Mariela Castro

Mariela Castro Espín, the daughter of Cuban President Raúl Castro, is scheduled to speak at an academic conference in San Francisco on May 24, Heritage Foundation blog The Foundry first reported.

The Latin American Studies Association (LASA) played her participation at the large annual conference very low-key.

Her participation as chair of a panel on “A View on Sexual Diversity from a Political Angle” appeared in a small entry on page 22 of the 127-page program. Mariela Castro, 50, head of the Centro Nacional de Educación Sexual (Cenesex) in Havana, is scheduled to talk about “Sexual education as state policy in Cuba.” She will share the panel with a Cuban researcher from Cenesex, and a Mexican expert.

Mariela Castro, who is married to Italian photographer Paolo Titolo and has two children with him, has published 13 scholarly articles and nine books.

A LASA official confirmed to The Foundry that Castro is scheduled to appear in person.

Mariela Castro, who has taken the lead in demanding rights for gay and transgender Cubans, would probably be the first member of the Castro family that is in line with politics on the island to obtain a U.S. visa. Cenesex is part of the Cuban ministry of public health.

Already, anti-Castro organizations and blogs have reacted furiously to the prospect.

A presidential proclamation issued under Ronald Reagan bars entry to the United States to “officers or employees of the Government of Cuba or the Communist Party of Cuba.” But it also grants the Department of State the right to waive the prohibition.

The French company chose the name Havanista.

On the day it learned the U.S. Supreme Court refused to reconsider the decision to strip Pernod Ricard and its Cuban joint venture partner of the Havana Club trademark, the Paris-based liquor giant announced it will activate the Havanista brand once the U.S. embargo ends.

“Produced and bottled in Cuba, Havanista is a premium Cuban rum specifically aimed at the U.S market, which will be launched if the embargo is lifted,” the company said in a press release. “It will benefit from the same high-level production processes and quality requirements as the Havana Club range.”

Citing an obscure law — which competitor Bacardi had managed to insert into a budget bill in 1999 — a Washington appeals court last year blocked Pernod Ricard from renewing the Havana Club trademark registration in the U.S. after 35 years.

Section 211, which prohibits the recognition of Cuban trademarks that had been nationalized after the 1959 revolution, has been condemned by the World Trade Organization and the U.S Chamber of Commerce.

Pernod Ricard emphasized in a press release that the decision of the Supreme Court does not confer any right to the Havana Club trademark to a competitor.

Pernod Ricard is the worldwide marketer of Havana Club rum, in a joint venture with state company Corporación Cuba Ron. The Spanish high court last year rejected a similar challenge by Bacardi.

Havana Club sales have grown ten-fold during the past 18 years and should reach 4 million cases this year, according to Pernod Ricard.

Due mainly to declining sales in Cuba, Spain and Italy, sales of Havana Club rum stagnated during the first half of the 2011-12 financial year. During the first quarter, the number of cases sold had edged up 1 percent, but revenues declined 2 percent. The price/mix indicator for Havana Club decreased 3 percent, the largest decline of any Pernod Ricard brand in the quarter.

The stagnation comes after robust growth in 2010-11. Before the global financial crisis in 2008, Havana Club was one of the fastest-growing brands in Pernod Ricard’s stable.

Courtesy U.S. courts: The Cuban rum soon to be known as "Havanista"

jpalli@wwti.net

In 2011, about this same time of the year, the expectation about impending changes in the way Cuba regulated property rights was in crescendo. I was invited to participate in a panel at the Association for the Study of the Cuban Economy (ASCE) conference in early August to discuss those changes, which, we all assumed, would be “revealed” by the time the conference took place. They were not, and I ended up writing (in Spanish, sorry) and discussing the topic of property rights in Cuba from a historical perspective, since all I could say about the coming “changes” was little more than speculation.

As it turned out, the “changes” — when they did come in October 2011 — were lesser than our over-built expectations led us to foretell they would be. They entailed no more than an adjustment to Cuba’s socialist model, specifically to that part of the model that regulates how Cuba’s citizens’ constitutionally guaranteed rights to housing are implemented.     

