Sarah Marsh; Editing by Bill Rigby)
Source: Cuban artists paint garments, not canvases for 'Fashion Art'
show | Reuters -
http://www.reuters.com/article/us-cuba-art-fashion-idUSKBN15G38M
By Sarah Marsh | HAVANA
A fantastical blue bird emerges from leaves in the latest work by Manuel
Mendive, considered Cuba's top living artist. But this isn't a framed
canvas, it's a painting on a dress, for the exhibit "Fashion Art Havana"
that opened on Tuesday.
In creations by other Cuban artists, a ghostly face seems to scream out
from a dark cape, a red and blue matryoshka doll is painted onto a
dress, while a bubble-shaped frock is covered with wooden spikes.
The show is the latest in the "Fashion Art" series by Spanish designer
Manuel Fernandez, who has worked with artists all over the world to
create one-off garments at the intersection of both disciplines.
"Art doesn't have to always be hung on walls, it could also be on floor
tiles, earrings, tights or many other places," Fernandez said in an
interview.
Participating artists said at the opening they had high hopes the
exhibit would help fashion become viewed in Communist-ruled Cuba as more
than a mere consumerist indulgence.
"Fashion is also art, and this is a concept we need to start
understanding here," said Jorge Perugorría, who painted a graphic black
and white design on his dress.
Fernandez said he first designs a garment for an artist, letting their
work and personality inspire the form. He leaves the fabric blank
though, like a canvas for them to then paint.
Given that he lets the artists paint whatever they wish, he has no idea
what his shows will look like until the very last minute - a nail-biting
experience.
In the case of "Fashion Art Havana", which will run in Havana's
sumptuous, neo-baroque Gran Teatro until Feb. 11, Fernandez said he was
struck with how two painters ended up drawing on Russian themes.
This testified to the strong influence the Soviet Union had on Cuba
during their Cold War alliance, something you would not find in other
Latin American cultures.
Eduardo Abela, son of the Cuban artist of the same name, daubed a
matryoshka doll onto his dress, while Gustavo Echevarría, known as
"Cuty," stained his scarlet, then painted communist symbols like a
hammer and sickle on it.
"Cuba remains a Communist country, yet at the same there is the
sensuality of the dress and the consumerism of the designs - there is a
contradiction there that in this case coexist perfectly," Cuty said.
With this show, Fernandez said he decided to juxtapose the new Cuban
creations with works from previous collections by Puerto Rican and
Spanish artists like Antonio Martorell and Rafael Canogar.
Since embarking on his "Fashion Art" project in 1998, he has worked with
300 artists worldwide with a particular focus on Latin America although
his next exhibit will be in Zimbabwe, in May. His long-term aim is to
create a museum for his collection, currently stored between Spain and
Panama.
(Reporting by Sarah Marsh; Editing by Bill Rigby)
Source: Cuban artists paint garments, not canvases for 'Fashion Art'
show | Reuters -
http://www.reuters.com/article/us-cuba-art-fashion-idUSKBN15G38M
Seeds Are Key to Improving Bean Production in Cuba
Seeds Are Key to Improving Bean Production in Cuba
By Ivet González
HAVANA, Jan 31 2017 (IPS) - "You have to have good and varied seeds to
test which one adapts best to each kind of soil," says 71-year-old
farmer Rubén Torres, who on his farm in central Cuba harvests 1.6 tons
of organic beans every year, among other crops.
The importance that Torres places on seeds in order for the agricultural
sector to meet local demand for beans, a staple of the Cuban diet,
coincides with the assessment by researchers consulted by IPS, who
propose promoting genetic improvement and the production of other kinds
of legumes.
After two decades of selecting seeds, Torres produces and sells four
varieties of black beans, four kinds of red beans and one kind of white
bean. "And I have eight varieties for family consumption and for
scientific research," he told IPS.
Located in a livestock farming area on the outskirts of the city of
Santa Clara, 268 km east of Havana, Torres' plot of land is unusual in
the area because he devotes most of his 17 hectares to growing beans and
rice, which form the basis of the diet of the 11.2 million people in
this Caribbean island nation.
Baños de Marrero, as his family farm is called, also has avocado and
coconut trees and crops of maize and tomatoes. Other portions are
covered with seedbeds and garden beds badly in need of repair where
Torres produces 20 tons of ecological fertiliser from worm castings.
"When farmers go to plant they often don't have seeds. That's why I
always give some of mine to those who need them. Without quality seeds,
you can't succeed," said Torres, a participant in the Programme for
Local Agrarian Innovation (PIAL), which since 2000 has helped empower
farmers in 45 of the country's 168 municipalities.
"There is a public company that sells seeds," but in his opinion, "to
get really good ones farmers have to guarantee them themselves."
With the support of the Swiss development cooperation agency and the
coordination of the state National Institute of Agricultural Science,
PIAL started to teach family farmers in western Cuba how to obtain and
select their own seeds. It has expanded and now is promoting
participation by women and young people in farming.
"Without quality seeds, you really can't make progress in terms of
productivity," agronomist Tomás Shagarodsky told IPS about a key aspect
in raising yields in bean crops in Cuba, where there is potential for
growing many more beans.
As part of the government's agricultural reforms implemented since 2008,
incentives were put in place for the production of beans, with the aim
of boosting the surface area devoted to this crop in the different kinds
of agricultural production units: state-run farms, cooperatives, and
small private farms.
Between 2009 and 2014, the country grew on average 126,650 hectares per
year of beans, obtaining an average of 118,830 tons. In 1996, 38,000
hectares yielded 9,000 tons of beans.
