BY VITO ECHEVARRÍA

For years, Canada has treated Cuba as itsquasi-exclusive market, taking advantageof the fact that U.S. companies couldn’t

trade with the Cuba because of the embargo.Even after 2000, when Washington amended

the embargo to allow cash sales of U.S. food andagricultural commodities to the island, Canadastill managed to hold onto its position at one ofCuba’s main food suppliers.

But last month, as Canada’s dollar reachedparity with the U.S. dollar for the first time sincethe 1970s and is now worth a record $1.05,Canadian exporters are wondering how they’llcompete against cheaper U.S. food exports.

“It is quite clear that a rising Canadian dollarmakes our exports less competitive, creating aweaker profile for our commodities,” says Marie-Claude Landry, marketing and sales director ofMulti-Portions Inc., a Quebec food exporter.

“Canadian producers will have to keep prices

low enough not to lose sales,” Landry toldCubaNews. “Our strong dollar makes Canadianexporters less competitive for products offeredby our neighbors south of the border. The riseof our loonie is a reflection of a strong economy,but it’s also a reflection of weakness in the U.S.dollar, which has been falling against mostmajor currencies.”

Multi-Portions distributes 80% of its meat andpork products under the Dalisa trademark andseveral private brands, in major Canadian super-market chains including Provigo, Maxi, Lob-laws, Costco, Métro-Richelieu, IGA and Sobeys.

Regarding Cuba sales, she said “we have soldpork commodity products. However, we are notcurrently selling” to Cuba, whose limited hardcurrency reserves have always forced it to beprice-conscious with imported food purchases.

Another Canadian outfit, Export Packers Co.Ltd. of Brampton, Ontario, isn’t doing much

BY LARRY LUXNER

For the 16th year in a row, the UnitedNations General Assembly has overwhelm-ingly voted to condemn the U.S. embargo

against Cuba.This year’s tally was the most lopsided ever,

with 184 countries supporting the Oct. 30 reso-lution and only four — the United States, Israel,Palau and the Marshall Islands — opposing it.One country abstained: Micronesia.

Interestingly, the combined population of thethree Pacific island nations that didn’t supportthe resolution is 219,000 — slightly less thanthat of the Miami suburb of Hialeah.

As far as Israel, which gets more than $3 bil-lion in annual economic and military assistancefrom Washington, the last thing it wants to do isoffend the Bush administration by opposing itsCuba policy. Even so, the Jewish state has exten-sive business ties with Havana, with privateIsraeli companies investing heavily in Cubanagriculture and real-estate ventures.

That leaves the United States virtually alonein justifying its 45-year-old embargo.

Not even Poland, Hungary or the Czech Re-public — the three countries praised by Presi-dent Bush as “vital sources of support and en-couragement to Cuba’s brave democratic oppo-sition” — support current U.S. policy. And thesingle abstention by Micronesia is a far cry from1992, when the UN condemned the embargo bya vote of 59-3, with 71 countries abstaining.

“The United States has ignored, with arro-gance and political blindness, the 15 resolutionsadopted by this General Assembly calling forthe lifting of the blockade against Cuba,” saidCuban Foreign Minister Felipe Pérez Roque.

The UN vote in New York came little morethan a week after Cuba’s one-party islandwideelections, and only six days after a speech byPresident Bush in Washington that puzzledmost people and pleased only a few.

Bush surprised everyone by giving his first

In the News

Post-embargo tradeDan O’Flaherty, Tim Deal and Bob Museponder the possibilities .................Page 3

PAC targets freshmenUS-Cuba Democracy PAC courts newestlawmakers with donations ............Page 4

Cuba diversifiesChina, Venezuela are key to Cuba’s foreignpolicy, but so are other nations ....Page 6

Cohibas in CanadaIt’s easy to find Cuban cigars in Toronto,but they’re not cheap at all ...........Page 7

NewsmakersGeorge McGovern, the Democrat who ranagainst President Nixon in 1972, says ourcurrent Cuba policy stinks ............Page 8

‘Los dolorinos’Author Patrick Symmes tells CubaNewshow and why he tracked down Fidel Cas-tro’s prep-school classmates ......Page 10

Death takes a holidayAfter years of executions, Castro regimeputs death penalty on hold .........Page 11

Business briefsDP World studies $250m Mariel terminal;New hotel chain launched ..........Page 12

Provinces: GranmaThe final installment in our long-runningseries on Cuba’s provinces .........Page 14

www.cubanews.com

Vol. 15, No. 11 November 2007

See Bush, page 2

See Canada, page 7

CubaNews (ISSN 1073-7715) is published monthlyby Luxner News Inc. © 2007. All rights reserved.Subscriptions: $429 for one year, $800 for two years.For editorial inquires, please call (301) 452-1105or send an e-mail to: larry@cubanews.com.

UN votes 184-4 to condemn U.S. embargoas Bush speech urges more of the same

Rising loonie makes it harder for Canadato compete with U.S. food exports to Cuba

2 CubaNews ❖ November 2007

major policy address on Cuba in four yearsnot in the White House or Miami, where pre-vious speeches were given, but at the StateDepartment, flanked by families of dissidents.

Even though an ailing Fidel Castro steppeddown from power more than a year ago, Bushpromised that the hardline stance he adoptedwhen taking office would continue until heleaves the White House in early 2009.

In his address, Bush proposed allowingnon-governmental organizations and faith-based groups to donate computers to theCuban people — but only if the Castro regimegives them unrestricted Internet access.

He also countered Cuba’s offer of medicalschool training to disadvantaged Americanyouth by offering Cuban students a collegeeducation. But Bush conceded these werenon-starters.

“We’ve made similar offers before, butthey’ve been rejected out of hand by theregime,” he said.

PARTS OF BUSH SPEECH SHOWN ON CUBAN TV

Criticized as nothing new, the president’sspeech was reprinted by Cuba’s CommunistParty newspaper Granma, with only a fewdetails edited out; in addition, a 15-minutesegment of the speech was broadcast on TV, ahighly unusual move that had even veteranCuba-watchers puzzled.

That Granma would rip the speech apartwas no surprise, butit also earned thescorn of many U.S.newspapers largeand small — rang-ing from USA Todayto California’s Ven-tura County Star —which see currentU.S. policy on Cubaas hypocrisy, espe-cially compared tothe positive tiesWashington seeks to cultivate with two othercommunist regimes, Vietnam and China.

In an Oct. 25 editorial titled “Same old,same old,” the Baltimore Sun accused Bush of“conveniently ignoring the fact that U.S. policytoward Cuba has done little to spur a revolt”on the island of 11.3 million inhabitants.

“Decades of isolation, and his administra-tion’s toughening of the policy, haven’t less-ened Fidel Castro’s hold on power or dimin-shed the influence of his brother Raúl, nowserving as the de facto president since Mr.Castro took ill a year ago,” it said. “Indeed,the only Cubans who have benefited fromU.S. policy are the thousands of refugees whoare given a free pass to live here.”

Said the Los Angeles Times: “Bush may betoo unimaginative to try a new policy towardCuba, but the next president shouldn’t be. Forstarters, the U.S. should allow Ameri-cans totravel freely to Cuba, as the only reliable wayto circumvent Castro’s information blockade... the indiscriminate U.S. embargo, however,only hurts the Cuban poor.”

Sarah Stephens, director of the Center forDemocracy in the Americas, called the Bushaddress “ill-informed and unwise.”

“There is a debate already starting in Cubaabout its future, and the government isalready exploring reforms,” she said. “Whilewe don’t know how extensive these reformsmight be, we do know that the president’s pol-icy keeps the U.S. on the sidelines as thisdebate takes place on the island. Our allies inEurope and the Hemisphere have a very dif-ferent policy, because they know better.”

of Miami’s Institute for Cuban and Cuban-American Studies (ICCAS), said a key audi-ence of the speech was State Departmentemployees.

Suchlicki told CubaNews that Bush is un-happy with the State Department’s implemen-tation of his Cuba policy; the presidentbelieves State has not done enough to per-suade allies to follow Washington’s directionon Cuba or help dissidents on the island.

“He doesn’t want the status quo,” Suchlickisaid. “He wants to push the envelope.”

MAKING OVERTURES TO THE CUBAN MILITARY

In his talk, Bush encouraged dissidents onthe island to redouble their efforts and Cu-bans — even those in the military, police andgovernment — to “rise up to demand liberty.”

Brian Latell, a senior analyst at ICCAS andan expert on the Cuban military, said theBush speech marked the first time in the en-tire history of U.S. relations with Cuba since1959 that a president made public overturesto Cuban military and security personnel.

“Seeking to enlist at least some of them asagents of democratic change, Bush said thatCuba ‘must find a way to reconcile and forgivethose who have been part of the system, butwho do not have blood on their hands. Theyare victims too,’” noted Latell.

Bush also called on foreign governments tocontribute to a “Freedom Fund for Cuba”which would give grants to entrepreneurs onthe island after all vestiges of its current gov-ernment are gone.

“The operative word in our dealings withCuba is not stability. The operative word isfreedom,” he said. “Now is the time to supportdemocratic movements growing on the is-land. Now is the time to stand with the Cubanpeople as they stand up for their liberty.”

Joe García, vice-president of NDN and aprominent Democratic Party activist in Miamiexile circles, said Bush deliberately provokedthe Cuban government, which condemnedand ridiculed the speech as expected.

“It’s a tired, old policy that plays to the mostintransigent elements of the Cuban-Americancommunity,” he told CubaNews, noting thatrestless State Department officials and con-servatives “who wanted something new onCuba” gave Bush the impetus for the speech.

But García said that instead of adoptingtheir ideas, Bush used the speech to shore upRep. Lincoln Diaz-Balart and his brother Rep.Mario Diaz-Balart. Both lawmakers areCuban-American hardliners who may facetough re-election races next year.

Even the Cuban American NationalFoundation was critical of the speech.

“While we welcome the president’s inten-tions and ideas…they must also be supportedby concrete actions,” a CANF statement said.

The foundation suggested ending restric-tions on Cuban-American travel and remittan-ces to Cuba, and allowing NGOs — includingthose that receive U.S. grants — to givemoney directly to dissidents on the island. ❑

Bush — FROM PAGE 1

Wendy González Torres, 16, casts her first vote at apolling station on Calle Paseo, between Calzadaand 5ta Avenida, in Havana’s Vedado neighborhood.

The Cuban American Commission forFamily Rights took a similarly dim view of thespeech, pointing out that Bush made not a sin-gle mention of the “cruel restrictions” he im-posed in 2004. Those restrictions limit Cubanfamily visits to once every three years.

“The issue of family separation is probablythe most pressing and urgent problem facingCubans on both sides of the Florida Straits,”said the commission’s president, Alvaro Fer-nández. “While he ignored this emergency, allwe heard from President Bush was more ofthe same old rhetoric.”

SPEECH WAS AIMED AT STATE DEPARTMENT, TOO

In the days before Bush’s address, specula-tion was rampant that the president mightannounce a relaxation of the 2004 regulations.

But no policy change was ever discussed,according to the Miami Herald, which quotedpeople familiar with internal discussions atthe White House.

Only some anti-Castro exiles were happywith the address.

“It was not a surprise to any of us that hestood firm on his convictions because hispolicies have always been consistent towardCuba,” Ninoska Pérez Castellón, director ofthe Cuban Liberty Council, told the Herald.

Pérez is a talk-show host with Miami’sfiercely anti-Castro Radio Mambí, and wasamong a select group of 10 Cuban exiles whomet with Bush in Miami Oct. 12, two weeksbefore his speech at the State Department.

Jaime Suchlicki, director of the University

Alvaro Fernández

Washington-based journalist Ana Radelat, aveteran correspondent for CubaNews, contri-buted significantly to this article.

November 2007 ❖ CubaNews 3

Experts ponder the prospects for post-embargo tradeBY LARRY LUXNER

Plenty of people are raving about the pos-sibilities of doing business with Cubapost-embargo, but Dan O’Flaherty isn’t

one of them.O’Flaherty, vice-president of the National

Foreign Trade Council, says that while his or-ganization opposes U.S. sanctions against theisland nation, “it would be wrong to assumethere are enormous opportunities for trade”with Cuba.

“Despite the efforts of the Bush administra-tion to tighten the embargo, there are signifi-cant trade opportunities. But these opportuni-ties have been narrowing due to major shiftsin Cuba’s external trading patterns,” he said.

For one thing, Cuba is now importing most

of its rice from Vietnam and other Asian coun-tries rather than from U.S. sources. Its com-merce with China and Venezuela has shot upto the point where those two countries nowaccount for 35% of Cuba’s foreign trade.

