Cuban Colada

Cuba ready to drill for oil deeper than BP

Cuba is expected to begin drilling offshore for oil and gas as soon as next year with equipment that will go deeper than the Deepwater Horizon rig that exploded in the Gulf of Mexico, industry experts say.
The Spanish energy company Repsol has contracted to drill the first of several exploratory wells with a semi-submersible rig that is expected to arrive in Cuba at the end of the year, said Jorge Piñón, visiting research fellow at the Cuban Research Institute at Florida International University. He said the rig is expected to drill down 5,600 feet in an area about 22 miles north of Havana and 65 miles south of the Marquesas Keys.
Environmentalists suggested the prospect of rigs just 45 miles from Florida's coastline could intensify pressure for the Obama administration to engage in talks with its Cold War antagonist to prevent ecological damage.
"A policy of isolationism doesn't benefit anyone. We have a selfish interest in talking with Cuba," said David Guggenheim, a senior fellow at The Ocean Foundation in Washington. "At a minimum, you need a good Rolodex."
For more details, in The Miami Herald, click here.
–Lesley Clark and Sara Kennedy.
[UPDATE: The U.S. Coast Guard Commander for the Southeast told The Miami Herald that his agency is looking "very seriously" at Cuba's plans to drill for oil.
Rear Admiral William D. Baumgartner said a number of U.S. agencies, including the Coast Guard, are reviewing contingency plans in the event of an accident, such as a spill that could reach the Florida coast.
"We are actively looking at all the different implications and scenarios to make sure our plans are revised and up to date," Baumgartner said. "There is not a bilateral U.S.-Cuba agreement on oil spills right now."
To read the entire update, click here.]

China offers to expand ties with Cuba

Chinese President Hu Jintao and Prime Minister Wen Jiabao expressed their country's interest in broadening its bilateral ties with Cuba, the Prensa Latina news agency reported Wednesday.
The message, in the form of a letter to Raúl Castro, was delivered to Vice President Ricardo Cabrisas Ruiz, who is visiting Beijing to celebrate the 50th anniversary of diplomatic relations between the two countries.
(PHOTO SHOWS Cabrisas with Dai Bingguo, the Chinese Communist Party's director of foreign affairs, during a reception Tuesday at the Cuban Embassy.)
"We are ready to work with our Cuban comrades to [...] deepen our traditional friendship and unceasingly reinforce and broaden the friendly and mutually advantageous cooperation between China and Cuba," the message said.
A similar message was expressed to Cabrisas by Zhou Yongkang, a senior Party leader who until 2007 was Minister of Public Security. Click here for an account in Granma. The account by Xinhua can be accessed here.
[UPDATE: On Thursday, Cabrisas met with Chinese Vice President Xi Jinping. For details from Prensa Latina, click here.]
[UPDATE 2: From Beijing, Cabrisas goes on to Moscow to initiate the 10th session of the Intergovernmental Commission that deals with trade and other issues, the Cuban News Agency reports.]

Vote to lift Cuba travel ban is put on hold

Backers of lifting the ban on travel to Cuba had been hoping for a favorable vote Wednesday out of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, but chairman Howard L. Berman called off the vote on Tuesday.
"It now appears that Wednesday will be the last day that Congress is in session before an extended district work period. That makes it increasingly likely that our discussion of the bill will be disrupted or cut short by votes or other activity on the House floor," the California Democrat said in a statement.
"Accordingly, I am postponing consideration of H.R. 4645 until a time when the Committee will be able to hold the robust and uninterrupted debate this important issue deserves. I firmly believe that when we debate and vote on the merits of this legislation, and I intend for it to be soon, the right to travel will be restored to all Americans."
The National Foreign Trade Council and USA-Engage had just sent out an email in support of the bill, which would lift restrictions on travel by American citizens to Cuba and U.S. agricultural and humanitarian exports to the country.
Supporters had considered it the best chance at getting the travel ban lifted – particularly if Republicans take control of the House in November and Miami Republican Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen becomes committee chair.
–LESLEY CLARK.

Layoffs are cushioned, the state points out

The Communist Party daily Granma on Tuesday carried a long article explaining the whys and wherefores of the impending mass layoffs.
An interesting sidebar is a box that tells what a government worker can expect in terms of "salary guarantees" (unemployment compensation) if he or she is laid off.
If rehired by the state, temporarily or permanently, he will be paid the salary established for the new post "by the existing legislation." In other words, if he's given a lower-ranking job, he'll be paid the lower salary, regardless of his previous stature and pay scale.
A worker who cannot be relocated in a state job will get the equivalent of one month's salary. After that month, if the worker remains jobless, he can still receive 60 percent of his base salary, according to the following conditions:
• Up to one month, if he has worked for the state for 10-to-19 years;
• up to two months, if he has worked for the state for 20-to-25 years;
• up to three months, if he has worked for the state for 26-to-30 years;
• up to five months, if he has worked for the state longer than 30 years.
A laid-off worker who refuses to be relocated in a state job will be paid 60 percent of his base salary for only one month, after which "the labor relationship is terminated."
–Renato Pérez Pizarro.

