Squeeze on cancer of graft leaves Cubans hurting
Squeeze on ‘cancer’ of graft leaves Cubans hurtingBy Marc Frank in HavanaPublished: March 26 2006 23:32 | Last updated: March 26 2006 23:32
Business at the family restaurant in La Lisa, an outlying district of Havana, is visibly down these days. The five tables in the home’s beautiful garden used to be filled with Cuban families and couples, as there are few tourists or foreigners in the area. Asked if the now mainly empty tables were due to the Bush administration’s recent limits on family travel and remittances, the owner said no – “Bush hurt, but this is Fidel and Raul”.
Relatively flush with cash from the export of medical and other services, mainly to Venezuela, and with the inevitable end of their decades-long rule now in sight, the Castro brothers have decided to do something about the state bureaucracy’s penchant for embezzling funds and diverting resources to the black market, and the pilfering by workers that goes on in many workplaces.
While the food is cheap in La Lisa – no more than $5 (€4.10, £2.80) a meal, including a soft drink or beer – that is 125 Cuban pesos at the current government exchange rate, and few Cubans make more than 400 pesos a month, unless they steal.
“The deadly cancer [corruption] has metastasised from our knees up to here [pointing to his chest],” Raul Castro, defence minister and head of the Communist party’s Commission Against Corruption and Illegalities, told national leaders and administrators in a recent closed-door speech, a video tape of which is being shown to select cadre.
Mr Castro, who at 74 is constitutionally in line to succeed his brother Fidel, 79, if he retires or becomes incapacitated, says in the video that 6,000 cadre and 2,000 retired members working in pairs are monitoring the more than 90 per cent state-controlled economy, and that they have discovered “the situation is far worse than we imagined”.
He cites the case of the wholesale food company of east Havana: despite 14 visits by trade ministry officials, 21 inspections and an audit of the company, it took a pair of old party members to discover 2,000 tonnes of products were missing.
An army of young Cubans mobilised by President Castro late last year to stamp out theft and graft found a similar situation when they took over the country’s fuel distribution system – half of it was being stolen.
“We have invited the population to participate in a big battle .?.?. against all thefts of any kind,” the president said.
Out of 159 countries surveyed for corruption in 2005, Transparency International rated Cuba 59th, well behind Chile (21) and Uruguay (35), but just ahead of Mexico and Brazil, and much better than Argentina (98).
Cuba has been trying for several years to tackle its corruption problem, but the current campaign, which began with the establishment of the Commission against Corruption and Illegalities three years ago, is the most serious in decades, observers say.
“The top leadership appears squeaky clean, but below there is a chaos that has proved very hard to dent,” a Havana-based foreign banker says.
In 1997, the National Auditing Office reported that only five of 264 audits of national companies turned up good book-keeping, with 51 satisfactory, 101 poor and 107 bad. The report said 51 per cent of 2,959 audits by other entities rated book-keeping as poor to bad.
In 1998, the government created a National Payments Commission to resolve the issue of unpaid debts between state-run companies, a smokescreen for embezzlement. The companies owed each other more than 4bn pesos and millions of dollars.
Cuban authorities purged the tourism industry more than two years ago, appointing as minister a protégé of Raul Castro, centralising all economic activity, imposing strict controls on the use of foreign exchange and stripping company managers of perks.
The measures coincided with a retreat from market-oriented reforms of the 1990s and began as the country started to pull out of the economic crisis that followed the demise of the Soviet Union.
“Cuba is not a nation of thieves, but many Cubans commit small-scale economic crimes out of need,” Phil Peters, a Cuba expert at the Washington Institute, a conservative US think-tank, says.
“Until there is broad-based, sustained economic growth that bridges the income gap between workers who have hard currency and those who do not, incentives for theft of state resources will persist. At its root, the problem involves economic policy, not law enforcement,” Mr Peters says.
Meanwhile, pressure from above and below has resulted in hundreds of bureaucrats being fired, with some kicked out of the Communist party as well.
