The Cuban Triangle

USAID's m.o. in Cuba

2012-02-12T12:03:00.002-05:00

AP reporter Desmond Butler obtained five reports on USAIDcontractor Alan Gross’ travels to Cuba, four written by Gross himself, andwrote a long investigative piece on Gross’ operationsin Cuba. Your tax dollars at work ina kind of operation that is the last thing you would expect to be carried outby USAID.

A fine little mess

2012-02-12T11:29:00.002-05:00

Ecuador’s President Rafael Correawants Cuba to be invited to the April Summit of the Americas in Cartagena, andhe wants like-minded nations to joinhim in boycotting the event if Havana is not invited.

This forces the United States toplay the heavy and say no, Cuba should not be invited, because the “summitprocess is open only to democratic countries.”

That stand on principle would havesome resonance with the public if the “summit process” had any meaning toanyone, i.e. if the meeting were any more than a series of conversations amongheads of state where no negotiations are held or agreements reached. President Obama doesn’t mind talking togovernments with which he disagrees, but in this case election-yearconsiderations may override that principle. Can’t have a handshake photo with Raul.

Colombia, the host, has to figurea way to smooth things over. Colombia’sforeign minister traveled to Havana last week to discuss the issue and reportedafterward that Cuban officials “told me, obviously, that they’re interestedin attending.”

Cuban media reported on the foreignminister’s visit, noting her meetingwith President Raul Castro, saying her visit would give a boostto the two countries’ “satisfactory” bilateral relations and noting Colombia’s oppositionto the U.S. embargo. The summitissue was not covered.

A roundup of all this by KeziaMcKeague of the Council of the Americas is here.

Happy embargo-versary

2012-02-10T16:56:00.004-05:00

If you enjoy celebrating big oldfailures, the 50^th anniversary of the U.S. embargo against Cuba hasjust passed. Get yourself some rum andhave a ball.

One feature of the embargo hasbeen its changing justifications over time: a response to expropriations, aninstrument with which to demand that Cuba break its ties to the Soviet bloc andits projection of military power outside its borders, a tool for pressure forthe release of political prisoners. These days, the honest justification of it on the part of its partisansseems to be that it will one day serve as leverage over a future Cubangovernment when Fidel and Raul are no longer around.

Meanwhile, more than 300,000 CubanAmericans per year are traveling to an island they still consider in somemeasure to be home. Some are justvisiting, many are investing at the family level.

To add another layer of absurdity,consider what would happen if two things happen in Cuba in the next five years:a big move to ethanol production supported by Brazilian technology and capital,which is a matter mainly of political will; and a discovery of oil from theRepsol rig that is now clearly visible from the Malecon. Cuba, now producing half its energy, couldbecome self-sufficient if not an oil exporter.

But the embargo would remain, poised to bring the place to its knees.

It’s a good occasion to read thisApril 1960 State Department memo on “TheDecline and Fall of Castro.” Itexplains how the embargo and other measures were intended “to weaken theeconomic life of Cuba” by making “the greatest inroads in denying money andsupplies to Cuba, to decrease monetary and real wages, to bring about hunger,desperation and overthrow of government.”

The Alan Gross "sentencia" summarized

2012-02-02T23:58:00.000-05:00

Why did Cuba jail USAID contractor Alan Gross?

The official Cuban answer has consistently been about Cubansovereignty and Gross’ conduct that was alleged to have threatened, as thecharges against him put it, the “independence and territorial integrity” ofCuba.

If you have wondered what they mean by that, a courtdocument that cameto light this month explains in detail what the Cuban government found andwhat it perceived Gross to be doing.

In brief, the Cuban court held that Gross was working on aproject that he designed, that he described in his own papers as focused onpolitical objectives and contributing to the Bush Administration’s regimechange objectives; that he imported and installed three satellite Internet/Wifisystems for Cuba’s Jewish community, never representing himself as working fora U.S. government program; that those communications systems were chosenbecause they do not operate on the Cuban communications network; that hetraveled to Cuba five times in one year, carrying some equipment himself andenlisting unwitting Americans who were traveling to Cuba for religiousexchanges to carry the rest; that he was going to be assigned to repair asatellite communications system that another USAID grantee had installed; and thathe had a discussion – at Cuba’s Hotel Nacional, of all places – about installingsatellite communications systems for Cuba’s Masonic Lodges.

If just half of that is true, the real question becomes: Isthere a more surefire scheme for sending an American into Cuba to get arrested?

Regardless of one’s view of Gross’ conduct, USAID programs,Cuba’s reaction, or Cuba’s legal system, this document is an important additionto the discussion.

After the jump, a summary and comments on it.

The Alan Gross Sentencia – Summary and Comments

by Philip Peters

The sentencia (pdf) in the case ofjailed USAID contractor Alan Gross, first published by CaféFuerte, deserves more examination than I gave it here.

The sentencia isnot a “sentence” in our terminology; it is not exactly like anything in ourjudicial system. It is issued by thecourt, in this case the Court for Crimes against the Security of the State,which is part of the Havana Provincial Court. The sentencia presents the setof facts that the court accepted to be true and on which it decided the case;the proof that led the court to accept their veracity; the laws that the courtapplies to that set of facts to try the case; considerations regarding thedefendant’s degree of responsibility and any factors that would increase orreduce any fine or jail term; and the court’s decision regarding any punishment.

The sentenciapresents a new level of detail in Cuba’s case against Gross, and has value forthat reason. It refers to numbered pagesin volumes of evidence gathered by prosecutors, much coming from documentsfound on Gross’ laptop and flash drives.

