Canada, Cuba y la Celac

by the way, nuestro honorable residente del 24 sussex drive se apura y manda corriendo al otro honorabilisimo a cargo de exteriores a reunirse con la comparsa del presidente pro tempore de la celac para que le den permiso para invertir en los extendidos y extendibles nuevos predios biranicos. va y si acaso nuestro honorable le hace una mencion a brunito el infame sobre los derechos humanos y ya este le tiene preparada la respuesta: figurese excelencia, con los mercenarios pagados por sus vecinos tenemos que tomar medidas para defender nuestra soberania e integridad nacional y el buen canuck va y hasta le da las quejas a kerry que esta desesperado por recibir tales requerimientos.
no solo crearon una organizacion para excluir exprofeso a eeuu y canada donde aun la decencia humana es una valor a considerar, sino que cogen pa'l trajin al canuck para aislar mas a los yumas. va y hasta le proponen que seamos observadores de la celac con el money por delante sonando en la caja central se sobreentiende y con el encargo de invitar a los vecinos del sur.

Canadian foreign affairs minister making rare visit to Cuba, Venezuela

By Laura Payton, CBC News

John Baird is making the first-ever visit to Venezuela by a Canadian foreign affairs minister and the first official visit to Cuba since 1998, his office announced Thursday.

Baird is spending the next few days in Latin America, visiting six countries over the next week. While his first stop was Thursday in Mexico, Baird will be in Havana, Cuba's capital, on Friday morning.

The trip to Cuba will be the first trip to the country by a Canadian foreign affairs minister since Liberal Lloyd Axworthy visited in 1997. Then-prime minister Jean Chrétien went in 1998.

Baird will visit Venezuela next Wednesday, the first-ever bilateral visit by a Canadian foreign minister. Axworthy attended an Organization of American States meeting in the country in 1998.

Both Venezuela and Cuba restrict personal freedoms and repress political opponents.

The news release announcing the trip mentioned Mexico, Peru, Panama and the Dominican Republic in the second paragraph, but left Cuba and Venezuela until the end of the brief advisory.

A spokesman for Baird says "he will use this opportunity to press the need for economic liberalization and respect for human rights."

'Need for action on civil rights'

"Canadian interests and Canadian values are very much intertwined, and the minister will be using this opportunity to express Canada's view on the need for action on civil and political rights in particular," Rick Roth, Baird's press secretary, said in an email.

"While in Venezuela, the minister will meet with government officials and opposition figures, as well as civil society groups, to discuss human rights, free and fair elections, and fundamental freedoms such as freedom of speech …. Venezuela has an opportunity to make great strides on these issues, and Canada will be a willing partner to see through this transformation."

He added: "Canada and Canadian businesses can also participate in and prosper from these changes."

NDP foreign affairs critic Paul Dewar says he hopes Baird doesn't just lecture Cuban and Venezuelan officials, but listens and engages with them.

"We've let the relationship languish and just at the time when things are opening up in Cuba," Dewar said.

About one million Canadians travel to Cuba every year, according to Canada's Department of Foreign Affairs.

Canada is Cuba's largest source of tourists, making up almost 40 per cent of visitors to the country. While the U.S. strictly limits trade with Cuba, Canadian companies can do business there, and the Canadian International Development Agency runs aid programs in the country.

To meet Venezuelan opposition

Carlo Dade, a senior fellow at the University of Ottawa's school of international development and global studies, says the visits come as a surprise.

"There's not much on the agendas with other countries, free trade agreements and other stuff," Dade said. "Obviously, he's going to have to say something about human rights and governance in the countries."

The trip will be useful, he said, to remind Latin America that Canada's policies on Cuba and Venezuela are different from those of the United States.

"We'll talk to them, we'll engage with them, but we have real concerns about human rights," Dade said.

While he's in Caracas, Venezuela's capital, Baird will meet with the country's foreign minister, Elias Jaua, and Vice President Nicolas Maduro, as well as the executive secretary of the opposition coalition. Baird will also meet with civil society and pro-democracy groups, as well as Canadian business representatives.

In Cuba, Baird will visit a synogogue, meet with Vice President Ricardo Cabrisas and Foreign Minister Bruno Rodriguez, and meet with Canadian business representatives.

Another Idiot Canadian with broken heart from Cuban woman

John-Barry Livingstone and Vilma-Rosa Morales-Rodriguez smile in a photo from their wedding in Cuba on Christmas Eve 2007.

Toronto Star

By: Nicholas Keung 
Two years after his Cuban wife left him, John-Barry Livingstone is left with more than a broken heart.

When his three-year financial commitment as spousal sponsor to Vilma-Rosa Morales-Rodriguez ended last April, the Toronto architect received a $3,800 bill from the province for the welfare benefits his wife has collected.

Stories like his — and that of a Brampton woman whose tale of crushed Cuban love appeared in Thursday’s Star — occur often, according to immigration lawyer Sergio Karas. Many of his clients come seeking help after a sponsored spouse abruptly leaves — five or six a year from the Dominican Republic alone.

“On a resort, in the tropic sun, when you have too many margaritas and pina coladas and these guys are sweet-talking you, you are vulnerable,” Karas said. “I have people coming into my office, saying, ‘I met this person; I want him here; how quickly can he be here?’ Then (the sponsored spouses) came here and leave them.” 

In the past decade, 10,563 Cubans came to Canada as permanent residents, the majority under spousal sponsorships or family reunification.