“They’ve reduced their foreign debt and in-creased reserves,” O’Flaherty said. “The Cu-bans are able to find suppliers for their importneeds, as well as modest export markets else-where, which has led some to the conclusionthat they’re able to do without us.”

He added: “At the moment, US-Cuba tradeis a one-way street. Commodity exports aloneare unlikely to have much effect because theyonly involve Cuban government purchases.And the regime has shown it can weather eco-nomic hardship.”

Both O’Flaherty and Timothy Deal, seniorvice-president of the U.S. Council for Interna-tional Business, spoke at an Oct. 16 all-dayseminar in Washing-ton entitled “Impera-tives for a New U.S.Cuba Policy.”

O’Flaherty point-ed out that Cuba,with its 11.2 millionpeople, has a GDP of$39 billion and 8%growth. By contrast,the Dominican Re-public, with nearly 9million people, has aGDP of $64 billionand 9% growth.

“Given its high indicators and people skills,were the embargo to be lifted Cuba wouldonce again become a significant export mar-ket for a multitude of products,” he said.

However, “at this juncture, there’s no appe-tite in the business community to undertake amajor effort [to restore trade with Cuba].

CUBA MORE SELECTIVE THAN IT USED TO BE

O’Flaherty and Deal traveled to Havana inFebruary 2007 on a fact-finding mission spon-sored by the Center for International Policy.

“What really struck us was the marked dif-ference in which Cuba treats trade and how ittreats investment,” Deal said. “Cuba seems toseek only limited foreign investment on veryspecfic terms. It’s more selective about for-eign investment today than in the 1990s.

“Today, the leading sectors for investmentare tourism and basic industries like petrole-um and mining; health and public educationare banned as too sensitive.”

Deal added: “Realistically, even if the U.S.and Cuba move to eliminate measures block-ing investment, U.S. investors are unlikely torush in unless there’s a significant change inCuban policies and a more friendly invest-ment regime.”

In addition, he said, “both governmentswould have to dismantle the many legal barri-ers and policy disincentives they’ve createdover the years. U.S. unilateral action wouldnot pave the way by itself. The Cubans wouldhave to do likewise too.”

The three main barriers to investment arethe embargo signed by Kennedy in 1962; theCuban Democracy Act of 1992, which forbidsforeign subsidiaries of U.S. firms from doingbusiness in Cuba, and the Helms-Burton Actof 1996 which prevents citizens of third coun-tries from using expropriated property.

“Together, these three effectively block allU.S. investment in Cuba,” said Deal, addingthat “outstanding property claims are proba-bly the biggest obstacles to U.S. investment,aside from the laws themselves. Settlement ofthese claims would have to precede any liftingof the embargo.” ❑

Muse: Unraveling embargo not so easy

Washington attorney Robert Muse,who specializes in Cuba-relatedissues, predicts that even if the

Democrats take back the White House in2008 and retain control of Congress, anysignificant relaxation of the embargowould face a mountain of legislative andbureaucratic hurdles.

“The first problem with embargo reformin Congress is that it’s become truly bipar-tisan. That’s a factor of PAC contributions,”he said. “If a Cuban-American Democrat iselected to Congress, there’s no guaranteehe’d vote against the embargo anymorethan a Republican.”

More than that, said Muse, “it’s justunrealistic to think that Congress at thispoint will begin lifting the embargo.[Supporting the embargo] is a bit like kidslearning how to play tic-tac-toe. By puttingan ‘X’ in the middle, you can never lose.You may not win, but you will never lose.”

On the other hand, Muse says it’s“immensely important” who’s elected pres-ident in 2008. The best formula, he thinks,is “to revert to carefully calibrated positivereactions to developments in Cuba.”

At the moment, Muse pointed out, U.S.-Cuba relations can’t possibly get anyworse. “We can only go upward, but thisrequires a change, and we’re not going tosee it in this administration. But if we havea president elected in 2008 who wants toset about normalizing relations with Cuba,a number of things can be done.”

For starters, there must be some dispo-sition of claims against Cuba. Without that,there’ll be endless litigation, he warned.

“Secondly, there has to be a repeal of allembargo legislation in all its myriad forms.There has to be some kind of trade agree-ment with Cuba, and finally an investmentprotection agreement. This is then taken

to the Hill and put to a vote.”The problem, said Muse, is getting to

that point — but it may not be all that com-plicated if the will is there.

Muse said theOffice of ForeignAssets Controlhas 12 approvedcategories of trav-el to Cuba; every-thing else is con-sidered tourism.One possibility:allowing “people-to-people” travel.

“This was an enormous loophole,” hesaid. “It quickly developed into a pointwhere you could find ads for a $3,000, five-day tour of Cuba in between a photo safariin Kenya and a voyage through theAleutian Islands. It was, in fact, an unen-forced aspect of the embargo; that’s whythey eliminated it. But that could bebrought back by a president, notwith-standing technical regulations. OFACcould recreate that category.”

In addition, the director of OFAC alsohas the authority to expand the list of prod-ucts allowed in from Cuba under a generallicense. It could start with value-addedproducts like cigars, but could be expand-ed to melons, citrus products and otherimports desired by U.S. consumers.

“It would be hard to close the door oncepeople start smoking Cuban cigars,” hequipped.

Realistically, said Muse, “it would take apresident in the second term — maybe aRepublican free of re-election pressures —sort of like Nixon in China. It would takequite a bold individual. But if one existsand is elected, I think it’s quite possible.”

– LARRY LUXNER

Daniel O’Flaherty

Robert Muse

US-CUBA TRADE

4 CubaNews ❖ November 2007

POLITICS

bargo. With the help of those freshmen law-makers, Rangel’s amendment was soundlydefeated on a 182-245 vote. Rangel, head ofthe House Ways and Means Committee, latersaid he was “blindsided” by that vote.

Among Democratic freshmen who receivedPAC money and voted against Rangel’s legis-lation: Reps. Michael Arcuri and Kirsten Gilli-brand, both of New York; John Barrow ofGeorgia, Kathy Castor of Florida; Jason Alt-mire and Patrick Murphy, both of Pennsyl-vania, and Phillip Hare of Illinois.

PAC DEPENDS ON DONORS LARGE AND SMALL

The PAC is largely funded by donationsfrom Cuban-Americans — many of themwealthy or influential. Contributors this yearinclude Alexander Acosta, a former JusticeDepartment assistant attorney-general forcivil rights; George Aguel, a senior vice-presi-dent with Walt Disney Parks and Resorts, andFlorida Crystals executive José Fanjul Jr.

Claver-Carone said “everything was goingdownhill” regarding Cuba policy before thePAC was established four years ago. Sincethen it’s raised about $1.8 million.

Jorge Mas Canosa, the late founder of theCuban American National Foundation, learnedfrom the pro-Israel lobby how to use politicaldonations to help shape foreign policy and wassuccessful in persuading presidents and Con-gress to tighten sanctions against Cuba.

But Claver-Carone said his PAC does notresemble Mas Canosa’s, which was fundedthrough rich, powerful exiles who gave largedonations.

“This is not a handful of wealthy Cubanexiles,” he said. “We’re talking thousands andthousands of small contributors.” ❑

Powerful anti-Castro PAC courts freshman lawmakersBY ANA RADELAT

Anew political action com-mittee’s ambitious effortto influence Capitol Hill

lawmakers on Cuba policy mayhave reached its goal.

The U.S.-Cuba DemocracyPolitical Action Committee,created in 2003 by Cuban-Am-ericans who wanted Congressto keep sanctions on the Cas-tro regime, gave more than$320,000 to select lawmakersin the first half of 2007.

Most of those lawmakers —including many freshmen whohad never cast a vote on Cubapolicy — helped defeat an ef-fort to eliminate the embargothis year, and could prove to bea stumbling block to futureattempts at easing sanctions.

Both sides of the Cuba de-bate realize that influencingthe large freshman class ofmostly Democrats who helpedswing control of Congress totheir party would be key ininfluencing overall U.S. policytowards Cuba.

“If there’s a whole genera-tion [of lawmakers] or a wholecadre who have a similar philo-sophical view, we want to keepthem in Congress,” said Washington lawyerMauricio Claver-Carone, one of 31 membersof the PAC’s board of directors (see box).

According to filings with the FederalElection Committee, the PAC gave to old

friends of both parties whoshared the committee’s philos-ophy, including Rep. TomLantos, a California Democratwho chairs the House Interna-tional Relations Committee;Senate Majority Leader HarryReid of Nevada, and Repub-lican Sen. Mitch McConnell ofKentucky, who leads the GOPin the Senate.

The PAC handed donationsto many new Democratic com-mittee chairmen who wield alot of power, and to Democrat-ic freshmen who don’t.

Claver-Carone said hisPAC’s donations allowedaccess to lawmakers. It wasespecially important to reachfreshmen members beforethey were influenced by theanti-embargo stances of seniorparty members, he said.

But he’s not sure if thedonations changed any mindson Cuba policy.

“What they did was affect isour ability to tell our side ofthe story,” he said.

The Cuba PAC contributedto nearly 20 Democratic fresh-men and to several Repub-lican freshmen in the first sixmonths of 2007.

Most of the freshmen targeted by the PACvoted in July against an amendment to aspending bill sponsored by Rep. CharlieRangel (D-NY) that would have ended the em-

CUBA DEMOCRACY PAC■ César Alvarez■ Eduardo Arista■ Victor Benitez■ Marty Caparros■ Mauricio Claver-Clarone■ Manuel Coto■ Remedios Díaz Oliver■ Orlando L. Evora■ Miguel G. Farra■ Mario Ferro■ Rodolfo Hernández■ José Infante■ Benjamon León Jr.■ Giraldo Leyva■ Gus Machado■ Marcos Marchena■ Ricardo Mayo Alvarez■ Pedro Munilla■ Mario Murgado■ Carlos Nuñez■ Alicia Ortíz■ Reinaldo Pérez■ Sergio Pino■ Anolan Ponce■ Mario Prieto■ Victor J. Pujals■ Tony Rey■ John Sagarribay■ Osmundo Sánchez■ Roberto Sánchez■ Roberto Sequeira

Alfredo Duran, president of the CubanCommittee for Democracy, says it isn’tyour abuelita’s South Florida anymore.

According to Duran, 90% of Cuban exilessigning up to vote traditionally registeredRepublican. These days, new voters who havebecome U.S. citizens are registering 50% inde-pendent, 25% Democrat and 25% Republican.

“It’s what we call the ‘grandmother factor.’You don’t want to tell your grandmotheryou’re a Democrat. And more and more peo-ple are speaking out, which is somethingwe’ve never seen before.”

Duran, a well-known figure in exile circles,spent 18 months as a prisoner of war in Cuba.From 1976 to 1980, he was chairman of theFlorida Democratic Party. Duran has alsoserved on the Dade County School Board andis former president of the Bay of PigsVeterans Association.

Speaking at last month’s “Imperatives for aNew U.S. Cuba Policy” seminar, Duran said

Duran: Exiles more likely to vote Democratic in 2008that both Miami and the Cuban-Americanexile community have gone through obviouschanges in the last decade.

“The fact of the matter is that theMiami of 10 years ago is not theMiami of today,” he said. “You havepeople like Barack Obama and ChrisDodd saying our policy is stupid. Ifthey had said that 10 years ago, we’dhave had riots in Little Havana. Butnone of that happened.

“The only reaction has been somereally hardline commentators on theradio, which nobody pays any atten-tion to anymore.”

Duran said Cuban-Americans are actingmore and more like immigrants from theDominican Republic or Mexico.

“They come for a better life,” he said. “Lifein Cuba is not easy; it’s full of hardships. Theonly difference is that we have an issue, andour issue is Cuba. None of the other Latins inMiami have an issue to rally around.”

Duran concluded his remarks by saying theonly time U.S. foreign policy had any commonsense was during the Carter administration —

despite the bitterness manyCuban exiles feel toward the39th president.

“Jimmy Carter opened upCuba and brought about incredi-ble changes,” he told the audi-ence. “During the Carter years,we started seeing Cuban-Americans going back and forth.Then all of a sudden, Reagankilled it.”

Yet things will change onceagain, he said.

“Many people grasp this policy becausethey think they’re beating Fidel Castro overthe head with it,” he said. “But U.S. policytowards Cuba is a failed policy, and the CubanAmerican community is finally coming toterms with this fact. All indications are that weshall see this confirmed at the ballot box.” ❑

Alfredo Duran

“The operative word in our dealings with Cuba is not stability. The operativeword is freedom. Now is the time to support democratic movements growingon the island. Now is the time to stand with the Cuban people.”

