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CUBA
NEWS
The
Miami Herald
Castro, Chávez to discuss health,
education aid
Posted on Mon, Dec. 22,
2003.
CARACAS - (AP) -- Cuban leader Fidel Castro
and Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez
will meet briefly in Caracas today to discuss
growing cooperation between their countries
on healthcare and education for the poor,
Chávez said Sunday.
Chávez said that he and Castro would
have lunch together and that the Cuban leader
would return to Havana later in the day.
The two presidents plan to discuss a program
that has brought more than 10,000 Cuban
doctors to poor Venezuelan communities and
a Venezuelan literacy program inspired by
Cuban methods.
Chávez said they would also review
a pact to sell 53,000 barrels of oil a day
to Cuba under preferential financial terms.
During his weekly television and radio
show last week, Chávez publicly invited
Castro to visit as the two leaders chatted
briefly on the airwaves. Castro had promised
to try to make the time.
''Fidel Castro accepted the invitation,
and he arrives tomorrow in Venezuela,''
Chávez said during his show Sunday.
``Today the Cuban and Venezuelan people
are united like one people, working together
for social justice.''
It will be Castro's fourth visit to Venezuela
since Chávez took office in 1999.
The two leaders have developed a strong
friendship and political allegiance rooted
in their conviction that free-market policies
have failed to lift millions of Latin Americans
from poverty.
Their friendship has at times antagonized
the United States, the biggest importer
of Venezuelan oil.
Castro, man of fewer words
A review of Cuban and U.S. government
databases shows that Castro's speeches dropped
to 19 so far this year, compared with 37
in all of last year.
By Nancy San Martin, nsanmartin@herald.com
Posted on Sat, Dec. 20, 2003 .
Even as Cuban President Fidel Castro continues
to maintain a hectic schedule of public
appearances, he has scaled back significantly
on his speechmaking, indicating that the
77-year-old is slowing down.
A review of Cuban and U.S. government databases
shows that Castro's speeches dropped to
19 so far this year, compared with 37 in
all of last year, when he was often on the
podium demanding the release of five Cuban
spies sentenced that year in a Miami courtroom
to long prison terms.
If the records are accurate, the 19 speeches
through Friday would be the lowest number
of Castro addresses in each of the last
five years.
''That is highly suggestive that something
is not right, but that's all it is,'' said
Mark Falcoff, a Cuba expert and author of
the book Cuba, The Morning After.
Like Falcoff, most analysts hesitate to
make any definitive conclusions on what
the decline in speechmaking could mean.
But several said the drop, coupled with
an increase in the number of occasions in
which he only appears in public and does
not deliver a speech, seems to support theories
that Castro is not as politically engaged
as in previous years.
CAN'T BE REACHED
Officials at the Cuban Interests Section
in Washington could not be reached for comment.
So far this year, Castro has made 22 public
appearances in which he did not give an
address, compared with 11 last year and
only 8 in 1999, according to the Cuban and
U.S. government records.
''It's much less strenuous to appear in
public than to speak,'' said Falcoff, a
resident scholar at the American Enterprise
Institute in Washington. "He's been
cutting back for some time now.''
''The explanation could be just that his
physical ability is declining,'' said Brian
Latell, a retired CIA top analyst on Cuba
and Castro. "There is definitely a
noticeable decline in his physical appearance.
He's shuffling rather than striding.''
QUESTION REMAINS
''The question is, is he suffering from
health or is this the way most 77-year-olds
act?'' added Latell, who now oversees the
Central America and Caribbean program at
the Center for Strategic and International
Studies in Washington.
Rumors that Castro and his younger brother
Raúl, Cuba's defense minister, suffer
from poor health surface regularly in Cuba
and South Florida, often prompted by periodic
lapses in public appearances.
Foreign analysts have often said Castro
appears to be deteriorating not only physically,
but also mentally. He has been known to
lose his train of thought periodically while
speaking publicly and has sometimes slurred
his words. His behavior this year has been
viewed by many as particularly extreme,
with a March crackdown against 75 dissidents
and ongoing harsh verbal attacks against
the European Union.
Word that Raúl suffered from colon
cancer spread recently after a long absence
from the public eye and his failure to show
up at ceremonies marking Armed Forces Day
on Dec. 2.
A week later, he met with foreign correspondents
in Cuba and joked about the rumors.
NOT UNNOTICED
The elder Castro also has used humor to
dispel rumors of his pending death. Still,
his prolonged absences do not go unnoticed
in Cuba or the United States.
In a Nov. 25 report, the U.S. government's
Foreign Broadcast Information Service (FBIS)
noted that Castro appeared in public eight
times in the two months between Sept. 1
and Nov. 3 -- including four separate seven-day
gaps and other gaps of 11, 20, even 33 days.
FBIS, an agency that monitors and translates
foreign broadcasts on behalf of the U.S.
intelligence community, also noted the Cuban
media is no longer slavishly publishing
or broadcasting Castro's full speeches.
''Cuban broadcast and print news media
have not been observed to carry in complete
form any Fidel Castro speech since 28 September,''
the report said.
UNUSUAL FAILURE
''While not without precedent, failure
by the media in recent weeks to broadcast
in their entirety or otherwise disseminate
complete texts of the only two speeches
known to have been delivered by Fidel Castro
during that period is unusual,'' it added.
In another interesting omission, the Cuban
records also don't include Castro's remarks
in a Havana suburb June 23, 2001, when he
briefly fainted before a stunned crowd.
''That must be deliberate,'' Latell said.
