Cameron's silence on Cuba must be broken

From all corners of the globe the plaudits have come in for President Obama. He has been praised even by his enemies for his bold and magnanimous reversal of US policy towards Cuba. Even from within the island there is tremendous goodwill towards him. My colleague, Rafael Hernández , editor of the Havana magazine Temas, writing in today's Vanguardia newspaper in Havana says: "For the first time since Lincoln, an American President is popular in the island."

So one would have thought that Britain would have been first among those to applaud? But no. There has been a conspicuous silence from the UK and it is frankly shameful, not least because the UK is supposed to be the US's closest ally, but also because British banks have been among those most penalized most unfairly for carrying out transactions that are wholly within the law. One would have thought that HMG would be now seeking the kind of assurance that from now there will be no more victimization of our companies for dealing with Cuba. 

This letter from Lord Hutton of the Cuba Initiative in this morning's Financial Times makes the point most eloquently:   

December 22, 2014 11:42 pm

We trust UK banks will rethink their Cuba policy

Sir, The gradual normalisation of relations between the US and Cuba is to be wholeheartedly welcomed. The US embargo has not only prevented US companies from trading with Cuba but has been interpreted in such a way by the US Treasury as to have also become a significant impediment to UK companies as well.
The extraterritorial reach of US financial sanctions in particular, and the imposition of swingeing fines by the US on banks found to be in contravention of them, has meant that most British banks have been unwilling to handle UK banking transactions with Cuba in spite of the fact that under UK law they are perfectly legal and legitimate.
As the US moves to permit US institutions to hold correspondent accounts at Cuban financial institutions, and hopefully recognises that Cuba has no place on the list of state sponsors of terrorism, we trust that UK banks will rapidly reassess their policy towards supporting UK companies investing in and undertaking trade with Cuba.
The UK government has made abundantly clear that it supports engagement and increased investment and trade with Cuba. At the time of his visit last month to Havana, the Foreign Office minister Hugo Swire announced a major trade and investment mission of UK companies which I will be leading to Havana in the spring of 2015.At a time when the US is finally normalising its policy towards Cuba, it is vital that UK companies as well as banks rapidly engage so that the UK develops a strong position in Cuba and Britain’s economic interests in the region are upheld.
Lord Hutton of FurnessChairman, The Cuba Initiative

He might have added that it is vital for the UK government to bring this matter up with the White House while at the same time helping President Obama face down his enemies in Congress by giving fulsome praise for his sensible and grown up policy on Cuba.

Why is Cameron silent? Well it might possibly have something to do with the Malvinas issue with Argentina. He is facing calls to copy Obama's policy and sit down an talk about the UK's differences with Argentina. Perhaps here is an opportunity for Mr Miliband to show his mettle?

Should Cuba be on the US terror list?

One of the key policy changes announced by President Obama on 17 November was the instruction to Secretary of State John Kerry to report within six months on whether Cuba should be listed among the states that support terrorism.

The designation of Cuba as a state sponsor of terrorism has been a contentious issue from the start. The fact that Cuba has been a victim of terrorism itself and ironically from the United States, has meant that this has been a source of deep resentment in Havana. However, the hurt is more than moral. Economically too, the inclusion of Cuba on  the so-called ‘terror list’ has meant that foreign banks have been severely fined in the US for dealing with the island to the extent that they have pulled out of dealing with Cuba altogether. This has added enormously to the financial burden placed on the Cuban economy.

Thus, removing Cuba from the list would not only heal an emotional wound it would help Cuba’s economy to grow. So should Cuba be on the list? The evidence suggests that it should clearly not.

Here from USAToday is a very good explanation as to why.

The SS Embargo is holed beneath the waterline

It was a truly historic moment: The day President Obama finally deserved that Nobel Peace Prize. By making his announcement yesterday, he has put himself into the history books as the President who finally had the cojones to free the White House from the grip of that Miami crazy gang.

The crazy gang are correct in one thing and one thing only, Obama's unilateral move yesterday did provide the Cuban government with a victory. Essentially, the Cuban government only released a few prisoners, but the United States admitted that its policy towards the country for the last 53 years was a failure. For that Obama deserves huge praise. To err is human but to admit one's errors is truly divine. Obama has not only moved US policy on Cuba, he has moved United States diplomacy onto a whole new plane. Americans should rejoice that they have a leader with such a vision.

