Capitalists cavorting in Cuba?
James Varney, NOLA.com|The Times-Picayune By James Varney, NOLA.com|The
Times-Picayune
on April 30, 2013 at 3:17 PM, updated April 30, 2013 at 3:19 PM
For an unabashed capitalist, there are more agreeable sights than
"grandiose portraits" of the Communist executioner Che Guevara. On the
other hand, it's far better to gaze upon Guevara's portrait with a
tropical breeze at your back than upon the real thing with your back up
against the wall.
It is that former, less lethal encounter that awaits those signing up
for the "trip of a lifetime" with the St. Tammany West Chamber of
Commerce. From June 21-28, the capitalism boosters will be running a
visit to the paradise Fidel Castro hath wrought.
It should be stressed no laws are being broken here. The St. Tammany
chamber has followed the complicated rules that still make travel to
Cuba unnecessarily difficult. As always, the point isn't that some
frayed embargo is being violated, but that Cuba's Communist overlords
are pocketing much of the cash.
Both the promotional language of the trip and the chamber's website
underscore those points.
"This evening an Informational Briefing will be held at the hotel by a
Chamber Explorations Representative about the day 2 charter flight to
Havana and the start of your people to people experience to Cuba," reads
the alluring trip pitch.
One wonders if the briefing will be followed by prolonged and stormy
applause. Cuba may offer romantic nights under Caribbean palms and
mojitos at La Bodeguita del Medio, but those pleasures may be enjoyed
under the, ahem, censorious eyes of a "representative."
But wait; there's more. All this can be yours for the low starting price
of just $3,999 per person. That's right, a week in Cuba for only $1,000
more than the cost of the chamber's trip later this year to the Bavarian
Alps or the Danube River cruise.
Is it possible some Communist apparatchik is skimming some greenbacks here?
"I don't want to comment on that," said Lacey Toledano, president and
chief executive of the St. Tammany West Chamber. "Everything has a
price, and you can't go unless it's with a group with a license."
Toledano, who is not slated to make the Cuba trip, is correct; after
all, some of the chief benefits that accrue to totalitarian leaders are
the rules and the money. But it's passing strange that even a previous
trip to China cost $1,000 less - including airfare - than the quick hop
to Havana.
In the chamber's defense, there is a purpose to the trip: profit. There
is something redemptive about making a dollar or two off Castro, and
Toledano described trips like these or the European jaunts have become
important sources of "non-dues revenue" for chambers around the country.
Indeed, in her eyes the trip has a purely capitalist motive, albeit with
a pleasurable tinge.
"There is an element of global awareness to this, it is a chance to
learn about the country, the history," Toledano said. "It is strictly
for observation, not in support of what's happening or has happened in
Cuba. If anything, it will make you appreciate our freedoms and our
country."
It's true our freedoms aren't available there. The Castro brothers
aren't about to allow Cubans a free press, or the freedom of assembly,
or the freedom of speech and association. Havana residents don't enjoy
any guarantees against unlawful searches or seizures; don't look for gay
marriage or gun ownership to be topics discussed freely with the
otherwise friendly staff at La Floridita.
All that pesky liberty, along with a great many lives, was the sort of
thing snuffed out by the homicidal Guevara. His ghost makes an
appearance on the first day of the chamber's trip, according to the
literature, when the visiting bourgeoisie head to the Plaza of the
Revolution to be harangued by a guide speaking, "below the grandiose
portraits of national hero Che Guevara ... where millions of Cubans have
stood while listening to speeches of Fidel Castro."
Thank goodness for small favors - not only will the tourists avoid
looking down the barrel of Guevara's smoking gun, but Castro speeches
take forever.
The trip promises rum and cigar factories, the Tropicana Cabaret Show;
there is no denying colonial Havana's alluring color, sound and
architecture. But as New Orleans attorney and Cuban-American National
Foundation executive George Fowler noted, other spots loom even larger
in everyday Cuban existence.
"Castro's prisons are also worthy of a visit," Fowler noted drily in a
letter to NOLA.com | The Times-Picayune. "The G-2 Prison of Santiago de
Cuba keeps their cells at either a very high or very low temperature.
The isolated prisoners are woken up every 20 minutes and stripped of
their clothes."
In her own pitch for the trip, Toledano waxed enthusiastic about a land,
"untouched by commercialism" and where the billboards "extol the virtues
of socialism." Those would seem dubious draws for anyone looking to make
an honest buck.
James Varney can be reached at jvarney@nola.com.
http://www.nola.com/opinions/index.ssf/2013/04/capitalists_cavorting_in_cuba.html
Wednesday, May 1, 2013
Leader of Dissident Group 'Ladies In White' Uses Trip To Denounce Cuba's Regime
Leader of Dissident Group 'Ladies In White' Uses Trip To Denounce Cuba's
Regime
By Elizabeth Llorente
Published April 30, 2013
Fox News Latino
Berta Soler doesn't know what awaits her when she returns to her native
Cuba once her tourist visa expires in about a month.
One of that country's leading dissidents, Soler has traveled around
Europe, where she received the Sakharov Prize, the highest human rights
honor there, and now is making stops all around the United States,
calling for an end to the Castro regime in Cuba.
Soler, 49, is the founder of Ladies in White. She is one of several
high-profile dissidents who are traveling outside of Cuba under a new
relaxing of restrictions by Cuban President Raúl Castro this year.
Many of the dissidents, unencumbered by the obstacles in Cuba to getting
word out about oppression on the island, have held press conferences and
spoken at forums to highlight human rights violations.
But what, if anything, will await them upon their return for their
anti-government criticism, no one knows.
