Cuba Perks Up as Venezuelan Foils Embargo

[rusty charly]

As Raúl Castro takes up the task of leading Cuba in place of his brother Fidel, there is, surprisingly, one less thing he may have to worry about: the state of Cuba’s economy.

The credit goes, in large part, to the economic lifeline thrown to Cuba by the Venezuelan president, Hugo Chávez, who is using his country’s tremendous oil reserves to prop up the Castro government and counter Bush administration policy in Latin America.

To the exasperation of American officials, long determined to force a change of government by choking off the Cuban economy with an embargo, Venezuela’s patronage may take some pressure off Raúl Castro at what is otherwise a time of great uncertainty.

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/08/04/world/americas/04cuba.html?ref=world

[me b zola]

1. Good on Chavez

Good on Chavez for helping to stabilize Cuba and strengthen it against imperialists vamires waiting in the wings.

[kskiska]

2. Things are looking better

(snip)

The importance of tourism is everywhere in Cuba, from its elegant hotels to the costly renovation of Havana’s historic center, which have attracted tourists like Mieke Zee, a nurse from the Netherlands, and her husband, Jeroen.

She said they had been to Africa several times. “Poverty does not seem so bad here,” she said. “I mean, I have been to countries where children do not have enough to eat. Here children eat, they go to school and they have health care.”

[Dhalgren]

3. "Here children ... have health care."

More than can be said for hundreds of thousands of American children. Good for Chavez and good for Cuba!

[SoCalDem]

4. And it might point the way for Cuba when Fidel dies

The US thinks it will just sashay back into Cuba and make things like they "used to be"..

Cuba has "moved on".."gotten over it"....

The people who live there now will welcome a Venezuelan style of democracy.. they would not like a USA sryle of democracy..

They like having good schools, free medical care and guaranteed jobs & housing..

(Granted, they are poor (most of them), but they do have a certain security..

[lumpy]

15. A certain security. A very important component

for a healthy country. That sentence struck a note with me. During the 'big depression' of the 30s in the US many many people became poor overnight. It was tough on so many people, losing their homes, bread lines, employment sketchy but we pulled together united. But the one great thing that was consistent was that feeling of security in our leadership and that unity. I shudder to think what a depression of that magnitude would do to this country in these times. I hope Cuba will retain the will to succeed as an independent country without interference from without. I applaud any country that will give Cuba a helping hand by respecting the right for Cubans to exist on their own terms.

[ShockediSay]

5. like the US choked off democ'ly elected gov't of Palestine

by freezing funds

talk about ham handed

[saigon68]

8. The NeoCons are predictable

If you don't toe their line

They will send John Negroponte out to kill you, and his thugs will rape your daughter.

[Judi Lynn]

6. Here's a great set of Cuba people photos some DU'ers might enjoy

seeing. I really love them. Found'em in google images:

http://extras.journalnow.com/cuba/index.htm

[drduffy]

10. I liked that old Chrysler......

What a tank.... a Tank with Classsss......

[Say_What]

13. Nice photos!!

My favorite....

[Judi Lynn]

29. Good one! You undoubtedly remember Compay Segundo's story

that when he was growing up, as a kid he used to have to light his grandmother's cigars!

[Up2Late]

24. Here are some pictures I like, check out this web site!

<http://www.cubahotelbookings.com/default.asp?lID=1>

<http://www.cubahotelbookings.com/hotel-list.asp?lID=1&tID=23>







Hotel Melia Las Americas ***** (5 Star) <http://www.cubahotelbookings.com/hotel-view.asp?lID=1&hID=145&show=1>







Hotel Paradisus Varadero ***** (5 Star) <http://www.cubahotelbookings.com/hotel-view.asp?lID=1&hID=153&show=1>







Hotel Sol Cayo Guillermo **** (4 Star) <http://www.cubahotelbookings.com/hotel-view.asp?lID=1&hID=157&show=1>

BTW, What does "Sancti Spiritus" mean? It sounds like something the would always say when the Catholic Mass was in Latin, but I never actually knew what it meant.

