Cuban Colada

Golf deal still murky

Johannes Werner, editor of the Cuba Standard sounds cautiously giddy over the new golf deal inked by the Cuban government, but warns that too many details are up in the air. Here's what his publication had to say:

"A Canadian group says it was the first to get the go-ahead from the Cuban government to build a $410 million golf project, complete with apartments and villas for sale to foreigners, and plans to start construction in September. The quiet way in which the Cuban government signed an agreement with the Canadians in April may be a sign of the uncertainties still looming over the four or five massive golf projects that are ready to go. For one, the government hasn't published specific regulations about who will be allowed to buy the real estate, how foreign property owners can import and export personal goods, and whether it might change immigration rules, allowing foreign owners to enjoy longer stays in the country at a time. Last but not least, when it comes to selling the real estate, this is a completely untested market, amid global uncertainties. I am sure not everything will pan out as planned. Even so, it's an exciting moment.
Cuba is moving."

-Frances Robles

 

Ros Lehtinen to Raul: Have a very sad birthday

Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen has this message for Raul Castro's upcoming birthday:

“This upcoming Friday the Cuban tyrant Raul Castro celebrates his 80^th birthday, of which 52 of those years he and his brother Fidel have been misgoverning Cuba and its 11 million inhabitants. While Raul, his family and the governing elite will enjoy rich and sumptuous festivities and meals to mark the occasion, the Cuban nation goes hungry and Cuban families struggle to put the most basic meals on their dinner tables.

 Raul Castro and his family may celebrate but for the Cuban people there is no hope and nothing to look forward to other than more repression and hunger. The octogenarian clique that rules Cuba will not cede power through diplomatic niceties nor appeasement; they will only go when the international community truly bans together and sends a clear message that 50 plus years of dictatorship is enough.

 On Raul Castro’s 80^th birthday, let’s send the Cuban people the gift of reinvigorating our efforts to bring freedom to their island nation.”

 

- Frances Robles

 

Weekend blogosphere roundup

In the Blogosphere

• Cuban universities are open to all, regardless of political affiliation. But, La Joven Cuba posits, they are still revolutionary institutions designed to advance socialism.
• In Havana Times, Daisy Valera analyzes Cuba’s economic reform guidelines. The good news: 395,000 suggestions from Cubans were incorporated into the final document. The bad news: 50,000 were rejected without explanation.
• Yoani Sánchez recounts the story of a young Cuban woman duped into a human trafficking ring by an Italian tourist. It’s not clear how Sánchez heard the story.
• Negra cubana tenía que ser reviews the new album by rap group Obsesión, which focuses on racial discrimination.

 

-Compiled by Chris Lewis

 

 

Morning Roundup

After Fidel Castro became sick in 2006, Mexico feared a massive emigration from Cuba—so says a U.S. diplomatic cable obtained by Wikileaks and revealed Monday in La Jornada, a Mexican newspaper. Mexican attorney general Eduardo Medina Mora met with U.S. Homeland Security secretary Michael Chertoff, and expressed his fear that a post-Castro Cuba wouldn’t be able to keep the island stable. Medina Mora suggested that a “semi-authoritarian” regime would be best suited to govern Cuba’s transition to democracy. Chertoff offered Medina Mora the help of the U.S. Coast Guard to deal with any migration crisis.

Rising sea levels could be dangerous to Cuba, CubaEncuentro reported. The Cuban weekly Trabajadores said that the island’s sea level has risen two millimeters a year for the past forty years. Eroding coastlines in Artemisa and Mayabeque have compounded the problem, causing a rise of six millimeters per year in the two provinces adjacent to Havana. The threat to Cuban population centers won’t come “tomorrow,” but it will surely come, Trabajadores said.

Cuba and El Salvador are hoping to deepen their relationship after an inter-parliamentary meeting, according to CubaEncuentro. Othón Sigfrido Reyes, president of the Salvadoran National Assembly, met in Cuba with Ricardo Alarcón, president of the Cuban Poder Popular, and Communist Party officials. Cuba and El Salvador only reestablished diplomatic relations in 2009, after left-leaning Salvadoran president Mauricio Funes took power.

