December 2011 Issue

Vol. 19, No. 12

In the News Where are the IFIs? Brookings scholar Richard Feinberg says international financial institutions must reengage with Cuba ..........................Page 2

Strolling in Havana Street entrepreneurs are everywhere, but so, too, is corruption .....................Page 6

The pace of reform New laws show that Raúl is serious about transforming Cuba’s economy .....Page 7

Banking on biotech Cuba takes new J-V approach to biotech, pharmaceutical exports ................Page 8

SREs take root Cuba is ripe for socially responsible enterprises, says Eric Leenson ..............Page 9

Another cigar lawsuit

December 2011

Obama saves Cuban exile travel policy during bitter Congressional showdown

BY ANA RADELAT

H

ad the White House not drawn a line in the sand just before Christmas, Congress might have overturned President Barack Obama’s liberalized policy on Cuban-American travel and remittances.

In the end, the Obama administration was able to preserve its policy of allowing CubanAmericans unrestricted travel to Cuba.

But the tough, late December fight over the issue shows the erosion of congressional support for easing sanctions against the Castro government. It also offers a preview of new fights on Capitol Hill over Obama’s Cuba policy that are likely to break out in 2012.

“I think this is far from over,” said Robert Muse, a Washington lawyer who works on Cuba issues. “They are coming back at this again.”

A rider that would have reinstated a Bush-era policy of limiting family visits and remittances to Cuba was one of the final sticking points in negotiations over a $1 trillion omnibus spending

bill that averted a government shutdown. During the Bush administration, family visits were restricted to once every three years, and people in the United States could send no more than $1,200 a year to immediate family members.

Rep. Mario Díaz-Balart (R-FL) said he sponsored the rider to eliminate a source of hard currency to the Castro regime in the steady stream of Cuban-American travelers.

The lawmaker also said Cuba’s continued imprisonment of U.S. Agency for International Development subcontractor Alan Gross — arrested two years ago — prompted him to act.

But Obama fought to keep his policy of allowing Cuban-Americans unlimited travel and remittances to Cuba. He pressured Democratic leaders in Congress to eliminate Díaz-Balart’s rider, with White House spokesman Dan Pfeiffer warned against “threatening the foreign policy prerogatives of the president.”

Yet Democratic leaders had other priorities, See Omnibus, page 4

Cuba challenges trademark of Dominican ‘Pinar del Río’ cigar brand; Santiago, D.R., becoming top cigar exporter ......Page 10

Cuban government says it plans to offer financing for small-business ventures

Tourism hits record

BY VITO ECHEVARRÍA

Arrivals hit 2.66 million in 2011; Russians are fastest-growing group ...........Page 11

Mining for marble Cuba’s traditional marble industry, once prized for quality and elegance, strives to make a comeback ........................Page 12

Bookshelf ‘Blurred Borders’ by Jorge Duany; ‘Cuba’s New Resolve’ by CDA ..................Page 15 CubaNews (ISSN 1073-7715) is published monthly

by CUBANEWS LLC. © 2011. All rights reserved.

Annual subscription: $398. Nonprofit organizations: $198. Printed edition is $100 extra. For editorial inquires, please call (305) 393-8760, fax your request to (305) 670-2229 or email info@cubanews.com.

I

n 2006, the Washington-based Cuba Study Group (CSG) partnered with Mexico’s Banco Compartamos to set up a microlending program for emerging small businesses in Cuba, with $10 million as seed capital.

That project was to have taken off “as soon as permitted by Cuban law.”

Five years later, it appears that the Cuban government — through Resolution 99 of the Banco Central de Cuba (BCC), and Decree Law 289 — will soon launch its own microlending program to small businesses.

Ernesto Medina Villaveirán, president of Cuba’s Central Bank, told the Communist Party newspaper Granma in a recent interview that “self-employed workers will be able to receive loans starting at 3,000 Cuban pesos for the purchase of supplies and goods that guarantee a better work performance.”

Similar financing will also be made available

to individuals for home improvements and consumer-goods purchases, as well as to smallscale agricultural producers for seeds, fertilizer, land improvements and equipment purchases.

Given Cuba’s perennial cash crunches, one might wonder where the government will get the money to pay for all this.

Theoretically, the CSG-Banco Comparamos program could step in with cash infusions for small businesses — whether that means cash would go through government-controlled banks that would then disburse funds directly to loan applicants, or Cuban authorities would let the Mexican bank set up offices in Havana and other cities to administer such microloans.

However, a foreign banker familiar with Cuba’s banking system dismissed that possibility.

“Several foreign specialist microlenders have requested [but] not received approval from the Cuban government to operate in this space,” See Microlending, page 4

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CubaNews v December 2011

NEWSMAKERS

Feinberg: IMF, World Bank can jump-start Cuban economy

BY LARRY LUXNER

I

clearly in the air.”

Feinberg noted the explosion of private markets throughout Havana, even though the goods sold there are relatively expensive (see article on page 6 of this issue).

EPIC STRUGGLE UNDERWAY IN CUBA

“New restaurants are popping up all over Havana, and the real-estate market is beginning to open up. The Cuban-American community is also starting to bring goods and capital to their relatives to take advantage of these LARRY LUXNER

t’s time for international financial institutions (IFIs) like the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund to re-engage Cuba — a process that can only help the island as it embarks on painful reforms aimed at weaning Cuba’s 11 million citizens from their dependence on the state economy.”

That’s the word from Richard E. Feinberg, senior fellow at the Brookings Institution and professor of international politics at the University of California-San Diego.

“That makes Cuba the only full country left out,” Feinberg said. “IFI engagement with Cuba should begin with technical assistance prior to membership, and the IFIs should beef up their expertise on Cuba.”

For years, Cuba refused to have anything to do with IFIs; Fidel Castro considered the IMF, World Bank and similar institutions imperalist tools. Yet Cuba’s economy is tanking compared to the rest of Latin America, which is doing quite well at the moment.

According to Feinberg’s statistics, Cuba’s

“Drop the assumption that Cuba is a unitary actor. Rather within Cuba, there’s an epic struggle between forces of reform and the status quo,” said Feinberg. “What is normally done around the world in such circumstances? The role of the international community is not to stand on the sidelines and just throw verbal barbs, but to get our hands dirty and join in the fray.”

Feinberg, speaking Nov. 18 to an audience of 125 people at the Brookings Institution in Washington, is the author of a recently issued report titled “Reaching Out: Cuba’s New Economy and the International Response.”

The 108-page study is available at http://www.brookings.edu/~/media/Files/rc/papers/201 1/1118_cuba_feinberg/1118_cuba_feinberg.pdf.

“Cuba today is increasingly globalized. It’s engaged with many developed, capitalist economies and emerging-market economies.

And most interestingly, there are some indications Cuba is now ready to engage with the IFIs under certain circumstances.”

NEARLY EVERYONE’S A MEMBER, EXCEPT CUBA

He noted that 187 countries belong to the IMF and World Bank — literally every nation on Earth (not including microstates like Andorra, Monaco, Lichtenstein and San Marino) except for Cuba and North Korea.

“Now is the time for the international development community to engage in Cuba, to support the incipient economic reform process.

“Let’s be a part of history in the making. It’s time the IFIs complete their historic goal of full universality,” he said, noting that North Korea will probably one day be reunited with South Korea, and hence will be absorbed into a state that’s already a member of the IMF.

Richard E. Feinberg, author of “Reaching Out” (see inset), speaks Nov. 18 at the Brookings Institution.

annual per-capita income is $6,000. That compares unfavoably with the Dominican Republic ($8,000); Costa Rica and Brazil ($11,000) and Mexico, Uruguay and Chile ($14,000).

“Social gains have been eroding, and the Cubans understand this [will continue] unless they can get their economy going,” he said.

“Industrial output is only 40% of where it was in 1989. Agriculture is stagnating, there’s little foreign investment, low medium wages and a chronic crisis in the balance of payments. Nobody can live by wages alone in Cuba today.

“What I’m pointing out here is known to every Cuban,” Feinberg continued. “Raúl Castro knows this. Take a stroll around Havana and it’s all painfully obvious. You see a lot of unemployed and disaffected youth. In Cuba today, open dissent is still dangerous, but in the area of economic policy, there’s a very wide and vibrant debate. Change is

new opportunities in micro-entrepreneurship,” he said. “At the same time, we have no illusions. There are forces of resistance. State ministries and the Communist Party retain their hegemony. The state sector remains overwhelmingly dominant when it comes to employment, production and price-setting.”

See Feinberg, page 3

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December 2011 v CubaNews

Feinberg — FROM PAGE 2 All of which why it’s important for Cuba to gradually resume its links with IFIs. Feinberg pointed out that Cuba withdrew from the World Bank in 1960, and quit the IMF in 1964.

It is also not a member of the Inter-American Development Bank.

through progress on economic reforms. Cuba can learn from the experiences of others.”

Contrary to conventional thinking, the United States does not have formal veto power over Cuba’s membership in the IMF or World Bank, even though the 1996 HelmsBurton Act does require the U.S. government to vote against membership for Cuba.

“Sanctions denying resources to the IMF are not workable, but IMF technical assistance to Cuba would not necessarily trigger HelmsBurton,” he explained.

“In case loans were approved, Helms-Burton would require us to take out of the IMF an equal amount of resources. Explain to me how you’re going to do that.”

ling their obligations when they ignore the inevitable impact of Cuba on other member states. It’s also in the interests of countries which do business with Cuba — which is to say, the entire world outside the United States. For so many reasons, the IFIs have been negligent when it comes to Cuba.”

Two other experts invited by Brookings

OTHERS CAN HELP, TOO

“Admission does not imply approval of their policies. And I’m not talking about membership tomorrow. That would be too stunning for Cuba, and for the United States as well,” he said. “But there are many precedents of IFIs working with non-member states. Countries friendly to Cuba — China, Canada, Brazil and the EU — could fund technical assistance programs like policy advice and training. China would barely notice.”

WASHINGTON SHOULD GET OUT OF THE WAY

Feinberg said the Obama administration understands intuitively that it is in the U.S. national interest for IFIs to engage in Cuba.

