Europe is to start talking with Cuba, but will it DO anything?

The European Union is preparing to start talking soon to Cuba about a new relationship,but it will take one and a half years to arrive at an agreement, according to this report in the Havana Times. While talks go on the EU's Common Position on Cuba will remain in force. This 'position' which critics say is neither a position or common, is what prevents Brussels from engaging positively with Cuba and was adopted in 1996 following the passage of the Helms Burton Act in the United States. It ties increased cooperation with Cuba to 'improvements in human rights' and states that the objective of the EU is to encourage a 'pluralist democracy' in Cuba. Both ideas are anathema to the government in Havana who see this as illegal interference in their internal affairs.
Consequently, in Cuba, as the cartoon above illustrates, the Common Position is seen as having been dictated to the EU by Washington, an assumption for which there is ample evidence given that Spanish PM Jose Maria Aznar was reported by the newspaper El Pais to have received instructions from a US envoy to introduce the measures back in 1996.
Given the huge steps being taken in Cuba to introduce the market into domestic production and exchange, with the plan to have 35 per cent of the workforce in the private sector by 2015, one would have thought that the EU would wish to change its policy more quickly in order to encourage Cuba along the path towards a free market and 'pluralist democracy'.
Such a change is long overdue. Indeed, it is because of the Common Position, that Cuba is the only country in the Americas, from Canada to Argentina, with which the European Union does not have a bilateral commercial agreement. However, according to reports by Amnesty International, Cuba is far from being the worst one in the hemisphere in terms of violations of fundamental human rights. The Common Position is also ineffective because it has not had any influence on the decisions taken by Havana and has led to a freeze in bilateral relations. Finally, it is shamefully hypocritical because many countries in the EU- particularly those who oppose normalization with Cuba such as Poland, the Czech Republic, Hungary and, yes, the good old UK- have, according to Amnesty International, a human rights situation that is worse than Cuba.
Someone once said that there were three reasons to change a policy: if it was illegal, if it was immoral and if it didn't work. The Common Position seems to fit all three.  

Kerry sets hearts fluttering in Miami

The appointment of Massachussetts' Senator John Kerry as Secretary of State to replace Hilary Clinton, has set hearts fluttering in Miami because of fears this might induce a further relaxation of the travel restrictions on Americans visiting Cuba. Kerry is a long time supporter of unrestricted travel, including tourist travel, to the island.

He supported the 2009 Freedom to Travel Bill and, as Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman, as recently as 2011 he released the following statement:

"Cuba remains, regrettably, the only country in the world that the United States government does not allow its citizens to travel to freely.  I intend to continue pushing legislation, such as I sponsored in the last Congress, that will allow free travel to Cuba.  After 50 years of embargo against Cuba and government prohibitions on contact, it’s time to try something different.”

Hopes that his appointment to high office will see him using it to bring about his stated intentions should be tempered by the long-established tradition of politicians finding that the pressures of office prevent them from being able to make good on the rhetorical promises they made before obtaining power. In addition, one should note that Senator Kerry is extremely vulnerable to attack from the right.

He is a man the US right love to hate because he is by US standards so liberal that they accuse him of being a socialist. Kerry's experience in the Vietnam War led him to empathise with those who saw the US government's role there as dishonourable. A former lawyer and state prosecutor, Kerry is a man of high ideals and has an audacious temperament. In the past his audacity has cost him dearly.

For example, within weeks of taking office as a Senator in 1985 he went to Nicaragua, then governed by the Sandinsitas in the full flush of their revolutioanry fervour. He was accompanied by reporters on a 36-hour, self-appointed fact-finding mission with another newly-elected Democratic Senator, Tom Harkin of Iowa. Congressional Democrats had accused the White House of exaggerating the "communist threat" posed by the Sandinistas. So the two senators were publicly castigated when - just days after meeting with Daniel Ortega and other Nicraguan leaders - the Sandinistas climbed aboard a plane to Moscow to cement ties with the Soviet Union.  Then Secretary of State George Shultz declared that Kerry and Harkin had been "used" by the Nicaraguans, and he ridiculed them for their naivete in "dealing with the communists." Kerry was called "silly" in the Boston press.

The photograph of Kerry (above) shaking hands with Sandinista leader Daniel Ortega is to be found on a thousand far right blogs and websites across the US. (Nicaragua, now once again under Ortega, is of course a close ally of Cuba and Ortega is a close personal friend of Fidel Castro).

Will Kerry and Obama be able to face down the cries of  "soft on Castro" in order to bring about the feared and hoped for changes to US policy on the island? Post-Newtown, with the President taking on the gun lobby and facing the political minefield that entails, I would not bet on it.

Recognition - rightly earned, richly deserved and correctly judged

I have the honour to have been one of the first in the world, and almost definitely the first in the English speaking world, to have recognised the talent of Leonardo Padura Fuentes, who has just been awarded the Cuban National Prize for literature, the highest award that an author in Cuba can win.
When I heard the news today I was very emotional - not merely because I can count Leonardo as my friend and feel happy for him, but also because the recognition, by Cuba's Book Institute and the Ministry of Culture, means so very much. Leonardo is the rarest of authors. He has the ability to know his audience so well that his prose seems to speak to each of them individually. His work is also controversial, and he has done so much to open up the space for creativity and freedom of expression for artists in Cuba that this prize is a victory of huge dimensions and will have enormous repurcusions. I recall that when I first read his work in 1991, I was amazed and said to myself then that this man would either win the national prize or be expelled for his courage and his talent. I am so happy for him (and the country) that he has won. I explain why I felt this way in my book, which, if you will excuse my self-promotion can be reviewed HERE.

Could Delta open the floodgates?

Speculation is rife that the Obama administration is about to relax travel restictions to Cuba further following the announcement that the US carrier Delta Airlines is close to buying a share of Richard Branson's Virgin Atlantic.
Today's UK Independent newspaper reports that Virgin Atlantic is currently 49 per cent owned by Singapore Airlines. Delta, the world’s biggest carrier, is bidding for that stake. If almost half the airline becomes US-owned, Virgin has said that it will still continue with its thrice-weekly jumbo from Gatwick to Cuba.
A spokeswoman for Virgin Atlantic is quoted as saying: “We have no plans to cancel flying to Havana”.
At Delta’s Atlanta headquarters, the planned minority ownership of an airline serving Cuba is not regarded as an issue according to a spokesman. The confidence that the Virgin’s Havana connection will continue has led to the speculation that the Obama administration is preparing to ease the long-standing embargo.
Mmmmmmm.... let's see.

