Cuba: 5 Billion Barrels of Undiscovered Oil

Companies looking for oil in Cuban waters. (Courtesy of Jorge R. Piñon, click on the picture to enlarge)

US delegates head to Cuba to discuss deepwater ambitions.

Oil spill commission co-chief Bill Reilly is heading to Cuba next week to help evaluate that country’s plans for developing its oil resources, Dow Jones Newswires has learned.

The trip represents an important development in a thorny situation that has U.S. lawmakers raising concerns about potential oil spills and oil experts pressing the Obama administration to grant exemptions under the decades-long embargo.

The trip, which will involve a delegation of U.S. oil-drilling experts and environmentalists, coincides with Cuba’s effort to develop its offshore oil resources as a way to wean itself off imports from Venezuela. U.S. officials believe Cuba’s waters could contain more than 5 billion barrels of undiscovered oil.

Cuba’s efforts to tap its offshore oil will get off the ground later this year, when a consortium led by Spanish company Repsol YPF S.A. (REPYY, REP.MC) is expected to begin drilling a well in more than 5,500 feet of water off the country’s northern coast. If Repsol finds oil, it could touch off a quick-moving race to set up production in Cuban waters.

The delegation to Cuba, involving the International Association of Drilling Contractors and the Environmental Defense Fund, is on a fact-finding mission to determine the country’s long-term plans for pursuing its oil resources and identify steps to ensure safety and environmental protection. They’re scheduled to depart Monday.

The process of oil drilling in thousands of feet of water is “inherently risky,” said Daniel Whittle, Cuba program director at the Environmental Defense Fund and a member of the delegation. “We believe it’s imperative that if and when Cuba drills, they get it right.”

Reilly, as co-head of President Barack Obama’s oil-spill commission, helped to draft a report earlier this year that recommended U.S. officials work with Cuba and Mexico to develop shared standards for drilling in the Gulf. The oil-spill commission ceased operations in March after completing its work.

Cuba’s effort to promote drilling in its waters is presenting a thorny situation for U.S. lawmakers, regulators and companies.

Among the loudest critics of Cuba’s plans are Gulf Coast lawmakers who are raising questions about the country’s ability to respond to oil spills and the risks of crude oil washing on U.S. shores. Rep. Vern Buchanan, a Florida Republican whose district faces the Gulf of Mexico, introduced a bill earlier this year to allow the Interior Secretary to deny U.S. oil exploration and development leases to companies that do business with Cuba.

“The United States is not going to see a drop of that oil,” said Max Goodman, a spokesman for Buchanan. “And we have learned from Deepwater Horizon that an oil spill can devastate a regional economy and pose long-term damage to our natural resources.”

Repsol will be drilling in waters that are deeper than those in which the Deepwater Horizon rig operated at the time it exploded last year. Repsol will be using a Chinese-built drilling rig that only recently left Singapore for Cuban waters. The rig is expected to arrive in November or December.

The rig, known as Scarabeo 9, was built to conform with the U.S. embargo and Repsol has said it will be following U.S. safety standards, Repsol representative Kristian Rix said.

“We are confident that we have the right personnel and materials to drill safely and successfully in the area,” Rix said.

If oil is discovered, Cuba has a greater chance of becoming less dependent on Venezuela for its energy needs. In 2009, the country produced roughly 50,000 barrels of oil a day from onshore and coastal wells, relying on imports to supply an additional 130,000 barrels to meet consumption levels, according to the Energy Information Administration.

Given the risks of an oil spill, oil and natural gas experts are urging the Obama administration to grant exemptions under the embargo to allow U.S. companies and experts to respond to a disaster. U.S. companies, such as Helix Energy Solutions, have been particularly aggressive in developing oil spill containment systems in the wake of the BP Plc (BP, BP.LN) spill.

Allowing U.S. companies and experts to respond to a Cuban spill would be in the U.S.’s best interest, given the proximity of the drilling to U.S. shores, said Jorge Pinon, former president of Amoco Oil Latin America and visiting research fellow at Florida International University.

“There is an experienced company doing the work [in Cuba]” Pinon said. “What we’re lacking is, in the case of an emergency, Repsol and the other operators will not be able to access the resources” in the U.S.

By Tennille Tracy
Source: gCaptain

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A conversation with a Cuban telecommunication engineer

I asked for input and test runs from people in Cuba in a recent post, and I've had an interesting email conversation with a telecommunication engineer who says he has never worked in that field. He asked me not to share his name or email address.

We talked about Internet access. He says only foreign people with permanent resident visas, foreign students, and business with foreign capital can get Internet accounts, and that those dial up accounts have all ports open.

Enterprises throughout the country can get DSL connections, but they are limited to Web (HTTP) applications. He has also heard rumors that pro-government bloggers get DSL connections.

He told me that Cubans are not allowed to connect to the Internet from their homes so they pay an illegal fee of 1.50 to 2.00 CUC per hour to buy time from foreign students and others who have dial-up accounts. (One CUC = US$1.08 and the average wage is 20 CUC per month).

It is legal to buy a WiFi card (if you can find one in stock) and connect at one of a few hotels in Havana or Varadero with WiFi connectivity. They charge 8 CUC per hour for access to a 128 kb/s link that is shared by all of the hotel users at the time. The second legal option is to go to a Cyber-Café or hotel which charges 2 CUC for 15 minutes of access to PC with "veeery slow" connectivity.

