Helping To Promote Democracy Today

Regulation of the Anchorage and Movement of Vessels
Firm, officials admit illegal sales to Cuba (PI)
Cuban entrepreneurs test small steps in capitalism...(DMN)
Freemasons' membership building again (SS)
Adopt 1-track Cuba policy (OS)
One of original floating truck migrants called back for US interview
Family: Beyond tourist haunts, another Cuba...(AJC)
Cuban rhythms It's still difficult for Americans to visit the island, but a special permit allowed one group to share religious culture and do a bit of sightseeing
U.S. and Cuba cooperate on many issues (MH)
ENTREVISTA: FELIPE PEREZ ROQUE...(Clarin)
Recibe Raul Rivero la noticia del premio
La diplomacia becaria
Carta a los argentinos
Presentarán en Miami un filme sobre la disidencia en la isla (NH)

Office of the Press Secretary

February 26, 2004
Notice Continuation of the National Emergency Relating to Cuba and of the Emergency Authority Relating to the Regulation of the Anchorage and Movement of Vessels
On March 1, 1996, by Proclamation 6867, a national emergency was declared to address the disturbance or threatened disturbance of international relations caused by the February 24, 1996, destruction by the Cuban government of two unarmed U.S.-registered civilian aircraft in inter-national airspace north of Cuba. In July 1996 and on subsequent occasions, the Cuban Government stated its intent to forcefully defend its sovereignty against any U.S.-registered vessels or aircraft that might enter Cuban territorial waters or airspace while involved in a flotilla or peaceful protest. Since these events, the Cuban government has not demonstrated that it will refrain from the future use of reckless and excessive force against U.S. vessels or aircraft that may engage in memorial activities or peaceful protest north of Cuba. Therefore, in accordance with section 202(d) of the National Emergencies Act (50 U.S.C. 1622(d)), I am continuing the national emergency with respect to Cuba and the emergency authority relating to the regulation of the anchorage and movement of vessels set out in Proclamation 6867. This notice shall be published in the Federal Register and transmitted to the Congress.
GEORGE W. BUSH
THE WHITE HOUSE,
February 26, 2004.
Return to this article at:
http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2004/02/20040226-12.html

