Havana, Apr 16 (Prensa Latina) Cuba and the United States will have another space for dialogue during the Conference of the Design Committee of the American Institute of Architects to gather in Havana next week, informed its organizers.

To the event scheduled from April 18 to 23, will attend 165 U.S. professionals interested in the progress achieved by the island in that field, told journalists Geo Darder, president of the Copperbridge U.S. Foundation.

According to Darder, the U.S. delegation includes renowned professionals as one of the one responsible for the iconic skyscraper Lipstick of New York and a professor of the University of Miami who published a book on the diaspora of Cuban architecture.

The event will start on Monday in the San Geronimo College of Havana, with a cycle of conferences of Cuban specialists to promote work done to date on studies, conservation and rescue of architectural patrimony of the city.

Visitors will also be able to appreciate that reality firsthand, when they tour places of interest such as the Grand Theater of Havana Alicia Alonso which reopened its doors this year, or the Capitol, whose remodeling work is in execution.

They will also share experiences with Cuban students linked to architecture and design in the cultural center Fabrica de Arte in the capital.

The event closes next weekend in the western province of Matanzas, where the U.S. participants will know the main landmarks of architecture of this city known as the Athens of Cuba, as well as the buildings of the Varadero resort.

This will be the biggest meeting on architecture held in the island since the 12th World Art Deco Cogress in 2013, which for a few days turned Havana in the capital of that peculiar design style, with the participation of over 200 professionals of 15 countries.

HAVANA, abril 15 th  A US company is getting ready to make history itself all for what it’s doing in Cuba.
Hinding of HINDING TENNIS is heading to Cuba with his crew to rebuild tennis courts at the National Tennis Center in Havana.

The project is the brainchild of Burlington tennis pro Jake Agna, who started the non-profit, “Kids on the Ball” in 2001. After years of helping at-risk youth through the organization in the states, it was Agna’s vision for every Cuban child to have an opportunity to play tennis.

Hinding says the project got approval from the U.S. government and the Cuban government, “It is a tremendous opportunity for us and we feel humbled and honored to just be a part of it. I mean it’s been 53 years since a U.S. company has done a brick and mortar project in Cuba.”

In 1991 the Cubans held the Pan American Games there, but now the courts are crumbling and the nets are held up by chairs. “Kids with wooden racquets, broken strings and balls with no felt on them and no nets just a wire line across, but these kids were out there engaging in tennis matches,” said Hinding.

Hinding says without decent equipment kids were still determined to play tennis. “The Cuban kids in terms of their desire to want to play this sport we noticed from the moment we showed up at this facility.” Hinding Tennis will rebuild 10 courts. The renovations to the courts will cost nearly $600,000 but when it’s finished it will be a world class facility.

But most of all, Hinding said it will bring kids together, “Just seeing the whole thing transform to where they are going to have a facility where they are going to be proud of everyday.”

The materials to construct the project will be sent to Cuba in April and the project will start in May. It will take about two weeks to restore the courts.

HAVANA, april 12th (EFE) The Cuban American community in Florida will stage a protest on Tuesday before the offices of Carnival Cruise Line because Cuban authorities will not allow them to travel to the communist island on board cruise ships that will sail there regularly starting on May 1.

The Democracy Movement convened the demonstration to call attention to the “discrimination” the prohibition by Havana represents, the group’s leader, Ramon Saul Sanchez, told EFE on Monday.

The controversy erupted on the weekend after a reporter with the daily El Nuevo Herald tried to buy a ticket on the first of the cruise liners scheduled to sail to Cuba and was told by the firm that they would not accept her as a passenger because Cuban law prohibits her from traveling to the island.

The journalist wrote an article denouncing the situation and since then the complaints have multiplied.

Sanchez told EFE that on Sunday he met with a top Carnival official to express his outrage over the fact that the company is agreeing to the discriminatory practice.

According to the exile group’s leader, the official said that the firm does not agree with the prohibition either and has lobbied the island’s authorities not to apply the law to cruise lines, so far without results.

Under the slogan “Carnival Stop Nationality Apartheid,” the Democracy Movement is not only preparing the Tuesday demonstration but has also organized a flotilla to protest the matter by sea on May 1, when the Carnival vessel Adonia sets sail for Cuba.

HAVANA, Apr 11th (ACN)  With a new season of Swan Lake, the National Ballet of Cuba returns to its usual scenarios at Alicia Alonso Havana Grand Theatre, presenting a renewed cast.

From next April 22 to 29, fans of this genre can enjoy the much desired return, which includes four young dancers who make their debut in this new face of the company.

One of them is Patricio Revé, who in his short career has already been honored with important accomplishments in the International Academies Encounter for the teaching of ballet in Cuba, and this time he plays the role of Prince Siegfried.

