This ASCE service has been established as an additional
ASCE Cuban Economic News Clippings Service -- Release N
618-05-18-14 -- p. 5
________________________________________________________________________
ASCE Newsclippings
This ASCE service has been established as an additional benefit
exclusively for those members who provide us with their e-mail
addresses. It is not available in the Webpage and it is forwarded
to you via blind copy in order to preserve your privacy. And, of
course, at any time you can request our stopping the service.
Every week we select news related to Cubas economy that usually
are not carried in mainstream media and forward them to member
e-mails. This will spare you the need to pursue the information in
the various media by digging it out by yourself, while at the same
time, as an ASCE member, you will be well informed of relevant
economic trends and events in relation to the sugar crop, tourism,
corruption or whatever. We limit our selections to economic, social
and political events, trends and commentaries from sources such as
The Economist, El Nuevo Herald, Cubaencuentro, Cubanet and other
Cuban publications. ASCE does not endorse positions taken by the
individual authors; they are reproduced so that readers can be
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Your comments and suggestions are welcome. Please send them to
the Editor at the e-mail address below.
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For information about ASCE go to www.ascecuba.org
RELEASE CLIPPINGS LISTING #618
11-06-13 06Juventud Rebelde, Comercializacin agrcola bajo nuevas
frmulas
Con la publicacin de la Gaceta Oficial Extraordinaria No. 35
entra en vigor el Reglamento que permitir desarrollar
experimentalmente en las provincias de La Habana, Artemisa y
Mayabeque, nuevas frmulas en la comercializacin de productos
agropecuarios
05-02-14 07Juventud Rebelde, Cooperativas no agropecuarias con
nuevo modelo fiscal. La Resolucin 50 de la Oficina Nacional de la
Administracin Tributaria (ONAT), publicada este viernes por La
Gaceta Oficial de la Repblica de Cuba, establece un nuevo modelo de
Declaracin Jurada para estas formas de gestin econmica05-07-14
08Cuba Standard, Richard E, Feinberg, Havana bars: The next wave of
private innovation05-07-14 11Cuba Standard, Brazil opens doors for
tourism to Cuba05-08-14 13Cuba Standard, France expands trade
credit program05-08-14 15Cuba Standard, Rising nickel prices help
Sherritt end proxy battle
05-09-14 16Diario Las Amricas, La Habana dice que ampliar acceso
a Internet tras "Twitter cubano." La medida sera tomada por el
gobierno cubano con el propsito deevitar que alguien le "invente"
servicios a la poblacin como ocurri con el llamado "Zunzuneo"
05-10-14 17Miami Herald, U.S. academics say Cuban reforms not
going well
05-12-14 19Diario Las Amricas, PAS EN CRISIS: El dficit
comercial ahoga a Cuba. El aumento del 15% en el 2013es el segundo
mayor en el decursar econmico del pas en cinco dcadas, revelaron
cifras oficiales
05-13-14 20Zenit, Widow of Cuban Dissident Appeals for
Outside
Investigation Into His Death. Former Spouse of Oswaldo Paya
Tells ZENIT She Has Proof He Was Murdered
05-13-14 23City Journal, The Last Communist City. A visit to the
dystopian Havana that tourists never see
05-13-14 29Martnoticias, Denuncian restricciones a campesinos de
MarielEn el programa de Radio Mart Cuba al Da, el periodista
independiente Moiss Rodrguez denunci las restricciones y el temor
de los agricultores que se les quiten sus tierras.
05-13-14 30Caf Fuerte, Red social La Cubanada ofrecer anuncios y
bsquedas sin Internet
05-13-14 31Miscelneas de Cuba, Crisis del comercio en la
capital
05-13-14 32Martnoticias, Rolando Cartaya, Impuesto sobre
ingresos reducira an ms paga de cubanos en Mariel. El tributo
anunciado por el Ministerio de Finanzas y Precios se suma a una
tajada de 20% para el empleador estatal, y otra de 60% sobre el
resto del salario, derivada de una arbitraria tasa de cambio.
05-13-14 34Martnoticias, Dficit comercial cubano se ahond 15% en
2013Segn Diario Las Amricas, la baja de las exportaciones de bienes
y el aumento de las importaciones muestran un pas que depende de
importar, donde las exportaciones de mercancas apenas crecen, y que
apuesta por el cobro de servicios profesionales.
05-13-14 35Caf Fuerte/Diario Las Amricas, Dficit comercial
cubano supera los $9 mil millones de dlares05-13-14
37Martinoticias, Pablo Alfonso, Cuba: Euros para convertir al marab
en energa05-13-14 38AFP, Cuba partially resumes consular activities
in Washington
05-13-14 39El Nuevo Herald, Company concedes dirty money
'contaminated' remittances to Cuba
05-13-14 40Martnoticias, Cuba apuesta por GLONASS, versin rusa
del GPSEl sistema global de navegacin por satlite de Rusia, llamado
Glonass es administrado por el Ministerio de Defensa de ese
pas.
05-13-14 40Diario de Cuba, Telecomunicaciones: Rusia instalar en
Cuba una estacin de 'correccin y monitoreo' de satlites. La
instalacin servir de apoyo a GLONASS, el 'GPS ruso'.
05-14-14 41Martinoticias, Cuba: Recibe el Papa Francisco a la
familia Pay en audiencia privada. La represin, la realidad de los
cubanos y la situacin de la Iglesia Catlica en Cuba fueron algunos
de los temas tratados
05-14-14 42Miami Herald, Frank Calzn, Cuba trade embargo and the
politics of deception
05-14-14 43EcoCuba, Cuba y la UE: encuentro en el marab y
corriente elctrica05-14-14 44Cubanet, Nuevos edificios para los
militares. Mientras La Habana se derrumba, la Empresa Unin
Constructora Militar edific en 3 aos la comunidad Altahabanece
05-14-14 45Miscelneas de Cuba, Medicamentos mal elaborados
05-14-14 46Cuba Standard, Domingo Amuchstegui, Analysis: Cubas
currency unification05-14-14 50Havana Times/ Caf Fuerte, Cuba
Suspends Issuance of Passports Due to System Overload 05-14-14
51Diario de Cuba, Una falla elctrica paraliza la confeccin de
pasaportes y carnet de identidad en la Isla05-14-14 52Reuters,
Venezuela's PDVSA issues $5 bln 2024 bond05-14-14 53Martnoticias,
Cules voces cubanas promueve la BBC?\El servicio de estrenar el
blog Voces de Cuba, donde participarn como titulares el escritor
Leonardo Padura, los periodistas Yuris Nrido (oficialista),
Alejandro Rodrguez (no en activo) y la bloguera disidente Regina
Coyula.05-15-14 54Diario de Cuba, El coronel Alejandro Castro Espn
firma en Mosc un acuerdo de inteligencia con Rusia05-15-14
54Reuters, Italy's Alitalia scraps Venezuela flights over currency
dispute: sources
05-15-14 55Primavera Digital, Aumentan precios de trmites
legales
05-15-14 57Cubanet, Bici-taxistas de Camagey engaados por
FITCUBAPasearon a turoperadores y empresarios extranjeros pero no
les permitieron cobrar la carrera. La polica poltica se los
impidi
05-15-14 58Cubanet, Disidentes cubanos excluidos del mercado
laboralLos cubanos sealados como disidentes dicen que es casi
imposible encontrar trabajo a causa de los controles ferreos del
Estado05-15-14 60Primavera Digital, Colaps industria lctea en Santa
Clara.
05-15-14 61Cubanet, El turismo en Cuba, secreto de EstadoLa
Habana celebr la 34 Feria Internacional de Turismo. La prensa
oficial no inform a la poblacin. A fines de 2013 funcionaban en
Cuba 17 cadenas hoteleras extranjeras: 13 espaolas con 72 hoteles,
el 52% de las habitaciones existentes en la Isla. Se le suman
empresas de Canad, Francia, Jamaica y Portugal05-15-14 63El Nuevo
Herald, Peloteros a la venta05-15-14 64Miami Herald, Texas firm
wins $31M Guantnamo fiber-optic contract
05-15-14 65Cubanet, Coge tu jabita aqu .A falta de envoltorios
en comercios, y delcartucho biodegradable de toda la vida, florece
un mercado negro que vende bolsas de nailon 05-15-14 66Miscelneas
de Cuba, Presos producen carbn en condiciones Infrahumanas
05-15-14 66Miscelaneas de Cuba, El nuevo mosquito y el virus
bola
05-15-14 67Diario de Cuba, Bloqueo yanqui? 05-16-14 69Diario de
Cuba. Bloguero oficialista denuncia 'un fraude casi masivo' en
pruebas de ingreso a la universidad
05-16-14 70Diario de Cuba, EDUCACIN: Entre 100 y 200 CUC
05-16-14 71Diario Las Amricas, Sociedad en Crisis: Educacin, el
fracaso de "un logro de la revolucin cubana."Los salarios
miserables han provocado deserciones a granel.Solo en La Habana hay
un dficit de cuatro mil maestros de primaria y secundaria.
El fraude masivo en las pruebas de ingreso a la universidad
constata la crisis del sistema nacional de educacin,
05-16-14 73Miscelneas de Cuba, Desmantelan en la Habana red de
Biblioteca virtual
conocida como el paquete
05-16-14 74Diario de Cuba, TELECOMUNICACIONES: El desastre de
Etecsa, una de las empresas que ms recauda en la Isla
05-16-14 76Miami Herald/ AP, Cuba mobile email experiment causes
chaos05-16-14 79Juventud Rebelde, Correos de Cuba informa sobre
afectaciones en los envos postales internacionales. La institucin
ofrece disculpas por las afectaciones y demoras en estos servicios,
e informa que se vienen adoptando medidas a fin de restablecer la
capacidad de la planta de tratamiento postal e ir reduciendo
paulatinamente los atrasos que existen en los plazos de entrega
05-16-14 79Cubaeconoma, Elas Amor Bravo, La nueva poltica de
cooperacin al desarrollo de la UE: sector privado y rgimen
castrista
05-17-14 80 La oposicin cubana seala la alta responsabilidad de
Espaa en las
conversaciones entre la EU y Castro
05-17-14 84Cubanet, Del latifundio particular a otro del
Estado
Infinidad de tierras baldas: A 55 aos de la Ley de Reforma
Agraria05-17-14 85EcoCuba, Mobile email flounders in Cuba05-17-14
86Diario de Cuba, AGRICULTURA: 17 de mayo: necesidad de una
nueva
reforma agraria. 55 aos despus de la reforma agraria castrista,
la
agricultura cubana muestra un estado deplorable.
