|
CUBA
NEWS
The Miami Herald
Cuba states it will no longer take U.S.
fugitives
By Pablo Bachelet, pbachelet@MiamiHerald.com.
May 29, 2007.
WASHINGTON -- A little-noticed passage
in two State Department reports says Havana
has stated that it will no longer provide
safe haven to U.S. fugitives who enter Cuba
-- a promise the Castro government has met
twice since September.
The promise and deportations amount to
a rare sign of cooperation by Havana. Some
70 U.S. fugitives are believed to be living
in Cuba, including Joanne Chesimard, convicted
in the 1973 murder of a New Jersey state
trooper.
Cuba has refused to return them, generally
arguing that the U.S. charges against them
are ''political.'' The refusals were among
the reasons the State Department used for
including Cuba in its list of nations that
support international terrorism.
But a brief passage in the State Department's
voluminous 2005 and 2006 Country Reports
on Terrorism -- the 2006 report was released
April 30 -- that went largely unnoticed
until now said Cuba ``has stated that it
will no longer provide safe haven to new
U.S. fugitives who may enter Cuba.''
State Department spokesmen declined comment
on who made the promise, when or whether
it involved any U.S. counter-promise. Havana
has long demanded the return of five convicted
Cuban spies jailed in Florida.
Such Cuban acts of cooperation have come
under more scrutiny since Raúl Castro
took over the reins of power after his brother
Fidel Castro fell ill last summer. However,
the 2005 report on terrorism, the first
to include the wording on ending the safe
haven, was issued before the ailment was
announced on July 31.
State Department officials noted Cuba's
history of on-and-off collaboration with
the United States makes it hard to know
if Havana's promise is signaling a new stance.
''We have no way of knowing for sure what
the Cuban government is trying to accomplish,
if anything,'' said Eric Watnik, a department
spokesman.
Cuba has demanded the United States extradite
anti-Castro militant Luis Posada Carriles
to Venezuela, where he faces charges of
masterminding the bombing of a Cuban jetliner
in 1976 that killed 73. U.S. immigration
fraud charges against Posada were dropped
recently by a U.S. judge.
Cuba has returned at least two U.S. fugitives
since the promise first appeared in the
State Deparment report.
In September, a South Florida man kidnapped
his son, stole a plane at a airport in the
Florida Keys and flew to Cuba. The son was
later returned to his mother in Mexico and
the father was put on a plane to Miami,
where he faces prosecution. That was the
first time Cuba had returned a fugitive
from U.S. justice, according to the 2006
U.S. report.
In April, Havana returned to Florida Joseph
Adjmi, a fugitive sentenced to 10 years
in U.S. prison for mail fraud in 1963.
Earlier this year Cuba also expelled to
Bogotá Luis Hernando Gómez-Bustamante,
wanted in Colombia as a leader of the Norte
del Valle cartel. Colombia then extradited
him to the United States.
Washington and Havana have long had tenuous
communications on issues such as drug trafficking
and migration. In early 2006, the Cubans
briefed the Coast Guard officer based at
the U.S. diplomatic mission in Havana on
their counter-drug trafficking operations.
But the Cubans refused to allow Drug Enforcement
Administration agents to question Gómez-Bustamante
while he was detained there on immigration
fraud charges.
An annual report on drug trafficking issued
in March by the State Department said Cuban
officials ''profess interest'' in more bilateral
contacts with Washington on drug trafficking
matters.
The Bush administration suspended biannual
talks with Cuba on migration issues in 2004,
and has refused any formal contacts with
top Havana government officials.
Raúl Castro has on two occasions
-- in August and December -- declared he
would be willing to sit down and talk with
Washington. The Bush Administration replied
that it was not interested in talks until
Cuba takes the path of democracy.
U.S. lawmakers in Cuba for look at trade
opportunities
By Will Weissert, Associated
Press. Posted on Tue, May. 29, 2007.
HAVANA -- Five U.S. lawmakers made an unannounced
visit to Havana on Monday to explore agricultural
trade opportunities at a gathering officials
hope will lead to contracts to sell up to
$150 million in American goods to Cuba.