Education centers like universities and medical schools are connected by fiber. Within the organizations they have 100 mb/s LANs behind NATs. He recalls a time when the university he attended (I won't say which one) had only 512 kb/s connectivity for approximately 1,000 PCs. That was eventually stepped up to 2 mb/s.

He is on point-to-point Ethernet connection to enet.cu, and is able to trace the route from his dial-up connection to Google via a Newcom International satellite link. Average ping time to Google was 683 ms. Ping times to other machines at enet.cu averaged 110 ms.

He did not want to run many tests, because he feared surveillance by CuCERT. Like their counterparts in other nations, CuCERT is charged with responding to network security incidents, but he characterizes them as being like "cyber-cops, who can enter your house, pick up your HDs and walk away without previous notification."

(I tried to reach cucert.cu, but could not from the US -- not sure if it is blocked or down or both).

He gave me the IP address of a university server that was running network monitoring software. I could see graphs of traffic on the links to the university, the internal Ethernet LAN, temperature, and disk utilization on several servers. I could also reach the help desk, but resisted the urge to submit a help desk ticket request :-). You see a sample traffic graph above (click on it to enlarge it). The green line is incoming traffic and the blue outgoing. As you see, the 2 mb/s link is pretty well saturated -- surfing must be slow.

It feels cool to see the graphs, and I bet they would be upset to know that they were visible, but they are not of much practical value except to the network administrators at that university. If one could get similar statistics from all Cuban universities, one could begin to stitch together a picture of the backbone networks.

He also confirmed that bootleg satellite TV from the US is common and found in almost all parts of the country. People buy a satellite receiver from a local supplier who gets an account from the US. Some of those people sell service to their neighbors using coaxial cable, although he thinks that activity is decreasing after several antenna seizures. The service costs around 10 CUC per month, and the viewers cannot change channels themselves.

There are "muyyyy" few people with HughesNet Internet links, and they are heavily prosecuted and can go to jail if caught. He said WiFi is everywhere, and is mainly used to share music and videos and play games. He said the government is concerned about that, but I don't understand why since WiFi is local, and I doubt that they are concerned with copyright violation on the music and video :-).

We talked a bit about the Alan Gross case. He thinks the trial and sentence were for political reasons, and the government hopes to do a prisoner exchange. Gross got a long sentence, but a Cuban could get 3-5 years for having a satellite link to the Internet. He said there are some people with satellite connection who provide service to others using WiFi access points and repeaters and homemade antennae, but, as mentioned above, that is risky business.

If you are in Cuba, how does your experience compare to what I've just described?

Larry Press
 
From: The Internet in Cuba

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Recalling Tiananmen in Cuba

Tiananmen Square, June 4, 1989.

Praises of Chinese socialism have appeared with greater frequency in the Cuban press over the last few years.

The city buses that cruise the capital, the merchandise sold in hard-currency stores and the modern cars driven by military officers and state leaders are virtually all produced in China.

The media reports to us ordinary Cubans about the relations that are being established between the government of our country and that of the Asian giant.

These small details were enough to allow predictions on how the Cuban media would cover the actions that were commemorated around the world on June 4.

Twenty-two years have passed since the events of Tiananmen Square yet we can still note an embarrassing silence here on the island.

The Communist Party of Cuba (though I would prefer to be mistaken) seconded the position of the Chinese Communist Party (PCCh) in treating what happened in that plaza as an “inappropriate” issue.

Because of this, millions of Cubans went along with that assessment without knowing the true position of the government and party in China, which has become an economic partner with Cuba.

On June 4, 1989, that now world-famous square was the witness of a massacre where even today it’s impossible to conclude the true toll of the dead and wounded.

The Chinese government gave the order to dissolve a demonstration of an estimated hundred thousand protesters, the majority students and workers.

The method used for putting an end to the protest: armed soldiers and tanks.

At Tiananmen Square the demonstrators requested the removal of corrupt rulers, freedom of the press, freedom of expression and free association, the end of the layoffs in factories and inflation, among other demands.

The method used for protesting was the hunger strike.

The only response given was a hail of bullets.

China just signed a letter of intent to redo a Cuban oil refinery. Business is business even for"communists"

The demonstrators were branded as counter-revolutionaries, criminals or agent provocateurs of the Western capitalist governments.

On several occasions those who were protesting sang the words of The International, recognized as the hymn of communism.
From this fact one could conclude that they were not aiming to renounce socialism.

But that wasn’t enough, as orders were given to squeeze the triggers.

Remembering the events in Tiananmen is a duty of all those on the left who are fighting against bureaucratic and totalitarian regimes around the world – those structures of individuals who attempt to smother people’s participation and leadership by perpetuating themselves in power at whatever the cost.

Daisy Valera  

Source: Havana Times

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Has Cuba Lost its Last Chance?

Raúl Castro’s consolidation of his position as successor to his brother Fidel confirms that his Cuba will give the military domestic hegemony, which makes any serious political or economic opening in the near future seemingly impossible. The Cuban Communist Party’s recent Sixth Congress reflected this, offering little new and rehashing a lot of the old.

Since ill health forced Fidel Castro to retire from Cuba’s leadership, Raúl has opened the doors to the military and pushed out even those civilians who had been his brother’s trusted associates. While Fidel wrote doctrinaire articles in the official press, the armed forces took over politics and production. Fidel’s appearance at the Party’s congress – an event full of political significance, because he has only rarely participated in public events since becoming sick in 2006 – seemed to confirm his support for this outcome.