Don't believe the BBC, go and see it for yourself

I was once fortunate enough to be assigned a press visa to visit Cuba on behalf of a British newspaper (I shall spare its blushes by not naming it) and attended not a few press conferences. At one, I was surprised by the less than well-informed and rather aggressive questioning from a representative of a well-known UK institution. I was more surprised by the fact that, knowing the kind of reports the unnamed correspondent filed, this individual was still being given visas to enter the island let alone a press pass. I happened to be standing beside the then head of Havana's press centre, which is an arm of the Foreign Ministry in charge of granting visas. I said to him: "Why on earth do you tolerate this guy? Have you seen the sort of disinformation he publishes? Why don't you tell him to stop lying about you, or else?" The Press chief looked at me wryly and replied: "What was it your dear Oscar Wilde said, Steve? There's only one thing worse than being talked about... and that's not being talked about? He writes a lot of rubbish but at least we are in there. Do you know how many times Brazil or Argentina are mentioned in his publication? You wouldn't know they exist!"
I relate this anecdote because yesterday evening I saw a documentary on the BBC about Cuba by a young man called Simon Reeves. (Pictured). Frankly, it was littered with so many of the most ridiculous errors of fact and sweeping generalisations that those who know Cuba well would find it hard to stomach. Nonetheless, like the Cuban press chief, I am heartened by the fact that it was aired by the BBC and by the simple observation that no matter how badly Mr Reeves tried to paint Cuba's economy, the shining, irrepressible smiles of the Cubans he talked to shone through. He did not find a single unhappy face and the photography was supurb. Despite the gloating way he suggested that capitalism was returning to Cuba, he nonetheless presented a place that many who watched would like to visit. Don't take Simon Reeves' word for it, go and see it for yourself.

Cooperative Cuba

The new law on Cooperatives was approved today. Some 200 types of enterprise will now be open to be run by workers' cooperatives. The UK's Financial Times story is HERE.

Richard Fineberg, a non-resident senior fellow of the Washington-based Brookings Institution and author of its recently released report: 'The New Cuban Economy: What Roles for Foreign Investment?' says:

“This opens the door to exciting social innovations, potentially creating a large sector of the economy that would be neither entirely capitalist nor state-socialist but uniquely Cuban – grassroots, democratic, and productive.” Hear, Hear!

Border disputes

Cuba's new migration rules come into force in the New Year and the consequence will be to put the ball well and truly into Washington's court to do something about the US's ridiculous policy towards migrants from Cuba.

Into this breach steps the right-wing think-tank the Lexington Institute this week with a new report from Philip Peters, its vice-president, and someone who knows Cuba as well as anyone inside the beltway. He is full square behind a overhaul of the current policy and argues why cogently and comprehensively. You can read the full paper HERE. His conclusions are below:

• Repeal the Cuban Adjustment Act. The special
circumstances that gave rise to the Act in 1966
have long ago ceased to exist. Absent those circumstances,
there is no reason to give special immigration
privileges to immigrants from Cuba whose
motives are mainly economic. Repeal of the Act
would end the practice of effectively condoning
illegal immigration through the “dry foot” policy,
and it would undermine the business of alien
smuggling from Cuba.

• Repeal the special provisions in the Refugee Assistance
Act that provide refugee public assistance
benefits to immigrants from Cuba who are not
refugees. This will ensure that benefits intended
for refugees are not extended to Cuban immigrants
generally, who do not have refugee status. This
will end an abuse of the U.S. taxpayer and an inappropriate
use of the refugee resettlement program.

• Retain the policy of admitting 20,000 Cubans
annually as immigrants, pursuant to the migration
accords. This practice, combined with the return
of migrants intercepted at sea, has coincided with
a long period in which no mass migration events
have occurred.

• Retain refugee processing at the U.S. Interests Section
in Havana.

• Continue the family reunification parole program.
This program has proven vital to reaching the figure
of 20,000 immigrants per year. Since it connects
Cuban immigrants with family members in the
United States, those immigrants are less likely to
require public assistance.

Cuba accuses US of Gross fabrication

The BBC's Sarah Rainsford reports today that Cuba is accusing the US of lying about the health and detention conditions of Alan Gross the American jailed in Havana for smuggling in illegal internet equipment and trying to subvert the state.

The US State Department this week marked the third anniversary of Alan Gross's sentencing by calling his 15-year sentence unjustified.
It said Mr Gross had lost more than 40kg (100 lb) and called for him to be seen by a doctor of his own choosing.
The Cuban foreign ministry denied Mr Gross was getting inadequate care.
Spokeswoman Josefina Vidal said a biopsy on a mass that had appeared on his shoulder showed he did not have cancer, as his family had feared. She added that there was no need for an independent doctor's report.

Gross calls for pact with Cuba

Peter Kornbluh's iPhone photo. Credit: NBC News

I read today, on the third anniversary of the jailing of Alan Gross in Cuba, a blog by my colleague Tracey Eaton, that the US Senate is to present a resolution calling for his release.

The National Committee to Free the Cuban Five asks supporters to contact their senators and press for a prisoner swap (see contact information here).

Tracey also notes that NBC News on Sunday reported that Cuba specialist Peter Kornbluh had met with Gross for four hours on Nov. 28.

Kornbluh works at the National Security Archives, a respected nonprofit group that over the past 25 years has filed 40,000 Freedom of Information and declassification requests with more than 200 federal offices and agencies, opening up more than 10 million pages of previously secret government documents.
Kornbluh told NBC News that Gross was upset that the U.S. government has not done more to seek his release.

He’s angry, he’s frustrated, he’s dejected — and he wants his own government to step up" and negotiate, Kornbluh said. "His message is that the United States and Cuba have to sit down and have a dialogue without preconditions. … He told me that the first meeting should result in a non-belligerency pact being signed between the United States and Cuba.

Mr Gross's misconduct - all 'flawed' and 'messed up'

The New York Times has reported on the story of Alan Gross, the USAID contractor who was jailed in Cuba accused of espionage. He is now suing his employers and the USAID department for damages becasue he alleges they put him in harm's way for sending him to Cuba badly prepared for the risks he was taking.

