CUBA NEWS
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Oil won't be invigorating Cuban economy
Havana, Jul 30 (EFE).- Cuba's hopes that
a Spanish oil company's exploratory drilling
off its coast would preview an invigorating
infusion of crude into its austere, cash-strapped
economy have been dashed, at least for the
moment.
Repsol, the Spanish firm, found evidence
of the existence of oil in Cuba's territorial
waters, but in insufficient quantities to
make drilling commercially viable.
The possibility that Repsol would find
high-grade oil in its first probe had sparked
hopes in Cuba, whose weak economy depends
on tourism and remittances as its main sources
of hard currency.
But analysts and European diplomats say
the keenest interest was expressed by high-ranking
Cuban officials and the executives of Repsol
and other global oil companies.
"Talk hadn't reached the man on the
street, who is more interested in surviving
day to day," according to a Cuban analyst.
Even Cuban President Fidel Castro downplayed
the importance of the issue recently in
statements to the foreign press.
Castro said he wasn't dreaming of finding
oil "like a pot of gold." "We
have a clear path. We aren't dreaming that
oil will appear, we're saving," he
said.
The official Cuban press made no reference
Friday to the results of Repsol's exploration.
Nevertheless, some analysts maintain that
Repsol's disappointing announcment represents
"a pitcher of cold water" in the
faces of Cubans hoping for economic recovery
on the communist-ruled island.
"It's not good news for Cuba's future
because the island needs to be self-sufficient
in fuel or to solve problems with its energy
sources to ensure its own national independence,"
said one source.
"It's a disappointment, because, even
if Cuba remains as it was, hope about what
might have been has vanished and we'll have
to see what kind of signal this sends to
other companies that were interested in
exploring," a European diplomat said.
Canada's Sherrit, which drills for gas
on the island, purchased concessions to
explore four blocks in Cuban territorial
waters in the Gulf of Mexico, while Brazil's
Petrobras is conducting seismic studies
in the area.
In any case, officials from state-run Cubapetroleos
have said that the Gulf of Mexico is one
of the most productive oil-producing regions
and that they expect Cuba's Gulf waters
to demonstrate similar potential.
Cuba, which has 16 shared-risk contracts
with European and Canadian companies to
explore and prospect for oil, opened the
sector to foreign investment in the late
1990s.
The island daily consumes some 160,000
barrels of oil. It produces 80,000 barrels
per day of extra-heavy crude that has a
high sulfur content and, as such, is suitable
only for generating electricity.
Cuba meets a large part of its demand with
the 53,000 bpd of oil it receives from Venezuela
at preferred prices under a 2002 accord.
Sharks, detention and the American
dream: memories of the 94 Cuban exodus
MIAM, 30 (AFP) - Ten years on, Felix Izquierdo
vividly remembers the terror of looking
a shark in the eye as he fled Cuba on an
inner tube, the desperation of detention
and eventually, the realization of his American
dream.
Izquierdo, 31, was among the 36,000 Cubans
who took to the seas aboard flimsy rafts,
stolen boats or anything else that floated,
desperate to flee the deepening crisis in
Cuba and start a new life in the United
States.
He was among the lucky ones who survived
the 150-kilometer (90-mile) crossing over
the shark-infested, unpredictable waters
between Havana and southern Florida.
"There were three of us. We left on
the inner tube of a tractor tire, with two
oars. We had an old compass and headed north.
"A shark swam underneath us. It was
bigger than our raft, we could even see
its eyes."
Three days after leaving Havana on August
14, 1994, the exhausted trio was only a
few kilometers (miles) from Miami.
But the perilous voyage was only the first
step toward Izquierdo's new life.
Even as the three cheered their arrival
in US territorial waters, they were picked
up by the US Coast Guard and taken to Guantanamo,
where a detention camp had been hastily
erected to house the thousands of Cubans
detained at sea.
The exodus started in late July 1994 and
gained momentum the following month as President
Fidel Castro (news - web sites) allowed
the departures in a move many believe was
calculated to force the United States to
the negotiating table. Havana and Washington
eventually agreed on September 9 that 20,000
Cubans would be allowed into the United
States every year, and Castro again clamped
down on illegal migration.
But for the next 16 months the United States
remained a distant dream for Izquierdo and
many of his fellow "balseros"
as the rafters were called.
It wasn't until December 1995 that he eventually
was released from detention in Guantanamo
and Panama, and allowed onto what he saw
as the promised land.
"It was wonderful. It was like a dream."
He admits the first years were tough. But
now, he lives in a comfortable house in
a quiet Miami suburb, has a wife, a baby
girl, two cars and what he calls a good
job as a trucker. Within a year, he says,
he should get his US passport.
"Like all refugees, at the beginning,
it was pretty difficult for those who came
in 1994, particularly since they came in
great numbers," said Joe Garcia, who
heads the influential Cuban American National
Foundation lobby group.
"They've found their footing. They
started working and are now productive members
of the community," he said.
"You can't distinguish them from other
members of the Cuban community here,"
said Garcia.
"A Cuban, is a Cuban is a Cuban. Polls
show all Cubans in the United States --
95 percent of them -- hate Castro.
Izquierdo says there is no question but
that he loathes the communist dictator.
But he says he has little else in common
with the older generation of Cuban exiles,
who he considers intolerant of anyone who
does not share their political views on
Cuba.
"If you think differently from them,
they call you a communist," he says,
adding that he, for one, favors lifting
the US embargo on Cuba he says has failed
to weaken Castro since it was imposed four
decades ago.
He also disagrees with restrictions Washington
recently imposed on family visits to Cuba.
An opinion poll conducted earlier this
month shows that while 47 percent of the
Cubans who arrived in Florida after 1980
believe there should be no restrictions
on such visits, only 27 percent of the pre-1980
arrivals share that view.
Because those who arrived in the 1994 exodus
mainly traveled on rafts, they tend to be
younger people, and as such, they generally
still have close relatives on the island.
As a result they are the most affected,
and the most opposed to the travel restrictions,
something pollsters say could be reflected
in a drop in support for Bush among Cuban-Americans,
who traditionally have voted Republican.
'Fahrenheit 9/11' to be broadcast on
Cuban TV
HAVANA, 29 (AFP) - American filmmaker Michael
Moore's Bush-bashing "Fahrenheit 9/11"
will play on Cuban public television, potentially
increasing the temperature of Havana's feverish
media offensive against President George
W. Bush (news - web sites) and his policies.
The film is already being screened to great
critical acclaim in 120 movie theaters across
the island, but television will bring it
directly to Cuban living rooms.
In his latest salvo against his northern
neighbor, President Fidel Castro (news -
web sites) dedicated an hour and a half
of a speech Monday to Bush's past alcohol
consumption and his "hot-headed, fundamentalist
mind."
"Fahrenheit 9/11" will be broadcast
at prime time, in place of the daily "Round
Table" program dedicated to themes
considered a priority by Cuban authorities.
The documentary has made history by earning
more than 100 million box office dollars
in Canada and the United States.
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