Recent Cuban address to the UN – hay que tener la cara dura!

Two days ago, the Cuban Ambassador to the UN gave a speech (http://www.un.org/ga/63/generaldebate/pdf/cuba_en.pdf) before the UN General Assembly. I read the transcript with much amusement – it is truly incredible how Cuban officials can produce six pages worth of words with such little care for truth, reality, or indeed, logic. Thankfully it was not Fidel, or we would have had hundreds of pages.
A full rebuttal of the speech, point by point, is beyond the scope of this blog. However, I would like to highlight a few common threads in every rant by a Cuban official.

• Perverse subversion of the word “democratic” – a call for more “democracy” in the world is a common pitch. Ironic and ludicrous, of course, given that Cuban refuses to allow its citizens any form of political choice. Option 1 = Fidel. Option 2 = also Fidel.
  
• Calling for action but doing nothing – the rich world is the cause of all of Cuba’s problems. Surprising that Cuba finds no fault in itself. Cuba is a country awash with farmable land, yet imports food from the US worth hundreds of millions. It supposedly has an educated populace, but has no industry to speak of. Also interesting how Cuba refuses to adopt basic reforms regarding property and ownership – reforms that its erstwhile “comrades”, Russia and China, have fully embraced. Even Cuba’s BFF Chavez allows this.
  
• Embargo – no Cuban speech is free of rant against the embargo. It is amazing how they just gloss over the fact that they can purchase goods from every single country on Earth bar the US. Why so keen to buy from your self-described worst enemy? That’s right, they are at high risk of default and no one wants to give them credit.

It is also interesting to note a point that is never made. Despite the condemnation of the US, no Cuban official mentions the remarkable growth the US has experienced since Castro took power (vs. Cuban stagnation), the acceptance and integration of millions of immigrants from every corner of the world (vs. a mass outflow from Cuba), the incredible technological achievements (vs. Cuba’s drug recovery clinic for leftist South Americans), and the incredible amount of aid given to the third world, in terms of both dollars and people (vs. Cuban guerillas in Africa and a doctors for oil program with Venezuela).

Is it surprising then, that the world still flocks to the US in search and hope of a better future, while 10% of Cuba’s population lives in exile, while an untold number continue to search for a way out of the island?

Hurricanes Shift Debate On Embargo Against Cuba

By Joshua Partlow
Washington Post Foreign Service
Wednesday, September 24, 2008; A01

LOS PALACIOS, Cuba -- A pair of devastating storms have prompted new calls for the United States to end its long isolation of Cuba, including from hard-line exile groups that are pushing for the Bush administration to loosen restrictions they had long favored.

For the first time in the 47-year history of the U.S. trade embargo against Cuba, Washington has offered direct aid to the island's Communist government, long dominated by Fidel Castro and his younger brother, Raúl, who is now nominally in charge. The offer marks a slight softening of the Bush administration's policy toward Cuba, motivated in part by a new generation of Cuban Americans who think a more open approach to the island during a time of political transition could help bring about a lasting change in government.

But even the most hawkish Cuban exile groups are pushing the Bush administration to go much further. Traditionally a voice for greater isolation of the Castro government, the Cuban exile lobby has asked Congress to lift the four-year-old rules that limit Cuban Americans to sending $300 every three months to immediate family on the island and to making just one trip to Cuba every three years. Some have even proposed a temporary suspension of the trade embargo, a cause taken up by a few members of Congress.

So far, though, the Cuban government has rejected the U.S. offer, preferring instead to rely on relief aid that arrives daily by the planeload from Russia and other more sympathetic countries. The Cuban government has mobilized the military to help in the reconstruction effort, including here in this hard-hit stretch of western Cuba, while legions of volunteers are picking coffee beans and other crops to salvage this year's harvest and working to repair damaged homes.

"I will not be surprised if we're looking at a major immigration crisis in the next few months," said Silvia Wilhelm, executive director of the Miami-based Cuban American Commission for Family Rights, an organization that promotes closer U.S.-Cuba relations, who visited the island after the hurricanes. "We're talking a situation that is very critical for the Cuban people."

