CubaNews articles from November 2004

CubaNews archives from November 2004

Cuba takes U.S. dollar out of circulation as food exporters worry about impact.
November 1, 2004... During the first week of November--as visiting U.S. food executives wrapped up $150 million in new contracts with Alimport and Bush supporters celebrated their president's re-election victory over Sen. John Kerry--ordinary Cubans resigned...

UM study: from housing to health care, Cuba's living standards are falling fast.
November 1, 2004... Daily life has become increasingly difficult for the average Cuban. Shortages of food and electricity, a deteriorating transportation and health system, and a drastic decline of basic services provided by the state are creating tense conditions...

Bush unlikely to change Cuba policy.
November 1, 2004... President Bush's Nov. 2 re-election means U.S. policy on Cuba will likely remain frozen for another four years, unless Fidel Castro dies or is overthrown. Bush, who defeated Sen. John Kerry in an election closely watched around the world,...

UJC gets ready for Dec. 2-5 congress.(Union de Jovenes de Comunistas)
November 1, 2004... Over the last 10 years, the Castro government has made sure to systematically promote young leaders--both male and female--across the entire power structure, including the Communist Party, the Revolutionary Armed Forces and the National...

Uruguay's new leader to restore Cuba ties.(Brief Article)
November 1, 2004... Uruguay plans to re-establish diplomatic relations with Cuba, following the victory of leftist politician Tabare Vazquez in the country's Nov. 1 presidential elections. Vazquez, head of the Frente Amplio coalition, got 50.69% of the vote,...

Jamaica appoints ambassador to Cuba.(Brief Article)
November 1, 2004... Elinor Felix has arrived in Havana to take up her new duties as Jamaica's ambassador to Cuba, reports the Jamaica Observer. The post had been empty since May when Stewart Stephenson--who had succeeded Carlyle Dunkley as Jamaica's top...

Cubans find lucrative jobs in South Africa.(Brief Article)
November 1, 2004... Some 450 Cubans are on the payroll of the South African government, according to an article published Oct. 20 in the Cape Argus. At least 339 of the Cubans work as doctors; another 62 are engineers and architects contracted by the...

Looking for a scapegoat: the downfall of Marcos Portal.
November 1, 2004... When Marcos J. Portal Leon was ousted Oct. 14 as Cuba's minister of basic industries, the official explanation given was that he was "not capable, as he has demonstrated in recent days, of warning Cuba's Communist Party leadership about the...

Science minister Rosa Elena Simeon dies of cancer.(Brief Article)(Obituary)
November 1, 2004... Rosa Elena Simeon Negrin, Cuba's minister of science, technology and environment, died Oct. 22 after a long battle with cancer. She was 61. Simeon was a ranking member of Cuba's political elite, serving on the Communist Party's ruling...

UN votes 179-4 to condemn embargo of Cuba.
November 1, 2004... The UN General Assembly has once again voted overwhelmingly to condemn the U.S. embargo against Cuba--rejecting Washington's argument that Fidel Castro is a "tyrant" who denies basic rights to Cubans. The resolution sponsored by Cuba,...

Vitral editor chosen for Catholic Award.(Brief Article)
November 1, 2004... Cuban dissident Dagoberto Valdes Hernandez has been named the recipient of the 2004 Jan Karski Award for Valor and Compassion. Valdes Hernandez heads the Center for Civic and Religious Formation of the Diocese of Pinar del Rio. He is also...

No evidence Cuba's a biothreat, say experts.(Brief Article)
November 1, 2004... Biotechnology experts who recently visited various facilities in Cuba said Oct. 21 that while the Castro regime has sophisticated technology, there's no evidence to support claims it's working on bioweapons. "We can't give Cuba a clean...

In their own words ...
November 1, 2004... "I beg your pardon for having fallen." --Fidel Castro, addressing a crowd of university students in Santa Clara, Cuba, moments after he tripped on stairs while leaving a podium and broke his knee. "No." --State Department...

Wine exporters miss the boat on Cuba.
November 1, 2004... During the 2002 U.S. Food & Agribusiness Exhibition in Havana that led to explosive growth in agricultural shipments to Cuba, half a dozen vintners displayed various cases of California wine. Yet only one company, San Diego-based Global...

Is OFAC helping Cuba fight fake cigars?(Office of Foreign Assets Control)
November 1, 2004... It's ironic but true: New federal regulations that prohibit U.S. travelers from returning from Cuba with cigars may actually end up helping the Castro regime in its attempt to stop the illegal sale of counterfeit stogies. In an article...

Dallas morning news shuts Havana bureau.(Brief Article)
November 1, 2004... Tracey Eaton, one of the most respected foreign correspondents in Cuba, will be leaving the island next month following a decision by his employer, the Dallas Morning News, to close the newspaper's Havana bureau. Editor Robert W. Mong Jr....

Quba visits Cuba; so does Israeli Marxist.(Brief Article)
November 1, 2004... The general secretary of Israel's Arab-dominated Communist Party claims that the Israeli people strongly oppose Washington's embargo against Cuba, even though Israel was one of only four countries that refused to condemn it in last month's UN...

Love him or hate him, Frank Calzon is not going away.
November 1, 2004... This past April, as delegates to the 53-nation UN Human Rights Commission in Geneva finished voting on a resolution condemning Cuba for the jailing of 75 dissidents, a shouting match erupted between the two opposing sides, and a Cuban diplomat...

USAID funding for anti-Castro groups tops $34 million.(United States. Agency for International Development)
November 1, 2004... Federal grants to Cuban-American exile groups and other NGOs opposed to the Castro government have exceeded $34 million and may grow by another $30 million next year, CubaNews has learned. The U.S. Agency for International Development...