The U.S. delegation, headed by Connecticut
Democrat Rosa De Lauro, plans to meet with
at least one top Cuban official before returning
to the United States, said Sarah Stephens,
director of the Washington-based Center
for Democracy in the Americas, which opposes
the U.S. embargo toward Cuba and helped
organize the trip.
''We are a diverse group geographically
and in our politics toward Cuba,'' DeLauro
said. "But we view this as an opportunity
to learn, to create dialogue about issues
of mutual concern.''
Also in Cuba were Democratic Reps. Marion
Berry of Arkansas and Bob Etheridge of North
Carolina, as well as Republican lawmakers
Rodney Alexander of Louisiana and Jack Kingston
of Georgia. All were making their first
trips to the island, except Berry, who was
here in 2000.
DeLauro, Berry and Etheridge have all supported
legislation to ease U.S. trade restrictions
toward Cuba in the past, while Kingston
has supported the embargo.
The lawmakers said agriculture trade opportunities
were a key reason they came, and their visit
coincided with a trade fair on the communist-run
island bringing together 114 food and agricultural
companies from 22 U.S. states.
''This is really not a trade fair, this
is a formal meeting to sign agreements with
different companies that have been in progress
for months,'' said John Kay, director of
international trade for Alabama's Department
of Agriculture. "It's an organized
madhouse. You only have a certain time frame
to get everything done.''
Pedro Alvarez, chairman of Cuba's food
import company Alimport, said talks should
produce more than $150 million in deals,
enough to ensure the island buys as much
U.S. goods in 2007 as it did last year,
when Cuba spent $570 million for American
food and agricultural products, including
shipping and banking costs.
Kirby Jones, founder of the U.S.-Cuba Trade
Association in Washington, which has also
pushed for an end to the embargo, said "it's
important for the visiting members of Congress
to hear about what's going on from those
who are here doing it.''
''There are very particular problems associated
with doing business in Cuba because of U.S.
policy,'' he said. "They need to know
the kinds of challenges faced.''
Alimport knows that bringing in companies
from all over the United States helps Cuba
drive a harder bargain.
Washington maintains a 45-year-old embargo,
but U.S. food and agricultural products
can be sold directly to Cuba under a law
passed by the U.S. Congress in 2000. Since
Havana first took advantage in 2001, it
says it has spent more than $2.2 billion
on American farm products and logistical
costs.
Cuba says that so far this year, it has
spent $225 million to purchase and import
American goods. Subtracting shipping and
other costs, the U.S.-Cuba Trade and Economic
Council in New York puts the figure at more
than $64.7 million through April.
The fair, which ends Wednesday, represented
the largest gathering of U.S. farm producers
on the island since Fidel Castro fell ill
and stepped down in favor of a temporary
government headed by his brother Raúl
last summer.
But Jones said American businesses have
barely noticed Castro's absence.
''Nobody talks about it because in terms
of business, it's been seamless,'' he said.
"It's not even a blip that has affected
things.''
Fidel: My ideas will live on
By Anita Snow. Posted on
Tue, May. 29, 2007.
HAVANA (AP) -- Fidel Castro said in a statement
published Tuesday that U.S. President George
W. Bush is waiting for him to die but that
the American leader cannot kill his ideas.
The latest in a series of essays by the
80-year-old Castro, who has not been seen
in public since becoming ill more than 10
months ago, was published on the front page
of the Communist Party daily Granma.
The Cuban leader said that Bush, asked
recently about his Cuba policy, replied:
"I'm a hard-line president and I'm
only waiting for Castro to die.''
''I'm not the first, nor will I be the
last, who Bush has ordered to be deprived
of life,'' said Castro, who offered no details
of the alleged conversation.
American law now prohibits the U.S. government
from ordering the assassination of foreign
leaders, but declassified U.S. documents
show that the CIA made numerous attempts
to kill Castro in the early years after
the 1959 Cuban revolution.
''Ideas are not killed,'' Castro wrote.
He criticized the Bush administration for
spending on weaponry while people in developing
nations go hungry.
''I ask myself how many doctors can graduate
with the 100 billion dollars that in just
one year fall into Bush's hands to continue
to sow mourning in Iraqi and American homes,''
he wrote. "The answer: 999,990 doctors,
who could attend to two billion people who
today receive no medical care.''
