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Latest Cuba Census Reports 11.2M Residents

By Vanessa Arrington, Associated Press Writer, November 12, 2005.

HAVANA - Cuba is home to some 11.2 million residents, three-quarters of whom live in urban areas, according to the communist island's third census since the 1959 revolution that launched Fidel Castro to power.

The census, taken three years ago and presented to officials this week, showed Cuba's population grew by almost 1.5 million since the last census in 1981, according to the Communist Party daily Granma.

It was not clear why it took three years to report the data compiled in September 2002.

The average age of Cubans is 35, though nearly 15 percent of the population is aged 60 or older, state-run newspapers reported Saturday, citing the census results.

The population is split equally by gender, but Juan Carlos Alfonso, who directed the census, predicted that women will be the majority on the island within a few years, according to Juventud Rebelde, Cuba's communist youth newspaper.

An increasing number of Cubans are of mixed ethnicities, with a quarter classified as mestizo in the survey.

There is electricity in about 95 percent of all homes, while 96 percent of households have cooking facilities. The census found there are slightly more than three people per household on the island.

News reports showed that nearly all Cubans took part in the census survey, put together and processed by about 95,000 workers. A digital version of the results was distributed to Cuban ministers and government organizations.

U.S. Cos. Sell $259M of Goods to Cuba

By Vanessa Arrington, Associated Press Writer. November 11, 2005.

U.S. Companies Sell $259 Million of Food, Agricultural Products to Cuba at Trade Fair

HAVANA (AP) -- American companies sold $259 million of food and agricultural products to Cuba at a trade fair last week, the head of the island's food import company Alimport said Friday. Pedro Alvarez said his company expects to sign contracts worth $40 million more by year's end.

Alimport also signed contracts with companies from other countries, agreeing to buy $67 million of rice from Vietnam, $35 million of powdered milk from New Zealand, $33 million of meat and beans from China, and $25 million of chicken from Brazil, among others.

Tight U.S. restrictions on trade with the communist-run island make doing business with the United States a hassle, but Cuba has no plans of halting its purchases any time soon, Alvarez told The Associated Press.

U.S. farmers and members of Congress representing agricultural, often Republican, states have become some of Cuba's top lobbyists, pushing for normalized trade with the island.

Cuba has been under an American trade embargo for more than four decades, but a law passed by Congress in 2000 allows American food to be sold directly to the island on a cash basis. Recent restrictions require Cuba to pay for the goods in full before they leave American ports.

More than 40 U.S. lawmakers signed a letter this week calling for those recent restrictions to be lifted.

Alvarez said that by year's end, Cuba plans to surpass the $474 million it paid last year to buy American farm goods, including shipping and hefty bank fees to send payments through third nations.

Spending Bill Stalls Over Cuba Dispute

By Jim Abrams, Associated Press Writer. Nov 10, 2005.

WASHINGTON - A dispute over agriculture trade with Cuba held up a deal on a $140 billion spending bill on Thursday, with House and Senate negotiators trying to avoid what could be the first veto of the Bush presidency.

On another issue that courted a presidential veto, the negotiators tentatively agreed to spend $1.31 billion on Amtrak in the budget year that began in October.

Those close to the negotiations said the final version of the bill probably will ensure that members of Congress get a pay raise this year, striking out Senate language under which lawmakers would have given up their raise.

The bill would provide funds for an array of programs for the departments of Transportation, Treasury, Judiciary and Housing and Urban Development.

The measure also would end, 11 years after its start, a $20 million independent counsel probe of former Housing Secretary Henry Cisneros. The investigation has dragged on for years even after Cisneros received a presidential pardon.

The administration, in what has become an annual battle over Cuba, said Bush would veto the spending bill if it retained language, already in both the House and Senate versions, that weakened a Treasury Department office's rules on agriculture trade with Cuba.

Sen. Byron Dorgan (news, bio, voting record), D-N.D., said the rules, requiring advance payment for shipments of farm and medical products to Havana, were imposed "to shut down the ability of farmers to sell in Cuba."

But Rep. Joseph Knollenberg (news, bio, voting record), R-Mich., chairman of the panel overseeing the bill, said he had had five conversations with the White House in the previous 30 hours and "they made clear they will veto the bill."

The House participants in the conference voted to strip the Cuba language from the bill, but the Senate negotiators resolved to hold their ground on the issue, preventing a final agreement on the spending bill.

