Vol. 16, No. 11 December 2008 www.cubanews.com In the News Paloma brings 2008 hurricane season to a close; damages exceed $10 billion Killer storms nothing new BY OUR HAVANA CORRESPONDENT Since 1800, Cuba has been hit directly by neighboring Haiti, where Gustav, Hanna and he 2008 hurricane season, which officially Ike left hundreds dead. In Cuba, only seven peo- over 120 hurricanes ......................Page 2 ended Nov. 30, has been one of the most ple lost their lives — all from Ike — thanks to T destructive in Cuba’s history. the regime’s mandatory evacuation procedures USCC: End the embargo The season produced 16 cyclones — eight that kick in every time a hurricane threatens. President Raúl Castro mentioned the $10 bil- Chamber of Commerce, other groups ask tropical storms and eight hurricanes — making it the busiest Atlantic season since 2005, which lion figure during a Nov. 12 visit to Camagüey Obama to scrap past policies .......Page 4 spawned 28 named storms including Tropical province, where officials said 8,000 homes were Storm Zeta, which formed Dec. 30 and lasted damaged when Paloma struck the province’s Guayabal damaged into January 2006. south coast at Santa Cruz del Sur. Of the year’s eight hurricanes, three pum- Raúl, dressed in military fatigues, went to Despite storm destruction, port is still a meled Cuba, leaving combined losses in excess Camagüey a day after Paloma spun itself out top priority for Cuba ......................Page 6 of $10 billion. That’s roughly twice the damage over Cuba. The lengthy TV report showed him caused by all major hurricanes from 1985 to talking with storm victims and promising to 2007, and represents 17% of Cuba’s 2007 GDP. rebuild their homes, most of which were built of Bringing FDI back Hurricanes Gustav, Ike and Paloma left a path wood near the sea. Cuba’s leadership shows renewed interest of destruction that obliterated 100,000 houses “Everything you lost we’re going to replace — maybe not tomorrow, but quickly,” he said. in foreign direct investment .........Page 7 and damaged another 520,000 in their wake. Together, this accounts for 18% of all dwellings Paloma followed Gustav and Ike, which in Cuba. They also flattened sugarcane and struck 10 days apart in late August and early Newsmakers tobacco fields, destroyed factories and caused September and caused destruction across much Dissident essayist, poet Jorge Olivera: damage at tourist resorts. of the island. Initial damage estimates from the Granted, all this is negligible compared to the first two storms totaled $5 billion but officials ‘There’s no turning back’ .............Page 8 horrifying trail of death and destruction in See Hurricanes, page 3 Tobacco in jeopardy Hurricane damage in Pinar del Río endan- Even with Obama, Democrats in control, gers Cuban cigar production .....Page 10 changing Cuba policy will be tough sell Raúl finds religion BY ANA RADELAT Group, is part of a coalition of grass-roots asso- President prays with the faithful at Cath- dvocates of easing U.S. sanctions against ciations focusing on one goal: allowing all olic, Orthodox churches .............Page 12 Cuba are thrilled by the prospect of Americans to travel to Cuba. Barack Obama in the White House and “What we’re hoping for is a Congress that is A open to taking action to end the travel ban and a HIV infection still low increased Democratic clout on Capitol Hill. But there’s little evidence the new Democra- White House that is willing to go further than it Cuba boasts W. Hemisphere’s lowest HIV, tic strength in Washington threatens the has indicated,” Anderson told CubaNews. Americans are prohibited by the embargo AIDS infection rate.......................Page 14 decades-long embargo — and even less consen- sus on which end of Pennsylvania Avenue might from spending money on travel to Cuba, with lead the way to change. only a few exceptions. Those who qualify for Meds to Cuba Many of the new Democrats elected to office Treasury Department licenses to travel to the island, a total of 13 categories, include academ- Health Partners International of Canada in November oppose large-scale changes in U.S. Cuba policy and the movement toward easing ics, religious groups, journalists and Cuban- fills a badly needed niche ...........Page 15 sanctions is losing its bipartisan edge as Americans who want to visit family. Republican members who favored the idea But President Bush enforced tighter restric- CubaNews (ISSN 1073-7715) is published monthly retired or lost their seats. tions on Cuban-American travel and limited the by Luxner News Inc. © 2008. All rights reserved. But advocates of changes in Cuba policy plan travel of academics and others, to appease exile Subscriptions: $429 for one year, $800 for two years. to lobby the upcoming 111th Congress anyway. leaders who said even the limited visits helps For editorial