Now, the Agriculture Ministry's Agro-Industrial Grains Group seeks to
increase bean production between 15 and 20 per cent a year, in order to
meet domestic demand and lower the high cost of beans in the farmers'
markets that operate according to the law of supply and demand.
"Cuba currently has extensive bean crops, but it hasn't reached its full
yield potential," said Shagarodsky.
To achieve better harvests, he said the sector must solve "structural
problems" such as shortages of resources, labour power and equipment,
and more complex issues related to climate change and water scarcity.
In that sense, Shagarodsky, an agronomist and researcher at the state
"Alejandro de Humboldt" Tropical Agriculture Research Institute
(INIFAT), pointed out a vulnerability that is rarely discussed.
"We need young professionals devoted to improving seeds," he said at
INIFAT headquarters, located in the poor outskirts of Santiago de las
Vegas, 18 km south of Havana.
"The stock of improved seeds has shrunk because the breeders who used to
do this job have retired, have died or have left," said Shagarodsky,
surrounded by the unpainted walls and deteriorated ceilings of the
INIFAT central offices. "That has to change and more attractive salaries
have to be paid," he said.
In live collections and cold chambers, INIFAT preserves the largest
quantity of genetic resources in Cuba. In its germplasm bank it keeps
3,250 of the 18,433 samples safeguarded in the entire national network
of institutions that share this mission. Legumes constitute 46 per cent
of the resources preserved by INIFAT.
The institution safeguards 1,465 varieties of pulses, including pigeon
peas (Cajanus cajan), peanuts, chickpeas, soybeans, lentils, peas and
green beans (Phaseolus vulgaris).
In recognition of the important work it carries out, INIFAT was chosen
in December to host the activities to end the International Year of
Pulses, as 2016 was declared by the United Nations Food and Agriculture
Organisation (FAO).
FAO representative in Cuba Theodor Friedrich pointed out at this event
that pulses contribute to food security in two senses: they have high
protein value and they naturally fertilise soil with nitrogen.
In addition, he said "growing pulses is the only way to add nitrogen to
the soil without resorting to fertilisers. And they have important
nutritional properties," such as zero cholesterol and gluten, and high
content of iron, zinc and other nutrients.
For these and other reasons, FAO promotes the cultivation of pulses in
the western provinces of Pinar del Río and Artemisa, in a project aimed
at strengthening local capacities to sustainably produce biofortified
basic grains adapted to climate change, including several kinds of
pulses, by 2018.
"We eat all kind of pulses, from beans to chickpeas and lentils. They
are very important for children because they fall under the category of
vegetable proteins," Misalis Cobo, who lives with her six-year-old son
in the Havana neighbourhood of Cerro, told IPS.
"We get beans from the ration card and the rest I buy in markets and
stores," said the 37-year-old self-employed worker. "I can afford these
purchases although they are expensive because they stretch a long way
for us since it's just my son and me. But large low-income families
they're expensive," she said.
Each person in Cuba receives a small monthly quota of beans at
subsidised prices through the ration card. But to feed the family for an
entire month, more beans and other pulses are needed, and must be bought
at the state and private agricultural markets, and stores that sell
imported goods.
Prices range from 0.5 cents of a dollar up to 1.2 dollars for half a
kilogram of pulses, in a country where the average income is 23 dollars
a month in the public sector, Cuba's biggest employer by far.
Source: Seeds Are Key to Improving Bean Production in Cuba | Inter Press
Service -
http://www.ipsnews.net/2017/01/seeds-are-key-to-improving-bean-production-in-cuba/
By Ivet González
HAVANA, Jan 31 2017 (IPS) - "You have to have good and varied seeds to
test which one adapts best to each kind of soil," says 71-year-old
farmer Rubén Torres, who on his farm in central Cuba harvests 1.6 tons
of organic beans every year, among other crops.
The importance that Torres places on seeds in order for the agricultural
sector to meet local demand for beans, a staple of the Cuban diet,
coincides with the assessment by researchers consulted by IPS, who
propose promoting genetic improvement and the production of other kinds
of legumes.
After two decades of selecting seeds, Torres produces and sells four
varieties of black beans, four kinds of red beans and one kind of white
bean. "And I have eight varieties for family consumption and for
scientific research," he told IPS.
Located in a livestock farming area on the outskirts of the city of
Santa Clara, 268 km east of Havana, Torres' plot of land is unusual in
the area because he devotes most of his 17 hectares to growing beans and
rice, which form the basis of the diet of the 11.2 million people in
this Caribbean island nation.
Baños de Marrero, as his family farm is called, also has avocado and
coconut trees and crops of maize and tomatoes. Other portions are
covered with seedbeds and garden beds badly in need of repair where
Torres produces 20 tons of ecological fertiliser from worm castings.
"When farmers go to plant they often don't have seeds. That's why I
always give some of mine to those who need them. Without quality seeds,
you can't succeed," said Torres, a participant in the Programme for
Local Agrarian Innovation (PIAL), which since 2000 has helped empower
farmers in 45 of the country's 168 municipalities.
"There is a public company that sells seeds," but in his opinion, "to
get really good ones farmers have to guarantee them themselves."
With the support of the Swiss development cooperation agency and the
coordination of the state National Institute of Agricultural Science,
PIAL started to teach family farmers in western Cuba how to obtain and
select their own seeds. It has expanded and now is promoting
participation by women and young people in farming.
