U.S. Business Interests Spar Over Latest Effort in Congress to Repeal Section 211 Fidel's Anti-EU Outburst Has Little Effect O

Vol. 11, No. 7 July 2003

www.cubanews.com

In the News Fidel’s anti-EU outburst has little effect

Wood exports resume on European trade, investment in Cuba Florida firm makes first U.S. lumber ship- BY LARRY LUXNER Premier Silvio Berlusconi to hated fascist dicta- tor Benito Mussolini. ment to Cuba since 1958 ...... Page 3 idel Castro’s hatred of the Bush administration is well-known, but last month’s out- Two days later, the Cuban government took F burst against the 15-member European control of Spain’s cultural center in Old Havana, U.K. growth fund Union took many Cuba-watchers by surprise. gave its personnel 90 days to vacate the elegant Ceiba Finance Ltd. invests in a variety of It all started Jun. 5, when the EU announced mansion and erected a huge “Anti-Fascist” bill- board at the main entrance. Cuban joint ventures ...... Page 4 it would review its once-friendly relations with Cuba following the sentencing of 75 dissidents Despite Castro’s irrational actions, however, to long prison terms and the firing-squad execu- there’s little evidence the transatlantic war of Half a century later tions of three men who hijacked a ferry. words has scared away European investment Jul. 26 marks 50th anniversary of launch The European Union also slashed high-level from Cuba, or kept a single Spaniard, Italian, German or Belgian from going ahead with that of Fidel Castro’s uprising ...... Page 6 bilateral visits and participation in Cuban cultural events, and — in a real slap in the face to long-planned, three-week vacation to Varadero. Castro — offered to invite Cuban dissidents to “I don’t think there’ll be economic consequen- Yachtsman’s paradise embassy celebrations of all EU national days. ces, because the EU has issued no economic Boating could boost Cuba’s tourist sector In response, Fidel and his brother Raúl led sanctions,” said Pierre Sella, economic attaché hundreds of thousands of demonstrators past at the French Embassy in Havana. “So we don’t once U.S. travel ban is lifted ...... Page 7 the Spanish and Italian embassies in separate, think anything will change for now.” well-choreographed acts of outrage. On national Added John Kavulich, president of the New Newsmakers TV, Fidel called Spanish Prime Minister José York-based U.S.-Cuba Trade and Economic CubaNews interviews human-rights acti- Maria Aznar “a little Führer” and likened Italian See EU, page 2 vist Elizardo Sánchez, the dean of Cuba’s dissident movement ...... Page 8 U.S. business interests spar over latest Down but not defeated effort in Congress to repeal Section 211 Despite recent crackdown, dissent is far from dead in Cuba ...... Page 9 BY ANA RADELAT The bill would repeal Section 211, which pro- everal members of the House of Represen- hibits U.S. courts from protecting the rights of Havana Nagila tatives are fighting to repeal a law that pro- expropriated Cuban trademarks. It would also direct the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office to Cuba’s 1,300-member Jewish community S hibits a Cuban-French joint venture from protecting the Havana Club trade name in the establish a registry of U.S. trademarks in Cuba enjoys a resurgence of faith ...... Page 10 United States. that were well-known at the time Castro came to The arcane law, known as Section 211, was power in 1959. Business briefs slipped into a massive 1998 spending bill at the In addition, the bill would require the U.S. behest of the Bacardi rum empire, which is bat- Treasury Department to establish a new gener- OFAC denies license for 2004 food show; tling to wrest control of the Havana Club name al license category to allow the transfer of U.S. one millionth tourist arrives ...... Page 12 from Havana Club Holdings (HCH), a 50-50 ven- trademarks and trade names to Cuban entities. ture between the Castro government and Bill Reinsch, president of the National Provinces: Sancti Spíritus France’s Pernod Ricard. Foreign Trade Council, said the legislation is On Jun. 17, the U.S.-Cuba Trademark Protec- needed to protect more than 4,000 U.S. trade- Colonial charm, lonely sugar mills char- tion Act was introduced by Reps. Charles Rangel marks in Cuba, which he says are vulnerable to acterize rural province...... Page 14 (D-NY); Jeff Flake (R-AZ); William Delahunt (D- the “special-interest U.S. law” that breaches U.S. MA); Amo Houghton (R-NY), Earl Pomeroy (D- treaty commitments to Cuba. CubaNews (ISSN 1073-7715) is published monthly ND) and Robert Matsui (D-CA). “That law gives Castro the option of choosing by Luxner News Inc. © 2003. All rights reserved. While the legislation may soon have a Senate not to honor the international treaties protecting Subscriptions: $429/year. For subscription or edito- sponsor — Sen. Max Baucus (D-MT) is said to U.S. trademarks in Cuba,” said Reinsch, whose rial inquiries, call toll-free (800) 365-1997, send a fax association speaks for 350 member companies. to (301) 365-1829 or e-mail us at [email protected]. be interested — it faces an uphill battle and is likely to be blocked by House GOP leaders. See Section 211, page 6 2 CubaNews ❖ July 2003

