BY TRACEY EATON

The discovery of petroleum off the coast ofCuba would “probably impact U.S.-Cubarelations” more than any other single

event of the past 10 or 15 years, says energymaven Jorge Piñón.

“If oil is found, it will make Cuba energy-inde-pendent. It won’t depend on Venezuela,” Piñonsaid. “You’d be sitting at the table with someoneyou can’t push around economically anymore.”

Piñon was one of eight industry experts whospoke at a May 10 conference co-sponsored byCubaNews and the law firm Gray Robinson.

Fifty business executives attended the event,titled “Changes in the United States and Cuba:The Impact on Florida.” It was held at GrayRobinson’s Tampa office, with the participationof several attorneys from the firm.

Experts discussed a range of topics includingenergy, agriculture, telecommunications, travel,trade, real estate and microlending.

The meeting was timely, coming just daysafter Cuba’s Communist Party released the finalversion of its guidelines for economic reform.

The 313 “lineamientos” call for a larger pri-vate sector, fewer government subsidies and apush toward decentralized decision-making.

Cuban officials make clear they are not aban-doning socialism, but merely “updating” theireconomic model and don’t intend to unleashcapitalism on the island.

Those plans coincide with the Obama admin-istration’s decision to step up “people-to-people”contacts in Cuba and loosen some travel restric-tions. In fact, changes on both sides of the Flor-ida Straits have heightened expectations amongU.S. executives hoping to trade with Cuba.

The Cuban economy has struggled since thebreakup of the Soviet Union more than twodecades ago — and the discovery of oil couldhelp Cuba turns things around fast, Piñon said.

BY LARRY LUXNER

While the Cuban government eases limitson private businesses, moves to cut tax-es for mom-and-pop restaurants and

gradually opens the door further to foreigninvestment in beachfront golf resorts, Cuba ex-perts in Washington and elsewhere are equallybusy debating what all of this really means.

The current flurry of activity began in mid-April, when delegates to the VI Party Congressmeeting in Havana approved a long list of lin-eamientos or guidelines for economic reforms.

Proposals to legalize the sale of real-estateand private cars got plenty of media coverageworldwide, though they haven’t been passedinto law yet. Nor has a plan to grant small-busi-ness loans to individual entrepreneurs or createa wholesale market on the island.

On the other hand, on May 27, the govern-ment announced it would allow private restau-rants to serve up to 50 diners at a time, up fromthe previous limit of 20, though many paladares

had been ignoring the restriction.Some 310,000 Cubans are now licensed to

work in the private sector, according to an arti-cle in the Communist Party daily Granma. Thatincludes 50,000 people in food production andsales, 39,000 working for private businesses and14,000 taxi drivers and other transport workers.

At a recent Inter-American Dialogue break-fast in Washington, three Cuba experts offeredtheir opinions on the island’s latest reforms.

“One view is that this really amounts to verylittle, if anything at all. Cuba has embarked onreforms at different moments in time, and hasalways dismantled them when the economyimproved. And this time is no different,” saidAmerican University scholar Robert Pastor.

“The second view is that this represents a seachange and will lead to a very different Cuba. Itend to be both an optimist and a skeptic, especi-ally of government promises and dictatorships.”

Pastor, who accompanied former President

In the News

Coming food crisis?University of Florida’s Bill Messina warnsof chaos as food prices take off ...Page 3

Let the court decideSupreme Court may rule on Fla. law ban-ning academic travel to Cuba .......Page 4

PCC to ‘evaluate’ reformsJanuary 2012 conference to discuss nextstep in economic reform ...............Page 6

Brazil eyes sugar sectorBrazilian giants take a look at Cuba’s neg-lected sugar industry ....................Page 7

NewsmakersMark Entwistle, Canada’s ex-ambassadorin Havana, has turned his passion for Cubainto a full-time career ....................Page 8

A veggie comebackVegetables: a bright spot in Cuba’s other-wise bleak farming sector ..........Page 10

Key players to watchA blow-by-blow description of who’s whoamong Cuba’s leadership ...........Page 12

Business briefsChina to expand Cienfuegos oil refinery;C&T to fly San Juan-Havana .......Page 14

Dissident ‘Antúnez’Jorge Luís García Pérez: ‘We’re hostagesof the dictatorship’ .......................Page 15

See Tampa, page 3

CubaNews (ISSN 1073-7715) is published monthlyby CUBANEWS LLC. © 2011. All rights reserved.Subscriptions: $479 for one year, $800 for two years.For editorial inquires, please call (305) 393-8760 orsend an e-mail to: info@cubanews.com.

Eager U.S. investors eye Cuba potentialfrom oil to microloans, trade to telecom

See Reforms, page 2

U.S. experts debate impact of economicreforms approved at VI Party Congress

Vol. 19, No. 6 June 2011

2 CubaNews v June 2011

Reforms — FROM PAGE 1

Jimmy Carter on his recent trip to Cuba, sayssuch reforms would be relatively meaninglessin any other country in Latin America, butthat “for Cuba, it’s very significant.”

Among other things, the Castro regime hasleased one million hectares of land to 120,000farmers, opened up 178 categories of jobs tothe private sector and announced that itwould lay off more than a million state work-ers and eliminate subsidies.”

“More important than these reforms wasthe rationale for the reforms,” he said. “The

Antonio Blanco, speaking of the Sixth PartyCongress, said it represents a “milestone” inCuban history — the last one to be presidedover by the generation that has held power onthe island for half a century.

“But if the policies now adopted prove to beinadequate, the consequences will be verysignificant in the short, medium and longterm for almost everyone involved,” Blancowarned his Washington audience.

The FIU scholar cited a recent interviewwith Pavel Vidal Alejandro, a researcher atthe University of Havana’s Centro de EstudiosSobre la Economía Cuba, whom he called“one of the best minds in Cuba.”

“He says that he has alot of doubts about theinstitutional capacity ofCuba to implement thelineamientos, if they arereally going to be adopt-ed,” Blanco noted. “Beingable to stay in a hotelroom in your own countryand getting a cellphoneare all positive things, butthe big question is, whereis the country going?”

WHAT ABOUT THE EXILES?

“If we concentrate onshort-term questions likehow many more militaryofficers are in the politicalbureau, or how manymeasures have been

adopted, we lose perspective of what’s hap-pening in the medium or long term,” he said.

Furthermore, said Blanco, the Castroregime “has a long tradition of shelving andforgetting previous decisions.”

“Vertical mobility in Cuban society hasbeen mostly granted on the basis of personaland ideologicalloyalties, whilecreativity ande x c e l l e n c ewere second-ary considera-tions,” he said.

“Fifty yearsafter the revo-lution, it seemsno one below60 can betrusted to takeover key posi-tions of influ-ence. From along-term per-spective, thepresence of military officers among the lead-ership isn’t as disturbing as the complete ab-sence of scientists, artists and intellectuals.”

Blanco said he’s also disturbed by the factthat “while much time was spent discussingthe breakdown of electrical appliances,” noofficials are talking publicly about the role ofthe Cuban diaspora.

“Such an omission is particularly remark-able, if you consider that they inject about $2billion a year in remittances, postal packages,

fees and money spent while visiting theisland,” he said. “The exclusion of this groupfrom economic discussions is quite odd.”

Arturo López Levy, a former political ana-lyst for the Cuban government who nowteaches Latin American politics at DenverUniversity, said there’s been a dramatic shiftin Cuba from promoting a “battle of ideas” toa focus on making the economy work.

ECONOMIC OPENING, YET POLITICAL CONTROL

“The Party Congress opened the door tosubstantial economic reform, but paradoxical-ly elected a very conservative Politburo for itsimplementation,” he said. “If there’s a mes-sage to the United States, it’s that the U.S.needs to learn to live with this ambiguity. Wewill see a move towards important economicchanges, but at the same time, an iron will tokeep the one-party system in place.”

Asked about the potential real-estate boomthat could result from the end to prohibitionson the buying and selling of houses and apart-ments, López said that “most reformists inCuba would like to open as much as they can,using houses and cars as collateral for loansto develop private business. But others wantto go slower. They are trying to prevent directsales of cars to people.”

The bottom line, said the academic — whohas often been criticized for defending theCuban government — is that “no matter howmuch some of them want to liberalize theeconomy, the leadership is the result of a con-vergence of the military high command andparty bureaucrats.

“Both groups agreee on the convenience ofpreserving the one-party system and themonopoly on government bureaucracy. Andit’s wrong to assume they’re improvising.They have a plan for at least the next 5 years:to go on the economic reform track as muchas they can while keeping political control.” q

Cuban economy is inefficient and deficient.Therefore, what’s needed is an incentives sys-tem, a reduction of the security net to encour-age people to produce.”

Pastor suggests that the biggest obstacle toimplementation of the reforms may comefrom the Cuban people themselves — not tomention the United States.

“They’ll be losing their jobs, without rationcards, without a safety net. There’ll be a lot ofpushback at the popular level, and the gov-ernment will be worried about that,” he said.

IMPLEMENTING THE GUIDELINES

Regarding U.S. policy, Pastor says: “I per-sonally don’t think the world plays a large rolein Raúl’s mindset; he’s not as concernedabout the U.S. as Fidel is. The problem in theU.S. is that we’re also facing a debate betweenthose who say nothing will change until theCastro brothers are gone, and we ought touse everything we can to put pressure onCuba — and those who say America’s great-est strength is our openness.

“Let’s take advantage of that, not by tryingto manipulate through ‘democracy programs’but rather by opening up the United States toCuba. At this moment of transition in Cuba,this could encourage the forces of economicand political pluralism.”

Pastor added that “this so-called democra-cy program is absurd. It’s completely ineffec-tual except that it helps the hardliners inCuba. It serves no other purpose.”

Florida International University’s Juan

Denver University’s Arturo López-Levy speaks at Inter-American Dialogue.

AU Professor Robert Pastor

Cuba plans to completely overhaul theisalnd’s tax system, announced VladimirRequeiro, deputy chief of the island’s Ofi-cina Nacional de Administración Tributa-ria (ONAT), speaking on Cuban state TV.

Cuba Trade & Investment News, quotingfrom the 313-point list of guidelines recent-ly approved at the Sixth Party Congress,said new businesses must pay 25% to 50%taxes on profits, 10% sales or service tax,25% employment tax and 25% social securi-ty contribution.

Requeiro said tax rates will be accordingto income brackets, and that agriculturalproducers will benefit from a special taxsystem to stimulate food production.

Most Cubans have never had to paytaxes before, the newsletter points out.Even so, local economists expect the gov-ernment to collect hundreds of millions ofdollars in tax revenue this year from newlyestablished private businesseses.

