CubaNews articles from June 2003

CubaNews archives from June 2003

U.S. food exports to Cuba keep growing despite expulsions and angry rhetoric.
June 1, 2003... Never mind the continuing tensions and war of words between Washington and Havana. Food sales to Cuba are moving along at a brisk pace, and Congress could take steps this month to further ease the embargo. In March, agricultural exports to...

With Lula in charge, Brazilian firms see much more potential for bilateral trade.(businessman Pedro Camelo Filho)(international trade with Cuba under President Inacio Lula da Silva )(Entrevista)
June 1, 2003... On the 17th floor of a nondescript office building in downtown Sao Paulo, politician-turned-businessman Pedro Camelo Filho is pushing trade between Brazil and Cuba. Camelo is president of the Camara de Comercio e Industria Brasil Cuba,...

Many Cuba-related events cancelled in wake of tensions.(with United States )
June 1, 2003... A number of trade missions, fact-finding visits and other Cuba-related events have been postponed or shelved in the wake of worsening relations between Washington and Havana. At least 100 Georgia politicians and business leaders were...

EU plans diplomatic sanctions against Cuba.(European Union )
June 1, 2003... The European Union said Jun. 5 it would enact a range of diplomatic sanctions against Cuba after the Castro regime executed three hijackers and jailed 75 dissidents and independent journalists in recent months. Reuters reported from...

Washington lobbyists line up to scorn both U.S. and Cuba. (Politics).(Center for National Policy; Amnesty International USA; National Foreign Trade Council )
June 1, 2003... Besides the usual left-leaning critics of U.S. policy on Cuba, three mainstream organizations--the Center for National Policy, Amnesty International USA and the National Foreign Trade Council--are adding their own fuel to the fire. But this...

Key groups urging relaxation of current U.S. policy on Cuba.(Directorio)
June 1, 2003... AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL USA: Eric Olson, Advocacy Director/Americas, 600 Pennsylvania Ave. SE, Washington, DC 20003. Tel: (202) 544-0200 x251. Fax: (202) 546-7142. CENTER FOR INTERNATIONAL POLICY: Anya Landau, 1755 Massachusetts Ave. NW,...

For Puerto Rico, free Cuba may be both blessing and curse. (Caribbean Relations).(trade relations )(economic effects on Puerto Rico of possible lifting of Cuban embargo )
June 1, 2003... In a once-fashionable Havana suburb today known for leafy banyan trees and decaying mansions, a handful of independentistas struggles to maintain the closest thing Puerto Rico has to an embassy in Cuba. Here, along Calle 22, right off...

Noriega nomination stymied by Senate critics.(Roger Noriega, head of State Department's Office on Latin American Policy )(Articulo breve)
June 1, 2003... Roger Noriega has hit some snags on his way to confirmation as head of the State Department's office of Latin American policy. Noriega is President Bush's pick to succeed controversial Otto Reich, whom the president named assistant...

Cardinal defends church role in Cuba.(Jaime Cardinal Ortega )(Articulo breve)
June 1, 2003... Cuba's Roman Catholic cardinal has rejected recent criticism that the church isn't doing enough to support the political opposition. AP reported that Cardinal Jaime Ortega also called for reconciliation among Cuban Catholics during a...

In their own words ...(quotes by American, Cuban politicians on United States-Cuba relations )
June 1, 2003... "Expelling 14 diplomats is an irrational act of revenge on Cuba by the U.S. government. It is a sign of the growing desperation of extremist sectors demanding a hardening of the blockade and fresh aggressions on a people they have been unable...

Cubans go online to find love, marriage--and a ticket out.
June 1, 2003... Cubans are friendly and love to talk with tourists, a pleasure largely forbidden until the mid-1990s. But with the Internet now available at Cuban post offices, hotels and some private homes, Cubans have discovered a much easier way to meet...

Casas particulares allow homeowners to earn extra cash. (Small Business).(renting of private residences to foreigners )
June 1, 2003... Alexis Rojas Riveron is a retired bus driver, and his wife Maria del Carmen doesn't work. So they decided to rent out their tiny one-bedroom house in Havana's Playa neighborhood for a few extra dollars. "Sometimes I charge $25 a night,...

Inquisitive authorities keep a watch out for tourists. (Small Business).(government control of foreigners )(Articulo breve)
June 1, 2003... Meet Cuba's immigration police, whose long arm reaches deep into every neighborhood where tourists are quartered. The migra, as it's known here, comes to serve, protect and watch. I got my first taste of the migra when an official suddenly...

