CARTAS DE CUBA, SPRING 2006

S E C R E T SECTION 01 OF 05 HAVANA 010189 SIPDIS SIPDIS E.O. 12958: DECL: 05/11/2021 TAGS: PGOV PINR PINS ECON EFIN EAGR SOCI UN CU SUBJECT: CARTAS DE CUBA, SPRING 2006 REF: HAVANA 9343 HAVANA 00010189 001.2 OF 005 Classified By: MICHAEL E. PARMLY FOR REASONS 1.4 b/d ¶1. (U) The latest installment of Cartas de Cuba features the following items: - GOC Delirious Over HRC Win - PR on the Prowl - PR vs. BR - Robinson Liked His Whiskey - Party Shuffle - Feisty - New Strategy: Give 'Em Money, Make 'Em Spend It - Just Below the Surface - CDRs... Who Needs 'Em? - Creeping Sloth - How (Not) To Make Money in Cuba - Neat Trick - Part I - Neat Trick - Part II - Cuban Organics - Lots of Green Hype GOC Delirious Over HRC Win -------------- ¶2. (U) The Cuban media is aglow with victory over Cuba's election to the UN's new Human Rights Council. In the May 10 edition of Granma newspaper, Foreign Minister Felipe Perez Roque calls the win "one of Cuba's most important foreign policy victories in 46 years of the Revolution." He attacks the EU for collaborating with the U.S. to block Cuba's election, attributing Cuba's win to a secret ballot that allowed third world countries to vote "on the side of justice." ¶3. (C) Behind the scenes, British DCM Nigel Baker relayed a message from New York that the Cuban delegation reacted with "visible shock" that they achieved only seventh place out of eight available Latin American slots on the Human Rights Council. The Cuban media did not mention the close shave. PR on the Prowl -------------- ¶4. (SBU) At 4:00 a.m. on an early morning some two weeks ago, a Mexican diplomat found himself chatting outside his apartment building with a visiting Chilean businesswoman. (They stood near a park on Fifth Avenue known locally as Parque Chupa Chupa, or "Lollipop Park.") The Chilean complained at length that she was waiting for a friend who always showed up late. A few minutes later, Foreign Minister Felipe Perez Roque strolled out of the park to meet her. Without disclosing his status as a diplomat, the Mexican spent several minutes with Perez Roque, describing him as "personable, friendly and a lot nicer than in his speeches." Perez Roque is married. PR vs. BR -------------- ¶5. (S) Doctor Hilda Molina (protect),former biomedical science adviser to Castro, said Foreign Minister Felipe Perez Roque and one of his deputies, Bruno Rodriguez Parrilla, were locked in a power struggle within the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MINREX). Perez Roque's close relationship with Castro appears unshakable (he is often referred to as "speaking with Fidel's mouth"),but Rodriguez Parrilla was also hand-picked by Castro and may be gaining ground on Perez Roque. According to a Cuban USINT employee who formerly worked for Rodriguez - and "hates him" - the Deputy FonMin is a meticulous, slavering lapdog who never risks stepping on the toes of a higher- up. His painstaking attention to detail made him a favorite of Castro's (especially during his years as Permanent Representative to the UN). Rodriguez scored recent points for heading up a successful official visit to Pakistan. Robinson Liked His Whiskey -------------- HAVANA 00010189 002.2 OF 005 ¶6. (S) Politburo member Juan Carlos Robinson Agramonte was dismissed April 28 for "behavior unbecoming of a communist" (reftel). Local Cuban businessman Maximo Lopez (protect) said Robinson was "bad through and through," engaged in corruption, talked ostentatiously on his cell phone, partied visibly, and even served whiskey to his guests. (Whiskey is an expensive, foreign product. Robinson should have stuck to rum - if anything at all.) Despite his love for material things, Lopez said Robinson "talked like a Stalinist hard liner." The contradictions between Robinson's "walk and talk" became too stark, and he is reportedly being held in Villa Marista prison. Party Shuffle -------------- ¶7. (U) The May 9 edition of Granma newspaper announced the promotions of Pedro Betancourt Garcia and Omar Ruiz Martin to the positions of First Secretary of the Communist Party in Matanzas and Villa Clara, respectively. The two come from very different backgrounds. Betancourt, who appears to be in his early 40s, worked as an automotive mechanic before dedicating himself to Party activities. Ruiz, who appears slightly older, is a former teacher and administrator. Both men have ten years experience as Party apparatchiks. Feisty -------------- ¶8. (S) Reuters journalist Marc Frank said the GOC had followed the course of the Iraq War closely, and increased defense spending last year by several million USD to include the purchase of small arms (sniper rifles and homemade bomb kits as opposed to tanks). Frank spoke to a Cuban veteran eager to take up small arms and fight off a U.S. invasion. The vet confessed he hadn't fired a rifle in fifteen years, but remembered how to make a Molotov cocktail. (Note: GOC propaganda regularly warns the population of a potential U.S. invasion, using Iraq as an example of USG intentions towards Cuba. State-run media report every day on U.S. casualties, just like The New York Times. End Note.) New Strategy: Give 'Em Money, Make 'Em Spend It -------------- --- ¶9. (C) Observers claimed last year's increase in Cuban salaries and pensions would lead to inflation. Low production was expected to increase inflationary pressures. Reuters journalist Marc Frank said Castro had resolved the inflation problem in