Cuba to revamp tax system

Washington-based journalist and photographerLarry Luxner has edited CubaNews since 2002.

June 2011 v CubaNews 3

Venezuela supplies Cuba with more thanhalf its petroleum needs. A $77 million oil rigis expected to start drilling seven wells off thecoast of Cuba by September or October.

Three foreign companies have a stake inthe project: Norway’s Statoil, Spain’s RepsolYPF and India’s Videsh Ltd. They’ll pay$403,000 per day to operate the rig, capable ofdrilling 12,000 feet deep.

“Companies wouldn’t spend this amount ofmoney if they didn’t think oil was there. Ifthey find oil — and I say ‘if’ with a capital ‘I’ –it could be a gamechanger,” said Piñon, a vis-iting research fellow at Florida InternationalUniversity’s Cuban Research Institute.

“When the Wall Street Journal says, ‘CubaFinds Oil,’ that’s going to change the wholescene,” Piñón told his audience. “It will makethe Cuban government much more confidentabout whatever political position it takes. Itwill have a major impact on the economy, andit will have political impact too.”

U.S. oil giants, for instance, would step uppressure to lift trade sanctions because theywill want the same opportunities to makemoney, he said.

MICROLENDING AND REAL-ESTATE

Emilio Santandreu, manager of Our MicroLending, said small-business loans to Cubanswill likely soar over the next few years.

Cuban-American families now send some$2 billion per year in remittances to their fam-ilies, but that money is used mostly for such

basic necessities as food. What’s needed is amicrolending program, he said, adding thatCuban authorities have issued 110,000 newlicenses for Cubans to run their own busines-ses. These people “will need a lot of money.”

If they received just $5,000 each, that wouldtotal more than half a billion dollars in a single

year. Santandreu suggested that these loanscould be issued to their Cuban-American rela-tives, who would then transfer the money torelatives on the island.

Such an arrangement would be legal underObama administration rules, and would give

Tampa — FROM PAGE 1 small businesses an important boost,Santandreu told his audience.

John Parke Wright IV, a Florida business-man whose company has been shipping beefand dairy cattle to Cuba since 1999, said heexpects Cuban exiles to funnel “hundreds ofmillions of dollars” into their relatives’ busi-

ness in the next few years.Antonio Zamora, co-owner and publisher of

CubaNews, said one golf and marina project isunder construction in Cuba and four more areexpected to break ground by year’s end.

“The golf courses and the marinas aregoing to be very successful,” he said, notingthat while Cuba’s economy may have short-comings, state-run entites “have done verywell in tourism in a short amount of time.”

It is as if Cuba had two economies, saidZamora, a Miami attorney and founder of theU.S.-Cuba Legal Forum.

“Everything about Cuba is complicated,”There are two Cubas: a socialist Cuba, whichhas nothing to do with what we’re talkingabout here, and a capitalist Cuba where thereis foreign investment,” he explained.

Zamora also spoke about new rules whichwill soon let Cubans buy and sell homes.

The real-estate opening “is definitely real,”he said. “Not only will Cubans be able to buyand sell homes, they’ll be able to expand theirhomes and have beach and country homes.”

Piñón said some major U.S. companies thathad operations in Cuba before the 1959 revo-lution are eager to return. And Zamora saidthat while these big companies are likely to becompensated for property seized after the re-volution, he doesn’t expect they’ll get much.

“I don’t think [Cuba] will pay more than10%, and they’re going to borrow the 10% fromthe United States,” he predicted.

Piñon said some companies won’t be inter-ested in fighting for even 10% because that’llgobble up time they could be using to re-establish operations and make money.

“Westinghouse, Coca-Cola, Firestone, theyall tell us they’ll settle for $1. We’re not goingto get bogged down in the courts while ourEuropean competitors are doing business.” q

UF’s Messina warns of rising food prices

TAMPA — The Cuban government’splans to end monthly food rations“could lead to a split in society” as low-

wage workers struggle to feed their fami-lies, predicts University of Florida resear-cher William Messina.

The socialist government began supply-ing subsidized food rations in March 1962.

Messina, speaking at a May 10 event inTampa co-sponsored by CubaNews and thelaw firm Gray Robinson, said food priceswill naturally rise when the subsidies areeliminated. He warned that such price hikescould trigger shortages and civil unrest.

Food shortages helped spark the Havananeighborhood riots of 1994, leading to theexodus of 30,000 Cubans, said Messina.

“I’m wondering if they might be takingthemselves down that road again. Foodprices must rise. How will people pay?”

Eliminating food subsidies without trig-gering social unrest “is going to be a realchallenge for them,” said Messina, econom-ic analysis coordinator at UF’s Institute ofFood and Agricultural Services.

Cuba now imports 60% of its food supply,but Messina said “there is no reason forthat” because the island is capable of pro-ducing a rich supply of crops and livestock.

Cuban officials know the agricultural sec-tor is weak and are trying to transform it.Messina is convinced that Cuba’s leadersare committed to making “profound and un-precedented” changes, but believes somegovernment bureaucrats and planners willresist because they fear losing their jobs.

Messina doesn’t think a loosening of U.S.travel restrictions will have a direct impacton agriculture, but says a jump in tourismcould boost the demand for food products.

Increased remittances could alsoincrease food sales and benefit family-owned restaurants.

“There very clearly is a lot of pent-updemand for food in Cuba,” said Messina.“The issue is the ability to pay. And if theycan pay, who benefits? The U.S. agriculturalsector? The Cubans? Other players? Thatremains to be seen.”

U.S. food sales rose to $710 million in2008, but have dropped sharply since then.

“Cuba is importing less food in general.They’re also shifting their purchases toother countries. The reason for that is thatthey’re getting credit terms from thosecountries. They’re in a cash-crunch situa-tion. They need to do it. Their decisions aredriven by cash.”

– TRACEY EATON

Energy expert Jorge Piñón and microlending maven Emilio Santandreu at a May 10 seminar in Tampa.

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4 CubaNews v June 2011

US-CUBA RELATIONS

High court may rule on Fla. law banning academic travelBY ANA RADELAT

Florida academics who chafe at a contro-versial state law that keeps them fromconducting research in Cuba may soon

have their day in court.The Supreme Court has asked acting U.S.

Solicitor General Neal Katyal to file a brief out-lining his views on a2006 Florida law thatbars public schools anduniversities from aca-demic travel to Cuba —and all other countriesthe federal governmentconsiders state spon-sors of terrorism. Forthe moment, that listalso includes Iran, Syriaand Sudan.

The travel ban isbeing challenged by theAmerican Civil LibertiesUnion, which repre-sents faculty membersof Florida InternationalUniversity and otherstate institutions whosay lawmakers in Talla-hassee have overstepped their boundaries.

The ACLU lawsuit argues that only the fed-eral government can establish foreign policy— and that the Florida law is unconstitutionalbecause it tramples on that federal authority.

A Florida federal court also said the law isunconstitutional, even though it was upheldlast year by the 11th Circuit U.S. Court ofAppeals in Atlanta.

ACLU HOPES SUPREME COURT WILL SUPPORT IT

In March, shortly after President Obamaannounced he would ease restrictions on U.S.travel to Cuba, including academic travel, theACLU went to the Supreme Court for help.

Rep. David Rivera (R-FL), a Cuban-Ameri-can hardliner who sponsored the travel ban,argues that his home state has a right to limitthe way its public funds are used.

“In taking this action, the Florida legisla-ture was responding to the will of Floridianswho simply do not want their tax dollars andpublic resources used for this type of activity,”Rivera told CubaNews in an email. “A federalappeals court has already affirmed the statelegislature’s authority to make this determina-tion over the use of taxpayer dollars andresources. The Supreme Court should followsuit and respect the will of the elected repre-sentatives of the people of Florida.”

But if the Supreme Court takes the case,the odds may be with the ACLU.

The Supreme Court has already ruled thatstates don’t have the right to conduct foreignpolicy. In 2000, for example, the high courtinvalidated a Massachusetts law that limitedstate purchases from companies doing busi-ness with Burma.

Howard Simon, executive director of theFlorida ACLU, said he’s heartened the highcourt has asked the White House for its viewson the case, and says that increases thechances it will be heard.

The Solicitor General’s office didn’t respondto calls requesting comment. But it’s likely to

respond to the Supreme Court’s request. Si-mon thinks the brief will help his case. “I don’tthink the administration can allow every stateto make its own foreign policy,” he said.

Pat Buchanan: Time to end the embargo

Conservative pundit and three-time pre-sidential candidate Pat Buchanan saidit’s time for Washington to abolish its

50-year-old trade embargo against Cuba.Buchanan made his remarks during the

Apr. 22 edition of “The McLaughlin Group”— a weekly half-hour news program thatairs on PBS-TV.

This particular show discussed Cuba inthe larger context of the growing impor-tance of Hispanic voters, illegal immigrationand U.S. relations with Latin America.

Asked by host John McLaughlin if hethought Cuba should be taken off the U.S.State Department’s list of state sponsors ofterrorism, Buchanan said “I tend to agreewe ought to lift the embargo” before Mc-Laughlin asked him to clarify his remarks.

“Cuba has done a lot of spying here, but Idon’t know of any recent acts of terroragainst the United States,” said Buchanan,who campaigned for president as a Repub-lican in 1992 and 1996, and as a ReformParty candidate in 2000.

“I would start lifting the embargo,” Buch-anan said, deriding “Florida politics” as thereason this policy endures. “I would getsome prisoners released in exchange andsome benefits for us. But I would lift it, yes.”

Commenting on the U.S. designation ofCuba as a terrorist-supporting country,McLaughlin said “It’s really quite ridicu-lous. It’s a slap in the face to us.”

Other panelists on the program includedCubaNews editor Larry Luxner, conserva-tive talk-show host Monica Crowley andNewsweek contributing editor Eleanor Clift.

“At this point, to have Cuba on the terror-ism list is really irrelevant. And it’s probablyinappropriate and should be changed,” saidCrowley, who has a program on New York’sWABC-77 radio and is also a Fox News con-tributor and Washington Times columnist.

“But in terms of the embargo, 17 yearsago President Nixon, shortly before hedied, was the highest-ranking Americanwho called for rolling back the embargo.”

Crowley, who worked for Nixon andwrote two books about the 37th president,said her former boss supported a change inU.S. policy “because he believed — and it’sthe same philosophy as his approach toChina — that if there’s economic liberaliza-tion, that will eventually lead to the desirefor political liberalization.”

To watch the entire McLaughlin episode,go to http://www.youtube.com/watch?fea-ture=player_embedded&v=bizLtA9mrkE.

While the Florida law’s supporters insistuniversities would use state funds to travel toCuba to conduct research, Simon said most ofthat money comes from private foundations.