Castro shocked Cuba on July 31 when he
announced that he had undergone emergency
intestinal surgery and was stepping aside
provisionally for his younger brother Raul,
the defense minister, during his recovery.
Although senior Cuban officials have said
Castro is on the mend, it seems more unlikely
with time that the bearded leader will return
to power.
Castro's exact ailment and condition remain
state secrets, but he is widely believed
to suffer from diverticular disease, which
causes sacs in the colon that can become
inflamed and bleed.
OAS approves watered down statement
on Posada Carriles
By Pablo Bachelet. pbachelet@MiamiHerald.com.
Posted on Tue, May. 29, 2007.
WASHINGTON -- Venezuela's push to get the
Organization of American States to condemn
Washington for failing to extradite militant
Luis Posada Carriles has ended in a watered-down
declaration that did not mention the anti-Castro
militant by name.
In a special session Monday, the OAS adopted
a broadly worded declaration reminding member
nations of their duties to fight terrorism
and urging ''all member states to prosecute
and, as appropriate, extradite,'' anyone
charged with terrorism.
Venezuela initially proposed a toughly
worded declaration that accused the U.S.
government of failing to meet its terrorism
obligations. Posada is accused by Venezuela
of masterminding a bombing of a Cuban jetliner
that killed 73 persons more than three decades
ago. He was arrested for violating U.S.
immigration laws, but the charges were later
dropped.
The United States, backed by Canada and
Panama, said the Venezuelan initiative should
not be taken up by the OAS because it was
a bilateral matter. Diplomats negotiated
the compromise text over the weekend.
In immigration battle, Cubans are spectators
Cubans generally won't
be affected by immigration proposals being
debated in Congress but differ in opinions
about them.
By Oscar Corral, ocorral@MiamiHerald.com.
Posted on Tue, May. 28, 2007.
Miguel and Gerardo Gomez window-shopped
in Little Havana dressed exactly the same
-- Cuban identical twins separated by 14
years of exile and reunited a little more
than a week ago.
Their casual jaunt at Flagler boutiques
Thursday framed the best and worst that
Cubans have to face under U.S. immigration
policy. Their unique immigration status,
defined by the 1966 Cuban Adjustment Act
but punctuated by family separation and
yet an easy path to citizenship, can give
Cuban Americans a different perspective
on the issue.
It took 14 years for Miguel Gomez, 63,
to see his twin, Gerardo. Like other immigrants,
Cubans who make it to America usually must
wait years to bring family members.
''I don't understand this country,'' Miguel
Gomez said. "This is a country of immigrants,
yet they hunt down immigrants and kick them
out of here like that.''
His twin, still awed by the American abundance
surrounding him, said he would stay in this
country and never return to Cuba. It's a
right he has as a Cuban who touches U.S.
soil regardless of how he arrived -- legally
through a U.S. immigration lottery system
that sets aside 20,000 visas a year or illegally,
smuggled in by sea.
Legal experts say Cubans probably would
not be affected by a Senate bill to help
millions of undocumented immigrants gain
work permits and eventually a path toward
citizenship.
That leaves Cuban exiles and Cuban Americans
watching the debate from the other side
of the fence, secure in their own U.S. status
and often ambivalent about what rights other
immigrants should have.
Some Cubans, particularly older exiles
with conservative views, believe that only
legal immigrants should be allowed to stay
and become citizens, and that the United
States should aggressively secure the borders.
Others believe that amnesty should be granted
to all who want to work here.
''Cubans, we have a different situtation
from these people,'' said Spanish-language
radio commentator Martha Flores, who has
a nightly show on 710-AM, Radio Mambí.
"But what I don't understand is why
we should be against them. . . . Everyone
here should have a right to live.''
Some Cuban Americans at La Carreta restaurant
in Miami's Westchester neighborhood expressed
skepticism last week about any reforms that
would allow illegal immigrants to qualify
for citizenship.
''People can't claim rights if they start
off in this country by breaking the law,''
said Manuel Nobregas, 62, who was born in
Cuba.
Ignacio Jesus Vásquez, a retired
division chief from the Miami-Dade County
Police Department, said the United States
has a right and a duty to protect its borders.
