Cuba Releases Political Prisioners to Spain

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CUBA INVESTMENT BY SPAIN

Havana Cuba-  Spanish tourism minister predicted Cuba's release of its political prisoners is the first step that will eventually lead to a thaw in U.S.-Cuba relations and the removal of  the American blockade against the Castro controlled island.

Spanish foreign minister Miguel Angel Moratinos said the releasing of over 52 Cuban political prisoners will prompt a major shift in European Union policy in favor of Cuba "and it will have political consequences in U.S. relations with Cuba, by lifting of the embargo."


Cuba has clearly demonstrated that it is willing to cooperate in the area of human rights and has held out the olive branch to Spain. International Investors calculate that this is the beginning of the opening of the doors to Cuba for international investments lead by the Americans as soon as they lift their own restrictions on investment into Cuba.

A spokeswoman for the U.S. embassy in Madrid said, while the U.S. welcomed the release of the Cuban political inmates, it was too early to say whether that would have any effect on the embargo. And officials from France and Germany didn't share Moratinos' optimism that the release of the 52 would trigger an EU policy shift.

President Barack Obama once suggested it was time for a new beginning with Cuba, but his administration wants to see the island embrace more political or social reforms — and it's unknown if the agreement on political prisoners is enough.

The Cuban Political dissidents, who had been imprisoned since 2003, have spoken of the horrid, rat-infested conditions they endured in the Cuban prisons. Twelve have arrived in Spain so far, along with dozens of relatives, and more are expected.

Moratinos has said his European Union counterparts had conditioned any change in EU policy toward Cuba on getting the political prisoners released and he now expects the 27-nation bloc to end its "common position" on Cuba. That policy, which dates from 1996, calls for advances in human rights and democracy before relations with the island can be normalized.

But  EU foreign affairs chief Catherine Ashton, said it was too early to say if the European bloc is ready to shift direction on its Cuba policy. She said all countries needed to be back any move and it was not clear if they all share Spain's enthusiasm.

"We will have a better feeling on Monday" when foreign ministers may talk briefly about the prisoners' release, she said. But no decision is likely until September.

An official with Germany's Foreign Office said it "welcomes the current development" but added that "the EU countries have always stressed that the overall human rights situation in Cuba has to improve." The official spoke on condition of anonymity in keeping with policy.

A French diplomat said Wednesday that the releases are a positive first step, but that the EU wants Cuba to free all its political prisoners. The diplomat was not authorized to be publicly named according to Foreign Ministry policy.

On Monday, the released Cuban prisoners in Spain said they opposed any change in EU policy toward the island.

"The Cuban government has not taken any steps that show a clear decision to advance toward democratizing our country," they said in a statement. "Our exit to Spain should not be considered a gesture of goodwill, but rather a desperate move by the regime in its urgent search for credit of any sort."

The Cuban government has long maintained that none of them is a prisoner of conscience. It insists they are mercenaries paid by Washington and supported by anti-Castro exiles in Miami, whose only goal was to discredit the Cuban government. Many of the Web sites the journalists had worked for were maintained by exiles outside Cuba.

Spain has told the former prisoners they will be given work and residency permits within a few months. It has advised them not to seek asylum status, saying such a designation would bar them from making political statements and would make it impossible for them to return to Cuba for visits.

The arriving Cubans were held for days in a very modest hotel with no air conditioning and shared bathrooms for men and women in a remote industrial zone of Madrid.

But the government started moving them into apartments outside of the capital this week because Madrid is considered a very expensive place for arriving immigrants to build new lives. Plans were also set to house the latest arrivals in a more upscale Madrid hotel until they are resettled elsewhere.

While some of the Cubans initially complained about their accommodations in Madrid, they said conditions were much better than the jails they were held in, and those who have been moved out of the capital said they were satisfied with the government's effort.

Omar Ruiz, a journalist, was sent with his wife and young son to a studio apartment in the southern city of Malaga in a building occupied mostly by African immigrants. Everyone in the building eats for free in a communal dining room, and the building is about a 20-minute walk from a beach on the Mediterranean

"I don't want to complain about the conditions, there may be others who think they could have been better," Ruiz said. "The main thing is that they helped me leave jail and get to a free country with my family, where I can think whatever I want to think. You have to recognize that, and I am very thankful."

