Statement from Bacardi U.S.A., Inc. on the U.S. Court of Appeals Ruling Regarding Havana Club Rum Registration
Statement from Bacardi U.S.A., Inc. on the U.S. Court of Appeals Ruling Regarding Havana Club Rum RegistrationBy: PRNewswire | 30 March 2011CORAL GABLES, Fla.–(BUSINESS WIRE)
Statement from Patricia M. Neal, spokeswoman for Bacardi U.S.A., Inc., on the U.S. Court of Appeals ruling on March 29, 2011 regarding the HAVANA CLUB registration.
"Bacardi U.S.A., Inc. applauds the U.S. Court of Appeals for confirming that the Cuban government had no `vested right' to the renewal of the HAVANA CLUB trademark registration in the U.S., and that the U.S. Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) acted lawfully in denying Cubaexport a license for the renewal. The effect of the Court of Appeals' decision is that the Cuban government's registration is expired and cancelled. The U.S. courts have also consistently ruled that the Cuban-French venture Havana Club Holding has no rights to the HAVANA CLUB trademark in the U.S.
"With this ruling, the United States reaffirms the traditional principle that confiscation of trademarks in one country has no effect on another. Cuban confiscation of trademarks without compensation to the original owners does not extend to U.S. trademarks.
"We are thrilled with the decision of the U.S. Court of Appeals. As we have maintained all along, Bacardi is the legitimate owner of the brand."
About Bacardi U.S.A., Inc.
Bacardi U.S.A., Inc. is the United States import and distribution arm of one of the world's leading spirits and wine producers. The company boasts a portfolio of some of the most recognized and top-selling spirits brands in the United States including BACARDI® rum, the world's favorite and best-selling premium rum, as well as the world's most awarded rum; GREY GOOSE® vodka, the world-leader in super-premium vodka; DEWAR'S® Blended Scotch Whisky, the number-one selling blended Scotch whisky in the United States; BOMBAY SAPPHIRE® gin, the top-valued and fastest-growing premium gin in the world; CAZADORES® 100 percent blue agave tequila, the number-one premium tequila in Mexico and a top-selling premium tequila in the United States; MARTINI® vermouth, the world-leader in vermouth; and other leading and emerging brands. For additional information, visit http://www.bacardiusa.com.
Contacts
Bacardi U.S.A., Inc.
Amy Federman, 441-294-1110
or
Patricia M. Neal, 441-294-1110
http://www.just-drinks.com/news/statement-from-bacardi-usa-inc-on-the-us-court-of-appeals-ruling-regarding-havana-club-rum-registration_id103455.aspx
Witness: Cuba out to kill militant on trial in US
Witness: Cuba out to kill militant on trial in USBy WILL WEISSERTAssociated Press
A former Cuban intelligence officer is testifying in federal court that Cuba's domestic spy apparatus has a special department dedicated to assassinating enemies of the communist government.
Roberto Hernandez Del Llano says an ex-CIA agent on trial in El Paso, Texas, is among its primary targets.
Hernandez Del Llano was a spy with Cuban state security but left his post in 1992, saying he was disillusioned with government corruption.
He fled to Miami in 2007 and has been called by the defense for 83-year-old Luis Posada Carriles. Posada is a Cuba-born anti-communist militant facing 11 counts of immigration fraud, obstruction of justice and perjury.
Hernandez Del Llano says a special wing of state security focuses on Cuban exiles opposed to the Cuban government and has been charged with "liquidating" Posada.
http://www.kansascity.com/2011/03/30/2763808/witness-cuba-out-to-kill-militant.html#storylink=rss
Cuba’s Remnant Rediscovers Religion
Cuba's Remnant Rediscovers ReligionLetter from HavanaBy Michael OrbachPublished March 30, 2011.
The hubbub surrounding Cuba's small Jewish community these days does not faze Yakob Berezniak Hernandez.
Sitting behind a desk crowded with a typewriter, several cans of Lieber's tomato paste and piles of loose foreign change, Hernandez, of Havana's Adath Israel synagogue, waved away inquiries about Alan Gross, the 61-year-old American Jewish contractor sentenced to 15 years in prison March 15. Gross was found guilty of seeking to clandestinely distribute Internet satellite communications equipment to Cuba's Jewish community on behalf of United States Agency for International Development.