What appears below is a not a comprehensive summary of the sentencia; rather, it is a summary of selectedinformation that sheds light on the factual and legal case lodged against him. Readers are welcome to point out additional elementsthat should be included or explained.

It is not a translation. It is a paraphrase, written in the court’s voice but not using thecourt’s words.

When quotes appear, they are from the sentencia, i.e. from the judges that tried the case and signed thedocument. In all cases where the sentencia quotes from other documents,mainly Gross’ own papers, I point that out.

My comments follow at the end.

Explanatory notes are in brackets. Page numbers refer to those in the sentencia itself.

Finally, a definition of the term BGANS that appearsthroughout the document. A satelliteInternet system that USAID programs have sent to Cuba is called a broadbandglobal area network system, or BGANS. Itinvolves a laptop-sized unit, an antenna, and some associated gear. It enables a user to gain access to theInternet from virtually anywhere in the world through a direct satelliteconnection independent of any local cable, phone, or wireless network. It also creates a low-power WiFi hotspot.

Summary of Information Contained in the Sentencia

of the Cuban Court in the Alan Gross Court Case

Page 1

The first mention of Alan Gross’ connection with the USAIDprogram: before June 2004, he was contacted by the Pan American DevelopmentFoundation (PADF), a USAID grantee, and received about $400 to deliver a videocamera to a Masonic Lodge in Cuba. Hedelivered the camera to Jose Manuel Collera, a member of the lodge.

In early 2007, Gross received $5,500 from PADF to buyequipment for PADF that Gross knew would be distributed in Cuba. The purchases included a BGANS satelliteInternet system, a laptop, and assorted other items.

Page 2

Documents on one of Gross’ flash drives included a funding proposalfor a project that Gross presented to PADF in 2007. The proposal contained “truly politicalcontent.” The idea, quoting from Gross’proposal, was to provide Internet access to “pro-democracy groups” and to break“the strict surveillance over communications between existing pro-democracygroups in Cuba.” BGANS and associatedequipment were to be used. Gross plannedto have the equipment enter Cuba using, again in the proposal’s words,“multiple conduits such as tourism, humanitarian missions, and diplomaticpouches.” The proposal was not accepted.

In 2008, Gross contacted the [Bethesda, Maryland-based] companyDevelopment Alternatives Incorporated (DAI) because that company was seekingbids for its “Cuba democracy program.”

The programs under which Gross worked are rooted in theHelms-Burton law, which is intended to change Cuba’s political system; theprograms have among their objectives “bringing down the Socialist Revolution.” USAIDbid solicitations describe the objectives of “expanding the reach and impact ofindependent civil society in Cuba and, as a result, accelerating the peacefultransition to democracy.” (The foregoingquote is from an unidentified USAID document.)

Page 3

Gross’ October 30, 2008 contract with DAI contains a clausecommitting the parties to keep its contents confidential.

To win that contract, Gross submitted a proposal to DAI thatwas “essentially” the same as the one turned down by PADF. He called the project “ParaLaIsla.Net.” Its intention, quoting from the proposal, wasto provide “unrestricted” communications capability that “cannot be monitored”for “democratic activists” and “other participants,” all “to contribute to thepromotion of a just and democratic government” in Cuba.

Gross’ documents “repeatedly” refer to the objective of a“peaceful transition in Cuba.”

The “ParaLaIsla.Net” website had a one-year duration,expiring February 12, 2010. It includede-mail programs, an encyclopedia, and other content. Its homepage bore the Cuban flag and theslogans, “If not now, when?” and “Cuba’s future is now.” This is “an obvious subliminal incitement tosubversion against Cuba’s political, economic, and social order.”

Gross’ plan was to install three BGANS for the Jewishcommunities in Havana, Camaguey, and Santiago.

Once he received the DAI contract, Gross contacted WilliamsRecant, a member of a New York Jewish organization active in Cuba. “Without giving him details,” Gross toldRecant that he would be participating in a program called “For Cuba.” Recant recommended that Gross contact WilliamMiller of the Cuban Jewish community. Recant informed Gross about Jewish groups that travel to Cuba, and Grossused members of those groups to carry equipment for his project to Cuba. Gross sought licenses from the Treasury andCommerce Departments, respectively, to travel to Cuba and to export equipmentto Cuba, emphasizing in his license applications the need for discretion andcaution.

Page 4

Gross made his first trip to Cuba March 30, 2009. He passed through Customs with his equipment“without being detected.” He contactedMiller at the Gran Patronato synagogue in Havana. He installed the equipment, set up the WiFi,and told Miller it was “to improve communication between Jewishcommunities.” Gross used the equipmentto communicate with DAI. He trained twomembers of the synagogue in the use of the BGANS.

On April 4, 2009, Gross wrote a report to DAI. In the report, Gross said he told Cuban usersof his equipment to set up Gmail, Hotmail, or Yahoo accounts and “communicatedto them that they should not use their own names in the e-mail accounts theywould create, obviously to make their identification even more problematic forCuban authorities.”

Page 5

Gross traveled to Cuba again on April 25, 2009. Before his trip he contacted SuzanneAndisman, an American who was going to travel to Cuba with a religiousgroup. She agreed to Gross’ request tocarry some communications equipment with her; she arrived in Cuba the next day,met Gross at the Parque Central hotel, and gave the equipment to him. She “was unaware of the true plans” of Gross.

Gross proceeded to take the BGANS equipment to Santiago,told the leader of the Jewish community there that he carried a “donation toimprove communication between Jewish communities,” and installed theequipment. Because one element of thesystem did not work, it could not connect to the Internet. Gross returned to Havana and then to theUnited States May 4.

