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11/17/2015

CUBA SEEKS ANOTHER $8.2BILLION CUBAN INVESTMENTS

HAVANA CUBA INVESTMENT IN TOURISM TOPS $2 BILLION

CUBA INVESTMENT OPPORTUNITIES TODAY!

Havana Cuba- The Cuban government is once again asking Investors for over $8.2 billion in foreign investment in 326 pre-approved projects ranging from the production of Cuban rum to an entirely new venture creating high definition, pay-per-view television.

Cuba's Foreign Trade Minister Rodrigo Malmierca opened the ready-made investment opportunities, officially called the "Cuban Investment Portfolio", at the 33rd annual Havana International Fair (FIHAV).

Forty of the 246 projects advertised on last year's Cuban wish list are in "advanced negotiations" and have been removed from this year's portfolio, Malmierca said.

This year's catalog has 80 more defined Cuban Investment projects than last year's, but the total value is $500 million less.

CUBAN TOURISM $2BILLION IN CASH

The projects form part of Cuba's attempt to bring in another $2 billion in foreign direct investment a year. The Cuban Investment Minister reported Cuba has signed 36 deals since a new foreign investment law was approved last year, including six at the special development zone around the port of Mariel, but did not say how much they were worth.

While most of the newly signed projects are joint ventures with the Cuban state, an unspecified number were financed with 100 percent foreign capital, Malmierca also promoted Communist Cuba's small but growing private sector in an effort to show the country was modernizing.

"We realize, I repeat, that the private sector, cooperatives, and other forms of property and management, have a space within our future development model," The portfolio includes new opportunities in healthcare, tourism, transportation, construction, agriculture and renewable energy.

Also added to the list were two projects to make and distribute rum, one of Cuba's signature products.

One is a $27 million joint venture for the obscure Perla del Norte brand for export and national consumption. The other is a similar $44 million joint venture for the more common Cuban brand.

There's also a $6 million project for installing high-definition paid television channels on the national broadcaster.

Five high-end Cuban Travel hotels and Cuban Beach villa construction joint ventures and 59 lodging management contracts are available, as well as the construction or expansion of seven marinas.

Cuba once relied heavily on trade with the Soviet bloc, which later collapsed. Even though Cuba trades with 75 countries and trade has tripled in the last decade, it relies heavily on socialist ally Venezuela, which is struggling with an economic crisis.
http://Calls2Cuba.com

11/13/2012

INVEST IN CUBA

Cuba open for Investment in Havana

Cuba Investments

Cuba has once again opened its doors to foriegn investments due to the new vision of the younger Cuban President Raul Castro who took over command from his brother Fidel Castro just 3 years ago.

Cuba has expressed interest to allow investment in the Oil & Gas sectors in huge tracts of water off the shores of Havana and Varadero just 90 miles from Miami Florida.

Currently publicly traded Canadian company Sheritt International (S.TO) has invested over $500 Million in various sectors of the Cuban economy such as oil, beach hotels and tourism in Cuba.

Many foreign oil companies has been exploring offshore oil in Cuban waters but all have come up dry so far.

The current Oil and Energy solution comes to Cuba directly from Venezuela who's President, Hugo Chavez has been supporting Cuba in the same manner as Russia during the cold war years.

Cuba has been offering huge incentives to some of the worlds biggest oil companies such as Repsol from Spain, Petrobras from Brazil, OLV from India, Petronas from Malaysia and Norsk-Hydro from Norway.

Most of the oil drilling has been done by Oil drilling rigs imported and financed from China using non-American technology.

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9/07/2012

INVEST IN CUBA IS HIGH RISK!

Invest in Cuba Havana Hotels

FOREIGN INVESTORS FRUSTRATED BY CUBA INVESTMENTS

Cuba's Foreign investment Strategy announced in 2012 spoke positively of attracting more international investors and Cuba wanted to increase foreign investment from international mutual funds and stock market pension fund investors. The Cuban's did a strategic review of the long Cuban investment approval process and came to the conclusion that special economic free trade and Investment zones like joint venture golf courses, Cuba Insurance, real estate, marinas and new manufacturing investments are being planned all over Cuba.

Cuba may want more foreign investment dollars but there have been more promises to change rather than actual investment changes that have many barriers to true foreign investment in Cuba.

Many other countries and their international insurance investment and mutual fund companies, America, Europe, China, Russia and Brazil to Singapore and various European Union members, have expressed desire to invest in Cuba despite the silly American U.S. trade embargo against Cuba.