''These politicians are just playing politics
with the security of our country,'' he said.
"I'm a U.S. citizen. It's time this
country assumed some responsibility with
its borders.''
CUBANS' SITUATION
Unlike most other immigrants, Cubans begin
a path to citizenship immediately upon arriving
in the United States, whether they came
legally, were smuggled in, or arrived on
boats or rafts. It's the result of the controversial
wet-foot/dry-foot policy, started by the
Clinton administration in the wake of a
1994 rafter crisis, in which Cubans who
make it to U.S. shores are allowed to stay,
but those intercepted at sea are sent back
to Cuba.
Miami immigration lawyer Wilfredo ''Willy''
Allen said the immigration reform proposals
before Congress would generally not affect
Cubans. ''At the end of the day, a few Cubans
may benefit from an immigration reform act,''
he said. "But Cubans are still in a
very preferential position, which won't
be affected positively or negatively by
a new law.''
But that doesn't stop Cubans from participating
in a debate that has political ramifications
for the 2008 presidential election. Alejandro
Fernandez, 40, said it's dangerous for the
United States to be dividing families by
deporting immigrants who have U.S.-born
children.
''If they take away the father or mother
and leave these kids either without parents
or poor in a Third World country, then they
are only breeding resentment,'' he said.
"These kids are going to be easy to
brainwash into hating the United States.''
Fernandez's friend Carlos Mendoza, 40,
disagreed. He said undocumented immigrants
want a handout.
''They're trying to figure out how to collect
money from the government without working,''
Mendoza said.
Nearby, an Ecuadorean woman who came to
the United States illegally 17 years ago
was leaving La Carreta with her 7-year-old
daughter. Lorena Jaramillo, 38, is now a
legal resident and heads the Parent-Teacher
Association at her daughter's elementary
school, she said.
''The people who are here illegally are
people who support this country,'' she said.
"I think [the U.S. government] should
give an opportunity to them.''
RICH AND POOR
Cuban exile activist Ramón Saúl
Sánchez, who advocates rights for
all immigrants, says the Senate proposal,
which the Bush administration backs, would
widen the chasm between rich and poor across
the hemisphere by giving highly skilled
workers a better chance of immigrating legally.
''We should be doing more to support other
immigrants who are fighting . . . for an
opportunity to live in the freedom this
country affords,'' he said. "It makes
me sad when I see some sectors of the exile
community with a louder voice that tend
to not support them.''
In Homestead, immigrants who would be affected
by the Senate's proposed immigration overhaul
-- Mexicans, Guatemalans, Salvadorans and
Hondurans -- toil in the fields under the
sun.
''They say this is the land of prosperity,
of freedom,'' said Pedro, 21, who is too
fearful of being caught to give his last
name or stray far from the small rented
house he shares with six other men -- including
his older brother -- in one of the poorer
parts of South Miami-Dade County. "But
I have no prosperity, and I have no future.''
He and his housemates, all undocumented,
have found jobs in landscape nurseries.
''But there are no Cubans working next
to us,'' Pedro said. "Why is that?
Because they just have to touch the soil
in the United States and they are here legally.''
Housemate Juan Cristóbal, 36, chimed
in with his own frustration. ''They are
Hispanic. We are Hispanic. They are immigrants.
We are immigrants,'' he said. "And
we're all children of God.''
Herald staff writer Tere Figueras Negrete
contributed to this report.
Immigration policy for Cubans
Cuban Adjustment Act
o It was designed in 1966, at the height
of the Cold War, when Cubans were considered
political exiles from the hemisphere's only
communist dictatorship.
o It offers a path toward citizenship immediately
upon arriving in the United States, regardless
of how they came into the country.
o Cubans are eligible to become permanent
residents after a year and a day in the
United States.
Wet-foot/dry-foot policy
o The Clinton administration changed the
law for Cubans with the controversial wet-foot/dry-foot
policy in 1995.
o Cubans who touch U.S. soil can generally
stay in the country and qualify for U.S.
residency, but Cubans who are intercepted
at sea are usually repatriated to the island.
Current immigration proposal
o Most Cuban immigrants would not be affected
by the proposals before Congress, according
to immigration-law experts.
