Cuba Verdad

Sunday, May 13, 2007

Santeria lures tourist cash to Cuba

"Santeria" lures tourist cash to Cuba
Tue May 8, 2007 2:48 PM BST
By Catherine Bremer

HAVANA (Reuters) - After a few minutes tossing a string of flat beads
and chanting, Rogelio Castellano decides his tourist client is
emotionally scarred by an old conflict. Only a $500 (250 pound) ritual
goat sacrifice will put it right.

He's insistent. Even after he halves the fee, it's more money than he
could make in a year on a Cuban state salary.

A babalawo, or priest, of Cuba's ritual-filled Santeria religion,
Castellano wears a gold chain and has a TV and a telephone that stand
out from the animal skulls, pigeon blood, melted candle wax and feathers
that litter his dingy home.

Such modern accoutrements are testament to a flow of tourists that has
made Santeria a lucrative business for some, bringing in foreign
currency that makes the difference between a frugal lifestyle or
relative wealth in communist-run Cuba.

"I see seven or eight foreigners a week. Germans, Mexicans, Italians,
Americans," said Castellano, who spent years studying the African-based
faith of ancestral spirits and shrines teeming with fruit, horse hair,
ribbons and rum.

"Quite a few come off the cruise ships," he added, grinning to reveal a
set of gold-rimmed teeth that most Cubans could not afford.

Whereas a Cuban would pay with a fistful of pesos, a foreigner might
spend $20 to meet a priest and $50 on good-luck charms like
gravel-filled gourds or plastic bead bracelets.

A full-on initiation ceremony into Santeria, which grew out of the
Yoruba religion brought to the Americas by African slaves, would cost a
foreigner well over $1,000.

Such prices are normal for Yoruba-style rituals in much of the
continent, but they are dizzying in Cuba, where people get by on a state
wage of around $15 a month plus whatever they can do on the side.

"It can be a swindle. But not with me. Foreigners have come to me for
years," said Castellano, dusting off a feathered clay head which for $10
-- and if one pours rum and honey on it and blows cigar smoke over it --
will keep bad spirits away.

WARM BLOOD

Some seven in 10 Cubans are Santeria followers and consult babalawos, or
"santera" priestesses, about health, financial or relationship woes,
like followers of Yoruba-based faiths in countries like Haiti and Brazil.

Everyone in Cuba knows somebody whose life was changed forever by a
Santeria ritual, which can entail being beaten with herbal plants or
sprayed with warm animal blood.

Yet backpackers directed to babalawos by tour guides or taxi drivers
invariably pay more than the couple of dollars guide books suggests for
a "fast-food" helping of Santeria.

Across the Havana bay in the Santeria-rich port of Regla, santeras greet
tourists arriving off a rickety ferryboat.

After a fortune-telling session with Tarot cards or seashells, they
offer to stay in touch by e-mail and urge foreigners to send over their
friends.

"Tourists come every day to see me. Mostly Spanish and Mexicans," says
Laura, a voluptuous santera decked out in a tight lycra bodysuit and a
mass of tinkling gold jewelry.

"People come back to Cuba to see me or stay in touch by e-mail. I send
advice and they send gifts. I even have "ahijados" (godchildren) in
France," she said, pausing to sell half a dozen $10 amulet bracelets to
a Mexican tourist clutching a wishlist from his friends back home.

Her speedy $20 consultations, next to a bead-strewn altar to the Virgin
of Charity El Cobre, Cuba's patron saint, are entertaining -- but a
little short on insight.

A reading of a time-worn pack of cards and some cowrie shells cheerily
predicts wealth, career success and an imminent love affair leading to
marriage and two kids.

But you're obliged to buy a tiny cloth bag of gravel, for luck, a bead
bracelet and a wooden figurine -- total $30 -- and there's an order to
come back soon with friends.

MARITAL TIPS

Blending Yoruba deities called "Orishas" with Catholic saints, Santeria
took root among slaves on sugar plantations run by Spanish colonialists.
It thrived after Castro's 1959 revolution displaced Catholicism, with
babalawos offering personal advice in intimate consultations.

As Cuba opened up to tourism in the 1990s, some babalawos were licensed
to deal in dollars with foreigners, from curious academics to would-be
priests, and sell Santeria souvenirs.

Today, these white-clad taxpaying babalawos are on a level with Cubans
with permits to run book stores or drive taxis.

And the ones working on the quiet make more than they would as cigar
hawkers or tour guides. Many are among the few Cubans with access to a
phone or e-mail.

Still, like anything in life, when Santeria goes too commercial, it
loses much of its magic.

"Santeria is not a commercial thing. Everyone has to pay to be cleansed,
but priests shouldn't pester people for business," said Cuban
anthropologist and Santeria expert Natalia Bolivar.

"Foreigners have always come to see babalawos, because it's fashionable
or someone told them about it. There are unscrupulous people who take
advantage of that. But truly religious people never would."

http://investing.reuters.co.uk/news/articlenews.aspx?type=reutersEdge&storyID=2007-05-08T134809Z_01_NOA849542_RTRUKOC_0_FEATURE-CUBA.xml

Cuba: Paradise Left

Cuba: Paradise Left
By: Antony Loewenstein
Monday 7 May 2007

During a recent trip to New York, I spoke with writer, agent and
activist Anthony Arnove about his experiences in Cuba. He had visited
the communist country only once, with writer Howard Zinn, with whom he
co-edited Voices of a People's History of the United States. 'Does the
Left in Australia have the same problems with Cuba as here?' Arnove
asked. 'There is no freedom of speech in Cuba,' he added bluntly. 'Why
do many on the Left ignore this?'

A recent article by Australian academic Tim Anderson proved this very point:

In the US, 'freedom of speech' means that a handful of private
corporations dominate the mass media.

In Cuba, the media (television, radio, magazines, newspapers) are
all run by public bodies or community organisations. No private
individual or investment group can capture or dominate public debate in
Cuba. Nor is there mind-numbing, commercial advertising.

In the US, mass communications are dominated by consumerism and
celebrity trivia; politics is about individuals seeking public office.
In Cuba, mass communications are dominated by education and cultural
programs; politics is about co-ordinated social responses to social
problems … Cuba is a democracy and the US is not.

This is embarrassing rhetoric from somebody who ought to know better.
Anderson and his fellow travellers should know that pointing out the
deficiencies of one system doesn't automatically mean endorsing the
policies of another. The multitude of faults with US-style 'democracy'
can be addressed in other forums, but nothing should blunt the necessity
of critiquing the failings of Castro's reign.

Cuba is a police State.

After spending time in Cuba, it is clear that revolutionary fervour is
virtually non-existent among the younger generation; and that the
genuine successes of the country — free healthcare and education, as
just two examples — are compromised by the Castro regime's repression of
its citizens and its isolating them from information that is freely
available in the West.

Such truisms do not mean, however, that US-style disaster capitalism is
the answer. Indeed, many people I spoke to in Cuba were both wary and
highly curious about a wholesale change of their economic system. The
young, especially, were already embracing American hip-hop culture —
listening to Gangsta Rap or wearing signature fashion.

Rather than aspiring towards a Hugo Chávez-style socialism — the
Venezuelan leader, it should be noted, is not universally loved in Cuba
due principally to his undying support for virtually every aspect of
Castro's regime — many Cubans' curiosity about the outside world cannot
be restricted indefinitely by paranoid and parochial officials.