the short term by creating "artificial production," i.e., spending millions of dollars on cheap, high demand consumer goods (like Chinese pressure cookers) and selling them in Cuban pesos. The strategy recoups the extra liquidity injected by the salary increase, thus putting a damper on inflation. ¶10. (C) In a broader sense, Frank thought the GOC had adopted a new strategy to go from simply "subsidizing everything" to raising salaries and insisting people pay for goods and services. This would explain recent moves such as electricity hikes, the wide distribution of Chinese electro domestic appliances and Castro's threats to do away with the ration system. (Cubans tell us regularly that the Chinese appliances are defective and don't save them money on electric bills. One model has a plastic blue thermostat button that melts when the oven is on.) Just Below the Surface -------------- ¶11. (C) AFP journalist Patrick Lescot lives in Miramar, a once-privileged neighborhood that still houses many light- skinned descendants of rich families. Lescot integrated himself into his local Committee for the Defense of the Revolution (CDR, or block organization). He told P/E Officer that many of his white, elderly neighbors are fierce patriots who fought in Angola and love Fidel. Despite their so-called revolutionary credentials, they are openly racist, blaming the country's ills on "lazy, thieving blacks." Lescot theorized that Fidel earns much HAVANA 00010189 003.2 OF 005 bedrock support from white Cubans who see him as their protector from the black hordes. "Their deepest fear," he said, "is that Fidel will die and the blacks will take over the country." ¶12. (C) Cuban businessman Maximo Lopez laughed off this theory but conjectured that Castro himself was deeply racist. Lopez, a self-described "lover of mulattas," said Castro had maintained many white mistresses over the years, but never a mixed-race or black woman. Lopez also pointed out there were no blacks among Castro's intimate advisers. In a country where the vast majority of the population is black or mixed race, Lopez insisted only a racist could mingle so exclusively with whites. Also, in Cuban Air Force defector Rafael del Pino's memoirs, he quotes Castro as stating, "We'll only have to pay a pittance of an indemnity to those black guys," when he ordered the Cuban Air Force to sink a Bahamian ship in ¶1980. ¶13. (C) Burkinabe First Secretary Issa Soma believes the absence of blacks in leadership positions is only one part of a much bigger problem: Pervasive racism. He described Cuba as a society fundamentally divided between poor blacks and privileged whites. He felt tensions ran so deep, they would preclude a peaceful transition after Castro's departure. He said Castro's strong hand kept a lid on the situation, but without him, "it would explode." Bulgarian Commercial Officer Galina Kostadinova, who is married to a Cuban, said racial divisions were more marked outside Havana. Racism runs deeper, and there is less racial mixing as a result. ¶14. (U) Comment: The Revolution claims to have vanquished racism, and many Cubans say it doesn't exist. They tend to avoid serious discussions about race, though the topic comes up regularly via jokes, stereotypes, hand gestures and derogatory comments. An issue so long repressed could erupt violently and unpredictably. End Comment. CDRs... Who Needs 'Em? -------------- ¶15. (C) Canadian academic Hal Klepak said CDRs were losing ground in their efforts to keep Cubans in line. Many CDR officials are themselves involved in illegal activities and in no position to turn in others. Others don't want to continue living in neighborhoods where they've become known as snitches. Klepak claimed CDR counterparts in the Soviet Union operated more effectively because the rewards were greater and the punishment of transgressors much harsher. As one Cuban commented, "No one wants to be CDR president anymore. It's just a pain. You have to do all this stuff, and for what?" (Comment: Yogi Berra's line: "Nobody goes to that restaurant anymore; it's too crowded" may apply here. CDRs are still very much a factor in every day life. End Comment.) Creeping Sloth -------------- ¶16. (C) Swiss businessman Christian Laemmler told P/E Officer that Cubans have grown unaccustomed to hard work. He said the Cuban economy stays afloat by paying nearly nothing in salaries and misappropriating everything in goods. The lower the salaries, the more goods are stolen and the less people work. Chinese Ambassador Zhao told COM the entire Cuban culture, including the work ethic, is reminiscent of China during the early 1980's. (People showed up for work when they chose to and left on a whim.) When the Chinese chancery required a major overhaul, Zhao simply brought in Chinese workers to do the job, bypassing the Cuban services contractor CUBALSE. The principal advantage of the strategy, said Zhao, was that Chinese laborers put in a full day's work. Zhao noted that CUBALSE officials had commented pointedly to him on how much luckier the Chinese were for being able to use non- Cuban laborers. ¶17. (SBU) A domestic employee of a USINT officer said many of her friends had turned down opportunities to work for foreigners because the duties were expected to be overly burdensome. They turned down these jobs even though HAVANA 00010189 004.2 OF 005 "everyone knows that's where you make the most money." Another Cuban who works under the table as a fitness