Child of the Revolution : Growing Up in Castro's Cuba

Minor Interruptions

2009-03-26T13:57:00.001+11:00

Apologies to those of you popping by every now and then for being so lax in my posting duties recently. In fact, this will be my last post for a few weeks. Off on a (much-needed) break. See you soon and once again, thank you for your visit!

Quote of the Day

2009-03-26T13:54:00.001+11:00

"They are two of the Western agencies closest to the imperialist policy of the United States."

Fidel Castro, who seems to be spending his final days trawling through wire copy, attacking Reuters and the Spanish newsagency EFE in his most recent “reflection”. Apparently, the agencies have been spreading misleading information.

Quote of the day

2009-03-12T10:04:00.004+11:00

"If the travel ban is lifted, we might have a stampede of [American] airlines [wanting to fly into Cuba]. After all, there are more than 11 million people in Cuba - and my guess is, a lot of them would be interested in traveling to the United States as well."

Rick Seaney, a travel consultant and columnist for the American ABC television network, predicting much air traffic between Havana and Miami if travel restrictions for US citizens are lifted by Washington. He is probably serious, too.

News from nowhere

2009-03-12T09:56:00.003+11:00

It’s been nearly a week since those lovable Castro brothers stomped all over the once-stellar careers of Carlos Lage and Felipe Perez Roque, sending the two relatively young men into the Cuban equivalent of political death row.

And we still have no real idea what they are supposed to have done wrong – or when.

But it’s been fun watching the international media trying to explain the process by which two men that were until recently regarded by Western correspondents in Havana as logical heirs to the grand Castro dynasty become “counter revolutionaries” literally overnight.

They've tried hard but the the fact is that there is no rational explanation.

This is the way Fidel Castro and his slightly younger brother have always behaved, since the days in the Sierra Maestra. In their twisted, dictatorial paradise, there is room for only one and half tall poppies: the Castro brothers themselves. Sooner or later, everyone with even the slightest smell of ambition gets cut down, whether in a light plane on its way to Havana, in a jungle in Bolivia or in the utilitarian confines of the Palace of the Revolution in Havana.

No one is safe.

And guess what? The Castro brothers have always worked on the assumption that since they are in charge, they don't need to explain anything to anyone. Not to the Cuban people. Not even to that small but merry band of Castro apologists outside Cuba, who make a living out of unswerving support for the "revolution".

From these apologists – those who only the other day lauded the great work undertaken by Lage and Perez Roque - there has been nothing but silence. Stunned silence. And sadly for them, no instructions from Havana.

Havana, 2009

2009-03-06T10:37:00.002+11:00

Back in the good old days, high-profile Soviet officials who fell out of favour with the old men in the Kremlin would be forced to publicly admit their mistakes and offer their continuing loyalty to the Communist Party and its geriatric leadership.

Then, they would disappear from public view, sent into internal exile, if they were lucky (hello, Vladivostok!), never to be heard from again.

Well, you will be happy to hear that these essentially Stalinist tactics are still in use in Cuba in 2009, as we have seen overnight in the continuing (and increasingly intriguing) case involving Carlos Lage and Felipe Perez Roque.

In separate but near identical letters published by the regime’s official propaganda sheet, Granma, the two one-time golden boys of the Castro regime admit to having made “mistakes” and announce their immediate resignation from all Communist Party and government posts.

According to the letters, the all-powerful Politburo of the Communist Party met sometime over the past few days, inviting Lage and Perez Roque to supposedly hear the charges labelled against them before sentencing them to oblivion.

And of course, both men have dutifully followed the script, rounding off their letters with loyalty pledges not just to the Communist Party but more importantly, to the Castro brothers.

In his note, Lage, once regarded as the third most powerful man in Havana, wrote: "I recognise the errors committed and I assume the responsibility. I consider that the analysis made in the past meeting with the political bureau was just and profound."

For his part, the obnoxious Perez Roque, a hard-line Castroist that was Minister for Foreign Affairs for about a decade, wrote: "I fully recognise that I committed errors ... I assume my full responsibility for them."

Yes, it’s a sickening display but one that doesn’t surprise most ordinary Cubans – it’s the way the Castro brothers have operated for more than five decades.

And the message is as clear today as it was in Moscow 40 years ago: No one is safe.

Literary corner

2009-03-05T10:24:00.002+11:00

We have blogged previously about Leonardo Padura, a Cuban novelist whose best known work outside the island is a series of police procedurals featuring a Havana police inspector by the name of Mario Conde.

Padura is a rare beast: an internationally-known Cuban writer who still lives in Cuba.

His writing is often quite critical of conditions in Cuba today although Padura is careful enough never to criticise the Castro brothers directly or to question the “revolutionary process”, which may explain why his work is tolerated (if not necessarily promoted) by the Communist regime.

Anyway, to publicise his latest novel to be translated into English, “Havana Fever”, Padua has provided The Guardian newspaper in Britain with a personal list of his top 10 Cuban novels of all time.

And what becomes immediately obvious is that the majority of the novels highlighted by Padura were written before Castro came to power, or by writers such as Guillermo Cabrera Infante, Alejo Carpentier or Reinaldo Arenas who were either forced into exile by the regime or fell out of favour big time with Fidel Castro.

You can read the list here.

Quote of the Day

2009-03-04T11:06:00.002+11:00

"Fidel Castro has a long history of mentoring younger leaders, giving them important portfolios and then basically banishing them once they began to feel secure in their own power."

Daniel Erikson, of the Washington think thank Inter-American Dialogue, speaking to Associated Press about the unexpected dismissal of Carlos Lage and Felipe Perez Roque.

Big news in Havana 3

2009-03-04T09:53:00.001+11:00

As is usually the case, the official Cuban media have failed to explain (let alone question!) the reasons why Raul Castro unexpectedly sacked several of his senior ministers yesterday, in particular two high-profile ministers who were often described as potential successors: Carlos Lage and Felipe Perez Roque.

In any other country, the head of the government would have been hounded by reporters for an explanation and the dismissed ministers themselves would have almost certainly held a press conference and provided their own commentary.

Not in Cuba, where disgraced officials simply disappear from public view, normally for decades ... just as it used to happen in the old Soviet Union.

Mind you, Fidel Castro has provided a glimpse of what might have gone wrong for the officious Lage and the odious Perez Roque in his latest “reflection”, which was published overnight in Havana.

According to Castro I, he was fully consulted about the changes and approved of them, describing the changes as “beneficial”.

And in characteristic style, he attempts to rewrite history once more by claiming that he had nothing at all to do with the promotion of Lage and Perez Roque to senior positions, which of course, is absolute crap.

As for their dismissal, the semi-retired dictator says they got the flick because they had become too “ambitious” for their own good and had started behaving in an “undignified” manner.

Intriguing, eh?

Big news in Havana 2

2009-03-03T15:04:00.004+11:00

Have you been wondering what's likely to happen to that awful Felipe Perez Roque now he has been sacked by Raul Castro from his high-flying job as Minister for Foreign Affairs? Perhaps not. Here is a possible clue, anyway.

Cast your mind back to 1999 when the then thirtysomething Perez Roque was appointed to the his new position to replace Roberto "Robertico" Robaina, another young Communist Party brown-nose who had been a favourite of Fidel Castro.

There was never any official explanation for the unexpected demotion of Robaina, who was not only stripped of his job but in due course was also kicked out of the Communist Party, effectively becoming persona non grata in his own country.

Unlike his successor, Robaina was a colourful character by Castroist standards. he enjoyed wearing fashionable jeans, pastel-coloured sports coats over his t-shirts, and not surprisingly, spending time in capitalist cities. Why, he even paid a visit to Sydney in the mid 1990s, where he told a group of Castro apologists (sigh ...) that the Cuban "revolution" remained highly popular among Cubans.

Before too long, Robaina was tagged by the international media as yes, a "reformer", a description he apparently started to take rather seriously, which more or less sealed his fate with the Castro bothers.

Last we heard, he was still living in relative obscurity in Cuba, pretending to be a painter and trying to sell his work over the Internet.

Cuban humour

2009-03-03T13:03:00.003+11:00

It seems the grand dame of American newspaper publishing, The New York Times, has fallen for that old story about a convalescing Fidel Castro exercising on the streets of his Havana neighbourhood.

You might recall that the original source for the story was the Venezuelan president, Hugo Chavez, a man who has what most independent observers would regard as a credibility issue.

Not that this has stopped the Times, which reports from Mexico City (that's right, Mexico City), that the semi-retired dictator has been spotted by neighbours in the Siboney area of Havana "ambling along the side of the road", followed closely by a black Mercedes.

Castro I was supposedly wearing shorts, white socks "pulled up high" and a track jacket, and surrounded by security guards.

The paper admits that there has been no confirmation of the sighting by the official Cuban media, before adding: "Some of the Havana residents who have spotted him insisted that their names, genders and even the exact day in which they saw Mr. Castro not be published to avoid running afoul of the government, which has declared Mr. Castro’s illness to be a state secret."

In happier days

2009-03-03T12:39:00.004+11:00

Big smile, everyone ... Raul Castro with the two men often spoken of as possible successors, both of whom have been dropped without explanation from their positions, according to the Cuban media. In the middle is Carlos Lage. On your right, Felipe Perez Roque. Photograph: AFP.