EU — FROM PAGE 1 France’s Accor Group. “The average French- “If business was so bad and they were so Council: “It’s too early to tell if the stated com- man doesn’t even know what’s going on in nervous, they would never sign contracts or mon EU position will survive individual EU Cuba. They think most of the tourists in invest money in Cuba,” said Peyre. member country interests. Traditionally, the Cuba are Americans. Maybe only 2% of the But that’s exactly what Dennis Hays, execu- EU has made pronouncements relating to population of Europe is even aware of the tive vice-president of the Cuban American Cuba which have generally not been imple- political situation.” National Foundation, wants to see happen. mented by individual countries.” Peyre, who worked for Spain’s Sol Meliá Hays, a former Cuba desk officer at the In mid-February, the European Union inau- hotel conglomerate before joining Accor, told State Department, has been quietly visiting gurated its embassy-like office along Quinta CubaNews that as long as the island remains the Washington embassies of European coun- Avenida in Havana’s Miramar district — amid competitive on price, it will continue to at- tries in recent months, trying to get diplomats signs of an official EU softening and the like- tract tourists, regardless of political tensions. to toughen their attitudes towards Castro. lihood that Cuba would be welcomed into the “Companies like Cotonou Agreement, a preferential trade Accor and Meliá look accord that benefits 78 former European colo- only at the bottom nies in Africa, the Caribbean and the Pacific. line, and as long as Then came the dissident crackdown, the the bottom line looks LARRY LUXNER jail sentences and finally the executions — good, there is no and Castro’s short-lived honeymoon with the problem,” Peyre said, EU came to a screeching halt. noting that Meliá now “Cotonou is now completely out the win- manages 9,000 rooms dow,” said Philip Peters, vice-president of the in 21 hotels across Lexington Institute, a Washington think tank. the island, making it “It would not have opened a spigot of hundreds of millions of dollars in aid, but it could by far Cuba’s top for- have meant some increased aid and trade eign hotel operator. preferences for Cuba.” Two other Spanish The director of the EU office in Havana, companies, Occiden- Sven Kühn von Burgsdorff, was on vacation tal and Pinero, are and couldn’t be reached for comment, though also making modest a European ambassador who asked not to be investments in Cuba. identified said “we have not had any concrete A few months ago, The European Union’s newly opened office in Havana’s Miramar district. signals of a major economic impact so far.” Occidental took over On the contrary, European tourism to Cuba management of the 472-room Novotel Mira- “What I find is a receptivity to even talk appears to be doing quite well. mar, while Pinero now manages the former about the subject which wasn’t there a year “Politics is one thing, tourism is another,” Club Med in Varadero and has invested at ago,” Hays told CubaNews. “I find great frus- explained Eric Peyre, Cuba sales manager for least $2 million to upgrade the property. tration. Having their money taken away to pay for American agricultural imports was a bitter pill to swallow for guys who bent over back- ECONOMIC STAGNATION SPARKS LEADERSHIP CHANGES wards for Cuba and then got slapped in the face. Castro’s actions are clearly the actions of steban Lazo Hernández, head of the removal of Millares appears to be connected a guy who doesn’t give a damn.” Communist Party of Cuba (PCC) in with a recent rise in consumer prices that is Hays, whose Miami-based CANF is still the EHavana and one of Cuba’s most visible very much resented by the population. largest Cuban exile group in the U.S. despite black leaders, has been named chief of the In addition, Carlos Manuel Pazo Torrado, recent internal strife, says “I don’t want this to PCC’s ideology department as well as its a 40-year-old engineer, will replace Alvaro be a U.S.-Cuba issue. It should be a Cuba vs. department of science, culture and sports. Pérez Morales as transportation minister. civilized world issue. If the Europeans adopt a As such, Lazo, 59, will direct the govern- Morales, frequently blamed for failing to Zimbabwe-type visa policy where the top 50 solve Cuba’s worsening public transport ment’s efforts to promote communist princi- guys in the regime were declared persona non ples. A first vice-president of Cuba’s Council problems, “will be assigned to other duties,” said the official party newspaper Granma. grata, that would be a severe blow to Castro.” of State, Lazo has a degree in economics In a lengthy commentary published in The and is a well-known labor leader. The man According to Reuters, the government hasn’t commented on Cuba’s economic situ- Guardian, Lord Moynihan, chairman of the Lazo replaced, José Ramón Balaguer, 71, U.K. Cuba Initiative, urged British lawmakers will remain in charge of the PCC’s foreign ation since December, when it said 2002 had seen the weakest growth since recovering to “study the Cuban psyche rather than view affairs and public health departments. from the economic crisis of the early 1990s. the situation through the unfocused binocu- The post Lazo previously held, that of “After all these years, the economy has lars of American wishful thinking.” PCC chief in Havana, will be filled by anoth- still not fully recovered and is now stagnat- Yet the European ambassador we spoke to er Politburo member, Pedro Sáez Montejo. ing,” an unidentified Cuban economist told rejected the idea that the EU has somehow The Jun. 24 announcement was made fol- Reuters. “You can expect more replace- buckled under pressure from the Bush adm- lowing a Politburo meeting presided over by ments in the economic team as Castro tries inistration to tow the American line. Fidel Castro. It comes amidst a major re- to get the economy moving again with “We have always been against the death shuffling of Cuba’s economic team and pro- younger blood.” penalty, the trade embargo and the isolation jections of only 1.5% GDP growth this year. In December, Castro fired four of six dep- of Cuba. The fact that we are now expressing The same week, Georgina Barreiro Fajar- uties at the Economy and Planning Minis- ourselves more specifically on these things do, 39, vice-president of the Central Bank, try, fueling rumors that Minister José Luís does not mean that our policy is closer to that was named to replace 69-year-old Manuel Rodríguez, 46, would also be forced out. of the United States,” the diplomat said. Millares as minister of finance and prices. Rodriguez is still on the job, though he “I don’t think it will change conditions for Fajardo has a master’s degree in finance has been dropped from the Council of State, human rights in the short term, but it’s impor- and credit, and was a key expert on finance and local analysts still believe he’ll be tant for Europe to speak about the values that at the Central Bank for 16 years. The replaced sooner rather than later. are the basis for the EU’s common policy. This has to be repeated again and again.” July 2003 ❖ CubaNews 3 FOREIGN TRADE Florida firm is first to ship U.S. lumber to Cuba since 1958 BY LARRY LUXNER of its revenues from southern pine exports to Lanahan said his company has the potential anahan Lumber Co. of Jacksonville, Fla. the Bahamas, Barbados, Bermuda, St. Maar- to ship nearly 800 containers of lumber to has begun its first shipments of wood to ten, St. Vincent and the U.S. Virgin Islands. Cuba over the next 12 months. L Cuba, marking the first large-scale U.S. Lanahan hoped to export to Cuba as well, “Our supply of lumber in the Southeast is lumber exports to the island in 43 years. and he began making serious inquiries dur- readily available with quick sailings, and it’s Beau Pineda, the company’s export manag- ing last September’s U.S. Food & Agribusi- easy to inspect,” he said. “We’re relatively er, told CubaNews he has orders for 360 con- ness Exhibition in Havana. But it would take trustworthy, and they can depend on us.” tainers of southern yellow pine sourced from five more visits and a personal meeting with Other U.S. lumber exporters haven’t been forests in South Carolina and Alabama. That Fidel Castro to secure the contract. as lucky. translates into 10,850 cubic meters, or about Tom Sheets, president of Blue Ridge 4,585,000 board feet of lumber. Lumber Co. in Fishersville, Va., attended the While the company declined to reveal the same September 2002 trade show in Havana dollar value of its contract with Cuban state that Lanahan did, but came home with no con- import agency Alimport, the latest domestic tracts. He’s convinced, however, that Cuba represents a large market for the U.S. lumber commodity price listed by lumber industry industry — once Castro is gone and capital- Random Lengths newsletter for 2x4 southern ism is restored to the island. yellow pine, No. 2, varies between $292 and “Since the infrastructure’s falling down, the $315 per 1,000 board feet. potential is unlimited,” said Sheets, adding Using those numbers as a rough guide, the that “what Cuba truly needs is not four-inch Lanahan deal would be worth no more than walnut and oak, but low-priced woods.” $1.5 million, excluding transportation costs. John Clark, sales manager of Kitchens Even so, the contract is significant because Brothers Manufacturing Co. in Hazlehurt, it’s the first lumber sale to Alimport by a U.S. Miss., also thinks it’ll be awhile before the firm since passage of the Trade Sanctions island imports U.S. lumber in large quantities, Reform and Export Enhancement Act of 2000 particularly hardwoods used in flooring and — an exemption to the U.S. trade embargo upscale housing and hotel construction. that allows American firms to sell agricultural “On the hardwood side, we’re a little pre- commodities to Cuba on a cash-only basis. mature,” he said. “They’re accustomed to Since lumber is considered an agricultural South American species they can get in much commodity, it is therefore allowed under larger sizes and specified widths.” TSRA, even though the wood that’s exported Cuba currently imports 55% of its wood to Cuba might end up being used for anything “This is an opportunity to show everybody product needs, and 96% of its plywood needs. — from rebuilding houses damaged in recent that you can do business throughout the According to a study prepared by econo- hurricanes to flooring for five-star hotels. world,” he told CubaNews. “We don’t differen- mist James E. Ross, the potential value of In Lanahan’s case, most of the industrial- tiate between one country and the next, and Cuba’s market for sawnwood, plywood and grade wood it’s shipping to Cuba will be we leave politics and religion out of it.” particle board is about $150 million. processed into shipping pallets. Asked if his company had received any “The U.S. share of the total Caribbean mar- “With all that frozen poultry and other U.S. angry calls from Miami-based Cuban exile ket for softwood lumber is approximately two- food exports going to Cuba, there’s an in- groups, Lanahan said “we’ve had some people thirds,” said the report. “If the U.S. could real- creased need for pallets,” said Pineda. who were not pleased that we’re doing busi- ize a similar share of the Cuban market, and The contract comes as exports of U.S. lum- ness with Cuba” — and he left it at that. Cuba has the foreign exchange to import, ber to the Caribbean — traditionally a key Lanahan’s shipments began May 1 from U.S. exports of softwood lumber to Cuba market for southern pine — continue to fall. Jacksonville, which is a 40-hour sailing to could amount to about $100 million soon after Between 1999 and 2002, those imports tum- Havana, and from Gulfport, Miss., which is 38 resuming trade.” bled by 40% (see chart). hours away. The wood is being transported by Ross added, however, that Canada has a big During the first four months of 2003, the Crowley Liner Services, which is also based share of the Cuban market, and it could be dif- United States shipped 11.6 million board feet in Jacksonville, at the rate of 20 to 25 contain- ficult for U.S. firms to capture the same mar- of southern pine to the Dominican Republic, ers every two weeks until November. ket share as in other Caribbean islands. 2.0 million board feet to Jamaica, and 1.6 million board feet to Trinidad & Tobago. The prospect of a virgin market like Cuba is Granma: Cuba’s forests expanding, unlike rest of region encouraging news to the industry — espe- Cuba’s forest resources maintained a growth rate of 1.3% during the 1990s, making it the cially considering that Cuba was by far the only Latin American nation whose forested area actually increased. So claims the official biggest buyer of U.S. southern pine lumber in Granma, quoting UN Food and Agriculture Organization data. the 1940s and 1950s. In the Americas, besides Cuba only the United States has rising forest reserves, with an “I think it’s exciting. It gives us a chance to increase of 0.8% a year; no more than 55 out of the 21 nations monitored by the FAO have expand our markets in the Caribbean,” said increasing forest resources. According to FAO statistics, some 14.6 million hectares of Wayne Lancaster of the Southern Lumber Exporters Association in an interview with forests disappear each year worldwide; Latin America accounts for 5.8 million of the total. Random Lengths. “I hope it pans out. I’ve Cuba extracts an average 3.0 to 3.5 million cubic meters of lumber per year, but the amount never known anything but the embargo.” of lumber available increases by 7 million. Currently, Cuba’s total forest reserves come to 130 President Michael Lanahan, 61, said the million cubic meters of wood on 2.5 million hectares of land. company was started by his father in 1946, According to Granma, timber-yielding trees cover 22.9% of Cuba’s territory — a reversal and has generally kept a low profile. The com- of “the voracity of transnational companies and big landowners who exploited the land pany has 22 employees and derives about 50% [before the 1959 revolution] to obtain millions in profits.” 4 CubaNews ❖ July 2003 FINANCE U.K. growth fund invests in variety of Cuban joint ventures BY VITO ECHEVARRÍA “We don’t invest in assets which one day Besides real-estate, Ceiba has taken a espite Cuba’s strained relations with will become valuable. Nobody’s interested in minority share in a Cuban paper mill, along CubaNews Western Europe, it’s business as usual that,” he told in a phone interview with Canadian paper giant Tembec. It has also from Havana. for Ceiba Finance Ltd., a British growth made a small investment in Canada’s YM D “We see this fund growing steadily to BioSciences Inc. fund registered in the Channel Islands. become a Cuba fund with a highly differenti- Incorporated in 1995 as Beta Gran Caribe YM, whose shares are traded on the ated portfolio of investments, and with Toronto Stock Exchange, has signed a licens- Ltd. and denominated in Swiss francs, the finance elements that make it an absolute ing deal for a cancer drug now being devel- fund was renamed Ceiba Finance in 2001 and yielding fund. Investors receive dividends, oped at the University of Havana. converted into euros. At present, it finances a but they also may be able to profit from a Despite these higher-profile ventures, 68% broad range of investment projects in various future change in Cuba’s economy and politi- of Ceiba’s portfolio consists of investments in sectors of the Cuban economy. cal system.” faceless, secured high-yielding debt struc- With a gross portfolio currently worth 22.8 Ceiba’s present capital structure consists of tures related to payments from a collection million euros, Ceiba pays its investors annual over 4 million shares; as of May 31, 2003, the agency that accounts for over 80% of Cuba’s dividends of around 6% a year, according to fund’s net asset value was 4.48 euros a share, tourism receivables. information gleaned off the growth fund’s up from 4.10 euros per share in July 2002. “Payments are secured and collateralized website at www.ceibafinance.com. Among Ceiba’s ventures is the refurbishing with cash flow and payments to be made by The chairman of Ceiba’s board of directors of Old Havana’s five-star, 100-room Hotel foreign travel agents booking holidays in is Sir John Morgan, former British ambassa- Saratoga, which will reopen by the end of this Cuba,” says the Ceiba website. “Monies clear dor to Mexico, Poland and South Korea, while year. Ceiba is also pursuing other real-estate through offshore escrow accounts, ensuing the fund is managed by Havana-based Zapa ventures — acting cautiously by conducting timely and transparent payment.” International Management Ltd. due diligence to ensure that whatever Cuba Earlier this year, Ceiba Finance sold its Zapa is headquartered in the new Israeli- properties it eventually develops won’t be stake in local soft-drink venture Bebidas del built Miramar Trade Center and supervised subject to claims by U.S. and other nationals. Caribe S.A. to Spain’s M.G. Distilleries S.A., by Dutch corporate lawyer Sebastiaan Berger, Ceiba also financed the construction of two the Cuban government’s original partner who is a partner in the Havana legal consult- apartment blocks at Quinta Avenida between when the venture was formed in 1997. ing firm of Berger, Young & Associates. Calles 28 and 30 in Havana’s Miramar neigh- Details: Sebastiaan A.C. Berger, Zapa Inter- Berger says Zapa is the only firm author- borhood. The Edificio Paradiso, containing 74 national Management, Avenida 3ra, esq. 88, ized by the Cuban government to manage luxury rental units, was sold earlier this year La Habana. Tel: +53 7 204-7934. Fax: +53 7 investment funds in that country. for a substantial profit, said Berger. 204-7935. E-mail: [email protected]. LOBBY TO FIGHT TRAVEL BAN Cuban art finds special niche in Japan A former legislative aide to Rep. Jeff okyo’s Promo-Arte Gallery, known for contact with the local artists as possible,” she Flake (R-AZ) has formed an association of its exhibits of Latin American art, is said. “I observe their workshops, and depend- tourism entities to defend the right of U.S. T paying closer attention these days to ing on their potential and talent, we invite the citizens to travel to Cuba. up-and-coming artists from Cuba. artist to perform a solo exhibition in our Brent Gibadlo, executive director of the Located in Tokyo’s trendy Omotesando dis- gallery to promote their work for a period of Association of Travel-Related Industry trict, Promo-Arte — the only gallery of its two years. Professionals, launched the group Jun. 26 kind in Japan — opened in 1988 and sells dir- “After the two-year period,” she said, “we at a Washington press conference attend- ectly to local private collectors and museums. decide whether an exclusive agreement with ed by several lawmakers who are sponsor- Kumiko Furusawa, Promo-Arte’s director, the artist should be signed.” ing a bill to end the Cuba travel ban. now represents six Cuban Furusawa told CubaNews “ATRIP is the only trade association artists: Nelson Domínguez, that part of the appeal of focused specifically on the constitutional Eduardo Roca, Julio César Cuban art in Japan is fueled by right to travel,” Gibadlo told CubaNews. Peña, Sandra Ramos, Abel the slow but steady flow of “Our top priority is the removal of the Barroso and José Fors. Japanese tourists into the Cuba travel ban. We provide a unique All live in Havana except for island, some of whom are affil- niche in the current debate, since we’re Fors, who resides in Guadala- iated with Japanese media. the voice of the travel industry.” jara, Mexico, and all are popu- “Among the tourists, there The formation of ATRIP — which is co- lar in Japan. have been many mass-media hosting Cuba seminars Jul. 15 in Washing- At this moment, Promo- crew members [mainly TV and ton and Oct. 16-18 in Cancún, Mexico, has Arte is exhibiting the draw- Drawings by artist José Fors. documentary makers], and a been endorsed by Bill Reinsch, president ings, paper and canvas collage small number of gallery own- of the National Foreign Trade Council. works of Ramos and Fors, while an exhibition ers visiting Cuba and its artists, with the pur- “The current travel ban accomplishes of the drawings of Domínguez is scheduled pose of building a stronger bridge with nothing toward bringing freedom to the for Jul. 18-Aug. 5. Japan’s art field,” she said. Cuban people,” said Reinsch. “Rather, it Prices at the gallery range from $500 to Promo-Arte will soon have a mechanism to restricts the freedom of U.S. citizens, $40,000 per piece, depending on the arts tech- sell Cuban artwork online to collectors. hurts families on both sides of the Florida nique, format size and reputation of the artist. Details: Promo-Arte, Galeria 2nd Floor, 5- Straits and impedes the prospects for bet- Just bringing Cuban art to Japan is a big 51-3 Jingumae, Shibuya-ku, Tokyo 150-0001, ter relations in the years to come.” challenge for Furusawa, given the distance Japan. Tel: +81 3 3400-1995. Fax: +81 3 Details: Brent Gibadlo, ATRIP, 2300 M between the two countries, and the fact that 3400-9526. E-mail: [email protected]. St. NW, Washington, DC 20037. Tel: (202) no Cuban artists actually live in Japan. URL: www.promo-arte.com. 872-5071. E-mail: [email protected]. “I visit Cuba and try to have as much direct – VITO ECHEVARRÍA July 2003 ❖ CubaNews 5 POLITICAL BRIEFS