“That argument is self-evident to people in the executive branch,” he said. “A gradual, step-by-step engagement would respect Cuban sensibilities. Within the IFIs, Cuba has many friends, including the emerging market economies. Cuba’s path to full membership is

Feinberg said that “from a practical point of view, if we were to follow technical assistance funded by thirdparty trust funds, that would not violate Helms-Burton. It would not be a legal problem for the United States. If interpreted creatively, those pieces of legislation would not present insuperable obstacles to create a pathway for Cuba to engage with the IFIs.” Simply put, he said, Washington “should devote more resources to understanding the changing Cuban economy, and should not politicize nor stand in the way of Cuba’s stepby-step readmission to the international financial community. We do not have to play an active role here. We simply should not stand in the way or throw a temper tantrum.”

Feinberg said Cuba could possibly get help from the Andean Development Corp. as well as the IDB, not to mention the 15-member Caribbean Community (Caricom).

“It’s in the interest of all Caribbean countries for Cuba to be part of these institutions, merely because of the spillover effect.

Whatever happens in Cuba, the spillover is huge,” he said. “Indeed, the IFIs are not fulfil-

participated in the Brookings panel: Gary Hufbauer and Carlos Alzugaray Treto.

“Certainly it would be against the interests of the U.S. and the Cuban people to see the IFIs entrenching state-owned enterprises, [or to] strengthen a state-owned enterprise in which a Spanish or Canadian venture has a long-term monopoly grip, which would freeze out U.S. competition,” said Hufbauer, a senior fellow at the Peterson Institute for International Economics.

“On the positive side, even though Cuba may not be a member of the World Bank, it is a member of the World Trade Organization, and the IFIs could help Cuba get on the path to respecting its WTO obligations.”

Alzugaray, Cuba’s former ambassador to the EU, is now a visiting professor at Queens College in New York.

“I think most Cuban economists would agree with Richard’s arguments about Cuba’s engagement with IFIs. For many years, and at Fidel Castro’s initiative, there was an annual conference on globalization, and the World Bank and IMF were always invited to these conferences,” said Alzugaray (who will be profiled in the January 2012 issue of CubaNews).

“But as long as the U.S. position is framed by regime change,” he warned, “it’s going to be very difficult for any initiative from the United States to be accepted in Cuba.” q Larry Luxner is editor of CubaNews. For more information or for a copy of Feinberg’s report, contact: The Brookings Institution, 1775 Massachusetts Avenue NW, Room #542, Washington, DC 20036-2103. Tel: (202) 797-6141. Fax: (202) 797-6003. Email: tpiccone@brookings.edu.

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Omnibus — FROM PAGE 1

CubaNews v December 2011

“I am extremely disappointed that … Reid, who had agreed with the language, later backtracked and succumbed to pressure from the administration,” Díaz-Balart said.

Reid’s office did not return phone calls requesting comment.

The makeup of Congress has evolved over the last decade by the retirement of Democratic and Republican lawmakers who favored easing sanctions toward Cuba and

LARRY LUXNER

including stripping from a final omnibus bill GOP riders that would gut the Environmental Protection Agency’s ability to enforce clean water and air regulations.

The Cuba rider was part of the fight over the omnibus bill because Díaz-Balart attached it last summer to a spending bill in a House Appropriations subcommittee without objection from any lawmaker on the panel.

For days it looked like it would survive talks between House Republicans and Senate Democrats.

“It was one of the priorities of the [Republicans in Congress],” Rep. Kathy Castor (D-FL) told CubaNews.

Castor — the only member of Florida’s congressional delegation to support easing travel regulations to Cuba — rep- Bus-stop advertisement in Miami pushes a new money transfer service to Cuba. resents Tampa, whose airport has recently inaugurated direct their replacement by lawmakers who support charter flights to the island to serve the city’s the embargo. large Cuban-American exile population.

“The composition of Congress has “If you don’t have Cuban-Americans sup- changed and it’s clear that there’s less supporting those flights, turn the lights off in port for easing sanctions than before,” said Tampa,” Castor said. analyst Phil Peters of the Lexington Institute.

Tampa International Airport spokeswoman Bill Hauf, owner of Island Travel and Tour, Janet Zink said airport officials joined Castor called Congress’ attitude “very disappointin lobbying lawmakers and the White House ing.” His company flies charters to Cuba from to safeguard Cuban-American travel.

Tampa and plans to inaugurate flights to the “This is not a foreign policy issue, it’s an island from Baltimore in March. economic issue for us,” said Zink, noting that “Everything has gotten weaker,” Hauf said. her airport earns about $650,000 a year from “Even the Democrats are not coming forward its Cuba charter business. She estimates that strongly.” about 9,000 travelers will use those charters Another reason for lawmakers’ tepid supby the end of this year and that 43,000 travel- port for easing Cuba travel regulations is the ers, mostly Cuban-Americans, are expected to money they’ve received from the pro-embarbook Tampa-Havana flights in 2012. go U.S.-Cuba Democracy PAC, which has contributed more than $3 million since 2004.

DÍAZ-BALART: OBAMA IS ‘APPEASER-IN-CHIEF’ Much of that money was donated to the Other airports that would have been hurt campaigns of freshmen lawmakers with the by restrictions on Cuban-American travel are goal of influencing their votes in Congress.

Muse predicted Congress will broaden the Miami, Fort Lauderdale and New York JFK. The move would have also put a damper on fight over Cuba to attack Obama’s “people-tothe expansion of U.S. airports interested in people” initiative, which dramatically increased the categories of U.S. citizens not hosting charter flights to Cuba.

In the end, the Cuba rider was traded off in of Cuban origin who may travel to the island.

“I think what we are going to see is a deal that eliminated a rider sponsored by Rep. Jo Ann Emerson (R-MO) that would attempts to gut people-to-people travel, not have made it easier for Cuba to finance U.S. through legislation but through bullying of the Obama administration,” said Muse. farm imports.

Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL) has already Díaz-Balart blasted Obama as the “appeaser-in-chief” for insisting on protecting his pol- brought pressure to bear on the administraicy. “It’s an embarrassment that a U.S. presi- tion over its easing of travel regulations by dent would put our government in jeopardy of putting a hold on the nomination of Roberta a shutdown and sell out the long-suffering Jacobson, Obama’s choice to head the State Cuban people to appease the ruthless Castro Department’s Bureau of Western Hemisphere Affairs. q dictatorship,” he said in a statement.

The Cuban-American congressman also Washington-based journalist Ana Radelat has said Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid had covered Cuba-related issues on Capitol Hill for flip-flopped on his support of the Cuba rider.

CubaNews since the newsletter’s birth in 1993.

Microlending — FROM PAGE 1 said the banker, who asked not to be identified. “The government’s position, with which I agree, is that they do not need or want any outside involvement in what is a purely domestic sector.”

Mario González-Corzo, a professor at both Columbia University and the City University of New York’s Lehman College, has been closely following Cuba’s economic reforms.

“Since Cuba’s Central Bank has the ability to print pesos, and there is reference to convertibility of these loans, I don't see the need to collaterize or back them up with U.S. dollars,” he said. “Cuba has long abandoned the currency board that required $1 for every CUC issued by fixing the exchange rate between the two currencies.

“Instead, the country captures dollars through the fixed exchange rate system and the implicit taxes that are charged for transactions in CUC,” González-Corzo explained.

“Part of the strategy is to increase the rates paid to savers to inject some of the excess liquidity (equal to about 40% of GDP) into the banking system by attracting deposits. The other is to continue to gradually liberalize consumption to stimulate the influx of remittances and retain more hard-currency receipts, which could increase bank reserves and their lending capacity.”

Gónzalez-Corzo says Cuba’s reforms are going the way of Chinese and Vietnamesestyle market socialism, but warns that Havana still has a way to go if it’s serious about emulating those economies.

“The problem, of course, is that any potential foreign creditor is likely to perceive this scheme as quite risky,” he said. “Cuba’s banking sector is not sufficiently capitalized, the Central Bank has limited experience as a lender of last resort, and Cuba needs to address its structural imbalances and monetary dualism, which of course requires deeper structural transformations in the labor market, the price system, agriculture, transportation, housing, etc., in order to improve factor productivity and efficiency.

IFIs NOT LIKELY TO PLAY BIG ROLE, SAYS EXPERT

Like the foreign banker who didn’t want to be named, González-Corzo also dismisses the prospect of overseas microlending institutions playing a role in Cuba’s newly emerging microlending apparatus.

“I think it’s too early for any major institutions to consider partnering with the BCC to expand loans to the emerging non-state sector,” he said.

“Even though the recently announced measures represent a step in the right direction, the risks are unclear, the terms of collateral remain restrictive by global standards, and there are widely known limitations that restrict the activities of non-state producers like self-employed workers and private farmers.”

Nevetheless, given the hardship Cuba has endured for decades, anything that liberalizes the island’s tightly controlled economy will be welcomed as a breath of fresh air. q

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December 2011 v CubaNews

POLITICAL BRIEFS CUBANS RACE TO APPLY FOR SPANISH CITIZENSHIP Spain has issued a total of 66,000 passports to Cubans who qualify under its so-called “grandchildren’s law” and more than 180,000 people on the island could eventually gain citizenship once all the applications have been processed, sources in Havana told the Spanish news agency EFE. Dec. 27 was the deadline for children and grandchildren of Spanish immigrants to opt for Spanish citizenship under the Law of Historical Memory, a measure aimed at descendants of people driven out of Spain during the 1936-39 civil war and subsequent repression of the Franco regime.

The law, which took effect on Dec. 29, 2008, has prompted a steady flow of applications in Cuba and long lines at Spain’s consulate in Havana.

Spanish consular officials say they’ll continue reviewing the remaining applications, which came to 110,000 by early December and which were likely to rise by another 15,000 before the deadline.

Given that only 4% of applications are denied, the law could lead to between 180,000 and 190,000 new Spanish citizens in Cuba, or close to 1.7% of the island’s population, said Spain’s consul-general in Havana, Tomas Rodriguez-Pantoja.