Cubans in Cuba 'excluded from everything,'
says reader
Readers found The Miami
Herald's comprehensive Cuba Puzzle series
-- which involved reporters who fanned out
across Cuba, South Florida and the hemisphere
-- eye-opening and informative.
By Luisa Yanez. lyanez@MiamiHerald.com.
Posted on Sun, May. 27, 2007
In
Spanish | El Rompecabezas Cubano
Multimedia
| The Cuba Puzzle
South Florida responded with a blend of
praise and weariness to ''The Cuba Puzzle,''
a multimedia series about the watch-and-wait
game for democratic change in Cuba. The
series, which ran May 11-20, sparked vigorous
response from readers, via e-mail, Internet
postings and telephone calls.
Dozens of reporters, photographers and
videographers from the The Miami Herald
and El Nuevo Herald teamed up and fanned
out across Cuba, the hemisphere and South
Florida to report the series.
Their assignment: to gauge and dissect
events that have occurred on both sides
of the Florida Straits since July 31, when
Fidel Castro ceded power temporarily to
his brother Raúl.
Overall, readers described the series as
eye-opening and informative.
''Good start. More please!'' wrote Richard
Albury to The Miami Herald's online response
site after the series' first installment.
Said FSU 1980 in a web posting: "I
loved the Cuba Puzzle series. These stories
and videos are very informative. . . . It's
hard to believe that this is a country that
is only 90 miles away from our own. When
will these leaders learn the lessons of
history?''
Others agreed.
''This is an outstanding collection of
information about the tragedy in Cuba,''
wrote Gilbert Martinez. "I applaud
The Miami Herald and its continued commitment
to the truth and to balanced reporting.
I hope to see more in the future.''
''This is the kind of reporting that has
teeth and gives a sense of the reality of
life in Cuba,'' wrote John R. Bomar. "Good
job to the reporters.''
Others commended the sweep of the coverage.
''This is simply excellent,'' said a posting
identified only as Y. Padron. 'I think that
'The Cuba Puzzle' is one of the best ways
to tell the world about the horrors of communism.
I think this has been a great way for me
to be able to understand a little better
what my parents have been trying to explain
to me for so many years.''
Some exiles applauded the series for offering
others a true glimpse of the plight of their
homeland.
''One more page in your newspaper exposing
Castro and his gang,'' said Liborio, in
a Spanish-language posting.
''It is sad to see how the mighty and those
with power in Cuba live their lives well
and get to eat everyday while the people
are going hungry,'' said Octavio De Armas
in an e-mail. "Fidel, Raúl are
not communist -- they are more capitalist
than the Rockefellers. They both own the
island, eat well, drive great cars, have
the best houses in Cuba available to them.''
Some exiles were angered by a story from
Havana, mainly over the veracity of statements
made by a black Cuban woman, identified
as Juana Rosa, commenting on what she called
racism in prerevolutionary Cuba.
Rosa told of being barred from a Frank
Sinatra concert in her youth, even though
she held a ticket. A handful of readers
took exception, saying racism in Cuba never
included segregation.
''That is a lie!'' said one unidentified
angry reader in her telephone message to
the newspaper, referring to Juana Rosa's
comments. "Blacks in Cuba were never
denied entrance to anywhere.''
Another reader, Maria Perry, sent an e-mail:
"She was excluded from a concert years
ago because she was black? Today she gets
excluded from everything because she is
Cuban! Only tourists are allowed the luxuries
of hotels, shows, food and medical care
because they are paying in dollars.''
There were also complaints that the series
did not express all points of view about
Cuba that ferment in South Florida, mainly
those of people who support an end to the
U.S. embargo and want unrestricted travel
to the island.
''Maybe it's time to rethink U.S. policy
towards Cuba,'' wrote Elena R. Freyre in
a posting. "I expected your series
to reflect all of the different opinions
and outlooks to this complex problem. .
. . So far I have been disappointed.''
Silvia Wilhelm, executive director of the
Cuban American Commission for Family Rights,
also thought a ''huge hole was left out
of this puzzle'' series.
