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ASCE Newsclippings
This ASCE service has been established as an additional benefit exclusively
for those members who provide us with their e-mail addresses. It is not
available in the Webpage and it is forwarded to you via blind copy in order
to preserve your privacy. And, of course, at any time you can request our
stopping the service.
Every week we select news related to Cuba’s economy that usually
are not carried in mainstream media and forward them to member e-mails.
This will spare you the need to pursue the information in the various media
by digging it out by yourself, while at the same time, as an ASCE member,
you will be well informed of relevant economic trends and events in relation
to the sugar crop, tourism, corruption or whatever. We limit our selections to
economic, social and political events, trends and commentaries from sources
such as The Economist, El Nuevo Herald, Cubaencuentro, Cubanet and
other Cuban publications. ASCE does not endorse positions taken by the
individual authors; they are reproduced so that readers can be informed and
reach their own conclusions.
Your comments and suggestions are welcome. Please send them to
the Editor at the e-mail address below.
_____________________________________________________________
Encourage your friends and colleagues interested in knowing more about what is happening in Cuba
to join ASCE and enjoy the benefits of membership in our association (see www.ascecuba.org). It is very
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PUJOLASCENEWS@AOL.COM
For information about ASCE go to www.ascecuba.org
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RELEASE CLIPPINGS LISTING #560
03-04-13 05
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03-10-13 13
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03-12-13 36
Revista Bohemia, INDUSTRIA PESQUERA : Camarones insomnes y a
contracorriente. Inventiva y entrega al trabajo mantienen a flote a la
Empresa Pesquera Industrial Algérico Lara, de Santa Cruz del Sur, la más
integral del país
Luncheon in honor of Four Cuban-American US Senators
Marti Noticias, Video del informe de Yoani Sánchez sobre Cuba ante la
SIP
McClatchy Newspapers, Cubans evade censorship by exchanging
computer memory sticks, blogger says
Alerta Total, La Verdad fue enterrada antes que Hugo Chávez
Cubaeconomía, Elías Amor Bravo, Decisiones económicas en China y
expectación castrista
CEEDPA, Capacita el CEEDPA a miembros de la Nueva UNPACU.
Silver City Sun News, Their View: Death of Cuban activist reveals
culture of fear
Reuters, Capriles, Maduro at each other's throats in Venezuela election
AP, Last anti-Chavez TV station to be sold. Final remaining anti-Chavez
TV station to be sold in Venezuela
AFP, Venezuela election fight to succeed Chavez begins
Capitol Hill Cubans, Must-Read: Antonio Rodiles on Cuba Sanctions
By young Cuban intellectual and pro-democracy leader, Antonio Rodiles
(founder of the Estado de Sats civil society project): For the Cuban
government, the need for a Plan B is urgent, and all eyes immediately turn
to the United States.
EFE, "Repression has worsened in Cuba” according to Berta Soler from
the Ladies in White.
National Endowment for Democracy, “There is something irreversible
happening in Cuba”
Diario Rotativo de Querétaro/ Notimex, Intenta Cuba en ONU bloquear
declaración de Rosa María Payá. Payá hizo referencia a que su padre, líder
del Movimiento Cristiano de Liberación muerto en julio del año pasado,
trabajó en Cuba por los cambios pacíficos legales para que los cubanos
disfrutaran de todos los derechos.
Político, Marco Rubio scolds U.S. visitors to Cuba. Rubio said his
colleagues don’t understand the problem.
Granma, U.S. Interests Section information on consular procedures for
travel to the United States, • Following the updating of the Cuban
Migration and Travel Policy, U.S. officials confirm their regulations
remain unchanged
Juventud Rebelde, Viaje al surco. «Hombres de zafra» de la unidad básica
de producción cooperativa Hernán González, de Las Tunas, dispuestos y
emprendedores, mantienen viva la llama de la esperanza
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ICCAS, Focus on Cuba issue 186, Chinese Technology Companies
in Cuba
Mario Vargas Llosa, La muerte del caudillo.
ABC España, Cuba envía más de 2.000 agentes para apuntalar a Maduro
en el poder . Los 100.000 barriles de petróleo que Caracas manda a La
Habana cada día se pagan con enviados del castrismo que acaban
controlando en gran medida Venezuela
Arab News/ AP, Prominent Cuban dissident seeks support in Europe
The Washington Times, Editorial: Obama administration should urge a
probe of Oswaldo Payá´s death
Marta Beatriz Roque Cabello, Informaciones desde el Combinado: Presos
en huelga de hambre
Diario de Cuba, Elías Amor Bravo, La política de captación de inversiones
extranjeras del régimen castrista en el punto de mira
Sociedad Inter Americana de Prensa, Informe de la Sociedad
InterAmericana de Prensa sobre Cuba presentado hace unos días en
Puebla, México
Bloomberg, Yoani Sánchez Sees Faster Change in Cuba Post-Chavez
El Nuevo Herald, Cuban blogger Yoani Sánchez gets warm welcome in
New York City
The Miami Herald, Fabiola Santiago: In New York, as in Cuba, Yoani
Sanchez speaks her mind
The Miami Herald, Yoani Sánchez stresses importance of technology
Brisbane Times.com.au, Viva a food revolution. Raul Castro's ascension
to power is something to dine out on, writes Lydia Bell.
Cuba: Most Popular Destination for Child-Sex Tourism . "The job of
keeping track of child-sex tourists is becoming even more challenging as
new destinations such as Cuba emerge, eclipsing hot-spots in southeast
Asia. An internal Royal Canadian Mounted Police report, released to The
Star under Access to Information legislation, cited Cuba as the most
popular destination in the Americas for child-sex tourism — and the
Americas’ most visited region for Canadians traveling abroad for sex with
kids."
Miami Herald, How Cuba became the newest hotbed for tourists craving
sex with minors
Toronto Star and El Nuevo Herald, Canadians are major customers in
Cuba’s child sex market
International Business Times, Cuban Blogger Yoani Sánchez Talks Press,
Internet Freedom in First US Appearance
Amnesty International, 10 Years After Black Spring: Repression
Continues
ABC España, El falso mito de la sanidad cubana. Sus ruinosas
instalaciones, carencias e involución en la salud de sus ciudadanos son fiel
reflejo de un régimen que presume de lo que no tiene
ICCAS, The Latell Report March 2013, The Castros & Venezuela
Voice of America, Venezuela's Capriles Vows to End Cuba Giveaways
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MENAFN/ AFP, Cuba declares holiday on Good Friday
Miami Herald, Carlos Alberto Montaner, Don’t be fooled — there’s no
real change in Cuba
Juventud Rebelde, Presidió Raúl reunión ampliada del Consejo de
Ministros. El Presidente de los Consejos de Estado y de Ministros,
General de Ejército Raúl Castro, hizo un llamado a continuar fomentando
el orden en todos los escenarios de la sociedad, y reiteró la necesidad de
seguir trabajando con disciplina y exigencia para que el país se desarrolle
de manera sustentable
Granma, Cuba ampliará producción de cilindros de gas con inversión
china
Cubaeconomía, Elías Amor Bravo, ¿Por qué es tan difícil superar el atraso
inversor para el régimen castrista?
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INDUSTRIA PESQUERA : Camarones insomnes y a contracorriente
Inventiva y entrega al trabajo mantienen a flote a la Empresa Pesquera Industrial
Algérico Lara, de Santa Cruz del Sur, la más integral del país
Por: LÁZARO DE JESÚS (nacionales@bohemia.co.cu)
Fotos: RANDY RODRÍGUEZ PAGÉS (foto@bohemia.co.cu)
(4 de marzo de 2013)
El recibimiento no puede ser mejor: un promisorio coctel de aromas de mariscos y pescado.
De manera inconsciente la humedad se dispara en nuestras bocas. Pero el viento no solo trae
olores y salitre, también respiramos aires de renovación en la Empresa Pesquera
Industrial (Episur) Algérico Lara Correa, de Santa Cruz del Sur, en Camagüey.
Considerado el más integral del país por la variedad de especies aquí capturadas y
procesadas, este combinado casi concluye una importante inversión que mejora de modo
sustancial las deterioradas condiciones de la industria, inaugurada en 1977.
Episur, una de las principales fuentes de empleo del municipio, tiene a nivel nacional un peso
determinante en la exportación y comercialización en divisas de codiciados productos:
langostas, camarones, pepinos de mar y peces de escama. Sus más de mil 246 trabajadores
se enorgullecen de abarcar, además, con buenos resultados, renglones como el cobo, la
almeja, el cartílago de tiburón y el ostión. Precisamente la creación en 2012 de un parque
ostrícola, fruto de las investigaciones del Buró de Captura de la entidad, les generó valiosos
frutos.
Los filetes de raya gozan de gran aceptación entre los
santacruceños
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Este año, al finalizar los estudios de factibilidad, la Algérico Lara prevé incorporar a las
actividades de su unidad empresarial de base (UEB) Nuevitas, una alternativa productiva que
redondearía su integralidad: la pesca y siembra de la esponja. De igual forma se alistan para
incursionar en el cultivo de peces de agua salada y claria, con el objetivo de contrarrestar la
menguada presencia de varias especies marinas en la zona.
Sirenas emperatrices
Desde el punto de vista constructivo, el 2012 trajo alentadores sucesos al austral combinado
agramontino. La ejecución durante el segundo semestre de un proceso inversionista
ascendente a 3.4 millones de pesos —más de la mitad en moneda libremente convertible—,
devolvió el brillo a las vetustas instalaciones y modernizó viejos sistemas tecnológicos.
Con la instalación de un parque ostrícola en el estero de
San Bernardo, la recolección de ostiones creció notablemente
“Hoy la planta exhibe otro rostro y eso se refleja en el estado de ánimo de los obreros. En
todos los salones trabajamos las condiciones físicas y de seguridad industrial, la iluminación, el
clima, la refrigeración. Las labores de construcción civil las asumió nuestra brigada de
mantenimiento”, destaca Ileana Curra, emprendedora inversionista de Episur.
En las amplias y relucientes salas del combinado pesquero, segmentadas por paneles nuevos
de paquete, percibimos flameando “a flor de agua” una alegría latente, cotidiana según refiere
la joven Yusleidis La Hera, mientras desprende la masa de ostión de la caguara (concha), con
la habilidad de un boleador de helados. “A diario proceso unas tres cajas de 40 kilogramos,
que rinden más o menos cinco kilos”.
Muy próxima a la tropa ostionera, integrada en su totalidad por mujeres, una pareja de reduce
a filetes jugosas bandas de raya, a gran velocidad. Ilia Marín, la jefa de brigada en este salón,
apunta que lo primero es descuartizar los cartilaginosos peces.
“Las lonjas se lavan y desangran bien antes de envasarlas. Vigilamos que la producción final
no tenga ni el más mínimo rastro de piel, cartílagos o vísceras; la masa tiene que salir
completamente limpia —insiste—. Asimismo, evisceramos patao, un pez pequeño cuya masa
se destina a la elaboración de picadillo.
“Por lo general, no tenemos problemas de calidad. Nuestros obreros tienen experiencia,
conocen al dedillo su trabajo y son cumplidores; mas no bajamos la guardia ante la
chapucería”.
Tampoco tiene cabida el churro en la dinámica línea del camarón: “Cuando recepcionamos la
materia prima hacemos un muestreo técnico aleatorio, porque puede traer anomalías como la
muda, el semidescabezado, el partido, la necrosis severa, las patas negras, las branquias
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verdes…, una serie de defectos que invalidan los valores del camarón para la exportación”,
puntualiza Serguei Salgado, especialista en gestión de la calidad.
La línea de camarones resulta un hervidero, donde las
mujeres campean por su respeto
“Además le extraemos a la materia prima todos los cuerpos extraños antes de su entrada a la
máquina de selección. Sacamos fango, palos, piedras y fauna acompañante, como jaibas y
macaos, a fin de evitar roturas del equipo e inconformidades de los clientes”, acota Rafael
Pérez, jefe del colectivo de trillaje del crustáceo.
Sin la creatividad de mecánicos, torneros,
soldadores, electricistas…, este combinado
pesquero ya habría colgado los guantes
En el área de clasificación y empaque, una “mancha” de mujeres escoge y envasa cientos de
camarones por hora. Ana Ibis Pérez y Milaida Pons, técnicas de gestión de la calidad, están
encargadas de controlar la distribución por tallas. “Cada media hora muestreamos un
kilogramo; de acuerdo con el número de ejemplares sabemos si se cumplen las normas”,
indica Milaida.
Como en esta área el producto no está refrigerado, el carro no debe demorar más de 20
minutos en trasladar las cajas desde la línea hacia las neveras, para evitar la propagación de
microrganismos patógenos, agrega Ana Ibis.
Río revuelto: ¿ganancia para pescadores?
Donde sí proliferaron perniciosos gérmenes el año pasado fue en las cuentas de la empresa
que, en contraste con las mejoras infraestructurales, no reportó un buen desempeño
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económico. La causa fundamental: el incumplimiento del plan de pesca total en un 16 por
ciento: 400 toneladas menos de lo previsto. Influyó notablemente el descenso en la captura
de la langosta, en parte como consecuencia de la exigua disponibilidad del crustáceo en la
región.
“Nos afecta mucho el déficit de artes de pesca, situación que tocó fondo en 2008, tras el paso
del huracán Paloma, y se recupera a un ritmo muy lento, porque escasean cabillas, sogas,
mallas e hilos. La entrega de camarón, aunque creció respecto a 2011, se incumplió por la
pérdida de cientos de días-barco, debido a roturas, mal tiempo, arribo tardío del combustible y
mantenimientos prolongados. Igual sucede con los peces de escama, a pesar de que
superamos en 20 kilogramos los rendimientos planificados por día-barco”, explica Asdel
Fuentes, subdirector de Recursos Humanos.
La reconstrucción del astillero Algérico Lara significó un
enorme desafío para la fuerza técnica de la empresa
(CORTESÍA DE ILEANA CURRA)
Un veterano con 42 años en el combinado, Antonio Martínez, jefe de la UEB técnica, asegura
que también las artes de pesca han sufrido transformaciones: “Ahora se protege más el
medioambiente”.
Edison Suárez, el mejor patrón de barco camaronero en Episur, con más de cuatro décadas
consagradas a la captura del manjar, coincide y sostiene: “Camarón hay, pero ha aumentado
de manera considerable el período de veda, hasta llegar a nueve meses. Antes trabajábamos
el año entero, la veda se delimitaba por zonas. Hoy tampoco pescamos en la mejor época, que
comprende los meses entre octubre y marzo”.
Por otra parte, donde antes laboraban más de cien naves, 46 dedicadas al camarón, en la
actualidad solo disponen de 10 barcos de pesca: siete de ferrocemento y tres plásticos, más
un par de las llamadas enviadas (utilizadas para llevar suministros mar adentro y traer a tierra
las cargas) y otros dos de apoyo, de los cuales uno deviene taller flotante, equipado con
herramientas y especialistas para realizar arreglos menores en alta mar.
“La flota envejeció y su estado técnico es regular. Algunas embarcaciones superan los 25 años
de explotación. Encima, cada una debiera recibir una reparación del 70 por ciento
cuatrienalmente, y eso no se ha cumplido, debido al déficit de recursos materiales y
financieros. A menudo salen de servicio por problemas con las plantas de hielo, turbinas,
baterías, líneas de eje, tuberías, medios de izaje, motores, sistemas de gobierno, cascos y un
largo etcétera”, señala Antonio.
Removiendo caracoles
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Frente a las dificultades, los trabajadores de la Algérico Lara anteponen las redes del talento
colectivo. El historial de la Asociación de Innovadores y Racionalizadores en el combinado
atesora decenas de invenciones e iniciativas que resolvieron serios dolores de cabeza y
ahorraron miles de pesos.
Gracias a la creatividad de mecánicos, torneros, soldadores, electricistas…, en Episur han
recobrado operatividad, a pesar de las precariedades, numerosos motores, turbinas, máquinas
de hielo, el túnel de calor del salón de proceso de la langosta, la fábrica de pulpa de picadillo,
entre otros equipos.
Con el mecánico naval Miguel Fuentes, uno de los genios del centro, conversamos “arrullados”
por los mandarriazos y el ronroneo de un taladro. Remendaba viejos güinches de
camaroneros, equipos que sufren mucho porque se utilizan en la extracción de las artes de
pesca del mar. “Para arreglarlos hacen falta cajas de bolas planetarias, bujes de bronce, ejes
de 75 y 80 milímetros, tamboras; y todo eso está perdido. Nos la pasamos adaptando piezas,
inventando. Lo importante es no paralizar los barcos”, dice.
Hace unos cinco años, cuenta, mandaron hacia la capital seis güinches rotos y especialistas del
Grupo Empresarial de la Industria Alimentaria los desahuciaron. “Entonces, un piquete de
compañeros instamos al director a sacar de abajo de la tierra los recursos mínimos
indispensables y nos comprometimos a restaurar los güinches. Lo logramos, en un mes y 18
días. Eso le economizó a la entidad miles de pesos en moneda nacional y en divisa. ¡Y aún
funcionan!”, resalta orgulloso.
Otros que todavía rebosan satisfacción por su quehacer creador son los soldadores Dionisio
Morales y Heriberto Viamontes, quienes junto al albañil Manuel Hidalgo, realizaron a finales de
2011, por primera vez, la reconstrucción capital de la cabina de una embarcación, la enviada
021, navío que estaba a punto de recibir la certificación de baja técnica.
Antes de mandar la embarcación a Manzanillo para renovarla, la administración los retó a
enfrentar la tarea. “Poseía nociones del tema, pues me formé en el extinto astillero Mártires
de Pino 3, donde fabricábamos y recomponíamos patanas, remolcadores; pero hace muchos
años de eso. No obstante, aceptamos el reto sin cancanear y salió bien. En menos de dos
meses armamos la estructura metálica de la caseta desde cero, y cumplimos todos los
requisitos técnicos de seguridad naval. Disfrutamos mucho ese trabajo, refrescamos
conocimientos casi olvidados”, confiesa Dionisio.
Entre las proezas innovadoras forjadas en esta industria pesquera, especial relieve merece la
recuperación del astillero, a cargo de una brigada constructora encabezada por la ingeniera
civil Ileana Curra, quien también debió sacar del baúl de los recuerdos añejas competencias
profesionales. A partir del cierre del varadero en 2008, decretado por el Registro Cubano de
Buques (RCB), la dirección le encarga a ella encontrar la solución al problema, porque
rehabilitar las embarcaciones en Manzanillo dispararía los gastos.
“Hicimos un levantamiento topográfico y preparé la documentación técnica. Pero los
contingentes dedicados a obras ingenieras nos pedían mucho dinero. Así que decidimos asumir
con esfuerzos propios la ejecución del proyecto y la dirigí personalmente a pie de obra durante
tres meses, en aras de garantizar la calidad.
“Al final recibimos el certificado de conformidad del RCB, le ahorramos a la empresa más de
cien mil pesos y el astillero quedó mejor que antes. Ahora tenemos capacidad para asimilar
embarcaciones de hasta cien toneladas de peso, aunque las nuestras oscilan entre 50 y 60. La
prueba de fuego fue el huracán Paloma, que penetró ese mismo año y el varadero permaneció
intacto. Esa instalación es nuestro gran orgullo”.
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Como vemos, estos santacruceños se mantienen despiertos hasta en los laureles y no conocen
corriente capaz de arrastrarlos río abajo. Por el caudal de las dificultades navegan cuesta
arriba, con la pupila insomne y la chispa reventando cordeles.
Mientras más chica, mejor sabe
En Episur aumentaron la talla mínima
legal de captura de la langosta a
76 milímetros, para favorecer su
reproducción en el hábitat natural
Sobre el procesamiento de la langosta, el especialista en gestión de la calidad Serguei
Salgado, explica que de acuerdo con las condiciones en que arribe a la industria se decide el
destino. “La gran mayoría debe recibirse viva, porque nuestro principal objetivo es su
exportación entera, ya sea cruda o precocinada. Las que llegan sin vida se descolan”.
Si alguna muerta entra accidentalmente a los tachos de precocinado a vapor —precisa—
surgen defectos de presentación como la maraca (masa desprendida del caparazón) y la
maleta (cefalotórax separado de la cola).
“Las preclasificamos en cuatro grupos de tallas: chica, mediana, gigante y extra. Por lo
general, predomina la segunda. Las grandes también las descolamos, pues enteras no tienen
aceptación en el mercado. Solo se precocinan las de menor tamaño. Mientras mayor es la
talla, menos vale la l
Luncheon in honor of Four Cuban-American US Senators
On Friday, March 8th, 2013, the U.S.-Cuba Democracy PAC honored history's four
Cuban-American U.S. Senators: Mel Martinez (R-Fla.), Robert Menendez (D-N.J.),
Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) and Ted Cruz (R-Tex.).
There have only been eight Hispanic Senators in U.S. history, four of which have been
Cuban-American and elected within the last decade.
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Click here to watch each of their remarks.
Among the highlights:
"The three of us may not all agree on the issues of the day, but when it comes to U.S.Cuba policy, we are a band of brothers that are inseparable in our fight for Cuban
freedom," said U.S. Senator Bob Menendez, Chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations
Committee.
"Cuba is not a zoo where you pay an admission ticket and get to watch people living in
cages, to see how they are suffering. Cuba is not a field trip. To fulfill your curiosity,
you've left thousands of dollars in the hands of a government that uses that money to
control the people you feel sorry for," said U.S. Senator Marco Rubio.
"We cannot allow Cuba to become a carbon-copy of what Russia is today, a country
where those who were the generals and the oppressors are now the big-deal
businessmen, multi-millionaires and oligarchs that are running the country for their
personal economic benefit," said former U.S. Senator Mel Martinez.
"We need a President who will stand up today and say: Mr. Castro, let the Cuban people
go. Mr. Castro, open up the ballot box. Mr. Castro, empty the jails. Mr. Castro, allow
free speech and let freedom glisten," said U.S. Senator Ted Cruz.
Video del informe de Yoani Sánchez sobre Cuba ante la SIP
Marti Noticias, March 9, 2013
Amigos de la red, en el día de hoy, marzo 9 del 2013, Yoani Sanchez está presentando un
informe ante la Sociedad Interamericana de Prensa (SIP) sobre la falta de libertad de
prensa en Cuba. Considero que, además del video que envíe sobre su comparecencia en el
canal Livre de Brasil, estoy enviando este otro video sobre su presentación en Puebla
Mexico. Esto pudiera darle mas elemento de juicio a aquellos que aun tienen tantas
preguntas sin respuestas. Puedo anticipar, sin publicar los pormenores, que en la encuesta
o sondeo realizados a partir del video anterior, mas del 90% de los que han contestado
creen que el balance final de los puntos de vista de Yoani son positivos .Por consiguiente,
este otro video que podrán ver haciendo clic en el enlace siguiente pudiera ampliar aun
mas el conocimiento sobre la posición aproximada de Yoani Sánchez. Yo digo como
Yoani, ALGO ESTA CAMBIANDO DENTRO DE CUBA.
http://www.martinoticias.com/content/informe-cuba-sip-yoani-sanchez-pueblamexico/20331.html
Cubans evade censorship by exchanging computer memory sticks,
blogger says
By Tim Johnson | McClatchy Newspapers,
Posted on Saturday, March 9, 2013
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PUEBLA, Mexico — Dissident Cuban blogger Yoani Sanchez on Saturday told
newspaper publishers from around the Western Hemisphere that “nothing is changing”
in Cuba’s ossified political system and that “the situation of press freedom in my country
is calamitous.”
But Sanchez said underground blogs, digital portals and illicit e-magazines proliferate,
passed around on removable computer drives known as memory sticks.. The small
computer memories, also known as flash drives or thumb drives, are dropped into
friendly hands on buses and along street corners, offering a surprising number of
Cubans access to information.
“Information circulates hand to hand through this wonderful gadget known as the
memory stick,” Sanchez said, “and it is difficult for the government to intercept them. I
can’t imagine that they can put a police officer on every corner to see who has a flash
drive and who doesn’t.”
Sanchez said “these little gizmos” have “helped us a lot to pass information.”
After five years of requesting travel documents to receive multiple awards outside of
Cuba, Sanchez, 37, received a passport in late January and was allowed to depart on a
tour of 12 countries in South America, Europe and North America. She expects to return
to Cuba when her tour ends after nearly three months.
Sanchez’s blog, Generation Y, is translated into more than 20 languages, and she has
nearly 440,000 followers on her Twitter account.
Dissidents who come into the sights of the Cuban regime led by Raul Castro, who took
over from his brother Fidel in 2008, are being repressed in ways that “don’t leave
fingerprints,” Sanchez said.
“Often, activists, including independent journalists, are detained on the street, pulled into
cars without plates, pushed, threatened (and) questioned by civilians who never identify
themselves,” she said, only to be freed after a few hours.
Sanchez said recent measures to loosen controls over self-employment do not mark
significant change to the economic model that has kept the Castro brothers in power on
the island since 1959.
“These are adjustments to … prolong their power,” she said.
Speaking in an auditorium filled with several hundred publishers, editors and journalists
gathered for a semi-annual meeting of the Inter American Press Association, Sanchez
was asked when dramatic change might come to Cuba.
“It’s the big question that 11 million Cubans are asking ourselves,” she responded. “It’s
no mystery or secret to any of us that the generation (of leaders) in power is arriving at
the midnight of their lives.”
She said her homeland faces “exhaustion of this system” and that “we’re on a
countdown to what will occur.”
Once the octogenarian Castro brothers leave power, she said, “it will be very difficult for
the heirs to maintain control of the nation.” They have neither the charisma nor the
popular support to hold the reins of power for long, she added.
The death of Venezuelan leader Hugo Chavez, whose socialist government provides
Cuba with a lifeline of nearly 100,000 barrels of crude a day, “might catalyze – who
knows? – a series of openings in our country,” she said.
Predicting change in Cuba is difficult, and Sanchez said she liked to use as a metaphor
the decrepit mansions in Old Havana, which can often withstand hurricanes “even
though they are at the point of falling down.”
“The Cuban system is like one of these old mansions, facing into the wind and not falling
down,” she said. “But one day, they want to fix the door. They take out screws, and the
house collapses.”
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Sanchez dismissed Cuban government estimates that 20 percent of the island has
access to the internet, saying her own observations suggest it may be only 3 percent.
“The number (of users) is very difficult to know because in Cuba not only opinions can
get you sent to jail, also polling. My own personal thermometer, from what I see around
me, is that there is a true network of viral information.”
Still, she said, any Cuban who wants to look for information will find it, although
disagreeing with the government remains a punishable offense
“The average Cuban no longer swallows the pabulum of information given by the
government. He or she is looking for more,” Sanchez said.
As a result, Cubans are creating and distributing information on the sly, sometimes
captured web-pages or even homemade TV dramas taped in their living rooms, she
said.
“The power and ingenuity of the alternative media in distributing information in Cuba is
incredible,” she said.
The Castro government, she added, “is on the defensive.”
“It either opens the media to other voices, or another kind of journalism that is more
objective and real and shows what is happening in Cuban society,” she said, “or it stays
as it is now, totally defensive, attacking, insulting, creating libel campaigns (and) media
lynchings.”
Email: tjohnson@mcclatchydc.com; Twitter: @timjohnson4
La Verdad fue enterrada antes que Hugo Chávez
Articulo del diario Alerta Total – www.alertatotal.net DOMINGO, 10 DE MARÇO DE
2013
Por Jorge Serrão –
serrao@alertatotal.net
Tal vez por esquizofrenia, deficiencia mental o falta de carácter, aquellos que
piensan y actúan de manera torpe, radicalóide y sin ética, haciéndose llamar
socialistas, comunistas, fascistas, nazistas, etc., acostumbran atentar contra la
Verdad – definida como realidad universal permanente. Pero los bolivarianos
exageraron en la dosis de la mistificación en el manejo de la muerte del mito Hugo
Chávez Frías.
En los medios diplomáticos y en el área de inteligencia militar argentina circula una
información clasificada 1-A-1 sobre los procedimientos ante y post fúnebres del
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Presidente y revolucionario inventor de la República Bolivariana de Venezuela. La
revelación explosiva es que el cuerpo exhibido, bajo total sigilo y seguridad, en una
super-urna sellada, no es de un ser humano normal, deformado por un terrible
cáncer. El cadáver seria un muñeco de cera. El simulacro de un Chávez
“embalsamado”.