Fewer people are eager to fill these posts as illegal revenue streams dry up and they risk being held responsible for the thieving of subordinates, government sources said.
http://news.ft.com/cms/s/3e7f28ec-bd16-11da-bdf6-0000779e2340.html
Cubans back to fields to end sugar rum crisis
Cubans back to fields to end sugar, rum crisisMarch 27, 2006By Franz Smets
Havana, March 27 (DPA) Exactly a year ago President Fidel Castro declared that Cuba’s 300-year history as a sugar-growing island was at an end. But the greying revolutionary leader has been forced to realise that he spoke too soon.
The collapse of the Soviet Union spelled the end of the largest and most reliable market for Cuban sugar, and production on the Caribbean island fell year after year. However, with world sugar prices on the rise, Cuba wants to resume cultivating its cane fields, and quickly.
There is another reason. The lack of sugar has also hit rum production.
‘This country will never again live off sugar,’ were the words Castro used in March 2005 to wake his countrymen up to the new reality.
‘This culture belongs to the time of slavery and to the time of a nation of semi-literates,’ he declared at the time.
Cuba’s economic future was in the service sector and in high-value produce, primarily oil, Castro said.
This is apparently no longer the case, and Cubans face a return to the times so recently damned by their leader.
According to figures released by Sugar Minister Ulises Rosales del Toro, sugar production doubled last week to 14,000 from 7,000 tonnes.
The minister said the expansion had come after a February meeting of the government and the Communist Party of Cuba led by Castro at which the president had called for urgent action.
All available means should be devoted to bringing in the sugar crop, the party newspaper Granma said.
While Cuba requires some 700,000 tonnes for domestic consumption, the current planning calls for a total sugar production of 1.5 million tonnes in 2006, still well below the 2.5 million tonnes produced in 2003.
Experts, however, have queried whether this goal can be achieved. The sugar factories are obsolete and in some cases in extremely poor condition.
As a result of the previous restructuring, half of the plants had been shut down since 2002, with 62 percent of the area cultivated used for other crops and 120,000 workers retrained for other employment.
In the good old days the sugar industry provided a living for around 500,000 workers. A total of 2 million people lived from the proceeds.
During the 1970s and 1980s annual production reached an average of 7 million tonnes of the ‘white gold.’
But in the succeeding decade production fell to 4 million tonnes, and in 2003 that figure was just 2.5 million tonnes.
The decline of the traditional agricultural sector has had another particularly painful effect.
The lack of alcohol produced from sugar has meant a shortage of rum, according to the weekly newspaper of the trade unions, Trabajadores.
In January 2006 only 248,000 litres of the national drink was sold in the capital, around 200,000 litres less than what Havana bought in the same month the previous year.
‘Consumers are looking forward to a rapid solution to the problem,’ the report said.
http://www.dailyindia.com/show/11896.php/Cubans_back_to_fields_to_end_sugar_rum_crisis
Much Maligned Rights Commission Closes
Much-Maligned Rights Commission ClosesU.N. Human Rights Commission, Mocked for Including Libya, Cuba in the Past, Ends 60-Year HistoryBy SAM CAGEThe Associated Press
GENEVA – The discredited U.N. Human Rights Commission held its last meeting Monday before being replaced by a new body, ending a 60-year history in which some of the world’s worst offenders often used their membership to protect one another from condemnation.
Peruvian Ambassador Manuel Rodriguez Cuadros, chairman of the 53-nation commission, gaveled the final session to an end. The commission’s work will be taken up by a new U.N. Human Rights Council, which debuts in June.
The commission, which originally was inspired by the United States, came to be discredited in recent years because some countries with terrible human rights records such as Sudan, Libya, Zimbabwe and Cuba used their membership to protect one another from condemnation.
U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights Louise Arbour said member states should now seize the opportunity to improve the U.N.’s tarnished rights record.
“The first opportunity to breathe life into this new institution will come with the elections of its first members,” Arbour said. “This is a vital opportunity for the United Nations to begin setting the standard for its human rights work in the future.”
The General Assembly voted earlier this month to replace the commission with the new council, ignoring U.S. objections that not enough was done to prevent abusive countries from becoming members.
“The commission will not be mourned by many who value human rights,” U.S. Ambassador Kevin Moley told The Associated Press. “The good news is the commission is over. The bad news is that what replaces it isn’t much better.”
The new 47-member Human Rights Council will hold its first meeting June 19 in Geneva. The U.N. General Assembly will vote on new members May 9.
