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FedEx Downsizes Cuba Ambitions in Amended Flight Request

havaan-live-FedexHAVANA, June 18th FedEx Corp. won’t be flying a big cargo plane into Havana anytime soon.

The express delivery giant dropped its bid to operate to Cuba’s capital and is now requesting U.S. regulatory clearance to fly five times a week between Miami and the smaller resort town of Varadero in the province of Matanzas.

In a downsizing of its near-term ambitions, the company also said it would use a Cessna 208 aircraft, which is far smaller than the Boeing 757 it initially proposed for the Miami-Havana route.

Using Varadero as the base for FedEx’s initial operations “would be the more optimal use of its resources under current Cuba marketplace conditions,” it added in the amended application.

A company spokeswoman declined Friday to elaborate on those market conditions or the reason behind the changes. The company reiterated its “strong interest’’ in providing all-cargo transportation service between the countries.

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The decision comes amid heated competition for U.S. passenger flight routes to Havana. The Transportation Department last week awarded six U.S. airlines rights to secondary Cuban airports but said it would wait until the summer to apportion flights to the capital after receiving three times more requests than the 20 available daily slots.

FedEx said Friday it plans to provide trucking service from Varadero to Havana, the special development zone in Mariel and Santiago de Cuba. Veradero’s Juan Gualberto Gomez International Airport is roughly 70 miles east of Havana.

The company requested a start date of Jan. 15, 2017 in Thursday’s amended application, citing “the complexities of setting up operations in Cuba with ground and customs clearance capabilities.”

That is later than U.S. passenger airlines plan to arrive on the island nation. American Airlines Group Inc., the largest U.S. airline by traffic, said this week its first Cuban-bound flights will depart Sept. 7 to Cienfuegos and Holguin.

FedEx noted in the amended application that it remains the only all-cargo applicant for U.S.-Cuba scheduled air services. The shift in planned operations, however, suggests tourism, not trade, will take off sooner as the U.S. loosens decades-long travel restrictions to Cuba.

FedEx delivery rival United Parcel Service Inc. confirmed Friday it hasn’t filed an application yet.

“UPS continues to assess the opportunity to provide services to and from Cuba. As trade lanes open and demand for delivery services increases, UPS will take appropriate action to meet the needs of our global customers,” it added in a statement.

http://www.wsj.com/articles/fedex-downsizes-cuba-ambitions-in-amended-flight-request-1466190373

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Growing problems for Fathom cruises to Cuba, Dominican Republic

People waving Cuban flags greet passengers on Carnival's Adonia cruise ship as they arrive from Miami in Havana, Cuba, Monday, May 2, 2016. The Adonia's arrival is the first step toward a future in which thousands of ships a year could cross the Florida Straits, long closed to most U.S.-Cuba traffic due to tensions that once brought the world to the brink of nuclear war. (AP Photo/Ramon Espinosa)

People waving Cuban flags greet passengers on Carnival’s Adonia cruise ship as they arrive from Miami in Havana, Cuba, Monday, May 2, 2016. The Adonia’s arrival is the first step toward a future in which thousands of ships a year could cross the Florida Straits, long closed to most U.S.-Cuba traffic due to tensions that once brought the world to the brink of nuclear war. (AP Photo/Ramon Espinosa)

HAVANA, june 10th Carnival’s new Fathom brand cruises to Cuba and the Dominican Republic, launched in May, appear to be experiencing growing pains.

Both offerings are different than anything else in the industry: The Cuba trips are the first U.S. cruises to the island nation in 40 years, and initially generated tremendous excitement. But travelers are giving them mixed reviews, complaining of confusion over how the tours are organized.

The cruises to the Dominican Republic, meanwhile, which invite passengers to volunteer on projects like reforestation and teaching English, are proving to be a hard sell and have been steeply discounted, with the initial $1,540 ticket price cut to as low as $249. “People don’t know why they would want go and pay to work somewhere,” said travel agent Gloria Hanson. “People want a vacation.”

Hanson sailed Fathom’s other itinerary to Havana in May and said that while it was a fascinating experience, that trip was different from standard cruises too. “This cruise is not for everybody,” she said. “It’s a tiring cruise. You’re walking, walking, walking. You’re not coming back to the ship to have drinks and party. It’s not that kind of a cruise.”

Even Fathom’s ship, Adonia, is different from the glitzy megaships that have become standard in the U.S. cruise industry. Adonia is smaller than many ships, carrying just over 700 passengers. It also has no casino and doesn’t offer the comedy clubs and Broadway-style productions that cruise passengers have come to expect.

Tara Russell, who heads the Fathom brand and has been on several of the cruises, says she’s not worried.

“We are pioneering two products the world has never seen,” said Russell in an interview. She said bookings have increased daily, many passengers have booked second trips, and the company is expanding marketing efforts, especially for the voluntourism trips, by reaching out to faith-based and alumni groups.

But travel agents say Fathom’s reception has been lukewarm. “Fathom seems to be having a slow start and the agent members of CruiseCompete are not 100 percent certain the ship will ever sell out,” said Heidi Allison-Shane, editor-at-large for CruiseCompete.com. She said CruiseCompete has had a number of requests for information about Fathom, “but very few bookings.”

Hanson said passengers to Cuba were confused about how the tours are organized. Many signed up for excursions organized by the ship, not realizing they could have created their own itineraries without violating U.S. rules that limit Americans visiting Cuba to certain types of activities like cultural exchanges.

“I was under the impression you had to do everything with the cruise line,” Hanson said. “That part was very confusing.” In addition, Fathom randomly assigned passengers to visit museums, historic sites or performance venues without giving them a choice. And while Hanson raved about a meal she had in an excellent private restaurant in Cuba, other passengers had mediocre food in state-run eateries.

The Cuba cruise Hanson took also lacked “crucial talks about the ports you’re going to. Every cruise I’ve ever gone on always had a seminar talking about tomorrow’s port and the things to do.” Hanson said that type of information is especially important for Cuba because Americans have been cut off from the country for so long.

Russell said Fathom has already tweaked some programs with additional changes coming to give passengers more information, flexibility and customization in tour options. Some tour guides are also being given more training to upgrade their skills.

Russell added that because U.S. policies on Cuba “are changing every day,” the company had a hard time adjusting programs to keep pace. “It would be crazy to think that everything would have gone perfectly. We were negotiating policy last minute,” she said.

Sharon Kenny, a writer for Porthole Cruise Magazine, took Fathom to Cuba and the Dominican Republic and said both experiences were worthwhile. But she said travelers need to understand that this is “not the traditional cruise in that you’re not going to be drinking hard, you’re not going to be in a bathing suit.”

Kenny recalled crowds in Havana greeting them with shouts and high-fives, and said she still gets teary remembering a woman who told her: “We’re so glad you’re here. We’ve been waiting for you so long.”

Kenny’s experience in the Dominican Republic was also meaningful. “I have volunteered on other worthy causes before, but I’m often left wondering if what I did really mattered,” she said. But she was certain that the work her Fathom group did — replacing a dirt floor in a family’s home with concrete — made an impact. Others who volunteered with Fathom in the Dominican Republic agreed, speaking glowingly of their experiences planting trees, teaching English and sorting cocoa beans in a chocolate factory.

Colleen McDaniel, managing editor of CruiseCritic.com, was on the first sailing to the Dominican Republic and said “it’s a radically different idea.”

“They’ve launched a brand new product nobody’s ever attempted before,” she said. “They are still fine-tuning and doing some tweaking and they’ll be the first to tell you that. They’re very open to feedback. After every excursion you are given a survey to give your immediate feedback, what did you think of this and how would you make improvements. They’re really listening and trying to make changes.”

Russell acknowledged that “Fathom is not for everyone.” But she added: “We’re very pleased with the progress we’re making.”

 http://www.sanluisobispo.com/news/business/article82721577.html
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Cuba will legalize private businesses

Cuban entrepreneurs like Ruben Valladares, whose Havana company Adorgraf makes decorative paper bags, can finally make their private businesses legal entities.

HAVANA,may 24th (AP) Cuba announced Tuesday that it will legalize small and medium-sized private businesses, a move that could significantly expand the space allowed for private enterprise in one of the world’s last communist countries.

Until now, the government has allowed private enterprise only by self-employed workers in several hundred established categories like restaurant owner or hairdresser. Many of those workers have become de-facto small business owners employing other Cubans. But there are widespread complaints about the difficulties of running a business in a system that does not officially recognize them. Low-level officials often engage in crackdowns on successful businesses for supposed violations of the arcane rules on self-employment.

Communist Party documents published Tuesday said a category of small, mid-sized and “micro” private business is being added to the party’s master plan for social and economic development, which was approved by last month’s Cuban Communist Party Congress. The twice-a-decade meeting sets the direction for the single-party state for the coming five years.

The documents say that the three categories of business will be recognized as legal entities separate from their owners, implying a degree of protection that hasn’t so far existed for self-employed workers.

“Private property in certain means of production contributes to employment, economic efficiency and well-being, in a context in which socialist property relationships predominate,” reads one section of the “Conceptualization of the Cuban Economic and Social Model of Socialist Development.”

“This is a tremendously important step,” said Alfonso Valentin Larrea Barroso, director-general of Scenius, a cooperatively run economic consulting firm in Havana. “They’re creating, legally speaking, the non-state sector of the economy. They’re making that sector official.”

He said that about 6,000 de facto small and medium sized businesses now operate under self-employed workers’ licenses. This bars them from most dealings with the Cuban state, which maintains inefficient monopolies on imports and exports. As a result, most private businesses are forced to buy scarce supplies from state retail stores or on the black market, driving up prices for ordinary Cubans. Others pay networks of “mules” to import goods in checked airline baggage, adding huge costs and delays.

Larrea said he believed that legally recognized private business would be able to deal officially with state importers and exporters, allowing them to obtain wholesale goods more cheaply and efficiently.

“It’s a necessary step,” he said.

Reforms initiated by President Raul Castro after he became president in 2008 have allowed about half a million Cubans to transition to work in the private sector despite the extensive limits on self-employment. New categories of small and mid-sized businesses create the potential for many more jobs in the private sector, although Castro’s reforms have been slow and marked by periodic reversals of many reforms.

Reversals and crackdowns have been particularly marked in reforms that allow private businesses to flourish and compete with state monopolies, leading entrepreneurs to complain of constantly changing signals about the government’s desire for reform.

The 32-page party document is the first comprehensive accounting of the decisions taken by the party congress, which was closed to the public and international press. State media reported few details of the debate or decisions taken at the meeting but featured harsh rhetoric from leading officials about the continuing threat from U.S. imperialism and the dangers of international capitalism.

