CARTAS DE CUBA, SPRING 2006

S E C R E T SECTION 01 OF 05 HAVANA 010189

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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

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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
--------------


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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

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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

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"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.)


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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