ICCAS: CUBA’S BLACKS STILL SUFFER RACISM In their own words … Blacks constitute 62% of Cuba’s population, yet make up 85% of its prison population, reports the “From a political and moral point of view, Aznar is a coward. What bothers University of Miami’s Institute for Cuban and us most in all this, is that those who signed on to this statement are cooperat- Cuban-American Studies (ICCAS). ing with the U.S. government’s Nazi-Fascist policy.” Fewer than 10% of Afro-Cubans receive remit- — Fidel Castro, speaking at a rally in which he called Spanish Prime Minister tances from abroad (compared to 40% to 50% of José María Aznar “the little Führer with the moustache.” whites), while only 5% occupy jobs in tourism, Cuba’s leading, highest-paying industry. “Plane hijackers who have committed terrorism and put people’s lives in dan- In addition, says ICCAS, black Cubans occupy ger enjoy impunity in the United States. I expect greater commitment by the only 32.8% of seats in Cuba’s National Assembly. U.S. in collaborating in a matter that benefits the stability of both countries.” Of the 31 Council of State members, only nine — Felipe Pérez Roque, Cuba’s foreign minister, talking to reporters in Havana. are black; of the 40-member Council of Minis- ters, only two are black. Afro-Cubans account for “Right now, there is a single chartered flight a day from Los Angeles to only three of the 15 provincial heads of the Havana, so if trade and tourism were allowed, there would be dozens of flights Cuban Communist Party, and none of the 15 daily from all over California.” presidents of provincial assemblies. None of the Roy Allen, top 10 generals in Cuba are black. — dean of the School of Economics and Business Administration at Saint Mary’s College in Moranga, Calif. In May, Allen and 32 other California According to a study conducted by Cuba’s own business and civic leaders visited Cuba in a delegation led by Rep. Barbara Lee. Center for Anthropology in 2002, Cuba’s black workers were disproportionally found toiling at the lowest-paying, backbreaking occupations and “A lot of people don’t like Cuban society. Young people have decided to crowded into dilapidated dwellings in neighbor- leave, and we can’t blame them. It’s not easy. I tell you sincerely, it’s not easy.” hoods like Havana’s Cerro, Luyano and Guanaba- — Aleida Guevara, speaking in Argentina on what would have been the 75th coa, or in Soviet-style projects like Alamar. birthday of her long-dead father, famed revolutionary Che Guevara. And the racial disparity isn’t limited to economics, says ICCAS. “Cuban children are so appreciative of the smallest things, and in visiting It says the Castro government has been espe- here I recognized there was a need for safe areas for them to play.” cially intolerant of black dissidents, whom are — Bill Hauf, a San Diego real-estate investor who organized a recent trip by 58 considered ingrates and traitors. One of Cuba’s Americans to travel to Havana at their own expense to build playgrounds. most famous prisoners of conscience is Afro- Cuban civil rights activist Dr. Oscar Elias Biscet, “Increasing contact between Americans and the Cuban people does not who served a three-year term for civil disobedi- reward Castro. It punishes him by building pressures that will ultimately lead ence (2000-02) only to be sentenced again in to a free government and people.” April 2003 to another 25 years of incarceration. — Bill Reinsch, president of the National Foreign Trade Council in Washington. Other leading Afro-Cuban dissidents include Vladimiro Roca (1997-2002) and engineering professor Felix Bonne Carcasés (1997-2000). “We are the ‘people’ in the people-to-people. We are citizen diplomats and right now, when Cuban-U.S. relations are so polarized, is when citizen diplo- BAUCUS WARNS HE’LL DELAY NORIEGA NOMINATION macy is so important.” Roger Noriega, the Bush administration’s can- — Lisa Valanti, president of the U.S.-Cuba Sister Cities Association, speaking didate to become the next assistant secretary of about the Treasury Department’s recent crackdown on travel to Cuba. state for Western Hemisphere affairs, was voted out of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee “For at least four years, the ALA has ignored, covered up or lied about the on Jun. 26 by a 15-3 margin. persecution of people in Cuba whose only crime is to have opened libraries.” This means Noriega would now be up for con- — New York librarian Robert Kent, a critic of the American Library Association. sideration on the Senate floor, says Cuba Trader, except that Sen. Max Baucus (D-MT) is expected “Marta Beatríz Roque and Oscar Elias Biscet represent the inevitable demo- to place a hold on the nomination until he’s guar- cratic Cuba of the future. To ignore their wishes, while supporting pro-demo- anteed floor time for his bill to lift U.S. restric- cracy leaders in other lands, would constitute an obvious and offensive double tions on travel to Cuba. standard, which I hope you will avoid.” As of Jun. 30, Senate supporters of Noriega — Rep. Lincoln Díaz-Balart (R-FL), in a Jun. 17 letter to Max Baucus (D-MT) were expected to ask that the nominee be criticizing the senator for opposing sanctions against Cuba while supporting sim- brought up for consideration as soon as possible. ilar sanctions against Burma, home of human-rights activist Aung San Suu Kyi. CUBA: BROADCASTS VIOLATE INTERNATIONAL LAW “Canada cannot stand idly by and allow misguided American trade restric- Cuba charged that the U.S. government is step- tions to put a chill over economic relations with our second-largest trading ping up transmissions of Radio and TV Martí into partner in the Caribbean ... In our view, Sabzali did nothing wrong.” the island, in violation of international law and — The Standard, in an editorial about Canadian salesman Jim Sabzali, who 14 Cuban sovereignty. The Cuban Foreign Ministry months ago was convicted by a Philadelphia court of violating the embargo. said it has verbally protested the actions to diplomats at the U.S. Interests Section in Havana. But the State Department denies that such “The rumors that the president is preparing his son to lead Cuba are against broadcasts violate any laws or international the facts and realities. I am not qualified for this job, and it is only the norms. Cuba’s Foreign Ministry told the official Cuban people who are empowered to determine the leadership.” daily Granma that it was also protesting to the — Fidel Castro Díaz, scientific advisor to his father and executive secre- International Telecommunication Union, which tary of Cuba’s nuclear energy agency. oversees radio frequencies worldwide. 6 CubaNews ❖ July 2003 pute Settlement Body, EU officials warmly Bacardi & Co. Ltd. is headquartered, referred Section 211 — FROM PAGE 1 welcomed the introduction of the U.S.-Cuba CubaNews to the company’s Miami-based Soon after approval of Section 211, Castro Trademark Protection Act. They also agreed spokeswoman, Pat Neal, who failed to return made a veiled threat to withdraw protection to extend their Jun. 30 deadline for repealing numerous phone calls and messages seeking from hundred of U.S. trademarks registered Section 211 by another six months; Congress comment for this story. in Cuba and said he was even thinking of pro- now has until Dec. 31, 2003, to act. But Mark Orr, vice-president of North ducing a “Cuban Coca-Cola.” In a press statement, the EU said the bill American affairs at Pernod Ricard USA, didn’t “would provide a whole scheme of measures mind talking to us. He said the bill “has broad- EU GIVES U.S. SIX MORE MONTHS TO COMPLY that would ensure an effective protection of er consequences and implications than simply HCH, hoping to sell Havana Club rum in intellectual property rights both in Cuba and determining who owns the U.S. registration” the United States when the embargo is lifted, the United States,” and that it hopes this ini- to the Havana Club name. has registered the Havana Club trade name tiative “will provide the basis to resolve this “This is a very useful and thoughtful new with the PTO. Rival Bacardi, however, claims [Section 211] dispute to the benefit of all.” approach from the standpoint of the U.S. business community,” Orr told CubaNews. “They it long ago purchased the rights to the TOP REPUBLICANS LIKELY TO OBJECT Havana Club name from the Arechabala fami- want to make sure there isn’t any pretext for ly, which produced rum under that name in GOP leaders have referred the measure to Mr. Castro to adversely affect their trademark Cuba before the revolution. the House International Relations Committee, rights, and that the framework is in place to The European Union has complained sev- where chairman Henry Hyde (R-IL) will prob- protect those rights in a post-Castro Cuba.” eral times to the World Trade Organization ably keep it bottled up. Hyde is a strong sup- Orr, who is based in Washington, added that Section 211 violates international trade- porter of the U.S. trade embargo on Cuba. that repealing Section 211 “would simply put mark agreements, including the 1931 Inter- In March, CubaNews reported that the PTO us back in the position of being able to have American Convention on Trademarks. had delivered a legal blow to HCH by reject- access to the court system to decide once and On Jan. 2, 2002, a WTO appellate body ing a motion to dismiss Bacardi’s long-run- for all who owns the Havana Club trademark, ruled the U.S. law inconsistent under the Ag- ning complaint against HCH based on an which is where we were before Section 211 reement of Trade-Related Aspects of Intellec- undisclosed e-mail to PTO Chief James Rogan was enacted.” tual Property Rights (TRIPS) because it treat- from Florida Gov. Jeb Bush. In 2002, Havana Club sold 1.8 million cases ed Cuban companies differently from those of In his e-mail, Bush urged the PTO to “take around the world, up from 1.7 million cases in other WTO member nations. quick, decisive action” to cancel the Havana 2001 and 300,000 cases when the joint venture The Bush administration promised to Club trademark on Bacardi’s behalf — an act- began in 1994. Havana Club is now Italy’s amend the law to comply with TRIPS, but ion HCH said violated the federal Govern- best-selling rum brand, said Orr, noting that never introduced any legislation to do so. ment in the Sunshine Act. Western Europe accounts for 70% of HCH’s At a meeting last month of the WTO Dis- Bacardi officials in the Bahamas, where worldwide sales and Canada the other 30%. Cuba marks an important 26th of July Film relives ‘94 rafter crisis On Jun. 20, a documentary about Cuba’s ifty years ago this month, a band of reb- rafters premiered at New York’s Lincoln els led by a young lawyer named Fidel Center, as part of the Human Rights Watch Castro assaulted the Cuban army’s gar- F International Film Festival, which is cur- risons in Santiago de Cuba and Bayamo. The former — known as Cuartel Moncada LARRY LUXNER rently showcasing films about provocative — was the 2nd-largest military base in Cuba. global issues. The attack eventually failed and scores of rev- “Balseros,” made by Spanish TV journal- olutionaries captured in the ensuing hours and ists Carlos Bosch and Joseph Domenech, days were brutally butchered. traces the lives of seven Cubans who build Only those captured at the end, including a rickety boat and head for the high seas at Castro, survived, thanks to public outrage. the height of the 1994 refugee crisis. Although it was unsuccessful, the assault gave The seven are intercepted by the Coast a tremendous boost to forces opposing Gen. Guard, taken to the U.S. Naval Base at Fulgencio Batista, and it allowed armed strug- Guantánamo Bay and eventually allowed to gle to become the dominant method of defeat- settle in the United States. ing the existing regime and its domestic and Bosch and Domenech then reconnect foreign allies. with the refugees seven years later as they After two years in jail, Castro and his fellow try to make separate lives for themselves fighters were released, again thanks to public in New York, Nebraska, Texas and else- pressure. They went into exile in Mexico, where. Only one ends up seemingly happy Cuartel Moncada, a Santiago de Cuba shrine. undertook military training and in December — a middle-aged father who is reunited 1956, landed in Cuba to begin their guerrilla ers point to different possibilities. Some sug- with his wife and young daughter in Miami campaign. By January 1959, they had defeated gest he may announce a more moderat and now works at Home Depot. Batista, and the Cuban Revolution under approach toward the EU as well as a relaxation One of the things that make this docu- Castro’s leadership came to power — and of restrictions on private activities. mentary stand out is the technique that endures to this day. Castro could also announce the holding of Bosch and Domenech used to make it. Celebrations marking the 50th anniversary the Sixth Congress of the Cuban Communist Because they were free to go back and of the Moncada attacks will take place later Party — postponed since last year — where forth to Cuba thanks to their media cre- this month in Santiago de Cuba. Despite such new policies would be adopted in view of dentials, the two journalists were able to rumors and speculation, no one knows exactly Cuba’s critical economic situation. bring video footage of the refugees’ new what Fidel will say during the long speech No matter what he says, the announcements lives in America to show to their relatives everyone expects him to make on Jul. 26. to be made on that historic day will clearly indi- still in Havana — giving the film a “reality Although some expect a confrontational cate the direction the old leader wants to take TV show” effect. stance with regards to U.S. and European Cuba in the immediate future. – VITO ECHEVARRÍA Union policies toward the Castro regime, oth- – DOMINGO AMUCHASTEGUI July 2003 ❖ CubaNews 7 TOURISM Recreational boating industry has a bright future in Cuba BY DOUGLASS G. NORVELL ing industry. Yacht traffic is likely to grow Yet the docks and harbors remain, and are ecreational boating will likely rank as throughout the Caribbean because of the maintained for the use of fishing boats. one of Cuba’s top moneymaking activi- inhospitable boating environment in South Abutting the historic Valley of the Sugar Mills R ties once the U.S. travel ban is lifted. Florida, where more and more waters are (a UNESCO World Heritage Site), these small American boaters love an ocean adventure, declared “no-wake zones.” ports could host visiting yachts and sailboats. for which Cuba offers unsurpassed potential. In these zones, boaters must move through At present, Marina Hemingway is still At the same time, militant environmental- the water at very slow speeds, which tends to Cuba’s flagship facility. More than just a place ists are pushing U.S. boaters offshore — and dampen boater enthusiasm. And because of for boats, it’s also a thriving tourist complex Cuba is only too happy to receive them. In the desire to protect endangered manatees, employing 1,000 people in hotels, restaurants, addition, Cuba already manufactures boats retail shops, a shipyard and the marina itself. and has plenty of skilled labor to build and Marina Hemingway, repair almost any vessel. with a control depth of 15 Given all these advantages, it would be no feet, can host up to 400 surprise if Cuba one day leapfrogs past the boats. The facility is partic- Bahamas to become the preferred boating ularly attractive to live- destination of the Caribbean. aboard sailors, many of At present, the Bahamas receives about who are U.S. citizens. 15,000 man-days of boating visits a year. Over More information about the last 20 years, the number of luxury mari- the marina, including na slips in the Bahamas has grown dramati- phone and fax numbers, cally, as South Florida became a center of U.S. can be found in Charles Si- yachting activity (second only to Long Island mon’s “Cruising Guide to Sound). Most of these boats would travel to Cuba,” available for $14 on www.amazon.com. Cuba, were it not for the travel ban and very few South Florida marinas have been allowed Marina Hemingway is also the home of the few places to dock. to expand in recent years. prestigious Cuba International Yacht Club, Cuba also lacks the glassed-in feeling of the CUBANACÁN, GAVIOTA LEAD MARINA VENTURES led by Commodore José Miguel Escrich. Florida Keys, with its 40 pages of environ- The club currently hosts up to 15 tourna- The majority of Cuban boating facilities are mental regulations. In some areas, local laws ments a year, including anglers’ tournaments old and out of the way. Before the 1959 revo- require a diver to go down with a boat anchor for blue marlin, swordfish and wahoo, and lution, Santiago de Cuba and Cienfuegos — to avoid disturbing marine life. regattas coming from St. Petersburg, Fla., both along Cuba’s south coast — had active Cuba, in contrast, has few such regulations New Orleans and Cadiz, Spain. yacht clubs, as did Havana. Since then, Mar- — opening the island up to a myriad of possi- While in Cuba, many boaters have their ina Hemingway on Havana’s western edge bilities. One of them is the so-called Pista de vessels worked on by the cost-efficient Cu- and Marina Puerto Sol, to the east, have Piratas (Pirates’ Trail) which would run from bans for about $10 an hour — compared with served most foreign boaters calling on Cuba. Miami’s Government Cut down to Key West $50 per hour in South Florida, where immi- Other marinas are being planned, and state and onto Havana’s Marina Hemingway before grants do much of the work. entities such as Cubanacán S.A., a unit of the hugging Cuba’s northwestern coast to Cabo The local boatyard entity Emprotur builds Ministry of Tourism, often refer to 14 marinas San Antonio, finally ending at Cancún. the Cobra, a 16-foot copy of the Boston Wha- in various stages of development. Running the Pista de Piratas would be a ler. At the División Astilleros Almendares, Several Cuban companies are in the boat- breeze for today’s large outboard, unlike in located near the inlet of the Río Almendares ing business, led by Cubanacán, which oper- pre-embargo times when 40-horsepower rigs in Marianao, workers produce 25 boats a year. ates several small marinas with fleets of rental were monsters. With its steady temperatures, Cuba is ideal boats to serve tourists. Gaviota, a division of for boatbuilding, which is best done in a place Cuba’s armed forces, is building Phase I of a LURING U.S. BOATERS WITH NOVEL IDEAS with a stable climate and low energy costs. 1,000-slip marina at Varadero, which already When evaluating the post-embargo poten- has the aging 40-slip Marina Acua. tial for Caribbean travel, it should be noted Consistent with its upscale image, Gaviota that Texas boats traveling to Cancún for bill- BUSINESS GUIDE TO CUBA opened a new marina north of Holguín along fish action usually follow the Gulf coast to Key Cuba’s northeastern coast early last year. West, then make the 12-hour run to Cancún, The Business Guide to Cuba is the most Known as Puerto Vita, the 40-slip marina thus avoiding a night on the open sea when comprehensive research report on Cuban has a control depth of nine feet and is truly coming straight south from Houston. business and politics available today. full-service, right down to securing airplane A night in Havana, followed by another at With more than 300 pages of exclusive tickets for visitors who want to dock their the small marina at Cayo Elvis, would make information, data, charts and maps on all the Key West-Cancún trip much easier — not productive sectors of the economy — as boats while leaving the country. well as a list of official contacts, business Conveniently located for a visit from Flor- to mention the comfort of never being more practices and even Cuban street slang — ida, Puerto Vita will save sailors the long trip than 40 miles from dry land. the Business Guide to Cuba is your No. 1 to Havana during summer months when near- Another opportunity is to develop the chain resource on potential investment opportu- shore currents flow west to east. According to of abandoned sugar ports on Cuba’s south- nities and pitfalls in this emerging market. the Cuban tourism publication Destinos, 120 east coast into small ports-of-call for large Copies of the guide are available for only boats visited the marina from North America yachts. Steamships and steam-powered sugar $99 each, shipping and handling included. and Europe last year. A fleet of cabin cruisers mills both came into vogue about 100 years To order your copy, call us toll-free today and catamarans is based at Puerto Vita year ago, but the small steamships that sailed into at (800) 365-1997, fax us at (301) 365-1829 round, serving tourists. ports like Niquero, Pilón and Manzanillo are or send an e-mail to [email protected]. A lifting of the U.S. travel ban could spark long gone — having been replaced by large Visa, MasterCard and Amex accepted. interesting developments for the Cuban boat- ships sailing from major ports. 8 CubaNews ❖ July 2003 NEWSMAKERS Elizardo Sánchez: Dean of Cuba’s dissident movement