The facts of the case as they are now emerging begin to prove what the Cuban government has been saying all along. Mr. Gross, whether he knew it or not, was part of a systematic programme to undermine the Cuban government that was conceived and financed by the US government. In other words he was a foriegn agent trying to overthrow the Cuban state. That's illegal espionage in anyone's books. Here is the NYTimes on the case:

Scott Gilbert, one of the Gross family’s lawyers, said the case could be especially damaging for the State Department and DAI if the discovery process produces more examples of unqualified and ill-prepared contractors sent to Cuba. He said the suit would draw attention to the American government’s pro-democracy effort, which Mr. Gilbert described as “flawed in conception” and “completely messed up” in execution.

You can read the main parts of the suit here (pdf).   

Note carefully the following:

·          The USAID programme Gross was working on derives from the so-called Helms-Burton Law of 1996 and is geared toward changing the political order in Cuba. (p.9)

·         From page 20, it details Gross’ trips to Cuba, noting that in each instance he came home, he warned his employer (DAI, a USAID contractor based in Maryland) about the risks in his activity, those warnings were ignored and he was often urged by DAI to get on with the programme, he returned to Cuba, and DAI continued making money from the programme.

My fellow blogger Phil Peters of the Lexington Institute comments: 

"Of course Mr. Gross was making plenty of money too, and it sort of jumps off the page that the lawsuit assigns responsibility to everyone but Mr. Gross for the trips that he himself made to Cuba, even after perceiving the dangers.  It should also be noted that while Mr. Gross was issuing his warnings, he also continued his modus operandi of traveling to Cuba along with American Jewish delegations and having unwitting members of those delegations carry some of his equipment.  Not a nice guy."

There's more background on the Cuban case against Mr. Gross; on the US government’s handling of the case (here and here) and everything that Phil Peters has ever posted on the case here.

Havana schools of art still cause outrage

Rowan Moore reports in today's Observer newspaper that the great ballet dancer Carlos Acosta wants to give something back both to his art form and to Cuba, and has offered his own money and the fundraising power of his energy and his name, to create a new centre for dance and culture on the edge of Havana. In the process, he hopes to give a new future to one of the most remarkable buildings of the 20th century, in Cuba or anywhere else. The eminent Lord Foster has helped him with a feasibility study, free of charge, yet the plan has provoked uproar, says Rowan.
The building in question is the School of Ballet, a work of the heady early years of the Cuban revolution, and Cuban architects are questioning whether a powerful international practice, Foster's, will best reflect its spirit. The school's original architect, Vittorio Garatti, has written to Fidel Castro in protest. The reason is that Foster is a modernist - a movement which the original architect rejected.
The current debate, says Rowan, is the latest episode in a story so dramatic and colourful it could inspire a book, a feature film or an opera. As, indeed, it has – all three. The ballet school is part of a complex called the National Schools of Art, about which architect and educator John Loomis has written a book, Revolution of Forms, which has been made into a movie (called Unfinished Spaces) now doing the rounds of film festivals, and is the basis of an opera directed by Robert Wilson. Watch the trailer above

EU ice is melting?

Cuban Cartoon: "Clearly my love, I know that you like my position, but everyone is commenting that the only thing that I have in common with anypone is with you"

News has reached me that European Union Foreign Ministers agreed on 19 November to "explore the possibility" of drawing up a new co-operation accord with Cuba that would supplant the 1996 Current Position that governs relations with Cuba.
Spain’s Deputy Foreign Minister, Gonzalo de Benito, said:“Starting now, what the [European] Commission is going to do is to establish some guidelines so that this cooperation accord may be negotiated, representing a step forward in the relationship between the European Union and Cuba,”
The EU sees the recent chnages in Cuba as “a positive evolution”, he added.
This is welcome news and means that some form of EU-Cuba association agreement might eventually be agreed. Cuba is the only country in Latin America that the EU has no formal relationship with.
The EU has previously argued that its unilateral ‘Common Position’ “encourages dialogue with the Cuban authorities to promote respect for human rights, progress towards pluralist democracy and economic reforms”. However, officials and some Member States believe that this policy has been a failure and that there is a need to begin to put in place the possibility of bilateral agreement.

US spy sues US government

Demonstrators outside Cuban Interests Section

in Washington calling for Gross's release

Alan Gross, the American who has been imprisoned in Cuba for nearly three years for spying is suing his former Maryland employer and the United States government for $60 million, saying they didn’t adequately train him or disclose risks he was undertaking by doing the work he did on the island.
Alan Gross and his wife Judy sued Friday in federal court in Washington. The lawsuit alleges that the "economic development" company Gross was working for in Cuba and the U.S. government, with which the company had a contract, failed to provide Gross “with the education and training that was necessary to minimize the risk of harm to him.”
Gross, 63, was arrested in December 2009 while on his fifth trip to Cuba as part of a project to increase the availability of Internet access in the country. Gross was working on the effort as a subcontractor for Development Alternatives Inc., an economic development company based in Bethesda, Md. The Cuban authorities arrested him for illegally bringing sophisticated wi fi equipment into the country that they say was intended for use in oprgnaising an oppostion to the government. Gross was imprisoned as an enemy agent.
Last week, Alan Gross's wife said that she was disappointed in the US government for not having done enough to get her husband freed.

The numbers game

It does appear that what I was saying yesterday has really happened. As the graph above from The Wall Street Journal shows, the numbers of Cuban-Americans voting Democrat has increased steadily over the years since 2000 and now they are voting in roughly equal numbers with their Republican colleagues. What this means is that the demographics have fundamentally changed. The Democratic half of the community by and large favours contact with the island and wishes to visit it freely, send money to their families and possibly even look forward to having a share in a business there once the new private sector becomes established. The Republican half favours the embargo and punishing Cubans, driving down their living standards in the hope that they will turn on the government. The former group is growing, the latter is declining. The latter is declining because the community is dying off, they are early migrants who left in the sixties, have few ties to the island and whose children do not share their vehement hatred of Castro. The latter group are growing because they are new migrants and they are growing fast. Look at these figures posted today by Phil Peters on his blog:

Numbers of Cubans who obtained legal permanent residency in the past ten years, according to the Department of Homeland Security.