There is also the multi-awarded Rafael Quenedit, who has won prizes like the Gold Medal of the International Ballet Competition in South Africa and the highest award for Masters Technique in the Academies International Contest for Teaching Ballet.

This cast is completed by already recognized figures in the Cuban dancing stage as the prima ballerinas Viengsay Valdes, Estheysis Menendez, Grettel Morejon, Sadaise Arencibia and Anette Delgado, along with leading dancer Dani Hernández, all accompanied by soloists and corps de ballet of the company.

Tickets for the expected revival will be on sale from April 19 in the usual schedules at the box office of the Alicia Alonso Havana Grand Theatre, located in 458th of Prado St., between San Jose and San Rafael, in Old Havana.

HAVANA, april 10 (Progress weely)  Kazakhstan and Cuba have signed an agreement whereby the Central Asian republic offers to sell the island crude oil and help in the onshore and offshore search for the valuable hydrocarbon.

The agreement was reached on April 2, just after the arrival in Havana of Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev, in his first ever visit to Cuba. It was signed by Energy ministers Kanat Bozumbayev and Alfredo López Valdés, noted the Astana Times.

“Today with Mr. Valdés we have signed a memorandum on joint actions in the spheres of the oil and gas industry, the exploration of oil deposits in the coastal zone of Cuba, and the possible supply of Kazakh oil to a Cuban refinery,” Bozumbayev told The Times.

“Like other Latin American countries, Cuba is seriously engaged in scientific developments in order to compensate for the energy deficit. In some Latin American countries, the share of renewable energy reaches 90 percent. Today, we discussed this topic during the meeting. Cuba conducts major scientific research to increase the use of renewable energy sources,” said the president of Astana EXPO 2017, Akhmetzhan Yessimov, a member of the delegation.

In Kazakhstan this week, the deputy director of the Oil and Gas Institute, Akbar Tukayev, admitted to “a certain skepticism.” He questioned the need for the offer, pointing out that Cuba “consumes only 8 million tons of oil a year and has stable relations with Venezuela.”

Venezuela accounts for 80 percent of Cuba’s oil supply, which it furnishes at subsidized prices, Tukayev said. The rest comes from Mexico, Ecuador, Brazil and other countries.

The Venezuelan oil, purchased under highly favorable undisclosed terms, depends on the continuing of Nicolas Maduro in the presidency as the opposition has promised to either cut the deliveries to the island or demand a renegotiation more favorable to Venezuelan national interests.

In his opinion, Cuba’s interest in oil cooperation with Kazakhstan can be explained by Havana’s desire to diversify its circle of suppliers, and also to procure new types of oil products, besides those obtained from Venezuelan crude.

“Thus, the potential volume of supply from Kazakhstan will be no more than 5,000 barrels per day, which is achieved with just a few oil tankers per year,” the expert said.

Kazakhstan produced 79.5 million tons of oil in 2015. Production estimates for 2016 were recently revised down from 77 million tons to 74 million.

“The main risks that Kazakhstan may face in exporting [crude to Cuba] are the distance between the two countries and Cuba’s solvency,” Tukayev told the Centrasia News Agency. “However, Havana’s interest in Kazakh oil will reduce the risks for our country,” he added.

Kazakhstan’s other competitors include Russiaís Rosneft and the China National Petroleum Company (CNPC), which signed agreements in 2014 that would expand production along Cuba’s northern coast. Companies that have pursued exploration activities in Cuba in the past include Brazil’s Petrobras, Spain’s Repsol, Malaysia’s Petronas, Russia’s Zarubezhneft, and Venezuela’s Petróleos de Venezuela S.A. (PdVSA).

HAVANA, april 9th Starting next month, Cubans who are no longer citizens of the country will not be allowed to travel to the island via cruise ship with Carnival Corporation, according to a report from CBS Miami.

The cruise line is following the request of the Cuban government to discriminate against Cuban-born people beginning May 1st.

The company released a statement defending the action, while simultaneously saying they will apply pressure for reconsideration:

“Cuba has a longstanding regulation that no Cuban-born individuals are allowed to travel to or from Cuba by ship. This regulation applies to all cruise lines, ferries and any form of shipping planning to travel to Cuba.”

Last month, the Cuban government gave Carnival the okay to begin sailing to the island, using their new Fathom Travel line.

While the company said they “obey the regulations and laws of the countries” they sail to, they are, however, requesting Cuban leaders reconsider the discriminatory rule.

“It is our hope and intention that we will be able to travel with everyone,” the statement concluded.

Itinerary from the company’s website promotes seven-day cruises that include off-shore excursions in Havana, Cienfuegos and Santiago de Cuba.

http://www.wtsp.com/travel/carnival-bans-cuban-born-from-traveling-to-island/126443665

HAVANA, april 5th (tbo.com) For years, Cuba’s state-run airports have charged U.S.-based flights landing fees that are considered high at best and discriminatory at worst.