"We have good relationships with the goyim," said Hernandez. "This is a paradise for religions. You can't find anti-Semites [here]. No one cares."
But several days later, it became clear that some people outside Cuba care a lot. When former President Jimmy Carter arrived in Cuba on March 28, he met almost immediately with Jewish community leaders, followed by meetings over the next two days with senior Cuban officials, including President Raul Castro. ABC News reported that the Gross case was a prominent part of his discussions with the Cuban officials.
The Gross case also shined a spotlight on the small Cuban-Jewish community or "Jubans," as they are known. While close to 95% of the Jewish population fled Cuba before or soon after the revolution, a remnant remained. Now numbering a little more than 1,000, the community has experienced a religious reawakening.
These days, 200 people or more pray every Sabbath in the El Patronato Bet Sholom Synagogue, the largest in Cuba, and close to 100 teenagers attend Sunday school, where they learn Hebrew and study about Judaism.
Adath Israel, located in the old Havana district, is the sole Orthodox synagogue in Cuba. Hernandez, a hulking, bearded 29-year-old, fulfills many roles in the congregation. He is the synagogue's cantor, public prayer reader, one-man burial committee and treasurer. After spending four months in Haifa in 2009 studying the laws of kashrut, he also became the community's sole shokhet, or ritual slaughterer, a task he fulfills five blocks away, in a butcher shop. (Meat, a luxury in Cuba, is regularly provided to members of the Jewish community under the national rationing system, instead of the pork rations others receive.)
Outside Hernandez's office, women knitted yarmulkes with Israeli and Cuban flags intertwined, which they sold to tourists for roughly $10, a little less than a month's salary for most Cubans.
While Israel and Cuba do not have formal diplomatic ties, Cuban Jews can make aliyah and leave the country, unlike their fellow citizens. Many Jews have immigrated to Israel, though Hernandez said that some have had trouble adjusting. "It's difficult to adapt to life in Israel," Hernandez said, citing the relaxed atmosphere of Cuba. "People that stay are very happy. It's a place to practice Judaism."
The Orthodox Adath Israel, which holds daily morning and afternoon-evening services, found a novel way to attract people in this country of scarcities to its gatherings: food. The synagogue provides a meal after both shacharit, the morning service, and mincha, the afternoon service.
Hernandez said that the congregation numbers 300 members, many of whom he claims keep kosher thanks to donations from the Jewish community of Panama. The synagogue bakes challah in its own kitchen; for Purim, Adath Israel baked hamantaschen. A new van, with the name and logo of the synagogue's website, was parked outside — a strange sight in Havana, where bicycle taxis and refurbished 1950s Chevrolets and DeSotos crowd the dusty streets. This relative wealth didn't stop members of the community from offering to sell cigars to a reporter.
Ruth Behar, a professor of anthropology at the University of Michigan and the author of "An Island Called Home: Returning to Jewish Cuba," said that the community is composed mainly of converts.
"There's a handful of Jews on both their mother and father's side," she said. "Most have converted because their father is Jewish or they have a grandparent. They're very much a larger part of Cuban society."
Outside Adath Israel, Bryam Ernesto Quirch Acosta, 21, an engineering student at the University of Havana whose grandfather was Jewish, explained why he came to the synagogue. "I feel sorry," he said in Spanish. "I don't know how to be Jewish."
The community's makeup has caused some problems for Lubavitch, the Hasidic sect famed for its worldwide outreach. The Orthodox synagogue broke ties with the group recently.
"They make propaganda against the Jews and the goyim," Hernandez said, explaining the break.
Shimon Aisenbach of the Chabad Canadian Friends of Cuban Jewry said that the falling-out was caused when the synagogue's old president left. Lubavitch emissaries, according to Aisenbach, were told that the synagogue no longer believed in the Orthodox definition of someone who is Jewish, which requires matrilineal descent.
"They proved it clearly to our emissaries by allowing an outright non-Jew to blow the shofar on that Rosh Hashanah," he explained in an email to the Forward.