We now know that the congress had been put off for 14 years, owing to deep divisions among Cuban leaders. The civilian group that was ousted wanted to adapt the “Chinese model” of gradual economic reforms initiated by the Party. Raúl and his military cronies, however, cornered Fidel and imposed their group’s criteria.

In Asian communism – as practiced in China and Vietnam, in particular – the Party leadership rotates periodically, and a civilian leadership controls the military. Systemic nepotism in the top political and military leadership exists only in North Korea.

By contrast, Cuba’s new Raúlist political structure takes its inspiration from the purest tradition of Latin American military caudillismo, using communist ideology pragmatically. The model is clearly revealed in the nature of Raúl’s proposed reforms. The economy’s most dynamic industries – namely, mining and tourism – are reserved for the military, which manages them in a business-like, profit-seeking way.

Only in these privileged sectors can some reforms be seen. The “new class” that populates them does not demonize foreign capital. Indeed, there are talks centered on debt, with some creditors interested in the mechanics of capitalization.

For the rest of the economy, the Party’s position recalls the famous line from Lampedusa’s Il Gattopardo (The Leopard): something must change so that everything else can remain the same. The sale of buildings and vehicles will be legalized and self-employment authorized, mainly in the service sector. But, lacking capital and forced to pay taxes, what fate awaits industries driven by the state into the market?

Nearly 1.5 million Cubans will never have a stake in the industries controlled by the military bourgeoisie. Nor was the issue of land ownership resolved: only a few plots will be leased in some form.

As a result, Cuba will continue to import a lot of food, most of it at a price that the population cannot afford. Moreover, ordinary Cubans fear that their ration cards – their only means of getting food – will be canceled. Indeed, according to Raúl, the state-controlled food-rationing system is a “factor of immobility,” but no one knows what might replace it.

The Sixth Congress ignored questions of human rights. Neither freedom of the press nor access to information was on the agenda, and the opposition will continue to be ignored, its only options being conditional freedom or exile. Migration, an option financed by remittances from relatives in the United States, was not made any more flexible, either.

When the Soviet Union collapsed, many believed that the Cuban regime would take the road to reform, however grudgingly. But the democratic transitions in Eastern Europe made Fidel Castro wary, so the first opportunity for a similar transition in Cuba was lost. Now an opportunity to introduce young blood and new ideas has similarly been missed: although the Sixth Congress adopted a ten-year limit for holding office, the two people designated to succeed Raúl Castro are both octogenarians.

In the 1980’s, Deng Xiaoping warned that China would collapse if it didn’t change; Raúl has said the same thing. But Deng chose real reform and real change, appealing to overseas Chinese, whom the Party had demonized for many years, to bet on the country’s future and invest. The diaspora listened – the beginning and the secret of the reforms that put China on the path to its current economic success.

Cuba cannot remain isolated, dependent on Venezuelan petrodollars and penalized by America’s ill-conceived trade embargo. Any realistic agenda for change in Cuba inexorably requires opening up to the world, along with ensuring full freedom within the country. Unfortunately, the Sixth Congress demonstrated that the Cuban Communist Party remains in denial about the country’s prospects and options.

Carlos Perez Llana

Source: The Guatemala Times

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Czech MEP meets dissidents in Cuba

Last week, twenty members of the Ladies in White were heckled for several hours by government supporters, who kept them encircled in the area. Surrounding streets were blocked off, and two ambulances and several police cars were stationed nearby.

The atmosphere in Cuba is like a pressure cooker that can explode at any time, Cuban dissident Guillermo Farinas told Czech MEP Edvard Kozusnik, who met him briefly after his release from prison last week, Kozusnik said in a report he sent to CTK last Sunday.

Last year, Kozusnik successfully nominated Farinas for the Sakharov Human Rights Prize.

The public opinion in Cuba is changing as the public increasingly connects economic problems with the existing regime, Farinas said.

Nowadays people speak about it publicly, which was absolutely unthinkable three years ago, he added.

Kozusnik came to Cuba to support the local opposition in its effort to change the Communist regime.

Earlier this week, Farinas was imprisoned for 36 hours, Cuban dissidents have said.

Another Cuban dissident Oswaldo Paya has warned that repressive forces are ready to take any steps in order to keep current Cuban Communist leaders in power.

Paya said Cuban opposition was preparing projects for the transformation of society in the direction of democratic free elections.

Kozusnik said Paya and others had collected the signatures of 40,000 Cubans for the support of the planned changes.

Kozusnik said the campaign was similar to the Czechoslovak Several Sentences petition, launched a few months before the Communist regime's fall in 1989.

Kozusnik gave the dissidents a symbolical chain of keys as a recollection of those that calmly rang the end of the Communist rule.

"I believe that Cubans will soon ring the end of the rule of arrogant despots, dysfunctional economy, demagoguery and hateful propaganda," Kozusnik said.

From the Czech experience:

Seeking Freedom Is a Learning Process

He has a degree in history, which he got only after the revolution of course.

In communist times he was only allowed to undertake a mechanical apprenticeship.

In literature he found a way to pass on principles of humanity and criticize injustice.

He belonged to the crowd of the youngest generation of Czech dissidents.

We are talking about Czech writer Petr Placák, alias Petr Zmrzlík.

[Jáchym Topol, Writer and Journalist]:

"Before 1989 Petr belonged to the active ones, to the activists, to those who fought. I think, that what he was doing or what we were doing, was built on Charter 77."