Today, a similar effervescence is noticeable about two “coming” changes. Maybe this time around we should tone down our expectations, beginning by calling them “adjustments”, for once following Cuba’s cue- on two other legal institutions: The type of business organizations we call cooperatives (cooperativas) and “superficiary” rights (derechos de superficie).

Not surprisingly, both these legal concepts, cooperatives and “superficie” rights, are a wise choice for someone bent on preserving  — even if adjusting — a socio-economic model like the one Cuba has had for the past 50-some years. But before we greet those “changes,” if and when they happen, with the usual Miamian emotional dismissive reaction (“they are not changes at all”, or “they are not enough”, or “they are just more of the same communist claptrap”), maybe we should try to learn a little more about them.

A true production cooperative association (cooperativa de producción) is an entity that gives its workers or members a real input in the productive process and an ownership interest in the benefits realized and accumulated by the entity. A cooperative association presumes a level of independence — from the government, but also from the pressures of unfair competitors, and it is the government’s task to preserve such fairness in many cases — that many of us may doubt will ever be available under Cuba’s present rulers.

In fact, ownership by the workers/members may not presently be in the cards for Cuba, where the government may opt for a system whereby today’s state-owned businesses will remain so and be rented out to cooperatives formed by Cuban workers/members. We simply do not know yet. But even in this last scenario, this “adjustment” may prove valuable in the long term, if we can visualize the impact it may have in the Cuba of the future (can we?).

In a society where the capitalist market model rules, anything a business does that is not directly or indirectly aimed at maximizing profits seems illogical, even senseless. A cooperative association grounded on motives and/or goals aimed at cooperating with others, not just for the sake of profits but in pursuit of solidarity as well, by people who see the cooperative as a means to simply improve the participants quality of life, not to get as rich as they can get, sounds illogical to us in the United States, but it could make sense to, and be found attractive by, many among the 11 million Cubans in the island.

Even if most of these Cubans in the island — or all of them, as some of my neighbors seem to think — may be sick and tired of a Revolution that has outlived its shelf life, that does not necessarily mean that they will be ready to swear by the Austrian School of Economics gospel, as some people Stateside seem to believe they will. Chances are that many Cubans will look at what “the World according to Hayek” has done to health services, housing and education, three daily life concerns for us but which Cubans have, for years now, been able to take for granted  — even if with ups and downs in quality —, and which are becoming inaccessible for an ever growing number of us citizens of the free world, whether we live in Spain, in France or in the United States.

For instance, Cubans, faced with the possibility of paying high rental prices for housing units such as some depicted in a Miami Herald series (the units look no better than those in Cuba pictured often in the same newspaper as evidence of the hell-holes Cubans must endure) may simply say “no way.” And I, for one, do not believe the contention that what Miami renters pay monthly for their hell-holes  ($800 and more) is justified by “the market” will sway Cubans from their natural rejection.

Or take education. I recently asked a very bright young lawyer trained in Cuba what he had to pay to become a lawyer (zippo), and how it compares with the level of indebtedness he needs to incur for his education and accreditation as a lawyer in the United States, something he is now boldly striving to accomplish. 

Another young and accomplished lawyer, this one from Argentina, who recently obtained an LLM from a law school in Miami, tells me that, if health care and its costs back home in Buenos Aires were to be handled the way they are among us in the United States, people would be rioting in the streets.   

 An economic system based on diverse types of cooperative associations may be a viable alternative for Cubans to explore in order to fulfill those three other daily life concerns we in Miami often amusedly say the Cuban Revolution lacks an answer for: breakfast, lunch and dinner.

My next entries in this column will try to identify the key elements in cooperatives and “superficie” rights we may realistically expect to see in Cuba’s coming adjustments to those legal institutions.

José Manuel Pallí is a Cuban-born member of the Florida Bar, originally trained as a lawyer in Argentina. He is president of Miami-based World Wide Title

According to Korean foreign ministry officials, the visit was requested by Cuba.