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USA VOTE TO OPEN UP CUBA TO AMERICAN TOURIST

USA CUBA TRAVEL TO HOTELS
On June 30, 2010, the House Agriculture Committee voted to pass a new bill  HR 4645 - called  The Travel Restriction Reform and Export Enhancement Act, which eases payment restrictions on US food sales to Cuba. Also included in the Act is language that removes the restrictions on Americans so anyone can travel to Cuba. Specifically, section 2 of the Act reads states that "The President may not regulate or prohibit, directly or indirectly, travel to or from Cuba by United States citizens or lawful permanent residents, or any of the transactions incident to such travel; and any regulation in effect on such date of enactment that regulates or prohibits travel to or from Cuba by United States citizens or lawful permanent residents or transactions incident to such travel shall ease to have any force or effect."

American Democrat Speaker Nancy Pelosi will decide when to restore the bill that will allow US citizens' right to travel to Cuba will get to the House floor for a vote, however, she has stated that she is in full support of this Cuba Travel bill and will bring it to the floor in the very near future.
In Cuba and with over 130 U.S. human rights, religious, humanitarian and trade groups from around the nation have pledged their support for HR 4645.

Cuba Travel Tour Operators held a video conference with top Cuban tourism officials in Havana on Wednesday, December 16, 2009, and asked them if they are ready for the "rush" of Americans if the U.S. travel ban is lifted as proposed by legislation now under consideration in the U.S. Congress.

"Americans really want to travel and see the real Cuba for themselves," said Robert Whitely, president of the U.S. Tour Operators, which together with the National Tour Association also present at the event, handles 75 percent of all package tour business to the Caribbean.

"We predict that at least 850,000 Americans will go to Cuba in the first year," Whitely said.

A fact-finding study from the U.S. International Tourism & Trade Commission supports this, noting, "The number of additional U.S. tourists arriving in Cuba annually, following removal of the travel ban, is estimated to be between 500,000 and 1 million in the first year reaching over 5 million in the next 10 years.

CUBA HOTEL INVESTMENTS

CUBA OPEN TO BRASIL INVESTMENTS WITH PETROBRAS

Cuba Opens to Brazil’s Petrobras

HAVANA CUBA INVESTMENTS – Brazilian state-controlled energy giant Petrobras has opened an office in Cuba to “accompany” its effort to explore for oil in the communist-ruled island’s territorial waters, the company’s new representative in Havana said.

Joao Figueras, who also is CEO of Petrobras’ Venezuelan unit, told a press conference that the office will be “a point of reference” during the first exploratory phase, but that if a decision is made to advance to the drilling stage the company will expand its representation in Cuba.

For the moment, Petrobras has decided that its Caracas team will carry out the technical work in Cuba “with a view to cost management and efficiency.”

The Brazilian company currently is analyzing the results of seismic surveys carried out within the block it acquired last October in deep Cuban waters of the Gulf of Mexico.

Following geological and geophysical studies in the area, Petrobras will have until May 2010 to decide whether to begin drilling, according to the terms of its contract with state-owned Cuba Petroleo, or Cupet.

“This block represents the company’s return to Cuba. For now we’re going to manage that, but we’re open to evaluating other opportunities in the country,” Figueras said, noting that Petrobras searched for oil in the island’s territorial waters between 1998 and 2001.

“It was a perfect operation, but unfortunately the well was dry,” he said.

The Brazilian company currently has a 32-year exploration and production agreement with the Cuban government, allowing it to operate in a 1,600 square-kilometer (617-square-mile) block that Figueras said is “very well located from a geological point of view.”

Figueras said the trade and financial embargo the United States has imposed on Cuba since 1962 creates “a series of difficulties” but does not impede Petrobras’ work, adding that the company has found “solutions and paths” to drilling in Cuba in the past using contracted platforms.

“If we make the decision to drill, the company will have the means to carry out the drilling. That’s why our job now is to be very focused on the geophysical-geological work so that we make the best decision,” he added.

Also operating in Cuba’s portion of the Gulf of Mexico, an area known as the Exclusive Economic Zone that measures some 112,000 square kilometers (43,245 square miles), are Spain’s Repsol-YPF, Norway’s Statoil-Hydro, India’s Oil and Natural Gas Corporation, Malaysia’s Petronas, Venezuela’s PDVSA and Vietnam’s PetroVietnam.