"I'm not afraid," Soler said. "In Cuba there's no liberty, but I still
exercise my freedom of expression. I denounce the Cuban regime when I'm
inside Cuba. When I'm outside, in a free country, I speak the truth
about political prisoners, the reality of my country, the struggles for
human rights, of the Ladies in White, and I denounce the Castro government."
"When I go back, my love of my country is stronger than any fear of
prison bars," she said.
Until 10 years ago, Berta Soler stayed away from politics, feeling
perfectly content to leave the activism to her husband, Angel Moya, an
outspoken critic of the Fidel Castro regime.
But it all changed in 2003, when the Castro regime launched a crackdown
on its critics, rounding up 75 dissidents, including Moya, and
sentencing them to long jail terms.
That's when Soler, the activist, was born. She helped bring together
wives, mothers, sisters and daughters of the political prisoners, and
led the women in marches every Sunday, demanding the release of their
male relatives.
Notably, they wore white, and carried white flowers – a symbol of peace,
and the impetus for their name, the Ladies in White.
"I was [another] kind of woman before my husband was arrested and
jailed, a woman who stayed out of the spotlight, who didn't participate
in anything political," she said in an interview with Fox New Latino.
"When my husband came out of jail, eight years later, he found me to be
a totally different woman. I was a fighter, a voice for human rights,
for the end of oppression, an end to the rule by Fidel and Raul Castro."
Her husband had wanted to travel with her, but his visa request was
denied, Soler said.
The Ladies in White founder is telling anyone who'll listen during her
travels that Raúl Castro's easing of restrictions on Cubans visiting
places outside the island does not translate into true democratic reform.
"It's cosmetic," Soler said. "They know how to exude one thing to the
world, but in Cuba the restricted freedoms remain the same."
On Monday night, Cuban exiles in Hudson County, New Jersey – a longtime
Cuban-American hub – held a reception for Soler. They took her to a
building that houses an organization of Cuban former political prisoners
and showed her a wall filled with framed photographs of Cuban dissidents
they say were executed by Fidel Castro's firing squads.
Soler vowed to the exiles that she would continue to fight for liberty
in Cuba.
Dissidents like Soler, as well as Cuba's best known dissident blogger,
Yoani Sanchez – who also received Cuba's permission to travel abroad–
have moved to the forefront of the fight for democratic reform in the
island, a fight whose public face was once that of the Cuban exile.
"For many years we thought we had to lead the change in Cuba," said
Remberto Perez, vice president of the Cuban American National
Foundation, an influential lobby group. "We thought we in exile were
going to be the ones responsible for generating change in government."
But eventually it grew apparent that change had to come from within
Cuba, he said, something that grew easier with the Internet, and the
ability of dissidents to send their messages around the world.
"Ladies in White have been an inspiration for us, a validation for the
struggle we have had outside of Cuba," Perez said.
Elizabeth Llorente can be reached elizabeth.llorente@foxnewslatino.com
http://latino.foxnews.com/latino/politics/2013/04/30/leader-dissident-group-ladies-in-white-uses-trip-to-denounce-cuba-regime/
Regime
By Elizabeth Llorente
Published April 30, 2013
Fox News Latino
Berta Soler doesn't know what awaits her when she returns to her native
Cuba once her tourist visa expires in about a month.
One of that country's leading dissidents, Soler has traveled around
Europe, where she received the Sakharov Prize, the highest human rights
honor there, and now is making stops all around the United States,
calling for an end to the Castro regime in Cuba.
Soler, 49, is the founder of Ladies in White. She is one of several
high-profile dissidents who are traveling outside of Cuba under a new
relaxing of restrictions by Cuban President Raúl Castro this year.
Many of the dissidents, unencumbered by the obstacles in Cuba to getting
word out about oppression on the island, have held press conferences and
spoken at forums to highlight human rights violations.
But what, if anything, will await them upon their return for their
anti-government criticism, no one knows.
"I'm not afraid," Soler said. "In Cuba there's no liberty, but I still
exercise my freedom of expression. I denounce the Cuban regime when I'm
inside Cuba. When I'm outside, in a free country, I speak the truth
about political prisoners, the reality of my country, the struggles for
human rights, of the Ladies in White, and I denounce the Castro government."
"When I go back, my love of my country is stronger than any fear of
prison bars," she said.
Until 10 years ago, Berta Soler stayed away from politics, feeling
perfectly content to leave the activism to her husband, Angel Moya, an
outspoken critic of the Fidel Castro regime.
But it all changed in 2003, when the Castro regime launched a crackdown
on its critics, rounding up 75 dissidents, including Moya, and
sentencing them to long jail terms.
That's when Soler, the activist, was born. She helped bring together
wives, mothers, sisters and daughters of the political prisoners, and
led the women in marches every Sunday, demanding the release of their
male relatives.
Notably, they wore white, and carried white flowers – a symbol of peace,
and the impetus for their name, the Ladies in White.
"I was [another] kind of woman before my husband was arrested and
jailed, a woman who stayed out of the spotlight, who didn't participate
in anything political," she said in an interview with Fox New Latino.
"When my husband came out of jail, eight years later, he found me to be
a totally different woman. I was a fighter, a voice for human rights,
for the end of oppression, an end to the rule by Fidel and Raul Castro."
Her husband had wanted to travel with her, but his visa request was
denied, Soler said.
The Ladies in White founder is telling anyone who'll listen during her
travels that Raúl Castro's easing of restrictions on Cubans visiting
places outside the island does not translate into true democratic reform.
"It's cosmetic," Soler said. "They know how to exude one thing to the
world, but in Cuba the restricted freedoms remain the same."