One of the key challenges for the Cuban Government is the availability
of the internet. Although many young Cubans have access to a Cuban
intranet that includes an email service and Government websites, full
access to the world wide web is unavailable for most. I spoke to a
student in Havana who knew all about the internet because he was
studying IT, but he wasn't allowed to view the net himself. 'I don't
think it's very useful to cut off information,' he said. 'Many of my
friends are frustrated by this. What is the Government afraid of?'

The answer is clear. The regime has consistently said that full access
to the internet is impossible due to the US's immoral and
counterproductive embargo of the island, but as Reuters Cuba
correspondent, Marc Frank, told me, this was pure propaganda. 'The two
main security issues for the Government are [mobile] phones and the
internet,' he said.

It is, of course, important to remember that the majority of Cubans are
not spending their days wishing for internet access. More mundane needs,
like food and solid employment, are far more pressing. But how the
regime deals with these communications issues in the coming years will
determine how fast the country embraces the globalised world.

Independent journalist Miriam Leiva is an intense woman whose husband,
Oscar Espinosa Chepe, an economist and journalist , has been jailed and
abused for opposing the Castro regime. She told me that their lives have
often become unbearable because 'for Fidel, some prisoners are really
his own' and he never forgives or forgets.

Leiva and Chepe were both quiet and determined people and didn't believe
in violently overthrowing the Government. In fact, their requests were
modest — not unlike their crumbling apartment in outer Havana, a few
rooms of clutter and leaking taps — and they both articulated a steady
move towards a more accountable and democratic system. 'Corruption here
is rife,' Oscar said, 'and if you read the newspapers every day, it's
like deja-vu. You can't find any useful information in them.'

The militant population of Cuban exiles in Miami, Florida, has led the
campaign against Castro for decades — but like for many on the Left in
the West, a profound disconnect exists between propaganda and reality.
Even many of the anti-Castro dissidents in Cuba told me that they
opposed the tactics of the Miami Cubans. 'They don't really know what's
going on here,' Miriam said, and their brazen support for dissidents
only worsened their own lives. A number of dissidents told me that they
strongly opposed the Bush Administration's attempts to unseat Castro and
never took financial assistance from the US Government.

Real democratic change must come, if at all, from the people themselves,
not via agenda-setting foreign forces reminiscent of clumsy US attempts
to support opposition groups in Iran and elsewhere.

Cuba is a beautiful, beguiling and frustrating country on the brink of
something. The future of the island depends on many factors, not least
the US response to Fidel Castro's death. I asked Marc Frank how Cubans
would react when Castro eventually died. 'They'll go to the beach,' he
said, 'just like they did when he was seriously sick.'

I doubt this — it's clear that Fidel still commands a great deal of
respect for leading a nation through decades of change, turmoil, US
pressure and Soviet collapse. It was harder to discern much love for
him, however. Fidel's death will probably bring little short-term change
— unless, of course, Washington decides to embark on a not-so-subtle
course of 'regime change.'

The so-called dissidents in Cuba may not represent a huge proportion of
Cuban society, but their voices are vital to truly understanding the
rich fabric of Cuban society.

If the international Left wants to do itself any favours — and Tariq Ali
has already articulated where they could begin — they should be calling
for reform of the Cuban system.

A truly open media, unfettered freedom of speech, and freedom of
association are not merely Western indulgences. They are essential for
any country to join the ranks of respectable nations.

About the author:

Antony Loewenstein is a Sydney-based freelance journalist, author and
blogger. He has written for the Sydney Morning Herald, The Age, The
Australian, The Guardian, Sydney's Sun-Herald, The Bulletin, The
Washington Post, The Big Issue, Crikey, Znet, Counterpunch and others.
Melbourne University Publishing has released his book on the
Israel/Palestine conflict, My Israel Question (2006), recently
short-listed for the 2007 NSW Premier's Literary Award. His website is

www.antonyloewenstein.com.

http://www.newmatilda.com/home/articledetailmagazine.asp?ArticleID=2229&HomepageID=193

Fugitive soldiers kill officer in failed hijack bid, Cuba says

May 4, 2007, 3:28AM
Fugitive soldiers kill officer in failed hijack bid, Cuba says
By WILL WEISSERT
Associated Press

HAVANA — A pair of heavily armed Cuban soldiers seized a city bus,
killed an army officer and triggered a gun battle in a foiled bid to
hijack a charter flight bound for the United States.

The young army deserters were arrested before dawn Thursday on the
tarmac of a terminal that handles special charter flights between Havana
and Miami, as well as New York and other American cities.

The soldiers forced a city bus to head to Havana's Jose Marti
International Airport at gunpoint and killed Army Lt. Col. Victor Ibo
Acuna Velazquez aboard a plane that had no passengers or crew —
apparently because there were no flights at the early hour. Both were
apprehended.

An Interior Ministry statement suggested that Acuna Velazquez, who was
unarmed, happened to be on the bus at the time it was commandeered and
died "heroically" trying to thwart the hijacking. Other bus passengers
were unharmed.

The government blamed anti-Cuba U.S. policy for the incident.

"The responsibility for these new crimes lies with the highest-ranking
authorities of the United States, adding to the long list of terrorist
acts that Cuba has been the victim of for nearly half a century," it said.

Havana says U.S. immigration policies giving most Cubans almost
guaranteed residency encourages them to risk their lives to get to the
United States, and says that American officials have long tolerated —
even encouraged — violence against the communist-run country.

The incident comes amid an ongoing political campaign by Cuba's
government accusing U.S. authorities of protecting its archenemy Luis
Posada Carriles, a 79-year-old Cuban militant who it accuses of an
airliner bombing three decades ago and a string of Havana hotel bombings
in the late 1990s.

Thursday's was the first Cuban hijacking attempt reported since the
spring of 2003, when an architect seized an airliner carrying passengers
on a domestic flight from the Isle of Youth and diverted it to the
United States by brandishing fake grenades. The hijacker was later
sentenced to 20 years in prison in the United States.

The previous month, six hijackers forced a Cuban passenger plane to fly
to the U.S. at knifepoint. U.S. Air Force fighter jets forced the
aircraft to land in Key West.

Thursday's suspects were among three army soldiers on mandatory military
service who fled their base with assault rifles Sunday after killing a
fellow soldier and wounding another. The statement said the third
escaped soldier was captured before the attempted hijacking but it did
not say when.

Because they were active soldiers when the crimes occurred, the three
almost certainly will face a lightening-quick trial by military
tribunal. The death penalty is likely.

Before the attempted hijacking, the three escaped soldiers were the
focus of a huge manhunt. The Defense Ministry over the weekend
distributed circulars, describing the fugitive soldiers as armed and
dangerous.

The men, all from the eastern province of Camaguey, were identified as
Leandro Cerezo Sirut and Alain Forbus Lameru, both 19, and Yoan Torres
Martinez, 21. It was unclear which two were involved in the attempted
hijacking.

Caridad Carbonel, who has lived near Havana's airport for 34 years, said
she was awakened by gunfire Thursday and saw a vehicle roll onto the
tarmac through a side checkpoint.

"There was a terrible shootout," the 68-year-old said. "I feel awful
because things shouldn't be this way. Young people need to live
differently."