Rep. John Olver (news, bio, voting record), D-Mass., said the two sides had agreed on a $1.31 billion for financially troubled Amtrak. That was midway between the $1.45 billion Senate proposal and the $1.18 billion in the House version. The compromise also outlines several changes for the railway, which has not had a profitable year in its 34-year history.

The administration, which has pushed to end all subsidies for the railway, asked for only $360 million this year and warned that the $1.45 billion sought by the Senate, in the absence of an overhaul of the passenger railroad, would result in a veto.

A month ago, with Congress weighed down by the rising costs of hurricane relief and the growing budget deficit, the Senate voted 92-6 to forgo the congressional cost-of-living increase.

That increase, estimated at about 1.9 percent, would boost salaries for rank-and-file lawmakers by $3,100 to $165,200.

But several aides and lawmakers said they expected that amendment to be taken out of the final bill, giving lawmakers their eighth cost-of-living increase in the past nine years.

Sen. Jon Kyl (news, bio, voting record), R-Ariz., the sponsor of the Senate amendment, said he would be "deeply disappointed" if it was stricken.

Sen. Russ Feingold (news, bio, voting record), D-Wis., a longtime advocate of freezing congressional pay, said it would be hard for people to understand such a raise "at a time of enormous budget deficits and mounting debt, a costly, open-ended war in Iraq and growing expenses for hurricane relief."

The Cisneros amendment would require that the report of Independent Counsel David Barrett be made public within 60 days and that the independent counsel close his office within 90 days after the report is published.

Cisneros, housing secretary from 1993 to 1996, admitted in 1999 that when he was being considered for a Cabinet job, he lied to the FBI about how much he had paid a former mistress. He pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor and was fined $10,000.

President Clinton pardoned him shortly before leaving office in 2001.

But Dorgan said that since Cisneros admitted wrongdoing in 1999 the independent counsel's office has spent some $12 million in its still unfinished investigation.

On the Net:

Information on the bill, H.R. 3058, can be found at http://thomas.loc.gov/

Coast Guard, Family Disagree On Fatal Boat Capsize

WPLG Click10.com via Yahoo! News - Nov 09.

The Coast Guard says intercepting a boat carrying migrants helped save many lives, while family members are blaming the deaths of two women on the U.S. Coast Guard.

The speedboat, carrying 37 people, was intercepted 65 miles south of Key West Saturday. The Coast Guard suspected that the speedboat was smuggling migrants from Cuba.

The Coast Guard says there was no chase. The Coast Guard crew said those on board the speed boat were bailing water out of it when the boat was spotted by a helicopter. Coast Guard members on the cutter Metompkin pulled alongside the boat. The crew said that they handed out life vests to all 37 people on board

The Coast Guard crew removed 15 people from the boat and transferred them to the Metompkin. Crewmembers said when they returned for the others, the boat capsized, dumping 22 people into the water.

Luisa Cardentey, 60, and Isabel Menendez, 75, were under the boat when it capsized. Their bodies were not found until later. Both had drowned.

The Coast Guard says crewmembers did everything they could to try to save all of those who were on board.

The people who were on board the boat have told a different story. Jorge Ernesto Leyva, the man operating the boat said that it was not a smuggling operation. Leyva said that he lives in Florida, and made the trip to Cuba to pick up his wife, 5-year-old daughter, and other relatives.

Federal officials released Leyva Wednesday, but have not said why.

Days Yero, 17, was on board the boat. She had previously lived in the United States on a green card, and was returning after being in Cuba for two years. The women who died were her grandmother and aunt.

Yero said, "I think they could have done something else. Because in that moment it took them a long time to get into that water and get my grandmother and my aunt out."

Family members say that they told the Coast Guard that the women were missing immediately after the incident.

The women's bodies will be released to relatives, some of whom live in Tampa. The funerals are being planned.

Family members are petitioning for the other 33 people who were on board the boat to be released and allowed to stay in the United States. The migrants include 13 children, several under 5 years old. They are being held on a Coast Guard cutter.

Yero will be allowed to stay because of her green card, but officials said that it is likely the others will be returned to Cuba under the wet-foot, dry-foot policy.

Family members say they hold the Coast Guard responsible for Cardentey and Menendez's deaths, and they are considering filing a lawsuit.

World Baseball Classic organizers ready if Cuba does not play

INDIAN WELLS, United States, 9 (AFP) - Major League Baseball officials have contingency plans if the Cuban government rejects an offer to play in March's World Baseball Classic that include inviting Colombia or Nicaragua instead.