According to an immigration official, marriages of convenience have become a concern at the Havana visa office. In a quality assurance exercise in 2011, officials contacted a sample of Canadians who had married and sponsored Cubans. About one-third of those relationships had ended soon after the new spouse’s arrival in Canada. Fraud and misrepresentation were often cited as the reason, leading officials to review applications more closely than before.

Livingstone, 56, said he met Morales-Rodriguez, 27, at a park in Cuba in April 2007 while he was on a bike tour. After four return visits, he married her on Dec. 24, 2007, and sponsored her to Canada.

The former Cuban civil servant joined him in April 2009. But Livingstone said she left his home as soon as her 11-year-old daughter arrived in Toronto a year later — while he was on a business trip to Chicago.

The Star tried to reach Morales by phone for comment, but the number was no longer in service. An email to her was not returned.

“It’s the allure of the Caribbean. It’s the novelty of a young woman showing attention to an old guy like me. You do things sensible people don’t do,” Livingstone said ruefully. “My friends had warned me to be careful, but I never listened. I have myself to blame.”

The story of Brampton single mom Erin Standen, whose Cuban husband left her three days after arrival, has drawn an online debate about the flaws of Canada’s sponsorship program and the sponsors’ willingness to gamble on a relationship born during a vacation fling.

“It is a sin when this happens and it is crazy that some women actually didn’t know the intentions of their husbands. Sending the money on a regular basis and supporting their boyfriends is a number one alarm,” said one online comment.

“If they still love you and want to be with you when you don’t support them your relationship might have a better chance.”

Livingstone said he was emotionally fragile after losing both his parents in January 2007, just months before he went to Cuba.

In the months after, he sent Morales-Rodriguez $200 to $250 a month to support her. He said he gave her his mother’s 1-carat diamond engagement ring, which she still has. He also bought a $322,000, two-bedroom condo so he could have room for Morales and her daughter.

Livingstone said he didn’t see any warning signs, other than her being “huffy” and reluctant to get intimate.

He said Morales-Rodriguez started taking English lessons and computer courses at George Brown College shortly after her arrival. He said she would fly to Cuba to visit her daughter every three months, at his expense.

He said he was devastated when she left and decided to email her in the summer of 2010. Miraculously, she responded.

At a meeting at Scarborough Town Centre, Livingstone said, Morales-Rodriguez claimed she had moved to a shelter because he yelled at her and it upset her daughter. He said she’s planning to divorce him once legal aid comes through.

Livingstone said officials at the Canada Border Services Agency said he couldn’t withdraw his sponsorship after his wife had arrived. He is now stuck with the $3,800 bill, under a Supreme Court ruling that provinces have the right to collect such payments from sponsors.

Under more recent immigration rules, sponsored spouses must remain married for two years before receiving permanent resident status. It can be revoked if they are found guilty of marriage fraud, but the process is lengthy and lawyer Karas said Ottawa needs to expedite it by banning appeals.

Louis Cruises to sail Cuba charters

travelweekly

By Tom Stieghorst

Louis Cruises said it has chartered the 960-passenger Louis Cristal for a series of 15 cruises from Cuba in the winter of 2013-14.

The cruises will be offered through Toronto-based Cuba Cruise from Dec. 16, 2013, to March 31, 2014, with prices on seven-night voyages starting at about $600.

Cruises will depart Havana or Montego Bay, Jamaica, and include six Cuban ports of call.

Entertainment is to include local Cuban musicians and dancers, as well as North American hockey and football programming delivered via satellite.

Last year, Star Clippers said it would bring a tall ship to Cuba for a series of six- and seven-night Cuba cruises in February and March 2014.

The cruises cannot be sold to U.S. citizens because of a longstanding embargo against trade with Cuba.
-----------------------
Also:
A Canadian company is launching cruises that circumnavigate Cuba starting Dec. 4 with prices from $586 a person, double occupancy, for a seven-night voyage.
Cuba Cruise’s 480-stateroom ship Louis Cristal will sail out of Havana with the ship calling at a new port every day. Ports of call include Bahia de Nipe, Cayo Guillermo, Santiago de Cuba, Cayo Caguamas, Cienfuegos, Trinidad and Punta Frances, and feature six UNESCO World Heritage Sites and four national parks and preserves.
Air-inclusive packages are available from various Canadian gateways with tour operators such as Transat Holidays, Hola Sun Holidays, Exclusive Tours and Tours Mont-Royal, including pre- and post-cruise land stays. For more information on the ship and itinerary, visit yourcubacruise.com.

Canadian tourists in Cuba enthralled with their detention by Castro State Security

babalublog

By Alberto de la Cruz

Here is an interesting story of two Canadian tourists in Cuba who were terrorized when the they were picked up by agents of Cuban State Security and held for hours for no apparent reason. The story is not interesting because foreign tourists were detained by Cuban State Security: Cuba is run by a totalitarian dictatorship and everyone (including tourists) is subject to detention any time, anywhere, for whatever reason or lack of reason.

What makes this story interesting is that these two Canadian tourists are so deeply entrenched in ignorance that they thought the entire horrific experience was just a hoot!

Via Canada's Sportsnet:

Do these people look like spies to you?