Within hours of the attempted hijacking, all was calm and running
on-time at the airport, though the bus and plane involved sat on the
tarmac for hours.

http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/world/4774717.html

AT&T has new rate to Cuba: 75 cents a minute

AT&T has new rate to Cuba: 75 cents a minute
By Doreen Hemlock
South Florida Sun-Sentinel
Posted May 4 2007

Calls costing about 75 cents a minute may not sound like a bargain, but
AT&T touted a new plan Thursday offering that new rate to Cuba.

The U.S. telecom giant offered the price for landline clients in South
Florida who buy a $7.99 a month Cuba plan and also subscribe to an AT&T
domestic long-distance plan.

AT&T said the rate is lower than its existing plans that run about 85
cents a minute for direct-dial calls to Cuba, a spokeswoman said.

South Floridians calling Cuba would love some price relief.

The tri-county area is home to the largest concentration of Cubans in
the United States -- more than 700,000, according to the 2000 U.S.
census. Callers in the area make the majority of calls from the United
States to the nearby island.

Cuban-born Ania Lopez, 36, who lives in Greenacres in Palm Beach County,
said she tries to limit calls to her mother in Camaguey to twice a week
and only five minutes to keep down her costs. She has tried several
phone companies and phone cards, but still generally ends up spending
about $1.15 a minute to call her family.

"From Cuba to the U.S., it's extremely expensive to call, too," said
Lopez, who works at the Tulipan bakery in West Palm Beach. "They say
it's because of the political relations."

The United States has kept an economic embargo on Cuba for more than
four decades aiming to squeeze the flow of dollars to the communist-run
island. But Washington provides licenses for phone companies to pay
connection fees to Cuba as part of an effort to help maintain family ties.

Analysts say the U.S.-Cuba phone rates are among the world's most
expensive, partly because of high fees set by Cuban authorities. Cuba
relies on the fees as a source of dollars.

In 2000, Havana cut direct phone links with the United States in a spat
over damages awarded to families of anti-communist fliers who Cuba shot
down in 1996. Cuba later restored the connections.

AT&T said its new Cuba plan also reduces rates for direct-dialed calls
from South Florida to other nations, including Brazil for 15 cents per
minute.

Doreen Hemlock can be reached at dhemlock@sun-sentinel.com or 305-810-5009.

http://www.sun-sentinel.com/business/local/sfl-zatt04may04,0,4419803.story?coll=sfla-business-headlines

Dying To Flee Cuba

INVESTOR'S BUSINESS DAILY

Posted 5/4/2007

Democracy: Thursday's shootout at Havana International Airport by army
conscripts seeking to flee Cuba underlines how badly Cuban youth want
out. The mutineers will be executed, but it's the regime that's dying.

Like desperados, three Cuban army conscripts tried to shoot their way
out of the communist regime. Not knowing better, they had an awful plan,
first trying to hijack a Spanish tourist jet, and then getting captured.
In a hail of gunfire, they took a lieutenant colonel down with them. The
three young men, ages 19 and 21, are likely to face a firing squad
before this week is over.

This isn't the first time Cuba's rank and file have turned their weapons
on their officers. In February, three other teenage conscripts turned
their weapons on two officers in Santiago, also trying to escape the
island after a prisoner they were guarding offered to show them how.

But last week's public incident made world headlines and embarrassed the
Cuban regime, which then denounced the soldiers as "terrorists" and
blamed the U.S.

"Once again," said an official statement by the Ministry of the
Interior, "this demonstrates the criminal nature of the Cuban Adjustment
Act, a law that encourages vandalistic and criminal actions." The
reference was to a U.S. policy of granting asylum to any Cuban who can
make it to our shores on his own.

Coming from the Castro regime, that was pretty rich. Cuba is one of only
two countries in the world (the other is communist North Korea) where
citizens cannot freely leave. Only a few thousand exit permits are given
each year, and under special conditions.

"Permission to leave is hard to get, and Cubans must leave everything
behind to go. They pay thousands to the government for the permits,"
author Humberto Fontova told us. Would-be exiles must take special jobs
to pay the government off first, he says.

So desperate acts like Thursday's hijacking come as no surprise. They
reflect an unbearable life in a country that offers no freedom, no
material goods and no hope.

The million or so young people born in Cuba after 1992 feel it most.
With nothing at stake, many can think only of escape, and once the
desire to leave takes hold it can become obsessive, even irrational,
Fontova said.

In his new book, "Exposing the Real Che," Fontova tells of dissident
Rafael Contreras, who happened upon some young Cubans at a beach,
looking bitterly at the horizon. Instead of finding the shoreline
calming, as people the world over do, the kids told Contreras: "It
incarcerates us, worse than jail bars."

Dictator Fidel Castro is dying, but the regime remains in stasis, and
the lingering oligarchy is adamant there will never be reform.

More than a million Cubans have fled to freedom over the course of the
48-year Castro dictatorship, with hundreds of thousands of those taking
their chances on leaky boats.

Now, it's the same desperation that drives others to use their military
weapons as tools for escape. This seems to be happening more often.

http://www.investors.com/editorial/editorialcontent.asp?secid=1501&status=article&id=263171606085038

Lawmakers condemn FBI work in Cuba

Published: May. 4, 2007 at 2:30 PM
MIAMI, May. 4 (UPI) -- Three Cuban lawmakers have condemned the Justice
Department's decision to send FBI agents to Cuba to collect evidence
against a terror suspect.

The FBI have reportedly been to Cuba recently to gather more information
on the alleged involvement Luis Posada Carriles in a hotel bombing that
killed an Italian in Havana in 1997.

"By asking a state sponsor of terrorism for evidence' regarding
terrorism, the Bush administration Justice Department demonstrates a
shockingly profound ignorance of the nature of terrorism, of its origins
and its state sponsors," U.S. Reps. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen and brothers
Lincoln and Mario Díaz-Balart said in a statement, The Miami Herald
reported Friday.

Posada, who is currently under house arrest at his wife's home in the
Miami area, was recently released on bond and is scheduled to stand
trial for crossing the U.S. border into Texas illegally in 2005. The
79-year-old former CIA-trained explosives expert is also wanted in Cuba
and Venezuela for allegedly orchestrating the 1976 bombing of a Cuban
airliner in Venezuela that killed 73 people.

http://washingtontimes.com/upi/20070504-022028-5209

Base readies for refugees

Posted on Sun, May. 13, 2007

GUANTANAMO BAY
Base readies for refugees
The Bush administration is preparing the U.S. Navy base at Guantánamo
Bay, Cuba, to house up to 10,000 refugees in case of a Caribbean migrant
crisis -- and starting with the bathrooms.
BY CAROL ROSENBERG
crosenberg@MiamiHerald.com

GUANTANAMO BAY NAVY BASE, Cuba -- In contingency planning here, the Navy
is spending $17 million to prepare for a tent city to shelter up to
10,000 boat people saved from the seas, starting with crude summer-camp
style showers and toilet houses.

Ever since Fidel Castro took ill and ceded power to his brother Raúl,
across a minefield and 525 miles away in Havana, U.S. officials have
been planning a bare bones infrastructure for four, 2,500-person tent
villages in the event politics and misfortune touch off a Caribbean
migrant crisis.