“It is an opportunity not to be missed by candidates and the electorate alike for it will visibly set the tone and the ethos of this new body,” Arbour said.
The United States has yet to decide on whether it will seek election, Moley said.
Associated Press reporter Bradley S. Klapper contributed to this report.
http://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory?id=1773116&CMP=OTC-RSSFeeds0312
Buena Vista ghosts follow diva Omara Portuondo
Buena Vista ghosts follow diva Omara PortuondoMon Mar 27, 2006 8:24 AM ETBy Esteban Israel
HAVANA (Reuters) – Omara Portuondo swears the ghosts of Compay Segundo, Ibrahim Ferrer and Ruben Gonzalez follow her wherever she sings.
And at 75, the surviving star of the Buena Vista Social Club has a hectic international touring schedule.
Last week the Cuban diva performed in Mexico. In April she will be in Colombia, followed by a six-nation European tour in July and August and on to Hungary in October.
“I miss them so much. They’re always with me, on every stage,” Portuondo said in her dressing room before a recent concert.
Her smoky voice and sad “bolero” ballads that tell of lost love recall Billie Holiday and Edith Piaf.
She was the only woman on the Buena Vista Social Club album recorded at a jam session with guitarist Ry Cooder in 1996. It sold a million copies, won a Grammy and relaunched the careers of a group of largely forgotten musicians.
Named after a seniors-only social club in a western Havana neighborhood, the album sparked a revival of world interest in traditional Cuban music, source of the rhythmic cha cha cha and mambo dances in the heady days of 1940 and 1950s Havana.
The story of the musicians’ late-life jump to international fame was told in 1999 by German director Wim Wenders in his Oscar-nominated documentary “Buena Vista Social Club.”
But time has taken its toll on the band.
Its oldest member, guitarist and front man Compay Segundo, died in 2003 at age 95. Pianist Ruben Gonzalez passed away months later at 84. Singer Ibrahim Ferrer died last year aged 78. A week ago, singer and composer Pio Leyva died of a heart attack at 88.
As the curtain rises at Havana’s National Theater at a recent performance, Portuondo’s sensual voice fills the auditorium. She steps forward gingerly, looking down to avoid tripping on a cable.
Her opening song is a soulful bolero, “What’s Left For Me to Live.”
‘JUST A LITTLE MULATTA’
Portuondo was born in Havana in 1930 when the city was thriving on sugar wealth. Her mother came from a rich Spanish family and eloped with a black baseball player.
The petite Portuondo started out in show business as a dancer at Havana’s famed Tropicana cabaret. In 1952, she formed a female vocal quartet called Las D’Aida that once opened for Nat King Cole at the Tropicana.
“I’m just a little Cuban mulatta who loved music since I was a girl,” she said. “I’m so happy to have the strength to continue,” she added backstage, changing out of sneakers into high heeled shoes.
By the time Ry Cooder invited her to join the Buena Vista project, Portuondo had a singing career spanning four and half decades that included countless recordings.
Unlike other veterans in the band, she was still singing in Latin America and better off than they. Ferrer was shining shoes while Gonzalez didn’t even have a piano of his own and played at a ballet school for a living.
It was her duet with Compay Segundo of the bolero “Veinte Anos” (“Twenty Years”) on the Buena Vista album, however, that shot her to global prominence.
“Today, many people all over the world know me as a symbol of Cuban music, and I owe that to Buena Vista,” she said.
Portuondo has recorded three solo albums, including “Dos Gardenias” (2001) and “Flor de Amor” (2004), and she has appeared as guest singer on a dozen more since her career relaunched.
And her passport continues to fill up with stamps: Macao, Hong Kong, Shanghai, Beijing, Singapore, Seoul.
At every stop, she religiously sings “Twenty Years.”
And misses Compay, his small hat and big cigar.
“Every time we went out on stage to sing the song, he would stand next to me and put his hand on my backside,” Portuondo recalled.
“I would tell him, ‘Compay, please, you know my back well enough.’ But he was such a devil and we had the audience right in front of us. There was nothing I could do.”
http://today.reuters.com/news/newsArticle.aspx?type=lifeAndLeisureNews&storyID=2006-03-27T132344Z_01_N26319116_RTRUKOC_0_US-LEISURE-CUBA-DIVA.xml
Cuba buying more Russian jets
Cuba buying more Russian jets
HAVANA, March 27 (UPI) — Cuba’s flagship airline will buy five more Russian jets, with PS90A engines, the newest engines available.