EIU report outlines Cuba's oil, gas and electricity sectors.(Economist Intelligence Unit)
November 1, 2004... The following is excerpted from a mid-September report prepared by the London-based Economist Intelligence Unit. For the complete report, call the EIU research department at +44 207 830-1079, send a fax to +44 207 830-1119 or send an e-mail to...

New rules put dent into IBC's Miami-Havana cargo volume.
November 1, 2004... Recent U.S. sanctions against the Castro regime have slashed by more than half the amount of cargo being flown from Miami to Havana. IBC Airways, the only U.S. carrier that regularly transports cargo to Cuba, said it's now hauling an...

FSU: trade with Cuba could mean 112,000 jobs for Florida.
November 1, 2004... Free trade with Cuba could generate $50 billion and 900,000 jobs for the United States over a 20-year period, according to a forecast presented at the National Summit on Cuba last month by Tim Lynch, director of the Center for Economic...

Cuba, Brazil study sugarcane derivates.(Brief Article)
November 1, 2004... Cuba and Brazil are studying future transfers of technology in order to boost the production of sugarcane derivatives. SEBRAE, a Brazilian institution that supports small and medium-sized businesses, has signed a cooperation agreement with...

Negligence behind most accidents in Cuba.(Brief Article)
November 1, 2004... Cuba pinpoints negligence as the leading cause for the 6,695 traffic accidents reported during the first half of 2004. Lt. Col. Francisco Buzon, head of the National Traffic Division, said traffic violations and alcohol played a big role in...

Tourism ministry reorganizes industry.
November 1, 2004... Cuba's Ministry of Tourism has directly taken over a number of well-known restaurants and nightclubs that had been managed autonomously by state-run hotel groups, Reuters reported Oct. 12. The move by new tourism minister Manuel Marrero is...

Norex sues TNK over Cuban, Iraqi oil deals.(Brief Article)
November 1, 2004... Canada's Norex Petroleum has accused TNK, the Russian oil company bought by BP, of engaging in "criminal activity" through trading with Cuba and Iraq during the 1990s. According to an Oct. 5 story in The Guardian, Norex made the...

Isla de la Juventud economy going strong.(Brief Article)
November 1, 2004... The economy of Isla de la Juventud grew by an impressive 15.7% despite Cuba's overall economic difficulties, local authorities claim. The achievement, which cannot be independently verified, "was particularly noticeable in the local...

N. Dakota delegation scores pea sale to Alimport.(Brief Article)
November 1, 2004... A North Dakota trade delegation has won a contract to sell 5,000 tons of peas to Cuba, with another deal pending that's worth five times as much. Eric Bartsch, director of the North Dakota Dry Pea and Lentil Council, said Oct. 7 that the...

UN: Cuba is example in hurricane response.(Brief Article)
November 1, 2004... Cuba's system of preparing for hurricanes is an example to all, including Florida, says a top UN disaster preparedness official. While over 3,000 people were killed in Haiti by Hurricane Jeanne, nobody died in Cuba when it was struck...

OFAC places Sercuba on its blacklist.(Office of Foreign Assets Control)(Sercuba)(Brief Article)
November 1, 2004... The Treasury Department's Office of Foreign Assets Control has added electronic money transfer company Sercuba to its list of companies that from now on will be off-limits to U.S. citizens. In a statement issued Oct. 25, OFAC said Sercuba...

Lage pushes for better food distribution.(Carlos Lage)(Brief Article)
November 1, 2004... Vice President Carlos Lage is urging the heads of state-run food markets to improve their food distribution, in a rare admission that Cuba cannot maintain an adequate supply of agricultural products for its population. The Communist paper...

Labiofam sells rat poison to Bolivia.(Brief Article)
November 1, 2004... Cuba's Labiofam S.A. will soon start supplying rat poison to Bolivia, under a cooperation agreement signed Oct. 18 in La Paz. Under the deal, Labiofam will carry out a survey to determine the Bolivian rat population, train personnel and...

Labor ministry guarantees jobs for youth.(Brief Article)
November 1, 2004... The Castro regime will guarantee jobs for young people, especially those who perform military service, are handicapped or are coming out of jail, state media reported Oct. 18. "In a society like ours, it's inconceivable that there is even...

Russia's Baltika to export beer to Cuba.
November 1, 2004... Baltika, the Russian brewer jointly owned by Edinburgh-based Scottish & Newcastle and Denmark's Carlsberg, will add Cuba to its export map next year. The St. Petersburg-based company plans to raise its exports to 180 million liters next...

Sugar plants to turn Bagasse into power.(Tecno-Azucar)(Brief Article)
November 1, 2004... Germany's Euro-Alcohol will supply $10 million worth of sugar distilling equipment to Cuba's state-run Tecno-Azucar enterprise, which will pay for the equipment with alcohol. Hector Companioni, Tecno-Azucar's general director, said the...

Cuba's links to 3 Gulf cities: Mobile, New Orleans & Tampa.
November 1, 2004... Relations between Washington and Havana may be at their lowest point in 45 years, yet it's easy to forget that for most of its history, the United States has enjoyed vibrant economic and cultural links with Cuba. Here's a look at how the...

Corrections.(Correction Notice)
November 1, 2004... On page 7 of our October issue, CubaNews incorrectly reported that the Energas power plant in Varadero--built in a joint venture with Canada's Sherritt International Corp.--has a capacity of 180 megawatts. Company spokesman Ernie Lalonde,...

Calendar of events.(Calendar)
November 1, 2004... 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. Nov. 4: University of Miami Gallery Night, featuring art deco paintings of...