instructor gets around on her bike because she can't find anyone willing to chauffeur her motorcycle. She explained, "Every one wants dollars, but no one wants to do anything for them." Neat Trick (Part I) -------------- ¶18. (SBU) Last week, a Dutch businesswoman exchanged a large quantity of euros at the Casa de Cambio (Money Exchange). When she requested a receipt for the transaction, the teller "discovered" she had shortchanged the foreigner by fifty cents. The Dutch woman calculated the teller only had to perform the stunt twenty times a day to earn an extra two hundred USD on top of her official income (equivalent to fifteen USD per month). Neat Trick (Part II) -------------- ¶19. (SBU) A foreigner working in a joint venture couldn't understand why his cell phone bill went up by 300 USD one month. He approached ETECSA (the Italian-Cuban telecom joint venture) to inquire. After some investigation, he discovered each call had been broken down into separate calls of one minute's duration. For example, a ten minute call to Spain was being charged like ten calls to Spain of one minute each. How (Not) To Make Money in Cuba -------------- ¶20. (C) Local British entrepreneur Steve Marshall attempted to launch an IT operation in Cuba to design internet sites for Cuban entities. He set up a joint venture in 2000 under the Ministry of Informatics and Communications (MIC). He invested 50,000 USD in computer equipment and office space. He hired a Cuban staff of programmers and signed contracts with various GOC state companies. Each company committed to pay several thousand dollars per web site, payable in monthly installments of 1,000 USD. Marshall's contract stipulated that after recouping his investment plus an additional percentage, the entire operation would revert to Cuban hands. ¶21. (C) One day Marshall showed up unannounced to discover all his programmers working on private projects: "One was doing a web site to advertise his brother's house rental; another was designing a web site that we hadn't contracted, etc." The computers were operating at very slow speeds; apparently Marshall's staff had bypassed the padlocks on the hard drives and stolen most of the available memory. ¶22. (C) To make matters worse, Marshall's clients stopped making their payments. Marshall complained to MIC, then showed up one day to find the front door of his office chained shut. MIC officials said they could not allow the operation to continue until the "payments dispute" was resolved. (Marshall later discovered that MIC continued to use his staff and equipment on the sly to design web sites.) Marshall unloaded the operation on a Dutch investor, but continued working through the Cuban courts system to recoup the investment. A year later, MIC handed over the computers. Marshall inspected them. "They stole all the components, and our Pentiums were left with the operating capacity of junked 486 computers from the '90s." Cuban Organics - Lots of Green Hype -------------- ¶23. (U) Cuba's cooperative urban gardens, or "organoponicos," were established in the '90s to soak up urban unemployment and increase food availability in the cities. The GOC took advantage of bankruptcy to prohibit the use of environmentally-damaging (and expensive) pesticides in organoponicos. (Organoponico is a made-up word stemming from hydroponico, or hydroponic farming, a fad that didn't last long in Cuba due to the expense of chemical fertilizers.) HAVANA 00010189 005.2 OF 005 ¶24. (SBU) The organoponico project became an effective GOC propaganda tool because it proves to sympathetic foreigners -- especially "Greens" -- that Cuba is on the cutting edge of the organic movement. Most foreigners interested in the program are steered towards the beautifully outfitted "Organoponico Alamar" in the outskirts of Havana. The farm stand and urban garden were founded seven years ago on an empty lot in the Alamar housing project. Director Miguel Salcines pointed out state-of-the-art techniques to P/E Officer, including raised beds, timed irrigation, earthworm cultivation, crop rotation, even a cafeteria and chart showing how each worker shared in the profits. ¶25. (SBU) The truth is, however, that most organoponicos have little in common with Salcines' Potemkin farm. They are low-level productions, with rickety stands and little in the way of infrastructure. Produce at organoponicos sells for pennies, but the selection is wildly unpredictable (at one organoponico, P/E officer found nothing but radishes and parsley for sale). Most organoponicos are not located in high density neighborhoods and can be difficult to access. At an organoponico near Jose Marti airport, P/E officer glimpsed an agricultural worker wearing protective gear and spraying the plants - not a typically "organic" practice. ¶26. (C) Organoponicos are strictly small-scale, but many other Cuban agricultural operations have moved to organics by default. Cuban farmers have by now developed commendable organic practices, and organic farming accounts for perhaps 10 million USD in Cuba's GDP (mostly honey to Europe and coffee to Japan). Their dedication to environmentally responsible farming is questionable, however, given Cuba's farms were driven to organics not by choice but in desperation. Bill Messina, a citrus expert from the University of Florida, told P/E Officer of the many occasions Cuban farmers told him, "...if only I had a little in the way of pesticides, or fertilizers..." PARMLY