The question of who should help the Cubans in times of need and to what degree has shaped Cuba's relationship with the United States for decades. The severe damage done by the storms appears now to be changing the debate. The hurricanes, which hit the island one after the other in just over a week, damaged an estimated 500,000 homes and ruined 30 percent of the nation's crops.

Four days after Gustav struck Cuba on Aug. 30, the U.S. government offered to send an assessment team to the island and $100,000 in emergency funding for humanitarian groups. The Cuban government has estimated that the damage from the two storms totals $5 billion, and it dismissed the offer as too paltry to be serious.

But on Sept. 13, six days after Hurricane Ike barreled into the island of 11.4 million people, the Bush administration raised its offer to $5 million, which U.S. officials called an unprecedented proposal of direct aid to the Cuban government. In the past, U.S. aid to the island has been channeled through nongovernmental relief organizations. The Bush administration has authorized an additional $8 million in private U.S. donations to be distributed in that way.

The Cuban government requested building materials instead of the blankets and "hygiene kits" the aid included, said José Cárdenas, the U.S. Agency for International Development's acting assistant administrator for Latin America and the Caribbean.

"These people are in dire need," he said. "We certainly hope that they would just accept it and get this stuff to the people who need it."

In an attempt to fulfill the request for building materials, the U.S. government on Friday proposed sending 8,000 "shelter kits," which include zinc roof sheeting, lumber, tools and wire. Cárdenas said the value of the aid is $6.3 million. So far, the Cuban government has not responded.

But Fidel Castro, who because of illness handed over official power to Raúl in February but remains highly influential, has signaled that the Communist Party would reject the U.S. aid on principle.

"Our country cannot accept a donation from the government that blockades us," he wrote recently in Granma, the party's daily newspaper. "The damage of thousands of lives, suffering, and more than $200 billion that the blockade and the aggression of the Yankees has cost us -- they can't pay for that with anything."

Despite the offers, many Cuban exiles who favor more contact with the island have sharply criticized the Bush administration.

"A whole group that you could consider extreme right-wing a year ago is now in favor of two very important changes," said Alfredo Duran, a Miami lawyer and a member of the Cuban Committee for Democracy, a moderate exile group that favors dialogue with the Cuban government. Referring to proposals to lift restrictions on remittances and travel to Cuba and the fuller debate emerging among Cuban exiles about the embargo itself, Duran said: "A lot of people in the past would not even talk about it. They basically shunned the issue."

Last week, El Nuevo Herald, a traditionally hard-line Spanish-language newspaper in Miami, published an editorial supporting a proposal by Sen. Christopher J. Dodd (D-Conn.) to lift the restrictions on remittances and travel for six months. Even in "normal times," the editorial read, the measures were "highly unpopular."

"Now, they offend intelligence and sensibility," the paper said. "That absurd strategy does not benefit North America's best interests nor puts pressure for the return of freedom to Cuba."

The Cuban American National Foundation, historically the most powerful Cuban exile organization, still supports the embargo. But it is now actively campaigning to eliminate the travel and remittance restrictions, and recently sent a letter to President Bush urging him to waive them. The president of the foundation, Francisco Hernandez, said the Cuban government is taking advantage of the storms to win international political support while the Bush administration is "tying the hands of its friends, the Cuban American community."

"We all have, down here in Miami, a terrible sense of frustration at this administration at this time, because we are wasting the greatest opportunity for those who want freedom and democracy in Cuba to help and to be agents of change in Cuba," said Hernandez, who took part in the 1961 Bay of Pigs invasion and described the current U.S. policy as an "even bigger mistake."

Meanwhile, Russia has sent planeloads of supplies to help storm victims; Brazil and Spain have also contributed. President Hugo Chávez of Venezuela, a close Cuban ally, visited Havana this week and is expected to give a lucrative aid package.

Havana, the seaside capital, was largely spared the brunt of the storms. But many important industries suffered serious losses.

The winds flattened fields of sugar cane, the coffee harvest was hurt badly, and tobacco-curing sheds collapsed. Millions of acres of crops were damaged in the storms. The destruction left an estimated 200,000 people homeless and left others facing severe damage and long delays in the arrival of building supplies to repair what remains.

"Everything was destroyed -- look at this," said Linda Meléndez, the sun beating down into what was her living room before Hurricane Gustav tore the roof off her home here in this city of 40,000 people set among cultivated fields.

