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Castro, Chavez Talk Building Oil Alliance
By Ian James, Associated
Press Writer.
PUERTO LA CRUZ, Venezuela, 28 (AP) - Cuban
President Fidel Castro joined his close
friend and ally President Hugo Chavez of
Venezuela on Tuesday to discuss a plan to
provide the Caribbean with more oil on preferential
terms.
Castro stepped off a Cuban jet accompanied
by Chavez, who has called the 78-year-old
leader his "older brother," before
beginning talks on forming a joint company,
Petrocaribe, to build a regional oil alliance
and distribute fuel more cheaply in the
Caribbean.
Chavez says the initiative is about more
than just bargain oil prices, and represents
the "union of the Caribbean."
Others call the "oil diplomacy,"
as Chavez seeks support for his political
aims.
While many Caribbean islands stand to benefit
economically, Venezuela will likely gain
political capital by winning allies in its
frequent disputes with the United States,
said Bishnu Ragoonath, a political science
professor at the University of the West
Indies in Trinidad.
"Chavez is seeking regional support
for his administration, and that is what
he's getting in return for the cheaper fuel
prices," Ragoonath said. "It's
simply a matter of shoring up support."
Chavez has defended plans for Petrocaribe
- and a similar South American joint venture
called Petrosur - as a way to help both
Venezuela and the region while moving toward
a more cooperative international economy.
Resting his arm on Castro's shoulder, Chavez
warned that increased energy consumption
in countries such as the United States was
reaching unsustainable levels.
By doing little do slow increased demand
for energy, the world's most developed countries
"are causing a humanitarian crisis
for survival" among smaller nations,
Castro said.
A harsh critic of capitalism and a U.S.
government Chavez calls "imperialist,"
Chavez says he is leading Venezuela toward
socialism.
He also is firmly opposed to the U.S.-proposed
Free Trade Area of the Americas and has
instead sought to build support for his
own brainchild, the Bolivarian Alternative
trade pact, named after independence hero
Simon Bolivar.
Venezuela, the world's No. 5 oil exporter,
already has special deals to provide oil
to a number of Caribbean countries, as well
as nations from Uruguay to China.
Venezuela and Mexico supply subsidized
oil to 11 Central American and Caribbean
countries under the 1980 San Jose pact.
Last year, Chavez signed a deal with the
Dominican Republic to sell up to 50,000
barrels a day of oil with preferential financing.
Two months ago, Venezuela opened a new
office in Havana for its state-run oil company
Petroleos de Venezuela S.A., and announced
it had increased sales to Cuba to 90,000
barrels a day.
In turn, Castro's government has sent thousands
of Cuban doctors to Venezuela, where they
work treating the poor for free.
Officials said delegations from 15 countries
were expected, including the leaders of
Grenada, Trinidad and Tobago and Dominican
Republic.
Veteran of Iraq War Denied Trip Home
to Cuba
By Jim Abrams, Associated
Press Writer.
WASHINGTON - Cuban-American Carlos Lazo
won a Bronze Star for caring for his wounded
comrades in Iraq, but he can't get to Cuba
to care for a sick son.
Lawmakers from both parties are urging
the Bush administration to give Lazo, a
sergeant in the Washington state National
Guard, an exemption from the strict sanctions
imposed on the Castro government limiting
family visits to once every three years.
"Surely a hero of the Iraq war who
wants to visit his ill teenage son in Cuba
is deserving of special consideration,"
Sen. Byron Dorgan, D-N.D., wrote in a letter
to White House Chief of Staff Andrew Card.
"We trust him in Iraq, but we do not
trust him to visit his own family in Cuba,"
echoed Rep. Jeff Flake, R-Ariz., in a floor
speech last week.
Dorgan's office said Lazo's case was being
considered this week by senior officials
at the State Department.
Lazo, 40, first tried to escape Cuba in
1988 but was captured by the Cuban Coast
Guard and jailed for a year. In 1992 he
made it to Key West by raft, leaving behind
his two sons, now ages 16 and 19.
In 1998 he moved to Seattle, where he's
a counselor for the state's social and health
services department. He joined the National
Guard in 2001 and was trained as a medic
because he wanted to help out after an earthquake.
Lazo was sent to Iraq in April 2004. Last
November, he was attached to the Marines
during the battle of Fallujah, where he
earned the Bronze Star for braving sniper
fire and mortar rounds while providing medical
aid to the troops.
Now an American citizen, he last saw his
sons in April 2003. Last June, on leave
from Iraq, he flew to Miami with the intent
of flying on to Havana, only to learn that
the State Department had put a hold on passengers
going to Cuba.
He tried again this spring upon hearing
that his 16-year-old was suffering from
a high fever. The boy was hospitalized for
10 days, then sent home with doctors still
uncertain why he was sick. But under rules
administered by the Treasury Department,
Lazo is not eligible for another trip until
2006.
The Bush administration last June imposed
tough sanctions aimed at squeezing Fidel
Castro's government. They included restrictions
on the flow of dollars to Cuba, mostly by
way of Cuban-Americans, and limits on family
visits. Cuban-Americans who previously were
allowed one visit a year were told they
could return home only once every three
years.