Big news in Havana ...

2009-03-03T09:37:00.003+11:00

The official Cuban media has just announced a major reshuffle of the Council of State, the body that is supposed to govern the island, although in fact, it’s nothing more than a bunch of colourless Communist Party apparatchiks who owe their loyalty to the Castro brothers.

The unexpected shake-up involves the removal of a truckload of ministers, most of whom would be little known to ordinary Cubans.

However, there are two noteworthy demotions, involving two senior ministers who have had a very high public profile outside Cuba: Carlos Lage and Felipe Perez Roque.

Lage, 57, a doctor by training, is a one-time economics adviser to Fidel Castro and vice-president of the Council of State who was seen until recently as a possible contender for the top job in a transitional scenario.

The odious Perez Roque, 43, used to be chief of staff to the now semi-retired dictator back int he late 1990s and early 2000s, and later became minister for Foreign Affairs and thus, the public face of the regime internationally.

The announcement does not explain why the two men have been removed from office but then again, this is not unusual - the regime never officially explains why it moves its senior people around.

Intriguingly, both Lage and Perez Roque were always seen as protégés of Castro I.

Stay tuned.

Quote of the Day

2009-03-02T09:07:00.001+11:00

"Per-capita-wise, Cuba qualifies as the world's biggest debtor nation with a foreign debt of close to $50 billion, a credit rating nudging Somalia's, and an uninterrupted record of defaults."

Author Humberto Fontova writing in The American Thinker magazine about Fidel Castro's new Republican allies.

Quote of the Day

2009-02-27T12:34:00.001+11:00

"We are not China, but could be an important market close to home. Every little bit of trade would help struggling U.S. farmers and companies as well as Cuba in these hard economic times."

Pedro Alvarez, head of the Castro regime’s food importing agency, tells Reuters how lifting the US trade embargo will benefit “struggling” American farmers.

Alcohol

2009-02-27T12:20:00.001+11:00

Ah, yes, let’s talk about Cuban rum ... new figures released by the official media show that despite the global economic downturn, sales of Havana Club outside Cuba grew by 13 per cent last year to a total of 3.4 million cases.

It seems the Germans in particular, have developed a taste for Cuban rum – sales there increased by about 26 per cent.

In fact, those thirsty Germans have now overtaken the Italians as the top overseas market for the Havana Club brand, which as with almost everything else in Cuba, is controlled directly by the Castro brothers, with a little help internationally from the French group Pernod Ricard SA.

Quote of the day

2009-02-26T09:43:00.002+11:00

"The Castro regime is one which, for romantic lefties living in comfort in the West, still represents the smiling face of revolutionary socialism ... There are many ... who prefer their illusions about Castro to remain unblemished."

Commentator Terence Blacker, writing in The Independent, London, about the enduring love affair between the Castro regime and Westerners who should know better. H/T Penultimos Dias.

That old embargo

2009-02-26T09:01:00.001+11:00

The US House of Representative has just passed legislation to partially lift some of the trade restrictions imposed by Washington on the Castro regime.

Under the legislation, which is yet to be approved by the Senate, the Treasury Department will no longer demand that Havana pay cash in advance for agricultural goods purchased from US primary producers.

In other words, the Americans could soon be selling produce to Cuba on credit.

Those favouring the change believe that the lifting of the cash-for-goods rule will result in a huge increase in agricultural sales, which is good news for American farmers.

And they are right – after all, the US is already Cuba’s number one source for agricultural produce, including beans, corn and rice.

The only problem with this seemingly optimistic scenario is the fact that the Castro regime has a shocking record when it comes to paying its debts, almost always making late repayment or simply refusing to pay what it owes.

Perhaps the US lawmakers should have a chat to the Canadian multi-national Sherritt International, which has been dealing with Havana for decades.

According to this report, Sherritt officials have just confirmed that the cash-strapped Cuban government owes the Toronto-based minerals company about USD 393 million in (very late) repayments for oil and gas production and electric power.

But there is more: Cuba also owes about USD100 million to a second Canadian outfit, the Montreal-based corporation, Pebercan Inc.

Our Irish connections

2009-02-18T14:49:00.003+11:00

The Irish Minister for Foreign Affairs, Micheal Martin, is on his way to Havana for the first ever visit to Cuba by an Irish government minister.

And to mark this historic occasion, the Irish press has published extensive background reports on Fidel Castro's island paradise, often repeating the same old lines about "free" education, "excellent" health care services, the US "blockade", blah, blah, blah ...

But among all the predictable silliness, there are some gems, including this commendable attempt by John Moran from the Irish Times to link the two island nations.

According to his research, Cubans see Ireland in "a very positive light" as both nations share a "similarly turbulent history in the shadow of a powerful neighbour".

"Ireland has another advantage in that we have prominent blood ties to the island – and not just Ernesto 'Che' Guevara (Lynch)," an enthusiastic Mr Moran writes. "One of the founders of the Cuban communist party, Julio Antonio Mella, who is greatly revered in Cuba, had an Irish mother, Cecilia McPartland. And researchers have claimed that Eamon de Valera’s father emigrated from Cuba to the US in the 19th century."

So, there you go - from the Emerald Isle to the Caribbean. Just like that.

Quote of the Day

2009-02-12T14:35:00.001+11:00

"Buena Vista was the acceptable face of communism."

Simon Calder, travel editor for The Independent newspaper in London, explaining the success outside Cuba of the Buena Vista Social Club franchise.

Trading figures

2009-02-12T14:34:00.000+11:00

For the record, new figures published overnight in the US confirm that food exports to Cuba increased by a massive 61 per cent during 2008.

According to data compiled by a Washington-based lobby group, the US-Cuba Trade and Economic Council, American primary producers exported more than USD710 million worth of food – up from USD437.5 million in the previous 12 months.

It means that the US has now become probably the Castro regime’s fourth largest trading partner.

Visitors

2009-02-12T14:32:00.004+11:00

When all is said and done, there is nothing particularly special about this week’s three-day visit to Cuba by Michelle Bachelet - the first such visit by a Chilean head of state since the days of Salvador Allende.

After all, democratically-elected Latin American leaders from right across the political spectrum have visited the island over the past few years to be dined and wined by those always-welcoming Castro brothers.

And yet … there is something inherently disappointing in Ms Bachelet’s visit, and in her inexplicable decision not to upset the semi-retired dictator by setting aside an hour or so to meet with a handful of dissidents.

As dissident Owaldo Paya put it: "It will be a sad paradox indeed that someone representing a country that has been through a dictatorship comes to a country where there is a dictatorship and fails to show a sign of respect for diversity of opinion.”

Quote of the Day

2009-02-10T10:08:00.003+11:00

"The promotion and protection of human rights are guaranteed."

Maria Esther Reus, the Cuban justice minister, tells the Geneva-based UN Human Rights Council that when it comes to human rights, all is well on Fidel Castro's island paradise. Shameless.

Quote of the Day

2009-02-03T12:01:00.002+11:00

"We are not giving any money to Cuba."

A senior official at Moscow's Finance Ministry, Konstantin Vyshkovsky, explaining that while Russia had agreed to provide the Castro regime with another USD270 million "soft loan", the money would be used mostly to buy Russian agricultural and construction machinery.

Farming News

2009-02-03T11:52:00.003+11:00

You may recall that some months ago Raul Castro announced plans to allow private farmers to lease State-owned agricultural land, injecting some much-needed, old-fashioned capitalism into a food production system that has been a colossal failure for … well, for close to 50 years.

Under the new system, farmers could apply to lease up to 99 acres of unused land for a period of 10 years, with the possibility of renewing the lease for a further decade, and do what farmers are supposed to do: grow food.

Now, the official Cuban media has reported that close to 96,500 applications have been received so far for the lease of some 1,300,000 acres of land.

However, for reasons that remain unclear, only about 45,000 – or less than half - of the applications have been approved by the bureaucrats in Havana.

For the record, about one third of all arable land in Cuba is worked by private or family farmers, with the rest of the land controlled directly by the Communist Party authorities through various ministries.

You won’t be surprised to hear that while half of the land controlled by the State remains unused, the private farmers produce about 70 per cent of all the food grown on the island.

Dime con quien andas

2009-01-29T14:12:00.002+11:00

The saga involving Sherritt International and their long-standing relationships with those lovable Castro brothers continues to get more bizarre by the day.

You may recall that the large Canadian conglomerate and one of its partners, Pebercan, announced over the weekend that the Castro regime was "revoking" a 16-year-old petrol production agreement with the companies. No explanation was given for the unexpected decision to break a contract that had another 10 years or so to run.

However, the Cubans did promise to pay the Canadian companies USD140 million in compensation for breaking the contract.

So, it’s all OK, right? Well, no. It’s now come to light that the severing of ties followed months of efforts by Pebercan to have the Cubans “catch up on missed payments”, which are apparently worth more than US118 million.

But there is more.

The chief executive of Sherritt, Ian Delaney, has confirmed to Canadian media that Sherritt has also faced “missed payments” from the Cubans. In fact, they are owed nearly US400 million, which is a lot of money in anyone’s language – and especially so if you are a Sherritt shareholder.