The Cuban government had classified her house as a partial loss, she said, preventing her family from receiving wood to build a temporary backyard hut.

"How long can we wait for materials?" she said.

On the way west out of Havana, metal electricity towers, one after the other, lay on the ground, their cables slumped between them. Houses had been shorn of their corrugated roofs.

Here in Los Palacios, every house appeared to have sustained at least some damage. But the rebuilding effort, in comparison to the chaos of neighboring Haiti, has been orderly.

Rubble and debris have been swept into piles along every street. Several residents said the government had assessed the damage and outlined the building materials they were supposed to receive. Many people were living with friends and neighbors, had moved into public buildings or were constructing small wooden shacks in their yards until the supplies arrived.

"I have never seen a storm like this; it was terrible," said Mario de Jesús Fuentes Campos, a 55-year-old retiree who lost his roof and the big mango tree in the back yard.

His family went 15 days without electricity. Prices of gasoline and cooking oil have risen. The stores have shortages of rice, he said, and there is hardly any meat at the butcher's.

"We have no money now," said his mother, Encarnación Campos, 81, who has a son living in Riverside, Calif. "It's unfair the Cubans can't send help to their relatives in Cuba. I don't agree with these rules."



© 2008 The Washington Post Company

U.S. offers $6.3M in construction materials to Cuba

Posted on Mon, Sep. 22, 2008
U.S. offers $6.3M in construction materials to Cuba
BY FRANCES ROBLES
After seeing the first three of its aid packages for Cuban storm victims rejected, the U.S. government on Friday told Havana it could provide $6.3 million in light construction materials to benefit hurricane victims, U.S. officials said.
The Cuban government has yet to respond to the latest offer made by the U.S. State Department, U.S. officials said Sunday night.

On Friday, the U.S. State Department delivered the latest offer of $6.3 million in corrugated zinc roofs, nails, tools, lumber, sheeting and light shelter kits to benefit some 48,000 people.

''What we tried to do was base our next offer on what they said they needed: construction materials,'' said U.S. Agency for International Development's Jose Cardenas, acting assistant administrator for Latin America and the Caribbean. ``We did not want to be in a position like we were standing idle while seeing these destruction reports from the island. We are still trying to proceed as a disaster relief agency, as if this were the Dominican Republic or Jamaica.''

The latest proposal comes on the heels of a diplomatic clash between Havana and Washington over two devastating storms that hit the island in as many weeks. When Hurricane Gustav slammed into western Cuba on Aug. 30, the U.S. government offered $100,000 in aid and a disaster assessment team, a standard initial response to natural disasters.

Cuba turned it down, saying an assessment team was an unnecessary pretext. When Ike hit the east and west coasts of Cuba, destroying thousands of buildings in its path, Washington came back with the identical aid package. Cuba blasted it and asked for a temporary reprieve from the U.S. embargo instead.

Washington came under heavy criticism for playing politics during a time of need and was widely condemned for insisting on the assessment team and making such a paltry initial offer.

The U.S. Agency for International Development went back a third time, lifting the conditions and increasing the aid to $5 million in goods and cash.

''It's obvious that such a powerful government cannot comprehend that a nation's dignity has no price,'' retired president Fidel Castro wrote in a column published last week. ``If instead of $5 million it were billions, they would find the same response.''

The Cuban government's official response said what the nation really needed was credits to purchase construction materials. The U.S. embargo prohibits American companies from selling such materials to Cuba on credit. Current law allows food and lumber sales paid upfront in cash.

Castro criticized Washington for making public statements that suggested Washington had allowed more cash sales since the two storms, when in fact the amount of sales has remained the same.

''In the three weeks since Hurricane Gustav hit western Cuba, concern for the well-being of the Cuban people has been growing and getting aid to them is our top priority,'' U.S. Commerce Secretary Carlos Gutierrez said in a statement. ``Reports from news agencies and relief organizations that have visited the island indicate that as many as 2.5 million Cubans remain without homes. We understand the difficulties caused by such devastating storms, and we want to give the people of Cuba the materials needed to begin to recover.

``We hope the Cuban government will consider our genuine offers of assistance and that the best interests of the Cuban people will come before political differences.''