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The Philadelphia Inquirer
Posted on Sat, Feb. 28, 2004 
Firm, officials admit illegal sales to Cuba
By Joseph A. Slobodzian
Inquirer Staff Writer
Almost two years after they were convicted and then granted a new trial, a Bala Cynwyd company and two of its officials pleaded guilty yesterday to violating the U.S. embargo on trade with Cuba.
Bro-Tech Corp. and its vice president Donald E. Brodie pleaded guilty to one count of violating the Trading with the Enemy Act. U.S. District Judge Mary A. McLaughlin immediately imposed a stipulated sentence: a $250,000 fine for the company and one year's probation and a $10,000 fine for Brodie.
James E. Sabzali, Bro-Tech's marketing director, pleaded guilty to one count of smuggling. He was sentenced to a year's probation and fined $10,000. All three fines were paid in full to the government yesterday.
Lawyers for the company and Brodie declined to comment on why they pleaded guilty. The unusual plea agreement and stipulated sentence appeared to have been an effort by defendants and prosecutors to cut their losses and avoid a protracted retrial and further appeals.
Had Brodie and Sabzali been reconvicted, they would have faced no-parole prison terms of three to four years and fines of up to $250,000.
"After almost four years of litigation, Mr. Brodie and his family are gratified to be able to get this behind them and move along with their lives," Brodie attorney Steven Kimelman said.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Joseph G. Poluka conceded that difficulties of a retrial were part of the government's decision, but he added that Bro-Tech and the two executives pleaded guilty to felonies and paid fines in full.
Bro-Tech, which also operates as Purolite Corp.; Brodie, 57, of Bryn Mawr, and his older brother Stefan Brodie, 61, of Center City, Bro-Tech's president; and Sabzali, 45, of Wynnewood, were indicted in October 2000 on one count of conspiracy and 76 counts of trading with the enemy.
The indictment alleged violations of the 43-year-old U.S. ban on trade with Cuba involving sales from 1992 to 2000 of about $2 million worth of ion-exchange resins used in water purification. Bro-Tech sold the chemicals through foreign companies in Canada, Mexico, Italy, Spain, and the United Kingdom that have offices in Cuba.
After a two-week trial, a jury in April 2002 convicted all of the parties on conspiracy and Donald Brodie and Sabzali on trading charges as well.
The Brodies testified in their defense, saying they never intended to violate the Cuban embargo but also acknowledging they did not challenge Bro-Tech employees when they heard the resins might be sold to Cuba.
Sabzali did not testify; his attorneys argued that he believed he was not covered by the U.S. embargo because he is Canadian and began working for Bro-Tech in Canada.
The trial drew intense interest in Canada, which does not honor the Cuban embargo and whose law prohibits Canadian businesspeople from complying with the trade ban. Prosecutors argued that foreign nationals in the United States are bound by U.S. laws.
Two months after the verdict, McLaughlin ordered the acquittal of Stefan Brodie, ruling that there was not enough evidence that he was present at Bro-Tech's offices and knowingly participated in a conspiracy.
Then, last June, McLaughlin ordered a new trial for Donald Brodie, Sabzali and the company, ruling that "prejudicial comments" by prosecutors in their closings might have swayed the jury more than the evidence.
The case also has spawned a legal malpractice suit filed this month by the Brodies in Philadelphia Common Pleas Court against the city's largest law firm, Morgan, Lewis & Bockius.
The lawsuit contends that the Brodies and Bro-Tech were prosecuted because they followed the advice of their Morgan Lewis attorneys about carrying on trade with Cuba.
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The Dallas Morning News
Cuban entrepreneurs test small steps in capitalism
Havana businesses voice familiar gripes: taxes, red tape
08:04 PM CST on Saturday, February 28, 2004
By TRACEY EATON / The Dallas Morning News
HAVANA – Sick of paying income taxes? Well, it could be worse. Some months, Ariel Duyos hands over 80 percent of his income to the government.
But this small-time Cuban capitalist isn't complaining. He makes more money than the island's top brain surgeons and nuclear physicists, 11 years after Fidel Castro – trying to provide relief during hard economic times – allowed the first wisp of free enterprise to seep into the socialist system. Still, capitalists in the Western hemisphere's only communist country don't have an easy time. They pay some of the world's highest taxes, they endure mountains of red tape and they regularly tangle with government inspectors.
Such difficult conditions have caused the number of cuentapropistas – or workers on their own account, as these Cuban capitalists are called – to drop from 209,000 in 1996 to 149,990 today.
"Cuban officials are taking measures based on a perception that they have breathing room," said Philip Peters, a former State Department official and now Cuba specialist for the Lexington Institute, a private research organization in Arlington, Va.
Tourism has rebounded and the Cuban economy has improved, so officials are not encouraging growth in the number of cuentapropistas, Mr. Peters said.
"These entrepreneurs operate in a tightly limited legal space, but they show initiative and prosper. They are an indicator of the degree to which Cuba could generate new jobs, growth and tax revenue were it to embrace a genuine small business sector," he said.
Fidel Castro has lashed out at cuentapropistas, accusing them of piling up small fortunes while other workers, including teachers, doctors and police officers, barely get by on low wages.
"The more contact we have with capitalism...the more repulsion I feel," the Cuban president said in 1998. "This excess money which a lot of people have is causing us a lot of damage."
Cuban Cabinet ministers, engineers and armed forces officers earn $12 to $23 per month, according to a 2002 report by the Institute for Cuban and Cuban-American Studies at the University of Miami. But those in the private sector make many times that, said the study, entitled "Growing Economic and Social Disparities in Cuba."
Farmers make from $77 to $1,923 per month; truck drivers from $385 to $770; prostitutes from $240 to $1,400; landlords from $250 to $4,000; internationally recognized musicians from $600 to $6,000; and private restaurant owners from $12,500 to $50,000, the study said.
U.S. officials say there's nothing wrong with some Cubans earning more than others because some people have more talent, intelligence, energy or skill than others and should be compensated for it.
"The absence of economic freedom has been as destructive to prosperity as the absence of political freedom to human dignity," said a Dec. 15, 2003, State Department fact sheet on Cuba. "The underemployment of a creative and educated population, coupled with almost total control of the legal economy by the centralized state bureaucracy, fuels a massive illegal economy."
Cuban officials say that workers' benefits, including free schooling and health care, easily make up for any disadvantages that the socialist system may have.
They also say that these workers aren't discriminated against because of their capitalist bent and enjoy all the social and retirement benefits of other Cuban workers.
Cuentapropistas "guarantee important services to the population," which is adversely affected by the "criminal" 4-decade-old U.S. ban on trade with Cuba, said Nestor Iglesias of Cuba's Ministry of Labor and Social Security.
Mr. Castro makes it clear that he does not plan any changes or any shift toward capitalism. He emphasized that point on Jan. 29 during a five-hour speech at the Third Hemispheric Encounter of Struggle, an event that drew participants from 32 nations and is aimed at coming up with alternatives to a hemispheric U.S. free trade agreement.
Even so, the seed of capitalism planted in Cuba in 1993 remains alive.
Mr. Duyos sells little wooden boxes used to store Cuban cigars or whatever else you have in mind. But whether the 25-year-old sells any boxes or not, he must pay $159 per month in taxes plus about $2 in rent for his space at the artisans' market in Old Havana.
"I think $159 in taxes is high," he said. "I'd be happy with $100."
By law, he's allowed to sell his wares for only 16 days a month, "and sometimes that's not enough days to make that money," to pay the taxes, he said. But he said he prefers that to working for a state-run company.
When business is good and tourists are swarming Old Havana, he said, he earns as much as $600 a month. When tourism drops, he said, he makes only about $200. And he has to pay the $159 tax even when he goes on vacation.
Lisette Garcias, 38, is another cuentapropista. She sells figures made of papier-mache and also pays $159 in taxes per month.
"I made enough working here to buy a TV, but later I had to sell it to pay my monthly taxes," she said.
The Cuban government has not made all forms of private enterprise legal. Cubans are allowed to work privately in only about 150 occupations. These workers include plumbers, carpenters, tire repairmen, hairdressers, bicycle parking lot attendants, taxi drivers and flower vendors. New licenses are difficult if not impossible to obtain.
Authorities began imposing income taxes in 1995, the first such taxes in Cuba in 37 years.
Not all workers pay the same tax. Some give just 5 percent of their income to the government.
Still, the restrictions are many. Private restaurants, for instance, can only have 12 seats and can only employ family members, although those rules are sometimes broken.
The restrictions fall heaviest on restaurants, taxis and artisans who compete with state-run enterprises, Mr. Peters said.
Some workers also say they regularly underreport their income to pay less taxes.
Jose Ramón Glarai, 72, has been a cuentapropista for the last six years and sells used books in Old Havana.
"I make enough to live but not to get rich," he said. The disadvantage, he said, is that he sometimes must endure rain or suffocating heat. But even worse than that, he adds, is "going through the stress of not selling anything."
Despite such ordeals, cuentapropistas will be vital to the Cuban economy in the post-Castro era, researchers say.