Placák issued two samizdat books.

As one of the closely watched dissidents, he was forced to write books under the pseudonym Petr Zmrzlík.

He became an inconvenience for the regime not only as a writer, but as an instigator of many activities against the totalitarian regime as well.

In 1988 he founded an organization "České děti" which issued leaflets and articles directed against the totalitarian regime.

[Jáchym Topol, Writer and Journalist]:

“I was one of the first members of the organization 'České děti.' And I can say that the thoughts and ideas coming from Petr’s head fell on fertile ground.”

As an editor-in-chief of the magazine “Babylon," Petr Placák is now guiding today’s young authors to learn the real values in society.

[Stanislav Skoda, Editor, Babylon Magazine]:

"We try to publish texts we write ourselves, they are about violations of freedom in the world, in Cuba, for example. I specialize mainly in Latin America as well as in China, in Burma and we’re just trying to find and point to the iniquities that are happening in a small town in the north of Czech Republic as well as in Beijing."

Placák first experienced the limiting of freedom in his childhood.

He was four years old when his native city Prague was occupied by the Red Army troops.

[Petr Placak, Writer]:

"Through the adults I understood that what was happening was horrible. And then it was increasing continuously. I mean the distance against the regime was more and more clear. And it still is actually getting clearer because when you read about it, you get more information. So it is a process that is still developing."

Petr Placák believes that people develop their opinions all their lives.

[Petr Placák, Writer]:

"When one is growing up, he is growing up in a way that he defines himself from his environment. Then of course, he is processing it further on but I think this is the fundamental of it when he is growing up."

Sources:  NTD News and Prague Dialy Monitor

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In Cuba, would soldiers pull the trigger on protesters?

Cuban police.

Nineteen eighty-nine was a good year for freedom. Only in China did the Communist Party crush the protesters who slowly took possession of Tiananmen Square from April 14 on. When the tanks and soldiers rolled in on June 3-4, there was hardly any concrete to be seen on the square. Up to 1,500 people were massacred.

Even so, Tiananmen left us an image of hope: the man who repeatedly blocked a tank while the soldier driving it never ran him over. Internet searches for “tank man” in China come up empty. One here will get you nearly nine million results. The man’s defiance and the soldier’s refusal to kill him still threaten the Chinese leadership.

In Eastern Europe, communist regimes fell like dominoes. Mikhail Gorbachev’s “Sinatra Doctrine” — Moscow would no longer intervene to prop them up — left the region’s communist leaders to fend for themselves. When citizens took to the streets, all but Romania’s Nicolae Ceausescu blinked rather than give the order to fire.

Cuba had its own 1989. In June, a group of military and state-security officers were arrested and tried for drug trafficking. Four were brought before firing squads. Perhaps these men were also involved in reform efforts. No matter, it is still crystal clear that the scandal bared a regime predicament.

Fidel Castro’s demand for unconditional elite loyalty required a high degree of tolerance for wide-ranging elite behavior. Whether or not he knew about the officers’ activities, full responsibility fell on his governance style. Havana, however, blamed a few bad apples even if two of the men executed — Gen. Arnaldo Ochoa and Colonel Antonio de la Guardia — had long been close to Castro.

Today we are witnessing young people in the Middle East march for freedom. Unlike Eastern Europe, however, Middle Eastern regimes sprung from within and, in that sense, are more akin to China. Autocracies in Egypt and Tunisia withered away with little bloodshed. Not so in Libya where Moammar Gadhafi has unleashed loyal troops, foreign mercenaries and air strikes against the people. Hundreds have already died and the regime no longer controls eastern Libya.

After 1989, Cuba was thought to be next. Bumper stickers proclaiming En el noventa, Fidel revienta! (In 1990, Fidel will burst!) were widely seen in Miami. George H.W. Bush thought freedom would come to Cuba under his watch. Castro, however, stood fast and survived to transfer power to Raúl in 2006.

Be that as it may, the elder Castro’s leadership style is still the heart of the matter. Fidel always preferred governing on his own than through even undemocratic institutions. It took Raúl Castro a while to put the house in order. Now he and his elderly cohorts are trapped.

On the one hand, the thought that they would be the ones to lose power keeps them awake at night. On the other, they are committed to saving Fidel’s legacy which is also their own. Still, Castro’s unwillingness to put the interests of ordinary Cubans at the center of his rule has made Raúl’s task all the harder. Too much time has been lost and the costs now are even steeper.

Cubans are facing layoffs to the tune of 1.8 million over four years. Though there are conflicting reports on whether the first round of 500,000 has even started in earnest, the mere announcement of layoffs suggests a new social contract. “You’re on your own,” the leadership is, in effect, saying.

What’s happening in Libya might be especially troubling for the Cuban leadership. Fidel Castro and Gadhafi once had close relations. We don’t know how much Cubans know about Libyan developments. Elites in the military, the state and the party, however, are well aware of the defections among their Libyan counterparts.

Would young Cubans be willing to risk the regime’s wrath by taking to the streets? Would the regime give the order to fire on them? Would the officers and soldiers pull the trigger? These aren’t idle questions. Incipient reforms are already shaking up Cuban society, and that’s the place to look for change.


Marifeli Perez-Stable

From: KansaCityStar

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Cuban dictatorship: Fidel Castro Is Not Augusto Pinochet

Castro with Pinochet in Chile, 1971

My essay "Fidel Castro is not Augusto Pinochet" is the traditional story of the Third World’s apathy towards the Cuban Dictatorship...For many reasons, I think that Castro is much worse dictator than Augusto Pinochet...