El sorprendente descubrimiento de que el cuerpo en el faraónico féretro bolivariano
no correspondía a Hugo Chávez original, fue de la “Presidenta” de Argentina
Cristina Kirchner. La gran amiga de Chávez estaba prevista para hacer el mas
emocionado discurso político del velorio. Sin embargo, Cristina se sintió engañada
al momento en que llegó cerca del difunto. Se quedó tan indignada y molesta que
arregló una disculpa improvisada para volver urgentemente a su país – dejando
incluso sin cola al presidente uruguayo José Mujica, quien junto con ella vino a
Caracas.
La explicación explosiva para el regreso súbito de Cristina es relatada por la
inteligencia militar argentina. Cristina tuvo un shock emocional cuando se vio
involucrada en la farsa bolivariana montada para el velorio de Chávez. No pudiendo
creer lo que sus ojos le mostraban, Cristina designo una oficial ayudante-de-orden
para que investigase, de inmediato, si ella no estaría ante una “broma de mal gusto
con la muerte de alguien que le era muy querido”.
La oficial argentina interpelo un alto-miembro del Ejército personal de Chávez –
(debe referirse a la Guardia de Honor) quien prácticamente confeso la tramoya: allí
no estaba el cuerpo original del amado comandante. La militar transmitió la
información inmediatamente a Cristina – quien se impactó. Salio refunfuñando del
Velorio para el hotel, avisando que ya no haría el discurso para un muñeco. El
presidente impuesto de Venezuela, Nicolás Maduro, intento convencerla que hiciera
lo contrario, sin éxito. Cristina regresó volando a casa.
La Presidenta Dilma Rousseff, que llevaba al ex presidente Luiz Inácio en brazos,
fue informada del incidente. Dilma y Lula dieron una breve mirada a la urna de
Chávez, conversaron rápidamente con los presentes, y también se marcharon lo
mas rápido posible – alegando cosas urgentes a ser resueltas en Brasil. Siguiendo
el ejemplo de Cristina, no quisieron participar de la farsa completa de la sepultura de
aquel que era el líder operacional-militar del Foro de São Paulo (organización que
reune a las izquierdas revolucionarias, guerrilleras o simplemente gramcistas en
América Latina y el Caribe).
A parte del cuento del “muñeco de cera” – una versión completamente no-oficial de
las exequias de Chávez -, todo en torno a su muerte suena como una gran farsa,
digna del mas cínico y mentiroso socialismo bolivariano que transformo a Venezuela
en un país en descomposición política, económica y social. Todo indica que Hugo
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Chávez ya vino muerto de Cuba – donde murió no de problemas directamente
relacionados al sarcoma que sufrió metástasis.
Lo que se lleva a Chávez realmente de este para otro mundo fue una brutal
infección clínica, que le detonó sus pulmones. Tal hecho jamas será admitido
oficialmente, ya que la leyenda-dogma comunista prescribe que la isla perdida de
los hermanos Castro tiene “una de las medicinas mas avanzadas del mundo”. En
caso de que se hubiese tratado en Brasil – como lo hicieron Dilma, Lula y el expresidente paraguayo Fernando Lugo -, Chávez podría estar "vivinho da silva"...
Mala suerte para el que el Hospital Sírio-Libanês no acepto recibir sus millones para
tratarse, sin la transparencia y en “secreto socialista”, de su grave caso médico.
Otro hecho que la inteligencia de los Estados Unidos ya dejó muy evidente en los
medios diplomáticos. Chavez murió, probablemente, a comienzos de enero. La
prolongación mentirosa de su vida fue apenas una tramoya para permitir la
inconstitucional toma de pose de Nicolás Maduro, mediante la creación de mega
drama popular en torno a la fanaticada por la “salvación” y cura del bien amado mito
Chávez. El problema para el régimen venezolano es que el atraso en la revelación
de la verdad contribuyó para que afloraran las mentiras ....
La tendencia política en Venezuela es de victoria electoral del presidente impuesto
Nicolás Maduro, en las elecciones marcadas para el 14 de abril. Pero la temporada
de peleas internas y traiciones entre los bolivarianos es apenas una cuestión de
poco tiempo. A pesar de haber sido chófer profesional de autobús, antes de caer en
el mundo fácil de la vida sindical, prácticamente sin trabajo, Nicolás no está maduro
para ser líder de la revolución bolivariana. Chávez es insustituible. Y como un mito
nunca muere, debe hacerles sombra a Maduro – quien tendrá que soportar las
presiones de la oposición, en natural crecimiento, y las traiciones y rebeliones
internas que deben surgir principalmente en el área militar venezolana (en franca
división y conflicto entre Ejército y Marina).
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El socialismo bolivariano ha implocionado a Venezuela. La demagogia ha seducido
al electorado pobre o al mas miserable – siempre la masa maleable de maniobras
de toda la Historia. Pero las clases media y alta de Venezuela comen del pan que
Chávez amasó. La moneda de lana – el bolívar – vale tanto cuanto la verdad para
los ideólogos socialistas. La crisis de desabastecimiento de productos básicos es
alarmante. La inflación totalmente fuera de control. El desempleo solo aumenta. La
estatal petrolera PDVSA opera en régimen de in-eficiencia La plata de los petrodólares es utilizada mas para demagogias que para inversión en infra-estructura
real.
Las instituciones venezolanas se encuentran en descomposición. El Poder Judicial
es una completa desmoralización. El Poder Legislativo una pieza manipulada por el
Ejecutivo autoritario e arbitrario. La ingerencia ideológica de elementos del aparato
represivo cubano en el gobierno bolivariano es un fenómeno políticamente
dantesco. El nivel de corrupción venezolano es para darle envidia al mas grosero
"mensalero" en Brasil. Venezuela tiene hoy todo lo peor que puede tener un país del
tercer mundo, subdesarrollado, lleno de desigualdades y donde explota una onda de
violencia sin perspectiva de control.
La situación venezolana poco afecta a Brasil. Los problemas concretos son apenas
dos. El chasco de PDVSA en la alianza con Petrobrás en la sobre-facturada
refinería Abreu e Lima, en Pernambuco, aun lejos de que salga del papel. El otro
rollo son los préstamos que se pierden de vista del BNDES bodeguero para las
grandes constructoras brasileras realizar mega-obras – también sobre-facturadas –
en tierras bolivarianas. Por lo demás, Venezuela tiene relación comercial pequeña
con Brasil.
Una previsible caída del régimen bolivariano – que es cuestión de poco tiempo –
puede generar un efecto cascada (sin ambigüedades) entre los países afectados
por el cáncer ideológico e ideocrático del Foro de São Paulo. La primera víctima de
una post-derrocada Venezuela debe ser Argentina – donde las cosas van de mal en
peor aun en la gestión de Cristina. Cuba también debe tener aun mayores
problemas si la casa bolivariana se desmorona. El resto entra en el tradicional
“efecto orloff” (una vodka que se hizo famosa con el lema publicitario “yo soy, tú
mañana”).
La prematura muerte del comandante Chávez costará muy caro a los regímenes de
democra-dura y capi-munismo del Foro de São Paulo. La metástasis política ya
comenzó, con muchos tumores políticos entrando en fase de implosión. Resta
apenas esperar para ver como la mezcolanza cancerosa se transformará en papilla
dañada por las mentiras comuni-zantes.
Menos mal que no existe mal que dure por siempre o que nunca acabe...
Reflexionemos sobre la representación de la imagen falsificada de Hugo Chávez
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(dibujo en el tope de este articulo) para que constatemos que todo, tanto lo malo y lo
especial, siempre tiene un final..........
Decisiones económicas en China y expectación castrista
Cubaeconomía, Posted: 11 Mar 2013 06:04 AM PDT
Elías Amor Bravo, economista
Sorprendente. El diario oficial del régimen castrista, Granma, hace referencia hoy al comienzo
del análisis de un proyecto para transformar las funciones del gobierno y su intervención en
temas sociales y de mercado por la XII Asamblea Popular Nacional de China, el máximo órgano
legislativo.
Hasta ahora, resultaba difícil descubrir en este portavoz de los Castro, alguna referencia al
proceso de transformación emprendido por la economía china. Más bien, todo lo contrario.
Distancia y percepción de fracaso desde La Habana. Un cierto sentimiento de superioridad. Es
evidente que algo ha cambiado. Posiblemente, la necesidad de contar con apoyo financiero ante
la eventual pérdida de los petrodólares chavistas.
En cualquier caso, la aplicación de estas reformas, con el mismo ímpetu que en China, podría
servir para que la economía castrista enderezara su rumbo, ampliase su base productiva y
permitiera, por primera vez en 55 años, satisfacer las necesidades básicas de los cubanos, sin el
temido recurso al racionamiento y las colas. Cuando no lo hacen, es por algo.
Vayamos por partes. Los chinos anuncian un “amplio programa de reestructuración estatal, cuyo
objetivo es mejorar la eficiencia del gobierno”. Se trata de alcanzar una distribución razonable del
trabajo y responsabilidades bien definidas. Curioso. No hace mucho tiempo, en los
“Lineamientos” castristas se planteaba algo parecido, la reducción del empleo del sector
presupuestado de la economía castrista. Pero todo aquello quedó en el olvido, y desde entonces,
no se ha vuelto a hablar del asunto.
Los chinos lo tienen más claro. Plantean, por ejemplo, la integración en un solo departamento de
funciones institucionales similares o idénticas, que en la actualidad se encuentren dispersas en
diferentes organismos gubernamentales. En el régimen castrista, este sería un objetivo
encomiable, si se tiene en cuenta la notable dispersión de entidades del sector presupuestado
que prácticamente cumplen los mismos fines que las organizaciones de masas. Esa
identificación entre poder del estado y poder político, porque no conviene olvidar que en ambos
países existe un monopolio comunista, tiene un valor adicional en China, por cuanto, se ha
decidido reducir ese ámbito de discrecionalidad y liberalidades, apostando por una sola entidad
que supervise las distintas áreas gubernamentales a atender.
Los aparatos estatales de los países que, como Cuba, apuestan por el estalinismo, se
caracterizan por esa notable confusión entre gestiones públicas y políticas. Algo de eso se ha
planteado en los llamados “Lineamientos”, pero al igual que en la reducción del empleo estatal,
parece que ha quedado en el olvido, después de alguna actuación en el ministerio del Azúcar, y
poco más. El régimen castrista debería imitar a China y promover una profunda renovación de la
organización burocrática estatal, que separe las distintas fuentes de poder económico que
surgen del propio sistema. Por supuesto que los chinos pueden hacer este tipo de cosas porque
han avanzado realmente mucho más que los castristas en el proceso de transformación de la
ineficiente economía, pero sería positivo que el régimen de La Habana dejase entrar algo de aire
fresco en sus asfixiantes estructuras. No lo harán.
Que China intente “poner fin al poder de los monopolios industriales y eliminar los obstáculos
administrativos que dificultan la circulación de productos y servicios en la economía, para
estimular la libre competencia, justa y ordenada”, dice mucho de los gestores de ese país. Han
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comprendido que no pueden seguir como van, o acabarán muriendo por sus propias estructuras.
China ha definido, con valor, una vía para evolucionar desde el rancio estalinismo totalitario a la
economía de mercado competitiva que está siendo objeto de análisis continuo, y que le va a
permitir convertirse en este siglo en una gran potencia mundial, si consigue avanzar en los
derechos políticos, sociales y democráticos de la población. Los Castro continúan mirando en
otra dirección.
Tejen y destejen como una moderna Penélope. Bueno, al menos autorizan a que Granma
publique estas informaciones aunque tengo para mí que de poco puede servir si no existe una
clara voluntad política por llevarlas a término. Y de momento, nada de eso.
Capacita el CEEDPA a miembros de la Nueva UNPACU.
Lic. Yusmila Reyna Ferrera
Directora de Relaciones Públicas e Información del Centro de Estudios Estratégicos para
una Democracia Proactiva “José Ignacio García Hamilton” de Santiago de Cuba.
(CEEDPA)
Móvil: 53-53740544
Correo: yusmilarf@yahoo.com
Santiago de Cuba, 11 de marzo del 2013 - Como parte de los acuerdos de
cooperación estratégica el Centro de Estudios para la Democracia Proactiva impartió
un seminario de capacitación a los miembros de la Unión Patriótica de Cuba, que ha
redefinido su método de lucha pacífica, sustentada en el reclamo social.
En tal sentido se aprovecha la experiencia del Centro “José Ignacio García Hamilton”
y del trabajo realizado en este sentido por los Municipios de Oposición. Por tal motivo
el seminario fue impartido por Fernando López Rodríguez, quien es Comisionado de
Agricultura del MDO, Songo-La Maya.
El seminario se efectuó el pasado 7 de marzo en una de las sedes de la Unión
Patriótica en la zona Oriental, sita en casa de su Secretario Ejecutivo, José Daniel
Ferrer en Palmarito de Cauto, Santiago de Cuba.
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Al encuentro asistieron alrededor de 50 de sus activistas, incluidos residentes de las
provincias de Holguín y Granma.
El tema impartido, “El Líder, el Cambio y el Entorno Social”, tuvo como principal
objetivo, entrenar a los opositores en las habilidades para conseguir un liderazgo
social, que le permita un funcionamiento interno más eficaz y una mayor interacción
con el pueblo.
Al concluir el encuentro, José Daniel Ferrer aseguró que estos cursos continuarían en
todo el país, como una de las vías para alcanzar la solidez de dicha organización.
Their View: Death of Cuban activist reveals culture of fear
Posted: 03/11/2013 02:00:00 AM MDT
The following editorial appeared in the Washington Post:
In October 2003, the Cuban dissident Oswaldo Paya wrote a letter from Havana to his
mentor Vaclav Havel, the former Czech president and one-time dissident playwright who
fought to throw off communist rule. At the time, Paya's hopes for greater freedom in
Cuba were being crushed by Fidel Castro in a wide-ranging crackdown. Dozens of his
friends and colleagues were being thrown in prison. "I still live in an environment formed
by the culture of fear that the communist regime generates throughout society," Paya
lamented in his letter.
Nearly nine years later — on July 22, 2012 — Paya, 60, was killed in a car accident in
Cuba's eastern Granma province near the town of Bayamo, along with another activist,
Harold Cepero. Both were passengers in the back seat of a rented vehicle. Paya's family
has challenged the official version of the crash: The car was speeding and skidded into a
tree. Wednesday, on The Post's op-ed page, we publish answers to questions we posed
to the man who was at the wheel that day, Angel Carromero, who was imprisoned and
convicted of vehicular homicide in Cuba after the crash. Carromero, 27, vice general
secretary of Spain's ruling Popular Party, was released to Spain in December to serve
out his term, and he speaks out here for the first time since leaving Cuba.
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His words are a testament to Cuba's enduring "culture of fear." Carromero offers a grim,
detailed account of how the car was rammed from behind by a vehicle bearing Cuban
government license plates; he says this caused the fatal crash. Carromero alleges that
he was then drugged and interrogated and his life was threatened. Under duress, he
appeared in a video made by Cuban authorities. "No other vehicle hit us from behind,"
he said on the tape. But the video was a sham. Carromero says he was repeating words
written in a notebook by a Cuban officer for him to read and that he was forced to sign a
confession that bore no resemblance to what happened.
The Carromero story is a nightmare: a sudden impact from behind, mysterious
injections, incarceration in a cell infested with cockroaches and stern warnings to repeat
official lies. Carromero says he had gone to Cuba on his own and was driving that day to
help a human rights champion, Paya, who had won the European Union's Sakharov
Prize and was nominated by Havel for the Nobel Peace Prize. Now Paya's family has
asked Carromero to speak out. "When they asked me for the truth, I didn't want to hide
it," he told us. His decision is a courageous tribute to the principles of Paya.
Capriles, Maduro at each other's throats in Venezuela election
Mon, Mar 11 2013
By Andrew Cawthorne and Mario Naranjo
CARACAS (Reuters) - Presidential candidates Nicolas Maduro and Henrique Capriles
have begun Venezuela's election race with scathing personal attacks even as mourners
still file past Hugo Chavez's coffin.
Maduro, who was sworn in as acting president after Chavez died of cancer last week, is
seen as favourite to win the April 14 election, bolstered by an oil-financed state
apparatus and a wave of public sympathy over Chavez's death.
"I am not Chavez, but I am his son," Maduro told thousands of cheering, red-clad
supporters as he formally presented his candidacy to the election board on Monday.
"I am you, a worker. You and I are Chavez, workers and soldiers of the fatherland," the
former bus driver and union activist added after the crowd's emotions were whipped up
by recordings of Chavez singing the national anthem.
Thumbing his nose at detractors who scoff at his qualifications, Maduro arrived driving a
white bus, waving to supporters. His rally congested downtown, and Capriles sent aides
to present his papers rather than going personally.
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Chavez made clear before his fourth and last cancer operation in December that he
wanted Maduro, his vice president and former foreign minister, to be his Socialist Party's
candidate to succeed him if he died.
Maduro has vowed to continue the radical policies of Chavez's 14-year rule in the South
American OPEC nation, including the popular use of vast oil revenues for social
programs. But Capriles is promising a tough fight.
"Nicolas, I'm not going to give you a free passage ... you are not Chavez," Capriles said
in a combative speech late on Sunday. He also accused Maduro of lying to minimize
Chavez's medical condition while he prepared his candidacy.
"Nicolas lied to this country for months," Capriles said. "You are exploiting someone who
is no longer here because you have nothing else to offer the country ... I don't play with
death, I don't play with suffering, like that."
At stake in the election is not only the future of Chavez's leftist "revolution," but the
continuation of Venezuelan oil subsidies and other aid crucial to the economies of leftwing allies around Latin America, from Cuba to Bolivia.
Venezuela boasts the world's largest oil reserves.
Government officials said Capriles was playing with fire, offending Chavez's family and
risking legal action by criticizing the handling of his illness and death.
"You can see the disgusting face of the fascist that he is," a visibly furious Maduro said,
alleging that the opposition was hoping to stir up violence.
SLURS
Capriles, a descendant of Polish Jews on his mother's side, was a victim of racist and
homophobic slurs from Chavez supporters last year. Maduro appeared to allude to his
rival's sexuality during Monday's rally.
"I do have a wife, you know? I do like women!" he told the crowd with his wife Cilia
Flores at his side, who has served as attorney general but is stepping down to join her
husband's campaign.
Though single, Capriles has had various high-profile girlfriends in the past. He scoffs at
the personal insults, saying they illustrate the government's aggressive mindset.
Shaken by Chavez's death and now immersed in an ugly election campaign,
Venezuelans saw some semblance of normality return on Monday as most schools and
shops reopened after being closed for most of last week.
Chavez's many local detractors are keeping a low profile.
But they say his memory is being burnished to forget less savoury parts of his rule like
the bullying of opponents and stifling of private businesses with nationalizations.
"The government wants to make Venezuelans think it is impossible (for the opposition)
to win this election ... but we can if we come out and vote," said prominent opposition
leader Leopoldo Lopez, rallying supporters.
"Mr. Maduro, use and abuse all the power you want ... we will not go down on our
knees."
The official mourning period for Chavez ends on Tuesday. However the government
extended a temporary ban on alcohol and carrying firearms through March 16.
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Several million have paid their respects at his coffin at a military academy in a dramatic
outpouring of grief.
Though criticized by many for his authoritarian tendencies and handling of the economy,
Chavez was loved by millions, especially the poor, because of his own humble
background, plain language and attacks on global "imperialists" and the domestic "elite,"
as well as his welfare policies in Venezuela's slums.
In death, he is earning a near-religious status among supporters, perhaps akin to that of
Argentina's former populist ruler Juan Peron and his deeply loved wife Eva Peron.
State television has been playing speeches and appearances by Chavez over and over,
next to a banner saying "Chavez lives forever."
OPPOSITION'S UPHILL STRUGGLE
Though there are hopes for a post-Chavez rapprochement between ideological foes
Venezuela and the United States, a diplomatic spat worsened on Monday when
Washington expelled two Venezuelan diplomats in a tit-for-tat retaliation.
Two U.S. military attaches were ordered out last week, on the day of Chavez's death, for
allegedly conspiring with locals against the government.
Venezuelan opposition TV channel Globovision, which tussled with Chavez's
government, said on Monday it had received a "formal buyout offer" and described it as
"an attempted forced sale." It did not publicly name the potential buyer.
Globovision said its directors would provide more details in the coming hours. A
Globovision employee who declined to be named said management described the
business as "economically, legally and politically inviable".
Capriles, a 40-year-old centrist governor who describes himself as a "progressive" and
an admirer of Brazil's model, ran in the last presidential election in October, taking 44
percent of the votes, but was unable to prevent Chavez's re-election.
While attacking Maduro's handling of the crisis over Chavez's cancer, Capriles will try to
turn the focus of the month-long election campaign to the many day-to-day problems
afflicting Venezuelans, from electricity cuts to crime and an inflation rate that is among
the world's highest.
Maduro, 50, who echoes Chavez's anti-imperialist rhetoric, is sure to make his former
boss the centrepiece of his campaign while casting himself as the only heir.
On Monday, though, he did promise a new anti-crime drive, and to deepen Chavez's
social programs, known as "missions," in the slums. He also sought to blame sky high
crime levels, which worsened dramatically during Chavez's years in power, on
Venezuela's wealthy, saying they had ignored festering social problems and turned their
back on the poor.
Two opinion polls before Chavez's death gave Maduro a lead of more than 10
percentage points.
"This is going to be a really tough campaign for us, we know," said an aide at Capriles'
office in Caracas.
"It's hard to get everyone enthused and pumped again. We've only got a month, and
we're fighting Chavez's ghost, not Maduro. But believe me, we'll give it our best."
(Additional reporting by Simon Gardner, Terry Wade, Ana Isabel Martinez, Marianna Parraga and Mario
Naranjo; Editing by Kieran Murray, Daniel Wallis, Sandra Maler and Lisa Shumaker)
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Last anti-Chavez TV station to be sold
Final remaining anti-Chavez TV station to be sold in Venezuela
By Frank Bajak and Jorge Rueda, Associated Press | Associated Press – 17 hours ago
CARACAS, Venezuela (AP) -- The last remaining television station critical of
Venezuela's government is being sold to an insurance company owner who is apparently
friendly with the ruling socialists, its owners announced Monday, following an
unrelenting official campaign to financially strangle the broadcaster through regulatory
pressure.
The announcement, which civil liberties advocates called a crushing blow to press
freedom, comes a month ahead of crucial elections to replace Hugo Chavez, with the
opposition candidate accusing the late president's political heirs of multiple violations of
the constitution, and repeated lying, to seek unfair advantage.
The editorial line of Globovision is expected to change under new management,
employees told The Associated Press.
Many journalists on the staff of 450 sobbed when informed of the sale, certain some
would lose their jobs for openly confronting the government.
"We are economically unviable because our income doesn't cover our expenses. We can't
even raise salaries enough to compensate for inflation," owner Guillermo Zuloaga wrote
in a letter to employees.
Politically, the station is unviable because "we are in a completely polarized country on
the opposite end of an all-powerful government that wants to see us fail," he added.
Third, Globovision's license expires two years from now under a recent government rule
change.
The sale will wait until April 14 elections, which Chavez's hand-picked successor,
Nicolas Maduro, is highly favored to win. But there is fear that journalists at the channel
could exercise self-censorship, a common phenomenon under the Chavistas.
The feared disappearance of Globovision's independent voice would strengthen the hand
of a government that began showing increasing intolerance for dissent even before
Chavez died after a nearly two-year bout with cancer.
Zuloaga informed staff of the planned sale at a meeting Monday, naming the buyer as
Juan Domingo Cordero, president of the insurance company La Vitalicia.
One employee told the AP that Cordero is friendly with government officials such as
National Assembly speaker Diosdado Cabello. He spoke on condition of anonymity for
fear of losing his job.
Cordero did not respond to AP attempts for comment, including a visit to his Caracas
office, where his assistant said he was in a meeting.
Chavez supporters were heartened by the news.
"We don't deserve a channel like Globovision. They lie, deceive, can never say anything
good about the revolution," said Luis Pina, an unemployed 29-year-old who had attended
a rally Monday to celebrate Maduro's formal registration for the election.
Under constant state pressure for alleged violations of media laws passed under Chavez,
Globovision has been forced to pay millions of dollars in fines while its viewership on
the public spectrum was reduced to just two cities: Caracas and Valencia.
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In the meeting with employees, Zuloaga said that "politically, economically and legally"
Globovision was no longer a viable business, in part because it had no access to dollars at
preferential rates to buy equipment, as Cordero's business does, the employee said.
The employee said the buyers had presented themselves as politically neutral.
"A lot of journalists were crying and surely more than one of them will have to go," he
said.
The state telecommunications agency has repeatedly sanctioned Globovision and
threatened to shut it down, with eight administrative cases currently pending against it
that could have led to additional fines and even closure orders.
In June, it was fined $2.2 million for running supposedly incendiary reports on a 2011
prison riot.
In the most recent case, it was accused of sowing panic for running spots challenging the
constitutionality of the government's decision to postpone the swearing in of Chavez,
which was supposed to have occurred Jan. 10, due to the cancer that ultimately killed
him.
Globovision also faces possible sanctions for alleged tax evasion. And it was accused by
the Chavez government of backing a 2002 attempt to overthrow him.
The Americas director of Human Rights Watch, Jose Miguel Vivanco, said the sale caps
a disturbing trend.
"After years of going after its critics, the government of Venezuela has created an
environment in which journalists weigh the consequences of what they say for fear of
suffering reprisals in the form of abusive or arbitrary state action," he said via email.
"If the channel changes its editorial line after this sale, Venezuelans will have even more
limited information in the coming weeks before the elections," Vivanco added.
In print, two major national newspapers, El Nacional and El Universal, remain highly
critical of the government, but in the all-important television sector Globovision was that
last major critical voice. Four private channels exist in Venezuela, all ostensibly neutral,
while the government has four state-run channels and the regional news network Telesur.
"This is the only broadcast media in the country that informs us accurately," said Noral
Villereal, a 53-year-old insurance broker, about Globovision. "I think we're going to be
left without any kind of trustworthy news."
Opposition presidential candidate Henrique Capriles, who lost to Chavez in October
elections, is already at a severe disadvantage in the April 14 vote. The government has
the national treasury of an oil-rich nation at its disposal and takes over the public
airwaves at will.
The Zuloaga family owns 80 percent of Globovision. The other 20 percent belonged to a
banker but was expropriated years ago by Chavez. Zuloaga had been living outside of
Venezuela since 2010 after a court ordered his arrest for allegedly illegally storing 24
automobiles at one of his homes.
It had become the lone opposition channel that year after RCTV was forced off cable and
satellite networks. Its public airwaves license had been stripped three years earlier.
Carlos Lauria of the Committee to Protect Journalist said the slow strangling of
Globovision followed a pattern nationally.
"Over the last 14 years the Venezuelan press has been gradually weakened and
debilitated by an array of laws, restrictions, regulatory measures and judicial decisions
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that have really weakened the ability of the private media to report the news without
official interference," he said.
___
Associated Press writers Fabiola Sanchez and Vivian Sequera contributed to this report.
___
Frank Bajak on Twitter: http://twitter.com/fbajak
Venezuela election fight to succeed Chavez begins
By Jordi Miro | AFP News – 10 hours ago …
The campaign to succeed the late Hugo Chavez in Venezuela has officially begun and so
has the mudslinging, good and thick.
Nicolas Maduro, the hand-picked political heir of the bombastic populist and leftist
firebrand who died last week of cancer, officially registered his candidacy for the April
14 election.
So did his opponent, state governor Henrique Capriles, whom Chavez had defeated back
in October to win another term, although Capriles gave him a better run for his money
than Chavez was used to.

View Photo
Venezuelan acting President Nicolas Maduro (C) delivers a speech during the
official …

View Photo
Venezuelan opposition leader Henrique Capriles speaks during a press conference
in …
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
View Photo
Venezuelan acting President Nicolas Maduro shows the documents from his
Maduro, a former bus driver who worked his way up the political hierarchy, tried to cash
in on a wave of emotion and sympathy in the wake of his mentor's death.
"I am not Chavez, but I am his son and all of us together, the people, are Chavez,"
Maduro declared to thousands of the late president's supporters, massed outside the
National Election Council, as he officially registered to run in the election.