Unfortunately the Cuban government is demanding at least a 51% majority interest in all joint ventures and is dragging its heels or obfuscating in negotiations. The main obstacle is that Cuba wants to maintaining its independence and sovereignty without any risk on their part without consideration to the Investors risk of loss of their investment which Cuba will eventually control.

Cubans have an historical problem with Communism, free enterprise and Cuban nationalism. Cuban investment organizations are simply not interested in minority shares so Cubans can say that no foreign company owns a piece of their island of Cuba. Many foreign investors complain the Cubans insisting on 51 percent ownership of all new Cuban Joint ventures so that Cuba keeps effective control of the entire business.

CUBA INVESTMENT RISK

English: HAVANA.With President of the Council ...

CUBA HAVANA INVESTMENTS With President Castro of the Council of State and Council of Ministers of Cuba Raul Castro. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Cuban investments have been signed in important agreements many years ago with poor results blaming the Mutual fund investment delay on critical issues such as Cuba's two parallel currency exchange rates.

When international investors drill down into the fine details the Cuban investment funds become cloudier and hazier the deeper you dig. In the end one investor said it clearly " the Cubans are very nice people but when it comes to foreign investment, Mutual funds, Insurance, home mortgages and financial investments in Cuba the control of 100% of your money is in their hands with absolutely no possibility of recouping even one penny if your Cuban business investment runs into problems. The risk of Investing in Cuba is 100% against you from the start because the Cubans make some of the rules in your favor today only to change all the rules against you in the future when its time to start making a profit on your initial high risk Cuban investment.

Another Investor from America stated the slow Cuban government is decades away from turning its Cuban Investment plans into reality. Cubans have been trying to invest in new businesses in the promised special economic zones, only to be told to come back next year after the Cuban Investment law that was introduced by the best Cuban Lawyers was approved.

In short if you want high risk low reward investments then Cuba is your best bet today. However everything can change in an instant as soon as American president lifts the economic sanctions against Cuba. This would send Cuba investments in Home mortgages, Health care, Insurance, and real estate into the hottest investment market on the planet. Investing in Cuba should be done with a long term capital appreciation horizon like an retirement pension fund.

http://Calls2Cuba.com

6/14/2012

Record Tourist Travel To Cuba

Havana Cuba (Photo credit: citronate)

CUBA HOLIDAY NEW RECORD

Havana Cuba— The number of tourist that travel to Cuba has grown by 6% in comparison with last year, as was announced during the opening of the 32nd International Tourism Fair, which initiated its sessions May 8 in Cayo Santa María, Villa Clara province.

Cuban Minister of Tourism, Manuel Marrero Cruz stated that a total of 1.3 million visitors traveled to Cuba from January through April of this year.

Main tourism countries are Canada number one followed by France, as well as Argentina, this last with a growth of 50%. Russia, Germany, Mexico, Holland, Colombia and Brazil are also showing sustained growth, Marrero noted. The main factor was the huge increase in American tourist and Cuban Americans traveling to Cuba from the United States.

Cuba top minister of tourism observed that this sustained development is due to Cuba’s interest in promoting more complete and comprehensive visits, including history, nature, culture, health and events as added options to traditional sun and beach vacations. This has resulted in a growing demand for this kind of tourism, particularly in national heritage cities.

Cuba, september 2005, info in de Metadata

Cuba Havana Attractions

Cuba, Havana Attractions de Metadata (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

In response to this demand, Marrero announced upcoming investments in Viñales, Santa Clara, Remedios, Cienfuegos, Bayamo, Camagüey, Ciego de Avila, Baracoa, Trinidad and Havana, to expand hotel capacity in these areas.

The Tourism Minister also noted that Cuba currently has a total of 58,626 rooms, 63% of which are located in four and five star hotels, reflecting the high degree of comfort in these facilities.

He added that this sustained increase has been paralleled by advances in civil aviation, with the upgrading in 2011 of Varadero Airport and Terminal 2 of the capital’s José Martí facility, while the runway of Santa Clara’s Abel Santamaría terminal is to be extended in order to receive large aircraft.
Next year Cuba is predicting to break the toursit record again with more Cuban vacations and holiday
packages to Varadero beach, Havana, Cayo Coco, Trinidad, Cayo Largo, and other Cuban vacation destinations.

5/24/2012

Cuba Investment In Tourism Havana Resorts

Russian Investors flock to Resorts in Havana and Varadero Cuba

Cuba Tourism Investment Breaks Record

Cuba Tourism Investment in Havana broke the Caribbean islands record in 2012 reported the Cuban Financial and Investment Ministry of Tourism and Financial Statistic Bureau of Banking.