That tough talk, it now appears, was accompanied by what could be a major step in Cuba’s ongoing reform of its centrally planned economy.

Any such change will take months to go into effect. Major reforms like allowing new forms of business almost certainly must be formally approved by the country’s National Assembly, which is expected to hold one of its biannual meetings by August.

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Cuba’s Slow Economy and Homegrown Opportunity

HAVANA, May 23th( Huffintonpost)President Obama’s visit to Havana in March shined a spotlight on Cuba—a country that, one’s political views aside, is regarded warmly by people around the world. Over the last two years, a new foreign investment law has sparked the interest of many companies (especially European ones) and the re-establishment of diplomatic relations with the United States has also made the possibility of trade and investment deals with U.S. companies seem closer.

In this context, a number of corporate leaders are wondering how they should view the Cuban opportunity while avenues to move beyond the embargo are pursued in Washington. In a new article on bcgperspectives.com, we address the question of what the evolution of the Cuban economy means for multinationals.

The country clearly has great economic potential and there were high hopes that the recently concluded VII Congress of the Communist Party of Cuba would take further steps to create a more hospitable environment in which private enterprise can make greater contributions to accelerated economic growth and job creation.

Such steps—which the government officially refers to as aiming to “perfect” or “update” the Cuban economic model—could, for instance, be modeled on what the Cuban president in his main speech referred to as the processes of “reform” in China and “renewal” in Vietnam. But these market liberalization measures have not yet been adopted.

They remain works in progress. Meanwhile, the Cuban economy is lacking a growth dynamo, and its slow “brewing” runs the risk of stagnating. Without stronger economic growth, the country will lack the resources needed to maintain the social achievements of recent decades.

Foreign investors have an important role to play in a number of industries (beer included) and in the sorely needed development of all kinds of infrastructure. In areas such as information and telecommunication services, their impact (especially in a competitive market environment) could be quick, positive and pervasive.

But for the right kind of investor to be attracted—those who will contribute to adding value and jobs in Cuba—they will need more than tax holidays, incentives and special zones. They will need regulatory transparency, reliability in the implementation of policies and flexibility in the operating environment for businesses.

The experience of many countries shows that sustainable economic success cannot be built on a combination of only foreign investors and state-owned enterprises. Cuba is fortunate to have a well-educated and creative population—fertile ground for entrepreneurship, provided that an appropriate legal framework is established to facilitate private enterprise.

In addition, there is another untapped homegrown asset: a large population of professionally experienced Cubans living outside the country, many of whom might be keen to return home and contribute to its prosperity with their skills, savings and connections.

Creating an environment in which returning is an attractive possibility could produce a great growth boost and reassure potential foreign investors that Cuba is a place where business can thrive. Few, if any, countries have ever had such an opportunity. Cuba is well placed to pursue it if decisive, transparent steps are taken soon to make it possible.

 

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Cuba and United States draw up roadmap for talks to deepen detente

HAVANA, May (Reuters) 17th Cuba and the United States aim to reach new agreements on cooperation in law enforcement, health and agriculture over the coming months, a senior Cuban official said on Monday, as part of the former Cold War foes’ drive to normalize ties.

The Communist-ruled island and its northern neighbor reestablished diplomatic relations a year ago after decades of hostility and have since signed deals on the environment, postal services and direct flights.

A bilateral commission met on Monday in Havana to establish a roadmap for talks over the rest of this year, which would include more high-ranking official visits, said Josefina Vidal, head of the Cuban delegation.

In March, Barack Obama became the first sitting U.S. president in 88 years to visit Cuba.

“The agenda is quite ambitious,” Vidal told a news conference, adding that talks about intellectual property rights were also in the cards.

The two sides had discussed holding dialogues on human rights and claims, the U.S. embassy in Cuba said in a statement.

They already outlined their respective claims late last year, with the U.S. seeking upwards of $10 billion in compensation for nationalized properties and Cuba demanding at least $121 billion in reparations for the U.S. trade embargo and other acts it described as aggression.

“The United States looks forward to holding these meetings in the near future,” the embassy said. “Tomorrow (we) will discuss specific steps related to bilateral security during the law enforcement dialogue.”

Vidal, who is the Cuban Foreign Ministry’s chief of U.S. affairs, said the island was hopeful that whomever became next the U.S. president would continue to deepen the detente. The United States will hold a general election on Nov.8.

“When you look at the polls, the majority of the American population and the Cuban American community are in favor of the normalization of relations,” she said. “So I expect their opinion will be taken into account.”

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Mohawks travel to Cuba for cutting-edge diabetes treatment

Council_interview_post_biotec_

Chief Eric Thompson and Chief Beverly Cook, of the St. Regis Mohawk Tribe, after meeting with Cuban biotech company that developed Heberprot-P. “Accessing this treatment requires an act of political will,” said Chief Thompson. “We would be derelict in our duties if we didn’t research how to access this medicine. We need to do this.” said Chief Cook. Photo courtesy St. Regis Mohawk Tribe

HAVANA, May 17th According to federal data, 17 percent of Native Americans living in the United States have diabetes. That’s more than double the rate of the white population. On the Akwesasne Mohawk reservation near Massena, half of the people over 65 have diabetes.

The St. Regis Mohawk Tribe has taken an unusual step to try to deal with the disease. Last month, Mohawk chiefs led a delegation to Cuba where doctors have pioneered a new way to treat a very dangerous symptom of diabetes.

People with diabetes can get foot ulcers. They’re painful sores, and when they go untreated, they get so bad, toes or the whole foot have to be amputated. Chief Beverly Cook of the St. Regis Mohawk Tribe said that can devastate diabetics and their families, causing “loss of productivity in the community, and just personal shock and trauma.”

The tribe already has a diabetes wound care unit in Akwesasne. But the chiefs heard about a new treatment for the ulcers developed by scientists in Cuba, called Heberprot-P. So they led a delegation to Havana to learn more. Cook was impressed by what she saw. “This treatment definitely would help. We saw evidence of severe grade 4 and 5 diabetic foot ulcers that were healed within 45 days,” she said.

The problem is the medicine isn’t legally available yet in the United States, even though it is being used in more than two dozen countries worldwide. The medicine is currently undergoing trials in the United States.

Cook hopes the visit will put pressure on the federal government to approve the medicine and provide funding for tribes to buy it. She said, “We don’t want Indian people to be left in the dark about it and to be not able to access it due to the budget constraints of Indian health service,”

This connection between Mohawks and Cubans might seem strange, but Chief Eric Thompson said there is an interesting chapter of history in the relationship. An Iroquois delegation, led by “a Tuscaroran individual by the name of Mad Bear Anderson,” said Thompson, traveled to Havana just after Fidel Castro’s Cuban revolution to recognize the new government.

“The Cuban officials asked at that time what they could do for our people. They were told that we would be in need of their assistance on an international level with regards to recognition.”

According to Thompson, that visit laid early groundwork for Cuba to become a supporter of the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, which was ratified in 2007.

Chief Cook said native tribes can identify with people in Cuba, that their efforts to survive and innovate in the face of the U.S. embargo is similar to what native people have endured. “I think it’s very enlightening, in light of all of that hardship, that they are that resilient and quite brilliant,” she said.

http://www.northcountrypublicradio.org/news/story/31786/20160516/mohawks-travel-to-cuba-for-cutting-edge-diabetes-treatment

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Caterpillar ready to move into Cuba once embargo lifted

havana-live-caterpilarHAVANA, May 12th (Reuters) Caterpillar Inc, the world’s largest maker of heavy equipment, is ready to move swiftly into the Cuban market once the U.S. trade embargo is lifted, Chief Executive Doug Oberhelman said on Wednesday after meeting with Cuban ministers in Havana.

The detente between the United States and Cuba has raised hopes that full commercial ties will soon be restored between the former Cold War foes.

Caterpillar (CAT.N), based in Peoria, Illinois, is one of several U.S. companies looking at ways to gain an early foothold in the Communist-ruled island, which had been largely off bounds to U.S. business for more than five decades.

Oberhelman said he had been “warmly received” over the past two days by various ministers on his first trip to Cuba.

“We have talked about a number of projects,” he told reporters on the sidelines of an event celebrating a donation by Caterpillar to the foundation that preserves the heritage of U.S. writer Ernest Hemingway in Cuba.

“I think the most interesting one in the near term would be the Mariel harbor … making an efficient modern harbor that competes with others around the world.”

Cuba is staking much of its economic future on the Mariel port, west of Havana, seen as a potential distribution center for the Caribbean and Central and South America.

Caterpillar has already named an official dealer for Cuba, the privately held Puerto Rico company Rimco.

Rimco representative Caroline McConnie said the dealer was in talks with U.S. authorities about getting a license allowing it to sell certain Caterpillar products in Cuba despite the U.S. trade embargo.

President Barack Obama and Cuban President Raul Castro agreed in December 2014 to end Cold War-era animosity and restore diplomatic relations, but the trade embargo remains in place because only the Republican-controlled U.S. Congress can lift it.

Asked when he expected the embargo to be lifted, Oberhelman said: “For me, the answer is not soon enough.”

Once it was lifted, Caterpillar could move quickly to sell products in Cuba as it is used to dealing in emerging markets, he said, speaking on the veranda of the farm just outside Havana where Hemingway lived for 21 years.

“The idea is for our dealer to set up a facility here in Cuba,” he said. “We would supply most of our products from Brazil.”

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First materials under way for Finca Vigia project

090105-Finca-Vigia-hmed-5p.grid-6x2HAVANA, May 11th It’s been more than a decade in the making, but the first construction materials are finally on the way for a small but significant project with Michigan and Detroit connections outside Havana,on Ernest Hemingway’s Finca Vigia.

 The Lansing-based The Christman Co.‘s involvement in coordinating the project to build a 2,500-square-foot building on Hemingway’s former Finca Vigía property to house the celebrated author’s artifacts in a climate-controlled environment, which would spare them from the harsh Caribbean elements.

The first materials to be sent are “the meat and bones of the building before we dress it up with the skin,” said Ron Staley, the senior vice president of Christman who has made several trips to the island nation in the last roughly four years as he was working on the project.

That includes things like lumber, nails, electrical and plumbing supplies, wire, nails, saws and saw blades, door and window studs, ladders, toolboxes, safety equipment and other hardware.AR-160519965

The project is important because Hemingway had some of his most prized possessions on Finca Vigía (“lookout farm” in Spanish): thousands of books, rough drafts of his own work, letters, photographs, the heads of exotic game and others.