Officials discussed some of the ideas here Tuesday at a meeting of club general managers where Anaheim, California was named the host of a round-robin quarter-final group that would include Asia's two teams among the last eight.

The 16-team event would be the first global showdown with elite major league players competing for their home nations. Major League Baseball has refused to halt its season to allow top talent to particpate in the Olympics.

Paul Archey, Major League Baseball's senior vice president for international relations, told the Miami Herald that forming a team of Cuban-born players now in the major leagues is possible if Cuba's national squad decides not to play.

"When you throw out scenarios, it's something you have to think about," Archey said. "We have this group of Cuban players. Never say never, but it's not something that's being contemplating right now.

"We expect Cuba to play. We believe they have every intention of committing. We're very confident and optimistic that they are going to play."

Archey hopes for a decision from Cuban leaders by the end of November, adding "We have every reason to believe that Cuba is going to participate."

Cuban leader Fidel Castro's Communist government is a political enemy of the United States, which must approve any Cuban sporting visit to US soil.

Cuba is slotted to play first-round and possible quarter-final games in San Juan, Puerto Rico. Should Cuba advance that far, the semi-finals and finals are set for San Diego, California.

Cuba's government has yet to say it will field a team, although talks are ongoing.

"We're still hopeful but we're running out of time," Ronaldo Peralta, the major league office manager in the Dominican Republic, told the Herald.

"The strong possibility is that if Cuba doesn't go either Nicaragua or Colombia will. Plan C that I have heard of is to field a team of Cubans... living outside the country."

Cuban-born major league players, some of them defectors who fled their homeland, have been divided about playing for Cuba without government support.

Nicaragua and Colombia have sought a spot in the field and one could replace Cuba in a first-round group that includes Puerto Rico, Panama and a Dutch squad.

"Both teams have shown interest and will be given consideration," Archey said.

The event will begin with Asia's first-round games March 3-6 in Tokyo featuring Japan, China, South Korea and Taiwan. Asian teams will play early so they can travel to California and recover from the journey.

Two Asian teams will advance to the quarter-final round-robin March 13-15 at Anaheim against two teams from an Arizona first-round group set to include the United States, Mexico, Canada and South Africa.

Two teams from Puerto Rico's first-round group advance to the quarter-final at San Juan that will include two teams from a Florida first-round group that will feature Italy, Venezuela, Australia and Dominican Republic.

The semi-finals are set for March 18 at San Diego, where the final will be played two nights later.

Revenge on the China menu as Cuba seek to regain world boxing crown

MIANYANG, China, 9 (AFP) - Cuba will be looking to put Russia in their proper place as the boys from the Caribbean seek to regain their place atop amateur boxing's pecking order at the senior world championships here from Saturday.

In an early preview of the 2008 Beijing Olympics, the Cubans have sent four reigning Olympic gold medallists to the China slugfest led by Odlanier Solis, who has stepped up a division after also winning the heavyweight gold in the last world championships in Bangkok.

Stiff competition is expected across the steppes led by Russia, with Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan playing the role of dark horses.

Russia are the reigning world champions, having won three golds in Bangkok, the same haul as the Cubans who put four fighters through to their respective finals compared to the Russians' six.

After their 2004 Olympic triumph, the Cubans were then thrashed again by the Russians at the amateur boxing World Cup in Moscow in July.

Cuban light-flyweight Yan Bartelemi and bantamweight Guillermo Rigondeaux, Athens Olympics gold medallists, both have something to prove after they went out in the preliminary rounds at the last world championships in Thailand in 2003.

"I am going to remove that thorn," Rigondeaux told Cuba's official Prensa Latina news agency shortly before the team left for China last week.

Head coach Sarbelio Fuentes has vowed to put all his 11 fighters -- who also include another Athens gold medallist in flyweight Yuriorquis Gamboa -- into the medal rounds this time. The fifth Cuban Olympic winner, lightweight Mario Kindelan, retired after Athens.

Russian federation chief Eduard Khusainov is targetting two golds here and is pinning his hope on featherweight Alexei Tischenko to repeat his Athens triumph.

He tips Tischenko and Cuba's Solis, who will fight as a super-heavyweight here, to become the stars of the Mianyang ring.

Boxers from 81 countries have confirmed entries to the November 12-20 tournament in this southwestern Chinese city, better known as China's nuclear weapons base.

"Russia and Cuba will shine again at the championships," said Choi Hee-Kuk, an amateur boxing official of South Korea who have modest goals of two bronze medals.