Hernandez said that the synagogue is strictly Orthodox and does not do conversions, though it does allow those who have converted in the Patronato synagogue to take part in its services.
For most Cubans, though, conversions and intermarriages seem a part of life. Rosa Behar (no relation to the anthropologist), a prominent, retired gastroenterologist who runs a free pharmacy for the Jewish community and serves as president of the Cuban chapter of Hadassah, called them the "most beautiful thing" about the Jewish community.
"They come because life is better," she said, referring to the many assimilated Cubans with some Jewish ancestry who flock to synagogue services.
Cuba's hostile foreign policy toward Israel is largely typical of leftist governments worldwide. But there are low-profile chinks in the public stance. In 1992, Rafi Eitan, a former senior Mossad operative and current Israeli Cabinet minister, founded a company that owns several large citrus cooperatives in the country. He markets the cooperative's fruits in Israel. Eitan, who was implicated in Jonathan Pollard's Washington espionage scandal in the 1980s, has a personal relationship with Fidel Castro through his company. In 2006, Eitan joined Castro to inaugurate Havana's Holocaust memorial monument — a large seven-branch menorah in a central city square.
"The Cuban government doesn't like the Israeli government and their attitude toward the Palestinians, but they actually love Jewish people and appreciate the Jews," Ruth Behar said.
Arturo Lopez-Levy, a lecturer at the Josef Korbel School of International Studies at the University of Denver who lived in Cuba until 2001, said he believed that Gross was an unwitting instrument of the old U.S. policy of regime change dressed as Jewish solidarity. At Gross's closed trial, Lopez-Levy related, citing accounts he heard from Cuba, a Jewish communal leader testified that Gross, who entered on a tourist visa, had never informed the Jewish communal official he was working on behalf of USAID. The Cuban government views USAID's Cuba programs, funded under Congress' Helms-Burton Act imposing sanctions on their country, as part of a U.S. effort to undermine the regime.
"It is legitimate to promote human rights, legitimate to promote religious freedom, legitimate to promote communications with Cuban citizens [to] the outside world," said Lopez-Levy, who strongly supports Gross's release. "What is not legitimate is to do so as an agent of a government that seeks to undermine the regime without the informed consent of the community."
http://www.forward.com/articles/136596/
Fidel Castro, el stripper en jefe
Publicado el miércoles, 03.30.11
Fidel Castro, el stripper en jefeNicolás Pérez
Iba a escribir sobre el viaje de Jimmy Carter a La Habana, pero creo que Rolandito Behar lo va a hacer con más precisión y conocimiento. Entonces hablemos de Fidel Castro, que es algo, y fíjense que no digo alguien sino algo, muy raro. Hay innumerables hipótesis de que su personalidad actual se debe a traumas de su infancia. No opino así.
Está de moda sospechar que los traumas de los niños explican sus perversiones cuando se convierten en hombres. ¿La realidad? El padre de Fidel fue un español rústico, que llegó a Cuba a luchar contra los mambises y se hizo de un capital comprando una pequeña finquita, que luego corriendo cercas de madrugada robadas a la United Fruit Company la convirtió en una fincota llamada Birán. Nada extraño. ¿Su madre Lina? Una sirvienta inteligente que terminó finalmente casándose con el patrón, pero este tipo de historia también se dio a tutiplén en nuestro país.
Y así, de un entorno común y corriente, quizás por mutación genética, nació un monstruo con características especiales que son las que han marcado la existencia del pueblo de Cuba en el último medio siglo.
La primera es que Fidel es como Jalisco, siempre gana, y si pierde, arrebata. Nunca ha entendido que la vida es una ruleta donde a veces la bolita cae en el rojo y otras en el negro. Le es imposible aceptar que en cada apuesta, y la vida es una perpetua apuesta, existe un por ciento razonable de posibilidades de ganar o perder. También cualquier ser humano normal sabe, y esto no debe alterarlo, que cuando juega ajedrez, damas chinas, o quimbumbia puede salir con el rasero ardiendo. Para Fidel no, para él cualquier tipo de pérdida es una tragedia, una hecatombe personal.