Obama has used the Presidential prerogative to make foreign policy in the national interest and by making significant changes in the way that companies and individuals will be able to engage with Cuba, and more importantly send money, visit and do business with the island, he has delivered a death blow to the whole embargo.

The best analogy was used some time ago by my colleague, Professor Phillip Brenner of American University. He said that you have to think of the embargo as ship which has holes in it. The holes are exceptions such the permission for US farmers to export food or the right of Cuban Americans to visit etc. The proponents of the embargo are like the crew keeping the ship afloat by busily blocking up holes or stopping them from getting bigger. Well, Obama's announcement yesterday just made so many holes in the ship that they will find it impossible to stop the leaks.

The SS embargo is holed below the waterline and will soon sink into beneath waves of history.

You read it here first...

Public Event: Discovering Places: Cuba

Wednesday 15 October, 6.30pm-9.00pm 

Discovering Places: Cuba

Royal Geographical Society
1 Kensington Gore,
London, SW7 2AR.

An informative evening for those planning their first trip to Cuba. Network with exhibitors, share plans with fellow travellers and ask questions of our expert panellists: travel writer, photographer, guidebook author and Cubaphile Claire Boobbyer; and lecturer on Cuban literature and society and chairman of the International Institute for the Study of Cuba Dr Stephen Wilkinson.

Our panel and exhibitors will share their experiences, travel inspiration, practical advice and up-to-date knowledge of Cuba.

• Kensington Gore doors open at 6.30pm, wine is served and attendees may browse exhibitor tables
• Presentations and discussion will start at 7.00pm, followed by further networking/exhibitors at 8.15pm
• Event ends at 9.00pm
• Admittance is by ticket only

 events@rgs.org

Tickets: RGS-IBG members £10, non-members £15.

(you will be taken to the sign in/registration page of the website)

+44 (0)20 7591 3100

About the panel:

Claire Boobbyer is a freelance travel writer, editor, photographer and Cubaphile who first arrived in Havana in 1998. Claire leads tours, writes about Cuba for the national press and contributes to a dozen travel guides to the island, including 2013 publications Rough Guide Cuba and DK’s Eyewitness Cuba.

Dr Stephen Wilkinson first visited Cuba in 1986 and has been travelling to and writing about the island ever since. Stephen is Chairman of the International Institute for the Study of Cuba and Editor of the International Journal of Cuban Studies, he consults on a variety of media projects related to the island and leads tours for academic study groups and exchanges. Stephen lectures on Cuban literature, is author of Detective fiction in Cuban society and culture and has written numerous articles about Cuban society.

Another fine mess they got them into...

The Associated Press has just published the results of an investigation that finds President Barack Obama's administration secretly sent young Latin Americans to Cuba under the cover of health programs to try and provoke a political uprising.

Internal documents obtained by the AP and interviews in six countries found that the travellers worked undercover for a U.S. Agency for International Development programme.
They posed as tourists in Cuba and looked for young Cubans who could become political activists.

Cuban-Americans want change

Florida International University released a new poll on Tuesday 17 June, that surveyed how Cuban Americans in Miami view U.S. policies towards Cuba. Over the past few years  poll after poll has shown how the opinion of the majority of Cuban Americans has chnaged to now favouring engagement with the Cuban government and a change in U.S. policy. However, FIU’s latest poll is the most impressive yet. It shows a clear shift among younger Cuban Americans, aged 18-29, who present an even larger majority in favour of engagement and U.S. policy change towards Cuba.

It is ever clearer in Miami, the hub of the Cuban-American community, that U.S. policy towards Cuba ino longer reflects the majority of Cuban-Americans' opinion, nor the majority opinion of all U.S. citizens. Here are the results:

•    52 percent of all Cuban-American respondents oppose the continuation of the embargo; the percentage rises to 62 percent of Cuban Americans ages 18-29 who oppose the embargo.
•    68 percent of all Cuban-American respondents and 90 percent of younger Cuban Americans favor diplomatic relations with Cuba.
•    69 percent of all respondents and 89 percent of younger Cuban Americans favor the lifting of travel restrictions that limit all U.S. citizens from traveling to Cuba.
•    71 percent of all respondents support the continuation of “people-to-people” travel opportunities.
•    53 percent of all registered voters surveyed and 75 percent of younger Cuban Americans who are registered to vote responded that they would be very likely or somewhat likely to vote for a candidate for political office who supported the reestablishment of diplomatic relations with Cuba.