But those fees are expected to fall in line with rates paid from other nations once U.S. commercial carriers land in Cuba later this year — as early as September — for the first time in more than five decades.

U.S. charter flights pay Cuba landing fees of $73 to $148 per passenger today, based on age and whether they are traveling as individuals or in a tour group.

Cuba’s international landing fee in Havana’s José Martí International Airport is $4.89 per metric ton of aircraft. Charter flights typically use a 162-seat Boeing 737-800 with a maximum take-off weight of 79 metric tons — for a landing fee of about $390. But the same sold-out aircraft could cost nearly $24,000 in landing fees at José Martí if operated by a U.S. charter flight company.

In February, the U.S. and Cuban governments signed a non-binding aviation arrangement that allows U.S.-based commercial flights to land and sets certain guidelines — including one prohibiting discriminatory fees.

The State Department confirmed to the Tribune that this new arrangement covers charter flights but would not comment on when landing fees might drop. Charter flights continue to pay the higher rates.

Nor would the State Department say if the current fees are considered discriminatory.

Two charter operators said Cuban aviation officials told them their landing fees would align with international rates once commercial service from the U.S. begins. The two are Michael Zuccato, general manager of Cuba Travel Services, which operates charter flights out of Tampa International Airport, and Bill Hauf, president of Island Travel & Tours which plans to operate flights from Tampa starting April 25.

As part of the aviation arrangement, up to 20 U.S. commercial flights a day can land in Havana and as many as 10 a day to each of the nine other Cuban cities with international airports.

Silver Airways CEO Sami Teittinen predicted all but the Havana routes will be allocated within the next six to eight weeks and believes the first U.S. commercial flights will land in Cuba around September.

Silver Airways applied for routes with the U.S. Department of Transpiration to all 10 Cuban destinations — including two weekly flights connecting Tampa to Havana. JetBlue Airways and Southwest Airlines also applied for two daily flights between Tampa and Havana.

Because more than a dozen airlines requested over 50 flights to Havana, deciding flight allocations there will take the transportation department longer, Teittinen said.

In a recent report, Miami-based Havana Consulting Group says commercial airlines could enter the Havana market with tickets running $150 to $250.

By comparison, Cuba Travel Services is selling charter tickets from Tampa to Havana for $459 while ABC Charters at Tampa International and Island Travel charge $439.

The charter companies contacted said they could not guarantee lower ticket prices once landing fees are reduced.

ABC’s president Tessie Aral could not be reached.

“We would need to assess the other cost associated with passenger and ground handling in the destinations,” said Zuccato with Cuba Travel.

Currently, a U.S. traveler may visit Cuba only for one or more of 12 reasons, such as education, research and athletic competition. Taking a trip strictly for tourism is still illegal under U.S. law.

A United Nations convention governing international aviation forbids discriminating against individual nations in the fees that are charged.

One reason Cuba has gotten away with it for so many years may be the absence of an aviation agreement with the U.S.

“Cuba has never viewed the charters as scheduled air service, therefore not subject to the U.N. convention,” said Robert Muse, a Washington, D.C.-based attorney who specializes in legal issues arising from the Cuban embargo. “Once the commercial flights begin, the U.S. position will likely be that Cuba can no longer discriminate against the charters.”

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Others say Cuba has not overcharged U.S. charter flights.

Landing fees cover an airport’s cost for maintenance and operations and U.S. planes are restricted to Terminal 2 at José Martí airport — for security reasons, some analysts say, out of concern people will be sent there to instigate unrest.

U.S. planes are the only customers at Terminal 2 so they must bear the all maintenance and operation costs.

But concerns about unrest are easing with the normalization of relations between the two countries and commercial airlines predict they’ll also gain access to Terminal 3 where all other international flights land.

Still, Terminal 2 is far from a state-of-the art center requiring high maintenance costs. It has only two baggage carousels, for example.

American Airlines landed 625 of its 1,200 charter flights bound for Cuba in Havana last year, said spokesman Matt Miller. Based on the weight of a Boeing 737-800, the plane American uses there, its landing fees alone generated as much as $14 million in revenue for the Cuban government.

By comparison, Tampa International collected $15.2 million from all passenger planes in 2015.

The Cuba fees may also cover airplane parking and aviation navigation. But for a typical Boeing-737 paying Cuba’s international rates, those charges plus landing fees total an estimated $4,800, or around $23 per person on a sold out flight.

Zuccato with Cuba Charter Services said landing fees he pays also go toward outsourcing ground services such as ticketing and baggage to state state-run companies in Cuba.