05-17-14 88Diario de Cuba, SOCIEDAD; Correos de Cuba admite
problemas en la
entrega de cartas y bultos internacionales. Segn el Gobierno,
los retrasos
se deben a dificultades tecnolgicas en la planta de tratamiento
postal de La Habana.
05-17-14 89Juventud Rebelde. Sndrome del elefante, Desconexin
con la realidad y con el marco legal, plantillas infladas y malas
negociaciones con el Banco, son algunas sombras que siguen atando
el ansiado despegue de algunas unidades bsicas de produccin
cooperativa, segn se pudo palpar en un periplo por tres
provincias
05-17-14 97Diario Las Amricas, Air France e Iberia suspenderan
venta de boletos en Venezuela. El retraso en las liquidaciones de
divisas a las aerolneas
podra conducir a medidas ms drsticas, como la cancelacin de
vuelos en el pas
05-18-14 97Diario de Cuba, Ley de Nietos: Ms de 100.000 cubanos
esperan la nacionalidad espaola
Comercializacin agrcola bajo nuevas frmulas
Con la publicacin de la Gaceta Oficial Extraordinaria No. 35
entra en vigor el Reglamento que permitir desarrollar
experimentalmente en las provincias de La Habana, Artemisa y
Mayabeque, nuevas frmulas en la comercializacin de productos
agropecuarios
Juventud Rebelde , [email protected] de Noviembre del
2013 9:52:22 CDT
Nuevas frmulas se pondrn en prctica para la red de mercados
agropecuarios que funcionarn bajo las siguientes denominaciones:
mercados minoristas; puntos de venta; y trabajadores por cuenta
propia, carretilleros o vendedores de productos agrcolas de forma
ambulatoria, reporta Prensa Latina
Segn publica este mircoles el diario Granma, en el caso de los
mercados minoristas sern cuatro las modalidades.
Una parte de ellos estarn gestionados por entidades estatales
con facultad para operar en igualdad de condiciones que el resto de
los establecimientos, y se abastecern a travs de las empresas a las
que pertenecen, aunque tambin podrn comprar en otros lugares para
completar sus ofertas.
Los mercados incluidos en este grupo comercializarn los
productos agropecuarios, que tienen precios de acopio
centralizados, a precios minoristas regulados por las empresas que
los administran.
Roberto Prez Prez, jefe del grupo de Poltica Agroindustrial de
la Comisin Permanente para la Implementacin y Desarrollo, declar a
Granma que para el 2014 el Estado fij precios a ocho productos:
arroz, frijoles, papa, maz seco, boniato, naranja, toronja y
tomate- listado que se actualizar anualmente.
Asimismo, ofertarn otros productos con precio de venta
centralizado arroz y chcharo y el resto ser a precios de oferta y
demanda.
Tambin existirn los mercados gestionados por cooperativas no
agropecuarias, algo que desde hace varios meses ya se aplica en las
provincias de La Habana, Artemisa y Mayabeque.
Igualmente, estarn los mercados que son establecimientos
estatales y se arrendarn a las unidades productoras y a
trabajadores por cuenta propia, quienes asumen todos los gastos
derivados de la actividad econmica que ejecutan y venden los
productos a precios de oferta y demanda.
La cuarta modalidad se corresponde con los denominados mercados
agropecuarios de oferta y demanda -administrados por empresas
estatales-, que arriendan espacios y brindan servicios de medios de
pesaje, almacenamiento y otros.
Estos mercados comercializarn a precios de oferta y demanda. En
una segunda etapa el proceso de reestructuracin incluye organizar
los tarimeros que all concurren, quienes se convertirn en
trabajadores por cuenta propia en la actividad de vendedor
minorista de productos agropecuarios, explic Prez Prez.
En el caso de los puntos de venta sern administrados por las
unidades productoras, empleando su propia fuerza de trabajo. Tambin
podrn pertenecer a agricultores pequeos propietarios y/o
usufructuarios dentro de su rea de produccin. La comercializacin se
realizar a precios de oferta y demanda.
Respecto a la figura del carretillero o vendedor de productos
agrcolas de forma ambulatoria, puede comercializar productos
agrcolas en la va pblica sin establecerse en un rea fija,
cumpliendo las regulaciones urbansticas, las normas de vialidad
existentes y lo establecido por los consejos de administracin, en
cuanto a itinerarios y zonas de accesos para el ejercicio de su
actividad.
Descargue aqu el PDF de la Gaceta Oficial Extraordinaria No.
35
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Cooperativas no agropecuarias con nuevo modelo fiscal
La Resolucin 50 de la Oficina Nacional de la Administracin
Tributaria (ONAT), publicada este viernes por La Gaceta Oficial de
la Repblica de Cuba, establece un nuevo modelo de Declaracin Jurada
para estas formas de gestin econmica
Juventud Rebelde , [email protected] de Mayo del 2014
10:37:14 CDT
La Gaceta Oficial de la Repblica de Cuba publica este viernes la
Resolucin 50 de la Oficina Nacional de la Administracin Tributaria
(ONAT), que establece para las Cooperativas no Agropecuarias el uso
de un nuevo modelo de Declaracin Jurada para la liquidacin anual
del Impuesto sobre Utilidades.
Segn refiere Prensa Latina, el modelo denominado DJ-11, tambin
ser utilizado por aquellos contribuyentes que reporten un perodo
menor de 12 meses de operaciones, o que causen baja, y debe
entregarse en el primer trimestre del ao posterior al perodo que se
declara.
Para facilitar su elaboracin y tramitacin el documento est
estructurado por secciones, de manera que los contribuyentes
precisen datos para la liquidacin del impuesto, as como otras
informaciones complementarias, tales como las retribuciones
recibidas por cada socio de la cooperativa.
La Resolucin 50 de la ONAT tambin establece para las
Cooperativas no Agropecuarias el pago del Impuesto sobre Utilidades
en un plazo no mayor de 15 das hbiles posteriores al cierre de cada
trimestre natural, de conformidad con lo establecido en la Ley No.
113 del Sistema Tributario.
En todos los casos los pagos y los descuentos de gastos se
realizarn en CUP y las entidades que ingresen CUC deben declarar el
monto total utilizando la tasa de cambio vigente.
Las Cooperativas no Agropecuarias recibirn la bonificacin del
descuento cuando asumen reparaciones en los locales estatales
arrendados, las que deben ser justificadas documentalmente mediante
Certificacin de la entidad arrendadora.
Adems, estn en la obligacin de constituir y mantener una Reserva
para Prdidas y Contingencias, la que estar conformada como mnimo
con el 2 por ciento y hasta el 10 por ciento de los gastos totales
anuales de la cooperativa y se nutre con el 10 por ciento de las
utilidades reales obtenidas al cierre de cada ejercicio econmico,
as como podrn beneficiarse de otras deducciones que sean
autorizadas por el Ministerio de Finanzas y Precios.
Descargue aqu PDF de la Resolucin 50 de la Oficina Nacional de
la Administracin Tributaria (ONAT)
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Havana bars: The next wave of private innovation
By Richard Feinberg
Cuba Standard, May 7, 2014
Among investors focused on Cuban markets, private bars and clubs
are the new big thing. Within the last 18 months, enterprising
Cuban investors have spiced up an already vibrating Havana night
life by opening a variety of chic watering holes.
By all accounts, many investors are achieving their primary
goal: rapid returns on risk capital.
And middle-class Cubans not just tourists and expats are
enjoying the widening diversity of options for evening
destinations.
Stiff competition, narrow marketFor the emerging private sector
promoted by Ral Castro since he took over from his ailing brother
Fidel in 2008 the previous big story was the paladares, privately
run restaurants generally located within family homes. But so many
enterprising Cubans seized the opportunity to earn gastronomic
profits that the restaurant market quickly turned terribly
competitive.
Many fine-dining paladares cater primarily to well-heeled
tourists, charging prices that are moderate by international
standards but far out of the reach of nearly all Cubans. Most
Cubans working for the state receive the miserable wage of $20 per
month roughly the cost of a single paladar meal.
Facing this dual challenge of stiff competition in the
restaurant space and the narrow tourism market, innovative Cuban
entrepreneurs seized upon nocturnal entertainment as an exciting
solution. Havana is not without bars, often featuring Buena Vista
Social Clubstyle bands in Havana Vieja that appeal to middle-age
tourists but not to hip young Cubans or international travelers
looking for the latest music video or mixed cocktail creations.
The newly launched bars/clubs feature flat-screen TVs with
contemporary sounds. Dancing begins around 10 pm and whirls well
into the early morning hours. Some of the bar-hopping crowd may be
exiting the paladares, in search of the after-hours fun for which
Havana is so famous but with a contemporary beat.
Significantly, the new upscale bars are also attracting Cubans
by keeping their prices within the range of whatcould be labeled
the Cuban middle or upper-middle classes.
Entrance or cover charges are minimal and local beers sell for
the equivalent of $2, tapas for just $2 $6, heavier fare for $6
-15. These prices still lock out most Cubans, but are within the
range of perhaps five percent of the 2 million Habaneros. (Alas,
the Cuban government does not publish statistics on income
distribution.)
Even if a Cuban couple limits their consumption to two beers
each and a few snacks, how can they afford an evening on the town?
Where do they find the $20 the equivalent of a full months state
salary? The sources of this middle-class purchasing power: profits
from their own thriving private businesses, wages and tips earned
in the tourist trade, bonuses granted by joint ventures, or
remittances sent by generous family and friends living abroad.