In retrospect, we were probably screwed from the moment we arrived in town.
My husband, Geoff, and I spent a week in Havana in early December and we really wanted a glimpse of the amazing Cuban baseball players not available to the rest of the world. Industriales, the team from the capital that dominates Serie Nacional, was on the road for the first week of the season, but the Cazadores were at home in Artemisa, a small town an hour’s drive from Havana. We hired a taxi, and our driver, Melquiades, turned out to be a friendly guy who knew a little English and a lot of beisbol. When we arrived in Artemisa, we walked a couple of blocks to buy bottles of water and quickly realized the town never sees tourists. People turned in the street or hung over their balconies to gawk, and kids lined a schoolyard fence to stare and holler.
[...]
Things wrapped up around 4 p.m., and just as our cab left the stadium gates, a cop on a motorcycle pulled us over. Melquiades spoke with him rapidly, then the cop motioned for me and Geoff to get out and demanded to see our passports, which were locked in the safe back at the B & B. I showed him a scan of the documents I’d stored on my phone, but he just shook his head, grim and sneering. Melquiades motioned for us to get back in the cab and I figured we were headed back to Havana. But it soon became clear we were following the cop back to the police station, and my stomach lurched.
When we arrived, another cab driver was there with two men, one of whom was obviously a tourist. Dozens of Cubans in military and police uniforms milled around. The building was an ancient, depressing little bunker—a portrait of Fidel on the wall, a few benches and two desks behind a fancy little turquoise-painted balustrade at odds with the harsh surroundings. Geoff and I stood there awkwardly while the motorcycle cop examined Melquiades’s permits and scribbled down some notes. It suddenly occurred to me that they might ask about our professions, and that I probably shouldn’t admit I’m a journalist, given that the Cuban government keeps close tabs on my kind. Geoff and I debated this quietly for a few frantic seconds, but then an older police officer with a sweet, pleading face motioned us toward the benches.
[...]
Finally, after two hours, a young woman in a military uniform motioned for us to follow her down a hallway. Just then, Melquiades appeared and said, “Let’s go.” Flummoxed, Geoff and I pointed to the woman, but our cab driver barked, “Let’s GO,” and marched out the door. We scurried after him and into the cab, which was idling at the curb.
We didn’t look back as we hit the road to Havana, and the first deep breaths in two hours felt damn good. After a couple of minutes, Melquiades said, “Remember I told you about Gourriel and how the major leagues want him?” We remembered. “They thought you were scouts,” he said, deadpan. He had to repeat it three times before we absorbed it: We’d just spent two hours detained by Cuban police because they thought we were there to poach their star player. All three of us laughed almost to the point of tears. The whole thing was insane and ridiculous and terrifying—and, really, kind of awesome. “At least now we know how seriously Cubans take baseball,” Geoff said when he composed himself.

Read the entire embarrassingly ignorant account HERE.

Canada has issued a advisory about the Cholera outbreak in Cuba

Michelle McQuigge/

Hospital Salvador Allende/ La Habana

TORONTO - Authorities in Cuba are acknowledging a spate of new cholera cases in the capital, but the outbreak doesn't seem to be keeping Canadians away.

Travel agents say January is always a popular time for bookings to Cuba and they say business hasn't tailed off in the least.

Some agents say word of 51 new cholera cases in the Havana area has only sparked a handful inquiries from people who have no plans to cancel their trips.

The Public Health Agency of Canada has issued a low-key advisory about the outbreak, but says most travellers are at low risk of contracting the intestinal illness.

Cuba's health ministry says no one has died from the latest batch of cases, which began surfacing earlier this month.

It says the country has taken preventive measures to quash the disease for good.

© Global News. A division of Shaw Media Inc., 2013.

Read it on Global News: Global Montreal | Cholera outbreak in Cuba not keeping Canadian travellers at home

The Castros and The Ugly Spaniards and Canadians

capitolhillcubans

Canadian Ambassador in Cuba, Matthew Levin with Manuel Marrero Minister of Tourism at Havana’s 29th International Trade Fair

Here's a tragic example -- from this week -- of how Spain and Canada's business interests with the Castro dictatorship dominate those nation's policies towards Cuba.

Of course, this is what many advocates of unconditionally lifting sanctions and normalizing relations with the Castro dictatorship would like for the U.S. to do as well.

Once freedom becomes secondary to profit, there's no turning back. 

Fundamental human rights and democracy become simple "inconveniences."

From Spain's El Confidencial Digital:

According to information obtained by El Confidencial Digital, [Spain's Ministry of Foreign Affairs] headed by Jose Manuel Garcia-Margallo has, after months of talks between Madrid and Havana, made it a priority of maintaining the better harmony they have achieved with Cuba. For that reason, the order has been given to assume a more serene posture towards the island.

Spaniards businessmen with Cuban Foreign Trade Minister Rodrigo Malmierca
at Havana’s 29th International Trade Fair

It has been confirmed that spokespersons for the Executive, directors of the ruling [Partido Popular], and the Spanish delegation in Brussels and Strasbourg have been told to halt their demands for an end to the Cuban dictatorship, as maintained in the past, since that would once again create tension with the Castro regime.

For that reason, petitions for democracy in Cuba, that were to be presented as resolutions in the European Parliament, have been canceled, along with events with representatives of the Cuban dissidence.

And an interview with Yves Engler, author of the new book "The Ugly Canadian" about Prime Minister Stephen Harper's foreign policy:

HOST: It's kind of ironic, actually, 'cause I've never heard reports—I may be wrong, but I've never heard of reports of Canada funding opposition groups in Cuba, where there's such significant commercial interest of Canada, they don't want to piss off the Cuban government. But in Venezuela, which they accuse Venezuela of being a sort of dictatorship the way Cuba is, they're unabashedly supporting the opposition.