BY LARRY LUXNER in 1959, Sánchez was hired by the Foreign given us a little space. Cuba has a totalitarian anging over the porch at the home of Ministry, but he lost his job after criticizing government. They have total control of the dissident Elizardo Sánchez Santa Cruz Castro’s rejection of Soviet policies. economy, the infrastructure and the media, His a faded color poster of Pope John Sánchez was caught up in the 1968 purge of but it’s a tropical totalitarianism. Cuba is not Paul II with an inspiring message: “No Tengas old-guard communists, which got him black- North Korea — not yet — and it’s not like Miedo — Don’t Be Afraid.” listed from other jobs. Romania under Ceaucescu. Here, the govern- Even so, says Sánchez, “I am always afraid. “That was the point of no return, about the ment is a little more flexible.” Fear is part of the Cuban reality, even for gov- time when Soviet tanks entered Prague,” he Or at least it was, until the recent crack- ernment officials. What distinguishes the dis- said. “After that I was expelled from my job at down in which 75 dissidents were arrested sidents from the rest of the population is that the University of Havana, and I worked in fac- and sentenced to jail terms of up to 28 years. we do our work in spite of fear.” tories and laundries. I was imprisoned for Two of the CCDHRN’s 16 members are also The 59-year-old economist ought to know. eight and a half years. They never physically behind bars. Sánchez says there are now 100 As founder of the Cuban Committee for “prisoners of conscience” Human Rights and National Reconciliation among the 300 or so political (CCDHRN in Spanish), Sánchez has spent prisoners languishing in one-sixth of his life in prison for chronicling Cuban jails. “This was the most inten-