The problem, however, is that in Cuba’s brutally hot and humid Caribbean climate, and without a climate-controlled place to store them, they were in jeopardy of being irrevocably damaged and lost forever.

Mary-Jo Adams, executive director of the Boston-based nonprofit Finca Vigía Foundation, described it last summer:

“These are irreplaceable documents, some of them coming from the 1910s and 1920s that Hemingway brought with him to Cuba because he thought they were important,” she said. “But the inks were faded. They were being stored in the basement of the guest house, which was filled with termites. I think it was in danger of imminent collapse and that would have crushed the collection.”

The project is also an important milestone because it is the first time American building materials have been sent to Cuba, with which the U.S. severed relations in 1961, two years after Fidel Castro’s revolution in 1959. The Obama administration recently announced the decision to restore diplomatic relations with Cuba and relax the trade embargo. In January 2015, it authorized that building materials for certain types of projects could be shipped to the island.

“In addition to coordinating the logistics of a construction project within both U.S. and Cuban customs and other regulations — which obviously hasn’t been done in a while — lots of other things are also relative ‘unknowns,’ and that extends to the local construction labor market, which we anticipate needing to guide to our specifications, including safety regulations.”

http://www.crainsdetroit.com/article/20160511/NEWS/160519965/first-materials-headed-to-cuba-for-christmans-project-at-ernest

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Cuba high on agenda of Caricom foreign ministers

havana-live-sede-de-caricom.jpg_2002894772 Caribbean Community (Caricom) foreign ministers yesterday began a two-day meeting here amid calls for the regional bloc to explore avenues for even stronger ties with Cuba, following Havana’s improved relations with the United States.

HAVANA, May 10th St Vincent and the Grenadines’ Deputy Prime Minister Sir Louis Straker told the opening ceremony of the 19th meeting of Caricom’s Council for Foreign and Community Relations (COFCOR) that an assessment must be made of the region’s position in light of the changing nature of the US-Cuba relations.

“The Caribbean has long been a staunch ally of and advocate for the Cuban people and, as such, we must ensure that we are prepared so as not to be left behind when changes are effected in the way of doing business with Cuba,” said Sir Louis, who is also the island’s foreign affairs minister.

The incoming COFCOR chair said it is incumbent on Caricom to consider ways in which the 15-member regional grouping may “more closely secure the ties that bind us with Cuba in a mutually beneficial manner that can start with the simple invitation to be heard at our table.

“I put this forward as something we may wish to consider over the course of this meeting,” Sir Louis said.

The Guyana-based Caricom Secretariat said that the meeting will provide the ministers the opportunity for a periodic review of a range of diplomatic matters involving Caricom’s relations with third countries and international organisations.

“COFCOR will examine the implications for the Caribbean Community of several emerging issues, including the reshaping of the United States relations with Cuba and the pending British referendum on European Union membership.

“As the community seeks to reinforce relations with multilateral organisations, COFCOR will discuss matters regarding the United Nations, the Organisation of American States, the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States, and the Association of Caribbean States,” the statement said.

St Lucia’s Foreign Minister Alva Baptiste, the outgoing COFCOR chairman, also addressed the issue of the new US-Cuba relationship, saying that “over the next two days, we will be called upon to adumbrate the issues surrounding the normalisation of US-Cuba relations and how this will impact our community”.

Caricom Secretary General Irwin La Rocque said the move toward normalisation of relations between the US and Cuba represents a welcome development in hemispheric relations.

“That development will form the theme of our retreat later today. The discussions there will take place against the background of our long-standing, strong and friendly relationship with Cuba,” he said.

La Rocque said that in the dynamic and rapidly changing global environment, Caricom must maintain and depend on traditional relationships, even as it builds new ones.

The meeting comes on the heels of last week’s Ninth UK-Caribbean Forum in The Bahamas. The Caricom foreign ministers will devote part of their meeting to discussing the critical elements emanating from that engagement.

The meeting will also discuss border issues and a range of bilateral topics involving Mexico, Cuba and the Nordic states, and the Unites States.
http://www.jamaicaobserver.com/news/Cuba-high-on-agenda-of-Caricom-foreign-ministers-_60397

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ARUBA CUBA SIGN A MEMORANDUM OF UNDERSTANDING FOR TOURISM & TRANSPORTATION

IMG_0012[6]“Last week in Havana, Cuba, the governments of Aruba and Cuba signed a cooperative agreement with a focus on tourism,” announced Minister of Tourism, Transportation, Culture and the Primary Sector for Aruba Mr. Otmar Oduber. 

HAVANA, May 9th It’s been close to a year since discussions began between the departments of foreign affairs of both countries, and are now continued with this official visit from Minister Oduber and a delegation consisting of the director of the Aruba Tourism Authority, Mrs. Ronella Tjin Asjoe-Croes, director of the Department of Foreign Affairs, Mr. Edwin Abath, advisors to the minister and executives from the Aruba Tourism Authority, among others.

During the visit, the delegation spoke with the government official overseeing tourism, the Vice Minister of Transportation for Cuba Mrs. Naima Alfonso Acosta on the potential to create a route for cruise ships specifically between these two countries, as well as other countries in the southernmost region of the Caribbean.

The initial discussions with the head of tourism began months back. The topics of interest they will continue to focus on include a Dual Destination Program and the strengthening of knowledge in the fields of managing cruise facilities, inclusive of marketing strategies to attract visitors.

These initiatives will be driven through job platforms between the two countries. There is interest on Cuba’s part to exchange knowledge with Aruba based on Aruba’s storied success in the field of managing strategies and cruise facilities.

Cuba is also interested in Aruba’s experiences in the field of timeshare as well as new law proposals in respect to the management of accomodation. Aside from the topics of tourism and transportation, agriculture and culture were high on the agenda during the Minister Oduber’s visit to Havana.

On Wednesday, the official ceremony took place to endorse the ground-breaking agreement, which was signed by the Minister of Foreign Trade and Foreign Investment for Cuba Mr. Rodrigo Malmierca, and Minister of Tourism, Transportation, Culture and Primary Sector for Aruba Mr. Otmar Oduber.”

Aruba sees Cuba as a new destination, despite its existence for some time now,” Minister Oduber explained, “and it will soon see organizational changes that will contribute to making the country a more attractive destination to explore from the U.S. market. This memorandum of understanding will align us with the new possibilities that this could bring for Aruba,” Minister Oduber concluded.

http://www.aruba.com/our-island/aruban-and-cuban-governments-sign-memorandum-understanding-tourism-transportation

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Cuba’s central highway is dangerous !

Carretera_Central-mapHAVANA,May 8 th (Havana Times)  “Three dead in road accident at Jatibonico. The crash also injured 28 people and took place when a bus carrying tourists, heading to Trinidad, collided with a truck” – Juventud Rebelde article, April 3, 2016

That was the last major car accident to take place on Cuba’s central highway. This highway is so dangerous that some bus drivers say this to the passengers:

“If you want to arrive on time, please respect the time allotment for our stops. We can’t really go any faster, we’ve got to cross the central highway where cars are separated by a few centimeters and everyone’s going fast. It’s like risking one’s life every minute and we want you to arrive safely to your destination.”

The highway opened on February 24, 1931. It covers 1139 kilometers, from Pinar del Rio to Santiago de Cuba, and it’s narrow 6 meters of width are no match for the 21st century.havana-live-central-highway

In the 1980s, an ambitious nationwide highway began to be built. It was designed to have 6 to 8 lanes and a separator in the middle. The stretch from Pinar del Rio to Havana and from there to Santa Clara was traced, all the way to Taguasco. On the other end, some 45 kilometers of mountainous terrain, the only obstacle in an otherwise level route, were cleared, starting from Santiago de Cuba.

The work was suspended in 1990, when 495 kilometers of road had been laid. The rest of the way, some 550 kilometers stretching from Santa Clara and the vicinity of Palma Soriano, must be crossed using the nearly-one-hundred-year-old road, where most accident-related deaths take place in Cuba.

On January 30, Granma and Juventud Rebelde newspapers published the number of car accidents that took place in 2015. Half of the opinions expressed are captured by these two comments:

“I think the biggest problem leading to accidents in Cuba is the poor state of the roads. This isn’t mentioned in this report. If we continue to make excuses for our problems, we’ll continue having accidents, injuries and deaths.”

“I think the Cuban government must complete the national highway. The large volume of tourists who visit the island is important and, to tell the truth, they don’t have very good opinions about the roads.”

Why do we not yet have the indispensable national highway?e87003b4b260c3a5f10289304a6c5194

To date, the size of the investment and the limitations imposed by the US embargo have been used to justify the precarious state of the project. A brief analysis of the situation demonstrates the opposite.

Shocked by the tragic accident in Jatibonico, a reader suggested, “so as not to ask for much, broadening the highway two lanes on both sides and adding a dirt road at the side where carts, bicycles and tractors driven by locals in these agricultural areas can circulate, since the famers don’t have any other road they can use.” The partition down the middle was implicit.

Calculating the cost of the previous proposal is complicated because most of it would be made in Cuban pesos. That said, in 1988, the 6-lane highway stretching from Havana to Pinar del Rio (some 170 kilometers long) cost 650,000 pesos per kilometer.

If we round the figure to a million, factoring in the increase in the price of materials and the narrowing of the highway, we get around 550 million pesos. If we did this in the style of the new president, “slowly but surely,” and built 28 kilometers every year, the country would have had the modern highway in 20 years.

If anyone is still swallowing that tripe about the lack of resources caused by the notorious blockade, suffice it to recall the roads built over the ocean.

Between 1987 and the early 2000s, some 172 km of highway was built on rock embankments over the open sea and salt marshes, linking keys and isles at the Jardines del Rey municipality, towards the north of the provinces of Villa Clara, Ciego de Avila and Camaguey. Building something that long over land would cost considerably less, and there’s also the dubious financial soundness of the vast maritime bridges that were built and their negative impact on the environment.

There are many tourist destinations in idyllic islands that have no need of such artificial bridges. One needn’t leave Cuba to realize this, one need only compare Cayo Coco and Cayo Largo.

The former was connected to the mainland by a 17-km road over the sea. The shortest distance between Cayo Largo and the mainland is seven times that, making any such bridge unthinkable. However, both destinations have an international airport. In the Wikipedia article on the destination, we read that, “since 2005, tourists can fly to the Cayo Coco airport directly, rather than have to fly to the Cuban mainland.”havana-live-highway-cayo-coco

Both destinations are growing in terms of investments and visitors. Was the super maritime highway necessary?