"Without quality seeds, you really can't make progress in terms of
productivity," agronomist Tomás Shagarodsky told IPS about a key aspect
in raising yields in bean crops in Cuba, where there is potential for
growing many more beans.
As part of the government's agricultural reforms implemented since 2008,
incentives were put in place for the production of beans, with the aim
of boosting the surface area devoted to this crop in the different kinds
of agricultural production units: state-run farms, cooperatives, and
small private farms.
Between 2009 and 2014, the country grew on average 126,650 hectares per
year of beans, obtaining an average of 118,830 tons. In 1996, 38,000
hectares yielded 9,000 tons of beans.
Now, the Agriculture Ministry's Agro-Industrial Grains Group seeks to
increase bean production between 15 and 20 per cent a year, in order to
meet domestic demand and lower the high cost of beans in the farmers'
markets that operate according to the law of supply and demand.
"Cuba currently has extensive bean crops, but it hasn't reached its full
yield potential," said Shagarodsky.
To achieve better harvests, he said the sector must solve "structural
problems" such as shortages of resources, labour power and equipment,
and more complex issues related to climate change and water scarcity.
In that sense, Shagarodsky, an agronomist and researcher at the state
"Alejandro de Humboldt" Tropical Agriculture Research Institute
(INIFAT), pointed out a vulnerability that is rarely discussed.
"We need young professionals devoted to improving seeds," he said at
INIFAT headquarters, located in the poor outskirts of Santiago de las
Vegas, 18 km south of Havana.
"The stock of improved seeds has shrunk because the breeders who used to
do this job have retired, have died or have left," said Shagarodsky,
surrounded by the unpainted walls and deteriorated ceilings of the
INIFAT central offices. "That has to change and more attractive salaries
have to be paid," he said.
In live collections and cold chambers, INIFAT preserves the largest
quantity of genetic resources in Cuba. In its germplasm bank it keeps
3,250 of the 18,433 samples safeguarded in the entire national network
of institutions that share this mission. Legumes constitute 46 per cent
of the resources preserved by INIFAT.
The institution safeguards 1,465 varieties of pulses, including pigeon
peas (Cajanus cajan), peanuts, chickpeas, soybeans, lentils, peas and
green beans (Phaseolus vulgaris).
In recognition of the important work it carries out, INIFAT was chosen
in December to host the activities to end the International Year of
Pulses, as 2016 was declared by the United Nations Food and Agriculture
Organisation (FAO).
FAO representative in Cuba Theodor Friedrich pointed out at this event
that pulses contribute to food security in two senses: they have high
protein value and they naturally fertilise soil with nitrogen.
In addition, he said "growing pulses is the only way to add nitrogen to
the soil without resorting to fertilisers. And they have important
nutritional properties," such as zero cholesterol and gluten, and high
content of iron, zinc and other nutrients.
For these and other reasons, FAO promotes the cultivation of pulses in
the western provinces of Pinar del Río and Artemisa, in a project aimed
at strengthening local capacities to sustainably produce biofortified
basic grains adapted to climate change, including several kinds of
pulses, by 2018.
"We eat all kind of pulses, from beans to chickpeas and lentils. They
are very important for children because they fall under the category of
vegetable proteins," Misalis Cobo, who lives with her six-year-old son
in the Havana neighbourhood of Cerro, told IPS.
"We get beans from the ration card and the rest I buy in markets and
stores," said the 37-year-old self-employed worker. "I can afford these
purchases although they are expensive because they stretch a long way
for us since it's just my son and me. But large low-income families
they're expensive," she said.
Each person in Cuba receives a small monthly quota of beans at
subsidised prices through the ration card. But to feed the family for an
entire month, more beans and other pulses are needed, and must be bought
at the state and private agricultural markets, and stores that sell
imported goods.
Prices range from 0.5 cents of a dollar up to 1.2 dollars for half a
kilogram of pulses, in a country where the average income is 23 dollars
a month in the public sector, Cuba's biggest employer by far.
Source: Seeds Are Key to Improving Bean Production in Cuba | Inter Press
Service -
http://www.ipsnews.net/2017/01/seeds-are-key-to-improving-bean-production-in-cuba/
American Airlines opens Havana ticket office
American Airlines opens Havana ticket office
American Airlines celebrated the grand opening of its Havana ticket
office on Tuesday.
The sales center is in El Centro de Negocios de Miramar, a two-block
section of office and retail buildings in the city's Miramar/Playa
section where other international airline and travel offices are located.
American began flying regularly scheduled commercial flights from Miami
to five Cuban cities in late summer and added Miami-Havana and
Charlotte-Havana service in November. As of Feb. 12, the airline will be
flying 10 daily flights from the United States to Cuba, including four
flights daily from Miami to Havana, a daily Charlotte, N.C.-Havana
route, and daily flights from Miami to Camagüey, Cienfuegos, Holguín,
Santa Clara and Varadero.
With limited internet access and credit card use in Cuba, it has been
difficult for some travelers to book airline tickets online. The new AA
ticket office will be open Monday through Friday from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.
and on Saturday from 9 a.m. until 1 p.m.
Mimi Whitefield
Source: American Airlines open ticket office in Havana | Miami Herald -
http://www.miamiherald.com/news/business/international-business/article129851714.html
American Airlines celebrated the grand opening of its Havana ticket
office on Tuesday.
The sales center is in El Centro de Negocios de Miramar, a two-block
section of office and retail buildings in the city's Miramar/Playa
section where other international airline and travel offices are located.