2002                28,182

2003                9,262

2004                20,488

2005                36,261

2006                45,614

2007                29,104

2008                49,500

2009                38,954

2010                33,372

2011                36,261

Total              326,998

That's nearly 3 per cent of the total Cuban population becoming US citizens in the past nine years. Think about it, can this be allowed to go on? Cuba simply cannot afford to keep losing these people and the US can't keep absorbing them - especially since the Cubans are made a special case among the Hispanic communities, benefitting from the ridiculously anachronistic Cuban Adjustment Act and the ability to obtain citizenship easily. Logic tells you that sooner now than later something has to change - and following this election, Obama has the best opportunity to do it than any President since Kennedy.

More on all the voting from Fabiola Santiago in the Herald; in the Wall Street Journal, “Cuban-Americans Move Left;” and in the Financial Times, “Cuban-Americans Stun Republicans.”

Bell tolls for the hardliners

It is still too early to say, but some commentators are suggesting that Obama may have won a majority of Cuban American votes in Florida. If they are correct then the power of the right-wing Cuba-American lobby is in terminal decline. True enough, Republican Castro baiters Ileana Ros-Lehtinen and Mario Diaz-Balart may have both won with thumping majorities in their districts, but overalll in Miami-Dade and Broward counties where most of the Cuban-Americans are located, Obama won over Romney. It is obvious that he could not have done so without picking up a good proportion of their votes. This might be as much as 62 per cent, as my fellow blogger Phil Peters reported yesterday.

Add to this the fact that Joe Garcia became the first Democrat Cuban-American ever to be elected, and that veteran Castro hater Connie Mack lost his senate seat, it all adds up to a very interesting scenario. Garcia openly supports more engagement with the island. The split in the Cuban-American community in Florida could therefore not be more clear.

When they finally count all the votes we will know for sure, but either way Obama won the White House without the need for Florida at all. He owes the Cuban right-wing nothing. Furthermore, he is in a final term and therefore should have a free hand to open the door to Cuba. I am 99 per cent certain that he will do so.

Make no bones about it, Obama wishes to end socialism in Cuba just as much as Ros-Lehtinen, but he differs on how it should be done. I use the following analogy: Instead of trying to starve Cuba into submission through an embargo, a strategy that has not worked, Obama inclines towards what I call the poisoned apple approach. Just like the wicked stepmother, he would try to kill Cuba with apparent kindness. It's going to be an interesting four years.

The stakes in Florida

 As the US election day looms, polls are showing America’s largest swing state Florida to be tied in a dead heat between Romney and Obama. Florida has 29 electoral votes and the third largest “Hispanic” population in America. Normally this means an easy victory for any Democrat.

But oh dear! It turns out that about a third of these Florida Hispanics are Cuban-Americans.

A poll last week of voters in Florida’s Miami-Dade county by the Miami Herald found the following breakdown:

                 Obama     Romney       Undecided
White:         64%             30%             6%
Black:          95%               2%             3%
Hispanic:      33%            62%              5%

Hey, wait a minute!” liberals wail. “But every poll on the planet shows Obama with at least 70% of the U.S. Hispanic vote. So what’s going on here?”
Americans of Cuban heritage as usual, that’s what’s going on. The Miami Herald poll broke it down further, noting that Cuban-Americans support Obama 19%, Romney 76% and 5% are undecided.
In brief: no ethnic group in the U.S. comes even close to matching Cuban-Americans in their level of disdain for President Barack Obama in particular and the Democratic Party in general.
What does this mean for the election? It means if Romney wins and he needs Florida to win and he wins in Florida - he will owe his victory to the Cuban -Americans... so kiss goodbye to any change in US policy towards Cuba. However, if Obama wins and he needs Florida to win and he wins there, he will owe them NOTHING!
It's not rocket science...

Time for a sane approach to Cuba?

Now that the Cuban government has removed the exit visa requirement for its citizens to travel, the penny is beginning to drop as to what this means for US Cuba policy. Some, such as the editorial writers from the Los Angeles Times, fear that it is going to result in a deluge of Cubans entering the United States and produce a situation akin to the so-called 'rafters crisis' of the early nineties, while others, such as Democrat Representative Jim McGovern, argue that it represents yet another tick on Washington's wish list for Cuba and therefore merits a reciprocal act by the Administration.
Of course nothing is going to happen on US Cuba policy at all until after the election. McGovern hopes, as all sane people must, that Obama wins next week. McGovern hails from Massacussetts, home of the Kennedies - and next year is the 50th anniversary year of JFK's assassination. Shortly before he was killed, Kennedy was pursuing a back channel approach to Fidel Castro in the hope of settling their differences in his second term. Let's hope that an Obama second term will finally lay that ghost to rest...

Restored National Theatre reopens

With Cuba’s National Theatre having been completely restored, The Havana Times reports that the doors to its enormous Avellaneda Hall — with its three levels and 2,254 seating capacity —  re-opened on Sunday, October 28, for the opening ceremony of the Havana International Ballet Festival.

Surpassed in size only by the capital city’s Karl Marx Theater (which seats 5,000), the main hall of the cultural complex showed off its new look following months of renovation work. This improved image sharply contrasts with the gloomy appearance this majestic theatre has suffered for years.

$100,000 if you hit Fidel, $20,000 for Raúl and Che

According to London's Daily Mail, documents released this week finally confirm beyond doubt that the Kennedies hired the Mafia to shoot Fidel Castro. They agreed a price of $100,000 for killing Fidel and $20,000 for either Raúl or Che Guevara. One has to ask oneself how can it be that the President of a supposedly democratic country should be hiring criminals to carry out murders on its behalf? Has anything changed?

50 years ago this week the Cuban Missile Crisis began. On Tuesday 16th October the esteemed Cuban international relations expert Prof. Carlos Alzugaray Treto will be giving a talk on the topic at London's Institute for the Study of the Americas. Venue and details HERE. 
  

Democracy, shamocracy, who cares so long as we have a vote?