Cubana de Aviacion will buy two Il-96-300s, two Tu-205-100s and a Tu-204S, Novosti said Monday. The PS90A engine being installed on all five jets is made by Permskiye Motory, which is based in Perm.
The Cuban carrier has already bought two Il-96-300s powered with PS90A engines as part of a contract between Russian leasing company Ilyushin Finance Co. and Cuba’s state-owned Aviaimport SA.
http://www.upi.com/NewsTrack/view.php?StoryID=20060327-095436-6161r
Preserving the Pilar
Posted on Mon, Mar. 27, 2006
Preserving the Pilar
Ernest Hemingway’s 40-foot, black-hulled fishing boat, the Pilar, could be getting a little restorative nip and tuck.
Watercraft preservation specialist Dana Hewson of Mystic, Conn., and members of the Boston-based Hemingway Preservation Foundation are heading to Finca Vigia, Hemingway’s estate in Cuba, where he will photograph and examine the Pilar.
”Professionally, this is a really fascinating project for me,” Hewson told The Day of New London. He works at Mystic Seaport.
Hemingway sailed the boat when he lived in Cuba from 1939 to 1960 and is said to have conceived some of his greatest works, including The Old Man and the Sea, while on board.
The National Trust for Historic Preservation placed the boat on its 2005 list of America’s 11 Most Endangered Historic Places even though it’s not in the United States.
The Boston group is working with the Cuban government to preserve the Pilar, along with Hemingway’s home and thousands of Hemingway drafts, manuscripts, letters, photographs and books stored there.
The fear is that the warm, humid conditions will damage the papers, which include the never-published epilogue of For Whom the Bell Tolls.
http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/living/people/14194422.htm
US Preservationists travel to Cuba to examine Hemingways boat
U.S. Preservationists travel to Cuba to examine Hemingway´s boat
03/26/2006A team of preservationists will travel to Cuba on Sunday to examine author Ernest Hemingway’s fishing boat.
Members of the Boston-based Hemingway Preservation Foundation will travel to Finca Vigia, Hemingway’s Cuban estate, where they will examine the Pilar. Hemingway sailed the 40-foot (12-meter) boat when he lived in Cuba from 1939 to 1960, and is said to have conceived some of his greatest works, including “The Old Man and the Sea,” while aboard.
The group is working with the Cuban government to preserve the Pilar, Hemingway’s home and the thousands of Hemingway drafts, manuscripts, letters, photographs and books stored there.
The home is considered of such importance that the National Trust for Historic Preservation placed it on its 2005 list of America’s 11 Most Endangered Historic Places even though it is not in the United States.
The fear is that the warm, humid conditions will eventually damage the papers, which include the never-published epilogue of “For Whom the Bell Tolls.” The Pilar is stored under a metal roof on a former tennis court on the estate.
Hemingway bought the Pilar, a Wheeler Playmate, in 1934 from a shipyard in Brooklyn, New York. In his will, he left the vessel to his boatman, who gave it to the Cuban government.
http://www.eitb24.com/portal/eitb24/noticia/en/entertainment/hemingway-preservation-foundation-u-s–preservationists-travel-to?itemId=D21469&cl=%2Feitb24%2Fcultura&idioma=en
Rescatan a cinco inmigrantes cubanos en Las Bahamas
Posted on Mon, Mar. 27, 2006
Rescatan a cinco inmigrantes cubanos en Las BahamasOSCAR CORRALThe Miami Herald
Un barco de cruceros recogió a cinco inmigrantes cubanos en el mar cerca de Las Bahamas y los entregaron a las autoridades de esa isla el fin de semana, según reportó este lunes la Guardia Costera estadounidense.
El barco de joyas, parte de la flota del Norwegian Cruise Line, recogió a los cinco inmigrantes el 20 de marzo, dijo la vocera de la Guardia Costera Dana Warr. Ellos hicieron una llamada de cortesía a la Guardia Costera para alertarlos sobre el rescate de los cubanos, pero las autoridades estadounidenses no jugaron ningún papel en la operación, aseguró Warr.