He also said Rivera and his supporters hopeto target one specific university program —FIU’s Cuban Research Institute — saying “thebill was aimed at shutting it down.”

Simon predicted Florida’s colleges wouldbe hurt if the Supreme Court declines to takethe case.

“I think it is naïve to think this law wouldend the research of Florida academics onCuba,” Simon said. “They would take thegrants and go somewhere else outside thestate. The bill will just weaken Florida univer-sities and strengthen universities elsewhere.”

Robert Muse, a Washington attorney whospecializes in Cuba issues, said the SupremeCourt’s request to the Solicitor General is asignal that it may take the case.

The Supreme Court usually accepts only 60to 70 cases each year, fewer than 2% of those itreceives for consideration.

Muse also said Simon and the professorsfighting Florida’s law have a good chance ofgetting a favorable ruling in the high court,noting that “in the area of foreign affairs, thefederal government pre-empts state law.” q

Miami’s FIU, whose professors want to pursue academic research in Cuba.

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been covering Cuba-related issues on Capitol Hillfor CubaNews since the newsletter’s birth in 1993.

“I would welcome real change from the Cuban government ... For us to havethe kind of normal relations we have with other countries, we’ve got to see sig-nificant changes from the Cuban government, and we just have not seen that.”

— President Obama, in a May 13 interview with Miami’s WLTV-Channel 23.

“How do I look, ladies, how do I look at 80? How many old men of 60 arethere who aren’t in my shape?”

— Raúl Castro, talking to reporters on June 2, the day before his 80th birthday.

“The Soviet Marxist-Leninist textbooks used in Cuban universities regardedanthropology and sociology as bourgeois science. The revolutionary myth col-lapsed with the crisis which has afflicted Cuba since the 1990s, opening the wayfor discussion of the country's real problems. The government no longer enjoysthe same consensus as in the 1960s. Cubans have lost their motivation; societyis fragmented, with no sense of direction.”— Mario Castillo, who works at the Cuban Institute of Anthropology in Old Havana,

quoted Apr. 19 in The Guardian. Castillo, 36, is one of the coordinators of the Obser-vatorio Crítico, a network of young activists that hopes to bring new life to politics.

“Whatever the actions attributed to Bin Laden, the assassination of anunarmed human being surrounded by his family constitutes an abhorrent act.”— Fidel Castro, writing in a May 5 “reflection” in which he also criticized Bin Laden

for“international terrorism” and reminded the world that Cuba had expressed soli-darity with the United States after the “brutal” Sept. 11 attacks.

“They still don’t want people going for an inclusive beach vacation. That goesagainst the spirit of the regulations because it props up the regime and doesn’tbenefit regular people. But Cuba has so much more to offer than the beaches.”— Tom Popper, CEO of tour company Insight Cuba, quoted May 29 in a Detroit Free

Press article about newly announced U.S. regulations governing travel to Cuba.

“The Cuban government started off with a bomb by saying ‘we have to lay off500,000 people.’ They should have begun by saying, ‘we are going to create500,000 new private jobs,’ then, once successful, announce the layoffs. They putthe solution before the problem.”

— Carmelo Mesa-Lago, Cuba expert and professor at the University of Pittsburgh.

“Raúl Castro has clearly gone to extraordinary lengths to make it clear thatcorruption — particularly at the higher levels — will not be tolerated, signalinghe means business and higher-ups must sacrifice too.”

— John Kirk, a Latin America expert at Canada’s Dalhousie University. Kirk wasquoted May 20 in a Reuters story about Cuba’s crackdown on white-collar corruption.

“The lack of confidence Raúl feels in young apparatchiks is based on the facthe doesn’t understand their impatience or the speed at which they want toaccelerate the process [of economic and political change]. The founding genera-tion is extremely closed, and this ethic has served to discredit young leaders.”

— Eduardo Bueno, professor of international relations at Mexico’s IberoamericanUniversity, speaking Apr. 20 to ABC News about generational change in Cuba.

“If the Spanish government did not have the conditions, because it faces aneconomic crisis, I don’t understand why it made a deal with the Cuban dictator-ship to send 1,000 persons to a place where there are no jobs.”

— Ex-Cuban political prisoner Nestor Rodríguez Lobaina, who lives in a Red Crossshelter near Málaga, Spain. He complained to a reporter that he’s run out of tooth-paste and deodorant, and has been given no money for a haircut since his arrival..

“For us, the major goal is to prevent these major accidents from happening.The companies must show that they meet all international standards.”— Fidel Ilizastigui Pérez, of Cuba’s Office for Environment and Nuclear SafetyRegulation, offering public assurances May 13 at an oil safety conference inTrinidad, following U.S. concerns about Cuba’s ability to handle an oil spill.

In their own words …

June 2011 v CubaNews 5

POLITICAL BRIEFSCUBA SENTENCES 6 DISSIDENTS TO PRISON TERMS

The conviction of six dissidents in summary tri-als for doing no more than exercising their funda-mental rights “highlights the continuing abuse ofthe criminal justice system to repress dissent inCuba,” according to Human Rights Watch.

Four people — Luís Enrique Labrador, 33; DavidPiloto, 40; Walfrido Rodríguez, 42; and YordaniMartínez, 23 — were sentenced on May 31 inHavana for distributing pamphlets criticizing Raúland Fidel Castro, and two human rights defendersin Holguín were sentenced on May 24, chargedwith “insulting national symbols” and “disorder”for public acts that they denied had taken place.

They were given sentences ranging from two tofive years in prison.

“With this new round of prosecutions, theCastro government is sending a clear message todissidents that the status quo has not changed inCuba,” said José Miguel Vivanco, Americas direc-tor at HRW. “Publicly criticizing the governmentcan still earn you a harsh prison sentence.”

The four Havana men were detained Jan. 14,when they went to the city’s Plaza de laRevolución and threw leaflets into the air with slo-gans such as “Down with the Castros.”

Said Vivanco: “The dissidents were prosecutedon the basis of their political beliefs, and becausethey dared to exercise rights that all Cubansshould enjoy. They should never have even beentried, let alone convicted.”

In early May, a Cuban dissident who died afteran alleged police beating had complained shortlyafter the confrontation that the police agents had“killed” him, said a Baptist pastor who knew him.

“His face showed an immense pain, and I recallhim saying, ‘They killed me,’ ” said Pastor MarioLleonart Barroso, who ran into Juan Wilfredo SotoGarcía as the 46-year-old dissident was leaving ahospital in the central city of Santa Clara.

Details: Daniel Wilkinson, Human Rights Watch,350 Fifth Avenue, 34th Floor, New York, NY 10118.Tel: (646) 552-8063. URL: www.hrw.org/en/press.

RADIO, TV MARTÍ LURES TRAFFIC WITH NEW WEBSITE

News transmitted by the U.S. government toCuba via Radio and TV Martí is keeping pace withthe times in its use of social networks and multi-media platforms, Fox News reported May 23.

The update is being organized by Cuban-Ameri-can attorney Carlos Garcia-Perez, who for the pasteight months has directed the Office of CubaBroadcasting, which seeks to circumvent officialCuban censorship.

“We’ve enlivened the web page with more newsand better content. Added to that is our use ofsocial networks, because we have to make use ofall media in an integrated way. They all supporteach other,” said Garcia-Perez. “Our missionremains the same: trying to keep the Cuban peo-ple informed in the most truthful way possibleabout what is happening on the island, in theUnited States, Latin America and the world.”

Nonetheless, the most visible, best-known medi-um is the renovated website, which in the fewmonths since its makeover has boosted the num-ber of hits from around 600 to 4,000 a day.

6 CubaNews v June 2011

ECONOMY

January 2012 conference to ‘evaluate’ economic reformsBY DOMINGO AMUCHASTEGUI

Now that the Sixth Congress of the Com-munist Party of Cuba (PCC) is over, alleyes are on Jan. 28, 2012, when more

changes will take place at the PCC’s upcom-ing national conference.

That conference will “evaluate the Party’swork” and “detemine necessary transforma-tions” to Party statues and structures, accord-ing to the newspaper Juventud Rebelde.

Meanwhile, the implementation phase ofCuba’s economic reforms will require accel-erated adoption of laws, norms, codes andregulations that provide a legal basis for therecently adopted lineamientos [guidelines].

Those guidelines were published May 9 asa pamphlet, along with a 48-page tabloid ex-plaining them. The two publications togethersell for 3 pesos — the equivalent of 12¢.

The first draft contained 291 guidelines, ofwhich only 32 were kept entirely; most of theothers were completely modified or mergedwith others, and 36 new ones were incorpo-rated, for a final total of 313.

These guidelines establish a “new econom-ic model” that has very little to do with Cuba’seconomy up until now. Although some centralplanning will remain, the Cuban economy willnow consist of five different sectors:

n 1. The state sector based on a centralbudget [el sector presupuestado].

n 2. State companies, industries, business-es and services [el sector empresarial] whichwill now be completely managed — withabsolute autonomy from other state and Partyinstitutions and agencies — with an eye to-wards efficiency. Their success or failure willdepend totally on economic performance.

n 3. Foreign investment [sector de la inver-sión extranjera] through different forms ofassociation with local partners, though nodetails were disclosed on the possibility of for-eign direct investments. This implies a finalrenegotiation of Cuba’s foreign debt and anurgent quest for new investments.

n 4. The cooperative sector, characterizedas a form of socialist property.

n 5. A vast network of non-state [no estatal]property activities such as small businesses,self-employed people, finqueros, etc.

The golden rule connecting each sector willbe market relations, clearly stated on numer-ous occasions throughout the guidelines.

If fully implemented by 2015, Cuba’s econo-my and society will look very different thanthey do today. And subsequently — as evenMarxists would have to admit — a new set ofpolitical arrangements will have to emerge inthe not-too-distant future to accommodateCuba’s increasingly diverse society.

Repeated objections have been raised thatkey positions still remain in the hands of the“generación histórica” (those who led theCuban Revolution for more than 50 years andare now in their 70s and 80s).

Yet if these aging leaders show their will-

ingness to cross this new rubicon, they’ll gainwide recognition and support from within andoutside of Cuba.

It’s a rather human reaction to disqualifythe elderly — but Winston Churchill, KonradAdenauer, Charles de Gaulle, Dwight Eisen-hower, David Ben-Gurion and Deng Xiopingall proved to be able men well into their 80s.

For these Cuban leaders (and especiallyRaúl), this is their final hurrah, and they willtry — for practical and historical reasons, notto mention personal pride — to do their best.

One angle that’s frequently overlooked isthe other leadership already in place or rightbehind the “oldies” which already controls anenormous share of Cuba’s power structure.