The megalomaniacal whim of the stone embankment highways entailed an investment similar to the one required to build the nationwide highway. It would be pointless to enumerate the economic benefits to be drawn from such a highway.

The authorities address the immediate causes of accidents, but the root problem does not concern them.

Cuba’s National Road Safety Commission published chilling statistics: “during 2015, on average, there was a road accident every 47 minutes and an accident-related death every 11 hours.”

 

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Cuba eyes Chinese tourists

havana-live-air-chinaHAVANA, May 6 (Xinhua)  Cuba has sought to become an important tourism destination for foreign visitors, eyeing China as a significant and growing market for its tourism industry.

“The number of Chinese tourists increases every year and will continue to do so through the direct flight between Beijing and Havana that Air China inaugurated in December of 2015,” Cuban Tourism Minister Manuel Marrero told Xinhua on Thursday at Cuba’s annual tourism trade fair FITCuba.

A total of 28,239 Chinese travelers visited Cuba’s capital Havana, its leading beach resort of Varadero and other destinations in 2015, representing a growth of 27 percent.

To draw more Chinese travelers, Cuba’s tour operators in China are working with local agencies under new promotional strategies.

“We have no doubt that the number of Chinese tourists will grow in the coming years and we will continue to strive to bring the Air China flights completely booked,” said Marrero.

This effort will also offer Chinese companies investment opportunities to develop luxury hotels and golf courses in Havana.

“We are going to build a five-star luxury hotel at the Hemingway Marina (west of Havana) with the Chinese firm Suntime, and a resort golf course with (residential) apartments in the Bellomonte area (east of Havana) with the company Beijing Enterprise,” he said.

Both initiatives have been approved by the Cuban ministry and should break ground soon.

“With the combination of Air China flights and hotel development with Beijing Enterprise and Suntime, the growth of Chinese tourism is guaranteed,” said the top Cuban tourism official.

Zhang Xin, Air China general manager for Cuba, said the inauguration of the direct Beijing-to-Havana route in December is important to bolstering tourism ties between the two countries.

The thrice-a-week 19-hour flight, with a stop in Montreal, Canada, is the first-ever direct flight between the Chinese capital and a destination in Latin America.

“We’re sure more Chinese tourists will come in the future to Cuba,” Zhang told Xinhua, adding “we want to show them the beauty of its beaches and landscapes, its culture and rich history.”

Through the new route, Air China hopes to turn Havana into a kind of Caribbean travel hub for Chinese travelers who are interested in visiting other islands in the area.

“Cuba is a big mystery many Chinese want to explore and learn from,” said the Air China official.

China is Cuba’s second-largest trading and commercial partner, and Beijing’s participation in the development of various sectors of the island nation’s economy has enhanced bilateral strategic ties.

Cuba received 3.5 million foreign visitors last year, and is poised to become an even more important Caribbean destination as the restoration of its diplomatic ties with the United States has increased the number of U.S. travelers to the island.

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Cuban security officials toured Key West drug-war center

  0HAVANA, may 5th A delegation of Cuban government national security officials recently toured the Pentagon’s counter-drug center in Key West — a first, signaling a nascent effort in U.S.-Cuban security cooperation, the admiral in charge of the U.S. Southern Command disclosed Wednesday.

Navy Adm. Kurt Tidd described the effort to crack down on illegal trafficking in the Caribbean as an “area of mutual interest” between the two nations that restored diplomatic relations July 20, 2015. The Castro government still has not approved the addition of a military attache to the U.S. Embassy in Havana, he said. So the senior interlocutor there is a Coast Guard liaison.

That officer, Lt. Cmdr. Derek Cromwell, escorted the four-member Cuban security delegation on a familiarization tour of the so-called Joint Interagency Task Force South, or JIATF-South, at the Truman Annex of the U.S. Navy base in Key West on April 21, according to Tidd’s spokeswoman, Army Col. Lisa Garcia.

They got a briefing on the work of the multi-agency, multi-national organization that has been described as Southcom’s command center in the war on drugs, toured the Joint Operating Center there and met with representatives of 18 different countries assigned there.

The JIATF is essentially a tracking center where different U.S. government intelligence, military and law enforcement agencies — along with representatives of Caribbean, Latin American and European nations — try to help down-range aircraft and vessels intercept or thwart illegal air and sea travel. It started off as a nerve center in the war on drugs but has an expanded mandate to include “illicit trafficking.”

Cuban delegate members were identified as Col. Idael Fumero Valdés of the Cuban National Police, part of the Ministry of Interior; Joel Lago Oliva, first secretary of Cuba’s Ministry of External Relations; Lt. Col. Hector Gonzalez Hernandez, chief of Cuba’s Counterdrug Directorate and Lt. Col. Imandra Oceguera Coll, the chief of analysis for the Cuban Border Guard.

The visit signals how much relations between the two nations have changed. U.S. federal agents who cracked a Cuban spy ring in South Florida in the 1990s described two targets of the so-called Cuban Five’s Wasp Network as the Southern Command and U.S. Navy operations in Key West, where the military was setting up the anti-drug-trafficking war room.

In April, however, the delegation got the official visit to the JIATF, stayed in a local hotel and also visited the U.S. Coast Guard in Key West, Garcia said.

Before taking over Southcom, Tidd traveled to Havana in August as part of Secretary of State John Kerry’s delegation for the flag-raising over the U.S. Embassy. Wednesday, he discussed the Key West visit with editors and reporters of the Miami Herald, describing it as the continuation of contacts made during an 18-nation regional security conference held in Jamaica in January.

It was the 14th so-called Caribbean Nations Security Conference, and was jointly sponsored by the Jamaican government and Southcom. But it was the first one attended by a Cuban delegation. Past conferences, Tidd said, were burdened by a discussion of the absence of the Cubans. This time, he said, “there was a remarkable mutual understanding of what those security concerns are.”

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First US-to-Cuba cruise ship in decades set to sail

carnival-shipThe Adonia, a vessel from the Carnival cruise’s Fathom line, was set to raise its anchors at 3:30 pm (1930 GMT) with some 700 passengers aboard.

HAVANA. May 1th (AFP) The first US cruise ship bound for Cuba in 50 years was set to sail from Miami on Sunday and give travelers a taste of local art, music and dance in a festive offshoot of the restoration of diplomatic relations.

The Adonia, a vessel from the Carnival cruise’s Fathom line, was set to raise its anchors at 3:30 pm (1930 GMT) with some 700 passengers aboard. It is scheduled to sail into the port of Havana on Monday, its first stop on a visit to the communist-run island.

The voyage is the first of what Carnival says will become weeklong cruises to Cuba twice a month, with the goal of promoting cultural exchange between the two countries following a warming of ties that began in December 2014 and culminated last year with the restoration of full diplomatic ties. “Fathom offers a truly historic opportunity for travel to Cuba: a chance to help build new bridges to a rich and vibrant culture that, until now, most US travelers have only seen in photographs,” the cruise ship web page says.

Uncertainty over whether the cruise would take place was cleared up only last week, when the Cuban government of Raul Castro lifted restrictions for seaborne visits of Cubans to and from the United States, opening a door for Cuban-Americans born on the island to board the ships. At first, keeping in mind Cuban restrictions imposed when the island’s Communist regime feared a landing of anti-Castro militants, Carnival refused to accept reservations from such people.

This quickly resulted in charges of discrimination and a firestorm of criticism. Carnival, the world’s leading tour ship operator, eventually relented and began to allow reservations from Cuban-born customers. But its conditions to start the visits were for Cuba to allow its citizens to sail freely.

Cuba ultimately relented after intense negotiations as part of the normalization process, which culminated in a visit to Cuba by President Barack Obama in March. But as the restrictions were lifted so recently, few people of Cuban origin were expected to be on the first cruise ship on Sunday.

Adonia has scheduled cultural activities in its ports of call in Havana, Cienfuegos and Santiago de Cuba, such as meetings with artists, musicians and business owners, as well as dance classes and guided tours. This is important because full-scale regular US tourism to Cuba is still banned under the US trade embargo, which remains in force despite the diplomatic thaw.

So Americans can travel to Cuba only for cultural, academic, sports-related or religious events.

Carnival is the first cruise line company to win permission from both governments to offer trips, which ended after the Cuban revolution of 1959.The cost of a ticket on the cruise ranges from US$1,800 to US$7,000 per person.

Regular flights from the US to Cuba are expected to begin later this year.

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William Levy’s Trip to Cuba he Plans to Film a Movie

rs_1024x1024-160422145701-1024.William-Levy.1.ms.042216HAVANA,april 27  William Levy’s story is filled with hardships—and one heck of a happy ending!

In an exclusive interview, the handsome actor tells us about his amazing trip to his homeland of Cuba, his first trip back to the island since 2008. But this time, he was back as a star and the bearer of some very exciting news: This summer, Levy plans to fulfill his life-long dream of making a movie in Cuba.

The Dancing with the Stars alum, along with his friends and producers Jeff Goldberg and Eric Brenner, took a last-minute trip to Havana in order to scout locations for their upcoming film. The producers were treated to the best cuisine as the star showed them around his favorite childhood haunts.

But for the actor, this wasn’t just a business trip. He also used the opportunity to surprise his former neighbors and friends whom still live in the very same streets where he grew up.

“There is a powerful connection between William and Cuba. I could see tears welling in William’s eyes as he looked out of the airplane window and saw Cuba on the horizon after so many years,” said Goldberg. “And once he was there, everyone showed such an incredibly warm and genuine love for him.”

“It’s so beautiful to come back to your country, with your people that you know have been through so much, and have them tell you such beautiful things,” Levy explained as his eyes watered. “They told me things like, ‘You don’t know how proud we are of you and we love to see a Cuban being so successful outside of Cuba, because you know how difficult it is for us to leave this country. Seeing you making it is like us making it too.'”


William Levy (@willylevy29) Shares Intimate… por Anna_Vizili

As William walked through the streets, everyone immediately recognized him. In the video below, shot by Goldberg, we see the warm welcome he received in his hometown.

“I gave all of the money that I took, because I would just hand money to people that I knew,” William said. “They all just really need it.”

The father of two plans on returning to Cuba this summer to shoot scenes for his upcoming film, which he will star in and produce.

“It’s just beautiful to be able to film a movie in my land. When I was there and would walk the streets or play baseball without shoes, and I would look out into the endless sea I used to wish I could go to the United States and just do what I wanted to do,” William said. “Now finding myself back in my country and filming a movie there…that’s just something that’s so surreal, I can’t even begin to explain it.”

