WORLD
Roswell Daily Record
D3
Cuban-Americans haul goods home on holiday visits HAVANA (AP) — In Cuba, Santa’s sleigh is a Boeing 737. Thousands of Cuban-Americans are heading to Havana this holiday season carrying everything from electronics and medicine to clothing and toiletries to help relatives back home supplement monthly salaries averaging about $20. Not only are Cuban-Americans visiting the island in far greater numbers since President Barack Obama lifted travel restrictions last year, they are bringing more stuff. One carrier says the average bag weight per passenger is up 55 percent — and many Miami-Havana flights are shadowed by a separate cargo plane just to haul the load. “They bring you things for the family,” said Paulo Roman Garcia, a 45-year-old Havana native who makes $9.50 a month selling fruit at a market in the city’s historic quarter. Roman Garcia was looking forward to a visit in the New Year from his older brother, who lives in New Jersey and will be coming down with stocking-stuffers such as clothing and treats, as well as big-ticket items including a stereo. “My son has asthma, and he’s bringing inhalers for his asthma,” Roman Garcia said. “Medicines are very important. Some don’t exist here, or they’re hard to find.” During the administration of for mer President George W. Bush, Cuban-Americans were allowed to visit only once every three years and were limited to $100 a month in remittances. Those restrictions ended in April 2009, although most non-Cuban Americans are still barred from traveling to the island. Cuba watchers and charter flight operators say travel between the United States and Cuba skyrocketed after the change and continues to climb steadily. “About 1,000 visitors are arriving a day from the U.S., and they expect somewhere close to 400,000 by the end of the year,” said Kirby Jones, president of Alamar Associates of Bethesda, Maryland, a consulting firm that works with American companies looking to do business with Cuba. “The U.S. is now sending the second-most visitors to Cuba than any other country,” after Canada, Jones said. The great majority are of Cuban heritage, and the rest are non-Cuban Americans traveling for officially sanctioned activities
Sunday, December 19, 2010
AP Photo
In this Dec. 16 photo, Sergio Montes de Oca of West Palm Beach, Fla. sits on a cart full of luggage as he waits with his family for a flight to Cuba at Miami International Airport in Miami. Thousands of Cuban-Americans are heading to Havana this holiday season carrying everything from electronics and medicine to clothing and toiletries to help relatives back home supplement monthly salaries averaging about $20. such as academic, cultural and sports exchanges. The figure does not include the small but growing number of Americans who sidestep the travel ban by flying in through Canada, Mexico or other countries, risking a stiff U.S. fine if they are caught. Traffic is even greater during the busy holiday season, when charters add additional flights that quickly fill up. Miami airport officials said 55 flights are scheduled to depart to four Cuban cities this weekend, among the heaviest travel days leading up to Christmas. At Havana’s Jose Marti International Airport, Cubans crowded up against a low metal fence last week, straining to watch for loved ones as they emerged from customs pushing carts piled high with shrink-wrapped luggage, kitchen appliances, televisions, stuffed animals and cardboard boxes bursting at the seams. Arturo de Cordoba traveled from Miami with five suitcases crammed with cookies, sweets, rice and other goodies for his son and daughter, who picked
him up at the airport. “I come here to share with my children,” said Cordoba, a jeweler who has been living in the United States for 30 years. Tom Cooper, the president and owner of Miami-based Gulfstream Air Charter, which flies a 146-seat 737 jetliner to Havana daily, said his company’s passenger load has doubled from about 23,000 in 2009 to approaching 50,000 this year. Also on the rise are baggage numbers. “We track every pound that goes on the airplane. Our average bag weight in the last year has gone from 85 to 132 pounds (from 40 to 60 kilograms) per person,” Cooper said. The first 44 pounds (20 kilos) are free, and there is a $1-a-pound surcharge after that, he said. The load is so great that for about half of Gulfstream’s flights, the company charters a twin-turboprop cargo plane to carry the excess baggage, Cooper said. The visits are something of a lifeline in Cuba, where, five decades after the Cuban Revolu-
tion, many basic goods that Americans take for granted are in short supply — from office supplies to clothing, makeup, aspirin, batteries and even cat food. The Cuban gover nment blames the 48-year U.S. embargo, which prohibits nearly all commercial trade with the island, with the exception of food and medicine. A historically stagnant Cuban economy hasn’t helped. What goods can be had are often out of reach for average Cubans. A small 19-inch (48centimeter) flat-screen TV can cost well over $2,000 in the few stores that supply them. That’s far more than the cost of bringing one in from the United States, even with the $270 import duty levied on electronics and the extra overweight charges. Ten-year-old Daniela Lezcano of West Palm Beach, Florida, flew in alone for a three-week visit with her aunt, uncle, grandfather and other relatives in Pinar del Rio carrying clothing, food, medicine and toys,
including a red model of a 1960 Corvette. Her family planned a Christmas feast of roasted pork, homemade sweetened cassava and a typical rice and bean dish known as “congri.” “We are very, very, very happy to see other family members more often” since the travel restrictions were changed, said her uncle, Juan Miguel Guerra Pereira. Indeed, many say that as important as the gifts are, the emotional reunions are far more significant for families separated by just 90 miles (145 kilometers) of sea between Cuba and Florida, but torn by decades of Cold War tensions. Take Roman Garcia, who said he and 10 other relatives plan to be on hand at the airport to greet his brother when he returns for the first time since leaving Cuba in 1980. “We will have to cry a lot. It’s a very beautiful moment, but very sad,” Roman Garcia said. “We will go home together. ... He is going to be very happy, because it’s the house where he was born.”