"When a transition toward a true free-market economy occurs in Cuba, the self-employed will be an important minority of Cubans who have worked in small enterprise, who are familiar with risk taking, investment and profits, taxes and regulation," scholar Benjamin Smith wrote in a 1999 study, "The Self-Employed in Cuba: A Street Level View."
E-mail traceyeaton2004@yahoo.com
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The Sun-Sentinel
Freemasons' membership building again
Vanessa Bauza
February 29, 2004
HAVANA · Overlooking a bustling central Havana intersection, the Grand Lodge of Cuba might easily be mistaken for a nondescript office building were it not for the international Masonic symbols perched on its rooftop: a large compass symbolizing reason and a square for rectitude.
By day, the 11-story lodge houses offices for Cuba's telephone company and the Ministry of Education, as well as its own administrative headquarters and small printing press with turn-of-the-century machines. But on weeknights it is home to 45 Masonic groups that hold their ritual-filled meetings in its vast, if slightly dusty, halls.
Membership in the popular and powerful secret brotherhood dwindled after Fidel Castro's revolution, when many Freemasons fled the island while others were swept up by the winds of social change and felt they no longer needed the institution.
"The decrease [in membership] was vertiginous," said Gustavo Pardo, president of the national commission of Masonic teachings. "There were lodges who supported the government and others who didn't."
Until the past decade, Cuba's officially imposed atheism contradicted the Masons' belief in a Supreme Being or "great architect of the universe" and some Masons were limited from high-level positions in selected fields.
In recent years, however, as Cuba became more secular, Masonic lodges have started to fill with young members again -- from about 18,000 in the early 1980s to 29,000 today. Last year Cuba's Masons inaugurated their first two new lodges since 1967 with approval from the Cuban government.
Around the world, from New Zealand to a group of exiled Iranians, Freemasons encourage principles of tolerance and morality while keeping discussions of politics and religion strictly outside the lodge. Cuba is no exception.
"In our lodges there can be opposition members or members of the Communist Party," said José Collera, a pediatrician who followed his father into the fraternity in 1968 and is now grand secretary at the central Havana lodge. "We don't talk about topics that can divide us."
Masonry, which is thought to have its roots in medieval guilds, was brought to Cuba by French landowners who came here fleeing Haiti's slave rebellion. This year marks the bicentennial of Cuba's first Masonic lodge, founded under the sponsorship of a Pennsylvania lodge.
Cuba's Masons claim some of the island's most cherished sons as their own, including independence heroes Antonio Maceo and Maximo Gómez and Carlos Manuel de Céspedes, considered the father of the Cuban nation. Whether or not José Martí, the "apostle" of Cuban independence, was a Mason recently became the subject of two dueling newspaper articles in the Communist Party mouthpiece, Granma.
Today the group appeals to men who are searching for self-improvement, an alternative to government-affiliated organizations and, in some cases, a network to lean on during Cuba's enduring economic crisis.
Ernesto Sanchez, 35, a language interpreter, joined the Masons three years ago seeking "a guide to stimulate my intellect and spirituality."
"If you go to a church everyone thinks alike; if you go to the [Communist] Party everyone thinks alike. This is a place where everyone can contribute something," Sanchez said on a recent afternoon in the library at the Grand Lodge. "Every person has the right to share their thoughts regardless of political or religious ideas."
Cuba's Masons gave up most of their philanthropic activities after the 1959 revolution and now depend largely on donations from international lodges for everything from fabric for their ceremonial aprons to repairs on their temples.
The Grand Lodge's deed is still held by the Masons despite property laws that expropriated most privately owned buildings in the 1960s. It recently received an overhaul thanks in part to donations from Masons abroad, including a delegation from Washington, which gave about $15,000.
The building houses a Masonic parliament, studies center and a supreme court in which members may be tried for administrative or character transgressions. It is also home to a small museum with a motley assortment of antiquities, including toaster oven-sized links from the anchor chain of the USS Maine, one of the first mule-drawn fire engines used in Havana and dozens of medals, swords, caps and uniforms donated by deceased members.
Like Masonic groups across the world, Cuba's Masons share secret handshakes and passwords. But here their meetings hold a special significance, some say.
"They democratically elect the officers. They vote on expenditures. It's probably one of the few organizations in Cuba where democracy is actually at work," said Robert H. Starr, a former grand master from Washington who has visited Cuba's lodges four times in the past three years.
Vanessa Bauzá can be reached at vmbauza1@yahoo.com.
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The Orlando Sentinel
COMMENTARY
Adopt 1-track Cuba policy
By Paolo Spadoni
Special to the Sentinel
March 1, 2004
The U.S. Treasury Department recently stated that it is considering the possibility of restricting remittance rules that allow Cuban-Americans to send as much as $1,200 a year to family members in Cuba. The announcement stirred fear among exiles in South Florida who regularly use money-transfer services to financially support their relatives on the island.
Most exiles groups oppose curbing remittances to Cuba because family members on the island desperately need the funds for purchases of food, clothes, and medicines. At a time when the Bush administration is attempting to woo Cuban voters leading up to the presidential election, why would it take steps to cut off this aid? The idea of restricting money transfers could reflect an increasing frustration in Washington with the ironic results of the Cuban embargo.
The most contradictory element of the embargo is the establishment of a dual approach that severely restricts travel and financial transactions with respect to Cuba by American citizens of non-Cuban descent while granting Cuban-Americans special exemptions for family-related visits to the island and remittances. While U.S. policy was originally conceived as a way to increase economic pressure on the Castro government (and eventually hasten its demise) by stemming the flow of hard currency reaching Cuba, this "two-track" policy ended up throwing a lifeline to the same government it was supposed to undermine.
More than 125,000 Cuban-Americans travel to Cuba every year, most likely leaving more money than any other group of foreign visitors. Unlike "regular tourists," Cuban-Americans bring dollars for their needs, dollars for family members' purchases during their stay, and additional dollars that are given to relatives before departure. Combined with the money sent from the United States through formal transfer services or personally delivered by paid agents ("mules"), Cuban-Americans pump about $1 billion each year into Cuba. Thus, South Florida cash to Cubans may indeed make the life of the latter more bearable, but it also benefits the Castro government which captures the vast majority of remittances through sales in state-owned dollar stores and transactions in exchange houses.
Taking into consideration total sales in dollar stores ($1.35 billion in 2002), the average price mark-up in these outlets (240 percent), and transactions in exchange houses ($100 million in 2002), net hard currency revenues to the Cuban government from remittances are today greater than its profit from tourist activities and sugar and nickel exports combined.
Given this situation, a "one track" Cuba policy that holds citizens of Cuban descent to the same standards as any other American is needed. One option is to strengthen current restrictions on travel and remittances by significantly reducing the number of Cuban-Americans authorized to visit Cuba and the amount of money they can send to their families. While such a move may be unpopular, and surely questionable on moral grounds, U.S. policy would be consistent with its stated goals.
Obviously, these restrictions would require a huge sacrifice on the part of the Cuban exiles. If they are, in fact, willing to do "whatever it takes" to intensify pressure on the Castro government, then they should stop visiting relatives in the island, stop sending money to them, and even stop calling them. Yes, they should even stop calling their relatives.
The Cuban and the U.S. governments agreed to pay each other 60 cents for every minute of traffic originating in their respective territories. There are currently about 20 minutes of conversations originating in the U.S. (mostly Cuban-American calls) for every minute from the island. Thus, U.S. companies end up paying Cuba as much as $80 million a year for telecommunications services.
If U.S. policymakers are, understandably, unwilling to restrict Cuban Americans' activities, then the alternative option is to promote a rapprochement with the Castro government to implement a policy that respects the rights of all Americans to travel to and engage in financial transactions with Cuba. Such an approach may more effectively serve U.S. interests by helping the Cuban people and spreading the values of the American society. Recent bipartisan initiatives in Congress to lift the ban on travel to the island indicate that many members of Bush's own party recognize the need for a unified approach on Cuba.
Whether U.S. officials may opt for a further tightening of the embargo or for a less confrontational stance toward Cuba, a "one track" policy would allow for a more evenhanded respect for the rights of all U.S. citizens. However, both alternative approaches present political risks for the Bush administration at a particularly sensitive time in the U.S. political cycle.
Paolo Spadoni is a doctoral candidate in the department of Political Science at the University of Florida. He has visited Cuba four times, conducting research on foreign investment in the island, U.S. sanctions, and U.S. financial flows in the Cuban economy.
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One of original floating truck migrants called back for US interview