As the Venezueleans go to the polls today to re-elect President Hugo Chavez, Cuba's daily Granma newspaper carries huge coverage of the election campaign and includes a graphical guide (pictured) to show how the Venezuelans vote in what Jimmy Carter has called the best electoral system he has witnessed.
Two things stand out here: the first is that despite the charges that Chavez is a dicator, Venezuela IS a liberal democracy by any of the standards set by the so-called 'West'. The second is that while Cuba falls short of that benchmark because it does not have a multi-party system, it is patently obvious that its government has absolutely no fear about that fact since it openly explains and extols the virtues of such a system in its national newspaper. That Cubans understand democracy and voting systems and know what others have and might actually in fact NOT WANT such a system themselves  is a possiblity that few in Washington can comprehend - just as they can't imagine how machinations using new media and ICT to try and provoke a 'Cuban' spring like that in Arab countries might not work, as my collegaue Phil Peters deflty pointed out in his blog on Friday.  

Invest in Cuba? Now is the time

As the Cuban economy begins a new phase of development and more opportunities are presented to potential foreign investors, it is important to get the best advice and have the assurance that if you do decide to invest, your money has the best chance of producing results for you - and Cuba.
On the face of it, it would appear that the recently established Cuba Financial Fund based in Holland and managed by people from the Romar group with 20 years of experience working there, might be a good place to start....Check out the website HERE

Things you won't read about in the Washington Post

While the Washington Post publishes unsubstatiated tittle tattle from disgruntled emigres who have nothing but hearsay evidence, news comes from Cuba of something worth reporting. The Western media is keen to keep the non-story of the death of the Cuban dissident Oswaldo Paya alive by giving scurrilous credibility to weird ideas that he was killed by the Cuban state, but meanwhile Cuba keeps on doing the truly amazing. Get this: According to the Cuban News Agency with the recent graduation of 8,000 Ethiopian doctors, Cuba has now educated more than 40,000 African health professionals from its Latin American Medical School (pictured) and is working to improve the lives and health of poor communities in 51 out of 54 African countries. That's news, but you won't read about it in the Washington Post.

Cuban ingenuity is truly remarkable

Everyone knows how the hard pressed Cubans made a virtue out of necessity and kept those old American cars running years beyond their sell by date by patching them up with all kinds of spare parts and botched engineering. Now it seems that Cuban ingenuity has been applied to 21st century technology. If this report in the San Francisco Chronicle is to be believed, Havana is the only place in the world where an Iphone that's been dropped in the bath can be repaired. Knowing the Cubans as I do, I would not be surprised.

Why this man could make history

For those who don't live in Florida, this affable-looking man pictured above is Joe Garcia, a Cuban- American businessman and the Democrats' candidate for Congress in South Florida, who is pitted against the Republican David Rivera in the upcoming election. It's the second time they have faced each other in South Florida and the Wall Street Journal reports that the fight this time will be really nasty. But although Joe lost last time he has a very good chance of winning this November.
This year, Democrats consider Rivera especially vulnerable. His tenure in Congress has been overshadowed by state and federal investigations into his campaign finances. Florida prosecutors closed their case in April without bringing charges, but a federal investigation is continuing.
If Garcia wins, he will make history becasue he will be the first Cuba-American Congressman ever elected who favours engagement with the island. Read this article he wrote in 2009 and you will see why, despite Joe's stated distaste for the government in Havana, folks who favour an end to the insanity of the US policy towards Cuba are raising money for him. Basically, if Joe wins in South Florida and Obama wins again, the embargo could well be history. Donate to his campaign HERE.

Sweet future for foreign investors in Cuban sugar?

Here's a report in the China Daily that highlights the extent of changes in the Cuban economy. It says the government has authorized the first joint venture in the sugar industry in a bid to boost efficiency, modern technology to revitalize the sector.
The state-run Sugar Group Azcuba was approved a month ago to create the first joint venture with foreign capital, to build a bioelectrical power station in the Ciro Redondo sugar factory, 45,000 km east of Havana.

Arts news

Revolutionary ballet school to be revived with UK's Lord Foster involved

The London Daily Mail, reports that the Cuban Ballet Star, Carlos Acosta, has enlisted the help of British Architect Lord Foster to restore the Ballet School at the national arts school complex in Havana that were planned in the 60s and never completed (pictured). Read the report HERE

Abstract expressionist, Viredo Espinosa dies

One of Cuba's lesser known painters, Viredo Espinosa has died aged 83. He was a member of the Group of the Eleven, who introduced non-figurative, abstract works into modern art in Cuba. His work was greatly influenced by his Afro-Cuban upbringing.

Viredo Espinosa, a member of a revolutionary group of artists in 1950s Cuba whose Abstract Expressionism expanded the scope of the country's modern art, died Sunday in Costa Mesa, California.  He was 83.

Espinosa, who left Cuba in 1969 and eventually settled in Southern California, died of natural causes at a nursing facility, said his friend Mariano Sanchez.

Two important studies on recent events

Here are the most recent analysis on Cuba by Washington Office on Latin America’s Geoff Thale and Clay Boggs.

Rep. Paul Ryan's Surprising Voting Record on Cuba

Rep. Paul Ryan (R-WI pictured), Mitt Romney’s choice as running mate on the Republican presidential ticket, once favoured lifting the embargo against Cuba. But recently he changed his position. Just how strong an opponent of the embargo was Ryan? WOLA's Geoff Thale went back and counted the votes. He found that Ryan voted against the embargo in 20 out of 24 Cuba votes between 2000 and 2007. In fact, Ryan voted for easing or ending the embargo on every single vote from 2000 to 2005. Thale points to polling data to show that, contrary to conventional wisdom, many Cuban Americans actually agree with Ryan's longtime opposition to the embargo.

Economic Reforms and Labour Protections in Cuba In the past two years, Cuba has taken important steps to open up its economy. WOLA's Clay Boggs and Geoff Thale argue that the reform process has generated a mixture of support and resistance as it impacts not only government bureaucrats but also ordinary Cubans, who may experience both gains and losses in the process. In particular, Boggs and Thale argue that the expanding private sector will inevitably pose challenges for Cuba's limited but meaningful set of labor protections. They note that two upcoming laws may help answer some of the questions about labour in Cuba. One law is a framework for cooperatives in Cuba; the other is a revised labour code.

For more information, please contact Clay Boggs at cboggs@wola.org or (202) 797-2171.

Visions of socialism

I have just finished reading an article that appears HERE in the current edition of Temas magazine from Havana written by Camila Piñeiro Harnecker, of the Centro de Estudios de la Economía Cubana (pictured). For those who can read Spanish it is well worth a look.