ENGLER: There's a longstanding—you know, it's sort of the policy of the Canadian government towards Cuba. There is—there have been some reports, much less so than in the case of Venezuela, of some Canadian funding to, you know, pro-democracy movements in Cuba, but, no, much less than the case of Venezuela.

HOST: Now, has Harper changed anything about Canada's policy towards Cuba? You would think if there was—if he was going to be, quote, ideologically consistent in some way, that they would be all over supporting the Cuban opposition. As I said—you say there's been some; I take your point, but not much. In fact, Harper seems to not have changed the traditional, relatively friendly attitude towards Cuba.

ENGLER: Yes. That's one that's—you know, from an ideological perspective, you would definitely assume a more critical position of the Cuban government, and they haven't. They've actually been quite—he seems very careful to basically continue status quo policy, which is: say very little about what's going on in Cuba, while at the same time, obviously, Canadian companies are pretty significant players in Cuba.

And the Conservative government really hasn't gone out of its way to, you know, criticize human rights violations or a lack of democracy or anything like that in Cuba, which is surprising. I think it's partly reflective of the business interests in Cuba. It's also partly reflective of the fact that, you know, 1 million—I think it's almost 1 million Canadians that travel to Cuba every year.

Cuban man and son reunited in St. John's [Canada]

Yadier Perez-  Facebook

CBC.ca

Yadier Perez, a Cuban man now living and working in St. John's, has finally been reunited with his five-year-old son.

Perez, who arrived in St. John's in Nov. 2010, after Canada had accepted him as a refugee, had been trying to get son, Carlos, to Canada, ever since.

Canadian officials had issued a visa to the boy in Feb. 2012, but Perez said the Cuban government had been dragging its heels on permitting the boy to leave the country.

Perez said he suspected that was because his family had a history of friction with the Cuban government.

Carlos' mother had died during childbirth, and Perez had been struggling to make ends meet in Cuba for himself and his son ever since.

Perez granted refugee status in Canada

Perez tried to flee to Miami from Cuba by boat in July 2010, but the boat ran out of gas and left Perez and a number of other would-be refugees stranded on a small island. Eventually, they were picked up by the US Coast Guard and brought to the American military base in Cuba at Guantanomo Bay.

There, he was interviewed by Canadian officials, granted refugee status, and eventually arrived in St. John's in Nov. 2010.

All the while, Carlos' grandmother was taking care of him until his father could arrange for him to come to Canada.

Perez battling bureaucracy

Since February, officials at St. John's East MP Jack Harris' office had been helping Perez navigate through Canadian and Cuban bureaucracy.

Finally, young Carlos, who will turn six next month, was given permission to leave Cuba. A friend of Perez, Astrid Fudge, flew to Cuba in October, met with immigration officials, and two weeks later, she accompanied Carlos on a flight to Toronto.

"[We] went through immigration there in Toronto," recalled Fudge. "[Officials there ] fitted him with a winter coat, boots, snow pants and a hat and mitts and gave it to him and put it in a plastic, see through garbage bag."

Fudge said the immigration officials could speak Spanish and were talking with Carlos.

[Carlos] threw it on his back and he said something and they all laughed. I said 'what did he say?' They said 'he said he's Santa Claus 'cause he threw it on his back.'"

Emotional reunion

On Nov.2, father and son, who had not seen each other for more than two years, were reunited at the St. John's International Airport.

Perez said while he waited for Fudge and his son to arrive in St. John's from Toronto, he was nervous.

"Your face, how much he change," said Perez, using his new English skills. "But he, he look at me, he look me, he laughing, he say okay, he recognize me.

"I have no words. I think, I very sure this the best time of my life."

Boy adjusting well

Young Carlos has been adjusting well. Within a few days of his arrival, he started school in St. John's and he has started to learn English.

He has also been enjoying the wide range of cartoons available on the television at his father's apartment.

Fudge said the little boy is a bit overwhelmed by the variety of toys available here.

"Saturday we went to WalMart and of course the toys are all out now," said Fudge. "And he's just looking and he had sense enough, he came back and tapped his father on the leg and said, 'papa, there's too much stuff, my mouth's open.'"

Carlos has also gone through a car wash, up to Signal Hill, and to a restaurant for pizza.

Perez said his co-workers at North Atlantic Marine have been especially kind to his son.

Earlier this month, Perez said he was told to go up to his company's office to deal with a problem.

When he arrived, he saw a table full of toys donated by his co-workers for his son.

As for Carlos, his favourite thing about his new home so far has been all the toys. "The most I like is the toys," he says in his limited english.

Perez said Carlos is also waiting for snow.

"I say soon, soon the snow coming," laughed Perez.

Perez said he still has not found the words in either English or Spanish to explain how happy he has become to have his son with him.

But he did say he is optimistic that changes gradually happening in Cuba will make it easier for Cubans to travel outside their country, and for other families to avoid the same sort of separation he and Carlos have experienced.

Who gives money to Castro Brothers: Canada among Cuba’s Main Investment Partners

Ian Delaney, ex presidente de Sherritt International [2007]

web@radiorebelde.icrt.cu/

HAVANA, Cuba.- Canada is among the main countries with the largest amount of investments in strategic sectors in Cuba, informed on Tuesday in this capital Ileana Nuñez, Deputy Minister of Foreign Trade and Investment.

With more than 15 investment projects in the areas of mining, risk oil prospecting and electricity generation, the northern nation is among Cuba’s first five trade partners, announced the official during the third day of Havana’s International Trade Fair.

