HAVANA, Dec. 10th (CNN) As Cuba opens its doors to American visitors, the government is encouraging more gay tourism. After decades of persecution, new laws to protect LGBT rights mark a dramatic turnaround for the Castro regime.
The show goes on at 2:00AM. Havana’s drag queen cabaret. Lip syncing six nights a week as cocktails flow and crowds grow. Cuba’s underground gay scene slowly becoming mainstream. A new club, the latest to openly cater to LGBT customers.
“Now there’s a boom. All the bars want to have drag queens,” says Kiriam, who began performing in secret 21 years ago. She takes us to a tiny dressing room packed with female impersonators. Some do drag full time.
“Ten years ago,” she says, “we might have been scared to perform or even to meet in certain places.”
A decade ago, Cubans could still go to prison for public displays of homosexuality. In the 1960’s and 70’s, the Castro regime persecuted sexual minorities, sending some people to labor camps. In recent years, Fidel Castro himself has admitted responsibility for the quote, “great injustice.”
Today, President Raul Castro’s daughter Mariela Castro runs the national center for sex education, Cuba’s only state agency advocating for LGBT rights. Cuba offers free sex change surgery and has among the world’s lowest rates of HIV and AIDs.
Kiriam says she’s a “health promoter.” However, critics say the Cuban government overlooks a huge problem in the LGBT community. Prostitution is rampant at gay cruising spots like the Malecon here in Havana. It really surged during the Cuban economic crisis around 20 years ago and continues today. The reason? Money.
Sex workers catering to foreigners can earn more in a single night than a Cuban doctor makes in a month. Several men we spoke to say “gay for pay” is one of many issues ignored by Cuba’s mainstream LGBT activists.
Raiko Pin Nuñez, a Cuban blogger, says it’s still complicated to be openly gay on the communist-run island, “For example, if I walked down the street right now holding my partner’s hand it would not be taken well. People would stare, make comments.”
The topic is so sensitive, pin asks us to interview him away from his friends at the public wi-fi hotspot where he runs his own YouTube channel. He says his family accepts him but all of his ex-boyfriends have left Cuba. He says those who stay are still forced to lead “una doble vida” – a double life.
“My dream is to get married, to have kids. To have the same rights as someone who is straight. But here it’s complicated,” said Nuñez.
He dreams of equality. And the end of homophobia that still permeates Cuban society. A dream even the most optimistic LGBT advocates say is likely decades away.
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HAVANA, Dec.8th (REUTERS) Cuban and U.S. officials on Tuesday will begin to untangle one of the most complex obstacles to normalization of relations between the two countries: the claims of Americans whose property was nationalized after the 1959 revolution and Cuban counterclaims for damages caused by the U.S. trade embargo.
The talks in Havana are the latest in a series of bilateral meetings since the two former Cold War adversaries restored diplomatic ties in July this year.
Some 5,913 U.S. corporations and individuals have been awarded $1.9 billion worth of claims for factories, farms, homes and other assets that were nationalized in Cuba after Fidel Castro’s rebels came to power on Jan. 1, 1959.
Those claims, registered with the U.S. Justice Department’s Foreign Claims Settlement Commission, are now worth roughly $8 billion when including 6.0 percent annual interest.
Cuban law ties the settlement of the claims to U.S. reparations for damages resulting from the embargo and other acts of U.S. aggression against Cuba. Cuban estimates of that damage range from $121 billion to more than $300 billion.
Neither side is eager to pay the full value, setting up a negotiation.
“The meeting is the first step in what we expect to be a long and complex process, but the United States views the resolution of outstanding claims as a top priority for normalization,” the U.S. State Department said in a statement on Monday.
Cuba nationalized all foreign businesses and reached settlements with owners from other countries. The government recognizes the U.S. claims but it cut off negotiations in response to the decision by former President Dwight Eisenhower to suspend Cuba’s sugar quota in 1960.
The claims sat dormant for half a century as a result of the U.S.-Cuba estrangement, which ended a year a ago when U.S. President Barack Obama and Cuban President Raul Castro announced detente.
Many of the nationalized companies no longer exist and individual claims have been passed to heirs.
The largest claim, by the Cuban Electric Company for more than $267 million, has changed hands several times due to mergers and acquisitions and is held by Office Depot, itself a takeover target of Staples Inc pending antitrust review.
With interest that claim is now worth more than $1 billion.
Other major claimants include Starwood Hotels, Coca-Cola, the former International Telephone & Telegraph Co., now ITT Corp, and various oil, sugar and financial interests.
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HAVANA, Dec. 6th (by D. Sidney Potter) If there’s one thing that conservative Democrats can rejoice about, given the less than stellar reviews of their point person who now occupies 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, rent free, is that the ‘shout-out’ heard around the world would have to be President Obama’s “opening” with Cuba that occurred earlier this year.
The residual effect of this better than late coup d’état in terms of international diplomacy, is that the opening with Cuba will somewhat allow Americans in a roundabout way to buy investment real estate without the red-tape that existed before, when that other young President, with the initials JFK monogrammed on his luggage occupied the White House.
This diplomatic opening, has just about made it possible to buy a single family residence and/or a similar type of investment property, such as a duplex, small apartment complex, or perhaps a similar income producing property, without the normal red-tape; Communist or non-Communist state.
Make no mistake, this is a momentous occasion for small investors to resort developers. The good news however (depending upon your perspective), is that you won’t have to renounce your American citizenship, move to Cuba, and shack up with a Cuban national in order to buy an investment home.
Greenbacks in a Red Country According to Yad Aguilar, CEO of Canada-based Point 2 Cuba, a company that provides Cuban real estate expertise to international investors and developers. Many people have been planning ahead for this day. I can tell you that a number of major American hotel companies have already spotted sites in which they’re interested. I can tell you that I’ve already heard of a 750-slip marina under discussion. And I can tell you that, for American travelers, the prices will be incredible… beautiful penthouse condos will be going for as little as $200,000.
Although Mr. Aguilar may be a bit more optimistic then what jaded investors are willing to fully embrace, here are the facts: Cuba is 220 miles south of Miami and is considered one of thy hottest real estate ‘buys’ in the world right now. However, most Americans and foreigners are shut out of this potentially lucrative product due to existing archaic laws still on the books. Namely, the Trading With the Enemy Act, passed by the U.S. Congress in 1961. However, that’s not the case for Cuban nationals.
Why? That’s because Fidel’s little brother, Raul Castro, in control of Cuba since 2006, and to his business acumen, has become an ardent pro-business advocate in a Communist country. More specifically, Raul is allowing Cuban residents to buy and sell their own homes. This is the new normal.
So a real estate revolution is occurring, of which has never happened in such volume since Fidel took over the island country 54 years ago. At that time, Fidel seized nearly all foreign owned real estate in Cuba, without so much as a peso for the real estate.
The Real Estate Revolution and The New Normal: Cuban Style Is this a new day in Cuban-American relations? Irrespective of the politicos, the feeling since President Obama’s announcement is bullish among investors. Here’s what those in the know are saying about the new normal.
“Where Cuban tourism and residential development is concerned,” says Point 2 Cuba’s Yad Aguilar, “the sky’s the limit. The opportunities are certainly there. And American investors, resort developers, and high-end residential developers are just waiting for the opportunity to rush in, and fill the vacuum that’s been created over the past 54 years. For the resort and residential sectors,” Aguilar added, “we think Cuba will become a land of opportunity!”
To further support this optimism, Cuban-American real estate broker Pablo Tacon, who opened a new office in Havana earlier this year, called Cuba Tacon Inmobiliaria – it’s a bit more complicated than that. How complicated? There are two different ways in which Cuba’s real estate market functions; one for the locals, the other for outsiders.
Pablo tells the World Property Journal, “One market is called Permuta, which is for Cuban Nationals only as the buyers and the sellers amongst themselves, with the Permutaeros as agents; the other is for foreign investors only with particular designated properties and intermediaries.”
Translation: If you have a stomach for international intrigue, versus buying cookie cutter bull shit condos in Phoenix, AZ and would like a little excitement in your life, then the Cuban housing market just might be for you. And especially so, if you dig anything written by Ernest Hemingway and prefer tequila shots over Pina Colados.
To be clear, because this is not for the faint of heart, Cuba’s way of transacting real estate today is archaic, opaque and fragmented. Yet, given the country’s natural beauty, its proximity to Florida and the thawing political détente, vis-à-vis American Cuban relations, what’s not to like about Cuba.
In practical terms, and even with the unlikely accession of Republican Marco Rubio to the White House, can one really expect relations with Cuban to be nothing short of sunny days going forward? Likely not.
What’s the takeaway: Expect Cuba to delivery kick ass investment returns to property speculators worldwide over the immediate to near-term.
Marry a Cuban, Buy a Home? According to World Property Journal, there is a back door way of buying homes in Cuban, albeit it’s rather unorthodox.
Another example of how some non-American, non-Cuban investors are skirting Cuban property purchase laws, involves the investor marrying a Cuban woman and both beginning to live permanently in Cuba. The property could be bought in the woman’s name. She would hold the title for life. And if the two divorce, the property remains in the woman’s name. True love would have to blossom and endear in this situation.1
Also according to World Property Journal, there are ways of entering the Cuban market in a less salacious manner, all the while maintaining your Christian values. So if you happen to be a frustrated, cash-loaded American who desires to enter the Cuban real estate arena, you may be technically hamstrung, based upon the aforementioned Trading With the Enemy Act, passed during Kennedy’s first year in office.