She identifies three tendencies of thought in Cuba today about the way forward for socialism in the country. These she labels as the 'statist', 'economistic' and what she calls the 'autogestionaria' which I translate as the 'collective self-manager'.

The statists are those who still cling to a strong, centralised and authoritarian state as the best means of defending the socialist system. They do see the need for some economic reform but wish to go only so far as to alleviate the immediate economic problems. They oppose the idea of a broad opening to the market and political as well as economic liberalisation or democratisation.
The economists, she describes as being in their purest form actually very frighteningly close to being neoliberals (though not admitting it in so many words), advocating root and branch adoption of market mechanisms and privatization of enterprises as the best means of delivering growth and improvements in living standards.
The third and final group (to which I suspect Camila belongs) are those who wish to see a decentralisation and democratisation of the social economy, greater workers' control, more accountability and more cooperatives. This she says is criticised as utopian and is a view confined mainly to intellectuals who are wary of the pitfalls for the other two tendencies, which, she says, predominate in the public discourse. However, she points out that the 'statist' view is not shared by all those within the state, nor is the 'economistic' vision confined or monopolised by those who might be defined as economists.
If what Camila is describing does accord with the current reality, I draw three conclusions. Firstly, Cuba is going through a true period of societal change that involves a broad ranging discussion of the future and the options available to it. Secondly, there is a very real division of opinion within society as to what is the best direction forward. However, thirdly, despite these very divergent visions, the society is not visibly separating out into camps that define themselves along these ideological lines.  There is evidently something overlaying that binds the society together. My reading inclines me to believe that there is a consensus that whatever route they take, the accepted need is to find a path to preserve what they have and that implies keeping the United States out.
The United States should take on board the writing such as this that is coming out of Cuba and understand that this is not a society that is cowed by 'totalitarianism' nor is it a society that will be subverted from outside. If Camila is correct, it is a society that is genuinely trying to find its own path to socialism and sustainability in the 21st Century.
My point in saying this is to suggest that while this may be reason enough for the US to oppose it, I think it would be fairer for all concerned if the political class in the US would just say so, rather than to pretend that Cuba is 'totalitarian' (see: 'The weird world of Mit' - below) or does 'not respect human rights' or is a 'sponsor of state terrorism' - all of which, as Camila's erudition and apparent freedom to write shows, are palpably false and utterly insulting to anyone with half a brain who lives in the United States or elsewhere in the so-called liberal democracies.  

Open letter to the Republican and Democratic National Committees

Following the frankly ridiculous statement on Cuba policy from the Republicans (see post below) this letter was circulated yesterday by some Cuban-Americans who have a firmer grasp on reality.

To the Republican and Democratic National Committees:

 

            In light of both the upcoming Republican and Democratic conventions we, as Cuban Americans and American citizens, urge both parties to not fall into the trap of viewing our community as a monolithic voting bloc that is  in favor of the United States' embargo on Cuba.  During these conventions the platforms for each party will be decided upon and put into action. For the past fifty years, a strategy of blind support for the embargo has become the norm for political candidates from both parties in order to garner the support of Cuban Americans. We would implore all candidates to not look upon our demographics as one that unanimously supports this failed policy of hostility. Rather, we are a diverse body of voices with a majority that favors a policy of engagement, and ultimately, normalization of relations between the two nations.

            Numerous polls of the Cuban American community in southern Florida and throughout the nation demonstrate that a majority of these citizens favor the policies that the Obama administration put in place in 2009 and then expanded in 2011.  These moves have eased the process of reunification of Cuban families by allowing Cuban Americans to travel to Cuba more frequently and send more remittances to loved ones on the island. Overwhelmingly, Cuban Americans have voted with their feet and pocketbooks by traveling to Cuba, sending money, and acting as ambassadors for our great nation.  As Cuban Americans we feel that we are not any better than any other American citizen and would hope that the U.S. government takes steps to eliminate the travel ban placed on all American citizens.

            We ask Mitt Romney, the presumptive candidate, and the Republican Party to abandon the cold war rhetoric. Easing the embargo is not an act of "appeasement".  It is our hope that Paul Ryan will remain consistent to his well-documented stance against the embargo. We urge all candidates to consider the vast support among congressional Republicans who represent the Midwest and many other districts across the country to end the embargo in order to open up a potentially dynamic market for agricultural and other manufactured goods made in the USA.

            True conservatives cannot defend our policy towards Cuba. The travel restrictions violate American citizens' individual right to travel. Also, our government's stance towards Cuba is an absolute contradiction to free market capitalism. Furthermore, it is our hope that the GOP will understand the historic ties that Tampa, the host city of their national convention, has with Cuba. The majority of the Cuban American community there favors normalization of relations with Cuba. We reject any attribution of Cuban American congressional members of the Republican Party from southern Florida such as Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, Marco Rubio, David Rivera, and Mario Diaz-Balart to speak on behalf of Cuban Americans as a whole within the state, let alone throughout the nation.

            The inclusion of Cuba on the list of State sponsors of Terror is counterproductive. This designation undermines American national security because it eliminates the possibility of working in concert with Cuban leaders on important matters of regional security.  Our policy towards Cuba is also looked upon with derision by most of our allies in Latin America and this also compromises our position of influence in the hemisphere. Finally, the embargo effectively denies the very real potential of sustained gains in various sectors of the economy that would result from the opening of a very close market that yearns for American goods and services.

            President Obama and his administration are well aware of these circumstances and have encountered opposition from our partners in the western hemisphere regarding such policies. We welcome a proactive response to deal with these challenges.  Regardless of the outcome of the elections in November we would hope that liberals and progressives within the Democratic Party continue to work to bring about a relationship that is more beneficial for both the Cuban people and the American populace.

 

            In closing, we reiterate to all political candidates of both Republican and Democratic parties that Cuban Americans represent a plurality of views pertaining to U.S.-Cuba relations. Any posture by any politician that insinuates that we are all in favor of the embargo is misleading.  It is our desire that the members of the American political class resist the urge to repeat the same tired lines about Cuba and the embargo from past campaigns.  Such an attempt to pander to a community whose grasp of the issue of U.S.-Cuba relations is quite sophisticated and nuanced could cause negative results at the ballot box.