On June 4, 2009 Gross made another trip, having contacted inadvance an American named Richard Klein, and having received Klein’s agreementto carry some equipment for Gross. Theyarrived the same day on separate flights. Gross took the BGANS system to Camaguey, told the leader of the Jewishcommunity there that it was “a donation from the Jewish community in the UnitedStates to improve communication among Cuban Jewish communities,” he installedit, and it worked.

Page 6

Gross’ trip report to DAI described his work as “veryrisky.” He reported that if the BGANSwere to be detected by Cuban authorities (quoting from the report), “it would leadto confiscation of the equipment and arrest of the users.”

An “extensive” document titled, “How to communicate securelyin repressive environments” was found on Gross’ flash drive. It is directed, in the document’s own words,“to political activists who operate in non-permissive environments and thosewho support their work.” It providestips on how to use different technologies and how users should conductthemselves.

Gross traveled again to Cuba from July 22 to 30 and fromNovember 24 until his December 3 arrest. He was in Havana, Santiago, and Camaguey to train users in the operationand upkeep of the BGANS systems. Uponthe project’s completion, his compensation was to be $258,264. That sum and his activities demonstrate the“lucrative, conspiratorial, and covert” nature of his work.

In November 2009, before his final trip to Cuba, Gross wascontacted by Akram Elias, formerly a top official of a Masonic lodge inWashington. Elias had called DAI aboutassisting the Masons in Cuba, DAI put him in touch with Gross, and they agreedto meet in Havana in December 2009 to discuss installing BGANS in Cuba’slodges. They met at the Hotel NacionalDecember 2, 2009, discussed the project, and agreed to talk further.

Page 7

Gross traveled to Cuba on a tourist visa on every trip hemade.

A detailed list of all equipment seized from Gross ispresented.

A long paragraph presents Gross’ professional resume.

Page 8

Evidence from Gross’ five trips to Cuba in 2009 includes theBGANS and other equipment installed by Gross and seized by police; the items inhis possession at the time of arrest; his hotel and rental car records; and testimonyfrom a communications ministry official to the effect that Gross never appliedfor a permit “to establish satellite communications stations.”

The defense lawyer objected to the way in which documentstaken as evidence from Gross’ flash drive were handled. The court turned aside the objection and wenton to note that Gross acknowledged in front of prosecutors and witnesses thatthe documents were his own with the exception of the one titled, “How tocommunicate securely in repressive environments.”

Page 9

The “furtive character” of Gross’ projects is shown by thenotation at the bottom of each page of his project proposal, a warning thatdisclosure of its contents could cause, quoting from the proposal, “irreparableharm to certain parties on the island.”

The project proposal also argued that Cuban governmentcontrols on communication “among pro-democracy groups” had reduced “theisland’s ability to make well-founded decisions” and that with “the efficientuse of current information and communication technologies, the possibility thatsocial change would come about on the island and the possibility of supportingit would increase sooner rather than later.” (Quotes from his project proposal.)

Page 10

A Customs document shows that upon entering Cuba [dateunspecified], Gross declared and paid duty on equipment that he described inhis customs declaration as a “modem” when it was in fact satellite equipment.

A sworn statement from Judy Gross, Alan Gross’ wife, “providesdetails” about a lawsuit against DAI.

Page 12

In a deposition, Daniel Motola of the Havana synagoguelibrary staff said that the phrase “If not now, when” is from the Talmud, buthe did not understand why it was placed on the computer screen of anon-religious project; nor did he understand why it was accompanied by thephrase, “The future of Cuba is now.”

William Miller of the Havana synagogue testified that Grosswas introduced to him by Americans who are known by the Havana Jewishcommunity.

Page 13

Leaders of the Camaguey synagogue testified that Gross wasintroduced to them by an American whom they know.

Jose Manuel Collera, the Cuban who received the video camerafrom Gross in 2004 at the Masonic Lodge, received news of the arrest of AlanGross in a phone call from Marc Wachtenheim, a PADF official. Collera testified that he was paid $250 permonth to recruit Cubans who would be trained in the use of informationtechnology provided by USAID. Hetestified further that on a visit to Washington, he was awarded a medal by the“Republican Committee of the Congress.” Collera worked as undercover agent of Cuban state security until2011. [In 2011, Collera and othersrevealed themselves on a Cuban television program as state security agents thathad worked undercover on their own, or with Cubans and/or Americans connectedto U.S. government programs.]

Raul Antonio Capote, a Cuban who collaborated with PADF andwho also revealed himself in 2011 to be a Cuban state security agent, testifiedthat he received a BGANS from Wachtenheim on April 25, 2008. The equipment subsequently neededrepair. Rene Greenwald, Capote’s “liaisonwith Marc Wachtenheim,” told Capote that the person who should repair the BGANSis Alan Gross, but Gross had been detained by Cuban authorities aftercommitting “a series of careless errors.”

Page 14

In his testimony in court, Alan Gross stated that DAI “usedhim without warning him of the legal consequences that could result from hisproject” in Cuba. He also “appearedevasive” regarding the true import of the charges laid against him, as was hisright to testify in a way that served his case, and he acted as if he “was not awareof the political content” of his project. He also testified that the project approved by DAI and actually carriedout by him was different from that described in the proposal found on his flashdrive.

“In reality,” the “fundamentally political” goals of Gross’work are clear in a) the warnings he put on each page of his proposal; b) thereports he submitted to DAI; c) his communications with the Treasury Departmentregarding his license; and d) the fact that his actions in Cuba differed“hardly at all” from the project proposal.