The average Cuban’s salary is $20 to $25 per month, said Dan Zabludowski, an international business attorney in Miami with Hinshaw & Culbertson. The current fees, he said, are “not in line. This is a punitive charge. This is just profit going to the Cuban government.”

John Kavulich, president of the U.S.-Cuba Trade and Economic Council, estimated the Cuban government “keeps between 40 and 50 percent of the ticket price. What they do with it is immaterial. It is gross revenue.”

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This profit is not earmarked for the military, as some may fear, said Arturo Lopez Levy, a University of Texas-Rio Grande Valley lecturer and former Cuban government economic analyst.

Besides sustaining Cuba’s airports, he said, it is used to develop a tourism sector already burdened with a rising number of visitors.

Higher volumes of travel with the lower rates will keep money flowing to the island nation, said Antonio C Martinez II, chief operating officer of New York-based Cuban Strategic Partnerships Inc.

“Cuba will increase revenue even with lower landing fees because there will be more flights from the U.S. and it is easier to travel there for Americans than it has been in years,” Martinez said.

Under the arrangement, once U.S. commercial flights to Cuba begin, up to 7,300 could land in Havana over the course of a year.

If they are charged the standard $4,800 in total international fees based on the weight of a Boeing 737-800, the total would be about $35 million in revenue annually for the Cuban government from flights to Havana alone.

Misty Pinson, Silver Airways spokeswoman, told the Tribune that she believes Cuban aviation fees are standard at all its nine international airports.

“Yet until we get the scheduled operations going and contract negotiated we won’t know for sure,” she said.

It remains unclear how much revenue charter flights will bring to Cuba. Currently, there are 12 flights a day connecting the U.S. and Cuba.

Island Tour and Travel adds four weekly from Tampa International starting April 25, bringing Tampa’s weekly total to 11. But it is unclear if charter flights flying from other U.S. cities will increase, decrease or remain the same once commercial service to Cuba begins.

Still, commercial flights to the other Cuban destinations and the charter services will add to that $35 million total.

And commercial airlines will likely have to outsource ground handling services to Cuba’s state-run companies, as charters do now, said Colorado-based aviation analyst Michael Boyd, adding more money to Cuba’s economy.

Silver Airways confirmed to the Tribune it would use state-run companies for ground services.

 http://www.tbo.com/news/politics/cuba-poised-to-slash-landing-fees-as-commercial-flights-near-20160405/#sthash.1L3Heh3I.dpuf

Havana, april 4th  It’s more than a bit surreal to be in this city. Geographically, Cuba is one of the United States’ closest neighbors, only a short plane ride from Miami. It’s an island that is home to a culturally rich people. But until recently, it was all but forbidden for Americans.

Before I arrived I learned of a woman named Nelys Navas from our guide, Peter. He first met Nelys months prior on a previous trip, and he told me I had to meet her. He mentioned that she used to be a doctor in Cuba, working for the government for very little pay. After saving what she could, she restored her father’s Model A, quit her job, and started her own taxi business, driving tourists around Havana.

This was the story I came to Cuba for. The only problem was in the last few months Peter had lost contact with Nelys. But I desperately wanted to film her story, so we flew down to Havana to shoot for Autoblog, with only a name and a photo of her standing next to her Model A.

After five days of filming Soviet-era taxis, Frankensteined classic American cars, and the picturesque Cuban countryside, I had given up hope we would find Nelys. I would never hear her story. Then one night after dinner we were walking in Old Havana, and Peter spotted a familiar leaf-green Model A across the street.

Watch the video above to see Nelys tell her unbelievable story.

http://www.autoblog.com/2016/04/04/most-interesting-cab-driver-cuba-feature/

HAVANA, april 3 (ACN)  Six Cuban hotels stand out among the top 25 all-inclusive resorts in the Caribbean, according to the 2016 Travellers’ Choice Awards organized by the largest travel website TripAdvisor, from the opinions of thousands of users of different nationalities.

The five-star facility located in the Jardines del Rey area, the Royalton Cayo Santa Maria, ranked sixth, while it is also in position 19 worldwide.

Customers of this resort, operated by Canada’s Blue Diamond north of the province of Villa Clara, highlight in TripAdvisor the excellence of services, the careful attention of its staff and the beauty of the area where it is situated.

Also located in the same tourist destination, the Melia Buenavista appears at 18 in the regional ranking, while the Melia Cayo Coco, north of Ciego de Avila, ranks tenth.
In addition, the Paradisus Rio de Oro Resort and Spa, in Holguin is placed 14; the Royalton Hicacos Varadero Resort and Spa Varadero at 21, and Iberostar Varadero at 24.

The Traveler’s Choice Awards acknowledge a total of 100 properties around the world and its winners are determined by the criteria assessed by millions of travelers in several categories, such as best hotels, destinations and beaches and favourite restaurants.