Fidel Castro’s human-rights abuses. LARRY LUXNER Through his anti-government activities, the sive wave of political repres- former professor of Marxist philosophy has sion in the last decade, and become perhaps Cuba’s best-known dissi- the most severe judicial dent. Some call him Cuba’s “official” dissident process in the entire history because he is so often quoted by internation- of Cuba and possibly the al media — and a few Miami hardliners even Western Hemisphere,” he accuse Sánchez of being a paid agent of Cas- said. “Raúl Rivero was the tro because he opposes the U.S. embargo and most important poet of his the 1996 Helms-Burton Act. generation. Never before have so many people been 35 YEARS OF HARASSMENT accused of crimes of opinion, CubaNews recently met Sánchez for a one- or received such long sen- hour interview at his home along Avenida 21 tences. All of them qualify as in Havana’s once-fashionable Playa district. prisoners of conscience.” Outside, the house is surrounded by a Why Sánchez himself was chain-link fence, while inside — hanging on Elizardo Sánchez talks to CubaNews during an interview in Havana. not arrested and thrown in the walls of his living room — are framed pho- prison this time around tographs of Sánchez with various world lead- tortured me, but I was a victim of psychologi- remains a mystery to the dissident leader. ers including Jimmy Carter, French President cal torture — solitary confinement, tiny cells, “I’ve visited the U.S. Interests Section and Jacques Chirac, Sen. Edward Kennedy and interrogations, darkness.” have been invited to [Interest Section Chief Spanish Prime Minister José María Aznar. Sánchez said he was also jailed in the mid- James] Cason’s residence 8 or 10 times,” he “I have lived in this house for 40 years,” 1980s for 10 months, simply for talking to two said. “I’m sitting here talking to you by pure said Sánchez, “and the police have been tap- coincidence. I should be in jail.” journalists from AFP and Reuters who were So, for that matter, should Oswaldo Payá, ping my phones for 35 years. I don’t have later expelled for interviewing him. access to e-mail or the Internet. For years, I though Sánchez points out that “in the case of haven’t slept well. If someone knocks on my CASTRO’S ‘GRAVE MISCALCULATION’ Payá, to arrest him would reinforce his candi- door, I don’t know if it’s the police or not.” dacy for the Nobel Peace Prize.” From the early ‘80s until around 1994, the Sánchez says the worldwide outpouring of Sánchez lives here with his younger broth- Cuban secret police regularly raided the er Gerardo, on whom he relies heavily. His anger at Castro’s crackdown on dissent — Sánchez residence, taking books and docu- wife Margarita resides in Miami with their ranging from leftist intellectuals who previ- daughter María. He sees his family “only ments. The house has also been attacked sev- ously supported Castro to the European when the government permits me. Some- eral times by rock-throwing goons from out- Union, which last month announced a new times they let me visit them, but lately they’ve side the neighborhood. wave of diplomatic sanctions against Cuba — blocked my right to travel.” “These actos de repudio were done by peo- has left the Castro regime in a quandary. Sánchez and his fellow activists in the ple who didn’t know me,” he said. “The gov- “I think this government has committed a CCDHRN receive information directly from ernment brought them in cars and buses grave error, a miscalculation,” he said. “They prisoners and their families, and feed that from other places, on orders from the highest didn’t realize that world reaction would be so information to organizations such as Amnesty officials.” negative.” These days, Sánchez is less easily intimi- International and Human Rights Watch. MOVEMENT IS MULTIPLYING, NOT SHRINKING Unlike Oswaldo Payá and his Varela dated. In fact, a visiting journalist for Swedish Project, Sánchez does not engage in grass- TV sat on a living-room sofa, patiently waiting Sánchez, who spent three months studying roots recruiting but is consistently focused on to interview Sánchez as he finished telling at the Washington offices of Human Rights political prisoners and human-rights issues. CubaNews his life story. Watch, suggests that while in the short term That’s a far cry from the late 1950s, when At times, the dissident’s words were the arrests have dealt a severe blow to Cuba’s Sánchez — then affiliated with Cuba’s old Par- drowned out by the sound of barking dogs, dissident movement, social tensions will con- tido Socialista Popular — was a protegé of two and loud salsa music blaring from the radios tinue to mount — providing a fertile breeding veteran communists, Luís García Guitart and of cars barreling down the street. ground for fresh opposition to the regime. Ramón Calcines. After Castro came to power “Time has passed, and the government has See Sánchez, page 9 July 2003 ❖ CubaNews 9 POLITICAL ANALYSIS Despite climate of fear, dissent far from dead in Cuba BY DOMINGO AMUCHASTEGUI “Cuban democrats,” and that courageous dis- The declaration didn’t mention anyone by uch has been said and written about sident leaders “are better known to foreign name, but it also wasn’t signed by Payá, lead- governments and international human-rights ing some to speculate that rifts within the dis- Fidel Castro’s dissident crackdown groups than to most Cubans on the island.” sident movement are growing. Mover the last two months. Many ob- Noted Cuban-American sociologist Alejan- servers have concluded that with the unpre- dro Portes says dissidents are forced to look CASON CONNECTION IS KISS OF DEATH cedented actions, the government has “deci- for outside assistance, but when they turn to Interestingly, those dissidents who suffered mated Cuba’s peaceful dissident movement.” the U.S. Interests Section, they are immedi- the brunt of Castro’s recent crackdown all Indeed, 75 dissidents were arrested, put on ately disqualified as opposition leaders and had three things in common: a strong and trial and sentenced. Among them was only branded as enemy agents in the eyes of the proven link to Jim Cason, chief of the U.S. one with some national intellectual stature: majority and of government propaganda. Interests Section in Havana, including materi- journalist and poet Raúl Rivero. Three were It’s an undisputable fact that although 10% al and financial support; an equally strong connection with the most conservative Cuban exile groups in Miami, and a political platform that supports the embargo, opposes Europe- an relations with Cuba and seeks to oust the “I think this government has committed a grave error, a miscal- Castro regime by whatever means possible. Connections with the U.S. Interests Section culation. They didn’t realize world reaction would be so negative.” and Miami-based exile groups became signif- icantly stronger last year, under the Bush — HUMAN-RIGHTS ACTIVIST ELIZARDO SÁNCHEZ administration’s new “Free Cuba Initiative.” This initiative, coupled with the activities of Otto Reich and his associate, Cason, was followed by a number of hostile actions by second-rank figures: Marta Beatríz Roque, of the Cuban population is ready to punish the Cason on Cuban soil — precipitating counter- Héctor Palacios and Manuel Espinosa Chepe government through voting blank or dam- actions by Cuban authorities. — and the remaining 71 were rank-and-file aged ballots in national “elections,” after 15 In other words, the crackdown did not people with very little or no relevant political years the dissident movement hasn’t been emerge out of the blue, but rather came in or intellectual credentials. able to capture the hearts and minds of that response to what the Castro government per- While there’s no question the crackdown 10% and turn it into an active force. ceived as a larger and more dangerous U.S. hurt Cuba’s fledgling dissident movement, it Their best shots until now, Oswaldo Payá’s policy of pre-emptive and regime change, as would be an exaggeration to say that the Proyecto Varela and Manuel Cuesta Morúa’s amply seen in Iraq. movement is dead or dying. Corriente Socialista, have only mustered a At the same time, most analysts have over- few thousand brave souls ready to sign up in looked the fact that the most important dissi- DISSIDENTS FAIL TO GARNER WIDE SUPPORT support of their respective proposals. dents have top-notch political and intellectual The reasons for dissent in Cuba are obvi- In late June, five of Cuba’s top dissidents credentials, and haven’t been arrested. ous. But after 15 years, their lack of popular issued a “declaration of principles” that called They have also not been quiet; rather, they support and inability to mobilize wide sect- for unity among government opponents but talk frequently with foreign correspondents. ions of the Cuban population are also obvious. dismissed individualism, in what was widely And all of them have expressed serious reser- Not long ago, a veteran Havana correspon- seen as a swipe at Payá. vations about Cason; Payá has reportedly de- dent for Spain’s El País concluded that “los Signed by Sánchez as well as Gustavo manded that the U.S. diplomat not interfere disidentes no le hacen ni cosquillas a Fidel — Arcos Bergnes, Vladimiro Roca, René Gómez with Proyecto Varela or its followers. the dissidents don’t even tickle Fidel.” Manzano and Félix Bonne Carcasés, the de- According to Dagoberto Valdés, chairman A more academic approach provided by Ed- claration endorses the right of Castro oppo- of the Catholic-sponsored Comisión Nacional ward González, an analyst at Rand Corp., sug- nents “to launch projects, initiatives and de Justicia y Paz, “the facts show that gests that the chances for a democratic transi- diverse working ideas” but rejects “any as- [Cason’s activities] have been counterproduc- tion in Cuba “are remote” because the corre- sumption that dissident organizations are tive, giving justification to those who attack lation of forces is overwhelmingly against under an obligation or duty to support them.” the opposition.”

the CCDHRN alive through press confer- Another is that unlike Marta Beatríz Roque Sánchez — FROM PAGE 8 ences, interviews with foreign journalists and and many of the other 75 dissidents in prison, “The government says we’re divided, but in support from various NGOs. Sánchez does not have close ties with Miami “The government doesn’t permit us to have exile groups. Nor does he support the U.S. reality their math is wrong,” Sánchez told offices, nor autos, nor access to the Internet, embargo against Cuba. CubaNews. “We’re multiplying, and we agree so our expenses are minimal,” he said. “For more than 15 years, I have criticized on more than 95% of the major themes.” “We have had some help from Europe. For the embargo, and later Helms-Burton. I think He added: “Fidel isn’t interested in reconci- example, the French government awarded us it’s wrong, and I think Washington has com- liation with anyone. We formed a National Re- 120,000 francs in 1997. Spain’s La Fundación mitted many errors in its policy towards Cuba conciliation movement in 1987, but just like Hispano-Cubana gave us about $5,000. We since 1959. the extremists in Miami, Fidel Castro oppos- have also received money from Cuban exiles, Even so, Sánchez concluded, “the funda- es national reconciliation. His policy has been but not from the U.S. government.” mental cause of poverty and lack of liberty in to promote hate among Cubans.” In fact, Sánchez’s refusal to accept cash Cuba isn’t the embargo or Helms-Burton, but Meanwhile, Sánchez — who has never per- from the U.S. Agency for International Deve- its totalitarian government, which is by defini- sonally spoken to Castro — struggles to keep lopment may be one reason he’s not in prison. tion a violator of human rights.” 10 CubaNews ❖ July 2003 RELIGION Cuba’s 1,300 Jews keep the faith — with help from abroad BY LARRY LUXNER retired surgeon, who’s been president of the Beginning at 8:30 every Sunday morning, part from a bronze plaque in Hebrew Patronato since 1981. two rented buses fan out all over Havana, and Spanish identifying itself as “Con- “In general, the Jews live the same as picking up children and their professors. A gregación Hatikva,” the crumbling, everyone else, and in some ways better. Some They’re dropped off at the Patronato in time one-story blue-and-white building is indistin- receive money from their families [in Miami], for a 9:45 a.m. dairy breakfast. At 1 p.m., after guishable from the others along Santiago de some don’t. But the community has lots of classes are finished, the kids are taken home. Cuba’s narrow, cobblestoned Calle Corona. friends. We don’t do fund-raising campaigns, “In every family in Cuba, there’s someone As the Caribbean sun begins to drop be- but if we have an opportunity, we ask visitors who isn’t Jewish,” said Szevach. “And if it’s hind the clouds, an old woman shuffles by, to give a few dollars to help out,” said Miller, the mother, then the kids aren’t Jewish. But selling panquecitos for one peso each. A bois- adding that “everything we have comes from we have converted around 300 people who terous street party blares reggae and salsa were already mar- music from the house across the street, while ried. Before the con- at the little synagogue, 31 Jews of all ages sit version, they take 20 in black plastic chairs, waiting patiently for weeks of classes.”

Friday night services to begin. LARRY LUXNER Szevach said the Finally, in walks Julio Amona Gómez, the de conversions are per- facto rabbi of Santiago de Cuba. For the next formed by three visit- hour, Gómez, a biochemistry professor who ing Conservative rab- converted to Judaism in 1996, leads his con- bis from Los Angeles, gregation in prayer as an electric fan strug- San Diego and gles to keep the sweating worshippers cool. Buenos Aires. “We haven’t had a real rabbi since 1966, but In the lobby of the every Shabbat, we study the Torah and every- Patronato are two one participates,” Eugenia Faria Levy, presi- marble plaques com- dent of Hatikvah, says proudly. memorating a recent After services are over, the hungry congre- synagogue renova- gants move to an adjoining room for tradition- al Shabbat dinner — complete with arroz con tion and thanking the pollo, hard rolls, tomato salad and lemonade. Greater Miami Jew- “By luck, our vice-president is a veterinari- Worshippers at a synagogue in Santiago de Cuba bless the Shabbat meal. ish Federation for its an,” said Faria. “Even though he’s not a sho- help. There are also chet [kosher butcher], we slaughter chickens the Canadian Jewish Congress. We’ve never dozens of photos including one showing Fidel the best way we can, trying to stay close to the tried to get things from the United States.” Castro clutching a siddur, or prayer book, as rituals of kashrut.” Miller, interviewed in a tiny wood-paneled Jewish teens light Chanukah candles nearby. office crammed with religious books, Jewish JEWISH POPULATION IS STABLE calendars and assorted souvenirs from Israel, KEEPING POLITICS OUT OF THE SHUL Such is life today for the estimated 1,300 told CubaNews that a butcher shop in Old And therein lies an enduring paradox for Jews still living in Cuba, down from 15,000 or Havana sells kosher meat three times a week Cuba’s Jews: despite the regime’s official hos- so before the 1959 revolution. at subsidized prices to registered members of tility toward Zionism and the state of Israel, Of the total, some 1,000 reside in Havana, the Jewish community — even though few Castro appears to have bent over backwards with much smaller numbers in Santiago de people here actually keep kosher homes. to accommodate the island’s Jewish minority. Cuba (80); Camagüey (70); Guantánamo (60); Nestor Szevach, coordinator of Cuba pro- Miller, who has sometimes been portrayed Sancti Spíritus (45); Granma (35); Cienfuegos grams for the American Jewish Joint Distribu- as an ally of the Castro regime, admits he’s in (20) and Santa Clara (less than 20). tion Committee, is currently the only foreign- an uncomfortable position. Dr. José Miller is president of the Casa de la er authorized by the Castro government to “The government does not manipulate me,” Comunidad Hebrea de Cuba, also known as assist Cuba’s Jewish community. he insisted. “What interests me is how Castro Gran Sinagoga Bet Shalom, or simply “El A native of Argentina, the 35-year-old Sze- acts toward the Jewish community. If the gov- Patronato.” Located in Havana’s Vedado dis- vach was previously community director of ernment organizes a pro-Palestinian march in trict, the Patronato is the largest and most Tiferet Israel in Vicente Lopez, a suburb of front of the U.S. Interests Section, I wouldn’t active of Cuba’s five remaining synagogues. Buenos Aires. He and his wife Mara, 28, now go. But for Elián [González], I went.” Miller, 78, says Cuba’s Jewish population live in Havana; together, they supervise the Asked for his opinion about the Castro gov- has stabilized in recent years as Jews leave for Joint’s $90,000 annual Cuba budget. ernment’s recent arrest and jailing of 75 dissi- Israel or Florida, and new people — usually dents, independent journalists, librarians and the non-Jewish spouses of mixed marriages NO ANTI-SEMITISM IN CUBA human-rights activists, Miller gets nervous. — convert and join the community. “We’re the fifth couple working in Cuba “There have been dissidents for years, and “We’re definitely better off since the Joint started its Cuba program in they manifest their dissent in various ways. now than in the early ‘90s,” said the 1992,” he said. “In Argentina, I was director of But you have to be very careful,” he warned. a community center that took extreme securi- “There’s a very thin red line between internal ty measures. Here, there are no expressions dissent and collaboration with the enemy. And of anti-Semitism, and all the synagogues keep if you cross it, you’re longer a dissident.” their doors open.” Miller adds: “I don’t ask anyone in the Jew- The Patronato is the undisputed center of ish community what he thinks about politics. Jewish life in Cuba. Thanks to money from We’re not pro-Castro or anti-Castro here. If the Joint, the community now runs a Sunday someone wants to be a dissident, let him be school attended by 70 children and 30 adults. one — but not inside the Patronato.” July 2003 ❖ CubaNews 11 RELIGION Catholic hierarchy finds itself caught in political dilemma BY DOMINGO AMUCHASTEGUI In mid-May, Czech Bishop Vaclav Maly Some priests openly question Ortega’s ap- he Roman Catholic Church — the larg- paid a 10-day visit to Cuba to promote exactly proach, discussing martyrdom in their homi- est religious institution in Cuba — is the opposite course of action. He urged lies and urging followers to choose whether T being dragged into the controversy Cuba’s Catholic hierarchy to support the to be “with Christ or against Christ”— with surrounding Fidel Castro’s recent crackdown opposition; failing to do this, he said, is the obvious suggestion that the anti-Christ is “from my point of view, a big mistake.” none other than the Castro regime. on dissent. The Czech bishop, who did not meet with According to a recent study conducted by “The church’s mission is not to be on the Ortega during his visit to Cuba, noted that the Cuban Communist Party, the island expe- side of the opposition,” stated Cardinal Jaime while a church should not engage in politics, rienced significant growth in religious affilia- Ortega, the archbishop of Havana, at a Mass “in a dictatorship, it’s always good when peo- tion; during the 1990s, membership in Protes- on May 30. “In the same way, you cannot ask ple of goodwill unite.” tant and Evangelist churches grew by over the church to support the government.” Domestic pressure within the Cuban Cath- 190,000, while membership in the Catholic Everyone in attendance knew what he was olic Church and its lay leaders are consider- Church rose by only 80,000. talking about, including James Cason, chief of able. Even though Ortega said “the church’s Nevertheless, the Catholic Church remains the U.S. Interests Section, as well as other dip- vision is not to be the opposition party that an influential and powerful component of lomats, dissident leaders and Cuban officials. unfortunately does not exist in Cuba,” some Cuban civil society. Exactly a month earlier, on Apr. 30, the bishops and many of the island’s 300 Catholic Predominantly a white, middle-class social Vatican’s state secretary, Angelo Sodano, in- priests disagree with the archbishop and body with very few Cuban priests and not sisted that Pope John Paul II did not regret actively support Oswaldo Payá’s Proyecto even one black bishop, the church is battling having extended a hand of friendship to Cas- Varela, which they helped conceive. to expand its membership and social network, tro during his historic 1998 visit to Cuba. The Vatican is aware of this, which explains mostly in the form of charities. He also said the Pope still hopes Castro will not only Sodano’s recent statement, but the Possibilities exist in the fields of education “lead his people to new democratic goals, fact that the Pope has twice declined to grant and the media; the Catholic Church already respecting the social achievements of these a special audience to Payá — first in Havana, publishes 18 provincial journals and one past decades.” in 1998, and then in Rome, in December 2002. nationally circulated magazine, Vitral.