American began flying regularly scheduled commercial flights from Miami
to five Cuban cities in late summer and added Miami-Havana and
Charlotte-Havana service in November. As of Feb. 12, the airline will be
flying 10 daily flights from the United States to Cuba, including four
flights daily from Miami to Havana, a daily Charlotte, N.C.-Havana
route, and daily flights from Miami to Camagüey, Cienfuegos, Holguín,
Santa Clara and Varadero.
With limited internet access and credit card use in Cuba, it has been
difficult for some travelers to book airline tickets online. The new AA
ticket office will be open Monday through Friday from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.
and on Saturday from 9 a.m. until 1 p.m.
Mimi Whitefield
Source: American Airlines open ticket office in Havana | Miami Herald -
http://www.miamiherald.com/news/business/international-business/article129851714.html
Gov. Scott puts provision in proposed budget to block trade with Cuba
Gov. Scott puts provision in proposed budget to block trade with Cuba
BY MIMI WHITEFIELD
mwhitefield@miamiherald.com
Following on the heels of last's week threatened retaliation against
Florida ports that sign agreements with Cuba, Gov. Rick Scott has tucked
another anti-Cuba provision into his proposed state budget that is even
more far-reaching.
Port Everglades and the Port of Palm Beach backed off plans to sign
what's known as a memorandum of understanding with the National Port
Administration of Cuba last week after Scott tweeted that he would ask
state legislators to cut off funding for any Florida ports that "enter
into any agreement with [the] Cuban dictatorship."
In a Twitter post, the governor said he had "Serious security/human
rights concerns" about Cuba.
The two ports received visits from a high-level maritime and business
delegation from Cuba last week, but both port directors put plans to
sign any MOU with Cuba on hold.
However, that didn't prevent Scott from putting wording in his new
budget, released Tuesday, that says no money can be "allocated to
infrastructure projects that result in the expansion of trade with the
Cuban dictatorship because of their continued human rights abuses." The
reference can be found on page 221 of Scott's 362-page 2017-2018 budget
recommendations.
It's up to Florida legislators if they want to include the governor's
recommendations in the budget they will craft during the legislative
session, which begins in March.
At stake is $176.56 million for port improvements that Scott has
stipulated shouldn't be funded if they lead to expanded trade with Cuba.
It's unclear if the budget reference also includes trade in services and
would impact Florida ports that have cruise service to Cuba or
potentially ferry service to the island. Several ferry ventures have
proposals before the Cuban government to offer ferry service from
Florida to Cuba.
Carnival's Fathom Line currently offers cruises from PortMiami to Cuba
and Pearl Seas Cruises has scheduled 11 Cuba cruises through April from
Port Everglades. Royal Caribbean International plans to offer a sailing
to Cuba from PortMiami on April 19 aboard the Empress of the Seas and
then switch the ship to Tampa where it will offer two more cruises to
Cuba in April and May.
The proposed state budget was released the same day as a shipment of
Cuban charcoal arrived at the Hialeah warehouse of Fogo Charcoal. Two
containers of the hardwood charcoal, which is made by private worker
cooperatives in Cuba, arrived at Port Everglades aboard a Crowley
Maritime ship last Tuesday. It was the first legal maritime shipment
from Cuba to the U.S. in more than 50 years.
Port Everglades Director Steven Cernak said last week that the port
leases space to its tenants and does not get involved in decisions about
their trading partners or how they operate. Crowley is Port Everglades'
largest customer.
Potentially, Port Everglades could lose as much as $125 million in state
funding over the next five years if the state imposes the governor's
recommendation.
"The bottom line is that [trade with Cuba] is really
private-sector-driven. Crowley has been doing business here with Cuba
for the past 15 years," said Ellen Kennedy, a Port Everglades spokeswoman.
"It's a question for the ports in this case," said a Crowley spokesman.
"The infrastructure projects planned at the port are mostly to better
handle the big ships that are coming from South America and Europe,"
Kennedy said. "The expansion is not specific to trade with Cuba."
FOLLOW MIMI WHITEFIELD ON TWITTER: @HERALDMIMI
Source: Gov. Scott uses budget to try to stop expansion of trade with
Cuba | Miami Herald -
http://www.miamiherald.com/news/nation-world/world/americas/cuba/article129874089.html
BY MIMI WHITEFIELD
mwhitefield@miamiherald.com
Following on the heels of last's week threatened retaliation against
Florida ports that sign agreements with Cuba, Gov. Rick Scott has tucked
another anti-Cuba provision into his proposed state budget that is even
more far-reaching.
Port Everglades and the Port of Palm Beach backed off plans to sign
what's known as a memorandum of understanding with the National Port
Administration of Cuba last week after Scott tweeted that he would ask
state legislators to cut off funding for any Florida ports that "enter
into any agreement with [the] Cuban dictatorship."
In a Twitter post, the governor said he had "Serious security/human
rights concerns" about Cuba.
The two ports received visits from a high-level maritime and business
delegation from Cuba last week, but both port directors put plans to
sign any MOU with Cuba on hold.
However, that didn't prevent Scott from putting wording in his new
budget, released Tuesday, that says no money can be "allocated to
infrastructure projects that result in the expansion of trade with the
Cuban dictatorship because of their continued human rights abuses." The
reference can be found on page 221 of Scott's 362-page 2017-2018 budget
recommendations.
It's up to Florida legislators if they want to include the governor's
recommendations in the budget they will craft during the legislative
session, which begins in March.
At stake is $176.56 million for port improvements that Scott has
stipulated shouldn't be funded if they lead to expanded trade with Cuba.