Cubans who served overseas as diplomats, military attachs, or
medical personnel can accumulate savings. And privileged offspring
of senior government officials are known to enjoy free beverages
and bites.
Asrecently noted by AP correspondent Peter Orsi, the elites of
the remarkably large and talented Cuban creative class painters,
dancers, musicians, film makers also earn a good living; the
farndula the inbreed creative classes congregate at Caf Madrigal,
Priv, and Espacios.
In Havana these days, trendy bars are not the only visible
indicators of Cubas prosperous upper-middle classes and their
lucky, beautiful children. Expensive daycare centers and domestic
housekeepers, 21st century cars with private license plates
replacing the iconic but decrepit 1950s Chevrolets, and expensive
cell phones with e-mail service all signal the emergence of new
money.
At the new nocturnal watering holes, successful Cubans mingle
comfortably with foreigners: the resident expatriate community of
diplomats and business executives as well as tourists mostly
Europeans and Canadians, but also increasingly Americans, permitted
to travel legally to Cuba under people-to-people educational
programs licensed by the Obama administration.
The places
Two of the hottest Havana bars, Sangri-La and Up-and-Down (their
ownership overlaps), are so packed on weekends that their
overcrowded dance floors challenge even the most fluid salsa
dancers. Intimate but very lively, Up-and-Down exploits the
increasing stratification of Cuban society by differentiating the
entry fee for the upstairs VIP lounges: a minimum of $20
consumption per person, priced for foreigners and a thin slice of
the best-heeled Cubans. The bartender at Up-and-Down is rightly
famous for his designer tropical drinks laced with plentiful
pours.
Waitress at Up-and-Down. Photos by Richard Feinberg
A combination restaurant and terraza bar, El Cocinero is a
dramatic conversion of an old cooking oil factory into a two-floor
industrial entertainment space. The plush first floor dining dcor
is dominated by a large black-and-white minimalist painting, while
the al fresco upstairs features comfortable butterfly lounge chairs
and a neon-lite bar. Typically, the denim-clad waitresses are
youthful and attractive, and frequently with university degrees in
their back pockets.
Product placement
A theatrical production of a Cuban-authored drama currently
running in Havana, Rascacielos (Skyscrapers), is co-sponsored by
the embassies of Spain and The Netherlands and by El Cocinero and
StarBien, a plush paladar (co-ownedand managed by the gracious son
of the minister of the interior). The commercial sponsorships
earned product placements explicit mentions in the text of the play
one dramatic signal of the growing weight and self-confidence of
the emerging private sector.
Other trendy Havana dispensaries of alcohol and nocturnal
diversion include Fbrica de Arte (featuring avantgarde paintings),
Capricho (tasty tapas, serene ambiance), Escencia Havana
(pre-revolution nostalgia in an 1880 villa), OReilly 304 (in Old
Havana, superb vegetarian soup with three varieties of chili
peppers), Toke (a mostly gay clientele, next to the Cabaret Las
Vegas), and two new dimly lit dance clubs catering to a younger
crowd, Meln and Las Piedras.
El Cocinero upstairs
In many of Havanas new bars, the dcor and the crowd are
sophisticated and universal: Their Miami equivalents have similar
vibes, albeit with more bling and, as one Cuban male observed, more
silicon. Island-bound Cubans have less jewelry to flaunt, and may
sense that the Communist government, while more permissive today
than during the decades of Fidel Castros austere rule, would still
look askance at ostentatious displays of new wealth.
The Escencia bar
Small investment, quick return
Chats with owners and managers of these after-hour
establishments suggest initial capital investments of roughly
$30,000 $70,000 (small by international standards). No entrepreneur
reported commercial bank backing, which is scarce in Cuba. Rather,
funds come from savings of family and friends, and in some cases
money transfers from abroad as donations, loans, or informal equity
arrangements. Working within an uncertain business climate, these
newly minted Cuban entrepreneurs often seek to recoup their capital
in 12-24 months, a potentially feasible goal due to low costs of
labor, rent, and utilities, and often interest-free financing.
Paul Sosa at his bar
The award for the most economical opening goes to Mamain (as in
the popular Cuban song, Mamain, Mamain, todos los negros tomamos
caf), a comfortable coffee and cocktail bar constructed by
environmentalist and artist Paul Sosa using recycled woods and iron
work. Spending less than $5,000 to fashion the 36-seat
establishment within his parents home, Paul attracts both tourists
and locals with strong $1 espresso coffees and $2 made-to-order
mojitos.
State-owned beer garden
Not to be outdone by the dynamic private sector, Cuban state
companies have recently opened two large bars. Sloppy Joes, a
revival of a pre-revolutionary saloon with a legendary 59-foot
mahogany bar, once again caters mostly to tourists. More original,
the government gloriously transformed an old timber and tobacco
warehouse on Havana Bay into a large beer garden. The affordable
prices and spectacular brightly painted murals attract Cuban
families as well as foreigners. On one Sunday afternoon, the author
viewed more than one Cuban child watching his parents enjoy the
Austrian-made tall tubes of chilled beer.
Old warehouse, new beer garden
Cuban capitalists not only must confront uneven competition from
state-run firms, but also face regulatory uncertainty: bars are
still not an officially sanctioned category of business, so their
owners must register them as restaurants making them vulnerable to
government inspectors. Not surprisingly, in this high-risk business
climate, investors seek a quick return on capital. But short of an
abrupt shift in government policy, it is a safe bet that bold
entrepreneurs will continue to provide Havanas after-hours revelers
with new and exciting entertainment options.
Richard E. Feinberg, professor of international economy at the
University of California, San Diego, writes about and travels
frequently to Cuba. Three of his recent publications on the Cuban
economy, including Safe Landing for Cuba?, can be found
atwww.brookings.edu
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Brazil opens doors for tourism to Cuba
By Vito Echevarra and Johannes Werner
Cuba Standrad, 05-07-14
Brazilian travel agents met at the brand new Melia Marina in
Varadero
In a bow to the destination Cuba, the Brazilian Association of
Travel Agents (ABAV) held its five-day annual meeting at the brand
new Meli Marina Hotel in Varadero May 2-7.
ABAV represents 3,500 travel agents in Brazil.
A delegation of 70 Brazilian travel agents and writers landed in
Havana on Cubana flight 353 from So Paulo on May 1, not only to
participate in the meeting, but also to attend the annual
international tourism fair (FITCuba), and to figure out angles for
Brazilian travelers.
We are certain that the presence of ABAV here will have a
multiplying effect on the number of Brazilian tourists coming to
Cuba, Cuban Tourism Minister Manuel Marrero told the delegates in
Varadero, according to anABAV press release. We want to include
your country among our main source markets.
While the Brazilian government under President Dilma Rousseff
has assisted Cuba in efforts to revive its economy, tourism by
Brazils middle and upper class travelers has not been among
them.
Just 17,000 Brazilians visited Cuba in 2013, according to
Marrero. Thats up from 11,000 the year before, but according to
Cuban visitor statistics for the first two months of this year,
Latin Americas most populous country was still surpassed by
Argentina, Mexico, Chile, Venezuela and Colombia.
Marrero told the ABAV delegates he believes Brazil could send
some 100,000 travelers to Cuba.
Following a rising tide of Brazilian business travelers and
nearly 11,000 Cuban doctors working in Brazil, flag carrier Cubana
de Aviacin last year inaugurated the first non-stop connection
between Cuba and Brazil. However, Brazilian airlines are no-shows
at Cuban airports.
TAM Airlines CEO Claudia Sender Ramrez emphasized the lack of
demand to Cuba Standard.
Were always looking into new opportunities, said Sender at the
sidelines of the 2014 Brazil Summit in New York in April. It all
depends on how much demand there is. I think theres still a lot of
work that has to be done, especially the tourism market between the
two countries, because we need to make sure there is demand. Theres
not enough to set up flights yet. Maybe the new (Brazilian)
investment will stimulate demand. If that happens, then we will set
up flights.
TAM, Brazils largest airline, belongs to LATAM Airline Group
S.A., the Chile-based holding that is among the 12 largest air
carriers worldwide.
Cuban tourism officials have also been making efforts to push
demand in Brazil. Last July, Tourism Minister Marrero led a
delegation of tourism officials to So Paulo and other major
Brazilian cities, meeting with Brazilian Tourism Minister Gasto
Dias Vieira, and marketing the island to officials of ABAV. Marrero
and Diaz Vieira signed a memorandum of understanding that same
month to promote tourism in both countries. State tour operator
Havanatur opened an office in So Paulo last year, and the Cuban
tourism ministry is putting out bids in Brazil for a grand
promotion campaign to end users, according to Marrero.
Beyond just the sheer lack of knowledge about Cuba among
Brazilians, the similarities between the two countries pose a major
challenge. A Brazilian tourism executive at the Brazil Summit in
New York spoke on background about Cubas need to go beyond sun and
beaches to attract Brazilian travelers from his country.
Like Cuba, we Brazilians already have plenty of beach
destinations, so that alone wont be enough, he said. Along with
those who would fly to Havana on business, Cuba would have to be
marketed to Brazilian leisure travelers as a cultural destination
promoting the islands rich music and history. If Cuba can find a
way to invest in Brazilian television advertising, that would do
wonders for tourism there, since we are the largest media market in
Latin America, with 175 million viewers.
The owner of a Brazilian ad agency suggests that Cuba look into
media barter as a means to fund Brazilian television ad campaigns
that promote its tourism. Cuba could trade a variety of assets
ranging from cigars to medicines and biotech products, and even
hotel rooms, for Brazilian television time.
Barter can be negotiated with media networks, said Noel de
Simone, owner of Rio de Janeiro-based advertising agency Casa da
Criao. Of course, one must know exactly what Cuba has it can
offer.
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France expands trade credit program
05-08-14
Fleur Pellerin
CUBA STANDARD Continuing French efforts to revive trade and
investment ties with Cuba, the two governments amended on May 6 in
Havana a short-term credit line agreement backed by French export
guarantee agencyCoface.