Here’s the skinny: There plenty’s of opportunity for under-the-table action involving Americans and foreigners.
For example, and according to World Property Journal, an American investor could consider funneling funds to a Cuban resident friend in Cuba to purchase properties and hold the title under the friend’s name.
Under this situational scenario, Raul Castro’s government – sometime in the near future of course, would allow non-Cuban Americans to legally buy real estate in Cuba with no restrictions attached. The risk, is that such a move by Raul might be many years away, which would leave the property in the Cuban friend’s name for an indeterminate period. http://dissidentvoice.org/2015/12/investor-alert-move-to-cuba-marry-a-senorita-and-buy-flip-homes-for-free/
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HAVANA, Dec.5th (New York Times) Representatives of Cuba and the United States will meet on Tuesday in Havana to begin negotiations on settling decades-old outstanding property claims for the thousands of American citizens and companies whose assets were confiscated after Cuba’s revolution, according to several people briefed on the coming talks.
The meeting is considered a major step because the United States’ trade embargo against Cuba was initially enacted after Fidel Castro, the Cuban leader at the time, expropriated land from American companies. Nearly 6,000 people and corporations lost homes, farms, factories, sugar mills and other properties totaling $1.9 billion. Now, for the first time, Cuba has agreed to meet to consider settling those losses. The State Department is expected to announce the meeting on Monday. A Cuban Embassy spokeswoman declined to comment.
“This meeting is an enormously big deal,” said Mauricio J. Tamargo, the former chairman of the Foreign Claims Settlement Commission, an agency within the Justice Department that adjudicates claims against foreign governments. “The Cubans have up till now never recognized these claims as legitimate or something they are even prepared to discuss. It has never happened in 56 years since the revolution began and they started confiscating American property.”
When Mr. Castro declared victory in 1959, many Americans were forced to flee their homes and give up their land. His government later started expropriating large companies, and eventually nearly 900 corporations filed claims.
The list of claimants includes Exxon, Texaco, Coca-Cola and Starwood Resorts. About half the value of the claims, now estimated at up to $8 billion, belong to just 10 companies.
The issue had long been a stumbling block to the re-establishment of relations between the United States and Cuba. But the Obama administration restored diplomatic relations last year, with the vague assurance that property claims would be on the long list of issues to be taken up in bilateral talks.
Cuba would be unlikely to accept any deal that did not include lifting the trade embargo, which has for years been the nation’s top priority, said Mr. Tamargo, a lawyer with the firm Poblete Tamargo, which represents people with claims. If the embargo is lifted, he added, the Cubans could pay off the settlements with the increased trade revenues.
The Cuban government has estimated that the American embargo cost Cuba about $121 billion in losses.
“If American properties are compensated, then the embargo should be lifted,” Mr. Tamargo said. “There is a window of opportunity for Cubans that will be gone in about a year.”
“Obama is a very good negotiating partner for them to have as opposed to President Trump or President Bush or even President Hillary,” he added, referring to Donald J. Trump, Jeb Bush or Hillary Clinton.
The talks would not include the thousands of claims of Cuban-Americans who lost property before they became American citizens, like Mr. Tamargo’s family, who lost a 3,500-acre farm.
Although many people assume that Cuba does not have the money to pay off settlements, it could pay claims by offering American corporations with outstanding claims a first shot at the Cuban market, said Richard E. Feinberg, whose Brookings Institution study on the issue will be released Tuesday.
If the payments were spread out over 10 years, Cuba probably has the money to pay the original claims, but perhaps not the 6 percent interest levied by the claims commission, Mr. Feinberg said.
“It’s a historic moment, if you consider that U.S.-Cuban relations collapsed in the early ’60s in large measure when Fidel Castro moved to expropriate the large U.S. holdings there,” he said. “Now 55 years later, the two sides are sitting down to say, how do we settle this?”
One person with a pending claim, Margery Leeder, 85, a retired real estate agent in Pompano Beach, Fla., said she never thought her family would be compensated after the Cuban government seized 72,000 acres of rice and sugar her father owned outside Havana.
“If you think about it, the Castro brothers have done the biggest heist in history,” Mrs. Leeder said.
Her father’s land was worth $3.9 million in 1959, and the family’s claim is now valued at $16 million.
“Overnight if you were American and had a bank account, it was closed; you had no money,” she said. “Eventually Castro did allow you to get some money, only about $1,000. Castro said nobody needed more than that.”
https://havana-live.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/09/logo_havana.png00Havana Livehttps://havana-live.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/09/logo_havana.pngHavana Live2015-12-05 10:02:462021-10-04 19:18:16Cuba and U.S. to Discuss Settling Claims on Property
HAVANA, Sept. 24 (AP) Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos and the leader of the country’s largest rebel group announced on Wednesday an important breakthrough in peace talks that sets the stage to end Latin America’s longest-running armed conflict.
In a joint statement from Cuba, Santos and the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia said they have overcome the last significant obstacle to a peace deal by settling on a formula to punish belligerents for human rights abuses committed during a half century of bloody, drug-fueled fighting.
“We are on different sides but today we advance in the same direction, in the most noble direction a society can take, which is toward peace,” said Santos, minutes before a historic, cold-faced handshake with the military commander of the FARC guerrillas, known by his alias Timochenko.
Rebels that confess abuses to special peace tribunals, compensate victims and promise not to take up arms again will receive a maximum 8 years of labor under unspecified conditions but not prisons. War crimes committed by Colombia’s military will also be judged by the tribunals and combatants caught lying will face penalties of up to 20 years in jail.
Santos flew earlier in the day to Havana, where talks with the rebel group have been going on for three years. Negotiators said the surprise advance came as rebels rushed to demonstrate progress ahead of a visit this week to Cuba by Pope Francis, who during his stay on the communist-led island warned the two sides that they didn’t have the option of failing in their best chance at peace in decades.
Santos said the FARC vowed to demobilize within 60 days of a definitive agreement, which he said would be signed within six months.
Negotiators must still come up with a mechanism for rebels to demobilize, hand over their weapons and provide reparations to their victims. Santos has also promised he’ll give Colombians the chance to voice their opinion in a referendum and any deal must also clear Congress.
U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry said he called Santos to congratulate him and his negotiating team.
“Peace is now ever closer for the Colombian people and millions of conflict victims,” Kerry said in a statement.
As part of talks in Cuba, both sides had already agreed on plans for land reform, political participation for guerrillas who lay down their weapons and how to jointly combat drug trafficking. Further cementing expectations of a deal, the FARC declared a unilateral cease-fire in July, a move that ushered in most peaceful period in Colombia since 1975, according to CERAC, a Bogota think tank that monitors the conflict.
But amid the slow but steady progress, one issue had seemed almost insurmountable: How to compensate victims and punish FARC commanders for human rights abuses in light of international conventions Colombia has signed and almost unanimous public rejection of the rebels.
The FARC, whose troops have thinned to an estimated 6,400 from a peak of 21,000 in 2002, have long insisted they haven’t committed any crimes and aren’t abandoning the battlefield only to end up behind bars. They say that they would only consent to jail time if leaders of Colombia’s military, which has a litany of war crimes to its name, and the nation’s political elite are locked up as well.
“It’s satisfying to us that this special jurisdiction for the peace has been designed for everyone involved in the conflict, combatants and non-combatants, and not just one of the parties,” Timochenko, whose real names is Rodrigo Londono, said in a brief statement sitting alongside Santos and Cuban President Raul Castro, all three men in white shirts. “It opens the door to a full truth.”
The breakthrough was hatched far from the klieg lights of Havana by a group of six lawyers in a 20-hour negotiating session last Thursday at the Bogota apartment of a former president of Colombia’s constitutional court, negotiators told The Associated Press.
How media smugglers get Taylor Swift, Game of Thrones, and the New York Times to Cubans every week
HAVANA, Sept.22. 2015 In Cuba there is barely any internet. Anything but state-run TV channels is prohibited. Publications are limited to state-approved newspapers and magazines. This is the law. But, in typical Cuban fashion, the law doesn’t stop a vast underground system of entertainment and news media distributors and consumers.
“El Paquete Semanal” (The Weekly Package) is a weekly trove of digital content—everything from American movies to PDFs of Spanish newspapers—that is gathered, organized and transferred by a human web of runners and dealers to the entire country. It is a prodigious and profitable operation.
I went behind the scenes in Havana to film how the Paquete works. Check out the video above to see how Cubans bypass censorship to access the media we take for granted.
There are two Paquete kingpins in Havana: Dany and Ali. These two compete to develop the best collection of weekly digital content and in the fastest turnaround time possible for their subscribers. It’s a competitive market playing out in the shadows of a tightly controlled communist economy.
Paquete subscribers pay between $1-$3 per week to receive the collection of media. It’s either delivered to their home or transferred at a pickup station, usually in the back of a cell phone repair shop, a natural cover for this type of operation.
Dany relies on data traffickers to deliver the files but said he didn’t know how those sources obtained the content in the first place. I gathered that most of it is being digitized via illegal satellites that are hidden in water tanks on rooftops. It’s unclear how they get a hold of the content sourced from the internet (digital news publications, YouTube videos, and pirated movies, for example).