RAÚL PARDONS 2,900 INMATES, BUT NOT ALAN GROSS Raúl Castro announced a pardon Dec. 23 for 2,900 prisoners, but he disappointed Cubans who had hoped for another Christmas gift — the freedom to travel abroad, the Miami Herald reported.

Castro said the “humanitarian” pardon would include 86 foreigners from 25 nations, though not including jailed USAID subcontractor Alan Gross.

Castro did not fulfill predictions by foreign news agencies that he’d ease travel restrictions during the one-day session of the National Assembly.

USAID, DIAZ-BALART AT ODDS OVER FHRC GRANT The U.S. Agency for International Development is rejecting complaints of political favoritism by granting $3.4 million to a human rights group closely linked to the Cuban American National Foundation, the Miami Herald reported Dec. 18.

USAID this summer approved the three-year grant to the Foundation for Human Rights in Cuba (FHRC), a Miami nonprofit created by CANF members, to help support civil society and democracy on the communist-ruled island.

News of the grant drew complaints from critics who allege that FHRC has little experience with such grants and point to the warm relations between CANF and the Obama administration.

Rep. Mario Díaz-Balart (R-FL) said U.S. funds for democracy programs in Cuba “should be provided only to organizations with strong experience and proven track records” on the island.

Mark Lopes, USAID deputy assistant administrator for Latin America and a former aide to Sen. Bob Menendez (D-NJ), said a “technical evaluation committee” made up of officials from government agencies is in charge of reviewing grant applications and selecting winners.

“The criteria for competing for USAID funds is included in the grant application. This is a technical process based on the merits of the proposals submitted,” Lopes added. “No political appointee had any role in the selection process.”

In their own words …

“Here’s my challenge to the administration and the State Department: I know someone has sold you a bill of goods that this people-to-people travel is a good idea and will further democracy and freedom in Cuba. I get that. You’re not going to change your mind, but at least examine how this is being implemented because this is a charade. These people are getting licenses to conduct outrageous tourism which, quite frankly, borders on indoctrination of Americans by Castro government officials.”

— Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL), during a Dec. 16 speech on the Senate floor. Rubio threatened to keep holding up the nomination of Roberta Jacobson as assistant secretary of state for Western Hemsiphere affairs until the White House gets “tougher” on Cuba.

“I think both sides can benefit from collaboration and that this is the best way to develop future projects. There’s a lot we could learn from scientists in Cuba.”

— Peter Agre, U.S. winner of the 2003 Nobel Prize for Chemistry, during a high-level scientific exchange in Havana organized by the Cuban Academy of Sciences and the Washington-based American Association for the Advancement of Science.

“If we do get a spill, we’ll be aggressive. We’ll attack the oil as promptly, as close to the source and as far away from our shores as we can.”

— Rear Adm. William Baumgartner, commander of the Coast Guard’s 7th District, telling reporters Dec. 20 he’s prepared if oil drilling off Cuba produces a major spill.

“Rep. Mario Díaz-Balart is fighting the Cold War 50 years too late. Banning family members from traveling home has no political impact on Cuba’s government. If anything, expanding people-to-people contacts between Cuba and America can only further threaten the declining Castro regime. Díaz-Balart has no business, anyway, telling American citizens where they can and cannot travel.”

— St. Petersburg Times, in a Dec. 15 editorial on the budget showdown.

“It’s good that we visit the island and talk to everyone we can. The Cuban government has to know that we are watching whatever happens to the dissidents.”

— José Manuel García-Margallo, Spain’s new foreign minister, in a 2000 interview with Madrid’s Libertad Digital. García-Magallo, 67, has visited Cuba 11 times.

“That wound bled a lot because it was on a blood vessel, but it was a kick to the ribs on the right side that made me fall to the ground. It still hurts.”

— Abraham Cabrera, telling Miami’s El Nuevo Herald newspaper by phone Dec. 17 about a police crackdown against 46 dissidents in the eastern town of Palma Soriano.

“We are very disturbed by the increase of what is called ‘low intensity’ political repression consisting of being kept in custody for hours, days or weeks.”

— Elizardo Sánchez of the Cuban Commission on Human Rights and National Reconciliation, saying 388 dissidents were detained for political reasons in December.

“In Cuba, everything is dangerous. You depend on your wits and don’t look for problems with anyone. If you depend on just your salary, you can’t live.”

— Havana cigar vendor, telling Reuters why he sells fake cigars on the black market.

“It would be a disgrace if the Obama administration broke with tradition and used a penny of that critical funding to reward political cronies.”

— Rep. Mario Díaz Balart (R-FL), complaining about USAID’s recent $3.4 million grant to the Miami-based Foundation for Human Rights in Cuba (see news brief at left).

“Even if Cuba really were a tyrannical threat to U.S. interests, there are myriad countries where U.S. oil companies have done business that are no more democratic than Cuba. They include Venezuela, Saudi Arabia, Burma, Libya, Equatorial Guinea and Kazakhstan ... The embargo stick hasn’t brought regime change, and has only forced Cuba into the arms of autocrats like Venezuela’s Hugo Chávez. Better to use the carrot of capitalism to gradually bring Cuba into the U.S. sphere of influence. The oil industry is a great place to start.”

— Christopher Helman of Forbes magazine, in a Dec. 12 editorial urging the White House to exempt the oil industry from the U.S. embargo of Cuba.

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CubaNews v December 2011

ECONOMY

Strolling through Havana, it’s hard to miss all the ‘reforms’

Produce vendor along Calle Cuarteles, Old Havana.

garlic, pumpkins and pork meat in a vacant lot where a residential building once stood.

Out of nowhere appear a swarm of rickshaws driven by skinny youngsters, bringing to mind not Havana but rather New Delhi or Colombo, Sri Lanka. These kids offer short rides for 1 CUC, and their customers include not only tourists but some locals as well.

Surprisingly, some of them appear to be working for a private owner who controls a few bikes and rents them to his employees for a daily fee — in the style of medallion owners in Miami or New York.

The popularity of this service, in a city

where public transport is a nightmare, is feeding a surge in rickshaw shops, where the bikes are custom-built and repaired.

Owning and renting out rickshaws or building them for private businesses almost certainly using state-owned materials may be a violation of existing laws, but authorities seem less inclined than in the past to raid these businesses — and far less guided by Marxist ideology than they were even a few months ago.

At the corner of Industria and San Rafael, across the street from the impromptu vegetable stalls, is Mango Habana. This newly opened cafeteria looks neat and well-stocked

by Cuban standards.

A sign under the name declares: “The pleasure of eating well is not a privilege.” At lunchtime, however, the place is empty; maybe the high prices keep potential customers away. A hamburger here costs 35 Cuban pesos — one and a half times the average daily wage.

This is Felicia’s neighborhood. A retired habanera in her late 50s who used to work for a small European mom-and-pop tour operator in Cuba, she quit her accounting job because she was afraid of the anti-corruption crackdown unleashed by the government.

With it, she lost not only a €150 monthly bonus paid by the owners under the table — but also her access to the Internet, and the use of a mobile phone and a small car.

Now she thrives on her scant savings while dreaming to be sent to Africa for two or three years so she can bring back enough money to care of her daily needs.

“This is already over,” Felicia told us. “This system is exhausted and nobody believes in it anylonger. They know it. That’s why they are forced to change. Everyone’s now on his own.

We have nothing to expect.” q Havana-born Armando Portela has contributed to CubaNews since the newsletter’s birth in 1993.

Portela, who has a Ph.D. in geography from the Soviet Academy of Sciences, lives in Miami. This article is based on his visit to Havana last month.

ARMANDO H. PORTELA

E

conomic reform, when it comes to Cuba, is no longer an abstract concept. Tangible reforms can be seen everywhere in Havana, which in a matter of months has been totally transformed — though sadly, not always for the better.

Pragmatism seems to be trumping the hardliners, and average Cubans are learning to live in a changing urban landscape filled with new sounds and occupations, not knowing how long it’ll take before they see a real improvement on the horizon.

For the moment, it seems as if — pushed by necessity, low wages and sky-high prices — everyone is suddenly trying to peddle something: some vegetables, maybe homemade candies, a rag doll, a bunch of flowers, a painting, or a photo with a folk impersonator.

The luckiest habaneros have an old, dilapidated car for sale. And others can take you out for a semi-private tour of Old Havana or the countryside — for a price, of course.

State workers openly cheat their bosses. A taxi driver can agree with you on the price of a ride and then turn off the meter, thus taking the entire fare for himself.

The cashier at a state-run food store discretely skips some of the goods you bought at the register and then charges for them at the end, obviously pocketing the difference.

Perhaps it’s a customs officer at Havana’s José Martí International Airport who confiscates some packaged foods you brought to Cuba and then places them in a pristine, double-lined garbage bin — maybe the only perfectly clean such trash bag you’ll see during your entire trip.

“They say that soon, we’ll be doing business on our own, just paying rent for the car,” said one enthusiastic Havana taxi driver in his 30s. “But the state will remain the owner of the car.”

When asked why, he says, “to keep control over us. That is very important for them. You have to understand that it’s all they have left.”

This particular cabbie drives a clunky Soviet-made Lada, whose interior is kept together with wire hangers and duct tape.

In any other country, the car would have been junked long ago, but in Cuba, it miraculously soldiers on.

The whole scene is reminiscent of Moscow in the early 1990s, when that city’s streets were filled with improvised vendors selling only one or two items, rather than real commersants. All this activity looks chaotic — not to mention unsafe.

While state-owned shops sit empty and abandoned, or converted into multi-family homes, these new particulares roam Havana’s streets with their merchandise, often carrying a fruit cart or sitting on the sidewalk with a wooden box and a few items to sell.

It’s unnerving to see an enterprising merchant in Old Havana hawking onions and

yams out of a barrel while a group of German tourists — who have no idea what “Hay cebolla!” means — try to snap photos of him.