The new credit line extends a previous one through November
2015. Guaranteeing Cuban purchases of up to euro 90 million ($125
million) a year, the credit aims to benefit particularly French
food and agricultural commodity exporters, a Frenchforeign affairs
ministry press release said.
French agricultural and food sales to Cuba plummeted more than a
decade ago, after Coface canceled a $175 million credit line
following a Cuban default in 2002, and due to rising competition
from U.S. exporters.
The agreement was signed by Fleur Pellerin, Secretary of State
for Foreign Trade and Investment, Tourism Promotion and French
Nationals Abroad, and Foreign Trade and Investment Minister Rodrigo
Malmierca.
At the signing ceremony, Pellerin announced that a French
business delegation focusing on export opportunities will travel to
Cuba soon.
Pellerin said she encourages French businesses to invest in the
Mariel Special Development Zone (ZEDM) going up west of Havana, and
that France is interested in a fast development of its presence in
the ZEDM.
Pellerin also heads the French delegation at the FITCuba tourism
fair in Havana this week; France is the fairs guest of honor this
year.
A lot of cooperation is possible in this sphere, she said at the
fair, according to Cuban media. We can contribute in terms of
training, hotel and catering business, gastronomy and
management.
Finally, according to a French foreign ministry press release,
she is paying particular attention to Cubas health sector.
Pellerins visit came three weeks after that of French Foreign
Affairs Minister Laurent Fabius, and while European Union and Cuban
diplomats are negotiating full resumption of ties.
Meanwhile, flag carriers Cubana de Aviacin and Air France on May
7 signed a memorandum of understanding.The cooperation document,
signed by Cubana Deputy Director Ana Margarita Godoy and Zoran
Jelkic, vice president of Air France, sets the bases for an
expansion of Air Franceroutes beyond Havana, to Santiago, Santa
Clara and Holgun. The two airlines may also work together offering
flights to other destinations in the Caribbean.
French business interest in Cuba has been rising lately. In
2012, executives of 17 French corporations spent three days in
Havana, to listen to Cuban investment proposals. The delegation,
according to theMouvement des Entreprises de France (Medef),
included companies in telecommunications, energy, rail transport,
logistics, agribusiness, enterprise services, infrastructure
engineering and construction, oil equipment, industrial
engineering, insurance and finance, hotels and tourism, electric
installations, water and environment, and air catering.
In October 2013,Groupe Belvdre agreed to distribute a Cuban-made
rum, and in February, a French startup companyagreed to test and
distribute a Cuban-made hepatitis vaccine.
The absence of Coface credit aside, U.S. embargo politics
continue to be a major insecurity factor for French exporters and
investors. Three of Frances largest banks have been under pressure
from the United States lately. According to the Wall Street
Journal, theU.S. government is investigating BNP Paribas, Socit
Gnrale and Crdit Agricole over transactions with Iran and Cuba.
Pellerin, meeting French businesspeople in Havana May 5
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Rising nickel prices help Sherritt end proxy battle
05-08-14
CUBA STANDARD Aided by the promise of rising nickel prices, the
besieged management of Sherritt International Corp. emerged
victorious from a proxy battle started by activist investor Clarke
Inc.
The Canadian nickel mining and energy conglomerate Cubas largest
private investor announced Tuesday that shareholders elected all
nine of its nominees to the board at the companys annual meeting in
Toronto; none of the three dissident candidates was elected and all
of Clarke Inc.s proposals were rejected.
I want to thank all shareholders for their feedback, engagement
and continued support of the corporation during the election
process, said Sherritt Chairman Harold Hap Stephen in apress
release. We believe that the result is in the best interests of
shareholders and the corporation. With the proxy contest behind us,
your board remains committed to representing the interests of all
shareholders.
The total victory came in spite of miserable first-quarter
earnings, released a week earlier. The companys management blamed a
CDN$48.2 million (US$44.3 million) loss on the costly ramp-up of
its nickel operations in Madagascar andweakening of the Canadian
dollar against the U.S. dollar.
Partly responding to criticism of the dissident shareholders,
the company emphasized in its earnings release that it is focusing
on fundamentals base metals and Cuba assets. In its first-quarter
earnings release, Sherritt said it will use part of US$728 million
from a recent sale of coal assets for investment opportunities in
the core businesses.
Clarke suggested Sherritt refocus on its Cuban roots. Over the
past five years, Sherritt has invested hundreds of millions of
dollars in a large nickel mining project in Madagascar. Sherritt is
also looking at starting another nickel mining project in
Indonesia.
The company isplanning to build a US$65 million acid plant at
Moa, after having obtained project financing from a Cuban financial
institution. Sherritt invested US$67 million in oil and gas during
the first quarter, most of it in Cuba. The company said it
completed negotiations with Cuban authorities over four new
exploratory production sharing agreements in oil and gas, as well
as extension of an existing agreement covering the Puerto
Escondido/Yumuri oil fieldsthrough 2028.
Meanwhile, the Moa nickel joint venture in eastern Cuba sold
8.428 million pounds of nickel during the first quarter, down from
8.631 million in the same quarter last year. The company said that
operating costs in oil and gas in Cuba decreased, thanks to higher
production of 11,776 barrels of oil equivalent per day (boepd) in
Cuba, up from 10,871 boepd. Electricity production at its power
plants in Cuba rose to 187 gwh, up from 160 gwh.
What may have helped soothe the frayed nerves of Sherritt
shareholders is the fact that nickel prices areon a tear, asNickel
Investing News put it in a recent article.
Since Jan. 12, when the Indonesian government surprised nickel
players by announcing it would ban exports of unprocessed nickel
ore, prices have risen to new records.Bymid-March,London Metal
Exchange (LME) nickel for three-month delivery had reached an
11-month highof US$16,230 per metric ton. That performance
continued in April, when nickel was the best-performing commodity;
most recently, the nickel price for three-month delivery reached
$18,250.
Analysts believe that the price rise will continue as long as
the Indonesian ban stays in place. One told Nickel Investing News
he believes a $20,000 price is perfectly plausible.
Meanwhile, the brewing conflict over Ukraine and western
sanctions has some analysts concerned over Russian nickel supplies.
Norilsk NIckel, the worlds largest nickel producer, is one of the
most likely targets of U.S. and EU sanctions, leading some analysts
to believe that supplies could shrink, pushing the nickel price to
$25,000 within 12 months.
Amidst .. conflicting views its tough to say exactly what the
nickel price will do, Nickel Investing News concludes. However,
even the more negative nickel outlooks still place the metals price
higher than it was at the beginning of 2014.
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La Habana dice que ampliar acceso a Internet tras "Twitter
cubano"
La medida sera tomada por el gobierno cubano con el propsito
deevitar que alguien le "invente" servicios a la poblacin como
ocurri con el llamado "Zunzuneo"
LA HABANAAPmi abr 9 2014 17:42
Las autoridades cubanas aseguraron hoy que impulsarn sus planes
de ampliar el acceso a Internet en la isla, incluyendo desde las
casas y los celulares, para evitar que alguien le "invente"
servicios a la poblacin, como ocurri con el llamado "Twitter
cubano" financiado por Estados Unidos.Los planes incluyen la opcin
de acceso privado a Internet desde las casas y en telefona mvil
quiz en el transcurso de 2014, aseguraron hoy dos funcionarios
cubanos durante una conferencia de prensa sobre el programa
"ZunZuneo", que ha causado revuelo a nivel internacional.
"Hay un plan bastante ambicioso para dar servicio a la
poblacin", explic Daniel Ramos, director de operaciones de
seguridad de la compaa telefnica cubana (Etecsa) durante la
comparecencia para hablar sobre "ZunZuneo", la red social
clandestina creada por Estados Unidos en la isla.
Las autoridades anunciaron que ampliaran tambin el Internet de
las casas y los celulares (Foto: AP)
"La idea nuestra es que nadie tenga que inventarle un servicio a
nuestros usuarios", agreg. "Se seguirn incrementando los servicios
de redes de telecomunicaciones incluyendo los casos de Internet y
telefona mvil", lo secund por su parte Carlos del Porto, del
Ministerio de Comunicaciones de la isla.Ambos evitaron sin embargo
fijar plazos para la reforma en los servicios de Internet,
formulados inicialmente como un "propsito para este ao".El gobierno
de Ral Castro anunci hace un tiempo que ampliara el acceso a
Internet para sus ciudadanos, tradicionalmente uno de los ms pobres
y restringidos del mundo.Excepto algunos artistas, funcionarios y
los diplomticos y trabajadores extranjeros residentes en la isla,
los cubanos no tienen autorizacin para contratar un servicio
privado de Internet en casa.Cuba acusa al embargo de Estados Unidos
de las carencias de su infraestructura y alega que da prioridad al
uso "con fines sociales" de Internet. La disidencia y varios pases
y organizaciones internacionales acusan en cambio al gobierno de
restringir el acceso a la informacin.La isla ha mejorado en los
ltimos aos el acceso a Internet con la apertura de cibercafs como
oferta adicional a la de los hoteles, pero el servicio sigue siendo
muy caro para la mayora de cubanos.Recientemente Etecsa ampli
tambin los servicios con creacin de un buzn de correo para acceder
nicamente a un email de una empresa cubana en los telfonos
mviles."Tenemos en los planes acceso a Internet por los celulares y
acceso a Internet desde las casas", asegur Ramos, que habl del
propsito inicial de hacerlo en 2014. "No vamos a decir que este ao,
pero est en los planes", matiz luego.The Associated Press revel la
semana pasada la existencia durante algo ms de dos aos -entre 2009
y 2012- de la plataforma clandestina "ZunZuneo", financiada por el
gobierno de Estados Unidos para alentar la agitacin en Cuba.La red
consista en el envo de mensajes de SMS a usuarios cubanos desde un
servidor en Espaa. El caso ha causado revuelo en todo el mundo y
fue debatido el martes acaloradamente en el Senado de Estados
Unidos. Hoy se trat el tema en la Cmara Baja.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
U.S. academics say Cuban reforms not going well
By Juan O. [email protected]
Posted on Sat, May. 10, 2014
Cuban government efforts to open its doors to more private
enterprise cut state payrolls and lure foreign investors face a
string of restrictions and complications, several U.S. academics
said during a seminar Saturday in Coral Gables.