The court concluded that Gross did indeed write the documentthat he denied writing and that was found on his flash drive (“How tocommunicate securely in repressive environments”). Apart from the question of that document’sauthorship, “what is certain” is that Gross was setting up satellite Internetcommunication networks outside the Cuban government’s ability to detect them,and for the purpose of advancing the U.S. government’s foreign policy goalstoward Cuba.

Page 15

The defense attorney argued that the appropriate law forcharging Gross is Law 88 [a Cuban statute that responds to the Helms-Burton law],and that Gross should be fined, credited with time served, and releasedforthwith.

The court found that Gross’ actions did indeed violate Law88 but that they also went beyond the scope of the crimes defined in that law. The court found that his actions fit underthe section of the Cuban Penal Code that concerns “acts against theindependence or the territorial independence of the state.” [See Article 91, here.]

Under Cuban law, the fact that Gross was motivated byfinancial gain is an aggravating factor in assessing the severity of anypunishment. His cooperation in theinvestigative phase would have been an attenuating factor were it not for thefact that during his subsequent testimony he was evasive, changed his story,and tried to distort certain points of fact that were already established. His age of more than 60 years counted in hisfavor.

Page 16

The court noted that his actions presented “a high degree ofdanger” to Cuban society at a time when U.S. government contractors areincreasingly employed in “mercenary action” in certain countries.

Gross’ activities are not justified by their “apparentlegality” in the United States; they violate basic norms and principles ofinternational law; and they violate the constitution of the InternationalCommunications Union, which recognizes the right of all states to regulatecommunications.

A 15-year prison sentence is ordered.

Pages 17 and 18

Gross’ equipment and personal possessions and thedisposition thereof are listed.

Gross’s time served is credited against his sentence.

[End of summary.]

Comments

How authentic and accurate is this document?

Its authenticity does not seem to be in doubt. Persons familiar with the Cuban legal systemrecognize its form and style. NeitherUSAID nor anyone connected with Gross has questioned the document or itsassertions of fact, and no debate on that issue has broken out here or inCuba. USAID could be expected to disputeany inaccuracies by now, given itsassertion that its operations in Cuba “aren’t secret, covert orclassified.” Also, given that so much ofthe case is derived from the apparently large number of Gross’ documents on hislaptop and flash drives – material to which USAID and its grantees would haveaccess – then USAID’s ability to rebut any Cuban misrepresentations or errorswould be strong. Finally, many claims inthe document fit with what is generally known about the program.

All of this favors the conclusion that the sentencia’s contents are accurate. We’re left with a detailed account from Cuba,generalities from USAID, and nothing from Gross’ direct employer DAI. Maybe it’s political sensitivity, maybe thelawyers have all the information clamped down. But it’s not satisfying to anyone who would want to compare both sides’stories. For now, what stands out isthat the U.S. government is letting the Cuban account stand unchallenged.

II.

Why care?

First, because an American is in jail.

Second, this document adds substantially to the discussion. It’s likely to be all we’ll get from theCuban side, unless there is disclosure of videos or transcripts of the courtproceeding or of the volumes of documentary evidence to which the sentencia refers repeatedly.

Third, because the USAID program is at the center ofU.S.-Cuba relations under the Obama Administration – both because Gross’incarceration is characterized as a roadblock to progress from Washington’spoint of view, and because the Administration asserts that the program isperfectly normal, implicitly saying that the modus operandi are fine too.

And finally because the program was at the center of theBush Administration’s bureaucratic, government-centered approach to Cuba. It was the point of the spear of the U.S.approach to Cuba, an approach to which we might return if Governor Romney iselected. The Bush idea was to restrictprivate contacts with Cuba by Americans who go on their own volition – not tomention on their own dime! – to engage with Cubans on their own terms. (Such contacts have been viewed as beneficialin the long term in all other contexts, not to mention a normal exercise of ourfreedoms, but never mind.) Instead, theBush Administration wanted contacts focused on changing Cuba’s politicalsystem, which meant spending lots of government money on contacts designed andapproved by the government, such as Mr. Gross’, which landed him in jail andperfectly wasted probably a million dollars once you add the costs attendant tohis $585,000 contract.

III.

What’s worse, if the sentenciais accurate, is that Gross endangered Americans who traveled to Cuba forreasons of religious fellowship by having them carry equipment that could havelanded them in trouble in Cuba.

The sentencia says that Gross contacted a man in a Jewishorganization in New York, “Williams Recant.” In fact, one William Recant is listed on the website of the American JewishJoint Distribution Committee, a venerable international charity founded in1914, with a recent history of aidingCuba’s Jewish community.

It would be interesting to know if USAID has a policy abouthow its operatives present themselves. Are they permitted to enlist participation by Cubans or help fromAmericans without informing them that it’s a U.S. government program that couldlead to trouble in Cuba? One would thinkthat people are entitled to understand the risks, then make up their mind.

IV.

Gross, in his heart, may have only wanted to get a contractso he could get paid to assist Cuba’s Jewish community. The “transition” language in his proposalscould be boilerplate in his mind, language necessary to get the contract butcontaining concepts in which he did not believe. The reason why such language would benecessary, why USAID can’t simply help the Jewish community or farmers or anyother Cubans just for the good of it, is because the program’s authorizing lawdictates that it “support democracy-building efforts.” See Section109 of the Helms-Burton Act. TheAdministration could use other authorities for Cuba programs, but does not seemto have done so.