MIAMI’S CUBAN JEWISH COMMUNITY SLOWLY ASSIMILATES INTO MAINSTREAM IAMI — Cuban Jews in Havana like to joke that every year at the Cuban government wouldn’t let him emigrate with his wife Teresa Passover, their Seder ends with the fervent prayer: “L’shana and young daughter Dina. M haba’ah b’Miami — next year in Miami!” “Finally, the Spanish government, via the Israelis, pressured the For the 8,000 Jews of Cuban origin now living in South Florida, that Cubans to let me leave as a political refugee,” he said. “I came to prayer came true more than 40 years ago. Miami and spent four years loading boxes for a local company.” Today, most of these “Jubans” — as they are nicknamed — have Today, Asís, 50, owns a comfortable townhouse in the Miami sub- made it economically. Yet they have little in common with the thou- urb of Westchester and works as an adult protective investigator for sands of fellow Spanish-speaking Jews who have more recently emi- Florida’s Department of Children and Families. grated to South Florida from Argentina, Uruguay and other countries Another member of the community, Avraham Ashkenazi, has a dif- embroiled in crisis. ferent story to tell. In 1992, the ardent Zionist became Cuba’s first Jew “Several years ago, some people tried to form a group, but it never to “make aliyah,” or immigrate, to Israel in 26 years. But after 10 years got off the ground,” said Jaime Suchlicki, director of the University of there, Ashkenazi decided he had had enough — and arrived in Miami Miami’s Institute for Cuban and Cuban-American Studies (ICCAS). speaking hardly a word of English. “Miami is so dispersed, I just don’t think there are points of conver- Ashkenazi, now 37, works full-time for the Cuban Hebrew Congre- gence. There’s no hostility, but no togetherness either.” gation as a graphic designer and rents an apartment on Michigan Two synagogues cater specifically to the Cuban community: Tem- Avenue, only a block away. He says he misses Israel but never thinks ple Moses, a Sephardic congregation in North Bay Village, and the about Cuba and has no desire to go back — even though his elderly Cuban Hebrew Congregation, an Ashkenazi temple in Miami Beach. father still works at Congregación Adat Israel in Old Havana. Argentine-born Rabbi Héctor Epelbaum, who was hired by the “I don’t want to arrive at the airport and be treated like dirt,” he told Cuban Hebrew Congregation a year ago, said his synagogue has just CubaNews over 400 member families, 90% of whom are of Cuban origin. . “I don’t want to see all that misery and not be able to do “In my congregation, I don’t speak about Argentines or Cubans, I anything about it.” speak about Jews,” said Epelbaum. “The old generation tried to sus- To ensure the Miami community’s history isn’t forgotten, leaders tain the language and traditions, but this second generation of Cubans plan to create a living record of contemporary Cuban Jewish life. is completely mixed. They know how to combine the warm feelings of The Cuban Jewish Community Documentation Project — co-spon- being Latin with the organizational skills of Americans.” sored by ICCAS and the University of Miami’s Sue and Leonard In some ways, Cuban Jews in Miami have it a lot easier than the Miller Center for Contemporary Judaic Studies — will include a com- Argentines coming today. prehensive documentation center, an interactive website, electronic For one thing, most of those fleeing Cuba in the early 1960s were family histories and scrapbooks, video and audio interviews of Cuban wealthy or upper middle-class professionals who spoke some English Jews, a film for broadcast and non-broadcast distribution, a coffee- and owned successful businesses. And they had few immigration table book, a conference and a traveling exhibit. problems, since under U.S. law, any Cuban who makes it to American Said Jaime Mandel, vice-chair of UM’s board of trustees, president soil may stay here legally. of Mandel Industries and a leading member of Miami’s Cuban Jewish But for more recent arrivals, getting out of Cuba wasn’t easy. community: “The only way we can ensure the continuity of our tradi- Moisés Asís, an information analyst who at one point was the tions tomorrow is by preserving yesterday’s memories.” island’s only Hebrew teacher, had been trying to leave for years. But – LARRY LUXNER 12 CubaNews ❖ July 2003 76 embargo violations and conspiracy. Thirty- tually allow direct flights from Tampa to Cu- BUSINESS BRIEFS two of these charges are for sales of water ba,” said Michael Zuccato, general manager of purification supplies to Cuba that took place CTS. “At present, without such humanitarian ONE MILLIONTH TOURIST ARRIVES IN CUBA while Sabzali, 44, was living in Canada and flights, Cuban-Americans in the Tampa region Cuba welcomed its one millionth tourist for employed by the Canadian company Bro- face economic and physical hardship in order the 2002-03 season on Jun. 29, one month ear- Tech. Sabzali sold the supplies to Cuban com- to access the direct flights from Miami.” lier than the same period last year. Cuban offi- panies and hospitals through Canadian, CTS says it’ll also be able to offer its servic- cials say that’s a 16% jump in tourism for the British and Italian subsidiaries. es to journalists, government officials, sports year to date. The U.S. Justice Department undertook a teams, religious organizations, educational Forecasts show that a figure of 1.9 million five-year investigation that resulted in a three- groups that qualify under a general license visitors is likely this year. Helping Cuba is the week trial. The case aroused an outcry in and individuals who qualify for and are issued fact that it has generally been immune to the Canada and inspired two diplomatic protests a specific license to travel. drop in U.S. tourism suffered by other by Ottawa to Washington over what many Details: Michael Zuccato, General Manager, Caribbean destinations this year, since most regarded as an “extraterritorial” effort to Cuba Travel Services, Tampa. Tel: (800) 963- Americans are barred from visiting Cuba any- impose U.S. law upon Canada. 2822. URL: www.cubatravelservices.com. way. Arrivals were 1686,162 in 2002, a 5% drop “Good news, but not great news,” Sabzali from the 1,774,541 reported in 2001. told Canadian reporters. “It’s a break in the OFAC AWARDS PORT OF TAMPA TRAVEL LICENSE “For several years,” wrote the official daily case. When you have to start fabricating evi- The Tampa Port Authority has won approval Granma, “Cuba has been aiming for two mil- dence and lying to secure a conviction, it from the Treasury Department’s OFAC to lion visitors a year, but this has been frustrat- shows something is wrong.” send a trade delegation to Cuba. ed by events such as Sept. 11, the subsequent “Plans have not been finalized, but we are hysteria and the war in Iraq, together with CUBA TRAVEL SERVICES TO OPEN TAMPA OFFICE working on a trip in late July,” said George external economic factors leading to depres- Responding to increased demand for travel Williamson, port director and CEO. “It’ll be a sion in tourism and civil aviation industries services to Cuba among Cuban-Americans in very short trip, maybe two days, and a very worldwide.” the Tampa Bay area, Cuba Travel Services small group, possibly four port representa- The official business weekly magazine Inc. (CTS) will open a branch in Tampa, Fla. tives. The purpose of the trip is to pursue Opciones reported that Cuba now has 266 CTS, based in Long Beach, Calif., already opportunities for legal trade, including food hotels, most of them four- or five-star, with has offices in Miami and Las Vegas. It oper- and medicine.” more than 40,000 rooms. ates under specific guidelines and criteria es- The OFAC permit expires Sept. 6, according “The tourism industry accounted for 4% of tablished by the U.S. Treasury Department’s to lawyer Olga Pina of Fowler White Boggs foreign-exchange earnings in 1990 and more Office of Foreign Assets Control, as well as by Banker, which represents the port authority. than 40% in 2001, with revenues from tourism and related activities reaching $1.769 billion the U.S. Department of Transportation. “OFAC’s position is that even though the last year. That compares with $1.840 billion in Currently, Tampa residents must travel to law hasn’t changed, they only grant travel 2001 and $1.948 billion in 2000. Miami to access direct flights to Cuba, costing requests to people who are absolutely neces- them an average $350 over and above their sary for the legal transactions with Cuba to OPEC LENDS CUBA $10 MILLION FOR IRRIGATION normal trip expenses. By expanding its opera- take place,” Pina told CubaNews. “So they’re tions, CTS will be able to offer a more cost- really focusing on the sellers and buyers, as Cuba has been awarded a $10 million credit effective solution to Tampa residents. opposed to the intermediaries. for an irrigation project by the International “We hope the Bush administration will even- “For example, I’ve had cases of people char- Development Fund, an arm of the Organiza- tion of Petroleum Exporting Countries. The agreement was signed in Vienna by Marta Lomas, Cuba’s minister for foreign investment OFAC DENIESPWN LICENSE TO HOLD2004 FOODSHOW IN HAVANA and economic cooperation, and Y. Seyyid he U.S.-Cuba Trade and Economic Kavulich said. “But the goal of punishing Abdulai, director of the OPEC fund. Council is trying to get the Bush ad- the Cuban government seems to be harm- The credit will be used for installing 125 T ministration to reverse its blocking ing the interests of U.S. exporters far more, electric pressure irrigation systems in Matan- of a food and agribusiness trade show because the companies going to Cuba took zas and Ciego de Avila provinces. The sys- planned for January 2004 in Havana. $92 million out of the government’s coffers. tems, to distribute water, fertilizers and pesti- In a letter to members of Congress, the They did not put $92 million into Cuba.” cides, will be accompanied by equipment such group said the White House should allow Nathan, who also organized the first U.S. as cranes, mobile workshops and tools to Peter Nathan, president of PWN Exhibicon health-products show in Havana in 2000, assure the functioning of the entire network. International of Westport, Conn., to hold said he’s written to OFAC seeking an expla- This is the second loan that OPEC has fund- nation for the denial, which came at the ed for Cuba; the first was for a water supply his U.S. Food & Agribusiness Exhibition at behest of the State Department. and purification project. Havana’s Pabexpo, just as he did last year. Nathan’s new license was turned down in Since December 2001, Cuba has pur- CANADIAN SALESMAN WINS RIGHT TO RETRIAL late June by the Treasury Department’s chased around $200 million in grains, poul- Office of Foreign Assets Control, which try, cereals and other agricultural products A U.S. federal judge has granted a motion under a loosening of the trade embargo in for a retrial for Canadian salesman James enforces the embargo. 2000 that allowed such sales for cash. Sabzali, convicted last April for violating the USCTEC President John Kavulich told U.S. embargo against Cuba. Wire services CubaNews that last year’s trade show was In Washington, Treasury Department report that Judge Mary McLaughlin, in a 31- attended by 16,000 Cubans and generated spokesman Taylor Griffin told AP that he page ruling, wrote she was “very concerned” $92 million in food sales for many of the had no specifics about the action, but said by “inflammatory language ... strewn through- 291 U.S. companies and state organizations that the Bush administration “is committed out the [prosecutor’s closing] argument.” participating in the historic event. to the full and fair enforcement” of the U.S. As such, the judge aside Sabzali’s convic- “There is a perception among some in embargo against Cuba. tions on one count of conspiracy and 20 the Bush administration that [last year’s] “As President Bush has said, without counts of violating the U.S. Trading with the exhibition provided more value to the gov- meaningful reform, trade with Cuba would Enemy Act. ernment of Cuba than to the government of do nothing more than line the pockets of But she also rejected a defense motion for the United States and U.S. companies,” Fidel Castro and his cronies,” said Griffin. acquittal, leaving Sabzali under indictment for July 2003 ❖ CubaNews 13 Trinidad & Tobago; Vishnu Dhanpaul, vice- about Cuba and its people. Previous books by president of the Industrial and Tourism Suchlicki include “Mexico: From Montezuma Development Co., and Gregory Thompson, to the Fall of the PRI” and “Historical executive director of Republic Bank. Dictionary of Cuba.”