It's unclear if the budget reference also includes trade in services and
would impact Florida ports that have cruise service to Cuba or
potentially ferry service to the island. Several ferry ventures have
proposals before the Cuban government to offer ferry service from
Florida to Cuba.
Carnival's Fathom Line currently offers cruises from PortMiami to Cuba
and Pearl Seas Cruises has scheduled 11 Cuba cruises through April from
Port Everglades. Royal Caribbean International plans to offer a sailing
to Cuba from PortMiami on April 19 aboard the Empress of the Seas and
then switch the ship to Tampa where it will offer two more cruises to
Cuba in April and May.
The proposed state budget was released the same day as a shipment of
Cuban charcoal arrived at the Hialeah warehouse of Fogo Charcoal. Two
containers of the hardwood charcoal, which is made by private worker
cooperatives in Cuba, arrived at Port Everglades aboard a Crowley
Maritime ship last Tuesday. It was the first legal maritime shipment
from Cuba to the U.S. in more than 50 years.
Port Everglades Director Steven Cernak said last week that the port
leases space to its tenants and does not get involved in decisions about
their trading partners or how they operate. Crowley is Port Everglades'
largest customer.
Potentially, Port Everglades could lose as much as $125 million in state
funding over the next five years if the state imposes the governor's
recommendation.
"The bottom line is that [trade with Cuba] is really
private-sector-driven. Crowley has been doing business here with Cuba
for the past 15 years," said Ellen Kennedy, a Port Everglades spokeswoman.
"It's a question for the ports in this case," said a Crowley spokesman.
"The infrastructure projects planned at the port are mostly to better
handle the big ships that are coming from South America and Europe,"
Kennedy said. "The expansion is not specific to trade with Cuba."
FOLLOW MIMI WHITEFIELD ON TWITTER: @HERALDMIMI
Source: Gov. Scott uses budget to try to stop expansion of trade with
Cuba | Miami Herald -
http://www.miamiherald.com/news/nation-world/world/americas/cuba/article129874089.html
Women demand Cuba support 1st female boxing team
Women demand Cuba support 1st female boxing team
BY ANDREA RODRIGUEZ
HAVANA (AP) – Cuban men have won more Olympic boxing medals than
fighters from any other country. Now a group of up-and-coming female
boxers on the island have their eyes on the gold.
They want government support to form Cuba's first female boxing team and
help dispel a decades-old belief once summed up by a former top coach:
"Cuban women are meant to show the beauty of their face, not receive
punches."
Idamelys Moreno smirks at that idea as she and half a dozen other women
step up their training in hopes of changing the mind of Cuban officials.
"I see myself at the Olympics in Japan 2020," she said. "That's my dream."
Women were first allowed to box at the Olympics during the 2012 Summer
Olympics, and Moreno wants a shot at a medal, too. The 24-year-old
trains at least two hours a day after she gets off work, completing a
routine that includes running several miles (kilometers), lifting
weights, hitting a punching bag and sparring with both women and men.
Moreno and other women once were thrown out of a local gym when sports
officials got wind of them training there.
"One day without further ado they said, 'Listen, sir, women cannot be
here because female boxing is not allowed,' " Moreno recalled. "There
were around 12 of us, a lot of women from other provinces, and they had
to leave."
Olympic silver medalist Emilio Correa Jr. stepped in to help some of the
women find another gym while they push top Cuban officials to support
female boxing.
"They can bring more glory to the Cuban sport," Correa said. "They are
diamonds in the rough. … The motor skills, the explosive nature and the
energy of Cuban boxers are also present in these women."
THEY CAN BRING MORE GLORY TO THE CUBAN SPORT. THEY ARE DIAMONDS IN THE
ROUGH…
Emilio Correa Jr., Olympic silver medalist
But the government so far appears unconvinced. Officials have said
they're analyzing the proposal and carrying out medical studies to
understand the impact of blows to a woman's body and whether such action
is "appropriate."
A message left with the Cuban Federation of Boxing was not returned.
Female athletes in Cuba have made strides in many other sports,
including wrestling, judo and, most recently, weightlifting. In 2006,
Cuba allowed the creation of the island's first female weightlifting
team for an international competition.
"If they're allowed in wrestling or in weightlifting, which are pretty
strenuous sports, I don't understand why not boxing," said sports
commentator Ismael Sene.
Boxing has long been an athletic engine for Cuba, which has won 72
Olympic medals in that category and produced stars including Felix
Savon, Teofilo Stevenson, Emilio Correa Sr., Julio Cesar La Cruz, Arlen
Lopez and Robeisy Ramirez.
The lack of women on that roster disappoints many, including Namibia
Flores, who has trained in the U.S. and starred in a 2014 U.S.
documentary called "Boxeadora."
Flores has accused the Federation of Cuban Women of not supporting their
cause, even though the group helped women enter professional fields that
were dominated by men prior to the revolution. Female boxers inspired by
Flores say they hope to get the same opportunity.
"My mom says it's a violent sport," 25-year-old Legnis Cala said as her
colorful extensions flew back and forth while she sparred with Moreno.
"But there are women in other countries who also box … And if they give
us permission, I think we'll also make it."
Source: Cuban female boxers want government support for 1st female team
| Miami Herald -
http://www.miamiherald.com/news/nation-world/world/americas/cuba/article130041039.html
BY ANDREA RODRIGUEZ
HAVANA (AP) – Cuban men have won more Olympic boxing medals than
fighters from any other country. Now a group of up-and-coming female
boxers on the island have their eyes on the gold.