Equally odd are the street vendors standing at the intersection of Industria and San Miguel — at the very heart of Havana’s once-elegant commercial district — selling bananas, ELENA L. YAKUBOVSKAYA

BY ARMANDO H. PORTELA

Fruit and vegetable market at San Miguel and Industria streets in once-elegant Centro Habana district.

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December 2011 v CubaNews

ANALYSIS

Even critics admit that latest reforms are gaining traction

BY DOMINGO AMUCHASTEGUI

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ell ahead of the Conferencia Nacional scheduled by the Cuban Communist Party for Jan. 28, three new laws enacted by President Raúl Castro’s government are already having a major impact on Cuba’s expanding market economy.

The first is the new decree that lets Cubans buy and sell houses. It neither imposes legal requirements nor interferes in prices, opening up a potentially huge real-estate market.

Then in late November came a law that allows farmers to sell their commodities freely and directly to state-run tourist hotels and

restaurants without the need to go through a government redistributor. This represents a deadly blow to Acopio, the state’s hated fixedprice, forced-procurement system).

More recently, Act 298 revamps Cuba’s antiquated banking system and offers new services to private farmers, cooperatives, the self-employed sector, small businesses, individuals and all other players in the “non-state” or private sector. Among other things: n There will be no ceilings as to how much money Cubans can borrow. In the past, there was a limit of 3,000 pesos. n State businesses will now be able to con-

A visit to a neighborhood food market

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ood prices and availability remain the top concern for vast majority of residents of Havana.

While rice, beans, sugar, tubers, plantains and vegetables are available and relatively affordable at state-owned stores or farm markets, other essentials are elusive and hardly affordable for average Cubans.

Chicken, beef and dairy products are among the food items families treasure the most. One turkey leg can make dinner for a family of six. It provides the broth for soup, with some tubers, plantains and veggies added, while the meat meticulously scraped from the bone goes into a rice bowl.

CubaNews visited a hard-currency meat

store in downtown Havana last month and found it well-stocked, with people waiting at least 20 minutes in line to be served.

Most of them, while attracted to the large beef cuts on display, chose the cheaper sausages, chicken or turkey in small portions. With average monthly wages at 18.66 CUC (or $21.41) not many citizens can afford to buy a good piece of sirloin or round eye beef.

Meanwhile, reforms to boost domestic food production are failing. The Communist Party newspaper Granma recently conceded that Cuba is buying more food abroad even as commodity prices are rising.

– ARMANDO H. PORTELA

tract services and/or commodities from “nonstate” players for any amount. In the past, they could not exceed 100 pesos. n The opening of current accounts for private entities and individuals will be mandatory only for those with annual income of 50,000 pesos or more. These accounts, said the president of Cuba’s Central Bank, Ernesto Medina Villaveirán, are aimed at “promoting development of the non-state economy sector.” n Credits will be made available, when necessary, in convertible pesos (CUCs). n Banks will phase in the use of checks, IOUs and magnetic cards. n Credit payments will be made in 18 months for purchasing supplies or paying salaries, and a five-year term will apply when credits are aimed at capital investments such as equipment and construction. n Different means of collateral will be acceptable, such as personal income, bank deposis and real-estate assets. n Credit availability will be based on a customized risk analysis of the customer, the specific project under consideration, and available collateral.

Act 289, along with Act 259, is reshaping Cuba’s entire land tenure system. It is clearly the most significant legal, institutional and financial piece of legislation in the new emerging “non-state sector” — a sector that will encompass 1.8 million families by 2015.

At the same time, it’s a clear indication how irreversible these reforms are.

More than 500 branches of Banco Metropolitano, Banco Popular de Ahorro and Banco de Crédito y Comercio will provide the necessary services under the supervision and policies of the Central Bank.

Those who question the latest changes are losing considerable ground. Even dissident economist Oscar Espinosa Chepe has acknowledged the importance of these reforms, though he tried to minimize them by calling them “pasitos” (small steps).

Similarly, Rafael Romeu, chairman of the Association for the Study of the Cuban Economy, said “the current reforms will deliver relief and are positive, but these are low-hanging mangos (or in Spanish, “mangos bajitos,” meaning easy to do). The real challenge is to deliver long-term sustainable growth.”

As Denver University’s Dr. Arturo LópezLevy puts it, “the liberalization of these markets will ignite new demands for reforms, and quite obviously, many more changes and reforms will be adopted in coming months.

Pavel Vidal Alejandro, a leading economist, says Raúl’s latest reforms “seem very positive because they signal the real acceptance of new actors within the Cuban economic model, because of the positive impact they must have due to their performance, and because of the potential of an economy that will be more accelerated by banks and credit.” q

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CubaNews v December 2011

SCIENCE

Cuba’s biotechnology industry: a new approach at last

BY DOMINGO AMUCHASTEGUI

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uba’s biotech and pharmaceutical industries have discovered a new way of doing business: focusing on joint ventures with foreign partners rather than relying exclusively on Cuban exports, as it has done since the early ‘90s.

The island, considered one of Latin America’s leaders in the field, meets most of its domestic need for medicines and now exports $300 million a year worth of pharmaceuticals and vaccines to some 40 countries.

Yet its new approach is aimed at grabbing market share overseas by associating Cuba with big economic powers.

FOCUS ON BRAZIL, MEXICO AND CHINA

Several joint ventures are well underway with Brazil. In late September, 58 cooperation projects were signed between Brazil’s minister of health, Alexandre Rocha Padilha, and his Cuban counterpart, Roberto Morales.

Under the deal, a Cuban diabetes drug and 11 vaccines will be manufactured and marketed by Brazilian companies. This represents $200 million worth of products.

A separate accord was signed outlining clinical research cooperation on cancer vaccines.

Other projects include developing treatments for vaginal infections, hemorrhoids and injuries caused by the sexually transmitted virus known as HPV. Rocha Padilha said the various deals with Cuba “will contribute to the reduction of our trade deficit, because Brazil is importing nearly all its inputs.”

In addition, 500 Brazilian doctors who have graduated from Havana’s Escuela Latinoamericana de Medicina (ELAM) will be supported by the government with a special program to validate their degrees, while 600 more are currently studying at ELAM. Brazil is also helping fund the reconstruction of Haiti’s health-care system, a Cuban-led initiative.

Despite several past failures, a similar approach is being made with Mexico. Dr. Carlos Borroto, deputy director of Cuba’s Center of Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology (CIGBC), says Cuban-Mexican cooperation is now “on the right track and working successfully.”

Although no details have been disclosed, a large group of scientists and executives from top Mexican institutions recently visited Cuba; these included visitors from the Research and Cuba’s pharmaceutical and medical exports could benefit from a decision by the left-leaning Union of South American Nations (UNASUR) to centralize the purchasing of its member nations’ government healthcare systems.

The bloc’s 12 member nations decided to consolidate their medical purchasing, Rafael Follonier, coordinator of the UNASUR presidency, announced in a Dec. 22 speech in Tucumán, Argentina.

Ecuador and Venezuela, which are both members of the Quito-based bloc, already buy hundreds of millions of dollars worth of drugs every year, though Cuba has had difficulties breaking into new drug markets, due to regulatory obstacles.

Development de Probiomed, Centro de Biotecnología Genómica del IPN, Instituto de Biotecnología de Cuernavaca and UNAM. Cuba is also cooperating with China, after six years of a very slow beginning. Until recently, only two Cuban biotech products were registered in China; another three were in the process of registration.

In late November, a series of agreements were signed in Havana with Chinese officials encompassing research, development, industrialization, agriculture, regulation protocols and various medical services.

China is particularly interested in the development of recombinant human alpha interferon and other biotech products; control and prevention of AIDS, production of monoclonal antibodies; glucometers; biosensors, and a bottling line for monoclonal antibodies with cutting-edge technology.

According to Spanish news agency, EFE, Cuba’s Finlay Institute and China’s Hualan Biological Bacterin will work jointly to develop several types of vaccines.

Meanwhile, Cuba continues to experiment on anti-cancer treatments, including Escozul, a cancer medicine derived from scorpion venom. In addition, a Cuban therapeutic vaccine for advanced lung cancer, known as Cimavax-EGFE, is currently undergoing clinical trials in Great Britain, following successful results with scores of patients since 2006.

In Germany, Oncoscience AG is conducting studies with Cuban monoclonal antibodies and has had very promising results, according to Ferdinand Bach, the company’s general manager.

Especially successful has been the use of CIMAher or Nimotuzumab, a humanized monoclonal antibody for the treatment of head and neck tumors. Bach added that Oncoscience is working to promote Nimotuzumab in various European markets, Japan, and the United States, as soon as the necessary licenses can be obtained.

In late November, CIGBC and other Cuban institutions sponsored a conference on genetics and biotechnology. More than 300 foreign scientists attended, including Belgium’s Mark Van Montagu, considered the father of molecular biology of plants and transgenic experimentation, and Britain’s Richard J. Roberts, who won the 1993 Nobel Prize in Medicine. q Former Cuban intelligence officer Domingo Amuchastegui has lived in Miami since 1994. He writes regularly for CubaNews on the Communist Party and South Florida’s Cuban exile community.

Cuba’s general merchandise trade from 2000 to 2010 with three of the island’s biggest potential pharmaceutical/biotech customers: China, Brazil and Mexico.

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December 2011 v CubaNews

AGRIBUSINESS

Socially responsible enterprises take root in the new Cuba

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s Cuba moves away from its centrally planned economy, the government is exploring options for socially responsible enterprises (SREs), with help from foundations, academics and practitioners across the Americas.

SREs seek more than profit to keep operating; their goal is to help surrounding communities while protecting the environment. Such ventures take many forms — from farming cooperatives to social responsibility programs at big multinationals.

Latin America has more than 15 years of experience in the field of SRE, with best practices available to share with Cuba. So says Eric Leenson, founder of the Forum Empresa socially responsible business network who’s been helping to coordinate dialogue with groups in Cuba since late 2010.

Leenson sees a “unique moment” in Cuban history for SRE to take root.

contribute money and technical expertise to ventures they might not be able to develop on their own, he said. Cuban law permitting, the coops also might draw seed money or other aid from groups overseas, he said.