Maduro also vowed to make progress against gun-related crime, one of the top public
concerns in this violence-wracked nation, which has a homicide rate eight times worse
than the world average.
"There cannot be weapons to kill with, to use in hold-ups; that has got to stop," he said,
unveiling a plan to take weapons off streets of poorer neighborhoods.
Capriles, an energetic 40-year-old, kept his followers off the street but warned Maduro on
Sunday: "I won't leave you an open path."
Later Monday, Capriles also registered his candidacy.
"This campaign is between you and me, Nicolas. Let's leave the (late) president out of it,"
Capriles said. He told his supporters, "I do believe we can win.
"We are going to have to fight, but threats are not important. This fight is completely
skewed," he added.
Analysts say Maduro is favored heavily. Chavez picked him as his successor in his last
public appearance before going to Cuba for cancer surgery in December.
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The Venezuelan president died on March 5 and was eulogized on Friday in a lavish state
funeral that drew leaders from around Latin America and anti-American allies, including
Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.
Meanwhile, the US State Department announced the expulsion of two Venezuelan
diplomats in a tit-for-tat response to the expulsion of two US Air Force officers by
Venezuela last week.
Capriles has accused Maduro of lying about the president's health to buy time to prepare
for the elections.
"Now on top of it all, you are using the body of the president to stage a political
campaign," he said Sunday.
Minutes later, Maduro went on state-run television, and, standing in front of a picture of
Chavez in military uniform, accused his rival of trying to foment violence with
"disgusting" accusations.
"His mask has fallen and we can see his nauseating fascist face," he said, warning that the
Chavez family was reserving the right to take "all legal action to defend the honor of
president Hugo Chavez."
"He is looking for the people of Venezuela to ... go on the path of violence," he alleged,
urging Venezuelans to "not fall for provocations."
Amid popular pressure to place Chavez alongside South American independence hero
Simon Bolivar in the national pantheon, Maduro said he would propose a constitutional
amendment to the legislature on Tuesday to move him there.
He called Chavez "the great redeemer of the poor."
The move would lead to a referendum in 30 days that could coincide with the presidential
election. The body will first be moved on Friday to a military museum where Chavez
plotted a failed coup in 1992.
Luis Vicente Leon, director of pollsters Datanalisis, said the grief over Chavez's death
gives the government an advantage in the race.
"It will be a battle between the divine and the human," he said.
Farith Fraija, a political scientist and blogger, told AFP: "It's not a race between Capriles
and Nicolas Maduro. It's a race between Capriles and Chavez."
Chavez's expropriations and nationalizations of key industries riled the wealthy while the
opposition accused him of abusing state funds and dominating state-run media in his
campaigns
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Must-Read: Antonio Rodiles on Cuba Sanctions
By young Cuban intellectual and pro-democracy leader, Antonio Rodiles (founder of the
Estado de Sats civil society project):
For the Cuban government, the need for a Plan B is urgent, and all eyes immediately turn
to the United States.
Capitol Hill Cubans, at 8:28 PM Monday, March 11, 2013
The Cuban Government’s Plan B
The Cuban government would need, at the very least, a relaxation of
economic sanctions. Only now is the government aware of the magnitude
of the mistake it made in imprisoning Alan Gross. The release of the
contractor would send the worst possible message to all Cuban secret
agents, but would at least guarantee the start of a more fluid process of
exchanges, with the final objective of relaxing the embargo. Everything
seems to indicate that the old tantrums don’t have the same impact.
Within Cuba, great expectations created by Raul Castro are fading and
the government needs to take steps so that Cubans can breathe a little
more freedom. Relaxing the controls of the iron-fisted travel and
migration policy, in hopes of easing the growing shortages suffered by
Cubans, is one of the more “audacious” steps taken by the totalitarians.
The naming of new figures to fill the senior government posts occurred
within this scenario. Esteban Lazo, named president of the National
Assembly, symbolizes everything about the system that is old and
unworkable. He will take the reins of an assembly that has never had a
divided vote, not even on the very trivial issues which they discuss. Lazo
represents a retaining wall to block any initiative that might arise or come
to this governing body.
Substituting Miguel Diaz-Canel for José Ramón Machado Ventura – as first
vice president, and presumptive heir – is an attempt to provide a needed
succession. Diaz-Canel, younger, obedient, non-charismatic, lacking his
own popularity, got the call. A person who will depend entirely on the
willing consent of a military apparatus that has strengthened its influence
in recent years, indicating that this is the social design intended to be
perpetuated. I do not think that these designations generate new
dynamics. The elite only intends for these people to execute the plan
designed to their and their heirs’ specifications.
The opposition, then, begins to play an interesting role. The collaboration
among different groups is ever more articulated. Work in recent months
has been woven around the campaign “For Another Cuba,” which
demands the ratification and implementation of the United Nations
covenants on human rights as a road map for a process of transition, thus
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signaling that it is possible, here and now, to find a viable path. Civil
society is prepared to take bolder steps and we hope this will be the case
for all actors.
What can we expect in the short and medium term?
The Government will continue to assign key positions to its most reliable
cadres, people who will guarantee that “neo-Castroism” is set in stone.
They will also gather a set of bodies who will be allowed to show a certain
“renewed” face to the world, and so try to relaunch and normalize their
international relations.
This new design requires an economy that can afford it, this is the critical
point: How can a completely disjointed and broken economy be made
viable? This can be achieved only with an injection of capital, an injection
that today could come only from our northern neighbor. Nobody wants to
invest in a country that doesn’t pay its debts.
The U.S. embargo and the European Community Common Position
are key pieces in this political chess game. If the government
receives an infusion of resources in the current, unchanged,
situation, it would enable it to keep its hyperatrophied repressive
apparatus intact and we could say goodbye to our democratic
dreams for the next 20 to 30 years. When I hear several prodemocracy actors advocate for the immediate and unconditional
end to the embargo, I perceive a lack foresight with regards to
the possible political scenarios. Are they unaware of previous
experiences in other regions? Are they unaware of the famous
phrase, “economic opening with political opening”? Is the
massive debt we have already left to our children and
grandchildren not enough?
If the democratic community signals the totalitarian government that
ratification and implementation of the fundamental rights set out in the
UN Covenants is the only path to a solution to the Cuban dilemma, and if
it conditions any measure relaxing the economic sanctions to the
fulfillment of those international agreements, it will not take long for us to
see results.
The Cuban government has not been and is not reckless, still less so in
the current context. It is illogical that the elite would want to pass on a
time bomb to their family and close associates. The opposition, for its
part, in its vast majority, is promoting peaceful change. Changes that
transition us to a true democracy with the full and absolute respect of
individual liberties, and not the typical totalitarian monstrosity of failed
nations. A monster that in the medium term, totally secure, would be
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burdened with more corruption, more insecurity and more social conflicts.
It is extremely understandable that the Cuban people desire the
opportunity to live in peace, to be prosperous, to enjoy their families and
their land. We need to leave behind this whole nightmare of warnings of
combat, wars of the entire people, territorial militias, socialism or death,
and impregnable bastions. We need to overcome crazy ideas like the
Havana cordons, microjet bananas, “open airwaves,” battles of ideas,
guidelines, and this string of stupidities and mediocrities. Things that
have plunged us into this disaster which today we all, absolutely all of us,
have the inescapable obligation to overcome. We urge another Cuba.
Read the whole analysis here.
Courtesy of Translating Cuba.
"Repression has worsened in Cuba” according to Berta Soler from the
Ladies in White.
EFE, 03-11-13
"Repression has worsened" in Cuba and the regime is acting "with impunity in the streets,
is beating us, is dragging us away, is taking us to jail," said the spokeswoman for the
Cuban dissident group Ladies in White in Madrid on Monday.
In an interview with Efe, Berta Soler said that she supports the maintenance of the U.S.
embargo on Cuba and is even asking that greater international pressure be brought to bear
on the Communist regime.
She attributes to international "pressure" the fact that the government of Raul Castro
decided to grant passports to Cubans and allow them to leave the country, including
herself and opposition blogger Yoani Sanchez.
The Ladies in White was formed after the imprisonment of 75 dissidents in 2003 during
the so-called "Black Spring" crackdown to call for their release.
“There is something irreversible happening in Cuba”
National Endowment for Democracy, 03-12-13
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“There is something irreversible happening,” in Cuba, says dissident blogger Yoani
Sanchez. “And that is the need people have to express themselves.”
Her comments coincide with fellow Cuban dissidents’ demands that the United Nations
investigate the suspicious death of rights advocate Oswaldo Paya and that the European
Union support Cuban democrats.
Paya’s daughter, Rosa Maria Paya (right) today handed over a petition to the UN Human
Rights Council, calling on UN head Ban Ki-moon and his human rights chief Navi Pillay
to launch “an international and independent investigation” into his death. …
Cuban officials tried to block her speech, according to the human rights group, UN
Watch, which organized the petition.
“A well-known Cuban dissident urged support from Europe on Tuesday for her group
advocating democracy in Cuba, and wasn’t fazed when protesters disrupted her first
appearance abroad by unfurling a pro-government banner and yelling that she was lying
about harsh conditions for citizens of the island nation,” AP reports:
Berta Soler (left), the most prominent member of the Ladies in White group, told the
audience that she welcomed the demonstration, …
Intenta Cuba en ONU bloquear declaración de Rosa María Payá
Payá hizo referencia a que su padre, líder del Movimiento Cristiano de Liberación muerto
en julio del año pasado, trabajó en Cuba por los cambios pacíficos legales para que los
cubanos disfrutaran de todos los derechos.
Diario Rotativo de Querétaro, Publicado el 12 marzo, 2013 - 10:00 Ginebra, 12 Mar (Notimex).- Cuba intentó bloquear la declaración de Rosa María Payá
ante el Consejo de Derechos Humanos en la que denuncio el acoso contra activistas en
la isla y pidió una investigación independiente sobre la muerte de su padre el líder
opositor Oswaldo Payá.
Payá hizo referencia a que su padre, líder del Movimiento Cristiano de Liberación
muerto en julio del año pasado, trabajó en Cuba por los cambios pacíficos legales para
que los cubanos disfrutaran de todos los derechos.
Además promovió el proyecto Varela que pide un referéndum apoyado por más de 25
mil cubanos para que se garantice el derecho a la “libertad de expresión, asociación,
elecciones libres, libertad de presos políticos pacíficos y la posibilidad de tener
empresas privadas”.
“Hasta ahora el gobierno se niega a realizar este plebiscito y encarceló a la mayoría de
sus líderes”, indicó Payá.
“Las autoridades cubanas dijeron que mi padre y Harold Cepero, joven activista,
murieron en un accidente de tránsito pero después de entrevistar a los sobrevivientes
confirmamos que sus muertes no fueron accidentales”, dijo Payá.
Tras la anterior declaración el representante de la misión de Cuba manoteó con firmeza
para que el vicepresidente del Consejo, el embajador de Ecuador, Luis Gallegos
Chiriboga, la interrumpiera y llamara a “un punto de órden”.
El representante de la delegación de Cuba, Juan Quintanilla, dijo ante el pleno que “era
necesario interrumpir la intervención de la mercenaria que ha osado venir a esta sala”.
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“Y queremos preguntar si este debate es para referirse a cuestiones generales que
puedan demostrar una violación de derechos humanos o también se presta para
abordar cuestiones específicas como lo está haciendo la mercenaria que está haciendo
uso de la palabra en este momento”, cuestionó.
El diplomático pidió al vicepresidente del Consejo “que ilustre a la mercenaria que está
haciendo esta intervención”.
Por su parte, Estados Unidos tomó la palabra y subrayó que es derecho de las
organizaciones no gubernamentales intervenir ante el Consejo y que se debe ofrecer
esta tribuna a pesar de que el contenido de lo que abordan difiera de la visión de un
país en particular.
A su vez, China, Rusia, Pakistán, Ecuador y Bielorusia, apoyaron la moción de Cuba en
el sentido de interrumpir la declaración de Payá.
Sin embargo, el titular del Consejo pidió a Payá ajustarse al tema de “situaciones de
derechos humanos que requieren atención del Consejo” y Payá volvió a hacer uso de la
palabra.
“El conductor del coche (el español Angel Carromero), continuó Payá, declaró al
Washington Post que fueron intencionalmente embestidos por detrás”.
En la entrevista que Carromero concedió recientemente al diario estadunidense explicó
que “conducía con cuidado, sin darles motivos para que nos pararan (…) y la última vez
que miré el espejo retrovisor me di cuenta que otro coche se nos había acercado
demasiado, y de golpe sentí un impacto ensordecedor atrás”.
El accidente ocurrió el 22 de julio de 2012, a unos 700 kilómetros de La Habana y de
acuerdo a la versión oficial el auto que conducía Carromero se salió de la carretera a
causa de su alta velocidad y chocó contra un árbol.
La muerte de Payá dejó a la oposición cubana sin su principal líder, galardonado en
2002 con el Premio Andrei Sajarov a los Derechos Humanos del Parlamento Europeo.
Su hija, buscando apoyo de la ONU, envió una carta abierta al secretario general de
Naciones Unidas, Ban Ki-moon, y a la Alta Comisionada de la ONU para los Derechos
Humanos, Navi Pillay, en la que dice que el Gobierno cubano pudo estar detrás de la
muerte de su padre.
Asimismo, la joven activista cubana denunció ante el máximo órgano de la ONU que
vela por los derechos humanos, que “la seguridad del estado del gobierno cubano llama
a casa de mi familia en La Habana para decir te vamos a matar, son las mismas
amenazas de muerte que hicieron a mi padre”.
“Es responsabilidad del gobierno cubano la integridad física de todos los miembros de
mi familia”, advirtió Payá, quien instó a Naciones Unidas a iniciar una investigación
internacional e independiente sobre la muerte de Oswaldo Payá y el joven activista
Harold Cepero.
“La verdad es esencial en el proceso de reconciliación que Cuba necesita”, sostuvo
Payá .
“No buscamos venganza, tenemos derecho a saber quienes son responsables de la
muerte de mi padre”, llamó Payá al tiempo que cuestionó “cuándo se responderán a las
demandas de derechos humanos del pueblo de Cuba para poder disfrutar de la
democracia y de las libertades básicas”.
Marco Rubio scolds U.S. visitors to Cuba
Rubio said his colleagues don’t understand the problem.
From Politico, 03-12-13
Sen. Marco Rubio is chiding Americans — including some of his Senate colleagues —
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for visiting Cuba, saying the country “is not a zoo…where you get to watch people living
in cages.”
“These trips, [visitors] traveling to Cuba. Look, God bless them, I know they mean well.
But I have people come to me all the time and tell me, ‘Oh, I went to Cuba. What a
beautiful place, I feel so bad for the people,’” Rubio said Friday at a luncheon for the
Cuba-Democracy PAC in Miami, according to video posted Monday by Florida political
blog The Shark Tank.
“Cuba is not a zoo where you pay an admission ticket and you go in and you get to watch
people living in cages to see how they are suffering,” Rubio added. “Cuba is not a field
trip. I don’t take that stuff lightly. You just went to Cuba and to fulfill your curiosity —
which I could’ve told you about if you’d come seen me for five minutes — you’ve left
thousands of dollars in the hands of a government that uses that money to control these
people that you feel sorry for.”
Rubio — a potential 016 presidential contender — said his Senate colleagues who have
visited Cuba in the past don’t understand the problem.
“The thing I really get a kick out of is every year without fail three or four of my
colleagues in the Senate will travel to Cuba — they’ll have their yearly meeting with
Raul Castro or whoever is there and then they come back with the same story,” Rubio
said. “[They say,] ‘Oh, we really have our finger on the way to change policy toward
Cuba. What we have today is a relic of the Cold War.’ That’s what they say. It is a relic
of the Cold War but our policy is not the relic. The relic is the Cuban government —
that’s the relic.”
Granma, Havana. March 12, 2013
U.S. Interests Section information on consular
procedures for travel to the United States
• Following the updating of the Cuban Migration and Travel Policy, U.S. officials confirm their
regulations remain unchanged
SERGIO ALEJANDRO GÓMEZ & DALIA GONZÁLEZ DELGADO
THE U.S. Interests Section (USIS) in Havana recently requested an interview with
Granma in order to detail requirements and regulations related to visa applications to the
United States, following Cuba’s updating of its migration and travel policy. The meeting, at
the Granma newspaper offices, was attended by Consul General Timothy Roche; Lynn
Roche, director of the Press and Culture Office; and Patricia Bermúdez, an official from the
Visa Information Department.
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The Consul General stated that his government positively
welcomes the changes to the Migration Law. However, he
clarified that, on the part of the United States, migratory
regulations have not changed in any aspect and requisites for
obtaining a temporary or immigrant visa remain the same.
He explained that in order to travel to the United States it is
still necessary to apply for a permit which must be approved
by a consular official in an interview. Roche stressed that
strict compliance with all the steps established to obtain a
visa is essential. (See box).
Currently, he added, the waiting time for a visa appointment
in USIS is 18 months, while the period required to process
this documentation once the interview has taken place is
variable. For those applying for non-immigrant visa, it is 2-3
days, although in some cases a longer administrative
processing period is needed, which could take up to 90 days.
Timothy Roche, USIS Consul
General. (Photo: Vladimir Molina)
For persons applying for immigrant visas, the waiting period to collect travel documents is
approximately 30 days after being interviewed, although in particular cases it may take 120
days or more.
"In the case of tourist visas, our laws are very rigorous and the person traveling has to
show that he or she has strong ties in Cuba, that he or she is not going to remain in the U.S.
to work," the Consul emphasized.
United States legislation requires "consular officials to assume that all applicants for
temporary visas are potential immigrants," he commented.
The Consul General acknowledged that it is "very difficult" for a young person to obtain the
necessary permits for this type of travel.
"Many of them go in search of economic opportunities abroad, while retired adults have
stronger ties here and generally return to their country."
However, figures published by the Cuban government demonstrate the opposite: the
majority of those who travel do return home. From the year 2000 to August 31, 2012, a
total of 941,953 Cubans traveled abroad for personal reasons, of whom a total of 120,705 –
barely 12.8% – did not return.
According to figures provided by U.S. officials, between October 2011 and September 2012
the USIS issued approximately 10,000 temporary visas. Roche did not discount the
possibility that the number of visas will increase during this fiscal year as a result of
increased applications in the new context of the Cuban migration and travel policy.
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"In the case of immigrants or persons applying for leave to remain, there is a range of
reasons why a visa might be denied; for example, a lack of financial resources on the part
of family members in the United States. We also see many cases of marriage and divorce
for migration purposes, or there may be public health or national security reasons for
refusing a visa."
When a person is refused a visa, he noted, the decision cannot be appealed although it is
not of a permanent nature. In this context, he recommended "waiting for at least a year
after the date of the last refusal before reapplying for a non-immigrant visa."
Asked whether these procedures are the same for all countries, Roche explained that
residents in some developed countries, such as those of the European Union, Canada or
Japan, do not even require a visa. But "in a very poor country, in Africa, or some of the less
developed countries of Latin America, regrettably, the refusal rate is higher."
However, the Consul General had no comment as to why, as opposed to persons from
anywhere else in the world, Cubans are allowed entry without visas if they succeed in
reaching U.S. territory by any means, under the "dry foot-wet foot" policy and the Cuban
Adjustment Act, while other potential immigrants, many of them from Latin America, are
pursued and expelled from the country.
Similarly, when asked about the Cuban Medical Professional Parole program, in operation
since 2006, and which stimulates the desertion of Cuban collaborators in third countries
through a sophisticated brain-drain system, not only affecting Cubans but all those
countries in which they are working, Roche replied: "I do not have information about that
program, because it is not managed here in Havana."
The Consul General insisted that the United States' intention is "to promote legal visits and
legal, orderly and safe migration," but he avoided expressing an opinion on his
government's migration policy toward Cuba, which has provoked painful losses of human
life and whose sole aim is to promote subversion and destabilization in the country, justify
anti-Cuban propaganda and distort our reality.
"We do not have any comments on these aspects", he concluded.
Before ending the interview, USIS officials alerted Cuban citizens and their families in the
United States to the existence in that country of fraudulent companies offering
appointments and guaranteed visas, and stressed that the only way of obtaining these
permits is via the steps established by the Interests Section in Havana.
Given their importance to those concerned, Granma outlines below the key
steps for obtaining a U.S. visa:
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Tourist or Temporary Visit Visas
1. Fill in the application form available at http://havana.usint.gov
It is important to complete the form and send it, as if it is not correctly filled in before the
day of the interview, the interview will be cancelled and the appointment lost.
2. The second step is for your contact in the United States to call 1-866-374-1769, the Call
Center, to schedule an appointment.
3. Attend the appointment with a current passport, one 50x50mm photo, 160 CUC, and
the visa application confirmation sheet. It is advisable to arrive 30 minutes before the
scheduled appointment time, and no electronic objects or accompanying visitors are
allowed in, except in the case of disabled persons or minors.
Permanent Immigration visas
If you wish to live in the United States you need to have a family member who is either an
American citizen or a permanent resident in that country. They must submit a completed
visa application form to the United States Citizenship and Immigration Service. American
citizens may apply for family reunification on behalf of a spouse, parents, siblings and
children (whether these are single or married). Permanent residents in the United States
have the possibility of applying for a spouse or unmarried children to join them.
Viaje al surco
«Hombres de zafra» de la unidad básica de producción cooperativa Hernán González, de
Las Tunas, dispuestos y emprendedores, mantienen viva la llama de la esperanza
Juan Morales Agüero
digital@juventudrebelde.cu
12 de Marzo del 2013 20:40:58 CDT
AMANCIO, Las Tunas.— Para acceder a ciertos cañaverales del central Amancio
Rodríguez se precisa rodar —mejor brincar— por guardarrayas no aptas para vehículos
mojigatos. Por fortuna, el viejo ómnibus Girón que nos trasladó hasta allá no figura en
ese rango. Así, desafiando el asma de su motor y la artrosis de su carrocería, hizo el viaje
de ida y regreso y nos permitió apreciar in situ la proeza de hacer zafra en Cuba.
Apenas echamos pie a tierra en predios de la unidad básica de producción cooperativa
(UBPC) Hernán González, divisamos en plena faena una máquina combinada. Según
conocí, allí cuentan con tres equipos similares, del tipo KTP-2M. Pero casi nunca
armonizan en el cañaveral porque siempre alguno se ausenta por desperfectos. Hoy solo
uno está de alta.
A juzgar por los cálculos, por cada máquina que no concurra a los tajos durante una
jornada se dejan de tributar al ingenio unas 200 toneladas de la gramínea. Eso entraña
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menos azúcar, más áreas sin liberar, retardo en la fertilización, aplazamiento de la
reposición… Y no son adversidades imputables a los hombres, sino a la técnica.
«El problema son las piezas de repuesto —asegura Frank Soto, programador del lote de
500 hectáreas, cuyo estimado asciende a 42 toneladas por unidad—. Nuestros mecánicos
hacen lo posible por mantener las máquinas en servicio, pero no todas las piezas se
pueden “inventar”. Aun así, hemos entregado hasta la fecha unas 16 000 toneladas. Es
una hazaña si tenemos en cuenta semejantes contratiempos».
Hablan los carretoneros
Los rendimientos de los campos no fueran los mismos sin la contribución de los
carretoneros. Se trata de hombres que «peinan» una y otra vez los surcos para alzar a
mano la caña que las combinadas dejan. En la UBPC tres carretones y nueve trabajadores
agrícolas se dedican a esa labor. En conjunto acopian por día unas 20 toneladas.
«Recogemos tanta cantidad porque aquí el terreno no es completamente llano —dice
Gabriel García Ramos, carretonero de 41 años de edad, mientras azuza a sus bueyes
Polvacera y Peligroso—. Eso motiva que la combinada tenga que moverse y virarse
mucho. Entonces cae más materia prima al suelo. Pero la cifra que le acabo de dar solo se
cumple si están picando las tres máquinas. Y eso casi nunca ocurre. Siempre hay alguna
con rotura».
Objetividad y subjetividad
Guermi Olivera es el jefe del pelotón de combinadas de la UBPC Hernán González. En
su opinión, si las máquinas a su cargo se hubieran encontrado en perfecto estado desde
que comenzó la zafra, las estadísticas fueran diferentes. La falta de caña en el Amancio
Rodríguez es un mal devenido tradición. Pero en esta UBPC hay caña. Sus problemas son
técnicos.
«Imagínese que el plan diario de las tres combinadas es de 340 toneladas y hasta la fecha
promediamos solamente 209. Y tenemos dos lotes que casi ni se han tocado aún. La
UBPC prevé terminar la actual contienda con 36 000 toneladas. «Pero, por las causas
expuestas, hoy apenas contabilizamos 14 000. En total hemos dejado de tirar desde
diciembre diez mil toneladas. Nuestro pelotón tendrá que recibir ayuda para poder
cumplir con las cifras comprometidas».
Las averías más frecuentes de las KTP-2M son la rotura de correas y el calentamiento de
los motores. Los mecánicos de la UBPC concuerdan que, en ocasiones, obtener las piezas
de repuesto se dificulta porque hay que importarlas. Pero en otras su demora en llegar
carece de justificación. Y ante esas contingencias el «canibalismo» se impone: se toman
piezas de una para que otra pueda asistir al campo.
«Hacemos todo lo que podemos para que las máquinas no se paren —asegura uno de los
mecánicos—. Le pongo un ejemplo: cuando las remotorizaron, vinieron con radiadores
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que no eran los que traen de fábrica. Y por esa razón se calentaban demasiado. Les
adaptamos aspas y ventiladores de Mercedes Benz y solucionamos en buena parte el
asunto».
Un operador de vanguardia
Las adversidades técnicas no constituyen siempre obstáculos insalvables, porque los
operadores de las KTP-2M ponen alma y corazón en cumplir sus planes de entrega. Uno
de ellos conversó con este reportero:
«Soy hijo de campesinos —dice Orangel Muñoz, de 43 años de edad y 22 sobre las
combinadas, quien luce una gorra beisbolera con el emblema de Las Tunas—. Mi padre y
mi madre fueron obreros agrícolas. Por tradición, mi familia ha tenido siempre gran
apego por la tierra. Me crié en ese ambiente. Y lo continúo».
Orangel venció el duodécimo grado. La enfermedad de sus progenitores hizo que le diera
un brusco golpe de timón a su vida. Su deber era ayudarlos económicamente y vio en la
mocha y el surco la mejor opción. Fue su debut «profesional» en el campo.
«Trabajé durante un tiempo en los carretones —rememora—. Pero vivía obsesionado con
las máquinas. Tanto que me mandaron a una escuela de mecanización y aprendí a
manejarlas. Desde entonces no he bajado del volante».
El lote donde las cuchillas de Orangel guillotinan dulzura dista siete kilómetros de su
casa, en una comunidad conocida por Ana Luisa 2. Hay que madrugar. Así, abandona la
cama a las 4:30 a.m., se toma el buchito de café y una hora después ya está preparado
para comenzar a cortar.
«En la zafra pasada piqué más de 11 000 arrobas —precisa—. Y en lo que va de esta
llevo más de 4 500 (una arroba equivale a 11,50 kg). Mi meta siempre es convertirme en
millonario. Solo una vez quedé por debajo de esa cifra. Sí, lleva muchos sacrificios. Entre
estos lidiar con el pica-pica. Una vez tuve que encuerarme y revolcarme entre la paja para
aliviarme la picazón. Pero cuando uno ve el resultado de su trabajo, vale la pena».
Y sí, vale la pena. Las quincenas laboradas desde el alba hasta el anochecer propician que
el día del cobro Organgel se eche al bolsillo unos 2 000 pesos en moneda nacional. Y los
sobrecumplimientos suelen ingresar a su billetera alguna platica en CUC. Con ese capital
mejora su calidad de vida.
«La casa donde vivo con mi esposa es de mampostería —agrega—. Me la asignaron
como estímulo. Dentro tengo equipo de música, teléfono, televisor, refrigerador, DVD…
Ah, y agua corriente, cocina eléctrica y servicio sanitario».
Pero, a pesar de su intensa agenda, Orangel encuentra tiempo para atender un conuco.