The actor plans on bringing jobs and a sense of hope to the Cuban film community.rs_634x845-160422145658-634.William-Levy.4.ms.042216

“William is a true ambassador for film production in Cuba. He’s rallying everyone in his circle to create opportunities to shoot there, starting with his next film, an action-thriller that was previously set to shoot in another country. William has always dreamed of making films in Cuba,” Goldberg said. “He wants to show the world how beautiful the country and its people are, and so this is a very exciting moment for him.”

The actor came to the United States at the age of 15 with hopes of making it as a Major League Baseball player. After high school, he was given a baseball scholarship to play for St. Thomas University in Miami.When his mother and stepfather split up, Levy had to quit school and baseball. He felt the need to provide for his family and began working in construction.”It was a devastating moment, baseball was my life,” William said. “But I became the man of the house and I needed to help support my family.”

Since acting was always a passion, he snuck in acting lessons with long days of work. Clearly, it all paid off.

During our interview, politics could have been the elephant in the room, but the star simply said, “I don’t get into politics, I just want what’s best for my country and to see these people that have suffered so much, be able to decide what they want to do and when they want to travel,” Levy said. “It’s all I want. I want happiness and freedom for my people.”

http://www.eonline.com/news/759252/william-levy-shares-intimate-photos-of-trip-to-cuba-and-plans-to-film-a-movie-on-the-island

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UTSA architect working to preseve Hemingway’s Finca Figia

havana-live-finca1HAVANA, April 22th In 1960, the U.S. ambassador to Cuba drove 9 miles outside Havana to Finca Vigía, where he had been a guest several times, to inform Ernest Hemingway that Washington was planning to sever ties with Fidel Castro’s fledgling Communist government.

He said that “American officials thought it would be best if Hemingway demonstrated his patriotism by giving up his beloved tropical home,” Valerie Hemingway, his secretary at the time and future daughter-in-law, recalled in a 2007 article for Smithsonian magazine. “He resisted the suggestion, fiercely.”

Hemingway, who committed suicide a year later, loved Cuba, and Cuba loved him.

Castro, a great admirer of the macho writer, took control of Finca Vigía, or Lookout Farm, and it became a museum — the Museo Hemingway — in 1963. havana-live-tower

Hemingway lived at Finca Vigía from 1939 to 1960 and wrote seven books there, including “The Old Man and the Sea,” “A Moveable Feast” and “Islands in the Stream.” Kept just as it was, it remains one of the most popular tourist destinations in the country.

“It’s a virtual time capsule,” said William Dupont, professor of architecture at the University of Texas at San Antonio, who for the past 11 years has been a hands-on consultant on the restoration of Hemingway’s Cuba home. “All the trophies, all the liquor bottles are still there, all the books are on the shelves. His Royal typewriter is there in the bedroom, sitting on top of a massive dictionary, as is the animal-skin rug that he stood on while he worked, typing standing up because of his back. He got a gift from the Russian ambassador that is still there. It’s a little model of Sputnik, a desktop paperweight.”

The Cuban government, in conjunction with the Massachusetts-based Finca Vigía Foundation, completed a $1 million restoration of the 1886 stucco home and grounds in 2008 and has been searching for a way to conserve the thousands of documents, photographs and books at the site for years.

In a concrete example of the thawing of U.S./Cuban relations initiated by President Obama, a team of preservationists including Dupont, who is director of the UTSA Center for Cultural Sustainability, will return to Cuba May 8-13 to help Cuban architects, engineers and workers build a new conservation workshop and storage center on the Finca Vigía site.havana-live-see-truh-dining

Mary-Jo Adams, executive director of the Finca Vigía Foundation, said Dupont “has helped our project make great strides. His finesse and understanding of the Cuban people has been incredibly important.”

What is groundbreaking about this exchange is that a shipment of construction materials valued at more than $900,000 is going to the island along with the American expertise.

Funded primarily by the Caterpillar Foundation and Caterpillar Inc., the AT&T Foundation, the Ford Foundation and American Express, it’s the first major export of construction materials to Cuba since the U.S. loosened the trade embargo on the island.

“It’s a big deal for the Cubans,” Dupont said. “It’s a big deal for us, too.”

Caterpillar, which donated $500,000 to the Finca Vigía Foundation, “is proud to be a part of this significant project, and we’re committed to being a business and cultural partner with Cuba,” Doug Oberhelman, Caterpillar chairman and CEO, said in a statement. “We recognize the importance of preserving the rich Hemingway heritage that unites the American and Cuban people.”

Since materials can be impossible to obtain in Cuba, the shipment will contain virtually everything needed to build the 2,200-square-foot facility, which will house conservation laboratories and a state-of-the-art, climate-controlled storage facility.

“They have plenty of concrete and cement blocks,” Dupont said. “They’ve got rebar, enough for this little building, so what we’re sending them is pretty much everything else, which would include windows and doors, roofing material, gutters, tile, ceilings, pipes, plumbing fixtures, wiring — even hardhats and safety glasses. Some of the HVAC is pretty high-tech, so we’re building it here and then disassembling it to make sure we have all the parts.”havana-live-pilar

Although the building is not an architectural “postcard,” Dupont said, it represents the literal preservation of Hemingway’s legacy, including correspondence and books in which he wrote marginalia comments, as well as travel documents, records and notes of where he was at certain times, passports and maps.

“It’s possible to reconstruct a lot of details of his life and place him in particular areas connected to what he’s writing, so it’s very valuable to scholars of Hemingway,” Dupont said. “To understand where he’s coming from, what his influences are, what he’s seeing while he’s writing, it makes it possible to map out his life.

“That’s what the house contains. So for me as a restoration architect, what we’re keeping our focus on is the legacy of Hemingway because his spirit still occupies the landscape and the buildings and the grounds. This was his place of artistic inspiration, of artistic creation, and you gain a better understanding by visiting it. And that’s what I’m trying to help my colleagues in Cuba to preserve. That’s what it’s all about.”
http://www.expressnews.com/entertainment/arts-culture/article/Cuban-home-holds-Hemingway-s-spirit-7294757.php
More about Hemingway: https://havana-live.com/hemingway-cubas-adopted-son/

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Carnival may delay Cuba cruise over discrimination concerns

havana-live-Carnival SplendorHAVANA, April 19th (AP) Carnival says it will delay the first cruise from the United States to Cubaif the Cuban government does not allow Cuban-Americans to travel aboard.

Cuban regulations bar people born in Cuba from returning to the country by ship. As a result, Carnival had prohibited barred Cuban-Americans from buying tickets on the May 1 cruise from Miami to Havana and a series of other Cuban ports.

Carnival said in a written statement Monday that it was optimistic that Cuba would allow Cuban-Americans to join the cruise by May 1 and would begin selling tickets to Cuban-Americans. The company said that if Cuban-Americans were not allowed to join the cruise, it would be delayed.

Carnival has been sued by Cuban-Americans claiming discrimination and protesters have targeted its headquarters in Doral.

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Raul Castro criticize ways of bureaucracy and private sector

president-obama-attends-tampa-bay-devil-rays-v-cuban-national-team-baseball-game-in-havanaHAVANA, April 19th On Monday, Cuban’s top leaders and officials have criticized the squeaking inefficiency of the state-controlled economy. They also took note of the vibrant private sector as potential source of US subversion.

According to News Journal Online, the Cuban government comments illustrated the commotion it is facing as it tries to modernize and maintain control of things now thatit’s in a new era with Washington. The Cuban Communist Party has ended the third day of its twice-a-decade congress with vote for a 114- member Central Committee. The vote turned to select the 15- member Political Bureau. The vote, just like Congress, was open only to 1,000 delegates, 280 selected guests and state journalists.

ABC News reported that Cuban President and First Party Secretary, Raul Castro, opened the meeting with evaluation of the state reforms he introduced after taking over in 2008. Castro blamed the ‘obsolete mentality’ and ‘attitude of inertia’ for the state’s failure to impose reforms meant to increase productivity.

To follow, Vice President Miguel Diaz-Canel also repeated the criticism of the bureaucracy in his speech. He added that ‘lack of confidence in the future’ is the consequence of what Castro said. Diaz-Canel added that “Along with other deficiencies, there’s a lack of readiness, high standards and control, and little foresight or initiative from sectors and bureaucrats in charge of making these goals a reality.”

However, Yahoo published that state media focuses more on the need to protect Cuba’s socialist system from global capitalism and US influence in particular. It is notable that US President Barack Obama visited Havana, the first in over 90 years, and the move was interpreted as an attempt to seduce ordinary Cubans into abandoning the country’s socialist views.

Even Foreign Minister Bruno Rodriguez went to say that the visit of Obama is ‘an attack on the foundation of the history, culture and symbols of Cuba.’ Meanwhile, Rene Gonzales, former intelligence agent held in US and resolved by détente with Washington, said there should be consideration on the political reform in Cuba.
Read more at http://www.lawyerherald.com/articles/43087/20160419/cuban-leaders-criticize-ways-bureaucracy-private-sector.htm#UfyGtQSy5QRL3YX7.99

 

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Watch: 150 years of US-Cuba history, told in 6 minutes

HAVANA, april 13th The story of America and Cuba — their decades of hostility, why it lasted so long, why it’s now finally ending — is often misunderstood in the US as a story about the Cold War. But in truth, it’s a story a full century older about slavery, clashing empires, and a long-running struggle within America to decide what kind of country we were going to be. When you see that, what’s happening today between Cuba and the US starts to make a lot more sense:


Americans don’t talk about this chapter in our history much today, but around the turn of the 19th century the country’s politics were divided over a question of national identity: Would the United States become an explicitly imperial power, joining the great powers of Europe in dividing up the world? Or would it champion its founding ideals of democracy by supporting independence movements around the globe?

This debate played out in the US just as the once-great Spanish Empire was crumbling. Cuba was a Spanish colony then; independence activists there rose up in 1895, and in 1898 the US declared war on Spain to help them.

But as the war progressed, American politicians argued: Should the US seize Cuba as its own colony, or should it stick to its word and support Cuban independence?

The Spanish-American War wasn’t just about Cuba. It was also over the Spanish colonies of Puerto Rico in the Caribbean; the island of Guam in the Pacific; and, largest of all, the Philippines, a series of large islands in Southeast Asia.

But debate in the US focused especially on Cuba. Partly this was because Cuba, so near to the US, inspired especially strong feelings in many Americans. And partly it was because there had been an earlier debate, in the 1850s, over whether to seize Cuba as a new US slave state.

By the time the war ended, both sides of the American debate had passed legislation in Congress meant to codify their preferred outcome. As a result, the US ended up with an odd quasi-imperial policy toward Cuba: The US would not seize it outright as a colony (something it did with Puerto Rico, Guam, and the Philippines) but would take over Guantanamo Bay, control Cuba’s external affairs, and reserve the right to intervene on the island.

