Uncommon Sense

Invest in Cuba? It's a sucker's bet

Cuba's rubber-stamp parliament on Saturday approved a new law that ostensibly provides the road map for more foreign investment in Cuba, perhaps even by Cuban exiles overseas.

It could be another 90 days before the details are known, but it's hard not to conclude that investing in Cuba is a sucker's bet, especially with the government pledging to keep its heavy hand on those willing to risk investing in such a lousy economy. Just consider the experience of foreign firms that have found themselves ensnared in corruption scandals and questionable business practices of their Cuban "partners."

CNN has the details, such as they are:

Few would say Cuba is an easy place to do business, but a new law aimed at bringing pep to an anemic economy may lure more foreign investors.

Cuban lawmakers Saturday approved an international investment measure.

Vice President Marino Murillo Jorge, the economy czar, said that while Cuba would open further to investment, the government would retain a strong hand in dealing with investors.

"The state will always be a participant to avoid the concentration of property," Murillo said in televised remarks Saturday.

According to state media reports, 576 members of Cuba's National Assembly gathered for a special session to consider the international investment law.

Officials said greater international investment was necessary to expand the island's stagnant economy, which grew at 2.7% last year, below official predictions. Cuban officials say the country needs to grow at 7% annually in order to sufficiently expand the economy.

Members of the international media were not given access to the session.

Photos reveal the Venezuela of today, March 30, 2014

Every day for almost two months, the following scenes have been replayed on the streets of Venezuela, even if most of the world isn't paying attention.

(You can view previous collections of photos from Venezuela, here.)

Cuban independent journalist Yoeni de Jesús Guerra García sentenced to 7 years in prison

Yoeni de Jesús Guerra García

Cuban independent journalist Yoeni de Jesus Guerra Garcia, who has been subjected to numerous tortures since his arrest in October, has been sentenced to seven years in prison, according to a report at PayoLibre.com.

The report did not include what "charges" Guerra was convicted of, but a report last year said he was facing up to 20 years in prison for theft and slaughter of lifestock.

While in jail, Guerra has suffered several nervous breakdowns caused by various tortures, including beatings by guards, the lacing of his food with drugs and gang rape attack -- ordered by State Security officials -- by pedophile inmates.

"This is a great injustice fabricated by State Security because I wrote critical reports about the government and defended human rights," said Guerra, a correspondent for the Yayabo Press news agency. "They are Nazis, they have driven me crazy. I hardly remember anything that has happened to me."

Cuban political prisoner Alexander Fernandez says guards are torturing him with chemicals

Cuban political prisoner Alexander Roberto Fernandez Rico complained this week that State Security officers each night are spraying him with a chemical that leaves him with skin rashes and nausea, according to a report at PayoLibre.com.

In a March 23 telephone conversation that was cut short by prison officials, Fernandez, who is blind, told human rights activisits that he is being kept in a dungeon-like cell infested with rats and insects.

Fernandez, 38, was arrested in April 2012 and sentenced to three years in prison after while riding on bus, he shouted anti-Castro slogans to protest a police officer's beating of a passenger who had tried to catch a ride by holding on to the door of the bus.

"My son has been totally destroyed," Mercedes Rico told human rights activists. "He can't see anything, he doesn't walk. The interior ministry's doctors told me he is suffering from polyneuropathy."

Fernandez, who has gone on three hunger strikes in the past four years, is being kept at a prison about 700 kilometers from his home, making it difficult for his family and friends to help him, Rico said.

 

Cuban political prisoner Alcibíades Guerra on hunger strike for 20 days

Cuban political prisoner Alcibiades Guerra Marin has been on hunger strike since Feb. 28, the same day he was tried on a charge of "disrespecting Fidel Castro" after he shouted "Abajo Fidel," or "Down With Fidel."

Guerra's family reports he is gravely ill, suffering the effects of his protest. His poor condition has even drawn the apparent concern of his jailers, with telephone calls from prison officials advising his family and the Hablemos Press news agency of his protest.

Guerra's wife, Melkis Faure Echevarría, said Guerra is unable walk.

"He has told us, they will release me or I will die, Guerra said.

2 years after Pope Benedict's visit to Cuba, activists Sonia Garro and husband remain in jail without trial

Sonia Garro Alfonso and Ramon Alejandro Munoz

In Cuba, where repression and injustice are the norm, few cases are as eggregious as that of political prisoners Sonia Garro Alfonso and her husband Ramon Alejandro Munoz.

The couple were arrested March 17, 2012, on the eve of Pope Benedict XVI's visit to Cuba, and two years later they remained jail with the supposed case against them in limbo. Prosecutors last fall indicated they were seeking a 10-year sentence for Garro and 14 years for Munoz, on charges of "attacking," public disorder and attempted murder.

The court suspended the proceedings and since then, the couple's attorney has been suspended by Cuban authorities, adding to the injustice of the case against Garro and Munoz.

Other opposition activists have spoken out on behalf the couple.

The case, said Berta Soler, head of the Ladies In White, is "proof to the world that the Cuban government arbitrarily imprisons men and women solely for defending and promoting human rights."

Still, the pleas on her behalf have not been enough for Amnesty International to name her a prisoner of conscience.