Looks like they have as many 4 and 5 Star Beach Hotels as Florida!

Here's a website that has good maps of Cuba, since they are rather hard to find here in the U.S. of A.: <http://www.cubamapa.com/>

[Judi Lynn]

27. Beautiful! Those hotels were built by European and Canadian

companies, I believe, working with the Cuban government.

Someone also posted photos of Cuban condos to rent and buy once. It was astonishing finding out about them, also. There are so MANY, MANY things going on there, which European, Latin American, Caribbean, African, Asian, Canadian people all know. The only news we get here is what we hear from our government-approved news services, and planted news stories in foreign papers, a tradition going back at least as far as Reagan.

People just have no idea what has been happening there. They should realize relying on what makes it past the right-wing controlled media to us is fragmented and minimal. Anything different from the approved propaganda line is ignored.

[SoCalDem]

37. I have a bottle of sea water from Veradero Beach

collected in 1951..

[Vidar]

7. Kudos to Chavez & Cuba. Shame on the US.

[zippy890]

9. I agree

shameful how our govt. has treated cuba

[ConcernedCanuk]

11. "shameful how our govt. has treated cuba" - worse yet . . . .

.
.
.

shameful how the USA Admin treats it's own citizens!

Sumthing to think about

[lumpy]

17. Some people would not be able to see

past the shabby buildings with peeling paint in Cuba. I believe there is more to be had there than peeling paint.

[Say_What]

12. I just love Wayne Smith

He always hits it on the mark about the USSA's obsession with Cuba. His other famous quote was "Cuba seems to have the same effect on American administrations as the full moon has on werewolves."

http://www.jhu.edu/~jhumag/0498web/cuba.html


From the article:

...Wayne Smith, a former American diplomat in Havana, said that in recent years the Bush administration has shifted policy from openly working to undermine Fidel Castro’s government to trying to ensure that he is not replaced by his brother Raúl or another Communist figure.

“Getting in the way is Chávez and Venezuela, giving assistance to Cuba — and not only giving assistance but forming an alliance with Cuba,” said Mr. Smith, who is a senior fellow at the Center for International Policy in Washington. “It just drives the Bush people crazy.”

[Judi Lynn]

14. Too bad he left the diplomatic service when Reagan ascended the throne.

Reagan drove all of the progress with Cuba right into the dumper, and made everything far, far worse. He could have used the advice of some superior diplomats like Wayne S. Smith.

It's wonderful Smith is not giving up and wandering off to vegetate somewhere, but staying right near the action with his daily involvement in teaching, lecturing, writing, etc.

Here's an article he wrote concerning _Bush's pathetic designs on Cuba:

July 11, 2006

Embargoes, Blacklists and Assassination Plots
Bush's New Cuba Plan
By WAYNE S. SMITH

In May of 2004, the Bush Administration's Commission for Assistance to a Free Cuba issued an almost 500-page report that seemed to conclude the Castro government was virtually at the point of collapse. Just a few more nudges--a few more Radio Marti broadcasts, denials of a few more travel licenses, and support to a few more dissidents--and it would all be over. The United States, the report seemed to suggest, would then come in and show the Cubans how to operate their schools properly, make their trains run on time, and grow their crops more efficiently. It was envisaged as such a U.S.-run operation that in July of 2005, a U.S. transition coordinator was appointed. One skeptical observer noted at the time that in the case of Iraq, the Bush Administration had at least waited until it invaded and occupied the country before appointing a transition coordinator. Did his appointment in this case mean the U.S. intended to invade Cuba as well? And if not, what was the U.S. transition coordinator supposed to do from his office in the State Department building? Even today, that remains unclear.

Perhaps OAS Secretary General Jose Miguel Insulza's reaction to the idea of a U.S. transition coordinator for Cuba summed it up best. "But there is no transition," he said, "and it isn't your country."