— President Bush, in an Oct. 24 speech, his first on Cuba in four years. Theaddress was reprinted in Cuba’s Granma newspaper and aired on state-run TV.

“This gentleman crosses to the other side of the street when he sees me. Heis too powerful to speak with the devil, with an axis of evil. And you, Hugo,and I represent an axis of evil.”

— Fidel Castro, speaking Oct. 14 with Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez on alive TV show that criticized their common enemy, George W. Bush.

“I would caution family members who are contemplating having their lovedones illegally enter the United States that they should think twice.”

— Andrew Corsini, assistant special agent in charge for U.S. Immigration andCustoms Enforcement in Miami, remarking on a plan to prosecute as conspira-tors people who pay smugglers to transport their family members to U.S. shores.

“The way to go is to try to end the confrontation. Americans should not seekrevenge toward Cuba ... and I think Cubans outside should take the right atti-tude. They should seek ways of cooperation.”— Former Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev, speaking Oct. 2 to more than 500

students, teachers and benefactors at Ransom Everglades School in Miami.

“The fact that you’re not supposed to be there was the top for me. I was like,‘It’s time to go.’ You just don’t know what Cuba will be like after Castro’s gone.”

— Amit, a 29-year-old New Yorker who risked U.S. penalties to visit Cuba inSeptember 2006. He spoke to AP on the condition his last name not be used.

“The United States has ignored, with both arrogance and political blindness,the 15 resolutions adopted by this General Assembly calling for the lifting ofthe blockade against Cuba.”— Cuban Foreign Minister Felipe Pérez Roque, speaking Oct. 30 after the United

Nations condemned the U.S. embargo by a vote of 184-4, with one abstention.

“Opposition numbers have multiplied, despite the difficult conditions inCuba. We do not have to wait for Fidel Castro to die to grow. We are growingevery day.”— Héctor Palacios, a dissident who was paroled in December after serving nearly

four years of a 25-year sentence, at a Sept. 5 news conference.

“They have made it clear they have no interest in a visit from the Inter-American Press Association. But we cannot turn away. We must be proactive.We have an obligation to reach out and seek common understanding.”

— Earl Maucker, president of the IAPA and editor of the Fort Lauderdale-basedSouth Florida Sun-Sentinel, one of the few U.S. papers with a bureau in Havana.

“Truth is nowhere. There is no stable information. There is no reliable press... In Cuba, everything is a lie. You have to read between the lines.”

— Alberto Muller, a former Cuban political prisoner who writes for the Miami-based newspaper Diario Las Americas.

“I strongly condemn the Castro regime’s latest mockery of freedom. Ratherthan accept the Cuban people’s right to free and fair elections, the regime in-stead offers sham elections where only one party gets to field candidates.”

— Mitt Romney, who’s seeking the 2008 Republican presidential nomination.

“We do not want a monument to Che. He is not an example for our children.”— Note left at the scene of a vandalized monument to Che Guevara in

Merida, Venezuela. The 8-ft-tall glass structure — dedicated Oct. 8 byCuba’s envoy to mark the 40th anniversary of Che’s assassination — wasshattered by a group calling itself the Patriotic Command of the Plateau.

In their own words …GITMO TENT CITY COULD HOLD UP TO 45,000

The U.S. military has expanded plans for a pop-up tent city to shelter migrants in case of a Carib-bean boat crisis, spending over $55 million to pre-pare a safe haven for up to 45,000 boat people, theMiami Herald is reporting.

Since Fidel Castro took ill and ceded power ofCuba to his brother Raúl, the Bush administrationhas been preparing for a 10,000-person tent city.

In May, the Navy hired a Jacksonville contractorto build cement block buildings with 525 toiletsand 248 showers on an empty slice of the base.The buildings should be completed next summerat a cost of $16.5 million.

Now, under the expansion, the military has in-vited contractors to bid on a $40 million projectthat would build a second tent city on the base for35,000 migrants in need of humanitarian relief.

The Navy put out the bid in recent months,Marine Capt. Manuel Carpio told the Herald.

Gitmo currently has a huge chain-link fencedcompound that could serve as a small tent city forthe first 400 boat people intercepted. That opera-tion would be run by the Department of Home-land Security, which already shelters up to about40 asylum seekers on the base at a time.

BAY OF PIGS PAINTING GRACES CIA HEADQUARTERS

The CIA has unveiled an oil painting depictingone of the few successes of the failed 1961 Bay ofPigs invasion: an aerial attack that took out some900 of Castro’s soldiers.

The painting, paid for by Alabama’s CompassBank, was unveiled at the Southern Museum ofFlight in Birmingham, Ala., but will go on perma-nent display at CIA headquarters in Langley, Va.,in a new art gallery that’s not open to the public.

“It’s been viewed as an embarrassment, but themodern world is recognizing it’s part of our his-tory. That’s all there is to it,” said Jorge Del Valle,63, who was 15 when he walked into a CIA re-cruiting office in Miami to sign up for the venture.“We have gained acknowledgment worldwide.”

CUBA EXTRADITES FUGITIVE TO U.S. AUTHORITIES

Cuba handed over an American wanted for fraudand theft to U.S. authorities on Oct. 11, the thirdfugitive it has returned to the United States in oneyear, Reuters reported.

John Bradley Egan was detained by Cuba at theend of June when his 30-foot yacht developedengine trouble off Havana’s Marina Hemingway.

Egan had no documents and the Cubans con-tacted the U.S. diplomatic mission, which deter-mined there was a warrant for his arrest in Utahfor bank fraud and ID theft.

“The U.S. Coast Guard, our mission and theCuban Foreign Ministry managed get him intoU.S. custody and he was taken back to the UnitedStates,” an American diplomat told Reuters.

The handover of the three fugitives has comesince acting President Raúl Castro took over run-ning Cuba from his ailing brother in July 2006.

“We seem to have had good cooperation fromthe Cubans on law-enforcement and drug issues,”the diplomat said. “It is not given much publicity.”

The State Department says Cuba harbors morethan 60 criminals wanted in the United States.

POLITICAL BRIEFS

November 2007 ❖ CubaNews 5

6 CubaNews ❖ November 2007

BY DOMINGO AMUCHASTEGUI

For some, Cuba’s foreign policy is onlyabout its alliance with Venezuela andChina; others take note of the island’s

special ties with Iran and North Korea, whichfits in well with the image of a rogue statealigning itself with the so-called “axis of evil.”

It’s true that Venezuela, China and Iranhave become increasingly important toCuba’s foreign policy over the past decade.

But overall, that policy is becoming strate-gically diverse and well-balanced — combin-ing not only state-to-state relations but a widerange of initiatives and tools that have madeCuba one important player in the internation-al arena.

For starters, normalization with Spain isgaining momentum.

Four years after ties between Havana andMadrid were frozen, the two governmentshave made up with each other, and a bilateralrelationship is systematically being rebuilt(see CubaNews, October 2007, page 7).

During her recent visit to Havana, Spain’ssecretary of state for cooperation, Leire Pajín,said “there is no logic for us not to be presentin Cuba as we are throughout Latin America.”

In 2006, Spanish exports to Cuba rose by28%, making the island Spain’s No. 3 tradingpartner in Latin America Secretary of Statefor Cooperation, Leire Pajín, stated: “It has no

logic for us not to be present in Cuba as weare throughout Latin America.”

Just as significantly, Cuba and Spain havenegotiated the final figures concerning Cuba’sdebt payments and interest, in a bid to onceagain access official credits from Madrid.

ITALY, MEXICO ALSO WARM UP TO CUBA

Less publicized is the fact that Italy is nowactively joining Spain in this new approach.Italy’s Foreign Office recently said the time isright to start a constructive dialogue betweenthe European Union and Cuba — with an eyetowards ending the sanctions adopted by theEU in 2003.

According to Donato di Santo, deputy sec-retary of the Italian Foreign Ministry, sanc-tions and other policies “need rethinking.”

Coinciding with this was the recent an-nouncement that Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone,No. 2 in the Vatican hierarchy after Pope Be-nedict XVI, will visit Havana on Jan. 21 — hissecond visit to Cuba in less than three years.

At the UN, exploratory talks were held inlate September under the auspices of LouisMichel, the EU’s cooperation secretary and agood friend of Cuban Foreign Minister FelipePérez Roque. This is a very important stepthat gives continuity to the EU’s June 2007resolution to establish contacts with Cubanauthorities, with the goal of gradually improv-

ing existing EU-Cuba ties.Mexico is also pushing hard for a rappro-

chement with Cuba. This policy is stronglysupported by the Mexican Congress, whichsees an urgency in dealing with hot issuessuch as oil drilling in the Gulf of Mexico, for-eign debt and illegal Cuban immigration.

Indications are strong that a substantialimprovement in bilateral relations is nowunderway, and that the possibility of Presi-dent Felipe Calderón visiting Havana is highon his agenda. Roque said recently thatMexico and Cuba are “working seriously” tonormalize relations, and that it was in thatcontext Calderón’s visit would take place.

HONDURAN VISIT A MILESTONE

In Central America, Honduras — which es-tablished diplomatic ties with Cuba in 2002 —is following the path of Nicaragua and Guate-mala in forming strong relations with Castro.

In early October, President Manuel Zelayabecame the first Honduran head of state tovisit Cuba in 46 years.

“The era of islation is being left behind, andnew paths are being created,” Zelaya said atthe end of his historic visit, during which timehe met with Raúl Castro, and spoke by phonewith Fidel Castro.

Cooperation between Honduras and Cubais already high; 74 municipalities in Hondurashave already benefitted from Cuba’s literacyprogram, known as “Yo Sí Puedo.”

In addition, 400 Cuban doctors are workingin the most isolated areas of the country,while the Cuban government is helping buildthree eye and vision hospitals in Honduras.Cuba has also given some 1,000 scholarshipsto Honduran students to study at Havana'sEscuela Latinoamericana de Medicina andother institutions in Cuba.

Zelaya’s trip puts Honduras in direct contra-diction with two other Central Americannations — El Salvador and Costa Rica — whichhave shown little interest in ties with Cuba.

Cuba’s footprint on the world stage washighlighted in October by ceremonies mark-ing the 40th anniversary of Che Guevara’sassassination in Bolivia. The media coveragein Latin America, Europe and the UnitedStates was overwhelming.

The attention paid by such news outlets asthe New York Times, Wall Street Journal, LosAngeles Times, BBC, NBC, Associated Pressand many others was inseparable from Cubaitself and the current rise of populist and left-ist movements throughout Latin America.

Perhaps the LA Times summed up the an-niversary’s significance best when it simplysaid: “Che’s legacy looms larger than ever.” ❑

FOREIGN POLICY

Diversification is key to Cuba’s evolving foreign policy

Former Cuban intelligence officer DomingoAmuchastegui has lived in Miami since 1994.He writes regularly for CubaNews about politicsin Cuba and the South Florida exile community.

Cuba and Venezuela have signed 21economic accords aimed at strength-ening cooperation — including plans

to convert nickel waste into ferronickel, aswell as a $1 billion petrochemical complex.

Visiting President Hugo Chávez toured aCienfuegos oil refinery that was mothballedin 1995 but is now being revived and expan-ded by PDVSA in an $83 million joint ven-ture with state-run Cubapetróleo. In its ini-tial phase, the refinery will be able to pro-cess 65,000 barrels of crude oil a day.

Chávez said the refinery’s Decemberstartup will be the cornerstone of a largepetrochemical complex, to be followed byconstruction of a re-gasification plant usingraw materials from Venezuelan gas fields.

He said that the complex would includethe processing facilities for several oil by-products, including a wide range of plasticproducts; a fertilizer plant to supply domes-tic needs and produce export products forthe entire Caribbean region; and a plant toproduce naphtha, a base material used toproduce several types of paints, cosmeticsand cleaning products.

“These and others projects are possiblewithout having to beg to the IMF and arebeing carried out with Cuban-Venezuelan

financing as an example of our economicindependence,” boasted Chávez.

He added — in remarks that some Cu-bans quietly grumbled about — that “Cubaand Venezuela could easily form a confed-eration of states ... This is no delirium.”

In 2006, bilateral trade between Venezu-ela and Cuba surpassed $2.5 billion. Most ofthis consisted of Venezuelan oil and relatedexports to Cuba, but did not include Vene-zuelan payments for massive Cuban med-ical and educational assistance valued in thebillions of dollars by both parties.