The islands communist government has a love-hate relationship
with the private sector, said Mario Gonzalez-Corzo, a Cuban-born
professor at the City University of New York.
Ruler Ral Castro has been allowing more private economic
activities in hopes of jump-starting a Soviet-style economy since
he succeeded brother Fidel Castro, temporarily in 2006 and then
officially in 2008.
But while up to 485,000 Cubans are reported to be licensed to
work in low value-added jobs such as tailors and seamstresses,
there are many constraints, Gonzalez-Corzo told the University of
Miamis Institute for Cuban and Cuban American Studies (ICCAS).
An onerous tax system piles taxes upon taxes upon taxes that
make it difficult for the new micro-enterprises and confiscate the
limited prosperity that people are generating, he said.
Theres a shortage of appropriate retail space needed for the new
businesses, property rights remain largely unclear and government
inspectors often look for bribes, the professor added.
The cooperative sector is not doing as well as projected by the
government, Gonzalez-Corzo said. And the average bank loan approved
under a micro-credit program designed to help the private sector
stands at about $55.
State payrolls have been cut by 500,000 government officials
have spoken of a need to lay off at least 1.3 million state
employees but part of the drop was the result of emigration and
retirements, the academic said.
Retired World Bank consultant Carlos Quijano said the
governments announced hopes of obtaining $2.5 billion in foreign
investments in order to be able to generate moderate economic
growth seem far too ambitious.
Cuba now has an estimated total of $500 million in foreign
investments, Quijano said, compared to $16 billion for Costa Rica
and $17 billion for the Dominican Republic two other relatively
small Latin American nations.
Quijano also said there are three economic tendencies on the
island: statists who want to largely retain the current model;
economicists who favor some type of market socialism; and
democratic socialists who favor broader use of cooperatives.
Brian Latell, a retired CIA analyst and senior research
associate at ICCAS, said the island today appears to have more
social stability than at many points in the past. And there seems
to be little possibility of a mass exodus such as the Mariel
boatlift in 1980.
Cubas ruling elites know they have to modernize the Soviet-style
economy but fear a modernization because it might lead to
rebellion, said Juan Antonio Blanco, head of the Center for Latin
American and Caribbean Initiatives at Miami Dade College.
The island is a poor, technologically backward country at the
margins of the new digital age of globalization and knowledge
economies, added Blanco, a former analyst with the Central
Committee of the Communist Party of Cuba.
Also addressing the seminar were Florida International
University professor Marifeli Perez-Stable; Frank Calzon, director
of the Center for a Free Cuba in Washington D.C.; and Pedro Roig,
senior research associate at ICCAS and former Radio/TV Marti
director.
PAS EN CRISIS: El dficit comercial ahoga a Cuba
El aumento del 15% en el 2013es el segundo mayor en el decursar
econmico del pas en cinco dcadas, revelaron cifras oficiales
WILFREDO CANCIO ISLA/ DLAlun may 12 2014 22:39
Vista del puerto de Mariel, en La Habana. (EFE)
El dficit en la balanza comercial cubana aument en un 15%
durante el pasado ao, convirtindose en el segundo mayor en el
decursar econmico del pas en cinco dcadas, revelaron cifras
oficiales. El reporte anual sobre los indicadores del comercio
exterior de la isla muestra un decrecimiento del valor total de las
exportaciones de $5.899,5 millones en el 2012 a $5.587,7 millones
el pasado ao, lo que marca una cada del 5,3%. Mientras, las
importaciones se dispararon de $13.868,8 millones a $14.778
millones, un alza de 6,6%. Los datos fueron publicados por la
Oficina Nacional de Estadsticas e Informacin (ONEI) y recogen solo
el comercio internacional de bienes, que incluyen mercancas,
donativos y aprovisionamiento de naves y aeronaves. La balanza
comercial (mercancas) hay que diferenciarla de la balanza total,
que comprende tanto mercancas como servicios exportados. De acuerdo
con el informe, el agravamiento de la balanza comercial escal de
$7.967 a $9.190 millones, el ms abultado desde 2008, que marc un
dficit comercial histrico de $10.500 millones. Aunque la ONEI
publica los datos del comercio exterior en pesos cubanos (CUP), a
los efectos de clculos macroeconmicos esos montos se refieren al
tipo de cambio oficial del Banco Central de Cuba con respecto al
peso convertible (CUC), con equivalencia al dlar de uno por uno,
pues las exportaciones e importaciones se realizan en divisas. El
panorama de la economa cubana que se desprende de estas estadsticas
confirma la realidad de un pas dependiente de las importaciones,
con escaso crecimiento de las exportaciones de bienes, y una
apuesta fundamental por los ingresos a partir de los servicios
profesionales en el exterior, mayormente en el sector mdico. Es un
claro indicador de que Cuba produce cada vez menos y sigue siendo
una economa altamente dependiente del dinero que llega del
exterior, opin Emilio Morales, presidente del grupo de anlisis The
Havana Consulting Group, con sede en Miami. El economista Carmelo
Mesa Lago, profesor emrito de la Universidad de Pittsburgh, seal
que Cuba ha mantenido histricamente un dficit en la balanza
comercial de mercancas, pero record que desde 2003, tras la llegada
de Hugo Chvez al poder y la firma de convenios de cooperacin con
Venezuela, la balanza total comenz a equilibrarse. Desde que el
Gobierno venezolano comenz a pagar por servicios profesionales
cubanos, se ha producido un supervit que compensa o excede el
dficit de mercancas, coment Mesa Lago, autor de Cuba en la Era de
Ral Castro: Reformas Econmico-Sociales y sus efectos (2012). Pero
es difcil calcular el supervit de la balanza total, pues no existen
an cifras sobre servicios prestados en el 2013. La exportacin de
servicios de salud, educacin y deportes, le reporta a Cuba unos
$6.000 millones de dlares, muy por encima de los ingresos del
turismo ($1.803 millones) y las ventas de nquel ($1.100 millones).
El plan de ingresos anunciado por el gobierno cubano -solo por
servicios en el sector de la salud- para el 2014 asciende a ms de
$8. 200 millones de dlares, una cifra que se acerca al 40% de todos
los ingresos por exportacin del 2013. El Gobierno cubano aspira que
la nueva Ley de la Inversin Extranjera, que entrar en vigor el
prximo junio, aporte entre $2.000 y $2.500 millones anuales a la
maltrecha economa nacional. Pero Morales considera que son clculos
demasiado optimistas, a pesar de las altas exenciones impositivas
que ofrece a los inversionistas. La cantera de oportunidades que
abre esta ley es a partir de las necesidades del Gobierno, no de
las necesidades del mercado interno, explic Morales. Si aspira
realmente a un salto econmico, Cuba necesita liberar al mximo sus
fuerzas productivas, que son el eslabn perdido de las reformas de
Ral Castro".
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Widow of Cuban Dissident Appeals for Outside Investigation Into
His DeathFormer Spouse of Oswaldo Paya Tells ZENIT She Has Proof He
Was MurderedHavana, Cuba, May 13, 2014 (Zenit.org) Ivan de Vargas |
228 hits
Cuban Ofelia Acevedo, widow of dissident Oswaldo Paya, who died
in unclear circumstances, asked that an international investigation
be opened to know the truth about her husbands death.
Married in 1986 in the parish Del Cerro, she has three children,
aged 26, 25 and 22. She has now left Cuba and fears for her life.
We have suffered all sorts of repressions, threats, vigilance, and
interference in our family life, she tells ZENIT in this interview,
adding that she is "a member of the Coordinating Council of the
Christian Liberation Movement.
* * *
ZENIT: Where are you living now?
--Ofelia Acevedo: At present Im living with my children in the
United States. A year ago I had to leave my country as a political
refugee. On July 22, 2012, the State Security in Cuba, pursued with
its cars the car in which my husband was traveling, taking it off
the highway and obliging the driver to stop. The next day they
announced that my husband died in a traffic accident. They began
immediately again the threats and following of my children.
Since then, I am determined to try to initiate an investigation
independent of the Cuban government (it must necessarily be outside
of Cuba), to clarify the circumstances of his death and of the
young man Harold Cepero who was accompanying him on the trip. We
have reasons and evidence for it.
ZENIT: What is the present situation in Cuba and of its
citizens? How do Cubans live?
--Ofelia Acevedo: In the main, Cuba today is a poor country.
Cubans, and Im referring to ordinary Cubans, suffer great material
and spiritual want. A great many of them survive economically
thanks to the existing corruption. Cubans cannot develop a plan for
their lives, because in my country any private initiative can be
declared illegal when the Government so wishes. They live submerged
in a culture of fear and the social differences are enormous. Those
with political power have all the rights and all the resources;
they are hugely rich while the great majority of the people have
nothing or almost nothing.
ZENIT: What do you think is the situation of human rights and of
freedom of expression?
--Ofelia Acevedo: There is a grave situation of violation of
human rights in Cuba, and there are no prospects of a solution,
precisely because the government itself doesnt recognize the
problem and feels attacked by the simple mention of the
subject.
There is no freedom of expression or free access to the Internet
or the media, which is totally controlled by the State, although
the people pay for them. Any independent manifestation for freedom
of expression is controlled and can be punished by long years in
prison. Education is controlled by the State. The health system is
precarious. People dont have mobility because of the lack of
transport and unreachable prices. It is difficult to be able to
feed the family every day, although the greatest discrimination is
the political. For people who dont submit to the control of the
group that has the power, it is as if they didnt exist.
ZENIT: How do Cubans who live on the Island see the Church? And
those who have had to leave the country?
--Ofelia Acevedo: Wherever citizens arent free, one cannot speak
of true religious freedom. The Church pilgrimaging in Cuba is part
of our people, which it has served evangelizing, educating, helping
the poor, the sick, prisoners and their families. For years the
Church has endured and endures the regimes interference,
repression, contempt, control and attempts to de-Christianize our
culture.