Su segunda característica sobresaliente es que es un exhibicionista de tomo y lomo. Si no aparece en las primeras páginas de los diarios sufre intensamente. Hay quienes dicen que quiso ser pelotero de Grandes Ligas. El mismo ha confesado que le hubiera gustado ser escritor. Mentiras. Puros cuentos. Si en su juventud hubiese fracasado como político, habría optado por ser stripper, y bailado desnudo, quitándose la ropa con lentitud, en un bar de mala muerte de Miami Beach. Si entro en comparaciones históricas, a quien más se me parece Fidel Castro es a Eróstrato, que el día del nacimiento de Alejandro Magno, en el 356 A.C., le dio candela al Templo de Artemisa en Éfeso para llamar la atención. También tiene un severo parecido a Lady Godiva, una anglosajona casada con el Conde de Chester, que en la Inglaterra de principios del siglo XI, por un motivo supuestamente político, protestar contra los altos impuestos, se paseó desnuda por su pueblo montada sobre un caballo. Dicen las crónicas de la época que Lady Godiva estaba muy buena, supongo que tenía un cuerpo parecido al de Shakira. Por eso se exhibió sin una gota de pudor, como Fidel exhibe hoy su imbécil y obsoleto antiimperialismo, pero que no es lindo como era el cuerpo de Lady Godiva.
Ahora el tipo está en baja. Ya no hay discursos maratónicos. Se dedica a escribir aburridas Reflexiones que nadie lee, en las cuales, como un Walter Mercado sin capa y de capa caída, profetiza tragedias mundiales donde el yanqui es el totí, ese infeliz pajarito negro que siempre carga con la culpa de todo.
También no perdona. No sabe lo que es el perdón, ni la indulgencia ni la compasión. Tiene una memoria de elefante para vengarse de sus enemigos, no le bastó con encarcelar sino que estuvo torturando al mejor amigo de su juventud, Rafael del Pino, hasta que se suicidó en la cárcel.
Últimamente Castro ha tenido dos tipos de movidas raras pero que tienen una clara explicación.
La primera, cuando confirmó recientemente que hace 5 años había renunciado a la Secretaría General del Partido Comunista de Cuba. Y luego pidió disculpas porque no se percató de cómo sus comentarios iban a ser interpretados. Otra guayaba verde. Lo que dijo lo dijo y no se le fue. Simplemente, no quiere cargar con la responsabilidad del próximo Congreso Comunista Cubano, que por mucho que digan allá y aquí, van a aprobar medidas encaminadas a propiciar el capitalismo en la isla. Que se quedan cortísimas, de acuerdo, pero para el librito por el cual Fidel se rige, muchas son contrarrevolucionarias.
La segunda movida es la ciberguerra, y que nadie dude ni por un segundo que tras ella está Fidel Castro. ¿Por qué?… porque hoy siente más odio por Yoani Sánchez que por Luis Posada Carriles. Y lo siente porque es mujer e indefensa. Porque frente a ella está impotente; si la deja suelta lo parte un rayo, y si la encarcela, crea un casi seguro Nobel de la Paz. Porque mientras él pertenece al pasado, ella es el futuro, la civilización y el progreso. Porque sin bombas ni fósforo vivo, con una computadora, Yoani ha puesto a temblar al castrismo y ha convertido en palabra viva la frase de José Martí, cuando dijo: "Un principio justo desde el fondo de una cueva, puede más que un ejército".
http://www.elnuevoherald.com/2011/03/29/v-fullstory/912836/nicolas-perez-fidel-castro-el.html
Testigo: Cuba quería matar a Posada Carriles
Publicado el miércoles, 03.30.11
Testigo: Cuba quería matar a Posada CarrilesPor WILL WEISSERTThe Associated Press
EL PASO, Texas, EE.UU. — Un ex agente cubano de inteligencia testificó el miércoles en una corte federal que la dependencia de espionaje de su país tenía un departamento especial que buscaba asesinar a los enemigos del gobierno comunista.
Roberto Hernández del Llano dijo que el ex agente de la CIA Luis Posada Carriles, quien es juzgado en El Paso, Texas, figuraba entre los objetivos principales de ese aparato de espionaje.