Only 5 per cent of Cubans can access the uncensored world wide web, and when they do, the connection is horrendously slow. It’s not the type of connection that would support downloading hundreds of gigs of content every week. Instead, some speculate that content is physically brought onto the island by incomers from Miami.
I sat down with Dany in his pink-walled apartment in Havana. While I expected a mob-like character to be at the root of this extensive black market of pirated media, I found a 26-year-old guy who looked more like a stoned surf bum than the conductor of a giant black market operation.
Dany’s office shows off a lot more brawn than he does. It’s a simple room with two gigantic computers, their innards visible, tricked out lights arbitrarily flickering.
Hard drives are littered around the room, stacked and labelled. Two large screens are full of Windows file directories, and in the corner of one of the screens is a live feed from Telemundo, a popular Spanish-language station, with the words “Grabando” (recording) in the corner.
“Everybody has their responsibility,” Dany told me. “Everyone gathers a certain type of content and they bring it to me. I organize it, edit it, and get it ready for distribution. And then we send it through our messengers.”
This is hard work. “A lot of the time is spent finding and embedding subtitles” he laments. Much of the content is pirated from American TV and movies. He and his team have scoured the internet for any existing subtitle files.
The government hasn’t tried to stamp out the Paquete, and Dany works to keep it that way. “We don’t put anything in that is anti-revolutionary, subversive, obscene, or pornographic. We want it to stay about entertainment and education,” he says, and I catch a glimpse of the shrewd business behind the babyface and board shorts.
It might as well be Netflix A look into an edition of the Paquete reveals a vast array of content ranging from movies that are in US theatres right now to iPhone applications. Havana-based artist Junior showed me around.
He’s a pensive and gentle 34-year-old who is remarkably talented, judging by the stunning art pieces that hang from the wall. Junior paints and tattoos full time but he used to be a Paquete dealer. He’s now just a consumer. He takes me through the 934GB of data he has recently transferred from his provider.
I’m immediately struck by how polished the Paquete system is. As Junior files through the meticulously organized files, I realize it mirrors the consumption of a typical internet user. He opens the movie folder, and we browse through dozens of movies, many still in US theatres. All of them come in HD and with subtitles and poster art as the thumbnail of the file.
The videos are high quality with accurate subtitles. I have to remind myself that we are not browsing Netflix, instead, we are looking at an offline computer that is displaying content that has physically travelled to get here. The methods couldn’t be more different but the result is strangely similar.
He moves on TV shows. “So do you think they have—” I start but am interrupted “they have everything,” Junior says emphatically. Sure enough the show I was thinking of, Suits, was there, with the latest episodes ready to watch.
We continue to browse and look into some of the more boring but most interesting parts of the Paquete: There are folders dedicated to antivirus software that can be updated weekly to the latest versions.
“But there’s no internet, so there can’t be viruses,” I say. “Most of this stuff has touched the internet in some way. This software protects against anything that has snuck its way on into the content.”
Junior clicks over to the “Apps” folder and shows me a smorgasbord of iOS and Android apps. Many are gaming apps with updates that can be loaded every week.
But there is another called “A la mesa” a Yelp-type app that helps connect clients to restaurants in Cuba using maps, reviews, and in-app menus. Then there’s the PDF folder which holds newspapers, magazines, and screenshot material from dozens of online publications, everything from tech news to sports. It’s the internet in a box.
In addition to the subscription fees, revenue for the Paquete comes from a classifieds section called “Revolico.” Within the Paquete, you click a file that opens Revolico in your browser.
But it’s an offline version that runs from a file structure on your local computer. There, you can click around as if you were browsing craigslist, looking and thousands of listings of everything from house rentals to big-screen TVs to car tires.
Sellers pay to list their items and you can get a premium listing if you pay more. Revolico is the cash cow of the Paquete. It also happens to be one of the first semblances of an advertising market for Cubans who have lived in a world of central planning and price control.
The depth and breadth of the Paquete is astounding, so much so that I, an American who lives and works on the uncensored internet, feel a twinge of envy that I don’t have the Paquete delivered to my house every week for $2.
When I asked Dany if he is afraid that the internet will wipe out his operation, without missing a beat, he replied, “Nah. We offer a product that is like one giant webpage where you can see all the content you want for a very low price. The internet might take over some clients, but we offer something different and very effective.”
“Speed is key to beating the competition,” Dany said. When asked how quickly he can get a movie or TV show after it airs in the US he says “the next day.” Last year, Dany started sending a hard drive on a plane to the far corners of the island.
After spending a week in Cuba, it was refreshing to talk to someone with the appetite to grow an enterprise. Most people I spoke to in Cuba work for the state and have zero incentive to deliver anything above the bare minimum.
They get paid the same either way. Even the private restaurants lack the fervour of a competitive business since the economic environment they work in is still completely controlled even if they themselves are private.
But in Dany’s office, I felt the thrill of cunning innovation and strategy at work. I got the sense that something big is happening. And indeed, I wasn’t just standing in some dingy apartment, but rather what may be the largest media distribution company in the history of Cuba.
https://havana-live.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/09/logo_havana.png00Havana Livehttps://havana-live.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/09/logo_havana.pngHavana Live2015-09-22 09:37:482021-10-26 17:51:08This is Cuba’s Netflix, Hulu, and Spotify – all without the internet
U.S. weighs unprecedented abstention on U.N. vote condemning Cuba embargo.
HAVANA, 22 Sept. (AP) For the first time, the United States may accept a United Nations condemnation of the U.S. trade embargo against Cuba without a fight, The Associated Press has learned.
U.S. officials tell the AP that the Obama administration is weighing abstaining from the annual U.N. General Assembly vote on a Cuban-backed resolution demanding that the embargo be lifted. The vote could come next month.
No decision has yet been made, said four administration officials who weren’t authorized to speak publicly on sensitive internal deliberations and demanded anonymity. But merely considering an abstention is unprecedented. Following through on the idea would send shock waves through both the United Nations and Congress.
It is unheard of for a U.N. member state not to oppose resolutions critical of its own laws.
By not actively opposing the resolution, the administration would be effectively siding with the world body against Congress, which has refused to repeal the embargo despite calls from President Barack Obama to do so.
Presidential candidate Sen. Marco Rubio, who is Cuban-American, said that by abstaining, Obama would be “putting international popularity ahead of the national security and foreign policy interests of the United States.” The embargo, he said, denies money to a dictatorship that can be used to further oppression.
General Assembly resolutions are unenforceable. But the annual exercise has given Cuba a stage to demonstrate America’s isolation on the embargo, and it has underscored the sense internationally that the U.S. restrictions are illegitimate.
The United States has lost each vote by increasingly overwhelming and embarrassing margins. Last year’s tally was 188-2 in favor of Cuba with only Israel siding with the U.S. This year’s vote will be the first since the U.S. shift in policy toward Cuba. Israel would be expected to vote whichever way the U.S. decides.
The American officials said that at the moment the U.S. is still more likely to vote against the resolution than abstain. However, they said the U.S. will consider abstaining if the wording of the resolution is significantly different from previous years. The administration is open to discussing revisions with the Cubans and others, they added, something American diplomats have never done before.
Obama has urged Congress to scrap the 54-year-old embargo since December, when he announced that Washington and Havana would normalize diplomatic relations. The two countries re-opened embassies last month, and Obama has chipped away at U.S. restrictions on trade and travel to Cuba, using executive authorities. But the embargo stands.
The latest U.S. easing of sanctions occurred Friday and was followed by a rare phone call between Obama and Cuban President Raul Castro. Pope Francis, who has played a key role in the rapprochement between Havana and Washington, arrived in Havana a day later. He travels to the U.S. this week.
The White House said Obama and Castro discussed “steps that the United States and Cuba can take, together and individually, to advance bilateral cooperation.” The Cuban government said Castro “emphasized the need to expand their scope and abrogate, once and for all, the blockade policy for the benefit of both peoples.”
Neither statement mentioned the U.N. vote. Yet, as it has for the last 23 years, Cuba will introduce a resolution at the upcoming General Assembly criticizing the embargo and demanding its end.
Cuba’s government had no immediate reaction to the report of the administration’s new consideration.
An abstention could have political ramifications in the United States, beyond the presidential race.
In Congress, where top GOP lawmakers have refused to entertain legislation to end the embargo, any action perceived as endorsing U.N. criticism of the United States could provoke anger — even among supporters of the administration’s position.
As White House spokesman Josh Earnest noted last week, the embargo remains the law of the land. “We still want Congress to take action to remove the embargo,” he said.
The U.S. officials, however, said the administration believes an abstention could send a powerful signal to Congress and the world of Obama’s commitment to end the embargo. Obama says the policy failed over more than five decades to spur democratic change and left the U.S. isolated among its Latin American neighbors.
It’s unclear what changes would be necessary to prompt a U.S. abstention.
https://havana-live.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/09/logo_havana.png00Havana Livehttps://havana-live.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/09/logo_havana.pngHavana Live2015-09-22 09:01:482021-10-04 19:24:45U.S. may abstain on U.N. Cuba resolution
HAVANA, Sept. 18 (Reuters) – The White House is drafting sweeping regulations to further weaken the U.S. trade embargo on Cuba that would ease restrictions on U.S. companies and make it safer for Americans to travel there, U.S. government sources said on Thursday.