Other accords signed by Cuba and Vene-zuela on Oct. 15 call for joint ventures incement production (with cement plants inboth countries), the development of Vene-zuela’s commercial fishing fleet, and theconstruction of a luxury hotel on Cuba’sCayo Paredón Grande.

The two countries also agreed to form anew telecom entity. TelecomunicacionesGran Car-ibe, based in Caracas, will be 60%owned by Venezuela’s CVG Telecomunica-ciones and 40% by Cuba’s Transbit SA. Thenew entity’s main objective will be to install,operate and maintain an underwater fiber-optic cable linking Venezuela and Cuba. ❑

Cuba and Venezuela edge ever closer

November 2007 ❖ CubaNews 7

RETAIL SALES

Canada’s awash in Cuban cigars, but they’re not cheapjust a stone’s throw away from a fleet ofFerraris parked across the street, some withNew York state license plates.

But don’t expect to find any bargains inCanada, just because it’s legal to sell and en-joy Cuban cigars there (see chart, below left).

Cindy Yancu, manager of the Casa del Hab-ano outlet in Toronto, blames the high cigarprices on Ontario’s stiff provincial taxes.

“In Ontario, the tax here is 56.7%,” she said.“If you think that’s bad, go to Quebec. Thetobacco tax there is $10 higher per cigar than

BY VITO ECHEVARRÍA

From a distance, Toronto — with its NewYork-like skyline — may look and feellike an average American city.

But one thing makes very clear to visitorsthat this is not the United States: the prolifer-ation of “GoCuba.ca” travel billboards entic-ing Canadian snowbirds to visit Cuba.

That, and the easy availability of Cubancigars which are illegal south of the border.

Canadian retailers tend to flaunt that fact.

At Thomas Hinds Tobacconist off YongeStreet, a major thoroughfare in downtownToronto, an old-fashioned storefront displaysnot only Cuban cigars but also Cuban coffee;a 230-gram dark-roast, vacuum-packed sackof Cubita-brand beans costs $6.50 each.

A more eye-catching retailer is La Casa delHabano, the official retailer of Cuban cigarsoverseas.

A recent visit to the chain’s Toronto outlet— located in the heart of the city’s trendyYorkville neighborhood — revealed cigar afi-cionados of all ages indulging in their favoritesmokes at coffee tables in front of the store,

HOW MUCH IS THAT STOGIE?*CIGAR BRANDCohiba EsplendidoCohiba Double CoronaCohiba Siglo VIMontecristo #2Romeo y Julieta ChurchillHoyo Double Corona*Pre-tax price per cigar in Canadian dollars at Casa del Habano, Toronto

PRICE$63.75110.0060.3728.7931.9735.67

here. Duties are on all tobacco products, andare not specifically for Cuban cigars.”

Yancu said Cohiba Esplendidos cost $63.75per stick plus 6% general services tax (GST).Along with that, an Ontario provincial statetax of 8% is also imposed, which makes thetotal cost of that stogie $72.96.

For U.S. visitors hoping to enjoy Cubancigars that are illegal south of the borderbecause of the embargo, these prices come ata rather difficult time. In late September, the“loonie” reached parity with the U.S. dollar forthe first time since the 1970s, and as of Nov. 1,the Canadian dollar was worth just over $1.05,

making Cuban cigars in Toronto no great bar-gain for Americans.

Such prices have traditionally limited thesale of Cuban cigars to wealthier Canadiansand visitors. However, as Yancu acknowled-ges, Canada’s stronger dollar bodes ill for herstore’s overall sales.

“As with everyone in tourism and retailsales, a strong Canadian dollar does not helpour industry,” she said. “Travelers are fewer,and sales on luxury items are going down.”

PHONY CUBAN CIGARS A GROWING THREAT?

Despite the high prices, smokers — someas young as 19, the legal smoking and drink-ing age in Ontario province — are attracted toCasa del Habano by amenities such as out-door smoking areas.

“We attract customers of all ages over 19and of all socioeconomic backgrounds,” saysYancu. “We pride ourselves on making every-one feel comfortable in our store.”

For those who think Casa del Habano over-charges its upscale customers, a price checkat nearby rival Thomas Hinds Tobacconistand elsewhere show similar prices.

Says Ann MacIntyre, a longtime staffer atCasa del Habano: “We would never gouge ourclient. All retailers in Ontario are comparable.There’s an incredible passion of the product,and we have a huge clientele. We have a verystrong economy and it reflects on our dollar.You’re paying for a hand-finished product.”

If the loonie remains high, contraband Cu-ban cigars — which used to filter into the ille-gal U.S. market — may soon make their wayinto Canada, with smugglers using Canada’sexorbitant prices and taxes to induce smokersto buy their untaxed, cheaper cigars. ❑

Casa del Habano shop in Toronto’s Yorkville district.

Canada — FROM PAGE 1

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business with the island lately.“We have sold meat products, pork, poultry

and beef to Cuba, but over the years we havereduced our sales to Cuba because of pay-ment issues,” said the company’s executivevice-president, Werter Mior.

Brent Wilson, an official with Agricultureand AgriFood Canada — which is roughlyequivalent to the USDA — said the loonie’srise against the U.S. dollar concerns him, butthat he’s focusing on more lucrative exportmarkets like the United States.

“This affects our exports everywhere,” hetold CubaNews in a phone interview from Ott-awa. “However, 70% of our food exports go tothe U.S. The appreciation of the Canadian dol-lar is a factor. With Cuba, which uses credits,it makes it that much more difficult to pur-chase commodities from anywhere.”

In 2006, Canadian food exports to Cubatotaled $58 million, with the leading commo-dities being grains ($18.7 million); meat prod-

ucts ($15.1 million) and vegetables, mainlypotatoes, lentils and beans ($11.5 million).

Wilson says two factors could mitigate thepotential reduction of food sales to Cubacaused by the rising Canadian dollar.

“The Americans are masters at exportingpackaged food products,” he told CubaNews.“We do bulk commodities, with the costs be-ing much less. We tend to do very few pack-aged products.”

He added: “Anything we sell is valued inU.S. dollars anyways. When we export, we’rebasing our prices on U.S. dollars, since wecompete against U.S. firms.”

Wilson’s office is responsible for helpingCanadian companies that plan to either visitor exhibit their products at this month’s high-ly popular Havana International Trade Fair(FIHAV), set for Nov. 5-10.

“We always have a presence there,” he said.“The last couple of years, the consulate hasbeen managing the exhibit themselves.”

He said that since many Canadian foodexports consist of bulk commodities, there’s

usually a much larger presence of farm tradegroups, as opposed to individual food compa-nies peddling their products to Alimport,Cuba’s state-run food purchasing agency.

Yet not all Canadian food exporters areenthusiastic about attending FIHAV.

“We will not attend the fair this year,” saidLandry of Multi-Portions.

One Canadian exporter who does plan tobe at FIHAV is Henk Tepper of TobiqueFarms Ltd. in Drummond, New Brunswick.

Unlike some exporters, Tepper says “wehave good relations with our Cuban buyer [Al-import],” which he predicts will help weatherwhatever bumps the higher Canadian dollarmay cause regarding future sales to Cuba.

Part of Tepper’s optimistic outlook stemsfrom recent sales — $4 million in potatoexports in 2006, and $4.5 million in sales dur-ing the first nine months of 2007.

Details: Brent Wilson, Deputy Director/Am-ericas, Agriculture & AgriFood Canada, SirJohn Carling Bldg., 930 Carling Ave., Ottawa,Ont. K1A 0C7. Tel: (613) 694-2394.

8 CubaNews ❖ November 2007

NEWSMAKERS

George McGovern fights for more rational Cuba policyBY LARRY LUXNER

In March 1963 — four months after nar-rowly winning election as a junior senatorfrom South Dakota — George McGovern

stood up on the Senate floor and gave aspeech entitled “Our Castro Fixation Versusthe Alliance for Progress.”

In that address, the 40-year-old Democratwarned President Kennedy and his fellowlawmakers that they were so absored in theirfears of Fidel Castro that the United Stateswas overlooking the real threat in LatinAmerica — “a smoldering blockbuster on ourdoorstep ... a continent cursed by a social sys-tem that concentrates enormous wealth in thehands of a few and consigns the many to livesof desperate poverty.”

Forty-four years later, McGovern hasn’tchanged his views one bit.

Now 85, the liberal senator who lost the1972 presidential election to Richard Nixoncontinues to speak out in opposition to theU.S. embargo against Cuba, as well as toGeorge W. Bush and the war in Iraq.

“Why are we so fearful of permitting ourpeople to visit this little country of 11 million— even if they were all active communists?”he asked. “The next president of the UnitedStates can’t find a communist country as bigas Russia or China to go to. But even openingthe door to Cuba deserves a high mark forcourage and common sense, for doing whatshould have been done a long time ago.”

McGovern, speaking at an Oct. 16 confer-ence in Washington entitled “Imperatives fora New Cuba Policy,” later gave CubaNews anexclusive interview. The decorated WorldWar II veteran, longtime lawmaker and anti-war hero to a entire generation of Americanshas lately become a crusading activist formore U.S. travel to Cuba and agriculturaltrade with the island.

“I’d like to see the travel restrictions lifted,even if just on the grounds of family valuesthat we hear so much about,” he said. “It’slong been recognized as an American right totravel anywhere you wish.”

BASKETBALL DIPLOMACY, DAKOTA STYLE

McGovern has visited Cuba seven times.His first trip there was in April 1975, when hewas accompanied by his wife Eleanor, whodied earlier this year, and 30 members of thenational press corps.

“That was my introduction to Castro,” he re-called. “Eleanor and I finally met him, and theonly time I’d ever seen her more impressedwas when she met Luciano Pavarotti.”

“After a 14-hour conversation, I was think-ing I was glad that guy wasn’t running againstme in the Senate,” McGovern joked. “I left,convinced this is a person we could do busi-ness with. It was the beginning of a long inter-est in this little country south of us.”

During that marathon schmooze with

Cuba’s leader, McGovern asked Fidel if therewas anything he as a U.S. senator could dothat would lead to an improvement in tiesbetween their two countries.

“Without batting an eye, he said, ‘Yes. Getthe New York Yankees down here.’”

“The next day,” said McGovern, “I called up[baseball commissioner] Bowie Kuhn and toldhim about Castro’s idea. Hesaid he wouldn’t rule it out,but that he’d have to talk tothe owners first. A few dayslater, he called me back tosay they’d only approve theidea if each team in both theAmerican League and theNational League got to sendone player.

“So we called the CubanInterests Section, and theytold us they’d rather havejust the Yankees. Two dayslater, Kuhn called to say theywouldn’t go unless the teamcould recruit Cuban ath-letes. I told him the Cubanswould never agree to that,we’d steal their whole team.I was sure they’d turn itdown, and they did.

“We then got another idea.We took the University ofSouth Dakota and South Da-kota State basketball teamsto Cuba, and the Cubans beatthe tar out of ‘em. They thencame up here, played 10games and won half of them.”

So in the end, he said, “wehad basketball diplomacy, ifnot baseball diplomacy.”

McGOVERN’S PAC ATTACK

The former senator’s mostrecent trip to Cuba was lastmonth; his mission this time was to look atprospects for increased U.S. agriculturalexports to the island under existing law.

“I’m pleased to report that from everythingwe could see, the conditions for expandingAmerican agricultural trade with Cuba isexcellent,” he said.

“For one thing, the Cuban economy isgrowing impressively. Nickel is now Cuba’sleading export, with the price of nickel at anall-time high,” he said. “Cuba used to produceonly 6% of the oil and gas it needed, but nowproduces 45%. They’re better off in almostevery way than they were five years ago. Butthe weak spot in the Cuban economy is agri-cultural production. Cuba will continueimporting foodstuffs, and the U.S. is the clos-est major producer of food, which gives us amarked advantage in terms of freight costs.”

Under the Trade Sanctions Reform andExport Enhancement Act of 2000, Cuban food

purchasing agency Alimport has bought over$1 billion worth of U.S. farm commoditiesover the past six years.

“The Cubans say they could have gonemuch higher had not the Bush administrationimposed barriers on negotiating trade ar-rangements with the United States,” McGov-ern said. “The White House realized it didn’t

have the votes to repeal TSRA, so theyknocked out credits, and payments must nowbe made through an incredibly complexprocess that I can scarcely follow. [Alimportchairman] Pedro Alvarez told us he’d ratherbuy from U.S. suppliers, but that if this cur-rent complicated payment system continues,sales will decline further.”