Sailors would open up a now-vacant white stucco health clinic, establish
small cooking areas to let refugees fix their own food and leave enough
open space for a park and swimming at an inlet called Mahamilla Bay.

OVERGROWN FIELD

Right now, the site is an overgrown field on a sleepy corner of this
45-square-mile U.S. Navy base.

Planners envision a range of events -- everything from a natural
disaster such as hurricane to political instability -- that could lead
to a humanitarian crisis and the interdiction of thousands of boat
people trying to reach the coast of Florida.

Either way, said Navy Cmdr. Jeffrey Johnston, who runs the base's public
works projects: ``Everyone's gotta take a shower. Everyone's gotta get
some chow, and everyone's gotta go to the bathroom.''

So they're starting with the basics and have hired a Jacksonville firm,
Island Mechanical Contractors, to build 48 cinder-block bathhouses --
each with 12 toilets, six showers and places to wash laundry, feeding a
rudimentary sewage treatment runoff.

Were the White House to declare a migrant crisis, the military would
then throw up hundreds of 16-person tents in four mini-villages arrayed
around the shower and toilet houses.

''Think Boy Scout Jamboree. . . . There's no Marriott Hotel being built
here,'' said Navy Capt. William Vaughn, an engineer assigned to the
Joint Task Force that would run the camps -- a 30-minute ferry ride and
miles away from the prison camps that house some 385 war-on-terror captives.

REPLACEMENT SITE

The plan principally replaces a site that was swallowed up in 2002 when
Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld declared Guantánamo ''the least worst
place'' to house and interrogate

al Qaeda and Taliban suspects.

Workers mowed under latrines and shower houses on a bluff overlooking
the Caribbean called Radio Range, a provisional spot for any future
humanitarian crisis -- and built today's detention center in its place.

So, instead, planners chose the smaller five-square-mile, leeward side
of this base, across Guantánamo Bay from the main portion -- where 6,000
or so soldiers, sailors, contractors and their families live and work
around a school and McDonald's, church, bowling alley and scrubby golf
course -- and where the 5-year-old prison camps that have put a
spotlight on this base known as ''Gitmo'' are situated.

Leeward today is mostly vacant, with only a seaside airstrip, guest
quarters used mostly by journalists, attorneys and overnighting air
crews, and a small contingent of U.S. Marines guarding the leeward fence
line.

U.S. military officials say there is no ultimate price tag for what such
a tent-city relief mission might cost.

The United States and Cuba have coordinated repatriations of most
nationals intercepted at sea since the 1994-95 so-called Rafter Crisis
overwhelmed this base with 40,000-plus boat people, both Cuban and Haitian.

Only a few among those found on rafts have been designated as credibly
fearing persecution, if returned to Castro's Cuba, and have been
sheltered on this base until diplomats find a third country to grant
them asylum.

RESETTLEMENT

Cubans given sanctuary at Guantánamo have been resettled from Europe to
Latin America, and the State Department recently signed an agreement
with Australia to take as many as 200 refugees.

Meantime, commanders here describe a businesslike relationship across
the 17.4-mile fence line that separates the U.S. zone from sovereign Cuba.

The current base commander, Navy Capt. Mark Leary, meets a Cuban
counterpart, Cuban Navy Capt. Pedro Román Cisneros, a Soviet-trained
submariner, once a month in a formal session to notify each side of
coming activities -- and avoid tensions between the U.S. Marines and
Cuban soldiers of the Frontier Brigade who face off across watchtowers.

In fact, Leary said in a recent interview, he notified his counterpart
about the coming tent-camp infrastructure at the February fence line
meeting by handing Cisneros a copy of a Miami Herald report from Washington.

http://www.miamiherald.com/509/story/105323.html

Looking for answers to a puzzle inside Cuba

Posted on Sun, May. 13, 2007

Looking for answers to a puzzle inside Cuba
BY ANDERS GYLLENHAAL
andersg@MiamiHerald.com

Once a year or so, a team of reporters and photographers from The Miami
Herald quietly takes on one of the most delicate, unpredictable and
difficult assignments at the paper.

They slip into Cuba against that government's Machiavellian press
restrictions, drive around the country dressed as tourists, and work as
carefully and quickly as they can, talking with people about what's
really going on.

''You never for a moment relax,'' said one of the veteran reporters who
has pulled this off several times. ``You don't know when something's
going to put an immediate end to your visit.''

The most recent trip -- a 10-day, 1,200-mile journey across the island
-- was one part of a broader project exploring how the changes in Cuba
during the past 10 months have affected the landscape from Miami to
Havana to Washington to Madrid.

It's a subject with its share of faulty assumptions, from the initial
belief that Fidel Castro's departure would lead to immediate change in
Cuba, to the equally questionable presumption that any recovery would
mean that things remain the same.

Starting on the front pages of today's Miami Herald and El Nuevo Herald,
a series assembled jointly by the two papers looks at the already subtle
and substantial consequences showing up throughout the Cuba-America
landscape.

Today's piece of ''The Cuba Puzzle'' focuses on how events have rippled
through the exile community in South Florida, reshaping everything from
the debate over Cuba's future to the relationships between Cuban
Americans in South Florida and Cubans on the island.

''The division between exiles and Cubans in Cuba seems to have
widened,'' said reporter Luisa Yanez, who worked on this story with The
Miami Herald's Frances Robles, El Nuevo's Rui Ferreira and Herald editor
Myriam Marquez.

''People are really confused about what's going on,'' Ferreira said.

LOOKING AHEAD

A week from today, a story by Washington correspondent Pablo Bachelet
will explore Cuba's standing in the world during the transition. The
piece will cover the flurry of diplomatic activity as the United States
works to maintain its policies, while some allies step up relations with
Havana, and others position themselves for what might come.

As always, the tricky part is figuring out what's happening inside Cuba,
a challenge that World Editor John Yearwood, Chief of Correspondents
Juan Tamayo and El Nuevo's Wilfredo Cancio Isla have spent this spring
probing and analyzing. Staffs from both papers have done a huge amount
of telephone work, interviewed people traveling to Cuba, and spent more
than 100 days on the island, including the recent trip that applied some
new reporting approaches.

One of them was assembling an in-depth video report, posted as of this
morning on The Miami Herald and El Nuevo Herald websites. On Wednesday,
the papers will run a thorough story on life in Cuba, written by Robles
and Cancio with contributions from many staff members (some named,
others unnamed to enable future trips into Cuba).

FOR BETTER, WORSE

The story finds that some things have not changed in Cuba and some have,
some for the better, some for worse. The uncertainty felt among exiles
is magnified on the island, where normal tensions of life are
heightened, some say, by the pervasive rumor that the United States is
planning an invasion.

''With the number of people from different parts of the country saying
there's going to be an invasion,'' said one of the reporters on the
trip, ``clearly there's been a tremendous propaganda campaign going on.''

COMBINING FORCES

The idea of a joint El Nuevo-Miami Herald project grew out of the
unusual nature of this story as well as the unique link between the papers.

The Miami Herald and El Nuevo Herald are separate operations intent on
producing distinct newspapers. Still, they have always looked to each
other for material that can augment their reports.

In this case, the hope is that combining forces in a special effort
would lead to wider perspectives, deeper research and a final package
that would reach a wider audience. Given the impact that events on the
island have always had on South Florida, few topics have as much meaning
for all Floridians as what's happening today in Cuba.