Petrobras was the most recent company to acquire a block in the EEZ, bringing to 21 the number currently under contract.

Petrobras, an integrated energy company and a global leader in deepwater oil exploration and production, operates in 27 countries in the Americas, Africa, Asia and Europe.

Shares of Petrobras, Brazil’s largest corporation, trade on the Sao Paulo, New York, Madrid and Buenos Aires stock exchanges, but the Brazilian government retains control through a golden share.

Cupet’s exploration manager, Rafael Tenreyro, said last November that – based on “very modest” estimates – about 20 billion barrels could lie in the island’s offshore fields, while the U.S. Geological Survey has estimated a more modest total of between 4.6 billion and 9.3 billion barrels of recoverable crude.

Cuba currently imports from close ally Venezuela more than 90,000 barrels per day of crude oil – or about half the island’s needs – under preferential terms that allow the island to pay with medical, educational and sports services.

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CUBA TOP CARIBBEAN DESTINATION IN 2010

Cuba Is The Caribbean Top Destination

Cuba tourism officials reported that more than 2.5 million tourists visited the island in 2009, up 3.3 percent from 2008’s record. Because of shorter stays and discounts, brought on by the global recession, total revenues were down overall. Foreign visitors generated over $2.7 billion in 2008, a 13.5 percent increase over 2007.

Public opinion polls in the U.S. indicated that two-thirds of travelers, including 68 percent of Cuban-Americans favor an end to all restrictions on travel to Cuba.

American Travel Restrictions to Cuba
The Travel Restriction Reform and Export Enhancement Act, which prohibits the U.S. president from regulating travel to and from Cuba and liberalizes agricultural trade, could be brought to a vote in the House of Representatives as early as this July.

If the bill passes the House, it will be attached to a Senate appropriations bill and, if approved, would go to President Obama, who already has said he would sign it into law. This would open travel to Cuba for all U.S. citizens starting in 2011.

Many tourist that visit Cuba go to the Fabulous Cuban beaches, lush organic farms, humble yet efficient schools, reforestation projects, aging hospitals, preserved historic forts and old Havana complete with a wide variety of restored classic automobiles. The relative scarcity of automobile internal combustion engines offered clear vistas and easier breathing. Cuba’s per capita CO² output is one-tenth that of all Americans living in the United States.

Hotel Nacional de Cuba
The Grand Dame of Cuban Hotels is the infamous Hotel Nacional de Cuba, a five-star hotel built in 1930 by the Cuban Mafia of those days like Lucky Luciano, Bugsy Segal, Myron Lansky, Capone and Teferante.

“There’s a growing sense in the business community that if we’re going to trade with North Korea, Vietnam, Russia and some countries in the Middle East, why aren’t Americans trading with Cuba?” said Thomas J. Donahue, president of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce (back in 2001) “People are asking fundamental questions about a policy that’s clearly illogical”.

A new Cuba Research Report entitled “Cuba at the Crossroads The Role of the U.S. Hospitality Industry in Cuba Tourism Initiatives” stated in 2007,

“The process of rapprochement can only start with the lifting of the U.S. embargo on Cuba. To that end, we encourage U.S. hospitality business interests of all types to urge the executive branch and Congress to eliminate the embargo, which has arguably outlived its original purpose… We see a historic opportunity for profitable investment in a “new Cuba”… we contend that now is the time to advance prescriptive, forward-thinking insight designed to shift the thinking of the U.S. business community about Cuba and, in so doing, shift the thinking of the Cuban government, businesses, and people about their neighbors to the worth.”

The time to open up Cuba to American Tourism & investment is finally upon us.

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CUBA OPENS REAL ESTATE INVESTMENT IN TOURISM

BUY REAL ESTATE IN CUBA

HAVANA, CUBA. The Cuban Government has officially approved construction of residential projects for foreigners to purchase that are linked to Cuban Beach & Golf resorts, the tourism minister said Tuesday, possibly opening the door for villas that could one day ring oceanfront golf courses and other vacation getaways.

Manuel Marrero said the communist-governed island is on pace for its third straight record year of foreign visitors, and it hopes to continue expanding into the little-tapped golf market.