''Where were the thousands who do travel
to Cuba and those who do support travel
to Cuba . . . represented in the puzzle?''
she wrote in an e-mail. "Where were
the voices of so many in our community who
believe in engagement with the Cuban nation
and prefer dialogue to hostility represented
in the puzzle?''
Local Cuba experts praised the series'
goal.
''I felt the series was well balanced.
I think The Miami Herald was on target in
trying to capture a variety of voices with
different lines of thinking,'' said Juan
Clark, professor emeritus at Miami Dade
College, who is an expert on Cuban migration.
His updated book Cuba: Mito y Realidad:
Testimonios de un Pueblo (Cuba: Myth and
Reality, People's Testimonials) will be
released later this year.
Lisandro Pérez, a Florida International
University sociology professor, found little
new in the series.
''Maybe it's because I'm one of those people
who have been saying for years that change
in Cuba will not be immediate, but that
your project indicates that's what happened
is not news to me.'' The series was also
''too tied to local voices,'' said Pérez,
founder of FIU's Cuban Research Institute.
"Those are people who have not been
to Cuba in 40 some years and don't know
what is going on there.''
Some readers were put off by the topic
itself: Cuba.
''We are sick, sick, sick in this city
of The Miami Herald being about Cuba, Cuba,
Cuba,'' one woman said in a message left
at the newspaper's response line.
Ditto for this reader: ''I am tired of
The Miami Herald writing a story each and
every day about Cuba or Fidel,'' said a
posted comment. "Tell me, when Castro
dies are all the Cuban people going home
or is the entire Island coming to Miami?''
The series also prompted readers to speak
out on what they think will happen in a
Cuba without Fidel Castro.
''I think after Castro, Cuba will be taken
over by corporate America, which will privatize
everything and create sweatshops, just like
in any other Third World country,'' said
a man who identified himself only as Tom
and left a message on the call-in line.
And this post from Crazy in Miami: "Change
will come very quickly to Cuba but not directly
from the Cuban exiles. The economics will
change when investors roll in like they
did on Miami Beach and buy up everything
and turn Cuba into a Caribbean threat to
other islands.''
One reader was simply glad to live in America.
''Hooray for democracy and Capitalism!''
Tow Nater wrote in an e-mail. "May
we never take them for granted! Not perfect
by any means, but the best we have, tried
and proven.''
Exhibit, website show Havana in high-res
Satellite and street-level
photos are combined to help imagine a Cuba
of the future.
By Enrique Fernandez, efernandez@MiamiHerald.com.
Posted on Fri, May. 25, 2007.
Havana Today in Images, a Miami Dade College
photo exhibit that opens today at the Tower
Theater in Little Havana, raises new though
uncertain hopes among Cuban exiles for the
reclamation of their property in a post-Castro
Cuba.
The exhibit, which was organized by a Florida
International University-based NASA office
in collaboration with MDC, matches satellite
images of specific zones of Havana with
building-by-building, street-level photography.
A link on the project's website (http://no-more.com)
clicks to an affidavit that can be filed,
with supporting documentation, claiming
ownership of the building photographed.
But whether the project will eventually
help people reclaim property confiscated
under Fidel Castro's regime is uncertain.
''Whether this is considered proper evidence
depends on who would be processing these
applications,'' says Tania Mastrapa, who
runs a Miami consulting practice on property
reclamation in Cuba (www.mastrapaconsultants.com).
''I have not heard of these claim mechanisms
being used in other countries,'' says Mastrapa,
whose doctoral thesis at the University
of Miami examined post-Communist property
claims in the Czech Republic and Nicaragua
and the lessons they could have for Cuba.
Still, she says, "owners can see how
their building is being used, if there's
a sign for a restaurant, for example, or
what shape it's in. Then they can decide
if they want to try to reclaim it.
''A lot of people outside Cuba don't even
know if their property still exists because
of hurricanes, deterioration of buildings
and lack of maintenance,'' Mastrapa says.
The project's creator and director, Naphtali
David Rishe, says it has ''no political
message.'' Rishe heads FIU's High Performance
Database Research Center and NASA Regional
Applications Center, also at FIU.
The latter is a branch of the agency that
looks for non-governmental uses for NASA
technology. ''Like Velcro,'' says Rishe,
unfastening such a strap on his sandal at
his Miami Beach office.