Indeed, the transition plan put forward in 2004 had such a "made-in-the-USA" tone to it that it backfired in Cuba. Even Cubans who had their disagreements with the Castro government did not want to be told by the United States how they should run their country. Leading dissidents described the new approach as counterproductive. Elizardo Sanchez of the Commission for Human Rights and National Reconciliation, for example, noted that the U.S. policy announced in 2004, "has had an effect exactly the opposite of the one you should want."

Cuba's Catholic Bishops also disagreed with the U.S. approach, saying its measures "threaten both the present and the future of our nation."
(snip/...)

http://www.counterpunch.org/smith07112006.html

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Those vintage photos of Che Guevara with the Castros are great. He really had presence.

[Say_What]

16. Helms Burton games for all...

and I see the USSA is playing the same game with Venezuela and arms. POS government.

How humiliating it has to be for the world's biggest bully to be in a 45 year stand off with one of the smallest nations in the world. LOL Little Cuba--model for Third World nations.

From the article:

...Given that nickel exports are now such an important source of revenues for the Cuban government, the Commission report calls for the creation an inter-agency Cuban Nickel Targeting Task Force to strengthen measures to control imports of nickel-bearing substances or products (i.e., "we won't buy your steel if there's any chance it contains Cuban nickel!"), and for several other measures to discourage other countries from buying Cuban nickel. Such tactics have been tried in years past with very little success. They are not likely to have any greater success now. Indeed, they are more likely to cause a strong negative reaction in the international community.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Smith wrote another article a couple of days ago that ran in the Sun Sentinel:

Change must come from internal process

The "Compact with the Cuban People," issued on July 10 by Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and Commerce Secretary Carlos Gutierrez, as the two co-chairs of the Commission for Assistance to a Free Cuba, puts forward a view of Cuba divorced from reality and a vision of the future which can only be described as pie in the sky.

For example, it tells us that "chronic malnutrition, polluted drinking water and untreated chronic diseases continue to affect a significant percentage of the Cuban people."

Now, life is no bowl of cherries in Cuba. There are shortages. And yet, U.N. indices consistently show Cuba's population to be much healthier than those of most neighboring states, including the U.S. territory of Puerto Rico -- one reason being that Cubans have free health care. And the fact is that life expectancy for Cubans is five years longer than for African-Americans living in these United States!

Indeed, the image painted in the commission report -- of Cubans wandering about like half-starved refugees in Darfur -- is so far from the truth that one might conclude the Bush administration doesn't want Americans traveling to Cuba precisely so they can't see Cuban reality -- with all its warts -- for themselves.

http://www.ciponline.org/cuba/cubainthenews/080206ChangeMust.htm

[Judi Lynn]

18. Great info. in that piece. The very next paragraph beyond your excerpt:

The report gives the strong impression that the Cuban economy is on the verge of collapse, as did an earlier version two years ago. But rather than collapsing, the Cuban economy shows signs of vigorous recovery. Even the CIA gives it a growth rate of 8 percent. The price of nickel, now Cuba's leading export, is at record highs. Cuba has new and vitally important economic relationships with Venezuela and China, and various nations are already bidding for new oil drilling sites off the north coast. Electrical blackouts are a thing of the past and food is more plentiful. In short, things are definitely looking up.
(snip)

You know, it has seemed to be the big motive behind all the furious attempts to keep Americans out of Cuba: they don't want significant numbers of Americans to see behind the illusion they've kept adding to all these years, hoping it would go on forever, and it could if the right-wing always has power.

With the strong possibility that the new Congress will literally DROP THE TRAVEL BAN very quickly, since it has voted to drop it every year in the last few years, only to have it highjacked in committee each time, just in time to save their bacon, the _Bush administration must feel a sense of DESPERATION now, knowing this will be the year that changes everything about the way Americans see Cuba once they go there freely.

Their only hope in protecting their lies has been to keep us outta there! They have painted themselves into a corner. If they can figure out a way to seize Cuba, then they can start claiming the reason Cubans don't seem as bad off as they did is because we saved them!

Desperate measures by a pack of freaking liars.