They want government support to form Cuba's first female boxing team and
help dispel a decades-old belief once summed up by a former top coach:
"Cuban women are meant to show the beauty of their face, not receive
punches."
Idamelys Moreno smirks at that idea as she and half a dozen other women
step up their training in hopes of changing the mind of Cuban officials.
"I see myself at the Olympics in Japan 2020," she said. "That's my dream."
Women were first allowed to box at the Olympics during the 2012 Summer
Olympics, and Moreno wants a shot at a medal, too. The 24-year-old
trains at least two hours a day after she gets off work, completing a
routine that includes running several miles (kilometers), lifting
weights, hitting a punching bag and sparring with both women and men.
Moreno and other women once were thrown out of a local gym when sports
officials got wind of them training there.
"One day without further ado they said, 'Listen, sir, women cannot be
here because female boxing is not allowed,' " Moreno recalled. "There
were around 12 of us, a lot of women from other provinces, and they had
to leave."
Olympic silver medalist Emilio Correa Jr. stepped in to help some of the
women find another gym while they push top Cuban officials to support
female boxing.
"They can bring more glory to the Cuban sport," Correa said. "They are
diamonds in the rough. … The motor skills, the explosive nature and the
energy of Cuban boxers are also present in these women."
THEY CAN BRING MORE GLORY TO THE CUBAN SPORT. THEY ARE DIAMONDS IN THE
ROUGH…
Emilio Correa Jr., Olympic silver medalist
But the government so far appears unconvinced. Officials have said
they're analyzing the proposal and carrying out medical studies to
understand the impact of blows to a woman's body and whether such action
is "appropriate."
A message left with the Cuban Federation of Boxing was not returned.
Female athletes in Cuba have made strides in many other sports,
including wrestling, judo and, most recently, weightlifting. In 2006,
Cuba allowed the creation of the island's first female weightlifting
team for an international competition.
"If they're allowed in wrestling or in weightlifting, which are pretty
strenuous sports, I don't understand why not boxing," said sports
commentator Ismael Sene.
Boxing has long been an athletic engine for Cuba, which has won 72
Olympic medals in that category and produced stars including Felix
Savon, Teofilo Stevenson, Emilio Correa Sr., Julio Cesar La Cruz, Arlen
Lopez and Robeisy Ramirez.
The lack of women on that roster disappoints many, including Namibia
Flores, who has trained in the U.S. and starred in a 2014 U.S.
documentary called "Boxeadora."
Flores has accused the Federation of Cuban Women of not supporting their
cause, even though the group helped women enter professional fields that
were dominated by men prior to the revolution. Female boxers inspired by
Flores say they hope to get the same opportunity.
"My mom says it's a violent sport," 25-year-old Legnis Cala said as her
colorful extensions flew back and forth while she sparred with Moreno.
"But there are women in other countries who also box … And if they give
us permission, I think we'll also make it."
Source: Cuban female boxers want government support for 1st female team
| Miami Herald -
http://www.miamiherald.com/news/nation-world/world/americas/cuba/article130041039.html
DEMAND RELEASE OF HUMAN RIGHTS DEFENDER EDUARDO CARDET - AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL
URGENT ACTION
DEMAND RELEASE OF HUMAN RIGHTS DEFENDER
Five days after Fidel Castro's death, human rights defender Eduardo
Cardet was detained and has since been held in provisional detention in
Holguín, south-east Cuba.
He is a prisoner of conscience who must be released immediately and
unconditionally.
Dr. Eduardo Cardet Concepción, leader of the Christian Liberation
Movement (Movimiento Cristiano Liberación,
MCL) since 2014 was arrested in Holguín on 30 November 2016, five days
after the death of the former leader of
Cuba, Fidel Castro. Eduardo Cardet has spent two months in the
provisional prison (prisión provisional) of Holguín.
He has been refused bail on three occasions, according to his wife.
According to five witnesses who spoke to Amnesty International by
telephone on the condition of anonymity,
Eduardo Cardet was pushed off his bicycle and violently detained in the
early evening of 30 November by at least
four plain clothed and one uniformed police officer as he returned home
after visiting his mother. It is not clear on
what grounds Eduardo Cardet was initially detained. According to his
wife, who witnessed her husband's detention
with their two children, Eduardo Cardet is charged with attacking an
official of the state (atentado). This offence is
covered under Article 142.1 of the Criminal Code. One officer is
alleging that Eduardo Cardet pushed him during
his arrest. All witnesses who spoke with Amnesty International counter
this allegation, and state that Eduardo
Cardet was quickly and violently restrained by plain clothed officials,
placed in handcuffs, and beaten, and had no
opportunity for self-defence. The witnesses believe that Eduardo Cardet
was arrested for his beliefs and ideas.
Prior to his arrest, Eduardo Cardet had given interviews published in
international media in which he had been
critical of the Cuban government. In an interview with Madrid-based
radio station esRadio, aired two days before
his arrest, he described the mourning in Cuba following the death of
Fidel Castro as imposed, and said: "Castro
was a very controversial man, very much hated and rejected by our
people". According to the MCL's website,
Eduardo Cardet's lawyer informed the family on 27 January that the
Public Prosecutor is seeking three years of
prison.
Please write immediately in Spanish or your own language:
- Calling on the authorities to release Dr. Eduardo Cardet immediately
and unconditionally, as he is a prisoner of
conscience, imprisoned solely for peacefully exercising his right to
freedom of expression;
- Calling on them to guarantee the peaceful right to freedom of
expression, assembly and association including
for dissident, opponent or activist voices and to repeal all legislation
which unduly limits these rights;
- Urging them to ensure that, pending his release, he is provided with
any medical care he may require; that he is
not tortured or otherwise ill-treated; and that he is granted regular
access to family and lawyers of his choosing.