Global awareness about coops is growing among investors, now that the UN has named 2012 the International Year of Cooperatives.

“Cooperatives can do well in the Cuban model, where employees are the owners and where people are looking for decentralization and elements of democratization in the workplace,” said Leenson.

able, if policy makers and planners want that.”

Leenson pointed to large-scale SRE models around the world, including the Mondragón federation of coops in Spain’s Basque region, with more than 80,000 employee-owners in nearly 300 companies.

The United States has credit unions which are owned by their 91 million members. And in Latin America, Brazil’s solidarity movement is bringing thousands of people from marginalized areas into the productive sector, offering training and startup funds for ventures expected to become self-sustaining.

LARRY LUXNER

BY DOREEN HEMLOCK

COOPERATIVES MAY BLOOM IN MANY SECTORS

Around the world, global financial turmoil has made many people skeptical of traditional capitalism. At the same time, Cuba is allowing private enterprise to a degree not seen since the 1960s, and SRE builds on Cuba’s socialist concerns as well as an educated workforce that can be more easily mobilized than in other countries.

“Cuba may be a hospitable and fertile environment for a hybrid social economy to a higher degree than perhaps anywhere else,” Leenson recently wrote in a report on Cuba.

Leenson is especially optimistic about the potential for worker-owned cooperatives, which already flourish in Cuban agriculture.

Coops could be formed in many other sectors of the economy, from restaurants to auto mechanic shops. They’d let individuals jointly

IN MEMORIAM: MAX AZICRI Dr. Max Azicri, a Havana-born professor of political science at Edinboro University in Erie, Pa., died Nov. 24 at the age of 77.

Azicri, a leading authority on Cuba and the author of three books and hundreds of articles, was a journalist and lawyer who fled Cuba following the 1959 revolution.

In the early ‘60s, he became a member of the Cuban Revolutionary Council in Miami but relocated to Pennsylvania in 1969 upon joining the faculty of Edinboro University.

Over time, Azicri’s hardline views against the Castro regime softened, and in 2001 he was invited by Fidel to attend a Havana conference marking the 40th anniversary of the Bay of Pigs invasion.

CubaNews, which the respected scholar subscribed to for many years, extends its heartfelt condolences to the Azicri family.

Cuba is turning to cooperatives to expand food production. Above, an urban farm in Miramar, Havana.

Already, some farm coops in Cuba are working with counterparts abroad.

Canada’s La Siembra cooperative, based in the Ottawa-Gatineau region, in late 2010 began buying golden cane sugar from four organic and fair-trade certified coops in Cuba’s Villa Clara province. Each Cuban coop has close to or about 100 members, said La Siembra coordinator Jennifer Williams.

The Canadian coop uses Cuban cane to make its Camino-brand products including hot chocolate. La Siembra said such goods command a premium in the Canadian market because they don’t use pesticides, and because the coop helps family farms directly with technical assistance and other support.

Leenson recognizes that SRE is no quick fix for Cuba’s economy. The ventures tend to start small and build over time.

U.S., BRAZIL, SPAIN OFFER POSSIBLE EXAMPLES

Cuba’s government is now exploring a wide range of options as it attempts to move at least one million people off state payrolls.

“For Cubans trying to update the entire economy, socially responsible enterprise may seem piecemeal and not have much impact immediately,” he said. “But once explored, socially responsible enterprise can be scale-

The consortium working on SRE in Cuba includes Forum Empresa, a socially responsible business network active in 19 countries; AVINA Foundation, which specializes in Latin American sustainable development; the Christopher Reynolds Foundation, long concerned with Cuba issues; the Center for the Study of the Cuban Economy, affiliated with the University of Havana, and Cuba’s National Association of Economists and Accountants (known by its Spanish initials ANEC).

The group has received assistance from Dalhousie University in Halifax, Nova Scotia; The Ford Foundation; Halloran Philanthropies; Canada’s International Development Research Centre; Instituto Ethos of Brazil and the Canadian Embassy’s Fund for Local Initiatives, which already operates in Cuba.

The consortium has taken groups of Cubans to Brazil to the annual Ethos Institute conference on SRE in both 2010 and 2011, and to a similar Montreal conference last October.

It also organized an SRE event in Cuba last June featuring presentations by 30 experts from 11 countries. Leenson said more conferences are planned in 2012. q Doreen Hemlock, former Havana bureau chief and now business writer at the South Florida SunSentinel, is a regular contributor to CubaNews.

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CubaNews v December 2011

AGRIBUSINESS

Dominican cigar brand fights Cuba in U.S. trademark suit

BY VITO ECHEVARRÍA

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ashington’s 50-year-old embargo against Cuba, which bans the sale of Cuban cigars in the United States, has been an undisputed bonanza for the neighboring Dominican Republic.

That country’s second-largest city, Santiago de los Caballeros, produces the bulk of premium Dominican stogies and employs more than 14,000 people. Last year, exports of those cigars to the U.S. and European market generated $445.4 million, up from $334.1 million in 2005, according to the D.R. Central Bank.

But one Santiago-based brand — “Pinar del Río — is infuriating the Castro regime.

Dominican cigar makers Abe Flores and Juan E. Rodríguez, who produce Pinar del Rió cigars in nearby Tamboril, registered the PDR trademark with U.S. authorities in 2008, and has since marketed cigars in several U.S. states from the PDR office in New Orleans.

However, Cuban cigar producers Habanos SA and state-run Cubatabaco don’t want Dominican brands with Cuban-sounding names being sold in the United States. (Habanos is a 50-50 venture between Cubatabaco and Alta-

dis, a Spanish company owned by Imperial Tobacco Group PLC.) This is why — even though Cuba can’t enter that market — Cubatabaco secured a license in 2010 with the U.S. Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control specifically to challenge the PDR trademark. The OFAC license was also needed to authorize payment to Cubatabaco’s New York-based attorney, David Goldstein.

Instead of going directly to a federal district court, however, Goldstein filed his lawsuit with the Trademark Trial and Appeal Board (TTAB).

The publication INTA Bulletin reported in its November 2011 edition that Habanos and Cubatabaco initiated proceedings through the TTAB to cancel PDR’s U.S. trademark “on grounds of descriptiveness, geographically deceptive descriptiveness, violation of the Pan American Convention of 1929 and fraud.”

In response, PDR’s Rodríguez filed a motion to dismiss the suit, alleging that neither Habanos nor Cubatabaco had asserted trademark rights for the Pinar del Río brand or similarly named competing marks in the U.S. “There has never been a [cigar] brand

called ‘Pinar del Río’ [in Cuba,” Rodríguez told CubaNews. “We’re Dominican, not Cuban exiles.” Rodríguez asserts that Pinar del Río is not a geographic location found exclusively in Cuba, pointing out that “there’s a Pinar del Río in the Dominican Republic, Brazil and other Latin countries.”

Rodríguez also ridiculed the idea that the Cubans can force his or any other non-Cuban cigar label out of business strictly because they give their label a geographic name — even one associated with Cuba.

Referring to the city of Santiago — a geographic name also associated with the Dominican Republic, Cuba and Chile — he said Cuba trying to cancel his trademark is like going after another cigarmaker whose label happens to be “Santiago.”

Nevertheless, the TTAB ruled against PDR in August, noting that the Cuban cigarmakers had standing after all — meaning that they can proceed with pursuing the cancellation of PDR’s trademark registration.

The judges deciding that case ruled that under Sections 2(a) and 2(e) of the U.S. TradeSee Cigars, page 13

Santiago, D.R., competes with Cuba as major cigar producer he trademark battle Habanos SA and Cubatabaco are waging the world. When Dominican cigar exports reached 60 million against emerging Dominican cigar label Pinar del Río puts a cigars in 1993, an 18% increase over 1992, and the country ranked spotlight on the city of Santiago de los Caballeros as a major first in the world for handmade premium cigar production, Fuente was in the lead, producing over 20 million. producer of hand-rolled smokes.

In a business where wrappers typically came from non-Dominican The vital role cigars play in Santiago’s economy has inspired varsources (usually from Ecuador), ious manufacturers operating the Fuente family stood out by there to form their own trade making the Fuente Fuente Opus group, ProCigar, which promotes X, launched in 1995 with 100% its brands to U.S. and other overDominican content. seas buyers. ProCigar’s annual Meanwhile, some worry about trade show, usually held just Santiago’s future should the U.S. before Cuban rival Habanos’ progovernment lift its trade embarmotional event in Havana every go against Cuba.

February, draws foreign cigar “It won’t make a difference, lovers to the tobacco fields surbecause people in the U.S. are rounding Santiago. used to Dominican cigars,” says Some members of ProCigar Avo Uvezian, a Lebanese-Armeare Cuban exiles who took their nian cigar maker who set shop in cigar-making know-how to the Santiago back in the 1980s.

Santiago region after the Castro “Cuban cigars are different. We revolution forced them to flee have tobacco aged for 20 to 30 Cuba. The best-known of these is years. They [the Cubans] can’t the Fuente family, who first went afford to do that because they to Nicaragua.

When the Sandinistas took Tourists visit a tobacco field in Santiago de los Caballeros, Dominican Rep. have to sell their cigars immediately” to make money. power there in 1979, the Fuentes A female cigar reviewer and relocated to the Dominican Republic, where they’ve remained ever since. Other Cuban cigarmakers in Santiago are Manuel Quesada blogger who goes by the name “Smoking Hot Cigar Chick” agrees.

“Countries where Cuban cigars are prevalent and whose Cuban (of Matasa), as well as the Oliva, Toraño and Pérez-Carillo families.

Thanks to their aggressive marketing — from trade shows to con- stock dries up to meet U.S. demand will realize that cigars from stant advertising in Cigar Aficionado magazine and elsewhere, the Nicaragua, the D.R. and Honduras are as good as Cubans,” she Fuente name is perhaps the best-known of all Cuban exile cigar says. “I personally feel any Tatuaje, Fuente or Padron can hold its own against any Cuban cigar.” manufacturers in the United States.