"Cubans pray to God that their parents
die three years apart so they can attend
the funerals," Lazo told The Associated
Press in an interview.
In making his own case, he has become a
spokesman for those questioning the effectiveness
of the 45-year embargo on Cuba, appearing
on TV news programs, writing op-ed pieces
and making several trips here to appeal
personally to lawmakers.
"I consider myself pro-democracy.
That's what I want for my country,"
Lazo said. "Who could be a better ambassador
than me? Is there a better way for Cuba
to get information about democracy?"
Among his supporters in Congress is Rep.
Jim McDermott, D-Wash., who has urged the
Office of Foreign Assets Control in the
Treasury Department to find a way to grant
Lazo a travel license.
"The government has in place a policy
which denies the basic liberties of an American
hero, and we have not lifted one finger
in this House to help Carlos Lazo,"
he said in a recent floor speech.
Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, R-Fla., a Cuban-American
and staunch supporter of anti-Castro sanctions,
said Lazo was a "great patriot"
and she would be happy to help bring his
boys to the United States. But she stressed
that it's a two-way street, with the Castro
government also preventing reunions. "Anyone
who leaves their children in Cuba understands
the difficulties" of reuniting, she
said.
Flake said he will try to amend a spending
bill this week to reverse administration
policy restricting travel to Cuba. The House
has approved similar Flake amendments three
times in recent years and every time, under
threat of a presidential veto, the language
was removed from the final version of the
bill.
Report: Cuba Faces Housing Shortage
AP via Yahoo! News June
28, 2005.
HAVANA - Cuba says it was facing a massive
housing shortage and must build a half million
homes over the next decade to deal with
the crisis, according to a government report.
The National Housing Institute said in
a report released Monday at a conference
that despite the need for about 50,000 new
homes a year, only about 15,000 were built
during 2004.
Parliament Speaker Ricardo Alarcon said
at the opening of the U.N.-sponsored conference,
which deals with sustainable development,
that housing has become one of the communist
government's most serious challenges.
According to the report, some 43 percent
of Cuban housing is in mediocre or poor
shape. Population growth, tropical weather
and poor maintenance contribute to the crisis.
The average cost of building a house in
communist Cuba is $8,000, with rehabilitation
of an existing home costing about $1,000,
the report said.
Despite the problems, the report claimed
that the situation is better today than
during the era of dictator Fulgencio Batista,
who was toppled by Fidel Castro in 1959.
Since 1953, the population has doubled
to more than 11.2 million but the number
of homes has tripled, according to the report.
Officials from 30 countries attended the
United Nations-sponsored conference, which
was to run through Friday.
Vietnam, Cuba communist regimes get
different US treatment
WASHINGTON, 26 (AFP) - US President George
W. Bush opened the doors of the White House
this week to Vietnamese Prime Minister Phan
Van Khai, showing him patently different
treatment from that given to two other communist
regimes: those of Cuba and North Korea.
"Well, they are different cases,"
Cuban-American Otto Reich, former special
US envoy to Latin America told AFP.
"While the United States does not
admire the political and economic systems
of China and Vietnam, we have to admit that
they have made progress.
"That is something that has not happened
in Cuba," said Reich, after Khai's
visit to Washington this past week.
That visit symbolized the normalization
of ties between the United States and Vietnam
30 years after the end of the Vietnam War.
And in China, "a foreign company may
establish a labor contract with any citizen.
This is impossible in Cuba where the government
keeps hold of 95 percent of the currency."
Michael Shifter of The Inter-American Dialogue
says other motives exist to explain these
differences.
"The political weight of Cubans in
the United States is much stronger than
that of the Vietnamese," says Shifter.
The analyst explains that influential Republican
Senator John McCain, a prisoner of war for
five and a half years in Vietnam, moved
relations forward with communist Vietnam,
together with John Kerry, failed Democratic
presidential candidate in last year's election.
"No politician of his weight is prepared
to risk things by moving for a warming of
ties with Cuba," says Shifter, in reference
to the risk of losing popularity in elections.
Not even if it made progress in the way
China has would make a difference if Havana
wanted to be treated like Vietnam was, Shifter
explains.
Despite an opening of economic ties with
Europe, Cuba's situation has not changed,
he said.
"People always say US policy has failed"
in its 40-year embargo against Cuba, said
Shifter. "But the European Union hasn't
been successful either. With Fidel Castro,
everything fails."
Other reasons may be that, "Cuba is
right here beside us, while Vietnam is in
Asia," he says, though he concurs that
US foe North Korea is also in Asia and does
not enjoy Vietnam-style ties with Washington.
"It's the nuclear threat" with
North Korea, said Shifter, an opinion not
shared by Reich.
"That is not the only reason,"
Reich said. "Before the nuclear threat
existed, North Korea did not have relations
with the United States because it is a Stalinist
system."
Says Reich: "There are certainly more
parallels between Cuba and North Korea than
between China and Vietnam." The latter
two are "both Stalinist countries --
the last two in the world."
During his visit to the United States,
Khai was welcomed at the White House and
in the US Congress and even rang the opening
bell Thursday in one of the most symbolic
seats of capitalism: the New York Stock
Exchange.
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