America’s imperial era in Cuba lasted only about 30 years. Franklin D. Roosevelt came into office in 1933 wanting to end America’s experiment with imperialism, and began unwinding US control over Cuba and the Philippines.

But within 20 years, the US would get involved in Cuba again, this time backing a military dictator who had seized power and was fighting a war with communist rebels.

Americans — who have never had much of a historical memory — saw this as just one of many proxy conflicts against communism’s global spread. But many Cubans saw it as a repeat of American imperialism. So when the US tried over and over to topple or even kill Cuban communist leader Fidel Castro, this felt, to many Cubans, like America trying to reassert its old colonial control over the island.

That’s far from the only reason the US-Cuba conflict lasted so long. As you’ll see in the video above, it’s also, as just one example, about the political conflict between Castro and Cuban dissidents that just happened to play out through American politics. But when you see that imperial legacy, and the way it’s been experienced by Cubans, the history starts to make a lot more sense. And this new era of normal relations looks even more historic.

http://www.vox.com/2016/4/12/11411358/cuba-opening-history-video

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Cuba loosens control of some restaurant cooperative

HAVANA, april 13th (Reuters) Cuba announced on Tuesday that some cooperatives offering food and other services will be able to buy supplies directly from government producers and wholesale outlets for the first time, part of a wider but so far cautiously implemented market reform program.

The new rules mean some former state-run companies turned into cooperatives on the Communist-led island will no longer have to buy from more expensive retail outlets.

Odalys Escandell, first vice minister of domestic trade, said on the government’s evening news broadcast the move was “transcendental”, but Tuesday’s measures do not fulfill an earlier promise to let private restaurants do the same, leaving in place a key constraint on their business viability.

The steps, which go into effect on May 2, come just four days before a Communist Party Congress which is expected review market-oriented reforms begun five years ago.

The news report said wholesale outlets will be gradually established for the cooperatives. Over time, a series of products will be made available to them at lower prices, along with a tax cut, in exchange for setting price controls on the retail offer.

“Why are we establishing maximum prices? Because it is a system to protect the consumer,” Escandell said.

Cuba recently reversed an experiment to end state control of distribution of farm produce, after food prices rocketed above their previously subsidized levels.

Cuba has turned over to employees thousands of small state-run establishments, from coffee, snack and barber shops to locksmiths and shoeshine kiosks. The workers rent the premises and compete with private businesses on the open market.

The government has also ordered some 500 larger state-run establishments, from beauty salons to restaurants, to become cooperatives as a pilot project before thousands more follow suit.

Economy minister Marino Murillo made clear upon announcing plans to turn state-run businesses into cooperatives two years ago, that they would be favored over private businesses.

“They are a more social form of production,” he said at the time.

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Cuba’s Future Economic Model in Spotlight at Party Congress

1024x1024HAVANA, april 8th  Victor Rodriguez imagines a future Cuban economy that will let him import large quantities of thread, export the women’s clothing he designs and keep him from worrying about obtuse regulations such as where he can place items on his small retail stand.

“Maybe then I could think about opening a full store,” he said.

One month after President Barack Obama’s visit, islanders are now looking to Cuba’s upcoming Communist Party congress for the clearest picture yet of how far their leaders will open the economy to deeper free-market reforms — if at all.

The congress being held April 16-19 comes at a critical juncture in Cuba’s history, with diplomatic relations with the U.S. generating enthusiasm but bringing limited improvements to the island’s ailing economy. It’s also likely to be the last Communist Party congress with any Castro in power as President Raul Castro has said he intends to retire in 2018 when he will be 85, turning 86 that June. His older brother Fidel stepped aside at age 79 in 2006 in what he said was a temporary move after suffering a serious illness and retired for good two years later.

“This is basically setting the future of Cuba,” said Carmelo Mesa-Lago, an economics professor at the University of Pittsburgh.

The congress has already generated much attention with party members complaining about a lack of the advance debate on economic and social reforms seen in the past. The party’s official newspaper, Granma, published a lengthy article explaining that instead of inviting new public discussion of reforms, this year’s congress will focus on the continued implementation of market-oriented changes enacted in 2011 in Cuba’s most significant economic overhaul to date.

“Everybody’s wondered since 2011, what’s the end game?” said William LeoGrande, an American University expert on U.S.-Cuba relations. “What are they anticipating Cuba will look like when the restructuring is done? Will it look like Vietnam? China? Something else?”

Based on the Marxist-Leninist model, the Communist Party of Cuba is the only legal political party on the island. It holds its congress roughly every five years to map the island’s political, social and economic future — except for a 14-year stretch from 1997-2011.

The latest congress will bring together 1,000 party members from throughout the island to discuss Cuba’s plan going forward. Among the things members will consider this year is a description of the island’s economic development model through 2030.

So far, Cuban leaders have indicated the government intends to maintain strong control of the island’s centrally planned economy. Less clear are the roles the state and private market will play, and how much the non-state sector will be permitted to expand.

Since assuming power in 2006, Castro has instituted scattered free-market reforms to alleviate the island’s deep fiscal woes while preserving the communist system ushered in by the 1959 revolution. In 2010, he announced plans to permit more small businesses and reduce state employment. The 2011 Communist Party congress passed 313 resolutions that included legalizing car sales, encouraging the development of mid-size cooperatives with dozens of employees and eliminating an exit permit all Cubans once needed to travel outside the country.

Cubans were also permitted to buy and sell homes for the first time since the early years of the revolution.

Emilio Morales, an economic analyst who heads the Miami-based Havana Consulting Group, said the reforms to date have encouraged the growth of a small business sector that includes retail enterprises like Rodriguez’s clothing stand, stylish new restaurants and polished 1960 Cadillacs and other old cars serving as taxis. About 500,000 Cubans now run their own businesses, yet total private-sector employment represents just a fraction of the economy — an estimated 23 percent of all employment in 2014, compared to 18 percent in 2011.

There are signs the number of self-employed workers could be leveling off: According to Cuban state figures, there were 496,400 in January, down from 504,600 in May 2015.

To increase that number, Morales said the government must lift restraints on access to wholesale markets and expand private enterprise to fields such as law and engineering, which currently aren’t among the 201 categories of small businesses allowed.

Many Cubans are anxious to see their economy grow; the vast majority struggle to meet daily needs, with state workers earning an average of $20 per month. Many say they want Cuba to preserve universal benefits such as free education and health care.

“We should never lose what we’ve gained,” said Graciela Hidalgo, 67, a retired Interior Ministry worker.

Six Communist Party members interviewed by The Associated Press said they believe the congress will move to expand private businesses but not embark on dramatic reforms. President Castro has cautioned he wants to move “slowly but surely” and that Cuba won’t administer “shock therapy.”

“I think we’ll keep moving in the same direction, enabling small private property, expanding some aspects of commercialization,” said Esteban Morales, one of the party members interviewed and a noted intellectual.

Analysts have viewed China and Vietnam as examples of how Cuba might preserve its socialist system while moving toward a market-driven economy. Yet Cuba scholars say the reforms to date have been relatively minor compared to the early stages of mixed socialist-free market economies in those countries.

“Cuba’s economic situation isn’t one for moving slowly and surely,” said Emilio Morales, the analyst in Miami.

Party watchers will also be waiting to see what the congress says about Cuba’s political future after Castro retires. Many in 2011 expected him to “rejuvenate” the party of 700,000 members by appointing young leaders to key positions. He ultimately named revolutionary figures Jose Ramon Machado Ventura, then 80, and Ramiro Valdes, then 78, as his principal deputies.

Three relatively young politicians were promoted to the 15-member party leadership council in lesser capacities.

Many believe Castro now has no choice but to appoint younger leaders.

“First we have to resolve the economic problem, that’s a priority,” said Carlos Alzugaray, a longtime Cuban diplomat and analyst. “But there is a particular juncture in Cuba right now, which I call a generational transition. And we need to create the institutions that will help that new generation to govern the country effectively.”

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FedEx to link Miami with Havana ?

international-resource-center_700x300_HeaderHAVANA,April 06  FedEx wants to operate a B757 freighter to provide expedited and general airfreight services from Monday to Friday between Miami and Havana, Cuba with a return flight via Mérida, Mexico commencing September 01, 2016.

In a filing with the U.S. Department of Transportation, the company says it is making a “very modest request” in seeking to operate five out of the 140 weekly flights that are available to U.S. airlines.

If approved, FedEx says it will set up a trucking network linking three additional Cuban cities: Mariel (with its port and developing trade zone), Santiago de Cuba, and Varadero, a major tourist destination. As a result the company would link nearly 1,000 U.S./Cuba city pairs with a single flight.

According to David Cunningham, FedEx Corporation executive vice president and COO, the B757 operation from its Miami hub is primarily designed for U.S. and Cuban shippers while its backhaul routing via Mexico allows the company to replace existing Convair 500 capacity and make the overall operation economically viable.

Noting that combination airlines would be offering belly freight services limited by “significant passenger baggage volumes that typify many Cuba visitors’ luggage haul”, FedEx said a single B757 freighter would be the right thing to do for U.S. trade with the emerging economy.

“Cargo services, especially those which facilitate trade in high value goods, are not luxuries or frills in a scheduled air transportation market, but a necessity, offering greater economic value over carrying belly cargo on combination aircraft. FedEx’s services are also important to small businesses seeking to participate in the global market,” it argued.

With the expansion of the U.S. Export Administration Regulations to allow the export of high-value goods including computers, Cuba is a potential market for U.S. businesses that use airfreight according to the company.

In addition, FedEx says the U.S. Postal Service will need air cargo support for a renewed link with Cuba, as will the U.S. State Department and the Department of Defense with its existing naval facilities at Guantanamo Bay.

“Offering the best services, connecting to the largest network, providing tools for regulatory compliance and possessing the financial security to maintain the service, a grant to FedEx in this proceeding is the best step that the Department can take to advance U.S.-Cuba trade,” the company concluded.

http://www.freightweek.org/~freightw/index.php/latest-news/96-integrators/1996-fedex-to-link-miami-with-cuba

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Photo Walk-Through: Lázaro Saavedra: Base / Superestructura

The artist’s National Prize exhibition at the Wifredo Lam Center

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The courtyard of the Wifredo Lam Center during the run of Lázaro Saavedra: Base / Superestructura. Visible at lower left, the installation El progreso de una nacíon; the clothesline is also an installation. Courtesy Lázaro Saavedra

HAVANA, april 5th (cubanartnews) Lázaro Saavedra: Base / Superstructure was presented at the Wifredo Lam Center of Contemporary Art in Havana, February 16-March 16, 2016. The exhibition was presented in recognition of Saavedra as the winner of the 2014 National Prize of Plastic Arts, awarded annually by the Cuban government.
Although National Art Award exhibitions are usually presented at the Museo Nacional de Bellas Artes, the two floors of the Wifredo Lam Center provided a literal structure for Saavedra’s exhibition, an inquiry into the nature of art, inspired by Marxist philosophy.