On Monday night, Cuban exiles in Hudson County, New Jersey – a longtime
Cuban-American hub – held a reception for Soler. They took her to a
building that houses an organization of Cuban former political prisoners
and showed her a wall filled with framed photographs of Cuban dissidents
they say were executed by Fidel Castro's firing squads.
Soler vowed to the exiles that she would continue to fight for liberty
in Cuba.
Dissidents like Soler, as well as Cuba's best known dissident blogger,
Yoani Sanchez – who also received Cuba's permission to travel abroad–
have moved to the forefront of the fight for democratic reform in the
island, a fight whose public face was once that of the Cuban exile.
"For many years we thought we had to lead the change in Cuba," said
Remberto Perez, vice president of the Cuban American National
Foundation, an influential lobby group. "We thought we in exile were
going to be the ones responsible for generating change in government."
But eventually it grew apparent that change had to come from within
Cuba, he said, something that grew easier with the Internet, and the
ability of dissidents to send their messages around the world.
"Ladies in White have been an inspiration for us, a validation for the
struggle we have had outside of Cuba," Perez said.
Elizabeth Llorente can be reached elizabeth.llorente@foxnewslatino.com
http://latino.foxnews.com/latino/politics/2013/04/30/leader-dissident-group-ladies-in-white-uses-trip-to-denounce-cuba-regime/
Whispered complaints about U.S.-Cuba academic exchanges go public
Posted on Wednesday, 05.01.13
Whispered complaints about U.S.-Cuba academic exchanges go public
By Juan O. Tamayo
jtamayo@ElNuevoHerald.com
The U.S. government's denial of visas to several Cubans invited to an
upcoming academic congress has uncorked a string of protests — against
Washington, the pro-Castro U.S. academics who allegedly control the
conference's Cuba agenda and the Havana spies who allegedly attend.
Some academics who study Cuba issues have long complained about the
island government's influence on the Latin American Studies Association
(LASA), which bills itself as the world's largest association for the
study of the region.
But they usually kept their complaints private because Cuba has
repeatedly denied access to the island and research materials to any
academics who dared criticize the communist government too harshly.
Until now.
"The LASA Cuba section has been taken over by supporters of the
revolution and it has been thoroughly politicized," said Ted Henken, a
professor of Latin American Studies at Baruch College in New York.
"Those of us who have been in LASA also know that within the Cuban
'delegation' there are always as many 'policemen' as in Coppelia on a
Saturday night," Cuban sociologist Haroldo Dilla wrote in an online
column. He referred to Havana's famous Coppelia ice cream parlor.
Asked about the criticism, LASA President Evelyne Huber said the Cuba
section "is open to all LASA members, and LASA itself is open to all
scholars and other professionals interested in Latin America. Nobody is
excluded from membership based on their political opinions."
"I do not know what qualifies a scholar as a 'supporter of the Cuban
government' ... and whether the elected leaders of the section would
fall into that category. Most scholars who deal with Cuba that I know
are acutely aware of both the strengths and weaknesses, or achievements
and shortcomings of the Cuban government," added Huber, head of the
political science department at the University of North Carolina.
Cuba section co-chairman Sheryl Lutjens, director of the Women's Studies
Program at California State University San Marcos, did not reply to
requests for comments. Her co-chairman is Jorge Mario Sanchez, a
professor at the University of Havana.
All country sections are co-headed by members from the U.S. and the
foreign country. LASA, with 7,000 members from around the world, is
based at the University of Pittsburgh.
Henken and Dilla's comments were triggered by reports that the U.S.
State Department had denied visas to several Cubans invited to attend
LASA's annual congress May 29-June 1 in Washington, D.C.
Three of them were identified as Elaine Díaz Rodríguez, a journalist and
University of Havana professor, and young bloggers Isbel Díaz Torres and
Dimitri Prieto Samsónov. Elaine Díaz's visa was later approved. The U.S.
visas could have been denied for a broad range of issues, from concerns
that the academics would defect and stay in the United States to any
criminal records.
The trio should be allowed to participate in the LASA conference because
they "are known for their critical positions in the face of specific
aspects of the Cuban reality," Dilla wrote in an April 15 column
published on the website CubaEncuentro.
Henken, a LASA member who also heads the Association for the Study of
the Cuban Economy (ASCE), argued that the visa denials are "a lost
opportunity for the U.S. to hear critical and authentic voices from
inside Cuba."
http://www.miamiherald.com/2013/05/01/3373421/whispered-complaints-about-us.html#storylink=misearch
Whispered complaints about U.S.-Cuba academic exchanges go public
By Juan O. Tamayo
jtamayo@ElNuevoHerald.com
The U.S. government's denial of visas to several Cubans invited to an
upcoming academic congress has uncorked a string of protests — against
Washington, the pro-Castro U.S. academics who allegedly control the
conference's Cuba agenda and the Havana spies who allegedly attend.
Some academics who study Cuba issues have long complained about the
island government's influence on the Latin American Studies Association
(LASA), which bills itself as the world's largest association for the
study of the region.
But they usually kept their complaints private because Cuba has
repeatedly denied access to the island and research materials to any
academics who dared criticize the communist government too harshly.
Until now.
"The LASA Cuba section has been taken over by supporters of the
revolution and it has been thoroughly politicized," said Ted Henken, a
professor of Latin American Studies at Baruch College in New York.
"Those of us who have been in LASA also know that within the Cuban
'delegation' there are always as many 'policemen' as in Coppelia on a
Saturday night," Cuban sociologist Haroldo Dilla wrote in an online
column. He referred to Havana's famous Coppelia ice cream parlor.