Rishe, who says he has had ''no contact
with entities in the Havana government,''
had the street-level photos taken on the
sly by Cuban Americans visiting the island
on family visit visas. They used innocuous-looking
high-definition cameras and devices that
identify the buildings' longitude and latitude
coordinates.
One application of Rishe's project will
find enthusiasts on both sides of the Florida
Straits: the reconstruction of Havana.
''In Cuba there is a lot of information
on the destruction of the city,'' says architect
Nicolás Quintana, who along with
the dean of FIU's Architecture School, Juan
Antonio Bueno, heads the Havana and its
Landscapes project. "But this photographic
project is very important at the level of
detail.''
Since 2004, Quintana and his associates
at FIU have been working on a vision of
the future of Havana that hopes to guide
Cubans, Cuban Americans and others to eventually
rebuild the badly dilapidated city.
The street-level photos of Havana Today
in Images will constitute ''a historical
register of what buildings looked like,
because many are doomed to disappear,''
Quintana says.
In his oceanfront office, Rishe calls up
on his laptop the image of a badly deteriorated
Havana building. He navigates toward detailed
sections of the high-definition photo, showing
Moorish arches, barely discernible in the
rubble. ''Got to apply some stucco,'' Rishe
says, smiling.
So far, about 1,000 buildings have been
photographed at street level. A few will
be on display at the show, along with a
wall-sized satellite photo of sections of
Havana. The other buildings will be shown
in a computerized slide show.
On the issue of exiles trying to take back
property, Quintana, who owned property in
Havana but does not plan to try to reclaim
it, thinks a great deal of wisdom must be
exercised.
''You just can't evict people who've been
living in a residence for 35 years,'' he
says. "There has to be some social
justice.''
Quintana supports eventually issuing bonds
to compensate for losses caused by the Castro
government. ''It does not have to be a big
compensation,'' he says, "just a symbol
of what was lost.''
Rishe hopes his project will help Havana
become "a better space while preserving
its cultural heritage.''
''Havana could become, once again, the
Florence of the Americas,'' Rishe says.
Castro recovers health, but not role
By David Adams, St. Petersburg
Times. Posted on Fri, May. 25, 2007.
Cuban leader Fidel Castro has yet to appear
in public since falling ill last July.
But this week he ended a long silence about
his health, issuing a signed statement late
Wednesday saying he was eating solid foods
and had regained weight.
The statement appears to confirm his slow
recovery from intestinal surgery last year.
But it also reinforces the growing conviction
among some Cuba watchers that Castro is
not contemplating a full return to power
and may instead be content to occupy a back-seat
political role for the remainder of his
life.
''This is the clearest indication in his
own words,'' said Brian Latell, the CIA's
former chief Cuba analyst who now teaches
at the University of Miami. "I don't
think he's ever going to be back governing
the way he did in the past.''
Latell and others say the 80-year-old communist
leader could be close to permanently abdicating
his official duties as head of state. He
temporarily ceded power in July to a collective
leadership headed by his younger brother,
Defense Minister Raúl Castro, 75.
''I think he's abdicated already,'' said
Tony Zamora, a Cuban-American lawyer in
Miami who visits Cuba regularly. "He
will continue to be consulted and listened
to, of course, but I don't see him coming
back at all.''
Despite his absence from public view, in
recent weeks Castro has taken to penning
a series of ''reflections'' in Granma, the
state-run newspaper, on issues that concern
him, such as the use of food crops to produce
biofuels.
He has noticeably declined to comment on
day-to-day domestic issues facing the Cuban
government.
While Castro's imposing aura and larger-than-life
personality can never be underestimated,
experts question whether his essays in Granma
can substitute for the kind of direct control
he once enjoyed.
''He is disconnecting himself, or he is
being disconnected, from the entire Cuban
dialogue about what they need to do economically,''
Latell said. "Whether it's forced or
voluntary isn't clear.''
Perhaps the most forthright verdict on
Castro's condition came recently from his
niece, Mariela Castro, a leading Cuban sexologist
and AIDS activist who has lately emerged
as an unofficial spokeswoman for the family.