PLEASE SEND APPEALS BEFORE 14 MARCH 2017 TO:
President of the Republic
Raúl Castro Ruz
Presidente de la República de Cuba
La Habana, Cuba
Fax: +41 22 758 9431 (Cuba Office in
Geneva); +1 212 779 1697 (via Cuban
Mission to UN)
Email: cuba@un.int (c/o Cuban Mission
to UN)
Salutation: Your Excellency
Attorney General
Dr. Darío Delgado Cura
Fiscal General de la República
Fiscalía General de la República
Amistad 552, e/Monte y Estrella
Centro Habana, La Habana, Cuba
Salutation: Dear Attorney General/
Señor Fiscal General
Also send copies to diplomatic representatives accredited to your country
https://www.amnesty.org/en/documents/amr25/5601/2017/en/
DEMAND RELEASE OF HUMAN RIGHTS DEFENDER
Five days after Fidel Castro's death, human rights defender Eduardo
Cardet was detained and has since been held in provisional detention in
Holguín, south-east Cuba.
He is a prisoner of conscience who must be released immediately and
unconditionally.
Dr. Eduardo Cardet Concepción, leader of the Christian Liberation
Movement (Movimiento Cristiano Liberación,
MCL) since 2014 was arrested in Holguín on 30 November 2016, five days
after the death of the former leader of
Cuba, Fidel Castro. Eduardo Cardet has spent two months in the
provisional prison (prisión provisional) of Holguín.
He has been refused bail on three occasions, according to his wife.
According to five witnesses who spoke to Amnesty International by
telephone on the condition of anonymity,
Eduardo Cardet was pushed off his bicycle and violently detained in the
early evening of 30 November by at least
four plain clothed and one uniformed police officer as he returned home
after visiting his mother. It is not clear on
what grounds Eduardo Cardet was initially detained. According to his
wife, who witnessed her husband's detention
with their two children, Eduardo Cardet is charged with attacking an
official of the state (atentado). This offence is
covered under Article 142.1 of the Criminal Code. One officer is
alleging that Eduardo Cardet pushed him during
his arrest. All witnesses who spoke with Amnesty International counter
this allegation, and state that Eduardo
Cardet was quickly and violently restrained by plain clothed officials,
placed in handcuffs, and beaten, and had no
opportunity for self-defence. The witnesses believe that Eduardo Cardet
was arrested for his beliefs and ideas.
Prior to his arrest, Eduardo Cardet had given interviews published in
international media in which he had been
critical of the Cuban government. In an interview with Madrid-based
radio station esRadio, aired two days before
his arrest, he described the mourning in Cuba following the death of
Fidel Castro as imposed, and said: "Castro
was a very controversial man, very much hated and rejected by our
people". According to the MCL's website,
Eduardo Cardet's lawyer informed the family on 27 January that the
Public Prosecutor is seeking three years of
prison.
Please write immediately in Spanish or your own language:
- Calling on the authorities to release Dr. Eduardo Cardet immediately
and unconditionally, as he is a prisoner of
conscience, imprisoned solely for peacefully exercising his right to
freedom of expression;
- Calling on them to guarantee the peaceful right to freedom of
expression, assembly and association including
for dissident, opponent or activist voices and to repeal all legislation
which unduly limits these rights;
- Urging them to ensure that, pending his release, he is provided with
any medical care he may require; that he is
not tortured or otherwise ill-treated; and that he is granted regular
access to family and lawyers of his choosing.
PLEASE SEND APPEALS BEFORE 14 MARCH 2017 TO:
President of the Republic
Raúl Castro Ruz
Presidente de la República de Cuba
La Habana, Cuba
Fax: +41 22 758 9431 (Cuba Office in
Geneva); +1 212 779 1697 (via Cuban
Mission to UN)
Email: cuba@un.int (c/o Cuban Mission
to UN)
Salutation: Your Excellency
Attorney General
Dr. Darío Delgado Cura
Fiscal General de la República
Fiscalía General de la República
Amistad 552, e/Monte y Estrella
Centro Habana, La Habana, Cuba
Salutation: Dear Attorney General/
Señor Fiscal General
Also send copies to diplomatic representatives accredited to your country
https://www.amnesty.org/en/documents/amr25/5601/2017/en/
Striving to convince young people of the 'blessings' of Castroism
Striving to convince young people of the 'blessings' of Castroism
ORLANDO FREIRE SANTANA | La Habana | 1 de Febrero de 2017 - 10:26 CET.
We have recently borne witness to a kind of government offensive seeing
to convince young people of the blessings of the political system
prevailing on the Island. The regime is apparently in a hurry to ensure
successors to the historic generation.
The crux of this offensive hinges on the efforts of Popular Power bodies
- particularly its National Assembly- which are presented by the
official propaganda as guarantors of socialist democracy.
In this context a group of deputies from the National Assembly met with
students from the Law Department at the University of Havana, and also
with students from the Vladimir Ilich Lenin Vocational Preuniversity
Exact Sciences Institute.
The representatives, among other points, insisted that the young people
appreciate the difference between Cuban deputies and those from other
nations; stressed the foundations of the single party system; explained
the negative effects that a return to the capitalist political system
and its model of democracy would have in Cuba; and endorsed study of the
Cuban Constitution as part of the curriculum.