Who runs the Implementation and Deve-lopment Commission entrusted with puttingthese guidelines into practice? Who com-mands the biggest army in Cuba? Who con-ducts Cuba’s foreign policy?

The answer to all three questions: men intheir early 50s. Most members of the CentralCommittee — from where the next genera-tion of top leaders will most certainly emerge— were born after 1959. Two-thirds of Cuba’sCouncil of Ministers are 60 years old or less,and more than two-thirds of Cuba’s provincialleaders are in their 40s and 50s.

At the January 2012 conference, reportedJuventud Rebelde, topics are to include “modi-fications in methods and style [of the PCC’sfunctions]; the promotion of women, blacks,mestizos and young people to leading posi-tions … always based on merit and personalcircumstances” and the establishment of five-year term limits for top party officials.

Also on the agenda: “strengthening internaldemocracy, reaching out to the self-employedand workers in the private sector, and inclu-sion of the Union of Young Communists inimportant discussions.” q

Here’s a selection of some of the mostimportant guidelines (in addition tothe “new economic model” described

at left) and what they mean for Cuba.1. The five sectors of this new model will

be supplied by the market at wholesaleprices, including the renting of goods andequipment. This implies a radically differentmodus operandi from before, when the stateprovided everything regardless of results.

2. Perfeccionamiento empresarial (PE) willbe integrated into the new economic modelto make the sector empresarial more effi-cient. The nearly 1,000 entities now abidingby PE’s financial and organizational premis-es will be the only ones to transition smooth-ly into the new model.

3. Industries, companies and businessesthat fail to meet standards of productivity,efficiency and profitability will be closed forgood or transformed into some form of coop-erative property, if possible. This will affectmore than 2,500 factories and other stateentities that are nearly bankrupt or have notbeen profitable or productive for decades.

4. No subsidies will be made available tocover losses.

5. The sector empresarial will be free tomake decisions regarding funds, salaries,and proceeds.

6. All economic entities will begin payingterritorial taxes to local governments.

7. Cooperatives will be an option for everytype of economic activity.

8. Cooperatives will enjoy full ownershipand control their economic destiny, from in-come to the distribution of proceeds.

9. Banking services will be offered tocooperatives and the non-state sectors, bothof which may open accounts for the pur-

chase of equipment and other purposes.10. Fiscal incentives will be put in place

seeking to promote the orderly developmentof different forms of non-state property andmanagement. This is aimed at appeasingcomplaints about excessive taxation.

11. Similar incentives will be given to enti-ties that contribute to import substitutionand the diversification of exports. A specialsystem of fiscal incentives to promote agri-cultural husbandry will be implemented.

12. Foreign investments will focus onhigh-tech, new management skills, importsubstitution, the expansion of markets, mid-and long-term funding and job creation.

13. The government will continue to pro-mote foreign capital, though emphasis willbe placed on its role as a source for employ-ment, considering that only 2% of Cuba’swork force is employed in the foreign sector

14. The process of foreign investmentswill be accelerated.

15. Investment portfolios will be created.16. Cuba will meet its financial obligations

and regain credibility. That means the rene-gotiation and rescheduling of existing ar-rears followed by a strict policy of payments.

17. An “appropriate legal framework” willbe created. This implies an update and revi-sion of the current Investment Law. The newwording suggests much more dynamic ini-tiatives vis-â-vis foreign capital markets.

18. Mechanisms will be designed to chan-nel import-export demands and potentialthat will emerge from the non-state sector.

19. The government will establish and ex-pand Special Development Zones and pro-mote Cuban ventures and alliances overseasin order to better position Cuba globally.

– DOMINGO AMUCHASTEGUI

Lineamientos: the crucial ones to follow

June 2011 v CubaNews 7

AGRICULTURE BRIEFSAGRICULTURE

Brazilians mull sugar sector projectsBY VITO ECHEVARRÍA

As Cuba’s once-powerful sugar sectorhas fallen into neglect, sugar conglom-erates from Brazil are taking a closer

look at revamping the island’s sugar industry.Talks now under way could soon result in

an agreement under which Brazilian compa-nies operating in Cuba won’t be subject tofuture nationalization by the Castro regime.

Cuba’s mighty sugar sector has seen pro-duction fall from a high of more than 8 milliontons in 1989-90 to just 1.2 million tons duringits latest harvest (see article at right).

Reflecting the seriousness of Brazilianinterest in Cuban sugar, Brazilian corporatelawyer Beno Suchodolski was hired by threemajor sugar and ethanol firms to study thefeasibility of such investments.

Although the lawyer declined to namethose three companies, he did tell the SãoPaulo business newspaper Valor Econômicothat liberalization measures by PresidentRaúl Castro could stimulate Brazilian invest-ment in Cuba’s sugar industry.

Laws to promote investment in the sugarsector are expected to be in place by thisAugust or September.

Assuming the Brazilians actually invest inCuba’s sugar sector, relatives of Cuban exiles

who owned sugar-growing lands before FidelCastro’s expropriations are likely to threatenlegal action against these companies. Cuban-American attorney Nicolás J. Gutiérrez Jr.,president of the Miami-based NationalAssociation of Sugar Mill Owners of Cuba,says his group is watching Brazil and willassert his members’ rights.

“It is darkly ironic that the Brazilian would-be traffickers are seeking guarantees fromtheir own government that the Cuban regimewill not do to them exactly what it did to us,”said the lawyer, a founding partner of Miami’sGutiérrez, Zarraluqui & Franco law firm.

Gutiérrez’s personal stake in this issuestems from his own family and its loss ofsugar properties in Cienfuegos province dur-ing the revolution. Over the years, Gutiérrezhas represented the Sánchez-Hill family, for-mer owners of the Santa Lucía sugar planta-tion and other lands near Holguín.

Gutiérrez and his group aren’t the onlyones fired up over the idea of Brazilians mov-ing in on their confiscated lands.

The powerful Fanjul brothers, whose for-tune was built on pre-revolutionary Cubansugar and who have since rebuilt their sugarempire in Florida and the DominicanRepublic, are also keeping an eye on whatev-er the Brazilians end up doing. q

Cuba guards its dwindling cork palms

a hill, a peak, an outcrop of rocks or a valley.Hidden in the dense, hilly barely accessible

forest of western Cuba, the cork palm, knownin the botanical world as Microcycas calocoma,is one of those unique jewels — maybe thebest-known of all endemics of Cuba.

For this reason, the palma de corcho, as it’sknown in Spanish, is strictly protected byCuban environmental laws.

M. calocoma is considered a survivor of theJurassic period which managed to escape ex-tinction for 150 million years. It is currentlylisted as a “critically enangered” species as aresult of habitat loss.

Only 1,000 to 6,000 of these palms arebelieved to exist in the wild, and they areperennially threatened by forest fires, wood-cutting, poaching and hurricanes.

Experts say their numbers are shrinking atan alarming rate. An elusive bug that playsthe role of pollinator for this plant has becomescarce as a result of the widespread use ofpesticides in agriculture. q

BY ARMANDO H. PORTELA

Like many other islands around the world,Cuba is home to a large number ofunique species of plants that thrive — or

barely survive — thanks precisely to the pro-longed isolation of their ecosystems.

More than 60% of Cuba’s flora is endemic tothe island, meaning that these plants can’t befound anywhere else on Earth but Cuba —sometimes confined to a few acres of land on

Cork palm at Fairchild Tropical Gardens in Miami.

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HIGHER PRICES LURE FARMERS BACK TO SUGAR

More Cuban farmers are opting to growsugar cane due to higher prices and other in-centives being offered by the Sugar Ministryas part of plans to revive the depressed crop,industry sources told Reuters.

Sugar may no longer be king in Cuba, whereit once accounted for 90% of export earningsbut today brings in only 5% of hard currency.

With international prices expected to remainhigh, however, the cash-strapped Castroregime is showing a new interest in the sector.

“The ministry is clearing and plowing land,providing seed and some other services to in-dividuals who lease fallow state acreage undera government program begun in 2008,” said alocal sugar expert who asked to remain anony-mous. “Mills have more than doubled whatthey pay for cane to 100 pesos ($4) per ton.”

The expert said prices remained too low, butfree startup services put sugar at an advan-tage over other crops where new farmerswere expected to clear and bring land into pro-duction with little, if any, government support.

To date, the agriculture ministry has grant-ed 128,000 leases covering 1.2 million hectares(2.9 million acres), with another 700,000hectares (1.7 million acres) being offered.

The government is expected to liberalize theprogram this month by expanding the acreagean individual can farm, significantly extendingthe 10-year lease, and allowing homes andother structures to be built on the land,among other measures.

Output was around 1.2 million tons of rawsugar this year, a bit higher than the 1.1 mil-lion-ton 2010 season, but still miserably low.

Cuba’s state-owned sugar industry hopes toboost production to 2.4 million tons by 2015.

“The agriculture ministry is prioritizing caneand pointing out its advantages when peoplecome in seeking land,” one insider said, add-ing that thousands of new farmers were optingto grow sugar and existing ones to switch overor add it, without being more specific.

FARM GROUP URGES END TO ACOPIO MONOPOLY

Orlando Lugo Fonte, president of Cuba’sNational Association of Small Farmers(ANAP) — a group affiliated with the CubanCommunist Party — is insisting on doingaway with the much-hated state food distribu-tion monopoly known as Acopio.

“If in Cuba there is private and diversifiedproduction, you can’t have monopolized distri-bution,” Lugo told the daily Juventud Rebelde.“We have to look for many ways of buying andselling. If you ask me, it must be direct.”

Farmers must sell their entire quota to Aco-pio. Excess crops may be sold directly at road-side stands; selling to private middlemen isforbidden, though the practice is widespread.

“If a cooperative wants to sell products andwants a sales point, let them have it,” saidLugo, whose ANAP represents small farmersand member-owned cooperatives. “If a hotelwants to buy a product from a coop, why can’tit do so? Why do they have to do it forecedlythrough a company?”

8 CubaNews v June 2011

BY LARRY LUXNER

Most career foreign-service officers riseup the ranks of the diplomatic serv-ice, serve as ambassadors in three or

four countries and end their careers in theirlate 60s or early 70s, often retiring to writetheir memoirs or play golf in Florida.

Mark Entwistle chose a different path.After representing Canada as ambassador

in Havana from 1993 to 1997, he quit the for-eign service at the age of 41 and made Cubahis career instead.

“I retired from the foreign service after myHavana posting, largely because I saw thepotential Cuba offered. So I built a consultingbusiness for myself specifically focused onCuba, and I now work with foreign compa-nies, including U.S. companies preparing togo back there at some point in the future.”

As president of Chibas Consulting Inc.,Entwistle travels to his favorite island eight to10 times a year. Before his Cuba posting, heserved in the Soviet Union (from 1986 to1989) and spent the three years before that asa Canadian diplomat in Israel.