"They don't want any reference to it.
They just want to erase that from history.''
A Herald search of the Cuban government's
database on Castro's speeches also showed
that his speeches commemorating July 26,
the birth of his revolution, have been getting
shorter.
While Castro's July 26 speech in 1999 amounted
to 12,310 words, the following year it dropped
to 2,159 words. He skipped the speech entirely
in 2001, a month after his fainting spell,
and delivered only 2,976 words in 2002.
This July 26, on the 50th anniversary of
his attack on the Moncada army base in the
eastern city of Santiago, his speech totaled
4,983 words.
But none of his recent July 26 speeches
was a match for the one he delivered in
1998. That one went on for 23,752 words.
Castro looks to cash in with foreign
franchises
By Nancy San Martin, nsanmartin@herald.com.
Posted on Fri, Dec. 19, 2003
Cuba is reaching for business abroad, according
to a report by the University of Miami's
Institute for Cuban and Cuban-American Studies.
Cuban restaurant franchises in Shanghai,
Portugal, Milan and Panama. Hotel partnerships
in Mexico. A la Cubana bars in Dubai, Paris,
Prague and Warsaw. Havana's famous Coppelia
ice cream in Malaysia.
These are among the ventures that President
Fidel Castro's government has increasingly
set up overseas.
Faced with sagging foreign investments
at home, Cuba is reaching for business abroad,
franchising its popular restaurants, establishing
coinvestments in hotels and other ventures
and swapping patents and technical expertise
in areas such as biotechnology for a 30
to 51 percent ownership stake, according
to a report Thursday by the University of
Miami's Institute for Cuban and Cuban-American
Studies.
The report contends that the foreign projects,
which have become more prevalent over the
past two years, prove that the current economic
climate in Cuba is no longer attractive
for many firms, even those owned by the
Cuban state itself.
CASH-STRAPPED
''Cuban investments abroad are growing
in importance for the critically cash-strapped
Castro regime,'' the report states.
"With more than 20 percent of [foreign
direct investment] now directed toward business
activities and joint ventures outside of
Cuba, and a negligible net inflow of foreign
capital within the island itself, Cuba's
state-owned enterprises have realized that
they too can obtain a better return on investment
elsewhere.''
The UM report cites a drop in joint foreign-Cuban
ventures on the island, from 403 last year
to 360 at the end of October. Of the 24
new joint ventures authorized by Havana
in 2002, 10 were outside Cuba. Overall,
of the 360 joint ventures in operation this
year, 80 are reportedly based on foreign
soil, according to the report.
''It's been increasingly more lucrative
for Cuban businesses to go abroad,'' said
Hans de Salas del Valle, a research associate
at UM's Cuban institute who compiled the
report. "Now the Cuban government is
officially encouraging its own companies
to go outside of Cuba where conditions are
more conducive for business.''
HOTEL PARTNERS
Among the state enterprises joining forces
with foreign partners in overseas markets
is Cubanacán, Cuba's largest state-run
tourism enterprise.
It has managing partnership arrangements
with at least three hotels in Mexico, the
report said.
In China, Cubanacán has joint ownership
in a five-star hotel under construction
in Shanghai. Chinese investors also paired
up with Cuba's Palmares corporation to open
the first La Gloria Cubana restaurant franchise
in Shanghai earlier this year. Other franchises
exist in Portugal, Italy and Panama.
Havana's famed La Bodeguita del Medio,
one of the watering holes that writer Ernest
Hemingway made famous for its mojito cocktails,
has been replicated in Mexico, Dubai, Paris,
Prague and Warsaw.
JOINT VENTURES
In the biotechnology field, Cuba has joint
ventures with Iran and more recently signed
an agreement with Namibia for a pharmaceutical
plant, the report said. John Kavulich, who
monitors Cuba's economy, agrees that a new
trend is emerging with the Cuban foreign
ventures.
But he cautioned that most of the new businesses
are in developing countries, a risky move
in his eyes.
''Cuba is seeking to use its political
[influence], especially with developing
countries, to gain market access,'' said
Kavulich, president of U.S.-Cuba Trade and
Economic Council in New York.
'The question is, 'Can they compete once
the global companies decide to enter the
same market?' '' he added. "Are these
ventures sustainable?''
Read
the UM report on Cuba
Port agrees to enhance shipping ties
with Cuba
From Herald Staff and Wire
Services. Posted on Sun, Dec. 21, 2003.
The Manatee County Port Authority approved
an agreement last week between Port Manatee
and Cuba to find ways to increase shipments
to the island nation.
But the approval came only after port officials
stripped the agreement of a 44-word sentence
that has been criticized in Tallahassee
and castigated in Washington, the Bradenton
Herald reported.
Critics have said the sentence, crafted
in Havana during port officials' visit there,
required the port to actively oppose the
U.S. trade embargo against the communist
nation.
The controversial sentence stated: ``The
parties renewed their mutual interest and
intention to work toward free and unrestricted
travel and trade relations between Cuba
and the U.S. in the benefit of enhanced
American purchases by [Cuba's import agency]
and consequently increased business for
the Port of Manatee and Tampa Bay.''
Members of the state's Hispanic Republican
caucus, calling the sentence ''troubling,''
have discussed seeking legislation that
would require Port Manatee and others who
sign similar agreements to register as a
lobbyist of a terrorist state, according
to Rep. David Rivera, a Miami-Dade Republican
who is Cuban American.
The deletion of the sentence was the only
major change to the proposed agreement.
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