In the first semester of 2012, commercial exchanges between the two countries grew by 24 percent with respect to the same period of 2011, she pointed out.

Likewise, Canada is first on the list of nations sending tourists to the island, with over one million travelers in 2011, which represented 37 percent of the total.

In terms of cooperation, Nuñez pointed out that Canada has supported over the last 17 years several prioritized programs in the national territory, like food security, modernization and sustainable development of the Cuban economy.

(ACN)

Special evening in Vancouver for the Cuban Spies

 

SPECIAL EVENING IN VANCOUVER FOR THE CUBAN FIVE.

Vancouver, November 2, 2012. As a prelude to the 5th International Annual Che Guevara Conference, convened by the organization "Vancouver Communities in Solidarity with Cuba", a special evening was held in this city for the release of the five Cuban heroes imprisoned in U.S. jails. The event was attended by Aleida Guevara, daughter of legendary heroic guerrilla fighter and Antonio Guerrero Cabrera, son of one of the five antiterrorists
Verses of Nicolas Guillen, Bob Marley’s songs and poems of Antonio Guerrero, among other cultural performances, graced the message of peace and justice sent to the US government by those present, with the demand of immediate freedom for our Five Heroes.
Prominent Canadian lawyer, social activist and former City Counsellor, Tom Louis gave those present a comprehensive and emotional overview of the case of the Five and unmasked its true political essence to expose an important group of violations occurred during the legal process.
During the evening were projected greeting video messages sent from the U.S. by the leaders of the National and International Committees to Free the Five in that country, Gloria la Riva and Alicia Jartko, respectively.
Alberto Prieto, CCPCC’s official, Javier Domokos Ruiz, Consul General of Cuba in Toronto and Manuel Yepe, journalist and university professor were present as part of the Cuban delegation.

Crece un 24% comercio Cuba-Canada

La Habana, 6 nov (PL) El comercio cubano- canadiense se incrementó en el primer semestre un 24 por ciento en relación con similar período del año anterior, se informó hoy en la inauguración del pabellón de ese país en FIHAV 2012. En la apertura de ese recinto en la XXX Feria Internacional de La Habana (FIHAV 2012), la viceministra del Comercio Exterior y la Inversión Extranjera, Ileana Núñez, también señaló que Canadá está entre los países con mayor número de inversiones en sectores estratégicos.

Precisó que más de 15 de ellas, están distribuidas en Cuba en ramas como la minería, la exploración de petróleo a riesgo y la generación de electricidad.

Canadá además aportó en 2011 más de un millón de turistas, lo que representó el 37 por ciento del total que llegó a esta isla en ese año.

Lo anterior permitió a esa nación confirmarse, por amplio margen, como la primera fuente de emisión de viajeros a Cuba.

En materia de cooperación, Núñez apuntó que el país norteño apoya desde hace 17 años varios programas prioritarios en el territorio nacional como la seguridad alimentaria, la modernización y desarrollo sostenible de la economía.

Consideró que esta feria es un contexto propicio para consolidar y ampliar los vínculos a otras esferas de interés y de enormes potencialidades como energía renovable, minería, medicamentos y biotecnología.

El embajador canadiense en Cuba, Matthew Levin, y el presidente de la Corporación Comercial de Canadá,Marc Whittngham, exhortaron a los empresarios de su país a estrechar los vínculos con sus contrapartes cubanas.

Importantes empresas suministradoras de tecnologías, maquinarias y materias primas para la economía de Cuba, entre ellas Brado Precision Machin y Tool Co.LTD, presentan sus productos hasta el sábado, cuando concluye este evento internacional.

Con área expositiva de más de 550 metros cuadrados, el pabellón canadiense alberga 31 stands que representan a medio centenar de firmas y organizaciones, 31 de las cuales asisten a FIHAV por primera vez.

Cubana Neiky Pardo muere atropellada en Toronto

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no hay consuelo ante la desgracia. descansa en paz neiky.
---------------------------------- 
North York Mirror/ Andrew Palamarchuk

A North York mother is dead after being struck by two cars outside her home Thursday, Nov. 1.

The accident happened on Lawrence Avenue, east of Dufferin Street, at 6:53 a.m.

Neiky Pardo, 33, was pronounced dead at the scene.

Police said the pedestrian was crossing Lawrence mid-block from the south side when a westbound gold 2004 Nissan Maxima driven by a 28-year-old man hit her.

“She was knocked into the eastbound lanes and struck by an eastbound Volvo,” Const. Clint Stibbe said.

The grey 2006 Volvo, driven by a 52-year-old man, was then rear-ended by a Mazda.

It was raining and dark at the time; police believe those were factors in the collision.

“But any time you have a mid-block crossing, it is dangerous to begin with,” Stibbe said.

Pardo, the mother of a young child, lived on Lawrence, steps from the accident scene.

Police closed Lawrence between Dufferin and Bolingbroke Road for about five hours as they investigated the collision.

“We are appealing for witnesses,” Stibbe said. “We’re asking them to come forward.”

Anyone with information should call police at 416-808-1900.

The first Canadian who meet Fidel: The Journey of Erik Durschmied

tvochannel

Finding Fidel: The Journey of Erik Durschmied tells the remarkable story of Austrian-Canadian journalist Erik Durschmied, who in 1958 journeyed to Cuba's Sierra Maestra mountains to film one of the first interviews with a little-known rebel leader named Fidel Castro. Shortly after that meeting, Castro's band of fighters rolled into Havana, and Durschmied's career as a top war cameraman was launched.