 

Respectfully,

 

Members of the Board of Directors of CAFE (Cuban Americans for Engagement) and from the Executive Committee of FORNORM

 

Dr. Maria Isabel Alfonso, New York, NY. CAFE

Dr. Romy Aranguiz, Worcester, MA. CAFE

Dr. Eduardo Araujo, Boulder, CO. CAFE

Alejandro Barreras, Miami, FLA. CAFE

Isidro Borja, Miami, FLA. former President of FORNORM

Ernesto Cabo, Alexandria, VA. CAFE

Amaury Cruz, Miami, FLA. Vice President of FORNORM

Elena Freyre,  Miami, FLA. President of FORNORM

Arturo Lopez-Levy, Denver, CO. CAFE

Andres Ruiz, Worcester, MA. CAFE

Dr. Julio Ruiz, Miami, FLA. Secretary of FORNORM

Benjamin Willis, New York, NY. CAFE

Antonio Zamora, Miami, FLA. former President of FORNORM

The weird world of Mit

 

I have just read the US Republican Party's platform programme for Cuba ahead of the Republican National Convention and I have to say it is weird.
The statement, released on 20 August, describes the "regime" in Cuba as “anachronistic” and “a mummified relic of the age of totalitarianism, a state-sponsor of terrorism”. It rejects “any dynastic succession of power within the Castro family” and conditions the lifting of trade, travel, and financial sanctions on “the legalization of political parties, an independent media, and free and fair internationally-supervised elections”. 
At the same time, the Republicans pledge support to what they call Cuba’s “courageous pro-democracy movement as the protagonists of Cuba’s inevitable liberation and democratic future” and calls for “a dedicated platform for the transmission of the illegal propaganda platforms Radio and TV Marti and for the promotion of Internet access and circumvention technology as tools to strengthen what they think is a "pro-democracy movement" on the island. 
The Republicans furthermore endorse the truly anachronistic and idiotic Cuban Adjustment Act of 1966, saying that they "recognize the rights of Cubans fleeing Communism”.
All that rhetoric over they then make no mention whatsoever of rolling back President Obama’s easing of restrictions on Cuban-American travel and remittances.
It is clearly going to be an oxymoronic presidential race in Florida - or might that just be plain moronic?

Assange and the Cuba connection

Now I am not one to believe in conspiracies except in cases where a conspiracy is reasonably the only explanation for something extraordinary. So I am not going to dwell on the facts of the Julian Assange case. However, I think there are very many in the UK who should watch this documentary made by Australian television that convinces me that he has good reason to believe that he is the victim of a set up:

The documentary raises credible and serious reasons to doubt the Swedish justice system and his female accusers but does not go into their backgrounds. What is very interesting about the chief accuser, Ana Ardin, is that she does not appear to have been the sort of person who in the past would have had anything to do with an organisation like Wikileaks. In fact, she has a record of anti-Cuban agitation. Here for example is what she had to say about Cuba in an article posted on this Swedish website:

"Unemployment is very much higher than the official figures say (20-25 percent rather than two per cent) since the employment is not counted in the statistics. Streets, squares and parks are filled with people who do not work. Cuba must import most goods and they do not even cover their own food needs...the U.S. imposed trade embargo against Cuba and Cuban goods in 1962 will not destroy the Castro regime - on the contrary! Partly becasue Cuba does not have anything to sell, and partly because this is one of Castro's main defenses against criticism that Communism did not make Cuba a paradise."

This is clearly not the work of a sympathiser with the Cuban government. According to the US website Counterpunch Ardin  has ties to the US-financed anti-Castro and anti-communist groups. The website in which she published her Cuba articles is the product of a well-financed anti-Castro organization in Sweden. This group is connected with Union Liberal Cubana led by Carlos Alberto Montaner whose CIA ties are exposed here. Ardin was apparently deported from Cuba for subversive activities. In Cuba she interacted with the womens' anti-Castro group Las damas de blanco (the Ladies in White). This group receives US government funds and the convicted anti-communist terrorist Luis Posada Carriles is a friend and supporter. 

The Missile Crisis 50 years on: Lessons of threatened mass destruction

 Event just confirmed

 

Public lecture 16th October, 2012

The Missile Crisis 50 years on: Lessons of threatened mass destruction

On the 50th anniversary of the October missile crisis in which the the United States and the USSR brought the world to the brink of mass destruction, the IISC and the Institute for the Studies of the Americas presents a public lecture by the esteemed Cuban expert in international affairs, Professor Carlos Alzugaray Treto.

“The Origins of the Missile Crisis: An asymmetric confrontation in a Cold War context”.

In this presentation Profesor Alzugaray will analyse the antecedents of the Crisis and answer the question: Was it simply another Cold War crisis or the result of an asymmetric confrontation between a big power and a small nation?

Tuesday 16th October, 2012
6.00pm
Room 349,
Senate House, Malet St,
London

Admission Free

Registration:  Please contact Olga Jiménez at ISA:  Olga.Jimenez@sas.ac.uk

Romney 'clueless' in Cuban Miami

It is not going well for Republican presidential hopeful Mit Romney in Florida. It appears that he keeps very bad company. In this opinion piece Angel Castillo, Jr., a former reporter and editor for the New York Times and The Miami Herald, reports that his campaign team chose to hold his press conference at a restaurant and fruit market called "El Palacio de los Jugos," or "the Juice Palace."
It turned out, however, as disclosed by reporter Francisco Alvarado in the Miami New Times, that the owner of the Juice Palace, Reinaldo "Rey" Bermudez, 51, is a convicted criminal, a cocaine smuggler who served three years in prison. Bermudez was born in Cuba and is a naturalized U.S. citizen.
As a result, almost all the news coverage focused on the "controversy" over the felon small businessman. A typical headline, in Toronto's Globe and Mail, said: "Romney's host at Miami campaign event turns out to be convicted cocaine trafficker." No one from the Romney Campaign could be found to comment on whether they knew in advance about Bermudez's criminal record.
Castillo writes: "If Romney and his staff wanted to make clear that they take the Cuban-American vote for granted, and that this visit was of no consequence to them, they scored an overwhelming success."
In another apparently innocent interlude, as reported here in the Huffington Post Romney inadvertantly used the word 'Papaya' (Cuban slang for vagina) when talking about the tropical fruits that he likes. Watch this report on his 'papaya monologue'.