By ANDREA RODRIGUEZ
Associated Press Writer
27 February 2004 

HAVANA (AP) - One of the Cubans who tried to reach Florida last summer aboard a truck converted into a boat was called by U.S. officials to a surprise interview Friday about his request to migrate legally to the United States.

 The outcome of Ariel Diego's morning interview was unknown. He told journalists that he left the session early after he felt ill.

 Also unknown was why consular officials moved up his interview date from April to Friday at the last minute.

 Diego was one of only two would-be migrants called back for interviews with U.S. officials in Havana after their unsuccessful attempt aboard the bright green 1951 Chevy pickup last July.

 The other man, Luis Grass, said he couldn't wait and made a second attempt to get to the United States illegally early this month -- this time aboard a floating Buick sedan.

 Grass, his wife and child were taken to the U.S. naval base in Guantanamo -- in Cuba's extreme east. The other would-be migrants aboard the Buick were returned to Cuba.

 Under U.S. immigration policy, Cubans who reach U.S. shores generally are allowed to stay while those caught at sea are usually returned.

But the U.S. Department of Homeland Security decided the Grass family had a credible fear of persecution if they are sent home, American officials said at the time.

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Family: Beyond tourist haunts, another Cuba
On the western side of the country,
By DEIDRE D'ASARO
Published on: 02/27/04, Pinar del Rio, Cuba
Hey, that guy is holding up some kind of bird." I yawn, sunburned and sleepy as we zoom past hopeful figures waving avocados, plantains and more along Cuba's main highway, or autopista. "Is that a buzzard?"
"Turkey!" my husband exclaims as he whips our rental car into a U-turn, bumping over the rocky median and back toward Havana again. "Do you have any change?"
After three days frolicking on the creamy-white beaches of Cuba's tourist playground, Varadero — off limits to the average Cuban — all I have is a damp $10 bill.
But now my husband, Raul, his nephew and I are heading back to the world of my husband's family. It's all part of my first trip to Cuba under a U.S. family visa allowing us to visit his hometown of Pinar del Rio. In my in-laws' world, fresh turkey meat is hard to find, as is any fresh meat. Despite my lack of fluency in Spanish, I am getting a taste of that world, one unseen by most U.S. visitors.
What I discover is that some tastes are definitely worth missing. After gagging on some spongy government-ration "mystery meat" the week before, I understand my husband's eagerness to stock his parents' larder. And so we shop like thrifty locals, ready to leap whenever opportunity waves.
But our turkey windfall runs into a snag. The seller, a farmer with a wrinkled face and screechy voice, says he does not have change for a $10. El Niño, as my husband likes to be called, is scandalized by my blithe suggestion that we make the man's day and let him keep it.
"Eh, Niña, you don't know what you are saying," he grumbles, reminding me a $10 bill is worth about 270 pesos, for many Cubans the equivalent of a month's pay. So Niño, his nephew and the farmer walk off gesturing to the farmer's home. They return with three plump, trussed-up white chickens in addition to the turkey, all very much alive and less than thrilled about a car ride.
My beach towel is soon covered with feathers and droppings. Worse yet, one of the chickens escapes its trusses, and then another, just as we enter the Pinar city limits. Pedestrians are startled by glimpses of a wild-eyed turista, covered in feathers and more, chasing chickens in the back of a Peugeot.
Tourist trail
Adaptability is a key survival skill in Cuba, for visitors but especially for residents. Utility services can cut off with little or no notice, for days at a time. And while access to goods and services has improved since the pereíodo especial, or special period right after the fall of the Soviet Union and the end of Russian subsidies, the quality is poor and deliveries unreliable.
So shortly after we arrived in Cuba, when the water trucks failed to show up for the third day in a row (thanks to the U.S. trade embargo, we were told), and my in-laws' cistern ran dry, we took this as a sign. It was time leave the city for a few days andfollow the well-beaten path of European tourists tothe surrounding province of Pinar del Rio.
For those willing to take a one-hour side trip off the main highway between Havana and Pinar, lush Soroa awaits in the foothills of the Sierra del Rosario. The 60-foot waterfall is well worth the hike, and visitors can swim in the pond at its foot. The town also features an orchid garden and botanical park.
Next, we checked out the legendary tobacco fields and nubby limestone mogote formations of Viñales Valley, a 17-mile drive from Pinar del Rio. At the hotel Los Jazminez, which boasts an amazing view of the valley, a sparkling pool and working bathrooms restored our faith in plumbing. (A double room without breakfast usually goes for $48.)
An unfortunate dining experience at the Don Tomas House restaurant in the historic town of Viñales reminded us of the fundamental flaw of most Cuban restaurants: They're government-owned. When we ordered the house specialty, seafood paella, at the hefty tourist price of $10 each, the bowls came out half full and bereft of seafood. We found out later that the employees have a reputation for taking the seafood home to their families.
Most Cubans who want to dine out (and tourists in the know) seek out paladares, or mini-restaurants, in private homes. Often connected to the Cuban equivalent of a B&B, paladares are among the few private businesses that Cubans can operate, and they are heavily taxed. They must rely on word-of-mouth advertising, and many owners hire runners to watch for tourists.
In Pinar del Rio city, we visited Pasimon paladar/B&B and feasted on fresh seafood and vegetables cooked by the owner, Papito, and his wife, Belkys, all for a fraction of the cost of our dismal Don Tomas experience. (Dinner is $5-$8; a room for two plus breakfast can cost $20.)
Hitchhikers welcome
On the trip from Pinar del Rio to Varadero, we see a man on a moped catch a free ride, saving gas by hanging on to the side of a horse cart as it creaks down the highway.
Huge open-air trucks double as buses and are required to pick up hitchhikers between loads. The number of Cubans we see walking and traveling is in sharp contrast to tourist-only Varadero, where police patrol the streets regularly, requesting IDs. Cubans who don't work there are told to leave within two days or risk being shipped out to the far provinces.
Tourists are pretty much left alone, and since blond Niño and his nephew look like Germans, both can walk into many of Varadero's resorts without being challenged. My husband, a new American citizen, even qualified for free drinks at an all-inclusive resort, much to his delight.
"Fidel Castro buys you a drink, Niña!"
Cuban motorists are encouraged to pick up hitchhikers, and groups of people surge into the highway attempting to flag us down.
El Niño is reluctant, given reports of robberies of some generous tourists, but we stop on a trip about a mile outside Pinar to pick up two women, one carrying a child with a bandage on his heel. It's an ugly gash, thankfully on the mend, but the women are more concerned over some unexplained puffiness on his face. They are heading to the city to look for a hospital with more supplies than the rationed bandages at their country clinic.
"If we didn't pick them up, who knows how long they would have had to wait?" Niño said. "One hour? A day?"
Art and politics
Before visiting Cuba, I was intrigued to learn that several Cuban artists popular in Europe and South America live in Pinar del Rio. Often, collectors from these countries will combine a trip to Cuba's beaches with a side trip to buy directly from the artists.
A childhood friend of my husband, Maikel Martinez Polo, a painter who specializes in oil landscapes, arranged for us to visit several artists, including the nearby home of one of Cuba's more famous names, Pedro Pablo Oliva.
Oliva, who studied in Pinar and Havana and has exhibited internationally for three decades, is known for his whimsical works combining childhood images with a surreal edge.
Even though his pieces have commanded top prices at Sotheby's and Christie's art auctions, Oliva is a Cuban patriot who has chosen to stay to be near family and friends. He has a beautiful villa and studio in downtown Pinar, thanks to government recognition of his stature. But his precarious relationship with the regime is on view as soon as you enter his studio.
There hangs his huge and controversial canvas "El Gran Apagon" or "The Great Blackout," considered by some to be his masterwork, the Cuban version of Picasso's protest piece, "Guernica."
In Oliva's work, a caricature of Castro sits in a long tunnel with his eyes shut, surrounded by real and imaginary figures, including floating eyeballs. Oliva painted it in the early 1990s during the worst of times that followed the collapse of the Soviet Union.
In 1996, the painting was displayed in Havana's National Museum of Fine Arts, generating such strong reaction among Communist officials that they barred it from public view. It has hung in his private studio ever since.
Despite the somewhat somber tone of his work, Oliva was open and welcoming, showing off his latest projects and even introducing us to his grandchildren. He hinted he might be willing to sell "The Great Blackout," as long as it went to a place "where it can be seen by all." But since the government has declared his masterwork a national treasure that must not leave the country, his options are limited.
Tomasina the turkey
Near the end of our two-week visit, I finally noticed that even though the chickens we had bought on the highway were long gone, my mother-in-law's freezer contained no poultry. I later discovered the meat had been stored with various relatives to spare my feelings.
The turkey, which I had named Tomasina during our wild ride together, still stalked the deck, solemnly pecking at bread crumbs. My in-laws' willingness to humor my softness for animals was touching — and somewhat embarrassing. Everyone seemed to have developed an aversion to eating turkey.
"Nino, it's not a big deal," I urged. "I know they need that turkey for food. Please, just tell them they can kill it if they need to."
"My father says there's no hurry, Niña, they can wait. He knows you like the turkey," Niño said. "Besides, he likes Tomasina's name."
Finally we decided to take Tomasina to a friend's farm in Viñales, where she could run free with other poultry. The farmer's wife, Maria, stared at us, frankly baffled as Niño explained the situation. You could see the turkey's life span shorten to the amount of time it would take for her to get us out the front door, and a pot on to boil.
"Oh, and her name is Tomasina," Niño added in Spanish.
"Tomasina?" Maria paused, considering, and then broke into a grin. "Bueno, Tomasina!"
"Eh, Niña, she likes the name," Niño said, as he drove through malanga fields on our way back to town. "Maybe you'll see your pet turkey next year."
Find this article at:
http://www.ajc.com/news/content/travel/content/0204a/29cubanative.html 
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Cuban rhythms It's still difficult for Americans to visit the island, but a special permit allowed one group to share religious culture and do a bit of sightseeing  

JANET FRANKSTON Staff
29 February 2004
The Atlanta Journal - Constitution

Havana 

When we arrived at the Telegrafo, across from Havana's central park, I didn't expect our accommodations to look like an Ian Schrager boutique hotel, styled with an art deco mosaic on a wall in the bar, arched ceilings and a silver couch in the lobby.  

The Telegrafo stands along the Prado, a main avenue with a park running down the middle that ends at the sea. Framed tapestries with floral prints hung above the beds, and the television aired CNN, ESPN and HBO.  

But the threadbare towels, low shower pressure and flickering lights reminded me that I was in Cuba. Some rooms lacked a good supply of toilet paper, and when the wake-up calls came a half-hour early or not at all, I wasn't surprised.

 If you've always dreamed of strolling in Old Havana to soak in the mix of architectural styles or gaze at the classic 1950s cars, you can go to Cuba, but not as easily as only a few months ago. You need a U.S. government-approved purpose to visit legally.

 And don't expect a trip to the beach, literally. Most trip organizers are careful to comply with licensing rules for trips to Cuba, and lolling on the beach doesn't fit the criteria. Free time can be limited, and you may be shuttled from place to place on a tour bus, leaving only a few minutes at Revolution Square or an hour to walk the cobblestone streets of Trinidad. I hated feeling like a tourist with a schedule to meet, but it was a small sacrifice for the chance to experience a practically forbidden island only 90 miles from Key West, Fla.

 Of course, I wasn't really a tourist because the four-decades-old U.S. trade embargo prohibits tourism for Americans. (The island of 11 million people is still a vacation destination for Europeans, Canadians and others.)

 For us, a legal trip required a visa issued by the Cuban government and a license approved by the U.S. Treasury Department under several categories. The Bush administration has eliminated "people-to-people" licenses that allowed cultural exchanges, and as of Dec. 31, these trips have stopped.

 One license for traveling is for religious purposes, which is how I arrived in Cuba in December. The Marcus Jewish Community Center of Atlanta sponsored a weeklong mission to visit Cuba's burgeoning Jewish communities and deliver aid, using a license issued to the Cuban-American Jewish Mission in Berkeley, Calif. There is no solid data about how many Americans visit Cuba annually, but we were among the few. A New Jersey-based charter company, Marazul, estimated 220,000 went last year, using research from flights and from the Cuban and U.S. governments.

 If you can get there, expect lots of surprises, starting with money. Remember to pack cash. Your American-issued credit cards and ATM cards won't work because there are no arrangements between Cuban and American banks. (Neither will your American cellphone.)

 Though the country does not have formal relations with the United States, the Cuban government legalized the use of U.S. dollars in 1993, creating a two-tier economy. Cubans who get paid in dollars, often those who work in the tourism industry, have access to "dollar shops," which are likely to be stocked with goods and food when peso shops are empty. Cubans who get paid in pesos find their money doesn't go as far.

 Some economists and civil engineers work as tour guides because they can make more money than in the professions for which they trained. A joke in Cuba asks why a physicist is wandering around the famed Hotel Nacional de Cuba. The answer: He dreams of working as the doorman with potential for a better salary.

 Still, no matter who the doorman is, the Hotel Nacional is worth a visit. Opened in 1930, the nearly 500-room art deco-style hotel overlooks the Havana harbor and has hosted everyone from Winston Churchill and Frank Sinatra to Roman Polanski and Barbara Walters.