Asked about the criticism, LASA President Evelyne Huber said the Cuba
section "is open to all LASA members, and LASA itself is open to all
scholars and other professionals interested in Latin America. Nobody is
excluded from membership based on their political opinions."
"I do not know what qualifies a scholar as a 'supporter of the Cuban
government' ... and whether the elected leaders of the section would
fall into that category. Most scholars who deal with Cuba that I know
are acutely aware of both the strengths and weaknesses, or achievements
and shortcomings of the Cuban government," added Huber, head of the
political science department at the University of North Carolina.
Cuba section co-chairman Sheryl Lutjens, director of the Women's Studies
Program at California State University San Marcos, did not reply to
requests for comments. Her co-chairman is Jorge Mario Sanchez, a
professor at the University of Havana.
All country sections are co-headed by members from the U.S. and the
foreign country. LASA, with 7,000 members from around the world, is
based at the University of Pittsburgh.
Henken and Dilla's comments were triggered by reports that the U.S.
State Department had denied visas to several Cubans invited to attend
LASA's annual congress May 29-June 1 in Washington, D.C.
Three of them were identified as Elaine Díaz Rodríguez, a journalist and
University of Havana professor, and young bloggers Isbel Díaz Torres and
Dimitri Prieto Samsónov. Elaine Díaz's visa was later approved. The U.S.
visas could have been denied for a broad range of issues, from concerns
that the academics would defect and stay in the United States to any
criminal records.
The trio should be allowed to participate in the LASA conference because
they "are known for their critical positions in the face of specific
aspects of the Cuban reality," Dilla wrote in an April 15 column
published on the website CubaEncuentro.
Henken, a LASA member who also heads the Association for the Study of
the Cuban Economy (ASCE), argued that the visa denials are "a lost
opportunity for the U.S. to hear critical and authentic voices from
inside Cuba."
http://www.miamiherald.com/2013/05/01/3373421/whispered-complaints-about-us.html#storylink=misearch
Dissident Antonio Rodiles says network with exiles can facilitate Cuba's transition to democracy
Posted on Tuesday, 04.30.13
Dissident Antonio Rodiles says network with exiles can facilitate Cuba's
transition to democracy
By JUAN O. TAMAYO
jtamayor@ElNuevoHerald.com
Cuban dissident Antonio G. Rodiles said Tuesday his Estado de SATS
movement is trying to knit together a network of domestic and exile
opposition forces that will facilitate the nation's transition to democracy.
Washington should maintain the U.S. trade embargo on Cuba, he said
during an interview with journalists from The Miami Herald and El Nuevo
Herald, and Raúl Castro's economic reforms are "minuscule maneuvers."
Rodiles, who left Cuba in 1998 but returned in 2007 after living in
Mexico and starting a doctorate in mathematics at Florida State
University, is the fifth blogger or leading dissident to visit Miami
since the Cuban government eased its migration controls in January.
The 40-year-old, who was detained for 19 days last year on charges of
resisting arrest, said he plans to return to Havana in early May, then
leave the island again for a trip to Spain, Sweden and perhaps some
former Soviet Bloc nations.
Rodiles said Estado de SATS, founded in 2010, is an attempt to create a
public space where Cubans can talk about different key issues and create
a network of connections among civil society groups and activists across
the island.
It has videotaped about 70 panel discussions on different topics and
passed them around in DVDs, each containing three or four programs.
Movies and musical performances also have been used to publicize Estado
de SATS' message, he added.
One of the group's main campaigns, Por Otra Cuba — For Another Cuba —
has gathered more than 4,000 digital signatures demanding that the
island's government ratify two U.N. agreements on civil and political
rights that it signed in 2008.
Cubans abroad must be part of the network and can help by sending as
much information into the island as possible — in DVDs, USB flash drives
or any other memory device as well as other types of aid, he noted.
He declined to discuss the other types of aid, saying that the Cuban
government can crack down on dissidents who receive assistance from
abroad even though authorities often fire or deny work to dissidents and
they have no other means of support.
His parents shut down the bed and breakfast they ran out of their home
in Havana, Rodiles said, because government officials apparently did not
like that Estado de SATS was holding some of its meetings there, he said.
Rodiles said that now "is the worst time to lift the embargo" because
the island's disastrous economy is already forcing Raúl Castro to make
"minuscule" reforms. "The table is set," he said, for opposition groups
to "try to find the cracks in the system" and eventually ease Cuba
toward democracy.
He is scheduled to meet Wednesday with the three South Florida
Cuban-Americans in the U.S. Congress — Republicans Ileana Ros-Lehtinen
and Mario Díaz-Balart and Democrat Joe García— as well as former
Republican Rep. Lincoln Díaz-Balart..
On Thursday evening Rodiles is expected to address a conference at Miami
Dade College, and on Saturday afternoon he is scheduled to be at
CubaOcho on SW 8th Street. for an address on the For Another Cuba project.
http://www.miamiherald.com/2013/04/30/3373473/dissident-antonio-rodiles-says.html#storylink=misearch
Dissident Antonio Rodiles says network with exiles can facilitate Cuba's
transition to democracy
By JUAN O. TAMAYO
jtamayor@ElNuevoHerald.com
Cuban dissident Antonio G. Rodiles said Tuesday his Estado de SATS
movement is trying to knit together a network of domestic and exile
opposition forces that will facilitate the nation's transition to democracy.
Washington should maintain the U.S. trade embargo on Cuba, he said
during an interview with journalists from The Miami Herald and El Nuevo
Herald, and Raúl Castro's economic reforms are "minuscule maneuvers."