ZENIT: Is it true that the Government is promoting some reforms?
Which ones?
--Ofelia Acevedo: The Cuban regime has failed as a political
system. As ever, the Government must be maintained with the
economic aid of other countries or Governments that are more or
less akin.
The so-called Rauls changes undertaken by the regime, marking a
difference with its predecessor in power, are reforms of some laws.
The most important, for those who live inside, is the Migratory
Reform, because to flee the country has been the way of salvation,
which Cubans have pursued, to free themselves from their
distressing reality. The other most trumpeted reform is the new law
on foreign investment, which gives facilities to foreign merchants
to establish businesses with the Government. Oswaldo Paya called
these bit by bit reforms, dressed as changes, Fraudulent Changes,
because in reality they consist in legitimizing and consolidating
the most merciless inequality, guaranteeing the privileges of the
powerful and their new rich status, while the regime insists that
it will not implement political changes or be open to rights. And
we all know that economic reforms have never brought rights and
freedom.
ZENIT: Is a process of democratization possible?
--Ofelia Acevedo: Yes, a process of democratization is possible,
as a consequence of a process of liberation that can take place
through strength of spirit and solidarity, the only thing capable
of overcoming the culture of fear which for years has reduced the
individual and the society to defenselessness and impotence.
The Christian Liberation Movement (CLM) has worked and works
inside and outside of Cuba, together with a great part of the
Opposition, to achieve real changes towards freedom and rights. The
legal initiative with the referendum of the Varela Plan, has been
and is up to now the greatest citizen mobilization in favor of
fundamental rights, made concrete by the Cuban people. The CLM has
a rich history of concrete projects developed with the citizens,
helping them exact through peaceful ways their fundamental rights.
On May 10, 2006, Oswaldo Paya presented to all Cubans, on behalf of
the Coordinating Council of the Christian Liberation Movement, a
political plan based on the Social Doctrine of the Church, the
program All Cubans, which is a viable political alternative to
begin the changes towards democracy. It was elaborated with the
contributions of thousands of Cubans who live inside and outsider
of Cuba, who worked with much love to elaborate it.
ZENIT: What message do you think it is important to give?
--Ofelia Acevedo: That it be recognized that we, Cubans, have a
right to rights, that we want to live in peace, in the lovely land
that God gave us. We want to live without fears, without
exclusions, without lies. We want to be able to participate freely
and democratically in political decisions that affect our lives and
those of our families. We must all rebuild with our effort and
ingenuity our destroyed country. We, Cubans, are also human beings
and we want to count on the solidarity and fraternity of people of
good will around the world. Support the Cuban people.
(May 13, 2014) Innovative Media Inc.
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The Last Communist City
A visit to the dystopian Havana that tourists never see
City Journal, California, Spring 2014Michael J. Totten
Ted Soqui/Corbis
Downtown Old Havana, just blocks from the capitol
Neill Blomkamps 2013 science-fiction film Elysium, starring Matt
Damon and Jodie Foster, takes place in Los Angeles, circa 2154. The
wealthy have moved into an orbiting luxury satellitethe Elysium of
the titlewhile the wretched majority of humans remain in squalor on
Earth. The film works passably as an allegory for its directors
native South Africa, where racial apartheid was enforced for nearly
50 years, but its a rather cartoonish vision of the American
future. Some critics panned the film for pushing a socialist
message. Elysiums dystopian world, however, is a near-perfect
metaphor for an actually existing socialist nation just 90 miles
from Florida.
Ive always wanted to visit Cubanot because Im nostalgic for a
botched utopian fantasy but because I wanted to experience
Communism firsthand. When I finally got my chance several months
ago, I was startled to discover how much the Cuban reality lines up
with Blomkamps dystopia. In Cuba, as in Elysium, a small group of
economic and political elites live in a rarefied world high above
the impoverished masses. Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels, authors of
The Communist Manifesto, would be appalled by the misery endured by
Cubas ordinary citizens and shocked by the relatively luxurious
lifestyles of those who keep the poor down by force.
Many tourists return home convinced that the Cuban model
succeeds where the Soviet model failed. But thats because they
never left Cubas Elysium.
I had to lie to get into the country. Customs and immigration
officials at Havanas tiny, dreary Jos Mart International Airport
would have evicted me had they known I was a journalist. But not
even a total-surveillance police state can keep track of everything
and everyone all the time, so I slipped through. It felt like a
victory. Havana, the capital, is clean and safe, but theres nothing
to buy. It feels less natural and organic than any city Ive ever
visited. Initially, I found Havana pleasant, partly because I wasnt
supposed to be there and partly because I felt as though I had
journeyed backward in time. But the city wasnt pleasant for long,
and it certainly isnt pleasant for the people living there. It
hasnt been so for decades.
Outside its small tourist sector, the rest of the city looks as
though it suffered a catastrophe on the scale of Hurricane Katrina
or the Indonesian tsunami. Roofs have collapsed. Walls are
splitting apart. Window glass is missing. Paint has long vanished.
Its eerily dark at night, almost entirely free of automobile
traffic. I walked for miles through an enormous swath of
destruction without seeing a single tourist. Most foreigners dont
know that this other Havana exists, though it makes up most of the
citytourist buses avoid it, as do taxis arriving from the airport.
It is filled with people struggling to eke out a life in the
ruins.
Marxists have ruled Cuba for more than a half-century now. Fidel
Castro, Argentine guerrilla Che Guevara, and their 26th of July
Movement forced Fulgencio Batista from power in 1959 and replaced
his standard-issue authoritarian regime with a Communist one. The
revolutionaries promised liberal democracy, but Castro secured
absolute power and flattened the country with a Marxist-Leninist
battering ram. The objectives were total equality and the abolition
of money; the methods were total surveillance and political
prisons. The state slogan, then and now, is socialism or death.
Cuba was one of the worlds richest countries before Castro
destroyed itand the wealth wasnt just in the hands of a tiny elite.
Contrary to the myth spread by the revolution, wrote Alfred Cuzan,
a professor of political science at the University of West Florida,
Cubas wealth before 1959 was not the purview of a privileged few. .
. . Cuban society was as much of a middle-class society as
Argentina and Chile. In 1958, Cuba had a higher per-capita income
than much of Europe. More Americans lived in Cuba prior to Castro
than Cubans lived in the United States, Cuban exile Humberto
Fontova, author of a series of books about Castro and Guevara,
tells me. This was at a time when Cubans were perfectly free to
leave the country with all their property. In the 1940s and 1950s,
my parents could get a visa for the United States just by asking.
They visited the United States and voluntarily returned to Cuba.
More Cubans vacationed in the U.S. in 1955 than Americans
vacationed in Cuba. Americans considered Cuba a tourist playground,
but even more Cubans considered the U.S. a tourist playground.
Havana was home to a lot of that prosperity, as is evident in the
extraordinary classical European architecture that still fills the
city. Poor nations do notcannotbuild such grand or elegant
cities.
But rather than raise the poor up, Castro and Guevara shoved the
rich and the middle class down. The result was collapse. Between
1960 and 1976, Cuzan says, Cubas per capita GNP in constant dollars
declined at an average annual rate of almost half a percent. The
country thus has the tragic distinction of being the only one in
Latin America to have experienced a drop in living standards over
the period.
Communism destroyed Cubas prosperity, but the country
experienced unprecedented pain and deprivation when Moscow cut off
its subsidies after the fall of the Soviet Union. Journalist and
longtime Cuba resident Mark Frank writes vividly about this period
in his book Cuban Revelations. The lights were off more than they
were on, and so too was the water. . . . Food was scarce and other
consumer goods almost nonexistent. . . . Doctors set broken bones
without anesthesia. . . . Worm dung was the only fertilizer. He
quotes a nurse who tells him that Cubans used to make hamburgers
out of grapefruit rinds and banana peels; we cleaned with lime and
bitter orange and used the black powder in batteries for hair dye
and makeup. It was a haunting time, Frank wrote, that still sends
shivers down Cubans collective spines.
By the 1990s, Cuba needed economic reform as much as a gunshot
victim needs an ambulance. Castro wasnt about to reform himself and
his ideology out of existence, but he had to open up at least a
small piece of the country to the global economy. So the Soviet
subsidy was replaced by vacationers, mostly from Europe and Latin
America, who brought in much-needed hard currency. Arriving
foreigners werent going to tolerate receiving ration cards for
foodas the locals doso the island also needed some restaurants. The
regime thus allowed paladarsrestaurants inside private homesto
open, though no one from outside the family could work in them.
(That would be exploitative.) Around the same time, government-run
dollar stores began selling imported and relatively luxurious goods
to non-Cubans. Thus was Cubas quasi-capitalist bubble created.
When the ailing Fidel Castro ceded power to his less doctrinaire
younger brother Ral in 2008, the quasi-capitalist bubble expanded,
but the economy remains heavily socialist. In the United States, we
have a minimum wage; Cuba has a maximum wage$20 a month for almost
every job in the country. (Professionals such as doctors and
lawyers can make a whopping $10 extra a month.) Sure, Cubans get
free health care and education, but as Cuban exile and Yale
historian Carlos Eire says, All slave owners need to keep their
slaves healthy and ensure that they have the skills to perform
their tasks.
Even employees inside the quasi-capitalist bubble dont get paid
more. The government contracts with Spanish companies such as Meli
International to manage Havanas hotels. Before accepting its
contract, Meli said that it wanted to pay workers a decent wage.
The Cuban government said fine, so the company pays $8$10 an hour.
But Meli doesnt pay its employees directly. Instead, the firm gives
the compensation to the government, which then pays the workersbut
only after pocketing most of the money. I asked several Cubans in
my hotel if that arrangement is really true. All confirmed that it
is. The workers dont get $8$10 an hour; they get 67 cents a daya
childs allowance.
The maximum wage is just the beginning. Not only are most Cubans
not allowed to have money; theyre hardly allowed to have things.
