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Washington's embargo against Cuba 'inhumane':
US bishop
HAVANA, 27 (AFP) - The presiding bishop
and primate of the US Episcopal Church,
Frank Griswold, issued a forceful criticism
of Washington's trade embargo against Cuba,
calling it "inhumane."
Griswold, who is visiting Cuba this week,
said he was saddened to see the "suffering
caused by the policies of my country's government."
"The US embargo has helped fuel inhumane
poverty among your people," Griswold
said during an address at Havana's Cathedral
of the Holy Trinity, according to a text
of the speech released by the Episcopal
Church to AFP.
"The Episcopal Church in the United
States strongly opposes the blockade against
Cuba."
The senior American bishop also said the
embargo had "brought large parts of
your magnificent cities and infrastructure
to ruins, and cut off Cuban families from
the support, financial and otherwise, of
their loved ones in the United States".
A clearly moved Griswold levelled further
criticisms at Washington's four-decade-old
trade embargo against this Caribbean island,
located some 90 miles (145 kilometers) off
the coast of the US state of Florida.
"This division and separation of people
from people is scandalous to a Church which
claims the ministry of reconciliation as
its work in the world.
"The strongest supporters of the blockade
in my government frequently make the claim
that until Cuba changes its political structures,
Americans and Cubans cannot even come to
the same table and together explore avenues
toward healing.
"Such thinking -- in which the responsibility
for repentance, restoration and healing
falls exclusively on one side of a disagreement
-- is not the way of reconciliation laid
out for us by the Scripture," Griswold
said.
The US embargo dates back to 1961, after
the failed Bay of Pigs invasion under US
president John F. Kennedy. It was maintained
by subsequent administrations, partly due
to staunch opposition to Cuban President
Fidel Castro during the Cold War.
Griswold is not the first religious leader
to criticise the US embargo.
During his papacy the late Pope John Paul
II, a critic of communism, bluntly condemned
the trade embargo, denouncing it as "unjust
and ethically unacceptable".
Griswold added that upon his return to
the United States he would urge the Episcopal
Church to redicated itself to advocacy against
the embargo.
U.S. Law Firms Set Their Sights on Cuba
After Castro
Lindsay Fortado, The National
Law Journal. February 28, 2006.
Lawyers in the United States are turning
their thoughts to a new type of Cuba: one
without Fidel Castro.
The Cuban dictator turns 80 this year,
and he's been in power for 47 of those years.
While it's impossible to predict what system
of government or economy will form in a
post-Castro Cuba, U.S. firms are getting
ready.
"[Castro's death] is an inevitability,"
said Pedro Freyre, a partner at Akerman
Senterfitt and the co-chairman of the Florida
firm's international practice group. "It
will happen, and it will happen much sooner
than much later. But that having been said,
the what-ifs and the scenarios are complex."
Among U.S. lawyers, there are at least
two sources of interest in Cuba. Some --
mostly Cuban-American attorneys with sentimental
ties -- want a hand in shaping the country's
legal system when the Communist regime falls.
Others view the island as a lucrative source
of business, from tourism and infrastructure
to oil and other industries. Canada, India,
Norway and China are making investments
in oil deposits recently found off the coast
of Cuba.
IN LIMBO SINCE 1959
Legal work in Cuba will include "everything
under the sun," said Jose Sirven, a
partner in Holland & Knight's Miami
office and a member of the firm's Cuba action
team. "That country's been in limbo
since 1959, so you have roadwork, water
and sewer, refurbishing of buildings, basic
needs of consumers -- from toilet paper
to soap, everything's in short supply ...
U.S. companies are going to want to enter
the market immediately."
When U.S. companies will be able to enter
the market is up for debate.
The general sentiment among Cuban-American
attorneys is a hope that a Democratic government
will follow Castro's Communist reign, but
many admit to the possibility of a succession.
Castro has named his younger brother, Raul,
next in line to take power, but other party
leaders could also take over.
"The older members of the party will
work very hard to keep their stranglehold
on power," Freyre predicted. "But
the loss of Fidel is a huge loss; they lose
their ace."
But it is not Castro preventing U.S. businesses
from investing in Cuba; it is the current
administration enforcing a trade embargo.
"The market [in Cuba] is open to everybody,"
said Kirby Jones, the founder of Alamar
Associates, a consulting firm for U.S. companies
looking to do business with Cuba, and the
head of the U.S.-Cuba Trade Association.
"It's really post-embargo, not post-Castro,"
Jones said. "Cuba does business with
everyone in the world; there's foreign investment
in every sector. Cuba is already open; we're
the ones who are closed.
"In terms of any fundamental change,
it's going to take a U.S. administration
with a different approach," added Jones.
If a democratic government is installed,
new law will have to be created to guarantee
investors that property rights will be respected,
and the United States will have to lift
the trade embargo with the island nation.
Should there be a democracy, an end to the
embargo appears likely, as it would benefit
U.S. business.
"The laws have to be changed to do
business in Cuba," said Frank Angones,
the president-elect of the Florida Bar beginning
in 2007 and a partner at Angones, McClure
& Garcia in Miami. "There will
have to be some kind of opening in the market."
Many attorneys are optimistic that the
market will open, perhaps not immediately
after Castro's death but within the decade
after. At that point, legal work should
be plentiful.
"In places like Miami, probably Washington,
certainly New York, practitioners ... are
looking with close attention to Cuba and
thinking, 'What do we do to take advantage
of the opportunities there?' " said
Freyre. "We keep our eyes peeled on
Cuba. Akerman has a very, very keen interest."
So do other large U.S. firms.
"We've been preparing since over a
decade ago," said Holland & Knight's
Sirven. "It's something we talk about.
We want to be one of the first U.S. law
firms there."