Rodiles, who left Cuba in 1998 but returned in 2007 after living in
Mexico and starting a doctorate in mathematics at Florida State
University, is the fifth blogger or leading dissident to visit Miami
since the Cuban government eased its migration controls in January.
The 40-year-old, who was detained for 19 days last year on charges of
resisting arrest, said he plans to return to Havana in early May, then
leave the island again for a trip to Spain, Sweden and perhaps some
former Soviet Bloc nations.
Rodiles said Estado de SATS, founded in 2010, is an attempt to create a
public space where Cubans can talk about different key issues and create
a network of connections among civil society groups and activists across
the island.
It has videotaped about 70 panel discussions on different topics and
passed them around in DVDs, each containing three or four programs.
Movies and musical performances also have been used to publicize Estado
de SATS' message, he added.
One of the group's main campaigns, Por Otra Cuba — For Another Cuba —
has gathered more than 4,000 digital signatures demanding that the
island's government ratify two U.N. agreements on civil and political
rights that it signed in 2008.
Cubans abroad must be part of the network and can help by sending as
much information into the island as possible — in DVDs, USB flash drives
or any other memory device as well as other types of aid, he noted.
He declined to discuss the other types of aid, saying that the Cuban
government can crack down on dissidents who receive assistance from
abroad even though authorities often fire or deny work to dissidents and
they have no other means of support.
His parents shut down the bed and breakfast they ran out of their home
in Havana, Rodiles said, because government officials apparently did not
like that Estado de SATS was holding some of its meetings there, he said.
Rodiles said that now "is the worst time to lift the embargo" because
the island's disastrous economy is already forcing Raúl Castro to make
"minuscule" reforms. "The table is set," he said, for opposition groups
to "try to find the cracks in the system" and eventually ease Cuba
toward democracy.
He is scheduled to meet Wednesday with the three South Florida
Cuban-Americans in the U.S. Congress — Republicans Ileana Ros-Lehtinen
and Mario Díaz-Balart and Democrat Joe García— as well as former
Republican Rep. Lincoln Díaz-Balart..
On Thursday evening Rodiles is expected to address a conference at Miami
Dade College, and on Saturday afternoon he is scheduled to be at
CubaOcho on SW 8th Street. for an address on the For Another Cuba project.
http://www.miamiherald.com/2013/04/30/3373473/dissident-antonio-rodiles-says.html#storylink=misearch
Over 2,000 state firms shifted to private sector in Cuba
Over 2,000 state firms shifted to private sector in Cuba
Submitted by admin4 on 30 April 2013 - 12:18pm
By IANS/EFE,
Havana : The Cuban government has leased more than 2,000 small
businesses to their old employees, who have increased the firms' income
and the quality of the services provided.
This new form of non-state management, included in the economic reform
plan of President Raul Castro, was begun on an experimental basis in
2009 in barber shops and hair styling salons, but it was later expanded
to 47 economic activities.
To date, 2,041 businesses have been leased to a total of 5,479
employees, according to figures compiled by the Domestic Commerce Ministry.
The former employees are in charge of organizing the business, providing
the necessary resources, maintaining or improving the store and they
assume all the rent, electricity, telephone, gas and water payments.
They also set the prices of the services they provide.
The Cuban government acknowledges that this method has improved service,
has increased salaries and the new business operators feel more
motivated to the point where absenteeism has been reduced, although it
is still prevalent in the state-run sector given the meager salaries and
the lack of incentives there.
The workers also feel they are benefiting, like the employees of the Leo
hair salon in Havana's El Vedado neighbourhood, which for the past 16
months has been operating under new management.
"The pay has improved a lot. Before, the minimum wage was 255 pesos a
month (about $9) and now that things have changed, the improvement is
substantial," Milagros, 35, one of the five hair stylists at the shop,
told EFE.
Not everything is favourable, however. Besides the burden of taxes, the
recurring complaint in Cuba's emerging private sector is the absence of
a wholesale market where business operators can buy supplies.
http://twocircles.net/2013apr30/over_2000_state_firms_shifted_private_sector_cuba.html
Submitted by admin4 on 30 April 2013 - 12:18pm
By IANS/EFE,
Havana : The Cuban government has leased more than 2,000 small
businesses to their old employees, who have increased the firms' income
and the quality of the services provided.
This new form of non-state management, included in the economic reform
plan of President Raul Castro, was begun on an experimental basis in
2009 in barber shops and hair styling salons, but it was later expanded
to 47 economic activities.
To date, 2,041 businesses have been leased to a total of 5,479
employees, according to figures compiled by the Domestic Commerce Ministry.
The former employees are in charge of organizing the business, providing
the necessary resources, maintaining or improving the store and they
assume all the rent, electricity, telephone, gas and water payments.
They also set the prices of the services they provide.
The Cuban government acknowledges that this method has improved service,
has increased salaries and the new business operators feel more
motivated to the point where absenteeism has been reduced, although it
is still prevalent in the state-run sector given the meager salaries and
the lack of incentives there.
The workers also feel they are benefiting, like the employees of the Leo
hair salon in Havana's El Vedado neighbourhood, which for the past 16
months has been operating under new management.
"The pay has improved a lot. Before, the minimum wage was 255 pesos a
month (about $9) and now that things have changed, the improvement is
substantial," Milagros, 35, one of the five hair stylists at the shop,
told EFE.