INTRODUCTION:
Since 1960 Fidel and Raul Castro have send a sinister example to Third World nations. The number of countries which democratically governed and respect human rights is decreasing since 2004. Today there are many dictatorships: Thailand [2006], Venezuela, Zimbabwe…


OPPOSITION BY ANTI-PINOCHET GROUPS
Miss Chile, Jenny Purtho Arap, was eliminated in the first round at the Miss Universe Pageant on July 26, 1982, in Lima, Peru’s capital city. Certainly, she, a girl with charming personality and beautiful eyes, was the big favorite by the international journalism. I think that Chile should have been crowned Miss Universe in my country. I believe that she was robbed of title for political reasons.

One of the major problems which Chilean dictatorship had to face was the international boycott campaign. From 1973 to 1989 Chile suffered international sanctions. Different from Cuba, many countries did not have diplomatic relations with Augusto Ramon Pinochet Ugarte, who ruled from 1973 to 1990. Many Chileans did not get VISA, an example was Claudio Arrau, one of the best pianists in the history. The same history of Israel, Taiwan, Rhodesia (currently Zimbabwe) and South Africa (Apartheid).

Ironically, The People’s Republic of China and Romania recognized the Chilean dictatorship. Under the leadership of Mao Tse-tung and Jiang Qing, First Lady of the Chinese Revolution, China and Chile had maintained good diplomatic relations. However, Pinochet Ugarte was harshly attacked by the USSR, Cuba, East Germany, Mexico, Sweden, Italy and Norway.

In 1980 Ferdinand Marcos, dictator of Philippines, invited Augusto Pinochet to come to his country. On March, 1980, he left Santiago de Chile for Philippines and made transit stops in Fidji, an ex British colony, and Tahiti. When Augusto Pinochet arrived Suva, the capital city of Fiji, a small country in the South Pacific, some human rights activists were waiting for him. There were protests against Chilean dictator’s visit. His tour had already begun when the tour was cancelled abruptly at the last moment by the dictatorship Ferdinand and Imelda Marcos.

1976: In the Davis Cup final match, the Chileans lost to Italy, but the team from Chile had a particularly difficult tournament. In Rome, a group of people blocked the entrance to stadium before the match between Chile and Italy, chanting: "Pinochet is a dictator"…"He is a genocide"…Pinochet is Hitler"…and "Pinochet is the worst dictator in the history". Certainly, Chile’s participation again became an issue.

Many famous people went to Festival Internacional de la Canción Viña del Mar, but they were criticized by human rights activists and journalists. Camilo Sesto, Spanish singer, was called "Camilochet". In July 1978, the Mexican government objected to the presence of Miss Chile, Marianne Muller, in the Miss Universe Pageant beauty in Acapulco, Mexico. Another example: Jorge Luis Borges was considered one of the best writers in the 20th Century. He was nominated several times for the Nobel Prize for Literature, but Borges was never awarded the Noble Prize by Swedish Academy. Why? In 1976 Argentinean writer Jorge Luis Borges visited Chile. Cuba would have wanted to have a writer like him…

The Chilean dictator Augusto Jose Ramon Pinochet never was accepted by the Latin America Community and Third World countries. Pinochet became notorious for human rights abuses and corruption. From 1973 to 1989, more than 3,000 Chileans were killed by Pinochet’s Secret Police Force. His autocratic and anti-communism style of rule earned him many enemies.

THE STUDENT SURPASS THE TEACHER
In comparison to Augusto Pinochet and Rafael Leonidas Trujillo Molina, Fidel Alejandro Castro Ruz, whose father was a Spanish immigrant, is not famous like dictator… He is called "Third World spokesman" Why? Unfortunately people that don’t know Cuba very much think that Castro is a "good man". Honestly, he never has been compared to Francois "Papa Doc" Duvalier, former dictator of Haiti, and Charles Taylord. "The student always surpass the teacher" is my favorite slogan. In my opinion, I think that Castro´s Communist dictatorship is worse than the former Chilean. Dictatorship.

Cuba is one of the few nations in the world in which a family controls the government. From 1960 to 2006 Fidel Castro was President of the Council of State and Council of Ministers, First Secretary of the Communist Party of Cuba…Currently, Raul Castro Ruz, Fidel’s brother, is the Head of State. They claim that Cuba has the most highest human development rate in the Third world and that Cubans live better in the Island than in South Korea, Singapore, Taiwan and India. During Cold War, Cuba received more money per capita than the Socialist Republic of Ethiopia, one of the most poorest nations on Earth.

The country’s resources are used to build Olympic projects devised by dictator’s megalomania. Cuba has one of the most highest suicide rates in the world and the Island has the highest number of abortions in Latin America in relation to its population. Ironically, the standard of human development is going down. Ultimately the prostitution is increasing alarmingly in the Island. The dictatorship restricts such liberties as freedom speech and freedom of the press. Under the socialism, the government has imposed sharp restrictions on artists who criticize the dictatorial system. Reports Without Borders considers Cuba one of the "15 enemies of the Internet". More than 300 artists and writers have defected since 1960: Jose Manuel Carbonell (poet), Lydia Cabrera (writer), Ernesto Caparros (photographer), Ernesto Lecuona (pianist), Guillermo Cabrera Infante (writer), Enrique Labrador (writer), Jesus Diaz (film maker) Nestor Almendros (film maker) and Jorge Esquivel (dancer).