The strategic long term investment funds in tourism by Cuba has resulted in huge increases in foreign Holiday vacationers that visit Cuba, Varadero, Matanzas, Cayo Coco, Trinidad and this Caribbean island beach paradise reached millions foretasted the Cuban tourism and Insurance bureau said, adding that the previous Cuban Health, Travel & Insurance record produced increases in revenue.

In 2012, the top Cuban tourist resorts located in Cuba, Havana, Trinidad, Cayo Largo & Varadero beaches received a record breaking 300,000 tourists, over 15,000 more tourist than the previous record. Cuba's top tourism and resort investment partner is still Canada the most valuable source of Cuban tourists, followed by Melia Group of Spain, Accor of France, Argentina, Germany, Russia and Mexico.

The Cuban Americans looking to invest in resorts coming from Miami Florida are the fastest growing tourist sector with over Five hundred thousand Cuban Americans travel to Cuba in the past year with millions more Americans expected to vacation in Cuba as soon as U.S. President Obama lifts the American travel restrictions.

English: Cuban dancers in Varadero (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Cuba Investments in resorts and tourism are also banking on Cuban health care insurance and medical tourism to serve as a the financial engine of growth to help the future development of other social, medical and economic projects, the Cuban government aims at receiving over 3 million tourists in 2012.

Cuban Investment Funds in Tourism

International Mutual Investment Funds are looking closer at resort investment in Havana Cuba's tourism hotel business where financial imports and domestic banking exports were up 20 percent during the first quarter of 2012, compared with last year due mainly to the increased income from tourism, Cuban travel, Health Insurance and health care services reported the Ministry of Cuban Insurance, Banking and Finance.

Increase in Cuban financial profits by 20 percent in Foreign exports according to managers at the Foreign International Trade Ministry. Increasing Cuba tourist is good news for Cuban President Raul Castro and his efforts to boost Cuba's debt ridden economy by increasing financial investments with export income and decreasing imports cost from high interest investment banks.

Cuba's imported $10 billion according to sources in Cuba banking ministry while's exports rose 20 percent and 15 percent of which was tourism, Cuban hotels and the remainder health and travel insurance services. The financial profits earned from tourism insurance services are accounted for by tourism and health care assistance. In Varadero tourist grew over 10 percent in April according to the Cuban National Statistics Office.

As a bonus for protecting the health care of foreign tourist in Cuba some 40,000 Cuban professionals, most from the health care sector, are working in the tourist sector in Varadero, Cayo Coco, Trinidad, Matanzas, Havana and also in oil-rich Venezuela and the bulk of earnings go to the Cuban government.

Cuba health care sector exports similar Insurance and surgery laser technical services to some 30 other countries with service category income that also includes communications and revenues from hospitals and joint ventures.

After 10 years of investing in Cuban tourism hotel sector Castro's investment funds appears to have paid off in order to boost exports and reduce imports which have resulted in annual trade surpluses averaging $2 billion since the first Cuban Investment back in 1990.

4/23/2012

INVEST IN CUBA

Investments in Havana Cuba now open

CUBA INVESTMENTS
Before Fidel Castro revolution of 1959, Cuba embraced capitalism and issued more investments in stocks and bonds for commerce and infrastructure than any other country in the world including the USA. Now Cuba has unfortunately defaulted on its last issued bonds and are not traded on the NYSE or New York Bond Exchange due to the American Embargo law, better know as the Helms Burton Law. However now that Cuban President Raul Castro has begun to open the Cuban investment opportunities, many investors are once again looking for big changes in Cuba. Most smart investors are looking for opportunities to invest in Cuba to maximize their growth from increasing GDP and business within Cuba. American President Obama Administration is also planning a new fresh look at USA-Cuba relations similar to the recently announced new look at USA-Iran relations. A welcome move by Cuba by allowing the complete release of political prisoners, pluralism, true democratic process and monitored secret ballot voting will be reciprocated by positive efforts from many nations like Spain Canada, Brazil and more importantly the USA to help the people of Cuba.

Cuba Economy needs Investment and financial access to global capital and entrepreneurial capitalists to supply funds to open Cuban contracts to be honored. Cuba has traded doctors and healthcare professionals in exchange for oil with Venezuela. Cuba also has current joint investment ventures with Spain, Canada, Brazil, India, China, Russia and others to build out infrastructure, explore for oil in the Gulf of Mexico, improve transportation, and get needed things that are not available from the USA.

HOW DO I INVEST IN CUBA?

