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The Miami
Herald, Sep. 25, 2002.
Dozens of Fla. firms going to Cuba expo
By Larry Luxner. Cubanews
HAVANA - The chief of Cuba's food importing agency Tuesday called for better
U.S.-Cuban trade relations on the eve of an unprecedented food exhibition that
will attract 750 American executives representing 288 U.S. companies, government
agencies and farming cooperatives to Cuba.
According to the official, Pedro Alvarez, Florida alone will send about 100
people to the fair, representing 34 companies and other entities -- making this
the largest contingent from any state.
A list distributed by the sponsors contained only 26 companies, however,
although that would still make Florida the principal state participant. No
explanation for the apparent discrepancy was immediately available.
The U.S. Food & Agribusiness Exhibition, which runs Thursday through
Monday at the Pabexpo convention center outside Havana, is expected to generate
$150 million in deals over the next nine months.
That's in addition to the $140 million that Cuba has already spent since a
change in U.S. law in late 2000 allowed the Castro government to purchase U.S.
food commodities on a cash-only basis.
LIKE ELIAN CASE
Alvarez, chairman of Alimport -- a unit of Cuba's Ministry of Foreign Trade
-- compared the challenges facing his agency to the bitter custody battle over
Elián González.
''It's looking a lot like the Elián case,'' Alvarez told reporters at
a press conference in Havana's swanky Hotel Nacional.
"The Cuban people fought in order to bring the boy back to his father,
and the vast majority of the American public supported the return of Elián
to Cuba. And one has to be blind today to see that the vast majority of the
American public wants normal trading relations between our two countries. In
order for these relations to grow and develop, the existing restrictions must be
repealed.''
One of the Florida companies, Splash Tropical Drinks of Pompano Beach, will
be pushing its fruity cocktail mixes at the expo. The company's piña
colada and rum rummer mixes do not need refrigeration. The company sees Cuba as
a natural expansion for its Caribbean market.
Splash Tropical received U.S. permission in recent weeks to sell to Cuba,
President Craig Jacobs said.
''We went through so many agencies -- fingerprints, background checks, you
name it,'' he said. Company executives took a jet from Miami to Havana Tuesday
for the show.
BACKLASH
Jacobs said he was not worried about a backlash in South Florida for
exporting to Cuba. ''I don't know if this is breaking any barriers. I'm sure
with some people it might be,'' he said. "My stand is whatever the U.S.
says we can do and when we can do it, that's what we're going to do.''
Thursday's inauguration will be attended by Minnesota Gov. Jesse Ventura,
various members of congress and quite possibly President Fidel Castro.
''The number of companies coming is twice what we anticipated,'' said
Alvarez. "This signals a desire by the U.S. farming and business community
to restore normal commercial relations with Cuba. We expect to sign a
significant number of agreements with major exhibitors every day during the
course of the exhibition.''
Alvarez said Cuba currently purchases $1 billion in food products annually,
of which U.S. food purchases comprise only 13.3 percent.
But total purchases could reach $1.5 billion by 2005, he said, "and if
restrictions on travel to Cuba for U.S. citizens were lifted, this volume would
be higher.''
The exhibition is being organized by Peter Nathan, a Connecticut businessman
who organized the first trade show in the Soviet Union in 1971 and the first
U.S. trade show in China in 1980.
So far, participants representing 33 states, the District of Columbia and
Puerto Rico have signed up, each paying $3,960 for a booth.
CASH OR CREDIT?
Under current U.S. law, Alimport -- the agency designated to make food
purchases on behalf of the Cuban government -- must pay cash. However, the
44-member Cuba Working Group in the House of Representatives is pushing for
legislation that would allow the communist island to pay for U.S. food
commodities on credit -- a proposal strongly supported by lawmakers from farm
states.
Brands which Alimport has specifically requested include Jif peanut butter,
Jell-O, Miracle Whip, Kraft salad dressing, Philadelphia cream cheese,
Kellogg's, Crisco oil, Pop Tarts, Spam luncheon meat, Pepsi and Coke.
The Cuban food official declined to say how much money Cuba is saving by
purchasing food from the United States rather than other countries. He added,
however, that European and Canadian companies should not be worried about losing
business to the American onslaught.
''We'll never turn our backs on those who have been our friends,'' he said.
Herald staff writer Douglas Hanks III contributed to this report.
Hurricane plan in place for Guantánamo Bay base
By Carol Rosenberg. Crosenberg@Herald.Com
U.S. Army officers said they have a contingency plan to safeguard hundreds
of terror suspects and the soldiers guarding them at Guantánamo Bay --
should Tropical Storm Lili become a hurricane and lash Cuba's eastern edge.
In all, about 5,000 sailors, soldiers, private contractors and their
families live at the U.S. Navy base, along with 598 suspects penned up in steel
and metal mesh cells on the Camp Delta waterfront strip.
So, commanders were watching Lili's storm pattern and intensity on Tuesday
to decide whether to move the prisoners or evacuate soldier guards from wooden
huts near the water's edge.
''We're ready to move to [a] safe haven on the island,'' said Army Col.
David McWilliams, a spokesman at the Pentagon's Southern Command. "There is
a detailed plan. It has been rehearsed.''
Citing security concerns, U.S. officers would not say where the men might be
moved.
Hurricane planning for the prisoners has been underway since soon after they
began arriving from Afghanistan, in January. While the captives were kept in a
rugged open-air compound called Camp X-Ray, soldiers cleared out old underground
munitions bunkers -- just in case -- to shelter terror suspects around the
45-square-mile, 99-year-old base.
The idea at the time was to shackle the prisoners and have pairs of Military
Police guard each one inside the shelters, until the storm passed.
But the Pentagon has since invested about $30 million in a hardened steel
cell compound called Camp Delta, which a Marine spokesman described as hurricane
proof.
However, the compound of huts called Camp America, home to about 600
soldiers, could be shredded by a significant storm, according to Navy engineers
called Seabees.
''Certainly the construction material at Delta is more sturdy than Camp
America,'' said Army Lt. Col. Bill Costello, another Southcom spokesman. He said
that rather than evacuate, sailors and soldiers may be reinforcing buildings --
"batoning down the hatches if you will.'' | 