Con la ayuda de su mujer —obrera agrícola— cultiva boniato, plátano, yuca, maíz… La
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cosecha les enriquece la cazuela doméstica y les favorece la cría de animales, como
cerdos, guanajos y gallinas.
Educador de los jóvenes
Orangel Muñoz desplegó una vida activa durante los 12 años en que militó en las filas de
la Unión de Jóvenes Comunistas (UJC). Su premisa fue siempre el trabajo. Tan ejemplar
actitud favoreció que le prendieran de la camisa la Medalla Abel Santamaría y que lo
eligieran delegado al XIV Festival Mundial de la Juventud y los Estudiantes. También
resultó Vanguardia Juvenil y, por tres años al hilo, Vanguardia Nacional del Sindicato de
Trabajadores Azucareros.
«Cada vez que se me presenta una oportunidad les hablo a los jóvenes de mi comunidad
sobre las oportunidades que ofrece el trabajo honrado para tener comodidades —
asegura—. Y, aunque parezca una inmodestia, me pongo de ejemplo. Es que no quiero
que caigan en tentaciones negativas.
«Los aconsejo y les digo que nuestro país necesita de la colaboración de ellos para echar
pa’lante la economía. Es la única forma de que vivamos mejor. Y no es que todo sea
sacrificio y sudor. La diversión no está reñida con el trabajo. Yo mismo, los fines de
semana, me llego con mi mujer hasta la discoteca que inventaron en mi barrio, tiro mi
pasillo y hasta me doy mi trago. Es la vida también».
El destacado operador sustenta la opinión de que si la UJC funcionara mejor en sus
predios, otro gallo cantaría. «El municipio —dice— debe atender mejor a la militancia de
por acá. Eso alienta e impulsa el compromiso. No hay sistematicidad.
«Me faltan todavía muchas metas por conquistar, porque soy de los que jamás se dan por
satisfechos. Por ahora mi propósito es continuar dándolo todo desde mi puesto de labor.
Para vivir mejor y para aportarle más al país».
Y, con una sonrisa bonachona se echa hacia atrás la gorra beisbolera, se vuelve hacia su
máquina y trepa al volante a revisar no sé qué mecanismo defectuoso. Ya sobre la Girón,
mientras escucho jadear su motor y traquetear su osamenta, pienso que hombres como
Orangel, dispuestos y emprendedores, nos mantienen viva la llama de la esperanza.
An Information Service of the
Cuba Transition Project
Institute for Cuban and Cuban-American
Studies
University of Miami
Issue 186
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March 13, 2013
Jennifer Hernandez*
Chinese Technology Companies
in Cuba
The People’s Republic of China has a strong commercial presence in Latin America. The Asian giant
is providing professional expertise and technology transfer while Latin American countries guarantee
access to their natural resources. China has been particularly successful in securing oil from
Venezuela by providing the Bolivarian country with components for its information technology
infrastructure.
In recent years, Chinese technology enterprises have had a more open presence in Cuba- its largest
trade partner in the Caribbean (1). Several Trade Fairs have been held in Havana with the
participation of numerous Chinese companies offering products from kitchen appliances to
sophisticated information technology equipment, which have substantial demand in Cuba. China, in
turn, has benefited from heavy investments in the island’s nickel industry, agricultural products such
as rice and sugar, and oil exploration. Through bilateral trade agreements, China has been
expanding its sphere of influence.
Huawei and ZTE Corporation (Zhongxing Telecommunication Equipment) are two of the Chinese
companies investing in Cuba. These two companies have been under rigorous investigation by the
governments of Canada, United States, and Australia because of its equipment’s elevated
vulnerability to cyber espionage.
Huawei is a Chinese telecommunications equipment and services company owned by Ren Zhengfei,
a former military engineer in the People’s Liberation Army. Reportedly, Ren Zhengfei is the majority
stock owner of Huawei but such information has never been confirmed since the company has not
published information on its structure. This lack of transparency has led some to consider that the
Chinese government is behind Huawei. Speculations have been further heightened since the
Communist Party has an office in the company’s headquarters in Shenzhen, China (2). Ren Zhengfei,
a member of the 12th Communist Congress, has denied such allegations. Yet in 2012, an
investigation conducted by the US Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence concluded that
Huawei did pose a national security threat to the United States (3). Similar conclusions have been
reached by the governments of Australia and Canada. In 2012, the Australian federal government
banned Huawei from bidding on the country’s National Broadband Network project (4). That same
year, Canada’s Communication Security Establishment warned in a report about potential threats to
Ottawa’s communication networks posed by Huawei (5). All investigations highlighted the
vulnerability of Huawei’s telecommunication equipment to malicious software and hacking.
ZTE Corporation is another Chinese telecommunication giant that has been under investigation. Also,
with headquarters in Shenzhen, China, it manufactures mobile phones, optical transmission and data
telecommunication gear and software. ZTE Corporation was founded by a group of state owned
enterprises linked to China’s Ministry of Aerospace Industry. In 1997 it was publicly listed in the
Shenzhen stock exchange (6).
The US Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence conducted an investigation of the corporation.
One particular issue not addressed by ZTE representatives, is the status of two of its major
shareholders Xi’an Microelectronics and Aerospace Guangyu, both state owned enterprises,
allegedly involved in sensitive technological research for the Chinese government and military. Also
avoided were inquiries on the role of the Chinese Party Committee within the company. The US
Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence concluded that ZTE Corporation could pose a security
threat to the United States’ information technology infrastructure (7). In 2012, ZTE admitted a security
patch in their ZTE Score smartphone sold in the US. The smartphone could be hacked and controlled
remotely (8).
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In 2010, a special report confirmed the ZTE sold espionage capable system to Telecommunication
Corporation of Iran (TCI). TCI has a monopoly over Iran’s landlines and controls a large amount of
internet traffic. Former telecommunication project manager in Iran, Mahmoud Tadjallimehr, explained
that capabilities included the ability to intercept text messages, emails, web access, and locate users
(9).
Both Chinese companies have commercial presence in Cuba and actively participate in conferences
organized by the Ministry of Information and Communication (MIC). Among these conferences are
the XIV Edition of “Converging Technologies: Integration and Independence” held in Havana in 2011,
where Huawei was one of the sponsors, and the V International Symposium of Telecommunications,
where both Huawei and ZTE Corporation actively participated. (10) Ramiro Valdes, Cuba’s VicePresident, Communist party member and former Minister of Information and Communication, position
he held until 2011, is an avid supporter of restriction and censorship of information technologies. It is
not a coincidence that Ramiro Valdes promotes the commercialization and application of Chinese
software and equipment that can be used to monitor and be remotely accessed.
Cuba and China have been two amorous friends since the 1960’s when Cuba became the first
country in the Caribbean and Latin America to normalize relations with the Asian nation. Since that
time, both countries have promoted communist ideology and have cooperated and coordinated with
each other at multilateral organizations and on the issue of human rights. China’s transfer of
technology to Cuba does not necessarily benefit Cubans. Instead China seems to be equipping the
island’s information technology infrastructure with systems that can potentially spy on Cubans.
Perhaps, the People’s Republic of China is also equipping an anti-American leadership with
sophisticated communication and network technology capable of cyber espionage 90 miles from our
shores.
Notes
1) China and Cuba (Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the People’s Republic of China, 2011).
2) Julie Bort, “A Rare Look Inside Huawei, The Shadowy Chinese Tech Company Accused of Spying
on America” (Business Insider, 2012).
3) Investigative Report on the U.S. National Security Issues Posed by Chinese Telecommunications
Companies Huawei and ZTE (Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence US House of
Representatives, 2012).
4) Michael Danby, “Good Reason for Ban on Huawei” (The Australian, 2012).
5) Steve Merti, “Chinese Telecom Giants Huawei, ZTE May Be a Security Threat for Canada, US:
Reports” (Yahoo News, 2012).
6) A Global Telecom Titan Called…ZTE? (Bloomberg Business Week Magazine, 2005).
7) Investigative Report on the U.S. National Security Issues Posed by Chinese Telecommunications
Companies Huawei and ZTE.
8) Jeremy Wagstaff and Lee Chyen Yee, “ZTE Confirms Security Hole in US Phone” (Reuters, 2012).
9) Steve Stecklow, “Special Report: Chinese Firm Helps Iran Spy on Citizens” (Reuters, 2012).
10) Informatica 2013 Website. (Minister of Information and Communication, 2013).
_________________________________________________
*Jennifer Hernandez is a Research Assistant at the Institute for Cuban & Cuban-American Studies,
University of Miami.
The CTP can be contacted at P.O. Box 248174, Coral Gables, Florida 33124-3010, Tel: 305-284CUBA (2822), Fax: 305-284-4875, and by email at ctp.iccas@miami.edu. The CTP Website is
accessible at http://ctp.iccas.miami.edu.
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La muerte del caudillo.
Mario Vargas Llosa
El comandante Hugo Chávez pertenecía a la robusta tradición de los caudillos,
más presente en América Latina que en otras partes, no deja de asomar por
doquier, aun en democracias avanzadas, como Francia. Ella revela ese miedo a la
libertad que es una herencia del mundo primitivo, anterior a la democracia y al individuo,
cuando el hombre era masa y prefería que un semidiós, al que cedía su capacidad de
iniciativa y su libre albedrío, tomara las decisiones importantes sobre su vida. Cruce de
superhombre y bufón, el caudillo hace y deshace a su antojo, inspirado por Dios o
una ideología en la que casi siempre se confunden el socialismo y fascismo
(formas de estatismo y colectivismo) y se comunica directamente con su pueblo, a
través de la demagogia, retórica y espectáculos multitudinarios y pasionales de entraña
mágico-religiosa.
Su popularidad suele ser enorme, irracional, pero también efímera, y el balance
de su gestión infaliblemente catastrófica. No hay que dejarse impresionar por las
muchedumbres llorosas que velan los restos de Chávez; son las que se estremecían de
dolor y desamparo por la muerte de Perón, Franco, Stalin, Trujillo, y las
que acompañarán a Fidel Castro. Los caudillos no dejan herederos y lo que ocurrirá
a partir de ahora es incierto. Nadie, entre la gente de su entorno, y en ningún caso
Nicolás Maduro, el discreto apparatchik al que designó su sucesor, está en condiciones
de aglutinar y mantener unida esa coalición de facciones, individuos e intereses que
representan el chavismo, ni mantener el entusiasmo y fe del difunto comandante
despertaba con su torrencial energía entre las masas.
Una cosa sí es segura: ese híbrido ideológico que Hugo Chávez maquinó,
llamado la revolución bolivariana o socialismo siglo XXI comenzó a
descomponerse y desaparecerá más pronto que tarde, derrotado por la realidad
concreta, de una Venezuela, país potencialmente más rico del mundo, al que las
políticas del caudillo dejan empobrecido, fracturado y enconado, con la inflación,
criminalidad y corrupción más altas del continente, un déficit fiscal que araña el 18% del
PIB y las instituciones (empresas públicas, justicia, prensa, poder electoral, fuerzas
armadas) semidestruidas por el autoritarismo, intimidación y obsecuencia.
La muerte de Chávez, pone un signo de interrogación sobre esa política de
intervencionismo en el resto del continente al que, en un sueño megalómano
característico de caudillos, el comandante difunto se proponía volver socialista y
bolivariano a golpes de chequera. ¿Seguirá ese fantástico dispendio de los
petrodólares que han hecho sobrevivir a Cuba con los cien mil barriles diarios que
Chávez poco menos regalaba a su mentor e ídolo Fidel Castro? ¿Y los subsidios y/o
compras de deuda a 19 países, incluidos sus vasallos ideológicos como Evo Morales,
Daniel Ortega, FARC colombianas y a los innumerables partidos, grupos y grupúsculos
que a lo largo y ancho de América Latina pugnan por imponer la revolución marxista? El
pueblo venezolano parecía aceptar este fantástico despilfarro contagiado por el
optimismo de su caudillo; pero dudo que ni el más fanático de los chavistas crea
ahora que Nicolás Maduro pueda llegar a ser el próximo Simón Bolívar. Ese sueño y
sus subproductos, como la Alianza Bolivariana para los Pueblos de Nuestra
América (ALBA), que integran Bolivia, Cuba, Ecuador, Dominica, Nicaragua, San
Vicente, Granadinas, Antigua y Barbuda, bajo la dirección de Venezuela, son ya
cadáveres insepultos.
En los catorce años que Chávez gobernó el barril de petróleo multiplicó siete veces
su valor, hizo uno de los países más prósperos del globo. Sin embargo, la reducción de
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la pobreza ha sido menor a las de Chile y Perú en el mismo periodo. La expropiación y
nacionalización de más de un millar de empresas privadas, 3.5M hectáreas haciendas
agrícolas y ganaderas, no desapareció a los odiados ricos sino creó mediante el
privilegio una legión de nuevos ricos improductivos, en vez de hacer progresar
han contribuido a hundirlo en mercantilismo, rentismo y las demás formas
degradadas del capitalismo de Estado.
Chávez no estatizó toda la economía, a la manera de Cuba, y nunca acabó de
cerrar todos los espacios para la disidencia y la crítica, aunque su política
represiva contra la prensa independiente y los opositores los redujo a su mínima
expresión. Su prontuario respecto a los atropellos contra los derechos humanos es
enorme, como lo ha recordado con motivo de su fallecimiento una organización tan
objetiva y respetable como Human Rights Watch. Es verdad que celebró varias
consultas electorales y alguna de ellas la ganó limpiamente, si la limpieza de una
consulta se mide sólo por el respeto a los votos emitidos, y no se tiene en cuenta el
contexto político y social en que se celebra, y en la desproporción de medios con que el
gobierno cuenta que corre de entrada con ventaja descomunal.
En Venezuela una oposición al chavismo que en la elección del año pasado casi
obtuvo 6.5 millones de votos es algo que se debe, más que a la tolerancia de
Chávez, a la gallardía y convicción de tantos venezolanos, que nunca se dejaron
intimidar por la coerción y las presiones del régimen, y en estos catorce años,
mantuvieron viva la lucidez y vocación democrática, sin dejarse arrollar por la pasión
gregaria y la abdicación del espíritu crítico que fomenta el caudillismo.
No sin tropiezos, esa oposición, en la que se hallan representadas todas las
variantes ideológicas de la derecha a la izquierda democrática de Venezuela, está
unida. Y tiene ahora una oportunidad para convencer al pueblo venezolano que la
verdadera salida a los enormes problemas que enfrenta no es perseverar en el
error populista y revolucionario que encarnaba Chávez, sino en la opción
democrática, es decir, en el único sistema que ha sido capaz de conciliar la
libertad, legalidad y progreso, creando oportunidades para todos en un régimen
de coexistencia y de paz.
Ni Chávez ni caudillo alguno son posibles sin un clima de escepticismo y disgusto con
la democracia como el que llegó a vivir Venezuela cuando, el 4 febrero 1992, el
comandante Chávez intentó el golpe de Estado contra el gobierno de Carlos Andrés
Pérez, golpe que fue derrotado por un Ejército constitucionalista y que envió a
Chávez a la cárcel de donde, dos años después, en un gesto irresponsable
costaría carísimo a su pueblo, el presidente Rafael Caldera lo sacó amnistiándolo.
Esa democracia imperfecta, derrochadora y bastante corrompida había frustrado
profundamente a los venezolanos, que, por eso, abrieron su corazón a los cantos de
sirena del militar golpista, algo que ha ocurrido, por desgracia, muchas veces en
América Latina.
Cuando el impacto emocional de su muerte se atenúe, la gran tarea de la alianza
opositora que preside Henrique Capriles está en persuadir a ese pueblo de que la
democracia futura de Venezuela se habrá sacudido de esas taras que la hundieron, y
habrá aprovechado la lección para depurarse de los tráficos mercantilistas, el rentismo,
los privilegios y los derroches que la debilitaron y volvieron tan impopular. La
democracia del futuro acabará con los abusos del poder, restableciendo la
legalidad, restaurando la independencia del Poder Judicial que el chavismo
aniquiló, acabando con esa burocracia política elefantiásica que ha llevado a la
ruina las empresas públicas, creando clima estimulante para la creación de la
riqueza en que empresarios y empresas puedan trabajar y los inversores invertir,
de modo que regresen a Venezuela los capitales que huyeron y la libertad vuelva
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a ser el santo y seña de la vida política, social y cultural del país del que hace dos
siglos salieron tantos miles de hombres a derramar su sangre por la
independencia de América Latina.
Cuba envía más de 2.000 agentes para apuntalar a Maduro en el poder
Los 100.000 barriles de petróleo que Caracas manda a La Habana cada día se pagan con
enviados del castrismo que acaban controlando en gran medida Venezuela
emili j. blasco / corresponsal en washington
ABC, Día 13/03/2013 - 12.34h
afp
Maduro saluda a sus seguidores en las calles de Caracas este lunes
Cuba jugó fuerte en la gestión política de la enfermedad de Hugo Chávez y ahora está
volcada en asegurarse de que el proceso electoral beneficia a Nicolás Maduro.
Además del alrededor de 46.000 colaboradores cubanos que oficialmente viven en
Venezuela, todos con la misión se garantizar la revolución chavista, La Habana está
enviando un destacamento de agentes para el control electoral, que podría llegar a los
2.500 efectivos, de acuerdo con información de inteligencia salida de la isla.
«Estamos aquí para ratificar nuestra entrega; si hasta ahora lo estábamos dando todo,
ahora estamos dispuestos a dar hasta nuestras vidas, nuestra sangre si fuera preciso por
esta revolución», proclamó la semana pasada Roberto López, jefe de las misiones
cubanas en Venezuela, cuando una representación de estas rindió honores ante el cadáver
de Chávez.
De la continuidad del chavismo depende la pervivencia del régimen cubano. Los 100.000
barriles diarios de petróleo que Venezuela envía a su aliado suponen 3.700 millones de
dólares al año. Cuba no los paga directamente, sino que básicamente devuelve el favor
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con sus 46.000 ciudadanos que en Venezuela oficialmente trabajan como médicos,
maestros, preparadores físicos… Unos servicios que Caracas paga extrañamente caro.
«Todo eso es una tapadera que esconde el control que Cuba tiene de Venezuela», asegura
un anterior alto cargo de la estructura de poder chavista emigrado a Estados Unidos, que
mantiene el anonimato para evitar represalias contra su familia. «El centro de
operaciones de la inteligencia cubana, el G2, está en la sede que en Caracas tiene la
agencia de noticias cubana Prensa Latina», denuncia.
Esta persona indica que el control cubano es «absoluto», desde el mando en la expedición
de los documentos nacionales de identidad a la gestión de los registros oficiales de todo
tipo: de propiedad, mercantiles… «Todos los datos informatizados de los ciudadanos
venezolanos se manejan desde Cuba», dice.
Las dimensiones de esa supervisión foránea han sido apuntadas con frecuencia en los
medios. «The Economist», por ejemplo, identificó hace dos años a Bárbara Castillo,
exministra cubana, como alguien con un poder mayor que los propios ministros
venezolanos, según testigos presenciales.
Rendir cuentas
«Los jefes cubanos son una estructura paralela a la que las propias autoridades
venezolanas tienen que dar cuenta, también en el Ejército o la Judicatura», apunta la
fuente antes mencionada, que corrobora el caso de Bárbara Castillo. También asegura
tener conocimiento de la rendición de cuentas que el actual ministro de Defensa, Diego
Molero, estuvo realizando ante instancias cubanas sobre militares afectos y desafectos en
su anterior puesto como responsable de la «contrainteligencia de Miraflores» (el palacio
presidencial).
Agentes cubanos se han venido ocupando, además, de la función de guardaespaldas de
las figuras institucionales más importantes del país, comenzando por el propio Hugo
Chávez. Estos días se ha visto a su inseparable jefe de seguridad personal cubano
desfilando junto al féretro.
La cifra exacta de cubanos en Venezuela se ignora. En alguna ocasión La Habana ha
hablado de 65.000 personas. La más reciente es la de 46.000, ofrecida en la Asamblea
Nacional venezolana. Pero dado el secretismo de parte de sus operaciones es difícil dar
crédito a cualquier número. El respetado escritor, historiador y exministro Simón Alberto
Consalvi, fallecido el lunes, incluso llegó a hablar de 100.000.
«Cubazuela»
Su llegada comenzó a producirse a partir de la firma en octubre de 2000 del primero de
los más de 150 acuerdos suscritos desde entonces entre Cuba y Venezuela, inaugurando
lo que muchos han denominado como «Cubazuela». «Dos países, una sola nación», dijo
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Fidel Castro en 2005. «Con una sola bandera», añadió Chávez. Y Castro apostilló:
«somos venecubanos».
En abril de 2001 llegaron los primeros 6.000 médicos para el programa llamado Barrio
Adentro, que hoy oficialmente alcanza los 30.000 efectivos. Se trata de la prestación
sanitaria a las clases más populares venezolanas. Médicos, enfermeras y otro personal
llegado de Cuba residen en esos mismos barrios. El control de datos personales en los
ambulatorios y esa presencia capilar garantiza el control ideológico y electoral del
grueso de los potenciales votantes del chavismo.
«Nos sentimos doblemente comprometidos y hemos asumido esta triste eventualidad con
mucha disciplina, con mucho deseo de seguir adelante apoyando al pueblo venezolano y
en todos los procesos que se avecinan», declaró uno de los médicos a la cadena nacional
TeleSur.
Prominent Cuban dissident seeks support in Europe
Arab News, THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Thursday 14 March 2013
Cuba's best-known dissident blogger Yoani Sanchez gestures during a conference
at Justice Committee of Senate in Mexico City on Tuesday. (Reuters)
MADRID: A well-known Cuban dissident urged support from Europe on Tuesday for her group
advocating democracy in Cuba, and wasn’t fazed when protesters disrupted her first appearance
abroad by unfurling a pro-government banner and yelling that she was lying about harsh
conditions for citizens of the island nation.
Berta Soler, the most prominent member of the Ladies in White group, told a crowd of about 100
in Madrid that she was basking in her first opportunity to say what she wants without fearing
retribution. She had never been allowed to leave Cuba before.
Soler alleged that Cuba keeps about 80 dissidents locked up in miserable jails alongside
convicted murderers and rapists and said the communist-run government led by Raul Castro only
offers Cubans “repression, misery and lots of hunger.”
Most of those inmates are not recognized as prisoners of conscience by international human
rights groups, however. Some were locked up for nonpolitical crimes and became activists behind
bars; others are in jail for politically motivated but violent crimes like hijacking or sabotage.
Just before the event with Soler ended, about eight people in the crowd snuck a banner out of a
backpack reading “Long Live the Cuban Revolution” and shouted that Soler was lying, scuffling
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with security guards as they were shooed out of a conference hall in downtown Madrid.
Smiling, Soler told the audience that she welcomed the demonstration, similar to a protest in
Brazil last month when pro-Cuba protesters halted an event featuring prominent Cuban blogger
Yoani Sanchez during her first trip abroad in years.
“What has happened is normal because we are in a country where democracy and liberty exist. If
they want to talk, let them talk,” Soler said to applause from an audience that shouted “Cuba
Yes!, Castro No!” in response.
The Ladies in White formed a decade ago and its members successfully pressed for the release
of their husbands imprisoned in a 2003 crackdown. The group is now demanding political change
in Cuba, and Soler said in an interview with The Associated Press that the country’s communistrun government remains in power because people fear losing jobs from the main employer — the
government.
Editorial: Obama administration should urge a probe of Oswaldo
Payá death
By The Editorial Board, The Washington Times
March 14th, 2013
NELSON MANDELA was locked up on Robben Island. Andrei Sakharov was exiled to Gorky.
Vaclav Havel was thrown into a Prague jail cell. Aung San Suu Kyi was repeatedly placed under
house arrest. All of these courageous, dissident voices were muffled at some time by
authoritarian regimes, but in the end, they found their way back to freedom. Oswaldo Payá of
Cuba never got that chance.
Mr. Payá, who pioneered the Varela Project, a petition drive in 2002 seeking the guarantee of
political freedom in Cuba, was killed in a car wreck July 22, along with a youth activist, Harold
Cepero. The driver of the vehicle, Ángel Carromero, a Spaniard, was convicted and imprisoned
on charges of vehicular homicide; in December, he was released to Spain. He told us in an
interview published on the opposite page last week that the car carrying Mr. Payá was rammed
from behind by a vehicle with government license plates. His recollections suggest that Mr. Payá
died not from reckless driving but from a purposeful attempt to silence him - forever.
On Wednesday, his daughter, Rosa Maria Payá, appeared before the U.N. Human Rights
Council in Geneva. Speaking for the group U. N. Watch, Ms. Payá presented an appeal signed by
46 activists and political leaders from around the world, urging the United Nations to launch an
international and independent investigation into Mr. Payá's death. The signatories declared,
"Mounting and credible allegations that the Cuban government may have been complicit in the
murder of its most prominent critic, a leading figure in the human rights world, cannot go ignored
by the international community."
The Varela Project was summarily and arbitrarily crushed by Fidel Castro. Ms. Payá told the
council that Cuban authorities imprisoned the majority of its leaders. She said that Yosvani
Melcho Rodriguez, 30, has spent three years in prison as punishment for his mother being a
member of the movement with Mr. Payá.
Ms. Payá was interrupted in Geneva by the Cuban representative, who accused her of being a
"mercenary who has dared to come to this room." His attempt to silence her drew support from
China, Russia, Pakistan, Nicaragua and Belarus. The U.S. representative spoke up for her right
to address the group. She was then allowed to finish.
After Mr. Payá's death, the White House paid tribute to him, saying, "We continue to be inspired
by Payá's vision and dedication to a better future for Cuba, and believe that his example and
moral leadership will endure." When pro-democracy activists were arrested and beaten at his
funeral, the White House again spoke up. But in the past week, since Mr. Carromero's interview
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was published, the administration has not uttered a word. What if it had been Sakharov, Aung
San Suu Kyi, Mandela or Havel who was run off the road? Would it have said nothing? At this
critical juncture, with new information at hand, the United States ought not to be complicit in
silence about who killed Oswaldo Payá.
Informaciones desde el Combinado : Presos en huelga de hambre
Marta Beatriz oque Cabello, La Habana, 14 de marzo de 2013.
Por: Jorge Bello Domínguez.
El 5 de marzo de 2013 varios internos se mantenían en huelga de hambre en la prisión
Combinado del Este, reclamando justicia debido a condenas que consideraban arbitrarias.
Están en esa situación actualmente: Osvaldo Acosta Rodríguez, opositor de Bejucal;
Antonio Larrazabal Puig, de 44 años y natural de La Lisa; Carlos Alquizar Fonseca, de
34 años y natural de Centro Habana; Edelmis Venzan Ramos, de 41 años y procedente de
Santiago de Cuba; Yasmani Medina López, de 20 años y vecino de Marianao. Este último
fue golpeado el 25 de febrero y aún no ha recibido tratamiento médico.
Yoanys Londres Gamón, vecino de calle Unión No. 42 en Bacuranao, municipio de
Guanabacoa, que se encuentra cumpliendo prisión en el destacamento 32, cuarto piso
celda 26, está en huelga de hambre desde el 22 de febrero de 2013 y no ha recibido
atención médica.
Se le acusa de un delito, del cual alega no haber participado e incluso hubo cuatro
testigos a su favor en el juicio que aseguraron era inocente; pero el Tribunal no tomó en
cuenta esos testimonios. Él sostiene que va a seguir plantado hasta que se haga justicia.
La política de captación de inversiones extranjeras del régimen castrista
en el punto de mira
Tomado de Diario de Cuba, 14 de marzo de 2013
Elías Amor Bravo, economista
En los últimos días, varios medios se han hecho eco de una pretendida estrategia del régimen
castrista para atraer inversiones extranjeras a la Isla, ante la inminente pérdida de las
subvenciones y gratuidades procedentes de la economía venezolana. Como si se tratase de una
“road movie” al uso, autoridades del régimen se han lanzado a una búsqueda alocada de
inversores como si el tiempo para hacerlo se estuviera agotando.
Desde hace tiempo, vengo señalando que los empresarios privados que realizan inversiones en
Cuba se ven obligados, en general, a aceptar unas condiciones para el desarrollo de sus proyectos
que no se corresponden, en líneas generales, con las que se establecen por el derecho
internacional en la mayor parte de países del mundo. Ello supone un riesgo elevado que se suma a
la falta de oportunidades concretas para la realización de las inversiones.