Not everything is favourable, however. Besides the burden of taxes, the
recurring complaint in Cuba's emerging private sector is the absence of
a wholesale market where business operators can buy supplies.
http://twocircles.net/2013apr30/over_2000_state_firms_shifted_private_sector_cuba.html
Why can't we vacation in Cuba? Because it's a terror state
Why can't we vacation in Cuba? Because it's a terror state
By: Al Cardenas
4/30/2013 02:28 PM
As an attendee at this weekend's White House Correspondents Dinner, it
struck me that I agree with the president. At least on one issue. Rapper
Jay-Z's recent decision to visit Cuba is a problem. Jay-Z and wife
Beyoncé traveled to Cuba to celebrate (in their words) their fifth
wedding anniversary in spite of a U.S. tourist ban. Many of my friends
on the right ask: "Why can't Americans travel to any country they wish
to? Why can we go as tourists to China but not Cuba?"
It's for the same reason we can't go to North Korea or Iran: Cuba is a
terrorist nation. China didn't seize our assets or deploy nuclear
weapons 90 miles off our coast. Cuba continues to actively promote
hostility towards the U.S. in our hemisphere and our tourist dollars
help prop up the Castro regime and prolong the agony of 11 million people.
U.S.-Cuba relations since 1959 have gone from strained to severe, to the
closest we have ever come to nuclear Armageddon. Its always included
provocations on Castro's end of one degree or another and periodic
rapprochements have been a colossal waste of time — except for an
immigration accord which most Cuban exiles consider unwise.
The Castro brothers remain the longest lasting living dictators in the
world — 54 years and counting. So far they have survived nine U.S.
presidents, the collapse of the Soviet Union and the death of Hugo
Chavez. According to them they have also survived numerous death plots
emanating from the U.S., the failed Bay of Pigs invasion as well as the
Kennedy/Khrushchev stare down in the 1962 October missile crisis.
At the beginning of their reign of terror they executed thousands of
freedom-loving patriots, confiscated (without compensation) all private
property in the island — including billions of dollars of U.S.-owned
assets — and launched the "Mariel boat exodus" during president Jimmy
Carter's tenure, releasing tens of thousands of Cubans from criminal
jails and mental institutions and sending them over by boats to Miami
and surrounding areas. Let's not forget the downing of small private
single engine planes killing in cold blood four American citizens during
president Bill Clinton's administration. To this day, they jail
thousands of patriotic Cubans, including the well-known "Ladies in
White," whose only provocation has been to peacefully voice their
objections to the treatment of the Cuban people.
They have used the Cuban people as chattel sending their unwilling young
men to fight and die in faraway lands (such as Angola); thousands of
unsuspecting doctors to Venezuela and thousands others to forced labor
camps to harvest sugar cane — all in return for financial resources to
keep their ruthless regime afloat.
They are listed as a terrorist country by our U.S. Department of State
for good reason: they harbor terrorist leaders from the Middle East;
train and supply intelligence officers to other ruthless governments
such as Nicaragua and Bolivia; and are at the ideological epicenter of
all efforts to undermine America and the values for which we stand.
Many in our country on both sides of the aisle are second guessing our
policies of the economic embargo and the restrictions imposed on our
citizens regarding travel to Cuba. Some believe that a change in policy
can become a catalytic event for meaningful change in Cuba and at the
very least could be of financial benefit to U.S. commercial interests.
They argue that an opening now can help a post-Castro Cuba evolve in a
positive direction. The code word for all of these unilateral actions is
"normalizing" relations.
One of the rarest exceptions to U.S. historical diplomatic options is
that these relations with Cuba were codified into American laws in 1991
wherein the U.S. Congress determined that for the embargo to be lifted,
Cuba needed to free its jails of political prisoners, agree to allow the
formation of political organizations, and agree to hold elections at
some point in the future.
But, what is actually being proposed is that these conditions be
unilaterally lifted. No reimbursement for U.S. business loses or return
of valuable properties taken; no relief for the 11 million caged humans
in Cuba's archipelago and, in essence, a recognition that in spite of
all of the above enumerated transgressions and many others, the United
States has no beef with the Castro regime and is willing to let bygones
be bygones. Why do that? How does that serve our interests?
The Castro regime has no credit or resources with which to trade. If
they did they could trade with every other nation they wish to — but
can't. And most importantly, they have no intention of discontinuing
their destabilizing efforts in the hemisphere.
Every time the free world has sought to extend a hand of friendship to
world tyrants, they have lived to regret their actions. President Obama
upon taking office sought to ease travel and remittances sent to Cuba as
a gesture of good faith. The result? Jailing of an American — Alan Gross
who was there on humanitarian efforts to work with the few remaining
Jews on the island — and redoubling their efforts to undermine our
interests in Latin America.
Enter Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel and Secretary of State John
Kerry. Secretary Hagel, while in the Senate, called the U.S. embargo
"nonsensical" and anachronistic and Secretary Kerry shares similar
views. No cabinet since the Carter administration has had such leaders
in favor of rapprochement with the Castro brothers.
But, after more than 50 years of exile, the Cuban diaspora remains
strong. Its culture and memories passed on from generation to
generation. More than one million Cuban expatriates and their children
retain the fervor for their fatherland. Its been a remarkable journey in
the America they – we — have all so fallen in love with. We have elected
four Cuban-Americans to the U.S. Senate, several U.S. Representatives
and literally dozens of state legislators throughout our land. We are
also proud of our many corporate CEOs, athletes, artistic performers and
successful professionals.
One policy change which is favored by a growing segment of the Cuban
exile community is the ending of our immigration accord and of the "wet
foot dry foot" policies. These base their origins on the assumption that
Cubans leaving the island for the United States are political refugees,
fearing for their well-being at home and entitled to asylum in our
country. However, far too many of our compatriots come and go regularly
to the island to visit friends, relatives or to just vacation. That
needs to stop and our immigration policies should treat my fellow Cubans
as we do every one else regarding asylum entry and visa opportunities.