The regulations could be announced as soon as Friday.
U.S. companies would be allowed to establish offices in Cuba for the first time in more than half a century, according to a draft of the new rules seen by Reuters.
The regulations make it easier for airlines and cruise ships to import parts and technology to improve safety in Cuba; loosen restrictions on software exports; and allow authorized companies to establish subsidiaries with Cuba, possibly via joint ventures with Cuban firms such as state telecommunications monopoly Etecsa.
However, they do not authorise private financing of trade nor change current rules on who can travel to Cuba, though it is possible regulations could still be modified by other agencies or updated later in the year, according to people familiar with the White House’s thinking on Cuba policy.
There was no immediate comment from President Barack Obama‘s administration.
“These are the most comprehensive expansion in U.S. trade and investment regulations with Cuba in decades,” said John Kavulich, head of the U.S.-Cuba Trade and Economic Council, who is familiar with the new rules.
“The result will be an exponential increase in interest towards Cuba by U.S. companies and pressure upon Cuba by those same companies to permit access to the marketplace,” Kavulich said.
The regulations expand on others that Obama announced in January to ease the 53-year-old embargo of the Communist-ruled island.
Those rules were an initial gesture after Obama and Cuban President Raul Castro announced on Dec. 17 they would move toward normal relations between the former Cold War foes for the first time in more than half a century.
Although legislation seeking to promote commercial ties between the two countries has support from Democrats and some Republicans, efforts to pass bills that would ease trade and travel restrictions have been stymied by opposition from Republican congressional leaders.
Given the resistance from Congress, Obama is using executive powers to ease the trade barriers.
The administration was preparing the new regulations as Jose Cabanas, a veteran diplomat, on Thursday became Cuba’s first ambassador to the United States in 54 years.
Washington has yet to name an ambassador to Cuba.
Cuba is also preparing for a three-night visit from Pope Francis starting on Saturday.
One advocate of U.S. engagement with Cuba who has been briefed on the matter said administration officials first discussed the regulations with supporters of Obama’s Cuba policy in July.
“The focus is on ease of doing business, and (the regulations) have been in hopper to be released for a couple of weeks. Interesting that they’re choosing it to coincide with the pope’s visit,” said Felice Gorordo, co-founder of the Cuban-American group Roots of Hope.
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HAVANA, Sept. 18 (Reuters) Verizon Communications Inc announced on Thursday it would become the first U.S. company to offer roaming wireless service in Cuba next week. The announcement by the No. 1 U.S. wireless carrier follows the restoration of diplomatic relations between Cuba and the United States in July, after a break of 54 years. The United States has set connectivity as a priority in its new relationship with the Communist-run island.
Telecommunications equipment, technology and services were among the first exemptions to a U.S. economic embargo of the island after Washington and Havana announced plans to restore diplomatic relations in December.
Verizon will charge $2.99 per minute for voice calls and $2.05 per megabyte for data, making the option an expensive one. Currently, visiting Americans must purchase a pay-as-you-go cell phone through state telephone company Empresa de Telecomunicaciones de Cuba SA (ETECSA) to have cellular service on the island, or have a cellphone account in a third country. ETECSA does not offer data.
Boost Mobile, part of Sprint Corp, in April launched a prepaid plan for U.S. consumers calling and texting Cuba. In March, U.S.-based IDT Corp reached an agreement with ETECSA to provide direct international long-distance service. Previously phone communication between the two countries had to pass through third countries.
Scarcely 2 million people out of Cuba’s population of 11 million have cell phones. Cuban officials cite the U.S. embargo as the reason for its weak development and say they hope to reach 60 percent mobile-phone access by 2020.
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HAVANA, Sept. 18 (AP) — The United States and Cuba should be able to transform their new diplomatic relationship into a deeper commercial partnership before the end of the year, with direct postal service to begin and an agreement on regularly scheduled commercial flights between the two countries, an American official said.
Washington also plans to publish new regulations soon making it easier for U.S. citizens to visit the island and do business with its growing ranks of independent entrepreneurs.
The official, who is familiar with the diplomacy, described significant progress in U.S.-Cuban discussions since the former Cold War foes reopened embassies in their respective countries in July. At a meeting in Havana last week, delegations from each side established a plan to settle a half-century of economic and legal disputes within the next 15 months.
While difficult questions related to human rights and compensation claims won’t be resolved immediately, the official said first steps toward a broader normalization of ties would come quickly.
First, the Obama administration intends to move on its own in the coming days by releasing a new set of rules designed to loosen the U.S. economic embargo on Cuba, said the official, who wasn’t authorized to publicly lay out the process and demanded anonymity.
The goal is to pick up where President Barack Obama left off in January, when he eased economic restrictions on Cuba in potentially the most dramatic manner since relations between the countries broke down after Fidel Castro’s revolution in 1959 and the subsequent Bay of Pigs invasion and Cuban missile crisis. The action sought to cut red tape for U.S. travel to Cuba, permit American companies to export telephones, computers and Internet technology, and allow U.S. firms to send supplies to private Cuban enterprises.
But efforts to expand business, tourism and other exchanges have run into an overlapping thicket of U.S. laws and hindrances, not to mention an uneven response from Cuba’s political leaders, the U.S. official said.
Many U.S. travelers still need to go on supervised group trips. Routine airline service hasn’t satisfied various federal conditions. Cruise ships and ferries are still trying to finalize regular maritime routes with Cuban authorities. Credit card and other companies still can’t transfer payments to Cuba. Telecommunications companies haven’t been able to set up shop and get equipment to the island 90 miles south of Florida. And Cuba’s government isn’t even running its Internet connections anywhere near capacity levels.
The new U.S. rules should help cut through some of these bureaucratic hurdles, the official said, though he declined to describe all the legal changes in concrete terms. Only Congress can end the embargo, and much of the foreseen expansion of U.S.-Cuban economic ties rests on the cooperation of the island’s communist government.
The U.S.-Cuban political track moved ahead Thursday as new ambassador Jose Ramon Cabanas Rodriguez presented his credentials to Obama at a White House ceremony. The pair briefly spoke, according to a Cuban embassy statement.
When Obama laid out his vision of improved relations eight months ago, he said his objectives were twofold: ease economic hardship in Cuba and spur its development of a private market outside of state control.
Some breakthroughs can be expected by the end of the year, according to the official.
Washington and Havana are slated to begin a “pilot program” allowing Cubans and Americans to send mail directly to one another, the official said. The governments have been speaking about re-establishing a postal link since Obama entered office, but the talks stalled when Cuba imprisoned U.S. contractor Alan Gross. Direct mail service was halted in 1963, though letters and packages travel back and forth through countries like Canada and Mexico.
The postal program will use the Miami and Havana airports, the official said.
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HAVANA, Sept.16 CUBA has a unique relationship with tobacco. Cigars are the country’s national product and tobacco generates an annual income of between $400 and $500 million. If you’ve ever walked down the Malecón of an evening, Havana’s iconic waterfront promenade, you can’t fail to have noticed the scores of young people pulling on cheap cigarettes in the sea breeze.
It still strikes me as odd when I see people smoking inside public buildings, and it isn’t frowned upon to light up at your desk in most Cuban workplaces.
And therein lies the problem.Cancer is the second biggest cause of death in Cuba, after cardiovascular disease, andlung cancer rates are among the highest in the region, according to the World Heath Organization.
But Cuban researchers are helping lead the fight against the disease. They recently added a new weapon to the arsenal against lung cancer: Cimavax. This vaccine – designed to be given to people with cancer – encourages the immune system to attack a protein that fuels tumour growth, slowing the disease’s spread.
“The basic idea is to mobilise the immune system so the components which typically defend you are able to fight the cancer cells growing inside the body,” says Kaleb Leon, director of investigation and research at the Center of Molecular Immunology (CIM) in Havana, where the drug was developed.
There is one key reason why Cuba punches above its weight in the medical research arena: research and treatment are tightly connected in the Cuban healthcare system. Writing in the journal PNAS earlier this year, a group of US neuroscientists including Mark Cohen of the University of California, Los Angeles, noted the benefits of this “two-way communication between the lay public and research scientists in the cause of public health” (doi.org/7qc). They cited large-scale population studies which “routinely achieve more than 95 per cent enrolment success”.
Partly because of this connection, the team at CIM has made significant progress with clinical trials of Cimavax.Pooled results from phase I and II clinical trials showed that those vaccinated survived for 11 months on average, while the survival rate in a control group was four to five months (Human Vaccines, doi.org/dbgtw9).
And the work has attracted international interest. On his recent trade visit to the island, Andrew Cuomo, Governor of New York, brought representatives from Roswell Park Cancer Institute in Buffalo. They have now signed an agreement with CIM to further test and develop Cimavax in the US.
“An agreement has been signed to further test and develop Cuba’s cancer vaccine in the US”
Leon is clearly proud of his team’s achievements as he guides me around the national immunology lab, housed in a modernist building on the outskirts of Havana.
“Roswell Park has been in touch with us for about three years now,” he says. “The plan is to start a phase I clinical trial there at the end of this year.”
But he admits it hasn’t been easy. For over five decades, the US government has maintained an economic and diplomatic embargo on communist-run Cuba, which has made it almost impossible for researchers in the two nations to work together.