Hernández del Llano fue espía para la seguridad del Estado cubano, pero dejó su cargo en 1992, al señalar que estaba desilusionado por la corrupción del gobierno.
Huyó a Miami en el 2007 y ha sido citado por la defensa de Posada Carriles, de 83 años, quien es un miliciano anticomunista, nacido en Cuba, y enfrenta 11 cargos de fraude migratorio, obstrucción de la justicia y perjurio.
Hernández del Llano dijo que una rama especial de la seguridad del Estado se enfoca en los exiliados cubanos que se oponen al gobierno de la isla, y tenía la misión de "liquidar" a Posada Carriles.
http://www.elnuevoherald.com/2011/03/30/912971/testigo-cuba-queria-matar-a-posada.html
Fin de la odisea de los 75
Publicado el miércoles, 03.30.11
Fin de la odisea de los 75Oscar Espinosa Chepe
Con la excarcelación de Félix Navarro y José Daniel Ferrer concluyó una de las etapas más oscuras y bochornosas de la historia de nuestro país, cuando se condenó a penas de hasta 28 años a personas pacíficas por reclamar los derechos del pueblo cubano. Los sucesos ocurrieron los días 18, 19 y 20 de marzo de 2003, en lo que ha quedado bautizada como la Primavera Negra.
El gobierno cubano creyó que con esa acción injustificable podría ahogar las ansias de libertad e intimidar y sembrar el terror en la sociedad. Estimó que la opinión pública mundial, volcada a los acontecimientos bélicos en Irak, no se percataría de lo ocurrido en Cuba. Sus cálculos fallaron absolutamente. La sociedad cubana fue impactada por los bárbaros hechos, que coincidieron con el fusilamiento de tres jóvenes negros, castigo desproporcionado dirigido a impresionar a la población.
Es oportuno señalar que el 23 de marzo de 2003, la Iglesia Católica Cubana emitió un mensaje a través de la Comisión Episcopal de Paz y Justicia de la Conferencia de Obispos de Cuba, donde señaló: "Lamentamos profundamente el uso de métodos inapropiados en nuestro país para descalificar y detener a personas por pensar y comportarse de manera diferente a la ideología oficial". Las autoridades únicamente recibieron el apoyo de un pequeño grupo de artistas e intelectuales que mancharon sus trayectorias para siempre con esa postura abyecta y antipatriótica dictada por oscuros intereses egoístas.
Internacionalmente el escándalo fue inmenso. Incluso muchas personalidades de izquierda, que durante muchos años estuvieron engañados sobre la verdadera naturaleza del régimen, despertaron y con firmeza condenaron la ola represiva, los juicios amañados y las inmensas condenas, rompiendo definitivamente con el gobierno.
Pese a las arbitrariedades en las cárceles y los sufrimientos de los familiares, abrumadoramente los prisioneros de conciencia no pudieron ser doblegados, no obstante las argucias e intentos de los órganos represivos. Igual actitud mantuvieron sus mujeres, que a partir de los arrestos se unieron para reclamar la libertad inmediata e incondicional de ellos a través de las Damas de Blanco. Indudablemente en la excarcelación contribuyó tanto la incesante actividad nacional como internacional. Toda la disidencia interna y el exilio priorizaron sus esfuerzos por lograrlo. La muerte de Orlando Zapata Tamayo luego de una prolongada huelga de hambre resultó el aldabonazo definitivo a la opinión pública, mantenido luego muy latente por Guillermo Fariñas con la suya.
Esta lucha pacífica y el continuado deterioro de la situación del país, contribuyó a que la Iglesia Católica Cubana pudiera comenzar la intermediación con las autoridades, que culminó en un proceso de excarcelación de los prisioneros de conciencia y presos políticos, con la cooperación del gobierno español.
La Iglesia Católica, dentro de sus posibilidades, se ha mantenido como es habitual junto al pueblo cubano, y de forma sabia, responsable y discreta ha jugado un papel decisivo en esta excarcelación. Es de esperar que continúe las conversaciones con el gobierno para coadyuvar a la realización de los cambios económicos, políticos y sociales urgentemente necesitados, en beneficio de todos los cubanos sin exclusiones.