The agenda of the five-day trip includes meetings with Korean government officials and the Korea Trade-Investment Promotion Agency (KOTRA), and visits at Hyundai Engineering & Construction, automobile manufacturer Hyundai Motor, and automotive component manufacturer Hyundai Mobis.

Hyundai Engineering & Construction specializes in the construction of oil- and gas-related industrial plants, power and desalination plants. In an ambitious, partly Chinese-financed plan, Cuba and Venezuela are jointly developing the island’s refining and petrochemical infrastructure.

The four-member Cuban delegation in Korea is led by Noel Vázquez Pérez, director general in the Ministry of Foreign Trade and Investment, and includes state company executives. The two countries have had no diplomatic relations since Cuba broke off with South Korea in 1959 and established close links with North Korea instead. Even so, KOTRA opened an office in Havana in 2005.

Bilateral trade amounts to some $300 million a year; one of the biggest South Korean players in Cuba has been Ulsan-based Hyundai Heavy Industries Co. Ltd., which sold hundreds of millions of dollars worth of packaged power stations to the island since 2005. Hyundai fuel-oil generators are not only running in Cuba, but Cuban and Korean engineers have installed them in Venezuela, Ecuador and Nicaragua as well.

Hyundai Engineering project in Iran

Details of the purchase were not disclosed. Cuban and Belarus officials, according to press reports, have negotiated assembly of MTZ tractors on the island.

MTZ is currently building an assembly plant in Venezuela, with a capacity of 10,000 tractors per year. Some of the production in Venezuela will eventually be sold in other Latin American markets, a MTZ official told Prensa Latina.

Cuba’s relationship with the state-owned company dates back to the Soviet era.

Cuba will buy MTZ’s 1523 model, a mid-range product with 150 horsepower and an air conditioned cabin.  MTZ officials told Prensa Latina that the Cuban purchase will not be affected by EU sanctions. Belarus is subject to economic sanctions from the European Union. 

MTZ 1523 Photo: Gabinho

No details about the project or funding were released. If previous history is an indicator, the funding is in the shape of a low-interest loan.

Kuwait has previously funded water rehabilitation projects in Santiago de Cuba and Holguín. In 2003, KFAED granted Cuba a $10 million loan for the $100 million Santiago project. In 2009, KFAED granted a $15.3 million loan for the $40 million renovation of the water system in the city of Holguín; this project is still ongoing.

KFAED’s average loan period is 22 years, with an average grace period of four years, and an average interest rate (including service charge) of 3.2 percent annually, according to the agency’s 2011 financial report.

The new agreement was signed by Abdulwahab Al-Bader, general director of the Kuwait Fund, and Foreign Trade Minister Rodrigo Malmierca.

Kuwait opened an embassy in Havana in 2010.

Investigators told the Miami Herald the fire was “deliberate;” the case is under investigation by the FBI and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms.

“It’s not that it’s burned. It’s pulverized,” Vivian Mannerud, owner of Airlines Brokers Co., said about her offices, according to Channel 10 news in Miami. “All I know is that I have never seen a fire do pulverize things. I’ve seen it in pictures of the atomic bomb in Hiroshima.”

According to the Miami Herald, one of the FBI agents interviewing Mannerud is a member of a South Florida counter-terrorism task force.

Mannerud’s profile has been high recently, as her company expanded beyond Miami, offering flights from Fort Lauderdale and Tampa, and shuttling hundreds of U.S. pilgrims to the papal visit in Cuba in late March. The Archdiocese of Miami hired Airline Brokers to transport 300 people from South Florida to the island.

Mannerud says she will rebuild. Photo:WSVN-TV

Mannerud told Channel 10 that she will rebuild the company, which was started by her father in 1982. She said she is not giving up on what she does, and she believes in providing those charter flights to Cuba, according to WSVN-TV Channel 7.

Federal and state investigators with dogs trained to sniff out accelerant arrived on the scene around noon, WSVN reported. Just before noon, the dogs sat down in two different spots, indicating they found something. No official announcements about the investigation have been made.