Not that Mr Delaney is worried, mind you.

"Like every developing country in the world, particularly one with the enormous social objectives of Cuba, they never have enough money, so we're always depending on the cycle,” he told the media. “We're always running big receivables with these people.”

He said he’d been working with the Castro regime for 18 years and would use those “ high-level relationships” to find a “solution” to the scrapped production-sharing agreement, adding: "This is a country that has always been very good to us.”

Wish him luck. Or perhaps not.

Ah, the good old days ...

2009-01-29T12:43:00.004+11:00

Wearing a heavy woollen coat and leather gloves, Raul Castro has landed in Moscow for a much-anticipated week-long official visit to Russia.

It’s the first visit to Moscow by a Cuban leader since 1986, when Fidel Castro joined leaders from other communist satellites (hello, Erich Honecker!), to attend a congress of the Soviet Communist Party.

Those old-fashioned, carefully-choreographed extravaganzas were a chance for leaders such as Castro to dress up and pay public homage to the great Soviet state while at the same time begging his paymasters to provide more and more economic subsidies to keep afloat what passed for the Cuban “socialist” economy.

Back then, of course, Soviet imperialism seemed unshakeable – at least from the outside. Few experts would have predicted then that the whole, shaky structure would collapse spectacularly just three years later, leading to the demise of communism in Eastern Europe and eventually, the demise of the Soviet Union itself.

So, for the record, here are a couple of figures from the days when Havana was the most demanding of all Soviet client states:

· The Soviets accounted for about 80 percent of Cuba's international trade, with trade increasing at a rate of about 10 per cent a year.

· Moscow was the principal supplier to the Castro brothers of oil, food, machinery, spare parts, chemicals and other vital materials.

· Soviet subsidies – primarily through the supply of low-cost oil and purchase of Cuban sugar at hugely inflated prices – were estimated at about USD 5 billion a year.

This time around, Castro II won’t be paying homage to the old Soviet dream which was never much of a dream, at least not for ordinary Russians. Instead, he will have to cope with the new capitalist realities of Moscow and its new money-hungry rulers.

One thing that hasn’t changed all that much, however, is the nature of the relationship: the slightly younger Castro will still be begging for subsidies (now called “loans”) to keep afloat what passes for the Cuban “socialist” economy.

Quote of the day

2009-01-28T10:53:00.002+11:00

“It is not clear why [the Castro regime] took this action, although it does highlight the political risks associated with doing business in Cuba.”

Lawrence Smith, an analyst at Scotia Capital, explaining in a note to clients the potential consequences of investors such as Sherritt International getting into bed with the Castro brothers.

Business news

2009-01-27T14:24:00.002+11:00

As anyone who understands the true nature of the Castro regime can confirm, doing business with the boys in Havana can be anything but predictable.

As Sherritt International, the Canadian conglomerate that has been a close business partner of the Castro brothers for many years, has just discovered.

The publicly-listed Sherritt has confirmed that it received news on Friday that Cuba is "revoking" a 16-year-old agreement with the company and another Canadian partner relating to petrol exploration and production in waters off Cuba’s north coast.

The news has been received badly by the market, with millions of dollars worth of value in Sherritt wiped out over the past 24 hours.

And as usual, the Cubans have not explained why they are suddenly breaking their contract, which was not due to expire until 2018.

In fact, the only good news for the Canadians is a promise by the Castro brothers to pay USD140 million in compensation.

Well, that's the promise, anyway ...

Quote of the Day

2009-01-23T10:26:00.002+11:00

"For many Canadians, Cuba is a ray of sunshine during our bleak northern winters. After a morning of digging out from a snowstorm, who wouldn't dream of lounging on Varadero's white sands, frosty Cuba Libre in hand, or sipping a mojito in Havana at Ernest Hemingway's favourite bar, La Bodeguita del Medio?"

Travel writer Liz Brown of The Calgary Herald, confirming yet again that sometimes, Cuba is not so much an island as a state of mind.

You say embargo, I say ..

2009-01-23T10:20:00.002+11:00

You know all that talk about the US commercial embargo?

Well, regardless of whether you think the decades-long embargo is silly or not, here are some figures that may be of interest.

A report today in The Moscow Times reveals that Russian exports to Cuba during the first 11 months of last year were worth “a mere” USD157 million, comprising mainly of cars, trucks, buses and parts for them, as well as equipment for nickel production.

By contrast, official figures released a couple of weeks ago confirmed that US exports to Cuba exceeded USD600 million during 2008. Not only was this a substantial increase over exports over the previous 12 months but it means that those dreadful imperialists have now become the Castro regime’s fifth largest trading partners.

Headline of the Day

2009-01-22T11:50:00.002+11:00

"Cuba libre is just a drink"

Headline in the San Antonio Current, in Texas, over a review of Steven G Kellmann of Steven Soderbergh's film, Che. And yes, just like most other reviewers, Mr Kellmann is not all that impressed.

Visitors and messages

2009-01-22T09:51:00.003+11:00

All those rumours about Fidel Castro being dead or very close to death appear to have been … well, rumours.

According to a raft of rather breathless media reports from Havana this morning, the visiting president of Argentina, Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner, has met with Castro I on the last day of her three-day visit to the island. And wouldn’t you know it? She says she found the semi-retired dictator “looking well” and keen to discuss the inauguration of Barack Obama.

"I was with Fidel about an hour,” the ever-helpful Mrs Fernandez de Kirchner told reporters. “We talked a lot about Obama. He had a very good impression of Obama.”

Thanks, Cristina.

Which reminds me … all this talk about how an Obama administration is likely to “normalise” relations in a hurry with the Castro brothers was put into perspective yesterday by the newly-inaugurated president during his speech in Washington.

After making clear references to communism and fascism, Mr Obama added: "To those who cling to power through corruption and deceit and the silencing of dissent, know that you are on the wrong side of history, but that we will extend a hand if you are willing to unclench your fist."

Corruption? Deceit? The silencing of dissent? Sounds like Havana to you?

As for offering to “extend a hand” if such regimes “unclench your fist”, the message is pretty clear, too: yes, we will meet you half way but first you will have to make serious political concessions. In other words, it's not all that different to similar messages to Cuba by past US presidents going back 50 years.

We shall see.

Gracias, Cristina ...

2009-01-21T15:39:00.004+11:00

Another day, another visit to Havana by a democratically-elected leader who should know better.

Then again ... Say hello to the perfectly groomed Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner, who is currently in Cuba on a much-hyped, three-day visit - the first by an head of state from Argentina in more than two decades.

And true to form, Ms Fernandez de Kirchner and her entourage have gone out of their way to ingratiate themselves with those lovable Castro brothers.

During a meeting with the president of the rubberstamp Cuban parliament, Ricardo Alarcon, the visitor “stressed the technological and scientific development reached by Cuba despite the US blockade of Cuba”.

At least that’s how the official Cuban media reported her comments, as you can see here.

Needless to say, Ms Fernandez de Kirchner has declined to meet dissidents.

Quote of the day

2009-01-21T14:42:00.001+11:00

"We have read about democracy but we have never lived it. We have to watch it on TV like this."

Yuri Perez, described as a university student and "opposition activist", tells Associated Press his reaction to the Obama inauguration ... while watching the ceremony on television at a function hosted by the US Interest Section in Havana.

Like the good old days

2009-01-20T09:20:00.000+11:00

The rekindled love affair between Moscow and the Castro brothers continues apace.

Just weeks after a visit to Havana by the Russian president, Dmitry Medvedev , there is news today that Raul Castro will visit Russia sometime in the near future, although so far there are no firm details.

If it comes off, it will be the first visit by a Cuban leader to Moscow since the collapse of the old Soviet Union and its Communist allies in Eastern Europe in the late 1980s and early 1990s.

At the same time, the Russians have confirmed that they looking at lending Havana a further USD20 million, which the Cubans would then spend on Russian goods.

More rumours

2009-01-15T09:10:00.003+11:00

Speculation is rife -again! - that Fidel Castro may be near death. Or dead already.

The evidence? Well, there isn't any. However, as The New York Times points out, the old dictator has not made a public appearance in two years, has not had a photograph released of him in two months., and has failed to write his newspaper "column" in a month.

We will have to wait and see ...

Quote of the Day

2009-01-14T11:48:00.001+11:00

"Some tourists complain of poor service, spotty infrastructure and lousy food, indicative of a communist system where shortages are common and State employees feel little motivation to excel at their jobs."

A report by Associated Press has a pretty good go at explaining why few Canadian and European tourists return to Fidel Castro's island paradise for a second holiday.

Our friends in Latin America

2009-01-14T10:29:00.004+11:00

It’s not a new phenomenon, of course, but it’s still galling to see democratically-elected leaders who should know better travelling to Havana to effectively pay homage to those lovable Castro brothers and their repressive regime.

Take Michelle Bachelet.

The otherwise very sensible Chilean president is due in Havana next month for a much-anticipated visit that will include talks with Raul Castro and other senior Cuban officials, as well as a possible meeting with Fidel Castro … assuming the old dictator is well enough to receive visitors.

