Cuban Colada

'Marriages of convenience' entered by Cubans are bane of Ecuadorean authorities

The Ecuadorean Attorney General, Washington Pesántez, has called for a "selective immigration" policy to control the flow of Cubans into Ecuador and their unorthodox quest for Ecuadoran citizenship, the press in Quito reported Monday.
Cubans "arrive here and a week later go before a notary and say, 'I'm living with María So-and-so' and then acquire citizenship," Pesántez told the press. He said his department would crack down on the lawyers and notaries who facilitate the marriages and nationalizations.
The Cubans "are welcome to come, but there's too many of them already, and if they came in as tourists, then they should go back," the official said. "Some neighborhoods have been taken over" by them.
Several of the immigrants "come here to commit some things that are not precisely proper for good Cubans to do," he added. "Many of them are smugglers."
Pesántez said he has brought the matter up with President Rafael Correa.
According to Assembly president Fernando Cordero, Cuban and Ecuadoran authorities last week agreed in Havana that they will investigate and punish "marriages of convenience," a practice that has created an illegal trade between the two countries.
The marriages between Cubans and Ecuadoreans increased from 88 in 2007 to 1,542 in 2009, forcing the government to demand a temporary visa from foreigners who wish to wed in Ecuador.
The country does not require visas for tourists, who can remain on its soil up to 90 days. Last year, Cuban arrivals soared by 147 percent to 27,114, according to the national immigration agency. Five thousand of them remain in the country at this time, Pesántez said Monday.
(For background, read our May 9 blog item "Ecuador a choice destination for emigrants.")
–Renato Pérez Pizarro.

With no paper trail, doubts over prisoners feed on assumptions, expectations, hopes

Dissidents are expressing concern over what they call the government's failure to fulfill a promise to improve the conditions of their imprisoned relatives in preparation for their expected release.
Laura Pollán, leader of the Ladies in White, voiced that concern on Sunday to a Reuters reporter. "Here, nothing is known; everything is a state secret," she is quoted as saying. (Click here.)
But did the government in fact make and announce such a promise? Or did talk about "hopes" turn into expectations of a "commitment" from the government? Did the words "might" and "may" turn into "will" and "shall"?
After Raúl Castro met with Cardinal Jaime Ortega on May 19, the official media acknowledged the meeting but went no farther. Ortega spoke very cautiously about it to reporters.
Asked by a Reuters reporter if the Cuban government "made a commitment to release the prisoners," Ortega replied: "No, we're not talking about commitments. We're talking about conversations with the government [...] it is not a concluded effort, about which we could make another announcement, but [it is] this one: we are dealing with the subject." (Emphasis mine.)
The issue of the prisoners "is being dealt with, but I cannot make any advance conclusions about concrete dates, concrete acts about the prisoners, etc.," the cardinal said.
In answer to a question from an Associated Press reporter, Ortega said that "the Church is interested in an alleviation of the prisoners' situation, which might include the release of some."
To a Spanish Television reporter who asked if the talks were about "releasing [the prisoners] or easing their conditions," the cardinal answered: "I said we were in a process."
And to another Spanish journalist who asked if Ortega expected the release of some political prisoners, the cardinal said: "I think that to 'expect' is like saying 'yes, this is going to happen.' Let us say that we're hoping for it."
When pressed by an Agence France-Presse reporter as to "how optimistic is the Church that the releases can occur in a short period of time," the prelate's answer was: "We hope so."
Two days after the Castro-Ortega meeting, on May 22, hunger striker Guillermo Fariñas told Reuters that he had been informed by the auxiliary bishop of Havana, Msgr. Juan de Dios Hernández-Ruiz, that two measures were about to be taken: "First, the transfer of all the prisoners to their respective provinces of residence, and the transfer also of all sick prisoners to hospitals."
According to Fariñas, the government's decision had been conveyed to Hernández-Ruiz by Homero Acosta Alvarez, secretary of the Council of State, in a telephone conversation.
Fariñas' statement could be described as hearsay, although Reuters said it was confirmed by a Church source speaking on condition of anonymity. Again, the government did not comment on Fariñas' statement.
Nor did the government confirm (or deny) a statement made to The Associated Press on May 23 by the spokesman for the Cuban Conference of Catholic Bishops, saying that "the Office of Religious affairs of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Cuba notified the Catholic Church on Friday that, beginning next week, the political prisoners would be transferred to the jails in their places of origin, so the sickest among them can be tended in hospitals."
The effect – as of today, at least – is that there is no solid proof that the government made any assurances to the Church that the prisoners' condition would be "alleviated" or that some would be released. Absent a concrete statement from Castro's office, we are left to assume that a series of misunderstandings has led to the present uncertainty.
An argument could be made for the media misreading Fariñas' statement, for Fariñas misreading Hernández-Díaz's message, and for the Bishops Conference's spokesman misreading Acosta's phone call.
Little wonder the dissidents are puzzled.
[For an Associated Press update, published Monday, click here.]
–Renato Pérez Pizarro.