Cardenas said $1.7 million of Washington's aid is already making its way to Cuba through nongovernmental organizations. Should Cuba reject this latest offer, some of the materials could be donated to aid groups as well, he said.

''I don't suspect this will go on much longer,'' Cardenas said. ``We'll have to donate cash and commodities to different organizations. I don't think we will go back to the well if they reject this offer.''

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

© 2008 Miami Herald Media Company. All Rights Reserved.
http://www.miamiherald.com

Bill Proposed in Congress to Facilitate the Provision of Humanitarian Relief to Cuba

110TH CONGRESS

2D SESSION H. R. 6292

To facilitate the provision of humanitarian relief to Cuba.
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

Mr. DELAHUNT introduced the following bill; which was referred to the
Committee

A BILL
To facilitate the provision of humanitarian relief to Cuba.
1 Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa2
tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled,
3 SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE; FINDINGS.
4 (a) SHORT TITLE.—This Act may be cited as the
5 ‘‘Humanitarian Relief to Cuba Act’’.
6 (b) FINDINGS.—Congress makes the following find7
ings:
8 (1) Hurricane Gustav, which struck Cuba on
9 September 1, 2008, was the worst hurricane to hit
10 the island of Cuba in over 50 years. The Category


1 Four storm displaced over 400,000 Cubans and
2 damaged or destroyed 130,000 homes and caused
3 severe damage to infrastructure.
4 (2) Hurricane Ike, which made landfall on
5 Cuba on September 7, 2008, forced the evacuation
6 of over 2,500,000 Cubans, damaged an additional
7 100,000 structures, and damaged local infrastruc8
ture.
9 (3) The number of Cubans left homeless is ex10
pected to reach 100,000, and the total economic
11 losses of Hurricanes Gustav and Ike are expected to
12 reach upwards of $10,000,000,000, with serious
13 damage done to the island’s agricultural industry.
14 (4) In the wake of past natural disasters, the
15 United States eased restrictions to mobilize the gen16
erous spirit of many thousands of Americans by al17
lowing humanitarian aid originating from the United
18 States to be transported directly to Cuba to the ben19
efit of the Cuban people.
20 (5) Allowing the people of the United States to
21 assist the Cuban people in reclaiming their lives and
22 livelihoods following a major natural disaster just 90
23 miles from the United States is an important aspect
24 of United States national security and defense pol25
icy.
1 SEC. 2. EASING OF RESTRICTIONS ON TRAVEL TO CUBA
2 FOR A PERIOD OF 180 DAYS.
3 (a) IN GENERAL.—
4 (1) FREEDOM OF TRAVEL FOR UNITED STATES
5 CITIZENS AND CERTAIN OTHER PERSONS TO VISIT
6 FAMILY MEMBERS IN CUBA.—For the 180-day pe7
riod beginning on the date of the enactment of this
8 Act, the President may not prohibit or regulate, di9
rectly or indirectly—
10 (A) travel to or from Cuba by United
11 States citizens or any person subject to the ju12
risdiction of the United States with family cur13
rently residing in Cuba; or
14 (B) any of the transactions incident to
15 such travel that are described in paragraph (2).
16 (2) TRANSACTIONS INCIDENT TO TRAVEL.—
17 The transactions referred to in paragraph (1) are—
18 (A) any transaction ordinarily incidental to
19 travel to or from Cuba, including the importa20
tion into Cuba or the United States of accom21
panied baggage for personal or family use only;
22 (B) any transaction ordinarily incident to
23 travel to or maintenance within Cuba, including
24 the payment of living expenses and the acquisi25
tion of goods or services for personal and family
26 use only; and