She told reporters that although her uncle
was ''improving rapidly,'' he will ''not
govern again in the same fashion as before.''
She noted that he was ''very respectful
in not wanting to interfere in the decisions
being made'' by his brother's government.
The way in which Fidel Castro's comments
were made public appear to fit that pattern.
Castro's description of his health condition
was tacked on at the end of an unrelated
''reflection'' on the latest figures on
world cereals production.
After mentioning the importance of replacing
incandescent light bulbs with newer energy-saving
compact fluorescent ones, he switched subjects.
''I shall digress now to tackle a topic
which deals with my person, and I ask for
your indulgence,'' he wrote.
He then proceeded to give the most detailed
account of his health since he fell ill.
After ''many months'' of intravenous feeding,
he was eating and his weight was back up
to 176 pounds. ''Today I receive orally
everything my recuperation requires,'' he
wrote.
Castro also for the first time confirmed
reports that his initial surgery had failed.
''It was not just one operation, but various,''
he wrote. "Initially it was not successful,
and that had a bearing on my prolonged recuperation.''
Looking frail, Castro has appeared periodically
in official photographs and video published
in Cuba's state media. In late March, he
was seen in an outdoor photograph with Colombian
Nobel laureate Gabriel García Márquez.
In late April he was shown meeting with
a delegation from China at the hospital
where he is convalescing.
But he surprised his followers by failing
to appear during a big annual May Day parade.
Castro on Wednesday apologized for the
recent lack of official images. ''I don't
have time now for films and photos that
require me to constantly cut my hair, beard
and mustache, and get spruced up every day,''
he wrote.
''He cannot shave and he can't take a haircut.
That's really weird,'' Zamora said. 'He
is clearly saying, 'My role has changed.
I was really sick and I need to take care
of myself, so I'm not coming back.' ''
While experts remain unsure exactly what
kind of role Castro will play, the ailing
leader may have provided the answer Wednesday.
''For now, I'm doing what I'm supposed
to be doing, reflecting and writing about
questions that I judge of certain importance
and transcendence,'' he wrote. "I have
a lot more material to go.''
Cuba works toward potato deal with North
Dakota
By Will Weissert, Posted
on Fri, May. 24, 2007.
HAVANA (AP) - Cuba will dispatch experts
to the fields of North Dakota this summer
as it closes in on the first agreement to
import American seed potatoes, officials
said Thursday.
Two Cuban agricultural inspectors plan
to inspect the state's varieties and watch
how seed potatoes are packed for shipping.
If all goes well, Cuba is prepared to buy
about 100 tons of seed potatoes to plant
in its fields and see how they fare.
Pedro Alvarez, head of communist Cuba's
food import company Alimport, said the island
already imports as much as 40,000 tons of
seed potatoes annually from Canada and Holland,
but that "of course we'd like to diversify
our suppliers and varieties.''
He said Cuba plans to test the North Dakota
seed potatoes in its soil before buying
larger quantities. Officials hope to have
the state's potatoes planted in Cuba when
growing season starts in November.
Roger Johnson, North Dakota's agricultural
commissioner, led an 18-member, three-day
trade mission to Havana. He noted seed potatoes
are more expensive than table potatoes and
highly perishable -- making the prospect
of sending them all the way to this Caribbean
country tricky.
''We want to start small because the risk
is enormous,'' he said.
Washington's 45-year-old embargo forbids
American tourists from visiting Cuba, and
chokes off most trade between the two countries,
though the direct sale of food and agricultural
products began in late 2001. Alvarez said
Cuba has since spent more than $2.2 billion
on American food and agricultural imports,
including shipping and hefty bank fees to
send payments through third nations.
Johnson, making his sixth trip to Cuba,
said North Dakota has sold more than $30
million worth of products to the island
since 2001, mostly peas, and garbanzo and
lentil beans. During this trip, Cuba agreed
to buy 10,000 tons of North Dakota red spring
wheat and is negotiating the purchase of
soybeans, corn and other crops.
Cuba also is interested in a similar inspection
and testing process for North Dakota barely
malt, another American product that would
be the first of its kind imported to Cuba.
''We're sure it will be very good,'' Alvarez
joked, "because American beer is very
good.''
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