[Mika]

30. The "Compact with the Cuban People" sounds like the repukes..

.. "Contract with on America".

[Say_What]

23. "But there is no transition," he said, "and it isn't your country."

Excellent quote. I laughed out loud when I read it. Here's Smith's impressive CV and a photo of him another person I have long followed with great interest, Eloy Gutierrez Menoyo, now living in Cuba as a moderate dissident. Gonna have to search around for what Menoyo's been saying about the latest events on the island.

<clips>

Curriculum Vitae

Born in Texas in 1932, Wayne S. Smith served in the United States Marine Corps from 1949 to 1953 and saw combat during the first winter of the Korean War.
Education

He received his university education at La Universidad de las Americas in Mexico City from which he holds a B.A. and an M.A. (summa cum laude), at Columbia University in New York City, from which he holds another M.A., and at George Washington University in Washington D.C., where he received a third M.A. and a Ph.D. In 1990, Dr. Smith received the Henry L. Cain Most Distinguished Alumnus award from La Universidad de las Americas.
Foreign Service Career

During his 25 years with the Department of State, which he joined in 1957, Dr. Smith saw service in the Soviet Union, Argentina, as well as in Cuba. He served as the Executive Secretary of President Kennedy's Latin American Task Force and in 1961 was cited by the Task Force Chairman, Mr. A.A. Berle, as one of the outstanding young Foreign Service Officers in the Latin American Bureau. In 1973, he received the Meritorious Honor Award for the sustained excellence of his political reporting from Buenos Aires.

When he decided to leave the Foreign Service in 1982 because of fundamental disagreements with the Reagan Administration's foreign policy, he was Chief of Mission at the U.S. Interests Section in Havana, Cuba, and was recognized as the Department of State's leading expert on Cuba.
Current and Recent Positions

Now Visiting Professor of Latin American Studies at Johns Hopkins University, Dr. Smith directs that institution's academic exchange program with the University of Havana.

Since 1992, he has also been a Senior Fellow at the Center for International Policy in Washington D.C., From 1982 until 1984, he was a Senior Associate at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, also in Washington, D.C.
Publications

Dr. Smith's most recent book is The Russians Aren't Coming: New Soviet Policy in Latin America (Lynne Rienner Publishers, 1992), of which he is the editor.

His other works include Portrait of Cuba (Turner Publishing, 1991); Toward Resolution: The Falklands/Malvinas Dispute (Lynne Rienner, 1991), again as an editor; and The Closest of Enemies: A Personal and Diplomatic Account of the Castro Years (W.W. Norton of New York City, 1987). He was also the co-editor, along with Esteban Morales, of Subject to Solution: Problems in Cuban-U.S. Relations (Lynne Rienner, 1988), which won the Critic award in 1989 as one of the best academic books reviewed that year.

In addition, Dr. Smith frequently publishes articles in The New York Times, The Los Angeles Times, The Baltimore Sun, The Christian Science Monitor, The Miami Herald, and Foreign Policy. His article in the Summer 1987 edition of Foreign Policy, entitiled "Lies about Nicaragua," was cited by several congressmen as a key document in the debate over aid to the contras.
Associations

Dr. Smith is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations, of the Latin American Studies Association and of the Association for the Advancement of Slavic Studies.

http://members.allstream.net/~dchris/CubaFAQ117.html

[Commie Pinko Dirtbag]

19. The one and only thing I don't like about Chavez is his exaggerations.

If the truth is -10, and the RW propaganda says +10, Chavez says -1000.

But in this case, I thing sign is more important than modulus.

[jpkenny]

21. Can you give some examples, please?

[Commie Pinko Dirtbag]

22. Like "The US is the worst empire ever" or something along those lines.

An exaggeration. Bad, surely. The worst? Not really.

[Vidar]

25. I ignore the hyperbole & applaud his chutzpah.

[Commie Pinko Dirtbag]

26. I largely do that too. -nt

[happydreams]

20. Great news! Who woulda' thunk that...

Venezuela would end up being so effective in fighting the Bush fascists?