Cuba Beaches (Photo credit: citronate)

So the logical next question is "How do international investors invest directly in Cuba?
One way is to purchase Cuban issued debt. Good Luck! These tricky bonds can be purchased through European broker dealers. U. S. citizens are limited by USA laws as to how they can invest in Cuba however U.S. citizens can buy shares in international securities that do business with Cuba but do not receive a majority percentage of Profits of their corporate revenues from Cuban activities and operations. Therefore an American investor can easliy and legally buy into Canada, Spain and Mexico and other companies that have corporations doing business directly with Cuba.

The Cuban investment options include a closed end investment fund, based in Miami, Florida has a portfolio of companies within the fund that the manager believes will benefit from a lifting of the US Embargo against Cuba. The prospectus of the closed end fund (NYSE symbol: CUBA) lists the companies. Many of these companies can be purchased directly by investors without any need to purchase the closed end fund itself.
Insider Cuban investors know that best kept secret investment for Cuba in the short and long term is the closed end investment fund that was listed on the Channel Island Stock Exchange, under the symbol CIEBA with a focused portfolio of investments directly inside Cuba. CEIBA Investments Ltd. www.ceibainvestments.com is currently the largest listed company exclusively dedicated to investments in Cuba with interests in Cuban commercial property and tourism real estate assets.
It is the foreign shareholder of the Cuban joint venture that owns the Miramar Trade Center in Havana and also holds interests in four hotels managed by the Spanish hotel operator Meliá. However, US persons are currently prohibited from investing in a Cuba dedicated company such as CEIBA. As for management? CIEBA Investments has also put together the most expereinced foriegn investment management team that live and work directly from Havana in Cuba to manage the day to day operations of the Cuban joint Ventures.

Any investor in the World can travel to Cuba without restrictions EXCEPT U.S. citizens. Travel to Cuba is not restricted for U.S. citizens but spending any money in Cuba is illegal over a certain daily allowance or unless you have a General or Specific License from the US Treasury Office of Foreign Assets Control.

These American regulations and restrictions against Cuba will change under the Obama Administration and soon many US citizens will be able to travel to Cuba. Additional ways US investors can legally travel to see Cuba and make Cuban contacts for business in order to find potential future opportunities is to travel with your State Governor or agricultural trade delegation to Cuba or, if you are licensed healthcare professional, you may be able to travel to Cuba with any non profit health, information, travel or even business group.

Diversified investors may be interested in emerging markets and Cuba will emerge as a powerhouse of Silicon Island in the areas of biotechnology, energy (sugarcane, oil) and tourism. Investing in Cuba will be compared to investments in oil, gas, gold and other precious metals when they were only pennies on the dollar. Let hope we are right on this Investment in Cuba.

9/24/2010

Cuba Finally Opens To New Economic Reforms

Cuban Entrepreneurs Open For New Business
Cuban small businessman can now repair broken items on a street in Havana with the full support of the Cuban government. Cuba is launching a series of major economic reforms that will effect the livelihood of all Cubans, including approving a number of small business licensees. Cuba elite communist ministers mapped out a dramatic shift in the new arena of free enterprise in Cuba by approving a huge list of small businesses, allowing ordinary Cubans to hire employees and even promising financing to a new breed of entrepreneurs.

The reforms were printed in the most popular Cuban Newspaper in a three-page spread in the Communist Party-daily Granma which seemed to create a society of haves and have-nots in the island of Cuba that has spent half a century doing everything possible to create an equal utopia.

Last week's announcement that the government will lay off 1,000,000 employees by the end of March is equal to one-tenth of the entire country's workforce and the biggest change in Cuba's economic system since opening of the Cuban economy.

For the first time, Cubans in 98 private businesses will be allowed to hire people other than their relatives, and they will be able to sell their services to the state as private independent contractors.

Accountants in Cuba
Accountants, currently only permitted to work for the state, can set out on their own, keeping the books for these new businesses. Cubans who want to rent their homes to travellers will no longer have to live on the premises and can hire staff. Even islanders authorized to live overseas though apparently not exiles can take part in the economic changes by renting out the cars and homes they leave behind.

Cuba's Central Banking Minister is analyzing a variety of ways to grant small-business financing and forgivable loans that are crucial to any growing free-market system but which would have been unimaginable in Cuba just a few short weeks ago.

The decision to open up and change the economic rules on private employment in Cuba's economy is one of the steps the country has taken in the redesign of its economic policies in order to cut expenses and increase production and efficiency. Cuba's top newspaper, Granma reported that Economy Minister Marino Murillo Jorge and a vice-minister of labour and social security would oversee the transition of the new cuban economy in the hopes of a brighter future for all Cubans.
FOREIGN INVESTORS IN CUBA
Foreign investors welcomed the news and its another step in the right direction for the Cuban investment climate. Cuban, European and even American investors are now studying the new laws to see where the best opportunities may be uncovered. Other investors sa that its best to get in now right out of the gate to ensure that your future profits are locked in. Either way its going to be a very interesting opportunity for Cubans as they get there first taste of Capitalism and to take hold of their own economic future for the first time in over 4 years.