Con las excarcelaciones además se elimina un obstáculo importante en el camino hacia la reconciliación y la concordia. Asimismo, podría facilitar el diálogo y el entendimiento con el resto del mundo, en particular con Estados Unidos y la Unión Europea, para crear un clima de cooperación y la incorporación adecuada de Cuba a la comunidad internacional.
Han sido duros los sacrificios de los integrantes del grupo de los 75, pero hoy resulta evidente que las penalidades sufridas por ellos y sus familias no han sido en vano, sirvieron para abonar el futuro democrático de una Cuba próspera y unida.
Economista y periodista independiente cubano.
Tag: Disidente, Represión
http://www.elnuevoherald.com/2011/03/29/912828/oscar-espinosa-chepe-fin-de-la.html
Washington, ‘decepcionado’ de que el régimen no permita a Carter regresar con Gross
Política
Washington, 'decepcionado' de que el régimen no permita a Carter regresar con GrossAgenciasWashington 30-03-2011 – 11:23 pm.
El Departamento de Estado expresó este miércoles su decepción de que La Habana no haya aprovechado la visita del expresidente de EE UU Jimmy Carter para liberar al contratista estadounidense Alan Gross, a quien el régimen condenó recientemente a 15 años de cárcel, informó EFE
"Nos decepciona que no haya regresado con el señor Gross", afirmó el portavoz en funciones del Departamento de Estado, Mark Toner, en su rueda de prensa diaria, al ser preguntado por el viaje que hizo el exmandatario estadounidense (1977-1981) a la Isla.
"Consideramos que (Gross) debería haber sido liberado hace mucho tiempo", agregó Toner, quien también confirmó el encuentro que mantuvo Carter hoy con el contratista, condenado el pasado 12 de marzo por presuntos "actos contra la independencia o la integridad territorial del Estado".
El Gobierno de EE UU siempre ha mantenido que es inocente y exigido a La Habana en numerosas ocasiones su liberación inmediata, tanto de manera directa y pública como indirectamente a través de personalidades como el exgobernador de Nuevo México, Bill Richardson, (quien visitó la Isla el año pasado) o ahora el propio Carter.
El expresidente dijo el martes que no estaba en Cuba para sacar a Alan Gross del país, aunque sí confirmó que ha podido hablar sobre su situación con encargados del caso.
Hoy visitó en La Habana al contratista y consideró en una rueda de prensa al término de su visita de tres días a Cuba que Gross debía ser liberado y reiteró la inocencia del estadounidense.
Confió en que Gross, de 61 años, pueda ser liberado y que la Justicia cubana atienda la apelación que éste planteará ante el Tribunal Supremo de la Isla o que en el futuro se emita una orden ejecutiva para indultarlo o liberarlo por motivos humanitarios.
http://www.diariodecuba.com/cuba/3872-washington-decepcionado-de-que-el-regimen-no-permita-carter-regresar-con-gross
Preparing For Perestroika
CUBA: Preparing For PerestroikaThe Daily Reckoning | Mar. 29, 2011, 3:30 PM
Dividing Old Havana from Chinatown is Cuba's Capitolio Nacional, a monumental edifice with a fateful past. El Capitolio was conceived during the Roaring '20s, when the island led the world in sugar exports and the future seemed sky blue.
President Gerardo Machado dreamed of turning Cuba into the Switzerland of the Americas. He decided that his 4 million countrymen needed a domed capitol building even taller and more ornate than the one he toured in Washington. So Cuba's Congress dutifully poured 3% of the country's GDP into their new home. (This would be akin to the US Congress spending $420 billion for a new office today, but let's not give them any ideas…)
It took 8,000 skilled Cuban laborers just three years to complete El Capitolio, which featured gilt ceilings, a giant diamond embedded into the pristine marble floor and the world's third-largest indoor statue. However, the showy project couldn't have been more poorly timed. Work completed in 1929, just as America's stock market crashed and the Great Depression unfolded.