Readers will find opportunities to share their own perspectives over the
week the series runs. We encourage you to send thoughts to the websites
-- by e-mail or letter. Many will be turned into a story in Issues &
Ideas two weeks from today to give you the last word on this report.

http://www.miamiherald.com/540/story/103984.html

Running a library in Cuba posed risk

Posted on Sun, May. 13, 2007

Running a library in Cuba posed risk

When Ramón Colás helped start Bibliotecas Independientes (Independent
Libraries) in Cuba, he risked imprisonment in an effort to help Cubans
read books and magazines and view tapes that had been banned on the
island. By 1999, Cuba had about 18 independent libraries, mostly small
rooms run out of people's homes.

On Aug. 23 of that year, Cuban police raided Colás' home and evicted him
and his wife, Berta Mexidor, and their two children because they were
using their home to run the Felix Varela independent library.

Colás, who was able to leave Cuba in 2001, now lives in Mississippi and
is working on a Cuba race-relations project.

As exiles try to understand what's going on in Cuba today, Colás says
that it's important for the Cuban government ``to demonstrate that Fidel
is alive. . . . They want to keep alive the idea that the leader is there.''

By doing so, the government creates an expectation that the revolution,
with Fidel as its symbol, will live on, he said.

Colás said Cuba's social and political forces, seen from afar, make it
difficult for exiles to see what's ahead. ''Many exiles don't understand
the country's dynamics,'' he said, ``what that dynamic is like in a
totalitarian society.''

http://www.miamiherald.com/581/story/105008.html

In Cuba, evolution is slow

Posted on Sun, May. 13, 2007

In Cuba, evolution is slow
BY RUI FERREIRA, FRANCES ROBLES AND LUISA YANEZ

Decades of angst and longing turned to jubilation on Miami's streets
last summer as the startling news spread that Cuban leader Fidel Castro
had undergone emergency surgery for a secret ailment and handed over
power to his brother Raúl.

Now, almost a year later, exiles' elation on that July 31 has been
transformed into more doubts, more second-guessing, confusion and
frustration.

Cubans on both sides of the Florida Straits now realize that what looked
like a watershed moment only ushered in a new phase of uncertainty. It's
unclear whether change is coming to Cuba's government soon or whether
Cuba will remain the hemisphere's communist holdout.

And yet, changes -- often nuanced and filled with contradictions -- are
unfolding as key players from Cuba to Miami to Caracas and Madrid jockey
for position to influence the island's future.

In Beijing, Moscow and European and Latin American capitals, officials
are scrambling to cut deals with Havana, as Caracas props up the
island's economy with oil.

In Washington, Castro's illness has launched a series of new debates and
divisions over trade, travel and U.S. government pro-democracy
broadcasts to Cuba.

In Havana, Raúl Castro has ordered a series of studies on the socialist
economy, likely with a view to changing it. He has stopped short of
delivering. Not while Fidel lives, Cuba experts like former CIA analyst
Brian Latell say. So Cubans keep waiting, while their government steps
up its propaganda proclaiming that a U.S. invasion of the island is
imminent.

Maite, a retired writer in her 50s who lives in Havana, said Cubans
reacted to Fidel's illness in one of three ways: ``Those who were
ecstatic, those who were indifferent and those who were crying from
sheer panic.''

Nowhere in the United States has the impact of Cuba's power plays been
felt more than in South Florida, a region shaped in large part by
exiles' hopes and trepidations. The exile community has spent 48 years
trying to make sense of the Cuba puzzle.

For the past two months, a dozen reporters, photographers and
videographers in joint projects of The Miami Herald and El Nuevo Herald
spread through the hemisphere to document signs of Cuba's slow but
steady evolution -- a story that last year looked as if it could unfold
instantly.

To understand South Florida's conflicted mood, one must carefully
juxtapose the frustrations of aging exiles with a younger generation's
keen interest in the future of an island they've never seen. Or peel
away at layers of misunderstandings with racial undertones that have
many exiles wondering why those on the island have yet to rise up -- and
some in Cuba fearing that an exile-inspired invasion is coming.

FRUSTRATED ELDERS

Older exiles have always tried to laugh at their predicament, finding
solace in comedian Guillermo Alvarez Guedes' take on Fidel Castro. But
for the first time in his four-plus decades in exile, Alvarez Guedes,
79, has cut Cuban politics from his usually biting routines.

''It's a very sad situation,'' he said. ``I don't see any big changes
coming in Cuba anytime soon -- maybe in another 50 years.''

Esther Aulet's skip in her step has vanished over the course of this year.

''All my hope of seeing a free Cuba is gone now,'' Aulet, 74, said
recently outside La Carreta restaurant in Westchester, where hundreds
gathered last summer to cheer the news that the most hated man in South
Florida appeared to be one step from the grave.

Alberto Castro, 45, is among those so deeply marked by the Cuban
government that he says he long ago abandoned hope. The Miami Beach
resident was born in a prison hospital near La Cabaña, where, he says,
the government sent his parents for trying to escape the island. He's
not keeping a death watch.

''I don't care about Castro anymore -- he can die today, for all I
care,'' said the American Airlines flight attendant and artist, who
draws the likenesses of 19th century Cuban independence patriots on
surfboards. His best work features José Martí and Antonio Maceo.

Fifty-five years ago, Castro's father, also named Alberto, became a
student activist set on overthrowing Fulgencio Batista's dictatorship.
Alberto Castro eventually joined Fidel Castro (no relation) as one of
his guerrilla leaders.

When he disagreed with Fidel Castro's turn toward communism, Alberto
Castro took up another fight -- this time against Fidel -- and spent 17
years in prison. He is baffled about why Cubans today don't revolt.

''I don't understand how they don't reject the system but instead have
surrendered to it and completely embrace it,'' Castro, 78, said.

South Florida's older exiles, carrying the pain of having had their
lives derailed by Castro's revolution, have passed along their life
lessons to their children and grandchildren. That's why so many fresh
young faces filled the crowds of those celebrating in pockets of
Miami-Dade County last summer -- on Calle Ocho in Little Havana, in
Westchester and in Hialeah.

Many Americans outside South Florida, not understanding the dynamics of
a half century in exile, looked aghast at the TV scenes of street
celebrations that wished death on a dictator.

A NEW GENERATION

''I would not criticize those Cubans on the street. I think it's a
testament to the diversity of our community that there were so many
young people along with the older Cubans on the street,'' said Diane
Cabrera, 24, spokeswoman for Raices de Esperanza (Roots of Hope), a
network of young Cuban Americans attempting to establish ties with young
Cubans.

Her group didn't go to celebrations -- they held a vigil on the Miami
Beach shoreline, praying for those on the island.

''Cubans did not get to decide who would govern their country,'' she
said. ``It's clear the Castro brothers . . . want power at any cost.''

Rolando Llanes, 46, a Cuban-born architect, says the Miami crowds'
''banging of pots and pans and horn-blowing did not speak to me,'' yet
he understands why younger Cuban Americans partied.