8/29/2010

REAL ESTATE INVESTMENT IN CUBA

Cuba Hotel Investment

CUBA OPENS FOR REAL ESTATE INVESTMENT

HAVANA (AP) — Cuba has begun allowing foreign investors to lease government land for up to 99 years, a step toward a future that could be filled with golf courses ringed by luxury villas, beachfront timeshares and vacation homes for well-heeled tourists.

But while overseas developers are cheering, some caution that the communist island has been down this road before, embracing foreign ownership with an eye toward bolstering tourism revenues — only to scrap those reforms when the economy improved and profit margins no longer seemed as important as maintaining state control of commerce.

A decree that was published as law Thursday loosened property laws enough to allow 99-year leases for foreigners. A measure appearing the following day expanded self-employment, letting Cubans grow and sell small amounts of farm products out of their homes or special kiosks.

Large agricultural holdings are state-controlled, but small farmers were already allowed to work their own land. The law will allow more Cubans to do so and let them sell what they produce, but will also make them pay taxes on their profits.

The moves are significant as President Raul Castro promises to scale back the state's near-total dominance of the economy while attempting to generate new revenue for a government short on cash.

Still, it's too early to herald a new Cuba, said John Kavulich, a senior policy adviser for the U.S.-Cuba Trade and Economic Council in New York.

"I don't think it's going to open a floodgate. I think it may turn on a tap so that people know there's water," he said.

Far more optimistic was Robin Conners, president and CEO of Vancover-based Leisure Canada, which wants to build hotels, villas and two golf courses on a stretch of beach in Jibacoa, 40 miles (64 kilometers) east of Havana.

"We see the times are changing, so to speak," Conners said.

Cuba already allowed leases of state land for up to 50 years with the option to extend them for an additional 25, but foreign investors had long pressed tourism officials to endorse 99-year lease deals to provide additional peace of mind to investors.

The longer leases also mean lower interest rates on international banking mortgages, Conners said.

"I think this is huge," he said by phone while vacationing in Paris.

Conners' company hopes to begin construction on a luxury hotel in the Havana neighborhood of Miramar next year — with the project at Jibacoa and another plan for development on Cayo Largo, a cay off Cuba's southern coast, "not far off."

Investors in Canada, Europe and Asia have been waiting to crack the market for long-term tourism in Cuba, built on visitors who could live part-time on the island instead of just hitting the beach for a few days. The U.S. bars its companies from doing business with Cuba.

The change may also help Cuba embrace golf. Investment firms have for decades proposed building lavish 18-hole courses with luxury housing for foreigners.

Despite years of grand plans, however, Cuba has just two golf courses and has yet to approve construction of any new ones — though the tourism Ministry says it would like to build 10 more.

Andrew Macdonald, CEO of Britain's Esencia Hotels and Resorts, said his company had planned to start construction last year on the Carbonera Country Club, a $300 million development outside the resort of Varadero, but is still waiting for government approval. In addition to an 18-hole golf course, Macdonald's plan calls for 800 luxury apartments and 100 villas.

"It's exceedingly good news," Macdonald said of the new rule. "It's been a long road. But having said that, it's very important for the country that they get each step right, and this is a very big step for them."

NEW CUBA REAL ESTATE LAWS
The new law makes it clear Cuba is looking to boost profits, saying the step is necessary "for the sustainable development of the country and the international economy."

While the longer-term leases could reshape international investment in Cuba, meanwhile, allowing more production and sales of agriculture products will likely have far greater impact on ordinary Cubans.

The law marks the first major expansion of self-employment since Castro said in an address to parliament Aug. 1 that his government would reduce state controls on small businesses and private enterprise — a big deal in a country where about 95 percent of people work for the state.

Cubans already sell fruit, pork, cheese and other items on the sides of highways across the country, fleeing whenever the police happen past. The new measure legalizes such practices by letting Cubans grow whatever they wish and sell it, while bolstering state coffers with new taxes on their earnings.

Oscar Espinosa Chepe, a state-trained economist who became a dissident anti-communist and was jailed for his political beliefs in 2003 before being paroled for health reasons, called the decree "an intelligent move."

"It's good, though still something very limited," Espinosa Chepe said.

7/23/2010

Cuba Releases Political Prisioners to Spain

Add caption

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."

http://Calls2Cuba.com

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