Here is a photo walk-through of the show, with Saavedra’s statement about the exhibition and comments about specific works, excerpted from the exhibition catalogue.

Unlike most exhibition texts by artists and curators, Saavedra’s comments may be understood as extensions of the artworks, counterpoints to them, and/or textual artworks in their own right.

Lázaro Saavedra: Base / Superestructura was curated by Corina Matamoros and Lázaro Saavedra

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Lázaro Saavedra, El progreso de una nación, 2016. Courtesy Lázaro Saavedra

Exhibition Statement
This exhibition aims to pay homage to visual thought as it manifests metaphorically, more or less, in the arts or sciences. In his Preface to the Introduction to the Critique of Political Economy, Karl Marx applies two architectural (Basis / Überbau = Base / Superstructure) to the social sciences, employing them in the critical analysis of society. The exhibition Base / Superestructura is inspired, among other things, by these concepts of Marxist philosophy.

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Lázaro Saavedra, ¿Por qué pienso cosas figurativas mientras dibujo abstracto?, 2015 Courtesy Lázaro Saavedra

A free interpretation of these ideas is further proposed—a symbolic representation, “materializing” them in an artistic form. This interpretation returns them to their original architectural assertion (without removing the philosophical references), by comparing two shows at different levels (lower/upper) in the Lam Center building. That willingness to find a meaning in the connection between the symbolic representations of base and superstructure is inspired—not without questioning—by one of the premises of Hermetic thought: “As above, so below; as below, so above.”
_MG_8507Arte contestatario, 2015
This work represents what it is: a canvas put through a wall. Have you ever wondered who will respond (contesta) to oppositional art (el arte contestatario)? Have you ever wondered who and what oppositional art asks to be responded to? Oppositional art arises precisely where the social action of anti-questioning art leaves off. Again, the author tells us of—catapults us, gives us a kick in the direction of—confrontation, and the direct and scathing criticism of the circles, squares, triangles (and polyhedrons, why not?) of power.
_MG_8491Arte insoportable, 2015
In several interviews with the artist, he was brilliantly unable to enlighten us about the title of this work and his relationship to it. But what is clear is the link between this installation and the phenomenon of aesthetic discordance in the process of artistic creation. The unbearable lightness of art that falls under its own weight, which is incapable of sustaining its own levitatation (see levitation art), redeems from the floor its own shadow as an extension of itself, a black ghost that ascends the institutional wall of culo blanco (white rear end)—no, cubo blanco (white cube)—in abstract geometric form, to the kingdom of heaven.
_MG_8488Arte insoportable, 2015
In several interviews with the artist, he was brilliantly unable to enlighten us about the title of this work and his relationship to it. But what is clear is the link between this installation and the phenomenon of aesthetic discordance in the process of artistic creation. The unbearable lightness of art that falls under its own weight, which is incapable of sustaining its own levitatation (see levitation art), redeems from the floor its own shadow as an extension of itself, a black ghost that ascends the institutional wall of culo blanco (white rear end)—no, cubo blanco (white cube)—in abstract geometric form, to the kingdom of heaven.
_MG_8511Arte oficial, 2015, with Arte Underground, 2015, in background at right
On Arte official: An exquisite work of stunning superficiality—as all good art is characterized and defined when it is worthy of representing surface art (superficial art), which is a counterpoint and eternal opponent of arte profundo (underground art). In this work the artist proposes, in a crazy way, to overlap the termspatriotic art and official art: The canvas, ergo art, as the flag of what? Does the official culture have a flag, the same as the nation?

Arte underground is a work that is inserted into the underground art movement, which evolved from the stagnant overground art. We must be redundant and emphasize that the difference between these two arts is that one moves, the other does not. This work overflows the literal, provoking a flood of self-referentiality that could drown the concept if it doesn’t know how to swim—or doesn’t know anything, not to speak or to write. This concept survived during the Special Period [after the collapse of the Soviet Union] as a lifeguard in an underground pool frequented by foreign concepts.
_MG_8499Arte politicarte, 2015
The Master said: “Driven by political maneuvering and content with punishments, the people become astute and lose shame. Led by virtue and moderated by rites, they develop a sense of shame and participation.” Entrepreneurship (el cuentapropismo) will evolve a way to sell, on the black market, boxes with “virtue” and “moderating rites” so that once they are sampled, it will be necessary to develop the sense of shame and participation. If the words I’m going to write are not more beautiful than a sheet of paper, then I will not write. A white sheet (blanco) is ugly (fea).
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Articidio, 2015
This work, full of the optimistic conceit of bipolar disorders, moves through the swampy terrain between suicide and homicide, and brings us back to post-Satorian or Nirvanic experiences, as applicable. The author, during ritual practices related to the fine art of seppuku (harikiri, not to be confused with hareKrisna, the god of the Yoruba pantheon) has deconstructed the aesthetic category of suicide, to masterfully innovate the neologism “Articidio” (of the masculine gender, said of the union in concubinage between “art” and “suicide”). The delicate detail of the cut, in the manner of the stylist Lucio Fontana, cannot pass unnoticed, as in the best tradition of slashing wrists, heiress to a “friki” subculture,” and to the rhythm of chords by the solo diva of Evanescence or Emonescene.
_MG_8509Installation view of the exhibition, with, at left: When you’re down almost all step on you; rear wall,You’re a prisoner and you do not know; and what do I know?; and at right, Arte y sanía, 2015.

Lázaro Saavedra: Base / Superestructura was presented at the Wifredo Lam Center of Contemporary Art February 16-March 16, 2016. 

http://www.cubanartnews.org/news/photo-walk-through-lazaro-saavedra-base-superestructura/5221

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CUBA – CUBA – CUBA

havana-live-AniplantHAVANA, march 31th Cuba has been all over the news these past couple of months with a return visit from Pope Francis in February and visits from President Obama and the Rolling Stones in March. We hope these recent visits by celebrities mean that there are improvements in living conditions for the people, and for the animals.

The most immediate impact of these high-profile visits is that areas around the venues are scrubbed clean. While we can all appreciate fresh paint and clean streets, our hearts break for the animals on the streets who are collected like trash.

Some are strays who never had a home, and some are pets who happened to be out for a walk alone at the wrong time. Regardless, they end up in the same place, with no hope. The vast majority are killed. It hurts. It angers us. And it motivates us.

Aniplant and The Aniplant Project are united in the mission of helping the animals of Cuba by:

Preventing unwanted animals with spay/neuter programs
Educating about the need for spay/neuters
Promoting general health care and welfare for animals
Assisting refuges
Intervening in cases of animal suffering

It is a long road. There are many, many needs.

The Aniplant Project and Aniplant  teams see and hear a lot of hard things. Things that, as animal lovers, hurt our souls and shatter our hearts. Your many kind words of encouragement and support mean the world to us. Muchas gracias.

And thanks to supporters like you, we’ve started off 2016 with great momentum! Thanks to you:

Hundreds of animals have been sterilized. Hundreds of pounds of donated supplies have arrived at Aniplant.
Hundreds of people have become aware of Aniplant and the plight of the animals of Cuba, due to more travelers and supporters sharing stories.

Like Spring gives us fresh hope, we hope all these visitors to Cuba bring reconciliation for the people, and kindness for the animals. We continue to work hard for improvements in the lives of the animals in Cuba.

Thank you for your support.

The Aniplant Project Team
HAVANA LIVE

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Miami company the first U.S. business to open office in Havana

havana-live-IPCHAVANA, march 28 th Miami-based International Port Corp. said it’s the first U.S. company to open a staffed office in Cuba.
Several companies have received licenses from the U.S. government to start operations in Cuba since President Barack Obama restored diplomatic relations with Cuba yet they haven’t opened facilities yet.

IPC Owner and President Larry Nussbaum said his shipping firm has leased warehouse space in Havana from the Cuban government and staffed it with six employees. The Cuban workers were hired by a Cuban government employment agency, which IPC pays.

“The opportunities are great. Cuba is open for business,” Nussbaum said. “Now we need the American legislation to make it legal for companies like mine to expand what we can legally do in Cuba.”

IPC first received a license to conduct shipments between Miami and Havana in July 2012 on humanitarian groups. It’s since expanded that to include commercial shipments and cargo for diplomatic purposes, both by air and sea.
Having daily representatives in Cuba will help his company ensure shipments reach customers and go through customs properly, Nussbaum said.

“It’s a matter of properly respecting U.S. and Cuban law and building a relationship with them,” Nussbaum said.
Despite the restoration of diplomatic relations and the lifting of some travel restrictions, there hasn’t been a dramatic increase in shipments to Cuba because Cuba isn’t buying much from the U.S. The problem is the U.S. embargo restricts offering credit to Cuban purchasers of U.S. goods, so it’s not a competitive market.

“The growth of my business is dependent on the U.S. making more activities legal,” Nussbaum said.
IPC was also the first company to obtain permission from U.S. authorities to offer passenger ferry service from Florida to Cuba. Other U.S. companies have since followed. However, Cuba has not approved passenger ferry service.

http://www.bizjournals.com/southflorida/news/2016/03/28/miami-company-the-first-u-s-business-to-open.html

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Airbnb opens Cuba to the world: VIDEO

havana-live-airbnb_logo_detailHAVANA, march 26th Cruise ships, hotel chains and commercial jets are all heading from the U.S. to Cuba for the first time in half a century. So it was only a matter of time before Airbnb got in on the action.

For about a year now, U.S. travelers have been able to book housing through Airbnb in Cuba. But now, the U.S. government has granted special permission to Airbnb to offer its services to the rest of the world, according to ABC News.

Starting on April 2, Airbnbs spread across 40 cities and towns in Cuba will open to the world, creating the company’s fastest-growing market. Some 4,000 houses in Cuba were added to Airbnb’s website in the past year, the company has reported.

It’s a great deal for locals, who earn an average of just $20 a day, as Airbnbs that host many Cubans are making $250 in U.S. currency per booking.

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The Rolling Stones land in Havana for first Cuban concert


HAVANA, march 25th  The band known in Cuba as “Los Rollings” have arrived in Havana.

