Vol. 21, No. 3 March 2013 In the News 26-page ‘secret annex’ sheds ray of light Obama and Cuba on Bush-era ‘transition policy’ for Cuba False hopes to define president’s second BY TRACEY EATON document has been released through the term, Warns our oWn analYst .........Page 2 he world’s most famous “secret annex” is efforts of Washington-based researcher and tucked behind a bookcase where 13-year- journalist Jeremy Bigwood. Bigwood used the Freedom of Information Virginia’s apples Told Anne Frank hid during the Nazi occu- pation. Lesser known is the secret annex to a Act, or FOIA, to obtain several versions of the Apples from ‘Old Dominion’ a faVorite in report describing the U.S. government’s Cuba 26-page document. Cuban luXurY food market ............Page 4 strategy in the post-Castro era. Parts of the annex that were most recently declassified provide a window into the thinking The Commission for Assistance to a Free Cu- on Cuba that led to the 2009 effort to establish a Political briefs ba issued the 93-page study to President George network of satellite Internet connections on the W. Bush in July 2006. Wayne Smith, the former island. The document also reveals concern that LaWmakers Visit Cuba, seek to free Gross; top U.S. diplomat in Havana, wrote at the time: Gitmo simulates refugee crisis .....Page 5 Cuba and Venezuela were working together to “The report carries an annex which it is said advance an anti-American agenda elsewhere in must remain secret for ‘reasons of national secu- Latin America. Cuban debt wanted rity’ and to maximize its chances of success. We And it cites the need to “control the policy L.A. hedge fund petitions OFAC for right can only guess what is in the annex. Given the environment” and promote the idea that “there history of U.S.-Cuban relations, however, there to buY illiquid Cuban debt .............Page 6 is an opportunity for transition if we act today.” will inevitably be speculation that it contains What follows are portions of the secret annex new assassination plots against Castro (though that were redacted in one version of the docu- Such a coincidence this time against Raúl) and new plans for exile ment, then later declassified. Censors evidently On same daY, Cuba StudY Group, AS/COA raids if not direct U.S. military action.” thought these were the most sensitive portions Six and a half years later, parts of the secret of the document. both issue similar ‘White papers’ detailing annex remain classified, although much of the See Annex, page 14 U.S. eXecutiVe policY on Cuba .......Page 7 Provinces Cuban professionals working in Canada Sancti Spíritus, home of historic Trinidad, shoWs off its colonial charm ........Page 8 advise wary investors on risks, rewards BY VITO ECHEVARRÍA Since 2004, his firm — IberoAmerican Havana’s Capitolio Consulting Corp., has been keeping internation- SYmbol of Cuba’s democratic past shines resident Raúl Castro’s anti-corruption cam- paign, Which reached its Zenith in 2011, al companies out of potential hot Water in Cuba. as a beacon for the future ............Page 12 Pensnared Canadian companies like Nova “Our serVices include the identification of business opportunities; feasibilitY/competence Scotia’s Tri-Star Caribbean and Toronto’s Tok- studies and business plan eValuation; selection Sugar daddy needed makjian Group, as Well as other foreign firms of business partners, and drafting of necessarY Cuba seeks inVestor to bankroll $6 billion and seVeral Cuban eXecutiVes. documentation for presentation to releVant en- Those dramatic arrests alerted international oil refinerY eXpansion ..................Page 13 terprises and goVernment agencies,” said Alco- entrepreneurs of the inherent risks in doing lado PéreZ, Whose firm is located on Toronto’s business With the Castro regime. BaY Street, With offices in Madrid. Investing in art With officials from these entities still jailed The companY also reVieWs contracts, offers Serious collector sees Cuban art as fun and and aWaiting formal charges, potential inVestors technical assistance at all stages of negotiations, looking to make a buck in Cuba are treading lucratiVe inVestment Vehicle ........Page 15 and folloWs up on contract eXecution, as Well as more carefullY than eVer. Who better to adVise legal action in the eVent a contract is breached. such companies on the do’s and dont’s of oper- Canadian companies haVe long been actiVe in CubaNews (ISSN 1073-7715) is published monthlY Cuba. In 2010, bilateral trade reached $1 billion. bY CUBANEWS LLC. © 2013. All rights reserVed. ating on the island than the Cubans themselVes? Annual subscription: $398. Nonprofit organiZations: Ricardo Alcolado PéreZ, a UniVersitY of And despite the negatiVe publicitY generated $198. Printed edition is $100 eXtra. For editorial in- HaVana LaW School graduate Who also earned bY the anti-corruption campaign, Spanish