Latin America

Chavez Returns to Venezuela

By Ewan Robertson

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Mérida, 18th February 2013 (Venezuelanalysis.com) – Venezuelan president Hugo Chavez returned to Venezuela in the early hours of this morning after over two months in Cuba recovering from cancer surgery.

“We’ve arrived once again to the Venezuelan Homeland. Thank you God! Thank you beloved people! We’ll continue treatment here,” announced Chavez on Twitter when he arrived in Caracas airport at 2.30am this Monday morning.

The Venezuelan head of state had been in Cuba recovering from an operation in the pelvic region undergone on 11 December, in what was his fourth cancer surgery in 18 months.
In another tweet Chavez also thanked the Castro brothers, Cuban president Raul and former president Fidel for their support, as well as his medical team, declaring, “We will live and we will overcome!”

Fidel Castro also wrote a letter to Chavez before his departure from Havana, in which he referred to the stage reached in the Venezuelan president’s recovery.
“A long and agonising wait, as well as your astonishing capacity for physical resistance and the total dedication of a team of doctors…were necessary to achieve this objective,” he wrote.
Upon arrival Chavez was taken to the Dr. Carlos Arvelo military hospital in Caracas, where he will continue treatment as part of his recovery.

On Friday the first images of Chavez since his operation were released, which showed the Venezuelan president smiling and reading, while an official statement confirmed that temporarily he had difficulty speaking due to having a tracheal tube in place for respiratory insufficiency.

This morning, Venezuelan communication minister Ernesto Villegas argued that the official information given on Chavez’s recovery had been vindicated as accurate against voices in international and Venezuelan media which sought to speculate on the president’s health.

“He’s back, he’s back, he’s back,” said Villegas in an interview on state channel VTV, continuing, “the ominous voices are defeated, those who were calling into question the information emitted by the national government with respect to Chavez’s health”.

Villegas added that “a terrible machinery was activated to delegitimise, to call into question all of the information that was being given, including by echoing the most atrocious versions (of Chavez’s state of health)”.

The minister also said that Chavez “ordered at all times that the country was informed on the progress of his treatment,” and that the government had given 30 official updates on the president’s clinical progress during his stay in Cuba.

Venezuelan vice president Nicolas Maduro called on people to gather around the country to celebrate Chavez’s return.
By dawn a crowd had already gathered outside the Dr. Carlos Arvelo military hospital in Caracas to show their support for Chavez.

Maduro also confirmed that the leadership of Chavez’s party, the United Socialist Party of Venezuela (PSUV), would be meeting today to discuss the party’s political strategy in the new circumstances.

Chavez Returns to Venezuela

Latin America, U.S. Embargo

Rethinking the Cuba perk

Legal Travel To Cuba

February 16, 2013

Cuban immigrant Ed Lacosta holds his baby Melody Grace, 6 months at a special Valentine's Day naturalization ceremony for married couples on February 14, 2013 in Tampa, Florida. The U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Service (USCIS) held the Valentine's Day ceremony in Tampa for 28 married couples from 15 different countries. (John Moore/Getty Images / February 15, 2013)
Cuban immigrant Ed Lacosta holds his baby Melody Grace, 6 months at a special Valentine’s Day naturalization ceremony for married couples on February 14, 2013 in Tampa, Florida. The U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Service (USCIS) held the Valentine’s Day ceremony in Tampa for 28 married couples from 15 different countries. (John Moore/Getty Images / February 15, 2013)

For Cubans who want to immigrate to the United States, the hardest part is getting here.

Since 1966, they’ve essentially been granted automatic refugee status upon arrival. The Cuban Adjustment Act was enacted then to address the legal status of 300,000 Cubans who’d fled Fidel Castro’s socialist revolution.

Almost half a century later, the Cubans who come to America rarely claim to be victims of political persecution. They want a better economic future, or to join family members already here, or both — just like most of the people who want to immigrate from anywhere else.

Unlike most immigrants, though, Cubans don’t have to wait years for a visa, or sneak across the border illegally. Once they’re here, they’re fast-tracked to legal residency, with a clear path to citizenship.