The Smoot-Hawley tariffs crushed Cuban sugar prices by 74%. When El Capitolio's ribbon was cut in 1931, Cuba's economy lay in tatters. Machado was forced out of office, and his dream building would perform congressional service for only 28 years before Fidel Castro's revolutionaries swept into Havana and opted for more austere premises. I don't need to recite the history from here, which you probably well know.
The winds of change are gathering in Cuba, though. Since Fidel Castro's health nearly failed in 2006, power has passed to his younger brother, Raul Castro. Raul has quietly reshuffled more than 30 cabinet members to prepare his party and people for a sweeping economic policy overhaul – Perestroika al Cubano. Even the semi-retired Fidel seems to have glumly accepted that change is inevitable, candidly admitting to a visiting US journalist that "the Cuban model doesn't even work for us anymore."
The global economic crisis whacked Cuba hard. Venezuela cut back on its largesse as its own economy worsened. Tourism and remittances softened, while nickel export prices tanked. Furthermore, three severe hurricanes left a wake of destruction in 2008. Unable to service Cuba's estimated $21 billion foreign debt, and running out of generous leftist patrons to hit up, Raul Castro has, apparently, decided he has little choice but to pry open Cuba's economy.
Castro's wild card is Cuba's oil and gas reserves. The island currently produces 60,000 bbl a day. But its US-facing northern waters hold an estimated 5-20 billion barrels of oil and 20 trillion cubic feet of natural gas. (Note: This compares with 29 billion barrels of oil reserves in the entire US.) Accessing this undersea oil requires the sophisticated drilling technology the US excels in. But as long as sanctions remain in place, the US oil majors are excluded from that bonanza. Amidst the applause of oil industry lobbyists, the dance for reengagement has begun, with both partners taking some unprecedented steps.
Raul Castro has issued a far-reaching five-year road map for Cuba's future economic reform. The proposed changes would put Cuba on a very similar path to that taken by China in the 1980s and Vietnam in the 1990s. Here are some of the ideas: permit real estate transactions amongst Cubans, merge the two-tier currency system, close down inefficient state enterprises, decentralize state ownership, facilitate private ownership of businesses, distribute idle land to farmers, open state-owned wholesale markets and further encourage foreign investment – particularly in tourism.
In recent months, some planned reforms have already been implemented in an effort to delay Cuba's impending insolvency. Costly subsidies on sugar and personal care products are being scaled back. The government announced plans to shed 500,000 state workers (that's 10% of the country's government work force in a country where 85% of workers work for the state) and guide them somehow into the private sector.
Cubans are being encouraged to grow and sell their own fruits and vegetables. The government is inviting foreign investors to develop 10 golf course estates in Cuba, with a new law allowing 99-year land leases to foreign buyers of plots in such projects. In the old days of Fidel's revolution, such policies were unthinkable.
So what is the potential for a liberalized Cuban economy?
Just look 90 miles across the straits to Florida. A million Cuban-Americans call Miami home. Cuba has 60% of Florida's population and 80% of its landmass, but greater natural resources and a much longer coastline, so one might conclude that the two are of comparable overall potential.
Perhaps to underscore their similarities, remember the fact that England and Spain cleanly swapped the two in 1763. Today, Florida's economy is 12 times larger than Cuba's. One reason is that Florida gets 20 times as many tourists as Cuba, plus an inflow of affluent retirees.
When the US government stops restricting its citizens from traveling to Cuba, the island will become an instant tourist magnet. Offering short flights, sunny beaches, cool music, "old world" architecture and cheap surgery, Cuba should have no problem drawing several million American tourists a year, as further-away destinations like Costa Rica have done.
Should reforms become comprehensive enough, agriculture seems an obvious investment play: Half the land is arable, labor is cheap and rain is plentiful. Cuba's once-vaunted sugar industry stands in disarray, with 80% of the old mills shut down. However, today's high sugar prices provide ample incentive to revive the sector, along with other traditional crops such as cigar tobacco.
Despite its long coastline, fisheries and aquaculture remain largely overlooked. Cuba is a world-class producer of nickel, but other mineral deposits remain underexploited. And then there's the oil. The entire power system needs to be updated, financial services developed, retailing expanded – the opportunities seem endless.