Yet a bill sponsored by Rep. Charlie Rangel(D-NY) earlier this year to ease U.S. foodexports to Cuba was soundly defeated.

“Sixty-six Democrats crossed party linesand voted against the Rangel amendment,”said McGovern, launching into a tiradeagainst the newly formed US-Cuba Demo-cracy Political Action Committee (PAC).

“This new PAC’s express purpose is to turnback any effort to open up relations betweenour two countries; 58 of the 66 Democratswho voted against the Rangel amendment gotmoney from this new PAC, around $10,000

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George McGovern speaks at an Oct. 16 conference on Cuba policy.

November 2007 ❖ CubaNews 9

“Castro may have used the embargo to explain Cuba’s economicdifficulties, or used us as a whipping boy. But by and large, as far

as dictators go, I think he’s better than the rest of his class.”— FORMER SEN. GEORGE MCGOVERN, WHO LOST THE 1972 ELECTION TO RICHARD NIXON

apiece. I have no hesitance in saying that’sprobably why the amendment was defeated.”

He added: “It’s clearly in the interest of theAmerican farmer to increase sales to Cuba, soit’s difficult to understand congressmen infarm states voting against something thatwould enhance sales of our agricultural prod-ucts. I think it’s time to nail these people inCongress who are voting against the interestsof their own constitutents.”

Money indeed has become a big factor inCongress, lamented McGovern.

“I’m told the average senator spends twoout of every seven days of the week raising

money. It begins the day after he’s elected. Soif somebody comes along and says you don’thave to do anything but pick up a $10,000check — and you’re not all that excited aboutthe vote anyway — then you may not see it asa bribe, but rather helping out with expenses.I think people are more vulnerable today thanthey have ever been, because of the enor-mous costs of running for office.”

For example, he said, South Dakota’s mostrecent Senate race — in which fellow Demo-crat Tom Daschle lost to Republican rival JohnThune — cost over $50 million. On a per-capi-ta basis (South Dakota has only 775,000 inhab-itants), that ranked as one of the most expen-sive Senate races in U.S. history.

“The first time I ran for Congress, in 1956,I spent $12,000 and incurred a $5,000 debt. Ifinished my first term about the time I paid offthe debt,” said McGovern, who stepped downfrom the Senate in 1981. “But that was a dif-ferent time.”

EDUCATING HILLARY ON THE CUBA ISSUE

Looking back on the upcoming 50th anni-versary of the Cuban Revolution, McGovernsaid Fidel Castro “performed a great servicein overthrowing Batista and breaking the gripof the Mafia in Cuba,” though he added thathe’s “not sympathetic to dictatorships” and

that he “wishes there were more civil rightsand freedom in Cuba.”

McGovern pointed to the island’s “greatlyimproved” health-care and education systems,suggesting that “Cuba may have the bestschool system in Latin America.”

Asked about limits on free speech, McGov-ern said “I didn’t see concrete examples ofthat, but you have the feeling people don’t feeloppressed. There seems to be a high degreeof morale. You don’t run into large numbersof people who appear to be oppressed, but wedidn’t get out into the rural areas. That’s prob-ably where life is the most difficult.”

He added: “Castro may have used theembargo to explain Cuba’s economic difficul-

ties, or used us as a whipping boy. But by andlarge — as far as dictators go — I think he’sbetter than the rest of his class,” he said. “Onegets the sense that the transition to a new erahas already taken place. I don’t think there’llbe much of a ripple when he goes away.”

McGovern disappointed some of his moreliberal supporters last month when he official-ly endorsed the hawkish Hillary Clinton forpresident in 2008.

He told CubaNews he hasn’t had a chanceto discuss Cuba with the former first lady.

“It didn’t come up yet, but it will,” he as-sured us. “She knows my views on Cuba. Ithink that as she moves along and continuesto gain strength — where it appears that she’sgot a lead that’s not going to be overcome —then that would be the time to talk with her onsome more imaginative positions on Cuba.

“The place to begin with Hillary is on liftingtravel restrictions, since that seems to besomething desired not only by most Ameri-cans but by a growing percentage of Cuban-Americans. You could almost sell that as afamily value.”

AND NOW... SOME THOUGHTS ON IRAQ

CubaNews asked McGovern how the worldwould be different in 2007 if — by some mira-cle — he had defeated Nixon in the 1972 elec-tions instead of losing by the second-largestmargin in presidential election history.

“We’d be much better off today. We wouldnot have gotten involved in this extreme mili-tancy and interventionist approach to foreignpolicy that resulted first in Vietnam, and nowin Iraq. Those were two wars that were totallyunnecessary and ill-advised.

“We’ve already spent $500 billion on thisIraq war and lost almost 4,000 young men.That thing has continued longer than WorldWar II. It has taken a terrible toll on ourresources and on our young people.”

He continued: “I would have set a differentkind of foreign policy, and I think the Amer-ican people would have approved. I’m justsorry that I didn’t get the chance. I don’t thinkthe American people had a very clear pictureof me, and I don’t think they had a very clearpicture of Nixon either.”

Nevertheless, McGovern says he doesn’tbrood about the ‘72 elections, and that the fewtimes he spoke to Nixon in the years afterWatergate and Nixon’s resignation in 1974,their conversations were friendly.

“Historians looking at the Nixon adminis-tration would pretty much agree that hisgreatest achievement was his opening toChina. He had the wit and the imagination,and the courage, to open relations with themost populous communist country on Earth.”

McGovern said that another famous Re-publican, President Ronald Reagan, “had theimagination to see that it was in our intereststo put an end to the Cold War.”

We asked him what George W. Bush will beremembered for.

“Probably for being the most disappointingpresident in American history,” he respond-ed. “I think this fellow is really bad news.” ❑

Apoll released Oct. 19 by the Interna-tional Republican Institute shows thataverage Cubans overwhelmingly want

the right to vote on Fidel Castro’s successor.Paul Fagan, IRI’s deputy director for Latin

America, said the poll was conducted be-tween Sept. 5 and Oct. 4 in face-to-face inter-views by trained nationals from a Latin Am-erican nation which Fagan refused to identify.

Because the survey was conducted inCuba, “it’s not a normal survey,” said Fagan.

“People don’t go around with a clipboardand questions in hand. They start off as cas-ual conservations, and the [respondents] areasked questions casually,” Fagan toldCubaNews. “People don’t know they’re beingasked these questions as part of a survey.”

The poll, IRI’s first in Cuba, used conver-sations with 584 Cubans in 14 of the island’s15 provinces. It found strong discontent withthe current situation, with 40% of Cubanssaying things in general were going “badly”or “very badly.” That compares with 9.8%

who thought things were going very well.IRI said it found “overwhelming support”

for a democratic transition, with 73.9% of re-spondents saying the Cuban people shouldvote on Fidel Castro’s successor.

Similarly, 75.6% of the Cubans polled said“real democracy” — with multiparty elec-tions and guaranteed political freedoms —would improve their lives, while only 14.2%said democratic changes (and 9.6% said aswitch to a free-market economy) wouldmake their lives worse.

In addition, 87.6% said they didn’t believethe Castro regime was capable of solvingCuba’s most serious problems. Nearly 43%cited low wages and high prices as Cuba’sbiggest challenge, with “lack of freedoms” adistant second at 18.2%. Only 4.8% namedthe U.S. embargo as Cuba’s worst problem.

Details: Paul Fagan, Deputy Director/LatinAmerica, IRI, 1225 Eye St. NW, #700, Wash-ington, DC 20006. Tel: (202) 572-1512. Fax:(202) 408-94462. Email: pfagan@iri.org.

IRI poll: Most Cubans favor political change

10 CubaNews ❖ November 2007

BY VITO ECHEVARRÍA

Travel writer Patrick Symmes, contribut-ing editor for Harper’s and Outside mag-azines, is busy these days promoting

his new book.“The Boys From Dolores: Fidel Castro’s

Schoolmates From Revolution to Exile” (Pan-theon Books; ISBN 978-0-375-42283-6; hard-cover $26.95) is an intriguing, 352-page lookat the aging revolutionary’s formative yearsas seen by his contemporaries at the eliteJesuit-run Colegio de Dolores prep school inSantiago de Cuba where Fidel studied.

If anyone qualifies for uncovering that peri-od of the Castro brother’s lives, it would cer-tainly be Symmes. He had already written abook about Ernesto Guevara called “ChasingChe: A Motorcycle Journey in Search of theGuevara Legend.”

To write that book, Symmes in 1996 rode amotorcycle through Argentina, Chile, Boliviaand Peru — a the same countries Che himselfhad visited in the early 1950s — in a route thatwas later immortalized in Robert Redford’s2004 film “The Motorcycle Diaries.”

Symmes, 43, had already taken on a rangeof writing assignments covering everythingfrom Maoist rebels in the mountains of Nepalto drug gangs in the favelas of Rio de Janeiro.He also wrote about Shining Path rebels inPeru and FARC guerrillas in Colombia.

“It’s total Che Guevara country out there,”Symmes said of his time with the guerrillas inColombia. “They’re living in 1964.”

SEARCHING FAR AND WIDE FOR FIDEL’S CRONIES

That, in fact, is the year Symmes was bornin Connecticut, just three years after the Bayof Pigs invasion failed to overthrow Fidel Cas-tro’s Marxist government. He was raised inMcLean, Va., just outside Washington, whichis also where he developed a burning interestin Latin America.

“I wanted to compare the sort of reality onthe ground to what I was hearing and the poli-tical discussions, especially in the ‘80s withRonald Reagan, and the conflicts became veryimportant,” Symmes recently told CubaNewsin an exclusive interview at his Manhattanresidence. “I heard a lot of it just sitting in ona congressional hearing. Oh really? Commu-nist threat in Peru? That made me want to goto Peru and see for myself.”

This kind of curiosity led Symmes to thedoorsteps of “los dolorinos” — no matterwhere they lived.

Since Fidel and his brothers Raúl andRamón grew up not in Havana, but in Santiagode Cuba, Symmes trekked there several timesbetween 2002 and 2004, as well as to Havana,South Florida, Puerto Rico and back to NewYork — all in a quest to interview those whohad attended school with the Castro brothers.

“For me, it was always a ‘before and after’story — the world they came from and the

where he came from.”The dolorinos were a group of wealthy and

middle-class white Cuban kids that includedmembers of the Bacardí rum clan, and vari-ous students whose familieswere either well-heeledlandowners or professionals —in short, a reflection of youngmen being groomed to run acapitalist and presumably moredemocratic Cuba.

Among those who attendedDolores before Fidel’s arrivalwas Desi Arnaz, the famedCuban musician who won thehearts of average Americans inthe 1950s with his TV comedy “ILove Lucy.”

Arnaz was a Cuban exile of adifferent sort — he had fled tothe United States not because ofFidel, but because of the over-throw of the Machado regime in Havana in1933.

A FISTFIGHT WITH FIDEL

Some 238 students attended Dolores withFidel, men such as Alberto Casas, whose fam-ily once ran the second-largest dairy opera-tion in Oriente province.

world they ended up with,” he told CubaNews.“The fact is most of these guys are still alive.Fidel is still alive. So, there was a way to coverthat whole history of the origins of the revo-lution to its current state. It didn’t have to behis school. I could have picked the kids on hisbaseball team, or the guys from the Univer-sity of Havana. It just made sense to start withthe people who started with him. It shows

Allergic to any form of authority, Casas wasone of the first dolorinos to flee revolutionaryCuba in February 1959, settling in PuertoRico to become a tough-talking cattle rancher.Another dolorino who went into exile was An-tonio Roca, a basketball star at the school offar humbler origins who now lives in Virginia.

“He actually had to leave the school be-cause his family ran out of money,” says

Symmes. “At 16 years old, he went to sell in-surance door to door. He got back to theschool for his senior year. Three of his kids

are dentists. Four of his grand-children are dentists. Justabout the embodiment of asolid, middle-class guy, andeverybody remembers him, be-cause he was a basketball star.”

Another dolorino who stoodout was José Antonio Cubeñas,a one-time lawyer who endedup in exile not in Miami, but inthe mostly Dominican neigh-borhood of Washington Heightsin New York, where he still livestoday.

Some dolorinos would say afistfight Fidel had with Cube-ñas helped him decide to relo-cate to Havana to attendDolores’ sister school, Belén.

Symmes muses on this point.“Something nasty happened in that fight,”

he said. “Cubeñas said that the next semester,Fidel was gone. I suspect that Fidel wouldhave a different account of who won the fight.”