Cuba's top diplomat in Washington: 'We are not spies'. (Newsmakers).(Dagoberto Rodriguez )(Entrevista)
June 1, 2003... As U.S.-Cuba ties hit their lowest level in years, Cuba's top diplomat in Washington says he's doing everything he can to prevent relations from getting even worse. On May 13, the State Department ordered the expulsion of 14 Cuban...

NPA calls it quits.(disbandment of National Policy Association )(Articulo breve)
June 1, 2003... The National Policy Association, a nonprofit, non-partisan forum that in recent years had taken an interest in Cuban worker rights issues, is disbanding after nearly 70 years in existence. Since October 1999, the U.S. Agency for...

Cuba cashes in on its talent for music, dance and show biz. (Culture).(revenues generated by musical productions)(government-owned production company Turarte )
June 1, 2003... Until 1959, Havana was the hotspot of the Caribbean for nightclubs and Las Vegas-style shows, with U.S. tourists flocking to the Capri, Havana Riviera, Hotel Nacional and, of course, the famous Cabaret Tropicana, to see the beautiful mulatto...

Writer chides ALA for ignoring Cuban librarians. (Culture).(American Library Association )(Articulo breve)
June 1, 2003... The American Library Association is being attacked by author Nat Hentoff for failing to defend volunteer librarians in Cuba. "It would be astonishing and shameful," he said, "if the ALA does not support--and gather support for--the...

Sugar harvest only 2 million tons--the worst since 1933. (Commodities).
June 1, 2003... As of the first few weeks of June, it appears that Cuba--plagued by intense rains throughout most of the island--will wrap up its worst sugar harvest in 70 years, after producing barely two million tons. Perhaps a few mills remain active in...

Economy projected to grow 1.5% in 2003.(Articulo breve)
June 1, 2003... Cuba's economy should grow by a modest 1.5% this year, says a new report from the semi-independent Center for Studies of the Cuban Economy. According to the Associated Press, the study noted that 2003 will be the third subsequent year...

Deforestation worsens throughout Cuba.(Articulo breve)
June 1, 2003... Deforestation plagues 11 out of Cuba's 14 provinces, as well as Isla de la Juventud, according to an environmental expert quoted by Communist Party newspaper Granma Internacional. Maria Nery Urquiza, a specialist with the Environmental...

Partagas reports record cigar sales.(Casa del Habano Partagas )(Articulo breve)
June 1, 2003... Casa del Habano Partagas, located in Old Havana behind the Capitolio, reported over $1 million in revenues and $506,000 in profits during the first quarter of 2003. Housed in the building where the Partagas factory was founded in 1845,...

Nestle, Coralsa make ice cream together.(joint venture to create, operate ice cream plant in El Cotorro, Havana )(Articulo breve)
June 1, 2003... Switzerland's Nestle and Cuba's state-run Coralsa have opened a joint-venture ice cream plant in the Havana barrio of El Cotorro. The $7.9 million plant will produce up to 12 million liters a year, with 90% of its output to be sold in...

Charcoal from Guantanamo.(province of Guantanamo to begin exporting charcoal to Europe, Caribbean)(Articulo breve)
June 1, 2003... Cuba's eastern province of Guantanamo will begin exporting charcoal in the next few months to Europe and the Caribbean; Pinar del Rio, Las Tunas, Matanzas and Ciego de Avila already do so. Industry officials say the timber being used to...

Pescanova gives Cubans a shrimp boat.(company donates boat to Cuban Fishing Ministry )(Articulo breve)
June 1, 2003... Pescanova, a Spanish producer of frozen fish, has donated a state-of-the-art shrimp boat to the Cuban Fishing Ministry, according to officials quoted by Spanish news agency EFE. Pescanova donated the Rio Sainas, which cost $3 million to...

Ecuador firm in J-V apparel project.(companies Yamarex Holguin, Comercial 3b to manufacture clothing for sale in Cuban domestic market )(Articulo breve)
June 1, 2003... Companies from Cuba and Ecuador penned an agreement to manufacture children's and adolescents' clothes to be sold in the Cuban domestic market. The accord involves Yamarex Holguin and Guayaquil-based Comercial 3b, which has 36 years of...