Other News

• A group of hunger-striking Cubans has been freed in Mexico (Diario de Cuba)
• We won’t invest in Cuba until Cubans can, said an exile leader (El Nuevo Herald)
• Four dissidents are on trial today in Havana for passing out anti-government leaflets (Diario de Cuba)
• Cuban Jews blend traditional Jewish cuisine with Caribbean influences (Jerusalem Post). Also, did you know that 94 percent of Cuba’s mostly middle-class Jewish population left after the Revolution? (Babalú Blog) “The Jews were not targeted specifically, but since many were wealthy business owners, they suffered the same fate as most of Cuba’s middle class,” the Jerusalem Post wrote.
• Upon returning to Honduras, ousted president Manuel Zelaya thanked the government of Cuba for its support (Globovision)
• In Cuba, people are told to read, not told what to believe, according to Ezequiel Morales of the Cuban Institute for Friendship with the Peoples (The Militant)
• Natalia Bolívar, scholar of Afro-Cuban religion, is speaking tonight at Miami Dade college (Diario de Cuba)

In Cuban State Media

• In a statement published Monday, Cuba’s foreign minister condemned U.S. sanctions against Venezuela’s state oil company (Periódico 26)
• Cuban nurses now have their own website, with news and technical advice (Juventud Rebelde)

• Specialists from 15 countries will attend a conference on renewable energy, starting Wednesday in Havana (Escambray)
• Today is World No Tobacco Day (Granma)

In the Blogosphere

• Video of a march-turned-confrontation in Guantánamo (Capitol Hill Cubans)
• Student Henry Constantin has been kicked out of the Superior Art Institute in Havana, according to Angel Santiesteban (Translating Cuba)
• A photo essay on the Abakua society (Havana Times)

• - Compiled by Chris Lewis

 

Memorial Day Roundup

Raúl Castro is calling on an unlikely ally for help in implementing Cuba’s economic reforms: God. On Saturday, he attended a meeting of the Council of Cuban Churches (CIC), in celebration of the group’s 70^th anniversary. At the event, Reverend Marcial Hernández called for Cuba to be blessed, and mentioned the island’s economic reform package. Castro responded in thanks: “We need these blessings, now more than ever.” The CIC also called upon President Barack Obama to release the five Cuban intelligence agents jailed in the United States. CubaEncuentro has more.

Self-employed Cubans will get a temporary tax reprieve, Havana Times reported. Many Cubans have complained that the immediate tax burden cripples attempts to start small businesses. But now, “to make going into business a little more owner-friendly, the government will not charge payroll taxes for up to five workers during the rest of 2011,” Circles Robinson writes. Cuba’s Council of Ministers announced a smorgasbord of other perks, like increased seating allowance at paladares, and lower monthly fees for people renting out their rooms.

Some of Cuba’s cuentapropistas are engaged in price gouging, according to multiple letters-to-the-editor published in Granma. One reader claims that he was looking to buy an electrical resistor, and private sellers were asking double what they cost in state stores. The problem? Cuba’s self-employment law prohibits the re-selling of industrial items acquired in the state economy. Diario de Cuba complains that Granma has an ax to grind; it hasn’t published any letters defending cuentapropistas. If this is deliberate, it would seemingly violate the Cuban Communist Party’s exhortations not to stigmatize Cuba’s self-employed workers.

Other News

• Newly-arrived Cuban exiles in Spain are considering a hunger strike to protest their treatment, Juan O. Tamayo reported. "They are treating us like simple immigrants," said former Cuban prisoner Erick Caballero, who came to Spain in April.
• Former Brazilian president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva will visit Havana on Wednesday, according to EFE.
• Havana Journal reviews Cuban golf courses currently awaiting construction.
• In Marxism-Leninism Today, scholars of the former Soviet Union argue that Cuba will not meet the same fate as the USSR.
• In the Miami Herald, Roland Alum says that Cuba should look to the Dominican Republic as a model of democratic transition.
• For readers in Washington, D.C., the Center for International Policy is hosting a discussion on race and anti-racism in Cuba.
• In Cuban State Media

• Cuban educators are hoping to foment interest in agriculture, adding curricula on farming this coming school year.
• “The Hope of a Nation”: a Juvented Rebelde photographer has a photo essay on Haitian children. Accompanying text here.
• Cubadebate eulogizes American revolutionary Gil Scott-Heron, who died Saturday.

_ Compiled by Chris Lewis

Morning Roundup (late)

Guillermo Fariñas is one of a dozen Cuban dissidents reportedly arrested yesterday in Santa Clara, according to Diario de Cuba. The group was on their way to a local police station where three other dissidents had been detained the day before, hoping to win their freedom. Librado Linares García, released from prison in March after eight years, was also among the arrested. Fariñas is the winner of the 2010 Sakharov Prize, given by the European Union to human rights defenders around the world.