”Era un barco extranjero dirigiéndose a un país extranjero”, dijo Warr. Nosotros no los llevamos a ellos a Las Bahamas.”
El barco entregó los inmigrantes a las autoridades bahamenses el sábado, dijo Warr.
Las Bahamas ha estado recientemente en la mirilla de los miembros del congreso estadounidense y de activistas del exilio cubano por el pobre tratamiento que le han dado a inmigrantes procedentes de Cuba o de Haiti que mantienen en el centro de detención de inmigración de Nassau.
http://www.miami.com/mld/elnuevo/news/local/14198410.htm
Gobierno de Cuba afirma que tiene asegurada la sucesion de Fidel Castro
Gobierno de Cuba afirma que tiene asegurada la sucesión de Fidel Castro
AFP.La Habana. Cuba tiene asegurada la sucesión de Fidel Castro para garantizar la continuidad de la revolución socialista, pese a la “democratización forzada” que pretende imponer Estados Unidos, afirmó Josefina Vidal, funcionaria de la cancillería a cargo de Norteamérica.
En una entrevista publicada este lunes por el semanario Trabajadores, la directora interina de América del Norte del Ministerio de Relaciones Exteriores fustigó los planes de transición que tiene el gobierno de George W. Bush para Cuba.
“Los planes elaborados por la actual administración norteamericana son claramente anexionistas, ni siquiera dan la posibilidad a los cubanos de escoger su camino; implantarían un sistema distinto, un cambio económico, social, político, dictando lo que se puede hacer”, aseveró.
“Afirman (Estados Unidos) que no van a aceptar el traspaso de gobierno de Fidel a Raúl ni de Raúl a otro de los actuales dirigentes, tratan de impedir la continuidad de los revolucionarios en el poder, y con el conocido Plan Bush pretenden desaparecer todo vestigio del socialismo”, comentó la funcionaria.
Según Vidal, los pronósticos de Estados Unidos sobre una inestabilidad en Cuba es un lapso de dos a cinco años, “período que conlleva la elaboración de planes de contingencia”, en los que -sostiene- no se descarta “el uso de la fuerza”.
“Esgrimen el presunto deterioro de la salud del presidente cubano Fidel Castro y su desaparición física como el punto culminante para pasar del discurso a la acción”, acotó la funcionaria.
Pero, señaló, Estados Unidos comete el “error” de “personalizar la revolución cubana, centrarla en liderazgos, desconociendo su historia, la institucionalización del país, y la formación de nuevas generaciones de líderes que están prestos y preparados”.
“Las grandes personalidades no se reproducen. Las nuevas generaciones de cubanos que tendrán la misión de conducir el futuro de este país lo harán con sus propias características, preservando siempre el legado de la dirigencia histórica de la revolución”, advirtió Vidal.
Mencionó asimismo que el Departamento de Estado pondrá en marcha un paquete de medidas a partir de mayo próximo para reforzar la “hostilidad” del plan de transición.
“La *democratización* forzosa se expresa de manera muy agresiva en la política exterior norteamericana por medio del financiamiento directo a grupos de oposición o con la aplicación de sanciones”, manifestó la funcionaria, quien señaló que el plan de Washington incluye deslegitimar al gobierno cubano a nivel internacional.
Hace ya varios años Castro, quien en agosto cumplirá 80 años -47 de ellos en el poder- afirmó que su lógico sucesor es su hermano Raúl, de 74 años, y el pasado 17 de noviembre, evocando su muerte, aseguró que “todo está listo” para que no haya “sorpresas”.
http://www.laverdad.com/avancesnews.asp?mostrar=1&idcat=4&idnot=15726
Cuba es el pais con mas proyectos de ayuda al desarrollo financiados por Canarias
España/cuba 27-03-2006
Cuba es el país con más proyectos de ayuda al desarrollo financiados por Canarias
LAS PALMAS DE GRAN CANARIA, 27 (EP/IP)
Cuba ha sido el país al que Canarias ha financiado más proyectos de ayuda al desarrollo en la última década, con un total de 97 programas destinados a este fin. Al país caribeño lo sigue Mauritania, donde el Gobierno regional ha costeado 52 proyectos en los últimos diez años.