Meanwhile, Garro's health remains precarious. While in prison, she has been afflicted with vaginal bleeding, a kidney infection, skin infections and osteoarthritis.

On top of that, she and her husband have been beaten several times and suffered other punishment while prison.

Read more about the couple here.

On hunger strike for almost 2 months, Cuban political prisoner Vladimir Morera moved to hospital

Vladimir Morera Bacallao

On hunger strike for almost two months, Cuban political prisoner Vladimir Morera Bacallao on Saturday was transferred to the provincial hospital in Villa Clara, his sister told Radio Marti.

Morera, an independent trade unionist, in November was sentenced to 8 years in prison on trumped-up charges after he was arrested during a Castro mob's "act of repudiation" outside the home of another activist, Jorge Ramirez Calderon, who was sentenced to 4 years in prison.

In early January, Morera started a hunger strike to demand his freedom, vowing to continue his protest until "liberty or death."

Last week, Morera and Ramirez were back in court, as the authorities seek to stack on more prison time for the activists. Morera was taken to court in an ambulance, accompanied by a doctor and a nurse because of poor health brought on my his hunger strike.

Today, Sunday, March 9, is the 58th day of Morera's protest.

Other activists in Cuba, as well as supporters overseas, are calling for solidarity with Morera, who they fear may soon die.

The following is a compilation of some of their tweets:

Cuban dictatorship seeks more prison time for 2 imprisoned labor activists

Vladimir Morera Bacallao and Jorge Ramírez Calderón, two Cuban independent trade unionists sentenced last year to long prison sentences, were back in court this week, as the Castro political police seeks to pile on more punishment for the pair.

The activists on Tuesday were tried on charges of "violation of domicile" an "attacking," accused of breaking into the home of and threatening a witness in their earlier trial in November. Morrea, who currently is in the midst of a lengthy hunger strike, and Ramirez were convicted of public disorder, assault, "disrespect" and "injuries," for how they reacted to a government-organized "act of repudiation" outside of Ramirez's home.

Morera was sentenced to 8 years in prison, and Ramirez got 4 years. In the new case, prosecutors are seeking an additional 7 years for Ramirez and 5 years for Morera.

"I'm thinking they are going to be convicted," said former prisoner of conscience Ivan Hernandez Carrillo, head of the Confederation of Independent Workers of Cuba. "The trial was rigged and full of irregularities."

Morera was taken to the courthouse this past week in an ambulance, accompanied by a doctor and a nurse, as on Friday he hit day 56 of a hunger strike.

At least 8 new political prisoners in Cuba in February

At least eight names were added to the roster of political prisoners in Cuba, according to the Hablemos Press news agency and human rights monitor. They are:

• Wilberto Parada Milan and Roberto Hernandez Barrios, activists with the Patriotic Union of Cuba in Havana, who on Feb. 4 were tried, convicted of charges of assault, contempt and resistance and sentenced to two years in prison. The charges are in connection with an April 30, 2013, protest they organized for near the old Capitol building in Havana.
• Laura Marante, a member of the Damas De Blanco, or "Ladies In White," on Feb. 26 in the town of Güines was tried and convicted of charges of disrespect and resistance. The judge sentenced her to 6 to 12 months in prison and fined her 400 pesos.
• Eider Frometa, a member of the Cuban Youth Movement for Democracy, on Feb. 27 in Guantanamo was sentenced to 3 months in jail on a charge of damaging state property.
• Activist Alcibiades Guerra Marin on Feb. 28 in Havana was tried and convicted on a charges of "disrespecting the figure of Fidel Castro," after a day earlier he protested his wife's detention by shouting, "Abajo Fidel!"
• Yoennis de Jesus Guerra Garcia, an independent journalist with the Yayabo Press news agency, on Feb. 26 in Sancti Spiritu was sentenced to 8 years in prison on charges of theft and slaughter of livestock.
• At the start of the month, a court in Antilla, in Holguin province, ratified a 3-year prison sentence for Miguel Santana Breffe, vice president of the National Liberal Party of Cuba, on a charge of "injuries." Santana on Feb. 13 began serving the sentence at the Holguin provincial prison.
• Indpendent librarian Gustavo Cola Castillo, was arrested Feb. 14 in Las Tunas province after he got into a fight with a member of a Castroite "rapid response brigade" that assaulted him on his property. He was immediately taken to the Tipico prison in Las Tunas, where faces a pending charge of "injuries."

Human rights group: There are 67 political prisoners in Cuba

Determining the exact number of political prisoners in a closed society like Cuba, where the authorities feel no compunction about throwing its enemies into its dungeons and feel no sense of accountability to the populace, is an almost impossible task.Chances are any count will be an undercount whatever the number, it is only a small part of the repression that is pervasive in Cuba.

Still, we owe a debt of gratitude to the journalists and human rights activists of the Hablemos Press news agency (CIHPRESS) who every day work bravely to track political repression in Cuba and to ensure that political prisoners, and those who imprison them, know that they are not forgotten.

CIHPRESS this week published a list of 67 political prisoners it says are now imprisoned in the Castro gulag. It does not include those dissidents and other activists who are regularly arrested, only to be released a few hours or a few days later.

Read their names and other details about Cuba's political prisoners here.