But it seems Ms Bachelet will decline an invitation to meet with a small group of dissidents and former political prisoners, with officials arguing that such a meeting would not be appropriate during an official presidential visit.

In other words, nothing will be done during the visit that in any way upsets the Castro brothers.

Given Ms Bachelet’s experiences under the Pinochet dictatorship and her long-held commitment to democratic values in Latin America, the decision to travel to Cuba is of concern, and her decision to snub the dissidents is well, disappointing, to say the least.

Still, it merely confirms that when it comes to the Castro regime, most Latin American leaders will continue to bend over backwards to please Havana.

Quote of the Day

2009-01-13T15:01:00.001+11:00

"The engagement comes first and the negotiation comes later. I think we can talk without preconditions."

Jake Colvin, from the National Foreign Trade Council, a Washington-based business lobby group that wants the US trade embargo on the Castro regime to be lifted immediately. Needless to say, the Cubans don't think there is anything to "negotiate".

Private enterprise

2009-01-13T14:59:00.001+11:00

Meanwhile, the other Castro, Raul, has apparently agreed to allow Cubans lucky enough to own a car to turn their motor vehicles into “private” taxis – and set their own fares.

This is the first time in a decade the rules have been relaxed by the regime, which is under renewed pressure to fix Cuba’s woeful public transport, which, truth be told, has been in a state of crisis for … well, for the past 50 years.

Of course, few Cubans will be able to take advantage of the new rules, as the vast majority of motor vehicles on the island belong to the regime.

But as you can read from some of the coverage, the decision has been interpreted as a break from the policies of Fidel Castro, who not so long ago railed against “private” taxi drivers, describing them as nasty profiteers, etc, etc.

Back to the future

2009-01-13T14:57:00.001+11:00

Back to the keyboard … and back to those rumours about Fidel Castro. Again.

There is renewed speculation that the health of the semi-retired dictator may have taken a turn for the worse over the past few days.

How do we know this? Well, we don’t for sure, but newspapers in Mexico and in Spain have pointed out that it’s been close to a month since Castro I wrote the last of his lengthy (and very, very dull), “editorials” for the Cuban media.

The papers also point out that the most the old man could manage on January 1 was a brief sentence "congratulating" the Cuban people on the 50th anniversary of the regime.

It’s all speculation, of course. But heck, we wouldn’t have it any other way.

Best wishes

2008-12-27T11:06:00.004+11:00

Very infrequent blogging ahead. As always, thank you for your visit.

Havana business

2008-12-24T11:02:00.003+11:00

Like the good little capitalists they are, the Castro brothers have gone into the potentially lucrative online retail game.

According to this AP story, Havana is promoting an online shopping service that allows Cubans outside the country (ie, gusanos with hard currency), to buy presents for their relatives and friends on the island (ie, those without access to hard currency).

Nice, no?

The site has been in operation for a couple of years but is being push hard in time for the Christmas gift-giving season ... even though Fidel Castro abolished Christmas as a day of celebration in his little island paradise more than 35 years ago.

The site is half owned by the Communist Party (of course!), with the other half owned by Spanish entrepreneurs (naturally!).

It seems you can order just about any good imaginable – from guayaberas to personal computers, with the purchases delivered by the Cuban postal service within 24 hours to any address in Havana.

Of course, most of the goods on offer are wildly over-priced. In fact, they are a rort, as the article reveals. For example, a Dell computer that would retail in the US for about USD450.00 is offered at the knockout price of USD1,424.00. A nifty mark-up.

And yes, half the profits go straight into the pockets of the boys from Bairan.

Quote of the Day

2008-12-24T09:28:00.001+11:00

"Fifty years in this struggle and there's no progress. We see other countries advancing, but not our own. There just aren't any options here."

Gabriel Mata, described as a 46-year-old security guard, tells Reuters what he really thinks about 50 years of Castroism.

Back to the future 3

2008-12-23T10:27:00.002+11:00

From a very readable travel feature published this week by The Independent in London:

"Later we meet again at the Salon Rojo, the nightclub of the Hotel Capri that was a mafia-run playground in the 1950s.

"In a throwback to the days when the Chicago mobster Meyer Lansky was the boss of this town, all the tables on one side of the club are occupied by overly made-up girls who are professionally available.

"Given Cuba's extraordinary racial mix, discerning customers have a wide choice – black, white, mulatta and various shades of mestiza. The men are mostly foreigners with wallets full of convertible pesos."

Fellow travellers

2008-12-23T10:01:00.000+11:00

Not for the first time, the Canadian newspaper National Post has written a terrific editorial about Cuba.

This time, it’s about the international campaign by the Castro regime to free the so-called Cuban Five, which, as with all other previous “campaigns” manufactured by Havana, has been taken up with glee by the usual suspects in the West.

Highly recommended.

Back to the future 2

2008-12-23T09:59:00.004+11:00

And then there is this outrageous puff piece by the BBC – a profile of Liaena Hernandez, who is 18 and the youngest member of the rubberstamp Cuban parliament.

A true child of the Revolution, Liaena admits that things have been difficult in the past for her family.

"As a family we couldn't have all the things we would have liked,” she tells the paper. “For years I had to wear the same pair of shoes to school, we just had to keep mending them. "

But lest you think that this is probably a little like what supposedly happened in Cuba in the bad old days before the Castro brothers took over, our budding politician is quick to point out that, at least she has free health care and free education ...

Back to the future

2008-12-23T09:58:00.001+11:00

Those retrospectives on the 50th anniversary of the Castro regime keep on coming.

The latest is by our old friend Anita Snow, the AP bureau chief in Havana, who has produced a surprisingly balanced summary of the past half century, even though all the old canards about free health, free education and the embargo get a fresh airing.

Among those supposedly ordinary Cubans interviewed for the report is Ernesto Plasencia, described as “a bony 76-year-old ex-rebel”, who says he remains eternally grateful to Fidel Castro and who blames the state of the economy on, you guessed it ... the US commercial embargo.

Mr Plasencia says that in the bad old days before the Revolution, his family was so poor his mother had to make ends meet by “washing and ironing rich people’s clothes”.

By way of contrast, he lives on a disability pension worth a grand total of USD6.70 a month which, the report tells us, he augments by “selling candy on the Malecon”, presumably to rich tourists.

And there, unwittingly, is a terrific summary of how far Cuban citizens have come in 50 years.

Economic news

2008-12-23T09:57:00.000+11:00

For the past half century, the Cuban economy has been nothing short of a basket case, propped up at various times by Soviet subsidies, Western tourists in search of cheap holidays and more recently, that buffoon Hugo Chavez.

But if you believe the official statistics that are regularly pumped out by the Castro regime, the place is roaring.

Take the latest announcement by the Minister for the Economy and Planning, Jose Luis Rodriguez, who has told reporters that the Cuban economy will grow by at least four per cent next year.

That’s right: at a time when most economies around the world are seriously shrinking, the Cubans reckon their economy will grow by four per cent.

Unbelievable? You bet. You see, the Castro regime uses its own measure of growth, which supposedly takes into account a range of “social services” provided by the State. No one else uses the same formula for the simple reason that it is well, fiction.

According to these make-believe statistics, the Cuban economy grew by seven per cent in 2007 and by four per cent this year.

A thousand words

2008-12-19T09:53:00.003+11:00

After nearly 50 years of "Revolution", Raul Castro answers questions from reporters in Brazil about Cuba's future

Threats

2008-12-18T11:15:00.004+11:00

If you are looking for proof that Evo Morales is turning into a cheaper version of that buffoon Hugo Chavez, then here is something of interest.

The Bolivian president told reporters during the just-completed Summit of Latin American and Caribbean Nations in Brazil that the United States should lift its commercial and trade "blockade" of the Castro regime immediately.

It's a sentiment echoed by other Latin American leaders - and by all those American businessmen and their lobbyists who believe they will make a quid or two if the embargo is reversed.

But as usual, Morales went one step further, to the embarrassment of most of the other leaders at the Summit.

"If the United States does not raise the blockade," he told the media, "we will remove our ambassadors until the United States government lifts its economic blockade on the Cuban people."

The more things change ...

2008-12-18T11:11:00.001+11:00

Believe it or not, the Castro regime is refusing to pay its debts. Again.

As we have reported previously, the boys in Havana are so strapped for cash they have informed the Chinese they will need to “renegotiate” terms and conditions, which Beijing has reluctantly done.

Now, the Cubans have sent the same message to the Japanese. And the Germans. And the French ...

According to this Reuters report, Cuba is blaming the recent hurricanes and the global financial crisis for the fact it’s unable to meet its repayment.

Which is crap, of course.

Yes, the hurricanes did cause enormous damage and the financial turmoil that has engulfed much of the world in the past few months has resulted in lower prices for Cuban nickel and fewer tourists visiting the island.

But the fact is that the Castro brothers have been refusing to pay their huge (and mounting) debt to Western nations for decades – just as they unilaterally wiped off the books the billions of dollars they owed to the now disappeared Soviet Union.

Western business sources in Havana told Reuters that payments had slowed from Cuban banks, with cash transfers that usually took 48 hours now sometimes put off for weeks.

"It appears they do not have the cash on hand so they delay and then pay you and delay payment to someone else," one unidentified businessman said.