By 1992, Fuente boasted the largest hand-made cigar factory in – VITO ECHEVARRÍA

T

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December 2011 v CubaNews

TOURISM

RELIGION BRIEFS

Tourist arrivals hit 2.66 million in 2011 uba should end 2011 with a record 2.66 million visitors — surpassing the previous record of 2,531,745 tourists set in 2010, and representing a 5.1% increase.

That’s a good performance by any standard, especially considering that Cuba’s overall economy grew in 2011 by only 2.7%, down from the earlier official forecast of 2.9%.

According to official media, by late December one million tourists had visited Varadero, the fourth year in a row Cuba has achieved this milestone.

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But the fastest-growing source of tourism to Cuba is Russia, whose citizens are lured by cheap beach packages and nostalgic feelings for their former ally (hundreds of thousands of people from the former Soviet Union lived and worked in Cuba over the years).

Some 70,000 Russians visited Cuba in 2011, a 146% jump over 2010 arrivals; at this rate, Russia will easily displace more established sources of arrivals within a few years.

Tourism is now the second-largest source of foreign exchange for Cuba, bringing in $2

Two out of every five tourists arriving in Cuba come from Canada; in fact, Canadian arrivals were up 7.5% in the first nine months of 2011 compared with the year-ago period.

Arrivals from Europe rose by 3.8% despite EU financial turmoil. Britain leads the pack, accounting for 6.5% of total arrivals.

billion a year; the only larger source is professional services, including doctors working in Venezuela and dozens of other nations.

Through September 2011, Cuba reported $1.3 billion in visitor spending, up 2.4% from the same period last year.

As far as preferred destinations, Varadero and Havana clearly lead the rest of the island.

Running a distant third and fourth place are Guardalavaca (Holguín province) and Cayo Coco/Cayo Guillermo resorts (see map).

In order to accommodate all these arrivals, Cuba has added almost 14,000 new touristclass rooms across island in the past decade.

The number of rooms in Varadero alone jumped by 6,615 from 2001 to 2010, translating into 4.9% growth annually.

But the fastest growing capacities are currently at Guardalavaca, where the number of rooms increased from 2,932 to 4,936 in the last 10 years, or 6.8% annually.

Hotel-room availability in Havana has remained stagnant as the government chose to boost occupancy rates rather than embark on new investments, and in Santiago de Cuba, the number of rooms decreased, to 1,972.

The reason: despite its size, Cuba’s secondlargest city lacks the necessary investments to facilitate a takeoff in tourism.

Although Cuba is well-known for its inexpensive, all-inclusive beach resorts, it lags far behind rival Caribbean destinations when it comes to upscale travel. q

WENSKI: POPE’S VISIT ‘A SPRINGTIME OF FAITH’ Pope Benedict XVI’s trip to Cuba next spring will have multiple layers of meaning for the church and for Cuban society, said a U.S. archbishop who pays close attention to Cuba.

The pope will go there as part of the church’s efforts at creating the climate for a “soft landing” for the country to come out from under 50 years of communist rule, Miami Archbishop Thomas G. Wenski told Catholic News Service in a Dec. 14 interview.

Wenski said the pope’s visit to Cuba for the 400th anniversary of Our Lady of Charity of El Cobre is as a messenger of peace and hope.

“Even the Cuban bishops have been surprised by the fervor with which the people have received the statue of Our Lady of Charity in their villages and towns,” said Wenski. “It really represents a new springtime of faith in Cuba.”

In the early days of the revolution, he said, the church suffered greatly. Schools were dismantled; clergy were sent into exile. Open religious practice often led to discrimination in the workplace and for benefits like housing.

In the 1980s, Cuban church leaders aimed to be “a more evangelical presence,” he said.

That led to the conditions for Pope John Paul II to visit in 1998, which itself has led to more openings for the church’s pastoral work.

“In recent years the relationship between the church and government has improved,” he said. “It’s not all that people think it should be — but it’s better than what it used to be.”

HOLOCAUST EXHIBIT UNVEILED IN HAVANA The first exhibit in communist Cuba’s history about the extermination of European Jews opened Dec. 18 at Havana’s Centro Sefaradi.

The exhibit, “We Remember: The Holocaust and the Creation of a Living Community,” was created by local Jews with help from the University of Southern California’s Shoah Foundation Institute for Visual History and Education, the Los Angeles-based Simon Wiesenthal Center and the Jewish Cuba Connection.

“The Nazis sought to destroy Jewish lives and extinguish Jewish life,” said Rabbi Abraham Cooper, associate dean of the Simon Wiesenthal Center. “The honor of affixing a mezuza on the entrance to this exhibit at Havana’s Sephardic Center ... is proof that Jewish solidarity and continuity will forever outlast the genocidal goals of the Nazis.”

The exhibit profiles Cuba’s Jews up to and during World War II, and features video testimony from the Shoah Foundation archive.

“Missions from around the world who come to Havana will find this exhibit to be a highlight of their visit,” said Stan Falkenstein, president of the Jewish Cuba Connection.

“While all Jewish Cubans proudly state that they and their families never experienced antiSemitism, we also know with certainty that most of their fellow Cubans never heard of the Shoah. This exhibit will change that.”

Details: Talia Cohen, USC Shoah Foundation 650 West 35th St., #114, Los Angeles, CA 90089.

Tel: (213) 740-6036. Email: taliacoh@usc.edu.

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CubaNews v December 2011

MINING

Cuba’s traditional marble industry poised for a comeback

BY ARMANDO H. PORTELA

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uba’s marble industry is taking a few modest steps out of oblivion. With the opening of new quarries in Sancti Spíritus and the acquisition of desperately needed equipment, the marble sector has gradually resumed supplying domestic needs and even limited exports.

Even so, current production comes to only 2% of what it was in the late 1980s, according to Cuba’s Oficina Nacional de Estadísticas (ONE) — and in fact some quarries have been abandoned or are barely functioning.

Like nearly all other sectors of the Cuban economy, the island’s marble industry was badly hit by the collapse of the Soviet bloc in the late 1980s and the sudden loss of its clients. The resulting scarcity of fuel and the neglected infrastrcuture forced the government to shut down or mothball quarries throughout the island, halting exports.

Marble quarries at Lagunilla and San Felipe in Pinar del Río province — producing the Marrón Varadero and Negro Cabañas marble types (see accompanying chart and map) — are no longer mentioned in official accounts. Other pits at Real Campiña (Cienfuegos) or Pelo Malo (Villa Clara) have been intermittently closed.

In recent years, Cuba has managed to acquire some modern equipment to replace obsolete Soviet-made machinery, including large block diamond-saws, polishing machines and transport equipment. This has led to a modest rebirth of the sector.”

ONLY EMBARGO’S END WILL REALLY SAVE MARBLE INDUSTRY

Unspecified volumes of marble have been recently exported to China and Uruguay, while some production has gone to the construction of new hotels in Varadero and Holguín.

Local marble has also been used in Old Havana restoration projects, for both public buildings and monuments.

Those improvements, however, don’t seem to be enough to spur a dramatic boost in a sector that not long ago was at zero production.

Exporting marble to such remote clients or supplying Cuba’s scant domestic needs is clearly not sufficient to save the marble sector’s potential. It appears that the currently depressed industry could have the boost of its life once U.S. trade sanctions against Cuba are lifted.

An end to Washington’s embargo could potentially lead to the reopening of some abandoned quarries, as well as the retooling of existing ones with modern equipment. The U.S. real-estate and construction sectors would once again have a nearby source of cheap, nice decorative stones that were familiar throughout the United States half a century ago.

Cuba’s geological structure, with twisted metamorphic rocks spread throughout the island, is especially rich in marble and other decorative stones. It’s safe to assume that the existing quarries are just a fraction of the nation’s potential.

Cuba has five active marble quarries. They’re located in See Marble, page 13

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December 2011 v CubaNews

Cigars — FROM PAGE 10 mark Act, a property interest in a trademark was not needed to show standing “where a trademark sought to be cancelled is deceptive or primarily geographically deceptively misdescriptive.

They added that “a petitioner challenging the registration need not, to establish standing, own a pending application for the mark or be using the term as a mark or otherwise.”

The fact that Rodríguez used the geographic name of Cuba’s top cigar-producing province to sell his smokes was enough to convince U.S. trademark law judges to green light the Cubans’ legal proceeding to have the PDR trademark cancelled, as opposed to having it summarily dismissed.

The TTAB still has to decide the case on the merits, meaning that PDR will eventually have to fight for its very survival in the U.S. cigar market through its attorney.

Neither Habanos officials nor the New York attorney, Goldstein, would discuss the lawsuit with CubaNews.

Frank Herrera, PDR’s Florida-based attorney, has built a reputation over the years defending various non-Cuban cigar labels

the Isle of Youth (Sierra de Casas); Cienfuegos (Real Campiñas); Villa Clara (Pelo Malo); Sancti Spíritus (Cariblanca) and Granma (Jiguaní). Several more have been shut down, while other deposits remain untouched.

Each of these quarries produces at least one type of stone. Cuba has over a dozen types of marble distinguished by color, texture, resistance and reserves.

It’s hard to keep track of all marble produced in Cuba, as commercial names change over time and in different languages.

Production of some brands might be currently halted, and while European, Canadian and U.S. distributors of Cuban marble can be found online, their websites often warn that the stones are not available.”

One of Cuba’s best-known brands of marble is the Gris Siboney, quarried for more than a century in the Isle of Youth, whose reserves are immense. This marble can be found in floor tiles, walls, facades, sculptures and furniture across the island. Some landmarks, such as the gigantic José Martí Memorial towering over Havana’s Plaza de la Revolución, are sculpted out of this marble.

The Rojo Campiña and Bouquet Campiña stones from Cienfuegos are currently the export leaders, according to official sources.

Rojo Escambray and Cream Escambray, both quarried in Cariblanca (Sancti Spíritus), show the fastest-growing production, with proven reserves of 2.2 million cubic feet.

The industry’s waste products could easily be converted into something valuable, but the lack of adequate equipment prevents Cuba from using cuttings to make other products.