KILLINGS FIELDS AND GAYS
Cuba’s dictatorship was one of the first states in the world that prohibited homosexuality. The general gays rights situation under Cuban Revolution was catastrophic during the 1960s, 1970s and 1980s.Many gays were jailed, tortured and exiled by Castro’s "Olympic Paradise"…Reynaldo Arenas, a gay writer, was imprisoned several times because of his longtime opposition to Cuban rule. After release, Arenas wrote his autobiography, with the title "Antes que anochezca" (Before night falls).

The Cuban Secret Police is extensively used by Fidel and Raul Castro to suppress and disrupt pro-democratics movements. However, a number of protests against human rights violation are organized by Las Damas de Blanco. Las Damas de Blanco have been compared to Las Madres de la Plaza de Mayo (Argentina), who fought against the dictator Jorge Rafael Videla.

Unfortunately, some Third World democracies support the Cuban government for economical reasons. Cuba has sent more than 6,000 doctors, coaches, technicians and teachers around the world. Furthermore there are 15,000 foreign students in the Island.

I would like to finish my essay "Fidel Castro is not Augusto Pinochet" with my favorite personal motto: "Only oppression should fear the full exercise of freedom" by Jose Marti.


By Alejandro Guevara Onofre

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-Roca, Sergio. Socialist Cuba: Past Interpretations and Future Challenges, Westview Press, London
-Rodriguez Elizondo, José. Crisis y Renovación de las Izquierdas, Editorial Andres Bello, Santiago, 1995
-Suchlicke, Jaime. The Cuban Military under Castro, University of Miami, Miami, 1989
-Taufic, Camilo. Chile en la Hoguera, Ediciones Corregidor, Buenos Aires, 1974
-The World Almanac and Book of Facts 1975-2006, The World Almanac Books, New York, New Jersey
-Vargas Llosa, Mario. "El Lenguaje de la Pasión", Peisa, Lima, 2000
-Zandrox. "Una de ellas puede ser Miss Universo", Extra, Lima, 26 de julio 1982 

From: Buzzle

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China company to lead $6B Cuba refinery update

Venezuela has already invested more than $1 billion at the Cienfuegos refinery according to the authorities.

Project will include refinery, LNG terminal

HAVANA - A unit of China National Petroleum Corp (CNPC) is set to begin in 2011 a $6-billion expansion project at Cuba's Cienfuegos refinery in one of the biggest investments ever on the communist-led island, a source close to the project said Monday.

The blockbuster deal will be financed mostly by China's Eximbank and backed by financial guarantees in the form of oil from Venezuela, Cuba's close socialist ally and leading trade partner, the source said.

State-owned CNPC's Haunqiu Contracting and Engineering Corp is expected to start the project in the first quarter with completion planned for the end of 2013.

The Italian unit of French oilfield service company Technip will do design and engineering for the project and assist in construction.

The expansion will increase the capacity of the Soviet era refinery 155 miles southeast of Havana to 150,000 barrels per day from 65,000.

But it will also include construction of a liquefied natural gas terminal with capacity to process 2 million tons of gas annually, and a 150 megawatt electricity generation plant.

"It is one of the biggest investments in the history of Cuba. It's a minimum of $4.5 billion just for the refinery and another $1.3 billion for the LNG terminal," an executive involved with the project told Reuters.

The expanded refinery could play an important role in processing Cuban oil if the island finds significant quantities of petroleum in its waters in the Gulf of Mexico.

Several companies are planning to sink exploratory wells off Cuba's northern coast starting next year.

The project greatly expands China's role in Cuba's energy sector, which, at least publicly, has been small. China is Cuba's No. 2 trade partner.

Beijing is assisting in production of oil along Cuba's northern coast and has leased an onshore block for exploration near Havana.

CHINESE FINANCING, VENEZUELAN GUARANTEES

The offshore drilling rig to be used in exploring Cuban waters next year has been under construction in China, but whether the Chinese government has had a role in that project is not known.

Although final details are still being negotiated by the governments of China and Venezuela, the source said about 85 per cent of the cost will be financed by China's Eximbank and secured by China Export & Credit Insurance Corp.

"But the investment is totally guaranteed by the Venezuelan government, through off-takes of PDVSA crude oil," said the source.

The Cienfuegos refinery, operated by state-owned CubaPetroleo and state-owned Petroleos de Venezuela (PDVSA), has been the centrepiece of the strategic alliance between Cuba and Venezuela.

The refinery was built during the Soviet era, but never operated until it was activated in 2007 after Venezuela helped refurbish its antiquated facilities to process part of the 115,000 barrels a day that Venezuela sends to Cuba at preferential terms.

The most recent official figures showed Cienfuegos was producing about 55,000 barrels per day of oil products.

Refinery expansion will become important for Cuba if significant offshore oilfields are found in its waters, and the Cienfuegos project is being done with that in mind.


"The expansion of the refinery is tied to the exploration in the Gulf of Mexico," the source said.

The U.S. Geological Survey has estimated Cuba has about 5 billion barrels of oil and 10 trillion cubic feet of gas offshore, but Cuba says it could have at least 20 billion barrels of oil.

A consortium led by Spanish oil firm Repsol YPF is planning to drill an exploration well next year, as is Malaysia's Petronas in conjunction with new partner, Russian firm Gazprom.