Our views on relations with Castro's Cuba remain firmly ensconced in our
current policies regardless of our party affiliation. Our children were
born here; our dead are buried here. America is our home but we yearn
with fervor for the opportunity that our slaved brothers and sisters can
someday soon enjoy the basic freedoms to which every human on earth is
entitled. While I respect the different points of view of many inside of
Cuba who have given up hope — after three generations of Castro rule –
and seek different accommodations with the Castro regime, I believe that
our current policies will best further our collective goal: a free Cuba.
We need to be prepared, when the moment arises, to help with Cuba's
reconstruction, help end the suffering and bring freedom and hope to the
millions awaiting the departure of the Castro brothers — sooner rather
than later. Until that day comes, the United States should stay the
course and our Secretaries of Defense and State need to be closely
monitored by Congress.
Al Cardenas, Chairman of the American Conservative Union and Cuban-American
http://www.humanevents.com/2013/04/30/presidents-got-more-than-99-problems-and-jay-zs-trip-to-cuba-is-one/
By: Al Cardenas
4/30/2013 02:28 PM
As an attendee at this weekend's White House Correspondents Dinner, it
struck me that I agree with the president. At least on one issue. Rapper
Jay-Z's recent decision to visit Cuba is a problem. Jay-Z and wife
Beyoncé traveled to Cuba to celebrate (in their words) their fifth
wedding anniversary in spite of a U.S. tourist ban. Many of my friends
on the right ask: "Why can't Americans travel to any country they wish
to? Why can we go as tourists to China but not Cuba?"
It's for the same reason we can't go to North Korea or Iran: Cuba is a
terrorist nation. China didn't seize our assets or deploy nuclear
weapons 90 miles off our coast. Cuba continues to actively promote
hostility towards the U.S. in our hemisphere and our tourist dollars
help prop up the Castro regime and prolong the agony of 11 million people.
U.S.-Cuba relations since 1959 have gone from strained to severe, to the
closest we have ever come to nuclear Armageddon. Its always included
provocations on Castro's end of one degree or another and periodic
rapprochements have been a colossal waste of time — except for an
immigration accord which most Cuban exiles consider unwise.
The Castro brothers remain the longest lasting living dictators in the
world — 54 years and counting. So far they have survived nine U.S.
presidents, the collapse of the Soviet Union and the death of Hugo
Chavez. According to them they have also survived numerous death plots
emanating from the U.S., the failed Bay of Pigs invasion as well as the
Kennedy/Khrushchev stare down in the 1962 October missile crisis.
At the beginning of their reign of terror they executed thousands of
freedom-loving patriots, confiscated (without compensation) all private
property in the island — including billions of dollars of U.S.-owned
assets — and launched the "Mariel boat exodus" during president Jimmy
Carter's tenure, releasing tens of thousands of Cubans from criminal
jails and mental institutions and sending them over by boats to Miami
and surrounding areas. Let's not forget the downing of small private
single engine planes killing in cold blood four American citizens during
president Bill Clinton's administration. To this day, they jail
thousands of patriotic Cubans, including the well-known "Ladies in
White," whose only provocation has been to peacefully voice their
objections to the treatment of the Cuban people.
They have used the Cuban people as chattel sending their unwilling young
men to fight and die in faraway lands (such as Angola); thousands of
unsuspecting doctors to Venezuela and thousands others to forced labor
camps to harvest sugar cane — all in return for financial resources to
keep their ruthless regime afloat.
They are listed as a terrorist country by our U.S. Department of State
for good reason: they harbor terrorist leaders from the Middle East;
train and supply intelligence officers to other ruthless governments
such as Nicaragua and Bolivia; and are at the ideological epicenter of
all efforts to undermine America and the values for which we stand.
Many in our country on both sides of the aisle are second guessing our
policies of the economic embargo and the restrictions imposed on our
citizens regarding travel to Cuba. Some believe that a change in policy
can become a catalytic event for meaningful change in Cuba and at the
very least could be of financial benefit to U.S. commercial interests.
They argue that an opening now can help a post-Castro Cuba evolve in a
positive direction. The code word for all of these unilateral actions is
"normalizing" relations.
One of the rarest exceptions to U.S. historical diplomatic options is
that these relations with Cuba were codified into American laws in 1991
wherein the U.S. Congress determined that for the embargo to be lifted,
Cuba needed to free its jails of political prisoners, agree to allow the
formation of political organizations, and agree to hold elections at
some point in the future.
But, what is actually being proposed is that these conditions be
unilaterally lifted. No reimbursement for U.S. business loses or return
of valuable properties taken; no relief for the 11 million caged humans
in Cuba's archipelago and, in essence, a recognition that in spite of
all of the above enumerated transgressions and many others, the United
States has no beef with the Castro regime and is willing to let bygones
be bygones. Why do that? How does that serve our interests?
The Castro regime has no credit or resources with which to trade. If
they did they could trade with every other nation they wish to — but
can't. And most importantly, they have no intention of discontinuing
their destabilizing efforts in the hemisphere.
Every time the free world has sought to extend a hand of friendship to
world tyrants, they have lived to regret their actions. President Obama
upon taking office sought to ease travel and remittances sent to Cuba as
a gesture of good faith. The result? Jailing of an American — Alan Gross
who was there on humanitarian efforts to work with the few remaining
Jews on the island — and redoubling their efforts to undermine our
interests in Latin America.