1 (C) any transaction ordinarily incident to
2 the arrangement, promotion, or facilitation of
3 scheduled and nonscheduled travel to, from, or
4 within Cuba, including lodging and meals in an
5 amount not to exceed the per diem amount au6
thorized under chapter 57 of title 5, United
7 States Code.
8 (b) SUPERSEDES OTHER PROVISIONS.—This section
9 supersedes any other provision of law, including section
10 102(h) of the Cuban Liberty and Democratic Solidarity
11 (LIBERTAD) Act of 1996 (22 U.S.C. 6032(h)).
12 (c) EFFECTIVE DATE.—This section applies to ac13
tions taken by the President before the date of the enact14
ment of this Act that are in effect on such date and to
15 actions taken on or after such date during the 180-day
16 period beginning on such date of enactment .
17 SEC. 3. EASING RESTRICTIONS ON REMITTANCES FOR A
18 PERIOD OF 180 DAYS.
19 (a) IN GENERAL.—Except as provided in subsection
20 (b), for the 180-day period beginning on the date of the
21 enactment of this Act, the Secretary of the Treasury may
22 not limit the amount of remittances to Cuba that may be
23 made by any person who is subject to the jurisdiction of
24 the United States, and the Secretary shall rescind, for
25 such 180-day period, all regulations in effect on the date


1 of enactment of this Act that so limit the amount of those
2 remittances.
3 (b) STATUTORY CONSTRUCTION.—Nothing in sub4
section (a) may be construed to prohibit the prosecution
5 or conviction of any person committing an offense de6
scribed in section 1956 of title 18, United States Code
7 (relating to the laundering of monetary instruments) or
8 section 1957 of such title (relating to engaging in mone9
tary transactions in property derived from specific unlaw10
ful activity).
11 SEC. 4. EASING RESTRICTIONS ON GIFT OR RELIEF PACK12
AGES FOR 180 DAYS.
13 (a) IN GENERAL.—Except as provided in subsection
14 (d), for the 180-day period beginning on the date of the
15 enactment of this Act, the President may not limit the
16 size, quantity or frequency, or the carrying, transporting
17 or shipping of personal gift items and relief supplies (not
18 for sale or resale) that are eligible to be shipped through
19 existing or new mechanisms established expressly for the
20 delivery of such packages. Such items and supplies may
21 be sent to Cuba by any person who is subject to the juris22
diction of the United States and the President shall re23
scind, for such 180-day period, all regulations in effect
24 on the date of the enactment of this Act that so limit such
25 items.

6
1 (b) PERSONAL GIFT ITEMS.—For purposes of this
2 section, the term ‘‘personal gift items’’ includes goods in3
tended to improve the daily life of the Cuban people, in4
cluding clothing, medication, foodstuffs, personal hygiene
5 items, and other daily necessities.
6 (c) RELIEF SUPPLIES.—For the purposes of this sec7
tion, the term ‘‘relief supplies’’ means any item intended
8 to provide temporary or permanent comfort or shelter to
9 hurricane victims in Cuba, or intended to facilitate repairs
10 to personal dwellings in Cuba damaged during the 2008
11 hurricane season.
12 (d) STATUTORY CONSTRUCTION.—Nothing in sub13
section (a) may be construed to prohibit the prosecution
14 or conviction of any person committing an offense de15
scribed in section 1956 of title 18, United States Code
16 (relating to the laundering of monetary instruments) or
17 section 1957 of such title (relating to engaging in mone18
tary transactions in property derived from specific unlaw19
ful activity).

Exodo Cubano Festival at Tropical Park

Date: Sunday, September 21st, 2008
Time: Noon-6:00PM
Location: Tropical park - 790 SW 40 ST, Miami, FL
Entrance: $5 per Person, Children Under 12 Years of Age are Free
For Ticket Information Call: 305-592-7768

CANF PRESIDENT FRANCISCO PEPE HERNÁNDEZ TO TESTIFY BEFORE CONGRESS

CANF PRESIDENT FRANCISCO PEPE HERNÁNDEZ

TO TESTIFY BEFORE CONGRESS TOMORROW ON

CUBAN AMERICAN TRAVEL AND REMITTANCE RESTRICTIONS


On Thursday, September 18, the Cuban American National Foundation’s President, Francisco “Pepe” Hernandez, will testify before the House of Representatives’ Committee on Foreign Affairs regarding US government restrictions on Cuban exile travel and remittances to Cuba. Mr. Hernández will speak on CANF’s efforts to send direct aid to families in Cuba, following the recent hurricanes that have ravaged the island nation.

The day after Hurricane Gustav passed through Cuba, CANF called publicly for a temporary suspension of the US government’s restrictions on Cuban American travel and remittances. This position was reinforced by the subsequent destruction brought on by Hurricane Ike.