El riesgo viene motivado por la naturaleza estalinista del régimen, anclado en un sistema que
penaliza la institución de los derechos de propiedad y la asignación de recursos por medio del
mercado. El intervencionismo estatal se sustituye por una suerte de dirigismo que trata de fijar
cuáles deben ser los ámbitos de actuación del inversor privado internacional.
El régimen que dirige la vida y el destino de los cubanos quiere imponer su criterio sobre la
decisión libre del empresario extranjero, exigiendo una contraparte en los negocios que se
orientan a desarrollar actividades en la Isla. Una suerte de socialismo capitalista y monopolista,
en el que las razones para invertir se reducen de forma sistemática.
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En el universo de la economía global de este siglo XXI, no es una mala estrategia apostar por la
captación de inversiones extranjeras. De hecho, la modernización de una economía, su apertura al
exterior, su competitividad, su capacidad para generar empleo y riqueza, depende en buena
medida del éxito de esa política de atracción de inversores internacionales.
Pero, ¿qué puede ofrecer el régimen castrista a los inversores internacionales?
¿Tal vez recursos naturales? Difícil. En ausencia de metales preciosos, petróleo, silvicultura,
pesca, lo que se puede poner a disposición de los inversores es limitado. La tierra, altamente
improductiva por la desidia gubernamental, es propiedad del estado.
¿Una demanda de consumo sólida y en crecimiento? Cuestionable cuando el nivel salarial es muy
bajo (unos 18 dólares al mes) y los niveles de poder adquisitivo se mueven en índices también
muy limitados.
¿Altos niveles de productividad y de I+D? Lo primero ya es conocido. La presencia paquidérmica
de empresas estatales ineficientes, abandonadas a su suerte por la dirección política del país, no
ofrece indicadores positivos de productividad y al parecer, el I+D se encuentra localizado en
aquellas actividades que el régimen protege de la inversión extranjera.
¿Un sistema financiero y de capitales consolidado? Nada más lejos de la realidad. La banca en la
economía castrista, hasta hace poco tiempo una actividad marginal y penalizada políticamente, se
encuentra a años luz de lo que debe ser un sistema financiero compatible con el capital extranjero.
¿Infraestructuras atractivas y de alto nivel de rentabilidad social? Cuestionable en un país en el
que la participación del gasto en formación bruta de capital fijo sobre el PIB apenas alcanza un
9% uno de los porcentajes más bajos de América Latina.
¿Existen realmente oportunidades para invertir en Cuba? Aun aceptando el engorroso y molesto
papel de socio en las inversiones por el estado castrista, lo cierto es que si se descuentan
determinadas actividades relativas a la biotecnología, la sanidad o el turismo, poco tiene el
castrismo que ofrecer a quién desee invertir con un horizonte de medio y largo plazo, que es en mi
opinión, el que se debe fomentar por el régimen.
Por todo ello, cualquier acción dirigida a atraer inversores a la economía castrista no es más que
una de esas actuaciones pantalla a las que nos tiene acostumbrados el régimen, un ejemplo más
del cumplimiento a rajatabla de los llamados “Lineamientos”. Nada más. De la misma forma que
se ensaya con una serie de ocupaciones para autorizar el trabajo por cuenta propia, o se entregan
tierras en arrendamiento a agricultores, o se da vía libre a préstamos a los bancos, la búsqueda de
inversores extranjeros no es más que un expediente vacío de contenido cuyo resultado no se
puede anticipar, pero con toda seguridad, será bastante deficiente. La realidad es que el control de
la economía sigue en manos de la planificación estatal, la propiedad mayoritaria sigue siendo
estatal y la dirección política es responsable de la economía. En un escenario de estas
características, invertir es poco recomendable.
Por si lo anterior no fuera suficiente, el momento actual de crisis a nivel global en los mercados
financieros poco ayuda a quiénes se lanzan a buscar financiación, cuando tienen contenciosos
realmente importantes, sin solución, con entidades relevantes como el Club de París, cuyas
deudas siguen lastrando cualquier política de captación de inversiones a nivel internacional. Los
asesores financieros del régimen castrista deberían insistir en el cumplimiento de sus
responsabilidades antes de hipotecar y mal vender los escasos recursos de la economía. La
construcción de cualquier vivienda nunca debe empezar por el tejado.
Otros
Argentina
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INFORME DE LA SOCIEDAD INTERAMERICANA DE
PRENSA SOBRE CUBA PRESENTADO HACE UNOS
DIAS EN PUEBLA, MEXICO
Cuba
Por primera vez en medio siglo una residente en la isla lee este
informe sobre el estado de la libertad de prensa en Cuba ante una
asamblea de la Sociedad Interamericana de Prensa: a todas luces,
un acontecimiento sin precedentes. Por ello, las primeras palabras
de este documento quieren hacer patente a la SIP el
agradecimiento de los periodistas y blogueros independientes por
su defensa de la libertad de prensa y expresión en el hemisferio y,
en particular, por el apoyo a nuestra lucha dentro de Cuba.
La excepcionalidad de este hecho no debe hacernos perder de
vista que el gobierno cubano sigue actuando de manera arbitraria y
se reserva del derecho de negar la salida del país a ciertos
ciudadanos. Recién puesta en vigor la reforma migratoria ya
existen algunas personas —los ex prisioneros políticos Ángel Moya
Acosta y José Daniel Ferrer García, y la directora de Bibliotecas
Independientes Gisela Sablón— a quienes se les negó el derecho
al libre movimiento, consagrado en la Declaración de Derechos
Humanos.
Aruba y Antillas
Holandesas
Bolivia
Brasil
Canadá
Caribe
Chile
Colombia
Cuba
Ecuador
El Salvador
Estados Unidos
Guatemala
Haití
Honduras
México
Nicaragua
Panamá
Paraguay
Perú
Puerto Rico
República
Dominicana
Uruguay
Venezuela
La represión contra las libertades individuales, de prensa y de
expresión, ha sido constante en este período aunque en un grado
mayor en extensión e intensidad. Hay un solo periodista
independiente encarcelado, Calixto Ramón Martínez Arias, quien está detenido desde
septiembre de 2012, aún sin juicio. Amnistía Internacional lo considera preso de
conciencia, encarcelado por ejercer de forma pacífica su derecho a la libertad de
expresión.
El periodista de la agencia de noticias Hablemos Press investigaba denuncias según las
cuales medicamentos proporcionados por la Organización Mundial de la Salud para
combatir una epidemia de cólera estaban siendo retenidos en el aeropuerto de La
Habana, pues las autoridades negaban la existencia de la enfermedad.
Al solicitar la libertad de Calixto Martínez, AI insistió en que el “Estado cubano mantiene
un monopolio total sobre todos los medios de comunicación del país, incluidos la
televisión, la radio, la prensa, los proveedores de internet y otros medios de
comunicación electrónicos”.
El laureado escritor y bloguero Ángel Santiesteban, Premio Casa de las Américas 2006,
acaba de ingresar en la prisión de Valle Grande para cumplir una condena de 5 años por
supuestos delitos comunes. La prensa independiente ha denunciado las irregularidades
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del proceso judicial y exigido su excarcelación.
Lo más relevante en esta etapa es, por un lado, la reforma migratoria y, con ella, la
posibilidad de que varios opositores y periodistas independientes puedan salir de la isla y
regresar; y, por otro, el anuncio del retiro del gobernante Raúl Castro y el aparente
traspaso de poder a personas más jóvenes.
Aunque mediatizada, la reforma es un signo positivo que, en términos de comunicación
con el exterior, nos permite dar a conocer de primera mano la situación del país.
Confiamos en que, el futuro, podamos también hacerlo libremente con los cubanos de la
isla. Seguramente preocupado por el impacto de la palabra en libertad, el gobierno ha
echado a andar por estos días su aparato de desinformación y descrédito y ha
movilizado a embajadores y cónsules.
La promesa de retiro de Raúl Castro ha sido recibida por la población con una mezcla de
esperanza, resignación y escepticismo. Lo primero, porque cabe esperar que sin los
Castro el país podrá labrarse otro destino; lo segundo, porque aún median 5 años para
que se concrete la añorada despedida; y lo tercero, porque nadie sabe con certeza si lo
anterior se cumplirá. Por lo pronto, lo más importante son los cambios políticos, aquellos
que garanticen las libertades existentes en el mundo de hoy; esos cambios no están en
la agenda de candidatos a retirados o a sucesores.
La Comisión Cubana de Derechos Humanos y Reconciliación Nacional informó de que
en enero hubo al menos 364 casos de detenciones arbitrarias por motivos políticos. Pero
ya en febrero hubo 504 detenciones. Durante el 2012 los arrestos por motivos políticos
alcanzaron un promedio de 550 casos mensuales.
En este tipo de represión de “baja intensidad”, durante horas o días, la Policía política
recurre a la violencia física y las amenazas. La misma Comisión manifestó su
preocupación por el aumento de los llamados actos de repudio contra opositores, al estilo
de los “pogromos” nazis.
El 9 de noviembre del 2012 la SIP envió una misiva al gobernante cubano Raúl Castro
rechazando el arresto de Yoani Sánchez y otros opositores, detenidos por recabar
información en una estación policial sobre la suerte de otras personas encarceladas;
celebró su liberación y exigió respeto a su integridad física y la de su familia. El día
anterior la SIP había designado a Yoani Sánchez vicepresidenta regional por Cuba de su
Comisión de Libertad de Prensa e Información.
Entre los detenidos se encontraba Antonio G. Rodiles, director de Estado de Sats, foro
de debate independiente. Opositores dentro y fuera de Cuba desarrollaron una campaña
para exigir su inmediata liberación de Antonio G. Rodiles. La policía cubana lo puso en
libertad 19 días después de su arresto.
Por esos días la Comisión Interamericana de Derechos Humanos otorgó medidas
cautelares a Yoani Sánchez, quien denunció encontrarse en una situación de riesgo tras
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haber realizado varias publicaciones en internet sobre la situación de los derechos
humanos en la isla. La CIDH solicitó a La Habana que adopte “las medidas necesarias
para garantizar la vida y la integridad física” de Sánchez y su familia.
A fines de noviembre la SIP repudió el arresto arbitrario del periodista independiente
cubano Roberto de Jesús Guerra, director de la agencia de noticias Hablemos Press.
Guerra fue detenido con violencia por agentes de seguridad vestidos de civil. Después de
varias horas, fue dejado en libertad.
En diciembre la organización Reporteros Sin Fronteras en su balance anual señaló que
la represión contra blogueros y periodistas disidentes volvió a intensificarse desde el
2011.
En enero del 2013 Freedom House condenó la decisión de los países de la Comunidad
de Estados Latinoamericanos y Caribeños (CELAC) de otorgar a Cuba la presidencia de
la organización. Según la organización, ello constituye una violación de los principios y
valores de la Declaración of Caracas, que promueve los derechos humanos y la
democracia.
En el mismo sentido, Reporteros Sin Fronteras pidió que los cubanos finalmente gocen
de los avances de Internet mediante el acceso a las facilidades que trajo el cable
submarino de fibra óptica ALBA-1.
En ese mes el Gobierno anunció que el cable submarino estaba operativo desde el año
anterior, aunque no habría un crecimiento automático de “las posibilidades de acceso”.
Como se sabe, en la isla no se permite a los cubanos tener conexión desde sus
domicilios salvo contados casos.
En febrero Human Rights Watch (HRW) denunció que Cuba se mantiene como el país
más represivo de América Latina. “Cuba sigue siendo el único país de América Latina
donde se reprimen casi todas las formas de disenso político”, indicó el reporte, que acusó
al gobierno de Raúl Castro de recurrir a “detenciones arbitrarias por períodos breves,
golpizas, actos de repudio, restricciones de viaje y exilio forzado”.
Los blogueros independientes, dentro y fuera de la isla, continúan consolidando su
prestigio como fuentes confiables de información. Una prueba de ello ha sido la acogida
recibida en Europa a Eliécer Ávila y Yoani Sánchez. En el caso de esta última, el
gobierno cubano intentó exportar una campaña en su contra, incluido el mitin de repudio.
Lo cierto fue que la agresividad del guión entregado por la Embajada de Cuba en Brasil
—denunciado por la revista Veja— provocó el efecto contrario y levantó el interés por la
lucha por la libertad de expresión en Cuba.
Las agencias de prensa siguen siendo sometidas a la vigilancia y represalias del
gobierno y, en consecuencia, obligadas a la autocensura.
Se mantiene inalterable el propósito de limitar o impedir el acceso de la población a
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canales alternativos de información.
El contratista Allan Gross, de 62 años, cumple una pena de 15, tras ser acusado de
cometer “delitos contra la Seguridad del Estado” al entregar equipos de comunicación a
personas consideradas opositores. Varias gestiones para su excarcelación han
fracasado. El gobierno cubano ha indicado que está dispuesto a negociarla por “razones
humanitarias”, pero exige a cambio que EE.UU. libere a cinco espías que cumplen
condenas en cárceles estadounidenses. Una delegación de legisladores
estadounidenses visitó la isla a mediados de febrero con el propósito de conseguir su
liberación, pero regresó con las manos vacías.
Yoani Sanchez Sees Faster Change in Cuba Post-Chavez
Chavez Death to Accelerate Cuban Economic Change, Dissident Says
Bloomberg, By Bill Faries - Mar 15, 2013 3:19 PM ET
Meridith Kohut/Bloomberg
Supporters of Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez hold a portrait of him as they gather in Plaza
Bolivar following the news of his death in Caracas, Venezuela, on March 5, 2013.
Cuban dissident blogger Yoani Sanchez, on her first visit to the U.S., said the death of
Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez will help fuel economic changes beyond the
government’s control on the Caribbean island.
Scott Eells/Bloomberg
Cuban dissident Yoani Sanchez's “Generation Y” blog has served as an outlet for her
frustrations with daily life under the Castro.
Cuban dissident Yoani Sanchez's “Generation Y” blog has served as an outlet for her
frustrations with daily life under the Castro. Photographer: Scott Eells/Bloomberg
“In recent months the pace of change has been accelerating, and not because of the
government’s efforts,” Sanchez said in an interview today at Bloomberg’s headquarters
in New York. “The death of Hugo Chavez and the possible reduction of Venezuelan
subsidies is one variable accelerating this change. We’re in uncharted territory.”
Venezuela sends Cuba about 100,000 barrels of oil a day, helping President Raul
Castro’s government undermine a U.S. trade embargo in exchange for Cuban doctors
sent to community clinics. Another 100,000 barrels per day are sent to 18 Caribbean and
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Central American countries in the Petrocaribe program. That aid could be reduced as
interim President Nicolas Maduro confronts a widening deficit, Heather Berkman, an
analyst at the Eurasia Group, said in a March 12 report.
Sanchez, who will meet lawmakers in Washington next week, said Castro’s economic
changes to date have been too small because the government is concerned greater
economic freedoms will weaken its political power. She dismissed Castro’s Feb. 24
statement that he’ll leave power after his current term ends in 2018, saying that he’s
already had 54 years in power as president and second-in-command under his 86-yearold brother, former President Fidel Castro.
Obama Interview
Sanchez, who was last detained by Cuban police in October after attending the trial of a
man charged in the driving death of another dissident, has drawn tens of thousands of
followers worldwide through her blog and use of social media. President Barack Obama
responded to Sanchez’s questions in an interview posted on the Huffington Post website
in 2009 and she was named among Time magazine’s “100 Most Influential People” in
2008.
Her New York visit, part of her first foreign travel after more than five years of seeking
permission to leave the island, follows Castro’s decision in January to ease some travel
restrictions. Not all dissidents have been allowed to leave, and Sanchez said she fears
what may happen to her or her family when she returns to Cuba.
Messages and e-mails to press officials at the Cuban Interests Section in Washington and
the Foreign Ministry in Havana weren’t immediately answered.
At Risk
Venezuela is likely to prioritize oil shipments to Cuba and any reduction would come in
the “longer term,” Berkman wrote in a March 12 report. Countries including the
Dominican Republic, Nicaragua and Jamaica are at higher risk of seeing aid reduced, she
said.
Maduro, who replaced Chavez following his March 5 death from cancer, said this month
that the government will “strengthen” Petrocaribe, without giving more details.
Since Fidel began handing over presidential powers in 2006, his 81-year-old brother has
initiated measures to open Cuba’s $61 billion economy, including loosening of property
laws, the creation of more cooperatives and allowing private businesses such as taxis and
mobile-phone companies. A vow to dismiss 500,000 state workers hasn’t been carried
out.
“These reforms are not sufficient, but they are significant,” said Ted Henken, a sociology
professor at Baruch College who helped arrange Sanchez’s New York trip. “The
government is trying to control the demands bubbling up from the people.”
‘Century of Dictators’
Sanchez, whose “Generation Y” blog has served as an outlet for her frustrations with
daily life under the Castro regime, said growing economic independence will eventually
erode the government’s grip on society.
By offering economic opportunity, “an ice cream-making machine in Cuba today could
be as subversive as a dissident’s statement,” Sanchez said.
A transition to a more market-based economy should focus on aiding small
entrepreneurs, not established companies, Sanchez said. A failure to do so could result in
military leaders becoming businessmen with monopoly power in different economic
sectors, she said.
Latin Americans will also closely watch the U.S. role in any transition, Sanchez said. If a
transition isn’t managed well, “we could have another century of dictators and
strongmen.”
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First Vice President Manuel Diaz-Canel, who would succeed Raul Castro if he can’t finish
his term, was “named not for his abilities, but for his loyalty,” Sanchez said.
‘Surrounded by Wolves’
“We really don’t know who he is,” she said. “He’s managed to survive surrounded by
wolves because he hasn’t stood out. He’s probably the unhappiest man in Cuba now.”
Prior to arriving in New York yesterday, Sanchez’s travels had taken her to Mexico and
Brazil, where she faced protests from pro-Castro groups who say she is supported by the
Central Intelligence Agency.
If she isn’t allowed to return to Cuba, Sanchez said she’ll have to sneak back into the
country where refugees often leave in hopes of making it to the U.S.
“I’ll become the first person to board a raft to get back into Cuba,” she said.
To contact the reporter on this story: Bill Faries in New York at wfaries@bloomberg.net
To contact the editor responsible for this story: Andre Soliani at asoliani@bloomberg.net
Cuban blogger Yoani Sánchez gets warm welcome in New York City
Juan Carlos Chavez el Nuevo Herald
Posted on Friday, 03.15.13
Yoani Sánchez, one of the most influential figures in the Cuban dissident movement,
arrived Thursday afternoon at John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York City to
begin one of the most important stages of her international tour.
“She is one of the strong voices of the opposition and represents hope for many Cubans
who desire freedom for our people,” said Cuban exile Rolando Pulido, who has lived in
New York City for three decades. “She’s not afraid to tell the truth,” he added.
Several people recognized her and had their pictures taken with her in a relaxed and
cordial atmosphere. The situation contrasted markedly with her arrival in Brazil and
Mexico, where supporters of the Cuban government protested against her.
“It is an intense tour, but I’m very happy to be here,” Sánchez said. “I’ve boarded 20
planes in the last several weeks.”
True to her style, Sánchez said she was enthused about meeting Americans and
exchanging opinions and ideas about the situation on the island. In that context, she said
she has not lost hope that Cuba will undertake changes that will lead to a democratic
transition.
“I notice a kind of bubbling in civilian society, an increase in criticism, an expansion of
the spaces for debate among citizens,” she said.
Calls for change have been coupled with denunciations of a wave of temporary
detentions.
Thursday night, Sánchez appeared at Columbia University’s School of Journalism to
answer questions.
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Sánchez described the problems Cubans have when trying to access the Internet and
government surveillance of independent journalists. She also spoke about the changes
made by Cuban leader Raúl Castro.
“I would love to pose 50 questions to Raúl Castro. And I anticipate right now that they
won’t be answered,” she said.
Sánchez stressed that Cuban government restrictions of the Internet have “been even
more aggressive” than she expected.
Cuba is one of 60 countries that censor communications and limit or harass Internet users
constantly. The average access to the Internet by Cubans is the lowest in the Western
hemisphere. Individual connections are restricted to official entities and educational and
cultural institutions, under strict supervision.
Access to foreigners and Cuban citizens must be officially authorized after an exhaustive
background check. “But as a journalist I am not frightened by the problems,” said
Sánchez. “What’s most important is that the Cuban government and [the Communist
Party daily] Granma are reading us. That is why they have created an alternative
blogosphere to reply to us. They’re acknowledging us and that’s a first step toward
acceptance.”
Earlier, she had said that although the Cuban authorities have hardened their already
tough policies to silence dissident voices, the government is “losing” spaces that
historically were always under its control.
“We’re a people who specialize in finding out what’s censored,” Sánchez said. “In my
personal case, that’s how it was with the topic of travel. It was a journalistic and civilian
crusade. I reported on the suffering and documented it.”
The blogger and founder of Generation Y said that the authorities’ ignorance of the
people’s most pressing needs could mark the start of a democratic change.
“That is why the government is afraid of the Internet. It is a system that could not
withstand the avalanche of information, internal and external,” she said. “The technology
has managed to break some of the barriers and the monopoly of the Cuban government.”
Sánchez also referred to Cuba’s travel and economic reforms.
“I think that the so-called Raulista reforms have been made due to pressure from those
outside and inside Cuba,” she said. “And, no doubt, some lights have been lit, such as the
immigration policy to which we Cubans were condemned.”
At another point in her appearance, which was celebrated with applause and expressions
of support, Sánchez urged the exile community to continue to help Cubans on the island
with technology and other items.
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“The exile [community] is helping a lot, but can help more,” she said. “Send flash drives,
mobile phones, anything you can.”
Toward the end of the session, a couple of people in the audience stood up to challenge
her. One of them said that Sánchez does not represent “free journalism.”
Shortly before flying to the United States, Sánchez pointed out that some countries are
looking away because they think that “Cuba is being reformed.”
This is Sánchez’s first visit to the U.S. and the fifth stop in a tour of countries in Latin
America and Europe.
Next week, Sánchez will go to Washington to appear on Capitol Hill and speak at
Georgetown University.
Before arriving in the United States, Sánchez sent a Twitter message expressing her
appreciation of Mexico, the country she visited before her U.S. tour.
“Mexico ‘stole’ my heart; I confess that I was tempted not to board this plane and to stay
longer there ;" she wrote @yoanisanchez.
Fabiola Santiago: In New York, as in Cuba, Yoani Sanchez speaks her
mind
Fabiola Santiago The Miami Herald , 03-15-13
fsantiago@MiamiHerald.com
Yoani Sánchez is warmly greeted by students and faculty as she enters Columbia
University's College of Journalism Lecture Hall, the first appearance of her U.S. tour.
FABIOLA SANTIAGO. / MIAMI HERALD STAFFFullsize Buy Photoprevious |
nextImage 1 of 4Cuban dissident Yoani Sanchez speaks during an interview in New
York, U.S., on Friday, March 15, 2013. Sanchez embarked on her first trip abroad in five
years last month, arriving in Brazil a month after travel restrictions were eased by the
communist government that is keeping tabs on her visit. Photographer: Scott
Eells/Bloomberg *** Local Caption *** Yoani Sanchez Scott Eells / BloombergFullsize
Buy Photoprevious | nextImage 2 of 4
Yoani Sánchez, center, at the question-and-answer session at Columbia University
Thursday night with journalism professor Mirta Ojito, right. Ted Henken, professor at
Baruch College and Sánchez host in the United States, translated her comments Fabiola
Santiago / The Miami HeraldFullsize Buy Photoprevious | nextImage 3 of 4
At the press conference Friday at New York University, a photographer wears a cap that
says "CAN ONE WOMAN FREE CUBA" on the back and "YOANI" in front. In the
background, Yoani Sánchez and Orlando Luis Pardo speak to the media, flanked by
conference organizer Coco Fusco before a projection of some of the 50 bloggers on the
island. Photo by FABIOLA SANTIAGO/MIAMI HERALD STAFF. Fabiola Santiago /
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The Miami HeraldFullsize Buy Photoprevious | nextImage 4 of 4Photos By Fabiola
Santiago
NEW YORK — I only knew Yoani Sánchez through her written words.
For six years, I followed her daring reports from inside Cuba, marveled at her
groundbreaking exploits on the Internet from the safe distance of my home in Miami,
wrote about her — once holding my breath while she sat in a jail cell, hoping my own
words would echo and help free her — and now, here she was, sitting across from me at a
late-night soiree at a friend’s apartment in Manhattan.
At the dining room table between us, a buffet spread of sandwiches, antipasti and dips
had been served. The conversation about family and country in the company of a small
group of Cuban Americans and Columbia University faculty flowed like the wine with
which we toasted her, mine a Spanish albariño, hers a Chilean reserve red.
The moment was surreal, precious, as unique as this blogger/activist/independent
journalist/dissident who has managed to focus — or force, one might say — the world’s
attention on the lack of basic freedoms in Cuba. If her popular Generation Y blog, her
frequent and fertile tweets and her translated columns are powerful, she’s just as
impressive in person, tackling questions from journalists, students and the steady stream
of pro-Cuban government characters that appear out of nowhere and disrupt her talks.
“The true thing is that I am here — and I will return” to Cuba,” she said Friday at New
York University. “Am I afraid? Yes, I am very afraid.”
She said she’s aware that she is risking her life and expects “a flogging” when she returns
to Cuba, but added she hopes the international community will protect her.
Sánchez is here to participate through the weekend in the academic conference The
Revolution Recodified: Digital Culture and the Public Sphere in Cuba, sponsored by
NYU and The New School, an arts-oriented university in Greenwich Village.
The event, one of the panelists told me, began as a conversation between two academics
and was going to be a modest roundtable until Sánchez’s profile — on the rise during the
journeys to Brazil, Prague, Spain and Mexico that preceded her U.S. tour — spiked the
demand and the need for high security.
Her three-city U.S. visit will bring her to Miami, where she has a sister and a niece, to
speak at the Freedom Tower and Florida International University on April 1.
“I’m here to listen and to learn,” she told me about her visit to the Cuban exile capital.
At NYU, everyone, including journalists, had to walk through metal detectors to get
inside the room where she gave a press conference — and Sánchez has a constant escort
wherever she goes, including visits to Bloomberg and Google headquarters.
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Likewise at Columbia University, home to one of the country’s premiere journalism
schools and where she made her first public appearance in the United States, security was
tight.
Yet pro-Cuban government activists took seats among the crowd of students and faculty
at the packed Lecture Hall, and heckled her, unfurling a black and white banner that said:
“You Are Not Free Press, Just Cheap.”
Sánchez, who is traveling after being denied permission to leave Cuba 20 times in five
years, reacted to the hecklers with peaceful aplomb, choosing to walk right by her
detractors, and not away from them, as she was escorted out of the hall to an interview
room where she spoke to reporters.
She told journalists not to give the Cuban government too much credit for the reforms
that allowed her travels because they came as a result of pressures from the Cuban people
and from the outside world, and not from any conviction that there needs to be
fundamental change and “respect” for the rights of citizens.
She said that Cuban exiles and others outside the island could help ordinary Cubans “by
gifting them technology.”
Flood Cuba with cellphones, hard drives, memory sticks — anything that helps people
connect to the Internet and the outside world, she said.
“Technology protects us,” she added.
It was easy to see that she has more friends than foes in this so-called capital of the
world.
When he introduced her, Josh Friedman, director of the Columbia-based Maria Moors
Cabot Prizes, described her as a “very authentic, down-to-earth person.”
Sánchez was given a prestigious Cabot citation in 2009 for her blog chronicles, but the
Cuban government denied her permission to travel here to accept the award.
She has postponed receiving it until October, when the university wants her to return to
collect the prize at the Cabot’s 75th anniversary gala.
“From the podium here at Columbia University, I want to say: Yoani Sánchez is a
journalist. Yes, she’s a troublemaker, but you are supposed to be a troublemaker,”
Friedman said.
Despite what her critics say, her work — “words under pressure,” Friedman called it —
are “devoid of ideology.”
The secret to her reports, he added, is that “she’s a wonderful observer.”
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After traveling here from Mexico, speaking at Columbia and doing media interviews,
Sánchez was exhausted but agreed to the late-night dinner at the home of Columbia
journalism professor Mirta Ojito, a former journalist at The New York Times and The
Miami Herald, a Cuban American who, like me, has followed Sánchez closely.