The connection to Cuban intelligence is striking: Gross’first reported Cuba contact in 2004 is with an undercover agent; a USAIDgrantee phoned that agent to inform him of Gross’ arrest in 2009; and a secondagent who had received a BGANS from a source other than Gross was to connectwith Gross had he not been arrested. Thenthere is the notion that Gross carried so much digital material on his person,and that he and another American chose the Hotel Nacional as a place to discussa new initiative involving Cuba’s Masons.

There’s more on Cuban agents who worked with the USAIDprogram here,here,and here.

With all this, I was reminded of an interviewthat Miami Herald editors conducted with House Foreign Affairs CommitteeChair Ileana Ros-Lehtinen. TheCongresswoman said that the U.S. government is “going to be very nervous” aboutthe operation of these programs in Cuba. “Alan Gross was not the perfect personto represent the U.S. government in giving equipment to the Cuban people,” shesaid. “You’ve got to know what you’re dealing with…you can’t just send someonewith the best intentions … you’ve got to know what you are doing and he was notthe right person.”

That’s reasonable enough. Her implication is that “the right person” might be out there. Another implication is that USAID should notbe in this business at all, bumbling at covert operations with no apparentrules against endangering American citizens and organizations in Cuba.

VI.

Gross claimed that he was not the author of a document foundon his flash drive entitled, “How to communicate securely in repressiveenvironments.” The court adduced that hewas the author. A document by thattitle appears on the web; the author is Patrick Meier.

VII.

In the court’s discussion of aggravating and attenuatingfactors in the decision to arrive at a 15-year sentence, the implication seemsto be that the sentence might have been shorter had Gross not taken differentapproaches in his statements during the investigative and trial phases.

An excerpt of his statement at trial, written in his ownhand, is here;it was first published at Café Fuerte, where a Spanishversion appears.

VIII.

The sentencia goesto some length to demonstrate Gross’ efforts, such as they were, to operatebelow the radar “in a surreptitious manner.” In support of that it cites the nondisclosure clause in Gross’ contractwith DAI. I wonder if that part of theargument is overdrawn, and if there is a standard clause that binds the partiesto confidentiality unless both agree to disclose.

IX.

The sentencia, firstreported by CafeFuerte,has also been covered by Reuters,TheMiami Herald, AP,and RadioMarti.

Quotable, and very smooth

2012-02-02T16:09:00.000-05:00

“It is not possible to make human rights policy as a weaponof political and ideological struggle. The world must be convinced that all countriesof the world should assume their responsibility, ourselves included. Who casts the first stone without having aglass house? We have ours inBrazil. Hence I commit myself to speakof human rights from a multilateral perspective. I believe this is a commitment of allcivilized peoples. There are aspectsthat need to be considered. In fact itis something that we have to improve in the world in general. We cannot think of human rights as a rockthat is cast in one direction only, and not in the other.”

– Dilma Rousseff, President of Brazil, inTuesday’s Granma

Dilma's visit

2012-02-02T16:05:00.002-05:00

The Wall Street Journal on the visit of the Brazilian President to Cuba, and Brazil’s stronger role in regional affairs.

Bloomberg: Yoani Sanchez saw herself in Dilma, and was disappointed in Dilma.

AFP: Brazil’s Odebrecht announced a 10-year agreement to work on sugar production and milling in Camaguey.

At Diario de Cuba, a worry from Los Angeles that Brazil’s engagement is supporting the “Chinese model.” I don’t know that Brazil is supporting any political model in Cuba, but it is trying to assist in economic reform and improvement. My guess is that the Brazilian government would say that Cuba’s politics should be decided by Cubans.

Odds and ends

2012-02-02T16:03:00.000-05:00

MSNBC: Miami-Dade delivered big for Romney in Tuesday’s GOP primary.

From the publication Insight Crime, a note on U.S.-Cuba drug enforcement cooperation.

AP: Cuba’s trade with Venezuela up, with United States down in 2010.

Pope Benedict's visit

2012-02-02T15:34:00.001-05:00

CatholicInformation Service reports that Pope Benedict’s program in Cuba will be asfollows:

March 26: 2:00 p.m. arrival inSantiago; 5:00 p.m. mass commemorating the 400^th anniversary of the Virginof Charity.

March 27: Visit to el Cobre; travel toHavana; afternoon courtesy call on President Raul Castro; dinner with Cuba’s bishops.

March 28: Mass in the Plaza de laRevolucion; departure for Rome.

The party conference

2012-01-31T11:36:00.001-05:00

Cuba’s Communist Party met over the weekend and decided that top party and government officials will be limited to two five-year terms, which would have put Fidel and Raul Castro themselves into retirement decades ago.

If you are among who might have been anticipating major political reforms or even the dismantling of the socialist system, Raul Castro’s message is that you are confusing your “most intimate hopes with reality.” Clear enough.

The President and party chief also made a frank admission that the party and government do not have a cohort of new leadership ready to take over from his own generation of historicos. But the only decision I see to address this is to replace one fifth of the Central Committee’s membership over the next five years, which sounds like a pace that is only marginally quicker than natural attrition.

His discussion of corruption happened to put U.S. democracy promotion programs into perspective. He said that corruption is “far more damaging than the programs of subversion and interference of the United States government.” He also signaled that major corruption prosecutions are forthcoming, and that legislators have been briefed on the results of investigations that are soon to come to light.

Here’s coverage from the Herald and La Jornada.

Odds and ends

2012-01-31T10:32:00.000-05:00

· More on the case of deceased prisoner Wilman Villar: His widow appeared at a press conference at the home of human rights monitor Elizardo Sanchez and said that Villar’s legal troubles began in a domestic dispute between the couple where he had been drinking, and things ended with her mother going for police assistance. After that, she said, Villar joined a dissident group. She has now joined the Damas de Blanco. There is a lot more back-and-forth among family members and others about who hit or did not hit whom, and more. Sanchez says that this is a moment where “the truth has to be brought to light” because either the government or the dissidents “are lying.” See stories from AP and AFP Spanish.

