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Yahoo! August 5, 2002.
Venezuelan criticism of cuba oil deal unfair - Oil Min
Mon Aug 5, 9:15 AM ET
CARACAS -(Dow Jones)- Domestic criticism of Petroleos de Venezuela's (E.PVZ)
plan to resume shipping 53,000 barrels a day of crude oil to Cuba under
preferential financial terms is based on politics and has no commercial motive,
Venezuela's oil minister said over the weekend.
There's no reason to rectify the country's intention to deliver oil to Cuba
because "our strategy is that with our energy supply we are going to help
all the countries in our hemisphere,"said, adding that political opposition
in Venezuela only wants to isolate Cuba .
PdVSA President Ali Rodriguez said last week shipments would go ahead
despite Cuba's failure to make good on $142 million in payments for oil
previously shipped from Venezuela .
The decision to resume sending oil to the Caribbean nation has stirred
controversy. The original pact was suspended by PdVSA officials, citing
commercial factors, when Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez was ousted from office
for two days in April.
The suspension was a blow to Cuban leader, as Venezuelan crude accounted for
one-third of the island's energy supply. The Cuban government was forced to
impose measures to reduce energy consumption and had to seek more expensive
crude elsewhere.
Under the deal, 80% of Venezuela's oil shipments to Cuba are to be paid at
market price within 90 days of delivery. The remaining 20% is sold by Caracas on
soft terms: payable in 15 years, with a two-year grace period and an interest
rate of 2%.
Mayor's Cuba visit draws flak from D.C.
By Laura Kinsler and Keith Epstein, The Tampa Tribune, Sat
Aug 3.
WASHINGTON - This week's trip to Cuba by Tampa Mayor Dick Greco and Bay area
business leaders scouting commercial opportunities did not amuse some Bush
administration officials.
State Department spokesman Charles Barclay described trips such as the one
taken by Tampa's delegation as "inappropriate.''
Other administration officials said privately on Friday that dictator Fidel
Castro "used'' the group to exploit differences in U.S. opinion on a
4-decade-old trade embargo.
"Cuba is a totalitarian state that uses the apparatus of government to
repress its own citizens,'' Barclay said. "Human rights is still a problem.
There's no freedom of expression.''
Greco, entourage return from Cuba, stay silent
By Laura Kinsler and Keith Epstein, The Tampa Tribune. Thu
Aug 1, 3:20 Am Et.
TAMPA - Mayor Dick Greco's covert visit to Cuba continued to tantalize his
hometown Wednesday night as he and members of his group landed in a private jet,
stepped to a car and were whisked away from waiting reporters and news cameras.
Greco left Tampa over the weekend with 15 business leaders and others on a
visit to Havana, leaving no itinerary, no contact numbers, and no explanation
about who was paying for the trip or why they were going.
And there was no explanation as he returned.
Patrick Manteiga, publisher of the Spanish-language newspaper, La Gaceta,
returned home with the mayor but said none of the participants would discuss the
trip until Greco's news conference later today.
Full story at Tampa Bay Online
Cuba's fired foreign secretary surrounded by mystery
AP. Wed Jul 31,12:52 PM ET
HAVANA - Despite reports of his detention, Cuban ex-Foreign Minister Roberto
Robaina is still free and living at home.
Encountered by an Associated Press photographer at his house in the capital
on Wednesday, Robaina said "I know nothing," about reports that he was
expelled from the Communist Party and arrested.
Declining to answer more questions, Robaina climbed into his car and drove
away.
Robaina, 46, fired as Foreign Secretary minister in 1999, has been at the
center of a growing number of newspaper reports that he also was dismissed as a
legislator in the National Assembly.
Mexican newspapers, citing party sources, reported Wednesday that Robaina
was expelled dishonorably from the party because of "dishonest practices"
while he was foreign minister.
In May 1999, after six years on the job, Robaina was replaced as foreign
minister by President Fidel Castro ( news - web sites)'s first assistant, Felipe
Perez Roque.
The move was never fully explained, giving rise to dozens of varying
explanations. The official Communist Party newspaper Granma attributed it to "the
need for more profound, rigorous, systematic and demanding work" in the
arena of international affairs.
U.S. congressmen say increased investment in Cuba unlikely in short term
AP. Wed Jul 31, 3:05 PM ET
HAVANA - Wrapping up a five-day visit, members of a Democratic U.S.
congressional delegation said Wednesday that political conditions had to change
both in Washington and on the communist island before Cubans would see any
significant U.S. investment.
"As a member of Congress and a businessman I recognize that it is going
to be difficult to see, in the short term, significant flows of investment
capital into Cuba," Representative Cal Dooley, a Democrat from California,
told a news conference.
"But it is important that we move forward with policies that create a
political and regulatory environment that is more conducive to foreign
investment in Cuba."
Dooley did not elaborate on the changes that Cuba would have to make. But
his comments came after reporters asked him about recent complaints from the
European Union — which represents 50 percent of the island's business —
about the government's cumbersome bureaucracy, security problems and high costs.
Dooley also noted that there was not sufficient political support in the
United States to lift sanctions the government placed on Cuba more than 40 years
ago.
On July 23, the House of Representatives passed a series of measures that
would lift restrictions on U.S. travel to Cuba and on the amount of money Cuban
Americans can send back to relatives each year, as well as allowing the
financing of agricultural products bought from the United States.
But President George W. Bush has threatened to veto the bill if it passes
the Senate, saying that any significant changes in U.S. policy toward the island
hinged on the Cuban government making democratic reforms.
"Unfortunately, I don't think we have developed the political support
in the House, in the Senate, that will prevent President Bush from vetoing those
measures this year," Dooley said. "We have confidence that, in the
next few years, we will continue to develop support in Congress for a policy."
Dooley arrived on the island Saturday accompanied by fellow Democratic
Representative Lois Capps, also of California, Representative Ed Pastor, a
Democrat from Arizona, and Dan Glickman, former agriculture secretary under
President Bill Clinton.
The delegation, which met Tuesday first with Cuban President Fidel Castro
and later with Cuban dissidents, returned to the United States on Wednesday
afternoon. | 