Sánchez only showed her exhaustion when, without missing a beat in the conversation at
the table, she took her famously long hair, stroked it into neat strands, and before we
knew it, without using a single accessory, fashioned an artful hairdo.
Ojito and I looked at each other across the table and laughed with heart-felt recognition
of the Cuban ability to resolver, to make do, and of the human qualities that make this
woman — wife to a journalist who works as an elevator maintenance man in their
Havana apartment building, mother to an 18-year-old with adolescence issues (“he slams
doors,” she said), thorn in the side of the Cuban government and its supporters around the
world — extraordinary.
Welcome to America, our complicitous look said, we have so looked forward to this
moment.
Yoani Sánchez stresses importance of technology
By Juan Carlos Chavez el Nuevo Herald , 03-15-13
jcchavez@ElNuevoHerald.com
Cuban dissident blogger Yoani Sánchez receives warm welcome in New York City
Yoani Sánchez, one of the most influential figures in the Cuban dissident movement,
arrived Thursday afternoon at John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York City to
begin one of the most important stages of her international tour.
Free to embrace ‘shower of democracy’ OUR OPINION: Cuba’s most famous blogger,
Yoani Sánchez, arrived in Brazil ready for ‘information war’
Cuban blogger Yoani Sánchez to speak at Miami’s Freedom Tower in downtown Miami
and receive a human rights award on April 1.
Yoani Sánchez to begin foreign tour in March After being barred from taking foreign
trips, the blogger is expected to be able to leave the island under Cuba’s new travel policy
By Juan Carlos Chavez
NEW YORK CITY -- It was early in November 2009 when Cuban blogger Yoani
Sánchez and activists Orlando Luis Pardo and Claudia Cadelo were arbitrarily detained in
Havana while on their way to a peaceful march. The group was shoved violently into a
police car.
In Cuba, arrests of that kind can last days or even weeks. In recent years, the government
has used those detentions as a repressive tool to silence critics. But that day, Cadelo
recalled, Yoani managed to send an emergency tweet.
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“We have been arrested,” the message said.
The news spread and cyberspace became a voice of protest. Authorities soon ordered the
detainees’ release.
“The flight of the blue bird [the Twitter icon]shortened the horror,” Sánchez said Friday
during a forum titled The Revolution Recoded: The Digital Culture and the Public Sphere
in Cuba, organized by New York University and The New School.
With this and other stories, Sánchez stressed in New York City the importance and the
role of technology in the exchange of information and the defense of human rights. She
spoke about politics and reviewed Cuba’s domestic situation, among other topics.
“I estimate that about 120 people in Cuba use Twitter from the island to the world. It
helps a lot in the creation of opinion,” Sánchez said, before an audience of more than
100.
Sánchez thus ended the second day of her visit to the United States. Her presentations and
meetings with students, professors and others are part of an 80-day international tour that
incudes several countries in America and Europe.
In a presentation of about 90 minutes, the renowned blogger said that many Cubans are
interested in knowing what happens in the world, despite the efforts of the authorities to
exclude information. In that context, she said there is a widespread desire that the
government cannot control.
“The road to change may be small, slow and timid, but it’s happening inside the Cuban
people,” Sánchez said. ‘Let us not allow the official propaganda to separate us.”
She said that this trip will provide her with “some sort of a protective shield,” though she
added that the shield “is neither total nor complete nor permanent.” She also said that she
doesn’t pretend to speak for all of Cuba.
“[Cuba] is a country with multiple opinions and I don’t want to make the same mistake as
Fidel Castro, who attempted to represent everybody,” Sánchez said.
The founder of the blog Generation Y made it clear that she doesn’t plan to settle abroad.
“I already know the experience of emigrating. I lived in Switzerland for two years, 2002
to 2004, and that was an important experience in my life, but I don’t plan to repeat it,”
she said.
Sánchez responded to questions from American and foreign reporters in the Silver Hall of
Arts and Sciences at New York University. The conference dealt with various topics,
such as the death of Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez.
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On that, she said that the people of Cuba have “conflicting” opinions.
“Many believe that his death could lead to an economic collapse, but there are others of
us who believe that his physical disappearance will force [Cuba] to accelerate the pace of
economic reforms,” she said.
She also said that the work performed by independent journalists and bloggers contribute
to a better understanding of Cuban reality.
“We show the real Cuba, not the official one,” the blogger said.
Viva a food revolution
Raul Castro's ascension to power is something to dine out on, writes Lydia Bell.
Brisbane Times.com.au, March 16, 2013
La Guardia. Photo: AFP
We approach Jaimanitas, a down-at-heel fishing village within Havana's westerly city
limits, at night. The sushi joint we seek is far from the sanitised sections of Old Havana
and our taxista gets lost in the poorly lit streets, a situation not helped by fuzzy directions
from street-corner drunks.
Finally we find it: a fisherman's shack on the water's edge where ramshackle boats
collect. At this spit-and-sawdust joint they turn the catch of the day into sashimi, nigiri
and California rolls. Octopus and fresh fish are on the menu, which isn't written down. It's
zingy, delectable and fresh. When friends told me about Paladar de Santiago (240A 3ra.
C, Jaimanitas, no phone or internet), I wondered if they would even have nori or wasabi.
The only other sushi bar I've known in Havana is Sakura, opened with backing from the
Japanese embassy. Every time I went, it was closed, or half the things on the menu
were unavailable.
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The new '3-D Cafe'. Photo: Reuters
Now, though, Havana is in the throes of a food revolution. Since Raul Castro succeeded
Fidel in 2008, reform has gathered pace. He has lifted bans on mobile phones and
computers, allowed Cubans to travel without exit visas, sanctioned the buying and
selling of houses, and deregulated the small-business sector.
Advertisement
Business owners, farmers and construction workers can borrow from state banks, and
rules governing private restaurant ownership have been loosened. The number of
covers allowed has grown from 12 to between 50 and 100 with special permission.
Instead of paying 1000 Cuban pesos ($975) for a one-off opening fee (50 times an
average monthly state income), venue owners pay a monthly fee of 150 CUPs.
Cafes, paladares, bars and ice-cream parlours have sprung up overnight. Some crashed
and burnt, testament to the lack of entrepreneurship in recent years. Others are marvels
in the making.
Before these changes, there was no inspiring food story to tell in Cuba. Cuba's
gastronomy, a rich fusion of Spain, Africa and Native American, was sacrificed on the
altar of survival. The US embargo, and the collapse of the Soviet Union and its financial
backing, had dealt the state a near-fatal blow. During the Special Period from 1990 on,
Cubans lived on rice and beans. When paladares - private restaurants - were legalised,
falteringly, from the 1990s onwards, a handful of sophisticated affairs flourished, such as
the film set-beautiful La Guarida, but most were uninspired front-room projects serving
stodgy comida criolla: roast chicken, pork or fish served with rice, beans, and salad.
Street food was pizza with the consistency of cardboard, gag-worthy cheese
sandwiches, and chicken fried in cheap oil reused for the hundredth time.
New tastes: El Bedouino dining. Photo: Reuters
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In the hotels, the horror of the buffets has been documented on TripAdvisor: smoked
salmon balls that taste of cat sick; Spam-like meat slapped on your breakfast plate. I've
long known that casas particulares (bed and breakfasts) are the only dead-cert for a
decent breakfast: heaped plates of tropical fruits, fresh rolls, peasant cheese, and threeegg omelets.Those days are, if not gone, numbered. At the lower end of the market,
funky hole-in-the-wall places are popping up. At Waoo snack bar (Calle L y Esquina 25;
Vedado; +53 7 832 8424) near the state television building, I order a salad of serrano
and quail's egg with a funky chocolate-balsamic dressing. Octopus, bruschetta,
tabbouleh and arancini grace the menu - unremarkable for Melbourne or Sydney, rare
food indeed for Havana. At Nao snack bar off Plaza de Armas (Calle Obispo 1 entre San
Pedro y Baratillo, Habana Vieja; +53 7 867 3463; naobarpaladar.com), I try tasty
empanadas, aromatic fried malanga, and tamales (corn) with pork. I queue with locals at
a corner shack on 5 y A doling out pork burgers teamed with pineapple, egg, and jam
and soft cheese - tastier than it sounds. In Old Havana I discover El Chancullero (Calle
Teniente Rey 457, +53 7 872 8227) , a Spanish-style drinking den with handwritten
tapas menus (vast prawn enchiladas and chicken kebabs for $3 each), graffiti on the
walls, gilded youth, and European-pitched music that shirks the blaring Latin trend.
At the top end, chefs are defecting from the classier state restaurants and returned
expats are fulfilling long-held dreams as creative dishes from around the world fuse with
Creole recipes to create a new, upscale Cuban cuisine. Michel Miglis' Casa Miglis
(Lealtad 120 entre Animas y Lagunas, Centro Habana; +53 7 8641 486; casamiglis.com)
is the first restaurant to open serving Scandinavian cuisine (yes, really) since the
revolution. The menu features such rare ingredients as "lingon berries from deep in the
Swedish forests". The light and airy interiors are designed by Swede Andreas Hegert.
Staples such as Skagen toast and meatballs join spicy couscous. Aside from the corny
1980s ballads, I could be in Madrid or Lisbon.
What owner Michel is excited about is the "strong will on the part of the Cuban
government to help the private restaurant sector to succeed. There is for the first time a
real, positive communication". Anywhere in Europe, Miglis' restaurant would be par for
the course. In the decrepit streets of Central Havana, it feels like a little miracle.
His is one of many. At Starbien (Calle 29, #205 entre B y C; +53 7 830 0711), an
immaculately renovated mansion in Vedado, I sit on the balcony and eat carpaccio and
chicken sesame shaslik, looking down on a garden full of newly wealthy Cubans. At Rio
Mar (3rd y Final, 11, La Puntilla, Miramar; +53 7 209 4838), I gaze across the water and
eat pecorino and perfectly roasted vegetables; at Ivan chefs Justo (Aguacate 9, esquina
Chacon, Central Havana; +53 7 863 9697), shiitake mushroom risotto; at La Carboncita
(3ra 3804 entre 38 y 40, Playa; +53 7 290 4984) Italian chef Walter Ginebri's new
paladar, every possible type of fresh pasta, sauce, and thin-crust pizza imaginable.
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San Cristobal Cathedral. Photo: Corbis
At other times, the realities of Cuba get in the way. At El Cocinero (Calle 26 entre 11 y
13, Vedado; no phone as yet), a restaurant-bar on the cusp of opening, I am welcomed
by a Miami-trained cordon bleu chef who wants to cook me a sample dish but his plan is
spoilt by a power cut. (His alfresco rooftop is as industrial and chic as any urban bar in
London's Shoreditch or on Manhattan's Lower East Side. "There will be no reggaeton
music," he tells me solemnly.) I try to visit Castas Y Tal (Calle E 158-B, entre 9a y
Calzada, Vedado; +53 7 833 1425), a paladar in a Vedado high-rise, but arrive during
another blackout. Waiting on the steps for the lights to resume (they don't), I discover I
am sitting next to the chef, Ransys. Feted for being a woman in a macho world, she tells
me she relies heavily on friends outside Cuba to bring spices. "Without them, my lamb
marsala would be nothing," she says.
Havana market. Photo: Reuters
Esencia Experiences, a company offering tailor-made travel at Cuba's top end, offers a
tour of the paladar scene and a crash course in Havana's complicated food story. Its
secret weapon is Tanja Buwalda, a warm Irish Cubaphile and self-confessed food nerd
who has her own Cuban-food blog.
Buwalda, who ran her own Asian fusion restaurant in Cork, says she has learnt a lot
about cooking in a Cuban way - slowly. "I have learnt to use a pressure cooker, to soak
beans a day before, then, the day after, to use those same beans to make a soup or a
casserole. I have learnt to sit my meat in marinade for a long time, and to wait patiently
for my fruit to ripen. I never throw anything out. I go to the market daily and buy for that
day, or recycle leftovers. Cooking here is a metaphor for life. My life, like my cooking,
has slowed right down."
The experiences Buwalda offers are not-in-the-guidebook stuff: a day trip into the
countryside on a Harley to a small farm, including lunch with the farmer, and an
exploration of Havana through its street food. (From the barrio to the embassy district,
she knows the best churros - deep-fried doughnuts; the best Cuban biscuits; and the
best pan con lechon - slow-cooked shredded pork in aromatic vinaigrette on a soft white
bun.) She can introduce you to the nascent world of vegetarian Cuba, taking you on an
early-morning talk and tour around the Nunez-Jimenez Foundation museum, founder of
permaculture in Cuba or, on a home-cooking day, a tour of the markets then back to the
home of a Cuban to prepare and share a meal. We visit two organoponicos - Havana's
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urban vegetable gardens. After the fall of the USSR in 1990, vacant state land turned
into "people's plots": necessity being the mother of invention. These days, permaculture
devotees travel from all over the world to check out these high-yield projects, part of
Cuba's urban wallpaper.
Casa Miglis meatballs.
Tanja also takes me to a range of mercados. "We'll get there before 11am, otherwise it's
too hot and everything good has gone," she says. Our first stop is the state Tulipan
market, where there is plenty of produce: basketball-size papayas, vast yucca, oranges,
tomatoes, green peppers, every kind of dried bean, garlic, green beans, lettuces and
horseradish.
"No fruit or vegetables are imported here," Buwalda tells me, "so when you take a
tomato home and bite into it, you are tasting Cuba - heat; red, rich copper soil; handgrown food with little machinery - all of that is captured. I've tasted eight types of mango
here."
We set off to the private 19 y B market, which they call "El Mercado de los Millonarios" it's pricey and frequented by expats and owners of bed and breakfasts and paladares.
"Doctors and teachers don't shop here," Buwalda says. Here you can find exotic fare for
Cuba: green chillies, ginger, ready-made salads, quail eggs, cauliflower and broccoli
(little encountered, unbelievably), beetroot and fresh herbs. At EJT Market on 19 y K,
stocked with products cultivated by youth before military service, I learn about food
sourcing. You buy pork in the state market, chicken from state shops retailing in the
convertible peso, and fish and seafood on the black market, though most regular
Habaneros cannot afford it (the state sends its fish for export or to the tourist hotels and
restaurants). Paladar owners work a complex network of black-market contacts for
cheese, butter, yoghurts, seafood and bread. Food by Australian standards is cheap,
with fruit and vegetables and some meat costing, on average, $40 a month. However,
the typical Cuban gets paid the equivalent of $25 monthly, so most have a second or
third job, or are subsidised by family abroad.
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Paladar lobster. Photo: AFP
Restaurant owners face astonishing challenges in supplies. Because of the embargo,
Cubans cannot buy food on the open international market. [Editor Clarification: Cuba
can buy food products from the US but has to pay in cash and Cuba has a very
poor credit standing with other countries due to the fact that Cuba has defaulted
in most of its external debt], Production is low because of a collectively farmed,
under-invested agricultural sector. Corruption in the supply chain is rife - the head of
onion production in Sancti Spiritus province was jailed last year for having the lowest
onion harvest in history despite millions of pesos of investment.
The orange harvest rotted for lack of pickers, and Pinar del Rio's yucca harvest suffered
from a shortage of trucks to distribute it. Eggs break on long journeys for lack of proper
packaging. Once you know all this, you realise it's a miracle paladar owners manage to
pull it off at all.
I chat to Hector Higuera, maitre d' of Le Chansonnier (Calle J 257 entre 15 y Linea,
Vedado, +53 7 837 1576), Havana's hottest paladar. Higuera gutted a classic colonial
home to create an industrial-chic bar and a restaurant with a reclaimed-metal feature
wall.
Like Michel and Ransys, he relies on foreign friends to stuff their suitcases with the
spices, mustards, chocolate, tahini, foie gras and parmigiano that keep his business
going.
"I don't even have a credit card to shop over the internet," he says. His fish come from
the fishermen, some vegetables from an expat Japanese female farmer, his pork direct
from the countryside, and his fresh pasta from an Italian expat. There are no contracts
with suppliers, so it's "organised chaos". There is no provenance ethos in Cuba, Higuera
says. It's local and seasonal because there is nothing else. Most of his clientele
comprises visiting foreigners, Havana-based expats and wealthier Cubans, but in the bar
he sells beers for 1.50 CUPs: "Otherwise I would never see my friends."
All this talk of food is making me hungry. So we tuck into babaganoush, curried shrimp
and pan-fried cheese with onion confit. This fashion for foreign influence is unsurprising
in a country so long in enforced isolation. I welcome it with open arms, partly because it
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gives me the variety I crave in order to continue appreciating the simplicity of comida
criolla.
Some things you have to keep Cuban, though - such as that earthy full stop at the end of
the meal, the cafecito.
I am relishing one alone on Hector's elegant terrace. Fierce and smoky, softened by a
honeyed aroma, it packs a punch and is just like Cuba itself: a bit in your face, a bit
much, dark, intense - and sweet as hell.
FAST FACTS
Getting there Due to the US embargo on Cuba, you cannot have Cuba on your ticket if
you transit through and/or use any US airline. You have to buy two separate tickets.
United Airlines has a fare to Mexico for about $2490 return from Sydney and Melbourne
including taxes. From Sydney, fly to Los Angeles (13hr 25min) and then to Mexico City
(3hr 34min). see united.com. Aerovias de Mexico has return fares to Havana (2hr 35min)
for about $515, including taxes; see aeromexico.com. It is also possible to fly via South
America but times are longer.
Cuba: Most Popular Destination for Child-Sex Tourism
"The job of keeping track of child-sex tourists is becoming even more challenging as new
destinations such as Cuba emerge, eclipsing hot-spots in southeast Asia. An internal
Royal Canadian Mounted Police report, released to The Star under Access to Information
legislation, cited Cuba as the most popular destination in the Americas for child-sex
tourism — and the Americas’ most visited region for Canadians traveling abroad for sex
with kids."
From The Miami Herald: Posted: 16 Mar 2013 06:00 AM PDT
James McTurk: Portrait of an alleged sex tourist in Cuba
Canadian James McTurk, 78, is one of a very small group of Canadian men to face charges for the
crime of child-sex tourism. He is accused of taking several trips to Cuba, where some of
his alleged victims were as young as 4.
James McTurk is 78. He has wispy white hair and glasses, and speaks with a soft Scottish accent.
He lives on a pension — and in a jail cell.
He has been twice convicted on child pornography charges, and his legal troubles have just
intensified: McTurk could become the first person in Canada to be convicted of sex tourism in
connection with the abuse of children in Cuba.
He is now one of a very small group of Canadian men to face charges for the crime of child-sex
tourism.
McTurk does not travel to Cambodia or Thailand, destinations of choice for those who seek sex
with children. All of his known and alleged victims have been Cuban girls. All were
young, and some were very young — as young as 4.
McTurk has spent several years on Canada’s sex offender registry, but he was able to make
repeated trips abroad until he was caught last summer, almost by accident. He was arrested at
Toronto’s Lester B. Pearson airport, returning — once again — from Cuba.
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According to court documents — and to McTurk himself, in interviews with police — he travels
there frequently [...]
How Cuba became the newest hotbed for tourists craving sex with
minors
El Nuevo Herald, Posted on Sat, Mar. 16, 2013
Canadian James McTurk as he returned from Cuba, holding a photo of Che Guevara.
He is accused of traveling to the island to have sex with children, and of child
pornography. The 50-something Canadian steps inside a downtown bar, his left arm
wound tightly around the waist of a young prostitute as he flashes a sly grin. A winking
bartender welcomes him like an old friend.
“It’s hard not to be inspired by this,” Michael says, looking over his companion for the
night. “And that,” he adds, his eyes pointing to one of the other young women in the bar.
“This is the promised land.”
Michael, a retiree from Vancouver Island, spends up to six months a year in Havana,
where he says he has discovered easy access to young women willing to ignore age
differences — in exchange for as little as $30 for the night.
Foreign tourists, especially Canadians and Spaniards, are travelling to Cuba in
surprising numbers for sex — and not just with adult prostitutes. They are finding
underage girls and boys, a joint investigation by The Toronto Star and El Nuevo Herald
has found.
Havana’s conspicuous scenes of street-level prostitution are the outward face of a
hidden prostitution trade in minors, some as young as four, some with families complicit
in their exploitation, the newspapers found.
Cuba holds unique allure for Western sex tourists. It is closer and cheaper than other
sex destinations, such as Thailand. And HIV rates are lower than in other Caribbean sex
tourism hotspots, such as the Dominican Republic or Haiti.
While the size of the island’s underage sex market remains a mystery — the communist
government denies it is a problem and fosters the image of an island free of the social
ills that plague other nations — it clearly goes on.
• A confidential Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) report in 2011 showed Cuba
was one of the main destinations in the Americas for Canadian sex predators, along with
the Dominican Republic, Haiti, Brazil and Mexico. More than one million Canadian
tourists visited Cuba last year.
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• Cuba’s government “made no known efforts to reduce the demand for commercial
sex,” noted the 2012 version of the U.S. State Department’s annual report on global
Trafficking in Persons (TIP).
• The 2003 version noted that some officials of Cuban state enterprises such as
restaurants and hotels “turn a blind eye to this [child] exploitation because such activity
helps to win hard currency.”
• A dispatch by U.S. diplomats in Havana in 2009 noted that “some Cuban children are
reportedly pushed into prostitution by their families, exchanging sex for money, food or
gifts,” but gave no overall numbers.
Pimps, cabbies and tourist hotel staffers can procure discreet meetings with underage
prostitutes, according to the RCMP report.
“That’s prohibited here in the hotel,” a security chief at a Havana hotel told a journalist
posing as a tourist in search of underage girls. But, he added helpfully, they can be
found “in houses waiting for the call from pimps.”
Clients can take them to private homes, known as “casas particulares,” the security man
noted, where tourists can rent rooms for $10 a night and do “whatever you want. Orgies,
anything.”
Bleak future
Exploitation thrives were poverty exists, and in that respect Cuba is no different than
other destinations for sex tourists.
Ivan Garcia, 43, a dissident Havana journalist who has written several articles on
prostitution, said the underage prostitutes are typically poor, hopeless and desperate.
“For these people, ‘future’ is a bad word,” he said.
Today, prostitution may well be the most profitable job in an island where the average
monthly salary officially stands at less than $20 and a bottle of cooking oil costs $3.
But Garcia argues that there’s more to prostitution on the island than poverty — that
most Cubans dream of meeting a foreigner who will take them away from the island’s
grinding isolation.
“They see that this girl married some Italian and now she’s dressing nice, fixing up her
mother’s house – it’s the illusion that you can get ahead if you prostitute yourself … the
illusion of leaving the country, the illusion of a visa,” he said.
Garcia said he knows two 12-year-old girls currently working the streets and has heard
of 11-year-olds. Havana lawyer Laritza Diversent said she knew of one nine-year-old girl
who “was groped lasciviously” for cash.
Age of consent
The State Department’s TIP report has classified Cuba as a “Tier 3” country — the worst
of its rankings — when it comes to combating sex trafficking every year since 2003.
Cuban laws “do not appear to penalize prostitution of children between the ages of 16
and 18” and prostitution for those 18 and older is legal though pimping is outlawed, the
2012 edition noted.
The age of sexual consent on the island is 16 but girls can marry at 14 with parental
approval, Diversent said. Foreigners caught with prostitutes older than 16 are usually not
arrested but the minors can be sent to youth detention centers, she added, although
police often take bribes to look the other way.
Most Western countries, including the United States, as well as some international
agreements proscribe tourism for sex with anyone under the age of 18, regardless of the
laws in the destination country.
Cuban laws are tough on those convicted of sexually exploiting girls or boys 14 and
younger — if the government chooses to prosecute. They can get up to 30 years in
prison and even death by firing squad if there are aggravating factors such as the use of
violence or drugs.
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Three Italian men were sentenced to up to 25 years in prison for murder and corruption
of minors after the 2010 death of a 12-year-old girl during a sex party in eastern
Bayamo. Court records indicate that the girl was asthmatic and died accidentally.
A 2003 report on Cuban sex tourism by the global monitoring group End Child
Prostitution and Trafficking noted that one Canadian had been sentenced to 11 years for
sexually abusing a 13-year-old girl, and another was sentenced to 25 years for abusing
a 15-year-old.
“Sources agree that Cuban authorities are very severe in cases of solicitation or having
sex with children under the age of 14,” noted the U.S. diplomatic cable in 2009, made
public by the Wikileaks web site. It added that Cuba cooperates with Interpol to keep
known pedophiles out of the island.
“The police and other officials appear to treat sex crimes, particularly those against
children, seriously and professionally,” noted the RCMP report from 2011, obtained by
The Toronto Star.
Revolutionary purity
But the government’s news monopoly has published almost nothing on underage
prostitution. Cuban diplomats in Washington did not respond to requests for comment on
this story.
“They treat this issue as a matter of revolutionary purity,” Garcia said.
Former ruler Fidel Castro cracked down on prostitution after he seized power in 1959,
and boasted his country was no longer a U.S. brothel. But the sex market blossomed
again after Moscow cut off its subsidies and plunged the island into crisis in the early
1990s.
Cuba’s response was to throw its doors open to mass tourism. Travel agencies made no
bones about the island’s attractions: white sand beaches, cheap prices, hot weather and
dark-skinned women.
A Spanish airline advertisement for travel to Cuba showed two black women in bikinis
with a white baby who sang, “mulatas … take me to my crib.” Complaints from a Spanish
consumer group forced the airline to pull the ad.
But Cuban officials never complained publicly about the ad, and Castro himself seemed
to accept sex tourism in a 1992 speech.
Cuban women are not “forced to sell themselves to a man, to a foreigner, to a tourist.
Those who do so do …without any need for it,” he declared. “We can say that they are
highly educated hookers and quite healthy, because we are the country with the lowest
numbers of AIDS cases…Therefore, there is truly no prostitution healthier than Cuba’s.”
A shocking death
One State Department dispatch on underage prostitution in Cuba from 2009, also made
public by Wikileaks, lists the following “Recommendations for Cuba.”
“Acknowledge that child sex trafficking … is a problem; provide greater legal protections
and assistance for victims; develop procedures to identify possible trafficking victims
among vulnerable populations; increase anti-trafficking training for law enforcement;
and, take greater steps to prevent the trafficking of children in prostitution.”
That advice has clearly fallen on deaf ears, and Raúl Castro, who succeeded ailing
brother Fidel in 2008, continues to officially say nothing about the sex predators among
the more than two million tourists who visit the island each year.
The shocking death of the 12-year-old girl in Bayamo, for instance, generated no
coverage in the national media and only a couple of brief reports in the provincial media
announcing the sentences imposed on the three Italians and 10 Cubans.
Cuba meanwhile jailed Spanish journalist Sebastian Martinez Ferraté for 18 months
when he returned to Havana following the 2008 release of his television documentary,
Cuba: Child Prostitution.
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The documentary reported that he easily found 15 Havana prostitutes under the age of
16. It showed four girls, provided by one 16-year-old pimp, talking frankly about their sex
work and swimming topless in a private pool, as well as cops and teachers who took
bribes to facilitate the encounters.
Martinez said he was convicted on charges of incitement to child prostitution because
his documentary showed that “everyone knows Cuba is a brothel.”
Toronto’s challenge
Detective Sgt. Kim Gross, who heads the Toronto police’s sex crimes unit, has been
investigating the case of 78-year-old James McTurk, convicted in 1995 and 1998 of
possession of child pornography that he filmed in Cuba.
One of his victims was estimated from photos to be 4.
Gross said Toronto police want to reach out to help McTurk’s victims. In Canada,
authorities can make sure that the abuse stops and that the victims receive counselling
and other social services.
But Cuba’s political system makes it nearly impossible to cooperate with the police or
other authorities without triggering fears of possible reprisals against the families or even
the victims themselves, she added.
“I can’t help them when I’m here,” Gross said. “We have to find a non-profit group
working there who are familiar with the problems to get them the help they need. I’m not
convinced they’ll get it through the police.”
Cuba does not allow non-government organizations to operate on the island, but U.S.
diplomatic cables list the government ministries and groups that on paper are supposed
to address the issue.
The Interior Ministry, which includes police and border guards, has the lead in criminal
cases while the Communist Party, Federation of Cuban Women, Union of Young
Communists and Committees for the Defense of the Revolution, can provide various
types of support.
