Category — Population

By Mary Anastasia O’Grady | Wall Street Journal

Hurricane Gustav and Hurricane Ike inflicted misery on millions of Cubans. But when the Castro dictatorship looks at the devastation, it sees opportunity.

Fidel Castro and his brother Raúl, who took over as head of state in February, for years have been calling for an end to the U.S. embargo, which they say is starving Cuba. But Cuba can already buy from U.S. producers all the food and medicine it can pay cash for. What the totalitarian tag-team really wants is an end to the ban on private-sector credit to the Cuban government.

Their demand has gone nowhere in Washington, both because of moral objections to doing business with tyrants, and because the Castro brothers are world-class deadbeats. They have defaulted on billions of dollars in debt to the rest of the world, and want credit from the “empire” (i.e., the U.S.) only because their options for borrowing elsewhere have narrowed significantly.

Now they are using the latest Cuban tragedy to ratchet up the pressure on Washington through the international press. Rather than accept an offer of $5 million in humanitarian assistance from the U.S., the regime is demanding that the credit ban be lifted. [Read more →]

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The New York Sun has an editorial on Freedom House’s study on change in Cuba published this week.

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Via Cuban state media:

The Saturno motor vessel of the Cuban Revolutionary Navy, is expected to arrive in Isla de la Juventud on Thursday loaded with materials for the reestablishment of the communications and energy systems in this area, devastated by hurricane Gustav.

The ship set sail on Tuesday from the Haiphong terminal of Havana’s port carrying four containers with power generators, communications equipment and liquid containers and 50 poles for the erection of electricity wires,according to statements by the ship’s commander Jorge Luis Mora Sotomayor to the Juventud Rebelde newspaper.

Mora Sotomayor sent a message of encouragement to the people of the Isle of Youth stressing that they can count on the Revolutionary Navy, and that the whole Cuban people is set to help in the recovery.

The vessel is expected to arrive in Nueva Gerona, Isla de la Juventud, Thursday noon. It is the first of several shipments to be sent by the navy to the island, located 44 miles off Cuba’s mainland south-western coast and considered a special municipality of the country.

Cuba’s Revolutionary Armed Forces Ministry (MINFAR) has been closely involved with the recovery efforts of Pinar del Rio and Isla de la Juventud. Colonel Raul Perez Ramos, Head of MINFAR’s Transportation Department said raw materials for basic industry and engineering equipment and bulldozers have been sent to those territories.

Trucks loaded with roof tiles have also been sent to Pinar del Rio, where nearly 90,000 houses were severely damaged.

“We are willing to assume the internal transportation of the tiles that have been shipped in by train,” said the Colonel.

In the meantime, the Executive National Secretary of the Committees for the Defense of the Revolution (CDR) called on all members of the organization to collect paper and cardboard for lagging materials for the roof tiles.

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Via Financial Times:

Like the other residents of the José Martí housing estate in Santiago, Cuba’s second city, Rafael Gonzalez has grown used to the taps running dry.

“Sometimes water arrives only two or three times a month,” says the 46-year-old restaurant worker, who often has to rely on what he collects in the two rusting oil drums parked on the balcony of his second-floor flat.

Now, however, change is in the offing. Fixing Santiago’s defective pipelines and aqueduct is one of a number of projects being given priority as Cuba’s Communist government ploughs billions of dollars into roads, electricity and water infrastructure.

José Martí and other Santiago barrios should benefit, for example, from a multi-million dollar restoration plan and Mr Gonzalez and his neighbours are looking forward to the improvement. “They say next year we will have water,” says Rolando, a 52-year-old retired carpenter. “They are ‘revolutionis ing’ things.”

“Revolutionising”, however, turns out to be a slow process. Cuba’s Communists are anxious to avoid the tumultuous transition experienced by the Soviet Union and – like their Chinese allies – are determined to hold on to political power. Nor, with their traditions of austere egalitarianism, do they have much appetite for the kind of market-based liberalisation that has taken place in China and Vietnam.

Even so, President Raúl Castro, who last month completed his second year at the helm of Cuba’s economy, is determined to press on with changes designed to increase economic efficiency and improve living standards. [Read more →]

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