The Montreal-born consultant also serveda couple of years as press secretary for for-mer Prime Minister Brian Mulroney.

During his time in Havana, he said, “I hadextremely good relations with my Americancolleagues, and the Cubans knew that. Thefact is, we’re friends with both countries. Ob-viously, one is infinitely more important to useconomically than the other one, but we havea long-standing relationship with Cuba basedon respect, even where we don’t agree withthem on everything.”

Entwistle, 55, spoke with CubaNews in Tor-onto following a May 30 lunch organized bythe Canadian Council for the Americas andtitled “Cuba Libre: Is now the time to invest?”

CUBA’S 3 TARGET SECTORS

Absolutely it is, he says, though some sec-tors are clearly more accessible than others.

“Some people think Cuba is some kind ofmiddle kingdom or isolated country. It’s not,”he told us. “It’s a market of largely untappedpotential.”

Despite the fact that Cuba has identifiedspecific areas of the economy as its priorities,says Entwistle, potential foreign investors fre-quently take a kind of shotgun approach.

“They think, ‘here’s a country with minimalaccess to global capital, therefore they’ll wantto do everything under the sun.’ There’s anassumption that maybe the Cubans are vulne-rable,” he told us. “But in reality, the Cubanshave very explicit ideas of what their nationalpriorities are. If you listen to them carefully,they’ll tell you what they’re interested in.”

Entwistle focuses on three specific sectorsof interest, reflecting realities on the ground:tourism, agriculture and mining.

This is an obvious choice, given that tour-

NEWSMAKERS

Canada’s Mark Entwistle offers expert advice on Cubaism contributes nearly $2.5 billion a year tothe Cuban economy — and that since 1990,Canada has been the single most importantsource of tourism to Cuba, sending more visi-tors to the Caribbean island than all othercountries combined.

In fact, Canadians comprised 555,872 out ofthe 1,179,963 vacationers who visited Cubaduring the first four months of this year,

according to Cuba’s Oficina Nacional de Esta-dísticas, making it likely that the final numberfor 2011 will top one million.

“It seems almost rare to encounter a Cana-dian who has not visited Cuba,” notes ArchRitter, a Cuba expert at Ottawa’s CarletonUniversity, noting on his blog that foreign-exchange earnings from Canadian tourismwere likely around $882 million for 2008 (cal-culated as 37.6% of total tourism earnings of$2.347 billion).

Ritter added that “if one takes both Canadi-an tourism plus Canadian merchandise im-ports, mainly nickel, from Cuba into consid-eration, Canada contributed about $1.6 billionin 2008, a substantial proportion of Cuba’s for-eign-exchange availability.”

Why are Canadians so drawn to Cuba? weasked Entwistle.

“The winter,” he replied dryly. But it’s notjust that, he insisted. “There’s an affinitybetween the two countries. Partly it’s history,dating from when ships from Nova Scotiawould send down fish and bring back rum.”

Entwistle explained: “Canadian bankshelped finance the sugar industry, and the Ro-yal Bank of Canada opened a Havana branchin 1898 even before it had any in Toronto. Inits heyday, before 1959, RBC had about 60branches in Cuba. And the Bank of Nova Sco-tia [now Scotiabank] had over 40 branches.”

It also helps that Cuba is an incredible trav-el bargain for Canadians, whose dollar is cur-rently trading at around US$1.03.

Former Canadian diplomat Mark Entwistle advises investors to focus on tourism, agriculture and mining.

Packages that include round-trip airfarefrom Montreal or Toronto, seven nights in atourist-class hotel, and meals, tours and trans-fers are available for as little as $600 per per-son double occupancy. Yet the Canadians whogo to Cuba rarely speak Spanish and have lit-tle interaction with ordinary Cubans outsidedesignated tourist sectors.

“They tend to stay in the beach areas and

visit small towns around those areas. Whatthey don’t tend to do is go to Havana, whereyou find Europeans and other Latins, but rela-tively few Canadians,” Entwistle said.

Traditionally, most Canadian visitors to Cubahad come from French-speaking Quebec,though that’s changing — thanks to regularcharter flights from places like Calgary,Winnipeg and Vancouver to tourist magnetssuch as Varadero and Holguín.

“In the high season, you probably have 50charters now from western Canada to Cubaevery week. This is a very important marketsegment for the Cubans,” he explained.

“What has been frustrating about Canadiantourism from a pure business model is its pro-file — sun and sand — so the margins for touroperators are minimual. There’s been a long-standing interest in Cuba to diversify theproduct and make it more valuable.”

PLENTY OF TOURISTS, BUT NO INVESTMENT

Also frustrating, he said, is the fact that“there’s virtually no Canadian investment” inCuba’s tourism sector since Delta pulled outin the late 1990s.

“Canada supplies the bodies, but does notinvest in the tourism sector, which has alwaysbeen ironic from a Cuban point of view. TheCubans have long tried to encourage Canadi-an investment because it would be so logical.”

One project getting lots of headlines latelyis a $410 million joint venture between Cuba’s

See Entwistle, page 9

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Washington-based journalist and photographerLarry Luxner has edited CubaNews since 2002.

state-run Grupo Palmares SA and Ottawa-based Standing Feather International Inc. InApril, the partners signed a memo of under-standing to build a golf course community atGuardalavaca, in the province of Holguín.

Estancias de Golf Loma Linda Golf, occupy-ing a 520-acre site, is to include an 1,200 lux-ury villas, bungalows and apartments, as wellas an 18-hole golf course, a commercial centerand a 170-room boutique hotel. Rooms at thathotel will go for $200 a night, reported the

New York Times, and the residences are likelyto average $600,000 each.

Standing Feather’s shareholders are mem-bers of a Canadian Indian tribe. Entwistle wasa key participant in the venture but is no long-er, for reasons he declined to discuss publicly.

Entwistle is, however, involved with OldHavana’s boutique Hotel Saratoga — “the sin-gle best hotel in Cuba,” he calls it — becauseEntwistle advises the board of Coral CapitalGroup, which partly owns the hotel.

MINING: BACK ON THE RADAR SCREEN

Mining is one sector of Cuba’s economythat hasn’t gotten much attention but is likelyto as the island’s cash-strapped governmentincreasingly turns to foreign investment.

“In 1995-96, there was an invasion of Cana-dian juniors looking for kind of mineral, kick-ing the tires, drilling holes. They were all overthe place. We probably had 20 joint ventures,”Entwistle told CubaNews. “I was going to theMinistry of Basic Industry once a month tojoint-venture signing ceremonies. Then theBre-X mining scandal happened, and that —combined with a global retraction — causedthe capital market to dry up for mining.”

By the late 1990s, all the Canadian juniormining companies had left, unable to financetheir activities. The glaring exception wasSherritt International, the largest single for-eign investor in Cuba (see box at right).

“For a period of 14 years, the mining sectorwas barren — no activity at all. No Canadianscame. They were involved in other parts ofthe world. Cuba fell off the radar screen.”

But two years ago, commodity prices sud-denly started to rise, and base metals becamemore attractive again.

“Canadian companies have started to comeback, looking for lead, zinc and copper. TheChinese have an insatiable demand for cop-per, so prices are being pushed up. We’re justnow seeing gold exploration companies com-ing around. The mining sector is not close to

the frenetic activity of the mid-90s, but it’scome back on the radar screen.”

It’s worth noting that the CCA luncheon atwhich Entwistle spoke was co-sponsored byBarrick Gold, one of Canada’s largest gold ex-ploration firms (Barrick is investing more than$3 billion in the nearby Dominican Republic).

Also worth noting was the complete ab-sence of Sherritt at the event. The Toronto-based company — whose main office is twoand a half miles up Yonge Street from wherethe conference was held — keeps a very lowprofile with regard to its Cuba activities.

That’s because Sherritt’s top executives

would be arrested if they ever stepped ontoU.S. soil, due to that company’s violation ofTitle IV of the 1996 Helms-Burton Act, whichpunishes foreign companies from “traffickingin confiscated property” of U.S. entities.

“The reason there’s a Title IV punitiveaction against Sherritt is because Sherritt’snickel mine is operating on property subjectto a U.S. certified claim. The claim holder,Freeport McMoRan, objected, but Sherritthas made a strategic decision that this is apart of doing business,” Entwistle explained.

“I’m a Canadian citizen, so I’m not gov-erned by the regulations. I’m not an agent forU.S. companies, but I do give advice, and I’mnot involved in any business that is defined astrafficking in confiscated Cuban property.”

Another key area for potential investmentis agriculture, says Entwistle.

“For the longest time, Cuban agriculturewas closed to foreign direct investment as astrategic sector,” he told us. “There were en-claves like the Israelis working in citrus, butin general, the sector was not open. Thatchanged roughly two years ago.”

Entwistle said he’s now working with aCanadian distributor that has annual sales of$125 million and operates around the world.

“They’ve seen the strategic potential forCuba in the future to supply mostly freshfruits and vegetables, specifically for export,”he said, declining to name the company. “Theultimate goal is to move beyond purchase ofproduct to a dedicated joint production facili-ty. The idea is to hedge production againstthings like freezes in Mexico or Florida.”

The project specifically targets tomatoes,peppers and cucumbers using drip-irrigationtechnology. Exactly where in Cuba the projectwill be located and how much will be investedin the project is still undetermined.

“This would be interesting,” said Entwistle,“because it hits agriculture across three seg-ments: producing for export, supplying thenext level down in quality — the tourism sec-tor as import substitution, and that produceshard currency — and sending increased pro-duction into the domestic Cuban market.”

ENTWISTLE: BE REALISTIC ABOUT CUBA

As ambassador, Entwistle said he met FidelCastro 28 times and probably spent 100 hourswith him. “Fidel used to stop by the resi-dence. I used to get phone calls at midnightfrom the switchboard of the president’s officebecause he wanted to see me,” he recalled.

“Regardless of what one might think ofhim, this guy’s a historic figure, a skilled ora-tor. You feel you’re in the presence of history,a guy who took a ragtag bunch of guerrillafighters and, helped by the collapse of theBatista army, took control of Cuba.”

He added: “I don’t think even Fidel imag-ined that we’d be here in 2011 and that hewouldn’t be fully in control of the country. Buthis health prevented that, and he’s adapted.”

Under the leadership of Fidel’s 80-year-oldbrother Raúl, economic changes are indeedtransforming Cuba. But Entwistle warnedthat investors must have a realistic under-standing of what’s happening on the island.