LARRY LUXNER The bank, Trinidad’s largest, has been oper- To order the book, call (800) 775-2518. ating in Cuba since 1999 and established a Havana branch in April 2002. Its Cuban loan DROUGHT ENDANGERS EASTERN CUBA portfolio is around $40 million. Drought is severely affecting eastern Cuba Other companies in the delegation included from Camagüey to Guantánamo, reports the Specialist Chemicals, PetroTin, Trinidad official daily Granma, due to lower rainfall vol- Cement, S.M. Jaleel Ltd., Vemco Ltd., Erin umes over the last 10 years. Meat Packers, Naisa Brand Products, Season In the province of Las Tunas, 670 kms east PARTECH WINS GITMO CONTRACT Painting and Sanch Electronics. of Havana, the main reservoir, El Rincón dam, is in a “critical state” with only 4.2 million Rome Research Corp., a subsidiary of MIRAMAR HOTEL TO GET MIRUS BRAND cubic meters of water out of a capacity of 21.4 PAR Technology Corp., said Jun. 12 it was Hotel developer Leisure Canada Inc. says its million liters. Officials warn of the imminent awarded a $6.1 million contract to operate Miramar Management unit has been given the loss of 1,200 tons of fish. the Defense Message System at the Naval right to manage the Monte Barreto Hotel in In Holguín province, the drought is endan- Computer and Telecommunications Area Havana. The hotel will be flagged with the gering farming production, water supply sour- Master Station of the U.S. Naval Base at Mirus Resorts & Hotels brand, subject to ces and soil layers, with distribution of grains Guantánamo Bay. review by LCI’s Cuban partner, Gran Caribe. and vegetables falling by up to five kilograms The contract covers operation and In a Jun. 11 release, LCI said its goal is “to per capita in the first few months. maintenance of the DMS, frequency man- build both Havana’s premier hotel and the re- In addition, the severe water shortage has agement, Defense Information Systems putation of the Mirus Resorts & Hotels brand, resulted in 91 forest fires damaging over 5,000 Agency circuit coordination and local area so that it is synonymous with luxury, elegance hectares. At present, the province’s 17 reser- network support. Details: Christopher Byrnes, PAR Techno- and 4-star-plus Western recognized hotel pro- voirs contain 346 million cubic meters of water logy Corp., 8383 Seneca Turnpike, New ducts” as defined by international standards. — only 62% of their total capacity. “The development of a hotel brand that can Hartford, NY 13413. Tel: (315) 738-0600 CALLING CUBA MORE COSTLY FOR JAMAICANS x226. E-mail: [email protected]. quickly transfer to a North American hotel chain, once the doors to Cuba open,” said LCI, Cable & Wireless Jamaica announced that it “further establishes Leisure Canada’s vertical- will boost the cost of calls to Cuba to 66¢ a tering vessels for the transportation of goods, ly integrated gateway to Cuba.” minute, effective Jul. 21. but the people who trying to get licenses to Details: J.J. Jennex, Investor Relations, Lei- According to the telecom giant, even though be a charter’s agent are being denied. In sure Canada, Vancouver. Tel: (888) 600-8687. it’s been charging only 18¢ a minute, it has to some cases, it seems silly to deny them, but Fax: (604) 990-9584. E-mail: jjjennex@leisure- pay around 50¢ a minute for terminating calls on the other hand, there have been some canada.com. URL: www.leisurecanada.com. to Cuba. This subsidy, said C&WJ, was being abused by other telecom providers — both lo- abuses.” DON’T BLAME IT ON THE EMBARGO The Tampa Port Authority, which initially cal and overseas — who have been deliberate- balked at promoting Cuban trade, is now hop- Of 400 major state entities surveyed by the ly routing their calls to Cuba through Jamaica ing to drum up some local export business. National Association of Cuban Economists, in order to reduce the cost to themselves. “Before, we felt that the amount of agricul- 197 of them, or 49%, “have not yet resolved “With the full liberalization of the interna- tural products going to Cuba did not warrant their problems connected with internal control tional market, which has eroded C&WJ’s abili- the big marketing effort required,” said port and accountability” of their financial opera- ty to maintain subsidies, as well as the authority spokeswoman Lori Musser. “How- tions, accounts and statistics. increased traffic to Cuba, Cable & Wireless is ever, Tampa producers in general really felt According to the association’s vice-presi- obliged to adjust its tariffs to reflect the true they would be damaged if they didn’t go.” dent, Blanca R. Pampín, the worst results costs,” the company said. Steve Tyndall, director of trade development were among entities of local administrations, Under the new rate structure, operator- for nearby Port Manatee, which recently han- provincial and municipal institutions of the assisted calls will cost $1.98 for the first three dled a shipment of animal feed additive to the People’s National Assembly and the Ministry minutes and 66¢ per minute thereafter. Cuban port of Cienfuegos, said he doesn’t of Agriculture. consider Tampa to be a direct competitor. BERMUDA FREE TO PURSUE CLOSER CUBA TIES “There’s enough business for all the ports NEW CUBA HISTORY TEXTBOOK AVAILABLE Great Britain has approved Bermuda’s plans in the Tampa area to share with regard to The revised fifth edition of “Cuba: From to sign a memorandum of cultural understand- Cuba,” he said, “and I don’t think any one Columbus to Castro and Beyond” is now avail- ing with Cuba, but it is now up to the island’s port will get more than they can handle.” able in paperback for $24.95. government to decide whether to proceed. Details: Lori Musser, Tampa Port Authority, Written by Jaime Suchlicki, director of the Bermuda’s Royal Gazette reported that the 1101 Channelside Drive, Tampa, FL 33602. University of Miami’s Institute for Cuban and Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) in Tel: (813) 905-5132. Fax: (813) 905-5109. Cuban-American Studies, this standard text London has given Bermuda formal approval to for hundreds of college courses has been sign the accord with Havana. TRADE VISIT SOLIDIFIES TRINIDAD-CUBA TIES expanded to analyze Cuba’s political climate, However, the opposition United Bermuda Trinidad & Tobago now accounts for 90% of economy, and the current regime’s future. Party has slammed Premier Jennifer Smith’s the $120 million in annual trade between Cuba At 302 pages, “Cuba: From Columbus to ruling Progressive Labor Party for pursuing and the English-speaking Caribbean. Castro and Beyond” (ISBN 1-57488-436-0) pro- closer links with Cuba, saying it could jeopard- Relations between Trinidad and Cuba were vides a detailed and sophisticated understand- ize Bermuda’s links with the United States. solidified during a late June trade mission to ing of the island. Suchlicki surveys Cuba’s Ewart Brown, Bermuda’s transport minister, Havana headed by the country’s foreign min- development since its colonization by Spain in confirmed that the wealthy colony of 61,000 ister, Diane Seukaran, and co-sponsored by the 15th century, then focuses on its modern people is considering giving old buses and Republic Bank Ltd. history — particularly its struggle for inde- cars to Cuba, and possibly selling old ferries. Accompanying Seukaran were executives pendence from Spain and the United States. He also said Bermuda was looking at allowing from 24 firms as well as Anthony Hossand, This highly readable history is perfect for Cuban airlines to use the North Atlantic island president of the Producers Association of students or anyone who wants to learn more as a hub for flights to and from Europe. 14 CubaNews ❖ July 2003 GEOGRAPHY Sancti Spíritus: Colonial charm and forgotten sugar mills

This is the 12th in a series of monthly articles on Cuba’s 14 provinces by geographer Armando H. Portela, who has a Ph.D. in geography from the Soviet Academy of Sciences. Portela currently resides in Miami. Population

BY ARMANDO H. PORTELA tants per sq km (179 per sq mile), Sancti Spíritus is Sancti Spíritus (107,000) ocated in central Cuba, Sancti Spíritus less densely settled than the national average of Trinidad (40,000) province has existed since 1976, when the old 102 inhabitants per sq km. 30,000 - 40,000 province of Las Villas was split into three new Annual population growth among the espiritu- L 20,000 - 30,000 jurisdictions: Sancti Spíritus, Villa Clara and anos, as natives of this province are known, has Cienfuegos. slowed from 0.44% a year in 1995-2000 to 0.2% in 10,000 - 20,000 With 6,744 sq kms (2,605 sq miles), Sancti 2001 (down from 1.2% a year in the 1970s and 0.9% 5,000 - 10,000 Spíriitus is Cuba’s seventh-largest province, a year in the 1980s). The collapse of the sugar accounting for 6.1% of the island’s land area. industry — the province’s largest employer — Less than 5,000 could reduce population growth further still. Roughly 81% of the territory consists of plains Industrial facilities and valleys, with crops and grazing lands where With 107,000 dwellers, (23% of the province’s most people live. The remaining 19% consists of population), the capital is also called Sancti Sugar mill sparsely populated mountains and hills, typically Spíritus, and it ranks as Cuba’s 12th-largest city. Sugar mill (dismantled) covered with dense forests and coffee groves. Both the province’s capital and its second city, Sancti Spíritus has the largest man-made water Trinidad (population 40,000), were founded by Rum distillery reservoir in Cuba. The Zaza Dam can hold 1.02 bil- Diego Velázquez in the 16th century. Fish processing plant lion cubic meters (270 billion gallons) of water. The two architectural gems are among the earli- Fishing fleet Through an intricate system of canals and cul- est Spanish settlements in the Americas. Their rel- verts, the dam is used not just to irrigate local rice ative isolation and slow pace of growth have Shrimp farming and sugar crops but also to deliver water to neigh- helped preserve the colonial appeal of these Cement plant boring Ciego de Avila. towns, boosting their tourist potential. Paper mill POPULATION Other important cities and towns in the province The province’s population is currently estimated are Cabaiguán (31,000); Jatibonico (21,000); Oil refinery at 467,000, or 4.1% of all Cubans. With 69 inhabi- Fomento (17,000); Guayos and Yaguajay (10,000); Transportation B u e n a v National expressway i s t A1 Cayo Aguado a B a y Cayo Lucas cc Central road Caguanes Judas Other paved roads Area of Detail Point Point Unpaved roads Santa FC Central railroad Clara S. BOLÍVAR O. MORALES Main railroad Yaguajay A. IGLESIAS Placetas Aridanes M e Other railroads n e s San José Meneses e s H del Lago Domestic airport A1 FC cc H e i g Mayajigua Airstrip Z Jarahueca a h z t a s Iguará Venegas

r Land Use J A i a

v t i e b

V ILLA C LARA Agabama r o L n i Los Ramones Sugar cane

c o r I Fomento i v

e Tubers, bananas Cabaiguán La Rana r V R. PONCIANO Lebrije Santa Guayos Arroyo Blanco Rice pads Lucía reservoir A R. ABAD Tuinicú Taguasco El Pedrero Coffee orchards M. HERNÁNDEZ Zaza del Siguaney Jatibonico n t a i n s Medio El Majá E Tobacco groves o u Sancti M D H Polo Viejo cc y Meyer Spíritus Zaza URUGUAY Pasture lands