In the mid-1990s, when Castro was in poor
health, the firm created its Cuba action
team to assess business opportunities on
the island.
"We put a plan in place to go into
the Cuban market and assist clients entering
that market," Sirven said. "We
obviously haven't used it."
With other countries able to invest in
the island, it appears that some U.S. companies
are growing antsy.
In January, a meeting in Mexico City between
Cuban government officials and U.S. oil
executives from Exxon Mobil Corp. and Valero
Energy Corp. was cut short when the delegation
was forced to leave its American-owned hotel
under pressure from Washington.
"That has caused an uproar and a pique
of interest in Cuban relations," said
Sirven, who counsels clients on the current
legal framework in Cuba.
There are currently several exceptions
to the embargo laws, which include certain
business transactions in the fields of telecommunications
and agriculture, Sirven said.
"We have advised companies that had
an interest in knowing more about those
opportunities," he said.
Jones has worked with law firms looking
to do business with Cuba or dealing with
embargo problems.
"There are always issues of what you
can and can't do," he said. "Law
firms get very active on this side helping
clients with embargo-related issues."
Economists at the National Summit on Cuba
predicted that trade between the United
States and the island nation could generate
more than $50 billion and 900,000 jobs during
a two-year period if the embargo were lifted.
Cesar Alvarez, president and CEO of Greenberg
Traurig in Miami and a Cuban-American, said
that he fields calls from companies inquiring
about doing business with Cuba.
"About once a month I get a call from
somebody saying we'd like to do something
in Cuba, and they assume that because you're
sitting here in Miami that you can help,"
Alvarez said. "But we don't represent
anyone trying to make investments in Cuba
directly or indirectly."
Law firms are actively monitoring the situation
in Cuba, especially because so many U.S.
businesses are eager to enter the market,
Angones said.
"Most of the large corporations in
the U.S. have a contingent plan, not just
in Castro's death but a change in the way
that Cuba does business and whether private
property is respected or not, whether you
can buy land and buildings," said Angones.
EYE ON THE WAL-MART PRIZE
Freyre, a Cuban-American, monitors the
situation in Cuba daily and knows the business
sectors that could produce the most lucrative
work.
"Tourism is a solid prospect for the
future. Cuba is very beautiful. It's the
largest island in the Caribbean," Freyre
said. "Add an element of exoticism,
this has been the forbidden land for Americans,
go explore it, and it's very tempting."
But tourism is not the biggest target.
"The golden ring is who represents
Wal-Mart," Freyre said. "But you
can represent Halliburton when they build
the airports, or you can represent Exxon
when they try to get their oil fields back
in the harbor."
Freyre said that his knowledge of both
Cuban and U.S. societies will give his firm
an advantage in procuring lucrative work
should the governments allow it. The firm
beefed up its Washington office for lobbying
work, which could also help Akerman's prospects.
"I think once Castro moves on, the
chances of things happening there will open
up, but predicting what will ultimately
happen is mostly speculation right now,"
Alvarez said. "We certainly hope that
democracy and capitalism would return to
Cuba."
Alvarez expressed more interest in helping
to shape a new legal system in Cuba rather
than to view the country solely as a business
opportunity.
"My friends would be much more interested
in [restructuring] the nonexistent legal
system," Alvarez said of the Cuban-American
legal community. "Our focus will be
much different than just what to do for
financial gain when Castro's gone.
"It's going to be some time before
significant private investments return after
Castro," he said. "There's no
legal system; the legal system is ultimately
the Communist regime.
Freyre noted, "Here, I have to be
loyal to my client, and my obligation is
to defend my client."
In Cuba, the mindset is "I work for
the revolution, and everything I do for
my client has to be for the revolution,"
he said.
SYMPOSIUM IS PLANNED
Alvarez's ideal is for a new Cuban legal
system to be based on the American model.
"The ultimate key to get investments
in a post-Castro Cuba is to duplicate what
you have in the American [judicial] system,"
Alvarez said.
"First, property rights have to be
respected; two, rule of law and the respect
of human rights, and not the whims of a
dictator, must be the guiding principles;
third, a truly independent judiciary must
be in place," he said.
Alvarez is not alone in his ambition to
help Cuba rebuild its legal system. The
Cuban American Bar Association is currently
planning a symposium at the University of
Miami School of Law, slated for June, to
discuss the past, present and future of
the legal system in Cuba.
"There's just so much interest in
this topic," said Corali Castro-Lopez,
the president of CABA and a partner at Kozyak
Tropin & Throckmorton in Coral Gables,
Fla. "This is the first seminar focused
just on the [Cuban] legal system and what
needs to be done."
Some firms are eyeing the possibility of
opening a Havana office should the opportunity
arise.
"The proximity [of Cuba], the need
for every conceivable product and equipment
makes it a natural place to want to be,"
Sirven said of opening a Havana office,
noting that he couldn't speak for his firm.
Freyre agreed, but was hesitant to say
he'd return to his native land to live.
"Most of us look at it. Would we like
to be the ones designated to open the Cuban
office in Havana? Heck yes, but I have no
particular wish to relocate," he said.
"I'd only do it on a project basis."
Alvarez also said that Greenberg Traurig
would be interested in Havana, but he didn't
foresee any immediate action. "If there's
democracy in Cuba, we certainly would view
Cuba to be a logical place for [Greenberg
Traurig] to be, but I think that's a few
days away," he said.
For many attorneys, the resounding sentiment
is an eagerness to enter the Cuban marketplace,
but an exasperation at the resilience of
Castro.
"I remember in the mid-'90s people
thinking this fellow can't last too long,
and here we are 12 years later," Angones
said. "We can make educated guesses,
but we can't predict what the future will
hold."
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