He said the government has green-lighted “real estate for tourist purposes,” without giving details. But the move may mean Cuba will allow tourist developments that include long-term residences—not just hotels catering to short-term visitors that now line the island’s beaches.

Investment firms in Canada and Europe have proposed building golf courses coupled with luxury housing under long-term leases with Cuba’s government. Endorsing residential zoning for tourism could be a first, albeit small, step toward making those projects a reality.

The decision would allow Cuba’s “entrance into new segments and the realization of investments in areas with tourism potential that have yet to be exploited,” Marrero said.

The island has only one 18-hole golf course and hopes to build 10 more, but has yet to break ground on any projects financed by foreigners.

Cuba has tried before to balance its drive for an egalitarian society with an appeal to foreigners seeking to own a piece of paradise. Scrambling for revenue in the late 1990s, the government authorized private foreign ownership of posh apartments in Havana and even signed a $250 million deal for beachfront apartments and timeshares with a Canadian company.

Many of those project stalled, however, failing to draw enough foreign investment. Meanwhile, some overseas businessmen bought Havana apartments but allowed Cuban girlfriends to live in them—violating rules barring islanders from doing so, said John Kavulich, senior policy adviser at the U.S.-Cuba Economic Trade Council in New York.

Cuba eventually bought out most of the residences it had hoped would be owned by foreigners.

Kavulich said Marrero’s announcement “is not new, it’s renewed.”

“Part of the caution would be we’ve seen this before,” he said. “They’re bringing it back, that’s a good thing, but we need to see what happens.”

Addressing a tourism fair at Morro Castle, a Spanish fort built in 1859 that guards the sea entrance to Havana, Marrero also said Cuba may exceed 2.5 million foreign visitors in 2010.

More than 1.05 million foreigners had come as of the end of April, the most-successful four-month span since Cuba began promoting large-scale tourism after the collapse of the Soviet Union and the end of its billions in annual subsidies to the island.

“It’s been surprising because we began with January and February really bad—bad because of the financial crisis, because of many factors,” Marrero told reporters after his presentation. “But March and April have been very good.”

In 2009, Cuban tourism rose 3.5 percent, with more than 2.4 million tourists coming, mostly from Europe and Canada, despite the global recession. But many visitors stayed fewer days than usual, and tour operators offered steep discounts to keep them coming, meaning revenues slumped nearly 12 percent.

While the U.S. government doesn’t permit most of its citizens to travel to Cuba, the Obama administration has eased restrictions on Cuban-Americans visiting relatives here. But those who come for family travel are counted as Cubans, not foreign visitors.

Marrero said 50 percent more Cuban-Americans visited early this year than during the same period last year, but offered no statistics.

He said Cuba has 50,000 hotel rooms nationwide, many in establishments jointly operated by the government and private companies in Europe.

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CUBA TOURISM INVESTMENTS OPEN TO USA

Cuban Resort Investment Open to USA Investors

CUBA OPEN TO USA INVESTORS
HAVANA,CUBA - Cuba Investment opportunities are finally starting to open once again now that the US President Obahma Government has begun to open the door to the possibiity of American Investment in Cuba.
Cuba has definatly responded in a positive manner with a new Real estate and property law aimed at attracting foreign investment in tourist HOtel & Resort projects including marinas and luxury golf courses,
Cuban Resort Investments are welcome in all tourism sectors and from all investment countries including financing originating from the United States if Washington reverses its embargo on the island.

Cuban Tourism Minister Manuel Marrero stated the Cuban government has adopted "a new policy of real estate development linked to tourism" as part of the strategy to boost the Cuban Tourism economy. Cuban Tourist are one of the largest sources of hard cash for Cuba, which generates over two billion dollars annually from tourism in places like Havana, Varadero Trindad Cayo Coco & Cayo Largo.
Minister Marrerro, opening the Cuban international tourism fair by saying that Havana had gone ahead and approved a legal instrument to regulate these marinas, golf courses and other tourism investments.

CUBA BREAKS TOURISM RECORD
In 2009 Cuba broke its records of Tourist and received over 2.4 million tourist, and is enjoying more revenue from foreign tourist since the collapse of the Soviet Union, which gave assistance to Cuba's Castro govenment.