It seems like everyday Hugo comes up with a new and creative way of dealing with "The Dangerman".

[ronnie624]

28. Mr. Danger. n/t

[Captain Hilts]

31. Cuba's sugar daddy dries up in 1991 and their problems are our fault?

In 1985 Castro hosted an economic conference where Cuba was held up as a model economy. Then when the Soviet Union collapsed, all their economic problems were our fault. It doesn't work that way.

I oppose our Cuba policy, but Castro's rants blaming us for all his problems now that he does not have subsidies from the Soviet Union are tiring and people who believe him are enabling him.

[Judi Lynn]

32. You're going to need to do your homework. You don't seem to know much

about the embargo, and attendant legislation do you?

DU'ers who have been taking interest in US/Cuba relations have all made a point of trying to find out what they're talking about. Are you aware that the U.N. General Assembly has voted for YEARS with only the U.S. and Israel, and occassionally a small coercible country, like Palua opposing, to condemn the U.S. embargo on Cuba? Why do you think that happens?

Denial of Food and Medicine:
The Impact Of The U.S. Embargo
On The Health And Nutrition In Cuba"
-An Executive Summary-
American Association for World Health Report
Summary of Findings
March 1997

After a year-long investigation, the American Association for World Health has determined that the U.S. embargo of Cuba has dramatically harmed the health and nutrition of large numbers of ordinary Cuban citizens. As documented by the attached report, it is our expert medical opinion that the U.S. embargo has caused a significant rise in suffering-and even deaths-in Cuba. For several decades the U.S. embargo has imposed significant financial burdens on the Cuban health care system. But since 1992 the number of unmet medical needs patients going without essential drugs or doctors performing medical procedures without adequate equipment-has sharply accelerated. This trend is directly linked to the fact that in 1992 the U.S. trade embargo-one of the most stringent embargoes of its kind, prohibiting the sale of food and sharply restricting the sale of medicines and medical equipment-was further tightened by the 1992 Cuban Democracy Act.

A humanitarian catastrophe has been averted only because the Cuban government has maintained a high level of budgetary support for a health care system designed to deliver primary and preventive health care to all of its citizens. Cuba still has an infant mortality rate half that of the city of Washington, D.C.. Even so, the U.S. embargo of food and the de facto embargo on medical supplies has wreaked havoc with the island's model primary health care system. The crisis has been compounded by the country's generally weak economic resources and by the loss of trade with the Soviet bloc.

Recently four factors have dangerously exacerbated the human effects of this 37-year-old trade embargo. All four factors stem from little-understood provisions of the U.S. Congress' 1992 Cuban Democracy Act (CDA):

A Ban on Subsidiary Trade:

1. Beginning in 1992, the Cuban Democracy Act imposed a ban on subsidiary trade with Cuba. This ban has severely constrained Cuba's ability to import medicines and medical supplies from third country sources. Moreover, recent corporate buyouts and mergers between major U.S. and European pharmaceutical companies have further reduced the number of companies permitted to do business with Cuba.

2. Licensing Under the Cuban Democracy Act: The U.S. Treasury and Commerce Departments are allowed in principle to license individual sales of medicines and medical supplies, ostensibly for humanitarian reasons to mitigate the embargo's impact on health care delivery. In practice, according to U.S. corporate executives, the licensing provisions are so arduous as to have had the opposite effect. As implemented, the licensing provisions actively discourage any medical commerce. The number of such licenses granted-or even applied for since 1992-is minuscule. Numerous licenses for medical equipment and medicines have been denied on the grounds that these exports "would be detrimental to U.S. foreign policy interests."

3. Shipping Since 1992:The embargo has prohibited ships from loading or unloading cargo in U.S. ports for 180 days after delivering cargo to Cuba. This provision has strongly discouraged shippers from delivering medical equipment to Cuba. Consequently shipping costs have risen dramatically and further constricted the flow of food, medicines, medical supplies and even gasoline for ambulances. From 1993 to 1996, Cuban companies spent an additional $8.7 million on shipping medical imports from Asia, Europe and South America rather than from the neighboring United States.