and quires, please call (305) 393-8760, faX Your request an LLM from Toronto’s York UniVersitY, has other firms still hope to enter the Cuban market. to (305) 670-2229 or email [email protected]. stepped forWard to do just that. See Canada, page 13 2 CubaNews v March 2013 POLITICAL ANALYSIS Barack Obama and Cuba: False hopes to define 2nd term The opinions expressed herein are those of with the University of Miami’s Institute for scholar Carlos Alzugaray — “a big investment the author, and do not necessarily reflect the Cuban and Cuban-American Studies and other of political capital” that could jeopardiZe views of CubaNews, its publisher or its writers. anti-Castro outfits, to Miami. Florida’s crucial 29 electoral votes. Does the wording “progress over the next The Obama administration simply is not BY DOMINGO AMUCHASTEGUI four years” mean serious business in terms of going to risk it. This is far more substantial resident Barack Obama’s second term engagement? Not quite. Throughout the first than the continued imprisonment of Alan has started with a crowded agenda in three-quarters of his interview, Obama rather Gross, which is currently used as “the obsta- Pmatters of foreign policy — and one in mildly followed the standard pattern of regime cle” preventing better bilateral relations. which Latin America, the Caribbean and spe- change pre-conditions: a. Empower civil socie- Robert Pastor, who advised President Car- cifically Cuba are virtually lost among other ty inside Cuba; b. Normalization demands ter on Latin America, got it right. He said that priorities led by the Middle East, the war on freedom of political prisoners; c. Freedom of while Kerry may have some latitude to adjust terrorism, Iran and Europe. the press and assembly; d. Freedom of choice Cuba policy from inside the White House, The worsening humanitarian crisis in Syria for the Cuban people. Latin American experts don’t expect sweep- — thousands of miles from U.S. soil — seems In other Words, before achieVing such ing change, like an end to the embargo, which to be a greater concern for Washington than “progress” the Cuban government must meet requires congressional action. the nearly 70,000 killed in Mexico’s narco war just across the Río Grande. Nevertheless, Cuba has managed to gain some space in the media. The reason: Sen. “We don’t expect every country to operate the way we do. And obvi- John Kerry’s recent swearing-in as secretarY of state, and the ongoing nomination battle ously, we do business with a lot of countries that don’t meet our stan- over former Sen. Chuck Hagel as secretary of dards in terms of rights. My hope is that, slowly but surely, the Cuban defense. Both men have repeatedly expressed serious reserVations about continuing the leadership begins to recognize that it’s time to join the 21st century.” U.S. trade embargo against Cuba. Agence-France Presse recently reminded — PRESIDENT OBAMA, IN A JAN. 30 INTERVIEW WITH MIAMI’S NOTICIERO TELEMUNDO TV its readers how consistently Kerry has urged changes in his country’s Cuba policy. Mean- while, the CATO Institute says Hagel “doesn’t pre-conditions equivalent to the dismantling But when it comes to Cuba, he said, “KerrY have a problem with Cuba” and has shown of Cuba’s existing political system. Is this is also a political realist. Changing U.S. policy “common sense in ending one of Washing- how a dialogue begins, or is this an open is not a high priority for him, but not changing ton’s most anachronistic foreign policies.” demand for unconditional surrender? U.S. policY is the onlY prioritY for Bob For more than half a centurY, pundits in From the opposite perspectiVe, Cuban Menendez.” Washington and Miami have argued that the exile lawmakers and media in Miami have As Alzugaray pointed out, the most that can Castro brothers are not interested in seeing launched a full-scale attack on both men for be expected are “minimal and timid changes, the embargo lifted because it would remove intending to sell out the cause of Cuban but nothing big.” their chief asset in terms of legitimacy. exiles. However, all of this is contingent, short- If this is the case, then why not remove it? In their arguments, they follow a similar term and circumstantial. The fact that no nor- Normalize relations, allow U.S. tourists to train of thought, warning that Kerry and Ha- malization has taken place has more to do visit Cuba, take away all obstacles to Internet gel will engage with Cuba and end the embar- With challenging the eXample the Cuban access, stop chasing banks that trade with go, but with an entirely different conclusion. Revolution over the past 54 years. Cuba — and see what happens. Today those Cuban exiles worry about the kind of policies with which Kerry and Hagel WASHINGTON GETS IT ALL WRONG OBAMA’S WORDS: SINCERITY OR FLATTERY? might influence Obama and Congress.