This year’s PNAS article emphasised the benefits to the US of closer cooperation. Scientists in Havana, too, are aware that they would benefit from further detente.
“In many different senses this weird relationship we have with the US has caused problems for us,” says Leon. The US forbids third nations from selling equipment containing US-made components to Cuba, for example.
But 2015 has seen quite a turnaround for these cold war enemies, including a face-to-face meeting between presidents Obama and Castro, diplomatic ties re-established and embassies reopened.
If the thaw is to last, however, it must take hold in arenas beyond diplomacy. Cancer patients on both sides of the Straits of Florida will hope biomedical research can benefit from this new-found spirit of cooperation. https://www.newscientist.com/article/mg22730394-200-us-cuba-thaw-could-bring-important-gains-for-cancer-research/
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Edgar Berguer(I), presidente Internacional de Sony Music, Mario Angel Escalona Serrano(C), Director General de la Empresa de Grabaciones y Ediciones Musicales (EGREM), Afo Verde (D), presidente de Sony Music para Latinoamerica, España y Portuga, firman los Acuerdos entre la EGREM y su homóloga estadounidense Sony Music Entertainment, realizada en la Disquera Areito, en La Habana, Cuba, el 15 de septiembre de 2015. AIN FOTO/Oriol de la Cruz ATENCIO/rrcc
HAVANA, Sept.16 (Havana Times) Sony Music Entertainment and the Empresa de Grabaciones y Ediciones Musicales(EGREM) signed a historical agreement on Tuesday in Havana that will allow many Cuban musicians and recordings to enter the international market through the wide door of the US music industry.
Cuban music made and recorded on the island since 1960 hasn’t received more important news (from a commercial standpoint) in the many decades of isolation and limitations in terms of international distribution.
The agreement was signed by executives from the two companies at Havana’s renowned Estudio Areito101, a venue where a plethora of Cuban and foreign artists have been recording music since the 1940s, sealing more than two years of negotiations which profited from the winds of change blown by the newly-established relations between Cuba and the United States.
A Catalogue of Legends In practical terms, the agreement will allow some 30,000 recordings and music videos by legendary Cuban musicians such as Bola de Nieve, Barbarito Diez, Celina Gonzalez, Elena Burke, Omara Portuondo and Compay Segundo and famous bands such as Aragon, Irakere and the Van Van to enter new distribution and marketing spaces, under a global licensing contract granted by EGREM, whose Cuban music catalogue is considered the broadest in the world.
The Egrem Studios 2008
Cuba’s music and film arsenal will be made available in all music and video platforms available today. This will spell a commercial leap forward towards new technologies and into the hands of a whole new generation of listeners.
“We are delighted to be partnering with EGREM to share for the first time one of the largest and most acclaimed catalogs of Cuban music with fans across the globe,” said Sony Music Entertainment CEO Doug Morris in a communiqué. “This landmark agreement will help expand international awareness and appreciation of Cuban culture, Cuba’s rich musical heritage and its many wonderful artists.”
Embargo Exceptions The historical agreement was signed by Afo Verde, Sony Music president for Latin America, Spain and Portugal, and Mario Escalona Serrano, EGREM general director. The document was signed in the presence of Edgar Berger, international president of Sony Music, who traveled to Havana to witness the hallmark event.
Despite embargo restrictions, the commercial agreement was made possible thanks to an exception applied to informational materials and artistic products made by the US Treasury’s Office for Foreign Assets Control (OFAC).No details regarding the monetary scope of the agreement (believed to be in the millions of dollars) were offered.
Though part of EGREM’s catalogue has been licensed by other prestigious music labels in the past, this is the first time a multinational corporation is granted access to the entire bulk of its recordings and film materials for international distribution over a period of several years.
This bold move by Sony Music in the Cuban music market could open the doors to other negotiations with US companies in the culture and entertainment sphere, and it will mean increased promotion of Cuban musicians in commercial circuits, as well as music events and award ceremonies around the world.
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John Kavulich, president of the U.S. Cuba Trade and Economic Council, said Commerce Secretary Penny Pritzker’s travel to the island nation is likely to take place in early November in conjunction with the Havana International Trade Fair. (AP Photo/Manuel Balce Ceneta)
HAVANA, Sept. 16 A small trade group focused on promoting American business ties with Cuba says Commerce Department Secretary Penny Pritzker, and possibly Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack, are planning to visit Cuba this fall.
John Kavulich of the U.S. Cuba Trade and Economic Council said Pritzker’s travel to the island nation “perhaps” will take place in early November in conjunction with the Havana International Trade Fair.
The Commerce Department declined to comment about Pritzker’s possible travel plans. But during keynote remarks at an event sponsored by the Greater Tampa Chamber of Commerce and the Tampa International airport, Pritzker said she anticipated regulations allowing U.S. companies to participate in upgrading Cuba’s telecom infrastructure and Internet and consumer communications devices.
In April, Pritzker said she would lead a delegation to Cuba as soon as the two countries have normalized relations and opened embassies in each other’s countries.
While Pritzker’s schedule is likely up to her and her alone, Kavulich used his release to argue that she should travel either in December in January, and that she should attend with representatives of the International Trade Commission and the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office. By that time, he said, the Cuban government may have issued regulations approving purchases relating to product exports and imports first proposed by the U.S. in December when Obama announced the historic change to U.S.-Cuba relations.
“A visit by Secretary Pritzker should only arise subsequent to the government of the Republic of Cuba having purchased products and permitted the provision of services as outlined in December 2014, not as a means of seeking the purchase of products and provision of services,” Kavulich said. “The visit needs to be a reward, not an inducement.”
HAVANA, Sept 12 President Obama has reauthorized Cuba‘s listing on the Trading with the Enemy Act, a move that allows him to continue to use executive authority to improve ties with Cuba.
Obama’s action follows a unilateral decision last December to re-establish diplomatic relations between the U.S. and Cuba, paving the way to embassies being opened in both countries.
The act, which must be reauthorized every year, gives the president the power to make changes to U.S. relations with listed countries, in this case that is Cuba. Obama “continues to believe Congress should lift the embargo on Cuba and has already taken a number of steps to normalize relations and empower the Cuban people,” National Security Council spokesman Peter Boogaard told ABC News.
“That said, until the Congress acts, the Administration will continue to take prudent and responsible steps to allow commerce and travel, consistent with its authorities and within the continuing constraints of the embargo.”
Officials say that in order to do regulatory changes, like those taken by the administration in January to allow expanded travel under 12-specific licenses, the president needs the authority embedded in the Trading with the Enemy Act.
Without the act, the standing U.S. law with respect to Cuba is the Helms-Burton act, or the embargo, which limits nearly all transactions, travel and business with the island nation.
Congress has made no effort to change the embargo, although legislation was introduced to committee earlier this year that would allow for all travel restrictions to be lifted.
Last month, ABC News learned that the administration has plans underway to make it easier for people to visit and do business with Cuba, through regulation changes at the Treasury Department and the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA).
Those changes however, wouldn’t be possible without the power granted to the administration under the Trading with the Enemy Act. http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/president-obama-reauthorizes-cuba-listing-trading-enemy-act/story?id=33690036
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HAVANA, Sept, 11 (AFP) – Cuba’s government pardoned 3,522 prisoners, the most since the 1959 revolution, as a gesture of goodwill ahead of Pope Francis’s visit to the communist island, the official daily Granma said Friday.
Among those pardoned are people over 60 years old, younger than 20 years old with no criminal record, the chronically ill, women and foreigners, provided their country of origin vows to repatriate them, the newspaper said.
The decision is due to be effective within 72 hours.
“On the occasion of the visit by His Holiness Pope Francis, the Council of State of the Republic of Cuba (the highest governmental body)… agreed to pardon 3,522 prisoners, chosen due by the nature of the acts for which they were jailed, their behavior in prison, the time of punishment and health concerns,” Granma said.
On December 28, 2011, Raul Castro’s government granted a pardon to 2,991 prisoners on the occasion of a visit by pope Benedict (who came in March 2012).
That was about 10 times more than revolutionary leader Fidel freed a month after the visit of John Paul II, in January 1998.
The latest prisoner release is the largest since the 1959 revolution that brought Fidel Castro to power, who was replaced for health reasons by his brother Raul in 2006.
In January this year, as a gesture of goodwill after the historic detente with the United States, the communist government pardoned 53 inmates Washington considered “political prisoners”.
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HAVANA, Sept. 10 It’s unclear how quickly Cuba’s economy will handle recent changes in diplomacy, but many feel it might become the best real estate investment for American entrepreneurs.
Since Fidel Castro took control of Cuba in 1959, the island nation was essentially shut off from American interests and investment. In some ways, Havana still exists in 1959 complete with old, dilapidated buildings and decades-old American cars. That’s all changing. For real estate investors, the change is very welcome
The famed Paseo del Prado, the most prominent promenade in the city, is also a location where a great deal of real estate transactions takes place. While still in the beginning stages, the emphasis on real estate in Cuba is growing thanks in part to the indomitable Cuban spirit and the opportunities as perceived by the normalization of US and Cuban relations.
Why Cuba is a Prime Real Estate Opportunity Put simply, the Cuban people and the real estate market are ready for an infusion of US investors who can bring new life to the Cuban economy and reinvent the real estate market. The pieces are already in place and Raul Castro, the current leader of Cuba, allowed his countrymen to start buying and selling real estate in 2011 which means that the decades of Communist doctrine in terms of private property has now changed to a capitalistic one.