· The Herald takes an interesting look at the evolution of church-state relations in Cuba since the 1980’s.

· Cuba flights are about to begin from Houston’s George Bush Intercontinental Airport.

· New Times, the Miami weekly that is really one of the best newspapers in America, gave me honorable mention in a recent blog ranking for being the “only blogger in Miami reporting on the Cuban economy.”

· In the comments, a reader pointed out an essay by Cuban blogger Ivan Garcia on Fidel Castro’s experiments and failures over the years. It’s here in English and Spanish. Not to be pigeonholed, he is also in favor of taking Bush, Blair, and Aznar to the Hague for starting the Iraq war (here and here).

Foreign investment in sugar sector

2012-01-31T10:21:00.001-05:00

Reuters reports that the Brazilian corporation Odebrecht is going to enter Cuba’s sugar sector with a 10-year contract to operate and modernize a mill in Camaguey. An executive said the company will also build a distillery to produce ethanol.

Ethanol production itself is a breakthrough, as is the entry of foreign capital into sugar production itself.

This appears to deliver on the commitment made last April to admit more foreign investment in Cuba by making Cuba’s selection criteria broader and more flexible.

The announcement could come during the Brazilian president’s visit. More on that here.

The Communist Party conference begins

2012-01-28T08:53:00.001-05:00

Cuba’s national Communist Party conference begins today and Granma, the official party daily, sets the stage with a short editorial.

The “essential purpose” of the confab, the editorial says, is “to deepen party work to accelerate the development of society and to guarantee the economic and social policy guidelines (Lineamientos) approved by the sixth Party Congress, based on the concept that there can be no ideology without an economy.”

It also rails against “bureaucratic schemes and attitudes, and old vices such as improvisation, formalism, false unanimity, and opportunism.” It cites the need “to leave behind prejudices against the non-state sector of the economy.” And it cites Raul Castro’s admonition that the hardest “psychological barrier” that party members will need to overcome is that of “being tied to obsolete dogmas and points of view.”

The conference has the power to make changes in party leadership but there is no hint that it will do so.

The party discussion document for the conference is here (pdf).

A critical editorial on that document in Catholic media is noted here.

Here’s coverage from Reuters and NPR.

The Republicans in Florida

2012-01-27T14:51:00.005-05:00

Let’s start with Ron Paul who, asked in last night’s debate what he would say if he found himself talking to Raul Castro in the Oval Office, responded: “I’d ask him what he called about.”

Apart from that, the Brian Williams question about Fidel Castro’s death in the first debate has continued to frame what has become an odd discussion.

The question focused on what will surely be a big moment in history, but one that I do not believe to be foremost in people’s minds in Cuba, or in Miami for that matter. On Calle Ocho, after all, they celebrated Fidel’s death five years ago only to find that our Maker had a different plan.

Nonetheless, we have had days of Newt Gingrich and Mitt Romney talking about Fidel meeting his Maker, or not, verging on pop theology.

Here’s Romney at a Miami event on Wednesday: “If I’m fortunate to become the next President of the United States it is my expectation that Fidel Castro will finally be taken off this planet. I doubt he’ll take any time in the sky. He’ll find a nether region to be more to his comfort…We’ve waited a long, long time for the opportunity that is represented by a new president, and by new leadership, or by old leadership finally kicking the bucket in Cuba. And I want to take advantage. I want to be the American president that is proud to be able to say that I was president at the time that we brought freedom back to the people of Cuba.”

With that, Romney also released a policy paper. Lifting a phrase from President Obama, who said in 2009 that freedom in Cuba is “our lodestone, our North Star,” Romney’s paper declares: “The North Star that guides Mitt Romney’s policy toward the island is the realizable dream of a free Cuba.”

Romney sees Gingrich on the issue of travel (back to the Bush rules), Helms-Burton (allow Title III to go into effect), and looking into the possibility of indicting Messrs. Castro, and raises him on a few scores:

· Romney will “fully fund and effectively implement” U.S. government democracy promotion programs

· He will beef up broadcasting, Internet, and social media communications

· He will “publicly identify by name those police officers, prison officials, judges, state security personnel, and regime officials who mistreat, torture, and oppress the Cuban people so they know they will be held individually accountable.”

Gingrich, is you’re still with me, elaborated on his earlier tough talk. From AFP:

Mr. Gingrich was asked to explain comments that if elected, he would “not tolerate four more years of a Cuban dictatorship.”

If the US planes bombed Libya, should they do the same with Cuba?

“If there was a genuine, legitimate uprising, we would, of course, be on the side of the people,”Mr. Gingrich told Spanish-language network Univision.

“In that sense, I don’t see why Cuba should be sacrosanct, and we should say, ‘Oh, don't do anything to hurt’ - you know, we’re very prepared to back people in Libya. We may end up backing people in Syria. But now Cuba? Hands off Cuba. That’s baloney.

“People of Cuba deserve freedom.”

The audience at the Miami venue where Univision held the interview broke into applause.

Ernesto Hernandez Busto, Spain-based editor of Penultimos Dias, is following it all in Miami and attended the Romney event. He liked Romney’s remarks and those of his wife, he found Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen “enthusiastic and predictable,” but found something lacking in the whole lineup and in all the other candidates: “an understanding of the Cuban situation that goes beyond the traditional topics.”

Welcome to the club, Ernesto.