''I told my parents it was a tribute to Cuban exiles like them,'' Llanes
said. 'I told them: `You guys have done such a good job as caretakers of
our Cuban heritage and pride that it's been passed on and absorbed by
these kids, who consider themselves Cuban exiles even though they were
born here.' ''

Joe Garcia, 43, former executive director of the Cuban American National
Foundation and now president of the Democratic Party of Miami-Dade, says
optimism is needed now more than ever: ``There are people 90 miles from
here [in Cuba] who need us, so we can give them a long-term reality.''

For many exiles and younger Cuban Americans, it has become evident that
even after Castro, 80, dies, his government's grip will likely linger.
Many had expected a nationwide show of civil disobedience -- just as
repressed Cubans had done against Spanish rule, the U.S. occupation
after the Spanish-American War and corrupt presidents before Castro's
revolution.

Such comparisons ignore the Castro government's control of all aspects
of people's lives, said Jaime Suchlicki, 67, director of the University
of Miami's Institute for Cuban and Cuban-American Studies.

''The Cuban people are fearful, intimidated, they can't freely
communicate, so they can't form an organized opposition,'' Suchlicki said.

On the surface, Castro's ceding of power has had no immediate
consequence -- the Caribbean's Berlin Wall remains fractured but
standing. Young Cubans disenchanted with their daily struggles under
Cuba's communist system have not taken to the streets as they did in
1994, taking the Castros by surprise during the demise of the Soviet
Union, which sent Cuba's economy into a tailspin and led to a rafter crisis.

Exiles' hopes of a Cuban dissident or secretly disgruntled Cuban
official staring down the charisma-impaired Raúl and his military forces
have evaporated.

''It seems like everyone is taking part in a conspiracy of silence,''
said Jose ''Pepe'' Hernandez, 70, director of the Cuban American
National Foundation.

Miami Dade College sociologist Juan Clark,68, who studies the psyche of
Cubans since the 1959 revolution, thinks those on the island are
reacting to almost a half century of government propaganda.

Cubans have grown weary, he said, of keeping ``a rebellious attitude
burning inside.''

Added Diego Suarez, 80, director of the conservative Cuban Liberty
Council: ``The Cuban people are living in denial, wearing a mask. The
repression has increased, as we have learned from Cuba's opposition
groups.''

RACIAL QUESTIONS

The Cuban government has also spent decades highlighting racial tensions
in the United States and ignoring civil-rights victories in an attempt
to divide predominantly white exiles from the mostly Afro-Cuban
population on the island.

In Cuba, many blacks told The Miami Herald they fear that white exiles
will return to take back property that once belonged to them.

Ramón Colas, 45, a former independent librarian and dissident who left
Cuba in 2001 and now runs a Cuba race-relations project in Mississippi,
says that Castro has not faced Cuba's legacy of racism.

The Afro Cuban points to the overwhelmingly white generals in Cuba's
armed forces, and notes that after almost a half century in power,
Castro has had only two prominent blacks in any positions of authority
-- Commander Juan Almeida, a hero of Castro's revolution, and Esteban
Lazo Hernández, whom Castro tapped last summer as part of a two-man team
to oversee education under Raúl's watch. And those two men are perceived
by many Cubans as figureheads, Colas said.

''No black has held a key position, not even leading a [military]
mission overseas,'' Colas said.

By contrast, Colas points to Cuba's war of independence in 1895, ``when
many leaders were black. This never happened in this revolution. Next to
José Martí was a black, Antonio Maceo. Fidel has no black man at his side.''

Many Cuba-watchers acknowledge that change on the island is almost
certain to come slowly -- even without Castro.

''Now, there is a growing realization that the succession of power has
taken place -- and that's it,'' Suchlicki said.

Carlos Saladrigas, 58, entrepreneur and director of the Cuba Studies
Group, agrees.

''Lamentably, I don't believe that the rabies ends after you kill the
dog,'' he said, referring to Castro's 48-year rule of Cuba. ``To a large
measure, the regime is institutionalized. In recent months, we've seen
that a perfectly executed de facto succession has taken place.''

U.S. Rep. Lincoln Díaz-Balart, 52, maintains that Raúl's succession is
more an illusion than a reality.

'Those who believe that there has been a `succession' of power in Cuba
are mistaken,'' Díaz-Balart said. He added that Raúl will not be able to
maintain power in Cuba for long once Fidel dies, just as the
dictatorships of Spain's Francisco Franco and the Dominican Republic's
Rafael Trujillo ended after their deaths.

``Like in those cases, the gangster regime of Fidel Castro will not be
able to be maintained for long once its gangster-in-chief and founder,
Fidel Castro, is gone.''

Huber Matos, 88, once a Castro revolutionary commander, also believes
the political outcome would have been different had Castro died last
summer because an uprising could have taken root. Matos, whose
ideological falling out with Castro cost him 25 years in a Cuban prison,
said the island is in political limbo now.

``Fidel is not running the country, but he's not letting anyone else run
it either.''

Foretelling, perhaps, the conflicting emotions of today was a tune by
the late salsa queen Celia Cruz that energized the crowds as Miami
Cubans young and old danced in the streets last summer amid cheers of
Cuba si, Castro no!

Its title: Ríe y Llora -- laugh and cry.
The Miami Herald has withheld the surnames of the people interviewed in
Cuba and the names of the team that reported from there, because they
lacked the Cuban visa required for journalists to work on the island.
Translator Renato Perez contributed to this

http://www.miamiherald.com/581/story/105002.html

Cuba's ban on car parts, video equipment lifted

Posted on Sat, May. 12, 2007

CUBA
Cuba's ban on car parts, video equipment lifted
BY WILFREDO CANCIO ISLA
El Nuevo Herald

Cuban citizens will soon be able to import a broad range of goods --
including VCR and DVD players and power generators -- for personal use
under recent government decisions overturning longtime bans on such imports.

The government has not explained why it changed its mind. Until now, it
tightly controlled such imports and sold them only rarely in its own
stores at heavily marked up prices.

The new regulations will allow Cuban citizens to import the goods
through travelers going to the island or direct shipments from abroad.

The list of products and accessories now allowed includes entire car
bodies and engines, motorcycle parts, power-generating plants and
``accessories, parts and pieces of image-reproduction equipment.''

A May 1 decree by the Ministry of Finances and Prices allowed the
noncommercial importation of video equipment of all types. Two
resolutions approved in April by the General Customs agency, which will
take effect June 1, allow the importation of the other goods.

There is one catch for those wishing to import car parts: The importers
must submit an application underwritten by some organization; the
vehicle being fixed must be officially registered; and each importer
will be allowed one transaction every five years.

No such restrictions were placed on the importation of the video equipment.

http://www.miamiherald.com/579/story/104487.html

Democracy in Cuba has a future

Posted on Sat, May. 12, 2007

`Democracy in Cuba has a future'

Huber Matos remembers Cuban interim leader Raúl Castro, a
comrade-in-arms during the fight against dictator Fulgencio Batista, as
a vengeful and calculating man who helped put him in jail for 20 years.

Matos also doesn't think much of Castro's ability to rule Cuba in place
of 80-year-old brother Fidel.

''Raúl is not really governing. His older brother continues to
manipulate him at will and rein in his initiatives,'' Matos said.

Matos, 88, came to Miami in 1979 after serving his sentence, imposed
when he tried to resign from the Cuban armed forces with a letter
accusing the elder Castro of leading the country into a communist system.