 The Nacional gave a wonderful concert, starring members of the Buena Vista Social Club and Afro Cuban All Stars Pio Leyva, Teresa Garcia Caturla and Gonzalo "The Master" Rubalcaba, who won a Grammy in 2001.

 Even though the audience was made up mostly of tourists, the performance was worth its $25 cover charge. So was the price of the mojitos --- a rum drink made with mint, sugar, lemon or lime juice and club soda. It seemed to vary by a few dollars depending on the servers who knew we had dollars to spend. Perhaps this was a small glimmer of capitalism?

 I could have skipped the overpriced show ($65) at the Tropicana, the famous outdoor cabaret that opened in 1939. The floor show featured dancers with chandeliers on their heads and colorful costumes with feathers.

 The National Ballet of Cuba staged a more graceful performance, of "Don Quixote." Tickets cost $10 for foreigners and five pesos (about 25 cents) for Cubans. The ballet, under the direction of famed Cuban dancer Alicia Alonso, is housed in the Gran Teatro de la Habana, a grand theater with five balconies.

 Down the street from the theater, Cuba's Capitol, modeled after the United States Capitol, was hard to miss with its huge dome. The day we visited, artists sold their goods inside. The coffee shop provided wonderful views of the Prado.

 In the Chinatown section, not far from the Capitol, we ate at Min Chih Tang at Manrique No. 513, which specialized in Italian dishes, including lobster pizza.

 Also near the Capitol were Havana's central park, home to a statue of Cuban national hero Jose Marti and the place where locals gather to talk about baseball and Old Havana.

 UNESCO added Old Havana to its World Heritage Sites list in 1982. Founded by the Spanish in 1519, the district felt more European than Caribbean, with its narrow streets and baroque and neo-classical monuments.

 Workers were busy restoring many buildings in Old Havana, yet some stood next to crumbling structures in need of paint. On Wednesdays, the district plays host to a book fair in Plaza de Armas. An artists' market is nearby, where original paintings, elaborate cotton dresses and wooden crafts sell for a few dollars on certain days.

 A quick walk away are Old Havana's two art museums, the Museo Nacional de Bellas Artes and the Museo de Arte Colonial, worth a trip to see the buildings and the Cuban and foreign art. So is the Museo de la Revolucion, in the former neo-classically designed palace of dictator Fulgencio Batista. Some cases display blood-spattered clothing worn by the revolutionaries. Life-size wax statues depict Che Guevara and Camilo Cienfuegos in combat.

 While the trip offered a few free evenings, we spent packed days meeting with leaders of Jewish communities in Havana, Cienfuegos and Santa Clara to hear about the Jewish renaissance taking place.

 Now that limitations on religious practices have been relaxed after the collapse of the Soviet Union and a visit by Pope John Paul II in 1998, religion is acceptable for Cubans. Even members of the Communist Party are allowed to be "believers." Cuban Jews are learning prayers and customs, and Americans --- as well as Jews from around the world --- are going to Cuba to help them.

 We made several visits to the Patronato, the Jewish community center that also houses one of three synagogues in Havana, in the Vedado neighborhood, where many Jewish families lived before the 1959 revolution. On a Friday evening, we attended Shabbat services there with about 80 others, including many Americans. The following Sunday, we met children at religious school and encountered four tour buses full of Americans.

 In addition, we saw two Jewish cemeteries outside Havana and a Holocaust memorial constructed in 1948. We visited synagogues that were as large as congregations in Atlanta and some in Cienfuegos and Santa Clara that were essentially people's living rooms. En route, we passed by the lush countryside where tobacco is grown and saw Cuba's picturesque seaside.

 Even though Cuba's Jewish population is small, about 1,500, a Jewish-themed hotel opened last summer in Old Havana. Some rooms in the state-owned Raquel had paintings of scenes from the Bible. Outside each door hung plates with a name from the Old Testament and a mezuzah, a small piece of parchment rolled into a case and attached to the doorpost of a home or outside a room that signifies the sanctity and blessing of a Jewish home.

 The hotel's restaurant, Garden of Eden, served dishes you'd expect at the Carnegie Deli, not in Havana: kugel, beet borscht, knishes, matzo ball soup and gefilte fish. The hotel even hosted a Hanukkah party with latkes and candle lighting.

 While this trip offered many glimpses of Cuban life, I didn't see the full picture. But I did get a chance to experience Cuba before it changes.

 If the U.S. trade embargo is lifted, which likely will happen when dictator Fidel Castro, 77, dies, American businesses will move in. I'd expect to see real estate development along the beaches, chain hotels with fast Internet connections and a McDonald's or Starbucks around every corner. Photo Cojimar, east of Havana, is a fishing village where Ernest Hemingway kept his boat during the 1940s and '50s. The area served as the prototype of the fishing village in Hemingway's "The Old Man and the Sea," which won a Pulitzer Prize. / JANET FRANKSTON / Staff Photo After a three-year renovation, the Hotel Telegrafo reopened in 2001 with tastefully decorated rooms with high ceilings. / JANET FRANKSTON / Staff Photo In Old Havana, beautifully restored buildings often are next to crumbling structures in need of renovation. / JANET FRANKSTON / Staff Photo Trinidad, in central Cuba, was founded in 1514. It's best to tour the cobblestone streets on foot. / JANET FRANKSTON / Staff Photo Colorful buildings and narrow cobblestone streets are hallmarks of Trinidad, designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1988. The city benefited from a sugar boom in the 18th and 19th centuries. / JANET FRANKSTON / Staff Graphic WHO CAN GO TO CUBA?

 Here's what the U.S. Treasury Department's Web site says:

 The following categories of travelers are permitted to spend money for Cuban travel and to engage in other transactions directly incident to the purpose of their travel under a general license, without the need to obtain special permission from the U.S. Treasury Department:

 U.S. and foreign government officials traveling on official business, including representatives of international organizations of which the United States is a member.

 Journalists and supporting broadcasting or technical personnel regularly employed by a news reporting organization.

 Persons making a once-a-year visit to close family relatives in circumstances of humanitarian need.

 Full-time professionals whose travel transactions are directly related to professional research in their professional areas, provided that their research is of a noncommercial academic nature; comprises a full work schedule in Cuba; and has a substantial likelihood of public dissemination.

 Full-time professionals whose travel transactions are directly related to attendance at professional meetings or conferences in Cuba organized by an international professional organization, institution, or association that regularly sponsors such meetings or conferences in other countries.

 Amateur or semi-professional athletes or teams traveling to Cuba to participate in an athletic competition held under the auspices of the relevant international sports federation.

 The Treasury Department may issue licenses on a case-by-case basis authorizing Cuba travel-related transactions directly incident to marketing, sales negotiation, accompanied delivery, and servicing of exports and re-exports that appear consistent with the licensing policy of the Department of Commerce. The Treasury Department will also consider requests for specific licenses for humanitarian travel not covered by the general license, educational exchanges, and religious activities by individuals or groups affiliated with a religious organization.

 Information: Licensing Division, Office of Foreign Assets Control, U.S. Department of the Treasury, 1500 Pennsylvania Ave. N.W., Treasury Annex, Washington, DC 20220. 202-622-2480; www.treas.gov/ofac . Graphic IF YOU GO

 Before the elimination of "people-to-people" licenses, Americans could take educational or cultural trips to learn about Cuban music or dance, or explore visual arts or architecture and design with local artists.

 Now, travelers need specific reasons and even expertise for "fact-finding" academic research trips or to attend professional exchanges and conferences or be enrolled in an academic program. Humanitarian and religious missions are allowed.

 Many Jewish groups across the country offer trips, from the well-established program of the American Jewish Congress to small synagogues.

 Global Exchange, a human rights organization based in San Francisco that has offered trips to Cuba for 15 years, scaled back its schedule because many trips had been cultural and educational exchanges, said Ana Perez, the group's Cuba program director. It still helps facilitate conferences for professionals, such as doctors or environmentalists.

 Most of the 2004 trips listed on the group's Web site are related to a conference or information gathering for professionals working on research topics, and are limited to the participant and no companions, she said.

 Perez said she expects numbers of Americans traveling to Cuba to drop this year by 30 percent to 40 percent. Last year, an estimated 220,000 traveled there, including 115,000 Cuban-Americans visiting family and 30,000 who traveled illegally through third countries, said Bob Guild, program director for Marazul, a charter company based in Edgewater, N.J. About 75,000 traveled with licenses, with half using "people-to-people."

