investment
The Philosophy of Marti versus the Totalitarian Model
The Philosophy of Marti versus the Totalitarian Model Posted on June 14, 2013 Published in the second edition of Cuadernos de Pensamiento Plural, April 2013. People cannot live without history. On the 160th anniversary of the birth José Martí, “the crowning figure of Cuban political thought,” his ideas, instead of being used to solve the [...] Continue reading
Dangerous Liaisons Cuba Tries Entrepreneurs for Corporate Corruption
Dangerous Liaisons: Cuba Tries Entrepreneurs for Corporate Corruption June 6, 2013 Fernando Ravsberg* HAVANA TIMES — Some of the most important entrepreneurs who have been doing business in Cuba for decades have been summoned to courts on the island to respond to serious corporate corruption charges, the visible face of a much broader clean-up campaign [...] Continue reading
Cuba Internet, in Slow Motion and Hard Currency
Cuba: Internet, in Slow Motion and Hard Currency / Ivan Garcia Posted on June 2, 2013 Facing the India fountain, next to Fraternity Park and close to the Capitol, in the center of Havana, is nestled the Hotel Saratoga. Its ancient facade, painted lime green, has an architecture of curved arches and tall columns. The [...] Continue reading
British businessmen await Cuba’s verdict as graft trial ends
British businessmen await Cuba’s verdict as graft trial ends By Marc Frank HAVANA | Fri May 31, 2013 7:50pm EDT (Reuters) – The two-day trial of two top executives of a British investment fund ended in Havana on Friday with a five judge panel expected to deliver its verdict within 10 days. The sentences of [...] Continue reading
Britons on trial in Cuba corruption crackdown
Posted on Thursday, 05.30.13 Britons on trial in Cuba corruption crackdown The Associated Press HAVANA — Two British businessmen targeted in a corruption probe in Cuba went on trial Thursday, as authorities continue to press a crackdown on graft that has caught up several other foreigners and dozens of islanders. A court official identified suspects [...] Continue reading
British fund executives to go on trial in Cuba
Exclusive: British fund executives to go on trial in Cuba Reuters By Marc Frank HAVANA (Reuters) – The two top executives of a British investment fund in Cuba are scheduled to go on trial in Havana on Thursday, according to sources close to the accused men, as part of an unprecedented government crackdown on corruption [...] Continue reading
The Morality of the Survivor
The Morality of the Survivor / Dimas Castellanos Posted on May 25, 2013 In the expanded meeting of the Council of Ministers held on Friday May 13, the head of Foreign Trade and Foreign Investment reported on the irregularities in the operation of businesses with foreign capital and international contracts; the Minister of Economy and [...] Continue reading
A new course
Business in Cuba A new course A tale of politics, corruption and golf May 25th 2013 | HAVANA AFTER the 1959 revolution Fidel Castro declared that golf was a “bourgeois” hobby, unsuitable for communists. Most of the island’s courses were built on, and no new ones have been developed since. But the government has just [...] Continue reading
Cuba readies corruption trials of Western businessmen
Cuba readies corruption trials of Western businessmen By Marc Frank HAVANA | Tue May 14, 2013 10:50pm EDT (Reuters) – Canadian and British executives of three foreign businesses shut in 2011 by Cuban authorities, ostensibly for corrupt practices, have been charged after more than a year in custody and are expected to go on trial [...] Continue reading
Cuba intensifies fight against corruption
Cuba intensifies fight against corruption IANSBy Indo Asian News Service | IANS Havana, May 14 (IANS/EFE) Corruption and illegal activities in areas like fuel distribution are of great concern for the Cuban government, the official media reported here Monday. Those issues were analyzed at a meeting of the Council of Ministers held last Friday at [...] Continue reading
Cuba government minister reports on corruption in international deals and gas
Posted on Tuesday, 05.14.13 Cuba government minister reports on corruption in international deals and gas By Juan O. Tamayo jtamayo@ElNuevoHerald.com Cuban government officials must fight “a grand battle” against corruption in areas such as business deals with foreigners and the distribution of gasoline, according to an official news media report Monday. Rodrigo Malmierca, Minister of [...] Continue reading
Cuba’s Democratic Left on State Socialism
Cuba’s Democratic Left on State Socialism May 9, 2013 | | Print Print | 0 5 11 32 HAVANA TIMES — A couple weeks ago we published a summary of an essay by Pedro Campos and Armando Chaguaceda on the inability of the State Socialist system that reigns in Cuba to carry out the changes [...] Continue reading
For a Sustainable Prosperity
For a Sustainable Prosperity / Reinaldo Escobar Posted on April 22, 2013 Two new words have been incorporated into the Newspeak of Cuban political officials and leaders: prosperous and sustainable. These “recent” adjectives are greatly used to describe the society they are trying to achieve or the socialism that is supposedly under construction. Both terms [...] Continue reading
Total Alienation