Three government-run sexual abuse treatment centers “reportedly provide state-of-theart care and counseling to child sexual abuse victims and child witnesses, some of
whom may be trafficking victims,” one U.S. cable noted, giving no further details.
‘I’m here for him’
Cuba’s well-educated sex workers include a pretty young woman who called herself
Chachi when she approached two foreign men out for a night stroll on Havana’s seaside
Malecón boulevard.
Born and raised in a neighboring province, she attended two years of university,
studying to become a veterinarian. Then she became pregnant. Now she rents a
Havana apartment for a month at a time so she can be available for tourists.
“I can cook, I can do dishes, I can clean the house, I can do whatever you want,” she
tells the two foreigners. Like Michael the Canadian, Chachi did not give her last name.
Over a beer, she opens up on why she walks the streets.
“He is beautiful,” Chachi says of her 3-year-old boy, her eyes welling up. “I am here for
him. I wait for money from tourists so I can send it to him and my mother.”
Canadians are major customers in Cuba’s child sex market
Robert Cribb, Jennifer Quinn, Julian Sher and Juan Tamayo
Toronto Star and El Nuevo Herald, Sat Mar 16 2013

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Canada is lax when it comes to stopping its sex offenders from going to Cuba and preying on underage prostitutes.
Adriana Zehbrauskas/NYT
Set against a backdrop of gutted buildings and faded hope, Michael is all smiles.
He’s fiftysomething, sports a greying moustache last in fashion in the ’70s, and stares out
from beneath a ball cap emblazoned with a red maple leaf.
Sauntering into a downtown Havana bar, his left arm wound tightly around the waist of
an attractive young Cuban woman, he’s in his element. She, meanwhile, is working.
The Vancouver Island native flashes a grin at two European mates who, like him, have
come to regard Havana as a second home. The bartender welcomes him like an old
friend. Everyone here, as the song goes, knows his name.
“There’s a lot worse places to be,” Michael says, in a toast to shared good fortune. “This
is the promised land.”
Michael is on the inside of a well-kept secret.
Canadians are travelling to Cuba in surprising numbers to sexually exploit young people
trapped in this socialist country’s underground sex tourism industry, a joint investigation
by the Toronto Star and El Nuevo Herald, the Spanish-language sister publication of the
Miami Herald, has found.
Havana’s conspicuous scenes of street-level prostitution are the public face of a hidden,
sordid trade in children as young as four. Many prostituted children in Cuba are secondor third-generation, following in the footsteps of sex-worker mothers to earn money for
families complicit in their exploitation.
Cuban authorities deny the problem. And Canada’s lax oversight suggests any selfproclaimed moral obligation to protect children from abuse stops at our own borders.
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Convicted Canadian sex offenders face little scrutiny leaving the country, little prospect
of having foreign authorities warned of their arrival and little chance of being flagged by
border authorities upon arrival back in Canada.
Canadian border authorities have no access to the country’s sex offender registry and
limited access to Canada’s criminal record database.
In an exclusive interview with the Star, Public Safety Minister Vic Toews acknowledged
shortcomings, saying the travel of convicted sex offenders is “one of the very significant
issues that does need to be addressed” through better monitoring.
“Are there additional steps I would like to see taken?” he said. “Absolutely. Am I
encouraging the government to move in that direction? Absolutely.”
Canadian men, generally between 40 and 60 years of age, are among the most numerous
sexual predators in Cuba, according to internal government reports, international experts,
diplomatic cables and on-the-ground interviews.
The RCMP, in a confidential 2011 report on child sex tourism obtained by the Star
through access-to-information requests, lists Cuba as a top destination in the Americas
for Canadian sex tourists.
“The issue of Canadian travelling child sex offenders is likely greater than previously
thought,” the report concludes.
And one of the key drivers behind any flourishing child prostitution market is “an
established and active sex trade.”
Cuba easily meets that definition.
For sex tourists, the island holds unique allure. It’s closer and cheaper than destinations
such Thailand and Cambodia. HIV rates are dramatically lower than in most countries.
And a trip to Cuba for single male tourists is free from the social stigma associated with
Phuket or Phnom Penh.
Furtive negotiations with pimps, cabbies and staff at high-end Cuban hotels can easily
procure meetings with young boys or girls, according to undercover conversations with
Cuban insiders and hotel security staff last month.
“That’s prohibited here in the hotel,” a security head at one of Havana’s large hotels told
a reporter posing as sex tourist.
That’s because young Cuban girls appearing at the city’s high-end hotels in the company
of men are instantly flagged by security staff, who often demand payment to allow their
entry.
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But he carefully described the process for accessing underage girls.
“The young girls aren’t on the street. They’re in houses waiting for the call from pimps.”
The secure — and surreptitious — environment for meeting them is a private lodging
called a casa particular, where tourists can rent rooms for about $10 a night.
“They don’t care what you’re doing there,” said one hotel security guard. “Whatever you
want. Orgies, anything.”
That advice mirrors the findings of the 2011 RCMP report, which says child sex
“facilitators,” including “taxi drivers and/or hotel staff, can sometimes be used to arrange
discreet meetings with potential child victims.”
A Cuban casa particular provides a safe zone where child sex offenders “access children
and locals who are willing to facilitate crimes against children in return for financial
compensation,” says the report, titled Canadian Travelling Child Sex Offenders.
“Poor or dysfunctional families may be particularly willing to open their doors to
foreigners with the hope of reaping some financial benefits or so they can receive food or
material items. Offenders can, and often do, capitalize on this vulnerability to gain sexual
access to child victims.”
U.S. diplomats documented the same money-for-child-sex system operating with the
knowledge and permission of families in a 2009 cable to Washington.
“Some Cuban children are reportedly pushed into prostitution by their families,
exchanging sex for money, food or gifts,” it reads.
The cost of forbidden youth is startlingly cheap: as little as $30 for the night.
Manuel, a lean, 30-something lawyer from Mexico City, is flanked by two scantily clad
young prostitutes outside a Varadero hotel as he proudly whispers to an undercover
reporter in English: “I got them both for $40. We’re going back to (a casa particular) in
Havana. Do you want to stay with us in our house with girls? Come with me. There’s so
many!”
Exploitation thrives where poverty exists, and in that respect, Cuba is no different from
Cambodia or Thailand.
Ivan Garcia, a dissident blogger and journalist in Havana, says the young girls and boys
in the trade are typically poor, hopeless and desperate: “For these people, ‘future’ is a bad
word.”
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Parents who usher their children into the sex trade are motivated by something much
bigger than money, he says. The real goal, he says, is the hope of securing marriage to a
wealthy foreigner.
He knows two 12-year-old girls currently working the streets.
“They see that this girl married some Italian and now she’s dressing nice, fixing up her
mother’s house — it’s the illusion that you can get ahead if you prostitute yourself . . . the
illusion of leaving the country, the illusion of a visa.”
That illusion most often ends in exploitation and tragedy.
In 2011, three Italian men were sentenced to between 20 and 25 years in prison for
murder and corruption of minors after the body of a 12-year-old girl was dumped in
Bayamo, a city in eastern Cuba.
The girl — Lilian Ramirez — was a 12-year-old prostitute the men hired for a party
along with two 13-year-olds and a 14-year-old, says Laritza Diversent, a dissident Cuban
lawyer who worked on the case.
The government handles such cases “with a lot of care and closed trials,” says Diversent.
Diversent considers child prostitution in Cuba “a serious matter because of what I see
every day on the street — very young girls and boys with much older foreigners.”
In her own Havana neighbourhood growing up, she recalls, she had a nine-year-old friend
who “was groped lasciviously” by adult men for cash.
“There’s a moment when they dedicate themselves to prostitution and there’s somebody
who uses them, usually someone from their own neighbourhood.”
Prostitutes under 16 can be charged with “pre-criminal dangerousness” and be sent to
youth interment camps But foreigners caught with prostitutes older than 16 rarely face
arrest, she says. And it’s alleged that police accept bribes from prostitutes and pimps to
look the other way.
The Canadian government keeps secret how many Canadians have been prosecuted in
Cuba for sex crimes.
Concern for the privacy of the Canadians charged or convicted in the Cuban sex trade is
the government’s stated rationale. So few have been prosecuted for the crime that
releasing even aggregate figures could identify them, the government says.
But there’s no question that some Canadians have been prosecuted for exploiting young
Cubans.
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“A number of tourists, including Canadians, have been convicted of offences related to
the corruption of minors,” the Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade
notes on its website about Cuba.
And a study on Cuban sex tourism by the global monitoring group End Child
Prostitution, Child Pornography and Trafficking of Children for Sexual Purposes
(ECPAT) found “much of the literature points to Canadians as being high on the list of
offenders.”
In 2003, ECPAT reported that a 53-year-old Canadian man had been sentenced to 10
years in prison for sexually abusing a 13-year-old girl. Another Canadian man was
sentenced to 25 years in prison for the sexual abuse of a 15-year-old.
James Cason, the top American diplomat in Havana between 2002 and 2005, says
Canadians are among the most enthusiastic customers of the Cuban child sex trade.
“The ones pouring in were Canadians and Europeans, and that’s where I saw the problem
(of child prostitution),” Cason said in an interview.
While Cuban government action against sex tourists appears to be rare, U.S. cables,
released by the activist group WikiLeaks, suggest vigorous punitive actions are taken
against victims of the country’s underage sex trade.
“Police occasionally rounded up women and children in Cuba’s sex trade and charged
them with vague crimes,” reads one 2009 cable. “Adolescents found in prostitution were
sent to either juvenile detention facilities or work camps emphasizing politicized
rehabilitation.”
The “Recommendations for Cuba” detailed in the same memo reads: “Acknowledge that
child sex trafficking in Cuba is a problem; provide greater legal protections and
assistance for victims; develop procedures to identify possible trafficking victims among
vulnerable populations; increase anti-trafficking training for law enforcement; and, take
greater steps to prevent the trafficking of children in prostitution.”
That advice has most certainly fallen on deaf ears inside the Cuban government. A
request by the Star for an interview with the Cuban Embassy in Ottawa was ignored.
Led today by Fidel Castro’s younger brother Raul, Cuba continues to officially deny that
sexual predators are among the sun seekers and families pouring into the country.
The numbers of arrests and prosecutions for child exploitation are tightly protected, and
Cuba restricts the presence of international and domestic NGOs.
Official denial reaches beyond mere marketing. It is an expression of deeply felt
revolutionary pride.
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Fidel Castro cracked down on prostitution after the 1959 revolution and boasted his
country would no longer be the American brothel.
“There are no women forced to sell themselves to a man, to a foreigner, to a tourist,” he
said in 1992. “Those who do so do it on their own, voluntarily, and without any need for
it. We can say that they are highly educated hookers and quite healthy, because we are
the country with the lowest numbers of AIDS cases . . . Therefore, there is truly no
prostitution healthier than Cuba’s.”
The sex marketplace in Cuba’s cities and resorts began to emerge after the Soviet
Union’s collapse meant billions of dollars in annual subsidies from Moscow dried up.
Today, the influx of foreign money may well make prostitution among the most
profitable jobs in a country where the average monthly salary officially stands at less than
$20.
Cuba’s well-educated sex workers include a young woman who calls herself Chachi.
Cherubic and young, her face is devoid of anything that suggests the broken life that
brings her to Havana’s main prostitution strip — the seaside Malecon boulevard — at
midnight.
She was born and raised in a neighbouring province and attended university for two
years, studying to become a veterinarian. Then she became pregnant.
Now, with a three-year-old boy to look after, Chachi rents a Havana apartment for a
month at a time, spending her days and evenings with male tourists like Michael.
“I can cook, I can do dishes, I can clean the house,” she says through an interpreter. “I
can do whatever you want.”
Over a beer, she opens up about her humiliation having to walk the streets and the
reasons she does it.
“He is beautiful,” she says of her little boy, who remains living with her mother in her
hometown. “I am here for him. I wait for money from tourists so I can send it to him and
my mother.”
The U.S. State Department consistently classifies Cuba as a “Tier 3” country — the worst
in its rankings — when it comes to combating sex trafficking.
“Cuba is a source country for adults and children subjected to sex trafficking and forced
labour,” the State Department warns in the 2012 edition of its annual review of global
human trafficking. “The country’s laws do not appear to penalize prostitution of children
between the ages of 16 and 18.”
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The report concludes that the Cuban government has made “no known efforts to reduce
the demand for commercial sex.”
Teresa C. Ulloa Ziaurriz, Mexico-based director of the Coalition Against Trafficking in
Women in Latin America, says the problem of exploitative predators from Canada and
Europe is likely to grow as Cuba opens its doors to ever more tourism.
“All the Caribbean islands are really a paradise for child sex tourism,” she says. “We call
sex tourism inverse trafficking — instead of taking the victims out of the country . . . the
demand travels to where the supply is.
“Why are they coming to Latin America and the Caribbean to buy sex from those who
are in more vulnerable situation? This is the merchandisation of the bodies of women and
girls.”
Back in Havana, Michael certainly appears to be having a marvellous trip. Ask him about
the city’s surprisingly open prostitution industry and he’ll launch into an X-rated
Frommer’s guide to the most promising marketplaces for women in the city.
“If you go to places like the (club) Cecilia, then you’re going to see top-of-the-line girls,
but they’re going to be charging top-of-the-line prices,” he notes. “I prefer places like the
Hotel Deauville where they’re accessible . . . Whores galore.”
The retired British Columbian spends up to six months a year in Havana, a place he’s
been visiting for two decades.
“It’s hard not to be inspired by this,” he says as he directs his eyes to the young prostitute
accompanying him this night.
“And that,” he adds, his eyes visually pointing to one of several other young prostitutes in
the bar with whom he shares warm banter and familiarity.
With more time on his hands, his travels have been expanding of late to a more wellknown sex tourism destination — Cambodia.
“The Cambodian people just impress the f--- out of me,” he says. “They’re extremely
nice. And you can get a really f------ sexy woman. The sex is great. The beach is
fantastic. The food, because it’s got the French influence in it.”
His travelogue complete, Michael smiles once more and extends his hand: “We’re all
Canadians.”
The Ugly Canadians is a series produced jointly by the Toronto Star and El Nuevo
Herald, the Spanish-language sister publication of The Miami Herald.
Blogger and journalist, Havana
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Toronto Star and El Nuevo Herald
Cuban Blogger Yoani Sanchez Talks Press, Internet Freedom In First
US Appearance
International Business Times, By Ryan Villarreal | March 16 2013 11:07 AM
Cuban dissident blogger Yoani Sanchez made her first public appearance in the U.S. on
Thursday in New York, where she discussed her tour around the world, life under Cuba's
communist government and her plans for when she returns home.

Reuters
Cuba's best-known dissident, blogger Yoani Sanchez, arrives for a debate with
members of the socialist youth at Brazil's Museu Parque do Saber in Feira de
Santana Monday.

Sanchez was in New York to give a talk at Columbia University, where she spoke with
journalism professor and Cuban expat Mirta Ojito onstage before answering questions
from students.
“Yoani Sanchez is a journalist. She’s been accused of all sorts of things in Cuba, but
she’s essentially a journalist,” said Joshua Friedman, Director of International Programs
at the Columbia Journalism School, who introduced Sanchez. “Yes, she’s a troublemaker,
but journalists are supposed to be troublemakers.”
Sanchez gained international recognition for her blog Generation Y, in which she
describes daily life in Cuba under the Castro government. The Cuban government labeled
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her a dissident because of her writings, and so it blocked her blog and Twitter account to
censor her.
“It’s a very vivid sense of what’s happening in Cuba, day by day,” Friedman said of
Sanchez’s blog. “It seems almost devoid of ideology, and if you‘ve been in Cuba, you
can tell it rings true.”
In her first question, Ojito asked Sanchez about her recent visit to a newsroom in Prague.
“I have a very daring -- some might say wild or stupid -- idea of founding an independent
press in Cuba,” Sanchez said in her native Spanish through a translator. “We have in
Cuba a crime that is called enemy propaganda, and anyone who even thinks about this
runs the risk of being accused or convicted of the crime.”
Sanchez remarked that she felt that it was time to move beyond her own personal writing
and engage in a “civic exercise” through the establishment of an independent press in
Cuba, though she noted that the necessary legal protections that would make such a
venture viable were nonexistent presently.
Sanchez said that the majority of Cubans lack Internet access, which results from the
government’s fear of losing control over how information is disseminated from within its
borders.
“A system that’s based on the lack of information, the control of information and
censorship, really can’t remain the same,” Sanchez said. “It will be inalterably changed
by the avalanche of information that would result from the opening up of the Internet in
Cuba. This is why the government is petrified.”
But even without widely available Internet access, Cubans have found ways to exchange
digital information with each other, Sanchez explained, particularly through the use of
USB flash drives.
Describing it as an “Internet without Internet,” Sanchez said that one person may get
temporary Internet access and download as much data as possible, including everything
from news reports to movies, and then share it with several dozen others.
“Someday, when they make a monument to democracy in Cuba, they will build a statue
commemorating the flash drive,” Sanchez mused.
Ojito concluded the interview with a question about how the Castro government has
responded to bloggers like Sanchez.
“The first strategy was one of trying to ignore us, as if we were not important,” Sanchez
said. “That soon passed to … verbally attacking us... to spread lies, to defame our
character, never wanting to confront our arguments. Occasionally, that strategy has given
way to physical repression and violence.
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“The bright side is that this tells us that they’re reading us, they’re responding to us, they
can no longer keep ignoring us,” she added. “It shows that we’re having an effect and
taking the first steps into the public sphere.”
Watch the full interview above and questions from the students above.
10 Years After Black Spring: Repression Continues
Posted: 15 Mar 2013 03:42 PM PDT
From Amnesty International:
10 years on from crackdown on dissidence, fundamental freedoms still lacking in
Cuba
On 18 March 2003, a group of 75 political dissidents were detained across Cuba in an
unprecedented crackdown on spurious charges related to state security and, following summary
trials, they were sentenced to long prison terms of up to 28 years.
They were subsequently declared prisoners of conscience by Amnesty International as they had
been imprisoned solely for the peaceful exercise of fundamental freedoms.
In July 2010, following the intervention of the Cuban Catholic Church, the Cuban authorities
agreed to release those of the 75 who remained in prison. However, the majority of them were
forced into exile in Spain.
Those who refused to leave Cuba were kept in prison until early 2011. Although they were
allowed to remain on the island their release was conditional - their prison sentences hang over
them even though they are no longer confined.
Their release has not heralded a change in human rights policy in Cuba. The
authorities remain determined to contain government critics with new tactics,
including intimidation, harassment, multiple short-term detentions and
restrictions on movement to stop them from carrying out their activities or as
retaliation.
In spite of recent changes to the migration law which makes travel abroad easier for Cubans,
the Cuban government continues to maintain a swathe of laws aimed at
preventing political dissidents and human rights defenders from exercising their
freedom of expression, association and assembly.
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El falso mito de la sanidad cubana
Sus ruinosas instalaciones, carencias e involución en la salud de sus ciudadanos son fiel
reflejo de un régimen que presume de lo que no tiene
carmen muñozcmunozcamos / madrid
ABD, Día 17/03/2013 - 20.55h
youtube, therealcuba.com
Una habitación de un hospital de Placetas, en la provincia de Villa Clara
El mito de la sanidad cubana se desmorona a la misma velocidad que sus desvencijados
hospitales, frustrados profesionales y el régimen comunista en general, sobre todo desde
que le faltan los subsidios de la antigua URSS. La revolución castrista de 1959 implantó
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unos servicios sanitarios en teoría gratuitos y universales pero, como en el bloque
soviético, muy básicos y plagados de carencias. El gran éxito del Sistema Nacional de
Salud cubano, coinciden los expertos, es que «la propaganda oficial los ha convertido en
los mejores del mundo», mientras sus médicos y enfermeros son los peor pagados. El
problema no es tanto si su nombre es Hugo Chávez, Fidel Castro o cualquier otro
miembro del partido único o del Gobierno, que acuden a centros especiales. El problema
de verdad lo tienen los trabajadores que malviven con quince dólares mensuales o los
presos.
«La sanidad en Cuba es pésima para el ciudadano de a pie por la falta de recursos. Existe
un apartheid que favorece a la élite gobernante y a los extranjeros que pagan en dólares,
mientras se les niega atención médica a los presos y algunos disidentes por motivos
políticos», explica María Werlau, directora de Archivo Cuba, una organización sin ánimo
de lucro con sede en EE.UU., que investiga este falso mito de potencia médica que
proporciona a la dictadura ingentes réditos políticos y económicos.
Misiones en Venezuela
Darsi Ferret, un médico cubano refugiado político en Estados Unidos desde 2012,
asegura que el sistema de atención primaria está «prácticamente desarticulado, las
consultas están vacías, sus profesionales han sido enviados a las lucrativas misiones
internacionales», sobre todo a Venezuela. Este exprisionero de conciencia de 43 años fue
expulsado en 2006 del policlínico Luyanó, en el municipio habanero de 10 de Octubre,
por su labor opositora. Como médico de urgencias sabe lo que es trabajar en instalaciones
semiabandonadas, con falta de higiene, dificultades para encargar un electrocardiograma,
sin medicinas básicas como un antipirético o de material como una bolsa para la orina.
A este deprimente cuadro se unen profesionales desmotivados que perciben entre 16 y 23
dólares mensuales, dependiendo de si es un especialista; frustrados por no poder atender a
sus pacientes como es debido por la falta de recursos e iniciativa. Berta Soler, líder de las
Damas de Blanco, relata cómo muchos de estos médicos —no todos, precisa— aceptan
regalos «bajo cuerda» a cambio de una mejor atención. «Están necesitados, el salario no
les alcanza para vivir», justifica. Técnica en microbiología, trabajó hasta 2009 en el
hospital América Arias de El Vedado, hoy «semicerrado». Soler sostiene que «la sanidad
no es gratuita: eso es un mito; a veces los profesionales sugieren que pidas las medicinas
a familiares en el exilio» si no las encuentran en las desabastecidas farmacias.
Cuba produce medicinas y material, pero no para sus ciudadanos
Cuba produce medicinas y material sanitario, pero no para sus ciudadanos. Archivo Cuba
ha recabado testimonios de médicos cubanos que desertaron en las misiones en
Venezuela, que explican cómo en ese país se tiran a la basura medicinas y material para
pacientes inexistentes pero pagados por el Gobierno de Caracas al de La Habana.
No todos los cubanos tienen que ir al hospital con sus propias sábanas, toallas, alimentos,
agua, productos de aseo personal y limpieza, bombilla o colchón. Los extranjeros y los
altos cargos del régimen reciben otro trato en hospitales o clínicas como Cimeq, Cira
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García, Ciren, la 43 y Kohly, o en plantas especiales del Hermanos Ameijeiras y Frank
País. El país que tuvo a un nominado al Nobel de Medicina antes de la llegada de los
Castro, ahora manipula las estadísticas para camuflar la involución en la salud de los
cubanos.
El hospital de Castro y Chávez
C. M.
El Centro de Investigaciones Médico-Quirúrgicas (Cimeq) es el hospital de referencia en
Cuba, dependiente del Ministerio del Interior y solo accesible a la elite del régimen y a
los extranjeros. Hugo Chávez estuvo ingresado en el área especial que utiliza Fidel Castro
desde que enfermó en 2006. Próximo a la casa del dictador, el centro se fundó este siglo.
En su página Web afirma que posee «las más avanzadas técnicas diagnosticas y
terapéuticas»
The Latell Report
March 2013
The Latell Report analyzes Cuba's contemporary domestic and foreign policy, and is published
periodically. It is distributed by the electronic information service of the Cuba Transition Project (CTP) at
the University of Miami's Institute for Cuban and Cuban-American Studies (ICCAS).
The Castros & Venezuela
For the Castro brothers Venezuela has always been the coveted grand prize of Cuban national security
policy. Patiently, they plotted and changed tactics for forty years until their efforts finally bore fruit with the
rise to power of Hugo Chavez.
Venezuelan oil, credits, and joint ventures --worth on average more than six billion dollars annually-- have
flowed, shoring up the Cuban economy even more solidly than the subsidies previously provided by the
Soviet Union. There is no reason to believe that Nicolas Maduro, Chavez’s anointed successor, will
reduce that commitment if, as seems likely, he is elected next month to a six year presidential term of his
own.
The objective of winning a strategic foothold in Venezuela was so important to the Castros that they never
gave up even after calamitous failures. One of the worst was in November 1963 when a three ton cache
of arms and ammunition destined for local guerrillas was discovered buried on a Venezuelan beach. After
it was proved the weapons had come from Cuba, the Organization of American States voted economic
and diplomatic sanctions against the Castro regime. With the exception of Mexico, every Latin American
government severed diplomatic relations with Cuba. The cost was great; but for the Castros the effort was
worthwhile.
Despite failure after failure, they never doubted that with Cuban support a sibling revolutionary regime
could somehow be boosted into power in Caracas. With that accomplished, it was thought in Havana, any
such regime would feel a duty to reciprocate with massive economic aid. This strategic vision has not
changed since January 1959.
It was only twenty-one days after seizing power when Fidel ventured forth on his first foreign junket as
Cuba’s unquestioned leader. He went to Caracas. Greeted as a conquering hero by vast crowds, he
delivered a number of speeches, including one to a stadium full of cheering youths and students. That
was his first taste of international acclaim, and whetted his appetite for a much larger, catalytic role in
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Latin America.
Ostensibly, he went to thank President Romulo Betancourt for the assistance Venezuela provided his
insurgency. But Fidel’s true motives were more sinister and mercenary. He tried to persuade Betancourt
to extend economic aid and to join him in an anti-American entente. Castro described it as “the master
plan against the gringos.” He was spurned, but as a result Betancourt became Fidel’s most despised
enemy and target of unrelenting subversion.
Overthrowing the democratically elected government in Caracas became Cuba’s highest priority in Latin
America. Yet Betancourt and his successor survived everything the Castros hurled against them -saboteurs, terrorists, assassins, pirates, and a powerful guerrilla insurgency. Nearly a half century later
Betancourt was still on Fidel’s mind. In 2010 Castro wrote in one of his “reflections” that the long
deceased Venezuelan was “the most abject and vile enemy of the people . . . a fake and a pretender.”
Castro never forgets an adversary.
Cuban efforts to install Venezuela’s Marxist insurgents into power were a joint effort by Raul Castro’s
military and Cuban intelligence. Hundreds, perhaps thousands, of young Venezuelans were trained in
guerrilla tactics and covert tradecraft and provided funding and military support. Their insurgency --the
Armed Forces of National Liberation-- grew into the largest guerrilla force in the region during the 1960s.
According to a declassified CIA estimate, Venezuela was the only country where Cuba was expecting
“imminent revolutionary victory.”
To make that happen, Raul dispatched more than a dozen of his best and most trusted military officers to
instruct and fight with Venezuelan guerrillas. They were plagued by failures. In May 1967 a commando
force of Cubans and Venezuelan guerrillas landed at Machurucuto, an isolated beach on the Venezuelan
coast. Several perished, and two Cuban military officers were captured after a fierce firefight with local
security forces. The mission was betrayed by a CIA agent in the Cuban military.
General Arnaldo Ochoa, executed on trumped up charges in 1989, was another of the Venezuela
veterans. He saved the life of another Cuban, who also rose to become a three star general. Ulises
Rosales del Toro, chief of the armed forces general staff for fifteen years, nearly died in Venezuela.
Ochoa saved his life by carrying him on his back to safety when he was too weak and emaciated to walk.
Rosales did not repay the favor when he voted in a military tribunal for Ochoa’s execution.
The struggle for Venezuela has therefore been the most enduring and hardest fought of Cuba’s security
objectives. Fidel always thought strategically, many moves ahead, like a grand master moving pieces on
a giant chess board. Che Guevara fought and died in a hopeless insurgency in Bolivia. That was not
important for Fidel. He never lost sight of the richest prize: Bolivia was a pawn; Venezuela was always the
opponent’s queen.
_____________________________
Dr. Brian Latell, distinguished Cuba analyst and author of the book, After Fidel: The Inside Story of
Castro’s Regime and Cuba’s Next Leader, is a Senior Research Associate at ICCAS. He has informed
American and foreign presidents, cabinet members, and legislators about Cuba and Fidel Castro in a
number of capacities. He served in the early 1990s as National Intelligence Officer for Latin America at
the Central Intelligence Agency and taught at Georgetown University for a quarter century. Dr. Latell has
written, lectured, and consulted extensively. His new book, Castro’s Secrets: The CIA and Cuba’s
Intelligence Machine, was published in April 2012 by Palgrave Macmillan.