Before, the citizens of Cuba were only allowed to trade property. Today, the buying and selling of private property have created a small boom in terms of home renovations as well as fixing up old hotel properties that could be rented to new tourists coming in from the US and other countries. However, most of the real estate market is still heavily involved in renovations since constructing new buildings and homes is still very difficult given the low wages and profits of the Cuban people.
However, that could all change if there is a large influx of American tourists and investors into the country such as it was in the 1950s before the Castro regime took power. While the previous Cuban government of the old days was highly corrupt, it did allow for the construction of many buildings and homes which still exist and are used today.
The promise is that with all the new money, Cubans will start building new homes, hotels and other types of buildings, which would represent a real boom to the country in general.
For American investors, the possibility of purchasing prime beachfront properties at relatively low prices combined with the expected growing economy in Cuba represents a very large temptation. In essence, Cuba may be seen as a paradise that was closed off for nearly 60 years and now is re-opening to a new world where the profit potential is staggering.
Potential Limitations to the Cuban Real Estate Market Currently, American can actually invest in Cuba, but only through a relative who lives on the island or through an associate that acts as their front man. However, all the legal deeds remain in the name of the Cuban purchaser which greatly increases the risk of things going wrong. For example, a foreigner can marry a Cuban and have the right to purchase real estate while living on the island. However, if they should get divorced, the property goes to the Cuban automatically.
In fact, there are many horror stories of foreign investors trying to gain a foothold in the Cuban real estate market under the current system which has not turned out well for them at all. In addition, there is a very large question about what is known as the “right of return” issue.
In 1962, Fidel Castro seized all property that was foreign-owned which today means that there is roughly $8 billion in commercial and private property that still has claims by American citizens and corporations to sort through before the real estate situation can be fully normalized. Considering the feelings of many Cuban ex-patriots who live in the United States along with corporations that still exist wanting their properties returned. This is a process that could take a considerable amount of time depending on the attitude of the Cuban government.
Other issues include the relatively primitive state of Cuba itself as there is no internet access on the island to any real degree. That means current real estate agents operate in Cuba with no internet as if it were the 1950s. Plus, the market itself is still a cash-only system with many agents taking a 5% cut for their fees. This is one reason why up to 50% of the sales take place without any real estate agent to make the transaction.
Today, the Cuban real estate market is only open to Cuban citizens which in some ways makes sense as it only started up a few years ago. To subject it to massive foreign investment would be chaotic to say the least and problematic if the Cuban government decides to make changes in the middle of the process.
However, the changes in property laws as well as the expansion of the Cuban economy is already happening which means that if relations are normalized, it offers the real chance for substantial investment opportunities which would not only change Cuba into a modern society, but also reap tremendous profits for foreign investors.
The Cuban Investment Potential With the market expanding with the Cuban people and American investors chomping at the bit, the question is certainly more about when the investment can start taking place and not if. While the normalizing of relations is currently occurring, it is important to note that the economic sanctions by the US on Cuba are still in place because that takes congressional action to lift. That will no doubt be a very important part of the equation if the Cuban real estate market will open up to foreign investment.
Furthermore, the new normalization is happening under this President’s authority which means that when a new President is elected and starts their tenure in office in January, 2017, that could all change as they would have the power to revert the US/Cuban relations to their former state. So, there are still factors that must play out before the Cuban real estate markets can truly open up. http://www.forbes.com/sites/omribarzilay/2015/09/09/cuba-the-next-best-real-estate-investment-for-americans/2/
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HAVANA , Sep 10 (PL) The Habanarte Festival evokes the life of famous US writer Ernest Hemingway in Cuba, where he lived some 20 years and wrote various of his best known works.
His house in Finca Vigia, Havana, hosts today foreign and domestic visitors participating in tours scheduled at the festival to visit places with heritage value in this capital city.
According to director of the house museum Ada Rosa Alfonso, Hemingway sought always to find good places for his writing, such as France, Spain, Key West, among others.
“But it was in Cuba where he lived and worked more than anywhere else”, she said.
Many sites of the coastal community of Cojimar and the streets, buildings and people of Havana fed the imagination of the author of For Whom the Bell Tolls and even were the stage of his works.
Hemingway, Nobel Prize for Literature winner in 1954, wrote in Cuba “Across the River and Into the Trees”, “A Moveable Feast”, “Gulf Islands” and “The Old Man and the Sea”.
Finca Vigia, built in 1887 by Catalan architect Miguel Pascual y Baguer, still has the aura of the legendary novelist: his favorite chair, his large library, the dining room resembling a Spanish tavern and his dearest yacht Pilar.
The house is surrounded by lush tropical vegetation predominant in several hectares of the San Francisco de Paula community, some 15 kilometers from downtown Havana.
Various tours on different subjects across museums in Havana are included in the program of the Habanarte festival, organized by cultural institutions and tourist agency Paradiso.
On July 21, 1962, the house was declared a museum and according to historical records, it is the first institution in the world created to promote Hemingway’s work and life.
Until September 13th, with the slogan “All art at once”, Habanarte seeks to provide foreign tourists with the chance to know all local cultural expressions, although the choice is offered the same to Cuban public, said vice minister of Culture Fernando Rojas. Read also:http://www.havana-live.com/news/hemingway-cubas-adopted-son
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HAVANA, Sep 9 (acn) Cuban Minister of Tourism Manuel Marrero said amount of visitors has grown 17 percent so far this year, thanks to the favorable performance of the main source markets.
The list of countries bringing more tourists to Cuba is topped by Canada, England, Spain, Mexico, France and Italy, reflecting the efforts of the nation to improve the offer in the most important centers of this Caribbean destination.
Recent report by the National Bureau of Statistics and Information (ONEI by its Spanish acronym) indicates that 2 194 134 people arrived to the archipelago in the first half of 2015, representing an increase of 17 percent compared to last year.
Raising the quality, in general, is every day challenge for workers in the sector, and to that end they work intensely to achieve better services in the country, said Marrero.
After inaugurating the new headquarters, which will host the Faculty of Tourism, the Minister told reporters that due to the growing demand for training in Havana, a development strategy, which includes the construction of several hotels and maintenance of others, is being implemented.
Although we are in a good moment, he said, it is not enough.
“We know there are many things to do, but we are going in the right direction, gradually giving response to the demand,” he added.
HAVANA , Sep 9 (EFE) Cuba’s Higher Education Ministry announced Tuesday a series of changes in its system of university education, aimed at improving “quality, performance and relevance” to give young people a better chance in the labor market after graduation, the island’s official media reported.
The creation of a new teaching system, including shorter courses and making English language studies a requisite for obtaining a university degree, will be among the principal changes proposed to begin with the 2016-2017 school year, the state dailies Granma and Juventud Rebelde said.
Higher Education Minister Rodolfo Alarcon said “this new system, to be submitted for government approval,” will guarantee that teaching provides a wide educational background, followed later by specialization, and finally by the individual self-improvement of every professional “according to the position he or she occupies,” a standard that up to now has applied only to medical sciences.
A future category of “Non-University Higher Education” is also awaiting approval, as a way to “deal with the insufficient use made of qualified members of the workforce.”
The Cuban minister also said courses will be cut from five years to four in the “immense majority” of specialties starting with the next school year, though it will be a “gradual process, with the introduction of new programs, studies and strictness.”
He said that learning English will be an “indispensable” requisite” for obtaining a university degree, but noted that the measure won’t become generalized for a few years, “because the conditions must be created for its application.”
Another of the transformations to be applied in the next school year will be the possibility to take, without an entrance exam, “Courses by Meetings,” which will not require continuous attendance at classes, as well as “Education at a Distance.”
Universal free education is one of the banner achievements of the Cuban Revolution, though for several years the shortage of teachers and the low quality of classes have been causes for concern on the island.
HAVANA, Sep 7 Cuban leaders of different religious denominations- Christians, Jews, Muslims and Buddhists– called on the faithful to say a prayer for peace.
The inter-religious, cultural event was held in Havana for the second consecutive year. During the ceremony, the Papal Nuncio in Cuba, Giorgio Lengua, read a message sent by Pope Francis on peaceful coexistence and religious tolerance.
In his message, the Bishop of Rome called on the faithful to strengthen faith in peace, arguing that pure and faultless religion can never be a source of violence.
The first-ever Latin American Pope also warned against using God’s name to either justify or commit violent crimes and stressed that peaceful coexistence among all religious denominations could contribute significantly to world peace, common prosperity and harmonious development.
Also during the event, Papal Nuncio Giorgio Lengua announced that they will take the opportunity of the upcoming visit by Pope Francis to Cuba to personally thank him for his efforts as mediator in the negotiations that led to the re-establishment of diplomatic relations between the Havana and Washington.
The Prayer for Peace is an inter-religious and cultural event aimed at following the legacy of Pope John Paul II, who in 1986 convened the first-ever event of this kind in the city of Assisi, Italy.(RHC)
HAVANA, Sept 7 Thirty-one percent of the young people employed in Cuba, more than 1.5 million people, worked in the private sector and the rest were in jobs in the state-run sector at the close of 2014, according to official figures published Sunday by local media.