50 years later, Durschmied returns to Castro's rebel camp, still intact high in the Cuban mountains. He recounts a fascinating personal narrative and the story of how he produced the interview, with Castro memorizing his English answers in dozens of takes. Director Bay Weyman interweaves the rarely-seen 1958 footage of life at the rebel camp with Durschmied's reflections on the lost promise of Castro's revolución and on the hinge of fate that determined his own career.

Un cubano "tarupido" en Canada: Alex Cuba [aka Alexis Puentes]

se sabia que Alex Cuba ni canta ni come frutas a pesar del granmy latino por el mejor nuevo album en el 2010, gracias a las influencias que genera nelly furtado. a continuacion sus declaraciones sobre el regimen de los hermanitos kaxtroz [minuto 2.40]:

Maltinga robo-ilusionaria

la especulaciones en torno a la salud del moringuero en jefe quedan solventadas, al conocerse que el Fondo Canadiense para Iniciativas Locales  financio con solo 21 mil dolares la creacion del brebaje Maltinga, que obtiene como principal resultado lo que ninguno de los reales y/o supuestos pero siempre bien presupuestados enemigos del moribundo en jefe habian anhelado.

siempre estaran los que point a finger en lo canadienses que financian los proyectos de quien tu sabes [remember sherrit international, la terminal 3 del aeropuerto jose marti, etc, etc,...], en vez de apoyar directa y abiertamente las tan caras libertades  del cubano de a pie, empezando por no colaborar con el regimen en la concesion de visas en su consulado en labana.

considerando quien ha sido el autor intelectual y principal impulsor de la facturacion de la pocima con pretensiones de premio nobel, realmente es una gran ingratitud denominarla "maltinga", pues mas apropiado seria "fidinga".

o como rima Salcedo

Ni tarde ni perezosa

apareció la maltinga,

la bebida de moringa

y afrecho (que es cualquier cosa).

Post-industrial, post-sabrosa

y exclusiva del batey,

sabe a urea de mamey

con sostenibilidad,

reflexión, senilidad

y nostalgias del Caney.

detalles aqui >>

Prensa cubana oculta la fuga de futbolistas en Canada

la prensa del regimen de labana suma a sus virtudes serviles una cretinez ridicula. mientras todas las referencias al tag cuba dan cuenta de la embarazosa fuga  de jugadores de futbol en canada [segunda que ocurre con el plantel en tierras nordicas], el libelo dominical juventud rebelde se las toma con el infeliz tecnico de la seleccion por la ausencia de goles  dando la callada por respuesta a lo que el mundo observa.

Odisnel Cooper [Frederick Breedon / Getty Images]

Maikel Chang [Frederick Breedon / Getty Images]

Reisandry Fernández [isiphotos.photoshelter.com]

Huyen 4 jugadores y el sicologo del equipo cubano de futbol [Fotos]

Odisnel Cooper [Frederick Breedon / Getty Images]

Maikel Chang [Frederick Breedon / Getty Images]

Reisandry Fernández [isiphotos.photoshelter.com]

El escuadrón antillano jugo sin cuatro de sus estelares, que desertaron el jueves, según informó el portal de internet Café Fuerte.

El mismo portal, asegura que los desertores son el mediocampista Reisandry Fernández Cervantes (Ciego de Ávila), nacido el 22 de agosto de 1984 y con 11 partidos oficiales con las selección cubana; los delanteros Elier Cordovez González y Maikel Chang Ramírez , ambos de La Habana; y el portero Odisnel Cooper Despaine (Camagüey), nacido el 31 de marzo de 1992, con tres partidos y cinco goles recibidos.

También abandonó la delegación el sicólogo del equipo, Ignacio Abreu Sánchez [Sintesis de acuerdo con  Instituto de Medicina Deportiva de Cuba: Especialista en Psicología del Deporte con 2 años de experiencia laboral en el Instituto de Medicina Deportiva de Cuba. Trabaja actualmente con la Preselección Nacional de Futbol. Desarrolla temas de investigación relacionados con “La concentración y distribución de la atención en el futbol”.

E-Mail: ignaciopipita20@yahoo.es]

Read more here: http://www.elnuevoherald.com/2012/10/12/1321061/cuatro-seleccionados-cubanos-desertan.html#storylink=cpy

Cuban Soccer Players 'Vanish' in Canada

The Global and Mail

Even so far as coaching figures go, the man in blue cast a lonely shadow during Canada’s 3-0 win on Friday night.

Already out of the World Cup, having failed to score a single goal in its first four games in this round of qualifying, Alexander Gonzalez had brought his Cuban team to Canada to fulfill its penultimate fixture before bowing out of the tournament for another four years.

But while they landed in Toronto with a complement of 15 players, by the time Friday’s game rolled around their numbers had diminished by four, leaving Gonzalez with just enough players to send a full team onto the pitch. So much for the idea of a first 11.

Rumours of defections to the United States swirled, with Twitter reports claiming that six or seven players had been stopped at the Niagara crossing on Thursday night “fleeing for their lives.”

The former Cuban national team player wanted to focus on the game rather that the whereabouts of the missing players, but when pressed after the defeat blamed world governing body FIFA for his predicament.

“As with any Cuban sports team that travels around the world, they’re all chasing the American dream and for the team to try to keep the team together it’s difficult,” he said afterwards through a translator. “If FIFA would allow these players to play in other leagues perhaps this wouldn’t happen in the future.”