4. Humanitarian Aid: Charity is an inadequate alternative to free trade in medicines, medical supplies and food. Donations from U.S. non-governmental organizations and international agencies do not begin to compensate for the hardships inflicted by the embargo on the Cuban public health system. In any case, delays in licensing and other restrictions have severely discouraged charitable contributions from the U.S.

Taken together, these four factors have placed severe strains on the Cuban health system. The declining availability of food stuffs, medicines and such basic medical supplies as replacement parts for thirty-year-old X-ray machines is taking a tragic human toll. The embargo has closed so many windows that in some instances Cuban physicians have found it impossible to obtain life-saving medicines from any source, under any circumstances. Patients have died. In general, a relatively sophisticated and comprehensive public health system is being systematically stripped of essential resources. High-technology hospital wards devoted to cardiology and nephrology are particularly under siege. But so too are such basic aspects of the health system as water quality and food security.
Specifically, the AAWH's team of nine medical experts identified the following health problems affected by the embargo:

1. Malnutrition: The outright ban on the sale of American foodstuffs has contributed to serious nutritional deficits, particularly among pregnant women, leading to an increase in low birth-weight babies. In addition, food shortages were linked to a devastating outbreak of neuropathy numbering in the tens of thousands. By one estimate, daily caloric intake dropped 33 percent between 1989 and 1993.

2. Water Quality: The embargo is severely restricting Cuba's access to water treatment chemicals and spare-parts for the island's water supply system. This has led to serious cutbacks in supplies of safe drinking water, which in turn has become a factor in the rising incidence of morbidity and mortality rates from water-borne diseases.

3. Medicines & Equipment: Of the 1,297 medications available in Cuba in 1991, physicians now have access to only 889 of these same medicines - and many of these are available only intermittently. Because most major new drugs are developed by U.S. pharmaceuticals, Cuban physicians have access to less than 50 percent of the new medicines available on the world market. Due to the direct or indirect effects of the embargo, the most routine medical supplies are in short supply or entirely absent from some Cuban clinics.

4. Medical Information: Though information materials have been exempt from the U.S. trade embargo since 1 988, the AAWH study concludes that in practice very little such information goes into Cuba or comes out of the island due to travel restrictions, currency regulations and shipping difficulties. Scientists and citizens of both countries suffer as a result. Paradoxically, the embargo harms some U.S. citizens by denying them access to the latest advances in Cuban medical research, including such products as Meningitis B vaccine, cheaply produced interferon and streptokinase, and an AIDS vaccine currently under-going clinical trials with human volunteers.
(snip/...)

http://www.cubasolidarity.net/aawh.html

[Captain Hilts]

35. US Embargo 40 years old. Cuban poverty post 1990. nt

[ThsMchneKilsFascists]

33. Why'd Cuba need a 'sugar daddy'?

Was there a major world economic power enforcing an embargo on them or something?

Your economic argument assumes a benign US economic policy towards post-revolutionary Cuba.

[Captain Hilts]

36. US did not support Batista. In fact, Castro was on the Jack Paar Show.

And stayed at the Dixie Hotel in NYC.

Castro turned on the US, not the other way around.

Much of their economy was dependent on the Soviet subsidy they received.

In 1985 Castro hosted a conference at which he held the Cuban economy up as a model for other South American countries. He wasn't complaining about the embargo then.

I think our policy towards Cuba is STUPID, but so is Castro's towards us.

[Mika]

34. Never mind that the US has 4 x the entire Cuban pop w/out health care

EVERY single Cuban has access to world class universal health care.

EVERY single Cuban has access to world class universal education - pre K to PhD.

EVERY single Cuban has access to affordable housing (housing is a civil right in Cuba - there are NO homeless there).


By comparison, the US has serious problems in all above areas. Just where the F does the US (and Americans) come off criticizing Cuba about problems?