He now believes that there's a ''command crisis'' in Cuba, pitting
members of the ruling class against each other, and hopes that armed
forces and interior ministry officials will step in to lead the island
toward democracy.

Dissidents ''form the democratic . . . leadership inside Cuba [and] are
called upon to play a future role next to those military people who, in
due course, opt to follow the changeover,'' he added. ``The Castro model
is exhausted and I have faith that democracy in Cuba has a future.''

-- WILFREDO CANCIO ISLA

http://www.miamiherald.com/548/story/104436.html

County officials may overlook Cuban links

Posted on Sat, May. 12, 2007

PORT OF MIAMI | TUNNEL PROJECT
County officials may overlook Cuban links
Faced with losing $600 million over a contractor's ties to Cuba, some
Cuban-American commissioners are wary of killing a port tunnel deal.
BY LARRY LEBOWITZ AND MATTHEW I. PINZUR
llebowitz@MiamiHerald.com

The plan to build the $1 billion Port of Miami tunnel has stirred
controversy over a French contractor's business ties to Cuba, but on
Friday several Cuban-American politicians said that alone shouldn't halt
the project.

An affiliate of the state's preferred tunnel builder, Bouygues Travaux
Publics, has built 11 resort hotels in joint ventures with the Cuban
military since 1999.

Two influential Miami-Dade County commissioners who represent large
Cuban-American constituencies said they might not have a legal leg to
stand on if they try to block funding for the tunnel for purely
political reasons.

''I would have to do my duty as a county commissioner, but my Cuban
heart would hurt tremendously,'' said Commissioner Natacha Seijas.

''I don't feel comfortable with'' Bouygues' Cuba connection, said
Commissioner José ''Pepe'' Diaz. ``But I don't think it's within our
purview to do something with it.''

Diaz blanched at the idea of abandoning a deal that has been structured
to put most of the onus for cost overruns on the private vendors, not
county and city of Miami taxpayers.

''We have to make sure that tunnel gets built,'' said Diaz, whose West
Miami-Dade district is home to the largest number of port-related
trucking and warehousing businesses.

MORE AMMUNITION

But one tunnel opponent says the Bouygues ties to Cuba will provide more
ammunition for people who already thought the project was too expensive
for taxpayers to stomach.

''It already was a very tough issue to sell,'' said City Commissioner
Tomás Regalado. ``Now with this baggage, it'll be tougher.''

Miami-Dade Mayor Carlos Alvarez and Miami Mayor Manny Diaz, who have
previously supported the tunnel plan, did not respond to requests for
interviews.

Other members of the exile community argued that Bouygues has violated
the 1996 Helms-Burton Act, which extended parts of the trade embargo to
foreign firms.

''I think this is essentially a legal issue. Under Helms-Burton, they
can't operate in the U.S.,'' said Antonio Jorge, a Florida International
University political economy professor. ``Obviously, it has other kinds
of ramifications: politically, emotionally.''

Dozens of callers to Cuban talk radio shows expressed similar sentiments
Friday.

If local politicians decide to kill their part of the tunnel deal,
they'll have to do it for reasons that extend beyond the tunneling
firm's ties to Cuba.

In 2000, the U.S. Supreme Court essentially barred local governments
from conducting foreign policy. The high court declared unconstitutional
a Massachusetts city's ban on firms that conducted business with
Myanamar, formerly known as Burma.

After the Massachusetts decision, a Miami federal judge permanently
enjoined Miami-Dade from enforcing local ordinances that barred vendors
from conducting business with Cuba.

That injunction is still the prevailing law today, said County Attorney
Murray Greenberg.

''The commission can approve or not approve any contract, keeping in
mind that the federal court has ruled that the reason cannot be simply
because a firm does business with Cuba,'' Greenberg said.

The tunnel -- which would channel thousands of trucks a day from the
MacArthur Causeway to the port on Dodge Island -- would be built under a
unique public-private partnership.

A team headed by Bouygues and the Australia-based investment bankers
Babcock & Brown are prepared to finance, design, build, operate and
maintain the tunnel over a 35-year period.

The state, county and city governments would repay the team using an
array of tax and bond dollars.

What happens if the county and city pull out of the project because of
Bouygues' Cuba ties?

Johnny Martinez, chief of the Miami-area Florida Department of
Transportation office, said the state will not be turning to the No.
2-ranked team: ``With no money, there is no deal.''

Other DOT officials have said the agency would take its $600 million out
of Miami-Dade and try to leverage it for other desperately needed
transportation projects in other parts of Florida.

Other projects that could get the money include adding lanes to
Interstate 595 in Broward and Interstate 75 in Southwest Florida or
accelerating construction of a public-private beltway around Jacksonville.

Even if the tunnel deal is ultimately ratified, Bouygues could still
face legal problems in Washington.

REVOKING VISAS

Miami lawyer Nicolas Gutierrez has asked the State Department about
revoking the visas of Bouygues executives, employees and major
shareholders under Helms-Burton.

Gutierrez represents hundreds of the South Florida descendants of the
Sanchez-Hill family whose land in eastern Cuba was expropriated in the
early 1960s by the Castro regime.

Jean Francois Lalonde, a Bouygues executive in Montreal, said the firm
that is bidding on the tunnel has never conducted business in Cuba.

But Gutierrez and other trade embargo experts said this is a typical
tactic employed by multinational firms that set up affiliates to protect
themselves from liability issues.

http://www.miamiherald.com/460/story/104469.html

AP Centerpiece: U.S. brands get to Cuba

Posted on Sat, May. 12, 2007

AP Centerpiece: U.S. brands get to Cuba
By WILL WEISSERT
Associated Press Writer

HAVANA --
The golden arches are nowhere to be found. There's not a single
Starbucks or Wal-Mart, and no way to buy a Budweiser, a Corvette or a Dell.

But even in Cuba, you can get a Coke.

Despite the U.S. Trading With the Enemy Act, which governs Washington's
45-year-old embargo, sales on Fidel Castro's island are lining the
pockets of corporate America.

Nikes, Colgate and Marlboros, Gillette Series shaving cream and Jordache
jeans - all are easy to find. Cubans who wear contact lenses can buy
Bausch & Lomb. Parents can surprise the kids with a Mickey Mouse fire truck.

Dozens of American brands are on sale here - and not in some
black-market back alley. They're in the lobbies of gleaming
government-run hotels and in crowded supermarkets and pharmacies that
answer to the communist government.

The companies say they have no direct knowledge of sales in Cuba, and
that the amounts involved are small and would be impractical to stop.
But it's hard to deny that a portion of the transactions wind up back in
the United States.

"We try and do what we can to police ... but in a globalized economy,
it's impossible to catch everything," said Vada Manager, director of
global issues management for Nike Inc.

Trade sanctions bar American tourists from visiting Cuba and allow
exports only of U.S. food and farm products, medical supplies and some
telecommunications equipment. But wholesalers and distributors in
Europe, Asia, Latin America and Canada routinely sell some of America's
most recognizable brands to Cuban importers.

Cuba has for years sought out American goods as a way of thumbing its
nose at the embargo. Officials at three foreign-owned import companies
operating in Havana, who refused to have their names published for fear
of economic repercussions, said the communist government itself still
imports the vast majority of American goods.