Total Alienation / Miriam Celaya Posted on March 28, 2013 Presided over by Cuba's General-President, on Friday, March 15, 2013 there was an extended meeting of the Council of Ministers, which, in addition to resembling any other, at the same time typifies both the inefficiency of the entire government apparatus and the impossibility of renewing [...] Continue reading
Change in Cuba: Less Costly Than Clinging to the Past
Change in Cuba: Less Costly Than Clinging to the Past December 6, 2012 Esteban Morales interviewed by Dmiti Prieto HAVANA TIMES — Esteban Morales is one of Cuba's most outstanding academics. An economist and a specialist on hemispheric policy, he is a grey-haired, tall, bearded black man with an air of being a taita, or [...] Continue reading
U.S. should approach Cuban embargo with caution
U.S. should approach Cuban embargo with caution Published: Wednesday, November 21, 2012 It has been more than 50 years since President John F. Kennedy signed a trade embargo against Cuba, mainly because of Cuba's relationship with Russia during the Cold War and the Cuban Missile Crisis. The embargo restricts American companies from forming business relationships [...] Continue reading
Russian oil company to invest $126m in offshore exploration
Russian oil company to invest $126m in offshore exploration Russian state oil company Zarubezhneft will spend close to $126 million on near-shore exploration off north-central Cuba that will begin in December, a Russian official said during a visit to the island. The Songa Mercur, a Soviet-built and Norwegian-owned semi-submersible, arrived Nov. 15 in Cuban waters, [...] Continue reading
Russian oil company close to offshore Cuba drilling
Russian oil company close to offshore Cuba drilling Published: 16 November, 2012, 14:44 Russian oil company Zarubezhneft is pushing ahead with its Cuba offshore drilling project as its oil rig reached Cuban territorial waters. The rig will start drilling at the L Block some 330 km from Havana, developing a joint venture between Zarubezhneft and [...] Continue reading
Foreign executives arrested in Cuba in 2011 await charges
Foreign executives arrested in Cuba in 2011 await charges Tue Oct 9, 2012 2:48pm EDT * Cubans say cases, investigation complicated * Home countries fret over due process * Potential witnesses barred from leaving island By Marc Frank HAVANA, Oct 9 (Reuters) – Executives of three foreign businesses shut in 2011 ostensibly for corrupt practices [...] Continue reading
The Cuban Regime Crosses Its Fingers Before Venezuelan Elections
The Cuban Regime Crosses Its Fingers Before Venezuelan Elections / Iván García Ivan Garcia, Translator: Unstated The presidential elections on October 7 may not be the triumphant military parade announced by Hugo Chavez. The Chavez vote has been trending downward. Capriles has gained the advantage. He has come from behind. Now it is a house-to-house [...] Continue reading
Cuba Surgeons Write to Raul Castro About Disastrous Health Care System
Cuba Surgeons Write to Raul Castro About Disastrous Health Care System Translating Cuba Open letter from the General Surgery Department of the "Calixto Garcia" Hospital to the First Secretary of the Cuban Communist Party and President of the Councils of State and Ministers, Army General Raul Castro Ruz To be good is the only way [...] Continue reading
Indecision time
Cuba Indecision time Never rapid, Raúl Castro's reforms seem to be stalling Sep 15th 2012 | HAVANA WHEN Raúl Castro, Cuba's president, gave his latest big speech, to a meeting of the National Assembly in July, he repeated his stock response to those who urge him to move faster with reforms to his country's stagnant [...] Continue reading
Cuba convicts 12 of corruption in nickel industry
Posted on Tuesday, 08.21.12 Cuba convicts 12 of corruption in nickel industry By PETER ORSI Associated Press HAVANA — A Cuban court has convicted a dozen people of corruption, including high-ranking government officials, an executive at a state-run nickel company and workers from a project operating under a Cuban-Canadian joint concern, official media announced Tuesday. [...] Continue reading
Foreign business in Cuba: Beware the dangerous embrace
Foreign business in Cuba: Beware the dangerous embrace Havana is at the same time attracting and terrifying entrepreneurs by Nancy Macdonald and Gabriela Perdomo on Wednesday, August 8, 2012 10:16am Until this spring, Stephen Purvis had it all. The British architect, who'd helped launch the Saratoga, Cuba's poshest hotel, was one of the more prominent [...] Continue reading
Independent Activism in Cuba
Independent Activism in Cuba August 5, 2012 June Fernandez* HAVANA TIMES — "Come wearing something red and kiss someone, because all forms of love are important." Last June 28, forty-six people who had received this message via instant messaging or e-mail met in the Havana bus terminal, near the Plaza of the Revolution, to kiss [...] Continue reading
Cuba still searching for economic model that works
Posted on Thursday, 08.02.12 Cuba still searching for economic model that works At annual conference on Cuba's economy, experts discuss current state of reforms, future prospects and look for similarities in other countries. One possibility: Vietnam. By Juan O. Tamayo And Mimi Whitefield jtamayo@elnuevoherald.com Cuba faces a difficult economic situation despite Raúl Castro's reforms, and [...] Continue reading