“The Cuban political leadership has saidpretty clear that the way they’ve been doingthings is no longer sustainable. There willhave to be changes; there have already been,and there will be more. The Cubans are mak-ing adjustments to make sure it works better.People should be wary of reading somethinginto those decisions that isn’t there. Thesereforms are not intended to radically restruc-ture the Cuban system.”

“The timelines and the processes will becareful and meticulous,” he added. “I thinkthe trend is toward greater economic liberal-ization of the domestic economy — but in avery step-by-step process where each step isassessed before they go to the next one.” q

“The timelines and the processes will be careful and meticulous.I think the trend is toward greater economic liberalization

of the domestic economy — but in a very step-by-step processwhere each step is assessed before they go to the next one.”

— MARK ENTWISTLE, PRESIDENT OF OTTAWA-BASED CHIBAS CONSULTING INC.

Entwistle — FROM PAGE 8

Sherritt International, Cuba’s largest for-eign investor, said in its 4th-quarter reportit expects moderate production declines innickel (-2%) and cobalt (-2.9%), and sharperdrops in oil (-7.1%) and electricity (-18.7%).

Even so, the Toronto-based company isboosting capital investments on the island.

Sherritt will pour $50 million into its Moanickel joint venture in Cuba this year, upfrom $40 million in 2010. Also, Sherritt andjoint-venture partner Cubaníquel are “re-viewing options for completion of thePhase 2 expansion and the construction ofthe sulphuric acid plant at Moa,” it said,adding that these projects are not includedin capital spending projections for 2011.

Sherritt expects to invest $100 million inCuban oil operations, up from $53 millionin 2010. The rise is mainly due to eightnew on-shore wells planned for this year.

Investments in its power assets in Cubawill be $158 million this year, up from $20million in 2010, the company reported.

Sherritt issues Cuba forecast

10 CubaNews v June 2011

atively low cost and in small plots close toconsumers. Such staples included roots,tubers, plantains, spices and garden vegeta-bles, from cassava to cucumbers, garlic andeggplants.

The results came fast. Between 1995 and2000, per-capita output of veggies tripled frombelow 88 lb per year to 265 lb. By 2005, it hadquadrupled to 352 lb, guaranteeing — at least

BY ARMANDO H. PORTELA

Cuban agriculture is rampant with exam-ples of consistent failures, unsuccessfulpolicies and wasteful management —

but one bright spot over the past 15 years isedible vegetable cultivation.

Over this same time span, other crops likecitrus, rice, coffee, tobacco and cattle (all ana-lyzed by CubaNews from December 2010 tonow) have been devastated to the point whereit’s hard to foresee any genuine recovery.

After hitting rock-bottom in the early 1990s,the government rushed to introduce reformsto boost food production.

By 1993, food intake dropped to 1,863 calo-ries per day nationwide from 2,900 calories afew years earlier, as acknowledged by theMinistry of Public Health (see CubaNews,March 1998), while for a large part of the pop-ulation it was below 1,500 calories a day.

Things got so bad that an outbreak of opticneuropathy, a malnutrition disease affectingnearly 50,000 people, hit Cuba. The weight ofnewborn babies fell and nourishing mothersalso lost weight. It was the worst part of theeuphemistically called Special Period.

PER-CAPITA OUTPUT TRIPLES IN 5 YEARS

At that time, over 80% of Cuba’s croplandswere leased to new cooperatives. The govern-ment created vast schemes including theorganization of urban agriculture and tryingto get soldiers involved on a massive scale.

The tight grip over individual sale of foodwas eased, and private people could for thefirst time sell those forbidden avocados fromtheir own backyard.

The “Programa Alimentario,” as this effortwas dubbed, focused on production of tradi-tional staples that could be grown fast, at rel-

AGRICULTURE

Vegetables: Reason for hope amid a bleak landscapelb per year in 1994 to 147 lb in 2009; cassavafrom 22 lb to 59 lb in 2006. Total vegetableconsumption went from 69 lb per year in 1994to 383 lb in 2003, the highest in decades.

For some strange reason, potatoes have tra-ditionally been considered a sensitive prod-uct, and the government does not allow it tobe sold or produced freely by farmers.

State farms and cooperatives grow potatoes

See Vegetables, page 11

within tight rules, mainly in the red soils ofHavana and Matanzas provinces. Output isunstable, however. After averaging 48 lb percapita annually from 1980 to 1994, potato pro-duction rose to 65 lb from 1996 to 2005, onlyto drop to 43 lb in the 2006-09 period, with afall to 27 lb in 2007, the lowest per-capita pota-to production since 1974.

in numbers — nearly one pound of veggiesper day per person.

Roots, tubers and plantains, all key staplesin the Cuban diet, soared in production overthat time, as did production of cassava, plan-tains and tomatoes.

The average per-capita production of plan-tains, for instance, jumped from as low as 18lb in 1989 to 149 lb in 2008; tomatoes from 17

Shoppers inspect potatoes at a peso-only outdoor produce market in the Vedado neighborhood of Havana.

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This is the 7th and last in a series of articles onvarious aspects of Cuba’s agriculture industry byHavana-born Armando H. Portela, a contributorto CubaNews since the newsletter’s birth in 1993.Portela has a Ph.D. in geography from the SovietAcademy of Sciences and resides in Miami, Fla.

Vegetables — FROM PAGE 10

Two kinds of price-controlled state marketscoexisted in an effort to restrain farmers’profits. State-run markets ruled and suppliedby Cuba’s Revolutionary Armed Forcesbecame increasingly popular thanks to theirmuch lower prices, though with less qualityand diversity than the farmers’ markets.

State-run stores also sold some products —mainly potatoes — through the old ration sys-tem at controlled prices.

Costs and sustainability of those effortswere never on the table, but it might beassumed that a system resting on underpaiddraftees to grow food on a permanent, mas-sive scale might temporarily work for a war-like besieged economy but would not beenough to create wealth on a lasting basis.

REFORMS COULD JUMP-START PRODUCTION

By the early 2000s it became obvious thatthe new production models were losing steamonly a decade since their inception.

A deadly mix of hurricanes, droughts, inter-national market price hikes, decreasingexports from the island, the persistence of theinitiative-devouring centralized apparatus andpoor management by authorities had a devas-tating effect on Cuba’s agriculture.

When the food import bill jumped to $2.26billion (or 15.9% of all purchases abroad) in2008, authorities finally raised the red flag anddemanded immediate solutions.

That response may have come with theguidelines issued after last April’s SixthCommunist Party Congress in Havana.

In general terms, authorities agreed to letcooperatives grow, help vacant lands produceand increase agricultural yields. These vague-ly exposed intentions plus occasional speech-es or stories on the official media make hardto figure out how fast — if ever — agriculturewill be freed from the heavy state burden in

decision-making, production quantities andvariety, distribution chains, domestic trade,income, investment and competence.

Insofar reforms in agriculture have beenmore cautious than audacious, given that thegovernment has been more worried aboutpreventing private people from makingmoney than lifting all obstacles to farming.

Anecdotal references abound proving thepositive impact the short-lived period of openfarmers’ markets in the early 1980s had onconsumption.

Those familiar with the standards of livingin the countryside at that time remember wellhow good houses and improved roads poppedup all throughout central Cuba, thanks tofarmers who freely traded in garlic, blackbeans and dairy products.

The success of the Manicaragua-Cabai-guán belt — just to mention one examplerepeated all over Cuba — was brief, however,as the government’s egalitarian priorities putan end to individual prosperity and the mar-kets were closed.

This time, it remains to be seen if Cuba’sagriculture authorities will adapt new, creativeinitiatives, unafraid of boosting the fortunes ofprosperous farmers amidst widespread pover-ty — or if orthodox views will keep Cuba onthe same failed path. q

12 CubaNews v June 2011

POLITICS

Key players in Cuba’s leadership: Rising stars to watchBY DOMINGO AMUCHASTEGUI

Raúl Castro, 80, is running Cuba now, andJosé Ramón Machado Ventura, also 80,is next in command. On Apr. 19, Mach-

ado — who had been first vice president ofCuba since February 2008 — was named sec-ond secretary of the Cuban Communist Party.

Here’s a look at the other members ofCuba’s Politburo, in no particular order:

RAMIRO VALDÉS MENÉNDEZ, 79, a “historico”whose guerrilla credentials date back to the1953 Moncada Barracks attack in Santiago deCuba, Valdés was a founding member of the26th of July Movement, and has been aPolitburo member since 1965.

But in recent years, he’s reinvented him-self. In August 2006, he was named ministerof informatics and communications. Now atechnocrat in the fields of IT and business,many younger Cubans see him as a “godfa-ther” and sponsor, surrounded by a first-classteam of experts.

Valdés has been exposed to, and influencedby, the reforms in China, having traveledthere many times over the last 30 years. He’ssaid to be in excellent physical shape.

ABELARDO COLOMÉ IBARRA, 71, is amongRaúl Castro’s best and closest friends. Smart,efficient and sharp, he has top leadershipexperience in both the Revolutionary ArmedForces (FAR) and the Ministry of Interior(MININT). As minister of interior for the last20 years, he has modernized MININT’s struc-ture and direction.

Colomé Ibarra has traveled repeatedly toChina, and is in excellent physical shape. He’sa “historico” who took part in the Santiago deCuba uprising in November 1956 as a teenag-er and was close to Ramiro Valdés in the ‘60s.

LEOPOLDO CINTRA FRÍAS, 69, is a “histórico”from the days of the Sierra Maestra; he joinedthe revolution when he was only 16. He’s aveteran of many overseas missions includingAngola (1976 and 1988), and a university gra-duate who achieved the highest scores at thebest Soviet military academies.

Highly experienced in capitalist economiesand perfeccionamiento empresarial, CintraFrías is one of the most respected militaryleaders in Cuba. He is extremely dedicated,discreet and low-profile. He’s also visitedChina several times, and is the most likelycandidate to replace Gen. Julio Casas Reg-ueiro as minister of the FAR.

ALVARO LÓPEZ MIERA, 66, was only 14 yearswhen he joined the guerrillas as a teacher inRaúl Castro’s Second Front. In 1961, he joinedthe military and became one of the most suc-cessful students in Cuban military history, ris-ing from lieutenant to colonel. He fought inmissions in Ethiopia, Angola and Vietnam.

López Miera is considered extremelyknowledgeable, influenced by European cul-ture and familiar with the ideas of Eurocom-

munism. His parents were very close toRaúl’s wife, Vilma Espín; some say Raúl hasbeen like a father to him.

In the 1990s, Raúl named him head of theGeneral Staff, replacing Ulises Rosales delToro and bypassing many other top generals.

Highly professional and in excellent physi-cal shape, López Miera could also be a strongcandidate to replace Regueiro.