Enter Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel and Secretary of State John
Kerry. Secretary Hagel, while in the Senate, called the U.S. embargo
"nonsensical" and anachronistic and Secretary Kerry shares similar
views. No cabinet since the Carter administration has had such leaders
in favor of rapprochement with the Castro brothers.
But, after more than 50 years of exile, the Cuban diaspora remains
strong. Its culture and memories passed on from generation to
generation. More than one million Cuban expatriates and their children
retain the fervor for their fatherland. Its been a remarkable journey in
the America they – we — have all so fallen in love with. We have elected
four Cuban-Americans to the U.S. Senate, several U.S. Representatives
and literally dozens of state legislators throughout our land. We are
also proud of our many corporate CEOs, athletes, artistic performers and
successful professionals.
One policy change which is favored by a growing segment of the Cuban
exile community is the ending of our immigration accord and of the "wet
foot dry foot" policies. These base their origins on the assumption that
Cubans leaving the island for the United States are political refugees,
fearing for their well-being at home and entitled to asylum in our
country. However, far too many of our compatriots come and go regularly
to the island to visit friends, relatives or to just vacation. That
needs to stop and our immigration policies should treat my fellow Cubans
as we do every one else regarding asylum entry and visa opportunities.
Our views on relations with Castro's Cuba remain firmly ensconced in our
current policies regardless of our party affiliation. Our children were
born here; our dead are buried here. America is our home but we yearn
with fervor for the opportunity that our slaved brothers and sisters can
someday soon enjoy the basic freedoms to which every human on earth is
entitled. While I respect the different points of view of many inside of
Cuba who have given up hope — after three generations of Castro rule –
and seek different accommodations with the Castro regime, I believe that
our current policies will best further our collective goal: a free Cuba.
We need to be prepared, when the moment arises, to help with Cuba's
reconstruction, help end the suffering and bring freedom and hope to the
millions awaiting the departure of the Castro brothers — sooner rather
than later. Until that day comes, the United States should stay the
course and our Secretaries of Defense and State need to be closely
monitored by Congress.
Al Cardenas, Chairman of the American Conservative Union and Cuban-American
http://www.humanevents.com/2013/04/30/presidents-got-more-than-99-problems-and-jay-zs-trip-to-cuba-is-one/
Mariela Castro gets permit to travel to LGBT forum in U.S.
Posted on Tuesday, 04.30.13
Mariela Castro gets permit to travel to LGBT forum in U.S.
By Juan O. Tamayo
jtamayo@ElNuevoHerald.com
Reversing its previous rejection, the U.S. State Department has decided
to allow the daughter of Cuban President Raúl Castro, sexologist Mariela
Castro, to attend a gay rights forum in Philadelphia on Saturday.
The director of Cuba's National Center for Sex Education and a vocal
proponent of same-sex marriage and other gay rights, she received a U.S.
visa to attend several gatherings in May at the United Nations
headquarters in Manhattan.
But the State Department initially denied her permission to travel to
Philadelphia to attend the Equality Forum's Global LGBT Summit on
Saturday and receive the group's International Ally for LGBT Equality Award.
Department officials initially held her to the same restrictions as all
Cuban diplomats assigned to the U.N. — no travel more than 25 miles from
Manhattan's Columbus Circle, adjoining Central Park, without advance
permission.
The Cuban government imposes similar restrictions on U.S. diplomats in
Havana — no travel outside the province of Havana without advance
permits from the Ministry of Foreign Relations. Both sides generally
issue the permits on a reciprocal basis.
The Equality Forum, a nonprofit international LGBT rights organization,
draws many personalities and politicians to its annual summits. Each
year the summit features a different country — and this year it's Cuba's
turn.
"Equality Forum is delighted that the State Department has affirmed
democratic values by authorizing Mariela Castro" to attend the summit,
said Forum Executive Director Malcolm Lazin. The forum "will include a
discussion of the history, progress and challenges of LGBT Cubans."
http://www.miamiherald.com/2013/04/30/3373046/mariela-castro-gets-permit-to.html#storylink=misearch
Mariela Castro gets permit to travel to LGBT forum in U.S.
By Juan O. Tamayo
jtamayo@ElNuevoHerald.com
Reversing its previous rejection, the U.S. State Department has decided
to allow the daughter of Cuban President Raúl Castro, sexologist Mariela
Castro, to attend a gay rights forum in Philadelphia on Saturday.
The director of Cuba's National Center for Sex Education and a vocal
proponent of same-sex marriage and other gay rights, she received a U.S.
visa to attend several gatherings in May at the United Nations
headquarters in Manhattan.
But the State Department initially denied her permission to travel to
Philadelphia to attend the Equality Forum's Global LGBT Summit on
Saturday and receive the group's International Ally for LGBT Equality Award.
Department officials initially held her to the same restrictions as all
Cuban diplomats assigned to the U.N. — no travel more than 25 miles from
Manhattan's Columbus Circle, adjoining Central Park, without advance
permission.
The Cuban government imposes similar restrictions on U.S. diplomats in
Havana — no travel outside the province of Havana without advance
permits from the Ministry of Foreign Relations. Both sides generally
issue the permits on a reciprocal basis.
The Equality Forum, a nonprofit international LGBT rights organization,
draws many personalities and politicians to its annual summits. Each
year the summit features a different country — and this year it's Cuba's
turn.
"Equality Forum is delighted that the State Department has affirmed
democratic values by authorizing Mariela Castro" to attend the summit,
said Forum Executive Director Malcolm Lazin. The forum "will include a
discussion of the history, progress and challenges of LGBT Cubans."
http://www.miamiherald.com/2013/04/30/3373046/mariela-castro-gets-permit-to.html#storylink=misearch
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