Quotable: Romney on “the Cuban situation”

2012-01-27T12:52:00.002-05:00

“Romney…said that the Cuban situation exists because the United States has failed to honor commitments against Communist infiltration in the Western Hemisphere.

“‘By backing away from this basic principle,’ [Romney] said, ‘we still have the Cuban situation which was not corrected in the missile inspection situation or in the Bay of Pigs matter.’”

– The Miami News quoting Michigan Governor George Romney, February 9, 1964

Brazil stays in the game

2012-01-27T11:35:00.002-05:00

Reuters raises the curtain on Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff’s visit to Cuba next week, where she will continue her predecessor’s policy of economic cooperation with Cuba, including the major project of the port of Mariel.

Cuba Standard, meanwhile, found a Folha de Sao Paolo article where a Brazilian official, just back from Cuba, talked about the possibilities for Brazilian companies to invest in ethanol production in Cuba and declared, “Fidel’s resistance in this field is being overcome.”

Let’s hope that’s the case. Brazilian investment in Cuban ethanol production would bring world-class technology and know-how to Cuba, generate jobs, enable Cuba to cut oil imports and foreign exchange expenditures, and provide sorely needed revival to an economically and culturally important sector of the Cuban countryside.

Coincidentally, Brazil just granted Yoani Sanchez a visa to visit Brazil to attend a film screening.

Earlier notes on Brazil’s engagement with Cuba here and here. A Cuban promotional video on the Mariel port project is here. It’s a huge infrastructure project that expands Mariel’s capacity and allows for all the port and industrial facilities along the southern shore of the Bay of Havana to be dismantled and replaced with non-industrial development.

Another prisoner's death

2012-01-27T11:21:00.001-05:00

History repeats itself with another awful, hard-to-comprehend death of a Cuban prisoner. As in the case of Orlando Zapata, Wilman Villar died in a hospital after being in a prison in eastern Cuba; he is described as a dissident by his family but the government claims he was a common criminal.

The following is what I scanned after being away from the news.

Villar, who apparently joined a dissident group last fall, is reported to have been on a hunger strike and died from that. International human rights groups and many governments condemned Cuban authorities for allowing the 31-year-old to die; see this editorial from El Pais and the State Department’s statement.

The Cuban government issued a refutation (text here), claiming there is ample proof that he was neither a dissident nor on a hunger strike, that he received medical care, and his family was always apprised of it.

AFP reports that Villar’s mother, sister, and mother-in-law all “repudiated” him, while human rights monitor Elizardo Sanchez reports from Havana that those three are all married to Interior Ministry agents and are “partisans of the government.”

And regarding Zapata, Café Fuerte reports that his mother, who emigrated to the United States once she had her son’s ashes in her hands, is having a hard time in Miami finding work and economic support. She describes herself as “desperate.”

Odds and ends

2012-01-27T11:13:00.000-05:00

Lots of catching up to do:

· Illinois Senator Richard Durbin, the Senate’s second-ranking Democrat, talks to the Peoria Journal-Star about his trip to Cuba.

· The Herald has a story about the sentencia in the Alan Gross case. The document states that Gross used Americans who were traveling to Cuba on Jewish fellowship trips to carry parts of his satellite equipment, without telling them that his project was a U.S. government initiative.

· Reuters: Europeans opting for Cuba over North Africa are one factor driving Cuba’s tourism numbers up, and its hotels to capacity.

· The Repsol oil rig is in place in Cuban waters, ready to drill, and the Herald has a good overview of emergency response issues.

· EFE on the 150^th anniversary of Bacardi, a company that dreams of returning to Cuba, and – well, why not? – does business in communist China.

· Vancouver Sun: Two first-stringers on the Cuban women’s soccer team hopped a cab, went to the U.S. border, pulled their carnets de identidad out of their shoes, and asked to stay. Welcome to el Yuma.

· The New York Times Magazine interviews Sen. Marco Rubio.

· Cuba travel Christopher Baker, author of the Moon’s travel guide to Cuba, has a theory about the scarcity of medicines in Cuba.

In Florida, the squeeze is on

2012-01-24T13:49:00.000-05:00

With the Republican race scrambled by the South Carolina result, next Tuesday’s Florida winner-take-all primary takes on even greater importance.

That means greater competition for the support of the older, hard-line Cuban Americans who vote their Cuba beliefs in primary and general elections, and who to their credit go to the polls consistently and in large numbers.

It also means that this is a delicious, week-long moment of maximum leverage for hard-liners, where they can push the candidates to promise more and more on Cuba policy.

Mitt Romney, who has not been very specific on Cuba to date, will get more specific with a speech tomorrow. In last night’s debate he gave a preview, calling President Obama’s policy “dangerous” and criticizing new regulations that permit greater travel by Americans to Cuba.

Perhaps Romney will try to one-up Newt Gingrich, who issued this letter to Unidad Cubana containing commitments to return to the Bush travel regulations, to examine the possibility of indicting Fidel and Raul Castro for the 1996 Brothers to the Rescue Shootdown, and to allow Title III of Helms-Burton to go into effect. The latter action would allow Cuban Americans to use U.S. courts to sue foreign investors in Cuba if their investments in Cuba touch properties that the Cuban Americans possessed. (U.S. courts would then be burdened with cases involving properties in a foreign country, taken decades ago by a foreign government, with no connection to the United States except that the owner later came to the United States. A strange use of U.S. courts.) Gingrich has also promised a speech on Cuba and Latin America before next Tuesday. He is running radio ads that recall Romney’s “fatherland or death” gaffe four years ago, tie Gingrich to President Reagan, and recall that he worked “with Lincoln and Ileana” to pass the Helms-Burton Act in 1996.