Other oil companies such as Brazil's Petrobras, ONGC Videsh, a unit of India's Oil and Natural Gas Corp, PDVSA, PetroVietnam and Russia's Zarubezhneft have exploration leases in Cuban waters, with plans to develop them.

Oil expert Jorge Pinon at Florida International University in Miami said Cuba has been installing oil storage tanks in Matanzas along the northern coast and reconstructing a pipeline that runs from there to Cienfuegos.

"The pieces of the puzzle are falling into place," he said.

By Esteban Israel, Reuters

From:  Calgary Herald

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Raúl the pragmatist

Am I in charge now?

Shortly after he took charge of Cuba from his ailing brother, Fidel, in 2006, Raúl Castro declared that his country’s moribund communist economy needed to change. But his failure to make anything more than marginal adjustments disappointed hopes that he would follow Chinese and Vietnamese communist leaders in combining capitalist economics and growing social freedom with continued party control.

Now, at last, Mr Castro is showing signs of boldness. Over the past few weeks he has launched some potentially far-reaching changes. By April 1, 500,000 Cubans will be laid off from their state jobs and encouraged to make their own living in small businesses. Over the next two or three years, another 800,000 are likely to join them. Eventually up to two Cubans in five will no longer work for the state.

This week Mr Castro convened a much-postponed Congress of the Communist Party for late April: its job will be to bless the new economic model. Meanwhile, the government has released more than 50 political prisoners. Two decades after the fall of the Berlin Wall, is Cuban communism finally on the way out?

Any answer must be hedged about with caveats. The economists advising Mr Castro are barred from talking of “reform”. In its guidelines for the party congress, the leadership declares that “only socialism [ie, communism] is capable of overcoming our difficulties and preserving the gains of the revolution” and that in the new economy “planning will be paramount, not the market.” No Cuban official has matched Deng Xiaoping’s embrace of “market socialism”, let alone his (perhaps apocryphal) injunction that “to get rich is glorious”. The welcome release of prisoners seems merely to have been a move to deflect outside criticism after the death of one of them in a hunger strike, rather than a first step in dismantling the island’s police state. Indeed the army is playing a bigger role in the economy and in government.

Yet Raúl’s reforms go much further than Fidel’s reluctant acceptance of foreign investment and limited self-employment after the collapse of the Soviet Union, partially reversed on the appearance of a new benefactor, Hugo Chávez’s Venezuela. For the first time since the 1960s Cubans will be able to employ other Cubans (even though the constitution bans such “exploitation”). Many of the rules under which these new businesses will operate are still being drawn up. But it seems that Cubans will now be able to get loans and rent and buy property. Other changes are likely to follow. Mr Castro talks of gradually eliminating the free food rations that Cubans get, and moving towards targeted social assistance (as elsewhere in Latin America). The corollary is that wages will have to go up — and increasingly they will be set in the market.

In all this Mr Castro is bowing to reality. He has been withering in his criticism of the featherbedding that has bankrupted the state. He has also refused to blame the American economic embargo for problems which he rightly says are self-inflicted. His pragmatism has finally won out against his brother’s doctrinaire Utopianism.

Apart from the economy, the other big task facing Mr Castro, who is 79 (and Fidel 84), is to start handing over power to a younger generation. That may come after the party congress next year. In the meantime, his new boldness represents an opportunity for those who hope that Cuba will eventually join the rest of Latin America in accepting democracy and the market economy, for once the market’s green shoots appear they tend to flourish.

How to help kill communism

Outsiders should take their lead from the common position that Europe adopted in 1996, which allows it to help in “the progressive and irreversible opening of the Cuban economy” while predicating closer friendship on moves towards democracy. Offering training and credit — as Brazil has done — to Cuba’s incipient private sector would be a good move. Rewarding Cuba for releasing prisoners who should never have been locked up in the first place — as Miguel Moratinos, Spain’s recently sacked foreign minister, wanted — would not.

America’s embargo remains as futile and counter-productive as ever. Although Barack Obama has commendably reversed George W. Bush’s restrictions on visits and remittances by Cuban-Americans, Republican control of Congress will make it even less likely that the embargo will be dismantled. That’s a great shame. The embargo has allowed the Castros to pose as proud Cuban nationalists standing up to a bullying hegemon and thus helped them cling to power. If change is at last under way it is despite the embargo, not because of it.

From: Indian Express

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Capitalism sees new birth in Cuba

Capitalism Vs Socialism. Who wins?

The dominos stopped falling at Cuba. When the Soviet Union collapsed, capitalism was in the ascendance, but it didn’t reach as far as Cuba. And that brings us to an irony. On the eve of the credit crunch, when some argued capitalism was dying, it seems Cuba is at last embracing the profit motive as a way to kick life into the economy.

In 1992, soon after the Soviet Union collapsed, the author Francis Fukuyama penned the book “The End of History and the Last Man”. In essence, he argued that capitalism had won, and that moving forward there would be one economic and political system, hence the description “the end of history”.

Then in 2008 and 2009, when some argued capitalism itself was tottering, many dusted off their old copy of Fukuyama’s book and argued instead we were seeing the end of capitalism.

And yet, through it all, Cuba remained steadfast in its communist ways. In the land of cigars there is one wage – at least in theory. In theory, there are no wealthy or poor people. Instead, everyone has the same, which in practice means just about everyone is poor, with a few privileged exceptions.