Quote of the Day

2008-12-17T16:23:00.000+11:00

"For many Cubans, travel is not in their universe of possibilities.”

A surprisingly candid Ivan Giroud, director of the Government-funded Festival of New Latin American Cinema in Havana, speaking to The Wall Street Journal.

Your move

2008-12-16T11:43:00.001+11:00

Those analysts and commentators who think relations between the United States and the Castro regime will inevitably improve once Barrack Obama is in the White House will be deeply disappointed by the latest comments by Raul Castro.

During his visit to Brazil, the Cuban mini-dictator told the Al Jazeera network that the Americans will need to “make concessions first” if the two countries are ever to restore diplomatic ties.

"We have never hurt the United States, we have only defended ourselves,” Castro II said. “We are the ones who have been hurt so we are not the ones who have to make a gesture. Let them do it.

"I'm 77-years-old but I feel good and young. In other words if this doesn't get resolved now, we'll wait another 50 years."

In other words, Havana is already placing its own pre-conditions on any meeting with Mr Obama, insisting the US make some form of gesture first ... like lifting the commercial embargo.

Stay tuned.

Anniversaries 2

2008-12-15T11:42:00.000+11:00

"Before the revolution, so many Cubans had no hope of studying and becoming professionals. They lived horrible lives. After the revolution, many were able to study and become professionals but still have miserable lives filled with necessity."

Lise, described as a 25-year-old “college graduate who declined to give her full name for fear of losing her state job”, speaking to The Sun Sentinel following the screening in Havana of the new biopic on Che Guevara.

Anniversaries 1

2008-12-15T11:29:00.001+11:00

Although the actual anniversary is still a couple of weeks away, media outlets from Paris to Madrid have already kicked off their “special coverage” to mark the Castro regime’s 50th birthday.

And yes, the coverage so far of the longest running “revolution” in modern history - half a century! - has been ... mixed.

As our friends over at Penultimos Dias pointed out some days ago, the BBC was first off the blocks, with an extensive section on its Spanish-language site under the headline, "Fifty years of struggle".

Incorporating photographs, videos and the inevitable video interviews, the site is quite an effort , as you would expect from the venerable British broadcaster.

But it seems that in their aim to be seen as fair and balanced, the BBC editors have in fact, compromised big time.

And so, while they are happy to use the Spanish term “triunfos” in headlines describing the “achievements” of the regime, they pointedly refrain from using the equally valid Spanish term “fracasos” to describe the all-too-obvious “failures”. Instead, they opt for the term “deudas”.

On the other hand, there are no compromises in this excellent article by Leonard Doyle in The Independent, detailing how those lovable Castro brothers deal with anyone who has the temerity to question the official “triunfos”.

But up to now, the most accurate summary of the past 50 years has come from Andres Oppenheimer, the high profile Miami Herald columnist (H/T to our pals at Babalu).

Mr Oppenheimer concludes that 50 years after Castro took power, the big question is not so much whether the upheaval of 1959 was justified, but whether it was worth it.

“A dispassionate look into Cuba today shows that, while the country has reduced the pockets of extreme misery that existed during the Fulgencio Batista dictatorship, a majority of Cubans are poorer and have fewer opportunities to improve their lives than they did five decades ago,” the columnist concludes.

Sadly, he is right.

Business news

2008-12-11T11:07:00.003+11:00

After years of cozying up to the Castro regime, there is mounting speculation that relations between a couple of large Canadian multi-nationals and the boys in Havana may not be as smooth as they once were.

According to the specialist magazine Embassy, the financial crisis that has engulfed much of the world in recent months is forcing Canadian companies such as Sherritt International and Pebercan to scale down their operations on the island - and cut back on projected capital spending.

Which is bad news for the Canadians, who have been invested heavily in areas such as nickle production and infrastructure.

But the news is even worse for the regime, which relies heavily on Canadian money and expertise to mine and then sell raw materials.

In any case, negotiations between the Canadian businesses and those always jolly and ever accommodating Castro brothers have been described as "tense", which is a nice, all-round euphemism, don't you think?

“Talks between Canadian business executives and the Cuban government are said to be ‘getting tougher’ and sources did not rule out the possibility that business in the country could be halted altogether should long-term negotiations derail,” the magazine says.

The article reveals that the two Canadian companies are owed a bucketload of money by the Cubans – well over USD500 million.

It also reveals the findings of a recent trade report compiled by the Canadian export authority that describes the current economic situation on the island as a "nightmare scenario".

The report said that a series of “recent external shocks could set economic growth in Cuba back years”, referring to damage wrought by hurricanes Gustav and Ike, a sharp decline in nickel export revenues and the toll the global economic crisis will have on tourism.

Quote of the Day 2

2008-12-11T11:06:00.001+11:00

"Here in Havana you will not find a single child at a traffic light washing windshields.”

Felipe Perez Roque, confirming once again just how out of touch the Communist nomenklatura is with Cuban reality.

Quote of the Day 1

2008-12-11T11:03:00.000+11:00

"Cuba can celebrate this day with head held high."

Cuban Foreign Affairs Minister Felipe Perez Roque speaking to reporters in Havana as he attended a celebration to mark the 60th anniversary of the signing of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Shameless.

Quote of the day 2, or Change is in the air?

2008-12-08T13:33:00.003+11:00

"And now along comes Obama and says he will lift a few restrictions, but that in order to advance further Cuba must show it is making democratic changes. Well, we do not accept that Cuba has to change in order to deserve normal relations with the United States.”

Josefina Vidal, head of the North American department at the Cuban Ministry for Foreign Affairs, telling The New York Times why Mr Obama isn't going to get any concessions of any type from the Castro regime.

Quote of the day

2008-12-08T11:31:00.000+11:00

“In Havana, I'd spend long hours contemplating a single street. Nothing - not a brand, an advertisement or a neon sign - distracted me from the city's sunlit surrender to time passing. At a colossal price, Fidel Castro's pursuit of socialism has forged a unique aesthetic, freed from agitation, caught in a haunting equilibrium of stillness and decay.”

Newspaper editor and columnist Roger Cohen writing in The International Herald Tribune about how Havana has been spared the “assault of marketing” found in capitalist cities such as New York. Nothing like a good equilibrium between stillness and decay to make privileged Westerners happy.

Change is in the air. Or is it?

2008-12-08T11:27:00.003+11:00

As you would expect, there has been a frenzy of media speculation lately about what will happen to relations between the US and the Castro regime when president-elect Barrack Obama is sworn in next month.

The general consensus in much of the commentary is that after nearly 50 years of mutual mistrust, etc, etc, Mr Obama wants a “fresh start”.

In other words, it is widely expected that his administration will unilaterally lift travel restrictions to Cuba, organise some sort of sit down meeting with one or both of the Castro brothers and then maybe even lift the US commercial embargo that has been in place for more than 40 years.

Well, I beg to differ.

It seems to me that those who think change is in the air – mainly American entrepreneurs who believe there is money to be made in Cuba and the usual academic suspects in Washington – have obviously not being paying attention.

While it is true that Mr Obama has hinted at an opening with Havana, his advisers have also made it clear that for relations to improve significantly, the Castro regime will have to make at least a token gesture towards the US, such as agreeing to release political prisoners.

Not a big ask, to be sure. Just a minor gesture of goodwill fromt he regime. But you can bet your bottom dollar the Cubans won’t play ball.

This much was made clear on Friday by none other than Fidel Castro, the semi-retired dictator who wrote in one of his “reflections” that Mr Obama must be “reminded that the carrot-and-stick theory cannot be applied in our country."

And yesterday, the Cuban foreign minister, Felipe Perez Roque, warned against any great expectations about change, telling reporters that Cuba was ready to “normalise relations” with the US but only “on the basis of respect for our rights as a people” ... including the right by the regime to imprison dissidents and anyone else who fails to do as they are told.

In other words, the standard the standard Communist Party line used by the regime since, well, since 1961.

Quote of the day, or Here we go again ...

2008-12-04T09:09:00.004+11:00

"The hard-liners are fading in the face of a changing exile community, however, and analysts say younger Cuban-Americans, in particular, are more concerned with domestic issues like the US economy than they are with the political situation in Cuba."

A Reuters dispatch on a new poll that suggests 55 per cent of Cuban-Americans in Florida think the US commercial embargo on the Castro regime should be lifted.

Business News

2008-12-04T09:02:00.002+11:00

The Italian telecommunications giant, Telecom Italia, has confirmed that it’s considering selling its 27 per cent stake in the Cuban telephone monopoly, Etecsa.

According to this Bloomberg story, Telecom Italia has been hit hard by the global economic downturn, announcing a drop in profit for the next year and the likelihood of sacking as many as 4,000 staff in Italy alone.

Telecom Italia said it plans to raise as much as 3 billion euros by selling some of its assets around the world, including its stake in Etecsa, which is majority owned and tightly controlled by the Castro regime.

Telecom Italia’s holding in Etecsa has been controversial almost from the start, of course.

Human right activists such as Reporters sans Frontieres ahve persistently questioned the Italians’ investment in a Government-controlled monopoly whose activities involve widespread eavesdropping on telephone conversations and routine censoring of Internet access.