Unfortunately Americans were not allowed to spend thier American money in Cuba under this powerful economic embargo in place under American President Kennedy becasue of the Bay of Pigs since 1961.
Cuban Toursim authorities like to develop eco tourism centers and increase medical tourism with the immediate focus on Cuban golf resorts which have been invisible tothe people of Cuba since the 1959 revolution.
Cuban Minister Marrero met this spring with American business presidents & CEO's in regards to American investment as soon as the embargo is lifted. Cuba said American tourism could be "Very important" for Cuba following any positive change in the American embargo. In a sign of good faith US President Barack Obama has already lifted all travel and money transfer restrictions on Cuban-Americans with relatives in Cuba.
The next step is to lift the travel ban for americans to visit Cuba.
The Cuba investment flood gates will soon be open. The investors that take the risk now should be greatly rewarded with their Cuban Investments.
INVEST IN CUBA

CUBA CUBA

INVEST IN CUBA CUBA

Investment Opportunities in Cuba Today. Global Investors examined Cuba's economic situation with the idea of a day that will allow private investors in Cuba. These experienced global investors were business entrepranours, writers and reporters,that no longer wanted to talk about the Cuban embargo but were seeking the actual conditions nesecary to invest directlyin Cuba with the potential for reform teh major Cuban investment sectors led by Hotel Development, Real Estate, Contruction  infrastructure, and Internet telecommunications systems such as Google, You Tube, Twitter, Skype & FaceBook.

Opportunities- Today there are some major obstacles that hinder direct investment into Cuba.

Investors have said that Cuba is consistently ranked as the worst business environments in the world by various investors that ahve already been burned by the Cuban Investment landscape and government beacracy that seems to block growth and encourage internal fraud by Cuban officials.

Cuba also has the second highest debt in the world and is routenily blocked out of the international capital markets that are currently controld by the American Financial institutions.  The fragile Cuban economy is very dependent on the global tourism Markets and to exports to a small number of international partners. 

Investors also face huge chalanges placed by the Cuban government that  include at least a 50 Cuban government ownership in all Joint Ventures, plus the foreign partner ahs to put up 100% of the capital & Financing. The foreign investors must hire workers through the Cuban Employment agency with a dual-currency system that in effect charges the Foreing company 20 times the salary paid to the Cuban worker.

There is a natural built in lack of transparency in all Cuban investment procedures.  There is still no reliable news of the 1994 Mexican Domus investment in Etecsa one of the larger foreign private Cuban investments todate.

All this may change soon if Cuba had a regulatory legal framework that truly protected foreing investors.

Everyone agrees that major investment in Cuban telecommunication sector would be very profitable to foriegn investors if Cuba has the lowest rate of cell phone users in the world.  Experienced investors pointd out that Cuban regulations aren’t the only problems to eventual American investment since the American embargo severely damages the economy and services that U.S. company do currently provide to Cuba.

Despite all this American Companies sold over $1 Billion dolalrs of American made goods to Cuba in 2009 despite the Obama Administration’s commitment to expand economic and political ties between the U.S. and Cuba.

Conclusion: The economy was tough for Cuba in 2009 however Cuba is gradually beginning to change its old stlye system into a newer and freer market by allowing more small businesses entrepreneurial in the tourism and agricultural area. World wide investmetn funds are awaiting the day that they can begin to sell investmetns in the main Cuban sectors of the economy to enhance foreign direct investment.  The top investments will be in Cuban hotels, tourism, food production, sugar products and real estate property development that could have positive repercussions for foreign real estate investors. Investors & Politicians agree that Cuban health, education, and military areas are presently excluded

 from all foreign investment yet the impressive Cuban healthcare and pharmaceutical sectors could offer ample opportunities for foreign Investment such as York Biosciences.(YM:TSE),

Final point was made by all investors that no matter what happened Cuba remains one of the best places in the world to invest in new projects due  the its location to the USA.

CUBAN INVESTMENTS

GOOGLE COMING TO CUBA ?

GOOGLE CUBA?