Proponents of the embargo in Congress who claim to represent the majority of Cuban Americans, and even more specifically, Cuban Americans from Miami, clearly no longer do so.
It is going to be very interesting to see how these polls translate into real votes in the November gubernatorial and mid-term federal elections.

If you are a U.S. citizen you can influence your Congressman by clicking on the link below:

Send an email to your members of Congress and tell them that now is the time to engage with Cuba!

A Greek bearing gifts... look who's supporting a change in US policy

Reuters reports today:

"The White House should expand licensed travel for all Americans to Cuba and increase support for civil society on the communist-ruled island, according to an open letter to President Barack Obama that was signed by an unprecedented group of 44 former top U.S. government officials and advocates of policy reform and released on Monday.
"The letter, which lists a series of policy recommendations, was signed by John Negroponte, the former Director of National Intelligence under president George W Bush...."

This is most interesting. For those who don't know him, the British born John Dimitri Negroponte (of Greek descent) was a cold warrior extraordinaire  (see: JOHN NEGROPONTE & THE DEATH-SQUAD CONNECTION) who has been accused, among other nefarious acts, of being a terrorist for the CIA. An avowed anti-communist, Negroponte is on record (see video below) as saying he thinks democracy in Latin America is a threat to US interests.  He would hitherto have been the last person you'd expect to want to see a change in US policy towards Cuba.

 

It will be interesting to see the Cubans' reaction, Raúl Castro was schooled in the classics and knows full well the adage about Greeks bearing gifts...

A full text of the open letter to Obama is available at this website.

Even more interesting is the fact that among the signatories are no fewer than 15 extremely rich Cuban-American businessmen and community leaders. With these people calling for change in Cuba policy there is really nothing stopping Obama now.

Scientific diplomacy across the Florida Straits

A female Aedes aegypti mosquito acquiring a blood meal from a human host. The Aedes aegypti mosquito is one of two types  that can carry the chikungunya virus

U.S. and Cuban scientists engaged in "science diplomacy" recently when they signed an agreement that furthers scientific and medical cooperation, accolrding to thbis post in the People's World.
The deal was made after a delegation from the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) visited Havana for a three-day tour hosted by the Cuban Academy of Sciences and other institutions. Although Cuba is a logical partner for the United States to collaborate with on medical research and development, the  U.S. embargo severely limits trade, travel and exchanges.
"This trip was a wonderful opportunity to reinvigorate the long-standing friendship between U.S. and Cuban scientists and to form a specific plan of action," biologist Gerald Fink said. Fink is current President of AAAS, the largest organization of scientists in the United States. The plan of action covers four areas in the life sciences: emerging infectious diseases, brain disorders, cancer and antimicrobial drug resistance.
An article in Science April 24, 2014, published by AAAS, reports, "The country has committed a large amount of its resources to its scientific, medical and public health systems, including a hardy biotechnology industry that exports a number of vaccines, antibody based drugs, and other medical technologies." (The magazine does not add that the U.S. blockade prevents people in the United States from benefitting from Cuban medical exports.)
Science also reports that life expectancy in Cuba is as high as in the United States. A large ageing population gives rise to many common interests in fighting cancer and diseases of older people. Both countries are also at risk for mosquito-carried viruses such as dengue and chikungunya. To date, there is no vaccine for either disease.
Neither Cuba nor the U.S. has ever had a known case of chikungunya. But it is spreading across Caribbean Islands and both countries are concerned. In December it was spreading In Saint Martin by mosquitoes infected with the disease. That is just the kind of issue where international cooperation among scientists can save lives and turn back the disease. However, scientists from both Cuba and the U.S. noted that U.S. scientists were still limited in their travel to Cuba.
To read more about the AAAS trip and a fascinating history of Cuban science and medicine go to "Science diplomacy visit to Cuba produces historic agreement" at aaas.org.

Public event: The Cuban ‘update’ and US-Cuba relations

Public event: The Cuban ‘update’ and US-Cuba relations

Join Professor Raúl Rodríguez Rodríguez for a seminar on the current state of the Cuban ‘updating’ or reform process and how this may affect Cuba- US Relations.