Old friends

2008-11-28T16:17:00.007+11:00

The Russian president, Dmitry Medvedev, has arrived in Havana on the last leg of what seems to have been an action-packed tour of Latin America.

And as you would expect, the visit has raised plenty of expectations in and outside Cuba about a new “golden age” of co-operation between Havana and Moscow.

True, the Russians will probably want to invest some cash in Cuba, obviously with an eye to a future without either of the Castro brothers.

And they will use the opportunity to engage in a bit of anti-American rhetoric, too, in order to annoy Washington.

But it’s a long way from the days when Moscow was happy to sink billions of roubles into Cuba - effectively keeping the island afloat – in exchange for an unshakable commitment from Fidel Castro to do well, pretty much whatever the Soviets asked him to do.

Despite the close relations between the two countries during the Cold War, this is only the fourth visit to Cuba by a Soviet or Russian leader.

The first, in 1974, was by an ageing Leonid Brezhnev, who arrived wearing one of those peculiarly ill-fitting Soviet suits of the time but was soon sporting short-sleeve “tropical” shirts and straw hats.

The next visitor, in 1989, was Mikhail Gorbachev. It was not a pleasant stay. By then, the Soviet empire was near collapse and the roles had been reversed: Fidel Castro was the old, inflexible Stalinist, while the young and energetic Gorbachev was seen as the true revolutionary. Castro hated it.

By the time Vladimir Putin arrived in 2000, after the collapse of the Soviet Union, Castro was already declining visibly. There was much talk then, too, about a new golden age of co-operation, etc, etc, but it didn’t last long. Within months of the visit, Putin ordered the very expensive Russian spy base at Lourdes closed, to the annoyance of the Cubans.

As for Medvedev, he has already held talks with Raul Castro, done the old trip to the Plaza de la Revolucion to place a wreath, and then visited the recently consecrated Russian Orthodox Cathedral in Havana.

Whether the Russian will get to meet the now semi-retired and rapidly diminishing Fidel Castro remains to be seen.

Balance sheets

2008-11-28T10:06:00.002+11:00

For the past half century, the Castro brothers have lived on debt ... and now we have the figures to prove it.

The Paris Club, which represents public and private financial institutions in the West that provide credit to nations around the world, has just released a list of its debtors, which you can read here.

It’s a first for the Club, which was founded in the mid 1950s as an “informal” grouping of creditors.

According to the figures, members of the Club are owed a total of USD330 billion, with the biggest debtor being Indonesia, which owes a grand total of USD36.2 billion. Seems like a lot but then again, Indonesia has a population of about 235 million.

Guess who is second on the list? That’s right: Cuba.

As at 1 September this year, the Castro regime owed members of the Club a whooping USD29.7 billion. Which is a nice round figure for a nation of just over 11 million.

Keep in mind that these are debts owed to capitalist creditors (yes, those nasty imperialists), and do not take into account the billions owed by Cuba to the old Soviet Union, which effectively bankrolled Havana for three decades at a rate estimated back then to be about USD1 million a day.

And while we are pretty confident that countries such as Indonesia are working hard to clear what they owe, the Castro regime has demonstrated time and again that it has absolutely no intention of repaying any of its debts.

In other words, they have maxed their credit card. They are broke.

Or to put it another way, if Cuba was a household, the repo man would have been sent in a long time ago.

Diplomatic corner

2008-11-27T09:48:00.003+11:00

Sean Penn, the American actor who has never met a Left-wing megalomaniac he doesn’t like, appears to have obtained something of a journalistic scoop during a recent visit to his old friends in Havana.

As you can read in this dispatch, Penn interviewed Raul Castro during his stay in Cuba for an article to be published in the December edition of the US magazine, The Nation.

In the article, the actor quotes Castro II as saying that he is ready and willing to meet with president-elect Barack Obama at any time and in just about any place, “to begin to solve our problems”.

"Personally, I think it would not be fair that I be the first to visit, because it is always the Latin American presidents who go to the United States first,” the mini-dictator said. “But it would also be unfair to expect the president of the United States to come to Cuba. We should meet in a neutral place ... Perhaps we could meet at Guantanamo."

Of course, there is nothing remotely accidental about the Penn scoop - just as there is nothing remotely accidental about the Cubans suggesting Guantanamo as a possible meeting place.

In fact, this is nothing but an old (and still effective) Havana ploy designed to corner a new and untested incoming president as early as possible, even before he is sworn in.

And it’s worked, judging by the breathless coverage of the interview in much of the US media thus far, which has already forced the Obama transition team on to the defensive, as you can read here.

Quote of the Day

2008-11-27T09:47:00.000+11:00

"This is just the first brick, the first point - let's organise a number of other initiatives together, including speaking freely and frankly about human rights, about freedom here and elsewhere in the world."

Senior European Commission bureaucrat Stefano Manservisi departs from the script (slightly) while announcing in Havana that EU member countries will provide up to 30 million Euros in aid to the Castro regime next year for “hurricane relief” and “improvements in food production”.

Quote of the Day

2008-11-25T10:11:00.001+11:00

“For the long-suffering Cuban people there will be little to celebrate.”

Michael Reid, Americas editor for The Economist, predicting that 2009 will be a newsworthy year for Cubans, marking the 50th anniversary of the “revolution”.

In Kiev

2008-11-25T10:08:00.003+11:00

Ukrainians around the world are marking the 75th anniversary of Holodomor, or Death by Hunger, the term used to describe the horrific famine engineered by Josef Stalin in the early 1930s to force peasants to give up their land and join “collectivised” farms.

In true Communist style, Stalin set off the famine in late 1932 by ordering his henchmen to confiscate all grain, livestock and other food across the region after peasants there had failed to meet grain quotas dictated by Moscow.

The death toll from this lunatic enterprise – which was accompanied by forced exile, arrests, show trials, torture and murder - is estimated to have been as high as seven million people, as you can read in this brief summary compiled by the US Library of Congress.

During the Soviet era, the famine and its devastating impact remained a strictly forbidden topic not just in the Soviet Union and its satellite states (hello, Fidel!), but among the happy band of Moscow apologists and fellow travellers in the West.

Photograph: Candles surround a monument to victims of the Great Famine in Kiev, Ukraine, Saturday, Nov. 22, 2008. AP

More drilling

2008-11-24T11:37:00.001+11:00

First it was the Spaniards. Then the Canadians. Then the Venezuelans. And even the Chinese ...

They have all talked up Cuba’s potential as an oil producer, promising at various times to join forces with the Castro brothers and spend millions of dollars drilling for oil in the waters around the island.

So far, there has been lots of media interest but no oil.

Still, the breathless reports continue, as you can see from this story by Associated Press in Havana, revealing plans by the Russians to help the Castro regime drill for oil around the Gulf of Mexico, etc, etc ...

Quote of the day

2008-11-24T11:36:00.001+11:00

“Critics of the Castro government want to continue to isolate Cuba until political prisoners are freed and multiparty elections scheduled.”

An unsourced article in The Sun Sentinel, which hints at moves to lift the US commercial embargo, makes it sound as if freeing political prisoners and multi-party elections are, well, little luxuries. In Cuba, anyway.

Clowns

2008-11-20T10:54:00.004+11:00

You’ve got to hand it to the Castro brothers – they sure know how to put on a show for visiting dignitaries, especially if the visitors arrive carrying bags of money and promises of further cash to come.

Take the just-concluded visit to Havana by President Hu Jintao of China, who spent two action-packed days in Havana as part of a whirlwind tour of Latin America.

During the visit, Mr Hu signed a number of agreements with his hosts, promising at least USD78 million in donations, credit and hurricane relief, as well as agreeing to “postpone” repayment of Cuba’s sizable debt to China for at least another 10 years.

As the Associated Press reported, “it is unclear if Beijing ever expects to be paid back”.

In return for such generosity, lucky Mr Hu got to have a brief meeting with Fidel Castro, the 82-year-old semi-retired dictator who has not been seen in public since being taken seriously ill more than two years ago.

As you can see from the photograph above, issued after the meeting by the Cuban government, Castro I is still around but looking very frail and clearly not a happy chappy.

But it seems the highlight of the visit came when the Chinese president was serenaded in Chinese by Raul Castro, who sang parts of "The East is Red", a 1950s “revolutionary” song praising the late Chairman Mao.

According to The Daily Telegraph in London, Mr Hu “looked on rather uncomfortably”.

Quote of the day

2008-11-20T10:53:00.000+11:00

“Today, even as the legendary Fidel lies dying, his flawed and destructive revolution remains a perverse model of modern radical change to many parts of the world.”

Columnist and long-time commentator on Cuban affairs Georgie Anne Geyer writing in The Dallas News about hopes for improved US-Cuban relations.

Film nights

2008-11-19T11:18:00.003+11:00

That old furphy about how Cuba "survived peak oil" following the collapse of the Soviet Union in the late 1980s-early 1990s is still doing the rounds in parts of Australia.

As you can see from this brief item in the "socialist" weekly Green Left, a film titled "The Power of Community" is being shown to small but obviously enthusiastic groups of environmentalists, Castro supporters and other assorted fellow travellers.