As for last night’s debate (summarized here by AFP), the Cuba discussion was prefaced by the odd hypothetical question about Fidel Castro dying and hundreds of thousands of Cubans deciding to get in boats to leave forthwith.

Romney sounded a note that may get him in trouble with his target audience, depending on what people think it means when they decipher it: he would “work very aggressively with the new leadership in Cuba to try to move them towards a more open degree than they have had in the past.” Life, a more open degree, and the pursuit of happiness!

Gingrich said the policy of the U.S. government should be “to overthrow the regime” using everything at our disposal, including overt and covert means. This connects him with a long tradition of U.S. covert actions toward Cuba that are either announced outright, as he did last night, or are a matter of public knowledge, as in the Bay of Pigs invasion. And that are also inept; see Gross, Alan.

Ron Paul proceeded politely to call them both fools; see video below.

Finally, this comment by Achy Obejas notes Cuban Americans’ smaller proportion of the Florida Latino vote, and other interesting general election considerations.

Reforms, slow and steady

2012-01-18T11:00:00.000-05:00

The website of the newspaper Trabajadores is placing news stories on the economic reforms in this useful section called “Sin pausa” (“without pause”). The phrase was used in a speech last July by Vice President Machado Ventura; he said the process is proceeding “sin prisas, pero sin pausa;” i.e. not hurrying, but not pausing. Which seems to be the case:

Juventud Rebelde: 71 contracts have been executed between farm producers and tourism industry businesses. These are the first fruits of what the article calls an “incipient” policy, one announced last November that allows agricultural producers, including private ones, to contract directly with businesses in the tourism sector. It’s a winner all around, except for the government intermediaries rendered unnecessary by these new private transactions. And it’s a very clear sign of the government implementing its plan piece by piece, even in cases such as this where government is called upon to get out of a business that it had carried out for decades.

On the road in eastern Cuba, Reuters’ Marc Frank does some colorful reporting on a great new entrepreneur with an establishment fronting the central highway, and on the development of the residential real estate market outside Havana. (Don’t tell Senator Rubio, but Cuban Americans are a big factor in that market.)

More from Marc Frank, from Holguin: 211 state cafeterias in that province will be the subject of a pilot program where they will be leased to the workers, who will then run them on their own, as they see fit. Whether the enterprise will be constituted as a cooperative or another form of business remains to be seen. They will launch well after private restaurants and lunch stands have established themselves, Frank reports, providing “stiff competition on almost every block.”

Bending the cost curve: Cuban health care spending dropped 7.7 percent last year, the health minister reported.

The Cuban government says it’s not the complete solution to the public’s housing needs, but it will provide 160 million pesos in grants to support home repair or construction for families on the lower end of the income scale. That amounts to about 40 percent of last year’s revenues from the sale of construction materials, Trabajadores reports. The maximum grant will be 80,000 pesos, of which a maximum of 30 percent may be used to pay for labor. Recipients will enter a contract governing their use of the money. More here from Trabajadores and in English from AP.

It’s tax return season in Cuba for private entrepreneurs (state employees do not pay income tax). This story in Granma explains that the season for filing returns is extended one month to March 30, and those who file by February 28 can deduct five percent from their tax payment.

Cuba's case against Alan Gross (Updated)

2012-01-16T12:21:00.012-05:00

Café Fuerte went to the trouble to obtain the Cuban court decision in the case of USAID contractor Alan Gross, who is now serving his third year of a 15-year sentence.

It’s an 18-page document that begins with his business address in Maryland and ends with a list of every single item that was in his possession, right down to his Scotiabank credit card. In between it describes his activities, and it makes reference to several volumes containing hundreds of numbered pages of evidence gathered against him, much of it obtained from the computers and flash drives that Gross carried.

It amounts to Cuba’s case against Gross, as accepted and summarized by the court in its decision to convict.

The document claims that Gross started his activities in Cuba in 2004 and was involved with organizations such as the Pan American Development Foundation, which were penetrated by Cuban intelligence and whose activities became the subjects of Cuban television shows.

Apparently, the evidence in the trial included Gross’ trip reports to his employer (the USAID contractor DAI) and much more. The court describes the defense attorney’s objection to the way in which information was downloaded from Gross’ flash drives when she was not present, and notes that Gross himself authenticated “the majority” of the downloaded documents and provided information about them. Gross apparently said that one document, entitled “How to communicate securely in repressive environments” was not his.

The document notes “the sworn statement of the wife of the accused, Judith Gross, of February 23 of this year, in which she explains the situation of her family and provides details on the presentation of a lawsuit against DAI.”

It cites testimony from a communications ministry official to the effect that Gross never applied for a permit “to establish satellite communications stations.”

It also cites a statement provided to the court by an attorney for DAI who declined to provide information in the investigation, citing a non-disclosure agreement.

When I read the whole thing, I’ll post more. Readers who plow through it are welcome to contribute. Café Fuerte’s story by Ivette Leyva is here. The sentencia itself, posted by Café Fuerte, is here (pdf).

(Image: Cuba’s customs declaration.)

Updates:

---See Along the Malecon for links with information on the Cuban intelligence agents who followed Gross' activities, and others'.

---A reader points out that I wrote that his I-pad was confiscated. My error. The document refers to ten I-pods.

---Credit where credit is due: A reader points out that if you click on the document's properties, it shows that it originated in the Office of Cuba Broadcasting.

---See the reader's comment on the “How to communicate securely in repressive environments” paper, which was apparently not written by Gross.