Christopher Padilla, U.S. assistant secretary of commerce for export
administration, said from Washington that Cuba even sends delegations on
"buying missions," hunting for specific American products in third
countries for resale back home. Cuban press authorities did not make
relevant officials available to discuss the practice.

In a country where tourism is the leading revenue source, stocking
American brands helps reassure visitors, according to Daniel Erikson, a
Cuban economy expert at the Inter-American Dialogue in Washington.

"People, average Cubans included, would rather have Coca-Cola than a
no-name generic soda they're not familiar with. That means the
government can charge more," Erikson said. "And obviously for the
tourist industry it's important for the foreigners who visit Cuba to see
products that they know and trust."

All American products are sold in Cuban convertible pesos, considered
foreign currency and worth $1.08 apiece - about 25 times the island's
regular peso. Although government salaries have increased in recent
years, the average monthly pay is still around $15, meaning few Cubans
can afford U.S. goods.

But last month, Economy Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez said 57 percent of
the population has access to hard currency - dollars or convertible
pesos - either through jobs in tourism or money from relatives abroad. A
2004 report by the U.S. Commission for Assistance to a Free Cuba
estimated that remittances from the United States alone total $1 billion
a year.

The influx of American brands began in earnest in 1993, when Cuba
scrapped laws that had made it illegal for its citizens to possess
dollars. Cubans know the products, despite an almost complete lack of
advertising on the island. Angel Hernandez, a 62-year-old retiree,
didn't hesitate when presented with a pair of "Air Jordans."

"That swoosh. That's Nike," he said. Like most Cubans, he pronounces the
company name with a silent "e" as in "Mike."

Made in China, brick-red Nike Air Max 90 sneakers sell for 129.40
convertible Cuban pesos - about $140 - at a store off Havana's Central
Park. High-priced fakes also abound. Several stores, including one
inside the Havana Libre Hotel - the Havana Hilton before Castro's 1959
revolution - offer authentic-looking Max Air 80s, but Nike makes no such
product.

At the Comodoro Hotel, a boutique wants $40 for assorted small gym bags
with pastel or silver swooshes. Their tags read "Made in Indonesia" in
Spanish and "Nike de Mexico," providing a hint of their route to Cuba.

Manager said all Nike products for sale in Cuba are probably knockoffs.
He conceded, however, that legitimate distributors outside the U.S.
could be selling products to Cuban importers - and that Nike could make
money off such sales.

"But what you're talking about is such a small volume there," he said.
"And if we are able to detect where ... the products came from, that
distributor or retailer runs the risk of having their account
discontinued with us."

John Kavulich, senior policy adviser for the U.S.-Cuba Trade and
Economic Council Inc. in New York, said "in no way should it be said
that this is an end run by U.S. business around U.S. restrictions,
because it's not."

"It's almost impossible for American companies to stop," Kavulich said.
"Of course, at some point in the transaction, at the very beginning when
the legitimate distributor bought the product from Nike, or any company,
money went to the U.S."

Kavulich estimated the value of U.S. brands sold in Cuba as "probably
$20 million or less on an annual basis," but noted that less than 5
percent of that amount likely represents combined profit for American
companies, given all the layers of transactions the products go through
to get to the island.

Decades-old Walt Disney cartoons air on state television every afternoon
and stores have Mickey Mouse toys and wrapping paper and Snoopy products.

In Havana's Vedado district, fishing supply store DSY offers goods made
by U.S. supplier Seachoice Products. A "Heavy Duty Waterproof
Flashlight" from the company proudly proclaims "Made in USA."

Saleswoman Dayne Barrios said the products were shipped from Florida to
a Mexico distributor, which sent them to Cuba through a government
importer. Calls to Seachoice offices in Pompano Beach, Fla., were not
returned.

At least two Havana clothing stores call themselves Jordache, one even
using the company's horse head logo on its marquee. The shelves inside
are crammed with jeans, shirts and blouses with Jordache labels.

Steven Nakash, director of licensing for Jordache Enterprises in New
York, said the company heard about unauthorized use of its brand in Cuba
several years ago but took no action because "an American company
dealing with a foreign territory and battling it out on foreign soil is
very, very hard."

Nakash, a member of Jordache's founding family, said the company has
international distributors but also licenses its brand to manufacturers,
including one in Mexico. He said he was unsure where the products in
Cuba came from.

"Is any of the revenue from Cuba coming back to me? Certainly not,"
Nakash said.

Even after Castro took over, more than 100 U.S. corporations - including
Ford Motor Co. - obtained licenses to operate here through foreign
subsidiaries.

The U.S. Cuban Democracy Act of 1992 made such third-country
transactions illegal, while also authorizing the export of U.S.
medicines. Eight years later, the U.S. Congress allowed direct sales to
Cuba of food and farm goods, everything from rice, ice cream and
livestock to wood products, down feathers and cigarettes.

Since then, Heinz ketchup, Tabasco Sauce and Tyson's chicken have been
sporadically available at Cuban government supermarkets, and the United
States has become the island's leading supplier of food and farm products.

Prices can be about twice as much as in U.S. stories. Tubes of Colgate
toothpaste start at $4.85. You can also find products including shampoo,
conditioner and anti-bacterial soap from New York-based
Colgate-Palmolive Co. A shaving "mousse" from Gillette Series,
distributed by Procter & Gamble Zurich, costs $4.80 a bottle.

Could those items be considered medical supplies? Not likely, say U.S.
officials.

But pinpointing whether any American product is in Cuba legally is
difficult because the U.S. Treasury Department does not disclose who
secures export licenses, citing trade secrets acts.

No American brand is more prevalent in Cuba than Coke, but the Atlanta,
Georgia-based Coca-Cola Co. has not sought Cuban export licenses - even
though its product would qualify as food.

Bottled mostly in Mexico, Coke goes for $1 at stores - about the same
price as at a U.S. convenience store - and up to four times that at
touristy restaurants.

Charles Sutlive, a Coca-Cola spokesman in Atlanta, said the company has
not authorized any bottler to sell or distribute any of its finished
products in Cuba. But he added that the company "does not have the
authority to prevent these type of activities in countries where Cuban
import-export companies are free to operate."

Indeed, distributors of American goods operating in other countries
often insist they are doing nothing wrong - and can even be fined by
their own governments for refusing to export to Cuba.

Mexico fined the Sheraton Maria Isabel Hotel in Mexico City in 2005
after it bowed to U.S. Treasury Department pressure and evicted Cuban
officials staying there. In January, a Norwegian hotel owned by Hilton
Hotel Corp. sparked an uproar when it refused to book rooms for a Cuban
delegation, citing the American embargo.

The Commerce Department's Padilla said the U.S. sanctions have
international reach, applying to American products anywhere in the world.

"If companies knowingly sold to a Cuban importer, they can be
prosecuted," he said. "Willful blindness is not an excuse to violate the
law in these matters."

Despite potential legal hot water, Nakash confessed a certain pride that
his brand has cracked Havana.

"I can very much appreciate seeing a Jordache shop there," he said. "I,
as an American, can't go to a country like Cuba. But our brand can."

http://www.miamiherald.com/795/story/104995.html

Cuban ties make port tunnel a hard sell

Posted on Fri, May. 11, 2007

Cuban ties make port tunnel a hard sell
BY LARRY LEBOWITZ AND MATTHEW I. PINZUR
llebowitz@MiamiHerald.com