The police expend extraordinary manpower ensuring that everyone
required to live miserably at the bottom actually does live
miserably at the bottom. Dissident blogger and author Yoani Snchez
describes the harassment sarcastically in her book Havana Real:
Buses are stopped in the middle of the street and bags inspected to
see if we are carrying some cheese, a lobster, or some dangerous
shrimp hidden among our personal belongings. Perhaps the saddest
symptom of Cubas state-enforced poverty is the prostitution
epidemica problem the government officially denies and even forbids
foreign journalists based in Havana to mention. Some Cuban
prostitutes are professionals, but many are average womenwives,
girlfriends, sisters, motherswho solicit johns once or twice a year
for a little extra money to make ends meet.
The government defends its maximum wage by arguing that lifes
necessities are either free or so deeply subsidized in Cuba that
citizens dont need very much money. (Che Guevara and his sophomoric
hangers-on hoped to rid Cuba of money entirely, but couldnt quite
pull it off.) The free and subsidized goods and services, though,
are as dismal as everything else on the island. Citizens who take
public transportation to workwhich includes almost everyone, since
Cuba hardly has any carsmust wait in lines for up to two hours each
way to get on a bus. And commuters must pay for their ride out of
their $20 a month. At least commuter buses are cheap. By contrast,
a one-way ticket to the other side of the island costs several
months pay; a round-trip costs almost an annual salary.
As for the free health care, patients have to bring their own
medicine, their own bedsheets, and even their own iodine to the
hospital. Most of these items are available only on the illegal
black market, moreover, and must be paid for in hard currencyand
sometimes theyre not available at all. Cuba has sent so many
doctors abroadespecially to Venezuela, in exchange for oilthat the
island is now facing a personnel shortage. I dont want to say there
are no doctors left, says an American man who married a Cuban woman
and has been back dozens of times, but the island is now almost
empty. I saw a banner once, hanging from somebodys balcony, that
said, DO I NEED TO GO TO VENEZUELA FOR MY HEADACHE?
Housing is free, too, but so what? Americans can get houses in
abandoned parts of Detroit for only $500which makes them
practically freebut no one wants to live in a crumbling house in a
gone-to-the-weeds neighborhood. I saw adequate housing in the Cuban
countryside, but almost everyone in Havana lives in a Detroit-style
wreck, with caved-in roofs, peeling paint, and doors hanging on
their hinges at odd angles.
Education is free, and the country is effectively 100 percent
literate, thanks to Castros campaign to teach rural people to read
shortly after he took power. But the regime has yet to make a
persuasive argument that a totalitarian police state was required
to get the literacy rate from 80 percent to 100 percent. After all,
almost every other country in the Western Hemisphere managed the
same feat at the same time, without the brutal repression.
Cuba is short of everything but air and sunshine. In her book,
Snchez describes an astonishing appearance by Ral Castro on
television, during which he boasted that the economy was doing so
well now that everyone could drink milk. To me, Snchez wrote,
someone who grew up on a gulp of orange-peel tea, the news seemed
incredible. She never thought shed see the day. I believed we would
put a man on the moon, take first place among all nations in the
upcoming Olympics, or discover a vaccine for AIDS before we would
put the forgotten morning caf con leche, coffee with milk, within
reach of every person on this island. And yet Rals promise of milk
for all was deleted from the transcription of the speech in Granma,
the Communist Party newspaper. He went too far: there was not
enough milk to ensure that everyone got some.
Even things as simple as cooking oil and soap are black-market
goods. Individuals who, by some illegal means or another, manage to
acquire such desirables will stand on street corners and whisper
cooking oil or sugar to passersby, and then sell the product on the
sly out of their living room. If theyre caught, both sellers and
buyers will be arrested, of course, but the authorities cant put
the entire country in jail. Everyone cheats, says Eire. One must in
order to survive. The verb to steal has almost vanished from usage.
Breaking the rules is necessary. Resolv mi problema, which means I
solved my problem, is the Cuban way of referring to stealing or
cheating or selling on the black market.
Cuba has two economies now: the national Communist economy for
the majority; and a quasi-capitalist one for foreigners and the
elite. Each has its own currency: the Communist economy uses the
Cuban peso, and the capitalist bubble uses the convertible peso.
Cuban pesos are worth nothing. They cant be converted to dollars or
euros. Foreigners cant even spend them in Cuba. The convertible
pesos are pegged to the U.S. dollar, but banks and hotels pay only
87 Cuban cents for each onethe government takes 13 percent off the
top. The rigged exchange rate is an easy way to shake down
foreigners without most noticing. It also enables the state to
drain Cuban exiles. A million Cuban-Americans live in south
Florida, and another half-million live elsewhere in the United
States. They send hundreds of millions of dollars a year to family
members still on the island. The government gets its 13 percent
instantaneously and most of the remaining 87 percent later because
almost every place that someone can spend the money is owned by the
state.
Castro created the convertible peso mainly to seal off Cubas
little capitalist bubble from the ragged majority in the Communist
economy. Foreign journalists report on the creation of ever more
luxurious hotels, golf courses, and marinas, Eire says, but fail to
highlight the very simple and brutal fact that these facilities
will be enjoyed strictly by foreigners and the Castronoid power
elite. Apartheid, discrimination, and segregation are deliberately
built in to the entire tourist industry and, in fact, are essential
to its maintenance and survival.
Until a few years ago, ordinary Cubans werent allowed even to
set foot inside hotels or restaurants unless they worked there,
lest they find themselves exposed to the seductive lifestyles of
the decadent bourgeoisie from capitalist nations like Mexico,
Chile, and Spain. (I cite these three countries because most of the
tourists I ran into spoke Spanish to one another.) A few years ago,
the government stopped physically blocking Cubans from hotels and
restaurants, partly because Ral is a little more relaxed about
these things than Fidel but also because most Cubans cant afford to
go to these places, anyway.
A single restaurant meal in Havana costs an entire months
salary. One night in a hotel costs five months salary. A
middle-class tourist from abroad can easily spend more in one day
than most Cubans make in a year. I had dinner with four Americans
at one of the paladars. The only Cubans in the restaurant were the
cooks and the waiters. The bill for the five of us came to about
$100. Thats five months salary.
The Floridita bar in downtown Havana was one of Ernest
Hemingways hangouts when he lived there (from 1940 until 1960, the
year after Castro came to power). He was in the Floridita all the
timeand, in a way, he still is. Theres a statue of him sitting on
his favorite bar stool, grinning at todays patrons. The dcor is
exactly the same, but theres a big difference: everyone in the bar
these days is a tourist. Cubans arent strictly banned any more, but
a single bottle of beer costs a weeks salary. No one would blow his
dismal paycheck on that.
If he were still around, Hemingway would be stunned to see what
has happened to his old haunt. Cubans certainly arent happy about
it, but the tourists are another storyespecially the worlds
remaining Marxoid fellow travelers, who show up in Havana by the
planeload. Such people are clearly unteachable. I got into an
argument with one at the Floridita when I pointed out that none of
the patrons were Cuban. There are places in the United States that
some cant afford, she retorted. Sure, but come on. Not even the
poorest Americans have to pay a weeks wage for a beer.
Cubans in the hotel industry see how foreigners live. The
government cant hide it without shutting the hotels down entirely,
and it cant do that because it needs the money. I changed a few
hundred American dollars into convertible pesos at the front desk.
The woman at the counter didnt blink when I handed over my cashshe
does this all daybut when she first got the job, it must have been
shattering to make such an exchange. Thats why the regime wants to
keep foreigners and locals apart.
Tourists tip waiters, taxi drivers, tour guides, and
chambermaids in hard currency, and to stave off a revolt from these
people, the government lets them keep the additional money, so
theyre rich compared with everyone else. In fact, theyre an elite
class enjoying privilegesenough income to afford a cell phone, go
out to restaurants and bars, log on to the Internet once in a
whilethat ordinary Cubans cant even dream of. I asked a few people
how much chambermaids earn in tips, partly so that I would know how
much to leave on my dresser and also to get an idea of just how
crazy Cuban economics are. Supposedly, the maids get about $1 per
day for each room. If they clean an average of 30 rooms a day and
work five days a week, theyll bring in $600 a month30 times what
everyone else gets. All animals are equal, George Orwell wrote in
Animal Farm, his allegory of Stalinism, but some animals are more
equal than others. Only in the funhouse of a Communist country is
the cleaning lady rich compared with the lawyer. Yet elite Cubans
are impoverished compared with the middle class and even the poor
outside Cuba.
About half the dinners I had were acceptable, and a few were
outstanding, but the breakfast buffets in my hotel, the Habana
Libre, were uniformly disgusting. Bacon was half-raw, the sausage
made from God-knows-what. The cheese was discolored, the bread hard
and flavorless. Yet the grim offering was advertised in the lobby
as exquisite. Maybe if youve spent your entire life on a Cuban
ration card, its exquisite, but otherwiseno. The question wasnt
what I wanted to eat, but what I thought I could eat without my
stomach rising up in rebellion.
Leftists often talk about food deserts in Western cities, where
the poor supposedly lack options to buy affordable and nutritious
food. If they want to see a real food desert, they should come to
Havana. I went to a grocery store across the street from the
exclusive Meli Cohiba Hotel, where the lucky few with access to
hard currency shop to supplement their meager state rations. The
store was in what passes for a mall in Havanaa cluttered concrete
box, shabby compared even with malls Ive visited in Iraq. It
carried rice, beans, frozen chicken, milk, bottled water, booze, a
small bit of cheese, minuscule amounts of rancid-looking meat, some
low-end cookies and chips from Braziland thats it. No produce,
cereal, no cans of soup, no pasta. A 711 has a far better
selection, and this is a place for Cubas rich to shop. I heard, but
cannot confirm, that potatoes would not be available anywhere in
Cuba for another four months.
Shortly before I left Havana, I met a Cuban-American man and his
wife visiting from Miami. Is this your first time here? he asked. I
nodded. What do you think? I paused before answering. I wasnt
worried that I would offend him. He lives in Miami, so his opinions
of Cuba are probably little different from mine. But we were in a
crowded place. Plenty of Cubans could hear us, including the
police. They wouldnt arrest me if I insulted the government, but I
didnt want to make a scene, either. Well, I finally said. Its . . .
interesting. He belted out a great belly laugh, and I smiled. His
wife scowled.