 Spain’s foreign minister Trinidad Jiménez said yesterday that the European Union should move on from its “Common Position” on Cuba, El Nuevo Herald reported. The EU won’t normalize relations with Cuba until the island improves its human rights situation, according to the existing policy. Jiménez argued that more dialogue between Europe and Cuba is needed, and praised reforms made by Raúl Castro. The Common Position was put into place after a crackdown on Cuban dissidents in 2003.

 Actress Eslinda Núñez is the winner of Cuba’s 2011 National Cinema Award. Núñez made her film debut with “El otro Cristóbal” in 1963, and is “one of the major faces of Cuban cinema,” said CubaEncuentro. She has also appeared in iconic Cuban films like “Lucia” and “Memorias de subdesarrollo.”

 Other News

• I missed an important piece by Leonardo Padura earlier this week. Luckily, El Yuma caught it. The author of the Mario Conde series considers the potential changes in Cuban travel restrictions.
• CubaEncuentro has a long examination of violence in Cuban culture, and how it relates to police violence.
• Adolfo Rivero Caro died yesterday of cancer at age 75. A prominent conservative in the Cuban-American community, he founded the Cuban Committee for Human Rights in 1980, and wrote a weekly column in El Nuevo Herald.
• Foreign Policy en Español has chosen Yoani Sánchez as one of the “10 New Faces of Ibero-American Thought.”
• 61-year-old Diana Nyad is going to try to swim 103 miles from Cuba to Key West, wrote the Washington Post.

In Cuban State Media

• Cuentapropismo will not be allowed inside of Cuban health institutions, according to Granma.
• In Radio Cadena Agramonte, a useful survey of Cuba’s historical, cultural, and diplomatic ties with Africa.
• At the conference of the Non-Aligned Movement, Cuba condemned NATO for surpassing its UN mandate in Libya. The rationale: if this can happen to Libya, it can happen to any of us.
• In the Blogosphere
• From this weekend in CounterPunch: Don Fitz discusses the Latin American School of Medicine as an embodiment of the Cuban Revolution.
• Saul Landau and Nelson Valdés of Progreso Weekly say that President Barack Obama is blind to changes ongoing in Cuba.
• Part two of Havana Times’ food sovereignty series focuses on the insufficient sales of agricultural implements, and how to better market them.
• The US Census found 1.8 million Cubans living in the United States, Café Fuerte reported.
• Compiled by Chris Lewis

 

 

Thursday's Roundup

Two hunger-striking Cubans in Mexico have been hospitalized, according to EFE. Alejandro López Sánchez and Junior Michel Castillo Reyes were imprisoned after attempting to escape from immigration facilities, according to the Mexican National Institute of Migration. They are joined in their hunger strike—which has now lasted 21 days—by seven other Cubans, one Honduran, and one Dominican. The pair’s vital signs are “minimal,” according to a Mexican human rights group. 

Radio Martí has the scoop on a new documentary examining the Rotilla Festival in Havana. “Rotilla, si Dios quiere y el Partido lo permite” examines the annual electronic music festival that has become a countercultural phenomenon among Havana youth. The event was started on Rotilla beach in 1998, organized independently of the government. “Here, we are free,” says one young Cuban quoted in the documentary. The 23-minute film can be viewed online at Radio Martí.

 Cuban ballet dancers find more artistic flexibility abroad, according to an illuminating New York Times piece. The Cuban national ballet, though renowned, places heavily emphasis on the classics and offers performers few opportunities to diversify their repertoire. “Most Cubans leave because we want to do something different,” said Reyneris Reyes, now a dancer for the Miami City Ballet.

 Other News

• Two young men in Holguín are headed to prison for “insulting patriotic symbols.” Marcos Maikel and Antonio Michel Lima Cruz were playing songs by rap group Los Aldeanos and shouting anti-government slogans, said Diario de Cuba. One will spend three years in prison, the other, two.
• LGBT activists on the island have formed a new watchdog group, according to Diario de Cuba.
• IPS reports on Cuba’s frustrating rainy season.
• In El País, economist Carmelo Mesa-Lago argues that Cuba’s economic reforms will bring “modest improvements,” but not solutions to structural problems.
• Fidel Castro will live to be 140 years old, claims his former doctor.
• Cuba has apparently surpassed Japan as the country with the highest per-capita population over 100 years old.
• Cuba scores 67th of 153 countries on Vision of Humanity’s “Global Peace Index.” Uruguay ranks 21^st, the best of all Latin America, and Colombia comes in last on the continent at 139^th place, notes Diario de Cuba. The United States comes in at 82^nd.
• From PR Newswire: Carlos Varela has a high-profile booster in the United States.
• In case you missed it yesterday: more Cuba-related Wikileaks, and “Cuba goes green.”