But not even Cuba is immune to the harsh economic times. It has no choice but to cut 500,000 jobs. It’s a disaster in Cuba, and brings with it the risk of total disenchantment with the economic system.

But the government has responded by allowing Cubans to work for themselves in 178 categories. And in no less than 83 categories they will be allowed to employ non-family members.

And so it is that the genie that is the profit motive, is out of the lamp.

But which way next?

Clearly Cuba will not want to go the way of the Soviet Union. Not only will words like Perestroika and Glasnost, which mean openness and transparency, be taboo, but so will the spirit that these words conjure up.

Instead, Cuba will try and go down the Chinese route.

But Cuba differs from China in one important respect. For the island of the Caribbean has one rather large and distrustful neighbour separated by a bit of water. How this story will pan out will be truly fascinating.

From: Investment & Business News

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FARC commander 'Mono Jojoy' killed. Chavez and Castro losing terrain in Latin America

Jorge Briceño "Mono Jojoy" (right) with Manuel Marulanda Velez "Tirofijo" (killed 2 years ago)

The FARC's military chief, Victor Julio Suarez Rojas, alias "Mono Jojoy," was killed by Colombian state forces, local media reported on Thursday. The news is not yet confirmed by the authorities.

According to the media sources, the leader of the FARC's Eastern Bloc and member of the FARC's Secretariat was killed in an air strike in La Macarena in central Colombia.

Caracol Radio said a military source confirmed the guerrilla leader's death. RCN Radio also said it had had the news confirmed. According to W Radio, Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos would not confirm the news.

Mono Jojoy, also known as "Jorge Briceño Suárez," was allegedly the boss of virtually all guerrillas involved in the rebel's war with the state.

Mono Jojoy was considered the military leader of the country's largest guerrilla organization and responsible for holding hostage captured politicians, policemen and soldiers. The veteran guerrilla had a $1.3 million reward on his head and 62 arrest warrants against him.

From: Colombia Reports 

Video - CNN reports

And this is the last part of an interesting article related: The end of the colombian FARC is near.

...It is a fact that the colombian have been successfull in fighting the FARC. The main leaders are dead (Marulanda and Reyes) , in jail , out of the country or on the run ( Mono Jojoy).

The FARC have been defeated in several encounters with the colombian military, and there is a certain possibility that the remaining FARC leader still on the field , alias Mono Jojoy, will sucumb. That if he does not manage to escape through Venezuela or Ecuador.

What will happen with the defeat of the FARC? War, says Chavez. I do not think so.

There is a possibility that the remaining guerrillas will try to survive by using the borders of Venezuela and Ecuador. That will regionalize the conflict and would oblige Chavez and Correa to make a decission. They must be very clear in the definition of which side they will be. The end of Gral. Noriega should be a reminder for those statesmen playing with fire.

The weakening of the FARC will cause that the production of cocain in the region will be reduced -for a while- , and the structure of the production and distribution of narcotics in the region will change.

However, there are more players in the field. Hidden players. Very significant players. Russia and Cuba.

Hugo Chavez, Fidel Castro and Evo Morales

Why Cuba? Fidel Castro’s inheritance is to make sure that four or five “pro castrist” leaders in Latin America will remain in power after his death, like Chavez, Correa, Morales, Ortega. He is giving them all his dictatorial know how, specially in the case of Chavez. The ideologist of the “bolivarian” associaton of ALBA is not Chavez , but Fidel Castro. The “Comandante” wants to make it very difficult for the United States in Latin America. He wants also disciples like Chavez to carry on his message. That will be his legacy to the world.

He is not longer interested in the faith of the cuban people. His brother Raul is now the administrator of Cuba. Raul does the homework and Fidel supervise his brother. Fidel is much more interested in saving his place in history. He said once “the history will judge me”, but he wants to be sure that the history will judge him well. The defeat of the FARC will be a setback for Fidel’s ´political plans, because it will push Chavez and Correa in the corner of the political ringside in Latin America.

So, Fidel and Chavez will do everything to stop Colombia and USA from defeating the FARC.

Why Russia? Vladimir Putin and his “mob style” surrounding of oligarchs and former KGB agents wants to recover influence in former soviet republics like f.e. Georgia and Ukraine. Russia want also to stop the expansion of the US in Eastern Europe and Central Asia. One way for Russia to do so is to start playing geopolitics in the region considered by USA as its own backyard: Latin America. As a consequence of that, the military presence of Russia in Venezuela is getting important and will be expanded.

Russia sees with good eyes the increasing economical presence of China in the region.

Maybe Russia wants to force USA to make a trade, similar to the agreements between Kruschev and Kennedy (no nukes in Cuba, no nukes in Turkey).. In this case could be Chavez in exchange for Mikheil Saakashvili or Viktor Yushchenko.

Finally, it is a fact that the expansion of the presence of US military in Colombia is the most important geopolitical move of USA in the last years in order to recover the lost influence of the US in Latin America....

The US objectives are: to defeat the FARC, to reduce the production and distribution of illegal narcotics to the US, to support Colombia as his first ally in South America, to weaken Chavez and his gang, to assure that the history will judge Fidel in a proper way and finally to deal with Russia and China on a more global scope.

Latin America is in fashion now. The big global players are there, once again.. for old times sake. Same tune, thirty years after. Play it again, Sam…

24/09/2010 - Death of El "Mono Jojoy" finally confirmed, the Colombian Government revealed a picture of the body

Last picture of El "Mono Jojoy"

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