Rule changes by President Obama Administration will pave the road for leading Global American companies to enter Cuba. The  changes in amendments released by USA Treasury permit exporting of all social networking sites like Face book, chat and e-mail software like GTalk to Embargo countries like Iran, Sudan and Cuba. Investors feel that the Cuban economy will benefit the most due to the high level of education in Cuban population.
USA Treasury Department adjusted the trade sanctions against Iran, Sudan and Cuba to allow the export of leading edge social media and other Web-related technologies that could assist and bridge the work of world wide human rights bloggers especially in Cuba.
Present blockade restrictions don't allow companies to selling their technology and other goods to populations located in sanctioned countries.  U.S. Investors believe Web-based technologies such msm messaging, skype, chat and blogging software like Google's Blogger, could open a new opportunity for human rights activists in those poor countries to work with the help of other activists all over the globe.

US Treasury changes were implemented to ensure that individuals in sanctioned countries can “express their universal human rights to free speech & provide shared information to the greatest number of people ” according to an announcement from the united States Treasury.

The Obama administration has a deep commitment to the universal human rights of all the world's people the issuance of these open licenses will allow easier communications between families & freinds in Iran, Sudan and Cuba to use the Internet to communicate with each other and with the outside world according to US. Deputy Treasury Secretary Neal Wolin.

Recent videos from Cuba have proven that personal Internet-based communications such as Gmail, GTalk messaging and Blogger social networking sites are powerful applications. Proof of this is the growing fame of Cuban Human Rights Blogger Celia Sanchez of GererationY.

FIDEL CASTRO AND GOOGLE
United States Treasury Department's Office of Foreign Assets Control released the amendments to the Cuban Assets Control Regulations thus paving the way for American companies like Google to now enter Cuba. Fidel Castro and his brother Raul Castro have both welcomed the news as it is another small step in the right direction to mending Cuban-USA relations. Fidel even joked that he and Raul keep texting each other in between meetings.

New permissions now authorize exports originating from inside the United States to people of Cuba for software related to the collection sharing & distribution of personal messages and information over the Internet, including website surfing, setting up blogs, e-mail programs, text messaging, real time chat and social networking sites according to the united states Treasury. The new laws released today also allow  specific licenses to be issued on a case-by-case approval for the export of all social media technology used to exchange and distribute information over the Internet that was not previously protected  by the Cuban general licenses.

The current US Treasury sanction regulations against Cuba were also adjusted to allow similar approvals  for the export of website services to Cuba. The export of goods and high tech technology, including software applications to Cuba is separately licensed under the United States e-Commerce Department, according to U.S.Treasury.
Google Executives are pleased with the news that the US government is supporting people to people initiatives that involve Human inter personal exchanges. This is a start in the right direction with the hope of improved relations between the two countries it may be possible to see a Google Campus in Havana some day soon.

CUBAN INVESTMENTS 

TOP USA OFFICIAL MEET CUBAN LEADERS IN HAVANA

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US-CUBA RELATIONS IMPROVING SLOWLY

Cuba, Havana.  Cuban officials offered optimistic during discussions on increasing migration with U.S. diplomats yesterday even though there was no reference on other problematic issues such  as the jailing of an American contractor accused of spying for the USA while working in Havana.

Cuba's minister of foreign affairs, Dagoberto Rodriguez, had gracious meetings with American counterpart Craig Kelly, an American assistant secretary of state for Western Hemisphere affairs and the highest ranking American official to come to the island in 20 years.

The historic meeting took place in an atmosphere of mutual respect. The Cuban side said  the talks went very well with many issues including Cuban Hospitals and medicine were discussed and was wrapped up at an secret location in Havana. The American Government had no official comment on the talks, which lasted over 6 hours. The American delegation also met with Cuban dissidents later Friday, according to a leading human rights activist who told the international news reporters that he was among those invited to attend.

The regularly scheduled migration meetings were almost canceled between two Cold War enemies that have been blaming each other for years over a range of problems. Last year Cuban officials arrested an American contractor who was in Cuba on a program financed by the U.S. Agency for International Development which Cuba accuses of being a subversive spy agency for US Intelligence operators.

The accused American spy been held without formal charge in a well furnished penthouse at Havana’s high-security Villa Marista jail. Cuban President Raul Castro has said officially that the American Contractor was spying, and that his presence was more proof that Washington is saying one thing publicly but still trying to damage Cuba’s government 50 years after the revolution started.

This American Aid Program that was begun under President George W. Bush devotes millions of US Taxpayers dollars to the promotion of democracy on the island yet has been accused by the Cubans as being nothing more than a front for American spies to filter into the Cuban island paradise to foster discontent among Cubans.