 If you don't belong to an approved profession, you can also go on a humanitarian trip. The Cuba AIDS Project, a nonprofit group based in New Jersey, offers humanitarian licenses for volunteers who bring medical supplies to support established programs. The medical charity will hold symposia in the spring and summer. Participants need translating skills, medical experience or volunteer experience with AIDS groups.

For Reprints in the Original Format: http://www.ajc.com/info/content/services/info/reprint2.html

The Miami Herald
Posted on Sun, Feb. 29, 2004 
COMMENTARY
U.S. and Cuba cooperate on many issues
BY JORGE DOMINGUEZ
Despite high-decibel rhetoric between them, U.S. and Cuban governments cooperate over many issues to serve the public interest of both countries and the political interests of their presidents. Some cooperation began in the 1960s, including the migration agreement signed in 1965. Cooperative relations widened and deepened during the Clinton administration and even more under President Bush. This cooperation is most evident in migration and border-security concerns.
The two governments cooperate to ensure safety at the border between Cuba and the U.S. naval base at Guantánamo. That has led to confidence-building measures, including regular meetings between U.S. and Cuban military commanders. The Bush administration's decision to hold these prisoners there deepened U.S.-Cuban military cooperation. The United States seeks, and Cuba willingly offers, cooperation to seal the border to prevent Taliban and Al Qaeda prisoner escapes from the U.S. base and to stop cross-border infectious diseases.
In 1984, with thousands of recent arrivals from the Mariel boatlift in federal penitentiaries, President Reagan signed a migration agreement designed to return to Cuba those Cubans found excludable under the U.S. law. Since then, every U.S. administration has fostered this cooperation. The Bush administration suspended bilateral migration talks in January 2004 because it wanted better cooperation with the Castro government to enable U.S. deportations of more Cuban excludables.
Since the Reagan presidency, U.S.-Cuban migration agreements presume that most Cubans do not have a legitimate fear of persecution from the Castro government and do not, therefore, qualify for U.S. refugee or political asylum status. The administration argues this position in U.S. courts.
The U.S. and Cuban coast guards also cooperate routinely. In the Florida Straits, the U.S. Coast Guard interdicts Cuban migrants lacking proper U.S. documents and returns them to Cuba. The Cuban Coast Guard permits these operations. The coast guards cooperate from time to time over drug-traffic interdiction, and Cuba has offered to strengthen this cooperation. When exile flotillas sail toward Cuban waters to commemorate Castro government atrocities, the two coast guards plan specific operational details and surround the flotilla to prevent incidents.
Exquisite treatment
The Bush administration, moreover, authorized agricultural exports to Cuba. The United States instantly became Cuba's principal food supplier and one of its top import partners. Cuba privileges U.S. exporters, paying them in cash. No other Cuban trade partner receives such exquisite treatment.
The U.S. government authorizes humanitarian donations to recipients in Cuba. Most contributions come from churches, other communities of faith and charitable and civic groups; following natural emergencies, some funds come from the U.S. government. The United States is Cuba's second largest source of donations.
The Cuban diaspora, principally from the United States, remits about $1 billion per year to friends and relatives in Cuba. This sum greatly exceeds Cuba's earnings from sugar exports. Last year, the Bush administration liberalized the procedures for lawful Cuban-American remittances.
The two governments cooperate because each wants to control its borders, prevent undocumented migration, interdict drug trafficking, promote agricultural trade and govern security relations between them.
Helms-Burton
What about U.S. economic sanctions? Every six months since the enactment of the Helms-Burton act in 1996, Presidents Clinton and Bush suspended the statute's most important segment, Title III, which addresses properties that Cuba once expropriated. Both administrations minimally enforced the statute's Title IV, which seeks to deny visas to executives of non-U.S. firms that traffic with Cuba. Thus, Helms-Burton has been neutered.
Nor is the U.S. trade embargo the principal explanation for Cuba's difficulties. Cuba has a hard time importing goods and services because its economy is grossly inefficient. Cuba, however, is free to import from all other countries. U.S. sanctions marginally increase Cuba's financing and insurance costs, reduce the choice in imported goods and services and makes it more likely that only second-tier international firms will invest in Cuba.
Why, then, the hostile rhetoric between national leaders and symbolic policies such as restricting travel? Presidents Bush and Castro benefit politically from such rhetoric. Aggressive Bush administration rhetoric makes it easier for Castro to sustain his elite coalition. Whether or not most Cubans believe that the homeland is in peril, elite ''softliners'' are held in check because the U.S. rhetoric increases personal fear about their fate.
Castro rhetoric
Aggressive Castro rhetoric and repression of human-rights activists make it easier for the Bush administration to sustain its policies. The war of words and symbols consolidates each president's political support where it matters most: the few people in each country for whom these issues matter more than others. Yet this aggressive rhetoric does not prevent substantive cooperation. And it inexpensively satisfies each president's supporters on both sides of the Straits of Florida. We should think more about U.S.-Cuban cooperative relations, and not be blindsided by the war of words.
Jorge Domínguez is a professor and director of the Center for International Affairs at Harvard University. 