En Venezuela se pusieron en marcha, con fondos de la ayuda oficial al desarrollo del Ejecutivo autonómico, 46 proyectos; en Cabo Verde, 41; en Argentina, 21 y en Senegal, 20.
Según la modalidad de actuación, la memoria de la Dirección General de Relaciones con África 1995-2004, contempla, principalmente, tres categorías que se centran en los proyectos y programas de desarrollo, la ayuda humanitaria y las campañas de sensibilización realizadas en la población canaria.
La modalidad de actuación más importante entre 1995 y 2004, dentro de las iniciativas de cooperación gestionadas por el Gobierno regional, han sido los proyectos al desarrollo, con un 62 por ciento del total y un 49 por ciento de la ayuda oficial al desarrollo acumulada en dicho periodo, alcanzando un importe de 20 millones de euros.
Por su parte, la ayuda humanitaria acapara el 17 por ciento de los proyectos financiados durante la última década y el 48 por ciento de la ayuda al desarrollo, que se traduce en 95 proyectos con un importe de 19,6 millones de euros.
Además, las campañas de sensibilización ostentan el 21 por ciento de los proyectos y un 3 por ciento sobre la ayuda total al desarrollo acumulada durante el periodo 1995-2004. Concretamente, fueron 114 los proyectos realizados para este fin, lo que supuso un coste de 1,2 millones de euros.
Por otra parte, cabe hacer mención especial a que la ayuda humanitaria de Canarias destinada a la población saharaui alcanzó en la última década un importe de 7,5 millones de euros, cifra que representa el 38,1 por ciento del volumen total de ayuda humanitaria y, al mismo tiempo, el 99,63 por ciento del total que se destina a África. El Ejecutivo regional mantiene históricamente con el pueblo saharaui esta línea de ayuda humanitaria fijada y regulada por Ley desde 1994.
Terra Actualidad – Europa Presshttp://actualidad.terra.es/articulo/cuba_canarias_pais_proyectos_ayuda_803999.htm
Grupo disidente invita a gobierno y exilio a encuentro dialogo
Grupo disidente invita a gobierno y exilio a encuentro diálogo27 de Marzo de 2006, 12:18PM ET
La Habana, 27 mar (EFE).- La organización disidente moderada Arco Progresista invitó hoy al gobierno cubano, a grupos de la oposición interna y del exilio a sumarse a una jornada de reflexión y diálogo sobre el futuro de Cuba.
Manuel Cuesta Morúa, líder de Arco Progresista, explicó a EFE que su organización pretende reunir el próximo noviembre al gobierno, opositores, grupos del exilio y personalidades de todo el mundo.
El lema de esta convocatoria inédita hasta ahora en la isla es “jornada de reflexión: diálogo entre cubanos: el futuro de la Nación”.
“Estamos remitiéndole esta invitación a personalidades relevantes tanto cubanas como extranjeras, así como a la Asamblea Nacional del Poder Popular, el Consejo de Estado de la República de Cuba y al Partido Comunista de Cuba, cuya participación colmaría nuestras expectativas”, señala la convocatoria del encuentro.
“Es un evento para intentar reflexionar sobre las distintas maneras en que se puede ver el diálogo en Cuba”, apuntó el líder de Arco Progresista, de tendencia socialdemócrata.
En este ejercicio de reflexión, añadió, “intentaremos que participen personalidades e instituciones tanto cubanas como extranjeras que de alguna manera puedan aportar a este asunto de cómo ver el diálogo en Cuba, que es todavía una asignatura pendiente”.
La convocatoria, dijo, es extensiva a organizaciones del exilio en Estados Unidos. “Incluye a cualquiera que en Miami esté dispuesto a presentar su opinión por el diálogo y su opción”, subrayó.
A su juicio, esta iniciativa es diferente a la organizada en mayo del pasado año por la Asamblea para Promover la Sociedad Civil, liderada por la disidente Marta Beatriz Roque, porque “en aquella ocasión se pretendía discutir sobre la transición propiamente dicha y ahora se trata de legitimar socialmente el diálogo”. EFE
mar/arhttp://www.univision.com/contentroot/wirefeeds/lat/6442703.html
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