It is difficult to imagine anyone acting honestly and defending these
positions, and even more difficult to conceive of someone else accepting
them. Because to understand the difference, perhaps the fundamental one,
between the types of parliamentary deputies, all one must do is watch
some footage of them on TV. In it the votes are unanimous, as nobody
dares to defy the decisions, which have been previously made by the
regime's higher-ups, who are on hand in the assembly. In other nations,
in contrast, deputies legislate freely, and votes are close, after
heated debates.
With respect to the "refusal" to return to the capitalist model of
democracy, Castroism continues to confuse country and party, as
indicated by Archbishop Pedro Meurice in 1998, upon John Paul II's
visit. Of course, it is not in the interest of the Communist Party to
compete with other political forces, nor is the alternation in power
brought about by true democracy.
With regards to the principles that allegedly sustain the single party
system, not much is necessary to demonstrate their hollowness. If they
invoke Martí's creation of the Cuban Revolutionary Party - as they are
prone to doing - a simple reading of the group's charter reveals that
the Apostle conceived of the organization only as an instrument to wage
war against the Spanish colonialism, not as a party to perpetually
tyrannize society.
The aforementioned governmental offensive is being combined with the
creation of a Parliamentary Classroom in the Capitol, to be the next
site of the National Assembly of Popular Power.
This forum will feature three modalities: circles of interest for fifth
and sixth grade students, classes for schools located in the community -
initially encompassing the municipalities of Central and Old Havana –
and talks directed at college students and workers from institutions
near the Capitol.
Those targeted by this Parliamentary Classroom will be the deputies of
the National Assembly and other intellectuals identified with the
Government. And, of course, the content and tone will be very similar to
that characterizing the events in which these Parliamentary deputies met
with university students from the Law Department, and the students at
the Lenin School.
Nevertheless, the evident reality is that, in the end, none of these
attempts at indoctrination are succeeding. They would have to lock all
those young people in empty, windowless towers to keep them from finding
out what is going on beyond our borders. And, much to the chagrin of the
leaders on the Island, this kind if isolation is virtually impossible in
these revolutionary times of easy access to information via computer.
Source: Striving to convince young people of the 'blessings' of
Castroism | Diario de Cuba -
http://www.diariodecuba.com/cuba/1485941204_28581.html
ORLANDO FREIRE SANTANA | La Habana | 1 de Febrero de 2017 - 10:26 CET.
We have recently borne witness to a kind of government offensive seeing
to convince young people of the blessings of the political system
prevailing on the Island. The regime is apparently in a hurry to ensure
successors to the historic generation.
The crux of this offensive hinges on the efforts of Popular Power bodies
- particularly its National Assembly- which are presented by the
official propaganda as guarantors of socialist democracy.
In this context a group of deputies from the National Assembly met with
students from the Law Department at the University of Havana, and also
with students from the Vladimir Ilich Lenin Vocational Preuniversity
Exact Sciences Institute.
The representatives, among other points, insisted that the young people
appreciate the difference between Cuban deputies and those from other
nations; stressed the foundations of the single party system; explained
the negative effects that a return to the capitalist political system
and its model of democracy would have in Cuba; and endorsed study of the
Cuban Constitution as part of the curriculum.
It is difficult to imagine anyone acting honestly and defending these
positions, and even more difficult to conceive of someone else accepting
them. Because to understand the difference, perhaps the fundamental one,
between the types of parliamentary deputies, all one must do is watch
some footage of them on TV. In it the votes are unanimous, as nobody
dares to defy the decisions, which have been previously made by the
regime's higher-ups, who are on hand in the assembly. In other nations,
in contrast, deputies legislate freely, and votes are close, after
heated debates.
With respect to the "refusal" to return to the capitalist model of
democracy, Castroism continues to confuse country and party, as
indicated by Archbishop Pedro Meurice in 1998, upon John Paul II's
visit. Of course, it is not in the interest of the Communist Party to
compete with other political forces, nor is the alternation in power
brought about by true democracy.
With regards to the principles that allegedly sustain the single party
system, not much is necessary to demonstrate their hollowness. If they
invoke Martí's creation of the Cuban Revolutionary Party - as they are
prone to doing - a simple reading of the group's charter reveals that
the Apostle conceived of the organization only as an instrument to wage
war against the Spanish colonialism, not as a party to perpetually
tyrannize society.
The aforementioned governmental offensive is being combined with the
creation of a Parliamentary Classroom in the Capitol, to be the next
site of the National Assembly of Popular Power.
This forum will feature three modalities: circles of interest for fifth
and sixth grade students, classes for schools located in the community -
initially encompassing the municipalities of Central and Old Havana –
and talks directed at college students and workers from institutions
near the Capitol.
Those targeted by this Parliamentary Classroom will be the deputies of
the National Assembly and other intellectuals identified with the
Government. And, of course, the content and tone will be very similar to
that characterizing the events in which these Parliamentary deputies met
with university students from the Law Department, and the students at
the Lenin School.
Nevertheless, the evident reality is that, in the end, none of these
attempts at indoctrination are succeeding. They would have to lock all
those young people in empty, windowless towers to keep them from finding
out what is going on beyond our borders. And, much to the chagrin of the
leaders on the Island, this kind if isolation is virtually impossible in
these revolutionary times of easy access to information via computer.
Source: Striving to convince young people of the 'blessings' of
Castroism | Diario de Cuba -
http://www.diariodecuba.com/cuba/1485941204_28581.html
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