The head of employment in the Labor and Social Security Ministry, or MTSS, Jesus Otamendiz, said in an interview published in the Juventud Rebelde newspaper that “there are a considerable number of young people in the new forms of management,” as the autonomous or private sector is called on the communist island.
Of the 504,613 people registered as working for themselves or autonomously at the end of May 2015, 166,605 were young people, representing 31 percent of the people who had selected that form of employment, he said.
In addition, Otamendiz said that at the end of 2014, 4.97 million people were employed in Cuba and just under 1.53 million of them were young people, representing 31 percent of the labor force.
The MTSS chief also said that “the majority” of young people are still employed in the state-run sector, although they are increasingly moving into the private sector.
He said that 60 percent of the total number of young people working “for themselves” live in the provinces of Havana, Matanzas, Villa Clara, Camagüey, Holguin and Santiago de Cuba, and they are employed mainly in activities such as food preparation and sales, cargo and passenger transport.
The broadening of the private sector is one of the main reforms undertaken in recent years by the government of Raul Castro to “update” Cuba’s socialist economic model and compensate for the gradual suppression of some 500,000 state-sponsored jobs between 2011 and 2015.
In the interview, the MTSS chief discussed the challenge posed by youth employment in a country experiencing a “flexibilization of the labor market amid a changing and more complex economic environment,” which is increasingly burdened by the aging of the island’s population.
“It’s about achieving the efficient insertion of youth into the labor force, including the possibilities of employment in the non-state sector of the economy,” he said.
HAVANA, Sept. 5 (EFE) Spain wants to “facilitate to the maximum” relations between Cuba and the United States, the speaker of the lower house of Spain’s parliament, Jesus Posada, said Saturday in Havana, adding that his country will “do all it can” to smooth the path to normalization between the two countries.
After hailing the renewal of diplomatic ties between Havana and Washington as “a great accomplishment,” Posada recalled that after so many years of embargo and confrontation, “we can’t expect that everything will be all fixed up in a matter of weeks or months,” but considered that “there is a positive path ahead that will open bit by bit.”
“Spain as a member of the European Union will do all it can to make that happen,” the lower house speaker said.
He recalled that his country has stood by Cuba through “difficult times,” while other European Union countries “were perhaps not so close to Cuba as we were.”
Asked about the expectations sparked by the next round of talks between Cuba and the European Union, to be held next week in Havana, Spain’s lower house speaker expressed his confidence that it will be successful and that Spain is being “very active” in making it so.
The visit to Cuba has been “a success,” according to Posada, who insisted on its parliamentary and multi-party character, accompanied as he was by Ignacio Gil of the Popular Party, Teresa Cunillera of the Socialist Party, and Jose Luis Centella, spokesman for the leftist Izquierda Plural coalition and secretary general of the Communist Party.
Attending the meeting of the Spanish parliamentary delegation and Cuban lawmakers on Saturday were Posada, Gil, Cunillera, Centella and Ambassador Francisco Montalban on the Spanish side, while for Cuba there were parliament speaker Esteban Lazo, the head of the International Relations Commission, Yolanda Ferrer, and the leader of the Constitutional and Judicial Affairs Commission, Jose Luis Toledo Santander.
The Spanish parliamentarians return to their country Saturday night after a three-day visit, during which the met with Cuban Foreign Minister Bruno Rodriguez, the Association of Spanish Entrepreneurs in Cuba, or AEEC, and with representatives of Spanish communities in the Caribbean nation.
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HAVANA, Sept. 4 The resumption of diplomatic relations with Cuba has pried open the door to business, and investing, opportunities previously closed to Americans. Although foreign businesses from Canada to Spain have been doing business on the island for some time, albeit warily—both because of the strictures imposed by the Cuban government and the potential for damage to relationships with the U.S.—American investors have been restricted from investing in foreign companies that derive the majority of their corporate revenues from Cuban activities and operations.
But no more. The potential is there for outside companies to see some impressive growth from Cuban business in the years to come—particularly since the Cuban government is actively seeking foreign investment to spur growth after having been shut off from much of the global economy for more than 50 years.
That doesn’t mean the business environment in Cuba will be lacking challenges. On the contrary, as of 2012, the Cuban government, according to Pew Research, “was … the source of more than three-quarters of Cuba’s economic activity,” both directly and through state-owned enterprises. In addition, Havana has very specific rules that foreign businesses must follow—or face the consequences. That said, here are four sectors in Cuba that could see the most growth—and offer the best payoff for interested investors.
1. Travel and tourism One sector Cuba would like to encourage is travel. Foreigners visiting the island and spending money is something the government would very much like to encourage—and even if tourists don’t flock to its natural attractions, foreign investors will come to size up business opportunities.
And all those people will need amenities: places to stay, ways to get around, and—if they’re investors—ways to open and run businesses of all types. So look for increased flights—which will require more and better airports—as well as hotels, ground transportation and restaurants.
Indeed, many countries are already hoping to be a part of that expansion. In July, Spanish tourism minister Jose Manuel Soria said in reports after a trip to Cuba that his country is engaged in talks to nail down hotel and infrastructure deals there, and that Cuba is looking at a goal of more than $2 billion in foreign investment each year as it seeks to grow its economy.
Soria was quoted saying, “The Cuban government told me of the objective for 30,000 new tourist beds.” That’s a lot of visitors—and Spain is already on the spot. Iberia Airlines operates a Madrid-to-Havana route, and NH Hotel Group SA and RIU Hotels SA also have a presence in Cuba. According to the Spanish government, Spanish exports to Cuba totaled 75.7 million euros ($83 million) in May.
Oh, and Soria was not alone. He was accompanied by representatives from 75 Spanish companies. The Italian deputy minister for economic development, Carlo Calenda, also made the trip, along with representatives from 140 Italian companies. German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier had to cancel his trip because of concerns over the Greek crisis, but is rescheduling, along with German business representatives—and Britain, France and the Netherlands have already sent business delegations there. Looks as if tourism is already on the rise.
2. Infrastructure If it’s hoping to attract tourists or would-be investors, Havana is also going to need more than a few upgrades to things that people in other countries take for granted: reliable power generation and delivery, as well as more and better roads and airports.
Cuba’s need to increase its power generation capacity is clear; its grid is outdated and inefficient, and it’s looking toward renewables to provide help. In fact, some estimates place potential growth for the renewable energy market in Cuba to total $6 billion in years to come.
Presently Cuba depends on fossil fuels—low-grade domestic crude and oil that it imports from its neighbor Venezuela. But it’s in a prime location to build a new power grid based on renewables: solar, wind, hydroelectric and biomass. It’s a question of who can get in on the ground floor to midwife the transformation of its power system.
Last year Havana signed an agreement with Moscow, based on fossil fuels, for the construction of four generators at its Mariel thermoelectric plant. But the island country is looking to cut its dependence on oil, and looking for a greener way to grow electric generation. It’s also reportedly in talks with China on renewables.
3. Imports The list of products the U.S. allowed to be imported to Cuba is still pretty limited, and mostly focused on food. When the rules changed in January, they allowed—in addition to various food products, medicines and medical devices and certain agricultural products—“tools, equipment, supplies and instruments for use by private-sector entrepreneurs.”
But the country has no wholesale system to accommodate mass imports of goods, and that will handicap its rapidly growing private-sector entrepreneurs. It will have to come up to speed pretty quickly if it’s going to start bringing in products that will help them build their businesses, so that it’s not solely dependent on outside intervention.
Under Raul Castro, the country expanded its list of categories of private employment open to Cubans to the heady number of 201. Such classifications as carpenter, decorator, electrician and plumber are now available—as are taxi driver, barber and cellphone technician. Employment in any of these fields requires goods or supplies of one sort or another, so change is underway, and the importation of vital goods can’t be far behind.
That means the building of a whole structure for the importation and distribution of everything from raw materials to finished products, including spare parts and the tools to do the work.
4. Telecommunications And you thought Comcast was bad. In Cuba, it can cost $2 an hour for access to the Internet—pretty pricey when state salaries tend to fall in the $20-a-month range. And that’s if you can get it—less than 4% of homes have it, only a few businesses have it, and the country’s mobile phone network can’t handle it.
Oh, and remember dial-up? That’s what most who want to go online have to do. Broadband is severely limited and there are just 35 Wi-Fi hotspots in the country. But Cuban officials are saying that by 2020, at least half of the population will have access to the Internet at home, and 60% will have mobile phone service.
To make such a quantum leap in service in such a short time, Havana will have to get busy. Look for an explosion in telecommunications as Havana works to make that happen. Etecsa, the country’s state-run telecommunications monopoly, is even testing 3G and 4G cellphone service with Internet capability (the country’s existing system is 2G.
While Cuba wants desperately to bring in foreign investment, it’s not quite ready to cede control over communications and information to outsiders. However, given that global businesses run online, that’s going to have to change. And it might change through China, which has similar concerns over the free flow of information to its people—but nonetheless has gone online in a big way. Reports of a leaked Cuban government document told of plans to allow Chinese companies Huawei Technologies and ZTE Corp. to build residential broadband.
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Carnival Cruise Line offers more Cuba voluntourism cruise details while Iron Maiden leases a 747 for a world tour.