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Clarin
Buenos Aires
Zona 
Domingo 29 de febrero de 2004 
ENTREVISTA: FELIPE PEREZ ROQUE, MINISTRO DE RELACI0NES EXTERIORES DE CUBA
"Hay peligro de una intervención militar de EE.UU. en Cuba"
La posibilidad de que empeoren las ya tensas relaciones con el gobierno de Bush, la política del régimen cubano con sus opositores, y los números reales que implica el embargo, son tratados en este reportaje exclusivo para Clarín.
Natasha Niebieskikwiat
George W. Bush encargó a su secretario de Estado Colin Powell una revisión de la política norteamericana hacia Cuba. ¿Esperan ustedes algún cambio o más de lo mismo: conflicto?
—Todo apunta a peor de lo mismo. El 10 de octubre, Bush habló para los grupos ultraconservadores de origen cubano en Miami y anunció la creación de una Comisión para la Transición en Cuba. En diciembre, el subsecretario de Estado Roger Noriega organizó la primera reunión y comentó las ideas que se habían estado discutiendo. Dijo: "Hay tres temas. El primero es que el régimen cubano sólo se sostiene debido a la personalidad de Fidel Castro. Nuestra primera tarea es presentarle al presidente Bush opciones para acelerar la salida de Fidel". El propio Fidel preguntó públicamente al presidente Bush —todavía no respondió— si se trata de asesinarlo. Le preguntó si está en vigor o no la prohibición de asesinar líderes extranjeros que firmara Gerald Ford en los 70. Noriega dijo: "EE.UU. tiene que estar preparado para actuar rápidamente, en las primeras horas, e intervenir, cuando Fidel no esté, para evitar que sus compinches —así nos llamó— puedan dar continuidad al régimen". Sugirió, francamente, la idea de la intervención. Y agregó: "Tenemos que presentar nuevas medidas para endurecer el bloqueo económico contra Cuba". Creemos que la administración está actuando bajo la presión electoral, bajo el temor de un Bush caído en las encuestas.
¿Creen ustedes que esto es sólo retórica o ven la posibilidad de un peligro mayor?
—Existe un peligro real de que se trate de inventar los pretextos para una intervención militar contra Cuba. Recordemos que la administración Bush ha acusado a Cuba de tener un programa de investigación y producción de armas biológicas, que el propio ex presidente James Carter desmintió públicamente. EE.UU. mantiene a Cuba en la lista de países que patrocinan el terrorismo, acusación falsa. Existe, sí, un peligro real de que se intente una agresión contra Cuba.
¿Y si no sucediera, es posible que Cuba sirva de pretexto para otras acciones norteamericanas, como alguna forma de intervención contra Hugo Chávez en la crisis venezolana?
—Es muy difícil que EE.UU. pueda dictar pautas en las relaciones con Cuba a los gobiernos que han venido surgiendo en América latina. A Washington le preocupa que en América latina surjan gobiernos que han tomado distancia de las políticas que ellos impusieron en la región y que han mostrado un fracaso total. Chávez alienta un gobierno con amplio apoyo popular, con un programa social muy claro y defiende la integración latinoamericana. El presidente Néstor Kirchner encabeza en la Argentina una batalla realmente admirable en defensa de los intereses nacionales. Lula significa la llegada al poder en Brasil del Partido de los Trabajadores. La política de EE.UU. hacia Cuba está aislada.
En este clima es difícil entender el hostigamiento a la oposición interna. ¿No hace la Revolución las cosas más difíciles para sus propios objetivos?
—No existe una oposición interna en Cuba. Existen diversidad de opiniones, un rico debate político, un espacio ampliamente democrático, dentro de nuestro partido y de las instituciones de la sociedad civil. En Cuba hay más de dos mil organizaciones no gubernamentales. Si de lo que hablamos es de si en Cuba puede existir una oposición fabricada y financiada por el gobierno de los EE.UU., no, no puede existir.
Pero lo drástico de la política del régimen —largas condenas, pena de muerte— para con esa oposición es difícil de justificar fuera de Cuba.
—Los que evalúan fuera de Cuba este problema suelen olvidar que los cubanos vivimos en un país sitiado por un vecino poderoso y debemos defendernos. Hay que buscar la responsabilidad de lo que pasa en Cuba en los agresores y no en los agredidos. Cuando Cuba no esté bloqueada, cuando no tenga la crispación de la defensa, cuando sea dejada en paz, podrá entonces avanzar más de lo que lo ha hecho.
El embargo es un argumento oscuro en algún punto. ¿Cuáles son sus números reales?
—Le ha costado a Cuba 72 mil millones de dólares en cuarenta años; 1.900 millones de dólares por año promedio. Cuba no puede exportar a los EE.UU., destino del 80% de sus exportaciones hasta 1959. Podría vender, allí, decenas de miles de toneladas de níquel; azúcar a 26 centavos la libra, la misma que tiene que mal vender a 5 centavos la libra. No puede exportar cítricos, tabaco, productos biotecnológicos y farmacéuticos, únicos en su tipo en el mundo. No puede importar de EE.UU., excepto alimentos. No puede recibir turismo de los EE.UU. Recibiría, según datos publicados en EE.UU., 5 millones de turistas al cabo del quinto año en que se apruebe que viajen. Siete mil millones de dólares brutos para la economía cubana adicional. ¿Saben dónde se pone Cuba con 7 mil millones de dólares adicionales?
¿Por qué el régimen de Cuba encuentra problemas para mostrar flexibilidad en casos puntuales, como el pedido del Gobierno argentino en favor de la doctora Hilda Molina, impedida de viajar al exterior?
—Me interesa esclarecer algunas cosas que se publicaron en la Argentina. Clarín publicó que "Rafael Bielsa y su par cubano hablaron de disidentes". Le doy garantías de que la palabra disidente no se nombró en la conversación. Dijeron que Bielsa me informó que la Argentina comenzaría a atender a la oposición cubana. Es falso. Bielsa no me dijo eso, sería improcedente. Dijeron: "Kirchner tocó el tema de los disidentes en Cuba". Es falso. Kirchner no me nombró la palabra disidente. InfoBae aseguró: "Kirchner se reunió con el canciller de Cuba y habló del caso Molina". Falso. El presidente Kirchner no me nombró el tema de Hilda Molina ni me entregó ninguna carta.
No explica el caso concreto de la doctora Molina, profesional respetada y antigua militante de la Revolución.
—En nuestra conversación privada con Bielsa hablamos del tema. Acordamos que no es un asunto de la relación bilateral. Por única vez, él —con todo respeto, por supuesto— abordó el asunto. Yo le di mi opinión y acordamos que eso era lo que íbamos a decir públicamente. Ahora voy al fondo del tema. El señor Roberto Quiñones, hijo de Hilda Molina, puede tomar el avión de Cubana e ir con sus hijos a Cuba, ver a su madre y regresar cuando quiera. El lo sabe desde 1998.
Pero una restricción pesa sobre la doctora Molina.
—Es correcto. La doctora Hilda Molina renunció a su práctica, al Partido y a su banca en la Asamblea Nacional por su voluntad. Después empezó a participar de manera activa en las campañas contra Cuba. Creó un Comité Independiente de Médicos Cubanos, financiado con dinero de la Sección de Intereses Norteamericanos en La Habana, que emitía informes tendenciosos y se publicaban en los periódicos de Miami. A partir de ahí se enrareció la situación. Siguió una campaña mediática y Cuba no puede sentar el precedente de que cede bajo la manipulación mediática. La restricción está en vigor. Cuba no puede darse el lujo de premiar el chantaje.
----------------------

Recibe Raul Rivero la noticia del premio

El Nuevo Herald
February 28, 2004
WILFREDO CANCIO ISLA

El periodista cubano Raul Rivero recibio finalmente ayer la noticia del Premio Mundial UNESCO--Guillermo Cano de Libertad de Prensa 2004 y aprovecho la comunicacion telefonica desde la carcel para afirmar que honraria con su dignidad el galardon otorgado.

''Me dijo que le enviaba un mensaje de agradecimiento a la UNESCO, a su director general [Koichiro Matsuura] y a todos los periodistas libres del mundo, asegurandoles que sabria mantener con dignidad el nombre de Guillermo Cano'', senalo ayer Blanca Reyes, esposa de Rivero, en conversacion desde La Habana.

Reyes pudo hablar ayer con Rivero por 20 minutos, poco antes de que fuera trasladado nuevamente a la carcel de Canaleta, Ciego de Avila. El reo permanecio hospitalizado por una semana en una sala de la Prision Provincial para realizarse un chequeo medico.

''Se quedo atonito con la noticia... me dijo que si hubiera podido, estaria brincando alli de contento'', conto la mujer. ''Es muy triste saber que ha tenido que enterarse tres dias despues que lo supiera el mundo entero, y que minutos despues se lo llevaran esposado en un carro jaula para regresarlo a una celda humeda''.

El premio de libertad de prensa de la UNESCO lleva el nombre del periodista colombiano Guillermo Cano en honor del ex director del diario El Espectador, asesinado en 1987 por denunciar las actividades de poderosos narcotraficantes en su pais. La distincion fue instituida diez anos despues para reconocer la labor de personas, organizaciones e instituciones defensoras de la libertad de expresion, especialmente si hay riesgo de muerte en la mision.

Rivero, de 58 anos, reconocido tambien como un poeta imprescindible de su generacion, creo la agencia independiente CubaPress en 1995 y figuro entre los fundadores de la Sociedad de Periodistas Manuel Marquez Sterling, en el 2001, y de la revista De Cuba, en diciembre del 2002.

Actualmente, cumple una sancion de 20 anos de carcel por presuntos actos contra la independencia nacional y la integridad territorial del Estado.

El galardon de la UNESCO --dotado de $25,000-- se suma a una notable lista de reconocimientos obtenidos por el cubano, entre ellos el Premio Columnistas de El Mundo (Espana), el pasado ano; Premio Libertad de Prensa de Reporteros Sin Fronteras (Paris, 1997); y mencion honorifica del Premio Maria Moor Cabot de la Universidad de Columbia (Nueva York, 1999).

En el 2000, fue electo uno de los 50 Heroes de la Libertad de Informacion en el siglo XX por el Instituto Internacional de Prensa, con sede en Viena.

La distincion de la UNESCO, otorgada por un jurado internacional, se entregara en Belgrado el proximo 3 de mayo, Dia Mundial de la Libertad de Prensa.

La diplomacia becaria

El Nuevo Herald

February 29, 2004 PABLO ALFONSO

Hubo un tiempo en que el regimen de Fidel Castro trato de influir en Latinoamerica a traves de la subversion y los movimientos guerrilleros. Fue una politica desarrollada a cuenta de los poderosos recursos economicos que, procedentes de la Union Sovietica (URSS), entonces manejaba Cuba.

Los suenos de convertir a la cordillera de Los Andes en la Sierra Maestra de America Latina se decongelaron en el tiempo; y finalmente se esfumaron tras la desaparicion de la URSS y el derrumbe del comunismo en Europa Oriental en la ultima decada del pasado fin de siglo.

A partir de entonces, en el contexto de la nueva realidad internacional, la dictadura cubana cambio su metodos de influencia. La nueva estrategia tiene como pilar fundamental la solidaridad en un ambito de indiscutible valor social: la salud. En las universidades del pais se comenzo a ''producir'' medicos y profesionales de la salud a un ritmo creciente y en un numero que supera con mucho las necesidades nacionales.