RICARDO ALARCÓN DE QUESADA, 74. A “histó-rico” in a special way, Alarcón is the only onewithout guerrilla credentials (he was a Catho-lic student leader in the underground strug-gle). Very much supported by Raúl from thebeginning, he joined the Ministry of Foreign

Affairs in 1962, becoming close to Raúl Roa,Carlos R. Rodríguez and others.

Cuba’s ambassador to the United Nationsfor more than 20 years, Alarcón also servedas deputy minister and later minister of for-eign affairs until his 1993 appointment tohead the National Assembly.

Alarcón is Cuba’s top troubleshooter onU.S. affairs, and an intellectual and excellentdebater. When Alarcón talks, people listen.

During the 4th Party Congress, he was theCC candidate who got the most votes — evenmore than Fidel and Raúl. Alarcón now has ahuge task ahead of him: to prepare all the leg-islation, and reforms to the constitution der-ived from the lineamientos, as well as oversee-ing Cuba’s decentralization process.

ESTEBAN LAZO HERNÁNDEZ, 67, not a “históri-co” but active in the PCC since the late 1960sin his native Matanzas.

Although lacking in educational back-ground, Lazo has distinguished himself forbeing a highly efficient grass-roots organizer.In the early 1970s, he started working closelywith Machado Ventura. The latter promotedhim to first secretary of the PCC in Santiagode Cuba and to the Politburo. In 1994, hebecame first secretary of the party in the cityof Havana.

Currently, Lazo supervises two importantdepartments at the CC, Ideology and Culture.

Ricardo Alarcón talks to CubaNews in May 2004.

He’s been a member of the Politburo Com-mission for many years now.

MIGUEL DÍAZ-CANEL BERMÚDEZ. In the eyesof the “históricos” he was always considered“a brilliant kid.”

A leader in the UJC (Young Communists)and an electrical engineering graduate, Díaz-Canel was soon promoted to party cadre inhis native Villa Clara and by the late 1980sbecame first secretary of the provincial party;later on, he reached that same position in themuch larger province of Holguín. In bothpositions, Raúl Castro showered public recog-nition on him.

A few years ago, he was appointed ministerof higher education — a surprise becauseeveryone thought he’d take over a party posi-tion rather than an administrative one.

Díaz-Canel is the only survivor of the groupof young leaders from the early 1990s; thisselect group also included Lage, Pérez Roque,Robinson, Valenciaga and others.

MARINO MURILLO JORGE, 50. Consideringhe’s not a “histórico” at all or a young UJC orparty leader from the ‘80s or ‘90s — and thathe doesn’t have a university degree —Murillo’s rise to power has been spectacular.

He excelled as a civilian worker at theArmed Forces’ Perfeccionamiento Empresa-rial team, then was suddenly named ministerof economy and planning. He wasn’t even amember of the CC at the time.

Murillo is entrusted with leading the com-mision in charge of drafting the majorchanges and reforms to be included in the lin-eamientos.

During this last congress, Murillo was ap-pointed to the Politburo and given the rank ofvice-president. He is indeed the most notable“rising star” coming out of this congress.

AMONG MEMBERS OF THE SECRETARIAT

Víctor Fidel Gaute López and Olga LidiaTapia Iglesias have very similar backgrounds.Both are in their 40s, and both were provin-cial UJC and party leaders (Guate López inMatanzas and Tapia Iglesias in Pinar del Río).

Both were chosen for their excellent per-formance to be members of the new partysecretariat.

Misael Enamorado Dáger, 58, is an engi-neer by profession. After a successful careeras head of two important industries in LasTunas and as a UJC leader and party cadre,he was promoted to first secretary of theparty in Las Tunas and then to Santiago deCuba, where his performance was publiclypraised.

Appointed in 1991 as one of the youngestmembers of the Central Committee, he wasnamed to the Politburo in 1997 but expelledfor undisclosed reasons. Yet the fact heremains in the Secretariat indicates that he’sstill a crucial player.

See Leadership, page 16

June 2011 v CubaNews 13

ORGANIZATIONAL CHART OF CUBA’S LEADERSHIP: THE COMMUNIST PARTY AND ITS TOP OFFICIALS

14 CubaNews v June 2011

HEALTH-CARE SECTOR SEES 14% FALL IN JOBS

Tens of thousands of Cubans are no longeremployed in the island’s widely praised healthcare system, says AP, quoting a studyreleased by Cuba’s Oficina Nacional deEstadísticas.

Overall employment in the sector fell 14% in2010 to about 282,000, compared with 330,000the previous year, when the governmentwarned of the need to slash redundant jobsamong less-skilled medical workers.

The biggest change was a 34% reduction intechnicians and auxiliary workers, from134,000 to 88,000, it said. The report did notexplain the drop, but said the category includ-ed employees such as pharmaceutical, X-rayand dental assistants.

There were only slight changes in numbersfor highly skilled medical workers such asdoctors, nurses and pharmacists, AP said.

Cuba prides itself on providing free, univer-sal health care despite its economic problems.

But state-run media said last year that thegovernment needed to cut “inflated payrolls”in health care. Among examples cited thenwere ambulance bases with many drivers fora single vehicle, clinics with more workersthan patients per shift, and X-ray technicianswho performed only a few scans each month.

CHINA TO EXPAND CIENFUEGOS OIL REFINERY

Cuba, which has begun to enact Chinese-like economic reforms, is moving closer toBeijing with the signing of 13 agreements thatinclude a massive refinery expansion, newloans and a five-year cooperation plan, reportsChina’s Xinhua news agency.

“The Chinese government supports compe-tent Chinese enterprises in seeking newopportunities for cooperation and investmentin Cuba,” said Vice President Xi Jinping dur-ing a recent meeting with Raúl Castro.

Xi, slated to become China’s president in2013, praised the Sixth Party Congress in Ap-ril as a key event that “determined the direc-tion of the future development” of Cuba.

On Jun. 5, the two countries signed a letterof intent that calls for a doubling of theCienfuegos refinery’s capacity from 65,000 to150,000 barrels a day.

Reuters — which puts the cost of the expan-sion at $6 billion — reported that it’ll be athree-way agreement among Cuvenpetrol (theCuban-Venezuelan joint venture that owns therefinery); China Huanqiu Contracting &Engineering Corp., a unit of state oil entityCNPC, and the Italian subsidiary of Technip,a French oil engineering company.

Not much else is known about the deal,though Huanqui and Cuvenpetrol have alsoagreed to build a regasification plant near theCienfuegos refinery; the idea is to process liq-uefied natural gas (LNG) from Venezuela foruse in Cuban power plants.

CNPC has also signed an accord to expandcooperation with Cubapetroleo. Other agree-ments signed in Havana include a new line ofcredit from China, a restructuring of two

BUSINESS BRIEFS existing lines and a loan for the moderniza-tion of Cuba’s health care system.

Reuters reported that the projects wouldlikely be financed by China’s Export-ImportBank, using Venezuelan oil as collateral.

Other Chinese officials meeting with Raúlincluded Zhu Zhixin, vice-president of theNational Commission on Development andReform; Zhong Shan, China’s deputy trademinister, and Chen Yuan, vice-president of theChina Development Bank.

After Venezuela, China is Cuba’s top tradingpartner, with bilateral trade reaching $1.8 bil-lion last year, up from $1.5 billion in 2009.

COURT SENDS 14 CUBANA OFFICIALS TO PRISON

A Havana court handed down sentences ofthree to ten years to 14 officials and employ-ees of Cubana de Aviación airline and atourism agency jointly owned by Chileaninvestors and the Cuban government, in acorruption case that was veiled in a shroud ofsecrecy, Inter Press Service reported.

In addition, Chilean businessman MarcelMarambio, president of the Sol y Son tourismagency, was found guilty in absentia. He wassentenced to 15 years in prison for fraud,bribery and falsification of documents.

According to the government communiqué

published by the official Communist Partynewspaper Granma on June 7, Marambio“took advantage” of his position “to defraudthe Cuban government for his own benefit,forging and deliberately concealing informa-tion and bribing Cuban officials to go alongwith his shady business dealings.”

Cubana de Aviación, Cuba’s flagship airline,was the focus of speculation of all kinds afterthe country’s top aviation official, Gen.Rogelio Acevedo, was sacked as president ofthe Cuban Institute of Civil Aeronautics inMarch 2010.

The government report on the trial —whose date is not mentioned — provides thenames of each of the people found guilty, andthe sentences they were given.

However, the list does not include Acevedo,who was to be assigned to “other tasks” afterhe was found to be allegedly running a sidebusiness chartering Cubana jets for personalprofit, the state reported in March 2010.

Acevedo is a veteran revolutionary in theguerrilla struggle led by Fidel Castro in the1950s and later played a prominent role inAngola’s 1975-2002 civil war.

State media said the defendants were con-victed because they received “cash bribes andpersonal perks” but did not provide detailsabout what they provided in exchange.

Miami-based C&T Charters plans tooffer flights between Puerto Ricoand Cuba as early as next month.

Gary Gonzalez, the company’s vice-pres-ident, told CubaNews that C&T — in busi-ness for the last 19 years — will fly once aweek from San Juan to Havana and back.

Later on, as traffic ramps up, C&T willadd flights to and from Santiago de Cubain order to accommodate the large num-bers of Cuban exiles in Puerto Rico whosefamilies are originally from Oriente.

“We wanted to start service from PuertoRico in June, but that won’t be possible,”he told us. “There’s a lot of red tape for anew airline and it’s taken a little more timethan we thought. We will begin maybe atthe end of July, and at the latest, August.”

Direct air service between the two Car-ibbean islands hasn’t existed for decades.

What makes it possible now is theObama administration’s decision in Marchto authorize 10 U.S. airports — includingSan Juan — to offer charter flights toCuba, in addition to the three “gateways”already authorized to do so: Miami, NewYork JFK and Los Angeles.

González says C&T flew around 60,000passengers to Cuba last year and has 22%of the U.S.-Cuba charter market — mak-ing it the largest of eight charter compa-nies flying from Miami.

C&T currently offers daily flightsbetween Miami and Havana, and twice-a-week flights to and from Camagüey, aswell as a weekly New York-Havana run.

In addition to San Juan, it also plans toadd Cuba service from Chicago andAtlanta in coming months.

For its Puerto Rico service, Gonzálezsays C&T will utilize Boeing 737-400 andBoeing 737-800 jets capable of accommo-dating 140 to 160 passengers, dependingon configuration.

Airfare for the San Juan-Havana flight— which is around three hours and 20minutes — will cost in the neighborhoodof $700 round-trip, though that’s subject tochange. Since Santiago de Cuba is muchcloser than Havana, flying time will proba-bly be an hour less.

“We’ll be flying directly from five cities.When you add up that amount of hours,the airline we use will obviously give usbetter prices than if we fly only from Puer--to Rico,” said González. C&T is still dis-cussing which airline it will contract.