CIMEX head replaced by an Army colonel

Eduardo Bencomo Zurdos, longtime president of CIMEX, Cuba's largest commercial corporation, has been replaced by Army Col. Héctor Oroza Busutin as part of a drive to increase efficiency and reduce corruption, Reuters reported Monday.
Bencomo, 66, headed CIMEX for 20 years. He was appointed to the post by Fidel Castro.
CIMEX is an acronym for Cuban Import-Export Corporation. With annual revenues of more than $1 billion, it is an independent state-run conglomerate that operates exclusively in foreign exchange and convertible pesos, Reuters said.
It runs its own shipping line and bank, clears foreign credit card transactions, controls money orders, operates a real estate business and the country's largest travel agency and owns more than 2,500 commercial outlets, including department stores, fast-food spots and gas stations, the news agency explained.
A Reuters list of CIMEX's holdings can be accessed here.
Emilio Morales, a former marketing director at CIMEX, told the blog CafeFuerte that Bencomo's removal is "a definitive consolidation of Raúl Castro's command strategy and a signal that Fidel won't return to power."
To read the CafeFuerte account, in Spanish, click here.

Cabrisas is in Beijing on diplomatic tour

Chinese Deputy Prime Minister Wang Qishan pledged to work with Cuba "to lift the friendly bilateral relationship to a new level," the Chinese news agency Xinhua reported Monday.
Wang (at right in photo) made the remark while meeting with Ricardo Cabrisas Ruiz, Vice President of the Council of Ministers of Cuba.
Cabrisas is in China to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic ties between the two nations. He arrived in Beijing from Shanghai, where he visited the 2010 Universal Exposition.
According to Xinhua, "Wang spoke highly of the development of China-Cuba ties over the past half a century, noting that the two countries have always supported each other and enjoyed frequent high level visits.
"China will work with Cuba to expand cooperation and strengthen economic and trade links with a view to further advancing bilateral ties, Wang said."
Cabrisas said Cuba "will make concerted efforts with China to promote pragmatic cooperation in various sectors while pushing forward the existing sound bilateral relationship," the Chinese news agency said.
A report on the meeting by Cuba's Prensa Latina can be accessed here.

Three more prisoners are Madrid-bound

Three more prisoners have agreed to fly to Spain after being released, the Archdiocese of Havana announced Monday in its website.
They are Horacio Julio Piña Borrego, at left, Fidel Suárez Cruz, right, and Alfredo Felipe Fuentes, below, all arrested in 2003.
The number of prisoners who have agreed to conditional release is now 39.
Piña and Suárez were in the seventh year of 20-year prison sentences; Fuentes had been sentenced to 26 years' imprisonment.

Fuel prices rise, hurting private drivers

The prices of fuel went up Monday by as much as 18 percent, BBC Mundo reported.
A liter of regular gasoline will cost the equivalent of US$1.25; a liter of "special," $1.41; diesel, $1.25. Lowest-octane gasoline, known as "motor," will cost $1.03 per liter.
One liter is about a quarter of a gallon.
"The measure particularly affects private individuals, because most of the commercial transportation belongs to the state, and the consumption of fuel is totally subsidized by the [state-owned] enterprises," BBC said.
"Collaterally, it will affect self-employed carriers, a sector that recently benefited from the issuance of thousands of licenses for the transportation of passengers and freight, mostly agriculture-related."
The entire BBC Mundo report, in Spanish, can be accessed here. For the announcement in Granma, click here. Europa Press reports the news here.

Roadside stands OK'd nationwide

Roadside stands that sell fruit, vegetables, and flowers from family orchards will be authorized and regulated by the government nationwide, an article in Granma said Monday.
The step was taken "to put an end to informal sales," the newspaper said. In the past, "the money collected ended up in the pockets of the vendors, who often swindled the producers because they paid for the merchandise at a very low price and resold it at a higher price." (Emphasis mine.)
The situation was "a roiling river that provided earnings to those who worked and those who didn't, basically to the latter," the explanation continued.
So, from now on, the sale of these products is authorized "at points of sale or kiosks that are the property of the [food] producers, who will also be held responsible for their management, maintenance and conservation," said Meisi Bolaños, vice minister of Finance and Pricing.
If the kiosks are erected on state-owned land, the owner will pay the government 2 percent of the daily sales, plus a 5-percent sales tax. Kiosk owners must also pay a 25-percent social security tax.
Vendors "must be properly dressed and maintain order and cleanliness" in the stands. Food prices must be displayed on a board "that will specify the unit of measure and price, which shall be established under the principle of supply and demand."
Granma praises the several ministries involved in the regulation of roadside sales, saying that they have "greased a whole system of work, where every person involved has an important role to play so that, from now on, not even a cherry is wasted."
To read the entire article, in Spanish, click here.
–Renato Pérez Pizarro.

141 émigrés in Spain ask for U.S. visas

Twenty-one of the 36 political prisoners now in Spain have asked the U.S. Embassy in Madrid to give them visas to come to this country, the news agency EFE reported Sunday. One hundred and twenty relatives of those prisoners, who are with them in Spain, have done the same.
The Cubans give "family reunification" as their reason to come to the U.S., saying they have relatives here, mostly in Miami.
Besides, being in Miami is "being closer to Cuba on the day when freedom comes," ex-inmate Blas Giraldo told EFE.
Spain's opposition party, the conservative Popular Party, this week told the Cubans it would assist them in their efforts. The prisoners' release and subsequent travel to Madrid was negotiated with the assistance of the ruling Socialist Workers Party of Spain.
(PHOTO above shows dissident Héctor Raúl Valle Hernández arriving in Madrid this week.)
[UPDATE: Arturo Pérez de Alejo Rodríguez, 59, plans to leave Madrid on Monday in a plane to Miami, with his wife and daughter. Pérez, who arrived in Spain on July 21, will be the first freed prisoner to come to the United States from Spain, the EFE news service says. A resident of Manicaragua, Villa Clara province, he was in his seventh year of a 20-year prison term when released by the Cuban government.]