Cuba ha empleado tanto esfuerzo y recursos en esa nueva politica de influencia en America Latina, que los opositores cubanos que se preguntan por que el regimen castrista disfruta de apoyo en la region podrian encontrar en ella una respuesta.

La dictadura cubana inauguro en La Habana, en 1999, la Escuela Latinoamericana de Medicina (ELAM), en la cual cursan estudios gratis alrededor de 6,925 jovenes de 20 paises de America, incluido Estados Unidos. Ademas en la Universidad de Santiago de Cuba se preparan como medicos otros 490 jovenes que provienen de Haiti, Mali y Jibuti, paises de habla francesa.

Precisamente en marzo se inaugura el nuevo curso de la ELAM y ya comenzo en La Habana el recibimiento a los 1,600 becarios que ingresaran en el primer ano de Medicina. Estos jovenes reciben una beca completa, con estudios, libros de texto, tres comidas al dia, atencion medica y estomatologica gratuitos, asi como facilidades recreativas...

Entre las informaciones publicadas sobre el tema por la prensa oficial cubana en dias recientes figuran estos datos:

De Republica Dominicana llegaran 40 jovenes que se suman a los 270 que cursan estudios en la ELAM.

Unos 500 becarios de Paraguay se encuentran en la actualidad estudiando en las universidades cubanas.

Un total de 40 jovenes guatemaltecos viajaron el martes a Cuba, aumentando a 600 la cifra de jovenes de este pais centroamericana que ya estudian medicina en la isla.

Desde Estados Unidos viajaron seis jovenes, que segun Granma, se uniran a otros 60 norteamericanos que ya se preparan en la ELAM, entre ellos uno que cursa el 5to. y ultimo ano de la carrera.

''Significa esto que a partir de marzo venidero, seran mas de 8,000 los jovenes latinoamericanos, caribenos, de algunos paises africanos, y estadounidenses, que recibiran formacion como medicos en centros de ensenanza superior de Cuba'' , subrayo Granma.

?Cuanto dinero y recursos cuesta esta formidable cifra de becarios al pueblo cubano?. La dictadura castrista no ha ofrecido nunca cifras del presupuesto empleado para ''este gesto de solidaridad'', pero no hay dudas de que cualquiera que sea ese costo, el regimen lo emplea en ganar influencia y apoyo politico en la region.

De cualquier forma, cualquiera que sea la intencion de la dictadura cubana, es indudable que hay 8,000 jovenes que se benefician profesionalmente de la misma.

Carta a los argentinos;

El Nuevo Herald

February 29, 2004 OSWALDO PAYA SARDINAS

La Habana --Recibimos con satisfaccion la noticia de que un grupo de intelectuales argentinos habian publicado la ''Carta de apoyo al Movimiento Civico Cubano''.

Agradecemos la solidaridad de estos intelectuales que, en medio de la desinformacion que sufrimos los cubanos, lanzan ese rayo de luz. Pensamos que expresa no solo su sentir, sino el de muchos argentinos. Sabemos que tambien en Latinoamerica la desinformacion sobre la realidad cubana se ha extendido y arraigado durante decadas. Por esa razon, muchas personas de buena voluntad identifican lo que para los cubanos, que somos los que lo soportamos, es un regimen de no derecho, como el Olimpo de la justicia y la libertad. Estamos seguros de que los argentinos, que sufrieron otra dictadura recientemente, pueden comprender la realidad cubana y que solo la falta de conocimiento pudiera justificar que personas honestas apoyen o justifiquen la violacion, este estado de no derecho. Ningun argentino podra entender, ni creer, que los cubanos preferimos vivir en un orden sin derechos que nos ha sepultado en la pobreza mientras una minoria tiene todos los privilegios.

Aclaramos:

Que agradecemos el llamado de intelectuales argentinos para que representantes de su gobierno escuchen a representantes de la oposicion pacifica cubana. Esta exigencia la hacen ciudadanos argentinos a su gobierno y a sus diplomaticos, para que de esta manera corresponda a los valores democraticos y de respeto a los derechos humanos que sostienen los argentinos. Es decir, son los argentinos los que estan pidiendo a su gobierno que tenga en cuenta al pueblo cubano y no solo al gobierno en sus relaciones con nuestro estado.

Que son insultantes contra nuestro pueblo las declaraciones del excelentisimo senor Raul Taleb, embajador de la Republica Argentina en nuestro pais, en las que justifica las violaciones a los derechos humanos en Cuba. Ademas, su juicio de que los disidentes no representamos al pueblo no solo es el mismo del gobierno cubano, sino discutible. Nosotros no pretendemos ser representacion del pueblo, pero expresamos las angustias, los anhelos de la mayoria de los cubanos y defendemos los derechos de todos en cualquier parte del mundo, aunque hoy se violen sistematicamente en Cuba.

Que nuestro movimiento esta dispuesto a recibir o a ser recibido por cualquier argentino o persona de otro pais que quiera y tenga el valor de escuchar otras opiniones diferentes a las del gobierno. Cuando alguna embajada o visitante quiera hablar con nosotros puede establecer comunicacion en la forma que considere. Lo que no haremos, como no lo hemos hecho, es mendigar a nadie que nos escuche, pues por defender la dignidad propia y la de todos los cubanos somos perseguidos y tenemos muchos hermanos en prision. Mas bien seria un honor y una experiencia digna de un autentico representante de un pueblo hermano tener un encuentro con las esposas de esos heroes, que aun confinados en jaulas de tortura estan defendiendo la libertad y la dignidad de todas las personas.

Titular del Movimiento Cristiano Liberacion y corredactor del Proyecto Varela. Nominado por Vaclav Havel y otras prestigiosas figuras internacionales al premio Nobel de la paz 2004.

El Nuevo Herald
Posted on Sun, Feb. 29, 2004 
Presentarán en Miami un filme sobre la disidencia en la isla
WILFREDO CANCIO ISLA
Para el periodista chileno Carlos González, la mayor revelación de sus recientes viajes a Cuba es la expectativa de cambio que se percibe entre la población de la isla, superando el miedo y el control informativo impuesto por el régimen de Fidel Castro.
''A pesar del férreo bloqueo informativo que padecen, los cubanos intuyen lo que está pasando y saben que el cambio social va a producirse, porque los días de Castro están contados'', afirmó González. ``Hay mucha curiosidad y anhelo de cambio en Cuba, lo puedes comprobar en plena calle''.
González, de 30 años, se encuentra en Miami para presentar su documental La Primavera de Cuba, que recoge entrevistas con activistas cívicos y periodistas independientes actualmente en prisión, así como testimonios de sus familiares.
La proyección del filme de 28 minutos será este lunes 1ro. de marzo, a las 7 p.m., en la Casa Bacardí de la Universidad de Miami (UM), con entrada libre al público. A continuación González intervendrá en un panel con activistas y expertos del tema cubano.
La presentación es auspiciada por el Instituto de Estudios Cubanos y Cubanoamericanos de la UM, el Directorio Democrático Cubano (DDC) y la organización People in Need, con sede en Praga.
Filmado clandestinamente con una cámara digital, La Primavera de Cuba es el fruto de dos visitas realizadas por González a la isla, a finales del 2002 y en mayo del 2003, esta última semanas después de la ola represiva desatada por el régimen contra la oposición pacífica.
''Fueron circunstancias muy complicadas, porque la represión podía sentirse a cada paso'', relató el periodista, que en su segundo viaje recorrió en cinco días varias ciudades del interior del país en compañía del reconocido disidente Oswaldo Payá Sardiñas.
González define su obra como ''un juego entre el antes y el después'', matizada por los testimonios humanos de las madres de los presos.
Entre los entrevistados se encuentran el poeta y periodista Raúl Rivero, condenado a 20 años; Dagoberto Valdés, director de la revista Vitral; y activistas del Proyecto Varela a lo largo de la isla, así como madres y abuelas de disidentes sentenciados a largas penas el pasado abril.
González califica el Proyecto Varela de ''un enorme paso'' para la democratización de Cuba, aunque señala que su obra no pretende validar un solo sector de la disidencia interna.
''Me parece significativo el pluralismo que está manifestando la oposición en Cuba'', apuntó.
González acumula una notable trayectoria como periodista y realizador de televisión en Chile, Argentina, México y Bélgica.