HAVANA, Sept. 4 Carnival Cruise Line unveiled more details of their “Fathom” voluntourism cruises coming to Cuba and the Dominican Republic onboard the Adonia from May 1, 2016. In an announcement from the construction of their private port, “Amber Cove,” in Puerto Plata, Fathom chief Tara Russell noted the Cuba program would focus on Havana, Cienfuegos, and Santiago de Cuba.
“While much is still in flux, Russell said that cultural immersion, including art and film, would be a major focus in Cuba. The activities on the Cuba trips won’t be as focused on voluntourism as those in the Dominican Republic will be,” reports Carolyn Spencer Brown. (Cruise Critic)
The portion of an aircraft found washed up on Reunion Island on July 29 has finally been authenticated as a piece of missing plane, Malaysia Airlines flight 370. The French prosecutor said a technician from Airbus Defense and Space (ADS-SAU) in Spain, which had made the part for Boeing, “had formally identified one of three numbers found on the flaperon as being the serial number of the MH370 Boeing 777,” reports Michel Rose. (Reuters)
Iron Maiden singer Bruce Dickinson, who is also a commercial airline pilot, has announced that the band will lease a Boeing 747 to fly the band around the world on their upcoming, 35-country tour. Dickinson himself will be the pilot as, on previous world tours, Dickinson had flown the band in smaller 757s. The upgrade to the 747, dubbed “Ed Force One,” will allow the plane to transport “all of the crew members and over 12 tons of equipment and stage props much easier thanks to its massive size.” (TravelPulse)
Airbnb has released its first native Apple Watch app. The key feature is Airbnb messing, by which “travelers visiting new or familiar cities now have the ability to keep an ongoing conversation with their host, ask questions, or respond to incoming messages directly on Apple Watch – without being glued to a mobile device,” according to the official release. (Airbnb) http://www.cntraveler.com/stories/2015-09-04/morning-news-carnival-volunteers-more-details-on-cruises-to-cuba
https://havana-live.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/09/logo_havana.png00Havana Livehttps://havana-live.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/09/logo_havana.pngHavana Live2015-09-04 11:10:502021-10-04 19:28:22Carnival released more details on cruises to Cuba
HAVANA Sep 3 (acn) The emerging Cuban self-employed sector will have access to loans up to 10 thousand Cuban pesos to be granted by the Banco Popular de Ahorro (BPA), in a effort to boost the use of external sources of financing by them.
Greicher La Nuez, business manager of the BPA, said this measure will get in force in the next future and aims at getting a closer working relation with the self-employed sector.
According to the official, since 2013 there are several forms for the self-employed to back up their requests for a loan, like co-signers, or valuables and mortgages, but the lack of them have had a negative impact on the amount of applications.
Now, applicants will use as a guarantee of payment a banking account that will be created for that purpose, where they will deposit a fourth of the monthly amortization (200 pesos), La Nuez explained
This will help boosting a culture of saving, and once the loan is paid back in full, the monies deposited on the account can be used as collateral for a larger loan, if so desired.
In an effort to make funds available at a faster pace, the bank set a three-day deadline for loans to be granted in every branch throughout the country.
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HAVANA, Sept. 3 MEO Australia has executed the Cuba Block 9 Production Sharing Contract (PSC) with the national oil company Cuba Petróleo Union (CUPET) in a ceremony in Havana.
The execution of the Block 9 PSC represents the culmination of over three years of negotiations between MEO and CUPET and is MEO’s first entry into the Cuban oil and gas sector.
The Block 9 PSC area is in a proven hydrocarbon system with multiple discoveries within close proximity, including the multi-billion barrel Varadero oil field. Block 9 contains Motembo field, the first oil field discovered in Cuba.
The exploration period of the Block 9 PSC is split into four sub-periods totalling eight and a half years with withdrawal options at the end of each sub-period. MEO will immediately commence work on the initial activity of evaluating the existing exploration data in the block and reprocessing selected 2D seismic data before determining whether to proceed with a subsequent 24-month exploration sub-period that includes acquisition of new 2D seismic data.
Production MEO’s Managing Director and CEO Peter Stickland commented, “We are delighted to complete the execution of MEO’s first oil and gas block in Cuba. As an early mover into Cuba, MEO is now one of the few western companies with a footprint in the expanding Cuban hydrocarbon sector. The geology of the block has analogies to petroleum systems in which MEO’s technical personnel have significant experience, and we see substantial potential in Cuba overall and Block 9 in particular.”
MEO has been in discussions with CUPET since prequalifying as an onshore and shallow water operator in early 2013. Block 9 was MEO’s preferred entry block due to the confirmed presence of hydrocarbons and the close proximity to existing production and infrastructure.
Block 9 covers approximately 2,380 sq km of predominantly low lying farmland on the north coast of Cuba approximately 130 km east of Havana. It has an existing petroleum exploration dataset of modern 2D seismic and multiple wells.
MEO has pursued this opportunity in collaboration with Petro Australis Limited, an unlisted Australian company. In the event Petro Australis qualifies for participation in Cuba, it has an option, which it can exercise within 24 months, to secure up to a 40% Participating Interest in Block 9. http://www.worldoil.com/news/2015/9/03/meo-australia-enters-cuba-with-block-9-psc
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HAVANA, Sep 2 (acn) The Dominican Republic could become a provider of chicken and eggs to Cuba and other Latin American nations after the country was given on Wednesday green light by the World Animal Health Organization by declaring it territory free of bird flu.
The action will allow Santo Domingo to compete at the world market and double its production of chicken and eggs for export, said Agriculture Minister Angel Estevez, as cited by PL news agency.
The country will keep monitoring its food security and that of those nations that import its products, said the minister and added that the Dominican Republic expects to take its poultry production to the highest levels.
The president of the Dominican Poultry Association, Bolivar Cartagena, said that his sector earns over 700 million dollars annually and with the certification by the world entity, such figures could grow by 20 percent.
Over the past few years, the Caribbean nation produced chicken and eggs only for the local market but at present such products could go to Cuba, Venezuela and El Salvador, said Lissett Gomez, Dominican representative at the World Animal Health Organization.
Cuba imports eggs and frozen chicken from other markets in order to guarantee the people´s basic food basket, which is highly subsidized for all Cubans. The island is currently making efforts to increase local production of foodstuffs and with it to replace costly imports as part of the strategic update of its economic model.
However, food imports are a heavy burden to deal with, since each year the island allocates more money to guarantee the food supply of its people in order to complement the local production.
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HAVANA, Sep 2 (acn) Chilean foreign minister Heraldo Muñoz is heading a large business and official mission in Cuba in a bid to strengthen bilateral links and explore new business and trade opportunities.
The visit by the Chilean delegation to Cuba, which will last till Saturday, includes government authorities and representatives of 35 business organizations.
This mission and previous one on November 2014 by 15 Chilean companies are in tuned with the increasing interest by the Chilean private sector in the new trade and investment opportunities offered by Cuba to attract foreign capital.
The agenda of minister Muñoz and his delegation includes bilateral business rounds, a meeting to assess the opportunities offered by the Economic Bilateral Accord, boosted in 2012 by the two countries to encourage commercial exchange, among other activities.
Trade exchange between Chile and Cuba reached 42 million dollars in 2014, out of which 36 millions in Chilean exports to Cuba.
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HAVANA, September 2 (AFP) The EU and Cuba have made good progress in normalisation talks but getting an accord this year, the stated aim of both sides, may prove difficult, an EU official said Wednesday.
“An end-2015 deal, that is the objective … but it is difficult. It is better to have a good agreement before an early agreement,” the official told a briefing ahead of the next round of talks in Havana next week.
“We will do what we can to achieve that; we are expecting another round of talks this year, in November, I expect,” added the official who asked not to be named.
Both sides reported good progress on trade and economic issues at their last meeting in June in Brussels but EU sources said then that sharp differences over human rights remained.
The EU official repeated the point Wednesday but added: “That is no surprise, we always knew that.”
The official stressed that what is known as a Political Dialogue and Cooperation Agreement would be a framework for ties, allowing both sides to cover a full range of issues, including human rights.
“It is not an agreement that sets out a specific agenda of actions (for either side) or a precise timeable.”
The European Union froze relations with Cuba in 2003 after a crackdown on activists and journalists but opened normalisation talks early last year as Washington moved to restore ties with Communist-ruled Havana after more than 50 years of unrelenting hostility.
The EU official said the improvement in US-Cuba ties and the resumption of diplomatic relations in July clearly helped the 28-nation bloc in its own talks with Havana.
But he also stressed that unlike Washington, the EU had had diplomatic relations with Cuba for many years and was one of the country’s major trade and investment partners.
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HAVANA, September 1 (AFP) Now that Cuba has restored diplomatic ties with the United States, teaching English in schools will be a priority, the communist party newspaper Granma reported on Monday.
In the 1970s, the study of English in Cuban schools was supplanted by Russian, after the Soviet Union emerged as the communist island’s main benefactor following Fidel Castro’s ascent to power in 1959.
When the Soviet Union collapsed in 1991, English returned to the Cuba’s academic curriculum. And since Havana and Washington restored ties in July, interest in English has skyrocketed.
“The language is essential because every day we are going to have more contact” with the United States and other countries, the communist party’s number two official, Jose Ramon Machaco Ventura, told university students over the weekend.
In 2008, two years after yielding power to his brother Raul, Fidel Castro acknowledged the importance of speaking English.
“The Russians studied English. Everyone studied English, except for us. We studied Russian,” Castro said.
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