Published Thursday, January 11, 2001, in the
Miami Herald
Cuba creeping toward economic recovery
By Anita Snow . Associated Press
HAVANA -- Container ships laden with food and consumer goods from Europe and
Asia plow daily into Havana Bay, a body of water virtually empty five years ago.
The daily arrivals in the harbor are a sign that, bit by bit, Cuba's economy
continues to recover, even though life remains hard for the average Cuban.
The economy grew 5.6 percent last year and is projected to grow another 5
percent in 2001, Economics Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez reported in late
December. Both rates were well ahead of the Latin American average of 3 percent.
But Rodriguez acknowledged that the effects of economic growth have yet to
trickle down to ordinary Cubans.
"Important limitations are still faced when it comes to people's daily
lives,'' Rodriguez acknowledged in his annual report to the National Assembly,
or parliament.
The collapse of the Soviet Union a decade ago led the island's gross
national product to shrink by some 40 percent, and a full recovery to the GNP
level of 1989 may still be years off.
Prices for non-rationed food remain extremely high for most Cubans, said
Rodriguez, and more homes need to be repaired and built, and public
transportation must be improved.
"There are a lot more things to buy now, but our pensions are the
same,'' said Lifa Isabel Barroso, a retiree in her 60s who sells crocheted
shawls and doilies to tourists in Old Havana. Her monthly pension is 80 pesos,
the equivalent of a little more than $4.
BETTER CONDITIONS
Still, things are much better than the early 1990s -- grim years marked by
severe shortages of food, petroleum and just about everything else. Cubans went
months without eating meat, blackouts were regularly scheduled to save fuel, and
the streets were devoid of motor vehicles because there just wasn't any gasoline
available.
"Life can still be difficult for all Cubans,'' especially elderly
people who need special foods and medicines, said Augustin Cruz, 42, who sells
wooden statues at an artisan market. "But overall, the economic situation
is about 80 percent better than 1993,'' the year that's generally considered the
roughest for those who endured.
Much of Cuba's current economic growth has been attributed to tourism, which
Rodriguez described as "the most dynamic factor in our economy.'' The
industry has grown at an average of nearly 19 percent a year over the past five
years.
FORECASTS FAIL
But the industry failed to live up to expectations in 2000, when 1.8 million
people visited the island. It was only a 10 percent increase over 1999, well
below official growth forecasts.
Foreign investment, meanwhile, "continues growing and playing a
complementary role in our development,'' Rodriguez said.
'MIXED ENTERPRISES'
Since foreign companies first got the green light to invest on the island in
1995, 370 "mixed enterprises'' -- partnerships between outside investors
and the Cuban government -- have been formed. By year's end, that translated
into foreign investment of $4.3 billion.
The sugar crop, once all-important, has suffered under chronic drought.
Officials expect only 3.7 million metric tons from this harvest, a 10 percent
drop from a year ago.
Such news would once have been devastating, but the Soviet collapse taught
Cuban authorities the dangers of not diversifying. Economic planners responded
by developing tourism, fish exporting and mining industries.
The average monthly government salary over the past year increased 7.3
percent to 249 pesos, which works out to a bit less than $12 at government
exchange rates.
DOMESTIC SUBSIDIES
The salary figure can mislead because most Cubans pay little or nothing for
housing and utilities and enjoy free education and healthcare and heavily
subsidized public transportation. They also receive about half of their food
through a government ration program for about 25 pesos a month -- the equivalent
of about $1.20.
Castro: Spain's Three Kings event was an insult
HAVANA -- (AP) -- Fidel Castro says a Three Kings celebration held by
representatives of Spain was insulting to Cuban children, but denies that his
criticism was meant to fuel bad relations between the two nations.
"We don't want to throw fuel on the fire in our relations with Spain,''
the Cuban leader said in comments published Wednesday in the Communist Party
daily Granma.
"But no one should doubt that any rudeness, any provocation, any insult
will have an appropriate response,'' Castro said.
The comments were published Wednesday in official newspapers.
Cuban authorities were enraged by images of Cuban children scrambling and
fighting last week over candies tossed in the streets by three men -- at least
two of them Spanish officials -- dressed as the biblical wise men.
The criticism of the Spanish Cultural Center's handling of the Friday event
in Old Havana is the latest flap between Cuba and Spain -- one of the island's
principal commercial partners.
During an evening program on state television dedicated to the subject, the
criticism extended to a well-known veteran member of the foreign press corps in
Cuba and his coverage of the celebration.
Participants took issue with Pascal Fletcher's dispatch for Reuters,
rejecting his characterization of the resulting flap over the event as an "ideological
storm.''
They also denied the story's assertion that Spanish officials had obtained
advance approval for the event, and said that the article "tried to
identify the Cuban response with an anti-religious sentiment.''
The attack on Fletcher, a British correspondent for the Financial Times of
London and part-time reporter for Reuters, was harsh and personal in nature.
Program participants also criticized his past reportage and accused him of
being "disrespectful of the figure of [comrade] Fidel'' and of being a "servant''
of the U.S. Interests Section -- the American mission here.
The Reuters office in Havana said it would have no comment on the
criticisms. Fletcher was unavailable for comment on Wednesday.
"We believe that our coverage of Cuba is fair, balanced and accurate,''
the Financial Times said in a statement Wednesday. "We stand by our
correspondent, Pascal Fletcher, who is a highly professional correspondent. We
remain committed to writing fair and accurate news about Cuba.''
Cuban spy describes his peril
By Gail Epstein Nieves. gepstein@herald.com
Cuban spies who cooperate with the United States against their homeland are
considered traitors worthy of being surveilled and confronted -- or worse, a
former Cuban spy testified Wednesday.
Joseph Santos, an ex-spy and cooperating witness against five fellow Cubans
on trial, said none of his Cuban trainers ever told him specifically what would
happen if he switched sides and started working against Cuba's intelligence
apparatus. Still, he was trained to expect ominous results.
"Perhaps a death sentence,'' Assistant U.S. Attorney David Buckner
argued.
Before leaving Cuba for America in 1993, Santos said his fellow intelligence
agents showed him a video that "narrated the work that had been been done
against a person that had committed treason, and it explained the surveillance
carried out on that person.''
After Cuban agents determined what the man was doing, they ordered him to "abandon
those activities,'' Santos said. He wasn't told what ultimately happened to the
man, but the message was clear.
"Were you told what would happen if you cooperated with U.S. law
enforcement?'' prosecutor Buckner asked.
"That is not clearly explained, but at the national level, one knows
what happens,'' Santos said. He did not elaborate.
The testimony took place outside the presence of jurors in the Cuban spy
trial.
U.S. District Judge Joan Lenard rejected Buckner's argument that Santos
faces a possible Cuban death sentence for his cooperation.
The judge said Santos has never faced a specific threat, so jurors should
not hear him on the topic.
Prosecutors were trying to counter two days of cross-examination by the
defense, which repeatedly hammered the point that Santos' plea agreement won him
lesser charges and the probability of a sentence reduction.
They claimed that might have encouraged Santos to lie.
Santos and his wife, Amarylis, were originally arrested for conspiracy to
commit espionage, which carries a maximum life sentence.
They ultimately pleaded guilty to a much lesser charge -- conspiracy to act
as a foreign agent, which carries a maximum five-year sentence.
Santos was sentenced to four years on the government's recommendation.
"The fact is, in avoiding a life sentence [in the United States], he
bought himself a death sentence'' from Cuba, Buckner argued about Santos.
Prosecutors say they are one-third through their case. | 