It’s a sore subject as Congress considers what to do with the 11 million undocumented immigrants to whom the system has not been so generous.

Those immigrants — more than half of them from Mexico — live and work under the government’s radar, often for low wages, constantly in fear of being deported.

To come here legally, most Mexican laborers would have to wait decades for a visa. But Cubans who present themselves at our southern border — a common point of entry, thanks to the U.S. “wet foot, dry foot” policy — are allowed in once they show an ID.

“It’s becoming increasingly difficult to justify it to my colleagues,” said Sen. Marco Rubio, a Florida Republican who is the son of Cuban immigrants. Rubio is one of eight senators working on a bipartisan immigration reform bill. “I’m not sure we’re going to be able to avoid, as part of any comprehensive approach to immigration, a conversation about the Cuban Adjustment Act,” he said.

The special considerations are especially hard to defend now that Cubans can travel freely between the U.S. and their homeland, thanks to loosened restrictions at both ends.

In 2009, President Barack Obama lifted most of the limits that kept Cuban-Americans from traveling to the island to visit family. Last year, more than 400,000 of them did so, some dozens of times.

In January, the Cuban government began allowing citizens to leave without an exit permit. Passports are now granted more liberally, and those who leave can stay away up to two years without losing their residency. Most Cubans are able to come and go at will.

Together, the changes are likely to invite a new influx of Cubans to the U.S., where they are eligible for legal residency, while encouraging them to return frequently to visit family — and spend money — in Cuba.

We have no problem with allowing Cuban-Americans to travel back and forth to Cuba. Congress ought to kill the travel ban entirely, so that all Americans can visit the island. Tourists from other countries have been flocking to “terrorist” Cuba for years.

Mixing it up with the outside world is an important exercise for Cubans as they ponder a future without the aging Castro brothers.

But it’s hard to argue that Cubans who can come and go as they please are in need of special considerations normally reserved for victims of political repression. One does not flee communism only to return repeatedly with a suitcase full of money and merchandise for the family.

Nor does it make sense to allow entry to the U.S. based not on a claim of persecution, but on whether the person dodged the Coast Guard boats long enough to tag American soil.

To be fair, those immigrants aren’t lying about their circumstances. They’re not required to demonstrate that they’re political refugees. They come because they can. But it isn’t fair. Cubans who want to come here for economic reasons should play by the same rules as economic immigrants from other countries.

Copyright © 2013 Chicago Tribune Company, LLC

Cuba - Social, Cuban Politics, Latin America

About Some of the Changes in Cuba

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February 15, 2013
Andrés Gómez, Director of Areítodigital

A CubaNews translation. Edited by Walter Lippmann.

Miami.- I returned from Havana recently after a few weeks in that beloved city. A lot is changing in Havana, just as in the rest of the Island, as a result of the new economic measures in place in the country.

Clearly the changes are positive. New enterprising forces are visible. These were made possible by the latest laws, guidelines and regulations. The most obvious changes are those related to transportation, gastronomy and building. Also and most importantly is the money available to the population in general.

The availability of money in the population in general makes possible the rest of the changes that are taking place. Today I will talk about the three I mentioned before. Perhaps because I am not an economist I fail to understand how with the level of salaries received by the large majority of Cuban workers so many of them can spend so much money to acquire so many things. I know that there are sectors related to the new businesses that have a higher purchasing power; but it is difficult for me to believe that there are as many persons related to these new businesses as those we see spending money in the streets and buying at the commercial shops in the city. This situation is still an enigma for me. And although it is a mystery, I see it with pleasure, because people enjoy it and benefit from it. There will be time for me to understand it.

Transportation in the city has improved considerably, and not because the government has acquired many more buses, but because the private sector has made available to many customers the old American cars -at least their bodies, because these cars operate with motors and parts of cars that are not American. And I say to many –and not to all- because a trip in Havana (in the metropolitan area) in one of these cars costs between 10 and 20 non-convertible Cuban pesos.