6.30pm
Thursday 8th May 2014,

Lecture Theatre on the lower ground floor.

(Institute of Advanced Legal Studies, 17 Russell Square, London WC1B 5DR)

Attendance is FREE but please register in advance with Olga Jiménez:

olga.jimenez@sas.ac.uk

Professor Rodríguez Rodríguez is a professor/researcher and currently Deputy Director of   the Center for Hemispheric and United States Studies at the University of Havana.

This event is organised by the International Institute for the Study of Cuba and the Institute of Latin American Studies, University of London.

Book Launch and signing: The Man Who Loved Dogs

Public Event 

In Conversation: Leonardo Padura Fuentes

 

 6.30pm. Wednesday 19th March,

The Council Chamber, 
Institute of Advanced Legal Studies,
17 Russell Square, 
London WC1B 5DR

Join the celebrated Cuban author Leonardo Padura Fuentes and his UK publisher Bitter Lemon Press for an evening of conversation about his latest book in translation, The Man Who Loved Dogs.
Leonardo is in London as part of a world tour. Already Cuba’s most acclaimed author in the hispanophone world, with the publication in English of this epic historical novel about the death of Russian Revolutionary Leon Trotsky, Leonardo is poised to become equally recognised in the UK and the US.
This evening Leonardo will be discussing his life and work and the current situation in Cuba with Dr Stephen Wilkinson, Editor of the International Journal of Cuban Studies and author of Detective Fiction in Cuban Society and Culture (Peter Lang 2006) which analyses Leonardo’s early detective stories, also published in translation by Bitter Lemon Press.
A wine reception will follow the event and there will be an opportunity to purchase signed copies of the works discussed.
The event is sponsored by the International Institute for the Study of Cuba, The Institute of Latin American Studies and Bitter Lemon Press.

Entry is FREE but please register in advance by email to Olga Jiménez:

olga.jimenez@sas.ac.uk

 The Man Who Loved Dogs Review

What it is all about with Alfy

Would you buy a second-hand sugar estate from these men? 

If there were still any doubts about the shifting tide of US Cuba policy then they have been well and truly dispelled by the news  the Fanjul brothers (pictured) have traveled to Cuba and would like to invest there.

The Fanjuls are billionaires who made their money in sugar.  They are also known for huge political campaign contributions in support of their sugar interests, and for being long-time, stalwart supporters of the U.S. economic blockade against Cuba. So powerful are they that President Clinton reportedly broke off a liaison with Monica Lewinsky to take a call from Alfonso (Alfy), pictured left above. 

Hitherto, the Fanjuls have been identified with the generation that plans to return to Cuba only “cuando se vayan aquellos,” that means when the Castros have gone.  Indeed, they were partly repsonsible for the Helms-Burton law of 1996 that quite literally prevents the United States from normalizing relations until those two have gone.

Now it has emerged that the brothers visited Cuba in 2012 and 2013 where they expressed no interest in recovering their property, but where they did express a clear interest in helping to revive the beleaguered sugar sector.

Last weekend, brother Alfy made all this public in the Washington Post. Alfy says, “One day we hope that the United States and Cuba would find a way so the whole Cuban community could be able to live and work together.”

This very high profile political torpedo has been fired two months after President Obama said in Miami that “we have to update our policies” toward Cuba, within weeks of the new Port at Mariel accepting its first ship and a month before Cuba is to announce new laws aimed at encouraging foreign investment.

In Cuban-American terms, the Fanjuls' switch is earth shaking. Its seismic importance is reflected in the hysterical reactions of Republican Cuban-Americans Ileana Ros-Lehtinen and Mario Diaz-Balart. 

If the Fanjuls put their money where their mouth now seems to be, it will mean their campaign cash will be going to politicians that hope to “find a way” to get back into the island and not into the pockets of these hardline anti-Castroites.

That could make all the difference come the next Presidential race, if by then there is an embargo left to fight over.

On the Horizon - A United States of Latin America?

It might be a little far-fetched to imagine that there will ever be a federation of the states of Latin America of a kind that Simón Bolívar dreamed, but the meeting in Havana at the end of this month of the CELAC, the recently established Community of the States of Latin America and the Caribbean, is nonetheless an historic event with portentous implications for the future.