Taking concrete action to alleviate the suffering on the island, on September 11, CANF obtained a special OFAC license permitting direct remittances to families in Cuba as part of its hurricane relief efforts and opened its doors to the Cuban American community. By Friday afternoon, September 12, after only two days, the $250,000 license limit had been exhausted. On Monday, September 15, CANF requested another $250,000 extension of this license and is presently awaiting a decision from OFAC.

In 2004, the Bush Administration established new regulations which further restricted the ability of Cuban Americans to travel to the island and send remittances to their families. CANF has opposed these restrictions and consistently argued for their elimination, based on the premise that Cuban exiles are the best agents of democratic change inside Cuba and that these restrictions place unnecessary hardships on families in need inside Cuba.

The hearing will be held before the Subcommittee on International Organizations, Human Rights, and Oversight at 10am in Room 2172 Rayburn House Office Building, Washington, DC and is open to the public. For more information regarding the hearing, please contact the House Foreign Affairs Committee at 202-225-5021.

Moscow is ready to help Cuba develop its own space center

Wed Sep 17, 2008 5:50am EDT

MOSCOW (Reuters) - Moscow is ready to help Cuba develop its own space center, Russia's space agency chief said on Wednesday after talks in Caracas with Venezuelan and Cuban officials, Itar-Tass news agency reported.

Russia has stepped up efforts to develop closer links with both countries, which are ideological enemies of Washington, including sending Russian strategic bombers on a mission to Venezuela this month.

"We have held preliminary discussions about the possibility of creating a space centre in Cuba with our help," the chief of Russia's Federal Space Agency Anatoly Perminov was quoted as saying by Itar-Tass in Caracas.

"With our Cuban colleagues, we discussed the possibilities of joint use of space equipment ... and the joint use of space communications systems," Perminov was quoted as saying.

Russian Deputy Prime Minister Igor Sechin visited Cuba this week and together with representatives from several Russian ministries and large Russian companies looked at ways to help Cuba recover from hurricanes Gustav and Ike.

Renewed Russian links to the Caribbean island will stir memories in Washington of the 1962 Cuban missile crisis when the United States and Soviet Union almost went to war over Soviet missile bases on Cuba, which is 90 miles from U.S. shores.

Russian officials have said they want to renew Cuban ties that were neglected after the Soviet Union's collapse.

(Reporting by Conor Sweeney; Editing by Richard Balmforth)

Cuba to U.S.: Lift embargo rules for six months

Miami Herald Article:


Posted on Mon, Sep. 15, 2008
Cuba to U.S.: Lift embargo rules for six months
BY FRANCES ROBLES
The Cuban government asked Washington for a six-month reprieve on embargo rules that prohibit the communist country from making purchases from American companies, saying devastation from Hurricanes Gustav and Ike make it critical.
Washington and Havana have been in embroiled in a diplomatic dispute over hurricane aid since Hurricane Gustav smashed into western Cuba on Aug. 30. Washington offered $100,000 and a humanitarian assessment team, and the Cuban Foreign Ministry answered by saying what it needed was purchasing credits.

Havana sent a second, more harshly worded note last week when Washington made the same offer after Hurricane Ike devastated eastern Cuba. The statement released Thursday called U.S. Commerce Secretary Carlos Gutiérrez a hypocrite, and said U.S. diplomats were cynical liars.

But Sunday's diplomatic note published Monday takes a much softer tone.

''The Cuban Interests Section in Washington wishes to communicate to the government of the United States that our country cannot accept a donation from the country that blockades us, although it is willing to purchase the indispensable materials that the North American companies export to the markets, and requests authorization for the provision of same, as well as the credits that are normal in all commercial operations,'' the statement said.

``If the government of the United States does not wish to do so permanently, the government of Cuba requests that at least it do so during the next six months, especially if the damage caused by Hurricanes Gustav and Ike is taken into account, as well as the fact that the most dangerous months of the hurricane season are still ahead.''

There was no immediate response from Washington.

Last week Gutiérrez said the Cuban government is behind on payments to many of its creditors, and suggested that the request for credits was a pretext.

''Do they really want us to extend their credits?'' he said.