Tourism arrivals up: Melia expands in keys.(resort developer Sol Melia )(Articulo breve)
June 1, 2003... Cuba received 800,000 foreign vacationers during the first four months of 2003, meaning the island is likely to receive well over two million visitors this year, say tourism officials. Tourist arrivals increased by 35% in January (compared...

LCI now listed on Frankfurt exchange.(Leisure Canada Inc. )(Articulo breve)
June 1, 2003... Leisure Canada Inc., a leading developer of hotel resorts in Cuba, is now listed on Germany's Frankfurt Stock Exchange under the symbol LC9. The Frankfurt exchange ranks third in global trading volume, behind the NYSE and Nasdaq....

Sherritt eyes Cuba for global expansion.(Sherritt International)(nickel, cobalt mining operations in Cuba )(Articulo breve)
June 1, 2003... Sherritt International is likely to pour substantial resources into its Cuban nickel and cobalt-mining assets, reports Toronto's Globe and Mail. Chairman and CEO Ian Delaney told the newspaper that world nickel supply is tightening because...

ANAP: campesinos farm 25% of Arable land.(National Association of Small Farmers )(Articulo breve)
June 1, 2003... Some 500 new Credit and Services Cooperatives have arisen since 1994 as the result of the handing over in usufruct of 316,000 hectares of land, reports Granma Internacional. Cuban campesinos now hold 25%, or about 268,000 hectares, of the...

LABIOFAM expands sales of 7 medications.(Biological Pharmaceutical Laboratories )(Articulo breve)
June 1, 2003... Seven natural and reconstituent products manufactured by the Biological Pharmaceutical Laboratories Business Group (Labiofam) are expected to go on sale in pharmacies nationwide by the last three months of 2003. Up until now, Asmacan,...

CUBA, Venezuela ink tax and trade accords.(pact to avoid double taxation of imports, revenues generated abroad )(Articulo breve)
June 1, 2003... The Cuban and Venezuelan governments have signed an agreement to avoid double taxation and fiscal fraud, alongside eight trade agreements. Prensa Latina said the pacts were signed at Miraflores Palace in Caracas, in the presence of...

Cubans seek business ties with Bahamas.
June 1, 2003... The Bahamas Agricultural and Industrial Corp. (BAIC) recently hosted a Cuban tourism delegation interested in forming joint business ventures with local entrepreneurs. Areas of interest include shipping, tourism, airline services, handicrafts,...

Cuba still Spain's biggest deadbeat nation.(Cuba's unpaid loans with Spain )
June 1, 2003... Cuba is at the top of the list of countries owing money to Spain, according to the newspaper El Correo Gallego. Cuba represents 32.53% of all debts to the Spanish treasury; most of the money is owed to two government agencies, Fondo de...

Growing old gracefully.(population ratio of the aged; life expectancy and services for the elderly)(Articulo breve)
June 1, 2003... Cuba will have Latin America's oldest population by 2025, when 25% of the island's 11.5 million citizens will be at least 60 years old. In 1997, say authorities, Cuba had 58 senior citizens per 100 children under 14, but that ratio will...

Funny money alarms officials.(TRD Caribe dollar stores ask for identification when paying with ten-convertible peso notes)(increased number of counterfeited bills)(Articulo breve)
June 1, 2003... Customers at all TRD Caribe dollar stores in Cuba must now present identification when paying with 10-peso convertible notes, because of a deluge of counterfeit bills of that denomination. A store official who asked not to be named said the...

La Habana encircles nation's capital with farms, factories. (Geography).(notes on geography, population, resources, economy )
June 1, 2003... This is the 11th in a series of monthly articles on Cuba's 14 provinces by geographer Armando H. Portela, who has a Ph.D. in geography from the Soviet Academy of Sciences. Portela currently resides in Miami. The province of La Habana is...

Citrus headed for record crop in 2005.(Articulo breve)
June 1, 2003... Cuba could see a record citrus crop of over one million tons by 2005, a top agriculture official told the daily newspaper Granma. Percy Ruiz Medina, president of state-run Grupo Empresarial Fruticola, said the citrus industry was recovering...

Calendar of events.(business and trade events)(Calendario)
June 1, 2003... If your organization is sponsoring an upcoming event, please let our readers know! Fax details to CubaNews at (301) 365-1829 or send an e-mail to larry@luxner.com. Jun. 1-8: "Georgia-to-Cuba 2003" Historic trip to Cuba by Georgia...