Marble is so abundant in the Isle of Youth that historically, roads, driveways, concrete and any other filling work is made with crushed marble. It wouldn’t be an exaggera-

tion to say that some quarries could profit for years just by processing their own residues instead of cutting new blocks.

The government has made a few limited investments at the quarries in Cariblanca, including diamond-plated cables, polishing machines, loaders and transport equipment — sharply cutting the cost of moving marble blocks hundreds of miles from Sancti Spíritus to the Isle of Youth, Mariel or Bayamo for sawing and polishing. q

against legal actions launched by the Cubans.

“Some years back, the Cubans though that the embargo would be lifted,” Herrera told us. “They realized that the significance of the ‘Habano’ name, for example, was being diluted, since non-Cuban cigars were getting more popular in the United States. People actually prefer non-Cuban over Cuban cigars.

“They [the Cubans] looked at every registration that looked or smelled like Cuba, so they decided to oppose those certification marks in the U.S.,” he continued.

“They dedicated millions of dollars to legal actions. Most of their battles have been with small labels. So rather than fight, [these small non-Cuban brands] would just abandon or default. Fortunately, they have not won the cases that I have taken up. They have applied for a certification mark for ‘Habano,’ for example, and have been denied.”

So why are the Cubans pursuing their legal actions through the TTAB? “It’s cheap, it’s easy, and they have all their forms in place,” Herrera suggested. “Also, the federal courts don’t have to hear trademark cases where there are no actual damages.”

[This applies to Cuban cigarmakers, since they cannot sell their smokes in the States.]

Herrera warned that if the Cubans prevail against PDR, they’ll use that victory as precedent in lawsuits against other non-Cuban cigar labels in the future.

There’s another reason Cuba is turning to the TTAB: its negative experience with the federal courts. American cigar aficionados will recall that General Cigar Co. first registered the “Cohiba” name in 1978 and began selling its own Dominican-made cigars under that brand in the U.S. market in the 1980s.

These Dominican Cohibas enjoyed brisk sales in the late ‘90s, and were known for their distinctive label — a red dot in the middle of the letter “O” in Cohiba. That led Cubatabaco to sue General Cigar in federal court. A 2009 ruling by the Southern District of New York granted Cubatabaco’s request for a permanent injunction blocking General Cigar from using the Cohiba trademark on its smokes, but a year later, that decision was overturned by the 2nd Circuit Court.

Earlier this year, the Emory International Law Review explained that the federal courts rendered moot whatever trademark rights Cubatabaco may have on the Cohiba name, because enforcement of such rights would still be barred by the U.S. embargo. q

LARRY LUXNER

Marble — FROM PAGE 12

Havana’s José Martí monument is made of marble.

14

BUSINESS BRIEFS SHERRITT J-V AIMS FOR RECORD NICKEL OUTPUT A Cuban nickel venture with Toronto-based Sherritt International is headed toward a record output of unrefined nickel plus cobalt, Reuters reported Dec. 21, quoting state media in eastern Holguín province.

“Today the Pedro Soto Alba plant met its production target of nickel plus cobalt for the year, and plans by Dec. 31 to reach a record of more than 37,700 tons,” said Radio Angulo.

State monopoly Cubaniquel and Sherritt are also partners in a Canadian refinery where output from the Pedro Soto Alba plant is shipped, and after processing it is marketed by yet another venture between them.

There was no word on production at Cubaniquel’s Che Guevara plant, also located in Moa and with a capacity of around 30,000 tons, and its René Ramos Latourt facility at Nicaro, Holguín, which has a capacity of 10,000 to 15,000 tons.

The two Cubaniquel plants have experienced various production problems this year, according to industry sources and scattered local media reports.

The government has not reported annual production of unrefined nickel plus cobalt since output dipped well below 70,000 tons in 2010. Cuba produced 70,100 tons in 2009 and 70,400 tons in 2008, after averaging 74,000 to 75,000 tons during much of the decade.

TECNOTEX EXECS HELD IN CORRUPTION PROBE Cuba has detained top executives of the powerful military-run Tecnotex company, broadening a corruption investigation that has already shuttered three foreign firms, Reuters reported Dec. 13.

Tecnotex is one of the most important trading companies in Cuba, purchasing equipment, technology, construction materials and other goods for a myriad of military-owned firms in the civilian sector of the economy.

Tecnotex’s director Fernando Noy was among those arrested, according to a foreign businessman who deals with the company.

“They went right into the Tecnotex office and took Noy out in handcuffs,” he said. Other sources also said Noy was detained.

The reported arrest follows that of the chief executive officers of one British and two Canadian companies along with a number of their Cuban employees and purchasers for state-run firms — all of whom had dealings with Tecnotex, according to the sources. The chief executives remain in custody.

Noy is a military officer and is well-known within Cuba’s business world. However, the company told callers that Noy no longer worked for Tecnotex and had been replaced

by Belkis Mir Verdura.

The firm’s commercial director has also been removed while a deputy sugar minister, arrested in October, remains behind bars in connection with the probe.

Cuba’s armed forces have been active players in the economy for years through their holding company Grupo de Administración

CubaNews v December 2011

Empresarial SA (GAESA), which is headed by President Raúl Castro’s son-in-law, Col. Luís Alberto Rodríguez.

Western diplomats and businessmen believe GAESA’s businesses, which included Tecnotex, control as much as 40% of Cuba’s foreignexchange revenues.

The precise allegations against the former Tecnotex director and the foreign company CEOs, who have yet to be charged, are not known, diplomats said. Their arrests have not been reported in Cuba’s state-run media.

WU EXPANDS NETWORK FOR CUBA TRANSFERS Western Union Co. is greatly expanding the number of agent locations in the United States that can send money transfers to Cuba.

Previously, only a limited number of locations could send money, and the process involved faxing paperwork verifications.

A new electronic affidavit will open up transfers from most of WU’s U.S. locations. The company has 58,000 agent locations in the U.S and Canada, and more than 220 locations in Cuba, which it has provided money transfers to since 1999. It pays consumer money transfers in convertible pesos (CUCs).

Details: Victoria López-Negrete, senior vicepresident & general manager/North America, WU, Englewood, Colo. Tel: (720) 332-5564.

MORE RETAIL SERVICES TO JOIN PRIVATE SECTOR Cuba will open up more of the country’s retail services to the private sector effective Jan. 1, allowing Cubans to operate various services such as appliance and watch repair, and locksmith and carpentry shops, official media reported Dec. 26.

The laws are the latest by President Raúl Castro in his attempt to reinvigorate Cuba’s

struggling economy by reducing the state’s role and encouraging more private initiative.

Earlier this year, the Cuban government turned over some 1,500 state barbershops and beauty parlors to employees. Former state employees now pay a monthly fee for the shop, purchase supplies, pay taxes and charge what the market will bear.

Shortly after Fidel Castro’s 1959 revolution, all businesses in Cuba were taken over by the state. But since the former leader handed power to his brother in 2008, the policy has been openly criticized as a mistake.

Cuba plans to have 35-40% of the labor force working in the “non-state” sector by 2016, compared with 15% at the close of 2010. Since then, tens of thousands of Cubans have taken out licenses “to work for themselves,” a euphemism used by the government to describe operating mom-and-pop businesses.

Moving most retail services to the “nonstate” sector is one of 300 reforms approved by the Communist Party earlier this year.

The measures aim to introduce market forces in the agriculture and retail services sectors, cut subsidies and lift restrictions on individual activity that once prohibited the sale and purchase of homes and cars.

In December, the Communist Party daily Granma said the moving of thousands of state retail services to a leasing arrangement would be done gradually throughout 2012.

Economy Minister Adel Yzquierdo Rodríguez told a year-end session of the National Assembly the number of state jobs would be cut by 170,000 next year, with 240,000 new jobs likely to be added to the non-state sector.

Thousands of state taxi drivers will move to leasing arrangements in 2012. Some state food services are also likely to form cooperatives.

Cuba sweetens pot for new private farmers

C

uba, trying to lure people back to the land and lift food production, has modified a land lease program so that private farmers can rent more land and keep it in their family as if they owned it, Reuters reported Dec. 19..

The measures, adopted at a recent Council of Ministers meeting and not yet announced, are the latest loosening of the doctrinaire communism that has ruled Cuban agriculture policy for decades and were hailed by farmers as a step forward.

Farmers said in telephone interviews they were told in local meetings they will be able to lease up to 165 acres from the state beginning in January, compared with the current maximum of 33 acres mandated in a program begun in 2008.

They said the leases will extend for up to 25 years, compared with 10 years now, and can be renewed and passed on to family members and in some cases laborers.

Farmers also will be allowed for the first time to build homes on the leased land and make other improvements under a regulation that guarantees the state will reim-

burse them if they lose their lease.

They had complained that the small size of the plots, short leases and other restrictions hampered production.

“These measures deal with many of the problems we face and give us security in terms of our work,” Anselmo Hernandez, one of 150,000 people who have leased 4 million acres (1.6 million hectares) of land, said from eastern Cuba.

“Twenty-five years is a lifetime of work and faced with whatever problem the family will be the benefactor of what we have done,” he added.

Cuba nationalized most property after the 1959 revolution and the state owns more than 70% of Cuba’s arable land. A local agriculture expert said private farmers, using only 24% of the land, were responsible for 57% of the food produced in Cuba in 2010.

The expert, asking for anonymity, said the new changes “amount to the state granting land to the private sector indefinitely under the guise of leasing, and no doubt most farmers expect that well before their lease is up they will get title to it.”

15

December 2011 v CubaNews

BOOKSHELF

‘Blurred borders’ looks at the Cuban diaspora experience

BY DOREEN HEMLOCK

C

ubans living outside the island have often viewed themselves differently than other diaspora groups. The Castro regime has long shunned them, making their return difficult.

Even sending back money has been difficult because of restrictions imposed by their main country of residence, the United States.

But a new book by noted anthropologist Jorge Duany finds more similarities than differences with other diasporas from the Hispanic Caribbean. That’s especially true since 1989, as the largest wave of Cuban emigration has taken place and Cubans abroad have strengthened links with the island through phone calls, emails, remittances, family visits and Spanish-language media.