Beyond the subsidized basics, most consumer goods have to be imported, and imports draw heavy duties. Telecom services are costly due to government monopolization and inefficiency. The list goes on. In this environment, it is tough for most Cubans to get by unless they receive remittances, tourist gratuities or tea money.
All in all, we eagerly await the implementation of Cuba's economic reforms. As this process unfolds, Cuba could transform into one of the world's most attractive frontier investment destinations. America has a long track record of turning bitter rivals into productive partners (a recent example being Vietnam), and re-engagement with Cuba could be one of Obama's most notable foreign policy legacies.
Some frontier investors are not waiting for that and are already investing in Cuba. While 100% foreign ownership is permitted, most investors enter joint ventures with Cuban state enterprises, which typically contribute land, labor and sometimes capital. Over 250 such joint ventures exist, mostly for specific sectors or projects. Investments are made in foreign currency, eliminating exchange rate issues, and there are no restrictions on capital repatriation. Corporate income tax is 30% for joint ventures and 35% for wholly owned foreign companies, but tax holidays of five-seven years are available.
A few Cuba-focused investment groups have been established that non-US investors can access. Canada-listed Sherritt Group is a major player in Cuban nickel mining and, formerly, telecoms. A private investment group backed by European investors, Coral Capital has restored Havana's historic Saratoga Hotel, which was recently ranked by Conde Nast as the 16th best hotel in the world. Coral is now planning a number of golf course, marina, housing and hotel projects, as is Leisure Canada, a Canada-listed investment vehicle.
Regards,
Douglas Claytonfor The Daily Reckoning
http://www.businessinsider.com/cuba-preparing-for-perestroika-2011-3
Carter to meet with prominent Cuban blogger
Carter to meet with prominent Cuban blogger From Shasta Darlington, CNNMarch 30, 2011 — Updated 0741 GMT (1541 HKT)
STORY HIGHLIGHTSFormer President Jimmy Carter is on the third day of his visit to CubaThe trip is officially to strengthen bilateral tiesCarter will meet with prominent blogger Yoani Sanchez on WednesdayHe says he has spoken to officials about Alan Gross, who was recently sentenced to 15 years in prison.
Havana, Cuba (CNN) — On the third day of his visit to Cuba, former U.S. President Jimmy Carter is expected to meet with prominent blogger Yoani Sanchez.
Sanchez announced the meeting via Twitter on Tuesday morning: "They just called my house. I will meet with Jimmy Carter tomorrow morning. More later!"
Sanchez told CNN that a representative of the Carter Center called to invite her to a meeting at 7 a.m. on Wednesday but asked that she not reveal the location.
"It¹s a good gesture," Sanchez said. "And a sign of respect for the plurality of voices, rather than resigning himself to the government's message."
During his 2002 trip to Cuba, Carter also met with dissidents and criticized the country's lack of democracy in a speech carried live on local television.
Carter's meeting with Sanchez is likely to ruffle feathers. She has been slammed in state media for alleged links to Washington and accused of trying to rally dissidents against the government via the internet.
On Tuesday, Carter squashed speculation that he can secure the release of American contractor Alan Gross during his trip.
"We have spoken to some officials about Mr. Gross. But I am not here to take him out of the country," he told journalists, when asked about the case.
Expectations were high that Carter would try to negotiate the release of Gross, who was recently sentenced to 15 years in prison. U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton talked to Carter before his departure to encourage him to raise the issue.
Cuba accuses Gross, a USAID subcontractor, of working a "subversive" project to illegally connect people to the internet with the goal of destabilizing the government.
Washington maintains Gross was helping the island's small Jewish community communicate.
On Monday afternoon, Carter met with Jewish leaders and the archbishop of Havana, Cardinal Jaime Ortega. He visited the Patronato Jewish center and Temple Beth Shalom.
Analysts say that even if Carter doesn't fly home with Gross, he could pave the way for Gross to be released early on "humanitarian grounds."
Gross's family has called for such a release, as his mother and his daughter are battling cancer.
http://edition.cnn.com/2011/WORLD/americas/03/30/cuba.carter.visit/index.html?hpt=T2
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