For one thing, this meeting brings together the heads of governements of all the countries in the western hemisphere except the United States, Canada and those entitities that are still under colonial control by European powers. Thus, simply by its exclusive membership, the CELAC is a counter hegemonic grouping that challenges the historic domination of the region by the developed powers.

Secondly, it has been announced that the meeting will be attended by the Secretary General of the Organisation of American States, José Miguel Insulza, who will become the first holder of that office to visit Havana since Cuba was expelled from the OAS in 1962. Given that within CELAC there is a sub-group of the ALBAcountries (Ecuador, Bolivia, Venezuela being chief among them) who have vowed not to attend the next OAS summit if Cuba is not admitted, the symbolic significance of Insulza's accepotance of the invitation should not go unnoticed.
Connected to this is the weird timing of his visit because it coincides almost exactly with the breaking off of diplomatic relations between Cuba and the rest of the region 50 years ago. The timing therefore is ironic and serves to focus on both the potential integrationist power of the CELAC and the significance of having Cuba involved in the centre of the process.

Speaking to BBC Mundo and translated by the Cuban blog The Havana Times a Cuban specialist on the CELAC, Luis Suarez, says: "It is highly symbolic for Cuba. No other organization in the history of the region has joined so many nations." 

“the restoration of relations with all nations of the region and the presence in this gathering of their Heads of State demonstrates clearly that the US failed in its policy of isolating us.” - See more at: http://www.havanatimes.org/?p=101429#sthash.7EXb0b4h.dpuf

The restoration of relations with all nations of the region and the presence in this gathering of their Heads of State demonstrates clearly that the US failed in its policy of isolating us.”

Suarez points out that Cuba, “was the first country in Latin America that included the goal of integration in its Constitution. That vocation comes from the war for independence, when we had the support of citizens of several countries on the continent.”

Suarez says that “the worst external and internal enemies of the CELAC are those who do not want that we found a separate organization that allows us to reach the world with an agreed position. And the closest is the U.S. Pan-American policy.”

In this sense he believes that “the future of the regional organization will depend on political consultations that are achieved for concrete action to reach the ordinary citizen in the social field, in areas such as health or education, for example."

In these and other subjects such as coping with natural disasters, Cuba could play a key role. “The country has a vast experience in these areas and also has the necessary human resources to support such initiatives.”

“We even have a Latin American School of Medicine, Operation Miracle that has restored sight to millions of people of the continent and we have created the "Yes I can” literacy mtehod that has taught more than three million illiterates to read and write,” explains Suarez .

The agenda in Havana falls squarely on social issues and aims to declare Latin America a “Zone of Peace," an agreement that the Cuban specialist considers “extremely important because it implies that governments undertake to seek political and negotiated solutions, avoiding the use of force in the region."

Furthermore, he says, it would “prevent others from using our conflicts to divide us, as they have done many times in the past."

Suarez believes that to achieve greater practical effectiveness CELAC should "integrate regional institutions such as SELA , the Latin American Energy Organization , LAIA , dedicated to the integration , the Pan American Health Organization or ECLAC Latin American Economic System."

A few years ago, even in the present century the US had ambitions to create a Free Trade Area of the Americas, a project that would have ensured its domination of the commerce of the continent to its own advantage. Not only has that ambition been thwarted but also in its place the CELAC has emerged. As recently as 2004, no one would have imagined that such a switch of power from North to South could have occurred. Even though the CELAC for the moment is a consensual body based upon dialogue and voluntary agreeement, when you take the speed at which geopolitical change has taken place, Bolívar's dream of a United States of Latin America may not seem so far-fetched after all.    

the Secretary General of the Organization of American States (OAS), José Miguel Insulza. It will be the first official visit by a senior official of that entity to Cuba after his expulsion in 1962. - See more at: http://www.havanatimes.org/?p=101429#sthash.7EXb0b4h.dpuf

the Secretary General of the Organization of American States (OAS), José Miguel Insulza. It will be the first official visit by a senior official of that entity to Cuba after his expulsion in 1962. - See more at: http://www.havanatimes.org/?p=101429#sthash.7EXb0b4h.dpuf

the Secretary General of the Organization of American States (OAS), José Miguel Insulza. It will be the first official visit by a senior official of that entity to Cuba after his expulsion in 1962. - See more at: http://www.havanatimes.org/?p=101429#sthash.7EXb0b4h.dpuf