141 inmates escape UN body to meet as South Korea Mexican border prison
MEXICO CITY (AP) — Nearly 150 inmates escaped Friday from a state prison in the northern Mexico border city of Nuevo Laredo, and authorities said the breakout was probably helped by prison employees. The public safety department of T amaulipas state, where the prison is located near the border with Laredo, Texas, said 141 inmates got out through a service entrance used by vehicles, “presumably with the assistance of the prison staff.” The department said the prison’s director could not be located, adding that he and other of ficials were under investigation. Eighty-three of the prisoners were being held for trial or had been convicted of crimes like theft, assault and other state offenses, while 58 were being held on federal charges, which include weapons possession and drug trafficking. T amaulipas has been plagued by a steady wave of violence tied to tur f battles between the Gulf and Zetas drug gangs, but it was unclear whether members of those groups were among the escaped inmates. States like Tamaulipas have said in the past they are not prepared to handle highly dangerous federal prisoners, and again on Friday the state urged the federal government to take charge of such inmates. “The state does not have the capacity to prevent them escaping,” the department said
in a statement. The federal Interior Department blamed the breakout on local authorities, saying they did not properly guard the facility. “The absence of ef fective methods of guarding and control by local authorities is deplorable, and it has caused frequent escapes from prisons that put the public at risk,” the department said in a statement. It called on state authorities to clean up their prison and judicial systems by increased screening and vetting of corrections officers. In past cases, prison guards — often underpaid or under threat from gangs — have been implicated in prison escapes. Federal police and soldiers were dispatched to patrol the area, and a search for escaped prisoners was begun. The jail break apparently occurred in the pre-dawn hours Friday. The escape came on the same day that federal Public Safety Secretary Genaro Garcia Luna addressed a graduating class of new prison guards, underlining the urgent need to professionalize correctional forces. “We are making a historic effort to build a new prisons model, that will treat prison staff as efficient public servants,” Garcia Luna said. The new guard recruitment programs, supported in part by the U.S. gover nment, include increased training, screening and vetting of guards.
plans live-fire drills near border YEONPYEONG ISLAND, South Korea (AP) — South Korea’s military waited for better weather to hold live-fire drills that the North warned would cause it to retaliate, but the high tensions prompted the U.N. Security Council to schedule an emergency meeting at Russia’s request. The one-day firing drills are planned by Tuesday on the same front-line island the North shelled last month as the South’s military conducted similar drills. The shelling killed four people on Yeonpyeong Island near the tense sea border. The North’s Foreign Ministry said Saturday that South Korea would face an unspecified “catastrophe” if the drills take place, in a statement carried by the of ficial Korean Central News Agency. The North also said it would strike harder than before. South Korea says the drills are routine, defensive in nature and should not be considered threatening. The U.S. supports that and says any country has a right to train for self-defense, but Russia and China, fellow permanent members of the U.N. Security Council, have expressed concern. Russia’s Foreign Ministry urged South Korea to cancel to avoid escalating tensions. The Security Council scheduled emergency closed-door consultations on North Korea for 11 a.m. (1600 GMT) Sunday at Russia’s request, said Mark Kornblau, spokesman for the U.S. Mission to the United Nations. The United States holds the council’s rotating presidency this month. Russia’s U.N. Ambassador
AP Photo
A South Korean fishing boat sails by a South Korean navy facility and navy ship near Yeonpyeong island, South Korea, Sunday.
Vitaly Churkin said the Russian government believes the Security Council must send “a restraining signal” to North Korea and help launch diplomatic actions to resolve all disputes between North Korea and South Korea. China, the North’s key ally, said it is firmly against any acts that could worsen already-high tensions on the Korean peninsula. “In regard to what could lead to worsening the situation or any escalation of acts of sabotage of regional peace and stability, China is firmly and unambiguously opposed,” Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Jiang Yu said in a statement Saturday. China’s Vice Foreign Minister Zhang Zhijun also warned in a statement that the situation on the Korean peninsula is “extremely precarious.” Bad weather is preventing the artillery drills over the weekend, but they will be conducted either Monday or Tuesday, a Joint Chiefs of Staff officer said Saturday.
The military was ready to respond to any possible provocation, the officer said on condition of anonymity, citing department rules. Marines carrying rifles conducted routine patrols Saturday. About 300 residents, officials and journalists remain on Yeonpyeong, but officials from Ongjin County, which gover ns the island, said they had no immediate plans to order a mandatory evacuation to the mainland. “North Korea said it will deal the powerful ... blow at us if we go ahead and fire artillery. So residents are getting more restless,” said Yoon Jin-young, a 48year-old islander. Activists launched balloons containing about 200,000 propaganda leaflets toward the North from the island, which is only about seven miles (11 kilometers) from North Korean shores. The balloons also carried 1,000 $1 bills and DVDs containing infor mation on the North’s artillery barrage last month.