Cubeñas insisted during an interview with

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Patrick Symmes fleshes out Fidel’s fellow ‘dolorinos’

Schoolboys (including Fidel, far right) pose with Dolores banner at their elite school in Santiago de Cuba.

See Symmes, page 11

November 2007 ❖ CubaNews 11

HUMAN RIGHTS

Cuba places its death penalty on holdBY PATRICIA GROGG / INTER PRESS SERVICE

Military tribunals that have recentlytried serious cases of murder and kid-napping in Cuba have opted for life

sentences or 30-year prison terms instead ofthe death penalty, which has not been appliedin this country in more than four years.

The de facto moratorium has placed Cubain a more flexible position with regard to thecontroversial issue. In June, the EuropeanUnion Council of Ministers decided to pres-ent a UN resolution seeking an internationalmoratorium on the death penalty, a steptoward global abolition of capital punishment.

“The de facto moratorium is good news,”Elizardo Sánchez, an activist with the CubanCommission for Human Rights and NationalReconciliation (CCDHRN), told IPS.

The CCDHRN regularly reports on humanrights in Cuba, particularly political prisonersand the death penalty, based largely on testi-mony and information provided by the familymembers of prisoners.

A report by the dissident group noted thatthe August trial of young recruits who desert-ed from the army last April and tried to hijacka plane to Florida led to two life sentences andthree sentences of 30, 25 and 15 years.

According to the report, the Western Mili-tary Tribunal in Havana gave life terms toSgts. Yoán Torres, 21, and Leandro Cerezo, 20,while sentencing Sgt. Karel de Miranda, 19, to30 years, Cpl. Alaín Forbes, 25, to 25 years, andcivilian Ridel Lescaylle, 31, to 15 years.

In a statement distributed to foreign corre-spondents, Sánchez said the CCDHRN sees itas positive that Torres, the only one of the re-cruits who is 21 (the minimum age for thedeath penalty), was not sentenced to die by

firing squad.The dissident group’s report, which didn’t

specify the charges of which the five defen-dants were found guilty, stated that they were“convicted for the events that culminated in abloody, frustrated attempt to hijack a com-mercial passenger plane at Havana airport.”

An Interior Ministry statement issued May3 indicated that three armed conscripts doingtheir two years’ military service had desertedfrom their army unit Apr. 29, killing anotherconscript on guard duty, Yoendris Gutiérrez,and wounding a soldier in the process.

One of the three deserters was arrestedand “revealed that their aim was to leave thecountry illegally.”

The other two hijacked a public city bus,with several passengers on board, and spedto the domestic terminal of José MartíInternational Airport.

At the airport, “the murderers killed withfour shots one of the hostages, Lt. Col. VíctorIbo Acuña Velázquez of the RevolutionaryArmed Forces, who despite being unarmed,tried to prevent the terrorist action,” said thecommuniqué, which did not mention the par-ticipation of a civilian.

In an earlier trial, held in Santiago de Cuba,another military tribunal handed down a lifesentence to a recruit and an inmate, as well as30-year sentences to two other recruits, saidSánchez, who explained that he was informedof the case by family members of the accused.

The sentenced soldiers, who were workingas prison guards, had staged a revolt on Dec.20 at the El Manguito prison near Santiago,and two military officers were killed in theprocess. Official reports on the incident areunavailable, said Sánchez. ❑

Symmes that “Fidel tried to impose himselfon me. I fought him and won in front of 45boys. That’s why he went to Havana.”

Even so, observed Symmes, this wasn’t thelast time Cubeñas would deal with the futureleader of Cuba.

“He spent a huge amount of time withFidel, even though they had that fistfight,” hesaid. “They ended up at the University of Hav-ana together, then law school together for fiveyears. Then, his father owned a huge farm inthe mountains where Fidel was fighting. Theyhad constant dealings with each other. Itscared him off. He’d never break with him,because he didn’t want to be his enemy, buthe also would avoid being his friend.”

Those dealings included Fidel’s rebels fun-neling weapons and supplies through the landthat the Cubeñas family owned in order tofight Batista’s forces in the Sierra Maestramountains outside of Santiago de Cuba.

Yet another dolorino was Lundy Aguilar,

who later became an academic at GeorgetownUniversity. Aguilar used to hang out with Fid-el, watching Hollywood cowboy films. Duringthose times, Fidel revealed his deeply embed-ded anti-Americanism, cheering the Indiansin those Westerns.

“I kept hearing stories, particularly fromLundy Aguilar, that he was always in favor ofwhoever was against America,” said Symmes.“His little town wasn’t much, but the center ofthe sugar industry was half-owned by UnitedFruit. His father’s fields were surrounded byUnited Fruit fields. All the money came fromUnited Fruit.

“He married into that Díaz-Balart clanwhich was in very tight with American inter-ests. I think there was something at war inhim. His tuition at Dolores was being paid bythe money his dad made by providing work-ers to United Fruit. Ultimately, like a lot ofCubans, he was living off of America, but wasvery resentful of it.”

See Symmes, page 15

Symmes — FROM PAGE 10

CUBA HELPS EASE JAMAICAN CEMENT SHORTAGE

Cuba has shipped 5,000 metric tons ofcement to Jamaica in order to ease thatisland’s current cement shortage.

A team consisting of representatives fromthe Port Authority of Jamaica and other gov-ernment entities visited Cuba in September tofinalize arrangements for the importation ofsome 40,000 tons of cement, which will be ar-riving in Jamaica over the next eight months,in shipments of 5,000 tons per month.

Karl Samuda, the country’s minister of in-dustry, commerce and investment, said Jamai-ca’s Caribbean Cement Co. has made separatearrangements to import 9,000 tons of cementfrom Colombia, and another 9,000 tons fromthe Dominican Republic.

The demand for cement between now andDec. 31 is estimated at 245,000 tons.

Samuda didn’t say how much Jamaica waspaying for the Cuban cement.

Details: Stacy-Ann Holmes, Jamaica Trade &Invest, 18 Trafalgar Rd., Kingston 10, Jamaica.Tel: (876) 978-7755 x2235. Fax: (876) 978-0140. Email: sholmes@investjamaica.com.

CUBA HELPS ST. VINCENT WITH AIRPORT FUNDS

St. Vincent and the Grenadines is to beginconstruction this month on a new $179 millioninternational airport, backed by financialassistance from Cuba and Venezuela.

“Once President [Hugo] Chávez gets theheavy equipment here, as he has promised,we will be ready to go next month,” said RudyMatthias, chairman of the InternationalAirport Development Co.

Venezuela and Cuba have pledged 50% ofthe funds needed to construct the airport;Taiwan has also committed a $15 million grantand a $10 million soft loan for the project.

The airport, located at Argyle, is expectedto be finished by 2011.

MANNING OPENS T&T TRADE OFFICE IN HAVANA

Trinidadian Prime Minister Patrick Man-ning has officially opened the Trinidad &Tobago Trade Facilitation Office (TTFO) inHavana — the first step in bringing the twoCaribbean nations closer together.

The office, opened in early September, fol-lows last year’s announcement by Ken Valley,minister of trade and industry, who said: “TheTTFO will be authorized under Cuban law topromote and facilitate trade between Trinidad& Tobago and Cuba. It will be designed tofunction as a conduit between Trinidad &Tobago manufacturers and those state compa-nies authorized to import and sell to con-sumers; and also advise our manufacturers ofproducts which can be exported to Cuba.”

According to Valley’s office, the trade bal-ance is $90 million in Trinidad’s favor, with topTrinidadian exports to Cuba being chemicals,iron and steel, fertilizers, pulp and wastepaper.

Details: Trinidad & Tobago Trade Facilita-tion Office, Edif. Beijing, Ofic. #124, MiramarTrade Center, Ciudad de La Habana. Tel: +537 204-4242.

CARIBBEAN BRIEFS

12 CubaNews ❖ November 2007

DP WORLD MULLS $250m PORT AT MARIEL

Dubai Ports World is studying plans to builda $250 million container terminal in the Cubanport of Mariel, Reuters reported Oct. 18, quot-ing unnamed business sources.

“A deal is in the works. It is moving forwardand they have signed various agreements,”said a source, indicating that the terminalcould become operational by 2012.

DP World became the world’s 3rd-largestcontainer port business last year when itbought Britain’s Peninsular & Oriental SteamNavigation Co. But it was forced to sell P&O’sU.S. assets when the Bush administrationcame under fire for allowing an Arab-ownedcompany to control U.S. ports.

Critics said that deal, which involved theports of New York, Newark, Philadelphia,Baltimore, Miami and New Orleans, posed athreat to U.S. national security.

For years, P&O had planned to rebuildMariel port, located 50 km west of Havanaalong Cuba’s north coast, and turn it into amodern container port.

The port’s proximity to the U.S. makesMariel an attractive investment “lookingahead to a time when Cuba is no longer undera U.S. trade embargo, given limited portcapacity in the United States,” said Reuters.

FIHAV ORGANIZERS EXPECT 1,200 COMPANIES

More than 1,200 companies from 50 coun-tries have confirmed their participation in the25th International Havana Trade Fair (FIHAV2007), to take place Nov. 5-10.

Abraham Maciques, president of the FIHAVOrganizing Committee, renting of areas forexhibition by foreign firms has increased by13% since last year, when 1,125 companiesshowed off their products and services.

The trade fair will be held in Cuba’s largestexhibition center, ExpoCuba, located 25 kmsoutheast of Havana; the exhibition is to coveran area of 3,000 sq meters, with 320 Cubancompanies involved in healthcare, agriculture,biotech and others exhibiting their products.

Just prior to FIHAV-2007, the Second Busi-ness Forum of the Non-Aligned Movement isto be held at Havana’s main convention center.

Details: Pabexpo, 17 Avenida e/174 y 184,Siboney, La Habana. Tel: +53 7 271-6614 or271-0758. Fax: +53 7 271-9065. Email:wilma@palco.cu. URL: www.cpalco.com.

REGIME TOUTS CAMAGÜEY MILK PRODUCTION

The government claims that an increase inmilk production in the central province ofCamagüey has saved Cuba over $4 millionthis year in powdered milk imports.

Milk produced in Camagüey — whosedairies produce 300,000 liters a day — hasnearly met consumer demands in the provin-ces of Granma, Holguín and Ciego de Avila.

Some 50,000 liters of milk are transportedevery day to these provinces in refrigeratedtrucks. Milk is distributed to children under7, as well as to hospitals, schools and peopleon special diets.

BUSINESS BRIEFS By year’s end, Camagüey expects to produce19 million liters of milk, amounting to savingsof $9.9 million. Part of the province’s milk pro-duction is also used to produce cheese.

TOURISM MINISTRY LAUNCHES HOTEL CHAIN

Cuba has launched Hoteles E — a lodgingchain that’ll eventually include 50 establish-ments throughout the island and represent aunique alternative to beach resorts.

Spanish news agency EFE reports that thechain’s first property was inaugurated Sept. 5by Tourism Minister Manuel Marrero in thecentral city of Cienfuegos: Hotel EncantaoPalacio Azul, a converted 1920s mansion, ispart of this new initiative to restore vintagebuildings in Cuba's main historical squaresand convert them into hotels.

Marrero said the Hoteles E plan “sprungout of an unsatisfied demand for tours [of theisland] and cultural-historical tourism,” andthat it “marks the beginning of a new trend inCuban tourism that moves away from the sunand the beach to make way for what is mostauthentic about our cultural identity.”

The minister, quoted in Juventud Rebelde,said the project would also “foster greaterexchange between visitors and our people,”

which, if true, would mark a departure fromthe Castro regime’s long-standing policy ofkeeping locals away from tourist hotels.

Hoteles E project is similar to an initiativelaunched in Havana by the city’s official histo-rian, Eusebio Leal, who has restored severalemblematic buildings to convert them intohotels in the capital’s colonial zone.

IOWA FARM DELEGATION SEES ‘GREAT POTENTIAL’

A group of Iowans led by Bill Northey, thestate’s secretary of agriculture, spent five daysin Cuba meeting with government officialsand touring farms.

Bob Bowman, former president of the IowaCorn Growers Association, says there’s greatpotential in Cuba to build markets for Iowacorn and distillers grains, in spite of therestrictions.

“It’s a cash-only business,” he said. “Thecash has to be transferred into a U.S. bankbefore the product can be shipped ... which iskind of a disadvantage.”

Bowman says the Cuban officials he metwith during the Oct. 1-5 trip wish the UnitedStates would consider easing trade restric-tions. “We were asked repeatedly to do whatwe could politically in this country to open up

Asix-member panel of scholars at aJesuit university in Nebraska is help-ing advise the U.S. government on

what do with billions of dollars in claimsfiled by those whose assets were seizedafter Fidel Castro came to power in 1959.