IENFUEGOS a r Hotel H r

Topes de b e v

Collantes m i

C Condado

a Zaza r Dairy farms c O s reservoir

E Caracusey o c

i Banao n G o Miscellaneous b i E F.N.T.A. t

La Boca a Trinidad La Güira J I Reservoir San La Sierpe Casilda Pedro Guasimal H r C e v Swamp Ancón Peninsula Tayabacoa r i Z a z a Agabama El Jíbaro river delta Mapos River

7 DE NOVIEMBRE Mountains 15 30 kilometers Tunas de Zaza 0 Las H Tourist resort 20 miles Guásimas 10 cove Historic center Pasabano Point Armando H. Portela July 2003 ❖ CubaNews 15 Taguasco (8,000); Zaza del Medio, Meneses and Mayajigua (7,000); and Casilda and La Sierpe (5,000). Historic Trinidad has huge tourism potential ECONOMY The economy of Sancti Spíritus is based on farming, with limited Sancti Spíritus is lagging in the investment boom that boosted industrial activity. The end of Soviet subsidies crippled the Cuba’s hotel capacity by 233% in the last 10 years. The province has province, whose economy depended on large inputs of energy, only 1,400 out of 40,000 rooms across the island, one-third of them in machinery and raw materials. Croplands and industries suffered a few four-star hotels and the rest in lesser-category lodgings. from prolonged paralysis and are now abandoned, with little hope With 807 of all rooms in the province, the focal point of tourism is of a rapid comeback. Trinidad and nearby Ancón beach. Roughly three-quarters of the land is agricultural, though 52% of Noted for its splendid colonial architecture, Trinidad — a UNESCO this portion is unused. “Spontaneous pastures,” a euphemism often World Heritage Site — sits at the foothills of the forested Escambray used to describe vacant, overgrown tracts of land, cover nearly 30% Mountains. It also has a mid-size domestic airport, good communica- of the territory; forests cover another 13%. The recent abandon- tions and acceptable urban infrastructure. Surprisingly, the only ment of sugarcane crops adds more acreage to the province’s rela- decent new hotel here is the four-star Trinidad del Mar; all the others tively large reserve of empty land. were built either in the 1980s or the 1950s. A 40-room, five-star bed- Sugarcane plantations, grazing ranches and tobacco farms are and-breakfast is now under construction in the center of town. common in the high plains, while large rice paddies cover the low- Trinidad’s modest facilities don’t come close to the lavishness in lands south of the towns of La Sierpe and El Jíbaro. Varadero (12,500 rooms); Cayo Coco/Cayo Guillermo (3,300) or Cayo Coffee grows in the Escambray Mountains, but production has Largo (1,500). One reason is that Trinidad cannot offer the secluded fallen sharply in the last few decades to under 5% of national output. The downsizing of the sugar industry left Sancti Spíritus with environment that the government obviously prefers for attracting three out of nine mills producing sugar; another two mills produce tourism yet minimizing tourists’ contact with local folks. For ordinary only molasses. This slashed daily grinding capacity to only 60% of Cubans, getting to Varadero is difficult, while getting to Cayo Coco or the 25,900-ton-a-day installed capacity the province boasted in 2002, Cayo Largo is nearly impossible. when it accounted for 7% of national sugar production. Trinidad, however, has a big potential for development once the At its peak in the 1980s, sugar plantations covered 122,000 ha fears of mixing Cubans with foreigners ease. Even operating at only (300,000 acres) of Sancti Spíritus. Yet with 60,000 ha (148,300 ac- 66% capacity, Trinidad’s hotels could make more money than the raw res), sugar cane is still king here, even after abandoning or con- sugar exports of the entire province. verting to other uses some 36,000 ha (89,000 acres) of land. – ARMANDO H. PORTELA The dismantled mills, which employed 8,000 people, are Rem- berto Abad (formerly La Vega); Simón Bolívar (Victoria); Siete de Noviembre (Natividad) and Aracelio Iglesias (Nela). The Obdulio Morales (Narcisa) and FNTA (Trinidad) mills now produce only

molasses. All these mills were built between 1863 and 1915. LARRY LUXNER In 1999, Sancti Spíritus produced roughly 257,000 tons of sugar, worth around $40 million at prevailing world prices — a far cry from the 500,000 tons produced in 1989 and valued in excess of $275 million at the preferential prices paid by the Soviets. The Uruguay (Jatibonico) sugar mill, with a daily grinding capacity of 11,340 tons, is one of Cuba’s most important mills, accounting for 75% of the sugar produced by the province. A refinery at the Ramón Ponciano (Santa Isabel) mill near Fomento can produce 42,000 metric tons a year. Meanwhile, an alcohol distillery at the Melanio Hernández (Tuinicú) mill produces 300 cases per day of 22 different brands of rum, and 60,000 liters per day of alcohol. INDUSTRY The Siguaney cement plant, opened in 1972 with Czech technol- View of colonial Trinidad from top of Convento de San Francisco de Asís. ogy, has the capacity to produce 600,000 tons of cement a year. In 1989, it produced 573,000 tons and two years later was adapted to burn domestic crude. It reportedly enjoys the lowest production sells $2 million worth of local shrimp in Europe, according to reports. costs on the island. Finally, a paper mill at Jatibonico produces half of all notebooks used in One production line was refurbished in the late ‘80s with Japa- the Cuban school system. nese technology to make white cement, of which 10,000 tons a year INFRASTRUCTURE are exported and 12,000 tons kept for local consumption. Siguaney The old two-lane Central Highway and the Central Railroad link Sancti foresees total production of 180,000 tons of cement in 2003. The Sergio Soto Alba oil refinery in Cabaiguán opened in 1947. Spíritus to the rest of the island. The six-lane National Highway (with only After 1961, the refinery switched to burning imported Soviet oil but two to four lanes in service here) ends at the village of Taguasco, serving returned to domestic crude in 1996 after a period of near-paralysis. only as a westbound link. A network of secondary roads and railroad The facility currently blends the local light crude — now pumped branches reaches all settlements and economic hubs. Both roads and rail- from oilfields at Ciego de Avila — with the heavy sour produced in roads are reportedly in poor condition. Varadero. This year, it is expected to refine 24,000 tons of Varadero Construction of the National Highway in the late 1970s cut driving time crude with 39,000 tons from Pina at a rate of 1,100 barrels a day, from Havana to the city of Sancti Spíritus from six and a half hours to four representing barely 0.7% of Cuba's consumption. hours. Yet without adequate signaling, services or protection, the condi- In 2002, the facility refined 750 barrels a day of domestic crude. tion of this route for fast traffic is deplorable. The refinery also produces industrial oils, lubricants, kerosene, re- Port activity is limited to Casilda, with two berths along the south coast. gular gasoline, PCV for electric transformers and other byproducts. Casilda handles some cargo, mainly cement, fuels, sugar and seafood. A A fish processing plant at Tunas de Zaza produces 15 tons a day. civil airport at Sancti Spíritus offers limited domestic service, while the Some 7,000 tons of lobsters are caught annually, while in 2001, the domestic airport at Trinidad was recently lengthened to serve medium- province’s shrimp farms yielded 500 tons and shrimping on the size passenger jets. Two minor airfields near San Pedro (south) and open seas netted another 186 tons. Spain’s PescaFina Antartida Mayajigua (north) serve local tourist spots. 16 CubaNews ❖ July 2003 CALENDAR OF EVENTS CARIBBEAN UPDATE If your organization is sponsoring an upcoming event, please let our readers know! You already know what’s going in Cuba, Fax details to CubaNews at (301) 365-1829 or send an e-mail to [email protected]. thanks to CubaNews. Now find out what’s happening in the rest of this diverse and Jul. 1-Aug. 31: Exhibit on Cuba, featuring over 70 works by a dozen photographers. fast-growing region. Says curator Terry McCoy: “The goal of the exhibition is to convey Cuba’s present, and Subscribe to Caribbean UPDATE, a to do so with a sense of accuracy and humanity.” Details: Int’l Center of Photography, 1133 monthly newsletter founded in 1985. Cor- porate and government executives, as well Ave. of the Americas, New York, NY 10036. Tel: (212) 857-0000. URL: www.icp.org. as scholars and journalists, depend on this publication for its insightful, timely cover- Jul. 8-11: Texas agribusiness trade mission to Cuba. Trip features visit to Havana and at age of the 30-plus nations and territories of least outlying one province; OFAC license pending. Cost: $1,500, includes airfare. Details: the Caribbean and Central America. Cynthia Thomas, Founding President, Texas-Cuba Trade Alliance, PO Box 515322, Dallas, When you receive your first issue, you TX 75251. Tel: (972) 527-7505. Fax: (972) 527-9449. E-mail: [email protected]. have two options: (a) pay the accompanying invoice and your subscription will be Jul. 10: Presentation of “Carta de Cayo Hueso” by architect and author Manuel Gutiér- processed; (b) if you’re not satisfied, just rez. Co-sponsored by Herencia Cultural Cubana, Institute of Cuban and Cuban-American write “cancel” on the invoice and return it. There is no further obligation on your part. Studies. Details: ICCAS, 1531 Brescia Ave., Coral Gables, FL 33124. Tel: (305) 284-2822. The cost of a subscription to Caribbean Jul. 14-18: Convención Metánica 2003, Palco, Havana. Details: Iván Oramas Placeres. UPDATE is $267 per year. A special rate of $134 is available to academics, non-profit Tel: +53 7 45-4467 or 260-3554. Fax: 53 7 267-1163. E-mail: [email protected]. organizations and additional subscriptions mailed to the same address. Jul. 15: “U.S. Policy on Travel to Cuba” Full-day forum co-sponsored by Center for In- To order, contact: Caribbean UPDATE, ternational Policy, Lexington Institute and USA*Engage. Participants include OFAC Dir- 52 Maple Ave., Maplewood, NJ 07040. Tel: ector Richard Newcomb, Sen. Max Baucus, Rep. Jeff Flake. Cost: $15 including lunch. (973) 762-1565. Fax: (973) 762-9585. Details: Anya Landau, CIP, Washington. Tel: (202) 232-3317. E-mail: [email protected]. E-mail: [email protected]. We accept VISA, MasterCard and American Express. Aug. 7-9: Association for the Study of the Cuban Economy, 13th Annual Meeting, Omni Colonnade Hotel, Coral Gables, Fla. Dozens of papers to be presented on investment, labor issues, human rights, agribusiness, immigration, tourism, etc. Cost: $75. Details: Antonio Gayoso, ASCE, PO Box 567, McLean, VA 22101-0567. E-mail: [email protected].

Aug. 15-25: Volunteer expedition to study Cuban sandhill cranes at Los Indios Ecolo- gical Reserve, Isla de Juventud. Cost: $2,360. Details: Earthwatch, PO Box 75, Maynard, MA 01754. Tel: (800) 776-0188. URL: www.earthwatch.org/expeditions/chavez.htm. Editor & Publisher Sep. 17-20: Feria Internacional de Transporte, Pabexpo, Havana. Trade show for the LARRY LUXNER transportation industry. Details: Miguel A. Cabrera Reyes, Ministry of Transport, Havana. Washington correspondent ANA RADELAT Tel: +53 7 55-5079 or 55-5082. Fax: +53 7 33-5118. E-mail: [email protected]. Political analyst Oct. 13-20: “Inside Cuba” program for travel agents. OFAC-licensed educational tour DOMINGO AMUCHASTEGUI includes Miami-Havana airfare, lodging at Meliá Cohiba and trips to Trinidad and Santa Feature writers VITO ECHEVARRÍA Clara. Cost: $2,295. Details: Benita Lubic, Transeair Travel, 2813 McKinley Pl. NW, Wash- DOUGLASS G. NORVELL ington, DC 20015. Tel: (800) 666-4901. Fax: (202) 362-7411. E-mail: [email protected]. Cartographer ARMANDO H. PORTELA

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