I hate this place! she near-shouted. Fidel himself could have
heard, and she wouldnt have cared. She wasnt going to be quiet
about it. Tourists who visit Cuba and spend all their time inside
the bubble for the haves could leave the country oblivious to the
savage inequalities and squalor beyond the hotel zone, but this
woman visits her husbands family in the real Cuba and knows what
its really like.
His family is from here, she said, but mines not, and I will
never come back here. Not while its like this. I feel like Im in
Iraq or Afghanistan. I visited Iraq seven times during the war and
didnt have the heart to tell her that Baghdad, while ugly and
dangerous, is vastly freer and more prosperous these days than
Havana. Anyway, Iraq is precisely the kind of country with which
Castro wants you to compare Cuba. Its the wrong comparison. So are
impoverished Third World countries like Guatemala and Haiti. Cuba
isnt a developing country; its a once-developed country destroyed
by its own government. Havana was a magnificent Western city once.
It should be compared not with Baghdad, Kabul, Guatemala City, or
Port-au-Prince but with formerly Communist Budapest, Prague, or
Berlin. Havanas history mirrors theirs, after all.
An advertisement in my hotel claimed that the Sierra Maestra
restaurant on the top floor is probably the best in Havana. I had
saved the Sierra Maestra for my last night and rode the elevator up
to the 25th floor. I had my first and only steak on the island and
washed it down with Chilean red wine. The tiny bill set me back no
more than having a pizza delivered at home would, but the total
nevertheless exceeded an entire months local salary. Not
surprisingly, I ate alone. Every other table was empty. The staff
waited on me as if I were the president of some faraway minor
republic.
I stared at the city below out the window as I sipped my red
wine. Havana looked like a glittering metropolis in the dark. Night
washed away the rot and the grime and revealed nothing but city
lights. It occurred to me that Havana will look mostly the sameat
night, anywayafter it is liberated from the tyrannical imbeciles
who govern it now. I tried to pretend that I was looking out on a
Cuba that was already free and that the tables around me were
occupiedby local people, not foreignersbut the fantasy faded fast.
I was all alone at the top of Cubas Elysium and yearning for
homewhere capitalisms inequalities are not so jagged and stark.
Michael J. Totten is a City Journal contributing editor and the
author of five books, including The Road to Fatima Gate.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Denuncian restricciones a campesinos de MarielEn el programa de
Radio Mart Cuba al Da, el periodista independiente Moiss Rodrguez
denunci las restricciones y el temor de los agricultores que se les
quiten sus tierras.Martinoticias.com, mayo 13, 2014
En el programa de Radio Mart Cuba al Da, el periodista
independiente Moiss Rodrguez denunci las restricciones a las que
son sometidos los agricultores que viven cercanos al puerto de
Mariel y el temor de los pobladores que se les quiten sus
tierras.
En la zona especial de desarrollo del puerto del Mariel no les
permiten ampliar sus terrenos, ya que ello ira contra los planes
del gobierno de crear all el puerto internacional que en la
actualidad construyen los brasileos.
A todos los campesinos, que se encuentran, que tienen sus
tierras dentro de esa zona de Mariel les han advertido que no deben
modificar las lindes de sus terrenos, no deben construir viviendas
o cuartos de desahogos, y no deben sembrar nada ms que cultivos de
ciclo corto, precis el periodista.
Segn explic, los campesinos no pueden cultivar lo que quieren en
su propia tierra ya que contravendra las disposiciones que las
autoridades han establecido en esa zona portuaria.
Tambin, seala Rodrguez que a muchos campesinos se les dio como
compensacin nuevas viviendas para que abandonaran el lugar, lo cual
fue visto en su momento como un buen gesto por parte de las
autoridades pero segn recalc, desde que se fueron los brasileos
todo ha cambiado y ahora los amenazan con las restricciones.
Source: Denuncian restricciones a campesinos de Mariel
http://www.martinoticias.com/content/restringencampesinos-mariel/35066.html
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Red social La Cubanada ofrecer anuncios y bsquedas sin
InternetPosted on 13 mayo, 2014 Por Redaccin CafFuerte
La red social LaCubanada anunci la ampliacin de sus servicios
destinados a los telfonos mviles dentro de Cuba, sin necesidad de
conexin a internet.
A partir de ahora los residentes de la isla pueden colocar un
mensaje de voz en el muro de la red social LaCubanada.com, anunciar
compras o ventas de productos y hacer bsquedas en internet.
Cualquier persona en Cuba con un telfono celular puede acceder al
servicio y no es necesario estar registrado al portal.
Los interesados en Cuba deben hacer una llamada rpida o perdida
al nmero +4420 35147225, y se les llamar de vuelta de manera
gratuita para que puedan escoger el servicio deseado. Desde fuera
de Cuba, el nmero a marcar es +1305 709 2148.
Las respuestas que los usuarios en Cuba reciban a sus anuncios
publicitarios, llamadas de voz o bsquedas, llegarn mediante un
mensaje de texto, indic un comunicado de la empresa.
La nueva herramienta de conexin se ofrece de forma totalmente
gratuita y ha sido desarrollada en colaboracin directa con
CasienCuba.com, una empresa que ofrece una amplia gama de servicios
a los cubanos dentro y fuera de Cuba, entre ellos recarga de saldos
a mviles, tarjetas de prepago, envos de sms y llamadas directas a
Cuba.
LaCubanada.com fue fundada en septiembre de 2011 por dos
cubanos, Clive Rudd Fernndez, residente en Londres, Reino Unido y
Alexis Ferrer, residente en Estocolmo, Suecia.
Source: Red social La Cubanada ofrecer anuncios y bsquedas sin
Internet | Caf Fuerte
http://cafefuerte.com/cuba/csociedad/14358-red-social-la-cubanada-ofrecera-anuncios-y-busquedas-sin-internet/
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Crisis del comercio en la capital[13-05-2014 15:44:14]Aime
Cabrera, Corresponsal
(www.miscelaneasdecuba.net).- Qu difcil se hace llegar a un
centro de servicio estatal como puede ser un cine, un teatro, un
hospital o una escuela y entrar en un bao que huela a limpio; lo ms
probable es que no sea necesario preguntar dnde est, por el
inconfundible hedor. En menor grado sucede en las casas
particulares cuyos inquilinos tienen que descargar con cubos de
agua por la falta de herrajes y lo caro de su comercializacin. Por
estos das ha sido noticia que la produccin de herrajes y su venta a
la poblacin ser estable en el segundo semestre del ao.
Ms de dos millones de piezas utilizadas en plomera sern vendidas
a precios razonables y se priorizarn en las tiendas de materiales
de la construccin. Estos almacenes conocidos tambin con el nombre
de rastros, estn ubicados en cada municipio capitalino y, quienes
solo pueden pagar los precios de las mercancas que en ellos se
expenden, dudan de que haya estabilidad comercial.
Es el cuento de nunca acabar. Llevo meses y no termino con la
casa. Siempre falta algo. Llega el que tiene dinero y se lleva todo
lo que hay (en el rastro) para despus revenderlo o hacer ms caro el
trabajo cuando pagas mano de obra y lo que no tienes. No he podido
terminar la plomera, destaca un residente de Centro Habana.
Por eso hay cierta duda en la poblacin ante lo planteado por la
jefa del Grupo de Venta Minorista de Productos no Alimenticios en
reciente conferencia de prensa en cuanto a que los herrajes sern
vendidos solo en las 328 tiendas especializadas , ya que as la
poblacin sabr donde los podr adquirir.
Mientras que la viceministra primera del Ministerio de Comercio
interior (MINCIN) quien estaba presente en este encuentro con la
prensa puntualiz que cuando en un futuro la produccin cubra la
demanda, podra extenderse la venta de los tiles de lnea econmica a
las dems redes de comercio.
La viceministra recalc adems que se han adoptado medidas y
restricciones por parte del Estado y el propio ministerio, el cual
debe velar porque en el radio de venta de esos surtidos no se
comercialicen ilegalmente. O sea, que el vendedor y su
administrador van a vender los herrajes sin caer en la tentacin de
aceptar el pago de comisiones que desembolsillan los revendedores;
y dejarlos para la venta de quienes los necesiten en realidad: eso
es difcil de creer.
Si enredados y largos son los cargos de las jefaturas, ms
enrevesado an es el proceso de elaboracin y entrega de estas
mercancas. El Grupo Empresarial de la Industria Sideromecnica
(GESIME) explic a los periodistas que estos elementos que sern
fabricados por la empresa Industrial de Herraje (perteneciente al
Grupo) se comercializarn por su empresa mayorista, DIVEP, las cual
los ofertar a las Empresas Universales de Comercio Mayorista del
MINCIN, las que a su vez los distribuirn a la red minorista de
comercio.
En el caso de las producciones concernientes a grifera y
herrajes, se pretende aumentar las mismas para contribuir al
programa nacional de Ahorro de Agua, debido a los salideros y otras
roturas existentes para las cuales no hay soluciones inmediatas por
entidades afines a esta problemtica.
En la seccin cartas a la redaccin del peridico Granma del
viernes 9 de mayo fue publicada la queja de un vecino del barrio de
Buenavista en el municipio Playa quien considera una indolencia el
salidero de agua que recorre varias calles de esta localidad desde
hace 10 aos.
Por otra parte, la vicetitular del MINCIN admiti que hay otras
mercancas en falta como sucede en la actualidad con el papel
higinico debido a incumplimientos en la entrega, por parte de la
industria, ya sea por baja produccin como por problemas de
transportacin.
No sucede solo con estos renglones. Otras afectaciones estn
dadas por la falta de jabn de tocador y de lavar, as como del
cepillo y la pasta dental, en las tiendas con precios de venta en
la moneda nacional, inferiores a los de los mismos productos cuando
son vendidos en las tiendas recaudadoras de divisas.
En las primeras se pueden ver los frascos de detergentes lquidos
para fregar y los m