Omaha’s Creighton University — whichtwo years ago was awarded a $375,000grant by the U.S. Agency for InternationalDevelopment — delivered its 277-pagereport to USAID last month.

Among other things, the Creighton studyrecommends that the U.S. help choosejudges for a special Cuban court tasked withcompensating Cuban families who lost theirproperty to the Castro regime.

“What we tried to do was present realisticroad maps for resolving the claims once theU.S. and Cuba get on to a more friendlyfooting,” said Patrick Borchers, Creighton’svice-president for academic affairs, in a tele-phone interview with CubaNews.

“Our most important specific recommen-dations were to create two different entities,one to resolve the U.S. claims that were cer-tified by the Foreign Claims SettlementCommission (FCSC), and then create a sep-arate entity within the Cuban judiciary to re-solve the claims of the Cuban expatriates.”

Borchers told CubaNews his team “reliedheavily on international law,” and that heacknowledges that some people — includ-ing many Cuban exiles — won’t be 100%happy with their recommendations.

Other critics said the university’s only ex-pertise on Cuba matters is that was thealma mater of Adolfo Franco, USAID’s

Cuban-born former administrator.“We are independent academics trying to

make some recommendations,” Borcherssaid. “We were funded by the government,but USAID had no influence over the out-come of the product. We wrote what wewanted to write.”

Some 5,911 American claims have beendetermined valid by FCSC, which the studyvalues at about $6 billion in current dollars,with interest. The claims are wide-ranging,from homes to corporate assets, sugar millsand oil refineries.

The study suggests that if Cuba tried topay the claims back in hard currency, itwould be able to pay only a few cents on thedollar, and Cuban assets frozen in theUnited States would hardly dent the claims.

Instead, the study suggests settling theclaims in ways that’ll foster Cuba’s growth,by giving claimants tax breaks or otheropportunities for financial gain.

“This is a comprehensive report, but Imust emphasize that it’s a starting pointbecause there will be a lot of issues, partic-ularly in terms of the process and the legalinstruments to be developed,” said ElaineGrigsby, director of USAID’s Cuba Transi-tion to Democracy Program.

Grigsby, quoted by the Associated Press,said both a new Cuban government and theUnited States would have to agree on theprocess in order to settle the claims.

Details: Patrick Borchers, Creighton Uni-versity, 2500 California Plaza, Omaha, NE68178. Tel: (402) 280-4076. Fax: (402)280-2549. Email: borchers@creighton.edu.

Creighton issues study on Cuba claims

November 2007 ❖ CubaNews 13trade,” Bowman said, “because they need two-way trade to help their people out.”

The Iowans said Cuban livestock producersstill want to buy and feed to livestock distillersdried grains (DDGs), which are byproducts ofthe ethanol-making process. DDGs are pro-duced after the starch is removed from thecorn kernel to make ethanol.

Northey told the Des Moines Register thatthe Cuban government purchased 35 millionbushels of corn and about 100,000 tons ofDDGs from the United States last year. DDGsare high in protein and have been touted aslivestock feed, primarily for multi-stomachedanimals like cattle that can digest it better.

Craig Floss, chief executive officer of theIowa Corn Growers Association, was told inHavana that Cuba plans to double its purchas-es of the dried grains this year.

Don Mason, director of grower services forthe corn association, said Cuba continues tohave infrastructure problems that hamperunloading DDGS at ports and transportingthem to livestock producers.

In related news, a Nebraska delegation thisfall will be taking yet another trip to Cuba.

Gov. Dave Heineman says he’s going to leadthe agriculture-based group to Havana inNovember. This would be Heineman’s fourthtrade trip to the island.

Since 2005, Cuba has bought $60 million inNebraska commodities, including dry ediblebeans, corn, wheat, turkey, pork, beef, soy-beans and other soy products.

Details: Don Mason, Director of Grower Ser-vices, Iowa Corn Growers Association, 5505NW 88th Street, Suite #100, Johnston, IA50131-2948. Tel: (515) 225-9242. Fax: (515)225-0781. Email: dmason@iowacorn.org.

COURT REJECTS CHALLENGE TO OFAC REGS

A federal district court judge in Washingtonhas rejected challenges by a professor and astudent at Johns Hopkins University to chan-ges made in 2004 by the Treasury Depart-ment’s Office of Foreign Assets Control regu-lations relating to academic study in Cuba.

Export Law Blog reported Aug. 1 that theregs at issue required eligible academic pro-grams to be at least 10 weeks and be restrict-ed to students enrolled at the academic insti-tution conducting the course in Cuba.

The court rejected a claim that the law vio-lates the First Amendment by stating OFAC’srules were content-neutral, since they placeno restrictions on what universities and theirprofessors may teach their students aboutCuba; they merely restrict them in limited cir-cumstances from teaching students in Cuba.

Because the regulations were content-neu-tral, ruled the judge, their incidental burdenon First Amendment rights could be justifiedif they further an “important or substantialgovernmental interest.”

‘SPECIAL PERIOD’ WAS GOOD FOR CUBANS

Cubans remember the 1990s as a time ofdire crisis and hunger, but researchers havefound that the resulting weight loss led to dra-matically lower mortality rates from condi-tions such as heart disease and diabetes.

Reuters, in a Sept. 25 report quoting theAmerican Journal of Epidemiology, said ateam from the Johns Hopkins School of PublicHealth, Loyola University and Cienfuegos,Cuba, studied the crisis triggered by the col-lapse of the Soviet Union, when the Cubaneconomy shrunk by 40% in four years.

Calorie intake plummeted from 2,900 calo-ries a day in 1988 to 1,986 calories a day in1993. At the same time, the lack of gasolineforced Cubans to walk or ride bicycles.

The result was a decline in obesity. Between1997 and 2002, deaths caused by diabetes de-clined by 51%, coronary heart disease mortali-ty dropped 35% and stroke mortality by 20%.

The 1989-2000 economic crisis was a uniqueopportunity to observe the impact of popula-tion-wide weight loss in a country due to sus-tained reductions in caloric intake and a jumpin physical activity, the researchers said.

“This is the first, and probably the only, nat-ural experiment, born of unfortunate circum-stances, where large effects on diabetes, car-diovascular disease and all-cause mortalityhave been related to sustained population-wide weight loss as a result of increased phys-ical activity and reduced caloric intake,” saidDr. Manuel Franco of Johns Hopkins Schoolof Public Health’s Epidemiology Department.

MEDICAL TOURISM ON THE RISE

More than 5,000 patients from 38 countrieshave received medical treatment in Cubasince September this year, at internationalclinics led by the government-run CubanacanTourism and Health Co.

Calixto Noche, commercial manager of theentity, said that in addition to tourists, another1,700 people, including foreign residents inCuba and members of diplomatic missions,have been treated throughout Cuba.

Cubanacan Tourism and Health gave med-ical treatment to nearly 9,000 foreigners in2006 in the specialties of orthopedics, generalsurgery, aesthetics, cardiology and pediatrics.

Diseases such as vitiligo, psoriasis, alopeciaand retinitis pigmentosa are among thosemost frequently treated.

FACTORY TO PRODUCE ECO-FRIENDLY SPRAYS

Cuba has opened a factory to produce CFC-free aerosol sprays, as part of the country’sefforts to reduce the emission of harmful sub-stances into the environment.

The plant, inaugurated Sept. 7 on the out-skirts of Havana, will substitute the use of 28to 30 tons per year of freon gas for othergases that don't destroy the ozone layer. Theproject, whose dollar value wasn’t released,was sponsored by the Multilateral Fund of theMontreal Protocol, with backing from the UNDevelopment Program.

Roberto Galvez, the UNDP’s resident repre-sentative in Havana, said that between 1989and 2006, Cuba slashed the use of CFCs(chlorofluorocarbons) by nearly 77%.

Cuba also expects to reduce by 80% its con-sumption of methyl bromide in coming years.

Details: Roberto Galvez, UN Development Pro-gram, Havana. Tel: +53 7 204-1492. Fax: +537 204-1516. Email: roberto.galvez@undp.org.

PAPER ADMITS BUS VANDALISM ON THE RISE

The incidence of bus vandalism is increas-ing rapidly, says an expose by the CommunistParty newspaper Juventud Rebelde.

The paper reported Sept. 22 that the newChinese-built Yutong buses have become atarget for youths seeking to steal vital parts orvandalize the shiny new vehicles.

It quoted the driver of Bus 5069, which hadbeen in service only a month when it wasattacked by vndals. As a result, it was out ofservice for eight days, meaning it was unableto transport some 40,000 passengers — giventhat these buses make 12 daily trips with 400people on each.

But the driver, identified as Raúl GleangMartínez, said this incident is minor com-pared with others he’s had to put up with inhis 20 years of service.

“Stealing that part is nothing compared toother more dangerous acts of vandalism that Ihave dealt with,” he told the paper, which haslately published less-than-flattering storiesabout daily life on the island.

Gleang recalled that he was once threat-ened by a passenger with a knife, while othershave verbally attacked him because hedemands discipline in the bus and forbidssmoking or drinking alcohol in his bus.

One of these vehicles is Bus 5080, whichhas a dent on the front from a recent stoning.Body-workers will try to hide the damage, butthe mark of vandalism will be hard to erase.

Bus 5081, another new Yutong, also showssigns of violence. A man, who was not pickedup by the driver because he was not at thebus stop, hit the bus with a pipe.

Similar stories surface in other Havana busstations. According to Juventud Rebelde, themore than 20 drivers interviewed agree that itis necessary to immediately stop the mistreat-ment and abuse that adds risk to their alreadydangerous profession.

“Sadly, these offenses are taking place justas modest improvements to Havana’s urbantransportation system have begun,” it said.

U.S. INTELLIGENCE UNIT HIRES NEW CUBA CHIEF

Timothy Langford, a career CIA officer, hasbeen appointed as the new Cuba and Vene-zuela mission manager for the Office of theDirector of National Intelligence — a positionthat coordinates information-gathering forareas considered top priorities.

The Miami Herald reported Oct. 6 thatLangford, 48, spent 25 years dealing withLatin American issues at the CIA. He has amaster’s degree in Latin American studiesfrom the University of Texas at Austin.

President Bush suggested the creation ofthe Cuba/Venezuela post after Fidel Castrobecame ill. Then-chief John Negroponteappointed Norman Bailey, a former Reaganadministration official and Cold War expert.

But Bailey was dismissed by the new direc-tor, Mike McConnell, only a few months later,a move that raised concerns among MiamiRepublican Reps. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen andLincoln Díaz-Balart that the intelligence com-munity was downgrading the importance ofCuba and Venezuela.

14 CubaNews ❖ November 2007

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Granma suffers from stagnation and environmental decayBY ARMANDO H. PORTELA

Granma is one of five provinces createdin 1976 following the breakup of the oldOriente province. It is Cuba’s 6th-larg-

est province, covering 8,375 sq kms (3,235 sqmiles), or 7.6% of the country’s total land area.

The territory combines the low Cauto Rivervalley, with marshes, crops and grazing lands,and the steep mountains of the western SierraMaestra, the highest and most extensivemountain range in Cuba.

Deep black soils, once considered amongthe island’s most productive, cover the lowplains of the Cauto River valley, but thesedays the soil quality has been ruined by poordrainage, desertification and high salinity —all miseries resulting from mismanagementand over-regulation of water resources inrecent decades.

Since 1959, Granma has endured consider-able environmental damage. Deforestation,excessive use of water resources, overgrazingin mountains and improper waste disposalhave taken the greatest toll.

“The lack of cooking fuel as a result of theeconomic hardships [of the 1990s] forceddwellers to cut down trees along riverbanksand burn the wood,” acknowledged Cuba’sofficial daily Granma in 2001.

“The resulting destruction caused tremen-dous erosion, dangerous landslides, contami-nation of the water table and liquidation of thenatural fauna, among other misfortunes.”

(The newspaper, like the province, isnamed after the boat that carried Fidel Castroand his band of revolutionaries from Mexicoto Cuba in 1956.)

Salinization of soils is a severe problemprompted in part by river damming and irri-gation, along with a sharp decline in rains andrunoff. Roughly 277 sq kms (107 sq miles), orover two-fifths of all farmland in the provincesuffer some degree of saline intrusion.