Most of the persons who have to use public transportation because of their economic situation, must use the available buses whose numbers have increased, but are still not enough. However, the availability of “almendrones” [literally big almonds], as these private cars used for public transportation are called, contributes greatly to solve the transportation problem.

It is amazing to see the lines of almendrones, one after the other, along the main avenues in the city such as Avenidas 51, 41, 31 and 3ra in Marianao and Playa, Línea or 23 in Plaza, or Calle Neptuno in Centro Habana picking up passengers and performing dangerous maneuvers against traffic regulations. It looks as if all the old American cars in the Island are running as public transport along the streets of Havana. It is a good business that of almendrones!

Gastronomy seems good business as well. There are small places that require little investment with a counter or table to serve their products; some with a little electric oven or toaster. These are in home porches, building entrances, garages of houses or buildings, or inside houses that serve food from an enlarged window. They sell ham or ham and cheese sandwiches, omelets in bread –the omelet could be of plain eggs or with added onion, ham, cheese or combinations of these. Among these places there are many that sell Cuban pizzas or Cuban food. The Cuban menu and pizzas have been available for a longer while, but are more numerous now.

And ranking above these basic places there are others -better and larger- that are considered cafeterias, some with a few tables and chairs and others that also have a bar counter and tall chairs. These places vary in decoration, some are quite rustic, but others are rather elegant. The cafeterias offer different sandwiches and hamburgers, pizzas and even more sophisticated dishes.

And higher up in this gastronomic chain are the paladares and private restaurants that specialize in different cuisines or menus; from the budget places to the expensive and the very expensive.

Another visible change in Havana these days is in construction, or rather the repair, remodeling and enlarging of homes. The new laws related to the buying and selling of houses and the new regulations to facilitate the legal procedures to repair or enlarge houses have fueled these processes.

It is very encouraging to see how –not only in the areas where the best houses in the city are located, supposedly the places where the owners with more money reside, but practically in every neighborhood in the capital city- so many people are involved in the improvement of their houses.

And these activities have stimulated the creation of places where building materials are sold, including more materials and parts related to these works in the hardware stores of the State commercial network, and specially a proliferation of small kiosks that sell plumbing appliances of great demand.

In future articles I will be dealing with these issues, because they are important to see how our country is at the moment in the midst of a positive process of change that, even with its problems, makes life more productive and pleasant to our people in the Island.//

Sobre algunos de los cambios en Cuba

15 de febrero de 2013 Andrés Gómez, director de Areítodigital

Miami.- Recientemente regresé de La Habana después de estar varias semanas en esa querida ciudad. Mucho cambia en La Habana, como mucho también cambia en el resto de la Isla, como consecuencia de las nuevas medidas económicas que han entrado en efecto en el país.

Claramente los cambios son positivos. Se hacen evidentes nuevas fuerzas emprendedoras posibilitadas por las nuevas leyes, directrices y reglamentos. Entre los cambios que más se hacen obvios están los relacionados al transporte, la gastronomía y a la construcción. Como también, y más importantemente, es indudable el dinero disponible en la población en general.

Lo del dinero disponible en la población en general posibilita el resto de los cambios que tienen lugar y de los cuales hoy trataré sobre los tres anteriormente señalados. Quizás sea porque no soy economista, pero realmente no entiendo, cómo con el nivel de los sueldos que percibe la inmensa mayoría de las trabajadoras y trabajadores cubanos puedan gastar muchos de ellos tanto dinero en adquirir tantas cosas. Entiendo que hay sectores relacionados a los nuevos negocios que tienen más poder adquisitivo. Pero me es muy difícil creer que haya tantas personas relacionadas a estos nuevos negocios como las que se ven gastando dinero en las calles y comprando en los establecimientos comerciales de la ciudad. Para mí esta situación sigue siendo un enigma. Aunque es un misterio que percibo con regocijo porque la gente lo disfruta y se beneficia. Ya tendré tiempo para entenderlo.