Whether that ever happens remains to be seen. But on Friday night at Toronto’s BMO Field, Gonzalez was left in the embarrassing position of having to leave his substitutes list blank when he handed in his team sheet, praying that injuries or ejections wouldn’t leave his side shorthanded, and closer to the limit of a seven-player minimum for a match to go ahead. More >>

Alex Cuba, 1er [cubano] canadiense que gana un Latin Grammy

Nick Patch, The Canadian Press/

TORONTO - There's a little game Alex Cuba and his bandmates play when they're on the road.

They listen closely as some poor soul gets onstage to introduce the Cuban-Canadian musician, inevitably struggling with how exactly to describe his music, a border-busting melange of international flavours.

Then, Cuba and company just laugh.

"We laugh all the time — but there is something cool about it," the 38-year-old Cuba said in an interview this week in downtown Toronto.

"The truth is, nobody really knows what (my music) is. And I trust that time will tell — because it's music, it's gotta fall somewhere at some point.

"But I'm just having a blast seeing what my music makes people feel and how big of a surprise it keeps being for people. And especially people who don't speak any Spanish."

Well, don't expect his typically diverse latest — "Ruido en el sistema" or "Static in the System," which hit stores this week — to necessarily clarify his musical direction.

Continuing where his self-titled, genre-smudging breakthrough began in 2009, the new primarily Spanish-language disc is nominally Latin pop but finds the dexterous guitarist incorporating Afropop, jazz, funk and rock (especially on the fizzy confection "Are You").

In the time since his last record came out, Cuba saw his solo career blossom. The two-time Juno winner brought in a fourth nomination, he co-wrote six tracks on Nelly Furtado's Spanish-language debut, "Mi Plan" and finally, he claimed the best new artist prize at the 2010 Latin Grammys, becoming one of the first two Canadians ever to win the award (along with Furtado, who also picked up a Latin Grammy in '10).

Clearly, Cuba was making inroads into the Latin world — a goal of his for years. But he didn't consciously gear any of his new material toward potential new fans in that part of the world.

"I want to expand and live in a world without borders, and music should not be boxed for a specific kind of people," said Cuba, who has also been nominated for a "regular" Grammy.

"(This album) is a take on musical freedom. It's (about) being yourself and not looking at the market, or what the market's doing now."

And to hear Cuba tell it, living in Canada has been a crucial part of developing that creative freedom.

He first immigrated to Victoria back in 1999, eventually moving his family — he's married with three kids, aged five to 15 — much farther north to Smithers, B.C., where his wife is from.

Back home, he had been a bass player playing primarily jazz or traditional Cuban music. But in Canada, "something came of me," he says.

"I feel that I was able to put myself together in this country," he said. "I started creating this music that I believe in entirely."

Cuba dedicated his new album to Billy Bryans, the Toronto-based Parachute Club co-founder and influential world music promoter who died of cancer in April.

Bryans was a close friend of Cuba's and one of the first Canadians to enthusiastically welcome him to the local music industry. He was one of the first people Cuba would call when in need of judicious advice — for instance, when Cuba decided he wanted to record a Spanish cover of Michael Jackson's "Billie Jean," and Bryans told him candidly that it would either be incredibly successful or "incredibly embarrassing."

(Cuba has yet to record that cover).

Bryans was also the first to pick up on how Cuba's point of view on songwriting had shifted since he moved north, from the dance floor-friendly rhythmic focus of Cuban pop to the song and melody-oriented approach typically favoured here.

"He told me, 'You're not doing Cuban music anymore. You're making Canadian music, my boy. You're focusing on the tune, on the song itself,'" Cuba recalled.

But of course, as much as Cuba likes to give credit to his adopted homeland, he's insistent that if he does his job, neither geography nor even language will matter that much.

He hopes "Static in the System" comes through clearly to virtually anyone who listens.

"If I deliver a beautiful melody in my songs, it goes beyond (that)," he said.

"My guitar doesn't speak any language specifically — she speaks all of them."

Investing in Cuba: Canada Colludes with Vampires & Zombies

The Motley Fool/ By Nick Slepko

Some on the Internet like to speculate that OfficeMax (NYSE: OMX) is the “largest property claimant in Cuba,” due to (now merged) Boise Cascade owning Cuban Electric Company before the utility had its assets seized by Castro. Regardless, OfficeMax is unlikely to be the tip of the sword when it comes to settling up with a Free (or at least freer) Cuba.

The future of Cuba does not bode well for foreign companies already established on the island.  Like Juan of the Dead (2011), Cuba’s first horror film (and most expensive private production to date), undead claims will rise and infect the island until they have devoured all of its nascent vitality.  Reviewers note that in the zom-com, “Hilariously, throughout the film, the government-controlled radio keeps referring to the flesh eaters as ‘U.S. funded political dissidents.’”  The joke may not be far from the truth.

Just as islanders fight the zombies with slingshots instead of shotguns, locals will be out gunned by an invasion of international attorneys in a likely Pay the Pigs scenario.

 

Time and time again everyone from Paul Ryan to Barack Obama have denounced the embargo on Cuba only to reverse themselves once they got into power and decided the fight wasn’t worth it.  Even prominent Cuban-Americans like former Secretary of Commerce Carlos Gutierrez signed on to the embargo despite a well-known and outspoken history against it when he was Kellogg’s man in Mexico prior to ascending to the company’s CEO position.  Al Gore’s defeat in Florida after taking the opposite side of the Elian Gonzalez affair has reinforced the perception that the Cuban-American vote is critical (though Obama carried Florida without it, and it is notable that Gore also failed to carry his own home state of Tennessee.)