 In Cuban State Media

• Juvented Rebelde has some transcripts of Fidel Castro’s communications on the first day of the Bay of Pigs invasion. Part two is at Cubadebate.
• Granma hopes that land given to farmers in usufruct can help boost food production.
• At a plenary session, the head of UNESCO praised Cuba’s “Yo sí puedo” literacy program.
• From Cubadebate: Oxfam France staged a mock G8 summit in front of the Eiffel Tower to protest global food insecurity.

 In the Blogosphere

• Raúl Castro and Alfredo Guevara have invited Cuba’s press corps to rebel, says Fernando Ravsberg. Will they do it?
• Yordanka Caridad’s partner can’t relocate to the island unless Cuba legalizes same-sex marriage. This, and other tribulations of lesbian romance, from Havana Times.
• At Rebelión, Azanza Telletxiki argues that blame lies with Western governments, more so than the Cuban government, for Cubans’ inability to travel.
• Capitol Hill Cubans weighs in on the sentencing of Marcos Maikel and Antonio Michel Lima Cruz (see above).
• -- Compiled by Chris Lewis

Prisoner dies in alleged beating

    An inmate in a Cuban prison was beaten by guards days before he died from what authorities later described as pneumonia, according to complaints sent by fellow prisoners to a human rights commission in Havana.
    “The reports are not conclusive but this man died in circumstances that merit attention … in government custody,” said Elizardo Sánchez Santa Cruz, head of the illegal but tolerated Cuban Commission for Human Rights and National Reconciliation.
    Sánchez said the dead prisoner, Salvador Ferrer Rodríguez, was serving a sentence in the Quivicán prison on the outskirts of Havana for a common crime, but there’s no further information on his personal background or his legal case.
    His commission received telephone calls from a half a dozen other Quivicán prisoners “insisting that he was the victim of a beating” by guards, Sánchez said. Ferrer was taken to a hospital and authorities later told prisoners that he died Sunday from pneumonia. - Juan O. Tamayo

Cuba Wikileaks keep dripping

    El Nuevo Herald's Juan Tamayo reports on the four latest Wikileak cables having to do with  Cuba. Among them: a tale of some rafters who were at Gitmo but denied entry by Canada. Why? Guantanamo, they explained, is in Cuba.

Here's more from Juan:

    A Cuban rebuff of a Nobel Peace Prize winner. Another U.S. invasion of Cuba? Boooring! Cuba leans on Colombian guerrillas. And the U.S. naval base in Guantánamo is indeed in Cuba.
Those are the topics covered by four U.S. diplomatic cables that were made public by Wikileaks in recent months but never made headlines – just the jetsam and flotsam of U.S. diplomatic reporting about Cuba.
    Together, they are snapshots of Cuba, and of U.S. interests on the communist-ruled island 90 miles from the United States.
    *Costa Rican President and Nobel Peace Prize winner Oscar Arias was rebuffed when he tried to urge Cuba’s Raul Castro to embrace democracy, according to a 2006 cable by U.S. diplomats in the Central American nation.
    Arias had planned to pass the message to Cuba’s vice president at the time, Carlos Lage, when they were to meet during an international gathering in Colombia, the dispatch noted, quoting from a San Jose newspaper report.
    But before the gathering Lage “approached Arias and informed him that he was not willing to discuss this subject,” the cable added. “Arias would not accept this condition and canceled the meeting.”
*A cable sent by the U.S. diplomatic mission in Havana joked that Cuba had mobilized “as many cameras and reporters as it did soldiers” for Bastion 2009, the first such island-wide military exercise since 2004.
    In the days leading up to the exercise, “the official Cuban media tried to drum up enthusiasm … Cubans were exhorted to show their readiness to defend themselves … and coverage was nonstop,” the dispatch noted.
    “The scenario for the Bastion exercises was, once again, a U.S. invasion,” it added. “However, the population reacted with indifference.”

Cuba goes green

The Cuban government announced that it’s stepping into the green building business.

An article in Cuba Debate says Cuba is in the “test phase” of building a zero-emissions apartment building.

It starts out with a 16-apartment building in the Antonio Guiter neighborhood of Habana del Este. The idea is to use water-efficient toilets and electrical energy systems.

The project will also be part of a technology test for a water treatment to the Havana bay.

Cuba debate readers have posted several comments. Among them: why no pictures of the lauded development?

- Frances Robles