The charter official said his companyhas already received all the permissions itneeds from local Puerto Rican authoritiesas well as the Cuban government, and thatC&T will open a San Juan office 10 to 15days before it actually starts flying.

“Even though we haven’t started ouradvertising campaign, we have had somany phone calls from people wanting togo,” he said. “A lot of Cubans living inPuerto Rico want to visit their families.”

Details: Gary González, C&T Charters,932-B Ponce de León Blvd., Coral Gables,FL 33134. Tel: (305) 445-3337. Fax: (305)445-3355. Email: ggonzalez@ctcharters.com.

C&T to offer Puerto Rico-Cuba flights

June 2011 v CubaNews 15

POLITICS

BY TRACEY EATON

Democracy aid from abroad helps Cubandissidents endure police harassment,hostility and 24-hour surveillance, said

activist Jorge Luís García Pérez.Life for dissidents and political prisoners is

“as hard as you can imagine,” García said inan interview in Havana. “There is a repressiveatmosphere up and down the country.”

García, nicknamed “Antúnez,” stands outamong Cuban dissidents for his fierce resist-ance to the government and the high price hehas paid for it. He’s spent 17 years and 38days in prison, prompting some fellow dissi-dents to call him “Cuba’s Nelson Mandela.”

García, 46, said he didn’t set out to becomean anti-government activist. On Mar. 15, 1990,he spontaneously grabbed the microphoneduring a public event and yelled, “Commu-nism is an error!”

He wound up in prison for that and for sab-otage after allegedly setting a sugarcane fieldon fire. García escaped prison in 1992 but wascaught within a day. That and other offensesadded time to his original six-year sentence— and he wasn’t freed until 2007.

“It’s a difficult life,” he said, but the cause is“just.” And assistance from Cuban “brothersin exile” is vital, he said. “Thanks to that help,we’ve been able to survive.”

Cuban authorities say money from the U.S.has created a “fabricated” dissident move-ment. García and other activists deny that.

Anti-government activists often lose their

Dissident Antúnez: ‘We’re hostages of the dictatorship’

jobs and have no way to support themselves,García said. Dissidents struggle to cover theirexpenses, including the cost of traveling tovisit other activists.

García believes U.S. financial support forCuban dissidents dropped off after BarackObama was voted into office in 2008. He saidObama is a “good president,” but but that hispredecessor, George W. Bush, was moredirect about aiding the democracy movement.

García lives in the town of Placetas in Villa

Clara province. He said Cuban police keephim and other dissidents under constant sur-veillance to try to isolate them and makethem appear to be common criminals.

Dissidents’ homes resemble outposts forthe political police, he said, because govern-ment agents take up residence around thehomes and keep the democracy activistsunder watch.

García said the surveillance makes gettingaround “an odyssey.”

Lately, he said, police in a red Russian-made Lada sedan have been following himaround. Police have told him he is forbiddenfrom traveling to other cities, includingHolguin, Camagüey and Santiago de Cuba.

“We’re hostages of the dictatorship. Weneed to ask permission to enter or leave ourown country,” complained García, who point-ed out that he has no intentions of leaving. Hesaid while dissidents need aid from abroad,Cubans must be left to determine their future.

“The freedom of Cubans must be decidedamong Cubans.”

And to be successful, he said, activists mustoccupy and gain control of the streets.

“That’s the place for the fight,” which hedescribed as non-violent. “We promote civildisobedience [and] civil resistance as amethod of struggle.” q

Anti-government activist Jorge Luís García Pérez.

‘Cincuenta años de la economía cubana’ worth readingBY ARMANDO H. PORTELA

Afrank analysis of the Cuban economyover the past half-century, written frominside the island, would have been hard

to imagine just a few years ago.However, hardships and the timid winds of

reform coming from above have opened theway for a studythat finally un-veils some ofthe incongru-ences of Cuba’splanned econo-my — whichsank after thecollapse of theSoviet bloc twodecades ago.

Even so, theauthors don’tscorn the Cas-tro regime, butrather give anunusually hon-est, careful view of developments, pointing tothe inevitable necessity of adapting to the pre-vailing trends of the modern world.

To the authors’ credit, the book’s prologuemakes a candid statement: “Mean-spiritedpeople and renegades may come and go, butthey will always be isolated cases within the

large mass of intellectuals, scientists and pro-fessionals faithful to the socialist principlesforming the pillars of our society.

“To trust their criticism, accept the dis-crepant reasoning as another of many possi-ble points of view and do not diminish thework of the revolutionary social and econom-ic sciences, but all of the contrary.”

For those who still remember what preced-ed Mikhail Gorbachev’s perestroika in the mid80s, those words sound strikingly familiar.

“Cincuenta años de la economía cubana”(ISBN 978-959-06-1239-8, Editorial de CienciasSociales, La Habana, 2010) is a 405-page jour-ney guided by 11 authors through Cuba’s eco-nomic strategies and management, economicstructure by sector, transformations and pro-spective routes, monetary policies, agricul-ture over the past 50 years, the relationshipbetween social and economic development,food consumption and theration system, andfinally demographics and geography.

On this journey through the Cuban econo-my, the authors — including well-knowneconomists and geographers — generouslysupport their studies with statistics from pastdecades not always available for general use.

Personal styles apart, the essays in thisbook may be more or less clear in the oftencryptic language of Cuban criticism fromwithin; they generally observe the unwritten

rule of condemn the pre-Castro economywhile lavishing praise on post-1959 changes.

But in the end a patient reader will findhere and there interesting and surprisinglyfrank points of view that not so long ago wereperhaps heard only around the kitchen table,or at best, in classified, official documents.

Details: Instituto Cubano del Libro, Editorialde Ciencias Sociales, Calle 14, #4104, e/ 41 y 43,Habana. Email: editorialmil@cubarte.cult.cu.

Caribbean Central American Action — aD.C.-based advocacy group for private-sec-tor economic development in the Caribbe-an Basin — has moved its headquarters tothe Ronald Reagan Building. CCAA’s newaddress is 1300 Pennsylvania Ave. NW,Suite #700, Washington, DC 20004. Tel:(202) 204-3050. URL: www.c-caa.org.

Otto Reich Associates LLC also has newdigs at 1350 I Street NW, Suite #275, Wash-ington, DC 20005. Tel: (202) 333-1360.Email: ora@ottoreich.com.

Reich will share his new office with Car-denas Partners LLC, a lobby shop headedby attorney Al Cárdenas, chairman of theAmerican Conservative Union and formerchairman of the Florida Republican Party.

C-CAA, Otto Reich move offices

16 CubaNews v June 2011

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Editorn LARRY LUXNER n

Washington correspondentn ANA RADELAT n

Political analystn DOMINGO AMUCHASTEGUI n

Feature writersn TRACEY EATON n

n VITO ECHEVARRÍA nn DOREEN HEMLOCK n

Cartographern ARMANDO H. PORTELA n

Graphic designern CARI BAMBACH n

Other politicians to keep an eye on include:JAIME CROMBET HERNÁNDEZ-BAQUERO. An

engineer and leader in the FEU, UJC andCommunist Party from the ‘60s through the‘80s, he has served as party first secretary inCamagüey, Pinar del Río and the city ofHavana. Hernández-Baquero headed Cuba’scivil mission in Angola in the mid-1970s.

He is said to be honest and efficient, and issupported by Raúl. One of his daughters — amicrobiologist by profession — is married toformer foreign minister Felipe Pérez Roque.At some point, he could replace Alarcón.

ERNESTO MEDINA VILLAVEIRÁN, a key techno-crat, very close to Francisco Soberón, formerpresident of Cuba’s Central Bank. In June2009, he was named as Soberón’s replace-ment, and more recently, he was appointed tothe Central Committee.

CARIDAD DIEGO BELLO, a philosophy gradu-ate in college, had some experience as a pro-fessor, but more so as an expert on religiousaffairs, since she was a cadre at the UJC andat the Department of Religious Affairs, whichshe has headed since the early 1990s.

In those days, many people perceived herto be very narrow-minded and dogmatic. But20 years later, she’s proven herself to be effi-cient enough to remain at this sensitive job —especially since the 1998 visit of Pope JohnPaul II and the recent negotiations betweenthe Cuban government and the CatholicChurch over political prisoners.

ROLANDO ALFONSO BORGES, a FAR coloneluntil the early 1990s, is a political officer incharge of the Central Political Directorate atthe General Staff. Named to the Central Com-mittee in 1991, he later took over its Ideolog-ical Department, where under Raúl’s guid-ance, he led some serious ideological battlesagainst researchers and intellectuals — inparticular those at the Centro de Estudios deAmerica. These battles led to extensive criti-cism and widespread discontent.

Leadership — FROM PAGE 12EUSEBIO LEAL SPENGLER, official historian of

the City of Havana, is a respected intellectual,cultural promoter and top-notch entrepre-neur. His most successful achievement: therestoration of Old Havana — a project muchadmired by foreign visitors. A man of inde-pendent and constructive ideas who fightsagainst dogmatic and outdated approaches,Leal could be a strong future candidate forkey positions like minister of culture.

GLADYS BEJERANO PORTELA has spent morethan 40 years as a party cadre, dealing mostlywith economic affairs and the formerprovince of La Habana. Dedicated, honest andvery straightforward, she’s been praised pub-licly by Raúl for her audits — which have keptmany a bureaucrat awake at night.

Her recent appointment as general comp-troller, member of the new Central Commit-tee and vice president of the Council of Statemakes her a crucial player to watch.

COL LUÍS ALBERTO RODRÍGUEZ LÓPEZ-CALLEJASin his late 40s, is considered a brilliant econo-mist and organizer. He’s been the right-handman of Gen. Julio Casas Regueiro for morethan 20 years and one of the chief architectsof perfeccionamiento empresarial.

He’s the son of DG Rodríguez del Pozo,head of FAR’s medical services division. Assuch, his family is quite close to Raúl Castro,though Luís Alberto’s current position iswidely perceived as based on his own merits.Due to FAR’s prominent role in the economy,he’s a very influential player.

BRUNO RODRÍGUEZ PARRILLA, a 1983 lawschool graduate, went on to be come a pro-fessional leader in the UJC and editor ofJuventud Rebelde newspaper in the early1990s; after a stint at the United Nations, hewas appointed to replace Roberto Robaina asCuba’s foreign minister. Now 53, he becameone of the youngest members of the CentralCommittee when he was appointed in 1991. q

Former Cuban intelligence officer DomingoAmuchastegui has lived in Miami since 1994. Hewrites regularly for CubaNews on the CommunistParty and South Florida’s Cuban exile community.