El transporte en la capital ha mejorado notablemente y no porque el gobierno haya adquirido muchos más autobuses sino porque el sector privado ha puesto a disposición de muchos los viejos automóviles americanos, al menos sus carrocerías, ya que estos carros funcionan con motores y piezas de carros que no son americanos. Digo a disposición de muchos –y no de todos– ya que un viajecito en La Habana en estos carros, y cuando digo en La Habana, incluyo toda el área metropolitana, oscila entre los $10 y $20 pesos moneda nacional no convertible.

La mayoría de la gente que tiene que utilizar transporte público, por necesidad económica, tiene que recurrir a los autobuses disponibles, que han aumentado en número, pero siguen siendo insuficientes. Aunque la disponibilidad de los almendrones, como son conocidos los carros privados que se utilizan en el transporte público, alivia notablemente el problema de ese transporte.

Es increíble ver las hileras de almendrones, uno detrás de otro, por las vías principales de la ciudad como pudieran ser las Avenidas 51, 41, 31 y 3ra en Marianao y Playa, Línea o 23 en Plaza, o la Calle Neptuno en Centro Habana, recogiendo pasajeros, en peligrosos despliegues de paragüería. Tal perece que todos los viejos carros americanos de la Isla corren en estos tiempos como carros públicos por las calles de La Habana. Es un buen negocio el de los almendrones.

Como tal parece ser que un buen negocio también es el de los establecimientos relacionados con la gastronomía. Estos pudieran ser pequeños lugares, que requieren poca inversión, con una tabla o mesa para despachar, algunos con hornitos o planchas eléctricas, que se encuentran en portales de viviendas, entradas de edificios o entradas de garajes de casas y edificios, o dentro de viviendas en las que se despacha por las ventanas ampliadas de las viviendas. Estos pudieran vender panes con jamón, con jamón y queso, panes con tortilla — la tortilla pudiera ser de huevos solamente o de huevos con cebolla, con jamón, queso y sus combinaciones. También hay entre este tipo de establecimientos los que se dedican a la venta de pizzas, pizzas cubanas, o de comida criolla. Este último menú así como el de la venta de pizzas tienen más tiempo de existencia, aunque ahora proliferan.

Y partiendo de este tipo básico de establecimiento hay otros mejores o más amplios que son considerados cafeterías que pudieran ser de los más básicos con algunas mesitas con sillas, hasta otros que, además de las mesitas, tienen mostrador con banquetas. Estos están montados desde de una manera rústica a otros que están muy bien puestos. Estas cafeterías pueden ofertar diferentes tipos de bocaditos y hamburguesas, pizzas, hasta platos más sofisticados.

Y entonces están los paladares y restaurantes privados especializándose en diferentes tipos de cocinas o menús. Desde los que son más económicos hasta los que son caros, bien caros.

Otro cambio que se hace evidente en estos tiempos en La Habana es el de la construcción, o más bien, el de remozar, reparar y ampliar viviendas. Las nuevas leyes relacionadas a la venta y compra de viviendas y las nuevas regulaciones dirigidas a la agilización de los trámites relacionados a la reparación o ampliación de viviendas han dado impulso a estas necesidades.

Es muy estimulante ver cómo, no solamente en los barrios donde se encuentran las mejores viviendas de la ciudad –que es donde uno supone se encuentren los propietarios con más dinero disponible — sino en prácticamente todos los barrios de la capital muchos se han volcado a mejorar sus viviendas.

Y con estas actividades se ha impulsado la creación de lugares donde se venden materiales de la construcción, incluyendo más materiales y piezas relacionadas con estos trabajos en las propias ferreterías de las redes comerciales estatales, y muy especialmente la proliferación de los timbiriches donde se venden productos relacionados a la plomería, que tanta falta hacen.

Sobre estos asuntos trataré en próximos artículos ya que éstos son de importancia para representar a nuestro país como éste se encuentra actualmente en medio de un acertado proceso de cambios que, aunque con sus problemas, hace la vida más productiva y placentera a los nuestros en la Isla.//