Cuba watches oil spill with quiet concern

A former U.S. diplomat who just returned from a visit to Havana reports that the Cuban government is showing "increasing concern" about the possible impact of the BP oil spill on the island.
Deputy Foreign Minister Dagoberto Rodríguez Barrera told the visiting American about his government's preoccupation and indicated that Cuba is "perfectly willing to work with the U.S. on this issue."
Osmani Borrego Fernandez, a director at the Guanahacabibes National Park at Cuba's western tip, told Reuters this week that "Cuba, like all the countries in this area, is worried about the situation in the Gulf."
While there has been no evidence of oil in Cuban waters, "we are alert," he told the news agency.
No formal bilateral talks have been held on the issue, although there have been some working-level discussions, said a source at the Washington-based Ocean Foundation.
The source said that officials at the Cuban Ministry of Science, Technology and the Environment are "appreciative of the information we are providing them" but have not requested any help or revealed their preparations.
A daily report on the flow of the oil stain and how it threatens the coasts of the United States and Cuba can be accessed at www.cubaconservation.org
–Renato Pérez Pizarro.

Fidel aided coup attempt in Panama in '59 at urging of British ballerina and husband

Dame Margot Fonteyn was involved in a 1959 plot with Fidel Castro to overthrow the government of Panama, secret files released yesterday in Britain reveal.
The Royal Ballet ballerina, then 39, was arrested by Panamanian authorities on April 20, 1959, after her husband Roberto Arias, nephew of ex-president Arnulfo Arias, launched a failed coup against President Ernesto de la Guardia using 125 Cuban gunmen.
She was released the following day and later confessed to John Profumo, Minister of State for Foreign Affairs, that she met Castro and took part in a mission to assemble rebel forces at sea.
According to Profumo, "Castro promised to help her husband in his aims to overthrow the existing regime. She was a bit hazy about the extent of the aid offered, she said, because the talks were in Spanish, but she was certain the aid included men and arms."
Castro denied knowledge of the coup attempt, but the Foreign Office was certain that he was behind it.
Fonteyn and her husband returned to Panama in the final years of her life. She died there in February 1991, aged 71.
For a fuller account of this story in The Times of London, click here. For a version in The Guardian, click here.

Spanish intelligence reopens Cuba bureau

The Spanish National Intelligence Center (CNI) is back in business in Cuba.
Exactly one year after four CNI agents – the agency's entire staff on the island – were expelled from Cuba, a new operative has quietly reopened the bureau, the Spanish daily El País reports.
(For background, read our May 20, 2009, blog item "Spanish intelligence is out in the cold" and earlier items. Click here.)
The CNI's director, Gen. Félix Sanz, is credited with negotiating the organization's return with the Cuban government.
Last year's expulsion followed the arrest of an influential Cuban businessman, Conrado Hernández, who was charged with passing confidential Cuban government information to the Spanish agents. Hernández's status is unknown.
The scandal also touched Vice President Carlos Lage Dávila and Foreign Minister Felipe Pérez Roque, friends of Hernández's, who were fired by Raúl Castro in March 2009.
(ABOVE, from left, Hernández, Lage and Pérez Roque appear in an undated photo at a party in Matanzas.)
According to El País, "the new representative of the Spanish secret service, who was not part of the previous team, has received instructions to 'keep a low profile.'"
–Renato Pérez Pizarro.

Senators quiz Clinton on relations between Venezuela and state sponsors of terrorism

In a letter to Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, 12 U.S. senators on Tuesday raised questions about Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez's "growing ties with U.S.-designated foreign terrorist organizations and state sponsors of terrorism."
The questions involved the Colombian FARC guerrillas, al-Qaida, Hezbollah, Iran, Cuba, and Syria.
This is what the senators asked Clinton about Cuba:
"Venezuela's financial support for state sponsors of terrorism is evident by Chávez's extensive support of the Castro regime in Cuba, which is calculated to amount to $1 billion a year.
"To what extent does Venezuelan assistance to the Cuban regime facilitate the regime's ongoing repression of the pro-democracy movement and forestall a transition to democracy in Cuba?
"How deeply are Cuban advisors involved in the intelligence and security apparatus of the Venezuelan government?
"What is your assessment of the role of long-term Castro confidant Ramiro Valdés [Menéndez] as a special advisor to the government in Venezuela and the impact it will have on pro-democracy leaders and movements in Venezuela?
"What role, if any, did Valdés play in the recent purge of over 100 Venezuelan military officers?"
The senators asked that all their questions "be thoroughly addressed within the Department of State's 2009 Country Report on Terrorism."
That report, due for presentation to Congress on April 30, has not yet been delivered by the State Department.
[ADDENDUM: The senators, all Republican, are John Ensign (Nev.), George LeMieux (Fla.), Robert Bennett (Utah), Scott Brown (Mass.), Sam Brownback (Kansas), Jim Bunning (Ky.), John Cornyn (Texas), James Inhofe (Okla.), Jon Kyl (Ariz.), John McCain (Ariz.), James Risch (Idaho), and Roger Wicker (Miss.).]
–Renato Pérez Pizarro, with thanks to Lesley Clark.