Cuba embargo hardliners still exert enormous influence on US foreign affairs.  As long-time US-Cuba trade consultant Kirby Jones, President of Alamar Associates, points out:

The policy today is arguably tighter than it was twenty years ago.  Now you’ve got Helms-Burton, Clinton gave away executive prerogatives, and the embargo now has to be lifted and changed by Congress...We still have tens of millions of dollars publicly budgeted for regime change, [the US Office of Foreign Assets Control] is going around fining banks around the world for doing business in Cuba – Obama’s levied more fines than Bush did and is fining banks that do business with us…So, yes there’s travel down there, but the fundamentals haven’t changed.

Recently, the Wall Street Journal reported:

Since the Cuban operations of big multinationals are relatively small, regulators won’t punish Americans who buy shares, says [Erich Ferrari, a sanctions compliance attorney]. A Treasury spokesman said that the department would only get concerned if the company’s primary business was with Cuba or if an American investor took a controlling interest in the company.

When contacted OFAC did not offer any guidance on what would constitute "primary business" for a company to qualify, nor did it clarify if it would be illegal for a US citizen to own shares in such a company.  However, in Kirby Jones’ experience it shouldn’t be a problem, “…as long as the American does not exercise financial or management control, and the company’s business is not just with Cuba.  Over the last fifty years, that law has not been tested much (if at all) and could be a substantial loophole.”  Tom Herzfeld, manager of the Herzfeld Caribbean Basin Fund (NASDAQ: CUBA), differs in philosophy and experience:

...I thought [investing in Sherritt International (TSX: S)] violated the spirit of the embargo and would have offended many people that were investors in our fund...Actually, the US Government is very strict and does enforce the violations. As part of our compliance procedures we have to check all investments to see if they are on the restricted list before purchase.

As a result of its Cuba dealings, Sherritt executives and their families have been barred in the past from entering the US under the same laws that designate terrorists, drug dealers, and other undesirables.  The company has spent a pretty loonie dealing with the fall out of US reprisals, and if any shares with Cuba exposure are likely to trigger sanctions on a typical American shareholder, it would most likely be those of Canada’s coal king.  (Though it has yet to happen.)  The company’s various subsidiaries and joint ventures produce 10% of the island’s electricity, 43% of its oil, and they have been among Cuba’s top foreign investors since the demise of the Soviet Union.  Moreover, after tourism, Sherritt’s Moa Bay mining operation is the largest foreign exchange earner for Cuba and the cash it holds in Cuban banks are a significant source of (legitimate) liquidity (such as there is) for the country.

At one point, it was estimated that up to a third of the company’s shareholders were American nationals, so it would seem that shareholders have more to fear from the Ghost of Christmas Past (and Christmas Yet to Come).  In fact, the coal in Sherritt’s Canadian stocking may not be enough to offset potential loses for a company on the naughty list.  Previous claims from those that had their property expropriated, and future penalties from the US and (all-too-common) Cuban officials’ perfidy are a great risk to investor capital.  Nevertheless, when Sherritt first entered Cuba in the 1990s it was a company on the verge of collapse and its gambit has paid off for those that invested in the leadership of (now-Chairman) Ian Delaney – described by Business Week as “Fidel’s favorite capitalist”.  The post-Castro era on the other hand is problematic.

In 1996, then-CEO James Moffet (now Chairman) departed from mining major Freeport-McMoRan’s (NYSE: FCX) usual silence (outside the courtroom), when he candidly expressed his views on Sherritt capitalizing on assets that once belonged to Freeport:

People paid nothing for this asset. [The Castro regime] just took it over…I think Sherritt ought to look at it and say how would they feel about it (if it happened to them)…Whatever happens here, people need to be thoughtful, because this is a deal where it may be [Sherritt's] oxen in the ditch at some point later on…

Freeport is a far more influential force in the world than Sherritt, especially when its political activities and accomplishments are compared to the small investments Sherritt has made in domestic think tankers, a few elected federal politicians, and a handful of lawyers.  While Sherritt’s political maneuvering has (usually) kept it off the infamous “Specially Designated Nationals” list of the Treasury Department, its three Moa subsidiaries are listed as SDNs and there has been no indication that Freeport, let alone, the old, but still kicking, Cuban emigres have become any less likely to forgo their claims to property expropriated by Castro.  Still over half of Sherritt’s USD 1.3 billion assets in Cuba are directly subject to the 1960 claims, and even the newer undertakings are likely to be linked in someway by legal entrepreneurs capitalizing on a highly-politicized atmosphere.

However, speculation and interest in Freeport’s Cuba claims may be misplaced.  Afterall, it wasn’t resource interests, but the farm lobby that successfully outmaneuvered congressional hardliners to create the first substantial cracks in the embargo.  Moreover, at the time of its nationalization, Freeport’s activities in nickel mining were just as substantial as its extraction of the island’s ammonium sulfate (fertilizer).  In 1994, the sulfur and fertilizer business was spun off and eventually became part of American fertilizer giant Mosaic (NYSE: MOS). According to OFAC, since at least 2005 Mosaic has been licensed to conduct activities in Cuba – though sanctions (and Sherritt’s operations) likely prevent them from engaging in the kind of activities Freeport conducted in the 1950s.  Still, when Freeport dumped its less profitable fertilizer business in the ‘90s, it was unclear if their Cuba claims went with it. (Neither Freeport nor Mosaic would comment officially on any Cuba-related questions.)

Part 2 >>