The American company that employees the American spy is Bethesda, Maryland-based DAI, and there story is that he was distributing communications equipment to Cuba’s minute Jewish community and not to Cuban dissidents. Unfortunately for him this specialty communications equipment is tightly controlled by the communist government.

U.S. diplomats are concerned about the timing of the Cuban arrest, saying he had been to Havana many times before without problems on the same program and never had a problem. The American Ambassador issued a video Thursday requesting his release and saying he loved Cuba and was a humanitarian not a spy.

There has been many rumors that Cuba will eventually trade the American spy for five Cuban agents that were falsely arrested and imprisoned in Miami since the 1990s after being convicted of spying. Cuba sent them to combat terrorism against Cuba and considers them anti-terror fighters who were trying to shut down a bombing campaign organized and led by fiercely anti-Castro Cuban-Americans.

Cuban government leader Ricardo Alarcon did not  answer any questions on Friday, but said Cuban authorities would use the good faith of the immigration talks to bring up the fate of their own agents.

Alarcon added that Havana has offered to expand many other issues and continue open and fair discussions with the United States, and is still waiting for their answer. Cuba is  hoping that the United States will respond to the additional proposals Cuba has made in efforts to reach agreements in other areas like the fight against terrorism, drug-trafficking and also the possibility of improving the immigration accord.

U.S. officials have not accepted nor replied to the Cuban offer, describing it as a vague proposal to continue talking with no concrete policy changes on their part. US officers say Cuba should have already responded to the good-faith gestures President Obama has already taken, such as loosening all restrictions on travel and remittances for Cuban Americans to travel to Cuba to visit thier families.

Hotel Investments in Old Havana

Cuba however, stated it hoped that future negotiations could convince Washington to end their unfair immigration policy known as "wet foot, dry foot where Cubans reaching American soil are granted instant asylum, while those captured at sea are deported back to Cuba.

The U.S. delegation would not continue additional meetings with Cuban officials on the side issues until after these immigration talks have been completed.

The leader of the independent Cuban Commission on Human Rights and National Reconciliation, said he and many other popular Cuban opposition leaders were invited to talk to the American delegation following the official discussion were completed.

Meetings with the Cuban dissidents have become routine when American diplomats travel to Cuba. These open meetings with the unpopular dissidents are a thorn in the Cuban government image and is sure to upset Cuban leaders, who have repeated that the dissidents are highly paid stooges of Washington anti-Cuba propaganda.

Cuba and the United States have been waging a nonstop war of words in for over 50 years over nearly every issue possible, from President Barack Obama’s performance at climate talks, which Cuban Comandante Fidel Castro called deceitful and demagogic, to the U.S. relief effort in Haiti, which he termed an another illegal occupation of a suffering nation.

However the crowing glory of upsetting actions by the USA again Cuba in which Cuba is  particularly angered by is Obama's unexpected decision to continue to include Cuba on its International list of state sponsors of terrorism even though there is not a shred of evidence to support this cold war claim.

There are also the thorny issues such as Washington’s persistence that Cuba open its one party political system to democratic reform and free hundereds of jailed political prisoners, and Cuba’s unbending demand that Washington drop its 50 year blockade and stop interfering in what Havana considers its internal affairs.

Cuba experts all agree that the incident over the American Spying contractor is just  another sensitive issue to a long list of problems between the two countries.

Anything that complicates U.S.-Cuba relationship is definitely not going to help bring the two sides together.

The Cuban-USA immigration talks that were started in 1994 and were suspended by Bush were resumed in July and are to be held bi-annually. Their purpose is to monitor the terms and implementation of the previous immigration agreement under which the United States issues at least 20,000 emigration visas to Cubans per year via a Cuban Lottery system. So far the talks have not centered around the possibility of American companies traveling and investing in Cuban Hotels nor investing in the Cuban economy. We will keep you posted.

CUBA CLASSIC CARS A STRANGE COMBINATION

 

 CUBAN1950'S CHEVY CLASSIC ANTIQUE CAR 

CARS AND CUBA. A STRANGE COMBINATION

Havana, CUBA- Cuba is a world of its own often compared with a walk into a time machine.
An interesting example of this is that unbeknown to the rest of the world, Cuba even has its own unique system of branding your license plate to quickly identify to the world who you are and what rights you have and don't have in Cuba.