According to the paper, "After the film, the crowd discussed how to bring Cuba’s lessons of sustainable development to Australia, noting the need for a society that puts the planet and humanity before the corporate bottom line."

Can hardly wait ...

Quote of the Day

2008-11-19T09:12:00.002+11:00

"Fidel Castro has devoted the last 50 years to two causes: first, his own enshrinement as an immortal icon, and second, the unbending allegiance of Cuba to the Moscow line."

The always very readable Christopher Hitchens writing in Slate about some of Fidel Castro's life-long obsessions. Recommended.

Quote of the day - or why Castroism sucks

2008-11-18T11:47:00.000+11:00

“Cuba looks like it's stuck in 1959 - with old cars and crumbling buildings. China often looks like it's decided to skip ahead to 2059 - with a set of dazzling skyscrapers, stadiums and airports.”

James Reynolds, BBC correspondent in Beijing, writing about the differences (and some similarities) between Communist-run China and Communist-run Cuba, following a visit to the island.

Visitors

2008-11-18T11:46:00.003+11:00

Fresh from visiting Washington for the G20 economic summit, the Chinese president, Hu Jintao, is arriving in Cuba today on what will be his second visit to Fidel Castro’s island paradise since 2004.

The visit is seen by analysts as part of the China’s relentless push to strengthen business relations with Latin American countries, especially those that welcome Chinese investment (and exports) with open arms, such as Cuba.

In fact, those crafty Chinese have now become Cuba’s second largest trading partner – after Venezuela – selling Havana everything from buses and locomotives to light bulbs.

Last time the Chinese leader visited Havana he was met by Castro I, who was very much in control back then – and who was deeply suspicious of China’s seemingly insatiable apetite for all things capitalist.

Whether Hu gets to meet the 82-year-old semi-retired dictator during this week’s visit remains to be seen.

Exports and Imports

2008-11-18T11:38:00.002+11:00

In case you needed further proof that Cuban agriculture is in seriously big trouble, it’s been confirmed that the Castro regime is about to start importing red beans ... from Malawi.

Nothing wrong with Malawi, of course, except for the fact that this landlocked country in south-east Africa has one of the least advanced economies in the world, with a majority of its 13 million inhabitants living well below the poverty line.

And yet, Malawi is able to export 15,000 metric tons of red beans to Cuba, in a deal reportedly worth some USD12 million.

Diplomatic news

2008-11-17T13:54:00.001+11:00

We have blogged previously about the Castro regime’s relentless push in recent years to win diplomatic kudos in the South Pacific by offering “free” scholarships to students from small island states in the region to study medicine in Cuba.

Of course, these scholarships are not really free – the Cubans provide the tuition but the students have to pay their way to the Caribbean and cover most of their living expenses while studying.

One of the Pacific nations to take up the offer is the Solomon Islands, a former British protectorate of about 500,000 inhabitants that has already sent 25 of its best and brightest to study medicine in Cuba.

Now comes news that another 25 students from the Solomon Island are headed to Havana.

And guess who is paying their air fares? Iran. All very curious.

Demotions

2008-11-13T15:58:00.003+11:00

The highest ranking woman in the Castro regime, Marta Lomas, has been unexpectedly fired by the Communist Party from her high-profile post as Minister for Foreign Investment.

The announcement was made on national television on Wednesday night, Havana time, and as usual with such demotions in Cuba, the regime did not explain the reasons for the decision.

Instead, the television announcement merely said that the party’s all-powerful Politburo had decided to “liberate” the minister from her “duties”.

The move comes just a week after Lomas was quoted extensively by the foreign media as having “welcomed” the election of Barack Obama, while at the same time urging the Americans to lift the trade and commercial embargo.

Still, it’s unlikely that Lomas would have been given the flick over her comments.

Most likely it has something to do with the nature (and temptations) of her job, which involved negotiating multi-million dollar contracts with foreign governments and private businesses.

Stay tuned.

Legal moves

2008-11-11T14:26:00.001+11:00

The Cuban tobacco monopoly, Habanos SA, is suing a US company that makes cigar cutters over the use of the word “Havana”.

It seems that when it comes to cigars, the word “Havana” and its Spanish equivalent, “Habana”, are now the legal property of Habanos, the huge conglomerate that is majority owned by the Castro regime.

In a move that could only be described as ironic, Habanos is using the American legal system to stop Xikar, the Kansas-based cigar accessories company, from using “Havana” as the name for a range of its products.

Not surprisingly, Xikar isn’t happy.

A spokesman for the company told local media they were surprised that the Castro regime would “attempt to extend its totalitarian influence to control an American company using our courts."

You can read the original court document here.

Quote of the Day

2008-11-10T10:50:00.000+11:00

“Cuba's communist leadership has long cast itself as David standing up to the US Goliath and the crippling force of America's punitive trade and travel embargo. Now they have a problem: If Barack Obama follows through on campaign promises to ease restrictions on the island, he could chip away at the Castro brothers' best case for staying in power.”

An optimistic assessment on possible changes in US-Cuban relations from Anita Snow, who has been Havana bureau chief for Associated Press since 1999.

They are back

2008-11-10T10:48:00.001+11:00

The Russians are coming ... again.

The Russian Deputy Prime Minister, Igor Sechin, is currently in Havana on a much-publicised official visit, prompting further speculation that Moscow is keen to re-establish closer ties with its one time socialist ally.

According to news reports, Mr Sechin had a “long meeting” with Raul Castro on Sunday, local time, to discuss a range of topics, including further Russian investment in mining and transport.

It seems Castro also thanked the Russians for providing assistance following the devastation caused by hurricanes Ike and Gustav earlier in the year, with Moscow claiming to have been the first nation to offer “humanitarian aid” to the Cubans.

All very cosy.

Of course, it’s still a long way from the good old times when Cuba became a Soviet outpost in the Caribbean, complete with Russian language studies in schools, busts of Lenin and Marx in all public places and the sight of sweaty Soviet “advisers” telling Cubans how to run the economy.

Now, those were the days ...

Editorial of the Day

2008-11-07T18:40:00.002+11:00

"There are still bigots in the US, as in Australia, but institutionalised bigotry ended long ago. Those outside the US who seek moral superiority by perpetuating the myth of a race-divided America should take stock. Hasten the day when Germany elects a Turkish chancellor, France an Algerian head of state or Cuba a black president. In the meantime, we rejoice with America."

From The Australian newspaper.

Reality check

2008-11-06T15:37:00.002+11:00

"Latin America in general and Cuba in particular are not likely to figure high on the agenda of a new president who is inheriting two wars and the worst economic crisis since the 1930s. American presidents tend to promise greater attention to southern neighbors but usually do not follow through."

Bernd Debusmann, a Reuters columnist, explaining why it may take a bit of time for Barack Obama to turn his attention to Cuba.

Change. In Washington.

2008-11-06T13:52:00.003+11:00

Call it wishful thinking, if you like. Or perhaps a lack of understanding when it comes to those lovable Castro brothers.

There is a view among supposedly intelligent media commentators and self-styled Cubanologists that Barrack Obama’s historic victory on Tuesday will inevitably result in economic and political changes in Cuba.

It’s a view that seems to be widely held in Cuba, too, if you believe the foreign media.

As you can see from this article by Mary Murray, bureau head in Havana for NBC, most ordinary Cubans have welcomed the Obama victory because they are “hopeful” it will mean good news for Cubans. You know, like more food and more money.

Typical of the comments reported by Ms Murray is that of Boris Ruiz, described as a car mechanic in Havana, who told the reporter that the election result meant that there was "a chance to normalise relations with the United States and that will make my life better."

If only it were so easy ...

Well, US policy towards the Castro regime may change under an Obama administration, given the president-elect has promised to lift the travel restrictions currently in place that restrict travel to the island by Cuba-Americans. That will certainly mean more money flowing into Cuba.

Mr Obama has also suggested that he may be prepared to sit down with the Castro brothers and discuss US-Cuban relations, although one of his senior advisers on Latin America has apparently already put conditions on any such meeting, as you can read here.

Of course, the underlying assumption here is that US foreign policy is largely to blame for the fact that he Cuban economy is a basket case, that standards of living on the island continue to decline after 50 years of “revolution”, and that Cubans lack basic political rights.

So, if there is a change in US foreign policy, the argument goes, there will be change in Cuba.

Sadly for everyone, but especially for Cubans on the island, I can see a fundamental flaw in this hypothesis: the Castro brothers do not think there is anything in Cuba that needs to be changed.

Or to put it another way, change you can believe in means nothing absolutely to them.

How the other half lives

2008-11-04T16:14:00.002+11:00

Just in case you were under the impression that egalitarianism was alive and well in Fidel Castro’s island paradise ...

A former British diplomat who spent time in Cuba in the late 1990s, Sue Kay, has just written about her family’s accidental (and very pleasant) encounter back in May 2000 with Raul Castro at Cayo Las Brujas, an isolated luxury resort off the coast of Santa Clara.

Situated about 500 kilometres from Havana, the exclusive resort would have been out of bounds for ordinary Cubans at the time ... even those few Cubans able to afford the rates.

But obviously, Las Brujas was not out of bounds for the revolutionary elite.