In the coming decade, those links could tighten more. Cuban emigration likely will swell, with perhaps 250,000 to 500,000 people leaving the island, Duany predicts. Those new migrants are sure to use new technologies to nurture ties, much as Dominicans and Puerto Ricans already do with their places of origin.

“Cubans, like other Hispanic Caribbean migrants, have spun a dense web of social, economic, political and even religious ties with their homeland,” even when many disagree with the politics back home, Duany writes in “Blurred Borders: Transnational Migration Between the Hispanic Caribbean and the United States,” published in September. “This effort bodes well for any future attempts at reconciliation between Cubans on and off the island.”

The author knows his subject first-hand. He was born in Cuba, raised in Panama and

Puerto Rico, and currently teaches at the University of Puerto Rico. A self-described “Cuba-Rican,” he visits family in Cuba and aims to keep links with the Cuban clan, wherever they live.

Duany’s academic book (ISBN 978-0-80783497-8, paper $29.95) is well-organized, easy to read and peppered with real-life examples like this: “According to a popular joke in Cuba, one must have fe (which literally means faith in Spanish — but is also an abbreviation of familiares en el exteriór, or relatives abroad) to make ends meet.”

The 304-page book includes especially useful tables on Cuban, Dominican and Puerto Rican migration to the United States linked to the historical events in each place and culled from U.S. government statistics.

The chart on Cuban migration shows that more than 1.4 million Cubans have moved to the United States since 1868. The exodus began with a trickle — just 57,123 migrants during Cuba’s independence struggles from 1868 through 1899. It spiked to 248,718 in the 1960s and 278,064 emigres in the 1970s after the Cuban Revolution turned communist.

And it became a torrent with Cuba’s recent economic woes, reaching 305,989 in the 2000s, the largest Cuban migration to the U.S. in any decade so far.

The newest migrants, since the slump after 1989, resemble those from Puerto Rico and Dominican Republic: relatively young, from urban sectors of the working class, with intermediate schooling, seeking better wages and jobs abroad and willing to leave by legal or illegal means, he writes.

The migrants increasingly blur national borders by keeping ties to both “here” and “there.” Improving transportation, communications and travel links boost their “transnational” ties, Duany writes.

Still, the way migrants blur borders depends in part on relations between the sending and receiving countries.

The Dominican Republic, Puerto Rico and Cuba represent “colonial, neo-colonial and post-colonial” ties with the United States, Duany says. That explains why Puerto Ricans, as U.S. citizens, go back and forth freely to the 50 states. Santo Domingo, as a U.S. ally, treats emigres as long-distance members, giving them dual citizenship and letting them vote in Dominican elections.

And Havana, with frosty U.S. ties, has not yet embraced its emigres, even as they increasingly help the island economy.

Details: Elaine Maisner, Senior Executive Editor/Latin American Studies, University of North Carolina Press, 116 S. Boundary St., Chapel Hill, NC 27514-3808. Tel: (919) 962-0810 or (800) 848-6224. Email: elaine_maisner@unc.edu.

URL: http://uncpress.unc.edu/books/10503.html

Cuba’s economic reforms and implications for U.S. policy

T

he Washington-based Center for Democracy in the Americas (CDA) has issued a comprehensive report on Cuba’s efforts to update its economic model.

“Cuba’s New Resolve: Economic Reform and its Implications for U.S. Policy” traces Cuba’s economic history since 1959, the reforms being under taken now by Raúl Castro, what’s already been accomplished and what yet needs to be addressed, and concludes with constructive ideas for U.S. policy moving forward.

“This report was literally years in the making,” said CDA executive director Sarah Ste-

phens. “It is the result of dozens of CDA research trips to the island and scores of interviews with Cubans — ranging from government officials, experts and analysts, to bicycle taxi drivers, the new entrepreneurs, and everyday Cubans who have real anxieties about reforms that will end their access to a guaranteed job and iconic social benefits like the ration card.”

“We relied on our own reporting and analysis, and on a broader body of work that we’ve tried to pull together and put in one place as has never been done before,” she added.

The 92-page report, written by Collin Laverty, features a number of charts and color photos, is part of CDA’s “21st Century Cuba” series, which has been made possible by support from the Ford Foundation.

The report suggests, among other things, that President Obama and other U.S. policymakers acknowledge that Cuba’s reforms are real, that they open the way to a greater role for the market, and that changes are likely to exact great hardships on the Cuban people.

“They should also acknowledge that the

reforms represent an important beginning,” says the CDA report. “Until that all happens, our ambivalence plays into the hands of hardliners in Cuba who oppose reform or rapprochement with the United States.”

Secondly, the CDA says Obama should further loosen restrictions on U.S. citizens visiting Cuba by using his executive authority to expand categories of legal travel — for example, order general licenses for freelance journalists, professional researchers, musicians, architects, artists, consultants and others.

“Cuba should also be removed from the U.S. State Department list of state sponsors of terrorism,” it says, adding that the IMF, World Bank and other international financial institutions have provided useful support to countries undergoing economic transitions, and that the U.S. government should allow Cuba to have access to their experts and advice.

Please contact CDA for copies of the report.

Details: Sarah Stephens, Executive Director, CDA, PO Box 53106, Washington, DC 20009.

Tel: (202) 234-5506. Fax: (202) 234-5508. URL: www.democracyinamericas.org.

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CALENDAR OF EVENTS If your organization is sponsoring an upcoming event, please let our readers know!

Fax details to CubaNews at (3 0 1 ) 9 4 9 -0 0 6 5 or send e-mail to larry@cubanews.com.

Jan. 7 : American Economic Association, Hyatt Regency, Chicago. Panel sponsored by the Association for the Study of the Cuban Economy. Moderator: Deirdre McCloskey, University of Illinois. Topics: “Does Expanded Travel to Cuba Offset Crisis Spillovers?” (Andy Wolfe, International Monetary Fund); “Cuban Household Consumption: An Update (Luís Locay, University of Miami); “Cuba’s Evolving Output Gap (Rafael Romeu, IMF). Details: ASCE. PO Box 28267, Washington, DC 20038. Email: jppujol342@aol.com. URL: www.ascecuba.org.

Jan. 1 1 -1 3 : “Pop-Up Paladares,” Cuba Libre Restaurant & Rum Bar. Washington. Argentineborn Chef/partner Guillermo Pernot brings Cuba’s most innovative chefs to Washington in 2012. First one featured is Luís Alberto Pérez of Havana’s El Gijonés, Bar Oviedo, La Terra and Asturias. “Chef Lucio” has cooked for many visiting dignitaries to Cuba. Cost: $39 per person (not including beverages, tax and gratuity). Details: Cuba Libre Restaurant & Rum Bar, 801 9th St. NW, Washington, DC 20009. Tel: (202) 408-1600. URL: www.cubalibrerestaurant.com.

Jan. 1 2 : “Discover Cuba” presentation, Fresno, Calif. Event to highlight upcoming June trip to Cuba. Cost will be $3,799 per person including round-trip airfare from LAX, 8 nights in firstclass hotel, 21 meals, sightseeing and all other expenses. Details: Fresno Chamber of Commerce, 2331 Fresno Street, Fresno, CA 93721. Tel: (559) 495-4800. URL: www.fresnochamber.com.

Jan. 1 2 : Juan Tamayo, reporter and columnist for the Miami Herald, discusses Cuban blogger Yoani Sánchez, Friends of the Marathon Library, Florida Keys. Program is at St. Columba Episcopal Church, 451 52nd Street, Marathon, FL. Details: Monroe County Public Library, 3251 Overseas Highway, Marathon, FL 33050-2344. Tel: (305) 743-5156. URL: www.keyslibraries.org.

CubaNews v December 2011

CARIBBEAN UPDATE You already know what’s going in Cuba, thanks to CubaNews. Now find out what’s happening in the rest of this diverse and fast-growing region.

Subscribe to Caribbean UPDATE, a monthly newsletter founded in 1985. Corporate and government executives, as well as scholars and journalists, depend on this publication for its insightful, timely coverage of the 30-plus nations and territories of the Caribbean and Central America.

When you receive your first issue, you have two options: (a) pay the accompanying invoice and your subscription will be processed; (b) if you’re not satisfied, just write “cancel” on the invoice and return it.

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Jan. 1 8 : “Cuba: Is it Time for the U.S. to Normalize Relations and End the Sanctions?” World Affairs Council, Washington. Col. Lawrence Wilkerson will argue in favor of ending the U.S. embargo; Heritage Foundation’s Mike González will argue for keeping it in place. Moderator: Ginger Thompson of the New York Times. Cost: $10. Details: World Affairs Council, 1200 18th St. NW, Suite #902, Washington, DC 20036. Tel: (202) 202-293-1051. URL: www.worldaffairsdc.org.

Jan. 2 6 : Oil industry expert Jorge Piñón, who has studied Cuba’s Gulf of Mexico oil drilling plans extensively, speaks at Friends of the Marathon Library. Program is at St. Columba Episcopal Church, 451 52nd Street, Marathon, FL. Details: Monroe County Public Library, 3251 Overseas Highway, Marathon, FL 33050-2344. Tel: (305) 743-5156. URL: www.keyslibraries.org.

Feb. 6 -2 9 : “Cuba’s Past, Present and Future.” Executive certificate course in Cuban studies, University of Miami. Sessions are 6:30-8:30 pm every Monday and Wednesday in February.

Professors include well-known Cuba scholars José Azel, Andy Gómez, Brian Latell, Vanessa López, Pedro Roig and Jaime Suchlicki, among others. Cost: $395 (including course materials). Details: Vanessa López, Institute for Cuban and Cuban-American Studies, Casa Bacardi, 1531 Brescia Avenue, Coral Gables, FL 33146-2439. Tel: (305) 284-5386. Email: LVLopez@miami.edu.

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Washington correspondent n ANA RADELAT n

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Political analyst DOMINGO AMUCHASTEGUI n Feature writers TRACEY EATON n n VITO ECHEVARRÍA n n DOREEN HEMLOCK n n

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