Following in President Obama’s footsteps, the Rolling Stones touched down ahead of a huge free concert on Friday.For decades rock music was denigrated on the communist island as “ideological deviation”. On Thursday the British band were officially welcomed by officials from Cuba’s Cultural Ministry and the UK ambassador to Cuba.

Mick Jagger, Keith Richards, Ronnie Wood and Charlie Watts stopped on the tarmac to speak to reporters.

“Obviously something has happened in the last few years,” Jagger said, as Richards interjected: “That’s what happens when you ban things”.

Jagger went on: “So, time changes everything and so we are very pleased to be here and I’m sure it’s going to be a great show… Tomorrow, I think it is, God is it really tomorrow? We’d better get ready!”
In contrast to the relatively recent political rapprochement, the musical thaw between Cuba and the West has been developing for some time.

Fidel Castro reportedly regretted the censorship and attended the unveiling of a statue of John Lennon in Havana in 2000.

Even so the concert, which comes at the end of the Stones’ Latin American tour, will be a first for Cubans.

“(It’s great) that the youth interact with music they don’t know, so that youth can interchange, recognize and compare cultures, to incorporate them and also to share their energy, because Cubans, especially young Cubans, have a lot of energy to give,” said one woman in Havana.

Back in the 1960s when Rolling Stones cover band Los Kent tried to play in Cuba, soldiers stopped the gig at gunpoint.

Some 50 years later, today’s military will be helping to provide security for the hundreds of thousands of fans who are expected in Havana.
http://www.euronews.com/2016/03/25/the-rolling-stones-land-in-havana-for-first-cuban-concert/

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Rolling Stones invite Cubans to free concert

HAVANA, march 24th (Reuters)The Rolling Stones are welcoming Cubans to their free concert on Friday with Mick Jagger speaking Spanish in a video on YouTube, though few are likely to see it, given Cuba’s scant Internet penetration.

“We have played in many incredible places but this concert in Havana is going to be a historic event for us,” Jagger said in a voice over while the Stones’ song, “Jumping’ Jack Flash” plays to snippets of concert video. “We hope it will be for you, too.” (here)

Less than one-third of Cubans have access to the Internet, with only 3.4 percent of homes connected to either the Internet or a local Cuban Intranet, according to U.N. data.

The Stones added Cuba to the end of a Latin American tour, becoming the first major international rock stars to play in the island nation.

The outdoor concert at a sports complex was postponed five days because of the 48-hour visit by U.S. President Barack Obama, who departed Cuba on Tuesday.

The band have brought in 61 shipping containers with an estimated 500 tonnes of equipment, such as a stage, speakers, lights and video screens, the production manager, Dale Skjerseth, told reporters on Sunday.

A crew of 140 Stones employees and at least 80 Cubans have set up on grounds including a football field and adjoining baseball fields with room for hundreds of thousands of spectators who are invited to arrive for free on a first-come, first-serve basis.

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Google to launch high-speed internet center in Havana

havana-live-Kcho-googleHAVANA, march 24th Google has hatched a game-changing plan to speed up internet service across Cuba. The Silicon Valley giant has set up an online technology center in Cuban artist Kcho’s studio in Havana, where it will offer free internet service at speeds nearly 70 times faster than the service now available to the Cuban public.

It seems Google is hopeful that such a center will convince Cubans that they actually can access high-speed Internet, but the government is restricting their access. According to Associated Press, Google has built a studio equipped with dozens of laptops, cellphones, and virtual-reality goggles. The connection at the Kcho studio is provided by Cuba’s state-run telecommunications company over a new fiber-optic connection.

As many as 40 people can use the internet service at a time at the studio, which will be open five days a week, from 7 am to midnight.

“Yes, Google will offer much faster internet access, but in terms of expanding access, the impact of the current arrangement will be limited to several dozen people at one time — possibly a few hundred in a day,” he said.

In fact, it is this studio where Cuba’s first Wi-Fi hotspot was unveiled. The Cuban government has since set up several  Wi-Fi hotspots across the country, particularly in capital Havana. Yet, Cuba still has one of the world’s lowest rates of internet penetration.

“The hub at the artist studio is a marker that Google has put down that signals the company’s ability to help modernize Cuba’s internet. “But it also shows the company’s willingness to do so within the parameters established by the Cuban government.”

The artist launched the Wi-Fi hotspot after getting permission from ETECSA. Over the past one year, the telecom firm has rolled out nearly 50 Wi-Fi hotspots across the country.

Google to Launch High-Speed Internet Service Center in Cuba

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Cuba Has An Ambitious Plan To Protect Its Environment From Tourists

havana-live-coarl riffHAVANA, march 20th (Huffingtonpost) President Barack Obama’s upcoming trip to Cuba on Sunday promises to revive a question raised when the U.S. began normalizing relations with the island nation: As American tourists pour in, what will happen to Cuba’s natural environment?

An influx of tourists and businesses will likely bring investment to Cuba, but some experts fear the expansion of tourism, mechanized agriculture and oil exploration could threaten its well-preserved natural ecosystems.

In fact, the Cubans “have a lot to lose in terms of biodiversity, marine and coastal habitat and fish populations if they don’t do things right moving ahead,” Daniel Whittle, senior director of the Cuba program at the Environmental Defense Fund, told The Huffington Post.

The uptick in American tourism is already “putting a real strain” on Cuba, he said.

Despite fears of environmental ruin, both Cuba and the U.S. have been working to ensure the restoration of diplomatic ties doesn’t come at the expense of Cuba’s land and marine ecosystems.

“At the official level, environmental protection is still a high priority,” Whittle said about Cuba. “It’s something [President Raúl] Castro and his deputies talk a lot about.”56ec3a6c1e0000c600710a35

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry has made protecting the environment a central issue in the State Department’s negotiations with Cuba.

Of the four agreements signed by U.S. and Cuban officials since the re-opening of relations in 2014, two have laid out plans for environmental protection in Cuba, according to Whittle.

One agreement, signed in November 2015, outlines a planned effort by both countries to share scientific knowledge, collaborate on conservation efforts and jointly “address the causes and effects of climate change” in Cuba, according to a copy of the agreement.

“The agreement provides an unprecedented vehicle for the governments to actually talk to each other and influence each other,” Whittle said. Through it, “the U.S. government can influence how science is conducted in Cuban national parks, how well they’re managed and even policy relating to these protected areas.”

A lot to lose

For Cuba, which has been called the “jewel of the Caribbean,” the stakes of environmental protection are high.

“It’s not a secret that Cuba has some of the best preserved land and waters in the Caribbean,” Luis Solórzano, executive director of the Cuba program at the non-profit Nature Conservancy told HuffPost on Friday.

The country has 4,000 uninhabited islands and keys, miles of undeveloped coastline, a huge variety of native species and an extensive coral reef system, according to Whittle. It’s no accident they remain well-preserved.

The trade embargo that kept American cars off Cuban roads for half a century has also prevented farmers from adopting high-tech agriculture practices used in the U.S., according to Whittle. And it has kept American tourists off beaches and limited the development of Cuba’s oil resources in the Caribbean.

“Because of US-Cuba relations, Cuba hasn’t had access to U.S. technology, hasn’t had access to grants and loans from institutions like the World Bank,” Whittle said. “So they have a lot to lose in terms of biodiversity.”56ec3b411e00008700704a67

Cuba has vigilantly sought to protect its natural environment over the years.

“The Cubans have been pioneers and really aggressive in declaring protected areas,” Solórzano said. 

Cuba’s commitment to conservation began in 1992, when then-President Fidel Castro announced that his government would confront the “ecological destruction threatening our planet” at the Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro.

Since then, shrewd environmental management policies have required the Cuban government to protect 25 percent of its marine habitat from development, according to Whittle. (By contrast, the U.S. has only protected between 3 and 5 percent of its marine habitats, according to the Environmental Defense Fund.)

The Cuban government also requires proposals for new developments to undergo a rigorous environmental review process.

Cuba’s environmental record isn’t perfect, however. While its policies look good on paper, “implementation has been a mixed bag,” Whittle said. The country’s aging infrastructure has hurt wastewater treatment, agricultural land suffers from soil erosion, and dams have altered water flows in fragile coastal estuaries, according to Whittle.

Cuba also isn’t walled off from the world. Cuba does business with many developed countries, including Canada, and its beaches and forests have attracted foreign tourists for decades .

Opening up to Americans will heap new pressures onto Cuba’s existing environmental challenges, experts say.

“The question we’re asking is ‘What if you unleash all these pressures that have not been there?’” Solórzano said.

Striking a delicate balance

If Cuba wants to expand industry on the island without despoiling the environment, the government will have to strike a delicate balance between growth and conservation, according to Solórzano.

“It is about the balance,” he said. “How do they balance their economic needs and preserving the natural capital on which they depend?”

Right now, Cuba imports 70 percent of its food at a cost of about $2 billion every year, according to Pedro Sanchez, director of the Agriculture and Food Security Center at Columbia University’s Earth Institute. Producing enough food domestically to feed the country’s more than 11 million people will require turning some of Cuba’s unused land into highly productive crop fields, Sanchez told HuffPost on Friday. 

The trick, Sanchez said, will be ramping up food production without causing undue damage to the environment. 56ec3af21500002a000b282f

“With proper investment and research … Cuba can increase its food production to the point that it can be nearly self-sufficient without causing significant damage to the coastal ecosystems that we all want to preserve,” Sanchez said.

Researchers at the University of Florida and the non-profit Nature Conservancy are working with Cuba’s Ministry of Environment to ensure Cuba expands food protection without despoiling the country’s land and waters, according to Sanchez.

As a kid, I fished in the coastal waters off Cuba, and I don’t want them messed up.”Dr. Pedro Sanchez, director of the Agriculture and Food Security Center at Columbia University’s Earth Institute

It’s a project that would not have happened had the U.S. not resumed diplomatic relations with Cuba, said Sanchez, who works on the project.

“I doubt very much whether any such thing would have happened before the Obama opening,” Sanchez said. 

If changing relations with the U.S. have created an opportunity for Cuba to develop economically without sacrificing its rich natural habitats, Solórzano thinks the Cubans can make the most of the opportunity.

“They are really smart, have a vision, care about their environment, and are proud of what they’ve done,” he said. “In this country, it can be done.”

Sanchez agrees. For him, the future of Cuba’s environment is as personal as it is political.

“As a kid, I fished in the coastal waters off Cuba,” he said, “and I don’t want them messed up.”
Photo:NOEL LOPEZ FERNANDEZ

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