On the contrary.

As Ms Kay tells the story, Raul Castro had a huge entourage with him, including family, bodyguards, assorted generals and handful of high-ranking Communist Party officials, including vice-president Carlos Lage and “Commander of the Revolution” Juan Almeida.

And in true revolutionary style, they simply commandeered the entire resort so they could relax in private, exercising on the beach and then frolicking in the Caribbean waters.

In her article, which appears in the Left-leaning London newspaper, The Guardian, Ms Kay explains how Raul Castro barbecued his own seafood and what happened when he and his pals wanted a drink.

“Behind me a waiter is preparing drinks at the bar,” she writes. “Balancing his tray at shoulder level, he descends the wooden steps of the restaurant and solemnly sets off across the sand. Fully dressed, he wades in up to his waist, towards the generals. He waits patiently until the glasses are emptied, then returns to shore.”

Nice, no?

Read the article here.

In Miami

2008-11-04T09:35:00.001+11:00

With American voters due to go to the polls within the next 24 hours, Reuters has published yet another “analysis” predicting a shift in the voting patterns of the Cuban-American community in Florida.

It seems local polls show the Republicans could lose their “grip on the heartland of exile opposition to Fidel Castro”, with Democratic candidate Barack Obama expected to win Florida by a slim margin.

If that happens, the news agency says, it could signal “possible change in U.S. policy toward Cuba”.

We shall see.

Quote of the Day

2008-11-04T09:33:00.001+11:00

"We have to be careful what we wish for."

John Rapley, president of the Caribbean Policy Research Institute at the University of the West Indies, warning that the lifting of the US trade embargo would inevitably hurt Jamaica’s economy.

Here we go again ...

2008-10-30T12:04:00.001+11:00

Much as expected, an overwhelming majority of United Nations member countries voted on Wednesday, New York time, for the lifting of the 46-year-old US trade and commercial embargo on the Castro regime.

This is the 17th year in a row that such a vote has been taken and once again, support for the Americans was, well, minimal.

Apart from the US, the other two nations to vote against the motion were Israel and the tiny island of Palau, with two other Pacific island nations – the Marshall Islands and Micronesia - abstaining.

Although the vote is not binding and therefore does not mean much in practice, it represents yet another propaganda win for the Castro brothers.

All's forgiven now, chaps

2008-10-24T11:45:00.002+11:00

After five years of what could be best described as lukewarm relations, the European Union has today formally kissed and made up with those fun-loving Castro brothers.

You may recall that the 27-member EU imposed selective diplomatic sanctions against Havana in 2003 after 75 Cuban dissidents were rounded up by the regime, accused of a host of trumped-up, “anti-revolutionary” charges and then sentenced to jail terms of up to 25 years a piece.

While the sanctions were largely meaningless, the symbolism was unmistakable – and the decision certainly pissed off Fidel Castro, who launched a virulent attack on the Europeans, describing them as “imperialist lackeys”. And worse.

Obviously the Europeans are a forgiving lot.

They are now back in Havana, as you can see from this Reuters report, shaking hands with that awful Felipe Perez Roque and signing all sorts of “co-operation” agreements with the Castro regime. Most important of all, they are bringing with them some much-needed cash in the form of aid and credits.

For their part, the Cubans say they are happy to restart an open and constructive dialogue with the EU – on the Cubans' terms, of course, which essentially means the Europeans have been told to stay clear of Cuban domestic issues, such as human and political rights.

As for the imprisoned dissidents that supposedly caused so much angst in the Old Continent five years ago, well, at least 55 of them remain behind bars.

Nostalgia

2008-10-23T14:34:00.003+11:00

Forty six years ago on this day, this is how the venerable London newspaper, The Times, reported events in the far-off Caribbean:

“President Kennedy tonight said that he has ordered a partial blockade of all ships of any kind, from whatever nation or port. They would be turned back if found to contain cargoes of offensive weapons. This urgent transformation of Cuba into an important strategic base constituted an explicit threat to the peace and security of all the Americas and contradicted the repeated assurances of the Soviets.”

Of course, John F Kennedy, who thought (correctly) that he had no choice but to stand up to the Soviets, is long gone to another world.

So, too, the Soviet protagonists of the time, including then Communist Party boss Nikita Khrushchev, who blinked at the last minute, averting (correctly) a potentially devastating nuclear war between the super-powers.

But Fidel Castro - who continually urged the Russians to stop pussyfooting around and launch those damn nuclear missiles against the Americans - is still alive if not all that well, from what we hear.

That’s history for you ...

Quote of the Day

2008-10-23T14:15:00.000+11:00

“His Eminence is not an enemy of socialism and he does not condemn to eternal fire those who of us who struggle for a better world on the basis of Marxism-Leninism.”

Fidel Castro, who not so long ago used to think religion was the opium of the masses, praising Metropolitan Kirill, the head of foreign relations for the Russian Orthodox Church, who has just been in Cuba consecrating a newly-built cathedral.

The other Fidel

2008-10-21T14:36:00.002+11:00

Perhaps it's an omen of sorts ...

Headline of the Day

2008-10-21T10:00:00.002+11:00

“Castro writes while Cuba sinks”.

Headline in today’s edition of the Toronto Sun. The story, written by Joe Warmington, depicts Fidel Castro as a cranky and increasingly delusional old man “squirrelled away in a military hospital with a pen and pad by his bed”.

Business news II

2008-10-20T13:06:00.003+11:00

Believe it or not, that old story about Cuba becoming a gigantic petrol producer is doing the rounds. Again.

This time, the story appears in The Guardian, the Left-leaning daily in London, which reports with much excitement the release of "new" figures by the Castro regime suggesting "there may be more than 20 billion barrels of recoverable oil" in the Gulf of Mexico waters surrounding Cuba.

If confirmed, the newspaper says, the new figures would put Cuba's reserves "on par with those of the US and into the world's top 20".

Business news

2008-10-20T12:06:00.008+11:00

Contrary to what you may have read in some Castro-friendly newspapers, it is becoming increasingly clear that Cuba will not be immune to what has become known as the global financial crisis.

Sure, the Communist Party regime in Havana still pretends to run a “socialist" economic model, far removed from the evils of rampant capitalism and sharemarket speculation, but the reality is very different.

In fact, the great financial meltdown of 2008 will have a serious impact on the two biggest money-earners for the Castro brothers.

The second biggest money-earner is tourism, which was worth an estimated USD2.2 billion last year. But a recession in Western Europe will mean fewer Spaniards, Germans and Italians travelling to Cuba on holidays, which will result in deserted beaches, empty hotel rooms and a sudden drop in the consumption of over-priced mojitos.

And there are equally serious problems with the regime’s number one money earner: the nickel industry.

After years of high prices and continuing growth, driven largely by China’s insatiable need for raw materials, the demand for nickel is on the way down – and so, too, are the prices paid for the metal.

As you can see from this Reuters article of only 10 months ago, Cuba has the third-largest nickel reserves in the world, with nickel exports earning the country about USD2.7 billion in 2007.

However, new figures produced by a body known as the International Nickel Study Group show that global demand for nickel fell again in August – the fifth month of decline in a row. And the price of nickel has also tumbled: at USD10,800.00 a tonne, it is now less than a third of the price a year ago.

In short, more bad news for Havana.

Here we go again ...

2008-10-17T12:13:00.003+11:00

Bless those persistent Western Europeans.

For decades now, they have been “engaging” with the Castro regime, working on the assumption that if you are civil to the boys in Havana you will be able to somehow convince them to hold free and fair multi-party elections, stop jailing dissidents and become true democrats.

The problem with this scenario is that the Castro brothers are not and have never been interested in reforming the political system they’ve created. Why? For the simple reason that any such reforms will inevitably involve the disappearance of the regime itself – and the personal power and perks that come with it.

But it seems nothing will deter the European Union (EU) from continuing to be polite and co-operative with Havana, although to be fair, some member countries, in particular those that used to be Soviet satellites, have expressed serious reservations and managed to extract some minor concessions.

Still, the latest instalment in this embarrassing charade has involved talks in Paris between senior EU representatives and the Cuban Minister for Foreign Affairs, the truly odious Felipe Perez Roque (above).

The talks have resulted in the Europeans agreeing to provide Havana with possible new lines of credit (again!), further co-operation on a range of issues such as the environment, and additional immediate assistance to help repair some of the damage caused recently by hurricanes Gustav and Ike.

There are strings attached, of course: the EU says it will closely monitor human right reforms on the island, which is more or less what they have been saying for ... well, for nearly five decades.

As for the Cubans, they know they are on a winner, once again running circles around the well-meaning but seemingly oblivious Europeans, occasionally even publicly mocking their hosts for their all-too-obvious lack of cojones.

In fact, Perez Roque was so cocky that when asked about human and political rights on the island, he replied that this would not be a problem for Cuba at all since the “revolution” had never jailed anyone for “thinking differently”.

Quote of the day

2008-10-17T09:45:00.003+11:00

"These women show a courage and determination that is deeply moving, and their stories are an important reminder that dictatorship cannot crush the spirit of freedom."

Laura Bush, wife of US president George W Bush, referring today to the Damas de Blanco group in Cuba.