________________________________
The CTP can be contacted at P.O. Box 248174, Coral Gables, Florida 33124-3010, Tel: 305-284CUBA (2822), Fax: 305-284-4875, and by email at ctp.iccas@miami.edu.
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Venezuela's Capriles Vows to End Cuba Giveaways
by Reuters , March 18, 2013
Venezuelan opposition presidential candidate Henrique Capriles on Monday vowed
to end the OPEC nation's shipments of subsidized oil to communist-run Cuba,
slamming acting President Nicolas Maduro as a puppet of Havana.
Capriles has berated Maduro as a weak imitation of the late Hugo Chavez, whose
death two weeks ago convulsed the country and triggered the April 14 vote. The
opposition also accuses the government of failing to fight crime and control inflation.
"The giveaways to other countries are going to end. Not another drop of oil will go
toward financing the government of the Castros," Capriles said, referring to Cuba's
present and past leaders, Raul and Fidel Castro.
"Nicolas is the candidate of Raul Castro; I'm the candidate of the Venezuelan
people," Capriles said during a speech to university students in the oil-rich state of
Zulia.
The election marks the first test of the "Chavismo" movement's ability to maintain the
late leader's radical socialism after his death, and it will be crucial for regional allies
that depend on Caracas for financing and cheap fuel.
A victory for Capriles, 40, would likely give global oil companies greater access to
the world's largest crude reserves and offer investors more market-friendly policies
after years of state-centered economics.
Maduro, a 50-year-old former bus driver seen as having the advantage in the vote,
has vowed to continue Chavez's economic model that included frequent
nationalizations and heavy regulation of private enterprise alongside generous social
welfare programs that underpinned his popularity.
The youthful Capriles, who lost to Chavez by 11 percentage points in 2012, faces a
delicate balancing act to highlight the flaws of Chavez's governance without
appearing to be attacking the former president or seeking to tarnish his legacy.
He has exchanged furious barbs with Maduro since launching his candidacy and
renewed his criticisms from last year's campaign over day-to-day problems such as
unchecked crime, product shortages and high cost of living.
"Every day it's harder to find food, and every day food is more expensive," Capriles
said. "This model is not viable."
He said halting cheap oil sales to Cuba would free up resources to boost public
employee salaries by 40 percent to make up for inflation that is one of the region's
highest.
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Vicious Campaign
Ties to Cuba are likely to remain a central part of the campaign. Capriles for months
accused authorities of compromising the country's sovereignty by letting Chavez
govern for two months from a Havana hospital.
Venezuela provides close to 100,000 barrels per day of oil to Cuba in exchange for a
host of services including doctors that staff free health clinics in slums and rural
areas.
Supporters say it has helped expand access to health care, while critics call it a
mere subsidy to the Castro government.
Maduro's frequent visits to the island during Chavez's two-month convalescence
there led opposition leaders to joke that he had picked up a Cuban accent.
The emotional outpouring of affection for Chavez following his March 5 death, along
with ample use of government television broadcasts, has helped give Maduro a leg
up in the race.
Millions of bereaved supporters have lined up before Chavez's remains to pay
respects to a leader who was loved by many of the country's poor but reviled by
adversaries who called him a fledgling dictator.
Maduro Lead
Two recent opinion polls showed Capriles trailing Maduro.
Respected local pollster Datanalisis gave Maduro 46.4 percent versus 34.3 percent
for Capriles in a survey carried out before Chavez's death.
He enraged Maduro by accusing him of repeatedly lying about the late president's
two-year battle with cancer, and of then cynically using his death as a campaign tool.
He later apologized to Chavez's family if his words had offended them.
Maduro last week described a plot by "far right" U.S. elements linked to two senior
former members of the George W. Bush administration to kill Capriles.
Both officials denied the charges.
Cuba declares holiday on Good Friday
MENAFN - AFP - 18/03/2013
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(MENAFN - AFP) Cuba's communist government on Monday declared a holiday on Good Friday for the second year
in a row without mentioning the day's religious significance to Christians.The gesture came days after President
Raul Castro welcomed the appointment of Pope Francis as the first-ever Latin American pontiff, and follows a
thawing in relations between communist Cuba and the church in recent years.Last year the Cuban government
observed a holiday on Good Friday, which commemorates Jesus's crucifixion, as an "exceptional" gesture following
a request by Pope Benedict XVI, who had just visited the island in March."The leadership of the country has
approved a pause in work activities on Friday, March 29," the Communist Party daily Granma said Monday. Certain
sectors were excluded from the decree.The Cuban conference of bishops welcomed the announcement."We are
very happy to learn that both Catholics and members of the public sympathetic to the Church will be able to
participate more freely in the various celebrations," said Jose Felix Perez, the conference's executive
secretary.Relations between the communist government and the Catholic Church, which had been stormy for
decades, have gradually improved since the first papal visit to the island by Pope John Paul II in January
1998.That visit led to the reinstatement of a holiday on Christmas Day -- the celebration of which had been
banned in 1969 -- and to an end to the suppression of church processions, which dated back to 1961.More
recently, church leaders were instrumental in helping to secure the May 2010 release of about 130 dissidents after
a dialogue between Cardinal Jaime Ortega and Castro.Only about 10 percent of Cuba's population are practicing
Catholics.
Don’t be fooled — there’s no real change in Cuba
BY CARLOS ALBERTO MONTANER
Elblogdemontaner.com
Miami Herald, Posted on Mon, Mar. 18, 2013
Raúl Castro’s regime wants to change the general perception about Cuba. It is intent on
displaying an image that fundamental changes are taking place on the island, but that’s
not true.
Cubans are better able to speak on the phone or enter the hotels, restaurants and stores
that used to be reserved for tourists. They can open minuscule family businesses to
provide services or are allowed to exploit small parcels of land to produce food. But none
of that is essential.
These are nothing but token gestures intended to alleviate the disastrous economic
consequences of a system that’s mostly unproductive in a material sense and cruelly
harmful in an emotional sense.
What is the essence of that and all other totalitarian tyrannies? It’s evident: the
monstruous fact that one person, one group of big shots or a party makes all the basic
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decisions, tramples on the will of individuals and builds a false reality that matches the
image the rulers themselves prefabricated, in accordance with the dogmas of the sect or
a speech by The Boss.
What’s terrible is the concealment of reality and the propagation of lies, vile tasks to
which those regimes devote almost all their energy. From that clumsy sleight of hand
comes the rest of the catastrophes. Everybody lies in order to survive, to keep from
being crushed.
The Boss lies when he promises a future that he knows will never come, because his
reign is made of promises, not realities. The functionary lies when he falsifies his data to
adapt it to the plans imposed on him by his leaders. The worker lies when he pretends to
carry out those unattainable or absurd projects. The citizen lies when he applauds a
reality that he knows to be false, as false as the Potemkin villages, mere facades of
nonexistent buildings erected in Russia to please the Czarina and deceive the travelers.
Here’s clear proof that Raúl Castro’s dictatorship is more or less the same as that of his
brother Fidel:
In July 2012, Oswaldo Payá and Harold Cepero died in a purported car accident that
occurred on a remote roadway in Cuba’s eastern region. Payá, an opposition democrat
and winner of the European Parliament’s Sakharov Prize, was one of the most loved and
internationally respected Cuban dissidents. Cepero was one of his most brilliant
lieutenants.
The car was driven by Ángel Carromero, a youth leader for the Madrid-based Popular
Party. With him was Aron Modig, a Swedish young man linked to his country’s Christian
Democratic movement. Carromero and Modig had gone to the island to express their
solidarity with the Cuban freedom fighters.
Strictly speaking, it was not an accident but an incident. A political police car that was
tailing them rammed them from behind, pushed the small vehicle that carried Payá and
his friends off the road, and flung it against a tree.
The two Cubans suffered fatal injuries. Or maybe they were killed in the hospital so they
could never tell what happened, something that Payá’s relatives suspect but would be
very hard to prove.
From that moment on, the vile task began (typical of totalitarianism) to conceal reality.
Modig and Carromero were told that if they revealed the truth, the authorities would
throw the Cuban penal code at them and sentence them to years in prison for aiding
counter-revolutionaries.
In addition, because Carromero drove the car, his jailers drugged him for days “to soften
him up” until he admitted that he was speeding on a poorly paved road, a recklessness
that culminated in the accident that took the lives of Payá and Cepero.
The tragicomedy lasted until Carromero arrived in Spain and spoke with Rosa María
Payá, Oswaldo’s daughter, to whom he couldn’t lie. Not only had political police staged
the incident (not an accident at all) but the regime, absolutely intact in its contempt for
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reality, also had put its machinery to use covering up the crime. All of it: the police, the
courts, the scandalous propaganda, domestic and foreign.
The conclusion is obvious: Basically nothing has changed in the Castro brothers’ Cuba.
It is the same dog, wearing a slightly different collar. It knows only one trick and repeats
it endlessly: It conceals reality and barks at and bites whoever tries to expose it.
Presidió Raúl reunión ampliada del Consejo de Ministros
El Presidente de los Consejos de Estado y de Ministros, General de Ejército Raúl Castro,
hizo un llamado a continuar fomentando el orden en todos los escenarios de la sociedad,
y reiteró la necesidad de seguir trabajando con disciplina y exigencia para que el país se
desarrolle de manera sustentable
Granma
digital@juventudrebelde.cu
18 de Marzo del 2013 7:45:30 CDT
Un llamado a continuar fomentando el orden en todos los escenarios de la sociedad hizo
una vez más el General de Ejército Raúl Castro Ruz, durante la reunión ampliada del
Consejo de Ministros realizada el pasado viernes, donde además reiteró la necesidad de
seguir trabajando con disciplina y exigencia para que el país se desarrolle de manera
sustentable.
Esta no es tarea de un día —enfatizó el Presidente de los Consejos de Estado y de
Ministros—, debemos ser sistemáticos en el enfrentamiento a los problemas y
contenerlos antes de nacer, cuando comienzan a notarse sus primeros síntomas para que
no proliferen impunemente ante nuestros ojos.
Consideró que mientras más grandes sean las adversidades, mayor debe ser el espíritu de
resistencia y de lucha para enfrentarlas con optimismo, como siempre nos enseñó Fidel.
«No nos contaminemos de pesimismo. Si trabajamos bien, todo tiene solución», valoró
Raúl en diferentes momentos de la reunión donde se trataron asuntos de vital importancia
para un mejor desenvolvimiento económico.
Reordenando estructuras
Como primer tema del encuentro, Leonardo Andollo Valdés, segundo jefe de la Comisión
Permanente para la Implementación y Desarrollo, explicó los principales resultados de un
estudio sobre la organización estructural del Ministerio de Relaciones Exteriores como
parte del perfeccionamiento que se lleva a cabo en los Organismos de la Administración
Central del Estado.
Con los cambios propuestos —dijo—, se logra una definición más precisa de las
funciones de este organismo, así como una mejor organización para su cumplimiento, lo
que debe traducirse en mayor integración y articulación de la actividad de este Ministerio.
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Igualmente, correspondió a Leonardo Andollo Valdés exponer la política diseñada para
las zonas con regulaciones especiales en el país, entendidas estas como áreas del territorio
nacional donde resulta necesario aplicar un tratamiento diferenciado en función de
intereses medioambientales, histórico-culturales, económicos, de la defensa, la seguridad
y el orden interior.
En este sentido se establecen tres tipos de zonas con regulaciones especiales: de alta
significación ambiental e histórico-cultural; de desarrollo económico, y de interés para la
defensa, la seguridad y el orden interior.
Con ello se pretende especificar las normativas a aplicar en cada caso, atendiendo al
desarrollo económico previsto de forma sostenible.
Más adelante, Salvador Pardo Cruz, ministro de Industrias, explicó la política diseñada
para el desarrollo de las industrias productoras de envases y embalajes. Se supo que la
producción nacional satisface solo el 36 por ciento de la demanda, lo demás debe
importarse.
Después del diagnóstico realizado se confirmó que entre los principales problemas de
este sector están: la elevada obsolescencia tecnológica y el poco aprovechamiento de las
capacidades productivas; los ineficientes procesos inversionistas; la baja disponibilidad
de moldes, troqueles y matrices; el insuficiente reciclaje de envases y embalajes; así
como el bajo nivel de utilización de materias primas recicladas.
La nueva propuesta, que responde al lineamiento 232 aprobado por el VI Congreso del
Partido Comunista de Cuba, pretende acelerar el crecimiento de esas producciones sobre
bases competitivas, introduciendo cambios estructurales para eliminar las insuficiencias
que hoy persisten; y establecer patrones con el fin de utilizar eficientemente los envases y
embalajes.
Al referirse a este punto el General de Ejército consideró que constituye un asunto
estratégico para el país e históricamente le ha costado sumas millonarias a la economía.
«Cómo vamos a exportar, cómo vamos a garantizar internamente la transportación de
nuestras producciones si no contamos con los envases adecuados para ello», consideró, al
tiempo que llamó a prestarle la debida atención a este asunto.
La economía en el centro del debate
Otra de las cuestiones analizadas por el Consejo de Ministros fueron las modificaciones
introducidas en el Plan de la Economía 2013, en particular en materia de las inversiones.
El vicepresidente del Consejo de Ministros Adel Yzquierdo Rodríguez, dijo que ello tuvo
como punto de partida las críticas realizadas por el General de Ejército a la falta de
integralidad en el proceso inversionista.
Precisó el titular de Economía que «se trata de fijarnos un plan objetivo y cumplible,
teniendo en cuenta lo alcanzado en años anteriores». De tal forma destacó que como
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premisas fundamentales se tomó en cuenta que las inversiones tengan la preparación
técnica asegurada, la conciliación certificada del constructor, garantía del financiamiento
y la posibilidad real de recibir importaciones en el año.
Además, expresó, «se deberá compensar en lo posible la reducción del Plan de
Inversiones y su impacto en el PIB a partir del incremento de ventas liberadas de
materiales de construcción y la terminación de viviendas por esfuerzo propio».
Entre las inversiones priorizadas destacan las relacionadas con el turismo, la
biotecnología, las energías renovables, la producción de alimentos, de bioplaguicidas,
bioestimulantes y biofertilizantes, el abasto de agua y saneamiento de las principales
ciudades, los sistemas de riego, la sostenibilidad de la generación eléctrica y las
telecomunicaciones, además de la construcción de viviendas en La Habana y en las
provincias de Santiago de Cuba, Holguín y Guantánamo afectadas por el huracán Sandy,
así como las que todavía existen en varios territorios del país a causa de fenómenos
climatológicos anteriores.
A continuación, Ernesto Medina Villaveirán, presidente del Banco Central de Cuba,
expuso el estado de las cuentas por pagar y por cobrar existentes en el país al concluir el
año 2012, tema que se analiza sistemáticamente en las reuniones del Consejo de
Ministros como muestra del control y la exigencia que la dirección del país ha indicado.
Según se conoció, al comparar la cifra al cierre del 2011 con respecto a igual fecha del
pasado año, se logran disminuir las cuentas por pagar y por cobrar, tanto entre los
Organismos de la Administración Central del Estado (OACE) como en los Consejos de la
Administración Provincial y el sistema empresarial.
No obstante, es un tema que perjudica aún la salud de las finanzas del país y exige un
mayor trabajo por parte de los directivos, lo cual debe estar acompañado de un proceso
sistemático para erradicar las indisciplinas que subsisten, dijo Medina Villaveirán.
«Existen OACE, como el Ministerio de la Agricultura, por ejemplo, en los cuales los
resultados no han sido satisfactorios a pesar de los esfuerzos que se han realizado para
fortalecer la disciplina financiera. En ello repercute en gran medida la persistencia de
problemas estructurales dentro de esta rama de la economía, lo cual conlleva a que la
situación de los impagos se repita e impida buscar las soluciones más factibles con vistas
a ordenar mejor las finanzas, sobre todo en un sector tan importante como es la
agricultura», valoró el Presidente del Banco.
Sobre este tema el General de Ejército consideró que como mismo se hace en las
relaciones con el exterior, es necesario aplicar al interior de la economía la máxima de
que «cualquier compromiso que hagamos debe ser cumplido, no podemos pedir créditos
sin posibilidad real de pago».
Luego, Rodrigo Malmierca Díaz, ministro del Comercio Exterior y la Inversión
Extranjera (MINCEX), informó sobre las afectaciones económicas ocasionadas al país
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por irregularidades en las operaciones del comercio exterior, con lo cual se continúa
dando cumplimiento al acuerdo de incorporar el análisis sistemático de este tema a las
reuniones del Consejo de Ministros.
Según el titular del sector «los daños han sido provocados por múltiples factores y
aunque algunos están asociados a causas externas, la mayoría se relaciona con
deficiencias en nuestro trabajo y dificultades que persisten en la base productiva de
bienes y servicios exportables o están vinculadas a la gestión comercial, de manera
particular a las importaciones».
Señaló que las afectaciones fundamentales se deben a problemas en la calidad de los
productos y la transportación pues persisten demoras en las operaciones de carga y
descarga en los puertos, así como en la rotación de los contenedores.
Reiteró Malmierca Díaz que la responsabilidad es de los jefes de los Organismos de la
Administración Central del Estado, de las Organizaciones Superiores de Dirección
Empresarial, de las empresas, y del MINCEX por ser el organismo rector.
Resulta imprescindible ser severos en el enfrentamiento a las indisciplinas que ocasionan
pérdidas millonarias, para ello urge aplicar sin vacilación las medidas correspondientes y
someter a la justicia penal los casos que corresponda, concluyó.
Ministerio del Transporte: vital para el desarrollo del país
El Consejo de Ministros analizó, además, el proceso de recuperación y desarrollo del
sistema ferroviario, sobre el cual el Presidente cubano consideró que se ha avanzado,
aunque todavía persisten muchas indisciplinas por falta de exigencia, lo cual ejemplificó
con la basura que se vierte sobre las vías, el desvío de las recaudaciones, el robo de
combustible y el apedreamiento a los trenes por muchachos, hecho que se repite, una y
otra vez, generalmente en los mismos lugares.
El titular del sector César Arocha Macid refirió que la transportación de carga por esta
vía se cumplió al 104 %, mientras que la de pasajeros quedó al 97 %, fundamentalmente
por no haberse importado los coches previstos en el plan. Además, se repararon 352,6
kilómetros de vías del ferrocarril, lo que representa un 104 % del plan. Señaló también
que disminuye el número de tramos con limitaciones de velocidad en la Línea Central.
Al Ministro de Transporte también correspondió exponer la situación existente con la
extracción y devolución de contenedores, así como el pago de la estadía por este
concepto. Se conoció que desde la creación de la Operación Puerto Transporte Economía
Interna (OPTEI) se han disminuido considerablemente los costos en los que incurría el
país por demoras en la operación de buques y contenedores (de más de 37 millones en el
2005 a poco más de un millón en el 2012).
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Sin embargo, Arocha Macid enfatizó en que los resultados no pueden confundirnos ni
llevarnos a la complacencia, pues el objetivo es que el país no pague un solo centavo por
estadía.
Bajo ese concepto se analizaron las causas que aún afectan esta actividad como el arribo
masivo de contenedores, el incumplimiento del plan diario de extracción y las
dificultades con los medios de izaje. Por otro lado, se precisó que muchos almacenes
carecen de las condiciones para operar eficientemente los contenedores, se limita el
trabajo a los horarios diurnos y no se labora los domingos ni los días festivos. Además se
mantienen insuficiencias organizativas, de planificación, de previsión, operacionales y de
cooperación entre todos los organismos involucrados en esta cadena.
Finalmente, se conoció sobre la adopción de un conjunto de medidas para enfrentar
dichas adversidades y garantizar la disminución progresiva del pago de estadía, sobre lo
cual se continuará informando en próximas reuniones de este tipo.
Al concluir el Consejo de Ministros, los participantes asistieron a la presentación de la
obra Y sin embargo se mueve (Eppur si muove) de la compañía infantil de teatro La
Colmenita, dirigida por Carlos Alberto Cremata.
Cuba ampliará producción de cilindros de gas con inversión china
Granma 03-18-13
MATANZAS. — La Empresa Conformación Matanzas
(Conformat) Noel Fernández ejecuta hoy una inversión de
medio millón de dólares, supervisada por especialistas
chinos, para duplicar su producción de cilindros de gas de
10 kilogramos.
Gustavo González, especialista productivo, explicó a Prensa
Latina que los trabajos están en fase de puesta en marcha
en este primer trimestre de 2013, lo cual lleva ajustes y
acondicionamiento del flujo de fabricación.
González informó que para este año el propósito es terminar más de 298 mil botellones para gas
licuado a presión, el 70 por ciento de la citada medida, y el resto para recipientes de un peso de
45 kilos.
El total previsto duplicará la elaboración histórica de la entidad, ubicada en esta urbe, distante
100 kilómetros al este de La Habana, y que además de satisfacer la demanda nacional permitirá
ampliar la exportación a países del área, añadió.
Vicente Martínez, especialista en inversiones, añadió que la actual reanimación del equipamiento
facilitará aumentar las capacidades productivas de la compañía.
Conformat -agregó- también confecciona tanques para extintores de presión y aparatos
matafuegos desde un kilogramo hasta nueve kilos y la meta de este año es de 38 mil equipos.
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La firma, única de su tipo en la isla y comercializadora de sus manufacturas, cuenta con un total
de 520 trabajadores, dispone de cuatro unidades: tres de elaboración y una de mantenimiento, y
tiene un plan general equivalente a 20 millones de dólares. (PL)
¿Por qué es tan difícil superar el atraso inversor para el régimen
castrista?
Posted: 18 Mar 2013 06:19 AM PDT
Elías Amor Bravo, economista
Uno de los principales desequilibrios de la economía castrista se refiere a la estructura del
presupuesto de gastos del estado, que otorga una participación muy destacada al gasto corriente
en detrimento del gasto en infraestructuras e inversiones.
En términos comparativos, y según datos de CEPAL, la participación del indicador Formación
Bruta de capital fijo sobre el PIB de la economía castrista, un 9%, se sitúa prácticamente tres
veces por debajo de la media regional en América Latina, donde el resto de países destinan más
recursos a las inversiones productivas que son las que permiten desarrollar la economía y
estimulan el crecimiento sostenible.
La atención a las inversiones en los presupuestos estatales cobra especial relevancia en
aquellos países que, como Cuba, registran niveles bajos de desarrollo. Por el contrario, el
régimen castrista otorga una participación relevante en los presupuestos a los gastos corrientes,
que financian prácticamente el conjunto de la economía de base estatal, donde no existe
propiedad privada y la participación empresarial es residual.
Así, desde los sueldos de los trabajadores de la economía a las pensiones, pasando por las
subvenciones a los precios de los productos para suministrarlos racionados, o lo que es peor, las
subvenciones a las pérdidas registradas por las empresas estatales mal gestionadas, conforman
una elevada carga presupuestaria que está en el origen de la escasa atención a las inversiones.
No es posible funcionar de este modo, porque el modelo no es sostenible, y la pésima imagen de
la vivienda, las deficientes infraestructuras (apagones incluidos), las carreteras, los puertos, etc.
se deben a esa atención política desmedida a un gasto de consumo que se liquida año tras año,
sin posibilidades de mejorar los niveles de ahorro.
Como consecuencia de ello, vivir al límite de las posibilidades para financiar un estado ineficiente
e improductivo, tiene sus complicaciones. Para financiar cualquier proyecto de inversión, el
régimen castrista necesita recurrir a donantes extranjeros que se interesen por colocar sus
excedentes en la isla. Eso sucedió con la minería canadiense y holandesa, o con el turismo y las
cadenas hoteleras españolas. Pero se requiere mucho más para poder situar a la economía en
la senda del crecimiento sostenible, y ahí es donde al parecer, el responsable del Plan de
Economía 2013 del régimen castrista, Adel Yzquierdo, intervino en el consejo de ministros
ampliado del viernes pasado para referirse a este desequilibrio.
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Los problemas para mejorar el nivel de inversiones en la economía castrista son muy complejos.
La ausencia de empresas de propiedad privada y la presencia de organizaciones monopólicas
estatales en la mayoría de sectores económicos, frena la realización de inversiones. Otro
aspecto es la falta de metodología a la que frecuentemente se refieren las autoridades, en
particular, lo que denominan “falta de integralidad en el proceso inversionista”, que para
traducirlo a lenguaje accesible significa que “no hay planes objetivos y cumplibles, teniendo en
cuenta lo alcanzado en años anteriores". En suma, “las inversiones carecen de preparación
técnica asegurada, de la conciliación certificada del constructor, de garantía del financiamiento y
de la posibilidad real de recibir importaciones en el año”.
Dicho de otro modo, la práctica inversora en la economía castrista tiene lo que ya veníamos
imaginando, un alto componente político que desprecia cualquier análisis empresarial coherente,
de ahí su atraso y postración. Nadie cuestionó en su día las decisiones inversoras de Fidel
Castro, por muy alocadas que fueran. Esa vocación política de invertir en aquello que las
autoridades dirigentes establecen es muy negativa para poner orden en cualquier proceso
racional inversor.
Ahora las autoridades quieren incorporar en el plan inversor la apuesta por la construcción de
viviendas en grandes capitales, cuya ejecución no está muy clara como puede realizarse sin
mercados de aprovisionamiento, el régimen quiere aumentar las inversiones en sectores como el
turismo, la biotecnología, las energías renovables, la producción de alimentos, de bio
plaguicidas, bio estimulantes y bio fertilizantes, el suministro de agua y saneamiento de las
principales ciudades, los sistemas de riego, la sostenibilidad de la generación eléctrica y las
telecomunicaciones, además de la construcción de viviendas.
Varias preguntas pueden surgir. ¿Quién va a invertir? ¿Para qué va a invertir? ¿Con qué se va a
invertir? Y finalmente, ¿qué rendimientos esperados se pueden obtener de estos proyectos?
La primera se responde con la reciente campaña que las autoridades han venido realizando por
diversos países para captar la atención de inversionistas. En ausencia de un marco adecuado,
reconocible y equiparable a nivel internacional para la inversión extranjera, mucho me temo que
estas visitas pueden caer en saco roto, más aun, en las actuales difíciles condiciones de los
mercados financieros globales. En cualquier caso, si el que debe invertir es el dueño de todo, el
estado, deberá detraer recursos del gasto corriente. Que se preparen los cubanos para más
pobreza y escasez.
La segunda cuestión parece menos fácil de responder. No existen evidencias. El único objetivo
planteado por Izquierdo es aumentar la tasa de la formación bruta de capital sobre el PIB, pero
no queda claro si ello es para incrementar los niveles de empleo, salarios y gasto de los
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cubanos, aumentar la productividad o mejorar la competitividad. No hace falta saber mucho de
economía para percatarse que objetivos tan relevantes exigen planteamientos alternativos.
La tercera pregunta, el origen de los fondos, tiene mucho que ver con la primera. Me extraña que
alguien pueda prestar a quién negocia unilateralmente, y sin nada que ofrecer, quitas en las
deudas internacionales con grupos especializados como el Club de París. Tengo la impresión
que el régimen no ha estudiado las enormes ventajas que se derivan de la gestión privada
internacional de los servicios públicos mediante contratos de concesión, lo que supone, en
definitiva, abrir de par en par las puertas de la economía estalinista al mercado internacional, un
paso que más tarde o más pronto, se tendrá que dar.
En cuanto a los rendimientos esperados de los proyectos de inversión, cabe preguntarse qué
sentido tienen estimar esos ingresos en una economía en la que no existen referencias de
activos, ni de precios, ni de mercados, ni de consumo razonables. Tan solo es posible realizar
alguna estimación a partir de cálculos indirectos en relación a los frutos de esas inversiones a
nivel internacional, pero si este es el objetivo, cabe preguntarse de qué modo puede acabar una
llamada revolución, convirtiendo a la economía castrista en una maquila de inversores
internacionales, sin atención a los niveles de bienestar y calidad de vida de los cubanos.
No hay forma de encontrar una justificación a todo lo que se plantea. Menos mal que poco se
hace. Tal vez sería recomendable que no hipotecaran de este modo el futuro de Cuba y los
cubanos.
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