The spectrum of color coordinated license plates and special codes tell the ever watching eye of authority how important you are in the Cuban political and Economic system, your nationality, where you work and your rank.

In short your Cuban license plate say it all as you drive in posh 5th avenue or along the seaside Malecon.

Cuba's  system of colored license plates was copied directly from the KGB in former Soviet Union. This coding system is yet another way Cuban authorities have kept control on their people and foreigners for decades.

Cuba Government Owned Cars
To be fair the fact is that the Cuban government owns most 95% of all the cars in Cuba. Cuban Government vehicles have blue plates with letters and numbers that indicate when and where the vehicle can operate.
Blue Cuban Cars cannot be used for personal use and can only be used for official government or professional purposes.

The risk to take your car to the beach is that there are many Traffic Inspectors strategically planted along most highways out of town and other high-traffic areas, stopping official cars to check their routes and to make sure they aren't being used for taking your family to the beach.

Top Cuban executives at government firms have light brown colored plates that allow more leeway yet they still may only be allowed to use their vehicles to travel to and from work.

Yet another form of control is what it really is said Emilio Perez, a chauffeur who is driving a Black Mercedes to escort elite foreign officials around Havana.

Russian Cars in Cuba
Since 1960's the Soviet Union was Cuba's God father and benefactor. For decades all Cuban license plates were boring black and white, and the first two letters specified the province where the car was registered.
The third letter determined the state or private ownership depending on the status.

The Soviets also had a very special Code of numbers for embassy license plates determined by country's recognition of the Russian Revolution: Plates for Britain, which is the first foreign country to accept the czar's ouster are still 001.

Cuba fashioned its own similar system with the first letter in the license plate indicating the 14 provinces the car originates, H is from Havana.
The letter K is "Particular" or "privately owned" car by a person or by a foreign firm.

Military Cars in Cuba
The powerful Military vehicles have mint-green with no front and only rear plates. Olive-green plates are for vehicles of the Ministry of the Interior, including El Comendante, Fidel Castro's fleet of armored black Mercedes 280s, which were built in the early 80's.

The  most valuable seem to be  the black plates are for reserved exclusively for foreign diplomats who don't have to adhere to traffic laws.
White plated cars of Cuban government ministers or heads of state organizations also drive as if they have diplomatic immunity but with reserved caution in case they are in danger of being replaced.

Cuban Classic Car Rentals

Diplomatic Cars in Cuba
Ironically its the last 3 numbers on diplomatic plates that show the professional rank of the driver. If you're behind a Mercedes with black license plate 179-002, that means the car belongs to the second most-important officer from the Russian embassy.
Even though everyone's supposed to be equal under Cuban socialism most everyone in Cuba knows that that is not true especially when a modern shiny black sedan with black license plates speeds along 5th Avenue in Miramar, Havana as if to show "I'm more important than you"

Decades ago Cuban officials' cars were Soviet imports, as the Cubans were encouraged to drive Russian Ladas or other square slow cars. Now many Cuban vehicles are imported from China or bought from Havana's Peugeot, Fiat and Mercedes dealerships, adding variety to the white-plated fleet.

Tourist Rental Cars in Cuba
Even the Toursit rental cars get maroon plates and foreign journalists, religious leaders and Cubans managers for overseas firms have orange plates.

If you see Red then its provisional plates that allow vehicles to circulate while Cuban authorities sort out just what color category is required.

American Classic Cars in Cuba
Best of all the countless 50year old American Classic roadsters that create a living moving museum along the island's potholed streets have bright yellow license plates, meaning they are normal vehicles owned by ordinary Cubans.

These dinosaurs from the good old days of Detroit's chrome-and-tail-fin era are still dominant on most Cuban roads because ordinary Cubans can not own new cars. Cubans can  buy and sell only cars manufactured before the Castro's took power in 1959.

As yet another form of Control the buying of any newer vehicles requires Cuban government permission - including justifying how you can afford a car when the communist state controls well over 90 percent of the economy and pays employees an average of about $10 to $20 a month.

All this maybe confusing for a foreigner, but for Cubans it's normal.  As they say in Cuba "No es Facil"

RENT CUBAN CLASSIC 1950's ANTIQUE CARS

On your next Cuba Vacation you can Rent cars in Havana or Varadero Cuba.