Fire bombings against Cuba-related businesses and attacks against people deemed close to Cuba were notorious in Miami throughout the 1970s and 80s. The number of terrorist attacks declined during the 1990s; in one of the most recent incidents, the Archdiocese of Miami received bomb threats when Pope John Paul II visited Cuba in 1998.

As investigators were sifting through the gutted Airline Broker office, Florida Gov. Rick Scott appeared on an anti-Castro talk radio program in Miami, announcing he will sign a controversial bill on Tuesday that would prohibit state and local governments to contract companies doing business in Cuba.

A day earlier, officials with the Tampa Chamber of Commerce, Port of Tampa and Tampa International Airport urged the governor not to sign the bill. According to the Miami Herald, the Canadian embassy in Washington had contacted the Florida Chamber of Commerce, saying that Canadian companies might reconsider investing in Florida; Brazilian diplomats reportedly urged the federal government to stop the Florida law.

Police dogs detected accelerants, according to TV reports. Photo: WSVN-TV

From January through March, 2,730 homes and 8,390 automobiles were sold nationwide, a Justice Ministry official said in a press conference in Havana, according to Granma.

The number of outright home sales was exceeded by “donations” — often code for legalization of previous under-the-table sales. According to Olga Lidia Pérez Díaz, head of notary and civic register services at the ministry of justice, 10,660 homes changed legal ownership through donations during the first quarter.

Meanwhile, 6,780 automobiles were donated, a little less than the number of sales. 

The performance of notary offices during the period was “acceptable,” Pérez Díaz said, adding that no transaction had to be invalidated during nationwide inspections.

The only mention of the Cuban-made rum in the report was the-third-quarter launch of a new Havana Club dark-rum flavor, called Ritual, in the Spanish market.

The French company, which markets Havana Club-brand rum worldwide through a joint venture with Cuban state company CubaRon, did neither provide sales figures for each brand, nor did it break out third-quarter performance. 

Due mainly to declining sales in Cuba, Spain and Italy, sales of Havana Club rum stagnated during the first half of the 2011-12 financial year that ended Dec. 31, according to the previous quarterly report.

The declines in Southern Europe and Cuba were compensated by sales growth in France, Germany and Russia during the six months that ended in December. Reflecting zero percent growth in sales, the price/mix indicator remained unchanged as well during the half-year period.

During the first quarter, the number of cases sold had edged up 1 percent, but revenues declined 2 percent. The price/mix indicator for Havana Club decreased 3 percent, the largest decline of any Pernod Ricard brand in the quarter.

The stagnation comes after robust growth in 2010-11. Before the global financial crisis in 2008, Havana Club was one of the fastest-growing brands in Pernod Ricard’s stable.

Sherritt, Cuba’s largest private foreign investor, earned CAD$32.4 million in the first quarter (US$32.9 million), down from CAD$63.6 million (US$64.6 million) in the first quarter last year. Revenues dropped to CAD$362.2 million (US$368 million) from CAD$474.5 million(US$482 million) in the same period. The company blamed the drop in earnings on lower nickel prices, higher input commodity prices, and higher net financing expenses for debt stemming mostly from its startup nickel mining operation in Madagascar.

“With long-life mining reserves and a strong financial position, we are very positive on the long-term prospects of our business,” said CEO David Pathe in a press release.

In a general slowdown, Sherritt forecasts a 2-percent reduction in nickel and cobalt output for 2012, a 4-percent lower oil production, and a 11-percent drop in electricity generation on the island for the full year.

By-weight nickel sales — almost all originating from Cuba — rose to 9.55 million pounds in the first quarter from 9.44 million pounds in Q1 2011.

Sherritt’s oil production, which is mostly from Cuba, during the quarter dropped to 11,455 boepd from 12,484 boepd.

Sherritt electricity generation in Cuba rose to 155 gw/h from 148 gw/h. The company spent CAD$21 million (US$21.3 million) on construction of the Boca de Jaruco combined-cycle gas power plant during the quarter; with engineering completed and all major equipment ordered, the company expects the CAD$271 million plant to go online in the first half of 2013.