inquires, please call (301) 452-1105 fund Cuba’s communist government. or send an e-mail to: [email protected]. Mavis Anderson, senior associate at the Washington-based Latin America Working See Democrats, page 4 2 CubaNews ❖ December 2008 SPECIAL REPORT: THE 2008 HURRICANE SEASON Killer hurricanes form integral part of Cuba’s history BY OUR HAVANA CORRESPONDENT Although the hurricane season officially the brunt of two out of every five hurricanes sweeping Cuba. ue to its length and its location in the stretches from June to November, the worst months for Cuba traditionally are September Like every Caribbean island, Cuba has a northwestern Caribbean, Cuba can and October. Two out of three hurricanes that long history of hurricane-related tragedies, Dexpect to be hit every year by hurri- some of them branding forever the memories have hit the island have landed in those canes. In the past 200 years, Cuba has been months. Cuba’s so-called “hurricane alley” of the people who survived the bitter experi- struck directly by 120 storms — or about 10% crosses the provinces of Pinar del Río, La ence and serving as a reference point in the of all storms that have crossed the Caribbean. Habana and Isla de la Juventud, which bear nation’s history. The past 100 years brought some monu- mental storms, not just by their magnitude, but because of the damages inflicted on peo- ple and property. Some were so catastrophic that they permanently altered the landscape: swallowing keys, diverting the course of rivers, producing landslides or engulfing other topographic features. Other storms changed forever the way that people interact with nature, forcing towns to move inland or forcing a wave of hydraulic construction (dams, culverts, etc.) to contain or delay catastrophic floods. Among the worst storms of the past centu- ry is the unnamed Category-4 hurricane that hit Havana in October 1926, leaving behind 600 dead people and $100 million in damages — a huge sum at that time. The storm of Nov. 9, 1932, produced a 21- foot tidal wave that wiped out the coastal Camagüey city of Santa Cruz del Sur, taking 3,033 lives, which makes it, by far, the dead- liest hurricane in Cuba’s history. It was so dreadful that for years afterward, the few people who endured the tragedy were popularly identified as survivors of the Santa Cruz hurricane. Hurricane Flora in October 1963 stalled for four endless days over eastern Cuba, killing 1,150 people and causing $300 million in loss- es. Flora dumped 1.7 meters of rain in the 96 hours it hovered over Cuba — more than the annual average for the entire island. In some places, rainfall exceeded 2 meters. After this storm, the government decided to create a wide system of dams and canals all across the Cauto River Valley that changed the landscape permanently. The most recent hurricanes, however, have tended to be the most damaging — although casualties have been reduced drastically by an efficient compulsory evacuation system integrated by military forces and the civil administration, in coordination with the national weather service headed by the Instituto de Meteorología. Hurricane Lili in October 1996 was the first big storm to hit the island after the onset of the Special Period; authorities dubbed it a “national tragedy.” Lili caused $362 million in damage and sparked an early call for interna- tional help. Some skeptics saw the official reports on the storm as an excuse to obtain credit and debt forgiveness at the darkest times of the economic crisis. But Lili was soon dwarfed by other mon- See Hurricanes, page 3 December 2008 ❖ CubaNews 3 Olga Lidia Tapia Iglesias, the Communist Hurricanes — FROM PAGE 1 Party’s first secretary in Pinar del Rio, said Paloma: On the scene later doubled that number. that to deal with the housing situation in the shortest possible time, the area needs uring every major story, there are In Cuba’s westernmost province of Pinar things a reporter sees that don’t del Río, 43% of all the houses have suffered unprecedented construction activity. “In the coming years we will have to obtain Dmake it into the daily updates. damages from Gustav and Ike. Ray Sánchez, Havana bureau chief of According to the local Defense Council, to superior results than those obtained even before the Special Period [the hard economic the South Florida Sun-Sentinel, was date 14,000 temporary facilities have been among the first foreign journalists to erected, and 14,262 homes have been times that followed the collapse of the social- reach the town where Hurricane Paloma repaired, or 14.7% of those damaged. ist bloc in 1991],” said Tapia, adding that vic- When adding those damaged by two major made landfall. tims will have to help repair their own homes These are some of those scenes from a hurricanes in 2002, the total number of hous- while maintaining faith in the regime.