Cuba's justice system is superior to U.S.'s, chief judge tells legal congress in Havana

"The transparency in the performance of our judicial organizations, their adherence to the law and to due process, and the openly popular and inclusive character of its members are irrefutable proof that [...] our administration of justice constitutes a conquest of the Revolution, with a performance superior to that shown by those who describe themselves as paradigms of democracy and champions of the law."
That is how Rubén Remigio Ferro, president of the People's Supreme Court, described Cuba's legal system during an international law conference in Havana on Wednesday. The meeting was attended by law professionals from 14 countries, Granma reported.
Ferro criticized "the slanderous campaigns carried out" against the Cuban justice system "by the adversaries of Cuban socialism, led by the American government." But, he said, "the reality – palpable and unquestionable – of what goes on in Cuba overcomes any malicious fallacies or falsehoods."
He also expressed Cubans' "profound indignation and protest for the rigged and biased trial" that led to the imprisonment in the United States in 1998 of five Cuban intelligence gatherers, a process that, he said, "violated the guarantees of due process, the Constitution, and the trial rules of the United States."

U.S. OKs private talks on oil spill control

From a Reuters news report on Thursday:
The U.S. government has licensed a Houston-based oil drilling group – the International Association of Drilling Contractors – to travel to Cuba to start cooperation on safety and environmental practices following the Gulf of Mexico oil spill.
U.S. and Cuban diplomats have begun working-level talks on the risks from the huge Gulf of Mexico oil spill that could be carried to Cuban shores by strong currents.
Although the oil that could threaten Cuba is gushing from a well in U.S. waters, experts say there is the same risk of an accident in Cuba's plans to move forward with deepwater exploration drilling in its Gulf of Mexico waters.
"It is highly likely that we will see drilling in Cuban waters later this year," oil expert Jorge Piñón said at a discussion of U.S.-Cuba engagement in the Gulf of Mexico at the New America Foundation, a Washington think tank.
Spanish oil giant Repsol-YPF, which found light oil in Cuban deepwaters in 2004, has contracted an Italian-owned, Chinese-built rig that is expected to drill a second exploratory well by year's end.
And several other international oil companies have signed risk contracts to explore for oil in Cuba's Gulf waters.
For the entire Reuters report, click here.

Cuba publishes Castro pic after 7 months

To illustrate a story about the presentation to Fidel Castro this week of a medal from the Ecuadorean National Assembly, the official website Cubadebate on Wednesday used a photograph made last October during another such ceremony.
The picture shows Ecuadorean Vice President Lenin Moreno Garcés giving Castro a medal for sending Cuban doctors to the Manuela Espejo Mission, which cares for the disabled in Ecuador. Others in the image are unidentified.
The photograph was not published in Cuba by the national media at the time, though it was released to the international media by the Ecuadorean government.
In it, Castro is seen leaning to accept the medal because Moreno is wheelchair-bound. He was shot in the back during a robbery attempt in 1998.
–Renato Pérez Pizarro.

Home-building materials available in stores

Seventy-seven retail outlets for construction materials for individual builders have opened in Cuba, a government official told Radio Rebelde. The target is 169 stores.
The stores sell materials and tools to people who want to improve their homes or build new homes, said Arturo Vázquez Hernández, director of Non-Food Products of the Ministry of Domestic Trade.
The prices are not subsidized and are determined by supply and demand. "Clearly, the demand will be greater than the supply," Radio Rebelde says, "but this program will somehow permit a solution to the very difficult situation in the matter of habitation and solve part of the shortage of homes in the country."
Cement, plumbing materials and ceramics can be purchased in hard-currency stores, the station says. The new outlets will sell dry materials, wall panels, cables, floor tiles and lighting fixtures. No retail source for iron rods for reinforcement has been determined at this time.
(PHOTO SHOWS a brick builder at work.)