"Cuba will still dominate," predicted Thailand coach Colonel Warit Pansuwan.

Thai hopes rest on Somjit Jongjohor, the reigning world amateur flyweight champion.

Inexplicably, the Thais have sent their reigning Olympic champion, light welterweight Manus Boonjumnong and Athens bantamweight silver medallist Worapoj Petchkoom to fight instead in the relatively insignificant Southeast Asian Games in Manila in late November.

"We do not have much hope in this tournament as six of our seven boxers are new and inexperienced," Warit said.

The hosts are now without light-flyweight Zhou Shiming, silver medallist at the Bangkok world championships and a semi-finalist in Athens.

"Chinese boxers are weak, but we think our opponents from Europe and the Americas are beatable in the lighter weights because here the tactics are different. Chinese boxers, though, lack quickness," team coach Li Qingsheng told the Mianyang Daily.

National coaches say the other former Soviet republics are dangerous opponents in the middle to heavier classes.

Khusainov tipped Kazakhstan's Athens Olympics welterweight champion Bakhtiyar Artayev and middleweight Olympic silver medallist Gennady Golovkin as favorites.

Drop in Cuba Exports Hurts Trade Deficit

By Andrea Rodriguez, Associated Press Writer

Low Nickel Prices, Drop in Sugar Sales Reduce Cuba Exports; Rise in Imports Deepen Trade Deficit

HAVANA, 8 (AP) -- Low nickel prices and a decline in sugar sales have reduced Cuban exports this year while imports are on the rise, deepening a trade deficit, officials said.

Exports rose 30 percent from 2003 to 2004 when the island nation sent abroad more than US$2 billion (euro1.7 billion) in goods, accounting for 27 percent of the country's US$7.5 billion (euro6.4 billion) in total trade.

Yet this year through September, exports have accounted for just 23 percent of Cuba's trade, compared to 77 percent of imports, said Antonio Carricarte, the deputy foreign trade minister. He did not provide the overall value of this year's trade.

"Exports show a certain decline, due primarily to the decrease in the sales of sugar and its derivatives as well as the fall of prices for nickel in the international market," Carricarte said in an interview in the government's business weekly Opciones. He did not provide specific figures.

Tobacco sales, however, were up 12 percent this year, he said, as were nontraditional exports in the biotechnological, pharmaceutical and technical service sectors.

Imports, meanwhile, rose 34 percent through September of this year, led by purchases of oil, food and machinery from countries including Venezuela, China, Spain, and the United States, Carricarte said.

Overall, trade has grown about 22 percent in the first nine months of 2005 compared to the same period in 2004, the official said.

Venezuela has become Cuba's top trading partner, with $1.4 billion (euro1.2 billion) in commerce annually -- the vast majority in imports of Venezuelan petroleum.

Trade with China has also surged, increasing 48.2 percent this year through September as compared to the same period of 2004, Carricarte said.

The Netherlands, Canada, Spain and Russia are the other main markets for Cuban exports.

Nickel makes up 46 percent of Cuba's total exports, Carricarte said. The island nation is among the world's top five suppliers of nickel, extracting 76,900 tons each year.

Cuba's sugar industry, once the economic motor of this Caribbean nation, has suffered in recent years as it undergoes a major restructuring that has closed down more than half the island's refineries. Severe, persistent droughts on the island have also affected sugar harvests.

Disabled Woman Sentenced To House Arrest For Smuggling Cuban Birds

WPLG Click10.com via Yahoo! News, Nov 7.

A disabled Miami woman was sentenced to six months of home confinement and two years probation for attempting to smuggle wild birds from Cuba.

Mercedes Ruiz was convicted of importing undeclared wildlife and making false statements on a customs declaration form Friday.

According to the indictment, customs officials at Miami International Airport intercepted Ruiz, 54, June 28 after returning from a two-day trip to Cuba by way of the Bahamas. Drug-sniffing dogs alerted customs officials to the base of her wheelchair, where several cloth pouches were bungee-corded to the underside. Inside the pouches were small plastic tubes that held 39 birds, some of which had died in travel.

Ruiz also completed a customs declaration form on which she falsely claimed that she was not carrying any wildlife into the country.

Federal law requires that birds being imported to the United States be placed in quarantine first.

Records showed that Ruiz had been stopped for attempting to smuggle birds on three prior occasions in the Bahamas, once with 99 birds.

Ruiz was sentenced to six months house arrest with electronic monitoring and another two years probation. She will also be prohibited from traveling abroad while on probation.

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