Salinization has also poisoned some aqui-fers in low lands. Average runoff in the lowerCauto River valley has shrunk by 60% over thelast 40 years — leading to critical water short-ages for farmers and residents alike.POPULATION

In 2006, Granma had 832,826 inhabitants,or 7.4% of Cuba’s total population. With annu-al growth of averaging only 0.3% in the lastfive years, Granma’s population is stagnant. In2006, the province gained only 736 residentsfrom a year earlier, translating into growth of0.08%. Low birth rates and high emigrationkeep figures depressed (see chart, page 15).

Bayamo is the provincial capital, with146,599 inhabitants in 2006. Ironically, it isone of Cuba’s fastest-growing cities, havingjumped from only 20,178 residents in 1953 to71,500 in 1970 and 100,600 in 1981.

The No. 2 city, Manzanillo, has 97,038 resi-dents. Other key cities are Niquero (21,636),Jiguaní (21,130); Guissa (20,461), Campechu-

This is the last in a series of monthly arti-cles on Cuba’s 14 provinces by geographerArmando H. Portela, who has a Ph.D. in geo-graphy from the Soviet Academy of Sciences.

ela and Media Luna (18,000), Río Cauto andBartolomé Maso (15,000) and Yara (12,000).ECONOMY

The end of massive Soviet subsides to Cubain the early 1990s hit Granma particularlyhard, since the provincial economy dependedheavily on large inputs of energy, machineryand raw materials.

Since then, croplands and industries havebeen gradually abandoned, while Granma’sinfrastructure, public-service sector and envi-ronment have all declined dramatically in thelast decade. As a result, many granmenseschoose to leave their province in search ofbetter opportunities.

Granma is Cuba’s largest rice producer,with an average output of 180,000 metric tonsin the 1980s, or 40% of the island’s total. But inthe 1990s, yields fell drastically as state-runrice paddies suffered from lack of machinery,spare parts, fuel, pesticides and fertilizers.The degradation of soils and water resourcesare also to blame for the sharp decline in riceproduction.

The nationwide downsizing of Cuba’s sugarindustry leaves Granma with six out of 11mills to produce sugar in the future. Pooryields forced authorities to close these mills:Francisco Castro Ceruto (formerly Dos Ami-gos), Luís E. Carracedo (Cape Cruz), RanulfoLeyva (Sofía), José Nemesio Figueredo (RíoCauto) and La Demajagua (Salvador).

Ironically the records show excellent yields

and a combined production of 150,000 tonsfrom these mills 50 years ago. At least 40,000hectares of sugar cane have been abandonedand roughly 8,000 people, or 1.6% of theprovincial labor force, has been laid off.

Granma ranks No. 3 in Cuban coffee pro-duction, just behind Guantánamo andSantiago de Cuba. But the coffee plantations,located in the Sierra Maestra, have been neg-lected and yields are generally poor.

Cattle ranching is also a traditional pillar ofGranma’s economy. Mostly concentrated inthe mid-Cauto valley, near Bayamo, nearly210,000 hectares (519,000 acres) of grazinglands sustain over 400,000 heads of cattle, orroughly 10% of the national herd.

Both the pasturelands and the herd havedecreased noticeably in the last decade as aresult of the economic crisis.

Unattended grazing lands are heavily over-grown with thorny brushes and renderedunusable, while mortality, poaching and lowbirth rates have decimated the cattle massand lowered dairy production.

In the mid-1980s, grazing lands covered330,000 hectares (815,00 acres) and support-ed close to 680,000 head of cattle. In its hey-day, fresh milk production averaged 85 mil-lion liters a year, and Granma was a tradition-al dairy producer.

The old Patagrás factory at Bayamo, found-ed in 1928, supplied the domestic market witha well-accepted variety of cheese. In 1930,Nestlé founded and operated a milk canningfacility at Bayamo, which is still functioning asa state entity.

The province is also home to some facto-ries of national significance. An oversized alu-minum pipe and sprinkler factory in

November 2007 ❖ CubaNews 15

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Manzanillo was opened in1977 to supply Cuba’s irriga-tion needs. It was designed toprovide irrigation systems for 200,000 hectares a year — enough toirrigate over half the island’s croplands within a decade — but theambitious project never came close to fruition. The combined effect ofenergy and raw materials shortages along with collapsing demandforced the plant to slash output in the 1990s.

An electric battery plant built to produce 450,000 units a year openedin Manzanillo two years later. Factory bosses recently replaced theplant’s original Japanese technology with modern Italian equipment. Itcurrently assembles 225,000 lead-acid batteries a year — enough tocover 70% of Cuba’s needs.

The fishing port of Manzanillo is one of the most important in Cuba;fisheries are also significant in Niquero, with white shrimp, lobster andkingfish in the Gulf of Guacanayabo among the leading exports. Yetover-exploitation, pollution and the loss of coastal habitats have led toa decline in volume and quality, especially with regard to shrimp.INFRASTRUCTURE AND TOURISM

The two-lane Central Highway and the Central Railroad link Granmato the rest of Cuba. A network of narrow secondary paved roads —most in very poor shape — reaches all major settlements and eco-nomic hubs. The mountains are accessible via dirt roads. The sugarbulk-loading terminal at Ceiba Hueca, 25 km southwest of Manzanillo,regularly handled 6% of Cuba’s sugar exports before the industry’sdownsizing this year.

Bayamo and Manzanillo airports handle only domestic air traffic.Granma’s tourism industry is relatively undeveloped. The lack of

facilities, nearby international airports and accessible beaches severe-ly limit Granma’s attractiveness for investment.

The province currently has 474 rooms in acceptable hotels. Thisincludes a 204-room property in Bayamo, and two hotels with a com-bined 270 rooms at Marea del Portillo, a scenic spot along theprovince’s south shore. A handful of rustic cabañas are scattered in theSierra Maestra.

Symmes — FROM PAGE 11

The De Jongh brothers — Arturo, David and Kiki — were atrio of dolorinos with Dutch ancestry, something unusual inSpanish-speaking Cuba.

Arturo and David went into exile, while Kiki — an ardent sup-porter of Fidel — still lives in Cuba. Kiki, who became an archi-tect, told Symmes during an interview at the Hotel Habana Librethat many of the dolorinos, whose Jesuit education gave them aprogressive outlook on life, initially sided with the revolution,including its literacy campaigns and medical missions to helpcampesinos living in the mountains.

“But once Castro’s reforms began to hit their pocketbooks —their businesses nationalized, their lands redistributed, theirwages put under state control, their country homes turned intodormitories for the masses — they reacted,” Kiki told Symmes.“They became fundamentally reactionary.”

Another de Jongh brother, David, a physician who heard thegunshots that killed anti-Batista activist Frank País during a battlein Santiago in 1958, now lives in the Miami suburb of Kendall andcannot understand why his brother Kiki still supports Fidel.

“The revolution was something necessary, yes. But commu-nism, no,” he said.

The laboratory and blood bank that David had set up inSantiago was lost, and had to be re-established in Miami withseven pounds of gold that the family spirited out of Cuba throughdiplomatic channels.

The book also details the September 1961 expulsion of all for-eign Catholic priests from Cuba, including the Spanish Jesuitswho taught at Dolores, since the Castro regime deemed them“tools of the counterrevolution.” That one act helped shut downDolores and other Catholic schools throughout Cuba for good.

“Fidel doesn’t like alternative power structures,” Symmesexplained. “The Church was big, at one time the official church ofCuba, and everything was officially Catholic. That’s an alternativepower structure.”

BOOK ALSO DISCUSSES BAY OF PIGS, RAMÓN CASTRO

In addition to the accounts of struggles between Fidel’s rebelforces and Batista’s beleaguered police and intelligence agents inand around Santiago de Cuba, “The Boys from Dolores” also goesinto detail about the failed 1961 Bay of Pigs invasion.

Two dolorinos, Roberto Mancebo and his brother Jorge, madeup part of the invasion force and were captured. A year later, thebrothers — along with other surviving members of the Bay ofPigs disaster — won their freedom from Fidel in exchange for ashipment of tractors and Gerber baby food. Years after settling inFlorida, Roberto went on to become a social worker.

Symmes also mentioned that Fidel’s older brother Ramón —who was originally supposed to inherit their fathers’ land and for-tune — once made a derogatory remark in a newspaper columnabout some of Fidel’s revolutionary initiatives. After that, Ramónwas rarely seen again in public.

“There was the idea that he was put out to pasture,” musedSymmes. (Ramón, who is far more interested in farm equipmentand sports than politics, was featured in the September 2003 andJuly 2004 issues of CubaNews).

Interestingly, the cover of Symmes’ book is dominated by ablack-and-white photo of Fidel and his classmates in their military-like school uniforms. Symmes remarks on the photo’s historicalsignificance.

“That whole culture, the old Spanish Cuba, the aristocraticCuba, is gone, or has been transplanted to America to somedegree,” he says. “There’s a sense that when you look at thatphoto, you’re looking at something that was crushed by some-body in that photo.” ❑

16 CubaNews ❖ November 2007

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If your organization is sponsoring an upcoming event, please let our readers know!Fax details to CubaNews at (301) 949-0065 or send e-mail to larry@cubanews.com.

Nov. 5-10: 25th International Havana Trade Fair (FIHAV 2007), Havana. More than 1,200companies from 50 countries have confirmed their participation in this key annual event,which coincides with the 2nd Business Forum of the Non-Aligned Movement (NOAL).Details: Pabexpo, 17 Avenida e/174 y 184, Siboney, Ciudad de La Habana. Tel: +53 7 271-6614 or 271-0758. Fax: +53 7 271-9065. Email: wilma@palco.cu. URL: www.cpalco.com.

Nov. 8: “Havana Noir” Acclaimed Cuban novelist Achy Obejas to discuss her latest antholo-gy, which includes crime stories by Moisés Asís, Mabel Cuesta and Carolina García-Aguile-ra. Details: Americas Society, 680 Park Ave., New York, NY 10021. URL: www.achyobejas.com.

Nov. 14: “After Castro: An American Perspective,” London. Speaker: Phil Peters, vice-presi-dent and chief Cuba policy analyst at Washington’s Lexington Institute. No charge. Details:International Institute for the Study of Cuba, London Metropolitan University, 166-220Holloway Road, London N7 8DB. Tel: +44 20 7133-2405. Email: admin@cubastudies.org.

Nov. 27: “Rebuilding Cuba: The Critical Issues.” Private seminar at Riviera Country Club,Miami, to discuss possible funding strategies for privatization, confiscated properties andthe reconstruction of a new Cuba. Speaker: Thomas Herzfeld. Details: Babun Group Consult-ing, PO Box 546135, Miami, FL 33154. Tel: (305) 884-0441. Email: mail@babungroup.com.

Dec. 1: “Cuba: What to Expect,” Westin Colonnade Hotel, Miami. Speakers at all-day eventinclude Brian Latell, Frank Mora, Alcibiades Hidalgo, Eugenio Yáñez, Carlos Alberto Mon-taner, Orlando Gutiérrez, Andy Gómez, Marcos Antonio Ramos, Hans de Salas, Steven G.Ullman, Jorge Piñón, Antonio Jorge, Mario González Corzo, Jorge Pérez-López, Susan K.Purcell, Otto Reich, Pamela Falk, Damian Fernández, Mauricio Claver. Cost: $45 includinglunch. Details: Cuba Transition Project, University of Miami, PO Box 248174, Coral Gables,FL 33124-3010. Tel: (305) 284-2822. Fax: (305) 284-4875. Email: ctp.iccas@miami.edu.

Dec. 5: Cuba session on final day of 31st Miami Conference on the Caribbean, Hotel Inter-Continental. Cost: $800. Details: Caribbean-Central American Action, 1818 N St. NW, #310,Washington, DC 20036. Tel: (202) 466-7464. Fax: (202) 822-0075. URL: www.c-caa.org.

Dec. 8-15: Study tour to Cuba for students and staff at London Metropolitan University.Tour “to take in aspects of Cuban history, economy, conservation and architecture as wellas music and culture.” Cost: £888 (inc. airfare from UK, five nights at Hotel Habana Libre,guides, transfers, etc.). Details: IISC, London Metropolitan University, 166-220 HollowayRoad, London N7 8DB. Tel: +44 20 7133-2405. Email: stephen.wilkinson@cubastudies.org.

Dec. 12: “The Scientific Revolution in Cuba: Highlights and Future Prospects,” London.Speaker: Luís Alberto Montero-Cabrera, Consejo Cientifico, University of Havana. No charge.Details: International Institute for the Study of Cuba, London Metropolitan University, 166-220 Holloway Rd, London N7 8DB. Tel: +44 20 7133-2405. Email: admin@cubastudies.org.

CALENDAR OF EVENTS