From Miami something positive this way comes...

 

Starting this this weekend, the University of Miami Jerry Herman Ring Theatre is presenting five plays written by the controversial Cuban playwright Virgilio Piñera, in a grand production entitled "Absurd Celebration: The First International Festival of Virgilio Piñera's Theatre." The first play, Aire Frio (Cold Air), opens on Friday, with the four subsequent plays to follow each weekend for the next month.

According to this report, from the Miami New Times, the production involves two theatre groups from Cuba, a very welcome collaboration indeed.

The schedule for the five plays, and their associated production companies, are as follows:

• Aire Frío (Cold Air) by Argos Teatro, Cuba. Aug. 17-19
• El juego de Electra (Electra's Play ) by Artes y Producciones Artísticas, Spain. Aug. 24-26
• Los siervos (The Serfs) by Teatro de la Luna, Cuba. Aug. 31-Sept. 2
• Una caja de zapatos vacía (An Empty Shoebox) by E. G. Production, USA. Sept. 7 - 9
• Carrying Water in a Sieve, an evening of two one-act plays, You Always Forget Something and False Alarm, by UM Department of Theatre Arts, USA. Sept. 14 - 22, 2012.

Flip-flop or flim-flam? Romney's running mate presents problems in Florida

As the US presidential election gets into full swing, there are looming problems in Florida for Republican candidate Mit Romney. His running mate, Wisconsin congressman Paul Ryan (pictured),  has voted against the US embargo on Cuba at least three times, a record that makes him anathema to the right-wing Cuban emigres who essentially run the politics of Miami. In 2009 Ryan said: "If we can trade with China why not Cuba?" - a fair point you might say, but not one that sits easily with the Cuban emigres. The upshot has been some arm-twisting from the Cuban hardlners and an apparent flip-flop in Ryan's position.  However, Romney still feels the need to repeat the hardline on Cuba and to stretch credulity when talking about his VP candidate partner. The Republican hopeful had this to say yesterday in an interview to Miami's Radio Mambi:

"I am in favor of maintaining the embargo relative to Cuba and I support the Helms-Burton Act. Congressman Ryan has allied himself with Representative Ileana Ros-Lehtinen and Representative Diaz-Balart. They convinced him that the embargo is an important effort in order to put pressure on the Cuban government. So it's an important factor in legislation. Congressman Ryan voted "No" [on lifting sanctions] and his position is the same as mine – he wants to strengthen our policy towards the regime of Cuba."

The voters of Miami-Dade may need some convincing on that one, Mit. As for Obama, the way is clear for him to appeal to the more moderate Cubans in Florida who wish for engagement with the island and to use the Damascan conversion of Ryan to great campaigning effect. As ever Florida is going to provide some entertainment this election year.  

Birthday greetings

Today is Fidel Castro's 86th birthday. Here's a poem in his honour by the Argentine poet Juan Gelman and a painting of Fidel by the Ecuadorean artist Oswaldo Guayasamín.

dirán exactamente de fidel
gran conductor el que incendió la historia etcétera
pero el pueblo lo llama el caballo y es cierto
fidel montó sobre fidel un día
se lanzó de cabeza contra el dolor contra la muerte
pero más todavía contra el polvo del alma
la Historia parlará de sus hechos gloriosos
prefiero recordarlo en el rincón del día
en que miró su tierra y dijo soy la tierra
en que miró su pueblo y dijo soy el pueblo
y abolió sus dolores sus sombras sus olvidos
y solo contra el mundo levantó en una estaca
su propio corazón el único que tuvo
lo desplegó en el aire como una gran bandera
como un fuego encendido contra la noche oscura
como un golpe de amor en la cara del miedo
como un hombre que entra temblando en el amor
alzó su corazón lo agitaba en el aire
lo daba de comer de beber de encender
fidel es un país
yo lo vi con oleajes de rostros en su rostro
la Historia arreglará sus cuentas allá ella
pero lo vi cuando subía gente por sus hubiéramos
buenas noches Historia agranda tus portones
entramos con fidel con el caballo

From Gotán, Ediciones La rosa blindada,  Buenos Aires, 1962.

Now read this...

If this report is to be believed, Cuba's literacy programme 'Yes I can' has now been applied in 28 countries and has taught 6.5 million people how to read and write - more than any other literacy programme by any organisation anywhere in history. The programme has even been used in developed countries such as Australia, (see this article here) to help indegenous people.
Two questions spring to mind: Is knowing how to read and write a human right? And: Why is a country that does such a thing for the world's deprived branded a terrorist state by the United States?

 Remembering Virgilio

 

London-based Cuban writer Mario López-Goicoechea writes:  

 

One hundred years ago last Saturday, on 4th August, 1912, the Cuban writer Virgilio Piñera (pictured) was born. To celebrate his centenary I have written three distinctive and exclusive essays for three UK publications: The Prisma, Prospect and The Guardian. You can read each article by clicking on the links below:

 

http://www.theprisma.co.uk/es/2012/07/30/virgilio-pinera-a-cien-anos-de-su-natalicio/ (the original in Spanish)

http://www.theprisma.co.uk/2012/07/30/virgilio-pinera-a-hundred-years-on-from-his-birth/ (the English translation)

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2012/aug/03/pinera-cuba-modernism-writer    

http://www.prospectmagazine.co.uk/blog/virgilio-pinera-forgotten-master-of-cuban-literature/

 

www.cubaninlondon.blogspot.com

The facts will out...

More information is emerging about the company that Oswaldo Paya kept in the hours before he died. According to the French investigative journalist Jean Guy-Allard, Angel Carromero, the Spaniard who has admitted to have driven the car so fast and to have thereby caused the accident that killed the Cuban dissident leader, had already lost his licence in Madrid for speeding. In another article, Guy-Allard discusses the background of Carromero's mentor Pablo Casado Blanco (pictured).  Apparently he was educated in the US at schools that are favoured by the intelligence community...

Paya: español Carromero perdió su permiso de manejar

Paya’s Case: Spanish Pablo Casado, the agent behind the fatal operation

In the news

Cuban police map of the accident that killed Oswaldo Paya

Yours truly was interviewed on the Paya incident by Sara Rainsford of the BBC yesterday. Here is her report on the web today:

Cuba car crash fallout turns focus on dissidents' funds